Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie

Mr Sunshine is out and that makes me as happy as a lark. I’m beginning to think I’m a green plant whose well-being is dependent on natural sunlight. Charged with full gear motivation, like a car refuelled, I kept myself busy in the kitchen from 8am to make some Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie. Unsurprisingly, this tested and tried recipe is found on my favourite BBC Good Food website.

It’s rare to see a brownie baked in a round tin but as I rarely make them, I haven’t got a square or rectangular tin in my inventory. Does the shape really matter? Not, in my opinion.

 
The moist and dense brownie struck a balance between the bitterness of the dark chocolate and the sweetness peanut butter. Although the recipe asked for 280g of brown sugar, I only used 200g. The sight of a mountainous amount of sugar in my pan was shocking so I reduced it. When it comes to this brownie, one should savour the peanut butter and dark chocolate; not sugar.

 
I like my brownie to have a slightly fudgy texture and this was how the Peanut Butter and Chocolate brownie turned out.

Decadently rich and satisfying, this brownie is pure heavenly indulgence for peanut butter and chocolate fanatics out there.

How can I possibly not share this tin of joy with my friends? I’ve set aside the humble slice you see in the picture above to share with Daniel and the rest will be generously shared with others. Bet they’ll hate me when their waistlines expand!

Sloppy Joe

What do you cook when you’re feeling lazy but don’t fancy a takeaway?

Imagine the skies are overcast with dark grey clouds spitting down on you the entire day. You look outside from the comfort of your own home desperate to find a ray of sunshine but to no avail.

A good burger might cheer you up but you can’t even be bothered to shape it. A takeaway might be the easier option but you’re trying to eat more healthily. Yes, it’s the sort of night to make a Sloppy Joe.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

1 onion diced
1 garlic clove diced
1 green pepper diced
250g minced beef
Half tbsp mustard
Half tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp vinegar
Ketchup (be generous!)
Half tsp chilli spice (optional)
4 burger buns
Pre-washed salad (optional)


Method
  1. Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan. Throw in the minced beef, onion, garlic and green pepper. Cook till the beef is browned.

2. Add the mustard, vinegar, ketchup, chilli spice and brown sugar. Use as much or as little ketchup as you want. I like my mince well coated in ketchup so I’m really generous with it.

3. Mix well and cook on medium heat for 15-20mins.

4. Prepare the burger buns and place the pre-washed salad on the bottom half of the buns.

5. Serve the mince on the buns!

We make Sloppy Joe when we want a quick fix. Not only is it filling, but also tasty. The recipe isn’t get in stone and that’s really why I like it. Instead of peppers, I could substitute with diced carrots and throw in additional mushrooms.

Sloppy Joe for a sloppy me on a rather uneventful day – perfect!

Chocolate Marble Cake

I was craving for a small slice of chocolate cake but if I went to a cafe I know jolly well it would be more than just a slice of cake. Instead I walked to the supermarket to get the ingredients I needed to bake a cake and decided to share it with Daniel’s colleagues. Everyone’s happy this way!

By now you’ll know that I’m a big fan of BBC Good Food recipes. That’s where I got the Chocolate Marble Cake recipe from. With 222 reviews and so close to obtaining a perfect 5-stars rating, I’ll only have myself to blame if it didn’t work out.


The cake was moist and fluffy. It also had just the right amount of sweetness so it didn’t hurt the teeth. As suggested by the recipe, I alternated the plain and chocolate batter before giving it a swirl at the end.

Before I cut into the first slice, I was filled with excitement! I wondered if my marble cake would look good. I’m always envious of bakers who are confident of the cakes they bake for others. They’ll never have to steal a slice before serving it.

I always make sure I taste the cakes I baked before sharing with people. I don’t think I can deal with the embarrassment of treating others to an undercooked, terrible tasting cake.

As you can see, I had more chocolate batter than plain one hence the cake looked more chocolatey than having a proper marble effect. However, it was still mouth-watering! It was so delightful to have a slice to indulge in after dinner. Very heavenly!!!

Prima Taste Beef Rendang

Rendang is a fragrant meat dish originally served in Indonesia. However its rich spicy flavour made it so popular that it is also commonly served in Singapore.

Beef rendang is one of Daniel’s favourite Singapore cuisine and a must-have when we visit. However he has high expectations of this dish. While he’s happy to eat rendang anywhere, my aunt’s homemade from scratch rendang is his favourite. No restaurant or hawker has come close to replacing Daniel’s favourite. How much of it is sucking up? To be honest I have no idea since a simple request of rendang often results in a wide spread of all his favourite dishes for dinner the next day – all cooked by my aunt.

