Har Cheong Kai 虾酱鸡翅

Besides KFC, Roast Spring Chicken (skin must be crispy type), my husband love to eat Har Cheong Kai. We used to order this whenever we eat at Zi Char stalls. Just love the crispiness and the aroma of this dish. Since my husband love it so much, I have decided to "pamper" him with this dish. I am not a great chef to experiment this dish therefore I seek the help of the food bloggers again :) This time round I have found 2 ways of cooking this dish. One way is from The Little Teochew(http://www.thelittleteochew.com/2009/05/
shrimp-paste-chicken-har-cheong-kai.html) and the other is from Blogger's Recipe (http://bloggersrecipe.
blogspot.com/2007/11/har-cheong-kai.html). I have decided to try the recipe from The Little Teochew as I still have a big chunk of belachan at home and I don't want to buy fine shrimp sauce just for cooking this dish. My fridge is already full of all types of sauces and my cabinets are also full of cooking stuff, no more space for sauces which I seldom use.

This is the 2nd time I have tried cooking this dish. The 1st time turn out pretty good as in the taste and aroma is there. But as I did not deep fried it (I oven baked it cos as you know I hate the messiness), my husband says not so good as he prefers the crispy type. Therefore this time round since I wanted to pamper him I have decided to deep fry the wings. But I slightly tweaked the recipe by not coating it with flour. Anyway I gave my husband a choice with or without flour and he chose without. Ok the result is crispier than the 1st time but still not as crispy as with flour coated. But my husband says ok so pass this time. I have made another batch which I have oven baked it. This is for me as I want a healthier choice. Turn out to be crispier than the 1st time as I have used the broiler to make the skin browner and crispier. Of cos taste wise the deep fried ones are more yummy.

It is actually a simple dish so if you like to eat Har Cheong Kai why not try doing it yourself.

The deep fried ones

Ingredients:
1) 15 Chicken wings (you can use whole chicken or drumlets too)
2) A small piece of belachan slightly toasted
3) 2 piece of Nam Yee (red fermented bean curd, 南乳. Different brands will differ in the saltiness so you can add more or less)
4) Dashes of fish sauce
5) Pepper
6) Shaoxing wine
7) Sesame seed oil

Steps:
1) Wash the wings and pat dry.
2) Put all the wings in a ziploc bag.
3) Crush the belachan and Nam Yee in a bowl. Than add in the other seasonings. You can add in sugar if you find the seasonings too salty. If it is too dry add in some of the  reddishNam yee liquid.
4) Pour all the seasonings into the ziploc bag and give it a good shake to mix well.
5) Leave it in the fridge over night.
6) Use paper towels to pat dry the wings before deep frying.
7) Heat oil till medium hot and deep fry till it turns brown.

The oven baked ones

(If you use the oven. preheat it to 200 degrees C. Brush the wings with olive oil than put them into the oven. Baked it for around 20 minutes than turn on the broiler or grill function and let the skin turn brown. Must watch carefully if not it will get burnt easily)

Bitter Gourd Soup

Hot weather needs a cooling soup for the body. According to my mum bitter gourd is cooling for the body. And I just checked that it can stabilize the blood sugar in the body which is just right for me! Therefore it is one of the most common soup I will cook at home. If you are scared of the bitter taste if the bitter gourd, I think after cooking it as soup it is not as bitter as eating it as a dish. The soup also does not taste bitter too!

