{ Egg in Toast } 土司蛋

Last month was examination month. Then we went for a short holiday when school closed for holidays. Hence the lack of post (I just realised that there isn't any post last month). That and the fact that I'm using my husband's (work) laptop now instead of our desktop. However, photos are all still being loaded in the desktop. Lots of work just to get a post out and I grew lazy to update :P

I will still try to not to be lazy and post more often :P  Here's a quick one for a start.

I'm sure many have try making this before. I used to do this on a frying pan but I didn't like the results. The bottom sometimes get burn and worst, the egg's not even cooked well on the top.

Quite sometime back I decided to do this using the oven instead and we all loved the results. The bread tasted better as you can spread it with butter or for my case, Garlic Spread. The egg is cooked just right and the best of all, the bottom of the bread is not burned either.

Try this if you have an oven. This is how I did it:

Ingredients:

• 1 slice Thick Bread
• 1 cold 60g Egg
• Butter or Garlic Spread

How to do it:

1. Use a cookie cutter to cut out a hole in the middle of the bread.
2. Spread butter or garlic spread on the top and the inside of the cut out hole.
3. Place on a piece of baking paper. I'm using Glad baking paper hence no greasing is required, You might have to grease light if you are using the normal baking paper.
4. Crack egg into the hole.
5. Toast in preheated oven at 200c for 3mins.
6. Reduce temperate to 180c and continue to toast for 4mins.
7. Remove from baking paper and serve.

Note:

• The first toasting using higher temperature is to set the egg a little so the bread at the bottom doesn't absorb too much of the egg.
• The second toasting using a lower temperature is to cook the egg further to desire doneness.
• Every oven work differently. If you find your bread getting too brown after the first toasting, you can shield the bread using a foil tent.
• Alternatively, you can lower the temperature and toast it longer.
• If you can't get thick bread, use regular thickness bread with a smaller egg. This is to prevent the egg from over-flowing from the hole.

Little Lunch Box #42 小饭盒

An over-dued post. I did this for my son before the school closes for the end-year holidays.

It had a slice of spam over each rice ball. I had the spam slightly toasted in the oven. I prepared grilled baby corn and crab stick for the sides.

In the red box were small tangerines and a pack of Jagabee's fries.

This was the last lunch box for the year. Not sure if the kids will want to continue bring lunch boxes to school next year.  We shall see. :)

{ Halloween Meal } 万圣节早餐

I prepared a sort of Halloween Lunch Box for my daughter and for my son, I prepared a Halloween meal for his lunch. He had breakfast for lunch. :P

It's just a very simple meal with ham, bacon, egg with garlic bread. And not so scary bunny apples.

Little Lunch Box #41 小饭盒

On Halloween, I made this a cat pretending to be Hello Kitty, dressing up like My Melody, for my daughter. :P Very lame. >.<

I was a last minute lunch box. She told me wanted pack lunch, so I just used whatever I had in the fridge and whatever ideas I can think of.

The 'Hello Kitty' was ham sandwich with cheese as the 'face'. The My Melody's ears hood (2 pieces) were lightly pan toasted with garlic spread. The flower was a piece of ham resting on bread. Before I pack it, I pinned all the parts down with spaghetti.

I also packed her favourite Edamame and added all the remaining ham and cheese used to make the sandwich to a beaten egg to make an egg roll for her.

Pan Fried Ribs with Rosemary 迷迭香煎排骨

This is one of the earlier dishes I did using the Happy Call Pan (HCP). Again, this was 'hidden' away in the draft folder till now. :P  Age's catching up. I'll be 41 on my coming birthday. :o Memory is failing. :p

I haven't been using my HCP much lately. Just too lazy. I have been letting the oven do most of the work. Perhaps I should use the HCP to make this dish again.

