Aglio Olio with juicy Pork Balls

I woke up with skies overcast. Soon after a heavy downpour followed. What a great morning actually to sleep in and laze around in bed but the bf was coming over for lunch. We had this convo the night before. He said let's eat at the hawker near your house... easier. I, on the other hand had a better idea.. to whip up something special as a surprise. I probably did that countless times that it ain''t such a surprise after all. 

Anyway, I was rummaging through the freezer to look for my frozen yogurt for breakfast ( yes, I crave it to the extent that I resorted to putting our normal yogurt in a cup in the freezer so it'd become some sort of frozen dessert the very next day) when I saw minced pork and a packet of mixed veg. Ah hah. Makes me think of juicy meatballs with a thick teriyaki glaze. My only recollection of meatballs were those from Ikea accompanied by a measly slab of creamy sauce.. and everytime I would feel like punching the guy who said " 30c extra for more sauce". 

Making these porkballs were more of mixing everything up and trial and error. I had no clue what to put inside so I just went along with my feelings. Minced pork, mixed veg and then I saw prawns so I decided to food process the prawns along with the pork. Added in some teriyaki sauce as marinade.. Open the fridge to search for more stuff I could add to the amazing balls and hmm thought I'll add some sesame oil as well. and hmm how about some onions too,,... and oh yes oh yes breadcrumbs and an egg :)) Concocting stuff and playing around with my food is what describes me best. 

Anyway, ultimately they turned out pretty well I must say. I was satisfied with the outcome and I'm gonna bookmark this in my recipe book. 

PORK MEAT BALLS

Ingredients:

-minced pork ( all I could find. But using minced  beef should taste nicer) 

- about 6-7 prawns deveined

-1 onion

-mixed veg ( I used carrots and peas)

-2-3 tbsp of teriyaki sauce ( or even more)

-2 tbsp sesame oil

-sugar

-salt (to taste)

-pepper

- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs

-1 egg

-cornstarch

Blend prawns, minced pork, onion in a food processor to form a paste. Add teriyaki sauce, sugar, salt , pepper, sesame oil and blend 

Add pepper, breadcrumbs and cornstarch and mix well. Leave to marinade for awhile. Lightly beat an egg.

Heat some oil in a frying pan. Roll meatballs into balls and dip into egg and pan fry till brown. 

For the glaze ontop:

- teriyaki sauce

-cornstach dissolved in a little water

Heat teriyaki sauce. Add cornstarch mixture and heat until sauce thickens. Pour over meatballs =]]] and ENJOY. 

We had some Aglio Olio to go along with the porkballs as well. Simple, cheap, easy to do yet satisfying. Many a times I prefer plain pasta cooked with olive oil to those heavy cream laden ones. This is a simple dish to whip up at home. All it takes is for the pasta to be cooked al dente and you have it going your way. 

Ingredients

-speghetti

-dried chilli 

-garlic slices

-salt/pepper ( to taste)

- olive oil

Boil a pot of water in a saucepan. Add salt. When water boils, add pasta and cook till al dente. 

In the meantime, fry garlic slices, chilli in olive oil till garlic slightly browns. Set aside. Toss pasta into oil when cooked. Add pepper and salt and season till desired. 

Char Kway Teow

A popular fried noodle dish in Asia and can be found in almost every hawker centre/ food court. One of the reasons why I love this is because its skewed towards the sweeter side of a savory dish. It's not particularly a healthy dish when you eat them outside because of the tons of lard / oil they use to fry. So here's a healthier version of my mum's recipe which I emulated. 

Ingredients:
-garlic, 2-3 cloves minced
-half chinese sausage, sliced thinly
-1 cup beansprout
-sweet black sauce ( to taste) depends on how sweet you want your noodles to turn out
- 2eggs,beaten
-1 cup chye sim
-1 lb Kway teow or flat rice noodles
-sugar (to taste)
-oil for frying (abt 2 tbsp)


Steps:
1) Heat oil in a wok. Add garlic and stir fry 30sec.
2) Add the chinese sausage next and fry until almost cooked
3)Reduce heat and add bean sprout and chye sim. Fry until about cooked then add in noodles.
4) Add in sauce till the sweetness/blackness desired.
5) Scrap noodles to the sides of the pan and add in egg in the middle to cook.
6) When egg has just set, fry noodles together with egg.

Chinese Radish Cake

or law Bak Gou whatever they call it seems to be the dish we always order whenever we eat dim sum. Although there's no carrots in this recipe, I'm so used to calling it fried carrot cake.. Anyway while scouring the net for good food as usual, I chanced upon this blog called tastehongkong.com with amazingly good local dishes. That brought me on a quest to test out this Turnip cake with the addition of chinese sausage or Lap Chiong ;))) Mmh the taste of chinese sausage is just heavenly.. Bring it together with its fellow brother the " black liver sausage" and you have a harmony of flavors..

