Homemade Chicken Strips

Decided to make some crispy chicken strips for the kids. This CB really making me find joy in food. I cant see any much interesting things to do everyday EXCEPT to cook and go around the daily chores. Life is boring, cooping at home. Haha~ 

Basically everyday shopping for food or nice cutlery, utensils, pots etc. Back to chicken, this chicken strips is basically lightly marinate and then dip in panko and deepfried. Goes so well for tea break or as a main dish for meal time. Kids super love and best thing its homemade so its not heavily seasoned! Have fun making them! 

Crispy Chicken Strips

1pc boneless chicken breast, cut into strips

2tsp garlic powder

2tsp onion powder

1tsp huatiao

1tsp light soy sauce

1tsp sesame oil

1tbsp cornflour

dash of pepper

1egg

panko crumbs

1) Marinate the chicken strips with above seasonings for at least 2hrs

2) Crack an egg 10mins before frying and mix it well with the chicken 

3) Coat with panko n fry til both sides are nicely brown. Serve warm

Baked Donuts

Chanced upon this recipe few days back shared by Y3n_Kitchen, love to see her post in facebook as she has wonderful bakes and creations! It always look so yummy that I wished I could just reach out into my hp screen to take a piece and try it! 

Seeing how bouncy it is in the video she shared, I decided to bake and try it out. Saved the hassle of deep-frying and especially at this period, baked products seems better and less heaty! And since tml we dont have enough bread to go around, so I decided today is the day to try them! 

Never good at shaping bread dough, even if it means cutting them with a cutter. It always goes out of shape even though the ‘cut product’ looks good. Reason is that they always goes out of shape once they go for the 2nd proofing. Dont ask me why ok, I think its the way I roll the dough. Perhaps the thickness isnt evenly rolled out, or perhaps some other reason. I need to explore. Hee. So mandatory shot before they are ready from proofing. 🤞🏻🤞🏻

Oh thankful that most of them came out well, the hearts are still well formed! The texture is chewy and firm, definitely like a donut texture. Its soft, but heavier than breads, if you know what I mean. 

I couldnt wait and took a bite straight out of the oven. My picture definitely doesnt do justice to the donut. My kids had a few at 1 go! They want more and totally want more! A keeper! ❤️❤️

Baked Donut (adapted from Y3n Kitchen’s)

460g plain flour

2tsp salt

50g sugar

11g yeast

225ml cold milk

80ml cold water

58g butter

1) Pour all wet ingredients into breadmaker

2) Add in flour then put sugar, salt n yeast at different corners of the breadmaker

3) Once the mixture comes into a dough, add in butter and continue kneading

4) Dough is ready when it looks smooth. Leave to proof for 1hr or til it doubled in size

5) Punch out air and roll it into 1/2 inches thick, cut with donut cutter

6) Go for 2nd proof. Brush with milk and bake at 160deg for 15mins, or til it is browned nicely

7) Dust with icing sugar and serve

Burnt Basque Cheesecake

Finally did this burnt basque cheesecake after waiting so long! Hub’s bday happen during this Circuit Breaker period. And unfortunately, most of the places selling cakes were unable to operate and thus I think baking my own is safest. 

Worse if it is so hard to get all the ingredients or groceries lately online. Q-ing isnt an option as it is always packed with long Qs. Only go every 2-3 days when we need to buy bread. Even online and NTUC ran out of whipping. Thank goodness I alway stock the basic flours and sugar so I decided to take the chance and went with replacing whipping cream with milk. 🤞🏻🤞🏻

Thankfully the texture turns out well. Being a noob, and haven tried a burnt cheesecake before, I didnt know it was meant to be wobbly and creamy for the cake texture. After baking for 30mins, cake was so wobbly that I continue to bake for another 20-30mins and even had to top bake to burnt the crust. Only after baking and keeping the cake did I find out from a friend that its supposed to be creamy on the inside, instead of a firm texture. So glad mine wasnt too far off even with the lack of whipped cream as well as overbaking it! ❤️

