Blueberry Muffins

Woke up one morning thought of baking something for breakfast, this recipe includes some lemon zest, which gives some refreshing taste for a warm breakfast...

125g caster sugar

1tbsp grated lemon zest

265g plain flour

1tbsp baking powder

2 lightly beaten eggs

225ml milk

115 unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla essence

225g fresh or thawed frozen blueberries (I use 125g of thawed frozen blueberries)



1)Preheat the oven to 200degC. Place 12 paper baking cases in muffin tin.

2)In medium bowl, stir the sugar, lemon zest, sifted flour and baking powder with a spoon.

3)In a large bowl, beat the eggs, milk, butter and vanilla with a whisk until smooth, about 1 min. Add the dry ingredients and stir until the blueberries are just combined. Spoon the batter into the cases.

4)Bake in oven for 20 min. Remove tin from the oven and cool for 5 min. Serve muffin immediately.

5)Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 3 mths.

Make 1 dozen

Pork Rib Soup with Lotus Seeds and Huai Shan

Bought some dried octopus from the wholesale dried goods shop at bugis sometime ago, its much bigger than the usual ones that selling at the market, the soup taste very sweet with it.

Ingredients:

75g White lotus seeds (莲子)

38g Huai shan (淮山)

1 dried octopus

2 candied dates (蜜枣)

300g pork ribs

4 slices ginger

Salt to taste

Rinse ribs and scaled it in boiling water for 3 min.

Peel dried octopus. Soak it in warm water for 20min. Rinse all remaining ingredients. Soak lotus seeds and huai shan in water for 30min.

Put all ingredients into a pot. Add water(app. 2 litre) and bring to the boil. Reduce to low heat and cook for 2 hours. Season with salt. Serve.

Function of ingredients:

Dried octopus strengthens Qi; regulate blood chemistry; improves skin texture and strengthen the body. White lotus seeds and huai shan strengthens the Spleen and Kidneys, while regulating Qi flow and improve skin texture. Candied dates and ginger neutralize gastric acid; benefit the Spleen and cure Asthenia.

Roast Pork

First attempt on the dish and was easier than expected, recipe was reference from kuali, quite statisfied with the end result but there's still room for improvement...

Stir fry rice cake with Seafood

Bought a pack of korean rice cake from korean supermarket at Burlington square, initially wanted to cook it as a spicy dish but later change my mind, just stir fry it with garlic, fish fillet, shrimps and some vegetables, season it with chicken powder and simmer a few min with a little water and its done. The rice cake texture is a little more on the springy side compare to those dries ones that we usual bought..quite nice.

Herb and Walnut Bread

Try one recipe from the new bought breadmachine recipe book, but I adjust it a little by replacing the fresh herbs with dried ones(I use what's available in my kitchen). As I can't get hold of fresh rosemary that day so I sprinkle some dried rosemary on top of the loaf when the bread was baking half way in the machine. The bread still linger the rosemary fragrant when I reheat the balance bread from freezer after a few days, the fragrant brought out nice appetite...

Ingredients:


185ml/ 3/4 cup milk

105ml/1/2 cup water

3tbsp extra virgin olive oil

450g/ 3 cups bread flour

50g/1/2 cup chopped walnut

1tsp garlic powder

2 tsp dried mix herbs

11/2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

1tsp instant yeast



1. Pour the milk,water and olive oil into the bread machine pan. If the instruction for your machine specify that the yeast is to be placed in the pan first, reverse the order in which you add the liquid and dry ingredients.

2. Set the bread machine to basic/normal setting, medium crust, then press Start.

3. About 1 hour before the cycle end, sprinkle a little salt and dried rosemary on top of the loaf(I like the smell of rosemary on baking bread, I think the fragrant will help increase the appetite)

4. Remove the bread at the end of the cycle and turn out on to a wire rack to cool.

Salad

Thought that a western style roast chicken should go with salad instead of the usual stir fry vegetables, never did a salad for meals before, also tried created a simple salad dressing than to use bottle ones.

1 lettuce

Some cherry tomatoes

1 small Carrot – sliced thinly



Sauce:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp chopped sage

1 tsp chopped mint

Ground black pepper

½ tsp salt

2tbsp sugar

1 tbsp honey

A little stock or water

Juice of half lemon

1 tsp vinegar



Method:

1. Rinse lettuce and break into big piece with hand, place all vegetables in a big bowl. Mix the sauce together. Chilled the vegetable and sauce in fridge separately.

2. Just before dinner, mix sauce and vegetable till will combined, serve.

Roast Chicken

Watched Jamie Oliver did the roast turkey on tv and it looks delicious and easy to do, so I tried putting the herb butter mixture on chicken for christmas day dinner, the chicken tasted quite nice and we finish the whole chicken....

Ingredients:

1 chicken (approx. 1.5kg)


2 tbsp butter (soften)

2 tsp chopped sage leaves

Black Pepper

1 tsp salt



3 stalk of celery-chopped

3 small carrot – cut into big piece

1 onion- cut into chunks

1 tsp Salt and 1 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp olive oil



Method:

1. Rinse chicken, chopped off chicken legs and neck of chicken. Leave aside to let it dry a little. Meanwhile chopped up the vegetables and mix together with salt, black pepper and olive oil.

2. Apply butter herb mixture on chicken and chicken cavity. Place marinated vegetable on foil lined tray, place chicken on top.

3. Place chicken in preheated 180 deg C fan oven, baked for 45min then turn to 200 deg C to bake a further 10-15 min to make the chicken skin more brown.

4. Poke the thick section of chicken (thigh) with a satay stick to check the chicken is cooked. If clearn liquid flow out then is done. Remove chicken from oven, remove chicken on plate, let it cool down a little before serve.