Radish Cake

 

Bottom left: steamed radish cake

Bottom right: pan fried radish cake

I always want to make radish cake from the scratch, using rice. This is my first attempt and it is very nice. I am satisfied with the result.

Ingredients:

Long grain rice 400g

Water 400g

Radish 800g

some dried mushroom

Sea salt

pepper

oil 

Method:

1. Wash the rice, soak in 400g water overnight.

2. Drain the rice, put in 400g water, blend with high speed blender. 

3. Wash mushroom, soak it for 15 minutes, cut into thin slices.

4. Cut radish into thin stripes. (You can use a grater too)

5. Heat up some oil in a pan, stir fry mushroom and radish for a while.

6. Close the lid for 2 minutes at medium heat.

7. Season with some salt and pepper.

8. Brush a tray with oil.

9. Pour the mushroom and radish in the tray, follow by the rice milk.

10. Stir well.

11. Steam for 40 minutes.

12. Put aside until it is completely cold then only remove the radish cake from the pan.

 

 

Purple Sweet Potato Sago Dessert

 

Recently the weather is so hot, so I made chilled purple sweet potato sago dessert for afternoon tea. Since I have bought few pack of sweet potato, I steamed sweet potato buns too. Ta-dah. Purple bun and purple dessert for tea.

Ingredients:

Purple sweet potato 300g(or you can use taro)

Coconut milk 400ml

Sago 100g

Sugar 60g

Water 50ml

Method:

1. Cut sweet potato into small cubes. Steam until cooked and soft.

2. Keep one third of the sweet potato and mash the remaining sweet potato.

3. Bring the coconut milk and water to boil.

4. Add in the sweet potato puree and stir about 5 minutes until low heat.

5. Add in sugar, stir until melt.

6. Keep in refrigerator when it has cooled down.

7. Bring a big pot of water to boil.

8. Add in sago, stir well. Cook until medium heat for 10 minutes.

9. Turn to low heat and close the lid for another 20 minutes or until the sago has turned transparent in color.

10. Rinse the sago with iced water.

11. Add the sago and sweet potato cubes into the #6.

12. Keep in refrigerator until serve.

Oatmeal cookies

 

I like this recipe very much. Simple, healthy and delicious. Definitely a keeper!

Ingredients: 

**This recipe makes about 18 pieces cookies**

Instant oat 50g

Low protein/cake flour 100g(sifted)

Baking powder 2g

Blackstrap Molasses 20g

Honey 1tbsp

Unsalted Butter 35g(room temperature)

Milk 30ml

White sesame

Walnut 

Method:

1. Mix oat, flour, baking powder in a bowl.

2. Add in molasses, honey, milk and butter, mix well. Do not over knead.

3. Close with cling wrap and place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

4. Use a tablespoon to scoop, then form into a ball, place on the baking tray, then use the back of the spoon to press on it genlty.

5. Repeat until the dough is used up.

6. Bake in preheated oven at 170 degree for about 25 minutes.

7. Once cool down, store in an airtight container.

Milk Stick

 

This is a very nice milk stick with mild cheese taste recipe, good as teething stick too.

Ingredients:

Low protein/cake flour 300g(sifted)

Milk 80g

Sugar 50g

Butter 120g

Parmesan/Cheddar cheese 10g

Method:

1. Mix flour and sugar in a bowl.

2. Melt butter, milk and cheese over low heat.

3. Pour #2 into #1 and knead into a dough.

4. Put into a large ziplock bag, flatten it. The thickness should be around 1cm.

5. Cut into 5cmx1cm stick.

6. Keep it as it is for original flavour or you can brush a layer of honey or egg yolk, sprinkle some white sesame on top.

7. Bake in a preheated oven at about 160 degree for about 25 minutes.

8. After cool down, store in an airtight container.

 

 

 

Broccoli Potato Cheese Soup

I love a bowl of hearty soup to eat with bread for breakfast. Usually I will cook my favorite two soup which is the wild mushroom soup and pumpkin soup(Recipe here) as the ingredients are always available in my kitchen. Lately I have tried something new and I will definitely add them to my breakfast menu. Broccoli potato cheese soup is one of them. 

Ingredients:

Garlic(minced)

Broccoli

Potato

Parmesan Cheese(grated)

sea salt

Note: Potato is just to get the creamy texture in replacing heavy cream or milk. Therefore a small to medium size potato will be enough.

