Achar

Never really like vegetables especially raw carrots and cauliflower but after eating mom's achar and the one Anirda made was great. After returning from Spore and to eat Mom's achar again make me crave for more. With no choice but got to make a call to Mom to ask for the recipe. So here you go, it is easy only the cutting part take up more time.

Ingredients:

• 3 - 5             Cucumbers
• 2 -3              Carrots
• 450gm          Cauliflower
• 200gm          Cabbage
• 1stalk            Serai (Lemongrass ) smashed
• 0.3cm            Lengkuas (Galanga ) smashed
• 200-300ml     Vinegar  ( Can add more to taste )
• 4 - 6tbsp       Sugar ( Can add more to taste )
• 3 - 4 tbsp      Oil
• 2 - 3tbsp       Sesame seeds
• 80 - 100gm   Peanuts

Paste:

• 10 - 15          Shallots onion
• 8 - 12            Dried Chilies (Soaked & unseeded)
• 6 - 8              Cloves garlic
• 3 - 5              Candlenuts
• 1cm/1tsp       Kunyit (Turmeric)

Methods:

1. Cut the cucumber into stripes and remove the seeds.
2. Then cut about 2.5cm lengthwise.
3. Add some salt to it in a bowl and leave it aside till it release water.
4. Rinse it under running water and leave it to dry.
5. Skin the carrot and cut it into stripes.
6. Then cut about 2.5cm lengthwise.
7. Cut the cauliflower into smaller pieces.
8. Use hot water to scald it.
9. Cut the cabbage about 2.5cm lengthwise with about 1cm wide.
10. Roast the peanuts and blend it coarse.
11. Roast sesame seeds
12. Blend the ingredients under paste
13. Heat up the oil and fry the paste together with serai & lengkuas till fragrant.
14. Add in the sugar and vinegar.
15. Allow it to boil.
16. Lower the heat and add in the vegetable.
17. Toss it around and cook it for 5 mins. ( Do not cook it for too long )
18. Add in the sesame seeds and peanuts.

Note: To be able to keep it for a longer period, on the 1st day leave it outside. Only put in the fridge from the 2nd day onwards and only use a very dry spoon each time.

Mushroom & minced meat raddish cake

Well instead of just steaming plain raddish cake, we can also add more ingredients in to to make it more tasty. Having the same method as the steamed raddish cake, make it so much easier as we can alway divide it into 2 portions. The only way to eat this raddish cake with addition ingredients is to pan fried it and then dip it with chili or sweet sauce.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups          Shredded raddish
• 4 2/3 cups   Rice flour (sifted)
• 1/3 cup cup  Tapioca flour
• 9 cups          Water
• 4-6 cloves    Chopped garlic
• 2tsp             Salt
• 4tsp             Sugar
• 4tsp             Chicken powder
• 4tsp             Grounded pepper
• 2tsp             Oil
• 250gm          Minced pork
• 30 - 50gm     Dried shrimp (Soaked & chopped)
• 20-40gm       Dried Shiitake mushroom( Soaked & sliced)
• 1  pc            Chinese sausage Lap Chong (Diced)

Methods:

1. After shredding the radish leave it aside for 5 mins, water will come out of the raddish.
2. Squeeze away more of the water and pour it away.
3. Heat up the pan with oil.
4. Add in the garlic, fried till fragrant then add in the raddish.
5. Add in the salt, sugar, chicken powder and pepper.
6. Cook it till start to boil then turn it off.
7. Mix the rice and tapioca flour with water in a pot.
8. Add in the raddish mixture into the pot.
9. Heat up 2 tsp oil in a pan, then add in the dried shrimps & chinese sausage.Fry it till fragrant.
10. Then add in the minced meat & mushroom and fry it till the meat is cooked.
11. Put it into the pot of mixture.
12. Heat up the pot in low heat.
13. Stir constantly till it gets thicken.
14.  Pour it into greased tray and steam it from about 30mins or till set. ( Use  a stick or fork to poke into the middle to check.)
15. Cut it up and pan fried it till golden brown.

Garlic Clives box (韭菜盒子)

Me a person who does not really like to eat greens but guess what, me beginning to eat more of it. Especially garlic chive something that I would not even touch when I saw it in my mee siam but now me actually buying it from the market to make thing with it. Staying with house mates from China are really very good, get to try different kinds of dishes especially staying with a chef. People from Northern China usually eat noodle or chinese pancake（烙饼）unlike people from the Southern, rice is almost a must in our meal. So now got more dishes to make, making of dough is a skill too as different pancakes uses different method. To learn about making of different doughs, I actually went to ask Vicky to show me how. She was very kind enough to make different kinds of pancake for that night dinner in order to show me. She taught me 2 methods, one is for making pau which needed to add yeast for it to rise and the other is for garlic chives box (韭菜盒子) and potstickers (锅贴).As for dumpling (饺子) is a different method too. So check it out the different methods.

