Tofu Fish with Beef Balls in Plum Paste Sauce

I am so glad for the existence of convenience food. When I'm in a no mood to cook mode I'll automatically look for these foods in my fridge to dish up some thing for the dinner table. I always stock up these kinds of convenience food whenever I do my marketting.

Basically what I did was to make hot the tofu fish by pan frying it lightly with a tbsp of oil. Dish up.
Mix 2 tbsp of plum sauce with a tbsp of tomato sauce and added in half a cup of water to make the gravy.
Stir-fry an onion sliced with a tbsp of hot oil.
Add in the plum sauce mixture.
Add in the quartered tomato.
Added in the beef balls to the gravy and simmer for a minute.
Add in the tofu fish, simmer for a minute and walah .... the dish is ready to be eaten.

SF Minced Meat with Pickled Lettuce

I learned how to cook this from one of the moms at Kitchencapers. It uses this brand of pickled lettuce and fresh minced pork. Sometimes when I have no fresh vegetables at home, I will eat this pickled lettuce from the bottle directly from the fridge with either rice or porridge.

Ingredients:

200 gm of minced meat seasoned for an hour with .....

half tsp salt

a tsp sugar

a dash of pepper

a tbsp of chinese wine

a tbsp of sesame oil

Half a bottle of pickled lettuce with the syrup included.

3 cloves of garlic, chopped.

Half a tbsp of oyster sauce.

Method:

Stir fry the chopped garlic with about 2 tbsp of hot oil.

Add in the seasoned minced meat and stir for about a minute.

Add in the oyster sauce and blend it into the minced meat.

Add in the pickled lettuce together with the syrup.

Let it simmer for a minute.

Ready to serve and be eaten with white rice.

Yummy Yam Chiffon

I have discovered another chiffon cake variation. For many of my friends and family members, this was the first time that they had sampled a yam chiffon and they liked it. Thanks to Anita from Jo's Deli for sharing this.

Click HERE for the original recipe.

Jian Nian Gao

This is a yearly affair with the nian gao. And this year ds B suggested that I buy about 10 nian gaos and store them in the fridge so that he gets to eat them every month and need not wait till the following year to eat them. I just rolled my eyes at him and said "No Way !" What a suggestion ! LOL

This was how I pan fried my nian gao this year. I prepared the batter of 2 large beaten eggs and just added a packet of Seah's Spice for Spicy Chicken with 2 tbsp of plain flour and stirred till the mixture was smooth. The batter should be thick enough to cover the pieces of nian gao. Dipped the nian gao in the batter and lightly pan fried them in 2 tbsp of oil. Once the batter turned a golden brown, it would be ready for serving.
The nian gao in this batter tasted spicy and sweet at the same time. If you prefer a less spicy taste, I would suggest to lessen the amount of the spice to a tbsp. and increase the plain flour to three tbsps.

From the eyes of a child .....CNY Day !

On chinese new year day,

I ate and ate all day.

I played with my cousins and an aunty or two.

I took photos and family pictures.

And collected hong baos while visiting too.

Until the end of day.

CNY Reunion 2

This year MIL decided to hold the reunion dinner at BIL place cos' he just shifted to his new flat opposite MIL place.
Here's my share of the reunion dinner .... soft chocolatechip cookies for the children, konnyaku jelly & koi fish, hot chocolate chiffon and baked curry chicken.
Cos' SIL was not home until after 6 pm, I tried to help out by reheating the other foods from the table. It was after we had dinner that I realised I didn't take photos of the other foods cooked by MIL.
I think I'm getting a little too forgetful for my liking.

Gong Xi Fa Cai !

Greetings to all who have been visiting my blog ....:-)

Wishing all to have good health and happiness throughout the new lunar year !

Valentino Laksa Cookies

I named them such cos' it's Valentine's Day today! I read about the recipe from the Sunday times and was wondering how the cookies would taste.
Yochana from IK beat me to baking this and posted it at IK. I'm glad she did that cos' she feedback and said that the cookies are nice to taste.
But being the lazy me and always looking for shortcuts, I went on to buy the dry laksa pre-mix instead of making the paste from scratch. I got the Hai's Laksa pre-mix and worked on the cookie dough :-)


Click HERE for the link to the cookie recipe and the discussion.

CNY 2007 Reunion 1

Ever since I got married, my family has to attend 2 Reunion dinners. Since MIL has always held hers on the actual date, my mum will usually hold hers a week in advance. I am thankful for her understanding and making it possible for my family to have a pleasant reunion dinner with her and dad and also my brother's family. I know that it is difficult to have to attend to 2 reunion dinners on the same night and this I witnessed with my own eyes when my SILs had to do this, rushing from one place to the other.

The reunion dinner was held at my brother's place and I baked some things, my mum also cooked some stuff and my brother bought some foods too. In this way, we found it easier to manage and also to feed the extended family of thirteen. I've never liked holding the reunion dinner at a restaurant or any eatery eversince the children came. It has always been a struggle to manage the children at a restaurant especially when they get restless or refuse to eat any food from the table. Having the reunion dinner in a home is so much more cosy and definitely less stressful. As for washing up, we just used paper plates and cups, plastic forks and knives and did the minimum for the pots and serving dishes.



So here's presenting our simple spread of ......
Roast Duck, Char Siew, Roast Pork (bought from our favourite stall in Hougang)
Chilli Crab (bought)
Yu Sheng, Steamed Prawns and Watercress Soup (mum's contribution)
Baked Prawn Paste Chicken, Baked Pasta, Almond Longan Konnyaku Jelly (my contribution)

Here's the family doing the Loh Hei with the Abalone Yu Sheng to start off the Reunion night.

