Fish paste can be used in different cooking methods. Eg, boiling (fish ball or yu wat 鱼滑), steaming (with beancurd 老少平安, otak-otak）, stuffing (yong tau fu 酿豆腐）, pan-frying or deep-frying (patties, fish cakes). My mother-in-law is an expert in making fish paste. She learnt the techniques by watching her neighbour doing it since she was a child. I enjoyed eating those dishes she made using...

This is a modified version of steamed herbal chicken adapted from Quick & Easy Hawkers’ Fair. I had omitted dang guai (chinese herb – 当归) and chinese shaoxing cooking wine. Ingredients: 2 chicken whole legs 1 tbsp wolfberries (枸杞) (washed) – Add more if you like as it is a very nutritious (read this link for more details) 5 red dates (removed seeds) Seasonings: 1 tbsp oyster sauce ½ tsp...

If you have lots of asparagus on hand and are running out-of-time, it is a perfect recipe for you to prepare a tasty asparagus soup with some simple ingredients and easy steps. It can be served hot or very well-chilled. Source: Adapted and modified from The Delia Collection: Soup Servings: 3-4 Ingredients: 450g asparagus 25g butter ½ medium onion (finely chopped) ½ slightly rounded tbsp plain flour 500 ml...

Since I started cooking for the family, I used a lot of tomatoes in our meals because they are my little “big” boy’s favourite. He can eat any types of tomatoes be it raw or cooked, with or without skin, with or without seeds. In short, he is a TOMATO lover! Generally most of us know that tomato contains lycopene (the red pigment in tomato). It is a powerful antioxidant that can also fight cancer cells....

As compared to siu kao (boiled dumplings), making siew mai (steamed dumplings) is more challenging to me. I had failed several times until my hubby teased me that he needs to ta pao (take-away) some siew mai from the hawker stall for me to “review my mistakes”. After doing a lot of “researches” from the internet and cookbooks, I had finally found a GREAT recipe from “The Essence of Good Cooking”...

One afternoon, my son and I were having our tea break in the kitchen. I was busy reading a cookbook. Son: “Mommy, what are you looking at?” Me: “I am reading a recipe called “Braised Buddha’s hand gourd with mushroom”. I will cook it tonight for our dinner. Do you like it?” I pointed out a photo of the gourd to my son. Son: “What is this?” Me: “This is Amitābha (Buddha)’s hand and we...

As a Penangite (born and raised in Penang), this dish is my all-time favourite. My mother used to make this dish whenever there was a special occasion like Chinese New Year or family gathering. Because of my personal craving, I had tried out this dish based on the recipe from Special Quick & Delicious Vegetable Cookbook with some slight modifications. Ingredients: 500g yambean/ sengkuang 沙葛 (peeled...

After making some California hand rolls, I had half an avocado sitting in my refrigerator. So I used it to make a quick and easy teatime dessert for my son. He ate so fast even before I had finished washing up all the dishes used in the preparation! He claimed that he was not full and ate the remaining half of the banana. Then he grinned at me and said, “It tastes good, mommy!” Ingredients: ½ ripe avocado 2-3...

(Have you ever wondered how does my “Emperor” look like? Take a look at those fingers holding the zucchini cake. Can you guess?) When I was browsing through some food blogs, I came across another interesting recipe using zucchini. The cooking method is totally different from my previous posting. As it only required some simple ingredients and demonstrated all the steps with illustrations, I was so impressed...

This is a very common and popular dessert among the Chinese. In fact, it is also my hubby’s all-time favourite. As there are too many good recipes on hand, I had totally forgotten about his request. Last weekend, I had made this dessert especially for him so that I can happily cross out this “long outstanding” and “KIV” request from my checklist. My references are from the followings: a) 我的厨房笔记...