甜豆荚炒“鲍鱼”

我不是很爱吃甜豆荚。但是，不知为何突然想到家婆每次过年喜欢做甜豆荚炒带子这道菜。家里刚好买了带子便顺便买甜豆荚。我想为这道菜加料，想吃吃鲍鱼 ；p。但是又不想花大钱，所以便想到用其他罐头的贝类取代。我记得有一种贝类味道很像鲍鱼但是价钱便宜多了。可惜，超市里找不到。当我正感到失望时，突然看到冷冻海鲜的冰箱里，有一样真空包装的东西跟鲍鱼长得一模一样！但是价钱却只有5美元！仔细一看，原来是假鲍鱼。它是用鱼浆做的。反正真鲍鱼吃不成，就吃假鲍鱼吧，哈哈。

材料
1 甜豆荚
2 假鲍鱼一个切成块
3 带子
4 蒜蓉 1 茶匙
5 蚝油 1 1／2 汤匙
6 糖少许
7 水少许

步骤：
1 将甜豆荚头尾和旁边的丝去掉洗净。
2 热油锅，倒入少许油。
3 加入蒜蓉炒一下。
4 加入甜豆荚炒大概3分钟。
5 加入带子和假鲍鱼炒到带子差不多熟。
6 加入蚝油、水和糖，将材料炒均匀。
7 如果你喜欢浓一点的酱汁，可以勾芡。不然，就可以盛盘了！

Quinoa Part 2 --- Italian style replacing it with pasta

This is the 2nd experiment with cooking quinoa. This time I used it to replace the pasta. Using store bought pasta sauce, fresh mushrooms, green beans, tomatoes and some onion I cook this dish in less than 10 minutes. Another simple one dish meal for me.

Steps:
1 Cook the quinoa in a rice cooker according to the instructions on the box.
2 Heat up some olive oil or butter in a pan, add in the onions. Sauté till the onions sweat.
3 Add in the green beans and mushrooms and saute till the the mushrooms sweat.
4 Add in the tomatoes and saute for a while.
5 Add in the cooked quinoa and stir fry till all the ingredients are mixed.
6 Add in the pasta sauce and some seasoning like salt and black pepper. Mix well.
7 Cook the ingredients for another 2-3 minutes and you can enjoy your meal!

You can add in any ingredients you like eg, italian sausages, meat balls, seafood too!

Chicken Pot Pie

Want to have a slice of chicken pot pie for tea time?? Have a craving for chicken pie recently. I remember my colleague used to go all the way to China square to buy chicken pie and shepherd from Don for our breakfast. And we love it! Breakfast time is a daily routine for us which we look forward to. We take turns to buy breakfast. And we eat, drink kopi and chit chat to boost our energy and mood level ;p before a tiring day starts. It's difficult for us to meet for lunch as our lunch time may differ or we skip lunch (cos no time) and end up eating late lunch or tea time on the way home at 3 plus. 

Ok back to chicken pot pie. It looks like you have to spend a lot of time to make. You have to make the pie crust and the roux(a mixture of fat usually butter and flour used in making thick sauces) for the filling. I am a lazy person and I am not good at making pastries so making all these by myself is out of the question. I found a short cut for making the chicken pie! It's all semi home made. I bought the pie crust from the supermarket and for the roux part I used can soup. I learn this method from the internet. So easy! I have some left over roast chicken so it is best to use it for the pot pie. For the vegetables part, you can use the frozen mix vegetables but since I have fresh ones I prefer to use fresh ones. 

These are the ingredients you need:

1 Store bought pie crust (9 inch)

2 1 stick of celery cut into small chunks

3 Carrots cut into small chunks

4 Half an onion cut into small chunk

5 Half a corn (you can use can ones but I use left over from the corn soup I cook yesterday) 

6 2 1/2 cup of chicken cut into chunks(I use left over roast chicken and fresh chicken thigh cos I don't have enough roast chicken to make up the 2 1/2 cup)

7 1 can soup (you can use any you like, I use the mushroom soup.) 

Steps:

1 Defrost the pie crust according to the instructions on the box. Once it's done. Roll out one pie crust onto the pie pan. 1 box of pie crust usually contains 2 rolls of pie crust. The left over piece you can set aside to use for the top of the pie. If you do not have a pan pan like me, I bought the disposable aluminum ones.

