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

A quick and easy chicken salad which is laced with a chilli and lime dressing.  With vermicelli add-on, it makes a good wholesome one-dish meal!  You can also make use of  left-over chicken meat for this salad. Recipe for Thai Chicken Vermicelli Salad  ( adapted from a book 'The very best of Chinese and Asian cuisine' ) Ingredients 1/2 chicken breast, marinated with some seasalt and pepper 1 onion, finely sliced 1/2 cucumber, cut into match sticks 1/2 carrot, cut into match sticks 1 stalk lemon grass, finely chopped 1 to 1.1/2  Tbsp fish sauce 4 tsp sugar or to taste Juice of 8 calamansi/limau kasturi 2 bird eye chillies, chopped Dried vermicelli, soaked till soft Sesame seeds, lightly toasted Cashew nuts, lightly toasted (optional) Coriander to garnish Method Poach or steam the chicken meat till cooked.  Let cool and shred the meat into slices. In a bowl, mix the calamansi juice and sugar till dissolved.  Add...

So far, I've yet to bake something with peanut butter and when the organisers of Bundtamonth announced that the theme is 'Jammy November',  I surfed the net and located this recipe.  It's a recipe taken from the book 'Cake Simple' which was tried by 'Bake or Break'.  I used my favourite lime marmalade in this recipe but as I didn't put enough jam  according to the recipe, the jam swirls weren't so distinct, in fact there were no swirls at all :((  I reduced the jam as I didn't favour an overly sweet cake.  Nonetheless the lime flavour did go down well with the creamy peanut butter and it was good. Recipe for Peanut Butter Lime Jam Bundt Cake (adapted from ' here ' with modiciations) Ingredients 10 oz plain flour 1.1/2  tsp baking powder 1  tsp bicarbonate of soda a pinch of salt 4 oz butter 6.1/2 oz brown sugar (reduced from 3/4 cup sugar + 1.1/4 cups brown sugar) 1 cup cr...

Loch Ness is a large, deep freshwater loch (Scottish word for lake or fiord) in the Scottish Highlands spanning approximately 37 km south west of Inverness. Its surface is 15.8m above sea level and is the largest lake in Scotland by volume.  Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster is just one of the many myths and legends to be discovered in this particular beautiful part of Scotland.  This is indeed a very relaxing place to be in, more so if you like the outdoors, explore and enjoy the breathtaking landscape. Urquhart Castle is one of the most picturesque landmarks in Scotland.  Although in ruins due to warfare and the passing of time, it is still a magnificient iconic sight, perched on the banks of Loch Ness, beside the village of Drumnadrochit.  It is said to be one of the main sites for the sighting of Nessie. We didn't enter the castle, so could only managed to snap this from afar. See the bridge in th...

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...

On the way to Loch Ness we spent a night in Inverness and put up in this Whinpark Bed & Breakfast.  Inverness is regarded as the capital of the Highlands and is the centre for commerce and industry.  It is the most northerly city in the British Isles and said to be one of the fastest growing cities in Europe and tourism plays an important part in the economy. The breakfast area, clean and neat Our bedrooms, also neat and tidy. We had our lunch in the above restaurant. Chicken sandwich, Trout, Beef burger and Cumberland Sausage ring River Ness Inverness Castle sits on a cliff overlooking the River Ness.  The red sandstone castle was built in 1836 by architect William Burn and today it houses Inverness Sheriff Court.   The Drum Tower houses an exhibition of castle history and is open daily in the summer while the castle itself is not open to public. This is the breakfast we had before we moved on to Loch...

I was browsing through a cook book  and spotted this cookie recipe using white choc chips.  As I've hardly baked with white choc chips before, I was very eager to try out this recipe.  These cookies are crunchy, from the walnuts and I notice that they taste a bit milky too, a contribution from the white choc chips, I presume. Recipe for White Choc Chip Cookies   ( adapted from 'Baking-200 Moreish & Comforting Recipes with modifications re the method) Ingredients 250 gm plain flour 1.1/2  tsp baking powder 125 gm salted butter 100 gm light brown sugar  (reduced from 150 gm) 60 ml vegetable oil 1 egg 1/2 tsp vanilla 130 gm white choc chips  (reduced from 180 gm) 70 gm chopped walnuts, lightly toasted  (reduced from 120 gm) Method Sift flour with baking powder, set aside. Beat butter, oil and brown sugar till light and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla beating till just blend...

We started to explore west Scotland famous for its breath-taking scenery and on our way stopped by Dufftown to visit the Glenfiddich distillery, to see how Scottish malt whisky is being made.   The Glenfiddich Distillery is a Speyside single malt Scotch whisky distillery owned by William Grant & Sons. Glenfiddich means "Valley of the Deer' in Gaelic , hence the presence of a stag symbol on Glenfiddich bottles. We had a great tour of the working distillery and barrel warehouse and the tour guide was very informative and professional. It's a free tour and at the end of it, you get to sample Glenfiddich 10, 12 and 18 years, on the house and can even ask for seconds ......... Cheers! Glenfiddich 30 years & Glenfiddich 50 years and the price is a whopping 15,000 sterling pounds!!! We had lunch at The Malt Barn restaurant on the right.  Cream of Tomato and Basil & Bacon and Brie Bagel  Sal...