I'm into this noodle/pasta phase ever since we ran out of rice. Yeah, we're cheapskates who refuse to buy rice, but rather redeem packets of rice thru our fuel points. Only problem is - rice has been out of stock at petrol stations for over 2 mths now! Dun know real or not... This is a nice body warming soup on a dreary rainy/wintry day.
Felt an inspiration to recreate my favourite soup dish after a bout of 'healthy eating', ie eating more fish rather than chicken or pork.
The soup base is flexible, either chicken or pork bone stock both go well with fish. Logically, you could of course boil pure fish bones, but that would take a lot of fish bones to make that same concentration of soup, and you'd have to be careful to drain the soup to remove all bones/scales.
Ingredients
1 fish head (obviously must be a big enough lah!)
2 fish fillet steaks, cubed or sliced (I'm no fish expert but a fish with firm flesh that doesn't fall apart easily upon cooking would be good. My personal favourites for this are dory or cod fillet - fewer bones too)
1.5l chicken/pork bone stock
1 finger length of ginger, sliced
salt and pepper to taste
vegetables - either cai xin, chinese lettuce or bean sprouts all work here
tomatoes, cubed
Noodles - again, personal preference, you can use bee hoon, chor bee hoon or ee mee
Tou fu, cubed
100ml milk
cooking oil
Method
1) Gently fry the ginger and fish head. (You can also briefly fry the cubed/sliced fillet but I don't really find it necessary since fish cooks very fast. Remove)
2) Pour in the stock and simmer with the ginger and fish head for 20 to 30 mins to bring out the flavour. Remove the fish head and strain the soup for bones or scales if necessary. You can remove the meat or just simply chop it up and serve it separately so that your guests don't end up choking on the bones.
3) Add the tomatoes, vegetables (except chinese lettuce if using) and fish fillet and cook for 5 minutes.
4) Add in the noodles and toufu and stir well. Let simmer for another 3 minutes.
5) Pour in the milk. This is pretty much by taste, add too little and you can't taste the creaminess. Add too much and it becomes fish shake!
6) Serve immediately. (if using chinese lettuce, serve on the side. Let the heat wilt the veg. The taste is quite pungent and you don't really want the taste in the soup, u only want the cruchiness of the lettuce)
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Yin & Yang Salmon
Another one of Mag's creations - if you don't experment, u don't know!
Ingredients (serves 2)
2 Salmon Portions (perferably with the skin on one side)
1/4 Nori sheet, cut into 2 long strips
1 tsp wasabi
2 tbsps mayonnaise
1 tsp soya sauce
Generous Bed of greens - spinach, rocket, salad leaves
8 cherry tomatoes
8 Asparagus
1/2 lemon, juiced
Salt and Pepper
Cooked Rice, optional
Instant Miso Soup, optional
Method
1. Rub salt and pepper on salmon portion. Wrap 1 nori strip around the each portion. Drizzle olive oil to coat fish, this will also help nori strip stick to fish and skin of fish to crisp.
2. In a small bowl, add wasabi, mayonnaise and soya sauce. Set aside.
3. In a non-stick pan, make sure it is hot and do not put olive oil in pan (it will smoke the entire house!). Place each oiled fish portions on the pan. Turn flame down to medium and let fish cook and crisp up.
4. While, fish is cooking, arrange bed of greens and tomatoes on each serving plates. When fish is ready, place fish on top of salad greens. Place a generous dollop of wasabi mayonnaise on top of fish.
5. While non-stick pan is still hot, cook the asparagus with a tsp olive oil for 30 seconds. Remove it and place it on top of the fish. Pour lemon juice over the asparagus. Serve hot.
6. You may also serve dish with steaming hot rice and a bowl of instant miso soup. Absolutely divine!
Ingredients (serves 2)
2 Salmon Portions (perferably with the skin on one side)
1/4 Nori sheet, cut into 2 long strips
1 tsp wasabi
2 tbsps mayonnaise
1 tsp soya sauce
Generous Bed of greens - spinach, rocket, salad leaves
8 cherry tomatoes
8 Asparagus
1/2 lemon, juiced
Salt and Pepper
Cooked Rice, optional
Instant Miso Soup, optional
Method
1. Rub salt and pepper on salmon portion. Wrap 1 nori strip around the each portion. Drizzle olive oil to coat fish, this will also help nori strip stick to fish and skin of fish to crisp.
