Pasta Carborona

This is really easy. I did it the macaroni way.

Ingredients:
Serves 4

• 5 slices of ham
• 5 strips of bacon
• clove garlic (chopped)
• 1 carrot (chopped)
• 1/2 onion (chopped)
• 1 can of tuna chunks
• 1/2 can of buttons mushrooms (sliced)
• 1 can of nestle cream
• 1 bottle of thickened cream
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (I used campbells)
• 1/2 bowl of water
• Pepper/cheese to taste

Method:

1. Cook pasta/macaroni.

2. Stir fry bacon in pan till it produces its own oil. Throw in garlic and onion, fry for a while then add in ham, mushrooms, carrot and tuna. Continue for about 2 minutes. Set aside.

3. In a pot, pour in nestle cream, thickening cream, cream of mushroom and water. Heat on mid fire and combine well for 3 minutes.

4. Throw the pan fried ingredients into the pot. Cook for about 5-10mins. Serve with dash of peper or cheese.

Ready!

Tippy: May add a little oil or butter when cooking the pasta, this prevents stickiness.

Kang Kong with fermented beancurd

I thought the taste of combining kangkong and fermented beancurd is wierd, but actually it doesn't. It's good. Give it a try!

Ingredients:
Serves 4

1 kg of kangkong (cut to bite size)
2 squares of chilli fermented beancurd（腐乳）
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon sambal chilli (optional)
Oil for frying

Method:

1. Heat oil and fry garlic till fragrant.
2. Add fermented beancurd, smash it while frying. Add sesame oil and sugar.
3. Place kangkong into wok and fry on high heat.
4. Stir fry for about 2 mins and off heat. Leave in wok for a while before removing.

Ready!



Tippy: You may soak kangkong in salt water to remove unwelcomed residents hiding in the hollow stems, if any. For fermented beancurd, it's a small bottle that can be found in major supermarkets.

Biscuit Pork Chop

Ingredients:

500g of Pork Loin
4 tablespoon cornflour

10 pcs sqaure biscuits (smashed to crumbs)
1 egg (beaten)
2 tablespoon light soya sauce
1 tablespoon Hua Diao Jiu
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 cup oil for frying

Method:

1. Add light sauce, sesame oil and hua diao jiu to pork, season for an hour.
2. Place pork in egg, remove and coat with cornflour.
3. Place in egg again then into biscuits crumbs.
4. Heat oil and fry in mid fire till golden brown.

Tippy: I used Meiji plain biscuits and fried the egg together after use. To smash biscuits, you may use the back of knife.

Spinach and Mushroom

Vegetables never go wrong with soy sauce or oyster sauce. Here are some recommended ways to enhance them.

Ingredients:

1 handful of Spinach

1 clove garlic (chopped)

3 tablespoon of oyster sauce

1 can of straw mushrooms (cut half)

1 tablespoon of Gou Zi

1/2 tablespoon of chicken stock

1 tablespoon of cornstarch slurry (1 teaspoon of cornflour with water)

1/2 bowl of water

Method:

1. Wash spinach and cut into bit size.

2. Heat oil on high and fry garlic till fragrant.

3. Throw in spinach, mushrooms, Gou Zi and water. Fry for about 3 mins.

4. Add oyster sauce and chicken stock, continue frying for a minute.

5. Stir in cornstarch slurry, mix well and off fire.

Ready!

Sweet and Sour Pork

Ingredients
Serves 3-4

• 300g lean pork, cut into cube-sized
• 3-4 sausages
• 2 small fresh tomatoes, wedged
• 1 can of preserved pineapples with syrup (smallest can)
• 1/2 cup of pineapple syrup
• 1 small onion, cut into small pieces
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• 1 cup of cornflour
• 1 cup of oil (for frying purpose)
  

Marinate:

• 2 tablespoon of light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon of Hua Diao Jiu (Chinese wine)
• 1 egg
  

Sauce:

• 6 tablespoon of tomato sauce
• 3 tablespoon of sugar
• 3 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon of white vinegar
• Pinch of salt

Method:
1) Season pork cubes with light soy sauce and Hua Diao Jiu. Add in egg, and combine well. Marinate for at least 15 min.

