Dutch Apple Cake (Rachel Allen's recipe)

I first saw this in one of the food blogs and then head over to Rachel Allen's web to check out the recipe. It's a simple and nice cake. I love to arrange the apple slices on top of the cake. Only one thing, if you are baking on the lower rack of the oven you might need to bake ~5min using top heat in the last part of the baking to get the nice brown top :)

Packed these for hubby to share with his colleagues.



Old Cucumber Soup

Nice one, my mum said it has cooling properties. Not sure about that but a bowl of hot soup never fails to complete my meal.

Ingredients:
Old Cucumber (cut into chunks)
Dried Oyster (5-6pieces)
Red Dates (7-8 pieces)
Meat (chicken/pork bones is fine)
Salt
Water


Method:
1. Bring water to boil.
2. Add in all the ingrdients except salt. Simmer for at least 2 hours (use high heat for the first 30min, then turn to low heat). I used a slow cooker (used the "high" setting all the time). If using slow cooker, cook for at least 3 hours.
3. Season with salt.

Fried Rice with Fresh Corn

Here's another simple meal I cooked recently. It taste really good all because of the fresh corn!!! I don't know what you call that corn with 2 colours; white and yellow kernels but it's the more expensive type. It's not because I wanted to buy this but the seller ran out of the normal type, so I had to take this one. Anyway, it's very juicy and sweet, so no regrets.


Ingredients:
Cooked Rice
Carrot (diced)
Broccoli (cut into small pieces)
Fresh Corn
Dried Shrimps (soaked and chopped)
Garlic (chopped)
Shallots (sliced)
Dark Soy Sauce
Light Soy Sauce
Oil
Water-boiled


Method:
1. Heat oil in wok and saute garlic and shallots till fragrant.
2. Add in dried shrimps and stir fry till fragrant.
3. Add in carrot, broccoli and corn.
4. Season with light soy sauce.
5. Pour in rice and mix well.
6. Add in dark soy sauce and mix well.
7. Stir fry for 3-4min, adding water when it gets too dry.
8. Cook until corn is cooked (try it!) and add more light soy sauce to taste.
9. Serve hot.

Stir Fried Udon

It's has been such a long time since I have updated my cooking blog I almost forgot how to go about with the recipe. ;p After a long break from the kitchen, I've started cooking dinner almost everyday for the past 2 months. Yeap, I still enjoy working in the kitchen and it's still a way for me to de-stress :)

Here is a simple one dish meal. Saw some udon noodles in the wet market and thought of a stir fried version. Yummy!

Ingredients:
Udon noodles
Garlic (chopped)
Carrot (sliced)
Cabbage (cut into bite size)
Dried Mushroom (soaked till soft and cut into pieces)
Chicken Meat (cut into bite size)
Black Pepper
Light Soy Sauce
Salt
Oil
Water -boiled (if needed)


Method:
1. Heat oil in wok and saute garlic till fragrant.
2. Add in carrot and mushroom. Stir fry for 1min.
3. Add in cabbage and chicken meat. Stir fry for another min.
4. Season with some salt and light soy sauce. Sprinkle some black pepper.
5. Stir fry for 1 min.
6. Add in the noodles. Mix well. Stir fry for another 1-2min.
7. If too dry, add some water, otherwise, dish up and serve.

Chiffon Cake...again...after a long long time

In case you thought I have not only packed but sold my oven, NO, no, NO,...how could I??? :) The eggs had been staying in the fridge for a long time and it's time to get rid of them. So, what cake to bake if not chiffon since egg is the main ingredient for this cake. Since I still have some coffee powder as well, coffee chiffon it is!

See...my tall and lovely chiffon cake ;p Packed most of it for my MIL to bring back to Sg. Yes, I am still the old me. I love to bake but don't eat much of what I bake.

I am really hoping that I can start baking again...when can I have the next baking session??

All-In Muffin

You could be wondering what muffin I am talking about. Well, I am trying to clear my stock of baking ingredients and I tried to put in many different things into this muffin, thus the name "all-in". Hahaha.... I guess this will be my last bake before my little girl comes and hopefully I will be able to find some time to bake again very soon! These muffins are easy to make and it smells good!

