Chicken Stew

Chicken Stew

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken thighs (skin removed, chopped)
• 1 carrot (cut into chunks)
• 1 big potato (cut into chunks)
• 1 small red onion (sliced)
• 1 clove garlic (minced)
• 1-2 cloves shallot (sliced finely)
• ground white pepper
• 1 tsp chicken Bovril
• 300-400ml water/ stock (or enough to cover the ingredients)
• 1-2T unsalted butter
• 1 can button mushrooms or fresh white button mushrooms (optional - I didn't add these today as there was too much food already!)

Marinade for chicken:

• about 2T Lee Kum Kee chicken marinade
• about 1T oyster sauce
• 1tsp sugar
• sesame oil
• ground black pepper

Method:

1. Clean the chicken and remove all visible fats.
2. Marinate the chicken overnight or at least for a few hours.
3. Melt the butter in a wok.
4. Fry the onions till limp. Add in the garlic and shallots and fry till fragrant.
5. Add in the chicken and fry for awhile.
6. Add in the carrot and potato chunks.
7. Add the water/stock (enough to cover the ingredients).
8. Bring the stew to a boil then simmer on low heat for 45min.
9. At the 20min mark, take out half the amount of potatoes and mash them then return them to the stew - optional step: only if you like the stew more pasty
10. Add the pepper and the chicken Bovril.
11. Continue to simmer the stew for another 25min or until stew thickens.
12. Dish and serve hot.

I'm a fan of chicken stew and my hubby says this dish just grows on him... the more he eats it, the more he finds it flavourful! Do try it! :)

And to make this a one-pot dish, just add some of your favourite greens and there you have it! My personal favourite vegetable to add to this stew is the Chinese cabbage (wongbok). 娃娃菜 is another alternative :) (Aside: Here's a recipe using 娃娃菜). A note about adding veggies to this dish: you'd probably want a less pasty dish with veggies around, so just don't go mash the potatoes and you may need a bit more water/stock. :)

For toddler's consumption:

• Simply cut the chicken, potatoes and carrots into smaller pieces!

French beans with egg

Here's another simple home-cooked vegetable dish. :)

French Beans with egg

Ingredients:

• 1 handful of french beans (sliced thinly diagonally)
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• fish sauce to taste
• water/stock

Method:

1. Fry the garlic in a bit of oil in the wok.
2. Add the french beans.
3. Simmer the french beans in a bit of water/stock till cooked and there's not much water/stock left.
4. Add fish sauce to taste.
5. Swirl in the beaten egg bit by bit.
6. Dish and serve.

Simple, isn't it? :)

For toddler's consumption:

• Cut french beans into shorter segments

JG PlayClub (30/1)

Alicia was a very well-behaved girl in class and I can almost say that she was the only one who didn't misbehave yesterday! :D Even the teachers praised her for being such an attentive listener. My hubby who was watching outside during that segment was also impressed by her behaviour during story-telling time: she just sat quietly and docilely in my lap and listened to the story despite the fact that there were quite a few kids moving to the front and standing up, blocking the view of others, much to the frustration of the instructors. Yesterday the instructors had to stop story-telling a couple of times and asked the parents to 'collect' their kids due to this behaviour. Well, that used to be my alicia a couple of weeks back :) I'm glad to say that she's a lot more settled in class - at least when I'm with her. :D


We painted the number 1 with a toothbrush and sprinkled glitter on it (she loved this part) after we were done with the painting. She didn't put up a fight when it was time to move on to the next task. :) Then we proceeded to wait for the next art station to paint the 'ice-cream cone' and stuff it with tissue paper and then paste stickers on it as the 'topping'. Rather interesting I must say. Meanwhile while waiting for her turn, she snuggled up to the teacher and insisted on sit on her lap (she and this Chinese teacher seem to have an affinity for each other!) When it was time to go wash up after art, she didn't kick up a fuss either. What an angel! Fortunately she wasn't too d-i-r-t-y so I could manage the washing her up alone (hubby went back to vacuum the house before coming back to JG to pick us up).

The 'topping' of the ice-cream was blown away as my hubby brought home the artwork from the car!

For snack time, she had biscuits, cheese and watermelon. As usual and as expected, she ate only the watermelon before proceeding to hone her spitting skills as she 'ate' the biscuits and cheese. After she decided she was done with the eating, she got off the chair and went onto the floor. For some reason, she lost her balance and she hit her lip against the floor and started bleeding. The teacher quickly went to get her an icepack but before she returned with it, Alicia had already stopped crying. Thank goodness. I thought I'd have to latch her on to comfort her but she was a brave girl yesterday and she even let me hold the icepack against her mouth for awhile before she decided it was time to move on to outdoor playtime


I went to return the plate and cup (which was just three steps away!) and by the time I turned round, she was already at the door, going out to the play area on her own - fortunately she was stopped by the teachers. We had sandplay yesterday and she still doesn't quite fancy sand. She protested when I wanted to put her into the sandpit and kept pointing to the playground. So I thought to give in to her request and was already on my way out of the sandplay area when a teacher came along and tried to coax her to play with the sand instead. Alicia relented to playing with sand but she still refused to get inside the sandpit. And so she just stood outside the sandpit and scooped sand in and out of moulds for the whole of the playtime and never asked to go to the playground after that. That's quite an improvement, since the last time she had sandplay during PlayNest, she cried and refused to even touch sand! :)


We had a wonderful time at class yesterday and I feel that she's beginning to enjoy class - and not just the playtime! :D

Steamed red snapper

I'm still having that dreaded throat infection so I'm sticking to simple food for the time being. I've been to the doctor for a third time (this time with another doc) and I really hope that the infection will clear and no more relapses! Just in case you're wondering why there's chilli in the dish, the fish didn't turn out spicy at all and it's really meant more for getting rid of the fishy smell and I think it looks great as a garnish. :D

I bought this big slab of red snapper meat from the wet market today and I halved it for today's meal and steamed it. :)

Steamed red snapper

Ingredients

• 350g red snapper meat
• 1/4 red chilli (seeds removed, sliced finely)
• 1 bunch scallions (spring onions)
• 1 preserved plum
• 1/2 fresh chinese mushroom (diced)
• thumb-size ginger
• sesame oil

Marinate the fish with:

• hua diao jiu
• a bit of salt
• ground white pepper

Method:

1. Marinate the fish and set aside in the fridge.
2. Cut the spring onion into 1.5" sections. Cut some of the green segment of the spring onion into smaller pieces for garnishing.
3. Skin the ginger and slice it. Take a few slices of the ginger and slice these very thinly (like shreds).
4. Arrange the white segments of the spring onion and some ginger (not the finely sliced ones) under the slab of fish.
5. Place the remaining slices of the ginger (not the finely sliced ones), diced mushrooms and the sliced chilli on the fish. Top the fish with the preserved plum.
6. Steam the fish for 5-7min.
7. Meanwhile, heat the sesame oil (enough to pour on the whole piece of fish) and fry the thinly sliced ginger till golden brown. Remove the ginger shreds and continue to heat the oil till VERY hot. Once the fish is done, pour the hot oil onto the slab of fish - according to my mil, she said she watched some programme in which the chef said that this step makes the meat of the fish extra smooth.
8. Add some light soy sauce if it's not salty enough. Otherwise, garnish with spring onion bits and ginger shreds and it's done! :)

Note: You may omit the mushrooms but I feel that the mushrooms give the dish an additional texture - which I happen to like :)

Baked beans with potato and sausage

Yet another simple dish to whip up. Actually I was just trying to use up the rest of the baked beans as I opened a can last night to go along with the chicken chop set meal I cooked.

