Hakka Radish Ball

When I was a little I remember my grandma always make this yummy dish for the family. Besides my grandma, my dad has another version of his Radish Ball too and both tasted very delicious. And now, I'm having my own version too and hope to make it better and tastier.

Every time when I happened to visit my father he will definitely cook some of my favourites. I'm one lucky girl? Yes I do. haha


Ingredients

1 Medium Size Radish
1/4 cup of Dried Shrimps (washed and chopped)
1 cup Minced Pork
3 tbsp Corn Flour
1 Shallot (chopped)
1 tbsp Dark Soya (optional if you do not like it dark)
2 tsp Salt
3 tbsp Water

Methods

1. Peel the skin of the radish, shred radish using manual food shredder. I do not like it too coarse but not too fine neither.
2. Squeeze away the excessive water of the radish to avoid bitter taste.
3. Mix all ingredients together.
4. Use a small size metal ice cream scoop to scoop the meat and form a ball. Remember do not press the meat to hard while forming meat ball to avoid meat getting harden while steaming.
5. Laid a layer of clean banana leave at the bottom of a metal plate. Place radish balls on top of the banana leave and steam for 20-30 minutes in high fire.
6. Serve hot and eat with chili padi with soya sauce for a better taste.

Mushroom Pie

I personally is a mushrooms lover, love all kind of edible mushrooms, Shitake, Portobello, White Button and Oyster are some of my favourites. Today is the first day of school holiday and why not make lunch time more fun instead. So no rice again, and kids are so happy to know this. I decided to bake Mushroom Pies for lunch, easy and who doesn't love crispy and fluffy puff pastry stuffed with creamy mushroom?

Ingredients

2 cups of Mushroom (any of your favourite mushroom) (slice or chunks)
1 cup of Baby Spinach
4 Sheets of Puff Pastry Sheets
1 Egg for Egg Wash
1/2 cup Grated Cheese
2 tbsp Butter
1/2 cup Milk
1 Medium size Onion (chopped)
2 Cloves Garlic (chopped)
salt to taste
dash of dried oregano & parsley

Methods

1.  In a skillet, heat a little cooking and add in butter until butter melted. Add  garlic and onion, stir fry till you smell the aroma. Add in Mushroom, and baby spinach. keep stirring. Mushroom will release some liquid while cooking so its normal. keep cooking until liquid reduced.

2. Add in milk, salt and some dried spices and stir well.

3. Lastly, turn off flame. Stir in cheese, so that cheese is not fully melted, it will melt nicely when bake it in the oven. Set aside mushroom and cool down.

4. Divide puff pastry sheet into 4 squares. Scoops adequate amount of mushroom and put in the centre of each squares.

5. Apply each side with beaten egg, and place a same size square puff pastry on top of it and press down the sides with fork and sealed. You may cut some fine line on the puff pastry to release the heat in the fillings.

6. Lastly, brush the egg wash on the surface of all puff pastry before put them into oven.

7. Preheat Oven at 180 degree and bke for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

8. Enjoy!

Hakka Braised Pork Belly with Red Koji Rice

I'm a typical Hakka girl that brought up in a Hakka Family and growing up eating my grandmother's homecook Hakka Dishes. My grandfather loved Fat Pork very much and most of Hakka signature dishes are cooked with Fat Pork/Pork Belly, so these has become my favourite without me noticing it. Hakka dishes are mostly with pretty strong taste. This dish is so delicious because the meats have the strong taste of "Nam Yu" and "Cuttlefish". Simple dish, but you will love it. I add in hard boil egg as an option because Olivia requested for it. Surprisingly it goes well with the gravy.

Ingredients

300 gm Pork Belly (3 layers fats)

1 cube of Nam Yu

1 tsp Oyster Sauce

1 tbsp Dark Soya

2 cloves of garlic

2 anistar

50g Cuttlefish Slices (soak in water till soft, throw water away and cut into small size)

1tbsp Red Koji Rice (wash and drain)

2 cups Water

Methods

1. Cut pork belly in to 1.5" x 2" of size. Mash the Nam Yu and marinate these pork belly chunks with it and oyster sauce for at least 15 minutes.

