All posts by chinesetuition88

Quick recipe

Seaweed Fried Rice

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I never know dried seaweed can be used to cook fried rice until last summer My husband and I went to visit my friends in XiaMen. My friends invited us to a special dinner in a private place. And a special dish was served, which is seaweed fried rice. It’s the first time my husband and I tried that dish. We loved it.

This dish is not difficult to cook.

Ingredients:

leftover rice

dried seaweed (cut into small chips with scissors)

chopped spring onion

chopped 2 cloves of garlic

dice of 1/2 chopped carrot

oil

salt

  1. Drizzle a little oil into the rice to separate the rice grains.
  2. Heat a little oil in the pan. Fry dried seaweed with low heat for 1 min. Then dish them out and leave the oil.
  3. Saute garlic till aromatic with the same pan. Add in the carrot dices. stir fry for 2 mins.
  4. Add in rice. Toss all ingredients evenly.
  5. Add in fried seaweed. Stir fry evenly for another 1 minute.
  6. Season with salt.

Both my husband and I love it.

Vegetables

Oven Roasted Brussel Sprouts

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This is the first time for me to cook brussel sprouts. They do look like baby cabbage. But the taste is different.

And this recipe is super easy and simple. I assume it’s healthy too.

  1. Wash brussel sprouts under water. And drain them.
  2. Trim off the bottom and cut into halves.
  3. Put them all in a bowl. Sprinkle olive oil, salt and black pepper. Toss a bit.
  4. Place them on baking pan with the cut side down.
  5. Into the oven. 180 Degree C, 30 mins.

https://flic.kr/p/24zFeAM

Outside layer is super crunchy like seaweed with a bit bitter taste.

https://flic.kr/p/2fcbWvT

Inside part tastes a bit sweet.

Uncategorized

#SAKURA MATSURI FLORAL DISPLAY# @GARDENS BY THE BAY 2019

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Yesterday, My husband and I went to Gardens By The Bay for Sakura Matsuri Floral Display.

Gardens By the Bay usually holds different floral display activities the whole year. They will display flowers from different places of different seasons. Now it’s spring time, so it’s sakura season.

The floral display is held in flower dome, which needs ticket if you want to go inside. Outside of it is free. You can see the famous skytree and other theme gardens.

Tickets for 2 of us is S$21.6. Even though it’s weekday, there are still many people there.

Sakura trees are not as many as we expected.

Looking from distance, the view is like this:

https://flic.kr/p/2f6zHGs

White sakura and pink sakura. Some are in full blossom while some are still in sprouts.

Petals fall from the tree and drift slowly in the air.

https://flic.kr/p/RpUxz6

Janpanese Marumado Art

https://flic.kr/p/24yJJh4

https://flic.kr/p/2f6zHTE

And others

https://flic.kr/p/2fbfGvX

There are more than sakura in Flower Dome.

We also visited the big Fish Aquarium @ Gardens by the Bay. My husband and I stayed there for a long while till it gets dark. We also made the fish video of that big aquarium.

Chicken

Ground Pot Chicken (地锅鸡 Di Guo Ji)

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Di Guo Ji is a very famous dish from Xuzhou, China. My sister  went to a university in Xuzhou and I paid several visit there. But I have only tried Di Guo Ji once, and couldn’t forget about it ever since.

This dish is a combination of braised chicken and flour cake (mian bing or bingzi). Chicken is tasty and juicy while bingzi also absorbs the flavor from gravy. Bingzi is actually my favorite part of this dish.

  1. Prepare chicken. I only cook for my husband and myself, so I just need half chicken. Chop it into small pieces. In china, especially in northern part, when we cook (braise or stir fry) chicken, we usually chop it into small pieces.Which means you need a big knife, sharp and hard enough to break the chicken bone. That’s the most difficult part for me. I don’t have that Chinese style knife and really don’t dare to hit the chicken that hard. So I just cut the chicken at joint or the relatively soft bones.
  2. Heat a pan. I recommend a skillet. Add in 1 tablespoon oil. In with the spices, ginger, onion, star anise, dry chili, bayleaf. Saute till aromatic. Add in all the chicken piece.
  3. Stir fry chicken patiently and gently. When the chicken turns white in color, pour in 1 tablespoon cooking wine. Stir for another minute.
  4. Drop in 1 tablespoon sugar, let the chicken be coated with sugar evenly.
  5. Add in 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon oyster sauce and 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce. Blend evenly.
  6. You can also add vegetables in this dish, like potato or bamboo shoot. I chose potato (2 medium ones). Peel them and cut them into medium chunks. Also add potato into the pan.
  7. Pour in enough hot water can cover all ingredients. Lid on. turn to medium low heat and simmer for 20 mins.
  8. For flour cake: 1 cup flour and some water. Mix them well in a bowl. Knead into a dough ball. Lt it rest for a while. Then divide it into 8 small dough balls. Soak them in water for about 5 mins.
  9. Stretch dough ball by hand to make it a thin long oval shape. Press one end to the pan and let the other one end float on the chicken gravy. Lid on and simmer again for another 15 mins.

Gently  tuck bingzi under the chicken and potato. (You can skip this step if you think it’s too troublesome.) Season with salt. Sprinkle chopped green chili and spring onion on the top.

https://flic.kr/p/2dM1hKD

Chicken is a bit like Huang Men Ji.

To me, all the essence is in the bingzi.

https://flic.kr/p/T2EH6q

Fish

Sweet & Sour Fish Fillet

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You can choose whatever fish you want.

1. Cut fish fillet into slices. Season with a little salt and black pepper.

2. Prepare the batter: 2 tablespoon starch, 2 tablespoon flour and 1/4 cup water. If you think your batter is too thick, you can add more water. Too thin, add more flour.