Just toss in some potato cubes and sausages (cubed) and it's almost good to go!

Baked beans with potato and sausage

Ingredients:

• 2/3 big can of baked beans (Ayam brand)
• 1 relatively big potato (skinned and cubed)
• 2 chicken sausages (cubed)
• 2-3 tablespoons Maggi tomato sauce
• sugar to taste
• 1/2 bowl water
• 1/2 small red onion (sliced)

Method:

1. Scald the cubed sausages. Drain and set aside.
2. Boil the cubed potatoes till cooked. Drain and set aside.
3. Fry the sliced red onion till limp.
4. Pour in the baked beans and fry for awhile.
5. Add the water and bring the mixture to a boil.
6. Add the tomato sauce and sugar to taste.
7. Add the cubed sausage and potatoes and mix well.
8. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• For tots below 2, serve only the baked beans and potatoes.
• Serve the dish as it is for tots above 2 years old.

Glass noodles soup (冬粉汤)

This is another gem from my home-cooked favourites. My mum taught me to make this soup as I'm so fond of it and it's really easy to make too! Just make sure that the soup base is nice and the soup can't go very wrong. :D





Glass noodle soup 冬粉汤

*Skip the dried scallop and dried shrimp for tots below 18mths*

Ingredients:

• 2 small bundles of glass noodles (soak in water till soft)
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• 2 tablespoons of minced meat
• 3 chicken breast bones
• 250g pork ribs
• 1 dried scallop
• about 1 handful dried shrimp
• about 1 handful preserved vegetable (dong cai / 冬菜)
• fish sauce to taste (if still not salty enough)
• 1 soup pot of water

Marinate minced meat with:

• oyster sauce
• ground black pepper
• sesame oil

Method:

1. Blanch chicken bones and pork ribs.
2. Rinse the dried scallop and dried shrimp. Place dried scallop in a small soup bag.
3. Place the chicken bones, pork ribs, dried scallop and dried shrimp in the soup pot of water.
4. Boil on high heat then simmer on low heat for a few hours.
5. Sieve the soup: remove the chicken bones and dried shrimp. Return the pork ribs (if desired) and the dried scallop (take out of the soup bag) to the soup.
6. Marinate the minced meat and mix the minced meat together with the beaten egg.
7. Fry the egg mixture till cooked. Add this to the soup when the soup has simmered long enough and when the soup has been sieved.
8. Rinse the preserved vegetable before adding it to the soup.
9. Add the glass noodles when just about to serve.
10. Add fish sauce to taste if not salty enough.
11. Serve hot.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Alicia's last jab (till Primary 1!)

Alicia had her last toddler jab today... the next booster's due only when she's 7. :D

Her vital stats:
Weight: 8.1kg (3rd-10th percentile) - put on 0.8kg since the 15mth checkup
Height: 78cm (25-50th percentile) - grown taller by 5cm since the 15mth checkup
Head circumference: 44cm - grew 1 cm since the 15mth checkup
Milestones for her age all reached, and even a little advanced :)


Overall report and thoughts:
Doc says that her head-body growth is proportionate and she's still growing overall and not too fast/slow in one particular area so everything's fine though she's considered really light for her age. Again, the doctor suggested supplementing with fm for the higher calorie intake since bm is more easily digested. Actually I'm not as against feeding formula as Alicia is. She's the one that refuses to drink anything else except breast milk - and she only wants to latch on for it. The last time I expressed for her to drink it, she refused it as well. I guess we just have to wait till she's ready to accept other drinks and other methods of drinking. Currently she's been drinking a bit of honey water or soy bean drink every day or every other day but the amount she drinks isn't a lot, and she doesn't always agree to drink it too. And on Saturdays when she goes for JG class, she drinks a bit of juice during snack time.

For now, I don't think we'll be going the way of force-feeding FM since she really doesn't like it. Maybe we'll try our luck again when she's 2. :D And meanwhile, we hope she'll gain more weight from her main meals!

Hairband...

Hmm, found this hairband attached to one of her formal baby dresses (which she didn't get to wear in the end). So I just removed it and put it on for her, just for fun. :) Well, she doesn't really look nice with the hairband but just for the sake of remembering how she looks like with a hairband when she's still so bald... hehehe...

Alicia's new PJs!

I went to the market on Tuesday to pick up some groceries and was just about to make my way home when Alicia pointed at something at the pasar malam and started to get really excited. That was when I looked up and saw a set of Elmo print pyjamas. Then she started to say "Mo!" Haha. Couldn't help but walk over to find out if there was a suitable size for her. There was! And so we made our purchase. Just when we were about to leave, we saw another set of PJ - this had Sesame Street characters on it (and there was Elmo of coz). So this time, we made our way to the ATM instead... hehe... coz I had run out of money.

She was really overjoyed as she pranced around her new sleepwear when I brought them home and laid them on the floor to take a pic to send to my hubby who was at work.

See a little moving hand in the pic? :D

She's still admiring her new sleepwear

So I quickly washed them and hung them out to dry while the weather was still good and they were dry in the evening! And she got to wear her Elmo PJ that night. She was over the moon and kept pointing at her shirt, lifting it a little each time to see the Elmo print and she kept saying "Mo!" and occasionally, "Elmo!" And she was fascinated too by the other character prints on her pants and kept pointing at them too. Isn't she lovely? :D

Here she is the next morning, wearing her new PJ and trying to read a book about baby food. For some reason, she's taken to this book lately and has been flipping through the recipes... :P Time for experiments?

I'm ill - again!

