10 minute meal

This dish below probably looks like it takes 45 minutes to prepare but NO, it's real easy and convenient! 10 minutes is all you need, perfect for a lazy Sunday! I have always been a huge Mee Sua fan, I love it so much I can have it at least twice a week, cooked in different ways. But today, we'll share with you a really easy dish, that is- Mee Sua with Sichuan hot and spicy soup. It's almost like cooking instant noodles, but tastes as if alot of effort has been put into making it.

All you will need are the following items:

We've been supporting this brand for a long time now. The strands are chewy and firm, with a very nice smooth texture.

Now for the most important ingredient, TADAA!!

Campbell's Szechuan hot and sour soup has got to be my favourite instant soup. If you love oriental and savoury flavours like me, you'll definitely enjoy this. Both items are easily available in supermarkets.

To begin, empty the can of soup into a small pot, followed by the addition of another full can of water. While waiting for the soup to come to a boil, cook the vermicelli in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Once done, drain the vermicelli strands dry and transfer into a serving bowl. Finally, pour the hot and spicy soup over the vermicelli. That's it!

Depending on how you'd like it, you may cook the mee sua longer if you prefer it soggy. HAHA. Otherwise, under SGD$3, this dish is easily made in 10 minutes and the portion in one can is enough for two. So try this out, whenever you're feeling lazy yet wanna eat something decent. :) 

Weekend Specials #2

Last weekend was such a delightful one. We had so much good food I can't even decide which meal I liked best. They were all chinese food, cooked by my awesome dad. First up is a nice comforting dish for a weekend brunch, we had Century Egg Porridge, or otherwise more popularly known as Pei Tan Chok. I love the pungent aroma of the Pei Tan and its creamy yolk. It works well together with salted eggs, which Dad also included to give the overall a pleasant savoury flavour.

Recipe
(for 5 adults)
-2 cups of rice
-1 litre water
-minced pork
-2 century eggs (sliced)
-2 salted eggs (diced)
-soya sauce
-fish sauce
-white pepper
-sesame oil
-spring onions (chopped into small pieces)
-fried shallots

a. Marinate minced pork with 1tbs soya sauce, 1tbs sesame oil, white pepper.
b. Once porridge comes to a boil, start scooping small batches of marinated minced pork into porridge.
c. Add salted egg pieces, followed by century egg slices into porridge.
d. Once porridge is cooked, add in seasoning ( soya sauce, fish sauce, white pepper, sesame oil) to your own liking.
e. Garnish with spring onions, fried shallots and chilli slices (optional) when ready to serve.

Next, we had Ipoh Hor Fan for dinner. For the stock, Dad used chinese mushrooms, chicken and a special mushroom sauce. For this dish, Dad wasn't able to tell me his proper recipe offhand because as I mentioned in my earlier post, he's an agar chef. :p

Here are some photos of the Ipoh Hor Fan we had.

I will write about the rest of the food we had for the weekend in the another post. Till then, take care!

Fruitcake Special

It's the weekend again so it's time for a new blog entry! Today's post shall be on.........

                                                                                 !!!
I'm actually not a huge fan of fruit cakes because I remember my bad experiences with some wedding fruitcake souvenirs. Those were really sweet and intense, too yucky for my liking. My mum baked a Grand Marnier Orange Fruit Cake some time back. Hers was buttery, firm and moderately sweet, less rich and extremely pleasing to eat.

Preparation for this wasn't as straightforward because Mum had to soak the mix fruit in fresh orange juice and grand marnier for a week before adding to the recipe so that the flavor of the dried fruit could be enhanced. Even after the cake was ready, it was kept wrapped at room temperature for another week before we actually cut and ate it. 

So if you would like to try this out, go ahead and follow the recipe :)  

450g mixed fruit
100ml Grand Marnier
100ml freshly squeezed orange juice

Soak mix fruit in orange juice and grand marnier for a week in the fridge.

250g butter
4 eggs
120g sugar
225g all purpose flour
100ml Grand Marnier

a. Preheat oven to 140C. Line baking pan.
b. Cream butter and sugar until smooth.
c. Add in eggs individually, make sure to beat well after each addition.
d. Sift flour into butter mixture and beat slowly until smooth.
e. Fold fruit mixture into the batter.
f. Pour batter into baking pan and bake for one and a half hours.
g. Remove cake from oven and drizzle Grand Marnier immediately over hot cake.
h. When the cake is completely cooled, wrap cake and keep at room temperature for a week before consuming.

