Long Bean Pumpkin Rice (菜豆金瓜饭)

The hub is a Hokkien and his mum used to cook them long bean rice or otherwise known as Cai Dao Peng. She has not done so for quite a while and my sister-in-law is always asking when she can cook this childhood dish again.

I had some long beans left after I fried some long bean with minced pork the other day (my childhood dish!) as requested by the hub. So decided to let the hub reminisce his childhood dish, with a twist of course! I also wanted my children to try more of our childhood dishes so that the dishes will not be forgotten and can be pass down to their children in future.

Simple rice dish with long beans, I added sliced Taiwan sausages, pumpkin and chicken to make it more flavourful. In the end, the hub says the smell reminds him of Lotus Leaf Rice....sigh... but he did say he like it and he took double portions that meal!

Here's the recipe...

Long Bean Pumpkin Rice (Serves 5 - 6)

180g pumpkin, diced
25g dried shrimp, washed and soaked
5g dried baby scallops, washed, soaked and tear into small pieces
5 strands of long beans, washed and cut into small pieces
4 cloves of garlic, minced
4 shallots, sliced
1 toe-sized ginger, peeled and minced
1 boneless chicken thigh, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 cups of rice, washed
1 - 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp Hua Diao wine
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
A few dashes of pepper
water

Spring onion for garnishing (Optional)


Directions

In a heated oiled wok, add in 1/3 of the garlic and fry until fragrant. Add in the long beans and stir-fry for a min. No need to fry the long beans until cooked. Dish out and set aside.

Add a little oil and fry the taiwan sauages until fragrant and slightly browned.

Shift it to one side and add in the ginger, garlic and shallot and fry until fragrant.

Add in the dried shrimp and dried scallops and fry for a min for it to be fragrant. Mix with the Taiwan sausages.

Add in the pumpkin, rice and chicken. Stir to combine.

Add the dark and light soy sauce, pepper and wine and mix to combine well.

Dish up into a rice pot and add water to just cover the rice. do not add too much water or the rice will be very wet when done. (I did mine slightly too wet, would be even nicer if it was a little drier) Put the rice cooker to cook the rice.

When the rice is almost done (At this time, steam has begin to come out of the rice cooker), add in the long beans and continue to let the rice cook.

When done, dish out and garnish with spring onion. (optional)

Enjoy!


Hope you will like this dish as much as my family. And if you are a Hokkien, hope it reminds you of the wonderful childhood dishes that your mother or grandmother had cooked for you.

Braised Chicken with Peanuts

Since young, I have always loved my peanuts, especially braised ones. One can of braised peanuts is all the dish I needed to eat with my bowl ( or rather bowls) of porridge for lunch.

Oddly, this love for peanuts was not inherited by my kids. As mentioned earlier, I wanted them to open to a variety of food options so tried to come up with something that they love together with peanuts. And that's how this dish came by.

A really simple dish that warms your body and is best eaten with a bowl of steaming hot rice. I am using canned peanuts for this dish as I wanted it to be a quick dish. However, you can braised the peanuts from scratch.

Here's the recipe...

Braised Chicken with Peanuts (Serves 5 - 6 as a side dish)

1 can braised peanuts, with the sauce
12 drumlets
ginger approx 1", skin removed and sliced
4 - 5 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp black soy sauce
2 tbsp Hua Diao wine
50 ml water (may use more, depending on amount of gravy needed)
pepper, to taste

Spring onion for garnishing (optional)


Directions

In a heated oiled wok, use medium fire and fry the garlic and ginger until fragrant.

Add in the drumlets and stir-fry a little then add in the whole can of peanuts together with the sauce.

Add the dark soy sauce, pepper and wine. Add water so that it just cover the chicken. Lower the fire and cover to simmer the chicken, stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking to wok. Cook until chicken is thoroughly cooked and tender, approx 15 - 20 mins. If gravy is insufficient, add more water to simmer.

Dish up and garnish with spring onion. (optional)

Enjoy!

