Chinese Rice Wine Chicken – Confinement Food Recipe

Here's a traditional chinese rice wine chicken recipes for lady under confinement period (one month after childbirth). It was passed down from my grandma to my mom to me. Now, I'm sharing with you my dearest sisters. It can be taken not only for confinement ladies. It can be taken for ladies after their periods which will replenish lost energy, reduce unwanted wind and make us super strong Haha...:)

(For normal consumption, amount of rice wine and sesame oil may be reduce by half)

Chinese Rice Wine Chicken :

Ingredients :
One Chicken (cut into small pieces)
Old ginger (slice into thin strips)
Black fungus (Sock 2 hours before cook and slice into thin strips)
sesame oil (sufficient amount to cover the ginger when frying)
1 litter of Chinese Rice Wine
a bit of salt to taste (you may go without it for confinement)

Direction :

1) Fried ginger for a while, add in sesame oil and continue frying till fragrant.

2) Add in black fungal and chicken. Continue frying for about 3 minutes

3) Cover with lid and cook in medium fire for about 20 minutes (chicken is about 70% or 80% cook)

4) Add Chinese rice wine and boil for another 5 minutes

This post is specially for you my sweet sisters C and R. You girls will be blessed with sweet and healthy babiesss....

TIRAMISU Non-Bake Cake

Encouraging my kids to do experiments, cook, bake, invent their own toys is part and parcel of our life which we really enjoy doing together. Baking cakes is one of our favorite.

I always start up with easy recipe so they will have no problem preparing, enjoy their own results and feel great achievement after that. Let me share with you one of my favorite recipe which never fail us. Try it mums and dads. Your kids will love it.

The best thing with this recipe is that it DOES NOT REQUIRE BAKING.

Ingredients :
75g sugar
3 egg yolks
250g whipped fresh cream
250g mascarpone cheese
2 packets sponge fingers
1 cup black coffee
8-10 tbsps brandy
Some cocoa power for dusting

Preparation :
1. Put egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream them together until thick. Add mascarpone cheese and continue beating. In a separate bowl, whip fresh cream. Fold whip fresh cream into the cheese mixture and set aside.

2. Mix coffee and brandy in a separate bowl. Dip each sponge finger into the coffee mixture and line the base of a baking pan.

3. Spread a layer of cheese mix over. Add another layer of dipped sponge fingers and another layer of cheese. Dust with cocoa. Chill in the fridge for 4 hours but it taste best when chill overnight.

Enjoy little friends, big friends, dads and mums with this easy recipe. Hope you have fun with it.

Tips :

My kids and I love to eat it frozen like ice-cream. The pics above is after freezing for 1 hour.

You may just chill it and the texture will be soft. You can serve in beautiful desert bowls and scoop with spoon.

Kueh Pisang (香蕉糕) Recipe

It was a lazy Sunday and Supercute suggested we might as well sweeten it up by making a nice dessert. We had come to a decision and it's Nyonia Kueh.......Kueh Pisang (Nyonia Banana Pudding). It's very so easy and fun to prepare. My lovely cheif Supercute is going to put it up in his blog too. Hey son, see who is faster kay......hehe..

Ingredients :

3 Big Ripe and Soft Bananas
300ml Thick Coconut Milk
1 Packet of Hun Kwee (Mung Bean Flour) 绿豆粉
220g of Sugar
550ml of Water
Pinch of Salt
Banana leaves for wrapping

Direction :

1) Cut diagonally the banana into about 1cm thick.
2) Divide the coconut milk equally into two bowls.
3) Add bean flour into one of the coconut milk bowl and mix well.
4) Pour the other bowl of coconut milk, water, sugar, salt into a non-stick pan. Stir over low heat until sugar dissolves.
5) Add mixture (3) into the pan and continue stirring over low heat.
6) Keep stirring till the mixture is thickening (gluey, sticky but smooth paste).
7) Scoop 3 spoonful of mixture onto banana leaves and top with banana slices.
8) Wrap it up and place it in refrigerator.
9) Serve it as a cool dessert.

Tips :
1) It will be good to steam the bananas for about 5 minutes and leave it to cool before cutting if the banana is not very soft and ripe. (I prefer using Pisang Rajah)
2) Must continuously mix and stir over low heat as the mixture burns easily.
3) You may also scoop the mixture into jelly bowl or moulds and top with slice banana if you have difficulty finding banana leaves. (I use jelly bowl simply because I’m Too Lazy hehe….)

Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe

(Serving for 8 persons – 9” round backing tin)

Ingredients –

Pie Crust :
1-1/2 cups of crushed graham crackers or digestive biscuits
6 tbsp (3/4 stick) of unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 tbsp of sugar
1/4 tsp of salt (If the biscuits you select is salty or butter is not unsalted, you may go without salt)

Lemon Fillings :
1/3 cup of cornstarch
1 1/2 cups of sugar
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup of lemon juice (from about 4 lemons)
1-1/4 of cup water
2 tbsp (1/4 stick) of unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 tbsp of grated lemon zest (from about 4 lemons)

Meringue :
5 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Directions –

For Pie Crust crust:
1) Crush the biscuits into small crumbs.
2) Place all the pie crust ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Press mixture evenly into a 9-inch metal backing tin (I use a flat base heavy cup in helping me to press the crust). Bake till lightly brown (5-10 min). Remove from over and leave on a wire rack to cool.

