Cooking Tips & Recipe

L

little_cat

New Member
Hi all Mom & MTB

Let's share our cooking tips & recipe here!

You can share any recipe eg. food for MTB during their PG, some easy to prepare dishes for busy family & recipe for kids too!

All are welcome !
 


hi van, thanks for sharing. may be u can provide more info like what ingredient etc and some other tips ?
i remember i tried once put all the rice, chicken, chinese sausage, potato etc and cook together. and the end u have rice + vege + meat. Not sure if the ingredient u used is the same?
 
Oh, I am talking about the version similar to the claypot chicken rice sell in hawker centre/coffe shop,the one you add black soya sauce just before you eat.

I also marinate the chicken pieces and black mushroom strips with soya sauce,oyster sauce,pepper,sesame oil 1st. Are you referring to the same dish?

I don't cook everything together though.When the white rice is cooked, then lay the chicken pieces on the rice, switch the cooker to COOK mode again, and wait for the switch to turn to COOKED mode,at this point that I add the saute chinese sausage,fried shallots and dark soya sauce and mix well.

Sometimes I used the mircrowave to "Cook" the chinese sausage,sometimes just put in frying pan without adding any oil to cook.The chines sausage has enough oil to cook it through.

1 important thing to note about this rice, you have to use LESS water than usual, or the rice will turn out too sticky/soft/soggy.

I also find that using those 3-tier steaming pot (big,stove top,stainless steel ones,not the small electric version) save me a lot of time when cooking for only my girl and myself when husband is not back for dinner. I layer for rice, 1 layer for chicken/fish/tofu with meat/steam soup(Yes!).Quick, won't make the kitchen so oily and healthy.
 
Van, is that the one selling at Tangs and other dept store, they have to boil water or cook soups at the bottom pot, then middle u can do steaming?

I bought a thermo pot for cooking soups/dessert. I find it very useful, u just need to cook on the stove for about 30min, then u put the pot back to the thermal. It will continue cooking by itself. So if u r going out for a walk or something when u come back the soups is ready. It save gas and also it is safer if u want to cook for long hour u don't need to watch the fire.
U can do double boil too, cook bean soups or dessert.
 
Are u referring to the small and medium size ones with many layers that are constantly Demo at Tangs? That should be useful, but I didn't get that, I just got a 26cm wide,3-tier ones for my family,cos it's wide enough to steam a whole,around half kg fish.

Heard my friend telling me about the thermo pot,very tempted to buy, what brand and how much you bought?

BTW, are you a SAHM or FTWM?
 
ic, i saw that once like very hot everyone queing to see the demo on how they cook
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Yes the thermol pot, i bought the Tiger brand, after discount is $150. Quite expensive, but worth it !
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I am a working full time, normally cook during weekend.
How about u?
 
eh connie, getting the right 'tool' is important too ! hehe... busy lah just now
guess i won't have much time later on, boss just give me more and more thing, guess she know i eat too much snake...
 
hmm... must go dept store to check out the thermal pot...

I am a SAHM now.

When I was working, I did try to find ways to prepare quick and simple meals after work.

Including getting a TIMER PLUG for cooking soup. Throw all the ingredients into slow cooker, set timer to cook for 2 or 3 hrs, auto-off,1 hr before reach home, auto-on again that kind...

Nowadays, there are many cook books on one-dish meal in bookshops,with that dish plus a pot of nice soup is good enough.
 
Van, but i dun really like the taste of the food cooked by slower cooker, somehow taste like meat being soaked in hot water.

Ok here's one recipe for Grilling Chicken wing in Toaster - Yes those bread toaster.

Ingredient:
Chicken Wings
Teriyaki sause/Char Siew Sause/Black Pepper sauce

Marinated the Chicken wings with any one of the suace you prefer for about 3 hours.
(Ooi dun put all sauce in hor..)
If u want it more tasty u can do it overnite, put in in the fresh room in the fridge.

Take out the Oven Toaster tray, cover with aluminium foil. Spread some oil/butter on the foil surface, little bit will do, just to make sure the wings won't stick on it.

Arrange the chicken wing there, try to put the same size one together. eg. if u have the mid wing and the little drumstick, u cook the mid wing together and little drumstick together then u dun have to worry some over cooked and some not cooked.
Turn the timer to max, i think is 15min.
Then leave it grill the wings.
Turn the wings every 5-8 min time to make sure both side are evenly cooked. cos some got 'strong fire' easily burnt. so adjust your own time.
How to check if the wings are cooked. Use chopstick to poke on the wings, if the water came up is clear then is cooked, if got red colour blood coming out, u need to grill for another few minutes.
 
Actually, just marinating the chicken wings with soya sauce,oyster sauce(optional),pepper,sesame oil and honey, the longer the better,preferably overnight,then grill/fried, is also very yummy.

