Satay Chicken

This simple dish was cooked by my mother when I was young. It is very appetizing when eaten with a bowl of steaming hot rice. Now, I cooked it for my husband and 3 kids and they love it, especially my second son. He will finish up whatever is left on the plate, even without me asking him to. Usually, when there's still some dishes left, I would ask my kids to try to finish them, but they would normally claim that they are already very full. For this dish, my second son will have no hesitation and so far, has not said no when I asked him to finish it up. The recipe is as follows:-

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Ingredients

400 g chicken breast meat

3 shallots

3 garlic

1 thumb-sized ginger

1 packet of instant satay spices

Method

1. Minced the shallots, garlic and ginger.

2. Cut the breast chicken into cubes, marinate with a little light soya sauce, pepper and corn flour.

3. Fry the minced shallots, garlic and ginger in 2 tablespoons of oil until fragrant.

4. Pour in the instant satay spices and mix well.

5. Put in the chicken meat and stir fry for 3 minutes.

6. Add in half bowl of hot water, ½ teaspoonful of dark soy sauce and stir fry until meat is cooked. Dish up and serve.

Mixed Fruit Cake

As my husband likes to eat mixed fruit cake, so I have been trying to learn to bake one. I've tried a few recipes. This is the one that my husband likes best. The recipe is from the Gold Ribbon Mixed Fruits packet.

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Ingredients

300 g mixed fruits

200 g plain flour

5 g baking powder

150 g butter

150 g sugar

3 eggs

Method

1. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

2. Beat in eggs one at a time.

3. Sieve flour and baking powder.

4. Fold flour and baking powder into mixture.

5. Add in mixed fruits.

6. Pour contents into cake tin.

7. Bake in oven at 180⁰C for 1¼ hours.

Swedish Meatballs

My 3 boys love the swedish meatballs from Ikea. They would each finish up 15 meatballs. So, I decided to learn to make them. Ikea's website has the recipe. However, after trying it out, the taste just isn't the same. Below is the recipe for Ikea's Swedish Meatballs:-

Meatballs

Ingredients:

• 250g minced beef
• 250g minced pork
• 1 egg
• 200-300ml cream and water (or milk and water)
• 2.5 tbsp. finely-chopped onion
• 50ml unsweetened rusk flour (toasted or golden breadcrumbs)
• 2 cold boiled potatoes
• 4-5 tbsps butter, margarine or oil
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Heat the onion till golden in a couple of tablespoons of lightly browned butter (to brown the butter, cook in an 8 to 10 inch frying pan over medium heat until lightly browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Pour into a bowl and let cool to room temperature).
2. Mash the potatoes and moisten the rusk flour in a little water.
3. Mix all the ingredients until there is consistency and flavour generously with salt, white pepper and (optional) a little finely crushed allspice.
4. Use a pair of spoons to shape the mixture into relatively large, round balls and transfer to a floured chopping board.
5. Fry them slowly in plenty of butter.

Cream sauce
Ingredients

• 100ml cream
• 200ml beef stock
• Chinese soya sauce
• 1 tbsp white flour
• Salt, white pepper

Method

1. Swirl the boiling water or beef stock in a pan.
2. Add cream and thicken with white flour if preferred.
3. Season well with salt and pepper.
4. Serve the meatballs with the sauce, freshly boiled potatoes, uncooked lingonberry jam and salad.

Due to the cream, the sauce turned white instead of the light brown colour as sold in Ikea's restaurant.

I searched for another recipe and found this one in Link magazine:-

Ingredients

Serves 6

* 80g white bread without crust, torn into pieces

* 100ml milk

* 1 tbsp ghee

* 120g finely chopped onion

* 1¼ tsp salt

* 400g minced beef

* 300g minced pork

* 3 large egg yolks

* ½ tsp black pepper

* ¼ tsp ground allspice

* 2 tbsp ghee

* 40g plain flour

* 750g beef broth

* 125ml thickened cream

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180ᴼC.

2. Place bread slices and milk in a mixing bowl. Set aside.

3. In a frying pan heat 1 tbsp ghee and saute the onion and a pinch of salt until the onions are soft. Remove from the heat and set aside.