For Lemon Filling:
1) Mix cornstarch, sugar, egg yolks, and lemon juice in a big non-stick saucepan. Slowly add in water and whisk till the mixture is well blended.

2) Boil the mixture over medium heat for 1-2 minutes and whisk constantly to avoid burning. The mixture will be a bit thickening. Remove saucepan from heat immediately and add in butter and lemon zest. Stir quickly till the butter melt and well mixed into a smooth and creamy paste.

3) Pour the mixture into the crust and let it cool at room temperature. Cover with baking paper.

For the Meringue:
1) Prepare a large bowl. The bowl must be absolutely clean.
2) Place egg whites and salt in it and whip with a mixer on high speed until soft peaks form (when you lift up the mixer a bit, the mixture is able to form soft peaks). Add sugar gradually and continue beating till glossy, firm, stiff peaks (when you invert the bowl, the mixture will not flow right down i.e. able to stay in the bowl even the bowl is upside down).
3) Remove baking paper from pie. Pipe or spoon meringue (step 2 mixture) over lemon filling. Spread meringue to cover the entire surface of pie. I prefer piping as it will forms peaks on the surface. When bake, the peaks will turn brownish while the bottom of the peaks remains white.
4) Bake for about 10 minutes at 180°C till meringue is golden brown.

5) Remove from oven and let it cool on wire rack to room temperature.

6) Chill in refrigerated for at least 4 hours. Slice and serve.

Tips –
1. Use center rack of the oven at 180°C for even heat.
2. While spreading/piping the meringue over lemon filling, MUST make sure that the meringue covers the entire surface and meets the crust. This is because the meringue will shrink inward. You will not like to see a meringue pie exposing fillings.

3. For additional fun, I sprinkle Almond slices on top of the lemon fillings before spreading the meringue.

P.S. -

I bake this pie for my son Supercute's birthday instead of cake and he is delighted. It's a great fun and beautiful pie for kids and adults. If you want something special for someone special, this pie never fail you.

Oyster Vegetables (耗油菜)

(Serving for 5 persons)

Ingredients :

About 700g of Vegetables
(Any green leaves vegetables of your choice. Kai Lan and Yao Choi are a better choice.)
(Other vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, mixed vegetables with mushroom are great too.)

(A) Boiling Vegetables -
1 ltr Water for boiling vegetables
1 tsp Salt
1-1/2 tbsp Cooking Oil

(B) Frying Vegetables -
5 cloves of Shallot (cut into rings)
2 tbsp of Chop Garlic
2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
White Pepper
2-1/2 tbsp Cooking Oil

Directions :

(A) Boiling Vegetables -
1) Washing - Soak Vegetables in water (add 1 tsp of salt) for 2 minutes. Wash to remove unwanted particles and cut away the roots or lower stamps. Rinse with fresh water and put aside.
2) Bring water to boil in a pot. Add salt, Cooking oil and place vegetables into the pot. Continue boiling for 3 – 4 minutes (or till vegetables are cooked) on medium heat. Drain and put aside for frying.

(B) Frying Vegetables -
1) Place cooking oil in frying pan and turn on medium heat. Fried garlics and shallot rings till it turns brown.
2) Lower the heat, add oyster sauce into the pan and stir for a while.
3) Add vegetables and mix well with the sauce.

(C) Serving Vegetables -
Place the vegetables on a plate and sprinkle pepper.

Fried Garlics and Shallot rings

Tips :

1) Use Canola, Sunflower Seed or Olive Oil as cooking oil is healthier.
2) Add salt and cooking oil to boiling water is to keep the vegetables look green and greasy.
3) You may choose not to mix the sauce with the vegetables in the frying pot. You can arrange vegetables nicely on a serving plate. When the sauce is ready, just pour them over the vegetables and sprinkle with white pepper. Let your guest enjoy the fun of mixing over the dinning table.

Baby Kai Lan

Cabbage

Broccoli

More Green Vegetables

Oriental Sausage Fried Rice (香肠蛋炒饭)

(Serving for 5 persons)

Ingredients –

4 - 5 bowls of Cooked Rice

3 tbsp of dried shrimps
4 strips of Chinese Sausage
4 Large Eggs (Beat lightly with folks)
200g of Vegetables (Preferably Kai Lan)
5 tbsp of Cooking Oil
2 tbsp of Chop Garlic
1 tsp of Chicken Stock Powder (non msg)

(you may use msg if you can't get the powder)
1/2 tsp of Pepper
2 tsp of Salt
Slice Spring Onion and Red Chili for garnishing (Optional)

Directions –

1) Separate Vegetables stamps and leaves as we need to fried the stamps before leaves. Slice the sausages into think slices about 3mm thick.
2) Fried chop garlic and dried shrimps in cooking oil till fragrant and lightly brown.
3) Add sausage and stir fried till sausage slight curl and lightly brown.

4) Add Eggs and vegetable stamps. Stir fried for a short while till half cooked.
5) Add cooked rice, chicken stock powder (or msg), pepper, salt and stir-fry on medium heat.for about 3 minutes and add the vegetable leaves. Continue frying for another 2 minutes till all are well mixed.
6) Transfer the fried rice to rice-cooker for keeping warm or serve immediately.
7) Garnish with spring onion or slice chili (optional)

Tips –

1) You have to stir-fry faster to avoid the rice sticking to the bottom of frying pan.
2) If you wish to add seafood, the seafood must be added together with the vegetable leaves to avoid overcooked.

