Category: Homemade Recipes

Spicy beef biryani recipe.

This is a recipe from Ben O’Donoghue and I was THRILLED with the results. I made a few changes, things like changing saffron to tumeric (too expensive), getting rid of mint leaves (couldn’t find any) and conveniently forgetting bay leaves (old age). Yet, the biryani was absolutely delicious!

# – Made it for a family dinner.

For the rice:

  • 300-500 grams of beef steak, thinly sliced
  • 70 grams of tomato puree
  • A pinch of tumeric powder
  • 50 ml of milk
  • 500 grams of basmati rice
  • 1 cup of coriander leaves, roughly chopped
  • A pinch of salt

For the marinade:

  • 5 cm of ginger, peeled & grated
  • 10 garlic cloves
  • 3 long chillies, roughly chopped
  • 20 grams of papaya, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 2 tablespoons of cooking oil
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 tablepoon of tumeric powder

For the spice mix:

  • 100ml of vegetable oil
  • 3 onions, thinly sliced
  • 2 teaspoons of cardomom pods, bruised with the back of a knife
  • 1 cinnamon quill, broken
  • 2 teaspoons of cloves

# – First, dump all the ingredients for the marinade in a blender except for lemon juice and tumeric powder. Puree the mixture.

# – Pour it out then add the lemon juice.

# – Stir in the tumeric powder.

# – Add in the sliced beef and stir to ensure the beef are evenly coated with the marinade. Set aside while you continue with other tasks.

# – Prepare the milk in a jug and add the tumeric powder and a pinch of salt, let stand for about 20 minutes.

# – In the meantime, boil the basmati rice in salted water for 6-8 minutes.

# – Then drain the rice.

# – Now, to start with making the spice mix. Fry up 2/3 of the thinly sliced onions till brown (confession: I over fried mine a bit :P). Set aside.

# – Fry the remaining onions with the cardamoms, cloves and cinnamon quill.

# – When the spices are fragrant, throw in the marinaded beef. Reserve the marinade.

# – As soon as the beef are browned, pour in the tomato paste.

# – Followed by the rest of the marinade reserved earlier. Stir to combine.

# – Next, pour 1/3 of the drained rice over the meat mixture.

# – Then throw on some coriander leaves.

# – Cover with more rice and then a layer of the fried onions. Repeat until no rice’s left.

# – Pour in the milk mixture all over the rice.

# – Cover and stick in a preheated oven at 170 degrees celcius to bake for 15 minutes. This will allow the marinade at the bottom to steam the rice and flavouring it at the same time :D

# – Spicy beef biryani, DONE!

# – Stir it up before serving…

# – Delicious, fluffy biryani.

I made a pot of vegetable curry to go with it. Superb!

Before this, I’ve always wondered how people make good biryani rice, with the rice so fluffy and not sticking together in clumps. The thought of screwing the dish up put me off from attempting it.

I’m glad I got over the fear and made this because the BF and I LOVE biryani and now that I understand the basics of cooking basmati rice, I can experiment with more flavours in the future.

Coconut lemon layer cake recipe.

I made this for Father’s Day. The lemon and coconut flavours complemented each other gorgeously in this light, fluffy cake.

Aside from a mille crepe, this is the most time consuming cake I’ve ever baked. I was standing from 11am – 4pm just making this. The end result made it all worth it though :)

That said though, as long as you’ve got all the ingredients ready and prepared, it would cut the time down significantly.

# – Coconut lemon layer cake.

For the cake:

  • 175 grams of plain flour
  • A pinch of salt
  • 6 eggs
  • 225 grams of granulated sugar
  • 65 grams of desiccated coconut
  • Zest of 2 lemons
  • 1 tablespoon of lemon juice


For the lemon curd filling:

  • 1 tablespoon of cornflour
  • 125 grams of caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tablespoons of butter
  • 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 120 ml of water

For the frosting:

  • 75 grams of butter, at room temperature
  • 175 grams of icing sugar
  • Zest of 1 1/2 lemon
  • 30 ml of lemon juice
  • 200 grams of dessicated coconut

Lets start with making the cakes…

# – First, put a large bowl over a pot of boiling water. Crack 6 eggs into it and beat.

# – Beat for about 10 minutes until the mixture has turned pale, like this.

# – Add the lemon zest in it.

# – Add the one tablespoon of lemon juice.

# – Followed by the dessicated coconut.

# – Sift some of the flour into the mixture, stir to combine and then repeat till all flours are used up.

# – Divide the mixture into 3 non-stick/greased cake tins.

# – Stick them in a pre-heated oven 180 degrees celcius for 20 minutes. Remember to rotate the cakes around for even baking.

