Tuna and Kidney Bean Patties

What to eat when the fridge is almost empty? I have discovered that these tuna and kidney bean patties can be made with pantry ingredients and one egg. You just need a can of tuna (or salmon) and a can of kidney beans (or chickpeas, or cannellini beans, or pinto beans). Mix them up!

Pan-Fried Threadfin with Pine Nut Brown Butter

When I started blogging (on my personal blog) way back in 2004, there was only person who read it--my best friend; she started blogging first and we were doing it to keep in touch. After a while a few others started reading my blog, too, first my parents, then some friends.

In time I realised that I wanted to blog mostly about home cooking. So I started Simply Cooked in 2009 and imported all my cooking-related posts from my personal blog. And now there are more readers than my best friend and my parents! (I'm up to 15000 pageveiws a month, actually, so thanks for reading!!) I feel blessed to be able to share ideas with you, thoughtful bloggers and readers.

Caramelised Cherry Tomatoes

Caramelised cherry tomatoes, otherwise known as my new easiest side dish. I have started a new job and I am working much longer hours than before. I have to admit that I gave up on cooking for a while. I bought fast food from the train station and enlisted the nearby delivery restaurants to keep us fed for a month. But too much food cooked outside my own kitchen starts to taste strange after a while. Enter: this laughably easy dish.

I bought some white fish to pan fry since that's a fast main dish. Then I added this Donna Hay recipe for caramelised cherry tomatoes. The idea is really that you pan fry some chicken or fish and remove it. Then deglaze the pan for two minutes with balsamic vinegar and halved cherry tomatoes. Then serve. That is all! Cooking the tomatoes add only two minutes to the overall time of making dinner. I served it on some courgette noodles (they were raw, and the balsamic juices warmed them a bit). That's the kind of fast food I need right now.

Seared Salmon with Coconut Spinach

This week's speedy dinner is so easy - wilted spinach with some tasty additions, and pan-fried salmon. It all came together in just a few minutes. I added some reheated rice for my husband, extra spinach for me, and plated it up.

It turns out that spinach and coconut milk is a really great combination. I didn't find the coconut flavour too overwhelming. It was just enough to add an exotic touch. Supper felt exciting in a way that spinach and salmon wouldn't normally. I'm converted!

Baked Fish Fillets with Tomatoes

Last weekend was spent organising our new flat. It feels so good to have all the boxes gone now. (Except four that I have been avoiding sorting through.) Our new bookshelves are full; the cookbooks have a shelf all to themselves.

Supermarket Finds (and Mysteries) in Singapore

Hello Singapore! My husband and I have just moved here and I have been settling in by finding my closest grocery store. Today I snapped some photos of things I found there. Some of them are exciting finds, others are mysteries to me. (Please chime in if you know what to do with any of them.)

How small are these limes?! (Fingers shown for context; heehee.) Wow, the large ones are not that big and the small ones are tiny! They would make cute garnishes, but could they really be used for juicing?

A Three-Star Lunch at Caprice

My husband and I went for the set lunch at Caprice this weekend. It's a three Michelin-starred restaurant in the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong. The view looks out over Hong Kong harbour.

We had three courses with a glass of wine. Allow me to describe each in a bit of detail.

Starter: chilled tomato consomme with mozzarella and tomato cocktail

How to Cook Perfect Swordfish

It's time to try something new: swordfish. With the help of this fish substitution chart (below), it's easy. Swordfish is a large fish that lives in the warm parts of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It has firm, meaty flesh and is easy to cook as a steak or threaded onto skewers and barbecued.

Swordfish can be cooked according to any recipe that calls for tuna or shark and many that are for salmon. The table below shows many types of fish categorised according to texture and flavour. Fish with the same texture and flavour can be substituted for each other.

The Art of Eating by MFK Fisher

I have been waiting for months to read some MFK Fisher. Everyone who knows food writing says she is the master. For example, Ruth Reichl says she "has the extraordinary ability to make the ordinary seem rich and wonderful." Julia Child said her "wit and passionate opinions on food and those who produce it, comment upon it, and consume it are as apt today as they were... when she composed them." Alice Waters says that The Art of Eating "should be required reading for every cook. It defines in a sensual and beautiful way the vital relationship between food and culture." How fortunate we were that the May Kitchen Reader selection by Carolyn of FoodNURD was The Art of Eating, a massive compendium of five of Fisher's books, totalling more than 700 pages.

