Tag Archives: Chinese

Cake

Spring Onion Cake That I Can Never Have Enough (葱油饼 Cong You Bing)

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There is no word can express how much I love spring onion pancake. There are some Shandong Pau shops in Singapore. They also sell Cong You Bing. Yet, The ones they sell are not the same to the ones I like. Spring onion cake I like is the crispy type. My mom is super good at making amazing spring onion pancake. Too bad, I can’t find any similar to my mom’s. So I have to figure out by myself.

I wrote a post before:

Improved Spring Onion Pancake Recipe

And recently, I cooked spring onion pancake again, just because I really missed them.

In my previous post, I applied my mom’s advice: Use half hot water and half cold water. But this time, I think I figure out some secret to make good spring onion pancake.

  1. No matter use hot water or whole cold water. The key is soft dough, which means you better use more water to make sure dough is soft enough. If the dough is hard, then the pancake will taste hard and dry.
  2. Use more spring onion, seasoning and oil. Obviously, it is true. Spring onion, and seasoning will make a lot happen during frying.
  3. Low medium heat is better during frying. This is important to make sure the outside layer is crispy. If the heat is high, it’s easy to be burnt outside while the dough inside is still raw.

https://flic.kr/p/Rt6bme

https://flic.kr/p/2f9NUcS

Crispy spring onion pancake is the true spring onion pancake.

My husband also loves it.

Potato

Potato & Sausage Stir-fry

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I find only in Chinese recipe will potatoes appear in slices, while in other cuisine, potatoes are usually cooked in chunks or mashed. Potatoes also are cooked often in shreds, and it’s a very very common Chinese family dish, just like scrambled egg with tomatoes.

Sausage I used is the Chinese preserved sausage. We call it La Chang （腊肠）.

  1. Peel the potatoes and cut it into thin slices. Also cut sausage into slice.
  2. Fry potato slices. Add oil into a pan. Heat it. Fry potato with medium low heat. When potatoes turn transparent and brownish on the edge, it’s done. Set them aside.
  3.   Add in a little oil in the pan. Saute sausage till sausage becomes curly and slightly brownish.
  4. Add in 2 or 3 cloves chopped garlic. saute til aromatic.
  5. Put in all the potatoes and chopped green chili. Stir fry for a minute.
  6. Add in 1/2 tsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tsp oyster sauce. Stir fry evenly.
  7. Season with salt and garnish with some chopped spring onion.

https://flic.kr/p/Rt6eQD

Prawn

Braised Prawns

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  1. Clean prawns. Remove all the whiskers and intestine. Also make a cut at the back.
  2. Heat a pan. Add in oil. Fry prawns with low medium heat. Flip over to fry the other side till red oil comes out. Do the same to the other side. Then set prawns aside.
  3. Heat the pan again. Add in a little extra oil if needed. Saute chopped ginger, garlic and spring onion till aromatic.
  4. Add fried prawns into the pan. drizzle in a little cooking wine to remove the fishy smell.
  5. Put in 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp cooking wine, 1 tsp black pepper powder, 1 tbsp sugar. (you can mix all the sauce ingredients in a bowl before cook) .
  6. Turn to low heat and simmer for 3 mins.
  7. Reduce sauce with high heat. and ready to serve.

https://flic.kr/p/2f7wooh

https://flic.kr/p/2e6hGZj

Ribs, Soup, Uncategorized

My Husband’s Favorite Rib, Lotus Root & Peanut Soup Recipe

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I was born and grew up in northern part of China. Actually, my family didn’t have the habit of having soup during the meal. I know that people from southern part really like soup. Soup to them is a must-have dish on the table.

My husband is a soup lover. He basically likes all kinds of soup. Influenced by him, I start to realize soup’s charm.

There is a chicken rice stall near where we live. If you order chicken rice there, a small bowl of lotus root & peanut soup will be served as well. My husband loves the chicken rice there and also their soup. He mentioned more than once how much he loves the soup with lotus root and peanut in it.

That’s why I decided to cook this soup.

1. Rinse ribs under water.

2. Place all ribs in the pot. Pour in enough water covers and even higher than the ribs.

3. Bring to boil with high heat. Skim the soup.

4. Add in several ginger slices, lotus root chunks, some peanuts. Turn to low heat. Cook for 1-2 hrs.

Nice soup takes long time unless you have pressure cooker.

Season with salt before serving.

The amazing part of the soup is that it tastes a bit sweet even without adding in any sugar.

