garlic

Steamed Yellow Croacker

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Steamed Yellow Croacker

Actually to be really honest, I don’t know the name of this fish. I just assume that it is the Yellow Croacker because it looked yellow and opened its mouth as if it was trying to sing a song.

This fish probably taste best if you cooked in a milky broth, and the best way to do that would be to cook it with ginger and garlic, salted egg and seafood stock with a little fresh milk. No added salt required.

That’s basically how I would treat this fish. Here’s the recipe.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 Yellow Croacker (usually the wet market would sell this fish)
handful of Garlic cloves
1 inch of Ginger sliced
1 Salted Egg
2 cups of Seafood Stock (usually it is frozen in the freezer)

Method:

1. Fry the peeled garlic cloves in oil. Using the tilted pan method to save oil when frying, especially if you have a shallow pan. Fry till the garlic cloves are brown. Then fry the sliced gingers till they are slightly brown.

2. After you have done all that, stuff the ginger slices into the belly of the croacker and place the frozen stock beside the fish (see picture). Once that is done, you can literally crack the salted egg into the pan and place the pan into the wok to steam.

3. Steam the fish for a good 20 minutes. The flesh of the fish should be tender and tend to flake easily. Add a little fresh milk, and the broth should be just perfect.

Bon Appetit!

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Oil saving method

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Pan tilt method

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Everything arranged and ready to steam

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!

Stir Fry Chye Sim with Fried Tau Kee

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Stir Fry Chye Sim with Fried Tau Kee

I was at NTUC the other day (as usual) and I saw this BoBo product (it is really called BoBo, I’m not kidding!) called Fried Tau Kee and instantly I remembered eating something similar at some Yong Tau Foo stall. So I bought it. I knew it would taste fabulous with some fried vegetable like Chye Sim (local) or China Chye Sim (above picture).

The fundamental differences between local Chye Sim and China Chye Sim is that the foreign one (actually they are both foreign) is shorter and have thicker stems. They resemble Kai Lan vegetable in some ways.

I already cooked it with the local Chye Sim and my wife loves it. So now to try it with the China variant of the Chye Sim. I have a feeling that it should taste just as delicious, and I was right. My wife loves it, and that’s all that matters really.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 packet of China Chye Sim (I got the NTUC ones and they are usually very nicely packed)
1 packet of BoBo Fried Tau Kee (this usually comes filled with fish paste)
3-4 cloves of Garlic (rough chop)
Olive Oil
Light Soya Sauce

Method

1. Heat 3 tbsp oil in wok/pan and when the oil is sufficiently heated, drop the garlic in and stir fry until fragrant.

2. Slice the Fried Tau Kee into thin strips and then add into the wok/pan to fry with the garlic. Do this until the Tau Kee pieces start to brown a little.

3. Chop the Chye Sim into bite size pieces and give them a good wash and rinse. Then add into the wok/pan to stir fry. I have a different method of stir frying for my vegetables. I prefer to flip the vegetables instead of attacking them with the wooden spatula. I find that this way of frying vegetables was much better (and more fun). The most important consideration is the fire, it should be high and the flipping action must be continuous.

Bon Appetit!

Halibut Fillet with Asian Salmon Sauce

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Halibut Fillet with Asian Salmon Sauce

This is a recipe that I picked up on Asian Food Channel and I thought it was a fantastic idea to present it this way. The halibut fillet was topped with an Asian Salmon Sauce which I thought looked really delightful and tasty.

Ingredients like lemon grass, shredded kaffir lime leaves sautéed with shallots and garlic, and then blended with Thai sweet chilli sauce really adds flavours to the salmon to form a pate. Yes, we are blending the salmon fish together to make the fish paste, kind of like making an otah otah and then layering it on top of another fish.

If you can’t find halibut at your local Asian supermarket you can substitute it with the Basa Bocourti Fish. If you don’t have either, any dory fillet also can.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 piece Halibut Fillet (alternatively you could also use the Basa Bocourti Fish, a Mekong River Catfish)
1 piece Salmon Fillet (cut into pieces to be blended)
2 stalks Lemon Grass
3 pieces of Kaffir Lime Leaves
2 bulbs of Shallots (small red onions also can)
3 cloves of Garlic (crushed)
3 tbsp Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
100 ml Heavy Cream (aka cooking cream)
Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Lemon wedge (a squish just before serving, optional)

Method

1. Chop the shallots. Crush the garlic. Then sauté in the pan with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add a little salt to prevent the ingredients from burning. Salt helps to extract moisture from the ingredients.

