Oriental Stir Fried Spaghetti with Bacon #15MinuteSupper 熏肉炒意面

It was a busy weekend for the family. We were spring cleaning in preparation for the lunar New Year which is only 2 weeks away and I nearly forgot it's lunchtime until I saw the clock pointing to 12:30.. Oops.

So I quickly searched my fridge for what to cook and found a packet of streaky bacon and some cooked spaghetti, left over from the previous dinner. So, stir fried spaghetti it is. The baby Choy Sum in our garden is ready for harvest so extra green for the pasta, how convenient. :)

It's a hush hush meal but yummy none the less. 

Preparation Time: 5 min
Cooking Time: 10 min
Serving for: 3-4 pax

Ingredients:

1/2 packet of spaghetti 

3 eggs, beaten and flavored with some salt & pepper

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped  

1 carrot, cut into short strips

1/4 onion, roughly chopped 

4 strips of streaky Bacon, cut into short strips
8 stalks of baby Choy Sum, washed and cleaned (since our homegrown baby Choy Sum is pesticide-free, I only gave it a brief wash)

1 teaspoon of salt

A few drops of Worcester sauce 

2 table spoon of soy sauce

1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce (optional, I added it for darker color which is more appetizing. Add more or omit as you wish)

A dash of pepper

A dash of paprika powder

The Making:

Stir Fried Spaghetti with Bacon, the oriental style

1. In a pot of boiling water, cook the spaghetti for 10 minutes, add some salt in the water while boiling. Once cooked, drain the excess water and set the spaghetti aside.
2. While the spaghetti is cooking, heat up a table spoon of olive oil and cook the egg omelet. Roughly cut it into small pieces using the spatula then set aside.
3. Heat up a table spoon of olive oil on the wok and sauté the garlic till fragrance, toss in the onion and bacon strips, stir slightly then add the carrots slices. Add salt and Worcester sauce to taste.
4. Add 1/2 cup of water, soy sauce and dark soy sauce, mix roughly then cover the wok and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Toss in the cooked pasta, follow by the  Choy Sam and eggs. Add another 1/2 cup of water, close the lid and let the pasta simmer for another 5 minutes.
6. Turn off the stove, add a dash of pepper and paprika powder & mix well. Your pasta is ready to serve.

I love mine with few drops of freshly plugged lime (yeah, another product from our garden..), but that is really not necessary. It's just me and my exotic taste bud, Big Guy & the kiddos enjoy the spaghetti just like that.

Bon appetite!

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Oriental Style Stir Fried Spaghetti with Bacon from Food 4 Little Ones
Creamy Garlic Pasta from Better in Bulk
Creamy Coconut Shrimp from Around My Family Table
Quick 15 Minute Shrimp Tacos from Jen's Journey
Shrimp Fajita Rice Bowl from Turning the Clock Back
Pasta with Bacon and Brussels Sprouts from Suburbia Unwrapped

Head over to our #15MinuteSuppers Pinterest Board to see all the past recipes and more delicious goodness!

Would you like to join us at #15MinuteSuppers? We’d love to have you! Please check out the 15 Minute Suppers website or ask to join the Facebook group (for bloggers) to participate on Fridays…we’d love to have you join us.

Honey Glazed Roasted Chicken Wings 蜜糖烤鸡翼

This is a delicious dish that looks complicated but is actually really, really easy to prepare. Big Guy and I used to be big fans of a popular charcoal barbecue chicken wing store nearby to our condo, we can eat half a dozen of the chicken wings over a late night movie (those days when we were newly-wed..). However since we have moved to the new house we seldom visit this store anymore.  

For my little boy's birthday party, I had this sudden thought of serving my favorite chicken wings as finger food. But instead of barbecue method, I decided to make an oven roasted version which is healthier and easier for cleaning since less utensil involved. As a fulltime working mama of two young kiddos, I have to take the practical route. 

The honey glaze adds extra aroma to the wings and gives it the golden brown layer which look so tempting; the skin was crunchy but the meat underneath was juicy and tender. This dish was a big hit for the party and the entire plate was emptied shortly after serving!