If remembered correctly, the ribs done with the HCP was rather juicy as compared to using the oven. However, I usually oven grill the ribs with the onions. It adds the sweetness of the onions to the ribs. I'm unable to do so with the HCP as it will burn the onion. The onions here is served as a side. Please omit it if you don't like it. I love onions though. ;)

Ingredients:

• 2 Pork Ribs
• 1 teaspoon Minced Garlic
• 1 sprig Fresh Rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon Dried Rosemary
• 1/2 Onion, sliced
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Marinade:

• 2 teaspoon Cooking Wine
• 1/2 teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Minced Garlic
• a pinch of Salt
• a dash of Pepper

How to do it:

1. Add ribs to marinade.
2. Set aside and let it marinate for 20 mins.
3. In the pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil.
4. Add in onions and half of minced garlic.
5. Saute fragant and onions are soften.
6. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Side aside.
8. Using the same pan, place the ribs and sprinkle rosemary over.
9. Covered the pan and cook for 2 mins on each side on medium low heat till just done.
10. To have the ribs more charred and brown, turn up the heat a little and pan fried each side well, uncovered.
11. Remove and serve with onions.

Note:

• Time required to cook the ribs depends on how thick/meaty the ribs are.
• You can use any cooking wine you like.

Sweet Pan Roasted Chestnut 炒糖栗子

This was in my draft folder since January this year! :P I might have thought that I have published it and this could be a duplicate. O_o

Roasted Chestnuts has always being my favourite and my sister's too I think. I couldn't resist buying if I see or smell it. I will follow the aroma to get to it! However, you don't get to see roasted chestnuts very often.

These homemade one can't beat those roasted with those small burned stones which help roast the chestnuts evenly. Nonetheless, this will do till I get my hands on the "professionally" done ones. ;)

Ingredients:

• 400g Raw Chestnut, washed, cleaned and dried
• 1 tablespoon Cooking Oil
• 100ml Water 
• 1-2 tablespoon White Sugar

How to do it:

1. Slit chestnut carefully with a sharp pointed knife to prevent 'explosions' during cooking.
2. Pan toast the chestnut on medium low heat for 5 mins to dry them.
3. Remove and toss chestnut in oil to coat evenly.
4. Return to pan and roast for 15 mins covered.
5. Remove the cover and stir regularly to prevent burning.
6. Meanwhile, melt sugar in water by simmering it.
7. Add sugar solution to the pan.
8. Continue to let the chestnuts to cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent burning (like me :P) until the water evaporates and the chestnuts are tender.
9. Peel and eat while it's hot!

Drunken Chicken with Herbs 当归醉鸡

This dish was inspired by a lady's cooking I saw on Instagram. I went ahead to tweak on some recipes I did before to do this.

I'm not someone who enjoys having a dish that is infused with wine (I get drunk :P). I just didn't quite like the strong wine taste. Hence, I cut down the used in wine. However, my husband finds it lack of wine. It wouldn't be called Drunken Chicken if didn't have enough wine in it. This chicken is still sober, he said. =_=|||

So, if you want a truly drunken chicken, do add more wine. :P

Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken Drumstick, deboned

Marinade:

• 4 stalk Spring Onion, only the white part, bruised
• 2 slice Ginger
• 1 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Wine (like 绍兴花雕酒)
• 11/3 teaspoon Salt

Seasoning:

• 300ml Chicken Stock
• 200ml Water
• 2 slice or 7g Angelica Sinensis Gui 当归, use as it is or grind into powder
• 6 Red Dates 红枣 
• 10g Wolfberries 枸杞子
• 100ml - 300ml Chinese Cooking Wine 绍兴花雕酒, add according to your preference
• Salt and Sugar to taste

How to do it:

1. Bring all except wine, salt and sugar, in seasonings to boil.
2. Reduce to a simmer and continue to simmer for 20mins.
3. Add salt and sugar to taste.
4. Add wine after the simmered seasoning has cooled.
5. Chill the seasoning for later use.
6. Meanwhile, flatten and tenderize the chicken using a mallet or the back of the knife.
7. Pat dry with paper towel before adding the marinade.
8. Marinate for at least 30mins.
9. Prepare a sheet of foil with baking paper for each piece of chicken.
10. Roll the chicken as tightly as possible.
11. Wrap with foil with baking paper inside.
12. Steam chicken roll for 25mins or till completely cooked.
13. Remove foil and baking paper.
14. Plunge steamed chicken rolls together with the sauce into the chilled seasoning prepared earlier.
15. Let it sit in the seasoning till completely cooled.
16. Refrigerate till chill or over night for better results.
17. Sliced and serve chill.

Note:

• If you would like to remove more alcohol in the wine (step 4), add wine together with the other ingredients when preparing the seasoning (step 1).
• Omit the Angelica Sinensis Gui 当归, Red Dates 红枣 and Wolfberries 枸杞子, if you want a non-herbal version of the drunken chicken. (I used it to help reduce the strong taste the wine has and to bring fragrance.)

