Family

Olive Fried Rice

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Olive Fried Rice

Just attended a healthy cooking workshop the other day and decided to put my learning into action. I am not the most healthy cooking cook around, so don’t judge me, I am only concerned for the taste of the dish.

Anyway the recipe calls for brown rice and basmati rice mix for a healthier choice, but seriously, who has that in their warchest? Unless you already are a health conscious person, you’re unlikely to stock up on these grains. The whole reason why I would even bother cooking this dish was because my MIL gave us a whole tub of cooked rice for us to steam and eat the next day. I decided that Olive Fried Rice was the better thing to do.

It’s the quite healthy version, so maybe you would like to try it for yourself or the family, my recipe cooks for two persons. My wife and I. I used Tuna Chunks instead of boiled Chicken Breasts fillets as most people would have used that, and instead of the usual Chinese Olives, I used Kalamata Olives from Greece, a little pricey, but totally worth it for the flavour.

Recipe

Ingredients

Half a bottle of Kalamata Olives (These are your deep purple, almond shaped olives from Greece, nice flavour, NTUC got sell)
3 stalks of Long Beans (Cut into 3 cm lengths)
Half a can of Tuna (I bought the one in olive oil, any brand will do)
2 cups of Cooked Rice (The rice is usually placed in the fridge so that the rice will be more Q <– don’t ask me what is Q)
3 cloves of Garlic (Crushed)
Half a Yellow Onion (Chopped finely)
Drizzle of Thai Fish Sauce
Handful of Cashew Nuts
Olive Oil

Method

1. Heat olive oil in non-stick wok/pan and stir fry the garlic and chopped onions until fragrant. Medium heat will do. Stir fry the cashew nuts together with the ingredients until slightly brown.

2. Mash half of the olives and rough chop the rest of the olives. Throw the olives in the wok and continue frying. Add the tuna chunks and continue to fry. If the oil not enough, add more oil (I know this is the part where it becomes less healthy, but if not enough oil, you need to add).

3. Add the chopped long beans into the wok to fry. Fry until the long beans are soften. Now add the cooked rice to fry together. Drizzle Thai Fish Sauce over the rice and fry until the fried rice is fragrant.

Bon Appetit!

Stir Fry Xiao Bai Cai with Fried Tau Kee

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Stir Fry Xiao Bai Cai with Fried Tau Kee

My wife got this Xiao Bai Cai from the local vegetable seller and almost sworn by the product. I thought it was funny that she should be feeling this way about vegetable, I mean I usually don’t gush about my groceries. But I guess it was not without good reason. The Xiao Bai Cai that we usually get at the supermarket are usually quite sandy and would require a lot of soaking and washing.

For some reason the supplier didn’t want to disturb the plant so much after it was harvested, and so it was not washed or treated with anything (actually I am not sure if it was treated with anything or not). I always thought vegetables should be packed the same way after they are being harvested. But that said, there are different suppliers and also different ways to grow vegetables these days.

Maybe this Xiao Bai Cai was grown hydroponically at some local farm nearby my house? Anyway, we were both quite pleased with the vegetables as it meant less washing and scrubbing in between the stems and that we could quickly give it a good rinse and cut it up for frying.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 packet of Xiao Bai Cai
2 pieces of Fried Tau Kee (these usually comes with fish paste in between the layers)
3-4 cloves of Garlic (crushed not minced)
3-4 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Thai Fish Sauce

Method

1. Wash and rinse Xiao Bai Cai thoroughly, making sure there is no sand or debris in between the stems. (Good habit to wash vegetables even though you know they were grown hydroponically. There could be worms or whatever creepy crawlies sometimes, so better to be safe.)

2. Chop them up into bite size pieces. This allows for easy cooking, and also easier to eat. (Of course, you would know that already.) Also, shred the Fried Tau Kee into thin strips.

3. Heat 3-4 tbsp of Olive Oil in the wok/pan. Make sure the oil is hot by turning up the heat to high. Fry the garlic pieces, giving them a quick stir to prevent the garlic from burning. Do this until the garlic pieces are fragrant and start to brown. Then add in the shredded Fried Tau Kee pieces. Fry until you smell the tau kee pieces (sorry don’t know how else better to explain this part). After that, reserve the garlic and fried tau kee pieces in a plate while you cook the vegetables.

4. You generally would want more oil so that the vegetables will cook better and not burn. So if need be, add more oil. (I say more oil because I like to fry my vegetables using high heat, and oil helps to prevent the vegetables from burning. I find that the vegetables cooks evenly that way, so that works for me. I know it is unhealthy to use so much oil.) 

5. Next with the remainder oil in the work, fry the stems first as these tend to take a while to cook, and once they are cooked, then add the rest of the vegetables in to continue to fry. Remember to do the pan flip method. Quickly drizzle the Thai Fish Sauce over the vegetables and continue to pan flip the vegetables. The searing sound of the vegetables burning along the sides of the pan would ensure that it is cooked evenly. (At least that’s how I would cook it. Sometimes stirring it with the wooden spatula doesn’t mix the vegetables or the sauce that well.)

6. After that, put the reserved ingredients (garlic and fried tau kee) and continue to do the pan flip method. Once you have mixed the ingredients well, cover the vegetables with the lid and allow it to steam for a few minutes. This would soften the vegetables and allow the fish sauce to mix in well. That’s it.

Bon Appetit!

Sambal Belacan Okra with Tomatoes

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Sambal Belacan Okra with Tomatoes

Here is another dish that goes very well with Sambal Belacan sauce. Okra aka Lady’s Fingers – don’t ask me why they are called that when they don’t look remotely like any lady’s finger – blends very well in the sambal belacan sauce.

I can only say try it if you haven’t already stir fry it. I cooked it with large beef tomatoes and powdered hae bi aka dried shrimp. The dried shrimps were grounded to almost like a fine powder using a food processor or you can work out some arm muscles with the traditional pestle and mortar.

Whichever method you choose the 32nd result will be a fine powdered form of Dried shrimp. You should have a 2 tbsp worth. The fragrance of the dried shrimp plus the sambal belacan simply enhances the flavour of this seemingly simple dish.

Recipe

Ingredients

15 pieces of Okra (the way to select the good ones is to flick the end of the okra to see if it is too hard or too soft. If it flicks back, then likely that it is good.)
30 grams of hae bi aka Dried Shrimp
1 large tbsp of Sambal Belacan
2 large Beef Tomatoes (quartered)
3 cloves of Garlic (crushed)
Olive Oil

Method

1. Heat oil till it is smoking. Fry the crushed garlic (not minced) and fry till fragrant. Then add in the dried ground hae bi aka dried shrimp. Fry until fragrant. This one really smells good.

2. Then add the tomatoes in to fry. Stir Fry until the tomatoes start to soften and break down. Then add the okra (which you would have already sliced diagonally) and continue to fry.

