Fried Noodle with Minced Pork and Fungus 碎肉木耳炒面

I’ve been cooking this for a couple of times. It’s definitely a simple and delicious meal to warm up your tummy. What’s more is it can be made in less than 30 minutes. I just learned to add more healthy ingredients in our daily meal. In this case, I have black fungus added. For a healthier version, I would suggest you to substitute yellow noodle with organic wheat noodle. In this way, you won’t feel guilty of consuming yellow noodle.

Fried Noodle with Minced Pork and Fungus 碎肉木耳炒面
Serves 5

Ingredients:
600g yellow noodle, blanched in boiling water
bean sprout
200g minced pork
5 stalks of chives, cut into 1.5” length
2 florets of black fungus, soaked, drained and cut into strips
5 leaves of napa cabbage, cut into strips
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 Shiitake mushroom, soaked, drained and cut into strips
cooking oil

Seasonings (Mix-up):
2tbsp of dark soy sauce
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
2 tbsp of chili paste
4 tbsp of light soy sauce (or adjust to taste)
dashes of white pepper powder
150ml water

Steps:
1. Heat up oil in a wok.
2. Add minced pork and leave it to fry for a while before stirring. Fry and get the minced pork separated.
3. Add onion sauté for a few minutes, stir in garlic to sauté till fragrant.
4. Add mushroom, black fungus and napa cabbage. Stir-fry for few minutes.
5. Toss in yellow noodle and bean sprout. Add seasoning to mix well. Stir-fry for a few minutes.
6. Add chives to mix well with the noodle. Stir-fry for another 2 minutes before done.

Capsicum, Shiitake Mushroom & Chicken Stir-fry

Time flies. I have abandoned my blog for quite some time. I’m away for good happenings. Officially, I’m a full time working mummy for two now. What a challenging role. What’s more the two little ones are just one year apart. Life is hectic, but very fulfilling. Despite the 2 kids, my life still goes on with cooking. However, I rarely have time to dress up my home cooked dish for photography. I will blog less till the situation allows me to do so. 

This dish is a complete dish and balanced diet to serve with steamed rice. Just a quick stir-fry all the ingredients together, and our meal settle. Nonetheless, it is flavorful.

Capsicum, Shiitake Mushroom & Chicken Stir-fry

Ingredients:
half of chicken breast, cut into strips
1 onion, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp of chopped garlic
3 fresh shiitake mushroom, stalk removed and cut into strips
cooking oil
4-5 tbsp of water

Seasonings:
1tbsp of fermented soy bean, chopped
1tbsp oyster sauce

Chicken Marinades:
1tsp light soy sauce
dashes of white pepper powder

Steps: 
1. Heat up oil in a wok. Fry the marinated chicken strips till golden yellow. Set aside.
2. With the remaining oil in the wok, stir-fry the onion and garlic.
3. Add mushroom and fried chicken strips to sauté with the seasonings and a few tbsp of water.
4. Stir-in the capsicum and mix well all the ingredients.
5. Dish out and serve hot with rice.

Baby Food - Purple Sweet Potato Millet Porridge 紫番薯小米粥

My girl is facing minor constipation problem. I try my best to add good sources of dietary fiber to her meal. This purple sweet potato porridge may help in digestion, improve her bowels movement and ease the constipation. Don’t panic when you see your baby’s excrement in dark purple color.

Baby Food – Purple Sweet Potato Millet Porridge

Ingredients:
1 ½ tbsp millet, rinsed
50gm purple sweet potato, peeled and cut into pieces
260ml of boiling water (add more if needed)

Steps:
1. Add millet and boiling water to the slow cooker. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes.
2. Add sweet potato. Cook until you get the thickness you want. Add more water if needed.
3. Mash the sweet potato. Leave it cool for a while and serve warm.

Air-Fried Lemongrass Flavored Chicken Wings

These fried chicken wings were cooked in air-fryer. It is oil-free, and it’s fragrantly infused with lemongrass flavor. To increase the crispiness, potato starch was used to coat the chicken before frying.

