Steam Red Date Meat Dumpling

This Steamed Red Date Meat Dumpling is inspired by one of the economical rice stall (cai fan - 菜饭) near my area. I find this dish rather interesting whiling ordering our usual dishes so I decide to try it out. And after trying I thought maybe I can replicate it using similar ingredients base of what I eaten.

Mini Buddha Jump Over Wall

Wanted to try cooking this soup for a very long time. Usually you can in different kinds of ingredients to into this soup. Some prefer to have some extra herbs into it while other might not so it all depend on what you prefer to eat.


Today what I had cooked is just the mini version because I had omitted things like Abalone, Fish Maw, Ham and etc. What I had is mainly on the dried ingredients and herbs, which is cheaper and easily found in your kitchen pantry.

Ingredients:
3 Dried Ginseng
2 Stalk Dang Shen(当参)
3 Dried Scallops
5 Dried Oysters
4 Slices Of Dang Gui(当归)
3 Slices Of Sea Conch(响螺片)
3 Slices Of Huai Shan(淮山)
5 Red Dates(红枣)
1 Tablespoon Jizi(枸杞子)
1 Dried Mushroom
2 Chicken Drumsticks
300g Pork Ribs
2 Medium Sea Cucumber

Methods:
1. Wash and soak dried oysters and scallop in hot water until soft, then rinse well.
2. Wash all the rest of the herbs and set aside for later use.
3. Wash and blanched the pork ribs and chicken in boiling water then rinse well.
4. Bring a pot of water(about 1.5 litres) to boil then add in all the herbs, chicken and pork ribs and bring to boil again.
5. Wash the sea cucumber and cut into thick section then set aside.
6. Transfer to a slow cooker and simmer on low heat for about 3 - 4 hours then add in the sea cucumber and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes.
7. Season with salt to taste and serve.

Kaffir Lime Leave Chicken

You will sure love this dish if you are a Thai food fans. Because the aroma of this Kaffir Lime Leave will sure infused your dish with wonderful fragrant and taste. Kaffir Lime Leaves are one of the most important ingredients in Thai Cooking. These leaves impart a wonderfully aromatic smell and flavour to, and are an essential ingredient in many Thai recipes. This dish was recommend by one of my blogger friend Tracy who had tried it and gave me a very good feedback about it. So I decided to give it a try as well and indeed this dish will sure be on my re-cook list again. So if you like Thai food, do give this dish a try.....


actually the sauce ingredients which are the spices need to be either pound or blend. But a lazy person like me don't have the traditional pound at home, so what I had done is just finely chopped and grated most of the ingredients to make it an easy homecook meal.....

Ingredients:
1/2 Portion Of Chicken, cut into bite size
2 Tablespoons Of Kecap Manis
4 Pieces Of Kaffir Lime Leave, shredded 2 leaves
1 Tablespoon Of Oil

Sauce Spices
3 Candle Nuts (buah keras), pound into powder
1 Teaspoon Coriander Powder
1cm Fresh Ginger, finely grated
5 Shallots, peeled and finely chopped
1 red chilli, peeled and finely chopped

Methods:
1. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan, stir fry all the spices ingredients and the kaffir lime leaves until fragrant.
2. Add chicken and stir-fry for another 2 - 3 minutes or until slightly brown.
3. Pour in the kecap manis, allow to caramelise then add in about 50ml of water and cook until the chicken is tender.
4. Garnish it with extra shredded Kaffir Lime Leaves and Chillies and serve with rice.

Notes: You can also used chicken fillets or any other parts of the chicken for this dish.

Kecap Manis can be found in any local supermarket like NTUC or Cold Storage under the sauce department.

Mushroom & Pork Mince Rice

Had being feeling unwell for the past one week due to Fever, Diarrhea, Sore Throat and etc…. So I really don’t have much time and effort to whip up any meals. Today I decided to clear away the Button Mushroom, Japanese Cucumber, Cherry Tomatoes and some fruits that I bought last week. At first, I was thinking of cooking Spaghetti with these ingredients but later I switch my mind to a more complete rice meal serve with Mixed Fruits & Vegetables Salad.


