Braised Ee Fu Noodle

Ee Fu Noodle is frequently used in wedding banquets and other important celebrations. It's prepared with the finest ingredients, deep-fried to a golden yellow and served as a royal dish. The most common one is Braised Ee Fu Noodle with Enoki & Yellow Chive.

For today's dinner, we are having Braised Ee Fu Noodle with Prawns, Pork Fillets & Spring Onion. It's a very simple and yet delicious dish that suits everyone in the family..... Especially for those who loves to eat Ee Fu Noodle.......


Ingredients:
1 Piece Of Dried Ee Mee
2 Stalks Spring Onion, cut into section
6-8 Medium Prawns, shelled & devein
150g Lean Pork, cut into strips
1 Teaspoon Grated Ginger
1 Teaspoon Grated Garlic

1. Marinate the pork strips with some pepper, soy sauce, cooking wine and cornflour. Set aside with the shelled prawns while preparing the noodles.
2. Bring half pot of water to boil, add in the dried Ee Mee and stir till soft then drained, rinse with cold water and set aside.
3. Preheat a pan with about 2 Tablespoons of oil and stir-fry spring onion until fragrant, add in prawn, pork strips, garlic and ginger.
4. Continue to fry until almost cook then add in the noodles and seasoning sauce.
5. Cover and let it braised over low heat for about 3 minutes until sauce thicken and serve.
6. You can add in abit more water or stock if you want it to be more wet.

Seasoning Sauce:
1 Tablespoons Oyster Sauce
1/2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
3/4 Cup Instant Chicken Stock
1/4 Cup Water

Methods:
1. Mix all the sauce ingredients together and set aside for later use.

Notes:
You can get this Hong Kong Conton Style Ee Mee at local supermarket like NTUC.

You can add in different ingredients such as mushrooms or vegetables to create your own style of Ee Fu Noodle.

Salad With Breaded Fish

Other than having rice, dishes and soup for dinner..... We decided to have a change for tonight's menu. We are having some vegetables and fruit salad together with breaded fish. Although it might look simple but it's a rather filling meal.

In order to make the salad more complete and filling, I added the breaded fish which I come across this idea from eating out.


Ingredients:
2 - 3 Small Butter Lettuces
8-10 Baby Potatoes
6-8 Fresh Chestnut
1 Tomato, or some cherry tomatoes
1 Avocado, cut into slices
1 Medium Japanese Cucumber, peel and cut into 1" thick
1 Apple, peel and cut into cubes
1 Lemon Juice & Rinds
1/2 Red Onion, thinly shredded
2 Tablespoon Extra Light Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Mayonnaise Sauce
Some Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Methods:
1. Cut and wash the lettuces then drain and set aside.
2. Boil the baby potatoes and chestnut in a small pot of water until tender.(around 15 minutes)
3. Drained the water, rinse the potatoes and chestnut then peel off the skin and cut them into half each.
4. In a big mixing bowl, add in cucumber, apple, avocado, onion, lemon rinds, potatoes and chestnut. Then drizzle 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice, 1 1/2 Tablespoons Olive Oil, Mayonnaise Sauce and some black pepper into the bowl and mix well.
5. Place the salad and lettuce in the fridge while preparing the breaded fish.

Breaded Fish Fillet:
8-10 Pieces Of Fish Fillet Strips
2 Tablespoons Cornflour
1 Egg, lightly beaten
1/2 Cup Dried Breadcrumbs

Methods:
1. Marinate the fish fillet strips with some salt and pepper for about 10 minutes then dust with some cornflour.
2. Dip the fish strips in beaten egg then coat with dried breadcrumbs and set aside for a few minutes before deep-frying.
3. Preheat a pot of oil and deep-fry the fish strips until golden brown, drained and set aside.

Assemble The Salad:
1. Toss the lettuce into the vegetables salad and mix well then place it on a plate and top with breaded fish and serve.

Notes: You can used with hard boiled egg or breaded chicken instead of fish for the salad.

