All posts tagged: cooking

Potato Bacon Buns

Published by

Hey guys, it’s Friday again! I hope you all have had an amazing week! I am really looking forward to the weekend. Just want to spend a cosy weekend at home with my husband and probably catch up with some friends too. Life has been a little bit hectic at the moment. I haven’t had much time for cooking. I really miss it! Today, after I came back from the grocery shopping, I realised I didn’t get any bread from the bakery. I really can’t be bothered going out again. So I have a perfect excuse to warm up my oven. 🙂 I want something more than just plain bread.  I want something with filling. I sautĂ©ed some potatoes with bacon and heaps of black pepper in olive oil. My Kenwood chef has to do the work to make the dough. When the dough is ready, I made eight buns with the filling I prepared. Time to let it rise again. Patience, patience and patience! I cut the top before sending them in the oven. They looked …

Tagine Chicken wings and Prawns

Published by

Have I talked to you guys about Tagine yet? It’s my secret weapon to cook a quick meal. It’s a bit like one pot meal. I find myself using my cast iron Tagine whenever I am busy, but still want a home cooked meal. All I need to do is chop all the ingredients and marinate for a while. I normally would like to chop everything when I get home after work and marinate for 30 minutes. During that time, I can go play and feed the pets, or have a glass wine with my hubby. For this recipe, I made a sauce for the chicken wings and prawns. It has oyster sauce, wholegrain mustard and tomato paste. If you don’t like chick wings, you can always use different meat. I just like chicken wings. It goes well with rice. Otherwise, make a green salad. Dinner is ready! 🙂 INGREDIENTS: Chicken wingettes and Prawns: Chicken wingette – 8 Banana prawns – 8 Five spice powder – 1 tsp Minced ginger – 1 tsp Fresh ground black pepper …

Blanched Asparagus

Published by

Baby asparagus is so delicious and tender. when it’s the season for fresh asparagus, I love to cook it just use the basic method – blanching. It’s simple, but it also let the origin food flavour shine.  It’s the easiest way to enjoy the food. Remember to trim the ends of the asparagus. Although spears are tender, the ends usually can be tough. It is hard to chew and unpleasant. You wouldn’t want to spoil your mood of enjoying nice food. I like to drizzle a little bit of olive oil and add a pinch of salt to the water I use to boil the asparagus. It not only helps to seal the nutrition in the vegetables, but also gives a bright green colour after you blanch the asparagus. INGREDIENTS: Baby asparagus – 2 bunches Extra virgin olive oil – 1, 1/2 teaspoons and extra Black bean paste/Soy Sauce – 1 teaspoon Sea salt Black pepper – freshly ground INSTRUCTIONS: Rinse and trim the asparagus end. Prepare a large sauce pan and boil enough water …

Black Rose Tea Infused Tofu

Published by

Tofu is a good source of protein, iron and calcium. It has a lot of health benefits. Although it doesn’t have much taste, tofu absorbs the flavours from other ingredients very well when you cook it. That’s the way to make tofu tasty. One of my favourites is black tea infused Tofu. It can be prepared beforehand and stored in the fridge. You can use it in salad, some stir-fry dishes, grill it, or just eat it directly cold. The taste is quite mild with a light tea flavour. You only need few ingredients to cook this marinated tofu, cinnamon bark, Star anise, bay leaves, and tea of your choice. I used black rose tea this time, which had strong rose aroma. It turned out quite well. Feel free to add some other spices you like. Some dry chilli flakes maybe if you like spicy food. Tofu has high water content. If you have time, it would be great to press some water out of tofu. I didn’t have much time. What I did was that I …

Scallion Pancakes (olive oil version)

Published by

I probably mentioned in my previous posts that my mom came here for a visit last month. Since she only can stay with us for two months, I must make the most of it during her stay. We did some travelling, Fraser Island, Tasmania (I will write about it once I get a chance) and some places in Brisbane. If you follow my Instagram (here), you probably have already seen some photos. Anyway, apart from travelling, finally I have had opportunities to cook some traditional Chinese family dishes with her, like the dumplings, pork buns, minced pork noodles and many other things. The scallion pancake is one of them. I remember I used to eat tons of it when I was a teenage. My best friend and I went to a small eatery near our school to have the pancake as our afternoon snack almost every single day when we were in high school. Because it was so yummy, we always ate too much. By dinner time, we just couldn’t eat anything anymore. My best friend’s …

