{5 New Recipes} Pre Chinese New Year Dinner Gathering

Last Saturday evening, a few of us get together to have an early Chinese New Year dinner over at my place. Although this was not the first time I prepared food for such as big group of friends other than my family,  I am still very nervous and a bit stress up with planning the dishes as well as preparations.

Thanks to Jacob and Shiting who initiate to help up with the Yusheng as well as preparing the ingredients for the dishes in order to put this dinner together. I hope everyone enjoys the meal and I apologize if the dishes are not up to expectations due to my clumsy hands and mind in the kitchen :)

Huiji Baked Honey Chicken Wings

2013 is approaching within another 2 more days before 2012 ends and indeed this year I have another fruitful year with new recipes testing (Happy Call Pan, Korean Recipes, Joyoung Soymilk Maker, Zespri Kiwifruits and etc), family trips (Voyager Of The Seas, Tokyo (Japan) and Bangkok (Thailand)) and friends that I get to know through blogging and other social media platforms.

With another festive countdown gathering to celebrate 2013 I am sure finger food will be something handy for you to prepare or bring along as one of the potluck dishes.

3 New Seah's Spices - Kung Pao Spices, Singapore Noodles Spices And Singapore Fried Rice Spices

Even though I love to use fresh ingredients and herbs in my daily cooking but sometime I do have packets of instant sauce, spices, food and etc in my kitchen pantry to stock up for days where I just wish to cook simple and yet decent dishes for the family.

In this post, I am trying out some pre-packed spices which were given by SEAH'S Spices to test out their new products. And as a fan's of SEAH'S Spices especially their Bak Kuet Teh (recipe) and Emperor Herbal Chicken Spices (recipe) which are our family favourite, I am more than willing to try out their new spices.

As most of you would known, Seah's spices is 100% locally made in Singapore since 1991 and it is also a leading local brand which is available in all supermarkets and provision stores in Singapore. Recently Seah's Spices has launched 3 NEW spices packet which are Singapore Noodles Spices, Singapore Fried Rice Spices and Kung Pao Spices.

Each of these spices above has it's own distinctive flavour which you could incorporate it into your daily cooking to impress your loved one with local delight at the ease of home dining. And also most importantly these spices are with "NO added preservatives and colourings" as well as "NO added MSG".

SEAH'S KUNG PAO SPICES

Out of the 3 given spices, I am more interested in their Kung Pao Spices which comes in "powder" form instead of the usual "pre-mixed sauce" that are available in the supermarket. According to the cooking instructions given, the chicken has to be deep-fried before mixing with the spices but for my case on a healthier version I just pan-fried the chicken using Happy Call Pan.

(Serves: 2 - 3  | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 20 minutes)

Ingredients:
1/2 Portion of Chicken, chopped into pieces
1 Medium Brown Onion, cut into wages
6 Dried Chilli, pre-soak in hot water till soften
1 Stalk Spring Onion, cut into sections
Some Red and Green Chilli (optional), sliced
1 Tablespoon Cooking Oil
1/2 Tablespoon White Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Rice Wine
1 Packet of Seah's Kung Pao Spices

Method:-
1. Coat and marinate chicken pieces with Seah's spices from the "White Coloured Sachet" found in the packet for about 2 minutes.

2. Preheat Happy Call Pan (HCP) and lightly oil with 1/2 tablespoon of oil. Arrange chicken pieces in the pan, cover and cook for 4 - 5 minutes each side or till chicken is cook with brown outer skin.

3. Removed the chicken, coat it evenly with the spices from the "Red Coloured Sachet" and set side.

4. Add in 1 Tablespoon of oil to the pan, stir-fry onion, chillies and spring onion till fragrant.

5. Stir in the meat and spices and continue to cook for another 1/2 minutes on low heat, covered.

6. Drizzle white vinegar and wine mixture together on the cooked chicken, give it a quick toss and serve hot with steamed rice.

For me, I did not add in the whole packet of  the "Red Coloured Sachet" (still balance 1/4 packet) and I also added in some sliced fresh chilli so my version of Kung Pao dish is a bit spicy. And after eating a piece or two of the chicken you would feel a "numb" after taste feeling on your tongue due to the spices used.

SEAH'S SINGAPORE NOODLES SPICES

At first when I look at the Noodles Spices I thought it was Singapore Chao Mian Spices. Whenever I order noodles from the Cze Char stall, I would always go for either fried noodles or fried bee hoon if I am not having my usual Fried Hor Fun (fried rice noodles). But now with Seah's new Singapore Noodles Spices I could use it on different types of noodles or even pasta to create new dishes with distinctive Singapore flavour.

