Hot and Spicy Bean Paste Pork

Bean paste or taucu is a versatile cooking ingredient that can be used in many dishes. Since I had bought a bottle of taucu, I am constantly searching new recipes which use this item. Bean paste was very flavourful and it will help to enhance the flavour in the dishes. This dish is no exceptional either. It was very aromatic and flavourful which definitely increase our appetite as it's gravy was good to be serve rice.

Yummy porkylicious dish... Love the gravy and great to be served with rice.

Can I have another bite please??? Yumz...

Ingredients

400g pork belly, cubed

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 shallots, chopped

6 chili padi, chopped

1 tbsp curry leaves

Seasoning

1 tbsp bean paste (taucu)

1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

1/2 tbsp sugar

150ml water

Methods

1. Blanch pork belly in boiling water till cooked. Dish and drained.
2. Heat up oil, saute garlic and shallots until aromatic. Add in chili padi, curry leaves and stir fry until aromatic.
3. Add in seasoning and stir well. Add in pork, simmer for 20 minutes and stir well. Dish up and serve with rice.

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Scrambled Egg with Cauliflower

Cauliflower was one of my favourite vegetable when I was small as I dislike green leafy vegetables back then. Thus, I am constantly searching for new ways to cook my all time favourite vegetables. I found this recipe in one of my cookbook collection and decided to try it out. Hubby commented it was very good and it's a new way to cook cauliflower. I do agree with him as this dish was very delicious and it's one of the easily prepared comfort food at home.

Ingredients

200g cauliflower, cut into florets and blanched
2 shallots, minced
2 tbsp dried prawns, soaked
3 eggs, mixed with 1/2 tsp salt and beaten lightly

Seasoning
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
dash of pepper

Methods

1. Heat up oil in wok. Saute shallots and dried prawns till fragrant.
2. Add in blanched cauliflower, seasoning and mix well. Lastly add in beaten eggs and stir fry till cooked. Dish up and serve.

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Steamed Eggs with Minced Pork

This is actually my first try in steaming eggs. I always have the perception that steamed eggs are not that easy to prepare but after this first attempt, I felt that my perception was actually way way wrong. All it takes for making this dish was just purely patience as in not over stirring the beaten eggs to minimize bubbles which will spoilt the appearance of the steamed eggs. I am thinking this wouldn't be my last try on steaming eggs. More steamed eggs gonna be served in our house as it's simple, healthy and delicious.

Stir fry minced pork till it's just cook.

Transfer the minced pork to a deep dish.

Pour in egg mixture.

Add in diced carrots.

Placed it on a steamer. Steamed it for 15-20 minutes at medium heat.

Hot steaming steamed eggs out from the steamer.

The inside of the steamed eggs - minced pork and carrots.

Ingredients
150g minced pork
1/4 carrot, diced

Egg mixture
3 eggs
3/4 cup water or stock
1/2 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1/4 tsp light soy sauce

Marinade (minced pork)
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp Shao Xing wine
dash of white pepper
some coriander leaves, finely chopped

Methods

1. Egg mixture: Break eggs into the bowl. Do not beat eggs but gently stir the egg to minimize bubbles. Add the rest of ingredients. Stir till well mixed.
2. Combine minced pork with marinades and mix well. Leave it for at least 10 minutes.
3. Heat oil in wok. Stir fry minced pork till it's just cooked.
4. Arrange the stir-fry minced pork in a thin layer on a deep dish. Add in egg mixture and topped up with diced carrots on top.
5. Steam eggs over medium heat for about 15 minutes. To test if the egg mixture is cooked, insert a bamboo stick into the mixture: if a little clear liquid comes out, it is cooked. Serve hot.

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Broccoli with Mushrooms

Arrange the blanched broccoli on a serving plate.

Place in mushrooms and carrots in the middle.

Ready to be serve. Let's feast.

Ingredients

1 medium size broccoli, cut into florets

1 carrot, sliced

8 dried mushrooms, soaked with water, cut the stems

5 cloves garlic, diced

8 slices ginger

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

salt to taste

dash of pepper

300ml water

cornflour solution, for thickening

Methods

1. Heat up oil in wok. Saute garlic and ginger till fragrant.
2. Add in mushrooms and carrots. Stir fry until fragrant. Add in seasoning and simmer at low heat for 15 minutes.
3. Blanch broccoli in boiling water until cooked. Dish and drain. Arrange onto a serving plate.
4. Thicken the mushrooms and carrots with cornflour solution and pour over broccoli.
5. Serve hot.

