Meatball Pasta

My momentum to blog was slightly interrupted due to the short school break for PSLE marking week. During the school break, I prefer to venture out with my boy and spend more time with him rather than sitting in front of the laptop. Oft times, once I turned on the laptop, I would be unknowingly sitting hours in front of it and neglect my little one.

Whilst writing this post, I'm feeling of a mental block and thoughts incoherent. Anyway just record and share another quick and easy meal here.  Since I usually cook for 2 person, I do not do marketing that often. I like to use up whatever limited ingredients and condiments in my kitchen to conjure a satisfying meal of Meatball pasta. Enjoy!

Meatball pasta
(served 2)

Ingredients/ Method
a) Linguine or any pasta

b) 80g minced pork
1/4 yellow onion, diced
1 small garlic, diced finely
salt, crushed pepper, mixed herbs and dried parsley, to taste
1 cream cracker, crushed finely
1 heap tbsp corn flour

c) 1 clove garlic, diced finely
2 tomato, diced coarsely
200g Spaghetti sauce (I used Prego Italian fresh mushroom sauce)

d) 1 hard boiled egg, sliced into quarts

1. In a pot of hot water, add 1 tsp salt, boil pasta per instruction indicated on box.
2. Drained and toss some olive oil to prevent pasta from sticking (if not cooking immediately). 
3. In a bowl, marinate minced pork with all ingredients (b) until well mixed. Roll into 8 small balls and set aside for at least 30 mins. 
4. Fry the meatball in a pot (with enough oil to cover at least up to half the meatballs) on medium heat, and until golden brown. Takes about 5 to 7 mins. Remove and set aside. 
5. In a saucepan, saute garlic till fragrant. Add in tomato and give it a few stirs, followed by spaghetti sauce. Turn off the heat when sauce boils. 
6. Add in pasta to the sauce and stir evenly. Next add in meatballs and stir.
7. Ready to serve, and add sliced egg on top of the pasta. 

Chicken chop & Rosti

Being a SAHM for couple of months, it can be quite bored at times. I didn't fill my day with activities other than preparing lunch, the occasional baking, fetching my boy from school and coaching on his school work. When I was working, I'd imagined that it would be super shiok to stay at home. Not that I'm complaining, it's indeed relaxing and definitely feel good to be away from the work and office stress.

The best part of course is the precious time I'm spending with my boy who is growing up by the day. I'm happy that I've made up for the lost time. I've also made some efforts to catch up with my friends and colleagues whom we had little time to chit chat in the past. The downside of not working is a super relaxed mind (almost inactive), and I do miss the times where the mind is constantly being challenged. Oh ya, on this note, I had a nightmare the other day where I suffered from dementia, imagine how scary it is!!

Anyway, here's another lunch - Chicken chop and Rosti - we had this week.

Rosti 
(serves 4-5 persons as sides)

Ingredients/ Method: 
4 potatoes, peeled
1/ 4 yellow onion, diced (optional)
1 tsp salt
2tbsp corn starch

1. Grate the potatoes coarsely into a big bowl. 
2. Squeeze out as much juice as possible from the potatoes. As an additional step, I use kitchen towels to squeeze out the juice the 2nd time. 
3. Season the grated potatoes with salt. 
4. Add corn starch and coat evenly. 
5. Heat up pan with about 2 - 3 tbsp oil. Using hand to compact the grated potatoes into ball and flatten it. (There's still quite a lot of juice and I squeeze them out again before forming ball.)
6. Place the flatten potatoes on the pan gently. Using spatula, lightly press down the potatoes rosti and pan fried until golden brown on both sides. 
7. Serve immediately. 

Chicken chop 
(serves 3)

Ingredients/ Method: 
500g chicken thighs
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed with skin on
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp white pepper

1. Mix all seasonings and marinate the chicken thighs overnight. 
2. In a pan with about 1 tbsp oil on medium-high, slightly shake off the marinate from the chicken and pan fried on skin side first for about 1 min. Turn to the other side for another minute to lock the juices. (*Keep the marinate and garlic to prepare simple mushroom sauce.) 
3. Continue cooking on medium-low heat until fully cooked.  

Mushroom sauce 
(serves 3)

Ingredients/ Method: 
3 tbsp minced shiitake mushroom stems
100g cooking cream

1. Using 1 tbsp of the remaining oil from cooking the chicken and the marinate*, saute the garlic (also from the marinate) until fragrant. Remove the garlic. 
2. Next, saute the mushroom till fragrant. Add cooking cream (add some water if dry up too fast) until mixture boils. 
3. To serve, drizzle over the chicken chop. 

