饺子 steamed dumplings

I had the craving for some steamed dumplings. Of course my mother helped by giving me a lot of chives, a typical filling.

I had bought some dumplings from the supermarket, but it wasn't as fun (ok it was fun for the first few dumplings). I made my own dough with plain flour, salt, cold water, and let it rest in the fridge. I fried some julienned chives + mushrooms + sukiyaki belly for 1 version of filling, and julienned chives + minced meat for another.

Almost vegetarian Kway Chap

I love the kway chap sold by the vegetarian stall at *censored*. I am trying to replicate this dish. This was attempt 1.

I was too lazy to buy all the spices needed for kway chap, so I tried to buy the ready made spice packet. Went to my favorite market stalls, but they only sold ba ku teh (pork rib tea) mix. Ok, I thought about it, it tasted close to the vegetarian stall's, which had a nice herby flavor (not like the actual kway chap), except that it had a lot more peppercorns in the sachet.

So I bought that, thinking that I will not steep the sachet into the soup too long, and add the other condiments necessary for kway chap (like soya sauce). While I got water boiling, I chucked in the ba ku teh sachet. Once I smelled the peppery fragrance, I poured in dark soya sauce (for color), and light soya sauce for taste. For ingredients, I put in squares of tofu, chinese yuba, tua pok (another kind of soy product), oyster mushrooms, and bumanji mushrooms. I initially wanted to make it a all vegetarian dish, then I thought about Bobo (who would complain that I am starving him), and put in some pork slices and meat balls.

I also put in some mirin and the rice noodles (I couldn't buy the big square kind, and ended up with kway tiao) towards the end. Ok, it didn't really taste much like the kway chap sold by the vegetarian stall but it still tasted pretty nice.

Cold dish @ a Singaporean Chinese Wedding Banquet

Clockwise from top left: spring roll on top of kelp, jellyfish shot, suckling pig portion with hoisin sauce (worded in "joy"), prawn cocktail, and sauteed abalone clam.

Simple Chinese Lunch

Clockwise from left: potato stewed in tomato sauce, leeks fried with bacon and onion omelette

The Chinese Taco: 三层肉包

I had some frozen pork belly in the freezer and I missed eating lotus leaf buns. So obviously I would make braised pork belly sandwiches.

Assembled by B1's loving hands

Lotus leaf buns are not made from lotus leaves but they have the shape of little lotus leaves folded into two. Anyway I call them the Chinese tacos, very suitable for sandwiching food in between the two soft dough pads.

So I tossed the pork belly in with my leftover roast chicken to boil for stock. When the pork fat had turned soft and gelatinous, I took the pork belly slices out and braised them in some of the same stock, with the added condiments of sesame seed oil, garlic, soya sauce and mirin (I was too lazy to use Chinese wine and sugar). 

What's fast food without bier?

In the meantime I steamed the buns, and juliened some preserved daikon, Takuan (沢庵), which will provide a unique texture and contrasting flavor to the slightly sweet bun and the salty (and sweet) meat.  I retrieved the meat from the pot after half an hour and added a cornflour mixture to thicken the gravy. I then poured the gravy on the meat. I also used the remaining chicken + pork belly stock to make a quick corn egg drop soup with some creamed corn and leftover chicken bits. And to complete this "fast food" ensemble, we had fries.

We had fun assembling our little buns, first a bun, then lettuce leaf, then the Takuan, and the pork belly. Munch munch munch. B1 complained that we had tacos last weekend and now I was feeding him Chinese tacos. Some people just need to take S$4.50 and buy himself a noodle soup. (0.o")

Egg drop corn soup

Simply Porridge

I am not sure if you know that there are at least two kinds of porridge familiar to the chinese people. One is where you boil bits of meat and vegetables into a seasoned rice soup before eating it with a fried yutiao. The other kind is known as Teochew porridge, is like a typical chinese meal with rice soup instead of plain rice and other dishes (like banchan).

I had a massive craving for Teochew porridge but because I had bought some ingredients for Japanese cooking, I ended up with a weird hoggle poggle of niku jaga, wasabi octopus, natto, preserved daikon etc.

I bought the wasabi octopus from the Isetan supermarket. It was nasty and expensive (about S$7, you can see it in its entire serving in the saucer). Don't buy it :D

Herbal steamboat anyone?

B1 complains that I do not better his body with healthful food. So one day while waiting for him to fetch me, I popped over at a nearby medicinal shop and bought some ready-packed herbs and other dried goods. There was one specific for steamboat which I found intriguing, since we used to eat steamboat at the Chinese-run establishment next to my violin class, and they offered herbal soup as one of the soup stocks.

Since Mutter gave us so much (perishable) vegetables the other day, they had to be gotten rid of the fastest way possible in vast quantity via steamboat, which also gave me a chance to try out the soup pack. The supermarket was offering a deal of frozen scallops (apparently known as Jacob's mussels?) so I used those as the soup base with the herbs. Pretty luxurious huh?

