Fried Fritters with Squid Paste 沙拉鱿鱼糊油条

I cook this once in a blue moon when we are all sick of eating the usual vegetable and meat dishes. It’s like a snack to go with beer…

Ingredients:

• 2 pair of fried fritters, cubed
• 1/2 bowl of squid paste

Salad Sauce:

• 1/2 bowl of salad cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

How to do it:

1. Mix all the ingredients of the salad sauce and set aside.
2. Spread some squid paste on 1 side of the fried fritters.
3. Deep fry the fried fritters with the squid paste till golden brown.
4. Pour the salad cream on the fried fritters and mix well.
5. Serve.

Note:

1. If you can’t get squid paste, you can make your own.
2. Remove the skin, head and the soft bone from the squid. Leaving only the main part.
3. Mince it and mix with some cornflour.
4. There you have it. And it taste better then the ready made one.

Stir-Fried Prawns with Veggies 鲜虾炒什菜

I especially like this dish because it’s very pleasing to the eye. It’s really nice to serve when you have guests coming over for dinner. I bet they will like it too!

Ingredients:

• 12 prawns, shelled and deveined
• 10 stalks asparagus, cut into sections4
• Baby corn, cut into sections
• 1/3 carrot, sliced
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon onion, minced
• 3 slices ginger

Seasoning:

• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon Chinese wine
• Cornflour mixture (2 tablespoon each of cornflour & water)

How to do it:

1. Wash the prawns and set aside.
2. Boil a pot of water. In it, add 1 teaspoon of salt and oil.
3. When it’s boiling, add in the asparagus, baby corn and carrot to blanch it for 5 mins.
4. In a wok or fry pan, add in 1 teaspoon oil and stir-fry garlic, onion and ginger till fragrant.
5. Add in the prawns.
6. When the prawns are about 70% cooked, add in the vegetables and the seasoning, except the cornflour mixture.
7. Stir-fry well.
8. Slowly add in the cornflour mixture will stirring.
9. Serve.

Note:
I have tried replacing prawns with scallops before, it nice too. But be careful not to over-cook the scallops if you are using them.I have also tried replacing asparagus with broccoli. Don’t add too much otherwise you will have to change the name of the dish to stir-fried broccoli with prawns instead.

Baby Bok Choy with Shitake Mushroom 小白菜绘鲜菇

This is a relatively easy dish to prepare. If you are home late and have not prepared your dinner, why not try this ….

Ingredients:

• 4 stalks Baby Bok Choy 小白菜
• 5 Shitake Mushroom, sliced
• ½ tablespoon Garlic

Seasoning:

• ½ tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoon water

How to do it:

1. Cut the end of Xiao Bai Cai and wash.
2. Blanch Xiao Bai Cai in a pot of boiling water with the stems first for30 seconds then whole for another 30 seconds.
3. Remove and set aside.
4. In a wok or fry pan, heat ½ tablespoon oil and add in garlic and stir-fry. Add in the shitake mushroom and stir-fry till fragrant.
5. Now add it the seasoning and bring to boil.
6. If you want to thicken your sauce, you can stir-in some cornflour mixture. Pour the sauce over the Xiao Bai Cai and serve.

Broccoli with Dried Scallops 瑤柱芥兰花

I love to eat Broccoli! So does my girl. I add broccoli in her porridge and she loves it.

Ingredients:

• Broccoli, cut into florets
• 4-5 Dried scallops, soaked in hot water for ½ hour
• ½ pack Enokitake
• 200ml stock or water
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• ½ tablespoon Chinese wine
• ½ tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 egg white
• Cornflour mixture (2 teaspoon cornflour with 2 teaspoon water)

How it’s done:

1. Blanch broccoli florets.
2. Remove accordingly to how cooked you want the broccoli to be. For me, 8 mins.
3. Place broccoli in a dish.
4. In a saucepan, combine dried scallop, enokitake, oyster sauce, Chinese wine, soy sauce and stock.
5. When it starts to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 mins.
6. Thicken the sauce with the cornflour mixture.
7. Turn off the fire and slowly stir in the egg white.
8. Pour the sauce over the broccoli and serve.