Note: The mushroom stems were left-over from my earlier cooking. You can use whole mushroom as well.

Salmon with mushroom ragout

I like to cook salmon because it's the easiest fish that I know how to prepare, and one of the fishes where there are not many bones. I also like them to be fatty & oily, the goodness of salmon, as these gives us the vitamins A and D, and they are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids.

To buy salmon in small pieces is actually very expensive, I was paying more than $16 for about 200g salmon the other day. So when I saw the supermarket having promotion for whole salmon, I almost grab it immediately. Imagine I paid about $35 but I have the whole fish, and I get to share with my aunt and feed the brood. My aunt agreed that we will buy and share whole salmon the next time!

So, here's one of few salmon dishes that I'm going to prepare.

Salmon with mushroom ragout 
(serves 3)

A) 3 pieces of salmon
salt and black pepper to taste

B) 2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp mayonaise
dash of black pepper
dash of dried parsley

C) 15 shiitake mushrooms, chopped into big chunks (diced the mushroom stems - very small cubes)
white beech mushrooms

D) 1 yellow onion, sliced in rings
broccoli

1. In a pot of boiling water with salt, boil potatoes for about 5-10 mins or till potatoes is soft. Drained potatoes and in a bowl, mash them using fork. 
2. Add mayonnaise, black pepper and dried parsley to mashed potatoes. Stir to mix evenly. Set aside. 
3. In a pan, add 2 tsp olive oil and fry broccoli. Add salt to taste. Add 2 tbsp water and let it simmer till almost reduced. Set aside. 
4. Saute yellow onion till become translucent. Set aside. 
5. In a pan with 1 tbsp olive oil, medium-low heat, fry the diced mushroom stems for about 2 mins before adding the big chunks mushrooms, followed by beech mushrooms. Fry till fragrant, add salt and black pepper to taste, about 5-7 mins. Add 1 tbsp water and let it simmer for about 1-2 mins. Set aside. 
6. In a non-stick pan with 2 tbsp olive oil, pan fried salmon and sprinkle salt and black pepper to taste. 
7. To serve, scoop dollop of mashed potatoes on plate, add mushrooms, followed by salmon. Put broccoli and onions at the side. Sprinkle some black pepper and dried parsley on the salmon. 

Crispy roast pork belly v.3

Yet another crispy roast pork belly.

A tough fight amongst the few recipes (here & here) I've tried so far, but I think this is probably having a slight edge over the others because the skin was extra crispy! *Crackkk*

I'm copying the recipe here for ready reference.

Crispy roast pork belly 
(Recipe from MiMi Bakery House, originally from Vivian Pang's kitchen)

Ingredients/ Method 
500g pork belly, skin on with no bones (ask for very fat pork belly!)
1 tablespoon salt (I reduced it to 1 tsp, it was mildly saltish. Will increase to 1 1/4 tsp - 1 1/2 tsp the next time.)

Marinate for the bottom of the pork belly
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon 5 spice powder
3 gloves garlic (smashed to a paste)
*mix together and set aside
Some rice vinegar to brush on the pork

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Add in pork belly and blanch for 15 minutes, drained. With kitchen towel wipe the pork belly dry.
2. Prick holes all over pork skin with needles or something similar as much as you can. Make few cuts under belly with sharp knife to ease the marinate ingredients penetrate further and lead to more flavour. 
3. Add salt to pork belly, rub on both skin and meat surface. 
4. Apply bottom marinate ONLY underbelly (NOT SKIN). Massage evenly on the meat surface. 
5. Wrap the pork belly with aluminium foil, skin facing up. Brush the skin with vinegar. 
6. Place the pork into fridge, skin side up uncovered for about 1-2 hours. 
7. Remove the foil from the marinated pork and leave it to reach at room temperature. 
8. Preheat oven at 200C. Place the pork on roasting rack with a pan underneath. Roast the pork for about 25 minutes. 
9. Remove the pork from oven, and turn up the temperature to 250C (grill or top heat only).
10. Return pork to oven and bake for another 25 minutes or until the skin is slightly charred.
11. Leave it cool down before chopping.

Aglio olio

Aglio (garlic) Olio (oil) my-style, with salmon and asparagus added to make it a healthier and delicious lunch.

Cooking a meal for my lil boy has been the only motivation why more thoughts and efforts are put in, if I'm home alone, I'll go for instant noodles anytime (equally delicious but unhealthy, isn't it?)

