🎉 Thai Fish Cakes & A HUGE Milestone!
Trip Down Memory Lane Complete With Dodgy Photos + Original Cranberry Scone Recipe
Wishing you all Happy International Women’s Day for last week! I hope you took a beat to acknowledge and celebrate yourself and/or the special women in your lives.
This last week, my blog Cook Republic turned 20! There was no celebration to mark this special milestone (and I’ll tell you why that was in a second!) but a quiet acknowledgement of the fact that I had been showing up for 20 years - day after day, year after year, cooking and testing recipes, photographing, writing and sharing my love of good food with whoever was reading and following along on my journey.
I started blogging quite suddenly in 2004 when I was 8 months pregnant with my firstborn. We were living in Singapore. I had been nesting for a few months, everything was in control and organized and I felt an incredible creative surge of energy. My 8-month bout with morning sickness was slowly waning and I wanted to bake and cook. Blogging was a novel concept back then and I remember writing my first blog post on a local bakery in Marine Parade called Four Leaves. I wonder if it is still there (we left Singapore in 2005 and migrated to Sydney).
Every weekend they had a special on the menu - Cranberry Scones. I used to adore those! On Saturday morning, I would take a short 10-minute walk to the bakery and ignore all of my other favourites - Kaya Buns, Curry Donuts, Green Onion Scrolls and Rotiboy, instead buying a big bag of Cranberry Scones. They were small and round and crusty with a soft middle. And they went down a treat with a smear of butter. And then just like that, they stopped making them.
So one of my first blog projects in 2004 was to recreate those fabulous Cranberry Scones. The Internet was a sparse place, unlike the space we know today filled with an explosion of information, knowledge and expertise. I was pretty much flying blind undertaking a baked scone recipe in the hot, humid Singapore weather in my tiny rental microwave/oven. After a few tries, I learned the idiosyncracies of my temperamental oven and figured out the best way to coax a good bake out of it. 20 years on, I still bake this simple and delicious Cranberry Scone. So, for the sake of nostalgia, I am sharing that recipe today with the original dodgy photos a bit further down in the newsletter.
A month after I started the blog, my son was born. So my blog is essentially like my first child and I would’ve never imagined that 20 years on, my blog would be the reason I jumped out of bed every morning - brimming with ideas of recipes to bring to life!
In the last 20 years,
I have published over 700 recipes on Cook Republic, another 118 here in my newsletter “Live More Veg”, a further 110 in my cookbook “Tasty Express” & thousands more for clients, publications and ongoing projects.
It won the prestigious National Blogging Award in 2 categories - Best Food Blog and Best Lifestyle Blog in 2013. It also won the Voices Of Australia in the Food & Wellbeing Category which saw me winning a $30K new kitchen.
I have styled and shot 4 cookbooks and 2 apps.
I have conducted countless food styling and photography workshops with my sell-out series of 12 Pop Up Workshops in collaboration with leading food and media personalities.
I have shot hundreds of campaigns for clients all around the world producing a huge variety of food and lifestyle images.
I have cooked for over 15,000 hours and LOVED every minute of it!
I love all kinds of food, love experimenting with recipes and recreating ones I try at restaurants. I am fanatic about testing each recipe a minimum of 5-6 times (sometimes over 20!) before posting.
As I am getting older, I am drawn to my own culture and the food I grew up with and the endless possibilities Indian flavours offer in a modern world environment.
I ADORE vegetables (I was raised a vegetarian for the first 23 years of my life!) and find cooking with vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices super exciting.
My blog Cook Republic has not only changed my life and that of my family but the lives of so many others who write to me every now and then with their stories - through sickness (simple, nourishing real food through chemotherapy!), through triumphs (vegan desserts to celebrate 10-year cancer-free!), through special occasions (cakes for 100th birthdays!) and moments of comfort, through new businesses (cafes that adopt my recipes in far reaches of the world!) and everyday challenges (fussy kids, intolerances!)). I don’t share these messages but they are the silent missives that keep me going. Believe it or not, I am quite private (an extroverted introvert who finds it very hard to talk about herself and her achievements or lack of).
Blogging for 20 years has been equal parts challenging & exhilarating and I would do it again in a heartbeat! Thank you for being a part of my journey.
To celebrate, I have a very special discount of 25% OFF my paid newsletter, for a limited time. This offer is for all new memberships - monthly or annual. It gives you instant access to my full archive of 2 years of member recipes and new ones sent out every week.