Rendang is something I’ve never (and maybe never) cooked from scratch. The list of ingredients scares me to death and the actual cooking time required tests my patience. Most importantly, I have no confidence in recreating anything as close as my aunt’s rendang – not even 50% as close. Therefore, it is one of those dishes that I’m happy to use premix paste for.

I found Prima Taste’s Rendang at an Asian supermarket in town and decided to give it a try. I had my fears. It takes less effort than cooking from scratch but I hate ruining dinners. What if it tastes terrible?!

Thankfully, my two hours effort of cooking this dish didn’t go to waste. It was flavoursome, creamy enough (add just enough water to immerse the meat but not make the rendang watery) and the meat turned out tender.

I’ll admit that it is not like my aunt’s rendang but it’s excellent quality given that it’s from premix paste! I love rendang when it’s “dry” because it means that the meat has soaked up lots of the spices. The ones that have too much gravy left over tend to be diluted and less satisfying. I also love adding potatoes to my rendang and then serving the dish with a bowl of steaming hot white rice. As a kid I’ve always loved to mash my potatoes, mix them with rice and rendang (or any curry!). That to me is a good dinner.

Note: Recipe can be found here.

British Pancakes to Beat Monday Blues

With eyes wide open at 6.30am, the first thing that came to mind was "pancakes". It always puzzles Daniel how I can wake up with a growling stomach even when I’m not pregnant. As far as I’m concerned, breakfast is THE most important meal of the day. It not only provides me energy to deal with the ups (and downs) of daily life, it also makes me a happier person. Whoever has tried getting me out of the house while I’m on an empty stomach knows not to mess with me. A hungry Yoyo is an angry one.

You’d probably know by now that I swear by most of the BBC Good Food Recipes. They are foolproof and hardly fail me. To satisfy my craving for pancakes, of course a recipe name such as “Perfect Pancakes” sounds hopeful.

Ingredients (Serves 8)

• 100g plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 300ml semi-skimmed milk
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil or vegetable, plus extra for frying
• pinch salt

Instructions

1. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the eggs into the middle with 50ml of milk and 1 tbsp oil. Whisk till you have a smooth, thick paste. Add more milk if the mixture is too stiff.  Continue adding milk till the consistency is like slightly thick single cream. 
2. Heat the pan over a moderate heat, then wipe it with oiled kitchen paper. Pour some batter into pan and cook undisturbed for about 30 secs before turning.
3. Continue to cook the other side for 30 secs too and then serve. 

Unlike American pancakes, I don’t have to strive for them to rise and be fluffy and this makes things a lot easier on a sleepy Monday morning. I learned from Daniel that British pancakes are usually served with a dash of lemon juice and sugar. Since I depleted all lemons in the kitchen yesterday, I served the thin and golden brown pancakes with sugar and a little butter.

I’m definitely energised for the day! What about you?

Chilli Chicken Sandwich with Avocado

I was craving for a sandwich for dinner. In fact, I crave for sandwiches a lot in a country that doesn’t know what a sandwich is. However, Germany does itself proud in many other ways so I shall compromise and make myself a homemade sandwich instead. I didn’t want anything too heavy after waking up at 2am last night with indigestion. That was a horrible pain and I don’t wish to go through that for two consecutive nights.

I wanted a zesty (and slightly spicy) sandwich so I marinated 400g of chicken breasts with lime juice (from 2 limes) and two tablespoons of chilli powder mixed with garlic for 2 hours.

As I’m currently addicted to avocados after reading its amazing health benefits, I added them to my sandwiches in addition to some green salad. They are surprisingly filling which is great if I’m only making a sandwich for Daniel at dinner time.

We don’t have a grill at home (unfortunately) so I pan fried the chicken breasts with olive oil and melted Chester cheese on them before serving with toasted muffin bread. Definitely sounds more complicated than slapping cold meat and cheese between slices of bread, but it was well worth the effort.

The lime juice gave the sandwich a citrusy taste which definitely did stimulate our taste buds. The chilli and garlic spice mixture wasn’t too spicy; it was just enough to give the chicken breasts some flavour. I reckon I’ll have to look for more chicken sandwich recipes!!!

BBC Good Food Vegetable Ragu

Do you have days when you just don’t feel like touching and eating any meat? Yesterday was one of those days for me. While I do love poultry and meat, I do occasionally feel like a good vegetarian meal such as Vegetable Ragu.