3. Now add the sambal belacan and continue to stir fry. Don’t be tempted to add in additional water. The liquid from the tomatoes should be sufficient and you generally want to allow the ingredients to cook in their juices.

4. Continue to fry until the gooey-ness of the okra starts to manifest. Make sure the vegetable is coated nicely with the chilli paste. Serve with steamed rice.

Bon Appetit!

Sambal Belacan Petai with Prawns

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Sambal Belacan Petai with Prawns

I decided to cook Sambal Belacan Petai with Prawns tonight. The stinky beans Petai is one of those lesser cooked at home and not generally appreciated, but with sambal belacan, it is magically transformed into a delicacy.

The wet market vegetable uncle had a huge supply of Petai that weekend and I had to grab a pack and plan it into my weekly gastronomic journey through the kitchen. One of the things that I enjoy doing these days is quick cooking. That is to come back and quickly whip up dinner dishes for the family in under 30 minutes. It’s a challenge to do it, but I totally look forward to doing it everyday.

So this simple recipe cooked with pre-made sambal belacan will definitely rock your socks off. The key is the cooking time and a non stick pan/wok. Otherwise it is very easy to cook Petai.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 bag of Petai (stinky beans usually available at the wet market)
1 large tbsp of Sambal Belacan (I got those pre-made ones at the supermarket)
1 large Yellow Onion (quartered)
6 large Glass Prawns (I realised that this type of prawns are perfect for the dish, they are expensive, but no regrets)
2 cloves of Garlic (minced)
2 tbsp Olive Oil

Method

1. Some preparation needs to be done with the Petai beans. You need to split the beans into halves and wash them thoroughly. We split the beans because sometimes there are worms burrows and those need to be discarded.

2. In a non-stick wok, add olive oil and stir fry the onions. You would want a non-stick wok or pan because you would be frying the ingredients over high heat for a while and you generally don’t want the ingredients to char and burn.

3. After frying the onions until they are softened and fragrant, add the Petai to stir fry. You then continue to stir fry until some of the onions begin to brown slightly. These visual milestones are important because cooking equipment and timing may differ.

4. Add the minced garlic and fry till you can smell the fragrance of the garlic. Then add a generous table spoon of Sambal Belacan and continue to stir fry, making sure that the ingredients are coated with the sambal sauce.

5. Once you can smell the fragrance of the chilli paste. Add in the prawns to cook. For this dish, you would want to cook the prawns until they turn into an “O” shape. Although I often say “O” means overcooked, it is permissible for this dish as the direct heat is shared with other ingredients.

6. Once sufficiently cooked, taste that the Petai beans are soft and yummy. Serve with steamed rice.

Bon Appetit!

Braised Chicken Feet Noodles

Braised Chicken Feet Noodles

This is our all time favourite. Braised Chicken Feet noodles aka 鸡脚面. I kind of got tired of the long queues at our favourite chicken feet noodle stall nearby our place. The queue has been unusually ridiculous. I waited for 45 minutes the other day. Terrible.

So I decided to make my own braised chicken feet noodles ala ho sim lang style. My challenge was to make it such that the chicken feet still retains the gelatinous strains and the chewiness of the meat but yet tender and full of flavour.

I don’t quite like the ones at the Chicken Feet noodle shop because they usually deep fry the chicken feet first before braising. That method kind of makes the feet puffy and wrinkly. I prefer them cooked my way.

Truth be told it was quite a tedious process, but totally worth it. The preparation for the chicken feet took almost a whole day to prepare. The noodles was the easy part.

Recipe

Ingredients

10 pieces of Chicken Feet (usually the wet market uncle would already pack them in packs of 10, very convenient)
5 pieces of Dried Shitake Mushrooms
3 thin slices of Ginger
3 cloves of Garlic
3 stalks of Spring Onions
1 piece of Star Anise
2 tbsp of Oyster Sauce
1 tbsp of Light Soya Sauce
2 tbsp of Dark Soya Sauce
1/4 cup of Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu
Sprinkle of White Pepper
1 tsp of Castor Sugar
Tomato Ketchup
Shin Ramen Noodles (Korean instant noodles)
Olive Oil
Water reserved from the soaking of mushrooms

Method

1. Soak the shitake mushrooms in half a bowl of hot water. After they are soaked, slice the mushrooms into halves. Reserve the water for later.

2. In a pot, boil the chicken feet until the water becomes oily. Reserve the stock for frying vegetables (eg. Mani Cai with Egg). Reserve the chicken feet for later.

3. In a claypot, add 2 tbsp of Olive oil, turn heat to medium, add ginger slices, crushed garlic (not minced), spring onions halves (about 4 cm lengths) and star anise. Saute until fragrant. Fragrant here means all the smells of the ingredients become one. Remember to leave some finely chopped spring onions for garnishing.

4. Next add the soaked mushroom halves and stir fry with the rest of the ingredients for a while before adding the chicken feet into the pot to stir fry as well. Do this for a few minutes. Add sugar and white pepper. Continue to mix.

5. While the ingredients are frying, prepare the seasoning mix of sauces in a small bowl. Once ready, pour the seasoning sauce into the pot and give it a good stir. Add the reserved mushroom water into the pot until all the chicken feet are covered.

6. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer with lid on. Continue to cook for at least an hour. After that turn the heat off and leave it in the pot to soak up the marinate. Boil with lid on again and leave it to marinate overnight.

7. After more than 12 hours in the pot, the longer the better and in my case, almost 24 hours later, I turned up the heat for one last time before assembling my braised chicken feet noodles for breakfast.

8. In a separate pot, cook the Korean instant noodles. You can use whatever noodles you want. I like the Korean noodles because they are quite filling and easy to cook. Once cooked, plate it. Add a little dollup of ketchup and mix with sauce from the braised chicken feet.

9. Give the noodles a good mix, assemble the chicken feet and mushrooms and a generous sprinkle of chopped spring onions. Serve hot.

Bon Appetit!

Stir Fry Mani Cai with Egg

Stir Fry Mani Cai with Egg

My mother in law likes to cook this vegetable for weekend dinners with the family and it seems the entire family loves it. My wife swears by it and cited many childhood memories of eating it when she was still in primary school.

Of course I have never eaten this Mani Cai until I started dating my wife. Pardon my skepticism. If it was so fantastic, it would be very popular wouldn’t it? It seems it is only available at the wet market vegetable seller and no where else. Plus the way to say it properly is always a point of contention. So not many people know what it really is. Some call it Ma Lee while others call is Ba Lee.

So just what is this vegetable that everyone seems to be raving about? Everyone here refers to my wife’s family. Not much is known about it except that it came from the vegetable seller at the market. So the only way was to do some research online and while doing so, I discovered that while it is nutritious and nice, it was also deadly if consumed uncooked. Wah lau so dangerous.