If you do not have milk or for some reason coulnd't take milk, you can substitute it with soy milk. I just use about 3-4tbsp of soy powder and mix it with water. Works well!

Ingredients:

Plain Flour (2 cups)

Sugar (3/4 cup)

Salt (1tsp)

Baking Powder (3 tsp)

Poppy Seed (2-3 tbsp)

Egg (2)

Oil (1/4 cup)

Milk (1 cup)

Chocolate Chips

Red Cherries (chopped coarsely)

Toasted Walnut

Preheat oven at 200C

Method:

1. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and poppyseed in a bowl. Set aside.

2. Mix eggs, oil and milk evenly. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients mixture.

3. Mix till just combined.

4. Add in chocolate chips, cherries and walnut. Mix.

5. Spoon into lined muffin cups.

6. Bake for 25min or until cooked.

Chocolate Sponge Cake with Chocolate Chips

A very simple sponge cake with chocolate chips....taste even better after it's been cooled in the fridge :)

Ingredients:

Optima Flour (250gm)

Eggs (4)

Oil (80gm)

Water (50ml)

Cocoa Powder (3-4tbsp mixed with some water to form paste)

Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven at 180C

Method:

1. Beat flour with eggs till thick.

2. Add cocoa paste and water. Beat till light.

3. Fold in the oil. Mix well.

4. Fold in some chocolate chips (leave some to sprinkle on top).

5. Pour into a lined baking pan, sprinkle some chocolate chips and bake for 30min or until cooked.

Lettuce with Pork Floss

This is my fav way to cook lettuce because it's so easy and yet taste good. Hubby loves it too.

Ingredients:

Lettuce

Garlic

Oil

Light Soy Sauce

Water

Pork Floss

Method:

1. Boil water and blanch lettuce for about 1/2min or less.

2. Dish up on a plate.

3. Heat oil and saute garlic till it starts to brown.

4. Scoop up garlic and oil and pour onto the lettuce.

5. Drizzle 1tbsp of light soy sauce over the lettuce. Sprinkle pork floss over it.

6. Serve with rice.

Linguine in Mushroom Sauce

This is the first time I made pasta in this way and I think the result is satisfactory although hubby said it'll taste better with more black pepper or a bit of cheese. Anyway, we don't have cheese at home except sliced cheddar cheese, so maybe next time ;p The mushroom taste is not very strong and perhaps using button mushroom or some other type of mushroom would be better. Anyway, I like the thick sauce even though no cream is used (I prefer not to use any cream since it's very fattening ;p).

Ingredients:

Linguine (cooked per packet instruction)

Fresh shitake mushroom (sliced - can't remember how much I put in ;p)

Onion (sliced and cut into smaller pieces)

Salt

Black Pepper

Mixed Herbs (dried)

Milk (I used low fat milk - don't have cream at home ;p)

Chicken Meat (deboned and cubed)

Tomatoes (cubed)

Garlic

Oil

Water

Method:
1. Heat some oil and saute onion.
2. Put in about 1 cup of sliced mushroom and leave the rest aside.
3. Season with some salt, black pepper and mixed herbs. Dish up.
4. Pour milk into the blender. Add in the mushroom in 3. Blend well. Put aside.
5. Heat some oil and saute the garlic.
6. Add in chicken and stir fry with some salt and black pepper.
7. Pour in tomatoes and the remaining mushrom, stir fry for 1 min.
8. Pour in the blended mushroom sauce. Season with salt.
9. Cook till it simmers and sauce thickens.
10. Sauce is ready and you can just pour it on top of the cooked linguine.

Walnut Cupcakes

Still have some walnut left and not sure what to do with it, so this is the most simple solution ;p This yields about 10-11 cupcakes. Although the taste is not strong, the texture is good and walnuts gave it some crunchy bites.

Ingredients:

Self Raising Flour (190gm)
Milk Powder (2 tbsp)
Butter (150gm)
Sugar (130gm)
Egg (3)
Yoghurt (4tbsp)
Walnuts (toasted and roughly chopped)

Preheat oven at 180C

Method:
1. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add in egg one by one and beat well after each addition.
3. Add yoghurt and beat till combined.
4. In another bowl, mix self raising flour and milk powder evenly.
5. Add flour mixture into no. 3 and mix till combined.
6. Add in walnut and mix till combined.
7. Spoon into cupcake pan lined with liners. Bake for 25min or until cooked.

