Easy Fried Golden Tofu

Simple recipe! 

1. Slice the tofu into equal pieces

2. Lay tofu pieces on a piece of kitchen towel to absorb the excess water.

3. Leave it aside for 5mins

4. Gently remove from kitchen towel and coat it with Crispy Powder

5. Pan fry the tofu till crispy. Serve hot

*** Crispy powder can be bought from Prime supermarkets. 

Pencai 盆菜

 

You can use any ingredients you like for pencai. Yesterday, I used whatever ingredients I can find at home! My anyhow version of Pencai 😜

Ingredients: 

• 1 medium size sea cucumber , sliced into smaller pieces
• 1 can of braised abalone 
• 8 pieces of dry Mushrooms, soaked 
• 8 pieces of dry scallops , soaked 
• Roasted pork
• 8 pieces of prawns 
• 6 pieces of scallops 
• 1 n 1/2 pieces of fish maw
• Long cabbage , cut to smaller pieces 
• Sliced carrots , Blanched 
• Broccoli, blanched 
• Half daikon(white radish), sliced into pieces 
• Around 700ml of chicken stock 

Method: 

1. In a small pot/clay pot, heat some oil, fry minced garlic and two slices of ginger till fragrant. Add sea cucumber and mushrooms (squeeze out water) and Stirfry for few mins. Add enough water to cover sea cucumber and mushrooms. Add 1 tbsps oyster sauce and 1 tbsp dark soya sauce. Bring to a boil and simmer. Braised till sea cucumber is soft. (* Add water if it starts to dry up) Set aside. 
2. Blanched daikon slices for five mins and transferred into claypot. Lined the bottom of claypot with daikon slices. Lay long cabbage on top of daikon. 
3. Blanched fish maw in boiling water with 2 slices of ginger for 5mins. Cut into smaller pieces. 
4. Lay braised Mushrooms, sea cucumber, fish maw, soaked scallops, roasted pork, braised abalone etc, on top of long cabbage. You can add roasted duck and roasted chicken if you have. Arrange the 
5. In a pot/wok, heat up chicken stock. Add soaked mushroom water, soaked scallops water, brine from can Abalone and remaining sauce from braising mushrooms and sea cucumber. Bring to a boil. Scoop braising sauce over the assembled pencai. Set aside about 2-3 cups of the braising sauce for later use. 
6. Heat up the the claypot and bring to a simmer for 20mins. Meantime, Blanched prawns and scallops for a minute in boiling water with ginger. Set aside. After 20mins, lay prawns, scallops, broccoli and carrots on top. Heat up the braising sauce that was set aside. Thickened with corn flour water and pour all over on top. Serve hot. 😊

Fried Instant Ramen with shredded pork (肉丝炒拉面)

 

Woke up at 4.45am to prepare this recess bento 🍱 for my boy, as he has a long day in school. Am glad that my boy still wants me to prepare bento for him though he is in secondary school. 

儿子上了中学还是愿意带早餐盒到学校。感恩！今天，他全天会在学校。因此，我早晨四点四十五分就抹黑起来准备这份早餐盒，希望他吃得温饱以为全天展开冲刺。

Ingredients: 

• 1 packet of instant ramen 
• Some marinated shredded lean pork (marinated with some salt, light soya sauce, sesame oil, corn flour and some water. Mix well to combine) 
• 2 pieces of cabbage (shredded) 
• 1/2 carrot julienned 
• 2 cloves of garlic (minced) 
• 3 pieces of crabsticks (cut half) 
• 1/2 cup of homemade chicken stock 
• Sauce: 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1/2 tbsp of dark soya sauce, 1/2 tsp of soya sauce and a dash of white pepper and sugar. 
• A dash of sesame oil 

Method: 

1. Boil a pot of water to cook ramen noodles. Once ramen softens, remove from water and do a quick rinse under running water and set aside. Add some sesame oil/shallot oil and o noodles to prevent it from clumming together. You don’t need to cook it too long as during stir frying, noodles will continue to cook and absorb the sauce. 
2. While cooking ramen, prepare ingredients by chopping up vegetables. 
3. Heat a wok/pan with a tbsp of shallot oil (can use normal oil/olive oil). Add minced garlic to sauté till fragrant. Add marinated shredded pork, Stirfry on high heat. Use spatula to quickly separate pork and Stirfry till it’s no longer pink. 
4. Add carrots and cabbage and continue to fry for a minute. Add homemade chicken stock. Pour in prepared sauce. Bring to a gentle simmer. Add in ramen noodles. Mix well and allow noodles to absorb the sauce and coat well. Add in crabsticks last and taste if need to adjusted seasonings. Off heat once sauce reduces and drizzle a bit of sesame oil for fragrance. Top noodles with some homemade fried shallots. 

Crispy Japanese Pork Katsu

 

Ingredients: 

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

Marination: 

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

Method: 

1) Rinse 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. Marinate Pork loin with marination above (at least 4 hours for better taste). 

2) 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. Press the panko into pork loin to ensure it coats well. 

3) 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. 

