I’ve heard that pumpkin is good for slimming, but didn’t know if it’s true. Well, anyway, i thought that it doesn’t hurt to eat it as pumpkin itself is very nutritious and delicious too.
I find it interesting that pumpkin is both well-like by both sides of the globe; people from the eastern and western countries have lots of recipes that uses pumpkin as the main ingredient. When i search for pumpkin soup recipe in the internet, there were lots and lots of recipes that include both the eastern and western kind. Haha, what a sweet coincidence, two totally different dish with the same name.
Golden Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients:
800 ml water
100 g pumpkin, chopped roughly
1 corn, remove outer layer and chopped roughly
1 small carrot, peeled and chopped roughly
some meat ball ( optional )
Method:
1. Put 8oo ml of water into pot and bring to boil. Add in rest of ingredients and let simmer over
medium low heat for ½ hr.
2. Add in salt to taste, garnish with chopped spring onions and serve.
RED ALERT! ….. Red is in the range at the moment, hahah, at least during the Chinese New Year time. From China ancient times, red colour is considered as an auspicious colour and its used whenever there’s something to celebrate; may it be birthdays, weddings, or the birth of a child in the house.
As CNY is nearing, i decided to join in the festive mood and cook this red hot dish for dinner. It’s easy enough and it’s a good addition to my very own list of new recipes. Yum!
Spicy Pork Strips
Ingredients:
100 g lean pork, shredded
½ red bell pepper, deseed and cut into 1 cm thick slices
½ Japanese cucumber, sliced diagonally 1 cm thick
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp potato starch
1 tsp chili powder
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp cooking oil
1tsp garlic oil
Seasoning:
50 ml water
2 tbsp chili sauce
1 tbsp tomato sauce
Method:
1. In a big clear plastic bag, mix plain flour, potato starch, chili powder, and salt together.
Add shredded pork in and twist to close bag. Toss around to coat pork evenly with flour
mixture. Set aside.
2. Heat enough cooking oil for deep-frying, with tong, transfer coated pork into hot oil to fry.
Once golden, remove to absorbent paper.
3. In new wok, heat cooking oil and garlic oil. Add red bell pepper and Japanese cucumber to
sauté 1 minute.
4. Add seasoning to mix. Lastly, add in fried pork strips and stir to mix.
5. Off heat. Transfer to serving plate and serve.
Hehe, i had finally succumb to my sister suggestion on joining Facebook and logging in to play the games. I’m hooked! For these past few days, i’m been playing and playing. Ah…. I finally understand what’s the great excitement is about.
Well, have no fear, my heart still lies here and i will maintain my presence here. Haha.
Back to the dish of the day, it’s porridge ( again ). Actually it’s been a while since i last cook up new porridge dishes, and this time, i decided to try the chicken flavour. It’s a delight, i must say….
Chicken Porridge
( serves 2)
Ingredients:
250 g cooked rice
1000 ml water
100 g boneless chicken breast
2 tsp concentrated chicken stock
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tbsp hua tiao wine
1 tsp finely chopped ginger
1 egg, beaten
Method:
1. Place cooked rice and 500 ml of water in large pan to cook.
2. Once boiled, add chicken stock, light soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, white pepper and
hua tiao wine. Cook half- covered on low heat for 20 minutes.
3. Add in 300 ml of water and bring to boil again on medium high heat. Add beaten egg in
a thin stream, stirring all the while to prevent egg lumps.
4. Continue cooking on low heat with lid half-covered for another 15 minutes.
5. Off heat. Check porridge consistency, add more water if desire.
6. In another small pan, bring 200 ml of water to boil. Add in pinch of salt and chicken
breast to cook on hight heat for 5 minutes.
7. Off heat and let chicken stand in water for 5 minutes. Drain and slice chicken or shred
chicken with hands.
8. Ladle porridge into bowl, arrange chicken on top and garnish with fried sliver fish. Serve.
♥ When cooking porridge, stir frequently to prevent porridge settling on bottom and burning.
I had tried cooking sweet and sour pork before, but the results always disappoint me. The pork were stiff and dry compared to what i had eaten outside, and i couldn’t understand why. Haha, it was only until when i read from a chinese cuisine cookbook that i came to know that this dish requires a different kind of pork meat, or i should say, different part of the pork.
