Steamed red wine chicken

Family members have been continuously blessed with babies particularly this year and my mom has been making the Chinese red wine for them to be consumed during their confinement. My mum, as usual would keep few bottles of the red wine for me to cook one of my favourite dish…. the red wine chicken.

Ingredients
400 gm of chicken (cut into pieces)
5 slices of Tong Kuai (Anglelica)
1 tablespoon Kei Chi (Wolfberry)
1 cup of home made Chinese red wine
1 tsp of tapioca flour
1 tsp of salt

Method
1. Rub the tapioca flour and salt onto the chicken.
2. Place the Tong Kuai (at the bottom) and the chicken on a steam plate.
3. Pour the red wine into the steam plate and sprinkle the Kei Chi on the chicken.Steam at high heat for 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Hokkien Mee

Ingredients:
600g mee
200g pork (sliced)
200g prawn
150g fish cake (sliced)
200g choy sum
5 cloves garlic (chopped)

Sauce:
3 tbsp light soya sauce
2 tbsp thick soya sauce
Dash of pepper
1 litre broth

Methods:
1. Stir-fry garlic until fragrant.
2. Add the pork, prawn and fish cake and stir-fry until cooked.
3. Add the sauce until let it boiled.
4. Add in the mee and choy sum and let it simmer until the mee is soft and the sauce is thick. Serve hot.

Marmite Chicken

This recipe was adapted from Kuali but made slight changes to it.

Ingredients
½ a chicken, chopped

Marinade
½ tsp pepper
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
½ a beaten egg
3 tbsp cornflour

Sauce ingredients
1 tbsp marmite yeast extract
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp light soy sauce

A pinch of chicken cube

100ml water

Method

Season chicken with marinade for at least an hour. Deep-fry in hot oil till golden or until cooked through. Dish out and drain from oil. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok and pour in sauce ingredients. Cook over medium low heat until sauce is thick.Return pre-fried chicken to the wok and toss until well coated with the sauce. Dish out and serve.

Roasted Chicken with Pasta

Prepared this meal using the Orange Roasted Chicken recipe. This time replaced orange with one whole lemon (preferred choice). For side dish, cut each potato (leave the skins on) into 4 or 6 even wedges, dependíng on their size. Mix the potatoes with butter and dried thyme leaves and baked it together with the chicken.

For the pasta, for ease, served it with Leggo's Napoletana Pasta Sauce and topped it with mixed vegetables.

Birthday Cupcake

My daughter was so excited after receiving this beautiful cupcake with sugar print from her friend, Sis Elizabeth for her 4th birthday. She just love princesses ……

Chocolate Cupcake with whipped cream

This recipe was adapted from Family Favorites Muffins and Cupcakes published by Parragon. However, for ease, replaced the cream cheese frosting topping with whipped cream and then dust lightly with sifted cocoa. Made 12 cupcakes instead of 18 as recommended, ending up making it looks bigger and just like muffins :-)

For those who prefers it plain ......

For those who loves it with whipped cream ......

For my daughter who asked for more, more whipped cream ........
Ingredients
6 tbsp butter
100 g caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp milk
55g plain chocolate chips
225 g self-raising flour
25 g cocoa powder

Method for chocolate cupcake
1. Place 18 double –layer paper cases.
2. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradualy add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the milk, and then fold in the chocolate chips. Sift in the flour and cocoa, then fold into the mixture.Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and smooth the tops.
3. Bake the cupcakes in a preheated oven, 200C for 20 minutes or until well risen and springy to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Pork Belly with Tau Kee (beancurd skin)

Ingredients
300 g of pork belly (sliced)
5-6 sticks of tau kee
7 chinese mushroom (sliced)
5 cloves of garlic (chopped)
Salt to taste
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbps dark soya sauce
4 cups of water
Oil

Method
1. Soak the "tau kee" until soft, cut into pieces of 1- 1.5 inches wide and set aside.
2. Heat the oil and saute garlic. Place the belly pork, mushroom and light soya sauce and stir-fry for about 4-5 minutes.
3. Add in the tau kee and stir-fry for another 1-2 minutes.
4. Pour in the water, dark soya sauce and salt. Let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes under slow fire.

