Wanton Soup

I tell ya... the wantons are splendid! The prawns still taste fresh even though they have been frozen in my fridge for months. Wait a minute, did I say months? Fret not! Those are not the prawns I bought from the market... but ready made wanton. You know, the ready-to-cook ones? ;) heh! Getting lazy... but just want to introduce you this CP brand. Yep, the one that was advertised on TV...



Just add the powdered seasonings, maybe two tbsp of light soy sauce, a dash of pepper and top it up with some coriander or in my case, left over lettuce and you've got yourself a good soup to warm yourself up in cold days like this. ;)

Fried Egg Noodle

My hub didn't like it. :( I finished all the noodles on my plate, though. Ok, it wasn't fantastic, but hey! It wasn' that bad too! :P

But I guessed as much. My hub didn't even like our Kopitiam's savoury HK Mee, which I was full of praises for. Not to mention this is my first attempt on a fried noodle dish. Better luck next time! :)

Bittergourd Soup

"hmmm... this is nice" my hub commented as he tasted the soup in the pot that was still on the stove.

Trying to act like a food connoisseur, he added, "But there is something missing. I think you just need to add that something and it would taste like the one in kopitiam"

"Prawns lor", I immediately replied. In which, he responded 'ya ya ya'.

1) It does not make economical sense (cents) for me to buy prawns as I will only be cooking it on one day of the entire week.
2) I only need 2 or 3 of it and I guess nobody in the right mind would want to sell that pathetic number to me.
3) I don't like to handle prawns. Kinda scary to remove the legs and stuff, if you ask me. :P

In any case, I do believe that prawns play an important role in making this soup even tastier. So feel free to add it to the recipe below. :)

Ingredients

• 8 halves of Bittergourd
• Button mushrooms
• Corn cobs
• Sliced Carrot
• 1 Egg (beaten)
• 5 cups of water
• Ginger
• Mock Meat (optional)

Seasonings

• 1/2 tbsp concentrated chicken stock
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp cooking wine
• 1 tsp sugar
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp seasme oil

Method

1) Add concentrated chicken stock and ginger to water and boil

2) Add carrot, mushroom, corn cobs and Mock Meat

3) Add bittergourd

4) Add the remaining seasonings except for sesame oil

5) While the soup is boiling, slowly pour the egg mixture in and stir

5) Add sesame oil 1 minute before switching off the fire and serve

Flavoured Chicken Rice

This dish was intended to be a Claypot Rice dish. We had a craving ever since we first tried this. So I decided to give it a shot in cooking the dish myself.



It turned out that it was 'wetter' than it's supposed to be (thus the change in the dish name :P). I believe it has got to do with my subconscious mind of cooking the rice with more moisture (I love 'damp' rice). My hub, on the other hand, prefers 'drier' rice. He kept complaining that it is too moist. He finished the whole plate, though, leaving only a mushroom or two behind. Heh! It goes to show that the standard is still there ok! kekeke... Btw, I love the taste! I drool even by just looking at the picture. :p~~~

Ingredients

• Rice
• 2 Mushrooms (cut into halves)
• 1 prepacked chicken thigh from NTUC
• 1 Chinese sausage

Marinade (A)

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp corn flour

Seasonings (B)

• 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp concentrated chicken stock
• 1 tsp garlic oil

Method

1) Debone the chicken thigh and remove fats
2) Cut the chicken into small parts and and marinade with (A)
3) Cook the rice
4) Stir fry garlic in heated oil until fragrant
5) Cook chicken
6) Once the chicken has changed colour, add chinese sausage
7) Add seasonings (B) and stir until even
8) Pour the cooked ingredients into the rice cooker 5 minutes before the rice is fully cooked.
9) Stir well
10) Once the rice is ready, add another 1/2 tbsp of dark soy sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil to enhance the colour and flavour.

YUMS!

Stir Fried Dou Miao with Mushrooms

Ok Ok, I agreed that the display of the food was a lil' too deliberate, with the carrot and mushroom all lined up in an orderly manner. (Wait till you see the whole photo, with the carrots round the whole plate. Hee!)

But I had to do a bit of housekeeping because this dish would look extremely weird with all the button mushrooms and carrot slices scattered around... :P

I have a slightly varied way of cooking dou miao this time... glad it works for my hub. In fact, he prefers the way it was done up for this round. :) So here goes the revised receipe...

Ingredients

5-6 slices of Ginger

Dou Miao (pea shoots)

1/2 a Carrot (sliced)

10 Button Mushrooms

1 cup of stock (from soaked mushrooms)

1 tbsp cooking oil

Seasonings

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp cooking wine

Salt to taste

Method

1) Stir ginger in heated oil

2) Add carrot and mushroom and cook under moderate high heat

3) Sprinkle 1 tsp sugar and stir

4) Add 1/4 cup of stock

5) Stir fry Dou Miao with light soy sauce and oyster sauce

6) Add remaining stock, cooking wine, remaining sugar and salt to the wok

7) Add sesame oil just before switch off the fire

Kung Pao Mock Meat

"You should cook and sell vegetarian food", commented my husband, after sampling the dishes for today.

