Fun with Strawberry, Mango, Kiwi Tofu CheeseCake

The other day when I was browsing through some photos of georgous cakes, I suddenly had the real urge to make lots , lots, and Lots of cakes and desserts. I was smiling away, at some point, perhaps even drooling when viewing some of the wonderful images of lovely pastries (including Aunty Yochana's cakes) on the internet.

Yes.. what you see here is truly an experimentation project over the long holiday weekend! I wasn't sure it will work.. but being the gutsy me, I had a go at it. The truth is I have so much fun making this Strawberry Tofu CheeseCake, it's unbelievable that I feel effortless, even though I was trying Tofu first time into the cheesecake recipe (more Tofu to Cheesecake) ! And, to make it more colourful, I have added fruits like mango and kiwi for more thrill.

Look at these glorious pictures taken in my height of excitement.

I could drool forever. Oops !

My Fun with my all-shaped cutters !

Ha ha.. all to myself (the boys are away from me !)

I feel like a young kid , messing around, silly but fun..

Here's the fun part of decorating the fruits onto the tofu cheesecake base !

Look at how the Jelly begins to form..

As you guess it..

Ok..ok, the sides aren't exactly that straight and nice, a bit on the messy side.

I know, I know , my cutting skills just needs a little touch-up.



Eat your heart out ! Haha.. these are mine, all mine.

Eat your fruits out, these are still mine..

Yours coming up ...

These are yours , all yours ! Haha.. These first ones are a bit melty... was too anxious to taste when it was not yet set.

Try Soy products.. silken tofu is fun ! Why Tofu? To lose weight and prevent breast cancer lah ! More information on http://www.soybean.org/.

Grandma's Curry Chicken secret recipe

This is one recipe that my relatives always come to our house for, especially during Chinese New Year period. But, since this is Deepavali, we also decided to have our own family dining with Grandma's Curry Chicken, how's that for a mini celebration !

I could say , the Grandma's curry is so well-received by my relatives that I do not always have a 2nd serving by the time I get my hands on it during CNY. So, here it is, my mum's hand-me down secret recipe.. it's more a combination of Northern Indian thick curry, not the yellowish curry ones which we normally have. It's can be real spicy depending on the type of the curry powder !

Brace yourself for the curry fragance while cooking ... can cause sneezing seizure ..haha ! And brace even more when savouring the curry gravy.. For the Faint-hearted, go slow. For the Brave-hearted Foodie, I say GO For IT ! Hmm.. extra curry spices, anyone ?

So here it is...

What is Required

1 chicken - cut into slices
2 big potatoes (peeled and boiled, cut into cube sizes)
3 tomatoes
2 garlic cloves - minced
2 shallots
1 big onion
1 cinammon stick
1 Star Anise

3 seeds of Cardamon
3 tbsp cooking oil
5 tbsp curry powder
50g coconut milk
1 cup fresh milk
3 tbsp sugar ( taste)

1 pinch of salt

How To Do it

Heat the wok with oil and fry the garlic, shallots.

Add in the Star Anise and the cinnamon stick
Fry until fragrant for 1 minute.

Add in the chicken slices and fry.

Pour in the curry powder, add 5 tbsp of water. and fry for another 2mins,

Add in the onion and the tomatoes and fry for 1 min.

Add in coconut milk and fresh millk.

Simmer until the chicken is cooked.

Add in the potatoes and simmer for about 2 mins.

Stir in the sugar and salt.

Ready to serve... hmm... smells good !

What's life without spiciness !!

My undying love with Chilli Crab

Yummmmmmmmy.... ! Fresh succulent crabs cooked in sweet tomato cum chilli paste.

I guess being a Singaporean, we are always spoilt for seafood choices especially in terms of dining. There are so many famous Seafood restaurants to satisfy cravings for good Chilli Crabs.. Melben, Long Beach, Ban Leong Wah Hoe, No 3 Crab Delicacy... including some local neighbourhood coffee shops sells Chilli Crabs too....the list goes on. Even Singapore Tourism highlights this gourmet chilli crab dish as part of the Uniquely Singapore dish. As a foreign traveller, if you are lucky, you may get this dish on some occasions for free or at a discounted rate.

Singapore Chilli Crabs have gone so famous that many of our foreign visitors are very familiar with our version of Chilli Crab. This is one of the very first thing that we bring our visitors to savour when they visit Singapore. So, perhaps , next time I shall show-case my home version ??!! haha..

Well, I am proud to say that we have trained our future generation, my dearest boys, to acquire such fine taste as well.. And, yes not forgetting , the very refined "Finger-Licking Good" custom. Don't fret if you cannot do at a start, it's an acquired art to suck out the juices as the crabs are being eaten..and lick the fingers at the same time .. LOL (pardon me, these are stressful times !)