I thought I'd fully recovered from my throat infection earlier on but no! For no reason at all, my throat started acting up last night and started feeling scratchy again. I felt ok this morning but by the afternoon, my throat became really bad and I started to have a mild fever. And I'm still having one now as I type. I feel so worried that Alicia would catch my germs. I've been putting off her 18-mth booster jab due to my illness and was just about to make arrangements to have her jabbed this week... but I had to fall ill again. This is absolutely irritating. Most importantly, I hope she doesn't catch my germs... to think I was still feeling so relieved she didn't catch the earlier strain... sigh. :( It's back to the doc tomorrow morning again...

Braised pork ribs in hoisin sauce

A tasty dish that goes really well with a bowl of rice, or porridge. Yum! Need I say more?


Braised pork ribs in hoisin sauce

Ingredients:

• about 1/2kg pork ribs
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• cornflour
• water

Seasoning for marinating pork ribs:

• about 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• about 1.5 tablespoon oyster sauce
• sesame oil
• sugar
• ginger juice
• hua diao jiu

Method:

1. Wash the pork ribs clean and remove any visible fats.
2. Marinate the pork ribs with the seasoning for at least 3 hours. As usual, I do this the night before.
3. Heat oil in a wok and fry garlic till fragrant.
4. Add the pork ribs and fry for awhile till the surface of the pork is slightly browned.
5. Add water (enough to cover the pork ribs) and bring the water to a boil.
6. Turn down the heat and simmer for 45min or until pork ribs are cooked.
7. Thicken the gravy with cornflour solution.
8. Serve hot.

Preserved radish omelette

This is one of the really classic simple Chinese dishes. As a Teochew (or at least half a Teochew), I have grown up eating fried egg with preserved radish as one of the regular dishes that accompany a bowl of piping hot porridge. And I've always enjoyed it. In fact, I could eat my whole bowl of porridge with just this dish!

Yesterday I ran out of ideas what to cook for dinner and so I decided to go back to basics and just cook something simple. Anyway, hubby has been trying to order this dish from the economical rice stall downstairs so I thought, well, why not just cook it for him? It's so simple and convenient (though not that healthy an option)... I guess it won't hurt to eat it just once in a while right? :)

This time, instead of scrambling the egg, I decided to make it an omelette.


Preserved radish omelette

Ingredients:

• a small handful of preserved radish (chai por)
• 3 small eggs (beaten)

Method:

1. Rinse the preserved radish a few times - till it's not too salty. If it's really salty, you may have to soak it for awhile.
2. Heat the pan (if yours is a non-stick pan, you don't even need oil).
3. Pour in the beaten eggs and swirl the egg in the pan so that there is even distribution of egg.
4. Sprinkle the preserved radish as evenly as you can in the pan.
5. Once the egg is cooked, turn it over and cook the other side.
6. Done!

Off to School!

I was dressing Alicia up for JG class this morning and after I put on her school T-shirt and her jeans for her, she decided that she wanted to wear her shades. So I put it on for her and I thought that her little duck backpack would make her look really extra adorable so I made her carry it (well, just around the house). She looked so cute that I just had to take a photo of her but she was really upset that I put her down (I was carrying her) and so she started crying and throwing tantrums. You can see even her tears in the photos! :D

How glum she looks! But cute, nevertheless!

Onion and Broccoli stock

This is the latest stock for Alicia's porridge. I felt that she didn't quite like the cabbage stock (although there wasn't any outright rejection) so I decided to boil something else this time - hopefully she likes it. With nothing much on hand, I worked with what was in the pantry: two yellow onions with two broccoli stems which I had kept to throw in together with the next batch of stock - of coz all these to be boiled together with the usual stock base of chicken bones/ carcass and pork ribs.

Onion and Broccoli Stock

Ingredients:

• 2 big yellow onions (peeled and sliced)
• 2 broccoli stems (remove any blemishes and just trim the bottom)
• 1 chicken carcass
• 250g pork ribs
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 soup pot water

Method:

1. Blanch pork ribs and chicken carcass.
2. Bring the pork ribs, chicken carcass and garlic to a boil in a soup pot of water.
3. When the water comes to a boil, put in the yellow onions and broccoli stems.
4. Simmer for a few hours.
5. Sieve the stock and pack into small portions for freezing.

JG PlayClub (23/1)

I accompanied Alicia into class today and she was such a good gal! She was so attentive and didn't move much and she even enjoyed the activities and sat still during story time. We were duly impressed and so were the teachers! :D Hubby and I were wondering what made her so different in class today compared to the past two weeks and we both came to the conclusion: I accompanied her today instead of my hubby. Whenever she started to get distracted and wanted to go walk around, I'd pull her back and seat her nicely on my lap - and she'd stay still and concentrate on the given task/ activity without (much) protest. When hubby did the exact same thing to her for the past two lessons (and in the later part of the session today), she refused to sit down. Kinda strange since he's the disciplinarian at home. When we swapped over and he accompanied her for the session after outdoor playtime, she displayed a shockingly different behaviour - she started her nonsense of walking around class again - so we sorta concluded that she probably associates learning with me and therefore is more willing to sit down and listen when she's with me. Actually I noticed this already last year when she attended PlayNest. She was attentive for all the days that I went in with her and the only day that hubby could attend with her, she displayed that same distracted behaviour.

Anyway, fortunately art wasn't too m-e-s-s-y today and we spent some time concentrating on developing fine motor skills too while we were at it. Here's Alicia's work for the day and she enjoyed threading too (so I allowed her to thread through whichever hole that she fancied):

Snack time wasn't too appealing to Alicia today coz they served up raisin bread and cheese cubes - which she doesn't like. So the only thing she ate today was a cube of watermelon and a bit of juice before going off to play at the playground. Boy was she overjoyed to be out and about! There was an improvement in behaviour today though: she didn't kick up a fuss when it was time to leave the playground and go back into class!

Bedtime... Naptime...

Earlier in the month, I taught Alicia all about tucking her soft toys to bed and so it started off with her tucking in her toys (especially big snowbear). Starting on the 8th Jan, she'd place the snowbear's head on the pillow, then put the blanket over it then pat the bear thrice and say 'pat pat pat'. Soon, she decided that she wanted to tuck herself into bed and so she would lie down next to big snowbear and try to throw the blanket over herself and the snowbear - and I'd do the patting: both her and snowbear. She'd be very amused and she'd try to do it over and over again.

Unfortunately by the time I realised that I haven't gotten a video of this adorable phase, she was almost stopping to do these cute actions so the videos I captured didn't manage to capture 'the moment'. So upsetting... anyway, this is as best as I could manage:

Alicia eating noodles!

I gave Alicia some noodles today and here she is, trying to self-feed. But due to the fact that these noodles were very slippery, she had problems trying to pick the strands up with the fork. Hence, whenever she got impatient (which was quite often), she would use her hand to pick up the strands of noodles instead. :D I love the cute look when she's sucking in the noodles!

