Stir-fry Lotus Roots with Sambal Chilli

Back to work for 2 weeks already. New job, new workplace, new people. Everything has been good thus far.

Finally found some time to put up a post and keep my blog alive. This dish is one that I adore alot. Whether it is being cooked in soup or stir-fries, I love eating lotus roots.

This round, I aren't cooking lotus roots in soup but doing a stir-fry with it. If your Mummy gives me a little tub of sambal chilli, put it to good use!

My Mum makes mean sambal chilli sauce!

Love the spicy sweet taste this dish has. Pairing the minced garlic and dried shrimps with the lotus makes this dish very appetising. I could down a bowl of rice with it!

Stir-fry Lotus Roots with Sambal Chilli

500g lotus roots (de-skinned, washed & thinly sliced)
2 Tsp sambal chilli
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp dried shrimps, soakedfor 30min and drained
4 garlics, minced
2 to 3 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Spring onion bits - Garnish

1. Heat oil in pan and fry garlic, sambal chilli and dried shrimps till fragrant.

2. Add in sliced lotus and stir fry till well mixed.
3. Add in sugar and salt and stir fry well. Stir in water and let it come to boil till gravy is formed. Garnish with spring onion bits and serve immediately with rice.

Easy Coral Lettuce Salad

I love vegetables but somehow never really enjoyed eating salad. I prefer my vegetable blanched or stir fried. I love flavours so I can never stick to eating salad for a long time. Salad are so plain and boring lor ), at least for me lah.

The hubby requested for salad for last night's dinner. I needed to do something to spruce up the salad dinner. I did not want to feel like a cow feasting on a bowl of green veggies!!! Okay... I could add in this one thing to bring out more taste to that bowl of green thing. Tried and oh it was so so good.

Enjoyed the salad dinner tonight and wouldn't mind having this again :)

Secret to my yummy bowl of salad was adding in some homemade chicken floss. Hehe~

I love flavours.

I love colours too. :)

Easy Coral Lettuce Salad
For 2 to 3 person

2 bunches of coral lettuce or any salad veggie of your choice, washed and torn into smaller pcs
10 cherry tomatoes, washed and halved
1 hard boiled egg, cut into small bite sizes
2 tbsp of homemade chicken floss (for the tossing) + 1 tbsp (or more for the topping)
5 to 6 tbsp toasted sesame dressing (I use Kewpir brand)

1. Place coral lettuce in a mixing bowl, add toasted sesame dressing, mix and toss well.
2. Add in 2 tbsp chicken floss and mix well.
3. Spoon coral lettuce into serving bowls, place halved cherry tomatoes and hard boiled egg pieces on top of coral lettuce. Top with some chicken floss. Serve.

Sharp leaves Spinach Pork Ribs Soup

I miss cooking soup because they are just so simple, and the benefits we get from consuming soup are too many to be mentioned.

Hubby and I do not eat lavishly. Simple meals work better for us. So, one soup one dish is more than enough for us 2. Good for me too hehe! I need not rack brain to cook up a feast.

Short posts nowadays. With the new job coming, I hope I will get time to blog still!

Be right back!

Sharp leaves Spinach Pork Ribs Soup

280g pork rib or lean pork

2 dried scallops (big) or a handful of small dried scallops, rinsed

2 dried fig, rinsed

1 honey date

1 medium sized carrot, peeled and cut into 3 big chunks

1 bunch of sharp leaves spinach, picked and washed

Salt to taste

1.Rinse pork ribs or lean meat. Blanch in a pot of boiling water to remove scums and oil. Rinse well and leave aside.

2. Put all ingredients (except spinach and salt) into boiling water.  Bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat for 1 hour. 

3. When ready to consume, bring soup base to boil, add in spinach, add salt to taste.  Serve.

Stir Fried Luffa Gourd with Egg

Love this vege dish from young. Haven't eaten it for a long time so I bought 1 luffa gourd and cook it! Simple, yet heartwarming. I am glad I have a hubby that is not a fussy eater and let me cook whatever I want and eat with me.

The one thing I hate about this dish is the peeling!!! 

