Broccoli Soup

Do you know that broccoli is an edible green plant in the cabbage family? Well, it is and its large flowering head and stalk is eaten as a vegetable. The word broccoli comes from the Italian plural of broccolo, which means "the flowering crest of a cabbage". Broccoli is, according to many health reports, a nutritional source of vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants. It can keep you healthy by improving your blood sugar control, boosting your immunity, reducing inflammation and promoting heart health.

Broccoli can be enjoyed either raw or cooked. For the former, it can be used as one of the ingredients in salads. For the latter, it can be steamed (quick steaming is the best way to retain its nutrients), stir-fried, roasted or made into soups. Broccoli soups are easy to make with the ingredients easily available in our fridges or larder.

Ingredients:

• 1 head of broccoli
• 1 yellow onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 big potato
• 3 tbsp cream (or more)
• cooking oil
• salt
• pepper
• water
• butter (optional)

Method:

• Cut the broccoli head from the stem. Cut the head into florets. Peel off the hard exterior of the stem and slice it.

• Remove the skin of the yellow onion and slice it thinly.

• Chop up the garlic.

• Skin the potato and cut into smaller pieces.

• Heat up 2 spoonfuls of cooking oil in a pot.

• Saute the onion till it is fragrant.

• Add the chopped garlic and continue to saute till garlic is fragrant.

• Add the sliced broccoli stem and potato.

• Add water into the pot till it covers the ingredients. Let the water boil till the onion, broccoli stem and potato are soft.

• Add the florets and boil till they soften.

• Turn off the fire and let the pot of ingredients cool down.

• Once they have cooled down, blend them either with a hand-held blender or a blender. If using a blender, blend the ingredients in about 3-4 batches.

• Return the soup to the pot.

• Heat up the soup and add cream.

• (Optional) Add a dollop of butter.

• Add salt and pepper according to taste.

• Serve hot with baguette or garlic bread.

Orange Butter Cake

We love this cake. It is delicious due to the buttery as well as tangy taste. The cake is soft and moist and keep for 3 days out of the refrigerator. It is simple to make; butter being the main ingredient. Other ingredients include sugar, orange zest and juice, eggs, flour and baking powder. It can be baked in pans of any shape. If baked for an occasion, it can be frosted with orange buttercream, cream cheese, whipped cream, chocolate orange buttercream, etc or just glazed with orange icing.


Ingredients

• 250 g salted butter
• 130 g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 100 ml fresh orange juice
• Zest of 3 oranges
• 250 g self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

• Line and grease an 8-inch pan.

• Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees C.

• Zest the 3 oranges.

• Squeeze the oranges to obtain 100 ml of juice.

• Sift the flour and baking powder.

• Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy in the bowl of a stand mixer.

• Add the zest into the mixing bowl.

• Break in the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition.

• Fold in the sifted dry ingredients, one-third at a time.

• Stir in the orange juice.

• Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.

• Bake in the oven for 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

• Leave the cake in the oven for about 5 minutes with the oven door slightly ajar.

• Remove the pan from the oven.

• Remove the cake from the pan and let it cool down on a metal rack.

• Cut the cake when it has completely cooled down.

Homemade Tofu

Before Steaming:                                                                 After Steaming:

We love tofu as they are soft and silky. Normally we would steam it, flavour it with some light soy sauce and sprinkle some fried shallots on it. At other times, we would steam it with marinated minced meat on top. We have also deep fried tofu and ate it with chili and tomato sauce. Most of the time, we add tofu into stir-fried mixed vegetable dishes or into soups. We have also braised fish with deep-fried tofu.

Another way of using tofu is to make it into a savoury snack for afternoon tea, to be eaten with chili or tomato sauce. It is easy to make with ingredients easily available in our refrigerator or larder.

Ingredients:

• 2 polka dotted ikan tenggiri about 1 1/2 ft long
• 2 pieces of soft tofu measuring 3 inches by 3 inches
• 2 eggs, Grade A
• 1 small carrot about 5 inches long
• 3 stalks of spring onions
• 3 pieces of dried Shiitake mushrooms, soaked (Optional)
• 3 tbsp corn flour
• Salt and pepper to taste

• Batter:
• 5 tbsp rice flour
• 2 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Water to mix the ingredients into a desired consistency (not too thick nor too runny) for coating the tofu for frying.

