Paprika Arrowhead Chips 辣脆慈菇片

Chinese New Year is just slightly over a month from now and it's the time of the year that you can find Arrowhead (慈菇) or Ngaku.

As usual, I couldn't resist buying them when I saw them in the market especially when they were a lot bigger than it was last year.

I made some Arrowhead Chips but this time, I seasoned the chips with Paprika and some Ground Black Pepper for a twist.

I'm going to experiment making the chips in other flavours. Keeping my fingers crossed that they will be edible.

Pork Ribs in Plum Sauce 排骨梅子酱

Not too long ago, I went to the supermarket to get Hoisin Sauce but grab the Plum Sauce instead. I only realised my mistake when I got home. Hence, I used it as a dipping sauce when I buy roasted duck.

At the rate I'm using it, I know it will end up in the bin when it expired, Not wanting to waste it, I experiment it with one of my rib dish and it went really well.

Ingredients:

• 500g Pork Ribs
• Salt to taste

Marinade:

• 1 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Wine
• 1 tablespoon Corn Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Garlic Power or 1 teaspoon grated garlic

Sauce to mix well:

• 2 tablespoon Plum Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Tomato Sauce
• 2 tablespoon Sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon Water
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce

How to do it:

1. Marinate pork ribs with marinade for 30 minutes.
2. Deep fry the ribs for about 5 minutes or 80% done.
3. Drain and set aside.
4. Heat the sauce in a wok.
5. Add in the rib.
6. Mix the rib well with the sauce.
7. Toss well till the sauce thicken and ribs are completed cooked.
8. Season with salt.
9. Dish and serve.

Cordyceps Militaris Chicken Soup 虫草花炖鸡汤

I had Cordyceps Sinensis 冬虫夏草 regularly when I was pregnant with my first child. And of course I want to do the same when I'm pregnant with my second child. However the price for Cordyceps Sinensis 冬虫夏草 has rose to a extorted price. Then I was introduced to Cordyceps Militaris 虫草花.

It has similar medicinal value to Cordyceps Sinensis 冬虫夏草 though not of comparable strength but the price of Cordyceps Militaris 虫草花 is also only a small fraction of the Cordyceps Sinensis too.

Logically, it is more effective to take  Cordyceps Militaris 虫草花 regularly then to take Cordyceps Sinensis 冬虫夏草 once a while.

We have since been having Cordyceps Militaris 虫草花 for the pass 6 years. Oh, there isn't much difference in the taste except the soup made using Cordyceps Militaris 虫草花 looks more orange in colour. My daughter called it Orange Soup, by the way. ;)

Ingredients:

• 1 Chicken
• 20g Cordyceps Militaris 虫草花
• 2 tablespoon Wolfberries 枸杞子
• 15 Dried Seedless Red Dates 红枣
• 1.5 liter Water
• Salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Blanch Chicken to remove the scum.
2. Put all ingredients, except wolfberries and salt in a pot.
3. Bring to a boil before reducing to a simmer.
4. Simmer for 3-4 hours.
5. Add wolfberries during the last hour before end of cooking
6. Add salt to taste.

Baked Mussels in Garlic Butter 奶油蒜烤青口

 My husband knows I love mussels so when he saw this pack of mussels when we were (supermarket) shopping, he picked it up for me. The first thing he commented was, "You mean mussels are so cheap?!" Yes, the pack of mussels cost only .... $1! It's small though but I prefer this than the larger one.

I used the Garlic Butter Spread I had in the fridge to make this. If you don't have any, you can substitute it with 4 gloves of grated garlic and 1 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder to 1 1/2 tablespoon of softened butter.

Ingredients:

• 200g Mussels, washed & cleaned
• 3 clove Garlic, chopped
• 1 1/2 tbsp Garlic Butter Spread
• 1 teaspoon Dried Mixed Herbs
• 1 teaspoon Dried Parsley
• A pinch of Salt
• A dash of Ground Black Pepper

How to do it:

1. Mix all ingredients except Mussels, salt and ground black pepper together.
2. Combine butter mix with mussels. 
3. Season with salt and ground black pepper.
4. Bake in oven at 200C for 15 - 20 minutes or till all mussels are cooked.
5. Serve immediately.

Bacon Wrapped Wings

I did early this month but was busy to blog about it. I had bought the wings to make another dish but my husband called to informed that he won't be able to return home for dinner. Hence, I decided to make these instead and we can have it anytime. This is my son's favourite wings recipe because of the bacon. :P

I'm using low sodium streaky bacon here (which is what I have in the fridge). If you are using normal streaky bacon, do not include salt in your marinade.

Ingredients:

• 8 Mid Joint Wings
• Juice of 8 Kalamansi
• 1 1/2 sprig Rosemary, leaves only and chopped finely
• 1 pinch salt
• 4 slices low sodium Streaky Bacon, cut into 2

How to do it:

1. Marinate the wings with Kalamansi juice, salt and chopped Rosemary for 1 hours.
2. Leave some chopped Rosemary for later use.
3. Wrapped 1/2 piece of bacon around the wing.
4. Secure with skewer; soaked in water before hand.
5. Sprinkle the remaining chopped Rosemary on the bacon.
6. Grill in preheated oven at 200C for 25 minutes.
7. Turn over wings in-between grilling.
8. Serve with a squeeze of Kalamansi juice if you like.