2. In a small bowl, add wasabi, mayonnaise and soya sauce. Set aside.
3. In a non-stick pan, make sure it is hot and do not put olive oil in pan (it will smoke the entire house!). Place each oiled fish portions on the pan. Turn flame down to medium and let fish cook and crisp up.
4. While, fish is cooking, arrange bed of greens and tomatoes on each serving plates. When fish is ready, place fish on top of salad greens. Place a generous dollop of wasabi mayonnaise on top of fish.
5. While non-stick pan is still hot, cook the asparagus with a tsp olive oil for 30 seconds. Remove it and place it on top of the fish. Pour lemon juice over the asparagus. Serve hot.
6. You may also serve dish with steaming hot rice and a bowl of instant miso soup. Absolutely divine!
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Mag's Garlic & Rosemary Chicken
Ingredients
1 chicken, skinned and cut into pieces
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 red onion, chopped finely
2 carrots, cut into chunks
2 Celery sticks, cut into chucks
5 stalks rosemary
1 litre of chicken stock
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
1. In the hot pan, add 2 tbsps of olive oil. Put chicken pieces in and brown.
2. Take chicken pieces out, put it aside. In the hot pan, add garlic, onion and rosemary. Cook till fragrant.
3. Return browned chicken pieces into the pot with the fragrant condiments. Add carrots, celery and 1 litre of chicken stock. Cover pot and simmer for 30 mins.
4. Serve it on its own or with rice
1 chicken, skinned and cut into pieces
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 red onion, chopped finely
2 carrots, cut into chunks
2 Celery sticks, cut into chucks
5 stalks rosemary
1 litre of chicken stock
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
1. In the hot pan, add 2 tbsps of olive oil. Put chicken pieces in and brown.
2. Take chicken pieces out, put it aside. In the hot pan, add garlic, onion and rosemary. Cook till fragrant.
3. Return browned chicken pieces into the pot with the fragrant condiments. Add carrots, celery and 1 litre of chicken stock. Cover pot and simmer for 30 mins.
4. Serve it on its own or with rice
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Fried Bee Hoon
Today's lunch was another case of 'whatever's in the fridge'. Generally this is a very flexi recipe, you can add as many varieties of ingredients as u want. For instance, if I had carrots, bean sprouts, chinese cabbage or fish cake, I'd add them in.
Ingredients - serves 2
1 tomato, chopped into cubes
A few leaves of wong bok, sliced
100g pork mince
6 crabsticks, cubed
1/2 handfull dried shrimp
6-8 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water, stalks removed and sliced (save the water used to soak the mushrooms)
1/3 packet bee hoon (enough for 2 people), soaked in water until soft
3 eggs, beaten
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 shallots, chopped
1 tsp sambal chilli }
1 tsp spicy bean sauce } sauce A
1 tsp XO sauce (optional) }
1/2 tsp sugar
cooking oil
Marinade
Marinate pork mince with 1/2 tbls light soya sauce, 1/2 tbls chinese rice wine, 1/2 tbls sesame seed oil, corn flour and pepper. Leave for at least 15 mins.
Method
1. Once the oil is warm enough, fry the garlic, onions and dried shrimp.
2. Once the fragrance comes out, throw in the minced pork and stir fry with sauce A.
3. Put in the vegetables (including mushrooms) and stir fry to incorporate with the minced pork. Add sugar. Pour in the water used for the mushrooms. Cover the pan until vegetables are cooked. (about 5 minutes)
4. Put in the crab stick. Pour in the beated egg and stir well to break up the egg.
5. Pour in the bee hon and stir well. Be careful not to over stir as you don't want to break up the bee hoon.
6. Serve.
Ingredients - serves 2
1 tomato, chopped into cubes
A few leaves of wong bok, sliced
100g pork mince
6 crabsticks, cubed
1/2 handfull dried shrimp
6-8 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water, stalks removed and sliced (save the water used to soak the mushrooms)
1/3 packet bee hoon (enough for 2 people), soaked in water until soft
3 eggs, beaten
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 shallots, chopped
1 tsp sambal chilli }
1 tsp spicy bean sauce } sauce A
1 tsp XO sauce (optional) }
1/2 tsp sugar
cooking oil
Marinade
Marinate pork mince with 1/2 tbls light soya sauce, 1/2 tbls chinese rice wine, 1/2 tbls sesame seed oil, corn flour and pepper. Leave for at least 15 mins.
