Steam Herbal Chicken With BRAND’S® Chicken Essence

Since I had a few bottles of BRAND’S^® Essence of Chicken left in the cabinet, I thought of giving this dish a try. The original dish used Frog and Chicken Essence while I replace it with Chicken and some extra herbs to boost the favour as well as the fragrant.

Ingredients:
1/2 portion of a medium chicken
3 Slices Of Ginger, shredded
1 Bottle Of BRAND’S Chicken Essence
3-4 Slices Of Dang Gui(当归)
4 Red Dates(红枣)
1/2 Tablespoon Gou Qizi(杞子)
Marinade:
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Cooking/Rice Wine
10g Finely Grated Ginger

Methods:
1. Rinse the chicken, pat-fry and season with marinade for at least 30 minutes or more.
2. Arrange the marinated chicken on the plate together with the herbs, cover with foil and steam for about 15 minutes.
3. Remove from the steamer, pour in the chicken essence over the chicken, cover the foil and steam for another 15 to 20 minutes until the thicker part of the chicken is tender.
4. Remove the chicken, braised it with the chicken essence sauce and serve immediately.

Notes:
a) You can used any favour of the Chicken Essence.
b) You may omit the extra herbs if you find it too heaty.

Stir-fry Cabbage With Golden Mushroom & Woodear

Woodear is a type of mushroom that resembles a large ear when it is fresh and grows as large as half a foot. The surface of the mushroom is purplish-gray in color and the flesh is a dark purplish gray to almost black in color. They have a slightly crunchy texture and delicate, almost bland flavor that more often than not absorbs the taste of any strongly flavored ingredients with which they are cooked. They have both fresh and dried wood ears sold in the supermarket, the dried one usually look like brownish-black, dried chips. Upon soaking in water it might increase 5 to 6 times in size and resemble the shape of an ear. Wood ears are mainly popular in stir-fries and soups.


Saw a few kinds of mushrooms on sales from the local supermarket. So I decided to grab hold of 1 packet of Fresh Woodear and 1 packet of Korean Golden Mushroom. I found that the Golden Mushroom was very special, it's kind of like the normal Enokitake(金针菇), but in shorter and brown in colour. My son said it looks like little matchsticks.

Ingredients:
1/2 Small Beijing Cabbage(北京包菜)
1 Packet Korean Golden Mushroom
2 Pieces of Fresh Woodear(黑木耳), cut into thin strips
1 Small Carrot, cut into thin slices
2 Slices Of Fresh Ginger
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce

Methods:
1. Cut the cabbage into bite size then soak in water for about 5 minutes, rinse and set aside.
2. Cut the stalk off from the golden mushroom, rinse in water, drain and set aside.
3. Preheat the pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, saute the ginger until fragrant then add in the cabbage and carrot.
4. Stir-fry for a few minutes then add in the woodear and oyster sauce, stir for another few second then add 100ml water.
5. Cover and let it simmer on medium low heat for 5 minutes then add in all the mushroom and cover, continue to simmer for another 3 minutes.
6. Slowly add in some cornstarch water to thicken the sauce then dish and serve.(you might not need all the water, just add till the sauce is thicken)

Notes:
a) You can also used dried woodear if you prefer.
b) Cornstarch mixture = 1/2 Tablespoon Potato/Cornstarch mix with 2 Tablespoons Of water.

Bread Fritter Stuffed With Banana & Chocolate

Saw this interesting recipe from one of the Food Magazine which I bought recently. It actually wrapped banana with chocolate with bread then deep-frying it.


To my surprised it doesn't really taste as sweet as I thought maybe because I used dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. My son and I love the combination of banana with chocolate it's really another new way to serve bread as breakfast or afternoon tea snack.

Ingredients:
4 Slices Of White Bread
1 or 2 Banana
40g Chocolate Of Your Choice
2 Eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence, optional
Cornstarch for Dusting
Oil For Deep-frying

Methods:
1. Trim away sides of each sliced bread and flatten slightly with a rolling pin.
2. Peel and halve banana lengthwise to suit the size of the bread slice.
3. Roughly chop chocolate into fine pieces and set aside.
4. In a bowl, mix eggs with vanilla essence.
5. Dip each bread into egg mixture, ad place a slice of banana on one end then sprinkle some chopped chocolate on the banana.
6. Roll up the bread into a tight roll.
7. Dust with cornstarch and deep-fry till golden.
8. Drain on paper towel and cut it into half before serving.

Notes:
a) You can used any choice of bread that you prefer.
b) I used Dark Chocolate with almond.
c) You can serve the bread fritter with cut fruit or dust with some icing sugar.

Ginseng Black Chicken Soup

Feel like having some nutrition soup for this week as so happen Tracy was visiting me so I thought maybe can double boiled this soup and spilt half with her. Since only the adult prefer the Ginseng taste rather than the kid, I guess it's a good way to share in order to finish the soup :)


The Main ingredients used are small Ginseng Root and Black Chicken together with some other herbs to improve and strengthen the lungs and blood circulation. If you want to know more on what's the function and usage of each herbs, you can refer to the Basic Chinese Herbs I and Basic Chinese Herbs II links.

Ingredients:
1 Small Black Chicken,黑鸡
3-4 Gingseng Roots, 小人参
4 Slices Of Dang Gui, 当归片
4 Slices Of Huai Shan, 淮山片
1 Slices Of BeiQi, 北耆
1-2 Piece of Dang Shen(当参), cut into smaller pieces
6 Red Dates, 红枣
1 Tablespoon Gou Qizi, 枸杞子
10-12 Dried Lotus Seeds, 莲子
5g Dried Longan, 龙眼干

Methods:
1. Wash, trim and remove the skin and fats from the chicken. Cut the chicken into 3 - 4 large sections and blanch in boiling water then rinse and set aside.
2. Rinse all the dried herbs and set aside.
3. Soak the dried lotus seeds in hot water for a few minutes or till soft then remove all the pits in in to prevent it from bitter.
4. Bring a pot of 1.2 Litres of Water to boil then add in all the ingredients and bring to boil again.
5. Transfer all to a slow cooker and simmer on Auto for about 3 Hours.
6. Season the soup with salt if you prefer and serve warm.

