How did someone come up with having turkey for Christmas feasts? Why on earth would you cook something so large, you have to eat it for the next 2 years?

Since we all have to OD on turkey, might as well do it in different ways. I made the pie crust a night in advance and just had to cook the fillings before baking the pie. The pie crust recipe can be found here.

Ingredients (pie fillings enough for 1 large and 6 small pies)
leftover turkey meat, shredded (about 4 cups )
1.5 large carrots. diced
3 large white onions, diced
1 can of button mushrooms, sliced
butter for frying (approx 4 tbsp)
1 cup stock (I used chicken but veg stock works just as well)
1 tbsp cornflour or plain flour mixed with 1/2 cup water for starch
pepper and salt for seasoning (optional, as the turkey, butter and stock is already tasty on its own)
1 egg yolk for brushing onto pie pastry to get that golden brown tinge

In a large pan, melt butter and fry the onions and carrots till soft. Add mushrooms, turkey and fry till fragrant. Add stock, mix well and add starch while constantly stirring the stock to prevent lumps. Quickly remove from heat. Let the divine mixture cool, and get to work with the pie crust.

I have to say it looks good considering its molded by pie virgins A-gal and Tommy.

Few days before this, my online conversation with Tommy went like this:
me: We’re having Death by Turkey session 2, starring Turkey Pie at A-gal’s. Wanna come?
T: Huh?
me: Sunday lunch. Turkey. You. Come?
T: Ok. What do I bring?
me: We’re having pie. A salad would be nice..
T: Sure! How do you cook a salad?
me: *sound of crickets*
T: Hallo?
me: Nevermind. Just bring drinks.

Never one to let people down, Tommy brought not only drinks but this as well.

Don’t ask. Just..don’t.

Ingredients
2 cucumbers, deseeded
1 carrot, skinned
- cut the above into julienne, put into a large mixing bowl and rub with 3 tsp of salt. Then rinse the vegetables and drain dry before mixing in the rest of the vegetables.
1 turnip, skinned and julienne
3 large green chillies, deseeded & sliced
2 slices of ripe, sweet pineapple, cut into cubes
Dressing (taste before adding more to suit taste)
1.5-2.5 tbsp sea salt
3-4 tbsp white sugar
1/3-1/2 cup white vinegar (depending on how sour you like yours)
2 tbsp chilli powder
Garnish
3-4 tbsp chopped roasted peanuts
sprig of coriander (optional)

Drain dry all cut vegetables, put into large mixing bowl and add all dressing in its minimum amounts and mix well. Taste and gradually add more. During last few mix, add in chopped peanuts, top with coriander (optional) and serve. Can be served chilled as well.

I’ll show you! I’ll show you all!!

Ingredients (serves 3-4)
2 packets of silken tofu, drained of excess water
3 tbs of chopped spring onions
3 tbs of fried shallots
3-4 tbs of dark soya sauce
2 tbs of light soya sauce
1 tbs of oyster sauce (optional)
dash of sesame oil & white ground pepper
a sprig or 2 of Chinese parsley (optional)

Cut tofu into smaller cubes, or not, if you can’t be bother.

Add the sesame oil.

Steam for 5 minutes. Remove from wok and immediately drizzle all the condiments on the tofu. Lastly add all the greens and fried shallots over it.

I took more time posting this than actually making the tofu dish. It’s that fast and simple!

Just peel and steam some sweet potatoes till they are soft. Cooks faster when you cut them up.

Then peel open the edamame.

Such funny hairy peas they are!

Mash up the steamed sweet potatoes and mix the edamame into the sweet mash.

Roll and mould the mixture into patties and fry them on a pan of hot oil. Be careful to turn down the heat as the patties brown very quickly.

And you have now these little sweet smiley sunshiney faces!

Recently I developed a penchant for deep fried foods. Any sort of deep fried golden crispy greatness.  I dip everything I can lay my paws on in a batter and dump them in a cauldron of bubbling canola oil. The sticky glutinous sweet cakes (Nian Gao) and bananas above were the victims of my food forage yesterday.

Coincidently fried Nian Gao is also a childhood comfort food for me. Mum used to sandwich the Nian Gao with sweet potatoes before frying the sweet gooey stuff. She would put the just fried sweet cakes on a kitchen towel to drain off the excess oil before transferring them onto a platter. But somehow only a small percentage of the fried cakes made it to the platter. Most of them had gotten straight into my mouth and then into my quickly expanding mid-section. And I always wonder why I was such a chubby kid!

As you can see from the above behavioral pattern, patience is not exactly my biggest strengths. Hence I usually make the simplest, fastest batter:
1 cup self raising flour, 1 egg, and enough water to thicken the batter.

