Fried fish with crispy golden garlic 🐟

Ingredients: 

• 600g Red grouper fish fillet (can also use other fish fillet e.g. red snapper) 
• 2 cups of oil for deep frying /pan frying 
• 4 tbsps chopped garlic 

Gravy: 

• 1 tbsp oil 
• 2 tbsps chopped garlic 
• 2 tbsps light soya sauce 
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce 
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine 
• 1 tsp sugar 
• 100ml water 

Method: 

• Heat oil and deep fry fish till it's golden brown. Drain and set aside. 
• Add chopped garlic into same wok and fry till crispy. Dish and drain. Sprinkle on fried fish tail. 
• Gravy: mix the sauces in a bowl. Heat up oil, Stirfry chopped garlic for a short while (do not turn jnto brown). Add the sauces and bring to boil. Remove from heat and pour onto fish. Serve immediately. ☺️ 

Yaki-pasta

Ingredients: 

• Half packet of San Remo brown rice pasta 
• 3 pieces of cabbage - julienned 
• 1/2 piece of carrot - julienned 
• 1/2 piece of onion - sliced 
• 1/2 piece of chicken breast 
• 2 stalks of spring onion - cut into 2inches long 

Seasonings: 

• Half packet of Dashi powder mixed with 5 tbsp of water 
• 1 tbsp of Japanese soy sauce
• 1 cup of reserved pasta water  
• Freshly ground pepper 

Method: 

1. Sliced chicken breast into stripes and marinate with 1 tsp light soya sauce, a dash of pepper and cooking wine. Set aside. 
2. Heat up a pot of water and bring to a boil. Season with 1 tbsp of salt. Add San Remo brown rice pasta and boil till 1 min before al dente. Remove and set aside. Reserved 1 cup of pasta water. 
3. While waiting for pasta to cook, heat pan with 2 tbsp of oil over medium high heat. Add marinated chicken and cook until almost cooked through. Then add onion and cook almost translucent and soft. Add cabbage and carrots and stir fry until coated with oil. Stir fry until vegetables are lightly wilted. Add boiled pasta and using tongs, combine well with all the ingredients. 
4. Add seasonings ground black pepper, 5 tbsp of mixed dashi water and soy sauce and mix well. Add half cup of reserved pasta water. Lower heat and allow pasta to absorb the seasonings. Taste and adjust seasonings accordingly. Add more pasta water if you like pasta to be softer. Add spring onion, mix well and served hot. 😊 

Crispy Fried Pork Chops 🐷

Ingredients: 

• 10 pieces of pork loin (Ba tao)
• 2 cups of panko / breadcrumbs 
• 1-2 beaten egg 
• 1 cup of corn flour  

Seasonings: 

• 1 tbsp mirin 
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce 
• 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine 
• 1 tbsp corn flour 
• 1 tsp light soya sauce 
• A dash of pepper 

Method: 

1. Rinsed and pat dry Pork loin with kitchen towel. Use a mallet or back of a chopper to hit hard on Pork loin on both sides so as to tenderize it. 
2. Marinate Pork loin with seasonings at least 4 hours or overnight for better taste. 
3. Bring pork loin out from fridge 30 mins before frying. Heat pot with oil to fry pork loin. Prepare 3 plates, 1 with corn flour, 1 with beaten egg and last plate with panko/breadcrumbs. First, coat pork loin all over with corn flour. Then dip in beaten egg and lastly coat with panko/ breadcrumbs.  
4. Deep fry pork at high heat. To test the oil, dip chopsticks into oil and once you can see many bubbles around chopsticks, the oil is ready. Fry 1/2 pieces of pork loin at one time. Try not to crowd the pot so as to ensure even frying. Remove once pork turns golden brown. Serve it as a whole or sliced into pieces. ☺️ 

** On average, it takes about 1-2 mins to cook on each side of Pork. Panko/ breadcrumbs burns easily so have to be fast.

Shredded chicken soup with mushrooms and crabsticks

Ingredients: 

• 1500ml homemade chicken stock 
• 1 cup of chicken breast meat (shredded thinly) 
• 8 pieces of fresh shiitake mushrooms (sliced thinly) 
• 8 pieces of crabsticks (shredded)
• Chopped coriander leaves for garnishing 
• 1 egg beaten 
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp light soya sauce 
• 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine 
• 1 tsp dark soya sauce 
• 1 tsp salt  
• 1 tsp pepper 
• 3 tbsp potato starch mixed with some water to form a thick paste (windmill brand) 
• A dash of black vinegar (optional) 

Ingredients for chicken stock (chicken bought fresh from market) : 