2. In a stew pot, heat with some cooking oil, then place pork belly chunk in it and turn the flame to high. Fry each side of the chunk for 1 minute or until the surface looks brown. Add in garlic, cuttlefish, red koji rice and anistar and stir well with the meats.

3. Add in water, cover with lid. When water is boiling, turn flame to low and keep stewing for 1.5 hours until meat is soft.

4. I add an hard boil egg, as an additional because Olivia requested for it. 

Parmesan Pop Corn Chicken

Ingredients 

200 gm Chicken Breast (I use Kampung Chicken)

2 tbsp Soya Sauce

Dash of Sesame Oil

3 tbsp Flour

3 tbsp Corn Flour

1) Cut chicken into small cubes or chunks. Marinate chicken breast with Soya Sayce & Sesame Sauce for 30minuted.

2) Coat chicken chunks with Flour and Corn Flour.

3) Heat up frying pan with some cooking oil of your choice, and when pan is warm add in chicken and fry. Since the chicken has been cut into small cubes, you can use lesser oil.

4) when both sides chicken are golden brown, set aside. 

5) Sprinkles with Parmesan Flakes/powder on top of the Pop Vorn Chicken. Good to eat with Mushroom Soup.

Angel Hair Carbonara with Crispy Patty

Whenever we eat out my daughter will definitely asked for noodles or if we ended up at a Western Cuisine Restaurant then it will definitely be spaghetti. Olivia loves Carbonara or anything creamy and cheesy.

So I made my kids the "Simplee Carbonara" last Saturday. It tasted just like those Italian Restaurant (haha trust me?)

You might want to give it a try.. Ingredients are very simple and nothing fancy about the cooking steps as well. Less than 30 minutes from preparation and cooking.

Ingredients

Pasta
100gm Angel Hair Spaghetti (cooked and drained)
2 cup Milk
3 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Flour
Some chopped garlic
Dash salt to taste
Some Rosemary (dried)
2 Slices of Cheddar Cheese

Patty
200gm Minced Meat (marinate with soya)
4 tbsp Bread Crumbs
1 tbsp Corn Starch
1 egg beaten (used half)

Methods for Pasta

1. Cooked spaghetti in boiling salt water for 8-10 minutes depends on the type of pasta you are using, I added a little cooking oil so it won't stick together when drained.
2. Use a pan, warm it with low flame, add in butter. When butter is melted, add in flour to make roux. Control the flame, do not turn to high flame, this might cause the milk to vaporised fast. Add in milk, stir well till smooth and not lumpy, add the cheddar cheese stir till cheese is melted. Add in salt and rosemary to taste. Lastly, add in Angel Hair and mix well. Serve hot.

Methods for Patty

1. Mix all ingredients.
2. Use a pan, warm it with low flame, add in cooking oil. Scoop meat with ice cream scoop or any big spoon. Place patty in the middle of the pan, slightly press down the meat to make a flat round patty. Fried for 3 minutes each side. Serve with pasta.

Angel Hair Carbonara. Kids preferred Angel Hair, because it's fine and soft.

Best supporter ever! 

Mashed Potato

Ingredients 

2 Big Size Potato 

1 Big Size Carrot

2 tbsp Butter

3 tbsp Milk

Salt to taste 

Methods

1. Clean and remove skin of potatos and carrot. Cut into small cubes, steam for 15 minutes. Add in butter while hot, stir till butter melt.

2. Let them cool down, transferred to food processor and squashed potatos and carrots with milk. I don't like them too smooth, I prefer a little coarser.

3. Lastly, add salt to taste.

Chicken Chop with Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients 

1 Chicken whole leg 

5 Shitake Mushroom (slice)

3/4 cup Kentucky Fried Chicken Flour

1 egg (beaten)

2 tbsp Soya Sauce  

1 cup water

Methods 

1. Marinate chicken leg with soya sauce for 15minutes.

2. Dip chicken in beaten egg, get the whole chicken coated with egg then transfer to a plate/bowl of Kentucky Fried Chicken flour. Coat well.

