Dosanko - Baked Mushrooms with Egg

Baked Mushrooms with Egg
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp Japanese mayonaise
2 kinds of mushrooms
1 onion, sliced
3 pcs bacon, sliced
50g mozarella cheese
1/3 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
Black pepper to taste

Method:
1. Melt butter in pan. Stir fry onions and bacon till soft.
2. Add mushrooms and salt and pepper. Fry till mushrooms are half-cooked and softened.
3. Mix eggs with milk and mayonaise.
4. Pour fried mushrooms into an oven-safe container.
5. Pour egg mixture on top of mushrooms.
6. Sprinkle cheese on top.
7. Bake in toaster for about 10 mins till golden brown.
8. Serve hot.

Dosanko - Fried Marinated Salmon

Fried Marinated Salmon

Ingredients:
300g salmon, cut into 4cm wide slices
Salt & pepper, to taste

Seasoning:
4 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine

Method:
1. Mix salmon slices with some salt and pepper. Let stand for 10 - 15 mins.
2. Coat salmon slices with plain flour and deep fry in oil till crispy.
3. Mix seasoning together and soak fried salmon slices in it for 30 mins or longer.

(Optional: 2 chopped dried chillies can be added in the seasoning for more kick)

Dosanko - Spaghetti Carbonara with Corn

Been watching this Dosanko Cooking programme on Cable TV in the mornings. Her recipes are easy and simple, using little ingredients. I'll put down a few of her more interesting ones here to archive for future references.

Spaghetti Carbonara with Corn
(Serves 2)

Ingredients:
1 egg yolk
1 clove garlic, minced
200g spaghetti
2 pcs bacon, cut into strips
1 cup milk
30g cheese
1 small can corn kernels
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt
Black pepper, to taste

Method:
1. Stir fry garlic in butter till fragrant.
2. Add bacon and fry till crispy.
3. Add milk and when mixture boils, add corn.
4. Mix cheese with 1 tbsp plain flour and add this to the mixture. (Flour is added so that the cheese will not disintegrate)
5. Add 1/2 tsp salt and black pepper to taste.
6. Add cooked spaghetti.
7. Turn off fire and add egg yolk. Mix well.
8. Add some water used to boil the spaghetti so that the gravy will not be too dry.

Seo Yoo Suk - Ah Reum da Oon Sa Ram

(The song Samsoon sang in the piano with JinHun/Cyrus before their first kiss)

jang nan kamur badgoso gugosur barabogo
orsa ango gioi buswo borinun
neirimyon borsu gurorjun saram jocha
ijoborinun ai chorom

OH~ OH~ OH~
arumdaun naui sarama

dangshinun nega durin ne maumur goun jang nan gam chorom
joguman sonuro jang nan hago
ne maumi gomine jamgyo inun
dorbojianun naui yoina
naui sarama

OH~
arumdaun naui sarama

dorbojianun naui yoina
naui sarama

OH~
arumdaun naui sarama

(Source: http://eimichiko.com)

Understanding Your Brain

Your Brain Usage Profile:
Auditory : 50%
Visual : 50%
Left : 52%
Right : 47%

You are one of those rare individuals who are perfectly "balanced" in both your hemispheric tendencies and your sensory learning preferences. However, there is both good news and bad news.

A problem with hemispheric balance is that you will tend to feel more conflict than someone who has a clearly established dominance. At times the conflict will be between what you feel and what you think but will also involve how you attack problems and how you perceive information. Details which will seem important to the right hemis- phere will be discounted by the left and vice versa, which can present a hindrance to learning efficiently.

In the same vein, you may have a problem with organization. You might organize your time and/or space only to feel the need to reorganize five to ten weeks later.

On the positive side, you bring resources to problem-solving that others may not have. You can perceive the "big picture" and the essential details simultaneously and maintain the cognitive perspective required. You possess sufficient verbal skills to translate your intuition into a form which can be understood by others while still being able to access ideas and concepts which do not lend themselves to language.

Your balanced nature might lead you to second-guess yourself in artistic endeavors, losing some of the fluidity, spontaneity and creativity that otherwise would be yours.

With your balanced sensory styles, you process data alternately, at times visually and other times auditorially. This usage of separate memories may cause you to require more time to integrate information or re-access it. When presented with situations which force purely visual or purely auditory learning, increased anxiety is likely and your learning efficiency will decrease.

Your greatest benefit is that you can succeed in multiple fields due to the great plasticity and flexibility you possess.

Try understanding your brain at MindMedia.

What is Your Child's Talent?

What is your Child's Learning Talent?
by Montessorimom.com

Which type of Supreme Pizza are you?