Kong Ba Bao (扣肉包)

 Ingredients: 

• 600-700g pork belly
• 6 cloves of garlic 
• 4 cloves of small red onion 
• 1 big cinnamon stick 
• 2 star anise 
• 3-4 white part of spring onion 
• 2 stalks of coriander (separate coriander leaves from coriander roots) 
• 2 slices of ginger (2cm thickness) 
• 2 tbsps of Light Soy sauce
• 3/4 cups of dark soya sauce (da Hua brand) 
• 2 tbsp of dark soya sauce (guang xiang tai brand) 
• 2 tsp of five spice powder 
• 1 tbsp of sesame oil 
• 2 tbsp of oil 
• 1 tbsp of mini rock sugar (adjust to ur preferred sweetness)
• 500ml of  water
• 10 plain Kong Ba buns (I used store-bought buns and steam before serve)

Steps:

1. Blanch the pork belly by boiling in a pot for about 8mins. Remove and rinse clean. When pork belly cools down, sliced into about half inch thick. 
2. Marinate sliced pork belly with light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, five spice powder and sesame oil. Make sure pork belly slices are well coated with seasoning. Leave it for 4 hours or overnight. 
3. Heat up a wok and add oil to sautéed the onions and garlic. Add in marinated pork belly by slices and lay flat in the wok. Let it panfry for few mins, to get it caramelized. 
4. Add 500ml of water to remaining marinate and add into pork belly. Also add in mini rock sugar. Bring it to a boil. 
5. Add in the coriander roots, spring onion, ginger, star anise and cinnamon stick. Once boiling, lower down the fire and let it simmer cook for an hour till pork is soft and tender. (At this step, I like to use a thermal pot. Once it boils, transfer to inner pot, continue to simmer for 30mins and transfer to outer pot to let it continue to cook for 6hours.) 
6. Once the pork belly is done, off heat. Steamed bao for 8mins and serve hot together with pork belly and lettuce. Enjoy! 😊

See Yau Gai aka Soy Sauce Chicken

 

Ingredients: 

Chicken (1 sakura chicken/ 4-6 chicken big thighs)  

4-5 hard boiled eggs (deshelled) 

1 Japanese cucumber (sliced) 

1 tomato (sliced) 

Sauce: 

- 1 cup of light soya sauce (I used guang xiang tai) 

-  4 tbsps of dark soya sauce 

- 1 tbsp of oyster sauce 

- 1 tbsp of rock sugar 

- 5 cups of water 

- 10 cloves of garlic, skin on (wash and rinse well) 

- 4 slices of ginger 

- 8 rose buds 

- 3 stalks of spring onion

- 3 stalks of coriander roots (optional) 

Method: 

1. In a big pot, combine the condiments for the sauce and bring it to a boil for 10mins. 
2. When the sauce is ready, slowly lower chicken into pot by holding onto the neck and ladle sauce and carefully pour over chicken. After several times, gently place chicken into pot and ensure chicken is submerged in sauce during cooking. Bring to a simmer and continue to cook at medium-low fire for 25 minutes, slightly cover. Intermittently scoop sauce over chicken to ensure that chicken is well covered with braising sauce. 
3. After 25 mins, bring the heat up to a boil, off heat and cover for 5-10mins. 
4. Remove chicken and allow it to cool a bit before cutting to serve.  
5. Prepare some corn flour slurry. Mix 1 tbsp of corn flour with 2 tbsps of water. Transfer some braising sauce into small saucepan, thicken with corn starch slurry and drizzle over chopped chicken. 

Note: 

For the remaining braising sauce, I will use a sieve to remove any garlic and remaining ingredients. This can be kept in chiller to use for the next few day after to braise away. It serves as a base to your master sauce. If you do not intend to cook next few days after, you can transfer the sauce into a freezer-proof container and use within a to braise another time. 

Enjoy the yummy chicken! 😋😋😋 

Easy Hot plate Tofu (铁板豆腐)

My kids loves this Zi char dish Hotplate Tofu and I decided to replicate this dish at home! Using the new Happycall pan, which can be detached and split into 2 pans, making this dish so easy for me as I don’t need to buy another hotplate and can serve this dish right in the pan! 😂

Ingredients: 

• 2 tubes of egg tofu 
• 150-200g of minced pork 
• 8-10 pieces of prawns (deshelled and deveined) 
• Half a carrot (sliced) 
• Half packet of shimeiji mushrooms 
• A small head of broccoli, cut into florets and blanched (optional) 
• 2 big eggs, beaten and set aside 
• 1 tbsp of minced ginger 
• 1 tbsp of minced garlic 
• Chopped Spring onions for garnish 
• Prepare corn flour slurry by mixing 1 tbsp of corn flour with 2 tbsps of water. 
• Prepare sauce for minced pork: 1 tbsp of oyster sauce, 1 tbsp of light soya sauce, 1 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine, 1/2 tsp of sugar and 1.5tbsps of water (mix well) 

Method: 

1. Marinate minced pork with 1 tsp of salt, 1/2 tbsp of light soya sauce, 1/2 tbsp of sesame oil and a dash of pepper. Mixed well. Add a tbsp of corn flour to minced pork and mix well. Set aside for 15mins. 
2. Removed packaging from egg tofu and sliced egg tofu into 6-7 pieces. To prevent splattering during deep fry/panfrying, gently lay egg tofu on a piece of kitchen towel on a plate and cover with another piece of kitchen towel for about 5mins. This is to absorb the water from the tofu. 
3. In the meantime, prepare the other vegetables and ingredients and set aside. 
4. Heat oil in wok/pan, gently remove egg tofu from kitchen towel and panfry/deep fry till brown. Set aside. 
5. Leave a tbsp of oil in wok. Add minced ginger and garlic sauté for till fragrant. Add minced pork and use spatula to break pork up quickly. Stirfry till pork is no longer pink. Add shimeji mushrooms and sliced carrots. Stirfry for half minute. Add prawns and prepared sauce and bring to a simmer. Adjust taste accordingly. Thicken mixture with prepared corn flour slurry. 
6. Heat up a hotplate with some cooking oil. I used one side of the new Happycall frying pan which is detachable. Once pan smoking hot, pour beaten eggs onto hot plate. When the egg is set, Lay egg tofu, blanched broccoli and scoop the minced pork mixture on top of eggs. Let it sizzle for a while and set hot. Garnish with spring onions.