Cream of Asparagus & Potato

I had been really busy this whole month and when I have some free time, I would rather play FB games than blog. Hence the lack of post. :P

I bought some really cute soup bowls and other crockery from the market today and they were quite a steal too. I bought this cute 'Pinocchio' bowl you see here for $3.50. That set the mood for cooking; with whatever I have in the fridge. :P

So asparagus and potato soup it is. The colours reminds me that Christmas is coming! :) Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 250g Thai Asparagus, diced
• 1 large potato, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1.2 litre Chicken Both
• 100ml Whipping Cream
• Salt and Pepper to taste

How to do it:

1. Cook asparagus, potato and onion in the chicken broth till tender but not soft.
2. Either blend the vegetable soup in batches or drain the vegetable and blend.
3. Return the vegetable puree to the broth.
4. Whisk to mix well.
5. Bring to a simmer and stir in the whipping cream.
6. Season with salt and pepper.

Lemon Wings

This is the 6th and last of my round 2 on experiments for wings.

I tweaked my recipe for Tangy Wings, to add a little sweetness to this version.  It is similar to the Thai Tangy Wings, except without the spiciness and the sweetness of honey.

The sweetness here is from the sugar and there's a light aroma of the lemon. This is one of my favourites and there's no stopping at one for me.

Ingredients:

• 12 Mid-joint Wings
• Juice of 1 Lemon
• Zest of 1 Lemon
• 4 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 2 tablespoon Sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Onion Powder

How to do it:

1. Combine all ingredients together.
2. Marinate overnight.
3. Roast the wings in a preheat oven at 200C for 20 to 25 minutes.
4. Turn the wings in between roasting.
5. Serve immediately

Note:
A friend was telling me how she hated cleaning the rack after roasting and I shared with her on how I was using baking paper to 'roast' all these chicken wing I have shared. I kena 'scolded' for not sharing it earlier. :p So, if you happened to have Glad Bake (non-stick Baking and Cooking Paper), try this.

Place a piece of Glad Bake paper on your baking tray or foil. Roast the wings on the paper as per normal. When you are turning the wings, tilt the tray so the juice, if any will run to the side. The idea is to roast the wings dry and not on the juice. No greasing is required and the paper will not stick to the wings. At the end of the process just discard the foil and the baking paper. No racks to wash and the wings looked perfect too.

I'm not sure if this will work for other baking paper though, so try at your own risk. :P

Please not that I'm not doing a advertorial for Glad Baking Paper. It was the first baking paper I used since I first started baking because I was attracted to its "no need to grease" on the packaging. I was able to bake cookies using the same piece of baking paper over 5 times and I suspect it would be longer. And it works will with other oven cooking too. So you see the reason I'm 'sticking' to it?

Assam Prawns 亚参虾

Last week, my sister posted some sort of a riddle for her friend on Facebook and the answer to that riddle was my father's Chilled Cockles! That made me missed my parents' cooking.  My parents don't cook that much. Most of which, according to them were the results of "just anyhow cook", and that became a difficulty to replica their recipes. Try as I might, I seldom come close to the original. Not even my father's simple Chilled Cockles. :(

One of the dishes my mother did that I loved so much was Assam Sotong (squid). She used small baby sotong, which is hard to come by now, and it was with lots of onion and sauce (to go with the rice). Yum!

I'm adapting my mother's recipe for Assam Sotong to make Assam Prawn instead. Not exactly the same as mother's Assam Sotong but I'm sure she will be glad it was her Assam Sotong that gave results to this dish.

Ingredient:

• 400g Prawns, shelled and deveined
• 3 tablespoon Assam (Tamarind) Pulp
• 5 tablespoon Water
• 1 Fresh Red Chili, seeds removed and chopped finely
• 1 teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
• 2 teaspoon Brown Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Fish Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Corn Flour
• a dash of Pepper
• a pinch of Salt 
• 4 tablespoon Oil

How to do it:

1. Mix assam pulp with water. Squeeze the pulp to extract the juice.
2. Sieve the assam mixture for the juice only, discard the pulp.
3. Mix the prawns with the assam juice and the rest of the ingredients except oil.
4. Marinate for no longer than 15 minutes otherwise the prawns will turn marshy.
5. Heat oil in wok and in the prawns.
6. Pan fry till all prawns cooked. 
7. Dish and serve.

Note:
Leave the shells and heads on if you like. It will help absorb more sauce. We are lazy and didn't want to get our fingers dirty peeling the shells. :P

Tangy Thai Wings

This is the second flavour of round 2 of my wings experiments, which happened to be my favourite of the three.

Inspired by the sweet Thai Chili sauce, which is one of the few chili sauce I can handle, this goes very well with the tangy lime juice I have added to the wings.

This is great if you want a Asian flavoured wings but not the usual sweet based one for bbq.

