Prawn Croquette

Posted by Vivian in Potatoes, Seafood

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It has been a while since I experiment with anything that requires deep-frying and I am going to use the same excuse again – because I simply do not have extra time to while away in the kitchen.

Last Sunday was one of those rare occasions when I didn’t have anything else on my plate, no extra chores to take care of and no places that I need to run to. So I decided to give this prawn croquette recipe a try. I think I spent a grand total of 3 hours in the kitchen on the preparation, cooking and washing. This may sound really funny to most people, but being able to spend the time how I want to without feeling the pressure is a luxury to me.

Even though I ended up with sore legs, it was a 3-hour well worth spending because I got the thumbs up sign from both kids. Hopefully the next time when I get to soak myself in the kitchen for a straight 3 hours won’t be too far away.

This is a close adaptation to the recipe from Wokkingmum. Instead of using salt, I had added salted butter when mashing the potatoes for a smoother consistency and also to ensure a more even out taste (in case the salt doesn’t get mixed well enough), and the final coating was replaced with panko only because I like the colour that panko produces after deep-frying. Parmesan cheese was omitted from my recipe and mozzarella cheese was added instead as it melts beautifully in my opinion.

Ingredients:

• 20 medium size prawns (deveined, head and shell removed with tail left intact)
• 1 kg of potatoes
• Half a bar of salted butter
• Shredded mozzarella cheese (estimated to be about 3 tablespoon heaps)
• 1 egg (beaten)
• Plain flour
• Panko

Preparation:

• Boil potatoes for about 25 mins till soft.
• Peel off potato skin and mash well with butter.
• Make 3 to 5 horizontal slits across the underside of each prawn (this is to prevent the prawn from curling up during the cooking process).
• Blanch the prawns until it is almost cook..
• Place a small clump of the mashed potatoes in the palm, top with cheese and prawn. Add on another small clump of mashed potatoes and mould well using hands ensuring that the prawn is well covered with potatoes except for the tail. Repeat process for each prawn.
• Coat each croquette with plain flour first, followed by egg and lastly with panko.
• Fry croquette until golden brown.

Seafood Crispy Noodles (海鲜生面)

Posted by Vivian in Chinese, Noodles, Seafood

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One miserable post for the year thus far… that’s truly a record low!

Planning a meal has been quite a challenge this year. Being pressed for time on most days is only but one reason. Logistic arrangements, from transportation for grocery shopping to other activities taking priority on most weekends, complicate matters as well. So it has been “back to basics”, and nothing fancy has came out from the humble kitchen of mine for many moons now. I used to bookmark interesting recipes and will attempt to get to it when I find the opportunity to. Convinced myself to stop doing that because it will only make me more depress with an ever growing list, as if a promise made to own self that I couldn’t keep to.

Even the recipe below is nothing terribly exciting - same recipe for Hor Fun except for some very slight changes. At the very least, it satisfy myself that I won’t end the year with only one entry!

Ingredients:

• 5 pieces of crispy noodles 
• 200 gm of lean pork or chicken fillet (sliced)
• 1 medium size squid (sliced) 
• 2 fish cake (sliced) 
• 15 medium-sized prawn 
• 1 bunch of choy sum 
• 4 cloves of garlic (diced) 
• 5 cups of chicken stock 
• Oyster sauce 
• Light soy sauce
• Sesame oil 
• 2 eggs (lightly beaten) 
• Cornstarch (4 tablespoons of cornflour mixed with a small bowl of water)
• Cornflour

Preparation:

• Marinate both chicken/pork and prawns with corn flour, sesame oil and light soy sauce. 
• Heat up oil  and stir-fry garlic. 
• Add chicken to pan and stir-fry until it is almost done and add in prawns and squid.
• Remove ingredients from pan when cooked. 
• Add chicken stock, 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce and 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce to pan. Bring to boil. 
• Add in choy sum and fish cake.
• As soon as the choy sum is cooked, lower heat and add in cornstarch and bring to boil.
• Once the sauce thickens, return all ingredients back to pan. 
• Turn off heat and stir in beaten egg. 
• Dish gravy over noodles. 

Number of Servings: 5

Stir-Fried Scallops and Pacific Clams with Broccoli (花开富贵)

Posted by Vivian in Seafood

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I have been doing some "sitting on my butt" for way too long. This was supposed to have made its way here before Lunar New Year was over, obviously it didn't quite happen.  Days, turned into weeks and weeks into a month.  My mind has been preoccupied lately with battling stuff and unfortunately people, and it leaves me completely drained.  Plus the house is falling apart with things turning wonky all at the same time.  Well... at least the Daikin folks are taking much longer to fix the air conditioner than me getting this entry up.

Anyways, back to this dish with a auspicious-sounding name that describes nothing but spring (which by the way I also found out that there are many other dishes out there with the same Chinese name but boy do they all look different!).  Obviously, this was deliberately dished out with Chinese New Year in mind and also because I bought a can of pacific clams and wanted to make something different other than pouring the whole can into a big pot of soup.  So I bought a bag of scallops to go with the pacific clams... think buying a dress to pair up with the shoes.

If you ask me, the taste didn't quite wow me.  It tasted almost like this shrimp and broccoli dish.  Probably because I was hoping for something very different.  Almost like a mismatch of expectation and reality.


