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.

Braised Bee Hoon With Pumpkin & Prawns

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With Chinese New Year(CNY) celebration still going on until next Monday, 06 February 2012(the fifteen day of Chinese New Year). Most households are still in the festive mood on preparing auspicious CNY dishes with ingredients such as Abalone, Mushrooms, Black Moss, Sea Cucumber and etc.

In this post I am using simple ingredients such as rice vermicelli, pumpkin(金瓜 - 金玉满堂), prawns(嘻哈大笑) and mushrooms to prepare a very colourful and auspicious New Year noodle dish for the family.

Cuisine Paradise Turns 7!

Today, 30 April 2012 marks my 2,555 days (7th years) in blogging where Cuisine Paradise turns seven(7). Indeed time flies and it had being 7 years since I started with my 1st recipe post on "Steam Mini Pandan Kueh" with an aim just to share my tried and tested recipes and homecook dishes with friends.

Along the years, I have learn to cook and bake different kind of cuisines, food styling as well as into food photographing.  Despite of the ups and downs during my blogging days, I have get to know many new friends who share the same interest either from cooking, baking or photographing.

And to all readers of Cuisine Paradise, I hope I am enable to enlighten you with more improvements from my post and style of preparing the food(cooking/baking) through different stages of my project themes. Here I would like to sincerely voice out my appreciations and thoughts for those who has supported Cuisine Paradise during all these years. Thanks for all your feedback, comments and thoughts which enable Cuisine Paradise to achieve what it has today. Without all your supports and spread of words, Cuisine Paradise would not able to achieve up to 1.8 million page view (since June 2011 till date) and currently having about 150,000+ visitors per month.

Below are some of the flashbacks from Cuisine Paradise over the years:-

MOST POPULAR RECIPE

Avocado Chicken Parmigiana

With over 110,000 pins via from "Pinterest" and a total of 150,000+ Pageviews till date, this is one of the most popular recipe among readers of Cuisine Paradise. It is so easy to prepare that you only need an oven toaster instead of an oven to handle this recipe. And moreover this dish can be pair with either salad or pasta to end with a complete hearty meal.

If you want to prepare something simple and yet flavorsome to impress your loved ones, here is the recipe.

MOST POPULAR KITCHEN GADGET

Happy Call Double-sided Pressure Pan

It's only a few months back that this "Happy Call Double-Sided Pressure Pan" has finally makes it way into many kitchens in Singapore and Malaysia after a year or so in Singapore. This happens from a Happy Call group known as Munch Ministry which set up by 2 ladies who share their interests and recipes on cooking quick and simply healthy food using  HCP.

Even though I have one of this Happy Call Pan (HCP) for more than a year plus, I did not really fully utilize it until I was influence by this HCP group in facebook. After which I have develop interest in trying different recipes using HCP from dishes to bake. Below are some example of my HCP cooking/baking project. For the full HCP recipes menu, please refer HERE.

Baked Sweet Potato	Sizzling Tofu	Claypot Rice
Pineapple Upside-down Cake	Muah Chee	Pandan Chiffon Cake

OUR FAVOURITE BENTO

Making Bento is one of our weekly or at least twice a month mother and kid bonding activities whereby my boy and I will agreed on a theme to work together to assemble his bento.  Up till date I have about 30 quick and easy kid's bento featured in Cuisine Paradise and inSing.com, below are some of our favourite among the rest.

Easter Chicky Bento	Penguins Bento	Red Angry Birds Bento

PRODUCT REVIEWS

As a homemake and someone who loves to explore new kitchen products, I love to try new food or kitchen products whenever I spot something interesting during our weekly marketing trip. And from time to time I would also received product samples from media to be featured in Cuisine Paradise. Below are some of the product review posts and you could also read up more on this link HERE.

VOGEL's mueslis	Easy Thai Cooking(cookbook)	Zespri Kiwifruit Recipes

CURRENT PROJECT

Korean Cooking

It has never come across my mind to learn how to prepare Korean cuisines at home. And it's only due to my recent interest in Korea drama that I am starting to love how to appreciate Korea dishes in another view. Before starting on this cooking project, friendly speaking I am not a fan of even their well-known appetizer; Kimchi(김치) nor Korean Rice Cake (Tteok - 떡) which can be used to cook soup, stewed or noodles. But now with their easy to prepare and delicious dishes I am keen in exploring more Korean cuisines with the help of my new Korean friend. Thanks Daphne!

Below are some samples of my Korean Cooking Project post. If you are keen to read up more on this project you can click on the link HERE.

