皮蛋瘦肉粥 My comfort food--Pork porridge with thousand century egg

 

新年快乐！！ 某些国家已经迈入新的一年。我还得等多7个小时才步入2012年。时间过得飞快，又过了一年。来到美国已经2年了。我可要好好珍惜在这里的最后一年，好好继续当个煮饭婆，尝试煮新的菜色。不然，回国后我想没有太多机会下厨了。

“消失”了一小阵子。可能你已猜到，我又跑到别的地方去渡假。反正圣诞节和新年有很长的假期，索性又“出走”到别的地方开开眼界。这次我们跑到迪斯尼乐园尝试找回童年和到环球影城寻找刺激。走了好几天真的蛮累的。回到家本来想出去吃（因为太累了不想煮），可是想到又要吃西餐就觉得很腻！翻了翻冰箱，刚好可以煮皮蛋瘦肉粥！太棒了即简单又好吃！在冷冷的天气吃有妈妈味道的粥，是人生一大享受！吃皮蛋瘦肉粥让我想起妈妈。因为每次天气开始炎热，妈妈就会煮这个粥。她说吃了这个粥能降火。会不会降火我就不知道了，我只知道我最爱吃妈妈煮的这个粥！

食材：（2－3人份）

1）里肌肉 大概200g（pork loin）切薄片

2）干蚝8－10颗切大丁

3）干贝5－6颗，泡水至软然后捏成丝

4）皮蛋一粒，切大丁

5）生菜 几片切条 （我家里有所以就用了。你也可以选择不放）

6）米3／4杯（量米的杯子）

7）水或高汤大概4－5杯

步骤：

1）用蚝油、酱油、绍兴酒、胡椒粉和太白粉腌制肉片大概半小时。

2）把米洗干净然后，把米倒入锅中，加入水煮到水滚开。

3）加入干贝和干蚝，转小火煮到米“开花”。

4）加入肉片，转中火煮到肉片熟透。

5）加入生菜、皮蛋和盐调味，煮2分钟。

6）吃粥之前，可以撒点葱花或芫荽和胡椒粉。

京都排骨

这是新加坡煮炒摊位经常看到的一道菜。我先生不是肉食主义者，但是除了鸡翅膀，就是排骨了。所以我总要学学几道排骨菜肴。因为我不喜欢需要炸的排骨，以前一买排骨就只会做豆豆支蒸排骨。现在总算有另一个选择。京都排骨不需要炸，很简单！我是在http://ellenaguan.blogspot.com/2007/10/jing-du-pai-gu.html 找到的食谱。我就跟着里面的步骤做，所以我就不把食谱放在这了。我先生还很喜欢这道菜哦！

Or Nee 芋泥

This is one of my favourite desserts---Or Nee! Will definitely order this if it is on the menu. Whenever I attend wedding dinners, I will hope that the last dish for the day is Or Nee (keeping my fingers crossed it will  be good!). And for my own wedding I have this for the last dish hehe! 

I  have made this specially for a farewell gathering for a friend who is going back to Singapore with her 2 girls. I hope they like it.  It is really fate which bring us SIngaporeans together in a foreign country. I have never seen her though we attended the same JC and same course in uni. We joked that we were too low profile (which is very true) ;p  Anyway I will still meet her again soon, this time round in Singapore when I go back during CNY.

Before I made this dish, I have always heard many people saying it is difficult to make cos you have to cook it on a wok and keep stirring so that I will not get burnt. And to make it taste good, it is better to cook it with lard. Since I am a lazy cook, I have search the net for a easy recipe. And to my surprise, I found one which does not need to cook in the wok and taste wonderfully good too!  The 2 secrets to a good or nee i think is  the shallots oil (to replace lard if you want a healthier version) for the fragrance and a good blender for a smooth texture. My cheapo blender died on me when I tried to blend my first batch of yam that's why my or nee was not as smooth as I wanted it to be. In the end I had to use a fork to mash it up than use my blender for cake to mix the oil and sugar with it and hopefully will help to mash my yam even smoother. Phew, luckily I make it in time for the gathering! Oh and I have left out the pumpkin paste as I can't find any near my place. I think it will taste good if there was some. 

