Do Not Disturb : Art in Progress

It's funny how kids see things; all so innocent and so pure. Everything's beautiful or icky and even when it's icky, it's totally fascinating!! When Ethan is finger painting, he doesn't want help from mommy except for the cleaning up! *sigh* He's in total concentration of what he's painting and regardless how it looks, it's always gift worthy!! :)





Ethan was making a card for his grandpa(gong gong)in S'pore and this was one of the many he had done!! ehehhe...in the end he decided that he would give these paintings for his daddy instead while he made another card with stickers for grandpa!!

And for those who are interested, this easel from Ikea is great for kids Ethan's age coz it's the right height for them to reach and paint/draw/doodle at eye level. It's also a chalk board on the other side. A great "tool" around to calm a crazy kid.

Special Salt Stir Fried Salmon

Even if you don't like fish, you gotta like this! I usually eat another version of this at our fave chinese restaurant and apparently never crossed my mind to try and replicate the dish. I guess it was easier to eat there!!

Then one day, with all the exhausted salmon recipes I had done and with even more salmon fillets left in the freezer, a spark of idea came to me, why not make that dish at the chinese restaurant, the one we ALWAYS order. I mean, it seems enough, although they always use rings of squids, sort of like fried calamari without the marinara dipping sauce.

So I lightly battered the salmon pieces and deep fried them quickly to get the crisp coating. And then add them together with the other veges that I had quickly flash fried on high heat. The verdict, the little picky eater loves it! He can't get enough of it, in fact, that was the only thing he ate, he didn't even want his rice!! LOL it was so funny. Ethan kept asking me if it was chicken and I told him yeah and now he's totally obsessed with it. He would point to a dish, asked if it was chicken and asked if it was crunchy crunchy (I nicknamed the battered fish "crunchy crunchy"). HA HA HA! What a laugh! So now when he's doubtful of a particular food, I would just tell him it's crunchy stuff and his whole face lights up and grabs the food and starts chomping it down like there's no tomorrow! So much for honesty...:) Hey, at least that gets him to try out different food without pre-judging them...which he tends to do!

Speical Salt Stir Fried Salmon (Please don't ask me why they called it that way, they just do, and I'm only the translater)
Ingredients
-Salmon fillets, rinsed and pat dried
-1 Large white onion
-some Green Onions
-Jalopenos/dried red chillis, totally optional but gives a great flavor to the food
-Salt and Black Pepper to taste
-Dash of Five Spice Powder, again, very optional

Batter
-Glutinous Rice Flour
-Ice water

Method
-Add enough flour and water to make a thin batter. Too thick and you get a thick coating.
-Slice the fish and lightly season them with salt, pepper and five spice powder(optional)
-Slice the onion and green onions and jalopenos (optional). Or break up the dried chillis(optional)
-Heat oil for deep frying the fish or use a deep fryer. Done when the batter is cooked. Set aside.
-With a little oil in wok on high heat, add sliced white onions and jalopenos till slightly smoking (open the windows for better ventilation or else you would be choking along at this moment).
-At this point, add some salt and pepper and stir.
-Add the cooked batter fish and give it a quick whirl.
-Ready to serve.

Notes: There's no measurement for the flour and water coz it depends on what kind of batter you want. You can change how thin or thick the coating would be with a regular spoon, the amount of coating on the spoon when dipped into the batter will give you an idea what it would be on the fish. I used Glutinous rice flour coz that keeps the fish real crispy without being heavy. The thinner the batter, the crispier it is. All has to done in a high heat to try and imitate what most chinese called "wok breath". This dish needs that! But due to the limited heat factor with regular home stove, it's impossible to replicate that unless you get a commerical stove top with at least 300,00 BTU...;) But that's ok...you use what you got and PRAY for the best and so far, this dish's still good...:)

Sambal Dried Shrimps

Inspired by Ching of Little Corner of Mine, I've decided to make Sambal Dried Shrimps with a recipe given to my husband by his family. I had failed miserably before and daren't try it again.

It was so long ago that I had since tasted this sambal that for the love of it, I couldn't remember how this sambal was supposed to taste. There I was, stirring and stirring, getting my husband into the kitchen to keep tasting just so I could get the flavors right! It was just too funny!! And all my husband would say that he thinks that it needed more sugar. Ok...if any one who knows Ed, he's a sucker for sweet stuff, so I was doubtful to trust him......

In the end, I decided it was just enough sugar, I don't want to turn this dish into dry fried sugar with dry chillis which was what we would end up with if I didn't put an end to his "I think we need more sugar".