Sweet & Sour Chicken Meatballs

Although nowadays there are some people who are having phobia of eating chicken because of the H5N5 Bird flu Virus. Chicken is still an excellent source of protein and a rich source of most B Vitamins. However, chicken skin is high in saturated fat and should be removed before eating. Chicken breast fillet is an ideal meat for any weight loss diet. Chicken meat is also low in carbohydrate, low in fat with a moderate protein content.

So for today's dish, we will be using Chicken Breast fillet to make the meatballs and deep-fry in with breadcrumbs. We also incorporate a few colourful vegetables to make this dish more vibrant and nutrition.

For those who loves to eat sweet and sour pork but scare of it fats contain, maybe you will wish to try on this low-fat version using chicken breast meatball. It taste just as good as well........


Ingredients:(can make 16-20 small meatballs)
1 Chicken Breast Fillet, skin removed
2 - 3 Tablespoons Cornflour
1 Egg, lightly beaten
4 - 5 Tablespoons Dried Breadcrumbs
1 Medium Japanese Cucumber, peel and cut into 1" section
1 Medium Tomato, cut into wedges
1/2 Red Onion, cut into wedges
1/2 Yellow Pepper, cut into wedges
1 Piece Fresh Pineapple, cut into wedges

Methods:
1. Remove the skin from the chicken breast, wash and cut it into small cubes and put it in a food processor.
2. Add in 1 Teaspoon Cornflour, 1/2 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce, 1 Teaspoon Cooking Wine, 1/2 Teaspoon Sesame Oil and some pepper then blend the diced chicken into a paste form.
3. Let the chicken paste rest in the fridge to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
4. Roll the chicken paste into a small meatball (about the size of a normal fishball), coat it with some corn flour, then dip in beaten egg and roll onto some breadcrumbs.
5. Leave all the breadcrumb meatballs aside for 2-3 minutes so that the breadcrumbs won't fall off easily when deep-frying.
6. Prepare a pot of 80% boiling hot oil and slowly add in the meatballs in two batches and deep-fry till golden brown, drain and set aside.
8. Preheat a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of oil, saute the Onion until fragrant then add in the tomato, cucumber, yellow pepper and pineapple and stir till combine.
9. Next add in the sauce ingredients and bring to boil, gradually add in some cornflour mixture(1 tablespoon cornflour + 1 tablespoon water) and stir well.
10. Lastly add in the meatballs and stir fry till all the meatballs are coated with the sauce and remove to serve.

Sweet & Sour Sauce:
6 Tablespoons Water
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Fine Sugar
2 Tablespoon Tomato Sauce
1/2 Tablespoon A1 Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
1 Tablespoon Chilli Sauce
1 Tablespoon White Vinegar

Methods:
1. Mix all the above sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside for later use.

Notes: You can also used those pre-mix sweet and sour sauce that is found in most supermarket like Lee Kum Kee Brand.

Making Nyonya Rice Dumpling

Every year during the "Five-month, Five-day" of Lunar calendar is known as the "Dumpling Festival". In Singapore, this traditional Chinese festival is celebrated by the eating of a variety of steamed glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves call "Zong Zi". Dumpling Festival (Duan Wu Jie) is also known as Dragon Boat Festival. It is celebrated in rememberance of Chinese poet Qu Yuan, who was a loyal official in the court of the Chu Kingdom in old China.

Fishermen who heard that Qu Yuan drowned himself in the river set sail on boats to look for his body When they could not find it, they threw rice wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river so that the fish in the river would eat the rice instead of his body. Thus began the tradition of dragon boat races (creating a din to scare away the preying fish?) and eating rice dumplings on Duan Wu Jie.

The usual local favourites of rice dumpling in Singapore are - Bak Chang(with salted egg), Nyonya, Mung Bean Rice Dumpling, Red Bean Rice Dumpling, etc. So for today we are making the Nyonya version which is towards the sweet side of Rice Dumpling.