Air-fried Lemongrass Flavored Chicken Wings (Air-Fryer Recipe)

Ingredients:
10 chicken wings, rinsed and excess fat discarded
potato starch

Marinades (blended):
2 stalk of lemongrass (just the white portion)
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 ½ tbsp of honey
dashes of white pepper powder

Steps:
1. Marinate the chicken wings for overnight in air-tight container.
2. Preheat the air-fryer for 3 minutes at 180 deg C.
3. Coat the chicken wings with potato starch and arrange in the air-fryer. Note: the air-fryer can fry 4 chicken wings at one time.
4. Fry the chicken wings for 15 minutes at 180 deg C. Overturn the chicken wings and fry for another 10 minutes or till golden brown.
5. Dish out.

Purple Sweet Potato Muffins 紫番薯玛芬

I bought some purple sweet potato from the store. Realized that I have not baked for ages, hence I decided to bake some muffins with it. Not bad at all. We were so satisfied to have some home made fluffy muffins for our Sunday breakfast. Life is simple.

Purple Sweet Potato Muffins 紫番薯玛芬

Yields for 11 muffins

Ingredients:
300g self-raising flour
170g caster sugar ( I used 160g instead as the sweet potato is very sweet)
3 eggs
125g unsalted butter, melted
125ml milk
100g purple sweet potato, steamed, peeled and mashed
additional milk (to mix up with mashed sweet potato)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

2. Mix up the mashed sweet potato with the additional milk prepared. Add milk a little at a time, repeat the step until you get the thickness like mashed banana.

3. Sift self raising flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar, eggs, butter and milk. Add the mashed sweet potato and milk mixture. Mix until just combined. 

4. Scoop the batter into muffin trays/ muffin cups. Bake for 25 minutes.

5. Take out the muffins and leave it cool before serving.

Bowles Mint Jelly

This is a scheduled post.
This jelly is something either you like it or you dislike it. You’ll like it if you like the smell of Bowles mint, or vice verse. Hubby requested some jelly as water soluble fiber to his diet. Here comes the new flavor for him since I have lots of home grown Bowles mint leaves harvested. Hubby did not comment much, but he finished up the jelly in few days time. 

Bowles Mint Jelly

Ingredients:

5 tbsp of agar-agar powder
1600ml water
20 Bowles mint leaves, rinsed under running water
brown sugar to taste

Steps:

1. Boil 1600ml water in a pot. Add Bowles mint leaves when boiling.
2. Leave it simmers for 5 minutes.
3. Mix in the agar-agar powder. Add brown sugar to taste. Leave it simmers for 3 minutes.
4. Remove the Bowles mint leaves. Off the fire, and leave the agar-agar mixture to cool for few minutes in the pot.
5. Pour it into jelly moulds. Cool it to room temperature.
6. Chilled for 2 hours before serving.

Baby Food - Kiwifruit Brown Rice Cereal

This is a scheduled post.

Daddy fed baby kiwifruit while he was having it. Baby kept on approaching her daddy asking for more after tasting it. This is the body language to express her liking to one food. Hence, this weekend, kiwi fruit is added to her diet. It is rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, fiber, potassium and folate. It is also contains dietary fiber and antioxidants.

Kiwifruit Brown Rice Cereal

Ingredients: 

5 tbsp of brown rice cereal
hot water (add accordingly)
half of kiwifruit flesh, mashed

Steps:
1. Mixed up brown rice cereal with hot water.
2. Leave it cool for a while.
3. Top up the cereal with kiwifruit.
4. Serve warm.

Spinach and Meat Porridge

This is a scheduled post.
A good way to add iron to baby’s diet is by feeding her spinach. The iron content in this green leafy vegetable is the richest among the others. From the info I got from a program, a newborn baby is having iron in her body through her mother. The iron will be used up for red blood cell production by the time the baby is 6M. So, it’s necessary to add this element to baby’s diet after you start feeding baby solid food since the source of iron in infant formula is no longer able to fulfill her needs. 

