Braised Soft Bones with mushrooms 🍄

A dish that I learnt from my mum using the simplest ingredients soft bones and mushrooms, stewed with lots of garlic, oyster sauce and dark soya sauce. The sauce is infused with the garlic and smells so fragrant! ☺️

Braised Soft Bones with mushrooms 🍄

Ingredients:

• 600g pork soft bones
• 4-5 pieces of dry shiitake mushrooms (pre-soaked, squeezed out water, cut into half and set aside. keep mushroom water)
• 12 pieces of garlic, peel off the skin
• 3 tbsp dark soya sauce (I used guang Xiang Tai brand)
• 1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp corn flour
• 1-2 cups Water
• Few drops of sesame oil
• Corn flour water to thicken sauce

Method:

1. Rinse and drain dry soft bones. Mix 2 tbsp corn flour to soft bones and massage and coat well.Set aside for 15 mins.
2. Heat up wok/ claypot at medium-low heat. Add garlic and fry till fragrant. Add dark soya sauce and oyster sauce. Stir and let sauce boil gently for a minute till fragrant. Remember don't use high heat as it'll burn the sauce.
3. Add soft bones. Stir and mix well with sauce.  Add mushroom water. Mix well. Add enough  water to cover the soft bones. Cover and bring to a boil and add mushrooms. Stir and mix well and simmer gently for 1.5 to 2 hours on stove top.
4. As I used my thermal pot to cook the dish, I transfer the soft bones to the outer pot after simmering for about 30mins. Leave it for 5 hours.
5. Before dinner, I re-boiled soft bones in the inner pot. Adjust the taste accordingly if need be. Add more oyster sauce or dark soya sauce if needed. Thickened with corn flour water. Add few drops of sesame oil. Off fire and serve hot with rice or porridge.  Enjoy! 😊

Simple Potato Pie (Airfryer recipe)

Today's bento 🍱 for 👧🏼

👧🏼 has been cravings for potatoes and cheese so today made potato pie for her recess!
#kidslunchbox

Ingredients:

• 1 potato
• 1 tsp knorr chicken powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp fresh milk
• 1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
• A pinch of pepper
• 3/4 cup of mozzarella cheese 
• A pinch of curry powder (*optional)

Method:

1. Peel and sliced potato into thin strips.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients into potato. Toss and mix well. Place into bakeware.
3. Preheat airfryer at 200deg for 5 minutes. Cover potato pie and airfry at 200deg for 15 minutes till potatoes are soft.
4. Remove cover and top with a generous layer of mozzarella cheese. Continue to airfry at 180 degree for 5 minutes till cheese is brown. Garnish with dried parsley leaves. Ready to serve! 😊

Note:
- Please adjust timing accordingly to your airfryer.
- I had used a small aluminum tray today as I'm making it as a bento. Otherwise, please use oven safe bakeware.

Traditional Henghwa Mee Suah

Traditional Henghwa Mee Suah 🍜 (传统兴化面线)

A dish that my family will have for every Chinese New Year lunch. Despite being a Hokkien, I had picked up how to cook this dish for my hubby's family 😊 A traditional dish that they always look forward to on the first day of CNY!

Ingredients: 

• Henghwa Mee Suah 
• Pork prime ribs 
• Roasted Pork (Sio Bak) 
• Beated eggs 
• Prawns
• Razor clams
• Cai sim 
• Long cabbage 
• Sweet beans 
• Roasted peanuts
• Fried seaweed 
• Fried shallots 

(* Amount of ingredients depends on how many pax you're preparing for) 

Method: 

1. Blanched prime Pork ribs to remove blood and scums. Rinse and set aside. Boiled another pot of water, add ribs and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for an hour. 
2. While boiling the soup stock , prepare other ingredients. Wash and cut vegetables. Sliced roasted pork into pieces and clean the prawns. 
3. Boil Mee suah in hot boiling water till soft and remove and set aside. Add sesame oil and fried shallots and mix well. 
4. Bring soup stock to a boil. Added the brine of the razor clams. Add roasted pork pieces to soup. Bring to a boil. Add long cabbage, sweet beans. Use a sieve to boil razor clams, prawns and set aside. Add other vegetables cai sim and sweet/flat peas. Boil till cook and set aside. Arrange the boiled ingredients on top of boiled Mee suah. Also take few pieces of ribs and roasted pork and placed on Mee suah. Add soup. Topped with roasted peanuts, fried eggs, fried seaweed and fried shallots. 

Prawn Fritters 🍤

A dish that I learnt from my mum and it has been her signature dish for many years! 

Ingredients: 

• 1kg medium-size prawns
• 2 cups of self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup of frying powder (Hup Loong Frying Powder. Bought from wet market) 
• 1 tbsp of oil 
• 1 beaten egg (small size) 
• 1 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of sugar 
• A dash of pepper
• A dash of shaoxing wine 
• Iced Water (estimated around 2 cups of water)

Method:

1. Deshell and leave the tail intact and deveined using a toothpick. Wash and drain dry in colander. Pat dry and Marinate prawns with a 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of sugar, a beaten egg and a dash of pepper and shaoxing wine. Marinate prawns for about 15minutes. 
2. Sieve self-raising flour and frying powder into a mixing bowl. Then slowly add iced water into flour mixture. Mix till flour and water comes together. Add 1 tsp salt and a dash of pepper. Mix well. Add 1 tbsp of oil and mix till it becomes a paste with no lumps. The consistency should be slightly thick and not watery. 
3. Heat oil in a pot. Oil is ready when tested with chopsticks and you can see bubbles floating upwards. Make sure you have sufficient oil to cover prawns. Coat marinated prawns with batter and gently lower into oil.
4. Fry a few prawns at a time for easy control as prawns cooks very fast. Deep fry prawns once crust puffs up and golden brown. Before removing prawns, increase to high heat for few seconds. Drain oil from prawns and served hot. 
5. Another way is to double-fry prawns. Deepfry prawns till light brown and set aside. Increase to high heat and deep fry for the second time for few seconds to achieve the even colour and crispness. 

Note: 

• When the batter gets watery, add more flour to thicken it. 
• Frying powder can be replaced by rice flour/ corn flour if it's not available