Mother-in-law's pa-mee (打面)

Everyday you learn something new...

My mother-in-law is heng hua dialect, so one night when we were over at her place for dinner, she cooked a huge pot of what they called, pa-mee (打面). I'm not sure how authentic is it, but it's delicious!

She bought this noodles from the market near her place, and I loved it as it doesn't have the alkaline taste like in those "yellow noodles".

So she gave me a packet and I tried to make a pot one evening. I'm not sure how, but I guess the main things would be the soup base, ingredients and the noodles.

Soup Base
Chicken breast, with bones
Ginger, one thumb size nob, smacked with a knife
Salt
Chicken powder

Boil for an hour, skimming off any excess oil or scum. Remove chicken and ginger.

Ingredients
Shitake mushrooms
Pork shoulder, sliced
Cai xing
Toufu fish cakes, sliced

Put everything into the soup base and boil until pork slices are cooked. Adjust flavour accordingly, it should be slightly more salty than usual to balance out the bland noodles.

Noodles
Put raw noodles in a big bowl, pour boiling water into it and swish it around for a few seconds before pouring away the water. Run under cold water for a few seconds and set aside.

When the soup is ready, add in the noodles and boil for not longer then a minute. Serve!

It's delicious, easy to make, and everybody in the family loved it. Definitely a recipe to keep!

Brotzeit sausages and roasted pork

Went there for lunch the other weekend and decided to try out something new other than their usual pork knuckle. They had this roasted pork special that day, so we gave it a try. The meat was moist and flavourful while the crispy pork skin was to die for! I love the patty that comes with it. I'm not sure what it is, I think it's potatoes, but it's delicious!



We ordered one of their smoked sausages too. It's a little salty for us, but I just love the crunch of the skin before our teeth sinks into the meat. Of course, we love the sauerkraut, which was soft and slightly sour, really whets your appetite and makes you want to eat more!



They were having the Oktoberfest special beer, so we ordered two. I gosh I really love beer! It's quite simple, but very smooth and light. Delicious. Another yummy lunch!

#01-149-151,
1 HarbourFront Centre Walk,
VivoCitySingapore 098585
Reservations : 62728815
Opening Hours
Sunday to Thursday: 12.00pm to 12.00am
Friday, Saturday & Eve of Public Holidays: 12.00pm to 1.00am

CoCo's Kick-Ass Kimchi Soup

My last attempt at making Kimchi soup was a disaster. But this is one of my favorite Korean dishes, so I lay down my pride, do my homework, bought the right ingredients and the result was a KICK-ASS, super delicious kimchi soup. I seriously could charge people for a bowl of this spicy goodness.

I believe the key to this unbelievable success was the tub of hot pepper paste I bought at the Korean specialty store.



Also, I have to give credit to this great new blog I discovered. I altered his recipe a little, it was great. :)

So anyway, here's what you need.

250g pork belly, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
1 garlic, minced
1 small knob of ginger, minced
1 bowl of kimchi
1 bowl of cabbage
1/2 block of silken toufu
2 bowls of water
2 tablespoons of Korean hot pepper paste
2 teaspoons of soya sauce (I use fish soya sauce)
1 knob of butter
Spring onion, sliced for garnish

1. With a little sesame oil and regular cooking oil, fry the pork belly to get some of the oil out. Add in the onion, garlic and ginger and stir fry till fragrant.

2. Squeeze out some juice from the kimchi or get it from the jar. Add in the kimchi juice, the kimchi, the cabbage, water, hot pepper paste and soya sauce. Boil the soup for 15-20mins, add in the toufu at the last 5 mins.

3. Before serving, mix in the butter for a rich, flavour. Garnish with spring onions and serve with rice.

As I was typing this I realised that I forgot to add the shaoxing wine. But it delicious nonetheless! Next time I'll add it in. :)

CoCo's Homemade Kimchi Soup

We really eating Kimchi soup at restaurants, so one day I attempted to make Kimchi soup at home. I boiled some packaged kimchi with cabbage, leeks, tofu, vermicelli and pork with soup stock. Well, it looks good, but unfortunately was a little bland. Next time I'll up the flavour by adding more Kimchi and making the soup more spicy. :)

A1 Bak Ku Teh

Bought a packet of A1 Bak Ku Teh Spice to make Bak Ku Teh for dinner the other day. That was my first time trying this brand and I must say... IT'S DELICIOUS LOH~!!! One packet comes with 2 spice sachets, and according to the packaging, 1 sachet for about 500g of meat, so I only used 1 sachet.

So VERY SIMPLE, just follow the instructions on the packaging. (but no need to be so strict)
500g of meat (I used 2 packets of prime rib - BEST)
6 cloves of garlic (whole with skin on)
1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce
1 tablespoon of light soya sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
a pinch of msg
pepper (I use freshly grounded white pepper - you can use regular pepper)
1 big bowl of water

**For water, my Mom taught me to use your choice of serving bowl, plus another 1/2bowl. For example, the portion that I want to cook was about 1 big soup bowl, so I pour 1 bowl plus another 1/2 bowl, as the half would be evaporated during boiling.**

The instruction say add the seasoning AFTER the meat has been cooked. But I think the meat would be more flavourful if you boil it together with the seasoning. So I just pop EVERYTHING into the pot, and let it cook.

