Memories in the Cooking

This is the dessert I would make to reduce the effort required for a dinner party.  Ingredients: - 400ml of whipping cream  - 4 large tablespoons of hazelnut chocolate spread  - any toppings (wafer sticks, popcorns)  Procedures:  1) Whip cream until almost stiff.  2) Add hazelnut chocolate spread. Whip a bit more until stiff.  3) Pour chocolate mousse into a serving bowl (or small serving cups).  4) Decorate with any toppings. 

This dessert really brings on the Christmas mood with preserved fruits, spices and a touch of alcohol. It tastes like Christmas fruit cake with mulled wine.  Ingredients:  - assorted preserved fruits (ginger, yuzu, cranberries, raisins, dates etc)  - 1 tablespoon of honey  - 1 dash of alcohol (whiskey or rum)   - vanilla ice-cream  Procedures: 1) Place all the fruits in a pot. Add enough water to just cover the fruits. Let the mixture boil and simmer until the liquid is reduced to a syrup-like consistency.  2) Add honey and alcohol. Let it continue to simmer for another 5 mins. 3) Serve with vanilla ice-cream. 

Today's is the 12th day of Chinese New Year. Let's have a Fish-shaped Osmanthus Jelly to remember it will always be 年年有余 with God because He gives us an abundance life.  Ingredients: - one packet of Konnyaku Jelly  - 1 tablespoon of osmanthus flowers - 250g of rock sugar  - 1000ml of water - 1 tablespoon of wolfberries - 1 can of longan, chopped  Procedures: 1) Add the jelly powder, sugar, water, osmanthus flowers, wolfberries into a pot.  2) Bring it to boil and make sure all sugar and jelly powder dissolved.  3) Pour the jelly liquid into a fish-shaped jelly mould. Let it cool to room temperature and then chill it in a fridge. 

I love Basque Burnt Cheesecake and I am having it for my birthday this year.  Ingredients: - 450g of cream cheese (2 blocks of cheese) - 130g of caster sugar  - 4 eggs - 20g of flour  - 300g of thicken cream  - 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract  - 1 teaspoon of lemon juice  Procedures: - Line baking tin with 2 layers of baking papers.  - Using electric whisk to beat the cream cheese with caster sugar until smooth. Add eggs and beat until well-combined. Add vanilla extract and lemon juice. Mix well.  - Separately, whisk thicken cream with flour until stiff peaks. - Add cream to cream cheese mixture. Mix well.  - Add mixture to baking tin. Knock the tin to remove any trap air.  - Bake at 240 degree celsius for 30 minutes. 

I always have leftover cream from my boy's birthday cheesecake in end Nov. Since I love rich chocolate desserts, I decided to make a rich and velvety chocolate tart with the leftover cream. I am feeling the Christmas holiday mood just by looking at the tarts.  Ingredients: - 2 cups of dark chocolate  - 1 cup of heavy cream (around 400ml)  - 1/4 cup of butter (around 100g) - store-bought pastry casing or home-made biscuit-base - raspberries - icing sugar  Procedures: 1) Bake the pastry casing without filling according to instructions.  2) In a pot, heat up heavy cream and butter. 3) Turn off the fire. Add chocolate and stir it until all are melted.  4) Pour the chocolate into the pastr casing. Let it chill to room temperature and then chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours.  5) Decorate the chocolate tart with raspberries.  6) Dust it with icing sugar. Serve. 

My elder son loves mint Ice-cream. For his birthday this year, he requested for a mint cheesecake. I have modified a little and made him a Mint Nutella Cheesecake. Sounds like Aftereight Chocolate?  Ingredients: - 500g of cheesecake  - 250ml of whipping cream  - 2 gelatin sheets, dissolved in 1/4 cup of hot water - green food colouring - mint food flavouring  - nutella spread  - cocoa powder  - digestive biscuits (1 packet, about 25 biscuits)  - 1 can of condensed milk  - 100g of butter, melted  Procedures: 1) Crush digestive biscuits. Pour melted butter to it and mix it well. Press them on a baking tray to form the base of the cheesecake.  2) In a mixing bowl, add whipping cream. Whip it until firm.  3) In another mixing bowl, add cream cheese and condensed milk. Whip them to mix well.  4) Add the whipped cream to the cream cheese. Mix well with a flat spatula. Add gelatin. Mix well.  5) Pour about 1/3 of the cream cheese...

