Singapore Chili Crabs

Just sharing a picture of my Singapore Chili Crabs.  I added the "tang hoon" or glass vermicelli to soak up the sauce (too lazy to prepare mantou).  However I added it too early and thus it was all broken out.  I won't be sharing this recipe as it was not perfected.  I had better Singapore Chili Crabs at my Singapore friend's house.  One of the reasons of the broken glass vermicelli was I did a taste test and found it lacking and thus I had to add a few other things and therefore more stirring.

However, my two girls enjoyed this crabs a lot.  I guess they didn't know the real taste or what it supposed to taste like so they couldn't compare and thought this was good.  It was a good lesson for them to learn how to eat crab on their own.  Edda was good at using a toothpick to pick up the crab meat from the claws and this mommy happily enjoying her crabs too.

Looking forward to teaching them how to peel the shrimp shells too, that should be easier than crab.

Farmers' Market Picked

We went to a Farmers' Market at Old Colorado City recently and I enjoyed the experience.  I picked up these round summer squash which was called "Geode", it was light green and tasted like zucchini.  The round shape makes it suitable to sandwich with your burger.  I also picked up some sweet yellow onions and yellow carrots.  The easiest and tasty way to enjoy these vegetable is by grilling them or roasting it in the oven.  I took out some chicken tenders and seasoned it with some extra virgin olive oil, salt, rosemary, peppers, and sage.  I also added some yellow and red bell peppers.  Thus far, I have only seen "Geode" selling in the farmers' market here.  From my experience, don't pick the big one as it will have bigger seeds.

Custard Raisin Buns

The inspiration from creating this custard buns came from chatting with a Chinese chef whose friend owns a baking store up in Denver.  He told me his friend used custard powder in making his bread and said I should try it.  I have used custard powder in cookies and Malaysian kuih (dessert) before but never in bread/buns so I was up to the challenge.  I added raisins for the extra sweetness so that this bun could be enjoyed as it without extra jam or preserves.

The custard powder gave it a light yellow hue and smelled fragrant.  This bun turned out soft and fluffy with extra sweetness from the raisins.  Oh, if you are wondering why my middle bun look like that, I actually wanted to try something new but failed.  I cut the four sides of the bun with a scissor when proofed just for experiment and realized that I should cut it before it was proofed.  Since cutting the bun sort of deflated the bun slightly.  Well learned a lesson here.

Sambal Fried Tofu/ Sambal Fried Beancurd

This dish paired well with rice or coconut rice (nasi lemak), the spiciness from this dish would get you going and asked for extra rice.  Cut the extra firm tofu into pieces, pat dry and pan-fried in oil until golden brown.  Then, prepare your favorite sambal sauce and add in the fried tofu.  Sorry, I won't be sharing with you my  sambal sauce recipe.  But I am sure you already have your favorite sambal recipe that you cooked for your family that could be used in this dish.  I also tried it with pan-fried hard boiled eggs which was equally delicious.

I used a spoon to scoop off the chili and onion from the tofu before passing it to my girls.  I gave them 3 pieces each which they finished it all with glasses of water.  Not bad I would say because this sambal was really spicy, even I was sweating from eating this.  I think they have discovered that spicy food are delicious thus they have developed the tolerance for it.

No Bake Cheesecake Cookie Cup

I made baked cheesecake cups before back in the old days.  Today I wanted to try the no bake version.  I had some ginger snaps in my pantry and it worked well as a base for my cheesecake cookie cups.  I used a fat free blueberry nonfat yogurt which I was hoping for a light tint of blue hue for this cheesecake cup, but guess not.  The yogurt itself was fairly white in color and when mixed with the cream cheese mixture, well as you can see, the end color result of this cheesecake cookie cup.

This recipe yields 9 cheesecake cups and feel free to decorate the top with fresh blueberry or blueberry preserved for colors contrast.  This is one easy dessert to make and kids friendly too.

Baked Tilapia with Honey Mustard and Panko

It was a fish day and I was cracking my head for something new to serve my family.  I remembered I did a honey mustard sauce tilapia fish before which my girls loved.  So, I thought I would make the same sauce again except this time I added some crumbs topping.  I used panko and added some seasonings and coated the fish before baking.  I bought the fish on sales for $3.50 per pound and it came with 5 fillets, so for two fillets, it only cost me $1.40.  It was cheaper than the yam leaves dish that I served along this.  I paid $2.93 for a bunch of yam leaves.  But overall, it was still less than $5 for a two dishes meal.