Note:
Don’t throw away the water you use to soak the dried scallop.You can add in to your stock or water to be use to simmer the enokitake and dried scallop.

Lotus Root Soup 莲藕汤

 

Soup, Soup, Soup … my boy must have soup everyday. The thing is I have tried many types and he only like a few … Winter Melon, Sharkfin Melon, ABC and Lotus Roots Soups. He just loves Lotus Roots Soup! God, he can ask me to make it everyday! He doesn’t seem to get sick of drink it.

To me, making the soup my boy likes is very easy. Just throw in the ingredients and brew. I usually brew it for 4 to 5 hours. I used to double-boiled the soup using a small pot in a slow cooker but electricity bills when sky-high so I stopped. It’s cheaper to use gas.

Ingredients:

• 250g Pork Ribs
• 1 section of lotus roots, skinned and sliced
• 1/2 Carrot, skinned and sliced
• 1 piece Dried Octopus, cut into strips
• 4 Red Dates
• a handful Wolfberries (optional)
• 1.5 litre Water
• Salt to taste
  

How to do it:

1. How to do it:
2. Blanch the pork ribs in boiling water for 5 min then remove.
3. In a new pot of water, add in the pork ribs, lotus roots, carrot red dates and dried octopus.
4. Bring it to boil and turn down fire.
5. Continue to brew for 4-5 hours.
6. If you like to add wolfberries, add in 1/2 before you stop brewing.
7. Add salt to taste.
8. Serve.

Note：
To have a clearer soup, always blanch the pork ribs before using it to make soup.It helps remove the blood scum from the pork. Same for chicken too.

Bacon & Beef Rolls 培根与牛肉卷

In this dish, I have combined 2 dishes, Asparagus with Bacon and Beef Rolls in Tomato Sauce , together. I have also added some more ingredients to it.

See how easy it is to change a dish by adding or changing ingredients. I have Crabstick, Asparagus and Baby Corn for both Bacon and Beef Rolls.

If you have some dishes you like, change the ingredients or the method of cooking and wala! It’s a new dish!

Lemon Grass Chicken 香煎鸡肉香茅

I cooked this a few years back. Hmmm… It seems that the taste is slightly different, though the aroma when cooking the meat and the sauce is still the same. Maybe I remembered the ingredients wrongly. Oh, never mind …

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breast meat, deboned and minced
• 1 teaspoon ginger, chopped finely
• 5 small onions, dices (I used big onions today; forgotten to buy the small onions)
• 2 sprigs fresh coriander, chopped finely
• 1 red chilli, chopped finely
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 5 stalk lemon grass (香茅), cleaned and cut into half

Sauce:

• 5 small onions, chopped finely (again, I used big onion)
• 1 red chilli
• 1 tablespoon Galangal (南姜), chopped finely
• ½ stalk of Lemongrass (香茅), chopped finely
• 3 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 2 teaspoon oyster sauce
• 1 bowl of stock or water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt and sugar for taste.

How to do it:

1. Mince your chicken meat.
2. Add in ginger, onion, coriander, chilli and light soy sauce .
3. Mix well with minced chicken.
4. Use your hands and press some minced chicken firmly to the lemon grass.
5. Set aside for half an hour.
6. To make the sauce, stir-fry the onions with a bit of oil for about 1 min or when you can smell the aroma.
7. Add in the chilli, blue ginger & lemon grass. Stir fry for a while.
8. Add in the stock, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce.
9. Let the sauce simmer for an hour and pour it through a sieve.
10. Season with salt and sugar. (optional)
11. For the chicken, you can grill or pan-fry with a bit of oil till cooked.
12. Remove the chicken.

Note:
You can choose to use pork if you like but it will be tougher.Add more or less chilli according to your taste. You can either pour the sauce over the chicken or dip the chicken in the sauce as you eat.