2 Heat up some oil or butter in a pan. Saute the onions till it sweats. Than add in the celery and carrots. Saute for a while.

3 Add in the chicken and cook till it is almost cooked.

4 Add in the corn.

5 Pour in the can soup. Mix the ingredients well with the soup. Be careful not to burnt it. If you feel that the sauce is too thick you can add in some milk or chicken stock. 

6 Add in the seasonings. For me I like it to be spicy so I added some black pepper and cayenne pepper. Give the mixture a taste. Some brands of can soup can be quite salty so if it is not salty enough you can add some salt. 

7 Pour the mixture into the pie pan. Roll the remaining pie crust on top of the pie. Crimp the sides of the pie crust together. Make some slits on top. 

8 If you want you can brush some egg wash onto the top of pie crust. Than you can put the pie in the oven at 425F (218C) for around 45 min or according to the instructions written on the box of the pie crust. Do take a look at the pie once in a while after 30 min. If the top starts to get browned too quickly, you can cover the top with aluminum foil. 

9 Once done, leave it to cool for about 5 minutes. 

It's a bit ugly as I am not good in cutting the pie. 

Can't resists eating 2 pieces ;p And half the pie is left for my neighbour and husband. 

   

Quinoa---In search of substitute for a variety of healthy grains: Part 1

Have you heard of Quinoa?? It's only when I have been searching for more variety of healthy grains which I can substitute rice with, that I come across this grain. It is actually a seed. You can check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa on how it looks like and it's origin. You can also refer to http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?dbid=142&tname=foodspice for all the benefits of eating this grain. 

This is the packet of quinoa I bought at a supermarket. You can usually find it in the organic or health food sections. I hope that I can still find this in Singapore. I began to experiment cooking it after watching Giada at foodnetwork using it to make salads. I think it is a good substitute for rice. It is a healthy option and it keeps you full too. I think vegetarians  can try to eat this as it contains a pretty high protein content. The best part is you can cook this in the rice cooker!

It is "love at first taste" when I try quinoa! It smells like cooked green bean when cooked. It has a nutty flavour. And I like the 口感 when I bite into it. If you like the feeling of it "bursting" in your mouth, you will like quinoa. It just feel like when you eat the fish roe on sushi, it pops when you bite into it but without the juice. But you must not overcooked it, if not it will not have the "bursting" effect.

This is the first dish I cooked with quinoa. It is actually a salad. The little seed like thing you see in the picture is quinoa when cooked. I have baked the salmon for this salad. You can use the can ones if you are too lazy. For the salad vegetables you can add in any type you like. For the dressing you can use mayo or thousand island. For me I make my own. 

Ingredients:

1) 1 piece of salmon 

2) Romaine lettuce washed and dry cut into chunks

3) Half a cucumber cut into chunks

4) 1 stalk of green onions julienned 

5) 1/4 cup of quinoa

6) 1 garlic minced

7) 1 small shallot minced

8) 1/2 cup chicken stock

9) Juice  of half a lemon

10) 2 tablespoon of olive oil

11) 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

12) Black pepper

Steps:

1) Seasoned the salmon with some salt and black pepper. Bake it in a preheated oven of 350F for 10 minutes or until cooked. When  it is cooked, cut it into big pieces. Set aside

2) Cook the quinoa in a rice cooker with the chicken stock. Cook it according to the package instructions. For mine the ratio of quinoa to water is 1:2. Cook it like normal rice in the rice cooker. When cooked fluff it like cooked rice. And set aside.

3) Mix the olive oil, lemon juice, dijon mustard, black pepper and garlic well.

4) In a lage bowl, add in the salmon, lettuce, cucumber,green onions, shallot and quinoa. Than pour in the salad dressing. Mix them well and you can enjoy your salad!

Sushi --- Remembering the Sushi making good old days with my friends!

It's been a long time since I make sushi! Last time it is still not very common to eat Jap food at Jap restaurants. And I remember it is pretty expensive to eat Jap food too! Therefore it is the "in thing" to make our own sushi. If I did not remember wrongly, it is during my post JC days. My JC classmates also my dearest best friends will gather at someone's place and make sushi together. We had great fun thinking of what to put inside the sushi and buying the ingredients. We usually will get mango, jap mayo, jap cucumber, jap seasoned raddish, jap jellyfish, eggs, crabmeat sticks.   We will chat, gossip, and eat our freshly made sushi as we roll each one. Those are the good old days!

