ginger

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

Drunken Sesame Chicken

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Drunken Sesame Chicken 嘛醉鸡

This is an improvement to my previous recipe Chicken in Rice Wine. That recipe is great but this is much better. I discovered that by adding more sesame oil and also hua tiao jiu together with the hakka rice wine, the results were a sweet caramelized chicken.

I like to cook this with chicken wings as they have the gelatinous fats that would be so delicious once you pressure steam and fry the chicken in a clay-pot.

Make sure you add just the right amounts of ginger and if possible fry them until they become brown and almost burnt. When the dish is done, your clay-pot might be a light charred due to the sugars in the hakka rice wine caramelising, some of the chicken parts are burnt slightly due to the heat, but that is fine. A delicious chicken dish with steamed rice or best with porridge or congee.

Recipe

Ingredients

4 Chicken Wings with Drunplets (separate the drumlets from the wings and also the wing tips)
Lots of Ginger *maybe 8-9 cm of one inch thickness* (sliced thinly)
1/4 cup of Hakka Rice Wine
1/4 cup of Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu
White Pepper
2 tbsp of Light Soy Sauce 
1 tbsp of Dark Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Olive Oil
4 tbsp Sesame Oil

Method

1. Marinate the chicken parts with light soy sauce and white pepper. Allow the meat to marinate at least for 5-10 minutes.

2. Sliced the ginger thinly, and then heat the olive oil and sesame oil in a clay-pot over low fire. Then fry the ginger strips until brown and crispy.

3. Add marinated chicken meat into the clay-pot for cooking. Over medium fire continue to cook until chicken pieces turn whitish in colour. Add dark soy sauce and continue cooking over medium fire. Finally add the Hakka Rice Wine and Hua Tiao Jiu and allow the chicken to simmer and cook over a slow fire. Remember to close the lid. Once cooked serve with steam rice.

Bon Appetit!!

Stir Fry Chicken

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Stir Fry Chicken

After a brief hiatus from cooking, actually it has been more like writing recipes. I have been cooking just not posting my new dishes. I wanted to try some classic favourites to see if they will turn out just as fabulous as the ones that I find at the restaurants.

For example, I recently tried the three egg spinach, which incidentally is my family’s favourite dish that we would always order when we go PuTien Chinese Restaurant. I tried it the other day and it turned out to be quite alright, just that the century egg I used was the soft centre types which resulted in the soup being quite a murky green.

Anyway, I have been cooking a lot of chicken in rice wine lately and as much as I liked the dish, it was a little too frequent. So today I decided that I would cook it the way I cook frog legs, in sliced ginger and lots of spring onions. Simple and delicious.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 Chicken Drum (deboned)
4 stalks of Spring Onions
5 thin slices of Ginger
2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
1 tbsp Light Soya Sauce
Drizzle of Sesame Seed Oil
Sprinkle of White Pepper

Method

1. Debone the chicken drum (usually I get the chicken butcher to do it for me). Then cut the meat into small bite sized pieces. Marinate with light soya sauce, oyster sauce and white pepper with a light drizzle of sesame seed oil.

2. Mix with your fingers until meat is coated and leave it for about 5 minutes to marinate.

3. Wash and cut the spring onions into 6 cm lengths and split into two portions. Then slice 5 thin slices of ginger.

4. Heat oil in the pan/wok and fry the ginger and first portion of spring onions until fragrant. Then add the lightly marinated chicken meat to stir fry. Keep doing this until the meat is cooked. To test if the meat is cooked – taste it.

5. Add the remaining spring oinions midway of frying the chicken so that the greens will still be green and not all softened. Once cooked serve with steam rice or white porridge. Easy.

Bon Appetit!

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

Crab Bee Hoon

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Crab Bee Hoon

If you have tasted Singapore Chilli Crab and like it, you will most probably love crab bee hoon like you love your mother-in-law. Okay, maybe not a good example, but think of crab bee hoon as a softer option compared to the spicy version.

Cooked in a milky buttery broth and served with bee hoon or white noodles, this masterpiece dish is very easy to cook. I say again, anyone can cook this dish. It’s a walk in the park. Add a little tang-orh vegetables and it is a perfect meal.

We usually go to this place at Ang Mo Kio named Melben for our craving for crab bee hoon, but honestly, they have become quite pricey and sometimes the journey there and the long waiting time just makes the whole experience much to be desired.

