Recently, after hurting my right elbow, I was “forced” to cut down lots of my personal activities (blogging, baking and photo-shooting), except for cooking and routine housework. Felt like being handcuffed! Luckily it’s just a minor injury. Now I’m about 90% recovered and much of the inconveniences I had to put up with are nearly gone. Yay! Just can’t wait for full recovery and getting back to my regular activities.

While my readers in the northern hemisphere are enjoying their hot summer, the tropical climate in Singapore is getting unbearable of late. It’s not just hot, but highly humid as well that causes you to be sweaty and sticky. My tiny flat becomes hot and stuffy as evening approaches as sunlight beams directly into the living room. Oh gosh! My son and I felt like being “cooked” by the heat. Clearly, when it comes to cooking dinner, any dish that requires firing up the stove or heating up the oven is a no-no to me for now. I opt for steaming method instead. Less cooking, less washing and healthier too! If you browse through my “ALL RECIPES” page, you will find many healthy and delicious meals that you can easily whip up using steaming method.

Nagaimo (Japanese mountain yam) is a tuber, and a type of yam that can be cooked in ways similar to that for potato. Unlike potato, it has a very refreshing and less starchy taste. To the Japanese, it is even be eaten raw and grated, an exception to the rule that yam must be cooked before consumption. It is also referred as 淮山(huai san) or 山药(shan yao) and commonly used (in its dried form) for medical purposes in traditional Chinese medicine.

Nagaimo is low in calories, high in protein, and rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Apart from its nutritional value,  it is also known to reduce high blood pressure, regulate digestion and relieve fatigue. You can find nagaimo at the wet markets, supermarkets or Japanese specialty stores.  

When peeling or touching nagaimo, some people may experience itching due to allergic reaction. You can soothe the itching by applying lemon juice to the itching part or rinsing off the substance with diluted vinegar. To prevent itching, you can soak nagaimo in vinegar diluted water before cooking and wear a pair of kitchen gloves as further pre-caution.

Before that, I only used nagaimo to make soup such as fresh huai san soup and liu wei soup. It was a pleasant surprise to chance upon a steamed  nagaimo recipe from a cookbook. After some reseaches, I discovered that nagaimo is very versatile in its usage. It can be made into salad, entrees and even desserts. You will find the recipes from this link.

This is my first attempt pairing nagaimo with shrimp paste. Nagaimo yields a crunchy texture if steamed lightly, but turns softer and smoother when steamed over a longer period. During steaming, the juice flowing out of the marinated shrimp paste gets soaked up by nagaimo, thus adding extra flavour to its otherwise bland taste. This healthy yet tasty dish goes very well with rice. My hubby commented that it’s classy enough to be served as an entrée in a high-end restaurant or as finger food at dinner parties.  Hope your family will enjoy this dish. Happy trying!!

How to choose nagaimo:
- Choose fresh nagaimo that is thick, heavy and firm with few fibrous roots. The skin should be smooth and flawless (ie no bumps, bruises or discolouration.) (Source: click here)

Other reading references:
- Amori Nagaimo
- About Amori Nagaimo
- Nagaimo: The Wonderful Japanese Vegetable

>>>>> Click on PAGE 2 BELOW for Nagaimo and shrimp paste recipe………

My son loves a variety of fruits, be it sweet or slightly sour. Does that mean he is not picky about fruits? Not really. In fact, he can be outright picky. He clearly likes some (a lot) and dislikes many as well. One particular fruit that is near to the bottom of his preferred list is Chinese pear, especially when served as freshly cuts. He would only take one small bite and give me the standard “Mummy, I’m full” excuse. “Sweet talking” him to try a few more cuts didn’t work, and I have been scratching my head on how to entice him to like Chinese pear until I almost give up and hope for miracle.