With all my greediness, I ended up with more sambal than we really can consume. So went into this baking frenzy to use as much of it as possible. As you can see, I made some Sambal Dried Shrimp Pao/Bun. It was actually pretty good. The down side to all these, my little boy couldn't eat any of it, it was just too spicy for his palate. Oh well.....nevertheless Ed ate all up!!! :) Good for him!

Raisin Cinnamon Bread

Recently I managed to procure a copy of Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, it came highly recommended from a friend. I read that book TWICE during the weekend and love it!! The pictures were lovely, recipes were easy (well, easy when it's in print!) and I can't wait to start making every one of those recipes in it.

Somehow this particular recipe was just calling out my name, I was hooked, I needed to create this recipe, even when I'm feeling a little under the weather. I couldn't wait to smell the cinnamon and all-spice rafting throughout the house, those smells always bring back memories of christmas pasts. This was better than any medication for my pounding congested head.

I made this bread, breadmaker-free, it really made me appreciate my breadmaker even more!! :) The overall result was delightful and even though it did nothing for my physical well-being, at least I felt grateful that at least my boys had a great breakfast feasting on the bread!! :)

Note: The amount of sugar asked for this recipe was, in my opinion, way too much, I cut down almost to half of it which, in retrospect, was a good decision. And brown sugar instead of the regular white one called for in the recipe is what they depicted in the picture. I also halved the recipe since it was way too much for my small family. Result, it was not as easy as I thought....;) but then, I wasn't thinking with a clear mind either!

Marbled Eggs

I had some leftover sauce from the last time I made Soy Sauce Chicken, it was too little to make another chicken/pork dish and too pathetic to be left in my freezer waiting for another day to come back when I make another soy sauce chicken again.

What I did was used all the remaining sauce and made Soy Sauce Marbled Eggs with it. It actually turned out quite flavorful! The sauce was perfumed with cinnamon sticks, star anises, cloves, chinese shaoxing wine, chicken stock(from cooking with chicken) and of course, soy sauce, both light and dark. The eggs infused with all the flavors were, in my opinion, better than the "traditional" marbled tea eggs. And the reduced sauce for this dish white rice tastes simply delightful!

Soy Sauce Marbled Eggs
Ingredients
-4 Cups of water
-2 cinnamon sticks
-4 cloves
-2 star anise
-1 cup dark soy sauce
-1/2 cup light soy sauce
-1 cup of sugar/brown sugar/rock sugar, amount varies on how sweet you want it to be
-1/3 cu p of shaoxing wine
-Eggs, of course

Method
-Put all the first 8 ingredients in a pot, bring it to a boil and then lower to simmer. At this point, you can add chicken for soy sauce chicken and cook till done (that's entirely a different post altogether since getting the "perfect" chicken is another story..:))
-Taste the sauce to adjust accordingly and then add raw eggs, still in their shells, into the simmering brew.
-Once the eggs are hard-boiled, take them out and gently crack the shells without removing any of it.
-After that, put the eggs back into the sauce and simmer for a little over 5 mins and off the heat. Let the eggs sit in the dark sauce for about 1/2hr at the least.
-Once ready to eat, remove the eggs and heat up the sauce with no eggs in them.
-Remove the shells from the eggs. You should get the marbled effect and are ready to be eaten.
-Serve the sauce aside from the eggs, to be drizzle onto white rice.

Tofu Hot Pot

My attempt at Tofu Hot Pot, well, actually my excuse to use my new claypot that I had painstakingly brought back home from Singapore during my last trip there. Thankfully it wasn't broken and I was able to experiment with it! It was a Tanyu Claypot and supposedly to be built a little more reliable than the regular stuff.

The first few try-outs with my claypot were disappointments, somehow the claypot didn't really impress me that much. It was mediocre to say the least. Accordingly to my mom, I was not using the claypot the way that it was might to. Hmmm...in any case...

I decided to simplify my techniques and get back to basic with the claypot. This time is a tofu recipe and pretty much you can't do wrong with it. I cooked everything inside the pot and well....it tasted good and all but I still don't see the "magic" of this particular claypot. Probably I was just expecting too much! hehehe...

Tofu Hot Pot recipe
Ingredients
-1 pack pre-fried Tofu
-4 artificial crab meat, filament style
-1 carrot, sliced
-1 medium onion
-2-3 spring onions
-1 tsp minced garlic
-Mushroom Flavor Sauce
-stock/water

Method
-Cut the tofu in triangles, slice the carrot and onion and minced the garlic.
-Heat oil in claypot at medium heat. Stir in the garlic till fragrant but not brown.
-Add carrot and onions into it and stir till a little done.
-Add tofu and crab into the pot and a little stock/water.
-Add mushroom sauce and sugar to taste.
-Cover and simmer for 15mins, add spring onions and stir for about 2 minutes.
-Serve as it is.