If you think I am joking, please Read this. It seems the uncooked version can cause respiratory problems, leading to lung failure. Wah, sound so serious. So better to cook it and make sure it is cooked well.

Maybe you are now having second thoughts about cooking this dish. I would too if I knew it would be a life and death situation.

* please note that I have included amazon affiliate links to the products I use, so check them out if you wish to support me, and if I can get these items from NTUC Supermarket, I would just indicate.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 packet of Mani Cai (aka sayur manis or 马尼菜)
10 cloves of Garlic
2 ladle of Chicken Stock (sift from the chicken broth from cooked chicken feet, or if you’re in a hurry like me, you can use packet chicken broth as a quick hack. I use either Swanson Chicken Broth or Heinz Chicken Broth [NTUC])
3 whole Eggs
2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Light Soya Sauce (I prefer to use the Lee Kum Kee Premium Light Soya Sauce [NTUC] as the taste is solid)

Method

1. Wash the sayur manis (lit. Sweet Leaves) before plucking the leaves and discarding the stems.

2. After that crush the leaves with your bare hands (and laugh like a tyrant while doing it). Then with the side of a cleaver smash the garlic and then stir fry them in a heated pan/wok in Olive oil. Fry till fragrant. After that add the mani cai into the wok and stir fry with the garlic.

3. The vegetable will almost immediately reduce in volume. Continue to fry till it is a hue of dark green. Add a ladle of chicken broth and continue frying. Then add the eggs (already beaten together with the light soya sauce) and continue to stir fry.

4. Close the lid and continue cooking in medium heat. After the eggs are cooked, give it a good mix and continue to stir fry. If the vegetable is too dry, add more chicken stock. Continue cooking until vegetable is softened. Serve hot  with steamed rice.

If you like Nai Bai Vegetable, you might want to check out this simple recipe as well – Stir Fry Nai Bai.

Bon Appetit!

Egg Mayo Sandwich

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Egg Mayo Sandwich

My wife has been taking up more cooking roles recently but only because I haven’t had time to cook or was caught up in traffic on the way home. So she would quickly prepare the ingredients for me to cook when I do get back.

I think she needs more confidence in the kitchen to eventually cook everyday. Never mind that takes time. Interestingly though, her dishes are not too bad. Maybe I might sneakily outsource some of the cooking to her just for starters.

So this morning I couldn’t get out of bed in time to make breakfast and she quietly and dutifully made a simple Egg Mayo sandwich for us. So nice of her. It was again very subtly flavoured but most importantly, it was delicious.

I had to ask her for the recipe.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 whole Eggs, hard boiled
2 tbsp Japanese Mayo (the baby brand)
White Pepper (just a dash)
Salt (just a sprinkle)
10 grams Unsalted Butter

Method

1. Boil the eggs in a pot of water at high heat till they are hard boiled. Should be about 15 minutes.

2. After peeling the eggs (over running water), mash them with a fork and mix with the butter and mayo. The texture should be moist and like a paste. Sprinkle salt and white pepper and continue to mix and combine.

3. Spread the egg mayo paste on the bread slices and it is done. Should have enough to make two egg mayo sandwiches.

Bon Appetit!

Stir Fry Nai Bai

Stir Fry Nai Bai

My mother-in-law gave us a packet of what seems to be the nicest looking Nai Bai vegetable that I have ever seen in a long time. In a way, it is like a miniature silverbeet vegetable.

So we decided to keep dinner simple and do a simpler Stir Fry Nai Bai with garlic slices and a tomato just for that additional sourish taste. A little oyster sauce and the meal is complete.

The other Nai Bai that I have been seeing around the supermarket are usually quite dirty looking. There is very little “bai” (aka white) in those packages of Nai Bai vegetable.

* please note that I have included amazon affiliate links to the products I use, so check them out if you wish to support me, and if I can get these items from NTUC Supermarket, I would just indicate.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 packet of Nai Bai [NTUC] vegetable
3 cloves of Garlic
1 medium Tomato
1 tbsp Oyster Sauce (mum uses the Lee Kum Kee Premium Oyster Sauce for her cooking, and this is really very good)
1 tsp Light Soya Sauce (as mentioned, I only use the Lee Kum Kee Premium Light Soya Sauce exclusively for my cooking because of the flavour)
3-4 dried Chinese Scallops (these are usually available at the dried goods provision stores or at NTUC, or if you need to have it delivered to where you are, you could consider Food Explorer Hokkaido Dried Scallops)
2 tbsp Olive Oil

Method

1. Wash the vegetable thoroughly and remove any grain of sand or dirt. Place on colander and dry.

2. In a wok, heat the oil. Then fry the crushed garlic pieces. You can crush them using the side of the cleaver. Just simply slap them really hard. I like cooking garlic this way so that I can taste the flavour better.

3. Add the sliced tomato pieces in to cook as well. By now there should be some liquid in the pan. Add the dried scallops (no need to soak). Continue to stir fry until tomato start to soften.

4. Add the nai bai vegetables, already trimmed and stems and leafy greens nicely chopped and separated. Personally I prefer cooking them whole. Looks more appealing to me. But you should chop it so that it is easier to eat.

5. Add oyster sauce and light soya sauce in a small bowl of water and give it a good mix. Then pour the sauce into the wok. Now turn the heat up high and cover the wok with the lid. Let it cook or steam for about 4 minutes.

6. When you lift the lid, the vegetables should have shrunk and this is typical as the vegetable loses its water content. In return that water is now your very lovely sauce. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Bon Appetit!

Ragu Pasta with Poached Egg

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Ragu Pasta with Poached Egg

I love Italian cooking and always love trying new recipes and different styles of cooking traditional dishes. This is an improvised Ragu Pasta recipe from my friend and mentor Joe Kwan and his lovely wife Winkie.

They cooked this delicious Ragu Pasta for our social last weekend and it was such a subtle dish that I too wanted to recreate it for our dinner tonight. Truly it was wholesome Italian cooking, peppered with lots of unmerited flavour.

It’s fairly easy to cook although the poached egg part requires a little skill. Typically to poach an egg, you have to add a little vinegar into a pot of boiling water and stir the water so that the egg retains its shape and slowly cooks. But because I needed to quickly cook and make sure that dinner was served on time, I took some short cuts. Read on to find out how it is done, the ho sim lang way.

Recipe

Ingredients

250 grams Minced Beef
125 grams Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese
1 box of Barilla Friget Penne
1 can of Anchovies
Handful of Pine Nuts
2 stalks Sweet Basil Leaves
2 stalks Flat Leaf Parsley (aka Italian parsley)
1 large Yellow Onion (I was supposed to be using a French Shallot and a Red Onion)
1 piece Bay Leaf
1 bottle of Barilla Bolognese Sauce
1 bowl of Sweet Cherry Tomatoes
1 cup of Cabnernet Sauvignon red wine
3 tbsp Olive Oil (and some for cooking the pasta)
Black Pepper
Sea Salt

Method

1. Boil a kettle of water. Pour the box of penne dried pasta into the pot. Add a little salt and olive oil. Add the kettle of boiling water and cook the pasta for 11 minutes to al dente or longer if you like.

