Home Cooked Recipe 家常菜

Indian Restaurant in Cupertino - Bombay Oven

2010-03-18T08:22:00.005+08:00

Many many years ago (back to year 2004-2006 I think) when I have had business trip in Cupertino, CA, my ex-colleague brought me to an indian restaurant for lunch buffet. Since then I have been lunching there for multiple times during the business trip. I enjoyed the food so much that I couldn't find similar taste in Singapore for years. The lunch buffet was cheap then too, about USA$10 only. When I tried to recall many times, I couldn't remember the name of the restaurant. Finally, I found the menu today, somewhere in my drawer. It reminds me of the good time in Cupertino.

The restaurant is called Bombay Oven (http://www.dinebombayoven.com/). I enjoyed the Masala Tea very much and it was cost USA$1.50 only, which I couldn't find the taste again when I back to Singapore and Australia. The Nan was only cost USA$1.50 per piece. Of course the price now has been adjusted, the Masala Tea now costs close to USA$2.00 while the Nan seems has a huge jump to USA$12.50 where I am not sure what has been changed in terms of the food serving.

I'll definitely recommend my friends to try this restaurant while in Cupertino! (Hopefully the food is still as good as before.)

Bombay Oven
20803 Stevens Creek Blvd,
Cupertino, CA 95014,
Tel: 408-252-0520
E-mail: restaurant@bombayovenca.com

Sydney Seafood Price in Restaurant

2010-03-18T07:38:00.006+08:00

This list of seafood price is from Sea Treasure Sydney Restaurant (海宝酒家) - Eatability Review . They are in australian dollars. I consider this a bit pricey generally.

Sydney Restaurants

2010-03-18T06:42:00.006+08:00

Some restaurants in Sydney:

Temasek @ Parramatta
Address: The Roxy Arcade, 71 George Street, Parramatta NSWS 2150.
Phone/Fax: 02-96339926

This is famous of Hainan chicken rice. It tasts OK though not 100% what I would like it to be. The chicken is dry (not that oily that I found in Singapore). The extra chilli and dark soya sauce itself cost $2, which I think it should go with the chicken rice for free (unlimited) because the best part of eating Hainan Chicken rice is because of the sauce. It will generally cost you about $30-40 for two person with one more dish, such as fried kang kung with sambal. If you really miss Singapore food, then you can go for this (but be prepared it's not 100% authentic for Hainan chicken rice but you can try other dishes too which are quite nice).

De Malaya Restaurant (Buffet Restaurant)
Address: 122-124 Wicks Road, North Ryde NSW 2113
Phone: 02-98783833

Sambal Restaurant (Malaysian Food)
Shop 7, 285-297 Lane Cove Road, North Ryde NSW 2113
Tel: 02-98897977
Email: sambal@iinet.net.au
Price indicator: Nasik Lemak costs AU$13.50 per plate.

North South Indian Flavour
1003-1005 Pacific Highway, Berowra 2081
Tel: 02-94567033
Price indicator: Chicken Tikka Masala costs AU$13.90, Biryani costs AU$13.90

Top Speed Thi (my favourite)
331 Penshurst Street, Willoughby, NSW 2068
Phone: 02-94177500 / 02-94177555
Lunch special @ about AU$11
Price indicator: Massamn beef curry AU$13.90

Rice Kitchen
111 Longueville Road, Lane Cove
Tel: 02-94276688
Price indicator: Chicken Laksa costs AU$11

F&L Gourmet (Asian food)
Shop 81C Level Three, Macquarie Center, North Ryde
Phone: 02-98872787
Price indicator: Red bean in ice costs AU$4, Chicken Laksa costs AU$10.50, Sliced Pork Shanghai Noodle AU$12.50
* The food here taste too salty for me.

aj's Indian Restaurant
http://www.ajsindian.com.au/
58A Balclava Road, Eastwood NSW 2122
Tel: 02-98749090
Price indicator: Aloo Gobi costs $11.05

Traditional Indonesian Cuisine

302 Penshurst Street, North Willoughby 2068

Tel: 02-94173521

Note: This is small restaurant mainly for take-away. I quite like this personally. I enjoy the homemade chilli Sambal which cost AU$3 per box.

La Fiammu Ribs & Pizza
URL: http://www.lafiammaribsandpizza.com.au
Address: 304 Penshurst St, Willoughby NSW 2068
Tel: 0-94171211
Price indicator: Ribs for Two (Two racks of ribs with two potatoes & two corns) enough for 2-3 persons costs AU$28. Hawaiian Pizza M $13 L $15, Beef Lasagna $10, Bolognese $11.

Car Repairers in Sydney:

老蒋汽车修理厂
Address: Unit 3, 11a Harp Stet, Campsie NSW 2194 Australia
Tel: 02-97878988

Computer Shops in Sydney:

MSY Technology Pty Ltd
Address: http://www.msy.com.au/ 60A/55B Jones Street, Ultimo NSW 2007
Phone: 02-92803123 / 02-92803126

The Toyota Saga - What a Cook Think of the Flaw

2010-03-08T11:58:00.012+08:00

All people eat, and many (if not most) people drive. Out of those who drive, many are driving Toyota, or have driven a Toyota with cruise mode on. It is interesting that Toyota and the US government is taking a hard time finding the root-cause of the flaw in Toyota cars causing sudden acceleration when cruise mode is on. On the other hand, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the root-cause, as anyone who can cooked, like me, can pinpoint the root-cause to a failure in the PID controller algorithm of the car.

Let's get to some basic from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller, a control algorithm with feedback usually have 3 components; the proportional, the integral, and the derivative. Adjusting the integral component will potentially decrease the steady-state error, but has a side-effect of increasing overshoot, or lead to instability.

Let's forget what Wikipedia said, assuming that we are at 50km/h, going to set to 110km/h cruise mode with Kp = 0.2, Ki = 0.2 and Kd = 0.2, this is how our acceleration looks like:

Not bad huh, so it takes about 25 seconds to match 110km/h cruise mode. But as Toyota is always emphasizing on performance, let's see whether they can do it better, so they adjust the integral component to Ki = 0.5, and get this:

And in 8 seconds, it has achieved the cruising at 110km/h. Now it's getting fun, let's do that for Ki = 0.9?

Now, the fun part begin, in 2 seconds, it's cruising at 110km/h, and as a bonus to the user, it is going to 156km/h or 97 miles/h in 38 seconds and continue to dance happily.

Based on the description of Steve Wozniak in the news, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a5Ow0uquBidc, the car suddenly accelerated when cruise mode is turned on. Sorry to Steve, I salute you for founding the great fruit company, but this is not software bug, it is strictly speaking a control algorithm design issue, and I don't think restarting your car is a good workaround for this issue. Unfortunately, I don't have the fortune of Steve to buy 4 Priuses, and not even 1 Prius to perform future analysis on this. Though Steve is still happily using his Prius, sure I don't want to have a dancing car to buy my ingredients for my next recipe.

Sorry to Toyoda-san on this crisis, you really have to go back to basic control to check your algorithm well before you deploy your next baby. And as you see, it doesn't take a rocket scientist, any cook can help you with that. :)

Salt Pepper Prawn with Omelette

2009-10-29T10:26:00.002+08:00

Usually people add prawn into the Omelette as Prawn Omelette. This dish is about the Prawns, therefore I didn't mix the eggs with prawns.

Ingredients:

1. 10x prawns

2. Garlic mince

3. Optional: Green onion leave mince

4. 2x Eggs (Stirred, added salt)

5. Salt and white pepper

6. Serve with vineger

Instructions:

1. Fry the Omelette first, then set aside.

2. Heat the pan with oil, add in garlic mince to fry until it's crispy. Add in salt/pepper too. I also add in dice yellow pepper (chopped finely), you can add in green onion leaves (finely chopped too
). Make sure to add enough salt so that it's tasty.

3. Add in prawns, quickly fry it until it's cooked. (You can cover it to make sure it's cooked quicker).

Then serve with the omelette.

Ginger Chicken with Seaweed

2009-10-29T10:25:00.002+08:00

I cook very often nowadays since we moved to Macquarie Park. It is mainly because I do not like the food in Macquarie Shopping Center, next it's closer to K's company so he goes home often for his lunch.

I seldom follow recipes as I'm getting tired about it sometimes. So, I just grabbed whatever I have in the stock, then mix and match to have quick lunch ready in 30-45 minutes. This dish, is created based on my imagination.

Ingredients:

1. Dried Japanese/Korea dark seaweed (ready-to-eat packet) - 2 small packets - cut it into small pieces

2. Chicken dices (with skin on if you like) - marinated with salt/dark/light soya sauce

3. Ginger slices

Instructions:

1. Heat the pan with oil, add in ginger slices and cook until it's brown in color and crispy

2. Add in chicken dices and some dark soya sauce. Stir fry them in medium heat, until you find the skin is a bit brownish and crispy.

3. Add in dried dark seaweed and cover the pan for about 30 seconds to 1 minutes until you feel the dried dark seaweed is softer.

4. Remove the cover, quick stir fry them altogether. Then you're ready to serve.

Note:

If you're pregnant, I suggest you not to eat dark seaweed as it contains mercury.

Nasi Lemak

2009-10-26T19:13:00.004+08:00

Saw a Kota Bharu version of Nasi Lemak, makes me drooling... Literally, nasi = rice & lemak = fat/oil, which means rice cook from coconut milk, which is fatty but marvelously fragrant & delicious.

Let me try to mentally recreate the nasi lemak from ingredients available in Sydney.

Rice:

- Coconut milk (from Woolies or Coles or etc.)

- Pandan leaves (saw it @ Harris farm market)

- Basmati or Thai fragrance rice.

Instruction:

Cook rice in coconut milk, tie two pieces of Pandan leaves together and stuff it into the rice to cook together. When cooked, remove the leaves and stir a bit.

Sambal:

This is the soul of nasi lemak, there are many different version of sambal, the basic formula is chilli, Belachan (get it from chinese shop), onion, sugar and stir fried until fragrance, then add some lemon sauce. Malay version of chilli paste (sambal) is usually sweet & salty comparing with Chinese or Hong Kong version, which is usually salty & dry.

Fried silver fish (ikin bilis):

Get the dried silver fish from chinese shop, deep fried it in oil for few minutes.

Pan-fried egg:

Get it here.

Curry:

Similar to butter chicken, just add some curry powder. Can switch of seafood or beef or lamb curry if not chicken.

Raw cucumber:

This is important to provide a cooling effect to all the high cholesterol & spicy ingredients above, peel and add a few slices as side dish.

For plating please refer to the photo on yum-oh blog. Let me know how it goes if you have tried it.

Fried and Steamed Glutinous Rice / Sticky Rice - 生炒糯米饭

2009-09-30T10:10:00.005+08:00

I have left over glutinous rice from rice wine making, so I decided to cook this glutinous rice. I have cooked glutinous rice a few times, but today I'm trying something different as I've added Sichuan flavour - Sichuan peppercorn. Surely it will have bit of spicy and hot flavour.