Ingredients:

• 12 Mid-joint Wings
• 50ml Lime Juice
• 2 tablespoon Thai Chili Sauce with Garlic
• 2 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 1 teaspoon grated Fresh Ginger
• 1/2 tablespoon Chopped Garlic
• 2 teaspoon Honey

How to do it:

1. Combine all ingredients together.
2. Marinate overnight.
3. Roast the wings in a preheat oven at 200C for 20 to 25 minutes.
4. Turn the wings in between roasting.
5. Serve immediately with extra lime juice if desire.

Peppers Cheese Omelette with Avocado Salad

I had this for one of my late dinner. After cooking for the kids and again for my husband, I didn't really have appetite to eat, especially looking at the amount of washing I have to do.

Needless to say, I became hunger a few hours later. :P

Ingredients for Avocado Salad:

• 1/2 Avocado, sliced
• 5 Cherry Tomato, halve
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• Same chopped Spring Onion
• 1 teaspoon Japanese Mayonnaise
• a dash of pepper

How to do it:

1. Mix and toss all ingredients just before serving.

Ingredients for Omelette:

• 2 Eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon Cornflour
• a dash of pepper (optional)
• 1/2 small Red Pepper
• 1-2 slices Cheese
• Oil for frying

How to do it:

1. Blister the red pepper by cooking the skin side over fire till all charred.
2. Place the red pepper into a plastic bag.
3. Close it with air inside (like a balloon) and shake it hard to make the charred skin come off.
4. Remove and rinse it with water.
5. Julienne the red pepper and set aside
6. Add corn flour to the eggs and mix well.
7. Season the eggs with pepper if you like.
8. Heat pan with oil.
9. Pour the beaten eggs over the pan.
10. Swirl the pan to spread the egg
11. When the egg is 80% cooked, add the red pepper and cheese on 1 side of the egg.
12. Cover the egg with the other side to seal the egg.
13. Flip over to cook on the other side for half a minute.
14. Dish and serve with avocado salad.

Note:
Do not add salt as the cheese as salty enough.

Sweet Hoisin Wings

I bought a bottle of Hoisin sauce recently at a recommendation of a friend. I had only used 1 tablespoon of it so far and didn't know what to do with it. :P

I decided to use it for one of my wings experiments, again. :) 3 different tastes, sweet, spicy and tangy. This one here uses the Hoisin sauce and it the sweet one. It turn out rather nice. My hubby likes this. I would recommend it for BBQ.

Watch out of the other 2, Spicy Wings and Tangy Wings, coming soon. :)

Ingredients:

• 12 Mid-joint Wings
• 4 tablespoons Hoisin Sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon minced Garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon Pepper
• 1 teaspoon Honey
• 1/3 teaspoon grated fresh Ginger
• Juice of 1/2 Orange

How to do it:

1. Combine all ingredients together.
2. Marinate overnight.
3. Roast the wings in a preheat oven at 200C for 20 to 25 minutes.
4. Turn the wings in between roasting.
5. Serve immediately.

Garlic Fried Rice

I had to re-do my blog again as I was informed that it was 'out of sort'. It seems that the side widgets are all over the place. It was fine viewing from my computer. Hopefully, it's proper now and do let me know if you find it taking an unreasonable time to load. Thanks!

This is my son's current 'favourite dinner'. He as been asking me to cook fried rice almost everyday last week. This is the base of the fried rice and I'll add other ingredients, like sausages, beans, carrots, corn, peas, etc to it. This meant, he had different fried rice everyday; in a way. ;)

Ingredients:

• 1 bowl of cooked rice
• 4 tablespoon Oil
• 4 clove Garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 Egg

Seasoning

• 1/4 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon Fish Sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon Sugar
• a pinch of salt
• A dash of pepper and ground black pepper

How to do it:

1. Add oil and garlic in wok.
2. Fry garlic while oil is heating. This prevent the garlic getting burn to fast and the oil will more fragrant.
3. Drain garlic once it's lightly golden and set aside.
4. Using the same oil for frying the garlic, add in the rice.
5. Stir in the seasoning.
6. Toss and fry well till the rice is well combined with the seasoning and heated.
7. Break the egg on the rice and quickly stir fry to mix the rice and egg well.
8. Continue frying till egg is cooked and rice is dry.
9. Add in the fry garlic and toss to combine.
10. Dish and serve.

Note:

• What you see here is freshly cooked rice. I don't use overnight rice because we prefer rice that's softer. You can use overnight rice if you prefer.
• If you want to add meat or veggies, stir-fry them after frying the garlic. Dish out and set aside. Add into your rice after step 8.

* Garlic Fried with Sakura Ebi*

Herbal Black Pepper Prawns 黑胡椒当归虾

My original plan with to cook the prawns with black pepper sauce. I had some left-over Dang Gui 当归 powder and thought I would experiment combining both the black pepper with Dang Gui 当归. :P

It rather nice except, next time I'll leave out the curry leaves (you see in the photo) as it overpowered the Dang Gui.