Method:

1. Stir fry minced garlic with some cooking oil until fragrant.

2. Add in broccoli and potato.

3. Cover with water. Water should be slightly less than the ingredients.

4. Bring to boil and cook until broccoli and potato are soft.

5. Use a handheld blender to blend into creamy soup.

6. Season with sea salt.

7. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese on top.

8. Ready to serve.

Cheesy sweet potato balls

I bought a pack of organic sweet potato. When I cut open, it is a mixture of different colors, purple, orange and yellow. Weird. Never encounter this before. Anyway, I made cheesy sweet potato balls for tea break. It is simple and fast, most important it is also healthy and yummy.

Ingredients:

Sweet potato(steamed and mashed)

mozzarella cheese cubes

black sesame

Method:

1. Take one teaspoon of sweet potato and put on your palm. 

2. Gentle press on the sweet potato so that it sticks together.

3. Place a cheese cube at the center.

4. Cover with another teaspoon of sweet potato.

5. Make into a ball shape.

6. Spray or brush the sweet potato ball with water.

7. Roll the ball on a plate of black sesame.

8. Repeat until all the sweet potato has been used up.

9. You can either steam, bake or fry the sweet potato balls.

10. I opted for steam as it is healthier. I steamed for 10 minutes at medium heat. 

Parmesan Cheese Loaf

Since I have half block of Parmesan cheese, I decided to try out cheese loaf recipe using my bread maker. The loaf is as fluffy as normal plain loaf with very nice cheese fragrant. It is even more delicious to spread a layer of butter on top, but calories are higher.

Ingredients:
High protein flour   250g
Parmesan cheese(grated) 30g
Water 120g
Sugar 45g
Salt 3g
Yeast 4g
Butter 25g

Method:
1. Put everything except yeast and butter in the bread maker bowl.
2. Turn on P30 for 15 minutes and then let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
3. Add in butter and yeast. Do note that yeast has to be put directly in the bowl.
4. Turn on P30 for 15 minutes and then let the dough rest for 10 minutes. 
5. Take out the dough. Split into half. Roll into two bun shapes.
6. Put the dough back to the bowl without the kneading pan.
7. Turn on P22. Take out 10 minutes before the program ends.

Japanese curry with shabu shabu pork

My version of Japanese curry

I bought organic curry powder from Taiwan. Instead of the spicy type I bought the sweet one, thinking that if I want extra spiciness I can add some chili powder. Anyway, I did not have to add chili powder as we feel that the taste is just right. I am glad that my family including my 4 years old loves it.

Ingredients:

1 pack curry powder

1 large potato

1 large carrot

1 large yellow onion

1 pack shabu shabu pork

Oil

Salt

Sugar

milk

Method:

1. Cut potato, carrot and yellow onion to desired size.

2. Heat up some oil in the pan.

3. Stir fry yellow onion till soft and fragrant. Remove and put aside.

4. Stir fry potato and carrot till the surface is cooked. Remove and put aside.

5. Add in curry powder. Stir fry for a while.

6. Add in onion, carrot and potato. Cover with water and bring to boil.

7. Simmer for 15 minutes.

8. Season with salt and sugar.

9. Add in shabu shabu pork.

10. Add few tablespoons of milk to get a smooth texture.

11. Serve it with warm rice.

Healthy and Natural Tang Yuan for Winter Solstice

I could not remember when was the last time I blogged. But then I think I should start blogging all the healthy and delicious recipe for future references.

Yesterday is Winter Solstice. I discovered a healthy tang yuan recipe so I decided to give it a try. It is not Phin Zhe first time making tang yuan, but it is the first time he ate some. It uses only two simple ingredients and the texture is very nice.

Ingredients(4-6 servings):
200g orange sweet potatoes/purple sweet potatoes/chinese yam
100g lotus root powder
brown sugar(optional)

Method:
1. Roughly mash the lotus root powder.
2. Steam the sweet potatoes/chinese yam and mash with a fork.
3. Add the lotus root powder to the mashed sweet potatoes or chinese yam.
4. If you want extra sweetness, add some brown sugar at this point.
5. Mix well and knead a little bit until the lotus root powder can not be seen. Add a bit of warm water if needed.
6. Roll into ball shapes.
7. Bring a pot of water to boil. Put in the tang yuan, cook until it is floating on the water.
8. Serve with pandan ginger sugar water or sweet soy milk.

Chinese New Year's meals for a 3 years old

Phin Zhe is 3yo now and he is more alert with what is happening surrounding him, so he knows exactly what is being served on the dining table. To keep him away from all the Chinese New Year's sinful dishes and snacks, I served similar home cooked food to him.

