Thursday 28 May 2015

Honey Lemon





By chance saw a blog which is in chinese some days ago. The blogger use lemon soak in honey. It inspired me to do the same as I want to know how would it taste like? I had tried squeezed lemon juice added into honey drink. I wonder what is the different?  Out of curiosity, since I have one lemon left I in my fridge, decided to make this sliced lemon soak in honey. After 2 days which is today...I can't wait to try. Past 2 days when I opened the fridge and saw the bottle of lemon soak in honey, I have the "prompting" wanted to "steal" some slices of lemon to eat. Which i did!  :)

Wow! It is very refreshing to eat the honey soaked lemon as its own. I eat like tidbits..haha. The honey after soak with lemon has become more watery because of the lemon juice. I use about a spoon of this honey and added into water..Wow! Nice! 

So this is another new way of eating the entire lemon with skin. After soaking, the whole lemon taste like those tidbits sold in tidbits shop. It is less sour with honey sweetness. Very nice.

This is the simple step to make this honey lemon:

Ingredients:
2 Lemons
Honey

Some salt (for washing lemon)

Other Required Things:
2 glass bottles with lid that can be tighten
A knife(must be sharp)
A chopping board
A clean spoon
A pair of chop sticks

Method:
1. Use the salt to rub the skin of lemon and wash with water thoroughly. This is to remove  the chemical on the lemon skin. 
2. Dry the lemons with a paper towel. Place it on the chopping board. Use the sharp knife to slice the lemon into thin pieces. 
3. In the cleaned bottle, put a spoon of honey. Then placr a slice of lemon into the bottle. Then spread another spoon of honey on top of lemon. Repeat this until you finish all the lemon slices. Make sure every slice of lemon is covered with honey. Honey need to cover the lemon.
4. Close the bottle with the lid. Tighten. Leave in the chiller for 2 days. 
Serve.

Wednesday 27 May 2015

Steam Boneless Chicken with Mushrooms and Tomatoes



Wanted to avoid massive cleaning, made this family dish that mum-in-law taught me. It is very simple and it is very yummy and healthy.  It goes very well with rice. It is also daughter's favorite dish. This dish can be prepared it earlier in the day and store at chiller until evening time then steam just before dinner time. People who has very tight and busy schedule can still eat healthy food at home. As boneless chicken breast meat are easily available in supermarket. Ingredients that go with this dish are easily found in our kitchen.
I would encourage you to DIY and eat healthy.  Happy cooking! :)


Ingredients:
1 whole chicken breast meat -boneless and cut into bite size
1 red tomatoes - cut into wadges
3 dried black mushrooms - soak, soften n sliced
1 thumb size ginger cut into thin strips
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon hua tiao jiu/chinese wine
1 tablespoon sesame oil
Dash of pepper
1.5 teaspoon cornflour
1stalk green spring onion cut into small pieces.

Method:
1.Put water in the wok to boil.
2. In a plate, combine all above ingredients except tomatoes and spring onions.
3. Once water is boiled, place the plate of meat mixture to steam for 5min. Then add tomatoes and with a spoon or chopstick gentle mix meat tomatoes together. And steam another 5 minutes.
4. When meat is cooked that is meat turn white colour,  sprinkle spring onion . Cover for another 30seconds. Off fire. Serve with rice.

Note: Water must be boiled before putting meat to steam.

You may want to try my Steam Minced Meat recipe using minced pork.


Thursday 21 May 2015

Homemade Burger Sandwich


Homemade burger is always the best. No preservative added. Most important is it fresh and you can adjust according to your taste. Mother-in-law used to make this when we lived with her. Hubby loved buger. Usually when restaurant menu has burger bread, he will not failed to order it. So naturally I will want to learn this and add to my list. 

Burger is quite easy to make. Simple ingredients that can be found in the fridge or kitchen. Just few steps and you will get it done. I used to buy those readymade from supermarket.  They are not cheap. Hubby find those not as good as homemade. So, this also give me motivation to make burger at home..... :)

Ingredients
250gm minced beef
2.5 tablespoon of light sauce
1 big onion - chopped
1 slice of bread
1 tsp of potato flour
A dash of ground pepper
A dash of ground ginger powder
1 tsp  sunflower oil (for cooking)
Some water (for soaking bread)

For Sandwiches:
8 slices of bread or 4 burger bread
Butter or margarine

Methods
Soak one slice of bread in the water for a few seconds.  Purpose is to wet the bread.
Gentle squeeze out some excess water.  Rub the soft bread into paste. Set aside.
Place minced meat and onion in a large bowl. Add bread paste and light sauce (you can replaced with sea salt),flour , pepper and ginger powder. Mix them well.

With gloved hands, divide the meat mixture into 4 portions. Roll each of them into a ball and then flatten it into a patty.