Method:

• Fillet the fish.
• Scrap the flesh from the skin.
• Lightly chop up the fish meat to form a paste. Set aside.
• Mash up the tofu and put it into a mixing bowl.
• Add the fish paste into the bowl and mix up it up with the tofu.
• Break the eggs into the bowl and mix them up with the tofu and fish paste.
• Chop up the carrot and put it into the mixing bowl.
• Chop up the spring onions and put them into the mixing bowl.
• Chop up the Shiitake mushrooms and put them into the mixing bowl.
• Add the corn flour into the mixing bowl.
• Mix up all the ingredients until they are well-combined. (May add more corn flour if the tofu-fish batter is too soft.)
• Grease and line a 7 inch x 7 inch pan.
• Prepare a steamer with water. Boil the water.
• Pour the ingredients into the pan.
• Put the pan into the steamer when the water has boiled and steam the batter for about 20 minutes until it is cooked.
• Once cooked, remove the pan from the steamer.
• Let the tofu cool down completely.
• Cover the pan with cling wrap and place the pan in the refrigerator overnight.
• Remove the pan from the refrigerator.
• Remove the tofu from the pan and remove the parchment paper from the tofu.
• Cut the tofu into desired shapes and sizes.
• Prepare the batter.
• Heat up a non-stick pan with some oil.
• Coat the tofu with batter and fry them till golden brown.
• Serve them with chili or tomato sauce.

Breaded Brinjal

Brinjal is found abundantly in our morning markets, night markets and farmers' markets. We can make many excellent dishes out of it. For example, it is one of the main ingredients in vegetable curry. We can also add brinjal to other types of curry like the fish curry and the dhal curry. Brinjal tastes good too when stir-fried with minced meat. We love deep-fried brinjal, drizzled with sauteed garlic and light soy sauce. Steamed brinjal, drizzled with sauteed garlic and light soy sauce is yummy too. Another way of cooking brinjal is to stuff it with minced fish meat or minced fish-pork meat to be made into one of the ingredients for yong tau foo.

I tried creating something new with the brinjal for my family. I cut and stuffed two slices of brinjal with minced fish meat, rolled it in flour, egg and breadcrumbs and deep-fried it. It turned out to be very tasty and I will definitely make it again.

Ingredients:

• 1 pc 1-ft long brinjal, preferably a fat one
• 150 g fish meat (I use Tenggiri.)
• 2 stalks green onion
• 2 pc chili padi
• All-purpose flour, enough to coat all the stuffed brinjal
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 pc white bread, toasted and ground into breadcrumbs
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Cooking oil, for deep-frying

Method:

• Wash and slice the brinjal into 0.5 cm thickness. Soak the slices in water.

• Fillet the Tenggiri and scrap the meat from the skin.

• Grind or mince the fish meat.

• Add salt and pepper to the fish paste according to your taste.

• Cut the green onion into tiny pieces and add to the fish paste.

• Chop up the chili padi and add to the fish paste.

• Stir the fish paste so that all the green onion, chili padi, salt and pepper are mixed with the paste evenly.

• Take 2 slices of brinjal of equal size and stuff them with the fish paste. Repeat this step until all the brinjal and fish paste are used up.

• Heat up the kuali or frying pan with oil.

• Take a piece of stuffed brinjal, roll it in the flour and coat it with the beaten egg. Then, coat it with breadcrumb. Repeat this until all the stuffed brinjal has been coated with flour, egg and breadcrumb.

• Drop the brinjal slowly into the kuali or frying pan when the oil is hot.

• Let the brinjal turn golden brown on one side before turning it.

• Once the other side has also turned golden brown, scoop up the brinjal onto a wire mesh for the oil to run off.

• Note: Do not stir the brinjal or the breadcrumb will drop off.

• The breaded brinjal can be eaten on its own or with chili sauce.

Pastel Blue and Pastel Green Swiss Roll

Swiss roll is a type sponge cake which is rolled up and filled with either whipped cream, cream cheese, jam, peanut butter, icing or any other fillings that you like. While most Swiss rolls are sweet there are savoury ones too. An example of a savoury one is that filled with meat floss. There are many types of Swiss Rolls that we can make - Chocolate Swiss Roll, Strawberry Swiss Roll, Vanilla Swiss Roll, Pandan Swiss Roll, etc. The list is endless.

Swiss rolls are light and fluffy and are perfect as snacks. The main ingredients used to make them are superfine flour, eggs, oil, sugar and any flavour of your liking. We can have plain Swiss rolls or two-tone (for example, my Pastel Blue and Pastel Green Swiss roll) or even rainbow-like ones. We can also draw patterns to make our Swiss rolls interesting and appealing to our eyes.


