Braised pork with tomato ketchup and pineapple

My first helper from Phillipines cooked this dish and my children loved it so much. After she left, she taught my parents' Indonesian helper until I decided to learn from her as I missed the dish so much. It is a bit like sweet and sour pork dish but the healthier version because it is braised.

You can either use pork ribs or pork belly for this dish.

Ingredients:
- pork belly/pork ribs
- pineapple (cut into small pieces)
- tomato ketchup
- garlic (minced)
- shallots (minced)
- carrots (shred)
- dark sauce
- black pepper/sugar/salt to taste

Steps:
1) Panfry the pork ribs/ pork belly first for the colour (a bit brown)
2) Remove it and throw in the garlic and shallots into the oil
3) Then add the shredded carrot and continue mixing
4) Then add the pineapples, tomato ketchup and water
5) Finally, throw the pork ribs/pork belly back in to mix with the tomato gravy
6) Add dark sauce and black peper and let it simmer
(Initially, it may be watery but after simmering, the gravy would thicken up and you might need to add more water after that. Keep tasting to make sure you have that rich tomato gravy that is tangy and sweet)
7) Add salt, sugar to taste if needed.

Enjoy! Excellent with rice!

Thai basil chicken recipe (pad kra pao gai)

This is a very simple, yet tasty dish as the main time is spent cooking the chicken. Frying the egg and laying out the cucumber won't use up much of your precious time.

My whole family loved this. I omitted the chilli padi for my children. So I cooked in two batches.

Enjoy with your whole family!

Ingredients
- boneless chicken thigh/ breast meat
- thai basil
- chilli padi
- garlic
- fish sauce
- sugar
- dark soya sauce
- egg
- cucumber
- oyster sauce

Steps
1) Fry the egg with lots of oil. Must be really hot so that its a deep fried egg but make sure you don't overcook it so that the yolk will still be runny. Set it aside.

2) Pound the garlic with the chilli padi (for spicyness). If you are cooking for your children, then just pound the garlic.

3) Put in the pounded garlic and chilli into the oil in your hot wok. Keep stirring. put the chicken in and put the fish sauce, oyster sauce, dark sauce, and sugar into it. Finally, off the fire and throw in the basil leaves and still continue to stir in the hot wok.

4) Finally, serve over rice and put your egg in as well as slices of cucumber. Enjoy!

Special Bee Tai Mak

Had this once at my friend's house and loved it so much that I had to replicate it on my own. Cooked twice so far for my family and for my cell group and they all loved it! This dish is easy to cook but the difficulty is on the preparation. So what I do is to prepare what I can prepare first so that on that day itself, I do not have to rush.

Ingredients
- Minced pork
- Diced liver
- Minced garlic
- Chopped Coriander
- Sliced chilli padi
- Bean Sprouts
- Bee Tai Mak
- Lime
- Small Prawns (Bought this frozen from supermarket)

What you can prepare ahead
- Minced garlic
- Marinate pork
- Marinate liver
- Sliced chilli padi
- Squeeze lime

I know most people would squirm at the sight or mention of liver. But it is a good element to add as I feel it adds a good twist, richness and depth to the flavour profile of the dish. Anyway, this special dish is self-served. So leave it to your guests or family to choose what they like to add to their plate.

Steps
1) Minced garlic and fry it in pan. Put just enough oil to cover the garlic. Cook in low fire and stir continuously so that it won't brown up unevenly.

2) After the garlic turned golden brown, quickly off the fire, drained the oil and spread the fried garlic on a paper towel to cool down. Once cooled, put in airtight container and leave in fridge.

3) Squeeze the bag of lime with a sieve through to a glass bottle to store in fridge. Set aside

4) Marinate the minced pork with soya sauce, sugar, salt and dark sauce

5) Marinate the chopped up liver with oyster sauce, soya sauce, fish sauce, dark sauce

6) Sliced the chilli padi thinly, removing the seeds

7) Peel the bean sprouts. For it to look nice, you can remove the front and back of it. Blanch it in hot water.

