All posts by chinesetuition88

Uncategorized

Steamed Abalone With Vermicelli

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It is the first time for me to cook abalone. Since Chinese New Year is quite near, abalone becomes a popular choice in supermarket. My husband just stared at those abalone for a little while,  and I knew for sure that he wanted to have some. I decided to cook them in the easiest way, and which is steaming.

  1. Clean abalone. Gently separate the meat and the shell. Because I found the shell seems to be impossible to be completely cleaned, so I thought I’d better discard the shell. Also remove the intestines and wash off all the dirt.
  2. Soak vermicelli in hot water till soft and drain them.
  3. In a small bowl, add in 1 tsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tsp cooking wine, 1/2 tsp oyster sauce. Mix well.
  4. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan. Add in 3 or 4 cloves of chopped garlic. Saute till aromatic.
  5. Place vermicelli in a plate. Pour the sauce in evenly. Then scatter abalone on the vermicelli. Top abalone with garlic. If there is still some extra garlic, just place them over the vermicelli.
  6. In boiling water and steam for about 8 mins.
  7. Garnish with chopped spring onion.

https://flic.kr/p/2eq5a2j

Vermicelli will be very tasty and my husband loved it.

Pancake, Potato

Potato Pancake

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Ingredients:

3 medium potatoes (grated into shreds)

egg 1

green part of 1 spring onion

1/4 onion (grated into paste)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp oil

 

  1. Place Potato shreds into a big bowl. Leave them there for a while and pour the potato water out.
  2. Beat in 1 egg, add in onion paste and chopped spring onion green. Mix a bit.
  3. Add in flour, salt and pepper. Give it a good stir.
  4. Add in oil. Mix well.
  5. Heat a pan on stove. Brush pan with oil. You can make big pancake or small ones. Just scoop batter and drop into the pan. Use the back of a spoon to flatten the batter. Flip it when the downside turns golden brown and fry the other side.

Very easy and quick.

food hunting, Uncategorized

Food Hunting @ Alexandra Food Village

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My husband and I were planning to go food hunting at Alexandra food village for a long time. Today we finally have a chance to go there.

There are so many hawker centers in Singapore. We haven’t tried many. And there are also many good & cheap food hidden in the hawker center. As food hunting is what we would like to do during our free time, we will definitely not want to miss them.

Alexandra Food Village is not the biggest hawker center, but it still big with many food stalls worth trying. But some of stalls close on Mondays.

The first dish recommended online is claypot Laksa.

This stall is famous and it was even Bib Gourmand Award Winner of the 2016 MICHELIN guide.

I still remember very clearly the first time I came to Singapore, I just fell in love with Laksa. I loved Laksa so much that I had to have it again in the airport before I got on the airplane.

This is the first time I try Laksa served in claypot, so is my husband.

The smell is so so incredible. Soup is creamy. Noodles are tasty. Taupok (similar to tofu) is fatty and juicy. Shrimps and cockles are fresh and tender. Everything is just perfect. Definitely best Laksa I’ve ever had. And the price is quite reasonable. Medium size pot is S$5.

We also tried Char Siew Rice. The stall is located at the corner.

I have to be honest, the Char siew & Roasted Pork rice doesn’t look very appealing. But, it tastes amazing.

Pork is very crispy outside, you can hear the crunchy sound in your mouth.

The gravy is super. It makes every grain of rice so tasty. My husband said it’s the best Char Siew Rice he’s ever had.

Price is S$4.

Avocado drink is highly recommended, which is not expected by us. Neither my husband nor I am avocado lover. We decided to give it a try though.

We chose this King Avocado shop. And my husband ordered avocado milk shake.

Price S$3.

I took the first sip. I think I changed my opinion on avocado immediately. My husband looked at me like I was too exaggerated. Then he tried. Seriously, I saw his eyes just sparkled. πŸ™‚ Both of us started to doubt it’s really the same fruit we dislike. Suddenly, avocado milk shake became my husband’s favorite drink.

Some shops close on Mondays. So we didn’t have the chance to try claypot chicken rice. On our way back to bus station, we found a famous Kueh shop, Poh Cheu.

It sells handmade Kueh.

We orders 3 Kueh. From left to right: Ang Ku Kueh (coffee filling), Soon (bamboo shoot) Kueh and gu chye (chives) Kueh. Soon Kueh and Gu Chye Kueh are savory.

