Fried Nian Gao Recipe

Was suppose to blog about this during the Chinese New Year period but was really too busy. Each year after CNY, my mom will usually pan fried the nian gao because its out family's favorite!!! ^^

Pardon the white spots on the nian gao. Picture was taken shortly I took this out from the fridge.

For ease of cutting, do refrigerate the nian gao overnight. It is much easier to cut when it is harden than in a soft and sticky form.

Ingredients

300 grams "nian gao" (年糕)

2 eggs beaten

6 tbsp plain flour (sifted)

4 tbsp water

cooking oil for shallow frying

Method

1) Slice the nian gao into thin square pieces.

2) In a bowl, whisk eggs, flour and water until the batter is of a semi-thick and smooth. (add more water if required)

3) Heat oil in a pan. Dip nian gao slices in egg batter and pan-fry until lightly browned on both sides. 

4) Let it cool down for 10mins before savoring it with tea.

Curry Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

8 medium size chicken wings

1 tsp salt

60gram shallots

2 large garlic ~ approx 10gram

1/4 cup oil

2 lemon grass (white portion, lightly smashed)

50gram Curry Chicken Powder (1 small packet)

10gram Chilli Powder or how spicy you like it to be

200ml thick coconut milk

3 medium size russet potato

some sugar for seasoning

a little cornflour

Method:

1. massage chicken wings with salt before rinsing it off.

2. Mix water with Curry Powder and Chill Powder with a little water and mix it to form a thick mixture

3. Fry chopped garlic and shallots until fragrant and slightly golden

4.  Add in curry powder and chill powder mixture and continue frying until well mixed and fragrant. Add in lemongrass

5. Add in chicken and cook until its partially cooked. You may tell by looking at the skin

6. Put in the coconut cream which forms at the top layer of the coconut milk and simmer until milky color disappear before adding in 

Tom Yum Baked Chicken

This Thai inspired dish is well loved on our dinner table and its so easy to make even for weekday dinners because I used instant tom yum paste. Adapted the recipe from thaifood.about.com and note that I altered the original recipe for quite a bit to suit my taste and how our oven in Singapore works.

Prep Time: 15mins

Cook Time: 25mins

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

- 10 chicken wings (approximately 800grams)

- 2 stalks lemongrass (minced)

- 1 packet of instant tomyum paste
(i used Dancing Chef but you can probably get other brands off the shelves)

- 1tbsp fish sauce

- 1 tsp cooking oil (optional)
- some lime juice (optional)

Preparations:

1. wash the chicken wings and pat dry

2. mix the rest of the ingredients well and coat evenly on chicken wing

3. chill marinated chicken wings in fridge for at least 30mins or longer if you want it to be more flavourful.

4. Baked at pre-heated oven of 200degree for 25mins, turning once partway through.

Clam & Chicken Japanese Curry

I decided to make some alteration to the traditional japanese curry by adding in clams.

Ingredients(Serves 4)
- 100g of Japanese curry cubes (I use S&B - Golden Curry, 4 cubes which is half box, as shown in the photo above)
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut to medium chunks
- 2 potato, peeled and cut to medium chunks
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
- 200 to 300g boneless chicken fillet, cut to large chunks
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 1/2 can of razor clams (i use new moon brand, alternatively, you may add pacific clams instead.)
- 700ml water (you may mix with 100ml of broth that comes together with the clam)

Directions
1. Heat pot with oil.
2. Place chicken chunks and fry in the wok till it becomes slightly brown.

3. Add in potato, onion and carrot chunks, mix everything evenly.
4. Add water and bring to boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes (with lid partially closed or till potatoes are cooked.)

5. On low heat, add the Japanese curry cubes and stir through till dissolved. As both the curry mix and the potatoes are starchy, you probably need to add more water at this point in time to achieve the texture desired.

6. Serve with rice.

Chocolate Lava Cake

Our love for chocolate was driven us in search of the dessert around the island since schooldays.

Warm Molten Lava Cake served with Haagen Dazs Macademia Nut ice cream

Eversince i took up baking, i have always been wanting to give a shot at this. Invited my friends over to my kitchen for this sweet project ~ warm, oozing lava chocolate cake served with ice cream!

Success!

Here's the recipe adapted from aplacewecancallourown & noobcook

Ingredients:
(makes three 6-oz ramekin cakes)A.
100g baking chocolate (purchased from phoon huat)
100g unsalted butter (cubed at room temperature)
Melt these 2 items together using a bain marie or in microwave oven)

B.
2 eggs
50g caster sugar

Beat these together till the mixture turns pale and frothy using an electric whisk.
C.
20g self raising flour

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to about 180 deg C. Butter the ramekins
2. Pour melted chocolate / butter (A) into the egg mixture (B). Using a spatula, stir to mix well. Then stir in flour (C). Stir till well-mixed.
3. Pour mixture into ramekins and bake for 10 minutes, till the outside's done and the inside is still runny.

4. Remove ramekin from oven and let cool for 1-2 minutes before using a spoon to gently loosen the edges. Carefully invert the cake onto serving plate.
5. Serve with dusted icing sugar over the cake/ vanilla ice cream and some berries (optional)

Note:
You may use a muffin cup as an alternative to ramekins but bear in mind to butter them well so that the cake can comes off easily when done.
If you are using muffin cups, reduce the bake time to about 8 minutes or even lesser. But if you over bake, you will just get a super moist chocolate cake which is equally yummy as well.

Stir Fry Pumpkin

This is one of my favourite recipe from mommy's kitchen.

Ingredients:

1/2 Medium Pumpkin - sliced

2 - 3 tbsp of cooking oil

3 Garlic - minced

3 tbsp dried shrimps - rinsed and soaked for 5 minutes

Oyster sauce - to taste

Soya sauce - to taste (optional)

1 - 2 tsp of sugar (optional)

2 - 3 tbsp of  water

Method:
1) Heat wok with oil over medium fire. Add garlic and dried shrimps, stir fry till fragrant.
2) Add in pumpkin slices and fry. Drizzle water along the side of the wok. Lower heat when wok sizzles, and simmer pumpkin with lid on, for about 2 minutes or until pumpkin cubes are semi-softened. Stir fry occasionally to avoid sticking.
3) Remove lid from wok, add in oyster sauce and/or (soya sauce/sugar). Stir fry to combine. Add a little bit more water if you find it too dry.
4) Continue simmering for 2-3 minutes till pumpkin is completely softened. Stir fry a little to combine well.
5) Serve best with rice

*note: i did not add in any sugar as i prefer the natural sweet taste from the pumpkin

Simple Pan Fry Luncheon Meat

 

Method:

1. Slice can of luncheon meat into thin slices (2mm)
2. Heat up a pan (prefer non-stick coated pan) and add in cooking oil to fill the base of the pan.
3. When oil is hot, lay the luncheon meat slices on the pan slice by slice.
4. Flip over when it darkens.
5. This simple step gives the meat a little more texture than soggy, and added fragrance from heating.
6. Served hot with rice, porridge or create a sandwich for an easy meal.

Alternatively, you may coat the luncheon meat with egg mixture before frying.