Mee sua soup

After the xmas and new year feasting, its time to detox.

Cooked a simple and light lunch, using leftovers in the fridge.

What do you need?
- Sliced pork (marinated)
- Kai lan stem (5cm long)
- 1 stalk of chye sim
- 1 baby carrot
- 4 cherry tomato
- 2 mee sua (dried)
- 2 cups of chicken stock






How to do it?
Heat pot with water, water level at approximately 1.5 inches. Bring to boil, add mee sua, cook for approx 2 mins or until water reboils for 1 min.

Drain mee sua and put into bowls.

Heat pot again with chicken stock. Add sliced of pork and bring to boil. Add all vegetables, bring to boil.
Pour soup, meat and vegetables into bowls with mee sua, serve.

Season with some soya sauce, pepper and sesame seed oil to taste.
Sprinkle with fried shallots. Serve. 

Black pepper fried rice with kai lan stem

A new vegetable in town - Kai lan stem
This is basically kai lan with super big and thick stems. The stems are about 15 cm long, 3 cm thick, and it comes with no leafs or couple of leaves (which i discard). Peel off the skin to expose the light green stem that resembles sugar cane. The stems are very crunchy and sweet. For those of you who prefers stems to leaf vegetables like me, this is a keeper. Try it!

I bought this as an alternative to asparagus, as i want to wrap it in bacon. So i cut the kai lan stem and carrot into thick strips, and roll them up in half a slice of bacon. Grill in the oven for 15 minutes until crisp. Yummy.

Leftover kai lan stems are diced for today's fried rice.

What do you need?
- 3 cups of cooked cold rice
- 50g of sliced pork
- 50g of minced pork
- 1/2 chinese sausage (diced)
- 1 handful of diced kai lan stem
- 1 handful of diced carrots
- 1 small red onion (diced)
- Minced garlic in olive oil
- Chinese wine, soya sauce, pepper
- 2 tsp of black pepper sauce
- Sesame seed oil

How to do it?
In a dry pan, pan fry the chinese sausage until lightly brown and crisp. Remove and set aside.
Put 1 tbsp of minced garlic and some olive oil into the pan with the diced red onions. Fry for 1 min.
Add minced pork and sliced pork.
Break up the minced pork with the back of the spatula.

When the pork is cooked, add chinese wine, soya sauce and pepper. Mix well.
Add kai lan stem and carrot. Stir fry for 2 min.

Add cold rice, break up the lumps, mix well.

Add black pepper sauce, mix well.

Add chinese sausage and drizzle sesame seed oil onto the rice. At this point, i added some chopped parsley and fried shallots as well.

Turn off heat. Mix well and serve.

Roast Pork Belly

In my first attempt i used strips of pork belly (pre-packed at Carrefour).

This is my second attempt. I pre-ordered from the butcher at Carrefour for a big slice of pork belly and he gave me this.

Using a sharp knife, i made lots of holes in the skin.
After which, i rubbed approximately 2 tsp of salt on the skin.

On the meat side, cut the meat into half (not cutting through the skn) and score the meat diagonally, 2 cm deep, 4 cm squares.











On the left hand side, i have the chinese marinate.
- 2 piece of preserved beancurd
- 1 tsp of five spice powder
- 1 tbsp of chinese wine
- salt & pepper

On the right side, i have the western marinate:
- 1 tbsp of mustard (in vinegar)
- 1 tsp of dried rosemary
- salt and pepper

Place the meat with skin facing up onto a plate, and keep it in the fridge overnight. Do not cover as we want the air in the fridge to dry the skin.

Preheat over at 200 degrees, using the baking mode.



Put pork belly on grilling tray with skin side up, and another tray below to catch the dripping oil.
Put pork belly in the centre rack of the oven for 20 minutes.

This is after 5 minutes in the oven.

After 10 minutes, the skin begins to curl inwards.

After 20 mins in the oven, turn the cooking mode to grill (top heat only) and cook for another 45 mins.

After 30 mins of grilling.

After 45 mins of grilling, remove from oven and let meat rest for 30 mins to cool down totally.

The skin is 101% crackled and its damn crispy!
Which is better Chinese Vs Western roast pork....

Personally, i prefer the chinese one... But for my dear friend coming over for xmas, i am making the combo again ;) just for variety (and to use up the mustard)....