Mini Sesame Balls 迷你芝麻球

I vaguely remembered having these when I was a little girl. I don't remember how it tasted like though.

After trying them out after so many years, I find that it's like eating the deep version of Muah Chee. It's sort of crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Sadly, It didn't bring back my childhood memories. :P

Ingredients:

• 250g Glutinous Rice Flour
• 20g All purpose/Plain Flour
• 1/3 teaspoon Vanilla Essence 
• 1 Egg, lightly beaten
• White Sesame Seed for coating
• Oil for deep frying

Sugar Solution:

• 80g White Sugar
• 140ml Water

How to do it:

1. Prepare the sugar solution by simmering the sugar in water till it dissolved.
2. Set aside to cool for later use.
3. Mix glutinous flour and plain flour together.
4. Add the sugar solution, vanilla essence and egg to the flour mixture.
5. Mix and knead into a smooth dough.
6. Roll dough about 5g-7g into a ball.
7. Coat with white sesame seeds.
8. Deep fry till golden brown.
9. Remove and drain on paper towel.

Little Lunch Box #40 小饭盒

My daughter has finally beginning to like fruits. She used to hate fruits. She would promised me to try to eat the fruits I packed for her but each time they returned with only a bite.

Recently, she has been asking for apples. It's a good start. I'm pushing my luck today by adding just a few grapes. Hopefully she will accept it.

The panda sandwiches are with choco spread. The fruit panda consists of apples and black grapes.

Little Lunch Box #39 小饭盒

I made 2 (kaya) sandwiches for my daughter. She wanted to have one after her school enrichment class and the other for recess.

I used 2 types of cheese. The orangy one is Cheddar and pale yellow is the regular Cheese singles. The rest of the parts were made out of seaweed.

Cheesy Meatball Soup 芝士肉圆汤

I was clearing some cheese and decided to use it on meatballs. I usually fried the meatballs but I wanted to do minimum cleaning, hence, I used the meatballs to make soup instead.

I'm not sure if people are acceptable with having cheese 'in' soup. I'm odd I guess. I kinda like it.

Ingredients:

• 100g Minced Chicken
• 100g Prawn, shelled and minced
• 100g Fish Paste
• 3 slice Cheese, cut into 4 pcs each
• a tablespoon Cornflour
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 litre Chicken Stock 
• Coriander and/or Spring Onions, chopped (optional)

How to do it:

1. Mix chicken, prawn and fish paste together.
2. Add chopped coriander to the paste if using
3. Season with pepper and salt.
4. Add cornflour and mix well.
5. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of paste onto your (clean) oiled palm.
6. Take a piece of cheese, cut it further into 4s and stack up.
7. Push cheese into the middle of the meat paste.
8. Fold in the paste so that it covers the cheese stack.
9. Shape it with your palms.  
10. Gently drop into boiling stock.
11. Bring soup to a simmer.
12. Cook till meat balls are well done.   
13. Add salt to taste.
14. Served with a dash of sesame oil.

Minestrone Soup with Garlic Toast 蒜茸土司配意大利杂菜

Minestrone is one of my favourite western soup. Usually I will add macaroni in it for my second meal and that makes a very filling meal. I'm using french loaf here to make the garlic toast as it will soften when it's dipped into the soup and it soak up the soup better then  bread or bun.

I have shared both the recipes for Minestrone and the Garlic Bread here before. For easy reference, I'm re-posting the recipes with minor tweaks for both recipes.


Minestrone Soup

Ingredients:

• 1.2 litre Chicken Broth
• 2-3 tablespoon Tomato Paste
• 1 stick Celery, diced
• 1 Potato, skinned and diced
• 1 Carrot, skinned and diced
• 1 Onion, skinned and diced
• 5 French Bean, diced
• 4-5 leaf Cabbage, chopped
• 2 teaspoon Dried Oregano
• 1 Bay Leaf
• Pepper and salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Heat a little oil and saute onion and celery till slightly soften.
2. Add in potato, carrot, french bean and cabbage.
3. Cook for a minute.
4. Add in the rest of the ingredients except for pepper and salt.
5. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
6. Simmer for 30 to 45 minutes till vegetables are tender.
7. Season with salt and pepper.

