Fast and Easy Dark Soya Sauce Sotong(aka squid)

Today I am going to share a family recipe called the dark soya sauce sotong. This dish is very simple to cook and it only requires 4 ingredients.

Ingredients
Sotong( it all depends on how much u intend to cook)
Red dates dark soya sauce
Black ground pepper (based on how much u can take)
Sugar

Steps 
1. Marinate the sotong with the dark soya sauce and pepper for at least half an hour
2. Heat up the wok and pour the sotong in to cook.
3.Once the sotong curls up , it is ready to eat and add a bit of sugar at this time.
4.Ready to serve.

Steam fish with light soya sauce

Ingredients

1 sutchi fillet
3 slices of ginger shreds
2 chilli padi
1cm of water in pot
light soya sauce
a pinch of salt


Recently, i tried to prepare this simple and fuss free steam fish dish.

I first cut the sutchi fillet into half.

Next , I rub some salt onto the fish. I will also start to boil about 1 cm of water in the pot.

Once water is boil , put the fish in with the ginger shreds, chilli padi and also the light soya sauce to cover the water and boil for about 15 mins.

Serve hot with rice.

Braised Celery - Healthy living

This dish I tried it out after googling from allreceipes.com. However, I did a tweak to the recipe.

Ingredients

1 bunch of celery that is cut in 4-inch pieces
1/2 a piece of the chicken cube
10g of butter ( I used the scs those is pre packed form)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
1 bowl of water
1 tablespoon of parsely


Step 
1.  Melt the butter

2. Arrange the celery in the skillet  and season it with salt and pepper.

3.Dissolve the chicken cube and pour the water in to boil

4.Cover the pot and bring it to boil over medium high heat.

5. Once the water boils, simmer it on low heat for half an hour.

Tau Kwa Porridge

Ingredients( Serves 1)

1 piece of tau kwa -diced into small cubes
50g of dried shrimps
1 small shallot
100g of minced meat- to be marinated with corn flour, light soya sauce, a dash of pepper and sesame oil.
rice

This tau kwa porridge is taught by my grandma. It is rather different from the normal porridge.

Steps on how to prepare

1. First you got to decide the number of people that you are cooking for then cook the porridge like the teochew style of porridge.

2. Pan fry the tau kwa till golden brown and then set aside

3. Stir fry the shallot with the dried shrimps till fragrant

4. Upon look that the porridge is boiling, make the minced meat into balls and put inside the porridge to cook.

5. Lastly, once the porridge is cooked put the tau kwa and dried shrimps into the porridge.

Note: if you don't feel that it is salty enough, you might want to add a bit of light soya sauce. I am fine with the saltiness.

Home cooked fried carrot cake

Yesterday I tried cooking fried carrot cake for the first time. I actually got my inspiration from looking through all the photos that were posted on my face book. Hence,  I cooked it for lunch to share with my dad.

This recipe I got it from rasamalaysia . However, I do have a cheat step to do the frying easier.

Ingredients

1 carrot cake ( stir fry ) from ntuc

2 tbsp of chai por
2 cloves of minced garlic
2 tbsp of oil
2 eggs( put a bit of light soya sauce and pepper to beat)
1 tsp of fish sauce

Steps

1. Cut the carrot cake into cubes
2. fry the carrot cake till golden brown ( for me i dun prefer golden brown)
3. fry the garlic , chai por and carrot and put in the fish sauce
4. add in the eggs
5. add in the spring onion as garnishing

Noodle salad

Today I came home early from work. I decided to make something colourful and something which i had never tried doing that before which is noodle salad.

Ingredients

1 packet of myojo chicken abalone noodles

1 carrot

1 japanese cucumber

4 hotdogs or chicken franks

2 tablespoon of roasted sesame dressing.

Steps

1. Boil the water to cook the hotdogs

2. Meanwhile cut the carrot into strips and cucumber to slices

3. Once water is boiled , cook the hotdogs and remove the hotdogs once cooked.

4. Next , use it to cook the myojo chicken abalone noodles.

5. Drain off the water and use running tap water and ice water to cool the noodles.

6. Mix the ingredients and noodles together with the 2 tablespoons of roasted sesame dressing

Japchae

Ingredients

150g of sweet potato noodles or dried glass noodles

1 tablespoon of oil

3 cloves of minced garlic

150g of beef or chicken cut into very thin strips

1 tablespoon of sesame oil

2 tablespoon of light soya sauce

150g of  puay leng (spinach), leaves trimmed

2 carrots cut into match sticks

2 spring onions cut into short lengths

4 fresh shiitake mushrooms with stems trimmed and caps sliced

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper

1 teaspoon of corn flour

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce mixed with water

Steps

1. First cut the chicken into thin slices and marinate with the corn flour, 1 teaspoon of  light soya sauce, a dash of pepper and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil.