Sometimes a better answer lies in approaching a problem indirectly, which brings me to try out this Chinese “osmanthus poached pear” sweet dessert soup. When I made it for the first time, to my surprise, my son finished an entire bowl of the soup including the poached Chinese pear!  He loved the soft and smooth texture of the poached pear just like the softened apple in his favourite apple soup. Don’t you think that kids’ taste bud is so unpredictable? Hmm! So, by thinking laterally, you don’t really need to wait for a miracle to happen. And, I was persistent enough to be answered.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, pear is capable to remove excess body heat, moisten throat and lungs, and help relieves cough and clear phlegm. Hence, you will find poaching or boiling pear soup quite common among Chinese households. But I find it interesting and unique to use dried osmanthus flowers (桂花) in poaching pears as these yellow tiny dried flowers are more commonly used to infuse tea and in making Chinese desserts (such as osmanthus jelly).

I find the overall taste of this sweet dessert soup incredibly fragrant with the infused scent of osmanthus in the poached pears and not overly sweet as well. I was totally enchanted by its sweet floral and apricot scent of osmanthus when sipping the soup. It’s very nutritious and healthy too.  You can serve it warm or chilled. Definitely a perfect choice of “cooling” dessert for this hot weather!

Apart from pear, the use of white fungus and Chinese almonds (both sweet and bitter almonds) can bring substantial benefits to our body too. White fungus can treat insomnia while Chinese almonds are good in treating cough and phlegm. If you want to know more about Chinese almonds and candied dates, please refer to this post and this post.

I had tried making it using both pot method and slow cooker method (yeah, that’s my cheater method!) as mentioned in my recipe. Both methods worked well for me. Taste-wise, the end result is the same. But I prefer the latter as it is easier and straight forward. So just let your reliable slow cooker do the job while you watch your World Cup worry-free!

>>> Click on PAGE 2 BELOW for osmanthus poached pears recipe…………

Unlike adults, when babies and toddlers develop phlegm, it usually takes longer for them to clear it. One reason is they do not know how to split out the phlegm. Even my 5 year old son is still unable to do so even after teaching him how to do it. So far, he only managed to split out saliva, but not the phlegm. The only consolation is he knows how to clear his blocked nose.

I, like most parents, have been searching a remedy for clearing phlegm. Alas! I have yet to find the miracle remedy except to rely on medication prescribed by the pediatrician and avoid giving him certain known phlegm-inducing food like citrus fruit. I still believe the best remedy is to get adequate sleep and have a proper diet so as to boost our body’s immune system naturally. So far, I noticed this has helped my son to recover quickly.

Recently, I chanced upon this soup recipe from a Chinese soup recipe book which is said to be a remedy for those with a sore throat and lots of phlegm. It is written by Chiu Sang (赵生), a well known Hong Kong author, columnist, guest speaker and TV guest host relating to Chinese medicine.

Other benefits mentioned in the cookbook for this soup include helping in the strengthening of one’s spleen and throat, promote urination, clears excess body heat, ease mental stress, expel phlegm and stop coughing.

Below are the functions of each of the ingredients used in the soup:

• Green radish and carrot (青红萝卜) – clear heat, ease mental stress, promote urination and expel dampness.
• Bitter and sweet almonds (北南杏) – nourish the lungs, ease shortness of breath, expel phlegm and stop coughing.  (Note: These ingredients can be used in making apple soup)
• Candied dates (蜜枣) – nourish the body, cure asthenia, strengthen and energize the body

This soup is also very simple-to-made and tastes delicious. Hence, I love making this soup for my family. Just how effective this soup is in remedying cough and phlegm, I am not sure. But, no harm trying it out and judge it for yourself.

Wishing all parents in Singapore and Malaysia having a wonderful June holiday breaks!

>>>> Click on PAGE 2 BELOW for green radish and carrot soup recipe ……………

Butter cake is the first cake I learnt to bake during my high school years. It was also the easiest and fastest cake to bake that I know of at that time. I still remember that I would wait till my mother took her afternoon nap to do the baking as it was the best time to “invade” her kitchen. By the time she woke up, there would be no traces of mess I created and the cake was already inside the oven. . From what I can recall, none of the butter cakes I baked came close to my expectation. Somehow, somewhere, something would surely go wrong. Nevertheless, I still love baking this cake over and over again whenever I had the urge to do baking. Maybe it was the baking process that I enjoyed the most. Since I left home (for both studies and work), I had no opportunity to bake this butter cake anymore.

