stir fry

Stir Fry Peas and Oyster Mushrooms

Stir fry peas and oyster mushrooms

Stir Fry Peas and Oyster Mushrooms

I hate Peas. There, I said it. Don’t judge me. I am like a kid when it comes to vegetables that I don’t like. It’s like a magical tumble washing time machine spiralling me back to when I was just a kid.

Anyway, it’s not the world’s friendliest vegetable to eat. But my Wife bought it and she bought Oyster Mushrooms as well. And not sure if you have a sensitive palate like myself, but there is this peculiar aftertaste with oyster mushrooms. It’s just me I guess.

I was in the restaurant business a while back, and one of the few things that stood out for me were these oyster mushrooms. They were quite bland in flavour, maybe that’s why they were so easy to control in terms of how you would want to flavour it.

But putting them together with peas, takes it to a whole new level. Okay. I am an innovator in the kitchen, so I will give it a shot.

Ingredients

Peas (just ordinary peas, nothing fancy, one pack will do)

Oyster Mushrooms (just one packet from NTUC will do. Again, nothing really fancy)

Fish Sauce (use any Vietnamese make, although some folks say the “long boat” brand is good)

Olive Oil (just a little oil will do)

Method

1. Debone the Peas. There is a spine that is quite difficult to eat, so best to remove it.

2. Oil in the wok, stir fry some garlic pieces until fragrant, then fry the peas and oyster mushrooms together. Add the fish sauce and cover the lid to steam.

3. It should be done in about 5 minutes. So easy. Surprisingly nice too. 🙂

Bon Appetit!

Stir Fry Puay Leng

Stir Fry Puay Leng

Puay Leng or Spinach is a vegetable with a good source of vitamins. Even if you didn’t know that if you grew up watching Popeye the Sailorman, you would also have some semblance of understanding that it makes you a strong seaman.

It’s the natural way to have supernatural strength and the healthier way as well. Instead of pill popping to enhance performance, why not eat spinach. Of course eating spinach raw is not very appetizing. You may try and maybe you may enjoy it. But best to cook it the way I do.

It’s easy and simple. And delicious.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 packet Puay Leng vegetables (this vegetable is commonly found in NTUC or any wet market)
1 whole bulb of Garlic (i like lots of garlic and it makes this dish flavourful)
Drizzle of Thai Fish Sauce (IMHO this is the magic ingredient)

Method
1. Wash the Puay Leng. Soak if you need but it is a rather soft vegetable so I would recommend washing only.

2. Crush the garlic whole. If you want, you may slice or chop. But I like it chunky, so I usually bruise the garlic and just fry until slightly brown and you can smell the fragrance of the garlic.

3. After that I dump the whole tray of chopped Puay Leng. No need to chop too small because the vegetable will lose its water content and reduce in size. Add the fish sauce for flavour. Moderate the saltiness. Done!

Bon Appetit!

Fried Onions with Eggs

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Fried Onions with Eggs

One of my favourite comfort foods for those days when I need something easy to fry up for lunch or dinner. Fried Onions with Eggs is my simple go-to recipe when I need to make up the number at the dinner table.

It’s so easy to make, and so therefore there needs to be skill involved to make it the perfect egg omelette dish. Doing it haphazardly doesn’t do the dish justice.

Recipe

Ingredients

3 whole Eggs (I usually use the 55 grams and above type so that I get a good mix of eggs)
2 medium Purple Onions (these onions are easily found anywhere)
1 tsp Chicken Stock granules
Olive Oil

Method

1. Crack the eggs into a bowl and mix in the chicken stock powder and give the mixture a good whisk to make sure the granules are dissolved into the eggs.

2. Slice the onions sideways and leave it as it is. Heat up the wok and pour in 4 tbsp of olive oil. Once the oil is hot enough, throw in the onion slices and start frying.

3. Fry the onions until they start to brown. This happens when the sugars in the onions caramelises. By the the onions would be translucent and softened. Pour the egg mixture into the wok and continue frying until the eggs are brown on one side. Then break it up and stir fry for about a minute. That’s it.

Bon Appetit!

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Beat the chicken stock granules with the eggs

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Fry the onions until softened and translucent and brown on one side

Stir Fry Bitter Gourd with 妖肉 in Salted Black Beans

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Stir Fry Bitter Gourd with 妖肉 in Salted Black Beans

I am throwing down the gauntlet for this recipe, it super heightens umami in an amazing manner that I can’t even begin to describe it. Like they say, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting.