We have been eating quite a bit of deep fried food for the past few days so I hope by drinking this soup it helps to cool the body down ;p

Ingredients:
1) 1 Bitter Gourd cut into big chunks take off the pith and seeds.
2) 1 small piece of loin meat (you can use pork ribs for soups too)
3) 8 small red dates, remove the seeds
4) 3 big dried oysters

Steps:
1) Blanch the loin meat or pork ribs and set aside.
2) Bring 5 bowls of water to boil than put all the ingredients into the pot.
3) Cover the pot and let it comes to a boil again for 5 minutes. Than lower the flame and let it simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Baked Herbal Fish

It's really a headache thinking of how to cook a fish. As I have mentioned in my earlier post, I cook a fish dish almost 3 times a week. I don't like to fry fish because firstly it is rather unhealthy and secondly the whole kitchen will be very oily.  Therefore when I see this recipe from wokkingmum (http://wokkingmum.blogspot.com/2008/06/steamed-herbal-fish.html) I am so happy and excited to try this out.


Anyway I still have a lot of Chinese herbs which I bought to cook herbal soup. I might as well use them to cook this dish! If you like herbal taste this dish is definitely right for you. You can even substitute fish to chicken and you get herbal chicken! I have chosen to bake the fish instead of steaming because I am using the oven to cook another dish so I might as well kill 2 birds with one stone ;p  In other words, I am just lazy lah cos don't need to wash extra utensils haha!

Ingredients:
1) Swai fillets (you can even use salmon. I have tried it and it tasted good too!)
2) 80ml Water
3) 1 tablespoon Shao Xing Wine
4) Salt and pepper to taste
5) 10 pieces of Yu Zhu 玉竹 (Solomon's Seal Rhizome)
6) 6 Hong Zao 红枣 (Red Dates)
7) 8 pieces of Pao Shen or 1 stalk Ren Shen 人参 （Gingseng)
8) 2 sticks of Dang Shen 党参 (Codonopsis Pilosulae)
9) 1 handful of Gou Qi Zi 枸杞子 (Wolfberries)
10) 1 piece of Dang gui 当归 (Chinese angelica)

Directions:

1) Put all herbs with water in a bowl and put into the microwave for about 10 minutes .

2) Put the fish on the aluminum foil and pour the herbs with the water over the fish.

3) Add in the salt, pepper and wine.

4) Seal the foil and put into preheated oven (around 200 degree C) for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the fish is cooked.

三黄蛋－－－－纪念祖母的一道菜

虽然祖母过世十多年，但是我偶尔还是会梦见她。从小妈妈得工作所以我和姐姐都是她带大的。我们和她的感情之浓可想而知。虽然她因为一场意外，造成左腿走路一拐一拐，但是她还是把我们照顾得无微不至。祖母的命很苦。她是个孤儿，从小就和姑

姑漂洋过海道南洋谋生。后来蛮年轻的时候（正好是二战时）又成了寡妇，经常受到别人的白眼。 到了晚年可以享受天伦之乐，没想到80多岁时却中风全身瘫痪。当时，看到她瘦削的身体，整天只能躺在床上，可说是我人生中最煎熬的3年。她经常告诉我们以前生活的艰苦和其他和战争相关的故事。我总觉得她是一个非常坚强的女人。她从不向命运低头，一手带大爸爸和姑姑们。所以我十分敬佩她。那晚，我又梦见祖母。突然间很想念她。我决定煮这道菜纪念她。因为我​小时候她煮这道菜时就会跟我说：“今天加菜，有鸡也有鸭​”。小时候真的以为有鸡肉也有鸭肉，后来才明白原来这道​菜有鸡蛋也有咸鸭蛋，所以有鸡也有鸭！她也会告诉我们这道菜背后另一个故事。当时，祖父过世她一个人带大几个小孩，每天都味三餐烦恼，非常辛苦。有一天，身上没什么钱，不知道要如何应付那天的餐。她掏出仅有的几毛钱叫了爸爸去附近的杂货店买两粒鸡蛋，想做蒸蛋给小孩子吃。爸爸把买回来的蛋交给祖母。祖母一看到那些蛋就觉得不妙。正如她所料，她把蛋打开，马上就传来腐烂的味道。原来，那个不老实的杂货店老板看爸爸是个小孩，把不新鲜的蛋卖给了爸爸。结果，那晚全家人只能吃白饭加酱油为晚餐。每一次她要煮三黄蛋一定会告诉我们这个故事。当然后来生活比较好了，蒸蛋“升级”了，加入了咸蛋和皮蛋。