Spinach and Meat Porridge 

Ingredients: 

1 tbsp of white rice, rinsed
1 tbsp of millet, rinsed
5 pieces of soft lean pork (you can substitute it with another type of red meat or white meat)
spinach, chopped
200ml hot boiling water

Steps: 

1. Put all the ingredients into a small slow cooker, except the spinach and meat.
2. Add the meat when the porridge starts boiling.
3. 15 minutes before the porridge is ready, add spinach. Stir to mix up all the ingredients. Continue the cooking.
4. Off the power and leave it cool for a while.
5. You can either remove the meat from the porridge before feeding, or retain 1 or 2 pieces of the meat and puree the porridge before feeding.

A Break From Blogging

Dear my fellow readers and friends, 

I'm taking a break from blogging. I have saved some recipes to be published on schedule for a month or two. Take care and see you soon!

Regards,

Little Inbox

White and Brown Shimeiji Stir-Fry 香炒真姬菇

Shimeji mushrooms contains beta-glucans which is proved as a successful remedy for retarding and destroying growing tumors. Shimeji mushroom is also good for diabetes, asthma and certain allergies by enhancing the immune system. 

While cooking mushrooms, take an additional step to fry the mushrooms in a non-stick pan without oil. This shall be done slowly under low heat. The process will ensure the beta-glucans is released and our body will able absorb it through consumption. 

White and Brown Shimeiji Stir-Fry 香炒真姬菇

Ingredients:
100gm of white Shimeiji 
100gm of brown Shimeiji 
1tbsp of oyster sauce 
1tsp sesame oil 
1tbsp of cooking oil  
1tbsp of chopped garlic


Steps: 
1. Cut off the root of the mushrooms. Get the mushrooms separated. 
2. Stir-fry the mushrooms in a non-stick pan without oil under low heat. You will observe moisture release from the mushrooms and the mushrooms reduce in size. 
3. Set aside the mushrooms. Add a tbsp of oil and sauté garlic till fragrant. Mix up the garlic with mushrooms and stir-fry for a while. 
4. Add seasonings, mix well and dish out.

Baby Food - Blueberry Cereal

Blueberry is suitable for baby who is above 7 months. High in antioxidants, vitamins and fiber, it is referred as "super-food". I introduced blueberry to my girl last week, when she was 10M2W. Blueberry cereal suits her taste buds. The color of blueberry cereal looks attractive too.

Tips for new mum: Introducing one new food at one time. You will need to monitor if your baby is allergic to it. My practice is introducing one new food to baby by weekly basis.

Baby Food - Blueberry Cereal

Ingredients:
4 tbsp of cereal
2 tbsp of infant formula
2 oz of hot water
12 blueberries, rinsed

Steps:
1. Mixed up cereal and infant formula with hot water.
2. Pour the cereal in a blender to blend with the blueberries.
3. Serve warm.

Baby Food- Organic Pumpkin Millet Porridge 金瓜小米粥

This millet porridge was introduced by Wendy. She is very creative in preparing nutritious baby food. I'm a new mum who is still in the progress of discovering food that suits my baby's taste buds. So far, I know she loves red apple, banana, and carrot. She hates potato, yes very much indeed.

My girl at 10 months plus, still not ready to consume the normal savory porridge which is not pureed. She prefers smooth puree that is not too thick. For this pumpkin millet porridge, it is pureed before feeding.

Now a days, my baby is fed on savory meat and veggies porridge on weekdays by my mum, while on weekends, I'll introduce new ingredients to her diet.

Organic Pumpkin Millet Porridge

Ingredients:
2tbsp of organic hulled millet
20gm organic pumpkin flesh
2 cups of water or more (I top up additional water when the water reduce throughout the cooking)

Steps: 
1. Bring water to boil in a saucepan.
2. Add pumpkin and millet. Bring to a boil.
3. Leave it simmers under medium flame. Top up additional water if needed.
4. The porridge will be ready after cooking for about 40 minutes.
5. Leave it cool a bit before feeding baby.