This twist to an old recipe that my mum always made looks likely to stay in my arsenal of recipes. Instead of the usual beef stir fry slices, I am using “yeow” meat or in Mandarin 妖肉 as I so fondly refer to that prized cut of pork.

Sliced thinly and simply marinated with light soya sauce and white pepper yields a flavour that is out of this world. Perfect, at least it is in my culinary journey so far.

The bitter gourd fried using the pan flip method and hot oil, flung up and down to a sweetened tenderness that is just fabulous. The key is to cook the ingredients separately and then bringing them together later on to cook together.

Recipe

Ingredients

A whole Bitter Gourd (sliced thinly or about half a centimetre thick)
2-3 tsp of Salted Black Beans
4-5 cloves of Garlic (bruised)
50 grams of “Yeow” 妖肉 (in hokkien it is called “yo lai ba”)
Light Soya Sauce
Thai Fish Sauce
White Pepper
Olive Oil

Method

1. Slice the pork into thin slices and then marinate in light soya sauce about 2 tsp. Add some white pepper. Leave the pork slices to marinate for about 5 minutes.

2. Bruise or crush the garlic, no need to mince. Then heat 3-4 table spoons of oil in the wok and stir fry the garlic pieces. Fry until the sides are slightly brown. Then add the black beans in to stir fry. Then add the marinated pork.

3. Stir Fry the pork until it starts to change colours and the water content starts to form what looks like the sauce.

4. Reserve the pork slices aside once the meat texture start to change colours.

5. In the same pan, wash and heat another 3-4 tbsp of oil. This time around, you are frying the bitter gourd using the pan flip method. Fry until the bitter gourd is softened and tender (not mushy). Add a drizzle of Thai dish sauce to the bitter gourd pieces and continue to stir fry. The key I believe is the separate frying of the bitter gourd and the addition of fish sauce.

6. Once the bitter gourd is softened, add the reserved (from just now) meat and combine the ingredients. Keep frying and ensure that the ingredients are cooked and that there is now a confluence of flavours.

7. Serve with steamed rice.

Bon Appetit!

Stir Fry Chicken with Scallops, Celery and Cashews

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Stir Fry Chicken with Scallops, Celery and Cashews

It’s a mouthful I must admit, but there is just no two ways of naming this amazing dish. The Stir Fry Chicken with Japanese Scallops, Australian Celery and American Cashews is just as multinational as the number of ingredients in it.

Of course the chicken is 100% local. Or at least I think it is. Or maybe it is Malaysian. *shrugged*

One thing is for certain. I cooked it in a very Singaporean kitchen. 100% home cooked. Okay so what you may say. And you are right. No big deal.

The only thing to shout about is really how well these ingredients all come together to make a delicious dish accompaniment to a perfect meal. The roasted cashews, seared to an uneven edgy char. The marinated chicken bits and pieces seasoned with the troika of marinates – white pepper, soya sauce and oyster sauce – three basic differences that brings such confluence of taste to simple poultry.

I love the roasted cashews and how the celery just added that unique flavour to the dish. Truly I was amazed that I realised to cook this dish only now. This is the stuff legends are made of.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 Chicken Drum (deboned)
Handful of Baked Cashews
3 stalks of Celery (chopped)
6 pieces of Scallops (halved)
White Pepper
Oyster Sauce
Light Soya Sauce
Olive Oil

Method

1. Marinate the chicken pieces in white pepper (about 1 tsp), 1 tbsp soya sauce and 1 tbsp oyster sauce. Leave it to marinate for about 5 minutes.

2. In a wok/pan heat about 3 tbsp oil. Then stir fry the cashews until they start to brown. Once the cashews are browning, add the marinated chicken pieces to stir fry. Ensuring that they change colour to a light brown.

3. Add the scallops and turn the heat up to high. Keep stirring to ensure evenness of cooking. Then throw in the chopped celery and cover the lid to steam the vegetables and softened them.

4. Steaming cooks the vegetables and the meats and allows the flavours to come together cohesively. Remove the lid and stir fry until you can smell the dish. Do a taste test and you can serve.

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!

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!

Ri Ri Sheng Mala Pot

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Ri Ri Sheng Mala Pot

I had my first taste of real Sichuan Mala spiciness when I visit Beijing in 2004, it was just after a humanitarian trip to help some Mongolians build their own shelter under a scheme to eradicate global homelessness with a non-government organisation. We had initially spent about 6 days in Mongolia building and working alongside home owners-to-be, gleaning off their life experiences and learning from them their culture, food and language. We ate, laughed, perspired and ached with the Mongolian volunteers as we laid brick by brick towards their dream home. There was such a sense of community there and we all had simple expectations of each other.

