"Tang Yuan" aka Glutinous Rice Balls

Today is the day to eat the glutinous ric balls also known as "Tang Yuan Day". I dont have time to make the rice balls myself especially at this stage when I am already 7mths preggie. Couldnt tahan standing too long so I just bought the ready made ones from the supermarket and cooked the soup myself. I bought 2 types of ready made ones, one with filling inside and the other type without.

Ingredients (for 6 pax share):

- 2 packets of glutinous rice balls with fillings
- 1 packet of plain glutinous rice balls (without fillings)
- 1 small ginger (usually used a medium sized but some of my family members do not like the taste of ginger so I just added a small piece to have the "spicy" taste)
- 4 small pieces of coconut sugar
- 2 big tablespoons of white sugar
- 1 pack of pandan leaf
- water

How to cook:

- Cook 1 pot (average sized pot) of water
- When the water is boiled, add in the plain glutinous rice balls.
- When the rice balls float to the top, it means its cooked.
- Use a strainer and sieve it out and put it in a big bowl of water. This big bowl of water must be suitable for consumption and at room-temperature.
- Repeat the same procedure for the glutinous rice balls with fillings.
- Cook an another pot (slightly smaller than the 1st pot) of water.
- Add the pandan leaf and ginger into the water to boil.
- When the water is about half-boiled, add in the coconut sugar.
- Then add in the white sugar when the coconut sugar has dissolved.
- Stir the water for a while and off the fire.
- Finally, sieve the rice balls and add in the soup, and its ready to be served.

PS: If you do not have coconut sugar, you can replace with brown sugar. I personally find white sugar a little bland. Anyway, this recipe is given by my cantonese mother :)

Fried Vegetarian Bee Hoon

I was at home alone with my little girl on Monday. This was the first time since I got preggie. Anyway, since I'm at home, I decided to cook something. We had pork ribs porridge with potatoes (Little girl requested for potatoes herself so I got some from ShopnSave and added in as one of the ingredients) and fried vegetarian beehoon for dinner. I forgot to take the picture for the porridge so I will just put up the recipe for the fried beehoon.

Ingredients (3 pax share):

- 1 packet of beehoon (tai sun brand, I particularly preferred this brand))
- 1 vegetarian canned food (refer to picture below)
- 1 small cabbage, chopped
- 1 carrot, medium sized, sliced
- Button mushrooms, average sized about 8-10 pieces, sliced
- Black fungus, average sized about 3-4 pieces, sliced
- 2.5 tablespoons of soya sauce
- 2.5 tablespoons of vegetarian oyster sauce
- 2 garlic, average sized, chopped finely
- 2 onions, average sized, chopped finely
- 3-4 tablespoons of cooking oil
- water

How to cook:

- Soaked the beehoon and black fungus (separately) in the water for 30mins.
- Mixed the soya sauce and vegetarian oyster sauce in a bowl. Added 1/3 bowl of water into the mixture and stirred till the oyster sauce dissolved.
- Heated the wok, added 1 tablespoon of oil and fried the garlic and onion.
- When the garlic and onion started to get crispy, added in the cabbage and carrot.
- Poured half a bowl of water and the gravy from the vegetarian canned food, stirred the vege, and left it for 5-10mins.
- Then added in the black fungus and button mushrooms, left for another 5mins.
- Scooped the dish and left it aside on a plate.
- Heated the wok with 2-3 tablespoons of oil.
- Added the beehoon, poured in the soya-oyster sauce mixture and fried till the beehoon turned soft. (If you find the beehoon too long, cut it before you poured into the wok)
- Finally, poured in the vege canned food and the cabbage dish fried earlier.
- Keep stirring till the ingredients are evenly spread around the beehoon and its ready to be served.

Note: You may add in lettuce instead of cabbage. The only difference is you don’t have to fry the lettuce, just add in when you have completed the dish (can garnish the dish too).

Steamed Squid with Minced Meat

I cooked this dish about 2weeks ago. Did I tell you I love porridge? Well, this is one of the dishes I prepared to complement my porridge hehe :)

Just retrieved from the wok, piping hot!

