I made Okonomiyaki for dinner. It’s a Japanese savoury pancake, filled with generous amounts of sliced cabbage and a variety of toppings.

The best thing about Okonomiyaki is you can add any kind of toppings into the batter and it will still taste delicious. I normally use leftovers like pieces of chicken, pork or mushrooms.

These are the essential ingredients to make a flavoursome Okonomiyaki! The rest is anything from your pantry!

(Serves 2)
Batter:
1 cup flour
3/4 cup Dashi stock (if you can’t find the stock, just use fish stock or alternatively, water and a pinch of salt)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
A good handful of thinly sliced cabbage

Toppings:
ANYTHING (shrimps, chicken, pork, squid, octopus mushrooms, onion, chives or bacon). All chopped up.

Sauce:
Okonomiyaki sauce
Kewpie Mayonnaise
Bonito flakes

- Add flour, egg, baking powder and stock into a bowl. Whisk until smooth.
- Add in sliced cabbage into the batter and mix well. Put aside.
- On a hot frying pan, add oil and fry your toppings. I like to use sesame oil for this recipe because it gives a nice aroma and seasoning.
- Once your toppings are close to being cooked, gather it nicely in a flat circle and pour your batter onto it. It should look like a chunky flat pancake.
- Leave to cook for 5 minutes or more. Once the dough is cooked, use two spatulas to flip the pancake over and let the other side cook for 5-10 minutes. Just like a pancake! You can also cut your pancake in half so that it’s easier to flip them.
- Serve on a plate, add generous amounts of Okonomiyaki sauce and Kewpie mayonnaise. Sprinkle with Bonito flakes. Enjoy!

It’s always nice to have a sizzling BBQ on a winter night.

We ordered a set of bulgogi (strips of beef marinated in soy sauce mixture) and spicy dak bulgogi (chicken pieces marinated in hot chili sauce mixture).

We ordered some Korean beer to accompany our meal. I’m not a beer connoisseur but I have found that my favourite beers are mostly malty, dry and strong. So if we have similar taste, I’d recommend that you try the Korean OB lager, the next time you’re out having a Korean meal.

I woke up early this morning, craving pancakes…only to realise that I didn’t have any eggs in the pantry. So I asked myself, could I make pancakes without eggs? I checked online for recipes…and apparently I can!

This is my version of fluffy pancakes without eggs. I’m sure there are many variations out there, but this is all I had to work with. It still tasted good!

1 cup wholemeal flour (you can also use all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoon butter

- Combine dry ingredients and mix slightly. Add milk, oil, water and combine. Do not overmix.
- Heat your butter and pour melted butter into pancake batter and stir.
- Spoon mixture onto a hot greased pan. Cook until golden brown.

I noticed that the pancakes tasted savoury which is nice. But if you prefer your pancakes sweet, you can add more sugar into the batter or eat your pancakes with extra dollop of honey, fruits and ice-cream. Other optional ingredients you can include inside your batter: vanilla extract and cinnamon powder.

I made this easy appetizer the other night.

Button mushrooms
Sausages
Bread crumbs (seasoned with salt and pepper)
Egg

- Remove the stems from the mushroom caps and remove sausage skin.
- Stuff sausage mince into the mushroom hole.
- Dip stuffed mushroom in egg mixture
- Then dip the mushrooms in seasoned breadcrumbs
- Deep fry until golden brown and till the meat is thoroughly cooked inside

Make sure that your oil is not too hot otherwise it will burn the breadcrumbs quickly and you’ll end up with raw sausage mince. You may want to test one mushroom first before frying the rest. Enjoy!

I think Autumn took awhile to get here. Some pictures from our walk today.

And then back home for chocolate chip muffins.

Chocolate chip wholemeal muffins (Makes 8 muffins)

250g plain wholemeal flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
2 tablespoons cocoa
175g brown sugar
150g chocolate chips
250ml milk
90ml vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- Preheat the oven.
- Pour dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Pour liquid ingredients into another bowl.
- Gently mix both together. Do not overmix. Spoon mixture into muffin tins (will be a bit runny).
- Bake for 20 minutes or until muffins are risen.
(I’d totally recommend using Cadbury dark chocolate chips, so good!)

For dinner at our place:)

Pan-seared rosemary pork cutlets.
Served with…

I made healthy muffins this morning. They are pretty filling because they are wholemeal based.

1 cup chopped, dried mixed fruits (apricots, dates, raisins, apples, pears etc)
1 1/2 cup wholemeal self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup oat bran
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cup skim milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon honey

- In a small bowl, soak dry fruits with boiling water (about 1/4 cup) for about 5 mins.
- In a large bowl, sift in flour and baking powder, returning the husks into the bowl.
- Stir in oat bran and sugar, make a well in the centre.
- Combine, milk, egg, oil, honey in another bowl.
- Add the soaked fruit and milk mixture all at once to the dry ingredients.
- Fold in gently until combined, do not overmix.
- Spoon mixture into greased muffin tray, bake for 20 mins or until golden brown.

Oh, this was lovely to open (and eat). Thanks Penny!

I ate 3 cookies after writing this!

We invited my brother in-laws up for dinner this weekend, and we cooked spaghetti and meatballs!

When I make meatballs, I like to make them big! I think it’s more fun to eat them this way. You can’t really tell from the pictures, but that’s two huge meatballs per plate:)

Niina brought animal cookies and mango flavoured sparkling wine, which tasted so good!

A much heathier burger option:)

1 large tuna can (lemon pepper flavour), drained
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup wholemeal breadcrumbs
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 tablespoon chopped thyme
2 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

- Combine tuna, onion, breadcrumbs, egg, thyme, parsley and lemon zest in a bowl and mix well.
- Form into even-sized patties.
- Cook on both sides on a frying pan, until browned.
- Serve with a hamburger bun or turkish bread. Eat with fresh salad and mayo.

Instead of flavoured tuna, you can also use plain tuna and substitute lemon zest with lemon juice.