Braised Fish in Dried Noodles

    

 

        

Braised Fish in Dried Noodles is another delicious 1-pot meal. The fishes that can be used to cook this dish are red snapper, grouper and white pomfret as these are flavourful and sweet. These fishes are filleted and deep fried before they are braised. I like to use long cabbage. However, we can also use round cabbage, bean sprouts and broccoli. Cooking this dish takes only about half an hour. It should be cooked just before meal time as it has to be eaten immediately after it is cooked. Otherwise, the noodles will soak up whatever little sauce there is in the dish.

Ingredients:

• 4 pieces of dried noodles of about 40 g each
• 2 pieces of red snapper (jenahak)
• 3 large pieces of Shiitake mushroom, soaked and sliced
• 4 leaves of long cabbage
• 1-inch carrot, grated lengthwise
• 2 tbsp of sesame oil
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp potato/corn/tapioca flour
• red chillies, cut
• 2 cups of water

Method:

• Boil a pot of water. When the water is boiling, add the dried noodles to it. Cook till the noodles are less than al dente. Do not overcook the noodles as we will be frying them with the fish.

• Remove the noodles from the pot and stir some oil to them to prevent them from sticking to each other. Set them aside.

• Slice the jenahak like as shown in the photo. Coat the jenahak slices with flour and deep fry them till they are golden brown. Remove and set them aside.

• Heat the wok with sesame oil. When the oil is hot, add the Shiitake mushroom and fry them till they are fragrant.

• Add the chopped garlic and saute them.

• Add the long cabbage and grated carrot fry them with the mushroom.

• Add water to the wok.

• Add salt, pepper and light and dark soy sauces. Stir.

• Add fish slices to the wok.

• Cover the wok and let the fish braised slowly for about 10 minutes.

• Remove the cover.

• Remove the fish slices onto a plate to prevent them from breaking up.

• Add the noodles to the wok and fry them with the vegetables till the noodles are softer.

• Remove noodles into a serving dish.

• Arrange the fish slices on top of the noodles and sprinkle the cut chilies on top.

• Serve the noodles immediately.

Lu Rou Fan Copycat

 

Lu Rou Fan is a Taiwanese traditional street food. The main ingredients are pork belly sauces - light and dark soy sauces, Chinese cooking wine and spices. Sugar is added to the pork to caramelise it and they look shiny and sticky. Boiled eggs are always served with the rice. It is also served with some green vegetables. There are many recipes on the worldwide web for Lu Rou Fan. However, after watching how it is cooked, I did it my way. Thus, I would say that mine is an imitation of the ones found in Taiwan.

Ingredients:

• 2 bowls of cooked white rice
• 2 eggs
• xiao bai cai (8 leaves) or cai xin (2)
• 275 g minced pork
• 3 pieces of shallots, sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 3/4 tsp 5-spice powder
• 3 tbsp Shao Hsing Hua Tiao Chiew
• 3/4 cup water
• Cooking oil for deep frying

Method:

• Boil 2 eggs, peel and set aside.

• Boil a pot of water. Blanch the vegetable and set aside.

• Heat up the cooking oil.

• Add the shallots and deep fry till they are golden brown. Remove them from the oil and set aside.

• Remove the cooking oil from the wok, leaving about 3 tbsp behind.

• Add the chopped garlic to the oil and saute them till they are fragrant.

• Add the shallots to the garlic.

• Add pork to the wok and stir fry them till they change colour and we cannot see the rawness. (As I did not use pork belly, I bought the minced pork which has lots of fat in it.)

• Add salt, light and dark soy sauces and 5-spice powder to the pork. Continue to fry till the pork is fragrant. (You may add some brown sugar if you want the pork to be shiny and sticky.)

• Add cooking wine to the pork.

• Add water to the pork and stir.

• Cover the wok and let the sauce simmer till it is reduced and the pork is fragrant.

• Scoop the pork onto the white rice. Top it with an egg and the blanched vegetable.

• Serve it hot.

Black Sesame Bread

 

         

Black Sesame Loaf is a delicious bread; when you bite into a slice of it you will bite into the fragrant black sesame crunch. It is soft and fluffy. You can eat it on its own or with a layer of your favourite spread. 

Ingredients:

• 250 g wholemeal flour
• 85 g bread flour
• 20 g toasted black sesame seeds (can add more) plus additional for sprinkling on top of dough
• 20 g brown sugar
• 6 g sea salt or table salt
• 7 g yeast
• 200 g warm whole milk
• 1 egg, grade A, lightly beaten
• 30 g butter

Method:

• Grease a loaf pan 8 inch x 4 inch x 4 inch. I like to line my pan with parchment paper as well. Set aside. 

• Put the flours, sesame seed, sugar, yeast and salt into the mixing bowl.

• Pour the warm milk into the bowl leaving about 20 g. Start the mixer. If the dough is too dry, add in the balance 20 g.

• Break the egg into a small bowl (to prevent spoilt one from going into the mixing bowl). Lightly beat the egg and then add it to the mixing bowl.