Ingredients for the Meringue:

• 3 egg whites, Grade A
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 60 g castor sugar (can be reduced or added on depending on taste)

Ingredients for the Batter:

• 3 egg yolks, Grade A
• 20 g castor sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 45 g corn oil
• 20 ml pandan juice
• 20 ml blue pea flower juice
• 65 g superfine or cake flour
• 1/2 tbsp milk powder

Ingredients for the Filling:

• 150 g cream cheese
• 30 g butter
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

• Line a rectangular pan (10 inch x 14 inch) with a good quality parchment paper. (This is to ensure that the cake will not stick to the parchment paper.)

• Put a tray of hot water (about 2 cm) into the oven.

• Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees Centigrade. (Adjust according to your oven.)

• The Meringue:

• In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites with a hand mixer over low speed. (Please ensure that your bowl and beaters are dry and have no traces of oil otherwise the egg white will not rise.

• Once large bubbles are formed, add the cream of tartar.

• Whisk till small bubbles are formed.

• Add sugar gradually in 3 batches.

• Whisk the egg white till stiff peak.

• Once stiff peak is achieved, set the meringue aside.

• The Batter:

• In another mixing bowl, add in the egg yolks, sugar and salt. Whisk until they are creamy.

• Add the oil and continue to mix until they are well combined.

• Sieve the cake flour and milk powder into the egg yolk mixture. Mix until well combined and the batter is smooth.

• Divide the batter equally into 2 bowls.

• Add the pandan juice into 1 of the bowls. Mix until well combined. (Note: Blend 10 pandan leaves with 20 ml of water to obtain 20 ml of pandan juice.)

• Add blue pea juice into the other bowl. Mix until well combined. (Note: Steep 20 blue pea flowers in 20 ml of hot water to obtain 20 ml blue pea juice.)

• Take 1/2 of the meringue and add to the pandan batter. Use the whisk to mix the meringue with the batter gently, taking care not to deflate the meringue. Finally, use a spatula to ensure the batter is well mixed.

• Take the remaining 1/2 of the meringue and add to the blue pea batter. Use the whisk to mix the meringue with the batter gently, taking care not to deflate the meringue. Finally, use a spatula to ensure the batter is well mixed.

• Take two piping bags and fill each with the pandan batter and the blue pea batter.

• Cut the tips of the piping bags.

• Pipe the pandan batter onto the tray, starting from one corner, followed by a row of blue pea batter. Continue with a row of pandan batter and alternate with blue pea batter. Repeat until both batters are used up.

• Drop the pan onto the counter-top from about 1 foot high to break out any large bubbles. Repeat this 2 to 3 times.

• Bake in the oven at 170 deg C for 20 minutes until the cake surface is golden brown. Do not over bake or the cake will crack when you roll it later.

• Once the cake has baked, remove the pan from the oven.

• Drop the pan from 1 foot high onto the counter-top to prevent shrinkage of the cake.

• Remove the cake from the pan onto a wire rack.

• Put another sheet of parchment paper on the cake and invert it to remove the parchment paper below.

• Invert the cake back on a parchment paper.

• Let the cake cool down completely on the wire rack.

• While waiting for the cake to cool down, whip the cream cheese, butter and icing sugar till they are well combined. (Test for sweetness. Add more sugar if the filling is not sweet enough for you.)

• Cut 3 shallow slits (about 1 foot apart) across the cake at the end from which you will start rolling the cake. (This is to aid in the rolling of the cake i.e. to ensure that it does not crack when you start rolling it.)

• Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly on the cake.

• Roll the cake and wrap it in the parchment paper. Put the roll into a plastic bag or cling wrap it to prevent dryness.

• Keep the roll in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

• After 3 hours, remove cake from the refrigerator.

• Remove the plastic bag or cling wrap and parchment paper and slice the roll for serving.

Tiramisu Crepe Cake

Crepe Cake is made up of many layers of crepe all stacked up with various types of fillings in between them. The crepes are made up of flour, eggs, milk, melted butter, vanilla essence and water. If it is a Tiramisu Crepe Cake, then instant coffee has to be added to the batter. If it is Pandan Crepe Cake, then add pandan juice, Macha Crepe Cake, then add macha powder and so on. As for the fillings, it can be any according to one's heart's desire - plain fresh cream or fresh cream with strawberry, blueberry, etc., cream cheese, chocolate ganache, etc. 


