Mee Siam (Dry Version)

Chilli Paste

After frying

I saw a post from The Little Teochew about the dry version of Mee Siam few months ago. I was drooling and immediately bookmarked the page.

Today I wanted to fry bee hoon but didn't want to cook the usual one. So I thought of whipping up this spicy and sour bee hoon! Indeed the bee hoon was very addictive! Hahaha!!! My brother had 3 plates!!!

I changed the recipe a bit because 1. for more people, 2. we prefer spicer! That why I added chilli padi. The result? Oh it was awesome! Oh by the way, limes are must have! ;)

Ingredients:

1 pack of Chilli Brand Bee Hoon (soak with water until soften) 400g
Chives (cut into short length)
1 piece of firm beancurd ( cut into thin slices)
3 eggs (beaten)
Cooking oil
Oil for frying the chilli paste
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
100ml water
Limes

Chilli paste (blend all the below ingredients together into a paste):

6 red chilli (deseeded)
4 chilli padi (deseeded)
10 shallots
10 garlic
4 tbsp Tau Cheo

Methods:

1. Heat the oil (use more oil) in a non stick pan. Fry the chilli paste until fragrant and oil seeping out from the paste. Set aside.

2. Fry the eggs and cut them into thin slices. Set aside.

3. Fry the beancurd until golden and crisp. Set aside.

4. Using 2 tbsp of cooking with a heated wok. Toss in the Bee Hoon.

5. Quickly add the chilli paste and water into the wok.

6. Mix and toss the bee Hoon with the paste evenly.

7. Add the salt and sugar. Mix well.

8. Toss in the beancurd and chives. Mix well.

Place some egg slices on top of the Bee Hoon and a lime at the side.

Thick Bee Hoon in ABC Soup

My sister's dinner for tonight... She said its nice!

Ingredients:

500ml or more ABC Soup (with potato and carrot cubes, 2 pork ribs)
1 handful broccoli
1 handful Baby Bak Choy
Thick Bee Hoon for 1 pax (about 1 and a half handful)
Coarse black pepper

Methods:

1. Blanch the broccoli for 2 minutes. Add the Baby Bak Choy and cook for 10 seconds. Drain and set aside.

2. Blanch the thick thick bee hoon for a minute. Drain and set aside.

3. Put the thick bee hoon on a bowl. Arrange the vegetables on the bee hoon.

4. Heat the ABC soup.

5. Arrange the pork ribs, potato and carrot cubes on the bee hoon. Ladle the soup into the bowl. Sprinkle some coarse black pepper.

ABC Soup

One of the most easiest soup to make would ABC Soup. My mom always make this soup especially for my son who only loves this soup. Though he takes other soups, but ABC Soup is his all time favorite. Normally we add corn too. But since my sis has contracted chicken pox from my younger brother, we didn't add corn.

Actually I make this as a soup base for thick bee hoon. My sister can only take light food. With a lot ingredients that are 'barred' due to chicken pox, there isn't much ingredients to make soup base! So I thought of using this with thick bee hoon. Check out my next post on how to make Thick Bee Hoon in ABC Soup.

Serve 1 or 2

Ingredients:

3 pork ribs (scalded with hot water and drained)
1 potato (cubed)
1/2 carrot (cubed or sliced)
1/2 onion (quartered)
1 tomato (quartered)
1.2 litres or more water
Salt

Methods:

1. Boil the water in a pot.

2. Once the water starts to boil rapidly, put in the pork ribs and let it cook for 5 minutes.

3. Add in the carrots, potatoes, onions and tomato. Cook for 5 minutes with high heat.

4. Cover the lid and simmer with low heat for 1.5 - 2 hours.

5. Lastly, add some salt and stir well. Turn the heat off.

Steamed Tofu With Yifon Assorted Mushrooms

This is a light and simple dish that can whip up easily. As Yifon Assorted Mushroom is a little brand to go with tofu, so I added some oyster sauce.

Ingredients:

1 box of soft tofu
1 bottle of Yifon Assorted Mushrooms
1 clove garlic (minced finely)
1 tsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp yellow bell pepper
1 tsp cooking oil

Garnish:
Spring onions
Coarse Black Pepper

Methods:

1. Cut the tofu into 10 square pieces.

2. Steam the tofu for 10 minutes.

3. Heat the oil in the wok.

4. Saute the garlic and pour in the Yifon Assorted Mushroom.

5. Add the bell pepper and cook for 1 minute. Add the oyster sauce and mix well.

6. After steaming the tofu, drain the water away from the tofu.

7. Pour the mushrooms and sauce onto the tofu.

8. Sprinkle spring onions and black pepper.

Chicken Chop With Pasta

This is our dinner for tonight. I bought 6 chicken thighs from the wet market today. I asked the stall holder to debone the chicken.

