Ingredients:

Mixture of vegetable (broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, corn, green peas) – cut into bite-sized pieces if needed -150gr

Dried rice vermicelli – boil,drain n let cool a bit

Salt

Oyster sauce

Dark soy sauce

Pepper (optional)

Preparations:

- Heat the pan with 2 ts oil in high heat. Once hot, add all the vegetable, season with salt, stir to make sure everything is well seasoned. Cook until almost done. Take all the vegie out, set aside

- Add the rice vermicelli to the same pan, season with very little salt, oyster sauce, n dark soy sauce. Stir fry until all the vermicelli are coated with sauce and feel a little bit sticky (because of the thickened sauce).

- Add the prepared vegie to the pan, stir everything together. Season more if needed. Add some pepper (optional). Serve.

Ingredients:
For streusel topping:
All purpose flour – 1/3 cup (45 gr)
Granulated white sugar – 1/3 cup (65 gr)
Ground cinnamon – 1/2 ts
Cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces – 1/4 cup (56 gr)

For cake batter:
All purpose flour – 1 cup (140 gr)
Baking powder – 1 ts
Salt – 1/8 ts
Unsalted butter, room temperature – 1/4 cup (56gr) (4 tbs)
Granulated white sugar – 1/2 cup (100 gr)
1 large egg
Pure vanilla extract – 1/2 ts
Milk – 1/3 cup (80ml)
Berries – 2 cups

Preparation
- Preheat oven to 177 degrees C. Prepare a 20 cm spring form pan. Set aside.

- To make streusel topping: mix together the flour + sugar + ground cinnamon. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or fork until it resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside while you make the cake batter.

- In a separate bowl whisk together the flour + baking powder + salt. Set aside.

- In a large bowl, cream the butter using an electric mixer or hand mixer. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

- Add the egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated.

- Add the flour mixture, alternately with the milk, and beat only until combined.

- Spread the batter into the bottom of the prepared pan, smoothing the top with an offset spatula.

- Evenly arrange the berries on top of the cake batter and then sprinkle with the streusel topping.

- Bake for about 45 – 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly.

- Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 8 – 10 servings.

Ingredients:
Banana – 1 ripe
Strawberry (fresh/frozen) – 3 medium
Milk – 200ml

- Blend all together. Can add more sugar to taste

This is the purrrfek choice for those who love lemon and yogurt. The cake can be served either after meals as dessert, or at breakfast, or brunch, or … anytime of the day It’s very easy to make, especially if you have someone help u grating the lemon zest n squeezing the juice (unfortunately I had to do everything myself – poor me!!!)

The Lemon Yogurt Cake recipe below is adapted from Ina Garten in the Barefoot Contessa show.

Ingredients:
All-purpose flour – 1 1/2 cup – app. 200gr
Baking powder – 2 ts
Kosher salt – 1/2 ts
Plain whole-milk yogurt – 1 cup – app. 240-250gr
Sugar – 1 1/3 cup – app. 200gr + 75gr – divided (I used 200gr + 60gr)
Eggs – 3 extra-large
Grated lemon zest (2 lemons) – 2 tsp – I used zest of 3 large lemons
Pure vanilla extract – 1/2 ts
Vegetable oil – 1/2 cup – app.220gr
Freshly squeezed lemon juice – 1/3 cup – app. 78gr – I think I used 2 lemons

Glaze:
Confectioner sugar – 1 cup – app. 115gr
Freshly squeezed lemon juice – 2 tbs

Preparation:

- Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C. Prepare the baking pan (loaf pan). Line the bottom with parchment paper.

- Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl.

In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla.

- Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it’s all incorporated.

- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

- Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

- When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.

- For the glaze, combine the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

*** I made this cake [almost] exactly like the recipe up to the point of making the glaze with confectioner sugar I normally do not like anything with too much sugar, especially glaze using powder sugar. My lemon yogurt cake is finished once the lemon-sugar mixture is poured and dried out. Talking about the lemon-sugar mixture, I used only 60gr, which is quite less than the amount required – 1/3 cup – 75gr –> my mixture is more sour than the one in the original recipe.

This is really depends on each one’s taste. For my friend (who is a guy), my cake is a bit too sour, especially the bottom of the cake where most of the lemon-sugar mixture is absorbed; while for me n my girl friend, this cake taste absolutely balanced Maybe it’s because we both love tangy food, and u know, generally girls are better at eating sour food than guys lol

So if u prefer a sweeter taste, make sure you make the glaze, or add more sugar to the lemon-sugar mixture

A piece of the lemon cake:

The original recipe (Lemon layer cake with lemon curd and mascarpone) is from Bon Appétit, April 03 issue but I modified them a bit during the process. For example I didnt use any mascarpone, and I always use less than the required amount of sugar Here is the recipe that I used, not the original one.

