Dinner

Homecook meals again! I just love homecook simple meals at home because often times it's very healthy compared to what you eat outside. Everyday thinking of what to cook for dinner can be such a chore. I would just love to go out and eat sometimes but sadly there is no authentic Chinese restaurants here. We will have to drive to Denver to satisfy that cravings for good chinese food. How often we drive up there? Hardly! Because it's not a short drive and to think to drive all the way up just for a meal, it's pretty ridiculous or extremely desperate. We only drive up there if I need to do grocery or visiting friends.


Nai Pak in Oyster Sauce


Moist, Tender and Juicy Pork Chops

Thus, I made these for dinner. One to cut cost of eating out and two because it's healthier. We eat out during the weekends anyway, my off days from cooking, so got to cook during weekdays to save money. :P My hubby is pretty nice, he gives me days off from cooking. :)

Sour Cream Butter Cake

Tried out a new butter cake recipe using sour cream. I read a lot of reviews that this cake is moist and yummy. I modified it from the original recipe that I found at allrecipes.com.

Verdict: It is indeed moist and delicious.

Clear Noodle Soup

A hot soupy noodle sounds great in cold weather. It's hard to resist especially with my short-cut version. It's so easy to make and it's delicious too. I served it with my chilli in oil mixed with soy sauce.



Super Easy Soup Base:

2 canned of Swanson chicken broths

2 cups of water

Fish sauce to taste

Drizzle of sesame oil in the end

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts, sliced

Do Do Fish balls, cut in half

Do Do Tofu fish cake, cut into three slices

Soften Chinese dried mushroom, sliced

Spinach, washed

Toasted garlic & garlic oil (to garnish on top)

Dried noodle ( I used Jiang Xi Rice Vermicelli)

Method:

1. Heat a big pot of water and cook the rice vermicelli, drained and set aside.

2. Prepare the soup base. When boiled, add in the chicken breasts. When the chicken is almost cooked, add in the rest of the ingredients except spinach.

3. Let it boiled, when boiled add in the spinach. Do not overcooked the spinach, dish the spinach out when cooked and set aside.

To Serve:

Place some noodle in the bowl, some spinach on the side and ladle the soup and the rest of the ingredients on top. Garnish with toasted garlic and a little of the garlic oil. Serve with chilli dip of your choice.

Sweet Potato Dessert

This is one sweet dessert to enjoy in the cold winter days. Super easy to make and take less than 30 minutes.

For the Syrup:

Water to your liking
Gula Melaka (sweetness to your liking)
or the brown bar shape sugar (found in oriental stores)
Few slices of gingers

1 peeled and cubed sweet potato

Method:

Boiled the water, gula melaka and ginger in a saucepan. When the sugar has melted, add in the cubed sweet potato. Covered and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the sweet potato has soften. Turn the heat off and serve warm.

Basic Bread

I finally bought a bread machine! Tried out one of the recipes provided in the booklet, got to test whether it's working or not. Thus, my first bread machine bread. :)



This is a basic 1.5 lb white bread. It's crusty on the sides and soft inside. I cut off the sides and ate it with olive oil with some spices and it was good. Funny though, why my top is like that huh? I saw others have nice rounded top. Can anyone shed some light into this? Thanks! Will see whether the sides remain crusty tomorrow or turn soft.



So, the crust turned soft the next day, just like normal bread. I added bread improver into the recipe so the bread remains soft.

Need to get me some whole wheat flour and start making whole wheat bread, healthier.

Dried Shrimps Crabs & Fried Tang Hoon

Dungenous crabs was on sale the other day, so I bought some to try out a new recipe. We had this crabs cooked in dried shrimps at a friend's house the past CNY and it was delicious. My hubby just loved it. But we didn't really have the recipe, just noticed the main ingredients used were dried shrimps and curry leaves. And thus I have to recreate this dish myself using my own version since the sauce that we used were probably different, so it didn't taste quite the same. Overall, it's still not bad since my hubby finished almost all of it.


Dried Shrimps Crabs


I also fried some tang hoon with bok choy, straw mushroom and eggs to go with the crabs. My little girl actually enjoyed the crabs more than the tang hoon. I think she didn't fancy the texture of this noodle. But she sure ate quite a lot of crab meats that night.


Fried Tang Hoon