Memories in the Cooking

This dish is so heartwarming. I can eat a lot of it, especially after a day of hard labour.  Ingredients - 4 blocks of tauhu, cut into small pieces  - 1 packet of mushroom, chopped - 250g of minced pork  - 1 head of broccoli, cut into small pieces - 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce  - pepper  - corn starch  Procedures: 1) In a frying pan, fry tauhu until golden brown. Set aside the fried tauhu. Drain away excess oil.  2) In the frying pan, fry minced meat until brown. Add chopped mushrooms and broccoli.  3) Add boiling water until it just covers the ingredients.  4) Add oyster sauce and pepper. 5) Thicken the sauce with corn starch.  6) Add the fried tauhu. Stir well. Serve. 

This dish is a winner. Soft and pillowy egg tofu can actually goes well with crunchy cereal bits.  Ingredients: - 2 tubes of egg tofu, cut into 8 pieces each - corn flour - a handful of curry leaves  - 1 big chili, chopped - 1 packet of cereal mix  Procedures: 1) Coat the egg tofu with corn flour.  2) Fry it until it is coated with a crispy coat. Set aside. 3) In a pan, dry fry some curry leaves until crispy.  4) Add a little vegetable oil to it. Add chopped chili.  5) Add cereal mix and stir well.  6) Add in the egg tofu and mix well. Serve. 

I watched this Jamie Oliver's recipe on TLC yesterday and decided to try my hand on it since I have all the ingredients in the fridge.    Ingredients: - Salad veg, washed  - 2 oranges  - 2 tablespoons for balsamic vinegar - 2 tablespoons of olive oil  - 1 tablespoon of honey  - 1 blocks of cheese (e.g. goat cheese, wesleydale cheese)  - a handful of nuts (e.g. almond, walnuts) Procedures:  1) In a salad serving plate, add the juice of one orange, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and honey.  2) Add the salad vegetables to the sauce. Toss well.  3) Crumble some cheese to it.  4) Chop the nuts and scatter on the salad. 5) Add orange slices to the salad. Serve.  

Just how ultimate is this meatloaf wellington? It has the wonderful flavour of both pork and beef. It is covered with bacon. It has a pretty egg and oozing cheese centre. This is just so ultimate. Ingredients: - 6-7 slices of prata  - 250g of minced beef - 250g of minced pork - 1 cup of bread crumbs - a few sticks of parmesan cheese - 1 tablespoon of mixed Italian herbs - 2 hard boiled eggs - 1 raw egg - 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper - 250g of bacon - 3 cloves of garlic, crushed Procedures: 1) In a mixing bowl, add minced beef, minced pork, bread crumbs, garlic, mustard sauce, herbs, salt and pepper and raw egg. Mix well. 2) Place 6 slices of prata in a baking tray. Overlapping with each other such that it forms a base.  3) Add a layer of bacon strips. 4) Add meat patty on the prata base. Mould it into a loaf. Make a trough in the middle of the meatloaf. Lay 2 hard boil eggs in the trough. Add parmesan cheese sticks. Mould the meat back into a loaf.  5) Cover it with th

I have been cooking dinners on weekdays. It is definitely challenging to cook after rushing back from work. This recipe is simple and it leaves me little dishes to wash too.  Ingredients - 2 cups of rice  - 1 packet of french beans, chopped - 500g of salmon fillets  - 1 piece of salted fish  - 1 packet of beech mushrooms  - 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce  - 1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce  - 1 tablespoon of sesame oil  - 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce  - fried shallots  Procedures: 1) Cook 2 cups of rice with 1.5 cups of water in rice-cooker. Add washed salted fish to cook with the rice.  2) After 10 minutes, add salmon fillets and beech mushrooms and french beans to it and continue to cook until it is done according to the rice cooker.  3) Set aside the salmon fillets and salted fish from the rice. Add oyster sauce, dark soya sauce and sesame oil to the rice. Stir well.  4) Shred salmon fillets and salted fish. Add light soya sauce.  5) Serve the rice on a plate and top up with salmon

This is lobster roll without the lobster, but nonetheless yummy!  Ingredients: - 250g of prawns, deshelled and diced  - 2 stalks of celery, diced  - 4 hotdog buns - 3 cloves of garlic, minced  - 1 Chorizo, diced  - 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise - 1 tablespoon of mustard - 3 stalks of dill  - salt  - pepper  Procedures: 1) Toast the hotdog buns in the oven at 180 degree celsius for 5 minutes. Set aside the hotdog buns and toast the diced sausages until brown.  2) Cook chopped scrimps in boiling water until cooked.  3) Blanch chopped celery.  4) In a mixing bowl, add cooked scrimps, sausages, celery, dill, mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper.  5) Slit the hotdog in the between. Place the scrimp and sausage mix in the slits.  6) Top up with a little more dill. Serve. 

What do you cook if you have some random ingredients in the fridge and you have a family to feed? My hubby used to say that quiche is a rojak dish. You can put anything in it and it will work out well. Today, I realise that Mui Fan is the oriental version of that. I put whatever I could find into this dish and,voila, we got Mui Fan for dinner!  Ingredients: - 3-4 bowls of cooked rice  - 4 eggs  - whatever vegetables  - whatever protein (seafood, meat or tofu) - 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce  - cornstarch - pepper, salt  - minced garlic - fried shallots  Procedures: 1) In a frying pan, fry minced garlic, cooked rice with 2 beaten eggs. Set aside in a huge serving bowl.  2) In the frying pan, add minced garlic, protein, vegetables or anything. Fry until cooked.  3) Add oyster sauce and 1 bowl of water. Adjust the taste with pepper or salt.  4) Thicken the sauce with corn starch. Add 2 beaten eggs.  5) Pour the sauce on the rice. Top up with fried shallots. Serve. 