Sliced! Are you drooling already?

Ingredients (for 4 pax share):

- 2 pieces of squid of average size
- Approx 120g - 150g of minced pork (costs me abt $2 from wet mkt)
- 1 tablespoon of tapioca starch
- 2 teaspoons of soya sauce
- 1 garlic, chopped finely
- 1 tablespoon of salt
- 1 tablespoon of cooking oil

How to cook:

- Washed the squid thoroughly with the salt.
- Mixed the minced pork with the garlic, starch and soya sauce.
- Stuffed the seasoned minced pork inside the squid.
- Added the cooking oil over the dish.
- Heated the wok with water to get ready to steam the dish.
- Put in the dish inside the wok when the water boils and keep it for 5-10mins.
- Remove the dish from the wok and sliced the squid.

Note:
You may add in chili (chopped finely) to the minced meat if you like it spicy.

Fried Beadcurd with Beansprouts, Carrots & Cucumber

This is another dish I made 2 sundays ago. Because I am cooking for the whole family and not just for my sick man, so I cant cook all the 'tasteless' dishes. Anyway, hubby can eat almost eveything from this organic dish except for the fried beancurd skin. Thus this is the next best dish I could think of to prepare.

I learnt this dish when I was eating at one of the AMK's hawker centre. It originated from a vegetarian stall. This first attempt is not too bad eh :))

Ingredients (for 4 pax share):

- 2 pieces of beancurd
- 1 carrot (of average size), sliced.
- 1 cucumber (of average size), sliced.
- 2 handfuls of beansprouts (costs me 20cts from wet market), boiled.
- 2 tablespoons of plum sauce, mixed with 1 tablespoon of drinking water.
- Cooking oil

How to cook:

- Heat the wok with cooking oil, amount of cooking oil enough to cover 3/4 of the beancurd.
- Add in the beancurd once the oil is heated.
- Remove the beancurd from the wok once it turns brownish and crispy.
- Slice each beancurd into four, like the shape of a blossomed flower.
- Stuff the carrot, cucumber and beansprouts on the opening of the beancurd.
- Finally, pour the plum sauce over the vege mixture (carrot + cucumber + beansprouts) and its ready to be served.

Notes:
For the plum sauce, you do not have to mix with drinking water if you like it thick.

French Beans + Baked Beans

I cooked this dish about 2 sundays ago when hubby was not feeling well after returning from KL work trip. He requested for porridge, so I cooked something light and not yet too 'tasteless' for him to eat with the porridge. Its something very simple and easy to prepare especially for working mothers like me :)

Ingredients (for 4 pax share):

- A packet of fresh french beans (bought from supermarket), each French bean sliced into threes.
- A can of baked beans
- Some garlic, chopped finely
- 1 tablespoon of cooking oil
- 1 tablespoon of tapioca starch
- Water
- Salt to taste

How to cook:

- Heat the wok with cooking oil.
- Add in the garlic once the wok is heated.
- Put in the French beans once the garlic turns slightly brownish and add in some water. The water must be able to cover at least 80% of the French beans so that the beans will be cooked thoroughly. Reduce the heat slightly so that the water will not dry up so fast and leave it to boil. This will not take longer than 10mins.
- Then add in the baked beans and half a can of water (used the tin can for the baked beans) and leave it to boil.
- Lastly, add tapioca starch to thicken the gravy and salt to taste. Leave it to boil for another 3-5mins before serve on dish.

Fruit Juices

I am into fruit juices lately, mainly because of Trenyce (am trying to get her back to her fruits' routine) and partly because of the expensive juicer I invested recently (so all the more I need to utilise it more frequently to get my money worth!). Got some recipes on healthy juices recently from emails and I am really eager to share with all.

HEALTHY JUICES FOR TOTAL WELLNESS:-)
Carrot + Ginger + Apple
> Boost and cleanse our system.

Apple + Cucumber + Celery
> Prevent cancer, reduce cholesterol, and improve stomach upset and headache.

Tomato + Carrot + Apple
> Improve skin complexion and bad breath.

