Category: Food

Cafe Hopping, Food, Marriage

Antoinette

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A place Mr & Mrs Eio decided that they must go during their 3d2n Staycation is Antoinette!    

 Why? Mrs Eio wanna try their salted egg croissant! 😝

 
Look at how the salted egg flows out from the croissant. The croissant is crispy & fluffy. Simply Yums! Worth the trip. 
 
Latte is good. 

   
Love the ambience…❤️❤️

    
 
Only thing that’s kind of disappointing is the pasta. Too oily. The food items are pricey but if it’s of good standard, it’s ok. Mr Eio says Mrs Eio can cook better pasta. So… 😓

   
 
There’s a great variety of desserts but Mrs Eio think they taste average. 

  
Conclusion: Be there if you wanna try their salted egg croissant & for the nice ambience. 

Animal-Milk-Protein Free, Dairy-free, Food, Recipe

Dairy-free cream of mushroom

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Em loves cream of mushroom but El can’t eat due to the presence of animal milk protein. Mrs Eio has been thinking how to make this soup tastes good & both kids can enjoy. The cream of mushroom didn’t taste as good with Soy milk. Mrs Eio finally got it when she used coconut cream to make the soup. Yummy! 

 
Ingredients: 

  • 500g of shitake mushroom (before removing stalks) 
  • 200 g of brown mushroom (before removing stalks) 
  • 1 packet of cream of coconut 
  • 3 yellow onions & 2 cloves of garlic 
  • Salt & pepper to taste. 
  • Olive oil to stir fry the ingredients. 
  • 1-2 cups of water. 
  • Pinch of oregano (optional. Some people use thyme) 

   
 
Comparing the nutrition information before deciding to use coconut cream. To obtain the creamy texture, coconut cream is the way to go! 

   
Chopped the garlic, mushrooms & onions. Just anyhow chop! 😁😁since she’s going to blend it anyway… Shall get the Eio kids to help the next time round.  

 
Add some olive oil into the pot. Stir fry the onion & garlic before adding mushrooms. Add oregano, salt & pepper to taste. 

   
Mrs Eio must make her effort worthwhile so she will stir fry more ingredients & freeze part of it for use on another day. 

 
Her handheld blender comes to good use again. Blend all the ingredients in the pot. 

After blending, Mrs Eio put part of the blended ingredients into a container. Freeze it upon cooling.

Note: Try to freeze the ingredients before adding coconut cream. You may add the coconut cream or milk to the thawed mushrooms mixture the next time round. 

   
For the other half of the ingredients in the pot, Mrs Eio added coconut cream & 1-2 cups of water (depending on your preference on the thickness of the soup). Bring to boil. 

 
Wallah!! Coconut cream of mushroom !    

Em finished that big bowl of soup! He simply loves it!!

 
Try it!!😊

Animal-Milk-Protein Free, Dairy-free, Food

Kueh bahalu

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Mrs Eio wanted to make kueh bahulu for a long time as Eio kids love to eat it. It’s dairy free! She finally tried out Guai shu shu’s recipe. 

Check out the link for the original recipe: https://kwgls.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/if-you-dont-have-the-mould-try-this-macaroon-looked-alikekueh-bahulu-（蛋花糕）/

  
Mrs Eio made slight amendments to the amount of ingredients. 

The ingredients: 

  • 4 eggs
  • 150 grams of self raising flour
  • 120 grams of sugar
  • A tsp of vanilla essence 

 
Preheat the oven to 200 degree c. 

Grease the Kueh Bahulu mould. Mrs Eio is using the madeleine mould too.     

Mrs Eio loves her handheld mixer. Beat the eggs, vanilla essence & sugar until the volume expands to twice to three times the original volumn. 

Seive in the flour & mix well. 

  

Scoop the mixture into moulds & pop them  into the oven. Turn the kueh bahulu over after 10~15 min. Bake for another 10 min. 

  

Mrs Eio wasn’t too please with her 1st attempt. The taste is ok but the colour & texture are not as she have expected. Nevertheless, Eio kids love the kueh bahulu. 
 

Its always good to have homemade snacks! 😁

Animal-Milk-Protein Free, Baking, Dairy-free, Food, Recipe

Dairy-free chocolate chocolate cake

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Mrs Eio tried out a dairy-free chocolate cake recipe from Tip Hero (please refer to the link below for original recipe & directions) : 

http://tiphero.com/chocolate-crazy-cake/

Truly fuss-free, minimal washing & most importantly El can eat as it does not contain animal milk protein. 

