Keeping them Green

I think a lot of people often wonder how come the green vegetables they ordered at the restaurants always looked so green and fresh? Well, there's a trick to it that not many people know.

The few vegetables that we always want to maintain their freshness colors are such as broccoli, kale (kai-lan) and mustard (choy-sum).

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How to do it? Very simple. Boil enough water in a saucepan, add a few drops of oil and some sugar and wait till it boils. Toss in your green vegetables and boil till a little colors appear in the water. Lift them up. If too long in the hot water, they will ended up turning yellow!
You can then stir-fry or simply eat just like that...

Spare Ribs in Sour Plum Sauce

This is another very easy recipe adapted from the 'Mama Recipes' cookbook that we've bought. All you need to do is to all the ingredients and mix them with the spare ribs before sending it to the simmer.

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Ingredients

• 600g Spare ribs (ask the butcher to cut into 2" long for each piece)

To season with

• 1tbsp Garlic (chopped finely)


• 1tbsp Bean paste (tau-chu)


• 1 Red chili


• 5 Chili padi (optional)


• 4 Salted plums (mashed)


• 1tbsp oyster sauce


• 2 tbsp Sugar


• 1tbsp Plum Sauce


• 1/2 tbsp Corn flour


• A few drops of shallot oil (I used normal oil)

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Methods

1. Wash the spare ribs and season with the seasoning ingredients and mix well with ribs.


2. Arrange on a dish and simmer for 20-30 minutes on medium heat till ribs are soften.

Three Beans with Wakame Soup

For some quick healthy alternatives, I do make some simple and easy to boil soup. It's not those double boil soup where you need to boil for more than 2 hours. These, usually called  'kuan-tong' or simply translate to 'heat up the soup' in Cantonese.

What I normally do for such dish is to have some ingredients for the soup base as these type of soup do not requires spare ribs or chicken pieces. I substitute with dried anchovies and some soy beans. These two ingredients give the soup some nice sweet taste.

And most of all, it taste good and takes very little time preparing!

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Ingredients

• 1.5L Water


• 30g Dried anchovies (debone)


• 50g Raw soy beans


• 1" Ginger (sliced)


• 1/2 block Silken tofu (cut into small cubes)


• 2pcs Fu-chock (bean skins)


• 10g  Wakame (Japanese seaweed)


• Salt and pepper to taste

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Methods

1. Heat up stock pot with a little oil and fry the ginger slices till fragrant before adding the dried anchovies and stir a bit. Then slowly add in the water and soy beans and bring it to boil. Bring down the heat to small and let it boil for 30 minutes.


2. Remove all the ingredients (dried anchovies, soy beans and ginger slices) and leave the soup to continue boiling.


3. Add in the silken tofu, wakame and fu-chock and stir till they are soft.

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Fresh Fake Cordycept Soup

Most of us have seen the dried cordycepts but not many have seen the fresh and fake ones. The dried ones looked like dead caterpillars but the raw ones don't really look like one except for the sectioned body.

I've seen the actual plant of the fresh fake cordycept in Cameron Highlands but have never seen those that grew the dried ones. The dried ones which come from China is very costly but the fresh ones is rather cheap. I found them in Tesco and saw some of the stalls in the markets sell them too.

It is said that the cordycepic acid from cordycept Sinesis found in the dried cordycepts can relax the bronchia and strengthen the adrenal glands. They are normally used as health supplement food thus the high price.

 Fresh Cordycepts

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Ingredients

• 250g Fresh fake cordycepts


• 2.5L Water


• 300g Spare Ribs or Chicken pieces


• Some Wolfberries


• 8-10pcs Red dates

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Methods

1. Heat water until boil and add in the spare ribs or chicken pieces and let it boil for a few minutes.


2. Toss in the cordycepts and red dates and let it come to a boil before switching the flame to low. Boil for 1.5 hours.


3. Add in the wolfberries before you switch off the fire.

Stir-fry Celery with Spiced Pork

A few weeks back I suddenly have the crave for celery. Not sure why. Then I was thnking I can use them to cook porridge for Darrius too so I bought a bundle every time I go to Tesco.

I normally just do a clear stir-fry without any other ingredients except some chopped garlic but I decided to try with some spiced pork this time.  I've cooked it a few times before long time ago and  think the taste goes well together. I often stock up some dried stuff or can food so I can use them whenever I'm out of stuff to cook.

So, if you are stuck with some celery and don't know what to cook with, you can try this simple dish...

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Ingredients

• 1/2 bundle  Celery


•  1/2 can Spiced pork


• Water ( just a little to soften the celery)

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with little oil and stir-fry celery till half cooked. Toss in the spiced pork and continue to stir.


2. Add a little water (2 tbsp) and let it simmer with cover on for 2-3 minutes.


3. Served.

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Stir-fry Cauliflowers in Clear Sauce

Lately I've been buying a lot of cauliflowers as Darrius has the liking for them out of the blue. He saw us eating a few times and kept pestering me to give him some. I did not gave him in the past as I don't boil my cauliflowers till they are soft but leave it crunchy.

Since Darrius is keen to have some so I decided to boil all our cauliflowers real soft so he will have no problem chewing them (most of the time he will swallow without much chewing... lazy fella). Previously I don't put in that much water to make the sauce but I decided to create a clear broth just so Darrius can have some over his rice.

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Ingredients

• 1/4 Cauliflower


• Some Carrot slices


• Some Sweetpeas


• 100g Chicken breast meat (thinly sliced, marinate with corn flour and soy sauce)


• 2 cloves garlic (smashed/ finely chopped)


• Few slices of old ginger


• 1 cup Chicken broth (or use non MSG chicken cube)


• 1tsp corn flour mix with some water

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Methods

1. Boil some water with a few drops of oil and sugar in a saucepan. First put in the cauliflower chunks, then the carrot and lastly the sweetpeas and drain them after letting it boil for a few minutes. Put aside.


2. Heat up wok with some oil and saute the chopped garlic and sliced ginger till fragrant and add in the marinated chicken slices and stir till 50% cooked. Toss in the boiled vegetables and stir till they are well mixed.


3. Pour in the chicken broth or chicken cube and stir until the sauce boil before adding in the corn flour solution to thicken the sauce.

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Dried Chillies Pork

I will buy a big chunk of pork belly sometime from my regular butcher whenever I go by that market in the city. Then I will cut them into a few parts and freeze them. I will normally have 3 to 4 parts depending on the size he cut for me with each part just nice for 2 persons consumption.

Like usual, both PiggyBeng and myself prefer to have chilies dishes for most of our meals. And this is one of those easy to prepare pork dish which I normally cook.

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• 250-300g Pork belly (with skin intact)


• 3-4 Dried chilies (pre-soak with hot water and remove seeds)


• 1 Red chili


• 1tbsp Bean paste (tau-chu)


• 1tbsp Dark soy sauce


• 4 cloves Garlic (smashed/minced)


• 1" square Ginger (thinly stripes)


• Some water

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Methods

1. Wash the scums away from the pork skin (use a tweezer to remove any hair) then sliced thinly about 5mm thick.


2. Heat up wok with some oil (not too much as pork belly has lard) and saute the garlic, then the ginger, the chili and the dried chili till fragrant before toasting in the sliced pork belly.


3. Add in the bean paste and dark soy sauce and stir until all are well mixed. Add in a little water (if you need more sauce add more water) and let it simmer for 15 minutes or till the meat is tender.