Stir fry vegetables (Pak Choy + scallops)

Quick tip for cooking leafy vege is that the stems and leaves must be separated.

Stems needs longer time to cook than the leaves. Cook stems first before leaves or else the leaves will turn yellowish (overcooked) or the stems too raw and hard (undercooked)

You can find this 2 ingredients in any supermarket.

A box of scallops last forever. I use if when I run out of fresh meat/seafood in the fridge.

It can be used for just about everything. For stir fry, in instant noodles etc

1 packet of pak choy serves 2 (me and hubbie...good to eat lots of greenies)

What do you need?
1 packet of Pak Choy (washed and cut into half - stems and leaves)
5-6 frozen scallops (rinse under water)

Frozen minced garlic in oil
Oyster sauce

Corn flour (optional)

How to do it?
Heat pan, add frozen minced garlic in oil
Wait for oil to melt and fry garlic until brown and fragrant.
Add a bit of corn flour to scallop before adding scallop into pan to stir fry together.
Stir fry until 50% cooked.
Add stems of pak choy

When stems are 50% cooked, add the rest of the leafy parts.
Don’t need to add water.
Keep frying until soft, add oyster sauce.
Serve.

Don’t overcook or the vegetable will turn yellow.

Stir-fry cabbage with Tang Hoon

You will find this dish at every economic rice stall cos
- it is so easy to cook
- the ingredients is cheap
-cabbage can keep in the fridge for weeks if wrapped in clean kitchen wipes (removes moisture inside the bag) and then in a plastic bag


What do you need?
1/2 medium sized cabbage (1 cabbage cost approx $0.90, sliced horizontally)
Small handful of Tang Hoon (soaked)
1 black fungus (optional, soaked, sliced horizontally)
1 handful dried scrimps (soaked)
Frozen minced garlic in oil
Meat/seafood (minced pork, sliced chicken/pork, frozen prawn, frozen scallop)
· Defrost meat/seafood if stored in freezer. Cut to bite size.
· Optional to marinate with light soya sauce, pepper and sesame oil. (don’t need to marinate if using dried food
Oyster sauce



How to do it?
Heat pan, add frozen minced garlic in oil.
Wait for oil to melt, when garlic is brown, add scrimps
Fry garlic and scrimp until fragrant.
Add a bit of corn flour to meat/seafood before adding meat/seafood into pan to stir fry together.
Stir fry until 70% cooked.
Add cabbage, stir fry
When cabbage soften, add ½ cup water, add tang hoon and fungus
Add oyster sauce, stir to fully dissolve in water
Cover and cook slowly until water dries up (leave a bit of water as the gravy!)
Serve.

Frozen minced garlic in oil

This saves me the trouble of having to chop garlic each time i want to cook something.


Also keeps the garlic fresh.

:) smart right?



When you have time, spend time removing skin from garlic and chop them up.
Put garlic in clean container, pour olive oil to garlic (to cover garlic totally) and keep in freezer/fridge.
mix well so that garlic is coated with oil.
If you don’t add enough oil, the garlic will turn yellowish and will spoil (become watery, even moldy).
Don’t need to worry about too much oil because the oil will end up being the oil meant for cooking later.

Steak with mushroom and cheese brocolli

This is the final product....

Pan-fry steak

What do you need?
1 pack of tenderloin (2 pieces – palm sized)
Coarse pepper (I use Masterfood – Seasoned Pepper)
Butter
Salt

How to do it?
Marinate beef with pepper and salt for at least half an hour in the fridge.
Heat pan, melt butter
Wait for butter to melt 50%, add beef (the butter will continue to melt so it is ok)
Don’t wait for butter to melt totally before adding meat or else the butter will burn.
Fry until brown on both sides
Depending on how cooked you like your beef to be, should take 3-4 mins for medium well done.

Stir-fry shitake mushroom

What do you need?

1 pack of shitake mushroom (5-6 medium sized), wash, sliced
1 onion
Frozen minced garlic in oil
Shao Xing wine (approx 2 tbsp)
Salt
Pepper

How to do it?
Heat pan, add frozen minced garlic in oil.
Wait for oil to melt and fry garlic until brown and fragrant.
Add onion with pinch of salt. Fry till soft and transparent, slightly brown
Add mushroom, fry till soft for 2 -3 mins
Generously splash shao xing wine and stir until dry
Add salt and pepper to taste

Cheese Broccoli

What do you need?
1 medium sized broccoli
1 packet of Cauliflower Supreme with Cheese (McCormick)
HL milk (small packet – 200ml)
4 button mushroom (Optional)
Cooking oil
Salt
Pepper

How to do it?
Add oil and salt to water, bring water to boil
Add broccoli, cook for 2-3 mins
Add button mushroom, cook for another 1-2 mins
Remove broccoli and mushroom from water, leave on plate

