Roast Chicken with Home Made Thai Sauce 泰式酱烤鸡扒

Merry Christmas everyone! I cooked this for our simple Christmas eve dinner last night. We don't celebrate Christmas, but we do spent time at home enjoying our home cooked meal with nice cold drinks and dessert. This is so called precious family time, don't you think so? :)

Oppss, by the way, my roasted chicken was not browned properly. Hai...the old table top oven not performing well. But, it tasted good though, haha...

Roasted Chicken with Home Made Thai Sauce 泰式酱烤鸡扒

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 chicken thighs, deboned

some baby capsicums, seeded and sliced

1 carrot, peeled and cut into thick strips

2 potatoes, peeled and sliced

1 tomato, diced

half broccoli, cut into florets

Chicken Marinades:

1 tbsp of light soy sauce

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and grated

dashes of black pepper powder

Thai Sauce:

1 and a half tbsp of Thai chili sauce

1 tbsp of sugar

5 coves of shallots, peeled and sliced

1/4 of ginger flower, chopped

1/2 lemon, juiced

Steps:

1. Marinate chicken for 3 hours, leave it in the fridge.

2. Boil potato and carrot for 5 minutes, drained. Blanch the broccoli and drain. Set it aside.

3. In a baking tray, arrange the potato, carrot, tomato, capsicum at the base. Top it with the 2 chicken thighs.

4. Preheat oven at 180 deg C. Roast the chicken for 50 minutes under 180 deg C follow by last 10 minutes under 200 deg C, or until the skin is browned.

5. While the chicken is roasting in progress, prepare the Thai sauce by mixing up all the required ingredients.

6. Serve the roasted chicken with Thai sauce, roasted vegetables and blanched broccoli.

Chocolate Bread Loaf

 I rely on the Tesco bread maker for my bread making. I’m kind of lazy to spend time in making buns, so I only make bread loaf most of the time. I have failed many times though. The dough prepared in bread maker does not raise perfectly. It happened to this chocolate bread dough as well. When the bread maker beeping to trigger the dough is done, the dough size did not doubled. I sensed something was not right and felt very disappointed. It was almost 10pm, nothing much I could do. So, I got an idea. I covered up the bread loaf pan with cling wrap and I left the dough in bread maker for over-night.

The next morning at 5am, after feeding my baby, I ran down stair to check the dough. Aha…it raised. Then, I just removed the cling wrap, and let the bread maker proceeded with the baking process while I continued my sleep. When I woke up, the bread loaf was done and cooled. Here it is, my ugly looking bread. It's rough, but not hard, still edible.

Chocolate Bread Loaf

Ingredients:
200ml fresh milk (chocolate flavored)
330gm of bread flour
1.5 tsp of yeast
25gm butter
4 tbsp of fine sugar
1/2 tsp of salt

Steps:
1. Put all the ingredients into bread maker follow the sequence of liquid, semi liquid, and dry ingredients.
2. Select "dough" program.
3. When the dough is ready, proceed for baking. Remark: I continue to let it proof for another 8 hours as the dough has not doubled in size.

Tomato Salad 番茄沙拉

This tomato salad was introduced by Chef James from Taiwan. It is very simple to prepare. Tomato is well known for its nutritional value as natural medicine to bring down the blood pressure. Hence, this salad is good for those who has high blood pressure.

I served this salad with home roasted chicken. It’s yummy!

Tomato Salad 番茄沙拉
Serves 2-3


Ingredients:
2 tomatoes
mint leaves, chopped
1 tbsp of rice wine
1 tbsp or less of sugar
a pinch of sugar
water
cold water

Steps:
1. Bring a pot of water to a boiling point. Boil the tomatoes for 1 minute. Drain and soak it in the cold water. Peel the skin and dice it.
2. Mix up the diced tomato with rice wine, sugar, salt and mint leaves.
3. Store in fridge and serve cold.

Sausages Rice 腊味饭

I learned this recipe from a Taiwanese cooking show. I memorized the cooking steps and finally tried it myself last Saturday. I omitted the soy sauce per the original recipe since the sausages were already very salty. With lots of fried shallots, leeks and juices from the sausages, the rice tastes so delicious! Beware that the liver sausage is very salty. Luckily I added just one.