A couple of years ago, I came to know that my mother-in-law was a big fan for butter cake. I promised myself that I would bake one for her if I got an oven and the right baking utensils. Time passed and nothing was done. Promise still remains a promise. During her recent stay with us last month, I made good my promise and baked this cake for her. It may not be the best butter cake in town, but she loved it so much. Now I can happily strike off this long outstanding item from my to-bake list.

This recipe was adapted from Agnes Chan’s cookbook  (蓝赛珍，轻轻松松学烘焙）which provides photos showing detailed step-by-step procedures in baking this cake. I find it very helpful as it makes my baking much more easier. However, in my first attempt, although the texture was soft, the cake turned out to be a little bit dry. As for its taste, it came out slightly plain as I used unsalted butter and omitted the salt during the process. As what I read from the internet, self-raising flour contained salt. So I suspected the shortage of salt could be the main cause of these two problems.

On my second attempt, I added a bit of salt and reduced the amount of flour used. I also paid extra attention to the mixing and baking process. This time the end product turned out to be very soft and moist. It also got the buttery smell, and yet did not give one a heavy feeling when eaten. However, it tasted slightly sweeter to my liking. What completely surprised me was the feedback I got from my friend whom I gave half of my loaf, as I did in my first attempt. She told me that both her daughters finished the cake in split seconds leaving only one slice for her to taste. Although the cake done in second attempt was sweeter, they found the taste as simply fantastic and suited their taste buds as well. Besides them, my family also enjoyed eating this cake. But I will not consider it as “The Ultimate” butter cake. (Am I setting the bar for my expectation far too high? ). It doesn’t matter anyway as it is still the “best” recipe I had tried and tested so far, and much better compared to the ones I had baked during my high school days.

Well, I shall leave it to you to be the judge of this recipe. Meanwhile, I will continue to “fine tune” it to get closer to my expectation of “The Ultimate” butter cake. So, what’s your favourite butter cake recipe? Please share with me! I love to hear from you.

To all the mothers (including myself) and mother-to-be out there, HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

>>>> Click on PAGE 2 BELOW for Basic Butter Cake recipe and step-by-step photos…………………..

My son doesn’t like rice so much. What upsets me is that he always quick to finish eating his dishes but takes his time to labour over his rice even though I only gave him six to seven spoonfuls.  His usual excuse is he is already full. To circumvent such an unhealthy habit, I only allow him to have two third of his allocated dishes to be finished with the rice. If he finishes, he gets the rest. He usually abides. However, this tactic of mine still doesn’t improve his appetite for rice. The ONLY exception is SUSHI!

He is absolutely fond of sushi and usually ends up eating more rice than usual. You can see the twinkle in his eyes which gave me the idea of making onigiri (rice ball) for him.

Onigiri (also known as rice ball, 饭团) is made from white rice formed into triangular or oval shapes and often wrapped in nori (seaweed). There is a slight distinction between onigiri and sushi. Onigiri is made with plain rice (perhaps lightly salted), while sushi is rice with vinegar, sugar and salt.

Onigiri comes in difference shapes and forms. Unlike sushi, it is pretty easy to make and required less skill. Making onigiri at home is a breeze if you can get hold of some simple gadgets so as to save time and ensure uniformed end products. I used a triangle shape rice mould and two seaweed punchers that I bought from Daiso to make these onigiris. You can find many choices of onigiri gadgets at Daiso. Do pay a visit to your nearest Daiso outlet to check it out.

There are two common methods for making onigiri. You can either mix the ingredients with the rice before putting into a mould, or stuff the ingredients inside the rice.  As for the selection and combination of ingredients, I prefer to use my own creativity to mix and match them. You can refer to those suggested ingredients in my tips at page 2 below. Let’s have some fun and make some onigiri today. It’s ideal for your kid’s school lunch boxes and picnic outings.