2. Shred the lower ends of the lemon grass (about 1/3) and you may discard the rest. The flavour is strongest near the bottom. Shred the kaffir lime leaves and add the ingredients into the pan and continue frying.

3. After the flavours of the ingredients are blended, reserve aside. Chop the salmon into pieces. Place in blender/food processor. Add Thai sweet chilli sauce. Add heavy cream. Then add the sautéed ingredients and blend till well mixed. Adjust the textures accordingly with the heavy cream, if you need more liquid depending on the size of your salmon fillet. It should be an orangy hue like otah otah.

4. Season the halibut fillet with salt and black pepper. Spread the salmon pate on the top of the halibut fillet and then cut them up into squares. Arrange the squares on a baking tray and bake them at 180 degrees for about 6 minutes. Serve with a squish of lemon if you like.

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!

Stir Fry Wing Beans in Garlic and Tomato

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Stir Fry Wing Beans in Garlic and Tomato

I cooked this dish in belacan the other time and it was delicious. So this time around, I did a Chinese spin on it. Decided to cooked it with garlic and tomatoes and some signature Chinese sauces and ingredients and surprisingly the taste was excellent. It just made us want to eat more.

Kacang Botol as the locals call it, its origins are kind of mysterious to me. It seems the exotic wing bean originates from New Guinea. Well at least that is what Wikipedia tells me. The fragrance of the garlic and the sweetness of the tomatoes adds to the taste of this simple dish.

A little light soya sauce, oyster sauce and dried Chinese Scallops and the umami in the dish turns up a few notches to a fever-pitched confluence of familiar flavours. Very nice and easy to cook.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 packet of Wing Beans
4 cloves Garlic
1 large Tomato
5 pieces Dried Chinese Scallops
1 tsp Sesame Seed Oil
1 tsp Light Soya Sauce
1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
4-5 tbsp Olive Oil

Method

1. Peel and rough chop the garlic pieces. Then cut the tomato into slices. Wash the wing beans then cut them into bite size pieces.

2. Heat the oil in the wok and add the garlic to stir fry. Make sure the garlic pieces are not burnt. Moderate the heat to medium. Then add the scallops (unsoaked) to fry. Then add the tomatoes. Fry till tomatoes are softened. Then add the wing beans. Continue frying. Add a little water.

3. Add soya sauce, sesame seed oil and a little oyster sauce in a bowl. Then pour mixture into the wok. If it is too dry, add more water. Then cover the lid and allow the vegetable to cook through for about 4-5 minutes.

4. The sauce should have thickened and the wing beans softened slightly. Do a test taste and it should still be crunchy in texture. Serve with steam rice.

Bon Appetit!

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Stir Fry Wing Bean in Garlic and Tomato

Pasta Pommodoro

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Pasta Pommodoro

If there is one thing that I enjoy more than rice is pasta. I would rather have pasta anytime of the day and they are great for that much needed quick meal.

So I was hungry the other day, and decided that I would whip up a very classic Pasta Pommodoro aka Tomato Pasta. Italian pastas are usually like that, singular and simple. Uncomplicated would be the other word that I would use when describing this particular pasta.

The main ingredient and star of the dish is none other than tomatoes. With a little help from the usual suspects like garlic and good quality olive oil, the end result is a very nice single flavour pasta.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 large Tomato (you can have more if you like)
150 grams Pasta (you can have any kind of pasta, but I used Barilla Farfelle.)
2-3 pieces of Garlic
Olive Oil
Salt
A sprig of Thyme
A small can of Tomato Puree (Gilda brand has very tiny came of Tomato puree)

Method

1. Boil the pasta until al dente then reserve. In another pan, add 2 tbsp olive oil, add the minced garlic and stir fry until fragrant.

