Steam Herbal Chicken Wings

This is a very nutritious dish and is simple to prepare, steaming is the greatest cooking techniques, besides preserving its moist and also keep the chicken meat succulent and tender.This recipe was from my friend Jessica, but I do a bit of modify of the recipe ingredients, still it turn out not bad :) I realise after cooking a few herbal dishes and soup, nevertheless most of them are easy to cook and of cause you need to know which are the correct combination of chinese herbal, if not it will turn out funny taste..

Ingredients

• Chicken Wings 8 pcs, cut into parts
• Dang Shen 当参 - 3 small pcs
• Huai Shan 淮山 - 10gm
• Wolfberries 枸杞子 - 20gm
• Chun Gong 5gm- See picture above
• Hua Qing Wine 3 tbps
• Soy Sauce 3 tbps
• Oyster Sauce 2 tbps

Method

1. Season Chicken wings with all above ingredients in a dish for at lease 8hours
2. Cling wrap dish and leave it in the fridge
3. Remove cling wrap and cool off for awhile after season with 8hours
4. Boil water in the wok with the steam rack, when water is coming to boil place chicken wings dish and steam for at lease 30mins to 40mins, reduce heat if necessary.
5. Serve with hot rice

Oyster Sauce Mushroom

This is a extremely simple dish to prepare, and is also serve well as a confinement food, because it was cook with ginger, with the same ingredients you can add some button mushrooms and some chicken wings too, but remember to seasoned longer if cook with chicken wings :)

Ingredients

• Chinese Dried Mushroom (Soaked over night)
• Sliced Ginger (2 potion)
• Oyster Sauce 4 tbsps
• Sugar 1 tbsp
• Soy Sauce 3 tbsps
• Sesame oil 1 tsp
• cooking oil 1 tbsp

Method

1. You can sliced the mushroom or cooked it whole, seasoned mushrooms with 1potion of ginger, oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar for at lease 2 hours.
2. Stir fry 2nd potion of ginger in wok with cooking oil.
3. Pour in seasoned mushrooms and saute, add a bit of water if needed but not too much.
4. covered wok for 5mins and served.

The above measurement of the ingredients are for 2 persons :)

Some Porcelain Photography

Today I went shopping with mum at Orchard and bought some nice dishes and bowls, I also bought 2 table cloths, one red and one green.

Green Tea Cup

Piggy dish, My mum loves this

Steamed Golden Pomfret

Is been a long time I had steam the whole fish, the reason is I hate the process of washing and cleaning the fish, nonetheless after I went to my friend Jessica's house for dinner last Monday, she had also cooked a red snapper that day.. actually is the same recipe I used today only different fish :)

Very simple recipe and easy to prepare too, is was quite a big pomfret about 600gm, is just nice for myself and mum.

Ingredients

• One Fish (golden pomfret/red snapper)
• Slice Ginger
• 1 Tomato
• 1 fresh prune
• Slice 1 red chilli
• 2 stalk spring onions
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsps light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Method

1. Wash fish and make 2 slits on both side of the fish
2. Rub fish with salt (to be wash away in 10 to 20mins)
3. Place fish on dish and add all sauces together
4. Arrange Sliced ginger, spring onions, sliced chilies, fresh prune and tomatoes on fish
5. Prepare steaming rack on wok with 1/4 water and steam fish for 15 to 20mins

Buffet Lunch at MBS

Nothing much to say about a typical hotel lunch buffet, nevertheless is about the same with different ambience only and I did not have good experience with MBS staff, they were not very friendly after I had told them that I found a hard plastic in a siew mai. After a long dispute, the executive chef came to our table for a sincere apologies.

Ok after a short brief about the experience with the hotel lunch (RISE) here's are some

photoshot of the food :) seafood platter are not very fantastic and the crab taste abit bitter.

Sushi was not bad with quite afew varieties, sashimi are fresh too

I love this bun in a cup snap :)

Local Laska is tasteless, dont really taste like laska at all. I think is lack of coconut and some laska spice.

Pumpkin soup, you must drink it when is hot!

Over all the food are not very very nice and fantastic and even worst after you found a sharp plastic in the food with rude apologies from the restaurant staff. upsad to say about this but I wont considering going there to dine again.

Healthy Fish Soup Recipe

Fish soup is a heathy, simple and comfortable meal and many ladies like to have fish soup with rice or Mee Hoon because is not oily and meaty.

I created this fish soup recipe myself and I find it still acceptable and wants to share it with you.

Ingredients

• Fish Fillet (Batang Fish) 200g
• Prawns, optional 2 pcs
• 1 Tomato cut in wedges
• Tofu for soup, cut in cube
• 2 Fresh Plums (can get in supermarket)
• Ginger slice
• 2 tbsps oil for frying Ginger slice
• 2 tsps Salt
• 5 cups of water
• Coriander abit
• Wolfberries abit

Method

1. Heat the wok or cooking pot with oil and fry the ginger till slighly brown but not brown. Add water and boil.
2. Add in tomato, wolfberries, tofu.
3. Add in fresh plums and bring to boil.
4. Add fish fillets and prawns, reduce heat and cook for 15mins and add salt and taste.
5. Serve warm with coriander.

you can also add in some lettuces if you think the soup is too plain for serving.