You are a Chicken Supreme Pizza!
Be it spicy, roasted or ham, you love them all! Just like your attitude towards friends, you accept and love your friends for who they are. You are also faithful to your family and friends; someone who can be trusted and depended on. One bite into this pizza and you'll love it for life!

Which type of Supreme Pizza are you?
Brought to you by Pizza Hut

Heheh, that's my personality above! I heard about this Super Monday deal where you get a free Garlic Bread and 6pcs Sweet n' Spicy Drumlets with every purchase of regular or large pizza from the Supremes range. That led me to the Pizza Hut's website and in turn to the Personality Test above.

I wanna eat pizza today! *drool* But I don't want the Chicken Supreme. I wanna try the Seafood Supreme on a lime mayonnaise base sauce. My first choice would always be Super Supreme. But as YH does not take beef, I shall try the seafood one then and on the new Cheesy Bites Stuffed Crust!! Yummy!!

Soursop Juice/Drink

A refreshing drink on a hot day. Just mix soursop with sugar, lemon juice and water. Then chill in fridge and its ready to be served. This time round as its my first attempt at making this drink, think its too diluted. Shall mix in less water next time.

Baked Chicken Wings

My sis doesn't cook often and since she tried out this recipe first with good results, we shall be gracious and term this dish one of her specialty!! Surprisingly, although the chicken wings are baked and not deep fried, they are still crispy. Think we shall adopt this recipe since baked wings use no oil and are more healthy... or are we just deluding ourselves...For our version, we marinated the chicken wings in chinese wine, soy sauce, pepper, sesame oil for overnight for best results. Then just before baking, dredge the wings in plain flour mixed with some chicken seasoning and pepper. Then place onto a rack and bake at 200 deg C for 20 mins on each side or till crispy and browned. This recipe is quite versatile and you can try adding whatever marinade you fancy: 5-spice powder, oyster sauce, etc. But one thing I've realised is that the taste changes subtly if ginger juice is added and the chicken tastes better.

I've found another baked chicken wing recipe on Kuali's website although I haven't tried it out yet.

Baked Wings/Drummettes

Ingredients
600g wings / drummettes, (about 15 pieces) washed & drained in a colander

Marinade:
1 tablespoon young ginger, ground finely
1 clove garlic, ground finely
2 tablespoons honey
Juice of 1 calamansi lime
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chicken stock granules
1/2 teaspoon salt to taste
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes (more if you prefer spicier wings)
6 kaffir lime leaves, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon corn flour

Method
1. In a mixing bowl, combine marinade ingredients together.

2. Toss the wings/drummettes in marinade and mix well until evenly-coated. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave marinated chicken wings in the refrigerator for 3 hours or overnight.

3. Pre-heat oven to 200ºC and grill for 20 minutes or until wings are golden in colour.

4. Serve immediately.

(Source: http://kuali.com)

Chicken Noodle Soup

Yesterday's dinner was a fruitful one as we experimented with some new dishes: Chicken Noodle Soup, Baked Chicken Wings and Soursop Juice!

The Chicken Noodle Soup is one of the dishes taught by Chef Yong too. Although we all find it a bit strange as it is an English kinda soup, with chunkier pieces, very unlike the chinese kinda noodle soup we are accustomed to. However, taste-wise, it rocks!! Chicken Noodle Soup
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:
2 whole Chicken Thigh
2 tbsp Oil
1 tsp Chopped Garlic
120g White Onions, diced
60g Carrots, diced
60g Celery, diced
200g Button Mushrooms, diced (can use fresh or canned ones)
1/4 tsp Tumeric powder
2 sprigs Fresh Thyme (I used dried thyme, approx. 1 tsp)
2 pcs Dried Bay Leaves
1L Water
100g Spaghetti or Vermicelli Pasta
4 tbsp Maggi Concentrated Chicken Stock
1 tbsp Chopped Parsley (I used dried parsley)

Method:
1. Heat oil in pot, add the chopped garlic and onions, saute till fragrant. Add the carrots, celery and mushrooms and cook for another minute. Sprinkle in tumeric powder and ass the thyme and bay leaves.

2. Pour in water and add the chicken thighs. Add the pasta (break into half) and bring soup to the boil. Simmer for 20 mins until chicken is tender.

