My Wok Life

Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

2009-11-09T21:35:00.007+08:00

Owing this Mac and Cheese recipe to one of my lovely readers, Ivy, I first apologise for the late posting. And here I am sharing my recipe with you (winking smile)..

This is an express and simple-making dish, excellent as side dish or main course. If I cook this as main course, I will not make it over-cheesy to taste. Milder cheesy flavour will be good as large portion will be taken to fill up the stomach for the evening (smile). However, if you wish to cook some distinctive flavours or more creamy and stronger to taste, try adding in crumbled Rogue Creamery Oregon Blue cheese and whipping cream, instead of Dutch Edam cheese and milk (these are for lighter yet flavoursome cheesy taste).

I cooked this mac and cheese as dinner this evening, for my girl who requested for it the other day. Since this was cooked as main dish, I used the later combination instead of the former ones with below details:

Serves 4
Ingredients
250 gram of macaroni
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter (about 60 gram)
2 tablespoons of plain flour
2 cups of low-fat milk (about 500 ml) (*replace with whipping cream for more creamy taste)
200 gram of grated Cheddar cheese
100 gram of grated Dutch Edam cheese (*replace with crumbled Rogue Creamery Oregon Blue for more creamy flavour)
50 gram of grated Parmesan cheese
Pinch of salt to taste (about ½ teaspoon, adjustable)

A pot of salted water (to pre-cook macaroni)

Method
1) Heat a pot of water over high heat. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and stir to dissolve. Cook macaroni in the boiling salted water for 10 minutes. Drain well and set aside.

2) Heat a large saucepan over low fire, melt butter. Stir in flour to form a roux, cook for 1 minute. If the flour added is too much to form roux, omit the 1-minute cooking time, just whisk in milk, in stages (a little at a time). Cook for 5 minutes till thickened and smooth sauce is formed. Whisk the milk solution in the saucepan constantly while cooking.

3) Add in all the cheese, continue to whisk to melt and combine well. By now, the creamy cheese sauce should be in thick and smooth consistency.

4) Return macaroni to the saucepan, and stir with small spatula to mix well with sauce. Sprinkle salt and stir well before heat off. Serve warm (May garnish with some coarsely grounded black pepper before serve).

A portion of my cheesy macaroni counts about 250kcal. Expect more loads of calorie if using whipping cream instead of low-fat milk.

Tips: Both whole milk and skimmed milk (preferably low-fat) are OK to be used in this recipe.
* If do not have unsalted butter, use normal salted butter. Just adjust the adding of salt to suit your taste. Alternatively, use olive oil.
* Dutch Edam cheese tastes smooth, sweet and nutty. This distinctive and delicious cheese is good to be taken for breakfast or to pair with a glass of Pinot Noir. Remember to peel of its outer layer of red wax coating before use. I got a large wedge of Edam (200 gram) and shreded it at home. The remaining was kept for future use.

Chicken Sauté Provençale Recipe

2009-11-08T23:16:00.004+08:00

I asked my friends and fans, in My Wok Life FaceBook Club, if they would like to learn some French recipes, and here I am going to share my experience and recipe of simple French dishes, besides those I learnt at Palate Sensations.

For a Chinese cook, like me, to cook French cuisine at home was an unique cooking experience. I enjoyed the process, and the end result (the dish), too.

As I mentioned before, French cuisine uses lots of herbs and butter, to bring up the best flavour of French dish, the same goes to this dish I cooked. I liked its buttery sauce, with a hint of white wine. Between oregano and basil herbs, I chose oregano. The fragrance of oregano complements not only fish dishes, adding oregano into this chicken dish promotes the aroma of this chicken dish. But I am sure basil herbs will yield the same effect of another great flavour, too. If you like, try using it, and do let me know, ok (smile)?

I also realised French recipes often use brandy or wine, too. I loved the idea of adding wine (or liquor), too. It makes the dish tastes and sounds so "atas" (Singapore slang of high class) (laughing.. just kidding).

This French dish is a complete balanced dish which you have meat and assorted vegetables with different colours in it. Even for one who does not take bell peppers or onion, he/ she will love this dish and enjoy the vegetables in it as they were cooked till so soft with its irresistably natural sweetness. Not only for the taste, its colourful presentation will make the dish more appealing, too!

Oh yes, in my cooking of this dish, I chose skinless chicken fillet instead of the original chicken meat with skin (can be whole chicken or thighs, cut into pieces), for healthier cooking. But, of course, taste of skinless fillet will not be as tasty as chicken meat with skin. So, I'll leave the choice of meat parts to you.

Serves 5 - 6
500 gram of chicken fillet, cut into bite sizes (Or, 1 chicken, chopped into 6 pieces)
1 medium red bell pepper aka capsicum, seeded and sliced into stripes
1 medium yellow bell pepper aka capsicum, seeded and sliced into stripes
1 large onion, sliced in rings
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 large tomatoes, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup of white wine (about 250ml)
1 tablespoon of chopped oregano (or basil)
1 teaspoon of coarsely grounded black pepper
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of butter (about 40g)
Pinch of salt
A touch of sugar (Optional)

Seasoning (for chicken meat):
1 tablespoon of grounded white pepper
1 tablespoon of coarsely grounded black pepper

Method
1) Pat chicken fillet/ meat dry and season with white pepper and black pepper for about 15 minutes.

2) Heat the oil and butter in a large and deep skillet (frying pan) over high fire. When butter foaming subsides, add chicken fillet/ meat (if meat with skin, the skin side down on skillet surface). Sauté for 3 minutes, or until lightly browned, on both sides. Remove from skillet, when done.

3) Reduce heat to low fire, add garlic, onion and black pepper to the skillet, and cook until soften. Stir occasionally to avoid burnt. Return chicken fillet/ meat to the skillet and add wine, tomatoes and herbs, stir to mix well. Increase heat to medium fire, bring ingredients to a boil. Then, reduce heat to low fire to simmer for 30 minutes. Add salt and sugar to taste. Heat off, and serve with steamed rice.

This delicious dish yields aromatic buttery gravy that complements the hot steamy rice so well. Hence, make sure you have some rice to go with it.

Tips: You may use fresh herbs and chop it finely, or chopped herbs in bottle. I used fresh oregano leaves, and chopped it by myself.
* You may lightly coat both sides of the chicken fillet with some corn flour (before sauté), and it is important to sauté the chicken meat (especially if meat with skin) till light browned for better taste and mouthfeel. Mine done not brown enough. So, taste of the meat was a little bit more bland.

Fried Mock Fish Fillet in Savoury Pineapple Sauce

2009-11-06T08:56:00.068+08:00

"Eating vegetarian meal can be so interestingly delicious!"

Yesterday, 19th of Lunar September, the day of Guan Yin's (in Sanskrit words: Avalokiteshvara; Chinese words: 观音) Renunciation, considered an auspicious day for Buddhist.

For me, I prohibited myself from 'killing' lives, means meatless diets for the day. It became my another day of vegetarian cooking.

It's never easy for my hubby to go without meat in his diet. As he insists to join me eating vegetarian every Lunar 1st and 15th of the month as well as these auspicious day of Buddish's occasions, I have to trick his taste bud with some mock meat, and have it cooked in a way tastes as close to the 'real stuff' as possible. In fact, it's very convenient to eat vegetarian dishes and taste or look like actual meat, nowadays, as there are so many artificial/ mock meat and seafood for vegetarian diets sold commercially out there in the market. In Singapore, not only vegetarian shops are selling these raw/ uncooked mock meat and seafood, even supermarkets are selling them, too. Mock meat and mock seafood are mainly made of flour, soy and/ or gluten. Some of these mock meat/ seafood items are made to look and taste almost the same as the real meat.

Today, I have this mock fish fillet dish. Do you think it looks like real fish fillet slices? Not just its appearance, even the texture is close to real fish! I think the purpose of making the mock meat so interestingly is to attrack more vegan, and they are trying to make it a way that eating vegetarian has no difference from eating real meat, but generally healthier and lighter since it is just some soy and flour thingies.I liked the taste of the seaweed coated as its 'fish' skin.

I got this mock fish fillet in whole large piece, and I cut it into slices only when I decided to cook this. Try to cook this at home for your dinner, if you are also having vegetarian meals. It takes only 15 minutes to get it ready and serve!

Serves 3 - 4
Ingredients
2 large pieces of mock fish, sliced
6 pieces of canned pineapple rings, diced
50ml of sweet pineapple water in the pineapple can (*increase amount, if more gravy preferred)
3 tablespoons of ketchup sauce

1 tablespoon of pineapple jam
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of corn starch, made into slurry (*mix with 2 tablespoons of water)
2 tablespoon of vegetable oil

1 cup of vegetable oil (for deep frying use)

Method:
1) Heat wok with 1 cup of oil over high heat. Sprinkle some salt. Add mock fish fillet slices and quickly fry till just lightly browned will do. Remove mock fish fillet from wok and drain on kitchen towel.

2) Discard excessive oil in wok, leave only about 1 tablespoon oil. Heat on medium flame, put diced pineapples into wok and stir fry for few seconds. Pour in sauce mixture, and return fried mock fish fillet into wok. Stir to combine all ingredients well. Sprinkle salt and stir
fry fit another few seconds.

3) Lastly, stir in cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce. The sauce should appear thick and smooth, before heat off. Serve with hot steamed rice.

A decent portion of this fried mock fish fillet and pineapple sauce counts about 280kcal.

Tips: Use any decent brands of pineapple jam easily available off the shelves. Those jams which already blended into 'jelly-like' consistency is preferred in this recipe.

Bo Bo Cha Cha (Asian Dessert Soup) Recipe

2009-11-04T12:26:00.011+08:00

"Mind me, this is a ‘Sinfulicious’ week!"

Another ‘sinful’ (but delicious) recipe today, the Asian dessert soup, Bo Bo Cha Cha!

I am surely not a fan of coconut milk based dessert, but not sure why, I was craving for this Bo Bo Cha Cha the other day. Missed the feeling of chewing the super chewy tapioca flour cubes in this dessert soup! I loved having yam cubes and different types of sweet potatoes altogether! So, I cooked it yesterday. Yummy!

Bo Bo Cha Cha dessert soup is an Asian dessert, porpularly sold at hawker centers and food courts in Singapore and Malaysia. I heard the original name of Bo Bo Cha Cha in Malay words is, Bubor Cha Cha. Bubur means ‘porridge’, and I guess it was due to its thick consistency of soup base resembling texture of porridge.

Coconut milk in this dessert soup has to be the main character as its soup base is completely made of coconut milk! Hence, the choice of coconut milk, from its texture till the brand used, is important, in that sense. The best and most fragrant coconut milk soup base is, of course, cooked completely with coconut milk. However, as you know, I am one of the ‘healthy freak’. So, even for the food I craved for is sinful, I tried my best to make it less (laugh). Yes, I used lots of water (and less coconut milk) in my soup base cooking. Thus, please expect less thick and fragrant consistency in my dessert soup, unless you adjust the thick coconut milk cream from 300 gram to 400 gram, or use just 1200 gram of thin coconut milk without water to cook this. Two methods for your choice! Both are fine, so depends on what coconut milk you could get.

And, here I present... My Bobo Cha Cha Recipe, and the Making of Tapioca Flour Cubes!