If you have a blender at home, you should try to make or nee if you are a fan of this dessert. It is really not difficult!

(adapted from : http://www.chinese-food-delight.com/yam-paste.html)

Ingredients: (Serves around 15 pax)

1)  1.8kg of yam

2)  A handful of gingko nuts (I use the fresh with shells still intact)

3) 15-20 tablespoons of shallots oil

4) 10 tablespoons of sugar (you can adjust according to your taste)

Steps:

1) Remove the shell, skin and shoots from the gingko nuts. Add the nuts in a small pot of water with some sugar and bring it to boil. Lower the heat and simmer for around 30 min for it to soften and sweeten.

2) Remove the skin of the yam and cut it into cubes. Steam for about 30 minutes or until they turn soft. Mash the yam using a fork, a masher or a blender into a fine paste while it is still hot. Add the sugar and oil to the paste and blend well. (As i am making a lot, I have mash them in 3 batches.)

3) Place the gingko nuts and yam paste (if you are adding pumpkin paste add now too) into a steam tray and steam it on high heat for 30 minutes.

4) Enjoy your or nee when hot!

PS: If you like, you can add in coconut milk when serving the or nee. Or you can add in the coconut milk when blending the paste with the sugar and oil.

想念婆婆的私房菜－－－客家酿豆腐

我先生和他的婆婆的感情很好。可惜，他婆婆很早就过世了。我也没有机会见过她。但是，我们每次清明和新年前夕，一定会去祭拜她。我先生总是说他婆婆做的酿豆腐很好吃。可是我家婆却没有“继承”这个食谱。好可惜啊！

我就“接受挑战”，想做出先生想念的酿豆腐。我问他婆婆的酿豆腐有些什么。他说只记得有酿肉。我问他是什么味道，他却说不出一个所以然。唉。。。我看只能在网上寻找别人家的做法了。找到了几个。有些是猪肉和鱼浆做馅，有些是猪肉和虾泥做馅。我问先生喜欢吃哪一种，他说前者。我就不用伤脑筋想了。我觉得好吃的馅，应该还加了些什么秘密材料。我想可能是咸鱼或扁鱼干（那种有时吃肉脞面会加的炸的鱼干）。果然，没有让我猜错，其中一个食谱就是加了咸鱼。我第一次做的时候（我写这文章时是做了第二次了），不是很成功。首先，我先生说馅料不够多，吃不出味道。我自己觉得我买的咸鱼不好。我还把咸鱼拿去炸加入馅里，但是就是没有味道。这次我决定用扁鱼做。我还“翻山越岭”找遍很多超市才找到的。做出来的味道会比上次香，更能带出肉的鲜味。

做了这么多次，我先生还是觉得不太象他婆婆做的酿豆腐。我说我已经尽力了。下次，我再想想怎么改进吧！

馅料食材：（5 人份）
1） 450克猪肉末
2）300克鱼浆
3）扁鱼片5片
4）2 汤匙酱油
5）1汤匙蚝油
6）1茶匙麻油
7）1茶匙胡椒粉
8）1汤匙太白粉

馅料做法：
1）将扁鱼冲洗一下，然后用餐巾纸擦干。用少许油涂在扁鱼上，然后放在烤盘上。将烤盘放入烤箱（烤箱用200度预热）烤至稍微变金黄色（大概10－15分钟）。你也可以拿去炸。但是我懒惰，用烤箱烤厨房比较干净 ;p
2）将烤好的扁鱼磨成碎片或碎粉。
3）把所有材料倒入大碗里，搅拌均匀。然后把馅料用力摔打在碗里（大概10次）。摔打越久，馅料就会更Q。
4）让馅料腌制大概半小时。