3. Remove chicken from soup and shred the meat. Discard bay leaves and fresh thyme stalks. Return shredded chicken meat to soup. Add the Maggi concentrated chicken stock and adjust the seasoning of the soup further with salt if necessary. (To make the soup thicker, add cornstarch water to thicken)

4. Serve soup with chopped parsley.

Baked Rice with Bacon and Mushrooms

Recently, me and my sis attended a cooking class by Chef Yong at Cairnhill CC. We were taught Deep Fried Prawns with Wasabi Mayo, Chicken Noodle Soup and Baked Rice with Bacon and Mushrooms. As the recipe from the Chef is cooking the rice from scratch and is much different from the easy lazy way which I've always cooked my baked rice, I decided to replicate the Chef's recipe and try whether taste-wise, it's the same as what we've tasted in the cooking class. Ta-da! The end product tastes every bit as good as what we're tried in the class. Yummilicious!! I've cooked only 1 cup rice for me, hubby and baby, thus halved all the portions. However, I realised that the cooking time remains unchanged even though the recipe calls for 2 cups rice and I've only used 1 cup. So that's something to note.

Baked Rice with Bacon and Mushrooms
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:
Rice
1 tsp Butter
60g Chopped Onion
2 cups Jasmine Rice (I've only used 1 cup)
3 cups Chicken Stock (Use 2 tbsp chicken stock concentrate to 250ml water)

White Sauce (Basic cream pasta sauce)
300ml Milk (UHT/Fresh Milk)
100ml Cream
2 tbsp Maggi Concentrated Chicken Stock
2 tbsp Cornstarch or Potato Starch
4 tbsp Water

Others
200g Streaky Bacon, diced
1 can Button Mushrooms, halved or quartered (I used fresh button mushrooms)
100g Fresh Shitake Mushrooms
100g Mozzarella or Emmental Cheese (I used Emmental Cheese)
Chopped English Parsley
1 Whole Tomato, diced

Method:
1. Wash rice and drain dry. Melt butter and saute onions till fragrant. Add rice and pour in the chicken stock. Bring to boil and cook over slow fire for 15 mins. Alternatively, bake rice, covered, in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for 40 mins (20 mins for metal tray). Allow rice to rest for 10 mins before fluffing. (I used glass tray and baked the rice in the oven, covered with aluminium foil)

2. Combine milk and cream together. Bring to boil and add the concentrated chicken stock. Mix starch with water and thicken the sauce with it. (Just enough for the sauce to coat the back of a spoon, runny consistency)

3. Heat oil and saute bacon until fat is rendered. Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 mins. Transfer cooked rice to a casserole. Sprinkle the bacon and mushrooms over the rice. Spoon the white sauce over the rice and sprinkle with some grated cheese.

4. Bake rice in a preheated oven at 220 deg C for 10 - 15 mins. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and diced tomatoes before serving.

Horlicks Doggie Cookies

On the spur of the moment, me and my sis decided to try baking these doggie cookies yesterday during lunchtime. Looking at the recipe, it looks pretty easy. But I'm still amazed at the speed of which we completed the baking. We only took a mere 30 mins to bake these cookies from scratch, from the creaming to the shaping and to the decorating! Isn't it amazingly fast!! Taste-wise, it's not too sweet as no sugar has been added. However, the cookie has a crumbly texture, quite similar to that of Melting Moments. Most of all, they look very cute! Rows after rows of doggies' heads looks just too good to be eaten!

Horlicks Doggie Cookies
(Makes 48 cookies)

Ingredients:
180g butter
80g Horlicks
100g chocolate chips
200g top flour (I used cake flour)
25g cornflour
25g milk powder
Koko Krunch

Method:
1. Sift the flour, cornflour and milk powder.
2. Cream the butter and Horlicks for 3 minutes at low speed. Do not overbeat.
3. Add the sifted flour and beat for about one minute to form a dough.
4. Divide dough into 10g each. Embed 3 chocolate chips into each piece of dough and roll into a ball.
5. Insert 2 pieces of Koko Krunch to form the ears and 1 chocolate chip as the nose.
6. Bake at 140 Deg. C for about 25 minutes.
7. Cool before storing.

(Source: http://www.kitchencapers.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=62711#62711
Contributor: Rusti)

Sik Wai Sin Eating House

We went to this Sik Wai Sin Eating House in Geylang on Sunday for dinner. We ordered all the house specialty: Steamed Grass Carp Fish Head, Steamed Minced Pork with Salted Fish, Tofu with Prawns, Stir-Fried Kai Lan and Braised Bittergourd with Spareribs.

We had to wait a while for the lady boss to find us a table. The waiting time is quite OK with me as the drivers need time to find a parking lot too, which wasn't an easy task in Geylang. I was abit worried about the temperature in the shop as some articles in the net said that it is the hottest place in Geylang! I find the heat in the shop still OK. Maybe its night-time then and abit more cooling.

