2 ingredients chocolate cake

3 eggs
165g bars of chocolate ( I used a mixture of milk and dark)


1. Preheat the oven to 170 Celsius.

2. Line and grease a round cake tin (6-7 inches) with baking paper.

3. Separate the egg yolks from the whites and place the whites in a large bowl. Keep the whites in the fridge till ready to use.

4. Break the chocolate into a bowl and melt it over a pot of simmering hot water (make sure the bowl does not touch the water).

5. When the chocolate has cooled, add the yolks and mix with a whisk.

6. Remove the whites from the fridge and whisk by hand or electric mixer till the whites won't fall on your hair when you inverse the bowl over your head.

7. Add 1/3 of the whites into the chocolate batter and whisk. Then whisk in the rest of it 1/2 at a time. Mix well with a spatula.

8.  Pour the batter into the cake tin and drop the pan lightly on the counter to get rid of the bubbles.

9. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

10. Remove from the oven and cool it in the cake tin until you can touch it. Then transfer it on a wire rack to cool completely.

* This recipe was taken from ochikeron on YouTube. Watch her video here. This is quite a small cake so I suppose you could double the recipe if you have a bigger cake tin. This recipe truly works! The cake is super duper moist.

Corn chowder

Serves 6

3 ears fresh corn on the cob (mine were about 6 inches long but if yours are longer, then use 2)
2 chicken breasts (with bone attached)
6 cups water
2 medium sized red onions
4 - 5 cloves garlic
3 stalks celery
3 - 4 potatoes
10 slices bacon
2 knobs butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups cold milk
Salt and pepper

To garnish:
Spring onions or chives, chopped
Tabasco

1. Peel and remove the husks of the corn. With a knife, remove the kernels and set aside. Reserve the cobs.

2. Remove the breasts from the chicken and reserve the bone.

3. Pour 6 cups of water into a pot. Add the three empty cobs and chicken bone and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium/low, cover and continue to simmer for 20-30 minutes until you can smell and taste the sweetness from the corn.

4. While it's boiling, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Set aside.

5. Chop up the onions, garlic, celery and bacon.

6. Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes. Soak them in water to prevent them from turning brown.

7. When the stock is done, turn off the heat and add the chicken breasts. Leave to poach for 15 minutes.

8. Remove the poached chicken and cut into cubes, same size as the potatoes. Don't drain the stock.

9. In another pot, throw in the bacon and fry till they're slightly cooked. Remove 3/4 of the bacon and set aside. Continue to fry the rest of the bacon bits till they're crispy. Remove with slotted spoon, and drain on a paper towel. Reserve for garnishing.

10. Add 2 knobs of butter into the pot with the bacon fat, and saute the onions, garlic and celery. When they're soft, add in the corn kernels and toast them till they turn a deep yellow.

11. Add 3 tablespoons of flour and cook out the flour for a minute or two. Splash some cold milk in and stir till it thickens and there are no lumps. Then add in the rest of the milk.

12. Strain the stock into the pot. Stir and then add the potatoes and the non-crispy bacon.

13. Bring to a boil and then turn down to medium/low heat and boil till the potatoes are soft and soup is slightly thick, about 15 - 20 minutes.

14. Add the chicken cubes to be warmed through. Season with salt and pepper.

15. Serve in bowls and garnish with the crispy bacon, chives/spring onions, and few drops of Tabasco.

* Any kind of chowder needs Tabasco. It just gives it that kick and a cuts into the rich, creamy taste. It is not acceptable to not have it. That's what I think!

Siew mai

Makes about 20 - 25

13 medium - large prawns, shelled
About the same amount of minced pork (it should have a little fat. Lean pork is just not nice!)
1 - 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 inch knob of ginger, finely minced
3-4 stalks of spring onions, chopped
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Splash of tsao tsing wine
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon fried shallot oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cornflour
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
pinch of salt
Wonton skins

Dipping sauce:
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, cut into matchsticks
1 inch knob ginger,  cut into matchsticks
2 stalks spring onions, chopped
2-3 stalks coriander (including the stems), chopped
2-3 chili padi, chopped
Few drops of sesame oil
Few drops of fried shallot oil
1 teaspoon sugar
3-5 tablespoons water

Equipment:
Dim sum steamer
Wok

1. Chop the prawns coarsely, slightly minced but still maintain their texture.

2. Mix all the rest of the ingredients into a mixing bowl. I usually smell the mixture to see what else it needs (e.g more soy, more sesame etc) but if you really want you can boil a little piece and have a taste to see what it's like.