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
½ portion of medium yam (also called taro), peeled and diced into cubes of your desired sizes
1 medium (about a palm-sized) orange-flesh local sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 medium (about a palm-sized) yellow-flesh local sweet potato, peeled and diced. (*If getting Japanese (yellow-flesh) sweet potato, use 2 as they are usually smaller size)
**1 cup of tapioca flour cubes

1 packet of THICK coconut milk cream (300 – 400 gram) with ½ pot of water (about 800 ml), (OR: 1200 – 1500 gram of THIN coconut milk, squeezed from 2 coconuts)
200 gram of sugar (*may adjust amount to your desired sweetness)
4 pandan leaves (tie into a knot)

**Ingredients for tapioca flour cubes:
150g of tapioca flour, sieved
70 - 80 ml of hot boiling water
Few drops each of red, yellow and green food colourings
Gentle touch of salt
1 pot of water (to precook the cubes)

**Method (to prepare colourful tapioca flour cubes):
i) Sift tapioca flour if lumpy flour found in it. Then, please tapioca flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Slowly stir-in hot boiling water and combine well until mixture turns dough-like texture. When mixture is cooled, form it into dough on a well-floured table top.

ii) Flour your palm, and divide dough into 4 parts. Mix each portion with 3 different colourings prepared and leave one portion as 'white' original colour (no colouring added). Knead to combine well and become non-stick dough. Then, roll and shape each portion out into long and squary thin stripe. Thereafter, dice into small cubes.

iii) Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. When boiled, reduce heat, and put in tapioca flour cubes to cook for about 30 minutes, or until all the cubes float up. Texture of cooked tapioca flour cubes should be chewy, and look bright (in colour) with a little transluscent apperance.

iv) Dish up and plunge cubes into a bowl of iced water for few seconds. Drain and remove cubes from iced water. Reserve for later.

Method (to prepare complete dessert soup, with thick coconut milk cream):
1) Boil water in a pot over high heat. When boiled, add in pandan leave, sweet potatoes and yam cubes, and bring them to a boil again. Reduce heat to medium fire, and let them cook for 20 minutes, or until ingredients are cooked and soften with right texture (not too soft).

2) Return tapioca flour cubes into the pot. Add in sugar and stir until dissolved. Lastly, add in coconut milk cream and stir well. Let it boil for another 5 – 8 minutes before heat off. Serve warm or chilled.

ALTERNATIVE METHOD - If you are using just thin coconut milk for this dessert:
1) No water is needed, in this case. Steam the yam and sweet potatoes cubes for 40 minutes, until cooked and soften.

2) Place thin coconut milk into a pot, and heat it up over medium fire. Add in sugar and stir until dissolved. Place steamed yam, sweet potatoes and tapioca flour cubes into the pot, and let them boil for 10 minutes. Heat off and serve. Warm or chilled.

Source of coconut milk fyi:
a) Thick coconut milk cream:
It is usually pre-packed and available at dry goods shelves.

b) Thin coconut milk:
There are different types of thin coconut milk, you may get the liquid types which clearly stated for dessert/ cake making use, available at chilled section in majoy supermarket. Or, those pre-packed powder form which you need to mix with water beforehand. Another type will be the freshest, freshly squeezed from coconuts, and available in Asian wet markets/ markets.

To serve chilled, keep dessert in refrigerator, once it is cooled. This is heavy coconut milked soup, best to keep it refrigerated as soon as possible, for maximum freshness.

A regular bowl of Bobo Cha Cha counts about 560 kcal.

Tips: * If those local orange-flesh sweet potatoes you have gotten are too big, use only halves.
* Purple-flesh sweet potato is not recommended as it will turn the soup into purplish colour instead of cream white colour.
* Thickness/ Consistency of the soup base always depends on type of coconut milk used. If cream type is used with adding of water is needed, adjust the amount of water added to your liking of thickness/ consistency of the soup.

Fried Kway Teow Recipe (炒粿条)

2009-11-02T23:35:00.011+08:00

"Singapore-style Char Kway Teow (with yellow noodle) you may cook and taste from home!"

Char kway teow, which means "fried flat rice noodles", this is one of the popular hawker food in Singapore. It has also been termed as unhealthy food due to its excessive oil and/ or pork lard used in cooking this dish. It is yet one of the famous local delicacies, for its extra flavoursome taste.

Singapore-style fried kway teow is not cooked with only one noodle type, but often combine with cooked yellow noodle (round and thin yellow strands) in the dish. Not sure why, but you tends to experience better mouthfeel with the combination. Yes, I loved it!

Yeah, note also that the kway teow (rice noodle) used for this dish is neither broad type nor very thin strands. For Singapore's Char kway teow, the kway teow noodle of this dish should be just about 1cm wide (smile).

There are those dried (hard) types in the dry goods section or ready soften/ pre-cooked types in chilled Asian food products section in major supermarkets, or in Singapore, you may get it from wet markets. Yes, get those ready soften kway teow noodles, to skip the extra steps of soaking and cooking of noodles beforehand. Same goes to yellow noodle, as it should be pre-cooked type available in chilled Asian food products section.

Since we are living in a health-comes-first era, I did not use any pork lard in my homecooked fried kway teow. I used only peanut oil. So, even though some think Chinese (sweet) sausage is just an optional side ingredient to be added, but I will insist in adding Chinese sausage as it has become essential to create better flavour due to the absence of pork lard in the dish! Any kind of Chinese sausage, with or without wine flavour.

Many people will add chives (韭菜) or scallions (青葱) into Char kway teow, for more flavours and balanced diet (as more green added) as well as better presentation (more colours on it!).

One of my readers, Joe, asked for Fried Kway Teow recipe, and here I am sharing with him, and all!

Serves 3 to 4
Ingredients
300 gram of flat rice noodle aka Kway Teow (粿条), loosen the strands
300 gram of cooked round yellow noodle (熟面), loosen the strands
200 - 300 gram of medium-sized prawns, shelled with tail intact
1 cup of fresh cockles aka "hum" (血蚶), shelled
1 Chinese sweet sausage aka Lap Cheong (腊肠), thinly sliced or cut into strips (*see pic on right)
1 large fish cake, cut into strips
Handful of bean sprout, trimmed
3 medium eggs

3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 - 2 tablespoons of Sambal chili paste
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoon of light soy sauce
2 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons of black sweet sauce (黑甜酱) or sugar (*Adjust amount to your desired sweet taste)
1 tablespoon of tamarind juice (*Juice from a lump of tamarind/ assam seeds paste mixed into 1 - 2 tablespoons of water. Discard seeds and use only 1 - 2 tablespoons of juice.)
Pinch of salt to taste (*If more briny taste preferred)

2 - 3 tablespoons of water
6 tablespoons of peanut/ vegatable oil

Optional:
Chives, cut into 2 inches long, lengthwise

Method
1) Heat wok with 3 tablespoon of oil over high flame. Add garlic and stir fry till fragrant and golden browned. Add Chinese sausage, and stir fry till fragrant and sausage appears glossy (not burnt). Add in fish cake and prawns, and stir fry till almost cooked. Reduce heat to medium fire, and move the ingredients to one side of the wok.

2) Add sambal chili paste into the cleared space (in the wok), and stir fry for 10 seconds. Then, add kway teow and yellow noodle into the wok, followed by water. Stir fry noodles to combine well with chilli paste. Then, move the ingredients back and combine with noodles. Often scrape the surface of the wok to minimize sticking.

3) Add fish sauce, light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Stir fry vigorously to combine well.

4) Thereafter, scoop the noodles and other side ingredients, all to one side of the wok, leave the centre of the wok empty, and add another 3 tablespoons of oil. When oil is heated, crack in eggs. Break up the eggs with the wok spatula, and then, return the noodles and other ingredients to the centre of the wok, and coat well with the eggs. Add black sweet sauce (or sugar) and stir fry to combine. Then, add in tamarind juice in one circular motion and stir fry again to combine well.

Taste a little of it, sprinkle some salt and stir fry to combine well, if not salty enough.

5) Now, add in bean sprout (and chive, if opted for) and stir fry for 10 seconds. Lastly, add in fresh cockles and stir fry for just a few seconds, before heat off. Serve hot.

1 serving of fried kway teow counts as much as 680kcal! So, eat moderately.

Secret tricks: Add tamarind juice is to neutralise its greasy taste, and it enhances the overall flavour of the dish. It's not a must, but good to have. Rub the pasty flesh of tamarind out of its seed and mix into water to create tamarind juice. Discard the seeds. Use 1 - 2 tablespoons of the juice, if desired. The choice is yours.. :)

Tips: Char Kway Teow dish has to be cooked quick in action to retain its moist consistency.
* If you do not have any black sweet sauce which used to complement the eating of steamed rice cake (饭馃) or Soon Kueh (笋馃), use sugar.
* Soak cockles in salted water for few hours, it helps to de-shell easier than without soaking.

Stir-fried Omelette with Tomato (番茄炒蛋)

2009-10-30T08:20:00.001+08:00

"Simply tasty and healthy tomato stir-fried omelette!"

Sometimes it's just very easy to have a simple, yet tasty and healthy homemade dish. If you not into complex recipe, try this tomato omelette!

Even if you are not a tomato or onion fan, you will like this dish as it simply delicious where you won't taste the 'raw' flavour. I loved its pleasant sweet flavour with great mouthfeel in the palate yielded from the cooked tomato and onion with the eggs.

I first tasted this dish over a simple dinner gathering at my good friend's place where her mum cooked this for me, many years ago. I could not forget the great taste of this dish, and decided to learn to cook it by my own so that I could have it anytime I wish to (smile).

Serves 3 - 4
Ingredients
3 large eggs
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced, crosswise (*Use only half, if it's too large)
1 ripe tomato, skinned and diced into chunk pieces

3 - 4 tablespoons of ketchup (tomato sauce)
1 tablespoon of sugar
Pinch of salt

Seasoning for egg:
1 teaspoon of light soy sauce
Pinch of white ground pepper

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Method
1) Break eggs into bowl. Add light soy sauce and pepper, beat eggs till blended.

2) How to cut onion to reduce its pungency: Peel the outer skin of onion, and cut into halves. Lay the flat surface of one half portion, and thinly slice it crosswise (cut against the lines pattern of the onion), starting from its top part to root end. Reserve for later.

3) Heat wok with oil over high fire. Reduce heat to medium fire, add in onion and stir fry till lightly brown and soften. Add tomato, stir fry for 1 minute.

4) Then, add beaten egg. Let egg set for 10 seconds until it turns slightly firm and browned on one side. Need not to overturn the egg, stir-fry and use wok spatula to separate egg into chunk pieces. Add in salt, ketchup and sugar, stir fry to combine well. Heat off and serve with steamed rice.

In fact, this stir-fried omelette should be presented 'wet', slightly covered in ketchup gravy. If you wish to have more ketchup gravy in the omelette dish, add more ketchup sauce and sugar.

1 serving of stir-fried omelette with tomato (and onion) counts about 120kcal.

Tips: If you prefer the egg to be more moist, add two tablespoons of fresh/ skimmed milk into the egg and beat them together (with light soy sauce and pepper) to blend well.

Hollandaise Sauce

2009-10-25T14:05:00.002+08:00

'Simple French recipe helps to create your perfect breakfast meal!"