About the food, I like the dishes though they were a wee bit oily and salty. But this is homestyle cantonese food, so that's typical of the dishes. Everybody agreed that the tofu with prawns was nice. The fish head was very fresh abeit too many bones. Overall, I like all the food. But the price for the dishes seems a wee bit expensive. For 5 adults and 1 child consuming the 5 dishes, together with 5 cans of soft drinks, the price comes up to $80+.

Well, I don't mind coming back again... but there's so many other eating places I've set my eyes on, so till then then.

Sik Wai Sin Eating House
287 Geylang Road (Just after Lorong 15)
Tel: 6744 0129

Botak Jones

Heard a lot of raves about the western food served in this stall in an eating place. Would love to try their Cajun Chicken and Fish n Chips one day!!

Read their review in The Newpaper: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,49012,00.html

Botak Jones
32 Pioneer Sector 2
Sungei Kadut Eating House at the junction of Pioneer Sector 2 and Pioneer Sector 1
Phone / Fax 689-89-225
Monday - Friday 10:00 am til 8:30 pm
Saturday 10:00 am til 5:00 pm
Sunday closed

Botak Jones (Branch)
Yue Hua Food Place
Block 608 Ang Mo Kio Ave. 5
Phone / Fax 6755-1-225
Tuesday - Sunday 12:00 noon till 10:00 pm
Monday closed

STUFiT Boneless Chicken with Stuffings

The Chinese food programme on channel 8 (Glamourlicious 2) yesterday introduced an innovative dish called STUFiT boneless chicken with stuffings inside. I'll love to try out the STUFiT Braised Chicken with Mushroom Rice Stuffing, STUFiT Boneless Chicken Wing with prawn stuffing and STUFiT Egg Plant Parcels!!
http://www.stufit.com.sg

Family Day @ Night Safari

We went to Night Safari for YH company's Family Day last Friday. Yes, you read correctly... Family Day at Night Safari! My first reaction when I heard it was "Where got people arrange family day at night one??". Also from what I heard from YH, this event has very limited participants and also, they don't get to knock off earlier from work too!! I think this doesn't sound very "pro-family" to me and I really dunno what's their intention to organise such a day.

Anyway, we drove down mandai that day amidst a slight drizzle. It has been raining the whole day and I sure hope it doesn't rain when we're there! Well, just in case, I tucked an unbrella in my bag before stepping out of the car. We strolled in happily through the entrance of Night Safari, just before reaching the ticketing booths, we're greeted by an unfriendly signage that says "IDA Family Day (Dinner @ Palm Park, Zoo)". I went "huh??" and upon further clarification from the staff of Night Safari, was told that our dinner was at the Zoo instead.

So, we went about-turn while I grumble about the poor location of the signage. If it had been at the entrance nearer to the carpark area or road, then we wouldn't have to walk in all the way. Also, what is the management doing?? Why couldn't they have provided a detailed programme sheet for all the participants instead of just providing them with tickets??

Well, we went in to the Zoo and along the way, we saw alligators, goat, monkeys, elephants and whatnots. You see, the Palm Park was quite a distance in. We met some of YH's colleagues along the way, all of whom have already eaten and were on the way to Night Safari. All their comments were identical which added to my anxiety: "The queue is very long", "The ground is very muddy and wet". Sigh, what else could be worse when I'm wearing my new birkis??!! Nevertheless, we went to survey the situation at Palm Park and to my horror, it was everything they said. A tentage has been built next to the lake on the grass. Dinner was a takeaway bento set and the queue is horrendously long, plus the very ground they're standing on was muddy!! I took a look and immediately decided to cut the time short and have our dinner elsewhere outside.

So, away we went to find food. We settled on Bongo Burgers at Night Safari as I've read good reviews about its beef burgers and also because, anywhere else was closed for dinner! I ordered the beef burger, YH had fish and chips and Janelle had chicken wings. The chicken wings was yummy, YH said his fish and chips is not bad, but I didn't quite like my beef burger. The patty is made of minced beef mixed with spices, onions and whatnots. Although it wasn't tough, but think I couldn't get used to the taste. We enjoyed the dinner and there was aboriginal performance too!

This is the first time Janelle ate chicken wings with her bare hands. Look at how she's enjoying the experience!!

After our dinner, we proceeded in to Night Safari proper, by which time, was already teaming with people and it was raining too! Good thing that I brought the umbrella! However, I almost fainted at the sight of the queue for the tram. How is it that today is so packed?? I was very tempted to just go home since its raining and the queue is horrendously long. Anyway, we ended up at the 'Creatures of the Night' Show which was open-air, very packed also, but luckily we managed to find seats and the rain abated then. The Show was not bad, but as lighting cannot be too strong, I suppose at times, especially for the children, they have no idea where to look and what they're looking at too!