Sausages Rice 腊味饭
Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 Chinese sausage
1 Chinese liver sausage
3 chicken cocktail
1 cup of rice
1 stalk of leek, use only the white portion
10 shallots
1 tbsp of oil
water

Seasonings:
1 tbsp of Shao Xin wine

Garnishing:
some chopped spring onion

Steps:
1. Rinse the rice. Pour it into the rice cooker. Add water up to 1 cup level as per the indicator. Drain water into a bowl and set aside for later use.
2. Make a few shallow cut on the Chinese sausage skin.
3. Put all the Chinese sausage in a non-stick pan. Pan-fry to remove excess oil from the sausage.
4. Add some oil to the pan. Add the shallots. Half way of doing this, add chicken cocktails to pan-fry together till you brown the shallots. Off the flame.
5. Mix the fried shallots to the rice. Arrange Chinese sausages and chicken cocktails on top of the rice. Select the quick cook mode and start the rice cooking process.
6. 3 minutes before the rice cooking is done, mix up the leek with the rice and let the rice continue to cook.
7. When the rice is cooked, sprinkle a tbsp of Shao Xin wine and stir the rice. Remove the sausages. Keep the rice warm for another 5 minutes.
8. Slice the sausages. ( I remove its external skin).
9. Serve the rice with sausage slices. Garnish with some chopped spring onion.

Sweet Potato Dessert 番薯糖水

This is a fuss-free dessert. Everyone can cook this. To cook this, you can either dump everything in a slow cooker or to cook it on the stove.  I prefer the latter. It won't take very long as the orange sweet potato turn soft very fast.

Sweet Potato Dessert 番薯糖水

Ingredients:
300gm of orange sweet potato
1 piece of ginger, about 2 thumb-sized, bruised
6 pandan leaves, tied into knobs
1200 ml water
Brown sugar to taste.

Steps:
1. Peel the sweet potato. Use "cut & tear" method to prepare the potato into bite-size. This will create uneven surface to the potatoes which will increase its surface area to shorten the cooking time.
2. Bring water to boil in a pot. Add in the pandan leaves and ginger to simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Pour in the sweet potato and let it simmer under medium heat until it turns soft.
4. Season with brown sugar about 15 minutes before the dessert is ready. Let the dessert cool down a bit in the wok (with cover) before serving.

Banana Milkshake 香蕉奶昔

Do you have leftover ripe bananas? Instead of making banana muffin or banana cake, you can turn it into banana milkshake. That was what I did. The ingredient is so simple, just banana, fresh milk and honey (optional). You can add a scoop of vanilla ice-cream to replace honey. I believe it will taste more delicious.

Banana Milkshake 香蕉奶昔
Serves 2 to 3

Ingredients:
2 ripe banana, peeled and sliced
200ml cold fresh milk
1 tbsp of honey or a scoop of vanilla ice-cream (optional)

Steps:
Put everything in a blender and blend into smooth liquid.

Fried Red Rice With Minced Pork 红米肉碎炒饭

A simple way to whip up a balanced meal is to combine all essential source – carbohydrate, protein, vitamins & minerals and fats. Fried rice is one example. I cook quite a lot of it recently, and I haven't get bored of it yet.

Fried Red Rice with Minced Pork 红米肉碎炒饭
Serves 2

Ingredients:
3/4 cup of white rice
1/4 cup of red rice
3 heaped tbsp of minced pork, marinated with a tsp of light soy sauce and dashes of white pepper powder
2 eggs, cracked in a bowl
1 Romaine lettuce, root discarded, rinsed under running water and cut into strips
100g Enoki mushroom, root discarded, cut length wise into half
1 tbsp of chopped garlic
Cooking oil

Seasonings:
Light soy sauce

Steps:
1. Mix up the red rice and white rice. Rinse and cook in rice cooker. Once cooked, cool it down.
2. Heat up oil in a wok. Scramble the eggs and set aside.
3. Heat up oil in the same wok, fry minced pork and get it separated.
4. Add garlic and sauté till fragrant. Add Enoki mushroom and the scrambled egg. Mix up all the ingredients.
5. Add cooled steamed rice. Add light soy sauce and fry till fragrant. Toss in the lettuce, mix well and of the flame.