My husband can have 2 bowls of it.

https://flic.kr/p/2b3tQxq

Beef

Beef & Onion Stir-fry

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I always think beef and onion are good friend, especially in stir-fry.

  1. Prepare beef slices. Put them in a small bowl. Season with a little salt and black pepper. Then add in 1/2 tsp light sou sauce and 1-2 tsp starch. Mix them well.
  2. Heat a pan. Add in 1 tablespoon oil. When oil is heated, add beef into the pan. Quickly separate them to let them not stick to each other.
  3. When beef is no more pinkish, add in onion slices and green chili. Stir fry for 1 minute or 2.
  4. Add in 1 tsp oyster sauce. Stir fry evenly.

Ready to serve. Very simple and quick.

Potato, Vegetables

My Favorite Vegetable Stir-fry

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How much do I love this Di San Xian? Hmmm……. If I have to choose one my favorite stir-fry dish, it must be the one. But I have to say it’s not very healthy, since it consumes too much oil.

The name Di San Xian (地三鲜）Means 3 fresh vegetables from the earth and which are potato, eggplant and green chili.

  1. Heat a pan, add in 1 tablespoon oil. Prepare 2 medium potatoes and chop into slices or small wedges. Fry potato till cooked or the edge turns brownish.
  2. Potatoes out. Add in some more oil, 2-3 tablespoon maybe. Eggplant can absorb a lot oil. Fry the eggplant ( chop 1 eggplant into medium chunks). Fry them till they get really softened and cooked.
  3. Add potatoes back into the pan. Also add in chopped green chili (You can use bell pepper, but I want to add a little spicy taste to the dish, so I chose green chili). Stir fry for a min or two.
  4. Add in 1/2 tsp light soy sauce and 1 tsp sugar. keep stirring and all vegetables will show shiny and brownish color.
  5. Chop 3 cloves of garlic and add in. Stir fry to release garlic’s flavor.
  6. Season with a little salt. and  glaze with a little starch water.

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

Even my husband fell in love with this dish and He is a MEAT LOVER!!!

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.

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……

Pork

“The Rice Killer”- Braised Pork Belly

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I’ve cooked braised pork belly for many many many times. Seems that my husband will never get tired of it. Due to the dark rich sauce and juicy tender pork, this dish also has a nick name “the rice killer”. Because with this dish, you can have a lot rice.

The secret  lies in sugar and soy sauce. I can guarantee you that when you cook braised meat, add in soy sauce and sugar, you will get delicious sauce.

  1. Boil pork with cooking wine, ginger slices and green onion till soft and chopsticks can easily go through. Rinse under water. Cut whole pork belly into small cubes.
  2. Heat a pan. Because pork belly contains fat. So no need to add oil. Sear the pork with low-medium heat till brownish.
  3. Add in 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce, 1/2 tablespoon sugar and 1 tsp cooking wine. Stir fry to let pork be coated with sauce.
  4. Pour in enough hot water just covers all the pork. Also add in bay leaves, star anise and ginger slices. Bring to boil.
  5. Lid on and turn to low heat. Simmer for at least 20-30 mins. If you want your pork to be super soft, you can simmer for longer time, like 1 hour.
  6. Lid off. turn to high heat and reduce the sauce.

My husband has superpower of detecting this dish. Every time with this dish on table, he will just pick it up very accurately with no mistake. I have to threaten him that if he doesn’t have any vegetables in other plate, I will put this dish away. 🙂

Fish, Uncategorized

Xun Yu 熏鱼 Recipe

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It’s a classic Shanghai dish.

1. Prepare a fish or fish fillet. Cut into slices about 1.5-2 cm thick.

2. Place fish slices in a bowl. Marinate with cooking wine, ginger slices and chopped spring onion.

3. Drain the fish. Pat them with kitchen towel. Cos next step is to deep fry them. If fish has water on it, the kitchen will become a dangerous war zone.

4. Deep fry the fish with medium low heat. This step needs a bit patience. Fish after frying should be crispy.

5. Prepare the sauce. Authentic Xun Yu needs a big pot of sauce. But I really don’t know how to deal with so much sauce. So I decided to make only a little sauce. Heat a sauce pan. Add in 1 tablespoon cooking wine, 2 tablespoon light soy sauce, 2 tablespoon sugar, several ginger slices. Heat to reduce the sauce a bit.

6. Put the fried fish in. Roll it in the sauce and quickly take it out. If it stays long in sauce, it won’t be crispy.