Method
1. Once the oil is warm enough, fry the garlic, onions and dried shrimp.
2. Once the fragrance comes out, throw in the minced pork and stir fry with sauce A.
3. Put in the vegetables (including mushrooms) and stir fry to incorporate with the minced pork. Add sugar. Pour in the water used for the mushrooms. Cover the pan until vegetables are cooked. (about 5 minutes)
4. Put in the crab stick. Pour in the beated egg and stir well to break up the egg.
5. Pour in the bee hon and stir well. Be careful not to over stir as you don't want to break up the bee hoon.
6. Serve.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Claypot Chicken Rice
This is a super simple to make dish that is also flexi. Altho it says 'claypot', u don't really need to use one, it can be cooked up in the rice cooker even. What I like about it is the 'all in 1 approach' so I don't need to go around washing up so many pots.
Frankly, altho some people say that the flavour from the claypot tastes better, to me, unless you're going to do it over the traditional charcoal stove, otherwise, it doesn't make a huge difference. Worse, I'm told that claypots have limited life spans, they tend to crack easily after some use. All the scraping and scraping when you dig the side probably doesn't help. Think of all the clay you're eating. And it's also a pain to wash off all the burnt bits. Nah, not worth the trouble. I remember 1 hawker coated all his claypots with aluminum foil to save on washing. Guess what, his stall didn't last long.
Ingredients - serves 2 (since when have my recipes done anything else?)
Chicken parts - I like chicken wings and drumlets best (about 4 to 5 pieces per person should suffice) but you can also use half a chopped up chicken.
2 - 3 lap cheong, sliced up
Cai xin, boiled
8-9 dried mushrooms, soaked in hot water. Remove the stalks and slice up.
1 ltr chicken stock
1 cup rice, soaked for at least half hour in (room temp) water
3 big slices ginger
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 spring onions, save the green leafy part for granishing
cooking oil
Soup
A few leaves of chinese cabbage, chopped up
1 carrot, peeled and cubed
1 potato, peeled and cubed
Marinade
1 tbls each of (dead easy, everything is all proportionate!)- oyster sauce- sesame seed oil- sugar- dark soya sauce- light soya sauce- chinese rice wine
Method
1. You can make your own stock if you have the time. I usually boil chicken carcass with white onion, carrots, celery for half an hour to an hour. I throw all this away after that and keep the stock.
2. In a pot, if you have left over chicken skin/fat, fry it until the oil oozes out. Toss in the lap cheong and fry until the oil oozes out. Throw away the chicken skin and add the garlic, ginger, spring onion and shallots and fry until the aroma comes out.
3. Brown the chicken parts and throw in the sliced mushrooms.
4. Drain the soaked rice and pour in. Stir well.
5. Transfer the mixture to a rice cooker and cook as u would normal rice. Use the water used to soak the mushrooms and some of the chicken stock. (use as much liquid as you would for normal rice. A simple ang mo method is double the volume of liquid to rice, but i find that with Thai rice, this makes the rice a bit too soft since they normally use long grain rice which is harder)
6. While rice is cooking, do the soup. Using the left over chicken stock, add the cabbage, carrot and potato.
7. Once the rice is cooked, the soup would be ready too. Serve with the green bits of the spring onion.
To adapt this recipe to cooking in the rice cooker, u can also switch on the heat on the rice cooker and use it to fry the ingredients before putting in the rice.
Frankly, altho some people say that the flavour from the claypot tastes better, to me, unless you're going to do it over the traditional charcoal stove, otherwise, it doesn't make a huge difference. Worse, I'm told that claypots have limited life spans, they tend to crack easily after some use. All the scraping and scraping when you dig the side probably doesn't help. Think of all the clay you're eating. And it's also a pain to wash off all the burnt bits. Nah, not worth the trouble. I remember 1 hawker coated all his claypots with aluminum foil to save on washing. Guess what, his stall didn't last long.
Ingredients - serves 2 (since when have my recipes done anything else?)
Chicken parts - I like chicken wings and drumlets best (about 4 to 5 pieces per person should suffice) but you can also use half a chopped up chicken.
2 - 3 lap cheong, sliced up
Cai xin, boiled
8-9 dried mushrooms, soaked in hot water. Remove the stalks and slice up.
