Chicken Congee

Congee or Rice Porridge is boiled in more amount of water for a longer period until the rice breaks down and becomes a fairly thick white porridge. Some people will served congee as breakfast and is often eaten with fried bread sticks known as youtiao. Congee are served to the unwell as it is easier to digest and are one of the nutritious food for young infants.

Today, I'm going to share my Chicken Congee recipe here. My girl has been complained to me her toothache and not able to eat rice. She request me to cook her congee instead and she finished 5 bowls (*the bowl that I use in my pic) of congee just for her lunch. " Mommy, your congee are yummy!!!", I'm glad that she loves it so much. I seldom cook congee because I don't really love congee. I will only cook congee when I'm not feeling well (*touch wood!!!) hehe ... Anyway, for congee lovers out there .. do give it a try !! It's easy to prepare and very yummy :)

Ingredients :

2 cup rice

water for cooking congee 3 liter (more or less)

1 piece chicken breast

Average amount of chicken bones - for stock

5 - 6 dried scallops

1 carrot - sliced into smaller piece

1 tbsp "dong cai" - 东菜

small piece of ginger - smashed

Seasoning :

sesame oil

light soy sauce

some dark soy sauce - for color

pepper

***(adjust the seasoning to taste)

some green onion for garnishing

• Wash & clean the chicken bones from fat & chicken blood.
• When the water boiling add in the chicken breast & chicken bones for chicken stock (approx: 15-20mins)
• Remove the cooked chicken breast & chicken bones from the stock.
• Wash the rice & add into the chicken stock. Add in sliced carrots, scallops, "dong cai" & smashed ginger.
• Increased the heat & bring the congee to boil (approx: 30mins)
• When the congee starts to thicken. Lower the heat & continue cook till all the rice breaks & turn soft (*time depend on the congee texture preferred)
• Season the congee to taste.
• Serve warm with shredded chicken meat floss (*from the cooked chicken breast) & some green onions.

HAPPY COOKING ! :)

AMY

Banana & Cranberries Butter Cake

I'm not a fan of banana fruit and I don't like to banana unless it was made into banana fritters, banana muffins or banana cakes. I've baked banana chiffon cake, banana muffins, banana bread before and I admit that I just can't get enough of bananas .. hehe!! I just like to try out other recipes that banana was used as the main ingredient. Today, while browsing thru some baking blogs online.. I came through this "Banana Walnut Butter Cake" recipe from My Sweet Hut. Cynthia's Blog banana cake recipe required 100gm finely grind untoasted walnut, since I didn't have grind walnut in my pantry I just replace it with 100gm of self raising flour. I add dried cranberries in it for extra berries flavor to my liking. I really love the texture of this banana cake, it's really soft - very buttery taste - not oily at all and I love the sweet banana's aroma all over my house at the time I baked it in the oven :) Below are the recipe of the cake which I've slight edit to suit my taste buds and easier way method of preparing it - Have a look at the ingredient & start bake one now !!! - - ->>>

Ingredients needed :

230gm butter (room temperature)

2 tbsp honey (can omit this if don't have honey at home)

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

4 large eggs (room temperature)

150gm castor sugar

270gm self-raising flour

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp salt

(shift the 3 ingredients - flour/bicarbonate of soda/salt together)

240gm ripe bananas (mashed)

2 tbsp of dried cranberries

The original recipe in Cynthia's Blog requires whisk eggs & sugar in another mixing bowl. I skipped this step and just mixing all the ingredients the traditional butter cake way. Surprisingly, the cake turn out soft and moist with the simple method I use :)

How I bake this cake :

• Preheat oven at 170c. Lined the base of two 8"x3" loaf pan or 7" square pan with baking paper (Do not grease the side)
• Cream butter, honey & vanilla essence until pale & creamy. Add in sugar and beat till it's fluffy.
• Add in egg one at a time. Slowly beat till it's well mixed. (*Crack the eggs in a bowl first before add into the butter mixture)
• Fold in 1/2 portion of the sifted dry ingredients (flour+soda+salt) to combined before fold in the mashed bananas. Followed by the remaining dry ingredients, dried cranberries & mixed till well combined.
• Pour batter into lined baking pan and bake in a preheated oven for 50mins or until the skewer inserted in the middle of the cake came out clean.
• Leave to cool on the baking rack before un-mould it and cut.

HAPPY BAKING!!!

AMY

Moist Chocolate Cupcakes - A MUST TRY !!