Banana Chocolate Chips Muffin

Ingredients:

Bananas (3-4 medium sized, mashed)

Sugar (1/2 cup)

Oil (1/3 cup)

Egg (1)

Plain Flour (1.5 cup)

Baking Powder (1tsp)

Baking Soda (1tsp)

Salt (1/2 tsp)

Chocolate chips (as much as you like??)

Preheat oven at 190C

Method:

1. Mix mashed bananas, sugar, oil and egg together. Set aside.

2. In another bowl, mix plain flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt evenly.

3. Pour the wet ingredients in 1 into the flour mixture and add in chocolate chips. Mix till combined.

4. Spoon into muffin cups and bake for 20-25min.

Dinner_21 March10

Here's what we had for dinner today :) I love these simple dishes. Hhmm...couldn't finish the pumpkin so might think of what to do with the leftovers tomorrow;p

Stir Fried Kailan with Garlic, Chicken Soup, Chicken and Vegetables Stew with Rosemary & Pumpkin and Mushroom with Fermented Black Beans.

Mango Chiffon Cake

This cake is very soft and nice to eat especially after it's cooled in a fridge, but unfortunately the mango taste is not strong. I don't want to put mango essence, so maybe will need to put in some very ripe mango or just add in more mango puree.

Ingredients:

A.

Egg Yolks (6)

Plain Flour (9 tbsp)

Mango Puree (2/3 of a mango - cut into small cubes, blend with 4 tbsp of water)

Sugar (1tbsp)

Oil (1tbsp)

B.

Egg Whites (6)

Sugar (6tbsp)

Corn Flour (1tbsp)

C.

Mango (cut remaining 1/3 of mango into small pieces)

Preheat oven at 170C.

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients in A together and leave aside first.

2. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites till soft peak forms.

3. Add in sugar and beat for 3min or so.

4. Add in corn flour and beat until the mixture becomes quite stiff. When you turn the bowl upside down, the mixture will not drop.

5. Take 1/3 of the egg white mixture and mix evenly with the mixture in A. Continue to mix 2 more times with the other 2 portions of 1/3 of egg whites mixture.

6. Add in C and mix well. Do not overmix.

7. Pour into a chiffon cake pan and bake for 50-55min.

8. Invert the cake once out of oven. Unmould when the cake is cool.

This cake is best eaten after being cooled in the fridge for a few hours.

Raisin and Walnut Cupcakes

This cake is very easy to make and yet the result is excellent. The cake is fluffy, moist and the aroma of the toasted nuts in the cake really makes me want a second piece of it. If you want to bake a simple and nice cake, I would say this is it.

You could bake it as one whole cake in a larger baking pan or in a loaf tin and even in cupcakes form. The baking would be longer though if you bake it as one cake.

Ingredients:

Butter (150gm)

Sugar (130gm)

Eggs (3)

Vanilla Essence (1/2 tsp)

Plain Yoghurt (5tbsp)

Self Raising Flour (190gm)

Milk Powder - you can use soy powder too (2tbsp)

Walnut (chopped coarsely and toasted)

Raisins

*For walnut and raisins, put as much as you like.

Preheat oven at 175C.

Method:

1. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

2. Add in egg one by one and beat till combined.

3. Add in vanilla essence and yoghurt. Beat till combined.

4. In another bowl, mix self raising flour and milk powder evenly.

5. Pour in the flour mixture into the wet mixture.

6. Mix evenly.

7. Add in raisins and walnuts.

8. Pour mixture into baking pan.

9. Bake for 30-35min (for loaf tin and cupcakes). You might need to bake longer if you bake it in a large pan.

Birthday Cake

I baked this cake for our monthly birthday celebration in the church. So, this is for March birthday babies :)
There is nothing special about this cake. It's made of 2 layers of cakes - vanilla and chocolate sponge, with chocolate frosting and some simple decoration (you can see I am quite hopeless when it comes to decorating a cake).