Pork Lard (Air-Fryer Recipe)

Ever since I started to post a few simple recipes cooked with Air-Fryer, I receivd quite a number of emails and comments from time to time. Thanks to all my readers who's willing to try out my Air-Fryer recipes. I’m glad you loved it. Regarding to your enquiries, I’m sorry to say that I have very limited time to reply one by one. I’m new to the Air-Fryer too, but I’ll try my best to explore more about it. Thank you for your support. I appreciate fellow friends who shared with me the useful tricks.

What I’m going to share with you today is not a dish, but a dish complement instead. It’s the pork lard, non-halal food.

During a time when cleaned up the freezer, I found a box of left over raw pork belly. The pork belly was too fat that I didn't want to use it for my cooking. So, I thought off making pork lards with the air-fryer.

To make this, you just have to cut the pork belly into small pieces. Then, arrange it in the airfryer basket. Fry it under 180 deg C for about 15 minutes or more (depends on the size of the pork belly). The pork belly is now turned into golden brown pork lard, like this.......Next, you can use it to garnish your dish or to delish up your fried noodle.

Spaghetti Aglio Olio

My first attempt to cook Linguini Aglio Olio wasn’t a successful experience. Hubby commented that it was tasteless. He is not choosy in eating. So, when he said tasteless, the food must be bland. That was more than a year ago.

Since then, I’ve been thinking on how to enhance the flavor with the limited ingredients. One day when I was in a hypermarket, suddenly I realized the trick of Aglio Olio....thanks to the smoked garlic that I bumped into. Good quality of garlic should be the secret behind it. That was what popped up in my mind. Then, I started to think about another important ingredient, the dried chili flakes. Not to forget about the olive oil. So, in order to experiment my theory of delicious Aglio Olio, I just concentrated in these 3 ingredients, together with spaghetti and some fresh prawns. And……I’m glad that the result didn't disappoint me. The Spaghetti Aglio Olio is much more fragrant with smoked garlic and dried chili flakes. Now, hubby won’t complaint if I prepare Spaghetti Aglio Olio for his bento.

Spaghetti Aglio Olio
Serves 3

Ingredients:
Spaghetti, quantity enough for 3
1 bulb of smoked garlic, peeled and sliced thinly
dried chili flakes
18 medium-sized prawns, shelled and deveined
generous amount of good quality olive oil
Salt to taste

Steps:
1. Cook spaghetti in a pot of boiling water until al-dente. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat enough olive oil in a wok. Saute the garlic. Do not brown the garlic.
3. Stir in prawns.
4. Toss in the Spaghetti and dried chili flakes. Stir-fry to mix well. Sprinkle sea salt to taste before dish out.

Mushroom and Char Siew Fried Rice

My husband brought back a packet of fresh Shiitake mushroom instead of dried Shiitake per my shopping list. Not knowing what to do with it, I just add it to the fried rice. It was not bad at all. It’s quite tasty with the combination of char siew (Chinese roasted pork), egg and fresh Shiitake mushroom with rice. Here comes our simple lunch on Sunday. 

Mushroom and Char Siew Fried Rice

Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 cup of rice, rinsed, cooked in rice cooker and cooled
2 eggs
1 piece of char siew (about 8cm length), sliced and chopped into small pieces
8 pcs of fresh shiitake mushroom, rinsed and sliced
1 tbsp of chopped garlic
1 stalk of spring onion, chopped
cooking oil
light soy sauce to taste

Steps:

1. Heat up oil in a wok. Scramble the eggs and dish out.
2. Heat up oil in the same wok, saute the char siew. Add mushroom and garlic. Stir-fry till fragrant.
3. Add cooled steamed rice. Sprinkle the rice with light soy sauce to fry till fragrant. Toss in the scrambled egg. Fry till you observe the rice is "jumping" in the wok. Dish out.

