A Simple Stir Fry of Mustard Green, Long Cabbage and Carrots

 

Cooking for our family need not be a tedious affair. We can simply stir fry vegetables with either garlic alone, chicken, pork, beef, seafood or bean curd and turn them delicious dishes. I like to fry sawi with just garlic and Chinese cooking wine. For kailan, I stir fry it with prawns, squids and pork slices. I stir fry chives with cubed taukwa, long beans with preserved radish, broccoli and caulifower with prawns and Shiitake mushrooms. The list goes on.

Yesterday I stir fried green mustard, long cabbage and carrots with Shiitake mushrooms, egg tofu and pork slices and it turned out to be a colourful and yummy dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 long cabbage leaf, washed and cut.
• 1 small mustard green leaf, washed and cut.
• 2-inch carrot, sliced thinly.
• 1 Shiitake mushroom, soaked overnight & sliced
• 50 g pork slices
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 inch ginger, sliced
• 1 cylindrical egg tofu
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• Cooking oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/8 cup water
• Corn flour/tapioca flour/potato flour for coating

Method:

• Heat up a wok with cooking oil. Cut tofu into 1-cm slice. Coat the slices with one of the flours. Fry them till golden brown. Remove them and set aside.\

• Remove cooking oil from wok and add sesame oil.

• Add ginger slices. Fry till fragrant.

• Add chopped garlic. Fry till fragrant.

• Add Shiitake mushrooms and sliced pork. Fry till the mushrooms are fragrant and the pork slices are almost cooked.

• Add carrots, long cabbage and mustard green and fry till they are cooked.

• Add water to the vegetables if they are too dry.

• Add fried egg tofu.

• Add seasonings of salt and light soy sauce.

• Add some water to the remaining flour that was used to coat the egg tofu. Add it to the wok to thicken the sauce. Once the sauce boiled, the dish is done.

• Dish up to serve.

Dong Po Rou

Dong Po Rou is pork belly cooked in light and dark soy sauces, Chinese cooking wine, spring onion, ginger, cinnamon stick, star anise, brown sugar and water. I seldom use cinnamon stick and star anise in my day-to-day cooking except when I am cooking curry. However, when I use them to cook the pork belly, these ingredients plus the Chinese cooking wine give out a very distinctive sweet aroma 

Ingredients:

• 450 g pork belly
• 50 g spring onion
• 2 inches of ginger, sliced
• 1 piece of 5 inch long cinnamon stick
• 2 small pieces of star anise
• 30 g brown sugar
• 150 g light soy sauce
• 100 g Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing Huatiao Chiew)
• 15-20 g dark soy sauce (Dish will be bitter if more is added.)
• Water, approx 500 g

Method:

• Use a knife to scrape the skin of the pork belly to remove any impurities.

• Remove any hair from the skin of the pork belly. Wash the pork belly.

• Boil a pot of water. When the water has boiled, put the pork belly into the pot skin side down.

• Lower the heat and blanch the pork for about 10 minutes.

• Remove any scum that floats up to the surface.

• Once the time is up, remove the pork belly and rinse it under running water.

• Cut the pork into cubes of at least 2 inches by 2 inches.

• Tie the cubes with butcher's string. This is to prevent the pork belly from falling apart as it will be cooked till very soft (melt in the mouth). Set aside.

• Prepare a pot to cook the pork belly.

• Cut the spring onions into 6-inch length.

• Line the spring onions on the bottom of the pot. This is to prevent the skin of the pork belly from sticking to the pot.

• Next add the ginger slices to the pot.

• Arrange the pork belly on top of the spring onion skin side down.

• Add brown sugar to the pot.

• Add cinnamon sticks and star anise to the pot.

• Add Chinese cooking wine (Shiaoxing Huatiao Chiew) to the pot.

• Add light soy sauce to the pot.

• Add dark soy sauce.

• Add water, enough to cover the pork belly.

• Cover the pot and cook the pork belly over low-medium heat for at least 20 hours. Check every now and then to ensure that the pot does not dry up. Add water if required.

• When the melt-in-the-mouth texture is achieved (approx. 2 hours), reduce the sauce in the pot till about 1 inch is left.

• Remove the pork belly from the pot and remove the butcher's string.