The chicken thighs turned out to be juicy and tender. I made the same dinner for my brother (the one who had chickenpox) with minimum marinade. But he said it was delicious. Well I guess as long as he can eat chicken, it will taste awesome to him!

Ingredients:

Chicken chop:
1 chicken thigh (deboned)
1tbsp soy sauce
A little oyster sauce
A dash coarse black pepper
1 tsp cooking oil
100ml water

Vegetables (1 cup):
Broccoli
Baby carrots
Yellow bell pepper
Sea salt / garlic salt

Mashed potatoes:
1 potato (washed and peeled)
1 tsp butter
1 tbsp milk
Salt

Pasta:
Spaghetti for 1 pax (cooked)
2 tbsp minced onions
1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 tbsp butter

Methods:

1. Marinate the chicken with soy sauce, oyster sauce and black pepper for at least 30 minutes.

2. Cook the baby carrots with a pot water for 5 minutes. Add the broccoli and cook for another minute. Remove the vegetables and transfer them into a bowl of cold water. Drain and set aside.

3. Cook the potato with a small pot of water until soften. Mash the potato and stir in the butter, milk and salt. Set aside.

4. Heat the oil in a non stick pan. Pan fry the chicken thigh. Try to flatten the chicken as much as possible. Pan fry about 5 minutes each side. If too dry, add a tablespoon of water each time.

5. While pan frying the chicken, sauté the vegetable at the side of the pan. Sprinkle a little seasalt or garlic salt on the vegetable. Remove the vegetables and place on a plate with the mashed potatoes.

6. Once the chicken is cooked, remove and place on the same plate.

7. Prepare the gravy with the same non stick pan. Pour in 100 ml of water into the pan (for pan frying the chicken) and let it boil. The gravy should be in nice brown colour. Thicken the gravy with a tbsp of starch water. Pour the gravy on the chicken chop and mashed potato. Sprinkle some coarse black pepper.

8. For the spaghetti, heat the butter on a pan. Sauté the onions.

9. Add the shiitake mushrooms and cook.

10. Pour in the pasta sauce and simmer for few minutes. Add the spaghetti and toss. Place the spaghetti on the plate.

Easy Pan Fried Pork Chop With Rice

My younger brother was down with chickenpox. He is in 20s now so you can imagine the chickenpox is quite severe! All of us, except my mom had chickenpox before. Well, all of us are EXPOSED to chickenpox now!!! :(

Anyway, my mom heard from some people that there are some food you can't eat while having chickenpox. *Rolling eyes! Basically can't eat anything except fish according to my mom. She said cannot eat chicken, eggs, soy products and beans! So I made this dinner for my poor brother yesterday.

By the way, I have checked with doctors (western and Chinese doctors). If having chickenpox, you can eat anything except beef, yam and seafood (due to skin allergic). The rest are old wives' tales with no logic. Hmmm, but I believe not to take dark soy sauce! Hahaha...

Ingredients:

2 pork tenderloin
2 dash of coarse black pepper
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 baby Bak Choy (halved)
1 tbsp cooking oil
100ml or more water
Cooked rice
Seasalt

Methods:

1. Marinate the pork tenderloin with soy sauce and black pepper for at least 30 minutes.

2. Heat the oil in a non stick pan. Pan fry the pork until nicely browned and cooked. Set the pork on the plate.

3. While pan frying the pork, sauté the Bak Choy at the side of the pan. Sprinkle a little sea salt. Remove the vegetables and set on the plate.

4. Using the same pan (for pan frying the pork), pour in the water and thicken with the starch water. Pour them over the mashed potatoes and pork chops.

5. Put some rice on the plate and ready to eat!

For the mashed potatoes:
We had a pot of ABC soup, so I used the potatoes and mashed it. No milk and butter.

Stir Fry Vegetables With Tang Hoon (Chap Chye)

Another vegetables dish! First try with tang hoon. Not bad but still got rooms for improvement! :p

Ingredients:

1/4 Chinese white cabbage (cut into smaller pieces) stems separate
8 snow peas (halved)
3 pieces black fungus (soaked, soften and sliced thinly)
3 dried mushrooms (soaked, soften and sliced thinly)
1 knot Tang Hoon (soaked and soften)
5 slices ginger (julienned)
1 clove garlic (minced)
200ml or more chicken stock
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tap cooking wine

Methods:

1. Heat the oil in a wok. Saute the ginger and garlic.

2. Toss in the stems of the cabbage and stir fry for a minute.

3. Add the dried mushrooms and black fungus and cook until the stems are soften and slight transparent.

4. Toss in the remaining cabbage leaves and snow peas. Stir fry for a minute.

5. Add the chicken stock, oyster sauce and cooking wine.

6. Lastly, add the tang hoon and mix well with the vegetables and sauce. Turn off the heat.

Tau Suan

Who doesn't like Tau Suan? It's my favorite! Yum yum!!!