Roast Chicken with Nando's Sauce

This is the meal that I cooked for 2 consecutive Sundays. With these 2 meals, my bottle of Nando’s Peri-Peri sauce was finally used up. That was one of my goal. Another target was to complete my other house chores while the chicken was roasted in the oven. I’m now a multi-tasking mom, hehe…

Roast Chicken with Nando's Sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 chicken thighs, deboned and excess fat discarded
2 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 carrot, peeled and cut into chunks
6 fresh button mushrooms, quartered
1 yellow onion, peeled and diced
2 tbsp of olive oil

Marinades:

3 tbsp of Nando's Hot Peri-Peri sauce
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
dashes of black pepper powder

Steps:

1. Make tiny holes over the chicken thighs with fork. Marinate the chicken thigh for 3 hours.
2. Boil the carrot and potato for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of olive oil in a baking tray. Arrange the onion, potato, button mushroom and carrot. Sprinkle another tbsp of olive oil over the vegetables.
4. Arrange the chicken on top of the vegetables.
5. Roast the chicken in the preheated oven under 200 deg C for 40 minutes. Next, increase the temperature to 240deg C and roast the chicken for another 8 minutes. Note: My oven requires higher temperature to brown the chicken. You can adjust accordingly.

I'm Back!

Hello friends! Thanks for those who left me messages and send me emails. Finally I'm back to blog. We were so busy welcoming our little girl to our family. I was away for good reasons, don't worry. I'm fine. :)

My baby girl is 2 months old now. With her around, I can hardly spend time to dish up my home cooked food, what's more to photograph it. I don't mean to quit cooking and blogging. My passion in cooking will never die. Just for the time being, I stick to simple food that is cooked in slow cooker. I rely on slow cooker to prepare a pasta sauce, meat sauce, and soups. 

I'll share some simple cooking. Hopefully I'm able to capture some food photos over the weekend. 

Vegetable Yogurt Curry 蔬菜咖哩

I've been seeing quite a lot of people using yogurt to replace coconut milk in curry. So, I gave it a try and it didn't disappoint me. In fact, yogurt's natural sourness is very suitable to the curry.

In this curry, you can find five colors of vegetables in it. Purple from the onion and eggplant. Yellow from the potato. Green from the okra, green chili and mint leaves. Red from the tomato. White from the fresh button mushroom. I'm very satisfied with my meal with only the curry and steamed rice.

Vegetable Yogurt Curry 蔬菜咖哩

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

1 potato, peeled and cut into pieces

1 round purple eggplant, cut into wedges

half of tomato, cut into wedges

2 green chili, cut into 2cm length

4 okra, cut into half

2 button mushroom, cut into wedges

8 pieces of vegetarian mutton

half onion, peeled and chopped

4 tbsp of yogurt

500ml of vegetable stock, from the potato boiling water

fresh curry paste

cooking oil

Seasonings:

light soy sauce to taste

sugar to taste

Steps:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boiling point. Add half tsp of salt and a tbsp of cooking oil. Blanch the okra and set aside. Then cook the potato till soft. Retain 500ml of the vegetable stock.

2. Heat up enough oil in a wok. Saute onion till fragrant. Add fresh curry paste to saute till oil is separated.

3. Add eggplant and vegetable stock. Bring for simmering.

4. When eggplant turns soft, add all other vegetables and vegetarian mutton to mix well. Bring it for simmering.

5. Add yogurt and seasonings to taste.

6. Garnish with mint leaves and serve hot with steamed rice.

Fried Soy Bean Noodles With Chicken and Lettuce 鸡肉莴苣炒豆签

Last few days, as usual, I targeted to clear the fridge. Hence, I used up whatever ingredients in the fridge to come out with this fried noodle. Never expect under such circumstances, I could discover a new finding. I found out that Chrisphead Lettuce tastes very good in fried noodle. To proof the finding is right, I even tried it in fried rice. It didn't fail me. The fried rice turned out great too.

Another ingredient that contributed to this fried soy bean noodle is the fried chicken strips. I used it as Protein substitute to prawn. That's a new flavor that I love. It's never too late to know the ingredients, the cooking styles and the flavors that suit your taste buds. That's the fun I got from cooking. 