2. Then add the diced tomato and continue frying. Add some tomato paste or puree. Add a little water to dilute the sauce a little. Add the pasta into the pan. Combine the ingredients. Add the leaves of Thyme for flavour. Add salt to taste.

3. Once cooked serve with grated parmesan.

Bon Appetit!

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Pommodoro aka Tomatoes

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Pasta

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Thyme

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Pasta Pommodoro

Fish Soup

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Fish Soup

My wife and I went to Putien restaurant for lunch the other day and we ordered their Fish Soup, simply because we love soup. It was then that I noticed that they had a very interesting take on the soup. They used a Yellow Croaker for the broth, which resulted in a light and mildly flavoured fish soup. Personally I thought it was so-so only.

It was oily, gingery but delicious, just that the fish flavour could be a little stronger and the fish itself could be a little tastier. My lightning fast taste-buds quickly deciphered the soup and memorized the ingredients list and reverse engineered the entire cooking process in my mind. So I decided to cook my version of that fish soup, but using my favourite Garoupa fish head. Sure nice one.

I stir fried the ginger slices and a few cloves of garlic. Then fried the fish head without any seasoning or salt. Just in the same oil. In another pot, I was boiling a natural chicken stock. Kind of got tired of the pre-made chicken stocko as I felt it was too salty. Added a few essential ingredients like wolfberries, Chinese scallops and dried oysters. Done.

The final product was a perfect fish soup. The flesh of the Red Garoupa was flavourful and tender, better in taste than the flesh of the Yellow Croaker.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 carcass of Chicken Bones (for making stock)
1 whole Red Garoupa fish head (small)
10 thin slices of Ginger
5 cloves of Garlic
Handful of Wolfberries
5 number of Chinese Scallops
3 number of Dried Oysters
Olive Oil
Sea Salt

Optional

10 slices of Yam (pre-packed yam will do)
4 pieces of Tau Pok (aka dried bean curd puffs)

Method

1. Boil the chicken stock using the chicken bones. Skim off the fat and dried blood as you boil. Soak the scallops and oysters in hot water for about 10 minutes.

2. Fry the ginger slices in the oil until it starts to brown a little. Then take it out. Now fry the garlic whole (not minced) and then take it out when it browns.

3. Next fry up the fish in the same oil. Add a little more oil if need be. Once the fish starts to brown a little add the pre-fried ingredients of ginger and garlic back into the wok. Add the soaked scallops, soaked oysters and also the wolfberries.

4. Now you can ladle the natural chicken stock into the wok and continue to cook the fish soup over a slow simmer. Do this for about 10-15 minutes. Seafood cooks rather quickly especially fish. It is kind of like having steam boat. Add salt to taste.

5. If you want to add tau pok and yam slices, you may do so, and it will be perfect. But if not, it will still taste great!

Bon Appetit!

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!

Garlic Tomato Prawns

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Garlic Tomato Prawns

This is my mother-in-law’s recipe. As much as you might wonder if the above photo resemble some kind of fossilized crustacean, I assure you, it is not. Those prawns were fresh. My picture taking skills on the other hand leaves much to be desired.

I asked my mother-in-law how she cooked it one day and she said a whole load of ingredients which sounded like a whole load of ingredients. Very hard to follow. So I decided that I would simplify her recipe to just three ingredients.

Make it easy for you and me. Prawns, garlic and good old tomato sauce. Easy. Best part is, it still tastes fantastic.

Recipe

Ingredients

6 medium sized Glass Prawns
Lots of Garlic (rough chop)
3-4 tbsp of Tomato Sauce
Olive Oil

Method

1. Heat oil in wok. Throw the prepared garlic pieces in to fry until fragrant. Then throw the prawns in. Fry until they form a “C-shape”. Then add tomato sauce. Continue frying, add a little bit of water. Let it simmer a minute and it’s done.

Bon Appetit!

Szechuan Minced Pork

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Szechuan Minced Pork

My family loves Szechuan vegetables stir fry with minced pork. It’s Wah-Shiok!! Just thinking about it makes me immediately 想要吃.

So I decided that we will have porridge today for lunch and cook up a dish of White Stomach Fish 白肚鱼. Just went to my regular fishmonger this morning and I saw a whole tray of that lovely fish and thought, mai-tu-liao and bought the entire tray. They look fresh. Well we will know soon. Sometimes buying fish is a hit and miss experience. The trial is to build trust between you and your fishmonger.

