Stir-fry Preserved Mustard Head with Pork Strips

Normally we will cook soup with preserved mustard head but it is a little spicy for Darrius so I will boil non-spicy soup if I could. PiggyBeng loves the soup but the Lil' Master comes first in cases like these. :P

PiggyBeng bought a piece so I decided to do some stir-fry instead... at least can eat with white rice or plain porridge.

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Ingredients

• 1pc Mustard head (cut into thin strips)


• 150g Pork (not too lean and not too fat - cut into thin strips)


• A few pips of Garlic (chopped finely)


• Black soy sauce


• A few dash of Pepper


• Some water


• Chili padi - optional

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Methods

1. Cut the preserved mustard head and soak in a bowl of water for at least 30 minutes changing the water after a few minutes. This will wash away the saltiness.


2. Heat up wok and saute the chopped garlic till fragrant, toss in the pork strips and stir-fry till cook, add in the preserved mustard head strips.


3. After stirring for a while, pour in some black soy sauce and add a little water, stir and cover under a small fire. Simmer for at least 20 minutes before serving.


4. if you prefer to have a thicker sauce, add a little corn flour solution before removing from wok.

Tuna Macaroni

Most carbo food like rice and noodles will let you pile up on weight - most of the time so these days I tried to consume less of such food though they have been my favorite all these while! Need to give a thought to our bodies mah! :P

Since Darrius has been a huge pasta fan, I tried to come up with more recipes that hopefully will entice him to eat more besides the pasta. I introduce a varieties of pasta both in shapes and types to him and let him enjoy his meals with fun.

This recipe I learned from an ex-nightschool mate which she prepared for one of the BBQ nite when I was in Singapore. A very easy to prepare and can be eaten cold... so perfect for Bento or lunch boxes!

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Ingredients

• 1 can Tuna (chunk) in water or brie


• 250g Elbow pasta/macaroni


• 1 Hard boiled egg (smashed into small pieces)


• Button mushrooms (sliced a few)


• 2tbsp Mayonnaise


• 1/2 cup Corn kernels


• Raisins (yellow) for garnishing


• Pepper, black pepper and salt for taste


• Lemon juice to kill the fishy taste/smell


• French beans for garnishing (optional)


• Bacon bits for garnishing (optional)


• Sunflower kernels for garnishing (optional)

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Method

1. Boil half a sauce pan of wate, add some salt and oil to cook the pasta/macaroni. When cooked, test the softness before draining the water away.


2. Boil another pot of water for cooking the French beans, corn kernels and button mushrooms slices.


3. Pour the can of tuna (drain away water/brie) into a bowl, smash them up and add in the mayonnaise and mix them well together with smashed up hard boiled egg. Add in sliced button mushrooms.


4. Sprinkle pepper, black pepper and salt to desire taste. Squeeze some lemon juice to kill the fishy smell of the tuna.


5. Toss in raisins, sunflower kernels and bacon bits to garnish. Top with some French beans for presentation. Voila!

Seafood Fried Rice

Sorry that I have not been posting regularly here as I have too much to handle! I have quite a few photos lined up and are just waiting for me to finish up the recipes.

I love to do fried rice when I have extra left over rice from the night before. Sometimes I will even purposely cook more rice if I have ingredients for fried rice the next day.

One of the days, I managed to get some baby octopus from the afternoon market behind my house and was excited to cook them. PiggyBeng cooked some and I still have about half which I ended using them to cook Seafood Soba and this yummy seafood fried rice on a separate day.

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Ingredients

• 4 bowls of Cooked rice (refrigerated)


• 150g Prawns (shelled)


• 150g Baby octopus (cut into small chunks)


• 100g French beans (cut into 1/2" long)


• 2 Eggs


• Chopped garlic (optional)


• Bonito flakes for garnishing


• Salt/light soy sauce/pepper for taste

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil and gently stir fry the French beans till soft, lift up and set aside.


2. If you like to have garlic in your fried rice, using the same wok but add more oil and saute the chopped garlic until they are fragrant.


3. Break the eggs and continue to stir until eggs are 'fried'.


4. Toss in the prawns and baby octopus and stir until they are half cooked.


5. Toss the French beans back into the wok and mix them well with the rest of the ingredients.


6. Add in a few dash of salt/light soy sauce and pepper for taste.


7. Sprinkle some Bonito flakes as garnish.

Seafood Soba

I've always love noodles. In fact when I have nothing better to eat I will first think of cooking a packet of instant noodles to nurse my hunger. That means, I have a huge stock of instant noodles nestling in my kitchen. :mrgree:

Besides instant noodles, I will buy other types of noodles occasionally. One of my latest craze is Korean and Japanese noodles. I bought a packet of Soba sometimes back from Daiso during my last trip to Singapore. I have wanted to cook the cold version but my hubby is not a fan of cold noodles so I decided to make it hot instead.