These are the ingredients Mrs Eio uses.    
Mrs Eio amended the amount of  ingredients slightly. 

– 1.5 cup plain flour (sieved)

– 3 tablespoons cocoa powder

– 180ml  granulated sugar (reduced) 

– 1 teaspoon baking soda

– 1/3 teaspoon kosher salt (reduced)

– 1 teaspoon white vinegar

– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

– 4.5 tablespoons vegetable oil (reduced)

– 1 cup water

 
Preheat the oven to 170 degree c. 

Add all the dry ingredients directly to the pan and mix well. 

Make 3 depressions in the mixed dry ingredients. Add vinegar, oil & vanilla extract into the 3 depressions separately. Lastly, pour water into the mixture. Use a fork & mix till smooth. 
  
Mrs Eio used a wooden spatula to mix instead as the metal fork will scratch her pan. 

 
Put the mixture into the preheated oven for about 35 min. 

   
Test if the cake is ready using a satay stick. 

    
Nice & yummy!! 😄 El ate 2 slices & asked for more. 

 

The cake tastes even better with chocolate fudge & blueberries! 

  
Wait not. Try it out! 👍

Animal-Milk-Protein Free, Baking, Dairy-free, Food, Little Kitchen Helper, Recipe

Mrs Eio’s little helper & mommy’s birthday cake

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Mrs Eio’s little helper was helping to make mommy’s birthday cake.   
This time round, Mrs Eio decided to make 2 cakes. 

 
She altered the previous recipe (her lemon chiffon cake) so the cake was more moist this time round. 

   
 Ingredients for making 2 cakes: 

(A) Flour mixture:

-3 cups of cake flour

-9 egg Yorks (from fridge because that’s where I store my eggs.) 

-4 tsp of baking powder

-100 ml of caster sugar

-3/4 tsp of salt

– 100 ml of water 

-140 ml of canola oil 

-lemon zest of 1 lemon

– juice of 1 lemon -seive before use. (please don’t throw away the lemon after juicing. Add them into water for drinking or use them to make enzymes for cleaning) 

Mrs Eio seived the cake flour, baking powder & salt and set them aside. Beat the egg York & sugar using a whisk till she feel the sugar has mixed well with the york. Add oil & mix well. Add water & mix well again. Add the lemon juice & zest, mix well. Last but not least, she added the mixture into the cake flour mixture. Whisk till everything mix well together. Set aside (mixture A). 

  
(B) Egg-white Sugar mixture: 

– 9 egg white 

-100 ml caster sugar. 

Mrs Eio used a electric handheld blender & beat the egg white & sugar mixture till it becomes a white light foam (mixture b). Slowly fold in mixture b into mixture A. A ladle of mixture b at a time. Must not over mix both mixtures (mixture c). 

Set aside 1cup of mixture C. Pour the rest of mixture c into 2 baking containers. She tapped the containers on the table a few times to “set” the mixture.( Extra air bubbles can escape.)

Piping for the cake: Add a teaspoon of chocolate powder into the 1cup of mixture C that’s set aside. Mix well. Put it into a piping bag. Time to design something or write words on the cake. Somehow the mixture is runny so the words are not well written. 🙂

Preheated oven at 160 degree celcius. Baked for 35 minutes. 

 
Blessed birthday Mrs Eio! 🎉

Food, Organic, Quinoa

Cooking Tri-Colour Quinoa

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Mrs Eio cooked the Tri-colour Quinoa that she purchased from the Bento People (the Quinoa People). 

 
How to cook quinoa? 

Rinse the quinoa with water. Mrs Eio cooked the quinoa in a rice cooker. The water to quinoa ratio is 2:1. 

  
One of Mrs Eio’s faithful comrades in the kitchen is this rice cooker. Just select “expert” mode, everything will be done perfectly. 

 
The tri-colour quinoa is more “husky” as compared to the light brown ones. The texture is like chewing sesame seeds among the light brown quinoa.  

   
Freezing quinoa:  Mrs Eio cooked 3 cups of quinoa & decided to freeze the leftovers. Check out this website on the way to freeze quinoa.

http://www.thekitchn.com/can-you-freeze-cooked-quinoa-221171

 Quinoa to replace rice. 