Here's the successful attempt at self-feeding:

Isn't she just adorable??? :)

Alicia's new bag!

I've always promised Alicia that if ever I see a cute Elmo bag, I'd buy it for her. Finally I came across one yesterday when I went to the pasar malam while waiting for the pork ribs I ordered to be chopped. Although the bag's too big for her, I still bought it for her.

On the way home from the market, I took out the bag for her and she immediately brought the elmo up and kissed it on its nose though it was still wrapped in a plastic bag and she clutched the bag in her hands all the way home. :) She's just so in love with elmo... and of course, she's already learnt to call elmo by his name... :D

Ooh... it's sooo bright!

Alicia used to hate wearing accessories but ever since wearing my niece's sunglasses at the Christmas eve party, she has been more receptive to items to adorn herself. My mother-in-law bought this pair of sunglasses for her some time back but she's only begun to really like it recently. Here's my little one, enjoying the world through the pink shades:

Alicia and the mask

I was down with throat infection and slight cough earlier and so I wore a mask whenever I nursed Alicia. She always thinks that I'm trying to initiate a game with her and will try to play with me and grab the mask. The other day, she asked me to put on the mask for her. Since it was a brand new mask, and obviously I wouldn't allow her to play with a mask that I've worn, I let her play with it. She was so conscious of the mask and whenever it dropped a little, she would push it up... :D



Anyway, I caught this on the videocam on another separate occasion:

Alicia's worst fall ever... and the power of breast milk (and latching)!

Late last night, just before Alicia went to bed, she fell down as she was playing near our bed. She was smiling cheekily at me before I turned away and the next thing I knew, she fell. Hubby witnessed the fall and told me that she had slipped and hit her face against the edge of the bedframe. Thinking that it was no big deal as falls are not out of the ordinary, we just did a routine check to find out if she was really hurt.

This time round, she was really hurt.

There was a deep cut in her mouth and the cut spanned all the way to the exterior of the top of the right lip. Poor gal. She was bleeding and this is the first time she's bled so much from a fall. Her cheek and the area around the lip became very swollen. Hubby kept asking me how to stop the bleeding and if there was anything we could apply to help the blood stop gushing out. Well, the only thing I could think of was to latch her on and she was looking for me to latch on to too so that's what we did.

Miraculously, she stopped crying, the bleeding stopped and the swelling went down by a lot and she was smiling and laughing when she unlatched herself. :) I know that breast milk has healing properties but we're constantly being astounded by the power of breast milk and the comfort latching can offer to our little one. Breast milk seems to be some antidote for Alicia's falls. :D

Though people may criticise the use of the breast as a source of comfort, I believe that it is perfectly fine to do so for now since she's still so young. Of course, it has to stop one day and she has to learn other ways to calm herself down and soothe her pain but for now, let's not expect too much of a young toddler who's still got so much else to learn. And meanwhile, I believe Alicia and I both enjoy that bond between us. :)

Baked garlicky, cheesy salmon

Look at the cheese!!! :D

I'm not a fan of salmon but when baked in this manner, the salmon's fishy smell is, I can say, almost fully eliminated! Most of the time, I force myself to eat salmon because I know it's good for me and also, it is believed that eating oily fish like salmon will improve the quality of breast milk for lactating mummies - so for the sake of my little Alicia, I eat it. :) But really, this baked salmon's so nice that there is no need to force myself to eat it... in fact, today the slice of salmon I bought wasn't enough for hubby and I!

Baked garlicky, cheesy salmon

Ingredients

• 200g salmon (skin removed - you may want to retain the skin if you like it - i know the skin's nutritious but I don't eat fish skin... all types)
• shredded mozarella cheese (amt depending on preference)
• 2-3 cloves garlic (minced)

Seasoning:

• a dash of teriyaki marinade
• hua diao jiu
• ground black pepper
• a dash of sesame oil
• all-purpose unsalted herbs

Method:

1. Slice salmon thinly.
2. Marinate salmon with the seasoning.
3. Mix the minced garlic and mozarella cheese thoroughly with the salmon pieces.
4. Place the marinated salmon mixture onto a piece of aluminium foil and top with more mozarella cheese (as shown below).
5. Wrap the salmon up in the foil.
6. Preheat oven to 180degC.
7. Bake the salmon at 180degC for 15min.
8. Remove the salmon from the oven, unwrap the foil and sprinkle more herbs on top of the cheese.
9. Serve hot.

Stir-fried mixed mushrooms

For this dish, I used Eryngii mushrooms and fresh chinese mushrooms. Eryngii mushrooms share similar nutritional and medicinal properties with members of the oyster (mushroom) family:

The oyster mushroom is high in protein (15-27 % per dry mass), contains 85-100 mg of vitamin C per 100 g and is a good source of niacin, folic acid and potassium. Clinical studies have shown that the oyster mushroom naturally produces Lovastatin, a drug commonly used in the treatment of high blood cholesterol. It has also demonstrated strong anti-tumoral [Ying(1987)]activity specifically for the intestinal tract[Zusman et al.(1997)].


Here's the pic of the mushrooms:



Stir-fried mixed mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 1/2 packet of eryngii mushrooms
• 4 fresh chinese mushrooms
• minced garlic
• cornflour

Seasoning:

• about 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
• dash of ground black pepper
• 1 tsp hua diao jiu

Method:

1. Wash and cut the fresh chinese mushrooms into slices.
2. Wash and trim the end of the eryngii mushrooms and cut into slices diagonally.
3. Marinate the mushrooms with the seasoning.
4. Fry the garlic till fragrant.
5. Add the mushrooms and fry for about 5min - they cook really quickly!
6. Thicken the gravy with cornflour solution.
7. Dish and serve.
   

Watercress soup

Watercress is well-known for its high nutritional values and you can read more about it here. Fortunately for me, I've always loved watercress soup and hence, it is a soup that makes its way to my dining table every now and then.

Watercress soup

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of watercress
• 250g pork ribs
• 3 chicken breast bones
• 1 handful red dates (rinse)
• 1 soup pot of water
• Fish sauce/ salt to taste

Method:

1. Wash watercress thoroughly as leafy veggies tend to trap a lot of dirt.
2. Blanch pork ribs and chicken bones.
3. Add all the ingredients except the condiments to the soup pot and bring the soup to a boil.
4. Simmer for 2 hours on low-medium heat.
5. Add fish sauce/ salt to taste.

If you prefer the watercress to be green and crunchy, you may want to reserve half the bunch of watercress for adding into the soup about 15min before serving.

Alicia loves this soup and she eats the watercress too!

