Pan Fried Bocourti Fillet

Grilled Salmon with Poach Egg and Rice

Wagyu Striploin

This piece of steak cost us a bomb... Some times back, I bought a wagyu beef trimmings and I simply stir fried it with salt and pepper. It tasted heavenly. The marble of fat was evenly distributed. It just melt in the mouth. So this time I bought more and picked a better one. Surely we had very high expectation especially because this piece cost more. It turns out having lots of tendon in the meat and it's tough, although the meat taste great but I am really disappointed ;(

Christmas Set Meals

This Christmas we didn't go to church's celebration and only invited my girls’ God parents to come by to have a simple dinner with us and to open gifts with them.

My domestic helper for 4 years went home for good middle of Dec and knowing the new one will not be as good as her, I decided not to cook an elaborate dinner.  Instead, I prepare a 3 course western dinner (mostly frozed or pre-cooked) starting with minestrone soup http://shiraschoice.blogspot.com/2008/11/hk-style-minestrone-soup.html.  Main course is roasted beef which I bought from wholesale food factory (1kg @ S$24 really good bargain).  It is pre-cooked and frozen.  All I need to do is to bake with some fresh mushroom and potato for 40min.  Vegetable is a must and that will be my favourite HK style salad http://shiraschoice.blogspot.com/2008/11/hk-style-salad.html.

 It ends with a cheese cake.   I didn't bake the cheese cake myself and it is given free when I bought some baking material at Phoon Huat a few days ago.  However, I complete this ordinary cake by topping it with freshly cooked strawberry sauce and fresh cream. 

It took me 2 hours to prepare this 3-course set dinner and my girls had so much fun opening the gifts that night. 

Glutinous Rice

Shanice Bento

Teo Chew Porridge Set

This Teo Chew porridge set is one of my favourite dishes I cook occasionally especially when the weather is incredibly warm and humid. The Chinese believe that plain porridge could lower your body heatiness. It really helps to quench your thirst on a hot summer day.  

I like to make use of the left over cooked rice boiled to plain porridge. The 2 dishes are:
1) Salted preserved vegetable fried with sliced pork and garlic; and
2) Fried egg omelet with preserved salted radish.
A complete 2 + 1 dishes will be ready in no time.

Chicken Baked Rice with Cheese

Bento Set Lunch

4 Bento Sets

A friend of mine ordered some bento lunch sets on 2 consecutive days. So I thought this would be a good opportunity to test out my process flow on how to produce 16 bento sets within 1 and half hour each day.

I proposed beef stew and chicken chop for day one. On day 2, they will have chicken stew and Pork chop. I cooked beef stew a day ahead. With some help from my helper like cutting potato, carrot, chopping garlic, I thought it would easy.

I discover that as I take on different assignments from friends, I learn different lessons along the way. One critical area is time management and planning skill. It is very important to set aside time to plan for your recipe and jot down ingredient and plan out exactly how you are going to execute each and every step involved. Without this, your time estimation to complete the task will go badly off target. This is especially critical if you need to adhere to fixed delivery time - for this case, lunch hour at 12.

Making money out of it is not the main concern for these assignments although I have to commit a lot of "overtime" in my kitchen and it is tough working in the kitchen. I never regret taking on any of these assignments. They help me discover my love for cooking and my passion towards cooking just grow stronger each time. Every new recipe has its own uniqueness and there is infinite creativity in exploring and presenting it.

I have one regret though: I discover this passion a little too late or I could have seriously thought of taking this as my profession and career.

HK Styled Sweet Corn and Pork Rice

You can easily find this HK-style "Sok Mai Yuk Lup Fan" (Sweet corn with diced pork served with rice) in any "Cha Chan Teng" (HK cafe) in Hong Kong. My mom always cooked this when we were young, whenever our fresh meat stock is running low in the refrigerator.

It took me more time to write this blog than to prepare and cook this dish. 15 mins is all it needs. This is one of the favourite quick meal for our family. We have it almost every other week - easy to prepare yet nutritious and delicious. I use Del Monte cream of corn, the type packed in can, not paper pack, cox I find that softer and taste fresher. Meat and egg are added to complete an energizing, healthy meal.

Ingredient

1 can Del Monte cream of sweet corn
1 egg
200 - 300gm minced/sliced/diced pork marinate with soy sauce, corn starch,

sesame oil and sugar

1 1/2 can water
1/4 cube of chicken stock (Optional)
1 - 2 Garlic diced or pressed
2 tsp Potato Starch to thicken

Method

Stir fry garlic with some oil, add sliced/minced pork and 2 tsp of cooking wine. Let it sizzle for a few min. Add chicken stock cube with cream of corn, mix potato starch with water then bring to boil. Season with salt and little bit of sugar to your taste. Lastly, beat egg in a bowl and stir the batter while adding in egg. Off fire once the egg is added. It should be thick but not watery. You may add 1 more egg or more corn starch to thicken if it is too watery.

Served with a bowl of rice and soup. You'll have a typical HK set meal.

Saba (Mackerel) Bento

I made this for my hubby. He jogs and usually eats a lot after that so I wanted to prepare a great meal for him. I bought this "fatty" saba from Giant supermarket and he likes the fragrance of the yellowish, thick fat. Saba fish is a kind of fish that you either love it or hate it. My family has the extremes. Though I hate the smell of the fish, I still want to cook it for love sake. I wore plastic gloves when I handled the fish to avoid havng the fishy smell staying on my hands for days.

Fried Rice
Fry rice with lots of garlic, mushroom and spring union. Season with 1 tsp soy sauce and salt and dash of butter if you like.

Greens
Any type of vegetables, just clean and pan fry with garlic and season with salt.

Egg Omelet
Beat egg and season with salt and pepper. Pour onto non-stick pan and keep stirring it to give volume in texture. Then fold into semi circle. It only takes 3 - 5 mins to cook both side, don't over cooked it. For the stuffing, it varies to your own liking like dice tomato, mushroom, union, ham or even cheese.

Fried Saba Fish
It is quite easy to prepare. Wash and season the fish with pepper and salt. Fry it with a dash of oil on the non-stick frying pan. Let it sizzle for about 3 mins and you will see lots of oil coming from the fish and its skin will turn into nice, golden brown colour.

Sauce

I choose to use wasabi which helps bring the strong fishy smell down. 2 tsp of soy sauce, 1/4 tsp sugar, 1 tsp of vinegar or lemon juice, black pepper, sesame oil and 1 tbsp water. Mix well and pour it onto the frying pan and let it sizzle. Sprinkle some cooking wine before it is done.