Fusion Recipes

A classic one pot meal.

Sweet potato is one of my favorite ingredients to make snacks with.  It goes back to my childhood days when I remember eating something called "goreng keladek" (translated from Malay for "fried sweet potato").  My memory tells me it was a thin slice of sweet potato dunked into batter and deep fried.  I also remember something called "kuih kodok", a deep fried battered mashed banana conconction.  For a long time, I had wondered how a mashed sweet potato version would taste.  So in college, I experimented and came up with Sweet Potato Golden Nuggets.  Though the natural sweet potato flavor came through, the texture needed some improvement.  So I experimented with a malasada version of it.  The texture wasn't as crispy as I would have liked in the malasada version.  I made some substitutions to the flour, adding rice flour and switching out the yeast for baking powder. The texture was crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and not too hard or soft when cooled; my best version of battered mash sweet potato thus far.  As I do with all my recipes, I will continue to make improvements as I go along, and maybe one day in 30 years, I will have a perfect version of a cross between goreng keledek and kuih kodok.  8)  I will keep you posted.  For now, I hope you enjoy these 2-bite sized sweet potato fritters.

One of my favorite things about cooking is bringing home a taste of our vacation.  I enjoyed Butter Mochi while on vacation in Hawaii this last summer. When I returned home, I wanted to make some myself.  After a few tries, I decided to give it a crusty top, much like a brownie.  My version adds a couple of tablespoons of sugar as a topping. I also added cinnamon to the topping, but feel free to omit the cinnamon if you're not a cinnamon-lover. 

One of the things I love about  vacations is the different foods and different meal ideas we encounter. Loco Moco is one such idea. Simple and hearty, it is one that serves a very useful purpose for us. We hike often and are usually in the middle of mountains or trees, where there is no food truck or lunch cafe close by. Lucky for us, we just need to stop under the shade of a tree, and pull out Loco Moco to satisfy our hunger.

Shakshuka is a breakfast of eggs poached in tomato sauce common in Israel.  Being one who favors spice, I thought the eggs would go well with the creamy and spicy tomato-based Tikka Masala.  It can be a breakfast, lunch or dinner, served with a light salad and bread.  Here is my version.

This is a spicy version of a Hong Kong Style Pork with Tomato Sauce,  I simmer the pork with the sauces to cut out a step, and also increase the flavor infusion of the pork in the tomato sauce.  I use a couple of non-traditional ingredients in this recipe, star anise and fish sauce, both of which I believe has accentuated the flavor of the dish.  I hope you enjoy the changes.

I have always wanted to try puff pastry but the thought of spending hours in the kitchen refrigerating the pastry between layers has been a deterrent. However this very easy method takes about 30 minutes, and produces many layers of puffiness.  I use this dough to make pot pies (reduce sugar to 1 tbsp for savory pastries), egg tarts and what I call scones.  I think it would go well as a crust for fruit pies too!

My Japanese-American friend, Alison introduced this tea to me as a non-caffeinated option for a warm drink.  Both warming and soothing, it's been a popular drink for my family, especially on cold winter nights. Thanks Alison!

I got this recipe from one of my dear friends who brings this tea in a thermos to our weekly tea parties.  Rich and warm, this tea was just the comfort drink we needed. Thanks Powen!

Sichuan Style Beef Noodle Soup is one of my favorite noodle soup dishes - and if you know me, you know I like noodle soup.  It's a spicy comfort food that is perfect on a cold day.  If you have the time to make homemade beef bone broth, your mouth will thank you.