Fried Kuay Teow (91)

Fried kuay two (left), kiwifruit and orange slices (right)

This is the fried kuay teow (flat rice noodle) with mushrooms, carrots, french beans and some shredded eggs. I spent about 1/2 an hour preparing and cooking it. Then another 15 min to slice the fruits and packed everything into box.

Little girl was quite hungry this afternoon, she ate up the fried kuay teow pretty fast and without fuss. She gave a thumb up to those carrots and mushrooms, nibbled bit of the lettuce, complained orange was sour, left the kiwifruit, then rushed to her class, all within 15 minutes.

Fruits bento for snack

Pizza Bento (90)

Little girl help prepared her bentos today, what I did was preparing all the ingredients for the pizza, like sliced a tomato, button mushrooms, pineapple, sausages, remove the edamame from the pods, placed cheeses in bowl, halved the pita bread and lastly help her put the pizzas into oven toaster.

Contains of the bento: 2 pieces of 1/4 pizza, some pear slices and pineapple cubes.

Of course little girl loves this bento, she prepared it herself, so the left over was obviously the piece of lettuce.

This is her snack bento...

... she changed her mind, 1 piece is definitely not enough, she added another one ;p

Oven Baked Spare Ribs

Saw Kitchen Corner baked this spare ribs and they looked so delicious, as we heart pork very much, I purposely went to buy these pork ribs yesterday at Tmn. Megah to try out this recipe.

Noticed the color of the ribs, they r dark, ok, they were not burned or charred, I poured too much black soy sauce during the sauce preparation ;p

We adored the ribs, used our hands (little girl used both) to savour those ribs, they r definitely 'hands' licking good!

Zosui aka Porridge

Saw this recipe at About.com-Japanese Food yesterday, since the ingredients r so simple and r mostly available in my fridge, thot of making it for lunch today.

I modified the recipe slightly to accommodate what I had on hand, I left out chicken, but put in wakame. Also, I cooked the porridge slightly longer as I prefer porridge type instead of rice soup.

Verdict: Little girl told me not to cook this porridge next time, she preferred her usual porridge. As for me, not bad, just a bit too salty.

Lovers on Boat Bento (89)

Little girl is one who like to eat pau (bun) but not the fillings, funny ya! But she is not the only one I came across, my niece CW (from HK) has the same eating behavior like little girl whereas her younger sis LL is the opposite, eats only the fillings but not the pau, ;p

I cut 1/3 out from the big pau, remove the filling, stuffed in this 2 little monster lover into the center, don't it look like both of them sitting on a sampan and having their romantic moments?

The monster lovers was made from quail eggs, yellow grape tomatoes (the hat) and seaweed for their features. The oar was cut out from a piece of bacon. Those greens at the top and right of the boat r cucumber, butterhead lettuce and kiwifruit slices, they r some cattails (cucumber) near the shore. The egg rolls r muddy water, as I don wanna waste time coloring food blue or finding something blue to imply blue water.

I took about an hour to complete the bento, yeah, very slow, time used especially on packing & decorating. Well, as long as it makes a smile on little girl's face, I don mind doing it once in a while.

Closer look of the love birds

This was my 1st attempt on cooking egg roll, only 1 word I may describe it => ugly!

Little girl kept 3 egg rolls for her snack later, left with 1/2 of the pau and some lettuce. Glad to see her happy face while eating ;)

Chinese Yam & Barley Soup

Little girl don like barley water, but if I throw in barley into rice to cook into porridge or rice, she wouldn't reject at all, in fact she demand to have barley in rice every time. I thot this way should be another good way too to make her drink barley water, since she loves soup.

Ingredients

1 stick fresh Chinese yam, cut into bite size

1 handful barley

3 pieces chicken meat (for boiling soup)

1.5 liter hot water

1 honey date

salt to taste

1. Boil a pot of water, put in washed chicken meat, boil for 5 - 10 minutes, drained
2. Put meat and honey date into a deep pot, pour in hot water, bring to a boil, then simmer for half an hour
3. Place in Chinese yam and barley, simmer for another 1 hour. Put in some salt, ready.

I like the soup, having natural sweetness from the ingredients. Little girl dislike it at the beginning, however, after a few spoons, she had no trouble finishing her bowl of soup (except the barley & yam).

This post show the wonderful of Chinese Yam, but in Chinese, and here from Wikipedia, of course, in English. Also, from here (English) and here (Chinese) r regarding barley.

P/s When peeling the skin of Chinese yam, remember to handle it fast & careful, as it is very slippery with its mucus, it may slip out from ur hand, also, the mucus may cause itchiness, my hands were so itchy after peeling & cutting of the yam (very very itchy, trust me, u won't like this experience), next time must use glove when cooking it.