3. Pre heat frying pan with cooking oil, when then oil in the pan is at its medium heat, put in chicken. Fry each side for 4-7minutrd depending on the thickness of the chicken. Use chopstick, try to poke through the thickest part of the chicken. If it's through then your chicken is cook.

4. Set aside chicken. Use the same pan, put in mushrooms, stir fry 3 mins. Use the remaining KFC flour, mix with water. Add into mushrooms and stir. When boiling, pour over chicken. Voila!

Ultra Moist Chocolate Cake

I always wanted to bake a chocolate moist cake but haven't found the right recipes, and as I search through Google photos and I have found one that look good through lens. Studied the recipes and found the ingredients are quite easy and simple so u give it a try. Adapted this recipe from Maria Jose but altered a little.

Prep time:  25 mins

Cook time:  25 mins

Total time:  50 mins

Serves: 15

Ingredients

• Milk – 1½ cups
• Butter – 100 gms (I put 110g salted butter)
• Oil – ¼ cup (I used sunflower oil)
• Coco Powder – ½ cup ( I used Van Houstan)
• Self Raising Flour – 1 cup 
• Egg – 1 beaten, room temp
• Baking Soda – 1 tsp 
• Sugar – 1 cup (I reduced 2tbsp)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven @ 180 C/350-375 F, 10 mins before baking. Heat together milk, butter, oil & coco powder till the butter melts. Let it cool to room temperature. Add flour, baking soda, sugar & beaten egg to the cooled wet ingredients. Beat it well using an electric beater or hand whisk till it is mixed well. I made a 9 inch loaf.
2. Grease your cake tin well & line with parchment/baking paper. Pour the  batter. Bake 25- 30 minutes. The baking time can vary depending on each oven.
3. 
   

Curry Crispy Cauliflower

Do you have picky eaters at home? My daughter is one of the picky eaters. She prefers the food she likes. So sometimes mummy will try some new recipes or dish to catch her appetites.

She loves cauliflowers and O remember I had a fried cauliflower before at a Vegetarian stall. Maybe I could altered the recipe a little for the kids.

I add in a dash of curry powder to make it spicier but not hot.

Ingredients 

2 cup cauliflowers (florets)

4 cup water

2 tbsp salt

1 tsp curry powder

Any of your frying Batter. I use Hup Loong Batter Mix.(refer picture below)

Methods 

1. Cut cauliflowers into small florets, wash and drain.

2. Boil water in a medium pot, put in salt, curry powder & florets when boiling. Blanch for 3-5minutes depending on your liking. If you prefer softer texture then 5minutes. Drained and set aside.

3. Prepare frying pan with adequate cooking oil, and preheat in medium heat. Mix frying batter, dip florets into batter. Make sure coat each florets with batter. 

4. Place each florets that coated with batter into heated oil and fry. After 2minutes, turn the florets. When florets turns golden, set aside. 

Brownie Butter Cake

Who doesn't like chocolate? Specially if you have kids at home, they will jumped into anything chocolaty. Last week, I came across a recipe for Brownie Butter Cake from Rasa Malaysia website and decided to give it a try. I adapted this recipe but has made some changes on my own. I subsitituted the dark chocolate with Hershey's Chocolate chips and omitted the sugar for the brownie. And it turned out pretty well.

Even myself has fallen in love with this cake too , not too sweet as I reduced the sugar from the original recipe. The butter cake is so buttery and moist. I always use SCS butter for my cakes and and cookies, they will turned out buttery.