So I decided that I would make my own crab bee hoon but make it more fabulous with what my wife and I love to eat. Udon noodles instead of the bee hoon. LOL. In fact, I think it tasted better with Udon.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 “live” Mud Crabs (about 800 grams)
2 packets of Udon Noodles
20 thin slices of Ginger
1 tray of Fresh Clam Meat (NTUC got sell)
1 box Mini Toufu Puffs
60 grams of Unsalted Butter
Half a cup of Evaporated Milk
A pinch of Sea Salt (I use the Maldon Brand of Sea Salt Flakes)
2 tbsp Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu
2 tbsp Hakka Rice Wine
1 tsp Castor Sugar
1 tbsp Fish Sauce

Method

1. Boil 1 and a half kettle of water. (1 kettle is about 1.7 litres) Once the water is boiled, pour into a large pot. Turn on fire to a slow boil and add the clam meat and 10 slices of ginger. Boil for about 30 minutes. Then discard the clams and ginger.

2. In another pot, fry the rest of the ginger slices in butter and then add the mini Toufu puffs (sliced diagonally) and continue cooking. Once the Toufu has softened. Add them into the main pot.

3. Turn the heat up to medium. Add evaporated milk. Add that pinch of salt, the fish sauce, hua tiao jiu, hakka rice wine and sugar. Continue to stir. Do a taste test to make sure the it is not too salty, but creamy.

4. Kill the crabs. Using a cleaver, chop right down the belly of the crab. Then remove the pincers and then the body parts. Reserve the eggs (if any) and wash the crabs. After the crabs are cleaned, using the back of the cleaver, break the shells.

5. Once crabs are ready, throw them into the broth. Cook until the colour changes to a hue of red. Add the Udon noodles (or white noodles) and cook for a few minutes. After that serve hot.

6. Prepare and wash the tang-orh vegetables. This is to be dipped into the broth and eaten immediately.

Bon Appetit!

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Boiling broth of Fresh Clam Meat & ginger slices

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Fry the ginger slices in butter

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Fry the mini Toufu puffs in butter

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Substitute bee hoon with Udon noodles

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“live” Mud crabs (about 800 grams)

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Cooked the prepared crabs

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Cooked till a bright hue of red

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Add Udon noodles into broth

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

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!

Salted Soya Beans and Ginger

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Salted Soya Beans and Ginger

I have been focusing a lot on soups and fish but little is written on the many sauces that I would make to go along with the dishes. Sometimes I would make chilli dipping sauce and other times it would be something like this.

Salted Soya Beans (or tau chiun) with Ginger is often the accompanying sauce that goes with Steamed White Stomach Fish or also known as Rabbit Fish. It’s a very Teochew way of eating steamed fish. There is usually no marination for the fish but instead a dipping sauce is served alongside.

To increase confluence of flavour, I would scoop some fish stock (after steaming) and add into the sauce for more power.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 inches of Ginger
2 tsp of Salted Soya Beans
1 tsp Light Soya Sauce
1 small Calanmansi Lime

Method

1. Chop the ginger into cubes. Put into condiment saucer. Add the soya beans and soya sauce and a squish of lime juice.

Bon Appetit!

Teochew Steamed Pomfret

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Teochew Steamed Pomfret

The most basic recipe in my arsenal of home cooked recipes, the white pomfret steamed in Teochew style. You may also wish to check out my other recipe Teochew Steamed Garoupa if you prefer another type.

The White Pomfret has accompanied our family feasts for many years now, I have been eating this fish since my childhood, steamed to perfection this way. In fact it is one of the few recipes that I used since starting my gastronomic journey.

This recipe is simple and basic. Dried shitake mushrooms, tomatoes, preserved salted vegetables (aka kiam chye), preserved salted plums and ginger. Garnished with Chinese parsley, and it is a perfect dish. I particularly like using this fish for Teochew style steaming  because the flesh is very succulent and sweet when cooked perfectly.

Recipe

Ingredients

A medium sized White Pomfret (maybe about 800-900 grams)
50-60 grams of Kiam Chye (shredded thinly)
2 medium sized Tomatoes (quartered)
5 pieces Dried Shitake Mushrooms (soaked and sliced)
2 pieces of Preserved Salted Plums
A few slices of Ginger
3 stalks of Chinese Parsley

Method

1. Wash and gut the pomfret. Or you can get the Fishmonger to help you gut the fish. Of course if you want to keep the fish fresh till the day you’re gonna eat it, it is recommended to keep the guts intact.

2. Place one crushed salted plum in the gut of the fish. Also place a few slices of Ginger in the stomach of the fish as well. This helps rid the stomach of the fish of any smells or bitter taste.

3. Soak the mushrooms in hot water and snip off the stems, then slice them. Continue to soak after slicing. Cut the tomatoes into quarters. As for the kiam chye, shred them thinly.

4. Sprinkle the shredded kiam chye on the centre of the plate. Then lay the pomfret on top of the salted vegetables. Surround the fish with the tomatoes and sliced mushrooms. Place the other crushed salted plum on the plate.

5. Steam the pomfret a good 20 minutes at high heat. Once it is done, garnish with chopped parsley. Allow the heat to wilt the parsley a little before serving. Shiok!

Bon Appetit!