Have u tried stir fried baby kai lan with Woh Hup XO sauce and garlic? My HB and I love it.
 
yeap sometime i do that too, but when i post here i think i choose the easier one, like buy the instant sauce.

I can't stir fried a lot at the momenet got morning sickness, nose very sensitive. But i will definately try that after my MS is getting better
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I cook the brocolli with the can top shell.
First cook the brocolli in hot water, for about 5 min.
Put the top shell broth in a pan. heat up,when it is boiling put the top shell and brocolli. Stir to mix them well and also to make sure the brocolli is fully cooked. If u put in hot water long enough u just need to cook for a cook short while now.
Taste the sauce and add the oyster sauce and soya sauce according to taste.
Mix some conflour with water, then put in to thicken the sauce.
Serve while it is hot.
 
What is salty chicken?

Have u tried steam seasame oil chicken with ginger and dried mushroom? Simple and nutritious for preggie and confinement mums
 
Littlecat,

I love this dish! Pork ribs with bittergourd and some black black bean is it??
With Salty chicken haven try before,

I think im also gonna get this thermol pot before i leave for US. Like it is a wonder tool.
 
here u go :
Steam Pork ribs with bitter gourd

Spare ribs (preferably with some fat, taste more tender)
Bitter gourd

Marinated the ribs with preserved black bean (or you can use the dou-jiang preserved soya bean) corn flour, oyster sauce, little bit of light soya sauce & sugar - for at least an hour

Bitter gourd, wash and cut into pcs, even size (for me I prefer to cut into finger size) if too small size after long hour of steaming it kind of melted cant eat the whole bitter gourd.
Then you can either :
a) poach the bitter gourd in hot water for about 2-3 min
b) fry the bitter gourd with oil & garlic in a wok, this will make it more fragrant

After that, put the bitter guard in a deep plate or flat bowl (cos after steaming it will have more sauce, make sure you dun use those flat plate), put the marinated ribs on top.

Steam for about 30 minutes or till you feel the ribs is cooked and tender.

Tips to get rid of the bitterness of the bitter gourd : the poach matter should get rid of some of it. If not you can put some salt to on it and try to squeeze and stir with your hand and then wash it off. Remember if u r doing the steaming with black beans or dou-jiang, make sure u wash thoroughly if not your dish will be super salty.

Another tips, after steaming you can thicken the sauce in a pan by adding some corn flour. First mix the corn flour in cold/room temperature water, not hot water if not it will become lumpy. Boil the sauce, then put the corn flour already mixed with water in it. Stir till you find the sauce is thicken. Also at the same time to check if the taste is right. If is too plain you can add some salt, light soya sauce or sugar if is too bitter or too salty.
 
Baked salty chicken (Ju-yan-ji)

I do a direct translation hope you gals know what I mean
Basically its using the salt to bake the chicken. Old time they use the wok to fry the salt, then put the chicken in there to bake. The troublesome thing is first you must find a big wok, 2nd the salt after heated might damage your wok, 3rd you must constantly stir the salt to make sure it wont get burnt, also u must watch the fire.

So, here come the improvised one K we use the oven to bake. Basically we heat up the salt in a clay pot, then put the chicken inside and put the whole clay pot in the oven to bake for 45 minutes.

Ingredient & method :

1 kampung chicken (if cant find use normal one also can. Kampung chicken suppose to be less fat)
Some shallot (red onion), garlic, salt, green onion

Salt for baking (cu-yan ) V you can get this type of salt in market, I think is $1.20 for 2kg kind of thing. The diff between this and normal salt they are not so fine, normally come in bigger pack, u can ask them u want the salt for cooking Ju-yan-ji. (hope you gals not lost yetK)

2-3 pcs of the baking paper (sheet of paper for baking cookies etc)

a) clean the chicken, rub the chicken with salt, shallot, garlic, then put everything, including the green onion inside the stomach (chicken stomach not yoursK). Put aside to marinate for about 1 hour.
b) After 1 hour when u ready to cook, heat up the salt (cu-yan) in a claypot. Put the salt in about 2/3 full of the claypot. Stir for awhile till the salt is hot.
c) Wrap the chicken with baking paper, make sure stomach up so the sauce after baking wont leak out.
d) Scoop half of the salt out of the claypot, put the chicken wrapped in paper in, cover with the remaining half of the salt.
e) Put the whole claypot in a preheated oven 200 (around there) and bake for 45 minutes.

Thats it ! no mess in the chicken!
Other tips : after 45 minutes, take out the chicken and put in a plate. Dont leave the chicken there, cos the sauce might leak out and it dampen the salt. It is best to consume when it is hot.
 