  
Quinoa as a side dish with toufu & brocolli. It definitely adds some crunch to toufu & makes it more palatable. Mrs Eio loves to add wolfberries to her dishes. This a great protein-packed dish for vegans! 

Directions:

1) Steam the brocolli & beancurd. 

2) Boil 2-3 cups of vegetable or chicken stock. (Depending on how much sauce you want). 

3) Add in cooked quinoa (half a cup) & wolfberries (one table spoon). Bring the sauce to boil. (Optional: add seasoning, salt & pepper if you prefer to). 

4) Add in some cornstarch water to thicken the quinoa sauce. You may add an beaten egg if you want to. (But make sure there’s enough sauce in the pot to cook the egg). 

5) pour the quinoa sauce onto the beancurd & brocolli. 

Enjoy!!!

Food

The Bento People @ CT hub

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Weeks ago, the Eios went to CT hub to grab some books from CRU Singapore Media ministry.  Time for lunch & they chanced upon this restaurant “The Bento People”.   

Cozy restaurant. Friendly service staff. There’s some display on Snacks & Quinoa. A “mix & match” menu where you order the carbs, proteins, vegetables you want to eat & they’ll serve the food in a bento. Interesting concept! 

    
Frankly, Mrs Eio really didn’t know what’s truly in store. Eio kids are famished so she just ordered whatever they like to eat. Brocolli, beef, white rice… 

 
After Mrs Eio ordered food for the kids, she realised there’s also quinoa & red rice etc on the menu. She decided to order red rice, curry cauliflowers, chicken with herbal sauce, toufu & mushroom for Mr Eio. 

   
The first comment Mr Eio made after eating is “this restaurant is selling healthy food but it’s tasty too.” Mrs Eio has to agree with him because they shared the red rice. Though they are eating lesser carbs, the red rice makes them feel fuller than eating white rice. She think it’s probably the power of eating whole grain. 

  

Quinoa is added to this toufu mushroom dish. It tasted really good. Mrs Eio used to cook quinoa at home but the kids are not so used to the crunch. 

Later on, the Eios met the owner of the Bento people. He kindly serves us a bowl of Yang Zhou fried Quinoa & the Eio kids simply love it! This gave Mrs Eio the motivation to revive Quinoa in the Eios lunch & dinner home menu. 😊 

  

The owner of the restaurant then shared with Mr & Mrs Eio the importance of eating whole grains & the healthier way of cooking meat. Later on, the Eios found out that he’s actually a doctor turns chef! 

Mrs Eio used to include more whole grain in their diet but ever since El wasn’t able to gain weight due to allergy, she reverts to white rice & simple carbs so that it’s easier for her to digest & gain weight. Now El is better, it’s time for the Eios to include more whole grains in their diet. 
  

What Mrs Eio read on the Straits Time recently about white rice. It coincides with what Doc (restaurant owner) shared weeks ago. 

Read this article: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/diabetes-the-rice-you-eat-is-worse-than-sugary-drinks

Time to take care of ourselves by eating more whole grains…

  

Mrs Eio bought a packet of Quinoa home. Will post on what she has done with it soon. 🙂 The tri- colour quinoa tasted better than the light brown ones. 
    

You may read up on Doc, the man behind this great work: http://www.whatscookingdoc.sg/2015/05/the-bento-people-story.html?m=1

 
Visit The Bento People & try out their whole grains & healthy food @ CT hub. 

For more details, visit their website: http://www.thebentopeople.com

Address: #02-17, CT Hub, 2 Kallang Avenue (339407) 

Tel: 64432006

Animal-Milk-Protein Free, Baking, Dairy-free, Food, Recipe

My first Lemon chiffon cake…

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This is my very first lemon chiffon cake. I find the texture abit dry (probably i controlled the amount of oil) but it tasted good. It’s soft & not too sweet & heavy . Most importantly, it rises well & didn’t collapse after cooling. 🙂  

For Mr Eio. 😍  

These are some of the ingredients I used. I bought the cream of tartar but omitted it in the end. 🙂

Ingredients

(A) Flour mixture:

-1.5 cups of cake flour

-4 egg Yorks (from fridge because that’s where I store my eggs.) 

-2 tsp of baking powder

-50 ml of caster sugar

-half tsp of salt

– 50 ml of water 

-50 ml of canola oil (I only have 30ml of canola oil so I added another 20 ml of extra virgin olive oil. I think I’ll increase the amount of oil to 60 ml so the cake will be more moist.)

