Wow – the chillies really are doing well! There must be a dozen growing already – still green but hopefully they’ll soon start to go red and we’ll be able to harvest them in time for the World Cup! Not sure we’ll make the group stages – still a way to go yet – [...]

A ’sambal’ is a spicey condiment, or a complement to a dish, such as mustard or horseraddish sauce on the western table. My mother makes an excellent dried prawn sambal and this is her recipe.

In Singapore, what distinguishes one curry from another is the ‘rempah’, or the curry paste. Each family has its own recipe for rempah, with vocal comparisons made at get-togethers. Here is the recipe for my mother’s rempah…

Ingredients

85g lard
4 5g cocoa powder
225g caster sugar
2 extra large free range eggs
55g plain flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
100g chopped walnuts

Directions

Light the oven at 350°F, 180°C or Gas Mark 4, setting a shelf in the middle.
Melt the lard in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and stir in the cocoa and sugar.
Add [...]

Ingredients

Gunk

1 cup decent olive oil
2½ cups brown sugar
4 large eggs
3 cups grated carrots (about 2-3 big carrots – cut to approx 20×4×4mm (foodprocessor!))

Brownstuff
3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon of ground ginger

White Stuff

2½ cups plain flour
1 teaspoon of salt
2 level teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons of baking [...]

This will take you about 45 minutes to make. The cheesecake then needs to sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours before you can eat it (it’s best left overnight though, if you can wait that long).

Before you start to make the cheesecake, make sure you have everything you [...]