My Cooking Journal 14 - Steam White Pomfret (清蒸白鲳魚)

This is another steam fish cooking method that I would like to share. This times I included wolfberry in my steam fish dish. Wolfberry (枸杞子) is very well used in chinese cruisine and in tradition chinese medicine. It is very nutritious and sweet in taste. It contains various important nutrients such as essential amino acids, vitamin C and B2, iron, potassium, zinc, selenium, phosphorous, calcium and germanium and also with small amount of vitamin E, dietary fiber and proteins.

 

Wolfberry is well know for improving our vision and liver, for anti-aging purpose, helps to promote healthy skin and hair growth, boost our immunity, improve our blood pressure level and prevent cancer.  Usually, I also like to add them for my chinese soup recipe.

 

This dish takes about 25 minutes to prepare and cook.

Ingredients:

 

1. 1 medium white phompet 
2. 1 inche Ginger, thinly shredded
3. 1 tomato, cut into 6 wedges
4. 1 red chilli, thinly sliced
5. 2 pieces dried mushroom - soaked till soft and thinly sliced
6. 2 pieces of preserved salted vegetables, thinly shredded
7. 2 stalk Spring Onion, white part cut into (1 inch) length and green part thinly sliced
8. 4 cloves garlic, minced for garnish
9. 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
10. 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
11. 1 teaspoon sesame oil
12. 3 tablespoon olive oil
13. dashed of sugar and white pepper

Sauce:

1. 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
2. 1 tablespoon oyster sauce 
3. 1 tsp sesame oil
4. Dash of white sugar and pepper

Mixed the above in a small bowl and set side.

  

 Deed fried Garlic (for Garnish):

 

1.  Heat wok, add 3 tablesppon of olive oil to heated wok
2. Add minced garlic and fried till 75% of the garlic turned brown. Be careful as garlic get overcooked very easy, you have to watch it closely.
3. Transfer the fried garlic to a bowl, let the garlic sit in the hot oil for 2 minutes.
4. Separate the fried garlic and oil in a bowl. Set aside for garnish.

 

 

My Cooking Journal 12 - Simple Chinese Steam Eggs (中式蒸蛋)

If you want to prepare a quick, easy and nutrition dish for your family, I would suggest preparing a good dish of plain steamed egg that will simply melted in your mouth.

Eggs contain many essential nutrition that benefits our health. It is not only rich in protein and is also a good source of Vitamins A, B2 (riboflavin), B9 (Folate), B12 and D and minerals such as selenium, iodine, iron, zinc, lutein, choline, phosphorous, molybdenum. The health benefits of eggs are mainly contributed in the egg yolks. Choline is well known for brain development. It helps to develop healthy fetal brain, improving our memory function and so prevents us from age-related memory loss. Folate helps pregant woman to prevent birth defects. Then, lutein preserves our eyesight and protects us against macular degeneration and cataract. Needless to say, Vitamin D helps to form and maintain strong bones.

Though eggs are considerably high in fat and cholesterol, the fat it's contain are mostly monounsaturated fat and much of the cholesterol in eggs may not be well absorbed by our body. Therefore, it has little impact in raising blood cholesterol. Nevertheless, we should still consume eggs in moderation and try to maintain our cholesterol intake to 300mg daily. An healthy individual should consume not more than four eggs per week.

Buy and Store Eggs

You can buy eggs from any provision shops, supermarket and local wet markets in pack of tray or carton. Before purchase, make sure you inspect any crack or break eggs.

Storing eggs in their original carton or tray can prevent absorption of odours and lost of moisture. It will still be able to keep its freshness for about one month if you maintain it in the original condition and stored it in the refrigerator. Avoid washing the eggs prior storing them in the refrigerator as it will remove their protective coating. Also, avoid storing eggs near the refrigerator door as the eggs tends to expose to heat more frequently when you opened and closed the refrigerator door. This will reduce their freshness.

