These days I find myself looking into the fridge for items and specifically for their throw by date, which admittedly is a little irritating. “Why did I buy that bottle of whole grain mustard, only to have it thrown out today?”
It is precisely this sense of overt consumerism mentality that irks me. And at the same time on this beautiful albeit damp New Year’s Day (2018) that I am scavenging through the fridge scrounging for scraps to make breakfast.
Alright, mac and cheese it is then. The macaroni in the box is probably still fresh (I hope), which is just about all that I have left in the dry pantry. Some leftover streaky bacon, and some sharp cheddar and we should be good.
Indeed we are. A little chicken stock, some pre-rotting tomatoes and minutes later we have a very nice macaroni and blah blah. There is no proper name for this. But we love it.
Bon Appetit!
Sorry the working title should be “macaroni and cheese” but I need to remind myself to not over consume. Hence the “throw by date” title to remind me to not over consume.
My mother-in-law gave us a packet of what seems to be the nicest looking Nai Baivegetable 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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
The item on the extreme right is frozen pork ribs just in case you are wondering. This is one of my favourite no-brainer soup for those days when you don’t want to plan or worry too much about what to cook for dinner. Some families call it the A-B-C Soup in Singapore, a hearty nutritious soup that every family with a young kid would love.
The ingredients when cooked together will truly produce one of the best flavours ever. Guaranteed that you and your family will love it. All natural and wholesome ingredients – what’s not to love? The sweet corn that I used is the covered one that when you unveil, is a sweet crunchy vegetable. I was surprised how sweet it was and even sweeter if they are from the farms in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. For the tomatoes, some like the soup to be sourish, so if you’re one of those that like it like that, then add more tomatoes. So after adding all the ingredients, the soup would be already be very tasty. Just a tablespoon of salt and 12 hours of thermal cooking, it would be ready to be served.
I also loved Shiitake Mushrooms in my soups. Normally I use the dried ones as they tend to keep longer. However, my wife and son are not fans, and so I decided to leave it out.
Some of you may ask, why use a Thermal Cooker instead of a regular pot over fire? Well the thermal cooker will help tenderise the meats – kind of like a slow cooker, and everything is just more flavourful if you cooked your meals that way. It works for busy families, where you would cook the soup in the mornings before heading off to the office, and then come back to re-heat it when you’re home at night.
A pot of A-B-C Soup is just perfect with steamed rice or Maggi noodles.
Anyway, I said all that to say that this recipe is so easy to prepare. Anyone can do it. Easy until I wanna cry.
* 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
200 grams Pork Ribs (Indonesian pork is the best) 1 ear (haha) of Sweet Corn(better still if they are from Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, those are white in colour and very juicy and sweet) 2 medium Carrots 1 medium Tomato or up to three Tomatoes (for that slightly sour taste) 1 Tablespoon of Salt
Method
1. Boil a kettle of water. Place frozen pork ribs in thermal pot. The thermal cooker that I use for this is the Zojirushi SN-XAE60 Thermal Pot, just in case you’re interested to mimic the same cooking conditions.
2. Chop the corn into 8 parts. Slice the carrots into bite sized chunks. Quart the tomatoes. Dump everything into the pot. Drop in 1 tablespoon of salt. Pour in the hot water until it covers all the ingredients.
3. Turn on high heat for 15 minutes. Make sure the lid is on, and the water is bubbling. Then turn off the fire, and place the pot into the thermal cooker itself and close the outer lid. You can serve it 12 hours later or when you’re back from work, it would be perfect for dinner.
