Stir-fried Stingray With Fermented Black Bean And Chinese Celery

For most of us when we talk about "Stingray", the first picture that comes into our mind will be the popular BBQ stingray which is char-grilled and top with that delicious sambal chilli that makes you drool. Or the stir-fried chili with black bean sauce method that is found in most Mixed Vegetable Rice Stalls(Chap Chye Png - 杂菜饭). Even though stingray can be consider as one of the cheapest fish in the market but some people still hesitate to buy it due to it's rather "fishy" smell even after cooking.

Here the fishmonger recommended me a "white-coloured" skin stingray which he said it more tasty and less “fishy” smell. So since we have not eaten this dish for a very long time, I decided to get some and follow mum's preparation steps for this recipe.

Ingredients: (serves 2 - 3)
350g Stingray Fillet, cut into chunks
1 Teaspoon of Fermented Black Bean (黑豆豆豉), rinse and roughly mashed
1.5 Tablespoon Cooking Oil
3 - 4 Garlic Cloves, minced
2 Chili, sliced
2 Shallots, sliced
100ml Water
A few Stalks of Chinese Celery (中国芹菜)

Seasonings:
1/2 Tablespoon Cooking Wine
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
Dash of Pepper

Method:-

1. Rinse and using kitchen paper towel to dry the stingray chunks before marinate it with 1/2 tablespoon of cornflour, dash of pepper and sesame oil, 1 teaspoon of light soy sauce and cooking wine for at least about 10 - 20 minutes prior cooking.

2. Next rinse and cut Chinese celery into 3 sections, divide the leaves and stems portions then set aside.

3. Heat up frying pan with 1.5 tablespoon cooking oil, saute minced garlic, shallot, chili and fermented black bean till slightly brown and fragrant.

4. Toss in the marinated stingray chunks and fried over medium heat on both side for about 2 minute till  almost light golden brown before adding in water.

5. When the mixture comes to boil, stir in the stem portions of the Chinese celery and allow the mixture to simmer for a few minutes till the sauce almost thicken.

6. Lastly toss in the remaining celery leaves, give it a quick stir and finished it with a touch of cooking wine and pepper. Remove and serve.


Due to the "fishy" smell this dish is best to be eaten Hot together with some Chinese Celery where its refreshing taste will cover up the fishy smell leaving you with a sweet and spicy taste. Furthermore this dish can also be an addicting dish due to it's spicy taste from the chili and hint of traditional flavour from the fermented black bean and etc that makes you go for second bowl of rice to accompany it.

Yacon And Lotus Roots Peanut Soup

After a long day at work, a bowl of hearty home cook soup is always something that I look forward to. And I can even starts to imagine the fragrant and taste of the soup during my journey back home. As a frequent reader(s) of this blog you will notice that I loves to try out using different ingredients to prepare my soup. And today we are looking into a new ingredient known as "Yacon - 冰山雪莲果" which is commonly used for either soup or salad in Singapore.

Yacon(冰山雪莲果) is a sweet and crunchy vegetable that has a flavour similar to an apple. It grows in a variety of different colors including pink, orange, white or purple. In the United States, Yacon that is sold in markets is typically white compared to the orange type that we have in Singapore. According to some google read-up this vegetable is very high in fiber and low in calories which makes it a healthy and nutritious snack. (read more HERE)

From a glance at this Yacon, sometime you might even mistaken it as the some kind of Sweet Potato due to it's shape and colour.

Ingredients: (serves 4)
300g Pork Ribs (排骨)
1 Medium Size Yacon(冰山雪莲果)
150g Lotus Roots(莲藕)
50g Soup Peanuts(花生)
4 - 6 Red Dates (红枣)
1/2 Tablespoon Wolfberries(枸杞), optional

Method:-

1. Blanched pork ribs in boiling water for 2 - 3 minutes, remove and rinse with tap water. Set aside.

2. Soak peanuts in hot/warm water for about 5 minutes, rinse well and set aside.

3. Remove the outer skin of the yacon and cut into thick chunks. Whereas for the lotus roots remove the skin and cut into thick slices.

4. Bring 1.5 litres of water to boil in a soup pot.

5. Add in all the ingredients except wolfberries and when the mixture comes to boil again, lower the heat and simmer for about 40 minutes or until peanuts soften.

6. Lastly drop in wolfberries and season with salt to taste according to own preference.

[Dessert]Orr Nee With Gingko Nut And Pumpkin

Orr Nee(芋泥) is one of the traditional Teochew(朝洲) dessert which often eaten at a Chinese Wedding banquet that symbolises unity and happiness for the newly weds. Traditionally this dessert is made using Lard oil to stir-fry the paste till it appears smooth and glossy. I still remember vividly how my dad and granny used to cook this dessert only during occasions such as Lunar Chinese New Year or praying ancestors'  anniversaries.

