Homecooked goodies

It's been a long time since I shared my homecooked dishes. 

First homecooked meal of the year were Bak Kut Teh, fried fish and favourite veggies Nai Bai.

Sambal long beans with sotong and ikan bilis, preserved mustard pork ribs soup and awesome Muar otah.

Curry chicken, Herbal pigtail soup, Spinach and brown rice.

Bak Kut Teh dinner. First time adding chia seeds on rice and dish - broccoli with prawns, chinese mushroom and enoki mushroom

Steamboat goodness with instant noodles and egg and everything thrown in. It was CNY and we had all the ingredients in the fridge....

Homemade fish porridge with organic mushroom and wolfberries cooked in scallop soup stock.

Lunch in the office, cooked by mom and packed in tiffin carrier.... Thai stir fried pork with basil leaves and mixed veggies of cauliflower/broccoli/mushroom/carrot.

Brown rice and stir fry broccoli/capsicum/mushroom, fried egg with power herbal soup.

I cooked ABC soup, Tomato ketchup Salmon, Braised 'bitter' veggies with mushroom/luncheon meat, Fried Eggs..

Dinner highlight: Stuffed Kimchi Sotong. Sotong stuffed with kimchi, pork bits, and capsicum, and lightly grilled.  Together with Lotus root soup and sambal kang kong.

Bon appetit! 

The lazy man's lunch

This is what you get when it was a Friday and there was nothing left in the fridge. I had wanted to make myself a simple lunch. So I soaked some Chinese mushrooms, and saute them with garlic, butter and olive oil. Then together with a bottle of creamy pasta sauce, I made mushroom carbonara pasta. Turned out not too bad, actually. 

Have a great weekend! 

Curry chicken @ home

Over the last weekend, my mom said she wanted to cook curry.  My eyes lit up as it has been some time since she cooked her very lemak Curry Chicken. 

I love potatoes in curry, and especially when sufficiently cooked, they melt in the mouth. I like chicken wings in curry while mom usually likes to use breast meat or thighs.  Fortunately, mom's curry is never too oily.

I flipped and made some roti prata in the Happy Call Pan. No need for oil and it was done less than 5 minutes. 

This is our Happy Meal for an idyllic weekend at home - Curry Chicken with Prata.

Making a simple dinner at home

I have been busy and have not been having dinner at home for the past 1-2 weeks.  I have been craving for home broiled soup. My principle for cooking is always using what I can find in the kitchen and fridge. So during the weekend, I made a fast and simple dinner.  The dishes were - 

1. Herbal chicken soup   

2. Stir fry beansprouts with bittergourd and salted veggies

3. Spicy tofu chicken

The herbal chicken soup was easy. Adding the chicken meat and a pack of prepacked Chinese herbs, and boiled for more than 2 hours.  For the stir-fry beansprouts, I added some strips of bittergourd, and salted veggies as well as a little pork belly slices. As for the spicy chicken tofu, I had a little of leftover cooked assam chicken, so I decided to create another dish with ingredients like onions, mushrooms, tofu, and egg.

My dishes ready for dinner!  The herbal chicken soup was the best and I finally satisfied my craving for soup. As for the stir-fry beansprouts, it was so so, as I usually do not like tau gay very much.  The spicy chicken tofu was so delicious, although it looked a little mashy and messy.  All the ingredients combined resulted in a wonderful wet dish of tofu, chicken, onions, mushrooms and the sweet taste of egg.

Yong Tau Foo (Stuffed Beancurd) using the Happy Call Pan

In my family, we usually don't buy a lot of meat and fish. In fact, we have reduced our intake considerably compared to the past. My mom normally buys minced pork as it is very flexible and easy preparing dishes. She separates it into smaller bags so that we only cook a small portion at one time. 

One of the days, I had a few pieces of tau kwa (beancurd) in the fridge, so I decided to experiment making Yong Tau Foo my own style. Essentially the dish originated in the early 1960s as tofu stuffed with a meat paste of fish and pork, thereby earning the dish its name "Yong Tau Foo," which means "stuffed bean curd."

I cut the tau kwa into smaller rectangular cubes. Then I marinated minced pork with sesame oil, light soya sauce, oyster sauce, corn flour, and chopped onions. You can keep the marinated pork for 1-2 hours or overnight.  