这是两人份的酿豆腐。食谱是5人份。第3份送给我的美国邻居。这是他最喜欢我煮的食物之一 ;) 第4和5份就成了我和先生明天的午餐！

其他材料
1）新鲜冬菇10朵（你也可以用干的冬菇）
2）新鲜豆腐半盒切成厚片
3）豆包10个
4）茄子一个，切成20片（我买的茄子很大所以可以切成20片）
5）腐竹1－2片，用热水泡软后，切成10片
（这些主要材料，你可以随你喜欢更换。我很喜欢吃秋葵，每一次做酿豆腐它一定是“常客”可惜那天刚好没有买到）

调味料：
1）1 1／2 汤匙豆瓣酱 （tau cheong sauce ）
2）1 汤匙豆豆支酱
3）1 汤匙蒜茸
4）1汤匙蚝油
5）1汤匙糖
6）水少许
7）太白粉水

步骤：
1）将肉馅酿在豆腐（一定要把豆腐抹干）、豆腐皮、茄子、豆包（先用刀切一个小口）和冬菇里。在酿豆腐、豆腐皮、冬菇之前，在材料上面放一点太白粉，这样肉馅在煎的时候才不会脱落。
2）用少许油煎好所有酿好的材料（除了豆包）。
3）在锅里热少许油，将蒜茸爆香。
4）然后加入豆瓣酱、豆豆支酱、蚝油和糖炒香。
5）加入水。等水煮开后，加入煎好的材料和豆包焖一下，让材料吸收一些酱汁。
6）水再次煮开后，加入太白粉水勾芡。
7）上桌前可以撒上一些葱。

配上sambal chilli 更是一绝！

PS：“无汤不欢” 的我也用黄豆和江鱼仔熬了少许汤。汤很鲜甜，因为黄豆的关系。yummy!

Prawn and Scallop Linguine

Maybe you have noticed by now I seldom cook western dishes at home. Staying in a western country now, you really don't feel like eating anymore western food at home. If we have craving for it , we can just go to any restaurants nearby. But than, whenever I watch cooking shows at food network it is really tempting to try cooking some of these dishes. In my recent post on okra and tomatoes stew, I mentioned it is Paula's recipe. In the same programme that day, this pasta dish makes me have a craving for pasta. The pasta sauce is so creamy and there is no heavy cream added! But she has added can soup and cheese. In the original recipe she has used crawfish. But it is not in season now and I don't want to buy a big packet of frozen crawfish that's why I have used prawns and some leftover scallops in my fridge. I have made some minor changes in the ingredients. I just use what I have at home. It turn out pretty good! In fact this is one of my most successful creamy pasta hehe.

Ingredients

1) 1 stick butter

2) 1/4 onion, chopped

3) 1 green bell pepper, chopped (I omitted this)

4) 1/2 cup diced celery

5) 3 cloves garlic, minced

6) 1 tablespoons all-purpose flour

7) 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning (I omitted this)

8)  3/4 cups milk

9) 1/2 can cream of mushroom soup (I have used cream of chicken)

10) 115g processed cheese with jalapenos, cubed (I just use any shredded cheese I have at home)

11) 450g of prawns, shelled

12) 1/2 package fettuccini, cooked (I used linguine)

13) 200g scallops

14) 1/2 cup of white wine

15) Black pepper

Directions

1)In a large pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and garlic. Cook until tender, about 5 minutes. 
2) Add the flour and Cajun seasoning(if you are using) and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. 
3) Stir in the milk and white wine.cook until slightly thickened, stirring constantly, 5 to 6 minutes. 
4) Add the soup and cheese, stirring until the cheese is melted.  Add the prawns and scallops, and cook until warmed through. 
5) Pour the linguine in the sauce and mix well.  
6) You can add a dash of black pepper before serving.

