Zucchini Bread

This is one of my true favourite recipes! This came from a special book by a Japanese version of Martha Stewart (she is much older than her though) who is an American/French baking pioneer. She lived overseas in the 80s due to her husband's duty as a Transport Ministry　bureaucrat.



I always borrowed this book from the libraries as a kid and it was such an inspiration for me! I still would love to learn American baking at some point when there is an opportunity.

This quick bread tastes very much like carrot cake. If you don't like to microwave, you could easily bake it in the oven (180degrees for about 30 mins).

Zucchini Bread recipe

Beat 2 eggs and 1 cup of brown sugar in a blender.

Add 1/2 cup sunflower oil (any vegetable oil but olive oil) and 1 1/2 tsps vanilla. Blend well.

Fold in 2 cups grated zucchini (liquid well squeezed), grated rind of 1 lemon, 3/4 cup chopped walnuts, 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 2tsps cinnamon, and 1 tsp nutmeg (sifted together).

Pour the mixture in a microwave-proof baking dish and cook it for about 5 mins at high power and 13 - 15 mins at low power.

ENJOY!!

Mini Moist Mandarin Cakes

I forever have a problem with mandarins because I grew up in the area where mandarins were one of the dominant fruits grown and we kept receiving sooooooooooooooo many of them every winter and simply could not get rid of them. We(there were 6 people in my family!!!!!!!) literary had to eat them every single day and still had problems with finishing the bloody things.

Anyway, I am still traumatised by the sight of those unfinished boxes full of mandarins but trying to get over it.

So, I decided to use them for baking! These little cakes turned out to be much nicer than the actual mandarins (to me at least)....!!! These taste exactly like orange & almond cakes.

Mini Moist Mandarin Cakes

Ingredients:
125g butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups almond meal
1/2 plain flour
2 eggs
Juice of 1 mandarin
Grated rind of 1 mandarin

For the mandarin syrup:
Juice of 1-2 mandarin/s
1/4 cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Beat well.
2. Add eggs, mandarin juice and rind and mix well.
3. Stir in almond meal and flour.
4. Pour the mixture into muffin tin or any small cake tins you've got. (I used a kind of financier looking tins) Bake them for about 15 - 20 mins.
5. Mix the ingredients for syrup. Once cakes are baked, remove them from the tins and pour the syrup over hot baked cakes.

Addictive Kebab Shop Salad

I used to work at a school right next to a little shopping centre. One of the few things we honestly looked forward was chatting over a cup of coffee at a kebab shop. One of my colleagues was quite fond of this power salad that is basically a mixed up of all the kebab ingredients but it tastes soooooooooo good!

I only had this salad few times but really liked it and tried to make it at home. This is pretty close to the real one I think....

That Kebab Shop's Power Salad

Ingredients:
Mixed salad leaf (baby spinach leaves or chopped lettuce will do) - as much as you like
Chopped and fried bacon or cut BBQ chicken pieces
Tin pineapple pieces
Chopped black olives
Sliced mushrooms
Grated carrot
Sliced red onion
Grated Tasty cheese

For the sauce:
Tomato sauce & Mayonnaise - same amount
Tabasco (Optional)


1. Throw all the ingredients into a salad bowl.
2. Mix the ingredients for the sauce. You could add some lemon juice to the sauce if you like.
3. Enjoy the salad with the sauce!