White Fungus with Lotus Seeds and Gingko Nuts Dessert

This dessert I made is very similar to 'Cheng Teng'. At least it taste very much like it. My original idea was to make it with sea-coconut but I couldn't get any in the market. I'm referring to the fresh one not those canned sea-coconut. If you could get fresh sea-coconut, add it. It's nice!

Oh, there isn't actually measurements to the required ingredients. Since all are edible, you add according to your preference. If you like certain ingredients, just add more.

Ingredients:

• 1 Palm size, White fungus （雪儿), soaked overnight
• 2 handful, Nelumbo nucifera aka Lotus Seeds (莲子), soaked overnight
• 2 handful, Ginkgo Nuts （白果), 'heart' removed
• 10-15 pieces Dried Longans （龙眼干)
• 10 Red Dates （红枣), pitted
• Rock Sugar, to taste
• 2 litre Water

How to do it:

1. Tear white fungus into smaller pieces before adding all other ingredients except rock sugar in a pot of water.
2. Bring to boil.
3. Reduce hear and simmer for about 2 hours or till all ingredients are soft.
4. Add rock sugar to taste.
5. Serve.

Note:

• If you are using fresh Ginkgo Nuts, soaked it over night too.
• You can have it hot or chilled but we like it really cold. Especially cooling in this hot weather!

Pineapple Rice

We had Pineapple Rice for dinner yesterday. Hehehe ... It was just Fried Rice only lah. See another presentation here.

Porkie Patchy Eyes

My intention was to do a panda face for my son's dinner yesterday. Then I realised the plate I used is too small and the pork cutlet I made for the eyes were too big for the plate. Without the ears, it doesn't look anything close to a panda. I think it looks like a dog or a cat or a raccoon with patches on the eyes. As long as it looks like an animal, I have not failed this dinner. Hahaha~

The pork cutlet I did is with garlic. I marinated the thinly sliced pork with 1/2 tablespoon of light soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of garlic paste. Dip them in batter then breadcrumb. Fried them for a minute and they are done.

The other 2 dishes served here are:

• Dual Coloured Tofu with Fish Paste
• Spinach with Light Soy Sauce (I chopped the Spinach into smaller pieces)

Dual Coloured Tofu with Fish Paste 鱼胶豆腐

This is a hit! The kids love it and so does my hubby. This is not a kueh but Tofu with Fish Paste. I made these before but they were without the colours. Since the kids dislike eating vegetables, I incorporated vegetables to it. My son kept asking me why is the tofu so colourful and how did I make it. I only tell him after he finish it. He never guess it was the vegetables that he dislike.

Ingredients:

• 100g Fish Paste
• 1 tube Egg Tofu, smashed
• 1 tablespoon Finely Chopped Spinach
• 2 tablespoon Grated Carrot

How to do it:

1. Mix fish paste and egg tofu well.
2. Take 1/3 of the mixture.
3. Add in the Spinach and mix well.
4. Add carrot to the remaining 2/3 of the mixture and mix well.
5. Take a deep dish, oil all sides well for easy removable.
6. Spread the carrot mixture followed by the spinach.
7. Cover with foil.
8. Steam for 15 minutes or till cooked.
9. Removed and cut into pieces.
10. Serve.

Alternative:

• Pan fried the steamed tofu till slightly brown on all sides.

Notes:

• No seasonings required as Fish Paste usually comes seasoned and vegetables add sweetness.
• If you prefer more green than orange, reverse the amount required for the vegetables.
• I pan fried the steamed tofu for my hubby as it was cold by the time he returned from work. It gives the tofu a slightly crunchy outer skin but it won't look as nice.
• Whether steam or pan fried, best served when it's hot!

* Dual Coloured Tofu - Steam and Pan Fried *

Double-Boiled Asian Pear with Fritillariae

This is called 雪梨炖川贝 in Chinese. It's very good to curb cough. But not for 'cold' cough though. For 'cold' cough, you have to use Dried Persimmon (柿饼) instead of Asian Pear.

川贝 looks very much like barley but of course it's much more expensive. I had it grind into powder form so it's easily to cook/eaten. Yes, it can be eaten as it is without cooking.

I feed my son with 川贝powder everyday and his condition improved. It just slipped my mind, I should have did this long ago for the kids. It's very effective.