玉米鸡丁汤 Corn soup with chicken

喜欢吃玉米的朋友们，我想你们一定会喜欢这道汤。每次我妈妈煮这个汤，我就很高兴。妈妈会用猪肉末和罐头的浓汁玉米煮汤。很喜欢玉米和猪肉末鲜甜味融合在汤里的味道。没想到这么好喝的汤是用罐头的玉米煮的。你只需要用简单的食材就可以享用这么美味的汤了！

食材：
1）浓汁玉米罐头半罐 （cream corn）
2）猪肉末 200g （我这次用鸡丁因为家里还有一些鸡胸肉）
3）鸡蛋一粒
4）蒜末少许
5）水或鸡高汤5碗

步骤：
1）用酱油、太白粉、胡椒粉腌猪肉末。如果你用鸡胸肉，可以加入一些蛋液腌制，这样肉就不会这么柴。
2）用少许油爆香蒜末。然后加入加入水和浓汁玉米。
3）盖上锅盖，等水在此煮开。然后加入肉末（你可以做成肉丸）。
4）等肉末熟了，可以加入少许盐调味。
5）把火关了，倒入蛋液。等蛋液慢慢浮起，汤就好了。我喜欢加入胡椒粉和红葱酥在汤里。（哈哈！可能看太多台湾的烹饪节目了。台湾菜喜欢放这两样东西）

Steam Muffins

Alamak bread is running out. My husband will not have anything to eat in the morning. Hmm.... maybe it's time for me try making cakes again. I must admit that I am not good in baking. The first cake I have baked from scratch is banana cake. I have chosen the simplest recipe. But, being the usual blur blur me, I have mixed up the amount of flour proportions (cos the recipe measurement is in grams and I only have a measuring cup which is in cups and ml)well, the outcome is a dry cake haha! 

After the dry cake experience, I have not baked anything yet. Everytime I ask my husband if he wants to eat cake for breakfast which I will bake, he will say, "It's ok I can eat bread" I guess he don't want to eat another failed cake experiment ;p Anyway, I can't eat too much cakes too due to my high blood sugar so I have not been trying out anymore recipes on baking. 

This time round I shall try again. I have found a recipe on making muffins but using steaming method. Sounds good since it does not use butter and steaming seems a healthier method. This recipe I got it from http://justonecookbook.com/blog/recipes/steamed-cake/. But I don't know what went wrong, the muffins especially the chocolate flavour one is pretty dry (yes again!) The corn one is ok. But I think I have not added enough corn. The recipe ask for corn kennels but I have used cream corn as I was trying to finish off the can corn. I don't dare to add a lot as the cream corn is watery. 

I would consider another failed attempt hehe. It's ok. I shall stick to my cooking. I think I really can't bake not even using the steaming method haha!

Ingredients: (Makes 4 servings)

1)  ½     cup (75g) all purpose flour2)  1    tsp. baking powder

3) 1    egg

4) 2    Tbsp. milk

5) 2    Tbsp. sugar

6) 1    Tbsp. vegetable oil

7) ¼    cup corn kernels

8) ¼     cup cheese today

Double Chocolate Steamed Cake

Ingredients:

1) ½    cup (75g) all purpose flour

2) 1 ½     Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

3) 1    tsp. baking powder

4) 1    egg

5) 3    Tbsp. milk  

6) 2    Tbsp. sugar

7) 2    Tbsp. vegetable oil

8) 2-3    Tbsp. chocolate chips (I don't have this at home so i have changed this to dried blueberries)

Directions:

1)  Fill a large frying pan with water to 2/3 full and bring it to a boil (and turn off the heat if you are not ready yet).  Put a cupcake liner in glass ramekins.

2)  In a medium bowl, sift and combine flour and baking powder (and cocoa powder for Chocolate Steamed Cake).    

3) In a small bowl, combine egg, milk, sugar, and vegetable oil and whisk them all together.

4)  Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and mix until smooth

5)  Add toppings (chocolate chips, or corns + cheese) and mix well.

6)  Pour the mixture into the cupcake liners.