Give it a try, your little ones (and big ones) may just like it. ;)

Preparation Time: 15 min
Cooking Time: 50 min
Serving for: 24 pieces

Ingredients:

1 dozen of chicken wings, separate drummet from the wing with a knife
A teaspoon of salt 

The marinate sauce: A dash of paprika powder 辣椒粉适量
2 tablespoon of premium soy sauce 顶级酱油两茶匙
A tablespoon of Shao Xin Wine 花雕绍兴酒一茶匙， 可免(optional if serving for young kids)

Few drops of sesame oil 麻油几滴
A dash of pepper 胡椒粉适量

2 teaspoon of pure honey, diluted with 1 tablespoon of warm water. 纯蜜糖两茶匙，混一汤匙温水

The Making:

1. Clean the chicken wings under running water, dab off excess water with kitchen towel and rub the salt evenly over the wings. 
2. Mix all the marinates, cover the sauce over the chicken wings and marinate them overnight (or at least an hour). 
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F, place a layer of aluminium foil over the baking tray.
4. Place all the chicken wings over the baking tray, ensure they do not overlap onto one another, brush the honey over the wings and roast for 50 minutes.
5. Mid way during cooking, turn the chicken wings over to other side and brush with honey again. This will give the wing an even golden brown instead of plain white skin.

Remove from oven and serve it over some hot sauce or just eat it as-is. Either way, they are hard to resist... I gave my duo a drummet each and how they enjoyed it!

Useful Tips You Need to know...

• I used ziplock bag to store the marinated wings, it allows more even coverage of sauce over the wings. Easy to store & hassle free cleaning.
• Sprinkle some white sesame seed over the wings for more authentic oriental style. I was out of sesame seed so will only do that the next time.

Cloudette and Star Cookies, Fit for a Junior Pilot!

First post for 2014, finally. :)

I am some what fascinated with cookies decoration these days. Not that I am good at it, nor I have sweet tooth, but I adore pretty cookies with a message underneath.

Like these Cloudette cookies with a smile. It's here to put a smile on your face.

Or these Star Cookies with Captain E's initial. It's a statement of pride for my little Captain. The little stars are for pure munching pleasure.

Or, put them on a lolli stick and you've got a cookie pop ready to shine!

I opted for plain cookie outline this time, instead of flooding them with icing, for simplicity and lesser sugar consumption.. hence less (sugar) = more (healthy).

I used these cake decorating tool and cookie containers that I bought from the local bakery store recently, cheap and handy. Easy to wash and can be reused over and over. If you bake often,do visit a trusted bakery supplies store to get all your gears and ingredients instead of super market, they are usually cheaper and more wider selections. 

That's it, easy peasy cookie decorating fit for beginner.

Cookie decoration, fit for a pilot!

Now these are great addition for my little Captain E's airplane party!

I really love the Perfect every time cookie recipe shared by Bridget from bake at 350. If you have not tried this yet, head over to her site and check this out. You will be amazed to see that cookie decoration is not that difficult after all. It's just a crafty affair.

Happy baking!

Brussel Sprouts & Hams #15MinutesSuppers

Big guy and I had always like brussel sprouts, it's crunchy, sweet, packed with nutrition and is low on calories (which makes it an ideal diet food!); on the other hand, the kiddos are attracted to its cute outlook which is like a mini cabbage. So it's one of a favorite dish on our dining table. Instead of cooking it plain as usual, I decided to spice up a bit by adding some hams and melon seed this time.

And it turned out pretty good...

If you are having a party, serve this as warm salad dish instead. ;)

Best of all, it takes no more than 15 minutes to get it ready on the dinning table!

Preparation Time: 5 min
Cooking Time: 8 min
Serving for: 2-3 pax

Ingredients:
• 20 brussel sprouts, wash, remove ends and cut in half

• 60g hams, thinly sliced (add more if you like)

• 1 tablespoon of melon seed / pumpkin seed

• few drops of sesame oil

• a dash of worchester sauce

• salt & pepper


The Making:

1. Heat up a tablespoon of olive oil in the pan, toss in the hams and stir fry for about 2 minutes till they turn brown.

2. Scoop the hams aside, then place the brussel sprouts in the pan, make sure the flat side touches the pan (add some olive oil if the pan is too dry). Let the sprouts  cook on high heat for about 2 minutes. 

3. Add 2 table spoons of boiled water (cooled to room temperature) into the hot pan. while the water shimmers, add the seasoning, mix well, and toss in the cooked hams and melon seeds, roughly mix.

4. Let it cook for another 2 minutes with the lid on until all water evaporated, then turn off the heat.

That's it, your meal is ready! Serve it with with warm rice and it's one healthy meal, or you may just eat it as-is like a warm salad.

I love cooking the sprouts this way as they retain the lovely green and crunchiness. Addition of hams and melon seeds give a more interesting twist to the taste and texture. If you like your sprouts softer, just extend the cooking time to another 5 minutes or more.

What's your favorite way of cooking the brussel sprouts? :)

This week we are sharing 15 Minute recipes to get you through your New Year's Eve parties. I think you will love these awesome recipes that are party worthy, but that will keep you hangin' with your guests instead of being a slave in the kitchen! Happy New Year!