Ingredients:

For the Batter:

• 200 g all purpose flour
• 50 g sugar (can be more, according to taste)
• 5 eggs
• 500 ml milk
• 75 ml melted butter
• 1 tbsp instant coffee powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 125 ml water
• A little bit of cooking oil

For the Filling:

• 200 g cream cheese
• 200 g whipping cream
• 65 g + 65 g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

The Batter

• Prepare the batter by putting all the ingredients into a bowl.

• Use a whisk to mix all the ingredients until they form a smooth batter.

• Sieve the batter to remove any lumps in the batter.

• Heat up a 24-cm non-stick pan. You may use other sizes. A smaller size pan will yield you more crepes and thus a taller crepe cake. A bigger size one will yield you less crepes and thus a shorter cake.

• Use a piece of tissue and wipe the surface of the non-stick pan with some cooking oil.

• Using a ladle (or a measuring cup), scoop 1 ladle full of batter into the pan.

• Swirl the pan so that the batter is evenly distributed on the pan.

• Cover the pan and let the batter cook.

• Flip the crepe to let the other side cook.

• Once cooked, remove the crepe and place it onto a metal rack to cool down.

• Repeat the process until all the batter is finished.

• Stack up the cooled crepes and cover them with a kitchen towel. Set them aside.

The Filling:

• Put a metal bowl which will be used to whip the cream into the freezer.

• Take out the cream cheese from the fridge to bring it down to room temperature.

• Pour the whipping cream into the cold metal bowl.

• Put this bowl into a bigger bowl which is filled with some ice and water.

• Add 65 g of icing sugar into the whipping cream. Beat until it reached stiff peak. Set it aside in the fridge.

• Put the cream cheese (at room temperature) into another bowl.

• Add the other 65 g of icing sugar into the cream cheese.

• Beat the cream cheese and sugar till they are well mixed.

• Add the whipped cream into the cream cheese. Beat until they are well combined.

Layering the crepes

• Take a piece of crepe and put it onto a plate.

• Scoop the cream cheese - whipped cream mixture onto it. Using a scrapper, level the filling on the crepe.

• Put another piece of crepe on top and repeat the process until all the crepes are finished.

• Decorate the cake by sprinkling icing sugar or cocoa powder on top.

• Cut and serve.

• Keep any balance of the cake in the fridge.

Wholewheat Bread with Psyllium Husk

I am concerned about my family eating healthy. So I continue to experiment my baking of bread so that my result is always healthy bread which is soft and fluffy. Today I tested with adding more pysllium husk. The loaf turned out to be very soft and fluffy.

According to Medical News Today, psyllium is a soluble fiber derived from the seeds of Plantago ovata, an herb mainly grown in India. Being a soluble fiber, psyllium is able to pass through your digestive system without being completely broken down or absorbed. Instead, it absorbs water and becomes a viscous compound that benefits constipation, diarrhoea, blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol and weight loss. It is usually found in the form of husk, granules, capsules or powder.


Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup bread flour
• 1/4 cup wholemeal flour
• 1/4 cup psyllium husk
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp yeast
• 1 cup warm milk
• 1 egg
• 30 g butter

Method:

• Add whole wheat flour, bread flour, special wholemeal flour and psyllium husk into the bowl of a stand mixer.

• Add sugar to the bowl.

• Add salt to one side of the bowl and yeast on the opposite side. (Salt will slow down the fermentation activities of the yeast.)

• Using a low speed, mix up all the ingredients in the mixing bowl.

• Slowly add in the warm milk and the egg. Mix and knead until a smooth dough is formed.

• Add butter and knead further to incorporate the butter into the dough.

• Knead till you achieve window pane state.

• Grease a clean bowl.

• Transfer the dough into the greased bowl.

• Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and let the dough rise for about 1 hour or till it doubles in size.

• Remove the dough onto a slightly floured surface.

• Punch down the dough and knead by hand for about 5 minutes .

• Roll out the dough into a rectangular shaped dough, one of the sides to fit the length of the pan, measuring 8 inches x 4 inches x 4 inches. Then roll up the dough and place it into the greased pan.

• Let the dough rise for a second time till double in size. (Remember to cover the dough to prevent them from drying out.)

• Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees Centigrade.

• Bake the dough for 20 minutes. (If your loaf browns too fast, tent it with a piece of aluminium foil.)

• Once the loaf is baked, remove it from the oven.

• Remove the loaf from the pan and let it cool down completely on a wire rack before slicing it.