Ingredients:

• 400g Prawns, shelled and deviened
• 1 medium Onion, cut into chunks
• 4 tablespoon Oil for frying
• 1 tablespoon Oil for stir-frying

Marinade:

• 1 teaspoon Dang Gui 当归 (Angelica Sinensis)Powder
• 1 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
• 1 tablespoon Corn Flour
• 1 teaspoon Sesame Seed Oil
• a pinch of Salt

Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Chinese Cooking Oil
• 1 teaspoon Sugar
• 4 tablespoon Water
• 1/2 tablespoon Ground Black Pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Corn Flour

How to do it:

1. Coat prawns with marinade.
2. Marinate for 30 minutes.
3. Heat oil in wok and fry the marinated prawns till 80% cooked.
4. Remove and drain.
5. Heat a clean wok with 1 tablespoon oil.
6. Add onion and stir-fry till slightly softened.
7. Add in sauce mixture and pre-cooked prawns.
8. Stir-fry and toss quickly to coat prawns well with sauce and till the prawns are thoroughly cooked.
9. Dish and serve.

Note:
I'm not sure if you can get powdered Dang Gui 当归 but you can always grind sliced Dang Gui 当归 on your own at home.

Chocolate Viennese Cookies

I found my old notebook when I was packing my storeroom. One of the stuff that was scribbled in it was a recipe on Chocolate Viennese Fingers. It was really simple to make. No wonder I had it scribbled down. :P

The original recipe required a fluted tip to pipe the mixture into 'fingers' and it also asked for the cookies to be dipped in melted chocolate.

I did some changes to the recipe as I only have a flower tip and I didn't want to dip the cookies into chocolate as I find it difficult and messy to store. I also added corn flour into the mixture to make to more crunchy.

I'm sharing my recipe adapted from the original one, after trying out a couple of times with a few adjustments.

Loved the results as it was crunchy and sort of melt in your mouth. I would have added more sugar (I got sweet tooth :P ) but the kids and my husband said it was just nice.

Ingredients:

• 250g Butter, softened 
• 100g Icing/Powdered Sugar
• 230g Top Flour or just All-purpose Flour 
• 180g Corn Flour 
• 2 tablespoon Cocoa Powder
• Chocolate Bits (instead of dipping in melted chocolate)

How to do it:

1. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
2. Sift all other dry ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Mix well with the butter mixture.
4. Spoon mixture into a piping bag with a star/flower tip.
5. Pipe onto greased baking sheets.
6. Add chocolate bits to the center of the piped mixture, if desired.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 11 minutes or till firm.
8. Cool on rack before dipping in melted chocolate, if desired.

Roasted Lemon Herb Wings

I have something to air, before I share my recipe. So bear with me for a just a little while.

I have something to said to those who don't like what they see here; again. If you think my blog suck for whatever reasons, you don't have visit again. Just click on the 'X' on the top right corner of your computer screen. It will save you from your agony. Please don't waste time sending me a 'comment', especially if you are going to sign off nameless. Once again, I stress that I blog for my own pleasure, not for you or anyone. I am happy with the amount of love this blog received. I'll do fine without yours. Go love someone else's perfect blog instead. Thank you very much.

I'm done. ;)  Thank you for bearing with me. :)  I got 'spat at' twice since last week. Nothing new to me and certainly not the worst compared to the hate mail I received sometime back. I got a feeling it's not going to be the last one.  Some people just have too much time on hand and are so kind to have to offer their two cents worth. ;P

Hopefully, that didn't affect what I'm going to share, which is last of my 3 experiments on wings, for the moment. The last 2 were a hit with my family. :) I'll be making those again very soon. :)

For this, it's a a result of tweaking this and this together. I always love chicken with a tangy taste. It opens up the appetite. Hmmm ... maybe it's not such a good ideas. :P

Ingredients:

• 8 Mid-joint wings or Drumlets
• Juice of 3/4 Lemon, save the 1/4 wedge of lemon
• 4 clove Garlic, pressed and chopped
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 tablespoon Chopped Rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

How to do it:

1. Marinate wings with lemon juice, garlic and Worcestershire sauce overnight.
2. Remove wings from marinade and pat dry.
3. Brush wing with olive oil.
4. Combine rosemary, salt and black pepper together.
5. Sprinkle the herb combination on the wings.
6. Roast on greased foil at 200C for 30 minutes.
7. Serve immediately with the remaining lemon wedge.

Seasoned (leftover) Fries 辣蒜粉调味薯条

My daughter and I had fast food after her Chinese Enrichment Class yesterday. I ordered a little too much and the fries were left almost untouched. Maybe, it was bland and soggy? :P

I didn't want to waste it and brought it home. I sprinkled on some spice and bake it. It turned out slightly crispy on the outside and they tasted so much better. My husband finished them and told me, we I should always do this with fries next time. O.o

What I added to the fries were Paprika, Garlic Powder, Parmesan Cheese, Dried Parsley and Salt (optional). Toss them to mix well before baking it at 180C for around 10 minutes, depending on the leftover fries. Mine was soggy, hence I baked it longer.

Next time, when you want to toss away the pack of bland or soggy fries, try savaging it by doing this instead. :)

Roasted Parmesan Wings

Like the Spice Wings, this is also one of my cooking experiments on wings. Compared to the Spice Wings, some might prefer this as the ingredients used here is much lesser, especially so you don't use spice often.

