Mu- Saengchae (Spicy Korean Radish )

I saw this dish in a Korean cookbook and immediately felt a urge to make it at home.  I combined two recipes together to bring out the best spicy Korean radish dish for myself.  I liked this as it was spicy and went well with rice or jajangmyeon.

Usually this is served as a Korean side dish called Banchan (반찬).  I ate it with rice and toasted seaweed, made Korean pancake, made omelet with it, added it in my Korean spicy instant noodle, or just have it as a side dish to my everyday meal.  Surprisingly my little Edda loves this and she didn't complaint that this was spicy.  I guess I trained them well.  Evy on the other hand, doesn't like this banchan.

[S$20 Budget Meal] Steamed Tilapia Fillets, Eggs with Napa Cabbage and Seaweed Tofu Gochujang Soup

Above was one of the everyday dinners I made at home.  I was trying to be healthier so I steamed my fish in my steamer basket.  Usually I would pour hot oil to finish my steamed fish (made the fish glossy and shiny),  but decided to skip this step with the "healthier" in mind.  I added eggs in my napa cabbage because I wanted to submit this dinner to $20 Budget Meal.  This veggie dish could be cooked without adding eggs.

Total cost for this dinner was about $6.87 and I was not budgeting this meal at all, it was just a meal I prepared often at home.  It would be even cheaper without adding soup.  I would beak down the cost and provide recipes in the next page.  Again, it prove to me that it is so affordable to cook healthy meal at home, however I do need my break on weekend, it's great to eat a meal cooked by someone else and not have to stay for the clean up.  :-P

I am submitting this to "S$20 Budget Meal"  or "US$15 budget meal" hosted by Cuisine Paradise.

No Bake Strawberry Yogurt Cheese Cake

I saw this easy no bake cheese cake recipe while browsing the Albertson's ad. online.  What attracted me to this recipe was that yogurt was used instead of sour cream.  Most of the no bake recipe that I came across used sour cream, which was not in my shopping list.  So, I was glad to find this recipe.

Just liked the name implies, no baking required, just mixed all the ingredients together, add in gelatin and let it set in the refrigerator.  It was not bad at all, I quite liked it, especially it was so easy to make.  Definitely can be a dessert that I would bring to a potluck.

Happy Easter!!

I'm also submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #6 Say Cheese (April 2011) hosted by Jean of Noms I Must.

Dried Laver Anchovies Soup (野生紫菜汤)

This was a soup I learned from my girlfriend while studying in university ages ago.  Both my hubby and I loved this soup a lot and now my two girls also loved it.  I even have this recipe published in a cookbook called The Best Soups in the World by Clifford A. Wright. 

This soup was not a stranger to a lot of people, it can easily be one of the rotation of the soups made at home.  But in case you don't know, I am sharing the recipe here.

Haiji White Bun Using Pullman Tin

When I went back to Malaysia in 2008, a Pullman pan was on my to-buy-list.  I was fascinated and wanted to get one to play with it.  I was in luck as I easily found this pan in the bakery supply shop, it came in three sizes, short, medium and long.  The one I bought was the shortest one, 4" x 4" x 8.5".  You can see the picture of my Pullman pan in the following page.  While searching for Pullman pan recipe, I came across that this pan was also called Pain de Mie.  Pain de Mie is a fine-textured, moist bread baked in a special lidded pan.  The lid gives this bread a flat top and perfectly square-edges slices.

While blog hopping one day, I came across a Haiji White Bun recipe.  This recipe really caught my attention because the blogger said it was super soft and delicious.  I browsed the ingredients and noticed that it didn't have bread improver or bread softener that I was trying to avoid using.  So, immediately I bookmarked it with the intention of trying it out.  And of course finally gotten to use the Pullman pan that I bought three years ago. :-)
 
Verdict:  Super soft and super yummy!  I am so glad I tried this recipe as I will be making it again and again.  I highly recommend anyone to give this recipe a try.