Kimchi Tofu Soup	Korean Rice Cakes with Ramen Noodles	Sangyetang (recipe coming soon)

Lastly I hope my passion for "food" on this blog would be able to commit for another 7 years or more but till then I really needs all your supports and feedback in order to maintain this blog and continue to strike for better improvements. And if you are new to cooking/baking, I would like to welcome you on board and sincerely hope that my recipes collection would be able to help you cookout some quick and easy dishes for your loved ones.

Stir-fry Fu Gui Cai and Stuffed Mushrooms with Black Moss, Glutinous Rice Wine Chicken

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Time flies, today is the 3rd day of Chinese Lunar New Year and I am sure most of you have being busying with the house to house visiting plus feasting on the delicious New Year goodies and food. Even though nowadays we could easily ordered or enjoy a hassle free reunion dinner in restaurants but I believe there are still many housewives, mothers, grandparents and etc busying with the preparation of their signature dishes for reunion dinner.

I remember when I was a kid, I always look forward to Chinese New Year to feast on those "special" dishes that my dad would only cook during New Year. And although I am not a very good cook like my dad, every Chinese New Year I would still try to cook up one or two of my self concoct dishes for my family.

STIR-FRY FU GUI CAI AND STUFFED MUSHROOM WITH BLACK MOSS
富贵花开

For this year reunion dinner, I have prepared this quick and easy stuffed mushrooms with minced meat and black moss dish to serve together the auspicious greens known as Fu Gui Cai(富贵菜). To make it more colourful and appetising, I have also added gingko nuts and wolfberries to enhance the presentation.

I would be submitting this Stir-fry Fu Gui Cai and Stuffed Mushrooms with Black Moss dish to this month Aspiring Baker #15 - Auspicious Dishes for CNY (January 2012) that is hosted by Wen of Wen's Delight.

(serves: 3-4 | Preparation: 15 minutes | Cooking: 10 minutes)

Ingredients:
6 - 8 Dried Medium Chinese Mushrooms, soaked in hot water till soften
150g Minced Meat
10g Black Moss(发菜), pre-soaked in water
10 Gingko Nuts
1 Floret of Fu Gui Cai(富贵菜)
Some Wolfberries
1 Red Chilli, sliced
3 Slices Ginger
3 Cloves Garlic
1 Teaspoon Cooking Wine
1 Teaspoon Cornflour + 1 Tablespoon Water, mixed well

Seasoning:
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 Teaspoon Cornflour
1/2 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
1/2 Cooking Wine
Dash of Pepper

Sauce:
100ml Water
3 tablespoons Oyster Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sugar

Method:-

1. Mix minced meat, black moss and seasonings together and set aside to marinate for at least 10 minutes if time permit.

2. Stuff about 1 tablespoon of the minced meat mixture into the pre-soaked mushrooms.

3. Preheat Happy Call pan with about 1 tablespoon of oil and fry the stuffed mushrooms for about 1 minutes each side or until cooked. (HCP close but don't lock) Remove and set aside.

4. Add in another 1 tablespoon of oil to saute ginger and garlic till fragrant before adding in the Fu Gui Cai (remove the leaves from the floret, reserved 1/4 of the last portion to act as flower), chilli and gingko nuts. Close the pan and let it cook for another 1 minute before giving it a quick stir and close the pan for another 30 seconds.

5. Next add in the cooked stuffed mushrooms together with the sauce mixture and give the mixture a quick sit-fry and simmer on low heat for another 30 seconds before removing the vegetables.(arrange the vegetables in the middle of the plate)

6. Lastly with the mushrooms and gingko nuts still remains in the pan, add in corn star mixture and cooking wine and wolfberries, mix well with all the ingredients.

7. Remove and arrange mushrooms on serving plate around the fu gui cai. You can also decorate the mushroom with the wolfberries shown above.

Note:-

~ If you prefer you could replaced the dried mushroom with fresh shiitake mushrooms.

~ Pick up other greens such as broccoli, xiao ba cai or etc according to your preference if fu gui cai is not available.

~ For more varieties you could also add in fish or prawn paste to the minced meat mixture.

GLUTINOUS RICE WINE CHICKEN
黄酒鸡

This Glutinous Rice Wine Chicken(黄酒鸡) is one of the traditional Hakka dish eaten during confinement or Chinese New Year. To cook this dish usually they would buy kampong chicken instead of the normal chicken and simmer it together with their homemade Glutinous Rice Wine. According to the Hakka this dish is good to replenish lack of blood due to fatigue, malnutrition, cold chills, irregular menstruation, anemia, postpartum weakness and etc.