During a visit to the afternoon market near my place, I found some baby octopus and bought a kilo. At home I found some frozen prawns my hubby bought and the idea hit me... why not some seafood Soba? This is definitely a healthier choice! My boy love his bowl of Soba too. Without the baby octopus of course...

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Ingredients

• 2/3 packet Buckwheat Soba


• 200g Prawns (shelled and leave tail unshelled)


• 200g Baby octopus (clean and cut into 4 sections)


• 150g Hong Kong choy sum


• 2tbsp Wakame (Japanese seaweed)


• 1.5L Water


• Fish sauce + pepper for taste

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Methods

1. Boil water in a medium large pot. Throw in the prawn shells and let it boil for 20 minutes so the soup will have a good aroma.


2. While waiting for the soup to be ready, heat up another pot of water in a medium saucepan. Add a little oil and sugar. When the water boil, blanch the Hong Kong choy sum till 90% cook and remove from pot. Using the same pot of boiling water, blanch the Soba till springy soft and set aside. Do the same to the Wakame.


3. Remove the shell from the soup.


4. While the soup continue to boil, toss in the prawns and the baby octopus till they are cook. Remove them from the soup and put aside. Add fish sauce and pepper


5. In a bowl, place some Soba and top with Hong Kong choy sum, prawns, baby octopus and Wakame. Pour enough soup to cover Soba before serving.

Herbal Chicken

This is another of my favorite dish which I have modified from the more 'difficult' version. A relative taught me how to make the Emperor Chicken which uses plastic and foil to wrap up before sending it to steam.

I find the usage of plastic (the glass paper used for craft) is not a healthy choice as we are not sure if they are considered as food grade. Hence, I omitted it. Steaming the chicken the way I'm doing it now does not compromise the taste that much and it is a more healthy alternative.

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Ingredients

• 1/2 Kampung chicken (farm run chicken) - cut into small pieces


• A few slices of Dang Gui (Angelica sinensis)


• A few slices of Yuk Chok (dried polygonatum)


• 1tbsp Wolfberries (Goji berries)


• Salt


• Water

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Methods

1. Wash, clean and rub some salt to the chicken and place in a deep set plate.


2. Place all the herbal ingredients all over the plate and add in enough water to cover the chicken pieces.


3. Steam for 15-20 minutes until chicken are thoroughly cooked. Serve.

Sweet Buttered Prawns

PiggyBeng likes to buy prawns once in a while if he sees good ones in the wet market that he frequents. He knows the prawns much better than me so I will let him do the buying most of the time.

So happened while watching a food show on TV one weekend, there is this restaurant that prepared a very easy prawn dish which is also one of their signature dishes... I decided to try it out since we have some prawns in the freezer.

It is a little unhealthy but the taste was really good!

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Ingredients

• 300g Medium prawns (cut away the legs)


• 3tbsp Margerine


• 3tbsp Sugar


• Pinch of salt (optional)


• Curry leaves (optional)

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Methods

1. Heat up wok and melt the margerine. Add in the sugar and continue frying.


2. Toss in the curry leaves (if you have) stir for a while before tossing in the prawns. Stir fry till the sauce starts to caramelized. Sprinkle with some salt if you like it to be saltier as margerine already contains salt.


3. Serve.

Papaya Pickles (Jeruk Betik)

Sometimes I will crave for those pickles and if I do buy them from the shop, I don't get too much. Why? They could be pricey (as most are quite cheap ingredients), not fresh (only God know's how long they have been kept) and taste funny (don't know what other preservatives they added in). Therefore, I try to learn to do my own if I really enjoyed them... and if I could get all the ingredients.

One of such is papaya pickles. I love them especially if they are extra spicy! Yeah, I love to put cili padi (bird eyes chili) to give me that extra kicks which those store bought usually don't have. I have made this a few times and some friends have been asking for the recipes so I decided to share it here.

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Ingredients

• 1 Papaya (the unripe - dark green color)


• Vinegar


• Sugar


• Salt


• Cili padi (to the spiciness you want)


• Hot boiling water

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Methods

1. De-skin the papaya, cut into smaller piece before slicing them using a slicer (for equal thickness).


2. Once they are done, put them in a big bowl (non-metal) and rub them with salt and let it stand for a few minutes. This process is to make the papaya slices crunchy.


3. Then boil a pot of hot water and pour over the sliced papaya and drain away the water after stirring for a few minutes.


4. In a glass bowl ( I used a big corning pot) place the sliced papaya and add enough vinegar and sugar to your taste before putting in the cili padi.


5. Cover the bowl and stir occasionally. Once it has reached room temperature put them in glass or plastic containers before storing them in the fridge.