Porky porridge with 'you tiao'

There is a prorridge stall in ABC market that will serve a you tiao sitting across the bowl. What i like about the stall is that they are serious about serving crispy you tiao. You can see that they deliberately ordered half-fried you tiao and refry when u order the porridge. And when i say re-fry, i mean they re-fry one by one, upon order, not mass refry. The result is crispy freshly fried you tiao for every bowl of hot porridge. Letting it sit on top of the bowl also means that the you tiao is not soaked into the porridge and u can just dip it into the porridge before taking a bite. Crispy you tiao in every bite with a mouthful of porridge. So clever.

Of cos, i stole the idea. Bought extra you tiao for breakfast, and then cooked pork porridge for lunch.

Mince pork with sliced pork (with egg).

Bursting with protein and carbo!

Stir fry yellow noodles

How can something so gooey and messy taste so good?!! Another of my 1-dish-wonder for a lazy Sunday afternoon lunch. Hubby went for soccer in the morning and i promise a hearty carbo packed lunch for him. The day before i cooked up a huge pot of chicken stock (more about it next time) and want to cook a dish that uses the fantastic stock. Went to NTUC and saw the yellow noodles on sale. 2 pack for $2 i think. So went ahead to buy it. I have the option of cooking noodle soup, fried noodle or noodle swimming in gravy. All versions require the same ingredients, just different way of cooking it.

Speaking of ingredients, i dont have much to prepare as well. Frozen slice squid is leftover from a previous steamboat session i have at home. Sliced and marinated pork is always available in my fridge. Whenever i buy a piece of pork from the supermarket, i will slice them all up, marinate them, pack them in several clean pastic bags and keep them in the freezer. Whenever i need pork, i will just take 1 pack from the freezer the night before, place it in the fridge and by the next day, it will be defrozed and i can use it for cooking. There is ten thousand ways to use it. I use this to cook porridge in the morning when i am in the hurry, cook instant noodles etc.

So I 'prepared' all the ingredients, waited for hubby to come back and ask him what type of noodles he want. He is so tired he opt for something that is easy-to eat. Fried noodles then. No messy gravy,  no piping hot soup to make him feel all sweaty after a cooling afternoon bath, something that can be eaten with just a fork in front of the tv.

What do you need?

- 1 packet of yellow noodles (serves 3)

- some sliced pork

- some sliced squid

- handful of baby kailan

- 1 beaten egg

- 1/2 cup of chicken stock

- Seasoning (oyster sauce, dark soya sauce, chinese wine, pepper, sesame seed oil)

- Garlic in oil

How to do it?
Heat pan and brown garlic in oil. Add 1 tbsp of olive oil and fry pork and squid for 1 min (half cooked)
Add yellow noodles, 1 tbsp of oyster sauce, 1/2 tbsp of dark soya sauce, generous dash of pepper, 1/2 cup of chicken stock and mix well.
Cover pan with lid and let the noodles cook for 2-3 mins in medium heat.

Add kailan. Stir fry the noodles well and wait for all stock to evaporate.
Add chinese wine and fry until all wine is fully evaporated.

Pour beaten egg in cover with lid (no stirring) for 1 min. You will notice some egg will be cooked, some not.
Mix the egg into the noodle, the uncooked egg will coat the noodle into a gooey mess.
Drizzle sesame seed oil over noodles generously and serve.

Serves 2 hearty lunches, with a plateful leftover and i heat it up for lunch the next day! Yum!

Guo Tie

Always a big fan of Guo Tie (Potstick). Love the crispy skin and the juicy meat within.

I basically use the same ingredients as the Siew Mai.
Just different proportions, heavy on parsley and dried scrimps, light on mushroom and white fungus.

What do you need?
- Mince meat 200gm
- Diced prawn 150gm
- 1 chinese dried mushroom (soaked and diced)
- 1 black fungus (i use white, soaked and diced)
- 6 stalks of parsley
- 1 handful of dried scrimps (soaked and diced)
- 1 thumb sized of ginger (minced)
- Seasoning (soya sauce, pepper, wine, sesame oil)

For the skin, i use the receipe and method from Jas's Kitchen.

How to do it?
Heat pan with oil, place the gou tie upright to brown the bottom on low heat. Turn to side to achieve browning on both sides. When done, add 1/4 cup of water into pan, close the lid immediately and let it cook for 2-4 mins until water fully evaporates.

Serve with sliced ginger in dark vinegar (dilute with water and put a dash of sugar)

Siew mai

This is a giantic siew mai, cant tell from this close up picture, scroll to the bottom and upon comparision with the saucer, u will notice its twice your average size siew mai. I am 'forced' to make it so big as the wanton skin is very big. Its actually a dumpling skin. :D Its not normal dumpling skin, its shanghai dumpling skin. Its white in colour and its chewy compared to the normal yellow ones. Another great find in Carrefour!