Aglio Olio
(serves 2)
Ingredients/ Method

Linguine (as I don't have spaghetti)
4 gloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
cracked black pepper
salt
a dash of mixed herbs (as I don't have parsley)
salmon
thin asparagus, optional

1. In a pot of hot water, add 1 tsp salt, boil pasta per instruction indicated on box.
2. Drained and toss some olive oil to prevent pasta from sticking (if not cooking immediately). Reserve some pasta water. 
3. In a pan, pan-fried salmon. Using fork, loosely breakup the salmon. Set aside. 
4. In the same pan, with some salmon oil left-over, add 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil. 
5. Add in minced garlic and stir fry till fragrant and lightly brown, about 1 - 2 mins. 
6. Add in asparagus and fry for another 1 - 2 mins, or 80% cooked. Season with some black pepper, mixed herbs, and salt. 
7. Add in pasta and continue frying for about 2 mins. Add 1-2 tbsp pasta water and let it simmer till sauce reduced, giving it an occasional stir. Takes about another 2 mins. 
8. Turn off heat and add in salmon, and give it a few stirs to mix salmon with the pasta. 
9. Ready to serve. 

Baked chicken thighs

Another quick and easy lunch. Happy tummy, happy boy!

Baked chicken thighs 

Ingredients/ Method 
Main 
2 medium-sized chicken thighs
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp ground ginger powder
1 tsp ground white pepper
4 cloves garlic, roughly pound with skin

Sides/ Veg
Thin asaparagus
1 potato, cut in big cubes
1/3 Japanese cucumber, cut in big cubes
1/3 white onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly

1 tbsp olive oil/ macadamia oil
Black pepper, cracked
salt

1. Marinate the chicken thighs overnight, or at least 4 hours.
2. Place the chicken thighs on a tray, lined with aluminium foil so there is minimal washing. Pour the remaining marinate over the chicken.
3. Put all the sides/veg (can be any kind of sides you like) in the same tray as the chicken thighs. Drizzle olive oil/ macadamia oil over the sides/ veg, and sprinkle cracked black pepper and salt as well. 
4. Bake in pre-heated oven 190 deg C for 30 mins. I baked a further 3 mins on grill function to get a little charred on the chicken. 
5. Drizzle the chicken oil/ juice on the chicken thighs and sides/ veg before serving. 

Pan fried salmon

Our simple but high-omega lunch today. Just sprinkle salt and cracked black pepper as seasoning. Add some sides to make it healthier - we have potatoes, thin asparagus, baby carrots, white onion and sliced garlic.

 

Easy vegetarian cream sauce linguine

Another quick and easy lunch.

Easy vegetarian cream sauce linguine
(serve 2 person)

Pasta 
linguine or any pasta
salt

Cream Sauce 
1/5 yellow onion
1 small clove garlic
7 shiitake mushrooms
broccoli
6 strawberry tomatoes
dash of mixed herbs
salt
black pepper
1/2 cup cream or heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
1 tsp corn flour + 2 tbsp water
1-2 tbsp pasta cheese or mozzarella cheese

1. Cook pasta in a pot of boiling water with a tsp of salt. Drain and set aside. Drizzle with some olive oil and give it a few tosses.
2. Heat up the pan and saute the yellow onion until translucent and golden. Add in garlic and fry until slightly brown. 
3. Add in mushroom, and sprinkle with some salt, mixed herbs and black pepper to taste. Fry until mushroom turn soft. 
4. Add in broccoli and fry until slightly soft, about 2-3 minutes.
5. Next add in tomatoes and give it a few stirs. 
6. In the same pan and on medium-high heat, pour in heavy cream, milk and water. Add salt and pepper to taste. 
7. Let the sauce boil before slowly adding corn flour/ water mixture, and continue stirring at the same time. 
8. When the mixture is boiled, add in cheese and give it a quick stir. Turn off the heat, add in the pasta and give it a good toss. 
9. Ready to serve. 

Creamy carbonara

A quick and get-rid-of-fridge-leftovers lunch! It was oh-so-good (and sinful!)

Creamy carbonara
(recipe adapted from The recipe critic with modification, serves 2 person)

Pasta
70g farfalle (or any pasta)
salt

Cream sauce
2 eggs
1/4 cup cream or heavy cream
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
fresh diced parsley or dried flakes (I omit)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (I omit)
bacon (I omit)
shiitake mushroom
2 slices of picnic ham
thin asparagus

1. Cook pasta in a pot of boiling water. Drain and set aside. 
2. Beat the eggs, cream, parmesan cheese, parsley, salt and the red pepper together in a bowl using fork.
3. Fry the bacon until crisp (if using), then crumble and set aside.  
4. Saute the onion and the mushrooms until the onions are translucent and golden. Add asparagus and ham and continue frying for 1-2 minutes. 
5. Add pasta to the onions and mushrooms.  Pour cream mixture into the pasta, and stir over low heat for 1-2 minutes. Add some pasta water if the sauce gets too thick. (Do not cook on high heat or you will make scrambled eggs.) 
6. Serve with additional parmesan cheese and some cracked black pepper. 

