3 minute Homemade Creamy Peanut Butter

Normally I am quite happy to buy my peanut butter from the supermarket and it never crossed my mind to make my own. But way back in July our supermarket decided to replace our favourite brand with one made in Australia and they pushed the price up as well.

That was it. I refuse to be dictated to, and be told what I can or cannot buy, or where from. I decided to make my own !


It was actually ridiculously easy provided you have a gadget similar to the famous Magic Bullet and you can have fresh peanut butter jelly sandwich in less than 3 minutes. The proof is in the video.

The texture was in fact much creamier and not as dry as the bought ones. And you can actually smell and taste the peanut. Once you have tried some homemade peanut butter, you won't want to go back to that tasteless storebought 'paste'. Plus you know exactly what ingredients has been used.

Yield : > ½ cup

Ingredients
150gm (1 cup) roasted peanuts
½ tsp peanut oil or onion oil
¼ tsp salt

Method
1. Place all the peanuts into cup of the bullet. Use the flat blade and process until the nuts are roughly broken up.

2. Add oil and salt. Change to the cross blade. Continue to pulse (shaking and scraping the sides of the container every now and then). As you process you will notice the mixture will become more liquid and oily. Process until you are happy with the texture.

Flat Blade...............Cross Blade

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Homemade Tau Fu Fa ~ Soy Bean Custard

Tau Fu Fa is a very popular chinese dessert eaten hot or cold. It is made from coagulated soya bean milk, served with a sugar syrup. And of course being soy, it has tons of nutritional value.

After many attempts at trying to reduce the gypsum content, I believe I have perfected the texture. The tau fu fa was so silky smooth that it just slides down the throat. So soft, it felt like almost like swallowing air.


I had to try and reduce the amount of gypsum to a bare minimum as I get the dreaded backache the following day. This is my favourite dessert so can't help but devour the lot in one day. Happy to report that the following recipe does not give me a backache and hence can eat as much as I like.

Makes : 1 Litre soy custard

Ingredients
1 Litre boiling fresh soy milk

Setting solution
1 Tbsp corn flour
½ level tsp gypsum powder (calcium sulphate)
¼ cup (63 ml) cold water

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Homemade Kway Teow ~ Steamed Flat Rice Noodles

After many trials, errors and disappointments I am pleased to finally report success with making my own kway teow. I have gone through the whole rigamarole of testing various methods and different plates and trays. The kway teow came out perfectly using my black/grey coated baking tray.

Quite by accident I discovered that leaving the kway teow to cool, made it much easier to remove and the steamed rice noodle came out much smoother. Plus you don't get burnt fingers !

It is not really time consuming to make kway teow. You get lots of 5 minutes break in between steaming each tray, giving you heaps of time to clean the kitchen or take the opportunity to do your crosswords or crack your brain on the sudoku.

This kway teow had a nice and smooth texture with a 'bounce'. Just perfect for cutting up into strips for char kway teow (fried rice noodles).


Makes 8-9 pieces (½ kg)

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Ngau Yoke Yuen ~ Springy n' Bouncy Beef Balls

I have made these umpteen times and they have always turned out bouncy. However cooking is not always smooth sailing and I have to confess that I did 'muddle' up the steps once and the ngau yoke yuen did not have even a hint of a 'spring'.

It is not so much the ingredients that makes the beef balls springy but the process of making it. If you do try it please follow the instructions very carefully. I have videoed the whole process to make it easier to follow as well as to remind myself of the steps so that I won't muck up ever again.

As the meat is minced to mush, the cut of beef is not important. I have used chuck, bolar, blade and even rump steak.

Makes 35-45 beef balls

Ingredients
560 gm beef, cut to small pieces

½ cup (125ml) icy cold water
1 Tbsp fish sauce
½ tsp salt
½ Tbsp sugar
½ Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp cornflour
1¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp kan sui (lye or alkaline water) {optional}

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Rosemary Focassia

Rosemary focaccia is our favourite flat savoury bread. We always have a supply of it in our freezer for lunches. Slice it into thinner strips and it is great in the winter months for dipping into soups as well. It is a breeze to make and a hit for any gathering.

I have already posted the recipe earlier this year but have recently spliced together a short 1:45 minute video on the making of this Italian flat bread. Crank up the volume to enjoy the music of Duel by Bond.

There are numerous focaccia recipes but I find this recipe works well and require the least amount of skill in the shaping. Just let your fingers do the 'walking'.

Chelsea Buns

I have tried several recipes for chelsea buns and find that this 'sponge and dough' method is the best by far. It produces nice and fluffy buns every time and the dough is a breeze to handle.


I prefer the buns without icing but it seems to be a Kiwi thing to have white or pink icing. Make sure the buns double in size before baking or else it will be dense. I usually leave the dough in the fridge overnight so that the next morning I can proceed to the next step and have fresh sweet sticky buns in time for morning tea.

Makes 18 buns

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Char Siew Pau ~ Steamed Barbecue Pork Bun

I have been searching for the illusive char siu pau recipe which is soft and fluffy without having to use expensive specialised pau or bleached flour or long preparation time of a few days. I am pleased to say I have found it.


A combination of plain and high grade flour is used for this recipe which does not require a long or complicated proving time after the pau is pleated.

I am not very good at the pleating which could explain why my buns 'loose' the pleat pattern after steaming. The buns turned out with only a slight tinge of yellow. They were delicious. I am all right with it not being pure white , the texture was what I was after.

For testing purposes I ate a cold char siu pau a few hours after it was steamed. It was still soft though normally I prefer my pau hot or at least warm and would zap them in the microwave to reheat.

You can rest assured you will not end up with rock hard buns with this recipe. The dough is very forgiving.

Makes 12 buns

Ingredients
150 gm plain flour
250 gm high grade/bread flour
50 gm sugar
30 gm milk powder
1 Tbsp shortening
2 tsp Surebake yeast
250 ml warm water (50C)
1 tsp Edmonds baking powder

char siu filling recipe

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