Oh a note on yesterday’s White Fungus Huai San and Chicken Soup, the wife said it was nice in flavour but that I made a blunder of not soaking the white fungus first! It was such a newbie mistake coming to think of it. Sigh. So naturally when the soup was ready, it was dry. The soup had all gone into the spongy white fungus!

Anyhoo. We learn from our mistakes and strive to be better! Back to the dish of the day. This is gonna be good. Try it.

Recipe

Ingredients

50-60 grams Minced Pork
1 small packet of ready-to-fry Szechuan Vegetable (you can get these from NTUC)
4 cloves Garlic
Dark Soya Sauce
Chinese Parsley

Method

1. Put a little oil, about a tablespoon into the frying pan. Minced the garlic and stir fry a little until fragrant. Add minced pork into the pan. No seasoning required. Fry until meat is about cooked.

2. Add Szechuan Vegetable and continue frying. Add a little bit of dark soya sauce and fry until fragrant. Perfection never look and tasted so good. Garnish with Chinese Parsley.

Bon Appetit!

Stir Fry Beef and Bitter Gourd

Stir Fry Beef and Bitter Gourd

This has got to be my my mum’s favourite dish amongst all the dishes that she cooks. I know this simply because she cooks it every other week and it is always with my favourite preserved black beans. The sauce is wah shiok!

I think this was also the dish that turned me to love bitter gourd as a child. I never use to like vegetables all that much but overcoming bitter gourd was a milestone in my gastronomic journey. Everything else was palatable compared to bitter gourd.

She likes to stir fry it with beef slices marinated in ginger juice. She would pound the ginger into a pulp and extract the juice. I found a better way to do this and that is to grate the ginger instead. Beef was an essential source of iron and it was great for keeping anemic kids healthy. The tell tale sign would be to look at the palm of our hands and it would be decided that we would have stir fry Beef and Bitter Gourd for that day. Just kidding.

Recipe

Ingredients

200 grams of Beef Flank (NTUC has one of the best beef flank and it is perfect for Stir Fry)
1 tube of Bitter Gourd
3 inches of Ginger
3 cloves of Garlic
1 tbsp Salted Preserved Black Beans
1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 tsp White Pepper powder
2 tbsp Olive Oil

Method

1. First boil a kettle of water. This is for cooking the bitter gourd. Then sliced the beef fillet thinly. Once done put the beef slices into a ziplock bag. Add soy sauce and pepper into the bag. Then grate the ginger into the bag as well. This forms the Marinate for the beef slices to make it tender. Marinate for about 5-8 minutes.

2. Slice the bitter gourd thinly and then blanch in a pot of boiling hot water (pour the kettle in). As the bitter gourd is sliced thinly, it should also cook quite fast while still retaining some crunchiness.

3. Pour the oil into the frying pan and heat it up. Once heated fry the garlic pieces until fragrant. Then add the marinated beef slices and stir fry until semi cooked. Then add the blanched bitter gourd slices and stir fry until the juices come out.

4. Add the black beans and continue to fry until flavours are thoroughly mixed. Once ready, serve with steam rice.

Bon Appetit!

Green Mussel Spaghetti

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Green Mussel Spaghetti

My chef friend Alvin taught me this dish a long time ago when we were still in the business, and I liked it so much that it has now become one of my favourite dishes to prepare if I have a little more time on my hands. Alvin was always quick to prepare everything, and it was a little challenging to glean off the master, but after a while, I managed to work out the recipe and managed to make it work in my home kitchen.

To make this dish, you got to have the freshest green mussels. Finding them fresh is not difficult as we have them harvested locally in our waters. The only problem was that the ones caught locally were too small for this dish. I usually get them at $3 a kilogram for my steam mussels recipe, but I was looking for the bigger ones. Cold Storage sells these in sealed packets, imported from some exotic location, and they are expensive.

Good thing they sold them in smaller packets, a little cheaper, and the portions was just about right for two persons. You just need to wash and de-beard the clams and they are ready to be used. It does seems like a lot of work at first for something that is so simple in terms of number of ingredients, but personally I enjoy the process of creating this dish, so I don’t really mind.

