Food Trails: December 2007

Stir-fried Mixed Vegetables With Corn

Stir-fried Mixed Vegetables With Corn
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Prior to cooking this dish, I had pondered whether the strong taste of celery would harmonize with broccoli. I was glad their flavours blended well. The addition of corn has not only enhanced the taste but also added attractiveness to it, pleasing to the eyes~

Chilli Fish Cakes

Chilli Fish Cakes
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Never ever tired of this, especially homemade ones!

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Stir-fried Bean Sprouts / "Dou Miao"

Stir-fried Bean Sprouts / "Dou Miao"
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

A quick stir-fried dish with lots of chopped garlic, seasoned with salt, sugar, pepper, oyster sauce, a little wine and pinch of ajinomoto.

Assam Conchigle Rigate Pasta

Assam Conchigle Rigate Pasta
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

ER conceived this idea...it's a great way to finish up the assam sauce :) and the small amount of shell pasta in the drawer. Yummy!

Mini Sponge Cakes

Mini Sponge Cakes
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Kueh Balu / Mini Sponge Cakes: Rika helped me bought a “kueh balu” baking electrical device early this year but, I have not used it until now. The baking was made easier by the non-stick moulds when compared to the traditional way of baking using heavy metal moulds.

The mini sponge cakes were crisp outside and soft inside when they were eaten warm. They were a little chewy when completely cooled. Umm, I need to find a better recipe.

Silken Tofu With Mushroom Sauce

Silken Tofu With Mushroom Sauce
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Fish Fillets With Italian Herb Sauce + Preparation Directions

Fish Fillets With Italian Herb Sauce + Preparation Directions
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

This dish was pretty simple to cook. In fact, it was concocted at a spur of the moment.

Just season some fish fillets with salt, ground white pepper, ground black pepper and coarse black pepper and pan-fried in olive oil till lightly golden. Next chopped up a few tomatoes and stir-fried with garlic in olive oil, add in enough canned tomato puree, tomato ketchup and pinch of Italian mixed dried herbs to make a thick sweet and sour sauce, which was balanced with sugar, salt and ajinomoto. At this point, a little Kashmiri red pepper was added to give a mild hot and spicy flavour. Small amount of water may be added to achieve a certain thickness of sauce consistency.

To finish the dish, cooked sliced onions separately and spread this on a plate and topped it off with alternate layers of fish and tomato sauce.

Double-boiled Pork Loin Soup

Double-boiled Pork Loin Soup
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Soups were cooked continuously for a few days to nurse a sick "bird" besides medication.

Sweet And Sour Pork Balls + Recipe

Sweet And Sour Pork Balls + Recipe
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Although cooking daily meals is the norm. There are times when I have to ponder in advance what’s for lunch or dinner. At such time, the mind will always be drifting to what’s available in the freezer or fresh boxes. Today the packet of frozen ground pork and canned pineapple were handy and hence this dish.

My version:
Recipe:

Ingredients for making meat balls:
500 g minced pork
1 egg white
1 ½ tbsp corn flour
1 tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp sea salt or to taste
¼ tsp pepper
½ tsp sesame oil

Sauce ingredients:
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 chilli - sliced
1 onion - sliced
½ can of pineapple rings – cut into bite-size, more if you like
Some pineapple juice from the can
5 tbsp tomato sauce [ketchup]
Salt, sugar and ajinomoto to taste

Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients, for meat balls, well to a sticky paste, shaped into balls, roll in flour and fried in hot oil till golden. Set aside and drained.
2. Fry garlic till light golden in colour, add in onion and cook till it is translucent.
3. Add in pineapple slices, tomato sauce, pineapple juice, chilli and seasonings, stir to mix well. The sauce should have a thick consistency.
4. Add back the cooked meat balls; turn the contents to coat the meat balls well. It's ready for serving.

