Shepherd Pie

500g lean lamb minc

4 large potatoes (800g)

1/4 cup light milk (60ml)

1 tbsp butter (25g)

2 cups mixed vegetables, diced (280g)

1 x Masterfoods Shepherd's Pie recipe base

150ml water

1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Cook potatoes in water until tender, drain. Melt butter in pot, add in mashed potatoes, milk and salt. Stir until dry. Set aside.

3. Place mince in fry pan, cook until brown. Add in mixed vegetables, recipe base and water. Gently simmer for 10 mins.

4. Place mince mixture in an ovenproof dish, then potato mixture on top. Bake for 20mins or until golden brown.

One-pan baked chicken & churizo

2 tbs olive oil

8 chicken thighs fillets, halved

2 churizo sausages, thickly sliced

Baby potatoes, halved

1 red onion, roughly chopped

4 garlic cloves

1 lemon, rind finely grated, juiced

Cherry tomatoes

Flat leaf parsley, to garnish

1. Preheat oven to 220C.

2. Place oil in a large roasting pan, Arrange chicken, chorizo, potato and onion in the pan. Hit garlic with the flat side of a large knife to bruise and add to pan with lemon rind. Season well with salt and pepper. Toss to coat chicken in oil.

3. Cook for about 25mins. Add lemon juice and tomatoes and cook for a further 10mins or until golden and cooked through. Sprinkle with parsley to serve.

Ngoh Hiong 五香

Ingredients:
350g Ground pork 碎猪肉
100g Prawn, clean and cut to small pieces 虾切粒
1/2 Onion, chopped 大葱切粒
5 Water chestnut, mashed and chopped 马蹄 切碎
2 stalks Coriander leaves and spring onion, cut finely 元西叶+葱

Seasoning
2 tbsp Egg white, lightly beaten 蛋白
1/2 tbsp Oyster sauce 耗油
1 tbsp Light soy sauce 酱油
1 tsp Salt 盐
1 tsp Chinese five spice powder 5香粉
a dash of white pepper 白胡椒粉
2 tbsp Cornstarch/tapioca flour 粟粉
1 tbsp water 水

4 pcs Beancurd skin (unsalted) 腐皮

Method:
1 Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl except beancurd skin, mix thoroughly till thick paste, set aside to marinate for 1 hour (I marinated the ingredients overnight)。 将所有材料混合。放一小时后放进冰箱腌制一晚。
2 Using a damp cloth to wipe the beancurd skin on both sides, spoon meat mixture onto each beancurd skin and wrap lightly, seal the end with some cornstarch that mixed with water. 用湿布将腐皮四周抹湿一边软化，加入适量肉馅，卷包并用粟粉水在边缘涂上，然后粘上。
Deep fry in hot oil over medium heat till golden brown and serve immediately. 可以中火炸至金黄色即可上碟。

Apple Juice Jelly Beer

4.12.14 (Thurs)

Ever since I joined the Facebook Group Page "Baking's Corner", I got so much baking inspiration from all the passionate bakers. I seen so many of them making this Apple Juice Jelly Beer and found the recipe on Baking's Corner blog. Super easy recipe and my Hubby got tricked, thinking it was real beer!

Ingredients

500ml Apple juice (cold/chilled)

10g-13g gelatine powder

1 tbsp caster sugar (optional)

Methods

1. Transfer 3 tbsp. of apple juice into a large microwavable bowl. Then add gelatin powder and mix well. Cover and microwave at 500w for 30 seconds, and mix well again till gelatin was totally dissolve  

2. Add the rest of the cold apple juice, whisk for 3-5 minutes.

3.  then mix quickly for 30 seconds to make the foam. by hand whisk.

4. Serve in glasses and cool in the fridge for about an hour to set.

 

Yum Seng!

Stir fried asparagus with chicken and walnuts

25.9.14 (Thurs)

Yesterday I went to the market and saw that the asparagus was on sale. The asparagus was very fresh and big, so I bought a packet and went home, searching for recipe. (It was  my very first time cooking asparagus!) Luckily, I found one easy recipe on Christine's recipe and Ta-Da, the dish turned out to be very yummy and I could really enjoy the crisp stems.

Ingredients:
60g walnuts
180g asparagus
150g chicken breast
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp Shaoxing wine (I didn't use this)
Salt, to taste

Marinade:
1 tsp light soy sauce
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp cornflour / corn starch
Sesame oil, to taste
White pepper, to taste

Seasonings:
2 tsp fish sauce (I didn't use this)
2 Tbsp chicken stock

Method:
1. Heat walnuts in a small pan without any oil over medium heat until aromatic. Remove from the heat. Let them cool down. Mix chicken with marinade. Set aside.