Shogayaki (Pork Slices in Ginger Sauce)

My children always prefer to chicken over the red meats, but I wanted them to "open up" to other food options so I decided to try make this dish for them. My children always loved Japanese food and this is one of the common Japanese dishes you can see in restaurants or Japanese stalls in food courts.

As the hub likes onions, I added lots of onions to it. For this round, I'm using a store-bought sauce for the dish which I bought from Daiso. Cheap and nice. One of my most preferred store-bought sauce for meats.

I added extra grated ginger to enhance the taste but this is entirely optional and you can leave the grated ginger out if you don't want so much heat in the dish.

In addition, I did not have enough time to slice the meat so I bought pre-sliced pork meat.

This dish of sweet and tender pork slices goes perfectly well with a bowl of steaming hot rice and is wonderful to warm up the body on a cool evening.

Here's the recipe...

Shogayaki (Pork Slices in Ginger Sauce) (Serves 4 - 5)

300g sliced pork belly Sukiyaki meat
1 large yellow onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp grated ginger (any juice that comes out when grated also add in)
7 tbsp ginger sauce (bought from Daiso)


Directions

Marinate the meat with 1 tbsp of the ginger sauce for about 10 mins. Meanwhile

In a heated frying pan, fry the garlic and onion until fragrant.

Add in the pork and grated ginger. Stir-fry for a while until meat is almost cooked. As meat is very thinly sliced, do take note not to overcook it.

Add in the remaining ginger sauce and stir to mix well. Lower the fire to medium low and let meat simmer until fully cooked and has absorb the flavour from the sauce. If sauce is not enough, add a little hot water, 1 tablespoon at a time until desired amount of sauce. Do not add too much as it will dilute the flavour.

Best served hot with rice.

My children surprisingly loved the dish and my elder son, who detest pork, ask me to cook this dish again. A simple and fast dish that the whole family will love!


Happy cooking!

Roasted Honey Mustard Chicken Drumsticks

This was initially not one of the post that I intended to do for the blog as the chicken was done quite impromptu, a last-minute decision as I wanted to have something nice for my elder son for being a good boy. Ingredients for the marinade also depended on what I had at home at that time. This is the reason why I have only one picture for this post. So sorry about that.

However, I received some requests for recipe when I posted pictures of the chicken on Facebook so I decided to type it out nicely. Took a while, as explained in my previous post, as my children and I took turns getting sick.

Surprisingly, results was a succulent chicken drumstick that has the nice fragrance of honey mustard together with the slight tangy feel. Coriander added to the delightful taste, making this dish a wonderful recipe to keep. I should experiment more with my spices!

My elder son and the hub loved the chicken. My son was a little disappointed that I didn't make more!

Here's the recipe...


Roasted Honey Mustard Chicken Drumsticks (Makes 3 drumsticks)

3 medium-sized drumsticks
1 tbsp honey mustard sauce
2 tsp dried coriander leaves
A pinch of salt and pepper


Directions

Pre-heat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

In a medium sized bowl or a deep plate, marinate the chicken with all the ingredients and leave to marinate for at least 2 hours. Best result if marinate overnight in the fridge (cover with a cling wrap before putting into fridge). I like to use a fork and give my chicken some "massage" by poking them for the flavour to get in better, but this is optional.

Bake the chicken in the oven for 40 - 45 mins, turning sides when it's about 20 mins. Chicken is done when inserted toothpick comes out clean.


I hope you will enjoy this dish as much as we did.

Happy cooking!

Chicken in Creamy and Spicy Tomato Sauce

Thanks to all my readers, my blog has crossed the 10,000 page view on Saturday. Though this blog was opened last year, it was only May this year that I started active blogging. So being able to cross the 10,000 mark in such a short period of time (about 3.5 months) feels remarkable and I am sincerely humbled and touched by all the support from all of you. Especially seeing successful attempts of my recipes by readers keeps me motivated to continue blogging.

A big THANK YOU to all of you! Muaks!

Wanted to do up a sweet and innovative huat kueh to celebrate but the end product was rejected by my chief tester, the hub...sob! 

