红（萝卜）运当（菜）头 | the approach of good luck!

• Ingredients
• 1 kg white radish, grated (reserve water)
• 50g red carrots, grated (reserve water)
• 150g rice flour
• 50g corn starch
• 1 Chinese sausages, removed from casing and diced
• 8 pcs dried black mushroom, soaked and diced (reserve water)
• 1 piece of dried cuttlefish, soaked and cut into bitesized strips
• 30g dried shrimps, soaked (reserve water)
• 2 shallots, finely sliced

• 
  
• 
  
• Method: 
• 
  
• Marinate the black mushroom, cuttlefish and shrimps with 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp wine and a small pinch of sugar.
• 
  
• Combine the corn starch and rice flour with 21/2 rice bowls of water including reserve water from the radish, carrot, black mushroom, scallops and shrimp, soaking the mushrooms and cuttlefish. Stir and mix well to form a smooth batter.
• 
  
• With 3 tablespoons of oil, sauté shallots till fragrant with chopped sausages then add in shrimps, mushrooms and scallops. Toss in grated radish and carrots, add 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp ground white pepper and 1 tbsp oil before stirring well. Toss it well to mix and keep frying till the liquid appears from the radish and carrot strips.
• 
  
• Turn to low heat, slowly stir in flour mixture into the turnips. Turn and mix well until it forms a sticky dough. 
• 
  
• Grease dish for steaming. Transfer the batter into the pan and over high heat for about 40 minutes.

 Leave to cool and cut into slices to be pan fried. Or steamed and garnished with parsley, spring onions and chopped
  chilli.

Recipe adapted from : http://www.tastehongkong.com/recipes/featured/turnip-or-radish-cake-with-chinese-sausages/

I substituted cuttlefish for scallops. It tasted good too but I'll probably stick with scallops in future :)
Have adjusted the sugar because I used red carrots for natural sweetness.
I'll probably try it with just white radish in future to try and recreate the ones served at dim sum restaurants! 

From our kitchen to yours,

Brenda x

"Mix It Up" on Health Perch

Gula Melaka Steamed Cake

Ingredients 

150g gula melaka

100g milk

3 eggs

150g self raising flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

80g corn oil

Method

Melt gula melaka and milk over slow fire. The aroma will be amazing. :)

Beat 3 eggs until creamy.

Add sifted self raising flour and baking soda to the egg mixture. Making sure that there are no lumps. Add the corn oil. 

After the gula melaka mix has cooled slightly, add that into the mixture as well and stir till incorporated. The syrup is denser than the rest of the mixture so when you pour out the mixture, don't worry if you see gula melaka left over. Just stir it well into the final batter before steaming.

Steam for half an hour or until cooked. (Use a bamboo skewer. Cake is done when skewer comes out clean :))

It tastes a lot like the steamed Malay Cake. Although it's really rich in the coconut sugar taste, I think I might add a knot of pandan into the sugar to boil next time for added fragrance :)

From our kitchen to yours,

Brenda x

Jamie's 30 minute meals. MADE.

How to whip up a meal that impresses.

All the time.

Every Time.

In 30 minutes.

These were some of Jamie's 30 minute meal recipes that we've tried and tested this long weekend.

Adapted from the recipes on 

www.jamieoliver.com/

Perfect roast potatoes

Tips & tweaks:

Use Yukon Gold potatoes.

They are my gold standard for baked carbs that are worth every single calorie.

Salt generously.

And those cloves of garlic would be so sweet, you wish you put more in the first place.

Mustard chicken with leek

Tips & tweaks:

Even a non mustard lover would eat this all up.

The taste of wholegrain mustard is not the same as mustard from a squeeze bottle on hotdogs.

Just so there was gravy,

some chicken broth was added.

And because bacon ANYTHING tastes like heaven,

some roughly chopped pieces of bacon were thrown in. 

Leek.

More leek definitely.