Firstly, let me introduce glutinous rice. Glutinous rice is also called sticky rice because it turns sticky when cooked. It is commonly to be used to make desert in Asian countries for festivals. In Chinese culture, we viewed this as cheap way of food medication as glutinous rice is rich in vitamin B. In Chinese medicine, it benefits to stomach, less sweating, and stronger your overall body, good for people who suffer diabetes, obesity, and those who has long-term illness such as kidney problems.

However, one should not eat glutinous rice too much in one time because it's bit hard to digest.

Ingredients:

1. Glutinous rice, simmering them at least for 2 hours

2. Pork slice, or use Chicken is better

3. Dried mushroom, simmering them with water to soften them for at least 15 minutes, then slice them

4. Sichuan Peppercorn, 5g (not too much)

5. Some garlic slices

Instructions:

1. Add oil in the pan, then add in garlic slices and Sichuan peppercorn and fry a while. Then add in mushroom slices and pork slices, salt/pepper/light soya sauce/dark soya sauce (as you preferred). Fry them together for a while.

2. Add in glutinous rice, fry them altogether for about 5-10 minutes.

3. Move them to a steamer and steam them for about 40 minutes-60 minutes (depends your steamer and how soft you'd like it to be).

Once it's soft then it's ready to be served.

Taste:

I think it's better to not to use Sichuan peppercorn, but stick to the original recipe: with dried little prawn. Serve it with fried peanuts will be great.

Lunch @ A's apartment - Home Cooked Dishes

2009-08-17T09:00:00.003+08:00

We have had a home cooked casual session @ A's apartment with the "aim" to prepare simple lunch for three in an hour.

What we've cooked:

1. Fried chicken/mushroom/black fungus with ginger and dark soya sauce.

2. Fried vegetable

3. Fried egg with Ikan Bilis Sambal

4. Corn and chicken soup

5. Rice (light brown rice)

A's kitchen is quite complete. I had many surprises there. One of them is the "discovery" of Melaka ikan bilis sambal. It served very well with fried eggs. I love it (and felt quite nostalgic). We have cooked really simple dishes, but I think everyone is satisfied because everything is finished in an hour or so. Maybe if we can have ice-kacang after the lunch meal will be perfect.

Bento Lunch Box - 爱心便当

2009-08-11T16:29:00.002+08:00

K is bringing lunch box to office almost every day. Today, we just think perhaps we can take a photo for this blog. Here you go.

Ingredients:

1. Roasted Duck

2. Cooked Corn

3. Cooked Carrot

4. Cooked vegetable

5. Rice

Simple!

Butter Chicken with Potato - 印度牛油鸡

2009-08-07T16:18:00.002+08:00

Ingredients:

1. 500g chicken (clean and cut into pieces)

2. 500g butter chicken sauce

3. Some garlic chopped

4. 4-5 pieces of potatoes (clean and cut into pieces)

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in pan, add in finely chopped garlic. Cook until it's brown.

2. Add in chicken and potatos. Brown them.

3. Add in butter chicken sauce, simmer it for about 20 minutes or so until the potatos and chicken are cooked.

Serve while hot with bread or rice. This dish cost about AU$7 and enough for 3-4 persons.

Corn Soup with Chiken or Pork Rib - 玉米排骨汤玉米鸡肉汤

2009-08-07T09:53:00.003+08:00

Ingredients:

1. 1xfresh corn (clean it and cut into 4-5 pieces)

2. Chicken or Pork Rib

3. Salt to serve

4. Optional: Some rice wine

Add everything into bowl of water and cook it for about an hour. Add salt before serving. For Pork Rib, you may want to add some onion/ginger. The portion of ingredients are flexible, depends how much you want to serve.

Mushroom White Fungus Chicken Soup - 香菇雪耳鸡汤

2009-08-04T09:26:00.002+08:00

Ingredients:

1. 4-6x mushroom

2. 2x White Fungus (slices)

3. Chicken (Black Chiken is the best)

4. Salt to serve

Put everything together and water to cover them all. Cook for about an hour. Add salt before serving. It's enough for 2-4 person.

ABC Soup - ABC 罗宋汤

2009-08-04T09:03:00.004+08:00

Ingredients:

1. 1x Onion (slices)

2. 2x small potatoes (slices)

3. 0.5 or 1x Carrot (slices)

4. Meat (chicken)

5. Optional: Tomato (slices)

6. Salt when serving

Put everything in a bowl of water to cover them and cook for about an hour. Add salt before serving. This is enough to serve for 2-4 person.

Fried Silver Fish with Eggs

2009-07-19T08:40:00.002+08:00

This Fried Silver Fish with Eggs are mainly for my breakfast sandwich. So, you should not expect it to be complicated.

Ingredients:

1. Dried Silver Fish

2. 2 x Eggs

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in pan, add in dried silver fish and fry them until they are crispy.

2. Make sure you have enough oil in the heated pan, add in stirred eggs with salt. Make sure the eggs are cooked two side. Then, ready to serve!

Easy. ;-)

Rack of Lamb with fried brown rice 香烤小羊排和糙米饭

2009-07-18T16:40:00.006+08:00

We went to Stanton Public Library today which is close to Crow Nest. It happened that the farm market is near there and we shopped for a while in the beautiful sunny noon. The rack of lamb looks appealing therefore we bought 6 of them for two persons. It costs about AU$13. Well, it's straight from the farm so I reckin it worths the money. :) I adopted this recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Bread crumbs. (I toast the skin of white bread until it's crispy then crumb them.)

2. 3 x garlic gloves into minced garlic

3. rosemarry (chopped ready)

4. salt, black pepper

5. olive oil

6. rack of lamb (6 bones)

7. balsamic vinegar

8. 2x garlic gloves into slices

9. shallot

Instructions:

1. Season the lamb with salt and pepper for about 15 minutes.

2. Heat the pan with olive oil, add in garlic slices, about 1-2 tea spoons of rosemarry, shallot, balsamic vinegar. Fried them together until you smell the fragance, then sear all side of lamb for about 1-2 minutes, set aside then for few minutes.

3. Cover the end of the bombs with aluminium foil to prevent charring.

4. Prepare the bread crumbs mixture with bread crumbs and olive oil, garlic mince, 2 tea spoons of rosemarry, some salt and black pepper.

5. Preheat the oven to 160 degree C.

6. Roast the lamb in the preheated oven for 30 minutes then let it rest for about 10 minutes. (Depends how well you want it to be cooked.)

Tasting:

It taste well and juicy. Remember to put enough salt if you want to be little bit tasty.

Side Dish: Fried Brown rice

1. Precook the brown rice mix with white rice, then keep it in refrigerator for at least 15 minutes.

2. Heat th pan with olive oil and shallot, add in salt and some white pepper, then add in peas and fry for a short while.

3. Lastly add in cooked brown rice mix with white rice. Fry everything together until it's fragance.

Final Week of Masterchef Australia 2009

2009-07-13T10:08:00.004+08:00

I have watched many reality show, such as Australia Big Brother, So You Think You Can Dance, The Biggest Loser, etc. So far the best I enjoy most is Masterchef Australia. It's because of the quality of the show, the fairness of the judges and less dramatic as other shows. I think the show is not aiming for pleasing audience, but to have learning experience for the candidates as well as finding the best among them. It's sometimes entertaining but more importantly we can learn quite a number of many good recipes. Sadly I haven't tried any of the recipes yet but I promise to try some, especially to cook with duck. :P

It's interesting to see Poh introduced a few Malaysia dishes in the competition such as roti jala, curry chicken, etc. Those dishes are popular in Malaysia and they wouldn't impress me as much as local Australians. But it's nice to have them on television as I miss those food so much.

Their Hong Kong trip is interesting as well, I wonder how good will the Dim Sum in Hong Kong as compared to Sydney Hong Kong Dim Sum restaurant? I'll definitely find out one day.

Indian Version Eggplant and Tomato 紫瓜番茄与印度香料

2009-07-11T16:53:00.004+08:00

This is adapted and modified from Aloo baingan (potato and eggplant). I don't have some of the ingredients in stock therefore I skipped some. So, this is actually my kitchen's version. :P

Ingredients:

1. 1xeggplant in cube, half-baked in oven with some olive oil.

2. 2xtomatoes cut in cube

3. shredded ginger

4. coriander powder, chilli powder and turmeric powder, cumin powder

5. salt, water

6. paneer (indian cheese), optional

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in pan, fry with cumin powder. When things heated in the pan, add in shredded ginger, coriander powder, chilli powder and turmeric powder. Then add in a splash of water.

2. Once everything is heated-up in the pan, add in tomato cubes and fry them.

3. Then add in half-cooked eggplant, simmer them altogether until they are soft. You can add in salt to adjust the taste. It might take 10-20 minutes to soften the eggplant.

4. Optionally add on cubes of paneer just before finish cooking.

Tasting:

1. It taste well when everything is soften-up. But my version of eggplant is not as soft as it should be probably I am too hungry to take it before it's fully cooked. Nevertheless, the mixture of the spices went well with the dish though not as spicy as a true indian cuisine, more like an indian-adapted chinese cuisine.

2. I added some cubes of paneer (indian cheese, made from milk & lemon juice the day before, did I put up a recipe to make paneer?) on top just before finishing cooking. It should go very well if we did cook with the potato version, but it's not bad either on this version. Probably I should cook Aloo Paneer (potato with paneer cheese) next time.

Healthy Life 养生保健食疗歌 ( 张步桃医师 )

2009-06-14T08:04:00.002+08:00

生梨润肺化痰好，苹果止泻营养高。

黄瓜减肥有成效，抑制癌症猕猴桃。
番茄补血助容颜，莲藕化淤解酒妙。

紫茄祛风通大便，韭菜补肾暖膝腰。
萝卜化痰消胀气，芹菜能治血压高。

苋菜平衡酸硷值，补血又使痛风消。
冬瓜消肿又利尿，黑豆绿豆解毒好。

木耳抗癌素中荤，香菇存酶肿瘤消。
海带含碘散癖结，蘑菇抑制癌细胞。

胡椒祛寒兼除湿，葱辣姜汤治感冒。
百合安神又助眠，蕨类含硷亦含胶。

益肾强腰食核桃，健胃补脾吃红枣

Sichuan Water-Cooked Fish in Oil, Dried Chilli and Peppercorn 四川水煮鱼

2009-05-31T13:28:00.004+08:00

Winter is coming, it's perfect to eat hot and spicy dish. Here is one of the dish that you can cook - Sichuan representative dish: Sichuan water-cooked fish, or shuizhuyu, which mainly use dried chilli and peppercorn for hot, spicy and tingly numbing flavours.

Ingredients:

1. Fish, fillet yourself. Leave the fish head/tail/bones aside

2. Sichuan Peppercorn

3. Dried chillies

4. Garlic paste, Ginger paste (or chopped finely)

5. Pepper, salt, flour, cooking wine, egg

6. Bean chilli paste (I used Korean brand bean chilli paste)

7. Almost cooked Bean sprout (70-80% cooked, you can boil the water to cook it or use microwave oven). Since the dish is hot, this is served as cooling effect. So do prepare enough.