• 2 chicken carcasses 
• 1 chicken breast 
• 6 chicken feets 
• 2 stalks of spring onion
• 1 stalk of coriander root
• 5 cloves of garlic 
• 1 thumb-size ginger smashed 

Method: 

1. Blanch chicken carcasses, breast and feets with boiling water. Rinsed and set aside. Bring a pot of water (about 2litres) to a boil with all the ingredients and simmer for 2 hours. Sieve chicken stock when cooled. 
2. Prepare the rest of the ingredients. Bring chicken stock to a boil. Add sliced mushrooms and boil for 5 minutes. Add shredded chicken and crabsticks and mix well. Add all the seasonings and bring it to a boil. 
3. Mixed potato starch with water. Stir soup in circular motion and slowly pour potato starch water into soup. Stop pouring when soup achieved a thickened texture. Off heat when soup boils. Add beaten egg and use ladle and stir gently. 
4. Served hot with some vinegar and extra pepper and garnish with coriander leaves. 

* Recipe serves 3 adults and 3 kids. Pls adjust portions and seasonings accordingly.
** Chill/freeze leftover chicken stock for future use.

Stirfry La-la with Black Bean Sauce

Ingredients:

• 500g fresh La-la
• 2 stalks spring onion (cut into 1 inch sections, separate white parts from green)
• 1 big stalk of coriander (remove roots and cut into 1 inch sections)
• 1 big chili/ 2 chili padi (sliced)
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 4 slices of ginger (julienned) 
• 1 tbsp of oil 

Seasonings:

• 2 tsp LKK garlic black bean sauce
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• A dash of Chinese cooking wine
• 1 cup of water

Method:

1. Rinse and soak la-la in ice water and salt and chill on fridge for an hour. Remove and rinse away the sand several times. Repeat process if there are still lots of sand from la-la. Soak in clean water again and chill for 30mins or till you're ready to cook. 
2. Heat wok with oil. Sautéed ginger for a minute. Add white part of spring onion and minced ginger. Sautéed till fragrant. Add la-la and stir well. 
3. Add all the seasonings except for cooking wine. Toss and mix well. Cover with lid and let la-la open up. Add sliced chili/ chili padi, half the coriander and green part of spring onion. Mix well and taste. Adjust taste accordingly if need be. Add a dash of cooking wine at the side of the wok. And thicken with some corn flour water if you like the sauce to be slightly thick (*optional).  Garnish with rest of the coriander and serve hot 😊 

Note:
You can add sliced chili padi together with the seasonings if you prefer the dish to be more spicy 🌶.

Braised pork aka Lor Ba 🐷

My mum loves to braise pork and chicken as it's convenient for her since she's working. One pot dish and dinner is done! Learnt this dish from her and my family loves it 😊

Ingredients: 

• 800g pork belly (I added some leaner ones) 
• 6 eggs (I used the smaller eggs) 
• 2 pieces of tau kwa
• 10 pieces of tau pok 
• About 200g fen chang 
• 1 piece of pork skin 
• 3 pieces of star anise 
• A thumb-size ginger 
• 15 pieces of garlic 
• Coriander for garnishing 
• Water enough to cover 90% of ingredients in pot 

Seasonings (I cooked based on estimation. Please use this as a gauge and adjust accordingly to your taste.) 

• 3 tbsp light soya sauce
• 2 tbsp dark soya sauce (大华brand)
• 2 tbsp dark soya sauce (Kwong Xiang tai brand or Baobao brand from Malaysia) 
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp rock sugar
• A dash of sesame oil 

Method: 

1. Boil water in pot. Blanched pork belly and set aside. For pork skin and fen chang, wash with salt. Blanched in boiling water with thumb size ginger and 2 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine. Remove, rinse and set aside. 
2. Rinse garlic and star anise and place into pot. Pour light soya sauce, 2 types of dark soya sauce, oyster sauce and water into pot. Heat up pot to bring sauce to a boil. 
3. Add pork belly, skin and fen chang into sauce. Make sure that the sauce covers the pork. If not, add more water. Bring it to a boil and simmer and braise for 45mins to an hour. Stir occasionally to ensure that braising process is consistent. Use a chopstick to poke and check if Pork belly, skin and fen chang is cooked through and soft enough. Continue to braise if it's still hard. Once it's soft enough, remove from sauce and set aside. 
4. Add tau pok, tau gua and eggs into sauce. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 15mins. After 15mins, taste and add more seasoning and adjust to your taste accordingly. Add a dash of sesame oil. Placed Pork belly, skin and fen chang back into pot and off heat. Before serving, sliced the pork belly and other ingredients into smaller pieces and assembled on plate. Scoop some gravy and heat up using a small saucepan. Thicken gravy with corn flour slurry, then drizzled on pork. Garnish with coriander and served hot. 
5. I prepared this in the afternoon using my thermal pot. Simmer ingredients for 25 mins before transferring to outer pot. Heat up the pot again before serving. Remove the pork and other ingredients to slice and plate. Thicken sauce using a small saucepan and drizzle on pork. Garnish with coriander and serve. 😊 

Note: 

1. Should there be leftover gravy, you can keep for the next day. Heat up the gravy and add more water if it's insufficient. After adding more water, do add more seasonings, garlic cloves so that the flavor is not compensated. Once the gravy boil, you can add hard boiled eggs, tau gua, tau pok and even tau kee and it'll becomes a dish for dinner. 