Baked farfalle with tuna

"What's for lunch tomorrow?"

The last we had a baked pasta was when we were holidaying in States, and it was a home-cooked baked meat spaghetti by my dear sis. It was really good, especially the meatballs with lots of herbs, and even until now, I'm still thinking of it at times.

Somehow, I'm not ready to make the seems-so-tedious meatballs. So when I saw mui mui's Tuna Pasta Bake, I was all ready to prepare it. However, I did not follow her recipe to a T, except for the delicious cheesy/mushroom sauce.

This was actually baked last week but it took me a while to complete jotting down the recipe and method. With the cheesy/ mushroom sauce, this baked farfalle is very delicious!

Baked Farfalle
(serve 6-8 persons)

 (A) about 200g farfalle (or any pasta) (I didn't measure it, just grab 6 handfuls of pasta)
1 tsp salt

(B) yellow onions
olive oil
1 can of tuna in chunks
baby carrots
broccoli
fresh tomatoes, diced
shiitake mushrooms
prawns
some dried mixed herbs
2 cups ready pasta sauce (I used Prego's fresh mushroom italian sauce)

(C) grated parmesan cheese, to sprinkle  (optional)
grated cheddar cheese, to sprinkle (optional)

1. Boil farfalle in a pot of boiling water and salt as per instructions. Drained and set aside.
2. Boil carrots and broccoli in a separate pot for about 3- 5 mins. Drained and set aside.
3. In a pan, fry yellow onions in olive oil till slightly brown. Add in mushrooms, followed by prawns and fry for about 3 mins.
4. Add in carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, tuna and dried mixed herbs and continue frying for about 1-2 mins.
5. Add in pasta sauce and cook till mixture boils. Remove from heat.
6. Stir in farfalle.
7. In a oven-proof dish, pour in farfalle with sauce. Set aside.
8. Top farfalle with cheesy/ mushroom sauce.
9. Sprinkle with some grated parmesan cheese and cheddar cheese.
10. Bake in pre-heated oven 180 deg C for about 10 mins, or when the top is slightly golden brown.

Cheesy (mushroom) sauce
(recipe adapted from My little favourite DIY)
yellow onion
40g butter
100g brown cap mushroom (I omit)
2 tbsp plain flour
300ml milk
60g grated cheddar cheese

1. To make cheesy/ mushroom sauce, fry the onion in the butter till soft.
2. Then add in flour and continue stirring for a minutes.
3. When it's well mixed, gradually add in milk, continue stirring to prevents lumps.
4. When the mixture is slightly thickened and smooth, remove from heat.
5. Stir in cheese.
6. Season to taste. I added slightly less than 1 tsp of salt.

Bak Chor Mee/ Minced pork noodles (soup)

Everyday I like to ask my lil boy "what do you want for lunch tomorrow?", this makes my life easier as I don't have to think of what's for lunch the next day. However, the food he asks for sometimes can be a challenge for me, especially that I've not been cooking for years when I was working, and/or I've not cooked before! Just this week, he requested for bak chor mee! and I was scratching my head with no answer (never cooked before) and mr. google only showed up dry bak chor mee, and not the soupy type - the popular one at 85 bedok north.

Regardless, I was all up to come out with my own version trying to recall the taste and what should go into the broth. Ordinarily, it seems crazy to spend so much time and effort just to cook for 2 persons - my lil boy and myself, but I would like to believe they are definitely healthier and of course, lots of luv! But again, not every lunch is so elaborated, our usual ones are easy one pot porridge or noodles *wink*.

Thankfully, my only audience is usually very supportive and appreciative, this time he gave me a 90 marks! Taste-wise, it not exactly like the 85 bedok north version, but it's on the right track and a good one. Our tummies are happy for now!