Hollandaise sauce is a French sauce, and it’s commonly known to complement the eating of Egg Benedict (which consists of English muffin, poached egg, bacons and hams as toppings, and Holladaise sauce is a MUST for Egg Benedict).

This light creamy sauce has a mild flavour of buttery and eggy with a touch of refreshing lemony scent in the palate. It's never too greasy to taste. Topping of Hollandaise sauce helps to enhance the overall taste of the plain poached egg, and with such combination, it creates a perfect mouthfeel for the palate.

To create such smooth and even taste, melted butter has to be added to the yolk mixture in stages. This process is essential, if you wish to reach the perfect texture of the sauce (*see details in Step 3).

In fact, this sauce can be topped on various food items, besides Egg benedict. Your strawberry crepe, ham waffles and chicken sandwiches will taste even better with Holladaise sauce! Use Hollandaise sauce to top on poached egg on the toasted French loaf slice was what we had the other time.. Hmm... How about top it on french fries or poached potatoes and steamed broccoli, then?! Can you imagine how perfect these combinations could be (smile)?

Try this simple making French sauce, and impress your loved ones with a great French breakfast meal soon!

Yields a large bowl of sauce, good for 8 to 10 toppings
Ingredients
1 block of unsalted butter (about 250gram), melted
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
Sprinkle of salt

Method:
1) Melt butter in a sauce pan over low flame. When melted, heat off and leave aside to cool.

2) Boil a large pot of water over high heat on stove. In the meantime, use another bowl (smaller size) and mix egg yolks, vinegar and salt. Whisk to combine the ingredients well. When boiled, reduce heat to medium low fire, place the smaller pot of yolk mixture over the large pot of boiled water and continue to whisk the mixture vigorously till it turns creamy texture. (Or, you may use double boiler to do this step.)

3) Remove the creamy yolk mixture from the double boiling process. Now, you need a helping hand from another person, to help you to add in melted butter in stages, while you continue whisking the yolk mixture vigorously, until well combined. Ready to use the sauce for Eggs Benedict, or just the poached egg on toasted bread.

Hollandaise sauce is best to serve warm, not hot.

This sauce is, obviously, not any fat trimming sauce, from the fact that whole block of butter is used in the recipe. Expect a 'topping' of 100 kcal more to your calorie intake of the meal with 2 large heaping spoons of Hollandaise sauce used.

Tips: If you do not have any white wine vinegar, replace with lemon juice.
* Add sprinkle of sugar to it, if sweeter taste is preferred.
* If the sauce appears a little too thick for your taste, sprinkle some warm water and combine well, in last step.

Cordyceps and Ginseng Tonic Soup with Black Chicken (冬虫夏草泡参黑鸡汤)

2009-10-24T23:02:00.010+08:00

"Nourishing Chinese Herbal Soup, its extensive health benefits to all ages are beyond your imagination."

I had a bowl of Cordyceps tonic soup for lunch at one of the coffee shop at Ang Mo Kio area last week as I wanted to take something nourishing and tonical. Did not expect Cordyceps soup to taste so great, its mild fragrance in the palate with a hint of natural sweetness impressed me. So, I jotted down the Chinese herbs found in the soup (luckily, I still recognise each herb used.. :p), and decided to find out more about it, and to make it at home for my family.

Benefits of Cordyceps:
Cordyceps Sinensis, also known as caterpillar fungus. In Chinese, we called it 冬虫夏草 (direct translation as 'Winter worm Summer grass'), or simple term as 冬虫草, or even just 虫草. I simply love the subtle taste of this clear soup. This great and nutritional soup not only taste good, it has its vast health benefits! The characteristic of cordyceps is neither cooling nor heaty, but mild and nuetral to be taken by all ages. Cordyceps are widely used in Chinese medicine due to its high healing properties believed by many Chinese medical practitioners. Some Chinese even believe that it promotes longevity, if Cordyceps were to be taken on regular basis.

Major health benefits are believed to help in regulating and ensuring the normal functioning of various parts and organs of our body. Cordyceps strengthens our immune system and promotes overall vitality as well as resists bacteria. I heard taking cordyceps may reduce blood pressure, strengthen heart, lung and kidney, and of course, overall body immune system.

I even came across some studies that cordyceps alliviates mental tension. Many of us encounter pressure from work or personal life, and hence, Chinese practitioners believed that taking Cordyceps helps to get rid of pressure-causing illnesses such as anxiety, headache and insomnia.

By looking at its great health benefits, there isn't any reason for me not to boil this soup for my family and myself regularly. I added ginseng slices to this soup to make it even better taste and higher nutritional value.

This soup is very easy to cook, and its Chinese herbs ingredients can be easily purchased from Chinese herbal shops and major supermarket (Chinese soup or dry goods section). Try it today!

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
10g - 20g each of the following Chinese herbs:
Cordyceps Sinensis "Dong Chong Xia Cao" (冬虫夏草) *see pic on right
Ginseng slices "Pao Shen" (泡参) *see same pic on right
Codonopsis Pilosulae "Dang shen" (黨參)
Solomon’s Seal Rhizome "Yu Zhu" (玉竹)
Radix Dioscoreae Oppositae aka Chinese Yam Root "Huai Shan" (淮山）
Liquorice Root "Gan Cao" (甘草)
Fructus Lycii aka Wolfberry "Gou Qi Zi" (枸杞子)

1 black chicken (乌鸡)， skined and quartered

1 - 2 teaspoon of salt (*add gradually, adjust amount to suit your taste)

1 pot of water, 70% filled (about 2000ml)

Method:
1) Heat pot of water over high flame. Add all Chinese herbs and reduce heat to medium fire. Boil herbs for 15 minutes.

2) Add black chicken meat (you may blanch the chicken meat beforehand). Reduce heat to low fire and simmer for 2 hours. Add salt to taste. Serve hot.

Variation: May add ribs or white chicken (old hen) instead of black chicken.

Tips: If you do not have time to boil during weekdays, use a slow cooker to do the job. Place all ingredients in the croak pot and boil with slow cooker on auto shift mode in the morning before leaving for work. By evening, simply add salt to taste, and this tasty and healthy soup will be ready for dinner.

Bruschetta with Tomatoes (and Basil) Recipe

2009-10-19T14:35:00.002+08:00

"Bruschetta with Tomatoes recipe, and the easy way to deal with the preparation of tomato toppings!"

As I mentioned in my review of cook-off of Julie & Julia's menu, Bruschetta is an Italian bread dish than French recipe, to be exact. However, I learnt this great light bites, and would like to share its simple making yet delicious recipe to you.

This is light snack which may be taken as appetizer, to indulge it during tea break, and even as your favourite TV bites. I liked bruschetta with tamatoes, because it tastes very refreshing. This fruit is high anti-oxidant properties which help to fight free radical in our body, and hence, reduce rish of getting cancer. For any one who does not to eat tomato, this is the greatest way to try having it! Having the tomato in bruschetta makes its taste and texture much more palatable.

There are three ways to prepare the tomatoes..

With large tomato, you may choose to eat it with skin or without skin. If these are the only two choices, I would personally prefer to eat it without skin as it yields smoother consistency in the palate to go without its skin. Its smoother, softer and easier to bite texture complements the crunchy toasted bread so well, but of course, this great bite comes with your contribution of more time and effort.

Steps to peel tomato skin:
Firstly, you have to cut a shallow cross on the bottom of the large tomato as this way will aid in the actual peeling of the tomato later, but do not remove the stem on the top part. Then, prepare a pot of iced water and another pot of boiling water. Place tomato into boiling water for 10 seconds, and then, quickly remove it from water, and let it cool by placing it into iced water for a few seconds. Begin peeling from the shallow cross you have made right at the begining. The skin of the tomato should be very easily peeled, by now. Then, dice it.

Steps to dice tomato:
Halves the tomato. Sit one halves on its flat area on a clean chopping board. Then, run your knife over to slice it, but it will be easier if you leave the stem at the top part unsliced, so that the tomato slices will be intact in an organised way. Now, cut the tomato slices crosswise into dices. discard the stem portion.

Besides using the large tomato, cherry tomato seems to be even better option, to me. I loved its slight crunchy texture and more juicy and sweeter taste in the palate. There isn't a need to peel the skin or dice its flesh. Just cut each cherry tomato into half. *Choose organic cherry tomato or cherry tomato that meant to be eaten instantly as snacks.

See recipe of Bruschetta now:

Serves 4 - 6
Ingredients

Baguette, sliced into 1cm thick, lengthwise
6 cloves of roasted garlic in Olive oil (retained 1 teaspoon of olive oil)
Pinch of salt

1 regular bowl of cherry tomato (about 15 pcs), halves (or 2 large tomatoes, skinned and diced)
4 cloves of roasted garlic
¾ teaspoon of white wine vinegar
¾ teaspoon of sugar
A gentle touch of salt

Garnish:
1 - 2 stem of fresh Basil leave, finely chopped
Freshly grounded black pepper

Method

1) Preheat oven at 200°C. Mash roasted garlic with olive oil and salt. Combine well. Spread the mashed garlic on each slice of baguette and place on a baking dish. Bake at center rack for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Reserve for later.

2) Place diced/ halved tomato in a bowl. Add roasted garlic, salt, sugar and white wine vinegar and toss it well.

3) Top toasted baguette with tomatoes. Sprinkle some black pepper, and lastly, garnish with chopped Basil leave. Serve.

Variation of toppings: Button mushroom slices and chopped parsley.

Tips: If you are using blanched tomato dices as topping, mix salt and other seasoning/ condiments only at the very last step, right before serving it on the baguette. Adding salt to the diced tomato too early may extract the water from the tomato flesh and makes the tomato toppings too wet to be used later.
* If you do not have white wine vinegar, use any other type of vinegar or lemon juice. You may also opt it out, if wished.

Roast Garlic in Olive Oil

2009-10-16T12:20:00.004+08:00

"Roasted garlic in olive oil, prepare and keep it for convenient cooking use or as a sandwich spread for your toast snack!"

I am glad that you have interest in French recipe. As I am still a fresh learner in French (Western) cooking, I would like to just share some recipes I have learnt at the cook-off session. Please forgive me, if the food is too simple for you to prepare.. :p

First of all, let’s make the roasted garlic!

Roasted garlic, which has its huge plus point in enhancing dishes, many western cooks love it. This roast garlic will be used in one of my Western recipe (to be shared next time round), and you may prepare this in large amount. Then, store in your refrigerator for other food preparation.

Many people use this roasted garlic to make garlic bread (or toast) at home, or simply spread it on crackers with knife. It can also be mixed into your salad dish or other cold dishes as flavor enhancer. Yes, flavor enhancer by its natural sweetness and fragrance, without the pungent taste anymore. For cooking wise, add this in sauce making, or soup cooking. I am thinking of even using it to spread on the popiah skin for my next popiah meal at home!

In fact, even the olive oil can be treated as roasted garlic flavoured olive oil, and use for any other cookings.
It is very simple to prepare and it can be kept for very long.

Ingredients
30 – 40 raw garlic cloves, skinned
About ½ cup (or more) of extra light olive oil

Tool:
1 sheet of baking paper

Method
1) Place garlic cloves in an oven-proof/ baking container. Add enough olive oil in order to have all the garlic cloves immersed into the olive oil.

