Stir-Fried Beef with Oyster Sauce

Posted by Vivian in Beef, Chinese

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I was first "introduced" to Kylie Kwong by Cathy.  Not a physical introduction but more like I got to know about this Australian Chinese chef, TV presenter, restauranteur cum cookbook writer when Cathy got me one of Kylie's cookbook for my last birthday.  I got my hands on another book of Kylie Kwong while doing Christmas shopping a few months ago.

This time round it was a back to basic cookbook on Chinese cuisine.  The recipes are no where near fancy but more day-to-day dishes that our mothers put on the dining table.  While it is easy to find a gazillion food blogs for simple recipes like these, it is one in a million to get a book written by a true professional on elementary stuff for ordinary people like me whose only desire is to put together a decent home cooked meal for the family.

Even though it was a very basic dish, it took me 2 tries to get this one right (I am that dumb!).  I had sliced the beef to 1 cm thick was instructed by the book but somehow the meat turned out to be too chewy.  I am certain that I must have done something wrong during the frying process but I couldn't pin my finger on the exact cause. At least the taste was there and sufficient to nudge me to attempt a second try.  This time, I sliced the beef real thin and seasoned with cornflour.  I happily declared victory when I took the first bite.

To get a thicker consistency of the sauce, I had added cornstarch instead of just water and the broccoli (which was really because Matty had requested that I cook some for him this weekend) turned out to be a great garnish because we could use that to dip into the sauce and clean out the whole plate.


Ingredients:

• 500 gm beef (sliced thinly)
• 6 slices of ginger (can be julienned as well)
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1 medium-sized onion (cut into think wedges)
• 4 to 5 stalks of spring onion (cut into 1-inch long)
• Cornflour
• Light soy sauce
• Malt vinegar
• Shaoxing wine
• Oyster sauce
• Sugar
• Sesame seed oil

Preparation:

• Marinate beef with 2 tablespoons of Shaoxing wine, 2 tablespoon of light soy sauce and 2 teaspoon of cornflour for 30 minutes.
• In the meantime, mix together 1 1/2 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1 1/2 tablespoon of light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of malt vinegar, 1 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine and a dash of sesame seed oil.
• Using another bowl, mix 100 ml of water to 2 teaspoon of cornflour and set aside
• Heat wok with some oil and stir-fry half of the beef for 30 seconds and remove from heat.  Stir-fry the other half of the beef likewise.  (I like to remove beef when it is still a little pinkish to avoid overcooking when it gets returned to the wok)
• With the same wok, heat up more oil and stir in onion, ginger and garlic until the onion starts to brown.
• Add in sauce mixture and let it simmer slightly.
• Place beef back into wok , giving it a quick stir.
• Low the heat slightly and add in spring onion and cornflour mixture.  Mix well.
• Remove from heat as soon as the sauce starts to thicken and while the beef is still tender.

Number of Servings: 4

Shrimp Fried Rice 2.0

Posted by Vivian in Chinese, Rice

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In an attempt to simply things, I made some changes to the Shrimp Fried Rice recipe (or more like I rewrote it).  These were the steps...

• Marinate shrimps with light soy sauce and cornflour for at least 30 minutes.
• Heat wok with oil.
• Stir in garlic and fry till fragrant.
• Add in diced carrots.
• When the carrots are partially cook, throw in corn kernels and stir lightly.
• Add shrimps to wok.
• As soon as the  shrimps are cooked, remove from wok and set aside.
• Pour in beaten egg and allow it to set partially.
• Add it pre-cooked overnight rice and chopped spring onions.
• Mix all ingredients thoroughly.
• Season with light soy sauce, dark soy sauce (optional) and sesame oil.
• Return shrimps to wok and give it a final stir to mix well.

Although the shrimps didn't have the pan-fried taste to it, it tasted just as good.  I think I will stick to this recipe from now on. Ok... I admit that I am just lazy!

