Dumplings

It's been raining and warm dumplings seem to be a nice option. Made a bunch of juicy ones which go well with black vinegar and young ginger.

Worth the effort :)

Made about 40 and between the 3 of us, we polished them all up for dinner !

Moist Banana cake

Had a whole bunch of pisang emas ripening nicely and was wondering if I should bake some bread, cake, or banana cookies (will try this another day). Decided on this yummy looking banana cake. Baked 2 loaves - yes it's indeed moist :)

Will give one to the doc tomorrow.

Spinach quiche

My first attempt at quiche and it's easy and delish. Will try mushroom quiche next time :) and since button mushrooms are on sale now - maybe mushroom soup hmm..

Pre-bake quiche ..

And the freshly out of the oven spinach quiche ..

Here's the recipe for those who requested for it.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 onion, chopped
Spinach, chopped
100g shredded Cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 unbaked pie crust
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk

Method
1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Bake the pie crust for about 10-15 minutes (depends on the instructions on box).
2. In a pan, melt butter over medium heat. Saute onion in butter until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in spinach and fry till spinach is soft.
3. In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk eggs and milk. Add the onions and spinach, and cheese (leaving some for sprinkling). Season with salt and pepper. Stir well to ensure egg and spinach mixture combines well.
4. Remove pan from oven. Pour mixture into the shell.
5. Sprinkle top with remaining Cheddar cheese, and bake an additional 35 to 40 minutes, until set in center. Allow to stand 10 minutes before serving. Quiche is ready when a knife inserted in the middle comes up clean.

PS: Have your favourite variations like tuna and chives, ham and onions, potatoes and ham, etc... Enjoy !

Shepherds pie

Since my hubby is not eating at home today, I can cook with beef. Wanted to try shepherds pie for a while so this is a great opportunity. Must use Russet potatoes - I got the potatoes from the market and they were not fluffy enough. Fine to eat but the mashing will be much better and nicer with the Russets.

Here's the beef with onions and some mixed veggies.

Assembled pie with mashed potatoes.

Freshly baked from the oven ! Can even hear the sizzling sound !!

Side view. The 2 of us ate half a pie :)

Baking cookies etc

Last Saturday I wanted to bake some chocolate chip cookies - saw this recipe which included cornflour and wanted to test the texture. Interesting - it's actually not very crispy as was mentioned. Instead it was a softer texture - not too bad but I think I prefer a crispy choc chip cookie - will look for another :)

But we finished all - it was very edible :) The dough baked almost 4 bottles. Gave 1 box away :)

Also baked these...

And some mini cheesecakes - yummy !!

Black pepper chicken udon

An easy to cook dish for lunch or dinner - just season some chicken strips with black pepper, cook some udon and throw some nice veggies and mushrooms for a ready to eat meal.

You can ransack your fridge for the veggies available - that's what I did for this :)

Lor mai gai

Another experiment - with glutinous rice - never cooked with this before. The rice didn’t turn out quite as starchy as those sold outside. I soaked it overnight per the recipe - not sure if that is the reason. Quite easy to put together and next time, will need to season the rice else it’s not quite tasty.