2. Heat oil in a wok or a frying pan. Cook the chicken over high medium heat until chicken turns white and cooked through. Set aside.

3. Blanch asparagus in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Drain well and immediately soak in cold water until cold to touch. Drain well again. Cut them into 3 to 4 sections.

 

4. Stir fry in the same pan with a little of oil. Add garlic and saute until aromatic. Season with salt and sprinkle wine. Quickly stir to combine well. Pour chicken stock and fish sauce. Cook further for another 2 minutes. Toss back the chicken and quickly combine well. Turn off the heat. Stir in the walnuts. Serve immediately.

Notes：
By soaking the blanched asparagus, you can keep its fresh green colour.

To get the best results, stir fry the thicker stems first, then add the thinner ones to cook together.

Crispy Roast Pork Belly 脆皮烧肉

12.9.14 (Fri)

I am a super lover for roast pork belly. I remembered when we were in Malaysia, when it comes to ordering chicken rice, I would order roast chicken + roast pork belly. I always see FaceBook posting on friends making roast pork belly and I decided to try it out too! And as always, I like to refer to my "sifu" 's recipe, ie Christine's recipe. (I referred Christine as my sifu coz I really learnt a lot from her webpage on cooking, baking and tips)

 

So yesterday, I bought thick pork belly and marinated it overnight. And this morning, I took it out and baked for around 40mins and "ta-da", I was quite happy with the result. Hubby liked it and will definitely try making it again to get even better result!

 

First attempt

Second attempt

Second attempt

(adapted from Christine's recipe)
Ingredients:1.2 kg pork belly
1/2 Tbsp Shaoxing wine, optional (I omitted this)
rock salt, to taste

Seasonings:
3½ tsp salt (I think can reduce)
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp five-spice powder

Method:
1. To prepare the seasonings: Combine salt with sugar and five-spice powder well. Set aside.

2. Use a knife to scrape away any impurities and hair. Rinse thoroughly. Blanch in boiling water for about 15 minutes, until 60 to 70% done, and the skin is softened. Drain well and wipe dry with paper towels.. Use needles to poke the rind as many holes as possible. Turn over to other side, cut a few slits on the meat to help absorb seasonings better.

(I don't have needles so I used a fork instead)

3. Rub wine evenly on pork. Let rest for a while. Coat the meat with seasonings evenly. Make sure there‘s no seasonings on the rind, otherwise the five-spice powder will darken it.

4. Wrap the pork meat with foil and leave the rind unwrapped. Place in fridge, let air dry overnight in fridge.

5. Preheat oven to 200C/395F.

6. Remove pork from fridge and remove foil. Let rest at room temperature for a while. Poke the rind with needles evenly once again. Wipe dry. Season the rind with rock salt. Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes. Increase temperature to 220C/430F, bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until you get enough cracklings. (If ordinary oven used, move the pork from middle rack to upper. Grill the rind until evenly blistered and browned.)

 

 

  

Notes:
The tricks of making crispy cracklings:

First, the rind must be very dry.

 

Second, poke as many holes as possible. While grilling, the fat inside the rind turns really hot, then get released from the holes. That produces an effect of a kind of “frying” the rind. So, it turns crispy.
Mind you, don’t poke too deep through the rind though. The rind won’t be crispy any more otherwise.
 

Basically, the temperature is the same, no matter you use convection oven or ordinary one. But an ordinary oven needs longer cooking time.

The cooking time depends on how thick and how big the pork belly is. Please adjust accordingly.

 

Lemon Pork Loin Chops

 26.6.14 (Thurs)

 

 

Ingredients:
2 thin pork loin chops
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp chopped shallot
Sesame seeds for garnish (briefly fry on hot pan without oil until aromatic)

Marinade:
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp freshly grated ginger sauce
1 tsp Shaoxing wine
a pinch of white pepper
salt, to taste

Sauce:
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp sugar
75 ml water
lemon zest, about 1cmx3cm, thinly julienned

Thickening:
1 tsp cornflour
1 Tbsp water

Method:
1. Rinse pork chops and wipe dry with kitchen papers. Tenderize pork chops with back of chopper. Add crushed garlic and chopped shallot into marinade, then marinate pork chops for 30 minutes.

2. Heat 2 to 3 tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Pan-fry pork chops until both sides are lightly golden and done. Remove from pan and soak up excess oil. Arrange pork chops on a plate, covered.

3. Cook sauce with a little oil until it boils. Add thickening and cook to your preferred consistency. Pour sauce over pork chops and sprinkle fried sesame. Garnish with lemon slices if you like. Serve hot.