You will like this if you like cheese. I didn't use salt to season the wings as the Parmesan cheese gave the wing the saltiness it needed. Not oil or butter is required to grease the wings or the baking sheet as there will be oil from the cheese and the wings.

I would recommend you roast these on rack rather than on baking sheet or foil as the part siting on the baking sheet will be sitting on the oil from the cheese and chicken. Hence, the cheese on the bottom part of the wings will not brown and will be soggy.  If you do not have a rack, make 2 strips of foil and place them below the wings to lift them up. That will do the trick. ;)

Ingredients:

• 6 Mid-joint Wings or Drumlets
• 6 tablespoon Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 tablespoon Ground Black Pepper
• 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt

How to do it:

1. Mix all ingredients except wings together.
2. Coat wings with cheese mixture.  You can do it by shaking the wing with the mixture in a zip-loc bag too.
3. Sit the wings in the cheese mixture for an hour.
4. Roast on rack at 180C for 45 minutes, depending on the size of the wings.
5. Turn the wings in-between roasting.
6. Increase the temperature to 200C and roast for another 5 minutes to brown the cheese in little, if desire.
7. Serve immediately.

Spice Wings

If you like cooking with spices, you gotta try this! This is one of my 3 'experiments' on wings and I got my husband's stamp of approval for this. Personally, I love it too. ;) Smells great!

Definitely will be making more of this. And a good option for bbqs too!

I have 2 more bags of wings sitting in 2 different marinades in the fridge. I'll be cooking them tomorrow. Hopefully, they will be as successful as these spice wings. I will share those recipes if they are.

Meanwhile, enjoy these!

Ingredients:

• 6 Mid-joint Wings or Drumlets
• 1 tablespoon Ground Cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1 teaspoon Curry Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Onion Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt

How to do it:

1. Mix all ingredients expect the wings together.
2. Coat wings with the spice mixture. You can do by shaking the wing with the spice mixture in a zip-loc bag too.
3. Sit the wings in the spice for an hour.
4. Grease foil and wings with olive oil sparingly.
5. Roast at 200C for 20 to 25 minutes, depending on the size of the wings.
6. Turn the wings in-between roasting.
7. Serve immediately.

Rice Paper Spring Roll

I was making meat patties for my son and had some ingredients left over. I used the ingredients combined with some others to made these 'spring rolls' using Vietnam rice paper.

It turned out rather nice and we actually preferred this than usual one using the spring roll skin. ;)

Ingredients:

• 100g Minced Pork/Chicken
• 60g Fish Paste (optional)
• 150g Small Prawn, cut into chunks
• 1-2 Fresh Red Chili, seed removed and chopped finely
• 1 tablespoon Chopped Coriander Stem part only
• 1/2 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• a pinch of Salt
• a dash of Pepper
• 8 pieces Vietnam Rice Paper
• Oil for frying

Dipping Sauce

• 2 tablespoon Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
• 1 tablespoon White Vinegar
• 2/3 tablespoon Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Fish Sauce
• Sprinkle Chopped Coriander Stem & Leaves

How to do it:

1. Mixed all ingredients for the spring roll except the rice paper and oil together.
2. Brush rice paper with water or wipe with a clean wet cloth.
3. When it's start to get softer, scoop some meat mixture on it and roll it up as you would do for a spring roll.
4. Deep fry till golden brown.
5. Drain on paper towels.
6. Combine ingredients for dipping sauce.
7. Stir till sugar is disolved.
8. Serve dipping sauce with the fried spring roll.

Note:

• Do not stack the spring roll together as they will stick together.
• Likewise, do not crowd the pot when frying the spring roll as they will also stick together.

Egg, Bacon & Cheese Flan

Okay, it's actually not a flan. It's egg dish dressed up to look like a flan. :P

It's another variation of the usual egg and bacon/ham that we like for breakfast. Except this version is less oily. You can have it as it is or serve it with bread, as a sandwich.

Ingredients:

• 3 slice Streaky Bacon
• 2 Eggs
• 2-3 tablespoon Grated Parmesan Cheese
• Butter
• Sprinkle of Dried Parsley
• Salt and Ground Black Pepper to taste

How to do it:

1. Spread butter around an oven proof dish.
2. Cut streaky bacon into smaller piece.
3. Either scatter around or lay around the side of oven proof dish.
4. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 15 minutes.
5. Remove and crack 2 eggs into dish.
6. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Top with Parmesan cheese and parsley.
8. Place oven proof dish in a tray.
9. Fill water in the tray to reach 2/3 of the dish.
10. Continue to bake for 15 minutes or till egg is set.
11. Remove and serve immediately.

Note:

• It is better to bake the egg in water. It is to prevent the egg from becoming tough and rubbery.
• You can use ham instead of bacon. If using ham, it's not necessary to bake it first.
• Go easy with the salt as bacon and cheese are used here.

Nitamago aka Lava Egg Part 2

In my last post on Lava Egg aka Nitamago, I mentioned that I'll be sharing how I 'colour' my lava eggs.

