Author: 7shasha7

Loves eating...too much. Pottering about in my kitchen is a joy. Loves culture and different cuisines; loves buying food books and trying them out.
Salads and Vegetables

Eggplant and Mozzarella Salad

7shasha7

I was a little bummed out when I got back from my year check-up. My ALT reading was high and so they asked me to go for another check in three weeks time. And nowadays information can be so easily obtained and thus I found out it’s most likely due to my obesity and rich diet full of butter and cream 😅

So with such a scare like that I made a salad for dinner. I had a few spinach leaves and some Spanish spinach left over from my garden. I cut up a few rounds of eggplant, coated the slices in semolina and shallow friend them in olive oil. Assembled the salad with the leaves, baby tomatoes, mozzarella and eggplant. Drizzled good quality EVOO and pomegranate molasses…and my favourite sea salt flakes. And voila! I had the most delicious dinner.

It didn’t fill me up though 😂 Two hours later i tossed a brioche slice, slathered it with Japanese margarine and some leftover beef bacon.

Looks like I’ll have to work harder to get this ALT reading down in three weeks!

So delicious. Creamy cheese and crunchy soft eggplants. Everything I love on a plate.

Western

Chicken Spanish Stew

7shasha7

So even after WordPress gave me a super great deal to renew, and renew I did, I didn’t have the time to post anything!

I have been making videos on TikTok and of course posting on my Instagram @shasha_cooks more frequently but seriously, I have not been cooking that much. I really am The Occasional Cook!

Yesterday, however, I had the time and the mood to cook and as usual, turned to my Chef Wan recipe book Sedap and found Chicken Spanish Stew.

Chef Wan never fails me, like seriously. I have tried so many of his recipes from this cookbook and they all turn out brilliantly.

Look at this outcome!

The colours and the flavours – ooo lala! The only thing I couldn’t follow from the recipe was the green olives. Have I griped about the supermarket closest to me? Well, even after after renovating, the stock up is really bad.

So here is how I made Chef Wan’s Spanish Chicken Stew.

Step 1: Coat chicken pieces with plain flour that has been seasoned with salt and black pepper. Brown the chickens and remove

Step 2: In the same oil (you can add more if needed, and I used olive oil) sautee till soft onions, carrots and garlic. Once soft and fragrant, add a teaspoon of dried tyhme (the recipe called for fresh but I didnt have any) and a teaspoon of chopped fresh basil (now, this I have plenty of because I grow my own Italian Sweet Basil). Add in one tablespoon of tomato puree, a can of chopped tomatoes and some chicken stock. I used Maggi concentrated chicken stock with water. Add saffron strands. Add in chopped red capsicums, the chicken pieces and then just let the whole thing simmer and cook for about 25 minutes. Once beautifully cooked through and the stew thick yet luscious, add in the black olives, stir. Taste and season with salt.

This was not only beautiful to look at but really delicious and healthy.

This is the recipe from his book:

food, Uncategorized

So…apparently this is NOT the end

7shasha7

Looks like I’m not closing this website after all! 😂

Very close to terminating this, I felt a wave of nostalgia… plus, WordPress sent an offer too good to miss up on! So I’ve decided to keep this site.

And to make this a better user experience, I will engage the help of my beautiful and talented Sister to make this website exactly how I envision it should be.

So stay tuned!!!

food

This is The End

7shasha7

Times are hard and will get harder next year. Belt tightening has to be done.

With quite a heavy heart, I cancelled my domain and subscription plan. I don’t know what’s going to happen after May 2023 when it ends. Will all my previous posts be available or will it disappear? Perhaps the domain will disappear but the posts remain? Maybe the words will remain but the pictures disappear?

However the future holds for this blog which I started in 2010, I’ve had a good run and an enjoyable time. What started as a project to keep recipes for my children will now have to be just a databank of memories and one day I might just delete the entire blog. The children are not interested in cooking at all 😂

Thank you to those who have subscribed and who have accessed this blog site. I bid all of you adieu. I can be found on Instagram : shasha_cooks

Happy holidays and have a great 2023 ahead! ☺️

Much love

The Occasional Cook

PS:// if you can’t access shashacooks.com anymore (it’ll end May 2023), i suspect the blog can still be accessed using shashacooks.wordpress.com

Cakes and Cookies, Singapore

Cornflake Meringue Cookies

7shasha7

Hari Raya, or Eid, is in a week’s time! How time flies and sadly Ramadan will be over. However, in this part of the world, it also means that visiting begins. And this year in Singapore, we have just gotten news that there’s no more limit to people gatherings! We can have as many visitors as we want and go out with as many people in a group as we want! Hooray!

This also means that I have to ensure that my dining table is Raya ready! What this means is taking out my pink Pyrex canisters and filling them with cookies!

This year I decided that I’ll bring a bit of my childhood to Raya. I’ll bake cookies that remind me of my own childhood. Cookies I remember eating as a kid during this festivity and though I may not be able to master them all, I’ll try a few.

One of my childhood memories during Raya is eating these cornflake meringue cookies. Sweet and crunchy, they’re every kid’s dream.

I called my aunt for the recipe and it seemed pretty simple enough. First up, make the meringue. Next, add lightly crushed cornflakes and chocolate chips. Place in a liner (use a dark one for that colour contrast) and bake.

So these are all the ingredients needed! 1/2 cup egg white (that measured to 3 eggs), 1/2 tsp salt, 9oz caster sugar, 5oz cornflakes, 1tsp vanilla extract. Oh, and 9oz chocolate chips. In the end I added the entire bag because after measuring out 9oz, there was only a teeny weeny bit left of chips in the bag. It makes no difference to finish the entire bag! 😉

As you can see, this is so old school for me because the measurements given were in ounces. This is a family recipe that has lasted many many decades! 😂

Making the meringue is fun because with a Kitchen Aid mixer, you can do anything! 😂 (Kitchen Aid, can you please give me a new mixer. I’ll post more baking posts!)
After mixing the cornflakes and chips into the batter (which has been flavoured with vanilla extract), spoon huge dollops of the mixture into paper cup liners.
Bake at 150C for 20minutes and voila! All done!
They’re meant to be crunchy and oh so sweet. Next time if I make this I’m going to modify the family recipe and reduce the amount of sugar!

In any case, another achievement unlocked for me. More cookie recipes coming up. 🍪