CoCo's 爱心菜心 (Love Love Stir Fry Caixin)

This was just a very simple stir fry vegetable dish. But I was just inspired to do a little "art and craft" and have fun with everyday cooking! I guess sometimes you don't need to take things too seriously!

1. Stir fry sliced shitake mushrooms, carrots and garlic with a little oil till fragrant.

2. Add in the caixin, season with chicken powder and a little water.

3. Stir in a little cornstarch water to thicken up the sauce and give the dish a nice shine.

Soon Heng Rojak

Mom recommended me this place one day when we were looking for a place for a late lunch. For people who don't know what is rojak, it's what we call an Asian salad! Haha... Apparently, this rojak stall had a reputation for it's long queue. But take a look around and you would know that everybody feels that it was worth the wait. Almost every table had a plate of the rojak on it!

The most obvious observation would be the generous amount of crushed peanut on the rojak. Yes... it's not freshly fried peanuts like some famous stalls do, but it still serves it's purpose of giving the dish a delicious nutty flavour.

My favourite is the crispy you char kuay, coated with peanuts and the prawn paste, which was a perfect blend of salty, sweet with a twinge of sourness.



We queued for 15-20mins, but polished off the whole plate within 5mins. Haha... it was worth every minute! Would definitely go back again for more! YUMS~!

480 Lor 6 Toa Payoh #B1-23,
Gourmet Paradise Food Court,
HDB Hub Toa Payoh, Singapore

Super Quick Spicy Long Beans

Experimented this dish for my own lunch yesterday (that's why the portion is so small) and it turned out delicious! Best thing is that it's SO SIMPLE. Must try!

3 Long Beans
1 teaspoon of bean paste
1 chilli padi
1 garlic, minced
1/4 bowl of water
2 teaspoon of water

Stir fry everything with a little oil for a minute, cover the pan for another minute, SERVE!

Great with a bowl of rice. YUMS~!

Pumpkin Soup

Half a pumpkin, skinned, seeded and chopped into big chuncks
1 stick of carrot
1 potato
1 big onion
1 clove of garlic
1 bowl of chicken stock
1 tsp of Oregano
Salt and Pepper

Dice onion finely and mince garlic
Fry them in oil with a pinch of salt till onion becomes soft
Add the rest of the vegetables, oregano and chicken stock
Boil in pressure cooker for 10 minutes (or about 30mins for a regular pot) till all vegetables turn soft.
Blend into a smooth and creamy soup.

For babies, serve with baby biscuits.
For adults, season with salt and pepper and serve with toasted bread.

Pumpkin Soup

Half a pumpkin, skinned, seeded and chopped into big chuncks
1 stick of carrot
1 potato
1 big onion
1 clove of garlic
1 bowl of chicken stock
1 tsp of Oregano
Salt and Pepper

Dice onion finely and mince garlic
Fry them in oil with a pinch of salt till onion becomes soft
Add the rest of the vegetables, oregano and chicken stock
Boil in pressure cooker for 10 minutes (or about 30mins for a regular pot) till all vegetables turn soft.
Blend into a smooth and creamy soup.

For babies, serve with baby biscuits.
For adults, season with salt and pepper and serve with toasted bread.

Mama’s Radish Cake (萝卜糕)

I always believe that following the recipe book to the dot does not guarantee success. A perfect example is my Mom's 萝卜糕. The original recipe is from a cook book she read many years ago, (Delightful snacks and dim sum by Agnes Chang) but she only succeeded in making it super delicious after MANY failed attempts and MANY adjustments to the recipe.

Recently I've documented down her own revised version and now I'm sharing it with everybody, so we don't have to go through the painful trial and error process. Heehee...Thanks Mummy!


600g White Radish
300g Rice Flour
75g Tapioca Flour
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4 cups of cool water
1 cup of warm water
Salt and Pepper

Optional Items
Chinese waxed sausages
Dried Shrimps
Mushrooms

Preparation!

Radish
Grate the radish coarsely and set aside.


Rice Flour Batter
Mix rice four, tapioca flour, ½ a teaspoon of salt and pepper with 4 cups of cool water. Mix well and set aside.

Optional Items
- Chinese waxed sausages: Soak sausages in boiling hot water for 5mins. Drain and chop into small pieces.
- Dried Shrimps: Soak in water for a few minutes, drain and set aside.
- Mushrooms: Chop into small pieces.