Note:

• Size of the veggies used, ie, potato, carrot and onion, depends on your preference. If you not going to eat much of the veggies, get smaller size veggies.
• Add more tomato paste if you prefer the soup to be to be thicker.

Garlic Toast

Ingredients:

• French Loaf, sliced
• 4 tablespoon Butter, Soften
• 16 clove Garlic
• 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder (optional)
• 1 teaspoon Dried Parsley (optional)

How to do it:

1. Preheat oven at 180C.
2. Cut the base (hard part) of garlic, leave the skin on.
3. Toast slice french loft and garlic for 12 mins.
4. Remove and set aside to cool.
5. Squeeze the garlic out from the skin and smash into paste like.
6. Add the garlic to the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
7. Spread on toasted sliced french loaf.
8. Toast for 10 to 15 mins.

Note:

• Pre-toast the french loaf to make it dry so it will stay crunchy.
• Time required depends on how thick the slices are.
• Toast it again if you feel that it's still soft in the middle.
• Store un-used french loaf in air-tight container till stated expiry date.
• You can grate fresh garlic into paste like instead of toasting it if you like.
• You can also mix some Parmesan Cheese to the Garlic Mixture.

Seafood Egg Drop Soup 海鲜蛋花汤

 Something easy that I cook very often. It's a very versitile, quick and easy soup. You can change the ingredients if you like.

The idea here is to stock up of homemade stock so you can always have home cook soup in minutes. You can always get store bought stock if you are really hard pressed for time.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 litre Chicken Stock
• 2 Egg, lightly beaten
• 1 small can Button Mushroom, sliced
• 1 handful Frozen Pea, thawed
• 5-6 stick Imitation Crab-stick, cut in 3 pieces each or sliced length-wise
• Pepper and Salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Put all ingredients except pepper and salt, in a pot.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Stir in beaten eggs.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Note:

• You can also stir in corn flour mixture to thicken it too.

Coco Chocolate Chip Cookies

Just a quick post to let you know this blog hasn't closed. :P

Haven't been actively updating due to a few reasons. My PC is giving me lots of problems, though not as much as the amount of problems my son has given me, which caused me to nose bleed again. :/ I'm serious.

It happened last year and I had some parts of the blood vessels cauterised. This time, I'm 'smarter'. Shut my eyes and ears as much as I can, while I can, so as not to get too worked up. So, minimum bleeding this time. After a month, finally it shows no signs of continuation. So, I'm good for now.

Anyway, that made me 'gave up' updating for a while. I'm just not in the mood to do anything. Can't do much with one hand pinching the nose most of the time anyway. :P

So, while both my hands are free, here's one that I did for Teachers' Day.


Ingredients:

• 200g Butter, soften
• 200g Brown Sugar
• 2 Eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
• 200g Chocolate Chips
• 30g Corn Flour
• 220g Self Raising Flour
• 25g Cocoa Powder

How to do it:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Cream butter and sugar till pale and creamy.
3. Add in eggs and vanilla essence and beat well.
4. Fold in shifted flour and cocoa powder.
5. Fold in chocolate bits.
6. Scoop spoonfuls of mixture ( on tray lined with baking paper or pipe on baking paper.
7. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, depending on size of cookie, until lightly golden.
8. Cool completely on wire racks before storing in air-tight containers.

Little Lunch Box #38 小饭盒

My daughter wasn't feeling well and requested I made her porridge for her to eat during recess.

I made porridge with dried scallops. The sides are all her favourites. There are egg rolled with seaweed and crabstick, lightly saute button mushroom with tiny bit of oyster sauce, blanched petite green peas and sweet corn.

Little Lunch Box #37 小饭盒

Was in a super bad mood after receiving a call from my son (who was in school). I shall not go into details as it will just make my already foul mood worst. >:(

After that, everything doesn't seems to go well with my lunch box making. >:( I kept tearing the sun's ray made using egg. I couldn't roll the egg roll to form the flowers (yes, those 2 were suppose to look like flowers). It keep falling apart. The snails didn't have proper eyes and missing the antennas. :/

This was the best I could do, after eating lots of leftover and 'spoiled' food. I don't think I can eat anymore. Neither do I want to eat anymore.