Follow 15 Minute Suppers on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
and look for the #15MinuteSuppers hashtag too!

15 Minute Appetizers
BBQ Bacon Meatball Skewers from Around My Family Table
Easy Party Appetizer - Lit'l Sweet BBQ Little Smokies from Just 2 Sisters
Brussel Sprouts & Hams from Food 4 Little Ones
15 Minute Snacking
Ooey Gooey Holiday Chex Mix from Better in Bulk
15 Minute Breakfast
Paleo Banana Pancakes with Meyer Lemon Butter from Confessions of an Overworked Mom
If you are a blogger and you’d like more info, please check out the 15 Minute Suppers website or ask to join the Facebook group to participate on Fridays…we’d love to have you join us.

15 minutes Yule Log Cake (the short cut way!)

I have always love the Yule Log cake since I first saw it in the hotel's Christmas  display when I was a kid. Kind of like a love at first sight :) And of course, gingerbread house too. They were my childhood dream for Christmas celebration.

Yule log cake is a traditional dessert near  Christmas originated from the European countries. It's basically a sponge cake rolled into Swiss roll with buttercream filling and decorated to look like a wood log (hence the name), and with powdered sugar as snow.

For this year, I decided to make a simple Yule Log cake using the cheat way; I admit I was too lazy to bake now that I have resumed work and this month was a month of Christmas crafting. You may head over to Fun With Little Ones to see what I have been busy crafting at night. :)

Anyway, back to the Yule Log Cake. I took a short cut by using store made marble Swiss roll and the left over royal icing that I made for Christmas cookies deco last week. I kept them sealed in the fridge so still taste good and fresh after a week.

Little one helped to put on the naughty santas and snow.

Ingredients:

1 foot long swill roll cake, any flavor if your choice

1/2 cup of royal icing (approximately 120gram). Use store made or wipe up your own with this recipe from Bake at 350.

2 table spoon of icing sugar / Powdered sugar 

The Making:

1. Get ready the cake, fill the  piping gun / piping bag with white royal icing.

2. Squeeze straight rows of the royal icing horizontally across the cake in a slow and steady motion, make sure the cake is fully covered. For the side, use a spatula to help spread the icing evenly.

3. Using a fork, lightly drag lines on top of the royal icing to create wood like texture. Let the log rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes before start decorating. 

4. Decorate the cake with snowman, Santa clause, mistletoes, meringue mushrooms etc, then sprinkle some icing sugar on top with a sieve to create the snow effect.

That's it, you have a nice winter Yule log cake ready for your party! Isn't it simple? ;)

I would recommend to keep it refrigerated for at least an hour before serving, to help the royal icing settles.

After decorating the cake, I used the remaining royal icing to make more Christmas cookies. I did much better this time with the outlining, didn't I?

The freshly baked sugar cookies. Tasted good on its own.

My favorite Christmas trees

The classic gingerbread man

And some colorful stars and hearts.

This shall make a very merry Christmas party for us. 

Fancy to make some Christmas cookies too? Read on more on my earlier post here.

Or the tutorial for the royal icing by Bake at 350 who shared so many recipes and tutorials!

Merry Christmas to you & your family!

Happy Meal {Christmas Edition} Snowman is Here!

We are all in the mood of Christmas, so while having fruits after dinner, I cut the apples into round slices so I can arrange them into these cute little snowmen (just cut apple into half and scope out the core with a spoon. No special tools required).

Little Snowmen playing under the starlight and snowflakes..

Says who that preparing Christmas food is time consuming? This took me only 5 minutes and my duo had fun munching away their apple snowmen. :)

Christmas Cookies!

Christmas is approaching, and I thought  we can make some nicely decorated cookies this time. So I research for the different varieties of cookie and decorative icing techniques, then got myself started. Of course, my little chef was not left out, how he looked forward to baking the cookies with me! :)

First time making cookie decoration with royal icing and it turned out... alright. Not glazing smooth and beautiful as I hope they would be, definitely far from professionally decorated ones, but for first timer I can accept this outcome. *self comforting*

A gingerbread man, a golden star and a Christmas tree. 3 classic designs for Christmas.

Took me about 1.5 hour to decorate all these little yummies. It was fun, felt as if I was attending art class back in my school time again, only that the coloring material is fully edible. My handsome and I both licked some icing off our fingers, delish!

Here are the 1st batch of decorative cookies we completed. Kept them completely dry out for an hour before storing them in the fridge. A few ugly ones were excluded from the picture, well, my flooding technique went rather disastrous so pardon me with the ugly golden stars..

The base cookies baked the night before, seriously they taste great just eaten as is. Crunchy and buttery. So glad I found this recipe from Bake At 350. Bridget is really talented in cookie decoration and I must say this is the BEST cookie recipe I have tried so far!

