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.

Little Lunch Box #34 小饭盒

It's another pink lunch box day. Yup! Sandwich Lunch Box again!.

I did a Spongbob Square Pants Sandwich for my daughter today. But! She couldn't tell it's Spongebob!! :\ She said it looked like a cracker with face!! LOL  I did the best I could. :P

If you are curious how I made the blue part of the eyes, I actually mixed a tiny drop of blue food colouring to some egg white and cooked. That did the trick. ;) The white part of the eyes and teeth are egg white. The pupil and the eye lashes are made from seaweed. The rest are cheese.

Little Lunch Box #33 小饭盒

I made burgers for the kids for their lunch in school today. It's Cheesy Chicken Burger.

My son's is having the hot dog bun on the left. I added 2 slices of his favourite bacon to the chicken patty. My daughter's the round burger on the right. Her has more cheese and no bacon.

I made an addition burger today. It's for a little girl who is also sitting with my kids for lunch but she is always having biscuit with water. Hope she likes it too.

{ Cheesy Chicken Burger } 芝士鸡肉汉堡

This is another easy burger. I tweaked the Chicken Burger with Corn and Cheese, I shared not too long ago.

This burger is more juicy because of the fish paste I have added. What you see on the burger is the Cheesy Chicken Patty with a slice of cheese and Caramelised Peppered Bacon.

Ingredients:

• 1 Chicken Breast Meat, minced
• 200g Fish Paste (optional); it will make the patty juicier
• 2-3 slices Cheese of your choice, diced (you can use any other shredded cheese.)
• a dash of Pepper
• Breadcrumbs or Panko
• Oil for frying

How to do it:

1. Mix minced chicken with fish paste together, if using.
2. Mix well with peper.
3. Sprinkle cheese and fold in till well mixed.
4. Scoop desired amount coat with breadcrumbs
5. Deep fry or shallow fry till golden brown.
6. Dish and drain on paper towel.
7. Serve as a burger or as it is.

Note:
Experiment with different type of cheese for different effect when biting into the burger. I'm just trying to clear the bits ad pieces of cheese leftover from making lunchboxes for my kids.