红烧排骨

26.6.14 (Thurs)

I bought some pork ribs few days ago and don't know how should I cook it. So, I googled and found this recipe. It was quite easy to cook and hopefully I cooked it well and tasty.

 

 

Ingredients

排骨1000克

姜一块

冰糖一小碗。(I used brown sugar and a bit of honey)

Methods1.焯水。锅中加入适量的清水，冷水下锅，倒入排骨、适量的料酒。大火煮开后、撇去浮沫，捞出备用。

2. 炒糖色。将炒锅微微烧热，倒入适量的食用油，加入冰糖。小火煸炒。

3. 煸炒至冰糖全部融化，从锅底部开始往上冒黄色的小泡时即可。 

4. 将排骨倒入锅内，转中火。快速翻炒。让每块排骨都裹上糖色。放入姜片继续翻炒。

5. 加入适量的酱油，翻炒匀均后。倒入热水。接下来开始调味，放入适量的盐，八角。大火烧开后转温火炖制一小时左右。

6. 收汁。装盘上桌。

红烧排骨做法小贴士

1、        要想做出美味的红烧排骨，一定要挑选新鲜排骨。

2、        焯水时一定要冷水下锅。这样肉质不会因为突然遇热而变得紧实。

3、        关于炒糖色。这一步非常关键。直接关键到成品的色泽和味道。所以，在炒至的时候全程一定要用小火。大火容易将糖色炒糊而且做出来的肉会有苦味。

4、        炒糖色时可以用冰糖也可以用白糖。用冰糖炖出来的肉颜色更加漂亮。

5、        关于收汁，这一步很关键。在收汁的时候，一定要不停慢炒，炒至所有排骨都匀均的裹上糖色、明油渗出。这时赶紧关火即可。

6、        关于盛出装盘这一步，看似简单。其实也很关键。有的人用铲直接连肉带油一起放入盘中，这样口感肯定会显油腻。建议大家，用筷子一块块将排骨夹入盘中，然后再少淋一点锅中的油点缀即可。

 

 

Mee Hun Ker 面粉粿

5.11.13 (Tues)

I don't really like to eat mee hun ker when I was young (coz I felt liked eating just flour). Each time when my mum cooked that, I would ask to cook noodles as substitute. Somehow at one point of time (can't remember when), I started to like mee hun ker and I asked my mum to teach me how to knead the dough. It was quite easy and I cook mee hun ker at least twice a month coz Abby and Ian like eating it!

 

Ingredients

Dough

300g flour (enough for 4 of us)

3 tsp salt, dissolve in 100ml water (you may add adjust according to your taste)

50g vegetable oil

1 egg

 

Fishcake

Lean meat

Vegetable
(you can add more ingredients for eg prawns, fishballs..)

 

Methods

1. Sift flour. Add in egg and oil. Slowly pour in the salt water and start kneading into dough. If the dough gets too wet, sift in some flour. Knead for 5mins or till dough become elastic. Divide into 4 small dough and let it rest.

(usually I will prepare the dough in the morning and cook as dinner)

 

2. In a large bowl of soup, slowly put in the dough (tore into small pieces, as shown in the video below) and other ingredients and boil to cook.

 

3. Add in fried shallots and ikan bilis. Ready to serve.

 

 

糯米鸡 Loh Mai Kai

11.10.13 (Friday)
This was my first time cooking Loh Mai Kai..I saw this simple recipe on Facebook for quite some time but haven't really try on it. Since I ran out of ideas on what to cook for dinner, so I decided to dig out this recipe and give it a try..

I cooked the mushroom over hot water till they became soft..then pre-soaked the glutinous rice (about 250g and made 7 bowls of Loh Mai Kai) overnight in the fridge..and just cook by following the steps..For my first attempt, the rice was a bit tasteless coz I didn't put enough of salt when I stirred fried the rice..Other than that, it tasted good.

I roughly translated the Chinese version of recipe into English..Hope you can understand :P

好吃的糯米鸡，就这么简单。。。

材料 Ingredients：
糯米 Glutinous rice
鸡腿肉 Chicken drumstick
香菇 Mushroom
腊肠  Waxed sausage aka Lap Cheong
蒜头 Garlic, chopped
 

做法 Methods：

1）将糯米洗净，浸过夜。
Wash the glutinous rice and soak overnight. (put it in the fridge)

2）鸡腿肉和浸软的香菇用蚝油，麻油，黑酱油，绍兴酒，胡椒粉，蜜糖，姜汁腌过夜。
Seasoned the drumstick meat & macerated mushroom with oyster sauce, sesame oil, dark soya sauce, shao xing wine, pepper, honey and ginger sauce. (overnight)
**as the recipe didn't mention about the portion of the seasonings, so I just use my own estimation.