If you can, I’d love YOUR SUPPORT! Thank you 🙏🏻 🥰
Dodgy Photos
You see my photos regularly. But have you seen what they used to look like back in the day? I can’t believe, my photos looked like this until about 2009. Dodgy composition, dodgy lighting, feeble attempt at styling and for the love of God, why were they all landscape?? I thought it would be fun to show you where it all began, I always cringe when I see these but then they are a great way of remembering how far I have come. Enjoy :)
New Developments
Part of our home is MISSING! After a year and a half of planning and designing, we finally started our home renovation last week (hence the lack of celebration for the milestone!). Demolition has progressed very quickly, we are still living in the house while parts of it crumble around us. So I have been a bit quiet and there was no member recipe last week as most of my gear has gone into storage and we are a bit cramped for space in what remains of the home.
But this week, I am getting back into the groove and accepting the challenge of cooking, testing and shooting in a tiny space and I already have a couple of delicious, veg-lovin recipes raring to go.
New On The Blog
If Thai Fish Cakes are your favourite entree to order at your local Thai restaurant, my incredibly easy and deliciously authentic recipe will have you whipping up a large batch in just under 20 minutes! Sold??
All you need is a bunch of everyday ingredients that you add to a food processor and blitz into a paste. Shape into patties and pan-fry (no need for a deep fryer!). Fragrant, textural and with just the right amount of spice, these will become a favourite snack in your home. Head on over to the link below with lots of helpful information on the right kind of fish, red curry paste and techniques. Watch the video to see how easy they are to make.
Try The Recipe » | Watch The Video »
The original scone recipe from Singapore.
Cranberry Scones
CRANBERRY SCONES
Makes: 12
Preparation Time: 25 Minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup dried cranberries/craisins
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
a pinch of salt
40g chilled, unsalted butter
1 cup milk
Preheat oven to 220C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter lightly with your fingertips till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add cranberries and sugar. Mix lightly. Make a well in the centre. Pour in the milk and mix with a flat-bladed knife, using a cutting action, rotating the bowl as you go until the dough comes together in lumps. At this point, the dough should be wet and slightly sticky. With floured hands, gently lift the dough and place it on a floured surface. With light pressure, pat the dough into a smooth ball. Do not knead.
Using a rolling pin, lightly roll the dough out to 2-3cm thick. Using a floured 6cm scone cutter, cut rounds and place them on the lined baking tray. Gather scraps of remaining dough and proceed to roll and cut again till all the dough is used up. Brush the tops of the rounds with milk and bake in the highest part of the oven for approximately 15 minutes until risen and golden. Wrap them in a clean tea towel and serve warm with butter, jam and fresh whipped cream. Best eaten straight from the oven as they tend to dry out quickly.
My notes
Use a light hand while mixing or like muffins, they will become tough and chewy. Never knead scones.
Scones have to be baked quickly and at a high temperature.
The addition of sugar reduces the floury, mealy taste.
If after adding milk, you feel that the dough is a tad dry, add more milk, but only in increments of teaspoons.
Scones freeze very well.
All Good Things
Colin From Accounts (watched this Australian show about an accident and an injured dog that ends up bringing two people together in a charming, modern-day romance.)
Herbs in Salads to make you feel alive!
How To Breakfast Like An Italian?
The eye mask that helps me sleep. Seven Seed Sacred Oil for the best facial massage.
Atomic Habits - a book that sits next to me throughout the day for little nuggets of wisdom.
Currently - Cooking from What Can I Bring? by Sophie Hansen
Housekeeping
If you are new around here, you are currently reading the free weekly cooking newsletter I send out 2-3 times a month. It is usually packed with new recipes I publish on my blog Cook Republic, recipes I am cooking during the week, wonderful things to read, watch and discover, new cookbook recommendations and mini reviews and journal entries from my kitchen and life in Sydney, Australia.
I also have a paid section of the newsletter called “Live More Veg” where I send brand-new, veg-forward recipes weekly.
Congratulations on 20 years! I have really enjoyed your recipes over more recent years. I have subscribed but haven’t received anything from you since this recipe in early March. I don’t really understand how Substack works and I’m wondering if I’m missing out?
I've followed your work for so many years, from the first time I got onto Instagram. I am so proud of what you've done. Here's to the next twenty years