Ingredients:

• 1 Asian Pear, cored
• 5g Fritillariae (川贝) powder, I asked the Chinese medical hall I got my 川贝 from to grind it into powder
• 300ml water
• Rock sugar to taste

How to do it:

1. Put the Fritillariae (川贝) powder into the pear and all other ingredients into a pot.
2. Seal it with cling wrap so water will not get in.
3. Steam it for 3 hours.
4. Have it when it's cooled.

Note:

• You drink the soup and eat the pear as well.
• Fritillariae (川贝) is slightly bitter so I add more rock sugar since my kids are having it too.

Feed me Grapes

I had more time end last week, not because the kids well but my daughter stop puking, so less stuff to wash and clean, so more time for me to cook.

My son asked for grapes but alas, you know what grapes can do to his coughing. So he had the rice version instead. I mixed rice with Plum Furikake, hence the purplish hue.

His sides are:

• Pan Fried Cod in Miso Paste - I used Snakehead (生鱼) here instead.
• Buttered Baby Corn - I added some fresh button and shitake mushroom in here too.

Hairy Gourd and Fish Ball Soup

This is another fast and easy dish I did when my kids were not well last week. My son didn't like the Hairy Gourd but he loved the soup which was a soup base brewed with ikan bilis. My daughter didn't want any food except fish balls so this was perfect for them.

If you are wondering what Hairy Gourd is. Well, my hubby called it 节瓜 but I call it 毛瓜. Hairy Gourd is actually both 节瓜 and 毛瓜. It looks like a cucumber inside and on the outside it's hairy and with a dark green skin.

Ingredients:

• 1 ltr Ikan Bilis Broth
• 1 Hairy Gourd, skinned, seeds removed and cut into smaller pieces
• 8 Fish Balls or any amount you like
• 5 g or 1/2 packet Glass noodles
• Salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Cook 3-4 handful of Ikan Bilis (江鱼仔）with 1200ml water.
2. When it boils, reduce heat and simmer for 1/2 an hour or when the ikan Bilis turns opaque.
3. Drain the broth.
4. Soak glass noodle till it soften.
5. Add the hairy gourd and glass noodle to the broth.
6. Simmer for 1/2 to 1 hour depending on how soft you want the hairy gourd to be.
7. Add fish balls 10 minutes before end of cooking time.
8. Add salt to taste.
9. Serve.

Note:
If you prefer to add glass noodles directly to the broth, remember to prepare more broth because glass noodles will soak up the broth.

Tofu with Minced Pork 豆腐肉碎

This is another quick, easy and simple dish. A real time saver. I was pressing for time (because my kids were sick and I got tonnes of housework to do) otherwise, I would have added some steam vegetables to it too! It would have tasted great with the sauce and more eye pleasing with an additional colour. Next time!

Ingredients:

• 1 box Silken Tofu
• 80 g Minced Pork

Seasoning:

• 1 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Sugar
• A few drops Sesame Seed Oil
• 1/2 tablespoon Cornflour

Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon Oil
• 2ooml Water
• Cornflour mixture (thickener)

How to do it:

1. Mix minced pork with seasoning and set aside.
2. Cut tofu into 4 pieces. You can leave it as it is if you like.
3. Lay tofu in a dish.
4. Place some minced pork on top of the tofu.
5. Steam tofu on high heat for about 10-25 minutes or till meat is cooked.
6. Drain the water from the tofu.
7. Combine all ingredients for sauce except thickener.
8. Bring to boil.
9. Gradually add thickener and stir well.
10. Pour the sauce over the tofu and serve.

Note:

My plan was to add blanched Xiao Bai Cai to this dish too. It goes well with the sauce too and adds colour to this dish.

Ham and Sausage Roll

Hey, hey, hey! I'm back! My kids are recovering but I got infected by them and I'm getting worst. I miss blogging. So unless I'm so sick that I can't even get up, nothing is going to stop me from getting to my computer table. Hahaha .... *cough, cough*

This was one of the meals served to my son last week. It was simple and didn't take up much time because I had tonnes of housework to do.

Ingredients:

• Nori, cut to size
• Ham, steamed
• Sausage, steamed
• Cooked Rice

How to do it:

1. Place a piece of nori on the bamboo rolling mat.
2. Put a piece of ham on top followed by cooked rice.
3. Put a sausage at the top end of the rice.
4. Roll the rice and cut into pieces.

Note:

You can serve it with some tomato sauce.

