mama's famous cabbage rice

No amount of words can adequately describe how much I miss my mum's homecooked comfort food. So I will occasionally try to replicate some of her signature dishes just to have a taste of home, one of which is her famous cabbage rice - 高丽菜饭 (pronounced as koh-lay-cai-peng in hokkien). It is a dish that can be eaten on its own when you're feeling lazy due to the simplicity of the cooking method and the many chunky bits of goodness mixed in with the rice, or you can accompany it with one or two extra side dishes if you have time to whip them up.

After learning from a couple of past failed attempts because I always managed to either forget to boil the cabbage or to leave out the seasoning entirely and so on, I finally got it quite close to Mum's standard in the last attempt even though I decided to do away with adding the chicken stock and chicken pieces. I have outlined below the full recipe that I managed to come up with after a phone call to Mum to clarify on some of the little details such as "do I need to boil the cabbage first?" and incorporating all the lessons learnt from the past few experiments.

Ingredients (serves three):
- two cups of rice
- two cloves of garlic finely chopped
- half a head of cabbage
- six or seven dried shitake mushrooms
- a handful of dried shrimps
- two chinese sausages
- cooking oil
- sesame oil
- salt
- ground white pepper
- spring onions for garnishing (optional)
- chicken stock (optional)
- chicken pieces approximately 2cm x 2cm, marinated in chinese wine and light soy sauce for at least 30min (I didn't add chicken this time but it's highly recommended you add the chicken as it significantly adds to the flavour)



Wash the cabbage and cut into big slices approximately 6cm x 2cm. Place them in a pot filled with water to cover all of the leaves and let it boil until soft. Soak the dried shrimps and shitake mushrooms in hot water until soft. Slice the already soft shitake mushrooms and the chinese sausages.



Put the rice in the rice cooker and set it to cook. If you want it to be more flavourful, you can replace the water with chicken stock although I find this makes it too salty for my liking. You can probably experiment with a mixture of water and stock.

Add a tablespoon of cooking oil to a deep frying pan or wok on medium heat. Add in the garlic when the pan is hot and stir fry until slightly brown.

(Additional step I did away with: add in the chicken and stir fry until the meat is about 90% cooked.)

Add in the dried shrimps and chinese sausages and stir fry for about 1min. Then add in the mushrooms and the boiled cabbage and stir fry for another 1min. Add a pinch of salt and some ground white pepper to taste.

By this time, the rice in the rice cooker should be about half cooked. Add the entire pan of the stir fried mix into the rice cooker on top of the rice. Drizzle some sesame oil over it and leave it to cook. When the rice is cooked, stir up the contents to mix all of them in evenly. Cover the rice cooker and leave it for a minute or two. It should look like the below. Ready to serve. ^^v

sweet and sour pork (咕噜肉)

The classic Cantonese dish - sweet and sour pork (咕噜肉 or "goo low yok") - is the one zi char dish that I miss the most from back home. Although it's easy enough to find instant packs of batter and sauce for this dish, I find that they still somehow cannot deliver the crunchiness of the pork and the zing of the slightly tangy sauce to the standards that I want.

So I mixed and matched a few recipes for the pork marinade, the batter and the sauce, and combined the resulting self-created recipe with an extra coating for the pork that was a method I learnt from an ex boyfriend's mum a decade ago to yield a more than satisfactory outcome that I am very proud to say is better than what you can get at a lot of the zi char stalls in SG. Give it a try to find out for yourself.

For the marinade:
- 1/2 tsp corn flour
- 1 tsp rice wine
- 1.5 tsp light soy sauce

For the batter:
- 1/2 cup water
- 60g plain flour
- 30g corn flour
- 1/2 egg
- 1 tsp cooking oil
- a pinch of salt

For the sweet and sour sauce:
- 2 to 2.5 tbsp ketchup
- 2 tsp plum sauce
- 1/2 to 1 tsp white rice vinegar
- 1 tsp oyster sauce
- 1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp corn flour
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp water
(you can adjust the proportion of each item here according to taste; some like it sweeter - add more sugar; some like it more sour - add more vinegar etc etc)

Other ingredients:
- about 250g of pork tenderloin cut into bite sized pieces
- 10 pieces of plain Hup Seng cream crackers
- 3/4 of a green bell pepper cut into small pieces (about 1cm x 1cm)
- 1/2 an onion cut into small pieces (about 1cm x 1cm)
- 2 pieces of pineapple slices from a can or fresh sweet pineapple cut into small pieces (about 1cm x 1cm)
- cooking oil enough for deep frying the pork pieces



Marinate the pork pieces in a bowl. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 30min. Mix all the ingredients for the batter well in a another bowl and set it aside. Mix all the ingredients for the sweet and sour sauce well in a third bowl and set it aside.

Pound the cream crackers in a mortar and pestle until fine - see the 2 pics below.





Here you see all the prepared ingredients ready to hit the wok (left to right, front to back): the frying batter, the marinated pork cubes, the sweet and sour sauce, the cut up ingredients - onions, pineapples and green bell pepper, the crushed cream crackers.