1 ltr chicken stock
1 cup rice, soaked for at least half hour in (room temp) water
3 big slices ginger
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 spring onions, save the green leafy part for granishing
cooking oil
Soup
A few leaves of chinese cabbage, chopped up
1 carrot, peeled and cubed
1 potato, peeled and cubed
Marinade
1 tbls each of (dead easy, everything is all proportionate!)- oyster sauce- sesame seed oil- sugar- dark soya sauce- light soya sauce- chinese rice wine
Method
1. You can make your own stock if you have the time. I usually boil chicken carcass with white onion, carrots, celery for half an hour to an hour. I throw all this away after that and keep the stock.
2. In a pot, if you have left over chicken skin/fat, fry it until the oil oozes out. Toss in the lap cheong and fry until the oil oozes out. Throw away the chicken skin and add the garlic, ginger, spring onion and shallots and fry until the aroma comes out.
3. Brown the chicken parts and throw in the sliced mushrooms.
4. Drain the soaked rice and pour in. Stir well.
5. Transfer the mixture to a rice cooker and cook as u would normal rice. Use the water used to soak the mushrooms and some of the chicken stock. (use as much liquid as you would for normal rice. A simple ang mo method is double the volume of liquid to rice, but i find that with Thai rice, this makes the rice a bit too soft since they normally use long grain rice which is harder)
6. While rice is cooking, do the soup. Using the left over chicken stock, add the cabbage, carrot and potato.
7. Once the rice is cooked, the soup would be ready too. Serve with the green bits of the spring onion.
To adapt this recipe to cooking in the rice cooker, u can also switch on the heat on the rice cooker and use it to fry the ingredients before putting in the rice.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Beef Risotto
I'm mostly a 'use what's in the fridge' or 'in season' type of person, I see what I have in my fridge or what's on offer in the supermarket and alter my recipes accordingly. This week, I bought beef cubes to do a chinese beef stew, and bought peppers and mushrooms for salad. But then I thought - hey, why not try a beef risotto instead? Would be a good alternative to my original chicken and mushroom risotto. Slightly charred beef with griiled peppers and mushrooms! Great idea.
Ingredients - Serves 21 packet of beef for stew, about 200-300g (Buy beef cuts for stew. You need something that softens with slow cooking, For instance, steak is pricey and hardens rather than gets soft with cooking.)
1 pepper/capsicum (I like only yellow and red ones, they are sweeter in taste than the green ones, and there's more capsicum and Vit A in them compared to the green ones)
1 punnet of fresh button or shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 Large white onion
3 - 4 cloves of garlic, crushed1 cup arborio rice (also known as risotto rice)Herbs: I like to use my 'shi da tian wang' mixture from the song Scarborough Faire. It's a good way to mix herbs for anything 'ang mo' tasting. So 1 teaspoon each of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. I also use nutmeg for the slight nutty flavour.
Freshly milled black pepper
Parmesan, grated
1 tbls soya sauce (this replaces salt. I prefer this because it gives a more uniform flavour compared to salt, where you can get pockets of salt if it's not mixed properly. Also, salt tends to draw out the juices from the beef during cooking, thus rendering it tough and tasteless)
1 tbls cornflour
3 glasses of red wine (optional)
1.5 ltr beef stock
Cooking oil and butter for cooking
Method
1. Marinate the beef with the herbs, freshly ground black pepper and soya sauce. Coat with corn flour if you are using thawed beef to soak up the extra water. Leave to marinate at least 1/2 hr.
2. Slice up the pepper, mushrooms, garlic and onions.
3. In a very hot pan, pour in some cooking oil and brown the beef cubes. Remember to turn them over so all sides are nicely browned, and the sides can even be a bit charred. Do a few pieces at a time, you don't want the thing to turn soggy when the juices come out. This makes the beef tough. The pan should be hot all the time rather than simmering. Remove from pan.
4. Camerialise the onions with butter. After this is done, throw in the garlic, peppers and mushrooms. Toss around.
5. Transfer the vegetables to a pot, together with the beef cubes. Pour in the rice. Stir until incorporated. Once you start seeing and hearing the rice start to sizzle, pour in 2 ladles of beef stock. Step back and you should see a sudden puff of steam and hear something which sounds like a huge 'sigh'. According to an Italian chef, the Italians call this the "sospiro" or 'the sigh'. This is the mark of a good risotto. (Or is it sospirare? Pls forgive my Italian if the form of the word is wrong, haha!) Kinda reminds me of how chicken rice is cooked too! So we Chinese don't just have a monopoly on cooking techniques.