Hokkien Prawn Mee Soup

This is another favorite in the T household. I make this one dish meal about twice a month. This is another easy peasy dish; no fuss and you get everything in one bowl!

A commonfare back home, I used to eat it almost once a week and when I left the country, boy, did I miss it so! You never know what you truly have till you don't have! My fave was this one at Beach Road. I had it when I came back for a visit the first year I was out of Singapore. It was this good old ORIGINAL Kopi Tiam style coffe shop by the road and it was a real dark, kind of dodgy looking place. I can still remember thinking what the heck I was doing there when I can get Prawn Mee almost anywhere...some place with air condition would be good! In any case, when the nooddles came to our table, I was kinda surprised to see what's in it. Most of the time you get a few slices of pork and scanty pieces of prawns. But lo and behold, the bowl contained more than that, not only they had used whole tiger prawns but also pig's tail as well! And when I tasted the soup, I will never forget it, it has a clean taste of pork and seafood broth and despite the pig's tail being in there, it was not at all oily. I love it! I could had been greedy and ordered a second bowl just for the sake, but I didn't. Some things are best left at the minimal, overdosing it kinda spoils the whole effect! :)

After having that, I was determined to find out the best way to replicate this delicacy. Over the years I learnt from a some great friends who had generously taught me their family recipes and from there I'd diversified. I had re-adjusted and "created" a recipe that I like. So far, I'd no complaints, other than for people who are allergic to prawns! Yah..that would be a problem! I think the main "ingredient" for this dish is to get the freshest ingredient possible. If you're going to make a broth out of it, bet as well make it a good one!

Hokkien Prawn Mee Soup
Ingredients
-1 lb fresh medium-sized (at the very least)prawns/shrimps with heads intact
-1-1.5 lb pork ribs, washed and trim most fat off
-Fresh Bean Sprouts, rinsed and tailed if wish
-Water convulous/Kang Kong, cut and rinsed thoroughly
-Fried Onions
-Oil
-Dark Soya Sauce
-Salt, Sugar and Pepper
-Hokkien Mee/Yellow Noodle, homemade or pre-packed

Method
-Rinsed the prawns, and peeled the shells and head and leave it aside.
-Heat 4 TBSP of oil in a stewing pot, once hot enough, add all the prawns' heads and shells into it and fried till fragrant. Crushed the heads and shells with a potato masher (most effective I found) as you fry.
-Add water into the pot once the prawn remnants are red and cooked. Amount of water depends of how much you need for 4-6 servings.
-Add in the ribs and bring it to a boil and then put it to simmer for about 2 hrs or till ribs are tender.
-In that duration, cook the peeled prawns in the same broth and leave it aside once done.
-Once the ribs are done, add some dark soya sauce for a darker colored soup and add some salt and sugar for taste.

Putting them together
-Blanched some sprouts in the same broth, leave it aside.
-Blanched some water convulous in the same broth and again, set aside.
-If you're using pre-packed noodles, blanched them quickly in plain boiling water to rid of excess oil. Set aside into individual bowls.
-Placed some sprouts, water convulous and prawns on top of the noodles.
-Add boiling soup stock into the noodle bowl and some ribs to accompany that.
-To serve, add fried onions and dashes of white pepper as toppings.
- Ready to eat! :)

Note: I chose ribs instead of sliced pork loin coz I felt it was easier and have more flavor. Personally I used homemade noodles since it was a lot more convienent for me to make it.

Asian Pear Soup

Two years ago one of New Year's resolution I made was to make an effort to make more nutritious type soup. Sounds a little corny but I was having a baby and being brought up drinking home made soups which claimed all kinds of cure-all-illnesses herbs, I thought it might be a good "tradition" to pass on to my little one. Now, one problem, I didn't know how to start and what "herbs" to use, it was all so complicated. Thank goodness I could depend on my grandma as a main source but she didn't know the English names for the herbs used and I didn't know if I can find those "herbs" using my brand of Cantonese. But I was determined and hence began my journey....

I started looking into books; cookbooks to be specific and found that there were quite an amount of chinese herbal soup cookbooks (very specific right??) out there. And the cherry on the top was those books were also written in English (figured for people like me...hehe). They helped A LOT!! Since then I'd accumulated a number of these books to help with my herbal soup culinary journey.....................lol

These days, rather than opening a can of cream of something (which I often did) or making wonton soup/vege soup with canned chicken stock, I would just make one of these "specialty" soup using my trusty slow cooker. Most of these soups takes a while and what could be easier than putting everything in one pot and leave it till dinner time! It's just as simple as that.