The process of making Rice Dumpling can be consisted as tedious preparation. Because from the boiling,washing and soaking of bamboo leaves and strings to prepare all the necessary ingredients. It could take up to a few days to prepare ahead and after the wrapping up the dumpling, you still need to boil it in water for about at least 1.5 hrs to 2 hrs in order to get it cooked. But it's always good to make your own dumpling because you can add in whatever ingredients you prefer. I had include a short video clip for those who is interested in wrapping the dumpling, hope it helps.



Ingredients: (make about 35, depending on the size)
2Kg Glutinous Rice
1 Tablespoons Salt
3 Tablespoons Oil
3-4 Cloves Garlic
2 Tablespoons Bunga Telang Juice/Blue Food Colouring
12-15 Pandan Leaves,cut into 1.5" length

Methods:
1. Soak Glutinous rice for at least 3 hrs or overnight, drain and set aside.
2. Preheat pan with oils and stir-fry garlic till frangrant then add in the drained rice and stir for a few minutes then add in salt, stir till combined.
3. Divide the rice into 2 portions, mix 1 portion of rice with colouring then set all aside to cool.

Bamboo Leaves
50-60 Pieces Bamboo Leaves
3-4 Bunch of Hemp Stings

Methods:
1. Bamboo leaves and hemp strings have to be pre-treated in advance too.
2. Heat a large pot of water, when water starts to boil, place bamboo leaves and hemp strings in. Make sure bamboo leaves and strings are fully immersed in water.
3. Continue boiling for 5 minutes, turn fire off remove the leaves and strings.
4. Roughly wash them in water then soak it in a pail of water overnight.
5. Remove leaves and strings from water before you need to use them.

Fillings:
800g Pork Belly/Chicken
300g Candided Winter Melon
30g Dried Mushrooms,
150g Dried Shrimps
150g Dried Chestnut, optional
50g Chopped Garlic
200g Chopped Shallot

Seasoning:
2 Tablespoons Black Pepper
6 Tablespoons Coriander Seeds
2 Tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Sugar
Pinch Of Salt
8 Tablespoons Cooking Oil

Methods:
1. Soak the dried chestnut overnight and drained.
2. Soak dried mushroom and shrimps separately until soft.
3. Dice the mushroom finley then chopped the shrimp.
4. Cut pork or chicken into small cubes/thick strips.
5. Heat 8 tablespoons of oil in a wok, fry shallots and garlic until fragrant then add dried shrimps, chestnut and mushroom.
6. Fry further till fragrant, stir in pork and seasoning and fry till pork is cooked.
7. Turn off heat and add in candied winter melon and mix well and set aside to cool.

Notes: If you are making Bak Chang, then you can omit the candied winter melon and add in 1 /2 Tablespoons of 5 spices powder when frying the filling.

You can either cooked all the ingredients together or you can separate the chestnut, dried shrimp and meat & mushroom in 3 different sections.

Wrapping the Dumplings:
1. Overlap two bamboo leaves and fold into a cone.(wipe the leave if it's too wet)
2. Put 1 tablespoon colour glutinous rice, 1 tablespoon plain glutinous rice, 1.5 tablespoons of filling and another 1 tablespoon plain glutinous rice on top.
3. Press gently with a spoon and top with a small pices of pandan leaves and wrap dumpling into a pyramid shape.
4. Tie with a string.
5. Boil some water in a pot, add 2 tablespoons of salt to the water, put in the tied dumpling and cook over high heat for 1.5 - 2 hours until rice is cooked through.
6. Remove the dumpling and hang it up to drip away any excess water and you can leave it at room temperature over night or keep unfinished dumpling in the freezer for a few weeks.

Notes: The ingredients and taste of the fillings are depend on individual, you can add in different kinds of meats(eg: chicken instead of pork) or beans(black-eyed bean, mung bean or red bean) and even salted egg) according to your taste.

There is no bean, chestnut or salted egg for traditional Nyonya Rice Dumpling, but you can create any favour when you get the hand on how to prepare the filling and wrapping.

Fish & Century Egg Soup

The century egg, also known as preserved egg, thousand-year egg, thousand-year-old egg; or in Chinese call 皮蛋 or 松花蛋. It is a Chinese food made by preserving duck or chicken eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing.