Instructions:

1. Marinated fish fillets with pepper, salt, egg, flour and cooking wine.

2. Heat the wok with oil, put in dried chilli, pepper corn and bean chilli paste. Fried it until you smell the spicy fragrance. Add in garlic and ginger. Fried them together.

3. Then add in water (this will be soup base, add enough to cover all the fish fillets later). Also add in salt, cooking wine, pepper, some sugar, light soya sauce, fish head/tail and fish bones. Cook and simmering it until the soup base is ready.

4. When the soup is ready, add in the fish fillet and cover the wok. The fish will be cooked in 1 minutes or less. Turn off the heat.

5. Now, switch to use another pan. Heat the pan with oil (3-4 times more than you usually used for vegetables cooking), add in dried chilli, peppercorn. Fried until it's fragance, add in ginger and garlic. Fried them until you can smell the spicy fragance.

6. Prepare a big bowl (which the dish will be served with), put the bean sprout at the bottom of the big bowl, pour in the fish fillet and the soup. Then pour in the Oil from Step 5. And then, serve it hot!

Tasting:

It's a success! It's kind of sweet, spicy and numbing. Indeed it's very appetizing. The fish fillets are prefect because the fish meat is kept juicy with great flavours. But beware, you need to prepare a packet of tissues just in case you need this for the "juice" coming out from your nose.

Reference:

1. 水煮鱼的做法

2. 水煮鱼的简单做法2种

Chocolate Mud Cake 巧克力蛋糕

2009-05-29T17:45:00.005+08:00

Requested by K, I am tasked to bake a chocolate mud cake. I adopted the recipe here chocolate mud cake recipe or chocolate mud cake. I don't know why the cake does not have nice shape and easily break as quite crispy or fragile. But the taste is quite great, perhaps will be good chocolate cookies. The skin is crispy but it really looks awful because out of shape. Mmm...

Tasty Roast Butternut Pumpkin with Onion 烤洋葱金瓜

2009-05-26T15:48:00.004+08:00

I bought half butternut pumpking at AU$1.10 today and not sure what to do with it. After surfing the recipes for a while, I decided to bake them in oven. This recipe is adopted from Tasty Roast Pumpkin . If you have oven, then this recipe is really handy.

Ingredients:

1. 1xOnion, slice it

2. Half butternut pumpkin (Skin off, cut into dices, you can leave the skin if you wish)

3. 1 to 1.5 tablespoon of salt

4. 0.5 to 1 tablespoon of chilli powder (Original recipe was with chilli flake)

5. 2 tablespoon of honey

6. 2 tablespoon of Balsamic Vinegar (or any vinegar)

Instructions:

1. Mix 1, 2, 3, 4

2. Bake with 140 degree for 50 minutes

3. Before serving, mix with 5, 6

4. Heat for further 5 minutes.

Tasting:

Little bit of hot (because of the chilli powder) with full of sweetness. The onion is perfect as it's spicy flavour, just nice to eat with the sweet pumpkin. I'd think if having better vinegar, or more vinegar would be better as it will brings out the sour taste to complement the sweetness.

Simple Chinese Rice Dumpling (Zong Zi or Bak Chang) 包粽子

2009-05-23T13:55:00.011+08:00

Duanwu Festival or Dragon Boat Festival is coming. It falls into 28th of May in year 2009, which is next week! We miss the Rice Dumpling made by our grandmothers, which contain succulent pork. So we decided to try it ourselves.

Ingredients:

For 10 rice dumplings.

1. Sticky (glutinous) rice 500g

2. Bamboo leaves 20 pieces (2 pieces per dumpling)

3. Chinese five spice powder, dark/light soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, salt.

4. Pork belly (must be fatty) 300g - 400g

5. 10x dried chestnuts

6. 10x dried mushroom

Instructions:

1. Cut pork belly into small cubes and mixed with ingredient 3 to taste, marinate overnight.

2. Soak dried chestnut & lotus leaves overnight. Soak sticky rice for 2 hours, mushroom 30 minutes.

3. Made the leaves into a funnel shape, put 1 spoon of rice into leave, then put meat, mushroom and chestnut, put 2 spoon of rice to cover it, and made it into dumpling, this is hard to learn, but try watching and learning from those experience in doing so. Some general tricks are: don't fill too full (to avoid breaking the leaves once expanded), don't fill too lose (breaking apart), and dozens other rules.

4. Boil with water fully covered for 1.5-2 hours.

Results:

1. Out of 12 dumplings, 1 is breaking apart, another has rice coming out from the leaves, so it's achieving success rate of 83%, not bad for first try. :)

2. The meat part taste very good, but the rice part is not salty enough, probably put more salt into rice next time or mixed rice with soy sauce.

Hope that Qu Yuan will like it in heaven. :p

Reference:

http://eatfirstthinklater.blogspot.com/2006/05/making-chinese-rice-dumpling-bak-chang.html

Chinese Chilli Sauce 酸甜辣椒酱

2009-05-23T13:30:00.002+08:00

This is quick self-made chilli sauce. You can prepare this in 5 minutes. Normally, it would be better to use electronic grater machine to grate the ingredients, but I opted not to today because I'm preparing a small amount only.

Ingredients:

1. 2x Red Chilli

2. 1-3 Garlic gloves

3. Small amount of Ginger

4. Sugar, Sesame oil, Vinegar, Lemon Juice

Instructions:

1. Chop everything thinly and finely, grate them if you have grater. Then mix everything together.

2. Add in the sugar, some vinegar and sesame oil. Then mix in lemon Juice. Adjust the flavours to suit your preferred tastes.

3. Finally, keep them in fridge. I think this can be kept for few days in fridge.

Different chinese sauces 各种酱的做法

2009-05-23T13:02:00.001+08:00

清油酱

材料：盐、红辣椒末、糖1/2茶匙，生抽2大匙、蒜末1茶匙、鱼露1茶匙
做法：将所有材料混合，加入红辣椒末、蒜末即可。
用法：非常适合各种蔬菜的凉拌，如圆白菜、四季豆、海带均可，只要将蔬菜焯熟淋上酱汁即可食用。

麻椒酱
材料：花椒粉1/3茶匙、老抽1大匙、辣椒油1大匙、白醋1/3茶匙、糖1茶匙、香油1茶匙、盐少许。
估法：将以上所有材料搅拌均匀，即可凉拌使用。
用法：这道凉拌酱可以用于海鲜、牛、羊肉凉拌入味。

鱼露酱
材料：鱼露1大匙、米酒1大匙、生抽1茶匙、蚝油1/3茶匙、鲜鸡粉1/2茶匙、冰糖1/2茶匙、甘草粉少许（可不加）、清水1/2杯。
用法：这就是很多饭店清蒸鱼如此美味的秘诀了。

乌梅酱
材料：乌梅汁2大匙、白醋1大匙、白兰地酒1茶匙、糖2大匙
做法：将所有材料放在容器内加热，以小火煮滚至糖完全融化，晾凉后即可食用。
用法：适用于凉抖番茄、炸蔬菜等菜肴的沾取，味道非常特殊、酸甜适中，风味独特。

红酒甜醋酱
材料：红酒1/2杯、苹果醋2大匙、糖1大匙
做法：将所有材料混合调匀即可。
用法：这款酱带有红酒的甘醇美味，沾食新鲜蔬菜、白灼的海鲜都有一级棒的味道。

姜母沾酱
材料：辣豆瓣酱1茶匙、豆腐乳1块、糖2茶匙、水1/3杯、酱油1/2茶匙、罗勒18克
做法：将所有材料放在搅拌机里打成均匀的糊状即可食用。
用法：适合各种肉类的沾食。

蒜香鱿鱼酱
材料：蚝油2茶匙、芝麻酱1大匙、糖1大匙、鲜鸡精1茶匙、剁椒1茶匙、蒜苗1/3根、香菜10克、大蒜2瓣
做法：蒜苗、香菜、大蒜切末与其他材料一起搅拌均匀即可。
用法：可以用来淋在炸酥的鱿鱼上，还可以搭配其它的海鲜食用，味道非常浓厚鲜美。

白米酱
材料：糯米粉2大匙、白胡椒粉2茶匙、水2大匙、糖2大匙、盐1茶匙
做法：将糯米粉和其它材料一起煮沸至粘稠即可。
用法：肉丸、油炸食品都可以沾取食用。如果喜欢吃辣的人还可以加一茶匙辣椒粉在里面。

意大利番茄肉酱
材料：牛肉末200克、番茄3个、番茄酱3大匙、洋葱300克、黄油30克、黑胡椒适量、盐1茶匙
做法：1、黄油化开，将切成丁的洋葱炒香
2、放入牛肉末，变色后放入切碎的番茄和番茄酱
3、炒制成酱后调味即可
用法：用做意大利面条的酱料。

自制沙茶酱
材料：A：平鱼干70克、干虾仁30克
B：油炸过的蒜2瓣、花生粉1茶匙、油炸过的葱末1/2茶匙、盐、白胡椒粉少许
C：麻油1茶匙、花生油2茶匙
做法：将鱼干、干虾仁放入烤箱中烤干、取出，与材料B一起研成细粉状，倒入大碗中，加入C即可。
用法：用途广泛，可沾、炒或煮汤均可。

味增渍酱
材料：味增1/4杯、味淋2大匙、糖2大匙、香油1大匙
做法：将味增倒入容器中，和其它的调味料混合均匀即可。
用法：可以用来腌渍经盐软化的食材，腌渍如大蒜、蒜苗、小黄瓜、萝卜、圆白菜、菜心等。经过腌渍的蔬菜就是非常正宗的日式腌菜。

韩式辣味烤肉酱
材料：洋葱末2大匙、蒜末1/2大匙、芥末酱1/2大匙、酱油1/3茶匙、粗黑胡椒粒1/2茶3匙，糖、乌醋、橄榄油1茶匙，辣椒酱1/3大匙、韩式辣椒酱1大匙。
做法：将所有材料放在碗中调匀即可。
用法：适合作为牛、羊、猪及海鲜的烤肉蘸酱，味道非常鲜美。

烤肉酱
配料：酱油2大茶匙，白糖、米酒、冰糖各1茶匙，柴鱼精、干海带、姜粉各2茶匙。
做法：将所有材料混合均匀，即可。

麻辣酱
配料：柠檬汁1∕4杯，西红柿酱2大茶匙，辣椒油、辣椒酱、黑胡椒粉各1小匙，蚝油、辣椒末、黄酒、红糖各1大茶匙，蒜末1∕2茶匙。
做法：将所有材料混合均匀，即可。

酸梅酱
配料：酸梅3颗，酸梅蜜饯、砂糖各2茶匙，白醋1茶匙。
做法：将所有材料混合均匀，即可。

五味酱
配料：酱油、香油、黑醋、白醋各2茶匙，西红柿酱3茶匙，姜末、蒜泥、辣椒末各1茶匙。做法：将所有材料混合均匀，即可。

蒜泥酱
配料：蒜泥2茶匙，酱油3茶匙，味精、米酒、白醋各1小茶匙，细砂糖1茶匙，胡椒粉适量。
做法：将所有材料混合均匀，即可。

Source：http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/8639402.html

Special Fish Taste Pork Slice with Cabbage 简单鱼香肉丝和包菜

2009-05-23T10:26:00.002+08:00

"Fish Taste Pork Slice" is a traditional Sichuan dish. I adapted the Recipe with simplified steps as I do not have all the required ingredients. It doesn't really taste like the traditional dish (the traditional version is oily, and the meat is very soft liked fish meat) but honestly it's quite appetizing.

