Pandan Chicken 香炸班丹叶包鸡

Hmmm … This really makes your kitchen smell nice when frying them. Oh … this is my own recipe. Not sure how the ‘original’ Pandan Chicken we eat in 煮炒店 added as seasonings …

Anyways, my hubby and son like this. So it can’t be too bad or maybe they have lower expectations.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken drumsticks; de-boned and diced
• Pandan Leaves
• 3 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• Pepper (optional)

How to do it:

1. Marinate the diced chicken with the oyster sauce and sugar.
2. Set aside for 3 hours. (over night – better)
3. Wrap the chicken in pandan leaves. You have to find you way to do this – sorry!
4. Deep fry the chicken. Remove with the leaves turn slight brown.
5. Drain and serve.

Note:
For healthy choice, you can use breast meat without skin. Can't show you how the chicken is wrapped (nobody helping me to take pics ;p) It's like doing a rice dumpling though.

French Beans with Minced Pork 四季豆炒肉碎

I love the French Beans served in Noodle Hut, although it’s not as well done as it used to be. I have been searching for the recipe. This is the closest I can get.

Ingredients:

• French Beans
• 50 g minced pork
• 2 tablespoon dried shrimps, soaked and minced
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic

Seasoning:

• 1 tablespoon fermented soybean paste
• 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 50 ml water

How to do it:

1. Deep fry French beans for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil and sauté garlic and dried shrimps till fragrant.
3. Add in the minced pork and stir well.
4. Add in the French beans and seasoning.
5. Stir fry in high heat till cook.
6. Serve.

Note:
You don’t have to deep fry the French beans. You can add it with the pork and stir fry together. You can also cut the French bean shorter if you like.

Steamed Tofu with Mushroom 豆腐蒸杂菇

Ah! Another vegetarian dish! Eat healthily mah! Haha! Steam tofu dish is easy to make. Remember some time back I had a dish, Steam Prawns & Tofu? This is a variation of that dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of silken tofu
• Shitake Mushroom, sliced
• Enokitake Mushroom, ends removed
• Kinoko Mushroom, ends removed
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 100 ml water

Seasoning:

• 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon light soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame seed oil

How to do it:

1. Remove tofu, drain the water away and steam for 7 minutes or heat thru.
2. In a wok, add 1 teaspoon of oil and sauté garlic till fragrant.
3. Add in the mushrooms and stir well.
4. Add in the water and seasoning and cook for 3 minutes.
5. Pour the sauce over the tofu and serve.

Note:

• If you choose to eat the tofu cold, you don’t have to steam it. Just remove & drain.
• You can change the mushroom used to other mushroom like button mushroom, dry Chinese mushroom, etc.

Egg Tofu with Assorted Vegetables 什菜炒豆腐

Hmmm …. I just love this dish. So many things to eat. Oh! You can also invite your vegetarian friends over for dinner with this dish too!

Ingredients:

• 1 tube of egg tofu, cut into thick slices
• 4 baby corn, sliced
• 8 sweet peas, remove vein
• 5 shitake mushrooms, sliced
• ½ carrot, sliced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• Oil for deep-frying
• Cornflour mixture

Seasoning:

• 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon light soy sauce
• 50 ml water

How to do it:

1. Dust the tofu with corn flour and deep fry.
2. Remove when it turned golden brown and set aside.
3. In a wok, add 1 teaspoon of oil, sauté the garlic until fragrant.
4. Add in all the vegetables and stir- fry till half cooked.
5. Now add the fried egg tofu and the seasonings. Then bring to a boil.
6. Add in the cornflour mixture to thicken the sauce.
7. Serve.

Note:

• If you have a hot plate, you can heat it up. Add an egg then pour the whole thing over it. Then it becomes Hot Plate Egg Tofu.
• You can add prawns or meat if you are not having vegetarian friends over for dinner.

*Egg Tofu with Assorted Vegetable without Mushroom*

Corn and Tofu Soup 玉米豆腐羹

This is a simple and nice soup, which kids will like. But not for my boy. Sigh! He is one picky eater! He eats the corn-on-cob but not the corn removed from the cob. What logic does this make?

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of corn (either fresh or frozen)
• 1 cup of silken tofu, cut into small cubes
• 3 pieces dried scallop (optional)
• Stock or water
• 1 egg white
• Corn starch mixture
• Salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Add corn, tofu and dried scallops in a pot of stock.
2. Bring to boil.
3. Add salt according to your taste.
4. Thicken the soup with cornstarch mixture.
5. Slowly add in one beaten egg white while stirring.
6. Serve.

Note:

• You can add in the egg yolk if you do not want to waste it. I would recommend you use stock instead of water. It taste better. If you are not so health conscious, you can use stock cube too.
• Find those that do not contain MSG. For the stock, you can use 3 ears of corn to make the soup base or you can use chicken soup base.