Ingredients:
Dough:

• Plain flour
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup water

Filling:

• Garlic chives 韭菜 
• Dry shrimp (Soaked 30mins)
• Fresh prawn (Diced)
• 2 eggs (Beaten)
• Glass Vermicelli (Tang hoon soaked for 10mins)
• 1tbsp Chicken powder
• 1tsp Salt

Method:

Dough:

1. Pour the plain flour into a bigger bowl so that can mix easier.
2. Add in warm water and use a pair of chopstick to mix it as it might be too hot to use hand.
3. Till it is well mixed then add in the remaining water. Add more flour if needed to make it into a dough.
4. Slowly add more flour till the dough do not stick the hand anymore.
5. Leave it aside for 20-30mins for it to rise.

Filling:

1. Washed and cut the garlic clives about 2cm long.
2. Soaked in some oil.
3. Fry the egg like omelette.
4. Put it aside then fry the dried shrimp till nice fragrant.
5. Then add the fresh prawns in. 
6. Fry till cooked then add in back the omelette.
7. Mix it all well and put aside.
8. When cool add in the vermicelli and garlic clives.
9. Add salt and chicken powder.
10. Mix it up and ready to use.

Making the whole:

1. Pinch the dough about the size of a 3cm diameter ball.
2. Flatten it and roll it out flat.
3. Rub some oil onto it and then add the filling.
4. Fold it into half. 
5. Pinched it into shape if not use a fork to save the job.
6. Heat up a flat pan with 1tsp of oil each time to pan fried it.
7. Turn it over when one side is cooked. Each about 5mins on low heat.

Well there are a few tips to making this. When doing pan fried dumpling, u got to add warm water to the dough and the dough will feel very soft. Why do we need to soak the garlic clives? Cos the clives will give out water once in contact with salt which we do not want it to happen, if not will be wet inside.

Xuan pan zi - Abacus beads

One day as usual calling my Mom to find how about her well being. Then she told me she saw this cooking programme teaching how to make Hakka dish 'Xuan pan zi' abacus. She did tried making it for Granny and the rest to try and they all loved it. I first tried this dish was when I was in Sec school when I went to Jessica place at Tanjong Rhu to play maijong. Those days whenever free after school we will be finding people to play maijong, so carefree life man. Then there was this once when we were there, I think her family members just finished praying to the ancestor. So we were offered this delicious Hakka food, to my surprise I was impressed by the outlook of it and decided to have a go for it. It was so nice and wonder where in Singapore can I find this dish. Been searching for this for a while and finally found it at Bugis street. So every time when I went to Bugis, I will get a box of it but its so expensive and oily.

Been here for a while , really missed it a lot so when Mom mention that she knew how to make it I was really overjoyed.

Ingredients:

• 400gm    Taro (Peeled)
• 150gm     Tapioca Flour
• 200gm    Mince pork
• 50gm       Dried Shrimp (Soaked for 45mins)
• 30gm       Black Fungus (Soaked for 10-15mins)
• 6-8         Shiitake mushroom (Soaked for 45mins)
• 1Tbsp      Garlic (Chopped finely)
• 2Tbsp     Oil
• 1Tsp        Dark Soy Sauce
• 3Tsp       White pepper

Methods:

1. Sliced up all the soaked ingredients.
2. Steamed the taro for 30-40mins.
3. Mashed it whilst still hot till a smooth paste.
4. Slowly add the tapioca flour and knead it into a dough.
5. Rolled it into a long dough, cut it up into even small size.
6. Roll each into a small ball and depress in the middle.
7. Bring a pot of water to boil and drop each beads into it.
8. Beads are ready once it float to the surface.
9. Get ready a bowl of cold water
10. Scoped it up and drain well. 
11. Pour into the bowl of cold water for 3-5mins so that will get the chewy texture.
12. Heat up the pan with oil and fry the garlic.
13. Add in the mince pork and mushroom.
14. Fry for 5mins or till the mince are cooked
15. Then add in the dark sauce and pepper.
16. Mixture well and add in the beads.
17. Fry for another 5mins and serve when hot.

Sushi

There are many sushi stores here but then at times they do not taste as great and the price a bit steep. So ever since Sue found the best way to cook the rice, I make my own sushi. Homemade sushi taste alway the best with fresh ingredients and eating it fresh. Kevin loved it when he first tried my sushi when I made it for the temple offering. At time he will ask if I made it and it seem like the one that his mom made was hard unlike mine.

