Fried beehoon

Ingredients
(Serves 2-3)
- 200g bee hoon (rice vermicelli) , soaked in water for at least half an hour till fully constituted
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
- 1 tbsp oil
(A) soy mixture
- 250 ml water
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
Directions
1. Soak the bee hoon in water for at least half an hour, until the noodles are fully reconstituted. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat the wok with 1 tbsp oil, and saute the garlic till fragrant.
3. Add the bee hoon. Then add the soy mixture (A), making sure the noodles are well coated in the mixture so that you have even colour and taste.
4. Cook till the noodles have soaked up all the water, and is of a dry consistency. This usually takes more than 5 minutes.

Claypot chicken rice

Ingredients
(Serves 2-3)
- 1 cup rice
- water to cook rice
- 1/2 chicken (about 650g), chopped
- 2 lup cheong/Chinese sausages, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes before removing wax covering*, slice diagonally
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- a piece of ginger
* thanks reader Michell for sharing the tip via comments
Tools
- rice cooker
- grater

1. Marinade chicken pieces with dark soy sauce and oyster sauce.
2. Grate some ginger and squeeze the pulp to get about 2 tsp ginger juice. According to my mum, this step is very important but when I’m busy, I just substitute this step with a few slices of ginger. Add the juice to the marinated chicken pieces.
3. Slice the lup cheong diagonally.
4. Wash rice and add water to cook rice. Set to cook.
5. Open the lid of the rice cooker to check when the rice is almost 3/4 cooked (the water is almost dried up). Each rice cooker is different and will take different timing to reach this state. for mine, it takes 20 minutes.
6. At this point, add the chicken, lup cheong and a few slices of ginger. I did not add the leftover marinade sauce as it will cause the rice to become soggy. Close the rice cooker lid and continue cooking. My rice cooker cook for a further 20 minutes before it sounds the chime indicating the rice is done . You should “keep warm” the food for at least another 20 minutes after the rice is cooked to ensure that the chicken and lup cheong is cooked through.
7. Use a spatula to mix the ingredients thoroughly with the rice. After doing so, your rice will become brown from the soy marinade. Garnish with fried shallots and chopped spring onions.

Red bean soup

Red Bean Soup Recipe

• Serves: 4
• Prep: 10 mins
• Cook: 60 mins

 

Ingredients

• 100 grams red beans (may also use Japanese azuki beans) soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
• 2 pandan (screw pine) leaves dried ends cut, tied in a knot
• 1.7 litres water
• 70 grams rock sugar to taste
• 10 grams (about 3 pieces) dried orange (tangerine) peel
• 80 grams canned or vacuum-packed lotus seeds or ginkgo nuts optional

 

Instructions

1. In a bigger soup pot, add red beans, 1.7 litres water, dried orange peel and pandan leaves. Bring to a boil.
2. Add lotus seeds/gingko nuts and reduce heat to a simmer, partially covered, for about 50 minutes (or until the beans are soft), stirring the sides and bottom of the pot occasionally. Top up with hot water at any time if necessary.
3. Stir in rock sugar (to taste) until the sugar is dissolved. Discard orange peel slices and pandan leaves. Add the cooked sago prepared in step 1 to the red bean soup. Serve warmed or chilled.

Lotus root soup

Ingredients
(Serves 3)
- 2 sections lotus root, about 400g
- 250g pork ribs
- 1 carrot, peeled and cut to small chunks
- 6 dried scallops (optional)
- 1 dried cuttlefish (optional)
- 10 dried pitted red dates
- 1.5 litres water
- 100g de-shelled raw peanuts
- salt
Directions
1. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the skin from the lotus root and cut to slices.
2. Blanch pork ribs in boiling water for about 5 minutes, to remove the dirty bits so that you have clear soup later. Rinse blanched pork pieces and set aside.
3. In a pot, add water, lotus root slices, carrots, blanched pork ribs, peanuts, dried scallops, dried cuttlefish and red dates.
4. When soup comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes, or until the pork is tender. Discard dried octopus. Season with salt.

Pork bone broth with apples

Ingredients
(Serves 2-3)
1.5 litres water
200-300g spare ribs or pork shoulder ribs
1 onion, peeled & cut into chunks
4 red apples, cut into pieces (pears can be used too)
6 red dates
Salt


Directions
Blanch the pork ribs. Boil water in a pot and put in the ribs, onions, apples and red dates. Bring to boil again and turn to low heat. Simmer for 2 hours. Season with salt if required.