Oh yeah! I almost forget to mention about my son’s first reaction about onigiri. When I awarded him two “6-star” rated onigiris, he was overjoyed and very proud of himself ,  so much so that he couldn’t wait to eat up his “prize”.  Well, he finished all of them in no time, and then requested for more “prizes”!  This marks another success story in my diary!

Other reading references:

• Just Bento - Onigiri on parade – a guide to onigiri (omusuhi) rice ball shapes, types and fun
• Cooking Cute – Onigiri with filling

>>>> Click on PAGE 2 BELOW for Onigiri (rice balls) with salmon and cucumber recipe……………..

My guest and I got acquainted through a parenting forum 4 years ago. Like me, she also has a son of the same age. We share many common interests and chat online almost everyday with our never-ending topics. It was through her encouragement that I got started on blogging. She is my personal advisor in cooking, baking, and a handy solver for my problems with Adobe Photoshop and highly complicated html code. Though I find her a bit shy, she is definitely a very friendly and generous person. I feel very lucky to have a good friend like her. She has a food blog too. She cooks very well and takes excellent shots even with her point-and-shoot camera.

Do you have any hint who is this mystery woman I’m talking about? She is none other than Ms Alice of Bits of Taste. I am excited and honoured that she is willing to step into my humble kitchen and be my guest. Let’s give her a very BIG and WARM welcome, and enjoy the special dish she had prepared to share with us.

Today, it is an honour for me to be invited by my good friend, LK from FOOD-4TOTS as her guest post. LK places great importance on giving her son and family healthy homecooked food. I am amazed with her ability to explore and experiment with a variety of healthy and delicious toddler’s food. Her recipes come with useful tips and easy to follow steps that even a novice can follow. Her dedication and determination has since inspired me to follow her footsteps.

Last but not least, her blog comes with stunning food photography that makes you drooling. Just can’t keep my eyes staring at those beautiful shots at times.

It took me a while to think of something healthy yet suitable for toddlers to post on her blog. It is indeed a big challenge though. Fish spinach patties came to my mind one weekend when I was about to cook lunch for my son. I love the idea of using fish, vegetables and potato in making patties as a wholesome recipe for toddlers/kids. It’s full of carbohydrate, protein, fibre, vitamins & minerals that a growing child requires. This is also an effective way to coax kids who dislike vegetables to have greens in their diet. Happy trying!

>>>> Click on PAGE 2 for fish spinach patties recipe………………………

Over the past two months, Singapore and Malaysia are hit by dry spell with no sign of abating anytime soon. Although it’s usually hot this time of the year, but it’s particularly bad this year. The weather is extremely hot and humid. I could feel the heat penetrating my skin when I went out to fetch my son from school at noon. Even walking under the shades along the pedestrian walkway, and armed with an umbrella and a cap, both of us would reach home with sweaty, stinky and sticky bodies. Uhh! 

To overcome the weather-induced dehydration to our body, we drink lots of fluid to quench our thirst, rehydrate and clear the body heat. To do this, I have been making soups (especially soup with “cooling properties”) and herbal tea for my family almost every day since returning from my Lunar New Year holiday. 

Some of you may wonder why I an featuring beetroot soup again as I have already done one earlier. True, but the one  featured here is not the same as it uses a different combination of ingredients. I chanced upon this wonderful soup recipe from Noobcook’s food blog. 

(Noobcook is one of the blogs that I have been following even before I set up my own food blog. You can find many practical and easy-to-follow recipes in her fabulous blog. I also admire her food styling and photography skills. She is no longer a noobcook to me. I’m sure you will agree with me if you browse through her blog now. ) 

 
I know some people may find the beetroot soup “scary looking” for its bloody red hue colour. To my surprise, I did not receive such adverse response from my son. He simply adores this soup because of his favourite tomatoes. Tomatoes make the soup taste slightly sour yet appetizing. Nevertherless, he also enjoys eating all the chunky bits of beetroot, carrot, celery cubes found in the soup. 