Ingredients:

Filling

• 1 Cucumber (stripe)
• 100 gm Seafood mix (Crabmeat)
• Omelette
• Rice
• Seaweeds
• Mayonnaise 

- Rice

• 1 Cup     Rice (Japanese rice or Medium grains rice)
• 1 Cup     Water
• 2 Tbsp    Sugar
• 2 Tbsp    Vinegar
• 1 tsp        Salt

Methods:

1. Wash the grains, and cook it with proportion of water.
2. Allow it to stand to cool.
3. Then mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl.
4. Put it into the rice and mix it well.

- Omelette:

• 2 Eggs
• 2tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp plain flour
• 1/4tsp salt

Methods:

1. To fry the omelette, firstly mix all the ingredients and then sieve it.
2. Pour into a non-stick pan, turn it over when one side is cooked.
3. Take it out and allow it to cool.

A wise advice place the bamboo mat in a plastic bag so that we can save on the washing. Like when I first did it, rice every where on the bamboo and make it so hard to clean especially those stuck in between the gap.

Methods:

1. Place a sheet of seaweed on the mat with the shorter side facing you.
2. Scope some rice onto the seaweed and use a spoon to spread the rice and by dipping the spoon into water will help to spread it smoothly.
3. Spread till about half of the sheet then spread the mayonnaise across.
4. Then place the omelette, cucumber and seafood mix.
5. Hold it firm and roll it over.
6. Grip it tight each time you roll it.
7. Alway damp the knife before cutting the sushi to prevent the rice from sticking to it.

California Sushi

Eggplant with mince

Me a person who do not really eat eggplants one before coming here but then I learnt to explore more when staying with different people. So my first try was once at a gathering and is cooked with samba chill, the first bite was great and I can not have enough of it. Then my house mate cooked another version one which is non spicy and with tian main jiang (sweet sauce). Once again I love the way the eggplants being cook, I guess is because the eggplants was cooked till very soft and can taste the sweetness of it too. My house mate showed me another way of making it as well which is by deep frying it. I call this smiling eggplant.

Ingredients:

• 500gm      Eggplant
• 250gm      Mince meat
• 2tsp          Sesame oil
• 2tsp          Hua tiao jiu
• 2tbsp        Light soy sauce
• 1/4tsp       Pepper
• 2 Cups      Oil ( Deep frying)

Batter:

• 8tbsp       Self raising flour
• 4tbsp       Plain flour
• 1tsp         Light soy sauce
• 1tsp         Salt
• 1 cup        Water

Methods:

1. Mix the mince meat with the remaining ingredients and set aside.
2. Cut the eggplant with about 0.8 ~ 1cm thickness then into half like a semi circle.
3. Place it on the table and cut into half but be careful not till the end.
4. Fill each half with the mince mixture.
5. Mix up all the ingredients for the batter.
6. Coat the eggplant with self-raising flour.
7. Then dip it into the batter and put straight into pot of oil.
8. Take it when it turns golden brown.

Begedil ( Mashed potato)

This is my favorite during Secondary Sch time. Is a must to have this with Mee soto, at times if I'm late got to eat Mee soto without it. Then this actually was sold at most Malay food stall, especially the one my parents like to go to where they sell great Malay mix rice and lontong. Ever since young, my parents can eat those for breakfast but not me to have that for breakfast. Quite luckily for me, when I was studying in TP, the malay stall in Design canteen sell this as well, every time when i went over to have my lunch this will alway be one of them for my mix rice. So I only get to eat this from outside but I had a great house mate Nora, one day she made this and i was so excited. The taste was so great and immediately asked for the recipe.

Since then when I stayed in Jane street, this seem to be my signature dish  for gathering. So lets enjoy it ok

Ingredients:

• 700gm      Potatoes
• 350gm      Lamb mince
• 2tsp          Salt
• 1/4 tsp      Pepper
• 1/2tsp       Nutmeg
• 4-6 tbsp   Fried shallot
• 1              Egg wash
• 2Tspn      Oil
• 2 Cups     Oil (Deep fry)

Methods:

1. Boiled the potatoes till cooked and mashed it till chunky.
2. Put it aside to cool.
3. Heat up the pan with oil and add in the lamb mince.
4. Drain away the excess oil.
5. Add in the salt and pepper and nutmeg .Mix it well
6. Take it out and mix it with the potatoes.
7. Add in the fried shallot.
8. Scope out with a dessert spoon and roll it into a ball, then flatten it a little.
9. Each weighting 26-30gm and able to make 32.
10. Before frying dip it into a beaten egg as a wash.
11. Put it straight into the pot of hot oil.
12. Take it out when it turns brown.

This dish looks easy but is kind of oily so alway remember to drain it on a strainer and on kitchen towel to absorb more oil out of it. The recipe for this suit my taste so add what ever you want to suit your own taste.