Three Essentials for Writing a Perfect Food Blog Post -- Lessons from A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg

Reading A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg is a writing course for food bloggers. Her book grew out of her popular and long-running blog Orangette. The book tells the story of her life through vignettes and recipes. It was our Kitchen Reader choice for February, chosen by Jules of Stone Soup.

Wizenberg's voice is chatty, friendly, and laid back. She paints word pictures of her family and friends in a humourous and loving way. She has been a food blogger since 2004. In her book she says that she writes "about my life some, too, since it intersects with food roughly three times a day." It's clear that this book grew from the stories on her blog. Each of the forty-five short chapters in her book is a perfect model of how to write an engaging blog post. I learned three lessons to apply to my food blogging. I'm considering these the three essential ingredients for a perfect food blog post.

sea bass with raisins and saffron

"The first bite is with the eyes," my husband teases--and this is an ugly dish. I freely admit it, this pasta and fish combination do not look as good as they taste. This Nigella Lawson recipe looked a lot better when she made it! But the four of us ate it and agreed that it wasn't "ugly in the mouth". It certainly looked terrible while it was still in the pan....

Peruvian dishes: ceviche and papa rellenas

The best part about taking part in food blogging events is all the new things I am pushed to try. Take, for example, the Daring Cooks. Kathlyn of Bake Like a Ninja was our Daring Cooks’ March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenged us to make two classic Peruvian dishes: Ceviche de Pescado from “Peruvian Cooking – Basic Recipes” by Annik Franco Barreau, and Papas Rellenas adapted from a home recipe by Kathlyn’s Spanish teacher, Mayra.

I have never made or eaten any Peruvian food before, but fortunately we have close friends who lived in Peru. They were very willing indeed to come over for dinner, assist in the assembly of the food, and comment on its authenticity.

weekend links #6

food links:
--You've got your backyard garden. Is farming your own fish the next logical step? (from The Financial Times)
--Six tips for increasing your tolerance to spicy foods (from Serious Eats).

recipe links:
--Roasted garlic and garlic-infused olive oil: a good use for some spare oven space when it's turned on to bake something else (from Suzie the Foodie).
--How to make a tastier veggie burger (from The Kitchn).
--Whole wheat cookies for snacks. Little do they know it, but my colleagues may be helping me try these out soon (from Lite Bite).
--A make-ahead dahl recipe for easier dinners in a pinch. Avoiding takeaway (from The Kitchn).

off-topic links:
--I'm easing myself into the idea of doing some running--jogging, actually. Posts like this from Carrots'N'Cake have been making me think more seriously about it (from Health.com).

Hollandaise Sauce

One of my readers sent me a question recently about cooking vegetables.

"I find I am always looking for different ways to cook veggies. My husband is hard to please. He doesn't really like salad, and wants stuff to be really flavourful. He likes 'sauce.' He seems to think that everything needs 'sauce' or 'seasoning.' If you have any suggestions, I'd really appreciate them."


Veggies are my favourite thing to cook, and I am always looking for ways to help others love them as much as I do. Starting with fresh ingredients is always the best first step. But I am more than happy to suggest sauce ideas, too. Hollandaise sauce is a good bet because it's simple to make but adds a slightly richer flavour to a light meal such as steamed fish and veggies.


Hollandaise is a classic French sauce, so I used a recipe from I Know How to Cook, the French cooking tome, recently published in English for the first time. Hollandaise is brilliant with vegetables, fish, eggs, and even grilled steaks. It's a bit fiddly to make the first time, but doesn't take too long, and is easy to get used to. There are only three main ingredients and the recipe below makes plenty for a larger family or two meals for a couple (just reheat it very gently for the second meal).

Hollandaise Sauce
adapted from I Know How to Cook

Hollandaise sauce is one part in the trinity of Eggs Benedict, along with an English muffin and a poached egg. Learning to perfect Hollandaise is simple, and gives you triumphal bragging rights.

3 egg yolks
salt and pepper
3/4 c (175 g) butter
2 t lemon juice, warmed

Put the egg yolks in a heatproof bowl with 1 T water and a pinch of salt over a very low (barely simmering) heat. Stir vigorously.
Remove from the heat, add the butter, cut into small pieces, and stir in. Return to heat and stir until the sauce thickens. As this is happening, keep the heat low and remove the pan from the heat any time it looks as though the eggs are about to become scrambled.
Pour in the lemon juice, stir with a bit of salt and pepper, and serve immediately.