Ho Sim Lang

Beijing was a sort of R&R for the team of volunteers who contributed both financially as well as physically towards the building of the two homes. We only managed to complete part way of the homes, only laying the foundations of the two plots of land in the middle of nowhere near Erdenet City. I have never been to Beijing, so it was a real treat when I had my first taste of Mala Sichuan peppers renown for their insane levels of spiciness and ability to turn every hard man into a puddle of tears. My friends and I randomly selected a Chinese restaurant and ordered all the foods that we wanted to try. Mala Spicy Fish was one of the dishes that left an indelible memory for me.

When the dish came to our table, there was no fish in sight as it was all swimming under a graveyard of chilli oil and Sichuan red peppers. Just peering over the bowl and staring at the contents inside the bowl caused us to break out with great droplets of sweat intermingled with blood (joking). But you could imagine the fine capillaries around our faces bursting at the thought of consuming such fiery foods. To put it in local slang, it was spicy beyond belief. We almost had to jerk back violently so as to protect our corneas from tearing as the sizzling fumes of the chilli peppers could very well cause much damage to our vision.

We waffled for a moment as to who should be the one to try it first and then we decided that we would all eat it at the same time. The fish was hidden beneath a glass coffin of chilli oils and peppers. The fish was superbly prepared and it was both fragrant and delicious when we ate it. It was so good that we forgotten how spicy it was for a moment and gobbled down the entire dish in a matter of minutes. Either we were too hungry or we were not thinking straight. I reckon it was the latter. However, what subsequently followed was sheer pain mottled all over every pore on my embattled tongue. We were pleased that we conquered Sichuan cuisine on our virgin attempt, but our lips had by now become bloated and swollen. Those earlier years of belachan and chilli padi training allowed my tastebuds to gear up with what we had just experienced in our mouths. But clearly it was way over my ability to handle spiciness. Both my cheeks had began to flow great beads of sweat that became like tributaries converging at the lowest point of my chin. I was literally melting into a puddle.

So when I saw these Mala stores popping up all over the island, I thought and remembered my Beijing encounter and those bittersweet memories of that Mala Fish began to flare up the synapses in my brain. I had to try it. I also realised at the same time that it was the most expensive thing to eat in the world. These Mala stalls usually charge each ingredient category according to the weight of the items. And everyone knows that if you weigh certain vegetables eg. bamboo shoots, you are likely to pay quite a bit for just one item. I felt the pricing system was a tad unfair.

Then I came across Ri Ri Sheng Mala Pot and it was by far one of the best places to go for Mala Hot Pot. The reason was because the items are counted individually and by portion as opposed to being measured by the weight of the ingredients. That is unreal considering that almost every other shop was going by the weight of the ingredients. You can find Ri Ri Sheng Mala Pot at Chinatown, and also there is a sister shop of the same name located at Blk 823 Tampines.

If you’re around Tampines area and don’t know what you would like to eat, then you should really consider Mala Pot. It is as close to Chinese cuisine as you can get.

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White Button Mushrooms

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White Button Mushrooms

There is nothing more delicious than a dish of roasted mushrooms at the dinner table. That to me is the main meal, the highlight. It was what I look forward to at dinner time.

It may be odd to place so much emphasis on just the humble fungi, but we all know how much the truffle can fetch in the open market. A few grams can mean some serious dollars at the vegetable marketplace of high end ingredients.

For me, I am happy with the basics. The white button is probably one of the few mushrooms that I got acquainted with when I studied in Sydney. It was a must and it had since become a staple.

My most favorite way of cooking them would be just simply roasting them in a pan without oil at first and getting the moisture in the mushrooms to dry up and getting them to brown a little.

Then I would drizzle extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt for flavor. Sometimes I would add a little rosemary and a dash of cayenne peppers when serving.

Simply divine.

Recipe – serving for one

Ingredient

White button mushrooms

Sea salt

Extra virgin olive oil

Cayenne pepper

Rosemary (optional)

Method

1. Quart the mushrooms and then fry them on medium heat without oil.  This is to brown the mushrooms.

2. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and sea salt. This will give it the shine and the taste of sea salt just makes the dish exciting and delicious.

3. Add a little rosemary for that quintessential flavor.

Bon Appetit!