3. Wrap them in the wonton skins.

4. Line a dim sum steamer with greased baking paper (don't use olive oil to grease!! Please don't ever use olive oil in Chinese cooking). Alternatively if you have some on hand, use a whole big leaf or two of softened/boiled napa cabbage/Chinese cabbage to line your steamer. Both prevents sticking.

5. Place the the siew mai in the steamer, making sure to leave a little space in between them. Fill a wok with boiling water and place the steamer on top, steam on high for about 10 minutes or until each siew mai is slightly firm to touch and the wonton skins have turned soft and almost melted into the meat.

6. Mix everything for your dipping sauce and serve hot.

* I like to serve this dipping sauce because the ingredients are almost the same as what's in the siew mai. But it's just as good with bottle chili sauce! 

This dinner was inspired by the SortedFood guys. Watch their video for siew mai here.

British flapjacks/granola bars

Makes about 12 - 16

150g salted butter
75g soft light brown sugar
3 heaped tablespoons Lyle's golden syrup
250g rolled oats (the quick ones)
Optional: handful of walnuts and sunflower seeds

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. Line a baking tray with baking paper and grease it with some butter.

3. In a saucepan, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup on a gentle heat.

4. Pour the mixture into a bowl of the oats and mix till well coated.

5. Press firmly into the baking tray (my mixture when pressed was about 1cm thick)

6. Bake for 25 minutes till the edges turn slightly dark.

7. Remove from oven and leave for 10 minutes to cool and then mark out the pieces while it's still warm.

8. Let it cool completely before removing onto a board to cut completely.

* This recipe was taken from Jamie Oliver's members' recipes here.

Kung po chicken

Serves 2-4

2 boneless chicken quarters (legs and thighs), skin removed

About 1 cup roasted salted cashews (you can add more if you like)

1 white onion, sliced

2 - 3 large cloves of garlice, sliced

3-4 stalks spring onion, cut into 3cm pieces

5 thin slices of ginger

10 dried chillies, cut into pieces

3 chili padi, chopped

Cooking oil - enough to fill your frying pan or wok about 1cm of oil. (Peanut oil is best)

Chicken marinade:

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cornflour

a dash of finely ground white pepper

Sauce:

1 tablespoon dark soya sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon Hoisin sauce

1 teaspoon tsao tsing wine

1  tablespoon Chinese black vinegar for cooking (amount may vary depending on the brand of vinegar, I used 1 tablespoon and a little bit)

2 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

100ml water

4 tabespoon oil (peanut, canola or vegetable oil. Don't use olive oil!)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

pinch of ground white pepper

1. Combine ingredients for the sauce. I usually add vinegar last as it tends to get very sour depending on the brand of vinegar. Add the vinegar a little by little and keep tasting. If you add a whole load and it's too sour, you're going to have to start again. 

2. Rinse and pat dry the chicken as much as you can. Cut into bite sized chunks.

3. Marinade the chicken for at least 20 minutes in the salt, cornflour and pepper.

4. Heat the oil in a wok and shallow fry for about 2 -3 minutes. Careful, it might splat. Dish out and drain. Retain some of the oil to fry the other ingredients and discard the rest of the oil.

5. Heat  the reserved oil and saute onion, garlic, ginger, chili padi and dried chilies. Fry for a few minutes then add the cashews.

6. When the onions are slightly soft, pour in the sauce and let it simmer for a minute or two. At this point you can decide on the spiciness. If it's not spicy enough, add more sliced chili padi.

7. Throw the chicken pieces back into the wok with the sauce and simmer till the sauce thickens just a little and chicken is cooked.

8. Turn the heat off and add the spring onions. Serve with rice.

* I think the original kung po chicken uses szechuan peppers but decided to leave that out as it's just too numbing on the tongue. This recipe is very similar to my kung po frog legs.

