mycookerygarden

I had a block of Malagasy cheese that I found too "milky" - is it called "young, not matured cheese" ? I could not eat this cheese on its own. So, I looked around for a recipe to cook the cheese. Voila - spicy cheese crackers with lots of herbs sounds like it will disguise the milky taste. It did. Tea time Based on this recipe: https://www.browneyedbaker.com/spicy-southern-cheese-crackers/ 8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 2 cups) = I used about 200g of Malagasy cheese 0.5 cup (113 grams) salted butter, at room temperature = reduced a little 1 teaspoon kosher salt 0.5 teaspoon cayenne pepper = I used chili powder 0.25 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 0.125 teaspoon garlic powder = I must have used a lot more 1.5 cups (213 grams) all-purpose flour  I tasted the dough when it was out of the mixer and added quite a lot of pepper, garlic and even chili powder to get the spiciness to the right level. To each his own. This is actually a v...

A friend gave me an organic lemon. It looked bigger than usual and it had some spots, showing its naturalness! So, what to do with a nice lemon? I remembered Mary Berry's Lemon Drizzle Cake but her one or two recipes in the web had this 1:1:1 ratio of flour, sugar and butter. For the classic sponge cake, I think. But this other recipe seems better for my taste. http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/4830/polly-welby-s-famous-lemon-drizzle-cake.aspx 110g (4 oz) butter 170g (6 oz) self raising flour 4 tablespoons milk 170g (6 oz) caster sugar = I used 150g and it was sweet enough 2 eggs lemon zest and juice from 1 lemon 3 tablespoons icing sugar = for once, I had icing sugar in the fridge This cake turned out great. I love it because the lemon infused cake is so light to eat and the sourness and sweetness matches so well. Absolute delight with such simple ingredients.   Heavenly slice - the lemon juice hits the sweetness of the cake just right. All mixed up with lemon zest...

For non-vegetarians, the idea of a tofu burger is not exactly palatable. BUT .. this one can make the grade. Well, it is not meat but it is tasty tofu. And not the mashed up type of patty where you don't know what exactly you are tasting. I prefer to see and eat the whole piece of tofu - a recognizable and tasty tofu patty. All it needs is to press the water out (stack something heavy on top for 20 mins or more), season with some soya sauce and pan-fry it. Oh, add some sauce like ketchup or barbeque sauce (usually not vegetarian) - so look for HP sauce. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Sauce The inspiration for this cooking came from this blog: https://lovingitvegan.com/tofu-burger/ Next time, I'll add in the mushroom sauce with coconut cream. Pan fried pieces of tofu Arrange to your heart's content - coriander really jazzes up the taste, besides the bottled sauce!

I just realized that maangchi's blog has so many kimchi recipes. When I made my batch, I was referring to this one: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/napa-cabbage-kimchi Which is one of her earlier posting giving the portions to make both napa cabbage kimchi and radish kimchi ( kkakdugi). This other recipe for the traditional napa cabbage kimchi looks good as well. It has carrot matchsticks and half the amount of hot pepper flakes as the above recipe. Next time. https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/tongbaechu-kimchi/comment-page-1 I bought a small cabbage about 940g, so I adjusted the ingredient measurements by four. 2 large size napa cabbages (about 8 pounds: 3.6 kg) = 940g 2 Korean radishes (about 4-5 pounds: 2 kg) = 0.5kg 1.5 cup of kosher salt = as needed when salting the cabbage, maybe 4-5 tbsp 0.5 cup sweet rice flour, 0.25 cup sugar, 3 cups water = used glutinous rice flour, reduced all measures to a quarter 4 cups of hot pepper flakes = 0.75 cups of Korean chili paste +...

An Edible Garden is fun as you can eat the fruits of your labour. I tried to plant Okinawan spinach from one cutting cut into 2 stems. Alas, the first stem died as I had planted it before rooting. I had read somewhere that it could be planted this way. Well, this did not work out for me. The second cutting fared better after some roots grew in the water first. Okinawan spinach from a friend. Made a salad with some of the leaves. 4 Mar 2018: Two cuttings in water. The leaf-less cutting survived 1-2 weeks in soil before it rotted. Those leaves at the side of the pot are Indian Borage leaves. I stuck them in there to suck up some water, because I had over-watered on some days. 22 Mar 2018: First planted. 3 Apr 2018 10 Apr 2018 14 Apr 2018 26 Apr 2018 Bought a pot of sweet basil from NTUC supermarket. Cut up the big basil leaves for a pasta. There were about 5-6 plants in this pot. 7 Apr 2018: In the original brown pot, t he long roots were ...

Why are these really ugly Chinese pancakes? Because the dough was so sticky that I had a lot of trouble just getting the filling to be wrapped up than to worry how nice it would look. My original idea was to find a recipe to use up some of the glutinous rice flour that was bought to make onde-onde This one sounded promising. But I wanted a savoury snack, not a sweet one. So, I replaced the red bean paste with some mashed up chicken-potato curry that I had in the fridge. http://www.guaishushu1.com/glutinous-rice-flour-red-bean-pancake-%E8%B1%86%E6%B2%99%E7%83%A7%E9%A5%BC-%E7%B3%AF%E7%B1%B3%E7%9A%AE%EF%BC%89/ The ingredients to make the dough from the recipe above: 150 grams of plain water 30 grams of white castor sugar 2 tablespoons of cooking oil 150 grams of glutinous rice flour 30 grams of rice flour- optional Something went awry with my preparation. After boiling the first 3 items in a pot, there was too much flour for the liquid to handle. So, I poured in some wat...

There are steak lovers .. who rave about gourmet, premium cuts of of meat and how to cook it just right, medium rare or even less cooked. So, I wanted to learn how to cook steaks. Beginning my little cooking journey with supermarket steaks. Sirloin, surprisingly not at an exorbitant price. I suppose my taste is more Asian because I like the meat to be more cooked, towards the medium well or well done stage. A little bit of redness is fine but not too much for me. Alas, I will not be a steak connoisseur. First attempt: This steak was the thickest of my three attempts here. And the first piece to tell me that medium rare is not quite for me. Some people more experienced in cooking steaks tell me that they do not even season the meat when it is a nice, fresh piece. Salt, pepper, any sauces are optional after the meat is cooked. I spread some salt and pepper on a plate and then pressed each side of the steak onto it. Then heated some vegetable oil in the pan and fried each side...