• Gently arrange the pork belly on a serving dish with some sauce on it.

• Serve with rice.

Baked Cheesy Seafood Fried Rice

 

I am sure all of us will fry rice once in a while especially when we have lots of cooked rice in our fridge or when we are short of time to cook a full meal or when we run out of idea on what to cook. Fried Rice is the easiest meal to cook up, a single pot with all the required carbohydrate, protein, fats, minerals and vitamins in it. I usually add a combination of such ingredients as eggs, prawns, char siew, carrots, peas, maize, long beans, cabbage, onion and bird eyes chilies in my fried rice. Another delicious way of frying rice is to add sambal and crispy anchovies to it.

I brought my simple fried rice to another level by adding cheese and baking it. It is simply delicious for the palate.

Ingredients:

• 200 g overnight rice
• 1 egg
• 75 g fish fillet
• 75 g prawns
• 75 g squids
• 1 tbsp butter
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped and divided into 2
• 1 tbsp flour
• 125 g milk
• 1/2 tsp + 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp + 1/2 tsp white pepper powder
• 100 g grated Mozzarella cheese
• 4 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

• Heat up the kuali with cooking oil.

• Fry the fish fillet till cooked. Ladle up and set aside.

• Add prawns to the kuali and fry till cooked. Ladle up and set aside.

• Add squids to the kuali and fry till cooked. Ladle up and set aside.

• Add half of the chopped garlic to the kuali.

• When the garlic is fragrant, add rice to the kuali.

• Break the egg onto the rice. Fry the rice till it is dry.

• Add 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper to the rice. Fry the rice till the seasonings are incorporated.

• Ladle up the rice into a baking dish. Set aside.

• Add butter to a saucepan. Let the butter melt over medium heat.

• Saute the remaining chopped garlic till fragrant.

• Add flour to the butter, stirring continuously till both are fully incorporated to form a roux.

• Add milk to the roux, stirring continuously till a thick sauce is formed.

• Add the fish fillet, prawns and squids to the sauce.

• Add the remaining 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper to the sauce. Stir.

• Pour the sauce with the seafood onto the rice in the baking dish. (You may stir and mix the sauce with the rice or you may just leave the sauce on top of the rice.)

• Sprinkle cheese on top and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 deg C for 25-30 minutes.

Kam Heong Squids and Prawns

Kam Heong is one of the most delicious ways of cooking crabs, prawns, clams, squids and chicken. The words are in Cantonese and can be literally translated as "golden fragrance". The kam heong spice/sauce is made up of a) blended dried shrimps, shallots, garlic and chilies, b) lemongrass and curry leaves and c) curry powder, oyster sauce, light and dark soy sauce and sugar. Kam heong dishes are best served with white rice.

This is the first time I try cooking this style, with squids and prawns. Later I will cook with my other favourite seafood like crabs and clams. Kam Heong Squids and Prawns turned out very delicious; not only tasty but also very fragrant. 

Ingredients: (A small portion only)

• 100 g squids (the tubes only and sliced in a slanting manner both ways from left to right and right to left)
• 100 g prawns
• 8 pc shallots
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4-5 pc bird's eye chili or chili padi
• 30 g dried prawns, soaked and rinsed, coarsely chopped (Can be more depending on one's liking.)
• 1 pc lemongrass, white part only, sliced slanting into 3 pieces, smashed
• 5 sprigs of curry leaves
• 1 tbsp curry powder (seafood)
• 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce (More, up to 1 tbsp, if you want a darker dish but it can be bitter.)
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
• 4 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

• Blanch the squid flowers and set them aside.

• Blanch the prawns and set them aside.

• Blend the shallots, garlic and chili padi.

• Mix the seasonings - curry powder, dark & light soy sauces, oyster sauce, sugar and salt.

• Heat up oil in a wok.

• Add the dried prawns. Fry them till they are fragrant.

• Add the blended ingredients, lemongrass and curry leaves. Saute till they are dry and fragrant.

• Once the ingredients are dry and fragrant, add the seasonings.

• Stir until all are incorporated.

• Add squid flowers and prawns.

• Stir till the squid flowers and prawns are fully incorporated with the sauteed ingredients.

• Dish up and serve with white rice.