Spinach (Phuay Leng) with abalone

This dish always makes me feel that it's Chinese New Year. Well, it is the new year, just not the Chinese New Year. Anyway, I love abalone (you must try Calmex's if you haven't). Once you've tasted that, you probably wouldn't bother about other brands because these are just so sweet and juicy and the most important part is that they are tender! In case you're wondering why I'm suddenly so generous with my ingredients in my cooking... well, that's coz my mother-in-law just gave us two cans of Calmex abalones and gave me the green light to use it when I please! :D Yeah!


Spinach (Phuay Leng) with abalone

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of spinach
• 1/3 can of abalone (I'll use the rest for cooking abalone mee for lunch - pure indulgence!)
• 1 clove garlic
• cornflour (optional)

Method:

1. Put the whole can of abalone (in the packaging) to boil. Once the water boils, simmer on low heat for about 2 hours (at least an hour if you're short of time).
2. Set aside to cool - do not open the can immediately as the can will 'explode' and the hot liquid will splash everywhere.
3. Wash and pluck the spinach.
4. Fry the garlic till fragrant.
5. Add in the spinach.
6. Add in some of the water from the abalone can and let the spinach simmer in it.
7. Add in cornflour to thicken the gravy if desired.
8. Serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• Serve the veggie without the abalone if the texture is too difficult to handle for the toddler.
• Cut the veggie into small toddler bite-sizes before serving to prevent choking.

Tau Yu Chicken (Dark soy sauce chicken)

Here's another dish that hubby and I love though the usual one that my mother-in-law cooks is tau yu bak (dark soy sauce pork). I love that too and will be cooking that on Sunday!

It's my maiden attempt cooking this actually and it turned out to be, in my hubby's words, as nice as his mum's. That's certainly a compliment since his mum seems to be the benchmark for good cooking and I do enjoy most of the food that she cooks too.

Tau Yu Chicken

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken thighs (skin removed, chopped into chunks)
• 5 cloves garlic (keep them in the clove so you can suck out the garlic later :D)
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1.5 star anise
• 4-5 dashes cracked black peppercorns (use whole ones if you don't like to bite into the peppercorns)
• 200ml water
• 6 mushrooms
• quail eggs (hard-boiled) - optional (this time I didn't add them coz I already cooked steamed variety egg... too many EGGS!)

Marinate chicken with:

• chicken marinade
• sugar
• oyster sauce
• sesame oil
• cornflour
• ground black pepper

Method:

1. Marinate chicken (preferably overnight) with the seasonings stated above.
2. Add the sugar to the wok and let it caramelise.
3. Add in the chicken and stir-fry for a minute or so.
4. Add in the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil.
5. Simmer on low heat for 1 hour or till gravy thickens to a consistency of your liking.

For toddler's consumption:

• Remove the chicken meat from the bones before serving.
• Serve with less gravy for a healthier option.

Steamed variety egg

Before steaming the egg

It's done!

A closer view

This is one of my personal favourites. The first time I ate this dish was when hubby and I were still dating and his mum happened to cook this for one of the dinners when I went over. I fell in love with this dish instantly but it was only after I became a sahm then I learnt to cook this... :)

Steamed Variety Egg

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 salted egg
• 1 century egg
• 100ml water or chicken stock
• a bit of rice vinegar (this makes the egg extra smooth and pretty)
• a bit of oil

Method:

1. Beat the 2 eggs.
2. Wash away the layer covering the century egg and salted egg.
3. Add the salted egg white to the beaten egg mixture. Cut the yolk into bite size pieces.
4. Cut the century egg into bite-size pieces.
5. Add 100ml water and a wee bit of rice vinegar to the egg mixture.
6. Sieve the egg mixture a couple of times till there are no more bubbles (you don't want an ugly dish, do you?).
7. Grease the plate you are gonna use for steaming with a bit of oil so that the egg will not stick later.
8. Place the salted egg yolk and the century egg pieces on the plate.
9. Pour the egg mixture over gently so as to prevent new bubbles from forming.
10. Set to steam on medium heat.
11. Stay by to watch and the moment the egg turns a shade of white, switch to steam on low heat for another about 5 min with the cover slightly open.

