Parmesan Meatball Skewers

Making meat balls is time consuming but occasionally I will do it for our meals too. So I combined the bread crumb, mince, onion, cheese and dried herbs for my meatballs. Rolled them up, pan frying then baking them till cook through.

Ingredients


450g beef mince
50g bread crumbs
1 small red onion, coarsely grated
150g finely grated parmesan cheese
½ tsp mixed dried herbs
2 x 400g cans diced tomatoes
A handful of roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
A handful of fresh basil leaves
Cooked macaroni pasta, to serve


What to do

(1) Combine bread crumbs, mince, onion, cheese, and dried herbs in a large bowl. Using 1 tablespoon mixture at a time, roll mixture into balls. Place on a tray. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced.

 

(2) Line a baking tray with baking paper. Thread 4 meatballs onto each skewer. Place skewers on prepared tray. Bake for 30 minutes or until browned and cooked through.

 

(3) Meanwhile, place tomato, parsley and basil in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 3 to 4 minutes or until heated through. Serve skewers with pasta and tomato mixture.

Asparagus with Poached Egg

Saw this meal from Taste.com and I was eager to try it out as it seems a health meal for breakfast. Hence, I’ve prepared this over the weekend and it tasted good. Not a “wow” but it was a healthy breakkie!

Ingredients

2 bunches asparagus, woody ends trimmed
2 tsp vinegar
2 fresh eggs
25g finely grated parmesan


What to do

Bring a large frying pan of salted water to the boil over medium-high heat. Add the asparagus and cook for 2-3 minutes or until bright green and tender crisp. Use tongs to transfer the asparagus to a plate. Cover to keep warm.

Add the vinegar to the water in pan. Reduce heat to medium-low. Crack 1 egg into a small bowl. Use a spoon to stir the water to make a whirlpool. Carefully pour the egg into the centre of the whirlpool. Cook for 4 minutes for a soft yolk or until cooked to your liking. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a plate. Cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat with remaining eggs.

 

Divide the asparagus among serving plates. Top with an egg. Season with salt and pepper. Top with parmesan to serve.

Tandoori Chicken

I was thinking to make something different for our dinner last night. So, when I did my grocery shopping the other day, I’ve got myself a jar of Tandoori paste.

Here’s my version of Tandoori Chicken. It tastes delicious and it was pretty easy to prepare!

Happy Cooking. =)

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts
5tbs tandoori paste
5tbs greek yoghurt
2tbs olive oil
Naan bread, to serve


What to do

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2. Combine the tandoori paste and yoghurt. Place the chicken in a plastic container and cover with the marinade, making sure each piece is well coated.

3. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hours, but preferably overnight.

4. Heat half the oil in a non-stick frypan, when oil is hot, add chicken and cook for 2 minutes on one side without turning (this allows a nice crust to form). Turn over and cook for 1 minute on the other side. Transfer to another baking paper-lined baking tray. Grill chicken in the oven for 6-8 minutes or until cooked through.

Choc Banana Toasties

Prepared this for our breakie over the weekend. It was absolutely yum! Must give it a go… =D

 

Ingredients

2 slices of raisin bread
2tsp Nuttella
1 large banana, sliced


What to do

(1) Preheat the sandwich maker. Spread one side of the raisin bread with butter and the other side id each slice with Nutella.

(2) Place 2 slices of bread, butter-side down, in sandwich maker. Top with banana. Top with remaining bread, butter –side up.

(3) Cook for 1-2 minutes or until golden. Cut into half and serve!

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Looking for some cakes that without using butter? Here you go… this chocolate cake was made out of olive oil instead of butter!!! I found this recipe from Taste.com.au and it is suitable for those who are concern about the diet like me. =D

Ingredients

2 eggs
100g sugar
150g self-raising flour
50g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
100g olive oil
60ml low-fat milk
Cocoa powder, to dust


What to do

(1) Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush a square cake pan with oil to grease. Line the base and sides with non-stick baking paper.

(2) Use an electric beater to beat the eggs and sugar in a small bowl until pale and creamy.

(3) Sift in the combined flours and cocoa powder. Fold until the mixture is almost combined. Add the olive oil and milk, and fold until combined.