I need happy food now. :P

Lotus Root Soup with Peanut 花生莲藕排骨汤

As mentioned in one the the earlier post on #cookforfamily, I'll be sharing the soup that I have prepared for that meal.

This is one of the family's all time favourite soup. I'm pairing the Lotus Roots here with peanuts. Another of our favourite pairing is with Cranberry Beans (珍珠豆).

I'm re-posting this recipe here as the older post I shared some time back is missing the photo. :( Blogger got hungry and 'ate' up the photos in my blog from year 2006 to 2007. I still have a year's posts that's missing the photos which I'm finding time to add them back to the post.

If you come across posts, especially post from the 2 years mentioned, you will see a blank black patch. There's no problem with your browser or my blog. It's just missing. :/

Enjoy this soup while I find time to reload the missing photos. ;P

Ingredients:

• 300g Pork Ribs
• 1 section Lotus Roots (about 400g)
• 80g Peanuts
• 1 pieces Dried Octopus
• 8 Dried Red Dates, pitted
• 1.8 litre Water
• Salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Blanch the pork ribs in boiling water for 5 min then remove.
2. In a new pot of water, add in all ingredients except salt.
3. Bring it to boil and turn down fire.
4. Continue to simmer for 3 hours.
5. Add salt to taste.
6. Serve.

Little Lunch Box #36 小饭盒

Another simple lunch for the kids. This mum is getting lazy. :P

I bought the fishy 'fish cake' and the squarish 'fish tofu' from the wet market's yong tau foo stall. I sliced them into half, steamed them and use them to top the rice that's mixed with furikake. Those in the middle are sausages, by the way.

I bought them miso soup too to go with these. ;)

Fruit Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette 柑橘香醋水果沙拉

A few days ago, someone send me a message asking for a fruit salad suggestion. We exchanged messages on it and I couldn't stop thinking about it after that.

I think the fruit salad with the dressing I suggested should work but I had to try it out just to make sure. Cannot 'sabo' people right? :P Later, it taste horrible, how? :P

Since I had all the ingredients for the dressing and lots of fruits (that I'm trying to clear), I went ahead to try it.

Everything was ok except the dressing smelt a bit strong of the apple cider it had. So I added mint leaves. It helped only a bit but it wasn't as bad when it's added to the salad. It actually goes well with the fruits.

Was a relief for me after that. :P So, note to self, no more kaypo-ness suggestion from me unless I have tried it. :P

These are what I have in the salad bowl:

• Lettuce
• Alfalfa spouts
• Cherry Tomatoes, halved
• Seedless Red Grapes, halved
• Blueberries
• Rock Melon, scooped using melon baller
• some Orange sacs, optional

The ingredients for the Vinaigrette Dressing, to be chilled before use, are:

• 1/2 tablespoon Olive Oil
• 2 tablespoon Orange Juice (either freshly squeezed or store-bought)
• 1/2 tablespoon Apple Cider
• Juice from 1 Lime Juice
• Fine sugar to taste 
• 5 Mint Leaves, crushed (removed before serving)

 

Little Lunch Box #35 小饭盒

I haven't been feeling well for the whole of this week. So, I did a very quick and easy fried rice with egg for the kids' lunch box today.

All ingredients are easily bought from the market. My daughter's pink lunch box has lots of fried garlic (her favourite) with the fried rice as well as egg.

Cooking a perfect looking egg 煎一粒漂亮的荷包蛋

Last week I shared my dinner shots (below) on Facebook, some of my friends asked how I manage to cook it this way.

The egg white is soft, has no hard and brown bits, not rubbery and not oily. The egg yolk is runny like soft-boiled egg. ;)

My kids hate eating sunny side up (fried egg) that is hard at the bottom and the egg yolk dry. You won't get that with the eggs I do. ;)

I got to admit that I learned this little trick from a tv program many years ago and have since never fry an egg the usual way. What you need is just an extra tablespoon of water!

Interested to do it too? You don't have to wait further. Today, I'm going to share with you what I have learned; and with a video too!

