Tong Shui 糖水

The weather has sort of been crazy the past couple of days and I have just the remedy for it!

Inspired by the Tong Shui outlet at Thomson that I used to frequent with my gal pals. Easiest recipe ever. Do try it out.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Red Dates

1/2 cup Dried Longans

1/2 cup Chrysanthemum tea leaves

50 g of honey rock sugar (amount at your own discretion)

2 L of water

Method:

1. Bring 2 L of water to boil in a large pot

2. Add in all the dry ingredients

3. Boil gently for 1/2 an hour

4. Cool

5. Place in the fridge for an hour

6. Serve chilled

干炒河粉 Fried Hor Fun

Tried out this dish on a boring Sunday at home. Easy, yummy and tasty! Remember to give the kway teow/hor fun a quick run through the hot water though otherwise it will be too greasy! You will be surprised at how much oil there is in that little packet of uncooked kway teow from the wet market.

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

200 g kway teow/horfun (shouldn't cost you more than $1 at your lovely neighbourhood market)

2 tsps chopped garlic (more if you are a big fan of garlic, i am)

pork slices (at your own discretion)

shrimps

bean sprouts (grumpy aunty wont sell you anything less than 10 cents in any case)

onion

2 crab sticks (sliced)

1 egg

Seasoning A:

1 tsp light soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy suace

Seasoning B:

1 tsp light soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce (depending on how dark you want your hor fun to be)

1 tsp oyster sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

pinch of pepper

Garnish:
Spring Onions, red chilli & sesasme seeds (totally unnecessary)

Steps:

1. Heat up about 1/2 tbsp of oil, fry half the garlic till fragrant, add noodles and stir well. I would fry it until they become a semi crispy but NOT burnt. Add seasoning A. Set the noodles aside

2. Fry remaining chopped garlic in oil till fragrant. Add beaten egg. try to scramble it up. Put in the remaining ingredients in this order (pork slices, prawns, crab sticks, beansprouts/veg), making sure each ingredient is cooked before adding the next.

3. Stir in the noodles from step 1, add seasoning B and mix them well (bicep muscle cramps are a given especially if you are cooking for more people)

Enjoy.

炒米粉

This is just going to be a simple post on my latest cooking project.

Yes, I understand that the above-mentioned dish is seen practically everywhere in Singapore. From your neighbourhood hawker centres to home-catered buffet. But have you tried cooking it before? Its really hard to get the texture right!

My mum has always been very picky about the chewiness of beehoon, she absolutely hates it when it still has that crunchiness left over from not boiling it well. So, it was with great delight 2 Sundays ago when I whipped up a simple dish of Fried Beehoon and got her approval. (by the way, no complaints whatsoever equates to approval) Dad kept repeating "did you really cook this? serious? i don't believe this" in between mouthfuls of beehoon. I didn't know whether to feel flattered by his sudden praises or upset at his sudden realization that yes, his daughter does know a thing or two in the kitchen. hmm.

Anyways, promised this would be short (i aim to be less rambly..). so here's the recipe (modified from Jimmy Chua's cookbook - the one that i have been quoting the past few times).

ps. sorry the photos don't look as appetizing as it should be ;)

炒米粉

Serves 5

Ingredients A:

1 pack Rice Vermicelli (my mum swears by Chilli brand. i have no idea why)

3 eggs (beaten)

2 tbsps chopped garlic

Ingredients B:

50 g shelled prawns

100 g charsiew ( i used sliced lean pork instead)

50 g ben sprouts ( i substitued this with Chye sim)

1/2 carrot (cut thinly)

1/2 onion (sliced thinly)

Ingredients C:

2 Red chillies (shredded)

2 Spring onions (cut into little 5 cm sections)

Seasoning:

500ml stock ( i used water, turned out fine)

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp sugar

pinch of pepper

Steps:

1. Blanch the vermicelli in hot water for a minute, drain it and set aside

2. Fry the garlic in oil till fragrant

3. Add eggs and ingredients B. Keep stirring and flipping it so the eggs can break up

4. Add seasoning and bring it to boil

5. Add rice vermicelli and stir fry till the sauce thickens and turns dry. Give it a taste and see whether you need to add anymore sauces

6. Sprinkle your garnishes (C) on top. Serve! :)

卤花生 (Braised Salted Peanuts)

Adapted from: 新加坡风味小吃 (Singapore Hawker Food) by Jimmy Chua

I love traditional Chinese restaurants that serves braised peanuts as part of their appetizer (you know, those soft ones that are fulllll of flavor?) and have always thought that the only way I could get them is to buy the canned ones at the supermarket.