(4) Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until crumbs cling to a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake.

(5) Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with cocoa powder to serve.

Enjoy!

CNY Baking – Pineapple Tarts

After I finished my Peanut Cookies baking, I continued with Pineapple Tarts. Ok, let me tell you this…making this Pineapple Tarts is really a hard work! It took me a so long to complete the task! No wonder people only bake this once a year or rather buys it from the shop.

 

 Ta da! Here's my first ever Pineapple Tarts!

For Pineapple jam

Ingredients

2 medium-size pineapples, grated and drain the juice
300g sugar
A stick of cinnamon

* Here’s the recipe for the step by step pineaple jam.

What to do

1. Cook grated pineapple in a pot with sugar and cinnamon for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

2. Cook until the pineapple jam starts to leave the sides of the pot. Remove from stove and set aside to cool.

For the pastry

Ingredients

200g butter, room temperature
3 tbsp sugar
1 ½ tsp of salt
1 egg yolk
375g flour
2 tbsp corn flour
2 ½ tbsp custard powder
2 tbsp milk powder

What to do

(1) Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.

(2) Add in the egg yolk and beat well.

(3) Sift salt, flour, custard powder, cornstarch and milk powder. Mix flour mixture into the butter until it forms a smooth dough.

(4) Remove and let the dough rest for half an hour.

(5) Roll out the dough about 0.5cm thick and cut into shape with a pineapple tart mould. Fill the center of tart with some pineapple jam. Repeat until the dough is finish.

(6) Bake the tarts in a pre-heated 180 degree until golden brown. Cool tarts on rack before storing it.

 

Here, I would like to wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year and Gong Xi Fatt Chai!!! May the Year of the Rabbit bring you good health, wealth and happiness! =)

CNY Baking – Peanut Cookies

Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Unfortunately there is no celebration here (living in non Chinese community) and I can’t even feel the CNY atmosphere, especially when hubby is someone who doesn’t give a damn about CNY. =(

Well, I am trying to create some atmosphere for myself here. Teehee

I’ve baked 2 types of CNY goodies to enjoy which are Peanut Cookies and Pineapple Tarts. Both are my favourites!

Love my peanut cookies as it taste exactly how it should be. Hooray for myself! It was quite simple, all you need are:-

Ingredients

250g roasted peanuts
450g self-raising flour
225g icing sugar
200g vegetable oil
tsp salt

Egg Wash
2 egg yolk


What to do

(1) Pre-heat oven to 200 degree. Roast peanuts for 15-20 min in the oven. In a food processor, ground peanuts till fine.

(2) In a mixing bowl, mix flour, ground peanuts, sugar, and salt. Mix well.

(3) Add in oil and knead to make into a dough. Shape the dough round or cut into desired shape.

(4) Brush the top with some egg. Bake it at 180 degree in the oven until golden brown.

(5) Cool completely and keep cookies in an air-tight container.

Egg White Omelette

I found this recipe from the Taste.com.au but I’ve modified a little.

It was so delicious! I never thought that it could be this delicious… must give it a try!

Happy cooking~

Ingredients


Olive oil spray
1 small onion, sliced
50g baby spinach
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
3 egg whites


What to do

1. Lightly spray a non-stick frying pan with olive oil spray. Add onion and spinach, cook over medium heat until spinach is wilted. Remove from pan and season with sea salt and cracked black pepper.

2. Lightly spray pan again with a little oil. In a bowl, whisk egg whites with electric beaters until soft peaks form.

3. Add egg whites to the pan and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes or until nearly set. Sprinkle spinach filling over half the omelette and cook for further 3 minutes or until the base is golden.

4. Carefully fold over omelette to enclose filling. Serve immediately.

Stir Fry Instant Noodles

Back in my hometown, I used to have this meal as breakfast, such as Stir Fry Vermicelli, Prawn Noodle, and Wonton Noodle… all sort of noodles. Hardly had bacon and egg or toast for breakkie.

