Stir Fry Watercress

Young watercress before & after stirfry

 I have been eating watercress since I could take solids. Granny used to make us (my brother & I) drink watercress soup when it was rainy season, then she made us drink even more when we started wearing glasses. At that time, all Granny said was "Drink up, it's good for you!"  To sum it up, watercress has enough vitamins and minerals to ensure that my eyes are sparkly and clear & my organs are working well. Now that I know what it is good for, I need to thank Granny & Mum for all the kilos of watercress I'd consumed over the years!

Most of the time, you'd be able to get the watercress that is suitable for boiling in soup. However, if you look around sometimes you'd be able to find young watercress/watercress shoots which you could stirfry. Really fresh and young vegetables do not need much but some garlic and salt to stirfry it in. Which is exactly what I did today! 

Salted Egg Chicken

Salted Egg Chicken (4 March 2012)

Salted egg coated meat or seafood is, I believe, a fairly recent dish. I don't remember having salted egg stirfry 20 years back! It became a hit when salted eggs were used to cook crabs and prawns. Now you could cook just about anything with the same method!

I chose to cook chicken as my kids don't take a lot of seafood. For the same recipe, you could cook squid, crab, prawns or other white meat. Do try to mix your flour as I did - this is a trial & error process until you get the type of crunchy feel that your family likes. You could also use dry flour mixture instead of a batter. If you do, remember to dip the meat in egg before coating with flour!

Salted Egg Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:
2 pieces of breast meat, cut in small cubes or in strips
3 salted egg yolks
1 sprig of curry leves
1/2 cup of evaporated milk
1 tbsp of butter
1 clove of garlic, minced
Salt & pepper

Frying Batter:
50g plain flour
1 tbsp rice flour
1 tbsp custard flour
Water

Seasoning:
1/2 tsp chicken powder
A pinch of sugar
A dash of black pepper

Method:

1.  Steam salted egg yolk until it is soft then mash the yolks in a bowl
2. Marinade chicken with salt & pepper for 15 minutes
3. Prepare the frying batter by mixing the flours in a mixing bowl and adding water gradually to get a consistent gooey texture. Make sure you pour the water in slowly as you don't want a runny batter.
4. Heat up oil for deepfrying. Dip chicken cubes into batter before dropping into the oil. Fry till golden brown. Remove and drain oil.
5. In another wok, heat up 1 tbsp of butter. Saute garlic mince and pour in mashed egg yolk. On low fire, saute egg yolk until you see bubbles, then add curry leaves and evaporated milk. Stir for 1 minute.
6. Return fried chicken cubes to wok. Add seasoning and give wok a good toss. Serve hot!

Yam Ring with Salted Egg Chicken

Yam Ring - first attempt (4 March 2012

I found the yam ring recipe by Amy Beh from Kuali. As this is my first time making it, I followed the recipe to the dot. My yam dough was a little softer than I would like it to be... probably because of that last teaspoon of water I added right at the end (Itchy hands!). So don't add anything unnecessary!

You can make a few of these rings ahead and keep them in the freezer for later use. Great for sprucing up your stirfries. I've prepared salted egg chicken for my centre filling (Please check out my next post for the recipe!). Traditionally, you'd have the Kung Pao Chicken or Lor Hon Chai (Mixed Vegetables).

 

Yam Ring Recipe ( Adapted from Amy Beh in KUALI)

Ingredients:
500g yam, cubed
Enough oil for deep-frying
75g tang mein fun (wheat starch)
Just enough boiling hot water

Seasoning:
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp concentrated chicken stock
1/4 tsp Chinese five spice powder
75g shortening

Method

1. Steam yam until soft and tender. 

2. Mash while still hot then mix in tang mein fun and just enough boiling water. Mix well into a dough. 

3. Add ingredients (A) and combine. Leave refridgerated for 1 hour.

4. Form the dough into a ring shape. Make a hole in a round disposable aluminium pie dish and place the ring in the dish. the dish will help you lift up the ring without breaking it.

5. Heat oil in deep fryer. Lower the dish into the oil and deep-fry until crispy and golden brown. 

6. Remove and drain well.

Pan Mee (Handmade Noodle Soup)

Pan Mee for Dinner (3 March 2012)

Hehehe, it's a relief to know that wiki has acknowledged that Pan Mee originated from Malaysia. As a KLian, of course I'm afraid that another nation proclaims my local food as their national dish! (Oh-oh, am I starting something controversial here?) Take it with a pinch of salt as I have with my Chicken Rice, Bak Kut Teh and Yee Sang. (Awkward silence.....)

Let's get back to glorifying Pan Mee! Pan Mee in its simplest form is basically strips of flour noodle in anchovy soup, topped with fried anchovies, pork and sweet leaves. Nowadays, most Pan Mee stalls have other variations of serving Pan Mee ~ dry, chilli, curry, herbal, etc... I still like the traditional kind the best!

Making 2 bowls of pan mee is easy but try making it for 10... at the same time! I had to knead 1 kilo of flour, boiled 3 litre of soup, cooked 1/2 kilo of minced meat and deep fried 300g of dried anchovies. It took me half a day to prepare these but only 15 min for everyone to finish the noodle! Was it worth it? YES!!!

Pan Mee Recipe (Serving 4)

Part 1 - Noodle

Ingredient:
500 g plain flour
2 large eggs
1 tsp shallot oil
1/2 tsp salt
220 g water, add more if necessary

Method:

1. Start by adding the shallot oil to your eggs and beat lightly
2. Sieve flour into a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.
3. Pour egg mixture and salt in. Mix flour & eggs with hand until crumbly.
4. Add water gradually and continue to knead the dough until it's smooth and springy in texture. I took more than 20 min with my tiny hands! You could always use a mixer if you have one.
5. Let the dough rest for 1 hour. Cover with a damp cloth.
6. Once ready, cut the dough into 1 cm slices. Roll out using a pasta maker gradually from Setting 1 to 5. If you don't have a maker, roll out 2mm sheets. Dust sheets with flour.

