Stir Fry Long Beans

There are various ways to stir fry long beans, I have actually done the fermented beans version (Tauco) but this time round I wanted to do more towards the curry vegetable flavor to match my Nasi Uduk. (Recipe)

Of cos you can use the spice paste to cook other ingredients like tofu, cassava leaves or hard boiled eggs. Do play around with the variety.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoon oil
• 1 bay leaf 
• 2 big red chillies, thinly sliced diagonally
• 300 gram long bean , cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 tsp palm sugar/sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 250 ml coconut milk

Grind the following into spice paste

• 3 shallots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 4 red bird eye chillies
• 1 big red chillies
• 2 candlenuts 
• 1 cm galangal/lengkuas (I used powder form around 1 tsp)

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a frying pan and stir fry spice paste and bay leaf until fragrant, add red chillies and stir until wilted.
2. Add the long bean and season with sugar and salt. Mix well.
3. Pour the coconut milk and bring to a boil. Keep cooking until the sauce is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes.
4. Turn off heat and serve immediately.

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Spicy Sweet Soy Sauce Chicken

This dish is especially good eaten with Nasi Uduk (Recipe) or white steamed rice, the taste is actually more towards sweet than spicy. So do adjust the chilli quantity to suit your flavor. 

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoon oil
• 1kg chicken
• 4 tablespoon sweet soy sauce 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 300 ml water
• 1 red chili for garnish
• 1 green chili for garnish

Spice paste

• 5 -8 red chilies
• 5 candlenuts 
• 5 shallots 
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 inch ginger, thinly slices

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a frying pan and sauté spice paste until fragrant. Add chicken pieces and cook until chicken is no longer pink.
2. Season with sweet soy sauce, salt, and sugar. Stir to mix well. Pour water into the pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover the pan, and simmer for 15 minutes until chicken is cooked and tender.
3. Remove the cover. Add half of the red chili and green chili, and continue cooking until the sauce is reduced and turns into a nice glace.
4. Turn off heat, transfer to a serving plate and garnish with the remaining red chili and green chili. Ready to be served.

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Nasi Uduk ~ Fragrant Coconut Rice (The rice cooker method)

Nasi uduk is made by cooking rice soaked in coconut milk along with spices, lemongrass and knotted pandan leaves to add fragrance and rich tastes to the rice. Traditionally nasi uduk usually wrapped inside banana leaf but of cos its not necessary, you can serve it on plate with all the side dishes. 

Some of the suggestion for side dishes offered with nasi uduk are:

• Tempeh
• Eggs in various ways to cook, such as fried egg, omelette, shredded omelette, and telur balado (hard boiled egg in sambal sauce).
• Teri kacang (anchovy with peanuts)
• Bihun goreng
• Ayam goreng (fried chicken)
• Beef/Chicken stew in sweet soy sauce
• Stir fried long beans
• Perkedel kentang (potato patties) or perkedel jagung (corn fritter)
• Emping (melinjo chips) or krupuk udand (prawn cracker)

The recipe I am sharing with you is not the traditional method and its for busy people who miss this food from Indonesia, that is using the Rice Cooker method. Simply by combing all ingredients, place in rice cooker and press the start button to cook and Ta ... Da.... Ready to be served.

Serves: 4 pax

Ingredients

• 3 cup rice
• 3/4 cup thick coconut milk
• 3 3/4 cup water (adjust according to your rice cooker water level if necesary)
• 3 lemongrass (bruised and knotted)
• 3 pandan leaves (washed and knotted)
• 6 bay leaves
• 3 thin slices of ginger 
• 3 thin slices of galangal/lengkuas (I managed to get powder form so I used around 2 tsp)
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in a rice cooker pot and cook until ready.
2. Let rest for 10 minutes before opening the lid.
3. Remove the lemongrass, pandan, bay leaves, ginger, and galangal. Stir with the rice cooker paddle.
4. Serve with side dishes of your choice.
   This time round I served with Spicy Sweet Soya Sauce Chicken and Stir Fry Long Beans.
   You can find the recipe in my following blog:
   Spicy Sweet Soya Sauce Chicken.
   Stir Fry Long Beans

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Banchan ~ Fruit salad

Do you realised the fun of eating Korean food is that there are many side dishes that they served before your main dish is here... I really love the idea of eating variety of small food... Last weekend I come across this dish which I am not sure what is it called, basically its a fruit salad but it taste really good and refreshing maybe because they used canned fruit which add the sweetness to the whole dish and I don't know why the crab stick is just right for the whole combination....So I was thinking of recreate them at home which is pretty simple and will be done in 5 min.

Direction

First of all you prepare all the ingredients in a bowl and then add mayonnaise and mix well and TA DA.... Its ready to be served!!!! Don't forget to serve it cold.