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

My favorite is this Ang Ku Kueh and the coffee filling is very special. My husband also loves it most.

Price: S1-1.3/each.

Uncategorized

One-pot Sausage Rice

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Preserved sausage is very popular in southern part of China.

This one-pot sausage rice is very convenient. You just need to put all the ingredients into the rice cooker. Press the button and wait for it’s done.

1. Wash rice. Drain them. Put rice in the pot of a rice cooker. Pour in water. Usually ratio of water and rice is 2:1. I used 1/2 cup rice and 1 cup water.

2. Add in thawed carrot, corn and green peas.

3. Cut several Shiitake mushroom & sausage into slices and throw them into pot.

4. Add in 1 tsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp sugar. Stir a bit.

5. Lid on. Press the button. And wait.

Super easy.

Chicken, Pasta

Black Pepper Chicken Breast Spaghetti

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1. Cook spaghetti following the instruction. Drain them and set aside for later use.

2. Cut chicken breast into shreds. So are the onions and green chili.

3. Heat a little oil in the pan. Add the chicken breast in. Stir fry till the color turns while.

4. Onions and brown mushroom in. SautΓ© till aromatic.

5. Add in 1/2 tsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sweet cooking wine. And green chili. Stir fry for another min or 2.

6. Add in Spaghetti. Toss to mix well.

7. Seasons with salt and black pepper.

I also add in some oven roasted tomatoes.

Oven-roasted Tomatoes

Chicken

Korean Style Fried Chicken

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My husband is a big fried chicken lover. He loves all kinds of fried chicken, American style, Japanese style, or Korean style. Or maybe he just loves chicken. As I mentioned before, every time when I ask him what he want for lunch, his answer is always Teriyaki Chicken. I don’t know if there is a special setting in his brain. He just pushed that “my wife asks my opinion on the meal again” button, and his mouth just opened and spited the word “Teriyaki Chicken” out. Actually, most time I just ask him, but whether adopting his opinion or not is another thing. πŸ™‚

Back to the fried chicken. πŸ™‚ I found a pack of chicken drumsticksΒ  in the fridge. To me, chicken drumsticks are ideal to cook fried chicken. Since they are not so skinny as chicken wings or not so hard-to-cook as chicken legs.

  1. Wash chicken drumsticks (my pack contains 8 ) clean and drain them.
  2. Put all the drumsticks in a big bowl. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 black pepper. Also chop a small piece of ginger and add in. Mix them well.
  3. Roll drumsticks in potato starch. Let each one be coated with a thin starch layer and shake off the excess.
  4. Prepare frying oil. I didn’t measure the temperature of the oil. I just grab the bone end of one drumstick and slightly dip it into the oil. If a lot of bubbles show up around it and you can hear the sizzling, the temperature is OK. Gently slide the drumstick into the oil. For the whole frying process, I keep the low-medium heat. To make sure chicken is cooked thoroughly,Β  frying may take 10-13 mins.
  5. Heat up the oil and fry again to get crispy out layer and golden brown color.

After frying twice, the outside shell is very hard.

Next step is to make sauce:

Heat a pan. Add in 1/2 tablespoon oil. Saute 2 or 3 chopped garlic cloves. If you want your chicken to be spicy, add in a little chopped dried chili. Then add in 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 1/2 tablespoon honey and 1 tablespoon vinegar. Turn to low heat and reduce the sauce a bit.

Add all fried chicken into the sauce. Stir to mix them well.

https://flic.kr/p/SfF2Lm

Chicken will be coated with sticky and shiny tasty sauce.

My husband cannot stop licking his finger.

I was thinking maybe someday if I don’t want to do what I am doing now, I can open a fried chicken restaurant to make money instead. :p

Chinese, food hunting, Uncategorized

Hangout @ Chinatown

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Well, today I have one day off and my husband also has time. We planned to go to Chinatown and have lunch there. He wanted to try a nasi lemak restaurant there. It’s the first time for us to go to Chinatown and hunt for non-Chinese food.

Chinatown of Singapore is really close to to the CBD. You can actually walk from Chinatown to CBD and also see blocks of tall buildings from Chinatown.

There are many places to have nice food in Chinatown, such as Amoy Street and Chinatown Food Street.

Chinatown has many traditional buildings of Nanyang style.

https://flic.kr/p/2eib1ts

The restaurant we went is at Ann Siang Rd.

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

There are many bars, restaurants and cafes there.

The blue restaurant is the one we were going.

