Homemade Popcorn Chicken

I was thinking very hard what I should do with the small packet of minced chicken that I bought from NTUC Fair Price (local supermarket). I knew I would definitely use a small portion of it for my stir fried mixed vegetables. I decided to cook popcorn chicken at the end using some of the balance cornflakes that I have in the fridge. I have never cooked this dish from scratch before and this was really an experiment. What I did was just marinate the minced chicken with a generous amount of salt, ground white pepper and cornflour. I then scooped a teaspoon of marinated minced chicken and coat it well with the crushed cornflakes. Bake them in oven at about 180deg C for about 20 minutes. Turn the popcorn chicken over after the first 10minutes of baking.

My daughter loves the popcorn chicken a lot and obviously I didn't cook it enough for everyone as this is really an unplanned dish. She demanded to have this as snacks for her tea break at school! I will cook this dish times and again as it is so simple, easy, fresh and healthy.

Mama Pork Chop

Today is a public holiday in Singapore. My husband is busy rushing out some documentation for a new project. I was having very bad tension headaches again and had not been sleeping well past few nites due to it and the pregnancy. So, we both decided to stay home and keep the activities minimum and simple with our daughter. My husband likes to cook some of his favourite dishes whenever he is inspired to fill our stomachs with love his ways. Frankly he cooks quite good pork chop and 'begedel' (potato croquette). In fact, he has tried many different flavours and versions of the latter. The original gravy's recipe for the pork chop was from his late grandmother but he changed and added new flavours to the original. That inspired me to name this special simple dish after my late grand-mother-in-law. My husbanf and I enjoyed the time spent together cooking in the kitchen, chatting away and at the same time kept our daughter involved and occupied with simple activites like peeling snowpeas, crushing the crakers etc.


I cooked a simple stir fried mixed vegetables with prawn and pork as a side dish. I just wanted to add vege to the main course to balance back my duaghter's diet for the past one week as she has not been eating much vegetables since she was sicked. I am so happy to see her enjoying her snowpeas, carrots and baby corns. Of course she loves the pork chop too!! I reintroduced the snowpeas (yesterday) and baby corns to her today though both were rejected a few times previously. As a mother, I am so pleased to see her finishing up the vegetables. She is a vege lovers since young but has her own preferences somehow. I am in particularly lazy today and changed my mind to have just bread and butter instead of rice or mash potatoes with the pork chop. It was a simple yet delicious meal we have had together

Stir Fried Black Pepper Shabu-Shabu

I cooked this stir fried black pepper shabu shabu a day after Chap Goh Mei (the 15th day of the Chinese New Year). We bought quite a lot of shabu shabu worrying that it would not be enough to serve our guests during the reunion dinner. It ended up that we have more than enough and plentiful of different variety of vegetables, mushrooms, seafood, meatballs, meat and etc for the steam boat. It was a good catch up, fellowship and feast!!

I gave the balance of the shabu shabu a little twist by stir frying it with just carrots (leftover) and ready made black pepper sauce that you can get it on shelves anywhere in our local supermarket. Shabu shabu is best to be eaten on the day you get them back from the supermarket and when it is still fresh. I personally like spicy food and do not prefer meaty flavoured stuff so thought of covering the original meaty flavour of the shabu shabu just in case it was as fresh as a day before, using black pepper sauce.

My husband would prefer the simple original taste of this meat and I guest meat lovers will enjoy the original simple juicy taste of this meat by just dipping it in the flavourful stock and tuck in immediately.

My Humble Background..

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I started cooking at the age of 15 for a huge family. I learnt cooking mainly Cantonese food from my sister and my mother. I never baked until the age of 34 now and after married with a daughter who aged 21 months! My daugther is my source of strength and perseverance. A hard day of working, cooking and doing housework will by itself payoff by her hugs, smiles and of course her sweet calling of 'mee mee ah....' :)

I always love cooking and experimenting new recipes and especially the last two years when I have my own family which means I have my own kitchen space and stuff etc.:) I have indulged in cooking ‘Peranakan’ foods through my late grandmother in-law as I am crazy for anyting that is spicy and hot! I find spices are heavenly created natural aromatic ingredients that can enrich and improve one's health and yet may create harm at the same time. I am planning to build a small little herbs garden at my house corridor when I am more settle with my self-thought baking lessons.

I am exploring about food catering business and nutritional foods for kids. There is a strong inner calling to further look into the F & B industry since last few months. My close friend who is a CEO of a private school kept on assuring me that I can do more than working for others BUT i need to find what it is that is really for me. Preparing foods for 30 guests are not a problem for me but to do this as a business is not something can be taken likely. Mind you I have been working in healthcare for almost my entire life and have zero formal training in culinary. Anyway there are a lot of successful professionals who switch career mid way like Lynette Foo, Lynn Chen, Su-Mene to quote a few.

Obviously I do not know where to set my food until recently when I had a car accident a month ago. It changes the total perspectives of my views of life. Yes it scares me but it matures me more than anything else about vocational life! During the recovery period I was homebound. Given the abundant of time and the inner calling to explore F & B I read up a lot about cooking and baking. I began baking during this period learning from blogs, recipes etc... and the result is I am falling in love with baking! I just can't stop baking. I bake and bake and bake.... :)

Learning baking will and has indeed opened another chapter of my informal 'culinary' journey. The excitement and satisfaction started as early as at the stage of planning the recipes to suit the purpose for the gatherings, festives or just for the simple reason to finish up whatever balance ingredients I have in the fridge or cupboard! I always cook & now bake with my HEART and SOUL for my family and friends. I believe that the same passion will be the ingrained motivator for me to do likewise in my food business! I do not aim to be a cook or a baker. What I want to be is a social entrepreneur in this field. What I have now is definitely providence from God. He teaches me to cook the FISH and now bake the BREAD. HE performed the miracle 2000 years ago in feeding seven thousands people and it is my prayer that the same miracle will happen through my future business in 'feeding' or 'teaching the underprivileged how to FISH! God Bless!