Assam Prawns

Assam Prawns is a Penang speciality dish. I love this dish, the sourish tamrind taste and the sweetness of the prawns is such a good combination. You are guaranteed to find this dish at any Economy Rice stall in Penang. I haven't eaten this dish for many many years, I had the impression it's messy handling tamarind pulp and had no idea where to get it too!

Thanks to the increasing migration of Asians to Melbourne, many Chinese grocery stores now sell ingredients that weren't available years ago, and they also come in easy to use form. Like this Tamarind Pulp Concentrate I found in the store the other day, all i needed to do is to marinade the prawns with this concentrate then pan fried. How easy can it be?!! I am so happy to be able to eat this dish again and it brought back many fond memories of Penang.

Chinese Pumpkin Cake (Steamed & Pan Fried)

Pumpkin is in season, only $0.99 per kg in a green grocer. I have wanted to make chinese pumpkin cake for awhile, first time tempted was when my friend Sarah tried it out in a care group. I finally stop procrastinating and gave it a go, following Florence's recipe for both the steamed and pan fried version.


I find the pumpkin taste not as strong as i would like it to be, might try to modify a bit next time. Red bean paste does go well with the pumpkin cake. I used the ready made red bean paste from chinese shop but it is a bit sweet. But then i can't really complain too much because I am too lazy to make my own red bean paste from scratch :)

Radish Cake (蘿蔔糕)

Chinese Radish cake is one of my favourite yum cha item. It is usually steamed and then pan fried before being served in chinese restaurant, but I like the steamed version. Eventhough the pan fried version is yummy (especially if it's a little bit burnt) but the steamed version is full of unpretentious radish flavour, I just love it!

What is even better is it's actually quite easy to make and only involved a few simple ingredients: radish, rice flour, chinese mushrooms, dried shrimps and chinese sausages (I used pork meat instead of chinese sausage as it is healthier and taste good too). Using 2.5kg of radish i was able to fill 6 small aluminium round trays to share with friends and family.

No knead Focaccia

Had been itching to try out this no-knead Focaccia recipe for awhile now. This is a really easy and minimal work recipe and the result is fantastic! David and I enjoyed it so much I decided to bake it again with variation to the toppings tomorrow!

Mocha Choc Muffin

Have not done much baking in the last 3 months due to travelling, family comittment, got a cold in between too and of course work! The longer this drags on the more lack of motivation to bake. This week I was inspired by a good friend and thought i'd start by baking something quick and simple - muffins.

This recipe only takes me 30 mins to prepare and another 20 minutes to bake. The recipe was originally chocolate muffin but I had dark mocha chocolate block in the fridge so this nicely turned out to be mocha chocolate muffins!

Crispy Chicken With Mango Kerabu

Had a craving for this dish hence made it for a gathering eventhough it's not mango season.
Supposed to pour the sauce over the chicken but as the sauce is spicy, decided to leave it for people to add the sauce themselves in case some don't take spicy food.

I am quite happy with the crispy chicken, it will nicer if served fresh after frying as it was crsipy.

Mixed berries muffin

Baked muffins again as this requires very little time compared to baking a cake. Used up the fresh blueberries in the fridge and some frozrn raspberries I usually keep in freezer, add some flour, egg, sugar, milk and baking powder - bake it in a 180C oven for 15 min, then out come this yummy muffins.