The Coconut Club.

It is not a very big restaurant. Their signature dish is nasi lemak, which can be told from the menu.

Actually, the price is more expensive than nasi lemak sold in other places. We can usually buy nasi lemak at around S$4 and even below. But still, this place is very popular. It was lunch time, many office workers came here for lunch. And I could see a long line waiting outside. My husband and I ordered 2 signature nasi lemak. We waited for a quite long time.

The big plate of rice, chicken, sambal chili sauce, fried peanuts & anchovy, egg and cucumber proves it is worth waiting.

Rice is full of coconut milk flavor and not too strong. ( I just realized what is wrong with the nasi lemak I cooked. I added in too much coconut milk into the rice.) Chicken is juicy and tender. The only thing I’m not so pleased with is the egg is very tiny. 😦  I love Sambal chili sauce. The whole plate is a big portion. I could’t finish my chicken and asked my husband to help me finish it.

After nasi lemak, we also tried the dessert there.

My husband ordered Cendol:

Topped with Adzuki Red Bean. Full of creamy coconut milk and sticky gula Melaka (a kind of coconut sugar in brown color). My husband said it’s the best Cendol he’s ever had in Singapore.

I ordered Kueh (a Malay word means “cake”).

I really like the green & blue one. The upper layer is soft and melt in your mouth and the bottom layer is made of sticky rice. The small cake wrapped with coconut flakes on the right is too sweet to me.

After this satisfying lunch, we just found the cafe across the street.

Nanyang Old Coffee. A cafe my husband wanted to try a long time ago.

We went there. My husband ordered a cup of Yuanyang coffee. And I ordered Ang Ku Kueh.

I am not a coffee lover. My husband review towards his coffee was “not bad”. As to my Ang Ku Kueh, I chose green bean paste filling. It’s also not bad.

Finished coffee, we just wandered in Chinatown. Because Chinese New Year is coming in around 2 weeks or even less than 2 weeks.  The main color in Chinatown is Red.

Red lanterns.

Red Spring Couplets and Chinese New Year decorations.

https://flic.kr/p/QBsGor

Since 2019 is pig year according to Chinese Zodiac, Pig is also a regular element in gift shops or in the street.

https://flic.kr/p/23Lirci

https://flic.kr/p/23LisjD

Chinese New Year is a big festival for Chinese. We prepare lots of food. So you can see piles of snacks are there.

https://flic.kr/p/23LirCZ

Many shops gave free samples when you pass by. We get black peanuts to try.

Apart from so many things to say, Chinatown is heaven to foodie. I think all Chinese cuisine can be found here: Sichuan, Hunan, Northeast. No matter hot pot, Raosted duck, or seafood. We tried some of them before, I must say they taste authentic.

https://flic.kr/p/23LirVc

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

https://flic.kr/p/23LirWV

https://flic.kr/p/QBsFzH

Ohhhhh, I’m hungry again……

Breakfast

Homemade Waffle

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Ingredients:

Flour 1 cup

Baking powder 1 1/2 tsp

Baking soda 1/8 tsp

Salt 1/2 tsp

Sugar 1 1/2 tablespoon

Water 1 cup

Canola oil 1 tablespoon

Melted butter 2 tablespoon

Egg 1 (separate white and yolk)

1. Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, slat, baking soda and baking powder) in a bowl.

2. Pour in water. Stir well.

3. Add in canola oil and butter. mix evenly.

4. Add in egg yolk first. Stir to let them be well mixed.

5. Slightly beat the egg white till a lot small bubbles show up. And add into the batter and stir well.

6. Heat the waffle maker. Scoop batter into it. Heat till brownish on both sides.

You can serve hot freshly made waffle with butter, syrup or cream, jam.

My husband loved them.

Chicken

Janpanese Style Fried Chicken Recipe

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1. Prepare a boneless chicken leg. Cut it into medium pieces.

2. Place chicken in a bowl. Add in 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sweet cooking wine, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp minced garlic and 1 tsp minced ginger. Mix well and marinate for about 30 mins.

3. Pour the marinade out. Beat 1 egg into the chicken. Mix by hand to let chicken be coated with egg.

4. Add in 2 tablespoon starch and 1 tablespoon flour. Mix well.

5. Deep fry flour-coated chicken till golden brown.

6. Turn up the heat and fry again to make them crispier.

Serve with lemon.

https://flic.kr/p/PHSAPL