That was until I chanced upon the cook book (another one of those Popular bookstore ones) specializing in home-cooked Singapore's 'Hawker' Fare.

Gave the recipe to my mum and a week later, came back home from work to find a big pot of braised peanuts. Just in time for my grandma's stay at my place for the weekend. (卤花生 是老人的最爱）。

And of course, mum being mum, she tries to make everything 'less salt, less oil' so the end product was a tad bit bland.

Trust the original recipe from Jimmy Chua!

Serves: 4

Ingredients

200 g Big Peanuts

3 rice-bowls water

1 Star aniseed (八角）

1 g Cassia bark (桂皮）

Seasoning

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp five-spice powder (五香粉）

Method

1. Soak peanuts in hot water for 2-3 hours.

2. Boil water in a pot with star aniseed and cassia bark.

3. Add seasoning and peanuts and bring to boil

4. Turn to low heat and simmer for 3-4 hours. (i think 5-6 hours would make it softer. but, according to your preference of course)

SO EASY.chey.=D

Brunch @ Chowy's

Visit Chowy @ http://chowanmushi.wordpress.com

Boozy French Toast and Baked Eggs Recipes from http://smittenkitchen.com

A decade long friendship =)

Was invited for bunch over at Chowy's last Saturday and of course, with C as the cook - this was one invitation that I will never dream of turning down.


Now that i come to think about it, every visit to Chowy's has always been food-related. Tea parties, (failed) baking sessions, even impromptu visits to her house would end up in some food-tasting frenzy (pineapple tarts, Moon Cakes, miso tofu, popiah..and the list goes on). I just might have establish part of the reason why I gained 4 kg (#$@*%@#$!) since coming back from the States! hmm.

Baked Eggs + Spinach & Mushroom

I would say that she is more of an "ang-moh"派 cook who gravitates towards creating Westernized dishes. I guess the Oxford and London years had a compounded effect on her.


Anyways, we had quite a spread that day which she 'claims' to have single-handedly 'slogged all morning' for. (ok to be fair, traces of flour on her black dress serves as evidence for her hard work). The stars of the show besides all the ready-made food were the baked eggs and the "boozy french toast". And trust me, it tasted as wonky as it sounds.

The wonderful brunch spread

I loved the baked eggs with spinach and sauteed mushrooms! The greedy me secretly wished there were more (oops) but servings were limited to one egg/guest which was great since there were so many other yummylicious food on the table. The 'boozy' french toast was...interesting. Like a hybrid between a bread pudding and a french toast. (And yes, just in case you were wondering, the bread slices were indeed soaked in alcohol before baking). Besides these 2 main dishes, there was a throng of other side dishes like smoked salmon, granola+fresh fruits & German sausages. Also, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself when freshly baked madeleines were brought out by C's mum towards the end. They looked (+ tasted) tonnes better than our previous combined attempt which failed miserably due to Chowy's questionable French translation skills. Read about it here:

http://valeebelly.blogspot.com/2009/09/madeleines-lancienne.html

Freshly baked madeleines. They go surprisingly well with smoked salmon!

All in all, it was a nice brunch where the group of us caught up on life over some lovingly prepared food which ended with a nice cup of exquisite Darjeeling and English Breakfast tea.

Brunch companions

Looking forward to the next invite. erhem. -big wave to Chowy if you are reading this-=)


ps. She swears by the recipes on this website: http://smittenkitchen.com and these are the links which she drew inspiration from for the brunch.


Baked eggs+ Spinach & Mushrooms
http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-bacon-is-always-crisp/


Boozy French Toast
http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/12/new-years-day-2001/

Boozy french toast in the foreground

Chicken and Pineapple with Cashews

Photos by: Ed
Recipe from:Kitchen Library's New Asian Cooking (this $4 bargain book i got from Ann Arbor's Borders!)



So,I have been asked for this recipe alot of times (most requests by the photographer himself) and decided to post it here. Its an easy dish to prepare and is pretty yummy too! Its classified under Vietnamese cooking with an emphasis on Asian sauces like oyster and fish sauce. Goes well with plain rice.

Chicken with Pineapple and Cashews
....................................

Serves 4

1/2 cup raw cashews
2 tbsp oil
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large onion, cut in large chunks
2 tsp chopped red chillies
350 g chicken thigh filllets, chopped into cubes
1/2 red capsicum, chopped
1/2 green capsicum, chopped
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 cups chopped fresh pineapple (canned ones will suffice really)
3 spring onions, chopped
2 tbsp shredded coconut

1. Roast cashews on oven tray for about 15 minutes in moderate 180 C oven until deep golden, allow it to cool
2. Heat oil in a wok or large frying pan and stir fry garlic, onion and chillies over medium heat for 2 minutes, remove from wok. Increase heat to high an dstir-fry chicken and capsicum in 2 batches, tossing until chicken is light brown. Heat must be very high so the chicken will be succulent.
3. Return onion mixture to wok, add oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar and pineapple and toss for 2 minutes. Toss the cashews through. Arrange on serving plate and scatter spring onion and coconut over the top.
4. Serve with rice, garnished with corriander leaves.