This is indeed a very healthy soup for kid as it combines all the nutritious vegetables such as beetroot, tomatoes, carrot and celery. I will definitely make this soup more often in future. Do you dare to drink it? 

Note: 

• If your urine turns pink after consuming beetroot, don’t panic. It’s harmless and will soon return to normal after peeing once or twice.
• For more information about the health benefits of beetroot, please refer to this post.

>>> Click on page 2 below for BEETROOT SOUP RECIPE…………….

Come every Lunar New Year, you will find pineapple rolls/tarts being sold like hot cakes here in Singapore and Malaysia. It ranks top in the list of popular baked pastries among Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese celebrating this festive season. While they come in many variations (and ranges in taste, texture, and sweetness), we can simply place them into either the open, closed or rolled types. The rolled type, known as Nastar in Indonesia, is the one I liked best as it has the right combination of texture and taste that suits my taste bud.

I am a picky eater when it comes to eating pineapple rolls or tarts, and I find it hard to find in the market the “perfect” roll/tart that can satisfy my craving. So I decided to make them at home. The last time I tried my hands on making these rolls was a decade ago! It was a fun and enjoyable experience. Being ambitious, I even bought a custom-made  press to squeeze out the pineapple roll pastry but it has laid idle for six good years. (Dear old press, thanks for being so patient and loyal to me.)

Finally, my guilt got the best of me and I decided to use it to make my own pineapple rolls for this coming Lunar New Year. The only problem is ”memory lapse” .  I could not recall my “decade-old” recipe. Not even a single clue! Oh gosh! (Hmm! Time for an overhaul service for my memory? Your highness (that’s right, you my husband), can you kindly approve my leave application for memory recall R&R as soon as possible?  )

Luckily, I managed to compile a handful of pineapple roll recipes from other food bloggers and cookbooks to recall and make comparison. Even though no one particular recipe actually met what I was looking for, there are two great references that I relied a lot when making these pineapple rolls. They are found in  “Baking Made Easy” by Agnes Chang and “At Home with Amy Beh” by Amy Beh respectively.

Not to forget my good blogger friend Selba from Selby’s Food Corner (whose mother is an experienced Nastar baker and has been selling it for more than ten years) who unselfishly gave me very valuable advice and tips. Thanks Selba!!! One very important advice from her is “If you want to have the best pineapple jam, either you grate the pineapples yourself or you buy the jam. Never blend them.” Yes, I totally agreed with her, which I will explain in the following paragraph. Besides grating your pineapples, getting the right type of pineapple grater is also equivalently important if you are looking for the finest fibrous texture.

Never take any short-cut of blending your pineapples. I did that once and was very upset even though my pastry turned out delicious and crumbly. My hubby (who initially didn’t mind with the blending method) also got addicted to the fibrous and chewy jam texture made from grated pineapples. You can definitely tell the difference if you had a chance to taste and compare both versions.

Both the jam and pastry have to be done properly. They must compliment each other. And, having the correct proportion of jam and pastry is of utmost important and the key to success. I weight each jam roll to be exactly 6 gram as I find the final product comes out best when munched in the mouth. Neither too much pastry nor jam. Just the right proportion for maximum enjoyment. Preferably, the overall size of the roll is just big enough for one mouthful to have the melt-in-the-mouth feeling. This is the art of eating. My ultimate goal to have a “perfect” pineapple roll! So my advice is, you will need to adjust the size of the jam you use to match the size of the pastry.

Tum…tum….tummmmm! (drumroll) Let me now present to you my “exclusive” recipe that will churn out the best pineapple rolls in town. (Just joking! ). But if you follow the recipe closely, you will get the melt-in-the mouth pastry combined with fibrous jam texture.

I must however forewarn you. Although this recipe is very simple-to-follow, it’s very time-consuming. You need to have patience. If not, please go to buy the ready-made ones.