6. Pour in another few ladles of stock. Stir! One thing about a risotto, the creamy texture only comes out if the risotto is 'loved', ie stirred constantly. This is why all those 'quick bake' recipes just don't taste the same. Slowly stirring for 20 minutes over the stove is nothing compared to tossing it in an oven and baking. The starch of the rice is released when liquid is introduced slowly and stirred, allowing the grain to absorb the rice and release its starch. This gives the risotto its trademark creamy texture. Adding cream or butter is just a cop out!
7. Keep adding stock every time when it looks like the liquid has been absorbed, and stirring. This goes on for about 20 minutes until the rice has softened. But don't over do it, you still want it al dente.
8. About halfway thru the cooking process, pour in the red wine, and add more of the herb mexture to the risotto to give the rice some flavour.
9. Once the rice is cooked, throw in the grated parmesan, turn off the heat and stir it in. How do you tell if the rice is done? Different parts of Italy have different ways of eating risotto, some like it soupy like Teochew muay, others like it stody like Hong Kong congee. It's all personal preference. You don't have to use up all the stock. Leftover stock can be used to loosen the leftover risotto when warming up the leftover risotto, as leftover risotto tends to get stody in the fridge.
10. Serve with more grated parmesan, freshly milled pepper and a glass of red wine.
Verdict: I've tried a variation using pork but still prefer my original chicken and mushroom combination. Somehow that's just the creamiest.
Ingredients - Serves 21 packet of beef for stew, about 200-300g (Buy beef cuts for stew. You need something that softens with slow cooking, For instance, steak is pricey and hardens rather than gets soft with cooking.)
1 pepper/capsicum (I like only yellow and red ones, they are sweeter in taste than the green ones, and there's more capsicum and Vit A in them compared to the green ones)
1 punnet of fresh button or shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 Large white onion
3 - 4 cloves of garlic, crushed1 cup arborio rice (also known as risotto rice)Herbs: I like to use my 'shi da tian wang' mixture from the song Scarborough Faire. It's a good way to mix herbs for anything 'ang mo' tasting. So 1 teaspoon each of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. I also use nutmeg for the slight nutty flavour.
Freshly milled black pepper
Parmesan, grated
1 tbls soya sauce (this replaces salt. I prefer this because it gives a more uniform flavour compared to salt, where you can get pockets of salt if it's not mixed properly. Also, salt tends to draw out the juices from the beef during cooking, thus rendering it tough and tasteless)
1 tbls cornflour
3 glasses of red wine (optional)
1.5 ltr beef stock
Cooking oil and butter for cooking
Method
1. Marinate the beef with the herbs, freshly ground black pepper and soya sauce. Coat with corn flour if you are using thawed beef to soak up the extra water. Leave to marinate at least 1/2 hr.
2. Slice up the pepper, mushrooms, garlic and onions.
3. In a very hot pan, pour in some cooking oil and brown the beef cubes. Remember to turn them over so all sides are nicely browned, and the sides can even be a bit charred. Do a few pieces at a time, you don't want the thing to turn soggy when the juices come out. This makes the beef tough. The pan should be hot all the time rather than simmering. Remove from pan.
4. Camerialise the onions with butter. After this is done, throw in the garlic, peppers and mushrooms. Toss around.
5. Transfer the vegetables to a pot, together with the beef cubes. Pour in the rice. Stir until incorporated. Once you start seeing and hearing the rice start to sizzle, pour in 2 ladles of beef stock. Step back and you should see a sudden puff of steam and hear something which sounds like a huge 'sigh'. According to an Italian chef, the Italians call this the "sospiro" or 'the sigh'. This is the mark of a good risotto. (Or is it sospirare? Pls forgive my Italian if the form of the word is wrong, haha!) Kinda reminds me of how chicken rice is cooked too! So we Chinese don't just have a monopoly on cooking techniques.
6. Pour in another few ladles of stock. Stir! One thing about a risotto, the creamy texture only comes out if the risotto is 'loved', ie stirred constantly. This is why all those 'quick bake' recipes just don't taste the same. Slowly stirring for 20 minutes over the stove is nothing compared to tossing it in an oven and baking. The starch of the rice is released when liquid is introduced slowly and stirred, allowing the grain to absorb the rice and release its starch. This gives the risotto its trademark creamy texture. Adding cream or butter is just a cop out!
7. Keep adding stock every time when it looks like the liquid has been absorbed, and stirring. This goes on for about 20 minutes until the rice has softened. But don't over do it, you still want it al dente.
