LDP Jelly (Lychee, Dragonfruits, Pomegranate Agar Agar)

This week I intended to do something sweet so I decided to make some Agar Agar (Jelly) to satisfy my taste bud!

Looking through my fridge, I found a can of Lychee and also a dragonfruit and pomegranate juice so I decided to use these 3 items in my Jelly!  I was pretty happy with the turnout as it was nice and pretty and the taste was good too!  I don't like my Jelly to be too sweet so if you have v sweet tooth then add more sugar to suit  your taste bud ok!!

Ingredents:

1 Can Lychee
1 pack of 10g Clear Agar Agar Powder
100g Sugar
500ml Water
A drop of Lemon Yellow Food Colouring
500ml Pomegranate Juice
1/2 Dragonfruit (dice small)

Method:

• Open Lychee can and remove the syrup.  Soak Lychee in a bowl with 500ml water.
• Remove Lychee and put aside.  Keep the water and pour it into a pot and dissolve 5g clear agar agar powder with it. Add 80g Sugar to the pot and boil it over low heat and simmer till boil (keep stirring the mixture while cooking).
• In another pot, pour in Pomegranate juice and add in the balance 5g Clear Agar Agar powder and stir till dissolve then add in 20g sugar and then boil it over low heat and simmer till boil (keep stirring the mixture while cooking).
• Once both pots of agar mixture is done cooking, it's time to assemble the agar agar!  (Depending what mould you are using, I used those small individual mould.)
• Add yellow colouring to the clear colour mixture and mix well.  Scoop some Agar mixture into the lychee bowl and leave it aside for a while  This is to allow agar to fill up the inside of lychee..
• Then scoop some yellow agar in the mould and then place in one lychee and then fill up the yellow agar mixture till it covers the lychee.

• Add in diced draganfruits into the pomegranate juice agar mixture and still well.
• Once the yellow agar was semi set in the mould, use a fork to lightly scratch the yellow agar then pour in the pomegranate dragonfruit portin in to fill up the whole mould.

• Leave agar in fridge to set for an hour and serve cold!!

Cook's Note:
* You can replace Lychee to Longan.

Bai Tang Gao (Steam Chinese Rice Cake)

If you bring me to a Kueh Kueh stall and asked me to pick one..I will surely pick Bai Tang Gao as it's nice and sweet.  This Kueh is simple and easy to make too.

Ingredients:

140g Rice Flour
110g White Fine Sugar
300ml Water
2 Pandan Leaves (Tie Knot)
1/2 tsp Dried Yeast
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Oil

Method:

• Add 150ml Water to Rice Flour and stir mix well.
• Put Sugar with balance 150ml water in a pot and put in pandan leave and bring it to boil and remove.
• Remove pandan leave and pour Syrup into the Rice Flour mixture and stir well.  Sieve and leave it aside to cool.

• Dissolve Dried Yeast with 1 tbsp warm water and add into rice flour mixture and stir well and leave it aside for 2 hours for the yeast to take effect.
• Grease a tin and heat wok or steamer with water till boil and place the tin in the wok/steamer.
• Once the tin is heated, pour the mixture into the tin and cover lid and steam it for 20 minutes till done.

• Remove from wok and leave to cool.
• Cut and serve!!

Ta-Dah....done...easy as 123!!!  Try it!!

Cook's Note:
* You can use brown sugar instead of white sugar then you will have brown sugar steam cake then!

A Perfect Match -- Teochew Braised Duck + Yam Rice

Usually I don't like to eat braised duck from outside because they are not fragrant and black enough hahaha....I like my duck to be braised till very black!!!  Oops sorry...duck with no head because I can't stand to see the head with it!!!

Ingredients:
1/2 Duck (about 1.2 kg)
2 Cinnamon Bark
2 Star Anise
6 Slices of Galangal
2 tbsp of Castor Sugar
10 pieces Rock Sugar
1 tsp Fish Sauce
2.5 litre Water

Marinate:
1 tsp Five Spice Powder
1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Thick Premium Dark Soy Sauce
1 tsp Salt


Method:

• Marinate Duck for 2 hours
• Heat wok and add in 2 tbsp Sugar to caramelised then add in the duck and coat it well.  Pour in the seasoning used to marinate duck too.
• Pour in water and add in all other ingredients and bring it to boil.
• Lower heat to low-med fire and simmer duck for 90 minutes (cover lid of wok and to turn duck over every 15 minutes so that the cooking can be even).
• Chop and serve!

Cook's tip:
* If you sees water drying up before duck is done, add in more water will do.
* The thick duck gravy is best to go with rice or porridge so don't go to waste!