2. Cut the carrots, mushrooms, spring onions.

3. Boil the water  and add the sweet potato noodles and cooked it till soft.  Once soft, drain off  the water and set aside.

4. Stir fry the garlic till golden brown and fragrant. Add in the chicken or beef, sesame oil  and 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce and stir fry till browned. Add the vegetables in to stir fry till tender.

5. Add in the glass noodles and toss well to combine the seasoning with the sugar, salt and remaining oyster sauce. Sprinkle with black pepper and serve hot .

** A note to take: this might be a bit bland for you guys out there  so adjust the seasoning accordingly. I try to cook as bland as possible for health sake of my family and friends.

Chicken Satay Pizza

This chicken satay pizza is partially done with the help of Panasonic bread maker. I used the bread maker to make the pizza dough.

Thick crust version of the satay pizza 

Thin crust version of the satay pizza


I made the pizza crust by using the mode 12 for pizza dough. As per the recipe in the user manual, I use the following ingredients just that instead of getting milk powder I use low fat Meiji fresh milk.

Recipe for the Chicken Satay Pizza

Ingredients :
1 packet of pan fried chicken satay pizza from ntuc 
pineapple slices
japanese cucumber
onion 
mozarella cheese 

Steps:
1. Use the bread maker to make the pizza dough
2.  Pan fry satay with the sauce
3. Place the pizza dough on the tray for baking if you are using an oven. I used my roasting pan to make the pizza so i heat up the pot to A on small fire then I place the pizza dough.
4. I place the pan fried satay and other ingredients.
5. I baked the pizza from A to C and I got the two lovely pizzas as shown before.

Mala Xiang Guo

Recently, I fell in love with this dish called mala xiang guo after my brother in law cooked this dish at my place for the weekly lunch meeting.

What I did was to get all the ingredients which i wanted to cook in the mala paste.

My take for the ingredients for this dish would be sliced celery, lotus root, crab stick , oyster mushroom , prawns , sotong , sliced beef, fish balls and enoki mushroom.

Here's the look of the mala sauce which i got from giant.

 Giant is selling ard $5.50 if i din remember wrongly

What is balanced in my house fridge was  crabstick , enoki mushroom, fishball , oyster mushroom so i did the mala xiang guo with the ingredients .

Here's how it look like

The numbing sensation i got from this mala xiang guo was shiok to the max...have fun cooking this dish at home and dun need to go to food court and eat the expensive dish again.

Steps to prepare this is simple:

1. Wash all the ingredients clean
2. Heat up the pot with a bit of oil and saute the garlic till fragrant
3. Add 1 packet of the sauce in to fry
4. Add the ingredients in
5. Let it cook for a while
6. Ready to serve with white rice.

Cheese baked spiced pork cube udon

Today  I decided to cook one of my comfort dish to ease of my craving for the spiced pork cubes.

This dish could be done within half an hour. Nothing much fanciful but rather it can be done for just a single person without much fuss.

Ingredients
1 packet of udon ( Ntuc brand)
1 can of spiced pork cubes ( Narcissus brand)
2 slices of cheese ( Ntuc brand)
1 egg

Steps
 1. Open the packet of udon and rinse it
 2. Heat up the wok and put some oil in it
 3, Pour in the spiced pork cubes
4. Pour in the udon
5. Pour in the beaten egg
6. Put in 2 slices of cheese and cover the noodles
7. Wait for about 15 mins
8. Ready to serve.

Black pepper pork slices

My mom asked me for the black pepper pork slices for one of the dishes for dinner. So as per her advice , I got the shoulder butt meat that is worth $3 to do the stir frying.

Ingredients that are needed for this dish ( serves 3) 

$3 worth of shoulder butt meat from wet market 

2 tablespoons of Lee Kum Kee black pepper sauce 

A tablespoon of garlic 

A teaspoon of oil at most
A teaspoon of corn flour 
A drizzle of sesame oil, light soya sauce and pepper

Steps to prepare

1. Wash the meat clean 

2. Slice it thinly and wash it clean
3. Marinate the meat with corn flour. light soya sauce , pepper and sesame for about half an hour.