Ingredients

Brownie:

140g Hershey's Choco Chips
50g SCS salted butter
1 Egg
35g all-purpose flour

Butter cake:

120g salted butter
90g sugar (I reduced by 1 Tbsp)
2 Eggs
120g all-purpose flour
2g baking powder
50ml fresh milk

Method:

1.Grease and line a 10cm x 20cm (4×8-in) loaf pan with parchment paper.
2.Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
3.To make brownie, melt chocolate and butter over low heat. Remove and leave to cool slightly. Add in egg, mix well. Fold in flour, mix until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.
4.To make butter cake, beat butter with sugar until creamy. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5.Fold in sifted flour and baking powder, alternately add in fresh milk, mix to form batter.
6.Spread the butter cake batter over brownie, bake in oven at 160C/320F for 25-30 minutes or until cooked. Insert a cake tester in the middle to check doneness.

Creamy Spinach Chicken

Chicken and cream make really good dinner combination when your kids love creamy dish like mine do. They were so happy when they saw what I served them at dinner tonight. Both Os raised up their thumbs and said "Good, mummy good" haha and i think thats the best rewards for a mummy that spend an hour in the kitchen preparing, cooking and cleaning.

Simple preparation and cooking steps, which requires less than an hour. I always use drumstick because i find the meat is more tender and juicy but you can substitute with chicken breast if you preferred.

Ingredients

1 drumstick with tight (De-bone and cut into bite size)

1 cup Spinach

1 tsp salt 

4 tbsp Corn Flour

2 tsp Chinese Five Spice Powder

1 clove garlic (chopped)

Creamy Sauce

1 can F&N evaporated milk

1tsp curry powder
1tsp corn flour

Marinate

2 tsp Salt 

dash of Pepper

Methods

1. Marinate chicken with salt & pepper for 15 minutes.

2. Mix Chinese five spice powder and corn flour is a dry clean bowl. Add in chicken cubes and coat all with powder.

3. Heat clean wok with cooking oil (enough to cover the chicken). When oil almost warm, add in chicken cubes. Fried for 8 minutes. Meanwhile, keep stirring. Drained from oil. Set aside when done.

4. Blanch spinach in water for 3 minutes. Drained and set aside.

5. In a clean saucepan, heat little oil, add in garlic, stir till you smell the aroma of the garlic or when the garlic turns golden but not brown. Add curry powder, corn flour & milk, mix well and pour it into the saucepan. When the cream is boiling add in chicken. Stir and cook for 5 minutes till chicken well coated with milk. This is not a thick cream base but kind of milky.

6. Arrange blanched spinach at the bottom of a dishware, pour creamy chicken over it.

7. Serve with white rice.

Stir Fry Broccoli Cauliflowers with Scallops

Broccoli and Cauliflowers are my daughter's favourites. She will always asked for these two vegetable to be cooked for dinner. And recently she started to love scallops too, I think she has got this from his dad the seafood lover in our family.

Well as most of you already know that Olivia is a picky eater when she was little and fingers crossed, she is getting better and at a normal pace now (laughing). So if she requested certain food or dish, I will definitely try my best to fulfilled her with. And Oliver is a vegan lover, he loves everything from vegetables to fruits which gives me less headache.

This dish is very simple to prepare and its very nutritious too. Most of the ingredients you could get it from the market or any supermarket will do. Just that you need to get the frozen boiled scallops at the specialist store or completed supermarket that sells imported seafood. I bought the frozen boiled scallops at Jaya Grocer. 

Frozen boiled scallop

Ingredients


1 Cup of  Broccoli
1 Cup of Cauliflowers
1/2 Cup Boiled Scallop
1 tbsp  chopped garlic
2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
1/4 Cup water
1 tsp Rice Wine 紹興酒

Methods
1) Cut vegetables into small bite size. Blanch them in hot water for 3 minutes. drained and set aside.
2) In a clean wok, drizzle some cooking oil that covered most of the wok surface. When the wok is warm, add in garlic, stir fry for 1 minute and add in scallops. Keep stirring for 1 minutes, add vegetables. Mix oyster sauce and water. Turn to high flame, stir in oyster sauce that diluted in water. Stir for another 2 minute, turn to low flame, add in rice wine, stir for a while and you can serve.

