Snacks for teabreak

Teabreak snacks - something light but satisfying.

Sunny sides up with white sesame seed bread

Pan fried bacon on white sesame seed bread

These two version of snacks are very easy to prepare and very yummy. I used white bread with sesame seeds. The bread itself are super yummy. It's good idea for breakfast too especially when you are rushing in the morning.

Simple steamy dinner

Today's special menu is steaming dishes. Had steamed eggs and a new dish, steam tofu, prawns and glass noodles. Since the dishes are rather bland, I pan fried two pieces of pork chop for my children.

Hubby was out with his friend to dinner celebrating their SCKLM completion. Left me and the children at home. Was lazy to go out so prepared these simple dishes.

1. steamed tofu, prawns and glass noodles

2. steam silky soft eggs

3. pan fried pork chop

Kids were happy coz their favourites are steaming dishes. Although the steam tofu and steam eggs taste are rather bland but it's good to have with a bowl of steaming hot rice.

Morning breakfast meal

After preparing meals for my hubby's first full marathon at the SCKLM, I began to prepare breakfast for him every morning. Most of the time are western styled breakfast....meaning bread/toasts with eggs and sausages/bacons....at times will also prepare Chinese styled breakfast like fried rice...

Stir fried shimeji and French beans with sunny sides up and classic sunflower seed bread

Typical western breakfast - Sausages, pan fried chicken breast, sides up

and classic sunflower seed bread

Protein loaded breakkie - Pan fried chicken breast with hard boiled eggs

Chinese styled breakfast - Egg fried rice with prawns and sausages

Waking up early in the morning preparing all these are sometimes very tiring but I do enjoyed very much and happy to see satisfying smiling face on my hubby and children. Just loved to see them enjoying their meals. 

Warm hearty pork porridge for breakfast

I have ran out of ideas what to prepare for breakfast. While browsing the net for ideas, this came up to me....since I have minced pork in my fridge, why not have minced pork porridge for breakfast.....yeah !
It's also very easy to prepare and cook.

Ingredients:
1) minced pork
2) dried scallops (soak with hot water)
3) fried shallots and spring onions for garnishing

Marinate:
1) salt
2) pepper
3) soy sauce
4) sesame oil
5) rice wine / Xiao xing fa tiu wine
6) a dash of corn flour

Cooking method:
1) boil water, pour in rice (I cooked 2.5 cups of rice for my family of four)
2) Scoop spoonful of minced pork and make them into balls
3) add the minced pork balls into the pot
4) let it simmer for a few minutes till minced pork balls are cooked
5) transfer the content of the pot into the rice cooker and cook according to the rice cooker timer for
    cooking porridge

Cook rice and minced pork balls using a small pot

Transfer all contents from the pot into the rice cooker

Yummy and heart warming bowl of minced pork porridege

Garnished with spring onions and fried shallots

SCKLM 2016 meals preparation

A month ago, I posted about our family first running event, Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon 2016. It's the most grand running event held in Malaysia and it's very well organised.
My hubby went for the full marathon while me and the children joined the 5km fun run.
To prepare my hubby for his 1st full marathon, I prepared carbo-loaded breakfast and dinner for him. He needs carbohydrates for his run.

The meals preparation started three days before the event. Everyday begins with a hearty breakfast meal.

Day 1: Hearty breakfast

(Sunny sides up + pan fried chicken breast + baby potatoes and romaine salad with goma sauce + fresh tomatoes)

Day 1: Fragrant yam rice

Yam Rice recipe

Day 2: Big Breakfast

(Boiled broccoli + baby tomatoes + pan fried chicken breast + stir fried shimeji mushrooms + Leclassic sesawhite and sesame seed bread)

Day 2: Dinner (Stir fried Brussels Sprouts with prawns)

Brussels sprouts recipe

Day 2: Dinner (Stir fry vermicelli)

Day 3 was a Saturday, breakfast was our casual breakfast at kopitiam.