2) Place a sheet of baking paper to cover on top of the container, and bring it to bake at 150°C for 2 hours. Let is cool at room temperature before keeping in the refrigerator. Yes, it’s done!

Tips: Garlic must be fresh.
* Use of extra LIGHT olive oil simply because it tastes almost scentless, while extra virgin olive oil, is more suitable to be used as salad dressing, might taste too superior for such baking purposes.

My Tasty Experience of Julie & Julia’s Cooking

2009-10-12T01:38:00.008+08:00

“Watch Julie & Julie, and learn the Julie & Julia’s menu, with Passion . Ambition & Butter!”

Yes, I wanted to cook French cuisine! And that has to do with the movie, Julie & Julia (previously reviewed in this blog posting), which features great French cooking by two Americans. You can imagine how very excited I was to have a chance to attend a cook-off session at Palate Sensations, where I learnt to cook some of the French cuisine featured in the movie.

Palate Sensations Cooking School is the location for this private cooking lesson of French menu which you may see it in the movie. This cooking school is situated at Blk 1, Wesbourne Road, #03-05 (the entrance to this place is via Whitchurch Road, off Portsdown Road and opposite Col Bar). The location might sound very far from where you usually hang out but in reality, it is actually pretty close to the Queensway area and within the Wessex estate, which has many beautiful colonial-styled buildings.

Before I discussed the dishes that I learned to cook during my cook-off, I wish to give a little background about French cuisine in general. If you watched the movie, Julie & Julia, you’ll notice that the French cuisine uses lots of butter! Yes, butter! Well, although we are living in 21st century where a healthy diet comes first, butter is still very much used in French cuisine but probably not as extensively as what it used to be. The 3 dishes that I will share later all used butter in a moderate level.

I love French cuisine because it used a vast usage of aromatic herbs as well as olive oil that liven up the sophisticated French cuisine. Many herbs and other ingredients always show up in Julia’s kitchen in the movie. These herbs and olive combination helped delivering food with a full passion of flavours. It enhanced dishes in a very different way from my usual cooking style.

I always thought Western food should be a lot easier to cook than Chinese food. But in fact, it is not a piece of cake! I admired Julie. It’s never an easy task to cook all 524 recipes in 356 days, but Julie did it, all in her little kitchen! For example, let’s talk about the basic skill of poaching an egg. It might sound easy but in fact, it wasn’t that easy at all. As we seen in the movie, it was a difficult process that Julie had to repeatedly learn to do well before her poached egg was done beautifully (I will share with you on how to do a proper poaching of eggs in the future.. smile).

As I know very little about the French cuisine and those tongue-twisting French food names, and as culinary knowledge is boundless, the cook-off session at Palate Sensations is truly ‘enlightening’ to me. After the cooking session, I have a feeling as if I have stepped into the same chapter of Julie’s cooking experience (winking smile).

The 3 items described below are what I learned from Executive Chef Alicia Tivey during my cook-off session. I would share the exact recipes in my future blog postings as well as some precious tips on French cooking shared to us during the class that I will share with you, too.

Julie got her French culinary adventure started in her simple little kitchen in her small home above the pizza shop in Queens, while my French culinary adventure begins in this fully equipped kitchen…

And I blogged it, just like what Julie did (smile)!

Bruschetta with Tomatoes (and Basil)

Bruschetta (pronunciation as “Brus_Ketta”) is usually served as appetizer or light bites. To be exact, Bruschetta is Italian garlic bread topped with extra virgin olive oil and salt. The choice of bread could be any long loaf, but since we are on the topic of French cooking, we used baguette as it is one of their food staples (and supposedly the traditional kind of baguette).

The baguette was perfectly crisped, and the toast is so aromatic! You can choose to pan-fry with lots of butter, it was how Julie fried the bread which appeared reaaaaally greasy (but supposedly tasted much better where both Julie and her husband enjoyed it a lot), or you may toast the baguette. I chose to toast it as toasting is a lot hassle free and the toast can be done more evenly, without any worries that it might turn out burnt if you did not watch the stove closely enough.

As for the toppings on the bruschetta, although you can also vary the toppings with button mushroom and parsley, but since this is the most classic bruschetta, we will have the tomato and basil as its toppings. We used both the usual tomatoes as well as cherry tomatoes for our bruschetta. For myself, I personally preferred the cherry tomatoes version as it tasted sweeter and juicier, and it’s easier to prepare than using the big tomatoes (chuckling).

Pouched Egg with Hollandaise Sauce

As the name of the dish implies, you need a pouched egg and Hollandaise sauce. The Hollandaise sauce is a French sauce, and it’s commonly known to complement the eating of Egg Benedict. Yes, we made a ‘sort-of’ Egg Benedict dish, but sorry it was done, not with an English muffin and no bacon or ham was topped on it, too. It was just the pouched egg and Hollandaise on the same baguette (used for Bruschetta). That’s why I said, ‘sort-of’ (laughing).

The Hollandaise sauce was actually made by the chef and shared among the students. We watched a demonstration of the making of this sauce and picked up tips and tricks for making it at home. The lemony coloured sauce tasted fabulous. The taste of the sauce was rich but not too overwhelming, and I loved its buttery taste with a hint of tangy flavour created from the adding of fragrant white wine vinegar. This overall taste of perfection complements the pouched eggs!

Yes, talking about pouched egg….. My first egg poaching wasn’t so successful. I did not add enough vinegar in the boiling water during the first trial. I felt lousy when I couldn’t get the egg pouched nicely, and when the moment the egg failed to pouch and form nicely, the image of Julie’s disappointed look appeared in my mind, and I could truly understand how Julie felt, when she could not get her recipe cooked successfully. Julie broke into tears when sat on the floor in her kitchen, just like a small little girl who drops her favourite lollipop on the ground (and it creates lots of laughter from the way she reacted on her meltdowns). However, she did not give up at all, and of course, I am strived to get it done, too. My 2nd attempt was good! We then poured the warm (not hot) Hollandaise sauce over the egg we’ve pouched, and ate it with the toasted baguette.

Apple Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin (pronunciation as “Tart Tah_Ta”). Tarte tatin is one of the wonders of French cuisine, and this delectable “upside-down” caramelized apple tart surely is the favourite dessert for all. The tastiest homemade dessert I ever had!

In the class, we made a large apple tarte tatin together as a team. We each peeled, cored and halved a green apple each, while waiting for the sugar to be caramelized in a large frying pan on the stove. Then, we put all the halves in the same frying pan to simmer with the caramelized sugar and melted butter. One of us rolled out the ready puff pastry to a thin sheet which to be lined on top of the caramelized apples, and later, brought it to a bake in oven. And why do we call it an ‘upside-down’ apple tart? It is because the whole apple tarte tatin has to be overturned on a serving dish first, before it is sliced to serve. The rounded side of the apples have to face up while the pastry topped on the apples before baked has now become the base.

Did I tell you that it tastes superb?
Yes, it is indeed! I liked the sweetness of the caramel, and it is very sweet. Wait, hang on… It is very sweet, but, to pair it with green apple, it is just simply perfect! The refreshing zesty flavour yielded from the green apples balances the very sweet taste of the caramel syrup, and made it a perfect balanced taste for the palate. I supposed Julie cooked this as one of the recipes in Julia Child’s cook book, Mastering The Art of French Cooking, even it was not shown in the movie (but she did cook many other alluring dessert dishes in the movie... and do notice when you watch the movie on how much did her husband enjoy the cake she baked.. yum, yum).

These 3 food items that I have learnt are simply fabulous!

And how do I feel about learning these dishes at Palate Sensations? The chef will actually personally demonstrate the cooking before releasing you to start off on your own. Feeling so fortunate that I was actually having guidance from the chef, first demonstrated and then guided me throughout the cook-off session, while Julie could only did it all by her own, with her self-imagination that Julia Child was beside her, ‘invisibly’ watched and motivated her whenever she cooked, for all the 524 recipes which included those complicated recipes where she needed to bone a duck for boned stuffed duck baked in pastry dish, kill lobsters for Lobster Thermidor recipe, and watch out fire and monitor accurate baking time for Julie’s favourite Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon.. I was lucky that nothing disastrous turned out during my cook-off, but Julie had her favourite Beef Bourguignon burnt with over baking hour while she felt asleep in the living room. Her devastating moments did not stop there, she ended up with a fight with her husband when her editor guest, who supposed to pay a visit to her house to taste her cooking, did not turn up due to the heavy rain... But yes, Julie’s perseverance in accomplishing her goal of cooking and blogging has brought her to where she belongs, finally.

Begin your French cuisine with Julie & Julia’s food movie! Can’t wait till then, check out their Thoughts on Food now:

There is only a word to describe such tasty experience, it’s “YUM”!

Homecooked Bird Nest with Ginseng and Rock Sugar

2009-10-11T11:48:00.000+08:00

"How to clean the "unprocessed" raw bird nest? Let's check it out! And your effort & time will surely be paid off with this goodness!"

Time to pamper yourself with luxurious bird nest dessert soup!

My mum got me some of these unprocessed original bird nests of the home-bred swallows. It was the first time seeing those raw bird nest pieces. Unlike those already well-processed with machine types which also moulded very beautifully in standard curve shape and size, these raw bird nests were full of feathers and dirts, and never in uniformed shape and size. And to be franked, unlike the COOKED bird nest drink (see below picture), the UNPROCESSED raw bird nest (see picture on right) wasn't appealing to me at all!

Benefits of taking bird nest regularly:

I heard bird nest is rich in amino acids which reqiured by our body. Eating bird nest regular helps to improve health condition and it is the best food for more radiant and smoother skin complexion for women, while it helps strengthening lungs and kidneys for men who take bird nest on regular basis. For young children, bird nest helps to boost up immune system.

As for myself, I am more concern on promoting fairer and smoother skin. Not sure if I am over-sensitive, I do feel that my complexion is better after having my homecooked bird nest every week for the past 1 month (laughing).

And, it is the best to have the unprocessed types of bird nest to avoid any chance of taking the bleaching chemical substance during the process of cleaning the bird nest goodness for better commercial value. I convinced myself with this reason, and started to do the cleaning, all manually.

It was indeed tedious and very long a process to get every single tiny feather, dirt and any other excrement out of the hard and dry nest, but they worth it all!

Tool needed:
Sharp tipped tweezer

Method to clean "unprocessed" bird nest:
1. Soak the dry curvy bird nest in a large bowl of luke water till soften, about 1 hour or more.

2. Drain and remove softened bird nest from large feathers and dirt. Place bird nest in a large bowl of clean water.

3. Repeat step 2 for a few more rounds to get rid of all the large dirty substances.

4. Prepare another separate bowl of water and a sharp tipped ear tweezers to pick up those tiny feather and dirt that are still in the bird nest. To easily remove the tiny feather that sticks on the tweezer's tip when you picked up, submerge the sharp tip into the bowl of water you have prepared separetely.

5. Drain bird nest and change to clean water constantly during the few cleaning stages.

You may also separate the cleaned portions out of the large bowl, and place them in another bowl, little by little.

6. Complete the cleaning process till the bird nest is totally free from feather/ dirt. It might take up to 3 hours to complete the task. Now, ready to cook this goodness which should already be in a form of transparent jelly-like thin strands.