7)  Place the glass ramekins in the boiling water and cover to cook 8 minutes.  Stick a wooden toothpick or skewer into the cake.  When a skewer comes out clean (without wet batter), remove them from the pan and cool down.

BBQ Stingray in Banana Leaves

Another food I miss in Singapore---BBQ Stingray. Oh and the La La and other seafood being grilled on banana leaves with sambal chilli makes my day! I was so happy to find stingray in the Korean supermarket and I immediately grab them and without any hesitation shall make BBQ stingray!

I managed to find a recipe on http://kitchentigress.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-make-sambal-stingray.html. The most important thing in this dish is the sambal chilli. And this time round I have made the best sambal chilli so far hehe. It's a pity that I can't find calamansi limes here (I just use key limes) if not it will taste even better. I follow closely to this recipe on Kitchen tigress website so I shall not post the recipe here. You can check out the website if you are interested. And she has better presentation and pictures for the BBQ Stingray ;)

My sambal chilli. I like ;p The tip after a few attempts is to add lot's of oil, which I usually don't follow strictly to the recipe cos I find it too unhealthy. But than, looks like to get good sambal chilli I have to keep to the proportion given in the recipes

Ladies Finger (Okra) and Tomato Stew (A bit Cajun style)

  Just came back from my Thanksgiving holiday so lazy to 开锅 (in cantonese means use wok to cook something) and my husband too tired to drive out to eat too (cos he is the only one driving for the road trip). Scan through my recipes saved in my computer for an easy one pot meal. One recipe caught my eye. It's a vegetable stew and I have all the ingredients in my fridge! I got this recipe from food network's Paula's home cooking. This is one of the few healthier dishes I learnt from her. Usually she will add lot's of butter and heavy cream stuff. But this Okra and tomato stew is slightly different, there is no heavy cream or cheese but there is still butter just that not as much. I think this goes very well with rice. Especially for this cold weather I think this makes a great and healthy dinner for me.

Green pepper, onion and tomatoes are typical ingredients in Cajun cooking. Actually I love Cajun food! Jambalaya rice, gumbo, crawfish etouffee etc. Yummy! This is my first attempt in cooking something similar to cajun food. I shall try to cook some more cajun cuisine next time ;)

Ingredients

1)  1 tablespoon olive oil
2) 50g bacon, chopped (I omitted this, maybe next time I will add luncheon meat)
3)  1 tablespoon butter

4)  1/2  medium yellow onion, diced
3)  1/2  medium green bell pepper, diced
4)  1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
5)  1/4 teaspoon salt
6)  1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
7)  2 cups diced tomatoes, peeled and cored
8)  1/2 cup water
9)  1/2 cup chicken stock
10) 2 cups sliced fresh okra
11) Salt and freshly ground black pepper

12) 1/2 teaspoon of cajun seasoning 

Directions

1) In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add butter, onion, green pepper and garlic. Saute until the vegetables are soft and the onions are translucent. 

2) Add cajun seasoning, garlic powder, tomatoes, water, chicken stock and okra. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Otah Otah Update

This is the continuation of my previous post on Bubur Cha Cha. I mentioned about the CCE gathering on Nyonya theme, and this is the other dish I cooked. I don't think I can find this dish here in Houston. That's why my friends love it. I remember when I was small whenever I hear people shouting," Otah Otah! Otah Otah!" I would pester my mum to buy this as an additional dish for dinner. Those sold is different from what I cooked. Theirs were wrapped in small leaves, look like a small thin flap of fish paste and it is much redder colour than mine. Oh and they will use charcoal to cook it and it has a very fragrant smell. 


For mine, I found this recipe on Rasa Malaysia. I think hers is the Malaysian style. I have used fish paste this time instead of fish meat. And I can't find betel leaves here so I have left this out. This is my second attempt. For the first attempt, I have used my blender to grind all the spices but it did not turn out to be as fine as I would love it to be. In the end I still used my mortar and pestle to pound all the spices again! Double work! This time round I decided to chuck my blinder aside. I have pounded all my spices and it turn out perfect! And I have learnt this little tips from one of the website that pounding individual ingredients first will enable you to control the texture of the paste better. I have followed her tips and it work well for me. Just that it needs a little more work, as after pounding the individual ingredients, I being kiasu will mix them up again and pound another time so that they will blend together. But it is well worth the effort as the paste turn out great!