8) Chopped up the coriander

9) Blanch the frozen 'cocktail' prawns

10) Boil the bee tai mak, strain it and set aside. Don't overcook it.

(The above steps can be done in any order)

11) I used the leftover garlic oil to cook the minced pork and liver. Add the marinated pork to the frying pan with oil. Add water to dissolve the pork so that it do not clump together. Finally add flour with water to thicken the gravy.

12) Fry up the liver. I actually added few slices of ginger and spring onions for the taste of liver. So that the smell and taste of liver is not that strong. Up to you. Taste it. Adjust it according to your preference.

In the end, just serve everything separately for the guests to add. Just remember that there are 9 components to this dish, just in case you accidentally left out something or forgot to bring.

It should look like this! (With a few teaspoons of lime in it!)

Then, tell your guests to mix it up properly!

Frankly speaking, this is a very well-balanced dish with spice, sour, salt, sweet. Texturally it is also perfect with the crunch from the fried garlic, prawns and bean sprouts!

Enjoy this unique dish! Do give me any comments once you have tried it!

Simple Teriyaki Chicken

This is a simple, yet tasty recipe for the whole family. Each time I cooked this, my children simply asks for more servings. You will regret it if you do not cook this dish for your family. It is so easy!

Ingredients
- light soya sauce (4 TB)
- mirin (4 TB)
- Sake (2 TB)
- Sugar (1 TB)
- Boneless chicken thigh or chicken leg (do not remove the skin)
- For garnish, spring onions, shredded seaweed (get from supermarket Jap section), white sesame seeds

* You can now easily get mirin from supermarkets under the Japanese section. As for Sake, I did not buy as it is an ingredient which I seldom use in my cooking. So I replaced that with Chinese xo wine which I have. I am guessing any cooking wine also can.

Steps
1) Mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
2) Marinate the chicken with salt and black pepper for at least 30 mins
3) use a flat pan, no need oil, place the chicken in the pan with the skin face down, pan fried for about 3 mins till abit golden in colour( medium heat )
4) Add the mixed teriyaki sauce to the pan and allow the chicken to simmer till the sauce is dry (low heat)
5) Keep turning the chicken so that both sides will absorb the sauce
6) Remove from pan once the chicken is cooked and nicely browned.
7) Finally top up with spring onions, shredded seaweed and white sesame seeds

Best served with rice!

Enjoy!

Claypot Braised Pork Belly with Salted Fish

My friend shared this recipe with me as I have been looking for dishes that goes well with rice so that I can just prepare a dish or two just for dinner. Simple and tasty is my goal in cooking. Simplicity takes away the stress of washing up!

So here's a great dish for the family to dig in. You can just boil vegetables like cai xin or Xiao bai cai as a side dish with the rice.

Enjoy!

Ingredients
- pork belly (500g)
- salted fish- the oily ones you use for steaming (50g)
- 2 large onion (Initially, I was sceptical in using so many but its worth it! Sweeten up the dish)
- pepper
- ginger (cut)
- shallots (cut)

Marinade for the pork belly
- 1TB oyster sauce
- 1 TB light soya sauce
- I TB dark soya sauce
- 1 cornstarch

(I didn't have enough pork belly in my fridge, so I added minced pork as well)

Seasoning
- 1 TB oyster sauce
- 1 TB light soya sauce
- I TB dark soya sauce
- 150 ml water
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp sesame oil

Steps
1) Marinade the pork belly for at least 30 mins and place it in the fridge
2) Heat wok, drizzle some oil. Pan fry the pork belly both sides till brown. Set aside
3) Add a little of oil and put salted fish in claypot and fry for a while
4) Add the ginger, onions and shallots and sauté till fragrant
5) Add pork belly and seasonings, then pour water and simmer for 15-20 mins or till slightly dry. I did not wait till its dry as I love mine with gravy for the rice. Your preference!

