Spinach Soup with Hawthorn Berries

• 300 grammes of spinach (rinsed and plucked at the stems. Discard old or thick stems)
• 10 grammes of hawthorn berries (about 20 to 30 pieces)
• 100 grammes of minced meat (we use pork)
• 50 grammes of ikan bilis
• 3 soup bowls

• 2 teaspoons light soya sauce
• a dash of white pepper powder
  

• Salt to taste
• 2 teaspoons light soya sauce

Labels: Pork, Soup, Vegetable

Claypot Chicken with Bitter Gourd

Labels: Chicken, Dinner, Vegetable

Stir-Fried Instant Noodles

Whilst instant noodles can be REALLY EASY to cook, you can actually make a slightly more elaborate dish out of it by adding some ingredients which blend nicely with the springy texture of the instant noodles. For this recipe, I use bean sprouts, carrots and capsicum to give it a bit of crunch and fibre and I also add sliced fish cake for added flavour.

Ingredients

There are actually two parts to cooking this dish. The first part would be to cook the instant noodles in boiling water till al-dente (which is cooked but not soggy or soft). After cooking the noodles in boiling water, drain it and run it under cold / tap water to stop the noodles from cooking further. Running it through the cold / tap water also makes the noodles springy in texture.

Close-Up of a piece of Fish Cake

The second part involves the stir-frying of the ingredients together with the noodles. You will need a cooker which gives you really high heat or else, the noodles might stick to your wok. And if you used the wok to boil the noodles, I would recommend that you fry some sliced shallots in that wok, remove the oil and shallots and wash the wok before proceeding to stir-fry the instant noodles. Frying the shallots or even an egg for that matter will somehow "recondition" the wok to be less sticky.

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Instant Noodles


Ingredients

• 4 pieces of instant noodles (cooked by boiling as per above paragraph)
• 1 piece or more of fish cake (sliced) (substitute with whatever meat you want)
• 1/2 piece of capsicum (sliced thinly)
• An equal amount of carrots or more (julienned)
• 300 grammes of bean sprouts (rinsed and root removed)
• 2 stalks of spring onions (cut to 3 inch lengths)
  
• 4 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Seasoning

• 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon of light soya sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of dark soya sauce

Method

Heat oil in wok and saute garlic together with sliced fish cake till garlic begin to brown. Break the eggs over the sliced fish cake and gently stir till egg is thoroughly cooked. Add carrots and capcisum and stir-fry for 1 minute.

Add cooked noodles and seasoning and stir-fry for 1 minute to ensure that seasoning is evenly distributed. Sprinkle some warm water if the noodles are drying out or burning. Sprinkle the spring onions onto the noodles and stir evenly.

Dish out and serve hot with cut chillis.


Technorati Tags : Recipe , Noodles , Stir-Fry , Chinese

Labels: Chinese, Dinner, Lunch, Noodles, Vegetable

Mui Choy Bak

Labels: Pork, Vegetable

Stir-Fried Dwarf Bok Choy with Garlic and Dried Prawns

Lately, Dwarf Bok Choy is commonly sold in markets. Bok Choy or Pak Choy is a commonly cooked vegetable in chinese cuisine. Generally, the vegetable has dark green leaves and white or greenish spoon-shaped stems. Siew Pak Choy (Small Pak Choy) is a favourite to many and has greenish coloured stems whilst the Tai Pak Choy (Big Pak Choy) has a darker green leave atop white coloured stems. Dwarf Bok Choy, I believe, is a miniature version of the Tai Pak Choy, which you can see in the picture.

Dwarf Bok Choy

I find the Dwarf Bok Choy sweeter in taste rather than the more bitter Tai Pak Choy. That is not to say that it tastes sweet but rather, bitter sweet. I usually cook this vegetable with garlic and dried prawns. Somehow, I find the combination of garlic and dried prawns bring out the nice bitter sweet flavour of the vegetable. I also understand that cooking with dried prawns enable the vegetable to cook faster. You will notice that I do not use any seasoning as I prefer the original flavour from the garlic and dried prawns. The dried prawns are in itself, slightly salty.