Home Made Bak Kwa

I remembered telling dh that I wanted to try to make bak kwa and he was surprised that it could be made at home. I know that it would not taste exactly like those from Bee Chun Hiang but after making it, I can safely say that I can grow to like the taste of my home made bak kwa.

I can say that it is easy to make and the tedious part is to watch the oven to make sure the meat doesn't get charred. There were lots of good feedback at IK and also M4M when the members there were trying their hands at making the bak kwa. I'm glad that I finally made it and have no regrets.

Click HERE for the discussion on Home Made Bak Kwa and recipes at M4M.

Konnyaku Koi Fish

I bought the mould from Phoon Huat which cost $2.50 and used the konnyaku jelly powder to make the fish. I used Strawberry flavour for the fins and the top and used the Almond flavour for the rest of the body. The fish konnyaku turned out well. I thought the flavours would clash but they didn't and both dh and ds B declared that it's good to eat. I'm one happy konnyaku jelly maker :-)

Flabby Candy

I noticed that it's usually around Chinese New Year that the traditional sweet stall vendors in Chinatown would sell this. Nowadays I can even find this flabby candy being sold around this time at the Hougang provision shop. I made this last year and I'm making this again cos' ds B and his cousin K love eating them. Will be giving some to K when I see him on Saturday.
Click HERE for the recipe.

Hazelnut Crisps

I like this cookie. I adapted it from the Cashewnut Crisps recipe which I got from a baking website. I adjusted the recipe a little and substituted ground cashewnuts with ground hazelnuts.

Ingredients:

250 gm unsalted butter, soften
150 gm caster sugar
2 egg yolks (egg whites reserve for glazing)
300 gm Top flour
20 gm corn flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
60 gm ground hazelnuts
chocolate chips for decorating

Method:

Sieve together top flour, corn flour, baking powder and baking soda.

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add in the egg yolks and vanilla essence and mix well.

Add in the ground hazelnuts mix well and then followed by the sieved flour mixture.

Mix till a dough is formed.

Put soft dough in a piping bag with a fluted tip and pipe the rosette pattern out on the lined baking sheets. Leave enough space for the crisps to expand.

Brush the top with egg white and decorate with a chocolate chip.

Bake in a pre-heated oven of 170 degree C for about 20 mins. or till rosettes are lightly golden brown.

Cool the crisps completely before storing them.

Hazelnut Snow Cookie

I bought a packet of grounded hazelnut and made this cookie using butter and brown sugar. The result was a not too sweet cookie which I believe my dad would love to eat. I sprinkled some snow powder thinking that I could make the cookie sweeter but it doesn't seem to work that way. Snow powder has only a hint of sweetness and it is not like icing sugar which is very sweet.

Ingredients:

250 gm unsalted butter
100 gm brown sugar
400 gm Top flour
80 gm ground hazelnut
2 eggs
red chelory for topping

Method:

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add in egg and blend well.

Stir in the grounded hazelnut and flour and mix till a dough is formed.

Put the soft dough in a piping bag and pipe the cookies out.

Egg wash the cookie top and place a chelory for decoration.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for 20 mins. or till cookie turns a light golden colour.

When cookie is done and is still warm, sprinkle some snow powder on it.

Cool cookie completely before storing in an air-tight container.

Peanut Cookie 2

My family didn't like the first batch of peanut cookies that I made. I added too much oil and they didn't like the crunchy peanuts in the cookie. However they like the Suji cookie recipe. So, I used the Suji cookie recipe and just substituted the grounded almonds for grounded peanuts. And yes, they fell in love with this. This cookie crumbles in your mouth.

Baked Curry Chicken Drumlets

Some days when I don't feel like cooking chicken curry, I'll bake curry chicken as the alternative. I got the free curry powder from the bakery supply shop and used it as part of the marinade for baking the drumlets.

Using 1 kg of chicken drumlets ......

Marinade them for about 3 hrs. using the following ....

3 tbsp chinese wine
3 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp salt
a dash of pepper
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp cooking oil

Bake the drumlets at 220 degree C in a pre-heated oven for 30 mins. or till skin is golden brown.

Almond Konnyaku Longan Jelly

I made this for a BBQ party tomorrow. Bought the special packaging jelly packets from the supermarket and they even come with the jelly mould during this period of time.
It's also my first time using this brand and I must say that it is good. It's also very easy to use. You just need to add the jelly powder to the water and boil.
The almond aroma is strong and I added a piece of canned longan fruit before poring the jelly liquid. Will definitely look out for this brand of almond konnyaku jelly again.

Stewed Char Siew

I had done this recipe some years ago and the children didn't like it cos they were too young to appreciate black sauce char siew. They were only familiar with the red char siew which I usually buy from the roast meat stalls. Now that they are a couple of years older I'm doing this recipe again and this time they accepted it without protest. The only request dh made was for me to slice the char siew a little thinner so that he will have more to eat.
My mum shared this recipe with me. This was the kind of char siew I ate when I was growing up.

Marinade 500 gm of twee bak (skin removed) for 3-4 hrs.with the following ingredients .....

2 tbsp red date black sauce
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp chinese wine
a dash of pepper
2 tbsp sesame oil

One whole garlic with inner skin intact.
Half a cup hot water.

Method:

Heat up the marinade in a pot and put the whole garlic in.

Add in about half a cup of hot water and wait for pot to boil.

Put the whole meat into boiling marinade and let it boil for about 15 mins.

Cover and reduce fire and let it simmer for about 30 mins. occasionally turning the meat.

Uncover and continue simmering till gravy thickens.

Check for meat tenderness by using a chopstick to poke.

When chopstick comes out clean and goes through meat easily, the meat is ready.