4. Minced the garlic 

5. Heat up the wok and stir fry the garlic.

6. Add in the black pepper sauce till fragrant.

7. Once sauce is fragrant, add in the pork to stir fry for about 10 mins.

* Remember don't stir fry till the meat is too hard. Sorry people, I am unable to take photo of the end product ços my family was too hungry.

Grandma's Kaya Recipe

Recently, I have been going down to my grandma's place to stay with her during the weekends. This is not just only to spend time with her but also to learn the family recipes.

Her kaya is something that I often missed when I am doing the spreading of bread.

This recipe is done by using melted sugar instead of the usual pandan leaves where there is a green colour.

Ingredients

6 big eggs

Pandan leaves to be wash clean and tie as per the picture

1 rice bowl of sugar

 

Add ten dessert spoons of  sugar to the beaten eggs.

Continue to stir the mixture in the rice cooker. Please remember to add some water in the rice cooker.

Slowly add one rice bowl of coconut milk to stir . After stirring a while , put the pandan leaves in and

continue to stir. Continue to stir till it is semi harden. By this time, you can start to melt the balance

sugar in the rice bowl using a sauce pan . Then put the melted sugar into the mixture and continue to

stir until no bubbles is in the mixture.  Stir until the water in the rice cooker boils. Cover a linen cloth

over the mixture and steam it for another 5 to 10 mins.

Recipe of Lumpia Shanghai

Due to my cell group's Xmas party which all of us are to do pot bless, I decided to do one fuss free and easy recipe which is called Lumpia Shanghai.

Lumpia Shanghai is a Filipino dish which is equivalent to the Chinese dish, Ngoh Hiang. Ngoh Hiang is deep fried beancurd skin roll with meat whereas Lumpia Shanghai is deep fried spring roll with meat inside.

I first tried this dish about eight years back when a friend introduced it to me. The crunchy bite of the Lumpia Shanghai which I thought might appeal to kids.

Recipe of Lumpia Shanghai

Ingredients

·         1 packet of spring roll skin under this brand tee yih jia

·         900g of chicken thigh meat

·         half a dessert spoon of garlic powder

·         half a teaspoon of salt

·         2 dessert spoons of light soya sauce

·         1 egg

·         a dash of pepper

·         1 dessert spoon of finely chopped yellow onion

·         1 small carrot which is grated

·         2 and a half teaspoons of corn flour

 

Method

1. Clean up the chicken meat if there is any trace of blood.

2.Mince the chicken meat using chopper, else the crunchy bite won't be there

3. Crack the egg and take a bit of egg white out so as to seal off the spring roll

4. Mix salt, carrot, onion, garlic powder, light, corn flour, pepper and egg together with the the minced chicken meat

5. Leave it inside the fridge overnight

6. Wrap the marinate in the spring roll skin

7. Deep fry it till golden brown .

8. Serve it with thai sweet chilli sauce

 

 

                                                      

Recipe of Lemon grass ginger drink

A few stalks of lemon grass smashed
2  gingers being smashed
some rock sugar from eu yang sang

Method

Just put the ingredients in add some water and boil it. After that , let it cool down . If  you like it chilled, then put it inside the fridge and dun put ice cubes in cos it will dillute the taste.

Recipe of ice mocha drink

Ingredients

1 packet of cabury hot chocolate
1 teaspoon of nescafe gold
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of condensed milk
Some ice cubes

1. Firstly mix all the ingredients except ice cubes and mix it with hot water .
2. Add some water
3. Lastly, add some ice cubes.

I usually like to have this drink when I am having some snacks during exams. It is a cheap and good quick fix to get ur ice mocha fix.

A tweak of the recipe from Sunday times today - Tomato and avocado salad

Tomato and avocado salad

Ingredients:

2 tsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp of grain mustard
1 tsp of honey
Salt and ground pepper to taste
200g cheery, grape or baby roma tomatoes
1 large, ripe avocado
1 tbsp of sunflower seeds


Method

1. Measure the vinegar , olive oil, mustard and honey into glass jar with a screwtop lid. Cover the jar and shake until the dressing is emulsified. Have a taste and add salt and pepper.

