蒜蓉苋菜

I've come across an article recently, when the Chinese author wrote on her book which states her early life in Shanghai.
In the book, she mentioned a few of her favourite dishes and 1 of it is 'stir fry red spinach' where she describe as ' a plate of western bonsai'

Comes to think of it, the small portion of red among the green does looks abit like how she described it to be.After reading through the article, i been craving for the western bonsai till now and hence, decided to cook this simple dish tonite.

Ingredients;
1 bunch red spinach
1 clove garlic
Pinch of salt
Oil for frying

Method;
-Fry garlic in oil till fragrant.
-Toss in spinach, fry for a min or two.
-Season to taste.
-Fry for another min & serve.
-Enjoy!

Coffee Crumble Cake

It's been ages since I last baked a cake and y the sudden urge to bake? Oh well, guess it's due to the dream i had last night. I dreamt of the cinnamon sweet cake which i baked in year 2008 and have a sudden craving for the sweet cinnamon mixture. Wow... how great would it be if i can have it with a cup of hot coffee for tea-break.
Erm... better bake something different so i can add on a new post to my blog. Lolz.... Ah ha... a crumble cake toppings! Alright, shall do it that way since mum never tasted crumble cake b4.

Ingredients;
220g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
150g salted butter
200g brown sugar
250ml buttermilk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs

Topping;
50g brown sugar
50g caster sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp coffee granules

20g butter
5 level tbsp plain flour

Method;
-Sift flour and baking soda together, set aside for later use.
-Cream fats and sugar till fluffy, add in vanilla essence.
-Beat in egg 1 @ a time.
-Fold in flour, alternate with buttermilk.
-Pour in half batter into a well greased cake tin which is laid with paper.
-Mix the 1st 4 toppings ingredients together, sprinkle some over the batter.
-Pour the remaining batter over.
-Prepare crumble toppings by rubbing butter and flour till fine breadcrumbs stage.
-Mix well remaining of toppings, sprinkle evenly over top of the batter.
-Baked in a preheated oven at 170 degree celsius for 55 mins or till done.
-Enjoy!

Fresh from the oven!

干捞 Instant Noodles & Shrimp Salad

How about instant noodles and salad for lunch? Oh well, not that simple. Instant noodles isn't instant noodles as Jesper prefers it with lots of ingredients and in the style of 干捞面. As for the salad, he prefers a shrimp salad with lots of eggs as well. Hence, i whipped up our lunch as follows;
Ingredients;
1 pkt instant noodles, blanched and drained
Some meatballs & crabmeat stick
1 fishcake, sliced
1 handful beansprout
Sauce mix
Water

Method;
-Prepare noodles sauce by mixing with hot water, toss with blanched noodles.
-Toss in boiled beansprouts and other ingredients.
-Mix well, garnish with shredded lettuce & serve.
-Enjoy!

Shrimp salad ~with lettuce and hard-boiled egg, top with light salad dressing

Potato Chicken Stew

Other than the usual stir fry chicken in dark sauce, I decided to add potatoes to the dish. Y? Cuz i feel like eating the potatoes which has fully absorbs the gravy. I bet it is salty and full of chicken flavours. Wow.. i'm craving for it now.

Ingredients;
1/2 chicken, chopped
Ginger slices
Salt
Light soy sauce
2 medium potato, wedged
1 clove garlic, chopped
Oil for frying
Spring onion

Sauce;
Oyster sauce
Light soy sauce
Dark soy sauce
Sugar
Stock

Method;
-Marinate chicken with ginger slices, light soy sauce and salt.
-Cover and keep in fridge for at least 3 hrs.
-Deep fried potato wedges till light browned, drained.
-On a heated wok, fry garlic till fragrant, stir in chicken.
-Fry till chicken change colour.
-Pour in sauce, mix well.
-Cover to simmer till chicken soften.
-Toss in potatoes, mix well & serve when gravy thickens.
-Sprinkle green onions over & Enjoy!

真下饭的一道佳肴!

止渴汤

Been down with flu and coughs for the past 2 days and since today is Saturday, I decided to double boil this remedy to cure my coughs.

The 止渴汤to stop my cough

Delicious and soothing to the throat.
Simple and easy, just need to pour everything into a small pot, add water and double boil for 2 hours. Done!

Other than these few ingredients, i added in some american ginseng flakes as well.

There's even instructions behind the pack.

Dinner @ 湾仔茶餐厅

A last min decision to go for a walk after walk rather than going home. Reali super last mi wor. We knocked off at 6pm and Summer suggested this outing at 5.59pm. Yeah... a good 1 rite?
After shopping around for a while, we decided to have dinner at the hongkong cafe.

Here's the menu...

Some comes with free soup of the day...

This glass bottle of coke reminds me of my HongKong trip

Our drink~Honey lemon with aloe vera

Seafood horfun...

Claypot rice...Simply delicious!

We had a hard time finishing up the super big chicken. Guess Summer wont be having chincken for the next few days. Lolz...