The best thing to go with braised duck will be Yam Rice!!

Here's the ingredients needed for cooking Yam Rice:
2 cups Rice (wash and soak 10 mins)
300g Yam (Cut cube)
2 tbsp Dried Shrimps (Soak)
6 Dried Mushroom (Soak and dice)
5 Garlic (minced)
10 Shallots (slice)
1 tsp Chicken Powder
1 tsp Fish Sauce
1 tsp Oyster Sauce
Dash of Pepper
2 cups Water





Method:

• Heat wok with 2 tbsp of oil and deep fried shallots till brown and remove to side aside.
• Add yam cube in wok and stir fry till light brown.
• Add in mushroom and dried shrimp and stir till fragrant
• Add in rice and all other seasoning and stir till well mixed.
• Transfer rice to cooker and add in 2 cups of water and set to cook.

Pineapple Chilli Crab

Yesterday I was already planning what to cook today.  Suddenly have the urge to eat crab.  I used to cook crab my mum's style (more dry type) so thinking maybe it's good that I try to cook it with more gravy type like Singapore Chilli Crab yet I want it to be slightly different from what is available outside so I added Pineapple and didn't use as much Ketchup as them!

Ingredients:
2 Mud Crabs (about 1.2 to 1.5 kg in total)
1 Stalk Spring Onion
2 Eggs
1 tbsp Corn Starch + 2 tbsp Water (mix well)
1 tbsp Maggie Extra Hot Chilli
1 tbsp Ketchup
1 tbsp Fish Sauce
1 tsp Salt
2 Cups of Chicken Stock

Chilli Paste (Blend all together):
2 Red Chilli
8 Bird Eye's Chilli
10 Stalk Dried Chilli (Soak in hot water and  drain first)
5 cm Old Ginger
2 Red Onions
10 Shallots
5 Garlic
Half a small Pineapple
2 Lemongrass

This is how the chilli paste looks like after blending!







Method:

• Kill & clean crabs
• Heat wok with 5 tbsp oil and add in the chilli paste and stir fry chilli till fragrant and oil appears on top with low-med fire.  Keep stirring to prevent it from burning!!
• Add in Chicken Stock and let it boil
• Add in Crab and stir well.  Cover with lid to simmer for 7 minutes
• Open lid and stir well then add in fish sauce and corn starch mixture to thicken the sauce.
• Switch off fire and pour in the eggs.
• Garnish with spring onion and serve!

Usually people eat with deep fried buns if eating chilli crab but I have some milk toast bread left so I use it to dip the gravy and eat and it's heaven!!!

Cook's Note:
* You can adjust the level of chilli hotness base on your own taste.  The quantity I used are consider medium hot only!!

* You can also sprinkle some toasted grinded peanuts onto crab sauce before serving....it's nice..just that I can't find peanut today so I didn't use it!!

Sambal Chilli Sweet Potato Leaves

Today went marketing and saw a bundle of nice young sweet potato leaves and thought would be nice to cook with Sambal Chilli!!

I used to live in Woodland area and there's a hill behind the house where SAF used it for exercise sometimes!  I remembered I used to go up the hill with friends after school hours but before our tutorial time.  There's still kampong hut up there with people staying at that time!  The boys will go around picking emptied bullets and Girls will just walk around chit chating and enjoying the greens....

There's once we venture further up the hill and found that there's few plot of land with nice and fresh veggies growing on it!!  The uncle there was so good to us...we saw a lot of potato leaves along side of the farm and he said it's FOC....told us to pluck as much as we like!  I took back one big plastic bag filled with it for my mum to do the cooking hee....

Here's the ingredients needed:

Sambal (Grind all together)
2 Red Chilli
2 Bird Eye's Chilli
4 Dried Chili (Soak in hot water first and drain)
1 cm Belacan (Dried Shrimp Paste)
4 Shallots
10g Dried Shrimps

1 Bundle of Sweet Potato Leaves
3 tbsp Water
1 tbsp Minced Garlic
1 tsp Fish Sauce

Method:

• Grind sambal paste
• Heat wok with 2 tbsp of oil and stir fry the sambal paste with low-med fire till fragrant
• Add in minced garlic and Sweet Potato Leaves to mix well
• Add in the water and fish sauce and quick stir and dish out!

As you can see I didn't add in any other seasoning except fish sauce because Belacan is already salty.

Easy...try it!!

All-In Fried Rice

You must be wondering why I name this dish as "All-In"?  Sounds more like "Show Hand" hahahaha...or I would call it "Zhap Ba Rang Fried Rice" which has the same meaning...

