Showing posts with label Recipe - Vegetable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recipe - Vegetable. Show all posts

Friday, February 10, 2017

Baked Cheesy Spinach & Eggs

Yes, we are still on "cheesy" recipes to get rid of the cheese in my freezer.

We know some kids dislike vegetables, some prefer leafy ones to non leafy ones, some eat roots vegetable while some loves fruit vegetables. In this family, we love vegetables too and have taught DinoBoy not to be picky on his food so he eats vegetables of all types and color.  Most of the time we stir fry them in either oyster sauce or with garlic and frankly it can get kinda bored on some days.  Today I am sharing another way of preparing one of our favourite vegetable - spinach, simply bake them in ramekins instead.


Spinach is a power food, that's why Popeye loves them! It is packed with vitamins A and C, folate, calcium, magnesium and iron. Having spinach in your diet helps boost your immune system and supports skin and hair health.

This dish is so easy to prepare and its so tasty that you could probably introduce them to your I-Don't-Like-Vegetable children, they may fall in love with this power vegetable and I think that is better than not having any vegetable in their diet right?

Grab a packet of baby spinach from the supermarket, rinse them, throw them into the wok or non stick frying pan, add a little bit of water and stir fry them till they wilted.  Be sure remove them from heat once they have wilted as overcooking will the oxalic acid in the vegetable to give a lingering bitter taste.


Pack the spinach into the ramekins or any oven save dishes that can accommodate the portion, depending on the size, add 2-3 eggs or more to cover the top. Sprinkle some salt before adding the eggs, sprinkle some pepper and salt, add in a generous heap of cheddar cheese.  Mine was not enough coz that was what's left in that opened packet of cheddar cheese, I was too lazy to open another packet so decided to just make do.  Ok, so now you know you can NEVER be lazy when it comes to cooking.

You can use other cheese that you fancy, I probably will add some mozzarella cheese the next time.




Pop the ramekins into the oven that is preheat to 200 deg and bake it for 15 to 20 mins or until the eggs are cooked, that means the egg yolk looks firm and egg whites turns errmm.. white.  If you like your eggs to be a little bit runny, that's ok too, just make bake them a shorter time or til the eggs are cooked to your liking.


This dish taste good as part of the dish with steaming white rice  or pasta. or even its own as afternoon snack and I strongly suggest that you choose this healthier choice over instant noodle! With just 2 ingredients you have a whole loads of vitamins and minerals from spinach and protein from the egg.  I say this recipe is for keep!

Ingredients
* 1 bag fresh baby spinach
* 3 to 4 eggs depending on the amount of spinach used and size of oven safe dish
* some salt and pepper
* half a cup of cheddar cheese or more, depending on the amount of spinach used and size of oven safe dish

Steps
1. Preheat the oven to 200 deg. Lightly grease the ramekins or oven safe dish with a little of oil.
2. Heat up the frying pan, add the spinach with 2 - 3 tablespoons of water.  With medium heat, cook the spinach till it has wilted.  Remember not to over cook it and remove from heat immediately.
3. Drain any excess water from the spinach and distribute them equally among the ramekins or oven safe dish.
4. Sprinkle a pinch of salt onto the spinach.
5. Crack an egg into the ramekin, season it with some salt and pepper.
6. Top it with cheddar cheese or cheese of your choice.
7. Place ramekins on a baking tray and put into the oven to bake for 15-20mins.  It is done when the eggs are cooked.

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This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.

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Friday, October 11, 2013

Foodie Fridays - Stir-fried Aubergines with Sweet Basil

I'm a khek or hakka who does not speak the language nor follow any of the dialect's tradition as my dad did not expose us to either of them.  The only khek dish that I have tasted was the Hakka Abacus Seed or the vinegar pig's trotter until a few months ago I chanced upon a khek cookbook in the local book store and brought it home.  Since then I've cooked some of the dishes (Its labelled under 客家村食谱 in my blog) in the cookbook and I must say they really have their own unique taste and texture.

Today I am sharing one of my favourite food, aubergines or egg plant.  This bright purple vegetable is perhaps not every one's favourite because of its texture.  I like it very much, especially my mum's version where she will stir-fried it with dried shrimps and chilli, I love the sauce which goes well with steaming white rice.