Hehe, now that i learned my lesson, the problem was quickly rectify. I really have to give thanks to the local supermarket that supply the frozen section of the pork which i needed. It was ridiculously easy, they had already marked out the required section meant for cooking sweet and sour pork. IT WAS PRINTED ON THE WRAPPER ! Yeah!!
I just have to defreeze and cook as i have before, and yummy, the taste and texture was what i wanted for all this while. Hip, Hip, Horray!!
Sweet & Sour Pork
Ingredients:
300 g pork cube , defroze
½ onion
½ green bell pepper
½ red bell pepper
3 rings canned pineapple
1 big tomato
→ Wash and chop all ingredients into bite size.
Batter for frying:
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp potato starch (flour)
¼ tsp salt
1 cold egg
50 ml cold water
→ Mix all ingredients together and chill in fridge.
Seasoning:
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp ketchup
¼ tbsp light soy sauce
→ Mix all ingredients together.
Method:
1. Wash pork cube and mix together with frying batter. Heat enough oil for frying in pan.
2. Using chopsticks or thongs, drop coated pork cubes into hot oil to fry.
Gently stir to ensure even frying.
3. Once golden, remove to absorbent paper and set aside.
4. In wok, heat 1 tbsp of cooking oil. Add 1 tsp of chopped garlic and onion to sauté 1 minute.
5. Add in bell peppers, tomato, pineapple and seasoning to mix. Cook another 1 minute.
6. Add in fried pork cube and stir to mix. Off heat.
7. Serve.
I recently bought a cookbook featuring japanese cuisine. It’s just a small cookbook with some twenty odd recipes of japanese everyday simple meals. I took a liking to it immediately as the recipes really look easy, plus the photos printed on it looks so appetizing. Yum!
Well, you know what will happen next. I bought the book and came home to cook. Hehe!
Pork Tonkatsu
Ingredients:
200 g pork chop
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
50 g plain flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
some bread crumbs
Method:
1. Put pork chop in zip-lock plastic bag and pound slightly with rolling pin.
2. In a bowl, mix light soy sauce with mirin. Add in flatten pork chop and mix and let soak
15 minutes.
3. Prepare one plate with 50 g plain flour, one bowl of lightly beaten egg and one tray filled
with adequate amount of breadcrumbs. Take one pork chop from the soy sauce mixture and
coat with plain flour, then dip it into the bowlof beaten egg. Next, transfer to breadcrumbs
tray and coat with breadcrumbs. Press with finger to ensure thick coating. After coating,
place on clean plate. Continue with rest of pork chop.
4. Heat enough cooking to deep-fry in pan. Gently place prepared pork chop into hot oil to fry.
Deep-fry until golden brown, turning over during mid-fry.
5. Remove to absorbent paper towel. Transfer onto serving plate and serve hot.
Serve with tonkatsu sauce on the side or drizzle tonkatsu sauce on top.
Truth to say, i’ve never eaten red bean paste before, probably because it gives me the feeling that it’s super sweet. And me, i don’t have a sweet tooth, i can’t stand foods that are over sweet.
To my regret, this misconception has led me to miss one of the good food that is both delicious and healthy. Ah, all the years wasted.
Well, better late than never. From now on, i will welcome red bean paste with open arms. Hahaha.
Red Bean Creme with Lotus Seeds
Ingredients:
200 g red beans
200 ml water
2 orange peel
80 g rock sugar
100 ml water
20 g lotus seeds
Method:
1. Wash red beans and soak 2 hours. Drain water away.
2. Put red beans, orange peel and 150 ml of water in pan. Cover and bring to boil.
3. Reduce heat to low and cook 1 hour. Stir and add water if necessary to prevent red beans
from sticking to base.
4. Transfer hot red bean mixture to blender and pulse to make puree.
5. Pour back into pan and add the remaining 50 ml of water to blend. Add in rock sugar and
stir to dissolve. Once dissolved, off heat.
6. In another small pan, mix 100 ml of water with lotus seeds and bring to boil.
7. Cook for another 15 – 20 minutes to soften lotus seeds. Split seeds into half and remove
center stem.
8. To serve, ladle red bean crème into bowl and top with lotus seeds.
I like to cook this dish a lot, not only because it’s easy to prepare, it’s also well liked by the family. They would always finished the whole pot, and i’m really happy not to have to worry about leftovers. Phew!