Ingredients:

• 1 can of pacific clams
• 15 pieces of fresh scallops
• 1/3 stick of carrot (thinly sliced or cut into flower shape)
• 1 bunch of broccoli (stem removed and cut)
• 5 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 3 slices of ginger
• 2 stalks of spring onion (ends only)
• 1 teaspoon of Shaoxing wine
• 1 cup of chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
• Corn starch (100ml of water mixed with 1 level tablespoon of cornflour)

Preparation:

• Blanch broccoli and set aside.
• Saute garlic (half of above indicated quantity), ginger and spring onion with a little bit of oil until fragrant
• Sprinkle with Shaoxing wine and add in chicken broth.
• Once the mixture starts to boil, add in scallops and allow to cook for about 2 minutes.
• Drain and remove scallops,  Set aside for later use.
• Using a clean pan, stir-fry the remaining minced garlic.
• Add carrot to the pan and when it is half done, add in pacific clams.
• Stir-fry mixture until thoroughly cooked.
• Mix in oyster sauce, light soy sauce and sesame oil.
• Return into the pan.
• Turn the heat down and add in cornstarch. 
• Let simmer until the sauce thickens.
• Transfer to serving plate and garnish with broccoli.

Number of servings: 4 to 5

Baked Butter Prawn

Posted by Vivian in Seafood

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This is a really simple recipe that Diana had shared with me a while ago.  So simple that it doesn't require a lot of effort, time and ingredients to put the dish together, but the end result is mouth-watering enough to pass-off as something that the cook had slaved over the stove-top (oven rather).  The disappointing part was that the prawns I got last week wasn't fresh enough to do more justice to the taste.

Oh yes... this dish reminded me of another recipe from my mum which also had tons of garlic (enough to make you smell the after-breath from miles away) and a sinful amount of butter to it.  The difference is that the butter is made into sauce.

Ingredients:

• 800 gm of prawns (whiskers trimmed off) 
• Generous knob of butter (I used about 80 gm) 
• 8 cloves of garlic (minced) 

Preparation:

• Mixed all ingredients together and allow to stand for 30 minutes. (I had cut the butter into morsels and left them on top of the prawns next to a pot of boiling water to hasten the melting process!). 
• Bake prawns for 8 to 10 minutes at 180 degree Celsius. 

Number of Servings: 3 to 4

Stir Fried Noodles with Crabmeat and Shrimp in Gravy‏

Posted by Vivian in Noodles, Seafood

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Ingredients:

• 4 bundles of egg noodles 
• 200 gm of crabmeat 
• 200 gm of shrimp (shelled and de-veined) 
• 4 bunches of bak choy (cut into 1 inch long) 
• 3 cloves garlic (minced) 
• 4 tablespoons corn flour 
• 2 cups chicken broth 

Preparation:

• Pre-cook noodle and run under water to remove starch 
• Heat up wok and add 2 tbsp of cooking oil. 
• Add about 4 tbsp soy sauce into the wok. 
• Add the noodles in and stir-fry around briskly. Few drops of sesame oil can be added for fragrance. 
• Remove the noodles once well-coated and set aside. 
• Using the same wok, add about 1 tbsp cooking oil and then stir-fry the shrimp and crabmeat till cooked. 
• Put the noodles into the wok, and stir around to distribute the seafood evenly. 
• Remove from wok and set aside. 
• Mix the chicken broth and corn flour together in a small bowl. 
• Heat about 1 tbsp cooking oil and saute the garlic till fragrant. Quickly pour in the mixture and add the bak choy to the mix. Bring to a boil. 
• Add a splash of soy sauce for flavour. (A beaten egg can also be added to the gravy). 

Number of Servings: 4

Stir-Fried Prawns and Broccoli

Posted by Vivian in Chinese, Seafood, Vegetable

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Quite honestly I am starting to run out of ideas for one-dish meal and because now that I am starting to get more organised when it comes to meal preparation, I do find myself attempting to put together a typical home-cooked Chinese meal more frequently, that consists of rice and 2 or 3 dishes.

This is an idiot-proof recipe that can be easily whipped up and taste like something you order from a Chinese restaurant. In my opinion, anything that has oyster sauce usually won't go wrong....

Ingredients:

• 1 kg prawn (peeled and de-veined, with tail left intact) 
• 3 cloves of garlic (diced) 
• 1 kg broccoli (cut into florets) 
• 1/2 cup of water 
• 1 tbsp cornflour 
• 2 tablespoon oyster sauce 
• 2 tablespoon light soy sauce 
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil 

Preparation:

• Combine cornflour with water and mix to a smooth paste. 
• Add oyster sauce, light soy sauce and sesame oil to cornstarch and mix well. 
• Partially blanch broccoli in boiling water and set aside to drain Heat oil in wok and stir-fry prawns with some garlic. 
• Remove prawns from wok when it is about 80% done and set aside. 
• Add remaining garlic and broccoli to wok and stir-fry broccoli. 
• Pour cornflour mixture to the wok and mix through. 
• Add prawns and cook until heated through. 
• Serve hot with rice. 

Number of Servings: 4

Baked Mussels with Cheese

Posted by Vivian in Seafood

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Credit for this recipe goes to Wokkingmum yet again.

I made this the second time today and was a little disappointed with the quality of the mussels. When I first attempted this dish, I had made it with frozen mussels from Australia. This time round I got the mussels from the seafood section and found the quality no where near the Aussie mussels. The latter was bigger in terms of size and more flavourful. A little more pricy but with the added convenience of not needing to remove one side of the shell. Lesson learned!

Ingredients:

• Mussels
• Tomato based pasta sauce
• Mozzarella cheese 

Preparation:

• Steam the mussels for 3 minutes to partially cook it first and to remove the liquid. After steaming the mussels, drain them. 
• Spoon pasta sauce to cover fill the shell. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese and sprinkle some chopped parsley. 
• Bake at 180 degree Celsius for 10 minutes or till the sauce bubbles out of the cheese and that the cheese has melted. 

Number of Servings: Dependent on the number of mussels used and the appetite of diner

(In the event if the mussels are more than partially cooked during the steaming process, bake the mussels at 200 degree Celsius or bake at a higher rack to allow the cheese to melt faster and not over-cook the mussels.)