Gary Mehigan's really sexy Beef onion and Guinness pies

Makes 6 pies

Filling:
100ml normal olive oil, plus extra for greasing
5 onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
4 sprigs thyme
3 fresh bay leaves (or about 1-2 dried bay leaves)
2 tablespoons plain flour
1.5kg trimmed chuck steak, cut into 5cm pieces
Salt flakes and freshly ground white pepper
1 carrot, cut into large chunks
440ml can Guinness
2L home-made beef stock (I used store bought!)
1 egg, beaten

Maggie Beer’s Sour-Cream Pastry:
200g chilled unsalted butter, chopped
250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
½ cup sour cream

Equipment:
1 jumbo 6-cup muffin tray


1. Preheat your oven to 180°C fan-forced or 200°C conventional.

2. To make the filling, add 40ml olive oil to an enamelled cast-iron casserole, then add the onion, garlic and thyme and cook over low heat (use a simmer mat, if necessary) for 40 minutes or until the onion is soft and translucent. Stir occasionally. Increase the heat to medium-high, add bay leaves and cook until the onion is  caramelised. Add the flour and cook stirring often for 3-4 minutes.

3. Season the beef generously with salt flakes and ground white pepper. Heat remaining 60ml of the olive oil in a large frying pan over high heat, then cook the beef in 2 batches until browned on all sides. Add the carrot and cook for 5-6 minutes. Add ¾ of the Guinness and cook for 5 minutes. Tip beef and Guinness into onions. Use remaining Guinness to deglaze the beef pan, scraping all the brown bits from the bottom, add to the onions.

4. Pour enough beef stock to cover the beef and vegetables and bring to the boil. Cover with a tight fitting lid, then transfer to the oven and cook for 2-2.5 hours or until tender. Leave to cool to room temperature. Remove the chunks of beef and carrot to a board and chop into 1cm pieces, then return them to the onion gravy. Refrigerate until cold.

5. While it's refrigerating, make the sour cream pastry. Place the butter and flour and a pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle or food processor, then blend until the mixture resembles large breadcrumbs. Gradually add the sour cream, mixing until the pastry just comes together. Shape into a disc, then wrap in plastic wrap then chill for at least 20 minutes.

6. Grease 6 holes of a muffin pan with a little olive oil. Roll out the pastry to 3-5mm thick, using a little extra flour for dusting. Cut out six rounds about 4cm bigger than the muffin holes for the pie bases and six rounds 2cm bigger than the muffin holes for the pie lids. Place a pie base in each hole, then press in in lightly with your fingers, and draw the pastry up the mould a little so the pastry is 1cm above the mould. Fill each hole with some of the beef mixture, brush edges with water, then top each with a pastry lid and crimp the edges to seal in the filling.

7. Brush the pastry tops with beaten egg, cut a small hole in the centre of each pie for steam to escape. Bake for 25 minutes or until pastry is golden. Remove from the oven and leave to stand for 5 minutes. Turn out and serve with tomato sauce, if desired.

* This recipe was taken from the Masterchef Australia website. What an awesome show! 

Maggie Beer's Sour Cream pastry is pretty good. However, I think the amount is slightly too little. I'd make a little extra just in case. Especially if you pie is really dense and heavy, you'll need more pastry to hold it up. 

Spicy corndogs from SortedFood

I want to try making these. The first time I had a corndog it was made from a frozen packet from Jason's supermarket. It was super gross.

The SortedFood boys make it look good! Their my favourite YouTube channel other than the Pixiwoo girls (make up tutorials), and Epic Meal Time (bacon on top of bacon!).

Check out SortedFood's YouTube video here, or the full recipe on their website here.

I also found another corndog recipe from Hilah Johnson. She uses shortening to fry her corndogs. Hello, how can that not be good!

Home made ricotta cheese

Makes 1 cup

3 1/2 cups milk (the full fat kind)
1/2 cup heavy cream/ thickened cream (35-36% fat)
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice


1. Pour the milk, cream and salt into a 3 litre nonreactive saucepan (stainless steel, glass) Attach a candy or deep-fry thermometer. Heat the milk to 87 degrees Celsius. Stir it occasionally to keep it from scorching on the bottom.

2. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice, then stir it once or twice, gently and slowly. Let the pot sit undisturbed for 5 minutes.

3. Line a colander or sieve with a few layers of cheesecloth or paper towels or other non-terrycloth kitchen towels and place it over a large bowl to catch the whey.

4. Pour the curds and whey into the colander and let the curds strain for an hour. If your ricotta looks a little dry for your tastes, stir back in some of the whey.

5. Discard the remainder whey. Eat straight  right away or transfer it to an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to use.

* I got this recipe from Dishing the Divine. For the photo above I experimented a little and pressed the cheese with some cans in the fridge . I'm not professional and don't own any pro equipment and I'm guessing you don't either. So, just MacGyver it! Then I cut it into pieces like paneer. It won't form clean slices but it's still good anyway! 

Is it cheaper than buying a tub of ricotta from the supermarket? No. Not in Singapore anyway where dairy is expensive and carton of milk costs $3+, and a small tub of cream is about that price too. 

Is it fun to make? Definitely yes! 

Eating odd bits

I love eating the weird parts of an animal. As kids and even till now, my twin sister Caryn and I fight over the odd parts of the Singaporean local dish, kway chap - a dish of braised pork, offal, beancurd, and hard-boiled eggs, served with a bowl of flat lasagna-like rice pasta in steaming brown broth. The sweet intestines and large intestines were the main items to claim over with your chopsticks.

We also still fight over the chicken feet my mother uses in her soups. I still use chicken feet in my stocks. Heston Blumenthal has this recipe for a very chickeny chicken stock which uses milk powder and chicken wings. Forget it. Just use as many chicken feet as you can get your hands on - it's way cheaper! When you're done boiling, take them out and dip in soy sauce and pepper. I have my own chicken stock recipe here.

I try to add as many odd bits to my food as possible. The other day we had a BBQ at ours and I couldn't resist buying some beef heart and lungs. I made them satay style on skewers and served them up.

I bought this book called Odd Bits and I'm now reading it. There's also a little bit about the history of eating these parts. They're nothing to be afraid of. Not too long ago, we thought they were as normal as boneless skinless chicken breast wrapped in cling film in a supermarket.

The odd bits are not only nutritious, they're also cheap and good for budget meals. In honour of this book, I'm adding a new tab to by blog. It's called "Odd".

Seriously, try it.


You can learn more about the author, Jennifer McLagan, here.

Chicken & duck liver pate

Serve 4-6

(Makes approx. 500g)

2 knobs of butter
1 large white onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
250g duck livers, cleaned and trimmed, patted dry
250g chicken livers, cleaned and trimmed, patted dry
2 tablespoons sherry, wine, brandy or cognac (or any alcohol you have in the house!  I've used white wine , Chinese cooking wine and whiskey before. Chinese cooking wine, tsao tsing, I think is the best. It's got a sweet flavour and masks a bit of the livery taste)

50mls thickened cream
Another knob of butter
handful of chopped parsley
Salt & pepper

For the topping:
About 50 - 100g butter
2-3 springs rosemary
Approx 10 black peppercorns

1. In a pan or skillet, heat one knob of butter and fry the onions and garlic till it's tender. Remove and set aside.

2. Season the livers with salt and pepper.

3. Add another knob of butter to the pan and fry the livers in two batches. Do not crowd the pan and make sure the butter is very hot, or else the livers will not brown. Fry about 1-2 minutes on each side, until the livers are slightly firm.

4. Put the onions back into pan with the livers and add the alcohol till it's evaporated. Then transfer them to your food processor.

5. Pour in the cream and knob of butter and blitz till it's smooth. If it's too thick, you might need to add a little more cream.

6. Add the chopped parsley, and give it some salt and pepper for seasoning.

7. Transfer to a bowl or serving dish.

8. Melt some butter and throw in the peppercorns and rosemary at the last minute. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

9. Pour over the pate and leave it in the fridge to set for a few hours.

10. Serve with sliced bread or toast.