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
4 pieces of dry and unprocessed bird nest (*Prepare with the abovelisted methods)
10 grams of thinly sliced ginseng roots (泡参)
5 red dates
1 large lump of rock sugar, about palm sized (or more if prefer sweeter taste)

4 regular bowl of water

Utensil
Double boiler or slow cooker

Method:
1. Place water, ginseng slices and red date into a ceramic bowl/ croak pot (the size of the bowl musn't be too small, water level should reach max. till three-quarter filled to avoid spillage). Bring it to a boil in double boiler or slow cooker, with medium heat. When water is boiled, reduce fire/ switch to low heat and simmer for 2 hours.

2. Add clean and soften bird nest and white rock sugar into the bowl/ croak pot, and continue to simmer for another 45 minutes.

3. The fragrance of egg white-like scent will emerge in the air, by then. Ready to serve hot, or store in refrigerator when it's cooled at room temperature, to serve chilled later.

The top-graded bird nest should be able to cook into loose crystal clear strands. And its texture should be soft and silky, resembling jelly strips. I loved to have it chilled as it tasted more refreshing.

Bird nest is low in calorie. So, it is alright to have it regularly!

Tips: Every single feather in the raw bird nest has to be cleaned away, especially if this is to be consumed by young children.
* Unprocessed bird nest was gotten from neighbourhood country.

Julie & Julia - A great movie for Food Lovers. Bloggers. Life Inspiration Seekers.

2009-10-08T20:09:00.000+08:00

“Bon appéteeeeeeeeet!” for your eyes and ears!

Want to get inspired in your life? Desire to be engaged with fresh French cooking ideas?

Be prepared to be thoroughly involved in this very engaging movie, “Julie & Julia”. Based on the true stories of two women, this movie moved along wonderfully, sharing with the audiences, a common passion of food and taste, beautifully experienced through two separate eras.

Nuffnang, the Asia Pacific’s first blog advertising community, organized the preview screening of this inspiring movie, presented by Sony Pictures. And why am I being invited to this show? I guess that it has to do with my passion of a food blogger, which is what one of the main character in the movie, Julie, were to become in her life.

This movie captivates my heart, not just because I am a food blogger, but as it similarly mirrors my life of being a wife, a working woman and a food lover, all in the same movie.

This sentimental movie starts with Julia’s life (wonderfully enacted by the ever fantastic Meryl Streep) when she moved to Paris in the early 1960s with her loving husband, Paul (Stanley Tucci) who is an American diplomat. The story of the other protagonist of the movie, Julie (equaling Meryl to her task by the unforgettable Amy Adams) is actually set in year 2002 in Queens, New York. While this might sound like a recipe for confusion (no pun intended), the movie director (Nora Ephron) was able to neatly switch and intertwine the two stories smoothly and easily throughout the entire film.

The common thread in their lives? They both had a common passion for great food and their singular perseverance in finding that one defining purpose in life. This romance comedy involves their husbands, but they are not the main subject in this film. The real object of romance in the show focuses on food…. “Bon appéteeeeeeeeet!”, that common cheer of Julia and Julie, spoken as one voice, but each in their very own time of the 1960s and the 2002s. And now, even as I recalled the French cuisine that filled out the screen in the movie last evening, I am feeling so hungry!

Julie Powell, in her 30s and in the year 2002, is a former ‘half-book’ writer (half book as it was not completed) and currently stuck in her middle-leveled job in the government sector. She has an inspiration to accomplish her aim of cooking all 524 French recipes (which are really nice food!) written by Julia Child back then in the 60s. She set herself a timeline, to cook all the recipes in 365 days! From that very first day that she started to cook the recipes and to write a blog about her cooking journey, the obstacles she faced and emotional meltdowns she encountered were excellently portrayed in the movie. We laughed when she tried to kill live lobsters. We roared in delight when she tried to bone a duck and get it cooked tastily… I felt a similar feeling as a blogger when she received her very 1st comment in her blog, but it turned out to be written by her mom, who wanted to discourage her from her goal as she worried that her extensive time blogging might jeopardize her marriage. Later, we rejoiced with her success when she was constantly receiving hundreds of comments and food gifts from her ever growing readers. We, bloggers, are after all, a similar group of people sharing similar obstacles in our ever similar online experiences.

On the other hand, Julia Child’s stories were set in the 1960s. It is both funny and, oh so sooo inspiring for us to share her success in getting her talents discovered, in her struggles of writing, in her difficulties of finding a willingly publisher and finally in the success of getting her very thick cook book published (known simply as “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”). The appearance of her sister and the subplot about her marriage only served to create even more laughter to the audiences.

Personally, for me, through their passion for good food and their love of cooking, through their stories of getting fame and through their success in defining their purpose in life, I felt a strong sense of inspiration (I want to cook French cuisine!) and the slight envy for these women and the joy they have in their lives.. :p

If you ask me to describe this movie in terms of food, I would say watching “Julie & Julia” is like sipping a cup of your favourite hot fruit tea after a long hectic day. A truly carefree feeling emerges through this 2-hours long movie. Yes, it is that pretty long a movie, but you will never a moment felt bored. It is not an action packed movie, not a brain cracking mystery movie, and you will just feel a simple desire to finish it at its own pace and at its own time. I did not even feel the ticking of the clock till the film finished. The soothing sound track of this film is something you wish to get it and listen again and again, days and days after the show.

Yes, the movie is a real “Bon appéteeeeeeeeet!” for your eyes and ears!

This movie is definitely meant to be watched by all ages and genders; food eaters or food lovers; seasoned chefs or beginner cooks; accomplished blogger or struggling ones. Be prepared to be inspired in life and feel that zest to accomplish your greatest goal in life.

You will surely find this movie, Julie & Julia, worth your time and every penny spent for the tickets. And even my little girl, at the age of 8, loved it!

"You are the butter to my bread. The breath to my life...."
I loved this quote in the movie. So will you.

Fats We Eat

2009-10-06T12:58:00.003+08:00

As I blog and share about 10 Diet Mistakes in my Fan Club in FaceBook (FB), some little details within my limited knowledge were still too extensive to be elaborated in the small note space in FB. I wish to jot them down in my blog instead, for my readers who are keen to read more about whichever I knew.

The No. 6 Diet Mistake I have jotted in my Note of FB is about Consumption Fat which has been a major concern by diet and health watchers.

In my note of FB, I mentioned about Fats – Saturated and Unsaturated Fat as well as Trans Fat. To my friends and readers, who wish to know what are those, in a summary of all, and some basic food items which contain these fats, here’s it:

Saturated Fat – “Bad” Fat
It is known to have adverse effects on our heart and raise bad cholesterol (LDL) levels. A “No No” fat to our body which we should try to limit its intake. Hence, choose food that comes with very low saturated fat.

Saturated fat is found in some of these food:
Fatty meats
Poultry skin
Pork lards
Palm oils
Pastries/ Cookies/ Cakes
Whole milk

Unsaturated Fats - 'Good' Fats
Unsaturated fats are divided into two groups i.e. Polyunsaturated fat and Monounsaturated fat. And… please don’t go into the very detailed of what are Poly and Mono as I am not the professional to tell you about its scientific formations. Only know that these polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat benefit your cholesterol level in your blood stream by increasing the good cholesterol (HDL) and lowering the bad cholesterol (LDL). Omega 3 and 6 are two types of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Polyunsaturated fat is found in:
Salmon
Tuna
Sardines
Evening Primrose oil
Corn oil
Soybean oil

Monounsaturated fat is found in:
Peanuts
Almonds
Hazelnuts
Olive oil
Canola oil

Should you remember do not cut out all fat intake as it is essential to consume fat for your body to dissolve the oil-soluble vitamins. Hence, take this unsaturated fatty acid. This fatty acids will not raise your weight that easy, but in fact, it helps to trim away your bad cholesterol level in your blood stream, promoting better metabolism that benefits you in slimming goal.

Trans Fat was once widely added into food for ‘good’ reason in enhancing flavour, texture and shelf like. Hence, we often found rich trans fat created in frozen food items and fast food during its industrial process. Unfortunately, it risks our health! Trans fat not only raise LDL cholesterol like saturated fat, but it’s also LOWER the HDL cholesterol level in our blood stream.

Food contains trans fat are:
French fries
Doughnuts
Pastries/ Pie crusts
Biscuits/ Cookies
Pizza (mainly fast food or frozen)
Margarines/ Shortenings
Frozen meals

Hence, try your best to chose food brands labeled with ZERO % Trans Fats in foods such as margerine, instant noodle, frozen pizza, bread loaf, cookies and pastries.

To promote good health, these 0% trans fat items are widely sold everywhere. So, why go for trans fat and risk the health of your heart?!

And remember, even though it is tasty to have food with trans fat, but it's not necessary in our daily diets. Try to limit your children in having fast food meals which pretty high in trans fat.

A "Condoms" Restaurant in Bangkok: Cabbages & Condoms

2009-10-05T20:11:00.019+08:00

"A good Thai cuisine restaurant fulls with condoms?!"

Just visited Bangkok (again), for a 3 days 2 nights trip. We did not have much time but packed all itineraries full in whole 2 days. I know Bangkok is NO stranger to most Singaporean, but there were some highlights I would like to share.

Bangkok is well-known gourmet paradise as any shops/ restaurants you go seldom disappoint you. So, we were looking at some specially featured restaurant whereby you not only get to enjoy the good authentic local delicacies, at the same time, appreciate their special design/ theme during the dine-in.

This restaurant is ‘deserted’ at the sub road of Sukhumvit Soi 12 where you may find Asok BTS as the nearest sky train station. Out from the station, walk towards Sheraton Hotel and along Times Square, and turn to your left into a lane right passed Time Square. The street lights in this sub road were rather dim, but it was not deadly quiet. There were roadside stores found along the lane. Look out for this big signage of Cabbages and Condoms which pointing you to their restaurant just 30m away, after a 6 – 8 minutes walk from main street.

The C&C Restaurant (PDA)
Call (02) 229-4610 or send a Fax to (02) 229-4610
We are open daily from 11:00 to 22:00. Adequate parking space is available.

Cabbages & Condoms has been recommended in many travel guides. As it’s named, it has to do with….. Condoms!

My feeling when entered this premise was complex but non-descript. The 2-storey restaurant is full of condoms. Life-sized figures with its attires made of condoms, even all the lamps in the restaurants were decorated and made of… yes, condoms.. But, not too worry about having your little ones to go with you… It is never a place from the ‘grubby’ side. In fact, it has become a double-cause action for you to choose this place for dinner. This place is running with a noble agenda whereby it is set up to promote better understanding and acceptance of family planning, and all income generated from this restaurant will be used to support the activities conducted by the Population and Community Development Asst in Thailand.

Having talked so much, here should you be introduced with the main object – Great food!

Since there were only two of us, we could only place limited orders which more than enough for just 2 of us. And trust me, these are the best food among the goodies in this restaurant you have to order!

And remember, you will regret if you are not going there with your farmished stomach..

Salad - Thai Papaya Salad
Strange to know that authentic Thai salad in Thailand served with shredded papaya, and not, mango! I still love this spicy dish which helps to open up my appetite for more great food. However, my hubby thought that the salad was way too spicy for his taste bud.. :p

Yes, I ended up finishing the whole salad by my own, and it's absolutely alright to me! Loved the spicy and sweet with a hint of sourish flavour!