8. About halfway thru the cooking process, pour in the red wine, and add more of the herb mexture to the risotto to give the rice some flavour.
9. Once the rice is cooked, throw in the grated parmesan, turn off the heat and stir it in. How do you tell if the rice is done? Different parts of Italy have different ways of eating risotto, some like it soupy like Teochew muay, others like it stody like Hong Kong congee. It's all personal preference. You don't have to use up all the stock. Leftover stock can be used to loosen the leftover risotto when warming up the leftover risotto, as leftover risotto tends to get stody in the fridge.
10. Serve with more grated parmesan, freshly milled pepper and a glass of red wine.
Verdict: I've tried a variation using pork but still prefer my original chicken and mushroom combination. Somehow that's just the creamiest.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Shanghai style minced pork noodles
Today I shall start documenting (haha, since that seems to be a major part of my new job scope - documenting things) my recipes, both those that I invent, as well as ones that I like. This will be my legacy when I die, so at least my hubby doesn't go hungry. After I'm dead, it doesn't matter what he does to my kitchen, at most I'll come and haunt him in his dreams to clean up! :D
This recipe was thrown together after 2 weeks of eating salad. Damn healthy but really boring, and *someone* was complaining. Since there wasn't much food in the fridge to begin with, and time is also short for me, this was a happy compromise. It took only 20 mins prep time (mostly on marinating, so I use the time to prepare my other dish, a salad - haha, still cannot escape that!) and 15 mins cooking time, and only 5 minutes to invent. I improvise as I go along!
Ingredients - Serves 2
200g minced pork
200-300g shanghai noodles (dry)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced onions/shallots
2 - 3 tsp cooking oil
Corn starch solution
5-6 dried mushrooms, sliced (soak mushrooms in hot water 1st)
Marinade for pork
0.5 tbls light soya sauce
0.5 tbls dark soya sauce
0.5 tbls chinese wine
0.5 tbls sesame seed oil
dash of 5 spice powder
dash of sugar
Sauce
1 tbls spicy bean sauce
1 tbls sambal
1 tbls XO sauce (optional)
Method
1. Boil enough water in a big pot. Once water has come to a rolling boil, toss in the noodles and cook as per instructions on the packet. I usually use 1 fistful (about 100g) per person but for people with bigger appetites, use 2 fistfuls. (but my hands are pretty small)
2. Once slighty under-cooked, pour away water and drain noodles in colander. Run under cold water to stop the cooking. Set aside. You don't want the noodles too well-cooked because u will be frying them up again later and still al dente.
3. Heat up some cooking oil. Toss in minced garlic and shallots and fry until you hear the sizzling sound (don't over do it). Toss in the sauces and stir well.
4. Toss in the mince meat and stir fry. Try to break up the minced bits into as tiny bits as you can. Throw in sliced mushroom. Pour in a splash of water (this is a gravy to be absorbed by the noodles, it is not a soup!) Cover and simmer for 5 -7 minutes until mushrooms are soft.
5. Once simmering merrily, pour in corn starch and incorporate well until sauce thickens. Pour back noodles and fold in carefully, warming up the noodles but be careful not to break up the strands.
6. Serve immediately with chopped spring onion if desired.
Verdict
My chief taster said that it wasn't a bad effort. Compared to Crystal Jade, it's less salty. However, it 'looks' like sphagetti. Ah well, think of it chinese sphagetti then!
This recipe was thrown together after 2 weeks of eating salad. Damn healthy but really boring, and *someone* was complaining. Since there wasn't much food in the fridge to begin with, and time is also short for me, this was a happy compromise. It took only 20 mins prep time (mostly on marinating, so I use the time to prepare my other dish, a salad - haha, still cannot escape that!) and 15 mins cooking time, and only 5 minutes to invent. I improvise as I go along!
Ingredients - Serves 2
200g minced pork
200-300g shanghai noodles (dry)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced onions/shallots
2 - 3 tsp cooking oil
Corn starch solution
5-6 dried mushrooms, sliced (soak mushrooms in hot water 1st)
Marinade for pork
0.5 tbls light soya sauce
0.5 tbls dark soya sauce
0.5 tbls chinese wine
0.5 tbls sesame seed oil
dash of 5 spice powder
dash of sugar
Sauce
1 tbls spicy bean sauce
1 tbls sambal
1 tbls XO sauce (optional)
Method
1. Boil enough water in a big pot. Once water has come to a rolling boil, toss in the noodles and cook as per instructions on the packet. I usually use 1 fistful (about 100g) per person but for people with bigger appetites, use 2 fistfuls. (but my hands are pretty small)
2. Once slighty under-cooked, pour away water and drain noodles in colander. Run under cold water to stop the cooking. Set aside. You don't want the noodles too well-cooked because u will be frying them up again later and still al dente.