This is very much like the Chinese braised egg 蓾蛋 except you don't cook the eggs in the marinade cos you want to retain the runny egg yolk and not to harden it. You just keep the egg in the marinade and let the marinade slowly do its work.

I have only marinated the egg you see here for 3 hours. If you want the brown hue to penetrate more into the egg white, you have to keep the egg in the marinade for at least a day.

Marinade for 2 Lava eggs:

• 5 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 3 tablespoon Water
• 3 tablespoon Mirin
• 2 tablespoon Brown Sugar
• 1/5 teaspoon Superior Dark Soy Sauce (optional)

How to do it:

1. Combine all ingredients in a pot and bring to a simmer.
2. Once sugar has melted, let the marinade cool completely.
3. Place 2 lava eggs in a zip-loc bag and carefully pour the marinade into it.
4. Carefully squeeze all the air in the zip-loc bag out (ie, no air pockets) so the eggs will be completely in marinade.
5. Marinate for at least 3 hours or overnight.
6. To serve, drain eggs from marinade and cut into half.

Note:

• If you have problem squeezing out the air of the zip-loc bag, just let it be. You just need to shake/turn the eggs occasionally so the eggs will be evenly coated and tinted with the marinade.
• If you marinate the eggs overnight in the fridge, bring out of the fridge at least 1/2 hour before serving so it will not be too cold. Unless you don't mind eating cold eggs.
• I paired it with Shoyu based Ramen.

Lava Egg Part 1

Last week, Astin, a diner left a message in my chat box asking if I could share how to make hard boiled egg but with a soft york.

Some might see this egg served in some Japanese Ramen Restaurant. Some restaurants call this lava egg.  It does looks like oozing lava. ;)  It's commonly known as ni-tamago anyway.

I know of one restaurant that charges S$1.50 for an egg!! After reading this, you won't be paying even 50cents for it. :P Buy a dozen eggs and make it at home yourself instead.

It's not as difficult as you thought it might be. The important thing to it is timing. Here's what I did.

60g refrigerated eggs, ie, cold eggs, are used here. Boil a pot of water enough to cover the eggs. Reduce heat so that the water is just bubbling. This is important as you do not want the eggs to 'jump' in the process and get cracked. Use a spoon to place the eggs into the bubbling water carefully. Let them cook for 7 minutes, uncovered.

Prepare a bowl of ice water. Remove the eggs immediately and plunge in the ice-cold water. This helps to stop cooking. Remove after a minute and gently tap the shell with a spoon. Carefully remove the shells and cut it open to see the results. Voila! Your $1.50 lava egg! Well, not exactly. You need to season and 'colour' it first, which I will share in my next post. ;)

In the meantime, enjoy your plain S$1.00 lava egg. :)

Caramelized Pork Rib 焦糖排骨

This one of my all-time favourite. My husband said it looks like the Roasted Ribs 红烧排骨 that one of the stalls sells in the coffeeshop at my place. ;)

I have made this less dry and without the 'burn' bits we all like. It's with a coating of sweet caramelized sweet sauce instead.

Ingredients:

• 700g Meaty Pork Ribs, slightly fatty preferred
• Sesame Seeds, optional

Marinade:

• 5 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 4 tablespoon Brown Sugar
• 3 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Wine
• 2 tablespoon Apple Cider
• 2 tablespoon Tomato Sauce
• 40ml Water 

How to do it:

1. Place ribs in a deep baking dish with the marinade.
2. Cover with foil and bake at 190C for 1 1/2 hours.
3. Bast with sauce in-between baking.
4. Remove ribs and place on a rack. Retain sauce.
5. Bast generously with the sauce and continue to bake for another 10 minutes.
6. Repeat twice.
7. Sprinkle roasted sesame seed and serve immediately.

Note:
I cut the slab of rib individually. You can cook using the whole slab of ribs instead if you like.

French Bean with Salted Egg Yolk 四季豆炒咸蛋黄

This is my husband and my favourite dish and we will always order this if it's available when we dine out.  However, it super sinful for it's high cholesterol from the salted egg yolks.

If you are not afraid of the high cholesterol, try this. You can either sliced the french beans or leave it as it is. And if you prefer to be able to bite into bigger bits of the salted yolks, you can chop it instead of smashing with a folk

Ingredients:

• 500g French Bean, top and tips removed
• 2 Salted Egg Yolk
• 1 tablespoon Cooking Oil
• Salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Sliced the french bean diagonally or leave it as it is.
2. Steam the salted egg yolk till cooked.
3. Smash the yolks.
4. Heat oil in wok.
5. Stir fry french beans till just cooked. You'll see the colour of the french beans changed to a deeper green.
6. Stir in the smashed egg yolks.
7. Toss to mix well.
8. Add salt to taste.
9. Dish and serve.

Note:

• I cook the whole salted eggs, like how to do hard boiled eggs.  I remove the yolk from the hard boiled salted egg. I find it less messy this way.
• If you want it more creamy, switch step 5 and step 6. Add 2 tablespoon Evaporated Milk and stir in the smashed egg yolks. After which your return the cooked french bean to toss well.