Pound and pound mixing the ingredients together

Dadah! Done!

Give it a try and I am sure you will like it!

Ingredients:

1 to 2 banana leaf wash and dry it.
500g fish fillet (slices) --- I have used around 360g of fish paste

Custard ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cup coconut milk
2 tsp rice flour
3 kaffir lime leaves (finely sliced)---- I can't get this here and I have replaced it with the zest of 2 limes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Spice Paste

10 shallots
3 cloves garlic
5 fresh red chilies
4 dried red chilies
2 stalks lemon grass
1 inch galangal
1 inch turmeric
20g shrimp paste (toasted)

Method:

1.  Chop the spice paste ingredients and then blent it in a food processor or pound it until fine.
2.  Combine the custard ingredients,add in spice paste and mix well.
3.  Add in the fish paste or fish slices into the combined ingredients. (I have break up the fish paste into smaller pieces)
4.  Place the banana leaves in a dish with some depth. Add in the custard mixture with the fish. Fold the banana leaves over the top to cover the whole mixture.

Uncooked version

5.  Heat up wok and boiling water.Steam for 10 minutes over rapidly boiling water.
6. Unwrap the leaves and serve immediately.

******Update: Recently I made another batch of Otah but this time using the oven to grill. It really taste and smells good! Just put the otah in the preheated 200 degrees oven and bake it for around 10 - 15 min or until the otah is cooked. I have also cooked some nasi lemak and sambal brinjal with bean curd and sambal sotong to go with my yummy otah! Simply delicious!

Bo Bo Cha Cha? Bubur Cha Cha? 摩摩喳喳

 

Bo Bo Cha Cha or Bubur Cha Cha? The correct one is Bubur Cha Cha! But we sometimes call it Bo Bo Cha Cha. It is one of my favourite desert which my mum will cook once in a while. It is actually a Nyonya desert. Today I have a gathering with my friends staying near me (in my previous post I mentioned that we will meet up once in a while and we call it Culinary Culture Exchange ;p ) and our theme is Nyonya food. Therefore I have decided to cook this desert and otah for the gathering. 

I have used purple sweet potato and orange sweet potato this time. That's why the broth turned light purple. Bubur Cha Cha is not complete without the tapioca jelly. This time I have made my own jelly and I have added some tapioca pearls which I have managed to find at the chinatown supermarket. 

Cooked own made tapioca jelly

I am sure some of you are like me. I like to eat Bubur Cha Cha because of the chewy tapioca jelly. It is pretty easy to make. Place 100g of tapioca flour in a mixing bowl. Add 1/2 cup of boiling water into the flour. Mix the flour and water until well incorperated. Be careful cos it will be hot! If you like you can add colouring and roll the dough till the colour is well distributed. For me I have chopped up my gula melaka into small pieces and mix them in the dough that's how my jellies become yellow colour. I learn this method in another blog.  Roll the dough on a surface with flour on it. Roll into any shape you like. For me I just roll it into a long rod like shape and cut in into small chunks. Boil a pot of boiling water. Add in the tapioca jelly. Stir it so that the jellies do not stick together. When they float in the water they are done. I will put them in a bowl of cold water first and than add them into the Bubur Cha Cha when it is cooked.

