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Author: Shannon Lim-de Rooy

  • Roasted Sweet Potato Stacks

    Yes it’s another Sweet Potato recipe. Aren’t these pretty and delish?

    I know many people think sweet potatoes as being nothing more than plain old potatoes that can tweak our taste buds with some extra flavor. I was never a big fan of sweet potato, I know it has high fiber content but steamed sweet potatoes taste bland (Steaming them was the only cooking method I knew). I went searching for more recipes, and fell in love with the sweet caramelised taste of Baked Sweet Potato Fries. As I dig deeper, I was pleasantly surprised by the health benefits of these plain-looking tubers! With recently found delish recipes, I’m definitely eating more sweet potatoes from now on! (more…)

  • Kam Heong Lala (Spicy Kam Heong Clams Stir Fry)

    I’m not so familiar with selecting seafood (I can’t differentiate types of fish) and cooking seafood (except steaming and deep frying). Well, there’s always a first time. I’ve been wanting to try cooking lala (clams), my hands start to itch when I see fresh lala (clams) at the wet market. I mustered up my courage, got 1kg and search for Kam Heong Lala recipe.

    Kam Heong (金香) dishes are very popular in Malaysia and it’s truly a Malaysian dish with a combination of Chinese, Malay and Indian ingredients. Kam Heong literally means ‘Golden Fragrance’ from the Cantonese dialect (don’t ask me how the name come about). The aroma from curry leaves, curry powder, dried shrimps, shallots, garlic, and chilies leaves me drooling for more. I could finish up a bowl of rice with just the sauce alone! This is an extremely aromatic dish and is spicy, savoury and sweet at the same time. Kam Heong sauce also goes well with chicken, prawns, squid and the most famous – Kam Heong Crab, one dish not to be missed when you visit Malaysia. (more…)

  • Red Bean Dessert Soup (Tong Shui)

    Chinese dessert soups (or Tong Shui in Cantonese) typically consists of sweet and usually hot soups. One common dessert soup is Red Bean Dessert Soup. To those who are not used to Asian or Chinese Cuisines, yes we Asians love vegetables in our dessert – red beans, green beans, corn.. A Middle Eastern friend was appalled when I served her green bean coconut pudding.. It was interesting to see her reaction, well there’s always a first time for every thing.

    The classic recipe is just red beans sweetened with sugar.  I prefer the recipe my mama always make – with the addition of barley, black glutinous rice, pak hup (lily bulb), lotus seed and dried mandarin orange peel. One trick to shorten the cooking time is to put a ceramic soup spoon into the pot while cooking helps the beans break up faster. Sometimes I like to cook this soup in the slow cooker overnight, and I will have this soup for breakfast 🙂 (more…)

  • Sup Daging – Malaysian Beef Soup

    I’m back from a trip to Singapore, and surprisingly I was constantly thinking about cooking and blogging.. Oh well.. time for another holiday where I can do nothing and just laze around.. It was certainly very difficult to maintain the October Unprocessed Challenge, anyhow now am back home and back on track.

    Sup Tulang or Sup Daging is one my favourite dishes to order when I visit a Malay eatery. Sup Tulang, literally Bone Soup in Malay, usually refers to beef soups which are made with beef that is still attached to bones. (more…)

  • Chicken Herbal Soup

    I grew up with homemade Chinese soups at our dinner table every day, and Chinese soup is somehow very comforting for me. I think soup is in the Hokkien people’s food culture. Hokkien people are from the Fujian Province in China (my papa was born in Longyan, west of Fujian Province). Papa loved soup so much that he could just drink a big bowl of soup for dinner. Somedays when I want a light dinner, I have just a big bowl of soup.. aahh

    One of my favourite soup is Chicken Herbal Soup. I love to take this gentle and nourishing tonic soup frequently to maintain good health. Herbal soups are most convenient to cook with a slow cooker – I put all the ingredients in the slow cooker before in the morning and it’s ready when I return home for dinner. These photos are taken at night in my kitchen under the white fluorescent light, not bad huh? (more…)