In a deep skillet, add enough cooking oil for deep frying and place it on medium heat. Transfer the pork cubes into the batter and then coat them with the crushed cream crackers - make sure they are well coated.



When the oil is hot, deep fry the coated pork cubes until golden brown.



Dish out the pork cubes and set on paper towels to drain out the excess oil.



In a separate frying pan or wok, heat up a tablespoon of cooking oil over medium heat. Stir fry the onions until translucent. Add in the bell pepper and stir fry for about 30 seconds. Add in the pineapple pieces and stir fry for another 30 seconds or until you can smell the aroma of the bell pepper.



Give the pre-prepared sweet and sour sauce a quick stir to mix it and swirl it into the frying pan/wok. Once the sauce thickens and you can smell the tanginess from the sauce, add in the pork cubes and give it a quick stir fry to make sure all the pork pieces are coated with the sauce. It's now ready to be dished out and served with rice!



Doesn't it look good? Just like what you get in a restaurant and it tastes as good if not better. ^^v

five spiced braised pork belly (五香鲁肉), sweet sour and spicy napa cabbage (糖醋白菜)

These two dishes have been on my to-cook list for a while. I was a bit intimidated by the amount of time required to braise the pork belly and hence never really seriously got to it. As I re-read some of the recipes I have in my favourites folder, I came across a few on this dish and decided to finally give it a go by combining the best three recipes I sourced.

Ingredients for the five spiced braised pork belly (五香鲁肉):
- 800g of pork belly with the skin on and lots of fatty bits
- 6 eggs (optional)
- a few pieces of dried beancurd (豆干 - tau kwa) (optional)
- 3 tbsp five spiced powder
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 3 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
- a knob of ginger about 2 inches long, thinly slice half of it and chop the rest finely

Ingredients for the sweet sour and spicy Napa cabbage (糖醋白菜):
- a whole Napa cabbage
- a handful of dried chilli
- 5 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1.5 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp chinese rice wine
- 4.5 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 2 tbsp finely chopped ginger
- a pinch of salt

First I prepared all the ingredients required for the pork belly (and laid them out nicely to take photos LOL).



Heat the cooking oil in a deep frying pan over medium heat. Make sure the pan is big enough to lay the whole strip of pork belly in. Add the diced onions to stir fry until translucent. Then add the chopped ginger and five spiced powder and stir fry until fragrant. This takes only a few minutes.



Lay the pork belly flat in the pan over the spices. Flip it over after a minute. After another minute, add enough water to cover the pork belly and throw in the garlic and sliced ginger. Add the dark soy sauce and fish sauce and bring it to the boil.



(Optional) While waiting for the above to boil, I threw several eggs into a separate pot to let it boil for about 8 minutes. De-shell the hardboiled eggs when ready and stand by for adding to the pork.



(Optional) Wash and cut the dried beancurd and stand by for adding to the pork.



Let the contents in the deep pan boil for a few minutes on high then transfer the whole pot into a slow cooker. Add in the hardboiled eggs and dried beancurd (optional). Let it simmer in the slow cooker for at least six to eight hours, or until the pork is soft enough for your taste. I did not have so much time to spare and so I did without the slow cooker but let it simmer on low heat in the deep pan for about three hours.



While the pork is being braised, prepare the Napa cabbage and the ingredients required for the dish. In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, rice wine, soy sauce and sugar and stir until they are thoroughly mixed together and then set aside. The actual cooking of this dish only takes about five minutes so stand by all the ingredients and only start cooking it when the pork is ready to be served.





When the pork is soft enough to your taste, most of the liquid should have boiled off, leaving the pan looking something like this.



It's now time to cook the cabbage. Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the chopped ginger when hot. Stir fry until fragrant. Add the cabbage and dried chilli and stir fry until the cabbage is soft but still crisp. Add a pinch of salt. Give the prepared sauce a quick stir and swirl it into the pan. Stir fry to mix everything together. Ready to serve.



Remove the pork belly from the pan and slice into pieces.



Serve with the eggs and dried beancurd and drizzle the braised liquid over them to serve.



I had the above with rice. The pork is moist and soft, the fatty bits sweet and juicy, the cabbage tangy and slightly spicy. Very yummy. ^^v

from noob to gourmet

2006 - I was a noob in the kitchen trying to make burger for dinner in the first few weeks of my arrival in Sydney. Below is a video I made out of boredom then. I don't think I've shared it in all these years. Do not laugh, ok!



Four years on, I can actually make some really great burger patties from scratch!!! The list of all the ingredients used goes: minced beef, bread crumbs, chopped onions, sliced mushrooms, chopped apples, chorizo cut into small pieces, salad, eggs, strawberries, brie cheese.



The patties are made by mixing the minced beef, onions, apples, bread crumbs, chorizo and eggs with lots of spices and herbs. Corn flour was sprinkled on the patties afterwards so they don't disintegrate once they hit the pan. I didn't quite keep track of the proportions of each ingredient - everything was done by gut feel and was dependent on the chef's mood.



