KangKung Belacan

Ooooohh! simply delicious is what this dish is! Spicy, slightly salty and smells great!! At least that is how an asian palate would interprete this dish. For the un-initiated, belacan might smell a tad offensive! Anyway, when I got my hands on a bunch of kangkung from the chinese supermarket, who cares what the neighbouts will think, out comes the belacan and in two ticks, heaven on a plate! yumms!

Irish Stew

Handy one pot dish is what this is. Chop and cut everything, dump into a casserole and stick it into the oven. Although the cooking time may be long, the lack of dishes to wash up really makes it worthwhile! Made with Guiness Stout (hence the name Irish) as one of the ingredients, this is a great warming dish for the colder weather.

Kung Po Chicken

The trick to this stir-fry dish is speed and a very big fire under your wok! So have everything prepared and ready to hand before you start. I like the vegetables to be crunchy when done hence the requirement for speed and the big fire. Also, try not to breathe too deep when frying the dried chillies or you will have a choking fit!

Dhall Curry (with Roti)

We get really good frozen roti canai from the indian spice shop here so no need to make them ;-) They used to come with dhall curry but now you can only get the roti so I had to make my own dhall curry. Like most curry, dhall curry is never good if eaten freshly made, it requires some standing time before the taste develops. Note, no matter how hard I try, there is just no way to make dhall curry look appertizing in a photo, you just have to take my word for it, it was delicious!

Honey Buns (Chelsea Buns)

This is the second time I've tried to bake these honey buns, better known at Chelsea Buns around here. These were made with dried cranberries instead of the usual raisins, just for the simple reason that I had cranberries kicking around and no raisins! Anyway, this is one of my Amah's favourites which she buys from the market along with the day's groceries for her breakfast, this one is for you, Amah!

Fruit Scones

The british love their tea-time and scones are one of the all-time favourite tea-time snack (it is also said scones have a scottish origin). Goes really well with a cup of tea. Scones come in various forms and this one is a fruit scone, the trademark of a good scone is that when baked it has to achieve a certain 'height' and also have a natural horizontal break in the middle. Best eaten warm, scones are broken into two along the natural break (no cutting with a knife) and eaten with jam and cream (clotted cream is heaven, but it might clot your arteries and send you to heaven earlier too!).




The fluffy inside is like a cross between bread and cake

Lotus Paste Mooncake

This year, 2009, mooncake festival falls on the 3rd of October and I am all prepared for it. Last year, we had major repair work in the kitchen so I missed out and couldn't make any mooncakes. After patiently waiting for a year, I finally get to use the funky plastic moulds that mom bought for me. I'm usually all for authenticity but the plastics moulds were easier to manage than wooden ones and the mooncakes turned out well. To learn more about this festival click here

The plain lotus paste

The egg yolk lotus paste


The lotus seeds soaking and the funky plastic moulds

Potato Ikan Bilis Sambal

Friend Iain grew some vegetables in his garden this year and he gave some potatoes to me... so what to do with them? I remembered that I had some ikan bilis (dried anchovies) bought from Pangkor when I last went home that needed eating so decided to make this sambal side dish with the two ingredients. This is another of my favourite so just the sambal alone with steamed rice was enough to make me a satisfying meal!