I love this smiley

Roast Chicken

Recipe (can go with chicken rice as well)
- 1 whole chicken
- 1 tbs salt
- As many unpeeled cloves of garlic as you like

1. Wash the chicken.

2. Dry the chicken.

3. Salt the chicken, including cavity. (or use five spice powder)

4. Throw in as many cloves of garlic/pandan leaf as you like, into the cavity. Then seal with a toothpick.

5. Place the chicken breast side up, in a baking tray. Surround with potatoes* if you wish to make this a one-dish meal.*For potatoes, it helps if you semi-cook them prior. Just cut into bite-sized chunks, drizzle very little oil and microwave them (covered) on high till they turn a little translucent around the edges. They will cook through during the roasting.

6. Roast for 50-60mins (200degrees) or until the juices run clear and the chicken has browned to a crisp.

7. Allow to cool upside down for at least 15mins so that juices can re-distribute.

8. Make gravy using the residual juices in the roasting pan by adding 1 rice bowl of chicken stock. Bring to a bowl and add a little diluted corn starch to thicken. Sieve through to remove charred bits. Serve chicken with gravy on the side.

Using the roast chicken carcass for stock:
http://www.noobcook.com/how-to-make-chicken-stock-from-roast-chicken/

SESAME OIL CHICKEN麻油鸡

Ingredients
(Serves 2-3)
- 1/2 chicken (about 600g), cut to small pieces (you can also use mid-sized drumlettes or chicken thighs)
- 2 tbsp sesame oil and 1 tbsp olive oil
- 5 slices ginger, stacked together and sliced thinly
- Chinese cooking wine (optional) – Hua Diao Jiu (花雕酒) or Shao Xing Jiu (绍兴酒)
water mixture
- 50ml water mixed with 1 tsp dark soy and 1/2 tsp light soy (stir well)
Directions
1. Heat sesame oil and olive oil, then add ginger strips. Stir fry till fragrant.
2. Add chicken pieces and stir fry for a few minutes.
3. Add water mixture and stir to make sure the chicken pieces are well coated with the sauce. Cover and simmer for about 5 minutes.
4. Open lid, add more water if the mixture is drying out, use kitchen tongs to flip chicken pieces to the other side, cover and simmer for another 5 minutes.
5. When the chicken is cooked, add a splash of Chinese wine and after a few seconds you can smell the wonderful aroma of the wine evaporating. Off the flame. Garnish with coriander and serve with warm steamed rice.

Cooking Notes
1. The simmering time will depend on the size of the chicken pieces – the smaller the pieces, the shorter the cooking time.
2.Instead of Chinese wine, you can also add hard liquor like D.O.M or X.O.
3. This is popular food for women on confinement (one month after childbirth). The confinement recipe usually contains more sesame oil, ginger and wine because it is believed that “heaty” foods are beneficial for women recuperating from childbirth.
4. My mum always add some canned button mushrooms though I don’t really like it. If you like them, you can add them during the last few minutes of simmering.

V-Day Main Course: SALMON IN LEMON SAUCE

- 1/2 Lemon
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Salt (marinate and to taste)

- Salmon

Salmon:
Marinate salmon in salt before cooking. Sear salmon on all sides. Remove.

Sauce:

Squeeze lemon juice in pan directly. Add olive oil. Add salt (omit if low sodium desired). Drizzle on salmon.

V Day Side Dish : Brussel Sprout with bak kua

STIR-FRIED BRUSSELS SPROUT WITH DRIED SOLE
Ingredients:
10 Brussels sprouts (cut into halves)
2 pieces of dried sole fillet (cut into small pieces)
2 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon cooking oil
3 drops of sesame oil
A dash of pepper
A pinch of sugar

Method:

1.       Heat up a small pot of water and bring it to boil.

2.       Add a few drops of cooking oil into the water (to preserve the color of the Brussels sprouts) and boil the Brussels sprouts for two minutes. Drain and set aside.

