2-2-3-4-5 Braised Chicken

This dish was inspired by 1-2-3-4-5 Sticky Spareribs (Tang Chu Pai Gu).  Since I don't have spareribs and only chicken, I cooked it differently but with almost the same sauce except I increased the Shaoxing rice wine to 2 Tbsp.  Got to say, delicious!  Now I have one more chicken dish to serve my family.  :-)

I added tofu knots in mine.  If you don't have tofu knots in your area, you can omit it.  Or you can substitute it with Chinese dried mushrooms or dried beancurd sticks.  This sauce is so good with rice, you have to try this dish!

Pandan Chiffon Cake 2 (Healthier Version)

 

Pandan chiffon cake was my childhood favorite cake.  I remembered I always asked my mom to buy it at the bakery shop for us to have as breakfast.  It was great being a kid without having to worry about counting calories and just consumed however much we liked.  I seriously would not have known what went into making a cake, a bread, or a dish without me being a cook and a baker myself.  Once I learned that, I have to be careful at what to cook for my family and how much portion to consume in a day, you know to watch my diet and not over eating certain food that is high in saturated fat.

This recipe is adapted from my Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe but because I want to make it healthier with less saturated fat content, I omitted the coconut milk and used 1% milk instead.  I also changed the all-purpose flour to cake flour, just for experiment.  Glad to say it turned out well, still fragrant with Pandan smell and not much difference from the Pandan chiffon cake made with coconut milk.

I didn't do a nice job at dismounting my chiffon cake from the tube pan, this really takes patient and skill.  LOL!

Toast Camembert Bagel

I received this sample of Normandie Ile de France Camembert recently.  I was one of the lucky fews who got to sample the product before it hit the shelf and release to the general public.  Its' flavor is more intense than Brie and I instantly noticed it when I first opened the box.  I could actually smelled it.  Ile de France Camembert is crafted in Normandy, from local Rbst (hormone) free pasteurized cow milk.  The herds spend most of their time outside, grazing in the fields of Normandy, known for its temperate climate and rich soil.  It has the mushrooms and nutty undertones and known for its' creaminess.

This was my first time sample a Camembert and frankly I had no idea how people eat this besides serving as a cheese platter.  So I went to the Ile de France Website and look through the recipes.  But I was too eager to try it and I had some bagel at home, so I just cut two slices and toast it in the toaster oven.  Got to say, even though it didn't smell too good, it tasted not bad at all.  Very creamy and melted beautifully.  Even my little Edda who said yuck at the smell couldn't stop eating it.  Two days later, I tried it in my cheesy shell pasta dish and my two girls walloped it up.  They really loved it. 

Two slices of Camembert on my mini blueberry bagel.

The end product!  Loved how the cheese melted, yummy!  Would go great with a English muffin with bacon and fried egg as well.

Salmon with DOM

I  have been cooking a lot of salmon recently, guess you have been noticing it too.  Salmon is rich in omega 3 fatty acid and thus a brain booster.  Supposed to be good for your brain.  So, I came out with this recipe with what I had in my refrigerator at that time.  The soup of this dish was really fragrant with the smell of DOM, so good drizzle with rice.  It made a good one dish meal too!

Cheesy Shell Pasta

I am not sure how to name this pasta dish because I created it on a whim just for Ruth!  Ruth is hosting Presto Pasta Night this week and I wanted to be a part of it.  :-)  I called it Cheesy Shell Pasta because it had cheese in it.  LOL!  I have some Camembert cheese in my fridge and milk, so why not give it a try.  You can certainly make it more creamy and cheesy by using heavy cream instead of milk and sprinkle with more cheeses on top and bake in the oven for 5 minutes before serving.  Whatever you like right?

I just used what I have in the refrigerator and pantry to create this delicious pasta dish.  My Edda said it tasted like Chicken Alfredo.  Hehehe...  This was our lunch and Evy's lunchbox for tomorrow.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Ruth herself! Check out her delicious round up on Oct, 1st!

Chinese Cooling Teas

 

I was having a bad sore throat and cold two weeks ago.  I might get it because of the heaty mooncakes I had been eating or the fried food my hubby brought back, I had no idea.  So, I went to the Asian market here in search of my cooling teas to cool my body and be rid of this cold and cough.  This is not a paid post, I just took this picture to share with my girlfriend here who could not read Mandarin.  I remembered she asked me once on what to buy last year when she was sick.  So, I took this picture since I am having these at home now and show her so that she would know what to buy next time.  Each bag has 16 packets and in each packet is a granules form of ingredient in which you just mix it with hot water to dissolve, almost instantly.  It doesn't taste very pleasant at first, but once you got used to it, you should be fine.  I am loving this teas now.  One is heat-resolving granules and the other one is 24 flavors herbal cooling tea.  Great for traveling too!