Happy birthday my dear hubby! May we grow old together still loving each other very much for as long as we are together! Thank for all the love and tolerance along this long road. Today marks the 14th year of our ROM anniversary too! I love you and will always do. Hope you love the dinner spread tonight! ❤️

(Homemade tumeric honey wings, Homemade shrimp tofu, Stir fry Nai Bai, Tomyum Steam Fish)

Burnt Basque Cheesecake (adapted with slight modifications from MyMindPatch)

250g creamcheese

40g sugar

2 eggs

180g milk

15g corn flour

1tsp vanilla essence

1tsp lemon juice

1) Melt creamcheese and sugar til smooth over hot water

2) Add in eggs 1 at a time

3) Add milk and vanilla, mix well

4) Stir in cornflour until no more lumps

5) Mix in lemon juice

6) Bake at bottom rack for 20mins at 200deg then shift to middle rack and continue for another 30-40mins (You can change to top heat for the last 5mins to burnt the top, WATCH OVER CAREFULLY)

7) Leave to cool in oven fully then chill overnight before serving

Egg Tarts

Today woke up about an hour earlier so decided to put the egg tarts into plan! Heee! Have been wanting to bake them as craving for them! This CB really got me so much different craves. So expensive to grab some of the cravings and also too troublesome to get hub to travel out just to satisfy my tamjiak-ness. We are minimising from eating outside food for a while too!

The dough was easy to make but I think I may add 10g more of flour. The weather is too hot and kept on want to melt on me! I had a hard time putting them in the cupcake cases. Haha! Decided to make them in the cases so I can take them out easily. The egg filling was easy to make and I added some vanilla to enhance the flavour! 1 thing to note is I think I have enough filling for 2x dough recipe as I added in the balance egg from making the dough since I was using those smaller eggs from NTUC. 

Sieve them twice, didnt want to be lazy. Then pour them in the tart shell almost 90% filled. Gently tuck them into oven for 180deg x20 mins and another 150deg for 10mins til set! Yums!!

Tarts wasnt so pretty as I tried my best to fit them nicely in the cases. Also need to work fast to prevent melting dough. Some got stick on the cases but luckily still can be taken off! 😋

The inside filling is so soft n wobbly like! Oh gosh! The kind of filling I loved!!! My littlest had 1 immediately and said No Sharing! He gave double thumbs up!

Egg Tarts (adapted from dingoozatfood)

60g butter, room temp (i used unsalted)

30g icing sugar

15g beaten eggs

1tsp vanilla essence

100g plain flour

3 pandan leaves, chopped smaller

85g sugar

80g water

2 eggs (i added in bal egg from the dough)

1tsp vanilla

125ml milk

1) Mix icing sugar and butter til paste like

2) Mix in eggs, vanilla and plain flour. Chill before use

3) Put pandan leaves, sugar and water to boil. Cool

4) Whisk eggs, milk and vanilla together

5) Gently mix in cool sugar mixture. Sieve 2-3x

6) Roll dough and cut into 6 portion. Fit them in tart cases well

7) Prick holes with fork and pour in egg filling til 90% full

8) Bake at 180deg for 20mins then reduce to 150deg for 10mins

Fried Tofu Pillows

This Circuit breaker makes me find new things to try at home. Mainly cos I have been cooking 2 meals a day til I am going empty on ideas for what to cook. Cooking same thing over and over seems boring for me, not to mention if they gets tired from eating same thing over and over. But 1 thing they never gets bored of is Pasta and Wraps! 😂

I mashed Bobo fishpaste and 2 tubes of egg tofu, seasoned with just sesame oil, pepper and mix with cornflour. Steamed for 20mins, cool thoroughly before cutting them up, coat with tapioca flour and panfry in shallow oil. Very simple and straightforward. I didnt further add seasoning as the fishpaste is already with flavours. It would be just nice on its own or to dip in chilli or mayo. 