Bitter gourd + Apple + Milk
> Avoid bad breath and reduce internal body heat.

Orange + Ginger + Cucumber
> Improve skin texture and moisture and reduce body heat

Pineapple + Apple + Watermelon
> To dispel excess salts, nourishes the bladder and kidney

Apple + Cucumber + Kiwi
> To improves skin complexion.

Pear & Banana
> To regulates sugar content.

Carrot + Apple + Pear + Mango
> Clear body heat, counteracts toxicity, decreased blood pressure and Fight oxidization!

Honeydew + Grape + Watermelon + Milk
> Rich in vitamin C + Vitamin B2 that increases cell
activity and Strengthen body immunity

Papaya + Pineapple + Milk
> Rich in vitamin C, E, Iron. Improve skin complexion and metabolism.

Banana + Pineapple + Milk
> Rich in Vitamin with nutritious and prevent constipation

*************************

I havent really tried those yet....my most favourite at the moment is green apple + celery + carrot/beetroot or simply orange + carrot! :))

Udon

MIL is not feeling very well today, having indigestion problem...must be due to some food she ate yesterday. Hence I thought of cooking some light food for her and decided to cook Udon for everyone :)

Errr....forgive me yah, I know my food presentation is still not very good lah....I just need more time to practice :p

Ingredients (4 pax share):

- a packet of Udon for each pax (refer to bottom on Udon pack)
- 2 hard boiled eggs
- 4 pieces of mushroom (big size), soaked to soften
- 1 box of beancurd (get the one for cooking soup)
- some carrots for garnishing
- some vege for garnishing (any vege will do, just chopped finely)
- 1 pot of homemade pork broth (slighlty bigger than average size pot)
- salt to taste

How to cook:

- Heat the broth until the water boils, then reduce the heat slightly so that the water is just bubbling.
- Add in the Udon. Boiled till they turn soft.
- Add in the mushroom, beancurd, carrot and vege for another 3-4mins.
- Add salt to taste.
- Add the hard-boiled egg when serve on dish.

This is the Udon pack I bought from ShopNSave.

Chinese New Year Kueh (aka Nian Gao)

I was doing housekeeping at home and found two pieces of this CNY must-have kueh. Not wanted to waste it (last year still in my fridge :p), I used some coconut to turn it into a nice dessert dish! Hubby loves it and pesters me to make more! hehe!

Ingredient:

- 1 piece Nian Gao (refer picture far below)

- 1 packet of coconut (not the coconut milk hor, can get it from major supermarkets, I got mine from ShopnSave)

- 2 teaspoons of salt

How to do it:

- Steam the Nian Gao in the wok together with the water for about 15-20mins (Notice that I didnt say "boil the water first". I 'boiled' it with the water)

- Once the Nian Gao turned soft, off the fire.

- Pour out the coconut on a plate, add in the salt and mixed.

- Used spoon to scoop a spoonful of the Nian Gao and roll over the coconut.

This is Nian Gao, one of CNY must-have goodies!

My first Sushi attempt

I finally started my very first sushi creation. Dont dare to be too ambitious so just made a very simple one (definitely idiot proof!) haha! But of course, lots of improvement still, the taste is ok but the look..ermm....gee, I have got a long way to go! hehe!

Ingredients:

- rice, approximately 2 scoops
- 2 large pieces of seaweed
- 2 tablespoons seasoning (refer far bottom on the package)

How to cook:

- Cook the rice as in usual way but add in a little more water than usual as needs it to be more damp.
- When the rice is cooked, add in the seasoning and stirred the rice with the seasoning.
- Make into the usual rectangle shape and roll the seaweed over it.

This is the seasoning packet I bought from Daiso at Plaza Sing.

Experimenting my dishes

hehe...so paiseh, I havent been updating any recipes recently...yeah, cos they are not ready to be 'seen' yet....still at the experimental stage...

I was trying to make some wantons for the family but it turned out quite horrible....then I was making some jelly using apple juice (real apple juice, with the new juice mixer I bought recently) but the taste turned out quite funnily and Trenyce rejected it outright! sigh...more experiments to improve on the receipes...