As always, my younger son has been craving for crabs ...whilst in the midst of his exams ! Sigh.. it looks like time to satisfy his cravings ! If it helps to get that few extra marks , I guess it's worth to satisfy him.. hehe.. actually, it's more to satisfy my craving as well, but don't tell him that ..

Let me introduce the Chilli Crab recipe , with all due respect to the supporting roles played by the many simple ingredients.

What is Required

500g mud crabs - washed and cut

3 tbsp cooking oil

8 cloves garlic minced

2 fresh red chilli, chopped finely ( add more chilli if desire more spiciness)

1 tsp lemon juice (or lime or vinegar)

1 small bunch of lettuce

2 beaten eggs

Sauce Mixture

1.5 to 2 cup of water,

8 tbsp tomato ketchup

2 tbsp chilli ketchup (add more if desire more spiciness)

2 tsp cornflour

1 tsp pounded brown preserved soya beans ,

1 tsp salt
5 tbsp sugar (add more if desire sweeter taste)

If you are afraid to kill the crabs, no worries..I got these fresh crabs from Sheng Siong where they helped to kill and cut the crabs!

Look at those fabulous Crab roe ...

Heat a wok and add oil into the wok.

Add garlic and chilli and fry for 1 minute.

Add the crabs, except the shell head.

Fry the shell bodies for 2 mins, and add in the shell head.

Once the shells turns red, add in the sauce and cover with lid until the shells are all red.

Add the beaten eggs into the work and stir gently.

Add the lime juice.

Simmer till cooked.

Get a serving plate ready.

Add the lettuce to the base of the plate.

Scoop the crabs onto the serving plate.

Oohhh... yummy yummy !!

Haven't you drool enough..

Chilli crabs gravy must always be accompanied with Man-tou..

for the final lick-up of the gravies !

yummy...yum yum my elder son's neat pile of shells...

my younger son's pile is a total mess..too unsightly to even comment on...

And so, Guess what. I thought I could set aside crabs for a while.. Now, it's my elder son's turn to ask for Butter Crabs ! Why can't they both be of the same mind at one go.

Oh.. the perils of motherhood, To Be OR Not to Be ... the Cooking Mummy.. I need a successor..where's Mr H gone to ?? My Dear, where art thou ...? To Be continued.....

My Blues with BlueBerry Cheese Cake

All these Blues started as a result of the October year-end school exams Blues. So now you know why the Blues....

Bear with me as I expound on the Greatness of Mothers. For mothers, October is the time of either Stress, Despair or Hopelessness. ...OR you can call the Great Panic of the year! It's what we call the self assessment or relevation on how we have fared as Mothers of our beloved children for the past year. Hmm.. Interestingly, do our children grade us too ? !! I wonder..

Well, as a last ditch attempt of what any self-worthy or self-respecting mum would do, this calls for desperate measure for desperate time.. Coaching, Encouragement or even Bribery, etc etc, just to get my crafty younger one to work wonders on his studies (Glad my elder one's PSLE exam is over !)

Will it be Coaching or Simply diving into the oblivion of Baking to sweeten things up ... LOL, this is too daunting for me ! oh..the perils of motherhood.

And so I choose the obvious...

And so begin my Sweet journey into the Blues..

And so let me introduce the ever-amazing ingredients ...Oh , looks like I could start a poem. hehe.. not today..

500g Cream Cheese

100g Sour Cream

200g Fresh Cream (I use pure cream!)
4 Eggs
250g Sugar
1 tbsp Vanilla Essence

1 tbsp Salt

200g Digestives
50g Butter

And so starts ..Making the Biscuit Base
Put the biscuits into a blender for 10 seconds until it looks like sand.
Melt butter in small pan and add to the biscuits. Mix well using a spatula.
Put biscuit mix into the cheesecake tin and pat the biscuits evenly into the corners.
Place in the fridge and allow to set.

And so starts ...Making the Cheese Cake
Add cream cheese and eggs into the blender. Mix for about 20 seconds until the mixture is smooth. Add sugar, salt and vanilla essence to the mixture. Mix for further 20 seconds until smooth.
Take the mixture out of the blender.
Put mixture into a large mixing bowl.

Add the sour cream and pure cream.
Fold the mixture together using the spatula making sure there are no lumps
Pour the mixture into the base that we made earlier until it reaches the top of the tin
Place the cheesecake into a tray
Place in an oven at 110C or 220F for 45 minutes or until just set in the centre.

Once baked, the filling should not wobble in the centre when shaked.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a couple of hours. The tin can be removed.

Here's fhe fun part ... Adding the toppings !

And the Best part...is I get to eat it first !!!!!..

Cheers to ALL the Great October Mothers !

So, what's should be the Blues for next year October Season ? Hmm.. Blue Lobster..this is going to be a great feat !...