So today, I decided to cook up something to spice up our lunch since the hub is on leave at home and he was especially nice yesterday. He volunteered to look after the kids for the whole day and asked me to go pamper myself. Love him to bits!

Since I bought some boneless chicken thighs, I decided to make this dish. It is a tomato-based stir-fry chicken with a spicy feel to it. Previously I have always cooked this sauce with prawns but wanted to try it with chicken. The milk added gives the dish a creamy feel and helps in thickening the sauce.

End results - the hub and son gave me thumbs up. The hub finished up the whole thing till the last drop. He even asked if I need to take a picture of the empty plate! LOL!

Please do adjust the chili sambal amount according to your intended level of spiciness as I was cooking for the kids as well so I didn't want to make it too spicy.

Here's the recipe...

Chicken in Creamy and Spicy Tomato Sauce (Serves 4)

2 pieces of boneless chicken thigh (approx 400g), cut into 1-inch thick pieces.

1 red onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

4 tbsp tomato sauce

3 tbsp full cream milk

1 tbsp mirin

1/2 - 1 tbsp sambal chili (I used bottled sambal chili)

Directions

Heat up a wok and add a little oil. When oil is heated up, add garlic and onion and fry until fragrant.

Add chicken pieces and stir well, letting the chicken to be cook.

Add in tomato sauce, chili and and mirin and mix well. Let chicken simmer for a few minutes. At this point, if the sauce is not enough, you can add a little water or stock, 1 tbsp at a time as too much sauce will dilute the taste.

When the chicken is almost cooked, add in the milk and milk well. Allow to simmer until chicken is fully cooked.

Serve with rice.

A very simple and fast dish that you can serve with rice. Hope you will enjoy this dish! Happy Cooking!

Cola Braised Korean Chicken

When Betty J Woo of Singapore Home Cooks Facebook Group recommended this recipe on Facebook in May and I was amazed that cola could be an ingredient to braise chicken! I immediately put in on my to-do list and promised myself I had to try it as soon as possible. But, I was soon plagued with sickness and with the then June holidays came. It slipped out of my mind.

So when Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids invited me to join the Little Thumbs Up event (Potato), I was quite stumped on what should I submit as this is my first time participating in this type of events. I looked through my recipes and I suddenly remembered this dish. And I decided....this shall be my dish!

It was actually cooked on a very tight schedule, as I had classes after sending my kids to the in-laws in the late afternoon. So I definitely had to cook this before I left home. This Cola Braised Korean Chicken by Beyond Kimchee was so easy to prepare that I was able to complete the dish before I had to bring the kids over. I had made some minor adjustment to the ingredients of the recipe by adding black fungus and changing the rice wine for hua diao wine. I also changed a little of the process of cooking. The original recipe calls for blanching of the chicken before braising but I prefer browning my chickens to have that rustic taste. I also add the vegetables into the braising sauce before the chicken as I used chicken wings this round and that requires lesser cooking time.

Verdict at dinner time was fantastic. My elder son, who is not so into braised chicken, had 6 - 7 chicken wings and was still begging for more. Everyone loves the dish! Both the black fungus and the sweet potato noodles soak up all the flavors of the sauce and they just taste so heavenly. The slurping of the flavorful noodles is something you would not want to miss.

Adding of the dried chilli definitely brings up the oomph in this dish. For me, I just added 2 for the benefit of my younger kid. If you are the type that likes a little extra spiciness, feel free to add more dried chilli.


Here's the recipe...


Cola Braised Korean Chicken (Serves 4 - 6)
Original recipe from Beyond Kimchee

1 kg chicken thighs, bone-in and cleaned. (I used chicken wings this round)
100g Korean sweet potato noodles
450g small whole potato (you can use large potato if you like. Cut into large chunks)
2 carrots, cut into 1 1/2" chunks
1 large onion, halved and quartered then separate the pieces
5g dried black fungus, washed and soaked. (you can also use fresh fungus as well)
4 - 7 dried chillies or fresh chillies without the stem
500ml cola ( I used slightly more, around 700ml)
2 tbsp soy sauce (I used good and thick dark soy sauce)
2 tbsp rice wine (I used Shaoxing wine)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp fresh minced ginger


Directions

Soak the Korean noodles in warm water to soften it. Set aside to be used later.

