Blender & Basil

Sinigang soup from Knorr Mix – a sour soup from a Filipino recipe (using a pressure cooker)

Having a sour soup can be very refreshing for the summer, and you will find the Knorr Sinigang Mix from most Asian supermarkets. The sourness comes from tamarind, and other essential ingredients include tomatoes, a meat of some sort and, often, green beans. In this version of the recipe using the Knorr Mix, we are…

Three Chinese cold dishes/salads for the summer – tomato, cucumber and wood ears

When you think of summer food, salad usually comes to mind (got to love a good summer salad). They are, actually, just as common in Chinese cooking, although instead of having a mix of different leaves, Chinese veggie cold dishes are usually made from a single ingredient. These are all very easy to make, so…

Aubergines with chilli and honey sauce

Keeping a balanced diet means playing a lot with your veggies to find ways to create interesting meals that involve vegetables only. This is what I do in order to reduce the amount of meat consumed weekly in the household. Keep some chillies in your fridge and you’ll realise that they can really add a…

Courgette pancakes – using a simple Hu Ta Zi recipe from Beijing, China

Summer has brought courgette spaghetti/noodles onto the shelves in some supermarkets here, so yes, this is another courgette recipe! If you can’t buy courgette spaghetti, then just spiralise a normal courgette. Hu Ta Zi is a snack from Beijing, and is originally made with calabash (bottle gourd), but as that’s difficult to buy in many…

Homemade fries with egg on top – a super simple recipe

Very few meals are as simple as fried eggs. Anyone can make them in a matter of minutes, perfect for those midweek express meals. Sure as eggs, you would probably have a few ingredients at home to make your meal more special: potatoes, for example. Forget those frozen fries you find at the supermarket, I’m…

Tofu and Chinese cabbage – a quick and simple recipe

Just home from a trip to Kyoto, the city of tofu, I’ve been thinking more about easy home-cooking tofu recipes, and this tofu and Chinese cabbage combo is a typical one to make at home. It’s not quite a completely stir-fry recipe, so I haven’t called it as such. You will need to drop the…

Savoury courgette tart – A simple recipe

I don’t call this recipe a quiche because the method used for the Italian torta salata is slightly different. For these sort of homemade savoury tarts, Italians don’t add eggs to the short crust pastry, unlike the French. Also, a quiche will require the mixture of creme fraiche with the egg inside the filling, while…

Russian Salad – a simple recipe

For many years, Russian salad has been a mystery for me. In Italy we don’t consume it much, apart from the odd buffet-style dinner party so I never had too much curiosity about making it at home. In London, between my good Russian friend and my Spanish other half, I discovered the many faces of…

Mediterranean Mung Beans Soup – a simple recipe

Never mind the Singaporean heat, we do crave for a good bowl of soup every now and then. And after discovering mung beans, it was hard to resist the succulent idea of making a vellutata of them. Traditionally, mung beans are actually believed to be refreshing for the body, and often used in dessert recipes…

Sevillian Spinach and Chickpeas (Espinacas con Garbanzos)

Having a Spanish partner means not only finding curious similarities with the traditional Sardinian cooking (Sardinia was a Spanish colony for many years, and this can be seen at the dinner table), but, more importantly, it means exploring the differences. For example I am particularly fascinated by the influence that the Arabs had on Spanish culture…

Dressed Mung Beans – a simple recipe

Add mung beans to your diet, and you’ll have the blessings of nutritionists, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and Ayurvedic docs alike. This tiny green bean is so packed with goodness that simply makes everyone agree on its invaluable nutrition. Magnesium, potassium, vitamin B6, proteins, folate, you name it! Unlike a few trendy super-foods, this legume…

Steamed fish – sea bass – a super simple recipe

As a continuation of our steamed recipes, here comes a really simple Chinese-style steamed fish recipe. The fish we’re using here is sea bass, though other kinds of thin white fish fillets such as sole will also work well. Steaming fish is a bit different from steaming the veggies from previous recipes, as the timing…