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Dwarf Bok Choy with Garlic and Dried Prawns


Ingredients

• Approximately 200 grammes of dwarf bok choy (wash and rinse to remove dirt)
• 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 30 grammes of dried prawns (rinsed for a couple of seconds, pre-soaked in 50 ml water for 20 minutes - retain water for cooking)
• 1 tablespoon of cooking oil (palm oil preferred)

Method

Heat oil in wok and stir-fry the dried prawns for about 10 seconds. Add garlic and continue stir-frying till garlic begin to brown. Add dwarf bok choy and stir-fry for another 15 seconds or so. Add the water (previously used to soak dried prawns) and close lid.

Cook dwarf bok choy according to how soft you want the stems to be. Add a little water if you wish to have more gravy and add salt to taste (if not already salty).


Technorati Tags : Vegetable , Bok Choy , Recipe , Chinese Cooking , Stir-Fry

Labels: Dinner, Lunch, Vegetable

Stir-Fried Mixed Vegetables - Sugar Snap Peas, Baby Corn, Carrots and Mushrooms

Sugar Snap Peas are sweet tasting, crisp and succulent and make a good mixed vegetable dish. They have a thicker pod compared to the snap peas and the seeds are larger and sweeter. However, you will have to match it with the right ingredients to get a nice combination of taste and texture. In this recipe, I have mixed it with baby corns (absolutely wonderful and sweet tasting, yet crunchy), carrots (highly nutritious and sweet) and chinese dried mushrooms / shiitake mushrooms (smooth, smoky flavoured and absorbs the gravy well) for a delicious and healthy stir-fry. You can substitute the mushrooms with any other type of mushrooms eg. straw mushrooms, button mushrooms or golden needle mushrooms.

Sugar Snap Peas

When preparing the snow peas, do remove the tips either using your fingers or with a small knife. Try to remove the stringy fibre which runs across both sides of the pod by pulling the tip across. It's like unzipping the pod, only that the pod stays intact and the seeds remain inside.

The timing indicated for cooking below is only an estimate and it also depends on the intensity of the heat that your stove gives. You can adjust the timing to cater for your preferred softness of the vegetables. I like my sugar snap peas crispy, so I do not cook them for a long time.

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Mixed Vegetables - Sugar Snap Peas, Baby Corn, Carrots and Mushrooms

• 100 grammes sugar snap peas (about 20 pieces, remove tip and fibre which runs across the pod)
• 8 pieces of baby corn (sliced lengthwise to quarters)
• Carrots (sliced - amount to your desire)
• 5 pieces chinese dried mushrooms (pre-soaked till soft)
• 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil (palm oil preferred)
• 30 ml of water or more
  
• Corn starch (prepared using 1 tablespoon of corn flour mixed with 5 tablespoons of water)
  

• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• salt to taste
• a couple of dashes of white pepper powder
• 2 teaspoons chinese cooking wine

Labels: Vegetable

Stir-Fried Yau Mak with Garlic

Labels: Dinner, Lunch, Vegetable

Steamed Chicken with Carrots, Wood-Ear Fungus, Dried Lilybuds and Mushrooms

Labels: Chicken, Dinner, Vegetable

A B C D Soup

Labels: Soup, Vegetable

Hot and Sour Szechuan Vegetable Soup

• 1 piece szechuan vegetable larger than the size of an egg (washed and sliced)
  
• 3 - 4 large tomatoes (quartered)
• 50 to 100 grammes of minced pork or pork ribs or chicken parts
• 2 soup bowls or 600 ml of water

Labels: Dinner, Soup, Vegetable

Cabbage Rice with Lap Cheong

• 2 cups rice pre-soaked for 30 minutes (measured using the cup that comes with your rice cooker)
• About 400 grammes of chinese cabbage (shredded roughly)
• 400 grammes of belly pork (try to get the 3-layered pork. Remove skin)
• 5 to 8 pieces dried chinese mushrooms (pre-soaked till soft. Remove from water and cut to slivers but retain water for later use)
• 50 grammes of dried prawns / shrimps (pre-soaked for 5 minutes. Remove from water but retain water for later use)
• 3 to 5 lap cheong (remove skin and slice thinly diagonally)
  