Heat up a flat non-stick frying pan. Pour about 1 tsp of oil into the frying pan. With a kitchen paper towel or tissue oiled the frying pan. Place the patties into the pan. Pan fry one side for about 2-3 min or until light brown on medium fire. Turn the side and pan fry until light brown. 

Toast 2 slices of bread, spread with magarine or butter. Place the cooked patties on one bread with lettuces and sliced cucumber and sliced tomato. Top with another bread. 

Serve. 
























Saturday 16 May 2015

Homemade Yoghurt ( Yogurt)







It is very easy to make your own yoghurt at home. Simple steps and no need any skill or machine required.  Just the normal pot that you can find in your kitchen with a container with lid and a piece of kitchen towel and a spoon of plain yoghurt as your starter. And from there onwards you can have non-stop yoghurt. Just always remember to keep one spoon of your existing yoghurt as a starter will do! The existing yoghurt is the life culture. So you do not need any other life culture. Easy right? 

It is very economical to make your own yoghurt.  And you can have 'free flow' from there on. I usually buy 2 carton of milk from fairprice. Two carton x 1litre cost $5.95. That is you can make up to 2 litre of yoghurt with $5.95. Very economical right?  With your homemade yoghurt you can use it for baking muffins and many other purposes.

This is how I do it....


Ingredients:
2 cups(500mil) fresh milk
1tbsp plain yoghurt as starter
1tsp sugar (optional)



Item Needed:
A pot
A clean container with cover 
A clean dry kitchen towel or keep warm bag


Method:
1. Heat up the milk in a pot at low fire to about 40°C. Approximately 2-3mins or when the condensation outside of pot is completely gone and when you start to see slight water vapour. Off the fire. DO NOT BOIL THE MILK.  The milk must be  WARM and not hot. If you see bubble formed at the side of pot mean it is too hot. Leave the milk to cool down a little if too hot. Too hot will kill the life culture in the starter. 

If you have a thermometer,  use it. However,  if no thermometer, to make sure milk is not too hot or too cold, scoop a teaspoon of milk and pour on the back of the hand. It should be warm when touch skin. This will be the right temperature. 




2. In a clean container put the yoghurt and sugar(optional). Pour about 1/4 of the warm milk into the container and stir until all well mixed. Then pour in the remainder warm milk and stir well. 
Note : You may stir in 1 tablespoon of milk powder if you want a thicker texture of yoghurt...which will taste like greek yoghurt. 





3. Cover the container of milk mixture with the lid. Wrap the container with dry towel or leave the container of milk mixture in the food warmer. Leave it on the kitchen table for minimum 4 hours at room temperature. When the texture resemble curd or beancurd texture - this is the yogurt.  Remove container from warmer and store in refrigerator. Serve when it is cold with fruits,  cereal or eat it on its own.

I bought this warmer bag from Daiso. Cost $2.

Do leave a comment and share your experience using this recipe. Happy making. 😊

Note : 
The best time to make is at night and leave it on table top overnight until early morning. The longer it sit out in room temperature the more sourish it will be. So, make this before sleep, leave it on table top until early next morning then transfer into refrigerator to store and keep. 

There is no need any other life culture in this recipe. The yoghurt we eat is already a life culture to use for the yoghurt making. 

You may use this yoghurt to make : 









Thursday 14 May 2015

Rolled Oat Porridge with Pumpkin and Veggie


Craving for savoury breakfast this morning. And wanted some healthy food like rolled oat.  Decided to cook this savoury rolled oat porridge. This is very simple and quick fit. Easy to cook and nice to eat. It is just simply combined all together and you get it done in 10-15min. I have some leftover pan fried sliced pork from last nighy dinner. So I added a slice of the pork into the porridge. It taste really good. If you want it totally vegetarian,  omit the meat. I am very satisfied as I get to eat rolled oat and pumpkin together and it is done in the way I desire...haha. I guess the benefits of knowing how to cook is you can cook the food you like and way you want. 

Learning to cook is always an asset and advantage. Whenever you are tired of food from hawker centre or restaurant,  you can always DIY. Homecooked food is always the best.

Ingredients:
3 tbsp rolled oats
1 cup water
50-100g pumpkin- diced
1-2 stalks of Japanese Tang-O - chopped or any kind of vegetable like brocoli or cabbages
1 slice of sabu sabu (optional) - diced or minced meat

Seasining:
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
1/8 tsp chicken powder (optional)

Method:
1. In pot put rolled oat and water to boil for approximately 5min. Lower fire to simmer.

2. Cook rolled oat till soft and expand like porridge, add pumpkin and meat (if you are adding meat).  Cook till pumpkin is soft (appro. 5min) and meat is cooked. Add veggie and seasoning to desire taste.  Let the oat porridge cook for another minute till veggie is cooked. Off fire. Serve.