Black Fungus & Potato Chicken

Black Fungus or Cloud ear fungus is very commanly used in chinese cooking. Chinese believed that this fungus will benefit our health by adding in our diet. Some say it will reduce LDL cholesterol and some even said it could eliminate bad clogged blood in the uterus. That's why this is the key ingredient of confinement food. I personally like the texture of it, jellyfish yet chruncy. 

Surprisingly my children love it too. Normally cooked with chicken, and I added potato as well. These 3 ingredients go pretty well too.

Ingredients 

Kampung Drumsticks X1

Black Fungus medium X1

Potato medium X1

Oyster Sauce x3tbsp 

Corn starch x1tbsp

Water x2 cup

Rice wine x1tsp (optional)

Garlic x2 cloves (chopped)

Methods:

1) marinate chicken with 2tbsp oyster sauce.

2) soak black fungus with hot water for 30min. Throw away water, thinly slice black fungus.

3) slice potato as desire. I slice thin and half circle.

4) blanch black fungus and potato in hot water for 5minutes. Drain out.

5) In a cooking pan, drizzle with little cooking oil. Add in garlic, stir fry, add in chicken. Stir fry for 3-5min, add black fungus & potato. Stir well.

6) add water, dark soya and the remaining oyster sauce . Cover with lid. Let it simmer  in medium flame for 3min.

7) mix corn flour with some water and become starch. Add in to chicken. Stir well. Last add in rice wine, if you don't like wine, you may omit.

    

My little patron, can't wait it try some.

Lentil Cauliflower Millet Soup

Lentil, cauliflower and millet have been the staple food in my kitchen. Whenever the kids asked for this comfort food, I can straight away made it for them. Thus is very simple, I always mix and match these ingredients with pumpkin, potato or  spinach if you like.

Both Os finished fast today. Nothing could be more rewarding than seeing 2 empty bowls of soup.

I normally soaked beans before cooking them just to cut down the cooking time. And it worked! And Mcvite's digestive biscuit made a great pairing as well. Kids dip the biscuit in the soup or cracked it and sprinkle right on the surface. Yummy!

Ingredients

2 cups Lentils - wash and soak with water for 15min

1 cup Millets

11/2 cup Cauliflowers 

2 cloves of garlic - crashed 

4 cups Water

Salt to taste 

Dried Thyme

Methods

1. Drain lentil, millet  & cauliflower then send aside.

2. Use a deep saucepan, preheat with oil. Fry chopped garlic till aromatic add in lentil, millet and cauliflower stir fried till you smell the aromas. Add water. When boiling turn the flame to low, keep cooking for 30minutes. Please make sure the water level is not dried up. If the water is at the same level as the solid then u may off the fire of the stove. Let it cool down then transfer to the good processor and blend till smooth.

3. Transfer back to saucepan and turn on low flame add salt & herbs to taste.

Pan Fried Meat Patty with Cuttlefish 煎鱿魚豬肉餅

Pan Fried Meat Patty with Cuttlefish 煎鱿魚豬肉餅

I'm a Hakka and growing up with my grand parents were such an honored because I could speak fluent Hakka Dialect and had enjoy so much yummy Hakka Cuisine since we were young. We Hakka loves pork very much especially 'Fat Pork' 肥猪肉 that would not be missed in most of our dinners.

And today, I was trying out this dish for the very first time, Pan Fried Meat Patty with Cuttlefish 煎鱿魚豬肉餅. It's a very simple dish that requires only pork & cuttlefish. When I served this during dinner tonight, it was finished like hot cakes and hubby said it tasted so "Homely" 家的味道 probably because we hardly get to eat this simple dish outside.Or this patty really taste good (laughing)

Ingredients

11/2 cup Mince pork (I used the combination of  fat & lean)

1/2 cup Dried cuttlefish (You can find it at local grocery shop)

- soak the dried cuttlefish for 1 hour or 30 minutes with some water to soften it before cutting them into small pieces.