Fried Soy Bean Noodles With Chicken and Lettuce 鸡肉莴苣炒豆签
Serves 4


Ingredients:
250gm of dried soy bean noodle
lettuce, cut into strips
1 chicken breast, skinned, deboned and cut into strips
bean sprout
1 stalk of  spring onion
1 tbsp of chopped garlic
2 eggs
cooking oil

Seasonings:
2 tbsp of oyster sauce
2 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 tbsp of chili paste
1 tsp of dark soy sauce
1 tsp of sesame oil

Marinades for the chicken:
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
dashes of white pepper powder

Steps:
1. Marinate the chicken strips for 20 minutes.
2. Bring a pot of water to boil. Add a tbsp of oil in the water. Cook the soy bean noodles till soft. Drain and set aside.
3. Heat oil in a wok, scramble the eggs. Set aside.
4. Heat 3 tbsp of oil in the same wok. Fry the chicken till golden yellow. Add garlic to saute.
5. Pour in the noodles and the seasonings. Mix well till the noodles is coated with the sauce.
6. Add bean sprout to stir fry.
7. Toss in lettuce, scrambled egg and spring onion to mix well.
8. Dish out and serve hot.

Kung Pao Squid 宫保墨鱼

This is the 2nd time I cook squid. First was Squid Curry. Actually I have no idea how to come out a dish with these squid. Ended up cooking it with onion, ginger, dried chili, garlic and spring onion, which is very similar to Kung Pao style. So, that's why I named it as Kung Pao Squid. :)

Kung Pao Squid 宫保墨鱼


Ingredients:
400gm of squid, cleaned
1 stalk of spring onion, separate the white and green portion. Cut into 2" length
5 slices of ginger
half onion, peeled and diced
1 tbsp of chopped garlic
12 dried chilies, soaked in hot water to dehydrate
1 tbsp of glutinous rice wine
cooking oil


Sauce:
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
1/2 tsp of dark soy sauce
dashes of white pepper powder

Steps:
1. Cut the squid body into rings. Marinate the squids with glutinous rice wine for 5 minutes.
2. Heat up oil in a wok. Saute onion, chili and ginger till fragrant. Add garlic.
3. Stir in squids and the white portion of spring onion. Cook for 1 minute. Pour in sauce and stir fry.

4. Cook till the sauce is thickening. Add green portion of spring onion. Dish out and serve hot with steamed rice.

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!

Century Egg and Chicken Porridge 皮蛋鸡丝粥

I'm not used to prepare breakfast at home. Our breakfast on weekdays are usually bread or cream cracker with oats or coffee. Breakfast during the weekend is usually fried koay kak or nasi lemak. Sounds boring? Last Sunday, I felt like want to have some simple home cooked breakfast. Hence, I cooked this century egg and chicken porridge. It's so fulfilling to have a bowl of home cooked porridge to kick start a day. I like smooth porridge, hence I get the rice blended up front. I'm glad the porridge texture turned out as per my expectation.

Century Egg and Chicken Porridge


Ingredients:
3/4 cup of rice, rinsed and slightly blended
1.2 liter water
250gm chicken ribs, skinned
salt to taste
sesame oil
dashes of white pepper powder

Garnishing
1 thumb-sized ginger, peeled and cut into thin strips
hand-pulled chicken (from the chicken ribs)
1 stalk of spring onion, chopped the green portion
1 century egg, peeled and chopped

Steps:
1. Bring water to boil in a pot or kettle.
2. Add chicken ribs to the slow cooker pot. Pour in the hot water. Cook under high for 1 and a half hour.
3. Remove chicken ribs from the chicken stock. Leave it cooled and keep it in the fridge.
4. Add rice and cook under low for 8 hours. (I cooked it over night)
5. Return the chicken ribs to the porridge to warm it up. Remove from the porridge. Off the power.
6. Add salt to the porridge.
7. Hand-pull the chicken into strips.
8. Serve the porridge with ginger strips, hand-pulled chicken, century egg, spring onion. Drizzle sesame oil on top and add few dashes of white pepper powder.

Rainbow Jelly

This rainbow jelly is suitable for any party. It's simple to make and yet appetizing. It's sweet, cool, and refreshing. I used egg shells as the jelly container, just like what I did for the dragon fruit jelly.

Rainbow Jelly

Ingredients:

10g Konnyaku jelly powder

1 liter water

200gm sugar

fruit cocktail

Steps:

1. Mix Konnyaku jelly powder with sugar.

2. Bring 1000ml of water to a boil. Gradually pour in the mixture in boiling water and stir well until mixture is dissolved .
3. Put fruit cocktail into moulds and pour the Konnyaku solution into the moulds.
4. Put moulded jelly solution in the fridge for at least one hour. Serve chilled.

