Friday 7 September 2012

Steamed Chicken With Mui Choy - 梅菜鸡

Steamed Mui Choy with Pork Belly (梅菜扣肉) is one of the traditional Hakka dishes but here instead of using Pork Belly I have replaced pork with Chicken for a healthier version. Basically there are two types of Mui Choy (mustard green) which is either sweet or salty and you can easily get them from groceries stall selling salted fish and dry products in wet market or dried goods section in supermarket.


STEAMED CHICKEN WITH MUI CHOY
梅菜鸡



(Serves: 4   | Preparation: 10 minutes   | Cooking: 30 - 40 minutes)

Ingredients:
1/2 Portion Chicken (600g), cut into pieces
2 Stalks (150g - 200g) Sweet Mui Choy (甜梅菜)
3 Garlic Cloves, finely minced
2 Small Chilli, sliced

Seasoning:
1 - 1.5 Tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Cooking Wine
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Cornflour


Method:-
1. Rinse and wash mui choy (mustard green) for 2 - 3 rounds to get ride of the sand and dirt. Soak it in water for about 10 minutes, remove and squeeze it dry using kitchen paper towel.

2. Next cut mui choy into about 2" sections and set aside.

3. Marinate chicken with seasoning for about 5 minutes. Saute garlic with 1 tablespoon of oil till fragrant, stir in mui choy and continue to fry for another minute or two.

4. Add in marinated chicken pieces, and fry together with some sliced chilli till the surface of the chicken pieces are slight brown in colour.

5. Transfer the chicken mixture to a deep steaming plate and steam it over medium heat for about 30 - 40 minutes till chicken is tender.

Tip:
~ For easy cooking, you can SKIP steps 3 and 4. Just mix mui choy with marinated chicken and steamed it over medium heat till chicken is tender.

~ For savoury flavour, use half each of sweet and salty mui choy for this recipe.

For a quick and easy recipe to kick off your weekend cooking, perhaps you can start looking for mui choy (mustard green) to go with either pork or chicken to try out this dish.

Thursday 6 September 2012

Crystal Jade Celebrate 2012 Mid-Autumn Festival with Limited Edition Treasure Box

This year Mid-Autumn Festival, Crystal Jade offers a limited edition Premium Gold Treasure Box (S$88.00 / 4 pieces) which features four individual boxes with lids of silk, each adored with with words "Fei Cui (翡翠)" which means Crystal Jade in Chinese.

The set comprises of:- Gold Leaf White Lotus Paste with Double Yolk, Gold Leaf Red Lotus Paste with Double Yolk, Gold Leaf Plain White Lotus Paste, and Gold Leaf Mixed Nuts and Ham.

Mixed Nuts and Ham is always one of the flavour that I always look forward to. And this one from Crystal Jade has a stronger ham taste compared to the other few that I have tried which is more on the orange peel scented.

For a modern and healthier choice, perhaps you could consider this Kindred Bliss (S$22.00 / 4 pieces) with a selection of four yoghurt and pudding flavoured mooncakes such as Mango (yellow), Mixed Berries (purple), Apple (green) and Original (white).

Original Yoghurt Pudding Mooncake with Nata De Coco.

Photo Credit:- Crystal Jade
For your information, Crystal Jade's selection of 23 mooncake varieties will be available from 27 August till 30 September 2012 at most Crystal Jade Outlets. There is also a 15% OFF exclusively for DBS/POSB Credit And Debit Cardmembers.

Orders or enquiry can be made via Crystal Jade Mooncake Hotline at 6512 0808, Monday - Friday (9am - 6pm).

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Okara Mantou And Okara Omelette


Remember in the previous Homemade Organic Soymilk post we mentioned about Okara (豆渣) which is rich in dietary fiber. Instead of throwing them away after filtering the soymilk you could actually use it in your daily cooking or bakes to enhance the flavour as well as the nutritious values of the food.

To be honest, I have never taste or eaten "Okara" before I have this soymilk maker, so trying out various recipes using Okara is such an amazing experience and both my family and friends enjoy this new "taste and texture" too.


OKARA CHARCOAL MANTOU
豆渣馒头



This Okara Mantou is inspired by one of my boy classmates' mum who makes soft and delicious mantou using homemake soymilk and okara. So with my leftover black soybean okara and soymilk I decided to make this "black" Okara Charcoal Mantou.


(Serves: 10 - 12 pieces   | Preparation: 90 minutes  | Cooking: 15 minutes)

Ingredients:
  • 280g Plain Flour
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Charcoal Powder (竹碳粉)
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 20g Tablespoon Caster Sugar
  • Pinch of Salt
  • 100g Okara (豆渣), drain well
  • 1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
  • 1/2 Teaspoon of Dry Yeast
  • 40ml Lukewarm Water

Method:-
1. Add dry yeast into the lukewarm water and give it a quick stir, set aside for about 5 minutes till bubbles appeared.