Adding cabbage to it creates a miracle, due to the crunchy & sweet taste, it blends well with the ingredients.

Simple Chicken Fried Rice 鸡肉炒饭

2009-05-19T16:23:00.002+08:00

Ingredients:

1. Chicken dices, marinated with salt and light soya sauce

2. 1x Capsicum

3. 1x Red chilli

4. Rice for two persons (kept in fridge for 2 hours at least)

Instructions:

1. Heat the pan with chopped garlic with vegetable oil, then add in dice capsicum and red chilli. Fry and cover it to steam a bit.

2. Then add in chicken dices, fry and cover it to steam a bit. (Taste it to adjust salt/soya sauce).

3. Optional: Up to you if you want to add in dark soya sauce.

4. Until the chicken is about 70% cook, add in rice, cover it to steam for few minutes.

5. Then fry them to mix them altogether until the chicken is cooked and the rice is mixed with all flavours equally.

Tasting:

The flavour of this dish is not really strong, it taste a bit salty, sweet (by light saya sauce and chicken's sweetness), and little bit of hot because of the chilli. It might be good to add in some onion as well.

Apple Tart 苹果挞

2009-05-18T18:11:00.002+08:00

I copied the Simplest Apple Tart Recipe and cook one today. This recipe looked simple to follow but I think I have made some mistakes. I didn't put enough butter I guess as the dought come out as biscuits instead of crispy tart. Need to try again next time.

Korean Instant Ramen with 60 Ingredients

2009-05-17T15:22:00.004+08:00

I'm down with flu this week. It's cold to be precise as I do not have fever. Nevertheless, I feel really tired and annoyed by the running nose. So I declared to K that, the Kitchen is shutdown this week. Mind your own meals (and my meals). Hehe...

Well, luckily I have the Korean instant Ramen to accompany me. It's amazing to have 60 ingredients in this small packet. The first criteria for me to buy instant noodle is "No MSG". Then I'll look at the flavours. In any case, I discovered this Korean instant Ramen by accidence. Yet it taste OK. The brand is "Samyang Food".

But instant food is processed food. If having options, don't eat too much. =)

Ginger Chicken Stir Fry with Soy Sauce

2009-05-13T09:02:00.003+08:00

This is one of the first five dish I learnt during my childhood. The ingredients are simple and yet this dish is delicious to eat with rice.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken dice

2. Red chilli slice (optional)

3. Ginger slice

4. Salt, Dark Soy Sauce

Instructions:

1. Heat the pan with vegetable oil

2. Add in ginger slice and fry until brown

3. Add in salt and chilli

4. Then add in Chicken dice, fry a bit

5. Add in dark soy sauce and water

6. Fry and cover it to steam until chicken is cooked. If not cook and water is not enough then add in more water.

Roast Tomato, Capsicum and Mushroom

2009-05-13T09:00:00.003+08:00

I prepare this dish without oil.

Ingredients:

1. 2x Capsicum

2. 2x Tomato

3. Mushroom (about 15 cup mushroom)

Instructions:

1. Half cut the Tomato, half cut mushroom and slice Capsicum.

2. Lightly add in salt, pepper and mix well.

3. Put in oven for about 20 minutes at > 200 degree.

For me, I fry them mushroom in pan with low heat and cover it for about 5-10 minutes, The mushroom will be tender and soft then. I didn't add in water or oil because mushroom itself contains water. Afterthat, add in capsicum and cover it for few minutes. Then serve with the roasted Tomato.

This is just another simple and healty veg dish.

Sweet and Sour Tiger Prawn With Chilli 酸甜虾

2009-05-10T13:38:00.003+08:00

This dish is tasty and good to serve with rice.

Ingredients:

1. Tiger prawn

2. Kechup, or Tomato sauce

3. Garlic finely grated

4. Chilli, sliced

5. Lemon

6. Salt and Sugar

Instructions:

1. Heat the pan with oil

2. Add in garlic, red chilli

3. Until garlic is almost brown, add in kechup

4. Add in 1-2 tsp of water, also add in salt. Mix everything and taste it. If it's too sour, add in sugar.

5. When the sauce mixture is boiling, add in prawns. Cook them lightly until prawns are cooked, then serve hot.

Note: Prawns must be cleaned.

Banana Pancakes 香蕉薄烤饼

2009-05-10T07:59:00.004+08:00

Delicious home-made banana pancakes for breakfast. It tasted naturally sweet and rich in mashed banana.

Ingredients:

1. 125g self-raising flour

2. 10g brown sugar or less

3. 2g salt

4. 1gg beaten

5. 220ml milk

6. 5 teaspoon vegetable oil

7. 3 ripe banana (small-medium size)

8. 1-2 teaspoon almond powder

9. 1/2 to 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

1. Mix flour, sugar, salt in bowl A.

2. Beat egg, then mix with milk, vegetable oil, valina, almond powder, and mashed banana.

3. Mix 1. and 2. together well.

4. Heat the griddle with little oil and medium heat. Scope the mixture in 3. into the griddle. Cook until it's brown on both side. Tips: It shouldn't stick on the griddle if it's ready. I used a fork to lift the pancake to check.

Banana Cake 香蕉蛋糕

2009-05-02T15:13:00.003+08:00

I bake this less oily, less sweetness Banana Cake yesterday for today BBQ. It taste nice in warm and cold.

Ingredients:

1. 100g butter

2. 2 eggs

3. 2 ripe banana

4. 1 tsp vanilla extract

5. 1 tsp bicarb soda

6. 50ml milk

7. 100g brown sugar

8. 220g self-raising flour

Instructions:

1. Cream the butter, brown sugar and vanilla.

2. Add eggs, beat them well with electrical beater.

3. Mash banana finely. Then add them into the mixture.

4. Dissolve soda in milk. Then add the flour and milk into the mixture slowly. Mix them well.

5. Best to bake in 2 smaller tin together, else just one larger tin (but need to check if it's under cook). Preheat the oven with with 180 ºC, bake for 35 minutes, or until it's ready. (If the middle is not ready, you can continue to bake or just cut it half then continue to bake.)

Slice Pork with Turmeric Powder 黄姜猪

2009-05-01T08:06:00.005+08:00

Recently, Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy and his colleagues from Michigan reveal that, curcumin, or the main ingredient in turmeric powder has the arrays of healing capabilities, such as anti-cancer, antioxidant, antibiotic, antiviral and many others.

It's not a news to most of the people, especially Indians because they have applied this 'holy powder' for centuries. As refer to WHFoods, turmeric powder contains mainly manganese, iron, vitamin B6, dietary fibre and potassium. It is indicated as excellent source for manganese and iron. The health benefits are tremendous. Learning how to cook with turmeric powder will be interesting and benefitial.

Ingredients:

1. pork slices

2. 2-3 tbsp of tumeric powder, salt, sugar, black pepper, light soya sauce, sesame oil

3. Onion slices

Instructions:

1. Marinate the pork slices with Ingredient 2. for more than 30 minutes or longer.

2. Heat the pan with oil, and fry onion slices until brown.

3. Pour in all the marinated pork slices

4. Fry them until brown, cooked. (Adjust the salt, light soya sauce, sugar to suit your taste preference)

Pork Leg with Sweet Vinegar 猪脚醋

2009-04-26T11:23:00.007+08:00

This Pork Leg with Sweet Vinegar, or zhu1 jiao3 cu1 （猪脚醋）is one of the Chinese traditional dishes for confinement (if you cook with the right ingredients). This dish is delicious, you can easily prepare it to serve a large numbers of people (big family gathering can have more than 50 persons, which is not unusual for some of the Malaysian/Singaporean chinese), and this dish can last few days (trust me, it ages well just like cheese.) For all the reasons mentioned above, this dish is no. 1 must have dish for family gathering and special events, such as family reunion dinner in Chinese New Year, for some of the Chinese families.

For those who never try pork legs before, I challenge you for this. Beware, do not try the pork legs dish that are selling in any food courts or restaurant (unles highly recommended by your Chinese friends). The reason is, most of the chefs/cooks will not prepare this dish well as they have taken shortcuts that will actually ruin the tastes, which will cause the dish sucks (and smelly).

Ingredients:

1. Pork Legs (Ask the butcher to cut them for you)

2. Old ginger (smashed in large pieces)

3. Sesame oil

4. Few hard-boiled eggs (Optional)

5. Sweet vinegar (You can get it from Chinese market) - Use half bottle or full bottle, depends how much of pork legs you're cooking. Read the instruction on the label of sweet vinegar bottle.

6. Garlic (smashed)

7. Dried red chilli (Optional) - Only add some if you want it hot and spicy.

Instructions:

1. Heat the pot. Add in pork legs pieces. Heat it and cover it, until the oil of the legs come out and turns brown on the surface. Then add in hot water to get rid of the pork smell, heat them for few minutes. Then take out and set aside. (The sequence of this step is important.)

2. Heat another pot, then add in smashed old ginger and fry it until it's dry. Afterthat, add in sesame oil. Fry until it's brown and ready. (Should be very fragrant)

3. Add in pork legs pieces and fry them together.

4. Then add in sweet vinegar, smashed garlic, dried red chilli (optional). Cover them and heat until boil. Then turn to medium heat to simmer for 1-1.5 hours until it's soft and tender.

4. (Optional) If you have hard-boiled eggs, then add them in for about 5-10 minutes.

Note: Since this is a dish for your beloved family, remember to clean the pork legs properly. Pluck the pig hair as thorough as possible.

Reference:

1. 【达人料理】原味的感动(5)猪脚醋

Mee Goreng with Prawn (Malay Fried Noodle)

2009-04-22T17:11:00.004+08:00

Mee Goreng, or Malay friend noodle are a very popular dish in Malaysia, Indonedia and Singapore. It has the tastes of sweetness, hot and serve very well with seafood or chicken. Basically it is cooked with Kechup, hot chilli sauce, green/red chilli.

Today, I cooked this with the help of Asian Home Gourment's Mee Goreng packet. I am satisfied with the dish. I can't help to eat more than I should have. :)

The steps to cook is similar to Fried Hokkien Noodle with Soya Sauce. Let me know if you would have any questions.