4. In the bowl containing the bread and milk, add minced beef and pork, egg yolks, remaining salt, black pepper, allspice and onions. Beat on medium speed for 1 to 2 minutes or knead well for 10 minutes.

5. Weigh meatballs into 30g portions and shape into balls. Place on a greased baking sheet.

6. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

7. Heat the remaining ghee in the pan over low heat and add the flour.

8. Whisk until lightly browned, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Gradually add the beef stock and whisk until sauce begins to thicken.

9. Add the cream and continue to cook until the gravy reaches the desired consistency. Remove the meatballs from the oven, cover with the gravy and serve.

Note: Because of the cream, the sauce will be white too and not light brown as like those sold in Ikea's restaurant.

Lately, I've tried another recipe by Rachael Ray and the meatballs taste as good but again the sauce is different from Ikea's. Here's the recipe for the meatball:-

Ingredients

(4 to 6 servings)

* 1 & ⅓ pounds ground chuck, or ground beef, pork, and veal mix

* ¾ cup bread crumbs

* 1 egg, beaten

* 1 small onion, finely chopped

* A few drops Worcestershire sauce

* Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200ᴼC.

2. Mix ingredients in a large bowl.

3. Form bite-size balls and place on nonstick cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes.

As for the sauce, I'm still searching for the taste like Ikea's but has yet to succeed. Meanwhile, I would just melt some butter in a frying pan, whisk in some flour and pour in beef stock and some light soya sauce (to taste) and a little ground nutmeg.

Sushi

It’s been some time since I made sushi for my kids. As I’m not talented in cooking or baking, I always need to refer to recipes to refresh my memory. As such, when I made this sushi after not having made them for some time, I made a blunder. In the past when I made the sushi, I always uses the Mizkan brand of vinegar mix for sushi rice. This time round, I bought just the Mizkan brand of grain flavored distilled vinegar mistaking it for the vinegar mix for sushi rice. So, when I made the sushi rice, it tasted funny. With the vinegar mix, the rice will taste sweet. So, initially, when I added the vinegar solution (still not aware that I bought the wrong thing at this juncture) to the hot japanese rice and mix them, I tasted and find it bland. Thinking that I didn’t add enough of the vinegar mix, I added more of the vinegar solution. You can imagine the look on my kids’ face when they tried it. ”Yak!” was the feedback from them. Also, I added too much water to the rice, resulting in very soggy textured sushi rice. My husband hated it too as he claimed that the rice is too sticky.

Not willing to waste the whole bottle of the vinegar, I look for remedies. Luckily, on the bottle, there is the recipe for the vinegar mix for sushi rice:-

Vinegar 60 ml, sugar 45 g, salt 10g.

So, I measured the appropriate amount of sugar and salt and mix them with the remaining vinegar and gave a good shake. The next day, I made the sushi again and had since made them a third time and both times scored high points with my kids and husband. Here is the recipe:-

Ingredients:-

3 cups Shokaku Premium Rice (bought from NTUC)

1 piece konbu (4″ long), wiped with a damp cloth

1 packet of roasted seaweed

Method:-

1. Wash the rice until the water is clear.

2. Put the rice in the rice cooker and fill water up to mark 3.

3. Put in the konbu and let soak for 30 minutes. Turn on the rice cooker.

4. When rice is cooked, remove the konbu, closed the cooker lid and let stand for 10 minutes. Off the switch and transfer the rice to a casserole dish (I use corningware). Turn on the fan (blowing at the rice) and at the same time, pour in the vinegar mix (I pour in a little at a time and tasted it to get the sweetness that I want). Use a wooden spoon to mix the vinegar mixture and rice, moving in vertical and horizontal lines. The rice will become shiny and a little more sticky. You should still see the whole rice grain.

5. Cut the seaweed into half. Spread the sushi rice on the seaweed. Place crab stick, prepared dried gourd* (Yamato Kanpyo Ajitsuke) or japanese cucumber in the middle of the rice and roll it up with the help of a sushi mat. Cut it into bite-size pieces. Remember to wet your knife before you cut so that the rice will not stick to the knife.

