Stir fry Spicy Top Shell

There was a can of top shell sitting in the kitchen cabinet for a long time. I wanted to cook it but not sure what combination goes well, so to be safe I make it spicy with my own combination.

Ingredients:
1 can of top shell – drain and slice
2 red chilli - chopped
4 shallot – peel and slice
2 pip of garlic – minced
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp sugar
coriander, chives

Method:
1) Blanch top shell in hot water, drained dry.

2) Heat wok with a oil, sauté shallot till brown or fragrant, add garlic and chilli, stir fry a while, add in top shell, fish sauce lime juice and sugar. Stir till well combined.

3) Off the fire, add some coriander and chives or spring onion, stir till combined and dish up.

Grilled Honey Chicken Wings

The dish was created from my friend's recipe, I just add some more marinade to give it a better taste.

Ingredients:
500g mid wings
juice of half lemon
1 tbsp ginger juice
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp ground black pepper

Glaze:
1tbsp honey
1tbsp mirin

Method:
1) Rinse chicken wings. Marinade the wings with the rest of the ingredients in a bowl for a few hours in the fridge.

2) Preheat oven till 200°C, place wings over roasting rack, and grill for about 10mins, meanwhile mix the balance marinate in bowl with honey and mirin. Brush the honey mixture on the wings and grill for 5 min, flip the wings over and brush honey mixture and grill another 5min. Remove from oven and place wing on plate. Serve.

Pork Ribs with Small Bean soup

I seldom post soup recipes because the ingredients always disappears or break into very small pieces after 2 hours of boiling it, or I always forgotten to snap a picture of it before dinner...

Ingredients:
38g small red beans (赤小豆)
38g fox nuts (芡实)
38g chinese barley ( 薏仁)
300g loin pork bone
1 green radish (about 225g)
2 carrot (about 225g)


Method:
1. Rinse pork bone. Scald in boiling water for 3 min.

2. Rinse small red beans, fox nuts and Chinese barley. Soak them in water for 30 min.

3. Rinse and remove skin of green radish, carrot. Cut into pieces.

4. Put all ingredients into a pot. Add about 2 litre water. Bring to the boil. Reduce to low heat and cook for 2 hours. Serve.


Function:
It benefits the Spleen and the eyes; expels Dampness; protects the Liver; lightly nourishes and supplies nutrients to the body; improves skin texture.

Crispy prawn

Trenyce requested to have this prawn dish after she ate it at a japanese restaruant. Didn't manage to get straight prawns but still manage to get something similar.

Ingredients:

500g prawns

salt & pepper

1 egg -- beaten

tapioca starch or corn starch

bread crumb

Mayonnaise

Method:

1. Rinse prawns, remove shell, use toothpick remove vein on the back of prawn. Do a few horizontal slit on the front part of the prawn. Dry the prawns with kitchen towel.

2. Marinate the prawns with salt and pepper for 15mins.

3. Heat wok with oil for deep frying. Coat each prawn with tapioca starch, then coat with egg, then coat with breadcrumb, place into hot oil. Fry till golden color, remove and place on paper towel to let the paper soak away excess oil. Serve with mayonnaise.

Strawberry Cheese Cake

Made this cake on Valentine's day. I reduced the recipe to fit the cake pan. Due to the size of the cake pan, I only made 1 layer of cake filling, for the topping, I have not enough strawberries so I use strawberry syrup. Recipe from Alan Ooi's book.

Ingredients: Base
1 slices – sponge cake (9” square)

Ingredients: Cake
A) 120ml Fresh milk
4 egg yolks
160 gm caster sugar

B) 2 tbsp gelatine powder
75ml water

C) 250gm cream cheese
D) 350gm whipping cream – whipped till thick
E) 120gm strawberry (diced)

Ingredients:
F) 150ml water
150gm strawberry pie filling ( I use strawberry syrup)
8gm instant jelly powder

Method:

1. Melt ingredients A in a bowl over double boil until smooth and creamy. Melt ingredients B in another bowl over double boil until the gelatine powder melts.

