Steamed Chicken and Tofu Pok with Salted Fish

We decided to have our dinner at home for this New Year Eve. Maybe age is really catching up for both of us or we had become kinda anti-social; we rather sit at home and not opting to go out to join the New Year crowd. I really don't fancy the idea of sitting in the car and get stuck on the road since this kinda big event, everybody will be rushing out to have fun. Hmm.. So back to my post here, we had simple dishes for to welcome the new beginning of 2010. We had steamed chicken and tofu pok with salted fish for dinner tonite. I had been trying to get 'rid' of the tofu pok that had been sitting in the fridge for sometime now. So after looking thru recipes, I had found this one to try on. The end result was GOOD. It's simple to prepare and all the ingredients are easily available in the hyper mart.

Ingredients

1 pc salted fish

1 tbsp ginger, sliced

5 tofu pok, sliced

500g chicken, cut into pieces

Seasoning

1/2 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

3 tbsp water

1/2 tsp corn flour

Methods

1. Mix ingredients with seasoning. Marinate for 30 minutes or more. Put the mixture into a steaming tray.
2. Steam at high heat for 20 minutes or till cooked. Garnish with spring onions.
3. Serve hot.

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Drunken Fish in Claypot

My fish swimming in a bowl of wine... That's why drunk liao lor... :P

Since is a New Year Eve dinner, it's best to have a fish on our dining table too. Since fish aka 'yu' can symbolized '年 年 有 鱼'. Very superstitious thinking rite? Muahahahahaha.. Well, I am a Chinese too... :)

Ingredients

1 tilapia fish

2 tbsp oil

2 tbsp ginger, sliced

3 stalks spring onions, cut into strips

Seasoning

3 tbsp Shaoxing wine

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp salt

150ml water

1 stalk spring onion, shredded

Methods

1. Heat up oil in a clay pot. Saute ginger and spring onion until fragrant.
2. Add fish and pan-fry for 2 minutes (one side only). Add in seasoning.
3. Cover with lid and simmer for 15 minutes or until cooked.
4. Remove from stove. Garnish with spring onions and serve hot.

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Sambal Bean Sprout Salad

Ingredients

300g bean sprout

2 red chillies, shredded

2 tbsp sambal paste

2 tbsp dried prawns, deep fried

1 tbsp shallots, fried

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp lime juice

Methods

1. Blanch bean sprout in boiling water for a short while. Dish and drain. Put into a big bowl.
2. Add in the remaining ingredients and mix well. Serve.

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Crocodile Rock Restaurant

Our whole family decided to go and try something different for dinner. Since Mum and Dad rarely take western food, we decided to go to Crocodile Rock Restaurant in Kuantan. The restaurant was actually a one storey bungalow setup restaurant. You can opt to sit indoor or outdoor once you were inside but being an air-cond person like me, of course I'll choose indoor. (I wanna be eating the food and not being food to the mosquitoes in the area especially during night time.... :D )

One big happy family.... :)

The entrance of the restaurant.

Their menu.

Ordering food for our parents are definitely a 'hard' task since both of them don't really fancy anything that is cheesy and Dad (not a beef or lamb lover). Thus we had ordered a grilled chicken for Dad and salmon steak for Mum. Both commented their main dishes were good. As for me, I had ordered Carbonara Spaghetti, Hubby ordered Beef Burger, Sis ordered Rib-Eye Steak and Pizza Margherita for all of us to share. Overall, the dining experience is the place is good. Their setup is cosy and is a good place for friend to dine in and catch up.

Fruit Punch

Kiwi Freeze

Grilled Chicken for Dad.

Beef Burger for Hubby.

Carbonara Spaghetti for Me.

Salmon Steak for Mum.

Rib Eye Steak for Sis.

Pizza Margherita for sharing.

Their place was decorated with Xmas tree to boost up the Xmas feel during this festive season.

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The Birthday Bun

'Sou Bao' 壽包 (Birthday Bun) is the Chinese birthday pastry made of flour with fillings such as red bean paste and lotus paste. This special bun are shaped and coloured to resemble peaches. This is my first time making this bun in conjunction with Dad's birthday. The bun was soft and fluffy once it was steamed. Yumz....

Ingredients

Bao Dough

500g pau flour, sifted

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tbsp instant yeast

90g castor sugar

240ml water

3 tbsp shortening

1 tbsp double action baking powder

Filling

ready made red bean paste

red colouring

Methods

1. Bao Dough: Mix all ingredients except double action baking powder together and knead into smooth and elastic dough.
2. Cover with a piece of wet cloth and leave to prove until it has doubled its bulk.
3. Sift double action baking powder on top of the dough and knead well to distribute the baking powder until the dough is smooth again.
4. Cover and allow to rest for 15 minutes before shaping.
5. Divide dough into small portions (any size you wish), wrap up filling and form into shape of birthday bun. Press a line in the center. Brush with a little red colouring.
6. Steam for 5-10 minutes until cooked. Serve hot.
   