It has been a while since I last bake anything. My beloved father passed-away suddenly and left me with some stuff follow up and my mom are now staying with me. All this while, when I spent my time baking, my father are the one who help me to fetch my kids to & from school and I can just concentrate on my baking work. Now, I really have to planned for the time and make sure the whole process of baking can be done on time or it will ruined everything I do.. hehe ~

I really miss the time when I can just bake anything I want without worrying that I have to fetch my kids ... I miss my dad a lot, he was such a good daddy & helps me whenever I need a helping hand. Since the school holiday have started, I can now steal some of my time to starts baking again... I think I will soon get addicted to baking again hahaha.. Once started, don't feel like stop it!! Today, I bake some moist chocolate cupcakes. My kids they love chocolate cupcakes so much. I already have few recipes on Moist Chocolate Cakes and this time I'm going to try the recipe I got from Ann Journal - what attracts me is the word "A MUST TRY!! " so, why not try it out?? lol ...

Did all of you notice that my cupcakes look so odd? The batter spilled all over the paper liners?? Actually this recipes will make 18 cupcakes, I only filled it into 12 paper liners and I filled it too full for the reason I don't want to waste the remaining cake batter. Lesson learned - do not fill your cup too full or it's end up the odd looking cupcakes like mine ... hehe!! But, it still taste extremely yummy, cake are soft and moist with chocolatey aroma. Not too bad ya?? haha

Ingredients: (Makes 18 cupcakes)

100g butter, softened

200g castor sugar

2 eggs

3/4tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup milk (125ml)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup hot boiling water (mix with 1tsp Nescafe Instant Coffee Powder)

190g flour

1/4 salt

3tsp baking powder

40g cocoa powder

Method :

• Sift flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder in a big bowl. Dissolve baking soda in milk.
• Cream butter and sugar until light. Add in vanilla essence and eggs, continue beating.
• Add in the rest of the ingredients (milk, coffee liquid and the sifted flour mixture) Beat till it's smooth.
• Spoon batter into greased paper liners 3/4 full.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 160c for about 20mins or until the skewer inserted to the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Leave it to cool on rack before icing.
• Decorate with whatever type of your preference icing or dust lightly with icing sugar.
• It's best to chill first before consumed the cupcakes.

Look at my odd shapes chocolate cupcakes ... although it's odd but taste extremely YUMMY!!

HAPPY BAKING !:)

AMY

Home-made Meat+Prawn Balls & Tofu Seaweed Soup

My kids they love soup very much and this Tofu Seaweed Soup with home-made meat + prawn balls are one of their favorite.  Recently, it has been raining everyday and I like to have a bowl of hot soup at this period of time.  I can finished one small bowl of rice with just this soup alone.

This soup are very easy to prepare Unlike most chinese soup which require a longer time to simmer, the actual cooking time of this soup is under 15 minutes.  Just get all the ingredients ready and boil the whole things together before season it with some salt & pepper.  Yeah, the soup are ready to be serve !!

Ingredients :

1.5 liter water 

1 piece of 20cm diameter dried seaweed (紫菜) - cut into smaller pieces

300gm pork belly - minced

200gm shrimp - un-shell & minced

3 tubes of japanese egg tofu - sliced into smaller piece

1 Knorr Ikan Bilis cube - optional

Marinade ingredients (A)

1.5 tbsp light soy sauce
1.5 tbsp corn starch
1.5 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp sesame oil

1 egg white
dash of white pepper

Methods:

• Marinade the minced pork & shrimp with ingredients (A) for 30mins.  Shape it into individual meat balls (each about 1 tbsp size).  Set aside.
• Bring water to boil, add in the Knorr Ikan Bilis cube (if available).  Add in the meat balls one at a time and make sure they are not stick together.  Let it cook for 3 mins.
• Rinse the seaweed on running tap water before add it into the soup, cook for a few second.
• Lastly, place in the egg tofu and turn off the heat.
• Season it with some salt & pepper to taste.
• Garnish it with some green onion & serve warm.

AMY

Simmered Pork Belly in Dark Soy-Sauce with Boiled Eggs (Non Halal)

I grown up eating "Tau Yu Bak" - this is how we call this dishes in "Hokkien" dialect.  My late granny from my father's side used to cook this for us (my bro & me) when we are young.  Normally this dish are cook in bigger portion.  My granny love to add hard boiled eggs in the thicken "Tau Yu" (dark soy sauce) for us.  The left over of this dish will be keep refrigerated and to be consumed again the next day. This dish taste even better when kept over-night and it is yummy when eaten with sambal belacan.  Today, this dish are my kid's favorite.  They love the hard-boiled eggs in it and each time when I cook it, I will add more eggs for them.  I omit the chinese mushroom in this recipe as my kids they don't like it.