2. Sift plain flour and baking powder together in a big bowl with the caster sugar and salt till combined.

3. Next slowly add in yeast water into the flour mixture and stir using a metal spoon or clean hand follow by okara till it forms soft dough.

4. Add in oil and give the dough a quick knead till well combine or dough does not stick to your hand.

5. Set dough aside in a lightly flour/oil bowl, covered with cling wrap and let it proof for about 30 minutes or until dough became double the size.


6. Knead proof dough on a lightly floured work surface for about 5 minutes, flatten and roll into a rectangular shape, roll it up lengthwise into an oblong shape.

7. Repeat the process once or twice depends on your preference.

8. Roll the final dough into oblong shape, cut them into equal portions, place each shaped mantou on steamer rack with greaseproof paper below.

9. Spray some water on the mantou before steaming them over medium heat for about 13 - 15 minutes. (depending on the size of the mantou)

10. When done, removed and served hot/warm. You can keep cool mantou in the freezer for a week or so. Reheat by steaming it for 5 minutes before eating.

Note:
~ Lukewarm is about 36 - 37 degree Celsius


This is the Black Soybean Okara which is being filtered from the soymilk. It can be kept in the fridge for about 2 - 3 days.


OKARA OMELETTE
(豆渣煎蛋)



Other than steamed bun, I have also in cooperate Okara into our daily dishes by add it into omelette. This dish could be consider as half vegetarian dish if egg is allowed. We love this omelette dish a lot as it taste quiet similar to the usual "Minced Meat Omelette (肉碎煎蛋)" and when eaten you can't even tell Okara is added to it. The omelette has a very fragrant and slight sweet taste (read more here on how to filter the okara) which makes it different from the usual fried omelette dish.


(Serves: 2  | Preparation: 5 minutes | Cooking: 5 minutes)

Ingredients:
2 Eggs (55g each)
2 - 3 Tablespoons Okara (豆渣)
1/2 Tablespoon Wolfberries
1 Tablespoon Chopped Spring Onion
Pinch of Salt


Method:-
1. Add all the ingredients into a bowl, whisk till combined.

2. Preheat 1/2 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, pour in egg mixture, swirl and spread it evenly around the pan.

3. Fry the omelette for about 2 minutes on medium low heat till slight golden brown in colour, carefully flip it over using a spatula. Cook for another minute or two.

4. Dish up and serve.

Other than the above two recipes on using Okara, do stay tune for the my "Black Butter Cake" which I have give it a twist on adding okara into the normal butter cake recipe. Stay tune!

Tuesday 4 September 2012

iGen Mints plus Giveaways

Recently Huiji (汇集) has launched a new product which is known as iGen Mints. These mints are available in two flavours such as Double Mint (green) and Sour Strawberry (red) with each tin weighing 15g and contains about 75 mints in it.

Since iGen mints are sugar free and delicious, you can enjoy anytime as you want to keep yourself cool and refreshing.  These mints also comes in conveniently packaged ‘click-clack’ tins boasting a unique metal, slide-to-open design that enable you can bring it anywhere.

iGen Sour Strawberry has a strawberry scented taste when you pop it into your mouth and it's tangy taste that linger in your mouth will also keep you fresh and awake. I am sure you would dote these pinky little mints if you like strawberries plus these mints are also sugar free with vitamin C too. 

iGen Double Mint has a refreshing and yet not over powering spearmint flavour which keep you fresher against the heat waves as well as refreshing your breath after meals or beverage such as coffee. Moreover each piece of Double Mint only contains 0.48kcal calories due to it's sugar free content.

So do keep a look out on these iGen Double Mint and iGen Sour Strawberry retail at S$2.20 each at Cheers, FairPrice Xpress and etc.

Furthermore, just for your information recently iGen has organize a facebook giveaway contest for their fans till 15 September 2012. To participate, click on their contest link HERE and answer a simple question (answer can be found in this post) in order to stand a chance to win the "Monster Diamond Tears Headphones".  Remember to "like" iGen Mints page before you could proceed to the contest.


GIVEAWAYS


Thanks to Huiji (汇集), I am giving away 4 boxes of “iGen” mints (2 Double Mint and 2 Sour Strawberry) each to 5 lucky readers.

To win:

1. Like the the above iGen mints photo on Cuisine Paradise Facebook Page, AND
2. Leave a comment on facebook photo stating roughly how much per month you spent on buying sweets and which is your favourite to grab.

Closing Date: 06 September 2012 (Thursday), 12 NOON.

*only for readers living in Singapore*


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