Fish Fillet with Ginger and Spring Onions

A quick stir-fried dish for our dinner.

Ingredients :

2 pieces of fish fillet - cut into bite size pieces
2 stalk spring onions - cut into 1" lenght
6 slices of fresh ginger
1 red chili - slice

Marinate :

1 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tsp of sesame oil
A few dash of pepper

Sauce :

1 tbsp of cooking wine
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tsp of corn starch
4 tbsp of water
salt and pepper to taste


1) Marinate the fish and set aside
2) Combined all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside
3) Heat up the wok with some oil and stir fry spring onion, ginger and chili until fragrant.
4) Add in fish fillets and stir fry gently to avoid breaking up the fish.
5) Once the fish changes color add in the sauce and stir until sauce thicken.
6) Check seasoning and serve immediately with warm rice.

Best Brownies

Diana and I baked some brownies for her University Accounting Club bake sale 3 weeks ago. We cut and packed everything for the sale . So I decided to bake some for us a few days ago. The one for the bake sale we added butterscotch & chocolate chips and for this one I added chocolate chips, walnuts and some fudge topping.

Ingredients :

1/2 cup of butter (1 stick)
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla
1 tsp of instant coffee
1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup of flour
1/4 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of baking powder
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

Fudge ingredients :

4 tbsp of butter
3 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp of honey
1 tsp of vanilla
3/4 cup of powder sugar
1 tbsp of warm water (optional)

Baked 2 big trays for the bake sale


1) Pre-heat oven to 350 degree F. Grease an 8" square pan.
2) In a saucepan melt the butter. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, eggs, vanilla.
3) Add in cocoa powder, instant coffee, flour, salt, baking powder, chocolate chips and walnuts. Stir well until combined.
4) Spread batter into prepared baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes. Do not over bake.
5) To make frosting combined all the fudge ingredients and mix well. Frost brownies while they are still warm.
6) Cut into squares and serve with fruits or ice-cream or on its own.

All cut and packed ready for the bake sale.

Note : Be sure your melted butter is not too hot before you add in the sugar and eggs. If not you will end up with scramble eggs. You can add 1 tbsp of warm water to the frosting if is too thick.

Chicken Varuval

My old office used to be at Brickfields and for lunch my colleagues and I like to go for Indian food. As you all know there are plenty of good Indian restaurants at Brickfields. One of our favorite place to eat is the corner kopitiam near the river bank. I forgot the name of the Kopitiam. We really like the banana leaf rice there. In my opinion they served the best Indian food. One of our must order dish is their Chicken Varuval and fried fish. Their Chicken Varuval is dry, almost paste like gravy and extremely spicy. I tried cooking this dish here and I got this recipe my ex-colleague and is the simpler way of cooking Chicken Varuval

Ingredients :

1/2 chicken - cut into small bite size pieces
1 pcs of cinnamon stick
2 cardamoms
1 pcs of star anise
1 tbsp of black soy sauce
10 curry leaves
1/2 cup of water (optional)
Sugar, salt and pepper to taste

Blended ingredients :

2 medium size onions
5 cloves of garlic
2" of ginger

To make into paste

2 tbsp of curry powder
2 tsp of chili powder
2 tsp of tumeric powder

1) Heat up oil and add in cinnamom stick, cardamons, star anise and curry leaves. Stir fry for a few second until frangrant.
2) Add in the blended ingredients and sautee until it turn light brown.
3) Add in the curry paste and stir fry for a minute.
4) Add in the chicken and stir fry until chicken well coated with the paste. Add seasoning.
5) Add in black soy sauce and a bit of water if chicken get too dry. Cover and simmer slowly until chicken is really dry and done.
6) Check seasoning and serve warm.

Note : I didn't add any water because the chicken I used discharged lots of liquid. You can reduce the amount of chili powder if you want it less spicy.

Orange Raisin Cake

I made this really moist and flavourful cake for breakfast last week. Just mixed all the ingredients together and in an hour you will have a cake for breakfast or tea.

Ingredients :
(adapted from : http://momsrecipesandmore.blogspot.com/)

1 3/4 cup of flour
1/4 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup of raisins - chopped
1 tbsp of orange zest
1/3 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice
125 grm of butter - melted
1 cup of plain yogurt
2 eggs - lightly beaten
Icing sugar for dusting.


1) Pre-heat oven to 325 degree F and prepare the baking pan.
2) Sift flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
3) Add in sugar, raisin and orange zest and stir well.
4) Combined orange juice, melted butter, yogurt and eggs until well mixed.
5) Pour the eggs mixture into the flour and stir well with a big spoon.
6) Pour into the prepared baking pan and smooth the top.
7) Bake in the oven for 40-45 min until golden brown or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.
8) Set aside for 3 min before turning out into a cooling rack.
9) Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Note : I add a handful of dried cranberries for some colour.