Enokitake Mushrooms Bacon Rolls - 3 Ways

Saw Nancy Mommy cooked something similar few days ago, her version was asparagus beef rolls, looked delicious & not so difficult to prepare at all. As I have a big packet of bacons needed to be exposed fast, I used them instead.

After rolling the enokitake and bacon, I fried the rolls til cook & slightly brown. Then decided to experiment more, made 2 different sauces to go with it:

Marmite teriyaki sauce (left) and soya teriyaki sauce (right)

It's very easy to make the sauce, here r the ingredients:

1 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp soya sauce / 1 tbsp marmite + 1 tbsp water (to dissolve marmite)

Method:

Mix in everything in a pan, once heated, put in bacon rolls to cook for 5 - 10 minutes.

So, here again, Enokitake mushroom bacon rools in 3 ways:

1. shallow fried version

2. with soya teriyaki sauce

3. with marmite teriyaki sauce

Little girl didn't fancy the teriyaki versions, she walloped all the (1). Hubby said the sauce didn't match well with the rolls, as bacon is oledi so flavorful itself, it should go well with pork or beef. As for me, I agreed with hubby, but the sauce is amazing, imagine having salty & sweet together in the mouth, tasted so confusing :) I'll definitely give it another try next time with pork or beef.

Nutella Bear & Bunny Sammies Snack Bento (88)

Made this simple snack bento for little girl this morning, as she gotta go to mental maths class after her pre-school, let her had it during her snack time with the school's food, so that she'd be full & wouldn't complained of hungriness.

Completed this bento in 15 minutes. Contains of bento:

Nutella bear & bunny sammies...

orange slices, little happy monster sausages and some edamame.

Herbal Egg Tea 蛋茶 ／ 雞蛋桑寄生茶

My bro & me used to buy this egg tea sweet soup from the Pasar Malam near our hse during our younger yrs, however, the uncle who sold this wonderful sweet soup was no long selling, we'd been craving it for very very long time. Thus whenever we see this tong shui, we'd definitely buy & savour it to settle our crave, no matter how full our tummy were. You may find this tong shui at Pudu Wai-sek-kai (the stall which sell the famous Chinese style steamed egg custard 燉蛋) or occasionally at the SS2 Pasar Malam (Mon).

Last yr, my friend MY borrowed me a few recipe books she bought from HK, and I found the recipe of making this tong shui, it is so wonderful! After trying out once, bro & me were so satisfied with the taste, it was just like those we bought! Therefore, every now and then, when bro craved for this tong shui, he'd begged me for it, oh yeah! Really begging... It was so fun to see him begged for a tong shui, hehehe....

So, here is the recipe:

Ingredients

4 eggs

30g 桑寄生(Chinese Herbal Taxillus Twing, it sounds as sang ji sheng in Mandarin, u can buy it from Chinese herbs shop, to be exact, we need 1 兩)

1 liter water

100g rock sugar

1. Wash & clean eggs (the shell, careful not to break it ;p)
2. Wash 桑寄生, drain well. Place eggs, water into a pot, cook on low fire for 30 minutes.
3. Take out eggs from tea, rinse with cold water, remove shell, set a side
4. Continue simmering the herb tea for 15 minutes, strain off the herbs, put in eggs and rock sugar, simmer for another 10 minutes, ready, serve while warm

The tea taste good, but after breaking the egg, or while eating the egg with the soup, it brought out another flavor, which enhanced the yumminess more.

I enjoyed 1 egg only this time, the rest went to bro, to serve his giant crave, happy feasting, bro!

P/s This 桑寄生 herb, has good curing effects for liver and kidney, may also help to cure insomnia.

Bacon & Tomato Fried Rice Bento (87)

This was indeed a speedy bento, I just need to cook the fried rice this morning, whereas the rest were left from last nite, only took 15 minutes to cook and pack the bento ;)

Bacon & yellow grape tomato fried rice

Cucumber slices, crispy prawn fritters (recipe => here) and a little container of ketchup & mayo

Grass jelly & mango for dessert

Little girl had many leftover today, a slice of cucumber, the prawn fritters and mangoes, well, since she finished all the fried rice, I didn't wanna force her further.

Crispy Prawn Fritters

MIL bought us a kg of this tiny prawns last Sun, cos little girl loves it very much. I spent almost an hour peeling off the shells, but could manage only half of them, so tiring! Thus I kept the remaining half with their shell, and try out this Crispy Prawn Fritters recipe from Yum Yum.

Ingredients:

300g small prawns

1 tsp chopped garlic

2 tbsp chopped spring onion

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp sugar

2 tbsp plain flour

some oil for deep-frying

1. Put everything into a mixing bowl and stir until well mixed
2. Spoon a tbsp of prawn mixture into hot oil and deep-fry until golden brown and crispy
3. Dish and drain. Serve.

It's very crispy and yummy, it'd be nice to have it with a glass of ice-cold beer, finger licking good!