Chinese Herbal Soup for General Health 补中益气汤

2009-04-21T19:09:00.004+08:00

This Chinese Herbal Soup is called bu3 zhong1 yi4 qi4 tang1 (补中益气汤). It's good to cure (not treatment, but supplement for general health) tiredness, short of breath generally, laziness in speaking, pale, lost of appetite generally.

Ingredients:

Chinese Herbal Soup ingredients packet for 补中益气汤 (you can get it from Chinese supermarket or Chinese Medicine Clinic), or you can buy the ingredients seperately:

1. Condonopsis Pilosula Nannf. (Pilose Asiabell Root) 党参

2. Angelica Dahurica Benth Cf. Hook (Dahurian Angelica Root) 北芪

3. Lycium Chinense Mill (REdmedier Berry) 杞子

4. Radix Dioscoreae (Yam) 淮山

5. Dimocarpus Longana (Longan) 桂圆

6. Nelumbo Nucifera (Lotus Nut) 莲子

7. Euryale Ferox (Foxnut) 芡實

=> Cook with Chicken or Pork

Instructions:

1. Wash the ingredients briefly

2. Add in all the ingredients and the meat (Chicken or Pork)

3. Boil water (8-12 bowls, depends on you) in a pot

4. Simmer for 1-2 hours. (Generally you can serve it after an hour but the nutritions of the ingredients might not be fully utilized. If you will eat the ingredients as well, it should be fine. Normally I only drink the soup and eat the meat only. It's up to you.)

5. Add salt before serving.

You can use electronic crock pot with lesser water, then set the quick meter for 4-5 hours.

It taste nice regardless of its medication benefits.

Fried Hokkien Noodle with Soy Sauce

2009-04-20T19:18:00.006+08:00

This dish is Fried Hokkien Noodle with Soy Sauce, generally you will find this dish in food courts in Malaysia and Singapore. The side dish -"brocolli" is optional.

Ingredients:

1. Hokkien noodle, 500g (enough for 5 serving)

2. Pork meat (chopped)

3. 4 eggs (stirred and add some salt into it)

4. Green or red chilli

5. Sliced thinly vegetable, such as bean sprout or/and cabbage or/and capsicum

6. 3 Onion (slices) and finely grated garlic (or slices)

7. Salt, Sugar, Black/Dark Soy Sauce

Instructions:

1. Heat the pan with oil (more than you usually use for frying vegetables) - 1/4 to 1/2 cup.

2. Add in garlic and onion slices, fried until brown

3. Add in stirred egg, fried and mix them until the egg are solid, then scope them out aside.

4. Add in meat (chopped pork or pork mince), stir fry and add in black/white pepper, salt, sugar and black/light soya sauce in the meantime.

5. Add in the earlier fried egg/onion, then pour in all the chopped vegetable, fry a short while.

6. Add in the noodle. Mix them well in the meantime add in more black soy sauce.

7. Mix them well, stir them well. Add in some water, cover it for 5-10 minutes in medium heat to heat and steam the noodle. (Occassionally open it to stir it just not to overcook).

Note:

1. Adding in sweet flavour is important as it will cover the hokkien noodle taste. Therefore, you can add in sugar or sweet chilli. That's why Singaporeans/Malaysians will add in oyster sauce generally (it has sweetness as well). This dish is served nice with Sambal (fried chilly, from Malaysia).

2. Note that there are 3 varieties of Hokkien Noodle, this version is modified from the Kuala Lumpur version with healthier choice (no crispy pork fat and less salty, not thick noodle).

A visit to Barrenjoey Lighthouse at Palm Beach

2009-04-20T11:14:00.004+08:00

A travel to Palm Beach took about 30 - 45 minutes from Chatswood, which is about 27km of distance. The palm beach is beautiful with much less crowded than Bondi beach. If you follow Australia "Home and Away" soap opera, you would know that they took most of the exterior scenes @ Palm Beach. The serenity of Palm Beacn wasn't surprise me as I expect it to be less crowded (than Bondi beach). It's as beautiful as other beaches near Sydney coastal lines. However, I am surprised by the visit to Barrenjoey lighthouse. Not because of the lighthouse but the paths that I need to walk up to it.

It has two paths, either easy route or difficult route. Unfortunately the difficult route has been closed until further notice, we are forced to take the easy one which is supposed to be longer route (it will take about 20-30 minutes to reach the lighthouse according to the notice board apprently). Though it is supposed to be easy route but it never fail the job to exhaust us with the many ramps and some steep paths. I am certain I can keep fit by climbing this every day.

The reward is fruitful - the birdeye view to the Palm Beach and the nice landscaping of the lighthouse. I have started to think to travel there again already...

Italian "Pork" Casserole

2009-04-20T11:03:00.001+08:00

Similar to Honey Mustard Chicken, I have a pack of MasterFoods' Italian Chicken Casserole Recipe Base. I figured I may be able to cook this with Pork instead of Chicken. Here you go! (We serve this dish with Turkish bread & simple salad, yummy.)

The only extra ingredients I've put in is Chilli powder (1/4 to 1/2 tsp). It's not really hot/spicy, just adding some very mild chilli flavour. (I've add in salt as well.)

Tasting: It goes well with bread, in my opinion.

Harris Farm Markets

2009-04-18T14:41:00.001+08:00

I always like to shop in Harris Farm Markets because of their fresh fruits and vegetables at reasonably prices. So far I have been in 3-4 stores in different location. Today, we stopped by Pitwatter Place Shopping Center at Mona Vale. Not surprisingly we found Harris Farm Markets store in the center (as the picture I took). We won't be dissapointed on the quality of the fruits and vegetables.

Easter Eggs

2009-04-18T14:31:00.001+08:00

K: Isn't the Easter holiday over?
C: Nevermind, since we eat the boiled eggs almost everyday.... so, let's make fun...
K: What are you doing?!
C: Operation on the eggs...
K: Ahh.. that one looked liked me, let me...
(Ummm...)
C: Wait, I haven't...
K: Sorry, I have eaten it.
C: ....

Just have fun.

Stir Fried Broccoli with Garlic

2009-04-14T17:50:00.001+08:00

Simple and healthy dish. To cook, just follow the simple 4 cooking steps for fried vegetables. First, heat the oil. Second, add in garlic and fry them. Third, add in broccoli (chopped) and fry together. Lastly, add in salt/light soya sauce and fry again. Cover it if necessary to steam cook it. Before serving, add in chinese cooking wine and fry another 10 seconds.

Minced Pork, Eggplant and Black Bean Garlic Stir Fry

2009-04-14T17:47:00.002+08:00

This is one of my favourite dish. It's tasty, salty and really easy to go with white rice. And it's quick to cook it as well. It took me about 15 minutes+ for this dish (including the preparation). I usually target to prepare 2-3 dishes in 30 minutes+. Hard? Not really if you have oven, microwave, steamer and stove all ready for you.

Ingredients:

1. 200g pork mince

2. 1 long Eggplant, slice it (Optional, you can replace with long beans, snake beans, or mushroom slices)

3. 2 tbsp Black Bean Garlic sauce (You can get this from Chinese supermarket)

4. Some green chilli (chopped). (Optional)

5. 2-3 glove garlic (sliced or grated up to you).

Instructions:

1. Use microwave oven to cook the eggplant slices for about 1.5 to 2 minutes until it's cooked. (This will help to cook it quickly later as eggplant take times to be cooked.)

2. Heat 2-3 tbsp oil in the pan. When the oil is heated, add in the garlic slices and fry it in medium heat for 5-10 seconds, then add in chilli slices. Fry it for about another 5 to 10 seconds.

3. Add in the defrozed pork mince and black beanm garlic sauce. Beware, it's quite salty so don't add in too much unles you like it salty. Stir fry them until the pork is almost cooked.

4. Add in the cooked eggplant slices. Stir fry all of them together to mix well.

If it's too salty, you might lose your sense of taste. Hehe, beware.

Honey Mustard Chicken

2009-04-13T18:10:00.002+08:00

This is shortcut dish because it is really for busy working folk who want to cook it quick. I do not really feel like posting this but hey, maybe someone out there like to know about it?

How to cook? Just buy chicken and MasterFoods' recipe base packet. (Light milk and vegetable are optional). Follow the instructions on the packet will do. Easy easy.

Tasting? Well, if you do not like the taste of Mustard, you won't like it. I cook this because I have this recipe base with the Showbag I bought. Personally I don't think I will buy this because I just can't get used to the taste of it. However, I think if you make the sauce a bit thicker, this dish can be served as sandwidth (with bread).

Oil less "fried fish" with Contentional Oven

2009-04-13T12:29:00.004+08:00

Afraid of the oiliness of fried fish? Do not want to have the whole kitchen become oily but still want to eat fried fish? I found a way to do this by using oven. (Enlighted by some of the online recipe for fried chicken with Oven)

Ingredients:

1. Flour + salt, mix together

2. Fish (clean and dry it with kitchen towel paper)

3. Garlic & Black Bean paste (optional)

4. Olive oil (or cooking oil)

5. Lemon juice (optional)

Instructions:

1. Wrap the fish with flour+salt mixture. Then keep the fish in fridge for an hour.

2. Take the fish out of fridge, wrap it again with flour+salt mixture. (It will stick to the fish better this time).

3. Grease the oven pan with olive oil or cooking oil. Also wrap the fish with olive oil with your fingers (thin layer will do).

4. Then bake it with oven for about 30 minutes with 200 ºC. You can turn the fish at about 15 minutes. You may notice the oil popping while baking.

5. (Optional) Before serving, topping with some garlic & black bean paste, and lemon juice. Bake it extra 1-2 minutes. This is just to add some flavour topping.

Isn't this simple and neat?

Sydney Easter Show 2009 with Pig Racing

2009-04-12T07:35:00.002+08:00

Easter Show is the largest national event in Australia, it's a national iconic showcase of Australia heritage and culture . The show last for 2 weeks from 9th April to 22nd April. This is my second visit to Sydney Royal Easter Show. The best of it is, you can sample most of the Australian iconic food products in a day. Don't miss this if you travel to Australia in April! This event is definitely suitable for whole family.

This year, the pig racing is the most interesting event of all. It has 4 shows per day and we picked the 2pm show. It's too popular that people start to line up from 1pm. We were lucky to be there 50 minutes earlier to queue. The gate was opened45 minutes before the show. People just flowing in then but all the seats are occupied 20 minutes before the show! It is not fun to be baked under the sun for almost an hour just for a 10 minutes show. Yeah, the show only last not more than 15 minutes. Two rounds of pig racing, each round with 4 pigs. And only two pigs performing diving and swimming for us. But still, we would think they worth the waiting time as the racing is just too exciting. In the moment, I couldn't even relate the cute pigs with delicious pork dishes I like. :)

Besides pig racing, I attended Woodchop (again), True Blue story (I love to hear the singing performance by John Williamson), Xtreme Korruption Yamaha MotoX/Toyota V6 Hillux Heroes performance (again). Liked every other years, there are hundreds of Showbags for you to pick. I couldnt' believe you cannot find one for yourself (mostly for kids though). I bought myself the Women Weekly's showbag for just AU$12 which include 5 magazines and more.