* See picture below for prepared dried gourd

Five Spice Rolls (Ngoh Hiang)

Five Spice Rolls (五香卷)

This is a Hokkien dish. I heard from my mom that when she was young, during the Lunar New Year, my maternal grandmother would prepare five spice rolls. She did not cut the bean curd skin into small square pieces like what I have been doing. She would cut the skin into long rectangular pieces and then roll them up with pork fillings. My mother will cut the skin into small square pieces. I’m doing what my mother has been doing.

Every Lunar New Year, she will also prepare five spice rolls. Our family loves this dish as my mother only prepares it once a year because she really puts in a lot of effort to cook this dish. She will buy 1 kg of pork belly, have its skin removed by the butcher and then she will painstakingly cut it up manually into small pieces. According to her, this will ensure that we can ‘feel’ the meat pieces when we bite into the rolls. I can tell you it’s no joke cutting the pork belly like that because I’ve done it myself and the fatty parts are rather ’slippery’. You need to have a very sharp knife. My fingers ache ‘like mad’ after cutting it into pieces. Now, I just buy the mince pork meat. However, no pain no gain, the rolls that my mom makes have better textures (口感) than mine. You can really see the pork meat and the prawn meat (which my mom also cuts up into small pieces rather than mincing them) after you cut up the rolls into bite-sized pieces. After steaming the rolls, the exterior will become slightly pinkish because of the prawn meat.

My recipe for the five spice rolls is as follows:-

INGREDIENTS:-

300 g minced pork meat

300 g prawns, shelled and diced

3 water chestnuts, diced finely

1 medium onion, minced

1 packet spring onion (buy from NTUC), chopped

1 egg

1 tbsp cornflour

2 tbsp plain flour

1 tsp salt

½ tbsp five spice powder

1 packet of beancurd skin

Method:-

1. Combine all the ingredients except the beancurd skin.

2. Cut the beancurd skin into half and then half them again and half… and so on until you get a small rectangle (about 5″ x 4″).

3. Wide the beancurd skin with a damp cloth to remove dirt and some of the saltiness. Spoon a tablespoon of the meat mixture onto the skin and roll up. Fold the two sides in first and then roll it up like a spring roll.

4. Steam them for 15 minutes. Remove and let cool. You can store them in plastic bags and keep them in the freezer until you need to deep fry them.

Green and Red Carrot Soup

Green & Red Carrot Soup

This is a nourishing soup. It is said to be able to rid one of gas poison which could have been breathed in by people who cook regularly using gas stoves. The green carrot is cooling in nature and can rid one of heatiness. Its seeds can help to strengthen the stomach and get rid of phlegm. The green carrot contains vitamin C and plant fibre and aids in digestion. The almonds (南北杏) will help nourish the lungs as well as rid one of coughs and phelgm. The north almond (北杏) has a slightly bitter taste, so the proportion will be lesser as compared to the south almond (南杏). The honey dates will also have the effects of nourishing one’s body. The honey dates add sweetness to the soup too.

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For 5 persons

Ingredients

500 g pork bones

1 kg green carrots

3 large red carrots

4 (big) to 6 (medium) honey dates

1 handful of south & north almonds (can buy the mixed almonds from any medicinal shop, just tell them 南杏五钱. 北杏三钱. 正中平 also sells 1 whole packet of mixed almonds).

Method

1. Boil the pork bones in a pot of boiling water for 3 minutes. Dish out and rinse them clean. This is to ensure that the soup will be clear and not “cloudy”.

2. Remove skin from green and red carrots, wash them clean and cut them diagonally (切滚刀型状).

3. Wash the almonds and honey dates.

4. Boil 10 rice bowls of water in a clean pot (this can be done when you are boiling the water for blanching the pork bones, ie use 2 separate pots). When the water boils, put all ingredients in and let it boil at medium heat for 20 minutes. After that, boil at low heat for 2 hours 40 minutes. Serve.

The soup is sweet enough to drink on its own. There is no need to add light soya sauce or salt. If you want a thicker flavoured soup, then reduce the water to 8 rice bowls. You will then have lesser servings of soup, but the taste will be stronger. The green and red carrots can be eaten. If you use pork soft bones, you can eat the pork meat with soya sauce & chilli padi dippings.