3) If you prefer the rice to have a light brownish look, replace salt with light sauce.

4) If you prefer the rice to have a brown rich look, relace salt with dark sauce.

Apple Cider Vinegar Recipe

I have been looking around for good ACV and came across in Fair Price supermarket which cost only a few dollars. Thanks to Pebbles else I’m be ending up buying expensive one.
Did some research and here’s what I’ve found from Wikipedia on Apple Cider Vinegar :

Apple cider vinegar, otherwise known simply as cider vinegar, is made from cider or apple must and has a brownish-yellow color. It often is sold unfiltered and unpasteurized with the mother of vinegar present, as a natural product. It is very popular, partly due to alleged beneficial health and beauty properties such as improving conditions of diabetes and obesity, digestive disorders etc .

Due to its acidity, apple cider vinegar may be very harsh, even burning to the throat. If taken straight (as opposed to use in cooking), it should be diluted (e.g. with fruit juice, honey, or sugar) before drinking. Others dilute it with warm water and add some honey. There have been reports of acid chemical burns of the throat in using the pill form.

So friends, drink moderately and consult doctor if you have some medical issues.

Would like to share with you some Recipes shared by Pebbles using ACV :

ACV Drinks (known as “Honegar”)

Ingredients :
250ml warm water
1 tsp ACV
1 tsp Honey

Directions :
Simply add ACV and Honey into the warm water and drink.

Tips :
1) Rinse your mouth after drinking and preferable drink with a straw to avoid enamel erosion on your precious teeth.
2) Do not use hot water as it will destroy the properties in honey.


ACV Salad

Ingredients :
1 cup of mixed vegetables, tomato, cucumber, carrot and nuts of your choice.
1 cup of dairy sour crème
2 tbsp of ACV
1 tbsp of Honey
A pinch of salt.
Optional – Mixed herbs (you may get from any supermarket)

Method
1) Mix Sour crème, ACV, Honey, Salt in a bowl well.
2) Place vegetables in a salad bowl, sprinkle mix herbs and pour in salad dressing (1).

Tips :
It goes well with salad served over white meat such as chicken and fish (salmon, tuna)

Homemade ACV

Ingredients :
Fuji Apples
1 square of wine yeast
Glass Bowl and bottle

Method :
1. Wash enough apples to end up with 19 litres of strained juice.
2. Quarter the apples, then crush them and strain the pulp through a piece of cloth.

3. Save the apple juice for the next step.
4. Remove 1 litre of the apple juice from the rest. Place a square of the yeast into the 1 litre of juice and mix thoroughly. Thereafter, stir the starter mix into the remaining litres of juice and mix well.
5. Place the yeast/apple juice mixture into several glass bowls or lid-less containers. Each bowl or container should be approximately three quarters full. Cover the tops with cloth so air can reach the mixtures. Then, set them where they can be left undisturbed out of the direct sunlight. The ideal location will have a temperature of 15 to 25 degrees celsius. Leave the mixture to ferment.
6. One time a day, you will need to use a plastic or wooden long-handled spoon to stir the yeast/apple juice mixture in each of the bowls or containers. It will take approximately 3 to 4 weeks for the mixture to properly ferment. After 3 weeks, taste test the mixtures to see whether the vinegar is strong enough.
7. When your ACV is ready, use several layers of small-holed cloth placed on top one another to strain the ACV.
8. Heat the ACV in a stainless steel pot on your stove top over a low to medium temperature and stir it occasionally till it reaches a temperature of 60 degrees celsius, Once it reaches that temperature, immediately remove it from your stove top.
9. Pour the ACV into clean bottles that have air-tight lids. Place the bottles into a hot water bath. Allow them to cool down. Then, store the ACV in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight.

Tips :
1) Do not use metal utensils, containers and bowls as vinegar will have chemical reaction with it. Use glass instead.
2) Do not use yeast that is meant for bread making.

Greentea Wolfberry Agar-Agar Recipe (寧夏枸杞)

Wolfberry also known as snowberry is currently grow in many regions and China is having commercial cultivation for its great demand especially Asia market. What we consume is the fruits which have a vibrant orange red colour with many tiny seeds in it.

It has been playing important role in TMC (Traditional Chinese Medicine) for it’s medical effect of enhancing immune system, improve eyesight, protect liver, boost sperm production, improve circulation, enrich ‘yin’ energy, act on liver, lungs and kidneys.

Wolfberry Flower

They can be eaten raw like raisins. Just rinse with warm water and eat it. My kids love eating them as titbits. They can be added into black chicken soup, ginseng soup, herbal soup and brewed into an herbal tea. Just pick up a handful of wolfberry and add them to your soup and tea. It gives a sweet taste and you can consider having your tea without sugar. I like to add a generous tablespoon of wolfberry to my chrysanthemum tea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfberry

Green tea is tea undergoing minimal oxidation during process. It is originated from China and becomes very popular in Asia, Japan, Korea and Middle East. Regular green tea drinkers may have lower chances of heart disease, cancer, balance cholesterol lever and maintain weight.
There are my type of green tea you may choose that suits your taste buds. There are Longjing (龙井) , Bi Luo Chun (碧螺春), Xiang Pian – jasmine tea (香片), Genmaicha – brown-rice tea (玄米茶) etc.