Enjoy!

Wanton Noodles

Photos by: JS and CY


Hello! It has been a long while since I last blogged on this site. Almost a month!I have been crazily busy with the finals and left straightaway for my amazing winter break at Hawai'i (more on that in a later post)for 2 weeks and then it was back to Ann Arbor with floods of application, emails and admin stuff to clear. But I guess I have neglected this blog long enough to the point that even the fooble chatbox went through self-destruction and had to be resurrected!

Anyways, in the midst of all the excitement for the Hawai'i holiday planning, I decided to have a wanton mee party at our place about a month ago. It was indeed a phenomenal task cooking for 12 people.

Note to self: never ever attempt it again unless you own an industrial size kitchen.



I wouldn't say that the wanton noodles cooked that day was great because I got so disoriented after a while and started overcooking the veg and wantons. My friends were a big fan of the charsiew however, which was just pork marinated in plain old simple Lee Kum Kee charsiew sauce.Yeah I know...I wish I could make the marinate from scratch but I couldn't get hold of a reliable recipe then and decided to try out the bottle of Lee Kum Kee stored on the shelf.I think it belongs to my housemates but I stole it anyways.Yikes. By the way, I bought a cooking book called "Food of Paradise" from the international airport at Honoululu which proved to be a delightable read on the plane (don't even get me starting on the 2 hours of turbulence) and guess what, it teaches you how to make Charsiew Sauce from scratch! =)

I personally liked the wantons best because it is a special concoction of minced pork and prawns, a recipe inspired by my mum. But Mr Lee Kum Kee sure did steal the spotlight!



Wanton Mee

1 pound pork tenderloin
Lee Kum Kee Charsiew Sauce


Wanton skins
1 pound ground pork
1/2 pound raw peeled shrimps (chopped into fine bits)
chopped garlic

Xiao Bai Cai

Yellow hongkong noodles

For each serving:

1 tsp Fish sauce
1/2 tbsp Soy sauce
1/2 tbsp Sesame Oil
1/2 tbsp Chilli/Tomato Ketchup
1 tsp Fried garlic bits
1 tsp Black pepper



1. Marinate the pork tenderloin with 5 tbsp of charsiew sauce for 2 hours (or as long as you like!) and bake it at 350 F for 30 minutes
2. Mix the minced pork, prawns and garlic together. Marinate them with 6 tbsp of soy sauce, 5 tbsp of sesame oil, 5 chopped garlic cloves and 4 tbsp of fried shallots
3. Shape them into little balls and wrap them in the wanton skins

4. Throw the wantons into boiling water for 1.5 minutes, take them out and put them into cold water so that they won't stick
5. Boil the noodles for 3 minutes
6. Boil the Xiao Bai Cai for about a minute
7. While the noodles and veg are cooking, pour the mixture of fish suace, soy sauce, sesame oil, chilli/ketchup into a plate and mix it with the garlic bits and black pepper
8. Drain the noodles, dip them into cold water and thoroughly mix them with the sauce mixture on the place

9. Cut the pork into 1/4 inch slices
10.Drain the vegetables
11.Garnish the plate of noodles with the pork, veg and wantons (duh!)

to all friends who are currently in Singapore: i know you can get wanton noodles within a 100 m radius from where you are right now but you have no idea how precious authentic Asian food is to us over here!!

to all others reading this from around the globe: hope you find a good Asian supermarket near you!=) Good Luck!

The one with a Meatloaf (and other side dishes)

Adapted from:
The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook, featured on ChubbyHubby (Harlem Meatloaf)
Val's awesome mum: Doris (Tangy Potato Salad)
Quick Short Recipes (Creamless Mushroom Soup)

Photos By: Ed



I have never eaten a meatloaf in my life, largely due to the fact that I do not consume beef because of well, "religous" reasons and the fear of infuriating by mum. But then again, who am I kidding? I have consumed beef (in a conscious state of mind)before but they were all backed by really really good reasons...

However, I was a good sport 2 Saturdays ago when I tried a slice of the Harlem meatloaf that Ed cooked. And I have to say that the "sacrifice" was worth it.