A friend called this a porcupine cake....with all the chocolate chips at the sides of the cakes. ;p

Coffee Walnut Butter Cake with Coffee Chips

The whole cake

Yum....this is great with a cup of hot coffee

Ingredients:
Butter (250gm)
Plain Flour (230gm)
Sugar (230gm)
Baking Powder (1tsp)
Coffee Paste (1.5 tbsp)
Eggs (5)
Walnut
Coffee Chips

Preheat oven at 180C

Method:
1. Cream butter and sugar till fluffy.
2. Add in eggs one by one and beat until it's mixed evenly.
3. Add in coffee paste and beat till it's mixed.
4. In another bowl, mix flour and baking powder evenly. Pour this into the wet mixture and mix till combined.
5. Add in some walnut and mix.
6. Pour into a lined baking pan.
7. Sprinkle coffee chips and walnut on top.
8. Bake for 45-50min or until cooked.

Stir Fried Bean Sprouts (Taugeh) with Chili and Dried Shrimps

A simple and tasty dish....

Ingredients:

Bean Sprouts

Dried Shrimps (soaked and chopped)

Chili

Garlic

Salt

Water

Oil

Method:

1. Heat oil and saute garlic till fragrant.

2. Add in dried shrimps and chili and stir fry till fragrant.

3. Add in bean sprouts. Stir fry over high heat for 1min.

4. Season with a little salt and add a bit of water.

5. Continue to stir fry over high heat for about 1/2min. Dish up and serve with rice.

Dried Vegetables Soup with Tofu

This is my brother's favourite soup and I remember whenever my mum asked him what soup to cook, this is the one he would choose. Hubby has not tried it before so I wanted to make this for him, to see if he likes it.
I love vege and soup, so this is quite a perfect combination for me. Good that hubby likes it too, especially the vegetables.

You can get the dried vege from supermarkets or even the wet market (same section where ikan bilis, dried shrimps, etc are sold).

Ingredients:
Dried Vegetables (soaked in hot water and washed clean, then chop them up)
Red Dates
Pork Ribs (best cooked with roasted pork ribs but couldn't get any from the market)
Tofu
Water
Salt

Method:
1. Bring a pot of water to boil.
2. Put in all the ingredients.
3. Cook for at least 2 hours. Season with salt and serve hot.

Birthday Dinner_9March10

Yesterday was hubby's birthday and we had an enjoyable time celebrating his birthday. Since I've got him his birthday gift weeks earlier, there's no more birthday gift for him on the actual day ;p

So, I took 1/2 the day off to cook him a nice dinner. No 9 course dinner la although that crazy thought did cross my mind. Haha....how in the world can we finish 9 dishes right....so, to be practical, just something that he likes lor.

Lettuce with garlic and soy sauce, Steamed Fish with bean paste & Baked chicken drumsticks

Herbal Chicken Soup

Lychee and Mango dessert

These were what we had for dinner last night and nope, I didn't manage to bake him a cake. At first I thought I'd bake a cake but then I'd have to buy lots of things to decorate the cake. That's something I try to avoid because I am trying to finish up my baking ingredients so that I can have some space in the fridge. The main reason is, I don't thinkI can cope baking a cake and cooking dinner on the same day. It's just too tiring for a fat woman like me now ;p

Since we had Bible study last night, I bought him a nice fruit cake with a chocolate sponge base to celebrate his birthday with the brothers from church. I made some lychee jelly too and bought some snacks. Overall, I think it's a meaningful way to celebrate birthday with loved ones :)

Sweet Preseved Radish (Choy Pou) Omelet

My mum used to cook this whenever we had porridge because the saltiness and sweetness from the preserved radish goes really well with plain porridge. I love this omelet though if you eat it on its own, it can be very salty. We had this for lunch sometime back together with stir fried spinach with carrot and chicken curry.

Ingredients:

Eggs

Preserved Sweet Radish (cut into small pieces)

Pepper

Oil

Method:

1. Heat a little oil and stir fry the radish.

2. Beat eggs with a little pepper.

3. Pour egg mixture onto the radish. Let the egg cook till it sets.

4. Turn the egg and cook the other side.

5. Dish up when both sides are cooked.

Steamed Tofu with Small Ikan Bilis

Here's a simple and yet tasty tofu. I think I've put in a little too much ikan bilis ;p OK, next time I shouldn't be so greedy.

Ingredients:

Tofu

Small ikan bilis (I don't know what you actually call this..)

