Deep Fried Sweet and Sour Siakap

I love fish but I'm generally not a fan of frying them but I know my little one loves deep fried fish especially in sweet and sour sauce and how then can I decline my little one and here's a recipe. Easy and fast and definitely yummilicious according to my girl.

Ingredients:-

- 1 whole fish

- 2 cups oil for frying

- lemon to clean fish

Sweet and Sour Sauce Ingredients

- 2 inch ginger, sliced thinly

- 1 shallot, finely chopped

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- 1/4 cup tomato sauce

- 1/4 cup chilli sauce 

- 1 tbsp of white vinegar

- 1 tsp sugar

- 1/4 cup water

- 1tsp cornstarch mixed with 1/4 bowl water

1. Clean the fish and pat dry.

2. Use sharp knife to split the fish in the middle like a butterfly and use lemon to clean at the underbelly of the fish.

3. Pour oil and heat at high fire. Once oil is hot, put in the fish to fry. 

4. After fish is deep fried, remove and place on a plate covered with paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

5. Then remove paper towels and leave fish on a serving dish.

6. To make sauce, heat a bit of oil and stir fry ginger, onions and garlic for a minute or two and then pour in the Sweet and Sour mixture and stir for about 2-3 minutes.

7. Add cornstarch mix and stir quickly.

8. Pour sauce over fish and serve.

Done and ready to be eaten. Caitlin nearly polished the whole fish as the fish was also crispy. Nothing is more satisfying watching my own daughter loving all my cooking. I'm a happy mummy. 

Lotus Root Soup

My first attempt on one of those more traditional Chinese soup which I grew up eating. I'm no expert of making Chinese soup as it requires herbs and all and I never seem to understand what is needed but coming across someone on FB who actually took the time to take pictures prior to cooking and after cooking made it easier for me to copy. All I did was take the pictures to a herbal shop and ask for help. The rest I just stood very long at a supermarket, trying figure out which was what. Lol!!!!!

But truly, it was worth it and I'm amazed the soup turned out fantastic. No salt or sugar or pepper was needed. Just absolutely a healthy soup which can be taken just like that or taken with warm rice.

Ingredients:-

- 500g to 1kg of pork ribs and soft ribs (depending how many people you're cooking for)

- lotus roots, sliced thinly 

- 3 large bowls of water

- 1 small bowl of dry lotus seeds (white looking nuts)

- 10 dry Chinese red dates (makes the soup sweet)

- 6 small dry scallops (makes the soup absolutely yummilicious)

1. Boil some water over high heat first and then pour over the pork. This removes the murky looking stuff from the pork or else your soup will turn out murky. You may do it twice if you wish but make sure you have 2 rounds of boiling water with you then.

2. On a separate pot, boil the 3 large bowls of water.

3. Once boiled, throw in all the ingredients including the pork and allow to boil under high heat for about 20 to 30 mins.

4. Then, transfer the entire pot and pour it into a Slow Cooker to cook.

**NOTE**

If you've got someone to watch the Slow Cooker, cook under Low for about 3 hours and then switch to Auto for the rest of the time till you want to have it. Or, you can leave it under Auto for the next 6-8 hours and it will be fine. I actually boiled mine at 6.30am and transferred to Slow Cooker at 7am under Low till 10.30am and switched to Auto thereafter; and left it till I had it at 7pm. 

My daughter had a portion for lunch and it was alresy yummy and she had it for dinner, too. Talk about having something healthy.

So, there is sure going to be more soup coming up.

Egg Mayo

An all time fav for many I guess and especially for my little girl who just loves eggs. With a busy schedule, I do come home and cook but the issue normally lies in the lunch preparations for her. If there are leftovers from the night before, then good. If not, sandwiches will be the way to go but most importantly it's healthy.

The other is to add a dollop of this egg mayo mix into a prepared salad served with some sliced ham and there goes another healthy meal.

So, here's my version of egg mayo for my little one......

Ingredients:-

- 4 hard boiled eggs, roughly smashed with a fork

- 3 tbsps mayonnaise 

- 1 tbsp mustard 

- 1tsp Mixed Herbs

- salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil the eggs and then peel of the egg shells and smashed the eggs roughly with a fork

2. Add mayonnaise and mustard and mixed well into the smashed eggs

3. Once mixed well, add some Mixed Herbs with salt and pepper.

4. Refrigerate and use when needed.

Ta da!!!! Hehehehehhe........

ABC Soup

This is one of the oldest and simplest soup in the book of soups. Lol!!! I believe every Chinese family has this dish every now and then for dinner and best of all, it's super healthy. Easy to cook and even my little one also likes it.

Ingredients:-

- 500g chopped chicken

- 2 carrots cut into cubes

- 4 potatoes cut into cubes

- 4 tomatoes cut

- 2 large onions cut

1. Boil about 4 litres of water.

2. Once water is boiling, put in carrots, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and chicken.

3. Boil for about 10 minutes at high fire. Then, boil another 20 minutes at small fire or until carrots and potatoes soften.

4. Serve with warm rice.

Of course you may have it plain without rice and still it's healthy as no salt or pepper is needed.