这道菜非常容易做。可是来到休斯顿，很难买到生咸蛋。就算有，不但不新鲜而且还很贵。很幸运的，我的邻居（她是上海人）找到做咸蛋的食谱，把她做好的咸蛋给我！不过，因为这里买不到鸭蛋，所以那咸蛋是用鸡蛋做的。其实，自己制作咸蛋一点都不难。你也可以自己制作。你只需要高粱酒和盐就可以了！把蛋洗干净抹干。然后用手把蛋放在酒里滚一滚。之后在把蛋放在盐里滚一滚，让盐均匀粘在蛋上。准备一个玻璃瓶，把蛋放入玻璃瓶里放上10多天就可以了。如果你要咸一点，可以放久一点。

食材：

1）1颗咸蛋，蛋黄切成小块

2）1颗皮蛋，切成小块

3）3颗蛋

4）水或高汤

5）盐少许

6）胡椒粉少许

7）麻油少许

步骤：

1）将鸡蛋白和鸡蛋黄打均匀。

2）加入咸蛋及皮蛋。

3）加入半碗至一碗水或高汤。

4）加入盐、胡椒粉及麻油。

5）将所有材料搅拌均匀。

6）把蛋放入蒸笼蒸大概15分钟。

Steam Fermented soya sauce chicken

Every Friday is the day I plan for my whole week's meal and I will go for my groceries shopping at Chinatown on Saturday. It can be pretty tough deciding what to cook for dinner 6 days a week. Now I can relate to what my mum always tell me , "Very sianz don't know what to cook!"

Whenever I tell my husband the same thing he will always says "It's ok I can eat the same thing every week." But the problem is I am the one who will get sianz cooking and eating the same thing haha! Of course, I also hope that my husband can eat something new each week since he is working hard and I am the one who is not working.

I am more lucky than my mum because I have the help of the internet! Thanks to food bloggers who are willing to share their recipes on their food blog. I get inspiration from their recipes. I have shared a few of my favourite food blogs on my blog. Please do check them out. Their blogs have easy recipes and slightly difficult ones.

This recipe which I share is from food blogger Nasi Lemak Lover. Being a lazy cook at times and also I have to keep a healthy diet, I look for simple recipes which do not require deep frying. When I see this recipe it just fit into what I like. The original recipe use drumstick meat but I have decided to change it into breast meat as it has less fat. I thought breast meat would turn out tough but surprisingly maybe due to the cornstarch and the cooking time, it turns out pretty good. I just love food with gravy, and as you have seen in the photo, it has quite some gravy which I love to eat it with my rice :)

Ingredients:

1) 400g chicken breast meat, cut into small bite size

2) 1tbsp tauchu /fermented soy bean

3) 1tsp light soy sauce

4) 1/2tsp salt

5) 1tsp sugar

6) A dash of pepper

7) 1tsp Chinese cooking wine

8) 1tbsp tapioca starch/ corn starch

9) 2tbsp chicken stock

10) 1tbsp chopped garlic

11) 1tbsp shredded ginger

12) fresh red chili, chopped

13) sprig spring onion, chopped

Method

1. Mix chicken meat with ingredients 2 to 11 in a steaming plate, marinate for 1hour or more. Leave some garlic and ginger aside and sprinkle them onto the chicken before you steam it.

