Homemade fish stock makes a great soup base for soups, congee, rice, braises, stews and sauces. It gives any seafood-based dish an immeasurable flavour even to the simplest recipe. Apart from flavour, it is extremely nutritious too as it’s a rich source of gelatin and minerals that our body requires. This is further mentioned by by Sally Fallon (author of Nourishing Traditions) in her article titled...

My family loves homemade pizza for several reasons. One of them is that I can easily cater to all kind of requests such as: “More cheeses, please? Wait, why not have a mixture of Mozallera, Parmesan and Cheddar? That will be ideal.” “Pineapples, more and more! Mummy!” “Don’t forget to put in Pepperoni, the one without black pepper please” “Yes, thin crust only. Remember to add semolina flour...

  Congee or porridge (粥) is not only a staple food among the Chinese community but also one of the first few baby foods recommended for weaning. It is a versatile dish which can be easily prepared and served with added ingredients like fish, chicken, pork or veggies to enhance the flavour and increase its nutritional value. The texture and consistency of the congee is determined by three main factors...

  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...

  Mushrooms provide a lot of nature’s hidden treasures. Amongst them are anti-oxidants, B-vitamins, copper, phosphorus, potassium and vitamin D. For further reading, please refer to this link. It is also featured as one of the new superfoods for women in the July 2009 issue of Health Magazine.   Over the past one year, I am finding more and more variety of fresh mushrooms being sold at supermarkets...

This is one of the dishes I loved to cook since I started cooking for my family two years ago. It is because the method is so simple and doesn’t require any special cooking skill or experience. You can prepare everything in advance and easily impress everyone with your hot and steamy meat patties on the dining table. It is most suitable for both newbies and people looking for a simple yet nutritious...

  I would like to thank my friend EC and Kwong Wah Yit Poh (KWYP) (光华日报) for inviting me to be one of their food panelists in the daily recipe column. Founded in Penang, KWYP is the oldest Chinese newspaper in Malaysia with the largest readership in the northern region. I feel so honoured to receive this invitation as it was my favourite childhood newspaper. From 13 June onwards until end of August...

  Have you tried eating brown beehoon (brown rice vermicelli) before? If this is the first time you come across it, don’t be taken aback with the word “brown” and associate it with brown rice or whole wheat noodles. The one that I tried is totally different in term of flavor and texture. It is a product of Thailand (Star Lion brand – see photo below) which I bought from my local supermarket. I...

  From young, soup has been served regularly in my family’s daily diet. As far as I can recall, my mom has been boiling different types of Chinese soups almost every day. After I got married, I too enjoyed all the home-boiled soups of my mother-in-law. Now, as a “minister of home affair cum head chef”, I continued with our family’s tradition to boil soups for the family as my son is a big fan...

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...