Ingredients:
150g Pork Mince
1 Box Of Button Mushroom, thinly sliced
½ Brown Onion, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons Of Dried Whitebaits
50ml Rice Wine/Water
2 Bowl Of Cooked White Rice

Methods:
1. Marinate the pork mince with some pepper, light & dark soya sauce, cornflour and sesame oil then set aside for later use.
2. Wash the Dried Whitebaits and drained well then use some kitchen paper towel to absord the water.
3. Add about 1/2 Tablespoon of oil in a non-stick pan the stir-fry the whitebaits until golden brown. Season with some salt and suagr for taste.
4. Heat up another 1 Tablespoon of oil in the pan, add in the chopped onion and saute until it's became soft and slightly brown then add in the pork mince.
5. Stir-fry until it's fragrant and almost done then add the button mushroom and stir for another 2 minutes then pour in Rice Wine or Water and continue to simmer until sauce thicken.
6. Dish up and place ontop of the rice, top with cripsy Dried Whitebaits, egg or etc and serve.

Ginseng Honey Tea

Had being feeling very tired and restless during these past few weeks, so decided to double-boiled this American Ginseng Honey Tea. It is very simple and only required a few ingredients. This drink can calm spirits and nerve as well as cure insomnia.

American Ginseng(花旗参): It is sweet in taste, with a hint of bitterness and cool in nature. It nourishes the Yin energy in the lungs, clears Asthenic Fire, benefit the Stomach and promotes secretion of body fluid. It mainly treats Dryness of Lungs and Stomach and dire thirst and Qi, therefore strengthens the internal organs.


Dried Longan(桂圆肉): Tastes sweet and of neutral nature. It nourishes the heart and the spleen, benefits bloods and calms the spirit. It works well for treating tensions, palpitation, insomnia and forgetfulness.

Ingredients: (server 1)
10-12 Slices Of American Ginseng(花旗参)
8 Dried Longan (桂圆肉)
½ Tablespoon Honey(蜂蜜)
300ml Boiling Water

Methods:
1. Soak the American Ginseng and Dried Longan in hot water for 1-2 minutes then drain.
2. Put all the ingredients except honey in a small double-boiler pot in a slow-cooker and double-boiled for about 2 hours on low heat.
3. Add in honey then continue to double-boiled for another 15 minutes and serve warm before bedtime.

Notes: When taking this drink it is best that you don't eat any dish or soup that contain raddish or beans for 1 - 2 days, because chinese belived that raddish will drain and absord all the good source from the Ginseng.

Sweet Potato Soup With Sterculia Seeds - 澎大海番薯汤

This afternoon, I decided to make some sweet soup for dessert so I cook this Sweet Potato Soup with fresh lily bulbs, gingko nuts and sterculia seeds.  Fresh Lily Bulbs, Ginkgo Nut and Sterculia Seeds. For your information, sterculia seed (澎大海) is actually one of the commonly ingredients found in Cheng Teng (清汤).

Chicken Soup With Conch & Huai Shan

Have you heard or seen a Sea Conch before?  Do you know Sea Conch (响螺片): has a sweet taste and of cold nature. It helps to clear the liver, nourishes lungs and benefits the organs. And according to Chinese Physician those who suffer from weak QI energy and anaemia will benefit a lot from drinking sea conch soup.

Hawaiian Pork Chop

Hawaiian Pork Chop! You must be surprised to see this combination of ham and pineapple on pork chop rather than pizza. I must assure you this taste really good especially with sketching cheese on it. So if you are a pizza lover, this is a quick weeknight dish for you. Just assemble everything and off it goes into the oven while you can go and take a shower before dinner.

Honey Chicken

Today while getting some groceries in the supermarket I saw this interesting Honey Chicken recipe from one of the recipe cards on shelf. And since I have most of the ingredients at home, I decided to grab some chicken meat and try out the recipe.