Hubby's family had steamboat for reunion dinner. I cooked separately for him.  In the chicken broth, it had ramen, mushroom, toufu, prawn, fish, squid, shabu shabu meat and few veggies. He liked it and finished up the whole bowl.

That morning, I baked a pandan vco chiffon. Right after the dinner, he brought out the cake and shared with everyone in the house. Yes, I have a big eater at home.

Pandan VCO chiffon

Pandan VCO chiffon recipe:

5 egg yolks
20g sugar
90g pandan juice
70g vco
125g low protein flour

5 egg whites
70g sugar
1tsp lemon juice

1. Whisk egg yolks and 20g sugar until light color.
2. Add in vco and pandan juice, mix well.
3. Add in sifted flour and mix well.
4. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites and lemon juice until foamy. Gradually add in sugar and beat until soft peak formed.
5. Use a spatula and add 1/3 of the meringue to the egg yolk mixture. Mix well.
6. Repeat until step 5 until meringue finish. Do not over mix.
7. Bake in 150-160'c preheated oven for around 40minutes.
8. Once down, turn the chiffon tin upside down for cooling.

meesua and hard-boiled egg

On first day of Chinese New Year, hubby's family had meesua and red hard-boiled egg for breakfast. So, I prepared meesua with black fungus, dried mushroom and minced meat for him. I also tried to dye the hard-boiled egg with beet root, but failed. The color just won't stick. Does anyone know how to dye hard-boiled egg in a natural way?

Cashew nut ice cream

At 11am, all the kids were eating ice-cream. So I brought out the cashew nut ice cream which I had prepared. He was so happy and of course he did not complain that he was eating a different ice cream.

Hazelnut ice cream recipe

180g cashew nut
3 tbsp vco
2 tbsp honey
240ml water

Use high speed blender to blend until smooth. Put in freezer overnight.

Adult had steamboat for lunch again, so I cooked something similar to the first picture in this post, thus I did not take a picture of it.

bak kua waiting to go into oven

Bak Kua

Bak Kua is a must for Chinese New Year, so I decided to bake one small tray for him. Even though I have skipped some seasonings, he still enjoyed it and finished all the bak kua within 3 days.

Bak Kua recipe:

300g minced meat
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp honey
1/8 tsp five spices(I skipped this)
1tsp rice wine(I skipped this)

1. Marinate the minced meat with all the seasonings.
2. Use a chopstick or fork, stir the meat in one direction until the meat become gooey.
3. Lay parchment paper on baking tray.
4. Spread the meat on the parchment paper.
5. Bake ar 100'c with oven door opened for 15 minutes.
6. Take out the tray, cut the bak kua into smaller pieces.
7. Bake at 200-220'c for about 10-15minutes.

kid version nasi lemak

Every 1st day of Chinese New Year, hubby house will have buffet dinner. This year, they ordered Nasi Lemak. So I cooked a kid version nasi lemak for Phin Zhe. 

Steamed rice with lemongrass and vco, topped with pumpkin seeds

Stir fry french bean

Prawn and fried egg in tomato sauce

Watermelon

breakfast plate

On second day, Phin Zhe had cheesy scrambled egg on bread, Greek yogurt with Manuka honey and Japanese cucumber. But he asked me why one of the compartment was empty. So, I put 2 pieces of cranberry butter cookies in it.

Cramberry butter cookies

Spaghetti with mushroom and capsicium

For lunch, we went to hubby's grandma's place. Again, they were serving spicy food. So, I cooked spaghetti for Phin Zhe.

cracker waiting to go into oven

Seaweed and White Sesame cracker

Seaweed and white sesame cracker

80g milk
4g yeast
30g oil
150g low protein flour
1/8tsp baking soda
1/8tsp salt
2 tbsp seaweed
1tbsp white sesame

1. Melt yeast in warm milk.
2. Knead everything together except seaweed and white sesame. Knead until smooth.
3. Add in seaweed and white sesame. Knead to mix well.
4. Roll into 2mm thickness, cut into desired shape.
5. Use a fork to make holes.
6. Bake at 180'c preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Rice with baked chicken and soup

Hubby family went to restaurant for dinner that night. I was quite tired after the outing. So, I prepared something simple for him.