Oil

Light Soy Sauce

Method:

1. Steam tofu. You can do this using a rice cooker while cooking rice.

2. Heat a little oil in wok and fry small ikan bilis till it turns light golden. Dish up.

3. Drizzle some light soy sauce onto the cooked tofu.

4. Sprinkle ikan bilis on top. Serve hot.

The rest of the dishes we had for dinner :)

Chocolate Brownie with Coffee Chips

Fancy a piece with your coffee? :)

Ingredients:

Chocolate (280gm)

Butter (120gm)

Sugar (120gm)

Eggs (2)

Vanilla Essence (1/2 tsp)

Salt (1/8tsp)

Flour (180gm)

Coffee Chips

Preheat oven at 180C

Method:

1. Melt chocolate and butter together.

2. Beat sugar, eggs, vanilla essence and salt till light and fluffy.

3. Add this to mixture to the chocolate and butter mixture.

4. Lastly add in flour. Mix well.

5. Pour into a lined baking pan and sprinkle coffee chips on top.

6.Bake for 25-30min.

Fried Rice with Broccoli and Chinese Sausage

I think I've not been cooking fried rice or noodles for some time and I usually do this when my laziness creeps in ;p Well, I think this one is a balanced meal by itself as I have vege, fish and pork (the sausage) and it's brown rice :)

Ingredients:
Cooked Brown Rice
Garlic
Onion
Fish (marinate with some salt and pepper)
Chinese Sausage
Button Mushroom (would taste better with Chinese Mushroom)
Carrot
Broccoli
Light Soy Sauce
Salt
Oil


Method:
1. Heat some oil and saute garlic and onion until fragrant.
2. Add in chinese sausage and stir fry for 1-2min.
3. Add in mushroom, carrot and broccoli. Stir fry for 1min. Season with a little salt.
4. Add in fish and stir fry for a while.
5. Add rice and mix well.
6. Season with light soy sauce.
7. Stir fry over high heat for about 1min and it's done.

Carrot and Radish Soup with Tomatoes

We had these for lunch sometime last month. The Chinese sausage is from my mum since she bought some for us to bring back after CNY. I just steamed it and drizzled in some light soy sauce after it was cooked.

As for vege, I just blanched some lettuce, then fried some chopped garlic and use it to 'dress' the lettuce, with some oil and light soy sauce. It's simple and yummy!

As for the soup, I love it with tomatoes....

Ingredients:
Carrot
Radish
Tomatoes
Chicken
Salt
Water

Method:
1. Boil water, then put everything in and cook for 2 hours or so.
2. Season with salt before serving.

Variations of Chiffon Cakes

I've always love this cottony soft cake. It's light and fluffy and doesn't make you feel guilty even when you're on your way to the 2nd piece :)

Here are different 'flavors' which I have experimented recently.

Pandan Chiffon Cake with Sunflower Seeds

Hubby thinks the cake is better without the sunflower seeds because it seems the sunflower seeds had overpowered the pandan taste and he thinks it's a bit complicated. LOL....

Lemony Almond Chiffon Cake with Almond Flakes

This one smelled real good while baking!!! The almond and lemon combination is pretty good.

Bailey's Coffee Irish Cream Chiffon Cake with Coffee Chips

This is definitely one of the best especially for coffee lovers! Everyone who tried it just loved it!
If not because I can't take alcohol and coffee now, I would have gobbled one piece right after it's out of the oven ;p

Pandan Chiffon Cake

This must be the best chiffon cake I've ever baked in terms of the texture, aroma and taste! While it's just a normal plain old pandan flavour cake, I love its simplicity. I used real pandan juice, so the cake didn't turn out that green. This time I added some coconut powder too, so the smell alone makes you want to have a piece while the cake was still in the oven.

This cake is for my hubby as we celebrated our 3rd year anniversary (it has been 3 years since the day we 'pak toh'). I wanted to bake him a cake but I don't want to make it something too heavy since his birthday is just a few weeks away, so we can save such cake for the birthday.

Lesson from this bake: if you bake with love, it taste better :) Haha....

Piggy Jello

Aren't these cute??? I just knew I had to get them when I saw it in Daiso :) There's nothing special about the jello since it's the normal instant ones you can get in any supermarket, but I just want to show you these cute little piggies ;p

Lunch_30Jan10

Another backdated post....;p

For lunch, we had a simple stir fried lettuce, carrot and radish soup and pumpkin with mushroom in bean paste.