Part 2 - Soup

Ingredient:

1/2 kg pork bone

200g dried anchovies/ ikan bilis with the head on

1 onion, cut into 4

 3 litre of water

Method:

1. Wash and blanch the pork bones in hot water
2. Wash and dry the anchovies. Using a non-stick pan, fry the anchovies until brown and fragrant.
3. Place pork bones, fried anchovies and onion into a stock pot. Add water and boil for at least 2 hours.
4. Sieve the soup before assembling the noodle.

Part 3- Others

Ingredient:

400g minced pork, marinade earlier with cornflour, salt & pepper

4-5 dried Chinese mushroom, sliced thinly
1 piece of black fungus, sliced thinly
Vegetables (sweet leaves)
Deep fried anchovies

Method:

1. Stirfry minced pork with garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce, Chinese wine & a little sesame oil.
2. Separately stir fry mushrooms and black fungus with dark sauce, soy sauce, salt & pepper
3. Blanch vegetable.
4. Deepfry anchovies, drain and set aside.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Not to my Mum's satisfaction but it'll do for now!

I have to confess... I'm a lousy baker. Baking requires such precision and technique. When I cook, I could improvise depending on the crockery provided or jazz it up to suit the occasion. But for baking, that would be a no no ~ unless you plan to serve a sunken cake or a hard rock cookie!

What was left of it 15 minutes out of the oven!

Occasionally, I'll be inspired to attempt a cake recipe & this time, my inspiration came from my best friend, Colleen and her lil' boy. The thing I love about my BF is that she'd never give up trying! When she had trouble with her initial chiffon recipe, I gave her my mum's to try and I think a lot of other friends gave their advices as well.  I hope her little boy enjoys her cakes and other goodies as much as I love looking at pictures of them! Jiayou, Colleen!

My mum has been making chiffon cakes for over 30 years. I never picked it up because I already have a brilliant baker (Mummy!) at home :) My mum said to me," So easy.....just have to remember the folding and mixing technique! All fool proof!" Mmm... but I must say, using one tablespoon to measure all the ingredients makes life easier!

Pandan Chiffon Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

(A)

5 large egg white

5 tbsp castor sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

(B)

5 large egg yolk

3 tbsp castor sugar

8 tbsp self raising flour

4 tbsp corn oil

1 tbsp of pandan leave juice extract

2 tbsp of coconut milk   

Method:

1. (B) In a mixing bowl, place egg yolks and sugar and stir with a mixing spoon. Stir in one direction.
2. When yolks & sugar have mixed thoroughly, alternately add the flour, pandan leave juice and coconut milk. Mix well in the same direction
3. Add corn oil one spoon at a time and mix well.
4. (A) In another mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites with the sugar at high speed. Add cream of tartar. Continue to whisk until soft fluffy peaks appear. Turn the bowl upside down to check if the batter will hold. Do not overbeat your egg whites, we are not making meringues.
5. Now add 2 spoonful of (A) into the (B) mixing bowl. Fold in well.
6. Then pour all of (B) into the (A) mixing bowl. Fold until the batter is mixed evenly.
7. Pour the batter into your cake tin. Hold your cake tin firmly and give it a few good thump on the table top. This is to remove the air bubbles.
8. Bake at 160 deg Celsius for 30 minutes. Then another 10 min at 150deg Celsius.

P/S I have attempted pandan, nescafe, chocolate malt & orange flavour. Looking forward to try some local fruit flavour like jackfruit and durian!

Vegetarian Wrap

My mum's yoga class is coming to have lunch at our house. Since the yoga teacher is a vegetarian, I thought that it would be a good time to try out this vegetarian wrap. This is one of my favourite dim sum when I was in Brisbane. Back then I worked as a dim sum girl at a Chinese restaurant in Sunnybank. I would pray that no one ordered this basket while pushing the dim sum cart around the restaurant as any leftovers from the steamer carts would end up being lunch for the staff.

Vegetarian Wrap Recipe

Ingredients:
1 sheet of dried beancurd skin, soak in water
1/4 inch old ginger, julienne

Filling:
2 inch of carrot, shredded
1/2 stalk of celery, cut into 2 inch strips
A handful of dried lily bulb, soaked in water
5 dried chinese mushrooms, soaked & sliced thinly
1 piece of dried black fungus, soaked and sliced thinly

Seasoning:
1 tsp of vegetarian oyster sauce
1/2 piece of fermented beancurd
A dash of salt and pepper

Method:

1. First, heat up a little oil in wok. Saute 1/2 the ginger you have julienned.
2. Then add the mushrooms, dried lily bulbs and black fungus. Stir fry for 3 minutes to soften them. Add a sprinkle of water if necessary.
3. Then add carrots and celery. Pour in seasoning. Stir fry for another 3 minutes. Remove to cool.
4. Use a kitchen towel or clean cloth to dry the soaked beancurd skin. Cut the skin into 6-7" squares.
5. Here is the tricky part. Place 2 tablespoon of filling in the middle of the skin. Wrap it by folding the bottom part of skin upwards. Then fold in the sides of skin. Finally flip the roll towards the other end of the skin. Careful as the whole thing might fall apart when you flip.
6. Use a large spatula to gently lift the roll and place it in a heated non-stick pan. You should have a little oil in the pan.
7. Fry the roll on one side until it is crispy before turning it over to the other side. Pan fry until the roll becomes golden brown.
8.  Serve hot with chinese red /black vinegar and the balance julienne ginger.