Beancurd Porridge

I missed this porridge terribly, used to have it when I stayed with my mother. Havent tasted it for a long time since I got married. Its only until recently when I was cracking brain for lunches for my girl that I remembered this dish. Trenyce loves it too as her favourite beancurd, mushroom and carrot are included. Seems like my girl is easy to please as she gets contented quite easily hehehe...When it comes to food, yes she takes after her father...anything also can except for fruits *sigh* Luckily she takes vegetables :)

**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 (4 pax share):

- 2 handfuls of Rice, perferably use "Xing mi", washed.
(aka "new rice", a type of rice used typically for cooking porridge. If not, normal rice also can but will take slightly longer time to cook.)
- 2 pieces of beancurd, sliced
- 1 carrot (of average size), sliced
- 1 small cabbage (about 70-80cts if buy from supermkt), chopped
- 4 pieces of mushroom (of average size), sliced
- 100grams minced meat, marinated with soya sauce/sesame oil/starch powder.
- some ikan bilis (aka dried shrimps), washed
- some garlic
- 1 tablespoon soya sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon starch powder
- Salt
- Cooking oil
- Water

How to cook:

- Heat the pot (average sized pot) with cooking oil.
- Add in the ikan bilis once the oil is heated.
- When you can smell the "fragnant" of the ikan bilis, add water to the pot (about 80% of the pot) and leave it to boil.
- When the water starts boiling, sieve out the ikan bilis and add in the rice, and leave it to boil.*
- When it starts to boil, add in the beancurd** and vege*** prepared earlier.
- When it boils again, add in the minced meat and some salt.
- Once minced meat is cooked, turn off the fire and its ready to be served.

Preparation of beancurd**
- 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 slightly brownish and set aside.

Preparation of vege***
- Heat the wok again with cooking oil.
- Add in the garlic once the oil is heated.
- When the garlic turns slightly brownish, add in the carrot/cabbage/mushroom.
- Add water, ensure that the vege are well covered. Covered with the lid and let it simmer for 3-5mins.
- Remove the lid, dish out the vege when its about 75% cooked and set aside.

*Note: I started cooking the porridge before the preparation of the beancurd and vege as the boiling of the ikan bilis and rice takes a while. Hence,if you are unable to complete the cooking of the beancurd and vege before the porridge boils, pls prepare the 2 dishes first before you start cooking the porridge.

Confinement Recipe: Huiji Fish and Papaya Soup

Confinement soup made easy!
Excerpt from The Straits Times (Singapore)
August 8, 2007 Wednesday

'This dish is easy to prepare, low in calories and high in nutritional value. I do not need to stew Chinese herbs for hours. Instead, I add 30 to 60ml of Huiji Waist Tonic to my soup at the end. And it does not contain alcohol, which makes me feel safe as I was breast-feeding,' Ms Leong said.

Following recipe brought to you by Huiji Waist Tonic

Ingredients (serves 4):

- 700g green papaya (unripe/semi-ripe)
- 300g fish (for example snakehead, carp, seabream, pomfret)
- 12 red dates
- 2 pieces dang shen
- 5g yuzhu
- 6 slices ginger
- 30-60ml Huiji Waist Tonic
- Fish bones

How to cook:

- Put fish bones, ginger, dang shen, red dates and yuzhu in water and boil for half an hour.
- Add papaya. When it softens, add fish and simmer till fish is cooked.
- Add 30-60ml of Huiji Waist Tonic.
- Serve immediately while still piping hot. It is ideal for breastfeeding mums as it helps lactation.

"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.