Honey Cake

For Aunty Audrey, the church, my love.

Tiny Butter Ice Cakes

from Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros

Preheat your oven at 180 degrees celcius.

Beat together:

1. 250g softened butter
2. 250g caster sugar
3. 3 eggs, one at a time
4. 1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
5. 290g plain flour
6. 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder

and add 185ml or 3/4 cup of milk in slowly, to the mixture as you beat together the flour and baking powder.

Prepare around 120 tiny cupcake cases on a large baking tray and spoon the mixture into each case, allowing it to settle as it bakes in the oven. Leave some space for the cakes to rise up to just slightly above the surface of the casing.

As it bakes, prepare the icing, and get the sprinkles ready. The icing will set pretty quickly, so sprinkle the candy/coloured bits over the icing-covered top of the cupcake with haste.

Mix together:

1. 125g icing sugar
2. few drops of colouring
3. 2 & 1/2 tbsp cold water

Add your Sprinkles!

Fried Udon from C Nai

C Nai Cafe's Seafood Fried Udon

ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. Fantastic. Initially I was a little apprehensive at paying for such a small portion, but the noodles were so good, I wouldn't mind paying for another portion some other time.

Prawn Noodles from C Nai

C Nai Cafe's HK Prawn Noodles

The Prawn noodles are good! Inconsistent however. I had it twice on separate occasions and the second time was a tad too salty. A bowl of prawn noodles, I'd travel to have.

Kailan in Oyster Sauce

Back in the days when I still stayed at Serangoon Gardens, and Boon Tong Kee had an outlet there, this is how I ate my Kailan.

Cut off the end of the stems of the Kailan, wash them and drain the water out.

1. Boil a pot of water enough to cover the Kailan with 2 tbsp of salt
   
2. Immerse all the Kailan into the water when it starts to boil
3. After 2 & 1/2 mins, remove and drain water out of Kailan
4. Serve with Oyster sauce, fried shallots and a little of the oil used to fry the shallots
   

Beef Stew with Carrots

adapted from Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros
serves 5

In a heated pan:

1. Add some oil
2. Brown chopped up chunks of topside beef
3. Sprinkle 2 pinches of salt
   
4. Brown 2 cloves minced garlic & 1/2 red onion, minced
5. Add 30g butter
6. Sprinkle 2 pinches dried mixed herbs
7. Add 2 generous dashes of Port wine
   
8. Add 1 can or 1/2 cup of pureed tinned tomatoes
9. Throw in 2 carrots, diced
10. Pour in 2 & 1/2 cups of hot water

Bring to a boil and then lower the fire to let it simmer, uncovered for 2 & 1/2 hours.

Brandon's Chicken

Using butter, pan-fry pre-salt-marinated chicken thighs, dusted with plain flour on all sides, with a few drops of lemon juice and sprinklings of dried mixed herbs. Ensure all parts of the meat is properly cooked before serving.

Sago Kueh Kueh

• 400g Sago
• 1 litre water
• 400g Gula Melaka (palm sugar) for syrup
  
• 1 tbsp sugar for syrup
  
• 200ml water for syrup
• coconut milk for serving

Soak the sago in water for 15 mins and wash a few rounds like washing rice. Spoon the drained sago into a pot and fill with the 1 litre of water. On high fire, keep stirring and churning the mixture till ALL the sago dissolves. Have a little patience and stamina in churning the mixture which gets thicker and thicker, increasingly difficult to stir. The sago mix has to be free of opaque white spots.

In a separate pot, heat dissolve the Gula Melaka, sugar and 200ml of water together. Once combined, the syrup is ready.

Spoon the sago mix into mound-moulds and chill for at least half and hour to an hour before flipping out and serving with the syrup.

Sambal Stingray

• patti of stingray for 6 pax
• 1 tbsp sugar for marinate
  
• 2 tbsp light sauce for marinate
  
• 2 tbsp lemon juice for marinate
• 1 finely chopped chilli padi with seeds removed
• 1 big onion chopped
• 6 tbsp oil
• 8 tbsp sambal belachan
• 5 tbsp lemon juice more
  

In an aluminium foil-made tray, marinate fish and leave it wrapped in its marinate for half an hour. Heat pan of 6 tbsp of oil and place fish in the heated oil. Flipping the fish, let it cook on each side for about 2-3 mins. Then spread 1 tbsp sambal belachan on each side, with a generous sprinkle of chopped onion & chopped chilli padi. Fry the fish for another 12-15mins, flipping each sambal/onion-covered side every 2-3 mins. Add the rest of the sambal belachan and lemon juice as you flip and cook. Make sure fish has no pink or translucent flesh left, and is well-covered in the sambal mix. Enjoy the aroma.. Lift into dish and spoon the sambal mix over. Garnish with nice sprig of lime leaves and serve (with an optional fresh lime, cut in half).

If you have a grilling plate, you can choose to grill the stingray! If you have a barbecue, place the fish with all its other ingredients in its aluminum foil-tray, wrap up and barbecue!

21 Wings

21 wings

• 4 tbsp Bragg's Liquid Aminos
• 1 tsp pinch of salt
• slightly less than 1 tbsp of sugar
• 21 wings
  

Mix ingredients to Marinate wings. Cook in Oven over rack at 200 degrees Celcius for 20 mins, before flipping them on their other sides. Drizzle left over marinate on the paler side that has just been flipped over to face up, and continue cooking for another 20 mins or till both sides are golden brown. Remove the wings from the oven when cooked and let it stand for 2 mins on the rack for it to crisp on the outside. Serve.