Stirfried Chicken with Lemon

Lemons have many uses; we can make lemonade from them, bake with them, cook with them and decorate with them. Adding lemon to any dish makes it tangy. The tangy taste can really whet one's appetite and makes one want to eat more during a meal.  I have made Tangy Roast Chicken before. However, this is the first time I have stirfry chicken with lemon. Usually, I will cook chicken curry, braise chicken, stew chicken, bake/airfry/roast chicken and cook chicken soup. Adding lemon to my stirfried chicken dish was to create a new dish for the family. 

 Ingredients:

• 400 g chicken breast
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 1 lemon
• slice 1/2 of the lemon (keep a few pieces for decoration)
• squeeze out 2 tbsp juice of the other half
• 3 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 5 tbsp water
• 1 stalk of green onion (cut the green part into small pieces for garnishing the dish)

Method:

• Cube the chicken breast.

• Marinate chicken breast with light and dark soy sauces, oyster sauce, salt, pepper powder and cornflour for at least half an hour. (I marinated the chicken for 2 hours.)

• Heat up the wok with cooking oil.

• Add the chopped garlic and sauté it till it is fragrant.

• Add the marinated chicken.

• Stir fry the chicken till it is almost cooked, adding water in the process to keep the chicken moist.

• Add the lemon slices and continue to stir fry until the chicken is cooked.

• Add lemon juice and give the chicken a quick stir.

• Dish out the chicken onto a serving plate.

• Decorate the dish with some lemon slices and sprinkle cut green onion on top.

Lemon Carrot Cake

I usually have bread and coffee for my breakfast. However, it can be quite boring eating bread day in and day out. So, I took to baking cakes and muffins for a change. I have been baking lots of carrot cake; usually plain ones or those with added walnuts because they are delicious and easy to bake. I have also baked Pineapple Carrot Cake which turned out to be very yummy. My latest was adding lemon juice and lemon zest to my batter to come up with Lemon Carrot Cake. It was tangy, soft and very moist. It was so delicious that it was loved by every member of my family.

This is an easy recipe. You can vary the ingredients according to your taste to make it lighter, more tangy or more aromatic. 

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 150 g sugar
• 115 g butter
• 80 ml milk
• 240 g all-purpose flour
• 3 g baking powder
• 1 g baking soda
• 80 g to 130 g carrot (130 g for a denser cake.)
• 50 ml to 60 ml lemon juice (60 ml for a more tangy cake.)
• Zest of 1 or 2 lemons (the latter for a more aromatic cake.)

Method:

• Preparation:
• Preheat oven to 175 deg C.
• Grease and line 8 inch x 4 inch x 4 inch pan.
• Melt butter. Set aside.
• Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
• Grate carrot. Set aside.
• Zest and juice the lemons. Set aside.

• Beat eggs and sugar till sugar dissolves.

• Add the melted butter and milk and continue to mix.

• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Use a spatula to mix till all is well combined.

• Add the carrots and lemon zest. Mix.

• Finally, add the lemon juice. Mix till all the ingredients are evenly mixed.

• Pour batter into prepared pan.

• Bake at 175 deg C for 45 minutes or when a skewer comes out clean when inserted at various parts of the cake.

• When baked, remove the cake from the pan and let it cool down on a metal rack. Slice it after it had cooled down.

• Enjoy.

Egg Custard / Kaya (Pandan)

I have lots of pandan plants growing in my garden. With eggs, santan and sugar available in my pantry it was easy for me to whip up the pandan egg custard to spread on my bread. I do not add any preservative egg custard. It is very fragrant and less sweet compared to those store-bought ones.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 160 g sugar
• 250 ml thick santan (either fresh or from the box)
• 3 long pandan leaves (for a lighter kaya) or 5 (for a darker one)

Method:

• To obtain the green colour:
• Cut the pandan leaves into small pieces.
• Take a bit of the santan and blend it with the pandan leaves.
• Sieve to obtain the pandan juice.

• Beat eggs and sugar with a whisk till the sugar is dissolved.

• Add the santan and pandan juice to the egg mixture. Mix.

• Strain the mixture to ensure that there are no impurities.

• Pour the mixture to the top pot of the double boiler.

• Add water to the bottom pot of the double boiler.

• Put on the top pot.

• Turn on the fire (low heat). A high heat will curdle the mixture.

• Stir the mixture till the egg custard is formed. If you find that your custard is not smooth, you may add all the custard to a blender and blitz it till it is smooth.

• Let the egg custard cool down completely before keeping it in a glass bottle. Refrigerate the egg custard. (It can easily last for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.)

Pineapple Carrot Cake

      

I was informed that carrot cake with pineapples is very delicious and I just had to try baking it to savour it. So, I went about experimenting with the ingredients that I have and the result was a delicious Pineapple Carrot Cake. It was moist and not too sweet. (I am always careful with sugar as I did not want my family to eat too sweet cakes.) I will be baking it again once I get hold of a can of pineapples as I did not have enough of it this time; the cake was gone in no time as I had my in-laws with me.