Baked chicken thigh(marinated with lemon, olive oil, sea salt and mixed herbs) 
Mixed veggies and mushroom soup

After the dinner, we went back to my mum's place. From then, Phin Zhe's meals were taken care by my mother. 

Raw Strawberry Cheese Cake

 

 



This is a very healthy yet delicious cake. I could not find a single flaw in this recipe, all healthy ingredients, simple steps and a presentable look. So I made this cake with a 7" springform pan for father's day and it was good for 6-8 person. The cake was best after it was taken out from the fridge for 15-20minutes, so I had enough time to decorate the cake with some fresh strawberries and followed by some camchore time.


Crust ingredients:
40g raw organic macadamia
20g raw organic walnut
30g pitted organic medjool dates
a pinch of salt

Cheesecake filling ingredients:
250g raw organic cashew
90ml lemon juice
20g honey
80g virgin coconut oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract
water

Topping ingredients:
150g strawberry
40g pitted organic medjool dates

1. In a food processor, blend all crust ingredients until they are mixed well but still airy.
2. Pour into the springform pan and press hard to form the crust
3. Place the springform in freezer
4. In a high speed blender, blend all cheesecake filling ingredients. Add just enough water for the blender to move.
5. Pour the filling into the springform and flatten the surface.
6. Place the springform in freezer again.
7. Clean the high speed blender.
8. Place the topping ingredients into the high speed blender and blend well.
9. Pour into the springform and flatten the surface.
10. Place the springform in freezer for at least 6 hours.
11. Decorate with some fresh strawberries and serve.






Milky Teething Sticks and Cranberry Butter Cookies

 2 cookies done!

 

 milky teething sticks

 

 cranberry butter cookies

 



Sorry for the low quality pictures again. Since this is for CNY, so I better post it quickly. :)
Phin Zhe will have these two cookies for CNY. Emm...I figure out I won't have time to make more. :D
I used very minimum sugar for these recipes, so there is no need to reduce further.

Milky Teething Sticks
Ingredients:
40g melted unsalted butter
25g castor sugar(I used ground brown sugar)
1 medium egg
175g unbleached flour(sifted)
2 tbsp milk powder

Method:
1.  Mix flour and milk powder together. Set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar with a manual whisk until sugar dissolved.
3. Add in egg and beat until mix well.
4. Fold in flour mixture to the egg mixture. Mix well.
5. Place on a pastry mat, knead for a while.
6. Put into a pastry bag, roll into a flat piece.
7. Place in fridge for 30 minutes.
8. Cut into sticks and place on baking tray with parchment paper.
9. I brushed the sticks with some egg yolk for nicer color, but that is not a must.
10. Bake in preheated oven at 160'c for 10 to 15 minutes.

Notes: If you want it to be more milky, you can add 1-2 tbsp condensed milk. I omitted that because I want to keep as simple as possible for my boy. And if you are feeding a smaller babies, please reduce the baking temperature(eg 140'c). In that case, you get a soft texture, not crunchy type.

Cranberry Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
75g unsalted butter
35g castor sugar(I used ground brown sugar)
150g unbleached low protein flour(sifted)
22g corn starch/potato starch
30g dried cranberry
40g egg
1/4tsp baking powder(optional)

1. Mix flour, starch and baking powder together. Set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Add in egg and beat until creamy.
4. Fold in flour mixture.
5. Mix in cranberry.
6. Form the dough into a rectangular cuboid shape.
7. Keep in fridge for more than 4 hours.
8. Cut into 5cm thickness and place on baking tray with parchment paper.
9. Bake in preheated oven at 175'c for 15 to 20 minutes.

German cookies

A very famous chinese new year cookies among Malaysia and Singapore bloggers since year 2011. It took me 4 years to try out the recipe. lol.

Ingredients:
125g unsalted butter
40g powdered brown sugar(I reduced to 30g)
80g unbleached flour(sifted)
125g potato starch

Method:
1. Beat butter and brown sugar until creamy and pale in color.
2. Add in flour and potato starch. Mix well.
3. Lay parchement paper on baking tray.
4. Form small balls(about 6g each) and place on parchment paper.
5. Use the back of a fork to press on each of the balls.
Tips: After each press, dip the fork in water. This will avoid the dough to stick on the fork.
6. Bake at preheated oven at 170'c for 15 minutes.