Fluffy soft Sou Baos.

Made a gigantic Sou Baos specially for Dad. :)

Me posing this specially made Sou Bao for Dad.

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Hakka Char Yoke

My version of Hakka Char Yoke - too much coating of flour.

Yummy.. Soft and tender Char Yoke.

This is another dish that I had prepared for Dad's birthday. I had followed the recipe from Lily's blog. I had used more of the Nam Yee sauce since I wanted to have a stronger taste in this dish and thus modified it slightly. Do hop over her site to get the recipe.

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Eight Treasure Chicken

I had made this specially for Dad's birthday in Kuantan since Eight Treasure Chicken have a name that symbolize good fortune and prosperous. The fillings inside taste good but the chicken meat was rather bland. I think it's better to marinade the chicken overnight.

Ingredients

2 pcs lotus leaves

1 chicken (app 1 kg)

6 cloves garlic

1 Chinese sausage, sliced

4 Chinese mushroom, soaked, removed stem, cut into quarter

120g Chinese cabbage, sliced

5 chestnuts, soaked overnight

10 ginkgo nuts

40g lotus seeds

1 carrot, sliced

Marinade

1 tbsp Chinese rose wine

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tbsp salt

Seasoning

1/2 tbsp Shaoxing wine

1/2 tbsp oyster sauce

3/4 bowl water

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

dash of sesame oil and pepper

Methods

1. Cook lotus leaves in boiling water until they soften. Rinse and wipe it.
2. Rub marinades except dark soy sauce on the chicken's skin and inside of chicken. Marinade overnight. Then wipe the chicken with kitchen paper. Rub dark soy sauce on chicken, pour some hot oil onto chicken skin to enhance its colour. Then rinse the chicken with cold water.
3. Heat up oil, fry garlic until golden brown. Pour in wine. Add all ingredients in order except lotus leaves and chicken and fry until fragrant. Add water and seasoning. Cook till cabbage softens. Thicken gravy with starch solution. Dish out and leave to slightly cool.
4. Stuff the dish into chicken stomach. Seat with toothpicks. Place the balance of dish and stock at the side of chicken. Wrap with lotus leaves tightly.
5. Boil some water in a wok. Steam over low heat for 2 hours.
6. Serve.

All filling stuffed inside the chicken

Wrapped up in lotus leaves.

I had used aluminium foil to wrapped the lotus leaves too since the gravy is leaking out.

Hot hot hot!

The yummy fillings inside once the chicken is cut open.

All ready to be served.

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Chewy Almond Chocolate Cookies

I have been getting super duper lazy in writing my blog nowadays especially in the month of December. All the post seem to be postdated. Sigh, wonder when can I get rid of the lazy bug mushrooming in me. So back to my first cookie post. I decided to bake it as lil pressie to be given to friends and colleagues. This cookie recipes is not the type for the crunchy texture cookies but they are rather chewy and soft. I got the recipes from Recipezaar and modified it a bit.

Butter and sugar.

Flour and cocoa powder mixed.

The cookie batter - a teaspoonful each.

Freshly baked. Appetising.

Can't resist the temptation; have a bite on them. Slurp.....

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups butter, softened

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence

2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips

100g of almond flakes

Methods

1. Pre-heat oven at 180 Celsius.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well.
4. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually blend into creamed mixture.
5. Stir in chocolate chips and almond flakes.
6. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet.
7. Bake 8-9 minutes. (Do not over bake; cookies will be soft. They will puff while baking and flatten while cooling.).
8. Cool slightly.Remove from cookie sheet onto wire rack.
9. Cool completely.
10. Store in airtight container to ensure freshness.

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Xmas - Season of Sharing and Giving

Christmas is coming up real soon. I had made a batch of chewy chocolate chips cookies with almond to be given out to friends and colleagues during the weekend since there is a long stretch of holidays. That's what Christmas is all about - a season of sharing and also giving. Read more about the recipe for the cookies in the coming post.

All sealed up to ensure freshness of the cookies.

Nicely packaged cookies with cute gift tags (downloaded from the Internet)


Happy Holidays people! All lined up to be given away.

For who? Keep on guessing ya.. Hehehe..

Another packaging style.

Another lined up. All hand made with love. :)

Love the Santa gift tags. Cute!

Ribbons are important to doll up the gifts too.

MERRY XMAS !

