Crunchy Pumpkin Sticks

 I can imagine making this with mashed carrot or potato.

These are the ingredients required:

150g mashed pumpkin

20g sugar

4g salt

35g eggs

15g milk powder (if you don’t have it, use all-purpose flour)

25g unsalted butter

240g all-purpose flour

10g black sesame seeds

Cooking with Air Fryer

My first airfryer was a gift from my sister because she does not know how to make full use of it.  My son was the first one who experimented cooking with it and I got hooked.  When he moved out, I gave him that unit and got him to buy me a unit in larger capacity since I am cooking for three in the family.

Many people think that an airfryer is just a gimmick.  I can only say that they are just not playful enough to create interesting fusion of Asian or Western dishes with it.  I use my airfryer to:

-thaw and cook frozen food and ready to eat meals.
-reheat food and continue to keep it warm by leaving it inside.
-deep fry frozen food without oil.
-toast my bread, pancakes, pizzas and wraps.
-melt my butter.
-make my deep fried food crispy again.
-roast.
-bake.
-grill.

Any dishes you can cook in an oven can be cooked in your airfryer and in a shorter time too, even though you have not preheated it.  It is more economical to use an airfryer, especially if, you have a smaller portion to bake.   This video gives you a general idea how you can use the airfryer to cook which is possibly why you think cooking with it is such a hassle.  

However, you may reconsider using an airfryer if you use the tips I shared below:

Try to avoid cooking food directly in its basket by using a metal container.

From the video you can see that the ingredients are placed on the basket to be cooked.  I don't do that.  I have many round stainless steel food containers with lids like these.  

They are handy for storing food in the refrigerator and for steaming food over a pot of soup or in my airfryer.  Most of my meat are marinated ahead and stored in such round metal containers.  When it is time to cook, I just remove its cover and place the container on the basket to airfry.  Once the meat has thawed enough, I separate them to cook further.  By doing that I save the time and hassle of cleaning up a my heated airfryer to cook the next dish, 

Spread oil in your metal container. 

If I am cooking room temperature raw ingredients like meat or fish, I will spread garlic oil in the container before I place the food inside it to cook.  The oil will prevent the ingredients from sticking to the container which will make it easier for me to turn them over to cook further.

To avoid burning raw minced garlic, use garlic oil instead.

I prefer my greens with sauce, so, I will not consider cooking them in an airfryer.  Also, instead of adding minced garlic in to airfry, consider using garlic oil.  You make it by deep frying minced garlic in a pot of oil.  When it is time to cook, just place the ingredient in a metal container and spread 1-2 tablespoon of garlic oil over it before airfrying.

Use a piece of bread to catch oil drips.

It will be easier for you to clean your airfryer if you place a piece of bread below the basket to catch oil dripping out of food like bacon or fried chicken you are airfrying. 

Don't wash the airfryer to cook the next dish.

You can use a piece of kitchen towel to wipe down and remove any bits of food still sticking to the basket.  That will also help maintain the heat of the airfryer to cook the next dish.

You can easily find recipes for dishes that you can cook in your airfryer.  Webspoon World shared 7 such recipes that have gone viral on TikTok that should interest you to try making.

These are the ingredients he used:

Cloud Bread in AirFryer 

● 3 pcs egg whites 

● salt

● 80g cheddar cheese 

● 1 tbsp bagel seasoning 

Air Fryer Rice Paper Feta Burek 

● 100g feta cheese 

● 1 egg 

● 50g mozzarella

● egg

● 3 rice paper 

● sesame

Crispy Gnocchi Caprese Salad 

● 250g gnocchi

● 1 tsp paprika 

● 1/3 tsp salt 

● 1/2 tsp Italian herbs 

● olive oil

● 100g mozzarella cheese

● 100g сherry tomatoes 

● basil

Air Fryer Garlic Tortilla Crackers 

● 3 tortilla 

● 1 tsp dried parsley

● 1/2 tsp salt 

● 1/3 tsp chili flakes 

● 50ml butter (melted) 

● 1 clove garlic 

Viral Chicken Wings in Air Fryer

● 500g chicken wings 

● 1 tsp salt

● 2 tbsp honey

● 2 tbsp ketchup

● 3 tbsp soy sauce

● 1 tsp garlic powder

Apple Pudding in Air Fryer

● 2 apples 

● 2 eggs 

● 60g sweetened condensed milk

● 1 tsp cinnamon

Air Fryer Chicken Sticks

● 500g chicken breast 

● 1/2 tsp coriander powder 

● 1/2 tsp garlic powder 

● 1 tsp salt

● 1 tsp paprika

● 1/3 tsp chili pepper 

● olive oil

If you want more recipes and tips on how to use the airfryer efficiently, you can find them on my Pinterest board at the following link:

Air Fryer

You can also find dishes I have cooked with my airfryer if you do a search for airfyer on this blog. 

