My bestest gal pal and I whipped up so delicious Chinese food on Sunday night. We grocery shopped for fresh meat and vegetables and put together our dinner menu over lunch.
I'm going to share the recipes here because SERIOUSLY they were all lip-smackingly good (and simple). So do try it out. I'm a good Chinese cook too!
Recipe 1: Stir fry long bean with garlic, dried shrimp and chili
2 packets of long bean, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
4 bird's eye red chili, diced and de-seeded
2 heaping tablespoons of dried shrimp, soaked (keep the water!)
Large pinch of salt
1 teaspoon or so of soy sauce (to your liking)
Pinch of sugar
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
1. Heat grapeseed oil in pan/wok
2. Add garlic, chili, dried shrimps and stir fry till fragrant
3. Throw in long beans and keep stir frying maintaining the high heat till bright green
4. Add in the reserved water used for soaking dried shrimp, continue stir fry
5. Add salt, soy sauce and sugar
6. Taste and serve according to how crisp you'd like your long beans to be!
Recipe 2: Fresh squid in home-made teriyaki sauce
2 fresh squid, cleaned and sliced to desired thickness
Grapeseed oil, as needed (I used less than a teaspoon on non-stick pan)
2 tablespoon authentic Japanese shoyu (I used a low-sodium version)
2 tablespoon sugar (Or alternative. I find brown rice syrup and honey works well too)
1 tablespoon sake
Corn starch mixture if need be for thickening
1. Creat teriyaki sauce: mix shoyu, sugar and sake in a bowl and set aside
2. Add oil to pan and heat
3. Once heated, add squid in and stir fry for about 3 minutes
4. Pour in teriyaki sauce mixture and stir to mix with squid
5. Add in corn starch mixture here if need be. I added 2 teaspoons.
6. Turn of heat and you're done!
This is really one of my signature dishes and I'm sharing my own recipe of teriyaki sauce with you. It definitely beats those ready-made store bought ones hands down. No MSG most importantly! It is my first time using squid with the sauce and I say by far this is the best compliment of ingredient! Others I've tried include salmon, shitake mushrooms and broccoli. Squid is the winner now.
Recipe 3: Simmered mushroom mix
1 packet of fresh mushroom mix (shitake, enoki, shimeiji)
1 packet of fresh shitake mushrooms, sliced into half each
1 chicken stock cube (I used Kallo's organic free-range version)
2 tablespoon oyster sauce
White pepper, as you like
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar
Corn starch mixture for thickening to desired consistency
1. Add stock cube to the pan and 300 - 500ml water and boil (depends on amount of mushrooms)
2. Once cube has turn into soup, add in mushrooms, oyster sauce and simmer
3. When liquid is somewhat absorbed (about 5 minutes or more), add salt, sugar and pepper
4. Taste and see if you need anymore flavorings. If not, add corn starch to thicken and serve!
I still try and be as clean and organic as I can when cooking Chinese food. No compromise here! Be it on the flavor of the food, or the ingredients used.
Recipe 4: Tomato soup* (favorite!)
Serves 4 nicely
5 pieces of fresh pork ribs, blanched
3 large fresh tomatoes, halved (we quartered it and it disintegrated)
5 dried mushrooms
5 large Japanese dried scallops, soaked to soften (add the water into the soup!)
4 cups of water
Half a teaspoon of salt, to taste
1. Put everything single ingredient in a pot, except salt, and boil for 20 minutes.
2. Bring to a simmer and put the lid on. Leave for minimum 1 hour. Best 11/2 hours.
3. Taste soup before serving and add salt as desired for enhanced taste.
Salt is an important ingredient for soups as it adds an added dimension of taste even if it is just a mere bit of it. I heard of this from a chef on one of the Chinese food programmes. I agree thoroughly! "鲜甜美味!" Is the best phrase that Evon and I used to describe this dish. Really proud 'cos we innovated this one based on flavors we liked and interesting different mixes. Winner!
Our rice was just another inspired decision from Green Room Cafe. We used Thai long grain white rice, black long grain rice and pearl barley. Soaked for about an hour before cooking. Perhaps next time we would just soak the barley itself for a few hours before adding it to the rice mixture and cooking it. It was delicious nonetheless.
So there you have it. Such a delicious spread that is so heartwarming and healthy. I know my family loves my cooking ;-) I just hope others would too and strip their perceptions of me and just raw dry food.
Cheers to Evon and I yes? Don't we look all exhausted here? Hah!
Cooking is not just a luxury but it could be an everyday thing. Switch it up! For me, Chinese food is a staple so I have it at least once a day and it is more of my forte. Western dishes are more experimental for me but I find a lot of satisfaction getting through it. Japanese is another soft spot of mine. I make nice simple Japanese stuff in fact. Just haven't had an extensive range of recipes, always the same old few. But I'll learn more. I'm gearing up to be a good wife aren't I? Haha! No no, I just feel as a woman, it would be my utmost pleasure no matter where or what I'm working as, to have my husband eat a good YET HEALTHY meal. That is the same for my family, myself, my good friends and my baby LV.
xoxo. God bless.
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