Herdez Salsa Macaroni with Shrimps

My girls didn't want to eat the porridge so I made this pasta dish for them.  It just so happen that I had a bottle of salsa in the pantry that I needed to use.  So, I created this easy macaroni and shrimps pasta with it.  None of them complaint that it was spicy so I guess it was not spicy to them, as it only listed as mild.  However, my picky eater Evy won't eat the tomatoes.  She is a strange little girl, as she will eat the blended pasta tomato sauce but not if she can see the tomato.  So, she only ate the macaroni and shrimps and picked out all the tomatoes and set it aside on her plate.

It is really hard as tomato is good for her.  I think she got influence by her daddy as he would not eat tomatoes too.  Because of this, I don't buy tomatoes.  Guess I will have to cook more spaghetti with tomato based pasta sauce as this is the only time she would eat it with no complaint. 

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Valli of More Than Burnt Toast. Check out her delicious round up on Sept, 24th!

Happy Mid-Autumn/ Lantern Festival!

 

Chinese around the world celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th day of the 8 months on their lunar calender.  This day falls differently on the Western calender and this year 2010, it falls on September 22nd, Wednesday.  This day is a day of family reunion and family gathering around to enjoy a delicious spread of food and mooncakes.  Chinese believe that on this day, the moon is the roundest and brightest which signify completeness and abundance.  So, after a delicious meal, the adult would sit outside to enjoy the full moon while sipping tea and eating mooncake.  Whereas, the children would happily holding a lantern and join with the neighborhood kids to parade around the street.  We only had paper lantern back in the old days but now the plastic lantern has become popular as it is safer.  I remembered I used to make my own paper lantern at school as an art project, but with a paper lantern, one has to be careful as the candle would burn your lantern if you are not.  I bought two plastic lanterns for my girls to play, even though the plastic ones are safe, with lights, music and can even spin, it is still lacking compared to the beautiful paper lantern.

Have a happy and fun Mid-Autumn Festival and enjoy this day with your family members with a feast and mooncakes!!

Flat Rice Noodle Soup (Kway Tiao Deng)

A simple noodle dish can be so satisfying.  I wanted something light instead of stir-frying the rice noodle in oil.  So, I decided to make a pot of chicken vegetable soup to go with it.  Just so happen that I have some chicken bones, so I threw that in along with organic celery, organic carrot, two yellow onions, a piece of smashed ginger, and lemon grass.  Let it simmered for few hours and my stock was ready.

For the topping, I prepared some nai pak, fish balls, fried fish balls, tofu fish cake, ground pork and crispy fried shallots.  Serve it with hot chili padi in soy sauce.  Next time I might just try it with ground pork and veggie.  Evy totally loved this rice noodle soup.  She finished her whole bowl and requested the leftover for her dinner the next day.

Indonesian Cantik Manis Kuih

When I saw this recipe at Indonesia Eats's blog, I knew I had to try it.  It looked so pretty in hers as her colorful tapioca pearls retained its color when cooked.  Mine the color seem to be disappeared during the cooking process.  It only has a light tint of green but can't even see it from the pictures.

The reason I wanted to try it is because I have a packet of Korean green bean starch in my pantry and the rest of the ingredients.

This dessert received rave reviews from my hubby and daughters.  They simply loved it.  Just be careful when you stir in the green bean starch, make sure that it is dissolved completely and no lumps present.  If you see lumps, don't scoop it into the mold to cool as it won't be edible.  I let mine harden in the refrigerator and store it in the refrigerator as it is made of coconut milk.  Anything made using coconut milk turns sour easily so remember to store it in the refrigerator.

I am submitting this dish to Indonesia Eats for her CSN store giveaway.

Sweet Corn Dried Scallop Soup

Corns was on sales few weeks ago at the Farmers' Market here, 6 for $1.  I bought 6 and left with two corns to make soup.  You know, sweet corns will make the soup sweet, plus carrots, dried scallops, chicken bone and dried longan, all will make the soup sweet, so what could be not sweet about this soup?