(My Take On) Honey Stung Chicken

Posted by Vivian in Chicken

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Today would had been described as a "perfect day" by Matty.  McDonalds' for breakfast, trip to the zoo, chicken rice for lunch and fried chicken wings for dinner.  Although it wasn't deliberately planned to be so, it is surely a good way to make up to him for the sufferings he went through the last weekend due to his gastric flu.  But his poor mummy had been up on her feet (literally) since 8.30 in the morning, except during meal time and the car ride between home and zoo, and back.  Only managed to put up my swollen legs at 10 in the evening.

Few weeks back we took the kids to Billy Bombers for dinner to celebrate Elaina being off diaper and to reward them for their well behaviour.  Instead of the usual fish and chips, the kids chose chicken and so we ordered a Honey Stung Chicken for sharing.  The portion as always was big.  2 thighs, 2 drumsticks, 1 big pile of fries and a bowl of coleslaw.  Just nice to feed Elaina, Matty and still enough for myself.  The taste of the chicken was really unique - it was both savoury and sweet.  It left me wondering if this is something I can attempt in my own kitchen.

And so I came back home, did some poking around the worldwide web but couldn't quite decide which was the right recipe to follow.  The only thing I was sure is that the chicken is coated with honey instead of the usual egg.  In other words the logical order should be flour, honey and crumbs.

I took the dive today without a recipe to follow and not knowing the outcome, but the first bite left me grinning from ear to ear.  I can only admit that I was lucky.

Dinner was satisfying... in fact overly satisfying because I bought 16 chicken wings for 3 adults and 2 kids (I must be either out of my mind or too excited about trying my hands on this dish).


Ingredients:

• Chicken drumsticks, thighs, drumlets or mid-joints 
• Light soya sauce
• Plain flour or self-raising flour
• Honey
• Panko, crushed soda crackers or dried breadcrumbs

Preparation:

• Marinate chicken with light soya sauce for at least 30 minutes
• First coat chicken with flour, then with honey and lastly with panko, soda crackers or breadcrumbs.
• Deep-fry chicken until golden brown.
• Drain off excess oil and serve hot.

Number of Servings: Dependent on quantity of chicken used and sanity level of the cook

Today was the first time I had used self-raising to coat the chicken instead of plain flour.  According to my mum-in-law plain flour clumps after coming into contact with the chicken but not self raising flour.  And so I took her advice.  It really did make the coating process much easier... or at least the first step because I cannot say so for the honey as opposed to egg.  It was so sticky that by the time I was done with the coating my fingers were so well-coated and looked as though they were ready to be fried.

Japanese-Style Potato Salad

Posted by Vivian in Japanese, Potatoes, Salad

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Most people believe that what you bring over to the next year will continue to stay for the rest of the year.  With barely 2 hours left to go before bidding goodbye to 2009, I am trying hard to complete as much as I possibly can just so that "procrastination" will not stick to me in 2010 too often and hopefully less leftover tasks to tackle.  So here I am bashing away on my MacBook working hard to put up this post because the photo has been sitting in the compact flash card for way too long.

The last time I made this salad dish was... hmmmm... eons ago that I cannot remember when.  This recipe originated from my mum-in-law and I believe a Japanese friend of hers gave it to her.  It is a handy recipe to have - good for parties and special occassions, a definite crowd pleaser.  It keeps well overnight and can therefore be prepared a day beforehand.  We had a potluck party in the office recently and the first thing that came to mind was this salad.  The whole pot was wiped clean before the lunch was over.

This is really simple to put together but in order to bring the best out of it a lot of patience is needed because the ingredients need to be diced finely (like all things Japanese, "delicate" is the operative word!).  Somehow the taste is odd when the ingredients are chunky.


