Stir-Fried Spinach with Mushrooms

Posted by Vivian in Chinese, Vegetable

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Each time I go on vacation, the first thing I start to miss is stir-fried vegetables, Chinese style. While I am ok with salads, I tend to get sick of it after eating for 3 days in a row. No matter how many types of different salad dressings we can possibly find, the baseline is that it still tastes raw. My Asian palate is too used to the garlicky green leafy vegetables. When I got back from the recent vacation in Japan, the first thing I did the next day was head down to the supermarket for a big bunch of bak choy and stir-fried it with garlic for dinner, just to satisfy my craving that had been suppressed for days.

As far back as I can remember, the usual stir-fried vegetables that my mum will serve (and same goes for my mum-in-law) are either bak choy, spinach or choy sum and they are all done the same way – garlic with light soy sauce. I tried to come up with a slightly different sauce the other day for my stir-fry and I quite like how it turned out.  It reminded me of the spinach with abalone mushrooms we normally get at a Chinese wedding dinner.

Ingredients:

• 500 gm spinach (cut into 3-inch length)
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 10 shitake mushroom (sliced thickly about 1-cm wide) *Fresh or dried can be used. For dried shitake, soak overnight before use
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon light soya sauce
• ½ tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 level tablespoon corn flour (or chestnut flour)

Preparation:

• Mix oyster sauce, light soy sauce and sesame oil with 150 ml of water. Stir to combine.
• Mix corn flour with 100 ml of water.
• Heat oil in wok. Add in half of the minced garlic and stir-fry until fragrant.
• Throw in mushrooms and stir occasionally.
• When the mushrooms are almost done and juices start to run, add in sauce mixture and let it simmer for 4 to 5 minutes. The sauce will thicken slightly.
• Remove mushrooms and sauce.
• Using the same wok, heat another tablespoon of oil and stir-fry the balance minced garlic until fragrant.
• Add in spinach and stir-fry continuously.
• Return the mushroom and sauce to wok when the vegetables are just about to be cooked.
• Lower heat and add in cornstarch.
• Remove from heat when the sauce turns clear and thickens.

Spaghetti with Meatballs

Posted by Vivian in Beef, Pasta

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The blog is starting to grow moldy due to the lack of updates. It has been so neglected that I didn’t even realize that the formatting has got haywire and needed some adjustments, until late last week, which then took me another few days to set it right. The thumbnail on the homepage is still not back to what it was. Clicking on it doesn’t link to the post but a bigger-sized photo. I can’t remember how I had revised the html back then and I couldn’t find the old post by a someone, somewhere detailing how to do it. I’m too lazy to squint my eyes sieving every line and go through a trial and error process… so I think I will just have to live with it for now until I am “inspired” to do something about it.

Since we got back from our family vacation, I have been revisiting all the old recipes. Sadly, even though I had practiced hard to make the recipe perfect in the past, I have failed to continue to practice to stay perfect. Not just the recipe, but the food porn (like the one up there!) is starting to look a bit messy.  Will it sound a little too lame if I shift the blame to the not quite photogenic meatballs??

Whatever it was, I finally got my act together last weekend and made something different because I have gotten too used to throwing in the usual suspects each time someone in the family requests for pasta (ABC pasta to be exact!). So I went through my recipe books late one night and persuaded myself to try my hands on making meatballs. The ingredient list didn’t look too complicated, which is always a push factor for me to want to try but I definitely underestimated the amount of time required to prepare the meatballs.

The taste was there but not quite the texture of the meatballs and I blame in on my over-confidence where preparation time is concerned. It was nearing lunch time and I was still buzzing around the kitchen not ready to fire up the stove. PANIC!

In the end, I was only working towards getting the minced beef ball-like looking neglecting the texture. It turned out that the meatball didn’t hold well together and breaks apart with just a light touch. Better luck next time… hopefully.

Ingredients:

• 500 gm minced beef
• 1/2 onion (minced)
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Tomato based pasta sauce
• 500 gm spaghetti (cooked according to instructions on packing)

Preparation:

• Combine minced beef, onion, dried oregano and worcestershire sauce.  Season to taste with a pinch of salt.  Mixed ingredients well using hands.
• Roll level tablespoons of the mixture into balls and dust lightly with plain flour, shaking off excess.
• Heat olive oil in pan  and cook meatball in batches, turning often until browned all over.
• Transfer meatballs into heated pasta sauce and allow to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Serve over spaghetti. 

Number of Servings: 4