Then there is the herb pesto sauce which is, in and of itself, another recipe. I am not kidding. I literally wrote a recipe for that. Check it out here. Recipe: Herb Pesto Sauce.

Okay now that you already have the basics of what this dish would require, let’s try it.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 packet of Green Mussels (about 750 grams)
200 grams Spaghetti
2 tbsp of Herb Pesto Sauce
White Button Mushrooms (quartered)
3-4 cloves of Garlic (minced)
Olive Oil
Chardonnay
Salted Butter
Sea Salt

Method

1. Boil a kettle of water and then add it into a pot for cooking the spaghetti. This helps shorten the cooking process. The pasta that I usually use, cooks in 8 minutes. If you want them a little softer, you can cook them a little longer, like another 3 minutes. Be careful not too cook too long. Remember to pour a little olive oil into the pot. Once ready, scoop the pasta out onto dinner plates.
2. Saute the mushrooms in salted butter in a small pan until they are fragrant. Remove the mushrooms and then add the minced garlic to fry. Do this until you can smell the garlic. Then add the herb pesto sauce and give it a good stir. Then add the mussels and a splash of chardonnay. Seafood usually cooks very quickly, so you want to monitor your seafood carefully.
3. Add a little sea salt for taste, then add the mushrooms back into the pot and continue cooking. Once the ingredients are are sufficiently cooked, pour them over the cooked pasta and serve immediately.

Bon Appetit!

 

Asparagus (Stir Fry)

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Asparagus (Stir Fry)

I love thick stock asparagus, and especially if fried with tiger prawns or large prawns per se. Somehow the two of them tango very well. The social glue here that makes it all great is the minced garlic and light soy sauce.

When they all come together, it is just simply amazing. You got to try this simple recipe. It doesn’t become the main dish, but it really enhances the meal at dinner.

With the Chinese scallop dancing in between them, magic truly happens.

Recipe

Ingredients

7-8 large stalks of Asparagus
1 tbsp of minced Garlic
6 medium fresh Prawns
5-6 Chinese Scallops
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

Method

1. Cut asparagus into diagonal slices, ensuring consistency in shape and size. Reserve aside.

2. Heat oil in frying pan, then add minced garlic. Turn heat to medium and watch over garlic to make sure it doesn’t burn but only browns. To prevent burning you can add more oil, although most would prefer not.

3. Add dried scallops into frying pan to fry. I know the recommendation is to soak them first, but I want the flavour to be stronger and for it to infuse with the oil. Once the fragrance of the scallops has been mixed with the garlic, it is time to add the prawns. Stir fry the prawns until it turns a hue of red, then immediately add the asparagus into the pan.

4. Fry till asparagus is shiny and softened. I use a pan-flip technique for this dish so that there is proper mixing of ingredients. I find this technique really useful when you want to get an all round even cooking outcome. Add the soy sauce and continue to do the pan-flip.

5. By now you should also observe that the minced garlic has caramelised with the juice of the prawns into a fragrant paste. Wah, delicious. If it smells great by now, that’s because it really is.

Bon Appetit!

Spaghetti Carbonara

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Spaghetti Carbonara

One of my all time favourite pasta to eat as well as to prepare, the spaghetti cabonara, a cream based pasta that will tantalise your tastebuds and bring you all the way to Italy. Truly, there is no pasta that is so distinctively yummy as this one.

I made my pasta a little more creamy just so you guys can see the texture of the pasta. I am using spaghetti here instead of linguine because I still have spaghetti at home. But that said, linguine makes a better pasta as it can soak up the cream based sauce really well.

I know some recipes call for eggs and parmesan cheese, but my version doesn’t require all these, it is simple, and easy to do. Anyone can do it. So are you ready?

Recipe for 1

Ingredients

125 grams of Barilla Spaghetti
50 grams of Streaky Bacon
4-5 pcs of White Button Mushrooms
4 cloves of Garlic
100 ml of Cooking Cream
15 grams of Salted Butter
100 ml of full cream Milk
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Mixed Italian Herbs
Pinch of Sea Salt

Method

1. Firstly we cook the pasta in the pot. I use Barilla Spaghetti which cooks in 5 minutes to an al dente. Remember to add a little sea salt and olive oil. If you prefer it a little softer, add a 1 or 2 to the cooking time.