So, don't miss this if you happen to be in Sydney.

Sweet Vinegar Pork Rib 糖醋排骨

2009-04-11T19:25:00.008+08:00

Sweet Vinegar Pork Rib, Sugar and Vinegar Pork Rib, or Sweet and Sour Pork Rib is originated from Si Chuan, China. The pork rib is being deep fried usually and served as cold appetizer dish. The main ingredients of this dish is Pork Rib, Sugar and Vinegar. There are many varieties in cooking this dish, such as the size of the pork ribs, serve it cold or hot, types of sugar (white/brown/ice sugar), types of vinegar, whether to deep fried the pork rib or not. You can decide how to cook and serve it depends on your circumstances. Usually this dish will be decorated with white sesame before serving.

I prepare this dish today with the simple methods (as I always like the easy ways) without too much oil as I didn't deep fried the pork rib, but yet it's appetizing.

Ingredients:

1. 5-6 tsp Brown sugar

2. 600-800g Pork Rib (Quickly rinse them with hot water to get rid of the pork smell/blood, Optional)

3. 6-8 tsp Balsami Vinegar (that's the only one I have, you can replace this with any vinegar)

4. 2-3 tsp Chinese dining wine for cooking

5. Salt

Instructions:

1. Heat the pan, some oil and add in sugar. Melt the sugar with low heat. (Beware not to overcook the sugar)

2. Add in Pork and stir them to cover the pork skin with melted sugar. It will looks in brown colour.

3. Then add in water. The water should probably cover the pork rib. Turn to medium to high heat to cook them. In the same time, add in dining wine.

4. About 30 minutes until the water is lesser, add in vinegar and little salt. Mix them well. Cook it until the juicy sauce is thicker and covering all the pork ribs. You can then taste the sauce. If it's too sour, then adjust it by adding more sugar, vice-versa.

Tasting:

You can serve this hot/cold. Usually we cook a lot and keep the extra in the fridge to be served again the next day. The pork rib is tender and the sweetness actually sink into the meat. This dish is served with rice.

References:

家常菜菜谱-糖醋排骨

[美味菜谱]家常菜－－糖醋排骨

Sweet Vinegar Pork Rib

Easy and Simple Almond Cake

2009-04-09T20:54:00.002+08:00

After the success of baking Walnut Cookies, I am fancy to bake cake with nuts, such as almonds, macademias, hazelnuts, etc. I saw the offer from Aldi today for the ground almonds and decided to bake simple almond cake.

I adopted the simple recipe from here with some adjustment to suit my kitchen. I used self-raising flour/white suger (as I didn't have Castor sugar on stock) and did not add in almond essense.

Ingredients:

125g butter (melted)

80g sugar

3 eggs

120g ground almonds

80g self-raising flour sifted

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven with 180 ºC. Brush your baking container (tin) with butter/oil.

2. In a mixing bowl, using electric beater to beat butter and suger until it's light & creamy.

3. Add in portion of egg & ground almonds, beat them again. Repeat until all egg/ground almonds are added into the mixing bowl. Beat them to mix well until light & creamy.

4. Then add in flour and using spoon/spatula to mix them well until the mixture is smooth. (You can add in flour portion by portion). It will be heavier now.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

6. Bake it for 15 minutes in 180 ºC and then 160 ºC for 30 minutes. Monitor closely and it's ready if the skewer come out clean from the center of the cake. (I actually cut the cake half to check.)

Tasting:

The skin of the cake is crispy. I like it! It is best to be served in afternoon tea session with friends. Do you want to have afternoon tea with me?

Sauteed Potatoes, Eggplants with Green Chilli Recipe

2009-04-08T18:21:00.002+08:00

This recipe is adopted from here. However, I don't believe you can prepare this in 15 minutes. Potatoes take time to be cook, so does eggplant. So if you want to save time, remember to cut them smaller. For me, I cook the potatoes in boiling water before cutting them just to save time. After frying them, I also put them altogether into oven for about 5-10 minutes (120-140 degree celsius). I used green chilli instead of green pepper, this is just because I have green chilli on stock only. When frying them, remember to add in black pepper and salt.

Overally it taste nice. The potatoes taste better than KFC french fries. They taste a bit of salty and a bit of hot/spice. I think this dish can turn to salad if I add in spinish/rocket salad/mayonese/dried tomatoes? If you dare, you can try.

Simple Fried Rice Recipe 蛋炒饭

2009-04-08T18:11:00.001+08:00

This is simple dish but definitely yummy. The tip to cook fried rice is to put the rice in fridge for at least 2 hours before fying. So the fried rice will not be sticky. Since it's a flexible dish, whenever you feel you have leftovers in your fridge, you can mix and match for friend rice. :)

Ingredients:
1. 2 eggs
2. sliced mushroom (as much as you want, also you can replace this with mince pork)
3. chopped brocolli (as much as you want, also you can replace this with carrot or any chopped vegetables)
4. pepper and salt
5. cold cooked rice
6. garlic slices and/or onion slices
7. light soy sauce or oyster sauce
8. lemon juice

Instructions:
1. Put oil on the pan/wok, heat it.
2. Then add in eggs and fry the eggs (liked scramble eggs).
3. Add in garlic and/or onion slices, fry together.
4. Add in sliced mushrooms, fry and mix well.
5. Add in black pepper and salt. Fry and mix together until you see the mushroom is about ready (soften).
6. Add in chopped vegetables, fry and mix all well.
7. Once the vegetables are about to ready, then finally add in the rice. Stir them well.
8. Now, you can put in soy sauce or oyster sauce, and mix/stir them well.
9. Once the color of rice is nice, then it's ready. My preference is to add some lemon juice before serving. It taste better for me.

Running out of ideas what to cook? Then try fried rice.

Pork Rib Lotus Root Soup 莲藕排骨汤

2009-04-08T12:11:00.003+08:00

I happened to see two Lotus Root in Chatswood Westfield fruit stall today. They have only two left and well I thought, maybe I can just grab one for Pork Rib Lotus Root Soup. It is just great soup for Autumn season.

This soup is great for whole family. It improve the blood circulation, balancing your heart and blood pressure generally. And if you feel bloated after eating too much cheese (liked me), heavy meat and oily food, then this is the soup for you. It can be served as appetizer also.

Chinese like to add extra ingredients, such as dried Optupus, honey dates, peanut/beans and cut scallion. It's really depends on your preferences. They all have their own goods and nutritions.

For me, I cook a simple version as I just want the best from the lotus root.

Ingredients:

1. Lotus Root (Peel the skin off, wash to clean and slice)

2. Pork Rib

3. Dried red dates

The quantity of all the above are flexible, depends how much you want to eat.

4. Little ginger thin slices

Instructions:

1. Put the pork rib into water, boil it. Then take out the pork rib. The purpose of this is to remove the strong smell of pork and pork blood. If you don't mind, you can skip this step. Personally I do that quickly but I am not sure how much nutritions has been lost.

2. Prepare pot of water, add in all the lotus root slices. Boil it for about 20 minutes with medium to low heat.

3. Add in Pork Rib, boil it for 30 minutes with low heat.

4. Then finally add in ginger and dried red dates. Just boil it for another 30 minutes with low heat will do. (I will boil longer, liked 1-2 hours until the lotus root is much softer and it will be really easy to eat.)

5. Finally of course add in salt and heat for about 1 minutes before serving.

A simple soup which is good for whole family. :)

Mushroom Fennel Lemon Fettuccine 意大利面

2009-04-07T18:06:00.005+08:00

This recipe was adopted from Chicken,Fennel & Lemon Fettuccine with some modification. I replaced chicken with mushroom (as I still have lots of fresh mushrooms in my fridge). I think Fennel is still best to cook with meat, liked chicken, pork or ham.

Also, I add in green chilli slices just for little bit spicy flavour because I do not have Tobasco pepper sauce in stock. It taste quite well too. It's best to serve with wine I reckon.

Here is the modified recipe:

Ingredients:

1. Fettuccine pasta

2. Fennel bulb, trimmed and finely chopped

3. lemon

4. garlic, black pepper, salt

5. mushroom slices

6. olive oil

7. 1x300ml carton thicken milk

8. 1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1. Boil the water and cook the Fettuccine (follow the instructions written in the box)

2. Add olive oil, fry mushroom slices/garlic with low heat, also add in black pepper, salt

3. Add in fennel, continue to cook unti they are all soften in low heat

4. Finally, add in thicken milk and parmesan cheese

5. Stir it until everything mix well and comes to boil

6. Add in earlier cooked pasta and lemon juice. Toss to combine. Then you can serve.

You can top it with more parmesan cheese to serve.

Note: If you do not like cheese, then forget about this recipe. :)

Simple Rocket Salad

2009-04-06T18:02:00.002+08:00

Trust me, you can prepare this tasty simple rocket salad in 2 minutes! When I don't feel good to cook and fried vegetables, just liked today, I'll prepare this salad. It has the same nutrition as green vegetable.

Main Ingredients:
1. 50-60g Antipasto Tuscan Mix (I bought the ready made one from Coles supermarket)
2. Rocket Salad
3. Fetta cheese - half tsp
4. Olive oil / Balsamic vinegar. (I only put in Balsamic vinegar as I have only this on stock)

Instructions：
Just mix everything together.

Isn't that simple?

Green Bean Soup 绿豆汤

2009-04-06T16:16:00.010+08:00

Green Bean Soup - The magic soup to cool and detox your body.

I cooked Chicken Masala yesterday. I have never cook this before so I wonder will K like it. To my relief, he likes it very much and eat with thumbs up (yeah!). I never thought I can cook delicious Chicken Masala in the first attempt! (Thanks for the fresh chicken I got from Chatswood Westfield, as well as all the spices from Indian stoles in Paddy's market in Sydney CBD.) By the way, drumsticks in Sydney is really cheap, which is bout AU$3 per kg. I used to get 15 drumsticks at the cost of AU$6. So, you can cook the Chicken Masala with drumsticks.

The side-effect of the Chicken Masala is the heat. Because of all the spices (especially five spices and chilli), you might feel heat after consuming the Chicken Masala. Well for me it's all good and I like it, but it's not the case for K. He felt kind of headache after that. So, I decided to cook the magic soup for him - Green Bean Soup.

Green Bean is nutritious as any other beans; it contains iron, calcium, magnesium, vitamin A, C, B. In Chinese medicine, Green Bean Soup is used to detoxicate. Side note: If you ever watched Dae Jang Geum korean drama, you may be familiar with the scene where her poisoned mother was rescued by drinking something? It is the green bean soup.

The simplest way to cook green bean soup is: After cleaning, soak the green bean (about 50-60g for two persons) with water for an hour. Then pour the green bean (including the water) into a pot, add in extra water (roughly above the green bean for 1 inch or more), boil it for about an hour with low heat/flare. Add in rock sugar 2 minutes before serving and stir well.

