Bite On It!

I seldom use all those fermented stuff to cook but will try a dish once in a while as I think they are not too healthy if we eat them too often. My MIL especially like those fermented beancurds and she can finish a whole jar all by herself!

There are two types of fermented beancurds which are widely used in Chinese or Asian cooking. Some people like to eat ‘fu-yu’ which is whitish in clour and soaked inside some chili solution which we normally eat with porridge as it is extremely saltish. The other is ‘nam-yu’ which is brownish, slightly sweetend and soaked inside some red colour solution. It has this very pungent smell with wine if I’m not mistaken.

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Ingredients

• 300g Pork belly (Sliced at 5mm thick)
• 1 cube Nam Yu
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1 cup Flour
• 1 Red Chili (chopped finely)
• 2tbsp Lemon juice
• Salt to taste
• 1tsp Sugar
• Water

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Methods

1. Marinade the sliced pork with ‘Nam-yu’ and a few dash of salt for about 2 hours.
2. Mix flour with water to create batter for coating the meat before frying. The consistency of the batter should be not too thin or too thick, just nice when you dip in the meat it is able to cover the whole piece of meat.
3. Heat up wok or deep saucepan with substantial oil for deep frying. Test the oil with a wooden chopstick. When there’s a lot of bubbles coming out from the chopstick mean the oil is hot enough.
4. Take a piece of the meat, dip it into the beaten egg then dip into the flour batter and put into the deep saucepan to deep fry till it turns golden. Continue till all meat are done. Picking up those that had turned golden and let it drain off the oil on a kicthen towel.
5. Then in another wok, heat up a tsp of oil and stir-fry the chopped chili for 2-3 minutes then pour in the lemon juice and the sugar and stir till it caramelised a little. Scoop it up and pour over meat.

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It has been a long time since I buy asparagus and cook it. Happened on one of my groceries shopping trip to Tesco I saw some really fresh stalks so decided to grab a bundle to cook with the dried prawns sambal that I made earlier.

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Ingredients

• 1 bundle (+/-250g) Asparagus
• 3 tsp Dried prawn sambal
• Some water

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Methods

1. Wash and cut asparagus about 45 degree slanted 1.5″ strips.
2. Heat up wok with 2 tbsp oil and lightly fry the dried prawn sambal till fragrant. Throw in the asparagus and stir.
3. Add a little water and cover for a few minutes.
4. Serve hot.

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Since Darrius can take eggs now, I will try some of the egg recipes once a while. It is good for a change and add varieties to his menu. To add in more nutrition, I will normally add in some milk and cheese with the meal so they are more wholesome.

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Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup Milk
• 1 Fresh tomato (deskin and chopped corsely)
• Some tiny cubes of boiled carrot
• Pinch of salt for taste (optional)

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Methods

1. Beat egg, add in the milk and salt, beat further and set aside.
2. Heat up wok or frying pan on slow heat with 1 tsp oil. When oil is hot, pour over the chopped tomato and boiled carrot and fry for a while before pouring in the beaten egg and slowly stir on medium heat.
3. When the mixture starts to harden and no more moisture, lift up, sprinkle with some black sesame powder and serve.
4. Boil some French beans as side dish along with a slice of wholemeal bread cheese sandwich.

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In the last 3 days, I have been baking non stop! I started with a batch of these but they started to explode after 10 minutes in the oven! The entire batch was like a erupting volcanoes so I went for another batch. And guess what? Instead of another explosion, I have sinking cupcakes! Not sure what went wrong!!!!

So, in order not to get another heart attack and waste more ingredients, I dicided to give this a try which I got the recipe from here. As I don’t like having the raisins in the cupcakes, I omitted them from the recipe. Since I have 2 unsuccessful batches earlier, I halfed the recipe which turned out quite fine.

To top it off, I made the pepper mint frosting which really compliment the cuppies! It has a little salt content so it taste quite appetising too! It was meant for the earlier chocolate cupcakes and since they did not turned out, I tried it on the 3rd batch which was the Oreo Cupcakes. They were absolutely divine….

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Ingredients

Make 12 Cupcakes

• 117 g Self-raising flour
• 50 g Oreo biscuits - chopped
• 115 g Butter (recommend to use unsalted but I used the salted one)
• 90 g Sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/8 tsp Salt

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Methods

1. Beat butter, salt and sugar till slightly creamy with a mixer, add in eggs (one by one) then the flour and mix till combined.
2. Stir in the chopped oreo biscuits and spoon into paper cups.
3. Bake at 160-170C for 25 minutes (big cup) or until cooked.
4. Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack.

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Frosting

Ingredients

• 120 g Butter
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 120 g Icing sugar
• 1 tsp Peppermint essence
• A drop of green colouring

*Some draggies for decorations

Methods

1. Cream butter, salt and sugar till smooth preferably with a mixer.
2. Add in colouring and mint essence and pipe onto cupcakes.
3. Decorate with some draggies or other preferred decoratives.

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I was having a few slabs of pork belly as I intended to cook something else but ended up not cooking them as the time I have to prepare them is too short so has to abort that idea. So, I have to come out with alternative ideas….

Well, I will always go for easy to prepare dish and using the least amount of ingredients if possible. Therefore, I remembered my MIL used to cook this dish which all she do is just dump everything in! And voila! Hot yummy dish on the table.

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Ingredients

• 300g Pork belly (best with those that has a few layers of fats and with skin intact)
• 3 cloves garlic - chopped finely
• 1tsp Peppercorns - crushed
• Black sauce
• Light soy sauce to taste
• Water - for sauce

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Methods

1. In a medium saucepan, heat up 2tbsp oil and lightly saute chopped garlic till fragrant.
2. Add in the pork belly (cubed) and stir till they are about 50% cooked. Pour in dark soy sauce to desired tone. Add in water (ard 3/4 to 1 cup), stir and cover.
3. When the water begun to boil, add in the crushed peppercorns, stir and cover and let it simmer for at least 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally on low heat.
4. Add in light soy sauce to taste and simmer a further 10 minutes.

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