Optional:
Blend the porridge into smooth puree.

Bitter Gourd and Pork Stir-Fry 苦瓜炒猪肉

Some useful tips were picked up from a Chinese cooking show on how to reduce the bitterness of bitter gourd. First, the cord need to be removed thoroughly. Second, after cutting the bitter gourd, marinate it with a pinch of salt. Lastly, blanch it in boiling water with salt and oil added. I applied the tips while preparing this dish, and the bitter gourd tastes less bitter. 

Bitter Gourd and Pork Stir-Fry 苦瓜炒猪肉

Ingredients:
half bitter gourd, cored and cut into thin slices

1 red chili, seeded and cut into strips

1 green chili, seeded and cut into strips

200gm pork belly, cut into 0.5mm thickness

1 tbsp fermented soy bean

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

1 tbsp fermented soy bean

500ml water

cooking oil
half tsp of salt

Seasonings (Mix up):

1 tbsp of oyster sauce
light soy sauce to taste

1/2 tsp of sugar

1 tbsp corn flour

100ml water

Steps:

1. Marinate the bitter gourd with a pinch of salt. 

2. Bring 500ml of water to a boil. Add 1/2 tsp of salt and a tsp of cooking oil. Blanch the bitter gourd for 2 minutes. Drain the water.

3. Fry pork belly in a non-stick pan. 

4. Add bitter gourd and stir fry for a while. Add fermented soy bean to mix well. Stir fry for 1 minute.

5. Pour in the seasonings. Leave it a while without stirring. 

6. Lastly stir-fry till the sauce is thickening. Dish out and serve hot with steamed rice.

Thai Chicken Chop (Air-Fryer Recipe) 泰式鸡扒

It’s so easy to make chicken chop at home with the good kitchen helper – the air-fryer. My current goal is to create several versions of homemade chicken chops. The idea comes from my food explorer while dining out. I used to memorize the flavors of my liking, then experiment the cooking per my own way. So far, this has become my hobby which I can fill up my family’s tummies. Does it sound good? 

Happy Father's Day to all fathers!

Thai Chicken Chop (Air-Fryer Recipe) 泰式鸡扒 
Serves 2 

Ingredients:
2 chicken thighs, deboned and fat discarded
potato flour

Marinades: 
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
dashes of white pepper powder
4 shallots, peeled and chopped

Thai Sauce (mixed up everything): 
1 and a half tbsp of Thai chili sauce
1 tbsp of sugar
5 coves of shallots, peeled and sliced
1 calamansi, juiced
6 bird's eye chilies, chopped
salt to taste

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 potato 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. Remove from the air-fryer and top with the Thai Sauce. Serve with your favorite side dishes.

Stuffed Bitter Gourd Soup 酿苦瓜汤

I’m not fancy over the bitter gourd soup boiled with pork ribs. Instead, my favorite is stuffed bitter gourd soup. I learned this from my mom. The secret behind this dish is the fermented soy bean used to marinate the grounded pork. It neutralizes the bitter taste of the bitter gourd and it brings out the flavor of the bitter gourd soup. Yummy!

Stuffed Bitter Gourd Soup

Ingredients:
half bitter gourd, core removed 300gm
grounded pork
1 tbsp goji berries, soaked in water for 5 minutes and drained
salt or light soy sauce to taste
600ml water

Pork Marinades
1 1/2 tbsp fermented soy bean, mashed
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
2 cloves of garlic, minced

Steps:
1. Marinate the minced pork for 2 hours in the fridge.
2. Stuff the bitter gourd with marinated minced pork. Shape the left over minced pork into meat balls.
3. Bring water to a boil. Pour the water into the inner pot of slow cooker.
4. Add the stuffed bitter gourd and the meat balls. Boil the soup over high heat for 1 hours.
5. Turn the cooking mode to slow cook. Continue the cooking for another 2 hours.
6. Toss in goji berries. Add salt or light soy sauce to taste.
7. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Blue Seaweed Jelly

Few months ago, I passed some blue pea flower seeds to my parents in law’s domestic helper. She has green-thumb, and now the plant blossoms with blue pea flowers. She collected the flowers and sun-dried it. I’m so pleased when she passed to me a small bottle of sun-dried blue pea flowers.

