Salted Vegetables & Tofu Soup (咸菜豆腐汤)

Salted Vegetables also known as Pickled Cabbage (咸菜). I like to cook this soup especially this kind of hot weather. The sourly taste bring up your appetite to eat.

Ingredients

100g tofu, cut to cubes

50g salted vegetables, cut to pieces (not too small)

6 pieces of ginger

100g lean pork,... sliced thinly

1 tomatoes, cut to wedges

1 stalk spring onion

1000ml water

1 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

Heat up the cooking oil in the wok and then sitr fry ginger & spring onion head till you smell the aroma. Pour in the water and bring to boil. Add in the balance of the ingredient except spring onion to boiling water & simmer on medium-high heat for 10 minutes. Then add in the spring onion and ready to serve.

2 to 3 servings

Sweet and Sour Pork (咕嚕肉)

My mum use to cook this Sweet and Sour Pork when I was young during the festive celebration. We called “咕嚕肉” or “Go Lou Yuk” in Cantonese dialect. Most of the kids like this dishes because of the flavoursome sweet and sour sauce.

It’s not about the technique of stir-frying or the use of the freshest ingredients to master this dish. The soul of this dish is the sweet and sour sauce. I will share with you how to cook this.

Let’s go thru the ingredients,

500g belly pork meat, cubed

100g Japanese cucumber, cut into wedges

1 medium size tomato, quartered

1 onion, quartered

1 chilli, cut into wedges

1 clove garlic (finely chopped)

1 piece fresh/canned pineapple ring (cut into small pieces)

Oil for deep-fry

Marinade

1 teaspoon soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon corn flour, 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder

Frying batter

(mixed to form a thick batter in separate bowl)

125ml water, 75g plain flour, 1/2 egg (light beaten), 1 teaspoon cooking oil, 1 small pinch of salt

Sauce

(mixed in separate bowl & set aside)

1 1/2 tbsp tomato ketchup, 1 tsp plum sauce, 1/8 tsp Chinese rice vinegar (transparent in colour), 1/2 tsp soya sauce, 1 tsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp corn starch, 1 tsp sugar, 2 tbsp water

Method

Marinate pork cubes with the marinade for 15-20 minutes. When the pork well-marinated, transfer the pork pieces into the batter and make sure they are well coated and then deep-fry until golden brown. Remove and drain from oil.

Heat wok with two tbsp oil in a wok; stir-fry chopped garlic until light brown, then follow by the chilli & onion. Stir fry until you smell the peppery aroma then add in the cucumber, pineapple & tomato. Stir in the sauce till thickeners, transfer the pork into the wok and stir well with the sauce. Dish out & serve with steamed rice.

杞子玉竹 Soup

Nourishing soup is important to us. Normally, I will boil soup at least 3 times a week. This is the 1st soup I want to share with you is 杞子玉竹 soup. I always heard from elderly said that Solomon’s seal (玉竹-Yuk Chuk) is good for lowering blood sugar levels and prevention of hardening of the arteries. It’s neutral and taste a little bit sweetish. For the Chinese wolfberries (杞子-kei chi), It is a natural supplement for improving eyesight especially if poor eyesight. It may help if you experience eye strain from looking at computer screens and documents for long periods of time.

I use 50g of Solomon’s seal (玉竹-Yuk Chuk), 8 pcs of Red dates (紅棗), 10 pcs of dry Longan (龙眼), 20gof Chinese wolfberries (杞子), 300g of Lean Pork (瘦肉) and 1800ml water. For 2 serving

Firstly, do a quick boil on the Lean Pork (瘦肉). Then remove it. Bring water to boil in a pot. Then put in Lean Pork (瘦肉) and the others of the ingredients. Cook under low heat for 3 hours. Add light soy sauce & salt to taste and serve hot.

Char Siew (叉烧) Fried Rice

Most of the kids like fried rice, today I’m going to share with you the Char Siew (叉烧) fried rice. It’s nice to serve with soup during lunch. Char Siew fried rice is one of my few fried rice recipe.