Since today is a Public Holiday and I had plenty of time to enjoy my breakfast, I prepared this “Stir Fry Instant Noodles” for our breakfast! It was so deliciousssss!!! =D

Ingredients

4 blocks of instant noodles, cooked in boiling water.
3 eggs

3 clove of garlic, chopped finely
300 grams chicken breast, diced
1 frankfurt, sliced

A handful of bean sprout

Seasoning
4 tablespoons of kikoman soya sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste

Garnishing

Baby cos lettuce

What to do

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok, add the eggs and scramble the eggs until cooked. Dish out and set aside.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in the wok and saute garlic until fragrant. Add the chicken cook for 2 minutes and follow by frankfurt, bean sprout and stir fry.

3. Add seasoning. Stir fry for half a minute.

4. Pour in some water and bring to boil. Stir in noodles and mix well.

5. Add scrambled egg and stir fry well.

6. Serve on plate, garnish with lettuce.

By the way, Happy Australia Day!

Parmesan Pita Crisps

The other day we were catching up with some tv series and I had a sudden crave for some snack. Unfortunately I didn’t store junk food in my pantry.

Well, I do have some pita bread with me though. Hence I made this...

… it was a great snack! Satiated my crave!!! =D

Ingredients
Pita bread
2 tbs parmesan, to serve


What to do

Preheat oven to 180°C. Cut pita bread into 8 wedges. Place on a baking tray. Sprinkle with parmesan. Bake for 8 minutes or until golden.

Raspberry Jam Muffins

It’s been a while I didn't bake any muffins. Hence, I’ve decided to make these jam muffins.

As for the jam, I used the raspberry jam that I bought when I visited Sunny Ridge. Enjoy~

Ingredients

300g self-raising flour

100g caster sugar

80ml vegetable oil

1 large egg

175ml milk

3 tsp good-quality raspberry jam

What to do

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and grease a 6-hole muffin pan.

2. Sift the flour into a medium bowl, then add a pinch of salt and the caster sugar. In a jug, combine the vegetable oil, egg, and milk. Add to the dry mixture and stir to only just combine.

3. Place a spoonful of the mixture in each muffin hole and make an indent in the centre. Fill each indent with a generous 1/2 teaspoon of raspberry jam. Cover the jam with the remaining muffin mixture and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly. Serve.

Coconut Butter Cake

This is a very easy cake to make. I am not really a big fan of coconut but I do like the texture of the desiccated coconut. Love this cake to bits as it was so fluffy and not too oily also the lovely texture of the desiccated coconut. Enjoy~

Ingredients

300g plain flour
½tbsp baking powder
½tsp salt
250g butter, softened
200g sugar
3 eggs
200ml milk

What to do

(1) Put all ingredients into a big bowl and use an electric hand mixer to blend all the ingredients until smooth.

(2) Grease the cake tin and transfer the batter into the cake tin and bake at 180 degree for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Butter Waffles

A plate of warm homemade waffles served with few slices of white peaches and drizzled with maple syrup. Hmm… what a perfect breakfast!

 

Ingredients

340g plain flour

2½tsp baking powder

¼tsp salt

3 eggs, separated

350ml buttermilk

3tbsp honey

125g butter, melted

What to do

(1) Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.

(2) Beat egg yolks until thick, add buttermilk, honey and melted butter.

(3) Gradually add to dry ingredients, beat until smooth.

(4) Beat egg whites until stiff, fold into the batter.

(5) Scoop the batter into the preheated waffle maker, and cook until golden brown and crisp. Serve with your favourite toppings.

"Ho Ho Ho... Merry Christmas"

Wishing Everyone a Happy and Healthy Christmas!!!

Roast Chicken with Herbs

Sick of having rice dinner?

Well, here’s a simple and yummy meal to prepare. We had this herbs flavored roast chicken over the weekend, served with broccoli, tomato and CHIPS! My all time favorite… here, I’m done with our dinner. =D

Ingredients
2 Chicken thighs

Marinated
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and grated
pinch of salt
dash of black pepper
1tbsp of honey
dash of mixed herbs


What to do

1. Mix all the ingredients and seasoning for the chicken. Rub it over the chicken thighs, and marinate it for overnight.

2. Arrange the chicken thigh on roast pan. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of olive oil over it. Roast it at 200 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes or until the chicken is brown.