Steamboat by Kylie Kwong

Main Ingredients

• 700 g (1 lb 6 oz) small whole squid
• 300 g (10 oz) organic pork fillet, finely sliced on the diagonal
• 300 g (10 oz) organic chicken fillet, finely sliced on the diagonal
• 300 g (10 oz) organic beef fillet, finely sliced on the diagonal
• 400 g (13 oz) white fish fillets, finely sliced on the diagonal
• 12 uncooked king prawns (jumbo shrimp), peeled and deveined but with tails intact

Squid marinade

• 2 large red chillies, halved lengthways, deseeded and roughly sliced
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 11/2 tablespoons palm sugar
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons ginger julienne
• 1 tablespoon lime juice

Garlic and ginger paste

• 10 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped ginger
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Pork marinade

• 2 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon Shao Hsing wine
• 1 teaspoon Chinese black vinegar
• dash of sesame oil

Chicken marinade

• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon Shao Hsing wine
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• dash of sesame oil

Beef marinade

• 2 tablespoons Chinese BBQ sauce
• 1 tablespoon Shao Hsing wine
• 1 teaspoon pepper and salt
• dash of sesame oil

Fish marinade

• 2 tablespoons finely sliced coriander stalks and roots
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 teaspoon white sugar

Prawn marinade

• 1 tablespoon finely diced lemongrass
• 1/4 cup finely sliced spring onions (scallions)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ginger julienne
• 1 tablespoon Shao Hsing wine
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• dash of sesame oil
• 1 fresh bamboo shoot — about 750 g (11/2 lb)
• 18 live mussels — about 350 g (11 oz) in total
• 12 live sea scallops
• 1 bunch choy sum
• 1 bunch green asparagus
• 1 Chinese white cabbage
• 2 cups bean sprouts
• 1/3 bunch mint
• 1/3 bunch sweet Thai basil
• 1/3 bunch coriander
• 1/3 bunch Vietnamese mint
• 300 g (10 oz) fresh Hokkien noodles
• 2 salted duck eggs
• 3/4 cup fresh black cloud ear fungus
• 75 g (21/2 oz) fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded
• 6 Chinese mushrooms

Stock

• 3 litres (3 quarts) water
• 4 spring onions (scallions), trimmed and cut in half crossways
• 10 garlic cloves, crushed
• 20 slices ginger
• 60 g (2 oz) galangal, peeled and sliced
• 3 lemongrass stalks, bruised
• 2 tablespoons sea salt

Dipping sauces

• combine 3 tablespoons oyster sauce with 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• combine 2 tablespoons of each of hoisin sauce, Chinese black vinegar and Chinese BBQ sauce
• combine equal quantities of finely sliced salted radish and pickled mustard greens
• combine 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce with 2 teaspoons light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon diced ginger and a dash of sesame oil

Condiments

• light soy sauce
• fish sauce
• Chinese mixed pickles
• finely sliced large red chillies
• lemon wedges
• Pepper and salt

Haji Lane

I had not been writing my blog for past few months and today I got a little of my inspiration again from a dinner session at Haji Lane with 2 of my lovely friends.. June and Weisian...It was a normal friday work day, so, June was suggesting to me to watch World Cup (Brazil and Portugal) match at some pub, but I prefer to have a simple dinner then home, so we decided to find one of our friend who is working at a furniture shop at Haji Lane.

Along the way while we were walking to the shop, I saw a lot of nice designer boutique, from antique fashion to stylish contemporary design, beautiful art work, nice printing and of course there are nice pastry cafe in the shop too.. After a good catch up, me, June and Weisian drop by a Turkish cafe for dinner, I had quarter grill chicken and the both of them had today's special which is grill lamb with rice.. we also share a pot of apple tea, dinner was filling and we all are happy with it..

My Chicken Grill

June and Weisian Share

Turkish Salad

Birthday Dinner Treat from Jessica

It was my post birthday dinner treat from Jess at Ma Maison Central Mall, was my 1st time there, the ambience of this place is very differ from normal Jap-Italian restaurant... very cosy... because of the dim lightings and the interior arrangement just feel like home more then a food place... we were sat at a quite corner but indeed we are not very quite while having our dinner, hahaha, we were busy taking photos, shoot here shoot there till the Manager shake his head :p

Me and Jess

We had Mushroom creme soup and 2 pcs garlic bread for our starter, very chinese style fried pasta for me and steak with sunny upside egg for Jess..

I had also took some photos of the restaurant...

This key is for us to settle our bill with table number on it

This wine is just for display, besides our dining table...

A little too late for Shortbread?

I had tried to bake some shortbread before christmas last year and it was my 1st attempt and it doesn't turn out too nice, the dough was too soft and after molding all become out of shape, maybe is lack of flour.Nevertheless it wont stop me from trying again, I read some other baking website and realise that it can be also be done by baking the shortbread into a bar type.

So I tried out some Cranberries Shortbread as I still have some Cranberries left at my shelf.