Petola with eggs

Ingredients
1 piece of petola
1 egg
2 tbsp dried shrimps
4 cloves of garlic (chopped)
2 tbsp water
Salt to taste
Oil

Method
1. Cut the petola into pieces about 2 cm thick each and set aside.
2. Heat the oil and sauté the garlic and dried shrimps.
3. Place the petola, water and salt and let it cook until the petolas are soft.
4. Lastly, add in the egg and give it a quick stir.

Stir-fried Sengkuang (Turnip)

Gave this dish extra sauce for the children.

Ingredients:
1 sengkuang (sliced)
1.5-inch carrot (sliced)
¼ cup of dried shrimps
6 cloves of garlic (chopped)
3 tbsp light soya sauce
2 tbsp dark soya sauce
Salt to taste
Water

Method
1. Saute garlic and dried shrimps until fragrant.
2. Add in the sengkuang and carrot and stir-fry for a while.

3. Pour in the sauces, salt and water and simmer it until the sengkuang turns soft (softness at your own preference).

Steamed Chicken Rice

Heard from many that chicken rice is easy to prepare so decided to try when I spotted the recipe. The method goes like this: Rub salt and sesame oil on the chicken and steam it for 30 minutes. Sound simple? After the chicken was cooked, realize there's a problem "I do not know how to cut a steamed chicken!" (eventhough it was only half a chicken). Asked help from my maid and she said "Maam, I don't know, maam". Oops! So I know that I have no choice but to just try. There I went "Yee Hah" a few times and the half chicken was finally chopped up. My hubby was surprise to see my new trial and took a picture of it. Presentation? Trying hard to make it looks appetizing :-).

The chicken tasted alright with the sauce. Ingredients for the sauce: Chicken stock (from the steamed chicken), sesame oil, soya sauce and dark soya sauce. For the rice, it doesn't turn out so good. Used butter and garlic. It tasted just like normal white rice. Skipped the chili preparation although knowing it will give a "kick" to the overall meal. Will try again .......

020709

Fried Bean Sprout

There is no vegetable left in the fridge so grabbed 2 pieces of white tofu and some bean sprouts from a mini market nearby my home after work to complement with a chicken dish. Firstly, deep fry the white tofu, sliced and put aside. Heat up the wok with oil, add chopped garlic, sliced carrots, spring onion, bean sprout and salt to taste. Stir fry for about 5 - 7 minutes. Garnish with fried shallots.

Steamboat Dinner

Hubby's colleagues arranged for a steamboat dinner party at our place. His boss supplied most of the ingredients (very generous supply that can last for another meal!) and we prepare the soup and food arrangement. A satisfying meal complete with soft drinks topped with Baskin Robbins vanilla ice-cream - supplied by his colleagues too.

Steamed pork with soy bean paste

This is one of my favorite dish since young and is now my hubby's favorite too. Most importantly it's easy and fast to cook.

Ingredients:

500g pork (cut into cubes)
3 tbsp soy bean paste
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp sugar
5 red-eye chilli

Method:
Mix the pork with cornstarch and soy bean paste and place it on a steam plate. Sprinkle the sugar and red-eye chilli on it and steam for 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Marble Cake

Steamed Minced Pork with Salted Egg

My grandma and mum used to make this which goes very well with porridge/congee. Easy and yummy!Ingredients:
600g of minced pork
2 salted eggs
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water

Method:
Mix the cornstarch into the minced pork and place it on a steam plate. Place the salted eggs onto the mixture. Remember to break-up the yolks. Add in the water and steam for 10 minutes.