Pls bear with me.....

"Fu Chou"

According to the cantonese, this dessert has the effects of beautifying our complexion :D

Ingredients:

- A packet of dried beancurd skin, soaked in boiled water till turn soft
- Barley (of small size)
- Gingko Nuts, peeled and washed
- Water chestnuts, peeled, washed and chopped in fine cubes
- Dried melon cubes, chopped into big cubes
- 2 Eggs (of average size), mixed evenly
- Rock Sugar
- Pot of water, about 3/4 full (use a slightly bigger than average size pot)

How to cook:

- Boils the pot of water together with barley. This will take about 20mins.
- When water boils for the 1st time, add in the gingko nuts. Then leaves it boiled under low fire for approximately 25mins.
- When it boils again, add in the beancurd skin (pour away the water before adding in), water chestnuts and dried melon cubes and leaves it boil for another 15mins.
- Finally add in the egg mixture slowly. Remember to stirr the water gently as you pour in the egg mixture so that they will not clout together.
- Add in some rock sugar to taste.
- Serve with ice, if you like it cold.

Note:
When you buy the beancurd skin, note that its meant for cooking dessert as there are 2 types. The other type is mainly used for cooking dishes and is harder. The one for dessert cooking is generally softer so it takes lesser time to handle.

Pulut Hitam

I love this dessert since young. My mom will cook this dessert over the slow cookpot and leave it overnight. So that by the time we wake up the next day, we get to eat this nice dessert. Serves best with YOU TIAO! :)

Ingredients for 5 pax share:

- 250 grams of black glutinous rice
- 2 handfuls of white glutinous rice
- 3-4 big scoops of sugar (using the laddle)
- Pandan leaf (optional)(For fragnant purpose)
- Coconut Milk
- 2 Pots of water, one full, one 3/4 full (use an average size pot)

How to cook:

- Wash both the black and white glutinous rice
- Boil a pot of water (3/4 full pot) together with the glutinous rice
- Boil another pot of water (full pot, just water)
- When the water boils, let it boils over small fire for another 15 mins then pour over to slow cookpot, also pour over the other pot of boiling water. Then leaves it cook under "low fire" overnight. Alternatively, you can also cook under "high fire" for 3 hours and turn to "keep it warm" for the rest of the day.
- Add 1-2 tablespoon of coconut milk when serving. (Best if you can get YOU TIAO :))

Addition:
PS: This can also serve as cold dessert, just add a big scoop of vanilla ice cream over it. Do remember to wait till the pulut hitam cool down first, otherwise your ice cream will melt away.... Hope you enjoy this dessert! :)

Kaya French Toast

I made this snack for my family last weekend, mainly because I am left with a big loaf of wholemeat bread which is going to expire in 2 days' time and if I dont do anything to it sooner, I am sure this loaf of bread will ended up feeding the trashbin :p

Coincidently, I bought some cookie cutters recently, so I played around with the new utensils and made heart and star shapes out of the norm-looking bread. Doesnt it look more interesting to eat this way? :)

Trenyce was really fascinated with the french toast. When I showed her, she exclaimed:"wow, you very good at doing something!" hahaha...I am really flattened by my little gal! ;p

**Food picture unavailable** 
[Unfortunately Slide.com had ceased operation on 6 March 2012 and I didnt manage to transfer the pics in time of which some are lost permanently as I didnt have a spare copy.] 
Ingredients:
- One loaf of wholemeal bread
- 7 eggs (small)
- 3 tablespoons of raw honey
- Oil
- One ready made Kaya from bakery shop
- Frying pan (average size)

How to cook:

- Break and mix the eggs with the honey until egg whites, egg yolk and honey evenly dissolved
- Prehot the frying pan with some oil
- Dip the bread into the egg mixture (must dip in totally, otherwise only the surface of the bread with the egg mixture and when you bite the bread, it is tasteless)
- Put the bread into the pan and start frying.
- When frying, always turn the bread otherwise it will turn charcoal very soon becos of the honey content.
- Fry over slightly smaller fire after 2 rounds of frying as the pan has already been heated up, if continue using same amount of fire, will 'overfry'(aka turn charcoal) the bread.
- Finally, when the bread is ready to serve, add a layer of kaya over it. (If you like it sweeter, you can increase the kaya portion)