Ingredients:
Lemon curd
Sugar – 200gr
Fresh lemon juice – 3 large
Eggs – 3 large
Egg yolks – 3 large
Chilled unsalted butter – 50gr -  cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Cake
Eggs – 6 large -  separated
Sugar – 14 tbs
Sifted cake flour (sifted, then measured) – 1 3/4 cups
Salt – 1/4 ts

Filling and frosting
Heavy whipping cream, chilled – 500ml
Sugar – 150gr

Preparations:
For lemon curd:
- Whisk first 4 ingredients in medium heat-proof bowl (or metal bowl is fine)

- Set bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water).

Whisk constantly until thickened, about 10 minutes. It took me more than 10, maybe 12-14 mins or sth.

- Remove bowl from over water. Add butter, whisk until melted.

- Set aside to cool down, then wrap the bowl w plastic wrap n chill in the fridge. Change the wrap once in a while to prevent waterdrops.

For cake:
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare two 18-20cm-pans for the cake

- Beat egg yolks and 7 tablespoons sugar in large bowl until mixture is very thick and slowly dissolving ribbons form when beaters are lifted, about 4 minutes.

- Using clean dry beaters, beat whites in another large bowl until soft peaks form.

Add remaining 7 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff and glossy.

- Fold half of whites into yolk mixture, then sift half of flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt over and gently fold in until incorporated.

- Fold in remaining whites, then sift remaining flour over and fold in just until combined, being careful not to deflate batter.

- Divide batter between pans; smooth tops. Bake until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Cool in pans on racks.

- Run knife around edge of pans to loosen cakes. Invert cakes onto 9-inch-diameter cardboard rounds, tapping on work surface if necessary to release cakes.

- Cut each cake horizontally in half (layers will be thin). Peel off parchment.

For filling and frosting:
- Beat whipping cream and sugar in large bowl until peaks form.

- Add 1 cup of lemon curd to the whipped cream, gently fold until blended.

Resemble the cake:

- Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on platter. Spread 1/4 lemon curd over, then 1/6 whipped cream mixture.

- Repeat with second n third cake layer (cake -> lemon curd – > whipped cream).

The inside should look like this:

- Top with fourth cake layer. Spread remaining lemon curd over.

Cover the whole cake with the remained whipped cream, smooth out top n sides of the cake.

(I used a .. fork and a knife It’s my very first time frosting a cake, not very easy but I really liked it feel like making a masterpiece haha)

- Refrigerate before serving.

Notes:

- The original recipe calls for lemon sirup made from fresh lemon juice, sugar and boiling water but I omitted this step, mostly because I was lazy But even if I hadn’t been so lazy, I actually ran out of lemon lol

- For the cake, here I posted using “cake flour”, which is what the original recipe calls for. However I used all purpose flour, and my cake didnt turn out that great, it was not moist enough, a little bit cakey I think

—> U guys remember to use cake flour okay?!? And also, don’t be as lazy as me, make the lemon sirup cause I think this also gives the cake more moist and makes it more tender n more lemony.

- And last but not least, yes it took time making this layer cake, but it’s worth every tiny bit of ur effort, so jump into ur kitchen n try it out asap !!!!

Here is the recipe for Stewed Beef with Ginger:

Ingredients:
Beef – cut into bite-size pieces (about 300-400gr)
Ginger – 1 small – very thinly sliced
Salt – 2ts
Fish sauce – 2tbs
Very little water

Preparations:

- Add all the ingredients to the pan, bring to a boil and then simmer in medium heat for 1-2 hrs. Add salt or fish sauce if necessary.

- Actually I stewed the beef and ginger using my rice cooker My rice cooker has several fuctions: rice cooking, soup/porridge/ baby food/ keeping warm. First I chose “baby food” to cook the beef until tender without losing any of the liquid, then I turned to “rice cooking” to ger rid of the excess liquid. That’s all

Berries (strawberries/raspberries/blueberries/blackberries/cranberries/etc) – 3/4 cup (freh/frozen)

Yogurt – 200gr

Milk – 150gr

Sugar to taste, if needed

- Blend everything until smooth

Here is the recipe for thumbprint cookies, adapted from Joyofbaking.

Ingredients:

Unsalted butter – 1/2 cup (113 grams) – room temperature
Granulated white sugar – 1/4 cup (50 grams)
Egg – 1 large – separated
Pure vanilla extract – 1/2 teaspoon
All purpose flour – 1 cup (140 grams)
Salt – 1/8 teaspoon
Shredded coconut – 50gr
Jam – 1/2 cup – whatever king u prefer, I suggest using sth with a tangy taste to balance with the sweetness of the cookie dough.

Preparations:

- Oven: 177C degrees (350F). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add the egg yolk + vanilla extract, beat until combined.

- In another bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Add the flour mixture to the batter and beat just until combined.

(If the batter is too soft to roll into balls, refrigerate for about 30 minutes.)

- In a small bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy. Place the shredded coconut on a plate.

- Roll the dough into 1 inch (2.54 cm) balls. Taking one ball of dough at a time, dip first into the egg white and then lightly roll in the coconut.

Place on the prepared baking sheet spacing about 2.5cm apart.

Using your thumb or end of a wooden spoon, press into the center of each cookie and fill with about 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon of jam.