2) Add all sauce ingredients in the bowl. Stir and mix well. Set aside.

3) Coat marinated pork cubes with cornstarch. Fry over high heat until crisped and golden browned. Remove from wok, and drain on kitchen towel. Set aside.

4) Clean wok. Heat wok with 1 teaspoon of oil, stir-fry chopped garlic till fragrant. Add sausages, onion, tomatoes and pineapples with syrup, sauté for 3 min.

5) Return fried pork cubes to the wok, and pour in sauce mixture. Stir-fry to combine well. Fry all ingredients briefly over high heat, for 1 min.

Ready!



Tippy: There will be excess pineapple and syrup. You may cook the same dish again the next few days, make a dessert or drink malibu with pineapple syrup. The lifespan of keeping it refrigerated is short.

Light Cheese Cake

Ingredients

• 250g of cream cheese, softened (I used PHILADELPHIA)
• 125g of plain yogurt (I used Marigold)
• 100g of butter, softened
• 50g of white sugar
• 50g of fresh or skimmed milk
• 30g of plain flour, sifted
• 80g of corn flour, sifted
• 4 egg yolks
• 4 egg whites, without any stain of yolk
• 100g of sugar
• ⅛ teaspoon of cream of tartar
• 1 tablespoon of chocolate essence or cocoa powder
  

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 150°C for 15 - 20 minutes. Beat soft cream cheese with electrical mixer/ beater till coarsely blended. Remove from mixing bowl, and place in a large cooking pot. Add in plain yogurt, soft butter, sugar (50g) and milk. Boil cream cheese mixture until all ingredients melted, and leave to cool.

2) Add egg yolks to cooled cream cheese mixture and mix well with a hand whisk. Combine and sift plain flour and corn flour, before adding into the cream cheese mixture.

3) Whisk pure egg whites, sugar (100g) and cream of tartar in a clean and oil free mixing bowl, with electrical mixture/ beater at maximum speed, until stiff peak (light and frothy texture). The meringue should adhered to the upturned bowl.

4)Combine cream cheese mixture with meringue and fold (gently mix) well with clean bare hand or spatula, in repeated upward circular motion until batter looks glossy.

5) Grease the sides and line the bottom of baking tin with baking sheet/ non-grease paper. Pour almost all the batter into greased baking tin. Leave just a little batter (about 1/2 bowl) to create marble design.

6) To create chocolate marble design: Add 1 tablespoon of chocolate essence/ cocoa powder into the remaining batter, and combine well. Scoop and top dark batter onto light batter in the baking tin. Place dark batter right at the centre, and scatter it with a stick or chopstick for the marbling.

7) Place baking tin over a laRger deep pan filled with 1cm of hot water to perform steam baking, for about an hour on the lowest rack of oven, or until a metal skewer or toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

I used a convection oven, so I did steam baking with water on the black pan.

8) Remove baking tin from oven, and cool for 10 minutes before removing the cake from the tin.

Ready!

Tippy: I used low-fat cream cheese and yoghurt. Most ingredients can be purchased at carrefour. To allow easy removal of the cake, you should use a baking sheet, I didnt, which is why I messed the appearance. You may also drip in 1 teaspoon of lemon for a lemony taste.

Oyster Chicken

This is a simple and yummy recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 of a whole chicken or 8 chicken wings
• 2 garlic cloves (smashed)
• 3 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
• 4 tablespoon of oyster sauce
• 3/4 cup water
• 4-5 cubes of rock sugar or 1 tbs of sugar (Individual preference)

Method:

1. Marinade chicken in dark soy and oyster sauce for at least 15 mins.
2. Heat oil and fry garlic till fragrant. Put in chicken, add water and bring to boil.
3. Cover lid, simmer under low fire for about 20mins.
4. Add rock sugar or sugar to taste. Stir till thicken.

Ready!