Mushroom Ipoh Hor Fun

I love this mushroom Hor Fun dish since young. I am not sure if this is a special DIY recipe from my mom or she knew about it from elsewhere perhaps from Ipoh, her hometown. I remembered her cooking this dish whenever someone from the family brought back some Ipoh Hor Fun (the plain ones mostly, aka Cheong Fan) to Spore. The Cheong Fun from Ipoh tastes very different from the ones I have in Spore, the texture is really smooth and when you put it in your mouth, you feel like its slipping into your mouth! :p

Well, unfortunately, I dont have anyone coming back from Ipoh recently. So, I have to make do with the frozen pre-packs that I can find at the supermarket, it has some wordings written on it that said its "Ipoh Hor Fun". Not too bad tho not as smooth as those fresh ones I had at Ipoh :D

**Food picture unavailable** 
[Unfortunately Slide.com had ceased operation on 6 March 2012 and I didnt manage to transfer the pics in time of which some are lost permanently as I didnt have a spare copy.] 

Ingredients (5pax share):

- 2 pkts of pre-packed Hor Fun, soaked in boiled water for 5 minutes (to soften it) and remove the water.
- About 150g spare ribs, for boiling soup (can use chicken bones or ikan billis)
(I prefer using bones for cooking soup as it makes the soup more fragnant and definitely more nutritious for the children)
- 150g pork meat (chicken or pork, always use breast meat) sliced/minced and mixed it with some soya sauce and starch powder (note: starch powder is to soften the texture of the meat, only for pork)
- About 8-10 mushrooms (of average size), sliced.
(If you want to decorate the dish, dont slice all)
- One can of preserved caixin, chopped into cubes
- Some wolfberries (optional)
(not too much otherwise will make your soup too sweet, mainly to add some colour to the dish, can use red chilli if you like it hot)
- 1 tablespoon of Vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons of Soya sauce
- 2 tablespoons of starch powder, mix with a bowl of water and stir till the powder dissolves
- Pot of water, about 3/4 full (use an average size pot)


How to cook:

- Put the spare ribs in a pot of boiling water and soaked for 2-3 mins to remove the porky smell.
- Then boils another fresh pot of water together with the spare ribs
- When the water boils for the first time, add in the mushrooms, canned caixin and wolfberries
- When it boils again, put in the meat and the 2 sauces (oyster and soya sauce)
- When you get the taste you desire, add in the starch powder mixture (to pour in the starch powder gradually as you stir the soup otherwise the starch mixture will clog together)
- Pour the soup onto the Hor Fun (before pouring the soup, the Hor Fun should already be placed on individual plates)

Notes:
1. The amount of ingredients serve as a general guide. You may add in more according to your preference.
2. All my ingredients purchased from ShopnSave, so you can go there and get all the stuff at one shopping.

Cheng Teng Dessert

I invited some friends over to my place yesterday, for our annual cny gathering. Wanted to get them over for lunch and cooked a feast for them but they prefer high tea (they didnt want to give me too much hassle :p), so in the end fried some stuff and cooked this dessert for them :) This is one of my favourite dessert, got the recipe from my cantonese mother.

Finally, got a chance to display the picture of my food. Does it look appetising enough? hehe :)

Ingredients for 10pax share:

- 50 grams white fungus, washed and soaked overnight and break into small pieces (will taste better this way. too big a piece, you may find it hard to swallow)
- 50 grams dried lily bulbs, washed and soaked overnight
- 50 grams fresh gingko nuts, remove the shells and soaked overnight
- 30 grams dried LianZi,washed and soaked overnight
- 30 grams large sago, washed on the day you are going to cook and set aside
- 30 grams dried logan meat (the big fat round ones from thailand, can be purchased from ShopnSave),washed on the day you are going to cook and set aside
- about 14 red dates (of average size)
- some rock sugar (preferred to use rock sugar to cook dessert, smell and taste better)
- Pot of water, about 3/4 full (use a slightly bigger than average size pot)

