Whole Wheat Skillet Buns with Caramelized Onion & Bacon Cheese Dip

This is a visually arresting, gooey, warm appetiser, and your guests will be so impressed when they see it. I saw this a few weeks ago from Seasons & Suppers website, and this dish is adapted from their Warm Skillet Bread and Artichoke Spinach Bread Recipe.  I've made my own variations by making the buns from a combination of whole wheat and bread flour (to make it healthier), and I've made the dip with cheese, caramelised onion and bacon.  If you prefer the vegetarian version, just omit the bacon.

This recipe also contains some tips for bread making which I learned from local bread making classes in Singapore, as well as from Le Cordon Bleu Boulangerie class.

Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf with Gravy

Here's another ultimate comfort food: Meatloaf! This is my Mom's recipe and I just modified it over the years. We usually eat this with Macaroni Salad with Celery and Pineapple (that's another recipe altogether; another blogpost.)

This is just everyday, comfort food for us, but I sometimes serve this at parties, and it's always a hit. My guests really love the moist, flavourful meat and the gravy that comes with it. I think it has something to do with the mix of beef, pork, Vienna sausage and chopped bacon in the mix itself. And of course, there's that glorious bacon wrapped around it.

Crown of Nutella Rolls

This may look very fancy and hard to bake, but it is actually one of the easiest doughs to handle. The dough is easy to make, and who doesn't love Nutella? The buns have that hazelnut goodness, and are crisp on top, due to the polenta. I balance the sweetness and richness of the Nutella with some chili powder and sea salt.

If you're not eating all of it once it gets out of the oven, reheat the rolls in an oven toaster or oven to enjoy the same warm, gooey goodness. Best enjoyed with coffee and tea.

My Crown of Nutella Rolls

Roast Rack of Lamb

Roast rack of lamb with rosemary and garlic. Very aromatic, and simple to make! Doesn't take too much time to prepare and cook too.

My Mom's Chili con Carne

Mommy's Chili con Carne: the ultimate comfort food!

Whenever my family craves for comfort food, I always think of my Mom's Chili con Carne which I ate many a rainy day while I was growing up. I've modified the recipe and now serve it to my family.  They love it! It's spicy, hearty, cheesy.

Twice Roasted Vegetables with Quinoa

Roasted fresh vegetables with quinoa, topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

On weekdays, I follow the VB6 Diet by Mark Bittman of The New York Times. VB6 stands for "Vegetarian Before 6 pm," and this is what I try to do from Mondays till Fridays. Weekends are my cheat days when I eat almost anything, but in moderation.

One of the best vegetarian dishes I ever tasted was at the Pump Room at the city of Bath, on a recent visit to the United Kingdom.  It was very simple but delicious! I ordered this dish as a main course and here, I've tried to replicate it at home.

It's a very healthy dish, what with the vegetables, as well as the quinoa, which can substitute for rice. Thus, with this dish, you don't need to eat rice at all, because it's very healthy and filling. You can also make it a tasty side dish for meat.

This recipe also includes how to cook quinoa.

Cheat's Orange Flavored Mini Croissants

I call this the Cheat's Croissants because the puff pastry is not made from scratch, but is store bought. I learned how to make puff pastry when I went for the short course at Le Cordon Bleu, but when you're not a full time chef and when you don't have an air-conditioned kitchen in a hot and humid country like Singapore, it's just so difficult to make it from scratch. You must be some kind of gastronomic masochist to be able to do it, when you have limited time and no air-conditioning. :)

Anyway, I cheated and made these croissants with store bought puff pastry. They still do have a personal touch, with that homemade sweetened orange rind, and orange syrup which I did make from scratch. But if you have no time and you really want to be a "double cheat", you can also get store bought, chunky orange marmalade. :)

The family loved it and once they devoured it, they immediately gave suggestions for other flavours, like peach, Nutella, chocolate...the possibilities are endless...for more cheating!