3. Dip fish slice into the batter and fry in a pan till both sides turn golden brown.

4. Set fish aside. Heat a pan, add in a little oil. Stir fry vegetables. I chose green and red bell pepper, and onion. Stir fry for 2 mins. Then set them a side.

5. In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoon tomato sauce, 1/2 tsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tsp vinegar, 1 tsp sugar and 1/4 cup water.

6. Pour sauce into the pan. Reduce a bit. Add in fish and vegetables. Stir fry till the sauce is very condensed.

Soup

White Fungus, Red Date, Lotus Seed & Barley Soup

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Yeah, it’s quite a long name. 🙂

Strictly speaking, this soup should belong to dessert, since it’s a sweet soup not a savory soup.

Main ingredients are white fungus (soak in the water first till completely softened and remove the yellow bottom), red dates (remove the core), barley (wash clean), lotus seeds (remove the green sprouts in the middle if there is any to avoid bitter taste) and wolf berries.

Put all ingredients in a pot. Here I used a rice cooker. Add in enough water.

Also add in several sugar cubes according to your preference.

I chose “soup” function on the rice cooker. And it cooked for approximately 3 hours. If you use normal pot on stove. You can bring to boil with high heat first, then simmer with low heat for 1.5 hours.

Soup is nice. Because it contains red dates and white fungus, it is also called beauty soup.

https://flic.kr/p/24wD7Rr

My husband loves it.

https://flic.kr/p/2e3euHu

Fish

Miso Saba Fish (Mackerel)

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1. Prepare a Saba fish fillet. Cut into halves. And make a cut on the skin side.

2. Boil some water. Add fish fillet in. Once fish turns white, take them out. Soak in cold water and wash them clean.

3. Heat a pan. Add in 1 cup water, 1/4 cup cooking wine, 1/4 cup mirin, 1 tablespoon sugar. Bring to boil. Dissolve in 1 tablespoon miso. Put fish in. Also add in a little ginger slices. Simmer for 5 mins.

4. Add in green pepper. Simmer for 2 mins. And take the pepper out.

5. Dissolve in another tablespoon miso. Turn up the heat and reduce sauce for a little while.

6. Take the fish out into the plate. Pour the sauce over fillet. Serve with green pepper and green onion shreds.

Fish is soft, juicy and tasty.

My husband loves it.

https://flic.kr/p/2abiD9E

Pasta

Pine Seeds & Basil Lemon Spaghetti

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I cooked this dish just because I have a small pack of pine seeds, lemon and also a small box  basil. 🙂

Toast pine seeds in a pan. Keep low heat. Oil will come out from pine seeds. Toast till they become brownish and the flavor comes out.

  1. Cook spaghetti and drain them.
  2. Heat a pan. Add in all the cooked spaghetti and also add in 1 tablespoon stock.
  3. Squeeze in a little lemon juice. Add in chopped basil, lemon zest and toasted pine seeds. Stir evenly.
  4. Sprinkle in cheese. Blend well.
  5. Season with salt and black pepper.

https://flic.kr/p/2dYyBpb

Very fresh due to lemon zest.

https://flic.kr/p/Rj7PiT

duck

Pan Seared Duck Breast

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My husband only like two parts of duck: leg and breast. Just a simple pan seared duck breast with sauce will make him very happy. Don’t forget he is the guy who can never forget about  teriyaki chicken.

I also added pan fried potato as side to this dish.

  1. Prepare a potato. Peel it and cut it into medium thick chunks. Boil some water in a pot. Add potato chunks in and boil for about 10 mins. Or just till potato turns almost cooked and becomes a little soft. Drain them and set a side.
  2. Season duck breast with salt and black pepper. Cut cross on duck skin with a knife several times just to prevent curling during frying.
  3. Heat a pan. No need to add any oil since duck contains much fat. Skin side down. Sear with low heat till golden brown.
  4. Then flip over to sear the other side. Flip again when it turns brown in color. Sear the skin side till it becomes hard and crispy. Set it aside.
  5. You can use the same pan to fry potatoes. Or if you think duck oil is not healthy, you can use another pan. Fry potatoes till golden brown.
  6. For the sauce. In a sauce pan, add in 2 tsp light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sugar, 2 tsp fresh lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon water. Simmer to reduce.
  7. Cut duck breast into slices. Arrange them and potatoes in a plate. Pour sauce over the duck

No doubt husband loves it.

https://flic.kr/p/2dFC5Bz

Quick recipe, Uncategorized

Easy Gong Gong (Dog Conch Sea Snail) Recipe

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Dog Conch has a very cute name Gong Gong here in Singapore. My husband told me he never tried gong gong before. We were planning to give it a try when we went to Bintan. Yet, we changed our mind to try local Indonesian food instead.

Today, we saw live gong gong at supermarket. We were very curious about them. it was also the first time for my husband to see live gong gong. And we decided to buy some and cook at home.

We bought 10 gong gong, around 500 g @ S$1.5, very cheap.

I put them in a basin. and soaked them in salty water. After 30 mins, they spitted much dirt. I rinsed them again and again till water is clear.

  1. Boil some water in a pot. Add in several ginger slices and salt.
  2. When water boils, add gong gong in. And boil for 20 mins.
  3. Rinse them under water and wash them clean.
  4. Place gong gong in a plate. Spread some chopped spring onion, ginger and garlic.
  5. Heat a pan. Add in 2 tablespoon oil. Pour oil over the spring onion and garlic.
  6. Serve with chili sauce.

https://flic.kr/p/2f4E244

My husband loved them. He even washed and kept all the shells.