2. While the pasta is cooking, add salt and pepper to the minced beef and give it a good mix. In a small frying pan, roast the pine nuts until they are brown. After the pasta is cooked, scoop the pasta and dry them out in a colander but reserve the water in a bowl.

3. Wash the pot and then add olive oil. After you have marinated the beef for about 10 minutes, fry the beef in the pot over low fire. While that is cooking, cut and chop the onion. Slice the cherry tomatoes and tear up the parsley leaves and basil leaves.

4. Add the prepared ingredients including the roasted pine nuts, into the pot and stir fry, turning up the heat a little. Add the can of anchovies along with the olive oil in the can into the pot. Continue to stir fry until the onions are softened and you can smell the fragrance of the beef sauce. Add a cup of red wine. You can use any red wine. Add a bay leaf. Continue to cook over a medium fire. Do this until the wine evaporates and the sauce thickens.

5. Add the bottle of bolognese into the pot and cook with the minced beef sauce, maintain medium heat over the pot.

6. In another smaller pot with boiling hot water but with the fire off, poach two eggs. You can crack an egg into cling wrap, give the package a twist and then sous vide the egg in the water bath until it is cooked. Depending on your preference, the eggs can be either firm or watery-runny.

7. Once the Ragu sauce is ready, add the cooked penne pasta into the pot and give it a good mix. Add the reserved broth of pasta water into the pot to allow the sauce to combine with the pasta easily.

8. Once pasta is well mixed with the Ragu sauce, grate the entire block of Parmigiano Reggiano (aka Parmesan) cheese into the pasta and give it another good mix.

9. Serve the pasta with additional parsley and basil leaves and gently place the poached eggs into the pasta. Serve hot.

Bon Appetit!

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Roast the pine nuts until they start to brown.

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Cook the penne 11 minutes

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Marinate the minced beef with salt and black pepper.

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Chop the yellow onion

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Slice cherry tomatoes into halves.

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Sweet Basil Leaves

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Italian parsley and a can of anchovies.

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Stir Fry the ingredients

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Preparing to poach the egg in cling wrap.

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Twist it into a small package for the water bath.

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In a hot water bath, poach the eggs to desired doneness.

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Grate the entire block of Parmigiano reggiano cheese into the pasta.

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Deliciously yummy Ragu Pasta with poached egg.

Beef and Carrot Soup

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Beef and Carrot Soup

I am making a very simple Beef and Carrot Soup for dinner tonight. Beef provides the necessary iron nutrition for my toddler and I am pairing it with carrots because they both do very well together.

My son loves carrots, so I have added a little more carrots just so that he can mix it into his rice for dinner. I am adding a few slices of ginger, just 5 thin slices (5 being the number of Grace) just so that the beef soup would taste really nice. My maternal grandmother used to make this really nice beef and carrot soup for us kids when we visit on Sundays. So this is a really nice memory for me.

I am also adding half a slice of dried cuttlefish into the soup to sweeten the broth. Cuttlefish has that magic touch to bring the soup together and make it extremely tasty. I will complete the soup tonight with Chinese Celery. I recently discovered that food stall holders have been using a lot of the Chinese celery as opposed to the Chinese parsley for their garnishing. It appears, and I think it is true as well, that the Chinese celery’s strong flavour works very well with meats in general.

Just a simple and very easy recipe for dinner. Cooked in a thermal cooker for a good 10-12 hours so that the meats will be tender and soft for toddler and delicious for everyone.

Recipe

Ingredients

250 grams Shin Beef cubes
2-3 medium Carrots
Half a Dried Cuttlefish (really good for flavour)
Sea Salt (adjust according to your tastebuds)
5 thin slices of Ginger
2 stalks of Chinese Celery (to be added into the soup just before serving)

Method

1. As I am using a thermal cooker, I need a large kettle of boiling water for the soup. I am boiling the meat for a good 15 minutes at high heat before putting it into the thermal cooker for slow cooking.

2. I got Shin Beef cubes as they are cheap and since I am slow cooking the meats, it will be tender by the end of the day anyway, so the cheapest cuts of beef will be good enough.

3. The only thing that I need to prepare would be the carrots and ginger as the beef cubes are already prepared by the butcher, so that’s very convenient as I am always short for time in the mornings.

4. Peel and cut the carrots into bite size pieces. Then put all the prepared ingredients into the pot (just like the picture above) for the grand opening ceremony. Pour the hot boiling water into the pot and turn up the heat. Boil at high heat for 15 minutes and by then you should also be able to smell the fragrance of the beef soup taking shape.

5. Come back by the end of the day to re-boil the soup. This time, add the chopped Chinese celery and boil until it bubbles. The soup is now ready to be served.

Bon Appetit!

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Delicious beef and carrot soup

Har Cheong Gai 虾酱鸡

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Har Cheong Gai 虾酱鸡

I am frying up some chicken wings for a social later and what better food item to bring than Shrimp Paste Chicken Wings. Kids love it, everyone I know loves it. I also know my friends would love my Roasted Pork Belly, but maybe leave that for another time.

Har Cheong Gai is basically chicken wings marinated in shrimp paste which gives it the fragrant shrimp paste flavour. It’s become quite popular at most zi char places in fact and my family would often order it when we have our meals out.

So I decided to make this delicious shrimp paste chicken for our friends’ gathering. Shrimp paste chicken is also know as har cheong gai in Cantonese or 虾酱鸡 in Mandarin. I am doing a quick and dirty version of it and basically shorten the cooking time as I am usually quite busy as a working parent.

In my recipe, I only allowed it to marinate for 15 minutes before I would fry up the whole batch of mid joint chicken wings. Just to experiment and see if the flavour is just as good.

Thankfully what turned out eventually was a nicely battered chicken wing with a light hint of shrimp paste and not salty at all like most zi char places. It was deliciously fragrant and tasted really yummy. Best part is, it wasn’t that difficult to do either.

However, since there was deep frying involved, and I didn’t like the idea of wasting too much oil, I opted for a smaller cooking pot instead. The compromise was that I could only fry in smaller batches, which took up a lot more time. Plus it made the kitchen really oily after all that heavy frying, and my wife didn’t like that. So I guess this is the first and last time I am making Har Cheong Gai. LOL.