Soup: Tom Yum Goong
The friendly waiter smiled at me when I ordered this Tom Yum soup requested LESS spicy. Yeah, I think Thai can eat much hotter stuff than Singaporean. The real Thai Tom Yum Soup in Thailand is nothing like the Singapore version where it has been added many Bird's eye chilis to cook with... So, it is essential to ask for less spciy, if you can't take much spicy food.
Still, it was flavorsome with a balance of hot, sour, sweet and salty flavors which are in harmony with one another in this soup dish, not to mention the fresh and chunky seafood items in the soup. My hubby loved the fresh springy textured prawns.

The Mains:

1) Deep Fried Crisped Whole Seabass with Thai Chilli Peanut Sauce
Yes, no more spicy dish for us, I had to order a non-spicy dish. I was choosing between the steamed or fried version, at first. However, I knew that the steamed fish will be slightly spicy and served with some soup stock as well. So, I decided to go ahead with the fried one instead. And I have to say I had a great choice (Yeah, you’ll never go wrong with crisped fried stuff). Real crisped boneless fish makes it so easy to chew without worries of choking of fish bone (even if there is bone, it's crisped till chewable). I loved the Thai peanut sauce which tasted a sweet and sour, resembling the sweet Thai Chilli sauce, but no, it wasn’t spicy at all, even though it's called Chilli sauce. It was great to just chew on the crisped fish meat without any sauce!

2) Green Chicken Curry
It is not a spicy curry dish. What I could described it as the flavoursome chicken cubes in full coconut milk flavoured gravy. Delicious, but nothing close to those normal red chicken curry dishes which we usually have it in some buffet parties/ gathering back in our hometown.

The courses arrived quite quickly and we were well served, despite the fact that only a number of tables were accupied on Friday’s evening.. Even though the number of diner were rising gradually, but there were only 2 occupied tables in the entire restaurant when we first seated at about 7pm. Sad to say, econimy crissis has strike them much worst than ever. However, still advisable to make a reservation, just in case of the unexpected large crowd, who knows. And, it is recommended to go on weekend (and be seated at 1st storey where the performance stages are) as you might be lucky to get to enjoy some free performances/ service (decent Thai dance or complimentary foot massage) provided by some training centre/ school students (should be engaged by the restaurant) to perform there as their real-life training ground.

I planned to have my favourite dessert, Sticky rice with mango! However, we had seriously ran out of room in our bloated stomach after the few courses dinner with steamed rice! No way we could stuff more rice in! I decided to give up the dessert (sob sob), but to enjoy my refreshing coconut drink to end this great dinner occasion.

Here comes the bill.. ~BHT1200+ = S$50+. That's the great part about spending in Thailand as it's definitely not going to shrink your wallet too much! Wait, mints for you?? If you are expecting some mints to be given to you when you checked the bill. Sorry, you'll have to take away with 1 condom each for every guest absolutely complimentary to you...! :D

No, not yet, I have not told you about the C&C Handicraft Shop situated just next to the dining area. Interesting condom-related products you can find here. Just go have a look as extra leisure activity, after a full sumptious meal there, or you may shop and get something you like to bring home. The above items are open for sale.

Between, before ending your great evening here, check out the “Wheel of SEX Fortune” which tells you what you should ‘do’ for the night.... I spinned on it, just for fun, and guess what? It pointed at "No Sex Tonight Please"! Haha..

What's your dinner tongiht? :D

Hokkien Mee (Singapore-style) Recipe

2009-10-01T19:38:00.002+08:00

"Express meal with my homecooked Hokkien Mee!"

Stir-fried Hokkien noodles dish is cooked and presented differently in Singapore and Malaysia. Even choice of noodle used in the dish is different. For instances, Singapore uses flat strands and cooked with more watery and the gravy is less dark in colour, while Malaysia uses thick round strand resembling udon and usually cooked with loads of super dark colour thick soy sauce.

I loved both styles, and am going to share the Singapore-style Hokkien Mee where you may easily have it in many "Zhi-Char store 煮炒摊" (food store selling Chinese cuisine in coffee shop/ hawker centre).

I cooked this as my express dinner during weekday which took me less than 30 minute to serve.

Noodle used in this Hokkien Mee is not the same as the strands used in cooking Stir-Fried Ee Fu Noodle dish as Hokkien noodle is slightly wider and lighter in colour. And, Hokkien noodles is not crisped or pre-fried like Ee Fu noodle, but sold in fresh yellow strands. No worries, Hokkien noodle pack is widely available in wet market and super markets.

Serves 4
Ingredients
1 packet of Hokkien Mee (chinese translation: 福建面), about 500gram
8 - 12 medium-sized prawns, shelled with tail intact
200 grams of lean pork hind (about 100 gram), thinly sliced
1 cup of Chinese cabbage (白菜), cut
4 artificial crab sticks, halves lengthwise
3 cups of water, or more

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce (thick soy sauce)
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
Sprinkles of salt and pepper

1 tablespoon of cooking oil

Marination for pork slices:
1 teaspoon of light soy sauce
Sprinkle of pepper
1 teaspoon of corn starch

Optional:
1 leaf of lettuce as base, for decoration purpose

Method
1) Marinate pork slices with the listed marinating ingredient, for at least 15 minutes.

2) Heat oil in wok over medium heat, add garlic and stir-fry till fragrant. Add in pork and stir fry for 2 minutes.

3) Then, add Hokkien noodles (loosen the strands beforehand, if it's all lumped together) and water (ideal water level should cover almost three quarter of the noodles). Redice heat to low fire, and simmer for 10 minutes, with lid on. Remove lid, and add dark sauce, salt and pepper, stir fry to mix well.

4) Add in Chinese cabbage and cover wok with lid again. Stir frying to mix well is not necesary at this stage. Just add the vegetable on top, and simmer for another 5 minutes, with lid on.

5) Afterwhich, remove lid. Add also the prawns and crab meat sticks. Stir fry the ingredients until cooked. Place a large leaf of lettuce on a serving dish. Laddle noodles on top of it. Serve immediately.

Hokkien noodle dries up and turns soggy easily. So, serve and dig in immediately.

1 serving of my Hokkien noodle counts about 350kcal.

Tips: Fresh Hokkien noodle has this 'alkaline water' taste (碱水味), you may wish to blanch the noodle first before use. If so, please reduce the simmering time by half. However, I do not mind the mild pleasant alkaline water taste (this Hokkien noodle is supposed to taste like that..anyway~). So, I just rinsed the noodle briefly and used it straight without the need to blanch it beforehand.

Simple HoneyMato Pork Chop

2009-09-28T20:07:00.001+08:00

"Special 'HoneyMato' pork chop, simple but superlicious!"

This is a super simple and delicious pork chop dish. You may make this pork chop for rice meal dinner, and even as filling of burger. I do not recommend this pork chop as western dish where you eat only the chop without rice as the sauce topping might be too sweet to taste without any rice to go along. This pork chop with honeyed tomato sauce complements steamed white rice very well.

Simple to make, delicious to taste:

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
5 slices of loin pork chop, thinly sliced (no more than 1cm thick)

Seasoning:
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
Sprinkle of sesame oil
Sprinkle of ground white pepper

Coating for pork chop:
2 eggs, briefly beaten
10 pieces of plain/ butter cream crackers (cream biscuits), mashed

1 large cup of cooking oil (for frying)

Topping Sauce:
3 tablespoons of honey
6 tablespoons of tomato sauce/ ketchup
* Mix them together in a small bowl

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Method
1) Season pork chops with the listed seasoning. Combine well and marinate for at least 30 min. You may keep it refrigerated while marinating.

2) Break and beat eggs briefly. Mix well with seasoned pork chops and set aside.

3) Mash and coat mashed crackers with pork chops.

4) Heat wok with oil over medium fire, fry pork chops till crisped and golden browned. Drain on kitchen towel, and place on large serving dish. Reserve for later.

5) Remove excessive oil in wok and left only a little (about 1 teaspoon) will do. Heat oil with low fire, and add in garlic and stir fry till fragrant and lightly brown. Add honey mixture and stir briefly while heating the sauce mixture. When sauce appears light bubbly, heat off. Pour sauce over pork chops on the serving dish. Serve warm.

Sauce topping should not be too much as it might taste too sweet and over-whelmed.

A slice of honeymato pork chop counts about 260kcal.

Tips: Add 1 tablespoon of water into honey and ketchup sauce mixture, if find it too thick.
* For even softer meat texture, sprinkle some meat tenderizer onto the pork chops before frying, if desired.

Single Yolk White Lotus Paste Moon Cake

2009-09-22T21:29:00.024+08:00

"Homebaked traditional moon cakes ~ the most special gift for your family this year.. And celebrate a heart-warming Mid-Autumn Festival this year!"

Traditional (baked) moon cake has to have more effort to make, as compared to snow skin moon cake. As mentioned, you need to bake it! Extended hour will also be needed to prepare the moon cake dough. Some of the ingredients used in baked moon cake may even sound alien to you.. But, you won't know how heart warming it could be, if you do not try making one for your loved one with your own hands. Well, I used ready lotus paste and red bean paste for my moon cakes (2 flavours). And it made the making process much easier this way.

So, start making moon cakes now! I made single yolk white lotus paste moon cakes and red bean paste moon cakes the other day! What I wish to share here is the single yolk white lotus paste moon cake...

Please see:
Yields 10 - 12 large moon cakes
Ingredients
280 gram of Golden syrup (糖胶)
100 ml peanut oil
½ tablespoon of alkaline water (碱水)
380 - 400 gram of multi-purpose flour/ top flour or Hong Kong flour

1 kg of white lotus paste
10 - 12 salted duck egg yolk, brushed yolks with sesame oil and baked at 150°C for 10 min
100 grams of melon seed, toasted at 150°C for 5 - 6 min

1 egg yolk mixed with a little egg white (for brushing purpose)

Utensil:
large wooden/ plastic moon cake mould (about 3" - 3.5" in diameter), with design of your preference

Method

1) Weigh 280 gram of Golden syrup (with weighing scale). Then, mix syrup, peanut oil and alkaline water together in a large mixing bowl and beat with electrical mixer at medium speed for 2 - 4 minutes, or until shinny and smooth consistency. Slowly add in flour and beat at low speed till just well combined. Texture of dough should be moist, soft, greasy and chewy-like. Let dough rest for at least 5 hours, or longer. Need not to refrigerate the resting dough, if it is to be rested not longer than 2 days. You may simply cover dough with a piece of dry cloth, and leave it at room temperature up to 2 days, before use. (My dough was rested a night long.. about 12 hours.)

2) Cut the rested dough into parts of 40 - 60 gram each, for big-sized moon cakes (depends on how big your mould is). You may form each part into ball, for easy making into moon cakes.

3) Same to the lotus paste. Mix melon seeds into lotus paste. Then, form lotus paste into large lumps of about the size of tennis ball (try one out to see if the amount is correctly used).

4) Roll out each dough ball (flatten it using finger tips will do) into thin sheet with the size of the sheet not too much larger than your palm size.

5) Place the thin sheet on your clean and lightly floured palm, and place one lump of lotus paste ball on top of the sheet. Lightly press and spread it out on the sheet. Place and wrap 1 yolk at the centre of the lotus paste.