What do you need?

Ingredients A:

- minced pork 200gm

- diced prawns 150gm

- 2 chinese mushroom (soaked and diced)

- 2 black fungus (i ran out so i used white ones instead)

- 3 stalks of Parsley (chopped finely - put aside some parsley leaves for deco)

- 1 thumb size of ginger (minced)

- some dried scrimps (soaked and finely chopped)

Other ingredients:

- Seasoning (Soya sauce, pepper, wine, oyster sauce, sesame seed oil)

- 1 tbsp of starch flour

- 2 tbsp of stock

- Dumpling skin

How to do it?

Put ingredient A into a big bowl, mix well.

Add seasoning, mix well. Add starch flour and stock.

Mix well for 5 - 10 minutes until the mixture is sticky and starchy.

Marinate for 30 mins in the fridge.

Wrap meat in dumpling skin. Put a parsley leaf on top for deco.

Heat water in pot, place siew mai into steam when water is boiling. Steam for 15 mins.

Yield 6 giant siew mai. Haha. 

Sausage and mushroom spaghetti

I love working near plaza sing. Shopping for groceries is so convenient.


I have some leftover dried spagetti from cooking in pesto, always looking for opportunities to cook pasta without having to buy huge bottles of expensive pasta sauces.

Chanced upon prego canned mushroom cream sauce on sale at $1.50. Grab it.

Saw beautiful white oyster mushroom in carefour, grab it.
Need meat, lazy to debone chicken, spotted raw sausage from the carefour freezer, grab a pack!


What do you need?
- Dried spaghetti for 2 pax (size of a 20cents coin)
- 4 white oyster mushroom (i use the whole pack, break big ones into palm size pieces)
- 3 raw sausage
- 1 canned cream mushroom sauce (Prego brand, blue wrapper)
- Garlic in oil
- Coarse pepper / seasoning pepper




How to do it?
Cook spagetti in pot of water with generous pinch of salt
Drain well and set spaghetti aside

Heat pan with cooking oil. Remove skin of sausage. Pinch sausage into ping pong ball size, rolling them in your palm to shape it a little, drop them into the pan and pan fry until brown on the outside, cooked inside. Use low heat, takes about 5-8 mins. Set aside.



Add garlic in oil into pan and fry until slightly brown.
Add oyster mushroom and fry until soft, careful not to break them.
Add 1/2 cup water to braise the mushroom for 2 mins (i like my mushrooms soft)


Add the canned pasta sauce into the mushroom, add 1/2 can of water, stir well.
Add coarse pepper to taste, turn off heat.

Add spaghetti into pan and mix well with pasta sauce.

Serve on plate, with sausage balls at the sides.


Saturday lunch is a hearty meaty mushroomy creamy pasta dish.

Fuzhou fishball mee sua

Beautiful picture huh?
Red, green, brown, grey, olive, white....

Saturday went to MIL place for dinner, tabao home some old cucumber soup and she gave me 10 special fuzhou fishballs she bought from Chinatown market.
1 fishball costs 40cents okay? Not cheap hor... MIL say fuzhou fishball normally cost 30cents each. This is more ex cos its really special.

For those of u who dont know what is fuzhou fishball, the reason why its so ex is because this fishball has minced pork in the centre. For this 40 cents one, its REALLY good. When u bite into it, the juice of the minced pork will spurt out. Hubby's shorts kena. Haha.....

What do you need?
- Stock (any leftover soup for 2 u have in the fridge - dilute with 1/2 the amount of water)
- 6 fuzhou fishball (3 per pax)
- 1/4 pack of minced pork (makes around 20 meat balls)
- 4 stalks of chye sim (wash and cut into 2 inch long)
- 1 pack of chilli brand mee sua (4 bundles, 2 per pax)
- 6 prawns (3 per pax)

How to do it?
In separate bowls, marinate minced pork and prawn with soya sauce, pepper, sesame seed oil and chinese wine.

Pot 1: Pour stock (about 2 bowls) dilute with 1 bowl of water into a pot. Bring to boil.
Place fuzhou fishballs into soup, cook until fishball floats to surface.

Add 1 tsp of corn flour into minced pork, mix well, scoop minced pork onto palm of hand to make into tiny meatballs and throw them into soup to cook.

In Pot 2, bring 3 cups of water to boil. Place 4 bundles of mee sua into water and cook for 2 mins. Stir with chopsticks to separate the mee sua. Dont over cook. Drain away hot water and divide the mee sua into 2 big bowls.

