Bite On It!

Most carbo food like rice and noodles will let you pile up on weight - most of the time so these days I tried to consume less of such food though they have been my favorite all these while! Need to give a thought to our bodies mah!

Since Darrius has been a huge pasta fan, I tried to come up with more recipes that hopefully will entice him to eat more besides the pasta. I introduce a varieties of pasta both in shapes and types to him and let him enjoy his meals with fun.

This recipe I learned from an ex-nightschool mate which she prepared for one of the BBQ nite when I was in Singapore. A very easy to prepare and can be eaten cold… so perfect for Bento or lunch boxes!

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Ingredients

• 1 can Tuna (chunk) in water or brie
• 250g Elbow pasta/macaroni
• 1 Hard boiled egg (smashed into small pieces)
• Button mushrooms (sliced a few)
• 2tbsp Mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup Corn kernels
• Raisins (yellow) for garnishing
• Pepper, black pepper and salt for taste
• Lemon juice to kill the fishy taste/smell
• French beans for garnishing (optional)
• Bacon bits for garnishing (optional)
• Sunflower kernels for garnishing (optional)

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Method

1. Boil half a sauce pan of wate, add some salt and oil to cook the pasta/macaroni. When cooked, test the softness before draining the water away.
2. Boil another pot of water for cooking the French beans, corn kernels and button mushrooms slices.
3. Pour the can of tuna (drain away water/brie) into a bowl, smash them up and add in the mayonnaise and mix them well together with smashed up hard boiled egg. Add in sliced button mushrooms.
4. Sprinkle pepper, black pepper and salt to desire taste. Squeeze some lemon juice to kill the fishy smell of the tuna.
5. Toss in raisins, sunflower kernels and bacon bits to garnish. Top with some French beans for presentation. Voila!

I hardly cook Salmon now as they can be a little costly. My PiggyBeng don’t fancy them as he complaint that salmon is too oily. While I was preggy with Darrius, I ate a lot as I read from some medical articles that salmon has the highest amount of Omega 3 which is good for brain development.

Then while I was in Jusco during one of my shopping trip with Darrius, I decided to get a few slices for the both of us. And this is my fish dish…

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Ingredients

• 1 slice Salmon fillet
• 2tbsp Light so sauce (preferably the Kikoman special fragrant sauce)
• 1tbsp Sugar (I used brown sugar)
• 2tbsp Water
• Few dashes of ground black pepper
• Corn flour

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Methods

1. Wash salmon and dry it completely with a kitchen towel. Sprinkle some light soy sauce and corn flour lightly coating both surfaces. Heat up frying pan and pan fried on low fire. Remove from pan when both surfaces turn golden brown.
2. Using the same pan, add a little oil (1tsp) and pour in the mixture of light soy sauce, water, sugar and grounded black pepper and let it boil. The sugar will caramelized after a while and pour onto salmon fillet.

I guess I have been neglecting this blog big time! I have been extremely busy minding my  demanding ‘boss’ and also the long stay in KL plus my cupcakes e-shoppe as business was quite good when I was in KL.

This is a dish I concocted after our meal at one of these Hong Kong Char-Chan-Teng or eateries. Bosco soup is extremely popular among the Hong Kong people. From my understanding, this particular dish/soup has something to do with the European/Portuguese influence. It tasted very much like the minestrone soup.

Normally these eateries or restaurants where this soup is served, they will use macaroni but I am cooking for little boss so I used the Alphabets noodles instead.

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Alphabets noodles (boil in a separate saucepan)
• 2.5 cups Water
• 1/2 stick Carrot (cubed)
• 1/2 stick Celery (cubed)
• 1 Onion (cubed)
• 1 Tomato (removed seeds and cubed)
• 15g Silveryfish
• 2tbsp Tomato puree/paste (NOT ketchup)
• Sugar, salt and pepper to taste

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Methods

1. In a medium saucepan, saute the onion first with some oil. Then saute the carrot, celery and tomato cubes till fragrant and add in the Silveryfish and stir for a while.
2. Pour in the water, stir till it starting to boil and add the tomato puree. Let it boil for a while.
3. Drain the alphabets noodles and pour into the tomato soup and continue to let it boil for a further 5 minutes or so. Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste.
4. Sprinkle some dried herbs before serving.

Yesterday was my 2nd wedding anniversary to my fat piggy. He has a conference call at 8pm (not 3, not 4 kind of timing) thus we can’t go out to celebrate. So I prepared a simple dinner, of course, with his favourite ingredient…. fish.

I have wanted to try cooking this dish for a while as it’s quite a popular dish here in Penang. And I must say, it’s expensive too as it used thick fish fillets. I would recommend to use sang-yu (the fish we used in yee-sang), kurau (also known as cod) or salmon as they have a stronger texture. I used siakap (barramundi) as we just purchase two whole fish last weekend… it cost us RM76 for 16 slices! Siakap was not meant to be deep fried but that was what i’ve got….

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Ingredients

• 4 slices Fish fillets
• Some flour and salt (to cover fish fillets)
• 1 pkt Beehoon (vermicelli) - soaked
• 2 Onions - sliced thinly
• 1 Red chili - sliced
• 1 Chili padi - sliced
• Grated carrot and Chinese cabbage or bean sprouts (preferred amount)
• Light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and pepper for taste
• Water (to soften the beehoon)
• Sambal belacan with calamansi juice
• Oil for deep frying fish fillets

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Methods

1. Pour enough oil in a small sauce pan to deep fry the cut fish fillets until light brown. (Those selling at the stall will normally deep fried with flour batter so the fish fillet would not break up easily)
2. Heat up wok with oil and sautee the onion, chilies and all the vegetables (if you are using bean sprout, add in when beehoon is almost ready) for few minutes till soft.
3. Add in beehoon and stir for a while, add in preferred amount of water, stir and cover.
4. Pour in dark soy sauce, stir, add in light soy sauce and pepper to taste and continue to stir for a few more minutes till beehoon is soft.
5. Served with sliced fish and sambal belacan… Yum!

With the recent unpredictable weather, we are having difficulty getting our usual supply of deep-sea siakap fillets from our regular fish monger. He has been complaining that his suppliers’ fishes are not up to his expectation so he rejected the fishes supplied to him.

So last weekend, PiggyBeng ended up with a huge black promfret instead. Normally MIL will cook assam curry with it but she was busy this week so no time to get the necessary ingredients. Not wanting the fish being kept too long in the freezer, I decided to fry it yesterday…

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Ingredients

• 3 slices Black promfret fillets
• 5-6 pcs Shallots
• 1″ Ginger
• 1-2 Chili padi
• 1tbsp Bean paste (tau-cheung)
• 3/4 cup Water

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with oil and fry the promfret fillets until golden brown. Lift up.
2. Use remaining oil in wok, fry ginger till fragrant, add in chili padi, stir for 1 minute and add in shallots, fry till soft.
3. Add in bean paste, stir for a while and add in water, continue to stir till all well mixed, put in the fried promfret fillets and let it cook in the sauce for 2 minutes, turning it ocassionally.