Well, I have some old rice that I wanted to clear from the bin before refilling the new ones so I decided to cook them all and then use it to fried rice.  Usually people will say overnight rice is better for use to fried rice but I don't think so!  I have weak stomach so I would prefer my food to be fresh!! 

However, in order to make sure that my fried rice is nice and chewy, I usually will cook my white rice with just 80% of water needed and with that, the rice will not be too soft and it will be very nice and chewy when fried!!

Looking through my fridge I found eggs, preserved raddish, crab stick, snow peas, mixed peas, baby corn, Lap Cheong (Preserved Sausages) so I decided to use all ingredients for my fried rice.  Surprisingly it taste wonderful and Austin ate one big bowl even he already have eaten his dinner before coming home!!



I think anything can be used to fried rice so it's up to your own creativity or maybe up to what you have in your fridge. 

Here's the ingredients needed:

2 Cups of White Rice (Cooked and leave aside)

2 Eggs

10 Baby Corn (cut 1 cm pieces)

1 tbsp Preserved Raddish

6 Crab Sticks (Cut into 1 cm pieces)

1 Lap Cheong (Cut into thin slices)

10 Snow Peas (cut into 2 cm pieces)

1 cup mixed peas (I like lots of peas so if you don't like, add 1/2 cup will do)

1 stalk Spring Onion (Dice)

2 tbsp Fish Sauce

1 tsp Sea Salt

1 tbsp Dark Soya Sauce

1 tsp Pepper

3 Garlic (Minced)

Method:

• Heat wok with 2 tbsp Oil and saute garlic till fragrant.
• Add in the Rice and mix well then add in all the vegetables (mix peas, snow peas and baby corn) and mix well.
• Add in Preserved Raddish and Lap Cheong and Crab Stick and stir well.
• Lastly add in Eggs and mix well and add in seasoning and mix well till rice and chewy and fragrant.
• Add in Spring Onion and serve!

This is a simple yet nice dish to cook and eat for dinner if you are too lazy to cook dishes!  I even save some for my next day lunch and it still taste wonderful after reheated with Microwave!!

Sweet Yummy Mango Glutinous Rice

I love MANGO but not easy to get nice one!  There's many types of mango nowadays but usually the long type is the one that I find more suitable to make Mango Sticky Rice!

This is the best dessert if you are hosting a party or event!  Trust me..nobody will say NO to nice Mango Sticky Rice!!

Ingredients:
500g Glutinous Rice
160g White Sugar
280ml Coconut Cream
1 tsp Salt
2 Pandan Leaves (Tie Knots)
2 Fresh Mangos (Thai or Taiwan Mango more suitable)
1 tbsp Toasted Sesame Seeds

* Extracting Coconut Cream:
- Use 1 lg White Shredded Coconut add in 250ml Warm Water and mix well.
- Squeeze out 280ml coconut cream for cooking rice and 250ml coconut cream as topping cream.

* Making Topping Cream:
- Use 250ml coconut Cream (extracted as above) and put in a small pot.  Add in 1 tsp Salt, 1 tsp Corn Starch and 2 tbsp sugar to pot and mix well then boil over low heat until mixture thicken and remove to cool. (keep stirring while boiling ok!)

Preparation:
- Soak Glutinous Rice for 8 hours (I use either Song Her or New Moon Brand).  If you buy glutinous rice near dumpling's festival..those are new rice...soak 3 hours will do.
- Need a clean white piece of cloth (for steaming)

Method:

• Cook Rice in Steamer (wrap with damp white cloth) for about 20 minutes till tender but not too soft (of old rice, steam about 30 minutes).
• While steaming the rice, use the time to cook Sugar, Coconut Cream, Salt and Pandan Leave in a pot till boil and leave aside.
• Once rice is cooked, transfer rice to a big pot that has a lid and pour in the hot coconut mixture you boiled while steaming the rice.  Mix well and cover lid and leave it for 30 minutes at room temperature.
• Scoop a portion of Glutinous Rice on a plate.  Slice mango into desired sizes and place beside the rice.  Pour some topping cream on top of rice and mango.
• Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds on top and serve!

Cook's Tip:
- If cooking 1/2 recipe, rice steam time should be halved too ok!!

Hope you will find the time to try out!!

Chinese BBQ Pork (Char Siew)

Recently a friend of mine shared an easy yet tasty recipe with me and I'm sure glad I tried it (special thanks to Jenny Seah).  This recipe requires very little ingredients and it's easy and nice even for new cooks to try out!