3.       Heat up the wok and add the cooking oil.

4.       Add the sliced garlic and do a quick stir.

5.       Add in the dried sole fillet pieces and stir fry until they turn golden brown and crispy.

6.       Add in the Brussels sprouts, oyster sauce, water and stir fry for 1 minute.

7.       Add the sesame oil, a dash of white pepper powder and a pinch of sugar.

8.       Dish up and serve hot.

Note: May want to mix the oyster sauce and water together before adding. I used bak kwa (from CNY) instead of sole.

Almond crisps

From Auntie Cindy, Peter’s Mom

3 egg white
30 gm castor sugar (~2 tbsp)
40 gm ground almond powder
100 gm almonds flake

Beat egg white till bubble is form add in sugar and beat till stiff than fold in the ground almond powder. Than put mixture in pipping bag and pipe cookie out onto tray lay with non stick baking papper (very important otherwise cookie will stick to the baking tray and cannot be removed. Sprinkle almonds flake on top of cookies and bake for 1/2 an hour or until the back of the cookies is brown all through @ 150 degree

Spinach in superior broth

Ingredients (Serves 2)

- 250g Chinese spinach, ends trimmed, separate stems and leaves (see cooking note 1 below)
- 1 tbsp white bait, rinsed and patted dry
- 3 tbsp olive oil/vegetable oil
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled & sliced thinly
- 1/2 to 1 century egg, yolk portion cut to smaller pieces (see cooking variation note 1 and cooking note 2 below)
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Hua Diao or Shaoxing) (optional)

Sauce mixture (dissolve everything)
- 200ml ikan bilis (anchovies) stock (1l water, 100gm ikanbilis, 6 red dates boil for 10 min) (or you can cheat by dissolving 200 ml hot water with 1/4 knorr ikan bilis cube)
- 1/2 tsp abalone sauce (I use fortune brand)
- pinch of sugar

Directions
1. Heat oil, deep fry white bait till crispy (about 3 minutes or more) and set aside.
2. Using remaining oil in wok, add garlic slices and stir fry till garlic is slightly browned.
3. Add spinach stems and stir fry about a minute or so. Then add spinach leaves and stir fry till all the leaves are wilted.
4. Add sauce mixture and century egg pieces. Bring to a quick boil and simmer for about a minute. If using Chinese wine, drizzle some along the side of the wok and you’ll smell the aroma of the wine in a few seconds. Off the flame.
5. Portion to a serving dish and top with the previously fried white bait you prepared in step 1.

1. If you do not like century eggs, you can substitute with wolfberries instead. Soak 1 tsp of wolfberries in water till they are puffy. Instead of adding century eggs in step 4, add the soaked wolfberries.
2. You can add all types of ingredients to jazz up the dish. For example, you can add fresh white scallops, dried scallops or mushrooms.

Chicken Curry

Main Ingredients:
Lemongrass – 2 piece (white part, smashed)
8 Dried chilli

Curry Chicken Paste - $1 or 1 pack
Curry Leaves
Oyster sauce and Sugar to taste
4 chicken thighs
Water
Shallots – 6 pieces (omit if in paste)
Potatoes – 3 (leave skin on but scrub well)
Carrots – 2
Onions – 1
Long Beans – 10 to 15 pieces (cut into long snips)
Coconut milk/cream - one packet or one canned.
Ginger – 2 to 3 cm knob (omit if in paste)
Garlic – 1 head (omit if in paste)
Method:

Boil potatoes and other root vegetables in 1/3 pot of water.

In a heated wok, add two - three tablespoons of oil. In high heat, add in the smashed lemon grass which is cut up in two pieces and fry till you can smell the fragrance.

Then add in dried chilli, curry leaves and the curry paste mixture and fry on low heat till you can see red colour oil floating on top of the paste. Stir constantly at this stage as they stick to the bottom of the pan easily. This will take about 4 to 5 minutes of frying. Add oyster sauce and sugar to taste.

Then, add in the chicken pieces. Stir them around till they are coated evenly with the paste. While maintaining high heat, ensure that the chicken is coated evenly with the paste.

Add a little bit of the water in the boiling root vegetables "soup". After 3 minutes, add potatoes and rest of the “soup”.

Turn into medium low heat and let it simmer for at least 45 minutes to one hour. This allows the curry flavour to permeate into the chicken meat and also allowed the potatoes to "melt" into the sauce.