I used a pressure cooker to cook for about an hour, which is divine as the meat would be sooo tender, even the soft bone turns translucent and delicious and well, soft! For a regular pot, an hour would also be fine, just that you would have to keep an eye on your soup and make sure it doesn't dry up.

Serve with some simple blanched vegetables, steaming hot rice and most importantly, freshly cut chilli padi in dark soya sauce.

YUMS~!

Braised Chicken Wings

This is my Mummy's recipe and it's easy and delicious!

1. Marinate the chicken wings with a pinch of salt
2. Slice up some ginger and smack about 2 cloves of garlic
3. Stir fry the ginger and garlic with sesame seed oil and a splash of regular cooking oil
4. When the ginger is slightly brown, add in the chicken wings and stir fry it for a minute.
5. Add water till it almost cover the meat.
6. Pour in about 2-3 tablespoons of dark soya sauce and a tablespoon of sugar
7. Let it simmer in high heat for a few minutes before turning down the heat and let it braise slowly.
8. When the sauce has been reduced to about 1/3, check the flavour and add salt if necessary.

Done!

Variations:
1. Add mushrooms for added flavour
2. Use pork belly if you like!

For Braised Pork Belly...
Ginger - cut into bigger slices instead of sticks
At step 4,
-Add a stick of cinnamon (optional)
-Add hard boil eggs

Enjoy! :)

Tiong Bahru Hua Yuen Porridge

If I have to choose what is my favourite dining out breakfast, this is it. A hot and piping bowl of fried big intestine porridge (炸大腸粥）from Tiong Bahru Hua Yuen Porridge. Located at the Tiong Bahru food centre, the store has been around since before the renovation and it serves good, authentic Cantonese porridge.

So far I have not come across another store that sells fried intestine porridge. Maybe it's because it's a lost art really. Many people just don't bother to sell fried intestine dishes anymore because it is such back breaking work! You have to wash it VERY thoroughly or else it would smell (yah gross right), and the folks at Hua Yuen sure knows how to make good intestines!

I love the contrast of the crispy and crunchy intestines with the smooth and silky porridge. It is the ultimate comfort food for me, especially on a cool morning.

Of course, if you are having breakfast at Tiong Bahru Food Centre, it would be a real shame if you went all the way just to enjoy ONE dish. In fact, it would be a down right sin!

So before we even start on the porridge, we would always have at least 4 pieces of the famous zhui kueh. The pickled turnip topping is SO good, Cobby would even mix a little into the porridge.



Of course, how can you have porridge without some freshly fried you tiao (油條)? Imagine dipping the hot and crispy fried dough stick into the porridge before sinking your teeth into them.... yummm... heaven...

I love you tiao...

Perfect combination...

Of course, if you're not a fan of fried intestines, they also have the usual pork, chicken or fish porridge, which is just as good!

Tiong Bahru Hua Yuen Porridge
#02-59
30 Seng Poh Road
Tiong Bahru Market and Hawker Centre

Ban Mian at Woodlands Koufu

My hubby introduced me to eating ban mian and now it has become of the food that I adore. But I only like the thin ones as it has the best SLURP factor!

I'm not a fan of the 'yellow noodles' or lye water noodles as it has a strong alkaline taste, unlike the ban mian, which is flour base, so it doesn't have the taste that I don't like.

My favourite store has to be the one at Koufu Food Court at Woodlands avenue 6. I've tried a few other stores, but this one is the best:

The ikan bilis is crispy but not too salty.
The minced meat is nice
The vegetable is very generous
The noodles are also very generous with just the right bite to it
The soup is lagi BEST ah...

I usually order without egg as I find that it sticks to everything and affects the taste. Add in some cut chilli padi into the soup to give it extra "kick" and dinner is served!

steaming hot noodles...

Koufu Food Court
Blk 768, Woodlands Ave 6

CoCo's Greek Double Roasted Chicken

This dish is inspired by a cooking show on SCV, My Greek Kitchen. In the original they'll put herbs and use olive oil instead. So this is CoCo's simplified version. Just as good mind you...

The original recipie uses pork shoulder meat. Which is just as good! See below for pictures...

For 2 persons:
2 drumsticks (note: not enough - you may want to add more)
4 slices of bacon (note: not enough! because it just taste SO good!)
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 tomatoes, sliced
1 big onion, cut into big chunks
Pinch of salt, pepper & oil
Sprinkle of paprika (optional)



1. Preheat your oven for 10 minutes at 200 degrees
2. Put everything into a baking tray (except for your bacon) and mix them all up!
3. Place your bacon slices on top of the mix



4. Drizzle a little oil over everything. This would help with the browning of your bacon.
5. Cover the tray with aluminium foil and bake for 1 hour



6. Remove the aluminium cover and bake for another 30 minutes. This would help to make everything brown and crispy!



SERVE~





The beauty about baking a dinner - NO MESSY KITCHEN! Can you tell that dinner is being prepared in this kitchen below??


This is the pork shoulder version. I skipped the paprika for the pork.



After 1.5 hours, the meat becomes so juicy and tender! A must try!