Wintermelon barley drink

This is another one of my 'cooling' drinks. I have to come up with 'cooling' drinks more often now that the TCM doctor recommended that my hubby drinks some of that regularly since he's so 'heaty'.

So here's another 'cooling' drink idea for you.

It's cooling yet not too cooling and it's nourishing and can be drunk on a regular basis.

Wintermelon is not only 'cooling', it is good for detox too! If you understand Mandarin, you can read this site for more details. In general, cooking the wintermelon with the skin on is more effective if you are interested in the 'cooling' properties.

I hope you like it! :)

Wintermelon barley drink

Ingredients

• 1 slice of fresh wintermelon (preferably sliced from the centre of the wintermelon rather than at the ends)
• 2 handfuls Chinese barley (available at Chinese medical halls)
• Black sugar to taste (available at Chinese medical halls)
• 2L water

Method:

1. Wash the wintermelon thoroughly as we are cooking it with the skin on.
2. Remove the seeds and chop the wintermelon into pieces (skin intact).
3. Rinse the Chinese barley a few times till it's clean.
4. Place the wintermelon chunks and the barley into the slow cooker and cook on HIGH till you see small bubbles in the water.
5. Turn the slowcooker to LOW and slowcook for another 5-6hours.
6. Sieve the drink then add black sugar to taste.

Alternatives:

1. You can add water chestnuts to the drink as well.

2. Luo han guo (Buddha's fruit) can be used in place of black sugar.

3. Bitter and sweet almonds can be added as well.

Romaine lettuce with oyster sauce

I went to the wet market yesterday and glanced at the vegetables at the vegetable stall. I was incredibly bored with the usual range of vegetables that was left at that time of the day since I always go down very late so that I can pick up early lunch on the way home with Alicia. It's awfully tiring to have to lug groceries with one hand and carry a toddler who refuses to walk where I want her to go with the other hand. I haven't even started on the sweltering heat... Anyway, that's why I'd rather just sweat it out once and for all with a one-trip-outta-the-house! My range of vegetables has to be compromised... till someone is more obedient...

Back to the vegetables.

Xiao bai cai, cai xin, spinach, endives, broccoli.... boring stuff.

Then I saw a box of fresh-looking vegetables that weren't part of the all-too-familiar vegetables.

Pang cai.

That's what the vegetable seller calls it. And that's how my mum and I refer to it too. Then I had to go online to try to search for its name. After searching for awhile and corroborating with a friend, I think 'pang cai' is none other than romaine lettuce.

NTUC labels it as 'local lettuce' - whatever that means.

It's some form of lettuce. You get the drift. If I'm wrong that it's romaine lettuce, please do drop me a line so that I can correct it.

Anyway, who really cares what it's called because it tastes so nice? This is a popular zi char stall vegetable dish and being able to replicate it at home at a fraction of the price is just wonderful.

In case you're wondering, this big plate of vegetables cost me only $1! :P I think it's an understatement to say that it's a fraction of the price of the dish!

Romaine lettuce with oyster sauce

Ingredients:

• 2-3 bunches of lettuce (do you call that a bunch? hmm...)
• 3 shallots (sliced into thin rings)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 thumb-sized ginger (julienned) (optional)
• 1 small piece of chilli (julienned) for garnishing (optional)
• oyster sauce
• water

Method:

1. Parboil washed and plucked lettuce in boiling water (with a little oil and salt/sugar added so that the veggies look nicer when served). Drain and arrange the lettuce on a serving plate.
2. Drizzle oyster sauce on the lettuce in a zig-zag manner.
3. Heat oil in a wok and fry the ginger, shallots and garlic till golden brown.
4. Place the ginger, shallots and garlic on the lettuce and drizzle the oil over the lettuce.
5. Garnish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• Cut the lettuce into smaller pieces before serving.

Steamed tofu with dried shrimps

Steamed tofu with dried shrimps topped with julienned scallions and chilli

I didn't come up with this dish myself - I got it off mywoklife. :) I thought it was an interesting combination and so I tried it.

While both of us finished the dish, hubby's review (and mine as well) of this dish is that it was a rather strange combination. He was quick to quip that he very much preferred my steamed tofu with minced pork.

In general, the dried shrimp overpowered the fried shallots and garlic and so we felt we were just eating tofu with that. It didn't go down so well with us but I'd still say, give it a try! You never know if you'd like it if you don't. :)

The not-so-successful salted egg prawns

In my culinary adventures, to be honest, failure to produce the dish I want is rather rare. Unfortunately, yesterday's first attempt at salted egg prawns was one such occasion. Perhaps I didn't read up enough about how to prepare it since it was something that I decided to cook on the spur of the moment. I had invited my mum over on Friday for dinner, wanting to cook cereal prawns for her so since I already thawed the prawns for Wednesday's dinner, I thought that I'd do something different with the prawns and I immediately thought of salted eggs! Anyway, she can't make it for dinner on Friday so cereal prawns for her will have to wait till she's free to come over for dinner. :P

I think I know what went wrong with my prawns and I hope the next time I cook it, it will be successful. I believe it's because steaming the egg and after separating the yolk from the white, I left the mashed yolks out too long before cooking them and so by the time I wanted to put the mashy yolks into the wok to fry, I found that they were no longer moist and in fact almost hardened. Sigh. I had a bad feeling about the dish at that moment but it was all too late.

Well, I'll try again in future when I feel ready again to indulge in a sinful, calorie-packed dinner.

I'd post my recipe here when that happens. :)