Ingredients:

1. 2 eggs for serving 2 adults and 2 toddlers
2. 4 eggs shells of water
3. 100g minced pork - To marinate
4. Pinch of salt and suger - To taste
5. Chopped spring onion - Garnish

Marinate minced pork in a bowl :

1. 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
2. 1/2 tsp sesame oil
3. Dash of pepper & sugar
4. Set aside

Measurement of Water:

Break a small hole at the top of the egg shell, then pour out the egg into a bowl. Filled up the empty egg shell with water (till full), pour the water into the bowl of eggs - (Total: do 4 times)

For every one egg, do the above 2 times. (Ratio - Egg : Water = 1:2) 

My Cooking Journal 7 - Steam Tofu with minced pork and prawn

Tofu is an excellent choice of ingredients to cook in term of cost and health benefits. It is relatively inexpensive and contains good source of high quality vegetable protein and calcium. It is also low in saturated fat and contains zero cholesterol. Tofu with soft texture is a perfect food for elderly and toddlers as it is easy to chew and digest. 

Types of tofu available:

1. Firm Tofu – dense and solid and is higher in protein, fat and calcium than the soft type. Suitable for deep fry, stir fry and braise.
2. Soft Tofu – provide lesser protein compare to firm and silken type but is high in fat and calcium,  suitable for steaming, pureed or in soups. 
3. Silken Tofu – Provide equivalent amount of protein with soft tofu and is low in fat and calcium. Suitable for all cooking methods as mentioned above. 

Buying and Storing of Tofu:

You can purchase tofu from any local grocery stores or wet market. Please remember to check the expiration date on the package.

When you open the tofu package and there is leftover. You can keep the leftover in a storage box and covered with fresh water. However, the leftover must be rinsed with water prior storage. Do remember to change the water daily to maintain its freshness and use up the leftover within a week.  

Here, I am going to introduce a fast and easy cooking dish - 'Steam Tofu with minced pork and prawn'. It only takes 20 minutes to cook including preparation time. Hope you will like it!

  

Ingredients:

1. 1 box Silken White tofu (300g) - Cut into cubes or can also subsittude with egg tofu
2. 50g minced pork
3. 4 pieces medium size prawn - Use a pounder to pound into paste form 
4. 1 tablespoon light soy sauce

5. 

   Silken Tofu Block

   1 tablespoon fish sauce
6. 2 teaspoon sesame oil
7. 1 stalk spring onion (diced)
8. Small pinch of pepper
9. 1 teaspoon white sugar
10. 1 teaspoon corn flour

Ingredient (A) - Sauce:

1. 1 tablespoon light soy sauce 
2. 1 teaspoon sesame oil
3. Pinch of white sugar
4. Small pinch of pepper

In a small bowl, mixed together all the above.

Ingredient (B) - Marinade minced pork & prawn paste:

1. 50g minced pork
2. Prawn paste (4 pieces of prawn pounded/chopped into paste form)
3. 1 tablespoon fish sauce
4. 1 teaspoon sesame oil
5. Pinch of white sugar
6. 1/2 stalk chopped spring onions
7. Small pinch of pepper
8. 1 teaspoon corn flour

Others ingredients can also be included:

2 pieces dried mushroom (diced) - must soak in water till soften, then diced (Optional)

2 pieces water chestnut (diced) - peel skin and diced it. (Optional)

In a small bowl, mixed together all the above.

Methods:

1. Marinate ingredient (B) in a small bowl, mixed well and set aside. Cut Tofu block into cubes. Arrange them on a steaming plate.
2. Mixed ingredient (A) in a small bowl and set aside. It serves as the sauce.
3. Use your hand to roll/mound ingredient (B) into small round ball. Placed each small ball on top of the tofu cubes. Then slightly use your finger lightly pressed the ball to ensure they can sit well on tofu cubes. The ingredient (B) will then look like a dome shape sitting on top of tofu cubes.  
4. Sprinkle ingredient (A) over each tofu cubes. 
5. Place a iron rack in the pot/wok. Heat your pot/wok with water over high heat. Once water boiled, place tofu dish on steam rack. Steam it for 7 minutes. 
6. Remove tofu from wok or pot.
7. Garnish with chopped spring onion or fried shallot.
8. Ready to serve.

A view of tofu dish after completing Method 1 to 4
(Note. The minced pork looks more pinky before cook and will turn 'white' when cooked.)

My Cooking Journal 3 - Steam Fish (清蒸魚)

As a working mum, I would prefer to prepare a dish that is simple and 'quick to cook' for my family. One of the easiest, healthiest and faster cooking method is Steaming. Also, considering the best choice of meat for our diet, fish is generally the best option which is high in protein and lower in fat compare to animal protein. Steam fish is a convenient and simple dish to prepare for dinner (takes about 7 minutes to cook exclude preparation time). And usually, I would use white phompet, red grouper or seabass for my steam fish (清蒸魚). There are two options to cook steam fish. But most of the time, I prefer to use option 1 as it is simple and faster to prepare than option 2.