Durian Pengat is a crowd-pleaser at the National Day dinner party. It is not surprising considering how much Singaporeans love the fruit. Ingredients: - durian flesh of 2 Mao Shan Wang  - 200g of whipped cream  - 250g of coconut milk  - 50g of gula melaka  - half a cup of pandan juice/1 teaspoon of pandan paste  Procedures:  1) Heat up coconut milk and pandan juice. Melt shaved gula melaka. Mix well.  2) Whip cream until firm. Add durian flesh and coconut milk mixture. Mix well.  3) Chill mixture in a fridge. Serve. 

I use air-fryer and the steps for Tonkatsu for the chicken cutlet.  Ingredients: - 3 boneless chicken thighs - 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce  - 1 tablespoon of Chinese cooking wine  - pepper  - 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce  - half a teaspoon of five-spice powder  - 3 tablespoons of salted egg powder  - half a cup of milk  - salt and sugar  - 1 egg  - bread crumbs  - 2 cloves of garlic, minced - curry leaves  - 2 chili padi  Procedures: 1) Marinate chicken thighs in light soya sauce, Chinese cooking wine, pepper, oyster sauce and five-spice powder. Leave it overnight.  2) Add a beaten egg to the chicken thighs.  3) Coat the chicken thighs with bread crumbs  4) Let it air-fry at 180 degree for 30 minutes. Spray some cooking oil on it first. Flip it at the 15 minutes mark.  5) In a frying pan, add minced garlic and vegetable oil. Fry until fragrant. Add curry leaves, chili padi and salted egg yolk powde...

I always thought that this dessert will be very difficult to make. After researching on a few recipes, I came out with a short-cut way to make it within 30 minutes.  Ingredients (for one portion): - 2 mangos  - 1 cup of glutinous rice, soaked for 5-6 hours  - 150g of coconut milk  - 2 tablespoons of sugar  - a pinch of salt  - pandan leaves or pandan extract or blue pea water  - sesame seeds  Procedures: 1) Place the glutinous rice in a small pot. Add either pandan leaves or pandan extract or blue pea water (1:1 ratio for liquid to rice). Cook until the rice absorb all liquid.  2) Place the cook rice in a mixing bowl.  3) In a pot, add coconut milk, sugar and salt. Heat it until all sugar dissolves.  4) Pour the coconut milk in the rice. Save a few tablespoons for later. Mix the coconut milk and rice well. Let it sit for a while.  5) Place the rice, mango on a serving plate. Drizzle the leftover coconut milk. Sprinkle some sesa...

I learnt how to make ondeh ondeh during the school's annual cultural trip to Malacca. This is also a familar dish that can be easily found in Singapore. So, I have decided to cook this dessert as part of this month's endeavor to cook many Singaporean dishes for national day celebration. Ingredients: - 300g of glutinous rice flour and some more for dusting  - 80g of Gula Melaka, shaved   - 100g of fresh pandan leaves, chopped - 100g of freshly grated coconut - 100g of icing sugar  - pandan paste (optional) Procedures: 1) Blend pandan leaves with 1 cup of water to get 100ml of pandan juice. Pass the blended mixture through a sieve to collect the pandan juice. Add a little pandan paste for a brighter colour.  2) Sieve glutinous rice flour and icing sugar. Pour in the pandan juice and mix it well. Add some more water to make the flour into a dough.  3) Portion the dough into 40 balls.  4) Add a little shaved gula melaka into each b...

