Thursday, January 17, 2013

Chinese-style Fried Rice

P1200048
Fried rice is best from left over rice; so, when you have plain rice left over from Chinese take-outs, keep it in the fridge and use it to cook fried rice. In the case where you would like to try this using fresh rice, then before cooking store your cooked plain rice, uncovered, in the fridge for at least 2 hours to dry it out a little.


Chinese-style Fried rice

Ingredients
Day-old cooked Rice or freshly cooked, quantity according to portions you need
1 shallot or red onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cm ginger, minced or slice
1-2 tsp sesame seeds
mix vegetable, according to portions you need
few dashes of oyster sauce
few dashes of light soy sauce
white/black pepper , to taste

Method
1) Heat oil in a wok, put in minced onion and ginger. Cook until fragrant. Then add-in minced garlic & sesame seeds, cook until browned. Be careful not to burn garlic or it will taste bitter.
2) When aromatics are fragrant, add in mix vegetables. Stir-fry for a few minutes.
3) Add in rice, seasoning and mix everything well. Stir fry until rice is "jumping" in the wok because you want to achieve the "char" (not burn) flavour in the rice.
4) Serve hot as side dish or main.

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Oat Meal Cookies {with no butter}

P1190931 
When clearing the pantry, I found a jar of oat meal unused for quite some time. I thought using it to bake would be a nice change. Since I normally do not stock-up on butter, I needed a cookie recipe that doesn't include butter and what a great recipe I found on A Foodie Loves Company .!
I am pasting the whole recipe here. The only tweak I did was totally eliminate the  1 1/2 cups of sugar from the recipe and the result is definitely sweet enough for me .

No Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from: All Recipes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt
cinnamon, to taste 

1/2 to 1 cup white or brown sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 1/2 cup oats
3/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 
2. Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar, and oats.  
3. Make a well in the center and add canola oil, eggs, and vanilla  
4. Mix together with a spatula. Form the dough into balls and place on cookie sheet slightly flattening them out  
5. Bake 10-12 minutes

Thursday, January 03, 2013

Chinese Style Angel Hair Pasta


P1190821
Fried vermicelli rice noodles is comfort food for the Cantonese. We eat them in the morning, afternoon, night and sometimes even during parties as the noodles could be pair with endless flavours. Since it is harder to get vermicelli made of rice flour in my area, I have learned to substitute with angel hair pasta whenever I crave the Cantonese staple.

I will not be including a recipe in this post. What I do is I toast the pasta first either on a skillet or in the oven for maximum 10 mins. on medium heat or until pasta is browned. Next you simply cook the pasta per package's instructions, once cooked to al-dente, you toss it in Asian-inspired aromatics and you're good.

Over baked sesame meat balls

P1190860 Oh, baking meat balls is so easy! Just pre-heat oven at 204°c/400°F/Gas mark 6 for at least 20 mins. before putting your meat balls in. Bake for 20-25 mins. and it is ready! No oil splatters or greasy kitchen to clean ;)

Ingredients
500 ground pork, or your choice of ground meat , you can also mix 2 types of meat
garlic granule, to taste
1/2 tsp cumin,
1 tsp ground paprika
salt & pepper , to taste
1 egg
1 day-old bread
bread crumbs & sesame seed, for coating

Method :-
1) Soak stale bread in milk/stock/water for few minutes. Squeeze out the excess liquid after few minutes and tear into pieces
2) Put ground meat in mixing bowl, add cumin, garlic granule, ground paprika, salt, pepper, torn bread and crack in the egg. Use your hand to mix the ingredients until well combine. Let it rest for 30 mins.