Recipe

Ingredients

To marinate:
1 Kg Chicken Wings (mid joint wings only, about 27 pieces)
2 tbsp Shrimp Paste (I got mine from the Malay uncle stall at the wet market, but you may opt to use Lee Kum Kee Shrimp Sauce)
4 tbsp Hakka Rice Wine (you can substitute it with Hsiao Sing Hua Tiao Jiu)
2 tbsp Sesame Seed Oil
2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
2 tbsp Castor Sugar
1 tsp White Pepper Powder

Making the Batter:
3/4 cup Plain Flour
3/4 cup Potato Starch
2 Eggs
1 tsp Baking Soda
200 ml Water

Method

1. In a large mixing bowl, prepare the marinate by pouring in the shrimp paste, rice wine, sesame seed oil, oyster sauce, white pepper and sugar. Mix well.

2. Add the mid joint chicken wings into the mixture and make sure all the wings are coated. Allow it to marinate for 15 minutes.

3. Meanwhile prepare the Batter mix in another mixing bowl. Add the plain flour, potato starch, baking soda, eggs, water and give it a good mix until a smooth consistency.

4. Dip the marinated chicken wings into the batter (discard the remainder marinate) and then slowly dip them into the pot of boiling hot oil for deep frying. Fry for about 4 minutes each or until the chicken wing joints browns and  float on the surface of the oil bath.

5. Allow the chicken wings to cool on the rack before plating. You may serve it with lemon, vinegar and garlic chilli sauce.

Bon Appetit!

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Marinate the chicken wings for 15 minutes

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Prepare the Batter mixture

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Dip the chicken wings in the Batter before frying

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Rest the fried chicken wings in the cooling rack

Siam Square Mookata (Review)

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Siam Square Mookata (Review)

It’s date night and thank God for precious date nights after marriage. My parents offered to take care of the toddler while we enjoyed a semblance of time together when we were dating. Thank God for understanding parents.

And as my aunty told me before so wisely, “don’t waste time watching movies when you date.. Go have a meal..” she advised. Those were words worth its weight in gold. The simple reasoning behind those words were, you can’t get to know and understand each other if you don’t communicate. Conversations over a good meal are way better than watching a movie.

So we decided to have Thai BBQ for dinner as we could better afford the time and what better place than to try out Thai Mookata Steamboat and BBQ (in a nutshell it is BBQ meats, seafoods and vegetables on a rather unique looking hotplate with soup combination). I did a search and realised that there was only one outlet in Singapore. It was at East Coast Road and kind of out of the way.

Also I knew it can’t be true as I was sure there were plenty more of these Thai BBQ places around, most notably the ones located all over Golden Mile Complex. So I did another search but this time more ambiguous and that result yielded more than 50 weblinks of Thai BBQ places in Singapore. Nice.

Plus my friend told me that there was a tiny stall at a coffee shop located at Block 332 Ang Mo Kio Ave 8 (just behind Christ The King Catholic Church). Siam Square Mookata was the name of that stall and it seems the reviews of the place are that they were “cheap and good”.

That sounded good with us and off we went. I remembered there was a time almost all of our construction was completed by Thai foreign workers. And that just makes sense that Thai food places begun springing up all over the island to cater to their tastes and needs and over time everyone loves Thai foods as well.

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It was just a tiny little stall space in a coffee shop and their BBQ plates of ingredients were reasonably priced at either $1.80, $2.80 or greater as you order the more premium stuff like scallops ($3.80).

They have a rather interesting price menu where they offer ala carte prices first and if you feel at any one time you would wanna go all out at the buffet, you can change to buffet price (about $29 per person). Of course the caveat is you can only switch to buffet price if you are still ordering another round of items and not when you are paying up. But the stall people are very nice about it, they will frequently ask if we wanted to convert to buffet. Such nice people, always thinking for their customers.

Apart from that, the freshness of the ingredients was undeniably good, and for what it’s worth, the entire experience was very nice. They offered both marinated and meats without marinate, but I preferred them plain without the sauces. They taste much nicer after BBQ-ing. Plus it wasn’t crowded even at dinner time, so that was an added bonus. I always love these quaint coffee shop places that are located next to a big spacious carpark, it just gives me a feeling of comfort and I am naturally at ease.

Conclusion

So would I go again? Maybe, if I lived nearer. They didn’t offer anything very special, and in the end we almost ordered the equivalent of their buffet price. But still a very nice experience.

Basa Bocourti Fish

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Basa Bocourti Fish

The Basa Bocourti fish as the name suggests is really a Basa Fish aka the Mekong River catfish commonly found in Vietnam’s boutique street wet markets. They are very fleshy and are commonly found in their rivers. The fish when cooked has a nice sweet flavour unlike the cheaper Toman fish

This fish is also nicely filleted and packed at NTUC. Good for me because now I can just pick it up from the supermarket without having to haggle with the street side vendor, although I would gladly do the latter. There is something whimsical about market place values that the supermarket just can’t emulate.

Boil a very nice pot of porridge and lightly salt the Basa Fish and you will have a very nice fish porridge. The flesh when cooked is paper white and also flaky although not as firm as the Red Garoupa. There is virtually no bones with the fikkets which is strange but I am not complaining. So it is very safe for toddlers to have them for meals.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 Basa Bocourti Fillet (about $2.50 for a rather large fillet, portion enough for 3 pax)

The rest of the ingredients and steps you can follow the recipe for my Red Garoupa Fish Porridge.

Bon Appetit!

Red Garoupa Fish Porridge

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Red Garoupa Fish Porridge

If there is a fish porridge that I like better than Batang or Bay Kah fish porridge, it would be Red Garoupa. The firm flesh of the fish just makes for very nice fish porridge, though some older folks will say that it is loh koh (read: hard to eat). I say porridge but you might call it congee. It is the same to me actually.

But it is a fish that is a joy to work with. Slicing is so easy and the flesh is firm and tender at the same time. Just a simple marinate of light soya sauce and the fish slices when cooked is a lovely sweet savoury flavour, and flaky too because that is an indication of freshness. Then add a garnish of shredded Chinese celery and you are good to go.

Recipe

Ingredients

Red Garoupa steak (about 150 grams for 1 portion)
Chinese Celery 2-3 stalks (these are very thin stalks)
Light Soya Sauce 1 tbsp
Sesame Seed Oil 1 tsp
Dried Chinese Scallops 5 pieces
Half a cup of Rice (to be boiled for porridge)

Method

1. Boil the uncooked grains of rice in a pot for about 15 minutes over medium heat. Longer if you want it to be very mushy. Add more water if you like it watery. Throw the scallops into the pot to flavour the porridge.

2. Slice the flesh of the Garoupa meat thinly and marinate it with the soya sauce and sesame seed oil. Leave it in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

3. Once porridge is boiling and rice grains are soft and broken down, you can add the fish slices in to cook. As seafood doesn’t need to cook very long, about 5 minutes would be suffice. The flesh should be paper white and nicely curved after cooking.

4. Add the shredded Chinese celery into the porridge for that lovely flavour. Add some more light soya sauce if you want your porridge tastier.

Bon Appetit!

