粒粒－－一道不知什么名字的菜

粒粒－－必须用广东话讲哦！记忆中妈妈就是这样称呼这道菜。我想是因为所有材料都切成一粒粒，所以菜名就这样来的。我不知道这是不是妈妈“独创”的菜肴。不过，我好像真的没有看过这样的菜。我觉得如果吃粥的话，配上这粒粒真是非常搭。喜欢吃菜脯的朋友，你应该也会喜欢吃这道菜。下次如果煎菜脯蛋还剩下一些菜脯，不妨尝试煮这道粒粒！

材料：
1  菜脯 （我买已经切成丁的）
2  长豆或四季豆， 切成小段
3  豆干 切丁
4  麻辣花生或腰豆（花生口味随你的口味可以变化。妈妈版的粒粒用的是腰豆但是我找不到所以用花生）
5  豆瓣酱一汤匙（dou cheong）
6  糖少许
7  蒜茸少许
8 油

步骤：
1  用油煸炒豆干至稍微焦黄，然后捞起备用。
2  用油炒香蒜茸，然后加入菜脯炒香菜脯。
3  加入长豆，炒至8分熟。然后加入豆瓣酱和糖炒出豆瓣的香味。
4  加入豆干将所有材料炒均匀。
5  盛盘之后，加入花生就可以吃了！

Chai tou kuey & Bak Chor Mee --- Our way of celebrating National Day

This post is 2 days late. But nevertheless I still want to wish Singapore a Happy 47th Birthday! We had been missing all the excitement and songs for national day for 3 years already. This time, I have decided to celebrate with 2 Singapore dishes which are commonly found at hawker centers. And I must say they are our favourite food! Each year when we went back to Singapore, the first meal which we will have is bak chor mee! We really really miss this yummy noodles! The next is chai tou kuey. The other famous food like chicken rice, laksa, chao kuey teow etc can be found at the malaysian restaurants at Chinatown in Houston. But we can never find these 2 here.

I have tried to cook bak chor mee before. This is my 3rd attempt. We can never mind the type of noodles which taste like those in Singapore. So though it does not taste exactly like the bak chor mee in Singapore but we are pretty satisfied with our version. My husband will usually eats a second round whenever I cook this.

For the chai tou kuey, I have left over radish cake which I have made 1 day ago so I have used it to cook this dish. Originally the chai tou kuey is plain without the chinese sausages, dried mushrooms and dried shrimps. But I am too lazy to make another plain one for this dish. It taste good too! This is my first time cooking this. I like to eat chai tou kuey which is the black type and a bit chao da. So you can see from the photo that some are chao da. Should have added more eggs but I ran out of it, if not it will taste and smell better with the fragrance of the fried eggs.

Overall we had a satisfied meal on National Day! But our minds are still thinking of the real bak chor mee and chai tou kuey in Singapore!

For the recipe of Bak chor mee I have found this recipe from http://foodmadewithlove.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/bak-chor-mee-mince-meat-noodles/ .  Just some minor additions :1) For the stewed mushrooms, I have added a little rock sugar when stewing.  2) Instead of chilli oil, I have used shallot oil which I have reserved from frying the shallots. And I have used sambal belachan chilli which is a must for me to add in the noodles besides the vinegar. I use Zhenjiang vinegar as I like the fragrance and it has a rich taste too.

For the recipe of Chai Tou Kuey this is the recipe I have found : http://rasamalaysia.com/fried-radish-cake-recipe/ .

Radish Cake 萝卜糕

I have been so lazy and tired recently. Just don't feel like doing anything at home. Guess it's the weather which makes me so lethargic It's so hot and getting humid here in Houston. Everyday's temperature almost hit 37! Therefore I try to cook simple dishes everyday. Nothing new. Therefore nothing much to post recently.

Just back track a bit, 2 weeks ago my husband, a Singapore friend and me finally drove to New Orleans for a short weekend getaway. We have been wanting to go there to try the best cuisine in America. New Orleans is famous for Mardi Gras and the cajun and creole food. We tried jambalaya rice, crawfish etouffee, gumbo, authentic southern breakfast at Mother's World best baked ham restaurant, french donut at the famous Cafe Du Monde and of cos the fresh seafood! Every meal is a satisfied meal! 

French donut at Cafe Du Monde. Basically it taste like ham jim bang (咸煎饼)without any filling but instead topped with lot's of powdered sugar. Their coffee taste like Hong Kong's coffee which has lot's of milk.

Famous Seafood Gumbo served with rice

From right to left: crawfish eutoffee, rice to go with the main course and red bean rice.

I love all their food cos it's full of gravy! haha I am just crazy over food with gravy!

Okie back to the radish cake which I tried to make yesterday. I got the recipe from http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2009/01/chinese-new-year-turnip-cake.html. You can check it out at this website. Christine had pictures and detailed steps and useful tips to make a good radish cake. I just tweak a bit with the ingredients. I omit the chinese bacon and add in dried mushrooms. 