(Serves: 4 | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 15 minutes)

Ingredients:
500g Fresh Noodles or 3 Pieces Instant Noodles
200g Chinese Cabbage, sliced
100g Char Siew (BBQ pork), diced
8 - 10 Prawns, shelled and devein
2 Eggs, lightly beaten
1 Medium Brown Onion, sliced
1 Stalk Spring Onion, cut into section
1 Red Chilli, sliced

Method:-
1. Bring a pot of water to boil, blanched or cook noodles according, rinse, drain well and set aside.

2. Meanwhile preheat wok/frying pan with 1/2 tablespoon oil, pour in the beaten eggs to the centre of the pan, tilting the pan so that the eggs spread out evenly over the bottom.

3. Cook until the eggs have set on the bottom, using a spatula flip it over and cook on the other side for a minute or two till set. Remove and set aside till cool before slicing it into egg strips.

3. Next add in another 1/2 Tablespoon of oil, saute onion, spring onion, chilli and prawns together till it is slightly pink in colour.

4. Stir in vegetables and continue to cook till vegetables is soften and prawns are cooked through.

5. Toss in cooked noodles and Seah's Noodles Spices evenly over the mixture and stir-fry for 3 minutes on medium heat.

6. Lastly turn off the heat, stir-in char siew and egg strips. Divide noodles on serving plates and serve hot.

Our opinion this Seah's Noodle Spices has a after taste that resemble instant "Mee Goreng" noodle perhaps due to the spices used. For this recipe, I used the dried egg noodles instead of fresh yellow noodles because we preferred a more springy texture for our fried noodles. Overall we do love the taste of this fried noodles and I am sure it would be something new to share during coming festive season as one of the potluck dishes.

SEAH'S SINGAPORE FRIED RICE SPICES

Since I am not a fan of "fried rice" I don't really get any fried rice spices for my pantry. Even if I would to cook fried rice, it would be just using simple seasoning such as light/dark soy sauce with some frozen mixed vegetables or egg.

To my surprised, Seah's Singapore Fried Rice Spices does not taste any similar to those fried rice from the Cze Char stall but rather it taste quiet similar to Nasi Goreng. 

(Serves: 4  | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 5 minutes)

Ingredients:
1 Packet of Seah's Singapore Fried Rice Spices
800g Cooked Rice, around 2.5 rice cooker cup uncooked rice
1/2 Cup Frozen Mixed Vegetables
2 Garlic Cloves, crashed
2 Tablespoons Cooking Oil
Some Cooking Wine
Some chopped Spring Onion
12 Japanese Chicken Sausages
4 Eggs

Method:
1. Boiled or Grilled the sausages, set aside. Fry sunny side-up eggs individually and set aside too.

2. Add oil in preheat wok, saute garlic till fragrant before stirring in the mixed frozen vegetables and cook for 1 minute.

3. Add cooked rice and continue to stir-fry for 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

4. Gradually add in Seah's spices into the fried rice according to your taste (you might not need the whole packet), stir well, drizzle some cooking wine and continue to stir-fry for another 1/2 minutes.

5. Remove, garnish with prepared sausages, egg and etc shown above. Serve hot.

Lastly I would like to thank Seah's Spices for sending us these 3 New Spices, and it's really a good experience to try out these new products before they are available in the supermarkets. So if you are a SEAH'S Spices users, do keep a look out on these NEW products launching in the supermarkets.

For more information and updates on SEAH'S Products, you could check out their facebook page HERE. Like their page to receive latest promotion and updates too.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

This is rather my "first post" on making a proper Pandan Chiffon Cake using tube pan (similar to an angel food cake pan) method rather than the previous two (recipes) I made using Happy Call Pan (HCP). Although the recipe is quiet similar but for this round I replaced the usual pandan paste /pandan juice with pandan flavour coconut milk (obtain by blending some fresh pandan leave and coconut milk together) which I have some leftover while making Pandan Kaya (recipe).

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.

Grilled Chicken With Lemongrass and Basil Leaves

Here is another quick and easy Happy Call Pan (HCP) dish which is inspired by one of my friend, Jaiyi through her instagram photo(HERE). We all loved this "Grilled Chicken with Lemongrass And Basil Leave" where the chicken meat is so tender and infused with the unique aroma of the lemongrass and Thai basil. But if you can't get hold of Thai Basil, free feel to replace it with Parsley which is originally used in Jaiyi's recipe.

GRILLED CHICKEN WITH LEMONGRASS AND BASIL LEAVES

As for those who don't have a HCP, you can always bake this dish using an Oven which you might perhaps need to roast it for a longer timing in order to get it cook. Or if you prefer easy cooking, you can also replace whole chicken with parts such as mid-joint, drumsticks or etc depending on your preference too.