Even though I have reduced the sugar, but I still feel that the butter content and sugar is a bit on the high side for toddlers. Luckily my son prefer the flaxseed crackers. He said it is pancake. :p

Flaxseed crackers

I will try to adapt any recipes with the healthy ingredients on my kitchen shelf. This recipe is quite similar to the almond cracker recipe. For this recipe, you can substitute the flaxseed with sesame seeds. And if you have a digital scale that can be reset to zero, then you can prepare this with a single bowl and a spoon, which means less cleaning to be done later. ;) I use a salad bowl.

Ingredients(This recipe yields 2 tray):
20g melted unsalted butter
2 medium eggs(~100g)
30g powdered brown sugar
60g sifted low protein flour
100g flaxseeds

Method:
1. Beat butter and sugar with a spoon until sugar melted.
2. Add in eggs and mix well.
3. Fold in flour and flaxseeds.
4. Lay parchment paper on baking tray.
5. Scoop a spoon of batter on the parchement paper, use the back of the spoon to spread out to average and thin layer.
6. Bake at preheated 170'c for 10 to 15 minutes until slightly golden.

Cooking for a 2yo on a vacation

It has been a daily habit for me to cook for Phin Zhe, even when we dine out or on a vacation trip. Few months back, we brought him along for our 14 days Aussie trip. It was a night flight to Aussie so I brought 2 homemade buns for backup. Return flight was a bit tricky as it was a morning flight. I need to prepapre 3 meals for him. He had breakfast at Melbourne airport, lunch on the plane and dinner at LCCT airport. However, we survived the long haul flights and the 2 weeks in Aussie. With some proper planning, I was able to prepare food for Phin Zhe and yet had an enjoyable trip. Let's see some of the meals we had.

Breakfast #1: Oat porridge

rolled oats and steel cut oats porridge with Elgaar farm organic milk, bananas and raisin

Oat porridge is a relatively simple breakfast to prepare. It is not easy to find organic steel oats in Penang. So I bought one pack once I landed in Hobart, Tasmania. I love to mix rolled oats and steel oats together. For me, fresh milk, bananas and raisin are must. I did add in walnut and other nuts for adult version.

Breakfast #2: Bread/Toast with spread/fillings

organic toast with baby spinach, mushroom and scrambled egg

organic toast with avacado spread and scambled egg

Another quick breakkie. It did not take up much time to mash an avacado, scrambled some eggs and stir fry some mushroom. Topped with wonderfully creamy Barambah organics yogurt, this healthy toast has made a smile on big boss and little boss.

Breakfast #3: Pancake

avacado, banana and egg

When I had a little bit more time, I made the simplest pancake. For the batter, I mashed the bananas and avacado first, then slowly added egg until it reached the right consistency. Served with blueberries and warm milk.

Dinner #1: Bolognese Spaghetti

beef bolognese spaghetti, blanched asparagus and orange juice

my boy enjoying his dinner

Dinner #2: Japanese Ramen in broth

On the night we checked into Cradle Mountain National Park's Cabin, big boss requested something warm for tummy. So I cooked this Japanese Ramen in broth. White potatoes, carrot, onion, shredded chicken and scallop have made the soup very sweet and tasty. In fact, I had to cook a second bowl for each of us.

Dinner #3: Rice with asian dishes

Some of the day, we reached our accomodation early, I cooked some dishes to eat with rice. First thing I did was to set the rice cooker and boil the soup. Then I will proceed to take a rest, have some fun time exploring the place and take a shower. When dinner time came, I just place one of the dish to oven and cook another plate of veggies.



baked pork cutlets, stir fry mixed veggies, toufu and seeweed in miso soup, rice with scallops

baked fish(two types), zhuccini toufu mushroom corn soup and stir fry green leafy

Dinner #4: Steak



angus beef and rosemary lamb cutlet

serve with potatoes, purple carrot and green bean

steak with pasta

 angus beef with tomato fettucine, stir fry green leafy and mushroom

Dinner #5: Seafood porridge



seafood porridge with prawns, scallops, salmon and chicken

Phin Zhe kept asking for more

Dinner #6: Seafood risotto

This trip I brought a rice cooker with me. Whenever I checked into a room that does not have enough kitchen equipments to cook, I cooked one pot dish. This dish used exactly the same ingredients as seafood porridge. It was a hit! We love the Jasmine rice texture which was a bit sticky.

On the go #1 Rice with Asian dishes

one of the airport meal(steamed fish, asparagus and carrot)

 On the go #2 Risotto

purple risotto(purple carrot, salmon, mushroom etc)

I did not manage to capture every single meals. But I hope this is enough to give you some ideas on preparing toddler food when you are travelling.