Here’s a recipe I make it up with my son Supercute which combine the benefit of Wolfberry and Green Tea. You can try making different type of Agar using different type of Green Tea. This dessert is good especially when the weather is hot or you have just consume heavy food as it is very refreshing and a perfect thirst quencher on a hot day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_tea

Sharing with you a recipe that my family like and it's very refreshing :

Ingredients – (Serving for 5 persons)

650ml hot water (70 degree C)
Abt 10g Green Tea of your choice
1 sachet of Agar Agar powder (White) – 12g
250g of sugar
half cup of wolfberry

Directions –

1) Place green tea leaves in a bowl and pour in hot water (70 degree c). Let it steep for 1 - 2 minutes. Steep further if you prefer very strong aroma.
2) Drain the tea to another pot and keep the tea leaves (I chill the tea leaves and use them as eyes mask at night :P).
3) Add the sachet of Agar Agar powder and sugar into the tea, stir and bring to poil over low heat.
4) Put wolfberries into the mould and pour the agar agar liquid into it.
5) Allow to cool.

Tips –

1) Place wolfberry into the mould first then pour the liquid agar gently into the mould. Some of the berries will float and the rest will remain at the bottom.
2) As I’m having a round mould, I push the floating berries toward the edge and center of the mould to form a lovely ring.
3) Be adventurous. Try different flavour of tea. It’s always full of surprises.

Chicken / Pork Macaroni (鸡肉/猪肉 通心粉)

Ingredients (Serving for 5 persons) –

400g Macaroni
600g Chicken Cubes or Lean Pork Slice
1 whole small Cabbage (about 400g)
2 stems of Celery
3 tbsp of chop Garlic
1 cube of Chicken Stock or 2 tsp of Chicken Powder (non msg)
1/2 tsp of Pepper
1/4 tsp of Salt
1 tsp of Light Sauce
1 stem of Spring Onion
3 ltr of Water

Directions –

1) Bring water to boil in a deep pot and add chop garlic..
2) Add chicken cubes and continue boiling for another 15 minutes (for pork slice, since it is thin slice, you may just boil for 5 minutes).
3) Add macaroni and continue boiling for 10 minutes.
4) Add cabbage and celery. Continue boiling for 20 - 25 minutes.
5) Add chicken stock, pepper, salt and light sauce. Stir and continue boiling for a while till the chicken stock dissolve.
6) Off the heat, scope into bowls and garnish with spring onion.

Tips –

1) You may replace chicken with seafood such as prawn, scallops, slice fish etc.
2) If you wish to have seafood macaroni, the seafood must be added only 4-5 minutes before serving else it will be overcooked.
3) I prefer to save some spring onions for garnishing and put the rest into the pot once I off the heat for extra aroma.

.

Tsukimi Soba (Hot Japanese Noodles) Recipe

Tsukimi (月見, Tsukimi) is Japanese festivals honoring the moon of Autumn. The word "Tsukimi" consists of two words tsuki (moon) and mi (seeing). The celebration take place on the 15th of August for the full moon and on the 13th of Septemer for the growing moon on the traditional calendar.

Tsukimi soba is hot buckwheat noodles with a raw egg topping. The egg resembles full moon. For me, celebrating Mid Autumn Festivals are eating mooncakes and pomelo. Well, friends, why not trying something different on your next Lantern Festivals ?

Ingredients: (Make 4 servings)
One packet of dried soba noodles (abt 12 oz / abt 340g)
6 cups of dashi soup stock
1/3 cup of light soy sauce
2 tbsp of mirin
1/2 tsp of salt
4 eggs
2 tbsp of green spring onion (finely chopped)

Melthod :
Boil water in a deep pot. Once the water is boiling, add dried soba noodles. Gently stir noodles with chopsticks. Read the instruction on the packaging for boiling time. The best is to break a small part of the noodles and try it. Your mouth is the best judge. Once it is cooked, remove the noodles from the pot and drain it.

Place dashi soup stock, light sauce, mirin and salt in a pot. Heat the mixtures to make soup.

Divide the noodles equally into four bowls and pour hot soup over it. Crack an egg on top of teach bowl and sprinkle with chopped onion.

Tips :
1) Please refer to my earlier posts Dashi Soup Stock to find out how to prepare the stock (under “Recipes – Sauces & Dips").

2) You may also refer to Zaru-Soba (Cold Japanese Noodles) Recipe (under “Recipes – Dishes”) for pictures and informations on Soba Noodles.

3) Wondering what Mirin is ? Go to my post Mentsuyu (Japanese Soba Noodle Dipping Sauce Recipe) (under “Recipes – Sauces & Dips). You can see pictures and information about it.

4) There are cooked soba noodles in packet forms with sauce included. Unlike instant noodles where the noodles are dried, the soba pre-cooked noodles pack’s noodles are soft. They are normally stored in chill department (together with toufu and fish cakes section).

