Chickpea curry filo pastries

Image 1: Chickpea curry filo pastries

Coconut yellow split pea pudding aka 椰汁馬豆糕 "yeh jup mah dou goh"

Image 1: Coconut yellow split pea pudding (椰汁馬豆糕)

Food Synopsis: Coconut yellow split pea pudding (椰汁馬豆糕, pronounced "yeh jup mah dou goh") is a sweet dessert made with cornflour and coconut milk, so is nothing like a traditional English pudding made of flour, butter and eggs. It has a jelly-like consistency, and if made correctly, should wobble a bit like jelly too. Dotted throughout the pudding are tender yellow split peas, adding bite and textural contrast to the chilled smoothness of the rest of the pudding.

Although cornstarch is usually used in small quantities in cooking to thicken up sauces, thispudding uses large amounts to cornstarch - so much so that it creates a liquid so thick that its solid. Heat is required for thickening of corn starch in solutions as it is responsible for breaking the granules of starch, releasing individual starch molecules which absorb water and form a thick gel. Getting the correct amount of heat is crucial for this recipe.

Pan fried salmon with rice and stirfry zucchini

Image 1: Stir fry zucchini with garlic, pan fried salmon fillets and plain white rice

Another typical dinner: Carbs, protein and vegetables washed down with hot liquid (tea). Not eaten all in the one night, there's enough protein there for 3 serves!

Fat black cat cookies

Image 1: Fat black cat cookies (Milo powder, lemon icing)

Lemon curd cookies

Image 1: Lemon curd cookies

Corn and zucchini quick bread

Image 1: Corn and Zucchini quick bread

Food synopsis: A bite-sized savoury, wholemeal quick bread.


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Living by yourself isn't an easy thing to do. For example, judging the amount of food to buy and cook.

A colleague brought in her home-grown zucchinis, and one ended up in my fridge at home. On top of my usual fortnightly food shopping, this was another case where I had one zucchini too many and just had to find some way of using it up!

So, getting out my experimenting cap on, this is what I made with 1/2 a large zucchini, some left-over canned corn and a basic quick bread recipe.

Zucchini and onion omelette with rice and veg

Image 1: Zucchini and onion omelette, rice and left over zucchini and onion

Lemon curd butterfly mini cupcakes

Image 1: Lemon curd butterfly mini cupcakes

Food synopsis: A fluffy cupcake filled with fresh lemon curd. The sourness of lemon curd was in harmony with cake, the proportions of curd to cake.


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Being quite a scavenger of food and produce brought in by my colleagues' homes, I thought I should give back a bit of what I take. This week, I had taken a quite a number of lemons - either grown in their backyard, or they'd picked from their neighbour's backyard.

Most of the streets in this town have dusty alleyways between the backyard fences. They're wide enough for a car drive down, but the road isn't

Dinner: Spicy salt and pepper calamari

Image 1: Very spicy salt and pepper calamari with rice and frozen veg

Made a massive mistake with the salt and pepper calamari. When making up the batter, I was sprinkling the chilli powder through the tiny hole I made in the corner of the packet, but was barely getting any through. It wasn't the first time I'd been impatient with the chilli packet, so I decided that the time was ripe to cut a slightly larger hole in the corner.

So I did. But alas! Still feeling very impatient, I used the same rigorous tipping and shaking action. Probably had a heaped teaspoon's worth of chilli powder when 1/8tsp would have adequately tingled my taste buds.

So, pain beyond pain when eating!!! My mouth felt like to was burning, and tears were coming down