2. Beat C till soft. Add in ingredient A and B. Mix till well combined. Finally add whipping cream and stir till smooth.

3. Layer 1 slice of sponge cake on a 9” square cake ring. Put some diced strawberries on the sponge. Pour the batter on the cake. Even the surface and chill in a refrigerator for 30min.

4. Mix ingredient F and melt over heat. When the mixture is cooled, pour it onto the cheese cake. Re-chill the cheese cake in fridge for 2 hours before serving.

Mango puree with Sago and Pomelo Dessert (杨枝甘露）

Finally tried this dessert as I want to use up the big pomelo at home. I added not so much syrup, cos we ate the dessert with vanilla ice-cream.

Ingredients:

2 mangoes - diced

2 mangoes - puree

1/2 cup of sago

about 3 slice of pomelo - remove skin and break up the flesh into smaller pieces

2 cups of vanilla ice cream

syrup:

1/2 cup brown sugar

150ml water

Vanilla ice cream

Method:

1. Syrup: bring the water to boil, add in sugar and boil till sugar completely melted. Set aside to cool.

2. Bring a about 300ml or more water to boil, pour in sago pearl and boil for 10min. Drain away the water. Wash the sago under running water to remove the starch on the sago. Set aside.

3. Blend the mango with ice cream till puree.

4. Mix mango puree, pomelo, sago and syrup together. Chill in fridge. Serve with diced mango and ice-cream.

Stir fry nian gao

Mum-in-laws had told me that the dish stir fry nian gao is a must do during chinese new year for the family as Kenny's grandpa was from Shanghai, and he had made a point to pass down the traditional dishes in the family. I have been learning to do stir fry nian gao from a few years ago and trying to improve it. Kenny gave thumb up for this nian gao that I did couple of weeks back.

Ingredients: (All are my rough estimation)

-half pack of dried nian gao (bought it from yu hua guo huo) - soak overnite

-a few tbsp of dried shrimps - soaked and chopped fine

-200g mince pork - marinate with some pepper, cooking wine and light soy suace
-2 leaves of chinese cabbage - sliced
-a few chinese mushrooms - soaked and sliced
-quarter piece of carrot - slice thinly
-1 tbsp oyster sauce
-1/2tsp chicken sesoning powder
-a few table spoon of water
Method:
Stir fry dried shrimps till fragrant, add in mince pork, stir and break up the pork into smaller pieces and fully cooked. Add in mushroom, nian gao, stir for a while. Add the vegetables and continue to stir fry. Add in oyster sauce, chicken seasoning powder and a little water, stir till well combined, simmer a while till nian gao is soft like kuih.

Stir fry chicken fillet with oyster sauce

I was thinking to make sure the kids eat the food, should keep the dish simple and I come up with this easy dish for dinner. I was thinking of 50-50 chance that they ate it, from the speed they finish their rice you know that they do like it.

Ingredients:

300g chicken fillet - rinse and cut into strips

Marinade:

1-2 tsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp cooking wine

dash of pepper

1 tbsp corn flour

Sauce:

1tbsp oyster sauce

1tsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp sugar

2tbsp water or mirin (mirin taste better)

Method:

1. Marinate the chicken fillet strips with marinade for half hour.

2. Fry chicken fillet in hot oil for a few minutes, stir with chopstick to separate the chicken strips while frying as the chicken pieces then to stick together. Dish and drain the excess oil. Set aside.

3. Remove the excess oil from wok. Pour into wok oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar, stir and mix well, pour the chicken fillet back into sauce, stir fry till chicken is coated with sauce, add in water or mirin, simmer till sauce thicken. Dish and serve with rice.

Pineapple tarts

Was very busy between work and preparing for Chinese New Year that I have no free time to do some update here. Have been making pineapple tarts for Chinese New Year for the past few years, I like to try different recipes, this time I tried Zurynee's recipe and the verdict was very good. As for the jam, from past experience I still prefer to cook my own jam, but I did short cut the process instead of grate the pineapples I use food processor to blend it and it yield more jam than expected. Due to the amount of jam, this year I did alot of tarts, think should be the most tarts that I've ever made.