Sometimes rush hour to fetch your kids to school, fried rice is a good bento that they can eat inside the car or canteen when they reach school.

The ingredient that I use is 2 rice bowl of rice, 1 pc of red onion (chopped fine), 2 to 3 sticks of long bean, 5 to 6 pcs of prawns, 1 large egg (beaten), Tobiko (optional) & char siew (叉烧) with small amount of the sauce. For the soya sauce & salt is according to your taste.

Use 1 tbsp cooking oil to heat up the wok 1st. Fry the red onion 1st then follow by the others ingredient except egg. Remove the mixed ingredient from the wok to a separate plate or bowl.

In the same wok, pour in another 1 tbsp of cooking oil to fry the egg and rice then mixed in the ingredient. Add in the sauces & salt according to your taste. Fried another 1 to 2 minutes only serve on the plate. Put some Tobiko on top of the rice.

Total serves 2.

I hope you enjoy this & I will continue to share more variety of fried rice with you.

Nutrition Vege & Fruit Drink - Tomato, Celery & Lemon Juice

I always facing water retention & suddenly gain a few water-filled kg. These happen to me past few years and, of course, eating too much especially too many salty foods and not drinking enough water can turn our body into a water-storage tank.

So, I started my diet with this juice every morning and follow by healthy foods diet. Celery has rich Vitamin A, B1, B2, B6 and C. Tomato is a good blood purifier and giving you full stomach without worrying the carbohydrate. Besides, this juicer recipe also helps to detox and improve the functions of liver.

Ingredients are 400g of Tomato, Celery 2 to 3 sticks, 1 pc of Lemon & 240ml drinking water.

Cut the tomato, celery & lemon (skinless) into smaller pieces & put into juicer. Then mixed evenly the drinking water with the juice and it’s ready for serving.

Curry Fish Head

Curry Fish head is one of my favourite & it's only take me less than 20 minutes for the preparation & cooking. All the ingredients can get it easily from wet market or major supermarket & hypermarket.

I've tried few curry fish paste & I prefer Ayam Brand curry fish head paste.

Let's check it out what ingredient that I use.

1 packet Ayam Brand curry fish head paste,

1 pc of brinjal,

4 to 5 pcs of lady finger,

2 pcs of tomato,

400ml water,

approx. 800g fish head,

2 tbsp cooking oil,

200ml coconut milk (optional) - I don't prefer this due to the health conscious 

For the direction, heat up the oil and fry the fish head (not deep fried). Then mixed the curry paste with water in separate bowl. Pour in the mixing to the fish head and let it boil. Finally mix in the vegetable and cook in low heat till cooked.

Maki Sushi & California Roll

What to cook? Most of the housewife or working lady will facing this issue.

Not only this, we have to make sure they enjoy the foods.

I'm a full-time house wife and I do understand their headaches. That's why I create this blog to share with you about my home dishes.

The 1st dishes that I would like to share with you is the Maki Sushi and Califonia roll. It's a simple & healthy Japanese foods.

Preparation time : 45 minutes
Cooking time : 8 to 10 minutes
Makes : 10 rolls

Ingredients
Uncooked rice (220g)
Water (500ml)
Vinegar (2 tbsp)
Castor Sugar (1 tbsp)
Salt (1 tsp)

Dried Seaweed (10 pcs)
Crabstick, halved
Cucumber, cut into strips
Tobiko (flying fish roe)
Wasabi & Mayonnaise, according to your taste

Directions
> Transfer steaming hot rice from the cooker or pot into a large bowl.
> Mixed the Vinegar, Salt & Castor sugar in a separate bowl.
> Mixed in the above ingredient evenly over the rice.
> Leave rice to cool or fan it to create an added shine on your sushi rice.
> Spread sushi rice (about tennis ball size) on seaweed and place myonnaise, wasabi, Tobiko, Crabstick
    & Cucumber on the rice.
> Lift & roll forward.
> Roll up the sushie and use your bamboo mat to shape.
> Cut into 4 pcs and serve.