  

These are the cookies decorated with white piping to outline the shape, letting it cool for an hour before we continue with the remaining. They looked quite neat but i wanted something colorful for the holiday feel. Noticed one with broken arm? I have to be more careful next time in handling cookies. *bash*

My little chef was so excited to help up with cookie baking and decorating them. Looking good in his new personal Christmas apron made by mommy, personalised with his name in flying upward manner as he requested.

The batter and the tools I used for baking. Nothing fancy, really. One thing I like about this recipe is that it is really simple and I can cut the dough using the cookie mould without having to pre-chill it. A real time saver.

The homemade royal icing, first time ever attempted and I'm glad it's a success! The color is off white as I added some vanilla essence which tainted it.

I'm going to bring some of these for the Christmas party at my office, and make another fresh batch for later celebration at home. The recipe is enough to make about 40+ medium size cookies and the dough can be chilled for baking later.

Can't wait to give this a try too? Check out the recipe for sugar cookies here. Perfect is my only comment for this recipe. She has the royal icing tutorial too, very informative tips shared.

If you made decorated royal icing cookies too, do share the picture of the cookies you made, will you? *wishful thinking*

Till later, happy holiday!

Simple Moist Chocolate Cake (and decoration tips!)

As promised, this is the recipe I used for baking the birthday cake for my little bunny who turned 2 recently. I know this is 2 weeks late, but it is better late than never, right? *wink*  

Decorated with the rainbow, clouds and figurines depicting my duo, this cake was a hit for all the kids and parents too.



You may read on more about the birthday and the Rainbow theme deco I prepared for the special day here - Little Bunny Turned 2!

Anyway, let's focus on the cake. The recipe was adopted from Joy of Baking using their Simple Chocolate Cake recipe, I made some modifications so it is less sweet to compensate for the sweetness of the fondant icing. 



Preparation time: 15 min
Baking time: 30 min
Serving for: 2 x 9" round cake 


Ingredients:
Dry Ingredients
300g granulated white sugar  (reduced from original 400g)
245g all-purpose flour, sifted.
75g unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Van Houtton cocoa powder)  
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients 
2 large eggs (size A)
240 ml warm water 
240 ml fresh milk (full cream or low fat milk alright)
120 ml vegetable / sunflowers oil
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
 2 table spoons of strawberry chocolate chips for mixed flavor


The Making:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F  and place oven rack in the center of the oven. Brush the bottom and side of the pans with the butter or cooking oil. You may add a layer of baking sheet at the bottom of the pans to ensure easier removal later.  

2. In a large bowl (make sure it's dry), mix all dry ingredient using a spatula .

3. In another large bowl, beat the eggs till fluffy then whisk together with all the remaining wet ingredients. Gradually add the dry mixture into the wet mixture until it's well combined (should be smooth and not lumpy).

4. Evenly divide the batter between the two pans and bake for about 27 - 32 minutes until fully risen. Insert a toothpick or cake tester into the center of the cake, it should come out clean. Otherwise just continue to bake for another 3 - 5 minutes.

5. Remove the pan and let the cake cool completely on the rack before start decorating.

You may noticed both my cakes are of different sizes. Well, I intend to make a 2 layer cake at first but eventually changed my mind and created 2 separate cakes instead. So 1 layer or 2 layers? Depends on number of guests really. The 9" cake was just nice to serve my 20+ guests where 1/3 of them are kids under 5yo.

This cake can be pre-baked and keep in fridge up to 3 days (could be more but may not taste fresh anymore)

Beginner's Tips for Fondant Decoration..

I am not expert in cake decoration with fondant, this is my 3rd attempts in fact. However some tips for beginner like me:

• Keep the cake  in the fridge for at least 1 hour before starting the decoration.
• While you may make your own fondant with icing sugar, using ready to roll fondant allows better chance of success. Just buy white fondant and mix the color yourself. 
• You would need a cake turner and bread knife to cut off the top layer to achieve an even surface. The remaining crumbs can be eaten as-is (yummy!) or used for making cake pops.
• The decorated cake should be kept in a dry and cool place (air-conditioned room is ideal) to avoid the fondant from melting. 
• Ideally the fondant decoration shall be done same day or 1 day before serving.
• If the fondant get too sticky when rolling, just sprinkle some corn starch over it and it shall be fine.

Overall I spent about 4 hours on the cake decoration (span across 2 days) and a main bulk of it was due to the details involved in making the figurines. No wonder a professionally made fondant cakes don't come cheap, a lot of effort & time required!

That's all folks, feel free to share the picture of the cake you make too for exchange of ideas ;)