My eldest boy loves pepper lunch. He says this is close to having pepper lunch at home.  Ingredients: - 500g of sliced beef flank - 4 cloves of garlic, sliced  - 1 pack of spring onions, chopped  - 1 tablespoon of crushed black pepper  - 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce  - 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce  - 1 tablespoon of sugar  - 1 tablespoon of corn flour Procedures: 1) Marinate beef flank with light soya sauce and corn flour.  2) In a frying pan, add sliced ginger and fry until fragrant. Add black pepper, oyster sauce and half a cup of water.  3) Add beef slices and spring onions. Fry until cooked. Add sugar. Serve.  I tried this recipe with chicken and it turns out very well. 

I am not a fan of bittergroud but I love bittergroud soup. It leaves a refreshing feeling after drinking and I heard it is very good for health too.  Ingredients: - 500g of prime ribs  - a handful of goji berries  - a handful of red dates  - 1 bittergroud, cut into chunks  - 1 stock cube  Procedures: 1) In a slow cooker, add prime ribs, goji berries, red dates and bittergroud.  2) Add enough water to almost cover the ingredients.  3) Let it cook at high setting for 4 hours.  4) Add stock cube. Serve. 

Here is another self-invented porridge to nurse my husband after his wisdom tooth extraction. The green and pink colours on this porridge make it so appetising.  Ingredients: - 1 head of broccoli - 2 salmon fillets  - 4 eggs - porridge cooked from 1.5 cups of rice  - 1 tablespoon fish sauce - 1 fish stock cube - 1 tablespoon of sesame oil  - 3-4 ginger slices  - fried shallots  Procedures: 1) In a pan, add 1 bowl of water to cook the broccoli and broach the salmon fish. Add garlic slices to get rid of the fishy smell.  2) Set aside the salmon fillets and tear it into smaller pieces. Add fish sauce and sesame oil. Mix well. 3) Blend the soften broccoli.  4) Add porridge to the pan. Mix well with the blended broccoli. Add fish cube.  5) Add eggs to the porridge.  6) Serve the porridge and egg to individual serving bowls. Top up with salmon and fried shallots. 

 It is our family tradition to cook Singaporean dishes on National Day. As part of our National Day celebration meal, I made some Salted Egg Baked Chicken Wings. Thanks to the Knorr Salted Egg Powder, I did not need to make the dish from scratch.  Ingredients: - 1 kg of chicken mid-wings  - 2 tablespoons of light soya sauce  - 4 cloves of garlic, minced  - oil spray and  - 2 tablespoons of Knorr Salted Egg Powder  - 1 teaspoon of salt  - 1 teaspoon of sugar  - 1 packet of curry leaves  - 1 big chili, chopped   Procedures:  1) Marinate chicken wings with light soya sauce and minced garlic. Leave it for a few hours.  2) Lay the chicken wings on a baking tray. Spray some cooking oil on it. Cook it at 180 degree celsius for 20 minutes.  3) In a frying pan, add some vegetable oil. Fry curry leaves and chili until fragrant.  4) Add the baked chicken wings.  5) Add salted egg powder, salt and sugar. Mix well and serve.  * I use the same recipe for chicken chop and made a salted egg chicken bu

I learnt how to make ondeh ondeh during the school's annual cultural trip to Malacca. This is also a familar dish that can be easily found in Singapore. So, I have decided to cook this dessert as part of this month's endeavor to cook many Singaporean dishes for national day celebration. Ingredients: - 300g of glutinous rice flour and some more for dusting  - 80g of Gula Melaka, shaved   - 100g of fresh pandan leaves, chopped - 100g of freshly grated coconut - 100g of icing sugar  - pandan paste (optional) Procedures: 1) Blend pandan leaves with 1 cup of water to get 100ml of pandan juice. Pass the blended mixture through a sieve to collect the pandan juice. Add a little pandan paste for a brighter colour.  2) Sieve glutinous rice flour and icing sugar. Pour in the pandan juice and mix it well. Add some more water to make the flour into a dough.  3) Portion the dough into 40 balls.  4) Add a little shaved gula melaka into each ball.  5) Cook the o

My hubby just had his wisdom tooth extracted. Looks like we are going to have porridge for a few days. First up, the Minced Pork Porridge.  Ingredients: - plain porridge, cooked from 1.5 cups of rice - 250g of minced meat  - 1 tablespoon of minced garlic  - 1 tablespoon of fish sauce - 1 tablespoon of sesame oil - pepper - 4 eggs  - fried shallots - spring onions and parsley, chopped Procedures: 1) In a frying pot, fry minced garlic in vegetable oil until fragrant.  2) Add minced pork. Fry until brown.  3) Add 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and sesame oil. Add a little pepper. Set aside half of the meat.  4) Add the plain porridge. For a smoother porridge, you can pass it through a sieve. Add more fish sauce to taste.  5) Add 4 eggs on the porridge. Be careful not to break it.  6) Put the porridge and eggs in 4 serving bowls. Top up with cooked minced meat, fried shallots, spring onions and parsley. Serve.