For this soup, I add in extra ingredients such as mince meat, doufu and tomatoes to make it more complete dish. Century eggs, coupled with doufu are good for treating chapped lips. A small bowl of the soup a day can help to alleviate the symptoms of ulcers and dry mouth. This soup is also good for clearing up and moistening the body, resolving heatniness, cooling the body and relieving fatigue.


Ingredients:
300g Sheng Yu Fish Slices
1 Tomato
150g Pork Mince
1 Tube Plain Doufu
2 Century Eggs
2 Slices Of Ginger
Some Spring Onion, cut into sections
1.5 Litres Of Water
Some Coriander

Methods:
1. Marinate the pork mince with some pepper, soy sauce, cornflour, cooking wine and set in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
2. Wash the fish slices and lightly marinate it with some pepper and salt.
3. Add about 1/2 Tablespoons of Oil in a pot, add in ginger and spring onion and stir-fry till fragrant then add in the tomatoes and stir for a while.
4. Pour in the water and bring to boil, add in pork mine balls, doufu and century eggs and let it boil then simmer on low heat for about 10 - 15 minutes.
5. Before you serve, add in the fish slices and bring to boil for a few minutes until cooked through then sprinkler some chopped coriander leaves and season with salt to taste.

Steam Tapioca Kueh

Tapioca prepared from the tuberous root of the cassava plant. Tapioca is commonly used in making Indonesian Kueh. Cassava was introduced into Indonesia during the Dutch reign. Cassava was the main foodstuff of Moluccans and Irians in Western Indonesia Islands. They ate steamed or boiled cassava roots.

This is one of the Nyonya Kueh delight call Steamed Ubi Kayu which mean Steamed Tapioca Kueh. The Tapioca is blended then mixed with sugar and desire colouring and steam until cooked.

Ingredients:
1kg Blended Tapioca
250g Sugar
Pinch Of Salt
A few Drops of Different Food Colouring Each
250g Fresh Grated White Coconut
2 Pandan Leaves

Methods:
1. Steam grated white coconut with salt and pandan leavs over low heat for about 5 minutes, then set aside to cool.
2. Peel the skin of tapioca, wash and cut into small pieces, blend them in a few batches with some water in a blender until smooth.
3. Squeeze the liquid from the blended tapioca under the running tap for a few times.
4. Mix the tapioca with sugar and a pinch of salt.
5. Divide the mixture into 4 portions.
6. Add one food colouring to each portion, place in a microwave plastic container and steam over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes.
7. Remove from heat, cool completely, and roll it in desire shapes and coat in grated coconut and serve.

Bake Pumpkin With Rice Stuffing

A Pumpkin is a squash fruit, most commonly orange in colour when ripe, that grows as a fruit. When ripe, the pumpkin can be boiled, baked and roasted, or made into various kinds of pie, alone or mixed with other fruit; while small and green it may be eaten in the same way as the vegetable marrow. They are a good source of essential fatty acids, potassium and magnesium.

Brown rice = whole grain rice. Many rice varieties come as either brown rice or white rice. Brown rice isn't milled as much as white, so it retains the bran and germ that makes brown rice more fiber-rich, nutritious, and chewy.


Usually stuffing rice in pumpkin is an a very western dish that they usually had during Halloween. But I had come across this dish from a children TV program and after souring for a suitable recipe for this dish. I invented something new which called Bake Pumpkin With Rice Stuffing using Brown Rice Mixture which is more Nutritious for my family.

