SerenityBakes&Cooks

I love making miso soup because it can be done in a jiffy. Apart from the commonly served tofu and seaweed version, a few additions of what you have in your fridge can make it a lot more tasty and wholesome. There are so many ingredients you can add to miso soup - salmon, clam meat, little cubes of chicken thigh marinated with sake and a little salt, carrots, daikon (radish), mushrooms, tofu just to name a few. 2 weeks ago, I learnt a very interesting combination of pork belly, carrots, burdock root, yam and konjac at a Japanese cooking class. It was certainly OIISHII! This recipe is very versatile, you can try different combinations of meat and vegetables. Or go meatless, like this! :) Miso Soup with Vegetables (serves 4) Ingredients: 1 litre of water 1 packet of dashi stock powder (see below image for reference) 1-2 tablespoons of white miso paste 1 small potato (washed, peeled, cut into quarters and then slice thinly) 1 small carrot (washed, peeled, cut into half ...

What is there not to love about SPAM? You can have it straight from the can, or bake thin slices of it in the oven till it turns crisp, fry slices of it and then coat it with egg (which is what I grew up eating at my maternal grandma's place, and also a regular dish at my late MIL's table).  Or you can make SPAM fried rice! This is a easy one dish meal to prepare. If you are pressed for time, you can cook it and then keep it warm in the rice cooker till it's ready to be served.  SPAM fried rice (serves 6 or 4 large appetites) Ingredients: 3 cups(420g) of rice to be cooked with slightly less than 3 cups (400g) of water (cooled) 1 can of SPAM (cut into cubes) - I use 25% less sodium SPAM 4 eggs (beaten and seasoned with a little light soya sauce and white pepper) - 3 eggs to be scrambled  in step 2 below and 1 egg to be poured over 1 cup of frozen mix vegetables (defrosted) Note about rice: I find that it is not necessary to use overnight rice a...

It's been a long time since I baked a Banana Bread and this went to the top of my bake list when I saw this recipe from Just One Cookbook! I loved the slices of banana on top and just had to bake this Banana Bread. ( Not sure why banana bread is not called banana cake though! ) This is a very moist cake that is not too sweet so there is no need to adjust the sugar amount. The recipe calls for 4 large bananas (3 for the cake and 1 for the topping). The monkeys at home left me with only 3 bananas to do the bake, but it was still good and moist although one more would certainly have upped the banana flavor ;) Try not to skimp on the amount of bananas ok? You do not need any special equipment such as a mixer for this recipe. Just a hand whisk and wooden spoon/spatula is fine. I did use a mixer to cream the butter and sugar from habit, and sifted the flour + baking powder though. I hope you enjoy this delicious Banana Bread! Please refer to  Banana Bread Recipe

Bottled pasta sauces have always been my preferred choice. It is cheap, convenient and delicious. I used to make packed lunches of pasta for hubby and myself when we were newly weds almost 13 years ago. I love brands like Ragu, Prego and Leggo! ;)  Fast forward to the present - My 2 sons, prefer cream based pasta, in particular Carbonara! Whenever I made tomato based pasta with bottled sauces, they ate very little of it and would tell me that the sauce is too sour, has a strong taste of herbs etc =( I searched for home made bolognese recipes but was a little apprehensive of trying them out as they usually had red wine as part of the ingredient list. You see, I had made beef stew with red wine and the family did not like it because the taste of the wine was overpowering. Hence I was a little worried about what a bolognese sauce with red wine would taste like!  I have many cookbooks at home and love to read them over and over again. I perused this bolognese recip...

This is the first time that I baked a whole fish in the oven and I was pleasantly surprised that despite the high heat, the fish remained tender, moist and juicy!  My 2 boys didn't like the taste and asked me to steam it with soya sauce next time! ;p So lucky for them that I served the fish with carbonara and some roasted sweet potatoes or they would have had to go hungry. Ho Ho... The hubby, who is generally hard to please when it comes to food, polished off his fish and all I saw of his plate was fish bone and head (He had one whole fish to himself). Yay to that! Oven Baked Whole Sea Bass (serves 2) Ingredients: 1 whole sea bass (cleaned and dried with paper towel) Sea salt 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary 1 lemon (thinly sliced) Light olive oil Chicken rotisserie seasoning powder (optional, I added in some on a whim) Method: Pre-heat oven to 200deg C, top and bottom heat Line your oven tray with aluminium foil, followed by baking paper Make diagonal slit...

Zachary looking forward to his dinner While looking for some chicken drumsticks to cook ABC soup for my boys who fell sick on Monday, I saw some Kurobuta minced meat on offer, buy 1 get 1 free! I am a sucker for such sales, and the meat looked so good I just had to try it, and think about how to cook it later. Kurobuta is like a pork version of wagyu beef. If it is on offer, just grab right? So, I started to look for recipes online and found Chicken Soboro Donburi ( Recipe Here ). I made some changes to suit what I had in the fridge but the seasoning for the meat remains unchanged. When cooking the meat, my older boy kept saying: "Mmmm, what's that smell?" He couldn't wait to start dinner, and polished off every bit of rice in his bowl. :) Another new found recipe for keeps, which I just have to share with you. One dish meal Pork Soboro Donburi (Serves 4) Ingredients: 225g ground pork (you can use ground chicken too) 1 Tbsp sugar 2 Tb...

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Cordyceps is believed to have a variety of benefits to our body when consumed such as increasing our immunity, having anti-aging effects, fighting respiratory infections, and improving liver function. For those who do not know what Cordyceps is, you can read up more about it and its benefits here ( More About Cordyceps ).  Was blessed by my in-laws with some cordyceps which sat in my freezer for the longest time, because I had no idea how to cook it. Thankfully, I had my 2nd aunt to the rescue who taught me what to do and for those who will like to cook a nutritious double boiled cordyceps soup for yourself and your family, but are unsure of how to do it, here is a simple 3 ingredient method to start off with. Just 3 ingredients: Chicken, Wolfberries and Cordyceps Double Boiled Cordyceps Soup (serves 4) Ingredients: 1 deskinned chicken breast 12-20 cordyceps (wash away the dirt from the cordyceps gentl...