Potato Wedges (Air-Fryer Recipe)

I made some potato wedges using the air-fryer for our afternoon snack today. I never make potato wedges before, neither baked or fried. I thought it requires a very long cooking time. Now I know I was wrong. By using the air-fryer, this can be ready in just 15 minutes, with only a tablespoon of cooking oil. As you can see, the result is so satisfying. It's worth a try. 

Potato Wedges (Air-Fryer Recipe) 

Reference: Philip Airfryer recipe booklet

Ingredients:

350gm potato

1 tbsp cooking oil

dashes of paprika

Steps:

1. Scrub the potatoes clean and cut it into wedges. Soak the potato wedges in water for at least 30 minutes. Drain and pat dry with kitchen paper. Coat them with oil in a bowl. Sprinkle with paprika powder.

2. Cook in preheat airfryer for 15 minutes under 180 deg C.

Salted Chicken From Aun Kheng Lim, Ipoh

If you happened to drop by Ipoh for Lou Wong bean sprout chicken rice, you can walk over to another street for the Aun Kheng Lim salted chicken. You can only take away since they don't have dine in service. That’s what we did when we dine at Aun Kee for chicken hor fun, which is next door to the Lou Wong.

I found a few slices of Dong Quai aka Angelica sinensis inserted inside the free range chicken’s abdomen. It is wrapped up in a few layers of parchment paper and then baked in salt. So, the outcome is a herbal infused and salty fragrant chicken. Each chicken cost RM17. The portion is just enough for 2 to serve with steamed rice.

To make up a balanced meal, I serve the it with chicken rice and sliced Japanese cucumber. It is a simple and yet satisfying lunch.

Aun Kheng Lim Salted Chicken
No. 24, Jalan Theatre,
30300 Ipoh, Perak.
Tel : 05-2542998

Fried "Xin Zhu" Vermicelli 炒新竹米粉

新竹米粉 translated to English as "Xin Zhu" vermicelli, is a well-known noodle produced in Xin Zhu, Taiwan. The noodles is dried by the natural wind and not by machine. That's what made it so special and popular in Xin Zhu. The main ingredients are rice and water. 

I'm not sure if the dried "Xin Zhu" vermicelli that I bought is the original product from "Xin Zhu". But, I can tell the difference between this "Xin Zhu" vermicelli and the common vermicelli. It needs longer soaking time to soften. It is half-translucent that is similar to glass noodle. And it is also more springy. Of course, it is more expensive. I've use it several times in stir-frying, but haven't try it in noodle soup. If you like fried glass noodle, you will like this fried "Xin Zhu" vermicelli too.

Fried "Xin Zhu" Vermicelli 炒新竹米粉
Serves 2


Ingredients:
2 pieces of "Xin Zhu" Vermicelli, soaked in warm water for 25-30 minutes
cabbage, cut into strips
1/4 of carrot, cut into strips
1 egg, beaten
12 prawns, shelled and deveined
100ml water
1 tbsp of chopped garlic
cooking oil

Seasonings:
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tsp of dark soy sauce
3 tbsp of light soy sauce
dashes of white pepper powder

Steps:

1. Heat some oil in a wok. Fry the beaten egg till golden both sides. Leave it cool and cut it into strips.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in the wok and saute garlic until fragrant. Add the prawns, and cabbage to stir-fry for 2 minutes.

3. Add vermicelli.  Pour in seasonings, water and mix well. Continue to stir-fry until the sauce is thickening. Toss the carrot to the vermicelli. Stir-fry for 1 minute. Dish out and garnish with egg strips. Serve hot.

Potato With Meatballs 马铃薯与肉丸

This is one of my childhood favourite. My mum cooked this quite frequently when I was a kid. I used to eat only the meatballs until I learned the benefits of potato. Well, my mum has several version of this dish. She played around the potato and meatballs. Sometimes, she deep-fried the meatballs and potato. Sometimes, she just fried the meatballs, and at times, she just cook potato and meatballs from raw. Despite of the different methods, the dish turns out to be delicious. 

As for my version, I pan-fried both the potato and meatballs. Remember about the meatballs that I prepared up-front? I moved it from freezer to to fridge just before I left to work. It'll will be ready to cook when I come back home. I want my cooking to be therapeutic instead of problematic after long hours of working.

Potato With Meatballs 马铃薯与肉丸
Serves 4


Ingredients:
3 potatoes, peeled and sliced
16 meatballs
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and sliced
cooking oil
200ml water

Seasonings:
Light soy sauce to taste

Steps:
1. Heat up oil in a wok. pan-fry the potato till golden yellow. Drain and set aside.
2. Add 2 tbsp of oil in the same wok. Stir-fry onion till fragrant. Add garlic to saute till golden yellow.
3. Pour in water and bring to boil.
4. Add fried potatoes and meatballs. Let it simmers for few minutes. Add light soy sauce to taste.
5. Serve hot with rice.