Teochew Steamed Garoupa

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Teochew Steamed Garoupa

The Garoupa is undoubtedly one of the best fish to be prepared in the Teochew style. The flesh when well steamed and cooked would be firm and flaky, sweet and succulent. It is truly a fish in a class of its own.

It’s one of my favourite fish for my Claypot Fish Head recipe where I would try to get the red variety of the fish. Delicious. There was no way of going back to any other variant of fish after tasting the Garoupa prepared in the claypot fish head style.

Tonight’s dinner is a presentation of this fish in classic Teochew style. Steamed with tomatoes, kiam chye, dried Shitake mushrooms and preserved salted plums. A few slices of Ginger to remove any awkward bitterness in the stomah, and the dish would be complete and ready.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 medium size Garoupa fish
20-30 grams of Kiam Chye (sliced)
5 pieces of Dried Shitake Mushrooms
2 medium size Tomatoes
2 pieces of Preserved Salted Plums
2 inches of Ginger
2 stalks of Spring Onions

Method

1. Defrost the fish (assuming that you are like me, storing the marketing of the week in the freezer). Meanwhile, slice the kiam chye (aka preserved salted vegetables) and quart the tomatoes. Decorate the metal plate (I use the metal plate for steaming all my fishes) with the prepared ingredients.

2. Soak the dried mushrooms in hot boiling water until softened. Then slice into large chunks. Also decorate the plate, surrounding the fish with the mushrooms. Slice a few pieces of ginger and stuff it into the stomach of the fish. This helps to rid the fish of any bitterness.

3. Place a preserved plum into the stomach cavity of the fish and crush another to be placed on the plate. This helps to flavour the fish as well as the fish stock that is expressed from the fish during steaming.

4. Steam the fish for at least 20 minutes at high heat. Garnish with spring onions if you like. Serve hot.

Bon Appetit!

Oxtail Stew with Carrots

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Oxtail Stew with Carrots

I have always wanted to make oxtail stew just plain in its own without much western influence or gastronomic fanfare. The thing that I like most is to also experiment in my choice of ingredients and hopefully conjure magic in my kitchen.

Oxtail Stew is that dish that I would always go for at the French restaurant but today I am making it as local as possible and in the style that I always like to cook, which is to cook it simply.

My oxtail stew is usually just oxtail, carrots, beef stock and a few slices of ginger. That is usually what I do. But for today’s stew, I am adding Black Fungus and Oyster Mushrooms just to complicate the flavours and hopefully achieve that special oxtail stew.

Wanna try it? It’s actually very easy.

Recipe

Ingredients

4-5 pieces of Oxtail
1 large Carrot
3 inches of Ginger
1 packet of Black Fungus (optional)
1 packet of Oyster Mushrooms (optional)
1 cup of Beef Stock (optional)
Salt

Method

1. Boil a kettle of water. While the water is boiling, add oxtail, carrots (chunks), sliced ginger, black fungus, oyster mushrooms, a cup of beef stock to enhance the flavours and a a pinch of salt to taste.

2. Pour the boiling water into the thermal pot to boil at high heat for about 20 minutes. Once done, place the pot into the thermal cooker for about 12 hours. What will greet me tonight should be a thick pot of stew, probably my wife will hate it.

Bon Appetit!!

Golden Pomfret in Dark Soy Sauce and Rice Wine

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Golden Pomfret in Dark Soy Sauce and Rice Wine

I realized through much trial and error that the best fish for frying in a combination of dark soy sauce and rice wine is none other than the Golden Pomfret.

The skin of the golden pomfret it seems is rather elastic and hard to tear for some reason, much like the skin of the shark. Of course the shark’s skin is probably tougher. So because of this elasticity, the fish after frying still looks really presentable. Unlike the black pomfret or some other variety of fish. In fact the taste of the golden pomfret fried is delicious.

All you need is a little corn starch and it fries to a nice golden brown. Very nice. The interesting thing about the Hakka rice wine is that once it is added into the hot oil, it bubbles and kind of caramelises the oil into a sauce.

It is also the only fish that we would eat until it is left an unrecognizable carcass of bones. Steaming doesn’t cut it. Frying is better.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 medium Golden Pomfret
3 inches of Ginger (julienned)
Olive Oil for frying
Corn Starch for coating the fish
2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
3 tbsp Hakka Rice Wine

Method

1. Heat oil in wok, then fry the ginger strips under low fire until crispy and slightly brown. Reserve the ginger aside.

2. Coat the pomfret with corn starch, just enough to cover the surface of the fish. Heat some more oil, sufficient for the size of the fish and when the oil is heated, fry the pomfret 5 minutes on each side under low fire.

3. Add the rice wine, and then the dark soy sauce and allow the sauce to bubble until the sauce goes into the fish. Once the fish is sufficiently doused in the sauce, serve with the ginger as garnishing.

Bon Appetit!