If without adding yolk, simply wrap a lump of lotus paste and seal with the dough skin.

6) Wrap and seal the lotus paste and yolk in the dough. Lightly flour the moon cake dough after sealed and shaped circularly.

7) Clean moon cake mould and dry it completely beforehand. Then, lightly flour the mould before placing the moon cake dough into it.

8) Place moon cake dough in and press firmly to get a clear indention of design on the surface of mooncake. The dough should be completely occupied the space of the mould without any excess around the border.

9) Now, be ready to knock out the moon cake dough. Place a thick book or large wooden chopping board on a solid table top. Overturn the mould and knock out moon cake dough with strength.

To knock out the cake easily: You may first knock the top of the wooden mould against the thick book or chopping board, followed by the sides, one hit each of left and right side, before overturn the mould to remove moon cake from it. I personally think it is easier to use the plastic mould. Less flour should be dusted on it.

10) Place moon cakes on a greased baking tray. Bake the moon cakes on the top rack at 190°C, for about 10 minutes, or until light brown. Remove from oven, brush (lightly) the surface of lightly browned moon cakes with egg yolk. Place moon cakes back to the oven and bake with same temperature for another 6 - 10 minutes, or until moon cakes are golden brown.

Remove moon cakes from oven to cool before serve, or store in a nice packaging as festive gift to you family and friends! This traditional baked moon cake can be stored up to 2 weeks.

One large lotus paste with single yolk moon cake counts about 800kcal! Eat moderately, please, especially with yolks in it, even if you are eating it just once a year.

Tips: If you prefer darker moon cake skin colour in appearance, you don't bake it longer for the darker tone effect as it won't help. What you do is to place the completed moon cakes dough (already wrapped with lotus paste in it) on the table to 'breath' for 2 - 3 hours, before placing into the mould to shape, and bake. After breathing the dough, the baked moon cakes will be presented in darker skin colour.
* May reduce oven temperature to 180°C, if dough rested for more than 12 hours.
* How to measure how much lotus paste to use for one moon cake: gauge and take 1 lump of lotus paste, and place inside the mould. The lump of lotus paste should not occupied the whole mould but leaving a small gap around the mould for moon cake skin. If add egg yolk, reduce the weight of lotus paste with the weight of egg yolk added. For examples: 1 mooncake requires 200 grams of lotus paste. If add 1 egg yolk weights 20 grams, 200 grams minus off 20 grams = 180 grams of lotus paste to be used for 1 single yolk lotus paste moon cake. It's also ok, if you realise insufficient lotus paste used only when you already pressed it into the mould, just open up the dough skin to stuff in more lotus paste (need not to remove whole dough from mould), and seal it back again will do. Even if it's not nicely shaped, remove and reshape it, too!
* Weight of golden syrup should be measured in term of gram (g), NOT mililitres (ml).
* Alkaline water is available in major baking supplies stores or supermarkets (baking section). It has to be added for smoother skin texture.
* Type of flour can be low-protein flour, multi-purpose flour, top flour or Hong Kong flour. Sift or not sieved, both are OK.
* Add 380 gram of flour first, if texture appears too dry (like bread crumb texture), add 20 gram more, to make up to 400 grams and use bare hand to knead and form into dough.
* Do not over-brush the egg solution on top of the moon cake as it might affect the design on its surface.

Pandan Flavoured Lotus Paste Mini Snowskin Mooncake (香兰莲蓉迷你冰皮月饼)

2009-09-15T20:35:00.014+08:00

"Simple and delicious homemade Snow Skin Moon Cake (Non-baked) warms the hearts of your loved ones"

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节) is approaching. Lunar calendar 15th August, which is English calendar, 3rd Oct 09.

Mooncakes from all brands, hotels and bakeries, are selling hot and fast in the market. I personally think moon cake is overly priced, just for the season, but no choice. Mooncake is the main festive food we have to have for this festive celebration, for self consumption as well as for gift to family and friends.

I am not a big fan of mooncake, but of course, I MUST have mooncake every year since it can only be eaten once a year (smile). However, I thought unless you are going for really famous one or unique flavour which can't find anywhere, make your own mooncakes! From basic lotus paste or red bean flavour to green tea flavour, you can make it your own at home!

Snow skin is very easy to make. Called it snow skin, I guess it's because this non-baked mooncake has smooth and light layer of skin resembling snow. And it is also to serve chilled. It's fast and easy to make.. but many details have to be noticed (See my below listed tips). To warm the heart of your loved ones this year, make your very own mooncake to impress them!

Yields 20 mini cakes
Ingrediens
For snow skin dough:

150 grams of FRIED glutinous rice flour - 糕粉/ 熟糕粉/ 加工糕粉/ 熟糯米粉 (*Prepare extra 50g for coating and flouring purposes later, so total of 200 gram)
100 grams of icing sugar, sifted
100 grams of snow powder
80 grams of shortening fat (I used Crisco brand)

150ml of water
3 pandan leaves, tie into a knot
1 teaspoon of pandan paste

For filling:
1 kg of lotus paste, pandan flavour (*Get ready paste from the supermarket/ baking supplies shop)
100 grams of melon seeds, toasted at 160°C for 10 minutes

Method
1) Boil water with pandan leaves for 10 minutes. Heat off and leave to cool. Add in pandan paste and stir till disolved. Leave in refrigerator to chill before use.

2) Add toasted melon seeds with lotus paste and form into each small ball (about 60 - 70 gram each lotus paste ball).

3) Place fried glutinous rice flour, icing sugar, snow powder and shortening far into a large mixing bowl. Mix well with spatula, or electrical mixer at low speed, till mixture turns into crumb-like texture.

4) Add cold pandan water into crumb-like flour mixture. Mix well with spatula, or mixer at low speed (about 1 - 2 min), to form soft dough. Remove soft dough from mixing bowl and place it on a floured (with fried glutinous rice flour) table top and knead for few seconds to form into a dough ball. Rest dough for 10 minutes.

5) Cut dough ball into halves and roll it out. Cut the rolls into required size (about 10g each) and flatten each small dough into thin layer.

6) Fill in lotus paste, seal and shape the cake into ball. Lightly pat just a little fried glutinous rice flour all over the cake ball. Also flour the mooncake mould before placing cake ball into the mould and press firmly.

7) Over turn the mould to knock the cake out from mould. Repeat steps till all ingredients used. Ready to serve chilled.

Soft, chewy and fragrant snow skin mooncake. I liked it not too sweet. It can be served at room temperature or chilled. 1 mini snowskin mooncake counts about 200kcal.

Snow skin moon cake can be stored in refrigerator, and it may last up to 2 weeks. However, snow skin might be harden if store for too long. To reduce/ prevent harden skin, place mooncake in a box and wrap the box with newspaper.

For traditional baked mooncake, check it out now..

Tips: Mix with snow powder is to reduce sweetness of the mooncake skin. If do not wish to add snow powder, use 200 grams of icing sugar instead. Same thing, if wish to reduce sweetness further, use 200 gram of snow powder and completely omit icing sugar.
* Shortening fat is vegetable fat with less grease. Other brands besides Crisco, can be found in major supermarket stores and baking supplies shops.
* Flour used for skin making as well as coating and flouring table, all must be the fried glutinous rice flouw and not the normal glutinous or plain flour. Only the fried one is edible without baked/ cooked. Even though it is called fried rice flour, but it is still look pretty much ike normal rice flour in white colour (NOT brown colour nor fried crisped texture). Ready fried glutinous flour can be found at major supermarkets.
* Rest the soft dough to turn it into moist and pliable textured snow skin. If rest soft dough longer than 10 minutes, cover dough with dry cloth or cling wrap when resting it.
* Snow skin can make into different flavour and colour by changing the flavour/ essence, according to different filling used.
* If you wish to add salted egg yolk, reduce amount of lotus paste to half. Salted egg yolk and lotus paste can be found at major supermarkets.

"Du Zhong" Kidney Supplement Tonic Soup with Pig Tail（杜仲猪尾补腰汤)

2009-09-08T12:09:00.002+08:00

"Chinese tonic soup that relieves your backache problems. "

Du Zhong, you pronounce this in Chinese, and in Chinese word, it's written as 杜仲. This Chinese herb is categorized as a yang supplement that helps in low backaching problem, especially for men. It is also well-known in tonifying the kidney function, strengthening muscle and bones, nourishing liver blood, and many more effects. Some say it is a men's tonic soup (cheeky smiles). However, don't get it wrong that only men could drink this soup, it is good for both men and women to drink. Even older children are fine to drink it in moderate.

Taste of this soup is pleasant. Do not be mistaken that good tonic soup must taste bitter and awful. This tonic soup yields subtle taste. Neither too sweet nor bitter, it has this pleasant Chinese herbal flavour, even my girl likes it.

I cooked this with pig tail which complements the soup pretty well. However, you may try to get those skinned tails as the soup might be oily if cooked with skin. Alternatively, use lean pork meat or prime ribs.

Serves 4
Ingredients
10g - 15g each of the following Chinese herbs:
Du zhong aka Cortex Eucommiae (杜仲)
Ba Ji Tian aka Morinda Root or Radix Morindae Officinalis (巴戟天)
Chinese Yam Root/ Huai Shan aka Radix Dioscoreae Oppositae (淮山）
Wu Dou aka Glycine soja Sieb. et Zucc. (乌豆)
Gou Qi Zi orWolfberry aka Fructus Lycii (枸杞子)

300 grams of pig tails, preferably skinned, chopped and blanched
1 teaspoon of salt

1 pot of water, 70% filled (about 1500ml of water)

Method:
Add blanched 300grams of pig tails or meaty pork ribs and Chinese herbs into a pot of boiling water. Simmer for 2 hours or longer, with low heat. Add salt to taste when about to heat off, and stir well. Serve hot.

You may even choose to boil with slow cooker, like I did. I place all ingredients and normal tap water in the croak pot, and adjust heat button to low (or Auto shift). I had it boiled from morning about 8am till right before serving it in our dinner at about 7.30pm.

Cereal Prawns (麦片虾)

2009-09-02T13:48:00.012+08:00

"Cooking is about versatility. Save your bucks, cook this scrumptious cereal prawn dish with 3-in-1 cereal sachets which already are available in your kitchen or drinks pantry!"

Learn how to cook cereal prawns is definitely a plus point to save your bucks as having cereal prawns at the restaurants could cost you at least S$30 for the dish. However, if you cook this at home, it will simply shack off a $10 note from your wallet for the ingredients. Moreover, it's easy to cook, and delicious to eat!

There are many ways to cook cereal prawns. With or without eggs, with or without creamer, with premix or original plain cereal.. I used what I've gotten in my kitchen cabinet, the usual cereal drink comes in 3-in-1 sachets which I bought to make drink for the family in the mornings. Yeah, unless what you have is the original cereal in tin packaging, just mix your own non-dairy creamer and sugar moderately. Otherwise, use those you already have in your drinks pantry! Yes, I have 3-in-1 sachets (I bought NesVita 3in1 Low Fat cereal drink by Nestlé brand).

I cooked this a few times, and tried to cook with and without egg. This recipe I am sharing now is the one without eggs. Hence, it looks less greasy as less butter was used.