Serve with rice and veggies!

Oven Baked Shrimp Paste Chicken

This is quite a guilt-free recipe for those who love shrimp paste chicken but refrain from eating so much because stalls outside usually deep fry them

Of course it will not be as crispy as what you find outside but its good enough and more acceptable on the waistline

Enjoy!

Ingredients for 12 wingettes
- 1 TB Shrimp sauce (Lee Kum Kee)

- 1 TB sugar
- 1 TB shaoxing wine
- 1/2 cup of flour (I used corn flour)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- olive oil

Steps
1) Marinate the wingettes for at least 4 hours using the first 3 ingredients (Shrimp sauce, sugar and wine)

2) An hour before you bake, coat the chicken with the mixed powder- flour, baking powder and baking soda. Place them on the rack to dry before you bake an hour later.

3) Brush olive oil on them before baking

4) Bake at 200 degrees celsius for 20-25 mins, depending on oven. Turn once during half time.

Note: The shrimp sauce can be rather salty. So adjust it to your own preference.

Enjoy!

Lo Mai Gai (Chicken Glutinous Rice)

This dish has been my son's favourite. He simply loves glutinous rice. So decided to make him this. Be warned that the ones sold in shops are really oily. So don't expect that when you make it at home. This is a healthier version since you get to choose what kind of chicken part you want and how much seasoning to add. It is basically quite a straight forward dish to prepare. Have fun!

What you need
- Chicken fillet / De-boned Chicken thigh
- small aluminium trays to put it in
- glutinous rice
- chicken stock
- dried mushrooms/ Chinese sausage (optional)

Marinade the chicken
- sesame oil
- soya sauce
- oyster sauce
- corn flour
- white pepper

Seasoning water for rice just before steaming
- sesame oil
- light soya sauce
- salt
- chicken stock
- water

Steps
1) Rinse and soak the glutinous rice for at least 2 hours
2) Slice the chicken and marinade it
3) After soaking the rice, discard the water
4) Layer the chicken (and dried mushrooms/Chinese sausage) inside the tray first as the first layer
5) For the next layer, cover the tray with rice, packing it tightly
6) Put the seasoning water in the tray till it covers the rice
7) Finally steam it

If you find the chicken dry, I suggest you either use chicken thigh (since it is more tolerant to heat) or steam the glutinous rice first before you assemble into the tray

Some recipes soak the glutinous rice overnight together with the seasoning water in it already. I haven't tried that but I can imagine the rice to be darker in colour and more tasty.


Anyway, just grasp the main idea and tweak it to whatever suits you and how much time you have!

Enjoy!

Ngor Hiang- Sweet and Juicy

This was my virgin try on preparing ngor hiang and it was a success, except maybe for the art in wrapping it which I have yet to master.

Decided to cook this as my hubby loves eating ngor hiang. I guess it is probably his comfort food since growing up with it as he is a hokkien and his mum cooks that a lot!

This recipe was shared by my facebook home cooking group which I joined. Enjoy!

Picture adapted from the Facebook Cooking Group

Ingredients
- 1 kg of minced meat
- 300g of water chestnut
- 1/2 kg of prawns
- 2 big onions
- $2 worth of fish paste
- bean curd skin (the soft ones)
- 1 egg

Steps
1) Use a damp cloth to clean the bean curd sheets if not it will be very very salty
2) Steam the bean curd skin by covering with the cloth so that the water doesn't drop onto the sheets
3) Prepare the paste - minced the prawns, onions, and water chestnut. Add the minced meat and fish paste. Crack and egg and mix it altogether. Season with pepper and corn flour. (no need salt as the skin is salty already!) I added spring onions to give the colour and because I had it in my fridge and didn't know how else to use it before it withers beyond its of use.

4) Wrap the paste with the bean curd skin

5) After wrapping all up, deep fry them and voila, nice and crispy sides to go with for your lunch or dinner!