Served along with a plate of greens, meat and some leftover storebought chicken wings. That’s our dinner! ❤️

Fried Tofu Pillow
2 tube egg tofu
1 bobo fish paste (can be purchased from any supermarket)
1 tsp sesame oil
dash of pepper
1 tbsp cornflour

For frying: Some tapioca flour for coating

1) Mashed all above and mix well. Steam in an oiled plate for 20mins from boiling water
2) Cool completely and cut into desired sizes
3) Coat tapioca flour and panfry til crispy and brown

Banana Bread

Hub was requesting for me try baking banana bread. So i roughly googled and found this recipe. Decided to go with this recipe as I am sold by how delicious and soft the banana bread looks!

First time trying and I was a bit nervous. First my bananas was short, only managed to mash 200g of bananas. Top up with some milk to 250g and mash them up. Keeping fingers crossed it will dry up the bread. Heee..

Took a while to bake as it was a last min decision. Surprisingly looks good and smell so nice! Couldnt help it and cut a small piece once I took out from the oven and get hub to taste test! Hurray! Passed!! He says its yummy! 

Simple, easy and no mixer required! Do try it at home!!

Banana bread (adapted and modified from butternutbakeryblog)
380g banana
180g plain flour
1/2tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
130ml sour cream
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla essence
110g butter
150g brown sugar

1) Melt butter and whisk with sugar til paste like
2) Add in eggs, vanilla and sour cream and mix well
3) Mix in mashed bananas
4) Fold in flour til no streaks of flour can be seen
5) Bake at 170deg for 40-60mins or til skewer comes out clean

Creamcheese Sponge Cake

Lately exploring spongecake as it has been a norm for the youngest to ask for cake. Try my best to bake 1 as soon as he finished them. Remembering my creamcheese in the fridge, I decided to make use of it. Ordered a huge slab and need to find ways to finish them up before it spoils. 

Didnt take much pics as was rushing thru today with breakfast, lunch and dinner prep among all the chores that need to be done. Managed to squeeze in this bake just before I had my breakfast. Texturewise, its GOOD! Tastewise I think can be improved. I would consider adding some vanilla and lemon juice for some zest. Shall try that soon and update on the result.

Favourite way to keep is store them in airtight box, cut readily in bitesized! Youngest gave thumbs up and keep coming back to ‘queue’ for more! Even big kids too. Bet I need to explore my modifications soon! 

Creamcheese Spongecake (adapted from JeannieTay)

100g creamcheese

100g milk

40g butter

2 yolks

40g sugar (will increase to 50g next round)

80g plain flour

4 whites

30g sugar

**Will add 1tsp of lemon juice and homemade vanilla extract next bake*

1) Double boil butter, creamcheese and milk til smooth

2) Once mixture is cooled, add yolks then flour

3) Beat meringue into stiff soft peaks

4) Add meringue to batter in 3 additions

5) Steam bake 150deg for 80-90mins

Butter Sponge Cake

Today I decided to bake a butter sponge as past few days i always have a box of banana cake on the table for the littlest to snack on. Yesterday we finished and I didnt baked anything. He was asking for more cake. So I decided to bake something more original and not those heaty chocolatey pastries. Went back to my bookmarks, I decided to bake this Butter Sponge! 

Recipe calls for steam bake and also to melt butter over stove top and mix in flour. Reminds me of the cooked-flour method for chiffon. I felt that the cake is soft, moist and spongy. And the mild vanilla flavour is so yummy! 