Ingredients:(serves 2-3)
1 Small Pumpkin, around 1 - 1.2 kg
2 Cups Cooked Brown Rice Mixture/White Rice
2 Tablespoons Frozen Mix Vegetables
3 Tablespoons Finely Dice Taiwan Sausage
6 Fresh Chestnuts
1 Tablespoons Golden Raisin
1 Teaspoon Minced Garlic
1 Teaspoon Minced Ginger

Seasoning:
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Pepper
1 Teaspoon Cooking Wine

Methods:
1. Boil chestnuts in a small saucepan over medium heat for about 15-20 minutes until tender.
2. Drain and remove any shell or skin then chopped in pieces.
3. Cook 1 cup of brown rice mixture or white rice accordingly and let it cool to room temperature to obtain about 2 cups of cooked rice.
4. Wash and cut a lid from the top of the pumpkin, remove seeds and fibers from it then drizzle 1/2 Tablespoon of olive oil in it and coat evenly.(remember to coat the lid as well)
5. Preheat a non-stick pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, saute the diced sausage for a few seconds then add in the mix vegetables, chestnut, raisin, ginger and garlic.
6. Stir-fry the above mixture until fragrant then add in the rice and stir through quickly.
7. At the meantime, add in seasonings(can adjust more or less according to individual taste) and stir till well mixed.
8. Scoop the fried rice into the pumpkin and press it tightly until the rice is firm then cover with the lid.
9. Place the pumpkin in a small baking dish that is slightly grease with olive oil.
10. Bake in a preheat 200 degree oven for about 30 - 45 minutes(depending on the size of the pumpkin) until cooked and tender when tested with a skewer.
11. Turn off the oven, let the pumpkin stand in the oven for another 15 minutes.
12. To serve, remove lid and cut pumpkin into wedges with some salad.(if there is still extra rice left from stuffing the pumpkin, you can also serve it beside the pumpkin wedges.)

Notes:
For the fried rice, you can also used those pre-mix fried rice seasoning.
I suggest to use Brown Rice mixture instead of White Rice for it's fragrant and chewy texture.

Thai-Style Mango Chicken

I love any dish that had mango in it... I always order the Thai Style Crispy Fish Or Chicken whenever we eat out at the coffee shop near our area. I love their mango salad within the dish, as it's so appetizing. Although you need a few ingredients more to prepare this dish, but itÂ’s really worth the time and effect. I got a few recipe versions on this dish so I decided to mix and match some of the ingredients. But overall, thanks Hugbear(Lily) for sharing her recipe in her blog.

For my Salad I add in extra carrot, cucumber, lime juice and rind to give an extra boost to the favour and fragrant. I love the taste of the lime juice and rind, it really enhance the favour of the salad. Below is the recipe of this Thai-Style Mango Chicken for those who is interested.


Ingredients:(serves 3-4)
1 Chicken Breast Fillet, skin removed
1 Chicken Drumstick Fillet, skin removed
1 Teaspoon Of Grated Garlic
1 Teaspoon Of Grated Young Ginger
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 Egg, lightly beaten
Some Potato Flour/Corn Flour

Methods:
1. Wash and remove the skin of the chicken then cut into large pieces.
2. Marinate chicken with garlic, oyster sauce and ginger for at least 2 hours or more in a fridge.
3. Before deep-frying, add in the egg and mix well.
4. Dust chicken with flour and leave it aside for about 10-15 minutes before deep-frying until golden brown and drain well.
5. Chopped chicken pieces into serving size and set aside.

Sauce:
2 Tablespoons Oil
1 Teaspoon Grated Garlic
3 Shallots, thinly sliced
1 Tablespoons Lemon Grass, thinly sliced
2 Tablespoons Lime Juice
5-6 Tablespoons Thai Sweet Chili Sauce

Methods:
1. Mix the chili sauce with lime juice and set aside.
2. Heat up the oil in a pan, saute garlic, lemon grass and onion till fragrant, then add in the chilisaucee mixture.
3. Bring to boil and add in the chicken pieces and stir through high heat until every pieces are well coated.
4. Remove and place ontop of some mango salad in a plate then top with the rest of the mango salad.

Green Mango & Vegetables Salad:
1 Green Mango, shredded
1 Small Red Apple, shredded
1 Japanese Cucumber, shredded
1/2 Carrot, shredded
1/2 Red Onion, shredded
2 Pieces Chili Padi, remove seeds and cut into small pieces
2 Sprigs Coriander Leaves, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon Lime Juice
1 Lime Rind, finely grated
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar

Methods:
1. Put all the above ingredients in a large mixing bowl then stir thru well using a chopstick and set aside in the fridge until used.