This year I started learning to make my own pasta sauce. Not only are they surprisingly easy, they also taste fresher and healthier. This vegetable ragu recipe from good old BBC Good Food is a gem as it is so cheap and easy to make.

Since recipes aren’t set in stone, I omitted celery and red lentils in my version. I added dried basil and cayenne pepper to spice it up a little. And I’m currently in love with balsamic vinegar so I was rather generous with it too. As it cooked on the stove, the ragu was bursting with sweet smelling vegetables – the perfect healthy comfort food on a cold day.

This is to me the fun part about cooking – not restricting yourself to whatever the recipe calls for and taking initiative to tweak it to your preference.

Jamie Oliver's Roast Chicken Recipe (half-arsed)

Today I tried out a Jamie Oliver's recipe – Perfect roast chicken. I do find myself avoiding recipes from celebrity chefs because 99% of the time their recipes are just far too fancy and complicated for my liking. However, this recipe has proven otherwise.

 

I tweaked the recipe by spreading herb butter under the skin of the chicken and added some dried thyme with the bunch of fresh rosemary and lemon in the chicken’s cavity.

The result is a crispy-skinned chicken that’s really juicy on the insides. Jamie Oliver didn’t lie about that!

So why did I call it half-arsed?

I got tired in the evening from walking around the Christmas market and couldn’t be bothered to make roast potatoes. I would have put in the extra effort if I had mint sauce, the magic that makes roast potatoes taste heavenly, to go with them. Taking the easy way out, I threw some garlic bread in the oven to serve with the perfect chicken roast.

Seriously, this recipe is amazing! Give it a go if you have the time!

BBC Good Food Recipe Books

I used to dominate the kitchen because I loved to. However I had to minimise my time in my territory ever since we found out about Bao who’s not very cooperative when it comes to standing or walking for an extended period of time. Therefore, I very willingly assigned some cooking responsibilities to Daniel.

A few months back, my sis-in-law gave us a couple of BBC Good Food recipe books as part of our birthday presents. I can’t tell you how much I love their recipes. They are easy to follow, tested by others and so reliable. You can even find many mouth-watering recipes for free on their website! These books came in handy for Daniel who isn’t quite the experienced cook.

 

Each recipe comes with a well taken photo of the dish together with its full nutritional breakdown. I love how they aren’t too fancy and are actually extremely easy to follow.

Here’s what we’ve tried so far.

Italian-style Beef Stew, perfect on a cold wintry day. We served it with mash for dinner and pasta for lunch the next day.

 

Thai-style Beef Patties which was like a time & travel machine that transmitted us to Thailand the instance we bit into them. The original recipe asked for minced pork but last minute shopping on a Saturday evening in Germany pretty much guarantees that we won’t get everything we want.

 

Chicken noodles soup is another of my favourite on days when I want something gingery, warm, spicy and just plain simple. A very healthy meal!

We do cook almost everyday since it can hurt the pockets to eat out daily. There are days when I miss living in Singapore where I can just walk to the coffeeshop and be spoilt for choice. However, I learnt that cooking for ourselves is a lot healthier and it can be a really fun activity to do together too.

Now that Daniel has learnt a few tricks in the kitchen (and he has done more than what I’ve shown you above), I feel so much more at ease about the arrival of Bao. We won’t have family nearby to help us, neither is there the concept of a confinement lady who cares, cook and wash for me & Bao (thank God I won’t have one anyway!), but seeing Daniel putting in all his effort to sort everything out at home without me lifting a finger is really comforting. At least I know Bao and I are well taken care of.

Salmon Linguine with Lemon Juice

Salmon tastes so good when seasoned with black pepper and chilli flakes. I baked them at 190 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes. To give it a refreshing taste, I squeezed half a lemon over the fillets before baking.

Before watching tutorials by Jamie Oliver, I never put salt in boiling water when cooking pasta. It makes such a difference! However I only do so if I’m NOT making a sauce based pasta. Very seldom do you find me adding salt in my cooking for health reasons. After boiling the pasta, I stir fried it (briefly) in a pan with olive oil, basil, chilli flakes, juice from half a lemon and seasoned with black pepper.

It’s a really simple dish that I’ve made for dinner a few times and we really like it. Fish… I want to eat more fish! Guess what? We’ll be visiting family in the UK soon so we’re looking forward to fish & chips! FIIIIISSSSSH!