All posts tagged: family friendly recipe

Brazilian Cheese Bread recipe

Brazilian Cheese Bread – Pão de Queijo

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These Brazilian cheese bread are crispy on the outside, cheesy and gooey on the inside, almost elastic, such texture reminds me a little of Mochi (a type of Japanese rice cake which is made with glutinous rice flour), one of my childhood favourites. Technically, they are not really ‘bread’ as it requires neither yeast, nor proofing which normally a must for bread making. The recipe calls for just a handful of ingredients and it takes about half an hour to three quarters of an hour to make. These little fluff balls are light as feather, freckled with golden brown spots from the cheese, are best served warm straight from the oven. Slather a couple of them generously with velvety butter and a pinch of flaky sea salt, that’s exactly the way I like to eat them! Alongside with a cup of warm matcha latte and a good book (or a Netflix series!) would be a real treat for me. I imagine it will be absolutely delicious if served with a hearty soup or stew where …

Tamari Peanut Tofu with Courgette Ribbons recipe

Crispy Tamari Peanut Tofu served with Courgette Ribbons

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I know tofu is not everyone’s cup of tea, some insist that it is bland and flavourless, but if you cook it right, tofu is wonderfully delicious and pack full of protein.  The key is to pair it with a sharp and well-seasoned sauce/dressing and it will absorb all the flavours like a sponge.  This recipe here calls for firm tofu and my favourite way to cook it is to dust it first with seasoned corn starch or potato starch, then pan-fry it until crispy and golden brown, follows by coating them generously with the silky and flavourful Tamari Peanut sauce just before serving.  The second you sink your teeth into a piece of these luscious jewels, you will change your mind about tofu forever. Ingredients: Serves 2 200g Organic Non-GMO firm tofu 3/4 – 1 cup Potato starch (or corn Starch) 1-2 tsp. garlic powder 1 medium courgette Sesame seeds (for garnish) Vegetable oil for frying For the peanut sauce: 2 tbsp. pure peanut butter 1 tbsp. tamari or regular soy sauce (if gluten …

teriyaki king oyster mushroom recipe

Teriyaki King Oyster Mushroom with Snow Peas

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This wonderful teriyaki sauce is one of the easiest sauces to make, it is deliciously piquant and so versatile that it can be used on nearly anything: meat, vegetables, noodles or grains. I always turn to this sauce when I am not sure what to cook. My favourite one is teriyaki salmon or chicken served on steamy hot rice with a side of nori seaweed and green leafy vegetables. But today, I opt for a vegetarian version with my new found favourite king oyster mushroom. This mushroom has the most meaty texture with the least water content compares to all of its other contemporaries. It holds its shape beautifully when cooked which makes it a brilliant replacement for meat. In this dish, the powerful flavour of the teriyaki sauce is complimented with refreshing and naturally sweet snow peas. The snow peas are barely cooked to retain its freshness and crunchiness, it goes perfectly well with the piquant teriyaki sauce and add a lovely contrast to the tender velvety mushroom. Serve with pipping hot rice as a comforting and satisfying meal. …

Stewed Plums with Maple Syrup and Cinnamon recipe

Brown Butter Maple Stewed Plums with Cinnamon – plus a note on a short autumn break

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I spent the last summer day slicing up the soon-to-be last-season plums and sautéed them in brown butter, cinnamon and maple syrup. Although it is sad to know that summer finally came to an end, but this silky, sweet and sour stewed plums has left me the most beautiful memory of our glorious summer. When I finished making this somewhat comforting and warm dish, I felt like I have done my part to conclude the past summer with the most appropriate mix of flavours. The wonderful thing about this recipe is it calls for only a handful of ingredients and it takes only a little time to make. This recipe is an adaptation of Martha Stewart’s stewed plums recipe, I replaced cardamon with cinnamon as that’s what I had at home. The first time I whipped it up quite quickly as a compliment to a rich, moist chocolate cake that we brought to a friend’s at tea time the other day, and it was hit. The soft tarty plums celebrates brilliantly the intense flavour of the bitter sweet chocolate cake, …