You can look at the instructions on making a roll here.

Preserved Sour Plum with Lime Drink

I'm having a sore throat now and to sooth it, I made myself a pot of Preserved Sour Plum with Lime Drink. I like to chilled it in the fridge so I can have it anytime I like.

Ingredients:
(To make 1 glass)

• 3-5 Preserved Sour Plum (酸梅)
• 1-2 Lime (酸柑)
• 200ml Hot Water

How to do it:

1. Throw in the preserved sour plum in a glass of hot water.
2. Let it stand of about 15 minutes.
3. Squeeze in the lime juice.
4. Give it a quick stir.
5. Drink it!

Note:

• The preserved sour plum I'm using is rather sour so I using 4 and juice of 2 limes. You can add more if you like.
• The flavour get stronger the longer you stand the sour plum in hot water.
• You can drink it hot, warm or chill. I like best when it's ice cold!
• It's a instant sore throat reliever!

Pan Fried Cod in Miso Paste

My friend, Joanne, did a Pan Fried Salmon in Miso Sauce sometime back. Since I still have plenty of miso paste left in the fridge, I finally did mine using Cod yesterday.

Ingredients:

• 2 pieces Cod, deboned
• Oil for frying

Marinade:

• 1 tablespoon Miso Paste, preferrably the light brown type
• 2 tablespoon Mirin
• 1 tablespoon cooking wine
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar

How to do it:

1. Wash and dry Cod.
2. Mix ingredients for marinade well
3. Put Cod in the marinade.
4. Marinate for 1/2 hour.
5. Heat pan with oil.
6. Remove excess marinade on the cod with finger.
7. Pan fried on middle fire, one side till brown before turning to the other side.
8. Dish and serve.

Strawberry Sorbet

I bought a punnet of strawberries and kept it for too long. Some parts of the strawberries were bruised. After cutting all the bad parts away, the strawberries don't look nice to eat anymore but it's a waste to throw them away. So just turned it to some yummy instead!

Knowing it won't be enough for the family with that little strawberries, I bought another punnet of strawberries. Now it enough for everyone at home.

Now this has become my son's favourite!

Ingredients:

• 500g Strawberries, top removed and frozen
• 50ml Lime Juice
• 50ml Water
• 50g Fine Sugar, or to taste

How to do it:

1. Blend all the ingredients together until smooth and sugar has melted.
2. Pour the blended sorbet into a flat pan and freeze for about 20 minutes or firm enough to scoop.
3. Serve immediately.

Note:
Best to do this just before serving.

Oh my! What big eyes you have!

This is not Little Red Ridding Hood's Grandma nor the big bad wolf. It's just a smiley face with big eyes, bushy eyebrows and rosy cheeks. Looks more scary than funny huh? Don't frighten your kids with this! Hehehe!

Eyebrows:

• Made of sausages with Japanese cucumber, carrot and fish ball slices.

Eyes:

• Made of Egg Tofu and mushroom braised for 2 hours with 1 tablespoon oyster sauce, 1 teaspoon light soy sauce, 1/2 tablespoon sugar and 200ml of water retained from softening the mushroom and peas.

Cheeks:

• Made of carrot slices.

Mouth:

• Taken from our French Beans with Minced Pork dish.

Lots of heart, lots of love ...

My son said I love him a lot that why that were lots of heart on his rice and he gobbled up his rice first leaving the Seaweed Fish Paste Rolls and Potato Cheese Balls last. Hahaha ... so sweet.

I made the Seaweed Fish Paste Rolls a little different. For one roll, I added in the Japanese Fish Cake (with the pink spiral) to roll together with the fish paste.

Potato Cheese Balls

I made a similar dish some time back. It was shaped like croquettes and without cheese. For this variation, I'm shaping it to bit size ball shape so it's easier and more fun to eat.

We keep the left-overs and reheated them for supper.

Ingredients:

• 2 Potatoes
• 60g Parmesan Cheese, grated
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Egg Yolk
• Spring onions, chopped (optional)
• Batter
• Oil for frying

How to do it:

1. Boil potatoes till soft.
2. Peel the skin and mash will cooled.
3. Add in cheese, salt spring onions and egg yolk to mashed potato.
4. Mix well.
5. Divide into equal portion and shape into balls.
6. Dip potato ball into batter and fry to golden brown.
7. Remove, drain and serve.

