Absolutely Addictive!

Recently, I discovered a new "method" of one of my favourite snack - dried cod fish fillet. Just roast it in the oven for slightly less than 5 mins at 190 celcius. Keep a watch on it until it turns golden brown (be careful for it burns easily!). Stuff it into your mouth and you will instantly be addicted to it. Crispy and crunchy and compared to chips and other junk food, this is a relatively healthy snack. Try it!

Busy Saturday (various)

I was so free this afternoon. No gym classes to go and no other appointments. Naturally, I did what I like to do best, that is making stuff in the kitchen.

Here's what I churned out:

Cheat Chinese "Lo Bak Kou" aka Steamed Radish Savoury Cake (Chinese Bread Pudding Cake)
Cheat as in the dough is made entirely from day-old white bread soaked in slightly salted water. Tasted quite like it as well except that I think I over-steamed it a bit and the texture was a bit too hard for my liking.


Also boiled some Walnut Cream Sweet Soup (tongshui). Recipe is by Betty Saw in one of her Kitchen Recipes book but it was not similar to those really thick and creamy type found in Hong Kong. But still decent though.

Recipe:
About 1 full cup of whole walnuts (or about 125g)
1/2 can of evaporated milk
400 ml water
1/2 cup sugar (or to taste)
1. Blanch walnuts in boiling water. Strain and let dry. Then roast them in the oven till golden brown.
2. Add walnuts and water into the blender and puree till fine. If you want a smooth mixture, strain it. I prefer mine with un-strained.
3. Put puree and evaporated milk into saucepan. Bring to boil. Then simmer for 1-2 minutes before adding sugar to taste.
4. Stir till sugar dissolve and bring to boil again. You may want to stir it constantly.
5. Simmer for another minute. Serve warm.

The night before, I marinated some guava slices. Original recipe can be found here. (FAVOURITE RECIPE). These are seriously good. I can't stop snacking on them. Highly recommended! Well, at least they are healthy snacks.

Easy Saturday Lunch (Mini Tuna Mushroom Pie)

Had a sudden craving for pies and was thinking what to have for lunch. Why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone?

I used a pie pastry recipe from a Y3K recipe book. It uses shortening and does not require freezing. As for the filling, no cooking required. I just used canned tuna, frozen peas and vege., canned mushroom soup and 30 minutes, later I have my pie fresh out from the oven!

Big, Medium and Small (Yam Layer Cake, Orange Peanut Cake & Cake Dougnuts)

It's Saturday and what's baking?

Something small?

Mini Cake Doughnuts (no-yeast)
Updated: Recipe posted in Comments.

Or perhaps something medium?

Easy-peasy Orange Peanut Cake


Or how about something bigger?

Delicious Yam Layer Cake (FAVOURITE RECIPE)

Eastern Delights: Black Sesame Sweet Soup & Red Bean Nian Gao

I am a fan of Chinese Tongshui (sweet soup) too. Black Sesame Paste (Hak Zi Ma Wu) is another classic tongshui, just not so common in KL. I usually have my fix in Hong Kong.
Anyway, I recently found a simple and easy recipe for it so I gave it a try.

Verdict: Passable but no where as good as those found in Hong Kong. Still worth a try though. Recipe below.

Then, I discovered another gem of a recipe. Red Bean Nian Gao (Glutinous Rice Cake). I know Chinese New Year was way over but who says that there must always be an occasion for everything? Definitely not so, in my books.
The uniqueness of this recipe is that it is quick, fast and baked (instead of the usual labourous steaming method).

Verdict: Ultra yummi-licious! Especially when just baked. The outer layer is very crispy (as if it was pan-fried) and fragrant while the inside remains soft and chewy (but not sticky chewy). Would definitely be making this again. Maybe I will substitute with Lotus Paste next time.