2. Halve the tomatoes. Pit , skin and cut the avocado into cubes.

3. Just before serving, toss the tomatoes, avocado and dressing and sprinkle the sunflower seeds together.



 

My new cooking toy ~~ playbear electric lunch box

Actually , I bought this new cooking toy for about 2 weeks already. Today is is the first day that I attempted to use it. Reason on buying it is because my thermo flask which has been serving me throughout my uni years is no longer able to keep food warm.

It is pretty simple to use just that the manual is in chinese. If your chinese is not good, you can try to get someone to translate for you. I attempted to cook the rice and the steam egg as per the instruction manual.

The rice is cooked just like in normal rice cooker. As for the steamed egg, it is pretty hard to wash off the stains even putting some oil on it. However, I am quite happy with this buy. I am looking forward to cooking more healthier meals at sch when i am studying during exams  with all the food pre- packed in it . Just go to sch to steam it.

**Note: please do not follow the manual to cook 150g of rice. Cos it can be taken in by 2 person.

 

Recipe of Bak Kwa adapted from Cheekiemonkie.net

Bak Kwa is a delicacy which a lot of people cannot afford to miss when visiting relatives. It is my favourite snack when visiting the relatives. Sometimes in order to get to eat to good bak kwa like those from Lim Chee Guan as it is not so oily as compared to their competitors, one might have to queue more than 10 hours to get it.

As such, I went surfing for recipe for bak kwa and chanced it upon via Cheekiemonkie.net. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

1. 2 tablespoons of fish sauce
2. 1/2 tablespoon of light soy sauce
3. 1/2 tablespoon of oyster sauce
4. 1/2 tablespoon of rice wine
5. 75g of sugar
6. 250g of minced pork
7. A drop of red colouring

Steps

1. Mix all of the sauces & sugar together in a large bowl until the sugar dissolves.

2.Then add in the minced pork and continue to mix with gusto!

3.Set aside the marinated meat for at least 2 hours. For best results, you can leave it overnight in the fridge.

4.Flatten the minced meat with a rolling pin on the parchment paper.

5. Put it into the baking tray and grill it at 150 degrees for an hour and turn it onto the next side  and bake again .

 

Fast and Easy to Cook recipe-Canned Campbell cream of mushroom soup with asparagus with instant noodles

Ingredients

1 packet of instant mee or udon
3 stalks of fat asparagus
5-6 pcs of shitake mushroom
1 can of campbell cream of mushroom soup 

Step 1
Wash the mushroom clean , take off the stem and diced it.

Step 2
Peel the first layer of the asparagus and sliced it ,

Step 3
Boil and cooked the instant noodles and drain it dry.

Step 4 
Heat  up the can of cream of mushroom and throw in the ingredients of mushroom and asparagus. After about 10 mins, throw in the instant noodles and cook for about 1 min. Add a dash of ground black pepper if you want to.

How to make salted eggs adapted from Sunday Times 8.12.13

Today , I read the sunday times . Apparently, I saw the receipe of salted eggs being published. I think this receipe is good for those who are overseas studying and miss eating the salted eggs.

Ingredients
300g of sea salt
1.2 litres of water
1 tablespoon of sichuan  peppercorns
2-3 star anise
12 extra large eggs
2 tablespoon of shaoxing wine

Method
1. Bring sea salt and water to a boil in a saucepan over medium high heat. Add the sichuan peppercorns and star anise.Turn the heat off and let the brine mixture cool completely.

2. Meantime, wash teh eggs under running water, making sure to gently rub off feathers that might be clinging to it.

3. Let the eggs drip dry in colander while the brining mixture cools.

4. when the mixture has cooled, pour in the shaoxing wine and stir to mix.

5. Wipe off any moisture on the eggs with a paper towel.  Check that there are no cracks on the eggs . Use the cracked eggs quickly for other dishes. Place the eggs in a clean glass or plastic container with a lid.

6. Pour the brine into the container. Be sure to scrape the peppercorns into the container too.

7. Fill a resealable plastic bag about a third of the way with water, seal it and place gently over the eggs to make sure they stay in the brine. Cover the container and place in a cool, dark place for 30 to 40 days. Best bet is to keep it ard 32-25 days.

8. After 30 days, cook 1 egg to see if it is salty enough.

9.Remove eggs from the brine, rinse under running water, wipe dry with paper towels and store int eh fridge where they will remain good for about a month