Bak Chor Mee/ Minced pork noodles (Soup)
(Served 3 portions)

Ingredients/ Method:

Soup
1 big pork bone
3-4 big bowls of water
3 big anchovies/ dried bream/ 蝙鱼, toasted and pound into powder form
1 tbsp preserved vegetables/ tung choy/ 冬菜, chopped

Minced meat
50g minced meat
1 1/2 tbsp corn flour
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce/ fish sauce
dash of pepper
1/4 tsp sesame oil

Condiment
4 cloves garlic, diced and fried
pork lard, diced and fried (optional)

Others
1 pkt meat balls
2 balls of mee kia/ thin egg noodles/ 幼面

1. Toast the big anchovies in a toaster until fragrant and slightly charred. Alternatively, you can 'toast' it using the cooking pan. Using mortar, pound till powder form. Set aside.
2. Blanch the pork bone in boiling water for about 10 mins. Discard the water.
3. Fried pork lard, drained and reserved the oil. Set aside.
4. Fried garlic till golden brown using the pork lard oil, drained and set aside.
5. Marinate minced meat and set aside. I like to give the minced meat 'massages' and a few throws to make it more elastic and tender.
6. Boil 3-4 big bowls of water in a pot together with the pork bone. When boiling, add in anchovies powder and preserved vegetables, and continue boiling on low heat for at least an hour. Add in salt and pepper, to taste.
7. Add in meat balls in boiling soup.
8. To cook the minced meat, take a few scoops of boiling soup into the bowl of minced meat. Using the spatula or spoon, stir to 'separate' the minced meat so that they do not form into big chunks of meat. The minced meat should be semi-cooked by now. Add in few more scoops of boiling soup to fully cook them.
9. When done, add in the bowl of minced meat into the boiling soup. Let it boil for 1 minute.
10. At the same time, cook the noodles in a separate pot of boiling water. When done, drained and let it run under the tap water so that it does not stick together.
11. Prepare noodles for 1 person serving in a bowl, and add boiling soup to it.
12. Garnish with fried garlic and fried pork lard.
13. Ready to enjoy!

So... what's for lunch tomorrow?

Crispy roast pork belly (v.2)

For the past 3 weeks, we have been eating roast pork belly once a week. Terribly unhealthy isn't it?

1st was when my friends came over to my place for a sleepover, 2nd was when I wanted to try grilling the roast pork in the oven using the previous recipe I did, and 3rd was when I made it for prayer to my late mum.

I remembered my mum making a mean roast pork belly when I was young, and I occasionally help in 'poking' the skin. Every food or desserts she prepared was always the best!! I guess I will be very plump if she's still around, which I don't mind.

Anyway back to the roast pork belly recipe which I adapted mainly from Christine's Recipes, it was good but not the taste I remembered in my younger days. My the other half liked it, but he likes roast pork belly anytime...hahah

Crispy roast pork belly
Ingredients/ Method
600g pork belly
1/4 tbsp shaoxing wine, optional (I used rose chinese wine)
rock salt, to taste

Seasoning
3/4 tsp salt (can increase slightly as the original calls for 3 1/2 tsp for 1.2kg pork belly)
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp 5-spice powder
1/8 tsp white pepper (optional)
1/4 tsp ginger powder (optional)

1. Combine seasoning and set aside.
2. Rinse the pork belly and blanch in boiling water for about 15 mins, or until the 60% to 70% doneness. 
3. Drain well and wipe dry with paper towels. 
4. Use needles to poke the rind as many hole as possible. 
5. Turn over to other side, cut a few slits on the meat to help absorb seasoning better. (I omit this step)
6. Rub wine evenly on entire pork. Let rest for a while.
7. Coat the meat with seasoning evening. Make sure there's no seasoning on the rind.
8. Wrap the pork meat with foil and leave the rind unwrapped. Place in fridge, let air dry overnight in fridge. 
9. Pre-heat oven to 200 deg C. (I pre-heat  mine at 210 deg C)
10. Remove pork from fridge and remove foil. Let it rest at room temperature for a while.
11. Poke the rind with needles evenly once again. Wipe dry. 
12. Season the rind with rock salt. (I omit this step)
13. Bake in pre-heated oven, at middle-upper rack, for about 20 mins, and another 15 mins at 230 deg C, or until you get enough cracklings on the skin. (Baking time depends on the size of pork belly used, mine was 2 slabs of 300g which I think is too small to handle.)

Portobello mushroom stuffed with potato

I'm a mushroom lover since young maybe due to my mum's influence, as she always has mushrooms in most of her cooking. However during one of the medical check-ups couple of years ago, the doctor tested me to have a slightly higher level of uric acid and mushroom is one of the stuff that I have to avoid. Regardless, I'm not avoiding mushroom totally but to consume in moderation.

During our recent grocery shopping at the supermarket, I saw a very beautiful pack of large portobello mushrooms, and how can I resist...hehehe. So our today's lunch is portobello mushroom stuffed with potato. It's a pretty easy dish to prepare and the big porto mushroom is really juicy!! One big mushroom is good enough for a serving.