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Sweet and Sour Pomfret

Pan fry black pomfret till golden brown both sides. Dish up and put on a plate.

Stir fry tomatoes, cucumber and red chili.

Add in sauce mixture. Stir till well mixed. Cooked till cucumber is tender.

Pour the sauce and vegetables on top of the fish. Serve hot.

Greedy me of putting to much veges till the sauce fully covered the fish. Nevertheless, it's still yummy and good.

Ingredients

1 black pomfret, scaled and cleaned
2 tomatoes, quartered
5 cloves garlic, minced
6 red chilli, sliced
2 stalks coriander leaves, chopped

Sauce:
4 tbsp tomato sauce
2 tbsps chili sauce
1 tbsp white vinegar
1-2 tbsp sugar (do a taste test, add more according to your preferences)
1 tbsp of light soy sauce

Methods

1. Make a few deep slits on both side of the fish. Rub both sides of the fish with some salt.
2. Pan-fry with low heat on a non stick pan to ensure that the flesh of the fish is cooked as well. Dish up and place on a plate.
3. Prepare the sauce by mixing the ingredients above and taste it according to your preference.
4. Saute garlic, chili, and coriander till fragrant. Next, add the tomatoes and stir-fry for awhile before adding the previously prepared sauce.
5. Bring to a boil and pour over the fish earlier.
6. Garnish with some coriander leaves and serve hot.
   
   

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Baked Tofu

Tofu before baking in the oven.

Baked Tofu

Ingredients

5 firm tofu

Marinade
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Mei Kwei Lu
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp onions, minced
1 tsp ginger, diced
3 tbsp water

Methods

1. For best results, tofu should be "pressed" in order to remove excess liquid and absorb the flavors of the marinade.
2. To make marinade, simply whisk together the ingredients in a bowl.
3. After tofu is pressed, cut the block into small cubes.
4. Place pieces of tofu into baking dish, and cover with the marinade.
5. The tofu can sit overnight in the marinade, or can be prepared right away.
6. Preheat oven to 200 Celsius
7. Bake tofu about 35-45 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed.
8. Serve hot.
   

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Nian Gao Pancakes

This is my second post on Nian Gao related food. I had saw the posting of this recipe in Vivian's blog which attracted my to tried it out using the second small sized Nian Gao that Mummy had given to me during Chinese New Year. I am trying to use Nian Gao in making food items that I have not tried before. The outlook of the Nian Gao Pancakes does resemble Chinese Pancakes. The method is similar like making pancakes but we had used Nian Gao as the fillings inside. I am pretty happy with the end results. It was very fulfilling to our tummies too. Burp burp.. :)

I had snapped some step by step picture tutorial in the making of this yummy delicacies.

Slice Nian Gao to desired thickness.

Divide dough into 7 portion. Rolled each portion to a ball shape. Flattened each ball.

Place a slice of Nian Gao on top of the flattened dough.

Wrap the dough around the Nian Gao to form a pancake. Repeat the steps again for the rest.

Ready made Nian Gao pancakes prepared to be pan fry.

Add in small amount of oil in a non stick pan. Pan fry pancakes for 4-5 minutes each side.

Nian Gao pancakes ready to be taken out from the non-stick pan.

Eat the pancakes while it's still warm as Nian Gao is still gooey and chewy.

Can you see the Nian Gao filling inside the pancakes?

Yummy yummy!!!

Ingredients

(A)
2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp yeast
1 cup water

(B)
7 slices Nian Gao


Methods

1. Put all the ingredients (A) into a bowl. Mix well.
2. Knead the flour till it becomes a smooth dough.
3. Cover and rest for approximately 30 minutes.
4. Transfer to table top
5. Divide into 7 portions.
6. Shape into balls and rest for 10 minutes.
7. Flattened each ball and wrapped each ball with Nian Gao to form pancakes.
8. Pan fry each side approximately 5 minutes or till it's brown.
9. Dish up and serve while it's hot.
   

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Fried Mee Suah

Ingredients

2 pcs mee suah

2 eggs, beaten

150g bean sprouts

4 cloves garlic, diced

1 carrot, shredded

100g siew yoke, sliced

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp soy sauce

salt and sugar to taste

dash of sesame oil

Methods

1. Deep fried mee suah in hot oil till golden brown. Dish and drain.
2. Blanch fried mee suah in boiling water until soft. Dish and drain excess water.
3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok. Stir fry garlic till fragrant. Add in beaten eggs. Stir fry eggs till set.
4. Add in other ingredients, seasoning and stir fry until well mixed and cooked. Dish and serve hot.

