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

Beancurd Rolls

My, it wasn't easy to deep fry the beancurd rolls with pork filling inside. The beancurd skin kept coming off.

I managed to come up with this, which tasted not too bad! *phew*

Scallop Porridge

I was quite worried that my hub won't like it when it turns out as colourless as this, but it turned out that he finds it quite tasty! Guess I can't go wrong with scallop concentrates (yes, yet again.)

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!

Dinner for 3

I invited my brother over for dinner as my hub couldn't make it last minute. My brother turned up, but not without some grumbles of him as a 'reserve'. :P It was the first time he tasted my culinary skills, so I chose 3 dishes that I am more confident with.

Pork Cutlet

This has almost become my 'signature dish'. heh!



Sweet and sour sauce to go along



Corn Soup

My mother and brother loves the soup, especially my brother who kept helping himself to this dish. The secret? Scallop concentrates and pork ribs! :)



Snow Peas with pork

This is my first attempt at this dish and I must say that I am very pleased with the result!



Cod Fish

One of the first dishes when I started cooking. Yes, I did it again with my good ol' healsio



Both my mother and my brother seemed to enjoy the meal very much. Guess the time (nearly an hour!) and effort spent on this four dish meal was worth it. My hub was actually quite upset that he missed such a feast. heh... :D

French Beans with mock meat

Watercress Soup

A Hawker told my mom that watercress with round leaves are for soup whereas watercress with sharper leaves are for stir-frying. Wow... This is something new to me!

Ingredients

• Watercress (round shaped leaves)
• Carrots
• Lean meat
• Woh Hup Scallop concentrates
• Salt

Method

1) Blend lean meat in blender

2) Marinade mashed lean meat with light soy sauce, pepper and flour

3) Mold into meat balls

4) Add concentrates to pot of water (see bottle for proportions)

5) Add carrots and meat balls

6) Salt to taste.

Broccoli with carrots

Should have taken down the recipe right after cooking it. My bad. These are the ingredients I vaguely remember. :P

Ingredients

• Broccoli
• Carrots
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/2 tsp sugar

Method

Blanch the broccoli with water (and salt) before stir-frying and simmering with other ingredients.

Chye Sim Soup

Salted Vegetables Soup

I am not a big fan of salted vegetables, but my hubby is. As much as I would like to cook Caixin soup, I knew I had to cook the following instead. :P

It turned out that my hub kinda like it. :)

Ingredients

- 1 packet Salted Vegetables
- 1/2 tofu (cut into cubes)
- 1/2 carrot (cut into pieces)
- 100g pork (minced)
- 3 chestnuts (minced)

Seasonings

- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tbsp potato starch

Method

1) Boil 6 cups of water in a pot
2) Add chicken bone (left over from the other dish) and carrot
3) Remove chicken bone
4) Mix pork, chestnut and potato starch
5) Mold into balls and add to the soup mixture
6) Add salt to taste

Stir-Fry Beansprouts

Ingredients

• 1 handful Bean Sprouts
• 1/2 carrot - cut into strips
• 1-2 Mushroom - cut into strips
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp soya bean sauce (modified version - instead of using light soy sauce)
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 cup of water (soaked from mushroom)
• Few drops of Sesame oil
• Dash of Pepper

Method
1) Stir fry ginger
2) Add carrot, followed by mushroom
3) Add oyster sauce and 2 tbsp water and simmer for a while
4) Add beans sprouts and soya bean sauce
5) After stir-frying for a while, add remaining water
6) Just before switching off the fire, add sesame oil and pepper

Yums! Cheap and good. :)

Soup

I really do not know what to call this soup. I merely 'dump' whatever excess ingredients I have to make this. :P Surprisingly, it turned out quite good. ;)



Ingredients

• Bones (from pork chop)
• 3/4 cup Beansprouts
• 1/2 carrot (sliced)
• 3 button mushrooms (sliced)
  
• 6 cups of water
• 3 tsp scallop concentrates (new product from woh hup!)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp light soya sauce
• 1 tsp sugar

Method

1) Bring water to boil
2) Add scallop concentrates
3) Add carrots, buttom mushrooms and bones
4) Switch off fire after a while and let it simmer - my purpose is to soften the carrot without using too much gas
5) When read to serve, turn on the fire again and add beansprouts
6) Add sugar, salt and light soya sauce

The other dishes cooked on the same day are attached for my records. Yeah, you have seen the following recipes too many times in this blog. It's revision period, remember? ^.^

Pork Cutlet



Fried Rice



I passed the revision test. :D

Bean Sprouts with carrots and mock meat

I crave for the Taiwan breakfast I had a few weeks back. Congee and beansprouts. Healthy, simple and yet tasty.




Ingredients

• 1 cup Bean sprouts
• 1/2 carrot cut into strips
• 6 pieces of mock meat
• 1 tbsp oil

Seasonings

• 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
• 30 ml water
• salt to taste

Method
1) Heat oil
2) Add carrot strips and stir-fry till moderately soft
3) Add mock meat and stir-fry till cooked
4) Add bean sprouts
5) Add water
6) Season with light soy sauce and salt


I have really enjoyed eating this dish I have cooked today. And yes, I had it with congee... :)

My Cooking

I invited my mother over for dinner.

What's for dinner?

- Mapo Tofu
- Spicy Kang Kong
- Pork Cutlet
- Bittergourd Soup

All repeated dishes. I personally feel that I have improved... because...

Now you see them...



... Now you don't! :D



It was a complete wipe-out! It has been more than a month since I cooked. Glad that my skills has not gone rusty. :)

Vegetarian Congee

How to know I am cooking for myself only

1) I re-use utensils and bowls so that I don't need to wash additional ones later on. (My hub usually does the dish-washing)
2) I dump all the ingredients available into the pot to make it into a one-dish meal so that I can save on the effort and time on preparing different dishes
3) I am easy on the taste. Anything edible goes. :)
4) I... I don't care about the food presentation... pls see the photo below. :P

Chye Sim (Cai Xin) Soup

I can't seem to find a decent recipe on Cai Xin Soup online. I couldn't find any either, on recipe books. I wonder why? It's such a popular soup in Tze Char stalls and a tasty one at that.

Nevertheless, I made an attempt using the 'cheater bug' method. I used an ikan bilis stock cube (that no-msg brand) as the soup base. It was not too bad, but not as flavourful as those in the Tze Char stalls.

Any better recipes to share, anyone?



Ingredients

• Chye sim
• Small corns
• Carrot
• Minced pork

Seasonings

• 1 Ikan bilis
• 1 tbsp cooking wine
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt to taste

Method

1) Add ikan bilis cube to boiling water
2) Add all ingredients except chye sim
3) Add chye sim about 1 minute before switching off the fire
4) Add cooking wine, sugar and salt

Fried Bee Hoon

Stir Fry Lettuce

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

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