Zaru-Soba (Cold Japanese Noodles) Recipe

Zaru Soba is Cold Wheat Noodle served on a bamboo plate over ice cubes to keep the noodles cold. It is served with a dipping soup known as Mentsuyu (you can find the Recipe under my previous post “Recipe – Sauces & Dips”)

Ingredients: (Make 4 servings)
One packet of dried soba noodles (abt 12 oz / abt 340g)
2 to 2-1/2 cups of mentsuyu (dipping sauce)
Wasabi paste
4 quail eggs (do not cook)
Seaweed Strips
Green onion (finely chopped)

Preparation:
Boil water in a deep pot. Once the water is boiling, add dried soba noodles. Gently stir noodles with chopsticks. Read the instruction on the packaging for boiling time. The best is to break a small part of the noodles and try it. Your mouth is the best judge. Once it is cooked, remove the noodles from the pot. Wash the noodles under running water and drain it.

If you have a bamboo plate it will be great. However, if you do not have one, you may make use of any drainer you have at home. Put the drainer on top of a bowl. Place ice-cubes on the drainer and cover the ice-cubes with the cooked noodles. The bowl is to collect the water when the ice starts to melt. Sprinkle seaweed strips on the noodles.

Divide the Mentsuyu dipping sauce equally into 4 small bowls or cups. Serve green onion, quail eggs and wasabi paste on separate small bowl or plate.

Each guest will have their own dipping sauce. Crack one quail egg (if you can’t get quail egg, replace it with small eggs) into the dipping sauce and mix lightly. Add wasabi and green onions. Pick up the noodles with chopsticks and dip it into the sauce. Coat the noodles well and Sooooopp…….suck the noodles right into your mouth. Don’t be shy to make loud sucking noise. It’s very fun. Anyway, for Japanese, it’s not rude to suck noodles and make some noise as it is showing the cook that you are enjoying the noodles…..very Japanese right. Yeah !!!

Where to get the Ingredients ?
You can get the dry noodles, seaweed and wasabi paste from many supermarket who sells spaghetti, Japanese noodles, macaroni. I got mine from NTUC Fair Price supermarket. They have a corner selling Korean and Japanese Ingredients and dry food. The dry noodles come in packet like spaghetti strips and wasabi comes in tubes like toothpaste.

How do Soba Noodles and Wasabi look like? What is it ?
Did some research from Wikipedia and link it here for your easy reference.

Soba (そば or 蕎麦, Soba) is a type of thin Japanese noodles from buckwheat flour.
More details on : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soba

Wasabi (わさび,ワサビ , 山葵 (originally written 和佐比) is a member of the Brassicaceae family. Its root is used as a spice that has an extremely strong flavor. Its hotness is more akin to that of a hot mustard.
More details on : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasabi

Tips :

1) Please refer to my post on Mentsuyu (dipping sauce) and Dashi Soup Stock. You need Dashi Soup Stock to make Mentsuyu..

2) There are cooked soba noodles in packet forms with sauce included. Unlike instant noodles where the noodles are dried, the soba pre-cooked noodles pack’s noodles are soft. They are normally stored in chill department (together with toufu and fish cakes section).

Mentsuyu (Japanese Soba Noodle Dipping Sauce Recipe)

To enjoy Japanese Cold Zaru-Soba, you need to prepare this Mentsuyu Dipping Sauce or you can just buy ready made Soba Sauce if you do not have the time to make one. But homemade dipping sauce is still the best.

Ingredients: (Make 4 servings)
1/3 cup Mirin (Rice wine with lower alcohol content)
2 cups Dashi Soup Stock (please refer to my post under “Recipes-Sauces & Dips”)
1/3 cup Soy Sauce

Method :
Pour Mirin into a sauce pan and heat on medium heat. Add in Dashi Soup Stock and soy sauce. Bring to boil and off the heat when boil. Cool the sauce and ready to be used for Cold Soba Noodles as dipping sauce.

Where to get the Ingredients ?

You can get it from any supermarket like NTUC Fairprice, Cold Storage, Market Place etc who is having a corner selling Korean or Japanese Ingredients and Dry Food. If you are unable to find Mirin, you may consider using Sake but the alcohol lever is much higher. Boil longer to get rid of the alcohol if you are using Sake.

How does Mirin looks like? What is it ?

Did some research from Wikipedia and link it here for your easy reference.

Mirin (味醂 or みりん, Mirin) is an essential condiment used in Japanese cuisine, consisting of 40%–50% sugar. It is a kind of rice wine similar to Sake, but with a lower alcohol content—14% instead of 20%.

More details on : Mirin

Kombu and Katsuobushi Dashi (Dashi Soup Stock)

My family love Japanese food especially Sobah. Sharing herewith our simple homemade Jap Soba Soup Stock and Recipes.

Dashi is a form of soup base (cooking stocks) use for many Japanese noodle broths, clear soups and simmering liquids. It is use as one of the ingredients for our Hot and cold Soba.

Ingredients:
20cm Dried Kombu (dried seaweed)
20 g Katsuobushi Flakes (Dried Bonito)
4-1/2 cups of water

Method :

1) First Stock – Ichiban Dashi (Make about 4 cups of soup stock)
Clean the Kombu with wet cloth. Place them into a deep pot and sock in water for 10 minutes. Boil it on low heat. Just before water boils, remove the Kombu. When water continue to boil, add in Katsuobushi Flakes. Foam may rise to the surface. So remove the foam if any and turn off the heat. Cover the pot and let it set till the Flakes sink to the bottom. Strain the stock using paper filter or paper towel. Use the stock immediate or keep in clean container for future use. Put aside the drained Kombu and K-Flakes for making second stock.

