Ikan Bilis Yong Dao Fu

Have you ever tried the "Xiu Ji Ikan Bilis Yong Tau Fu( 秀记江鱼仔酿豆腐)" which located at #02-220/1 Chinatown Complex, Blk 335 Smith Street? The food is served in two bowls , one bowl containing six pieces of niang tou fu consisting 3 pcs of fishball , 1 pc tou fu , 1 pc tow pok and a mini ngoh hiang , all freshly steamed at the stall daily except for the ngoh hiang (fried ) in a ikan billis based soup . The other bowl will be your choice of noodle , kway-teow or bee hoon served dry with deep fried ikan billis topping with minimal oil . The chilli is grinded in heavy garlic served in a dish . All these for a mere S$ 2.00 . Give it a TRY .

Pitted Cherries Cheese Slice

Since some of my relatives and Mum's friends love to eat cheesecake. I decided to make this Pitted Cherries Cheese Slice for New Year Dessert.


It pretty easy to make as it only required stir and double-boil to melted the ingredients the pour over the base and keep in the fridge for a few hours. For the top layer, I used some Grand Mariner to replace Kirsch Liqueur because I don't have that at home.

Ingredients For Crust:
150g Chocolate Oreo Cookies, crushed
120g Butter, melted
30g Walnuts, toasted and chopped

Methods:
1. Combine all ingredients and press into a 8" loose base square baking tin and chill in the fridge for until firm.(about 20 minutes)

Ingredients For Filling:
250g Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Soften
140g Sugar
150g Sour Cream
200ml Non Dairy Whipped Cream
4 Tablespoons Full Cream Fresh Milk
2 Tablespoons Gelatine Powder
2 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
1/2 - 3/4 Canned Dark Pitted Cherries

Methods:
1. Double boil and whisk the cream cheese, sugar, sour cream and whipped cream together until smooth.(you will see some tiny lumpy cheese in the mixture but it will not affect the texture)
2. Dilute the full cream milk and gelatine powder into a double boiler until it gelatine dissolved.
3. Add diluted gelatine into the cheese mixture then follow by lemon juice and stir well.
4. Remove the chocolate base and arrange the dark pitted cherries onto the crust.
5. Slowly pour over cheese mixture and chill in the fridge for about 3 hours.

Ingredients For Top Layer:
150ml Syrup From Dark Pitted Cherries
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Gelatine Powder
160ml Water
1/2 Tablespoon of Grand Mariner

Methods:
1. Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook(except the liquor) with low heat until gelatine has dissolved.
2. Leave to cool, add in the Grand Mariner, mix well then spoon mixture onto the chilled cake.
3. Put back into the fridge for another 3 hours or over night.

Notes:
a) Removed the cream from the Oreo Cookies before crushing it.
b) You can used a 8" square mousse tin and wrap the base with aluminium foil and place it on a cake board.

Steam Cod Fish & Double Boil Frog Soup

This is another way of eating cod fish which can enhance it's origin favour as well as giving supplement to the body. Because of the grated ginger to expel wind, black fungi to increase the fluidity of the blood and improving circulation while rice wine kept the body warm.


Ingredients:
1 Piece Of Cod Fish(250g - 300g),雪鱼
5g Black Fungi(云耳), soaked till soft
1/2 Tablespoon Gou Qizi(枸杞子), rinse
1 Tablespoon Grated Ginger
3 Tablespoons Glutinous Rice Wine(黄酒,糯米酒)
1/2 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce

Methods:
1. Saute the ginger over a low heat with 2 Tablespoons Sesame Oil in a preheated pan until golden browned. Remove and set aside.
2. Washed and trim the soften black fungi and set aside.
3. Rinse the fish and pat-fry, season with glutinous rice wine and soy sauce then arrange on a heatproof plate.
4. Arrange the black fungi and gou qi on the side of the fish, top with pre-fried ginger and drizzle some ginger sesame oil on the fish.
5. Steam over high heat for 10 - 15 minutes until cooked through depend on the thickness of the fish.
6. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

This soup was abit uncommon, as we usually eat Frog that is Stir-fry with spring onion and ginger(姜葱田鸡), Stir-fry Frog in Gong Bao Sauce(宫保田鸡) or Frog Porridge(田鸡粥). So this Double boil frog with herbs is a rather new combination that using pork ribs or chicken.

Ingredients:
2 - 3 Whole Frog(田鸡)
50g Black Beans(黑豆)
6 - 8 Red Dates(红枣)
4 Slices Of Dang Gui(当归)
1/2 Tablespoon Gou Qizi(枸杞子)
5g Dried Longan(龙眼干)
800ml - 900ml Boiling Water

Methods:
1. Soak the black beans into water for at least 2 hour, remove and drained then set aside.
2. Rinse the frogs and blanch into boiling water for a while, remove and place into a double boiler, add in black beans and the rest of the ingredients(remember to rinse the herbs before using).
3. Pour in boiling water, covered and double-boiled over a low heat for about 2 hours.
4. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Notes:
a) This soup is abit sweet due to the Dried Longan, so if you don't prefer it to be sweet omit the adding the dried longan.
b) If you don't have a double boiler, you can put all the ingredients into a pot and place it in the slower cooker to double-boil over slow/auto heat for about 3 - 4 hours.

Osmanthus & Water Chestnut Kueh

Osmanthus is a highly perfumed flower, and it is well known that you can smell it nine miles away! It is a deliciously fragrant flowers which carry the scent of ripe peaches or apricots. In Chinese cuisine, the flowers are also used to produce osmanthus-scented jam (桂花酱), sweet cakes (桂花糕), dumplings, soups, and even liquor (桂花酒).


Usually when we went for dim sum during the weekend, my hubby will order the water chestnut kueh which he loves it alot. But then this is slightly different because of the Osmanthus fragrant infused into the kueh. It's rather a refreshing taste and it's up to individual whether you like that peachy or orange fragrant. Thanks Mandy from M4M to share with us this recipe.

Ingredients:
100g Water Chestnut Flour
1/2 Tablespoon Potato Starch
800ml Water
2 Teaspoons Dry Osmanthus
60g Chopped Water Chestnut(about 4)
200g Rock Sugar
1 Teaspoon Oil

Methods:
1. Boil water and add osmanthus flower reduce heat to simmer for 3 minutes, add in the rock sugar and stir till dissolved.
2. Cover and infused for 5 minutes.
3. Transfer about 250ml of flower tea(without the flowers) to a medium bowl and let it cool in a pot of ice water.
4. Before adding in chopped water chestnut to the pot of HOT flower tea, remove 1/2 of the Osmanthus flower in it and set aside.
5. After the bowl of flower tea and cooled down, stir in water chestnut flour and potato starch and sieve it into the HOT flower tea solution.
6. Keep stirring the mixture on low heat until slightly thicken like gluey form.
7. Stir in the oil and turn off the heat.
8. Pour into a 8" greased square tin and steam on HIGH heat for 20 minutes. (remove the cover and wipe off water every 5 minutes)
9. Cool it and put in the fridge to chill and unmould.
10. Serve it chilled.

Notes:
a) You can get the water chestnut flour from most of the supermarket.