Showing posts with label Bak Kuet Teh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bak Kuet Teh. Show all posts

Friday 23 October 2015

5 Singapore Local Foods That Can Make You Happy

Singapore is a food paradise with wide range of cuisines and tantalising food from hawker centres to restaurant that satisfy our food craving at any time of the day. With busy work schedules like juggling appointments, meetings and generating reports; I am sure everyone is looking forward for some mood-lifting food to perk-up the tiring day. No matter how challenging your days are, it is easier to face it when your spirits are high than moody and feeling hungry.

For me I am easily satisfied with either a plate of fried rice with sunny-side-up egg, fish soup or fried oyster omelette together with an ice-cold Coke® to end my hectic day. In this article I would like to share five of my mood booster foods which I hope they will help to brighten up your mood in a way.

Sunday 25 May 2014

Breakfast + Gifts + Coffee @ Liberty Coffee

Coffee @ Liberty Coffee
Time flies and weekend has almost come to the end with a few more hours to Monday. For me it has being a great week as I have finally catch up with two of my "cyber friends" whom we have know each other through blogging for many years and yet to meet up. Beside that, I am also lucky to visit Liberty Coffee during their "limited" opening hours which happens to fall on Thursday, 22 May between 10am - 4pm.

Monday 6 August 2012

Cook For Family - Our 3 Generations Cooking Together for the #CookForFamily Initiative

I am so thrilled to be among one of hundred bloggers who had being invited by Daniel, from Daniel's Food Diary to take part in this #CookForFamily initiative started by him. As we know, his main objective is to get more bloggers, and hopefully their fans and followers, to start cooking and having family bonding with their families.

As for myself, I always tried to cook at least 2 meals per days during weekdays and hopefully one on weekend, especially Sunday.  And to support this #CookForFamily initiative, even my 8 years old boy who often helps up in the kitchen (washing and cutting) also volunteer to cook simple dish for us.  Below you can see some of the shots and dishes that he had cooked under our supervision. Overall we had fun and laughter in the kitchen sharing our family bonding and cooking skill together which makes meal time a fun time too.


#CookForFamily


I love to have soup during my meals and I brew soup almost everyday. Out of all the different kinds of soup we usually had, herbal soup is one of our family favourite. Here I specially made this "Herbal Black Chicken Soup" for mum with added Dang Shen, Ginseng and Dried Longan to regulate blood chemistry, strengthen the body as well as circulate the Qi in the body.


(Serves: 4      | Preparation: 10 minutes        | Cooking: 60 minutes)

Ingredients:
1 Black Chicken (乌鸡) / Half Portion of Chicken (600g)
2 Pieces of Dried Ginseng(人渗)
5 Pieces of Dang Shen(党参), cut into halves
8 - 10 Pieces of Big Red Dates(红枣)
20g Dried Longan (龙眼干)
10g Wolfberries (枸杞)
1.8 Litres Boiling Water

Method:-
1. Rinse the dry herbs and set aside. Bring a pot of water to boil and blanch the prepared black chicken which had being trimmed and cleaned.

2. Meanwhile using a soup pot (i used a big claypot), bring 1.8 litres of water to boil and add in all the ingredients including the blanched black chicken.

3. When the mixture comes to boil again, lower the heat and simmer over the lowest heat for at least an hour (careful of the heat and don't let the soup dried up). Alternatively,

4. You can transfer the soup to a slow-cooker and cook it on AUTO mode for about 2 hours.

5. Serve warm before meal or at night before sleep. This soup has a natural sweetness due to the herbs used so usually I won't add in extra seasoning or salt.

Stir-fry Celery With Sea Cucumber is one of my favourite vegetable dish which mum always cooked for us. And here for the #CookForFamily post, she prepared this dish especially for me while I take care of the herbal soup section.


(Serves: 4        | Preparation: 10 minutes         | Cooking: 6 minutes)

Ingredients:
2 Sticks of Celery
1 Small Red Capsicum, sliced
5 Fresh Shiitake Mushroom, sliced
1 Packet of Sweet Peas
2 Pieces of Sea Cucumber, sliced
2 - 3 Slices of Ginger
Some Chicken Stock Powder for seasoning

Method:-
1. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the outer skin of the celery and cut it into thick slices. Set aside.

2. Saute ginger with 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil till fragrant, add in celery and mushrooms, toss for a 30 seconds in the Happy Call Pan (HCP).

3. Next add in the remaining ingredients such as red capsicum, sweet peas and sea cucumber.

4. Add in the seasonings and give it a quick stir, cover the pan and let it simmer on low heat for 3 minutes.

5. Drizzle some cooking wine, stir to mix well and dish up to serve.


My little boy on the other hand also volunteer to join us with the #CookForFamily task where he marinated the chicken wings using Wokkingmum's "Grilled Chicken Wings with Fermented Beancurd" recipe. He choose this recipe because he knows that both grandma and I love fermented beancurd which we always had it with our porridge.

Recipe adapted from Wokkingmum website HERE.

(Make: 12 Chicken Wings    | Preparation: 5 minutes   | Cooking: 25 - 30 minutes)

Ingredients:
12 Chicken Wings, halved
2 Tablespoons of sauce from Fermented Beancurd
1.5 Pieced of Fermented Beancurd
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Cooking Wine


Method:-
1. Using the back of the spoon mashed fermented beancurd and mix it with the sauce.

2. Next stir in sugar till well mixed.

3. Marinate chicken wings with the mixture together with some cooking wine for at least an hour before cooking.

4. Arrange marinated chicken wings on baking tray which is lined with baking paper, grill in the preheated 220 Degree Celsius oven for about 25 - 30 minutes or chicken is cooked.


As mum love fish compared to meat, I always tried to incorporate at least 1 dish with fish whenever she comes over for dinner. Here we have a simple steamed fish dish using Threadfin fish head and ready pack Portuguese sauce. To success remember to get fresh fish head, steamed it to just done (do not over cooked), drizzle with some Portuguese sauce and steamed for another 1 minutes.


SOME OF THE MEALS WE COOKED IN JULY


All these photos (except the one with my boy doing cooking) are taken from my daily Instagram shots which I have shared online.






Any simple dish will bring a smile on your loved ones face. In fact it can be just a bowl of instant noodle with an egg or even simple ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast. For me it is more of the thoughts, loves and bonding time together that counts rather than the expensive ingredients or time spent on preparing the meals.

Photo credited to Daniel from Daniel Food Diary

So from today onwards, let's start to prepare something simple for your family as as head start and don't use the excuse that you can't cook or u are too busy. I am sure frying an sunny egg or boiling a hard boiled egg that served with bread and beverages won't even take up more than 15 minutes of your time a day.

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