Well, after the Show, we walked over to the tram queue and as it was not as long as belong, we decided to queue for it. Surprisingly, the queue moved along quite fast and before long, we were on our way on the last row of the tram. The tram ride was quite fun as there was cool breezes as we passed by all the creatures of the night. Saw alot of animals of whom had funny names which were very long and definitely not what we have heard or seen before. There was even one time when the white and black tapir strolled so near our tram when it stopped that I was afraid that it'll poke its snout in to sniff sniff around!

We went home after the tram ride and it was quite dark and I wasn't keen on exploring the trails in the dark. All in all, it was a good experience, although I'll still minus points for YH company's HR Dept organising skills and bad planning. However, I suppose raining is always an event organiser's worst nightmare, especially so if the event is an outdoor one.

Bentos

I've recently been inspired to try my hand at making bento lunches. Have a look at these inspirational sites:

Cooking Cute: http://mmmbento.livejournal.com/
Bento Boxes Pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/bentoboxes/pool/

I'm digging up more bento blogs and websites but these 2 above are by far the most inspirational ones! Can't wait to get my hands on a bento box and start making some creations of my own. Alas, I don't have anybody to make the bentos for :( Any kind volunteers??

Anyway, in preparation of my new interest, I bought some cute bento stuffs from Daiso yesterday! Just look!

Meals in the Air

I found this interesting website that shows all the different kind of airline meals provided by the different airlines. If you're curious about what other airlines are offering for their meals or wanna compare which airline serves better meals, do visit http://www.airlinemeals.net/ to have a look yourself!

Seoul far, Seoul good!

Yeah I know, that title is a corny header I snitched from one of the local tv shows... well I wanted to share some food pics that i've taken in Seoul... as you know, Korea meals always are accompanied by loads of side dishes, so be forewarned - there are quite a lot of pics! I used to think that I like traditonal Korean cuisine... but how wrong was I!! Most of the Korean food that we taste locally are actually modified versions and no where close to the real real thing... I'm glad and relieved to say that I like the fusiony stuff we have!!

Following pics are taken at this traditional Korean restaurant near my hotel, with the household name of DaeJangGam.. yes, that's the famous tv serial that is screening every week night - Da Chang Jin... Unfortunately, the food does not sit in as well as the tv show does... nevertheless, have a peek...

See that little bowl of orangey substance? That is Korean porridge... I must be blunt here, it tastes real gross!! Not much taste, but it has the consistency of a weak glue... yuckety yucks!

First to come is a series of cold salads, local style... this is slightly sourish vinagrette, not too bad... just that i felt like a rabbit eating grass and leaves!

This one has a strong wine dressing, can really taste the liquor in it... not really to my liking.. at least the lettuce is fresh so i picked all those with minimal touches of dressing on it...

This is a form of cabbage kimchi, those little white specks are chilli seeds, and there are loads of it... didnt take much of this cos these seeds arent digestable..

This is a simple dish of pork with egg coating.. a thin slice of pork is coated with a layer of egg and lightly panfried... supposed to dip in some sauces and eat with veg.. was ok only, found the porky taste too strong and puts me off...

This is the first dish which i quite like... very fresh whole steamed fish covered in a layer of the traditional red pepper sauce.. it looks a lot more spicy than it really is... enjoyed the tender white fish a lot...

This is what i had originally set out to eat, but am pretty disappointed by it.. it's the famous Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup - minus the soup! I was stunned by the lack of soup in this dish here! But the waitress kept assuring me it's right, it is the SamGeTang... sigh... back to the taste test, this has a very light taste, bordering on bland.. can barely taste the ginseng and herbs... besides the usual glutinous rice, the chicken is stuffed with other types of grains like barley, green beans etc... not what i was expecting for sure...

Below this is another kimchi-like dish...

This is supposed to be bulgogi, or grilled beef... but what happened to the grilling? Nonetheless, this is pretty tasty with loads of seasoning, and some fresh button mushrooms too..

Now this is not good.. it's fresh squid and veg in red pepper sauce... the squid is incredibly rubbery... gave this up after a couple of bites

Waitress came by with a whole tray of assorted kimchi, at least 15 types on tiny dishes, typically korean... we rejected all cos we were pretty full by then, plus we arent the greatest fans of kimchi...

Well this is dessert.. not much though the orange wedge is really sweet and juicy... the little wrapped parcel is similar to one of our chinese traditional sweets - hollow malt sugar covered with puffed rice...

