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)