Seafood Mui Fan 海鲜烩饭 (Asian Stew with rice)

There are times I crave for this as its simple, tasty and comforting to eat. To me, this dish is like a stew which goes well with rice or noodles. I simply love stews!! Perfect for rainy weathers.

So if you are new to cooking, try cooking stews first as it is basically 'throw-everything-in' kind of dish. It is also easy to wash up too!

Anyway, here's the ingredients

- garlic
- fish cake
- pork slices/Chicken diced/fish slices (marinate with , soya sauce, salt and pepper)
 (I omitted it this time round as I cooked a pork belly dish separate)
- Squid
- prawns
- Any leafy vegetable / cabbage
- egg
- cooked rice
- Chicken stock
- white pepper
- soya sauce
- crab meat (optional)
- carrots ( I didn't add as I figured it was enough dishes)
- corn flour

By the way, I use the concentrated chicken stock as just one drop and it gives so much flavour already. Can last very long as I leave the bottle in the fridge and take it up in times like this.

Basically, work with whatever you have in your fridge and would like to add in your dish. I didn't have any cai xin at that time when I cooked this, so I used cabbage by slicing it thinly.

Steps
1) Prepare (Wash and Cut up) all your ingredients separately
2) Add oil to your wok, very high fire
3) throw in the garlic and fish cakes. Toss
4) Put in the meat at this point
5) Throw in the veggies (As you can see, you are basically throwing things in one by one starting from the one that cooks longer first or wont make a difference if 'overcook')
6) Add soya sauce and toss
7) Add water to cover the food in the wok and stock. Close up the cover
8) Throw in the fish/prawns/squid last as those cook very fast
9) Have a bowl of water and corn flour ready to throw in to thicken it slightly (your preference to how thick you want your gravy to be)
10) Always taste to see if you are satisfied with it. Balance with whatever sauce you need. It may be more taste. So you add stock or even oyster sauce if you like.
11) Finally, throw in the beaten egg and swirl it one time before switching off the fire


You pour the gravy over the rice/ noodles and sprinkle some white pepper! Enjoy!

Una-Tama (Grilled Unagi Eel and Egg)

I have always been a big fan of Japanese food. There is so much variety that somehow, I will not get sick of eating. The only thing holding me back from eating it everyday is of course, the COST! Its so expensive to eat in Japanese restaurants. The usual one I would go to is within walking distance from my house which has a lunch promotion for only $10 which includes a main dish, a side, and a dessert.
Even the non-promotional items are cheaper than regular restaurants. So that's where I go to for my Japanese food cravings.

Anyway, I bought unagi (grilled eel) from Giant hypermart as it was on offer.

So because of that, I decided to try a dish which is sold in Japanese restaurants in Singapore. If you have difficulty in finding grilled eel, you can substitute it with salmon (cut into cubes).

Ingredients
- Grilled Eel (small pieces)
- Yellow Onion
- Eggs
- Unagi/Teriyaki Sweet Sauce - Available in supermarkets in the Japanese section
- Seaweed and Spring Onions for garnish

Steps
1) Add oil to the pan. I used my happy call pan for the grill effect. But of course, any frying pan will do. Throw in the onions.

2) Toss it and add a bit of the unagi sauce to the onions to sweeten and caramelised it up.

3) Then throw in the eel and toss it. Add more sauce if you like it.

4) Finally, throw in the beaten eggs to let it cover all the eel and onions. I do not like my eggs to be overcooked but slightly mushy. It's nicer.

5) Remove from pan neatly and garnish with spring onions and seaweed (I used my ready cut up seaweed from a packet)

This dish is great with rice! You can actually place this on top of the rice. You can also make miso soup to go with this meal.

Enjoy!

Pan-fried Squid with Miso Sauce

In my opinion, having a box of miso paste is a must-have in the fridge. Miso paste is very versatile. As and when I feel like cooking noodles soup, I add miso paste to the soup and it instantly taste nice. You can also use this paste for marination, like how I am going to show you in this post. Or even use this paste to cook Kang Kong Vegetables if you do not want the usual sambal belachan version since you have young children at home. So, do keep a tub in your fridge. It is quite lasting!