I looked up at him in disbelief, as he seldom give compliments like this. Just when I was about to jump up and down in excitement, he added the following.

"But maybe not for other non-vegetarian dishes." kwa kwa >_<''' Thanks hor!

That's when I was reminded of this song title... "哭笑不得" :P

Click here for recipe

Pork Cutlet Spaghetti

Add this and this, and you will have the following. :)

It was a yummy treat and a good change from the usual chicken/sausage spaghetti. I added fresh diced tomato to improve the taste. :)

Sweet and Sour Crispy Mock Chicken

Yippee... I am getting the hang of it. I guess practice really makes perfect. Here's another sweet and sour dish. =)



















Ingredients

Mock Chicken
tomato (optional)

Sauce

• 2 tbsp Tomato Sauce
• 1 tbsp Chilli Sauce
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp water

Method

1) Roast Mock Chicken in Healsio for 20 minutes at 190 degrees
2) Once the Mock Chicken is ready, heat the sauce over low fire for 10 seconds
3) Add and coat the Mock chicken with the sauce and switch off the fire immediately.

Steamed Tofu with Egg and Minced Pork

It looks succulent and delicious eh?

It is! :) However, this dish has its imperfections, so I will not be putting up the receipe as yet. Keep a lookout for my next try though! ;)

Crispy Mock Meat

Ingredients

• Mock Meat

Method

• Just leave the Mock Meat in Healsio to roast for 20 minutes and you've got yourself a crispy treat! Goes very well with congee (beh) :)

Stir-Fry Cabbage

Ingredients

• Ginger
• Cabbage
• 1/2 a carrot
• 1 tbsp cooking oil

Seasonings

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 cup of stock (from the soaking of mushroom)
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt to taste

Method

1) Stir fry ginger in high heat
2) Cook carrot over moderate heat
3) Add cabbage after carrot is moderately soft
4) Add oyster sauce
5) Pour stock in and the remaining seasonings
6) Simmer

Sushi

Cook the rice, wrap it in the seaweed together with other ingredients and you've got yourself a sushi. Piece of cake.

That, was how I see sushi making before this evening. And you know what? I will never underestimate the work behind a piece of sushi again. :P

My mom used to say 'Kuar lin gorng ley jia kuay kean'. It means 'it's not as easy as what you think'. Sushi making is sheer hard work. I took a total of 2 hours in what I would think would be a 20-minute affair to prepare the dinner tonight.

Cook the rice and that's it? No way! You gotta mix it with rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt when it is COLD. Hmm... excuse me, how can I wait for it to cool when I need to whip up a meal within 45 minutes after I reach home from work? >_<

Just fill the beancurd with rice and that's an inari? Noo... You gotta boil dashi soup stock, sugar and dark soy sauce and simmer the beancurds in it for 15 minutes.

I wouldn't say that the dinner preparation is complete failure. Afterall,we managed to finish most of the sushi. In fact, I find that the Chawanmushi turned out pretty well! I would give a 80% resemblance to that of sakae's. :) Was so proud of myself on this. Hee!

However, there are still plenty room of improvement for the sushi, especially to my hub, who kept comparing it with the standard of sakae sushi. >_<'''. With the exception of chawanmushi, I will put up only photos to reward my efforts and for record purposes.

Tuna Roll



Crab Stick Sushi



Tamago Sushi



Inari

I couldn't find the beancurd skin used for Inari. So I used Tau Pok instead. This is so hilarious! LOL. But, but, it turned out quite nice too. No kidding. I had 3 Inaris in a row.

My hub's wasabi



Chawanmushi

Look! So smooooth.

Ingredients

• 250 ml cold dashi soup
• 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 mushroom (cut into strips)

Method

1) Blend dashi soup, light soy sauce, salt and eggs

2) Strain the mixture into two bowls

3) Add mushroom strips

4) Cover top of the bowl, leaving a small area exposed

5) Steam for 25-30 minutes in Healsio

Ok, I didn't cut it even and nice enough. But aw... just look at the soup residue. Always love that part when I have chawanmushi. Yums...



It will be quite a while before I make sushi again. But it will definitely be so much better than this round. Please say you have the confidence in me. heh! ;)

Chicken and Sausage Spaghetti

This is one of the easiest meals I have prepared for dinner. There ain't no recipe for this because all you have to do is buy the correct ingredients, mix them together and voila! You have got a decent meal. :)



Ingredients

• Spaghetti (Barilla recommended)
• 1 cup of Minced chicken
• 2 sausages
• Pasta Sauce (Barilla strongly recommended)

Marinade

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Method
1) Cook the spaghetti in boiling water for 20 minutes
2) Marinade the minced chicken
3) Cook the sausages in boiling water
4) Stir Fry the minced chicken in a pan
5) Add the sausages to the pan
6) Pour the pasta sauce and cook the mixture till the sauce bubbles
7) Place the spaghetti in a plate and pour the mixture over