Ingredients:

400g split green beans
12 stalks Pandan leaves (washed)
2 litres water
Sugar
You Tiao

Starch mixture:
3 tbsp potato starch flour
200ml water

Methods:

1. Soak the split green beans in warm water for 30 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. Using 3 leaves together to tie a knot. Make 3 knots (see the photo).

3. For the remaining 3 Pandan leaves, cut them into smaller pieces and put them with the split green beans.

4. Steam the split green beans for 30 minutes.

5. Boil 2 litres of water in a pot. When starts to boil rapidly, add the 3 knots of Pandan leaves and cook for 10 minutes. Add the sugar (as desired). Remove the Pandan leaves.

6. Back to the steamed split green beans. Remove the Pandan leaves from the beans. Then pour the beans into the pot of water.

7. Stir in the starch water slowly until it's thick and gluey enough.

Toss the cut You Tiao on the top of the dessert.

Stir Fry Kiam Chye With Pork

I cooked this dish to go with porridge few weeks ago... Geez! I was lazy that why took so long to post this...

Well, I must say this is a very nice and comfort dish to go with porridge. I think the whole plate of kiam chye went into my tummy! Hahaha

Ingredients:

200-300g Kiam Chye
150g pork belly (sliced thinly)
2 cloves garlic (lightly crushed)
1 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 tsp sugar

Methods:

1. Soak the kiam chye with water for 30 minutes. Change the water in between. Drain and raise.

2. Heat the oil in the wok.

3. Sauté the pork until cooked. Move the pork to the side of the wok.

4. Sauté the garlic till fragrance.

5. Toss in the kiam chye and mix well with the pork.

6. Sprinkle the sugar and continue to stir fry for 2 minutes.

Sprinkle some water if too dry when stir frying.

Easy Stir Fry Vegetables (Flowering Choy Sum)

This is the usual way we stir fry vegetables at home. With little ingredients, we can easily whip up a plate of vegetables.

My son only eats leafy vegetables cooked with oyster sauce. He said the vegetables taste much better with oyster sauce than just salt. More flavorful I guess... Sometimes I add chicken stock if I have some available.

Ingredients:

1 pack of flowering Choy Sum (cut into about 5cm length)
1 tbsp minced garlic
3 slices young ginger
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp cooking oil

Methods:

1. Heat the oil in a wok. Toss in the ginger and garlic. Saute till fragrance.

2. Add the vegetables into the wok and stir fry quickly.

3. Add the oyster sauce and stir well. Turn off the heat. The vegetables should still look green and crunchy. Do not overcook the vegetables.

Always stir fry with high heat.

Steamed Threadfin Fish With Taucheo

I was a little worried that my son would not like this style of steaming fish. We always steam fish with soy sauce. Previously I did try steam fish with taucheo and turned out great... But my son was not in that day so he didn't taste before.

Today, I chose Threadfin Fish Fillets. The fillets don't have any bones, not like Toman. Hmmm... I'm not an expert of choosing fish. I only know how to eat! Hahaha... Surprisingly, my son loves this dish. He ate the most and said not enough. But I must say it's a little too salty and some people might not like it. I love taucheo and I find the saltiness acceptable. Add more sugar to reduce saltiness. Taste heavenly with fried garlic and ginger! Yum yum!!!

Ingredients:

2 Threadfin fillets (Ngoh fish)
5 slices ginger (julienned)
3 cloves garlic (minced finely)
3 tbsp Taucheo (minced finely)
50ml water
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp cooking oil

Methods:

1. Wash the fillets and pad dry. Place the fillets on the steaming plate.

2. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Reduce the heat.

3. Fry the julienned ginger until golden brown. Remove and set aside.

4. Sauté the garlic until golden brown. Remove and set aside.

5. Remove the oil from the pan. Using the same oiled pan, sauté the taucheo with low heat.

6. Add the water and sugar. Stir well.

7. Turn off the heat. Add the taucheo paste on top of the fish fillets.

8. Top with fried garlic and ginger.

9. Once the water starts to boil rapidly in the wok, steam the fillets for 8 - 10 minutes.