Ingredients
500g pork shoulder (五花肉)
4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp Hua Tiao Wine

• Marinate pork over night with all the other ingredients .
• Preheat Oven at 200 degree.
• Line aluminium foil on tray and place a wire rack on top.
• Place pork on wire rack and and roast it at 200 degree for 45 mins
• Turn meat every 15 minutes and brush surface with remaining marinating sauce and roast till done!

Happy trying!!

Healthy Brown Rice Porridge

I'm feeling low in energy today and Austin had a swelling tongue due to medication reaction and have not been eating well so feeling giddy so I decided to cook something nice and yet nourishing!

While sourcing for cooking ingredients at wet market this morning, I saw fresh Huai Shan (淮山) and decided to get a piece back home.  Then I continue and brought some fresh mushroom, carrot and spinich too!

Now I find that these ingredients are not sufficient...so I decided to add in some other ingredients that can be found in my fridge ha!

Here's the ingredients required:

1 cup Brown Rice
1.5 litre Water
300g Huai Shan (cut cube)
200g Carrot (Dice)
4 Stalks of Spinich (cut very finely)
6 Red Dates (soak 10 mins and cut half)
1 tbsp Wolfberries (soak 10 mins and leave aside)
3 Fresh Mushroom (Dice)
6 Dried Oyster (soak 15 mins)
One handful of Dried Scallops (soak 15 mins)
1 stalk spring onion (dice)
Salt and Pepper to taste

• Boil Brown Rice with Water till boiling.
• Add in Dried Oyster and Scallop and boil for 15 minutes.
• Add in Burdock, Carrot, Red Dates and Spinich and boil for 30 minutes.
• Add in Fresh Mushroom and Wolfberries and boil for another 15 minutes.
• Season with Salt and pepper.
• Sprinkle some Spring Onions on top of porridge and serve hot!

Enjoy!! 

Penang Assam Laksa

Last week I ate a bowl of Assam Laksa at Jurong Point Red Laquer Restaurant.  The laksa there was good.  Sourish and thick enough!  While eating it, I told myself...this will be the next dish I'm cooking when I have the time.  Searching thru the websites and seeking friend's opinion, I finally managed to get all the necessary ingredients from Supermarket and Wet Market and started cooking the "troublesome" laksa today!

Why I said it's troublesome?  There's so much to buy, so many things to wash and cut...but tell you what...end result was good and worth while when you see the bowls are empty!!

I adopted my recipe from RasaMalaysia but modified some ingredients and quantities to suit my hubby and my taste!

Fish Stock Ingredients (Boil together till fish cooked and remove from fire):

1.5 Kg (Mackerel Fish + Kembong Fish) - I mix it as Mackerel fish is tougher and will have more chuck pieces of fish in soup!

2.5 litre Water

Chilli Paste Ingredients (Grind together): 

15 Red Chilli

100g Shallots

200g Onions (slice)

50g Galangal (蓝姜)

1 Stalk Ginger Flower (cut tip finely and put aside as condiments and use the rest for the chilli paste)

1 Stalk Lemon Grass (cut pieces)

Other Ingredients:

150g Belacan (soft type -fresher)

20 pieces Dried Tamarind Peel

200g Assam + 1 rice bowl of water to make Tamarind Juice (remove seeds)

10 Stalks Laksa Leaves (clean and put aside)

2 Stalks Lemon Grass

Seasoning:

1 tbsp Sugar

1 tbsp Fish Sauce

Condiments:

1 Cucumber (slice thinly)

1 Sawarak Pineapple (cut small chuck)

3 Onions (slice thinly)

Lettuces (slice thinly)

Mint Leaves (use only the leaves and cut thinly)

Ginger Flower (the balance from making chilli paste)

Red Chilli (cut and remove seeds)

Prawn Paste (Heh Go)

Of course not forgeting to get some Laksa Noodles!!

Method:

• Remove fish from pot and strain soup and save for later use.
• Remove fish meat from fish and discard the bones and keep fish meat aside.
• Boil fish stock in pot and add in the grinded chilli paste and all other ingredients and simmer stock for 1 hr.
• Soak Laksa Noodles with hot water and strain then keep aside.
• After 1 hour, add the fish meat back to stock and boil for another 1 hour till soup thicken.
• Place a portion of Laksa Noodles into a soup bowl.  Add in all condiments (quantities based on yr likings) on top of noodles and scoop fish soup base into bowl.
• Add a spoonful of shrimp paste before serving.

Hope you enjoy your Penang Assam Laksa as much as I do!