Afterwards, I roll the minced pork into small balls and top them on each piece of tau kwa, using egg yoke to stick them together. 

Next we are ready to fry them lightly in the Happy Call Pan. I love the HPC because it uses very minimal oil for frying, as compared to using the usual wok and plenty of oil. After heating up the HPC, I lay all pieces of the Yong Tau Foo inside, and with the lid open, cook them on one side, using low fire.

After about 10 minutes or so, I apply some oyster sauce on top of each Yong Tau Foo so that I have some colour and they look more appetising. When ready, garnish with spring onions and served with plain/brown rice. 

This is my first attempt making my own healthy Yong Tau Foo and although it can be improved, I am satisfied with the results.

Minced pork savoury porridge

I remember when I was a kid, my grandma used to cook minced pork porridge for me and my sister when we were visiting her or staying with her during the school holidays.  She did not use many ingredients, it was just minced pork rolled into tiny balls and cooked in porridge which was slightly darker than the usual savoury porridge (probably she used dark soya sauce). As I get older, I find myself occasionally thinking of that very delicious porridge my grandma used to cook and I also try to emulate/recreate that porridge and taste again. Sadly it is not the same.

Recently I have been suffering from a bout of diarrhea.  So one of the days, I decided to cook some minced pork porridge for myself, which was more healthy and easy on the stomach. Ingredients I found and used:  marinated minced pork, carrots cut into small cubes, dried cuttlefish cut into tiny strips, and wolfberries (I have a penchant for wolfberries).  Condiments include: vegetable soup stock, light and dark soya sauce, pepper.  

After boiling a pot of water, I added a couple of vegetable stock cubes (or you can use chicken stock) and rice.  When the porridge has been cooked halfway, I rolled the minced pork into small balls and added them into the pot, followed by carrots, wolfberries and the dried cuttlefish.  Monitor and stir the porridge occasionally.  This simple meal was ready in less than 30 minutes. Although it was nowhere close to my grandma's minced pork porridge, it was nonetheless tasty. And it made me remember the kindness of my grandma.

Biscuit Crumbs Pork Chops using Happy Call Pan

So far, I am quite happy with what came out of my Happy Call Pan experiments. I can safely conclude nothing fails considerably cooking with the HCP. It is only a matter of controlling the fire, the timing and the way you cook different types of ingredients.  

Here's a sneak peek at what I am showcasing today - Biscuit Crumbs Pork Chops!  The combination of different ingredients is a little unusual compared to what we usually get outside, which is Pork Chops normally paired with fries/mashed potato/baked potato, baked beans/peas/corn, long beans/carrots/greens etc.... For my ingredients, I usually prepare what is available in my fridge. Besides pieces of pork loin chops, I found sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes, japanese cucumber, some greens and some sunflower seeds. I decided to throw in a sunny side up egg as well because I love eggs!

Cutting the sweet potatoes into big cubes and sprinkling them with black pepper, I add them into the HCP with half a teaspoon of olive oil, and let them roast for about 10 minutes. Then I prepare my sunny-side up egg in the HCP which is ready in less than 5 minutes.  

In the meantime, I saute some slices of chinese mushroom with chopped garlic in olive oil (or butter), and then adding a cup of water into them. Next I add in the condiments like oyster sauce, mushroom powder, black pepper, and let the mushroom simmer in low fire for the rest of 20-30 minutes while I am preparing the pork chops. When the gravy turns dark brown, I add 2 teaspoons of corn flour to make the gravy more sticky.  By the way, I intend to use this mushroom gravy to top my pork chops so that they would not be too dry. Also I love anything with mushroom!

The most important of all is the preparation of the pork chops. I marinated the pork chops with garlic powder, sesame oil, light soya sauce, black pepper, cajun powder, and corn flour. I left it to marinate in the fridge overnight.  

Before I cook the pork chops, I apply very little dark soya sauce sparingly over each piece of pork chop. This is because I wanted the pork chops to have a slightly darker shade of brown.  Next, I crushed some Crackers biscuits into crumbs. Then I gently coat each piece of pork chop over the biscuit crumbs, shaking off the excess. Adding half a teaspoon of oil, I let the pork chops cook in the HCP, each side about 5 minutes, until they turn golden brown. Check that both sides are not burnt. 