I was surprised to find a aubergine dish in the khek cookbook, its a different style from mum's but nonetheless as tasty.  The unique part of this recipe is that the aubergines are cooked twice, first deep fried to seal in the juices making them crispy on the outside but moist on the inside, then follow by quick stir-fried with the seasoning and basil. A word of caution while deep frying the aubergines, oil blanch them in the hot oil for probably around 30 seconds or so otherwise they will turn out like mine in the photo, a tad too dry and too brown.




Such a beautiful dish isn't it?  Even DinoPapa & DinoUncle#2 said that it tasted good.  If you are not a pork belly fan, you can replace it with either minced or sliced pork, the taste should not differ too much. 

Stir-fried Aubergines with Sweet Basil

by DinoMama
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins
Keywords: stir-fry main aubergines
Serves: 4

Ingredients
* 300g aubergines/egg plants/brinjals
* 100g pork belly, cut them up thinly
* 100g sweet basil
* 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
* 100ml water

Seasoning
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* 1 teaspoon chicken stock powder
* 1 tablespoon fish sauce

Instructions
1. Heat up the cooking oil in pan.
2. Cut aubergines into stripes, deep-fry them in the hot oil until aromatic and golden brown. Drain well.
3. Leave about 1 tablespoon hot oil in the wok to sauté garlic until fragrant.
4. Add the pork belly, stir-fry briskly until aromatic.
5. Add the aubergines and seasoning, stirring until well combined.
6. Add water, bring to boil, simmer it until the gravy is almost absorbed.
7. Add in sweet basil, stirring constantly until well combined. Serve hot.

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Linking up with


Next up on the What's cooking? blogtrain is Winnie Lee of Toddly Mummy who will be sharing with us her Shanghainese wonton.  In contrast to the local version, Shanghainese wontons resemble ingots. These are handmade (except for the skin) and hand wrapped, and are usually consumed as a main dish.

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This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.

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Friday, September 6, 2013

Foodie Fridays - Stir-fried Prawns with French Beans

I love prawns, they are so tasty and sweet and if I can get them fresh I can whip up a simple dish with minimum seasoning.  Recently I cooked this stir-fried prawns with french beans on one of the weekday and everyone said its delicious.  Its fast & easy to prepare, dinner was ready in 30mins.




You can cook this as one of the dish for the meal but we eat it alone with rice, our one dish dinner for that night.

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Stir Fried Prawns with French Beans

by DinoMama
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Ingredients (serves 4)
* 12 - 15 prawns, remove shell and de-veined
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon pepper
* 1 teaspoon sesame oil
* 1 teaspoon cornflour
* 1 packet of french beans
* 1 carrot, peeled and sliced
* 1 tablespoon oil
* 1 tablespoon finely diced garlic
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3 tablespoons chicken stock
* 2 tablespoons shaoxing wine
* some cornflour, mixed with little bit of water
* 1/3 teaspoon sugar

Instructions
1. Season the prawns with salt, pepper, sesame oil and cornflour, leave it to marinate for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, blanch the french beans and carrots in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. Heat a large frying pan with 1 tablespoon oil over high heat. Stir fry the prawns until cooked through and no longer opaque; about 3-4 minutes. Set aside.
4. Heat the same frying pan with 1 tablespoon oil over high heat. Saute the garlic until aromatic.
5. Stir in the prawns, french beans, carrot, chicken stock, shaoxing wine, cornflour slurry and sugar; mix well until the sauce thickens.

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This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.

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Friday, March 22, 2013

Foodie Fridays - Stir fried Mixed Vegetable (Chap Chye)

Its been quite a while since I cook dinner for the family, so last weekend I thought I'd do some cooking.  I feel like cooking mixed vegetable or chap chye so went about to look for a simple recipe.  I know this should be an easy dish to make but I wanted something different from Mum's recipe, so here is my not too successful chap chye.

Ingredient
* 600g Chinese cabbage
* 150g glass noodle
* 3 bean curd sheet
* 2 Chinese mushrooms
* 10g white fungus
* 1 carrot
* 1 tablespoon chopped garlic

Seasonings
* 2 red preserved bean curd
* 2 tablespoon oyster sauce
* 2 tablespoon light soy sauce
* some salt
* some pepper
* 1 tablespoon chicken seasoning
* 1 tablespoon cooking wine or hua diao wine
* some sesame oil

Method
1. Rinse & soak the Chinese mushrooms and white fungus.  Cut the carrot into slices.
2. Heat up oil in frying pan, fry the bean curd sheet until crispy and fragrant.
3. Fry the chopped garlic in heated oil till fragrant.
4. Add in the rest of the ingredients and seasonings.  Add in adequate water and fry until cooked, thicken the gravy with some tapioca flour and water.
5. Stir fry for a few minutes and dish out to serve.