Note: You replace other type of vegetable like cabbages or any veggie that you desire.

You may be interested in this :

















Wednesday 13 May 2015

Mee Sua Kueh





I have been wanting to make mee sua kueh for sometimes. After coming back from Taiwan 
Trip, I have been craving for savory stuff. Daughter's taste buds has changed too. She prefer savoury stuff for morning breakfast before she goes to school.Decided to make this finally. 

In compare with making yam cake, I find making mee sua kueh is much more easier and faster. Preparation and cooking time are shorter. But both are equally nice. In fact, this is the first attempt making mee sua kueh but the results is good. This morning, daughter had it before she goes to school and her feedback is "mummy, it is nice"

The greatest joy that I find in cooking is when my loved ones enjoy the food I have prepared for them. :)

This is how I make my mee sua kueh:

Ingredients 
180g mee sua
200g pumpkin flesh (shredded) 
3 big shiitake mushrooms (soaked & sliced) 
5 medium size prawns(remove shell & diced)
200g minced pork(can replace with chicken)
5 shallots/small onions – minced
3 garlics – minced 
1 stalk of spring onion- diced
500ml -700mil water 

Seasoning: 
1tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
Dash of Pepper
1/2 tsp corn flour

1 tsp chicken powder

2 tbsp oil

Water for steaming

Method
1. Seasoned prawn with salt and pepper. Seasoned minced meat with light soy sauce, pepper and corn flour. Set aside.

2. In a wok,  put oil and add minced garlic and shallots fry till they turn light brown and fragrance. Add pumpkin, mushroom, prawn and minced meat to fry till they are cooked. That is prawn turn light pink and meat turn a light white brown. 

3. Pour in the water.  Add chicken powder. When the mixture is boiled, add the mee sau. Make sure mee sua is all soak in the gravy. That is gravy cover the mee sau. Keep watch the fire to prevent burn and gentle stir them. Once the mee sau has soaked up all the gravy and become soft, sprinkle the spring onion. Remove from fire and put them into a 15x15cm square baking tray. Level the mee sau mixture. 

4. In a wok, prepare water enough for steaming.  Put in the steaming stand. Cover the wok with the wok lid. Put the water to boil. 

5. Once water is boiled,  put in the tray of mee sau. Steam for 10mins. Off fire. Leave it to cool down. 

6.Unmould the mee sau kueh. Use a knife cut it into small rectangular shape of 1.5x4x5cm or any desired shape.  

7. In a non-stick pan, you can coat the mee sau kueh with eggwash and then pan fry till golden brown. Or just pan fry plain.

8. You can also eat it on its own without pan fry. 

9. I serve with sweet sauce and homemade sambal chilli

If you are not using it immediately,  keep in the fridge for future use.

Note: Initially I added 2 cups (500mil) of water. But found it was a little dry and not all mee sau was in gravy. So I added another 200mil. I guess it all depend on the brand of mee sau  you are using. I would suggest to use 500mil first then add the rest if it is too dry.

Note2 : I only used seasoning on the prawn and meat. No salt on mee sua except 1tso of chicken powder as some mee sua can be quite salty. So, adjust the seasoning accordingly to your taste.

My daughter's feedback is : "Nice"



















Friday 8 May 2015

Paella





It's Friday! This is a friday dish for the family. Everything in one pot....Simplified Paella. Whenever I want to cook simple, this will be one of the dish in the list. Family love paella. 

In this dish, I find the most expensive ingredients is saffron.  Find fairprice selling one small tiny box for $10.90. Few months ago, passed by Mustafa. Grabed 2 big packets from the store. If you are using it often, it is more economical to buy bigger packet.

If you couldn't get saffron, you may try using tumeric powder to substitute the colour. Using tumeric powder is more economical than using saffron. However, it may taste a little different.  But it should be nice. As I do use tumeric powder for frying pineapple rice. And it taste wonderful. Cooking is an art! You can try with different ingredients and usually you make your own family signature dish because of the unique way you cook and ingredients added. I do that all the time and also I like to modify dish to my desire taste. For instance for this round I had used long grains rice instead of short grains rice.
Present to you Simplified Paella. I hope you will like it. 


