Soy Glazed Potatoes

I love this soy sauce potatoes banchan or side dish that I had at the Korean restaurant so of course I have to recreate it at home.  This is the only way that I can eat until I am content as in the Korean restaurant they only gave you 4 pieces and you probably can only asked for 1free refill, my face is definitely not thick enough to ask for a second refills.  So, I love making this at home!

Since I have been making this more than once, I found an easier way to make it by using an air-fryer.  First you wash and cut the potatoes into pieces and then I coat it in oil and then I air-fry it at 400’F for 20 minutes.  Then, I stir-fry it in a pan with soy sauce, water, brown sugar, dark soy sauce, mirin and let the sauce thicken.  Lastly sprinkle with sesame seeds, mix and enjoy!

If you don’t have an air-fryer, you can do the below method.
I steamed the baby potatoes for 20 minutes first.  Then stir-fried it in oil until slightly crispy, then add soy sauce, water, brown sugar, dark soy sauce, mirin and sesame seeds.  Stir-fried until thicken and serve.

Homemade Tiramisu

This is a cream cheese whipped cream version of the Tiramisu.

I bought an organic lady fingers from Sprouts, it was made in Italy to make this Tiramisu.

I used an older recipe that I had in this blog to make this.  It was quick and easy and yield a satisfying Tiramisu.  I just slightly modified the recipe a little to make this.

 Do you want a slice?

Ingredients:

(A)
1- 8oz (226g) Philadelphia cream cheese
1/3 cup (40g) confectioner sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

(B)
300ml heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup (55g) confectioner sugar

Syrup (C)
3 Tbsp. instant coffee granules
1 tsp. cocoa powder
1 cup warm water
3 tsp. Brandy (or more to suit your taste)

Cocoa powder for dusting as needed
1 packet of Sprouts organic lady fingers



Method:

1. Whip heavy cream until soft peak, add in sugar and whip until stiff peak, set aside.

2. Beat (A) until combined (can use the same beaters you used to whip the cream, don't have to wash). Fold in the whipped cream. Set aside.

3. Dissolved coffee granules and cocoa powder into the warm water. Add in the Brandy. Stir to mix well. Set aside.  Use a shallow bowl that wide enough for the lady finger. 

4. Take one lady finger and dip into the coffee mixture,  flip to the other side and coat well and place it into the glass container or container of choice.  Do the same with other lady fingers until you finish the bottom layer.  Then coat the top with the whipped cream mixture and spread evenly.  Sprinkle all over with cocoa powder.  Then repeat the lady finger procedure to top it all over.  Then whipped cream mixture and coat the top with cocoa powder. 

5.  Cover the container and put it in the refrigerator for at least 5-6 hours before serving (or overnight).  Keep any leftover in the fridge.  Enjoy!

Stir-fried Soy Tofu Sheet

I love anything tofu, so when I spotted this soy tofu sheet, of course I wanted to buy and try to cook it.  I had it before at a potluck party and it left me with a good impression.  I loved the texture of this tofu sheet and loved that it kept its shape really well even when you stir-fried it. It also took on the flavor of the seasonings well.  So, here is my version and I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients:

1 packet of sou tofu sheet, cut into long strips and separated it.

1 medium size yellow onion, sliced

2 jalapeño, sliced into strips

2-3 stalks of green onion, cut into 2 inches length

Thumb size ginger, thinly sliced

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

Black and toasted white sesame seeds, to suit

Lao Gan Ma chili paste, or homemade chili paste. chili oil, about 2 Tbsp. or to suit

Hoisin sauce, about 2 Tbsp.

Premium dark soy sauce, 1 Tbsp.

1/2 tsp. mushroom powder, optional

Sesame oil, about 1 tsp.

1 tsp. cane sugar

Soy sauce, to taste

Method:

1.  In a hot wok, add oil.  Add aromatic, ginger, white part of the green onion, then garlic, yellow onion and jalapeño, stir-fry until fragrant.  

2.  Add the sliced soy tofu sheet, mixed well.  Add the rest of the seasonings, season to taste.  Lastly, add the green part of the green onion, mixed well.  Turn off the fire and add the sesame seeds.  Mixed and serve.  It can be served hot or cold from the refrigerator.  Enjoy!

Homemade No Knead Baguette

Here is my no knead baguette.  If you want the recipe, just google no knead baguette and the recipe will show up.  I think this only used 4 ingredients and let it proof overnight, then shape, proof again and bake.  Very easy and delicious especially when you air-fry it in an air fryer 350"F for 3 minutes.  Then, spread with your desired spread and enjoy!

Thai Style Glass Noodle Cold Salad

In this warmer weather, I would love to make some cold dish for my girls.  I found that if I make hot noodle soup or Chinese herbal soup, I would sweat after I finish it and that is definitely not welcome when I already hot to begin with.  Hence, making a cold noodle dish or cold salad is ideal.

