Sesame Wheat Cookies

I saw this cookie posted in auntie Yochana's blog and quickly asked her for the recipe. It looks very good eh? I was delighted when she posted the recipe and I have all the ingredients on hands. So, waited no further, I made her sesame wheat cookies.



You can get auntie Yochana's recipe here. I'm not sure how to describe this cookie. It's neither sweet nor salty. Kind of light and "song song" ( pronounce in Hokkein) with butter and sesame seeds flavors. I think it is suitable to serve this as cookie for cream cheese spread or jam. We just eat it like this though and surprisingly both my girls like it. I gave a bottle away to my friend and the rest my girls finished it in two days!

By the way, I baked mine in 325'F for 20 minutes.

Triangle Spring Rolls

Evy has been asking for my seaweed spring roll. Every time she sees my blog and saw the seaweed picture at the title of my blog, she has been asking, "Mommy, I want to eat that, can you make it again?". After numerous requests from her, I finally made her some. Reason being I tried to stay away from deep-fried food if I can, deep-fried food is delicious but can't really eat it too often. This time instead of the wontan wrapper, I used the spring roll wrapper and make it into the triangle shape. I provided a step-by-step pictures guide for those who doesn't know how it was made. Remember to seal it with cornstarch+water mixture (it acts as a glue).





As for my recipe, it's really simple.

Ingredients:

Ground pork
Chopped Scallion/green onion
Chopped carrot
White pepper
Salt
Chinese cooking wine
Sesame oil

1 nori sheet (for making sushi), cut into squares as shown above
Spring roll wrappers (use as needed)
Cornstarch + water mixture (as glue)

Method:

1. Marinate the ground pork, carrot and scallion with the above seasoning for an hour (keep in refrigerator).

2. Cut each spring roll wrapper into three long pieces. Place one piece on a cutting board. Put a nori sheet on top, place some marinated pork filling on top, add another piece of nori and brush the spring roll all over with the glue. Wrap the spring roll as shown above.

3. Deep-fry the spring roll in medium heat hot oil until golden brown and filling is cooked through. Serve with Thai sweet chili sauce or tomato ketchup.

Excellent Award

I would like to say a big THANK YOU again to Rainbows for awarding me with this Excellent Award. Now I would love to pass it to:

Lily's Wai Sek Hong
Soy and Pepper
Beachlover's Kitchen
Camemberu - Blogging Food from Singapore, Malaysia and Japan!

for the excellent job they did and still do on their blogs, great job ladies!!

Cost Saving Dinner

With the high gas prices these days, home cook dinner is the way to safe. Due to the hike in gasoline, the grocery we buy at the store is more expensive too. Cooking dinner at home can be easy and it doesn't need to be TV dinner or frozen pizza. Just throw a Tilapia fish fillet (about $0.65 each, $2.50 a pound at WalMart frozen seafood section) in 450'F oven for 10 minutes and you get yourself a delicious dinner. For us, I prepared a simple eggs fried rice to go with it. Another suggestion is, you can make some instant white rice with mango salsa to go with the fish too.

For preparing this fish, I just lined the baking pan with a piece of aluminum foil so that after we done eating, I just threw away the foil. No washing necessary. First, I sprayed the fish with cooking spray. Then, I seasoned the top of the fish fillet with Bay seasoning, a little mixed peppers and lastly some homemade bread crumbs (yup just the top). Then it went into preheated 450'F oven for 10 minutes. Viola, you have yourself a healthy, cheap, delicious, fast and easy dinner.

Rose Flavored Konnyaku Jelly

What these three ingredients combine into? A pretty in pink Konnyaku Jelly with kiwi seeds. As for konnyaku powder goes, I still very much prefer the Red man brand. The texture provided by this brand is more chewy as opposed to the other brand that I had tried. I bought these Red man kiwi seeds and konnyaku powder on my last trip home. I always fascinated by the kiwi seeds and so glad that I saw it on the shelf. Now that I have tasted it, I can let you know that this seed is for decoration only. You can't really taste the seeds while eating the jelly. But it sure add a little something to the jelly and makes it very pretty.



I made this rose jelly before and really loved the flavor it gave. So, I decided to share it with my readers. Of course you can omit the kiwi seeds if you don't have it. For the above, I just wanted to showcase the new Konnyaku jelly mold that I acquired at Ng Ming Huat, JB. I simply love the bears and turtles! I heard so much about Ng Ming Huat that while I was in JB, I just had to ask my hubby to bring me there. Luckily he still know the way after these many years. One thing I like to say about this shop is, it seriously needs expansion (or a bigger shop) and organization. The way I had to dig through some products, walked through that shop and came out with dirty hands, I also don't want to say more.

Ingredients:

Kiwi seeds (1/2 tsp. kiwi seeds and follow the package direction)
1 pkg of Red man Konnyaku powder
1 cup of white sugar
1/4 tsp. Rose essence (preferably the brand above)
950ml water

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix the konnyaku powder and sugar together. Set aside.

2. In a pot, add in the water and stir in (1) and the kiwi seeds. Turn on the heat and stir continuously until it boils. Turn off heat and stir for 5 minutes more or until no more bubbles.

3. Pour into the desired mold and let it set in the refrigerator for 3 hours.

For those who are unfamiliar with Konnyaku jelly can read about it here.

Braised Chicken with Dried Bean Curd Sticks

I love to cook this dish for my family because it is healthy and delicious. This is one of my home cook dishes that I think is also one of yours. I think this dish is pretty common in a household that cook every day. The only different is I used skinless and boneless chicken breast instead of the whole cut out chicken. Sharing with you my way of cooking this dish.

Ingredients:

1 skinless and boneless chicken breast, sliced and marinated with soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, white pepper and cornstarch.

4 dried bean curd sticks, soaked in warm water until slightly soften, cut into 2 inches length.

1 star anise

2 Tbsp. Light soy sauce

1 Tbsp. Dark soy sauce

1 1/2 cup Water

1 tsp. brown cane sugar (or brown sugar)

Method:

1. Heat a saucepan with some oil. Fry chicken until half cooked. Add in star anise. Fry for a little while. Add in bean curd sticks and water.

2. Add in light and dark soy sauce. Let it boil and turn the heat to low, covered and let it simmer for an hour or until the bean curd sticks are completely soften.

3. Add in the cane sugar and give it a stir. Do a taste test to see whether you need to add more salt or sugar. Serve hot.

We really enjoy this dish and I hope you like it too.

Stomach Flu

What is a stomach flu? I have no idea before until it strikes my daughters. Out of the blue, Edda started to throw out one night. We thought it was a one time thing, cleaned her up and put her to bed. Then, the next morning the same thing happened again. Whatever she ate, out it came, even my breast milk! So, the next day we made an appointment and brought her to see her pediatrician. Then, the pediatrician explained it was a stomach flu, it was a virus that has been going around. Asked me not to give her milk, ice-cream and greasy food. Just something light and mostly water or Gatorade, just let her body cleaned or cleared itself. So, I mainly gave her fluid the next day and no vomit from her. The following day, she started to show interest in food again so I gave her a little here and there and watched what happen. Well, it turned into diarrhea, so she had been diarrhea the whole day. On the third day, she was back to her normal self again. And then it was her sister turns to throw out. Luckily we knew the pattern already, so only fluid for Evy the next day and she did well, no vomit. The following day, she started eating and she diarrhea the whole day and on the third day, she had recovered. I guess I got infected as well because I too got diarrhea for a day and felt like vomiting the next. This stomach virus flu is indeed infectious and messy (as in cleaning after your little ones). Too bad I have no idea how to prevent it, washing hands all the times?