For toddler's consumption:

• Make sure that you cut the watercress to a suitable size for the tot before serving to prevent choking.

Stir-fried Endives in Hoisin Sauce

Actually I've never really liked endives and I think my mum knew so so she kinda stopped cooking it for me for a long long while such that I've actually forgotten how it tastes like. After cooking it today, I've come to the conclusion that I still don't really like it. :D I mean, I'm quite a vegetable lover and if you do serve me endives, I'd still eat it; it's just that I'm not particularly fond of it... hehe...

Usually my mum cooks it without hoisin sauce but I just bought a bottle of hoisin sauce today so I thought I'd just add a little to the veggies. :)

Stir-fried Endives in Hoisin Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of organic endives (washed and plucked)
• 1/2 handful of dried shrimps
• 1tsp hoisin sauce
• garlic (minced)

Method:

1. Rinse then soak the dried shrimps in 1/3 bowl of water. Remove from water before cooking and retain the water that the dried shrimps were soaked in for cooking.
2. Fry the garlic and dried shrimps till fragrant.
3. Add the endives (stalks first, followed by leaves).
4. Fry the endives for awhile then add in the hoisin sauce and the dried shrimp water and simmer till endives are cooked.
5. Dish and serve.

Note: The quantity of cooked endives is really little compared to the uncooked ones so you may need more than 1 bunch of endives if you need more veggies! :) Luckily I cooked watercress soup today so I could get some more veggies from that!

JG PlayClub (16/1/09)

Alicia was slightly more attentive this week at class. She still didn't manage to sit quietly to listen to the teachers but at least she ran around less often. And she still cried whenever it was time to put away the toys or whatever it was that was going on at the time. Needless to say, when it came to the end of the swimming session, she cried herself silly - but so did a few others. The instructor commented, 'that's what swimming does to kids'. :D

As usual, she was last to finish during snack time and that wasn't because she ate a lot or asked for more helpings. She picked at the raisins, biscuits and watermelon, and only finished the watermelon and a couple of biscuits. And she tried the apple juice there but I think it was too concentrated and too sour for her to accept. She as usual, tried to place her hand into the cup to play with the juice instead...

Alicia was very fascinated with painting this week. She wouldn't let go of her paint brush. She had two assignments to finish but she had to hurry through the second one because she just refused to give up painting and move on to the next task. She painted not just the paper plate: she painted herself, her T-shirt, shorts, the chair and hubby too. Fortunately I was around to clean her up after that. :D

The pieces of art are a bit spoilt (they stuck together) because the paint wasn't dry yet when we were supposed to bring them home. Well, someone had splashed a whole dollop of paint on the paper plate so the paint didn't get to dry properly before it was time to go home... In the end, the teacher had to place a piece of tissue on the art work so we could bring it home without smudging our hands any further.

The word of the week is 'Boat' hence the art work revolves around boats! :)

The boats are all supposed to be standing upright on the 'waters' but they got flattened and there's only 1 surviving boat...

She loves to do the action for 'Row, row, row your boat' now because she did quite a lot of that in class... And as usual, she loved the sing along session at the end of class and I guess that's the part that she participated most happily in in the classroom!

Food for the ill... or the very health-conscious

So many ingredients you can't see the thick bee hoon below!

A few days ago, I developed a sore throat but it went away, only to return with a vengeance this morning. Last night I also started to cough a little. There went my plans to cook laksa today (I always cook laksa using the Prima mix - it's really nice I tell ya). I had already bought the ingredients earlier on but my throat infection meant that laksa was definitely out of the question. Instead of letting the innocent packet of thick bee hoon and beansprouts go to waste, I decided to cook a soupy meal. Fortunately I wasn't feeling too ill to get out of bed to cook dinner...


This is definitely a meal that would go down well with someone who's ill... or if you're feeling a bit health-conscious...


Ingredients:

• 1 packet of thick bee hoon (serves 2) - or you can use other types of noodles (usually I use other types of noodles like ee fu noodles, vermicelli, or egg noodles)
• 4-5 handfuls of beansprouts, plucked (you can cut down on this - I bought a whole pack so I decided to use it all)
• 4 crabsticks - remove the plastic covering and cut each crabstick into half
• 1 packet of fishballs
• a couple yong tau foo items (depends on your preference)
• fish sauce/salt to taste
• ground white pepper
• spring onions (washed and cut into 1cm length pieces)

Soup base:

• 3 chicken breast bones
• $2-3 worth of pork ribs
• 1 dried scallop (rinse, place in small soup bag)
• a handful of ikan bilis (washed a few times)
• a few cloves of garlic (rinse)
• a soup pot of water

Method:

1. Clean the chicken breast bones and pork ribs, removing any visible fats.
2. Blanch the bones and ribs.
3. Place all the ingredients for the soup base in a soup pot or claypot. Bring to a boil then simmer for a few hours (I think I simmered it for about 4hrs today).
4. Sieve the bones and ikan bilis out of the soup and place the pork ribs (if desired) and the dried scallop (remove from soup bag) back into the soup. Set aside.
5. Steam the yong tau foo items (I do this for hygiene reasons). Set aside.
6. Bring a pot of water to boil and place the thick bee hoon into the boiling water.
7. Remove the thick bee hoon from the water and portion into serving bowls.
8. Add the beansprouts to the boiling water. Let it boil for awhile till it's cooked but yet still very crunchy. Remove from water and place in the serving bowls.
9. While cooking the bee hoon and beansprouts, bring the soup base to a boil.
10. Add the fishballs first and let them boil for awhile.
11. Add the yong tau foo items and add the crab sticks last as they cook very quickly. (The fishballs should be floating by now - which means they're cooked)
12. Season the soup with fish sauce and pepper.
13. Dish the fishballs, crabsticks, yong tau foo items, pork ribs and dried scallop into serving bowls and pour the soup into the bowls.
14. Garnish with spring onions.

I told my hubby that if there's a dish he's gotta learn to cook, it's gotta be this one.... so he can cook for me when I'm ill!! :)

Luffa (絲瓜) with prawns and egg

I was at the market a couple of days ago when this old lady brought a luffa to the vegetable stall owner and asked her how to cook it. And that was when I recalled how long I've not cooked this dish, and how much I miss it, really. It also brought to mind one of my mil's comments. She said (roughly translated from Mandarin) that "the zi char stall downstairs doesn't have good tasting food because they employed young cooks and young people can't cook." Of course I beg to differ. Not on the point that the food sold downstairs isn't good, but that young people know nuts about cooking. Well, I definitely can cook - and I'm young. So there. :D And obviously, we know that not all old people can cook well either. But I didn't bother to contest her statement with her. Some old people just have the deep-set notion that the young are too inexperienced to be able to cook well.