Note:

• You can also coat will breadcrumb instead of batter for a crunchier bite.
• You can use either tempura batter or normal plain flour plus water batter. A thin batter is preferred.

Garlicky Sweet Pork Ribs

I did this some time back using another method and found it too sweet. I wokked it again today with a new improved recipe and it's so much better, even hubby approved it. For your info, the little bits you see on the ribs in the photo up there are garlic.

Ingredients:

• 700g Pork Ribs
• 600ml Bone Broth or water (Broth will be better because it will be tastier)
• 2 Whole Garlic, skin removed
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• Salt to taste (optional)
• Oil for frying
• Corn starch mixture

How to do it:

1. Blanch ribs first.
2. Cook all ingredients except salt in a pot till it boils.
3. Turn to low heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours until the meat is tender.
4. Remove the ribs and set aside. Retain the sauce.
5. Deep fry the ribs for 1/2 minute or till brown.
6. Remove and set aside.
7. In a wok, pour in 200ml of the rib's sauce.
8. Thicken with cornstarch mixture.
9. Add in ribs and coat them evenly with sauce.
10. Dish and serve with rice.

Note:

• I deep fried the ribs so that they will be firmer on the outside otherwise the meat will slip of the bone easier.
• If you find the sauce not salty or sweet enough, you can add salt or sugar before thickening the sauce.
• Cut down the simmering time if you prefer a firmer bite. The one I have made, the meat can easily slip off the bone. Easier for kids to eat too.
• Cut down on the garlic if you do not like a stronger garlic taste. In fact, I actually add in 4 whole garlic in the one I wokked. So, 2 whole garlic should be fine

Samosa

I made Samosa on Thursday with the leftover curry we had from Japanese Curry we had that day. I added some peas to the leftover curry because my son doesn't like them, I don't want to spoil his dinner by adding them first.

Ingredients:

• Curry, leftovers worked fine
• Spring roll skin, I'm using Spring Home （第一家） brand, cut into 6 cm by 21 cm strips
• 1 egg, to seal the samosa
• Oil for frying

How to do it:

1. Mash the ingredients in your curry to very small bits if yours are in chunk.
2. Scoop 1 tablespoon of curry and place it on the end of the spring roll, leaving some space for folding.
3. Fold the end over the curry like a triangle. (see instructions below)
4. Continue folding over. Stop at the last fold.
5. Spread some egg mixture on the remaining spring roll.
6. Fold over to seal the samosa.
7. Deep fry the samosa.
8. Remove, drain and serve.

Note:

• It works better if your curry is paste-like. So drain away excess sauce before you start.
• Alternatively, you can remove the ingredients from your curry to mash them then add curry sauce gradually to get the right texture.
• Trim away the last part of the spring roll skin to make the samosa look nice. I didn't do it - too lazy. LOL

Smiley Cubeez

Does this look anything like dinner? If you ask me, I would have said no. But then, my son seldom has 'proper' dinner. More fun dinner, I would say. He couldn't wait for all to be done, so he had this serving first.

Oh, I haven't introduced these smiley cubeez, have I? They are ...

• Ms White Rice Cubee,
• Mdm Deep Fried Tofu Cubee and
• Mr Pork Cubee.

Milk Pudding

Bought this box of milk pudding for quite some time and I finally make it. It smell really nice but my hubby think it's a little too sweet. As usual, I only took a bite and the rest were settled by my hubby and my son.

For those staying in Singapore, you can get this at Daiso at $2 (but of course, they are the $2 shop!) I found this at NTUC selling at $3+. So, it's a better buy at Daiso!

The instructions are in Japanese and I don't understand it. I have guess my way to make this. Hahaha!

1. Empty the packet of pudding powder in a pot and cook it with 400ml of milk.
2. Pour into moulds and refrigerate for 1 hour to let it set.
3. Melt the other smaller packet of powder with 1/2 cup of water. This will be the coffee syrup to be drizzle over the pudding.

Correct me if I'm wrong, okay!

Pizza Rice

My son told me he wanted pizza for dinner so I made this 'pizza' for him. When I served him this, he told me something was missing. Why no cheese? he asked. Hahaha .... He really took out the Parmesan Cheese and started shaking it on his 'pizza'. I want a lot! I like it with a lot of Cheese! That's what he said.

Make your pizza with the ingredients you like. It's fun!