Tadah! Here are my Biscuit Crumbs Pork Chops!  There are 2 versions - the so-called dry and wet versions.  The difference is the mushroom gravy.  If you prefer your pork chops dry, you can dip them with chilli/tomato sauces or whatever sauce you like. Otherwise for the wet version here, my pork chops are topped with the hot mushroom gravy. Yummy!

I prefer my version wet, of course.  Not only were my Biscuit Crumbs Pork Chops topped with the garlicky mushroom gravy, I also added (a little too much) appetising roasted sesame sauce on my salad!  Here is my new contribution to another lovely HCP experiment using impromptu ingredients! 

Sambal Eggplant & other chinese dishes using Happy Call Pan

Here are some dishes we hadfor dinner at home using the Happy Call Pan. They are simple homecooked dishes but with minimal oil used, faster and ease of cooking. 

Trying eggplants with sambal

Sambal Eggplant

Spinach Egg Soup with Wolfberries

Light Soya Sauce Panfried Fish

Long Beans with Pork Slices

Panfried Fish with minimal oil

Stir-fried Spinach with Mushroom

Kailan with mushroom & carrots

Grilled Chicken Wings

The best thing is everything do not stick onto the Happy Call Pan, which means easier cleaning!  Bon appetit!

Caramel Pork Ribs using Happy Call Pan

These Caramel Pork Ribs are not from any restaurant. Heh, this was just my another successful attempt using Happy Call Pan.

A few days ago was my father's birthday. We had an earlier celebration outside, so on the actual day, I decided to cook something for him. I know my father likes pork ribs, whether it is BBQ pork ribs or sweet and sour pork ribs. 

Usually I do not like to cook pork ribs because getting them soft and tender without getting them burnt is quite difficult. But with my new experience with Happy Call Pan, I was pretty confident they will turn out ok.  So I decided to make Caramel Pork Ribs as a western dish with sides; corn, baby potatoes, cherry tomatoes and salad greens.

1. I marinated and coated the pork ribs with light soya sauce, sweet soy sauce (kecap manis), a little dark soya sauce, sesame oil, corn flour, pepper and leave for at least 30minutes to an hour.

2. Wash clean and dry the corn, and coat them with little salt and pepper. 

3. Heat up the Happy Call Pan for 5 minutes.

4. Dribble half a teaspoon of olive oil, and add the corn, potatoes and tomatoes into the pan. Tomatoes take about 5 minutes to roast, while the corn and potatoes take about 20 minutes. Halfway, apply butter on the corn and continue to cook them in the pan.

5. In the meantime, prepare the salad greens.  I used lettuce, carrots and some rocket leaves, simply topped with my favourite cold and appetising roasted sesame sauce.

6. Next, lay the marinated pork ribs into the Happy Call Pan. If the potatoes are still not soft, continue cooking together with the pork ribs. 

7. The pork ribs took about 20 minutes to cook, the last 5 minutes, I opened the lid, applied a touch of honey on top of the ribs and continue cooking them with lid opened so that there is a crisp burnt look at the corners of the ribs. I am satisfied with the hue of the ribs.

8. Finally decorate all items on a plate and serve. 

I am quite happy with the results. Hope my father enjoyed his birthday dish and may he have a long life free from obstacles. 

Pumpkin Claypot Rice using Happy Call Pan

Tried making claypot rice using the Happy Call Pan.  Having read Ellena of Cuisine Paradise's recipe, I decided to improvise a little using different ingredients. Her ingredients included chicken, arrowhead, chinese sausage and greens.  As usual, my version is "whatever I can find in the fridge". As I love pumpkin, I will call this dish Pumpkin Claypot Rice.

Ingredients I found and used from my fridge: 

1. One thick slice of Pumpkin, cut into cubes
2. Lean pork (marinated with light soya sauce, corn flour, sesame oil and pepper)

3. One Chinese Sausage, cut into slices

4. 2 medium size Potatoes, cut into cubes

5. 4 Chinese Mushroom, cut into slices
6. Few slices Ginger

7. Chopped Onions
8. Chopped Garlic

1. I cooked the rice in my usual rice cooker instead of the Happy Call Pan, and let it cool.

2. Preheat the Happy Call Pan and add the potato cubes into the pan and close for 5 minutes, so that they are medium soft.  Then add in the pumpkin cubes at the last 2 minutes and after which remove all from the pan. Medium heat is used throughout.