Building Sandcastles at the Beach

Our day at the beach building sandcastles. At first, Janelle hates the sand. She simply refuse to walk on the sand! Especially since the sand keeps getting into her sandals. But after a while, she's starting to get used to it. However, she still refuses to go near the edge of the water, no matter how we try to coax her. Well, think she'll just need time to adjust to new stuff!!

On another note, I really think East Coast Park should not be termed a beach. There's more grass than anything else, murky sea beside it and the tiny patch of sand... *pooh pooh*

Long Hair Janelle

Sigh, I miss my girl with her long hair when I can spend time tying it up into different styles. I especially love her in plaits!!

BBQ Pork Ribs

This is one of the dishes I cooked last week when offering prayers to my mum. They taste not bad but they are definitely very tough to bite off and chew on. I wonder if it is cooked for too long? But I've actually reduced the cooking time to half. Well, fortunately or unfortunately, I accidentally burnt the ribs when reheating them in the oven toaster for dinner that day, thus, nobody could comment on the taste and texture except me! One note is that the ribs colour do not look too good (looks abit dull brown), so maybe addition of more char siew sauce for the colour will make it look better.

BBQ Pork Ribs

Ingredients:
10 slices pork ribs
1 dsp (10ml) (level) hoisin sauce
1 dsp (level) (10ml) char siew sauce
2 dsp (20ml) oyster sauce
3 tsp sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt
2 tsp honey
1/2 level tsp 5-spice powder

Method:
1. Marinate pork with the ingredients for 1 hour or overnight.

2. Grill over BBQ pit till cooked or in oven at 240 deg C for 30 mins.

Notes:
- I grilled the ribs at 230 deg C in my oven as it's the highest temp. it can go up to.
- I also reduced grilling time for ribs to 15 mins on one side, then glaze with remaining marinade and return to oven to grill for another 5 mins on the other side.

(Source: http://www.kitchencapers.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=412
Contributor: Gina)

Hainanese Pork Chops

This is another dish I experimented on the same day as the Baked Prawns and Vermicelli. As children, we used to drool over this dish whenever my mum cooks it. And as adults, it still brings back fond memories of the good old days. My mum used to use cream crackers to coat the pork and my sis insists that only that will do and said that marie biscuits are too sweet for this. Aiyah, I think it doesn't make much of a big difference lah. Shall experiment on both types of biscuits next round and discover the truth!!

Hainanese Pork Chops

Ingredients:
Pork loin: sliced thinly, beaten with mallet and marinated with salt, pepper, a little wine and ginger juice
2 potatoes, sliced

Dip & coating:
1 egg beaten
2 tbsp plain flour mixed with ¼ tsp cornflour (I omitted this)
Crushed cream crackers

Sauce:
1 cup tomato ketchup
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
White pepper, to taste
1 big onion, sliced into half-rings
Green peas
3 tomatoes, quartered
1 tsp cornflour mixed with 1 cup cool water to thicken sauce

Method:
1. Fry potatoes till brown, set aside.

2. Dip pork slices into egg, then flour and then crushed crackers. Deep dry till golden brown. Let it cool before cutting into long chunks and arranging on a serving dish.

3. Heat some oil in wok, add the sauce mixture and corn flour thickening. Bring to boil and let it bubble and thicken a little. Stir in onions, tomatoes (do not cook through), peas and fried potatoes. Pour everything over the pork slices. Serve immediately with rice.

(Source: http://umami.typepad.com/)

Baked Prawns and Vermicelli

This is one of the dishes I experimented on previously. It tastes good especially if you are a corriander lover coz there's alot of it in this dish. But the vermicelli turned out abit wet coz I kiasu, and poured in some stock after frying the vermicelli as I think it looks abit dry. Next time shall resist that temptation. Also to remember not to boil and soak the vermicelli in the stock for too long, else the vermicelli gets bloated up too much and tends to break up easily.

Baked Prawns and Vermicelli

Ingredients:
300g prawns
150g vermicelli ("tanghoon")
4 cups chicken stock
1 bulb garlic
10-15 sprigs of chinese parsley
1 white onion, finely sliced
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp dark soya sauce

Method:
1. Preheat oven for 200 degrees C. Boil the chicken stock in a small pot. Throw the vermicelli in when stock is boiling. Cook for a few minutes then turn off the fire and let the vermicelli soak in the stock. *

2. In the meantime, remove the roots of the chinese parsley ** and chop the stems finely. Unpeel the garlic and break into cloves. Blitz the chopped parsley stems and garlic in a grinder/food processor till fine.

3. Heat some oil in a wok. Fry the garlic and parsley mixture till fragant. Add the sliced onions and fry till slightly soft. Then, add the vermicelli, sugar and soya sauces. Mix thoroughly for a few minutes.