Portobello mushroom stuffed with potato 
(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients/ Method:
A) 4 big portobello mushroom
olive oil

B) Mashed potato
5 medium sized potato, skinned
7 baby carrots
50g broccoli
50g bacon bits
2 small onions, diced
olive oil

1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk
seasoning: salt, black pepper, mixed herbs/ rosemary

75g mozzarella & cheddar cheese

1. Rinsed and dry the mushrooms with kitchen towel gently. Set aside. 
2. Boil potato in a pot of boiling water for about 5 mins, or until the potato is soft enough to be mashed. Mash potato using fork in a bowl and set aside. 
3. Boil broccoli and carrots in a pot of boiling water for about 3 mins. Diced the broccoli and carrots, set aside. 
4. In a pan with some olive oil, sauteed the small onions for couple of minutes and add in bacon bits. It is ready when the bacon bits look slightly crispy. 
5. In a small pot, melt butter and add in milk until boiling. Add in seasonings and continue to boil for a minute. Leave to cool slightly.
6. Add butter-milk to the mashed potato and mix well. (Adjust the amount of butter-milk to be added, you may need lesser depending on the moisture of potato.) 
7. Next, add diced broccoli, carrots and bacons bits to the mashed potato.
8. Put 1 1/2 ice-cream scoops of mashed potato on the mushroom caps and slightly pressed down. 
9. Pour some olive oil in the pan, and lightly pan-fried the rounded side of the mushroom on low-medium heat for about 3-5 mins. 
10. Transfer the mushroom to the baking tray. Generously sprinkle cheese on top of the mashed potato/mushroom. 
11. Bake in pre-heated oven 175 deg C for 10 mins. 
12. Serve hot with a dollop of mashed potato at the side. Drizzle some truffle oil on the mushrooms.

I'm also submitting this post to the event Little Thumbs Up (July 2014 Event: Potato) - organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Jasline (Foodie Baker) 

云吞面 (Wanton dumpling noodles)

Now that I'm taking a long break from my career, I'm officially a SAHM. I'm enjoying the time with Z who is in primary 1 this year, and hopefully I can set some useful foundations for his curriculum and future learning. Before I took THE decision, my boy wasn't too happy that I will not be working (as he can't understand why I can "relax" at home and he has to attend school; in his own meaning, this is "unfair" that he can't choose!) There are always so many whyS from Z but I'm happily attempting to explain them all as simple as I could. A few weeks after being a SAHM, I asked Z again whether he's happy that I can be with him most of the time, thankfully his reply is a sheepish and happy 'yes'!

I'm taking lunch orders from my little master and this 云吞面 (wanton dumpling noodles) is one of his requests! (Ps. Should it be 云吞面 or 云饨面 i.e. 吞=to swallow; 饨=chinese riavoli?) The wanton is made based on my memory on how it was done together with my late mum. And what is 云吞面 without char siew?! I found one simple and easy, not compromising on taste, char siew recipe in Food Canon. I made half the portion (500g) of the original recipe (and regretted it) hehe..

I'm copying the recipe here for easy reference, please visit Food Canon blog where there are couple of write-ups on making good char siew.

叉烧肉 (Char Siew)
Ingredients/ Method
1 kg pork belly (I used 五花肉 which the butcher sold to me when I said I wanted to make Char Siew)

Marinate/Sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp honey (I used maltose)
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp rose flavored chinese wine (or other chinese wine)
1 tsp 5-spice powder
1 bowl of water

2 tbsp oil

1. Heat up wok and add in oil. 
2. Add pork and after 5 minutes, add all ingredients into the wok and simmer for 40 mins or till the pork is tender enough. 
3. Remove most of the sauce into a separate bowl. 
4. Caramelise the meat in medium heat, add some maltose (or honey), about a minute or two per side. 
5. After the char siew is done, coat lightly with some honey. (I skipped this step). 

(P.s. I think the char siew would taste even better if marinated overnight.)

云吞/ Wanton dumplings 
(makes about 80 to 100 dumplings)

Wanton skin
300g minced pork
10 prawn, deveined and chopped
5 water chestnuts, skinned and chopped
2 pieces dried 蝙鱼, toasted and pound into powder-form
Oyster sauce
light soy sauce
sesame oil
pepper
corn flour

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. 
2. Continue folding and kneading the pork mixture for about 10 mins. Rest the pork mixture for about 1 hour in the fridge. 
3. To wrap dumpling, take a piece of wanton skin and put slightly more than 1/2 tsp pork mixture in the centre. Fold the skin and giving it a tight squeeze to seal it. 

To cook the dumplings
Prepare a pot of boiling water, and throw a few dumplings into the pot. It's cooked when the dumplings float on the surface of water.