Uses – Use for cooking clear soups for noodles. I use it as one of the ingredient needed for Hot Soba Noodles (Tsukimi Soba) and one of the ingredient needed for Cold Soba Noodles dipping sauce.

2) Second Stock – Niban Dashi (Make about 2 cups of soup stock)
Put the Kombu and K-Flakes back into the deep pot. Add another 2-1/2 of water. Heat on low heat. Again, before the water boil, add another 10g of K-Flakes into the pot. Let it simmer for a few minutes and remove foams on the surface, turn off the heat, cover and let the flakes sink (just like the first stock but this time simmer for a while longer before you off the heat). Strain the stock using paper filter or paper towel. Use the stock immediately or keep in clean container.

Uses – Use for cooking simmered dishes like chicken toufu mushroom pot (our favorite)

Where to get the Ingredients ?

You can get it from any supermarket like NTUC Fairprice, Cold Storage, Market Place etc who is having a corner selling Korean or Japanese Ingredients and Dry Food. You may be able to get ready made Dashi Soup Paste or Powder from some Japanese Outlet. But homemade is the best.

How do the Kombu and K-Flaks look like? What are they ?
Did some research from Wikipedia and link it here for your easy reference.

DRIED KELP – KOMBU

Kombu or konbu (Japanese: 昆布), also called dashima (Korean: 다시마 dasima), or haidai (Chinese: 海带 - pinyin : Haidài)

More details on : Kombu

KATSUOBUSHI FLAKES

Katsuobushi (鰹節 or かつおぶし) is the Japanese name for a preparation of dried, femented , and smoked skipjack tuna sometimes referred to as bonito.

More details on : Katsuobushi Flakes

Simple Apple Pie Recipe

At times I have craved for certain food or desserts. Most of the time, I crave for desserts. This crave will motivate me to try making/baking whatever I crave for. Last month I wanted so much to eat Cheese Cake and I pamper myself with one non bake peach cake (recipe can be found on “RECIPE Cake”). Today, I’m missing apple pie. Haha…

Here’s one that I bake that is for 8 servings.

Pie Plate – 9”

CRUST (for one double crust):
Ingredient (A)
2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
Ingredient (B)
1/2 cup chilled cold butter
5 tbsp. chilled cold vegetable shortening
Ingredient (C)
8 tbsp. ice water

FILLING
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 to 2/3 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
6 - 8 medium sized apples (Peel, core and slice in even size)
2 tablespoons margarine

(Mix flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar, salt well and add apple. Stir well and dot with margarine.)

(Note : My picture of the pie is using 5 apples as my kids requested to have a flat pie. I prefer one that is with 8 apples.)

STEPS :
Place Ingredient (A) into a big mixing bowl and stir together till combine.

Cut chilled butter and shortening (B) into the bowl using pastry cutter or knife. I find it easier using forks. Do not over mix and try to squeeze the butter/shortening with your hand.

Add ice water (C) into the bowl and mix until a dough is formed and holds together. You may add a bit more water if the dough is too dry (like cracking).

Turn the dough onto a clean and lightly floured surface. Knead it till the dough is smooth. Divide it into two parts. One for base crust and the other for top crust. Flatten both half into a disk (like a CD disk) and wrap up with saran wrap or clean plastic bag if saran wrap is not available. Chill for half an hour.

Roll out one disk on lightly floured surface to form a 12 inches diameter round base. Grease the pie plate with butter (or olive oil / sunflower seed oil). Place the flatten dough into the pie plate. Trim away excess dough from the edge with a knife. Poke holes on this base crust using forks. Place it back to the refrigerator while getting ready the fillings and top crust.


Get ready the fillings and roll out the second disk for top crust. Bring out the base crust from the refrigerator, add filling and cover it with top crust. Use a fork or your fingers to pinch the edges together. Cut a few slits or use forks to poke holes on top crust.

Preheat oven at 270 degree for 4 minutes. Place the pie into the oven and bake for another 40 – 50 minutes until crust turn brown. You will see juice begins to bubble through the holes you poke. Use skewer or satay stick to insert into the pie crust to test if the pie is ready. If it comes out clean, the pie is ready.



TIPS :
1) If your oven is of strong heat, you may cover the pie using aluminum foil to prevent it turning too brown.
2) When apple is too juicy, it will exudes a lot of juice. Thus, it is advisable to leave the apple after mixing for a while before picking them up and placing them onto the base crust.
3) You may include other fruits like berries, peach, resins to add extra flavor.
4) I choose Crisco shortening as it is 0% trans fat. It has markings on the wrappers indicating 1T, 2T etc (1T = 1Tbsp) for easy measuring. I don’t even need a measuring cup to measure how much to use.
5) Use remaining dough if any as decoration on the top crust.

Barley Water

Ingredients :
300g Barley Pearls
300g Rock Sugar
3 liters Water
5 Pandan Leaves

Method :
1) Wash barley pearls (don’t need to sock)
2) Tear vertically from the center of the pandan leaves into three or four smaller strips so that the fragrant will emerge better while boiling.
3) Place water and pandan leaves into a pot and bring to boil.
4) Add barley pearls and simmer till barley pearls are soft.
5) Add rock sugar and boil till sugar dissolves
6) Serve warm or cold.