2. Add half of the red chili and spring onion, and mix well with chicken.

3. Steam over high flame for about 8mins or till cooked.

4. Garnish with the other half red chili and spring onion.

焗烤蘑菇三文鱼

从小除了每一餐都有汤，妈妈一定也准备一条鱼。多吃鱼对身体好。我老爸有高血压及胆固醇所以妈妈就为爸爸烹煮一条鱼。以前家境不是很富裕，所以都吃一些价钱还可以的鱼。现在，手头宽裕些，也好像最近这两种鱼类才比较普遍，妈妈也就开始买鳕鱼及三文鱼给大家吃。众所周知，这两种鱼类的脂肪对身体好，特别是针对胆固醇高的人。所以，这三文鱼和鳕鱼在我家的餐桌上是必不可少的一道菜。

我遗传了老爸的高胆固醇，所以我也延续了家里的习惯，每一个星期至少三天都要吃鱼。一般我都是清蒸比较多。课室吃多了就想换换口味。最近，我又在“吃饭黄帝大”的节目中看到一位厨师介绍一种非常简单看起来很美味煮三文鱼的方法。他是把酱汁淋在鱼上把它包裹在纸里用微波炉把它煮熟。很简单吧！我不太喜欢用微波炉因为用它煮的食物吃多了怕对身体不好。既然家里有一个大烤箱，我就用烤箱做这道菜！我用铝铂纸包裹着鱼，煮好后不用倒在盘上，这样还可以少洗一个盘。哈哈我够懒吧！

这道菜有点日式风味，正好合我的口味。蘑菇的甜味融入那些酱汁，整道菜实在是非常鲜甜。那些酱汁刚好可以配饭，真是太棒了！

食材：

1）三文鱼

2）金针菇

3）鸿喜菇

4）新鲜冬菇 切片

5）牛油一小片

6）日式柴鱼酱油 2 汤匙 （Bonito flavoured soya sauce）

7）味淋 1汤匙 (Mirin)

8）日式烧酒 1 汤匙 (Sake)

9）黑胡椒少许

步骤

1）将三文鱼抹干，放在铝铂纸上。

2）金针菇及鸿喜菇要拨开，然后将所有菇类铺在鱼上。

3）将酱油、味淋及烧酒淋在鱼上。

4）将牛油放在上面然后撒上黑胡椒粉。

5）把铝铂纸卷好，包好所有材料。

6）放入预热（大概200度）的烤箱烤大概15分钟。

Sugar cane and water chestnut drink

It is so hot in Houston and it is only the beginning of summer! Jun temperatures are soaring to as high as 100 degree F! And it will be even worse during July and August! Though it is not as humid as Singapore, but you can feel your skin like burning if you are outdoors. I think I have never been so dark before in my whole life!

Must really cook some cooling stuff like 凉茶. That day I saw Ranch supermart selling sugar cane. I was so happy! This is because you can hardly find sugar cane here. The sweetness of sugar cane juice immediately came into my mind. I quickly grab 2 sticks though it is not cheap. One stick slightly longer than a long ruler cost 2.99 US dollar! Don't care just grab it since I have not had sugar cane juice for ages! And sugar cane drink is one of my fav cooling tea for summer! It also reminds me of my mum cos she likes to cook this for us when the weather gets hot in Singapore.

The sugar cane and water chestnut drink taste so heavenly! And I have stored it in the fridge which makes it even more yummy in a hot sunny day. My mouth is watering even when I am writing this blog. Too bad I don't find the supermart selling anymore :( Praying hard I will find it again soon. This time I will grab more hehe!

Ingredients:

1) 2 sticks of sugar cane

2) 10 water chestnuts

3) 10 sugared melon (糖冬瓜)

4) 6 to 10 bowls of water

Directions:

1) Chop off the skin of the sugar cane and cut it into smaller pieces horizontally. The skin is pretty tough so you may need a chopper. Must be careful of your hands when chopping.

2) Peel off the skin of the water chestnut.

3) Bring the water to boil and add in all the ingredients. Boil it under medium heat until the water chestnut and the sugar cane become slightly transparent. I boil it for around 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

4) If you like it more sweet can add in sugar.

PS: My mum says that can add in some cilantro if you want it to be more "cooling". That is if you don't mind the taste of cilantro in your drink.