Cooking Express: February 2011

Custom Links:
Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4

Home Style Nissin Noodles

Fancy name for instant noodles, this. This is a quick instant noodle dish. It beats the hell out of having plain instant noodles, and it definitely rivals those available at Char Chan Tengs! This is particularly useful when cooking for one person!

Matching the flavour of the instant noodles with that of vegetables is not as easy as people think! The chemicals used in the preparation of the soup gives it an unnatural flavour which is hard to match with fresh, virgin vegetables.

Thankfully, most of these chemically induced soups have tomatoes in one form or the other, i.e. colouring, acidity or just plain flavouring. In this little dish, I am adding in tomatoes to Curry flavoured instant noodles. It works remarkably well, giving the curry flavour nice acidity. Cabbages have a neutral flavour and yet add sweetness, and works well too, but in this picture I did not add cabbages.

Recipe:
Pack of Curry flavour instant noodles (I used Maggi Curry Instant Noodles)
1 Tomato
Cabbage (If desired)
Sliced Fish Cake (another Chinese staple for noodles)
Ham
Fried Egg

Cook noodles as per instruction. Add the tomatoes in as early as possible with the noodles.Cook the egg pan fry the sliced fish cake and pan fry the ham separately. When noodles are almost done, add in the cabbage. Lastly, combine the ingredients. Pour out the noodles, arrange the fish cake, egg and ham on top, and voila! Done.

Home Cooked Chinese Dinner 1

One of my Home Cooked Chinese Dinners. This time, I stir fried Kailan, a type of vegetable popular with the Chinese, Steamed Minced Meat with Japanese Egg Tofu and Peanut Soup.

This dish is an invention of mine. Typically, the Japanese Egg Tofu is fried and minced meat is cooked separately. The two are then combined on a hot plate and the dish is called "Hot Plate Tofu". I gave it a twist of my own and made it into a steamed dish instead.

Recipe:
300g minced pork or chicken
1 tube of Japanese Egg Tofu

Seasoning:
Chinese Soya Sauce
Salt
Ground White Pepper
Garlic Oil
Teaspoon of corn flour

Tip Alert! [Cut the Japanese tofu into 1cm thick cuts and lay them onto a stainless steel plate. Prepare the minced meat by mixing it with soya sauce, salt, pepper and corn flour. Spread the minced meat evenly top of the tofu. Steam for 15 to 20 minutes until the meat is cooked. Pour the garlic oil on top of the meat and serve.]

Tip Alert! [Garlic oil is a staple for Chinese cooking. It is prepared by frying chopped garlic in peanut oil until garlic is golden. This stuff stores for ever!]

Cooking Chinese style vegetables is tricky business. The colour and flavour are of upmost importance. Nobody likes a tasteless blob of hay, especially not the kids!

Recipe:
150g to 200g of Kailan
Soya Sauce
Chopped Garlic

Ground White Pepper

The vegetable is boiled salted water with a tablespoon of oil added. Don't wait til it's done. Drain vegetables immediately when it appears to be wilted. Run the vegetable in cold tap water. Keep it aside. Cook the chopped garlic oil until golden, add the soya sauce. The soya sauce would bubble and caramelize. Then toss in the cooked vegetables quickly and add the pepper. Stir until its coat with the soya sauce. Serve immediately!