Poached Pear in Red Wine

Is good food expensive? Not necessary. If this dessert is served at a fine dining restaurant, it might be. But if you cook it at home, you just need to spend a dollar or so.

Pears are in season here. Every pear looks perfect with high quality, yet sold at bargain price from supermarkets at the moment. A while back ago, when my daughter and I watched a MasterChef episode, but not sure which one, right at the moment when a beautiful poached pear dessert was presented, she asked me to cook one as she’s ever had tried before. How a big fan of pears could resist the temptation to try this gorgeous dessert? Fast forward to now, upon spotting several beautiful pears in our fridge, she brought up the same old question, then kept asking me the same question whenever she took one out to enjoy. Finally, I made this dessert to satisfy her craving. I really don’t know why I dragged it so long to make this simple, but heavenly delicious dessert.

Swedish Meatballs with Cream Sauce (Ikea Recipe)

Ikea has made known their Swedish dishes around the world, especially the Swedish meatballs attract countless fans. Every now and then, my hubby and I would drop in their restaurant to taste their signature dish. To me, the lingonberry jelly is a must-have add-on. If without it, I’d feel it won’t be Swedish at all.

You can tell how I’m addicted to Ikea meatballs, when spotting the picture of Ikea cookbook below. Yes, I did buy their cookbook just for wanting to make the dish at home. The original recipe in the cookbook, uses Swedish measurement, that is dl instead of ml. Although I tweaked slightly by replacing breadcrumbs with the unsweetened rusk flour simply because I couldn’t find any here from supermarkets, my family was very satisfied with the end result.

Do you like Swedish meatballs? Or do you whip up your own meatball recipe? If so, feel free to drop a line to share with us.

Japanese Cheesecake (Fluffy & Creamy)

When I tried the Japanese cheesecake with the very first bite, I have been fallen in love with it ever since. The velvety smooth, creamy, as well as the fluffy texture makes this kind of cheesecake stand out the crowd. The cheesecake is not too sweet, yet just enough to entertain your sweet tooth if you have one. Mind you, the cooking method makes the cheesecake very light, you’d feel you don’t have enough even after having a big slice of it. A case in point, over half of the cheesecake was gone shortly after I placed it in the fridge. I didn’t blame my daughter at all, because it’s so intriguing. Who can resist it?

This kind of cheesecake is always a big hit in Hong Kong and other Asian countries. Just hop over to my Chinese fan page and browse the comments asking for more tips, you’d know what I’m trying to say.

For making this Japanese cheesecake, many people find it’s a bit hard to overcome two common problems that contribute to making unpleasant looking cakes. Firstly, the surface of cheesecakes has a tendency to crack during or after baking. Secondly, the cake would easily shrink as it cools down. Although the taste remains the same, I believe every baker, like me, would love to see a perfect, or at least a good, pleasant looking cheesecake being served before your or your loved ones’ eyes. I’m not a professional baker, just like all other home cooks, love baking some delicious desserts to feed my family. Here I’d share what worked for me. Feel free to drop a comment to share what I miss in this post, or what methods worked for you when making this cheesecake.

Chocolate Truffles (Valentine’s Day)

Ever wonder how easy to make these chocolate truffles? How delicious they taste? How wonderful it would be when presenting or receiving these lovely treats?

These truffles are downright easy to make, only three ingredients mixing together, absolutely fool proof without failure. They are absolutely tasty because I used my most favourite chocolate, Lindt. I am not receiving any of them, yet I made them for fun and share them with the chocolate lovers around.

“Melt her heart with Lindor this Valentine’s Day” on Lindt’s really got me thinking of making their truffles and share the melting love around.

Happy Valentine's Day to you all !

Stir Fried Bean Sprouts, Carrots & Wood Ear Fungus (Post Chinese New Year)

Chinese New Year is a good cause for having plenty of meats and luxury dishes. We had enough for last week's CNY celebration. It’s a time to get back with more vegan dishes to balance our digestive system, even though we’re not vegan eaters. I’m glad that the meat-lover in the family didn’t complain when I served this stir fried dish, 炒三絲 (literally means stir fried three shredded ingredients – vegetables often used). You can easily find this dish from any Chinese restaurants. Different restaurants might offer different combinations of vegetables though. Some might even add a kind of meat into their own version. So, feel free to tweak the recipe here, pick any kinds of vegetables to your liking. This dish is simple, inexpensive, with high fiber and very refreshing.

As for my version, there are some eye-catching black strips mixing with the white bean sprouts and red carrots. They are cut from a very special ingredient, often used in Chinese cooking, called wood ear – a kind of black fungus. Many people overlook its nutritional value because wood ear hasn’t got an attractive looking, sold at a cheap price, and in black. Actually, wood ear has more protein, iron and vitamins than white fungus. Due to their tasteless flesh, it’s seldom cooked or eaten on its own. If they are cooked with meats or stir fried with other vegetables, they’d absorb all the flavours and tastes in sauce, then become a highlight in that dish, giving you an amazingly surprise.

Green Tea Mochi Cupcakes By Pig Pig's Corner

If you’re a fan of green tea, you can’t miss this post. If you're a fan of both green tea and mochi, this post is exactly written for you. If you aren’t into these two things, the beautiful pictures on this post might get you thinking that if not give these green tea mochi cupcakes a go, you might feel missing something in your food adventures.

Ann’s food photos are always very inspiring and attractive to me. Her recipes on her blog, Pig Pig’s Corner are simple and delicious, great for homecooks. Do hop over to her blog and browse her Green Tea Butter Cookies and Matcha Green Tea Ice-cream, you’ll know I have found the right person to do this guest post. Thank you so much, Ann, I feel honoured to have you do guest post for me.

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Christine's Recipes is one the blogs that I follow religiously as her blog seems to remind me of those Hong Kong cooking tv show that I used to watch. She also runs a Chinese version 簡易食譜 which means "easy recipes" in Chinese and that's what her blog is all about - simple,homey dishes. I was a little worried (and happy of course) when Christine asked me to appear as a guest writer on her blog. Have you seen her super long recipe index?! I was just about to ask what has she not cooked and blogged about. Luckily, she suggested a green tea dessert for her blog. So here I am today, featuring my current obsession - mochi cupcakes.

Tomato Chilli Prawns (Chinese New Year)

There are many traditional dishes cooked during the Chinese New Year season. Many Chinese families like to cook prawns/shrimps, as the pronunciation of prawns in Cantonese is “ha” – much like “laughter”, that is associated with the idea of happiness and joy. So prawns have been a must-have on a traditional Chinese New Year celebration menu. My mum used to make a very simple and quick dish, stir-fried prawns with tomato sauce or ketchup that I love the most. Based on my mum’s cooking way, I tweaked it a bit by adding an amazing kick to this dish with Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, since my kid has grown up, getting love to have hot foods more and more. If you have young kids at home, you just skip the chilli sauce, or vice versa, add more if you want it hot to your liking.

Hope all of you a happy New Year of the Rabbit!