Basically, the Shiro (White) Miso is a milder type as compared to the Aka (Red) Miso. The Aka one is stronger in taste. So its your preference.

Apart from miso, I also have Japanese sauces in my fridge which I love. I use it when I fry salmon, marinate beef or pork slices if I feel like cooking Japanese. Below is actually a Yakitori sauce, but it works well. Basically I am going for the teriyaki, sweet sauce type of taste.

Here's a miso soup with noodles recipe for you if you are interested- Egg Noodles with Chicken Miso Soup

Anyway, below is a recipe that is so simple yet tasty. I am sure everyone can cook this at home.

Ingredients
1) Miso Paste
2) Teriyaki/ Japanese sweet sauce
3) Squid
4) Yellow Onions
5) Dried Parsley or spring onions for garnish

Steps
1) Wash and slice the squid. Here's a step-by-step picture guide on how to wash and cut it! Very informative!

2) Then marinate it with miso paste.

3) Slice up the whole onion

4) Throw in the sliced onions into the frying pan with oil

5) While frying the onions, I squeeze in a bit of the Japanese Sauce marinate to let the onions cook faster and make the onions tastier.

6) Then I throw in the squid and toss quickly since squid cooks very fast. Be sure not to overcook it as it can become rubbery. At this juncture, you can also squeeze some Japanese sauce onto it for colour and taste.

7) Taste it and see if you are satisfied before switching off the fire.

8) Finally, garnish with dried parsley or spring onions

You can eat this with a bit of gravy or minimal gravy. It's up to you. Just make sure the taste of the gravy is to your liking before you off the fire.

ENJOY!

Chinese Wolfberry Leaves (Kou Kee) Anchovies and Minced Pork Soup

This is one of the soup I would crave for once in a while. However, it is not often you find the kou kee leaves. So if I happen to see it, usually, I would grab it!

Decided to cook this soup today when I glanced at my window and saw an imminent thunderstorm approaching as dark clouds loom the sky.

It's a very easy and nutritious soup to cook for the whole family! However, some ingredients may not be the normal stuff you find in this kind of soup. I tweaked it according to what I have at home and how I wish to use it to compliment my dinner dishes.

Ingredients
- Dried Anchovies
- Salted Egg
- Dried Chinese Wolfberries
- Chinese Wolfberries Leaves (Kou Kee Choy)
- Minced Pork soak with a bit of water, soya sauce, white pepper, sesame oil, fish sauce, salt (to loosed up the pork so that its all disintegrated)
- Shitake Mushrooms

Steps
1) Boil the dried anchovies in a pot of water
2) Add the Chinese Wolfberries in after a while
3) Add the Shitake Mushrooms. (Reason why I added this is not only because I have it in my fridge but because I feel its a good balance to offset the saltiness of the soup from the anchovies)
4) Separate the salted egg yolk with the egg white. Cook the egg yolk and break it up into the soup.
5) Then pour the egg white over the soup while its still boiling
6) Put the leaves in
7) Finally, pour the minced pork in
8) Off the fire so that the leaves and pork do not overcook
9) Taste it before serving

I did not add the usual egg in as I will be cooking fried egg for dinner. So I didn't want dinner to have so many eggs. So I just added a salted egg in for this dish. But of course, you can also throw in a beaten egg just before you off the fire. And if you like century eggs, you can consider adding this so it will become a triple egg dish but a soup version.

Anyway, enjoy!

Water Chestnut Egg Drop Dessert

This is the time of the year where most people should take extra care of their health since Chinese New Year is coming and there will be lots of 'heaty' food going around. Moreover, the weather has been very unusual this year with the temperature going on an average of 25-27 degrees in the morning. It's perfect and I haven't stopped thanking God for the nice weather so far. However, it's maybe because of this change where its cooler and dryer, that my children as well as myself are down with itchy throat.