I first came across the meatloaf post on Chubbyhubby's 29th October post and it was pretty amazing how he could make something so dull look incredibly yummy. It was my intention to bake it for my housemates and the usual dinner guests from the apartment at 1072. Coincidentally, Ed (also a huge Chubbyhubby fan, just not as mad as me) brought up the idea 2 days later of a collaboration for the meatloaf on one of the Saturday dinners to thank apartment 1076(inhabited by my generous housemates) for providing him with warm wholesome dinners on many occassions.

We bought all our ingredients from the organic grocery store-Whole Foods ( I wanna bring the franchise to Singapore.swear!), the italian sausages, ground beef, tobasco ..right down to the pickles! It was going to be a healthy meatloaf! Oh, the irony.

Anyway, did I mention the word "collaboration"? Well, it turned out to be more like an Iron Chef scenario in which Ed (with all that SAF commanding aura around him)kept barking out orders to the sous chef (demoted right in her own kitchen!!!)..

"eh Val.can you chop the onions?"
"wheres the measuring cup?"
"can you pass the Worchestshire sauce?"
"can you chop the pickles?"
"do you think its done?"
"do you have a larger mixer bowl?"

All in all, I would say I did a darn good job at all the dicing. Thanks to my awesome food chopper that I bought from Chef's Outlet at the factory outlet. Our saving grace. And it was a hilarious sight looking at a guy friend of mine running excitedly around the kitchen like a 10 yr old kid in a red-striped William Sonoma apron and oh gosh, you should have seen the blissful expression on his face when he finally got to wipe his wet hands down on the apron (thats what he claims the apron is for).



I made some other side dishes (Creamless mushroom soup and Potato Salad) for the dinner party at Lynn's place. Shen Ye created an awesome baked rice in a Pyrex dish and Lynn's fruit tart was as close to what you can get at the pastry section of Whole Foods.Neatly arranged fruits, very flavorful crust and all. The meatloaf I must say, was pretty impressive and with every bite, the Southern flavor gets enhanced and you could ALMOST (operative word being "almost")feel yourself being transported back to the lush green plantations of Alabama..



Hope you would enjoy this mini feast we managed to create in under 2 hours.


Harlem Meat Loaf
.................
Serving Size: 6 people

450 g ground beef
225 g Italian sausages (prefrably sweet ones)
3/4 cup ketchup
1 tbsp + 2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
4 tsp Tobasco Sauce
1/2 cup chopped sour dill pickles
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat over to 175 C
2. Place minced beef and sausage meat into a large wide bowl and break the meat up into golf-ball sized hunks
3. In another bowl, whisk 1/2 cup ketcup with 1 tablespoon Worcestershire and 2 teaspoons Tabasco. Pour thi sover the meat.
4. Using the same bowl, mix pickles, onions, garlic and parsley. Scatter this over the meat mixture
5. Sprinkle break crumbs evenly over it.
6. Add egg and salt
7. Use hands to mix the ingredients well, until evenly blended.
8. Transfer mixture to a 9" x 13" roasting pan and pat it into a compact loaf.
9. Bake this for 35 minutes on the middle rack
10.Whisk remaining 1/4 cup ketchup, 2 teaspoons Worcestershire and 1 teaspoon Tabasco together in a small bowl.
11.Brush the glaze generously over the top of the meat loaf.
12.Put it back into the over for another 15 minutes and the glaze should harden and stiffen.
13.Let the meat loaf rest for 10 minutes before slicing. (or place it in fridge)


Creamless Mushroom Soup
.......................
Serves 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Total cooking time: 25 minutes

2 onions
60 g butter
2 cloves garlic
500 g small/medium mushrooms, chopped
30 g plain flour
560 ml milk
375 ml beef/chicken stock
20 g chopped parsley

1. Chop onions fniely
2. Melt butter in a large pan, add onion and garlic. Stir over med heat for 3 minutes until onion is osft.
3. Add chopped mushrooms to pan, stir 5 minutes
4. Add flour, stir for another minute
5. Add milk and stock to pan, stir until combined.
6. bring to boil, reduce heat to low.
7. Simmer, unconvered, for 15 minutes or until mixture has reduced and thickened and mushrooms are tender.
8. Stir in parsley.


Mummy's Potato Salad
....................
Potato
Onions
Canned corn kernels
Green Apples
Mayonaise
Hard-boiled eggs
Bacon bits
+
much discretion and love=)
( I honestly estimate the portions of each ingredient!)

i love the last recipe. Always reminds me of home and of mum when I make it. It is a big hit among the Americans here because there is a different kick to it when you add green apples to the otherwise dull mixture of starchy potatoes and hard boiled eggs.