Weather is so hot and humid these days that all I want is whip a quick dish or 2 and dig in.  Do remember to drink more water ya?  Be back soon :)

Stir Fried Luffa Gourd with Egg
Serves 2

1 luffa gourd, skin peeled, rinsed and cut into smaller pcs
1 egg, beaten
2 to 3 garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried shrimps (I used minced dried shrimps but you can use them whole)
1/2 tbsp abalone or oyster sauce
1 tbsp oil

1. Heat oil in pan.
2. Add in garlic and dried shrimps and fry till fragrant garlic slightly brown.
3. Place in luffa gourd pcs and abalone sauce. Stir fry till well mixed. Cover and let luffa gourd soften and absorb gravy.
4. Add in beaten egg and stir fry to break up egg into scramble form. Dish out and serve with rice or porridge.

Blanched Broccoli with Abalone & Pacific Clams in Oyster Sauce 西兰花蚝油汁加鲍鱼鲍贝

Yet another way due post. This is one dish easy enough and suitable to host guests at home. This was one of the few dishes I cooked when my family came by during CNY. It was a Lunar New Year filled with lots of abalone.

Life is good. Indulge when the time calls for it! :)

Blanched Broccoli with Abalone & Pacific Clams in Oyster Sauce

1 medium broccoli, cut in florets
1 carrot, skinned and sliced
1 pc of celery
1/2 can of Pacific Clams
1 can of medium sized abalone (reserve 3 tbsp abalone broth for dish gravy - you can freeze the remaining for use the next round)
5 pcs garlic, minced
1/2 tbsp oyster sauce / abalone sauce
3 tbsp water
1 tsp cornstarch mixed with some water and mix to dissolve
a small pc of ginger, flattened slightly with back of knife

1. Fill a small pot with enough water for blanching the vegetables. Bring to boil. Blanch broccoli, carrots and celery for 3 to 4 min. Be careful not to over blanch as we would still want the vege to maintain a crunch in them. Drain and set them on a serving plate.
2. With the same pot of water used for blanching vege, place in ginger and when boil, add in Pacific clams and blanch for 30sec. Remove and set over vege on serving plate. Place abalone pcs by sides of plate.
3. Mix abalone broth, water, oyster sauce and minced garlic in a small pot. Bring to a soft boil. Do a taste test. Add more water if more gravy is required / Add a little more oyster sauce if preferred.
4. Mix cornstarch solution and pour into oyster gravy sauce. Add more if a thicker consistency is preferred. Stir well sauce and turn off heat when thickened.
5. Pour sauce over the plate of vege and abalone. Serve immediately.

Stir-fried Sambal Okra 叁巴辣椒炒羊角豆

I have been keeping myself away from too spicy food for awhile now, and had that sudden craving of sambal okra some days back. Had a small tub of homemade dried shrimp sambal chilli from dearest Mummy (Mummy is da best okie!!!), and I had that put to good use!

Yummy spicy dried shrimp sambal chilli from my mummy!!!

With the Japanese Okra I bought from the supermarket some days back, I whipped up a dish in no time. I took the back seat this time with just 1 dish. Hubby did the rest. He cooked stir-fried ginger spring onion beef and made a pot of daikon soup. A lazy wife he has got himself. :P

One Saturday dinner over just like that! It is always nice to have the other half whipping up meals for me once in awhile :)

Our dinner.

A joint effort.

Stir-fried Sambal Okra
Serves 2 to 3

250g Japanese Okra (Lady Fingers)
1 tbsp sambal chilli, washed, stalks cut and removed, sliced
4 pcs garlic, minced
1 tbsp minced dried shrimps
light soy sauce, to taste
1.5 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tbsp sugar
water

1. Heat oil in pan. Add in garlic, dried shrimps and sambal chilli. Fry till fragrant.
2. Add sliced okra and stir-fry till well mixed.
3. Add water, more if you want slightly wetter consistency. Stir well.
4. Add sugar and mix well.
5. Add some light soy sauce, do a taste test and add more if required. Stir well and turn off heat when okra is cooked. Serve inmediately with a bowl of rice!