Ingredient:

Dry Ingredients:

• 250 g flour
• 7 g baking powder
• 4 g baking soda
• 3 g salt
• 3 g cinnamon powder

• 100 g chopped walnut (roasted)

Wet Ingredients:

• 130 g castor sugar
• 30 g brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 250 ml melted butter (can use corn oil)
• 225 g carrot
• 200 g pineapples (from the can)

Decoration:

• 12 pieces roasted walnut

Method:

• Whisk sugars and eggs till sugar has dissolved. Use all white sugar if you do not want a dark cake.

• Add melted butter and continue to mix till oil is incorporated.

• Add eggs, one at each time and whisk to incorporate each egg fully.

• Add flour and mix.

• Add carrots and pineapples. Mix well.

• Finally, add the chopped walnuts.

• Pour into 8 inch x 8 inch lined baking pan.

• Bake at a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for 35 minutes or when a skewer inserted comes out clean.

• Immediately remove the cake from the pan and let it cool down completely before slicing it up.

• Enjoy.

 

Walnut Carrot Cake - Mixing Method

I sometimes use the creaming method and at other times the mixing method to bake my cakes. While the creaming method takes a longer time for me to bake a cake, I feel that the resultant crumb is finer. The mixing method is very easy and less time consuming as it just involves mixing all the ingredients and baking the batter. But in my opinion the crumb of the cake is not as smooth as the cake produced by the creaming method. However, I still use the mixing method due to time constraint.

Ingredients:

• 120 g all-purpose flour
• 120 g grated carrot
• 2 eggs
• 75 g light brown sugar
• 115 g melted butter
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
  
• 50 g chopped walnut (can add more) and a few pcs for decoration

Method:

• Sieve flour, baking powder and cinnamon powder.

• Beat eggs and sugar till sugar dissolves.

• Add the melted butter and continue to mix till the butter is incorporated.

• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Use a spatula to mix till all is well combined.

• Add the carrots and mix.

• Finally, add the chopped walnut. Mix till walnuts are evenly mixed.

• Pour batter into a 7 inch pan lined with parchment paper on the base. However, a 6 inch pan would give you a taller loaf. (This is a very small loaf.)

• Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 deg C for 30 minutes or when a skewer comes out clean when inserted at various parts of the cake.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

 

I love having Chocolate Chip Muffins as snacks. I can easily whip up a batch in less than an hour. Besides consuming them myself, I also share them with my daughters who are living away from me. They opined that these muffins are very delicious. I always make sure that I do not add a lot of sugar in them so that we can have a few muffins at one go.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 170 g sugar
• 150 g melted butter
• 170 g milk
• 290 g flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 100 g chocolate chips

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 175 deg C.

• Line your muffin tin with muffin or cupcake liners.

• Beat eggs and sugar.

• Add melted butter to it. Mix them well.

• Add milk to the mixture and mix them.

• Sieve flour, baking powder and salt.

• Add them to the wet ingredients.

• Mix till the flour cannot be seen. However, do not over mix the ingredients.

• Add the chocolate chips to the batter.

• Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin to the brim.

• Add more chocolate chips on top of the batter.

• Bake at 175 deg C for 25-30 minutes.

Braised Beancurd Stick and Napa Cabbage

If you have made your own soya bean milk before, you would have noticed a layer of skin forming on top of the surface when you are boiling it.  This is how fresh beancurd sheets are made. These sheets are rolled or folded into long tubes and dried to form dried beancurd sticks. They are also known as dried bean milk skin rolls, dried tofu skin rolls, Yuba, fu Zhu or tofu bamboo. They need to be rehydrated before you are able to use them. They can be braised, stewed, cooked in soups or stir-fried. Mildly flavoured, they absorb the flavours of whatever ingredients they are cooked in. They are delicious as one of the ingredients of vegetarian dishes.

Here, I have braised the beancurd stick with dried Shiitake mushroom and Napa cabbage.

Ingredients:

• 50 g dried beancurd sticks
• 150 g Napa cabbage
• 3 pcs Shiitake mushrooms
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 500 ml water
• 1 small stalk of green onion, cut into 1 cm length
• 1 pc bird's eye chilli, cut into small pieces

Method:

• Rehydrate the beancurd sticks with hot water. For the beancurd sticks to be very soft, I prefer to rehydrate it overnight. When they have softened cut them into 4-inch length.

• Cut the Napa into 1-inch length.

• Soak the Shiitake mushrooms till they are soft. Slice them thinly.

• Heat the work with cooking oil.

• When the oil is hot, add the mushroom to the wok and fry till they are aromatic. Then add the chopped garlic and fry till it is fragrant.

• Add the beancurd stick and Napa cabbage to the wok. Stir-fry them for a few minutes.

• Add water to the wok.

• Cover the wok and let the ingredients simmer for about half an hour or till the beancurd sticks and Napa cabbage are very soft and the sauce is greatly reduced.

• Season with salt and pepper.

• Dish them up and decorate the dish with green onion and bird's eyes chilli.

• Serve hot with rice.