No-Frills Recipes ... cooking, baking & excerpts on travel

The Mid-Autumn Mooncake Festival is here again and it falls on 1st October, a Thursday this year.  But I have seen some mooncakes already on sale, maybe they want to catch up on sales during this Recovey Movement Control Order.  I have shared quite a few mooncake recipes on my blog and this time I'm sharing with you this Purple Sweet Potato Mooncakes.  Give it a try if you prefer something different from the norm. Purple Sweet Potato Mooncake 2020  ~   紫薯月饼  (adapted from 'here' ) Ingredients 700 gm purple sweet potatoes (only 500 gm required) 5 Tbsp honey 65 ml oil 440 gm lotus paste Koh fun (fried glutinous flour) Method Steam the sweet potatoes, remove the skin and weigh out 500 gm to mash till fine.  (You can use the food processor or with a fork), I used the food chopper. Add in honey, oil and blend till fine, knead lightly. Divide into 25 gm dough, roll into a ball, wrap in cling wrap and chill in the fridge for about 30 min...

After making the   Okinawan black sugar steamed cakes , I  made these and this time  added in some sweet potatoes.  These are moist, not overly sweet and can be enjoyed as a healthy breakfast or served with  a hot pot of brewed tea to snack on. Sweet potato steamed cakes ~  红薯蒸蛋糕 Ingredients 1 egg 60 gm caster sugar a pinch of salt 100 ml milk 150 gm plain flour 2 tsp baking powder 2 Tbsp vegetable oil 150 gm sweet potato Method Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into 1 cm cubes, soak in water, drain. Mix the plain flour with baking powder and salt, sift. Whisk egg and mix in sugar. Add in milk, mix well, followed by oil, mix till well incorporated. Mix in the sifted flour and drained sweet potatoes. Mix well and scoop into paper and silicon cups. Steam  in medium boiling water for about 20 mins. Remove from steamer and let stand for 10 mins. before unmoulding. Yield :  6 steamed cakes

This Steamed Purple Sweet Potao Kuih is my second attempt as the top layer was too thick on my first try.  So, this time around I decided to reduce the recipe for the top layer and it does look much better!  Taste wise, you may ask .... mmm, soft and not too sweet, good for breakfast or snack, any time of the day! Recipe for Steamed Purple Sweet Potato Kuih Ingredients - Bottom Layer 180 gm rice flour 30 gm green pea flour 300 ml water 480 ml water 220 gm granulated sugar 50 gm steamed sweet potato bits Method Mix the rice flour, green pea flour and 300 ml water thoroughly.  Sieve the mixture into a pot. Add in 480 ml water and sugar, keep stirring and cook on low heat. Once the mixture  starts to thicken, turn off  heat.  Pour mixture onto an oiled 8.1/2 inch square tin. Toss in the steamed sweet potato bits.  Steam on medium heat for 25 mins. or till the surface is a ...

K uih are typical Malaysian cakes served any time of the day  and are more often steamed than baked.   The Malays refer to them as ' kuih ' while the Chinese refer to them as 'gao'.  They are mostly made with rice, rice, tapioca and wheat starch flour, coconut milk and sugar but we do have some that are savoury.   I've heard that the best purple sweet potatoes are those from Indonesia and must admit that I was really taken in by their overwhelming colour.  To me, the Japanese  purple sweet potatoes come in second compared to their Indonesian counterparts.  Purple sweet potatoes have high contents of anthocyanin which is associated with a reduced cancer risk.  There are two categories of sweet potatoes, some are firm and dry like the purple sweet potatoes while some are soft and moist.  Read more about sweet potatoes, it's nutrients, benefits, etc......' here '.

With only a few ingredients like snow fungus, sweet potato and some rock sugar, you can easily whip up a decent dessert.  This dessert can be served chilled or warm, after a meal or you can enjoy it at any time of the day.   This cooling dessert  is very much more look forward to especially when we had to tolerate the current hot, humid heat. This is with some beaten egg whites Snow Fungus with Sweet Potatoes  ~   雪耳番薯糖水 Ingredients 1 sweet potato, about 200 g, cut into small pieces 1 piece snow fungus, about 30 g  2.1/2 litres water Cane rock sugar to taste 2 egg whites, beaten  (optional) Pandan/screw pine leaves Method Soak the snow fungus in water till it becomes soft,   Snip off and discard the yellow hard part on the under side of the snow fungus.  Cut up the snow fungus into very tiny parts. In a pot, bring the water to a boil, add in the knotted pandan leaves and snow fungus.  Let it...