Steamed Cabbage Roll

Have you all tried steamed cabbage roll? Try it if you all haven't, will you?

I have procrastinated for the longest time on trying out this recipe. I finally tried! And I love it. And why did I sit on it for that long? Simply because I did not want to go through the blanching of cabbage leaf part and then having to wrap the stir-fried fillings in the cabbage leave before finally steaming them to eat. I did not want to go through such a trouble. Oh well, in the end, I caved in. So here is it.  I got down to do and quite enjoy it. Seriously, I will cook this again because it was a yummy dish.

Steamed Cabbage Rolls
Recipe by Andrew Kow of One Day One Dish | 365 Selected Home-Cooked Recipes

1 cabbage
150g minced pork
1 carrot (peeled)
5 pcs black fungus
8 water chestnuts (peeled)
150g celery (I left this out and used 3 pcs of chinese mushrooms instead - minced)

Seasonings
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp chicken seasoning powder (I left this out and added 1/2 tbsp chinese cooking wine)

1. Shred carrot, black fungus, water chestnuts and celery. (I cut water chestnuts and soaked chinese mushrooms into cubes instead)

2. Boil 1/2 pot of water, cook whole cabbage in boiling water till soft, remove and drain. Gently pluck off each cabbage leaf. (I plucked off each leaf and washed them, then blanched a few pcs of cabbage leaves at a time. I did not cook whole cabbage in water for fear of tearing them apart when plucking them as the leaves would be too delicate for me to handle)

3. Heat up oil in pot, add in ingredients (except cabbage), and seasonings, and stir-fry till fragrant.  Remove amd drain,  reserve sauce for use later.

4. Place the mixture on a cabbage leaf, and roll it up.  Repeat for other cabbage leaves. Place cabbage rolls on a steaming tray and steam for 10-15 minutes.

5. Mix some tapioca flour with water to thicken the reserved sauce. Pour it over the steamed cabbage rolls.

I am submitting this post to Cook-Your-Books #20 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours

Carrot & Cinnamon Loaf

How do you like the idea of incorporating vegetable into bread?  I tried baking a carrot bread and like it!

Colour of the bread has a slight tinge of orange with little shredded carrot bits all over the loaf, which was what I like - natural coloured bread.  It was a good try and I look forward to making more healthy vegetable loaf bread.

No one says that bread must be white and plain.  With creativity, baking can be fun.

I am keeping this post short and sweet.  So little time, yet so much to do! Till then, cya! =)

Carrot & Cinnamon Loaf
Recipe adapted from Kimmy Cooking Pleasure with slight change (I added cinnamon and hence renamed it as Carrot & Cinnamon Loaf instead of Carrot Loaf Bread)

Ingredients for Sponge Dough
180 gm bread flour
120 gm cornflour
3 tsp instant yeast
230 ml water

Mix all ingredients into a soft and smooth dough.  Cover and leave to proof for at least 1-2 hours.

Ingredients for Bread Dough
300 gm bread flour
150 gm red carrot [grated finely]
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp  salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder [optional] - (I love cinnamon in bread and added 1/2 tsp of it)
40 ml water [add gradually]
30 gm butter

1. Add all the ingredients [except water and butter] to the sponge dough. Knead [from low speed to medium] until well combined.  Gradually add in water [may need less as the carrots contains water] and knead dough until smooth [about 10 minutes] then add in butter.  Continue kneading until soft, smooth and elastic.  Knead a further 5-10 minutes and dough does not stick to the fingers or window pane stage.
2. Shape into a ball and cover with a clean cloth to proof for 15 minutes or until double in size. Punch down dough.
3. Divide dough into 2 equal portions.  Roll and fold each portion into thirds, then roll swiss roll style into a log.  Place in baking tin [Pullman's tin] and leave to proof in oven for an hour or until double in size [almost reach the rim of the baking tin.  [You can divide dough into any number of equal portions to make smaller loaves].  Remove from oven before preheating it.
4. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees C for 25 minutes or at 160 degrees C for 40 minutes.
5. Remove to cool on rack immediately after baking.

