Cheesy Pork Cutlet

This is my current favourite! Just look at the cheeeeeze! Oooo! You got to like this! That is if you like cheese too!

I have to be honest. I didn't come up with this. I happened to see an episode of a Taiwan variety show and one of the guest was rewarded a 'block' of pork cutlet with cheese inside. What did I mentioned 'block'? Well, it looks like a piece of brick! Okay, slightly smaller than a brick but still it looks like a block of pork cutlet. The chef really did put a big block of cheese in the meat. It seems to me that that cheese is the main ingredient used and the pork was just there to compliment it. :P

Anyway, I didn't know how it done exactly but my version really simple and it tasted good. *thick skin* The pork is really soft, not tough at all. That is if you did your job will in hammering the meat well. And the cheese! Oooo ....

I won't go further. Try this to find out on your own!


Ingredients:

• Palm size lead meat about 1.5 - 2 cm thick
• 1/2 teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
• 2 slice Sliced Cheese (I used Cheddar Cheese here)
• 1 Egg, beaten
• Plain Flour for dusting
• Breadcrumbs for coating
• Oil for deep frying

How to do it:

1. Hammer the meat on both side with a meat mallet till the meat is really thin about 3 - 4 mm. The meat will became 1 1/2 to 2 times larger than the original size.
2. Seasoned the meat with 1/2 teaspoon of light soy sauce for 10 minutes.
3. Place cheese on one side of the meat. Try to keep the chesse away from the side as it will melt and sip through the meat when you fry.
4. Fold the meat.
5. Dust with flour.
6. Dip in beaten egg.
7. Coat well with breadcrumbs.
8. Deep fry till it turn golden brown.
9. Serve immdiately.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe but please consider the environment before deciding to print.
  

* Hammering the meat with a mallet *
Look how the size of the meat became 1 1/2 times larger than the original.

Sausage with Broccoli

I was really lazy yesterday and I just didn't want to spend too much time cooking. Mum has Monday's Blues also, you know? :p

I just made this 2 in 1 dish for the kids, with soup of course. They can't eat without soup. ^_^"

This is not 五香贯肠. It's just Sausage wrapped Bacon. ;) Yap, I just wrapped the sausage with bacon and pan fried it at low fire till the bacon is crispy. I served it with some blanched broccoli and that's about it.

Hopefully, there's no Tuesday's Blue. :P

Sweet Honey BBQ Wings

My friend was asked to prepare chicken wings for a bbq. She hasn't been to one for a long time and had no idea what to do. I thought the normal sweet version should not go wrong.

After telling her, I had the urge to have some bbq wing too and went to get some wings the next day. I used the oven of course. I won't want to clean the whole house using my hot plate.

But instead of preparing one flavour, I did two! Well, because the second one was my son's favourite. ;)

Anyway, for the honey sweet wings, I just marinate the wing overnight with 3 part honey and 2 part light soy sauce. Add in 1 part ginger juice if you like.

When you are ready to bbq and in my case, bake, just drain the wings but reserve the marinade. Add in a tablespoon of oil or butter and use it for basting.

Baste frequently till the wings are throughly cooked. If you are using the oven like I do, bake at 180c for 30 minutes and increase to 200c for 7 minutes to get it slightly brown.

I like to squeeze in a lime or too when I serve it.

Enjoy!

Meringue Kisses

I did this with a different recipe before. Although, there is a slight different but both taste the same. This one, as I have use a piping tip, look a lot more cuter. Don't you tell it looks like the candy on the small oval biscuit 面包花 we use to eat as kids? Singaporeans and Malaysians would know what I'm referring too. ;)

I realised the key to make is timing and temperature. Bake at low temperature and bake it long. We are suppose to dry it not brown it. But being impatient, I tried raising the temperature a little bit and my meringue kisses started to brown. Aww ... I'll make sure to get it right the next time.