Day 3: Spaghetti carbonara and spaghetti Bolognese

Day 3 dinner was the most important meals for hubby's preparation for his run. He needs to load with high carbo dinner. The most common meal is spaghetti. I prepared two versions of spaghetti cause my children preferred carbonara while me and hubby preferred Bolognese. Bolognese recipe

My Favourite HCP

I bought my Happy Call Pan (HCP) last year from Singapore. Used it once to bake sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes was cooked soften very fast but the sweet liquid of the potatoes stained my pan. I was so upset cause the stain cannot be removed. So I left my pan unused for few months.
Recently I was trying to cook sunny sides up for my hubby using my non stick pan but was not successful coz I do not know how to control the fire.
So I gave my HCP another try. Well, it's still the best coz I m able to cook prefect sunny sides up without over cooked yolks.

Sunny sides up using HCP

Prefect double sunny sides up for breakfast

The secret of HCP pan is to heat up the pan and cook using low fire. The best thing about using HCP for sunny sides up is, it is able to cook prefect sunny sides up without over cooked yolks. After cracking the eggs into the pan, just close the cover for 1 or 2 minutes and viola....perfectly cooked sunny sides up for breakfast is ready

Dinner (290716)

It's Friday and I decided to cook for my family. Went to market early morning to get the ingredients. Planned to prepare a simple dinner with simple home dishes.

Menu for the night:

Steam beancurd with crispy fried dried prawns and shallots

Ginger and spring onions stir fry pork with sweet and soy sauce

Salted egg yolks stir fry French beans

Steam beancurd with crispy fried dried prawns and shallots

Ingredients:

1) Silky tofu (beancurd)

2) Garlics and shallots

3) dried prawns

3) seasoning - soy sauce and sesame oil

Methods:

1) Steam tofu over gentle heat for six to seven minutes to warm the tofu, remove and set aside.

2) Heat oil in a wok, fry garlic and shallots till crisp and golden.

3) Remove but leave the oil in the wok.

4) Add the seasoning ingredients to the wok and bring to boil.

5) Reduce the heat and simmer until sauce thickens slightly; pour hot sauce over tofu.

6) Top with the crisp garlic, ginger and shallots, and finally the garnishing ingredients, serve immediately.

Ginger and spring onions stir fry pork with sweet and soy sauce
Ingredients:
1) Sliced pork
2) Garlics, gingers and spring onions (Julienne the gingers and spring onions)
3) seasoning - sweet and soy sauce, salt and pepper

Methods:
1) Heat oil in a wok, fry garlic, ginger till fragrant
2) add in pork slice and stir fry till 80% cooked
3) add in seasoning and spring onions, serve hot

Salted egg yolks stir fry French beans

Ingredients:

1) French beans

2) Garlics

3) salted egg

4) seasoning - salt and chicken stocks

Methods:

1) Prepare salted eggs, boil in hot water just like boiling hard boiled eggs

2) Separate the yolks and whites. Set a side

3) Blanch French beans in hot boiling water till semi cooked. Remove and set a side

4) Heat oil in a wok, fry garlics till fragrant

5) Add in salted egg yolks and fry till bubbled

6) Add in French beans and seasoning, fry till French beans are coated with the salted egg yolks

7) Add in the diced salted egg whites, stir well and serve hot

Silky smooth steam eggs

Steam eggs seems like a easy dish but it may not be as easy as it seems. To steam a plate of silky smooth eggs is a challenge of timing and skill.
I recently gave it a try. First try was a success. My family loved the texture of the steam eggs.

The secret to perfect steam eggs are the amount of water added and the timing.

Ingredients:

1) 3 eggs

2) 1 tbsp of soy sauce

3) dashes of chicken stocks

4) dashes of sesame oil

5) spring onions for garnishing

Methods:

1) crack the eggs into a bowl

2) prepare chicken stocks with water. the amount of water is 3 halves egg shell to 1 egg

3) stir the eggs and slowly add in the chicken stocks water

    note: do not beat the eggs as it will creates bubbles

4) slowly stir in soy sauce, sesame oil

5) Sieve the eggs into the plate for steaming

Cooking:

1) heat wok with water and steam rack

2) place the plate of eggs on the rack when the water is boiling

3) set timer to steam the eggs for 8 minutes

Note: 8 minutes steaming is for plain eggs. You may add in centure eggs and salted eggs but this will take longer steaming time

Impromptu dinner on Monday

It's a last minute home cooked dinner on Monday. After fetching my son from tuition, I drove to my aunt's house to collect dinner but i was shocked, she did not prepare our dinner that day. So the first thing that came into my head was what am i going to cook for my family? It was already 7:00pm....and my hubby should be on his way home already.....oh dear...but before the panic got out of hand, i remembered it was a Monday and my hubby would need to fetch my girl home from her tutorial class which ends at 8:00pm and usually reach home by 8:30pm. That means i have at least an hour plus to whip up dinner before they reach home.

The next thing is to figure out what i have at home while driving home. I remembered i cleared up everything in my fridge for Saturday's dinner but i remembered i have some dried noodles (yee mee) but i do not have meats. So i drove to nearby store to get some chicken fillets.

Once reached home, cooking begins....preparation and cooking plus cleaning all done within 45 minutes. Timing is just right.

This was what we had for dinner....

Braised yee mee with chicken fillets and choy sum

I used to cook this dish for our weekend lunch but since my children have busy weekend schedule attending classes, it's much easier to eat out.

Ingredients:

1) Yee Mee (Dried noodles)

2) Chicken breasts (marinate with soy sauce, salt and pepper)

3) Choy sum

4) Garlics

Seasoning:

1) Soy sauce

2) Salt and pepper

3) Oyster sauce

4) Dark soy sauce

5) Dash of Maggie Seasoning

Note: Mix item 1 to 4 in a small bowl with some water and set a side. Seasoning item 5 is to be added when the noodles are almost done

Methods:

1) Boil a wok of water to blanch the choy sum and yee mee till soften

    Note: make sure not too soft else will be soggy

2) Heat wok and fry garlics till fragrant

2) Add in pre-marinated chicken fillets

3) Add in yee mee and seasonings

4) Finally add in choy sum and a dash of Maggie seasoning

Viola, simple, quick and yummy dinner is ready....

Saturday night feast at home

I was in the mood for cooking these few days so decided to cook up a feast on Saturday.

Our dinner on Saturday....yummy......

Dinner on the menu

1. Stir fried vermicelli with porks and prawns

2. Salted eggs yolks French Crabs

3. Stir fried broccoli and shimeji mushrooms

4. Anchovies spinach soup

Salted eggs fry French Crabs

Last Saturday, we had just done with our breakfast and children were asking where to go....in the midst of our discussion, I mentioned about fresh crabs sold at Jusco Supermarket. My son's first thought is shall we get some and cook at home for dinner?

And so off we went to Jusco to check out if they have any nice crabs and decided to cook salted egg yolks crabs, my son's favourites. 

The fresh French Crabs at Jusco. One big crab costing RM45.00.

Ingredients:

Curry leaves and birds eye chillies, Condensed milk

Methods:

1. Deep fry crabs coated with corn starch flour

2. Heat wok with oil, fry garlics, birds eye chillies and curry leaves till fragrant

3. Add in steamed egg yolks and fry till bubbled

4. Add in evaporated milk

5. Add in pre-fried crabs and toss till crabs covered with salted eggs yolks

Coat the crabs with some corn starch flour and deep fry

Yummy salted eggs yolks French Crabs

Brussels Sprouts with prawns

Brussels Sprouts, our family all time favourite but it's very difficult to find here in my home country. We had so much of it during our holiday to Perth, Australia. Almost every meal we would have Brussels Sprouts. We specially like to plain stir fried with some meat or prawns.

It's a very easy dish. Ingredients include garlics, prawns and of cause Brussels Sprouts. Seasons with some salt, pepper and soy sauce to taste.

Simple and delicious dish.

One Pot dinner - Chicken rice

After trying the yam rice, I have decided to cook chicken rice for dinner. Was out having breakfast with my children. We went to a wonton noodle stall and saw nice char siew (roast sweet pork). Decided to buy some home as additional dish to our chicken rice dinner. After breakfast went to nearby market to buy chicken. Wanted to get chicken thighs but what was left were some chicken breast cause it was almost noon. Am lucky too the market is not closed yet.