So, I thought of what ingredients are in season now and what I should be cooking to make my throat feel better.

Decided on doing something with water chestnuts since its the Chinese New Year season. You can sure find it. So check out this simple dessert for the whole family!


Ingredients
- one bag of water chestnuts
- one egg
- rock sugar
- pandan leaves
- corn starch
- gingko nuts (optional)

Steps
1) Peel the skin of the water chestnuts (This is the most troublesome step for this dish!) and cut them in small pieces.

2) Boil about 4-5 bowls of water. Add one rock sugar in it as well as pandan leaves.

 

 

3) Then add the water chestnuts and gingko (optional) in. Let it cook over medium low heat. Cook it till you are satisfied with the taste and the quantity.

4) Put corn starch to thicken it a little (optional)

5) Put in beaten egg before turning off the fire. Stir it so that the egg is dissolve and cooked nicely.

You can eat this warm or chilled. Up to you!

 

Enjoy!

 

Malaysian Yee Mee Noodles Soup

I would like to dedicate this dish to my Indonesian helper who went over to Malaysia to work in Restaurants. She has learnt this dish there and shared it with me. She commented that this dish is one of the popular dishes there.

Ingredients

For Soup Base
- Soya Bean
- Dried Ikan Bilis
- Garlic (Peel the skin, leave it whole)
- White pepper (whole)
- turnip
- big onion
- wong bok (few pieces)

For Noodles
- dried yee mee
- fish cake
- fish balls
- Chye Sim
- Pork (slices, marinate with light soya sauce and white pepper)
- egg

Steps
1) On the wok/frying pan, with very low fire, fry the soya bean, dried ikan bilis, garlic, white pepper first without oil. Fry for about 25 mins, when the ikan bilis seems to become lighter.

 

 

2) After that, transfer them into a stock bag. Add a big onion, few pieces of wong bok, some turnip into the bag as well.

 

 

 

3) Put about 2 litres of water in the pot and boil it. Place the soup bag into it. Boil till the flavour all comes out.

 

* This soup base can be used for wanton noodles, mee or bee hoon soup as well.

4) When you want to serve the yee mee, you place the noodles into the soup to cook it, add chye sim, sliced fish cake, fish ball and sliced pork too. Take note of the various timings to cook them so as not to overcook the meat or veggies.

 

 

5) Crack the egg into the serving bowl. Place the noodles and ingredients on top of the egg. Make sure the soup is boiling hot then you finally transfer into the bowl so that the egg can be cooked. Alternatively, you can cook the egg in the pot of soup first if you like.

6) Finally, garnish with spring onions, Chinese celery and white pepper.



Enjoy!


A very sweet and tasty noodles soup for the whole family, including the children!

 

 

Ketchup Garlic Prawns

This is quite a nostalgic dish for me growing up. Whenever my mum prepares this, I would happily sink my teeth into the prawn heads, sucking them and licking up all the sauce from the prawn shells. Then I would peel up all my prawns one by one, add the sauce over the flesh and onto my rice, then gobble it all down.

So I cooked this dish to relive those memories as well as create good ones for my children. But sadly, they have not learnt how to enjoy prawns. Well good news is, I had the whole big plate of prawns all shared between me and hubby who happily slurped up everything!

There are some who prefer to remove the shell and head, just keeping the tail. But for me, I love it whole as its just heavenly sucking the prawn head with ketchup. Haha. oh well, your preference!

Ingredients
- tomato ketchup (lots!)
- garlic (used the whole bulb and chopped it finely)
- water
- 1 tomato
- oil / butter
- spring onions (garnish)

Steps
1) Heat oil/butter in wok
2) Fry garlic till fragrant
3) Add the prawns and tomatoes in and stir fry till almost cooked
3) Finally, add lots of ketchup and a bowl of water (bit by bit to see how much you need for your gravy)
4) Keep stirring and tossing so as to evenly cook the prawns
5) Garnish with spring onions
6) Serve this with steamed rice

Enjoy!