It is really not difficult to make it. This time, I am using the short grain brown rice.It is healthier and yet still has the sticky texture of the sushi rice. I did not get alot of ingredients as I am eating it alone at home for lunch and dinner and making some extras for my neighbour.  You can add any ingredients you like for eg deep fried soft shell crab, unagi, raw tuna or salmon etc.  想吃什么，就放什么！

Ingredients:
1) Jap short grain brown rice (i use 2-3 cups which can make 4 rolls and 8 beancurds sushi)
2) 1 jap cucumber cut into strips
3) 1 avocado cut into slices
4) 5-6 crabsticks
5) Can salmon in brine (I will squeeze out the brine and add in some mayo, black pepper and lemon juice)
6) Jap mayo
7) Sushi vinegar (or you can get the powder)
8) Nori Jap seaweed

I guess watching a video on how to make sushi is better than my lousy explanation on how to do it. So I have found one pretty good video on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGG01tj9wi4&feature=related.  One thing about this video is that you can see that the layer of rice is pretty thick. I prefer less rice so I try to layer the rice thinly on the Nori roughly not more than 1 cm.

Hope you enjoy your sushi making day!

Fish Curry

I managed to get a very fresh mackerel fish at my favourite seafood wholesale shop Rose near my place the other day. Just when I am wondering how to cook it, someone from Singapore is coming to my house for dinner. Ok I shall cook fish curry for him. I guess he should be sick of western food by now ;p 


I like the fish curry look alike cooked by my mother in law. She used fresh pineapple, curry powder and the chilli paste she made to cook it. When I went back Singapore last time round she  bought me a few packets of the curry powder. Just the right time to put them into good use! I have added ladies finger and brinjal as I love these 2 veggies which you can find in fish curry when you eat it outside. 


For the chilli paste this is how I make it. I make a big batch and keep in the fridge to make otah the next time. You will need to get this ingredients:
1) 20 fresh chillies (you can use dried ones or a mixture of both)
2) Garlic 1 bulb 
3) 10-15 shallots 
4) 5 candlenuts (buah keras) or macadamias 
5) Galangal around 20 slices
6) Turmeric around the size of your last finger
7) Lemon grass around 3 to 4 stalks
8) Belachan around 1/2 inch piece (you can toast it for a while)


You can put all these ingredients into your food processor and blend them into a smooth paste. I use my mortar and pestle to pound them as I find using the traditional but tedious method can get a smoother paste. Or maybe it is just that my food processor is not powerful enough to blend them into a smooth paste.


Once you have prepared your spice paste. You can start to prepare the following ingredients for the fish curry:


1) Fish cleaned and chopped into half if it is a big fish
2) 10 Ladies fingers cut into 2 inch pieces. 
3) Half a brinjals cut into big chunks
4) 1 can pineapple chunks or half fresh pineapple
5) 1 tablespoon of tamarind pulp mixed with 1/2 bowl of water and the juice strained
6) Salt to taste
7) Fish curry powder 4 table spoons


Method:
1) Heat up 3 tablespoons of oil and add in the spice paste. Saute the paste on low heat till it turns a darker colour. Be careful not to burnt it.
2) Add in the curry powder and saute it to mix it well with the spice paste. Keep on stirring to make sure they don't get burnt.
3) Once you can smell the fragrance of the curry paste and the mixture turns a darker shade, add in the assam water.
4) Mix them well and turn on the heat to medium high. Add in the ladies finger and brinjal and cover the pan and simmer for around 5 minutes. 
5) Add in the fish and the pineapple. If the liquid is not enough you can add in some water to cover the fish.
6) Turn the heat to high cover the pan and cook the curry till the fish is cooked. 
7) You can add in some salt to taste.