Notes:
a) You can used normal free range chicken instead of black chicken if you prefer.

Chocolate Mint Cake With Fudge Topping

The 1st time I saw this Chocolate Mint Cake was in Taste Goblet blogsite. I was capture by the wonderful jade green colour and chocolate swirl design. The original recipe was from Aunty Yochana's blogsite where you can find the recipe.


I made this cake in smaller muffin size version instead of the 8" cake tin size used in the original recipe because I found it easier to do the fudge topping and it's kid's friendly to. I just need to give one serving portion to whoever that want to eat without cutting it into slices.... :) Lazy way of serving........

Reyon really enjoys every of our baking session. He loves to help me whip and beat up those necessary ingredients or help up in the stirring part when i pour in the Cocoa Powder or Milk. Guess very soon I can sit and relax while waiting for him to whip me some nice cookies or cake....... :)

I can't find any decent looking strawberries around in the supermarket so I melt some white chocolate to decorate the Chocolate Fudge Topping. As for the mini muffin, I sprinkle some colourful stars for my little Darling Reyon.

Sushi Chee Cheong Fun

This Sushi Chee Cheong Fun recipe had being sitting in my list to-make for a very long time. Then only till today I had the chance to grab hold the ingredients to make this light and health snack. But actually I also tried this snack in one of the Food Court vegetarian stall but the ingredients used was different from what mention below.


The main ingredients will be the Fresh Chee Cheong Fun which you can get hold from the supermarket or any bean sprout stall in the wet market. You can wrap it with any ingredients you prefer to suit your preference.

Ingredients:
2 Fresh Chee Cheong Fun Roll
2 Nori Sheet(use for sushi)
1 Japanese Cucumber, cut into long strips
1 Medium Carrot, shredded into long strips
2 Hard Boiled Egg, mashed into crumbs
4 - 5 Tablespoons Of Pork Floss
Some Mayonnaise Cream

Methods:
1) Slowly un-wrap the fresh chee cheong fun into a flat sheet.
2) Top it with a Nori Sheet then place the shredded carrot at the end towards you.
3) Add the cucumber strips, scatter the egg crumbs and pork floss evenly then drizzle with mayonnaise cream.(i use the Japanese style mayonnaise cream)
4) Slowly fold up the end that is towards you and hold on it firmly and roll it forward like making swiss roll.
5) Secure it tightly then cut it into serving size like sushi and serve with extra mayonnaise cream if prefer.

Note:
a) You can reheat the chee cheong fun by steaming it for a few minutes then un-wrap to use if you bought it a day before or you prefer to the sushi warm.
b) You can used any ingredients you prefer like: Shredded cooked chicken meat, tuna, prawn, crab meat or etc.

Sticky Glutinous Rice With Mango

Sticky Glutinous Rice With Fresh Mango(Kha Neo Ma Muang) is a marketplace favorite that is not to be missed when you visit any of the Thailand restaurant or food stall. The rice which is fragrant and soft taste sweet together with the aroma of coconut milk and fresh Mango slices.


Ingredients:
200g Glutinous Rice
150ml Fresh Or Can Coconut
2 Tablespoons Of Sugar
1 Ripe Sweet Mango

Serving Sauce:
125ml Coconut Milk
1/4 Teaspoon Of Salt

Methods:
1) Rinse the rice and soak at least 6 hours or overnight.
2) Drain the rice and steam for about 20 minutes, stir in the coconut milk with sugar and continue to steam for another 25 minutes or until rice is soft.
3) Cover and set the rice aside for 5 minutes then mould it into individual ramekins or mousse ring then cool it to room temperature.
4) Un-mould it on plate and serve it with Fresh Mango Slices and Coconut Sauce.

Notes:a) For the Coconut sauce, mix everything in a heat proof bowl and microwave on Medium Heat for 30 second or until just warm.

Stir-Fry Doufu With Egg

I saw a similar dish on TV show recently while they fry egg with doufu. So I decided to give it a try with whatever ingredients I can find in my fridge.


Other than the Main Ingredients like Doufu and Eggs, I added in shredded carrot, chopped spring onion and pork minced. Guess I am too greedy with the doufu as I used up the whole box with only two egg so it doesn't bind everything together like a omelet. But overall I still like this Doufu with Egg dish as it's light and simple with all the nutrition in it..... :)
Ingredients:
1/2 - 1 Box Of Silken Doufu
2 - 3 Eggs, beaten
100g Pork Mince
1 Small Carrot, shredded
1 Sprig Of Spring Onion, finely chopped

Methods:
1. Marinate the pork mince with some pepper, sesame oil and light soya sauce for about 5 - 10 minutes.
2. Cut the doufu into small or large cubes depend on your preference. (i cut mine into small cubes)
3. Add about 1 tablespoon of oil in a preheat pan, stir-fry the pork mince till almost done then add in the shredded carrot and spring onion.
4. Fry till fragrant then add in the doufu and stir till combine.
5. Slowly pour in the beaten egg and swirl around the pan to form an omelet.
6. Fry till egg and meat is cooked thru, dish up and serve.

Notes:
a) You can used those egg doufu in tube form instead of the box.
b) The number of eggs used depend on the amount of doufu used.