Recently I started preparing this particular soup coz Ethan started to enjoy having soups! Funny chap! I used to make a slightly modified version making into a tea for Ethan...easy consumption! As the post title mentioned, this is Pear Soup. Yes, Pear Soup, using asian pear to make into a savoury soup. Pear Soup supposedly helps rid of coughs and nourish the lungs, extremely helpful for people with coughs, minor respiratory problems, an overall goodness!! hehe...The herbs used to compliment this soup were chosen to enhance that effect. I don't know how true the claims are but so far it'd worked on my boy who had, in the past, issues with dry coughs, persistent coughs that wouldn't go away without constantly taking synthesized drugs!! Besides, get him into a habit of soup drinking too...:) A tradition hopefully he would carried onto his own family as I had...

Asian Pear Soup (4 Servings)
Ingredients
-1 Asian Pear, peeled, cored and cut into quarters
-Carrots/Apples/or both, peeled, cut into quarters ( I used carrots here)
-5-6 pieces of ribs/neck bones/half lean loin of pork, blanched to rid of "scum" and then washed under cold water.
-1 handful bitter apricot kernels/chinese almonds/bei xing, rinsed
-1 handful sweet apricot kernels/chinese almonds/nan xing, rinsed
-3-4 pieces Solomon's Seal/Yu Zhu/Yok Chok, rinsed
-3-4 dried red dates/hong zao, pitted and rinsed
-5-6 honeyed figs, rinsed
-Small handful chinese wolfberries/gei chi, rinsed
-1 medium sized dried tangerine peel/chen pi, soaked and the white pith scraped away
-Salt, optional! (I prefer mine with some sea salt)

Method
-Have a slow cooker ready, add everything into it and add enough water to cover all the ingredients.
-Set it on high for 3 hours and then on low for 2 more hours. Or at low for 6-7 hours. Add salt in soup before scooping out to serve. You don't want the salt to absorb into all those ingredients.

Note: The herbs added are from personal concoction and not "dangerous" to consume unless you're allergic to them! Used lean pork, seems to give the best clear soup and it's preferred since it's "neutral" in properties unlike chicken which can be a little too "warming" for this soup. This soup will result in a rather sweeter soup than most are accustomed to for a "savoury" soup but not overwhelming that it becomes a dessert.

Medicinal Properties (from various sources)
-Both types of apricot kernels/chinese almonds are said to have healing properties for respiratory problems, usually used as a remedy for severe colds, coughs, dry throats, laryngitis and asthma. They are also use in equal amounts together.
-Solomon's Seal also has similar properties as apricot kernels and generally use to treat illness related to the lung and throat.
-Tangerine Peel is used to counter the oiliness of the soup (the meat) and also believed to be good in treating coughs and colds. Also gives a citrusy flavor to the soup. To be used sparingly as it might be overwhelming and to take the bitter white pith off as it will turn the soup a little bitter.
-Dates in general is to emit natural sweetness to the soup although believed to increase energy levels as well.
-Chinese wolfberries is also used to give a little sweetnesss to the soup. It's traditionally used to treat diabetes as well as improve vision. Can be eaten uncooked as well if wished. :)
-Asian Pears are known to moisten the lungs hence believed to treat dry coughs and colds. It's also known as a "coolant".

Overall this is a "cooling" soup and helps in, particular, coughs and colds. I usually make this every other week and maybe not make it too much in the winter since the body then will need more "warming" soups/teas.

Vegetarian Night

Divertion: Before I go on, I want to say what a beautiful glorious day today is!!!! Perfect cool weather; not too cold, not too hot! Perfect blue skies that make you want to just stay out door and have a leisurely picnic by a perfect newly mowed green lawn! Feels like beginnings of Autumn!! My favorite season!! LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!! All I want to do is bake and bake and bake!! LOL I don't know what yet but I think I'll come up with something and better now and later with the great weather as an inspiration and motivation!





Every now and then we have what I would call pseudo vegetarian night. Pseudo because it's not ALWAYS 100% vegetarian, I would say, 90% vegetarian?? Anyway, last Saturday night was one of those nights. We usually have it once a week (well, at least I try to make it once a week!!) and I just used whatever veges I had left in the fridge before doing grocery. You know, like a "cleansing" for the fridge AND the body!! :)

I made these two dishes and a soup to go with plain white rice. It was really tasty and we pretty much finished everything! And the biggest surprise is that my boy who's usually picky with what he eats would actually eat the veges AND drank the soup (chinese pear soup, to be posted later!) and asked for more! Now he couldn't stop asking for soup for each meal!!! LOL!! What a funny chap! Oh yah, did I mention that Ethan loves to drink his soup off the big soup ladle????