Anyway, here's the recipe to one of my favourite vegetable dishes.


Luffa (絲瓜) with prawns and egg

Ingredients:

• 1 luffa (skinned, the fluffy stuff within removed, then sliced thinly at an angle)
• 4 prawns (washed, shelled (keep the tail) and deveined)
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1-2 cloves garlic (minced)
• Stock/ water
• salt to taste

Method:

1. Prepare the luffa and the rest of the ingredients as stated above.
2. Saute the garlic in a wok.
3. Add the prawns in and cook till they are 80% cooked. Remove prawns from wok.
4. Add in the luffa and fry for awhile. Add stock/water (I used water from parboiling the broccoli and carrot yesterday) and simmer till the luffa is cooked (just pick one slice up to try when you think the luffa maybe ready).
5. Add in the prawns and simmer till the prawns are cooked through (not allowing the prawns to over-simmer will prevent them from becoming overcooked)
6. Swirl in the beaten egg slowly, bit by bit.
7. Add salt to taste.
8. Dish and serve.

Yesterday's luffa dish was so flavourful and gosh, so sweet that my hubby actually thought I added sugar! Even though this time round I used only the water which was used to parboil the broccoli and carrots for another dish, the luffa still turned out so marvellously delish. Ooh, I can't wait to cook this again soon! Btw, I love luffa soup too!

For toddler's consumption:

• Serve as it is if you have sliced the luffa thinly enough.

Broccoli and carrot with fresh scallops

I love broccoli and I think it must have rubbed off on Alicia coz she loves broccoli too. In fact, she has been taking broccoli almost every day and sometimes even for both meals in a day! But she only loves broccoli cooked in the stock I make for her. So far we've tried giving her broccoli that's been cooked by others (i.e. outside food or food cooked by my mum or mil) but she just won't eat it. Anyway, yesterday we didn't leave any of our broccoli dish for her since she has her own share.

The fresh scallops were bought by my mil. She's always fond of buying some during the Chinese New Year festive season so we'll get one lot from her. Yummy they were! But too bad we only get to eat it during this period of time! It's just too expensive to eat it too often...


Broccoli and carrot with fresh scallops

Ingredients:

• 1 broccoli (I used only the florets)
• 1 carrot (skinned and sliced)
• 14 pieces of fresh scallops
• oyster sauce (to taste)
• abalone sauce (to taste)
• 1-2 cloves garlic (minced)
• cornflour
• water
• a pinch of salt

Method:

1. Prepare the two vegetables accordingly.
2. Soak the fresh scallops in salt water for awhile to remove the 'smell'.
3. In a small saucepan, boil some water and place scallops in when the water's boiling. Cook for a couple of minutes or till the scallops are cooked (but not overcooked - this is quite crucial! I hate to eat overcooked scallops). Remove and set aside.
4. Parboil the broccoli florets and carrot. Dish out the vegetables when they are cooked through and arrange them nicely on a plate. Pour the water that was used to parboil the veggies in a bowl.
5. Place the scallops in the centre of the plate - well, they do deserve to be the centre of attraction, don't they? :) (See picture below)

6. Saute the garlic in the wok.

7. Add in the oyster sauce and abalone sauce together with some of the water that was used to parboil the veggies.

8. Once it boils, stir in the cornflour mixture to thicken the gravy and pour the gravy over the veggies. Done!

For toddler's consumption:

• Cut broccoli into small florets and carrot into smaller pieces before serving.

Itek Tim (Duck and salted vegetable soup)

I wasn't too pleased with my attempt at cooking the nonya soup Itek Tim (Duck and salted vegetable soup). The soup turned out ok, but the duck was tough and honestly, I had trouble finding the duck meat coz the meat had fallen off the bones. I guess it was because of the part of the duck I used. The lady who sold me the duck told me that it would be more convenient for me to use duck wings since I was only cooking for hubby and myself. Taking her suggestion, I bought half a kg of it instead of half a duck. Bad choice I guess. But I'd never know if I didn't try it. At least that's a lesson learnt. :)

Modified the recipe from Nonya Favourites by Lee Geok Boi.

Itek Tim (serves 2)

Ingredients:

• half a duck, cut into half (please use half a duck instead of wings or isolated parts of the duck!)
• 300g pickled mustard (kiam chye)
• 3 preserved plums
• 2 pieces asam gelugor (rinsed)
• 3cm old ginger (peeled and smashed)
• 1.5-2L water
• 1-2 dashes of ground white pepper
• 2 small tomatoes (cut into quarters, seeds removed)
• 1 chilli (remove seeds)
• 2 tablespoons brandy (optional)

Method:

1. Clean the duck, removing any visible fat.
2. Blanch the duck.
3. Rinse kiam chye several times. If very salty, soak for 15min and taste again. Cut into chunks of 4cm squares.
4. Bring water to boil in a large claypot. Add the duck, ginger, plums, asam gelugor, pepper and 1 tablespoon brandy (optional). Simmer gently for 1 hour, skimming the surface to remove any fat.
5. Add kiam chye at the 1hour mark and simmer for another 45min, adding tomatoes and chilli 10min before the end. Adjust the seasoning, if necessary.
6. Leave the soup to stand for several hours to allow the flavours to develop.
7. If you wish, and have brandy on hand, you can add 1 tablespoon of brandy before serving.

Note: This soup is best consumed the next day (or a few days) after cooking, as the flavour will be even better then!

Baked Squid

I'm definitely not a lover of squid, but my hubby is. So I cook this every now and then for him, but to be honest, I've never tasted it, not even the sauce. He claims it's nice so I just take his word for it. :)

Baked Squid

Ingredients:

• 1 small squid (cost me $1.50 at the wet market)
• cornflour

Seasoning:

• 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce
• a dash of dried basil leaves
• a dash of ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Method:

1. Clean the squid and remove the inerts.
2. Marinate the squid with the seasoning (I usually do it overnight).
3. Preheat oven to 200degC.
4. Bake squid at 200degC for 10min. Reserve leftover marinade.
5. Turn squid over, pour the marinade over it and bake at 200degC for a further 10min.
6. Take the squid out. Place the squid on a plate and pour the sauce into a small saucepan.
7. Add cornflour solution to thicken the sauce then pour it over the squid.
8. Serve hot.

Heavenly white button mushrooms

These are really white button mushrooms -

though I'm aware they look quite the contrary :D

I love white button mushrooms - baked, grilled, stir-fried... cooked in any way! This is truly one of my favourite dishes and you must really try it for yourself to understand my fanaticism for these mushrooms. My hubby came back from work yesterday telling me that he wasn't hungry at all and was feeling quite bloated but when he started eating the mushrooms, his appetite was revived!