Lotus, Black Bean & Peanut Soup

I always want to learn and cook those double-boiled soup sold in Chinese restaurant or herbal soup stall such as "Lotus and Pork Ribs Soup", old cucumber soup, ginseng chicken and etc. For this soup I added some black beans, peanut and cuttlefish which brings out more intense flavour and the cuttlefish definitely help to add bonus points to the soup. 

Fish Porridge With Fresh Lily Bulb

Since I still have some left over Kai Lan from cooking the Mix Vegetable Alphabets Pasta. I decide to use it together with some other ingredients in the fridge to cook Fish Porridge With Fresh Lily Bulb. This porridge consists a few kinds of vegetables, walnuts, fish and fresh lily bulb which makes an appetizing and nutrition dish for toddler. Besides that I also mix in some yellow millet with rice to cook the porridge in order to boost up the flavour.

Mixed Vegetable With Alphabet Pasta

Make this Alphabet Pasta (ABC) with Mix Vegetables Soup for my boy this afternoon. He loves to eat this Alphabets Pasta as compared to Macaroni and he will request me to cook this at least once or twice a week. As for the ingredients I often add in dice potato, carrot and fishball. Today I try to add in another new ingredient which is known as Kai Lan (芥兰) stem since my son is picky with greens and the easier way to add them in his diet is through soup.

Fish Soup With Tian Ma

This Fish and  Tian Ma Soup (天麻生鱼汤) is a very nourishing soup for person with poor blood circulations and numbness in hands and legs. Besides the above, it can also cure coldness in the body with additional herbs such as Dang Gui, Red and Black Dates. So if you feel giddy and numb in certain parts of the body, you can try cooking this soup twice a week to see whether it works on you. And sometime certain people needs to take more frequent before they can see the effect.

Mixed Vegetables And Walnut Porridge

Tried making this porridge twice by adding different ingredients such as minced pork, carrot, potato and walnut to cook with the mixture of Rice Grain (白米) and Yellow Millet (黄小米). And for this meatless recipe, I have added more vegetables to make it a healthier and nutritious porridge for young children. Although the most time consuming part is to remove the skin from the dry walnut but when seeing how much my boy loves the porridge I think it is worth the effort.

Green Bean With Durian Dessert

When I first saw this dessert from Zur's Kitchen I almost drool while looking at the screen. In my mind I kept thinking of the combination of green bean with durian as it is quite difficult to describe the taste with words unless you try it yourself. Furthermore this dessert is sweeten by gula melaka (a kind of coconut sugar) which gives it a distinctive taste which leaves you craving for more.

Mango, Cucumber & Apple Salsa

My family loves mango so with mango season around I decide to make this refreshing mango salsa to serve as appetizer.  This fruity salsa goes well with BBQ meat or spicy food so as to tone down the heat and give a refreshing after taste. 

Stir-fry Pork Liver With Rice Wine

Today is a lazy Sunday morning while my son slept an hour and the half more than his usual wake up time. So while he is still in dreamland, I continue peeling the outer skin of the dried walnuts which I am going to use it for cooking his porridge. Our lunch menu for today will be "Vegetable Pork with Minced Pork and Walnut" serve together with Stir-fry Pork Liver With Rice Wine.

Pulot Hitam Kaya Kueh

Today is another Kueh making session for us because mum is coming over for a visit so I decide to something for afternoon tea.  This kueh that I made today is called Pulot Hitam Kaya; the bottom layer is made with combination of Pulot Hitam (Black Glutinous Rice) and White Glutinous Rice.

Fishball and Chinese Cabbage Soup

These few days, I am so tired and lazy to cook anything and I actually intends get some roast duck rice for today's dinner. But since it started to drizzle in the evening and it's quite troublesome to bring my kid along I decided to cook a simple vegetable soup to go with rice. So with whatever I can find in the freezer I come out with this all in one soup with "fishball, crabstick, tofu, minced pork and Chinese cabbage".