Fish Tofu with Assorted Veggies 鱼肉豆腐炒什菜

This is one dish that have everything that the family will like. Sometimes, I'll change the vegetables and it's looks like a new dish for the kids.  The main item here is the fish tofu, which will need a bit work but trust me, the kids even adults will like it.

If you are unable to get ready made fish paste, you can make your own. My suggested recipe is here. I'm lucky that there's a stall selling Yong Tau Foo 酿豆腐 in the wet market at my place here. I can buy just the fish paste from them, which in my opinion far more better than those sold in supermarket.

Ingredients:

• 150g Fish Paste
• 1 tube Egg Tofu
• 1 clove Garlic, minced
• 8 Fresh Shitake Mushroom, sliced
• 12 Sweet Peas, tips removed
• 1/2 Carrot, sliced
• 6 tablespoon Broth
• Salt to taste
• Oil for frying
• Cornflour mixture (thickener), optional

How to do it:

1. Squeeze the tofu out of the tube.
2. Mix the smashed tofu with the fish paste.
3. You can add a dash of pepper if you like.
4. Oil a deep dish on all sides well.
5. Pour the tofu fish paste in the dish and level it.
6. Cover with foil and steam for 15 minutes or till cooked.
7. Carefully turn the dish over when it's cooled to let the fish tofu will drop to the foil.
8. Cut the fish tofu into thick equal blocks.
9. Pan fry the fish tofu on all sides till lightly browned.
10. Remove and set aside.
11. Using the same wok, add oil if necessary.
12. Add in sweet peas and stir fry till just done.
13. Dish and set aside.
14. Still using the same wok, add garlic and saute garlic till fragrant.
15. Add in sliced mushroom and carrot.
16. Stir fry till almost cooked.
17. Add in fish tofu, sweet peas and broth.
18. Bring to a boil and season with salt.
19. Gradually stir in cornflour mixture to thicken the sauce if you like.
20. Dish and serve immediately.
    

Shark's Fin Melon Soup with Sweet Corn 鱼刺瓜玉米汤

Both my kids have rather different taste. Usually if one like a soup, chances are, the other doesn't. *faint* Although, I still force ask them to drink it whether they like it or not (cos I spend hours making them), I'll still continue to experiment to get just an additional soup that both will like.

My son loves Shark's Fin Melon soup, so you guess it. My daughter doesn't. I tweaked my original recipe little by adding corn here for the sweetness.

Results ... I don't have to force her to drink it but she didn't quite like it either. Haiz .... Maybe, you'll like this version?

Ingredients:

• 1.2 litre Water
• 800g Shark’s Fin Melon, skin and seeds removed and cut into chunks
• 250g pork ribs
• 8 red dates
• 1 piece Dried Octopus
• a handful Wolfberries
• 1 Sweet Corn, cut to chunks
• Salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Blanch pork ribs.
2. Add all ingredients except wolfberries and salt to a pot of water.
3. Bring it to a boil.
4. Reduce heat and continue to simmer for another 3 hours.
5. Add wolfberries 30 minutes before cooking ends
6. Add salt to taste.
7. Serve.

French Bean Salad

This dish is meant to be a side dish for my husband's salmon dinner. He was held up with work and could only return way pass dinner time. Hence, he skipped dinner and had something light (as supper) when he got home.

I added sliced shallot and ate it myself instead. If you are like my husband, who dislike shallot, just leave that out. Try using thinly sliced celery instead. ;)

Ingredients:

• 400g French Beans, top and tails removed and sliced
• 1 - 2 Shallot, sliced thinly (optional)
• Salt and Ground Black Pepper to taste

Dressing to mixed well:

• 1 1/2 tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
• 1 teaspoon Sugar

How to do it:

1. Blanch sliced french bean for 5 minutes or till cooked but still crunchy.
2. Drain and rinse in cold water.
3. Drain well.
4. Toss french bean with dressing to mix well.
5. Add shallot, salt and ground pepper.
6. Toss gently.
7. Serve as side.

Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic 蒜蓉奶油蘑菇浓汤

This soup was inspired by Campell's canned soup of the same name. :P

If you like that soup, you'll be surprised how easy it is to make it at home and I dare say, tastier. ;P

Basically, it a combo of Cream of Mushroom and Roasted Garlic but I have tweak my Cream of Mushrooma little here.

Ingredients:

• 200g Brown/White Button Mushroom, chopped
• 100g Shitake Mushroom, sliced
• 15g Butter
• 300ml Chicken Broth
• 250ml Whipping Cream
• Salt to taste
• 1 to 2 tablespoon Roasted Garlic

How to do it:

1. Saute sliced shitake mushroom with 1/2 the butter till absorb the butter.
2. Dish and set aside.
3. Using the same pan, saute the chopped button mushroom with the remaining butter till it sweat.
4. Pour mushroom into the blender.
5. Add the broth.
6. Blend till desired consistency.
7. Pour into a pot.
8. Add in the previously cooked shitake mushroom and roasted garlic.
9. Bring to a simmer.
10. Stir in the whipping cream.
11. Simmer till garlic has soften.
12. Serve.