Notes
1. Go easy on the glass noodle or rice vermicelli, they expand twice the volume after soaking in the water.
2. My bean curd sheet looks weird as per the photo below, instead of cutting them into smaller pieces and frying them in enough oil, I threw the whole piece in, use very little oil and pan fry it.  Thus you see only some parts are fried.
3. This should be the last dish to be cooked unless you want to end up like me.  I cooked this FIRST and by the time we start dinner the glass noodle has soaked up all the sauce and become one big ball of noodle.  The bean curd become rubbery and difficult to chew too.

Fried bean curd sheet

Seasoning

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This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.

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Friday, February 15, 2013

Foodie Fridays - Of Potatoes, Luncheon Meat & Baked Beans

I do not come from a well-to-do family, in fact money was tight during my childhood days since dad was the sole breadwinner.  We do not have luxury things, goes to fancy restaurants for meals, toys or books that we want or like but we have decent things to get us by such as clean clothes to wear, food on the table and pocket money for schools.  Mum was a housewife and she cooks all of our meals, I have fond memories of the simple dishes she cooked for us.  One of our favourite dish is a mixture of luncheon meat, potato and baked beans, even now we will still request Mum to cook this dish when we are back at her house for dinner.

This is a simple dish which I believe many will love it though some will think its unhealthy since 2/3 of it is made up of canned food but in actual fact this is a dish packed full of nutritional benefits.  Potatoes are very rich source of starch, fiber, B Complex vitamins and have zero cholesterol, they are high in Vitamin C too.  Baked beans are a source of iron, proteins, folic acids and have strong antioxidants that fight free radicals in the body.  Free radicals increase your chances of illness, aging and cancer.  Of course as much as we love them baked beans and luncheon meat, we all know that all processed and canned food are full of salt and sugar so moderation is the key word.


Ingredient
* 1 can of luncheon meat
* 1 can of baked beans
* 1 - 2 potatoes
* some ketchup

Method
1. Remove the skin and dice the potatoes, boil them till their are almost cooked.
2. Dice the luncheon meat.
3. Heat up a pan with some cooking oil, fry the luncheon meat till they are brown.
4. Add in the potatoes to fry for few minutes.
5. Pour in the can of baked beans, add in a little bit of water, a few dashes of ketchup, bring to boil and simmer for a while.  The dish is ready to be served.

Notes
1. I used luncheon ham instead of the normal luncheon meat as it's tastier.
2. Again, this is a flexible dish so add more or less of the ingredients you prefer.  If you love ketchup, just add more dashes of it.  We ran out of ketchup that day thus our dish have the taste of baked beans instead of ketchup.
3. Since this is a stomach filling dish, I suggest that you cook lesser dishes for the meal otherwise you will have lotsa left overs after that.

Frying of the luncheon meat & potatoes

With baked beans added into the pan
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This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.

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Friday, December 14, 2012

Foodie Fridays - Sour & Spicy Brinjal

I love brinjal since I was a little girl, Mum always fried it with dried shrimps and lots of chilli. I will mix the sauce with my white rice and could always finish half of the brinjal alone.

Now that I have a family and have started to cook in the recent years, I have tried to cook the brinjal but it always does not taste as delicious as Mum's.  Then I chanced upon this in one of the cookbook I bought, a substitute for my craving on Mum's version.


Ingredients
* 4 brinjal
* Some cooking oil
* 2 whole garlic
* 2 stalks spring onion
* 50g dried shrimps

Seasonings
* 4 tbsp light soy sauce
* 2 tsp sesame oil
* Some pepper
* 2 tbsp lime juice
* 10 chilli padi

Method
1. Rinse brinjal, cook in boiling water that is mixed with cooking oil until soft.  Let the brinjal cool down then peel the skin away.
2. Chop chilli padi, garlic and spring onion. Soak the dried shrimps in water for about 5 mins or till its soft, remove and drain.
3. Mix brinjal and seasonings.
4. Heat up 4 tbsp oil in pot, fry the garlic, spring onion and dried shrimps until fragrant, sprinkle on brinjal for decoration. 
5. Sprinkle the chilli padi on top before serving.