Chicken rice ingredients:
1) garlics, shallots and ginger (chop lots of garlics and shallots. slice few pieces of ginger)
2) chicken with skins and a little fats
3) pandan leaves

Marinate chicken:
1) salt, pepper, soy sauce and sesame oil

Methods for chicken stock:
1) fry garlics, ginger and heads of spring onions till fragrant
2) add chicken fats and fry till fats melt
3) add water and let it simmer

 chicken stock is prepared in advanced using garlic, spring onions, ginger and chicken fats

Methods of rice:
1) fry garlics, shallots and ginger till fragrant
2) add in chicken and fry for a while
3) add in uncooked rice and fry till fragrant
4) transfer everything to the rice cooker and add in the chicken stock (make sure water is just enough
    to cover the rice else rice would be too soft)
5) add in pandan leaves and seasoning to taste (salt and soy sauce)

Heat oil and fry garlics onions till fragrant

Add in chicken and raw rice and fry for few minutes

Transfer fried ingredients into the rice cooker

Add in chicken stock just enough to cover the rice

Yummy fragrant chicken rice is ready to be served

Garnish with spring onions and fried shallots

Dinner is served for four

Check out my next post for Fried Brussels sprouts with prawns...

Homecooked one pot dinner

Dinner tonight was simple and easy to cook. We had yam rice for dinner....
I have always reading recipe online and one day out of thought, I wanted to cook yam rice. I still remember during our stay with my mother in law, she used to cook one pot dinner yam rice for dinner on lazy days especially Fridays.
It's very easy to cook using the rice cooker. The ingredients are easy to prepare too.

Ingredients:
1) 2.5 cups of rice
2) shallots
3) garlics
4) dried shrimps
5) yam
6) mushrooms
7) pork or chicken
8) green onions and chillies for garnishing

Pork or chicken marinate:
1) salt, pepper, soy sauce and sesame oil

Seasoning:
1) 2 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
2) 2 tablespoon of soy sauce
3) 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
4) 1 teaspoon of salt
5) few dashes of pepper
6) few drops of sesame oil

Methods:
1) wash the rice and keep a side
2) finely chop shallots, garlics and dried shrimps
3) cut yam into small pieces (not too small though cause it will soften when cooked
4) heat up oil and fry shallots, garlics and dried shrimps till fragrant
5) add in yam pieces and fry till a little brownish
6) finally add in the uncooked rice and seasoning
7) transfer all into the rice cooker and add water just enough to cover the rice and ingredients
8) cook like normal white rice timing

 

Yummy yam rice

Dessert of the day (020714)

Today is a busy day for me cause my boy has tutorial classes early morning till late afternoon. What makes it busy day for me is that I have to chauffeur him between classes in an interval of 2 hours each class. Hubby has not planned any run today so he can accompany me for the day.
We started our day early, having breakfast at our favourite dim sum place near the neighbourhood. After dropping our boy to his tutorial class, hubby went to pump petrol at nearby petrol station. We found out the convenient store at the petrol station is having promotion on their coffee and decided to try it out. We spent an hour plus for the coffee and left to fetch our boy to another tutorial class.
This way is better than go back home and drive out again. Weather is so hot....in and out of the house is killing me...

After dropping our boy to his second tutorial class, we went home. I bought some sweet potatoes so hubby suggested to cook sweet potatoes soup for dessert.

My yummy sweet potatoes dessert...

Ingredients:

1) sweet potatoes

2) green and red beans

3) rock sugar to taste

4) 2 slices of ginger

Method:

1) boil the green and red beans till soften

2) add in ginger slices and boil for a minute

3) add sweet potatoes and rock sugar to taste

Note: have to boil the green and red beans soften first before adding sweet potatoes cause the sweet potatoes are easier to cook

This is my special recipe. Normally this dessert is either cooked with green or red beans. I added green AND red beans because my children had mixed the beans together during their school project. Hence my special created sweet potatoes dessert with green and red beans soup. hahahaha