How to cook:

- Boil the pot of water together with your red dates, lily bulbs, gingko nuts and LianZi
- When the water boils, add in the white fungus and logan meat
- When it boils again, turn the fire lower and let it boils slowly for 30-40mins
- Add in the rock sugar and large sago, let it boils for another 15mins (Dont add the large sago too early, it will 'melt')
- Once the gingko nuts and Lianzi (the hardest to soften of all) already soften and chewable, it is ready to be served. If you like it cold, you may add in ice and serve as a cold dessert

Notes:
1. The amount of ingredients serve as a general guide. You may add in more according to your preference.
2. All my ingredients purchased from ShopnSave, so you can go there and get all the stuff at one shopping.

My Apologies

My Apologies, I havent had any pictures of my dishes taken as I am still in the experimental stage so didnt spend much time to decorate the dish :P

Pls give me some time, I promise to return with nice pictures once I am more farmilar with cooking :p Yeah, kind of lost touch with cooking cos MIL cooks on all weekdays and we eat out on weekends *embarrassed*

Steamed Beancurd

I am cracking my brain to DIY some dishes convenient for my MIL to prepare for Trenyce when she returns from her CNY holiday. MIL normally prepares porridge for her and the little girl eats porridge day in day out except on days that MIL is not around as I like to cook rice for her instead of porridge. The troublesome part about preparing rice is that you will have to prepare the dishes separately, unlike porridge, you can just dump everything in.

So, today (duno if I have become smarter or what hahaha) I suddenly have an idea to prepare this steamed dish with meat, egg, tofu and broocoli for Trenyce and its yummy! :) Trenyce loves it and finshes her bowl of rice!

Simple and nutritious dish for the young ones at home! :)

Ingredients:

- one box of Silken Tofu (get the one for steamming, with red label)
- minced pork meat (If you go to wet mkt, its about $2 worth), mix it with some soya sauce and starch powder (note: starch powder is to soften the texture of the meat)
- 2 eggs (small), break and mix the eggs
- some broocoli, chopped (not too fine, about the size of a cube)

How to cook:
- Cut the tofu into large cubes and lay it on the metal plate
- Put the minced meat on top the tofu
- Pour the eggs over the meat
- Sprinkle the broocoli on top of the minced meat (if you like, you can add in some small carrot cubes)
- And finally, steam the tofu for 5-7mins

Apple Soup

This post backdated to 22nd Feb 2007.

I got a new recipe from my auntie recently while on my CNY visit to her place - Apple Soup. My little girl dislikes fruits eversince she recovers from an almost-2 weeks long illness. She refuses any fruits, even fruits that she has had tasted before she also rejected them all together. This is a real headache ah!

I am trying this new recipe from my auntie. I just cooked the soup and left it for hubby to feed her tmr as I got to "kai gong" (start work) tmr already. I tasted some and its yummy. I hope Trenyce will like it and slowly get back to eating apples at least...then slowly I can introduce other fruits to her. *cross my fingers*

Okay, here's the ingredients for 4 adults' share:

- about 300g spare ribs (with some meat, as those you bought from NTUC or other supermarket have packages that sell just the bones alone for cooking soup)
- 2 Fuji apples (of average size) cut into small mini cubes
- 1 red carrot (of average size) also cut into cubes
- some button mushrooms (big ones about 5-8, can add more if you like to have more mushrooms)
- some red dates (of average size, about 8-12, can add maybe 2-4 pieces more if you like it to be sweeter)
- some wolfberries (one small handful)

How to cook:

- Boil the water together with red dates and wolfberries
- When water is half boil, add in the spare ribs (remember to rinse the ribs with hot water twice before going into the soup so as to remove the pork smell)
- When the water boils again, add in the apples and carrots.
- When it boils again, let it simmer over the small fire for about 15mins.
- And finally add a pinch of salt (add according to your preference, usually 1 teaspoon will be enough)