I just shredded some leftover chicken breast into strips, add some roasted peanut, thinly sliced cucumber, thinly sliced reconstituted wood ear fungus (parboiled it), thinly sliced carrot, some chopped cilantro, some chopped garlic and some toasted sesame seeds.  Place everything in a large bowl and season to taste with fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, sea salt, chili oil and sesame oil.  Mix well and enjoy it cold or as it.

Peach Macadamia Milk Jelly

Warm weather lets you crave for something cold.  Instead of grabbing an ice-cream from the freezer, cold jelly would be your other option.  Of course, you can use any milk or any fruit of your choice to create this jelly.  Get inspired from this and play with your own creation!

 

Ingredients:

1 little macadamia milk

10g agar-agar or jelly powder

3/4 cup cane sugar

28oz canned peach, drained and cut into cubes

Methods:

1. In a bowl, add in cane sugar and jelly powder, mixed well with a whisk, set aside.

2. Pour the milk into a large saucepan and turn up the heat.  When heated and before boiling, whisk in the sugar and jelly powder mixture, whisk well until the sugar dissolved.  Turn off the heat and set aside.  Then, add in the cut peach cubes.

3.  Pour into the mold of your choice or just a rectangle pan (like picture shown above) and let it cool on the countertop.  When cooler, put it in the refrigerator for around 2 hours.  Cut and serve as desire.  Enjoy!

Air-fried Ground Chicken with Portobello Mushrooms

 

I loved my air-fryers and yes I have two.  One for cooking the main dish and the other one for cooking the side dish so that my complete meal could be done around the same time.  I love to eat my food hot as you can tell.  Usually we steam this dish but I air-fry it instead.  It's quick and easy and it turned out delicious.  Please do enjoy this easy recipe using an air-fryer!  And of course you can substitute the meat with pork or beef or shrimp as well (pork mixed with shrimp sound excellent too), or any meat you desire or what you have in your refrigerator would do.  It would make such a great Chinese New Year dish or a dish to impress your friends at a potluck party!  Such a great finger food too!

Methods:

One chicken breast, ground and season with some oyster sauce, sesame oil, garlic powder and white pepper, set aside.

Around 12 or 13 organic Portobello mushrooms, take out the stems and wipe clean.

Scoop the seasoned ground chicken into the Portobello mushrooms and top each piece with a green pea for decoration.  You can use the frozen green pea or the frozen carrot for colors.

Then, place them in a layer into the air-fryer, spray with avocado oil and set the temperature to 400'F for 10 mins.

In the meantime, heat up a small saucepan with 1/2 cup of water, add 2 Tbsp. of oyster sauce and 1 Tbsp. of mirin and boil until dissolved.  Thicken the sauce with some cornstarch water (1 tsp. cornstarch plus 1 Tbsp. water).  Keep stirring until thicken, once thicken, set it aside.

Once the mushrooms are done, take it out and place on a plate and scoop the thicken sauce on top of each mushrooms.  Serve hot!

Homecooked meal

 

What can be more satisfying then a delicious homecooked meal made with love?  I love to provide my girls with a nutritional balance meal whenever I get the chance.  With the two air-fryers that I have, cooking a meal is so much easier and faster.  I air-fried the asparagus in one and air-fried the miso cod in another air-fryer and I time it so that both finish cooking at about the same time.  Here's how you get warm food and not one cold dish with your meal.  I also time the beancurd knots to hit start button on my air-fryers to cook.

Served it up with my turmeric, black pepper and coconut oil rice!  Yummy in the tummy every time!

Seasoned Crispy and Fragrant Beancurd Knots or Tofu Knots

Well, I love almost all variety of tofu products.  I love beancurd knots because it holds it shape well when braising. Before this, I mostly use it in braising my soy sauce chicken or pork.  It goes well with rice with some homemade chili oil.  And then I saw a video of a different way of cooking dried beancurd roll.  I didn't have dried beancurd roll but I did have this dried beancurd knots that I could use.  Hence, here this recipe is born.  I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my girls and I.  Happy cooking!

Xmas Fruit Cake

Ingredients:

2 bags of candied papaya and pineapple from Dollar Tree, cut into smaller pieces

Equal amount of raisins, peels of any lemon or orange if have

Soak the above with 1/3 cognac and 2/3 apple juice for a week.

1 stick of unsalted butter, soften

3/4 cup of dark brown sugar

1/2 cup olive oil

3 Tbsp. 100% maple syrup

1/2 tsp. salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove

3 eggs

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

Methods:

1.  Preheat oven to 320'F.  Line the 8" square baking pan with parchment paper.

2.  Beat soften butter and brown sugar until fluffy.  Add in olive oil, beat well.  Add in syrup, beat well.  Add in the seasonings and one egg at a time, beat until combine.

3.  Use a spatula and stir in the dry ingredients.  Lastly add in the soaked fruits along with the juices.  Mix well.

4.  Pour into the prepared pan and cover the top with foil.  Bake in the oven for 2.5 hours.  Take it out and set aside to cool completely.  Wrap it with foil and let it age for a week before serving.  Can be freeze in the freezer to enjoy it later.  Just bring it back to room temperature to serve.  Enjoy!