To prepare soup for the dumplings
Boil soya beans and dried scallops (or anchovies) on low heat for at least half and hour. Or longer to have a more robust tasting soup. Add salt to taste.

To prepare dry 云吞面
Prepare a pot of boiling water and cook the noodles for about 3 to 5 mins (depending on type of noodle used). Scoop up the noodles and let it run under tap water, and drained.

Seasoning for noodles: Ketchup, sesame oil, oyster sauce, char siew sauce (from above), fried shallots.

Crispy roast pork belly (Recommended)

Not many people know, but I'm a meat person, especially those very fatty ones! I did it 1st at the CNY reunion dinner gathering together with my bro's in-law family & ours. Yes, cooking & feasting at Pan Pacific Serviced Suites, Nice!

The picture doesn't do justice to how good the crispy roast pork belly is!

I'm copying the recipe here for easy reference. The original recipe is here. This is highly recommended for meat lovers!!

Ingredients: 
1lb (abt 450gm) pork belly
1 tsp Dry Ginger Powder (沙薑粉)
1 tsp Five Spice Powder (五香粉)
1/2 tsp white pepper
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp msg (optional)

Method:

1. Wash the meat under cold water. 
2. Submerge the pork belly meat in a pot of water and boil for about 15 minutes on medium heat.
3. Remove the pork and place it in a colander to let it dry for about 15 minutes. You may take the extra step of patting the pork belly skin dry with a paper towel for extra crispy skin. 
4. Stab the pork with a knife a few times and rub the spices and salt on the flesh only (not the skin). We recommend layering the spices in the following order: spiced ginger powder, 5 spice powder, white pepper, salt and optional msg. Let it marinate for 1 hour, though over night is better for a deeper flavor. 
5. In a dutch oven or a large cast iron pan, fill it with oil enough to cover the skin of the pork belly. Avoid using olive oil since it has a low smoking point. You can place the pork belly in pan while the oil is still cold to prevent splatter. CAUTION!!! the pork will splatter a lot, so it is better to use a dutch oven with a heavy lid or use a splatter screen to place over your frying pan. (*I use a normal non-stick pan.)
6. Fry the skin side first for roughly 5 mins or until golden brown and crispy, turn it on the side and fry it only for a min or two, repeat on all sides (it is best not to fry it on the flesh side for too long as it will toughen the meat) 
7. Frying is a skill learned over time, so if the skin is burnt, you can scrape it off with a knife. No worries! Let it rest until cool to the touch and cut into slices.

Potstickers/ Dumplings 锅贴

锅贴 has been one of my favourites other than 小笼汤饱, they are addicitive especially dipped with vinegar and some thinnly sliced ginger. If you wiki, you will realise that there are many names for this dish - 饺子, 锅贴, gyoza, bánh chẻo, momo, etc. and are widely prepared in many places - China, Japan, Vietnam, Nepal, etc. Even Italian have something similar, that is their riavoli. Talk about simple dish with innovations! We probably will get many more permutations of 'dumplings' with everyone's concoctions of fillings - vegetables, beef, pork, mutton, fish, scrimps, etc. and serving/ cooking style.








These days, we can easily get them from the chinese dim sum restaurants, foodcourts, food centre, and frozen ones at the supermarket. If you need to gobble many pieces like me, my hubby & little boy, it can be pretty expensive especially eating in a nice restaurant. Of course, nothing beats home-made!

I'm lucky to get 2 authentic chinese shi-fu to teach me to make this dumplings. Looks easy but it does require some skills in rolling the skin and even mixing the fillings! What's even tougher for me to do it the next time is that there's no recipe as it's all based on 'feel' and 'sight'. Hopefully my 'eye-power' and estimation of ingredients will turn out my next experiment a successful one!

 

Potstickers/ Dumplings/ 锅贴

(makes about 100 pieces)

Ingredients/ Method

Wrapper 
1 kg plain flour
2 eggs
Water

1) Mix the ingredients for skin and knead till it comes together. Leave some flour aside to flour the working area later.
2) Rest dough for 20 mins and knead again to make it smooth.

Fillings
750g cabbage (高丽菜), thinnly sliced
390g spring onion/ scallions (青葱), chopped into small pieces
700g minced meat/ loin (五花肉) or pork belly

Seasonings
chicken stock cube/ msg/ oyster sauce
salt
sesame oil
cooking oil (abt 1/2 -1 cup)
pepper
dark soy sauce (optional)

1) Mix all fillings ingredients till well mixed.
2) Add in seasonings to taste.
3) Continue to use hand to mix the fillings till it becomes 'sticky'. Trick is to let the 'natural' oil from pork to bind the fillings.