This maid contributes so much to the family. With her around, we have organic sweet potato leaves, eggplants, tomatoes, sawi, bird’s eye chilis, bananas, papayas, and others. Tomorrow, she will go back to her home town. It's a loss to the family. Not easy to get a such responsible and kindhearted maid.

Okay, back to the jelly now. With the natural blue coloring contributed by the blue pea flowers, here comes the blue seaweed jelly. Does it look interesting? For a start, I thought of this simple way to utilize the dried blue pea flowers. Many more to come hopefully. 

Blue Seaweed Jelly 

Ingredients:
5 tbsp of agar-agar powder 

1600ml water 

6 screw pine leaves, tie into knots 

sugar to taste 

To prepare the blue coloring: 

a handful of dried blue pea flowers, rinsed 

250ml hot water 

Steps: 

1. Soak the blue pea flowers in hot water. Leave it for 30 minutes or more. Sieve it and retain the blue liquid.
2. Boil 1600ml water in a pot. Add screw pine leaves when boiling.
3. Pour in the blue liquid. Let it simmers for 5 minutes. 

4. Mix in the agar-agar powder. Add sugar to taste. Leave it simmers for 3 minutes. 

5. Remove the screw pine leaves. Off the fire, and leave the agar-agar mixture to cool for few minutes in the pot. 

6. Pour it into jelly moulds. Cool it to room temperature. 

7. Fridge it for 2 hours before serving.

Agar Jelly with Grass Jelly

After the first attempt of making seaweed jelly with coconut milk, I’ve been thinking of other alternatives to make the jelly more interesting, and yet not complicated. The first idea popped up in my mind to add in grass jelly cubes. With black-colored grass jelly, I can eliminate other colorings, and I’m able to add patterns to the jelly. A stone to kill two birds.

Agar Jelly with Grass Jelly

Ingredients:

25g agar jelly powder

3500ml water

8 screw pine leaves, tied into knots

250g grass jelly, cut into cubes

sugar to taste

Steps:

1. Bring water to boil. 

2. Add screw pine leave and leave the water simmers for 5 minutes or more. 

3. Add sugar to taste. 

4. Pour in agar-agar jelly powder and stir to dilute it. Boil for few minutes. 

5. Add grass jelly cubes in the heat-proof containers. 

6. Pour in the agar-agar mixture into the containers. 

7. Leave it cool to room temperature and fridge it. 

8. Serve cold.

Pork Belly with Chilies 辣椒炒肉

This is a quick oriental dish. The pork belly is paired with green and red chilies. It contains animal Protein from the pork and vitamins from the chilies. And not to forget about the source of antioxidants from the garlic and chilies too. Yes, provided they are not cooked under high temperature. With just little bit of light soy sauce and oyster sauce, you’ll have a tasty and flavorful pork belly dish. 

If you are facing problem on how to cut the pork into thin slices, here’s the useful tips. First, you freeze the pork for about 20 minutes. Then, you remove it from the fridge. The pork is semi-frozen, so you can easily cut it into thin slices. 

Pork Belly with Chilies 辣椒炒肉

Ingredients:

300gm pork belly, sliced into ½ cm thickness
2 red chilies, seeded and cut into strips
2 green chilies, seeded and cut into strips
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
spring onion, cut into 1.5" length
1 tbsp cooking oil

Seasoning:

1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce

Steps:

1. Heat up oil in s non-stick pan. Pan-fried pork slices at both sides. Add light soy sauce and stir to coat the pork slices. Dish out on a plate.
2. Leave about 1 tbsp of oil in the pan. Sauté garlic till fragrant. Stir in spring onion, green and red chilies.
3. Toss in pork slices. Stir-fry all the ingredients with oyster sauce.
4. Dish out and serve hot with steamed rice.