Steam Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs

1kg prime ribs,chopped into finger size
5 tbs Woh Hup Plum Sauce
5 tbs Brown Bean Paste (I used the minced version)
5 tbs Chinese Shao Xing Wine
3 tbs chopped garlic
Half cup of water
some pepper

Quantity can be reduced accordingly for small familys.Sometimes I used 400g ribs with 3TBS of each of the ingredients.

1) Mix plus sauce,bean paste,wine and pepper.

2) Marinate pork ribs with the mixed sauce for at least half and hour.

3) Quicky fry 3 tbs chopped grdliec in hot oil, put int he marinated spare ribs for about 1 minuted.
4) Add i half cup of water and bring to boil.

Your could EITHER


a) Lower the heat and simmer the ribs for about 45 mins, stir every 15 mins

OR

b) Transfer to a deep plate or bowl and STEAM the pork ribs over small-to-medium heat until they turn tender.

The gravy is yummy with rice.
 
Dear LittleCat,
WA, sounds good man but the Salty Chicken like very hard to master.

Do you Mummies Have any recipes for Fish?
i like Cod Fish, Pomfret, Sting ray but don know how to make them.
 
Van, your Steam Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs sounds good. I need to buy a bottle of Chinese Shao Xing Wine if I want to try out this recipe.
 
jasmin,
I saw small bottles of chinese wine including Shao XIng at Sheng Song, if you don't want to buy the normal size.

Connie,
I love making Dou Su Fish nowadays. It's a kind of bean paste,stir fried until crispy then pour over steam fish. The Dou Su is sold at Prime supermarket only.
 
Van,I will buy the small bottle since this is the first time I am going to use it. hopefully the smell is not too strong as I am afraid my children won't be able to accept the taste. btw,is the Dou Su the same as the normal brown bean paste? the recipe sounds gd too.I reckon you must be a very gd cook.hope to pick up some new cooking skill from u.
 
Jasmin,
Shao Xing Wine's smell is not too strong,and the alcohol would have evaporated after steaming for so long. So children are ok.

The Dou Su is not the same as normal bean paste. I have been searching and asking around for very very long, before I finally found it at Prime.
 
Connie,
There are three Prime Supermarket near my place, Bt Gombak,Teck Whye and Bt Batok, not sure about other branches. Chinese Name is Bai Mei.
 
Hi van, oh u stay around Bt Gombak too ? my nanny is there so i visited there very often.
What is the brand for the dou-su, how it looks like? i tried something like that b4 in restaurant taste very good leh, must try it !
 
Connie

here's one recipe for steaming Pomfret.

My hb like the teow-chew since he is tc.

Steam Pomfret

1 promfret
1 tomato
1 sour plum in a bottle can, it is soak in water
Green onion
Bean curd
Ginger cut into thin slices
Oyster sauce
1 table spoon of cooking wine
Fish sauce (optional)

Wash and clean the promfret. Cut the tomato, bean curd into pcs. Green onion just cut into half.
Lay the tomato and green onion and ginger on the deep plate, put the fish on top, put some extra ginger on top of the fish. Put the bean curd around the fish. Pour the cooking wine, fish sauce, oyster sauce & sour plum (squeeze abit to smash it) around the fish. If you want more sauce put another 3 to 4 spoon of chicken stock/plain water in the plate.

Boil water in a wok, when steaming fish must make sure the water is boiling then u put in the fish to steam.
Steam about 8 -10 minutes depends on the size of the fish. To check if the fish is cook use a chopstick, if can go thru easily means the meat is cooked.
Eat it when it is hot.
Sometime I cook without the sour plum, I find it taste more natural, cos tomato has little bit of the sour taste too.
By putting the tomato at the bottom it create some space there for the hot air to go thru, so your fish will cook evenly. Some book suggest to put a spoon there, sort of lift up the fish so it will cook faster.
If the fish is too thick in the middle, use knife to slice it. So u wont have the problem like the side of the fish is cooked but middle still raw.
 
Grill sting ray

Sting ray
Belacan chilli - u can get those bottle one from supermarket, choose one that u like, I find that is one brand called Seng Long of something, not bad.
Aluminum foil
Oyster sauce

Dipping sauce :
Onion
Cencaluk the preserved shrimp (famous in Malaysia u can get it in Seng song)
Red chili
Sugar
Lime


Wash and clean the sting ray. Marinate it with the belacan chilli and some oyster sauce for about 2 hours.

Wrap it with aluminum foil and put in the oven to grill for about 10 minutes or till cook.

Dipping sauce:
Cut the red onion, red chili, squeeze some lime juice & mix with the cencaluk, put some sugar to taste.

Thats it you can eat the sting ray with the sauce.
 