Lotus Pork Patties 莲藕片肉饼

Again, I’m trying to get my boy to eat vegetables. Sigh! This time, I’m trying to mask slices of lotus root into some meat. Hopefully I will succeed.

Ingredients:

• 100g minced pork
• 10 slices lotus root, skinned
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon Corn flour

How to do it:

1. Skin the lotus roots and sliced.
2. Bland the sliced lotus roots for 1 min and remove.
3. Mix the minced pork with the light soy sauce.
4. Coat the lotus roots with the minced pork.
5. You can choose to coat both or one side.
6. Dust with corn flour.
7. Pan-fry with 1 teaspoon of oil.
8. Remove when it’s slight brown.
9. Serve

Note:
You can add some fish paste in your minced pork to add sweetness. However, if you do, do not add anymore soy sauce.

Steam Tofu with Shrimps 豆腐蒸虾丁

I made this yesterday for dinner. This dish is simple to prepare and it’s quite healthy. As expected, my boy didn’t want the prawns even after I diced them. Never mind, I try again with something else next time but at least there is still tofu. It’s loaded with Protein!

Ingredients:

• 8 small or medium prawns
• 1 pack of silken tofu
• 2 stalk spring onions, diced
• 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon of soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon of sesame seed oil
• A pinch of salt and sugar

How it is done:

1. Shell and devein the prawns. Keep the shells
2. Marinate the prawns with a pinch of salt and sugar for 10 mins
3. In a deep dish or bowl, put the prawns and the shells in it.
4. Add the white part of the spring onion on the prawns to be steam together. This adds favour.
5. Remove the prawns when they turn pink. Discard the shells.
6. Remove the tofu from the pack and place it in a deep dish.
7. Drain the sauce. Add 1 teaspoon of soy sauce & oyster sauce each and pour it over the tofu to be steamed together for about 5 minutes.
8. Put the prawns on the tofu and drizzle the sesame seed oil on top & serve.

Note:
You can use whole prawns or diced them.

Beef Rolls in Tomato Sauce 鲜番茄酱牛肉卷

I trying my hands on a beef dish for my son. He needs to put on more weight. I found this recipe that uses beef when I was sorting the recipes I tore from magazines. I have adjusted some of the ingredients with some of my son’s favourites. Hope it will catch his attention.

Ingredients:

• 8 slices of thinly sliced beef
• 4 baby corn, cut into 4 ‘sticks’ each
• Carrot thinly sliced or shredded.
• 8 cherry tomatoes, diced

Seasoning:

• 1 tablespoon Tomato sauce
• 2 teaspoon Soy sauce (1 each for marinating & sauce)
• 1 teaspoon Sugar
• 200ml Stock or water
• Cornflour mixture (mix 1 teaspoon cornflour with 1 tablespoon water)

How to do it:

1. Marinate the beef with a teaspoon of soy sauce for 10 minutes.
2. In a small pot of hot water, add 1 teaspoon of salt & oil.
3. Blanch the baby corn. Remove & put it in a bowl of room temperature) water to stop it from further cooking.
4. When this is done, roll the beef with a slice of carrot and 2 sticks of baby corn.
5. Hold the beef with toothpick
6. Dust the beef rolls with cornflour.
7. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil and pan-fry the beef roll till the beef roll is cook (about 8 mins)
8. Remove from pan.
9. In the same pan, add in the diced cherry tomatoes and seasoning except the cornflour mixture.
10. When the sauce starts to boils, add in the beef rolls to cook for a while to absorb the sauce.
11. Remove & set aside.
12. Now, add the cornflour mixture gradually to thicken the sauce.
13. Pour the sauce over the beef rolls and serve.

Note:

You can also use enokitake mushroom in it. Do adjust the amount of the seasoning if you prefer more sauce.

Asparagus with Bacon 芦笋培根卷

Something I did to try to get my son to eat more vegetables. Hope this works.

