Gräciõ's LäveñderBliss Café: June 2006

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Fresh Egg Noodles



Give me egg noodles anytime & I'll wallop up everything for u! Hehe... And guess what I found FINALLY after hunting for a long long time. So I decided to make fried noodles with it. It's another "bento" meal again! =)

Mao Gua With Egg

When my parents came to Dubai to visit me last year, they went grocery shopping with me. And guess what they saw? They saw MAO GUA! 1 of my favourite greens or rather, melons. Soft on both the inside & outside when cooked. But don't overcook it, else it will turn dark green. No need to de-seed it as the seeds are really soft & edible. That's y, I love this so much!

All u need to do is, crack an egg, fry it, sprinkle alittle light soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar & a cup of water then cook it 2gather with mao gua. Nice! 1 dish is done! Never more simpler. =)


King Fish Steaks Pan Fry

This is a recipe given roughly by my friend. Tastes really good. I dislike deep frying stuffs as Im afraid of oil splattering on me. So I decided to pan fry it & add some lime juice to give a kick of sourish taste.

Pauline aka Mrs Cang from KC, advises that pan frying takes time, patience & low fire. I took the advice and learn experience on these fish steaks. Indeed, it worked out really well. Last time I used to over burn the fish as I put the fire to high heat as I was quite impatient.

Gina also told me to brush a layer of olive oil on both sides of the fish then coat with cornstarch & the spices to avoid oil splattering.


Jo's advice was to fry ginger slices in the pan 1st then fry the fish, same reason, to avoid oil splattering.

Im happy that I got so many advices. Unfortunately, I cooked this b4 Jo & Gina's advice came, but am still glad that my fishes turned out well. Next time, I will try both their method.

As years goes by, Im glad Im learning more & more things, to become a better me in terms of cooking skills. =)


Actually, I didn't measure the amount for the powders. Here's an estimation. So just use according to how big your fish steak is & coat it well thoroughly.

Ingredients:
4 pieces king fish steak
4tbsp turmeric powder
3tbsp coriander powder
3tbsp chilli powder
1/2 a lime for juice
1tsp salt
1 fresh red chilli (sliced)
4tbsp olive oil for pan frying


Method:
1. Mix all the powders and salt in a bowl.
2. Wash fish steaks and wipe them dry.
3. Coat the fish with the previously mixed powders thoroughly. (from step 1)
4. Heat oil in wok, wait till its heated up thorougly, then add in coated fishes. Turn fire down to medium, let it sit for 5-6 mins on one side (or until its cooked), then flip over to the other side. Make sure fish is thoroughly cooked.
5. Dish out, serve hot. Garnish with red chilli & sprinkle lime juice b4 serving.

* I usually buy 1 piece fish steak, then slice them into 4 small pieces.
** Chilli powder is according to your taste.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

The Kuehs

Tried making these. Im happy & proud of myself that I succeeded! But there are still rooms for improvement... =)

Chwee Kueh


I love Peng Kueh, esp the pink colourful ones. I omitted the pink colouring as I couldnt find any here. :(

Zu Bi Peng (Steam Glutinous Rice)


In church, during serving time @ Children's Church, Jennifer will usually make this for us. Brings back wonderful memories. In SG, I didn't get to do this until I came here.

Thanks Jen, for making this for us, & I fell in love with this too
.
*Wink*

Paratha!

Easily available here, frozen & fresh... depends on wat u like... =)


In SG, we call this prata. Over here, they call Paratha. Weird...