In pot 1, add prawns and chye sim, bring to boil.

Scoop fuzhou fishball, prawn, chye sim and meatballs into bowl with mee sua. Pour in stock.

Put a dash of fried shallots and pepper in the soup.

Serve.

Suan chai with sliced pork

Using my suan chai from my 2nd attempt, I decides to cook it for lunch at MIL's place.

Usually we have porridge and this will be a good dish to go with it.
Furthermore, i have been telling her about my suan chai making... have to let her try it!

She told me previously that for preserve vegetables, there is always a funny smell and the only way to get rid of it is to pan fry it.

So I followed her instructions this time.

What do you need?
- Half a piece of lean pork (about 150g, sliced thinly)
- suan chai (diced - made from 2 packets of china chye xin)
- Garlic in oil
- Seasoning for the pork (Soya sauce, pepper, chinese wine, sesame seed oil)
- Corn flour
- Black vinegar
- Sugar
- Soya sauce

How to do it?
Marinate the sliced pork with seasoning. Set aside.

Heat pan without oil. When pan is red hot, add the suan chai and pan fry it. Simply toss the turn and fry and fry until the suan chai is totally dry and no water vapour is emitted.
Takes at least 5 mins.

Remove suan chai from pan and set aside.

Add 1 tbsp of corn flour into pork. Mix well.
Heat pan and add garlic in oil. When garlic is browned, added the pork.

Stir fry until pork slices are golden browned.


Add suan chai and continue frying. Add 1 tbsp of soya sauce, 2 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tbsp of black vinegar and 1/2 cup of water.

Simmer on low to medium heat until water is reduced to 1/10 cup or totally dry (up to you).

Serve.

Dumpling soup

I had some leftover minced meat from making another dish for mother's day celebration.

So decided to make them into dumpling soup for dinner. All i need is to pop down to NTUC and get myself a packet of dumpling skin, 1 packet of fresh medium sized prawns and a packed of xiao bai chye.



What do you need?
- 1/2 packet of xiao bai chye
- 1 packet of dumpling skin (cost $0.80, 13 pieces)

For fillings
- 1/2 - 3/4 packet of minced meat (1 pkt cost around $2.50 - $3)
- 13 prawns (shelled and gutted, keep shells and head for making soup)
- 3 water chestnut (peel, diced)
- 1/2 handful of dried scrimps (soaked and diced)
- 2 dried mushroom (soaked and diced)
- seasoning (1/2 tbsp of oyster sauce, 1 tbsp of soya sauce, 1 tbsp of sesame seed oil, 2 tbsp of chinese wine, pepper)
- 1 tbsp of starch flour

How to make the prawn soup
Heat pot with oil (abt 1 tbsp), fry prawn head and shells until it turns red.

Continue to stir fry for at least 3-5mins untils its dry and fragrant. Add 1/2 tbsp of soya sauce into pot and let it sizzle.
Add 5 cups of water.

Reduce heat to low, simmer prawn soup for 30 mins. Reduced soup to around 3 cups (1.5 cup per bowl)


How to prepare the fillings
In a bowl, place minced meat and add starch powder and water.
Mix and toss minced meat until it has a starchy and sticky texture.

In another bowl, add water chestnut, dried scrimps, dried mushroom and seasonings. Combine well and add to minced meat. Mix well.

For full details of the techniques, see makings of filling for Rou Bao

How to make dumplings
Divide minced meat into 13 portions (as i only have 13 dumpling skins).
Wrap minced meat and 1 prawn in each dumpling skin.
Seal the sides of the dumpling skin with water or egg white.

Bring water to boil in another pot, add 1/2 tbsp of cooking oil and a pinch of salt into the water.

When water is boiling, add dumplings and cook dumplings until the dumplings are cooked.

How do you know when the dumplings are cooked?

The dumplings will float to the water surface.

Fish dumplings into bowl directly.

Fish prawn head and shells from the prawn soup.

Add xiao bai chai. Cook xiao bai chye for 2 mins.

Scoop xiao bai chye and prawn soup into the bowl containing the dumplings.

Serve.

You can replace dried mushroom with dried black fungus.

Soak dried balck fungus and cut into strips

Pan fried minced meat

Went to MIL place for lunch on saturday... has this minced pork dish served with teochew porridge.

Apparently, this is hubby and his brother's favourite. I didnt know that...

Its so easy, I replicate it the next weekend at home.

The result?