Black Sesame Paste Tongshui (Hak Zi Ma Wu) Recipe
(Apx 4 bowls)
- 100g dry-roasted black sesame (I toast it in the oven till fragrant)
- 750ml milk/water
- 1/2 sugar (adjust according to your taste)
- Thickening: Corn Starch/Potato Starch mixed in a little bit of water

1. Put the black sesame and milk/water in a blender. Pulse until paste-like.
2. Transfer to a pot and add sugar.
3. Cook over low/med fire. Stir at all times.
4. When it starts to simmer, add thickening until it reaches the consistency that you prefer.
5. Serve hot.
* Be careful when watching the fire to ensure that the tongsui remains liquidy paste-like at all times.

Other knick-knacks from Japan

Some other food-related knick-knacks from Japan:


Sweet Potato Mini Snack
The Japanese seems to have thought of everything. This little snack is convenient and tastes good too!


Kit Kat (Special Edition - Sakura)
Ooh, I am such a sucker of nice packaging and I think the box is absolutely adorable. It tasted like Kit Kat in White Chocolate with a slight hint of sourish plum. Nice!!!


Diet Beer
Yay for those weight-concious people. Only about 1/2 to 1/3 calories of those normal beer. To me, it tasted something like 'Shandy' minus the lemonade taste.


My baking-related loot from the 100Yen shop.
All of the items below costs only 100yen each. They include cookie cutters in cute designs, mini stainless steel loaf tin, edible gold dusts, and Japanese glutinous rice flour for making mochi. These stuff would easily costs a least double the price here in Malaysia.

Quick Tea-Time Snacks (Sausage Bread Tart & Microwave Potato Chips)

Quick and easy tea-time treats for the little ones at home. Each of them can be done in no time and is "yummy-licious".

Sausage Bread Tart

Use day-old bread (those with skins work better, e.g., top and bottom slice). Roll them flat. Put a rice bowl on it and cut away the edges. Roll them flat again if necessary. Butter a muffin pan. Stuff the bread into the muffin pan so that it resembles a cup/tart. Bake in oven on moderate temperature for about 10 minutes or lightly browned. Remove from oven and butter the inside of the bread/tart. Mix some sliced sausages with mayonaise or sandwich spread and some dried parsley flakes. Add some into each tart. Re-bake them for another 5 minutes. Remove individual tarts from pan and trim away dark edges if necessary.

Microwave Potato Chips

Good and fat-free. The little ones gave their thumbs-up too! So much more healthier than regular french fries.
Spray a casserole dish with some non-fat cooking spray. Slice potato thinly (unpeeled) and arrange them on the dish. Microwave them on HIGH for about 8-10 minutes or until they turn crispy. Check to make sure that they are not burned though. Toss with a little salt, coarse black pepper and dried parsley. Serve. You can substitute with sweet potato if wished.

Click on titles for link to original recipes.

Easy Fixes! (Prata Sausage Roll & Easy Garlic Toast)

Wanna make something to good to eat but don't want much hassle? No worries, here are 2 really easy recipes (ingredients for each not exceeding 3), courtesy of Kitchen Capers forum.

1) Prata Sausage Roll

All you need are frozen prata (roti canai) sheets (available at any supermarket or mini-mart) and sausages. Thaw the frozen prata for a couple of minutes (but not completely) or until you find that it is easy to roll the sheets without breaking. Place a sausage on it and roll it up. Slash the top a few times with a knife. Then brush the top with some egg wash. Bake in pre-heated oven at 170-180c for 40-45 minutes.
This sausage rolls are really crispy, like a croissant. It loses its crispiness the next day so you may wish to toast it for a while in your toaster-oven, if you still have leftovers the next day.

2) Easy Garlic Toast

My nephew Amos, was browsing through my favourite bread recipe book by Alex Goh. He saw the Garlic Bread recipe and asked me when am I going to bake some. It was too late to start from scratch (the recipe uses french baguette, recipe provided of course) so what I did was to slice some sandwich bread, spread the sliced bread with some prepared garlic butter (mix some softened salted butter with some finely crushed and chopped garlic and some dried parsley flakes) toast them and voila!, instant Garlic Toasts.