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