Spice Baked Tilapia

Tilapia can be cooked in many ways but most of the time, I like them either steamed with gingers or steamed with tom yam sauce. This time, I am trying something different, baked tilapia with lots of spices. Tilapia is a fresh water fish and if not breed in a clean environment, it could smell muddy. In order to try to cover up the smell, this would be a good way to do so. Have fun cooking. Enjoy.

Teriyaki Unagi

Miso soup and chawanmushi was always my must order dish whenever I go to a Japanese restaurant. But after trying unagi for a few times, teriyaki unagi become my number one, must order dish. My husband on the other hand, loves salmon sashimi. I love salmons too but I can't take a lot of raw food. So either teriyaki unagi or the unagi rolls are my favourite items on a Japanese restaurant menu. Unagi doesn't comes cheap and a nice unagi in a descent Japanese restaurant in Malaysia may cost me at least RM30.00. If you are a bit adventures, you may consider trying to cook the teriyaki unagi yourself. Here is one recipe I found to be useful. Good luck cooking.

Ingredients:

• 14 ounces commercial teriyaki Kikkoman's sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon peeled and chopped gingerroot, to taste

Steps:

1. In a pan, combine all ingredients over medium low heat.
2. Reduce by about three-quarters, beginning to taste it about halfway through the reduction. It should be full-flavored and sweet and tangy.
3. Strain mixture and use.
4. Spread the mixture with a brush on the unagi, broiling the unagi in oven or grilling it.
5. You can also let the mixture cool, and store the glaze in a clean bottle in the fridge.

Brocolli

Broccoli is rich in vitamin C. Brocolli is often boiled or eaten raw. Chinese love to cook the broccoli with beef. Here is a simple recipe for broccoli and beef. I hope you will like it.

• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, divided
• 1/2 cup water, plus
• 2 tablespoons water, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 lb boneless round steak or 1 lb charcoal chuck steak, cut into thin 3-inch strips
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
• 4 cups broccoli florets
• 1 small onion, cut into wedges
• 1/3 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• hot cooked rice

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons water and garlic powder until smooth.
2. Add beef and toss.
3. In a large skillet or wok over medium high heat, stir-fry beef in 1 tablespoon oil until beef reaches desired doneness; remove and keep warm.
4. Stir-fry broccoli and onion in remaining oil for 4-5 minutes.
5. Return beef to pan.
6. Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and remaining cornstarch and water until smooth; add to the pan.
7. Cook and stir for 2 minutes.
8. Serve over rice.

Teriyaki Salmon with a hint of Orange flavour

Teriyaki salmon is commonly found in a Japanese restaurant menu. If you dine in a Japanese restaurant, the price could be very high compared to if you are cooking at home. Sometimes it is more romantic if you could cook your love ones dinner and the teriyaki salmon is a good meal (in my own personal opinion) to impress your date. Just follow these simple steps and you'll be on your way to a good night. The key is just to have fun cooking.

Egg Benedict Recipe

I have just returned from my vacation at Langkawi Island. Since our hotel doesn't provide breakfast, we went around Cenang Beach, looking for places for breakfast. What we notice is that egg benedict is on every menu we came across. Interested in the way in cooking it, I went on the internet to search for the ways to prepare egg benedict. After trying several times, here is how I cook my egg benedict. Enjoy.

Chicken Breast - Spice it Up.

Chicken breast meat is the toughest part of the chicken. Most prefer to have chicken thigh or chicken wings or even the drumstick as the other parts are much juicer and tender. But if all of us chooses these parts, then wouldn't it be a waste of the chicken breast meat? Here is a way on how to spice up the chicken breast meat and to make them enjoyable as a meal. Remember to remove the skin, as you do not want all the fat in your system.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 tablespoons grated fresh gingerroot
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin
• 1/2 cup flour
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar

Steps:

1. combine the gingerrot, garlic and red pepper flakes in a cup and set aside.
2. Mix flour with salt and pepper to taste and dredge chicken pieces.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large wok.
4. Saute the chicken until browned on both sides and cooked through. Remove the chicken.
5. Add the ginger-garlic mixture to the skillet and saute until lightly browned.
6. Add the soy sauce and vinegar.
7. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring frequently, until the sauce reduces and thickens.
8. Pour the sauce over the chicken pieces in the warm serving dish and keep warm until ready to serve.

How to Make Poached Eggs?

I have been wondering how to make poached eggs. And so I went looking for it on the internet. I came across one foodie website and found out that poached eggs are quite easy to do but a lot of attention needs to be put into cooking it. If the fire is too big, you might get a hard boiled eggs instead. If the fire is too low, the eggs may break and you end up getting an egg soup. Follow these steps and you'll get yourself a nice perfect poached eggs. If everything fails, just try again. Not everybody gets it right the first time.