I've made pies with potatoes before but haven't tried with a mix of potatoes and sweet potatoes.  Spotted this recipe from a Coles magazine which spurred me to give it a try.  It wasn't bad really.  I think that the sweetness of the sweet potatoes did blend well with the savoury filling.  All in all, a comforting one-dish meal for my family. Recipe for Sweet Potato Chicken Pie ( adapted from a Coles magazine with modifications ) Ingredients 400 gm sweet potatoes 400 gm potatoes 650 gm chicken fillet, cubed 1 onion, cubed 4 cloves garlic, chopped 1 carrot, cubed 1 capsicum, cubed 3  tsp chicken granules 2.1/2  tsp mixed dried herbs 1.1/2 cups water 2 Tbsp cornflour + 2 Tbsp water to thicken Sugar, salt and pepper to season the chicken fillet Method Season the chicken fillet with some salt and pepper, set aside. Wash the potatoes, cook in a pot of boiling water.  Drain, cool, peel...

It's one of those evenings when I'm too lazy to crack my brain over what to cook for dinner and to make life more relaxing, I whipped up this one-dish meal.  It has carbohydrates, protein and adding sweet potatoes to our diet is beneficial too for these tubers contain Vitamins B6, C and D and also have a fair amount of potassium and calcium. Recipe for Sweet Potato Rice Ingredients 400 gm Japanese sweet potatoes 100 gm pork fillet 20 gm dried shrimps 2/3 cups rice   sesame oil Fried shallots and chopped spring onions for garnishing Seasoning 1/2 tsp each of sugar, light soya sauce, salt 1  tsp oyster sauce Method Season the meat for about an hour, set aside. Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into cubes. In a wok, shallow fry the dried shrimps, add in the marinated meat followed by the sweet potatoes.  Give the mixture a few stirs, turn off heat. Wash the rice and place in the rice cooker with less water than nor...

P urple sweet potato chiffon cake has been on my 'wanted' list for a long, long time.  I adapted the recipe from ' Do what I like ' but tweaked it a bit to suit my 23 cm chiffon cake pan.  I was delighted to be rewarded with a pinkish purplish cake with bits of potato cubes that didn't sink to the bottom! The highly nutritious purple sweet potato is the latest food item to be presented to the general public as a potential superfood.  The colour is the important part as it is this purple colour which is responsible for the amount of anthocyanim in the potato.  Anthocyanim which produces red, blue or purple colours in different types of food can also be found in blueberries, red grapes and red cabbage.  However,  the purple sweet potato has a higher concentration of the chemical than any other species of potatoes.  This is effective for lowering hypertension and is one of the best foods that one can eat to prevent cancer.

Has anyone seen green potatoes before?  I haven't and don't think anyone has.  But my cake turned out to be green!  There must be some metamorphosis in the baking process .......... purple plus brown sugar and egg which is yellow.  I used the purple sweet potatoes that I bought from Cameron Highlands and mistakenly used brown sugar which should have been caster. Before I put the cake in the oven, the batter was still purplish and voila I was pleasantly surprised to find a green cake staring at me upon opening the oven door.  Nevertheless, my neighbour savoured some and he said it was  unique and tastes good. topped with chopped walnuts Mmmm ..........  green with envy ................. but yummy Recipe for Purple Sweet Potato Cake Ingredients 13 oz mashed sweet potatoes (purple ones in this case) 12 oz Plain Flour 1 cup Canola Oil 4 eggs 2  Tsp Baking Powder 2  Tsp Baking Soda 1/2...

My parents' generation would not want to eat this meal too often because they had been surviving on this during the Japanese occupation of the then Malaya from late 1941 to 1945. Due to the severe food shortage and rationing, they had to live on sweet potatoes, but then again sweet potatoes also have their dosage of goodness and nutrients too. Incidentally, this is among one of the favourites of my other half. Here's an excerpt on the nutrients of sweet potatoes, taken from World's Healthiest Foods' site. Sweet potatoes offer a host of nutrients and an impressive array of antioxidants. They taste delicious, are easy to prepare and can be used in a variety of dishes. Not only are they a more concentrated source of vitamin C, but they are also an excellent source of vitamin A. To keep the sweet potatoes looking fresh, you should cook them immediately after peeling and/or cutting them since the flesh darkens upon contact with air. If that's not possible, place ...