(serves: 2-3 | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 15 minutes)

Ingredients:
1/2 Chicken(about 600g), cut into bite sizes
1 Tablespoons of Sesame Oil
6 Slices of Ginger, cut into thin strips
200ml - 250ml of Glutinous Rice Wine
6 Red Dates, cut into thick slices
1/4 Teaspoon Salt

Marinade:
1 Teaspoon Cornflour
1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
1 Teaspoon Light Soy sauce
1 Teaspoon Cooking Wine

Method:-

1. Marinate the chicken with cornflour, sesame oil, light soya sauce and cooking wine for at least 10 minutes.

2. Preheat Happy Call Pan on low heat with sesame oil and saute gingers till fragrance(close but don't lock).

3. Add in marinated chicken and cook on low heat for 1 minute (closed and locked), flip the pan over and cook for another 1 minute.

4. Next flip the pan back, add in rice wine and red dates, locked the pan and simmer over low heat for about 8 - 10 minutes till the chicken is tender and cooked through.

5. Lastly add in salt to taste and serve hot.

Emmm perhaps you could also share with us which is your favourite Chinese New Year dish too :)

Mixed Fruit Cake

Follow from the previous Double Chocolate Banana Cake post, here is the related post on a simple Mixed Fruit Cake which I made especially for Uncle James as he is a big fan of mixed fruit cake. And since I am baking two cakes on the same day using Happy Call Double-sided Pressure Pan (HCP) for demonstration to my aunties; who are all keen in learning how to bake using this new gadget, I have modify the usual traditional fruit cakes recipes to a simplify one.

Compared to the traditional Christmas Mixed Fruit Cake, this one is much easier in term of ingredients preparation and shorter baking time.You can prepared ahead by soaking the mixed fruit with RUM and orange juice the night before to achieve a better flavour or if you are running out of time like me, just make sure you have soaked them at least 10 - 15 minutes.

MIXED FRUIT CAKE

Here I have adapted a similar recipe from the previous Banana Chocolate Cake with Cranberry which I have shared. And instead of using caster sugar, I have replaced it with brown sugar for its natural brown and taste that enhance the appearance and taste of the mixed fruit cake. As for the type of dried fruit you can either purchase those ready-mixed packed available from baking section or you can DIY your own by mixing a few of your favourite fruits such as tangerine peel, apricot, raisin, cherry, ginger and etc together.

(Serves: 30 x 25cm | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 30 minutes)

Ingredients:
225g All-Purpose Flour(plain flour)
170g Brown Sugar
170g Unsalted Butter, room temperature
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Pinch of Salt
3 Eggs(55g each)
60ml Orange Juice
Rind of 1 Orange
200g Dried Mixed Fruit
2 Tablespoons of RUM/Grand Marnier

Method:-

1. Soak dried mixed fruit with RUM, Orange Juice and Rind for about 10 minutes. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a bowl and set aside.

2. Cream soft butter and brown sugar using a electric beater or hand whisk till pale and creamy.

3. Add one egg at a time, beat till combined before adding in the flour mixture.

4. Using a spatula, fold in sifted flours in 3 batches alternatively with the mixed fruit mixture(add in the liquid as well) till well combined.

5. Slowly scrap mixture into the lightly greased Happy Call Pan(grease 1 teaspoon of oil on both side of the pan using hand or paper towel).

6. Bake on low heat for 12 minutes, slowly shift the pan towards right side so that left side (1/2 of the HCP) of the pan is on the heat, bake for another 6 minutes. Next shift the pan back towards the left side so that right side(1/2 of the HCP) of the pan is on the heat. (the purpose of doing this is to even out the baking as well as give the cake a nice brown colour on the surface when flip over)

7. Lastly, flip the HCP over and bake for another 6 minutes(3 minutes left, 3 minutes right) to have a nice brown top.

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FOR OVEN METHOD:-

1. Follow steps 1 - 4, pour cake batter into a greased 7" square or round tin.

2. Bake in preheated 180° Celsius oven for about 40 - 50 minutes or when a skewer inserted in the center and comes out clean.

BLUEBERRY LEMON BUTTER CAKE

(Preview)

This is another snack preview of my HCP bake cake; Blueberry Lemon Butter Cake made using fresh blueberry. Simply love this light and fluffy lemon taste cake with my favourite blueberry in it. Will update more on the related recipe soon. Stay tune.