Guest post: Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Published by

Hey lovelies. Happy Friday! 🙂 Last week, my blogging friend, Karen from Nature Inspired Mom, had a guest post on my blog. She wrote about how to create an easy to maintain mini herb garden. You can find the post here. Karen writes about hiking, gardening and healthy living on her blog, Nature Inspired Mom. I am also excited and honoured to contribute a post on her blog too. It was a meatball recipe. You can find my recipe here, Meatballs in Tomato Sauce. Thank you very much, Karen, for inviting me to write a post on her blog. Enjoy! xoxo  

Sweet Red Bean Steamed Buns (Dou Sha Bao)

Published by

We all have our own way to remember the one we loved, the one we lost, the one we would like to spend more time with but no more chances. I pretty much grew up with my granny. My parents were both working. Granny was the one fed me, walked me to school, taught me things, and cared for me. She passed away many years ago. I never forget her smile, the stories she told me, and the taste of her food. Chinese New Year is just five days away. It’s a festival for family, and I really really miss her. I always loved the red bean buns made by granny. She made them so delicious but light. I ate tons of it when I was a kid. I loved them as my breakfast before school or a snack after school. She always made the red bean paste at home. I started doing the same thing these days. You can buy bean paste in any Asian supermarket I reckon. However, I found the paste I get from the …

Mango Coconut sticky rice

Published by

  Mango has been one of my favourite fruits in summer. Lucky us, the summer is the mango season here in Australia. We like to buy mango in a tray which contains 20-25 mangoes. I will store them in my fridge. Then, it’s time to enjoy the heavenly fruit in different ways. I would make smoothies, ice cream, desserts from mangoes. The results are always good with minimum effort. I love mango rice. I remember I tried it for the first time in a Thai restaurant. The combination of coconut and mango flavours are beyond delicious. The texture of the glutinous rice is so lovely. I started to create a simple version of the mango rice at home.  Since it’s the mango season now. I certainly wouldn’t miss the opprotunity to make some mango rice at home. I hope you will like and enjoy this simple recipe. INGREDIENTS Glutinous rice  – 200g Coconut milk – 200ml Caster sugar – 2 1/2 teaspoons salt – 3/4 teaspoons corn starch – a pinch mango – 1 roasted …

Mushroom pies

Published by

Mushroom is one of my favorite food. I love the earthy flavor.The results are always wonderful. I like to stir fry the oyster mushroom with onions or pork. The Swiss brown is great for just baking in the oven with butter, cheese and soy sauce. Button mushrooms are also great for making a sauce or soup. Sometimes, I like to use more than one type of mushroom in one recipe, like this one. However, you don’t have too. My love to pie is certainly growing. A nice quick way to make a weekday dinner.Whenever we are too busy or tired or lazy to cook a proper dinner during the week, I find myself quite often to make a pie with some fresh salads. INGREDIENTS puff pastry sheets – 4 (depends on the size of your pie plate) mushroom – 200g, sliced bacon – 170g, chopped finely onion – 1, diced Leek – 1/2 – 1, sliced grated Parmesan cheese – 2 tablespoon oyster sauce and black pepper to taste olive oil – 1 tablespoon egg – 1, to make egg …

Pineapple fried rice

Published by

I love rice. If I don’t have rice for a week, I feel something is missing in my life. I also love the smell of a pineapple and its sweet juicy taste. So when these two ingredients get together, the result is always wonderful and delicious. I cook the pineapple fried rice at home from time to time. It’s always different every time depends on what kind of vegetable I have in my kitchen. Now, this is just one version of the pineapple fried rice. You can always improvise when you cook, replace bacon with ham or chicken, use diced tomato, diced red bell pepper, sweet corns, or throw in some chilli flakes if you like a little bit of spicy flavor. Make it the way you like! 🙂 INGREDIENTS eggs – 2, beaten with a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon of water pineapple – 1/4, diced green onions – 2, sliced bacon – 80g, diced Oyster sauce – 1 tablespoon Frozen peas – 1/2 cup cooked rice – 2 cups Olive oil – 1/2 tablespoon …