Notes: Buy the slightly green mango which more firm and suitable for making this salad.

Lemon Yoghurt Cake

Lemon is one of the most highly alkalinizing foods that are native to tropical Asia. The best lemons have skin of an oily, fine texture and are heavy for their size. This type is more apt to be full of juice, with a minimum of seeds and waste fibers. Choose lemons of a deep yellow color for ripeness and juice. They should be firm, but not hard, to the touch. Fresh lemon juice is an outstanding source of vitamin C.

So for today's afternoon tea we will be having something that is light and fragrant. How was a mouth watering Lemon Yoghurt Cake. It's very moist and soft to taste especially with it lemon fragrant that make you feel fresh together with a cup of tea.

Ingredients:
150g Butter
1 Cup Caster Sugar
2 Medium Size Eggs
1/2 Cup Fresh Milk
1/2 Cup Thick Plain Yoghurt
4 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
1 1/2 Tablespoons Grated Lemon Rind
2 1/2 Cup Self-Raising Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

Lemon Syrup:
1/3 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Water
4 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
Rind Of 1 Lemon Cut into thin strips

Methods:
1. Sift flour and baking soda in a big mixing bowl and set aside for later use.
2. Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat on medium speed until light and creamy.
3. Add eggs one at a time and beat until well combined.
4. Stir in yoghurt, lemon juice, lemon rind, flour mixture and milk into the butter mixture slowly till combined.
5. Spoon mixture into a greased 9" cake tine and bake in a preheated 180 degree oven for 45 minutes or until cake is cooked when tested with a skewer.
6. To make the lemon syrup, place all the ingredients in a small saucepan, stirring over low heat until sugar dissolved.
7. Allow to simmer for 4-5 minutes, then immediately pour syrup over the cake which is just out from the oven and still in the cake tin.
8. Let the cake stand in the tin for 5 minutes then cut and serve it with extra yoghurt and fresh fruits.

Note: You can replace the yoghurt with fresh milk for a smooth and moist texture of cake. Or you can replace the 1/2 cup of milk with yoghurt instead.

Mango Kaffir Lime Sorbet

This is the Kaffir Lime Leave that most Thai Food used. If you remember well, I had used this leave for one of poultry dish called "Kaffir Lime Leave Chicken" which infused a very special fragrant to the dish. You can get it from most supermarket or those Malay vegetable stalls in the local wet market.

This time, instead of using this leave for cooking, we are actually using it's fragrant to make a sugar syrup for the sobert. You may wonder... Err... is it nice? I can tell you, it is..... and indeed it's a very fragrant and refreshing dessert.....

The process of making a sorbet is rather easy but time consuming.. Because you need to break the ice from time to time in order for it to be smooth. Sobert is a frozen dessert made from iced fruit puree and other ingredients. The term "sherbet" is derived from the Turkish word for "sorbet". Sorbet is a form of gelato that contains no milk, unlike ice cream. Sorbets may contain alcohol (which lowers the freezing temperature, resulting in a softer sorbet). Sorbets are traditionally served between the starter course and main course in order to cleanse the palate before the main course.

These Mango Kaffir Lime Sorbet tastes fantastic when you sever it with some extra freshly cubes mango, laychee and drizzle over some Kaffir Lime Syrup......... And again... thanks Tracy for introducing me this wonderful and easy to make dessert.

Ingredients:
100g Caster Sugar
1 .5 Cup Water
6 - 8 Single Kaffir Lime Leaves
2 Mangoes, skinned and cut into slices

Methods:
1. Wash the kaffir lime leaves and tear into small pieces and put everything together in a pot with the sugar and 1.5 cups of water.
2. Bring to boil and stir till all the sugar dissolves then cool and chill overnight in the fridge before use. (Discard the leaves before chill)
3. Reserved 1/2 Cup of the chilled syrup and mix the rest with the mango slices and blend in a food processor until well mixed.
4. Pour the mango puree into a shallow tub or baking tin.
5. Leave it in the freezer for a couple of hours until ice begins to form around the edges.
6. Remove from freezer and use a folk or handheld mixer, whisk thoroughly to break up the ice-crystals.
7. Do this two to three times more at hourly intervals, then transfer the mixture to an air-tight container and allow to freeze solid.
8. Just before serving, scoop the mango sobert to a cup and top with extra diced mango, some fresh lychee and drizzle with some extra kaffir lime syrup.