Pan-Fried Meatballs 炸肉丸

I always spend my Sunday morning preparing big quantity of food that can be frozen for our weekdays' consumption. For example, home made pasta sauce and meat sauce. Today, I prepare a batch of meatballs. Later it can be used to make meatball spaghetti bolognese, meatballs in tomato sauce and others.

That's how I work out to cut down my cooking time on working days.

Pan-Fried Meatballs 炸肉丸
Makes 25 meatballs


Ingredients:
500gm minced pork
1/2 onion, peeled and chopped
cooking oil


Marinades:
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
dashes of white pepper powder
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp corn flour

Steps:
1. Mix up he minced pork with chopped onion and marinades. Leave it for half an hour.
2. Shape the marinated minced pork into meatballs. Allocate the meat balls on a baking tray. Rub the surface with little bit of water for a smoother look.
3. Heat up oil in a non-stick pan. Pan-fry the meatballs in batches until golden brown.
4. Put in on kitchen towel to remove excess oil.
5. Serve it on its own, cook it into dishes or fridge it up for later use.

Vegetable and Prawns Fried Rice

Nowadays, I used to cook something simple for dinner, and prepare extra portion for the next day's bento. This is one of the example. Basically I just fry rice with whatever ingredients I have in the fridge. Not only that, the seasonings is pretty versatile too. It can be adjusted to suit your own taste buds.

Vegetable and Prawns Fried Rice
Serves 5


Ingredients:
2.5 cups of rice, rinsed, cooked and cooled
300gm long bean, chopped
2 sweet corn, use only the kernels
100gm oyster mushroom, tear into strips
30 small prawns, shelled, deveined and cut into pieces
2 tbsp of chopped garlic
cooking oil

Seasonings:
Light soy sauce
Dark soy sauce (optional)
Chili paste (optional)

Steps:
1. Heat up oil in a wok. Saute garlic till fragrant. Add prawns, corns and long beans. Stir-fry till half cook.
2. Add a tbsp of light soy sauce to mix well.
3. Add cooled steamed rice and oyster mushroom. Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and chili paste to fry till fragrant. You can see the rice is "jumping" in the wok. That's perfect!

Potato Bread Loaf

I'm glad that I can spend some time to make a potato bread today. This is supposed to be potato sweet bun recipe, but due to my laziness, I made it into bread loaf instead. :)

After tasting it, I realized that potato is a good ingredient to replace portion of the wheat flour. With the mashed potato added, the bread has mild fragrant of potato that is not overpowering. Also, the bread is a little bit moist compared to 100% high Protein flour bread. 

Potato Bread Loaf (Use Basic Programme of Tesco Bread Maker BM07)

Ingredients:
80gm fresh milk at room temp
40gm butter
10gm Sunflower oil
1/2 egg, beaten
1 potato (about 140gm), peeled, steamed and mashed
1/4 tsp of salt
50gm of fine sugar
300gm bread flour
1 tsp dried yeast

Steps:
1. Add milk follow by beaten egg, oil and butter.
2. Add flour, salt, sugar and mashed potato.
3. Tap the pan lightly to settle the flour.
4. Add the yeast in small heap in the center of the pan.
5. Lock the pan in the bread maker. Set the program to "Basic" follow by loaf size (1.5lb) and select the crust color.
6. The bread maker will complete the task in 3 hours.

Air-Fried Wanton

For my 3rd experiment of cooking fresh food with air-fryer, I made an attempt to fry wanton. This is not a satisfying result that I'm looking for. The wonton skin is not as crispy as the deep-fried version. It's little bit hard but turns soft very fast. The filling also turned dry after the air-frying.
I'll figure out the correct method of making crispy wanton in air-fryer. Stay tuned!

Durian Popsicles

We got some left-over durian last night. I hate the odor if I had to fridge up the fresh durian. So, I kept thinking of what can I do with the balance durian. Then I thought of the durian ice that my mom used to make during every durian season. My mom’s durian ice consists of durian flesh, sugar and water. No dairy product is used as she is allergic to it. She has no recipe, as she mix it up the ingredients to form the desired concentration.

As for my version, I added some condensed milk. So the outcome is creamy durian popsicles that is not as hard as the version without milk. You can taste the durian flesh, the ice and the milk that are well blended in a popsicle.

Durian Popsicles


Ingredients:
200gm durian flesh (just an estimation)
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp condense milk
350ml water

Steps:
1. In a mixer, beat durian flesh, sugar and condense milk to form thick liquid base.
2. Slowly add water and mix well.
3. Pour into popsicle moulds. Froze it over night.
4. Just before serving, put the popsicle moulds under running water for few seconds. Then the popsicles are ready to be removed from the mould. Enjoy!