Air Fried Baby Portabella Mushroom

Air fryer is a great kitchen gadget to have if you haven't owned it already.  I used it plenty often to produce an easy lunch or dinner.  It save me time and the food turned out great every time.  I would advice you to invest in one if you haven't already, or you can wait until Black Friday for the great price deal!

I wish I have asparagus, then I could throw that in and make it a more colorful and balance meal.

Air Fried Asparagus

Air-fry asparagus 400'F for 8 minutes.  Very easy and very delicious.  Spray with avocado oil and season with any spices to your liking or simply salt and pepper would do.  Enjoy!

Air Fried Chicken Tender

You can either use chicken tender or just slice the chicken breast into strips, up to you.  And then season the poultry with salt, pepper, garlic powder, rice wine and sesame oil.  Then coat with cornstarch and air-fry in an air-fryer according to its instruction.  Enjoy!

Korean Meal

I love Korean food and I always have homemade kimchi in my refrigerator. When my Korean craving hit, the above was what happened.  I already posted the above recipes in my blog before, that was how I looked for my old recipe to make this.  You can either look under Korean or just type the recipe under the Search button.  Enjoy!

Penang Assam Laksa

When I went back to Malaysia last year, the one paste that I really wanted to buy was this Penang assam laksa paste.  I had to search for it in Penang and in the end, my aunty had to bring me to a special supplier house to buy it.  Now, I can have assam laksa in the U.S. :)

This paste is really good, very original and I had my craving fixed.  An otherwise very troublesome recipe to make turned into an easy recipe with a ready made paste.  If you ever go to Malaysia, do stock up on this paste as it is not available here.  Below I will show you the ingredients I used to make this, only need to wash and slice those ingredients to eat with the noodle and that's it!

Prawn paste- optional
Can pineapple rings
I used sardine in olive oil here, just add the sardine and discard the oil in a plastic bag
Red onion
Lettuce
English cucumber
Rice noodle
I don't have mint leave
You can also add red chili padi (bird eye chili) for extra spiciness

Just follow the instruction as the back of the package and thinly slice those vegetable to serve.

Stir-fried Udon Noodle with Shrimp and Scallop

A simple stir-fried Udon noodle with shrimps and sea scallop with spinach, carrot and yellow onion.

Chicken Pot Pie from Scratch

I made this from scratch today and my girls both said it was really good.  I actually made chicken pot pie back in 2008 and here is the link to my old post.  I used the same flaky pie crust recipe and slightly altered the ingredients and method to what I have at home or currently using.  You can see my recipe in the next page.

I used the same lattice pattern on my pie, but I didn't brush it with egg wash this time.

Pie before baking and top with chicken filling.  I used two homemade flaky pie crusts for this recipe.  I pre-made the pie crusts in the morning and then refrigerated until ready to use.  Just bring it out to thaw on the kitchen counter while cooking the filling.

Air Fried Sweet Potato Fries

Sweet potato always goes on sale during the holidays season, so I bought a few to make my sweet potato pie and air fry sweet potato fries.  I am very much prefer the sweet potato than the potato because it is healthier.  I like red potato for the baked crispy potatoes and Russet potato for smashed potatoes.  Anyway, with the air fryer, making sweet potato fries is so much easier and I have a meal ready in less than 40 minutes.

I am serving the sweet potato fries with my air fried Cornish hen and butter thyme broccoli.

Air Fried Cornish Hen

Air-frying Cornish hen sounds like an excellent idea.  I used to deep-fried my Cornish hen but it left my kitchen with smell.  With air-frying, it was quick and I didn't have to use a lot of oil.  Thus I can have my dinner in less than 45 minutes.

Ready for air frying.

Air-fried 5 Spice Tofu

This recipe popped into my mind while I was exercising on my stationary bike.  I know tofu takes the flavor of the marinade and I thought of an Asian style flavoring.  Like what if I marinate it with soy sauce and add 5 spice powder into it?  The other spices just came together while I was seasoning the tofu.

Did I mention how much I loved my air-fryer?  It just gave me so much more convenience when cooking the fried tofu.  I used to pan-fry the tofu in 2 batches and now I just threw it into the deep-fryer and it was done in 13 minutes.  How convenient is that?

Seasoned and marinated tofu cubes ready for air frying.

Thanksgiving Meal 2019

Our mini Thanksgiving meal.  My girls and I just loved the green bean casserole so we had to cook it again and this time we paired it with slow cooker turkey (I overcooked it and it turned out a bit dry and then I burnt it while I set it on broil!!! *slap face*), gravy and air-fried sweet potato tots.

Luckily my girls still like the turkey and said it was fine with the gravy.  Well, I did learn a lesson with each failure, don't ever trust the recipe completely and always check half way for sure.

My sweet potato pie from scratch!  I just can't do without it every holiday season.  A must have for my girls and I and in addition to that we also added the apple crumble pie into our tradition.  Those pies are so good homemade from scratch and it is just irresistible for us.