Bite On It!

Lately I’ve been buying a lot of cauliflowers as Darrius has the liking for them out of the blue. He saw us eating a few times and kept pestering me to give him some. I did not gave him in the past as I don’t boil my cauliflowers till they are soft but leave it crunchy.

Since Darrius is keen to have some so I decided to boil all our cauliflowers real soft so he will have no problem chewing them (most of the time he will swallow without much chewing… lazy fella). Previously I don’t put in that much water to make the sauce but I decided to create a clear broth just so Darrius can have some over his rice.

 .

.

Ingredients

• 1/4 Cauliflower
• Some Carrot slices
• Some Sweetpeas
• 100g Chicken breast meat (thinly sliced, marinate with corn flour and soy sauce)
• 2 cloves garlic (smashed/ finely chopped)
• Few slices of old ginger
• 1 cup Chicken broth (or use non MSG chicken cube)
• 1tsp corn flour mix with some water

 .

Methods

1. Boil some water with a few drops of oil and sugar in a saucepan. First put in the cauliflower chunks, then the carrot and lastly the sweetpeas and drain them after letting it boil for a few minutes. Put aside.
2. Heat up wok with some oil and saute the chopped garlic and sliced ginger till fragrant and add in the marinated chicken slices and stir till 50% cooked. Toss in the boiled vegetables and stir till they are well mixed.
3. Pour in the chicken broth or chicken cube and stir until the sauce boil before adding in the corn flour solution to thicken the sauce.

 .

I will buy a big chunk of pork belly sometime from my regular butcher whenever I go by that market in the city. Then I will cut them into a few parts and freeze them. I will normally have 3 to 4 parts depending on the size he cut for me with each part just nice for 2 persons consumption.

Like usual, both PiggyBeng and myself prefer to have chilies dishes for most of our meals. And this is one of those easy to prepare pork dish which I normally cook.

. 

 .

• 250-300g Pork belly (with skin intact)
• 3-4 Dried chilies (pre-soak with hot water and remove seeds)
• 1 Red chili
• 1tbsp Bean paste (tau-chu)
• 1tbsp Dark soy sauce
• 4 cloves Garlic (smashed/minced)
• 1″ square Ginger (thinly stripes)
• Some water

.

Methods

1. Wash the scums away from the pork skin (use a tweezer to remove any hair) then sliced thinly about 5mm thick.
2. Heat up wok with some oil (not too much as pork belly has lard) and saute the garlic, then the ginger, the chili and the dried chili till fragrant before toasting in the sliced pork belly.
3. Add in the bean paste and dark soy sauce and stir until all are well mixed. Add in a little water (if you need more sauce add more water) and let it simmer for 15 minutes or till the meat is tender.

Sometime back while I was shopping at Sunshine Far Lim (a local grown supermarket in Penang) I found some udon noodles which is not chilled. This was the first time I found unchilled udon as most of the time they have to be chilled or it will get bad very fast. I guess this unchilled version might have higher portion of preservatives hence it can be kept on regular shelves. I used to cook this dish very often when I was a still a single in Singapore.
Out of curiosity, I bought a packet home and try. The taste was the same as the regular udon in the chilled section. Good that it don’t take up space in my fridge and it has a longer expiry date. Within the packet has 3 smaller packets.

.

.
Ingredients

• 2  packets of Udon
• 1/4 of Red capsicum
• 1/4 of Green capsicum
• 1 Onion
• 150g Chicken breast meat (marinate with light soy sauce, corn flour and pepper)
• 2 cups Water
• Salt or light soy sauce or chicken cube or fish sauce for taste
• Wakame (seaweed) for garnishing

 .

 .

Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil and saute the onion (cut half ring) till soft before adding in the sliced red and green capsicum. Stir for a few minutes.
2. Add in the chicken strips and continue to stir till half cooked before putting in the noodles.
3. Add water and mix well before cover it and simmer for a few minutes stirring occasionally.
4. The noodles will turn a little sticky after a while. Add in seasoning and stir till sauce appeared thicken.
5. Serve with boiled wakame while hot.

.

This is one of my favorite dish which I learned from my mom many years back. I am not too sure if this dish is from Hakka, Hokkien or Cantonese influence as we are a mix of the three. What I like about this dish is the varieties of ingredients used and of course it is extremely yummy and appetizing but required a little more work.

Previously, like some 20 years ago, we can get really good ‘tau-kua’ or a type of bean curd which is harder than the normal tofu. They used to be yellow in color and has a very fragrant smell. However, I can’t seem to find this particular ‘tau-kua’ anymore. Though they are still selling the same thing but the taste and texture is completely different.

.

.

Ingredients

• 200g French beans (cut into small piece of 1.5cm)
• 2pcs ‘Tau-kua’ - hard bean curd
• 150g Lean pork or pork belly (not too fatty ones) - cubed
• 2pcs Red chilies
• 150g Raw peanut (toasted with skin removed)
• 10g Preserved black beans
• 3 cloves Garlic (minced)

.

Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil and lightly fry the French beans and tau-kua separately. Lift them up and put aside.
2. Add some more oil into the wok and stir-fry the pork cubes until 50% cook. Lift up and put aside.
3. If the wok has not enough oil, add a little bit more and saute the garlic, add in the red chilies (squares) and stir for a while before throwing in the preserved black beans and continue to stir.
4. Add in the pork cubes, French beans and tau-kua and stir further for another few minutes till the pork is thoroughly cooked.
5. Before you life them up, throw in the roasted peanuts and stir.

.

.

.

If you have tried various types of diets for controlling the weight and have also joined gym but in vain then you should go for weight loss surgery. The official website of atkins diet contain all the tips from Dr. Robert C. Atkins and are considered to be very authentic. The south beach diet discussion forum is also very famous to tips and reviews of people trying to look fit.
.

This is another emergency recipe that I’ve came out with. Like what I’ve mentioned before, I will buy beans (long-beans, French beans, Snake beans) to keep almost every week for those ‘just in case I don’t know what to cook’ occasion. At such time, I will rummaged throw my fridge for stuff that I can use and these beans always come in very handy as they are so versatile.

You can stir-fry, braised, boil, steam and even fried them! The possibilities are endless if you have the creativity to use them. The other reasons why I like to buy and keep them as they have a slightly longer shelf life as compared to other vegetables if you keep them in the right way.

.

.

Ingredients

• 200g French beans (cut into 4cm strips)
• 1″ square Salted fish (use the Kurau/Cod fish type) - sliced
• 2 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)

.

Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil and lightly fry the French beans till about 70% cook. Lift up and put aside.
2. Add more oil into the wok and saute the salted fish slices till it turns sandy, put on one side of the wok.
3. With the balance oil in the wok, saute the garlic till fragrant before mixing with the salted fish and stir.
4. Throw in the fried French beans and stir well for a few minutes before serving.

 .