Home-made Bone Broth

The making of Bone Broth is pretty much the same as Chicken Broth. Use Bone broth for cooking if you can't take Chicken Broth for various reasons, eg, having cough, after surgery, etc.

You can use big bones (大骨） or rib bones （骨支） to make broth. The seller recommended the rib bones because it contains more minerals. The results of the broth using the different bones will be a lighter coloured broth (on the left) if you are using big bone and a darker (brownish) coloured broth (on the right) if you are using rib bones.

I have been making and using broth for a few years now. Initially to make porridge for kids when they were babies. When they are older, I used broth to cooked with macaroni, noodle, mee suah, etc. If I want to cook soup quickly, I use broth too!

Sometimes I use big bones directly to make soup instead of pork ribs, as they are a lot more sweeter and cheaper. I would then brew the soup for at least 4 hours, just like when I make broth. Compare about $1.20 for 1 big bone to $2.30 for 250g of pork ribs to make a pot of soup, using big bone is cheaper than pork ribs, that is you do not eat the meat just like us.

To make 2.5 litre of Bone Broth, use 2-3 big bone or 600ml of rib bones. Storage of Bone Broth is the same as Chicken Broth. A good sign to know you have brew the broth long enough is at the end of the process, the big bone is 'broken' in pieces (from 2 to 4 pieces) and the meat is detached from the bone.

You can also use the same method to make Fish Broth. You should be able to buy fish bones from fishmongers.

* Big Bone and Rib Bones *

Home-made Chicken Broth

I have this habit of making broth for many year. It was mainly made to cook the kid's porridge when they were babies/toddlers. Sometimes I used them for noodles soup, etc. I always make sure I have broth in the fridge so I can have home-made broth anytime I want. Jazzmint ask me about my broth I used for my Macaroni in Chicken Soup. So, here it is ...

Ingredients:

• 4 whole Chicken Bones
• 3 - 3.5 litre Water

How to do it:

1. Blanch the bones first.
2. Return the bones to a pot of water to boil.
3. Bring it to boil.
4. Reduce heat to simmer.
5. Skim the surface of foam till they no longer appear.
6. Simmering should be for at least 4 hours. I simmer mine for 5 hours.
7. Use a strainer (preferably with smaller holes) to drain the bones and particulars.
8. Let it cool before you freeze it.
9. The ingredients stated should yield about 2.5 litre of broth.

Note:

• You can remove the fats from the broth by letting it refrigerate until the fat congeals. Then you are easily remove it.
• You can add vegetables to make the broth sweeter too. I prefer just pure chicken broth.
• The broth can be frozen for up to 6 months.
• Do not refreeze broth that you have thaw. Therefore freeze broth in portions you usually use. I freeze my broth 600ml each.

* Chicken Bones, I got mine 50cts a piece *

A slice of cake

My son's dinner yesterday consist of:

• Long Beans, I dished up some before adding chilli.
• Chicken with Ginger Sauce, I think pork is so much nicer.
• Rice Cakes - Yesterday's 'cake' was in the form of a slice of cake. It's a layer of Furikaki Rice, topped with ham. Then a layer of plain rice, topped with ham. Lastly, a layer of Furikaki Rice, topped with egg. I pressed some bacon bits to the side (but can't be seen here)

Long Beans with Chilli

This is one of those dishes that only I alone will eat. My hubby doesn't eat this. My son doesn't really enjoy it but will still eat some without chilli. But I love it. I can't really take spicy stuff so I add chilli only sparingly.

Ingredients:

• 10 strings of long beans, cut into equal sections
• 1 tablespoon dried shrimps; soaked to soften and grind if preferred.
• ½ tablespoon garlic
• ¼ cup water
• Oil for frying
• Ready-made chilli sauce/Sambal Belacan (I use Hommaid Brand - Nyonya Crispy Prawn Chilli Sauce; something I can handle)

How to do it:

1. Deep fry the long beans for 1 - 2 minutes. Do this if you prefer a soften bite.
2. Drain and set aside.
3. Stir fry garlic and grind dried shrimps with oil till fragrant.
4. Add in long bean and stir fry for about 5 minutes or till desired softness.
5. Add in your chilli sauce or Sambal Belacan and mix well.
6. If it is too dry, add in some water.
7. Serve with rice.

Note:
I don’t add salt as I think the dried shrimp are salty enough.