Gluten Free Almond Plum Cake recipe

Almond Maple Plum Cake

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This cake is moist on the inside with hint of vanilla, top of the cake is slightly crunchy flavoured with soft tarty plums. The sponge cake is shy of sweet which allow the maple saturated fruit to shine. Plum is sold in abundance at this time of the year, it is delicious both raw and cooked. In its raw form, the firm but juicy flesh is pleasantly sweet, it carries a floral note and sweet like honey. Its smell mirrors its wonderful taste and lingers on your fingers long after you held one. When cooked, sweetness turns into a nice tarty taste. It is almost unbearable to not take the advantage to include plum in your everyday menu, some days I wake up craving for a juicy plum with yogurt and homemade granola, or other days, I scatter them on salad and then topped with toasted nuts, or stew them quickly in vanilla syrup and serve warm with ice cream for dessert. But bake plum in cake is definitely one of my favorite ways to enjoy these late summer …

Roasted za'atar carrot with goat cheese, pistachio and promagranate dressing recipe

Roasted Za’atar and Sumac Carrots Salad

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These carrots are roasted to perfection, flavoured with za’atar and sumac; a combined taste of tangy sweet and yet earthy and savory. Za’atar is a spice blend that originates in Middle East countries, such as Lebanon, Israel, Jordon, Palestine and Saudi Arabia; and also popular in some north African countries such as Morocco and Tunisia. Every country has their own blend of spices. The one I have (and I use here) is from Israel, it is a blend of dried oregano, white sesame, thyme, sumac, dill and salt, it has an intense earthy flavour with a hint of licorice note. It gives a wonderful taste to almost anything, I love to sprinkle it on egg of all kinds, or rub the spice on chicken and lamb then put straight onto the grill; scatter it on homemade hummus and baked pitta bread, to say the few examples. The other spice I use here is called Sumac, it is also native to the Middle East; a red coarse powder made from ground sumac berries. It has a floral …

Baked Pork Filet with Port Wine Portuguese Style recipe

Baked Pork Filet and Fennel in Port Wine, Portuguese Style – served with Olive Rice

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Eating out on weekends were always the highlight of the week for us when we were small. My father was a food enthusiast and he loved to try out different restaurants in and around Macau city. He loved fine dinning especially, so we quite often dined in the exclusive Portuguese restaurant inside the hotel Pousada de São Tiago, a former fortress originally built by the Portuguese in the 17th century against the local pirates and other European countries (who wanted to invade Macau, which was a lucrative trading port in the far east at the time). The hotel is situated in the south west corner of the Macau Peninsula, overlooking Macau city and the Pearl River Estuary. It was always excited for us children to walk proudly into the fortress through the glass door, like princesses and princes in our beloved fairy tales, and knowing that a sumptuous meal which we had been looking forward to all week long, would be waiting for us to feast on. I remember the redolence of olive oil and freshly baked bread filled the …

Broad Beans, Peas and chorizo polenta

Sautéed Broad Beans, Green Peas and Chorizo – served with Creamy Polenta and Crispy Mushrooms

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I remember vividly the moment when I opened the bean pod from the broad bean plant I grew, on the balcony of my parent’s flat in Macau. I must have been about 10 years old, I saw those little pale green beans lying peacefully inside their furry pod, I was so excited beyond imagination, since I wasn’t the ‘green fingers’ type of girl (and I am still not!), that was a huge achievement for my 10-year-old-self. Strangely, I recalled almost every stage of its growth, from sprouting the bean on a damp cotton wool pad, transferred it gingerly to a small plastic container with proper plant soil, seeing it grew and flowered with beautiful white blossom (with some pattern that I somehow forgot); then the flower wilted and was replaced by a light green pod, growing slowly and steadily and eventually became a cosy shelter for three or four petite beans which were as green as jade. It was quite a valuable experience for me then, to look after something so fragile, and to see this wonderful transformation of …

Chicken Puttanesca recipe

Chicken Puttanesca

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There is something, for me, sentimental about having a pot of food slowly bubbling away on the stove top in the kitchen. I guess it is the feeling of comfort, the assurance of having food ready and steady for the evening. I believe this state of mind is strongly connected to the way I grew up: my mother spent most of her day cooking in the kitchen, after making lunch for us (my sisters and I ate lunch at home during school lunch break, as we lived only 5 minutes walk from our school), she would clean up and start to prepare dinner again (something that I didn’t quite get my head around until I became a mother myself!). There was always something cooking on the stove: slow cooked soup, braised meat etc which require intense preparation and hours of cooking time. Our home would be filled with all kind of ambrosial aroma while mother siting at our dinning table, reading newspaper with her glasses which made her eyes look enormous. These pictures of mother and her kitchen, the food that …