Option 1

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium whole fish, ie white phompet or 1 slice of red grouper
2. 2 inches Ginger, thinly shredded
3. 1 tomato, cut into 6 wedges
4. 1 red chilli, thinly sliced (optional)
5. 1 dried shiitake mushroom, soak in water and cut into thin slices when its become soften
6. 2 pieces salted vegetable, thinly sliced
7. 1 salted plum (optional)
8. Green onions (thinly sliced) or Coriander leave for garnish (optional)

Note: If you do not have salted vegetable, you can just put 1 salted plum or vice
versa.

Sauce:

1. 1 tbsp light soy sauce
2. 1 tbsp fish sauce
3. 1 tsp sesame oil
4. little bit sugar
5. sprinkler little white pepper on sauce
6. 1 tsp shao xing wine - optional (If you have kids eating this dish, then I will advise not to add wine in the sauce)

Methods:

1. Wash the fish with salt. If it is a whole fish, make a diagonal slits on fish.
2. Place the tomato, sliced ginger, salted vegetable and salted plum on the bottom of plate.
3. Place the fish on top of the tomato. You may place some sliced ginger inside the fish cavity as well. Then, place some more sliced ginger on top of the fish. Also scattered the sliced chilli and sliced mushroom over the fish and around the side of the fish.
4. Pour in the sauce (mentioned as above).
5. Steam the fish for approximately 7 minutes.
6. Garnish with spring onions or coriander leave before serve.

Option 2
Method:

1. Cutted 4 spring onions, green parts cutted into 1 inch size, white parts finely shredded.
2. Scatter the green parts of the green onions and ginger sliced on the plate. Place the fish on top of the ingredients. You can also placed some ginger sliced in the fish cavity. Then, steam fish for 7-8 minutes.
3. Transfer the fish onto a serving plate and removes the ginger slices. Scatter the shredded spring onions (white parts) and coriander leaves on top of the fish.
4. Prepare a small sauce pan, heat up the sauce pan, pour in 1 tbsp of olive oil, heat up the oil and carefully drizzle the hot oil over the fish. This helps to infuse the green onions and coriander leaves flavour into the fish.
5. Now, pour in the sauce into the sauce pan, heat up the sauce and pour in the sauce over the fish.
6. Ready to serve.
   
   
   

My Cooking Journal 1 - Steam Chicken Thigh with Oyster Sauce

I have always wanted to compose my very own "secret recipe" journal to remind myself of my "creative" cooking during my times in dubai as a FULL TIME home-maker. I still remember the last time that I cook for myself and husband (boyfriend then) was when I were studying in Adelaide in year 1999-2000. When back home in S'pore, I would rely on my mom for my meals at home. I don't need to scatch my head and having headache about what to cook for the family. My mum will take care of everything. Now and then, I have to think of different kind of dishes to cook for the family. I started to realise being a house wife wasn't an easy task especially when at the same times you need to baby-sit a 16 months toddler . He can drive you crazy and make your day hectic.

First of all, I wish to start off with a simple dish that my husband and myself would enjoy. I also wished to highlight that some S'pore ingredient is unavailable in Dubai. For example, dried scallop, local Anchoy also known as ikan bilies or dried shrimp (they do have in Middle East style), XO sauce, hor fun (or kuay tiao), thicker bee hoon where we used for laksa etc...Any way, this dish is very easy to prepare and it takes only 20 minutes to cook and 15 minutes for preparation.

Ingredients:

1) Chicken Thigh, 7 pieces - remove extra skin and fats

2) Ginger, 1 piece - minced

3) Garlic, 1 clove - minced

4) Spring Onion, 1 - chopped5) Red chillies, 1 - chopped

Seasoning:

1) 2 tbsp oyster sauce

2) 1 tbsp dark soy sauce

3) 1 tbsp sesame oil

4) 1 tsp sugar (prefer brown sugar)

5) dash of white pepper

Methods:

1. Arrange the chicken thigh in a plate and marinate them with the above seasoning for 1 hour

2. Spread the minced garlic, ginger and chillies on top of the chicken thigh

3. Then set the wok, when the water is boiled, steam it for 20 minutes

4. When done, sprinkler spring onion on it and is ready to serve