3. Add half or one teaspoon of oil into the pan, and saute the chopped onions, garlic and ginger for a minute before adding the chinese mushroom and pork slices. Stir fry them till they are half cooked and removed them from the pan. 

4. Continue to add the cooked rice into the pan, and lay all the ingredients of mushroom, pork, potato, pumpkin as well as the chinese sausages on top. Close lid and cook for 5 minutes. 

5. Mix one tablespoon of oyster sauce with one tablespoon dark soya dark before dribbling on top of the rice and ingredients. Also dribble 2 teaspoons of sesame oil and pepper.  Cook for another 5-8 minutes.

6. Turn off the fire, and let the cooked claypot rice sit for another 5 minutes. 

7. Mix the plain white rice and ingredients well before serving.   

Really easy, tasty and wonderful simple dinner using Happy Call Pan, claypot rice with the 'burnt bits' and minus the claypot! I thought the pumpkin and chinese sausage brighten up the otherwise 'black' looking dish. I would add in some green cai sim the next time. Actually, feel free to improvise with any ingredients you like and be pleasantly surprised how it will turn out.

A meatless diet in Singapore - it wasn't that hard, is it?

Yippee! I have just completed almost 4 months of a meatless diet, 115 days to be exact. I made the decision for health, spiritual and personal reasons. I do it once a year or sometimes more frequently with shorter periods. Suffice to say, there is always the misconception that it is very inconvenient to be a vegetarian in Singapore where it is a food haven. 

To me it was not so much of a problem compared to when I was doing a non-carbo diet, which meant no noodles, no rice, no bread, no cookies etc.... only meat and veggies. Aaarrghhh! That diet was tougher than this meatless diet. I was very encouraged to go vegetarian this time. Even though I have completed this diet, I may just continue being meatless (or almost 90% vegetarian) as I found that taking too much meat cause me to feel too full and bloated all the time, and not to mention, involving the act of taking the lives of animals. 

Here is a guide to being meatless in Singapore, based on my 4 months of diet.

Breakfast

Usually for breakfast at home, I have bread, toast with peanut butter or eggs. Breakfast choices outside at the hawker centres are: (clockwise) Chee cheong fun, roti prata from Mufiz, black carrot cake from Kim Lee, and famous chwee kway from Bedok. Or other times, I go for kaya toast with half boiled eggs.

Vegetarian hawker food

Yes there are many stalls that are out of touch, for example, bak chor mee (minced pork noodles), prawn noodles, chicken/duck rice stalls, fish soup stalls etc... However there are vegetarian options to chicken rice and wanton noodles too (check out my earlier post on Onn Vegetarian).  At chai fun rice stalls, I choose dishes like mushroom, stir fry veggies, eggs, tofu etc. At yong tau hoo stalls, there are many items without the meat paste too, like lady fingers, mushroom, radish, kangkong, yam, fried beancurd stick, tofu, fried tau kwa etc.. 

Indian vegetarian food

I am lucky that I enjoy Indian food and they have lots of vegetarian options.  From clockwise, I love butter and garlic naan with 3 types of vegetarian gravy (from Ananda Bhavan), masala thosai (potatoes inside), vadai is a snack, and dishes like aloo mutter and mushroom gobi (from Mustafa) and so on.

Western vegetarian options

There are fast food options which does not cost a bomb. From clockwise, the delicious vegetarian Chicken Chop from Ci Hang (see my earlier post), Egg Mayo from Subway, Potato Croquette Burger from MosBurger, and Vegetarian Delight pizza from Sarpino's Pizza.

Vegetarian Tze Char

Sometimes I have the craving for steaming hot stir fry noodles from tze char stalls which are cooked on the spot. From clockwise, delicious bee hoon from Eight Treasures stall, customised vegetarian Thai fried kway teow, vegetarian bee hoon /noodles, and hor fun. 

Desserts/Snacks

Most savoury dessert options such as curry puff, chicken pies, otah are out. However there are many types of sweet snacks which vegetarians can enjoy, like cakes and ice cream. From clockwise, deep fried sweet potato balls from Rochor Hawker Centre, sweet tang yuan soup (homecooked), and a malay snack, Kueh Lopes. If I feel like having something savoury, the sweet corn or french fries from McDonalds is always welcome. The choices are endless.

