char kuey teow

It’s been a while since my last post and I really missed blogging! A lot of things happened and was hoping that I could squeeze a couple of hours so I can blog about the places I went to or the food I cooked, but boy! 24hours can pass really quickly! I hope that in the coming weeks, I’d be able to catch up with my backlog of pictures and recipes that I want to share 🙂

Being new to married life, I realised that nothing beats the feeling of satisfaction whenever I cook and to have someone appreciate it. That’s the case with me and my husband so I really enjoy spending time in the kitchen. 😀 It is good that we are both adventurous with the food we eat so our cuisine could range to Asian to Middle Eastern or to just anything yummy! The selection is endless! Here’s something I cooked recently and surprisingly tasty despite how it easy it is. 😉 This is something I really missed eating when I was still in Singapore.

Ingredients:

5oz rice noodles

12 pcs prawns

100g beansprouts

1tbsp chilli oil

1 egg

1tbsp Korean chilli paste (I used this because this is what we have at home 🙂 )

1tsp dried chilli flakes (if you want more punch)*

5tbsp soy sauce

1tbsp sugar

1tsp fish sauce

1 stalk spring onions, chopped

garlic cloves, minced

onion, chopped

Procedure:

1. Cook the noodles with boiling water until its about ‘al dente’. I prefer to cook it just enough that it’s a bit chewy and I’ll cook it all throughout with the sauce 🙂 Drain and set aside.

2. Prepare the sauce by combining sugar, soy sauce, chilli flakes* and fish sauce in a small bowl.

3. Heat the pan and put the chilli oil. Saute garlic and onion. When the onion has been cooked, add in the chilli paste and toss it for a few seconds. 🙂

4. Add the prawn in and just make sure to slightly cook both sides. Once it has been half cooked, add the bean sprouts. Toss for only about 5 seconds then add in the sauce prepared in step 2. (A lot of things will happen really quick so brace yourself! Fast hands! :D)

5. Once the sauce starts to boil, add the rice noodles. The noodles may seem to be a ‘big lump’ and tangled at this point, but fear not! After you drop it in the sauce, it will start to losen. So just be patient and try to untangle the noodle by using a fork 🙂 Mix the sauce thoroughly with the noodles.

6. In your pan, set the noodles aside and crack an egg on the other side. Stir in the egg (as if making a scrambled egg) to make sure it doesn’t cook sunny side up.

7. When you have broken the yolk, combine the noodles and the egg. Toss a few spring onions for garnish 🙂

Note: You may remove the optional chilli flakes if you feel that the chilli oil and chilli paste will provide enough kick for this dish 🙂

 

milky chicken with thyme

My mom does not like `herb-y’ dishes. She finds it a bit weird to taste really strong flavours lingering on her mouth. That makes me the exact opposite of hers. I love playing with herbs and spices. I always love it when I cook with lots of herbs and spices because you can get an explosion of flavour while eating! 🙂 Sometimes, there could  be lots of herbs and spices mixed in the dish that it’s a surprise if the combination works or not. That’s what I love most about cooking; to get the result and see if it tastes good or yuck. :p

During my 3-month stay with my parents last summer, it was a great time for me to cook for them and to show them what kind of food I eat. It was also a chance for me to convince my mom that herbs can’t be too bad 🙂 I played it real simple with this dish and made sure that all the ingredients can be easily accessible to her, as it can be quite tricky to get some herbs or spices back home in the Philippines.

Ingredients:

500g chicken breast, cubed
1 small can evaporated milk
1/2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 small can chick peas
garlic, minced
onion, chopped
1 tbsp cooking oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Marinate the chicken with half the portion of thyme, salt and pepper. Make sure to rub the herb to the chicken to allow the flavour to sink into the meat. 🙂 Leave it for about 30minutes.
2. After marinating, heat some oil to a pan. Sear the chicken really quickly just to seal all the flavours in. Remove the chicken from heat once colour changes and set aside.
3. Saute the garlic and onion. Cook until onion is a bit transparent and soft.
4. Pour the milk and wait until it starts to boil. Once it starts boiling, add the chicken in to continue cooking. Let it simmer for 2-3minutes.
5. Toss the chick peas and stir in the mixture. Simmer for about another minute then add the rest of the chopped thyme or add some thyme sprigs. 🙂

milky chicken with thyme

It was a surprise when after my mom tasted it, she told me that it was her favourite among all the dishes that I cooked for her so far! 😀 It was really nice hearing it from my mom, especially I know that she doesn’t like food with herbs in it 😉

our own yumcha, at home!

I love dimsum! There was a time that I went to a Chinese restaurant and ate about 50+ dimsums! 😀 It is a very tasty snack that I enjoy so much to eat with some spicy dipping sauce. It was just like eating some popcorn LOL  I love how the dipping sauce adds more flavour and saltiness to the dimsum.

Now that I live with my husband, he had this dimsum craving so I thought why not have our own yumcha treat 😉 I had a previous post when I made some pork siomai (which I cooked while testing our new steamer 😉 ) while I was still in Manila. That was a bit simple and made without a spicy chilli sauce. For this, I also made our own chilli dipping sauce and some veggies to go with it. 🙂

Ingredients:

Filling:
500g pork mince
1 egg
garlic, minced
spring onion, minced
1 cup cabbage, chopped finely
salt and pepper to taste
50 sheets wonton wrapper

Dipping sauce:
1/3 cup soy  sauce
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 stalk spring onion, chopped
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
2 tbsp chilli oil
1/4 tsp Sichuan peppercorn, ground

Vegetable side dish:
about 100g/a handful Chinese broccoli
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 cup water
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Prepare the filling by mixing all the ingredients together by hand. Make sure to mix thoroughly so that all the seasoning will be evenly distributed to the meat. 🙂
2. Once it has been well mixed, set it aside for a bit and prepare the dipping sauce. It’s really pretty simple. Just mix everything and set aside 😀
3. Now, get one wrapper and put about 1 tsp of filling in the middle and fold the wrapper across. It should look like a rectangle with the filling in the middle. Flatten it a bit and using your thumbs, bend the wrapper and put some water in the edges then press to let it stick. Repeat the whole process until all the filling has been wrapped.
4. Get medium sized sauce pan and boil some water. When you have bring it to a boil, drop some wontons in the boiling water. Wait until it floats and you can scoop it out of the water. Repeat until all the wontons were cooked 🙂
5. While you are cooking the wontons, you may heat another pan with water in it and bring to boil.
6. Put in the oyster sauce, salt, sugar and pepper. Let it simmer for a bit and toss the Chinese broccoli. Simmer for about 2-3minutes and remove the veggies from heat.
7. Place a good serving of wontons in the middle of the plate and veggies in the middle. Serve and enjoy with the dipping sauce

homemade wonton and veggies