4. Put the lovely fragrant vermicelli into a claypot or a baking tray. Place the prawns on top and cover. Bake in oven for 15 mins or until the prawns are done.*** When done, sprinkle some parsley leaves on top and serve immediately.

Notes:
* Most recipes will ask you to soak the vermicelli in water. I use chicken stock as it adds flavour to the vermicelli. Also, by allowing the vermicelli to soak in the stock, it becomes quite "juicy" and this prevents the vermicelli from drying up when it is baked in step 4.

** When removing the roots, cut as close to the roots as possible. This is because you don't want to throw away any of the parsley stems - that's where the fragrance and taste lies: in the stems!

*** If you don't want to bake the prawns and vermicelli, you can skip the whole of step 4. Simply panfry the prawns in some garlic and add a bit of chicken stock. Then, serve the prawns on top of the vermicelli.

(Source: http://www.bimandruth.com/ruth/weblog.html)

Hubby's Birthday

For hubby's 32nd (isn't that old??) birthday, we spent the morning at East Coast Park cycling on a tandem bike with Janelle in the child seat in front. I simply love the beach on weekdays! Its so empty and quiet... so different from the weekend scene when there's explosion of human traffic. So on our bike, we cycled relaxingly to Bedok Jetty and back to the bike station. It was only an hour to and fro and already my bum was numb and sore! I guess the bike was just not made for woman!

After that, we went over to Macdonald for a drink. Look at Janelle! I think she's the happiest person there, one bite of ice-cream and one sip of iced lemon tea!

After the drinks, we went back home for a nap. At around 3+pm, we went to fetch my MIL & PIL and drove to JB for shopping at the new Tebrau City. This place is huge! And its also very new and spacious. Very different from the normal Malaysia shopping centres. It feels even better than City Square with better arrangement and selection of tenants. There's Jusco, Mango, Giordano, U2 and etc here. And guess what gem I found in Jusco's supermarket section? Wise Cottage Fries!! This cannot be found in Singapore anymore (dunno why they took it off the shelves!!). So I happily bought 4 pkts and 1 tin back. Happy as can be!! This shall be my target whenever I go into JB next time.

I also bought the 2 types of instant noodles below to try out too.

When our hunger pangs strike at 7+pm, we then drove to our favourite Chinese restaurant for dinner near Taman Sentosa. Had Black Pepper Crabs (I feel that the crabs were too small), Butter Baby Lobster (Although it was very crispy, but I don't like the lingering five spice powder smell), Fried Mian Xian (My Fav.) and Claypot Braised Sea Cucumber with Seafood (This is not bad although I don't like sea cucumbers in general).

After the good dinner, we went back to Singapore with very full stomachs. Think it was due to the too good food we had that both hubby and myself had a night full of dreams. Luckily they were OK dreams... I wonder did Janelle have any dreams at all? And if she does, what does she dream of then?

Baby Mix-up

The CC is having a CNY party. I happily dressed Janelle in her chinese costume and packed her off to the childcare centre with 2 mandarin oranges and a box of CNY goodies.

Doesn't she look cute and pretty?!

Then around 15 mins later, I got a call from YH to say that the CC is closed today! Oh my gosh.. so paiseh, thank goodness there wasn't anybody there to see them! I searched for the slip from the CC and found that it is really closed today and the party is tomorrow! Oh well, we'll just have to repeat the same thing again tomorrow.

I happily passed her a box of crayons and some blank paper, hoping that she can amuse herself by drawing and colouring for a little while. But, look wat she did!!!

River Angbao

This year we're not supposed to be out visiting relatives and celebrating CNY coz mummy just passed on. So 1st day of CNY was spent going out to Suntec to visit Toysrus and Carrefour. Afterwhich, we went to River Angbao in the evening. This year's River Angbao is inaugurally located at the stretch beside the Singapore river, right opposite the Padang. This is my 1st time to River Angbao after many many years.

But I don't quite like it. It's very crowded, hot and nothing much to see. What's the big hooha man?! I thought there was gonna be special food not commonly found in Singapore from China to try out. But end up that all the food stalls there were selling common international food that can be found very easily. Talk about disappointment!

Then we went to view the Cai Shen statue which was supposed to be raining gold flakes at intervals. So we stood there for some time, waiting for it to happen. It did happen at around 7.30pm and besides that, I also witnessed the kiasuism of Singaporeans. Many of them were trying to catch more of the gold with upturned open umbrellas! Talk about the ugly Singaporeans, jostling and elbowing each other in their attempt to get more gold! And best of all, the gold was not really gold! It was just gold confetti at best!