Vegetarian Abalone with Veggies 素鲍鱼炒什菜

For this dish, you can serve it 2 ways, either with or without the Vegetarian Abalone.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 carrot, sliced
• 1/2 cup broccoli, cut into florets
• 5 pieces Baby corn, sliced
• 8 pieces dried Chinese mushrooms, soak to soften and stalks removed
• 1/2 can button mushrooms, washed
• Vegetarian Abalone, sliced
• 2 teaspoon Vegetarian Oyster Sauce

Sauce:

• 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon Vegetarian Oyster Sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Cornstarch mixture

How to do it:

1. Blanch all the vegetables with stock or water for 5 mins.
2. Remove and set aside.
3. In a wok or pan, add 1 teaspoon oil and stir fry all the vegetables.
4. Add 2 teaspoon of vegetarian oyster sauce and a pinch of sugar.
5. Remove and place in a plate.

Notes:

• *To prepare the vegetarian abalone, boil 1/2 cup of water with the abalone for about 2 minutes.
• *Remove and set together with the vegetables cooked earlier.
• To prepare the sauce, add all the ingredients for the sauce, except cornstarch mixture into the water used to boil the abalone.
• Stir in the cornstarch mixture when it starts to boil.
• Pour over the vegetables and serve.
• If you do not wish to add the vegetarian abalone, skip steps with * indicated.
• You can also add or replace other vegetables like cauliflower, straw mushrooms.

Chinese Broccoli with Conpoy 瑤柱芥兰

This is another simple vegetable dish. It is similar to the Xiao Bai Cai dish that I have posted some time back. Try it!

Ingredients:

• Chinese broccoli commonly know as Kai Lan
• 4 pieces dried scallops, soaked in hot water and tear into strips
• Cornstarch mixture

Seasoning:

• 1/2 tablespoon Oyster Sauce 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 5 tablespoon water used to soak the dried scallops

How to do it:

1. Cut the ends and skin the stem of Kai Lan.
2. Blanch Kai Lan in a pot of boiling water with the stems first for 2 minutes then whole for another 1 minute.
3. Remove and set aside.
4. In a fry pan, add in the dried scallop strips and the seasonings.
5. Bring to boil.
6. Add in the cornstarch mixture to thicken the sauce.
7. Pour the sauce over the Kai Lan.
8. Serve.

Note:
If you like your Kai Lan softer or more cooked, blanch longer.

Pig Stomach and Fish Maw Soup 猪肚鱼瓢汤

This is a very rich in taste soup that I like. But it’s tedious work to clean the pig stomach. Nowadays, I try to get those cleaned one to lessen the work. Lazy bum, me!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pig’s stomach, cleaned and sliced
• 4 pieces of fish maw
• 1 small can button mushroom
• 10 black Chinese mushroom, soaked to soften and stalk removed
• Stock
• Pepper
• Salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Blanch the cleaned and sliced stomach and set aside.
2. Cut the soften mushrooms into half if you are using big mushrooms. Set aside.
3. Soften the fish maw by putting it in hot water. After that, cut into smaller pieces. Set aside.
4. Add the pig stomach and mushroom in a pot of stock and bring to boil.
5. Turn to small fire and let it simmer for 4 hours till the ingredient soften.
6. Now add in the fish maw and button mushroom and let it simmer for another hour.
7. Add pepper and salt to taste.
8. Serve.

Note:

• You can add ginkgo nuts, peppercorn, etc if you like. Be careful with the peppercorn. Too much of it will make your soup too spicy. I would say about not more than 10, depending on the quantity you are cooking.
• If you are using ‘fresh’ pig’s stomach, you have to rub the whole thing with salt. Scrub like you are scrubbing your clothes. You can use limejuice too. Don’t be surprise I used COKE to wash it before too! Yeah, the one we drink. Hey! It worked, you know!
• To shorten the time required to soften the mushrooms add sugar to water to soak mushroom.

Orange Agar Agar 柳丁菜燕

Someone I gave this to thought it was an actually orange. It's looks and taste nice. My son loved it!

Ingredients:

• 5 oranges
• 6 tablespoon sugar (depending on how sweet you want)
• Clear agar agar powder

How to do it:

1. Wash the oranges and cut it into halves.
2. Squeeze the juice out. Be careful not to damage the orange skins.
3. Scoop out the remaining orange pulp.
4. Measure the orange juice you have and set aside.
5. To make the agar agar, boil water required as instructed on the pack MINUS the amount of orange juice you have.
6. Stir in the sugar till dissolved. Add more sugar if your orange juice is sour.
7. Turn of heat and add in the orange juice.
8. Pour the orange juice agar agar to the orange cups.
9. Before that, make sure you put the orange cups on your drinking cups so it doesn’t topple when you pour the juice in.
10. Chill till it set.
11. Cut the orange agar agar into 3 slices and serve.

Note:

• Do not cook the orange juice otherwise it will turn bitter.
• You use carton orange juice too.
• If you do not have a juicer, you can use a fork to poke in the orange and twist. Do it for a few times (not on the same spot lah). As you do that, squeeze the juice out at the same time. Works the same as a juicer.