Cereal Muffin

These muffins were specially baked for my 2 children as they contain Nestle cereals and they enjoyed it.

This recipe was adapted from Nestle recipe booklet.

Ingredients:
1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking power
3/4 cup NESTLE wheat + milk infant cereal
150 g butter or margarine
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon essence of vanilla
1/2 cup milk
Method:
Sift flour and baking power together. Sitr in NESTLE wheat + milk infant cereal. Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy. Stir in egg and essence. Fold in flour mixture alternatively into patty tins to 3/4 full, spread evenly. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

Honey Chicken Rice

My colleagues and I are regulars to a cafe called "Ice-Cream House" for lunch and we usually ordered the set lunch comprising rice with a dish of our choice, a bowl of soup, a drink and a scoop of ice-cream. The idea of placing a sunny side-up egg on the rice is interesting. This makes preparing a meal fast and easy as I only need to cook one dish :-)

Recipe for the honey chicken was adopted from Bay Books

Fried fish with ginger

Thinking of cooking sth quick and simple which goes well with plain porridge. Finally decided to go back to basic by improving skill in frying fish. Crispy inside and soft inside. Mom's tip: Don't cook with slow fire. Rub the fish with salt and fry for about 10 minutes depending on the size of the fish. Place the fish on a plate. Fry sliced ginger and place them on the fish and add in soya sauce. Served immediately with hot porridge. Long beans with fried eggs made a good combination.

Plain Mini Cupcakes

Daughter loves cakes with buttercream. Was not really satisfied with the buttercream recipe that I've tried before. Am quite delighted with this new found butter icing recipe which taste better in terms of its texture and level of sweetness.

Ingredients:

100 g butter

200 g icing sugar

2 tablespoons cold milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla or other essence

Method:

Cream the butter until light and creamy. Gradually beat in sugar, alternately with milk. Continue beating until is light and fluffy. Beat in essence until well blended.

Yee Mee

Decided to cook something light and fast for dinner and made simple variation to the cantonese yee mee recipe. Heat up the wok, stir fry garlic, sliced fish cake, and mushrooms. Pour in chicken stock. Add thick soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt and corn flour for thickening. Pour the gravy on top of the noodle. Serve it with shredded chicken and bean sprouts.

Cinnamon Tea Cake

Not a real fan of cinnamon but after tried baking this, cinnamon is actually superb. This recipe is like a buttercake sprinkled with a mixture of sugar and ground cinnamon but tasted much better with the additions at the top. My hubby, daughter and I finished almost the whole cake at one go.

Source: Bay Books

Lemon and Rosemary Chicken Stew

This dish gives a different *kick* to it. The ingredients used are butter, garlic, lemon rind, rosemary, chicken stock and lemon juice. Decided to peel of the skin before cooking the drumstick.

Source: Bay books

Oatmeal biscuits

Managed to bake these just in time for chinese new year.

Source: Biscuit code by Florence Tan

Dinner at Hilton Kuala Lumpur

Had a nice dinner at Chynna Restaurant at Hilton Kuala Lumpur and can't resist to take a photo of this dish ....... so much of great and interesting stuff in it.

Started dinner with *lou yee sang* using this big long chopsticks.

.... and ended with this simple dessert.

Marinated Chicken with Honey

It has been long since my last post in mid-December. Here begin the 2009 year with a chicken recipe from my mum's recipe collection book. Made this as a dish or ......

at times, served it with fried rice and coleslaw for a complete meal.

Ingredients:

500 gm Chicken Drumstick/ Maryland (deboned)

Marinade ingredients:

Lemon juice

2 tbsp Lea & Perrins Sauce

2 tbsp HP sauce

2 tbsp honey

6 pips farlic

1/2 cup cooking oil

A dash of pepper

Salt to taste

Method

1. Combine all marinade ingredients in a bowl

2. Marinate chicken for at least 30 minutes

3. Heat a shallow pan with oil and fry chicken until cooked on both side.