3) While meat is resting, start to heat oven at 204°c/400°F/Gas mark 6 for 20  mins.
4) Shape meat mixture into balls, coat with bread crumbs+sesame seeds. Place on well-greased baking dish. Bake first for 10 mins. After 10 mins. take out from oven , flip over the meat balls and bake for another 10-15 mins., until meat is fully cooked.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Chinese-style Fried Rice

P1200048
Fried rice is best from left over rice; so, when you have plain rice left over from Chinese take-outs, keep it in the fridge and use it to cook fried rice. In the case where you would like to try this using fresh rice, then before cooking store your cooked plain rice, uncovered, in the fridge for at least 2 hours to dry it out a little.


Chinese-style Fried rice

Ingredients
Day-old cooked Rice or freshly cooked, quantity according to portions you need
1 shallot or red onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cm ginger, minced or slice
1-2 tsp sesame seeds
mix vegetable, according to portions you need
few dashes of oyster sauce
few dashes of light soy sauce
white/black pepper , to taste

Method
1) Heat oil in a wok, put in minced onion and ginger. Cook until fragrant. Then add-in minced garlic & sesame seeds, cook until browned. Be careful not to burn garlic or it will taste bitter.
2) When aromatics are fragrant, add in mix vegetables. Stir-fry for a few minutes.
3) Add in rice, seasoning and mix everything well. Stir fry until rice is "jumping" in the wok because you want to achieve the "char" (not burn) flavour in the rice.
4) Serve hot as side dish or main.

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Oat Meal Cookies {with no butter}

P1190931 
When clearing the pantry, I found a jar of oat meal unused for quite some time. I thought using it to bake would be a nice change. Since I normally do not stock-up on butter, I needed a cookie recipe that doesn't include butter and what a great recipe I found on A Foodie Loves Company .!
I am pasting the whole recipe here. The only tweak I did was totally eliminate the  1 1/2 cups of sugar from the recipe and the result is definitely sweet enough for me .

No Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from: All Recipes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt
cinnamon, to taste 

1/2 to 1 cup white or brown sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 1/2 cup oats
3/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 
2. Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar, and oats.  
3. Make a well in the center and add canola oil, eggs, and vanilla  
4. Mix together with a spatula. Form the dough into balls and place on cookie sheet slightly flattening them out  
5. Bake 10-12 minutes

Thursday, January 03, 2013

Chinese Style Angel Hair Pasta


P1190821
Fried vermicelli rice noodles is comfort food for the Cantonese. We eat them in the morning, afternoon, night and sometimes even during parties as the noodles could be pair with endless flavours. Since it is harder to get vermicelli made of rice flour in my area, I have learned to substitute with angel hair pasta whenever I crave the Cantonese staple.

I will not be including a recipe in this post. What I do is I toast the pasta first either on a skillet or in the oven for maximum 10 mins. on medium heat or until pasta is browned. Next you simply cook the pasta per package's instructions, once cooked to al-dente, you toss it in Asian-inspired aromatics and you're good.

Over baked sesame meat balls

P1190860 Oh, baking meat balls is so easy! Just pre-heat oven at 204°c/400°F/Gas mark 6 for at least 20 mins. before putting your meat balls in. Bake for 20-25 mins. and it is ready! No oil splatters or greasy kitchen to clean ;)

Ingredients
500 ground pork, or your choice of ground meat , you can also mix 2 types of meat
garlic granule, to taste
1/2 tsp cumin,
1 tsp ground paprika
salt & pepper , to taste
1 egg
1 day-old bread
bread crumbs & sesame seed, for coating

Method :-
1) Soak stale bread in milk/stock/water for few minutes. Squeeze out the excess liquid after few minutes and tear into pieces
2) Put ground meat in mixing bowl, add cumin, garlic granule, ground paprika, salt, pepper, torn bread and crack in the egg. Use your hand to mix the ingredients until well combine. Let it rest for 30 mins.

3) While meat is resting, start to heat oven at 204°c/400°F/Gas mark 6 for 20  mins.
4) Shape meat mixture into balls, coat with bread crumbs+sesame seeds. Place on well-greased baking dish. Bake first for 10 mins. After 10 mins. take out from oven , flip over the meat balls and bake for another 10-15 mins., until meat is fully cooked.