Stir fry bittergourd with beef/ Egg tofu with minced pork

You need to acquire the taste of bittergourd. To some, they find it really difficult to accept. The strenght of bitterness varies with individual. For my hubby, it takes him many years to finally accept this dish. Bittergourd has its healing properties, it is known as a cooling vegetable. Thus, it is good to dispel "heatiness" from the body. This is my first attempt at Stir Fry Bittergourd with Beef. Let's see whether my kids will eat it as they refused the soup version.

  Tofu has always been a hot favourite with my kids. Perhaps they are too lazy to chew. Recently, I was told that no matter what, you need to expose your kids to chewing meat. Reason being, it is an extremely good exercise for the jaw as well for the gums. So when their permanent teeth "sprout", they will be nice and straight. Our Egg Tofu with minced pork.

Done it!

My family love bread. We can have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But having this idea hibernating in my mind, at long last, I braved through fear to attempt bread baking. Even though I owned a heavy duty mixer for at least 2 years, I never tried using the hook beater to attempt dough making. Don't ask me why, perhaps I was too coward to face failure. Bread machine as since depreciate in cost, from a thousand to below a hundred. Then again, hubby doesn't agree to have a bread machine. It takes about 8 hours to bake a loaf! His reason: it is more cost effective as well as convenient to buy a loaf from the bakery. This recipe is taken from Florence whose recipe always proof to be a success. Here is my Cinnamon Raisins Soft Bread. What you need for this basic dough 310g bread flour 60g cake flour 40g Nestle CoffeeMate 115ml skim milk 20g condensed milk 55g castor sugar 3g salt 7g instant yeast 1 egg + 2 egg yolks 40g butter (room temperature) Method: Sieve flour mixture into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle of flour mixture and add in all the rest of ingredients except butter. Mix till a dough is formed and knead in the butter till you get a smooth dough. Prove dough for 50 minutes or till double in size. Divide dough into 12 portions of 60g each and shape it or wrap in the filling. Prove for another 50 minutes or till double in size. Brush with egg wash and bake at 190C for 15 minutes or till cooked.

Hot hot hot

As I have volunteered to help my mom out in terms of cooking for today's gathering. For a long long time, I didn't cook my regular Chicken Curry.

Since I got home so late, I was worried that I couldn't wake up in time to go and get some fresh chicken for my curry. I love my Chicken Curry spicy.

For me, I feel that curry without the spiciness is not curry. I love to dip my baguette into the gravy. Yum yum.

This recipe is only for those who is okay with hot stuff.



What you need

Grind together & fried till fragrant

½ chicken
6 dried chilli
6 fresh chilli
6 small onion
3 clove garlic
1 stalk of lemongrass - crushed
1 small pc of Belachan – toasted
1 packet wet curry paste (consist of curry powder, chilli powder, buah kala, ginger & garlic)
1 cup thick coconut milk
4 cups thin coconut milk
2 stems curry leaves
Cooked potatoes (as many as you like)

Method

Put a little oil. Fry sambal balachan & curry paste till fragrant.

Put chicken and mix well.

Put diluted coconut milk, curry leave and salt to taste and boil at slow fire.

Put in cooked potatoes.

Boil till chicken is cooked and add thick coconut milk. Simmer till boil.

Sugar to taste.

Steamed Chocolate Fudge Cake

I attended a gathering organised by my ex-colleagues. Since it is a potluck, I decided to bake something that I have tried before. So here is my Steamed Chocolate Fudge Cake again. Had such a great time, we "yakked" till it was 1:30am. Can you imagine that my daughter was with me all these while. She is definitely a tough cookie.