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Marinated slices of fish

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Shredded Chinese celery

Bitter Gourd in Salted Egg

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Bitter Gourd in Salted Egg

This is a restaurant grade recipe. Haha. Okay, I wish it was. I love eating almost everything in a salted egg sauce and nothing beats eating my favourite Bitter Gourd in my favourite salted egg sauce.

It’s a quite simple dish to make really, just that to do it well, you need to know what you are doing. So if you are game for something different, you can try this. It will rock your dinners and also impress a few friends.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 whole Bitter Gourd
3 Salted Egg Yolks
Half a slab of Unsalted Butter
1 tbsp of Castor Sugar
Chicken Stock (not from stock cubes)

Method

1. Clean and gut the bitter gourd of the seeds. Cut into half. Then steam at high heat for about 5 minutes. Then slice then diagonally into bite size pieces.

2. In a wok, add half a slab of Butter, if you need directions, then half a slab of butter would be 125 grams.

3. Add the egg yolks. These eggs are cooked and hard boiled. Using the back of your frying ladle, mesh the egg yolks into the butter. Make sure the egg yolks are nicely mixed into the butter.  Ensure that it is at low heat.

4. Add chicken stock made from boiling chicken bones. Just about 3 tbsp would be sufficient. Add Sugar to taste, maybe about 1 tbsp.

5. Once that is done, ladle the sauce over the butter gourd and serve.

Bon Appetit!

Special Fried Egg

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Special Fried Egg

I called this dish Special Fried Egg because I really didn’t want to call it Fried Egg with Prawns Pork Minced and French Beans. That would be a tad too long for a title of dish, and remembering that it is important to name your dishes so that it won’t be too obvious. So there, Special Fried Egg.

Of course there is nothing very special about this dish except that it has quite a few ingredients all combined together. Fresh glass prawns are really good for this although a tad expensive. You may just use grey shrimp. Much cheaper and you won’t burn a hole in the wallet. Add regular minced pork and French beans and there you go. Comfort food that every kid who used to eat at home before fast food chains came along and dominated our tastebuds with salt and all things unwholesome.

Putting this special fried egg together was really a walk down memory lane for me. My nanny used to cook this dish for lunch every other week. It has become somewhat a cult classic for me. The taste, textures, the classic burnt edges. They all make up what this classic dish should be.

Recipe

Ingredients

3 large Glass Prawns
60 grams of Minced Pork
10 pieces of French Beans
2 whole Eggs
Light Soya Sauce

Method

1. De-shell the prawns and use only the meat. Chop into a paste. Then mix with the minced pork. Now use a heavy cleaver, chop and continue to combine the two ingredients until they become one paste.

2. Cut the French Beans into small pieces. Discard either ends. Assemble all the ingredients into a large bowl. Crack the eggs into the bowl. The egg acts as the social glue. Add soya sauce about 1 tbsp.

3. Now use your hands to mix. I like getting my hands dirty. Leave it to marinate a while.

4. Add oil into a wok (if you don’t know what a good wok looks like, you may want to refer to this Helen Chen non-stick pan). Turn heat up high. Pour the mixture into the frying pan and allow it to cook and congeal. Then do the magic flip and repeat on the other side. Use as much oil as you like. It has to be cooked nicely.

Bon Appetit!

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Special Fried Egg

Batang Fish Porridge

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Batang Fish Porridge

Another comfort food for those that are in dire need of much comfort. Yes, fish porridge is definitely on my list of comfort foods. I dont usually do fish porridge the way my mum likes to cook it, but since I haven’t been feeling all that fantastic, I thought I should do it like how mum cooks it.

She loves to use bay-kah fish which I don’t really have at ntuc, so I guess I just have to make do with batang fish. Same same but slightly different. The texture of the meat is kind of like tuna in a way. Maybe one of these days I might experiment with tuna to make fish porridge.

Mum would skin off the fish, chop the meat into a paste and season it with light soya sauce and sesame seed oil. All the ingredients that makes it great. I don’t know what else or maybe I wasn’t really paying attention. So this is my version of my mum’s fish porridge.

Recipe

Ingredients

A cut of Batang Fish (usually the lower part is best)
Some Tong Chai (this is some kind of pickled vegetable that is for flavouring soups)
Light Soya Sauce
Sesame Seed Oil
Half a cup of Rice (this is for cooking porridge)

Method

1. De-skin the Batang Fish or remove as much meat as possible. The meat is then chopped aggressively as if to mince it.

2. Once it is suitably minced, add light soya sauce and sesame seed oil to marinate the fish paste.

3. Once the fish paste is ready, you can spoon dollops into the plain porridge and stir until it is cooked.

4. Cooking plain porridge is easy. Add rice to a pot and boil with water until the rice breaks down.

5. Add tong chai to flavour the porridge and you can eat.

Bon Appetit!

Sweet Potato Soup

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Sweet Potato Soup

Comfort foods are what we need when we really need comforting. It’s like the mother/wife replacement when they are not around you or if you are traveling on a long journey to somewhere far away.

One such comfort food would be the humble sweet potato soup eaten more like a dessert more than a meal. It’s the quintessential comfort food that most Singaporeans would know and if you were to smell it from a distance with its signature spicy gingery flavour, it ust oozes goodness and warm feelings of home.

It’s also just about the easiest recipe to make as well. Just wash and cut the sweet potatoes into bite sized cubes, add ginger, sugar and water and its ready to eat when it is softened.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 large pieces of Sweet Potatoes (for one person)
5 thin slices of Ginger
Sugar (level up to you)
Water (just enough to cover the sweet potatoes)

Method

1. Wash and cut sweet potatoes, of course peel the skin first. Cut into bite sized pieces. Easy to eat.

2. Cut 5 thin slices of ginger, any type will do. Add water to cover most of Sweet potato in the pot can already. Too much water is pointless.

3. Add Sugar to taste. Up to you. Once cook, and the test is to be able to smell the fragrance. Then serve.

Bon Appetit!

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Swee Bo sweet potato soup

Saveur The Tenderloin

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Saveur The Tenderloin

The Tenderloin steak from Saveur, is really a welcome surprise. We ordered a medium doneness to satisfy our intense craving for beef steak, and it was delivered to a tender perfection. Impressive.

Yum, and yes, we love it. It had cost us about $25 for 150 grams. For the decent quality and the fact that they delivered what we wanted, it was not expensive. Tucked away at level one of Far East Plaza, no one would have thought that an outlet could be found here.

So what is nice at Saveur? I guess just about everything is nice. I had the duck confit and boeuf bourguignon the last time around and it didn’t disappoint. Prices are mid-range and quality is value for money especially considering that it is like casual fine dining.

Looking forward to going back for another dinner with my wife. Maybe for her birthday.

Chicken Macaroni

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Chicken Macaroni

The foods of champions, the humble Chicken Macaroni has become the super-foods that parents love to give their kids. More so because it is so easy to prepare. Just boil the pasta, add boiled chicken and salt and you can eat.