Little Cat,
I love the steam fish with Dou Su in Restaurants as well, that's why have been hunting everywhere, and asking around for the Dou Su, until I chance upon it at Prime.Read that a shop in Chin Swee Road was selling, but lost the address. Glad that Prime sells it now.
 
Thanks Van !!! hehe with photo sure can find !! must try it this weekend.
My hb sick of my normal steaming liao.. haha ;)

eh do you know which market got sell live flower crab? also the lala (clam) ?
I remember tried once the steam live flower in Penang, wow taste so good !!
and the lala, not the one with thick shell (those u eat at italian restaurant etc..) those thin shell and got kind of lke flower print on type?
 
eh van, may be u want to describe how to do it again? like u steam the fish first, when is ready then pour the fried dou su? or do u pour the fried dou su and steam ?
 
Have never seen live flower crabs in Singapore, anyway dead ones taste as nice.

Bt Gombak has a stall near Prime that sell clams, many types of prawns and crabs, even lobsters...since you always go there,must go and see.
 
Steam the fish 1st, when the fish is almost ready the start frying the dou su.Put some oil in a frying pan, scoop some dou su and fried at low heat till crispy.

When the fish is ready, pour/spread the crispy dou su on top of the fish.
 
2 more easy to prepare dish.

Steam ladies finger
Steam the ladies finger.
if u want really simple method, just put some oil and oyster sauce there and steam together.
if u want slightly taste better, fry some onion in a wok with some oil till fragrant, pour the oil on the steam ladies finger with oyster sauce before serving. Put some light soya sauce to tatse.

Toufu with century egg
U can prepare this as cold dish but i prefer to be warm so this method is to steam the toufu and century egg.

1 box of toufu
2 century egg
some green onion
some fried onion (optional)

put the toufu in a plate, use knife to mince the century egg and put on top of the toufu. steam for about 10-15min.
Put the green onion and fried onion on top before serving.

yummy!
 
Hi everyone. I'm a sahm and it's great that littlecat has started this thread! I'm running out of ideas what to cook and am looking forward to sharing tips and recipes with all of you!

Here's something to share - not a recipe, but it is food related! Ben & Jerry's is having Free Cone Day next Tuesday 25 April 2006. Here's the link to the website for your info!

http://www.benjerry.com.sg/scoop_shops/
 
hi Annelise

thanks for the info.
since u r sahm, u must have alot of recepi to share ?
btw how many kids u have ?
do u cook everyday ?

if u dun mind to share
happy.gif
 
Hi littlecat

I'm more a babysitter than a housewife! I don't cook everyday - only when I feel like it cos' I really don't like washing up!

I have 2 kids - 5 and 2 years old. They keep me very busy and the only time I get to do housework is when they're in school!

Anyway, here's one recipe my kids like: chawan mushi (steamed eggs)

One beaten egg in each chawan mushi cup
Fill up with chicken stock till 3/4 full
Stir to mix
Add a piece of chicken, prawn, japanese fishcake
Steam over very low heat (put the eggs in BEFORE water is boiling)
Takes about 15 to 20 mins.

Heat must be low or else the egg will not be smooth - it will look spongy with lots of holes.
 
Hi littlecat

It's me again. I just read the earlier posting and know you're pg. Congrats! Is this your first? How many weeks are you now? The morning sickness will get better as the pg progresses!
 
For steam egg or Shui Dan(water egg),strain the beaten egg 1st before adding other ingredients supposed to give a smoother texture.
 
wow can't wait to try !
i always have the problem is either over steam till got bubble/holes or too waterly or too hard
sad.gif

hmm i can imagine.. my boy is 4 years old now, he want lots of attention from us..
how long have u been a sahm ?

one funny thing my son doesn't like egg, dun know why... so the recepi above will be for me and hb, my hb like steam eggs
happy.gif
 
Annelise, hehe didn't know u post so fast...
i am in my 11 weeks now. yeap now waiting for the morning sickness to over then i can try all the yummy recipe here !
now dinner time appetite no so good...
 
hi LitteCat,
u 11wks, i now 9wks preg. second 1. even since i preg, i can't stand my own cooking coz i used to cook rather bland food for the sake of my 2yrs boy. plus now very tired. so i now take my meals at my parents or pil place.

simple steam chicken.
marinate chicken with soya sauce and seseme oil.
mix with mushroom and golden needle.
steam.

steam egg tofu with prawn.
marinate prawn with soya sauce, seseme oil and pepper.
mix egg with egg white.
pour the prawn and egg white over cut egg tofu or white tofu.
steam.
 
hi all, i really happy we have more and more people joining and more and more recepi !

hi home, congrats ! when is your EDD ? did u join the nov MTb or Dec MTB thread ?

wow i like your recepi, cos i dun like to clean up much, so i like steaming dish too..
happy.gif
 

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