After one hour is up, add in long beans. Let it boil for few minutes, then pour in the coconut milk. Bring it up to a boil and switch off the heat. You do not want to boil the coconut milk mixture for too long as it will start to curdle.

Steamed Egg with minced pork / muar otah

Ingredients
(Serves 2-4)
- 150g minced pork / otah (‘mashed’)
- 1/2 tsp vegetable/olive oil
- 1 carrot (but you’ll be only using some of it)

A) For the egg custard mixture
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup water or stock
- 1/2 tsp Chinese cooking wine
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp light soy sauce (for seasoning the egg mixture, exclude or use less soy sauce if using stock)

B) Marinade for the minced pork (omit for otah)
- 1/2 tsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp Chinese cooking wine
- a bit of Chinese white pepper
- 1/2 stalk spring onions, finely chopped (use the green upper part)

Directions
1) Using a vegetable peeler, shave some carrot slices, then stack the slices vertically, cut them to thin strips and then chop to smaller pieces to get finely chopped carrots.
2) Preparing the egg custard mixture
i) Break the eggs into the bowl. To minimize bubbles, do not beat the eggs but gently stir the eggs with a pair of chopsticks using a cutting action.
ii) Add the rest of the ingredients from (A) to the eggs mixture. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.
3) Preparing the minced pork
i) Combine marinade (B) with minced pork and mix well. Leave for at least 10 minutes.
ii) Heat wok with a bit of oil, then stir fry the minced pork till they are no longer pink, breaking them to smaller bits using your spatula. Do not overcook.
iii) Arrange the stir-fried minced pork in a thin layer on a shallow dish. Then pour the stained egg mixture over gently. Top with some chopped carrots prepared in step 1. If you see any bubbles, “flatten” the surface gently with the back of a spoon.
4) Cover the dish with transparent food wrap or aluminum foil. (optional)
5) Steam the egg custard for about 15 mins. To test if the egg mixture is cooked, insert a stick into the mixture: if a little clear liquid comes out, it is cooked. Serve with warm rice.

Steamed tofu with prawn and vermincelli

Recipe
(Serves 2 to 3)
- 1 tube silken egg tofu, cut into 6 equal pieces
- 6 medium size fresh prawns, peeled keeping the tails intact

- 10g to 15g tang hoon/mung bean noodles, soaked and drained
- 1 spring onion, julienned
- crispy garlic and garlic oil (fry this first and set aside)

For the sauce
- 3 tbsp of light soy

- 1 tbsp of Hua Tiao cooking wine
- 1/2 tbps sugar
- dash of sesame oil
- dash of white pepper
- a little grated ginger

1. Soak glass noodles in hot water for 5 minutes and drain. Set aside. During this time, start heating up your steamer.

2. Peel prawns, make a slit on each prawn and pierce the tail through, making a little "prawn ball".

3. Drape small mounds of glass noodles over tofu, then top with a prawn ball.

4. By this time, your steamer should be bubbling hot and ready for action. Spoon some sauce over the prawns (no need to use up all the sauce if it appears too much) and place the dish in the steamer. Steam on medium heat for 5  minutes.

5. Top with julienned spring onions and crispy garlic, and drizzle with garlic oil liberally.

6. Ready to be served! Eat hot.
*Variation: Top tofu with Yifon golden mushroom

Ginseng black chicken soup

Ingredients
Serves 3-4

1 black chicken, chopped to small pieces

40g American Ginseng “Beards” 洋参须** (can replace with astragalus and dangshen)
1.6 litres of water
25g Huai Shan 淮山
8 red dates
1/2 tbsp wolfberries

* You can also substitute with 1/2 chicken or 250g lean pork, sliced thickly. Skip the blanching part (step 1 below) if using lean pork..

Directions

1. Blanch chicken pieces in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Place the blanched chicken and the rest of the ingredients (except wolfberries) into a pot with the water. Bring to a boil, continue boiling over high heat for 10 minutes.
3. Reduce heat to a lower flame and simmer for at least another 40 minutes (and longer if you can). Add wolfberries at the last 15 minutes of cooking. You can also slow cook, or use a thermal pot (or whatever you have) to prolong the cooking (at a gentle pace) to bring out the tastes. Add salt to taste.