Muslim food

Ayam Penyet or muslim dishes like sambal sotong and ayam merah are out. But you can still have sayur lodeh (curry veggies) and (from clockwise) Lontong, mee rebus, vegetarian nasi lemak topped with yummy sambal petai, or rice with muslim dishes like sambal kangkong, fried bean curd with long beans, fried egg or bergedel. 

Homecooked vegetarian food

The most flexible would be cooking vegetarian dishes at home based on your preference.  Here are some of the vegetarian dishes I cooked.  As I love all kinds of vegetables, it was easy peasy. For example, I cooked lo han zai, egg with gourd, nai pak with mushroom, and potatoes tofu. There are so many variations.

Homecooked porridge/soup

When I am sick of everything else, porridge usually does the trick. We have our usual veggies dishes, our special braised beancurd sticks, or dark sauce tau kwa, and fermented cai sim, olive veggies, nuts. I also had vegetarian dumplings soup to go with rice or noodles. 

Homecooked pasta

I like variety. When I get sick of chinese dishes, I would cook pasta in different methods. Clockwise, stir fry curly pasta chinese style, cream spaghetti with broccoli and mushroom, or tomato sauce pasta with potatoes and mushroom, or vegetarian lasagna. Yummy!

And when I am really in the mood, I make Tofu Burger (check out my previous post). This is my Tofu Burger, with lettuce, sauteed mushroom (and dribbled with a little of its sauce), alfafa sprouts and some mayonnaise. I topped the piping hot grilled potato with a little butter. The Tofu patty was so juicy and tasty that it could easily substitute the pork patty, in my opinion. 

So, being on a meatless diet is quite doable in Singapore, isn't it? Have a great weekend!

Grilled Chicken using Happy Call Pan

I seldom cook western dishes at home since my parents prefer mostly traditional Chinese dishes. Once in a while I want a change, so I will fry patties for burgers and salad, or grill chicken or fish with soup, or sausage with mashed potatoes etc.. One thing about frying patties or fries, it gets all oily everywhere. Even grilling in the oven will make the kitchen a little smokey and smells, and needs a lot of cleaning up afterwards. It spoils the fun of cooking.

This was what I cooked for dinner - Grilled Chicken with Salad and Potatoes - all prepared under an hour. For once, none of the ingredients used were overcooked, too dry, burnt, or tasted weird. And my kitchen was not greasy and smelly.

All because I used this marvelous Korean invention of a magic pan called Happy Call Pan.  Thanks to sis who bought it, we finally joined this Happy Call Pan craze. A few months ago, although I have heard raving reviews about this product from food bloggers and the delicious looking dishes they prepared using Happy Call Pan, I was skeptical and never really bothered to find out more. I thought the original sweetness of the ingredients would be lost and the dish would taste 'different', compared to traditional wok frying and cooking.

Happy Call Pan's benefits are very attractive though....

- using patented heat retention technology, it cooks food faster

- coated with titanium and ceramic, it is non-stick and easy to wash

- there is no smoke or odour 

- heathier cooking as it uses no or minimum oil.
- food retains its original sweetness

First I grilled the baby potatoes and cherry tomatoes. I added half a teaspoon of olive oil to the pan and seasoned the potatoes and tomatoes with a little salt, seasoning powder and black pepper. I closed the lid and let them cook, flipping the pan on and off. The tomatoes were ready and taken out in 5 minutes. The potatoes took longer time to cook, about 20 -30 minutes (depending on size), with constant checking and poking. 

Next I put the chicken pieces in, together with slices of onions.  I sprinkled the pre-marinated chicken with Cajun powder and black pepper. The potatoes which were still not cooked continued grilling. No oil was added. After about 5 minutes the oil from the chicken appeared. I took out the potatoes and onion slices and let the chicken meat continue cooking for another 5-10 minutes.  

Here was dinner, looking pretty, appetising, juicy and delicious. I prepared the salad sprinkled with sesame seed roasted sauce as the dressing. The cooked onion slices were garnished on the grilled chicken. Since the chicken was not too dry, I need not prepare additional sauce to go with it. Everything was so yummy and delicious. So this was our very first happy experience with Happy Call Pan. More to come.... sweatless cooking minus the smell of grease on my hair. 

You can take a look at what dishes my fellow friendly blogger, Ellena of Cuisine Paradise, has cooked with her Happy Call Pan. She even made Bak Kwa (BBQ pork) and Muah Chee! You can also bake cakes with this wonderful pan too!