Heavenly white button mushrooms

Ingredients

• 10 white button mushrooms - wash and slice (not too thinly though)
• 1/4 white onion - slice
• 1/2- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• stock
• 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 2-3 dashes cracked black peppercorns (optional)

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a wok.
2. Add in the sliced onions and fry them for awhile in the butter.
3. Add in some stock (enough to cover the onions), the black peppercorns and the oyster sauce and let the onions simmer.
4. Cover the wok with a lid while simmering the onions but do keep an eye on the level of stock. If the stock is drying up too quickly, add more stock.
5. Once the onions are completely limp, add in the mushrooms and if need be, more stock, and let the mushrooms simmer.
6. Again, cover the wok and keep a watchful eye on the level of liquid, making sure that it doesn't dry up completely.
7. Dish out the mushrooms when there's just some gravy left - not too much, and not too little. :) You decide how much gravy you want!

Beansprouts with tau kwa and salted fish

I kept some of the beansprouts and tau kwa I bought for cooking the nonya mee siam the other day (coz I didn't need that much to cook the mee siam), and I put it together to form a vegetable dish for last night's dinner. Rather economical actually, considering how I sometimes tend to spend quite a bit on just one dinner. But what to do? Both hubby and I are greedy and the portion I prepare's usually for 3-4 people. :)

Beansprouts with tau kwa and salted fish

Ingredients:

• about 3-4 handfuls of beansprouts - plucked
• 1/5 of a big piece of tau kwa - cut into small cubes of about 1-1.5cm
• 1 small piece of salted fish - rinse a few times and cut into small pieces
• 50-100ml stock (if necessary)
• 1 red chilli - seeds removed, sliced
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 stalks spring onion - washed and cut into 2-inch long pieces
• fish sauce (to taste)

Method:

1. Toast the small pieces of salted fish in the oven till crisp. You may choose to deep-fry them if you wish.
2. Heat the oil and fry the tau kwa cubes till golden brown. Leave them on a kitchen paper towel to remove the excess oil.
3. Remove most of the oil from the wok, leaving just enough to saute the garlic, chilli and spring onion.
4. Fry the garlic, chilli and spring onion till fragrant.
5. Add in the beansprouts and toasted salted fish.
6. If too dry, add in a bit of stock and continue frying.
7. Fry till beansprouts are cooked and still crisp.
8. If you've added more salted fish, the dish may be salty enough already. If not salty enough, add fish sauce to taste.
9. Add in the tau kwa and toss to mix evenly.
10. Serve hot.

Braised Chicken

I was trying to replicate the braised chicken that I like to eat from the food centre stall downstairs and it was, according to my hubby, 80% alike to the one sold by the stall. Personally, I felt that I could have put less dark soy sauce (coz the colour's much darker than the stall's). My hubby feels that I could have made it a little sweeter and was 'grumbling' about how I'm always so stingy with the amount of sugar I put in my cooking. Hehe...

Braised chicken

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken thighs (skin removed, chopped)
• 5 shallots - sliced thinly
• 3 cloves garlic - minced
• 3cm ginger - peeled and smashed
• 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce (I put 1 tablespoon but I think 1/2 is enough)
• sugar to taste (this is the part that my hubby said I could have done better)
• sesame oil
• cornflour
• water/stock

Seasoning (for the chicken):

• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons hua diao jiu
• 1 tablespoon chicken marinade
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• a few dashes of ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cornflour

Method:

1. Clean chicken thighs and remove visible fats.
2. Marinate the thighs with the seasoning overnight preferably.
3. Heat some sesame oil in a wok.
4. Stir-fry the garlic, shallots and ginger in the wok.
5. Add in the chopped chicken thighs and fry till chicken is almost cooked.
6. Add water/stock to the wok, almost covering the chicken pieces.
7. Bring the water/stock to a boil on high heat then turn to low heat and simmer for 20min.
8. Add in the dark soy sauce and sugar to taste.
9. Add in cornflour solution to thicken gravy slightly.
10. Serve hot.

Fresh Foxnut/ Euryale Seed Dessert (鮮芡實甜湯)

My eldest aunt gave me a packet of fresh foxnuts (also known as Euryale Seeds) the other day and I'd been putting off cooking them till yesterday. I had only decided to cook it because I noticed that the gingko nuts in my fridge were about to embark on their epic journey to the trashcan soon so I had no choice but to cook this dessert despite my busy schedule.



It was really a last minute decision to cook it so I didn't have enough time to simmer it long enough for the flavours of the ingredients to be infused properly. Didn't help that I was trying to multi-task and cook dinner. I'm a firm believer of food that is cooked with lots of love will taste better so I guess since my heart was in more than one place at the stove, the dessert didn't turn out as good as it is supposed to be. So remember to cook your food with lots of love and attention ya? :)

Btw, you can check out the nutritional value of foxnuts here.

Fresh foxnuts!

Fresh Foxnut Dessert (鮮芡實甜湯)

Ingredients (a handful of everything unless otherwise stated):

• fresh foxnuts 鮮芡實
• red dates 紅棗
• fresh lotus seeds/nuts 鮮蓮子 (remove the pith, if any, as it's bitter)
• gingko nuts 白果 (remove the pith as it's bitter)
• dried longan 元肉
• white fungus 雪耳
• candied wintermelon 冬瓜糖 4-5 sticks
• rock sugar 冰糖 to taste
• 1.5L water

Method:

1. Bring water to a boil in a pot/saucepan.
2. Once water boils, add in all the ingredients with the exception of the fresh lotus seeds as these cook really fast as they're fresh. The dried ones take longer to cook.
3. Simmer for about 20-30minutes.
4. Add the fresh lotus seeds and boil for another 10min or so.
5. Add more rock sugar if it's not sweet enough.

This dessert becomes richer when you let it stand longer or if kept overnight.

Updated on 7 May: Alicia LOVES this dessert!

The lazy way out...

I was lazy to get the foil and rub the butter onto the cod (butter shouldn't be consumed so often by toddlers anyway...) last night so I just placed the fish on a metal plate, sprinkled it with herbs and steamed it for 5 min on high heat on the stove instead. When it was ready, I just poured the orange (juice) sauce over. Alicia loved it much more than the baked version - she not only ate very fast and kept coming back for more, she decided that she would plonk into bumbo next to me so that she could have access to the fish faster! And she even tried to drink up the remaining sauce... :D

Colour away!

As mentioned in an earlier post, we decided to bring out the crayons again for Alicia as she seems to be more mature now in her handling of the crayons. So yesterday morning before lunch, I set aside some time for her to get her hands on the crayons and doodle away!