Papaya with Lemon Juice

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup boiling water
• 3 1/2 cups cold water, divided
• 3 cups peeled chopped papayas
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 4 large lemons)

Steps:

1. Combine sugar and boiling water and stir until sugar dissolves.
2. After cooling slightly, pour in the sugar syrup along with 2 cups cold water, some cut papaya and lemon juice in a blender.
3. Process until the mixture is smooth. Stir in the remaining 1 1/2 cups cold water and serve the drink over ice.

Roasted Potatoes Recipe

Potatoes are rich in carbohydrates and is a very good substitute for rice or noodles. Asians tend to eat rice everyday. If you are looking for something different today, why not substitute rice with potatoes. Note that, you shouldn't eat too much rice or potatoes because any excess will turn to fats. So eat moderately and healthily. Here's how I roast my potatoes. You may add more ingredients to your liking. Enjoy.

Tofu Salad

Tofu can be made into salad. Since tofu is already cook, you do not need to cook the tofu again because mixing it with your salad. Like any other salads you have, just mix all the ingredients into a bowl and serve them immediately.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs firm tofu
• 1/2 cup soy mayonnaise
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
• 1/2 cup green onion, diced
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. I always drain my tofu first.
2. I cut it into 1/4s, wrap it in paper towels on a cookie sheet, with another one on top, weighted down with some heavy canned goods.
3. Let sit in refrigerator for 10-20 minutes.
4. Mash the tofu in a bowl with a wooden spoon.
5. Mix tofu well with remaining ingredients.
6. Chill and serve.

Fried Popiah

Ingredients:

• 250 g flour
• 1 tablespoon tapioca flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons corn oil
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 325 ml water
• thinly sliced carrots
• pounded chicken meat
• garlic
• sengkuang / jicama

Steps:

1. Add oil in a wok and fry the garlic, sengkuang, carrots and chicken meat until it is cooked.
2. Sift together the ingredients, making sure you do not take too much juice and separate it leaving it to cool down.
3. Knead the dough. It should have a bouncy texture, and should stick to your hand. Heat up a wok, without oil, and make sure to use a non stick pan, as it is easier.
4. When the wok is hot, spread the dough around the wok in a thin layer (use your hand as the dough is still sticking to it). Size is about 6 inches.
5. Remove when cooked (roughly around 30 seconds).
6. Place the ingredients on the popiah and wrap it up. Thereafter, you may eat it directly or fry it.

Roasted Green Beans

There are many ways to cook green beans. You may fry them, boil them or even roast them. Roasted green beans goes well with steaks. So if you are cooking your steak with an oven, you may cook your green beans at the same time. This will reduce the dishes that you need to wash later. For a tasty, delicious green beans, click the link below for the steps. Good luck.

Breakfast Casserole

Breakfast casserole is easy to prepare but very time consuming. I would recommend you to prepare this delicious breakfast during the weekends or during the holidays because it takes about 1 and the half hour to prepare this breakfast. This recipe is also good if you have a big family. Click the link below to see how to prepare this breakfast casserole. Feel free to substitute some of the ingredients with other ingredients of your liking. Have fun cooking!

Chicken and Vegetable Soup

This recipe if for people who are busy with their lives but still wants to enjoy good home cooked food. This recipe is easy to prepare and it can be done from scratch. No processed stuffs but all fresh ingredients. Feel free to use any other vegetables in your soup. You do not necessary have to follow the list here. In other words, be creative. Click the link below for more details on how to cook this chicken and vegetable soup. Enjoy!

Squid with Chillies

Squids are very easy to cook. There are many ways of cooking squids and I love my squids fried with flour. But I can't have them fried all the time, can I? Since squid are generally tasteless, it is good to use chillies, just to spice it up a little bit. One thing I need to point out to you is that, squids tend to soak up the oil and when it does that, believe me, you don't want to eat it. I've had a very bad encounter with squid soaking up margerine when I had a barbecue + steamboat when I was in college. It was really awful. So, do make sure that you do not use too much oil when you cook squids.

• 1 lb squid, cleaned
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 2 teaspoons hot chili powder
• 2 tablespoons sea salt
• 1 tablespoon szechuan peppercorns, dry-roasted and crushed
• 2 cups vegetable oil
• 4 leaves iceberg lettuce, chilled
• 2 lemons, cut into wedges

Steps:

1. Clean and dry the squid thoroughly.
2. Slice each squid tube horizontally and set aside.
3. Combine both types of flour with the chili powder, sea salt and Szechuan pepper. Then add the squid. Toss it to coat them and thereafter, shake off any excess flour.
4. Add oil and heat up the wok and fry the squid. Remove the squid and place them on a kitchen towel.
5. Arrange the lettuce leaves on a platter and top with the squid. Serve with the lemon wedges.