As a general consistency baseline, the batter should have the texture of a smooth oatmeal porridge. Not too thin, and not too thick (as if that helps!). If the batter does not coat and simply runs off, then it’s too thin. If you hold the dipped item into the batter and it does not drip in 2 seconds, it’s too thick. Got it? No? Good. Cause you’re better off without clotting your arteries.

But if you must, and is like me in the must-eat-that-deepfried-yummilicious-piece-or-you’ll-wither-and-die way, then go ahead and indulge, with a few pointers to note:

1.    Use clean vegetable based oil, and do not reuse that oil.
2.    Keep oil moderately hot without burning it. If you see fumes, then its too hot.
3.    Take food out of the oil when it’s just turning golden. Do not cook till it’s brown and burnt. Remember foods continue to cook minutes after being taken out of the heat.
4.    Make sure the food, the utensils and your hands are dry when putting in the to-be-fried stuff. You don’t want any parts of your face or body to look like the Grand Canyon. Trust me. Not. Pretty.
5.    Wait till the food has cooled down before gobbling it. I know that’s a tough one. Just try ok?
6.    Work off the oil and guilt. Go walk the dogs for an hour, run, cycle, play tennis, swim, frolick with your partner in bed, whatever works for you!

Remember, moderation is the key to a good diet.

Unless you’re a total compulsive nutcase of a freak like me.

Then forget I said anything and go bury yourself in those chips.

With love,
The worst diet advisor in existence

Chocoholics be warned. One is never enough!
This is one of the simplest chocolate cake recipe I know, requiring only 5 ingredients, and is very difficult to go wrong.

Ingredients (makes 15 small muffin size cakes)
300gm semi-sweet chocolate chips
300gm unsalted butter
5 large eggs
120gm brown sugar
115gm self-raising flour

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
Melt chocolate chips and butter over a double boiler or pan of simmering water. Be careful not to have the heat too high in case the water splatters and spurts into your chocolate.

When the chocolate and butter is melted and looks like this, leave it alone to cool for a while. Please resist the urge to dunk your grubby fingers to taste the chocolate.

I have to admit, I couldn’t.
Meantime beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until thick, add flour, mix well and stir in chocolate mixture till everything is well incorporated.

Pour the gooey batter into muffin cases and bake for 16-18 minutes, or when the top is just cooked and spongey looking.

Let the cake cool slightly, about 3-5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.

The finished product is soft and moist and sends your eyes rolling backwards once you put it into your mouth.

Chinese New Year is not Chinese New Year without pineapple pastries. Warning. Never attempt Chinese New Year without pineapple pastries. Never! Never ever!!

Otherwise be prepared to face your own gastronomic perils!

And become the laughing stock of the neighbourhood!

And get outcast by relatives!!

Your great grand-children might be black-listed from Havard!!!

Ok I’m a nutcase. What I’m not kidding about though, is how simple to make and delicious these little buggers are.

Ingredients (makes 46 tarts/balls)
220g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
2 egg yolks
375g plain flour
2 tbsp corn flour
50g icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg yolk for egg wash

About 530gm of cooked pineapple jam.
(either made from scratch or pre-made ones from the supermarket)
To make pineapple jam from scratch, peel and grate 2 ripe pineapples. Then squeeze gently to extract excess juice, but not till its as dry as the Sahara.
Add about 360gm of caster sugar and 5-6 cloves, and cook over low heat till sugar melts. The mixture should be wet and sticky, but with too much liquid. By then you should be exhausted. Put the jam in the fridge and make the tarts another day.

When I make the pineapple tarts/balls, I always start off by measuring the amount of pineapple jam to put into the pastries. I use 10-11gm of pineapple jam with 15gm of pastry. That might seem a little troublesome but it ensures all my tarts are of equal size and taste.

Cream the butter at medium speed (about 5 minutes), then mix well with sugar. Add the 2 egg yolks and beat till well-incorporated. Rub in all flour, icing sugar and salt to the creamed mixture, and gradually knead till the mixture is smooth.

I usually then pinch out balls of 15gm, before flattening it out and adding pineapple jam to make the balls, or stuffing them into tart moulds to make open faced tarts. If this is too tedious for you. Just use your gut feelings.


Sorry to scare you with my purple hands. They are usually green.

Line the lovely tarts on a paper lined baking sheet, brush them with egg yolk eggwash, and bake at 180 degrees celsius for 18-20 minutes, or until the tarts turn golden.

Viola! You’re all set to celebrate Chinese New Year the right way!

Turn away now if you’re on a diet!

I had hand written this pie crust recipe from the internet donkey years ago but did not note down the source. If this is your recipe and you are reading this, thank you savior! You’ve saved my poor ol’ soul many many times!