Stir fry Sichuan Vegetable

Mum gave me 2 small packs of preserved sichuan vegetables which she bought from the market. I always order these vegetables when I patronise mixed vegetable rice stall.  So naturally I was happy when Mum passed me these.  There are no needs for expensive gifts by anyone. Simple things given by loved one warms the heart more than costly gifts :)

Even though these preserved vegetables could be consumed right away on its own, I prefer it warm.  I like it with garlic and minced meat!

One of my easy way out for simple lunch. I could have this with a bowl of porridge, anytime!

Stir fry Sichuan Vegetable

2 small packs of preserved sichuan vegetables (rinse 1 time under running water and drain)
4 garlics, minced
2 to 3 tbsp minced meat (I did not specifically weigh it, just scooped out as I like hehe!)
1 tbsp olive oil

1. Heat the oil in a pan.
2. Add in the minced garlic and stir fry till slightly brown.
3. Add in minced meat and stir fry till cooked then stir in preserved sichuan vegetables till well mixed. Serve.

Stir fry Marrow Green & Vermicelli

I am a vege person, if you get what I mean hehe. I can do with no meat and just munch on vegetable dishes, so, give me a vegetable dish with chinese mushrooms and I can eat it anyway.

I normally like to load my stir-fries dishes with loads of other ingredients so that I can cut down cooking more dishes.  Okay, this is how I cheat on having to do tedious cooking and having lesser dishes to wash :P

Now who says cooking is difficult?

This is a simple stir fry dish which I personally like alot.

Stir fry Marrow Green with Vermicelli

1 marrow green (deskin and cut into slices)
1 handful of Vermicelli (soaked in water till softened)
1.5 tbsp minced dried shrimps (wash and soak dried shrimps, rinsed, drained and pulse till fine)
3 pcs of garlic, minced
3 pcs of dried chinese mushrooms (rinsed and soak till softened, remove steam and cut strips) -OPTIONAL
4 pcs of black fungus (rinse, wash and soak till softened, remove the hard centre portion and tear into smaller pcs) -OPTIONAL
100ml water (use the water which was used to soak the mushrooms)
Enough cooking oil
1.5 tbsp of abalone sauce /oyster sauce (more if desired)

1. Heat up cooking oil in a frying pan.
2. Add in minced garlic and dried shrimp. Stir fry till fragrant.
3. Add in chinese mushrooms and black fungus and toss till well mixed.
4. Add in marrow green and abalone / oyster sauce, stir fry to mix well.  Add in mushroom water and stir well.
5. Lower heat, cover and let it simmer till almost cooked.
6. Stir in softened and drained vermicelli and mix well for 2min. Serve.

Stir-fried Long Beans with Sambal Dried Shrimps

Sometime back, Mum made some sambal belacan and gave me a small tub of it.  Happy was I! Yeah, my mum does mean sambal belacan!

With our busy lifestyle, I stashed the tub in a corner of my freezer and kinda "overlooked" it a little till Mummy asked me if I still want more of it when we were back at my parents' place last weekend. She then told me I could cook a simple and nice dish out of it and I made this dish the following weekend.

That evening, I cooked slightly more rice than usual yet Hubby and I wiped it all dishes clean. A simple and sinful indulgence at the comfort of our home ;)

Stir-fried Long Beans with Sambal Dried Shrimps
(Serves 2 to 3)

1 tbsp cooking oil
200g long beans (wash & cut to 1.5 inch)
2 tbsp sambal belachan
3 to 4 tbsp water
1 tbsp cooking wine
1/2 tbsp sugar
salt, to taste
2 tbsp dried shrimps (soaked till soften, drained and finely chopped)
5 pcs of garlic (finely chopped)
3 pcs of shallots (finely chopped)

1. Heat cooking oil till hot, add in chopped dried shrimps, garlic and shallots and stir fry to mix well.
2. Add in sambal belachan and stir fry till fragrant.
3. Add long beans, sugar, cooking wine, followed by water and stir well. Cover for 5 minute and let cook on high heat.
4. Stir well to coat long beans with sambal sauce.  Add salt to taste and serve.