The video is at the end of this post but first, here are the details and instructions:

Items needed:

• a non-stick pan with cover or lid
• 1/2 tablespoon (or lesser) Cooking Oil
• a piece Paper Towel
• 1 Egg (I'm using 60g refrigerated egg)
• 1 tablespoon Water

How to do it:

1. Use low heat. The pan should not be smoking at any time. *1
2. Add the cooking oil and swirl to coat pan.
3. Use a paper towel to remove excess oil and at the same time coat pan well with oil. *2
4. Crack egg onto the middle of the pan.
5. Let the egg cook for 40 seconds, still on low heat. *3
6. Tilt the pan a little. If more egg white spread out, let it cook a few seconds more. The thicker part of the egg white around the egg yolk will still remain raw. *4
7. Add water and cover the pan.
8. Let it cook for 45 seconds. *5
9. Remove cover.
10. Dish out and serve.

Note:

1. I'm using the highest heat on the inner small ring on my stove.
2. The idea is to coat the pan well with oil so the egg doesn't stick. We are not using the oil to fry the egg.
3. The timing used is according to the egg used. If you are using smaller or unrefrigerated egg, please shorten the time.
4. This is a little test to check if you are ready to add water. If the outer egg white (not the thick part near the egg yolk) is half cooked, it will spread when water in added and it will look ugly. Imagine egg drop soup :P
5. If you want the egg yolk more cooked, cook a few seconds longer.

And here's the video ...

Black Pepper Crawfish with Fried Garlic 蒜香黑胡椒小龙虾

As mentioned in this post, I'll be sharing the recipes that I have cooked for my family in July.  This is one of the 3 dinners I have cooked in July for the #cookforfamily, as seen below.

Well, I cooked almost everyday for my family, except it's not an everyday thing that we are able to eat together. We had dinner together on 3 occasions in July and this happened to be one of of the 3.

What we had on that dinner, were:

• Steamed Tofu with Prawns
• Sweet and Sour Squid
• Lotus Roots Soup with Peanut, which will be shared on a separate post.
• Black Pepper Crawfish with Fried Garlic, which is what I'll be sharing in this post

This is a remake of an older recipe I shared in 2007. I tweaked it a little to add roasted garlic to make it more fragrant.

You can find the recipe for the roasted garlic here. You can use fried garlic too if you are unable to make roasted garlic. It works the same. You can use crabs instead of crawfish if you like.

Ingredients:

• 3 Crayfish, scrub to clean and chopped in half
• 3 tablespoon Butter
• 2 Red Chilli, seeded and finely chopped
• 4 tablespoon Black Pepper, crushed
• 1/2 tablespoon Minced Garlic
• 1 tablespoon Minced Onion
• 1 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• 2 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Wine
• 1/2 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 5 tablespoon water
• 2 teaspoon Sugar
• 3 tablespoon Roasted or Fried Garlic
• Cornflour for dusting
• Oil for frying

How to do it:

1. Dry-fry black pepper till fragrant.
2. Remove and set aside.
3. Pat dry the crayfish and dust with flour
4. Deep fry till golden brown
5. Heat wok, add the butter.
6. When the butter has melted and begins to sizzles, add the garlic, onions and chilli and stir fry fragrant.
7. Add the oyster sauce, light soya sauce, sugar, pepper and cooking wine.
8. Mix well.
9. Add in the water.
10. Add the crawfish and stir fry on high heat till the sauce has dry.
11. Spinkle the roasted or fried garlic.
12. Toss to coat well.
13. Dish and serve.

Note:

• You can add some curry leaves when you are frying garlic and onion to add fragrance.
• Remove when the leaves turn dark green and are crispy. Add them only at the end for garnishing.

Frog Leg with Ginger and Scallion 姜葱田鸡脚

Some may consider frog legs as an exotic food. In some Asian Countries, it is a rather common dish.

It tasted like chicken. However, if you over cook it, it will become very chewy and tough and almost impossible to swallow.

I remember my mother and auntie used to bring me and my brother out for dinner and they will order this. They said, eating frog leg nourishes and strengthen our legs. Frogs being great jumpers ... get it? ;P

If you like to have strong legs, maybe you would like to try it? ;p

Ingredients:

• 3 Frogs, skinned, cleaned and chopped into smaller pieces
• 2 sprig Scallion aka Spring Onion, chopped into sections
• a small knob Ginger, juvenile
• 1 clove Garlic, smashed but not minced
• 2 tablespoon Cooking Oil
• Salt to taste
• Cornflour with water mixture (thickener)

Marinade:

• 1 tablespoon Corn Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
• 1/2 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Wine

Seasonings:

• 1 teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Wine
• 200ml Water

How to do it:

1. Marinate frog with marinate for at least half an hour.
2. Heat oil and saute white part of spring onion, garlic and ginger till fragrant.
3. Add in frog parts while stir-frying.
4. Stir-fry for about a minute till almost cooked
5. Add in the seasoning.
6. Simmer for 5 minutes.
7. Gradually stir in the thickener to the consistency you like.
8. Add salt to taste, if necessary.
9. Add in the remaining spring onion.
10. Stir well and serve immediately.