Ingredients for pie crust
270gm vegetable shortening
3 cups of plain flour
1 large egg
5 tbsp cold water
pinch of salt

Ingredients for pie filling (makes 2 x 8″ pies plus 3 mini 3″ pies)
700gm of chicken meat (I used thigh because I have a disturbing love for fatty meat)
1 large purple onion
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
5 small potatoes, about 70+gm each
5 small carrots, about 230gm in total
3-4 eggs, hard-boiled and cut into quarters
3 cups of stock (I used chicken & veggie stock)
2 tbsp of Worcester sauce
splash of white wine
2 tsp of cornflour
tsp of chilli powder (optional)
tsp of garlic powder (optional)
1-1.5 tsp sea salt, or more suit taste
your desired amount of freshly ground black pepper

Place flour in a large bowl, work the cubed or cut vegetable shortening into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs. Add egg and water and mix till the dough is well incorporated. Separate dough into 3-4 round discs and wrap them in cling foil before stashing them into the freezer for use later. If you are using the pie crust immediately, its still good to store it in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes so its easy to handle.

Meanwhile chop all the veggies and meat into small bits. Caramalize the onions, then brown the garlic slightly. Add the veggies and meat cook them with all the stock and seasoning. Be creative and add whatever additional sauce you fancy, be sure to taste as you add. Add more corn flour to thicken the sauce if yours become too runny. Let the cooked filling cool while you prepare the pie crust.

Before rolling out the dough, generously flour the work top and standby a flat pastry spatula in case the dough sticks to the worktop. Lightly rub the rolling pin with flour and start rolling the dough from the centre, working outwards. Then return to the centre of the dough and roll outwards again. I find that this method is really easy and prevents the dough from sticking back onto the pin. The flatten dough should be about 1″ bigger in diameter than your pie pan. Gently lift the dough and quickly lay and press the dough into your pie pan. It’s ready for business!

Fill the pie with your cooked meat and veggies, then add the hard boiled eggs. Roll out another layer of dough for the top. Cover the top of the pie, be sure to press the sides to adjoin the top and bottom crust. Then score the top of the pie with a knife, and crimp the sides down with a fork. Brush the top with egg yolk for a golden finish.

Bake the pie fresh at preheated oven of 220 degrees celsius for 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown. If you’re freezing the pies, bake straight from frozen with sides covered with aluminum foil for 20 minutes, then lower heat to 200 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes more, or until crust is brown and fillings bubbly.

There, I’ve shown you the passage to pie heaven.

Ingredients (makes 32 medium magical meatballs)
500gm minced pork
handful of water chestnuts (about 10)
3 small purple/red onions
5-6 cloves of garlic
3 sprigs of coriander
1/2 carrot, diced
2 large eggs
2 tbsp corn flour
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tsp salt 1 tsp black pepper
dash of chinese cooking wine
Vegetable oil for frying
1 tsp five spice powder (optional)

Finely slice the onions. Put on your goggles if you must.

Smash the garlic with the knife and give them hell!

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the onions and garlic to softened them but do not overcook. Remove from pan when soft and fragrant.

Finely chop the rest of the ingredients, crack in the eggs and mix everything into the minced meat, including the fried onions and garlic.

Give everything a good mix…..

And roll them up into balls.

Bake or pan fry the meatballs in medium heat, turning the balls over to evenly cook all sides.

Serve with some baked vegetables. I had mine with butter baked carrots, purple, red and sweet potatoes.

Ps: It’s also wonderful with your favourite gravy!

While it is a widely consumed veggie, not many people realise how richly nutrient-fied it is, probably due to its humble appearance. Half a cup of raw, uncooked bean sprouts contains 1.2g of dietary fibre, 31.5 mcg of folic acid and 7mg of vitamin C. Folic acid is especially important for expecting mums as it’s deficiency is linked to cleft palates and neural tube defects.

Ingredients
2 large handfuls of fresh, crispy beansprouts, washed
1 piece of firm tofu, cubed
handful of sweet peas
1 tbsp of garlic, minced
3 tbsp of sesame oil
1-2 tbsp of oyster sauce (depending on preference)
pinch of sea salt to taste

Heat sesame oil in a wok or pan. Fry tofu on all sides, then remove from pan. (*life saving tip: always pat dry tofu with kitchen towels to prevent splattering).

With the pan still heated, brown the garlic and throw in the peas and add oyster sauce. Throw in the beansprouts and give it a quick stir, adding some sea salt if you like. Quickly remove from heat to prevent overcooking.

Always remember that overcooking veggies is a criminal offense!

And there you have it. The cheapest healthy food you can get.

PS: I’d love to hear from you your favourite variation of this wonderful veg. Please!