*Always remember to keep tasting your dish to see if you are satisfied before turning off the fire.

Kway Chap 棵汁 / Braised pork innards stew

Always loved this dish as its like a one pot meal that can go with rice or noodles. Very versatile. Leftovers are also good as you can reuse the gravy.

As I was shopping in Giant hypermart, I came across this premix. So I got it. Yes, it is the cheat method which I seldom use but once in a while, I get lazy and decide on trying it out. Don't worry if you are living abroad and do not have the premix as you can substitute it with 5 spice powder, star anise, cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom and sugar. (If you want some heat, you can add black peppercorns)

Basically for this dish, you simply add whatever you like to eat. For me, I love the pork belly, egg, firm beancurd ('dou gan' 豆干), fried beancurd skin ('dao pok' 炸豆腐皮/豆仆) and my supermarket nearest my place happen to have pig intestines. So I bought that as well.

Ingredients
- 5 TBs dark soya sauce
- 10 garlic cloves (with skin attached)
- pork belly
- eggs
- firm beancurd ('dou gan' 豆干)
- fried beancurd skin ('dao pok' 炸豆腐皮/豆仆)
- pig intestines
- Chinese celery (for garnish)

* To wash the pig intestines, I first wash it in rinsing water till most of the murkiness is gone. Then I wash it with white vinegar to remove any smell. Soak it for a while before washing it off and then pouring boiling water over it. You can also choose to pan fry your intestines after that too before throwing in together with the rest of the meat.

Steps
1) Add the sachet of the premix, garlic and dark soya sauce into 1.5 L of water and simmer.
2)  Add your meat, beancurd, pig intestines, fried beancurd skin as well as egg (I put the whole egg in together with the shell to cook it. So remember to wash the egg first). Let everything simmer in very low heat. The packet said simmer for 1 hour but I realise the pork isn't as tender as I want it to be. So basically, you simmer until you feel the pork belly is soft. I did it for almost 3 hours before I was satisfied. Mid way while cooking, you can remove the egg, remove the shell and put the egg back into the pot so that the egg will be black in colour when serving. Looks nicer.
3) Cut it all up before serving
4) Garnish with chopped celery

I cooked this for dinner. So ate this with rice.

There was a lot of gravy left and a little pork and beancurd. So I decided to put all in the fridge and the next morning, I actually boiled noodles, threw some chicken wings in the leftovers last night together with the gravy and served this for breakfast to my family. They all loved it!

So don't worry if you have leftovers. This make a great dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Enjoy!

Egg Omelette with Bean Sprouts and prawns

If you like egg omelette and bean sprouts as much as I do, then how about adding them both? So if you are eating alone or just in a company of two, this dish with rice is enough to fill you up!

Ingredients
-Bean Sprouts
-Eggs (beaten)
-Prawns
-Onions
-Spring Onions
-Fish Sauce
-Soya sauce (optional)
-cooking wine(optional)
-white pepper

Steps
1) Heat oil in the frying pan. Then throw in the onions. Fry till translucent
2) Throw in the bean sprouts and toss it. Add a few splashes of fish sauce and cooking wine
3) Then lastly throw in the prawns and toss a few times before switching off the fire. Cook the prawns such that it just turned cook. Watch it and not make it overcook.
4) Pour all the ingredients into a bowl of the beaten eggs and stir them, mixing it well. Add 1tsp of soya sauce if you like. But you can skip this since fish sauce has its own saltiness already. You can also add white pepper too. So mix everything up.
5) Put in the spring onions into it

6) Finally pour this mixture into a heated up frying pan with oil to cook the egg

7) Turn both ways to fry it till nicely coloured

Enjoy!

Braised Ginger Chicken with Potatoes

This is a great savory dish perfect with rice as it is tasty and simple.

Just this dish with one vegetable dish will be enough for dinner.