• 5 cloves shallots (sliced thinly)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 3 bowls of water
  

• 4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder
• 2 teaspoon light soya sauce
• 2 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• A pinch of msg (optional)

Labels: Dinner, Rice, Vegetable

Sambal Belacan Ladies Finger

Ladies finger, also known as Okra, is a fibrous pod full of round white seeds. Packed with vitamins and minerals, it is often used in Asian cuisine especially in India. Back home in Malaysia, it is commonly added to Assam Fish or Curry Fish. It is also cooked as a dish of its own and I usually stir-fry it with belacan sambal.

Ladies Finger or Okra

When choosing ladies finger, choose the younger pods which are usually lighter green in colour and smaller in size. Usually, the younger pods will have softer fur-like skin. These younger pods are more tender in texture and less fibrous.

And again, just like Kangkong Belacan, you should cook this dish using really high heat as you want to cook it in minimum time to preserve its juice.

This is my recipe for Sambal Belacan Ladies Finger


Ingredients

• Approximately 15 pieces of ladies finger (washed and sliced diagonally. Discard top / head)
• A pinch of sugar
  
• 50 ml warm water
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Sambal belacan mix (pound / blended together)

• 50 grammes dried prawns / shrimps (pre-soaked for 10 minutes to soften)
• 20 grammes of belacan (buy from stores)
• 5 to 8 cloves garlic
• 5 to 8 cloves shallots
• 3 to 5 red chillis (remove seeds if you want the sambal to be less hot)

Method

Heat oil on wok at medium heat. Stir-fry the sambal belacan mix for about 2 minutes.

Increase heat to high and add ladies finger and sugar. Stir well for about 2 minutes or till the ladies finger is to your desired softness. Add a little water at a time if sambal belacan mix beginning to burn. As the sambal belacan mix contains dried prawns and belacan which are salty in itself, it may not be necessary to add salt.


Technorati Tags : Ladies Finger , Okra , Recipe , Vegetable

Labels: Dinner, Lunch, Vegetable

Stir-Fried Pea-Sprouts with Garlic

Pea-Sprouts are also known as "Tou Miau" in Mandarin. Rich in vitamins and minerals, it is considered one of the easiest vegetable to stir-fry. Popular in many Chinese restaurants, the prices of these pea-sprouts have risen over the years due to its high demand.

Fresh Pea-Sprouts

When cooking this dish, it is important to have the wok heated at high as you need to cook the pea-sprouts in minimum time to preserve its nutrients and to ensure that the juices are retained in the sprouts. Else you will have a flooded dish!

• 300 grammes pea-sprouts (rinse with water to remove dirt prior to cooking)
• 5 to 8 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

• 1 1/2 teaspoons oyster sauce
• Salt to taste
• A dash of white pepper powder

Labels: Dinner, Vegetable

Stir-Fried Kai-Lan Stems with Pork and Mushrooms

Labels: Dinner, Lunch, Vegetable

Linguine with Pan-Fried Chicken Breast and Siew Pak Choy

What do you do if you have linguine (a type of pasta), chicken and siew pak choy? Cook them into a dish, of course! It will be handy if you have a can of pasta sauce in your kitchen cabinet.

This dish takes me 1 hour to prepare and cook. I am still an amateur and take a longer time to prepare the ingredients and cook them. Briefly, what I have prepared is pan-fried chicken breast, blanched siew pak choy and pasta sauce. Each can be a dish by itself but this is sort of a fusion dish using western and eastern ingredients. In fact, this is the first time I cooked this dish and I was quite pleased! (I am usually quite fussy over the quality of food I cook. My wife will attest to that!)