3. Serve the chicken with some chips, broccoli and tomatoes.

Lemon Tarts

Being invited to friend’s house for a pot luck gathering, I decided to bake these gorgeous tarts taken from my new recipe book. With the purchase of 2 boxes of Flora Pro-activ butter, I got a free healthy recipe book. What a bargain! =)

Ingredients

250g self-raising flour, sifted
125g caster sugar
50g Flora pro-activ Original
1 egg

Filling
125g caster sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
60mil lemon juice
50g Flora pro-activ original, extra
1 egg, lightly beaten

2tbsp flaked almonds, to serve


What to do

(1) Preheat oven to 180 degree and brush tart moulds with Flora pro-activ.
(2) To create pastry, place flour, sugar, flora pro-activ and egg in a bowl and mix until well combined. Shape into a log, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
(3) To create filling, place sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and extra Flora pro-activ in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and gently stir in the egg. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, until the mixture has thickened.
(4) To assemble slice: Using lightly floured fingertips, press the pastry into the tin. Pour in the hot filling. Sprinkle with almonds. Bake tart for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or cold.

Coconut Jam Slice

A simple yet tasty snack that is just perfect for an afternoon tea. A light butter taste on the base, layered with sweet jam and topped with crispy desiccated coconut… hmm, it’s yum! A great snack indeed. You must try this out!

Happy Baking!

Ingredients

250g plain flour

125g self raising flour

150g butter

125g icing sugar

1 egg yolk

125g strawberry jam

3 eggs

550g desiccated coconut

What to do

 

(1) Preheat oven to 180C. Line square tin with paper.

(2) Process flours, butter and icing sugar till it becomes fine and crumbly. Add egg yolk and process till it comes together. Press dough in tin and refrigerate for 10 mins.

(3) Bake dough for 15 mins till golden brown. Allow to cool and then spread jam evenly over pastry.

(4) Beat caster sugar and eggs together till creamy. Add coconut. Spread mixture onto slice. Gently pressing down with back of spoon. Bake for another 25 mins till it becomes slightly golden. Leave to cool and the lift the slice out. Slice into pieces.

 

Assam Fish Curry

I have a pack of Assam Fish paste sitting in my pantry for quite sometime and I’ve decided to finish it up. This paste doesn’t contain coconut milk but with the taste of assam (tamarind) which is very appetizing.

Ingredients

2 thick slices of fish fillet, sprinkled with salt and set aside
6-8 lady's finger
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 tomato, diced
1 pack assam curry paste
250ml water


What to do


1. Heat up the wok with enough oil. Stir fry the onion and curry paste for few minutes until fragrant.
2. Add water and bring to a boil. Add lady's finger, tomato and fish to simmering for about 5 minutes. Add salt and sugar to taste.
3. When everything is cooked, turn off the flame. Dish out and serve hot with rice.

Viennese Finger

I always wanted to have a try on this recipe but I’ve forgotten to get myself the piping bag when I did my grocery shopping. Eventually, I remembered to get one pack of piping bag last weekend.

I was so excited! It was fun to pipe the mixture out to create the shape that I wanted!

I was enjoying piping it, though my piping skill needs to be improved still, I guess. They seem like not even at all. Haha!

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter, soften
40g icing sugar
2 eggs yolk
125g plain flour
100g dark chocolate, chopped
30g unsalted butter


What to do

(1) Preheat the oven to 180 degree. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

(2) Using electric beaters, cream the butter and icing sugar in a small mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually add the egg yolks and beat thoroughly.

(3) Transfer the mixture to large mixing bowl, and then sift in the flour. Using the flat-bladed knife, mix until just combined and the mixture is smooth.

(4) Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a fluted 1com piping nozzle and pipe the mixture into wavy lengths on the prepared trays.

(5) Bake the biscuits for 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool slightly on the trays, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

(6) Place the chocolate and butter in a small heatproof bowl. Half-fill a saucepan with water and bring to boil, then remove from the heat. Sit the bowl over the oan, making sure the base of the bowl does not sit in the water.

(7) Stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter have melted and the mixture is smooth. Dip half of each biscuit into the melted chocolate mixture and leave to set on baking paper.