It was a lot more watery that planned but the unmistakable sweetness from the mustard and savoury tinge from the bacon was unmistakable.

And perhaps the added taste dimensions of some pan fried crisp bacon as toppings in the next attempt.

The best pork chops sans the crackling

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/the-best-pork-chops-with-fresh-bay-salt-crackling-and-squashed-purple-potatoes

Cubed carrots and beetroot.

Sage.

Rosemary.

And a generous drizzle of olive oil.

As always.

Roast them for half an hour at 220 degrees celcius.

Tips & tweaks:

The meats were marinated for about 3 hours.

The honey was omitted.

The apple cider did wonders to lock in the juice in the pork chops.

Side salad of lettuce, chopped sundried tomatoes, pitted olives and cubed feta cheese.

Generously drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Top with roughly torn pieces of turkey breast.

Now that's what I call a HAPPY MEAL :)

and a healthy one at that.

Yum.

One Tonne of Wontons! :)

 Marketing started at 8am this morning. 

Two packets of baby bokchoi.

A handful of chestnuts, prawns and minced pork.

Blanch the baby bok choi in a pot of boiling water with a dash of oil and a sprinkling of salt.

To the minced pork, diced prawns and chestnuts,

Add:

A generous sprinkle of white pepper.

A dash of light soy sauce.

A heaped tablespoon of oyster sauce.

A generous drizzle of sesame oil and shaoxing wine.

Toss them up till well combined.

Rope in the family to join in for the wonton wrapping. :)

Prepare a pot of boiling water to boil up batches of wontons.

Till you get a whole tonne of them.

And while we're at it.

Chop up some onions (since we ran out of shallots)

and fry them over low heat for some shallot oil.

These weren't burnt.

They were actually sweet and pretty yums!

Don't underestimate the fragrance that the shallot (fried onion) oil imparts to the dish.

Add it to the soup or the noodles.

Or both!

Pick up some of those roasted meats from your friendly local roast meat seller at the wet market.

Which comes with a soy based gravy.

Toss the wonton noodles in a tablespoon of the soy sauce gravy.

Top with blanched baby bokchoi, roast meats and a generous serving of wontons! :)

Serve with a bowl of piping hot chicken broth.

That was one tonne of work for some wonton noodles.

Well worth the effort.

Well fed for the night! :)

Matcha Nama Chocolate 抹茶生チョコレート

First fall.

And I've fallen in love.

Now that nama chocolate can be made at home, 

I wouldn't have to do a Royce run in a long while yet.

:)

I got the recipe from this website,

by Namiko Chen.

http://www.justonecookbook.com/recipes/green-tea-chocolate/

And I made just a few slight tweaks on my version.

I halved her recipe to yield enough for a roughly 10 x 20 cm lock & lock- type tupperware.

200g of white chocolate (I used Cadbury Dream)

65ml whipping cream (President Lait Entier)  

12g unsalted butter

1 Tbsp of matcha powder + 1 tsp for sprinkling

Baking sheet lined tupperware

Chop the chocolate up into smaller pieces to allow for faster melting before heating the cream.

Heat the cream and be sure to stir constantly.

Otherwise a film will form on top.

Once it comes to a small boil, remove from heat.

Add in the chopped chocolate and butter and stir till smooth.

It should form a ribbon trail.

Add in the matcha powder and stir till well combined and smooth.

Fill the parchment paper and smoothen out air bubbles if any.

The mixture should be flowy enough to take on the shape of the container.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

The tropical heat here will not allow for this to be kept outside for too long so you have to work fast to cut them up into cubes.

Be patient.

There will be a few times when you have to return the chocolate to the fridge to chill before continuing.

Please also do get a fine sieve or you'll get your matcha powder in ugly blobs like mine.

Excuse the first try.

Might not look like much but...

At least it tasted like nama. 

I had a colleague who asked,

Oh, Royce? :)

That's when I knew this recipe was for keeps!

You never know when you need some chocolate comfort.

Especially on Mondays. :p