Steam Tapioca Cake

Recently I have the urge on making all kinds of Local Kueh. And for this post I will be sharing the recipe for this Steam Tapioca Cake which I made for mum gathering with friends. The main ingredients for this kueh is Tapioca and coconut milk as well as coconut sugar (gula melaka).

Barley, Ginkgo Nut & Beancurd Soup

These few days the weather was pretty hot and humid so it is best to drink more water, soup or even a bowl of cooling dessert. This afternoon I prepared mum’s favourite dessert which is the “Barley, Ginkgo Nut & Bean Curd Soup (白果,薏米和腐竹)”. This is a famous Cantonese dessert which is usually taken by pregnant lady because there is myth saying that those mum-to-be who drinks this will help the unborn baby to have a fairer skin. And in order to the creamy version, you need to get hold of the correct type of dessert bean curd sheet too.

Dang Gui Chicken Soup

Asian Chinese love to nourish their bodies with medicinal food but before you starts with any of these herbal soup or dish you have to know what you body is lack with. Just like our body is divided into Yin and Yang and where Yin further sub-divide into weak spirit, weak blood, infirm and nutritionally weak. For example: in cold season we need warm supplement food; summer and autumn require cooling stuffs to reduce body heat so we had to select the right supplement at the correct time or else it could backfire our health.

Pak Tong Koh

Pak Tong Koh (白糖糕) is one of my favourite childhood breakfast treat which my dad used to get for me. And recently I happen to find this recipe from one of the "Local Kueh" recipe book that I bought. The recipe itself is easy to follow but the fermentation time is a bit way too long; need to rest the batter undisturbed for about 8 hours. In such case I did not try out the recipe until I come across another similar one from a website.

Mango Pudding

Saw this Mango Puddings recipe from m4m website forum and it was strongly recommended by most of the people who had tried it. Since now it is mango season where you can easily get hold of fresh and juicy mango, I decided to give this recipe a try. I followed most of the ingredients given by Hugbear (base on her recipe) except by replacing some of the required ice-cream to mango juice and milk because I don't have enough at home.

Pad Thai Noodles

I always wanted to replicate this noodle dish at home as I miss eating the version I had during our stay in Brisbane. As you know this is one of the well-known dish  in Thailand known as Pad Thai. It has a subtle substance of flavours with pickled turnip, crushed peanuts, fresh chives and a dash of lime. You can hardly find a good one in Singapore because they are not as popular as Thai curry and rice dishes.

Lotus Root, Water Chestnut & Loquat Soup

After a long search, I manage to find Loquat which is also known as “枇杷果“ in Chinese. This fruit is very good as it helps to expel heat from the lungs, eliminate sputum and stop coughing due to Heat. As this is a seasonal fruit it might be slight difficult to get hold so do keep a look out for them in the supermarkets or fruit stalls. 

The taste of the soup is very smoothing and full of fragrant that is hard to describe. With the mixture of lotus roots, pear, water chestnut and loquat you have to try this soup on your end to justify the taste. But no worry it this is not those sweet soup taste. 

Cantonese Style Steam Chicken

Find this Cantonese Style Steam Chicken dish looks delicious from one of the cookbook I loan from the library. I wonder how does it taste with the extra ingredient; Chinese Sausage (腊肠) added into this dish because I normally just steamed chicken with ginger and spring onion.

Steam Pork Shoulder With Black Bean Sauce

Since I have some Pork Shoulder (妃子骨) in the fridge, I decided to make this Steamed Pork Shoulder with Black Bean Sauce which recommended by one of my blogger friend. According to her, pork shoulder bone has little cartilage and the meat is also of better quality which in a way the result will be smooth and soft. 

Herbal Watercress Soup

We often cook Watercress Soup at least once every two weeks. Sometime I will boil it with pork ribs and red dates but if the weather is hot and humid then I will add in some extra herbs to cool down the body as well as nourishing the lungs. For us we prefer to cook watercress with chicken instead of pork as we find it taste better in a way.