You might think it will be slightly less fragrant since those two main 'fragrance contributors', butter and eggs, were lessen or absent in the dish. However, I preferred this version as like what I said, it was much less oily! I loved this eggless Cereal Prawn, and still found it very fragrant with a hint of curry leave scent.

Serves 5 - 6
Ingredients
500 - 600 grams of medium prawns, trimmed and deveined
Handful of curry leaves (from about 2 stems)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bird eye chilli aka chilli padi, julienned
1 knob of butter

3 sachets of 3-in-1 Low-fat Cereal
Sprinkles of salt
Generous dashing of white ground pepper

Seasoning of prawns:
Sprinkle a mixture of sesame oil, pepper and light soy sauce

2 cups of cooking oil (for deep-frying)

Alternative: If you are NOT using 3in1 sachet, but having the original plain cereal, add the below:
6 tablespoons of cereal (Nestum)
4 teaspoons of non-dairy creamer (Nestlé)
3 teaspoons of sugar
* Mix all together, with salt and pepper.

Method:
1) Clean prawns with shell intact, trim legs. Use scissors to cut a slit at the back of prawns to devein. Pat dry the prawns with kitchen towel. Season prawns and leave aside for 10 minutes. You may leave it in the refrigerator.

2) Heat wok with oil over high heat. Add some salt into the oil. Make sure oil is heated till really hot before deep frying prawns for 1 minute or until pinked and crisped (You may fry prawns in deep fryer, as desired). Drain on kitchen towel and set aside.

3) In a clean small bowl, pour out and place the sachets of cereal all into it. Mix in salt and pepper. Set aside.

4) Remove exessive oil from the wok and heat up with a knob of butter over medium-high heat. Brown garlic, and add in chilli padi and curry leaves, stir fry till fragrant (beware of pungent scent of chilli padi). When done, heat off and immediately add in cereal mixture and crisped prawns. Stir vigorously to combine well. Serve hot.

A portion of fried cereal prawns counts about 500 - 600kcal! Yes, without the egg even.. So, you have to really try to limit your intake with this sinful savoury, if you are watching out your weight or having relatively high cholesterol level in your body.

Tips: If you are not confident to well mix the cereal and prawns quick enough upon heat off, you may choose to reduce heat to very low fire and do the mixing, just before heat off.
* Deep fry the prawns till really crisped in extremely high flame, so that you may chomp the whole prawn with its crispy shell altogether. **Beware of splashing oil when frying.
* Lightly coat the prawns with corn flour before deep frying for crispiness, if you intend to eat also the shell, optional. Otherwise, just fry prawns till cooked.

Simply Healthy Green & Red Apples Salad in Yogurt Dressing

2009-09-01T13:07:00.004+08:00

"Delicious Apples meal make me healthy!"

Actually I like green apple. However, my little one does not as it tastes a little sourish, to her. How to make her eat green apple? I did it this way, so that my purchase of bucket-full of green apples will not go to waste when unable to finish within short period, all by my own!

With this way of making, my girl devoured this apple salad, even the green ones.. And it's healthy as I used yogurt cream. Delicious and healthy as snacks or before/ after-meal fruit dessert! I eat this as my lunch replacement, sometimes.

Serves 3 - 4
Ingredients
2 green apples, chilled
1 red apple, chilled
1 teaspoon of dark raisins
2 - 3 tablespoons of Low-fat plain yogurt (I used Marigold's brand)
1 tablespoons of orange juice
1 teaspoon of honey

Method:
1) Peel and cut the apples into bite-sizes. Rinse with salted water.

2) Add orange juice (or 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to further delay apples from oxidation) and honey. Then, add yogurt and combine well.

3) Sprinkle raisin, and serve.

A large portion of this apple yogurt salad counts about 100kcal. Healthy and low fat!

Tips: If eat this after meal, make sure you have your fruits at least 30 minutes after meal.

Steamed Clams with Dark Rum Recipe

2009-08-31T23:08:00.015+08:00

"It's absolutely my favourite clam dish, for meals or one fo the dishes that complements your drinking session in the cold weather."

Clam is one of the seafood I love most. Easy to prepare and it goes well with any kind of cooking method. The simplest way, to steam it!

Choose medium to large shells for more fleshy meat inside. How to choose good clams? I do not really have the best method to choose them, but at least sniff the clams from a short distance to determine if they are still good to eat or going bad, if they smelt fishy. it is better to get clams early in the morning at the wet markets as the clams are likely to be alive, still. So, don't be afraid if you see it moves! The price of clams is low, too. With less than S$5, you may be able to get more than a bucket-full of clams.

This dish is not really suitable for young children as it contains dark rum liquor. I chose dark rum for its great scent. It remains fragrant, with a hint of mild sweet alcohol taste pretty much in evidence in the palate, even after much evaporation from the steam. However, its overall taste was subtle, and it's best to serve while piping hot. For the rainy or cold season!

This recipe is easy to follow. With just 15 minutes of your time, you may get the dish up and serve!

Serves 4
Ingredients
1 large plate of medium to large hard-shelled clams, well scrubbed (about 500 - 600 grams)
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 thick slices of ginger, lightle mashed
2 - 3 tablespoons of dark rum (Myers's Rum)
1 - 2 teaspoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of Italian herbs
Sprinkle of salt and ground white pepper

Method
1) Soak clams in salted water for at least an hour.

2) Place clams on a large deep serving dish. Sprinkle chopped garlic, and scatter ginger slices among the clams. Now, sprinkle sugar, salt and pepper, followed by dark rum. Lastly, sprinkle Italian herbs, all evenly on the plate.

3) Heat up 1 inch water in wok with a lid, place clams on a steam rack in wok and steam for 10 minutes (or until almost all shells open) over high heat, with lid on. When done, serve immediately.

For spicy flavour, add some chilli padi (bird's eye chilli) julienne.

1 portion of medium-large clams (about 10 - 12 shells with sauce intake) counts about 180kcal from this recipe.

Tips: If you do not have dark rum, use rice wine or sherry to replace it. To serve young children, omit the alcohol. You might want to add just some lemon juice instead of wine/ liquor.
* Amount of dark rum is adjustable, depends on your liking.
* Add up to 2 teaspoons of brown sugar, if you prefer sweeter rather than pungent alcohol scented sauce.
* Anyway, this dish is not really saucey. If more sauce/ stock is desired, add 2-3 tablespoons of water in it, before steaming. It is nice to drink it as clear soup.

Kai-lan Vegetables with Oyster Sauce (蚝油芥兰)

2009-08-28T08:45:00.001+08:00

"Famous Oyster Sauced Kai-lan vegetable dish now you can cook it at home, easily and deliciously, without any bitter taste!"

Kailan, also named Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale. Many people like the crunchy texture of this leavy vegetable with thick stem, but often complain its mild bitter taste, too. Some readers asked me if I have a better to cook Kailan. Seriously, unless is baby kailan, I will not use stir-frying method as it does not sound appetizing to have the thick kailan stir-fried. I think, this is probably the best way to cook and taste Kailan without its inherited bitterness.

Yeah, you might find it hard to believe that these 'raw-looking' greens with just little sauce will not taste bitter. But I can assure you, yes, it wasn't bitter at all. In fact, not even any mild greeny taste. It was, in fact, crunchy and delicious with a hint of natural sweetness! You may need to spend about S$10 to get this dish, from dining out. But now, you will be able to keep your bucks and have this tasted at home. With less than S$2 cost, this Kailan dish will be presented on your dining table, in just 10 minutes!

Serves 4
Ingredients
200 grams of medium sized Kai-lan

Sauce:
1 small shallot, thinly slices (best to remain in rings for better presentation)
1 clove of garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
Small pinch of salt and pepper

1 teaspoon of sesame oil
2 tablespoons of oyster sauce

Method
1) Wash and soak whole leavy Kailan vegetables in lightly salted water for 15 minutes. Boil a medium pot of water over high flame. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar (add more if your pot is large). Blanch Kailan in the boiling water for 1 - 2 minute, or once the leaves appear darker green in colour. Drain on a strainer and place nicely on a serving dish.

2) Heat wok with vegetable oil on medium heat, stir-fry shallot and garlic till fragrant and browned. Reduce heat to low fire when shallot and garlic are lightly browned to allow standing time. Sprinkle salt and pepper, followed by light soy sauce (beware of its sizzling effect by the mixture of hot oil and light soy sauce). Heat off and immediately pour onto the vegetables. Top sesame oil and oyster sauce. Serve.

1 portion of oyster sauced kailan counts about 120kcal.

Variations: Change the choice of vegetables to lettuce or bok choy. Similar cooking method can be adopted on Fish dish or tofu dish.

Tips: Choose medium sized Kailan (length of the Kailan should be around the length from the tip of spreaded middle finger to thumb). About 6" long each.

Abalone Beehoon Soup (鲍鱼米粉汤)

2009-08-26T12:01:00.004+08:00

"Express & light, but luxury lunch deal at home!"

Not sure what to have for lunch? I had plenty of Szechuan vegetable soup cooked in excessive portion for dinner on a weekend yesterweek. But the pork ribs in the soup were all finished up the same night, left only the vegetables with soup. Plenty of soup! It would be a waste to discard the soup, I used it to cook bee hoon soup for my lunch the next day. Yes, since there was a can of abalone in my storage bought during CNY, it would be good to enjoy it with my plain bee hoon (rice stick or rice vermicelli) soup!

Yeah, just the Szechuan vegetable slices and abolone slies in bee hoon soup. It's a simple but luxury lunch meal!

Serves 4
Ingredients
Half package of rice vermicelli aka bee hoon (about 250 grams), soaked till soften
1 medium-sized lumpy Szechuan preserved vegetable, steeped for at least 2 hours and sliced
1 can of Abalone, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Sprinkle of white ground pepper
Drops of sesame oil
1 tablespoon of cooking oil

A pot of water, 50% filled (abt 1000ml)

Garnish:
Red chilli, julienned
Fried shallot (Optional)

Method:
1) Heat large pot with oil over high fire. Place garlic and stir fry till fragrant and lightly browned. Pour in water and liquid from canned abalone. Bring it to a boil.

2) Add in steeped and sliced Szechuan vegetables, reduce heat to small fire and simmer for at least 1 hour (*You may even add some meaty pork ribs or chicken meat with bones into the boiling to enhance soup taste). Add pepper ans sesame oil to add fragrance. Then, place sliced abalone in a strainer, blanch abalone in the strainer in the soup for just 1 minute. Remove and set aside.

3) Blanch bee hoon in another pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Drain and divide into bowls. Top with desired amount of sliced abalone on the bee hoon. Laddle soup and pour over bee hoon and abalone slices. Garnish ans serve hot.

I used overnight soup base. Otherwise, follow the above listed steps.

Calorie in this luxury light lunch meal counts about 300kcal. And, that was the simple quickie light lunch meal over my wonderful weekend!

Tips: Steep Szechuan vegetable long enough to extract the excessive salt in it. Taste the soup constantly while boiling to make sure it does not taste overly saltish. To reduce its saltiness, you may slice it first before steeping. Remember, the abalone stock from the can is also briny taste.
* Just a quick blanch of canned abalone thin slices will do. Do not slice it too thick pieces, and also, avoid over-cooking it as it might turn rubbery texture. I bought New Zealand Abalone in Brine by New Moon Brand.
* Choice of bee hoon type good for soup: You may choose brands that come with thinner strands.