You can get the recipe from here.  I love how the cake turned out but I was a little lazy to fry them thus I just made do with the steam version. Obviously, I would recommend pan frying them cuz they will definitely taste better crispy..

You'll need the following:

• Ingredients
• 2kg turnip/ white radish ( Well, I bought 2 big oness about 2kg. But when I shredded them, they only turned out to be about 800g) Must have lost loads in the process of shredding them. Thus I half ed the subsequent amounts
• 300g rice flour (150g)
• 50g corn starch (25g)
• 2 pcs Chinese sausages (~100g) - I didn't half the ingredients..
• 6 pcs dried black mushroom
• 4 pcs dried scallop
• 30g dried shrimps
• 2 each shallots, finely sliced 

• Marinades
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp wine

• Seasonings
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
• 1 tbsp oil

Well if you don't have a shredder machine like me, you just gotta do it the hard way. Works the arm muscles totally. The faster you shred the radish the easier it is.. so don't go so gentle on it. hahaaa

THERE! 

1) Turnips: Peel, rinse, shred  Rest all the turnip strips in a colander above a basin to drain and collect its juice. Draining the turnips is to prepare it for stir-frying as well as to reserve its juice for combining with the rice flour and corn starch.

dried scallops – rinse, soak in 1/2 cup of water for at least an hour, tear them into strips, reserve water

dried shrimps – rinse, soak in 1/2 cup of water for 10 minutes, discard water

Chinese sausages – rinse, coarsely chopped

dried mushrooms – rinse, soak in 1 cup of water for at least an hour or until soft, squeeze water in them and coarsely chopped, reserve water

Marinade the reconstituted, chopped mushrooms, scallops and shrimps for about 10 minutes.

3) Combine the corn starch and rice flour with 2 1/2 cups of water (inclusive of those collected from draining the turnip, soaking the mushrooms and scallops). Stir and mix well until smooth. Set aside.

4) Heat 3 table spoons of oil in wok over medium heat, sauté shallots till fragrant followed by chopped sausages, stir fry till they are also fragrant, then add in shrimps, mushrooms and scallops, keep stir frying. As all of them turn golden, about 3 minutes, toss in the turnip strips, add seasonings, and stir well. In about another 5 minutes, the strips will be softened and juice will exude from them.

5) Turn to low heat, slowly stir in flour mixture into the turnips (give the mixture a good stir before pouring in to avoid flour settling at the bottom). Turn and mix well until all incorporated well like a soft batter. Turn off heat.

6) Grease dish for steaming Transfer the turnip batter into the pan, flatten it into same height. Steam the turnip cake over high heat for 40 minutes. Check doneness by inserting a toothpick to see if it comes out clean.

 and we're good to go!! :)

       

Enjoy! xoxo

Spicy Honey Glazed Chicken drumlets

These are the kind of snacks that could keep me entertained throughout an entire movie. ( Though the ones I did for dinner were slightly bigger than the one I was talking about) .. When I think about spicy drumlets/wings, I think about pizza hut or Mcwings. The really flaming hot ones are the ones that really make my day.

If you're looking for a sticky, spicy sweet chicken wing recipe, you should probably try this one out. I got all excited to try these, especially after how mouthwatering those pictures from her blog turned out.

Recipe adapted from: MyYummyLife.


I only baked 4 juicy drumlets that day. My family's a small eater... sometimess..

I only marinated the chicken for 1 plus hour. The taste was there but it was subtle. Maybe, next time I would try marinating the drumlets longer.

mmhh.. with lottas garlic

Recipe:



1/4 c honey
2 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp sriracha ( I use 3.5 tbsp Sriracha and 1 tbsp ketchup, cuz I like it hot)
2 tbsp orange juice concentrate
2 tbsp dark Asian Sesame Oil
1 tsp ground ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 pounds chicken wings cut in half at joint
Green Onions, thinly sliced, optional ( left that out)


Preheat oven to 450degrees. Combine the first seven ingredients in a large bowl. Add the wings and toss to coat. Pour the wings and sauce in a large non-stick or lined broiling pan. Bake for 25 minutes until the wings are browned, turning occasionally. When the wings are browned, turn on the broil and broil the wings, again turning occasionally, until the sauce has thickened. This could take up to 8 minutes.


and then serve
With much love!
xoxo

Pan Seared Scallops

The week before Chinese New Year while we were out shopping at the supermart, we chanced upon a box of Hokkaido Scallops. They were HUGE and little on the expensive side but mummy bought them with the intention of cooking them for reunion. Scallops = juicy and yummy. I was pretty excited to try the air flown scallops with broccoli that day but they were more than a disappointment to many. It was hard and rubbery. Sort of reminded me of the small dried chinese scallops that were used to make soup stock! Dad said maybe it was the quality of the scallops but ain't Japan seafood suppose to be fresh? It was probably overcooked so I asked mummy how she cooked them.

