Foodarrific

stirfried kailan with ginger and fish slices

chili queen — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:23:59 +0000

One of the dishes we regularly have to go with rice is stirfried kailan. With ginger and fish slices, of course. I haven’t cooked this in a while which is why I’m kinda bringing it up now, as a sort of reminder to myself to cook this delicious dish soon .

What you need are:

2 fish fillets, diced into fairly big chunks
5 stalks kailan, or kale - cut the stems to 2-inch lengths and the leaves to 1-inch lengths
1-2 knobs ginger, sliced thinly
siew heng zhao, or Chinese cooking wine
2-3 Tsp oyster sauce
salt and pepper to taste

I typically heat up a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in my wok, then throw in the ginger slices. In Chinese cooking, you need to use high heat and be quick to the stirfy. So I swish the ginger around for maybe 30 seconds and then add the fish fillet followed by oyster sauce. The ginger gets rid of the fishy taste.

I keep frying to let the fish soak up all that flavor before adding the stems. Stems take longer to cook so that’s why they go in first. At this point, I add a good splash of water as I like it with lots of gravy. It’s up to you. I cover the wok for about 2 minutes so that as the water boils, it cooks through the stems.

Then in go the kailan leaves. Give everything a good mix. You should see the kailan leaves soften. After that, give it a good drizzle of siew heng zhao, or Chinese cooking wine all round. Add salt and pepper to taste. Give it another good stir and it’s ready to serve.

What I really love about this dish is the aroma of the wine and that it’s healthy too, certainly not one that will send you scrambling around for a fat burner review after you eat it. So give it a try.

four foods on Friday 81

chili queen — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:49:10 +0000

Woo, Friday! I’ve had a good week, very laid back for some strange reason. I even had time to read a book. Well, I’m only on page 23 but that’s quite an achievement for me! Let’s get cracking on this week’s questions then.

#1. Clair’s question. What’s the biggest kitchen blunder you’ve made?

Read all about it, read all about my granola adventure here. I make granola bars like you’ve never seen, honest .

#2. What’s your favorite snow day beverage?

A steaming hot coffee in the winter is the best thing ever.

#3. What’s your favorite way to eat celery?

I like them in my pasta.

#4. What’s the most unappealing looking food you can think of?

Whenever I go to seafood restaurants, which is pretty rare unless we get invited to dinner, I always quicken my step when I walk past the live seafood languishing helplessly in tanks, oblivious to the fiery deaths awaiting them in the kitchen nearby.

Say what you want but there’s something about this picture that really puts me off live seafood, no matter how good it’s supposed to taste.

Want to play Four Foods on Friday? Simple, go over to valmg’s blog at Fun, Crafts and Recipes and grab the details. Have a great weekend, everyone.

save on cute kitchenware at Smart Bargains

chili queen — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:26:12 +0000

Even before I did as much cooking as I do now, I’ve loved looking at kitchenware and buying an odd piece or two, just because I can’t resist how pretty they look.

For instance, I find this 3-piece Tracy Porter Sweet Cecily entertaining set so very pretty. It’s good for a selection of dips, sauces, salsa or even jam to go with chips, spring rolls and other finger foods.

I laughed when I saw this 5-piece Tracy Porter Calyx Baroques Ivory flatware set. Just look at the shapely fork and knife, all curvy and cute.

And who doesn’t love a great story behind a piece of crockery. This Raffaellesco water pitcher is supposed to signal a change of fortune. It’s handpainted in Italy and depicts Raffaellesco, a colorful puffing dragon thought to bring good luck.

Whether you’re entertaining this summer or just looking for a few new pieces to add to your collection, be sure you check out the cute kitchen and dining bargains at Smart Bargains.

I flunked Granola Bars 1

chili queen — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:31:13 +0000

Right, so I decided to try my hand at homemade granola bars now that the wedding invitations seem to have eased off and I’m less busy.

I fried some sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and rolled oats, then put them in a bowl and stirred in some orange peel preserves and honey. Into a baking pan lined with greaseproof paper, I poured in the granola and flattened it out. I topped it with another sheet of greaseproof paper and stuck the pan in the fridge to cool. A few hours later, I was all set to cut my granola into bars but found they weren’t sticking together.

I added more honey thinking maybe there wasn’t enough earlier to hold everything together. Nope, so I decided to bake it. When I took that lovely slab of bedrock granola out of the oven and started cutting, I ended up with this !! How do you like my granola bars?

What? They don’t look like bars to you? You sure ? Well, okay, I managed to get a few jagged chunks (not bars, mind you!) here and there. But by the time I got them unstuck from the greaseproof paper, even those few miserable chunks had gone to pieces.

What a disaster! I showed the kids “my new style of granola bars” and we just sat there laughing. I scooped up the bits (literally) and now I have a whole container of granola bits to finish up.

I don’t like to waste food so I guess I’m stuck with this for breakfast. Every so often, I have to fish out the paper fragments floating on the milk and leave them on the side of my cereal bowl. See the paper fragments in the picture? Those are the ones I caught. As for the ones I didn’t catch, don’t worry, I’ve digested them, hahaha. Honestly I could develop a taste for paper !

give Dad the candy he loved to eat as a kid

chili queen — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:30:37 +0000

Still haven’t figured out what to buy Dad for Father’s Day? Not to worry, you can always surprise him with candy he ate as a kid and get him reminiscing about old times and great memories.