Note:

• If you want more sauce, add more water and adjust the seasonings accordingly.
• Add 1 or 2 de-seeded fresh red chilli in step 2 if you want it spicy.

Sweet and Sour Squid for #CookForFamily Initiative

Daniel from Daniel's Food Diary started the #CookForFamily initiative with the main objective of getting more bloggers and their readers to start cooking. I'm glad to be part of it.

I don't know about you but for me, I treasure each time my family is able to eat together. My husband has long working hours and usually reached home past 8pm. So we can hardly eat as a family.

Each time, he is able to come home earlier for dinner, I will try to cook more dishes. Dinner or any meal times together is another great way for family bonding.

This is one of the dinners I have prepared for my family for the month of July. One of the 3 days in the whole of July that we were able to eat as a family. :)

 

For this dinner, we had:

• Mushroom Egg Drop (thickened) Soup
• Steamed Snapper with Cordyceps Militaris
• Blanched Kai Lan with Soy Sauce
• Sweet and Sour Squid (Please refer to the recipe at the end of this post)

The photos below are what we had for the other 2 dinner we had as a family. :) I'll be sharing the recipes in later posts.

Cooking for your family doesn't restrict to dinner. It can be breakfast, lunch or even tea or supper. Cook for that special person or persons in your life to show appreciation for what he, she or they have done for you. Hopefully they too appreciate what you have prepared for them because nothing beats home-cooked food. :)

You can set aside once a week for home cooked meals if you really can't find the time. Perhaps on a Sunday?

One of the breakfast I made for the family on a Sunday was on eggs. It was so good to be able to sit down together to enjoy the breakfast each of us liked.

Well, mine was the omelette set on the bottom right, which was done with all leftovers used for the rest of the set. :P Not a personal favourite but it's the company I enjoyed and the happy faces on my family's faces that I looked for. :)

I cook several times a day. My daughter is studying in the afternoon session. We will meet her lunch kaki for lunch every Thursday. ;)  Other than that, I will make lunch for her before she goes to school. This is one of her lunches I did for her.

My son is in the morning session. Likewise, I will make lunch for him when returns home from school. Usually, not "proper meal" as in rice or noodle. Just food he like and can fill him, like the burger below. :)

If you have been following my blog, you should know that I only pick-up cooking when my elder son was close 3 years old. :P My son is in P4 this year, you go do the calculations. :P

If you think cooking is difficult, cooking is time consuming, start with something easy. You can't go wrong with salad! That can't be difficult or time consuming, right? :)  If I can do it, you can too! :)

I do hope that this #CookForFamily initiative,will get more people to start cooking for their family. If you are reading this, why not pick a date to do it? Soon I hope! :)

Now for the recipe I'm sharing, Sweet and Sour Squid 酸甜花枝, a quick and easy dish.

Ingredients:

• 2 Squid, cleaned, scored and sliced into smaller pieces
• 2 Shallot
• 2 glove Garlic
• 2 slice Ginger
• 1 fresh Red Chilli, de-seed and diced

Seasonings:

• 1/3 tablespoon Apple Cider or White Vinegar
• 2/3 tablespoon Sugar
• Salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Blanch squid till just cooked. It should under a minute.
2. Drain squid and reserve 5 tablespoon of water used to blanch squid, more if you like more sauce.
3. Meanwhile, grind shallot, garlic and ginger together.
4. Heat wok with oil.
5. Saute chilli and the spice mixture in step 3 till fragrant.
6. Add in the reserved water and seasonings to taste.
7. Bring to a simmer.
8. Turn off the heat.
9. Return cooked squid to the wok and toss to coat well with sauce.
10. Dish and serve.

Note:

• Adjust the taste to your liking. If you like it less sweet, add less sugar.
• Do not over cook the squid as it will turn chewy. Hence, remember to turn off the heat before adding the squid to the sauce.