Ingredients (for 3-4)
- Chicken (whichever parts you like to eat. I would recommend chicken drumsticks/thighs/wings. Basically, anything with a little of fats or skin would be good for this dish)
- Potatoes (About 3)
- Ginger
- Oyster Sauce (1 TB)
- Dark Soy Sauce (2 TB)


Steps
1) Cut up the ginger and potatoes, as well as marinate the chicken with oyster sauce and dark soy sauce

2) Heat up a pot and add oil in high fire

3) Put in ginger and fry it in the pot by stirring continuously in high heat

4) Then you throw in the cut potatoes

5) After that, throw in the chicken. Add about a cup or two cups of water to the chicken bowl and pour in to the pot. Once it starts boiling, you turn down the fire to let it simmer

6) Cook it for about 30 mins or when you see the gravy is sufficient enough for your dish and taste it before you switch off the fire.

Enjoy this simple and yet tasty dish!

Sushi, the easy and cheap way

Sushi has been enjoyed with my children ever since my 4 year old daughter saw her cousin eat it. Yes, kids are rather impressionable.

Anyway, sushi making is really fun to do it together as a family and it encourages creativity as well!

It is also very easy to prepare and the best thing is that the leftovers can be PERFECT for fried rice! So, very minimal wastage!

Ingredients: (Basically, it is whatever you like to add in your sushi or where ever your creativity takes you. But here's my list)

- Sausages (1 sausage per pax is more than enough)
- eggs ( 1 egg for 2 people)
- Japanese cucumber (any cucumber works as well)
- mayonnaise
- Seaweed sheets (Nori sheets)
- cooked rice (I have used normal Chinese rice for my sushi and it works fine. But if you are more particular, then go for the Japanese or Calrose rice)
- crab sticks

Many recipes state to put vinegar inside the rice. But I found that it is not necessary if you just want to keep it simple!

Preparation:
1) Cook the rice way in advance. If you are having it for lunch, cook it in the morning to allow it time to cool down. I just cooked it normally in the rice cooker as how I would cook my usual rice. Except that I would add more rice than usual as sushi making does take up more rice. So I would add about 1/2 cup to 1 cup more than usual.

2) Cook the sausage in whatever method you want. I opt for boiling in a pot of boiling water as it is 'healthier' and easier to wash after that.

3) After that, thinly cut the sausages in strips.

4) Thinly slice the cucumber as well. If you are using Japanese cucumber which I normally use, I would retain the skin. But otherwise, remove the skin.

5) Beat the eggs and fry them in a pan of hot oil. Then remove from pan and cut it thinly as well.

6) For the crabsticks, I did not cook them. I just thaw it, remove the plastic and thinly strip it as well.

Steps:
1) Lay the nori sheet on top of the bamboo roller. Then scoop rice on the seaweed by pressing it down and spreading it. Most places make sure that there is rice on every part of the seaweed. So it is really compact and compressed. However, I didn't want to fill to full..so I opted for less rice. So there are gaps in between.

2) Place whatever ingredients you want to put in your sushi. My girl likes sausage and eggs. So here's how I put it. Place them only in the front portion of your seaweed. I also spread mayonnaise on the rice first.

3) Then you start taking the bamboo roller and push in your ingredients to roll it up

4) Each roll you do, you compress it tight

5) Then finally you complete the whole roll of seaweed

6) Then remove the bamboo roller onto the cutting board

7) Next, you take a sharp knife to cut. When cutting, please take note NOT to press your knife down. You just slice gently, allowing the knife to do its work. If not, your sushi will end up in a mess.

8) Because I did not add too much rice, the ends of the sushi are a little hollow. But I kind of like that actually as it is more crispy since there's more seaweed at the ends. So it's really up to you how much rice you want to put and squeeze on top of the seaweed

You can have other ingredients like raw salmon. Here's my son's work

 

 

Enjoy and have fun! I had leftovers for my sushi. So I used them for dinner as I cooked my children's another favourite- fried rice! Here's my fried rice recipe !