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.

Mince Chicken Cottage Pie

Not really a new recipe as it is similar to my Cottage Pie recipe but instead I've replaced it with mince chicken and added some vege for a balanced meal with a touch of crunchiness.

The verdict??? My daughter had double helping and mummy is happy as ever.

**

Ingredients:-

- 750g to 900g of potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes (makes boiling them faster)

- 50g butter

- 1/4 cup of milk

- 2 tbsps oil

- 2 onions, finely chopped (medium sized)

- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

- 500g to 700g of minced chicken

- 1/2 cup celery cut into small cubes

- 1/2 cup carrots cut into small cubes

- 1/4 cup of plain flour

- 1 1/2 cup of chicken stock 

- 1/3 cup tomato paste

- 3 tsps Worcestershire sauce (you may get it from supermarkets; Maggi brand has it too)

- 1 tbsp of mustard (you may use Dijon mustard or any other commercial mustard sold in supermarkets)

- 2 tbsps of fresh chopped parsley (I used the bottled ones sold in supermarkets) 

**

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius and at the same time grease a ovenproof dish.

2. Boil potatoes until soft and drain well.

3. Return potatoes into a pan or saucepan and just heat up till moisture of potatoes is dried.

4. Then, add butter and mash until smooth and free of lumps and then add milk to give a firm consistency.

5. Season mash potato with salt and pepper.

6. Heat up another pan with oil; and cook garlic and onions until soft.

7. Add chicken and cook over high heat until meat is cooked and most of the liquid has evaporated; break whatever lumps with a fork. Then add the vege.

8. Add flour to the mince chicken until well combined

9. Slowly add stock and stir until it has thickened.

10. Remove from heat and add tomato paste, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and parsley.

11. Season with some salt, ground pepper and pour into the prepared greased dish.

12. Spread mash over the meat mixture and use fork to swirl and make patterns on the mash.

13. Bake for about 40 minutes or until potato turns golden.

14. After baking, leave the pie to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

**

Simple and yummy...

Dry Loh Shee Fun

Here's another new recipe I tried today. Not actually new but a more improved one and I guess I'll be cooking this version of Dry Loh Shee Fun moving forward. Caitlin seems to feel it tastes way better than my old one so I just wanted to share this recipe. Caitlin also had second helpings means it's indeed a better recipe.

Ingredients:-

- 300g mince pork

- 1 packet Loh Shee Fun

- some green vege

- onion, finely chopped

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- 2 tbsps light soy sauce

- 2 tbsps oyster sauce

- 1 tsp sugar

- dash of pepper

- cooking oil

- 2 tbsps thick soy sauce

- spring onion to garnish

Sauce:-

- 2 tbsps light soy sauce

- 2 tbsps thick soy sauce

- 2 tbsps oyster sauce

- 1 tsp sugar

- 4 tbsps water

1. Rinse pork and drain.

2. Add light soy sauce with oyster sauce, sugar and pepper to pork and mix well to marinate for a while.

3. Meanwhile, blanch the green vege in hot water and once cooked, remove and put aside.

4. Then boil a pot of hot water and put in the Loh Shee Fun to cook for about 5 mins, then drain and put aside.

5. Heat a wok with oil and fry onion and garlic. Proceed to throw in the pork and stir fry. Add the thick soy sauce to pork and fry for about 2 more minutes. Remove and transfer to a bowl and cover.

6. To make sauce, mix all the sauce ingredients and pour into a small pot and stir well for about 5 mins. Transfer to a small bowl.

7. To serve, first put some Loh Shee Fun into a bowl, add some sauce over the noodle followed by some cooked mince pork and vege. Garnish with spring onion.

Ta da!!! Simple and balance meal.

Steamed Barramundi in Soy Sauce

And yes, I've started back my cooking. Been away for a while as I needed to get a lot of things in order and now that it's more settled, I'm back to cooking and happy like a lark. Partly thanks to my little girl who has been encouraging to go back to cooking, telling me misses my cooking and for the past couple of weeks; I've dabbled with my old recipes and my gift for it is still very much there. And most importantly, the little one is pleased.