This Father’s Day all-decades assortment of Candy you ate as a kid® comes with a personalized box top message. To enjoy 5% off all oldtime candy in the month of June, simply use the coupon code - 02391 - during checkout.

four foods on Friday 80

chili queen — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:42:44 +0000

I’m really hoping for a quieter weekend after the hustle and bustle of this past week but it being Father’s Day weekend and all, well, we’ll see .

Great questions this week, and as usual, if you want to join us on Four Foods on Friday, just go over to valmg’s blog at Fun, Crafts and Recipes and grab the details.

#1. bestmomma’s question. If you could copy the cooking expertise and ability of one person, who would it be?

Jaime Oliver’s is the only cooking show that I’ve watched quite a lot of. He makes everything look so easy and he can cook anywhere, not just in the kitchen.

#2. What’s the first red food that comes to your mind?

Tomatoes.

#3. How do you eat your strawberries?

We don’t really get a whole lot of strawberries here. When I do see them, I hardly buy any because somehow they always turn out to be sour.

#4. Share a recipe that uses cherries.

Again we don’t get much of cherries here. So I’ve never made anything with cherries except eat them fresh.

kitchenware promotion at LaPrima

chili queen — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:18:46 +0000

I have two or three cutting boards in my kitchen - two for cutting meat and veggies to be cooked, another for cutting fruits and other food that’s to be eaten raw.

What’s great about this Trudeau reversible cutting board is that it features designs of veggies or fruits on each side so I can easily distinguish which is for cutting fresh or raw food. It’s also non-slip, non-scratch, dishwasher-safe and will not dull knives.

This and other trendy kitchenware is available at LaPrima Shop’s outlet merchandise at an extra 15% off already reduced prices simply by entering the coupon code - outlet15 - during checkout. Offer ends June 30, 2009.

You can also get 10% off Trudeau Elite Graviti battery operated pepper mills by using the coupon code - elite10 - during checkout. Offer ends June 30, 2009.

Looking at how you can save 15% on Vinturi wine aerators, I too might be tempted to have the occasional glass or two .

Well, guess what? That’s not all. You can also save $10 and get free shipping on purchases of $100 and up by using the coupon code - save10 - during checkout. Offer ends June 30, 2009.

Summer entertaining just got more exciting with these cool coupon savings. How can you not be tempted ?

savoring the rice dumpling

chili queen — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:19:30 +0000

The Dumpling Festival came and went during the days when I was on my vegetarian diet. So I didn’t get to join my family sitting around on the outdoor chaise lounges at my Dad’s house to savor these goodies.

Luckily for me though, my dear neighbor slipped me some of her homemade bachang, or rice dumplings across the fence. I kept them frozen till recently when I took them out, resteamed them and mmmm, words can’t describe.

There’s 3 different types here - spicy sambal bachang (top left), rice dumpling with wobbly pork chunks, chestnuts and dried shrimp (top right) and the pea version of the rice dumpling (bottom).

Dang, these dumplings are so tasty I wish I knew how to make them myself. The filling takes quite a bit of work to make. As for the banana leaf wrapping, I admit I’ve just never mastered the art of getting the filling to stay inside the banana leaf while I’m trying to get the string secured.

The ones I make are not foolproof. I can never be sure when my painstakingly wrapped dumplings will pop open and come loose in the pot. It’s like they’re wearing a swimsuit that’s a size too big and wo-oosh, the swimsuit slips right off in the water ! OMG, how awful when I have to go fishing in that pot for those naked bachangs, hahaha!

four foods on Friday 79

chili queen — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:06:14 +0000

Woo-hoo, thank goodness it’s Friday. This week has been stressful in a wierd sort of way. Hoping to catch a little breather once I get my answers posted. Kelly’s question really had me thinking for quite a while .

#1. Kelly’s question. What is your favorite memory associated with the smell of a certain food? As in, you smell it, close your eyes and are instantly drawn back to a magical moment in time….

The smell of Cantonese fried noodles reminds me of the weekend suppers I used to enjoy as a kid. My grandmother would let me stay up late and we would order these noodles from a famous street stall near our house and the man would have one of his sons deliver them to our house. When Grandma opened the paper wrapping, the aroma of these scrumptuous noodles would fill the house. This is still one of my favorite styles of noodles.

#2. Name something red that is in your cabinets.

Ooh, I’ve got lots of red stuff - pasta sauce, tomato ketchup, paprika, curry powder.

#3. Ice. Do you have an ice maker, use ice cube trays or buy by the bag?

Ice cube trays.

#4. Pepper. What kind do you use most often? Is it in a grinder or a shaker?

I have both black and white pepper in shakers but I tend to use the white pepper more often.

Want to play Four Foods on Friday? Simple, go over to valmg’s blog at Fun, Crafts and Recipes and grab the details.

days of pigging out

chili queen — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:11:25 +0000

Ever since my vegetarian diet ended, I’ve been like a bird out of a cage. Not that being vegetarian was that bad. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. But somehow I still miss my favorite food, just like dim sum which I love so much and ate so much last weekend.

I was hankering after a nice, juicy piece of steak too . I got my wish two days ago when we went to The Ship, my favorite old-time restaurant that I’ve been dining at since I was a kid, and I had this scrumptuous Minute Steak.

At the rate I’m going, pretty soon I’ll need to be reading more than a phenphedrine review to see how I can take off the pounds that I pile on . In case you’re wondering, I lost a whopping 1 kg (2.2 lbs) in a month of being vegetarian but I haven’t gained it back - yet! Not sure if that’s good or bad?