Ingredients:


500gm pork belly with skin (cut into pieces)
15gm chinese mushrooms (soaked, cleaned - squeeze till it is dry)
2 nos star anise - 八角
4 garlic cloves with skin (flatten)
1 liter water


Seasoning:

1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp "Shaoxing" cooking wine
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar


dash of pepper
salt to taste

6 hard-boiled eggs


Method:

• Marinade the pork belly pieces with the seasoning for at least 30mins.
• Heat up 3 tbsp oil, fragrant garlic cloves until golden in color.  Add in star anises, stir-fry briskly until aromatic.
• Add in the marinade pork belly pieces, stir well until the color of the pork changes.  Add in mushrooms pieces and water, bring it to boil.
• Cover up, lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour until the gravy is thicken.  Add in hard-boiled eggs.
• Season it with some pepper & salt to taste.  Dish up, serve hot.

AMY

Chinese Herbs Soup

AMY

Curry Prawn & Lady Fingers

Will post the recipe soon.. !


AMY

Stir-fry Baby Kailan with Prawns

Watercress Soup (西洋菜汤)

Stir-fried Squid In Dark Soy Sauce

My mom's signature dish - Squid In Dark Soy Sauce is our favorite. We don't take squid quite often. Once a while mom will pamper us with her tasty squid dishes. This Squid In Dark Soy Sauce are one of the must have dishes when it come to the festive seasons like CNY. Now, my son too enjoy this dishes very much :)

Ingredients:

10 medium-sized squids

Marinate:

Dark soy sauce

Light say sauce

Sugar

White pepper powder

Garlic (minced)

Oil for stir-frying

Method:

• Marinade the cleaned squids with dark soy sauce, light say sauce, sugar and white pepper powder for at least 30mins.
• Heat the wok with some oil and add in the minced garlic. Cook till the garlic turn golden in color.
• Add in the marinade squids, fried till cooked and the sauce thickening.

H.A.P.P.Y. . .C.O.O.K.I.N.G. . ! . ! . !

AMY

Old Cucumber Soup - 老黄瓜汤

My family members, especially my 3 kids they all love soup. I think the best way to make sure we drink enough water everyday is by boiling some nutritious soup. This"Old Cucumber Soup" are one of my favorite ... If you haven't try this before, please go to HERE for the recipe of this yummy soup :)

HAPPY COOKING !!!

AMY

Bitter Gourd Omelette

Bitter Gourd/Bitter Melon are one of my favorite but non of my 3 kids enjoy it. Sometimes, I will just cook it and share it with my mother. We both love bitter gourd - bitter gourd omelette, stir-fry it with roasted pork or chicken meat & black bean paste. I love bitter gourd soup too which can help to reduce our body heat. There are 2 types of bitter gourd, one are the smaller in size, the darker green color which is very much bitter. It was use by the diabetic people to make it into juices and the other one are bigger in size where most people use it for cooking. Always choose the ripe bitter gourd as it will taste less bitter, choose the bitter gourd which has bigger bumps and pale in color - that's the ripe one !!

Ingredients:

1 medium bitter gourd - cut into half and remove the seeds.

1 tsp salt (for marinade the bitter gourd)

5 large eggs - beat lightly

1 clove garlic chopped

salt and pepper to taste

oil for frying

Method:

Wash the halves bitter gourd. Slices the bitter gourd thinly and marinade it with 1 tsp of salt. Set aside for at least 10 minutes.

Squeeze the marinated sliced bittergourd, to remove as much liquid as possible.

Wash the bittergourd under tap water and drain dry.

Heat wok with 2 tbsp oil. Add in the chopped garlic, stir-fry until it become golden color.

Add in the sliced bitter gourd and continue to stir-fry it until the bitter gourd is soft & cooked.

Add salt and pepper to taste into the beaten eggs. Stir to mix it throughly.

Pour eggs over bittergourd and fry until the eggs are set and golden brown.

Serve hot with steamed rice/porridge.

How do you all like bitter gourd?? or any of your don't like it?? Please share with me more recipes on bitter gourd, would love to try it !!

Wish all my blog readers ... SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILADHA & HAPPY HOLIDAY !!

AMY