If you’re craving for the authentic pineapple rolls like I do, it’s definitely worth spending the time and effort to make these rolls. It’s simply very rewarding. Once you start putting one of these bite-size pineapple rolls into your mouth, you can never stop the temptation of having another, and another, and………

>>>> Click on page 2 to get the recipe, tips and more photos on how to make pineapple jam ……………

>>>> Click on page 3 to get the recipe, tips and more photos on how to make pineapple rolls …………..

I have a few must-have ingredients in my weekly grocery shopping list. They are mushrooms, tomatoes, eggs and tofu. Given that they are highly versatile and can be cooked in a variety of ways, I regard them as my “last minute savers” when circumstances called for whipping up a 30-minutes meal.

For mushrooms, I prefer to use the fresh ones in my cooking. Unlike the dried ones, they need no soaking and are ideal for either steamed or stir-fry dishes. It’s just perfect to a “lazy and absence-minded cook” like me.    I don’t need to worry so much about no having already softened mushrooms in time for my cooking. Of course, I don’t deny the fact that dried mushrooms are still best used for braising and other rice meals (eg claypot rice, pumpkin rice and yam rice). They are more flavourful, and hence not exactly interchangeable with the fresh ones.

Compared to dried mushrooms, fresh mushrooms are always a great choice for toddlers as the texture is softer and easier to digest. It’s ideal for parents who want to introduce mushrooms into their toddlers’ diet. My suggestion is to try starting them off with some simple mushroom dishes such as mushroom soup and kiddy mushroom rice.

Today, I like to share a super-quick stir-fry dish that everyone can replicate at home even if you are a novice in cooking. The sauce used is my own concoction of teriyaki sauce, which can also be used in many other Japanese dishes like  pan-fried salmon with teriyaki sauce, teriyaki chicken skew (yakitori), one-dish meal and mushroom rice.

All it takes is only 15 minutes from preparation to finish cooking up this healthy yet delicious dish. I’m sure it will sound great to those who are short of time, agreed?  Hope you will like it as much as I do!

>>> Click on page 2 below to get the recipe for Shiitake Mushrooms Stir-Fry……….

Time flies. Tomorrow we bid farewell to Year 2009 and welcome Year 2010. Someone casually asked my opinion about the 2012 doomsday prediction. Well, my answer is whether it will come true or not, life still goes on. Why should I fear about it if I can choose to be presently happy. Be joyful and healthy, that’s my personal goal in life. It has been my New Year resolution for these years. What’s yours?

Since returning to Singapore a week ago, I has been busy cooking and baking in the kitchen. To occupy my son (who is still at home for the school holidays), I even got him to help out in the kitchen! We had so much fun making cheesy cookies (which will be featured in the next post) and baked potato with sausages. Do you know why my son is so keen to volunteer himself? That’s because he can act as a “food taster” and sample all my shredded cheese.

During my recent trip home to Penang, I discovered one quick and easy dish from my mother – fried eggs in tomato sauce. It was also one of my favourite dish since childhood. However, as a child, I do remember disliking the sight of chili shreds in this dish, and discard them immediately. Till now it is still a habit of mine even though eating chili itself is no longer an issue.

The simplicity of this home-cooked dish is what I like best. No secret or special method behind it’s cooking. It’s also the nostalgic feeling I get from the many fond memories the dish brings back to me. After sampling his grandma’s fried eggs in tomato sauce, my son has developed a love for it. So does my niece and nephew.

My mother learnt most of her cooking from my grandmother. That usually means no written recipe. Just from the words of mouth without any specific measurement for ingredients used. She cooks from past experiences. I’m so glad that she allowed me to “invade” her kitchen and jolt down the recipe for this dish to share with you. The ingredients and seasonings used are merely her estimation. You may need to adjust it according to your own preference. (P/S: Another recipe from my mother is grandma’s pancake.)

I must say that this is the simplest and quickest egg dish that I know so far. It’s definitely a great start-up dish for people who has never cooked before. A dish that can assure you to pass with flying colours! What else to wait? Get your ingredients and “wok” now!

>>> Click on page 2 below for recipe, more photos and steps-by-steps instructions………………………….