2. In another pot, stir fry the quartered button mushrooms in salted butter. I find salted butter much better to work with as opposed to unsalted butter when it comes to cooking, but if you’re baking, then perhaps unsalted butter might work better for you. Once the fragrance of the mushrooms can be inhaled (lack of a better word!) you should remove the mushrooms and set them aside. Then in the juice of the mushrooms, cook the minced garlic, cooked until fragrant. Then add the chopped streaky bacon. Fry this until the fragrance of the bacon can be breathed (still trying to find a better word!). I am not using olive oil in this recipe because butter goes better with cream in this carbonara recipe. Furthermore the oil in the streaky bacon is more delicious.

3. The pasta should be about al dente by now. You can remove the pasta or continue to cook it longer until it is softer. In the meantime, you add the cooking cream into the ingredients and cook, add the milk to dilute the carbonara sauce a little. If you like the sauce to be a little thicker, you can just use the cooking cream and leave out the milk altogether. Add herbs flakes and black pepper. A little salt to taste. Cook till the sauce is hot. After that drizzle it over the pasta and give it a good mix. Serve with grated parmesan cheese if you like, but it is already quite rich if you ask me.

Bon Appetit!

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Bak Kut Teh (Prime Ribs)

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Bak Kut Teh (Prime Ribs)

Up till now I have been making Bak Kut Teh using pork ribs which is fine but somehow the shiok feeling of being able to tear the meat off the bones seem to be missing. So in an attempt to recreate that old familiar Sin Ming Ave Bak Kut Teh feeling, I bought prime ribs from my local butcher. I know it will be sure nice one.

You can check out my other recipe which is basically an adaptation of Makansutra’s version if you prefer something more serious and structured (that one got YouTube video of Seetoh). But if this works for you, then do it this way.

I have basically removed all the frills and in a sense demystified the entire Bak Kut Teh experience. To me, pepper is the key ingredient. You don’t even need best quality white peppercorns. Just get the cheap cheap ones at the wet market but put more than the usual quantity. Sure peppery one. Trust me.

The picture above is exactly what it is, three simple ingredients, absolutely no other magical ingredient. Just load it up with water and the magic itself is really in the slow boiling of the prime ribs. That’s one reason why I love the thermal cooker so much, it is a slow extraction of flavour. By the end of the day, the prime ribs are soft, tender, and si beh shiok. Dip it in dark soy sauce and fresh cut red chillies and make yourself a cup of hot Chinese tea. The end result is really same same.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 large Prime Ribs
4 packets of White Peppercorns (I got the cheap cheap ones from the wet market, 50 cents per packet)
10-12 cloves of Garlic
Salt to taste

Method

1. Place the ribs, garlic (unshelled) and the peppercorns in a pot. Add water to cover the ribs. Boil at high heat for at least 15 minutes. After that dump the pot into the thermal cooker and come back home in the evening to eat. Don’t forget to add some salt.

Bon Appetit!

Kai Lan (Stir Fry)

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Kai Lan (Stir Fry)

One of the best kai lan vegetable are the ones that are from the wet market (always thought that there was only one type). But where were these from? I don’t know, and I don’t really care unless I was tasked to write a thesis on the types of Kai lan vegetable in the world. That I guess is also not about to happen any time soon, so yup, don’t really care.

But that said, wet market kai lan is really good. The vegetables is crunchy and stays fresh even though we kept it in the fridge for over two days before frying it up.

So if you want something simple and easy to prepare, this is it. Enjoy.

Recipe

Ingredients

Bunch of Kai Lan
7-8 Chinese Scallops
4 cloves of Garlic
80 grams of Pork Belly
Olive Oil
Light Soy Sauce

Method

1. Heat 3 tbsp of oil in wok, then fry minced garlic over low heat until fragrant. Then throw the pork belly into the wok and turn the heat to medium and stir fry until pork belly is fragrant (these are the pork belly that I made and store for frying vegetables).