Wrapping the dumplings/ potstickers
1) Flour the working area and rolling pin.
2) Take some dough and roll them like dough stick, about 2 cm in diameter, and cut them at about 1 cm mark.
3) Roll them lightly into small balls. Take one ball, lightly indent to flatten. With your thumb holding at the centre of the dough, and rolling pin on the other hand, rotate the dough and flatten at the same time.
4) Continue with the rest of the dough. Do not stack the wrappers as they will stick.
5) Scoop about 1 heap of fillings in the centre of the wrapper and fold them into half, and seal the wrapper.
6) Freeze the dumplings in the freezer if not eating them immediately.


Cooking the dumplings/ potstickers
A) Pan fried
1) Heat up a flat non-stick plan and add some oil. Arrange the dumplings neatly on the pan. When done, add water covering about 2mm of the dumplings.
2) Cover the pan and let it cook for about 6-7 mins using small heat.
3) Ready and serve.
Note: Do not de-freeeze the dumplings before cooking. Cook them in frozen state.

B) Boil
1) Boil a pot of water and put in the dumplings.
2) Continue to let the water boil and add in 1 cup of room temperature water. Repeat this step for another 2 times.
3) When the dumplings are cooked, drain them.
4) Serve by drizzling some sesame oil and light soya sauce.

Year of Water Dragon 2012

Wishing all prosperity, good health, happiness in the Year of Water Dragon 2012!

Let me share with you some of the new year goodies and food that were dished out by me....

1) Steamed "Huat Kueh" - one of my mum's favourite! Hopefully we can "一路發發" in the year of Dragon!

I'm submitting this Steamed "Huat Kueh" recipe to this month's Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (Jan 2012) hosted by Wen's Delight.

2) CNY cookies - Everything has to be easy and less fuss this year as I'd to lift my hands to do spring cleaning now that my better half is still recovering from his injury. Only managed to churn out 2 types - sugee cookies and pineapple tarts.


- Pineapple open-tarts like pretty daisy! After so many years of preparing the pineapple paste from scratch, this is the first time I'm using store bought pineapple paste. The 1kg low-sugar pineapple paste from Kitchen Capers is a good alternative and I don't mind using it again if lazy bone sets in next year!



- Sugee/Sugi cookies, tasted as good as last year! Still have a big can of sugee leftover due to small quantities prepared this year.


- Osmanthus cookies - Did I say 2 CNY cookies? This is actually not meant to be included as one of my CNY bakes and there's no recipe. I just used the leftover dough from the pineapple tarts and added osmanthus and little more flour. It would have tasted better if there's more crunch and more sugar.


3) Nian gao spring roll or 年糕夹心卷. Another dish I learnt from my mum on how to eat up the otherwise "hardened" nian gao, and instead of coating with egg-flour and fry it which would be a pretty mess with the melted nian gao sticking to the wok.

Ingredients/Method:
1 packet of spring roll skin, small
Yam
Sweet potatoes (can be the yellow, orange or purple ones)
1 Nian gao
1 tbsp corn flour + 3 tbsp water

1. Clean and slice the yam and sweet potatoes of equal sizes.
2. Steam them for about 5-8 mins on med-high. Set aside and cool.
3. Slice up Nian gao of almost same size as the yam & sweet potatoes.
4. Arrange yam, Nian gao and sweet potatoes on top of each other and place on a piece of spring roll skin.
5. Roll up and secure edges of spring roll skin with cornstarch mixture.
6. Heat up pot on med heat and fry with enough oil to cover the spring roll, until golden brown.

I'm submitting this Nian gao spring roll recipe to this month Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (Jan 2012) hosted by Wen's Delight.

4) Crispy skin roast duck, recipe adapted from Peng's kitchen. My first time roasting duck which yield a delicacy to savour when I invited my relatives to my house on the 6th day of CNY. Although the process of preparation is easy, there is the long hours of air/sun-drying the duck before it can be sent to the oven for roasting. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the process thoroughly and would attempt to do it again (of course, when I have the luxury of time!)

I'm submitting this Crispy skin roast duck recipe to this month Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (Jan 2012) hosted by Wen's Delight.

5) DIY Spring Roll, which signifies good luck, prosperity and abundance! This is a special spring roll made good by my mil, but due to her health condition, she has not made it for many years. My hubby jotted down the recipe based on his mum's brief dictation years ago, and it's my must-have once a year! Another dish that we prepared when my relatives came but my skill needs improvement...lol. Anyway, my hubby & me had it for breakfast on 7th day of CNY as well, which happened to be "人日" and aren't we supposed to eat at least 7 types of vegetables on this day? This dish would fit the bill!









Hope everyone has many many good years ahead!