Carrot & Radish Soup

Ingredients:

Carrot

Radish

Onion

Chicken

Water

Salt

Method:

1. Boil water and pour in everything (except salt).

2. Cook for at least 2 hours.

3. Season with salt.

Pumpkin with Mushroom in Bean Paste

Ingredients:

Pumpkin (cut into cubes)

Chinese Mushroom (soaked till soft and cut into cubes)

Dried Shrimp (chopped)

Bean Paste

Garlic

Oil

Water

Method:

1. Heat oil and saute garlic.

2. Add in dried shrimp and bean paste and stir fry till fragrant.

3. Add in mushroom and stir fry for 1min.

4. Add in pumpkin. Stir fry for another min.

5. Add water. Cook till pumpkin is soft.

6. Goes well with rice!

Stir Fried TomYam Ladies Fingers

This was an experimental dish simply because I didn't have any chili at home ;p It turned out quite well and very easy to do. Good if you'te lazy to cook :)

Ingredients:

Ladies Fingers (sliced thinly)

Garlic

Dried Shrimp (chopped)

TomYam Paste

Salt

Oil

Water

Method:
1. Heat oil in wok and saute garlic.
2. Add in dried shrimps and tomyam paste. Stir fry till fragrant.
3. Add in ladies fingers. Season with a little salt.
4. Stir fry for 2min.
5. Add a little water, and continue to stir fry until the ladies fingers are cooked (I like it soft, so usually will cook for a longer time).
6. Dish up when done.

Long Bean Omelet

One of my favourite omelet...

Ingredients:

Garlic

Long Beans

Eggs (beaten with some pepper and salt)

Salt

Oil

Method:

1. Heat a little oil and saute garlic.

2. Add in long beans and stir fry for 2min.

3.Season with some salt.

4. Spread the long beans over the pan/wok. Pour the egg mixture over it.

5. Let it cook till the edge of the egg looks cooked, then turn over.

6. Dish up when both sides are cooked.

(Gigantic) Almond Cookies

I made these right before CNY and since I was so tired after work, I made these really big. Saves time ma.... It's the same recipe as the peanut cookies, just substitute peanut with almond and increase oil to 120ml.

Chicken with Preserved Black Beans (Tau See)

Ingredients:

Chicken (cut into medium sized pieces)

Onion

Garlic
Ginger

Preserved Black Beans (Tau See)

Salt

Water

Oil

Method:

1. Heat oil and saute garlic, ginger and onion.

2. Add in tau see and stir fry till fragrant.

3. Add in chicken and stir fry for 1-2min.

4. Season with a little salt (do not add too much as tau see is salty).

5. Pour in some water and cook till chicken is tender.

6. Serve with rice.

Peanut Cookies

For this year's Chinese New Year, I made 4 types of cookies (crazy??); pineapple tart, almond cookies, peanut cookies and cornflakes cookies. Of the 4, pineapple tarts and the peanut cookies are favourites. I made some for in laws, my family and also friends. It was too bad that right before CNY was a busy period at work, otherwise I think I would have tried out more recipes :)

Here's to share with you a very simple and nice peanut cookies recipe.

These were nicely packed for friends :)

Ingredients:
Ground Roasted Peanut (120gm)
Plain Flour (180gm)
Baking Soda (1 tsp)
Baking Powder (1 tsp)
Caster Sugar (120gm)
Oil (110ml)
Egg Yolk - beaten (1)

Preheat oven at 170C.


Method:
1. Mix everything together except the egg yolk in a big bowl.
2. Take some of the mixture and form into small round shape.
3. Place it onto a lined baking tray.
4. Repeat until dough is finished. Glaze with egg yolk.
5. Bake for 15-20min.
6. Store in container when cooled.

Oyster Sauce Chicken

Hubby just came back from biz trip yesterday, so I wanted to cook dinner for him today :) I really didn't know what to do with the chicken. Somehow suddenly osyter sauce came to my mind. So, oyster chicken it would be :) I am glad he loves it and this is definitely an easy one to do.