1/4 cup Breadcrumbs

2 tbsp Flour

2 tbsp Water (I used water I used to soak the dried cuttlefish)

Salt to taste (approximately 1 tsp)

- you might not need to put some much salt as the cuttlefish are salty.

Methods 

1. Mix the pork, dried cuttlefish that has been cut into small pieces, water (I used water that used to soaked the dried cuttlefish), flour, breadcrumbs and salt well.

2. Heat the pan with some cooking oil. Move the pan around so the oil could cover most of the pan's surface.

3. I molded the patty into round with spoon or if you prefer hand. Then slowly put it into the pan. Use the flat ladle to slightly press in down into a flat patty. My patty is about 2cm thick or if you might want to have a thinner patty then you have to press it flatter. I like mine slightly thicker so that the inside of the patty is moist and juicy.

4. Pan fried both side for 3 minutes and turn the flame to high and pan fried both sides for 1 minute to achieve the crispy-skin.

5. Set aside and cut it into desire shapes when its not hot.

6. Serve with white rice.

Steam Chicken Rice

Olivia is mummy's number 1 fan. 2 thumbs up!

Today's weather is getting a little chill after a heavy pour this evening. It would be nice if we could have a hot pot of chicken rice for dinner, just that simple. I always stocked up my freezer with chicken because with chicken your ingredient nothing can go wrong.


A simple but comfort dish put a big smile on my kids' faces as well as my hubby's. Here goes the ingredients & steps.. happy cooking!

Marinate chicken with rice wine & salt

Add water to rice, garlic & ginger and cook.

Add in chicken when water is boiling

Keep cooking until water is reduced.

After 15-20 minutes when water has been absorbed by rice

A comfort food is DONE

 Ingredient:
2 free range chicken leg (marinate with salt & some rice wine)
1 cup uncooked rice
1 1/2 cups water
3 cloves garlic 

1 medium ginger
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Method
1. Cut chicken into small pieces. Marinate the chicken with some salt & little rice wine.
2. Heat oil and saute the garlic and sliced  ginger until fragrant.
3. Add in rice and mix evenly.
4. Add in water and let the mixture simmer on low heat for 7 mins, till the water reduce by half.
5. Place the chicken on top of the rice. Cover the pan and continue to simmer for 15-20 mins.
6. Turn off heat and rest for 5 mins before serving.

Baked Cauliflower Mushroom with Rice

My daughter loves Cauliflower and Mushroom, so anything that cooked with these two will be finished fast. Today I made the kids lunch with these two ingredients and added some cheese and bake it and guess what? They finished this dish fast as predicted. I did asked my daughter why is she loves cauliflower so much, and her answer is "I love flowers, mummy".. haha okay, she is so cute isn't she? I think I should start experimenting lily and roses then..(gotcha)

Line cooked rice at the bottom of the oven proof dish

Cooked Cauliflowers, mushroom and milk until boiling

Pour the mixture over the rice

Sprinkle grated cheese on top of it and bake till it turns brown

Baked rice, ready to be served

Yummy rive topped with baked cauliflower & mushroom

Baked Cauliflower Mushroom with Rice

Ingredients
11/4 cup Cauliflower, chopped
1/4 cup Button Mushroom, chopped
1 cup Milk
1/4 cup grated cheese
2 cup cooked rice
salt & pepper to taste
some oregano herbs

Methods 
1. Cooked rice earlier, set aside to let it cool down. Place the rice at an 8" round oven safe dish.
2. Using a medium saucepan, boil some water and put the chopped cauliflower. Boil for 2 minutes. Drained and set aside.
3. Pre heat the Oven at 180 degree for 15 minutes.
4. Pre heat a cooking pan in a medium flame. Add 1 tbsp cooking oil, put in cauliflower and mushroom. Keep stirring for 2 minutes, add salt, pepper and herbs. Pour in milk and let it boil. When the milk is boiling turn off the flame. Pour all the mixture on top of the rice. The sprinkle the grated cheese on top of it. Put in the pre heat oven and baked for 15 minutes or till the cheese melted and brown.