Anywayz, I like this with just white sugar, not curry. U won't find me eating this with curry. I used to like it plain, meaning no egg, but shortly, hubby influenced me AGAIN!! He's quite a big influence in my life, alot of things I actually don't like to eat, but because seeing him eat, I was like, waa... y not I try? And there goes one more makan dish on my "to eat" list. Haha! Im wondering when I can influence him like the way he does? *dhuz...*

Lotus Root Soup

My hubby's favourite soup. My mum's not a good cook, sometimes she will just make this soup to go with rice and some other dishes that she'll buy from the economic rice stall. Just dump all ingredients into slow cooker and voila!, U got a soup right in front of u in 3-4 hours time. Slurp slurp, the meat is tender and falls off easily from the bone. =)

Gracio's Cooling Cheng Teng

Almost all desserts stall in SG has this tong shui, in cantonese. In English, it means sweet soup. As u know, I'm a sweet toothe person already, that's why I was tempted to make this sweet delight after I found Pang Da Hai (Pong Dai Hai in Hokkien). In Hong Kong, u can find lots of tong shui stalls along the streets too. Aww.. I'm missing HK liao.. I wanna go... hehe... :P



Ingredients:
100g dried longan meat
50g sago beads
20g of pang da hai (sterculia seeds)- Soak in water till expanded. Discard skin & use soft pulp. 10pieces red dates
10pieces white fungus-Soak in water to soften
200g rock sugar
1.3litres of water

Method:
1) Boil sago beads in a pot till its transparent. Remove from boiling water and put them in room temperature water to avoid sticking together.
2) In another pot, fill up the 1.3litres of water and throw in dried longan meat, pang da hai, red dates, white fungus. Bring it to a boil.
3) Add rock sugar and boil till sugar is dissolved.
4) Serve either hot or cold. Remember to add the sago beads when serving.

*The reason why I 1st par boil the sago beads is so as to avoid the cheng teng to be sticky.
** Ingredients are adjustable according to your taste.

Pong Dai Hai Tong Shui

This tong shui brings back many memories when I was in my teens. My secondary school days were very adventurous. Been thru' lots of ups & downs, more downs I must say. Daily after school, I would go over to the hawker centre opposite to makan this with my gal friends, usually after eating Yong Tau Foo. =) Cooling and easy to prepare too. This is different from Cheng Teng...


Ingredients:
5pcs of sterculia seeds (pong dai hai)- Soak in water till expanded. Discard skin & use soft pulp. 40gm sago beads
6 cups of water
30gm rock sugar or adjust according to your taste

Method:
1) Boil sago beads in a pot till its transparent. Remove from boiling water and soak them in room temperature water to avoid sticking together.
2) Boil water, add in rock sugar to make sugar syrup, throw in Sterculia Seeds and bring it to a boil.
3) Serve and enjoy! Remember to add in sago beads when serving!

*The reason of adding in the sago beads when serving is so that the syrup will not turn out to be sticky.
**This dessert can be served either hot or chilled.

Chewy Chewy Chewy Chewy Om Ba Ba!

This jelly is so chewy! Always tempted to make this but gotta ration as Dubai don't sell them here, so everytime I got to hand carry all these premix powders from SG to Dubai. I can't resist this temptation! Yes, Im a sweet tooth person! =)


Buchi
, something like our SG sesame ball with bean paste @ Old Chang Kee. Never fail to bring a smile on my face whenever I see this. I was amazed when ChowKing sells this in Dubai. ChowKing is a fillipino chinese restaurant & I must say that their food is good. We will usually order from them or Aappa Kadai.



*Haha, both food above are coincidently chewy, that's why I named it this way. =)

Quick & Easy Fried Rice


I love fried rice, esp when the word "lazy" strikes my day. Quick, easy, simple are the words that I can describe when frying this dish. Yummy! Im satisfied... =)

Ingredients:
2&a 1/2 cup of cooked rice (Preferbly overnight rice)
1/2cup frozen corns or frozen vegetables
5 frozen crabsticks, cut into small pieces
2pcs chicken breast or thigh meat, sliced

1/2 a can of luncheon meat, sliced into small bits
2eggs, lightly beaten
1tsp chopped garlic
1 large red onion, diced
1 stalk spring onions, cut into 4cm length

Toasted onions

Seasonings: (Mix together)
1/2tsp light soy sauce

2tbsp dark soy sauce
1/2tsp sesame oil
1/2tsp hua tiao jiu
1tbsp water
A pinch of sugar & pepper