         

Dad's Mee Siam

Introducing one of Dad's signature dishes---M E E S I A M. I really really love his Mee Siam, every time he decides to cook it he'll make sure to prepare a huge pot of gravy because he knows I will eat it for lunch and dinner for several days. HAHA yeah I know. Just like his every other dish, Dad found his recipe through experimenting and trial and error. His version of Mee Siam is unlike the ones we usually find in Malay stalls. How should I put it, its taste is in between Malay and Chinese. He likes to to use alot of Asam, onions, fermented soya beans, shrimp paste and chilli. The ingredients he uses are not any different from other recipes I suppose, but somehow he just knows how to modify it to make it special. In fact, Dad doesn't record his recipes, so every time he cooks it will be based on memory and AGARation. 

Garnished with omelette, spring onions and dried shrimps

YUMMYYYYYY...now proceed to drool drool drool

Aw Ree Oh

Today we would like to share a cool Oreo Sponge Cake Recipe! Don't fret if you don't have an oven, because this is a STEAMED cake recipe!

Heh Heh our nice spongy pillow!

Ingredients:

4 Eggs (separated)
100g Caster Sugar
250g Cream Cheese
160g Evaporated Milk
110g Top Flour
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 1/2 tsp Nescafe and 1 tsp water
1 tbsp browning/ Choc Emulco
10 pcs Oreo Cookies (crushed)

Method

1. Beat egg whites until soft peaks and gradually add half of the sugar. Beat until stiff.
2. Beat cream cheese with the remaining sugar until smooth.
3. Gradually add in the egg yolk and beat till smooth (milkshake like).
4. Add in the flour and milk alternately (mix well).
5.Add in the vanilla essence.
6. Lastly add in the egg white mixture.
7. Add in the portion of Nescafe and browning.
8. Grease and line tray.
9. Pour in white batter and sprinkle crushed oreos.
10. Scatter few dollops of coffee batter. Cover with white batter. Repeat this action until finished.
11. Steam for 30 minutes.

A pretty marbled effect!

Bak Zhang (Rice Dumplings)

Every time when it comes to Duan Wu Festival, I get to eat Grandma's home made rice dumplings. My favourite has got to be Nonya Zhang, the one with the nice coriander powder fragrance, sweet winter melon cubes and chestnuts. Making rice dumplings is alot of work, from the preparation to frying the ingredients and wrapping. I remember a few years back when Grandma brought everything over to our house to teach us how to make Bak Zhang from scratch, it took us an entire day and the frying made the kitchen oily! I concluded that wrapping a dumpling really IS a skill and takes alot of practice to master. I'm ashamed to say that I'm so useless at it...

Well unfortunately, Grandma hasn't made Bak Zhangs for the past 2 years because she now finds it too tiring. She would rather buy than to prepare them herself and she knows exactly where to get good ones! We had some Grandma bought somewhere in Aljunied this year.

It was satisfactory, but still, nothing beats the ones Grandma made before :/

Mighty Chiffon Cakes!

I find it hard to swallow breakfast especially during early mornings. It's a habit I've developed from young, eating too early just makes me feel like throwing up. Skipping breakfast is also partly due to how I always wake up to leave only enough time to wash up, get changed and then rush out of the house. :p I know I know, it's very bad. That's why Mummy's cakes are here to save!

That's right, as the title says, today's post is on Chiffon Cakes. My mum is now a pro in baking chiffon cakes. Friends and visitors to our home particularly enjoy her Matcha flavored one, but I didn't photograph the previous ones she baked, so what you'll see below are the Orange Marnier and Coffee flavored ones. I find chiffon cakes easier to stomach when I really have to force myself to eat something. It's soft, light, fluffy and just very convenient to eat!

Chiffon cakes are Mum's signature bake, and they will be made available for order upon request!

A bit of Grand Marnier Orange Liquer was added to enhance the orange flavor.

The next one here is a coffee flavored chiffon cake. Baileys added as well but only a little. Alcohol taste is mild and subtle.