2. Then add the Chinese Scallops and continue frying. After a few minutes, now dump the kai lan into the wok and fry until the kai lan vegetable is softened. Add a little light soy sauce and serve.

Bon Appetit!!

Spicy Szechuan Vegetables with Minced and Pork Belly

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Spicy Szechuan Vegetables with Minced and Pork Belly

This is a childhood classic for me. I remember the nanny cooking this for lunch on a few occasions, although I can’t really remember the details of what she cooked though, I mean who can? It’s been so many years. Alright, I know I said I had a photographic memory before, but this is different. 

So when she told me that it was from Szechuan province, from a far away place and that it traveled very far to get to our home. It was a little unbelievable at first. She said that everyone from that place simply loves and adore the vegetable, and that they would eat it day and night. I thought that they must be extremely proud and sad at the same time eating it. I mean I would be proud knowing that the world was eating my “vegetable”, but yet at the same time, I would be sad because everyone in the world would think that it was all that we ate all day. There was probably nothing much else to eat. Of course I am sure they do eat other vegetables but as a child, we thought in absolutes.

Years past and the dish has become commonplace in many cai fan 菜饭 places. Some places do it well while others just cannot make it. Anyway, wifey wanted to eat this dish and since we had the szechuan vegetable in the fridge, I thought that it was also good time to cook it.

My rendition of the classic dish is to add pork belly and minced pork with some chilli padi and a dash of dark soy sauce. I bought my szechuan vegetable from the wet market, which basically meant that it was likely to be spicy and very high in salt content. There are different types of szechuan vegetable that are being sold in the supermarkets and these are already shredded nicely for the cook and they are not so salty. They come in a variety of spicy and non-spicy which really helps if you want to make a non-spicy version.

Recipe

Ingredients

half a dollop of Szechuan Vegetable – purchased from the wet market, high in salt content and spicy
100 grams of Pork Belly – following from the recipe for preparing boiled pork belly
150-160 grams of Minced Pork
a tbsp of Dark Soy Sauce
4-5 pcs of Garlic
4 pcs of Chilli Padi

 

Method

1. Soak the szechuan vegetables in a bowl of hot water. I realised that it is better to slice them thinly first before soaking. This would help a lot. Recommended to soak at least 30 minutes. While that is soaking, mince the garlic and heat up the oil in the wok. Fry until fragrant.

2. Add in pork belly and fry, moderate the heat to a medium. Then add the minced pork and fry until the colour just change which suggests that it is semi-cooked. Then add in the shredded szechuan vegetable along with the shredded chilli padi. Fry the dish until it is more or less cooked, then add a dash of the dark soy sauce and continue stirring. The end result should look a little bit like the picture below.

Bon Appetit!!

 

Ho Sim Lang

 

Pla Neung Manao | Steam Sea Bass with Garlic & Lime

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Pla Neung Manao | Steam Sea Bass with Garlic & Lime

This is a recipe that I have always wanted to try out and make at home, and today, somehow, I felt the inspiration to do it. So naturally I needed a good recipe that I could follow and try out on my own. Sometimes not everything that you read online is true or makes sense in your own kitchen, but this lady from YouTube “Hot Thai Kitchen” (she’s not that hot) makes a really great Thai style Steam Sea Bass with Garlic and Lime.

I adapted her recipe to the exact measurements, and my wife thinks that it is the best steam fish I have ever prepared and presented. My presentation of steam fish is usually a garbled mesh of ingredients. I only focus on taste, and score very low on presentation.

Here’s the YouTube video to inspire you servant-less cooks to greater heights.

Recipe

Ingredients:

1 whole sea bass 500 grams
3 Tbsp chopped garlic
4 pc Chilli Padi *sliced small*
3 Tbsp Thai Fish Sauce
2 Tbsp Palm Sugar syrup
1/4 cup Lime juice
1 stalk Lemongrass
1/4 cup of Chinese Parsley

Method:

1. Put garlic, chilli, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar syrup in a bowl and mix.
2. Score the sea bass at its thickest side to allow for even cooking. Stuff the belly of the fish with lemongrass.
3. Steam for 10 minutes over boiling water with lid covered.
4. Once done, mix parsley into sauce and pour the sauce over the fish.
5. Serve with steamed rice.

Bon Appetit !