By the way, this is really sweet. Plus since this take so long to bake. I don't want you to come back saying I sabo (sabotage) you. ;) So, if you don't have a sweet tooth or don't enjoy eating sweet stuff, don't try this. :P


Ingredients:

• 4 Egg Whites
• 250g Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
• 1/2 tablespoon Cornflour

How to do it:

1. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar till soft peaks.
2. Gradually add in sugar and continue beating till stiff. This will take about 15 minutes.
3. Fold in cornflour.
4. Pour mixture into piping bag with a star tip.
5. Pipe it on baking paper (no greasing required).
6. Bake at 120c for 1 hour or till dry and crispy.
7. Remove and let it cool for 1 minute before removing from the baking paper.
8. Store in air-tight container once completely cooled on rack.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe but please consider the environment before deciding to print.
  

Steamed Herbal Fish

Bought the wrong fish for this dish. I meant to get Snapper but told the fishmonger Seabass instead. Haiya! I don't really like Seabass because of the smell. Even if it's really fresh, there is still a 'seabass' smell. :P And I don't like how the meat turned out looking like lean pork after cooking it. :p Just doesn't look nice lah.

Taste wise was not too bad. It was sweet and it goes well with the herbs. It could be better if snapper or grouper was used instead.


Ingredients:

• 500g Fish Filet, sliced
• 80ml Water
• 1/2 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Wine
• Salt to taste

Assorted Herbs in approximate weight:

• 15g Yu Zhu 玉竹 (Solomon's Seal Rhizome)
• 4 Hong Zao 红枣 (Red Dates)
• 1 stalk Ren Shen 人参 （Gingseng)
• 20g Dang Shen 党参 (Codonopsis Pilosulae)
• 15g Gou Qi Zi 枸杞子 (Wolfberries)

How to do it:

1. Put all herbs with water and seal with foil.
2. Steam for at least 30 minutes.
3. Pour over fish, seal with foil again and return to steam for another 20 minutes in lower heat.
4. Remove foil, add in wine and salt to taste.
5. Steam without foil for 2 minutes.
6. Serve immediately.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe but please consider the environment before deciding to print.
  

From top-left:

Yu Zhu 玉竹 (Solomon's Seal Rhizome), 4 Hong Zao 红枣 (Red Dates),
Ren Shen 人参 （Gingseng),
Dang Shen 党参 (Codonopsis Pilosulae), Gou Qi Zi 枸杞子 (Wolfberries)

Rice Sandwich

Here's a kid's meal idea with the help with a cookie cutter.

I'm using luncheon meat (I only use Tulip Brand so no worries. hehe.) for the cut outs. But wait! Don't throw away the remaining. That's wastage! You can use that too.

After cutting out the shapes, lightly pan fried it without oil. Return the cookie cutter back to the cooked luncheon meat. Now, scoop some rice in the cutter and top it with another cooked luncheon meat.

Press it down while holding the cookie cutter to make the rice stick together and firm. If your cookie cutter has the imprint part, use that.

Remove the cookie cuter and you will have your rice and luncheon meat sandwich!



For the remaining luncheon meat, I stuff only rice in the cookie cutter to be fitted in it. Yah, this doesn't look like a sandwich. If you prefer only to use the cut out luncheon meat, the 'unwanted' part can be used for other dish like fried rice. So don't throw it away.

Blanched Chinese Flowering Cabbage

You might notice that I cook my vegetables by blanching them. They usually turn out looking nicer then stir fried. I never really like to stir frying leafy vegetables. Maybe I don't have the skills. ;p

They are always either over or under cooked. Sometimes, part of the veggie is cooked but another part under cooked. Plus, I hate how the dish of veggies always looked so 'messy'. :P

After a few times of unsuccessful stir-frying of veggies, I turned to blanching them and have stick to that method till now. Except now, on lazy days, I turned to use my Sharp Water Oven. My veggies always comes out perfect, if not tastier.

This Chinese Flowering Cabbage or Cai Xin 菜心 as we commonly call it, is cooked on less lazy day, ie, blanching method. :P This is really easy and fast to do, plus you have a dish of nicely cooked veggies too.

