Barley drink

Alicia suddenly had a slight fever last night of 37.7deg... got us worried... we quickly fed her paracetamol and tucked her to bed. Fortunately the fever didn't return...

Anyway, I thought she might be a little heaty so I decided to boil this barley drink and she had about 100-150ml of it.

Barley drink

Ingredients:

• 4 handfuls Chinese barley (生熟薏米, also known as 薏米仁 or苡仁)
• 1 handful deng xin cao (灯心草) - omit this if pregnant as it helps with urination - something that pregnant women don't need :)
• 1-2 handfuls candied wintermelon (冬瓜糖)
• about 1.5-2L water

Method:

1. Rinse the herbs.
2. Add the herbs to the water in a pot and bring to a boil.
3. Simmer on low heat for 1.5 - 2.5hours.
4. Sieve and remove the herbs.
5. Serve warm or chilled.

Here's a pic of deng xin cao - it's supposed to have 'cooling' properties as well:

Lunch - La Mian!

Bought this la mian from the market yesterday and this was our lunch today!

Alicia's portion:

And this is mine!

Alicia was quite happy to eat together with me at the coffeetable with me today - she stood while I sat. At one point, for a few minutes, there was silence in the house and all that could be heard was the sound of noodles being slurped. Hahaha. Anyway, she refused to try the minced pork balls totally but she did eat some of the spinach. She didn't finish her portion for she kept coming to my bowl after awhile and insisted from eating from mine. When I drank soup, she also insisted that she had to drink soup - from my spoon and bowl - immediately. Oh well. She's getting cuter by the day - before she started on the food, she told me, 'same same' (meaning that she was eating the same thing as me) and the food was 'hot hot'. :)

Anyway, since she didn't eat the pork (as expected), I had baked chicken wings on standby for her already and 2 baby corns on top of the spinach! hehe...

Here's how to cook this simple one-pot dish:

Ingredients (serves 1 adult + 1 toddler):

• 1.5handfuls of la mian
• 600ml stock
• 2 handfuls baby spinach
• 1 handful minced pork
• fish sauce to taste

Marinate minced pork with:

• oyster sauce
• sesame oil
• hua diao jiu
• ground white pepper

Method:

1. Bring a small pot of water to boil. Add the la mian and cook till soft but still slightly springy. Drain and set aside.
2. Bring the stock to a boil.
3. Add the spinach, let boil for a short while before adding the minced pork (shape into meatballs if desired).
4. Just before dishing, add in the la mian.
5. Add fish sauce to taste.
6. Dish and serve.

I was working with what I had on hand so you can add more ingredients if you wish! :D I forgot to top the dish with the shallots and shallot oil though... pity...

Oyster sauce stir-fried chicken with veggies

I had to make do with this picture because I couldn't find my camera last evening when I wanted to take a photo of the dish, so I had to use hubby's phone. Anyway, I was frantically combing the house for the cam but I just couldn't find it... I began to start worrying that Alicia had thrown the camera into the recycling trash without my knowledge and I had just cleared out the whole bag in the morning. Yikes! Fortunately, hubby managed to find my camera after dinner - Alicia had hidden it in her toy car! What a relief to have found my trusty point-and-shoot cam! But needless to say, I hardly enjoyed my dinner because I thought my cam was gone for good.

What a long preamble... anyway, here's my recipe - it's really simple and healthy but I'd say nothing really much to rave about though... hehe :)

Oyster sauce stir-fried chicken with veggies

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken thighs (skin removed, deboned, cut into pieces)
• 6 baby corn (cut into pieces)
• 1/2 red pepper (diced)
• 1/2 Japanese cucumber (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 4 pieces ginger
• 1 bunch scallions (including the whitish portion, cut into 2" segments)
• cornflour solution

Seasoning:

• 1-2T oyster sauce

Marinate chicken with:

• oyster sauce
• hua diao jiu
• Lee Kum Kee Chicken Marinade
• sugar
• a few dashes of ground black pepper
• a bit of sesame oil

Method:

1. Heat some oil in the wok. Fry the ginger and scallions till fragrant then add in the garlic.
2. Add in the chicken pieces and fry for awhile till almost cooked.
3. Add some water.
4. Add in the baby corn and fry for a couple more minutes.
5. Add oyster sauce.
6. Add in the red pepper and Japanese cucumber just before dishing. Just let it fry for a very short while (1-2min) taking the opportunity to mix the ingredients evenly.
7. Thicken gravy with cornflour solution.
8. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• Make sure that all pieces of food are small enough for the tot to handle, especially the Japanese cucumber.