There are many varieties of green bean soup, some people like to serve with ice cube/snow. Singaporeans like to add in sago, or dried orange peel, lotus seeds, gingko nuts. I personally like to add in few thin slice of ginger because it will make the soup no so cold for me as my hands/legs are always cold.

So, do you want to cook yourself a bowl?

印度香料鸡 - Masala Chicken

2009-04-05T17:05:00.002+08:00

印度香料鸡 - Masala Chicken

主要材料/Main Ingredients:
1. 500g 鸡肉（鸡腿肉更佳）
500g chicken dices
2. 洋葱一粒

1 onion

3. 4片蒜
4 clove garlic minced
4. 青辣椒一条

1 green chilli

5. 姜蓉一茶匙
1 tsp ginger paste
6. 一茶匙黄姜粉

1 tsp turmeric powder
7. 1/3茶匙五香粉

1/3 tsp five spices powder (This is chinese five spices powder, to substitude indian's spices - aniseed, cloves, cardomom and cinnamon)
8. 一茶匙辣椒粉

1 tsp chilli powder
9. 1.5茶匙元茜粉

1.5 tsp coriander powder

10. 1.5茶匙印度香料(garam masala)
1.5 tsp garam masala powder
11. 1/3茶匙黑胡椒粉

1/3 tsp black pepper powder

12. 1/4杯牛奶（可选）

1/4 cup milk (optional)
13. 半粒柠檬（可选）

1/2 lemon (optional)

做法/Instructions：
1. 加入盐、黄姜粉腌鸡肉

Marinated the chicken dices with salt and turmeric powder
2. 烧热油锅，按以下次序加入油锅热炒: a)五香粉, b) 洋葱片 ,c) 蒜蓉 + 青椒 (切碎) + 姜蓉，直到金黄色。再加入: d) 辣椒粉, e) 元茜粉, f) 印度香料。爆香香料至香料与油分离(重要)。

Heat the pan with oil, fry the ingredients with the following order: a) five spices powder, b) onion slices, c) garlic minced + green chilli (chopped) + ginger paste until the onion is golden brown in color then put in: d) chilli powder, e) coriander powder, f) garam masala powder. Fry them together until the all spices are separated from oil (important).
3. 加入鸡块，均匀的混合香料与鸡块，再加入黑胡椒粉。加盖慢火焖5-10分钟。
Add in marinated chicken dices, stir and fry until all the chicken are coated with the spices. Then add in black pepper powder. Turn to low heat/flame and cover it for about 5-10 minutes.
4. 鸡块熟时会出水。若要浓汁便加入牛奶。上菜前加入柠檬汁。
Water will come out from chicken if it's cooked. If you want to have thick sauce, then add in milk now. The last step is to add in lemon juice before serving.

核桃饼干 Walnut cookies

2009-04-05T09:02:00.001+08:00

核桃饼干 Walnut cookies

主要材料/Main Ingredients:
1. 核桃碎 125g
crumbed walnut (125g = 1cup)
2. 牛油 150g
butter 150g
3. 鸡蛋一粒
1 egg
4. 自发粉 150g
1.5-2 cups self raising flour
5. 糖（8小茶匙）
1/2 cup sugar

做法/Instructions：
1. 溶牛油，加入糖及鸡蛋。搅拌约1分钟。
Cream butter and sugar together, then add egg and beat well.
2. 加入核桃，自发粉，搅均匀。
Add crumbed walnuts into the mixture and add self raising flour, stir well.
3. 用汤匙作出模型，放在油纸上（或在烤板上抹牛油），入烘炉烤10-12 分钟（约140-160度）即可。
Teaspponfuls onto greased oven trays or cookie sheets. Bake in moderate oven for about 10-12 minutes.

试味/Tasting:
我做的不够牛油，所以有点干。够甜的。酥脆感是有的因为有足够的核桃。如果面粉少些或牛油多些会更好。
I didn't put enough butter, so it taste a little bit dry. The suger is enough therefore it's quite sweet. The cunchiness is from the walnut I think. For next try, perhaps put more butter or less flour.

淮山银耳鸡汤 - Dried Yam White Fungus Chicken Soup

2009-04-04T17:29:00.001+08:00

淮山银耳鸡汤 - Dried Yam White Fungus Chicken Soup

主要材料/Main Ingredients:
正淮山片 (5-8 片即可）
Dried yam (Dioscorea spp.) - About 5-8 pieces will do
银耳 - 最好是选原色的（带黄）
White Fungus (Tremella fuciformis berkeley)
蜜枣
Candied date or Chinese jujube
鸡肉
Chicken (Can be cut half chicken, or just drumstick)

做法/Instructions：
1. 泡银耳一小时。然后处理银耳（切掉根部后切小块些）。最好敲一敲蜜枣以便易出味。
Soak the dried yam for one hour. Then clean it by cutting off the yellowish root. Then cut it into smaller pieces (not really that small）. Knock or hit the Candied date/Chinese jujube so that the sweetness of it can easily join the soup.
2. 下淮山片，银耳，蜜枣和鸡肉。加入水。
Put all ingredients into the pot and then add water (about 3-4 bowls or just enough to cover the ingredients)
3. 先大火煮滚后，转小火煲大概2-3小时。
After it is boiling with big fire, then turn to low fire and boil it slowly for about 2-3 hours.
4. 起锅前加入盐即可。 Before serving, add in salt, boil it for minutes then serve it.
容易做，好喝又有营养的汤哦。
It's easy to cook, and a nice soup!

Fried Pork Mince with Eggplant 猪肉碎炒茄子

2009-04-04T17:15:00.002+08:00

猪肉碎炒茄子
Pork mince fried with Eggplant

主要材料/Main Ingredients:
茄子
eggplant, cut into small pieces
猪肉碎
pork mince, marinate it with light/dark soya sauce
辣椒
red chilli, cut into small pieces
蒜
garlic, cut into very small pieces

做法/Instructions：
1. 下蒜及辣椒，爆香
Put in oil then garlic dices and chilli to the pan, fried them until turning gold
2. 下猪肉碎，少许盐，中火炒至大概肉熟
Put in pork mince, little salt, then cook in midium heat until the pork mince is cooked
3. 下茄子（以切块），中火炒炒然后小火盖锅焖（基本上不必下水，小心别焦了锅）
Put in cut egglant, cook in medium heat a bit then turn to low heat and cover it. It is not necessary to put in water but beware overcook
4. 大概15-20分钟待茄子烂了就可起锅了。
About 15 to 20 minutes the egglant will be turning soft and tender, then it's ready to serve.

炒杂菜 - Fried mixed vegetables

2008-01-11T14:11:00.000+08:00

主要材料/Main Ingredients:
乌龟豆
Dunno what's called, it's shorter than long bean. Cut into 2 inches long.
红萝卜
Carrot, cut into slices
包菜花
Cauliflower, cut into smaller inches pieces
猪肉
Slices pork

做法/Instructions：
1. 锅下油，热油。
Preheat oil.
2. 下猪肉，炒炒。
Fried pork slices with garlic for a while.
3. 下红萝卜片，炒炒。然后，下其他的菜，炒炒。下盐、酱油（青），炒炒。
Add in carrot slice, cauliflower, long bean, add salt, light soy sauce to fry.
4. 下水，然后焖至熟、软。即可上菜。
Add some water, cover the wok until fully cooked.

海参猪脚 - Stew sea-cucumber with pork leg

2008-01-11T14:02:00.000+08:00

主要材料/Main Ingredients:
海参要多少煮多少（外婆说...)
Sea cucumber (whatever amount you want, quoted grandma)
猪脚一只
One pork front leg
香菇随意
Soaked dried mushroom

做法/Instructions：
1. 姜片沸水，将海参、猪脚煮一煮。捞起，搁旁。
Simmered the sea cucumber and pork leg with ginger slices for a while, then dry it.
2. 锅下油，下老姜片，蒜，依序下猪脚，海参，香菇炒至金黄。
Pan fried ginger / garlic with pork leg, sea cucumber, mushroom.
3. 加黑酱油，蚝油，酒，糖，盐，酱清，炒至收干。
Add dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice-wine, sugar, salt, light soy sauce, fried until thick.
4. 加水没顶，煲煮1-2小时。
Add water until fully covered, stew for 1-2 hours.

This dish is similar to the 'Stew sea-cucumber with pork' earlier on, except using pork leg and mushroom. The seasoning differs a bit in the amount used. One trick is to choose pork front leg instead of pork hind leg because the pig exercised the front leg more often, and thus is tastier with more meat.

酿豆腐 - Yong TauFu

2008-01-11T10:51:00.000+08:00

主要材料/Main Ingredients:

马鲛鱼(三条）六-八人份 - 大概马币十五元

3 Batang fish (Mackerel) for 6-8 people, about RM15.

做法/Instructions：

1. 准备马鲛鱼（如果用机器，大概20分钟可以绞烂），加盐，胡椒粉。
De-skin, remove bones, smash/pound/grind the fish meat for 20-30 minutes, or can use a grinder to perform this. Add some salt, pepper.
2. 准备茄子、豆干、羊角豆（豆干对半切即可）
Prepare eggplant, dried bean curb (cut halves), lady finger.
3. 将马鲛鱼泥塞入茄子、豆干、羊角豆。
Stuff the grinded fishmeat into eggplant, dried bean curb, and lady finger. This process is called yong tau-fu (stuff the bean-curb), and that's the name of the dish.
4. 锅入油，大概煎一煎酿好的料，搁一边。
Pan-fried all these, especially on the side with stuffed-fishmeat, put aside.
5. 所谓干的酿豆腐，你可以选择酱料来炒之前煎、炸好的酿料。这里，我们用处理好的豆酱（豆酱炒过姜、蒜）。（也可以炒耗油）或者，可以酿汤。
To prepare dried yong taufu, fried salty beanpaste with garlic & ginger slices, add some water and cook until thick, then add in the yong tau-fu to fully cook. Another type of cooking can add the yong tau-fu to soup to fully cook it.

