Cajun Crab Dip

The cooking club is having a Cajun Theme party tonight. It took me while to decide what to bring. My kitchen is not equipped for the heavy Cajun cooking.

I finally decided on a cajun crab dip.

This is my first attempt in making dip. Asians are not a great fan of dip..especially cold dip. It was difficult to choose a recipe especially with something which I am not familiar with. I finally settled on this cold crab dip recipe..... with some modification. The recipe calls for Cayenne pepper which add kick to the dish.

Ingredients:

8 ouces Philadelphia cream cheese, soften ( I used reduced fat)

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 six ounce cans crab meat, drained.

2 cups finely chopped green onion

1 cup mayonnaise

1.5 teaspoon of worcesteshire sauce (original recipe called for 1 teaspoon)

1.5 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (original recipe called for 1 teaspoon)

salt to taste (original recipe called for a teaspoon)

Direction:

1. Combine cream cheese and lemon juice together

2. Combined all ingredients together to the cream cheese mix

3. Chill and serve with cracker

~bel~

Butter Cake

I had been thinking of butter cake for last two weeks. I was in a baking mood today and decided decided to bake one using the recipe in Bakingmum. It is a very simple and easy recipe

The pictures taken are really bad as I am without camera. These were taken using my blackberry.

Ingredients :

300g self raising flour (sifted)

200g sugar

250g butter (unsalted)

6 large eggs

1/2 cup of evaporated milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Direction

1. Cream butter and sugar till white and fluffy

2. Add eggs. One at a time and mix well

3. Add vanilla extract and evaporated milk

4. Fold in flour

5. Pour into greased and lined cake tray 9X9 ( I used two loaf tins)

6. Baked at 160C (330F) for about one hour

~bel~

Spicy Black Bean and Black Eye Pea Salad

I am going to a friend's place today and decided to make a bean salad. I decided to adapt a Southwestern Bean Salad with Black Bean, Black Eye peas, Pepper and Cilantro recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen.... with a small twist :)

I am pleasantly surpised by the results. I really like the tangy and spicy taste...... really refreshing :)

Ingredients:

1 can of black bean

1 can of black eye pea

1/2 cup of green peppers (diced)

1/2 cup of red pepper (diced)

1/2 cup of golden pepper (diced)

3/4 cup of red onion (diced)

1.3 cup of chopped cilantro

Dressings:

4 tablespoon of olive oil

3 tablespoon of lemon juice

2 tablespoon of white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon of Japanese chilli flakes (you can purchase this from any Japanese grocery shop_

6-10 drops of tabascco ( more if you like the salad to be more spicy)

Salt and pepper

Direction:

i) Rinse the beans till no foam. Drain for at least 5 minutes. Pat dry

ii) Whisked the dressings together until well combined

iii) Add 1/2 of dressing to the beans. Set aside for at least 15 minutes to marinate

iv) Add the peppers, onions and cilantro to the beans. Add salt and pepper to taste

v) Add more dressing if desired.

vi) Chilled for one hour and ready to serve

~bel~

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is always fun in my family,,especially when it comes to FOOD. We always have abundance of delicious food... I always think that we could feed a platoon with the amount of food we cook each day :)

Some ( I have to stress "SOME".....) of the food we had for the Chinese New Year reunion dinner last night...

Roasted chicken.. This year we had 3.. I roasted one and my sister bought 2......

Stir fried leeks... always have this during Chinese New Year as "Leeks" sounds as "count" in Chinese dialect.. which literally meant counting money

Fried noodles...my speciality.... the family loves this when I cook it

My favourite.. curry vegetables...

Chinese Meat Roll... we only made this once or twice each year as it is very time consuming. Took us 3 hours to roll 1 kg of meat

Roasted Goose.. my sister bought them this year

Prawns.. always a family favourite

Peng Cai... a Chinese Delicacy.. an earthen pot consisting of layers and layers of chinese delicacy such as abalone, prawns, fish maws etc.

Baked Chicken

The family has been asking me to use the new oven in Singapore when I go back in February for Chinese New Year. (well, my mother said that no one is to use the oven till I am home ).

My sister wanted Chicken.

I have been looking around for chicken recipe and decided on this simple bake chicken

Ingredients:

1) 1/3 cup of olive oil

2) 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice

3) 1-1.5 tablespoon of rosemary

4) Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

i) Marinate the chicken overnight with the ingredients

ii) Bake the chicken at 450F for 20 minutes, reduce to 350F

iii) Chicken is ready when the thermometer read 165F

CNY Cashew Nuts Cookies

I saw this CNY Cashew Nut Cookies recipe on Bakingmum blog and just could not resist the temptation to try it.

The cookies are really good.

Ingredient A:

210g butter unsalted

80g icing sugar

1 egg york

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Ingredient B

250g plain flour

60g corn flour

1/4 tsp baking soda ( I used baking powder)

1/8 tsp cinnamon powder

Ingredients C:

300g raw cashew nuts ( I used 200g raw cashews and 100g roasted unsalted)

2 egg yolks ( beaten for eggwash)

Directions:

1. Baked 100g of cashew nuts at 180C for 10 minutes. Chopped the cashew nuts coarsely. (omitted this step I use roasted unsalted cashews)

2. Cream butter and icing sugar lightly at speed 1. Add egg york and vanilla essence

( I misread the recipe and add a whole egg. But it still turn out nice)

3. Stir in ingredients B and chopped cashew nuts. Mix well.

4. Chill dough in the fridge for 40 minutes

5. Remove dough and roll into small balls. Arranged on a lined baking trays.

6. Brush with beaten egg york and placed a whole or half cashew on top of cookies and flatten it

( again I used whole egg for the eggwash.. so the colour of my cookies is not that golden)

7. Baked in pre-heated oven at 180C for 15 minutes or until brown.

( Tip from bakingmum - add 50g of grounded cashews into the dough for more flavour. To have a nicely yellow eggwash, add yellow colouring into egg york)

Vanilla Oreo Cupcake

I finally got my mixer. Was thinking of getting a Kitchen Aid.. but decided that it would be too much. So finally settled on a cheap Sunbeam mixer.

This is my first bake for 2010.... Vanilla Oreo Cupcake... really awesome !! I used the basic vanilla cupcake recipe from bakingmum blog and added some oreo to the mix.

Ingredients:

195gm of cake flour

140gm of plain flour

150gm castor sugar

100 light brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

225 gm of salted butter ( or 2 sticks) - cut into 1 inch cube

4 large eggs

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

Chopped oreo - I removed the cream

Directions:

i) Preheat oven to 165 C ( 330 F)

ii) Combine flour, sugar and baking powder on low speed until mix well

iii) Add butter to mixture. Beat till mixture resemble coarse crumbs

iv) In another bowl, combine eggs, milk and vanilla. Whisk to mix well

v) With mixer at medium speed, add wet ingredients into flour mixture in 3 parts. Beat until all ingredients are incorporated but not over mixed. Add chopped oreo.

vii) Fill cupcake liner to 2/3 full

viii) Bake for 20-25 minutes or longer depend on how brown you want the cupcake to be.

ix) Transfer to cooling rack.

~Bel~