Chicken Wonton Mee

I loved my noodle and can't leave without it.  These days I would cook noodle for dinner at least once a week.  When I shop at the Asian market and see some fresh wonton noodle, I would buy 2 to freeze it at home.  So whenever I feel like eating some wonton noodle (or egg noodle), I can thaw it a night before in the refrigerator.  My husband brought back some Hawaii BBQ chicken for supper one night, but I don't eat supper and thus the leftover.  So, this was what I did with the chicken!

Par-boiled some chai-hsin (Chinese greens), boiled some frozen homemade chicken dumplings, microwave the leftover Hawaiian BBQ chicken and sliced it, chopped some scallions to serve.  I also concocted a yummy sauce for my wonton noodle which I will keep it a secret.  :-P

Korean Style Spicy Chicken (韩国辣子鸡)

This is one fingers licking good chicken!  Spicy, sweet and sticky, it will beg you to have more.  Very suitable for any party that you are throwing or bring it to a potluck party.  I believe it would be a hit!  I took a short-cut on this as I had some leftover fried chicken wings and drumettes.  If you don't have the leftover store-bought fried chicken wings, just make your own.  Marinate the wings and drumettes with salt and pepper.  Coat it with corn starch or corn flour and deep-fry in hot oil until cook.

As for the sauce, if you like it spicier, you are welcome to add the Korean red pepper powder or substitute it with cayenne pepper powder.  That would be an extra kick for you!

Chinese Scallion Ginger Chicken (葱姜油鸡)

This recipe was inspired by a Chinese cooking show that I watched, called 美女私房菜.  Her recipe called for cooking the chicken in a spice soy sauce broth and then deep-fry the chicken until crispy before adding the scallion ginger fragrant sauce on top.  I bookmarked it because it seem so interesting.  My chance came when I had some leftover oven roasted chicken wings and drumettes.   While I was thinking of what to make of this leftover wings, her recipe came to mind.  So, I pan-fried my wings and drumettes and then cooked this scallion ginger fragrant and put it on top of the chicken to serve.  I truly loved this scallion ginger fragrant sauce and it can easily be used to top with fried fish, deep-fried pork ribs, shrimps, or anything you can think of.  My attempt at recreating a leftover to another new dish. 

Braised Chicken with Mui Choy

This was actually a remake of a leftover mui choy (preserved veggie).  My hubby ordered a "mui choy gau yook" from a friend and we finished all the "gau yook" (5 layers pork/ fatty pork) and left with lots of mui choy.  It was too salty and the spices were a bit too strong for my taste.  Our friends suggested me to make soup with the mui choy but I thought I would make a chicken dish with it instead.

All I did is chopped some drumsticks, added in a little oil in a pot and gave the mui choy some quick stirs.  Then, added in the chicken, stir a little.  Added in water to cover half of the chicken and a tablespoon of dark soy sauce and let it simmered in low heat for an hour.  Lastly added in a little sugar.  It turned out to be a delicious chicken dish.  What a great use of the leftover mui choy!

Chicken with Colors Bell Peppers

I always have leftover chicken breast either from the rotisserie chicken or the fried chicken that my hubby bought.  You can either make it into chicken salad for the chicken sandwich or just stir-fry it like me.  Since we eat rice almost daily, stir-frying the leftover is my way to reuse the food.

I loved to buy color bell peppers when it goes on sales.  We must eat with colors as different color of fruits and vegetables will give us a different nutrient that our body needs.  But it is hard to convince my girls to eat bell peppers and onion.  From my posting, I noticed that I have used less onion in my cooking these days because I took their dislike into consideration when preparing meal, even without realizing it.  I used to cook most dishes with onion.  Guess I need to bring back onion in my stir-frying.

Stir Fried Rice Flour & Wheat Starch Noodle

Another easy stir-fried noodle dish.  I fried this noodle before.  This time I just added a little more ingredients.  When I was shopping at my Asian market, I loved to browse through the fresh noodle section and bought few packets of different variety to freeze at home.  I just thawed it the day before and I will have fresh noodle handy for whenever my mood strikes.

My husband loved to buy lots of fried chicken at the supermarket.  I was trying to cook healthier food and he tried to buy unhealthy food home.  He bought so much that I had to freeze portions for later use.  For the one I frozen, I always peeled off the skin, cut off all the fried stuff and just used the meat in my cooking.  I had used it in my chicken noodle soup before, fried rice and all sort of fried noodle.  Leftover for better use huh?

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is  Katie of Thyme for Cooking! Check out her delicious round up on April, 30th!

Curry Vegetable Using Leftover

Whenever you cook a big pot of curry gravy for your curry noodle and have some leftover curry, don't throw it away. You can use it to make curry vegetable. Throw in some prawns too if you like. That's what I did with my leftover curry gravy. I was left with a bowl of this delicious curry gravy and it was too "sayang" (wasteful) to throw it away. So, this idea came to mind and I whipped out this delicious bowl of curry vegetable in 15 minutes, just enough to soften the carrot and cooked the veggies.

Ingredients:

• Leftover curry laksa gravy
• 1 cup frozen cut green beans
• 1 carrot, cut
• 1/2 red bell pepper, cut

Method:

Heat up the curry gravy in a saucepan until boiling, then add in all the veggies and let it boil again. When boiled, turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Serve with hot rice.

