Dark Hersheys Banana & Chocolate Chips Muffins

I had a few over ripe bananas yesterday and made Chocolate Chips Banana muffins and they turned out really delicious. My teens and girl love them so much! Best part was that they were super duper easy to make. Here is the recipe.Hope you and your loved ones will love them!

Make 20 medium-sized cups

Ingredients;

 3 over ripe bananas, mash & set aside
150 grams plain flour
4 tbspns Hersheys cocoa powder
1 tspn bicarbonate soda
80 grams soft brown sugar
1 tspn vanilla essense
1/2 cups Hersheys semi-sweet chocolate chips
100 grams butter
2 eggs


Methods:

1) Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Sieve the flour together with cocoa powder and bicarbonate soda and set aside. 

2) Melt the butter in microwave oven. Next, add the brown sugar to the butter and with a hand beater, beat the mixture till the sugar dissolves slightly. Add the eggs and vanilla essense and beat well. Then add the mashed bananas & mix well. 

3) Next, fold in the flour. Lastly, add the chocolate chips and mix well. Pour into baking cups each cup filling about 3/4 full and bake for 15 minutes. Serve warm or chilled. Enjoy! 

                    

Crispy Noodles

Crispy Noodles. It's my family's favorite Chinese dish.This dish is relatively easy to prepare. All you need is to cook the seafood broth and blanch vegetables. As for the noodles, you just need to use Yee Mee which you can purchase at any supermarket.

Ingredients:

1 packet Yee Mee

For the Seafood Broth: 

2 large onions
10 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
2 tbspn light soya sauce
3 tbspn sweet soya sauce
seafood of choice- I use some Toman fillet cut into cubes, some prawns, slices of fish cakes and crab sticks.
some olive oil for frying
1 tbspn sesame oil 
2 tbspn cornflour mix with lil water - to thicken the broth
1 cube no msg chicken stock & some pepper
3 litres of water 
2 eggs
seasalt (optional) *most of the sauces already have salt in them.

Garnish:

- blanched chye sim/ bok choy
- sliced bird's eye chillies in light soya sauce
- chopped Chinese Parsley and spring onions
- fried shallots


Methods:

1) Blend the onions, garlic and ginger coarsely. Heat cooking pot with olive oil and fry the blended ingredients till fragrant. 

2)Next, add the light soya sauce and sweet soya sauce and mix well. Pour  water slowly into the pot and leave to boil. Add more water if you wish to have more broth.Throw in the stock and boil further. Add all the seafood ingredients, sesame oil and pepper. Crack the egg into the broth and stir gently.

3) Lastly, add the cornflour mixture to thicken the broth. 

4) Place Yee Mee in a bowl and pour the seafood broth over the noodles and garnish as shown in the picture below. Serve hot. Enjoy!

  


 

Simple Spicy Belacan (Shrimp Paste) Fried Rice.

Simple Spicy Belacan (Shrimp Paste) Fried Rice.

Ingredients:

5- 6 cups of cooked rice
1 bowl dried chillies ( soaked in water and drain)
2 large chopped onions
4-5 cloves of garlic
half handful of dried shrimp
2 inch belacan (dried shrimp paste)
a small bowl of prawns (remove skin and de-veined) 
some sea-salt to taste
olive oil for frying
a cup of mixed frozen vegetables
2-3 scrambled eggs


Methods:

1) Blend dried chillies, onions, garlic, dried shrimp and belacan with some water into a thick paste.
2) Heat a frying pan with olive oil and fry the paste till fragrant. Then add the prawns. When the prawns are cooked, add the frozen vegetables and some sea-salt to taste. Then add the cooked rice and mix well. Lastly, add the scrambled eggs and turn off the heat. Serve hot. You can also serve as shown in the second pix below with sunny side up egg, air-fried anchovies and fish crackers.

Simple Scones.

SCONES. A scone is a single-serving cake or quick bread. They are usually made of wheat, barley or oatmeal, with baking powder as a leavening agent, and are baked on sheet pans. They are often lightly sweetened and are occasionally glazed.(source: wikipedia)

Ingredients:
 
2 cups plain flour
1 tbspn baking powder
50 gm cold salted butter, diced
1 egg beaten
1tspn vanilla essence 
1 tbpn caster sugar
1/2 tspn of salt
75 ml milk

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 180°C & place 
2) Sift flour & baking powder together. Add the salt and sugar. Rub in the butter using your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. 
3) Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture, add in the egg & milk & mix gently to a soft dough & knead the dough. Cover with a dry cloth and leave to rest for 15 min.
4) Next, on a floured surface, roll the dough to abt 2 cm inch in thickness & cut using cookie cutter into 12 circles. (abt 5 cm diameter cookie cutter)
5) transfer the cut dough to baking pan & brush with some egg yolk & bake about 10- 15 mins till golden brown. Serve hot with jam and clotted cream(optional). You can also add some raisins in the scones before baking them. Enjoy!