Ingredients:

Chicken

Button Mushroom (optional)

Ginger (a few slices)

Onion

Spring Onion

Light Soy Sauce

Oyster Sauce

Sesame Oil

Salt

Oil

Water

Method:

1. Marinate chicken with light soy sauce, sesame oil and oyster sauce for at least 30min.

2. Heat some oil and saute ginger and onion until fragrant.

3. Add in some of the spring onion (the thicker white parts). Stir fry for 1min.

4. Add in button mushroom and chicken.

5. Stir fry until chicken looks cooked from the ouside.

6. Season with a little salt and oyster sauce.

7. Add water and cook till it simmers. Continue cooking until chicken is cooked.

8. Add the remaining spring onion 1min before you dish up.

Lotus Root Chicken Soup with Dried Oysters

This is one of my favourite soups! Each time my mum cooks this, I can finish the whole pot, no joke. I've been craving for this and when I saw some nice lotus root in Jusco, I just had to cook this.

Ingredients:

Lotus Root

Chicken or Pork Ribs (blanch for a while using boiling water)

Dried Oysters (you can substitute it with dried sotong too)

Red Dates (I omitted this cos don't have this in stock)

Salt

Water

Method:

1. Boil a pot of water and put everything in. Cook till lotus root is soft.

2. Add salt to taste.

Enjoy a bowl of piping hot tasty soup!

Dinner_14Jan10

I'm trying to finish up the remaining dory fish in the freezer, so I cooked a slight variation today for dinner. Instead of using bean paste, I used some light soy sauce. The rest of the ingredients are the usual garlic and ginger. Not bad too, but it tastes milder compared to the bean paste version.

As for vege, it's broccoli with chicken in oyster sauce. Nothing fancy but since we both love broccoli, even a simple stir fry with garlic is good enough.

The 3rd dish is sardines with onion (my favourite canned food ;p). So, we have a double dose of fish today!

Dory Fish in Bean Paste

Our dinner 2 days ago:

As I was thinking how should I cook the dory fish, I thought maybe I'd ask my hubby how he likes the fish to be done. Guess what? "Cook with bean paste lo." Hahaha....very predictable. Well, I wasn't sure if dory fish would smell terrible if I steam it, so I thought I'd just stir fry it with some ginger and bean paste. Same ingredients, but instead of steaming, we do it the stir fry way. Works well and yummy!

Ingredients:

Dory Fish

Ginger

Garlic

Bean Paste

Oil

Water

Method:

1. Heat a little oil and saute the garlic and ginger till fragrant.

2. Add in bean paste and fish. Stir fry for 1 min.

3. Add some water and cook till it simmers.

4. When fish is cooked, dish up.

Arrowhead with Pork in Bean Paste

For those of you who are familiar with this dish, you would think I should use the reddish preserved beancurd called "nam yu" but well, I realised the bottle that I have had expired ;p Oops...so, what to do? Use la whatever is available :) So, now I can tell you that it's taste pretty good too with bean paste.

Ingredients:
Arrowhead (sliced)
Pork (sliced)
Garlic
Bean Paste
Water
Oil


Method:
1. Heat oil and saute garlic.
2. Add in arrowhead and stir fry for 1-2min.
3. Add in pork and bean paste. Stir fry for 1min.
4. Add some water and let it simmer then turn to medium-low heat.
5. Once pork is cooked, dish up.

New Year Lunch @ Home

Another year, and another holiday :) Since today is an off day for us, I thought it'd be nice to have some home cooked food. There's nothing special with this meal and it's what we usually eat at home; steamed fish and vegetables. It's just nice to lazy around the house and have a simple meal.

Happy New Year everyone!

Stir Fried Vegetables with Oyster Sauce

 Hubby's favourite steamed fish with bean paste

Black Bean Soup

This soup is very easy to prepare but full of nutritions. Black beans is a good source of protein and fibre and it may help to lower blood cholesterol and control blood sugar too!  I love this soup because the black beans make the soup smells really fragrant. I used chicken to make this soup but I think pork will be fine too.

Ingredients:
Chicken (cut into medium-sized pieces)
Black beans
Salt
Water


Method:
1. Boil a pot of water.
2. Put in chicken and black beans. Cook for at least 2 hours or until the beans turn soft.
3. Season with salt. Done!