Memories in the Cooking

Few weeks ago, I cooked Lo Mai Kai which is steamed glutinous rice with chicken and mushrooms. As I have some leftover ingredients from that dish, I have decided to cook the same ingredients using the stir-fry method. Ingredients: - 6 chinese sausages or Taiwan sausages, sliced  - 3 cups of glutinous rice, soaked for 2 hours  - 1 thumbsize ginger, shredded - a handful of dried scrimps, washed and dried  - 2 boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size  - 5 chinese mushrooms, soaked and cut into slices  - 2 dark soya sauce  - 2 light soya sauce  - 1 tablespoon of cornflour  - 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce  - pepper  - chopped spring onions and coriander  Procedures: 1) Marinate chicken thigh meat, mushroom slices with half the dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, oyster sauce and corn flour.  2) In a frying pan, add vegetable oil, dried shrimps and ginger shreds and fry until fragrant.  ...

I have a pot of braised sauce leftover from last week's Braised Duck. So, I shall use it to make Kway Chap. Ingredients: - pig large intestines  - pig small intestines  - pork belly  - pork skin  - broad kway tiao  - braised sauce (see my recipe on Teochew Braised Duck)  - salt  - sugar  - corn starch  Procedures: 1) Place the braised sauce in a slow cooker. Add cleaned pork intestines, belly and skin to it. Slow cook at high for 3 hours.  2) Cut the meat into bite-sizes and arrange them on a serving plate.  3) Transfer 1 cup of the sauce to a sauce pan. Season with salt and sugar until desired taste. Thicken the sauce with corn starch. Pour the sauce on the meat platter.  4) Bleach the kway tiao and place them on serving bowls. Add some braised sauce to them. Serve. 

Well, well.... what is Salmon Well...ington? I guess most of us would have heard of Beef Wellington - beef ramp/steak wrapped in puff pastry. When Beef Wellington is cooked to perfection, it would have a crispy crust and pink centre from the medium rare beef. Sounds heavenly to eat but hellish to make? I think so too. So, for a start, you might want to try making Salmon Wellington as there is more room for error. To make it even easier and more economical, I use roti prata for the pastry!  Ingredients: - 4 slices of 50g salmon fillet (2 blocks of Muar Otah) - 6 slices of roti prata (frozen pastry from supermarket) - 250g of spinach  - a pinch of sea salt and pepper - 1 egg  - 2-3 clove of garlic  Procedures: 1) Stir fry garlic and spinach. Add salt and pepper. Set aside the soften spinach. Try to drain away any water.  2) Arrange 3 roti prata such that they overlap with one another and form a base.  3) Place the salmon fillets o...

This dish is dedicated to my Teochew heritage - Teochew Braised Duck. The leftover braising sauce can be used to make flavoured rice, duck porridge and kuay chap. Ingredients: - 1 whole duck  - 2 pieces of tau kua - 6 pieces of tau pok  - half a cup of caster sugar  - 1 thumb-size ginger, sliced  - 1 thumb-size galangal, sliced  - 1 bulb of garlic, unskinned  - 7 shallots, unskinned - 3 cinnamon sticks  - 6 anistars  - 2 tablespoon of five spice powder  - 1 cup of dark soya sauce  - 1/2 cup of light soya sauce - salt and sugar - parsley, chopped Procedures: 1) Scrub the duck with coarse salt. Wash off the salt. 2) In a large pot, add some vegetable oil and caster sugar. Heat until the sugar caremalised. 3) Add galangal, ginger, garlic, shallots, anistars, cinnamon sticks, dark soya sauce, five spice powder and light soya sauce. 4) Add duck to the pot. Add enough hot water to submerge the duck. ...

If I were to get my boys to vote for their favourite pasta, it will definitely be Carbonara. In fact, if I conduct a survey amongst the children  in my extended family, I am quite sure Carbonara will come out as the favourite and win other pasta by a big margin. Not only kids love it. Just before my last helper left, she requested for me to cook Carbonara as one of her last meals with us. So, proudly presents the popular and yet humble carbonara. Ingredients: - 400g bacon, cut into thin shreds - 1 bud of garlic - 3 eggs yoke  - 1 can of nestle all purpose cream  - 1 packet pasta (spaghetti or penne)  - Parmesan cheese, 200g  - 400g of brown swiss mushrooms  - black pepper  Procedures: 1) Boil pasta in unsalted water.  2) On a unheated pan, place bacon in. Slowly heat up the pan and let the bacon render in its own fats until it is crispy.  3) Add crushed garlic. (Sometimes, I will add brown mushrooms for a mor...

Spring Onion Ginger Fish is one of the comfort dishes in our home. But this dish is equally good. Imagine the flavour and aroma of spring onion ginger coupled with eggs with oozing yolk lava? Yummy! Ingredients: - 6 eggs  - 1 packet of about 3-4 bunches of spring onions, cut into 1 inch long  - 1 palm-size ginger, cut into shreds - 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce  - 1 tablespoon of huatiao wine - 1 tablespoon of sesame oil  Procedures: 1) Fry eggs until cooked but retained oozying egg yokes. Set aside.  2) Fry ginger shreds in sesame oil until brown. Add spring onions. Mix well.  3) Season with oyster sauce. Add corn starch with water for a thick sauce.  4) Pour sauce on top of eggs. Serve. 

Nope, this is not sweet and sour pork. Neither is this Hainanese Pork Chop. This is just a dish that I recall having at my grandmother's house. At my grandmother's house, my cousins and I would steal a few bites while other dishes were prepared. Oh... what wonderful memories. Ingredients: - 400g of pork shoulder butt, cut into bite-size - 4 Russet potatos, cut into bite size - light soya sauce - hua tiao wine - plain flour - salt - vegetable oil - tomato ketchup - sugar - 2 garlic, crushed Procedures: 1) In a mixing bowl, marinate pork with 2 tablespoons of light soya sauce and 2 tablespoons of hua tiao wine. Set it aside for at least 20 minutes. 2)  Cut potatoes into bite-size. 3) Coat pork and potatos with flour. 5) Fry the pork and potatos or roast it in the oven at 220 degree celsius for 10 minutes. Set it aside. 6) In a frying pan, fry crushed garlic until fragrant. Add half a cup of tomato ketchup, 1 tablespoon of sugar and half a cup of corn starch ...