I also made my own dumplings. 2 kinds. I shaped store-bought fish paste (tastes like dory, never buy again) and flavored it before mixing it with corn kernels and shaping it around asparagus stalks. I fried them so that they would retain shape and attain a kick to the flavor from the olive oil.

The other is minced meat which I mixed with endamame before fryng. All this took me 2 hours of effort. Sigh. Put in so much effort for the unappreciative B1. He didn't say anything except the soup was too sweet (I might have put in too much scallops, because we could eat them after all)

Braised Pork Belly

I am really turning Auntie. 

Case in point, today I was supposed to be buying fish cakes for my spicy Korean rice cakes but ended up chatting with a middle-aged auntie at the freezer compartment about whether I should buy chicken, and from there, we went on to chat about making double-boiled soup. In the end I didn't buy any. *face2palm*

2nd case in point, I couldn't resist the frozen pork belly when it went on sale. So I bought some to boil for soup. However as I stood in front of the crockpot, I thought to myself, boiled pork is tasteless and really gross in texture. B1 definitely won't eat it. So what should I do?

Braised pork is the answer.

Taking the pork from the pot, I fried some slices of garlic, which I then set aside for wrapping with the pork in lettuce. I then poured some stock and the meat, before adding dark soy sauce for color and flavored with light soy sauce, sugar, and five spice. 30 minutes later, the meat totally soaked in all that flavor and taste and was totally yummy while the skin and fat were QQ.

Yam Rice

My Eltern make yam rice this way, they fry lots of garlic, shallots, dried shrimp (which they soak), yam and pour it on top of boiled rice and mix. Since I don't like prawns, dried or not, I use dried scallops. I prefer to fry garlic, onions, soaked scallops, soaked rice and julienned yam, then boil the whole mixture together.

May I have 8 Prawns please?

B1 came home one day saying his colleague extolled on the pleasures of eating fresh prawns in medicinal soup. Since I hate prawns (that includes even prawns cooked in the same vegetable dish), it was a painful ordeal for me to even touch them. I went to the supermarket (I still hadn't summoned enough courage to visit the seafood and poultry sections in the wet market then yet). 

So I bought them at the nearby Shop and Save. I went to the seafood counter where I bewildered the counter staff and the auntie shoppers next to me when I replied "May I have 8 prawns please?" to the counter staff's "what do you want, girl?"

The expression of the auntie next to me was priceless. I later described it to my Eltern as a "WTF are you buying prawns if you are so fucking poor" face. Well, it isn't because I am poor (then again I am), it's because I thought 8 prawns were just enough for B1. 

"Who orders 8 prawns!?" My Vater lacht. He later said "next time ask them how much half a kg costs then order about 200-300g"

B1 was delighted that I bought the prawns but he refused to help clean them. So leery, I clipped each prawn gingerly and snipped off its horn and feelers. Ew.

I prepared the soup first. I chucked in some slices of ginseng that I had left over from the Samgyetang I made the other time, wolfberries, huai san, and garlic slices. Quick boil until I could smell the ginseng. I chucked the prawns in, and doused the flames. I also poured in some soya sauce to taste and a little bit of chinese wine.

"Eh..." B1 said when he saw the prawns.

"What's wrong?"

"I wanted steamed prawns in medicinal soup, not boiled." He also said he did not like prawn soup, so my soup was totally wasted on him.

If I had poured the soup over his head, I think no one would have blamed me. He said that that same colleague praised steamed prawns over boiled prawns, but that steamed prawns would have some strange egg-like consistency in the heads.

The Americans have their Chicken Noodle Soup

The Chinese have their own chicken noodle soup too!

 

I had to do OT one night, so to speed up dinner, I just bought some roast chicken from the delicatessen. Being the stingy cow I am, I recycled the chicken carcass to make a stock, before boiling the leftover chicken slices with cabbage, fishballs and carrots.

Norwegian and salmon

It's a sickness really. I cannot buy salmon without thinking of Norway.

Norwegians and I don't get along well. I am not sure why, but it is the truth. But at least the salmon settles easily in my belly. This salmon was marinated in oyster sauce and honey for two days. It is accompanied by lotus root soup (with black beans and pork belly slices) and bacon and potato stew.

Wordless Sunday - A simple dinner

Sundays are always leftovers =D, disguised in other simple meals.

Fried! Schnitzel mit Tofu

This is a super backdated entry. I found the photos some weeks ago.

Anyway it was obviously a case of trying to use up whatever was in the fridge, because I have mashed potatoes (which I mashed with milk, spring onion before lightly salting), deep fried tofu (which I top up with pork mince which I got from a can *oops*. So much for cooking from scratch)and chicken schnitzel.

Chrysanthemum Tea 菊花茶

B1 and I are super "heaty", and I am developing a sore throat and losing my voice.  So I said I would boil Chrysanthemum tea since I bought a bag full of these dried flowers some months ago. It's supposed to have a "cooling" effect against the heat.