Cooking with Spare Ribs

As a frugal mom, unless I am cooking Bak Kut Teh, I will not consider using spare ribs to boil soup since it is the more expensive cut compared to soup bones or chicken carcasses.  Moreover, I boil soup on a daily basis.  

On days when I want to cook a dish with spare ribs, I will add about 6 to 8 pieces of them to the pork or chicken soup I am boiling for the day as this will help me save time. I like it that the additional spare ribs added will also enhanced the flavour of my soup.

If you do not plan on making soup or soup stock, you can just boil the spare ribs in a pot of water. You want to boil them till they are soft enough to bite into but not falling apart, which is about 30 minutes on high heat or about 45 to 60 minutes on low heat.

Once they are ready, you can remove them from the soup or stock and stir fry them in a wok with:

-8 to 10 table spoons of water (or soup/stock)
-1 Tbsp of white or brown sugar (or honey)
-1 Tbsp of garlic oil.
-1/2 Tbsp soya sauce.
-1/2 Tbsp oyster sauce
-Dash of black or white pepper or
-1 Tbsp BBQ Sauce

Stir fry till the liquid is reduced and the sauce thickens to glaze the ribs. If you have been too heavy with the sauce, just add more water. You can then thicken the sauce by whisking together 1 tablespoon of corn starch with 2 tablespoons of water to create a slurry. Once the sauce starts to boil again, add the slurry in bit by bit while stirring till it thickens.

Here is another way to reduce cost to purchase a larger quantity of spare ribs if you plan on cooking for more people to eat. Boiled spare ribs can be kept in the freezer. Each time you use them to make your soup stock, you can store them in an airtight container. Once you have accumulated enough in your freezer, you can thaw them to marinate for at least an hour or store it overnight in the fridge a day before you airfry them to serve.  Watch this video to see how it is cook in the airfryer.

You can watch the video from the beginning if you would like to know how the Char Siu Sauce (BBQ Sauce) is prepared and how it can be used to cook other dishes.  These are the ingredients used in the video to make the Char Siu Sauce (BBQ Sauce) for 1kg pork spare ribs:

This is how you prepare the spare ribs to airfry.

If you plan on using BBQ sauce from Lee Kum Kee, watch this video and learn some Cantonese phrases along the way.

This sauce can also be used to make char sui with the following parts of the pig:

-pork butt or shoulder 
-pork collar
-pork belly (very fatty)
-pork loin (leaner option can turn out dryer when cooked)

How to Make Dalgona Coffee

When you are on a holiday, do you keep the complimentary sachets of coffee or tea in your hotel room?  If you still have those small sachets of Nescafe Classic on hand  you can learn to make Dalgona Coffee with them.

To make a glass, you will need the following ingredients:

1) 4 Tbsp Nescafe 

2) 4 Tbsp Sugar

3) 4 Tbsp Hot Water

These are the steps to make the whipped coffee:

-Mix the above ingredients together till there are no lumps showing.
-Whip the mixture up with an electric hand mixer. 
-After four minutes the mixture should be thick and lighter in colour.

To make the drink:

-Pour about 250ml of milk into a glass filled with ice cubes.

-Scoop whipped coffee into the glass of milk.

-Drink it with a straw.

If you prefer your drink with more whipped coffee, you can increase the ingredients in equal amount.  I found the above recipe on Youtube but I am sharing this video instead because it is a less sweeter version and you will learn to make Dalgona with:

-instant coffee
-matcha powder
-turmeric, cinnamon and ginger powder

These are the steps and ingredients your need for making her:

Classic Dalgona Recipe

1 1/2 tbsp instant coffee

2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 tbsp hot water
Milk

-whip ingredients with an electric mixer till foamy.
-fill glass 3 /4  way full with ice and milk.
-top with whipped coffee. 

Matcha Dalgona Recipe

1/4 cup whipping cream

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons matcha

-whip cold whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl, till ribbons form in the cream.
-add matcha and continue to whisk till foam is soft but firm.
-if too thick, add 1 tablespoon of milk and whip until it is still fluffy and thin. 