We thought that there was gonna be fireworks at 8pm, so after the Cai Shen fiasco, we stood around waiting for that to happen. We ended up sitting at the Memorial steps eating Kueh Tu Tus! That was how bored we were!

And to round it up, we got our info wrong. There was no fireworks at 8pm! Well, we're tired of waiting around for that to happen and Janelle was getting cranky, so we went back home.

Feast for Mummy

We cooked up a feast on the 28th day of the lunar 12th month for mummy. Daddy said gotta pray on 2 separate days to mummy on 28th and grandparents on 29th, else mummy being a new ghost would not dare to eat at the same table as our grandparents. This would have to be done for the 1st 3 years. Well, what can I say but follow and exclaim at the fertile imagination and logic of the living!

Good thing Evelyn was not working today, else I'll be in a hyper bad mood, trying to cook so many dishes within such a short time and everything has to be cooked and prayed before 12 noon.

Look at all the good food we managed to churn out in the morning! Looking at the table full of food, I can't help feeling how capable we all are! Hahah... think mummy would be happy to see how capable we are too! My only regret is that she's not able to see it when she's still alive...

This is the Huat Kueh from San Shen. This is the secret recipe from the Goh family which include sweet potato in the kueh. Makes it extra delish! Have gotten the recipe from San Shen and promised Daddy that I'll try making it one of these days...

My first attempt at cooking curry chicken. This is using Prima's Singapore Curry mix that comes in a box with everything you need. Just follow the instructions and put in the chicken and potatoes. Voila! Tastes good too! Next time will dump in the extra chilli powder as I find it not spicy enough.

My special concoction of Lor Bah (Braised pork leg and pork belly). The secret lies in the dark soya sauce. Must use the one from Kwong Cheong Thye. Tastes especially good and black!


Braised Pork Belly/Leg

Ingredients:
1 kg pork belly (cleaned, chopped up and wiped dry)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp oil
3 pcs star anise
1 pc cinammon stick
3 whole garlic
Dark soy sauce
Water

Method:
1. In a deep pan/pot, heat the oil.
2. Add in the sugar, stir. (fire should be kept small at this moment)
3. Allow the sugar to caramelise to a golden brown liquid in the oil. (If your caramel becomes burnt at this point, you have to start from step 1 again..or else there will be a burnt bitter taste)
4. Add in the star anise, cinammon stick and garlic.
5. Add in the pork belly and allow it to sear and be coated with the caramelised sugar. (You can turn off the fire first at this juncture)
6. Add in dark soy sauce till 1/5 level of the pork belly (about 1 to 2 cups).
7. Add water till it covers over the height of the pork belly. (turn the fire to big at this moment)
8. Allow to boil. Turn the fire to small and allow to braise for 2 hours. Stir occasionally. Top up with water when the water level goes down.

Next comes the mushroom soup. Used 2 cans of button mushrooms and chicken stock from 5 chicken carcasses with 6 huge dried scallops simmered in the slow cooker overnight. My dad wasn't too impressed coz we fished out all the chicken bones and the soup was 'empty'! I wanted a consomme-kinda soup and figured nobody wanna chew on tough chicken meat after being cooked for so long. I'm the cook, I call the shots! Abalone slices were added to the soup when it's scooped out. Only my dad likes chewy abalone slices I believe! :P

Recently, my favourite way of cooking vegetables is to blanch it in boiling water first, arrange on a plate, then cook the gravy and pour over it with sprinklings of freshly browned garlic. Heavenly. Will post up the recipe when I get home. We cooked broccoli with scallops and conpoy. The scallops, as they were frozen and from Indonesia I suppose, tastes horrible. Terribly chewy to the state of having difficulty biting off a section. Plus the conpoy was excessive (we used 3 big dried scallops) and think it needs to be braised longer.

Next on the list is Ngoh Hiang. I love Ngoh Hiang and have been trying to replicate the ones that my mum used to make. This is close to it, but perhaps need more 5-spiced powder to make it taste better.

My 1st attempt at Butter Prawns. Actually the recipe calls it 'Prawns with Milk Granules'. Tastes good, except for the excessive oil and I forgot to halve the seasoning when I halved the number of prawns! So it tastes especially salty.

My virgin attempt at Sweet & Sour Pork too. Tastes nice. My only grouse was that the pork turned mushy after a little while. This is one dish that can only mix in the sauce when ready to eat.

There wasn't much taste for this Special Tofu. Needs more seasoning next time. And maybe we shouldn't deepfry it with the cornflour coating. Feels abit hard when you bite into it. Sigh, when will I ever be able to achieve the Special Tofu I like??

The meal was completed with Nian Gao, mandarin oranges and rice.