While the cakes bake away, it’s time to make the lemon curd filling.

# – Dissolve the cornflour with a dash of water.

# – Crack an egg over the mixture and whisk till combined. Set aside.

# – Melt butter, caster sugar, lemon zest and 120 ml of water in a saucepan.

# – When butter has melted, pour the egg + cornflour mixture into it while still whisking.

# – Keep whisking and you will start seeing the mixture thickens while turning a gorgeous yellow.

# – Stop whisking when it’s thick and gooey. Pour it out into a bowl to cool down. Delicious, homemade lemon curd, DONE!

The last bit to whip up is the yummy frosting…

# – Dump everything except the dessicated coconut into a bowl and beat till creamy.

# – Lemon frosting, DONE!

Finally, it’s time to assemble the cake, woohoo :D

# – Lay the cakes, lemon curd filling and lemon frosting out so it’s easier to work :)

# – Spread lemon curd over one cake.

# – Then lay another cake over and the rest is self explanatory in the following picture.

# – Next, frost the cake up. Yummy!

# – Then sprinkle dessicated coconut all over the cake and voila, coconut lemon layer cake, DONE!

# – Eat up!

Light, lemony fluffy cake with gorgeous homemade lemon curd and a tangy frosting. Absolutely delicious! If you’re planning to make something for a loved one, look nowhere else as this is the cake that says ‘I Love You’ :)

Stuffed pork meatballs pasta recipe.

This is actually quite similar to my first pork meatball attempt. However, I ommited the chillies and added something else…cheese!

Specifically, cream cheese which I had cut into cubes and stuffed into the middle of the meatball. It was awesome!!!

I wasn’t really into cheese stuffed meatballs at restaurants because they tend to use gooey cheese which you could hardly taste after cooking. Cream cheese holds it form very well though, and gave the meatballs a nice, interesting, creamy texture.

# – Stuffed pork meatballs, in the making :D

For the meatballs:

  • 500 grams of pork mince
  • 5 strands of long beans or French beans, finely chopped
  • 1 large onion, finely diced
  • 3 tablespoon of mustard powder
  • 80 grams of bread crumbs
  • 1/2 tablespoon of salt
  • 100 grams of cream cheese, cut into cubes

For the tomato sauce:

  • 2 cans of plum tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon of thyme
  • 1 tablespoon of basil
  • 2 tablespoon of sugar
  • 1/2 tablespoon of salt
  • 300 grams of pasta

# – First, throw the diced onion and long beans in a bowl.

# – Followed the pork mince.

# – And then the bread crumbs.

# – Sprinkle mustard powder all over.

# – Don’t forget the salt as well.

# – Using your finger, knead the mixture until everything’s combined.

# – To form the meatball, get a clump of mince, flatten it then place a couple of cream cheese cubes in the middle.

# – Then cover it up and form a ball. Kind of like making glutinous rice balls.

# – Heat up oil in preferably a non-stick pan, place the balls in it to brown. Don’t crowd the pan so that the balls will cook evenly.

# – After a few minutes, turn the balls around to cook the other side. Turn them occasionally so that all sides are browned evenly. After all the meatballs are browned, set aside.

# – Now, to make the tomato sauce. In another pan, brown some onions and then dump in two cans of plum tomatoes. Cut the tomatoes if they’re not already cut. Throw in the thyme.

# – Followed by basil. I used dried herbs but you can of course substitute with fresh herbs :)

# – Stir in the sugar to offset the tang.

# – Then, dump in all the meatballs to simmer for a further 10 minutes. Make sure all the balls are evenly coated by the tomato sauce.

# – In the meantime, cook 300 grams of pasta according to the instructions on packet.

# – When pasta’s done, drain it, serve on a plate and pour the tomato sauce and meatballs over it. Stuffed pork meatballs pasta, DONE! This recipe serves 4.

# – Cut into the ball…

The pork meatballs were very well seasoned with a creamy middle. I love it cause I could taste the cheese, which is a pleasant contrast from the dense, juicy meat. BF was shooting me loving looks everytime he took a bite :D

I think this was my better attempt with pork meatballs (compared to my first experience) because the balls really held their shapes.

I think it’s because the mince were a tad on the fatty side…which really helped the meatball in holding its spherical form. So if you’re looking to make pork meatballs, try to buy mince that are interspersed with a lot of lard :D