Use of Leftover 5: Stir-fried Radish Cake

My hubby bought back a stir-fry radish cake with eggs for dinner the other day from Denver along with salt and pepper pork ribs and fried rice noodle. Needless to say we couldn't finish the radish cake. For the picture above, I already cut the radish cake into smaller pieces. It came in big square pieces like those served in a Dim Sum restaurant. Frankly this radish cake with eggs was a bit bland to me. It seem like it has more rice flour than radish in the mix.



I love fry radish cake with chai por (sweeten turnips) and in dark soy sauce so I prepared the above for lunch the next day. I added red bell pepper, green onion and garlic. I didn't add any egg because it already came with eggs. What a great way to turn something bland into something delicious ya?

Sweet and Sour Pork Meat Balls

I love to make my own meat balls. Is it just not for soup, sometimes I make it to cook dinner like in this case sweet and sour meat balls. Baked meat balls are good as afternoon snack. But for dinner, I wanted to add some vegetables to go with it to make it more balance and colorful.

Making Pork Meat Balls:
1 lb. ground/minced pork
Season with salt, white pepper, sesame oil and Worcestershire sauce.

Method:

Mixed the above together and stir with a spoon until the mixture turned gluey and sticked together. Either use your hands or a melon scoop to create pork balls. Place on alum. foil lined baking sheet and bake in preheated 350'F oven for 15 minutes or until cooked. Set aside to cool.

Sweet and Sour Sauce:
2 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar (or any type of vinegar)
2 Tbsp. tomato ketcup
1/4 tsp. salt

*Mix the above in a bowl, stir well and set aside*

2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 red onion, cut
1/2 carrot, sliced
1/2 zucchini, cut

Method:

1. Heat wok with oil. When heated, add in garlic and zucchini, fry until zucchini is almost half cooked, add in carrot and onion. Fry for a while. Add in pork balls. Stir-fry until pork balls are heated.

2. Add in the sauce mixture. Stir to coat well with the pork balls. Stir for a second and dish out to serve.

Use of Leftovers 4: Stir-fry Steamed Rice Rolls

Leftovers: one piece of salt & pepper pork and XO fried steamed rice rolls from a Chinese restaurant.


Turned into: Yummy plate of stir-fried steamed rice rolls with shrimp paste sauce.


I cut the steamed rice rolls into smaller pieces, added 1/4 yellow onion, 3 stalks of scallions and sliced the salt & pepper pork into smaller pieces. Heated up my wok with some oil, added in some garlic, onion and the pork, steamed rice rolls and stir-fried until warm. Added in shrimp paste in chili oil, my homemade chili in oil and dark soy sauce. Lastly added in the scallions, gave a few good stirs and dished out and served hot.

Use of Leftovers 3: Stir-fried Soba Noodle

Haha, my hubby was real funny the other night when he saw the leftovers from picture on the left, he asked what are you going to do with this? I made noodle soup the other night and I have a plate of extra ingredients sitting on the table just in case he wanted more (he can always add in with his noodle you see). I told him, I could make something out of it. Now, see how I turned these leftovers from a Chinese take-out and ingredients for noodle soup into a yummy plate of soba noodle.


I just boiled some soba noodle, drained and rinsed with cold water and set aside. Then, I stir-fry all the leftover ingredients in a wok with a little soy sauce and pour them on top of the soba noodle. Mix well together and season to taste with Chinese vinegar, more soy sauce, a little salt and sesame oil. This noodle can be enjoyed cold or warm.


Now, I have a plate of yummy soba noodle that didn't look one bit like eating from leftovers! Serve this up with cut chili padi (bird eye chili) or my chili in oil. Delicious!

I'm also serving this dish to Pesto Pasta Night. This week host is Michelle, from the Greedy Gourmet, do check out her blog on Friday for the round up.

Use of Leftovers 2: Stir-fried Rice Cubes

Remember my leftovers from the satay dinner? I cut the compressed rice into cubes. Added 3 stalks of scallions (cut into 1.5 inch), an egg, 5 extra large shrimps, half a carrot (sliced), plus the leftover shallots and turned it into a bowl of yummy fried rice cubes with shrimps.


This bowl was for my hubby's snack after he came home from work.



This was my lunch box for the next day. This rice cubes fried rice turned out to be delicious. As for the seasonings, I used sweet dark soy sauce, black bean in chili oil, dark soy sauce, a little salt, white pepper and sugar. I got the inspiration from fried radish cake, since they look almost similar when cut into cubes.

So next time, when you have some leftover compressed rice from your satay party, you know what to do with it. To me, it tastes better this way then making more satay sauce to eat it with. Another option is to make some Rendang chicken or beef to have with the rice.

Use of Leftovers 1: Cucumber Rojak

This is the leftovers from the satay dinner the other day. Some homemade compressed rice, tiny bit of shallots and a small bowl of cut cucumbers. For the cucumber, it was fairly easy to turn it into another dish of it's own. Scroll down to see what I did with it.



I turned it into a cold and refreshing cucumber rojak with the ready made CKC satay sauce. I always have some toasted ground peanuts and sesame seeds in my freezer. So making this dish is as easy as 123. I do love to store some ready made rojak sauce in my pantry just in case I have a craving or some leftover cucumbers. Of course you can now order this sauce at the convenience of your home, in front of your computer at MyTasteOfAsia.com.

Stay tuned to see how I transform the compressed rice and shallots into! Part 2 coming up!