Mixed Veggies Stir-Fry 炒杂菜

Besides eating the crispy fried tau kee as a dish complement, it can be used in cooking vegetarian food. This mixed veggies stir-fry is one of a good example. It's flavorful with combinations of all ingredients. I'm learning to appreciate this type of meatless dish.

Mixed Veggies Stir-Fry 炒杂菜


Ingredients:
1/4 cabbage, cut into strips
1/4 carrot, peeled and cut into strips
3 dried shiitake mushroom, dehydrated, stalk removed and cut into strips
3 florets of black fungus, dehydrated and cut into strips
Some fried sweetened bean curd stick (tau kee)
cooking oil
some water
1 tbsp of vegetarian oyster sauce

Steps:
1. Heat up oil in a wok. Sauté mushroom till fragrant. Add carrot strips to stir-fry.
2. Stir in black fungus and cabbage. Mix well. Add vegetarian oyster sauce and some water. Leave it simmers for a while.
3. Toss in fried sweetened bean curd sticks. Stir-fry a while till the sauce reduced. Dish out.

Steamed Minced Pork With Salted Egg 咸蛋蒸肉

There are a lot of version for steamed minced pork. I personally like the two versions among all. One is with secret ingredient - the salted fish, while the other one is with salted duck egg. Both are considered not so healthy though. The secret taste enhancer is the white pepper powder, so don’t forget about it.

This is a simple Chinese dish which looks bland but it tastes marvelous to me. What is your version then?

Steamed Minced Pork With Salted Egg 咸蛋蒸肉
Serves 5-6


Ingredients:
300gm minced pork
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 salted duck egg, egg yolk mashed
spring onion, chopped

Seasonings:
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
dashes of white pepper powder

Steps:
1. Mix up all the ingredients except the spring onion in a heave proved shallow bowl. Leave for 15 minutes.
2. Bring a pot of water to boil.
3. Sprinkle the chopped spring onion on top of the minced pork mixture. Steam for 20 minutes.
4. Best to serve hot with steamed rice.

Agar-agar With Coconut Milk

I'm making agar-agar jelly for the first time. My sister in law used to make this, so I asked her for the recipe. Basically her measurement is 8 bowls of water for a packet of 25 grams agar-agar powder. Usually she makes 4 bowls of water with half a packet of agar-agar powder into the red colored agar-agar jelly as the bottom layer. While the other half packet of agar agar powder to mix with coconut milk to make the top layer.

As for my version, I didn't use the full packet of agar-agar powder. All the ingredients was just estimation, so no recipe sharing for this post. What I'm going to share is the secret of making this traditional agar-agar jelly with full of fragrant. The first secret for the bottom layer is to boil water with lots of pandan leaves. So, the jelly is infused with natural pandan fragrant. The second secret is for the coconut milk layer. Add some salt to the mixture. A pinch of salt will bring out the coconut taste to a higher level. It's so magical. This secret works for all desserts with coconut milk.

Enjoying a cup of cold agar-agar jelly on a hot afternoon is a kind of happiness.

Air Fried Sweet Tau Kee (Air-Fryer Recipe)

I like to have crispy fried tau kee served with take away economy fried bee hoon. I haven't made any deep fried tau kee at home before. With the air-fryer at home, I attempted to make this air-fried tau kee. It is so easy. It can be ready in less than 10 minutes. The result was not a failure, but the texture was not 100% satisfying. It's harder compared to the deep-fried version.