3. Heat up some cooking oil. Toss in minced garlic and shallots and fry until you hear the sizzling sound (don't over do it). Toss in the sauces and stir well.
4. Toss in the mince meat and stir fry. Try to break up the minced bits into as tiny bits as you can. Throw in sliced mushroom. Pour in a splash of water (this is a gravy to be absorbed by the noodles, it is not a soup!) Cover and simmer for 5 -7 minutes until mushrooms are soft.
5. Once simmering merrily, pour in corn starch and incorporate well until sauce thickens. Pour back noodles and fold in carefully, warming up the noodles but be careful not to break up the strands.
6. Serve immediately with chopped spring onion if desired.
Verdict
My chief taster said that it wasn't a bad effort. Compared to Crystal Jade, it's less salty. However, it 'looks' like sphagetti. Ah well, think of it chinese sphagetti then!
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
1st post
Food - food isn't just about living. Do we live to eat, or do we eat to live?
My 1st experience with cooking food began in my mom's kitchen. Both my mom and gran were avid cooks, their food was talked about among relatives. I guess I inherited this love for cooking from a young age. Up to now, I still miss their cooking and it's tragic that our family recipes are lost forever.
My first encounter with cooking began actually with baking - during the week before CNY, I always looked forward to coming home from school and helping Gran make CNY cookies - keuh bankit, butter cookies, yum. I grew up learning how to bake apple pie from my mom.
Later on, I was good friends with the maid, and would hang out in the kitchen with her. It became only natural that I started as her kitchen helper - chopping garlic, onions and preparing vegetables, even helping her stir fry. Little did I know how much this would help me later.
My next experience was in hostel, where my room mates and I cooked instant noodles and canned food for dinner - made us all lose weight rapidly and it was cheap too! Those were fun days, 3 cooks in the kitchen. :)
When I first got married and moved to Manchester, UK, my hubby never expected I could cook. Growing up with maids, neither did I. Yet alone in a foreign kitchen, in foreign country, with nothing much else to do other than study, I cooked to get a taste of home, and to help pass the time in a cold wintry place. Watching lots of food channel and food shows with Britians best chefs was totally inspirational. I started to cook and hey, I took like a fish to water, all my chopping and preparation skills came back!
Coupled with the great food science tips from food channel, I was inspired to try out new recipes. Living in a country with 4 seasons helped - the food in the supermakets were always diverse, we could have new dishes every season.
My food exploration journey began...and now continues after I've moved to my own apartment.
Bon appetite!
My 1st experience with cooking food began in my mom's kitchen. Both my mom and gran were avid cooks, their food was talked about among relatives. I guess I inherited this love for cooking from a young age. Up to now, I still miss their cooking and it's tragic that our family recipes are lost forever.
My first encounter with cooking began actually with baking - during the week before CNY, I always looked forward to coming home from school and helping Gran make CNY cookies - keuh bankit, butter cookies, yum. I grew up learning how to bake apple pie from my mom.
Later on, I was good friends with the maid, and would hang out in the kitchen with her. It became only natural that I started as her kitchen helper - chopping garlic, onions and preparing vegetables, even helping her stir fry. Little did I know how much this would help me later.
My next experience was in hostel, where my room mates and I cooked instant noodles and canned food for dinner - made us all lose weight rapidly and it was cheap too! Those were fun days, 3 cooks in the kitchen. :)
When I first got married and moved to Manchester, UK, my hubby never expected I could cook. Growing up with maids, neither did I. Yet alone in a foreign kitchen, in foreign country, with nothing much else to do other than study, I cooked to get a taste of home, and to help pass the time in a cold wintry place. Watching lots of food channel and food shows with Britians best chefs was totally inspirational. I started to cook and hey, I took like a fish to water, all my chopping and preparation skills came back!
Coupled with the great food science tips from food channel, I was inspired to try out new recipes. Living in a country with 4 seasons helped - the food in the supermakets were always diverse, we could have new dishes every season.
My food exploration journey began...and now continues after I've moved to my own apartment.
Bon appetite!
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