3）用油炒香蒜头，放入沥干的糯米下去炒，加入盐，五香粉和黑酱油炒，我加了水下去焖炒至糯米软。
Stir fried garlic. Add in the glutinous rice and continue to stir fry. Add salt, spices powder and dark soya sauce. Add water and fried stew till the rice got softened.

4）在碗里涂些油，放入切块的腊肠，放入香菇，鸡腿肉，再将炒好的糯米铺在上面。
Rub a little oil on the bowl. Put in the lap cheong, drumstick meat, mushroom and covered with the rice.

5）放入少许水，稍微淹过米，用大火蒸三十分钟就可以了。
Add a bit of water (slightly covering the rice) and steam for 30mins. Ready to serve.

 

马铃薯泥 Mashed potatoes

 

 

材料：

马铃薯 potato - 500g (about 7-8 potatoes)

牛奶 / 鲜奶 fresh milk - 125ml

牛油 butter - 34g
盐 salt - 1小匙

酱汁：
蚝油 oyster sauce - 3大匙
水 water - 300ml
玉米粉 corn flour - 3小匙
糖 sugar - 3小匙
胡椒粉 - 适量
(把所有搅拌均匀)
牛奶 fresh milk - 3大匙

**I bought a packet of Mc Cormick mushroom gravy and used it as the gravy

做法：
1. 将马铃薯洗净剥皮切小块，蒸熟后压成泥状
2. 锅内放入牛油融化，放入薯泥，加入鲜奶和盐 (盐不要以下加完，可以一面试试味道一面加) 开始搅拌，至到收干 (也不要搅得太干哦！因为薯泥放凉后会更干的)
3. 中火锅内放入牛油，待融化后，搅拌均匀好的酱汁，待滚，之后加入鲜奶搅拌，就可以了..

Chicken Mushroom Soup

I learnt to make this soup from one of our church (Gospel Hall) member, Aunt Alice, her signature soup..We get to drink the soup almost every Chinese New Year..and my hubby liked it very much..so he requested me to learn it from Aunt Alice..It was a pretty easy recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cans of Campbell Chicken & Mushroom soup

1 can of button mushroom, cut into small pcs

3 onions, cut into small pieces

6-7 garlics, cut into small pieces

1 roasted chicken, preferrably black pepper flavour, shredded (you can get it from Tesco/Giant)

3/4 can of Fresh cream milk (using the empty Campbell soup can, and i used only 3/4 can)

1 can of water (using the empty Campbell soup can)

Pinch of black pepper

Proportion: 2 cans of Campbell soup: 1 can water: 1 can fresh cream milk

Methods:

1. Stir fry the garlic, onions & button mushroom.

2. Heat up the Campbell soup (with water). Add in (1) and combined well.

3. Add in the roasted chicken and stir well.

4. Sprinkle the black pepper, stir well.

5. Pour in the fresh cream milk and stir well till it is well cooked. Ready to serve.

Serving: 4 pax. (big bowl)

Hot & Spicy Honey Chicken 香辣蜜汁鸡

Ingredients

2 chicken whole legs, cut into pieces

Dried chillies, cut into small pieces

Oil for deep frying

Marinade

1 tsp light soya sauce

1/2 tsp salt

Dash of sugar

1 tbsp shaoxing wine

1 tbsp corn flour

Sauce

3 tbsp honey

3 tbsp water

1/2 tsp salt

Method

1. Mix chicken with marinade and marinade for 1 hour. Heat up oil for deep frying and deep fry chicken until golden brown. Dish and drain.

2. Leave a little oil in wok, saute dried chillies until fragrant. Add in sauce and cook until very thick. Add in the fried chicken and mix well. Dish up and serve.

Cordon Bleu Chicken

This is my second time cooking this dish..Hubby loved it very much and praised me for great improvements.. :)

Ingredients

Chicken breast halves, skin removed / Chicken drumsticks

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp pepper

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup milk

Ham, sliced

Cheese, sliced

Bread crumbs

Method

1. Pound chicken breast to 1/4 inch thickness. Sprinkle each pcs on both side with salt and pepper. Place oen slice of cheese and ham on each breast. Roll up each braest using toothpicks to secure if necesary.

2. Dredge each in egg and bread crumbs. Place 1 tbsp butter on each pcs of chicken.

3. Deep fried till cooked. Ready to be served.