Chicken & Fresh Coconut Soup

This is my 1st time using Fresh Coconut to stew soup. So far, I had only used coconut milk and shredded coconut for making curry, dessert and keuh. Until recently I saw a few cookbooks have different recipes on Coconut Soup so I mix and match and come up with this version of my own.

Coconut(椰子肉): It is good for good for strengthens the Lungs and nourishes the Qi. So it's actually a great soup for the whole family. Saw from the News a few days ago that actually eating more coconut or using coconut oil in cooking are good for health. When you cooking this soup, you can actually smells the coconut fragrant all around the kitchen. And as you drink the soup slightly warm, you can also taste the sweetness and fragrant of the coconut in between your teethes.


Fox Nuts(茨实): It supplement the internal organs, strengthen Qi, nourish and strengthen the body. They also benefit the kidneys, promote the replenishment of Jin, tonify the Spleen and stop diarrhoea. They are effective in healing indigestion, diarrhoea, poor bladder control and leucorrhoea.

Ingredients:
4 Slices Of Bei Qi北耆
1 Tablespoons Of Gou Qi Zi, 枸杞子
8 Red Dates红枣, remove seeds
1 Small Portion Of Fresh Huai Shan, cut into sections
1/2 Fresh Coconut(椰子肉), cut into slices
3 Chicken Drumstick/Half Chicken
50g Fox Nuts(茨实)
1.5 Litres Water

Methods:
1. Wash and trim the fat of the chicken, scald in boiling water and rinse with cold water, drain.
2. Wash Bei Qi, Gou Qi Zi, huai shan red dates, fox nuts and coconut flesh and set aside.
3. Bring the water to the boil and put all ingredients in.
4. Bring to boil again for about 10 minutes, turn to low heat and simmer for 3 hours at Low heat in a slow cooker.
5. Season with salt and serve.

Notes: You can get fresh coconut at those Indian stall that selling grated fresh coconut. Ask them to remove the dark skin then cut into pieces.

Steam Durian Tapioca Kueh

Another Durian Recipe coming out from Cuisine Paradise Kitchen's........ This Steam Durian Tapioca Kueh is made together by me and my mum for my relatives who loves this. It's pretty straight forward steps and ingredients and all you need is grated, mixed and steam then you will have your nicely fragrant durian kueh coated with fresh grated coconut........

This is for a chance, because we always had those colourful triangle steam tapioca kueh coated with shredded coconut. So maybe you will like to try out this which had a mixture of tapioca and durian instead.

Filling Ingredients:
600g Grated Tapioca
30g Wheat Starch
100g Durian Flesh
150ml Coconut Milk
140g Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt

Coconut Coating:
200g - 250g Fresh Grated Coconut
1/4 - 1/2 Teaspoon Salt

Methods:
1. Grease an 7" Square baking tin and line with banana leaves.
2. Combine all Filling ingredients and mix well.
3. Pour mixture into baking tin, place in a steamer and steam on medium heat for 45 minutes or until done. Remove and set aside to cool.
4. Mix grated coconut with salt and steam over high heat for 5 minutes.
5. Cut durian tapioca cake into small slices and coat with steamed grated coconut or you can pan-fry the cut slices with some oil.

Rainbow Wasabe Prawn Salad

Saw a version of this similar Wasabe Prawn Salad at one of the TV program. The salad ingredients are rather simple and you can use whatever you have in your fridge. While the main ingredients are Prawns and Wasabe.