It is pretty easy to make this desert. Just that you need to cut up the yam and sweet potatoes. And if you are lazy to make your own tapioca jelly, you can buy the pre made ones ;)

Ingredients: (serve 6 to 7)
1) 1/2 a medium size yam cut into cubes
2) 2 small purple sweet potatoes cut into cubes
3) 1 big orange sweet potatoes cut into cubes
4) 200 ml of thick coconut milk
5) 8 bowls of water
6) 4 tablespoons sugar (the amount depends on how sweet you like)
7) 2 pandan leaves
8) Tapioca jellies

Steps:
1) Bring the water to boil. Than add in the pandan leaves, sweet potatoes and yam. Cook them till they are soft.
2) Add in the sugar and coconut milk.
3) Add in the tapioca jellies.
4) When the sugar has dissolved. You can serve. If you like it cold you can put it in the fridge.

Steam Yam Cake 芋头糕

I bought a yam for making bo bo char char for a gathering but the gathering is being postphoned, so I was thinking of what to do with the yam. Suddenly thought of my mum's steam yam cake. I remember whenever she makes yam cake I will ask her to make more so that I can bring it to school for lunch and share with my close colleagues. 


I went to search for some recipes on yam cake and found that most of the recipes seems different from my mum's version. My mum's yam cake has quite a lot of ingredients inside, for eg dried prawns, chinese sausages and mushrooms. And those recipes that i found will fry the dried prawns and sprinkle on top of the steam yam cake. I think I prefer my mum's version maybe because I have been eating it since young. One thing which is very very important to add on top of the yam cake is freshly fried small onions. I think it is like an icing on the cake, it has that 画龙点睛的效果！If you are lazy to fry your own small onions, you can get the stall bought ones, but than freshly made ones really make the yam cake taste much better. Actually, I will use the microwave to make my fried small onions. It's simple and you won't get your kitchen oily. I will slice the small onions put in a bowl, add oil till it covers all the onions. Than you put in the microwave on high heat and heat it for 2-3 minutes. The time will depend on the power of your microwave oven. The important thing in using this method is to keep on checking on the onions so that it will not get burnt. I will heat it up for 2 minutes, give it a check than bring it out and give it a stir and put it back to heat it again. Once the onions turn slightly brown, it is ready. Don't wait for the onions to turn really brown as it will continue to cook when you get it out from the oven. So it might get burnt if you cook too long in the oven. That's my tip on frying onions in microwave. 


Ingredients:

1) 500g yam (skinned, diced) 
2) 500g rice flour
3) 2 tbsp tapioca flour
4) 1000ml water 
5) 5 dried mushrooms, soaked & sliced
6) 2 chinese sausages, take away the skin and diced it
7) 100g dried prawns soaked and chopped into small pieces
8) 2 Tbsp cooking oil
9) 1 tsp light soya sauce
10) 1 tsp sesame oil
11) 1 tsp pepper
12) 1 tsp sugar
13) 1/2 tsp five-spice powder (optional)


Garnishing:
1) 2 fresh red chillies (sliced)
2) 1 bunch coriander leaves  (cut to 2cm lengths)
3) Fried shallot crisps
4) 2 tbsp sesame seeds
5) Chopped roasted peanuts (optional)


Steps:

1) Heat the oil used for frying small onions using microwave in a pan over medium high heat, and fry the dried shrimps and chinese sausages until they become aromatic.

2)  Add the cubed yam and mushrooms to the pan, and fry it for a while. 

3) In a separate bowl, mix the rice flour, tapioca flour and water, and stir until it forms a smooth paste. Take care to ensure there are no lumps in the mixture.

4) Add the flour mixture into the pan slowly, and stir until everything forms a thick paste.

5) Add the salt, pepper and five spice powder, and mix well.

6) Pour the mixture into a heatproof bowl/plate (I use aluminum tray) and steam over high heat for 45 minutes, or until cooked.

Before Steaming

7) To serve, sprinkle with deep fried shallots, coriander leaves, sliced chillies and sesame seeds. 

After Steaming

After garnishing

Vegetable Curry 杂菜咖哩

I have been trying to finish up the cabbage in my fridge. Cooked the Okonomiyaki, stir fry it, cook soup with it, but there is still a lot left. The cabbage they sold here is really one huge ball! Luckily, the cabbage can be kept for quite a while, if not it will be wasted. Running out of ways to cook cabbage and I suddenly came across the vegetable curry recipe. A great dish on a cold night for dinner and I can try to get rid of some of my cabbage too ;p. Oh and also I am trying to finish up my home made chilli paste in the fridge too so kill many birds in one stone.