- Bake for about 13-15 minutes, or until cookies are set and the coconuts have nicely browned. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool.

Notes:

- U can add jam to the cookies’ holes either before or after baking. However I find it taste better to add the jam before baking the cookies, just like the above instructions. Adding the jam prior to baking makes the cookie base n the jam more “combined” together and it also makes the cookies look better, once the jam is stuck to the cookies.

If u try filling the cookies w jam after baking, u’ll find that the jam stays on the surface of the cookies just like jelly, and the cookies do not look carefully done

However filling the cookies w the jam before baking will soften the cookies after a few day made. So if u want to keep ur cookies for a longer time, u may want to add the jam after baking.

- Another notice is donot forget the make a deep enough “print” on the cookies. Deep enough here I mean – deep enough to put the jam in – if it’s too deep, u’re gonna put lots of jam and the cookies will get over-sweetened by the jam – if it’s too low, or not deep enough, the jam may not stay inside the cookies, but melt all over the place.

When I was “inventing” the dish, several dishes came up to my mind, for example grilled/fried chicken with five-spice, or some different versions of stewed chicken. I was also thinking that “chicken and milk” sounds kinda … sweet and buttery, I need something tangy, something sour to give the dish a balance. Luckily I had some canned pineapple stacked in my kitchen for a while (since they had it on sale ) <–> that’s perfect !!!

In the end I came up with this, chicken marinated in five-spice, pineapple juice, then stewed in milk for about 1 hr. Uhm.. it must be yummy, I though to myself … and indeed it was !!!!

Recipe for chicken and pineapple stewed in milk:

Ingredients:
Chicken – 3 legs (thighs n drumsticks) – roughly 900gr (cut into bite-size if preferred)
Salt – 2 tbs
Sugar – 1 ts
Pepper – 2 ts
Five spice – 1 tbs
Garlic – 10 cloves – minced
Onion – 1 medium – chopped
Butter – 1 tbs
Canned pineapple w juice – 225gr (if you prefer a sweeter version you can use pineapple in sirup)
Cayenne pepper – 1-2 ts
Cinnamon – 1 ts
Milk – 500-600ml

Preparation:
- Marinate chicken w salt + sugar + pepper + five-spice + garlic + canned pineapple (w juice) for about 20-30 mins. Set aside.
Mean while, chopped the onion

- Heat pan, add 2 ts of oil + 1 tbs of butter. When oil n butter is heated, throw in the onion, cook until translucent. (The onion’s gonna be caramelized later on while the chicken is cooked in the pan)

- Throw in the chicken pieces (leave the marinate liquid n the pineapple in the marinate bowl). Turn down the heat to medium-high. Brown all sides of the chicken pieces. While chicken is cook, the onion will be caramelized, turning dark brown and this will help browning the chicken as well.

- Once chicken is browned (not really cooked through), take them all out of the pan n set aside.

Throw in all the pineapple to the pan, add some salt (3/4 ts) and saute the pineapple until they turn golden-browned and the edges are slightly browned.

- Add in the chicken pieces, pour in all the marinate liquid and milk. All the liquid together should cover up the chicken.

Bring to a boil and then turn down to medium/medium high heat, keep simmering until there’s only 1/3 of the liquid left in the pan. While the chicken is cooked, stir occasionally to make sure everything absorbs all the spices n tastes the same.

- When done, the chicken and pineapple should be very very tender and moist. The dish should be balanced with the saltiness, sweetness, n tanginess from the pineapple.

This time I use satay

You guys all know satay chicken, huh? The very famous n popular dish with chicken skewers n satay sauce that origins from Thailand … Well I’m so sorry I disappoint u guys, this is not that satay chicken, this is MY satay chicken, u can call it Minh Chau’s Satay Chicken if u like ) pretty long huh ) lol

Yes I used chicken. Yes I used satay. And yes I call it satay chicken. But it’s cooked totally different Let’s go check it out!!!

Here comes the recipe for MY satay chicken Serve 1

Ingredients:
Chicken – 1 thigh/drumstick/skinless breast – whatever part of chicken u have
Satay – 1 heaping tbs
Salt – 2ts
Sugar – 2ts
Vinegar – 1 ts

Glutinous rice – 75-100gr, cooked

Preparation:
- Make shallow cuts on both sides of the chicken piece (I had a thigh). Drizzle each side with 1 ts of salt n 1 of sugar. Add in 1tbs of satay, remember to press some of the satay mixture get into the shallow cuts on the chicken. Leave for about 15 mins

- (like usual – Oh i’m getting reaaally bored w this word now really) Heat pan. Once hot add 2 ts of oil

- Add in the marinated chicken, turn the heat to medium high. Brown both side of the chicken. Then turn the heat to medium, and close the pan with the lid, the make sure that the chicken is cooked thoroughly.

During the cooking process, the pan my get too dry and this may burn the chicken. u can add very little water to prevent this.

- When the chicken is almost done, pour in the vinegar, make sure the chicken is coated thoroughly.Turn up the heat to dehydrate any liquid left in the pan. U’re done