Mini Banana Muffins

I finally bought bananas recently and after waiting a few days more till the bananas were really ripe, I made the much-awaited mini banana muffins for alicia. These smell and taste much better than the applesauce muffins even though I love apples more than bananas and bananas rank really low on the list of favourite fruits for me. :D

I adapted the recipe I found on http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/banana-crumb-muffins/Detail.aspx. I made a really small batch of muffins coz i was afraid it wouldn't agree with alicia's palate and since I'm not a fan of bananas, I wasn't prepared to eat them in case alicia rejected them. But they turned out really yummy, even though I didn't do the crumb bit very well... hehe...

Mini Banana Muffins (makes 8)

Wet ingredients:

• 100ml mashed banana (2 bananas)


• 1 egg, lightly beaten


• 25ml olive oil

Dry ingredients:

• 60g or 120ml flour (I used 20g self-raising flour + 40g whole wheat flour)


• 1 tablespoon wheatgerm


• 1.5T brown sugar


• 1/3tsp ground cinnamon


• 1/3tsp baking powder


• 1/3tsp baking soda


• a pinch of salt

For the crumb topping:

• a dash of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1.5 tablespoon raw brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degC.


2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon sugar and salt.


3. In another bowl, beat together bananas, egg and olive oil.


4. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups (I use silicon cups).


5. In a small bowl, mix together the following for the crumb topping: brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins*.


6. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

*This time round, I followed a reviewer's suggestion of adding the topping 5 min before the muffins are done. Thus, I added the topping at the 10-min mark but the topping couldn't mix well with the muffin already thus the crumbly and chunky bits of topping you see in the photo... I think I'll just follow the recipe's instructions the next time round and see how it goes.

Baked chicken wings

This is definitely one of our all-time favourites! For that matter, I don't know anyone who doesn't like chicken wings! They are simply irresistable!

Anyway, I love these baked chicken wings not just because they taste marvellous. The main attraction about this dish is that it's super convenient to prepare, so on days that I feel lazy to whip up a feast, chicken wings are the way to go! Well, after yesterday's feast, today I'm taking a break from cooking the tedious stuff and here're the chicken wings we had for dinner!

Baked Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

• 10 medium-sized chicken wings (I don't like to use the huge ones as I feel that the meat is too thick and the marinade doesn't really get through all the way)

Seasoning (for chicken):

• chicken marinade


• sugar


• oyster sauce


• hua diao jiu


• sesame oil


• cornflour


• ground black pepper

Method:

1. Wash chicken wings thoroughly.


2. Marinate chicken with the seasoning (preferably overnight).


3. Preheat oven to 200degC.


4. Bake chicken wings at 200degC on 1 side for 15min.


5. Remove from oven and turn the chicken wings to bake on the other side.


6. Bake at 200degC for 15-20min.


7. Remove from oven and serve warm.


8. Do not leave the chicken wings in the oven too long after they are done as the heat will continue to cook the chicken wings and the meat may be tough as a result.

This is definitely a dish that full-time working moms should have on their list of dishes to cook as the chicken can be prepared the night before and just tossed into the oven the next day for dinner!

The first dinner of 2010

We ushered in the new year with some of our favourite dishes -

Stir-fried spinach (Phuay Leng) with abalone

Steamed Variety Egg

Tau Yu (Dark Soy Sauce) Chicken

Lotus Root and Pueraria thomsonii Soup (莲藕粉葛汤)