Chicken Pot Pie with Cheesy Mashed Potato Top

This chicken pot pie recipe takes a little time to prepare, but you won't regret of the outcome and is well worth and is one of the popular hearty comfort food on a cold winter season.  Even though we do not have four seasons over here, but I kind of appreciate all these seasonals food.

Mashed potato is always our all time favorite, love the after effects, after it will bake together with the chicken and vegetables mixtures.  The crispy layer of the cheese on top has made it tastier.  This warm and nourishing recipe is suitable for everyone at home.

Traditional Egg Cake

Today, I am going to share a recipe of one of my favorite snacks during my childhood - the traditional egg cake or Chinese sponge cake.  My memories went back to when I was in primary school.  These mini egg cakes are always my choice during the breaks.  Normally, there are ten pieces in a pack and it will last me for two days.   

I did not know that to make these small wonders that needs so simple ingredients - eggs, cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and last but not least is oil.  And the steps of making them are so easy.  You will just need to spend about 30 minutes for preparation and  baking time of 20 minutes and you will get soft, spongy and tasty cakes.

Steamed Sweet Potato Cake

I was grown-up in a family with the food business background.  Our core products include various types of snacks or in Malay we named it as "kuih" (cake).  Steaming is the main cooking method being used.  The varieties are from the popular Chinese "ang ku kuih", Chinese White Sugar Honeycomb cake and to even Malays  style "kuih" like "kuih lapis", "seri muka" and many many more.   All these are using steaming method.

My memory still in my late parents, they used to grind their own rice to make various types of steamed rice cakes.  Every of the bites of the cakes were so tender and the fragrant of the rice... Amazing!  That's the wonderful of making rice cake origin from the rice itself.  

As time goes and the growth of technologies we can buy ready made rice flour in any of your nearby supermarkets.  But the only thing is, I missed those tastes and rice fragrant by using those ready rice flour.  Something is missing!  So, I have decided to give tapioca starch a try in my steam sweet potato cake.  Turn-out great, tender and not too sticky.  Even though I missed those rice fragrant but I am satisfied.  Don't believe me?  Try it out!

This recipe is ideal for home parties and gatherings too.

One Pot Tom Yum Soup

During this cold season, I am always craving for comfort food and one-pot soup is one of my regulars from my little kitchen.  A hot and sour pot soup is even marvelous!  Yes, Thai style Tom Yum Soup that's what's on my mind.

In my this One Pot Tom Yum Soup I had used seafood combinations with two types of mushrooms.  It turns out wonderful!  If you not fancy of a sour taste in the soup, you may reduce the amount of the lime juice.  Same goes to those do not want the soup to be too hot, you may reduce the amount of the bird chilies or the Tom Yum paste.  

I only used prawns as my major seafood in this soup as I love the prawns with Tom Yum combinations.  You may try to add on with squids, fish or even mussels. As I like the soup to be milky, I had added with evaporated milk instead of coconut milk which is a normal practice.  Reason is not wishing the strong taste of the coconut milk to cover the original taste of the Tom Yum soup.  This is a very easy to make and the taste is just amazing!