First she steamed them and then fried them together with the Broccoli. The funny part was when she told me she fried them EVEN longer just to make sure they were cooked thoroughly. 

The internet is a great tool to explore the world of culinary magic. With so many videos, forums and comments by fellow food lovers, it is not hard to master one or two techniques. I've visited a million and one sites on scallops not just to learn the perfect way to cook them but also to admire and drool over those awefully mouthwatering pics. One thing I know for sure, it's NEVER ok to cook them for too long. So how do you get those fine burnt crispy top of the scallops. One of them is searing the scallops till they brown. 2 min on each side. The rest is making sure the pan is hot enough for searing and ensuring that the scallops are DRY before placing them into the pan =]]

I seared a couple of the remaining uncooked scallops. Had to thaw them in the refrigerator and at RT for a couple of min. only to find them in a puddle of water. Drying them on kitchen paper though helped to remove some of the water but it was still on the wetter side. I reckon that frozen ones do give out alot of moisture. Will probably try out with fresh scallops next time and let you guys know the outcome ;)

haha eggs are a very important part of my diet. One of the staples in my life. This time it's cooked with asparagus, lottss of onions, prawns and cheese.

Lastly on the menu : prawns and asparagus with flamin hot sambal blachan sauce.

The End.

Bon appetit

A simple dinner

After too much indulgence in online shopping and painfully seeing a column of debits under the transation summary, it's time to save! ( by eating in ). As much as I love eating out, I've practically learnt to reach a compromised state. I "ransacked" the fridge for something interesting to cook but it always boils down to the same few dishes.. chickenn , veg and fish. I don't think we're a pretty big fan of red meat either. More like huge fans of fish. FISH FISH FISH! My mum cooks them in all kinds of style.

ok so as far as my imagination would take me, HAHA I decided to cook the simple usual meal.

Honey seasame  (couldnt find any) chicken:

Do the usual of thawing the chicken, seasoning it with pepper, sauce, sesame oil, sugar, vinegar, oyster sauce and leave it in the fridge for few hrs ( 4-5hrs).

Then fry them up! The best part about frying stuff is you get to mix everything together ( the meat and the sauces) and then add a dash of seasoning like how you would play with your food. HAHA ok I shall not go there..

Salt and pepper fried tofu:

I like salty and pepperyy stuff so this dish is flowing with abundant goodness.

and lastly my all time fav: hei bee hiam sambal long beans :))))

Loves :))

Omu Rice

Bored of the usual fried rice on a plate? So am I. Just use whatever fried rice or ingredients you have left and fry them with ketchup,spoon  them onto the thin omelette and wrap like a popiah!!

Singapore's signature chilli crabs

What better place to be eating chilli crabs and black pepper crabs- at the comfort of one's home! No noisy crowds, No perspiring. Plus it's affordable (minus the cleaning and preparation). Mummy wanted to cook crab specially before we all started sch so ta da. ONE WEEK before semester starts, mother and daughter were down at work. Daughter on the fried rice and mother on the crabs :))

Introducing Tom Yum Fried Rice:

Wanted something towards the spicy side as well as tom yummy so I just mixed some Tom Yum paste into the fried rice and it works wonders :D When I think of fried rice, BANG! I immediately remember those days at Annenberg where I used to fry rice with tons of chilli ( sauce, chilli flakes) after being severely deprived from chilli from a land of only ketchup and fast food.. One thing I love about fried rice is that it's so simple to whip up cuz you just dump basically everything together and fry. and if it doesn't taste good, just add a helll lot of chill or blachan to make up for the taste :) Eggs good too.

Ingredients ( rice) :

Rice of course (overnight or 2 days old) It needs to be dry!

Onions

Garlic ( I put alottt)

prawn ( de-shelled)

soya sauce and sugar (to taste)

eggs

char siu ( or you can put ham and bacon, which is outrageously yummy as well)

peas and carrots

Tom Yum Pasta

Pork floss (to garnish)

1 egg ( to garnish)

Steps:

1) Fry garlics and onions till little brown then add rice and fry till fragrant ( till you just could eat it plain and on its own). Set aside

2) Then fry prawn, char siu, peas and carrots till just cooked then add rice and fry fry fry again to get the nice reddish colour.

3)Add soya sauce , tom yum paste ( as much as you desire) to taste.

4)Add eggs and to incorporate evertthing together and there you go! A meal settled. Garnish with another fried egg cut into strips and pork floss :P:P:P

5) Pray that your guests will love it

Mummy's pepper crabs and chilli crabs. I can't explain how much I love her crabs. All I can say is that it's TERRIFICCCCC.