The recipe source was taken from Joyofbaking.com, I personally loves this website because they have detail explanation for each recipe and sometimes the story behind those pastry, interesting :)

Cranberries Shortbread

Recipe

• 2 Cups (260grams) all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 Cup (2 sticks) (226grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 Cup (60 grams) powdered icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Basically shortbread cookies just made with 4 ingredients, Butter, Sugar, Vanilla Extract and Flour.

Steps

1. In a bowl, whisk flour with salt set aside
2. Cream butter until smooth (about 1 min)
3. Add in sugar and beat till smooth, beat in Vanilla then add in flour mixture
4. Flaten dough, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour
5. preheat oven to 180c and bake 8 to 10mins, if in bar shape, bake it for 12mins.

Ubin Trip with friends

Wonderful Saturday morning.. Weather was fantastic, sunny and windy, met up with my funny group of friends at Changi Hawker at 9am, I was late a little, still, I am not the latest in the group..

My last week posting was about selling off my old G10 camera and planning to get a new Olympus Pen, but, after a long decision at the camera shop, I made up my mind and bought a RED Panasonic GF1, I love the lens very much compare to Olympus EP1 pancake lens, it really give a very nice focus shoot..

Blue Bump Boat

Quiet Lake

It's just the right time to buy this camera and I brought to the Ubin trip for some scenery shooting, still learning a lot about this camera, always try out different mood for different shooting, example food, beach, buildings and portrait shoot. Weisian and Byron brought their camera too, we are the main photographer of the whole trip.. :) nice.

Chek Jawa House

The 2 VERY serious cyclist

Besides taking photos, I enjoy this cycling trip a lot, though I had not cycle for very long time but picking up is still quite manageable for me, didn't take me a long time ;) me and my friends had also invited my colleague Barry for this cycling trip, he told me he likes the place very much and maybe would plan to run at Ubin one day.. Susan was funny through out the trip, we tease her that she won't get lost because we can always hear her scream, haha.. funny.

Friends....

Is almost 3.30pm, we were all tired and is time to return our bike back to the shop near the jetty. After this we found a nearby coffee shop and sit down to have some chill out, is really a chill out!! cold beers, 100plus, tibits, china apple juice and all look so relax especially Susan.. Left Ubin at 430pm back to Changi hawker, took lunch and dinner coz I missed my lunch today. After this, Freddie, Charmane and Michael left for BBQ and I head home and rest..

Choosing the right camera

Currently I am using Canon G10, is a semi-pro camera but basically is just slightly better then Point and shoot, the reason for me to buy this camera is actually wanted to learn some basic skill of photo taking first before I get a DSLR and also the size of this camera is small and much much lighter then DSLR camera.

This G10 is with me for around 11months, I get it from Parkway Best Denki shop at $870 with 5yrs extended warranty. Last week my friend help me to post an online selling forum to sell off this G10 for me at the price of $600, he is so nice that help me to negotiate another $10 more, so there goes my camera at $610 to a lady. It was a cool and steady deal :) and I owe my friend chicken rice meal..

Before selling off this camera I took some photos from Bugis Junction.

I always like black and white, photo taken at Toast Box

Lightings really give a big different with photos

Christmas Tree outside Esprit Shop

So, now is the time to crack my brain which will be the next camera to choose, my criterial are, of coz it needs to be better function then G10, a DSLR definitely! then size will be a matter.. arghhh.. but nevertheless, after talking to some expert camera users, they suggest Olympus EP-1 for me, is a small, interchangeable lens, effect is as good as DSLR, retro style and most importantly the price is reasonable cheaper then the big DSLR. Ok, I will be getting this EP-1 next week and will uploads more photos :)

Olympus EP-2, similar design with EP-1

TWG at ion

It was a weekday afternoon, me and my friend decided to take a tea break after shopping at ion and we hop in to TWG for some pastry and tea. The service was very good just like 5star hotel service, once I got to look at the Tea menu I was so shock that the tea menu was about 200 selection of tea, they will even bring the tea leafs to you if you can't decide what to drink.

Below are some photos taken from my G10 :) enjoy.....

I love this Greentea cake

Simple chocolate muffin, inside is full of chocolate chip!

Small Pound cake

This was my first attempt to bake a cake after I bought my oven, so I choose the easiest cake of all, it turn out not bad but texture abit too rough, nevertheless still taste nice :)

Here's a short understanding of Pound cake, The name "Pound" was given to this cake because the original recipes contained one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs and flour.

Slice of this cake can be eaten with dusting sugar or with fresh berries or some whipped cream during tea break.

As my baking tin was a small one, so I had deduct the percentage of the ingredients into half, but I am still generously in adding the butter.

Recipe

• 1 Cup flour (I used Top Flour, prefer cake flour)
• 1 tsps baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup butter - around 80g
• 1/2 cup castor sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Zest orange or lemon (optional)

Steps

• Preheat oven 170c
• Mix butter and sugar together, beat till light and fluffy
• Add in eggs one at the time in butter mixture
• mix well
• Add in sift flour salt and baking powder
• Add in vanilla extract and lemon or Orange
• mix well
• Bake for 50 to 60 mins, insert toothpick and if it's comes out clean.