Next time when I cook this again I will add in fresh pineapples. I think the fresh pineapples have the sourish and sweet taste which I think the can ones do not have. The can ones just taste sweet.  Another thing I will add next time will be tomatoes. Just love my fish curry to be a bit more sourish ;)

Kimchi Buckwheat Noodle Soup

I always keep a big bottle of Kimchi in the fridge. I love Kimchi and also love how versatile it can be used to cook different dishes. The other time I have posted one on Kimchi stew, now I used it to cook noodle soup. I have high blood sugar, so the doctor advised me to cut down on carbo like white rice, noodles, cakes etc, therefore when I have a craving for noodles I will use buckwheat noodles to satisfy my craving. Though not as nice as those yellow noodles but well better than nothing ;p

This another home alone one person fuss free lunch. Just grab whatever ingredients I can find in my fridge and I dump them into my soup. I just bought some Jap/Korean assorted fish cakes therefore I have added them into my meal. You can also add meat or fish slices. Using these fish cakes is also fuss free, just dump them into the soup and that's it! Just use your imagination and you can come up with a pretty nice meal!

Ingredients:
1) Noodles (I use buckwheat noodles, you can also use bee hoon, glass noodles etc)
2) Kimchi
3) Assorted Fish cakes
4) Lettuce
5) 1 Egg
6) Spring onion, chopped
7) Japanese Bonito soya sauce (you can use normal soya sauce)
8) 3 bowls of Chicken Stock or water

Steps:
1) Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the package. When done drain them well and place them in a bowl.
2) Heat the chicken stock till it boils than add the kimchi and 3-4 tablespoons of the kimchi juice.
3) Cover the pot and let the stock simmer for 5 to 8 minutes.
4) Add in the assorted fish cakes, lettuce and soya sauce.
5) When the stock boils again, turn the heat off and add in the beaten egg.
6) Pour the stock over the noodles. You can add in some Jap chilli powder and spring onion before serving.

Veggie Sandwich

Thinking what to eat for lunch is sometimes a headache for me. I just want to eat a fuss free lunch. I have to cut my carbo intake so the easiest way of cooking noodles dah (mee dah means dry noodles with chilli sauce, ketchup, soya sauce and a little bit of vinegar) is out of the equation for me. Sort of sick of eating salad especially for a cold day. And lazy to cook my whole grain pasta. Hmm what choice do I have left?? A huge loaf of multi grain bread is staring at me. And my veggies which is supposed to be my salad lunch is sitting in my fridge. I shall make a veggie sandwich! 

I toasted the bread till it is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Than I sliced the avocado, tomato, onion and cucumber. I wash and dry a few leaves from the romaine lettuce. To make it more tasty I minced some garlic, add some black pepper to my mayo made with olive oil. Assemble them together and it makes a great healthy sandwich meal!  There is my favourite garlicy taste, some crunch from the cucumber and lettuce, some spicy kick from the onion and black pepper, and a creamy taste from the avocado. What a great combo! 

雪耳肉片汤

我又吃腻自己煮的汤；p 每天煮汤真的是一大烦恼。其实挑剔的是我而不是我先生。他虽然有许多食物不太爱吃，但是他可以重复吃喜欢的食物。我倒是跟他相反。所以我总是为每个星期的菜单感到烦恼。我好像自找烦恼，因为我不想重复吃同样的菜色，哈哈！

那天我又在“冰冰好料理”找到灵感！所有材料我家里都有而且很简单。我喜欢这道汤的其中一个原因是厨师在汤里加了少许柠檬汁，为汤加入另一种层次的味道。喝起来，还蛮开胃的！原本的食材只有猪肉片、雪耳、木耳、黄瓜和枸杞子。我把猪肉换成鸡肉把黄瓜换成竹笋。我不喜欢吃煮过的黄瓜，刚好家里有竹笋就加进汤里。没想到，它还为汤增加了甜味！很高兴我又有一道新菜色可以加入我的“汤系列” ；p

材料：
1  鸡肉切片（你可以用鸡腿肉或鸡胸肉）
2  雪耳半个 （泡软切成块）
3  黑木耳几片 （泡软切成小块）
4  一个竹笋切成条状
5  枸杞子一把
6 柠檬汁少许
7  盐少许
8  胡椒粉少许
9  绍兴酒少许
10 高汤或开水4－5碗

步骤：
1）用蚝油、麻油、绍兴酒和太白粉腌一下鸡肉。
2）将高汤煮滚。然后加入雪耳、黑木耳和竹笋。
3）然后加入鸡肉和枸杞子。
4）等水再次煮滚加入腌、绍兴酒调味。
5）鸡肉煮熟后，加入柠檬汁和胡椒粉就可以上桌了！