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

There are many ways to prepare eggplant and to me, the most fuss free method is to just cut it up, steam and then serve with some garlic oil and a dash of pepper.   But today, I want to share with you a more 'complicated' method whereby I pan seared them, mixed in some Korean bean paste, bits of pork and added in some dried chillies to make the dish slightly spicy.   This dish pairs well with rice or plain white porridge. Recipe for Eggplant with minced pork ~  茄子炒肉碎 Ingredients 2 eggplants, 450 gm, cut into bite size 2 stalks of spring onions, cut into 2 inch lengths 150 gm minced pork 6 dried chillies, soaked to soften and cut 4 cloves of garlic, chopped 1 Tbsp Shaoxing wine 3 Tbsp oil Sauce  (Combine altogether) 1.1/2 Tbsp bean paste  1 Tbsp light soya sauce 1 tsp sesame oil 1 tsp fish sauce 2 tsp sugar Method Heat up some oil in a wok, sear the eggplants till brown on all sides. Dish out and set aside. Wi...

Someone posted a Pomelo cake recipe on FB recently which prompted me to give it a try.   Since pomeloes are also  citrus fruits, I adapted the recipe from my Orange Cupcake post, 'here'  and the result was a moist, not too sweet delicious pound cake which tasted much better the next day! Recipe for Pomelo Pound Cake ~ 柚子 蛋糕   Ingredients 250 gm butter 250 gm self-raising flour 179 gm caster sugar 4 eggs 2 tsp pomelo zest (add more if you wish) 85 ml blended pomelo juice a pinch of salt Method Sift the self-raising flour with the salt, keep aside. Beat butter, pomelo zest and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, mix well. Fold in the sifted flour alternating with the pomelo juice till well incorporated. Pour the  batter into a prepared loaf pan.  Lightly tap the pan on the worktop a few times to expel any air pockets. Bake in a preheated oven @ 180 ...

A one-stop online shopping platform ~ iprice I’m considering getting a cooker hood or cooker chimney for my kitchen and have been surfing the internet for a suitable one with regards to brand, size and of course to fit my budget.  I stumbled upon this website,   iprice    a one-stop shopping platform in South East Asia.  I was surprised that they offer a wide range of products, from household goods, apparel, health, accessories, you just name it and they have it.  And they boast of housing more than 1,000 brands under their umbrella, that’s interesting! Moreover, they also provide product information of the different brands that they have on offer, which is indeed an added advantage to online customers.   Banana Republic, Longchamp, Sony, Adidas, Converse, just to name a few, are some of the top brands available in iprice. What makes iprice different from Amazon or Alibaba is that iprice does not sell directly to customers online....

This is an absolutely fuss-free, quick and easy to whip up dessert made with leftover packets of soymilk from the recent festive season.   Added in some longan and it became a most welcoming dessert to beat the heat in this scorching weather! Recipe for Longan Soymilk Agar Agar ~ 菜燕龙眼豆花 Ingredients 10 gm agar agar powder 1 litre soymilk, slightly sweetened 1/2 cup longan syrup 60 gm sugar 2 to 3 pieces of pandan/screwpine leaves, knotted 1 can of longan, cut into quarters Method In a pot, dissolve agar agar powder in soya milk. Add in longan syrup, sugar and pandan leaves.  Keep stirring and bring to a light boil over low heat. Mix in the quartered longan. Ladle the mixture into moulds, let cool. Refrigerate till ready to serve.

Arrow heads which are only available here during the Chinese New Year are much sought after for making chips during the festive season, or just slicing them up to steam with Chinese sausages or waxed meat, also available during this time of the year.   I cooked them in a stir-fry with leeks and some pork fillet.  You can also check out  another recipe which I posted some time back. Recipe for  Stir-fry arrow head  with leek and pork fillet  ~   慈菇大葱 炒 肉 片 Ingredients 150 gm pork fillet 350 gm arrow heads, about 6 2 China leeks 2 tsp oyster sauce 1/8 tsp sugar (optional) 4 cups water Salt and light soya sauce to taste 2 tsp cornflour + 1 Tbsp water to thicken Shaoxing cooking wine Method Slice up the pork fillet, season with some salt and pepper. Peel off the skin from the arrow heads and smash them up. Slice up the leeks, diagonally....

The name 'waxed' meat or 'lap mei' can be misleading as there's no waxy stuff on the meat at all.    Instead the meat has been cured by a long process of salting, smoking and drying thus resulting in a waxy sheen on the surface.  This is the how food or rather meat was being preserved before refrigeration in the olden days.  Nowadays, Lap mei fan is a special  item on the menu of restaurants during the Chinese New Year period.   There is a selection of 'lap mei' available during this festive season, like goose or duck liver sausages, lap yoke or pork belly, pork sausages and lap arp or waxed duck.  What I'm going to share with you today is a very simple one-pot meal and I only used pork sausages and a waxed duck thigh. Recipe for Waxed Meat Rice aka 'Lap Mei Fan' ~   臘味飯 Ingredients 1.3/4 cups brown rice (rice cups) 3 cups of water 1 waxed duck thigh 2 Chinese sausages 1 Tbsp oyster sauce 12 Tbsp light soya sauce 1/2 Tb...

After the Chinese New Year, there'll be so many Mandarin oranges left and I'd be scratching my head thinking what to do with them.   Normally I'd give them away but this time,  I was a bit adventurous and tried my hands at making them into marmalade.  Although it was a bit time consuming and standing in the kitchen in this heat, my efforts paid off when the marmalade turned out  great and was well received by family members.  Initially I was afraid that the marmalade wouldn't set as I've reduced the amount of sugar.  Mandarin orange marmalade works well  as a gift too and the taste is so much different from store bought ones.  One thing for sure, it has less sugar! Recipe for Mandarin Orange Marmalade  ~   橘子果 酱 (adapted from  ' here'   with modifications) Ingredients 2 kg, about 16 Mandarin Oranges 700 gm sugar  (reduced ...

I had wanted to try this cupcake  recipe for quite a while but was contemplating on the decoration for the topping.   As my family members are not keen on creamy frosting and the like, I've decided to just give it a very simple facelift.  I cut off a bit of the topmost part of the cupcake, filled it up with some fruit paste, dusted on some snow powder and lo and behold, the cake did look attractive! Intoxicating aroma, soft and moist cupcake with a juicy lychee innard! Recipe for Lychee Cupcakes (adapted from  'here'  with modification) Ingredients                                                                               3 oz self-raising flour 2 oz plain flour 2 Tbsp Hazelnut meal 4 oz butter 3.1/2 oz caster sugar 2 large eggs 6 Tb...