Top Nine Recipes of 2021

Happy new year! Here are the top nine meals we cooked in 2021.

2021 was truly a year that we cooked a lot at home due to the prolonged national lockdown. So we really had a really hard time choosing our top nine favourite recipes – as we enjoyed most of them haha.

In the end, the ones featured here are those that got really good feedback (from IG and real-life people) or those that carried a strong significance.

These are the recipes we prepared frequently following requests from our friends and family.

As always, thank you for all your encouragement and feedback, and do let us know if you try any of these.

We look forward to cooking and sharing more recipes with you in 2022.

1. Ayam goreng kunyit

Apart from our Chinese-style soups (i.e. Lotus Root soup, ABC soup, Old Cucumber soup), this is the most cooked dish of 2021!

There’s really something about rice served with fried turmeric chicken, sunny-side up and a good helping of sambal ijo. We really can’t get enough of this dish – and we can humbly say this is one of our best creations of 2021.

Get the recipe here. The Sambal Ijo Belacan is a key component for this dish. Learn our easy recipe here.

2. Easy fried fish steak

Here’s a super duper easy recipe we replicated from our dad to fry our fish so it is nice and crispy on the outside, yet juicy on the inside.

It makes for a go-to dish when you only have a few minutes to prepare lunch or dinner on a busy day. Only three ingredients needed! Recipe here.

3. Kung chew steamed tiger coral grouper

This dish is significant to us as we cooked it as part of Fish For It’s Lockdown Cook-Off Challenge.

For the uninitiated, this dish is entirely our own creation as it combines the steaming styles of Cantonese (Kung-Fu) and Teochew steamed fish dishes. Hence, the name – Kung-Chew fish (which also means ‘banana’ in Cantonese).

The soy sauce-based broth is typical of Cantonese-style steamed fishes while the addition of tomatoes and tofu are borrowed from the Teochew variety.

This particular recipe features the beautiful Tiger Coral Grouper (Kelawi 花面斑), but you can steam it with any fish. Find the recipe here.

4. Vegan pumpkin soup

Make creamy vegan pumpkin soup without any cream! Think creamy Western-style soup with Asian flavours thanks to spices such as garam masala, turmeric, and coriander seeds. This comfort bowl is perfect for a cosy and rainy day.

Find the recipe here.

5. Chap chye 杂菜

Chap chye 杂菜 or mixed vegetable is one most popular and auspicious dishes to eat for the Lunar New Year. We use taucu (fermented yellow beancurd) and dried shrimps as base aromatics for our recipe – to yield extra umami and flavours. Check out the recipe here.

6. Pandan Chicken

There’s just something about marinated chicken wrapped in fragrant pandan (screwpine) leaf – and then fried to a golden brown colour that is pleasing to the eye and palate. It takes a bit of work to wrap the chicken pieces – but it’s so worth it!

Pandan chicken is certainly one of the best-looking dishes we cooked this year. Learn our recipe here.

7. Soto Ayam with begedil

We’ve shared a few Malay recipes this year – Ikan Sumbat Cencaru, Begedil, Rendang tik tok – but this is definitely our highlight as it was the main dish we cooked for Hari Raya! Our soto ayam is made easier by using the pressure cooker to make the soup base.

But there is a lot of work to cook the begedil, nasi impit, and the very important sambal kicap. Our family enjoyed this dish very much! Check out the recipe here.

8. Tauhu begedil

Yes, we cooked Begedil Daging as part of the Soto Ayam recipe. But there is just something extra delicious about mashed potatoes, minced meat and vegetables stuffed in tofu puffs.