Homemade vanilla mango fruit leather

Homemade ones taste so much better than commercial ones. This is similar to an earlier recipe.

Got a big bag of cheap mangoes so decided to make some yummy fruit leather.

Blend some cut up mangoes in a food processor, 1-2 tbsp of honey to taste and 1 tsp of good quality vanilla, spread out onto a good quality silicon paper and bake @ 100C degrees for 6 hours or until the fruit is dry to the touch. This time I made 5 trays in a row so I got a good haul! :)

Roll them short or long for some homemade fruit goodness!

Korean spicy anchovies (myulchi bokkeum)

Was excited to give this recipe by Ju a go since it looked pretty easy and tasty! :)

While this side dish (banchan) does taste nice, personally still prefer our Malaysian crispy spicy assam pedas ikan billis - there is just no substitute.

Ingredients
1 cup (about 55g) dried anchovies (ikan bilis)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
1/2 tbsp corn syrup or honey
4 tsp water
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sesame seeds (I upped to 1 tbsp cos I love it!)

Method:

1. Heat up pan and dry-fry sesame seeds briefly. As soon as they turn light brown, remove from pan and set aside.

2. Stir 1 cup of small dried anchovies in a heated pan for 1 minute.

3. Add 1 tbsp oil and stir it until crispy and set aside.

4. Make sauce by mixing 1 tbsp hot pepper paste, 1 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp minced garlic, 4 tsp water, 1/2 tbsp corn syrup (or honey) in a bowl, and then pour into pan.

5. Heat up the sauce and simmer until the sauce looks shiny and has thickened a little.

6. Return anchovies back to the sauce and turn the heat off.

7. Add 1 tsp sesame oil and sesame seeds. Toss and mix everything well.

Easy Double Chocolate Cupcake

One of those good one-bowl mix recipes, don't even have to cream the butter and sugar together. The results was really good for such a simple recipe. Definitely a keeper!

Recipe adpated from here

Ingredients

Cake:

4 cups self raising flour
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
1 cup cocoa, sifted
1 250g pkt milk choc chips
1 1/2 cups milk
4 eggs, lightly beaten
250g melted butter, cooled
2 tsp vanilla essence

Icing:
1/2 cup cream
200g dark chocolate
3 cups icing mixture
100g butter softened

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Set 30 patty pan cases on 2 trays.

2. Mix flour, sifted cocoa and castor sugar together.

3. Combine eggs, milk, butter and vanilla essence.

4. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir gently with a metal spoon to combine.

5. Bake for 12-15 mins or until skewer in the centre comes out clean.

For the icing:

6. In a glass bowl place cream and dark chocolate. Microwave for 1 minute and stir until all the chocolate is melted, making a ganache.

7. Whip the butter until pale and slowly add the icing mixture and ganache. Add a few drops of milk if the icing is too thick. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and dust with cocoa for decoration.

Strawberry rhubarb jam

With the leftover rhubarb, decided to make some jam.

Based largely on an earlier recipe found here. This time added a mixture of rhubarb, strawberries and apple.

Turned out great, my niece loved it so much she took jam sandwich to school everyday for three weeks!

Apple and Rhubarb Crumble

Have always wondered how rhubarb vegetable taste like. Its read in colour and looks very similar to celery but its very tart in taste.

Decided that a crumble would be the wisest choice and adapted elsie's recipe.

Ingredients

Filling:

2 sticks rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 small green apple, cut into cubes

1/2 lemon juice

1 1/4 cups white sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Crumble topping:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick or 4 ounces), cut into cubes

1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C degrees.

2. In a medium sized baking dish, mix together the filling.

3. For the crumble, rub flour and sugar into butter. Add in rest of crumble ingredients and mix until coarse crumbles. Spread topping mixture over rhubarb mixture.

4. Bake in oven for 35-45 minutes, until the filling is bubbly and the topping is lightly browned. Let cool for at least a half an hour before serving.

5. Best eaten with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream!

It was nice, gooey, nutty and lovely with ice cream or cream.
Personally think it tastes even better the next day! Just warm it up in the microwave for a few seconds.

Barley and Thermal Pots

A twist to normal barley water, added some lemongrass.

I'm a huge fan of lemongrass so I find this very refreshing; especially when bored with normal barely water.

This drink is very easy to prepare - boil for about 1.5 hours washed barley in some water together with some winter melon (for natural sweetness) and a few bruised stalk of lemongrass.

I've been having a lot of fun experimenting with thermal pots especially cooking soups. They use their own internal heat to 'cook' the food stored in the pot. It also keeps the liquid food warm for at least 8 hours. I find this way of cooking very energy efficient. But having said that, for soups I usually simmer it for at least a good 40 min before putting into the thermal pot for a richer and more flavourful taste.

Recently found them very useful to cook rice too *especially useful if you don't own a rice cooker*. No more lid-on, lid-off. For those of you who cook rice over the stove I'm sure you know what I am talking about. ;)

Wash rice and add in required water. Bring water to boil for about 3-5 mins. Turn fire off, cover and put stainless steel pot into thermal casing. Leave for about 30 mins and viola, you have warm cooked rice. I find this very useful as I can precook rice ahead of time and still have warm rice when you return much later.

For other ideas, check out bentopet's recipes.

Crab rangoon

Ingredients
8 ounces cream cheese
8 ounces fresh crab meat or canned crab meat, drained and flaked
1 teaspoon red onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon light soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 green onion, finely sliced
1 large clove garlic, smashed, peeled, and finely minced
1 package wanton wrappers
1 small bowl water
Oil for deep-frying, as needed

Method:
1. For the filling, mix together all the ingredients except for the water wrapper and oil.

2. Wrap 1-2 tsp of filling into the wanton wrapper. Wet the edges of the wrapper to seal, repeat until all the filling or wrappers are used up.

3. Keep completed crab rangoon covered with damp towel to keep them from drying out.

4. Heat wok and add oil for deep-frying. Try not to overcrowd the wok. Deep-fry until they are golden brown, about 3 minutes, turning once. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

5. Best eaten warm.

This is one of my favourite appetizers or party finger food.