I got this recipe from Kitchen Snippets. It was suppose to be Nonya Vegetable Curry. But looking at my own cooked version and how it taste, it taste more like my mum's version of curry japchai (杂菜咖哩). It turn out to be very thick. Maybe next time I will not add so much coconut cream. But I have followed closely to the recipe in the website. But though it is thick it taste good for me. You can add your own variety of vegetables. For me, I have added fish balls as I remember my mum used to add that to her curry japchai and we love fish balls too. If you find blending the spice paste too troublesome you can just get the vegetable curry spice mix in the supermarket. I am sure it will taste very good too!


Ingredients:
1) 1 eggplant cut into chunks
2) 10 ladies finger cut into chunks
3) Cabbage cut into big pieces
4) 1 Carrot cut into slices
5) 10-15 small tou poks
6) 10-15 fish balls
7) 2 - 2 1/2 cups of coconut milk

8) 2 tbsp curry power, mixed with 3 tbsp water

9) Salt and sugar to taste

Spice Paste ingredients:
1) 3 stalks of lemongrass

2) 2 cm galangal

3) 1" fresh turmeric

4) 8 shallots

5) 6 garlic

7) 3 pieces candlenuts

8) 3 tbsp sambal oelek

Steps:
1) Blend the spice paste ingredients.
2) Heat up about 3 tbsp of oil in the pan. Stir-fried the blended ingredients until fragrant. 

3) Add in the curry powder. Continue to stir-fry so that it won’t burn. Add in a little bit of coconut milk. Continue to stir-fry until you see oil starts to appear.

4) Add in the rest of the coconut milk. Bring it up to boil. Add in the carrots. Cover and let it cook for 5 minute. Add in the rest of the vegetables and continue to cook over medium low heat until vegetables are about done.

5) Add in the bean curd pockets. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and sugar to taste. Serve warm.

Baked Teriyaki Cod Fish 照烧鳕鱼

One of my favourite fish--Cod fish! Now I will only eat either salmon or cod fish because they have rich omega 3 which is good for my heart. But cod fish is rather expensive so I will buy it in alternate weeks. If not I will buy the cheaper version of it which is from greenland. It is not as round as the cod fish we usually see, in fact it is rather flat and slim.

Besides steaming cod fish. I love to eat it teriyaki style. I have tried to make it several times but this time round it is more successful. For the previous attempts, it does not turn out as dark and as pretty as it is supposed to be. You can also do this dish pan fry style. But I prefer to bake it as it will be less messy. However the pan fried version will be more tasty.  I referred to this website http://wokkingmum.blogspot.com/2011/11/baked-cod-teriyaki.html for the recipe. If you want you can refer to http://rasamalaysia.com/salmon-teriyaki/2/ for another similar one.

Ingredients:
1) 1 cod fish
2) 1 tablespoon of soya sauce
3) 1 tablespoon of mirin
4) 1 tablespoon of sake
5) 1 tablespoon of sugar

Steps:
1) Pour all the marinate in a ziploc bag.
2) Put the cod fish inside and give the bag a little shake so that the marinate can be coated evenly.
3) Put the whole bag in the fridge and marinate overnight for best taste. If not marinate for at least 3-4 hours.
4) Place the cod on the baking tray lined with baking paper or aluminum foil. Pour some marinate on top of the fish before baking.
5) Put the fish in a preheated oven (around 200 degree C) and bake it for around 10 -15 minutes or until the fish turned darker.
6) Turn over, put some marinate on top and bake for another 8 to 10 minutes or till the fish is cooked.
7) Remove and you can serve.

If you still have some marinate left, you can heat it up in a pan until the sauce thickens and pour it on top of the cooked fish.