See how tiny r those prawns comparing to my thumb ;)

Fried Kuay Teow with Beef Bento (86) 乾炒牛河

Didn't prepare bento for almost 2 weeks (was having term break), I was quite looking forward to it. Planed out what to cook last nite (only with my mind, no action at all), the fried kuay teow, and the oven baked quail eggs.

Started preparing the ingredients for fried kuay teow after waking up this morning. Sliced the beef thinly, marinated it then put into fridge, wash and tear cabbage, broke 2 quail eggs into the heart shaped mold and let it bake at oven toasters. Took me about 1/2 hour for the preparing works. As for the cooking & packing, I took another 1/2 hour, so slow hor!

In the top box: Skinned & seeded lychees and yellow grape tomatoes.

In the bottom box: Fried beef, baked quail eggs (with sesame seaweed), and fried cabbage on a bed of fried kuay teow.

Little girl enjoyed the fried kuay teow very much, but don know what was wrong with the lychees, she ate 1 only (I ate them later, they were sweet with a slight tartness, it must be the reason).

White Coffee Muffin with Surprises!

I altered the Blueberry Jam Filled Muffin recipe to this White Coffee Muffin as I don have milk on hand and so happen that hubby was enjoying his cup of white coffee, I stole 1/4 cup from him ;p

Ingredients

120g flour

30g sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 egg

40g melted butter

1/2 cup yogurt

1/4 cup 3-in-1 white coffee

some Kisses chocolate

some peanut butter

some toffee bits

1. Preheat oven to 200 C
2. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt
3. In another bowl, blend sugar with melted butter, then add in egg, yogurt and white coffee
4. Gradually combine dry ingredients into wet mixture
5. Spoon a tablespoon of batter into muffin cup, drop in 1 Kisses chocolate or a tsp of peanut butter, cover with more batter til 2/3 full
6. Bake in oven for 15 - 20 minutes

White coffee muffin with toffee bits:

I filled up the coffee batter til 2/3 cup full, and sprinkled with lots of toffee bits

White coffee muffin with Kisses chocolate

White coffee muffin with peanut butter

Just look at the melting peanut butter, so sinfully delicious!

Panda Bread? Or Mouse Bread?

I saw this bread from Javapot when I 1st browsed thru her blog, felt in love with the bread, then checked out more from Florence and Taro-taro.  

I followed Florence's recipe exactly, then the ways of folding in the bread from Taro-taro.  This was how it looked just after being folded:

The green patch supposed to cover the panda, but after 2nd proofing and baking...

It looked more like a mouse than a panda, hahaha.....

Love the texture of the bread, very soft, something close to Gardenia's white bread.  Good to eat it as it own too!

I believe little girl will definitely love it when she sees it (she slept at my sis's hse last nite, 1st time ever!)

Blueberry Jam Filled Muffins

Adapted the recipe here, by looking at the photo over there oledi made me drooling, couldn't resist myself to try it out.

I filled the muffins with blueberry jam, few more with Kisses dark & milk chocolate.  There were 2 or 3 muffins erupted with blueberry lava while baking, causing the kitchen to infuse with sweetness, just love it.

The muffin was not very sweet, it was balanced out with the jam while savoring it, yummy!

These r the kisses filled muffins, look so obscene ;p

Noodles with Braised Beef Cutlets

What to cook with these ingredients?

Of course, the best will be the Cantonese braised beef, I searched for the recipe but mostly requested 'chu hou paste' 柱候醬 which I couldn't find at any of our supermarket, therefore gotta cook it with what I have in the kitchen.

Ingredients

350g     beef cutlets

1            daikon, cut into bite size

1            carrot, cut into bite size

2            shallots

2 clove   garlics

1 small   ginger, sliced

1 small   star anise

5            bay leaves

1 tbsp    oyster sauce

1 tbsp    ginger wine

2 tbsp    soy sauce

1 tbsp    dark soy sauce

1 small  cube rock sugar

Seasoning

1 tbsp    soy sauce

1 tsp       ground cinnamon

1. Season beef cutlet with seasoning
2. Heat a pot, briefly fry ginger, shallot, garlic, star anise and bay leaves til fragrant  
3. Put in beef cutlet, fry for 10 minutes
4. Pour in ginger wine, continue frying, then water til covering all the beef, bring to boil, season with oyster sauce, soy sauce and dark soy sauce, simmer for 30 minutes
5. Put in rock sugar, continue simmer for 15 minutes, this will help tenderizing the beef cutlets
6. Lastly, place in daikon and carrot cutlets, simmer for another 15 minutes

Little girl had it with pasta and choy sam in soup

I had it with flat noodles and choy sam in soup too

Hubby had it with flat noodle and choy sam but dry version

Verdict:  we likes it very much with the pasta and noodles, the beef was very tender, daikon was soft and carrot was so sweet.