Bite On It!

I’ve always love noodles. In fact when I have nothing better to eat I will first think of cooking a packet of instant noodles to nurse my hunger. That means, I have a huge stock of instant noodles nestling in my kitchen. :mrgree:

Besides instant noodles, I will buy other types of noodles occasionally. One of my latest craze is Korean and Japanese noodles. I bought a packet of Soba sometimes back from Daiso during my last trip to Singapore. I have wanted to cook the cold version but my hubby is not a fan of cold noodles so I decided to make it hot instead.

During a visit to the afternoon market near my place, I found some baby octopus and bought a kilo. At home I found some frozen prawns my hubby bought and the idea hit me… why not some seafood Soba? This is definitely a healthier choice! My boy love his bowl of Soba too. Without the baby octopus of course…

 .

.

Ingredients

• 2/3 packet Buckwheat Soba
• 200g Prawns (shelled and leave tail unshelled)
• 200g Baby octopus (clean and cut into 4 sections)
• 150g Hong Kong choy sum
• 2tbsp Wakame (Japanese seaweed)
• 1.5L Water
• Fish sauce + pepper for taste

 .

Methods

1. Boil water in a medium large pot. Throw in the prawn shells and let it boil for 20 minutes so the soup will have a good aroma.
2. While waiting for the soup to be ready, heat up another pot of water in a medium saucepan. Add a little oil and sugar. When the water boil, blanch the Hong Kong choy sum till 90% cook and remove from pot. Using the same pot of boiling water, blanch the Soba till springy soft and set aside. Do the same to the Wakame.
3. Remove the shell from the soup.
4. While the soup continue to boil, toss in the prawns and the baby octopus till they are cook. Remove them from the soup and put aside. Add fish sauce and pepper
5. In a bowl, place some Soba and top with Hong Kong choy sum, prawns, baby octopus and Wakame. Pour enough soup to cover Soba before serving.

Sometimes I will crave for those pickles and if I do buy them from the shop, I don’t get too much. Why? They could be pricey (as most are quite cheap ingredients), not fresh (only God know’s how long they have been kept) and taste funny (don’t know what other preservatives they added in). Therefore, I try to learn to do my own if I really enjoyed them… and if I could get all the ingredients.

One of such is papaya pickles. I love them especially if they are extra spicy! Yeah, I love to put cili padi (bird eyes chili) to give me that extra kicks which those store bought usually don’t have. I have made this a few times and some friends have been asking for the recipes so I decided to share it here.

. 

.

Ingredients

• 1 Papaya (the unripe - dark green color)
• Vinegar
• Sugar
• Salt
• Cili padi (to the spiciness you want)
• Hot boiling water

 .

Methods

1. De-skin the papaya, cut into smaller piece before slicing them using a slicer (for equal thickness).
2. Once they are done, put them in a big bowl (non-metal) and rub them with salt and let it stand for a few minutes. This process is to make the papaya slices crunchy.
3. Then boil a pot of hot water and pour over the sliced papaya and drain away the water after stirring for a few minutes.
4. In a glass bowl ( I used a big corning pot) place the sliced papaya and add enough vinegar and sugar to your taste before putting in the cili padi.
5. Cover the bowl and stir occasionally. Once it has reached room temperature put them in glass or plastic containers before storing them in the fridge.

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…

. 

.

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

.

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.

.

.

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

.

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.

Here is another easy and yummy chicken dish. I’ve always like braised chicken dishes as they are just so simple to cook and great for toddlers. Previously I’d put up a similar recipe but instead of chicken I used pork.

.

.

Ingredients

• 3pcs Chicken drumsticks (cut into smaller pieces)
• 4-5pcs Chinese Mushrooms (soak and cut into half)
• 4-5 pips Garlic (coarsely chopped)
• 1×1″ Old Ginger (sliced)
• Dark soy sauce
• Light soy sauce
• Oyster sauce
• Water

.

Methods

1. Heat up wok with oil (2-3 tbsp) and saute the ginger slices and chopped garlic till fragrant.
2. Put in the chicken pieces and stir fry for 2 minutes then add in mushroom and dark soy sauce. Continue to stir before adding in water (around 1 -1.5 cup), stir and cover and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Add in light soy sauce and oyster sauce (depending on your taste) and continue to stir.
4. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes or so before serving.