Radish with Meat Ball Soup
Ingredients:
Meat Ball:
100 g pork mince
30 g water chestnut, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp coriander, chopped
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp corn flour
1 tsp sesame oil
Soup:
800 ml water
1 small carrot, peeled and chopped
1 radish, peeled and chopped
1 dried squid, sliced thickly
1 tbsp wolfberries
salt to taste
Method:
1. Mix all ingredients for meat balls together and let rest 15 minutes. Form into balls of
desired size. Set aside.
2. Bring 800 ml of water to boil. Drop in prepared meat balls and cook 5 minutes over
medium high heat.
3. Once meat balls are cooked, add in carrot, radish and wolfberries and simmer over
medium low heat for 10 minutes.
4. Add salt to taste. Off heat. Ladle into soup bowl and garnish with chopped coriander.
Serve.
Do you believe that i have had the pumpkin for over two months? Ha, it’s a wonder they manage to stay edible all the while. I had read somewhere that pumpkin could store very well in the freezer, and so i did it. After so many days that passed, when i finally dug them out from way inside the freezer, they remain quite fresh, except being darker in colour.
Still, wanting to be cautious, incase they had turn bad, even though i couldn’t see from the appearance, i cook two little chunks in boiling water and tried them. Phew, they still tasted the same, sweet and flavourful. Rest assured, the fate of those little pumpkin chunks were decided. Into my stomach they would go. Hahaha!
Well, no worry, they wouldn’t be alone. Some porridge and wolfberries would accompany them. Hehe!
And so, that’s how this story ends; a nutritious meal for a new day! Yum!
Pumpkin Porridge with Wolfberries
( serves 2 )
Ingredients:
1 bowl cooked white rice
500 ml water
80 g pumpkin, cubed
1 tbsp wolfberries
some salt to taste
Method:
1. Put cooked rice and water into pan and bring to boil.
2. Reduce to low heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Stirring occasionally.
3. Add in pumpkin and cook for another 15 minutes.
4. Wash wolfberries with cold water and add into porridge. Cooked for another 5 minutes.
5. Add salt to taste and off heat. Serve.
Yum yum, this is the first time that i made these, and i had to say that they taste fabulous. I remember that there’s a fast food restaurant that sells something similar and i had tried them many years ago. That’s the first and last time that i bought them, the taste is bland and the texture is soggy. Ewww, my goodness, they were horrible. I wonder if they are still selling them?
Well, back to my potato wedges, the story goes that i saw a cooking show on TV about baking sweet potato in the oven. The finished product looked delicious, plus they were really simple to do, and i thought maybe i could try it too. Substituting sweet potato with potatoes, and with some slight changes in the seasoning, i made my very own version of potato wedges.
It was a huge hit with the family. Hahaha.
Potato Wedges
Ingredients:
300 g potatoes, peeled and chopped diagonally
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp paprika
1 tsp parsley flakes
1 tbsp corn oil
Method:
1. Mix all ingredients together and toss to coat evenly.
2. Put into baking dish and bake in preheated oven at 230ºC for 25 – 30 minutes,
or until nicely browned.
3. Transfer to serving plate and serve hot.
YS has been saying that she wanted to eat pizza for these few days; from before the new year till today, when the turn of the year had passed, hahaha. Well, now that she mentioned it, it’s really has been ages since i’d last eaten pizza.
Well, to make the story short, i’ve decided to make some myself, and the flavour of the day? Hawaiian of course, the favourite of the family. However, instead of making the normal pizza dough for the base, which requires a lot of time for proofing, i cheated and used store-bought white bread as a substitute. There’s shouldn’t be much difference, i thought.
Lo and behold! The pizza bread surpassed my expectation. Hahaha. The bread base is crispy, which i like, probably because i had flatten it some. Yum yum!
Hawaiian Pizza Bread
( makes 3 )
Ingredients:
3 slices white bread
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 slices picnic ham, cut into small pieces
2 slices canned pineapple rings, cut into small pieces
150 g shredded mozzarella cheese
Method:
1. Flatten white bread slightly with rolling pin. Spread with tomato paste.
2. Sprinkle generously with mozzarella cheese.
3. Randomly place pineapple and ham on top. Top again with mozzarella cheese.
4. Bake in preheated oven at 200ºC for 12 – 15 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and cool for 2 – 3 minutes before serving.