Ingredients:

• 8 asparagus
• 4 pieces of bacon
• Cornflour
• Tomato sauce

How to do it:

1. Cut the ends of the asparagus stems and skin the asparagus
2. Cut the bacon into half and wind the bacon around the asparagus.
3. Use a toothpick to hold the bacon.
4. Dust with cornflour.
5. Pan-fried on a non-stick pan till the bacon is cook or brown.
6. Serve with some tomato sauce. 

Note:

If you are not using non-stick pan, just use a teaspoon of oil. There will be enough oil from the bacon later.

Teriyaki Cod 日式照烧鳕鱼

My family has expensive taste buds. My son only likes to eat Cod. Now I realized, so does my daughter! 

I usually steam or pan fried Cod. Once a while, I will prepare Cod differently. My son is already so picky with food. I don’t want him to be also picky with how his food is prepared. 

This dish is really nice and tasty. For those who don’t like Cod because of the smell and taste will find that the marinade did a very good job covering it. This is one of my husband’s favourite too.

Ingredients:

• Cod

Marinade:

• 1 tablespoon Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Mirin
• 1 tablespoon Wine
• 2 tablespoon Soy Sauce

How to do it:

1. Mix the marinade.
2. Pour the marinade over the Cod and marinate for at least ½ hour.
3. Dust Cod with corn flour and sauté in pan till lightly burnt. Pour away excess oil.
4. Pour the remaining marinade for the Cod in the pan.
5. Cook till the sauce thickens. (about 6-7 mins).
6. Remove and serve hot.

Note:
Don’t worry if you can’t get Mirin. It taste as good without it! Be careful not to burn it!

Tempura Prawn 大虾天妇罗

 

I’m snacking too much! Hee! Last night, I made Tempura Prawns, after telling myself to cut down on fried stuff. Sigh! Unhealthy food is always so tempting. Ha!

I just love prawns! I’m going to try making some other prawn dishes with the rest of the prawns. So watch out of it …

Ingredients:

• Medium Prawns
• Tempura flour or plain flour
• Breadcrumbs
• A pinch of salt
• Oil for deep-frying
• Tempura dipping sauce or Tartar sauce

How to do it:

1. Remove shells, leaving only the tail.
2. Devein the back and belly of prawn.
3. Have 3 or 4 cut across the belly of prawn so it will not curl so much when frying.
4. Season with a pinch of salt.
5. Mix flour with water.
6. Dip the prawn in the flour mixture. When you lift up the prawn from the mixture, it should just drip a bit. Not too watery or too sticky.
7. Coat the prawns with breadcrumbs.
8. When the oil is hot, put the prawn in.
9. Remove when the prawn turns golden brown.
10. Serve hot with Tempura dipping sauce or Tartar sauce.

Note:
You can choose not to use breadcrumbs but it won’t be as crunchy. If you have some plain biscuit, you can crush them and use it in replacement of breadcrumbs. If you have Japanese Soup Base, you can use that instead of the Tempura dipping sauce. I use that too. Taste as nice with the prawns.

Salad Supper

My husband and I have this bad habit of taking supper because we always stay up. We used to take all the fried stuff, chicken wings, fish balls … Gosh all the fats! It’s going to block all our blood vessels!! Ha!

We have decided to change all this! Not to stop taking supper though! Ha! We have opted for healthier choice … salad.

This is one of my salad selections. It includes, Alfalfa Spouts, Lettuces, Cherry Tomatoes, Ham, Smoked Salmon, Crab-stick and Apples with Thousand Island or French Dressings.

However, we haven’t kick the habit of drinking coke after that!! Ha! It’s a good start though. Got to work harder!

Honey Pork Ribs 蜜汁排骨

I have always like to eat Ribs prepared in all different ways. However, some of the ingredients required for some recipes are so difficult to get here. I have this recipe for Ribs that’s so easy to prepare, even for someone new to cooking.

Ingredients:

• 500g Ribs
• 1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 3 tablespoon white vinegar
• 4 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 5 tablespoon water

How to do it:

1. Blanch the ribs in hot water.
2. In a new pot, add ribs and all the seasonings.
3. Cook on medium fire till it boils.
4. Turn to small fire and let it simmer till the sauce thickens.
5. Take care not to burn it.
6. Serve hot.