In a medium-sized pan, brown the chicken wings on both sides. Remove from pan and set aside.

In a braising pot, combine the coke, soy sauce, garlic and ginger together.

Add the potatoes, carrots and black fungus. Bring to boil.

When come to boil, return the chicken wings to the pot. Add onions and stir to coat evenly.

Cover with a lid and simmer over medium-low heat for 20 mins. By this time, the vegetables should already be soft.

Raise heat to medium or medium-high, add the noodles and continue to simmer for another 5 - 7 mins, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking to the pot.

 When sauce is reduced by half and vegetables become tender, turn off heat and allow the stew to rest for a few mins before serving.

A pretty easy and fool-proof recipe that warms the body especially on a chilly day. Though it is good on its own as a one-pot dish as it has the sweet potato noodles (known as dangmyeon) inside, pairing it up with rice is equally nice.

Hope you like it, I definitely did! :)

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by Jasline from Foodie Baker at this post.

Roasted Thai Barbecue Chicken

So sorry for the long hiatus. I was sick and also got quite busy during the holidays ferrying the children to and fro their activities.

I use pre-mix occasionally and I have got to agree that for busy mums who juggle between work, children and house chores, pre-mixes are savers.

Previously someone shared on one of the Facebook cooking group that I am following, a pre-mix for Thai Barbecue Chicken. The picture posted looks absolutely delicious that I really was tempted to give it a try. My family loves Thai food and so I decided that I just have to give it a try!

It is really simple and the result is absolutely stunning! The chicken was flavorful, tender and juicy. My family have nothing but praises for the chicken and they wiped of every single piece of meat that was on the chicken drumsticks.

Roasted Thai Barbecue Chicken

900g of chicken drumsticks (you can change it to chicken wings or chopped chicken parts)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 packet Thai Barbecue Chicken marinade

Directions

Marinate the chicken drumsticks with the marinade and vegetable oil. Cover and leave for at least two hour. Best results to refrigerate it overnight.

Pre-heat oven to 190 degree Celsius and roast for 30 - 45 mins or until cooked. Baste at least twice with remaining marinade. (I roasted mine for about 50 mins as I used big drumsticks. I baste the chicken during roasting for 3 times. first time was with remaining marinade and subsequently was with the juice that was released during roasting.)

Give it a try! However do note, the chicken is a little spicy. So if you have little kids who cannot take spicy food, you have to prepare another dish for them while you enjoy this dish.

Potato Oatmeal Tuna Balls

I think I mentioned this before, I LOVE looking at recipes. However, with so many recipes available, both online and in print, it's hard to try all due to my hectic schedule. So I prioritize which to try first. Most of the time the easier ones, with ingredients readily available.

Saw this recipe in a recipe book at Popular bookstore and immediately decided to try this dish because it is just so easy! I also have some oatmeal cereals at home and it's just the perfect dish to help use up the oatmeal.

Here's the recipe...

Potato Oatmeal Tuna Balls (Makes 20 balls)

300g potatoes
1/2 can tuna chunks (about 92g)
1/4 cup corn
1/2 small red onion, diced
1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 cup oatmeal
1 tbsp mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste
Oatmeal (for coating)

For the dipping sauce (Mix well):

1/4 cup mayonnaise
1tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp honey
sugar and salt to taste


Directions

Boil potatoes in boiling water for 20 mins. Coarsely mash potatoes with a fork.

Pre-heat oven to 200 degree Celsius.

Mix remaining ingredients (except the oatmeal for coating) with the mashed potato and shape mixture into balls.

Coat the balls evenly with oatmeal.

Bake the potato balls for 15 mins or until golden brown.

Serve with dipping sauce.

Note: I did not credit the author of the recipe because I did not purchase the book but did the dish based on my memory of the recipe. I shall re-visit the bookshop soon and shall note down the author's name and book title for credits. Thanks!