Method:
1. In a wok, shallow fry luncheon meat till crispy, adding a teaspoon of oil b4 frying. Dish out, set aside.
2. Add alittle oil into wok, fry eggs & quickly cut them into small pieces using ur frying spatula.
3. Heat oil in wok, add in diced onion fry till fragrant. Add in chicken slices to fry till browned, dish out.
4. Add 1/2 a teaspoon of oil in wok, fry garlic, add in frozen corn, crabmeat, luncheon meat, egg slices.
5. Return cooked rice to wok, add in seasonings & fry till rice is well coated.
6. Serve hot, garnish with toasted onions & sprigs of spring onions !

**Both hubby & I prefer to eat dark rice, u can omit the dark soy sauce if u prefer lighter colour rice. =)

Monday, June 12, 2006

"Yat Pui Gai" (Sam Pui Gai)

The original recipe uses 3 cups of sesame oil, thus, this dish is named "Sam Pui Gai" in cantonese, direct translation, 3 Cups Chicken. 3 cups of sesame oil (SO) for a dish is really abit too oily & unhealthy. However, Angie, a lovely lady, who helped to modify this dish by using only a cup of sesame oil, & that tempted me to make this dish.

I named it "Yat Pui Gai" as this modified version only uses one cup of SO. Yet, it turned out delicious, u can eat this with white jasmine rice, no other dishes needed. =)

10 thumbs up, definitely a keep!

Thanks Angie, muakz! =)

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Gaby's 1 year old today!

Sidetrack alittle...

Today marks the birthday of my little bunny. Gaby Yap JiaBao. His chinese name means "I've got a treasure at home". Indeed, he's my little baby whom I love most. We celebrated with him, got him a small black forest cake from Breadtalk Dubai. =) But he cant have the cake and eat it. We sang him a happy birthday song and took many pics with him. here's some from the past as well when we just bought him. Enjoy viewing! =)

One year before... 11 June 2005


Small in size...


A year later... 11 June 2006


Today... Birthday boy (Have the cake but can't eat it!) Muahaha! :P


Now he's huge!!

Happy 1st Birthday, Gaby!

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Dinner yesterday was...

Have not been well for days but yet decided to cook something simple as eating out here is expensive.

Egg Drop Flower Soup's an easy dish to make. "Qing1 Dan4" and nutritious. Never fail to make a perfect 1 dish meal too.



Get graphics at Nackvision.comGet graphics at Nackvision.comGet graphics at Nackvision.comGet graphics at Nackvision.com

Tomato Puree Chicken Goulash. Original recipe I got from magazine uses fresh cream & pounded red fresh chillis. But I changed it into using skimmed fresh yogurt & chilli powder. My 1st time using yoghurt in cooking. Glad that it turned out well. =)



Ingredients:
350gm chicken thighs, cut into small pieces
2 medium-sized carrots, cut into chunks
2 medium-sized rusett potatoes, cut into chunks
1 can button mushrooms
2tbsp chilli powder
1 large brown onion, sliced
1 can tomato puree
1 pack/cup fresh skimmed yoghurt
1tbsp olive oil

A pinch of salt

Method:
1. Heat pot, add oil. Fry sliced onions till fragrant.
2. Add chicken & fry till golden brown.
3. Put in carrots, potatoes & button mushrooms, fry for 1 min.
4. Pour in tomato puree , yoghurt & chilli powder.
5. Add a little water if mixture is too thick for you. Add a pinch of salt & simmer till chicken & vegetables are thoroughly cooked. Serve with rice or pasta.

Salsa Salsa...

Mango... the fruit in season now. My favourite. Never too much for me, but it's heaty tho'. But who cares?! =P


Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic, grated
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
2 ripe mango, peeled, stoned, and diced into chunks
4 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon red chilli, minced
6-8 mint leaves, shredded
pinch of sea salt
pinch of cracked black pepper


Method:
1. Mix all ingredients well together in a bowl. Serve chilled.


** tsk tsk**, I forgot to buy mint leaves... =(