Pork Chop Glass Noodle Soup

Pork Chop Glass Noodle Soup
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

My share~

Pork Chop Jade Noodle Soup

Pork Chop Jade Noodle Soup
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

ER found out there's a Chinese period movie on cable TV and I wanted to watch it. So, I suggested to him that lunch would be bought. However, his facial hint said that was not a good idea. Hence, while watching the movie, I came up with cooking noodles for lunch.

YH commented that the garlicky pan-fried pork chop had rendered the soup yummier.

Miso Soup With Long Stem Oyster Mushrooms

Miso Soup With Long Stem Oyster Mushrooms
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Each time I am having miso soup…it seems to hold the power to mesmerize my mind to go for more... Anyway, I find simple soup like this delicious!

Assam / Tamarind Fish With Pineapple Salad

Assam / Tamarind Fish With Pineapple Salad
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

As shown here, the assam fish without "daun kesom” was cooked in the late afternoon. It was cold by dinner time. This was exactly what we wanted, to serve it cold with a pineapple mint salad with lemon juice. It had the taste of “Penang assam laksa”. We love the smell and flavour of fresh mint in that tangy spicy soup with thick rice noodles. Ours was without the noodles in this case!

Masala Fried Rice

Masala Fried Rice
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Apricot Seed Honey Date Dessert + Recipe

Apricot Seed Honey Date Dessert + Recipe
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

My version:
Apricot Seed Honey Dates Dessert
Recipe:

Ingredients:
1 large Chinese pear
8 large honey dates
1 ½ tbsp apricot seeds [mixture of nan xin + bei xin]
1.2 litres water

Method:
1. Rinse apricot seeds and dates.
2. Boil water in a pot, put in apricot seeds and honey dates, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 40 minutes. [Honey dates take time to release flavour and taste.]
3. Peel and cut pear into 8 pieces with core removed and add them to the pot of boiling contents, bring to a quick boil and then simmer for another 30 minutes.
4. Eat contents with dessert soup.

Spicy Beef Mince + Recipe

Spicy Beef Mince + Recipe
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

My version:
Recipe:
Spicy Beef With Corn And Green Peas

Ingredients:
300 g minced beef
3 tsp masala powder
3 tsp crushed black pepper
1 tsp cumin
¼ tsp chilli powder or to taste
½ tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp garlic – chopped
1 onion chopped
1 cup corn
½ cup green peas
Salt, sugar and ajinomoto to taste

Method:
1. Blench green peas and corn in boiling salt water for a while and drained.
2. Stir-fried garlic in some oil till lightly golden, add in chopped onion till it turns translucent.
3. Add in the spices to stir-fry for a while and make sure they don't burn.
4. Put in minced beef and stir fried till it changes colour.
5. Add in corn, green peas, and seasonings and mixed well.

Tom Yum Meehoon Soup

Tom Yum Meehoon Soup
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Braised meat Meehoon Dry

Braised meat Meehoon Dry
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

YH's Lunch

YH's Lunch
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Mixed vegetable soup, soup base made from chicken bones.

Garlicky Boneless Drumsticks

Garlicky Boneless Drumsticks
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Shown here is a plate of yummy pan-fried deboned drumsticks. Deboning them allowed the marinade to seep in and hence more tasty and easier to cook. With a light coat of corn flour, the meat turned out to be juicier when eaten hot. And lastly, the bones were boiled with water and some crushed peppercorns that made a good soup base.

Here's a picture of vegetable soup that I cooked with the chicken bone stock: Mixed Vegetable Soup

Spicy Assam Seabass

Spicy Assam Seabass
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

The assam or tamarind used in this dish is a sticky fibrous mass which include seeds and broken seed pods. “Tamarind pulp” sold in packets are known as “assam jawa” and while in the form of dried slices, it is called “assam keping” or "assam gelugor".

To obtain the liquid, tamarind pulp is mixed with some water and then strained for use. I have used both which give the required sourness in assam seabass. Together with “daun kesom” and other ingredients, they made this dish, tangy, fragrant and pleasantly delectable. Besides "daun kesom" leek is a yummy addition to this dish.