Lotus Root and Pueraria thomsonii Soup (莲藕粉葛汤)

Lotus root and Pueraria thomsonii are very nutritious and you can simply imagine the goodness of the soup brewed with both of them!

Here's some information about lotus roots (click here for image) and Pueraria thomsonii (click here for image):


Ground mature lotus root powder makes wonderful thick soup and dessert soup. It also stops diarrhea, clears Heat and improve appetite. Lotus roots contain much iron, vitamins B & C. The rich fibre content of lotus roots stimulates peristalsis and relieves constipation. Drinking 2 to 3 glasses of lotus root juice a day can stop bleeding of the esophagus an stomach (vomiting blood); bleeding of the rectum, intestines or stomach (blood in feces); nose bleeding or gum bleeding. Lotus root soup also serves similar purposes. Patients with high fever can drink it cold, while those with steady temperature should drink it warm.


extracted from http://www.chinesefood-recipes.com/food_articles/lotus_roots_medicinal_properties.php

If you are Chinese-literate, you can read this for more information about Pueraria thomsonii.


Lotus Root and Pueraria thomsonii Soup (莲藕粉葛汤)

Note: Do not use a metal pot to cook this soup or the lotus root will turn blackish...

Ingredients:

• 250g lotus root (莲藕 )
• 250g Pueraria thomsonii (粉葛)
• a handful of dried red dates (红枣) (soaked and pitted)
• 250g pork ribs
• 3 chicken breast bones
• 1.5-2litres of water
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Remove the skin of the lotus root and Pueraria thomsonii and cut into slices and chunks respectively.
2. Blanch pork ribs and chicken bones.
3. Put all the ingredients into a claypot and bring to a boil.
4. Simmer on low heat for 2hours.
5. Add salt to taste and serve.

I added salt to our portion and saved the rest as stock to cook Alicia's porridge. I used it to cook her porridge last night and she managed to accept the new taste in the porridge! :D Hopefully it isn't just a one-off performance!

For toddler's consumption:

• You can serve this as a soup to the toddler too instead of using it as a stock for cooking porridge. :)
• If the child finds the lotus root too hard, you can shred it into strips.

Spicy Aglio Olio

We had spicy aglio olio, Campbell's Cream of chicken and mushroom soup (hubby told me to take the easy way out on the last day of the year...) with garlic bread sticks on the side for dinner. Well, I realise that I have yet to put in the adult's version of aglio olio so here it is!

Preparing the spicy garlic oil and the prawns - still in the wok!

The spicy aglio olio's ready!

Spicy Aglio Olio with prawns (serves 2 adults + 1 toddler non-spicy version)

Ingredients:

• spaghetti
• 40g garlic (sliced finely and evenly)
• 30g dried chilli
• extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2kg prawns (The ones I used were going for $14/kg) - you can choose to use less prawns if you prefer and add other seafood like fish as well, something which I used to add but I didn't have it on hand)
• All-purpose Italian herbs (no salt added) - amt depending on preference
• Chilli Flakes - amt depending on preference
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Soak dried chilli in hot water for awhile. Remove and set aside.
2. Marinate prawns with the herbs, chilli flakes, some of the dried chilli, a pinch of salt, olive oil and some garlic for at least 20min. Set aside.
3. Set the spaghetti to cook.
4. Pour in olive oil into the wok (be generous! I put about 4 swirls round the wok). Fry the garlic - you may wanna use a wooden spatula to press gently on them to help release more garlicky flavour as you fry them.
5. Once the oil has taken on the garlicky taste, dish out a bit of the garlic oil for the toddler portion and set aside (that's assuming the toddler doesn't take spicy food).
6. Pour the marinated prawns and the rest of the dried chilli into the wok.
7. Fry till prawns turn pink - which of course means that they're cooked. Don't overcook them...
8. Taste the oil to check if the spiciness of the dried chilli has been released into the oil. If not, press gently on them with the wooden spatula - that should help.
9. Toss the cooked spaghetti in the wok and add salt to taste.
10. Dish and serve alongside soup, garlic bread and salad (if you please).
11. Toss spaghetti in reserved garlic oil in the toddler's bowl. Add a pinch of salt if desired. Serve with veggies and cooked fish/meat.