Deep-Fry Salmon With Special Sauce

Replicate this Salmon Dish from Zur's from the M4M forum, where she used vinegar and light soy sauce to make the seasoning sauce for this dish. Before testing out the dish I am still worrying about the taste due to the use of vinegar. But to my surprise, the sweet and sour sauce was great with the combination of mirin and chillies flakes. Overall this is a very appetizing dish which consists sweet, sour and spicy taste in one. But since I don't have sweet sake at home, I replace it with a bit of sugar and also in some some cornstarch solution to thicken the sauce slightly.

Steam Pork Mince With Salted Fish

I am always keen in learning how to make tasty steamed minced meat with salted fish which are similar to those selling in the steamed food stall. So after consulting some experts from cooking forum that makes this dish, I finally managed to prepare something similar to what I expected. Actually this is an easy dish to prepare but you need some skill in making the minced meat seasoning and get food quality of salted fish to enhance the taste.

Lotus, Huai Shan & Pork Ribs Soup

Recently I have  being cooking this Lotus, Huai Shan & Pork Ribs Soup at least once a week. This soup is recommend by one of the Chinese Physician who I often visit, according to her this soup helps to improve the Qi in our body.

It consists of Fresh Huai Shan which taste sweet and helps to nourish our lungs and kidneys, strengthens the spleen, stops diarrhea, uplifts the spirit and benefits Qi. Besides that this soup can also helps to improve the appetite of young children and adults during hot weather. You can add about 2 slices of Bei Qi which helps to in strengthens the Heart, promotes urination, lowers blood pressure as well as boosts the immune system.

Steam Herbal Chicken

We love to cook this Steamed Herbal Chicken at least once or twice every fortnightly either half portion of chicken, chicken wings or chicken drumsticks depending what we prefer on that week. If you have some ready Chinese Herbs at home, it is actually better to use that rather than getting premixed spices from supermarkets.

There are many different methods in preparing this dish where some might prefer stronger herbal taste or lighter. My method here might be different from your so this is just for reference and sharing you can always add or remove ingredients which is not accessible on your end.

Kueh Salat

This was my 2nd attempt on making Kueh Salat which is a typical Nonya Snack which made of glutinous rice, eggs and coconut milk! I do admit it's a bit tricky when comes to making the custard layer because it tends to get harden while you are trying to boil the coconut milk. My family and I love this tea snack and we are glad that it turns out good with wobble custard layer and soft glutinous rice below.

Baked Prawns With Dong Fen

Saw this yummy dish from one of food blog known as My Little Cyberspot. She made this mouthwatering Thai-style Baked Prawn With Vermicelli which looks so delicious. So without hesitate I also give this recipe a go since our family is Thai food lovers too.

Steamed Crab With Glutinous Rice

Saw this interesting dish from a Chinese New Year recipe book and I decided to give it a try. And after searching one of the main ingredients; Crab for a few days I finally bought one this morning. So after soaking the glutinous rice for a few hours, season it with seasoning we are ready to place the crab on it and off it goes into the bamboo steamer. If you don't have any bamboo steamer you can just use any of a suitable size pot and steaming plate too.

Pumpkins, Peanuts & Pork Ribs Soup

Got this recipe from one of the cooking forums and it a taste similar to red bean sweet soup because of the added kidney beans and pumpkin. Overall this soup is very nourishing and healthy and it is suitable for everyone in the family too.

Ondeh Ondeh (元宵节)

The 15th days of the Chinese Lunar New Year is also known as Yuan Xiao Jie ( 元宵节). On this day, every household gets together to enjoy reunion dinner, new year goodies as well as the most important item Tang Yuan (汤圆). But  instead of making the traditional Tang Yuan (汤圆), Rey and I actually re-create it into Ondeh Ondeh which also make use of glutinous rice flour, Gulua Malaka (椰糖) filling but these are eaten "dry" so we coat them with fresh desiccated coconut.