Glorious Siew Pak Choy

I hope you will give this dish a try and having learnt it, experiment on your own with the ingredients.

This is my recipe for Linguine with Pan-Fried Chicken Breast and Siew Pak Choy.


Ingredients

• 250 grammes of linguine (you can use any type of pasta)
• 1 large chicken breast
• 200 grammes of siew pak choy (wash and clean)
  
• 1 can of button mushrooms (halved)
• 1 can of Campbells Pasta Sauce (tomato, garlic and basil sauce)
• 2 large onions (chopped)
• 5 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of palm oil
• 1 pot of water
  

Marinade for chicken

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper powder
• A dash of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 tablespoon of HP BBQ Sauce
• A dash of black pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour

Seasoning for tomato-based sauce

• Salt to taste
• Black pepper powder to taste

Method

Marinade chicken breast for at least 1 hour or more.

Bring water to boil in a large pot. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of palm oil. Add in the siew pak choy and blanch till the leaves turn dark green / cooked. Remove the leaves and set aside.

Cook the linguine in the pot of water according to directions on packaging. Remove and drain. Set aside and drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil over it.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in frying pan and fry the chicken breast for at least 2 minutes on each side. Ensure chicken breast is thoroughly cooked by piercing the meat with a fork. Clear juice should flow when pierced. Remove from pan to cool. Slice the pan-fried chicken breast.

Heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil on a sauce pan and saute the onions till translucent. Add button mushrooms and stir well for 2 minutes. Add the pasta sauce and seasoning and bring to boil. Add half-can of water. Cover with lid, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Arrange cooked linguine on plate. Place sliced pan-fried chicken breast and siew pak choy to your liking. Pour an appropriate amount of the mushroom tomato pasta sauce over them and serve hot.


Technorati Tags : Pasta , Vegetable , Recipe

Labels: Chicken, Dinner, Lunch, Pasta, Vegetable

Stir-Fried French Beans with Egg

This is another simple dish to cook but great tasting. French beans can be cooked in many different ways including blanching and steaming but I find it most delicious when it is stir-fried with garlic and egg.

The crunchiness and sweetness of the french beans mixed with the fluffy-fried eggs gives this dish a good balance in taste and texture, not to mention the healthiness. Try choosing the younger and lighter green french beans which are younger, tender and less fibrous compared to the older and darker coloured variety.

Thinly sliced french beans

Cooking time varies depending on how thinly you slice the french beans diagonally. Obviously, cooking time is lesser if you slice it thinly. You will also have to manage the heat from the cooker as you do not want to burn the garlic.

This is my wife's recipe for Stir-Fried French Beans with Egg.


Ingredients

• 150 - 200 grammes french beans (sliced diagonally thinly)
• 1 large egg
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Seasoning

• Salt to taste
• White pepper powder to taste

Method

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in wok on medium heat. Lightly stir fry the garlic till it begins to brown. Add french beans and stir fry at medium high heat for 1 - 2 minutes. If garlic is browning fast, reduce heat. Sprinkle seasoning to taste.

Make a well in the wok (i.e. move the french beans from the center of the wok), increase to high heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Break egg into the oil and let it fry till semi-solid. Mix and stir french beans into the semi-solid egg and fry for 30 seconds or so.

Remove from wok and serve hot with rice or plain porridge.


Technorati Tags : French Bean , Vegetable , Chinese Food

Labels: Dinner, Lunch, Vegetable

Foreground : Long Bean Rice
Background : Kiam Chye Tau Foo Soup

Rice cookers are not meant just to cook plain rice. Prior to this, I have a recipe for Chicken Rice cooked in a rice cooker. Apart from Chicken Rice, you can also cook other types of rice, one of which is Long Bean Rice.

Ingredients

A meal on its own, you will find out here that you can also cook a soup as a side dish arising out of the use of the ingredients here. I will give the recipe for the soup another day. Anyway, the fact that all the ingredients are firstly stir-fried and then cooked in the rice cooker gives the whole dish maximum flavour from the various ingredients used.

