Prawns in tomato and onion gravy

I love eating seafood and Prawns are one of my favorite. I've made them in a coconut gravy and a cilantro lime gravy. This one is very flavorful with the sweetness of onions and the tartness from the tomatoes. It also had a good amount of spice to it from the garam masala which is basically a mixture of a few different spices ground up together. This is the first time i've made them in the tomato and onion gravy. Another dish that i grew up eating. Mom's cooking is always the best and to learn from the top chef is even better:)) Here's the recipe: ( serves 4 ppl)

~Ingedients~
1 pound Shrimp headed and cleaned
2 meduim red onions chopped fine
2 roma tomatoes or any other type
1/4 tspn turmeric powder
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp fresh ginger,garlic and chili paste
a handful of chopped cilantro for garnishing
salt to taste

1)In a large pan, heat some oil and cook onions with the lid on until onions are well cooked. about 5 to 10 mins on medium heat. Stir frequently to prevent onions from browning to fast.

2) Add in the tomatoes and cooked for another 5 mins. Add in turmeric powder, fresh paste, and salt and cook for about 2 to 3 mins

3) Toss in the shrimp and cook until done. Add in garam masala and cilantro. Mix and serve with roti or rice.

Rava Dosa

Here's a South Indian dish called Rava Dosa. It's a thin crepe that's made from rice flour and Semolina. It goes along side with coconut chutney, tomato chutney and some potatoes. There's just such a variety in Indian food and they are all very different from one another. Rava Dosa is just one type of dosa. You can go all out and make cheese dosa, paneer dosa, and many more. This one is my husbands favourite and so here it is. It's light and crispy and gets even more flavorfull wtih the chutney's and potato. Something i would have anytime of the day! It's a dish taht kids would love to. I gave some to my 11 month daughter and she ate it with a smile! i've added spices to the batter but you could go plain and add just cumin seeds to it. To get a nice crispy dosa, you need to make the batter thin. Here's the recipe:

~ Rava Dosa ~
1cup Rice Flour
1/2 cup Rava
1 tbsp mainda
Finely chopped onions
Chopped Chili
Finely chopped Ginger
Curry leaves ( tear into half)

Mix all the ingredients together with water and add some salt to taste. Let it sit for about 2 hrs before making it. Make it into a thin batter. Make it in a non stick pan using a little cup to pour a thin layer. Put a little oil on the batter after it's poured into the pan and let it cook till a little crispy and brown

~Coconut Chutney~

Fresh grated coconut
ginger ( cubed )
dried red chilli
chana dal 2 tbsp
1/2 onion
1 tomato
Curry leaves

1) In a pan, heat some oil and saute the chana dal, curry leaves and dried chilli for 3 mins on med heat.
2)Add in the chopped onions, tomatoes and ginger and cook for another 3 mins.
3) Add in the coconut and mix well, add some salt to taste.
4) Let it cool a little and blend in well in a blender until it's a thick puree.
5) In a smal pan heat some oil and add mustard seeds, when seed are done popping, add some Hing and pour over the chutney. Mix and eat!!!

~Tomato chutney~

1 medium onion
3 medium tomatoes
Jeera 1tbsp
chana dal 2 tbsp
curry leaves
dried red chilli

1) In a pan with some oil, saute jeera, curry leaves and chana dal for 3 mins
2)Add the onions and tomatoes and cook till tomatoes are well cooked
3) Let it cool and blend it to make a smooth puree. At this point, add a little salt to taste a some lemon juice is tomatoes are not sour. This chutney should be a little tart and spicy.

~ Potat0~

2 medium patotoes (cooked, peeled and cubed)
1 tbspoon fresh ginger, garlic and chili paste
1 tbsp corriander powder
1 onion sliced
1/4 Urad Daal ( soaked )
a pinch of turmeric powder

In a pan, heat up some oild an cooked the soaked urad daal till light brown. Remove and set aside. Add in the onions and saute for 3 mins. Add in turmeric powder, Fresh paste salt to taste and cook for another 2 mins. Add potatoes, urad daal and corriander powder. Mix well and serve with Dosa.

Vanilla cupcakes with lemon cream cheese filling and lemon buttercream frosting

My daughter Sophia is turning 1 in less than a month and i want to try and make her birthday cupcakes myself. I just love the freshness of lemon in cakes and cookies and decided to give this recipe a try. Of course i mixed and match a few different recipes to come up with this cupcake. I had a lemon cupcake a few weeks ago that just left me in awe . My search for a lemon cupcake began and here it is! They came out great, except i'd like the buttercream frosting to be a little thicker and fluffier. I'll keep working on that till i get it. My husband tried them and said they were sinfully delicious!! I'll be bringing some of the cupcakes to our playdate tomorrow and see how it goes. Here's the recipe i used:

*I added a lemon cream cheese filling to the vanilla cupcakes and for that use 8oz cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, lemon zest and some lemon juice/lemon extract. When putting it as a filling, fill cupcake liners 1/4 way with batter, put a dallop of filling and top it of with more batter until 3/4 full.