Watercress Soup 西洋菜汤

Usually I boil soup with either Chinese herbs or root vegetables like carrot, potato, radish, nagaimo or lotus root. This time, I made a change to boil soup with green leafy vegetable, the watercress. My mom used to cook this soup with pork ribs, white pepper corns and red dates. So, I just follow her style and this time I cook it for my parents instead. However, you won’t taste the difference between my version and my mom’s version. This could be what I inherit from my mom. :)

The soup is refreshing, but not too cooling with added pepper corns and red dates. The watercress contributes lots of fiber. However, the vitamins may be partially loss throughout the simmering process.

Watercress Soup


Ingredients:
2.5 liter water
1 big bunch of watercress, rinsed and cut into 2.5” length
1 chicken carcass, blanched
300gm of pork ribs, blanched
12 red dates, rinsed and make a cut on each date
1tsp of white pepper corn, cracked
Salt to taste

Steps:
1.Bring water to boil in a pot.
2.Add cracked pepper corns, red dates, chicken carcass and pork ribs. Leave for simmering for 1 and a half hours.
3.Add watercress and bring to boil. Let the soup simmers for another 1 minutes.
4.Add salt to taste and serve warm.

Chicken Rice

The rice is infused with aroma of fried ginger and garlic. Also, the pandan leaves add fragrance to the rice flavor. It's best served with steamed chicken or fried chicken. Enjoy~

Chicken Rice

Serves 5

Ingredients:

2.5 cups of long grain rice

650ml of water (this amount is based on what type of rice you use, adjust accordingly)

2tbsp of cooking oil

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

2 shallots, peeled and chopped

30gm of ginger, skinned and cut into thin strips

1 tsp of salt

3 pandan leaves, tie into knot

steamed chicken or fried chicken

Steps:

1. Heat oil in a wok, sauté ginger and shallots till fragrant. Add garlic. Sauté till golden yellow.

2. Add rice to stir-fry for 3 minutes. Off the fire.
3. Transfer the rice to rice cooker pot. Add salt, water and pandan leaves.
4. Cook under "white rice" program using micro-computer rice cooker.
5. When the cooking is done, leave it in "keep warm" mode for 10 minutes or more.
6. Serve hot with steamed chicken or fried chicken.

Father’s Day Special

Last year, I invited my parents to my house to celebrate Mother’s Day. This year I did the same for Father’s Day. On this special day, I prefer to spent some private time with families at home rather than joining the crowd.

Here’s what I cooked today. I got thumbs up from my parents. I’m glad they like it.

Watercress soup with red dates and pork ribs

Otak-otak aka spicy fish custard, this is my dad's favorite

Chili crab, my mom's courtesy

Fried Chicken Chop, that I experimented last week

And lastly, the rainbow jelly for dessert

Happy Father's Day!

Nagaimo Soup (Slow Cooker Recipe) 淮山、杞子、红枣汤

These days I don't have time to boil soup during weekdays. Soup boiling at home is only limited to once or twice a week over the the weekend. This Nagaimo soup was my creation last Sunday. I called up hubby to buy some Nagaimo when he was out to the wet market. I always have add on to my shopping list from my ad-hoc  inspiration. :-)

Nagaimo is good for girl's growth as it helps to generate female hormone that aids in breast and ovary forming. That's what I learned from a Traditional Chinese Medicine. If you are worried if the Nagaimo is too cooling, you can always add some white pepper corns or ginger to the dish. That is what I did for this soup. 

Nagaimo Soup

Ingredients:

180gm of nagaimo, skinned and cut into bite size

250gm of pork ribs, blanched in boiling water

8 red dates

1 tbsp of goji berries

1/2 tsp of cracked white pepper corns (optional)

2 slices of ginger

1.3ml of hot water

Seasonings:

salt to taste

Steps:

1. Pour hot water into the slow cooker pot.

2. Add all ingredients. Leave it simmers for 3 hours.

3. Add salt to taste and serve hot.

Air-Fried Chicken Chop (Air-Fryer Recipe) 炸鸡扒

Ever since I posted the Grilled Fish recipe using Air-Fryer, a couple of inquiries were brought to my attention. Many asked  on how effective the Air-Fryer is. Till now, I can't give much advice since I just use it to prepare some processed food like hash browns and fish fingers, besides the grilled fish. So far, it has not turn me down. I told my friends to stay tuned, as I will keep on experiment the air-frying using different type of fresh food.

