Blender & Basil

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…

Steamed tofu with minced pork and mushrooms – a simple recipe

Here comes another steamed recipe for this week – tofu with minced pork and mushrooms this time. This one can be served hot or cold, so is good for spring and summer. In a similar way to the aubergine and mushroom recipes from the previous weeks, the basis of the recipe is to steam the…

Steamed enoki mushrooms with garlic – a ‘cooked salad’ recipe

In hotter weather, salads are a go-to food. This enoki mushroom recipe is a Chinese cooked salad, which means that like last week’s aubergine recipe, the mushroom is steamed before the sauce goes on, and the mushrooms soak up the flavours as it cools with the sauce. You can also look into using other sorts…

Steamed aubergine with tahini sauce – a simple Chinese salad recipe

Aubergines (or eggplants) are my favourite – not only healthy, but they are a veggie that can be cooked in so many different ways! Now that the weather is getting warmer, this simple Chinese salad recipe is very tasty – and can be prepared in advance. Not only so, steaming preserves the vitamin content really…

Corn and red kidney beans – a staple food from northern China

When people think about the staple food in China, white rice usually comes to mind, but this is actually not true in Dongbei, the north east of China. Maize (corn) is the traditional staple there, and the most well-known version is a porridge made from maize kernels: Da Zha Zi. Nutritionally speaking, corn tends to…

Chewy Chocolate Meringues

There’s something incredibly feminine about meringues. Maybe it’s the shape in which they are piped, twirling skirts dancing on the oven sheet; maybe it’s their white colour, made bronze at the right places with a fire torch or in the oven. The way you can mess about with them and they would still be unapologetically…

Steamed eggs, tofu, fish and prawns – a simple protein-rich recipe

Egg whites, tofu, white fish and prawns – it’s a protein fix! This recipe is inspired by Chinese steamed eggs.

Crostata di Marmellata – a traditional home made Italian tart

Crostata is a very typical home made cake in Italy and because everyone likes it and it requires no special effort, it’s baked at any opportunity. The ultimate classic is made with apricot jam, but its base, called pasta frolla, is the perfect match with any flavour of jam and marmalade. I bake it to…

Peperonata, more than a side dish

I love this dish because it requires few ingredients and provides a lot of flavour. It is a great side dish to present at a dinner party – but I love it solo or with a naughty slice of cheese on top – just like how I’m making it today, with my favourite smoked provola…

Three cup chicken (san bei ji) – a Chinese recipe with basil

One of the most common questions associated with this recipe is: why is it called three cup chicken? Simply because it’s mainly flavoured with 3 cups: 1 cup of sesame oil, 1 cup of soy sauce and 1 cup of rice wine. That’s the idea anyway! In reality, you don’t want to use a full…

Chinese New Year recipe – Bak Kwa (barbecued pork jerky)

It’s my first Chinese New Year in Singapore and there’s so much information to take in about the uses and traditions of this special day. To avoid any faux pas, I kept it simple and decided to make at home one of the best known delicacies in Singapore and Malaysia. Bak Kwa (Chinese barbecued pork…