Ingredients

Cherry tomatoes

Sweet Corn (I didn't add this because its out of stock in my kitchen :) )

Crab Stick

Rambutan Stuffed with Pineapple Can (you can also choose the mixed fruit can)

and ETC...

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上湯娃娃菜 ～ Braised Chinese Cabbage in Superior Broth

I get to know this dish in China and I am really loving it, so I am recreating it in my own kitchen. Frankly speaking I am not too sure about the English name, so I hope I dun get it too wrong :). 

Actually I want to add dried scallop too, but I found out that I don't have any in my kitchen so I replaced it with dried shrimp. 

Of cos if you do not have the time to do chicken stock, you can use those sell in package. 

Ingredients

300g Chinese Baby Cabbage (washed and cut into half)

250ml Chicken Stock

200ml water 

Ham (sliced in strips)

1 preserved egg (cut into small dices)

Few slices of ginger

2 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)

2tsp dried shrimp/dried scallop (soak in water for at least 1hr)

1-2tsp Goji 

Direction

1. Blanch the baby cabbage for 3-5 min. Take out and arrange in a bowl.

2. Heat wok with 1 tbsp of oil, sauté garlic and ginger until fragrant, add dried shrimp, preserved egg and ham and stir fried until fragrant. 

3. Add chicken stock and water and cook until boil. Add Goji and cook for awhile. Turn off the heat and pour over the bowl of cabbage.

4. Steam for 5-7 min and ready to be served.

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Danish Pastry ~ Duchess

This is my second blog on puff pastry. As you know I am quite happy with the frozen puff pastry I found @ the local supermarket (COLD STORAGE, Market Place and if you are lucky NTUC), so I tried out different type of Danish pastries. There is a wide range of fillings and toppings as well as shapes and sizes to choose from, which can make the preparation of these pastries almost as much fun as eating them!

In this blog I am showing on how to do Duchess Pastry. For written recipe, please refer to my blog on Mini Napoleon Strawberry with Lemon Curd.

As for other shapes like Windmill, you can look at the youtube below which is very well shown in anime form. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvgYYUIc0kM

There are many other recipe you can used for puff pastry which is well archived in the company website Pepperidge Farm and the youtube videos as well (http://www.youtube.com/user/PFpuffpastry/videos). Do look at them if you are keen. 

And of cos this is the second time I am using drawing to illustrate my recipe and hope it can be easily understood. Do have fun on the berries decoration, maybe add some raspberry or blueberry or apple. Bon Appétit and have fun!!!

P.S. The lemon curd recipe shown below is for 1 packet of puff pastry. 

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Swiss Chicken Wing (Cash's Version)

Swiss Wing is the name given to a kind of sweet soy sauce-flavored chicken wings served in some restaurants in Hong Kong. It is marinated in sauce made up of soy sauce,sugar, Chinese wine, and spices. Despite the name "Swiss," it is unrelated to Switzerland. Instead, it is believed to have originated in either Hong Kong or Guangzhou. It was also claim that the dish was invented by a local Hong Kong restaurant, the Tai Ping Koon (太平館). 

Therefore whenever I am in Hong Kong I will visit the place for the famous Swiss Wing. Read More...

However its hard to find one in Singapore whenever you miss this dish, the only place I know serving authentic Swiss Wing in Singapore is the Central Hong Kong Cafe @ Vivo City/Star Vista.

So when I am lazy to go all the way to shopping centre, I made one on my own, of cos it my own short cut version but the taste is quite close and more local as I am using the following marinade sauce instead of the Hong Kong Swiss Chicken Sauce which I was unable to get one in Singapore.

Ok enought of the talking, its time for me to write down the recipe.

Ingredients

500g chicken wings/mid wings

1/2 pc lemon juice

1/2 tbsp sweet soya sauce

10g sliced ginger

2 shallots (lightly beaten)

3 garlic (lightly beaten)

2 bird eye chilli (optional)

1 tsp salt 

1 tbsp Mirin (I used mirin because it has sweet taste sake)

A.
20g rock sugar (add according to your taste)

1 tbsp oyster sauce

100 ml Tai Hua Chicken Marinade Sauce

150 ml water 

Directions

1. Wash chicken wings, mix with lemon juice and rinse with water. Blanch for 2-3 min, take out and mix with 1/2 tbsp of sweet dark soy sauce. 

2. MIx ingredients A.

3. Heat the wok with 1-2 tbsp oil. Sauté shallot, garlic, sliced ginger and chilli. Stir in 1/2 Ingredients A and shallow fry for a while and then add in chicken wing and cook for a while. Take out the chicken wing only and set aside.  

4.  Stir in remaining ingredients A, boil over high heat and then reduce to medium heat for 10 min. And then add in the chicken wing and cook over high heat and stir in Mirin and salt. Turn off heat and then cover for 10-15min. Ta... Da...:) Ready to serve.

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