Ingredients
2 cups long grain rice*
3 cups ready stock/water(See note)
200g sabu sabu pork cut into small ppieces
1/2 yellow big onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 cup frozen green pea
8 prawns removed shell
4 middle size squids cut into ring
1/2 lemon cut into wedges
1tbsp fish sauce
1 large pinch of saffron
1/2 tsp paprika power (optional)
2tbsp olive oil/ any cooking oil

Methods
1. Prepare a 28cm or 32cm non-stick wok with lid
2. Season pork with 1tbsp of light soy sauce and pepper and corn flour. Set a sie.
Season prawns and squids with 1/2 tsp of salt and pepper. Set a side. 
3. Wash rice once with water. Pour away water. set a side.
4. Heat up wok. Pour in olive oil. Add chopped onion and minced garlic. Stir fry until onion turn translucent and garlic turn light brown, add pork and continue to stir fry for few more seconds.
5. Add washed rice into wok. Add a bunch of saffron and paprika. Stir fry for another few seconds. Then add stock. Add fish sauce. Cover the wok with lid. Bring the rice to boil then lower to medium fire to continue cooking the rice. Approximate 15min.
6. When the rice is about to dry ( app 15min later), open lid and add green pea andlay the prawn and squids on top of rice. Then cover and continue to cook for another 5min or until prawns and squids are fully cooked. Off fire and lay lemon on the rice. Serve!

Note: If use water instead of ready stock, you may need to add seasoning to your desire taste. Usually if using water, this is my seasoning:
1tsb chicken stock powder
1tsb salt
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp fish sauce

* Note2: Usually I used short grains rice. 


Homemade Oyster Omelette θ ”η…Ž(prawn version). θš΅δ»”η…Ž





Was crazy over Taiwan food. Came back from Taiwan, started to try cooking new dish on my own. I like Oyster Omelette, however,  I do not have oyster in my fridge, so I replaced oyster with prawn which I found in my fridge. It tastes equally good.

For Oyster Omelette, I prefer the Singapore style. Which is without the brown sweet sauce. I prefer eating this dish with my mum-in-law sambal chilli. This goes very well with chilli sauce. 

Ingredients:
2 big prawns. 
1/2 cup sweet potato flour(next time substitute 1/2 with corn/tapioca flour)
1/2 cup water
1 tsp fish sauce(can add to 2tsp)*
1/4 chicken powder
1 tsp fish sauce
Dash of pepper
1 egg
2-3 leaves of endives

Some oil for frying

Method:
1. Remove prawn shell and remove "waste" at the back of prawn. Rinse. Cut into small pieces.  Season with some salt and pepper. Set aside.

2. Rinse and cut endives into small pieces and set aside.

3. Sift flour to get rid of some dirt in the flour. You may omit this step.

4. Pour flour in a medium size bowl. Add water,chicken powder, fish sauce and pepper.  Mix it well.

5. Use a non-stick pan on medium fire. Let the pan heat up a bit(few sec).  Add about 1 tablespoon of oil. I used olive oil. Pour in above step 4. Let it fry for a while (30 sec) like you fry sunny side up. When there is lesser liquid,  add egg. Follow by prawns. Top with endives.  Pan fry for another 30sec - a min or when the base turn translucent and light brown. Flip the pancake and fry the other side.  The pancake is a little soft compare to western pancake. Do it slowly,  you will be able to flip it. Pan fry for another 30sec to a minute or until flour mixture turn translucent and light brown. Flip again. Off fire. Remove from frying pan. Serve with sambal chilli. 

You may like this too:






Thursday 7 May 2015

Pan Fry Black Pepper Udon(Taiwan Fried Noodle)



Was in Taiwan few days ago. Wanted to try their local food. Went around to look for breakfast and saw this place called 纒橘子 nearεŽι˜΄θ‘— .  I ordered their fried noodles and it looked like this noodle in the picture. I am not sure what kind of noodle did they used. But it tasted like udon and it was very nice.  I was inspired and add this to my list of cooking. Each time when I have a new list, my first thought is to cook for my loved ones.

I have no recipe how they do it. But I based on my taste buds and also "vision".. haha....
Before I forget the taste, I woke up early Tuesday  morning to cook for my children for breakfast. They love it.
Ingredients:
2 packets of Udon - 400g
150g minced meat
1/4 of carrots, cut into strips
1/4 big onion, sliced.
1 tbsp black pepper sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
3 leaves of endives

Seasoning for meat:
1 tsp light soy sauce
Dash of pepper
1/2 tsp of corn/potato flour

2 eggs
Oil for frying

Method:
1.Season the minced meat with above seasoning.  Set a side.

2. In a nonstick wok on medium fire. Add 1 tsp oil. Pan fry the 2 eggs individually. Remove from frying wok. Set a side.

3. Add about 1/2 tablespoon of oil into the wok. Add sliced big onion. Fry until it turn a little translucent.  Add carrots and minced meat. Stir fry until meat is cooked. Add black pepper sauce , oyster sauce and light soy sauce. Stir another few seconds.  Add 1/4 cup of water. Mix it well. Add udon and endives.  Stir fry until udon is soft, approximately 1-2 minutes.
Off fire. Serve