Bread and Noodles

My tastebuds have gone haywired for the past few months and I haven't been cooking since then.

These are the dishes that I have cooked before that happens.

Egg Sandwich

French Toast

Fuzhou fishball noodle soup

Hokkien Mee

Vegetables noodles with gravy

Fried Hokkien Mee (Prawn replaced by mock meat)

I was on leave then and have been cooking everyday. I have saved quite a bit on meals - just imagine 1 packet of noodles lasted me five meals!

Really enjoyed those food that I have cooked. Kinda surprised that it tasted very close to what I have aimed to achieve. Alas, I didn't take down the ingredients, seasonings etc. Looks like I have to do another trial again should I want to sample the same dishes again. :P

Nasi Lemak

Except for the rice, (which wasn't cooked with enough coconut milk), I thought I did a pretty good job in replicating the Nasi Lemak sold outside! :D



Ingredients

• Rice (1 cup)
• Coconut milk (1 packet of Ayam brand coconut milk)
• Peanuts
• Ikan bilis
• Long beans
• Egg (mix with a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper)

Method

Mix coconut milk with water to make up 1 cup and 20ml of liquid and use it to cook the rice.

1) Stir fry Long Beans with Chili Dou Ban Jiang
2) Fry Egg
3) Deep fry ikan bilis and peanut

Yes, as simple as 1, 2, 3! ;)

Popiah

I cooked Popiah fillings quite some time back, (using the more tedious method that my grandma used - Cabbage, long beans, turnip, carrot, beancurd, hei bi, 2-layered pork), but ironically, it wasn't as popular as the following, which was so much easier to prepare and cook!



Ingredients

• Cabbage
• Turnip
• Carrot
• Egg (either hard boil or fried, depending on preference)
• Sausage (heated over wok, no oil required!)
• Popiah skin - use the type that can only be found in markets. According to the store owners, they can last up to a few months with proper refrigeration.
• Scallop concentrates
• Sugar
• Salt
• Light soy sauce

Method
1) Stir-fry turnip, cabbage and carrot
2) Add scallop concentrates, sugar, salt and light soy sauce to taste.
3) Add sweet sauce/balachan, 3 tbsp of the veges, egg and sausage to the popiah skin, roll and serve!

Fried Egg with Vegetarian Ham

I must be too hungry/weak.

I actually dropped the bowl containing bulk of the fried egg. :( What a mess I have created. Pieces of the bowl scattered over the floor and the grease from the fried egg...

These are the survivors. :P



They are actually not bad! Goes very well with the congee we had. :)

Mee Sua Soup

My hub can only afford to take PM leave to go out with me as he has many things to clear at work. -.-

I was lazy to walk down to the hawker to buy breakfast, so I decided to cook this for myself. :)



Ingredients

• 1 bundle of mee sua
• 5 small pieces of mock meat
• 2 mushrooms (cut into strips)
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp of oil
• 2 cups of hot water

Seasonings

• 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp concentrated chicken stock
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• dash of pepper

Method

1) Add mushroom and mock meat to heated oil
2) Add oyster sauce and stir fry
3) Set the mushroom and mock meat aside
4) Fry egg and return mushroom and mock meat to the wok
5) Add hot water and concentrated chicken stock
6) Add Mee Sua and stir for 30 seconds
7) Add light soy sauce and salt to taste
8) Before turning off the fire, add sesame oil and pepper
9) Best served with fried shallots (I added it after taking the photo)

It turned out pretty tasty, even though I did not follow any particular recipe. ;)

Fried Rice with Pork Cutlet

Both of us had our own appointments on Monday and that means that I will only need to cook once this week. My hub tried to make keep things simple for me and suggested having a one-dish meal - Fried Rice. He didn't want the vegetarian version I have cooked for him before as he wanted some real meat in it.

Before he carried on with his next sentence, I knew that he wanted to ask for Pork cutlet. Somehow, he just loves the pork cutlet that I have made. Feeling that this combination would turn out quite heaty, I suggested adding a vegetable dish to 'balance' the meal.

So it turned out that I still have to cook 3 dishes. *pengz* So much for keeping the meal 'easy and simple'. >_<"



Click here for pork cutlet recipe.

Ingredients

• Steamed Rice (1 cup of uncooked rice)
• Mixed vegetables (carrot/pea/corn)
• 2 eggs (beaten and with 1 tbsp of light soy sauce and a dash of pepper added)
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

Seasonings

• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• a pinch of salt
• a dash of pepper

Method

1) Add mixed vegetables to 1tbsp of heated oil
2) Add a pinch of salt and stir-fry
3) Set aside the mixed vegetables in the wok and add another tbsp of oil
4) Fry the egg
5) Before the egg is fully cooked, add the steamed rice to the mixture
6) Add the light soy sauce and stir until the colour is evenly distributed.
7) Sprinkle a dash of pepper over before serving

Oh, on a side note, I managed to fry rice without any burnt marks at the bottom of the wok today. It was so easy to manage the rice this time round, even though I cooked the rice on the spot (and not left overnight in the fridge).

I guess it has got something to do with keeping the fire to the minimal and letting it slowly and evenly heat up the rest of the wok. The salesman's comments on the nature of the wok suddenly start to make sense to me. After 1 year plus. :P

Steamed Tofu with Egg and Minced Pork 2

Remember this post? Yeah, this dish is long overdue. I have been really busy, trying to catch up with the household chores and work after my 2 weeks holiday overseas.

Anyways, I have mustered up enough courage to try this for a second time and I am glad it worked. :)

I guess sometimes you really can't follow what you see on recipe books too closely. That explains for my previous failed attempt.

My hub actually likes it!



But when he scooped up the liquid at the bottom of the bowl to drink, I was like, 'Eh, 什么态度?' The main dish is the solid food, not the liquid. >_<" But then again, I did that with Chawanmushi too... so I can understand the tempation to do so. :P



Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 150g of tofu
• 100g of minced pork
• 50 ml of chicken stock (not 400ml! as stated in the recipe book. *slaps forehead*)

Seasonings

• 1/2 tbsp of light soy sauce
• A dash of pepper

Method

1) Beat the eggs
2) Add the minced pork into the egg mixture and mix well
3) Add the stock and the seasonings
4) Add the tofu
5) Steam in Healsio for 20 minutes

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

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! ;)

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! ;)