Steps:

1. Cut sweetened bean curd sheet (tau kee), into sticks. 

2. Mix it up with 1 tbsp of cooking oil. Remark: I used 4 pieces of sweetened bean curd sheet.

3. Air fry the sweet tau kee for 7 minutes under 170 def C. 

4. Leave it cool and keep in air-tight container.

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.

Air Fried Spiced Chicken Drumsticks (Air-Fryer Recipe)

These are oil free fried chicken drumsticks. Not a single drop of oil is used in marinating nor frying process. Believe me, this is the truth. Home cooked fried chicken can be done easily with air-fryer. Most importantly, less guilty of consuming fried food.

Air-Fried Spiced Chicken Drumsticks

Ingredients:
5 chicken drumsticks, excess fat discarded and cleaned
potato starch

Marinades:
1 tsp of cumin
1 tsp of paprika
1 tsp of turmeric powder
3/4 tsp of salt
1 tsp of light soy sauce

Steps:
1. Marinate the chicken for overnight in fridge.
2. Remove the chicken from fridge and leave it for 30 minutes under room temperature.
3. Preheat the air-fryer for 3 minutes under 180 deg C.
4. Coat the chicken drumsticks with potato starch.
5. Arrange the chicken drumsticks in the air-fryer tray. Air fry it for 12 minutes under 200 deg C. Over turn the chicken drumsticks and air fry for another 12 minutes.

Baby Food - Mashed Potato with Infant Formula

My baby girl just turned 6 months. It’s time for her to discover new tastes in solid food. I let her try NESTLÉ® CERELAC® Infant Cereal Rice & Mixed Vegetables for a start. Not disappointing me, she loves it. The flavor suits her taste buds perfectly. Now, she is fed cereal rice twice a day, and infant formula in between.

After 2 days of cerelac meal, I thought of preparing her baby food with fresh ingredients. First, with the potato. All ingredients were mixed into cereal rice form. The feeding was not went on smoothly. My baby didn't seem to like it at all. She felt reluctant to swallow it. Sigh......I gave up and continued to feed her with the cereal rice. So, this is an unsuccessful baby food recipe.

Baby Food - Mashed Potato
serves 1 (for baby 6M and above)

Ingredients:
1 small-sized potato, cleaned
2 tbsp of infant formula
2 oz of warm water

Steps:
1. Steam the whole potato till soft. Leave it cool, and peel off the skin. Mash it.
2. Prepare the milk with 2 tbsp of infant formula and 2 oz of warm water.
3. Mix up everything into cereal rice form.

Lemongrass and Turmeric Flavored Chicken Stir-Fries

I had lemongrass planted and it grows well. Now it is frequently used in my home cooked dishes. This is a quick dish to cook up, even when you have very limited time to prepare your home cooked meal.

Lemongrass and Turmeric Flavored Chicken Stir-Fries


Ingredients:
1 chicken breast - deboned, skinned and cubed
3 stalks of lemongrass ( only the white portion) – bruised
1 onion – peeled and sliced
Cooking oil

Chicken Marinades:
1 tsp turmeric powder
Light soy sauce to taste
Sugar to taste

Steps:
1. Marinate the chicken cube for at least 15 minutes.
2. Heat up oil in a wok. Sauté bruised lemongrass and onion till fragrant.
3. Add chicken cubes and stir-fry till the chicken is cooked.

Oriental Prawn Stir-Fry

Are you looking for Chinese New Year recipe? This Oriental Prawn Stir-Fry may come in time for your reference.

Prawn's pronunciation in Cantonese is similar to "laugh". Hence, prawn dishes represent Happiness. Enjoy this “happiness” dish brought to you by Little Inbox. Happy Chinese New Year for all who celebrate the festival!