• Kneading the ingredients into a smooth dough. This will take about 20 minutes or slightly more by machine. (It does not matter if you do not have a machine. You may do it manually. I mix with mixer and knead my dough manually.)

• When the dough has formed into a ball, add the butter.

• Grease a bowl with oil.

• Transfer the dough to the greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap.

• Leave the dough to proof until it doubles in size.

• Once it has doubled in size, remove the dough from the bowl onto a slightly floured table-top.

• Knead it manually for about 5 minutes.

• Then form it into a ball. Roll the dough ball out into a rectangle, the width of the dough to correspond with the length of the pan.

• Roll up the dough tightly and place it into the baking pan.

• Cover the loaf pan with a wet towel.

• Proof the dough until it doubles in size.

• Pre-heat oven to 175 degree Celsius.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, wet the top of the dough gently with some water. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on it.

• Bake the dough in the oven for about 30 minutes.

• Once the bread is baked, remove the pan from the oven. 

• Remove the bread immediately from the pan and let it cool down on a metal rack.

• Slice the loaf only when it has completely cool down.

Nestum Cake

 

Nestum Cake is one of the most fragrant and nutritious cakes that I have baked. According to the manufacturer, Nestum is made from a delicious recipe of multi-grains such as wheat, corn and rice, and milk. Not only that, it is nutrient-rich being packed with 13 vitamins and minerals. There are a few flavours of Nestum but I only use Nestum All Family Cereal Original in my baking (and cooking). This aromatic and healthy cake makes it a good family cake.

Ingredients:

• 200 g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 50 g Nestum cereal (and more for sprinkling on top of cake)
• 240 g butter
• 160 g brown sugar
• 4 eggs (Grade A)
• 180 g milk

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees C.

• Grease an 8-inch baking pan. I like to line the base with parchment paper.

• Sift flour and baking powder. Add salt and Nestum cereal to the flour. Mix to combine well. Set aside.

• Beat butter and sugar till creamy and pale.

• Break an egg into a small bowl and add the egg to the butter cream. Continue to beat the cream till the egg is fully incorporated. Repeat this step till all the eggs are used up.

• Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture. Mix till the batter is smooth.

• Add 1/3 of milk to the batter. Mix to achieve a smooth batter.

• Repeat these 2 steps till all the flour mixture and milk are used up.

• Pour the batter into the baking pan. Sprinkle the additional Nestum cereal on top of the batter.

• Bake the batter in the pre-heated oven for 1 hour.

• When done, open the oven door gently and leave it ajar slightly for 5 minutes.

• Remove the baking pan from the oven and remove the cake from the pan. Let the cake cool down on a metal rack before cutting and serving it.

Orange Sweet Potato Balls

 

Sweet potatoes are starchy and sweet-tasting. They are a root vegetable. We can find an abundant of these sweet potatoes - yellow, orange or purple - in our country. There are many ways of eating them. I like to peel, slice, coat them with a mixture of flour and fry them till they are crunchy. These sweet potato fritters are good as snacks. I also like to make sweet soup with them. Just chop them up into chunks, add water, ginger and pandan leaves and boil till the sweet potatoes are soft. Or they can be added to make bubur cha cha (https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/2474905339152109020/2823936632269896551), another sweet dessert. Sometimes, I like to mash them up to make sweet potato paste as fillings for my pau, bread or jian dui. Or, I just mash them up to be made into sweet potato balls. At times I just cut them into chunks to be cooked with rice into white porridge.

According to Healthline, there are many benefits to be gained from consuming sweet potatoes: 

• Highly nutritious. Sweet potatoes are a great source of fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
• Promote gut health. The fiber and antioxidants in sweet potatoes are advantageous to gut health.
• May Have Cancer-Fighting Properties.
• Support Healthy Vision.
• May Enhance Brain Function.
• May Support Your Immune System.

(Go to healthline.com for more information on the above benefits.)

Ingredients:

• 250 g orange sweet potato (without skin)
• 30 g brown sugar
• 80 g tapioca starch (or potato starch)
• 35 g melted butter (or corn oil)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Oil for frying

Method:

• Steam orange sweet potato till they are soft.

• Once the sweet potato is soft, transfer it to a mixing bowl. Mash the sweet potato till it is smooth.

• Add sugar, tapioca starch (or potato starch), melted butter and salt to the mashed sweet potato.
• Reduce the amount of sugar (about 5 g) for a less sweet potato ball. Increase the amount of sugar (about 10 g) if you want them to be sweeter. 
• If you want a more bouncy and chewy potato ball, then add more tapioca starch. 

• Mix them up into a smooth dough.

• Heat up a pot with enough cooking oil (so that the sweet potato balls are fully submerged when they are being fried).

• Once the oil is hot, weigh 15 g of the sweet potato dough, roll it into a ball and drop it into the hot oil. Repeat this till all the dough is finished.

• Turn the balls gently so that all sides are cooked evenly.

• Once the sweet potato balls rise to the top and float, it means that they are cooked.

• Remove these balls onto a plate lined with parchment paper.

• Then remove them onto a serving plate.

• (Note: This recipe makes about 25 balls of 15 g each.)