Ah Orh Seafood Restaurant

Located at the mature estate of Bukit Merah, Ah Orh is a tze char restaurant serving authentic Teochew cuisines. It's my first time there, recommended by my Hubby, and I must say, it's been awhile since I've had such a delicious, satisfying dinner!

We ordered dishes such as stir fry spinach, Thai style pork ribs, and of course, their signature Teochew dishes such as Hey Zhor (deep fried prawn rolls), steamed promfret and my favourite dessert, Orh Nee (Yam Paste).



Even a simple dish such as stir fry spinach was made extraordinary when they add in crispy, fragrant dried fish. Their Thai style pork ribs was delicious too! Deep fried bite sized pork ribs is stir fried with thai style sweet and spicy sauce. Top with pickled cucumbers, onions and chilli. Love the crunchy, sour, pickled cucumbers! Very 开胃~ Can't stop!



Their Hey Zhor is a must-try. For those who don't know what's that, its a mixture of prawns, meat, yam, spices, water chestnuts, etc, all minced and rolled up with beancurd sheet. Then it's steamed, cut into bite size pieces and fried till it's crispy on the outside, soft and savory on the inside. Dip into some sweet sauce before you pop them into your mouth and soon, the whole plate would be gone!



Ah... who can resist this... Orh Nee!



Just by looking at the greyish colour you know that they made it from real yam, from scratch. Orh Nee is very tedious to make, so many establishments use instant mix, or fake yam. So it usually turns out a pretty purple colour. Bleah! But not for Ah Orh. Their Orh Nee was not too sweet and tasted a wonderful fragrance of yam. If you savour it slowly, you can even feel some tiny lumps of yam! haha...



One thing that surprised me was the lack of fried onion oil. Many Teochew restaurant liked to add alot of fried onion oil into the orh nee, which I don't really like as it masked the yam taste. Ah Orh didn't add the oil, or maybe it's so minimum that I can't taste any. They did add the usual ginkgo nuts and dates though, but I'm not a fan, so I gave them to my hubby. :)

My Sis-in-law paid for the dinner, so Im not sure how much it cost. But I don't believe it would be expensive as it's not a high end restaurant anyway. We'll definitely go back again, and I suggest you do so too! :)

Ah Orh Seafood Restaurant

Tel: 62757575 / 62753535 (Making reservations strongly advised!)
Blk 115 Jalan Bukit Merah
#01-1627
Singapore 160115

Operating Hours:
11am - 2pm, 5.30pm - 9pm Daily

CoCo's No Knead Bread

No Knead Bread
By: Michael Smith

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour
1/4 teaspoon of dry yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
1 5/8 cups of warm water

Method:
Whisk the dry ingredients together thoroughly.

Add the water and stir until a wet dough forms. Continue stirring until the dough incorporates all the loose flour in the bowl, about 60 seconds in total.

Cover the bowl with a towel (I use cling wrap) and rest in a warm place for 12 to 18 hours.



It will double in size, bubble and long gluten strands will form.



Lightly flour your hands and the work surface then remove the dough from the bowl. Quickly form it into a ball. (Be warned - it's super sticky, wet and difficult to handle)

Thoroughly flour a cotton towel and rest the dough on it. Cover it with another floured cotton towel. You may also rest the dough on a non-stick ‘Silpat’ mat and cover it with just one towel. (I placed it on a non-stick baking tray) Rest the dough a second time. In 2 to 3 hours it will rise again and double in size once more.

I didn't read the instructions properly and didn't put the dough on a towel. So I had a little sticky situation when trying to get it out of the pan and into the pot. :P



A half an hour or so before the dough is ready preheat your oven to 230°C with a heavy covered pot in it. You may use cast-iron, steel, enamel or ceramic.

When the dough has fully risen slide your hand under the towel and quickly invert the delicate dough into the hot pot. Shake the pot a bit to settle it then place the lid on the pot and start baking.

Bake for 30 minutes with the lid then remove it and bake for 15 minutes more and... Presto! Home made bread...



It won't stick to the pot, so just pop it out.



Perfect with butter...



Check out the original recipe for a bigger portion and a healthier version!

Update - I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #8 - Bread Seduction. I guess this creation holds some sentimental value for me as it was my VERY 1st bread creation. Besides, this is a very unique recipe!

CoCo's Butter Cake

My baking mood was on, so I dug out an old cookbook and made a butter cake!

Baby was napping, so I didn't even use the electric mixer! Arms ended up all sore and tired, but biting into the warm buttery cake during teatime was worth all the effort!

The stupid recipe book indicated only 25 minutes of baking, but it ended up with raw batter in the middle! Argh! So here I indicated a longer baking time.

300g butter
300g icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
5 eggs (I only had 4 - still ok :D)
280g flour

1. Glaze oil and line baking tin with baking paper. Preheat oven at 180 degree Celsius.

2. Sieve flour and baking powder.

3. Beat half of the icing sugar and butter till light and fluffy.

4. Separate egg yolk and white. Beat egg white and other half of icing sugar till fluffy then add in egg yolks. Continue beating until creamy.

5. Using hand, blend butter mixture and egg mixture evenly, add in flour and mix well. Pour mixture into baking tin and bake for about 45 minutes.

6. Cool cake in pan for 5 mins before inverting it onto a wire mesh to be further cooled.

Serve with a cup of hot tea or coffee! YUMZ~!