Creamy Red Bean Dessert

My mother-in-law loves to make this red bean "红豆沙" dessert during Chinese New Year and we always ask for second helping because of its smooth texture when compared to those serve in some of the Chinese restaurants. So when I saw a related recipe in one of the forum, I decided to give it a try since the steps are pretty easy to follow.

Stir-fry Fish Fillet With Baby Leeks

During Chinese New Year, almost every household will stock up "Baby Leek - "蒜" at home. Most people often used it cooking or hang it at some corner of the house to symbolized "年年有钱算". This is because "蒜" and "算" sounds similar in Mandarin so the more you eat, the more money you will able to count in the year. Here instead of using it to steamed fish, I recreate the recipe by stir-frying some fish fillet with leek which in a way easier for kid to consume.

Chinese New Years Goodies

Chinese New Year is on coming Sunday so yesterday I managed to spend the whole morning making some two types of cookie. The one of top is the Mixed Fruits Butter Cookies which is made into leaf petal using cookie cutter. These butter cookies are very addictive and each bite is filled with bits of yummy fried fruits.

Quick & Easy Banana Cake

Although I don't really like banana as a fruit on its own but I am a big fans of Banana Cake and Muffin. I love the sweetness and wonderful aroma while the cake is still baking in the oven. Here we have another quick recipe from M4M website which I am sure your loved ones will come back for more after the first serving.

Baked Salmon With Lemon Butter Sauce

Get the inspiration of this dish from one of my friend's blog where she often prepares salmon dishes for her kids. This simple and yet delicious dish is super easy to prepare; you just need to rinse and pat dry the fillet then lightly season it with some olive oil, salt and black pepper. After which sent it into the oven or toaster and bake till done then drizzle with some lemon butter sauce or wasabe.

Stuffed Chicken Wings

Actually there are a few version in preparing this stuffed chicken wing dish. The Thai style version often used ground meat and water chestnut as filled while some will replaced it with minced shrimp. Here I am using Steamed Glutinous Rice as stuffing which is much filling. The rice filling is yummy but you need to spend sometime to steam the glutinous rice, stuffing the de-bone chicken wings then deep-fry them.

Ingredients:
12 Chicken Wings, wings part and debone
1/2 - 3/4 Cup of Glutinous Rice, soak for at least 3 hrs
2 Mushroom, soak and finely diced
1/4 Carrot, finely diced
1 - 2 Shallots, finely diced
1 Stalk Spring Onion, finely diced

Seasoning:
1.5 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Five Spices Powder
Dash of Pepper
Dash Of Sesame Oil
70 - 100ml Water, used the water from the mushroom

Methods:
1. Preheat frying pan with oil, saute shallots until fragrant then add in the mushroom and continue to fry for another minute then pour in glutinous rice and carrots.
2. Give it a few stirs for half a minute then add in the seasoning except the sesame oil.
3. Stir for another minute until the seasonings is well mixed. Dish up into a steaming plate or bamboo basket and steam for about 40 minutes or until rice is soft and tender.
4. When the rice is done, stir in the spring onion, sesame oil, some pepper and light soy sauce to taste.
5. Cool the filling slightly before stuffing it into the chicken wing pocket. Coat them with beaten egg and corn flour then deep-fry until golden brown and serve.

Steps To Dedone Chicken Wings:
1. De-bone the chicken wings by bending backwards the joint between the drumstick and wing to loosen the tendons.
2. Then cut a ring around the top part of the drumstick and using a sharp knife, slowly scrape down against the bone to loosen the meat from the drumstick.
3. Always pushing back the skin as you scrape.
4. Now proceed to do that for the wing by first cutting off the bone of the drumstick and continue scraping down to the second joint, pushing back the skin and meat as you go.
5. Then carefully cut off the two bones of the wing and discard them.
6. Be careful not to pierce the chicken skin.
7. Repeat this for all the wings.
8. Now the chicken wings are ready for stuffing.

Notes: Marinated the chicken wing with some cornflour, pepper and light soy sauce for at least 30 minutes before stuffing in the glutinous rice.