Taste just like mummy's. I am a genius... haha

What do you need?
- half a packet of minced meat (from NTUC, 1 pkt cost ard $2.50 - $3)

- 3 shallots (sliced thinly)

- 1 handful of dried scrimps (soaked, diced)

- soya sauce, chinese wine, pepper, sesame seed oil

- garlic in oil

How to do it?

In a bowl, combine dried scrimps with sliced shallots, add 2 tbs of soya sauce, pepper, 1 tbs of sesame seed oil, 2 tbs of chinese wine. Mix well.

Pour mixture into minced meat. Mix well.

Marinate in the fridge for 20-30 mins.

Heat pan, place 1 tbs of minced garlic in oil, fry until garlic turns golden brown.

Add minced meat and fry until all the pinkish pork turns white. When stir frying, breakdown lumps of minced meat into small pieces.

While stir frying, you will see juices oozing out from the pork. At this time, add another tbs of soya sauce and stir fry until all juices are reduced.

When the pan is dry, add 2 tbs spoon of chinese wine and stir fry quickly.

Add a final dash of sesame seed oil and pepper.

Serve.

Rou bao (Meat bun)

I learn 2 techniques about making pork patties from this lesson and i can now apply it when i make meat balls and other dishes involving minced meat....

You will read about the techniques in the process of preparing the meat below.


What do you need for the meat filling?

- Pork 500g, cubed finely (or use minced pork)
- Water chestnut, 6 pieces, cubed
- Mushroom, soaked and diced finely
- Spring onion 1 stalk
- Potato starch 2 tbsp
- Salt 1 tsp
- Sugar 3 tsp
- Oyster sauce 2 tsp
- Pepper
- Sesame seed oil 1/2 tbsp
- Cooking oil 1 tbsp


How to prepare the meat filling

In a large bowl, combine pork, salt, 2 tsp of water and starch powder. Mix well.

First technique

Continue mixing and tossing the meat into the bowl for 5 - 10 mins until the minced pork has a starchy and sticky texture. Pork (similar to prawns) has a natural ability to generate a starchy texture after kneading. If you cannot achieve the texture, add more water and starch powder. (Mixture 1)

Once you can lift the entire ball of pork in a ball using your hand and it doesnt disintegrate, the pork is ready for use. The end product is meatballs that has more bite and the meat holds it shape after you bite into it.

Second Technique

In a separate bowl, combine mushroom and water chestnut. Add sugar, pepper, osyter sauce and mix well. (Mixture 2)

We all tend to add the above ingredients and seasoning to the pork and mix together. BUT according to the instructor, if you mix them separately before adding to the pork, the pork just taste different.

Shared with hubby this technique and he thought of a scientic explanation. Water chestnut and mushroom will release water and at the same time, absorb the marination better. If you add the to pork directly, the pork will soak everything up. Makes sense, dont know...

Combine mixture 1 and 2, mix well.

Add sesame seed oil, cooking oil and spring onions, mix well.

Spoon the conbined mixture into 22 balls of meat and place them onto the tray. Keep them in the freezer and freeze it for 10 mins as frozen meat balls are easier to wrap into the dough later.

What do you need for the bun skin (dough)?

- 300g plain flour
- 50g sugar
- 5g baking powder
- 5g yeast
- 5g white oil
- 1 egg white
- 120g water (approximate)

How to make the dough?

Place flour into a bowl, make a hole on the centre of the flour.
Add sugar, baking powder, yeast, white oil and egg white into the hole, mix it with a bit of the surrounding flour until mixed.

Adding water very slowly, bring in the flour from the sides of the whole and incorporate the flour into the dough. Adding water slowly each time to incorporate more flour.

When all the flour are added to the dough (the bowl will be clean), remove from bowl into a clean table top and continue kneading.

If the dough is dry during kneading, cut the dough through the centre, flatten it, wet hands and rub hands over the flatten dough. Fold in the dough from the sides and continue kneading.

You will need 5 - 10 mins for the sugar in the dough to dissolve and the action of the yeast to kick in. The completed dough should have a smooth surface and springy to the touch.

Once the dough is ready, roll out into a long 'rope' and pinch it out into cubes of 20g each. the dough can make 22 balls of 20g dough.

Flatten dough using the palm of your hand. Using a rolling pin, roll out the sides until you have a flatten circular shaped dough. The centre of the dough should be thicker to be able to hold the meat.



Please frozen meat balls onto the dough and pinch the sides of the dough to wrap meat inside the dough, seal tightly.


Place completed bun onto a piece of paper and let it rest for 20 mins before steaming.


Steam on high for 10 mins and you will have freshly steamed bun from the steamer


View cross section of the bun here.