Matcha (Green Tea) Crepes with Berries

My daughter loves Japanese culture (she's studying the language as well), and now that she's here for a visit over the holidays, it just seemed appropriate to make some breakfast crepes flavoured with matcha (green tea).  These crepes are easy to make and were made with a regular pan (I don't own a crepe pan). They're filled with matcha flavoured sour cream, topped with fresh berries and sprinkled with confectioner's sugar.

Ham, Cheese & Herb Puff Pastry Pinwheels

Ham, Cheese & Herb Puff Pastry Pinwheels, a perfect appetiser for early birds.

Whenever you host a party at home, there's always the possibility of people arriving late. What can you serve to the early birds without stuffing them too much and depriving them of the delicious meal ahead?

I recently made this appetiser and it was a big hit, and they're very easy to make as well with store bought puff pastry. The small, light, individual bite sized servings allow your guest to eat as little or as much as they want to, while waiting for the other guests. But they're so good that one of my guests last Christmas ate 8 of them in one sitting!

Recipes with Chia Seeds - Healthy and Filling at the Same Time!

Ever heard of chia seeds? They come from a mint related flowering plant from Mexico and Guatemala. Apparently, in the 80s, they were used as "pets." You grow them and they look like cute turtles, hedgehogs or even afros on a bust (they have a Barrack Obama one, lol):

A Chia Pet.  The seeds have emerged as the newest health craze.

But these past few years, chia seeds have also emerged as the newest health food, an excellent source of omega-3 fats and fiber. More here about chia: Chia Health Benefits. It's a very versatile, healthy food, because it is practically tasteless (and thus, doesn't interfere with the flavour of the food that you're adding it to) and expands when you mix it with liquid, making you feel fuller.

Here are two recipes of chia which we regularly eat in the family.  You will find that chia keeps absorbing the liquid it's in, so when you set aside the food and eat it later, the liquid might be gone. Just add more liquid (milk, coconut milk, broth...whatever it is that you used in the recipe) to dilute it. And for recipes which are soupy like the two below, stir the chia in the liquid from time to time after a few hours, because it will get clumpy if you just leave it untouched.


MANGO "SAGO" CHIA
Serves 4 people

Mango "Sago" Chia. Healthier than the original and just as refreshing!

Chicken & Bacon Puff Pastry Empanada, a Leftover Victory

Does this look like it's made from leftover Jamie Oliver chicken???

I made Roast Chicken in Milk, Sage & Citrus, last Christmas Eve, based on a Jamie Oliver recipe. See my recipe here.

The chicken was so tender and succulent! We still had leftovers a week later and by that time, it had turned to some kind of pasty, disintegrated chicken.

Jamie Oliver chicken does not look appetising as a leftover....

I hate to throw away good food, so I decided to "re-fashion" the chicken into a light lunch of Chicken & Bacon Puff Pastry Empanadas, served with a side salad of spinach, cherry tomatoes and croutons, in a honey balsamico dressing.

The recipe is easy to make, and I relied on my trusted assistant, my teenaged son, to do this. No one will believe that you made these beautiful empanadas from the picture above!

Roast Chicken in Milk, Sage and Citrus

Jamie Oliver is one of my favourite chefs because I find his recipes very practical and "homey." This recipe is adapted from his Chicken in Milk recipe, which he describes as "with sage and a delicious lemony kick. Trust me, you're going to love this one---the milk creates the most amazing, flavoursome sauce."

I tried this recipe for the first time on Christmas Eve Dinner, but I found it to be quite bland. There was hardly any taste and none of that "flavoursome sauce" that Jamie was talking about. So midway through the recipe, I added half a bouillon, a teaspoon of chili flakes, the juice of one lemon and orange, as well as the rinds. In addition, I found out that I had run out of cinnamon sticks (%$#!!??) so I substituted that with star anise and cloves. Thus, I have adapted this recipe as "Roast Chicken in Milk, Sage & Citrus."