Sesame Garlic Spinach recipe (serving 2 adults + 1 fussy toddler)
Ingredient
-1 bunch of spinach
-2 pods of garlic, minced
-1.5 TBS sesame oil
-Sea Salt (I always use sea salt, but use whatever salt you have at hand)

Method
-Wash all the gritty sand from the spinach, blanched them in boiling water and removed them into a colander to drain.
-Then using a muslim cloth, squeeze all the water from the cooked blanched spinach. Try to squeeze as much of the liquid from it as possible.
-Cut the dried spinch into bite size pieces and put in on a plate.
-At low heat, add sesame oil and garlic at the same time. Sesame oil has a low smoking point andwill start to smoke at even a low temp which is why add the garlic together to get a good infusion and that will also garanteed that the garlic's cooked.
-Once the garlic's cooked which you would know from the immediate smoking from the oil, removed from heat and add enough salt to taste.
-Immediately pour this infused oil into the drained spinach and mixed it all up. Add toasted sesame seeds if wished for garnish or just for the extra crunch!

Marinated Tofu Recipe
Ingredients
- 5- spiced marinated tofu (can always get this at any asian grocery store. They are already pre-marinated), at least 5-6 pieces, sliced
-1 TBS Sesame Oil
-"Oyster" sauce, (I always use the vegetarian version, but use whatever oyster sauce you have)
-Sugar
-Salt (if still needed)
-Sesame Seeds, toasted

Method
-Rinsed the tofu pieces and dry before slicing it thin.
-Heat oil at low heat and add the tofu into in and give it a stir.
-Add oyster sauce, sugar and salt to give it taste.
-Plate and add the seeds for garnish.

Note: They are as "vegetarian" as I can get them, not true vegetarian I supposed but they are quick to make, tasty and most of all, delude me into thinking that somehow I can skip a few taebo episodes!! :) Enjoy!

Lasagna

Years back during a Christmas party I had the best Lasagna I ever tasted, better than some of these so-called "authentic" italian restaurant. Nope, not kidding. It was so good that I went back for thirds and so did EVERYONE! So it was gone within minutes! However the taste of that wonderful pasta casserole lingered in my mind AND tongue for years to come. Since then I'd tried to search high and low for a lasagna recipe that remotely fit in that delicious wonder that I had at that party. The stupid thing of all was that I didn't even ask for the recipe from the host, who incidentally make one of the best lasagna around. Now what was I thinking! I think it was all that alcohol that I had that night that made me all tongue tied!!! Till this every day I am STILL kicking myself.

Although I've yet find that mysterious lasagna recipe, I had tried out many others and had fine-tuned my lasagna. Of course, throughout my experimentation I'd made (unfortunately) many a disasterous lasagna but on the bright side, I discovered a good many keepers.

Not so very long ago, I found a new passion to make my own pasta/noodles and I frequently used my pasta maker (so often that it's now squeaking....probably from fatique). However the thought of making my own lasagna sheets never ever occurred to me?? How odd. I had always used the store bought dried sheets and somehow never found them to be very appetizing. These sheets were always thick (too thick in my opinion) and tend to be soggy after all the cooking (probably overcooking?). Well, in any case, when I read THIS recipe I decided that I would make my own pasta sheets since it did call for FRESH lasagna sheets! I didn't want to buy them coz it can get real costly and really, I'm already making my own pasta....(no brainer!)



I used the recipe from Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Dinners. It takes a fresh look in making simple lasagna and I'm really curious how the creme fraiche white sauce would taste in this recipe! Not only that but it also uses roasted squash in one of the layers, now, tell me that doesn't sound fascinating enough.

So I went about making lasagna sheets but thing is, I didn't know how thick the fresh lasagna sheets are supposed to be... I decided to just follow my instincts instead. The pasta recipe I had barely yielded enough sheets for one lasagna recipe so I added a little more flour and egg to make a little extra (hey, you can always freeze the unused portion for something else!). The fresh lasagna sheets (they were made solely with flour and eggs)were a delight and I loved the texture of it. It was so smooth and the smell....YUMMY! I already had some homemade ragu sauce and used that for the "red" sauce in the lasagna. Of course, I had to make do with some other substitute ingredients coz I didn't have everything needed for that particular recipe. But it was all good! The final result was a beatiful tasting and textured lasagna. Everything came together wonderfully and even though it was a little more work in making this lasagna, this is definitely a keeper for me in my journey for the one and only lasagna! :)