People are confused by the message that Prawns contain high levels of Cholesterol. Cholesterol is only found in foods of animal origin and liver, egg yolk and shellfish are the major sources of dietary cholesterol. Prawns have only 99kcal per 100g while other proteins such as Beef Mince contain 209kcal and 13.5g of fat and grilled sausages contain 294kcal and over 22g of fat. Prawns are even lower in calories and fat than chicken. As well as being high in protein, prawns contain magnesium, which plays a role in bone development and nerve and muscle function; Zinc, which is good for growing bodies, and selenium, an important antioxidant.


So for today's salad, we also added in alot of vibrant fruits and vegetables to enhance the appearance as well as to boost up the Appetite.

Ingredients:
300g Of Medium Size Prawns
6 Cherry Tomatoes, cut into halve
6 Seedless Grapes, cut into halve
1 Japanese Cucumber, peel & cut into cubes
1/2 Carrot, shredded
1 Mango, cut into cubes
1 - 1 1/2 Teaspoons Of Roasted Black Sesame Seeds

Methods:
1. Shell, butterfly and devein the prawn, rinse and wash it with some salt water then pat dry.
2. Marinate the prawns with some salt, sugar and cornflour and set aside in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or more.
3. Coat the prawn with some potato starch and deep-fry in hot oil for a few second to 1 minutes until golden brown, drained and set aside.
4. At the meantime, prepare the fruits and vegetables on a serving plate.
5. Coat the prawns, evenly with the wasabe sauce and place it in the middle of the serving plate with the fruits and vegetables surround it.
6. Drizzle the remaining sauce all over the salad, then sprinkle the black sesame seeds and serve.

Wasabe Sauce:
4 - 5 Tablespoons Of Japanese Mayonnaise
1.5 Teaspoons Of Wasabe

Methods:
1. Whisk the above together ingredients together until combined and set aside.

Creamy Pumpkin Dessert

Managed to gather all the ingredients for this making this dessert that is strongly recommend by one of my blogger's friend Tracy. She used to cook this dessert at least 2 - 3 times a month. She get to know this dessert from one of the blogsite at http://www.dimsumdolly.com under JinGua Hu at 12 August 2005.

Based on the description from the website and some guideline of how much ingredients to add from Tracy. I came out of my own version of Creamy Pumpkin Dessert. But I think, next time I should chopped the ingredients even more finely because base on the actually Jin Gua Hu dessert, the ingredients seems to be tiny little bits and pieces. So I guess it all depend on individual, if you like to have a more crunchy texture then what I had is just nice for you......

Ingredients:
1/4 Wedges Of Pumpkin, about 300g
Set aside 100g Of Pumpkin, finely chopped
5 Water Chestnuts, finely chopped
1 Medium Orange Sweet Potato, finely chopped
1 Medium Japanese White Potato, finely chopped
1/2 Cup Uncook Sago
1/2 Cup Cream Corn/Sweet Corn
Few Pieces Of Pandan Leaves

Methods:
1. First, boil half a big pot of water and add in the un-cooked sago, boil and stir occasional over medium heat until sago is almost clear. (about 10 mins, then rinse and soak in cold water for later used)
2. While waiting for the sago to cook, peel and cut 200g pumpkin into cubes.
3. Bring 1.5 litres of water to boil, add in the pumpkin cubes and cook until tender then remove.
4. Add in the finely chopped, pumpkin, sweet potato, water chestnut, drained sago and pandan leaves in the water and simmer over medium low heat.
5. Puree the hot pumpkin with 1 cup of water(from cooking the pumpkin) until smooth then pour into the pot together with the rest of the ingredients.
6. When it boils, add in the sago and stir occasionally to prevent sago from sticking to each other and the bottom of the pot.
7. Simmer until the all the ingredients had cooked through then add in the corn and some rock sugar to taste.
8. Adjust water to consistency (thickness) of the soup that you desire whether too thick or watery.

If you put the cool pumpkin dessert in the fridge, it will became slightly harden like jelly. So in order to make it more creamy, you can add a few tablespoons of Fresh Milk to dilute it to the consistency that you prefer. To us, we prefer to eat it cold with some fresh milk as it's more creamy and fragrant.