Pour away water.
Using same pot, pour milk and McCormick cheese mix, stir thoroughly, bring to boil.
Return broccoli and mushroom into pot, stir to mix well.
Reduce until sauce thickens to your liking.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Steam egg with minced pork

What do you need?
Minced pork (1 packet from NTUC – Less than $2)
Eggs (2 eggs)
Century eggs (2 eggs)
Water (2 eggs)



How to do it?
Mix minced pork to egg. Add water. Mix thoroughly.
To taste, add soya sauce (approx 1 tbsp), pepper, sesame seed oil
Prepare steamer, bring water to boil


Put plate on rack and steam over water


Extra soya sauce on top if not salty enough




Other combination:
Pork + Tong Chai + dried scrimps
Pork + Frozen CornPork + century egg

Xmas prezzies!

14th Dec - Thursday night

Giving out Xmas prezzies earlier this yr because tomorrow Friday is my last day at work

i am going on 1 weeks leave during xmas week!!! yuppie...

found pretty plastic bags in Daiso in plaza sing during lunch time shopping

Being cheapo, bought 3 types

- pink stripes ones 12 pcs

- blue stripes ones 12 pcs

- green ones 18 pcs

I really like the pink and blue ones!!! but green ones have 6 more!!! :D

never mind, buy all 3, spread out the costs!!!

After dinner, start work at ard 9pm.

The receipe yields 12 muffins, i need to double the portions.

Damn!!! not enough eggs in the fridge.... luckily hubby volunteers to go buy... problem solved....

Read receipe... take out the ingredients one by one.... oh no, no more sugar!!!!!

quickly call husband, still downstairs, just in time to ask him to buy... phew, another problem solved.

lets get started!!!

Weigh sugar... pour sugar into bowl... cut butter into small pieces and throw into bowl with sugar. check receipe again. oh no!!! its melted butter!!!

oh well.... pick them up from bowl (already coated with sugar but its ok lah), put the butter into a bowl and pop into microwave for 2 mins. haha... anyhow whack!!! phew...3rd problem solved...

cream sugar with egg using mixer....

add mashed banana.... add melted butter.....

So far so good. the batter is very heavy when i lift it to to mix with the dry ingredients...

While i am mixing with the dry ingredients.. eh?? looks very dry!!! ok i better dont mix in all the flour (leave some at the sides of the bowl). receipe say cannot over mix so as long as the majority of the batter is mixed, i can dont scope out those batter that is not mixed properly right??

when i start to scoop the mixture into the muffin cups, begins to feel worried. Oh no, very dry leh... cannot remember whats the texture like the last time i made them. will they turn out to be stone muffins???!!! finished scooping... fill only 21 cups.... even more worried....

After 10 mins in the oven, first sigh of relief when i see them rise in the oven.

Rise so much means there is lots of air inside so cannot be too hard right?

2nd sigh of relief after they stand outside the oven for 5 mins. didnt sink... so the air inside is still trapped so should remain fluffy right?? i cannot wait anymore!!! while its still hot, grab the ugliest looking one and tear it apart!!!

The top crust is very crusty... take a bite... very crunchy.. like biscuit.. taste wise also okay....

3rd sigh of relief...

Inside if the muffin is very soft to touch... 4th sigh of relief.... okay... someone told me cannot eat muffin when its hot cos it will cause hair drop... (urban legend??!)

Go bath first...

After 15 mins, check out the muffins again... a bit harder to touch, but still okay.... 5th sigh of relief...

Pinch a small piece and put inside the mouth of unsuspecting husband (who is playing game)

*hm... nice!!* 6th and final sigh of relief.

okay... good to go as prezzies.

wait for them to cool before packing...

so pretty!!! **proud**

Lets see how long i can keep this up

decides to start this blog because
- a fren send me a sms 'carrot can stir fry with what?'
- reply 'anything u want... some greens maybe?'
- then later that evening she sends me an sms with a pic file attached
- its a plate of sweet peas stir fry with carrot and beancurd
she is so pleased with herself and she asks me for receipes

for her, i started taking pictures of my ingredients, cooking methods and the final product
put it into a word document, wanting it to be a receipe book

later i realise its not a good idea. pics in word doc makes the doc too big (though i have compressed it!!) and its very difficult to send via email!

husband then asks me to start a blog

first attempt.... alamak, need google account...
forget it....

continue to work on word document....
husband nags again

Finally today, husband is out gaming...
nothing to do, nothing interesting on tv

lets click on create blog again
hm... yah hor, i dont have google account *ponders*

never mind, put in my yahoo one...

eh? can leh, it works!!!

oh well, lets get started.... and see how long i can keep this up
:)