This soup turned out to be sweet of course and with a little salt to bring in the overall flavor.  How you cooked your corns in the soup?

Pandan Oatmeal Waffles

I wanted to try pandan waffle and yet I wanted it to be healthy for my girls.  So, I added instant oatmeal.  I added chocolate chips because my girls loved them.  As this waffle is a to-go waffle and we eat it as is, I also added some dried cranberries and made it sweeter.  The calories for one of this is definitely 2-3 times higher than a piece of plain whole wheat bread.  But for growing up girls it should be fine.  What the heck, I eat it too because it's really good and it has oatmeal in it.

I actually loved the color because it is a change from the usual.  Strangely though Evy didn't like it and she was the one that asked me to make the Pandan waffle in the first place.  Guess I will have to omit Pandan and use vanilla extract for her.  I have an idea for another type of waffle which I am going to experiment next because of an article I read recently.

Salmon Cauliflower Porridge

Evy was having a fever last week and I didn't think much about it.  Fed her some Tylenol and expected her fever to go away soon.  We had a potluck picnic in the day and she had been under the hot sun a lot playing and I thought her fever was caused by the heat.  Then, I noticed a suspicious looking bug bite on her leg which had gotten worst, red and swollen.  And her fever hadn't gotten any better, it had been up and down.  So, we took her to see her pediatrician since she was absent from school for three days in a row.  He prescript us antibiotic to treat the infected bug bite.   2 days after the antibiotic, I saw that the infected bug bite was clearing.  She was back to her normal self too.  But we have to take the antibiotic for 10 days.

I made this porridge for her with the thought that it was easier for her to digest.  It was really sweet with the drumsticks and dried scallops added into cooking this porridge.  She only had a bowl of this and after that she asked for rice.  She told me she didn't like porridge and much prefer rice.  Oh well...  Ended out I was the one that was enjoying the porridge!

Braised Five Layers Pork with Extra Firm Tofu

I made the above to bring to a friend's potluck gathering.  I took a chance and bought the Five Layers Pork to make this.  Honestly, it was the best thing to do as the fat would melt-in-your-mouth and blended so well with the meat and oh so good.  Yes, I know it was sinful but I never buy this for our own family consumption so this was just an indulgent once in a blue moon.  I actually threw away some extra fat while slicing the meat which I kind of regretted because the other party really liked it.  Oops!

I used the extra firm tofu to braise with the sauce and it turned out so well marinated as the flavor of the sauce all went into the tofu.  Since I simmered the tofu in the sauce, it turned soft and oh so flavorful.

The recipe of this braised dish can be found here.  I had made this numerous times and it was all good.  I started to miss this dish already.

Oven Steamed Tom Yam Salmon

I loved to use my oven to steam fish.  It was fast and cleaning up was easy.  That's why I named my fish oven steamed tom yam salmon.  I always oven steamed my fish with Teriyaki sauce, miso paste, Chinese soy sauce,  yellow bean paste and I wanted a change.  I was getting bored with the same old way of steaming fish after a while.  And I thought I could try it with Tom Yam paste, but not just the paste alone as I wanted some kick.  So, I added an extra sauce in there to make it better.  Read more to find out.

I likes this as it was a little spicy, a little sour and went really well with rice.  Took less than 15 minutes and you would have a delicious dinner waiting for you. 

Healthy Wheat Oatmeal Waffles

As you know, I just bought a waffle maker.  With the new toy, of course I got to create healthy recipe to serve my girls.  I have a bag of instant oatmeal that no one wants to eat.  So, making waffle is the way to go as I don't like to waste food.  Again, I am making this sweeter as I am going to serve it plain and as a to-go breakfast.  After I added the flour and instant oatmeal, the batter was a bit watery so in some whole wheat flour.  I also wanted to incorporate some fruit into my girls breakfast, so I thought of dried cranberries.  I can say one piece of this waffle is pretty healthy because it has oatmeal, whole wheat flour, milk, dried cranberries, honey and eggs into the mix.  What's best is it is homemade!  When I was done with the waffles of course it was the taste test time.  Quickly gathered my girls and asked them to try.  My girls loved it!  Great news for me as this is way healthier than the basic waffle.

This wheat oatmeal waffles actually crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside when still warm.  Just remember to cook it until brown.  This recipe is for those who prefer healthier recipe and with adaptable taste.

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.

