Japanese Curry

Ingredients:

• 500g Chicken - chopped
• 1 Onion - diced
• 1 Potato - cut into cubes
• 1 Carrot - cut into cubes
• Button mushrooms
• 2 cubes of S&B Golden curry
• 1 -2 tbs Apple sauce/ apple puree

Directions:

• Stir fry onions until soft.
• Add in chicken, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and enough water to cover chicken. Bring to boil.
• Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is tender.
• Mix in curry pieces. Simmer for another 5 mins.
• Stir in apple sauce and serve.

Comments:

• The apple sauce adds a nice hint of sweetness.
• I added dark chocolate once and Jeff didn't like it. He thinks it's weird. I thought it added a nice twist to it.

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Linguine alla Bolognese

Ingredients: Serves 2

• 150g Linguine
• 1 tbs Olive oil
• 1 large Onion - diced
• 1 Carrot - diced
• 1 stalk Celery - diced
• ½ bulb Garlic – crushed
• ~200g Minced pork/ beef
• 1 can Canned tomatoes
• 1 tbs Concentrate tomato puree
• 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbs Dry mixed herbs
• 3-4 Dry bay leaves (optional)
  
• ~1-2 tbs Sugar
• Salt
• Black pepper

Directions:

• Sauté onion, celery and carrot with olive oil until tender.
• Add in garlic and fry until fragrant.
• Add in minced meat and fry until half cooked.
• Pour in canned tomatoes and bring to boil.
• Mix in tomato puree, worcestershire sauce, mixed herbs and sugar. Reduce heat to simmer for about 20 mins.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Cook linguine in a large pot of boiling water according to the pasta packaging instructions. Drain.
• Serve meat sauce over linguine.
  

Comments:

• I prefer linguine to spaghetti. It's flat and wider than spaghetti. The surface is larger and holds on to the sauce better.
• The bay leaves add a nice aroma. Remove them before serving as they remain stiff even after a long period of cooking.

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The Chewy Cookie

I heart Ben's cookies!!! The White Chocolate Chunk and Triple Chocolate Chunk are to die for...I have to say I crave for them every minute (oh well, a bit exaggerating...), every hour ever since I had my first bite of it. The cookie is as big as my palm and the texture is just what I love about it - cakey and chewy on the inside, crispy on the outside. Not to forget the huge chunks of chocolate in the middle of each cookie. I prefer to microwave it before eating when the chocolate in the middle is half melted - ummm....absolutely divine! Well of course, there's a price to pay - at least £1 for 1 cookie (depending on the weight).

I have tried various so called 'Ben's Chocolate Chip cookies' and other chocolate chip cookies recipes that I found online but no surprise, they all failed to meet my expectations. Had a go with Alton's chewy cookie recipe and the texture really does feel like Ben's! Really yummy when it's fresh out of the oven and still hot!

Pictures taken from Ben's cookies website.

Ingredients: 18 cookies
Recipe adapted from Three Chips for Sister Marsha, Alton Brown.
Dry: sifted together

• 2 1/4 cups bread flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda

Wet:

• 230g unsalted butter - melted over low heat
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbs milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Others:

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup toasted nuts - chopped

Directions:

• Pour melted butter into the mixer's work bowl.
• Add both caster and brown sugar, cream on medium speed.
• Slowly add in eggs, milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
• Slowly mix in dry ingredients (1/3 at a time to avoid spillage).
• Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
• Chill the dough for at least an hour.
• Scoop onto baking sheets ( 6 cookies per sheet).
• Bake at 190 °C for about 14 mins or until edges are golden brown. Rotate the baking sheet half way through for even browning.
• Cool completely before STORING (not eating!).

Comments:

• Use an ice-cream scoop to scoop out dough. This way you get even distribution of dough and so the cookies will cook more evenly. Leave the dough in a ball shape for baking, the dough will spread.
  
• My favourite is the traditional ice-cream scoop. The spring action handle pops out scoops easily. Can be used for anything from ice-cream, mash to scooping out cookie dough!
• The original recipe calls for 2 cups of chocolate chips but Jeff likes nuts in his cookies, so I substituted 1 cup of chips for hazelnuts.
• I used 1/2 tsp salt instead of 1 tsp. Salt brings out the sweetness but I don't like it when I can actually taste the salt in my desserts.
  
• Take it out of the oven when it's golden brown on the sides, if the whole cookie is brown, it's overcooked.
  
• Remove cookies from baking tray to cool. The cookies will continue to cook if leave to cool on baking tray.
• Recommend heating up the cookies before eating!
  

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Bah Kut Teh (肉骨茶)

I have tried many different instant bah kut teh mix over the past few years and have yet to find one that suits our taste. They all smell really good but the taste just isn't there. My uncle suggested adding extra herbs such as dong-guai, chun-gong, guai-pei and gon-chou. Tried this new recipe and Jeff hasn't complained ever since.

Ingredients:

• 600g Pork (ribs/ belly)
• Chinese mushrooms

A:

• 1 pack instant bah kut teh mix (any)
• ~3-5 slices dang-gui/ dong-guai (当归)
• A pinch chuan-xiong/ chun-gong (川芎)
• ~3-5 slices gui-pi/ guai-pei (桂皮)
• ~10 pieces gan-cao/ gon-chou (甘草)
• 1 handful of gou-qi/ gei-chi(枸杞)(optional)
• 1 whole garlic
• 1 tsp white peppercorn

B:

• Thick dark soya sauce (optional)
• Light soya sauce

For the rice:

• 1 cup Rice
• 1 1/2 tbs Fried shallots
• 1 1/2 tbs Fried garlic
• a pinch of salt

Directions:

• Blanch pork ribs and rinse with cold water.
• Put pork ribs in pot with A and about 1.5 L water. Bring to boil.
• Reduce heat to medium and simmer for about 2 hours.
• Add B to taste.

Comments:

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All Recipes

Categories:

Poultry
Pork
Beef & Lamb
Seafood
Vegetables & Others
Grains
Noodles & Pasta
Breads & Savouries
Sauces
Desserts

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