Since from a child till now I always have special feeling and crave over this traditional dessert with it's smooth texture, sweet taste and shallot oil fragrant. But no matter how close I replicate this dessert towards my dad standard, I can never find back that special taste that my late father used to make.

If you remember in one of my previous post I mentioned that a few months long ago, I came across a food blog known as "Maameemoomoo(a 1/2 food blog) where the author self concoct a very unique cheesecake  known as "Orh Nee Cheesecake(recipe)" that makes me felt in love at first sight. So if you love this traditional Orr Nee dessert I bet you would love her Orh Nee Cheesecake too, furthermore it is not difficult to get your hands on those ingredients too.

But now, let's take a look on how to prepare this traditional Orr Nee dessert.

Ingredients: (serves 4)
400g Yam, skinned and cut into 1" cubes
50g Caster Sugar
2 Tablespoons Shallot Oil(recipe)

Toppings:
100g Mashed Pumpkin (refer to note below)
12 Gingko Nuts
60ml Coconut Milk

Method:-

1. In a prepared steamer, steam the yam for about 20 minutes or till soften before mashing it through a metal sieve.

2. As for the pumpkin, add about 1.5 Tablespoons of water to 120g of pumpkin cubes and steamed it over medium heat till soften. Mashed and set aside.

3. Next in a large frying pan/wok heat up shallot oil before adding in mashed yam and sugar, mix well and cook  over low heat till paste is not sticky.

4. Scoop the cooked yam paste into serving bowls, top with gingko nuts and steamed it over medium heat for about 15 minutes.

5. Remove the cover of the steamer, drizzle 1 teaspoon of coconut milk into each serving bowls, continue to steam for another 3 minutes.

6. To serve, top each bowl with mashed pumpkin and drizzle of shallot oil(optional).

Note:-

~ For this recipe, I use prepacked gingko nuts which I rinse, remove the bitter pith in the seeds then marinated it with 1 teaspoon of sugar before used.

~ If you don't wish to steam the coconut together with the yam paste, you can microwave it on HIGH, 40 - 50 seconds till lukewarm and serve it as a condiment with the yam paste.

Although from the ingredients shown above this dessert might look too sinful or unhealthy due to  its fats content but I guess having a small portion of it once in a while is still quite acceptable. And I think eventually some of these traditional food or dessert will vanished in near future as most of the younger generation nowadays don't really fancy all these traditional food compared to their trend on bubble tea, donuts, fast food and etc. 

[$20 Budget Meal] Bitter Gourd Soup, Stir-fried Leek with Firm Tofu And Stuffed Squid With Minced Pork

For some of you who look at this photo, does it look something familiar to you which brings back some of your Childhood memories? While sharing the photo of this dish with some of my facebook friends, some of them comments this is one of their favourite dish which they have not eaten for very long time.

From those comments it occurs to me that some how or rather these traditional dishes seems to be fading away due to generations. But I am consider lucky that my mum still knows a few traditional dishes on hand where she could pass down the recipes to me. So from what she has told me I managed to replicate my own Stuffed Squid with Pork Mince dish that we think is quite similar to what we used to have.

Due to the recent hot and humid weather it is always good to have a bowl of homemade soup to increase fluid intake as well as clear the heats from the body. The most common cooling soup among Asian family will be either, Watercress Soup, Winter Melon, Old Cucumber Soup, Bitter Gourd Soup and etc. Initially I always thought that bitter gourd soup will be "bitter" but after adding carrot, red dates and wolfberries this soup taste rather sweet with a just a bit of "dry bitter" taste which I find it very appetising especially on Hot day.

Ingredients: (serves 4)
1/2 Medium Bitter Gourd (苦瓜), about 100g
300g Pork Ribs(排骨)
1 Medium Carrot (红萝卜), cut into chunks
6 Red Dates (红枣)
1 Tablespoon Wolfberries (枸杞子)

And to remove most of the bitter taste, you have to give the bitter gourd a good "Spa" rub with some salt before cooking so that you won't end up drink a pot of bitter soup.

Method:-

1. Wash and blanch pork ribs in boiling water, rinse and set aside.

2. Wash and cut the bitter gourd into half length wise, then remove the seeds and rub it thoroughly with 1/2 tablespoon of salt to reduce it's bitter taste.