Just add a teaspoon of salt and half a tablespoon of oil in a pot of water enough to cover the vegetable to boil. Once the water is boiling, put the stems of the Cai Xin 菜心 in first. If you, like me prefer not to cut your Cai Xin 菜心 in sections, let them 'stand' with the stems in hot water. You hold on to the leaves, with gloves lah. After 2 minutes, turn off the heat and submerge the whole vegetables in the hot water for another minute. If you like your Cai Xin 菜心 to be softer, then let it cook with the heat on.

Now, here's the trick. If you are adding the Cai Xin 菜心 to further stir-frying later, like adding some mushroom with sauce, when your family are all home for dinner, then plunge the Cai Xin 菜心 into ice water to stop further cooking. So later when you are ready to complete the dish, you just have to add them to the sauce, stir-fry a little and you are ready to serve it. It helps cut down lots of cooking time, especially if you are a couple more dishes to cook. The best part of this method is that the vegetables still looks very green!

For this particular dish, I just plunged the Cai Xin 菜心 in previously boiled cooled water as I was to serve it in 20 minutes time without further stir-frying. I don't want to serve cold veggies. I just drizzle some light soy sauce and top some dry-fried dried white bait on it for that extra flavour and crunch. And that's done.

Pan Grilled Bacon rolled Prawns

Two of my son's favourites are here, prawn and streaky bacon. I used some of the bacon for previous dish and the rest were used here.

My son had this with his tomato sauce and I have it with my sweet and spicy sauce. And my daughter just ate the bacon. ^_^"

To do this, you will only need large prawns and bacon. Smaller prawns are not advisable to be used here as they will end up being dry and hard.

First, you have to shell your prawns. The head and shells can be retained to make Laksa. Then pierce a wooden skewer through the prawn from the tail-end. Oh, and please remember to wet the wooden skewer first. This is to prevent it from burning during the grilling process.

Next, wrap a bacon from the tail-end with the fatty part of the bacon 'outside'. Overlap the bacon a little and continue wrapping till the whole prawn is covered. Tuck the loose end of the bacon in. If you have no idea how to do it, just use a toothpick to secure. Likewise, wet the toothpick first before use. You can season with some ground black pepper and set them to grill till cooked. Remove the toothpick and serve.

If you have the time, the best way to do this is to partially cook the bacon first. It should not be brown; just cooked. This should take about less than 1 minute. Let it cool then starts with the wrapping. This is to ensure that the prawn that is wrapped inside will not be over cooked and become dried. You can use this method too if you are not using large prawns.

You can also do this using the oven if you like. I haven't seen the grilled marks on my food for a long time so I'm using the grill pan this time. ;)

Try some for the weekends. Enjoy!

Roast Chicken with Bacon

Anything with bacon seems to be tasty. :P My husband stays away from this now because he thinks it's bad for his cholesterol. ^_^" Still he stole a bite of the chicken meat, without skin, without bacon and likes it too.

I like it how the bacon 'protects' the chicken from getting dry and hard and also at the same time seasons it. With bacon in here, you don't need any other seasonings. Just let the bacon to the job. Well, with the help of a slice of lemon too.

This is my son's current favourite (because of the bacon lah). It might be yours too. Try it!



Ingredients:

• 2 Large Chicken Drumstick
• 4 slices Streaky Bacon
• 3 glove Garlic, crashed with skin on
• 2 slices Lemon

How to do it:

1. Place a slice of lemon on the chicken.
2. Wrap a slice of streaky bacon slightly tight starting from the joint part with the fatty part of the bacon should be 'outside'.
3. Overlap the bacon a little so you don't see the chicken.
4. Place the chicken in a oven proof dish with the loose end bacon placed down.
5. Scatter the garlic around.
6. Roast the chicken in a preheated oven at 220C for 15 minutes.
7. Reduce the temperature to 170C and continuing roasting for another 40 minutes or till thoroughly cooked.
8. Serve.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe.

Disney Characters Shortbeard

Just sharing what I did with the Disney characters cookie cutters I have using this recipe. Originally, my plan was to bake a container for my friend to bring back to her hometown in Malaysia but due to some hiccups at my end, I could only bake it on Saturday morning and she is leaving in the afternoon. It a bit to rush for her to pick up from me.

Oh well, I shall benefit my neighbour then. Hehehe