Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Affordable Luxury Kopi

Recently discovered this when helping my auntie to look for Japanese instant Matcha au Lait. Must really give it to the Japanese for their ingenuity. The drip coffee are flat packed into individual packages. To enjoy, just open the satchet, and hang it on the coffee cup or mug. Add hot water and wait for it to filter through the satchet and enjoy oiishi kopi in a few minutes! At only S$8.10 for a pack of 10, it's really recession-proof luxury.




Thai Style Chicken Dip


This is one of the yummy goodies that SK's mom brings to office now and then. When we asked to learn from her, SK's mom had taken the time to write down her recipes and generously shared it with us. The chicken dip is surprising easy and tasty although it was made with very few ingredients. I only made a slight adjustment to her recipe by adding a tablespoon of minced ginger.

However, be careful when handling the chilli padi. I suffered a bad case of chilli burn after preparing this dish. Tried every method to remove the capsicum but with no effect. Methods I tried:
1) Rubbing with cooking oil, leave for 5 mins then wash off - Doesn't work
2) Soaking in milk - works only when my hands are in it
3) Soaking in ice water - works only when my hands are still submerged
4) Washing with soap, then rubbing with salt to remove the chilli oil - Seemed to help a bit, but the burn returned within minutes
5) Wash wash wash with soap - Didn't work too!

In the end, i wrapped ice cubes in handkerchief and clutched it until i felt asleep.

250gm coconut milk (i used pasturised coconut milk)
200gm minced chicken
2tbsp fish sauce
1tbsp corn flour, mixed with a bit of water
1tbsp minced ginger
8 chilli padi
1 stalk Chinese parsley

Method:
1) Fry minced chicken with some oil and minced ginger
2) Add coconut milk and boil till chicken are fully cooked
3) Add in fish sauce and stir well
4) Add in corn flour mixture, then chilli padi and Chinese parsley

Serve with rice cakes. SK's mom deep fries the rice cakes, but I chose to bake the rice cakes as a healthier option.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Tangerine Chiffon Cake


My earliest memory of a homemade cake was a orange chiffon cake made by my grandmother.
However, the memory of taste and smell of that cake had faded together with time until recently. I tasted an orange chiffon cake made by KS' aunt and memories of that fragrant, citrusy, moist cake came flooding back. I adapted the recipe to use up the leftover mandarin oranges from CNY. The taste of the cake is wonderful! So now, I can easily whip up a batch of orange chiffon cake for myself whenever nostalgia hits me :)