Ingredients:

• 6 medium-sized Russet potatoes
• 1 stick of carrot
• 5 eggs
• Mayonnaise (I use a mixed of Japanese Mayo and Kraft Mayo)
• 2 tablespoons of white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons of white sugar

Preparation:

• Bring a big pot of water to boil and place potatoes in.  Allow potatoes to boil until soft.
• Place eggs in another pot and bring to boil.  Allow eggs to cook for 10 minutes.  Turn off heat and cover the pot.  Let the eggs continue to sit in the hot water for another 10 minutes before removing the eggs from water.  This is a way to prevent the greyish ring forming around the yolk.
• In the meantime, dice carrots finely.  Cook in boiling water till soft and set aside.
• Once the eggs are done, remove shell.  Halve the eggs and scoop out the egg yolk.  Dice the egg white finely.
• Peel potatoes and dice finely.
• Using a big mixing bowl, mash and break up the egg yolks with a tablespoon.  Add in vinegar and sugar.  Mix well until a smooth paste is formed.
• Pour in egg white, carrots and potatoes.
• Top with Mayonnaise.  A sinful amount is need to get it to the right consistency.
• Mix all ingredients together.
• More Mayonnaise to be added if required.
• Transfer to serving dish, cover and chill.
• Can be served with shrimps or Japanese cucumber on the side.

Number of Servings: 6 to 8

Celery can be added to this salad dish for added crunch.  Just dice and boil.  Mix in with all ingredients during preparation stage.

Fried Kway Teow - Take 2

Posted by Vivian in Local, Noodles

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This is an extremely overdue post which I have been sitting on for weeks.  I gave the excuse that I am flat out from all that is happening both at work and home front and I should cut myself some slack.  Now that the busy November is over, Christmas tree is up and Christmas shopping and wrapping are done all within a week there is no more reason to continue to slack.

Because this was made so many weeks ago I cannot quite recall the exact ingredients that went in or the steps and there is nothing to make reference to only because everything was done based on gut-feel.  But this is what and how I think it should be....

Ingredients:

• 300 gm fresh yellow noodles
• 300 gm fresh kway teow
• 100 gm fish cake (sliced diagonally)
• 4 eggs
• Few stalks of spring onion (cut into 2-inch length)
• Few cloves of garlic (minced)
• 4 Chinese sausages (sliced diagonally)
• 200 gm bean sprouts (tailed removed)
• Kecap manis
• Light soya sauce

Preparation:

• Blanched the noodles and kway teow slightly if they are not the fresh type to loosen the clumps.
• Heat wok and add oil, followed by garlic once the oil is hot.
• As soon as the garlic gets fragrant, stir in Chinese sausage and allow it to cook until the sausages release its aroma.
• Throw in bean sprouts, kway teow and noodles.
• Once the noodles and kway teow starts to cook, season with kecap manis and light soya sauce to taste.  Mix well.
• Push the noodles to one side of the wok and add the eggs. Using the spatula, stir to break the eggs and quickly cover the eggs with the noodles.
• Add in spring onion 15 seconds later and give the noodles a quick stir to mix.

Number of Servings: 4 

Pan-Fried Potatoes with Rosemary

Posted by Vivian in Potatoes

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Had some leftover potatoes and carrots in the fridge bought 2 weeks ago and I really want to clear the stock before everything turned bad. The initial idea was try to my hands on making a cottage pie but was worried at the same time that Holland potatoes may not be the best potatoes for mashing since it is higher in sugar than starch. So when I saw this recipe at The Little Teochew's blog, I immediately changed course.

A very simple dish but I went away with many lessons learnt:

(1) Have some good sense and never mix different types of potatoes together when cooking (I bought some loose USA potatoes because I wasn't sure if my leftover Holland potatoes was going to be enough to feed so many mounths and was glad that I did) because it becomes a challenge trying to manage the cooking time and making sure that the consistency was just right. The US potatoes turned out to be too soft by the time its cousin was done just right. I could tell who's who based on the colour!

(2) To reduce the cooking time, cover the pan with a slight opening for water vapour to escape and leave the potatoes to cook over medium heat. Turn the potatoes every few minutes to avoid charring. We need to brown it not char! The second batch was quite badly done because I walked away to tend to the children and in the end my 6-sided cubed potatoes all had 1 side that was almost burnt
(3) It is important to let the water vapour out if not the potatoes will start to "stew" in the water that had dripped back to the pan, making it hard to brown the potatoes and the potatoes will be slightly soggy as well.

(4) Never be too ambitious or lazy and attempt to cook too many potatoes in one go. The potatoes need to lay flat in one layer in order to get them all browning at the same rate.