3. Next rinse the bitter gourd, cut it into 1cm thick rings and set aside.

4. Bring 1.5 litres of water to boil add in all the ingredients(except wolfberries).

5. When the soup comes to boil again, lower the heat and let it simmer for about 30 minutes on low heat, season with salt and serve.


Total cost for this dish is about S$4.20 with breakdown shown below:-
Cost of Ingredients:
~ Bitter Gourd = S$1.00
~ Pork Ribs = S$3.00
~ Carrot = S$0.20

Firm Beancurd can be consider as a good choice for a stir-fried dish that requires longer cooking time such as stewed or braised. Here I have do a twist with one the the stir-fried beancurd dish(recipe) which I have shared a few months back.

Ingredients: (serves 2 - 3)
2 Pieces Firm Tofu
2 - 3 Stalks of Baby Leeks
1 Chili, sliced
1 Big Cluster of Fresh Black Fungus, cut into thick slices
3 Garlic Clove, skin removed and lightly pound
3/4 Tablespoon of Oyster Sauce
80ml of Hot Water

Method:-

1. Rinse and remove any soil that trapped in between the green leaves of the leek, pat dry and sliced the leek diagonally into sections and set aside. (refer to the photo above)

2. Heat up frying pan with 1/2 tablespoon of oil to pan-fry the beancurd till slightly golden brown on each side. Remove, cool and cut into bite-sized portions.

3. Using the same frying pan, saute garlic till fragrant before adding in leek, black fungus and chili slices. Continue to fry for another 1 minute until leek leaves are cooked, stir in oyster sauce and give it a quick stir.

4. Add in beancurd and hot water, mix well and simmer the mixture on low heat for about 3 - 4 minutes till the leek turn soft and beancurd absorb the flavour from the sauce.

5. Dish up and serve with steamed rice.

Total cost for this dish is about S$1.90 with breakdown shown below:-
Cost of Ingredients:
~ Leeks = S$0.80
~ Firm Beancurd = S$0.60
~ Fresh Black Fungus and Chili = S$0.50

This is one of my favourite childhood dish which appears occasionally on our dinning table together with the "Orange Sauce" shown in the photo below. While sharing a photo of this dish in facebook I was surprised that there are still a lot of people whom love this "traditional" dish which are prepared either by their grandparents, relatives or parents. And I assume in most modern household this dish could be consider as something new or just one of their childhood dishes.

Ingredients:

1 Large Squid, about 250g
80g Pork Minced
1 Salted Egg Yolk, minced
2 Fresh Water Chestnut, minced
1 Teaspoon Chopped Spring Onion

Seasonings:
1 Teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
1 Teaspoon of Cooking Wine
1/2 Tablespoon Cornflour
Dash of Ground Pepper

Note:

~ You can omit salted egg yolk but increase the amount of light soy sauce to 1.5 teaspoon.
~ Usually we love to dip this steamed squid with this "Orange Sauce" which is our all time favourite.

Method:-

1. Clean the inside of the squid, remove the head, intestines and etc. Rinse and set aside.



3. Marinate the pork minced with the rest of the ingredients and seasonings for about 10 - 20 minutes.

4. Stuff the pork mince mixture into the squid until its full(use toothpick to pierce a few holes at the end of the squid to allow air to escape). Secure the opening of the squid with two toothpicks in a criss-cross manner.

5. Arrange the stuffed squid on steaming plate over some spring onion together with the head and steamed over medium high heat for about 10 minutes or when you are able to pierce through the squid using a fork.

6. Remove from heat, cut the cooked squid into thick rings and place in serving place and serving with either plum sauce or cut chili with dark soy sauce.


Total cost for this dish is about S$5.00 with breakdown shown below:-
Cost of Ingredients:
~ Large Squid = S$3.00
~ Salted Egg = S$0.50
~ Pork Minced + Water Chestnuts + Spring Onion = S$1.50

With around S$11.10 mum and I managed to come out with these 2 dishes 1 soup that brings back a lot of our old time memories where she used to cook these for us when we are just about my boy's age. Time flies now it's my turn to practise with all these homecooked dishes so that one day I might be able to pass it down to whoever whom is keen in learning. Do you have any special homecooked dishes that you would like to share with us. If you have, do email me your blog link(s) to ellenaguan.hotmail.com or drop me a note to share with us on our facebook page(HERE) or comment box below.

CLOSING DATE For [May $20 Budget Meal] Event:

~ Wednesday, 25 May 2011, 2359 hours and all entries will be compiled and posted on 31st May 2011.

If you loves to whipped some quick and budget healthy dishes for your family. I would like to invite you to join us in our May Budget Meal event to share your homecook dishes with us(more detail HERE).