Of course it is only true for the pure at heart. However in my less than perfect world, my Chicken Macaroni has to be done the hard way. It has to have all the necessary ingredients to make this dish truly special.

Why? You might ask. Well, why not? I am cooking for my family wat. So it has to be nothing short of special.

Recipe

Ingredients

250 grams of Dried Macaroni (for two servings, I use Barilla Elbows, they are kind of same same.)
2 pieces of de-boned Chicken Thighs
4 carcass of Chicken Bones (for making stock)
Handful of Dried Chinese Scallops
A few Dried Oysters
5-6 whole Garlic Cloves
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Evaporated Milk

Method

1. Boil a kettle of water (about 1.7litres). Add to the pot with the carcasses of Chicken Bones to boil for stock. Skim the scum and excess oil off the surface of the broth.

2. After about 20 minutes boiling at high heat, remove and discard the chicken bones. Add the scallops and oysters to flavour the soup. Fry and sear the garlic cloves in a pan before also adding into the broth to cook. You may reduce the fire to a slow simmer. Now boil another kettle of water. This is for cooking the macaroni.

3. Cook the macaroni in another pot until soften (boil pass al dente). This is so that your kids can eat as well.

4. Marinate the boneless chicken thighs with salt and black pepper. Leave aside for at least ten minutes. Once it is ready, fry the chicken with a little oil in a frying pan, 3 minutes on each side. After searing the sides, remove and slice into thin pieces.

5. Then boil the sliced chicken pieces in the broth by using the slotted ladle technique to further cook the chicken pieces. Once cooked, place in individual serving bowls.

6. Check that the pasta is cooked beyond al dente by doing a taste test. It should be reasonably softened. Once ready ladle the cooked macaroni into the bowls with the boiled chicken pieces.

7. Add salt and a little evaporated milk to thicken the broth. Cook a while longer and you can ladle the chicken broth to the Macaroni. Serve hot.

Bon Appetit!

Bitter Gourd and Pork Ribs Soup

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Bitter Gourd and Pork Ribs Soup

It seems like the unlikeliest of collaborations, more unlikely than the Lotus and Radish Soup. The bitter gourd and pork ribs is what most of us would already know, but to have an octopus swimming around in the soup, I bet the final taste would be out of this world.

As it is, the mixture of the bitterness that is in the bitter gourd juxtaposed with that of the fishy aftertaste of octopus, is probably gonna taste really yummy. I can’t wait to taste this soup tonight. Something about pork ribs that makes the soup taste so much better than chicken bones. It’s such a simple recipe anyone can do it.

Recipe

Ingredients

200 grams of Pork Ribs
1 whole Bitter Gourd
1 piece dried Octopus

Method

1. Boil water, then pour into pot with ribs and octopus and let them get acquainted. After boiling for about 10 minutes, add the sliced bitter gourd and some sea salt. Continue to boil for another 5 minutes at high heat.

2. When done, take and place in thermal cooker and eat it when you get home. Perfect.

Bon Appetit!

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Sliced Bitter Gourd

Pork with Shredded Ginger

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Pork with Shredded Ginger

“僵尸肉” as my mobile phone’s Chinese hanyupinyin text input tells me, and then my friends on Facebook tells me that the Chinese words were all wrong (Ok, so my Chinese give back my primary school teacher already).

I tried searching for the right words in Chinese, but I guess after a while, that was immaterial. What’s most important is how to make it awesome, and I think I have the perfect recipe.

The ginger must be shredded into really thin strips. You generally want them sliced thin because you would want to make sure they are crispy when you eat it later. The ginger is fried in a combination of sesame seed and olive oil. It just tastes better when you eat the dish with lots of ginger. I cooked the ginger strips in a small clay-pot because the heat is more evenly distributed than if it were cooked in a regular metal pot. Furthermore doesn’t burn so easily either. Pork with shredded ginger is also a very good confinement food for new mothers.

Recipe

Ingredients

250 grams lean pork
4-5 inches young ginger
4-5 tbsp sesame seed oil
4-5 tbsp olive oil
4-5 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
White pepper

Method

1. Shred the ginger into thin strips. Meanwhile, heat the sesame and olive oil in a mini clay-pot and make sure the oil is hot before putting the ginger in to cook.

2. While the ginger is frying, slice the lean pork and allow it to marinate in the light soy sauce and white pepper. You can powder the pepper as much as you wish. Mix the pork well. You can opt to slice the pork first before frying the ginger, the choice is yours. The pork should be sliced as thinly as possible to allow for quick cooking.

3. Once the ginger turns slightly crispy, add the marinated pork into the mini clay-pot to fry. Make sure the pork changes colour to a whitish colour before adding the dark soy sauce. This is to ensure that the pork is well cooked prior to the adding of the dark soy sauce.

4. Best to cook over medium or low heat so that the pork doesn’t become too tough. Once ready serve with steam rice.

Bon Appetit!

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Fry ginger first.

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Fry pork till whitish colour.

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Add dark soy sauce only when pork is nicely cooked.

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Nicely done. Pork with shredded ginger.

Herbal Black Chicken Soup

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Herbal Black Chicken Soup

Day four of the new dawn. I could hear the crackling of thunder not too far away. When I looked out of the window, flashes of lightning lighted the twilight sky. It’s gonna be a good day today. I have always loved raindrops on the window of my Aircon bus.

Good days therefore deserves a good pot of soup. I decided that Herbal Black Chicken Soup would really make the day even more special. Don’t worry, baby won’t be partaking in this soup. I will be making plain porridge with minced pork and marmite for him. I know he sure like wan.

So just nice the black chicken would be so totally perfect for dinner. The wife even asked for a bowl when she returns home. I bought the herbs the day before at NTUC and I was sure the end result would be a perfect bowl of soup.

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I was right.

Where I shop?

I got my black chicken from the wet market. There is something more fresh about buying fresh meats from the wet market. Okay, I needed to say that. Of course if there wasn’t a wet market around where I lived, I would have gone in search of one. Fresh meats are more fresh at the wet market (myth#1).

The herbs I got from NTUC. Once I heard from a friend that her child asked her..

Child: “mama, is there a giant in the supermarket?”

My friend thought to herself and polled Facebook for an answer on how to reply the child.

Me being the good-hearted person replied..

Me: “that’s not a problem, wait till she asks you if there is a National Trade Union Congress in the supermarket. That would require much more explanation.”

Okay, that was a lame supermarket joke.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 Black Chicken chopped into 4 parts
1 Packet of Dun Ji Tang herbs
2 bottles of Brands Essence of chicken

Method

1. Dump (I love the word!) the black chicken into the pot. Par boil it and then discard the water. Fill it up again.

2. Dump the herbs into the pot. Turn high heat and boil (bubbling) for 15 minutes. Switch off and load the pot into the thermal cooker.