Ekina's Brown Rice Bibimbap

Yummy~licious! I'm enjoying my bibimbap lunch while I blog. Haha... posting and eating at the same time?! Yes, cuz i brough it to office as my bento lunch. seems like i'm getting the kick of bring bentos to office.
I've always love bibimbap and we would always eat from the korean eatery near our office during lunch and i feels that in order to have the taste of Korean bibimbap, the essence lies in their Gochujang. I decided to make something with a twist. Actually this is considered a healthy dish as most of the ingredients are blanched. Therefore, my version will use browb rice and my own special home-made chili sauce.

Ingredients;
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 baby carrot, blanced
A handful beansprouts, blanched
A handful endvies, lightly fry in garlic and oil
Some stir fry seasoned pork strips
Some sambal (hei bee hiam)
Special spicy sauce (for mixing the rice)
Some roasted sesame seeds

Method;
-Assemble the bibimbap by placing brown rice in a serving bowl.
-Lay all the ingredients on top of the rice.
-Drizzle sauce over, mix well & serve.

Here's how it looks after mixing. Yummy! Actually i should have prepared an egg to go with & it will look much better. Oh well, forget it, cuz I'm cutting down on egg intake. I limit myself to 2 eggs per week. haha....

妈妈的爱心饭盒便当

A 爱心饭盒 for lunch today. At the thought of bringing bento lunch to office, mum seems more keen and excited than me. She will giving suggestions as to what to include in my bento and take would take the effort to cook stewed pork the previous night and warm them up early in the morning.
Other than that, mum would wake up early in the morning to cook plain rice, wash some lettuce for me to fry cuz i would always prefer veggies in my meals. Oh, not forgetting the 1 and onli prawn fritters left over from dinner as well. Lucky Mum cooked some sauce and set aside as well, so i just drizzle them over the fritters!

So sweet and thoughtful of mum right? Looks like i didn't give my bento the wrong name! Thank you Mummy!

Vegetarian Nuggets

Was cracking my brain hard to think of what to do with the last 4 slices of bread at home and suddenly came across my mind that i once watched Jamie Oliver used bread to make meatballs. Hence, decided to use the same method of soaking bread to soften it, squeeze out excess liquid and use as fillings for my nuggets.

Ingredient A;
1 large potato, steam and mashed
4 slices bread
Water
Coriander power
Chili powder
Pepper
Salt

Ingredient B;
1 large onions, diced
1 green chill, thinly sliced
2 baby carrots, diced
Cumin seeds
Fennel seeds
Oil for frying

Flour for coating
Oil for frying
Thai chili sauce

Method;
-Remove crust from bread, soak in buttermilk and squeeze off excess liquid.
-Fry fennel seeds & cumin in oil till it crackles, add carrots and fry for 20 secs.
-Add onions & chili, fry for 10 sec & add into ingredient A.
-Mix until incorporated.
-Coat hands with flour, pinch a small dough & roll into balls, flatten and shaped into rectangular.
-Continue until mixture finish.
-Chill in freezer to set.
-Shallow fry in hot oil till golden brown.
-Serve with thai chili sauce.
-Enjoy!

鱼香豆腐

Something different for a tofu dish. Was telling mum that rather than the normal minced meat tofu where she always cook, I wanna cook tofu the 鱼香茄子 method but add stock to simmer the tofu.
Ta ran.... here's my dish for dinner tonite.

Ingredients;
1 box springy tofu, cut into 8 squares
Some minced pork
2 tsp hei bee hiam
1 garlic, chopped
1 chili padi, chopped
Oyster sauce
Sugar
Chili paste
Stock
Oil for frying
Chopped scallions

Method;
-Fry tofu in oil for 5 mins, drained.
-Fry chili and garlic till till fragrant, add hei bee hiam and meat.
-Fry till meat change colour, add seasonings.
-Stir in tofu, bring to full boil.
-Sprinkle with chopped scallions and serve.
-Enjoy!

Grilled Hoisin Meat Slices

I had chee chong fun for breakfast in office on Friday and the aunty was very generous with the sauces. She gave me 2 packets of sauces.
Guess wat?! Not wanting to waste the sauce, i brought home and decided to use it to marinate meat since it contains hoisin sauce.

Ingredients;
五花肉, sliced
Baking soda
Hoisin sauce
Chili sauce
Water
Brown sugar
Garlic paste
Shallot paste
Oil

Blasting sauce;
Oil
Honey
Dark soy sauce

Method;
-Marinate meat slices with all the ingredients, keep in fridge for at least 5 hours.
-On a heated non-stick pan, grill meat slices till cooked on both sides.
-Drizzle 1/2 of blasting sauce over, cover and grill over high heat.
-Flip over, pour in the remaining sauce & blast the other side.
-Garnish & serve.
-Enjoy!
Simple & wonderful dish. Though the dish looks dry, in fact it is not. The meat are tender and full of flavours. Simply delicious!

