Monday, June 10, 2013

Chinese Cuisine 1

Chinese Cuisine 1 
Stir-fried Kangkong, Steamed Ginger Pomfret and ABC Soup

Today, I prepared 2 dishes and 1 soup for dinner.


It's nothing really special as I've made these dishes before (except for the soup as it is my first time trying this "dish"), so everything turned out pretty good.



Ok, maybe for the soup as it was too diluted. I have noted that I have to boil less water so that there will be enough flavor of all the ingredients.

The entire preparation for all dishes right down to the cooking took me about 3 hours. I'm still a noob cook so it would take me this long. As I master my dishes along the way, maybe I'll take less time.

So, scroll below if you want to know how to make these 3 dishes.


ABC soup
Ingredients:
3 TBsp of white pepper seed
1x carrot, peeled and cut into medium cubes
2x potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
3x tomatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
1x yellow onion (preferable, others purple onions are fine too), peeled and cut into quarters
1x chicken breast meat
Some salt

Cooking Method:
1. Cut an X on the bottom of each tomato and then place into a pot of boiling water for 1 min. After 1 min, remove and put aside.
2. In the same pot of boiling water, place in the chicken breast to cook for 8 mins. Once done, remove and put aside.
3. Place a new pot with water about 1/2 full over high heat and bring to a boil. Once boiled, place the carrot, potatoes and white pepper seed into the pot and boil for 40mins.
4. Remove the skin of the tomatoes and proceed to cut them into quarters and remove the middle part (hard bits).
4. Then place the cooked chicken breast into the pot and let it boil for another 20mins on medium-high heat. Add some salt for flavoring.
5. Finally, add in the onion and tomatoes and boil on medium-high heat for another 20-30mins. Continue to add salt or pepper for more flavor.


Stir-fried kangkong with garlic
Ingredients:
2x packets of kangkong
4x cloves of garlic, chopped
1 Tsp of oyster sauce
Some salt
Some water

Cooking Method:
1. Clean the kangkong and cut off the ends. Proceed to cut the vegetable into 3-inches and separate the stalk and leaves into different bowls. Soak both stalk and leaves in salted water for 30mins.
2. Place a deep pan or wok on high heat and add some oil, you will start off with frying the chopped garlic. Once the garlic turns a light brown, add in all the stalks first.
3. Add 1/2 cup of water and place a cover over the pan/wok, to fully cook the stalks. Once the stalks are softened, add in the leaves and add another a small amount of water and place the cover to fully cook the vegetable.
4. Here you can start to add in some salt for flavoring. Stir fry the vegetable and place the cover on top again for another 5mins.
5. You can then add the oyster sauce and stir fry the vegetables. Place the cover over the pan/wok for another 5mins and your veggies will be done.


Steamed ginger pomfret
 Ingredients:
1x pomfret fish (I normally use Silver Pomfret as white pomfret is too expensive)
1x ginger, sliced
3x green onion, chopped in 2-inches
1 1/2 TBsp soy sauce
1 Tsp Oyster sauce
1 Cup of water
2x cloves garlic, chopped
Some salt and pepper
Some sesame oil

Cooking Method:
1. Fish
- Gut the fish and remove the internal organs, you can also have the fish gutted when buying at the supermarket or wet market. I prefer to gut the fish myself.
- Make two slices on the body of the fish on both sides
- Add some salt and pepper and rub it on the fish on both sides
2. In a deep pan/work, add some oil to fry the chopped garlic. 
3. Once the garlic turns brown, add in the soy sauce, oyster sauce and water. Let it simmer.
4. Use a rack (those used for steaming), place the chopped green onion on the rack and then place the fish on top.
5. Place the sliced ginger on the fish and then add a dash or two of sesame oil on the fish.
6. Cover the pan/wok and let it cook for 20mins over moderate heat (I use medium-low heat).


And there you have it, 3 dishes for dinner. Don't forget to cook your rice as well (I almost forgot, thank goodness my rice cooker has an "express" mode).

Hope you enjoy your meal! :)


Sunday, June 9, 2013

Simple Baked Pasta with Chicken

My all time favorite meal to cook, Baked Pasta with Chicken.
This meal takes about 30 minutes in total to prepare and cook and then another 30 minutes to bake in the oven.


This is a very simple dish that any one can cook/bake for the family, especially if you have children.

Here are the following ingredients and cooking method.
(Serving: 3 persons)

Ingredients:
1x Pasta Sauce (cream or tomato based, anything of your preference)
1x packet of pasta (any choice of pasta; spaghetti, penne, etc)
200g of chicken fillet (any other choice of meat is replaceable)
1 packet of cheddar cheese

Cooking Method:
1. Marinate the chicken (you can choose any other marinate or you can follow my method)
    1/2 tsp salt
    1/4 tsp pepper
    1/4 tsp 5 spices powder
    1 TBsp chinese cooking wine
    mix thoroughly; then add
    1 dash of sesame oil
    and mix thoroughly again
    once done, place into fridge to marinate

2. Place a pot of water over high heat and bring to boil and cook pasta according to instructions on the packet. Once boiled and cooked to your preference, drain the water and place the pasta into a mixing bowl.

3. Use a pan to stir fry the marinated chicken until slightly brown on both sides.

4. Add the stir fried chicken to the pasta in the mixing bowl. Open up the bottle of pasta sauce and add about 3 tablespoons to the bowl. Also, add in some cheddar cheese; about 2 handfuls and then mix all the ingredients thoroughly. The cheese will begin to melt with the ingredients.

5. Have on hand a square baking pan and add half of the mixed pasta into the baking pan. Add half of the remaining pasta sauce and then place the remaining pasta on top. There should be enough pasta sauce to spread over the top. Then add the rest of the cheddar cheese as the topping.

6. You can then bake the pasta in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for 30-40minutes. If you prefer your topping to be more baked/burnt, add on another 10 minutes for the cheese to be grilled in the oven.




Once done, your baked pasta will be ready to serve.