Soy Braised Cornish Hen

Cornish Hen is a small chicken. The size of a black chicken.

Ingredients

1 cornish hen
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
1/6 cup brown sugar
1 Tbp. oyster sauce
1/8 cup sherry
2 Tbp. dark soy sauce
1/4 tsp. 5 spice powder
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp. cloves
1 2cm piece of fresh ginger, crushed
1 clove of garlic, crushed

Steps

1. Mixed all ingredients in a large bowl with the hen overnight in the fridge. The next day, pour all the marinade without the hen in a wok and turn on the heat. When boiled, add in the hen and simmer for about 40 mins on each side, covered. Keep adding water if it's dry out. Remove and cool before cutting into pieces.

2. Pour the thicken marinade sauce over the cut out chicken before serving.

Pan Mee

For Chicken Stock:
-2 drumsticks or chicken carcass, some celery, 1 onion, 2 carrots, a piece of ginger and some ikan bilis. Boil this for several hours. Then, drain it to get the clear stock. This produce very sweet stock, no seasoning required.

For Noodle:
-Some flour, one or two eggs and water. Knead until a dough like consistency. Add flour as needed. Roll it flat with a roller and tear it with hand and drop it in a hot boiling water until it float to the top. Dish out and put it in the chicken stock when ready to serve.

For Minced Meat and Mushroom:
-I used ground turkey instead of ground pork, either way is fine. First, marinate the chinese mushroom that has been soaked soft with oyster sauce, chinese rice wine and a little sugar (make sure you squeeze the juices out first). Then, add a little oil in the wok, and stir-fry the ground turkey until cooked and add in the mushroom, stir-well to mix and then add seasoning: oyster sauce, soy sauce, chinese rice wine, a dash of sugar and pepper and lastly a little sesame oil. Stir-well and dish out and set aside.

For Crispy Anchovies (ikan bilis):
-Wash anchovies with water, dry it and then deep-fry in oil until crispy. dish out and set aside.

For Crispy Shallots:
-Sliced the shallots and deep-fry in hot oil until crispy. Set aside. Or put the sliced shallots in a microwave safe bowl and add in enough oil to cover to microwave until brown.

Other side dishes:
-Greens and fish balls. I used collard greens because that's the one I have in the fridge. You can use chai sin, or spinach as subsitute. You can omit fish balls if you don't have it on hand. Add those lastly in the chicken stock when ready to serve.

To assemble:
-Dish out a good amount of noodle in a bowl with some fish balls and greens, and then top it with minced meat and mushroom, add the crispy anchovies on top and lastly the crispy shallots. Serve warm with chili padi. YUM!!

(Serves 2)

Napa Cabbage in Scallop Sauce

Did this a while back. Thought I would share the recipe here. :)

Ingredients

8-10 leaves of napa cabbage, washed and cut into 1 inch wide strips.
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped.
2 dried scallops, soaked in hot water to soften (about 1 cup), reserved the water.
3 jumbo sea scallops, washed and cut into half.
1 egg white.
salt to taste.
1 tsp. chicken granules.
1 ~ 2 tsp. potato starch / cornstarch mixed in some water.

Steps

1. Heat up some oil in the wok, when hot, add in garlic. Stir until slightly brown, add in the napa cabbage, stir to mix until napa cabbage is soften, add in some salt. Dish out and set on a plate.

2. For the scallop sauce, heat the wok and add in the scallop water with the dried scallops, then add in chicken granules, salt and when boiling, add in the fresh scallops. Let it boil until the scallops are cooked (turned white in color) and turn off the heat and stir in the egg white and potato starch mixture. Stir until thicken in gravy and egg white is cooked, pour on top of the napa cabbage to serve.

Green Tea Buns

I made Green Tea Buns the other day. Just use any basic sweet bun dough recipe and add 1 tsp. of green tea powder into the flours mixture. The green tea flavor is real subtle which is good for those who don't like the smell being too strong. I added mung bean paste as filling just because I have some leftover mung bean paste in the freezer. For stronger green tea flavor, add 2 tsp. green tea powder.

Layers Pandan Konnyaku Jelly

Since I didn't have any fresh fruit in the refrigerator, I decided to make the double layers pandan flavor Konnyaku jelly. I just followed the recipe at the back of Red Man Konnyaku jelly and added pandan essence and pour half of it into the mould. Place the half filled mould into the fridge to speed up the harden process and meanwhile adding some milk into my leftover jelly liquid. Took the mould out and filled the rest of the milk base jelly into the mould, put in the fridge for at least 3 hours before consuming. What can I say except yummy...the texture is just shiok especially on the hot summer day.

Evy is Walking

Finally my sweet little girl is taking off. She started to take steps at 13.5 months and really walking at 14.5 months. Now at 15 months 1 day, she is walking like a pro. It's just too cute to see her walking around the house. When she wanted to be carried and I was half way preparing dinner and ignored her, she would fuss and walk around the house in frustration. Yeah, even a little girl has attitude!

She loves outdoor so I would take her out to the front & backyards everyday just to let her walk around the lawn. Each time I want to go out I would say to her, "Go grab your shoes at the front door and bring it back here because we are going for a walk." and she would go grab her shoes and bring it over. I even asked her to wear her own shoes! She is just too young to get the concept yet but she sure try, like lifting her feet to let me put the shoe in. :) I really amazed at the things she understood. In just a couple of months, she would really start talking and that would be too cute!