Cut them into bitesize and store in airtight. Its gonna last for another 2 days maximum before its all gone! Should try baking this at home for tea break! It goes so well with a cup of coffee or tea! For now, I will keep this recipe and maybe explore changing the flavour soon! ❤️

Butter Sponge Cake (recipe from JeannieTay Blog)
60g Butter
80g Flour
1/2tsp Baking powder
4Yolks
60g Milk
1tsp Vanilla

4 Whites
75g sugar

1) Melt butter over stove and mix in 2/3 of flour til smooth
2) Add in milk and vanilla and stir them well
3) Mix in yolks til smooth and remaining flour
4) Beat whites n sugar til soft stiff peak
5) Fold in 1/3 meringue to butter mixture
6) Pour mixture into remaining meringue and fold in gently til no streaks of whites can be seen
7) Bake at 155deg for 70mins, in a pan of water
8) Leave in oven for 10mins once cake is done to further bake
9) Unmould and cool totally before slicing

Tom Yum Seabass

Lately my hub fell in love with seabass. I decided to trial and make something tangy and spicy. Came up with an idea of using tom yum paste to make a thick sauce. 

First, I panfry the seabass marinated with sesame oil, huatiao and some pepper. Panfry til skin cripsy and nice. Then fry the thick sauce to drizzle over! Oh my gosh! I regret not making more sauce! Its so tangy that it goes SUPER WELL with rice! Total ❤️❤️ Hub gave thumbs up too! So I definitely need to record down what I did so I can make it again!

This was my spread tonight! Kids love egg tofu so much that I make it into 1 dish with round spinach and minced meat. Favourite for them! 

Tom Yum Seabass

1 Seabass fillet, approx 300-400g

1 lemongrass, halve

2 ginger slice

1tsp chopped garlic

1Tbsp tom yum paste

1/3 cup water

4Tbsp milk

4 chilli padi, chopped

Marinate fillet with 1Tbsp sesame oil and huatiao with some pepper

1) Panfry fillet til crispy and brown. Set aside

2) Put some oil, saute lemongrass, ginger and garlic

3) Add jn tom yum paste and water and mix well. Lower fire and add in milk

4) Stir in chilli padi and off fire. Drizzle over fish, serve warm.

Tony roma inspired Ribs

Tonight we had baked ribs. Have been trying and cooking different dishes as we are keeping ourselves home as much as possible to be socially responsible. Only running out for quick errands like groceries and such. Redmart and NTUC slots are like striking toto, sighhhh.... 😔

I sautee some veg, panfry some chicken chops (in case fussy kids doesnt like the ribs) and my first time trying to bake potatoes!! Thankfully the potatoes came out well! Baked them wrapped up in foil at 180deg in my airfryer for 30-40mins. Checking on them by poking through a skewer. If it goes in easily means it is well cooked!

Hub gave thumbs up and kids totally love their meal! Finish up everything on their plates! Satisfying to see them love the meal I cooked!!

In case anyone keen to know the BBQ sauce and steak herbs that I used, this is the one! 

Baked Ribs and Potatoes

1 slab ribs, approx 1 kg

3Tbsp of BBQ sauce

1Tbsp huatiao/wine

1Tbsp sesame oil

1Tbsp chopped parsley

1Tbsp garlic powder

1Tbsp ginger powder

1Tbsp Steak rub

For brushing:

2Tbsp BBQ sauce + 4Tbsp honey + 2Tbsp water

Bake potatoes

Wash and poke holes in potatoes with fork and wrap in foil and airfry at 160deg for 30-40mins

1) Wash and trim off fats from ribs. Peel off the white skin-like membrane

2) Add all the seasonings in a ziplock/container, then put in ribs. Rub all over ribs and make sure it is fully covered. Marinate overnight if possible

3) Wrap ribs in foil, covered and bake at 160deg for 1hr

4) Take ribs out and put on baking paper, no need to cover and brush with the above sauce all over the ribs and continue to bake

5) Take out and brush the sauce every 20mins 

6) Once the meat is soft, using a chopsticks to poke through, it shld goes in easily. Use top heat and charr the ribs for 5-10mins. LOOK AFTER AS IT WILL BURNT EASILY. Serve warm with sides.