Here are the photos of her, looking very serious about her task... :)

Hmm, which colour should I use?

Such a tough decision...

Alright, I'll go with purple...

The fusion

Alicia, like any other toddler, has her whims and fancies. One day she decides that she loves eating a particular food and the next day, the same thing is poison to her. So today, I decided why not be adventurous and combine the herbs with the orange (juice) sauce and set the cod to bake? Well, I've got nothing to lose, except maybe that piece of cod that was used for the experiment... :)

Anyway, she decided that this way of flavouring her cod suits her tastebuds and so she finished the whole piece of fish. Even the last mouth of it.

Baked Cod with herbs drizzled with orange (juice) sauce

Ingredients:

• 30g cod
• unsalted all-purpose herbs
• 1/3tsp of unsalted butter
• 25ml freshly squeezed orange juice
• sugar to taste (if necessary)
• cornflour

Method:

1. Bring the orange juice to a boil in a small saucepan.
2. Add sugar to taste if the juice is too sour. We're looking at achieving a sauce that is both sweet and tangy.
3. Add a bit of cornflour water to thicken the juice slightly. Set aside.
4. Rub cod with the butter and the herbs.
5. Place the piece of cod on a piece of aluminium foil.
6. Pour the orange sauce over the cod and wrap the piece of cod up in the foil.
7. Preheat oven to 180degC.
8. Bake the cod at 180degC for 10min.

The newest topping for Alicia's cod

I've been thinking about this for ages. Just that somehow oranges just always didn't seem to make their way into the grocery trolley. Finally, two oranges found their way into my fridge yesterday and so I made this sauce for my darling today.

Don't ask me where I got such an idea, or inspiration, if you may want to call it. I don't know. Wild ideas like these pop into my mind all the time - and I actually entertain them. :D Whatever it is, what's most important to me is that Alicia loves it. At least till the infamous "last mouth of cod (or substitute this with any other food)" - she always seems to leave 1 mouth of food behind. The reason why she does so simply eludes me.

Anyway, here's her newest topping. You may find it unfathomable. :)

Orange (juice) sauce (yields enough sauce for 2 servings of 30g cod - you can keep the other half for use later in the day or the next day)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 orange (mine's one of those big navel oranges)
• a bit of cornflour
• sugar to taste (if desired - if the juice happens to be very sour)

Method:

1. Squeeze the juice from the slice of orange. Be sure to sieve out all the seeds. Remove any lumps of pulp so that the sauce will be a smooth one.
2. Bring the juice to a slight boil in a small saucepan.
3. Add sugar to taste if needed (The sauce should be one that has a sweet and tangy taste - not just sweet or sour).
4. Add in cornflour to thicken the juice so that it becomes like a sauce.
5. Drizzle sauce on top of the slice of steamed cod.

Nonya Mee Siam (Dry mee siam)

I was in a hurry to take the photo and get down to eating as soon as possible so this photo kinda doesn't do the actual dish justice...

This is the rempah that you can prepare and keep in the fridge for later use.

This is one of my favourite dishes! I remember cooking this dish when I was pregnant with Alicia coz I had a super strong craving for it. Thank goodness I can cook! Again, just like some of the other dishes that I've blogged about so far, this was first introduced to me by my mother-in-law. It's really great that I've got a mummy and a mother-in-law who happen to be great cooks coz I get to eat nice food and I also get to know a repertoire of dishes, of which I have learnt to cook some - though not necessarily from them. I usually do some research about the dishes I cook and I will think through the dishes myself and work out my own methods, according to my own logic and knowledge about cooking. To me, that's what enjoying cooking is about - it starts from the moment I start visualising the process of cooking!

Anyway, this dish is a nonya dish and hence it's called nonya mee siam. Unlike the other type of mee siam which has gravy, this one is dry. Just in case you're wondering whether I'm Peranakan, well, yes, I am half-Peranakan coz my dad's side of the family is Peranakan. Unfortunately, my paternal grandma wasn't into cooking so none of the delish nonya cuisine recipes were ever passed down to my mum. It is ironic that the recipe of this dish was given to me by my mother-in-law who's Hokkien - and by the way, I'm Teochew. :D That makes me a Teochew Peranakan... or is it a Peranakan Teochew? Anyway, I always tell my hubby that I feel like a Little Nonya when I'm preparing and cooking this dish!

On to the more important stuff - the recipe. I modified my mil's recipe to suit my own tastebuds...

Nonya Mee Siam (yields 6 plates of mee siam)

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of bee hoon
• one bunch of Ku Chye (chives)
• about 40-50cents of beansprouts (plucked)
• 1/3 packet of assam mixed with a bowl of water
• the juice of 20-22 small limes
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons blended tau jio (salted soy bean paste - I'm using Tiger brand)
• tau pok or tau kwa (If using tau kwa, cut into small cubes and fry them first)
• prawns - devein (optional)
• eggs (optional)

Rempah (blend all of these):

• 130g dried shrimps
• 5 red chillies - deseeded
• 30-40g (one handful) of dried chilli - deseeded
• 1 bulb of garlic (about 7 cloves)
• 20 shallots

Note: I remove the seeds from the chilli and dried chilli so that the chilli paste will be very smooth rather than full of seeds. I'm sure you don't want to be biting into chilli seeds all the time while eating the mee siam! For chillies, just cut them open and remove the seeds. For dried chilli, cut it into segments and scald in hot water. This is to clean the dried chilli and make it easier to blend. It also helps to remove some seeds. You will have to cut open the dried chilli to check if there are leftover seeds before blending - personally, removing the seeds of dried chilli is my most dreaded step for this dish! Wear gloves if you've got sensitive skin.

Method:

1. Soak bee hoon in cold water for about half an hour. This will give the bee hoon a 'crunchier' texture. I find soaking bee hoon in hot water makes it too limp for my personal liking.
2. If using tau kwa, cut it into small cubes and fry them till golden brown. Set aside.
3. Blend all the ingredients of the rempah.
4. Fry the blended dried shrimps first.
5. Add in the rest of the ingredients of the rempah. Mix well. If not cooking the mee siam immediately, you can dish this out and let it cool before storing them in tupperwares in the fridge.
6. If cooking the mee siam immediately, proceed to add in the tau jio.
7. Pour in the assam water (remember to use a sieve).
8. Pour in the lime juice and the sugar.
9. Mix well, boil on high heat.
10. Once it boils, add in the beansprouts, ku chye, tau pok (or cooked tau kwa) and prawns.
11. Add in the bee hoon and mix all the ingredients well.
12. Beat the eggs and make omelettes out of them. Slice the omelettes into strips.
13. Garnish the nonya mee siam with the egg.