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Cheese Baked Salmon Japanese Curry Rice

A simple and easy dish to prepare. As I have lots of leftover of the curry that I had cooked yesterday, I had decided to use the curry to make cheese baked salmon Japanese curry rice. I had grab some mozzarella cheese from the nearby baking supplies shop. I had decided to add in salmon as well as there's still some salmon fillet left in our freezer. It was quite a good combination to add in everything and sent it to the oven. Hubby love it. I shall prepare other version of cheese baked rice in the future.

Some of the step by step tutorial on the making of this dish.

Place cooked brown rice on a baking dish.

Pour in Japanese curry followed by sauteed broccoli and salmon flakes.

Sprinkle in mozzarella cheese.

Baked for 15-20 minutes at 200 Celsius in the oven.

Yummy curry oozing out from the rice once rice it's scooped out.

Ingredients

1 salmon fillet

1 cup broccoli floret

4 cloves garlic, diced

Japanese curry

leftover cooked rice (I had used brown rice)

2 tbsp butter

80g mozzarella cheese

Methods

1. Blanch broccoli with boiling water for 3-4 minutes.
2. Sauteed garlic with butter. Add in salmon fillet. Pan fry each side for 5 minutes each side or till cooked. Lastly add in broccoli. Stir well broccoli with butter. Dish up.
3. Flake the salmon fillet.
4. Place cooked rice in baking dish. Add in Japanese curry, salmon flakes and broccoli.
5. Add in mozzarella cheese.
6. Baked in oven for 15-20 minutes at 200 Celsius.

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Tonkatsu Japanese Curry Rice

It's a blessing to have some good food during a public holiday. Hubby and I didn't even step our foot out from our house and yet we can have good food to feast on. It's actually a pleasure to cook during our free time as cooking is a good activity to wind down and relax. So for our free day today, it's Japanese cuisine in da house....

Happy holiday guys...

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Tonkatsu (Deep Fried Pork Chop)

I had cook up a big pot of yummy Japanese curry in my earlier post. What is good to be serve together with yummy curry? I had chosen to cook Tonkatsu (Deep Fried Pork Chop) as I always love fried food. Tonkatsu is a deep fried breaded cutlet which is good to be eaten on it's own and with other dishes too.

Ingredients

2 pork chops
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
Vegetable oil for frying

Methods

1. Cut the edge of pork chops in several places. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the pork.
2. Put flour lightly on the pork. Dip the pork in beaten egg.
3. Put panko on the pork and pat them well.
4. Heat oil in wok. Wait till the oil was hot and deep fry for a few min. Turn over the pork chops and fry a few more min. Repeat the process till the pork was golden brown.
5. Take out the pork and put them on a paper towel to drain the oil.
6. Cut each tonkatsu into small pieces.
   

A picture tutorial of the preparation of Tonkatsu:

The breaded pork chops.

Make sure the oil was boiling hot before you place in the pork chop.

Deep frying pork chop.

Dish it up once both side is golden brown in colour.

Tonkatsu ready to be use.

Sliced up the tonkatsu to be serve with rice.

Tonkatsu served on with brown rice and Japanese curry.

Let's feast! :)

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Japanese Curry

I am always a fan of Japanese cuisine and of course Japanese curry. Japanese curry is not as hot and spicy as our local curry but it tasted good as well. I love the smooth and creamy texture of this type of curry. I had bought a pack of Japanese curry mix sometime ago in Cold Storage. The thought of having yummy Japanese curry in the comfort of our home had prompted me to cook it today. The taste was similar to the ones we normally had outside in Japanese restaurant but of course with a smaller price tag.

I had snapped a picture tutorial in making this delicious curry as I think it would be good for you guys to know that Japanese curry can be prepared easily in our own kitchen. Another frugal way for us to enjoy Japanese food. :)

Japanese curry mix sauce bought from Cold Storage.

Open up the box, you can see the plastic container containing Japanese curry mix sauce.

I had used half of the curry mix ingredient. That's how it looks inside the plastic container.

Saute 1 medium onion, 1 carrot and 3 potatoes until it gets slightly brown. Add 3 cups of water into the pot and simmer it with medium heat for 15 minutes.

Japanese curry mix looks like chocolate right?

Break the curry mix into smaller cubes and add into the boiling water with other ingredients.

Stir well until the curry mix is well mixed.

Stir occasionally for 10 minutes. The curry is ready to be serve.

End result - yummylicious smooth curry.

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