In 'Z' sequence from top-left to bottom-right:

1. Grinded fish meat;

2. Cut the eggplants into even pieces;

3. Stuff eggplants, dried bean curbs, lady fingers (yong taufu);

4. Pan fried the yong taufu;

5. Mixed with beanpaste;
6. Final product.

试味/Tasting notes:
1. To experience the feeling of QQ (the feeling of elasticity when biting), the fishmeat need to be repeatedly grinded, this is the way it was traditionally done. Some chef cut-corner by adding some special chemical ingredients.
2. If you don't like oily food, can squeeze some lemon, lime or citrus juice on the final product to make it more balanced.
3. The yong taufu fully absorbed the beanpaste flavour, and the fishmeat are QQ, yummy yummy. :)

焖海参猪肉 - Stew sea-cucumber with pork

2008-01-06T20:33:00.000+08:00

主要材料/Main Ingredients:
海参三条（大概1-2人份）（约三新元）
Three pieces of soaked sea-cucumber (about 3 dollars)
大黑木耳一包（约1新元）
Dried black fungus (about 1 dollar for a pack)
猪肉（约三新元）
Pork (about 3 dollars)

做法/Instructions：
1. 黑木耳浸水一小时。海参捞沸水以去腥味。将猪肉、海参，洗干净及适当的处理，切片或斩块。准备姜片、蒜块。
Soaked the dried black fungus for 1 hour. Chop pork, sea cucumber and soaked black fungus into cubes, slices. Prepare ginger slices and garlics.
2. 准备沸水加姜片，煮一煮猪肉及海参以便去腥味。然后搁一边。
Boiled the sea cucumber with ginger slices for about 10 minutes to clear the smell, and throw away the water.
3. 热锅下油，下姜片，爆香。
Preheat oil, add ginger slices to fry for a while.
4. 依序下猪肉，海参，黑木耳, 调味料（五香，胡椒粉，糖）。炒炒。
In sequence, add pork, fry a while, sea cucumber, fry, black fungus, then seasoning (five spices, pepper, sugar). Fry.
5. 下黑酱油然后炒炒。最后下食酒，加水没顶，焖40至60分钟，即可食用。
Add dark soy sauce and mixed for a while. Then add rice-wine, and cover the ingredients with water. Stew for 40-60 minutes.

In sequence from top-left to bottom-right:
1. Ingredients (pork, sea cucumber, black fungus, garlic, ginger), all processed;
2. Heat wok with ginger;
3. Fried with pork, sea cucumber;
4. Add in black fungus and dark soy sauce;
5. Add rice-wine and cover with water;
6. Stew for 40-60 minutes till the the sauce is thick.

Note:
海参没有什么味道。但其营养价值特高及有美容作用。
Sea cucumber is plain naturally (of course with some bad smell). But it's nutritious and good for complexion. So it's best cooked by stew with various spices. No trick in this dish other than cooking with ginger and onion to clear the bad smell.

炒苋菜 - Fried chinese spinach

2008-01-06T20:23:00.001+08:00

主要材料/Main Ingredients:
一包苋菜（大概0.60新元）
1 packet of chinese spinach (cost 60 cents)

做法/Instructions：

1. 下少许油，待油热时，下蒜片，下少许盐爆香
Preheat some oil, add garlic slices, add some salt, fried garlic till golden-brown.
2. 下准备好的苋菜，炒炒及盖锅焖。
With high-heat, quickly fry the vege and cover the wok for a short-while.
3. 待差不多要起锅时，可以下食酒，炒炒即可食用。简单，容易煮及健康。
Add in some rice-wine just before it's done. Simple, easy, and healthy food.

Left: Chinese spinach.
Right: Final product.

This dish looks simple but there are many minor tricks involved, as follows:
1. The salt MUST be added to oil before the vegetables, this is to ensure the vegetables are green, if this is not followed, the vegetables will turn to yellowish after frying.
2. The vegetables are to be quickly fried at high-heat, this will ensure the vegetables are crispy. Using low-heat to slowly fry it will lose it's crispiness.
3. Rinse the vegetables in tap-water for at least 3 times to get-rid of the pesticide and dirt.
4. The same methods are applicable to frying almost any green vegetables.

宫保田鸡 - Gong Bao frog

2008-01-05T18:19:00.000+08:00

主要材料/Main Ingredients:
三只田鸡（大概六新元）
3 frogs (about 400-500 grams for 6 dollars)

做法/Instructions：
1. 将田鸡去皮，洗干净及适当的处理，斩块。
De-skin, clean, process the frogs, and cut into pieces.
2. 撒上少许面粉、盐、黑胡椒、白胡椒，白酒，腌5-10分钟。
Add flour, salt, black & white pepper, white-wine (we used Martini due to availability) to marinate for 5-10 minutes.
3. 锅下油大火热油，将腌好的田鸡下锅煎熟，取出搁一旁。
Frying oil to high heat, pan-fried frogs until golden-brown, and put aside.
4. 在剩下的油加入干辣椒，姜片爆香。然后加入大葱（切片），炒炒。
Fry the dry chilli, ginger until smelling then fragrance, then add-in onions.
5. 加入糖、蚝油，黑酱油，炒炒。
Add sugar, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, fry fry fry.
6. 加入之前煎好的田鸡，炒炒。
Add in the fried frogs and mix for a while.
7. 加入酒，炒炒及盖锅焖一下。既可食用。
Add in rice wine and cover the pan for 1/2 a minute to fully cooked the frog.

In 'Z' sequence from top-left to bottom-right:
1. Marinated frogs;
2. Onions, gingers, dried chilli (ignore the garlic in the picture);
3. Another view of frogs;
4. Pan fried frogs;
5. Pan fried dried chilli, onion and ginger;
6. Add in sugar, oyster sauce and dark soy sauce;
7. Add in frogs and rice wine, and fry fry fry;
8. Yummy yummy final product.

试味/Tasting notes:
1. The sauce is sweet & pungently spicy (ma-la in TzeChuan terms) and is good with rice.
2. The frog meats are much more tender and soft, yet very solid without breaking apart, comparing with chicken meat.
3. Yummy x 100, try it for yourself to find out.

Note: Commonly known as Kung Pao (although the proper translation is Gong Bao), the method is used to cook chicken cubes (Gong Bao chicken). Since frog taste similarly to chicken, if not better, that's why the same cooking method is used to create the Gong Bao frog. Actually, these kind of huge frogs are commonly known as 'tian ji', which means 'chicken in the paddy-field'. The trick to this dish is to fry the chilli until it's fragrant before adding other ingredients. The sauce need to be thick, some chef cut-corner by adding water, then flour to the sauce to make it *looks* thick.

The Kung Pao chicken in the United States are usually added with peanuts and some funny-funny vege-cubes, but most Asian would think that this is a real spoiler to the dish. On the contrary, the Gong Bao frog (or frog leg) are usually authentic since I believe no Westerners dare to take frog as delicacy. Actually, frog taste much better than chicken in some way that Westerners will never understand it, and yet healthier than chicken with much less cholesterol and fat. And there are various recipe to cook the Gong Bao, the above is just yet another possible methods.

麦片虾 - Oat Prawn

2008-01-01T15:13:00.000+08:00

主要材料/Main Ingredients：
250 gram 海虾（八只左右，大概七新元）/250g sea prawn
三大茶匙的麦片/3 big teaspoons of oatmeal
碎蒜头/minced garlic

做法/Instructions：
1. 将鲜虾洗干净及适当的处理（剪掉虾脚、须、菱角、去掉虾肠）
Clean, cut, process the prawns, left with partly head & shell. Clear the prawn innards as well.
2. 撒上少许面粉、盐、黑胡椒、白胡椒，腌5-10分钟
Add flour, salt, black & white pepper to marinate for 5-10 minutes.
3. 锅下油大火热油，将腌好的虾下锅煎熟，取出搁一旁
Frying oil to high heat, pan fried prawns until golden-brown, and put aside.
4. 在剩下的油加入碎蒜头，炒一下
Fry the minced garlic.
5. 加入三大茶匙的麦片，煎至金黄脆脆
Add three teaspoons of oatmeal, fry until golden-brown and crispy.
6. 最后加入之前煎好的虾，炒一炒就好了。
Add in prawns and mix for a while, cover the pan for 1/2 a minute to fully cooked the prawns.

In 'Z' sequence from top-left to bottom-right; 1. Processed prawns and marinated; 2. Fried prawns; 3. Fried oatmeal with garlic; 4. Final product.

试味/Tasting notes:
Just before consuming, can squeeze some lime/lemon juice onto the prawns, but we don't have these, so using grapefruit juice as substitute. Prawns are juicy (if you haven't overcooked it). The oatmeal has absorbed all the prawn, garlic, pepper's flavour and attached all the crispyness to the prawn shell. This creates an outer-crispy, inner-juicy taste for this dish, which is really suitable to go with a bowl of rice.

烧肉 - Chinese Roast Pork

2007-12-30T12:23:00.000+08:00

主要材料/Main Ingredients：
0.5公斤猪肉（三层肉）
0.5 kg pork belly, cost about SGD$1.10/100gram, enough for 2 - 4 persons.

做法/Instructions：
1. 猪肉整块洗净（不用切）
Wash the pork belly and please do not cut it
2. 平均抹上一大茶匙的粗盐（用手将盐平均的覆盖整块猪肉)
Evenly rub one full tea spoon of salt on the surface of the pork
3. 平均撒上五香粉
Evenly rub spiced powder on the surface of the pork.
4. 撒上少许黑胡椒粉和黄酒(用手将调味料平均的覆盖整块猪肉)
Black pepper powder and cooking wine to taste.
5. 将调好味的猪肉固定在烤箱（必须旋转以便平均拷猪肉）
Fix the pork in the oven with rotisserie.
6. 烤箱设定：二百至二百二十摄氏度，三十分钟
Set the oven at 200-220 degree Celsius for 25-30 minutes
7. 冷却半小时，切小块。
After cooling for 1/2 hour, cut into small pieces.

注意/Notes：
1. 在烤的过程中，猪油会被逼出来。
During roasting, the pork fat will be automatically *squeezed* out and preventing the meat from over-burning.
2. 猪皮会冒泡（在烤的过程中，空气会“跑”进去），所以可以先将猪皮刺洞。但不影响滋味。
The pork skin will bubble due to air/oil trapped in, to avoid getting bubbling in pork skin like a moon-surface, spike the pork skin evenly with needle before roasting, but this will not affect the taste.
3. 在烤箱中放置一盘以盛滴下的猪油。
Put a tray beneath the rotating rotisserie to capture the dripping oil.

试味/Tasting notes:
The succelant roast pork is crispy on the skin and has a juicy inner part, the trick is to roast with high-heat at a short moment to trap the flavour inside, it would not burnt due to the fat that will lubricate the pork surface. Another trick is to apply the seasoning more than adequate to the pork, because the dripping oil will remove some seasoning, the result will be just nice when extra is added.

Unfortunately, when the pork is presented for tasting, it was gone within minutes before we remembered to capture some pictures. Therefore, pictures will be uploaded once we have redone it in the future.

**********************************************************
This is the second trial:
In 'Z' sequence from top-left to bottom-right;
1 & 2. Pork belly;
3 & 4. After applied seasoning and rubbed evenly;
5 & 6. Fixed to rotisserie;
7. Ten minutes later;
8. Twenty minutes later, and readjust to lower temperature;
9 & 10. Half hour later;
11. Final product;
12. Cut into pieces, see the juicy meat!!!

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炒杂菜 - Fried mixed vegetables

海参猪脚 - Stew sea-cucumber with pork leg

酿豆腐 - Yong TauFu

焖海参猪肉 - Stew sea-cucumber with pork

炒苋菜 - Fried chinese spinach

宫保田鸡 - Gong Bao frog

麦片虾 - Oat Prawn

烧肉 - Chinese Roast Pork

Corn Soup with Chiken or Pork Rib - 玉米排骨汤玉米鸡肉汤