-lemon zest (Pls don’t “over grate”. Use only use the yellow skin, not the whitish area. Used to bake lemon muffin & over-grated the lemon. So the muffin tasted abit bitter.) 

– half a lemon juice -seive before use.  (please don’t throw away the lemon after juicing. Add them into water for drinking or use them to make enzymes for cleaning) 

   
I seived the cake flour, baking powder & salt and set them aside. Beat the egg York & sugar using a whisk till I feel the sugar has mixed well with the york. Add oil & mix well. Add water & mix well again. Add the lemon juice & zest, mix well. Last but not least, I added the mixture into the cake flour mixture. Whisk till everything mix well together. Set aside (mixture A). 

 
(B) Egg white mixture: 

– 4 egg white 

-50ml caster sugar. 

I used a electric handheld blender & beat the egg white & sugar mixture till it becomes a white light foam (mixture b). Slowly fold in mixture b into mixture A. A ladle of mixture b at a time. Reminding myself not to over mix both mixtures (mixture c). 

   
Add mixture c into the baking container. I try to tap the container on the table a few times to “set” the mixture.( Extra air bubbles can escape.) Preheated oven at 160 degree celcius. Baked for 45 minutes ( I might bake for 40 min in the future so that the cake will be more moist. )

 
Test if the cake is done using a satay stick. 

   
My very first lemon chiffon cake! Em can tell that it is not just any chiffon cake but a lemon cake. So glad it’s not bitter at all. 


  
 Yums! I’ve a flask of lemon water too. 😜

  
Hope I can bake a moist cake next time round. But frankly, I quite glad with the results today. 🙂

Cafe Hopping, Food

Bar Bar Black Sheep (Bukit Timah)

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Mr & Mrs Eio were at the Bukit Timah area last weekend. Hence they decided to try out Bar Bar Black Sheep.     
There’s nothing “spectacular” for their ice coffee latte. What’s to come is truly yummy…

 Mr Eio & latte…:))

Mr & Mrs Eio decided to try one western dish & one North Indian dish. 

  
They loved the grilled chicken. The potatoes are seasoned & well grilled. The chicken meat is juicy & goes very well with the creamy mushroom sauce. Mrs Eio loves the taste of their salad dressing. 

    
Their Butter chicken & plain naan didn’t disappoint us at all. The naan is crispy on the outside but soft & fluffy on the inside. It goes well with the curry & chicken. 

    
    
They encourage self service so Mr Eio made the payment at the counter.  The cafe was not crowded on the weekend that we went. 

 
A nice & cool place to chill out or watch football together. 

   
 Nevertheless, please note that there’s limited lots in the nearest carpark but you can always check out other carpark areas.  

———

Bar Bar Black Sheep

501 Bukit Timah #01-05C

Cluny Court

Tel: +65 6763 4757

Food

Hai Di Lao Hot Pot (IMM)

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The Eios seldom travel to the west. Since they were there last week, they decided to go to IMM & try Hai Di Lao Hot Pot (SiChuan style steam boat) for dinner. 

Phone reservation are full. Hence, Mr Eio went to the counter & made reservation 1.5 hours before they were allowed to enter the restaurant. 
Eio kids are excited as they get to eat free tidbits & ice-cream, receive gifts (em-car/ el- tiara & accessories). 

 
Mrs Eio ordered 4 types of soup (chicken, mushroom, Mala- spicy & tomato). Her personal preference are the mushroom & chicken soup. El loves the tomato soup. 

 
There’s a counter where one can get free flow of fruits, desserts, sauce etc for around S$4 per pax. 
 
Mrs Eio ordered cod fish, shrimp paste, rice/ noodles, black pork slices, marinated beef (thigh area – chewy & tender no matter how long you cook) & spinach. 

   
If you order noodles, the chef will “perform” la mian before putting the noodles into your hotpot. Eio kids were thrilled. 

 
Eio kids get to touch the noodles before its placed into the hot pot.   
   
Some food we got from the $4~ counter. 🙂

 
Our total bill is approx S$70. Their service is excellent & food is great. The kids are “well entertained”. Looking at the overall package as a whole, I think it’s worth it. 

——-

HAI DI LAO @ IMM #03-01

Tel:68964111

http://www.haidilao.com/sg

You may visit their website & try other outlet too. 🙂