Steamed Eggy Meat Patties

Decided to have steamed dishes to go with my healthy brown rice dinner. Remembered that Mum used to steam meat with egg for Adam was he was young. Thus, decided to copy the idea but used minced pork and serve with a sauce instead.

Ingredients;
Minced pork
Water chestnut, chopped
Chopped scallions
Sesame oil
Light soy sauce
Pinch of salt
Oil for greasing
Egg

Sauce;
1/2 tsp oyster sauce
Stock or water

Method;
-Marinate minced pork with seasoning, add water chestnuts & scallions.
-Place onto a greased plate and steam till 1/2 cooked.
-Break in egg & continue steaming till done.
-Pour stock from patties & add a bit more water.
-Add ouster sauce and bring to boil.
-Drizzle over steamed meat & serve.
-Enjoy!

Healthy Brown Rice Dinner

Should i start on counting calories again? Hmm... maybe i should eat more fiber food or fat burning food ya! Alright den! Shall start with tonite's dinner since i have brown rice at home! :-)
And the motto for tonite's dinner is less oil less calories!

Brown rice ingredients;
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1 stalk chye sim stem
2 drops of oil
-On a non-stick frying pan, fry chye sim stem for 30 secs.
-Add brown rice and fry till well mix.
-Serve.

Cabbage ingredients;
Few leaves of cabbage, break into smaller pieces
Some dried shrimps
beancurd puff, cut into thin slices
1 garlic, chopped
Pinch of salt
Stock / water
Oil for frying
-Fry garlic in oil till lightly brown.
-Add cabbage and fry till soften.
-Add stock and bring to boil.
-Toss in beancurd puffs.
-Season to taste.
-Remove when cabbage soften.

Ham & Cheese, Egg Sandwiches

Adam told me that he's not a fan of any bread nor sandwiches and i'm abit disappointed. B'coz all the while i tot he enjoyed whatever i prepare for him. Since he's not at home, i decided to prepare this sandwich for Jesper's lunch.
So happy that he enjoyed it and was even full of praises cuz he finds that home-made sandwiches are always better than restaurant serve cuz it's cheaper to do so and can put lots of his preferred ingredients. Oh ya, cuz he's a carnivorous! keke....

Chicken ham & cheese with egg sandwich serve with harsh brown~ a fantastic lovely lunch.

Method;
-Fry egg till done, set aside for later use.
-Grill ham on the pan for 10 sec on each side, set aside for later use.
-Spread butter on 1 side of bread, place bread onto a heated frying pan with butter side down.
-Flip over to the other side for 2 mins.
-To assemble, spread salad sauce onto both slices of bread, top with ham, cheese and egg.
-Top with another slice of bread and cut into triangles.
-Serve with baked harsh brown.
-Enjoy!

ABC Congee

Adam is down with a fever and early morning he requested for congee early in the morning. I've no time to prepare the ingredients required hence, i make use of the abc soup leftover from last night dinner.

Ingredients;
1 cup cooked rice
Potatoes, diced
Carrots
Shredded meat (from pork-ribs)
Soup
Salt to taste
Oil
Chopped scallions

Method;
-Bring soup to boil, add rice and cooked till grains break.
-Add more soup as and when necessary.
-Add oil, salt, potatoes, carrots & meat.
-Bring to full boil.
-Sprinkle chopped scallions & serve.
-Enjoy!

A whole pot of goodness.

Happy Dinner @ Korean BBQ Chicken

We been changing venue for our dinner. 1stly it's Suanthai @ Liang Court, next we changed to Newyork Newyork @ Kovan, followed by Mad Jack @ Nex. In the end we decided to go for Korean BBQ Chicken @ Rivervale Mall.

Kristal is excited about the dinner.

Mother & daughter are discussing wat to eat for dinner.

So funny of Kristal to say she only wanna eat the 'veggie' on the kid's meal. Oh that veggie is parsley. Haha...

Here's our drink~apple juice and root beer float.

Kristal's dinner with all her favourite cheese sausage and spaghetti.

The thoughtful mum even bring out her own scissor to cut the spaghetti!

Here's ours... Cream of mushroom.

This crispy chicken is on the house.

Charboil chicken for Kristine.

Seems like Kristal is more interested in the fries. See, its reali finger licking good.

Seafood aglio olio for me~hmm..taste spicy!

Black pepper chicken for Kate.

Grilled steak for Jeff.

A Brand New Dinner Menu~Station 1 (JB)

Tried out the new menu dishes at Station 1 last night and they were reali good!

The new menu with lots of new dishes...

Cute pictures on the menu.

Some advertising promo on the new menu.

This looks good!

Iced honey sour~refreshing!

HongKong yee mee

Cream of mushroom soup

Chicken maryland

Chicken cheeseballs

Additional wedges

Trio chocolate~huge scoops of chocolate ice-cream with crushed peanuts and chocolate shavings. I believe this will be the best chocolate therapy.