I find it is still not as soft as I would like it to be. I think I should add more water as the radish I bought is not juicy enough. I have some leftover and I have use it for another dish to celebrate Singapore's National Day. Can you guess what dish it is? I shall post the recipe tomorrow ;)

蛋包饭

这个蛋包饭跟在餐馆的是有点不一样。我指的是形状。我的是像信封哈哈！就是没有办法把用蛋皮把饭包得鼓鼓的。蛋皮里面不可以放太多饭，不然很难用蛋皮把饭包起来。不知道日本餐馆是不是用特别的锅做蛋包饭呢？

其实，我不特别喜欢吃蛋包饭。如果在日本餐馆吃饭，这道菜绝对不是我的首选。我只是想除了一般的扬州炒饭，还有什么特别的炒饭可以尝试煮一煮。虽然蛋包饭严格来讲不是炒饭类，不过饭也还是要用番茄酱炒一炒才算是蛋包饭。

蛋包饭里的饭不难做。比较难的是那个蛋皮。要有耐心和“铁沙掌”;p 因为等蛋皮煎好后，还是要用手把热腾腾的蛋皮包住饭。当然可以用锅铲代替，但是我觉得用手最容易。如果你想“挑战”自己，不妨尝试做蛋包饭。

食材：（一人份）
1  隔夜饭 一碗
2  肉末或切成小块的鸡腿肉（可以用酱油麻油等腌一下）
3  1／4 洋葱切成丁
4  新鲜蘑菇切成丁
5  四季豆切成丁
6 番茄酱1大匙
7  盐一小匙
8  糖一小匙
（炒饭的材料可以随你喜欢更改）
9  3颗蛋打散加点盐和太白粉水 （太白粉水一点就够，它可以让蛋不容易破）

步骤：
1 热锅加油炒香洋葱。然后顺序加入四季豆、蘑菇和肉。
2 等到肉已经有点白色，加入番茄酱、盐 和糖炒一下。
3 加入白饭。把所有材料和饭炒均匀。还有要把饭炒散。根据个人口味，如果你喜欢多点番茄酱可以加入多点。
4 把炒好后的饭盛盘备用。
5 用中小火热锅，加入油。把蛋液慢慢倒入锅里煎成蛋皮。不要用太大的火不然蛋皮很快就煎焦了。用小火慢慢煎，时不时转动锅时蛋液均匀分布在锅里，形成一片厚度均匀的蛋皮。
6  等到蛋皮大概8分熟的时候，把炒好的饭放在蛋皮的中间。用锅铲把旁边的蛋皮掀起来，然后好像包薄饼一样把饭包起来。
7 盛盘后，挤一些番茄汁在蛋皮上面就可以吃了！

Steam fish fillet rolls with prawn paste

This is a dish I came up with last minute. I had bought 2 flounder fillets but just cannot make up my mind on how to cook with it. Actually I thought the best way was to coat them with either flour or breadcrumbs and deep fry it. But I felt like eating a more healthy and less clean up of the kitchen version. I can just steam it the Hong Kong way with some soya sauce and ginger slices. But I don't think it will taste good for this type of fish.

Search my fridge and found some left over prawn paste which I bought some time ago. Better use them up before I forgot about it. That's how my version of this dish came about.  I combined the 2 ingredients with some vegetables for some crunch. It is another simple dish!

Ingredients:
1  2 Fish fillets cut into 15cm length
2  Prawn paste about 200g
3  2 Mushrooms soaked in water till soft and cut into thin strips
4  1/4 of a carrot cut into strips
5  1celery cut into strips
6  salt
7  pepper

Ingredients:
1 Season the fillets with some salt and pepper.
2 Smear some prawn paste onto the fillets. Do not put too much if not it will be difficult to roll it up later.
3 Add in the mushroom, carrot and celery at one tip of the fillet.
4 Slowly roll the fillet into a roll.
5 Steam it under high heat for about 10 minutes or until the fillets are cooked.


If you want you can make a sauce for this dish. Next time if I am making this dish again I probably will make a sauce with some soya sauce, sesame seed oil and beaten egg than add some corn starch to thicken it and drizzle on top of this dish.

双味茄子－－想念妈妈的蒸茄子

我记得妈妈偶尔会煮茄子。她会将茄子切半然后拿去蒸。蒸好后用汤匙将茄子的肉刮出来用蚝油、胡椒粉、麻油和油葱酥拌在一起。有时候她还会撒上一些葱或芫荽。这是很简单的一道菜，但是却是我最喜欢的菜色之一。我最喜欢叫妈妈放多点胡椒粉和油葱酥。这两样和蒸好的茄子拌在一起是绝配！每一次她煮这道菜我一定是忠实的支持者。我看家里好像只有我和妈妈喜欢吃蒸茄子。如果家里人吃不完，我会把剩下的全塞进肚子里，哈哈！

吃了一口蒸茄子，马上想起那怀念的味道，真满足！

烤茄子，我先生喜欢的版本

我也有好长一段时间没有煮这道菜了，因为家里的老板不喜欢吃这样煮的茄子。没有法子，只好不煮了。最近我在网上发现了煮茄子的新方法。那就是将茄子拿去煎（我用烤的方法），然后淋上甜酱、新鲜辣椒和油葱酥。我煮过一次，老板觉得不错。嘻嘻，所以我这次决定用买回来的一半茄子做我妈妈味道的蒸茄子，而另一半就做老公喜欢的口味。这样就皆大欢喜了！

皆大欢喜！

你喜欢吃哪一种呢？不妨试试看，然后告诉我！

Missing my mum's dishes again--- Steam egg tofu with minced meat

Another dish I look forward to whenever my mum cooks this. This is a simple and healthy dish. Sometimes my mum will use normal tofu instead. But I still prefer to eat egg tofu. You just need to get minced meat and marinate it with some oyster sauce, white pepper, sesame seed oil, corn starch and shaoxing wine. I will add in chopped spring onions and water chestnuts. If you have some prawns at home, you can also chopped the prawns into small pieces and add in to the minced meat. Cut the tofu into slices than add the minced meat on top of the tofu and steam it on high heat for about 15 minutes or until the meat is cooked. Just as simple as that and you can have a nice dish!