I realise we made Ice-cream every school break. So far, we had flavours such as coconut, lemon, mango, cookie-and-cream and macadamia nut brittle. This time round, we are making Passion Fruit Ice-cream.  Ingredients: - 500g of whipping cream - 8 passion fruits, extract the fresh  - 1 can of condensed milk  Procedures:  1) Whip the whipping cream into firm peaks.  2) Add condensed milk and whip to mix well.  3) Add half of the passion fruit fresh.  4) Place in the freezer over night.  5) Serve with more passion fruit fresh. 

Carrot Cake is my husband's favourite cake. So, this cake always makes its grand appearance during the annual Father's Day! One interesting observation - carrot cake tastes better after sitting in the fridge for 2-3 days. But, in my family, not much of the carrot cake gets to stay in the fridge for that long. Ingredients: (For cake) - 2 3/4 cup of flour - 4 carrots, grated - 1 can of pineapple, drained from syrup, chopped - 50g of raisins - 1 tablespoon of cinnamon powder - 2 cups of castered sugar - 2 cups vegetable oil - 100g of walnuts, crushed - 4 eggs - 3 teaspoons of baking powder (For cream cheese frosting) - 250g of cream cheese, soften - 220g of butter, soften - 1 cup of icing sugar - vanilla extract Procedures: 1) Whisk eggs, oil and sugar until thicken. Sieve flour, baking powder and cinnamon powder to the egg mixture and mix well. 2) Add grated carrots and pineapples. Mix well. Top up with raisins and crushed walnuts. 3) Bake the cake at 170 ...

Here is a not-so-pretty but super delicious Victoria Sponge Cake. This recipe is for a small cake. Feel free to scale it up. Ingredients: - 2 large eggs - 100g of plain flour - 100g of sugar - 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon of baking powder - 50g of whipping cream - strawberry jam - icing sugar Procedures: 1) Whip sugar, eggs, plain flour, baking powder and vanilla extract until it gives a smooth batter. 2) Pour into a cake tin. Bake at 190 degree celsius for 30 minutes. 3) Cool the cake on a rack. Cut it into half through the cross-section. 4) Whip cream until firm peaks. 5) Spread whipping cream and jam between the 2 layers of cake. 6) Sprinkle with icing sugar.

My boys love to eat lemons. They are always found eating slices of lemons that are used as garnish for dishes or desserts. This March holiday, they requested for home-made lemon sorbet. So, here is a 2-ingredients lemon sorbet. Ingredients: - 4 large lemons - 1 can of condensed milk Procedures: 1) Squeeze the juice of the 4 lemons. 2) Add an equal volume of water to the lemon juice. 3) Add condensed milk. Mix well. 4) Scoop the mixture to ice-cream moulds. Let it freeze for about 4 hours. Enjoy!

This is a delicious dessert that can feed a crowd with little effort. To make it even tastier, you can top it with a scope of vanilia ice-cream. Ingredients: - 3 large mangos, cut into cubes - pomelo pulps of half a pomelo - 1 litre of Peel Fresh Mango Juice - 1 tin of carnation milk - 50g of small sago - 1 cup of caster sugar - vanilia ice-cream (optional) Procedures 1) Place caster sugar in a large serving bowl (2-3 litre). 2) Boil sago in 1 pot of boiling water until it turns transparent. 3) Transfer the sago to the large serving bowl. Stir the sugar with the sago until all of it is dissolved. 4) Blend half the mango cubes. Add it to the serving bowl. 5) Add mango juice and carnation milk to the serving bowl. Mix all the ingredients well. Chill them in the fridge. 6) Serve with mango cubes and pomelo pulps.