Pork with Marinated Bok Choy

I was given some marinated bok choy from our friend who owns a Chinese restaurant.  This marinated bok choy was prepared by the head chef in his restaurant.  I saw this dish prepared by the head chef and it looked really appetizing and I was trying to replicate it.  Typing this post now I just realized I forgot to add red pepper flakes and I shouldn't add water (as the bok choy will release water when cooking).  The head chef version was dry and his pork was sliced really thin and small.  Not sure what was his seasonings though, probably just salt and MSG?

Anyway, this is my version without the MSG.

This was the marinated bok choy that I received.  I used this to cook porridge and it was really good. What do you call this?

Basic Waffles

I finally bought a waffle iron!  Well, if I don't look at brand and read at the reviews, I can get a waffle iron for fairly cheap here.  You can call it my impulse buying.  My girls like to have waffle for breakfast but the frozen ones in the supermarket have partially hydrogenated oil in them even thought they were listed as zero trans fat.  So, I stopped buying frozen waffles a while back.  Thus, the best way for me is to make my own waffle using the ingredients I know and serve it to my girls.  I found the bellow recipe at allrecipes.com and modified it a little to include more sugar and added honey so that my girls can eat the waffle as is.  No extra spread of butter or syrup needed.  I am going to play with this recipe more to create a healthier version like using whole wheat flour or oatmeal flour, etc.

As you can see, I already played with this basic recipe to add some chocolate chips.   Last batch, I added some cocoa powder as well.  This waffle is slight crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside.  It crisp up more when toast in the toaster.  Homemade is definitely the best way to go!

Nagaimo Mung Bean Dessert

Nagaimo is also called 山药 or 淮山 in Chinese.  It is a type of yam that can be consume raw.  It has long been traditionally used as Chinese medicine and herbology.  They cut it and dried it in pieces for cooking Chinese herbal soup.  It's the white color herb that we called it 淮山.  I just learned that it has other name which is 山药 from my Chinese friends.  I learned this dessert from them as they gave me a container to try.  It was my first time tasting fresh Nagaimo, frankly I didn't like it as they cut it into big chunks.  It was similar to potato in taste but full of potassium, magnesium, zinc, vitamin C, vitamin B1, and more.  It is also low in calories and a high protein tuber.  I saw a Chinese cooking show, where they put cubed and blanched Nagaimo and Pumpkin into heated milk and serve it as breakfast.  Usually you can cook it like what you would normally cook a potato dish.

You can read more about Nagaimo here. And more about the nutritional facts here.

In this dessert, I diced the Nagaimo into small cubes so that it was easier for me.  Since I cooked it in a slow cooker, some of the Nagaimo was blended into the soup when stirring.  It still have pieces of Nagaimo but quite pleasant since it was not in big chunks.  Definitely a dessert I will be cooking if I buy Nagaimo again.

Merdeka Open House 2010: Tamarind Stew Pork with Daikon/ Chinese Radish

I have been participating in Merdeka Open House hosted by Babe in the City since the very beginning, so of course I cannot left this year out.  This year theme for Merdeka Open House 2010 is Food From Our Hearts.  A local dish that I love and is lovingly prepared by my loved ones and tell a story about it.  My mom is the cook in the family so of course I had to pick my mom's dish.  The most memorable dishes that I missed from my mom are Acar Hu (Pickle Fish) and this Tamarind Stew with daikon.  I really like her Acar Hu but I never made it before because of the limited fish choices over here.  This Tamarind Stew can be made with chicken which I did a while ago over here or pork which I did for this year open house.

I really have no idea where she learned this dish from or it is a pass it down recipe.  The taste just stick to me because I like the spiciness from the dried chili, the sourness from the tamarind juice, the sweetness from the brown sugar, the softness of the daikon, and the tenderness of the pork, it just blend so well together.  When I came over to the U.S. this was one of the dishes I missed so much that I had to call and ask my mom for her recipe so that I could enjoy this dish here.  I hardly cook this dish though because my hubby and daughters do not like Chinese radish or daikon at all, thus every time I cooked this, I was the only one who ate the daikon.  Well, actually more for me because I do enjoy the daikon very much.

When I was stewing this dish for this post, my husband came home from work and said something smell like shit in the house.  I had no idea why this dish smelled like shit to him because it smelled fragrant to me.  He had the hesitated look on his face.  But guess what, he ended out enjoying this dish, even came back for second and third.  See, never judge a dish when you haven't tasted it!