They were then pan fried over small fire. I was very worried the meat wouldn't cook well enough due to the thickness and was prepared to put them into the oven as a back up but they all turned out beautifully brown and well done.



A simple side of strawberries and mushrooms was added to the dinner menu because I was trying to use up whatever food there was in the fridge before they all went bad.



Baguette was used instead of the usual burger buns. I stuck them into the oven for a bit before spreading some butter and tomato sauce on it.



Then in went the salad, pineapple slices and cherry tomatoes.



Lastly, arrange the patties and brie cheese onto the bread and add the sides and we have a nice gourmet homecooked burger meal.



So what do you think of my progression from a noob to gourmet in four years? Quite impressive hey? ^^v

special chicken dish

I have recently been inspired to use the oven more in a quest to whip up a wider variety of different dishes for my daily lunch and dinner. Here's a special chicken dish concocted with whatever stuff that can be found in the kitchen after a grocery trip without any reference to any recipe! It's all about creativity and innovation hokay!!!

First step: pre-heat the oven at about 180 degrees celsius while you brown a few pieces of chicken (with the skin on!) in a pan together with chopped onions, spanish chorizo and stuffed olives.



Second step: when you are satisfied the chicken has turned a nice brown, transfer all of the stuff from the pan to a casserole pot.



Third step: add a can of peeled whole tomatoes (Coles was selling them at $3 for 3 cans!) and sprinkle some mixed herbs (thyme, basil, sage, rosemary etc). Cover the casserole pot and place into the oven.



Fourth step: while the dish is cooking in the oven, you can also quickly put together some eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, carrots and onions and place into the oven to cook at the same time. This will be your super healthy vegetarian sides.



Leave in oven for about an hour and a half at about 170 - 180 degrees celsius.



Fifth step: if the vege side is not enough for you, you can add some cous cous to the dish which was what I did. Of course you can add less butter than I did. ;p



And ta-dah!!! Super yums and easy to cook special chicken dish!



I am now such a pro in the kitchen!!! LOL

simple homemade lassi

If you're a lassi (from wiki: a popular and traditional Punjabi yogurt-based drink of India and Pakistan) fan like me, here's a simple way to get a quick fix for the occasional craving for lazybums who are not willing to spend more than 1min on the preparation.

All I do is fill up half a glass with my favourite yoghurt - Ski D'lite Honey Buzz, and the remaining half of the glass with milk and stir them til they're evenly mixed. Oh if you haven't tried Honey Buzz, you should; you'll never want to have yoghurt in any other flavour ever again.



Or for a punch of citrus sourness, mix yoghurt, milk and fruit juice of equal proportions and stir til they're all evenly mixed into a refreshing drink. Experiment with different flavoured yoghurt and juices for different results.

It's so refreshing and makes for a healthy after meal drink. I'm extremely pleased with the little discovery of this simple homemade concoction. I think I'm really turning into a whizz in the kitchen hah!

berry meringue

Remember the berry meringue I successfully made on the eve of my thirtieth birthday? I thought I'd try to re-create it for dessert one night and document the process as I did so I can share here on how easy it is to make it.



The above was all that was needed: a big bowl, eggs (I used 4 the first time and that turned out to be much more than expected and could feed 3 people so I used 2 this time), berries (from a pack of frozen berries bought at the local supermarket), an electric egg beater and dessert bowls. I also added a tablespoon of sugar as I like it uber sweet.



First I separated the egg whites from the yolks - we only need the whites. The first time I did it, I thought this was the most difficult step but it was too easy the second time round. Add sugar if desired according to your level of sweet-toothiness (is there such word?) and then beat it until it turns into a mass of great white fluff as shown above. I believe only an electric beater can do the job but you can always try beating it manually but keep me posted on the outcome ok?



This, I feel, is the most difficult step of all - folding the berries into the fluff without destroying the fluff. Being the impatient person that I am, I ruined the whole mixture the second round because I wasn't gentle enough. Also note not to be too greedy with the berries, too much berries in relation to the fluff will kill it too (I believe it was the moisture when the frozen berries thawed).



Then you pour the mixture into the dessert bowl - remember to spread butter all around beforehand. It will look like an unappetising blob of gooey stuff as seen in the below pic but will turn out all nice if it rises properly as in the first pic above. Here, you will see the mixture looking more reddish pink than white - that's because I added too much berries. You want to be able to see more whites than red in yours.



Lastly, just put them into the preheated oven at 180 degrees celsius. I can't remember how long it stayed in the oven but it wasn't long, maybe about 10 minutes? I just kept peeping in through the glass window and the moment I saw it turn a nice golden brown, I removed it. Sprinkle some icing sugar on it, add fresh strawberries on top and serve with a scoop of the creamiest vanilla ice cream you can find.

So easy right? I didn't even need to study any recipe books and can whip it up in less than half an hour. Try it!