Sweet Potato Dessert 番薯糖水

My friends asked if I have not been cooking for couple of months. It made me realized blogging is no longer my priority in daily routine task. I have very limited time to reply my readers' comment, and my readers' email. Although I spent very little time to blog, but I still cook a lot. I seldom fail to prepare dinner at home on weekdays, except Friday. Friday used to be our dine out day and to shop for groceries.

When comes to weekend, life's seem hectic. Baby sticks to me every time I bring her home. She prefers mummy much more than daddy. Hence, weekend cooking becomes difficult to me. I can cook on really simple stuffs. For example, the one-pot-dish, the stew, and slow cooked dessert like this sweet potato sweet soup. 

This is an improved version of normal sweet potato dessert. I added some dried longan, red dates and white fungus to this sweet soup on top of the sweet potato and screw pine leaves. So, you can imagine, it is tastier.

Sweet Potato Dessert 番薯糖水

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 liter water

1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite-sized

10 dried longan, soaked and drained

12 red dates, rinsed and pitted

2 florets of white fungus, soaked and divided into portions

4 screw pine leave, knotted

rock sugar to taste

Steps:

1. Bring water to a boil. Pour it into the slow cooker.

2. Add all the ingredients and cook under high heat for 2 hours.

3. Add rock sugar to taste.

4. Serves hot or cold.

Air-Roast Chicken with Tomatoes (Air-Fryer Recipe)

The other day, I saw Tesco ran promotion on its own brand of dried herbs and spices. I eyed on a bottle of Thyme that just cost for RM3.99. So, I bought it and started to use it in my cooking. For a start, we had Thyme roast chicken that was prepared in air fryer rather than electric oven.

This was my first experience of using air fryer to roast chicken. To roast chicken in air fryer, I brush a layer of cooking oil onto the chicken skin. The roasting process just took around 15 minutes, compared to 45 minutes or more in an electric oven. So, it’s less time consuming. The result was impressive. The chicken skin was brown nicely, and the meat remained tender and juicy. So, here’s another success air fryer recipe. Yay!

Air-Roast Chicken with Tomatoes (Air-Fryer Recipe)
Serves 2

2 chicken thigh, deboned and excess fat removed
tomatoes
1 tbsp of cooking oil

Marinades:
1 tsp of Thymes (dried herbs)
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and grated

Steps:
1. Marinate chicken for 1 hour.
2. Preheat air fryer at 180 deg C for 2 minutes.
3. Brush cooking oil on the chicken skin. Roast it in air fryer at 180 deg C for 15 minutes with skin facing down.
Remark: The 2 chicken thighs that I cooked are pretty small in size. You may need longer time if you use bigger chicken thigh).
4. Remove the chicken thigh from the air fryer.
5. Drizzle the collected chicken oil over the tomato. Roast the tomato for 6 minutes under 160 deg C.

Sesame Oil Chicken Rice with Mushroom 麻油香菇鸡饭

This is a recipe I learnt from a Chinese cooking show. The original recipe just consist of sesame oil, ginger, mushroom and rice. I added chicken cube for my version. Sesame oil, ginger, chicken and mushroom are perfect combinations....makes the rice is so fragrant.

I just love this kind of one-pot-dish.  With it, I settle our home cooked meal for Sunday lunch and dinner. And it's not time consuming.  I can save more time to spend with my baby over the weekend.

Sesame Oil Chicken Rice with Mushroom 麻油香菇鸡饭
Serves 5-6

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cup of rice, washed
3 thumb-sized of ginger, skinned and chopped
1 chicken breast, cubed
7 dried Shiitake mushroom, dehydrated, stalk removed and cubed
3 tbsp of sesame oil
2 3/4 cups of water

Seasonings:
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
4 tbsp of light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp of dark soy sauce
3 tbsp of shao xing wine

Steps:
1.Heat up sesame oil in a wok using low heat. Sauté ginger till fragrant. Do this slowly and prevent over-heating as sesame oil has lower boiling point.
2.Stir in Shiitake mushroom and chicken cube. Stir-fry till chicken cube turn white at all surface.
3.Add seasonings, except the rice wine.
4.Add rice. Stir to mix well with the ingredients.
5.Pour in water and bring to a boil.
6.Transfer all the ingredients into rice cooker and sprinkle with rice wine. Cook it like when you cook white rice.
7.When it’s done the cooking. Keep it warm in rice cooker for another 10 minutes before serving.

Leek and Roasted Pork Stir-Fry 蒜炒烧肉

Leek and roasted pork stir-fry is almost an instant cooking. I omitted the fried bean curd for my simple version. This is so simple and yet satisfying home cooked dish.

Leek and Roasted Pork Stir-Fry 蒜炒烧肉

Ingredients:
2 stalk of leek, rinsed and sliced diagonally
Roasted pork, cut into bite-sized
1 tbsp of chopped garlic
1 tbsp of cooking oil
50ml water

Seasonings:
1 tbsp of oyster sauce

Steps:
1. Heat up a wok. Dry-fry the roasted pork till fat released from the pork.
2. Top up 1 tbsp of oil. Saute garlic till fragrant.
3. Add leek and stir fry for few minutes. Pour in water and bring to a boil.
4. Season with oyster sauce. Mix well and stir for a while and dish out.