1. With a little oil, stir-fry the garlic with the grated radish

2. Add 1½ teaspoons of sugar into radish mix and stir fry in high heat till radish becomes slightly soften.

3. Add 1 cup of warm water.

4. Add in optional items, cover up the frying pan and cook in low heat until radish becomes soft and slightly yellowish.

5. Mix the rice flour batter well and pour into radish mix through a sieve.


6. Add salt, pepper and a little msg before stirring the mixture.

7. Continuously stir the mixture in one direction until it forms into a thick ball of dough.


8. Scoop into an oiled tin and smoothen it out.


9. Steam for 35 to 40 minutes or until chopstick inserted in center comes out clean.

There's so many ways to enjoy this dish!
1. Steamed: Slice it up and serve it with a little soya sauce or chilli
2. Pan-Fried: After it's cooled, slice it into small pieces and pan-fry it till it's a little golden brown.
3. Stir-Fried: Chop it up into small pieces and stir-fry it up with dark soya sauce, chilli and garlic. Hawker style!

The cake can be kept in the fridge after it is cooled. Try not to keep for more than 1 week.

CoCo's Tempura Vegetables

We had vegetable tempura recently at a Japanese restaurant, so today I was suddenly inspired to make some myself for lunch!

This is a great and simple dish for parties and also great when you want to clear out the left over vegetables in your fridge. Besides, it's easy to make and delicious even by itself!!! Whoo Hoo!

All you need is:
vegetables - Shredded
plain flour
an egg
very cold water

You can choose what type of vegetables you want. I used sweet potato, carrots, golden mushrooms, capsicum, onions and bak choy.



For the batter, I mix an egg with a cup of very cold water. Then I mix in the flour until the batter is nice and thick - like a pancake batter.
*It's ok to have lumps in your batter - they are nice and crispy!

All that's left to do is to fry them! Coat a small mixture of vegetables in the batter and fry them in a small pot of hot oil till they are nice and golden brown.



While they were hot, sprinkle A LITTLE salt on the vege cakes and serve!The vege cakes are delicious by itself, but we happened to have some soba sauce in the fridge and it goes perfectly well with it too!

Enjoy!

Shami Banana Leaf Delights

It's more commonly known as the Briyani store at Yishun. In fact, I only found out what was the store name when I last visited it. I'm forgot to check if it's Halal or not, but I'm quite sure they don't sell pork! :)

OK, for those who have not tried Shami's Briyani, beware. Especially for all you small eaters out there. Their portions are HUGE!

Many people just order one and share it with someone. Apart from the huge portions, Shami's briyani is also what we describe as very jelak - very heavy and filling.

They have quite alot of variety, such as mutton, chicken, fish, prawns, even crab! For vegetarians, they have vegetarian sets too! They also have alot of vegetable side dishes to choose from...



We ordered the mutton set which was S$5.50 for a huge portion of briyani, a choice of vegetable, 2 crispy papadum and a giant chunk of mutton with meat so soft it just melts in your mouth!!!



But surprisingly the curry wasn't very spicy, so this would be suitable for people who have a lower tolerance to spicy food. Spice lovers like me would have felt it lacked the "shiokness". But overall the dish was alright.

Shami Banana Leaf Delights

Northpoint Shopping Centre
The Food Mall
930 Yishun Avenue 2, #B2-10
Singapore 769098

CoCo's Mushroom & Garlic Rice

Got sick of eating plain rice, so experimented making mushroom garlic rice. This dish was inspired by those served at Japanese restaurants. I don't know how they do it in the restaurants, but this is CoCo's version!

Very simple, for 2 big bowls of mushroom & garlic rice:

1 scoop of rice
A handful of Shitake Mushrooms, diced
4 cloves of Garlic, roughly diced
1 medium sized onion, diced
Knoss Chicken Seasoning Powder (or chicken stock, if you have any)



1. Wash your rice & drain

2. Cook the rice like how you usually do it, just replace the usual plain water with Knoss chicken powder mixed with water.



3. While the rice is cooking, stir-fry the mushrooms.
Stir fry with a little oil, let it fry a while before adding a teaspoon of the chicken powder. Then you add the onion and garlic and stir fry it till it's nice and soft.

4. Pour the mushroom into the cooking rice.

5. Stir it all up when the rice is cooked.

The mushroom rice tasted GREAT. It goes SO well with CoCo's Teriyaki Chicken that we baked in the oven. A good twist to the boring white rice!