2. For leftover gravy (lor zup), I will normally pour into a sieve to sieve out the scums and ingredients and freeze it and add to the gravy the next time I cook this dish. It enhances the flavour! 

Steamed Herbal Chicken 🐔

One of the dishes my family loves! Using the smiplest ingredients and marination to steam chicken legs. My kids loves to slurp on the sauce! 😋

Ingredients:

• 5 chicken legs 
• 5 pieces of Dang gui 
• 6-8 pieces of red dates 
• A handful of gou qi (wolfberries) 

Marination :

• 2 tbsp light soya sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce 
• 1 tbsp sesame oil 
• 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine 

Method:

1. Used 2 tbsp salt to rub over chicken drumsticks. Washed and rinse away. Drained and set aside. Add marination to chicken and mix well. Use a fork to poke some holes on the flesh of chicken to enable marinate to get through. Chill overnight. 
2. Give the herbs a quick rinse the next day. Pour 1 tbsp of hot water on dang gui and red dates and soak for five minutes. Placed herbs on chicken and pour water from soaking herbs on chicken. 
3. Bring chicken out to room temp about 30mins before steaming. Cover chicken with a piece of baking /cooking paper.  Steamed over high heat about 25minutes or till chicken is cooked. Serve hot 😊

Szechuan Spicy Chicken (四川口水鸡)

I spent a good five years in China when my hubby was posted there. This was one of the dishes that we enjoyed having! I tried to replicate this dish when I came back to Singapore for many attempts but ended up creating my own version of it 😅 The most important thing is my hubby enjoys my current version in my little kitchen ✌️

Ingredients :

• 1 whole chicken (about 1.5kg)
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
• 2 stalks of Spring onion
• 2 stalks of coriander (separate stem with roots from leaves)
• 1 thumb-size Ginger
• 6 cloves of garlic with skin (smashed)
• 1 Cucumber (sliced and soak in ice water for few mins. Drained and set aside.)
• Roasted sesame seeds
• Roasted peanuts (optional)

Spicy Sauce (mixed together & side aside):

• 3 tbsp Lao Gan MA spicy chili oil (store-bought)
• 1.5 tbsp Zheng Jiang old vinegar
• 1 tbsp Sesame oil
• 2 tbsp Soya sauce
• 3 tbsp Minced garlic
• 2 tbsp Chicken Broth

Note: Adjust sauce to your taste accordingly

Method :

1. Clean the chicken and rub some salt all over and inside out. Let it sit for 5 minutes before rinsing off the salt completely. Place the chicken in a pot. Add garlic, ginger, spring onion, coriander roots with stem , Shaoxing wine and enough water to cover the chicken. Bring it to a boil and simmer for around 15-20 minutes (timing depends on how big the chicken is). 
2. Off heat and cover pot with lid. Let the chicken immerse in water for 20 to 25 minutes.
3. After 20mins, remove chicken and soak in iced water. Turn over several times or until the chicken is completely cooled down. Chop chicken into pieces when it is completely cooled down. (A must to soak in iced water) Placed chopped chicken and cucumbers in plate. 
4. Prepare the spicy sauce. Pour the chili over the chicken and ganish with coriander leaves , roasted sesame seeds and peanuts. Ready to serve!

** This is a cold dish that can be prepared beforehand and chill in fridge. Pour sauce over chicken when ready to serve. The above is the less spicy version.

** For more spicy version, you need to prepare Sichuan chili oil. Method as below:

• Add chili powder, five spice powder, Szechuan peppercorn (or powder) and sesame seeds in a heat-proof bowl. Whisk to mix evenly. 
• In a heavy-bottom saucepan, add vegetable oil to ginger, star anise, cumin, dried chili pepper and bay leaves.
• Heat over low heat. When the oil is hot (you will see bubbles), carefully take the ginger and all the other ingredients out of the oil and discard. Pour this oil into the bowl containing the chili powder and whisk until combined. Set aside and let it cool. Used this oil to mix the spicy sauce.