Kimchi Fish Paste Soup

Kimchi Fish Paste Soup
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Simply delicious! I had kept some fish paste I made yesterday to cook this soup~ I enjoyed the above kimchi soup so much that I have been thinking of many other ingredients to go with it in soup. Anyway, ER and Rika prefer kimchi in soup than eating it as pickle.

I have heard of kimchi fried rice, kimchi pancake, just wonder are they nice?

Found these recipes after seaching: Kimchi Fried Rice or Kimchi Bokumbop
and Kimchi Soup or Kimchi Chigae

Fishballs

Fishballs
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

After much waiting, tenggiri fish was finally available from the wet market this Saturday. Weighing slightly more than a kilogram each, I had wanted to buy two but, ER said, “One whole fish is sufficient.” That amount would be used up for a pot of fishball soup as shown here. Yes, I should have bought two…simply because fish paste is so versatile in making different foods and we certainly enjoy fishballs.

Fruit & Veggie Juice

Fruit & Veggie Juice
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Way past 11 PM on a Thursday night while we were watching TV, Rika turned to me and asked, "How come you do not make fruit juice when I am home?" I think she has forgotten that I made it last Sunday and she was not feeling well so did not drink her share. Tonight, although it was late, I obliged and made for the whole family since she asked.

The glass of juice on the left, besides carrot, celery and apple, a peeled orange was added in. Homemade juices shown here are absolutely concentrated without the addition of liquid except ice cubes.

Gyoza / Chinese Style Dumplings / 饺子

Gyoza / Chinese Style Dumplings / 饺子
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Pan-fried yummy dumplings~ ER helped out with the cooking while I did the wrapping. Still, the whole preparation took us two and a half hours to complete.

Kimchi Soup + Recipe

Kimchi Soup + Recipe
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

About 250 g of kimchi was used to cook this soup. I really felt the satisfaction when ER and I had this delicious soup for lunch. Partly, because we made the kimchi~

Recalling, Rika was the one who introduced kimchi soup to me though I had eaten kimchi several times. She took me to a foodcourt in Orchard Road where the food stall owner is a Korean. It was an instant hit and favourite! After this, we have been buying kimchi once in a while to cook soup. Egg is a common ingredient in kimchi soup, I think. My 1st bowl of soup came with one that I ate with plain rice and a small side dish of sautéed sweet spicy anchovies.

My version:
Recipe:
Kimchi Soup

Ingredients:
250 g kimchi [bought or homemade]
1 box of silken tofu
500 g prawns - cut away the whiskers and legs, deveined and leave the shells on
3 spring onions – cut into short lengths
1 small bundle of glass vermicelli – softened in water and drained
½ pc chicken stock cube
1 tbsp garlic - chopped
1 ½ tbsp sesame oil
Pepper to taste
Boiling hot water

Method:
1. Heat up a pot, add in sesame oil and fry chopped garlic till lightly brown. Add in kimchi and sauté for a while. Add in chicken stock cube and enough of boiling water that rises 3 cm above kimchi.
2. Once the soup is boiling, add pepper and then the prawns to cook till just done and remove to a serving bowl.
3. Add in tofu and cook for a while.
4. Add in glass noodles and spring onion. Bring this to a quick boil and ladle this over the prawns and serve immediately.
5. Alternatively, cook the glass vermicelli separately, to avoid it soaking up the soup if it is to be served later.

Note: Kimchi and chicken stock cube flavoured the soup just right, so no salt was used. Adjust the amount of chicken stock cube if you like to have more soup.

Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage Rolls
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Pomfret

Pomfret
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Fruit And Vegetable Juice

Fruit And Vegetable Juice
Originally uploaded by Food Trails.

Juice rich in vitamins A1, B1 and B2 made from carrots, apples and celery...the addition of celery gave this juice a distinctive refreshing taste~ Love this!