Golden Milk Dalgona Recipe

1/2 teaspoons turmeric

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ginger powder

pinch of black pepper

2 teaspoons sugar

2 egg whites

-boil water and lower the heat to simmer.
-place a bowl over the pot.
-add sugar, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, and black pepper.
-mix well then add egg whites and whip with an electric mixer until you get soft/stiff peaks. 

You can also make Dalgona Milk Tea with the black tea bags you have collected.  Watch this video to learn how to make dairy and non-dairy versions with all purpose cream.  

You can also brew your tea collection to drink or leave it to cool down to use as follows:

-as a toner for your skin to calm redness, reduce puffiness or minimize pores.

-to fight signs of aging as it has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. 

You can also chill the tea bags and use them as compress for your tired eyes.  Don't throw the tea leaves away as you can add them into your face mask or scrub to use. 

Watch this video if you want to learn more ways to use 

Making Full Use of the Electric Sandwich Maker

We used to buy Kuih Bahulu from a store at Lotus.  Since I discovered that we can use the electric sandwich maker to make it, we are going to give it a try.

These are the ingredients required to make it:

Sardine Sandwich

 Every morning your dad makes breakfast for us.  This morning, it is sardine sandwich make with our non-stick electric sandwich maker.

To make the sandwich taste better, he spread butter on each piece of bread before spreading the sardine. This is how how the sardine sandwich will turn out.

If you are able to get up early enough to make this sandwich for us, this is my recipe for the sardine.

I like to add Worcestershire sauce because its vinegar and tamarind content make my sardine taste more sourish, which is the way I like it. If I run out of it, I will use white vinegar.

I am very particular about the can of sardine I use. Currently, my go to brand is from Lotus as the sardine is still flaky when it is being mashed up with a fork.

Don't buy the other house brand under Value, they also carry. It is too mushy for my liking, 

One can of sardine cooked with onion can be stored in my 420ml glass container which I received as a gift from Signature Market.

It is safe to store the cooked sardine in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container. It can be eaten with rice too. This is what is left of the sardine after the sandwiches have been made.

Whether or not you make use of an electric sandwich maker, these are other ingredients you can add to enhance the flavour of your sandwich:

-sliced tomatoes.
-sliced cucumber.
-fresh produce like coriander, lettuce, celery or avocado.
-pickles.
-sliced or chopped hard-boiled eggs.
-cheese.
-sauces like mayonnaise or chilli sauce.

This is how you use an electric sandwich maker to make your sandwich.

If you do not want to use the electric sandwich maker, you can toast my home made bread with sardine spread over it in the airfryer.  It will taste even better if you roll the sardine up in puff pastry to airfry. Making your own puff pastry takes time. You can buy them ready made. This is my go to brand.  

You can learn ways to roll or fold up your pastry puff with sardine or any other ingredients you would like to try using by watching this video.

How to Make Potato Tart

A tart is a pastry dish with opening so that you can bake it filled with sweet or savoury ingredients like:

-fruit
-custard
-chocolate
-cheese
-mushrooms,
-curry
-pastry cream, also known as, crème pâtissière

Shortcrust is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart, quiche, pie, or flan.  To make a basic shortcrust pastry you require:

-plain flour
-butter
-milk
-a pinch of salt

Sugar can be added for sweet shortcrust pastry.  Some recipes use an egg yolk to to create a richer, more tender, and flavourful crust with a golden hue.  A thin layer of egg yolk can also be brushed on the blind-baked shell to seal it and prevent the filling from leaking.

You can watch this video to learn how to make it.

You can learn more about tart from Hali, a French-trained baker, at the following link:

A guide to tart crust

Do you know that you can make your "tart" with mashed potatoes?  You can learn how to make it and cook the fillings from this video:

I prefer the simpler version as shown in the following video:

Crispy Potato Tart recipe

I will use pork instead of chicken to cook it.  These are the ingredients required:

I will consider using my sardine with onion dish as fillings:

 Or my peppers, onion and carrot dish:

I wonder if it will taste good with scrambled eggs and tomatoes added as fillings.

Should I can mash the potato from my curry dish to make the tart and tear apart the chicken to add as filling?

I can also use this filling for making chicken curry puff.

Braised Pork Ribs & Mushrooms

I have shared how to cook mushroom with pre-marinated BBQ Chicken.  Here is another way to cook it with spare ribs and wood ear. 

These are the ingredients required and the steps to cook it:

I can cook this dish on days when I boil herbal soup.  I will boil 6 to 8 pieces of spare ribs in a pot of water.  Once the water is boiling, I will remove the spare ribs and sieve the stock out to get rid of the scum.  I can then use the stock to boil the herbal soup and the spare ribs to braise with the mushrooms.