Oriental Prawn Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

10 jumbo prawns
2 tbsp of chopped garlic
3 slices of ginger
1 onion, peeled and diced
2 stalks of spring onion, trim the root, and cut into 4cm length (get the green and white portion separated)
Bird’s eye chili, chopped (adjust the amount based on personal preference of spiciness)
Cooking oil

Seasonings:

1 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 tbsp of dark soy sauce
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
Mix up with 6 tbsp of water

Prawn Marinades:

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and grated
½ thumb-sized of ginger, peeled and grated

Steps:

1.Clean the prawns. Trim the legs. Retain the head and shell. Cut a hole at the back and remove the vein. Rinse under running water.
2.Marinate the prawns with grated garlic and ginger for 30 minutes in the fridge.
3.Heat oil in a wok. Sauté ginger and onion, follow by garlic, white portion of spring onion and bird’s eye chili.
4.Stir in the marinated prawns. Fry for a while. Pour in the seasonings. Stir the prawns to let it coated with sauce.
5.Add the green portion of spring onion to mix well.
6.Off the flame and serve hot.

Tomato Rice 番茄饭

I’ve been thinking of tomato rice lately. Back in university days, my friends and I used to dine in at a stall near the hostel. A Malay uncle was selling nasi tomato (tomato rice) there. His tomato rice was served with a chicken drumstick and few slices of cucumber. It was the only tomato rice I tried.

One day, while chatting with a Malay friend on a cooking topic, I brought up a question to her on how to cook tomato rice. She taught me on the steps and ingredients, I memorized it, shopped for ingredients that evening, and cooked it on the next day. My friend’s recipe calls for evaporated milk and coconut milk, but I substituted it with creamer powder instead. The outcome? I got very fragrant and moist tomato rice to serve with air-fried chicken chop, vegetarian mutton curry and Japanese cucumber slices. It’s delicious!

Tomato Rice

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

2 cups of rice, rinsed
2 cup of water (add a little bit more if your rice tends to absorb more water)
60g tomato puree
1 tomato, peeled and cubed
1 thumb-sized ginger, skinned and bruised
1 Cinnamon stick
1 star anise
4 pandan leaves, tied in 2 knots
Salt to taste
2 tbsp of creamer powder
Cooking oil

(A)

Blend together:

1 onion, peeled and diced
4 shallots, peeled
5 cloves of garlic, peeled

Steps:

1.Heat up oil in a wok. Add ginger, star anise, Cinnamon stick and (A) and sauté till fragrant. Add tomato puree and fresh tomato cubes. Stir-fry for a while.
2.Pour in rinsed rice. Stir to mix well.
3.Pour in water and bring to a boil.
4.Transer it to the rice cooker pot. Add salt, creamer powder and pandan leaves. Cook in rice cooker. Remark: I cook in under white rice program for 15 minute by using microcomputer rice cooker.
5.Once done, keep it warm in the rice cooker for another 10 minutes before serving.

Prawn and Fishball Noodle Soup

We spent the whole day of 2012 new year's eve to spring clean our house. There’s no celebration at home. I just cook the simple noodle soup for our new year's eve dinner.

The chicken stock was prepared on the stove and later moved to the magic cooker. The soup was then boiled again . The home made meat balls, fish balls, prawns were cooked in the soup. Add salt to taste. Once done, the soup with the ingredients was poured over the cooked organic carrot noodle. The noodle was then garnished with lettuce and fried garlic. This is so simple, isn’t it?

Roasted Pork Fried Rice 烧肉炒饭

Another fried rice whipped up with whatever left-over ingredients from the fridge. This is my way of savoring simple home cooked meal.

Wishing everyone Happy 2012!

Roasted Pork Fried Rice 烧肉炒饭
Serves 2

Ingredients:
half cup of red rice
half cup of white rice
2 eggs
some roasted pork, cut into small pieces
bak choy (only the stalk), sliced into pieces
leek (only the white portion), sliced horizontally
half onion, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp of chopped garlic
Cooking oil

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 the same wok, scramble the eggs. Set aside.
3. Add some oil, fry the roasted pork. Brown the onion and add garlic and leek. Sauté till fragrant.
4. Add cooled steamed rice, bak choy and scrambled egg. Stir fry to mix well. Season with light soy sauce and continue to fry till fragrant.