Tips :
1) Barley water is cooling. It’s also very good for kids who loves to eat heaty staff.
2) Do not over cook barley water as it will change it’s property to become heaty instead. (Many drink sellers tends to overcook barley water as it gives a thicker and stronger taste.)
3) People who’s body is cold in nature, drink barley warm.

P.S. My cute and handsome son is the assistant cheif and camera man :P

Rice Cup Cake / Huat Kueh / Fat Koh (Pre-Mixed)

Ingredients :
1 Egg
240ml Water (I replace it with Sprite / 7-up)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
Some food colouring
1 Packet of Cup Cake Mix
(I use Sing Long Traditional Cup Cake Mix. It’s easily obtained from NTUC Fairprice supermarket from the Flour section)


Method :
Pour Traditional Cup Cake Mix, Eggs and 120ml water into mixing bowl at low speed for 1 minute and another 4 minutes at high speed.

Add the remaining water (Sprite/7-up) and mix at low speed for 1 minute and another 4 minutes at high speed.

Prepare paper cups, pour in the batter and steam for 12 minutes.

Tips :
1) I replace water with Sprite or 7-up so that the cake will have a lemon taste and it rises well.
2) You may add additional Eno (Fruit Salt) about half a teaspoon to let the cake smile wider. In my pictures, I didn’t add Eno as I wish to test the result without Eno Salt.
3) To have more fun, I have added chocolate chips, resins, rainbow colour candy resins, almond, dry fruits or nuts etc.
4) I like to use natural fruit colouring extract from fruits. Eg. Red from smashing cherries.
5) You may pipe in some fruit jam (to add on colour and flavour) and stir it lightly to have some marble effect (please refer to my pictures).
6) Boil the water first before placing the cakes in the double boiler. After placing the cakes in, do not open the cover (to retain the heat so that the cake will rise and smile better).

Tortally Jelly Crystal (Pre-mixed)

Ingredients :
1 box of Tortally Jelly (90g)
1 can of Fruits of your choice
500ml of water (I prefer to use juice)

Method :
Drain juice from can fruits.
Distribute fruits (in my picture, I use longan) equally into mould.
Dissolve jelly in a cup (250ml) of hot water.
Stir it and when dissolved, mix in another cup (250ml) of cold water.
Pour into moulds and place in the refrigerator.
Ready to serve in around 15 minutes time.

Tips :
I prefer to use the juice / liquid drained out from the can fruits in replacement of water. It will enhance flavour of the jelly. Just heat up half of the juice so that it can be used to dissolve jelly. The other half will add on later. If the juice is less then 500ml, you may add on water to make it 500ml

HOMEMADE OTAH

My kids love otah. They use to buy it from some a Malay uncle near my house who is selling it on his mobile stall. It’s not cheap take into consideration of the portion. So, one day I told my kids, “Hey kids. Your mum knows how to do it. Fresher, tastier and most of all……cheaper.”

The best is to use oily fish like mackerel. If you wish to be innovative, you can also try other fish like tuna, sardine, salmon, etc. When you have excess fishes in your fridge and you are tired of frying or steaming, try doing otah with it.

What you need :
Mackerel fish – 200gm (Mince into fish paste)
Corn Flour – 3 tablespoon
Sambal Chilli – 3 tablespoon (if you like it spicy, you can add more)
Oyster Sauce – 1 teaspoon

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. There after, you can either steam it, bake it or BBQ it.

(A) Steam :
Put all your otah mixture on a plate.
Boil some water in your wok, place a metal stand and place your plate on top.
Cover it and steam for about 10 minutes.

(B) Bake :
Place your otah on greased aluminium foil and wrap it up firmly.
You may pack them in about 10 wraps.
Preheat your oven (not microwave oven of course) 220 degree C
Place all the otah warp into the oven and bake them for 10 minutes

(C) BBQ :
The most authenticable way is to wrap them in banana leaves.
Place the otah mix in the center of banana leaves and faster with
toothpicks at both end.
BBQ them on charcoal for 5 - 10 minutes depends on how strong
the fire is.



(In the above slide show, I Steam the otah. We serve the otah with Chicken Soup Macaroni top with Japanese spices. My sons love potato chips. Thus, I let them have it as a side dish. Funny right. Anyway, they love it.)

Tips :
For busy people like me….Hmm…..actually busy is only an excuse. Lazy is the reason :P
You may consider getting fish paste from supermarket where they sell such paste for making fish balls. As for Sambal chilli, you can also get it off the racks. It comes in many varieties and brands. You can find them in bottles and packets. You can also get it from wet market where there are stall selling pre-mixed spices.

If you wish to mix your own house brand sambal chili, you can make it with onion, turmeric, galangal, chili, balachan, garlic, buah keras and lemon grass. (haha…troublesome isn’t it ?) I skip this. Yeah…

I like to add some surprises in my otah. Sometime, I’ll add some squid, prawn or crab meat. My preference is squid but my kids prefer prawn and crab stick.

If you are not sure whether the otah is cooked, you can use toothpick or satay stick to test by poking it into the otah. If it comes out clean, your otah is done.