Initially I thought that we wouldn't drink much of it. I actually hate drinking it because restaurants and my parents make it somewhat sour (and in my parents case, not sweet at all). So, I only made 2 litres of it. But when B1 said, we might not end up with 2 litres, so I thoughfully added another litre of water in.

I only let the flowers steep for about 10 minutes in the hot water after boiling, before chucking them out. This helped to minimize the sourness, I think. I dumped some sugar.

I am not sure what is the flower:sugar:water ratio, but I thought if the damn liquid looks like pee, I am golden =D (puns totally intended). In the end we drank all the water up. Sigh. I should have made more.

Read about benefits of Chrysanthemums (in Mandarin).

Constipation is a killer

Meine Eltern are very big on vegetables and fruits. Now that I spend more time at "the Summer Villa", as my friend sarcastically calls the new house, I need to make sure that the two of us eat enough fruits and vegetables. Fruits no, we are still trying. Because he likes apples and oranges, while I prefer exotic shit. =D

So we up vegetable intake. More like me, since I am the designated cook and grocery shopper. I also note that I spend about 8 hours every week cooking, because I tend to cook from scratch and not buy shortcuts. I need to combine my mis en place hours, or feed the man takeout. Time wasted cooking while I can be reading, painting and writing =D.

I had an awful lot of fishballs, ocotopus balls, foochow balls left because of Chinese New Year. So we are slowly eating through the balls *haha*. I didn't really like the soup, what I liked was the scallop with hairy gourd =D. The chicken, tofu corn is actually a rehash of the 玉米羹 except that it was even thicker, more like a stew.

Laksa

This is Laksa. I think it is a Chinese dish, not a Malay dish as usually mistaken.

Typically filled with beansprouts, julienned fishcake, julienned tofu pockets, cockles and thick rice noodles in a spicy coconut broth. Mine is more like a copycat version of Rocky Masters', which have cucumber and octopus balls in theirs. Ok I admit, I cheated with a ready mix, which just tasted spicy. I thought that Laksa should taste sweet so I dumped some sugar in. =D

In the end I think the gravy is a bit thin. I should have taken a photo of the label, so that you would know what to NOT buy. Sigh =D.

鱼生

I am too lazy to switch on Chinese script in this computer (having lots of problems switching between English, German and Chinese at the other pc), so now whenever I want to type Chinese words, I have to whack at the Google Translate. Very funny, especially when you are trying to type Chinese idioms. 

鱼生

There is a super popular dish in Singapore called 鱼生, which we only eat during Chinese New Year. To easily explain, it is like a salad, with shredded (and dried somewhat) cucumber, carrot and daikon. Supposedly the three symbolize luck and wealth. Then when you pour in sweet plum sauce, you say lame well-wishing statements like "甜甜蜜蜜", and then the little fried crackers, "富贵满堂", "财运当头" etc.

Vater is making sushi in the background

Usually the pièce de résistance is smoked or raw salmon, denoting "年年有鱼". But in this particular dish, my family used abalone.

Then everyone uses their chopsticks and lift up the entire mixture as high as they dare and yell more lame statements like "风声水起", "身体健康", "万事如意". The salad will fall all over the place and then we will nom nom nom nom.

So many pretty colors

The idea is that the dish is full of symbolism for good luck and prosperity and good wishes for wealth, capisce?

Chinese Love letters [Updated!!!]

This was an epic fail of sorts. First, I don't have the necessary equipment (as usual), then I was paranoid that the mixture was too liquid, so added some flour... which ironically turned it to a delicious crepes. But there are only so many rolled up crepes that you can eat before you get sick. The rest of it has been unceremoniously dumped into the freezer until one lazy morning where I will use it to make waffles or pancakes. B1 was the one who gave me the idea while he was deep in thought after consuming one. I thought he has been sucked into BF3 as usual when he uttered "damn things taste like waffles..."

Just to let you know how off the mark I was, here is how real edible Chinese love letters look like:

Source of image comes from Jen's World. I am inserting the url in case I am crazy to do attempt 2 at the love letters. You may never know... besides my original recipe was a modified one from another site (which I forget). My constant adaption of recipes are causing some fun ass hits and misses. You should ask B1. 

<u>Updated!!!</u>

I made pancakes for breakfast using the remaining mix. It tastes fantastic with honey, awful with apple sauce. =D

玉米汤 Corn Soup

适用范围：脾胃虚弱、食欲不振、疲劳、心悸、乏力等症者，尤其是慢性胃炎和胃、肺部肿瘤手术后的患者。

Corn soup is good for the spleen and stomach, especially for people suffering from loss of appetite, fatigue, palpitations, fatigue embolism and lung cancer patients recovering and going for operations.  

I made this the week after the 甜玉米羹 because B1 complained that the latter was technically not corn soup. Okie.... the man is also obsessed with having pork ribs in the soup, even though he does not eat the corn nor the pork, unless under severe duress (seriously as the person who pays for the groceries, it makes my heart bleed seeing these going to waste).