Not long ago, my mom learned to make shallow-fried chicken chop and passed on her recipe to me. Instead of shallow-frying, I cooked the chicken chop in my air-fryer. With very minimal amount of marinades, the chicken chop turned out so flavorful.  The meat is tender and juicy, but not oily. The skin is crispy to every bite. If I have to comment, I would say the air-fried chicken chop taste as good as the oil-fried version. It is less oily, as the fat beneath the skin has been removed, there's no single drop of oil used for the frying, and the excess chicken oil was released through the cooking. Now, I can eat fried chicken without any guilt. :P

So, this is my second trial, and it turned out successful as well. I will carry on the mission to try on other fresh ingredients.

Air-Fried Chicken Chop

Ingredients:

2 chicken thighs, deboned and fat removed

Corn Flour

Marinades:

2 tbsp of light soy sauce

dashes of white pepper powder

3 shallots, peeled and chopped

Steps:

1. Clean the chicken thighs and pat dry with kitchen towel. Marinate for 2 hours.

2. Drain the excess seasonings and coat the chicken thigh with a layer of corn flour.

3. Arrange the chicken thighs on the air-fryer pot with skin facing down. Air-fry it under 200 deg C for 10 minutes. Turn the chicken thighs to the other side. Air-fry for another 10 minutes under 180 deg C.

4. Slice the chicken thighs into cutlets. Serve hot with rice or chips.

Meat Floss Noodle 肉松干面

This noodle inspired me when I watched a Taiwan cooking show that introduce meat floss in one of their series. I Immediately jotted down the cooking steps. Their version is using fresh Taiwan noodles, but it's hard to find it here, so I replaced it with dried organic noodles instead.

I'm sharing the noodle with Ruth's Presto Pasta Nights #217. The host of the week is From Kirsten's Kitchen to Yours. Stay tuned for the round up of the week.

Meat Floss Noodle 肉松干面
Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 pieces of dried ramen
meat floss
green veggies
2 eggs
salt
water

Seasonings:
light soy sauce
sesame oil
sha cha sauce (optional)

Steps:
1. Bring 1 liter water to boil in a pot. Off the flame and add 300ml of cold water. Add egg and leave for 6-8 minutes (depends on the size of egg) with lid cover.
2. In another pot of boiling water, add salt and cook the noodle .
3. In 2 serving bowls, add sesame oil, light soy sauce, sha cha sauce (optional) and pour half ladle of salty boiling water over the sauce in each bowl. Mix well.
4. Mix up the noodle with meat floss and the sauce.
5. In the boiling water that cook noodle just now, blanch some green veggies.
6. Top the noodle with green veggies and meat floss.
7. Take out the egg. Crack in a bowl and pour on top of the noodle. Serve hot.

Grilled Fish (Air-Fryer Recipe)

I would like to introduce you to my new kitchen helper - the Philips AirFryer. After considering for few hours, finally we brought back a unit of it, yesterday. So far, it's the most expensive appliance in my kitchen. Though, it is expensive, but I think it worths the price when comes to the healthy frying cooking. Now, I don't need to add oil to fry seafood, meat and snacks. We can savor more fried food that I don't used to cook at home.

I can't wait any longer to test its performance. My first attempt: Air-Fried Fish, or best described as Grilled Fish. Hubby and I are quite happy with how the fish tastes. It's crispy at the outside and juicy inside. I serve it with home made dips (bird's eye chili, tomato, shallots, calamansi juice, salt and sugar). Voilà!

Grilled Fish

Ingredients: 

Small fishes (I used kembung fish)

sea salt and turmeric powder for marinades

Steps: 

1. Cut and remove intestines from the fishes. Clean and pat dry.

2. Marinate the fish for 30 minutes.

3. Arrange fish in the airfryer basket. Air-fry at 180 degC for the first 5 minutes. Then, 200deg C for another 8 minutes.

4. Serve hot with your favorite chili sauce.