[S$20 Budget Meal] Ginger Chicken with Rice Wine, Spicy KangKong and Laver Anchovies Soup

Recently, I spotted a  Singapore "$20 Budget Meal" event that got me interested.  For US dollar, it would be $15 Budget Meal.  You have to cook two dishes and a soup or a one dish meal that priced less than S$20/ US$15.  Frankly, I never really counted how much each dinner that I prepared at home cost me.   But I believe it would be less than $15.  For April, one of the dishes must have an egg as an ingredient, so above was what we had on April 11, 2011 which I submitted to this event.

I am submitting this to "S$20 Budget Meal"  or "US$15 budget meal" hosted by Cuisine Paradise.

Deep Fried Italian Panko Shrimps

Have you ever wonder how the chef deep-fried the shrimps without it curled up?  One time when we were visiting our friend's restaurant, her chef made a similar dish for my girls.  His was without seasonings, just dip in flour, then beaten egg, then panko and deep fried.  What caught my eyes was that the shrimps were not curled up so of course I had to pick one to examining it.  When I tasted the shrimp, I sort of gotten the idea of how it was made.  I would share with you the secret in my next page.

I found the unseasoned one quite bland, so I seasoned mine and added dried herbs.  We all loved this, but who could resist this type of fried food anyway?  Flavorful and crispy, hard to stop at a few.

Oatmeal Raisin Yogurt Muffins

I often buy the big tub of yogurt for my girls when it goes on sales.  I came upon this recipe when I opened a strawberry nonfat yogurt for my girls.  This easy and healthy muffin recipe attracted me at first glance.   As my readers know, I am a sucker for healthy and easy recipe, so this whisk and bake recipe got my vote.  This strawberry yogurt came with pieces of strawberry bits so it was a plus and the muffins turned out well.  Not very sweet and good for breakfast.

Both my girls loved this muffin as well.  Evy would take this as a snack for school and the daddy can grab one before going to the office.

Easy Cheese Pasta

This is one super duper easy cheese pasta targeted for kids.  My girls loved macaroni with cheese, but I am staying away from the box kind (processed food).  So, I bought these tiny wheel, alphabet, flower pasta that I saw in a Hispanic market recently intended to cook something for my girls.  I thought of this idea based on the Korean spicy noodle with cheese post that I did recently.

I will provide pictures with illustration in my next post, so that you can use this easy method to cook for your kids too.

I am also submitting this recipe to Aspiring Bakers # 6:  Say Cheese! (for April) which will be hosted by Noms I Must.

Japchae (Vegetable Beef Vermicelli)

The original JapChae, a Korean style vegetable beef with sweet potato vermicelli/cellophane noodles uses beef, but I used chicken in mine.  While looking at my old JapChae recipe, it was so different.  I used to add dark soy sauce because as a Malaysian, I seem to be addicted to dark color food in the beginning of my cooking.  My noodle, fried rice and stir-fried dishes were mostly dark in color.  But over the years, it has change, my cooking seem to be more balance now, not all dishes were dark in color, more white color food came out from me actually.  With the birth of my girls, my cooking also became less spicy.  Guess I would suffer when I go back to Malaysia for a visit as I am not use to that level of heat anymore.

This JapChae was served with Myulchi Bokkeum (Stirfried Anchovies).   The recipe is mostly adapted from the back of the sweet potato vermicelli (dang myun) that I bought in the Asian market.

Myulchi Bokkeum (Stirfried Anchovies)

When I saw this recipe at Little Teochew's blog, I knew I had to try it.  I had this at a Korean's family house ages ago and really liked it.  However, I hardly get to eat this at the Korean restaurant here, granted I hardly go to the Korean restaurant, but the times that I did go, this side dish was not served.  This side dish was sold at the Korean market though but quite pricy.

It was sweet and spicy and if you eat it right away, the anchovies were crunchy.  However, if you kept it for later or kept it in the refrigerator, then the anchovies would turn soft.  I liked it better when the anchovies were still crunchy, then I got the crunchy, the spiciness from the gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste), and the sweetness from the honey and sugar.  Simply irresistible!!  Even both of my girls were enjoying this spicy snack!  With water alongside of course.