~ Vanilla Cupcakes~

• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

~ Lemon Buttercream Frosting~

3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick) softened
1 t vanilla
1 T lemon zest (the rind of a lemon)
2 T lemon juice

mix the butter, lemon zest and vanilla together, making sure all the lumps are gone.
by the 1/2 cup, mix in the sugar.
once the sugar is all in the bowl, cream on "high" for two minutes. (I use this time to clean up)
mix in lemon juice.
spread heartily on cupcakes, and enjoy!

Chicken Soup and Ginger Rice

This has been my new favorite dish. It's such a simple and easy dish yet comforting. I miss eating Hainan Chicken rice so this is my version of chicken rice. Hainan Chicken rice is made with steamed chicken that usually had some ginger rubbed onto it and it goes along side with rice that's made with chicken broth. You also have some soy sauce and chili paste that you mix in the rice to give more flavour. There are a couple of restaurants in the bay area who had Chicken rice on thier menu. I've tried it and it's not just the same. Maybe i'm being picky but hey, when you've had the real thing, you have high expectations.

Again, the recipe for this soup is one my mom used . I've added a few thing to it to give it my own touch. Instead of soy sauce and the chili paste, i eat my rice with Sambal Belachan which is a chili paste with dried shrimp. It's mainly used in malaysian food. I get mine sent from Singapore!! It's definitely on top food list. I've made it at least once every week! Here's the recipe.

Serves 4 ppl

~ Soup ~
2 chicken breast
1 chopped onion
1 tbsp minced ginger and garlic
1 small red jalepeno pepper Minced
celery
carrots
salt, lemon juice and pepper to taste

In a large pot, saute onions, red pepper and minced ginger & garlic for 2 mins. Add in the carrot and celery with 6 cups of water. Add the cubed chicken and let it boil. The Chicken cubes will cook within 5 mins so i remove them from the pot and let the carrots and celery cook till they are a little soft. Yo may cut the cooked chicken into smaller peices if you'd like . When carrots and celery are cooked, add the chicken back into the pot. Add some lemon juice, salt and pepper and give it a quick boil. Serve with some Ginger rice.

( For the ginger rice, i cook the rice in a rice cooker with some ginger paste, salt and a little bit of oil.)

Black Pepper Crabs

Now here's a great local Singaporean dish. If you like spice, this is it!! We use to host a crab party every year. I'd make a huge pot of crabs and everyone would be over. I hope to start it back again this year so my dear friends who love crabs, you have to wait till December!! This is such a simple dish and a must to try if you're going to Singapore. Just put on large bib and be ready to get messy!

The Crabs are cooked in butter first and than mixed into a black pepper sauce made of garlic, ginger, chili, oyster sauce and soy sauce, Of course, not forgetting the key ingredient, Black pepper. Just writing this blog and looking at the picture makes me want to have some right now! I've also made Chicken and Tiger Prawns using the same recipe and they all turn out just as good. Crabs are messier to eat and takes effort so the Prawns can be an option for tho of you who don't want to work for your food;). Here's the recipe for the sauce:

2 cloves garlic minced
1 inch garlic minced
2 serrano chili minced
3 tbsp ground black pepper
4 tbsp oyster sauce
4 tbsp soy sauce

If you're making crabs, cook them in so butter and set them aside. In the remaining butter, cook the minced garlic, ginger and chili for about 1 min. Add in the sauces and Pepper and cook for another minute. Toss the crabs in the sauce and cook for about 5 mins. Let it cool a little before serving. If you're making chicken or Shrimp, make the sauce first, let it cool and toss in uncooked chicken /shrimp. You can either grill it on the BBQ or the oven. Enjoy!!

Pizza

Home made pizza is what i had growing up. And every time we order a pizza, i ask myself why when i could make it myself!! So i finally decided to make it for the first time and this is how it looked. I made the crust using a self rising flour recipe that my mother in law gave. It was a very buttery crust, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I made the sauce with some oven roasted garlic and added some chili powder to kick up the spice!! I like color and so my pizza was topped with lots of topping. Pineapples , Mushrooms, Bell Peppers, Onions, and yes Carrots and Green Beans!! I just love it because you take a bite and you get a burst of flavors and texture. A good mix of sweet and spicy!! Yummy!!

It's finally happening!!

A friend whom I've just gotten to know not to long ago, suggested that i should create a blog about the food i make. As much as i enjoy cooking and baking, i never really thought about doing a blog. It's a great idea so thank you my friend!!!

Being born and raised in Singapore, there's food everywhere. Food of every culture and cuisine. When i moved to San Francisco, the one thing i missed terribly was the food. My Husband and i have been going back to Singapore every year and the first thing he does is to get his favorite coffee " Kopi-O". And than we head out to have all the yummy food we can find!

Since i miss the local Singaporean food so much, i try to make some of it at home. So i've told myself that everytime i make something, i'll take a picture and post a blog about the food. Most of the food i make is food i've grown up eating or recipe's from my mom and mom in law. Basically food that i look to as comfort food where it bring a smile to my face while i'm making it.

Thank you Mom for teaching me how to cook and making me the person i am today!!