Recently I googled about brinjal and realize that there are many health benefits from this little vegetable. It contains lots of vitamins and minerals like Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, B2, B3, and minerals like potassium, calcium and iron. Brinjal is also rich in dietary fiber. Read more about its health benefits here.
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I am hosting a weekly Foodie Fridays linky, join me if you can, I'll be very happy to welcome you on board.

This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.

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Friday, November 16, 2012

Foodie Fridays - Ketchup Prawns, Broccoli & Water Chestnuts

In our family, we have a few favourite food and prawns are one of them.  Besides steaming them I always like to find some other ways to cook it.  My personal favourite is  this recipe as its very easy to prepare and the amount of seasoning used are flexible.  Besides having the prawns and greens, it also have my favourite water chestnuts in it.

A little bit about water chestnuts, though small in size are huge in nutritions and benefits. Besides being fatless thus healthy food option, they are a good source of potassium manganese, calcium, copper, and vitamin B6 too.   It also have a cooling effect so if your body is feeling a little bit heaty consider drinking water chestnut water. I guess because of their cooling effect, they are made into drinks for measles patients.  They also contains detoxifying properties & helps to relieve cough.

Ingredients
* 8 prawns
* 50g water chestnuts
* 200g broccoli
* 2 - 3 stalks spring onion
* 2 - 3 slices of ginger
* some cooking oil

Seasoning #1
* 1/2 egg white
* 1/2 tablespoon salt
* 1 tablespoon corn flour
* 1/2 tablespoon pepper powder

Seasoning #2
* 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 1/2 tablespoon salt
* 1 tablespoon rice wine
* 1 tablespoon corn starch

Method
1. Remove the prawn's shell and veins, wash it then mix it well with Seasoning #1.
2. Remove the water chestnut's skin, wash and slice them into 3 pieces.
3. Wash the broccoli, cut them and boil them for about 3 - 4 minutes.
4. Preheat a pan, add in the oil, fry the prawns and water chestnuts briefly, remove and put aside for use later.
5. Mix all ingredients in Seasoning #2 in a bowl.
6. Fry the ginger and spring onion till the fragrance is out, add in the prawns and Seasoning #2, fry for a while and add in the broccoli.  Dish them out to serve.

Prawns mixed with Seasoning #1

Boiling the broccoli

Boiled Broccoli, I love their vibrant green look!

Notes
-  As mentioned earlier, this is a very flexible dish.  You can add more or less of any ingredients and seasoning according to your own preference.  The recipe is for 8 prawns and 200g broccoli, simply adjust the seasoning according to the portion you are cooking..
- As usual, I left out the pepper, but the dish still taste as delicious.
- If you notice in my photo, I cube my water chestnut instead of slicing them.  Its just my personal preference, as cube size are easier for my son to eat it.

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I am hosting a weekly Foodie Fridays linky, join me if you can, I'll be very happy to welcome you on board.

This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.

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Friday, October 19, 2012

Foodie Fridays {Linky} - Steam Ham & Winter Melon

WARNING - This dish is a test of your skill in handling the knife and patience, but at the end you will be rewarded with a healthy tasty dish.


Ingredients
* approx 300g winter melon
* 60g picnic ham 
* 2 slices ginger

Sauce
* Stock
* 1 teaspoon rice wine
* 1 teaspoon sesame oil
* 1 tablesppoon cornflour
* 1 teaspoon  honey

Method
1. Remove the melon skin and seeds.  Cut up the melon in big thick piece as you need to slit them in the middle.
2. Cut the hams to about the size of the melon.  Brush on honey and steam it for about 2 minutes.
3. Put the ham in between the slits on the melon, lay them nicely on a plate, add in the stock, rice wine & sliced ginger.  Steam till the melon becomes transparent.
4. Pour the stock from the plate into a pot, bring it to boil.
5. In the mean time mix the cornflour with some water, mix it well and stir into the pot.
6. Drip some sesame oil, stir it and pour the sauce onto the melon.

Notes
- As both the ham and stock already has salt in them, you can choose not to add in any more salt.
- The steaming time depends on the thickness of the melon, if the melon pieces are thicker then it requires longer time.
- Do not over steam the winter melon as it will become too soft and soggy which will breaks up easily.
- Do not cut the slit too deep as the melon will become very soft and it may break into half easily.  I made this mistake when I cook this (the above photo are taken when DinoPapa cook this), the melon breaks and the hams"broke loose".

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I am hosting a weekly Foodie Fridays linky, join me if you can, I'll be very happy to welcome you on board.

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