Place into rice cooker before turning on the cooker

Long Beans can be stir-fried on its own with belacan or even garlic and is highly nutritious. Eat too much, however, you may end up with too much gas in your stomach which is common among beans. Once you master this dish, you can substitute the long beans with other vegetables such as cabbage, pumpkin or even "kua chye" - I am still trying to find out what's the anglo-name for this vegetable.

This is my recipe for Long Bean Rice.

Ingredients

• 2 cups rice pre-soaked for 30 minutes (measured using the cup that comes with your rice cooker)
• About 15 pieces of long beans (cut to 2 inch lengths)
• 400 grammes of belly pork (try to get the 3-layered pork. Remove skin)
• 5 to 8 pieces dried chinese mushrooms (pre-soaked till soft. Remove from water and cut to slivers but retain water for later use)
• 30 grammes of dried prawns / shrimps (pre-soaked for 5 minutes. Remove from water but retain water for later use)
• 5 bulbs shallots (sliced thinly)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 3 bowls of water
  

Seasoning

• 4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder
• 2 teaspoon light soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• A pinch of msg (optional)

Method

Bring water to boil. Add belly pork and let it boil till cooked. Remove pork. Cut into small pieces.

Heat oil in wok and fry shallots till golden brown. Remove fried shallots.

With remaining oil in wok, fry the cooked belly pork till beginning to brown. Remove pork. With remaining oil, fry the dried prawns and chinese mushrooms for 1 minute till fragrant. Add long beans and put back the pork into the wok and continue to stir fry for 1 more minute. Add seasoning and a little bit of water (used to soak mushrooms / dried prawns) to keep it moist.

Add pre-soaked rice into the ingredients and stir well for 1 minute.

Transfer the ingredients into rice cooker and add water till it covers rice completely just like how you usually cook rice. Turn on the rice cooker and wait for it to cook automatically.

Sprinkle fried shallots over rice before serving.


Technorati Tags : Recipe , Rice , Recipe , Chinese Food

Labels: Dinner, Rice, Vegetable

Mixed Vegetables

Labels: Dinner, Vegetable

Kangkong Belacan

Water Convolvulus (or Water Spinach) is also known as Kangkong in the Malay Language. It is a common vegetable found in abundance in Malaysia and has nutritional values similar to the spinach.

In Malaysia, it is often served as Kangkong Belacan (stir-fried with spicy shrimp paste) or Sotong Kangkong (mixed with cuttlefish in fish paste and sprinkled with crushed peanuts). It is very easy and fast to cook. You should ideally have a cooker with high heat as it is imperative that this Kangkong Belacan dish be cooked as fast as possible. Otherwise, it will be flooded with juice from the vegetable and watery.

Kangkong and belacan mix

This is my recipe for Kangkong Belacan.

Ingredients

• Approximately 400 grammes of kangkong. Separate leaves from stem. Cut stems to reasonable bite sizes
• 50 grammes of belacan (shrimp paste)
• 50 grammes of dried shrimps (pre-soaked in about 150 ml of water. Do not throw away the water)
  
• 5 bulbs of shallots
• 5 bulbs of garlic
• 4 to 8 red chillis (remove seeds if you want the dish to be less spicy)
  
• 4 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Method

Prepare belacan mix as follows. Pound belacan, dried shrimps, shallots, garlic and chilli in a mortar pound / blend them.

Heat oil in wok till smoke appears from wok. Add oil (which should be heated up substantially). Add belacan mix and stir quickly whilst reducing to medium heat. Do not burn the belacan mix.

Once belacan mix is fragrant and slightly brown, increase heat to high and add kangkong. Stir briskly and add a little water (from the water used to soak dried prawns) if the dish is too dry for your liking. Once kangkong is slightly limp, it is ready for serving.

I usually do not add any seasoning as the belacan and dried shrimps are quite salty in itself.

Technorati Tags Vegetable , Recipe , sambal belacan

Labels: Vegetable

Labels: Chinese, Dinner, Lunch, Vegetable