Pineapple Tarts

This is my first attempt. Have long heard that making pineapple tarts is a tedious process. It all depends on how you look at it. I'm not the "talented in cooking and baking" type of person. In fact, I'm a pretty lazy person. I hate processes that require complicated steps. So, when I look for recipes, firstly, it must have the least number of simple ingredients which are easy to get at supermarkets/shops near my place. Secondly, the recipe must not use too much time and efforts to prepare and cook/bake.

So, when I finally made up my mind, after years of deliberation, to bake a birthday cake for my first-born last December, I went to buy a KitchenAid Mixer which cost me S$779. It is really out of the ordinary for me to be spending this amount of cash on a mixer when I don't bake at all. Usually before I make a purchase, I would check on the item and then consider for a very long time (such as how frequent am I going to use it, how long will my interest last.....). The result is - I would end up not buying anything cause I'm afraid it would become a white elephant. So, I 狠下心 spent the amount and make myself so "heart-pain" that I will try very hard not to make it a white elephant. So far, so good. Since I bought it last December, I've baked a chocolate log cake for Christmas, swiss rolls, pineapple upside-down cake, black forest cake, fruit cake, kiwi fruit custard cake, chocolate cake and of course the pineapple tarts.

The recipe for the pineapple tarts is from Meyer's Baking Workshop. I was given 2 free baking workshops when I bought the KitchenAid Mixer. After 4 tries (I've also tried another recipe from my mother's neighbour), I still prefer the one from Meyer's (the recipe is by Mrs Jambu/Mdm Manomoney). As I find the original recipe's pastry a little too soft for me, I did some minor adjustments. However, here is the original one:-

PASTRY

600 g plain flour

425 g butter

½ tsp salt + 1 tbsp icing sugar

2 eggs + 1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla essence

METHOD

1. Cream butter with sugar and salt and vanilla essence.

2. Add egg and sieved flour mix to form dough.

3. Place dough between two sheets of clingwrap and roll out to about 1 cm thickness.

4. Cut dough with pineapple tart cutter.

5. Place pineapple jam onto pastry.

6. Bake in oven 150°C for 45 minutes in middle shelf.

7. Cool well before stacking in bottles.

Note: Can use bottle no. 8095 (50 tarts)

PINEAPPLE JAM

4 large pineapples (small type) - honey pineapples

1 large Sarawak pineapple (chopped fine)

50 g cane rock sugar

150 g fine sugar

50 g coarse sugar

¼ tsp salt

2-3 cloves + 1 small piece star anise (remove after cooking 10 minutes)

Note: Do not wash the pineapples after cutting off the skin. Put the grated pineapples on a strainer and let the juice drip by itself. Do not squeeze. Wait until the juice stops dripping. The juice can be poured into ice cube holder to make ice cubes for use with other fruit juices or simply drink them cold. It's suuuuuper sweet!

METHOD

1. Add grated and chopped pineapples, sugar and spices.

2. Cook for 3 hours until syrupy and slightly brown.

3. Cool and store in the fridge.

For the Sarawak pineapple, I grate it instead so as to achieve a finer textured jam. As for the pineapple tart cutter, at first I use the plastic one from Phoon Huat which cost one dollar plus but find it too light. Later I bought one heavy one from Ailin at Tanjong Katong Complex in Geylang Road for S$58. I invest in a more expensive one because from 2010 onwards, I'll be the pineapple tart supplier to my family and relatives.

Earlier, I mentioned that the original recipe's pastry is too soft for me, so I reduce the amount of butter. Remember to dip the cutter into some flour before cutting the dough to prevent the pastry from sticking to the cutter. The harder the pastry, the easier it will be to cut out the pastry but the butter fragrance will be reduced because it means adding more flour.

Well, I had fun making the pineapple tarts. I had made more than 200 of them and my 3 boys finished most of them and still asking for more. I can tell you nothing beats making your own pineapple jam especially when you use the honey pineapples and the 泰国水晶黄梨. My youngest boy keeps asking for the juice. You can make the jam days, or even weeks ahead. If you have a heavy bottomed stainless steel pot (the waterless cookware kind), you can simply throw in the grated pineapples and let it boil uncovered under low fire and carry on with your other household chores or even go and dance cha cha and then come back once in a while to stir it. It will not burn. Of course, when the juice is almost dried up, don't dance the cha cha anymore, stay with it and stir more frequently.