Cooking up a beautiful meal for family and friends on a lazy Sunday afternoon whilst listening to my favourite music is one of life’s great privileges. Not only is cooking therapeutic in itself, the fragrant aromas of fresh ingredients whilst listening to music with a glass of red wine is heavenly bliss to me, and to think this is even before the party begins!
Just like the way I play the piano, I like to cook from the heart. Unless we are preparing fine dining meals like Heston Blumenthal wannabes, cooking should be simple and fun. It should be not be bogged down by too precise measurements. Passion and creativity does not flow when there is inflexibility. A musician who reads from a music score cannot be truly playing from the heart.
There are generally 4 types of recipes – boring vs exciting, simple vs complicated. But they should all have the end goal of being tasty and flavoursome!
To see all my favourite recipes and ingredients in full colour, click on the delicious pieces of salmon below.
Fresh food / ingredients
Recipes
Happy cooking!
Chopinand
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Beef
Fresh food / ingredients
Pork
Chinese roast pork
- Chinese roasted pork belly
- Fig and brandy glazed Christmas ham
- Bacon salt – how to make your own delicious seasoning
Lamb
Poultry
- Chicken pie made easy
- Char-grilled chicken satay Malaysian style
- Char-grilled chicken satays
- Coq Au Vin
- Roast chicken with peas and tomato salad
- Chicken a la king – retro and classic 1970’s recipe
- Chinese twice-cooked duck with orange
Seafood
BBQ prawns Asian & Western style
- Fresh steamed prawns with coriander dipping sauce
- Pan seared mackerel
- Pan seared monk fish
- Spanish seafood paella
- Prawn cocktail – retro and classic 1970’s recipe
Salad
- Spanner crab salad with pink grapefruit flying fish roe and crisp duck skin
- Broccolini salad with tomato dressing
- Tomato and pea salad
- French beans and almond flakes
Soup
Pasta
Spaghetti Bolognaise
- Ipoh Kai Si Hor Fun
- Pasta with chorizo and red sauce
- Rice vermicelli in chicken broth
- Spaghetti Bolognaise
Desserts
Jellyriffic competition recipes – Click here to read about the Jellyriffic competition
Bombe Alaska – classic 1970
Jellyriffic competition entrees
- King prawn tom yum jelly – Thai
- De-constructed Malaysian loh bak – Malaysian
- Steamed egg custard – Japanese
- Jellyfish jelly & celery salad – Chinese
- Antipasto pyramid – Italian
- Chilled gaspacho & blood orange – Spanish
- Green & gold jelly – Australian
- Baked samosa & yoghurt dip – Indian
- Roasted potato & rocket salad – English
- Pinot noir beetroot jelly & goat cheese salad – French
Jellyriffic competition main courses
Shepherd's pie with blowtorch mashed potatoes
- Thai fish hor mok – Thai
- Nasi lemak – Malaysian
- Edomae Chirashizushi – Japanese
- Hainanese chicken rice – Chinese
- Fusilli bolognaise – Italian
- Seafood paella – Spanish
- Sydney Opera House-inspired kangaroo burger – Australian
- Biryani rice with cashew nuts & raisins – Indian
- Shepherd’s pie & blow-torch mashed potatoes – English
- Crispy duck with sweet potato mash – French
Jellyriffic competition desserts
Blood orange jelly with strawberries and chocolate dust
- Mango rice pudding – Thai
- Kuih Malaysia – Malaysian
- Green tea mousse – Japanese
- Black sesame ice-cream with summer berries – Chinese
- Coffee, nutella & vanilla pannacotta – Italian
- Blood orange jelly – Spanish
- Green & gold kiwi fruit pavlova – Australian
- Pistachio & apricot kulfi – Indian
- Blueberry trifle – English
- Snowy raspberry mille feuille – French
The Pasta with Chorizo is calling me, what an amazing dish!
Mmmm….you’ve inspired me to cook Bolognaise this weekend, although it won’t turn out as nice as yours !!
Hi Alice,
You are a great cook yourself and perhaps it’s time you be a guest blogger and share some of your fantastic recipes with our readers!
Haha.. Chopinand, you are always too modest. I’m a novice compared to you. Keep these brilliant articles going….loooooove the photos
All dishes look delicious!
Those are some amazing dishes! I especially need to check out your Chinese roast pork. I tried to make it, but didn’t get the skin to crisp up (no research online before I cooked it, my bad). I’m sure that when I follow your recipe it will turn out great.
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and leading me to yours. Your pictures are stunning!
Hi. I m looking for a Malaysian sweet snack recipe yuen koe.
Not only those, the cakes and desserts they deliver are pretty and can be topped and garnished easily.
Do not do as the commercials have advised and throw all of your old containers out until you are sure the WOW containers work for you and your particular situation.
Refrigerate the cream after whipping it to
soft peaks.
Wow, what a seriously impressive collection of recipes – can’t wait to try some of these!
Definitely trying the spanner crab salad this weekend. Looks beautiful, nice job!