It’s very simple and I’m sure, you will do it again and again after your first try.

Fruity Prawn Salad

Ingredient :
One Canned of Mixed Cocktail Fruit
250g of Fresh Prawn
Coleslaw (I prefer Kraft Coleslaw)

Cook prawn, deshell and halved it. Drain syrup off the canned cocktail fruit. Place cocktail fruit into a nice plate and lay the prawns nicely on the fruit. Chill them in the fridge till ready to serve.
Upon arrival of your hungry guests, squeeze coleslaw on the salad and serve them with pride. You may light a candle and place it on the salad, dance or march your way to the dinning table ;-)
There’s no secret to this recipe. Just Serve Cold.

Roselle Flower洛神花 (Luo Shen Hua)

My family and I like to try unique things especially food. Two weeks ago, while doing my routine shopping for grocery in NTUC Fair Price super mart, a packet of red beautiful looking flowers (fruits) caught my eyes. It is displaying on the fridge racks. They are Fresh Roselle Fruits. I’ve bought dried Roselle flowers but not fresh Roselle fruits. I grab it immediately.

Not knowing what to do with fresh fruits. Not knowing if I should cut it out to eat, smash it to make a paste for my bread, extract the juice or boil it with water like what I've did for the dried flowers. I seek help from Wikipedia and flipping some books from library. Here’s what I’ve found :

The Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa)
It is a species of hibiscus. It is an annual subshrub growing to 2-2.5m tall and takes about six months to mature. China and Thailand are the largest producers. It is a relatively new crop and industry in Malaysia (Terengganu state). Surprisingly, Singapore is also growing in Organic Farm. The one I bought is actually grown in Singapore. Best of all, it is Organic too.

The LEAVES are deeply 3-5 lobed, 8-15cm long arranged alternately on the stems.
The FRUITS are harvested fresh, and their calyces are made into a drink rich in vitamin C and anthocyanins.

The FLOWERS are 8-10cm in diameter, white to pale yellow with dark red sport at the base of each petal. It has a Calyx at the base about 1.5-2cm wide and turns bright red as fruit matures. Calycus are normally dried and use to make ice and cool roselle drink.

USES :
Roselle, has been used in folk medicine as a mild laxative, and treatment for cardiac and nerve diseases and cancer. In Europe and America, calyx is use as food colouring. . In Africa the flower tea is use as a tea to relief cough. In Thailand it is use as a tea to reduce cholestrol. This drink is particularly good for people who have a tendency, temporary or otherwise, toward water retention.

In France the green leaves are used like a spicy version of spinach to give flavour to fish and rice dish. In Myanmar the leaves are main ingredient in making Chin Baung Kyaw Curry. The heated leaves can be applied to cracks in the feet and on boils and ulcers to speed maturation.

What I’ve done with my kids :

RECIPE :

1) TEA :

200g roselle fruits (The packet I bought from NTUC Fairprice is 200g per pack at S$2.80/pack)
2 – 3 liters water
Some rock sugar to taste (Cane sugar is equally good)
Cooking time : Abt 8 – 10 minutes

In Africa it is commonly sold in the street where people use to make it into sugary herbal tea. Put the roselle and water in a pot and bring it to a boil for 8 to 10 minutes or till water turns red (don’t have to cut the fruit). Then, add sugar. Drink as floral tea. You can also combine with Chinese tea leaves in the ratio of 1 : 5 (Roselle Tea : Chinese Tea).

2) BEER :

Combine the Roselle tea with beer. It gives a fruity berry/current taste beer.

3) COLD BEVERAGE :

Boil dried flowers for 8 to 10 minutes (or until the water turns red), then adding sugar. Served chilled. You can mix with mint leaves, dissolved menthol candy, and/or various fruit flavors or juice. Alternatively, you can add Soda into the tea to make it a fantastic carbonated beverage.

4) JELLY / AGAR AGAR :

Just add Roselle juice to your jelly/jam/agar agar recipe. It will have a taste very similar to Black Current candy like Ribena.

5) ROSELLE JAM :

Ingredients :
1 kg apples, washed and chopped
200g roselle flowers (don’t have to cut)
1.50 liter water
75g sugar per 100ml liquid

Put the roselle, chopped apple and water in a pot and bring it to a boil for 20 – 30 minutes until the apples are very soft. Drain the liquid into a bowl (use clean filter bag or cloth). Do not squeeze the filter/bag as this will make the jelly cloudy). Just set aside and let it drip by itself. It will take a while, just be patient. You may leave it overnight and let it drip by itself till the next morning.

Discard the fruit and flowers. (You can use the apple for apple pie or apple fruit bar if you wish). Measure the liquid to determine amount of sugar use (75g of sugar per 100ml of fluid. Place juice in saucepan, heat up and add sugar. Stir well till sugar dissolved. Cook rapidly and bring to boil for another 15 minutes.

Test if the jelly is done by scoping a little of jelly out from the saucepan, place on a clean plate or saucer and place it in the fridge (while the rest of the jelly is still cooking in the saucepan). If a skin like texture is form, the jelly is ready. If not continue boiling and testing. Place the jelly in sterilized jar. Allow to cool and store.

This Blog Post is specially dedicated to my lovely Water Retention Friend......Pebbles !!!!

Roselle helps water retention.