So, my first attempt on a steamed barramundi. I'm good at eating them at restaurants but oh well...lets try to make one.

Ingredients:-

- 1 whole fish

- 2 inch ginger, julienned

- 1 shallot, finely chopped

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- 3 tbsps light soy sauce

- 1 tsp sesame oil

- 2 tbsps Shaoxing rice wine

- 2 tbsps cooking oil

- spring onion or coriander to garnish

- 1 whole red chilli, sliced

1. Clean the fish and pat dry.

2. Use sharp knife to split the fish in the middle like a butterfly 

3. In a large stainless steel plate, place half ginger and then top with fish and balance ginger on top of fish. Pour sesame oil and Shaoxing wine over fish to marinate for 10 mins

4. Meanwhile, fry shallots and garlic with oil. Pour over fish together with oil and add soy sauce with chilli

5. Steam fish for about 10-15 mins. 

6. Use fork to insert into thickest part of fish to see if cooked.

7. Garnish and serve with steam rice 

Sambal Petai Prawn

It has been a while since I tried any new recipes. Have just been recycling the old ones due to the schedule that I am in and cooking from a daily basis has gone to only weekends. Hahahhahaahhahahah......I have indeed tried this recipe a couple of times but never came around to updating the recipe so, here it is.

A Malaysian all time favourite though not my hubby's. He absolutely hates Petai as it stinks but my maid and I love it so he has resorted to just having the prawns.

Ingredients: -

- 1 bunch of Petai
- 500g prawns (shelled, deveined and left with the tails only; season prawns with 1 tsp sugar)
- 1 tbsp tamarind paste mixed with 3 tbsps of water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 tbsps oil

Blended Ingredients:-

- 15 small onions
- 16 dried chillies
- 1cm belacan 
- 4 candlenuts


1. Heat oil and fry blended ingredients till fragrant.
2. Stir in tamarind and bring to boil.
3. Add in prawns and cook till curled up, about 1-2 minutes.
4. Add Petai and stir fry till they turn bright green.
5. Stir in salt and serve.

Ta da!!!! A simple dish........

Steamed Coconut Juice with Egg White

When I was looking through this recipe, I was kind of skeptical and wonder how it would turn out. You know, the pictures always looks so good but when one makes it, it never turns out the same. Hahahahahahhaah......but I decided to try this recipe and it was good! Hubby had second helping!!!

Ingredients:-

- 2 young coconut juice
- 2 young coconut flesh
- 3 egg whites (beaten)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 25g hot water







1. Pour out coconut juice and spoon out flesh
2. Dissolve sugar and water. Add egg white to coconut juice and syrup, blend evenly. Filter.
3. Pour the mixture into a large bowl and add the coconut flesh.
4. Steam over low heat for 20 minutes.

Easy peasy!!! A yummy dessert to end a wonderful dinner.

Prosperity Oyster with Mushroom

Every Chinese family would have in some form in at least one of their dishes where there will dried oysters. This dish is said to bring happiness and spendour to the whole family. A lot of chopping though but a yummy dish.

Ingredients A:-

- 150g dried oyster (soak in water overnight)
- 4 Chinese mushrooms (soak till soft, remove the stems)
- 1 Chinese sausage
- 120g water chestnuts (peeled)
- 150g celery






Ingredients B:-

- 3 cloves garlic (diced)
- 1/2 tbsp chopped ginger
- 20 lettuce leaves


Seasonings:-

- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/3 salt
- 1/8 pepper
- 1/2 tbsp huadiao wine
- adequate sesame oil
- adequate dark soy sauce


1. Dice Ingredients A, scald it in boiling water, remove and drain.
2. Heat up some oil in pot, fry minced garlic and ginger till fragrant. Add in scalded INgredients A, stir-fry evenly. Add in Seasonings, stir-fry until fragrant. Dish out.
3. Cut lettuce into round slices. Wrap in fried ingredients. Serve.


Another easy recipe but I really didn't like the dicing though. It's a lot of work. Hahahahahhahahaha.....