Mee Bakso

Mee Bakso is a famous Indonesian dish which is somewhat identical with Mee Soto, only this dish has meatball instead of slices of chicken meat. Bakso or baso is Indonesian meatballs commonly made using beef. I learned to cook Mee Bakso from my mum's previous Indonesian helper and it is one of my family's favorite dish. It's relatively easy to prepare. Hope you'll enjoy it with your loved ones.

Ingredients:

1 kg egg noodle or rice vermicelli/vermicelli pasta for a healthier version. 
1 kg meat balls
2-3 liters water
200 grams sliced beef
4 large red onions
6 garlic cloves
1/2 inch ginger
1/2 inch tumeric
1 1/2 tbspns white peppercorns
1-2 stalks of leek
4-5 lime leaves
1 stalk of lemongrass
some sea salt to taste
some olive oil 

Garnish:
some chopped spring onions and chinese parsley

fried shallots
some blanched chye sim and bean sprouts 

Chilli paste:
15 red bird's eyes chillies
1/2 cup sweet soya sauce
3-4 garlic
juice of 4-5 lime




Methods:

1) Blend the red onions, garlic, ginger, tumeric, white peppercorns in a blender with a lil water added to it into a smooth paste.

2) In a pot, heat olive oil and throw in the leek, lemongrass and lime leaves. Then add in the paste and fry till fragrant. Next, add the sliced beef and cook till the beef changes color. Pour in the water and boil for about half an hour to prepare the beef broth. Add more water if necessary.

3) Lastly, add the meatballs and cook further till the meatball is cooked. For the chilli paste, blend the bird's eyes chillies, sweet soya sauce, lime juice and garlic together and set aside.

4) If you're using egg noodles, just add hot boiling water to the noodles and leave it for a few minutes to allow the noodles to cook and drain the water. The same for rice vermicelli. 

5) Serve as shown in the picture below. Enjoy the dish hot. 

Mee Bakso using egg noodles.

My healthier version using vermicelli pasta.

Herbed Basmati Rice with Prawns.

Basmati rice 

Basmati rice is aromatic rice grown in India and Pakistan. It has a nut-like texture and a buttery flavor. It is considered long-grain white rice and is lower in starch than other varieties. According to The Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition, this means that Basmati rice does not raise blood sugar quickly for those concerned with diabetes.

Source: http://article/320971-basmati-rice-dietwww.livestrong.com/

I will be sharing with you my recipe of Herbed Basmati Rice with Prawns. Hope you'll love it. Do leave a comment below once you've tried it and let me know what you think of this simple one-pot dish.

Herbed Basmati Rice with Prawns.

Ingredients;

5 cups of cooked basmati rice
2 large red onions
8 cloves of garlic
a handful pf English parsley

3 tbspn of olive oil
some chopped parsley, spring onions, basil (optional)
 2 eggs (scrambled & set aside)
some prawns (deveined)
sea salt to taste 
some white pepper
some sliced cherry tomatoes

Methods:

1) In blender, blend the onions, garlic and a handful of parsley into a paste.
2) Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and pour the paste inside and fry till fragrant. Then add the prawns. Add sea salt to taste, pepper and the cooked basmati rice. Mix well.
3) Lastly add the scrambled eggs and mix well and throw in the chopped herbs and the sliced cherry tomatoes. Serve hot. 

 

Stir-fried Beef Kailan with Oyster Sauce

Chinese broccoli, or gai-lan (kailan), is a nutritious green leafy vegetable and a member of the Brassica family of vegetables. Also known by its botanical name Brassica var alboglabra, gai-lan broccoli is commonly used in Chinese cuisine, especially in stir-fries or steamed and served with oyster sauce. Potential health benefits of gai-lan broccoli include protection against cancer, cardiovascular benefits, asthma relief, and improved eye health.

Source: http://www.healwithfood.org/health-benefits/gai-lan-chinese-broccoli.php#ixzz3IoSnXAFt

Ingredients

2 pkts Kailan ( I purchased mine from a nearby supermarket)
100-150 grams of beef - slice thinly or you can also use beef sukiyaki
4 chopped garlic
11/2 inch of ginger- sliced thinly
1 red chili- slice thinly
2 tbspn sesame oil

Seasonings:
1 tbspn light soya sauce
2 tbspn oyster sauce
1 tbspn sweet soya sauce

1 tbspn cornflour- add a little water and mix well

Methods;

1) Marinate the beef with the seasonings, chopped garlic, ginger and chili for about half an hour.

2) In the meantime, blanch the kailan in boiling water with a lil olive oil added to it for a few seconds, drain the water and set aside. Make sure the veg don't turn too soft.

3) Heat the pan with sesame oil and fry the marinated beef till the meat is tender. Add a lil water to make sure the beef  don't become too dry. Add the cornflour mixture to thicken the gravy. Lastly, add in the kailan and stir for a few seconds before turning off the heat. Serve hot. Enjoy!