(Serves: 4   | Preparation: 10 minutes   |  Marinate: 2 hours  |  Cooking: 30 - 35 minutes)

Ingredients:
1 Chicken (1.2kg), portion into halved without cutting through
2 Stalks Of Lemongrass, lightly pound and sliced
1/2 Tablespoon of Black Peppercorns, crashed
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
3/4 Tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
3 Tablespoon Cooking Wine (Hua Diao Jiu)
Handful of Thai Bail, roughly chopped
3 Stalks Lemongrass, cut into sections

Method:-

1. Clean and rinse the chicken, pat dry with kitchen paper towel and rub the salt all over the chicken together with the mixture of oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and cooking wine.

2. Next stuff 3/4 of the lemongrass and basil mixture in the chicken cavity(refer to the photo above) and tie it up using a baking string(you can find it in daiso or baking shop).

3. Sprinkler some crashed black peppercorns on the chicken and top with remaining lemongrass mixture. Marinate the chicken in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight to get the flavour through the meat.

4. Place extra lemongrass and chicken (remove the string and lay it flat, skin side up) in the Happy Call Pan (HCP), cook over medium heat (LOCK) for about 15 minutes, flip the pan over and cook for another 10 - 12 minutes.

5. Flip the pan back. Unlock and cook for another 8 - 10 minutes to get a nice golden crispy outer skin. (total cooking time might varies depending on the size of the chicken)

So if you or your family loves chicken dishes, this might be something quick and easy which you would like to consider whipping up over the weekend and share some family time by having simple homecook dishes together.

Steamed Chicken With Ginseng (Jjim Dak - 찜닭) Using Happy Call Pan

Hi there, hope everyone has a great weekend. Sorry for the lack of post(s) these few weeks because; firstly I was away for vacation and secondly it is also the mid-year school holiday in Singapore so eventually I am spending more time with my kid rather than updating my blog.

Here to continue with my Korean Cooking Project, I would like to share with you another recipe similar to Ginseng Chicken Soup(Samgyetang) with a sightly different ingredients plus using "steaming method".

STEAMED CHICKEN WITH GINSENG
(Jjim Dak - 찜닭)

Jjim Dak(찜닭) or Dak Jjim which also known as "Korean Steamed Chicken" is something similar to our Chinese Steamed Herbal Chicken. But in this recipe the only herbs used are Dried Ginseng and Red Dates which after all bring up the flavorsome taste of the chicken which infused from the ginseng. This dish is prepared using Happy Call Pan(HCP) which acts as a pressure cooker to gently simmer the chicken till tender and as the same time trap the flavour of all the ingredients used. (don't worry if you don't have any HCP you can always used a normal steamer for this dish)

Recipe adapted from "the food of Korea" by Injoo Chun, Jaewoon Lee and etc

(Serves: 2-3         | Preparation: 10 minutes |           Cooking: 30 minutes)

Ingredients:
1/2 Portion of Chicken, about 600g
300ml of Water
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt
2 - 3 Pieces of Dried Ginseng
8 Fresh Peeled Chestnuts
2 Medium Potato, cut into chunks
4 Big Red Dates
3 Cloves Garlic
2 Slices Ginger
3 Stalks Spring Onion, cut into sections

Method:-

1. Rinse dried ginseng with water before soaking it in a bowl of warm water for about 20 - 30 till it is slightly soften. Cut it into 2 - 3 sections.

2. Trim and rinse the chicken, pat dry with paper towels and rub 1/2 teaspoon of salt all over it and set aside.

3. Arrange some spring onion and ginseng on the HCP (around the middle area), place the prepared chicken(skin side facing upwards) on top and scatter the rest of the dry ingredients around the chicken, add water and salt.

4. Close and LOCK the HCP and simmer the chicken on low heat for about 30 - 40 minutes or till meat is tender when using chopsticks to poke through the thigh area.

5. During the cooking process you can open the HCP and check the water level every 10 - 15 minutes if you are worried about the sauce being evaporated. (for me I opened it twice on the 15 and 25 minutes, you can also add in a little more water if the sauce evaporates)

6. Serve chicken on the HCP or cut it into serving pieces.

So if you like the taste of ginseng and you are looking for some comfort food to nourish our body systems, perhaps you would like to try this 1 Pot Dish which consists of quiet a number of nutritious ingredients for your body. And moreover adding potato in this herbal chicken helps to give it a starchy gravy and it could also be served as a meal itself without having extra cooked rice too.