Note:

• You can use either white or brown or both button mushroom.
• Do consider adding Portobello Mushroom too. It makes the soup's flavour richer. It's slightly more expensive though.

Roasted Garlic 烘蒜蓉

My family except my husband loves garlic I will put lots of garlic in my cooking, if my husband is not eating, because the kids always fight for it. :)

They especially like fried garlic and and onion too! I always make these two items and sometimes ginger shreds.  I stock them up as you can add them to almost any food. Or for my kids, eat them as it is. :P

I prefer to oven roast minced garlic. It's less oily and you can keep it longer as they are much drier than if you fried them in oil. I can also removed those that have turned brown and let the others continue roasting. If you fry them in oil, you can't do that.

I spray some oil on my tray, spread the garlic and spray a little oil over the garlic. It's much easier if you use the oil spray but if you don't have one, you can use a brush to brush the tray then toss the garlic with the oil before spreading them flat. Just use enough oil to spread the tray so the garlic doesn't stick to it. You don''t need a lot of oil for this.

I roast it at 180C for a totally 20 minutes but checking in-between to give it a stir and spread them flat again so they will brown evenly and to remove those that have browned. You won't have this problem if your minced garlic are about the same size. With my 'kungfu', my minced garlic are still not quite uniform.  Hence, I need to do the in-between picking. :P

The roasted garlic will turn out very dry, crunchy and not oily at all. The minus point is it takes a much longer time to do it compare to oil frying.

I'll be using these for my next post, Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic. :)

Steamed Egg Custard with Clams 蛤蜊蒸蛋

I bought a kilogram of clams today to cook spicy clams.I decided to set aside 6 of them to steam them with eggs.

The clams I bought were rather big hence I only used 6 for 2 eggs as I don't want the egg custard to be only full of the sweetness of the clams.

However, you may add more if your like.  You can even remove half empty shell and steam using with the shell with the clam only. I prefer to use the whole clam for easy picking. =)

Ingredients:

• 6 Clams
• 2 Eggs
• 160ml Stock
• a pinch Salt

How to do it:

1. Soak clams in salted water to let it 'spit' out sand.
2. Steam clams for 10 minutes or till are slightly opened.
3. Remove clams and reserve liquid.
4. Beat egg lightly in a bowl
5. Add water and liquid from clams together
6. Mix well.
7. Sieve the egg mixture for smoother result.
8. Pour egg mixture in a dish and place clams in it.
9. Cover dish with foil.
10. Steam till egg is set
11. Serve.

Note:

• Timing for steaming depends on how deep your dish is. I divided my egg mixture into 2 single portions and steamed them for 10 minutes.
• Don't steam the clams for too long as you will be steaming them again with the egg mixture. The clams will be over cooked and will not be tender if you do so.

Black Bean & Lotus Root with Chicken Feet Soup 黑豆莲藕鸡脚汤

This is a combo of a few different soup - Black Chicken with Black Bean Soup, Chicken Feet with Peanut Soup and Lotus Root Soup with Peanut. With that, I now have a new soup that everyone at home likes.

The soup is dark due to the black beans but don't be deceived but it's outlook, ie, tinted chicken feet, ribs and even lotus roots. It's really light and sweet.

Ingredients:

• 200g Pork Ribs or Chicken Bones
• 8 Chicken Feet
• 200g Lotus Root, skinned and sliced
• 100g Black Beans, roasted for a minute on pan without oil
• 10 Red Dates, pitted
• 1 small piece Dried Cuttlefish, cut into strips
• 2 slice of Ginger (optional)
• 1.8 litre Water
• Salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Blanch chicken feet.and pork ribs/chicken bones.
2. Put all ingredients except salt in a pot of water.
3. Bring to boil then lower fire and simmer for another 3-4 hours.
4. Add salt to taste.
5. Serve.

Salted Yolk Prawns 咸蛋黄炒虾

This is definitely an once in a blue moon indulgence because of it's cholesterol. I used to make it more 'wet' by having more butter and salted yolk. I have cut-down on both items here for health reasons. Hence, it looks a bit dry here. Nonetheless, the taste is still the same.

Ingredients:

• 350g Prawns
• 2 Salted Egg Yolk
• 1 stem Curry Leaves
• 1 tablespoon Butter
• 2 tablespoon Evaporated Milk
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Sugar

Marinade:

• 1/2 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Sesame Seed Oil
• 4 tablespoon Corn Flour
• 1 Egg
• a dash of pepper

How to do it:

1. Trim off the legs, antenna and the sharp thingy on the head off the prawns. 
2. Slit the back of prawns, using either a kitchen scissor or knife. 
3. Devein and clean the prawns.
4. Marinate the prawns for 10 minutes.
5. Deep fry till 80% cooked. 
6. Drain well and set aside .
7. Meanwhile, steam the salted egg yolks for 10 minutes or till just done.
8. Smash cooked yolks.
9. Melt butter and add in curry leaves and fried till fragrant.
10. Add in salted yolks and evaporated milk and prawns.
11. Toss well quickly.
12. Add salt and sugar.
13. Stir till well combined.
14. Dish and serve immediately.