But I must say that the rosemary leaves lended this dish a lovely smell. It is my first dealing with rosemary leaves as far as my own cooking is concerned and I have fallen madly in love with it. Time to go google for a rosemary chicken recipe.


Ingredients:

• Potatoes (cut into morsels)
• Rosemary leaves
• Olive oil
• Salt

Prepration:

• Heat pan and drizzle enough olive oil to cover the entire pan.
• Add in potatoes and rosemary leaves, making sure that all potatoes are in one layer.
• Cover pan, leaving a slight opening for water vapour to escape.
• Leave potatoes to cook over medium heat and giving them a flip every few minutes, until potatoes are soft enough to cut through easily
• Remove and sprinkle lightly with salt.
• Serve as a side-dish.

Number of Servings: Dependent on number of spud-monsters being served.

The Holland potatoes have a sweeter taste to it and holds up better in shape. Because of its natural sweetness salt can be omitted. Starchy potatoes require less cooking time and can do with some salt before serving.

Honey Lemon Chicken

Posted by Vivian in Chicken

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This was entirely an experiment and in my opinion wasn't quite successful (I am the worst critic of my own cooking!).

Though the taste isn't bad to the extend that it makes the chicken hard to swallow, I thought that it lacked the lemony taste which I was hoping to get.  Not only that, it was slightly more salty than ideal... might have marinated the chicken a tad too long or perhaps had too much light soya sauce added.  The proportion of the lemon juice and light soya sauce needs some adjustment for sure.

In any case this was what went into my "experiment"...


Ingredients:

• 6 chicken drumsticks (can be substituted with thigh or chicken wing)
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 2 lemon (juiced and strained to remove pulp)
• 4 tablespoons of light soya sauce

Preparation:

• Mix ingredients and leave to marinate overnight.
• Bake at 180 degree Celsius for 30 minutes.

Number of Servings: 6

Pasta with Mushroom Sauce

Posted by Vivian in Pasta

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This was what we had for lunch on Saturday.  What was planned for Saturday's lunch was a bowl of creamy mushroom soup and plate of warm pasta topped with tomato based sauce, with ham, onions and more mushrooms added on.  So what the hell happened?  Short answer is that I had a "misadventure" in the kitchen.

I should have known better and chucked the soup recipe long time ago.  As usual, I try and go for the simple stuff but this one was a horrible mistake.  The soup was no where near creamy the first time I tried it... so I decided to attempt it again on Saturday and ended up having more cream.  The proportion was way way way off.  I could only taste the cream and there was just not enough mushrooms to it.  It turned out to be worse than the first attempt.  I started to panic like hell seeing how I had ruined the soup and lunch time was nearing.  Hungry men are angry men, hungry children are beyond imagination.  I had to turn the whole situation around quickly to redeem myself.  The first idea that came to mind was to turn the pot of soup into pasta sauce and so I went with it, keeping my fingers and toes crossed, hoping for the best.

By the time I served up lunch, I was adamant that it was crap even before I tasted it.  But after I plucked up the courage and took the first bite I had to congratulate myself that it actually wasn't that bad.  Except I still think onions in cream sauce renders it a weird taste.

This is probably how I should go about with this dish the next time (after I recover from this terrible espisode!)...

Ingredients:

• 3 portobello mushrooms (finely diced)
• 20 swiss brown mushrooms (sliced)
• 300 ml thicken cream
• 500 ml chicken stock
• 2 cloves of garlic (minced)
• Pasta (pre-cooked)

Preparation:

• Heat oil in frying pan and add in garlic.  Stir-fry till fragrant.
• Add in portobello mushrooms and allow it to cook until juices start to run.
• Add in swiss brown mushrooms.
• Once the mushrooms are thoroughly cooked, pour in chicken stock slowly.
• Allow the mixture to come to a boil and low heat slightly.
• Stir in heavy cream and bring it to a simmer.
• Serve sauce over pasta, with parsley flakes and freshly grounded black pepper for an added kick.

Number of Servings: 4