Black Pepper Crabs

Rock crab sections was on sales at my local supermarket recently.  I couldn't miss this sales and bought 2 lb. to fry at home.  The crabs sold here were all cooked and frozen.  So, basically I just defroze it and then stir-fry it again.  I do find the live ones or uncooked ones at the Asian supermarket, but I hardly go for that because then I would have to kill it and clean it.  Thus I always go for the easiest I guess.

Anyway, I loved black pepper crabs.  I had it at my friend's house many years ago, seem like a Singaporean dish at that time as well as Chili's crabs.  Strange that we don't have this dish in the Chinese restaurants here.  All they have are steamed, ginger scallion, chili garlic white pepper, and XO sauce.  They might have butter cream but I am not too sure.

Korean Scallion Salad (Pa-Muchim)

This scallion salad is usually served along side Korean barbeque in a Korean restaurant.  You can wrap this and the barbeque meat in a green lettuce leaf and eat it together.  I made this to serve it with my Hanainese chicken because I thought it would go well together with the ginger sauce and chili.  This scallion salad was indeed delicious and it would pair well with any meat dishes.

I think it is best to make this on the day you want to serve it and finish it in the same day.

Whole Wheat Milk Buns

I played with the Haiji white bun recipe and came out with my own version of whole wheat milk buns.   Even though the Haiji white bun was really soft and fluffy but it didn't make of whole wheat.  Since we are a 100% whole wheat bread consumer most of the times, I just have a love for it.  Even though this whole wheat milk bun is not 100% whole wheat, but at least it has more than 50% whole wheat in it.  See, I am pretty crazy about whole wheat isn't it?  I am as crazy about whole wheat as brown rice these days.  :-P  Start your kids young with whole wheat bread and brown rice so that these would be their staple choice in the future.

This whole wheat milk buns turned out soft and delicious as well.  It stays soft for days and now it is our breakfast and snack for the girls.  I would use this recipe to try on my pullman tin and a loaf pan next and show you my result.

[S$20 Budget Meal] Tom Yam Cream Soup

I always wanted to make the Tom Yam Cream Soup (with added coconut cream) ever since I tried the instant noodle version years ago.  I wondered how I never gotten to make it all these years, perhaps I tried to stay away from coconut milk as much as possible.  Frankly growing up in South East Asia, staying away from coconut milk was almost impossible, especially in Malaysia.  Most food was made with coconut milk either in curry form, kuih-muih, and/or dessert.

Since I had some coconut cream left, I couldn't resist putting a few tablespoons into my Tom Yam soup.  It definitely kick it up a notch being creamier and fragrant with coconut smell.  Instead of shrimps, I used Cod fillets and added a bunch of vegetable and tofu puffs.  Easy one dish meal served with my organic short-grain brown rice.

I am submitting this to "S$20 Budget Meal"  or "US$15 budget meal" hosted by Cuisine Paradise.  This month specific key ingredient is Tofu or beancurd.  I used tofu puffs in this dish and the estimated cost for this meal was about US$8.

Stir-Fried Romaine Lettuce with Dried Small Shrimps (炒生菜与虾皮)

My friend introduced me to dried small shrimps or 虾皮.  I grabbed a packet when I saw it in the Asian market.  When you shake the packet, the dried small shrimps should be loose, if it sticks together then it is a bad stock.  Because this dried small shrimps hardly have any meat in it so it is very rich in protein and minerals, especially calcium, iodine, and magnesium.  It's so packed with calcium that it's considered a "calcium power house" and said to prevent osteoporosis.  The magnesium in it is said to reduce blood cholesterol level, regulate the blood flow and help in hypertension.  These dried small shrimps/ 虾皮 is so delicious that it helps to improve appetite in the elderly.  You can make it into powder form ( wash, pat dry, pan-fry it a wok with a little oil/without until crispy and brown and then process in a food processor until it turns into powder) and sprinkle on rice or porridge.  

It is suitable for all ages, elderly, pregnant women, people with cardiovascular disease, kidney deficiency, impotence, male infertility and weakness of waist and legs.  But it is NOT suitable for people suffering from allergic rhinitis, bronchitis, recurrent allergic dermatitis in the elderly and people with chronic disease.

One thing worth mentioning though, while doing the research on this, I found that this 虾皮 is not suitable to consume at night or before going to bed.  As the extra calcium that wouldn't be absorbed by the intestine needed to be discharged.  And the peak hours for the calcium to be discharged from the body was 4-5 hours after a meal.  So eating 虾皮 at night might prevent the discharge of the extra calcium through urination as you would be asleep at that time.  So, the calcium in the urine would be trapped and deposited in the urinary tract and overtime would form the urinary tract stones.

I found the above sources from various Chinese sites.  Fill me in if you know more about this dried small shrimps.

Spicy Sardine Puff Pastry

It is not a bad idea to keep some puff pastry in the freezer when it goes on sales.  It can make for a really quick snack or emergency finger food or appetizer.  Not a bad idea to have few canned of tomato sardine in the pantry for cases like this as well.  I always loved the spicy sardine filling, it was a flavor that I grew up loving and still love.  Too bad Evy didn't like the sardine filling, so Edda and I had most of it. :-P

This is one snack that is really easy to make with the frozen puff pastry.  You can get creative with all sort of fillings that you could imagine.  For example, curry chicken with potato, tuna, apple, kaya, red bean paste, nutella, cherry, strawberry, char siew, etc.  As long as you can imagine it, you can make it!