Deep fried chunks of tofu braised with black mushrooms and vegetables in a light oyster sauce. It is perfect on a bed of steamed rice.

1. Cut the bean curd into rectangular pieces. Soak dried mushrooms in water until they soften. Squeeze off the excess water and shred. Save the soaking water. Shred the bell peppers. Heat up a skillet with oil until hot. Pan-fry the bean curd until golden brown.
2. Remain a bit of oil in the same skillet to stir fry the minced garlic and mushrooms until aromatic. Add in shredded bell peppers and stir-fry briefly, then drizzle in rice wine, chicken bouillon, dark soya and oyster sauces. Pour in soaking liquid and bean curd pieces. Cover and simmer for 3-5 minutes. Stir in cornstarch mixed with a tablespoon of cold water. Increase the heat and cook until sauce has thickened. Add in scallion and the sesame oil, toss through and serve at once with steamed rice.

It simply isn't Christmas in Germany without flat, crunchy and richly spiced Spekulatius. Traditionally Spekulatius are moulded into shapes with a small Christmas design on the surface. Well, those wooden Spekulatius forms are not cheap at all, so I have decided to use X'mas-themed cookie cutters to make these cookies. You can garnish the cookies with colourful sugar icings, or with confectionery coatings made with couverture chocolate, to decorate your X'mas tree, or table center.

1. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder and ammonia. Make an indent in the middle and add eggs, sugar, spices and extract, and combine all into a thick dough. Cut in the cold butter and together with the ground almonds and knead it well to form a smooth dough. If the dough is still sticky, then wrap and rest it in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Roll out the dough into 3mm thick circle and cut out the cookies with favourite Christmas cookie cutters. Place them onto greased baking sheet and bake until starting to brown, about 10 minutes. When cool, store cookies in an air-tight container. Decorate the cookies with sugar icings as desired.

I am sending this post to participate the event Think Spice Think Poppy hosted by both Radhika Vasanth@Food for 7 Stages of Life and Sunita@Sunitabhuyan.
Poppy seed is used as an ingredient in many foods and to make poppyseed oil. The tiny kidney-shaped seeds are harvested from seed pods of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), and have been cultivated by various civilizations for thousands of years. They are used whole or ground, often as a topping or filling in various baked goods. Wikipedia

1. In a mixing bowl whisk together the finely ground almond, poppy and powdered sugar until completely blended. Line 3 baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In your stand mixer fitted with the whisk, beat the egg whites and pinch of salt until foamy, gradually add the sugar and continue beating until soft peaks appear.
   
3. Fold in the poppy mixture in two additions until your get a slow moving batter. Fill a pastry bag with the batter and pipe small amounts of batter 3 cm in diameter, 2 cm apart. Leave to rest for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 170C/340F and bake for 15 minutes. Remove and cool completely on rack. Spread the poppy fix on one shell and sandwich with another one.

A simple, delicious and moist sweet coconut treat!

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line a 30x40cm baking tray with paper. Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add in yogurt, dulce de leche, and oil. Mix all the ingredients with a hand mixer fitted with dough hooks for 1 minute on high speed. Don’t over stir the dough or it will become sticky.
2. Place the dough onto the prepared tray and roll it out. Brush with melted butter all over the surface of the dough. Combine the coconut shreds and sugar. Scatter the mixture evenly onto the dough. Bake on the upper rack of the hot oven for about 20 minutes until golden crispy. Remove and cool slightly. Use a cookie cutter to cut out the rounds.

This is a　cold noodle dish consisting of vegetables (usually bean sprouts or cucumber) and pasta (I love to use spaghetti) topped with sesame sauce. It is unbelievably easy to prepare and tastes very good.

1. Add enough water to fill 3/4 of a pot and bring to a rapid boil. Add in salt. Put in the noddles and cook until al dente, about 7 minutes. Rinse under the running cold water quickly and drain. Put the noodles and cooked oil in a large mixing bowl and toss until the noodles are well coated. Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl.
2. Thinly shred the cucumber, carrot, apple and spring onion. Rinse the arugula, drain and pat them dry. Crush the peanuts lightly. Spoon the dressing over and toss to mix. To serve, arrange the shredded vegetables over the noodles and garnish with crushed peanuts.

This super easy tray pizza is made with very thinly sliced potatoes and tomatoes. Try to slice the potatoes with consistent thickness, to do so is to ensure they cook evenly.

Recipe source: Dr. Oetker A-Z Backen

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/440F. Peel, rinse and thinly slice the potatoes. Pat the potato slices dry with kitchen papers. Rinse and pat dry the tomatoes.
   
2. Dice the beer sausage into 1cm pieces. Heat a skillet with olive oil, and stir in diced beer sausage. Add in sliced potatoes and stir for 5 minutes. Slice the tomatoes and add into the potatoes.
3. Spread the mixture onto a greased baking tray, and sprinkle the top with oregano, parsley, garlic salt and black pepper. Finally scatter the grated cheese all over the top. Bake for about 25 minutes.