Note:

• You can add a bit more water if you find it to sweet or salty after the sauce thickens.
• It's better to eat it while hot as the ribs will hardens (due to the sugar) when it turn cold.
• If you have a problem washing your pot after cooking, add water and boil it. The sauce sticking to the pot will 'melt'. Pour away the water and clean immediately.

Steam Egg Custard 水蒸蛋

 

This is one of my son’s favourites and it's my daughter's all time favourite. My son can finish one bowl of the Custard with his rice without me nagging him to eat. It’s very simple and I’m sure many of you already know how to do it. This is my version.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 2 crabsticks, sliced
• a bunch of Shimeiji Mushroom, ends removed
• a pinch of salt
• 160ml water

How to do it:

1. Beat egg lightly in a bowl
2. Add water and mix.
3. Sieve the egg mixture if you want a smoother result.
4. Add the crabsticks, mushroom, and salt into the egg mixture.
5. Cover the bowl with cling wrap or aluminum foil.
6. Heat a pot of water for steaming
7. When the water is boiling, put in the bowl of egg mixture.
8. Remove when egg is set.
9. Serve hot.

Note:

• You can add Japanese fish cakes, chicken, fish or any other ingredients you like. It’s just like Chawa Mushi without dashi.
• Using cling-wrap or aluminum foil will help have a smooth outcome. If you don’t mind having a lot of pockmarks on your custard, then you don’t have to use this.

Braised Chicken Feet with Mushroom 香菇焖鸡脚

This is the most adult dish that my son likes. However, he does not like the smell of the spices, so I don’t usually put it if he is eating.

Ingredients:

• 30 chicken feet
• 20 pieces of mushroom (I’m using small ones)
• Hard-boiled eggs (Optional)

Spices:

• Orange Peel
• Cinnamon Stick
• Cloves
• Anise Star
• Cardamom

Seasonings:

• 3 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 2 teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce

How to do it:

1. Wash & cut away nails on the chicken feet.
2. Marinade with 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce and 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce.
3. Soak mushroom in water till soft, remove stalks.
4. Drain chicken feet from soy sauce.
5. Deep fry chicken feet till golden brown. Remove & drain.
6. Add fried chicken feet, mushroom, spices & hard-boiled eggs (optional) into a pot of boiling water.
7. Add in the seasonings and let in simmer for 4 hours so till the chicken feet & mushrooms are soft.
8. You can add more seasonings if you find it too bland.

Note:
You can choose not to use spices and use quail eggs instead of regular chicken eggs.

Crunchy Golden Pillows 香脆腐皮肉包

Last Sunday, we went to a food court for dinner and found this stall selling these fried stuff. They have a very fanciful name to it, which I have since forgotten.

Yesterday, I thought I would try my hands to make it. Although, the result was not the same as the original but still it was edible. ;p

Ingredients:
(makes about 25 thin pillows)

• 150g minced pork
• 5 water-chestnuts, skinned & diced
• 2 sprigs of spring onions, diced
• 1 sheet of bean curd skin
• Oil for deep-frying

How to do it:

1. Mixed the minced pork, water chestnut & spring onions together; mix well.
2. Use a damp cloth to clean the bean curd skin.
3. Cut bean curd skin into squares; about 15cm x 15cm.
4. Put a small amount of the meat mixture on one corner and wrap it (turn up twice, fold left, then right, tuck the end inside … hope u understand)
5. Dust with rice flour and fry the ‘pillow’.
6. Remove when the ‘pillow’ turned golden brown.

Note:

You can dip it with a bit of vinegar. You can use chicken meat instead of pork.You can switch water chestnuts with onions for the crunch and spring onion with other vegetables. You can also add ginger to the vinegar. Did you realize no salt was added? That’s because the bean curd skin is salty. Therefore, salt is not required. Remember to clean with a damp cloth to reduce the saltiness.