There is still time to participate in this event if you or your spouse is a Malaysian, just go to visit Babe KL's blog for more details.

Rose & Vanilla Spirals Cookies

I was asked for this recipe from a reader last week.  Actually, I made this cookie a while ago back in 2005 and it was out of experimentation.  And I never made it again until today because I had to test out the recipe first.  I made that cookie in 2005 with simply threw more of this here and there and see how it was created.  The original recipe used mint extract and green coloring or strawberry extract and red coloring but I ran out of strawberry extract thus had to use the closes substitute which was rose extract.  Because this rose extract was already red in color thus the coloring was omitted.

This cookie dough was a bit soft at room-temperature thus had to use the scraper to move the dough and helped along with the rolling.  The texture of this cookie is crispy and then sort of melt in the mouth in the end.

The picture of my old post cookies can be found here.  It has the mint version.

Steamed Eggs with Topping

I didn't know how to steam a smooth eggs before but now I know.  I learned it from watching the Chinese cooking show.  I have been watching the CCTV 4 "Everyday Food" Chinese cooking show and learned some cooking tips from there.  I learned this steamed eggs with topping from that show as well.  Have been seeing two different Chinese chefs making this dish with their variation of topping and find it doable!  I have not seen people steamed eggs this way before, we normally steamed it plain or with minced pork or with salted egg or thousand years old egg in Malaysia.  So, this way of serving is new to me.  The chefs guarantee this way of steaming eggs will produce a smooth and silky soft eggs and they made it seem so easy so of course I had to try it myself.

Well, they were right, it is really that easy to produce a smooth and soft steamed eggs.  Now I have a new dish to prepare for my family.  We all loved this easy dish and with the topping, I can even make it a one dish meal.  This dish is suitable for young and old alike as the steamed eggs make it easy to swallow.

Edda Drawings Update

Remember I was complaining about Edda's drawings not long ago?  Click on the highlighted words to see her previous drawings.  And two months later, she surprised me with her flowers drawing.  That was her first real drawing that she had shown me and of course I had to save it.  I was really surprise because it looked so beautiful to me.  I praised her for her excellent drawing and after that, she started to produce drawings after drawings and they were not abstract anymore.  Wow right?  Look at her drawings below, I think it was real impressive and what a fast change, I was worry about nothing.  She started to draw these at 3 years and 9 months old.

 

Flowers by Edda, July 17, 2010

Garden by Edda, July 25th, 2010

Family by Edda, August 3rd, 2010

Drawing by Edda, August 9, 2010

Pan-Fried Mahi-Mahi in Ginger Soy Sauce

This is a pretty common way of cooking fish in my household.  I created it almost 16 years ago.  I remembered when I first cooked this dish for my parents and sibling 15 years ago when I went back to visit them.  My dad asked me what was the topping?  Okay, I did it slightly different, I added chopped garlic and chopped ginger, the ginger were not in slices back then.  I was surprised back then that he would ask me such a question so til this day, I still remembered it.  The reason being my mom didn't cook him this dish before, so he didn't know what was the topping.  So I had to explain to him what it was and he was supposed to take some of the topping with the fish and eat it with the sauce and rice.  I thought it was real interesting.

Next time when I go back, I need to make an effort to cook for them again.  I didn't do that the last few times because it was too hot, also my girls were little back then.  I really need to make an effort to cook for them.

If you want the recipe, click here.  But instead of using dark soy sauce, I used soy sauce in this, thus the lighter in the sauce color.  I think I added too much water too, or you can thicken it with cornstarch water.  And of course, if you think the ginger amount is too much, use as little as you like.

Chinese Snow Fungus Herbal Soup

Snow fungus (雪耳) can also be called silver ear fungus (银耳) or white wood ear fungus ( 白木耳).  It is just like the name implied, it is a species of fungus, white in color that grows on dead attached and recently fallen branches of broadleaf trees.  It is widely available in the tropics and is cultivated for used in Chinese medicine and Chinese cuisine.  White fungus contains much iron, vitamin C, calcium and phosphorus. It is said to be effective in nourishing the lungs, healing dry cough and clearing heat in the lungs.  We used it in sweet and savory dishes.  Most common dessert would be white fungus stewed in rock sugar with red dates and dried longan.  But I liked mine in savory herbal soup.

I think I didn't boil mine long enough as my snow fungus was crunchy instead of soft.  Is there any other way to make the snow fungus soft besides soaking it in warm water and long simmering time?