Bon Appetit!

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Easy as ABC

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Easy as ABC

Day three of the new dawn. I am tired. My lifeforce seems to have been zapped by some mysterious incubus. Either that or I am still riling over the fact that baby didn’t like my black bean porridge that I made yesterday.

Maybe he wasn’t accustomed to the taste as yet; maybe it was his first time trying it. I have come to realize that kids take a while to like something. It was the same experience with ice cream. At first he didn’t like it. Now he does.

So maybe one day he will develop a penchant for my black bean soup. I spent quite a bit of time cooking his porridge last night, and used quite a bit of the soup to cook it as well. *Grr* I think he kind of humored me a little and ate some at the beginning but I guess the taste was too foreign for his liking.

So today, I decided that I would make ABC soup again. Actually I wanted to make chicken soup, but since I already started defrosting the ribs last night by mistake – I decided to heck it. Chicken soup can be for tomorrow. Or maybe tomorrow can be lotus root, peanut and pork ribs soup. Hmmm..

I also realize by now that I may have overbought my ingredients for the week’s cooking rituals. There is no way that I can finish cooking all that I bought for the week, by the end of the week. I need to buy less. I also realize that it is near impossible to cook for baby without eventually cooking the same stuff for myself. Ok, I admit I have been lazy.

If you want my recipe for my ABC soup. You can check my post soup for three. Baby loves ABC soup.

Soup for Three

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Soup for Three

Our favourite soup. I guess it is favourite because it is the only soup that I can remember how to make at the snap of the finger. For the other recipes, I can’t seem to recall for some very strange reason. I could only conclude that this was the soup of the day and that I should therefore cook it. Not such a big decision anyway.

A simple soup or four ingredients of corn, carrot, potatoes and pork ribs. My wife calls it ABC soup but I struggled with that definition. As far as the soup is concerned, it should be abbreviated as PPCC or CCPP or PCCP (you get the idea), so maybe I will refer to my own abbreviation for convenience.

Maybe it is so easy to make that some folks might have said that it was as easy as ABC. Okay, that I agree. It is so easy you could train a monkey to do it.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 ear of Corn
1 large Carrot
3 medium Potatoes
250 grams of lean Pork Ribs
Salt

Method

1. Par boil the pork ribs just so to remove the scum. This is good practice so that you only get the good stuff. Don’t boil too long or you might lose all flavour.

2. Slice carrots, corn and potatoes and then dump it into pot. Fill with water until it covers ingredients. Turn on high heat. Boil for about ten to fifteen minutes with lid on.

3. Then place pot into thermal cooker (no electricity needed) and let it cook for the rest of the day. I use a thermal cooker because the meats are tenderized and the vegetables are sufficiently cooked without disintegrating into the soup. For all my morning soups, I use the thermal cooker. It’s great!

4. When you are about to serve, add salt to taste. Easy!

Bon Appetit!

Baby Spinach Chicken Soup (Stock for Infants)

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Baby Spinach Chicken Soup (Stock for Infants)

We are always experimenting with different flavours to get baby to taste and get used to different types of foods. One way is via the soup method as a stock for the porridge that we cook.

So hopefully he will like his green vegetables next time when we cook it. We love vegetables so it would be tragic if baby doesn’t. So we really need to engineer his meals so that he will eventually join us in our meals.

This is a simple three ingredient soup stock. Again it is for infants, so there is no salt to be added. It is just pure flavour and all the goodness in the ingredients. I just went to the wet market early this morning to get the best produce before some aunty gets it.

I got a huge bunch of baby spinach and a chicken carcass (bones only). And just a little ikan bilis for flavour. This recipe should make about seven 120 ml cups of stock for baby’s porridge for the week.

I included a little before and after photo for comparison.

Recipe – serving for seven 120 ml cups

Ingredients

Baby spinach (a huge bunch)

Chicken carcass (bones only)

Ikan bilis (7-9 pieces)

Method

1. Wash the baby spinach first as these contain a lot of sand. Wash till the water in the pot is clear. Soak also the Ikan bilis in a small bowl of water.

2. Place the chicken in a pot. Then place the baby spinach together with the chicken. Sprinkle the Ikan bilis all over. Pour about 1 litre of water into the pot and boil on low heat.

3. The soup is done when the flavour escapes the covered pot and you can see the fat of the chicken on the surface of the broth. Allow the broth to cool before pouring into the containers for freezing. This should provide for seven servings of 120 ml of soup stock for porridge.

Bon appetit!

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He>i Daddy (Musing)

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He>i Daddy (Musing)

It’s a special title and an even more special place of honor. Not everyone can enjoy that title and it takes a certain passage of time and much uncertainty before someone is entrusted with that title of “daddy”.

Firstly the child needs to speak the words, but more importantly know the words. That day seems near as he knows who “papa” is already and fatherhood is certainly much more fulfilling in ways I could never have imagined.

Living life now is living life for him, to care for him and take care of him. He came as a tiny infant helpless and could only express cries or silence. His range of emotions simple and uncomplicated. Raw and immediate. There is hardly time and space that I am unaware of his existence. Our lives are forever intertwined. He is a part of me as I am a part of him.

It is a different way of life today than it was yesterday. A life with a child. A dependent, dependent on you. Your time of living your life and doing the things that you used to do has come to a good end. Now it is a season of routines, schedules and timeliness.

After being daddy, you assume responsibility and suddenly time becomes finite and I can almost see time in compartments and how I can and must manage it. It is a journey that I would encourage all to take. Never mind if you are unsure at this moment, but I guarantee you that it is a good transition, a good change.

Join me.

Birth (Short Story)

Ho Sim Lang

He screamed a loud screeching cry as air filled his lungs and he tasted unclean air for once in his life. His father stood by the side and smiled as the doctors pulled him from the gaping wound with umbilical cord still attached. His mother still in a state of semi-disarray, unaware of the happenings shielded from her eyes by the cloth. All she could hear was the sound of metal clanging and shuffling of feet and the words of the doctor telling the nurses to act and execute procedures.

Doctor: “Come come, Papa, come cut the cord!”

The doctor motioned the new father to cut the umbilical cord and for once in his entire life, he was VIP to the most significant moment in the life of another person. The feeling was indescribable. It was a good feeling. Like facing the sunrise on the edge of a cliff and just simply being awed by the brightness of the sun as it embraced him. He remembered that beautiful moment, and again felt it now albeit under different circumstances. The cold operating theatre is now filled with happiness, tears, and much joy.

The nurse wrapped the baby in shiny foil and tagged the infant after showing the father the baby for any distinguishing marks. He was perfect and without blemish. His father was pleased. Very pleased.

“He is a handsome boy!” He said to his wife. She smiled a faint gesture as she saw him for the first time, and felt all that she felt when she carried him for those days on weeks on months.