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Celebrating Winter Solstice at Our Home

This year is the first year that we are celebrating Winter Solstice (Dongzhi Festival) in our home. I had prepared a few dishes for Hubby and I to celebrate this meaningful day for Chinese. I guess as we grew older, we realised the meaning the behind this tradition. Thus I made it a point that we should try to celebrate it every year.

Quoted from Wikipedia: Traditionally, the Dongzhi Festival is also a time for the family to get together. One activity that occurs during these get togethers is the making and eating of Tang Yuan or balls of glutinous rice, which symbolize reunion. Tang Yuan are made of glutinous rice flour and sometimes brightly coloured. Each family member receives at least one large Tang Yuan in addition to several small ones. The flour balls may be plain or stuffed. They are cooked in a sweet soup or savoury broth with both the ball and the soup/broth served in one bowl.

I had prepared the Tang Yuan the night before as it was needed during the praying on Dongzhi and some of the ingredients for the dishes for our dinner. So wondering what we had for the special day. Scroll down and have a look. Though it was not the most yummylicious meal, but it was good enough as we had each other company for this meaningful day. (Sigh, it'll be better if DongZhi was made a public holiday, so I can celebrate the day with my family too but of course there will be compensation for it, CNY is coming soon.)

Cantonese Style White Chicken

Nam Yee Steamed Fish

Lettuce in Oyster Sauce

Of course our highlight of the night: a bowl of home made Tang Yuan (in ginger and sweet Osmanthus soup)

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Steamed Fish with Nam Yee Sauce

Steamed Fish with Nam Yee sauce.

Since I had made a lot of Nam Yee sauce when preparing the Hakka Char Yoke dish. Thus trying to be creative, I had used the sauce to steamed fish. Just placed slices of ginger on top and inside of dish and pour the sauce on top of the fish. Let it steam for around 15 minutes or till it's cooked.

P/S: In order to get rid of the fishy taste of the fish, try to first steam it for a few minutes and throw away the water and continue to steam with the sauce and sliced ginger.

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Cantonese Style Steamed Chicken

Since Hubby originated from a Cantonese family, I decided to try to make dishes that his Mum used to make every time when we were back in his hometown for the Winter Solstice dinner. This dish is normally made available whenever we were in his parents' place. So in order to have a more 'home' feel, we will be having Cantonese Style Steamed Chicken with the Ginger Garlic Parsley Sauce. This sauce it so good that you can eat it on its own and also good as a dipping sauce for other types of meat.

One whole steamed white chicken

Garnish with spring onions.

Ginger Garlic Parsley Sauce

Ingredients

1 whole chicken

1 pc ginger, flattened

1 tsp salt

250g parsley

10 stalks spring onions, diced

300g ginger, diced

30g garlic, chopped

100ml cooking oil

1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp salt

Methods

1. Bring half pot of water to boil. Add in chicken, flattened ginger and salt. Reduce to medium heat and cook for 20-25 minutes. Remove and soak in cold water.
2. Cut chicken into pieces and arrange on plate.
3. Heat up oil, stir fry diced ginger and garlic. Sauteed till aromatic. Add in parsley and spring onions. Stir fry again.
4. Add in oyster sauce and salt. Stir-fry till aromatic.
5. Remove and serve with chicken.

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Tong Yuan

It's time for celebration again. Winter Solstice is here again. What is the most significant symbol for this special day? Of course it's D Tong Yuan (glutinous rice ball). So a sweet sweet Tong Yuan to warm your tummy and heart for this big day.

Ingredients

Tong Yuan
200g glutinous rice flour
100ml boiling water
cold water (add in enough cold water till the dough become soft)
1-2 drops of food colouring
ready made red bean paste
grinded roasted peanuts
gula melaka, cubed

Ginger and Sweet Osmanthus Soup
10g dried longan
1/2 tbsp sweet Osmanthus
6 slices ginger
4 pandan leaves
brown sugar to taste
water

Methods

1. Tong Yuan: Mix boiling water with glutinous rice flour till well combined.
2. Add enough cold water and knead into soft dough consistency.
3. Divide the dough into 3 portions. Mix 1 portion with pink colouring, 1 portion with green colouring and 1 portion with yellow colouring.
4. Divide all dough into small balls. Slightly flatten them. Wrap in fillings and seal. Knead into small balls again.
5. Bring a pot of water to boil. Add in Tong Yuan. Cook over low heat till they float up.
6. Remove Tong Yuan and filter.
7. Ginger and Sweet Osmanthus Soup: Bring a pot of water to boil. Add in dried longan, pandan leaves and ginger. Lastly, add in sweet Osmanthus and brown sugar to taste.
8. Place Tong Yuan into a bowl. Pour in the soup and serve.

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