Egg Tarts is my elder boy's favourite dim sum snack. These few weeks, he has been studying hard for his End-of-year Examination. So, I have decided to make this snack to reward him. Ingredients (15 egg tarts): - 4 eggs  - 1/4 cup of caster sugar - 1 can of nestle all-purpose cream - milk  - 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract  - stored-bought pastry shells  Procedures: 1) In a measuring jug, empty a can of all-purpose cream. Add milk until the total volume is 250ml. 3) Heat up milk-cream mixture slightly. Dissolve caster sugar in the milk-cream mixture. Let it cool.  3) Whisk the eggs.  4) Mix the eggs with the milk-cream mixture. Add vanilla extract. Pass the custard mixture through a fine sieve.  5) Pour the custard mixture in the tart shells. Bake at 180 degree celsius for 20 minutes. 

My eldest boy loves cheesecakes. So, I have made different types of cheesecakes for his birthdays. Some examples are Nutella Strawberry Cheesecake, Mango Cheesecake, Lychee Passionfruit Cheesecake etc. For this 10 year-old birthday this year, I have made him a Matcha Azuki Cheesecake. Ingredients:  - 200g of whipping cream  - 500g of cream cheese  - 1 can of condensed milk  - 2 tablespoons of gelatin  - 1 can of Japanese Azuki  - 2 teaspoons of matcha powder  - 250g of digestive biscuits  - 100g of melted butter  Procedures: 1) Crush the digest biscuits. Mix with melted butter. Press it on the base of a cake tin. Place it in the freezer.  2) Whip the whipping cream until it gives firm peaks.  3) Whip soften cream cheese. Add condensed milk and whip further. Add whipped cream and mix well.  4) Dissolve gelatin powder in 1/2 cup of hot water. Add a bit cream cheese mixture to the dissolved gelat...

My boys made this ice-cream for Father's Day. They chose mango ice-cream as their father is a fruit lover. Ingredients: - 700ml of thick whipping cream  - 1 can of condensed milk  - 4 large mangos  - 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract  - yellow food colouring  Procedures: 1) Cut the mangos into dices. Blend most of the mango dices into puree and reserve some to be added later.  2) Whip the cream until it gives firm peaks.  3) Add vanilla extract and a few drops of yellow food colouring.  4) Add condensed milk. Mix well using a spatula.  5) Add mango puree and dices. Mix well using a spatula.  6) Place the cream in the freezer. Stir every hour for 4 hours. Freeze the ice-cream completely after that. Serve. 

My husband's nanny is a superb cook. Hence, it is very difficult to cook or bake her anything to please her. Fortunately, there are 2 desserts that she would accept from me - they are the Ultimate Durian Cheesecake and Christmas Fruit Cake. Ingredients (4 loaves of fruit cakes)  - 1 kg of dried mixed fruits  - 1/2 kg of chopped nuts (e.g. walnuts, almonds, macadamia) - 1 litre of grape juice   - 400g of butter  - 6 eggs  - 400g of flour  - 300g of brown sugar  - 2 teaspoon of cinnamon powder  - 2 teaspoon of baking powder - honey - whisky/rum/sherry Procedures:  1) Soak dried mixed fruits in grape juice for 24 hours.  2) In a mixing bowl, whisk soft butter until pale.  3) Add eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon powder and baking powder to the butter. Continue to whisk it.  4) Sieve flour into the mixture. Mix them well with a spatula. Add chopped nuts and mixed fruits and mix it well.  ...

I have some leftover whipping cream, again! Time to make another ice-cream. The other time, we made some Macadamia Nuts Brittle Ice-cream. Today, we shall make a much simpler Cookies and Cream Ice-cream. Ingredients: - 500ml of whipping cream - 1/2 can of condensed milk - 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract - 20-25 of Oreo cookies - shaved chocolates (optional) Procedures: 1) Whip whipping cream until firm peaks formed. 2) Add condensed milk and vanilla extract. Mix well. 3) Separate cream and cookies from the Oreo cookies. 4) Mix the cream into the ice-cream mix. Crush the Oreo cookies and add to the mix as well. Top up with any shaved chocolates. 5) Put the ice-cream in the freezer. Stir after after 2-3 hours to prevent cookies from sinking to the bottom. Freeze the ice-cream overnight. Serve with a slice of Oreo cookie.