Steamed Jelly Ear Chicken Rice!

This is one of my favourite Chinese dish - Steamed Jelly Ear Chicken Rice! I actually had to look up what jelly ear is in english, as this ingredient is rarely seen used in western food, and I don't think I have ever seen this term used in english context (maybe it's just me?). Jelly ear is probably the only type of fungi/mushroom I eat.. (very picky of me..:P)

You will need:
(2 servings)

3 chicken thighs
10 jelly ears
2 bowls of rice
soy sauce
ground pepper 
sugar
cornstarch
ginger

Steps:
1. Wash the jelly ears and soak in water until it becomes enlarges and softens.
2. Cut away the hard ends of the jelly ears. Prepare the ginger by peeling it then cutting it into strips or mince/grind it like I did.
3. Cut the chicken thighs into small pieces. Marinate with soya sauce, sugar, ground pepper and cornstarch. For better taste, leave it for at least half an hour.
4. Prepare the rice in rice cooker. Use 75-80% of the amount of water you normally use for the rice  because it can get really moist when you add the chicken later as it releases moisture/sauce. Add in the chicken and jelly ears on top of the rice in the rice cooker as soon as the water in the rice disappears.
5.When the rice cooker timer is up, it may not mean the chicken is fully cooked, so leave it in the rice cooker and until it is fully cooked with the remaining heat. 
6. Mix everything up to make sure the sauce gets mixed into the rice thoroughly.

Picture taken straight from the rice cooker

Mix.. Mix.. Mix..

Healthy salad!

Salads are probably one of the easiest and healthiest things to make. Just add in your favourite veggies and ingredients, then finish off with your favourite dressing and there you go!



I am going to share with you what I normally have in my salad.

In my salad:
salad tomatoes
sweetcorn
iceberg lettuce
cucumber
balsamic vinegar

(I don't really like leafy salad veggies, so I only used lettuce:P)

Method:
1. Wash all the ingredients.
2. Chop up all the ingredients.
3. Mix it in a bowl with balsamic vinegar.

Bits and Bobs

As you see from the title, I named this dish Bits and Bobs:P That is because you can literally mix and match any of the leftover ingredients you have in your fridge to do it. I was making pizza the other day, and had some leftover peppers, sweetcorn, onions, so I just combined with a few more other leftover ingredients in my fridge and created this dish.

You will need:

(4 servings)

half bowl of coloured peppers

mince pork (size of your fist x2)

half bowl of squash

half bowl of carrots

half bowl of sweetcorn

half bowl of onions

vinegar

soy sauce

osyter sauce

sugar

corn starch

water

1. Chop up the squash, onions, carrots and colour peppers. Defrost the sweetcorn.

2. Marinate the mince pork with soy sauce, sugar, starch

3. Boil the squash and carrots.

4. In a frying pan, add in some cooking oil and fry the onions, then add in the mince meat. When it is 90% cooked, add in 1.5 tablespoon of osyter sauce, one tablespoon of soy sauce and 2 teaspoons of vinegar. Add in 50ml of water just so the oyster sauce can get mixed in more easily.

5. Add in the peppers, squash, carrots and sweetcorn, and fry it for a 1-3 mins.

Another dish perfect with rice~:) You can also wrap it with lettuce. 

Blueberry buns!

Continuing from my previous post, today I am going to share with you how to make these blueberry buns. The ingredients are required for the bun is the same with the pizza base ingredients, with the addition of dried blueberries.

You will need:
(8-9 buns)

400g bread flour
40g of butter
6g yeast
80g sugar
200g warm water
lots of dried blueberries

Steps:

1. Mix in dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then slowly add in the water at intervals while kneading it until a dough is formed. It may be sticky at first when you knead, but when the dough is done, it should not stick to your hands
2. Cover the dough and let it ferment for at least 90 mins at room temperature.
3. Divide the dough into 8-9 equal portions, then make them into a sphere shape, then press it down so it is slightly flat, then make a hollow and add in a handful of dried blueberries, then close it up and then reform the sphere, make sure the dried blueberries are well packed inside and that the surface of the bun is smooth with no big cracks. 
I have done experiments testing the effect of having cracks on the surface and not, as well has having blueberries peeping out on the surface and not (as you can tell from the picture above, some has a more smooth surface, some looked more like scones lol). The ones that had blueberries peeping out, they fell out as the bun rises in the oven.  So I suggest to keep all the dried blueberries in and keep the surface smooth. If there are cracks that you can't fix, keep the cracked side facing down in the oven tray.
4. Preheat the oven to 180-200C, then place the buns in the oven for 15-20mins.

You may apply a layer of egg yolk on the surface to give a shiny glaze. I did not do that because I ran out of eggs at home. Now my buns looks as if it's really dry, and a bit like scones as well haha. But in fact they taste quite good and are 100% buns!!! (not scones..)

Homemade Pizza!!

Today I am going to share with you how to make your own pizza from scratch. This is a recipe I got from my mum.

You will need:
(3-4 servings)

400g bread flour
40g of butter
6g yeast
80g sugar
200g warm water

Steps:

1. Add in all the ingredients except water in a large mixing bowl.
2. Slowly add in water at intervals, while mixing and kneading the ingredients until a dough forms.
3. Cover your mixing bowl, allow to fermentate for at least 90 mins.
4. Preheat oven at 200C.
5. Divide into 4 equal portions, and using your hand or rolling pin to flatten it into a thickness of about 2-4mm.
6. Roll up the edges of the pizza base.
8.Apply a layer of tomato paste, add in a little water so that it is easier to spread.
9. Add in your favourite pizza toppings and finally add mozzarella cheese. In my pizza, I added onions, diced peppers, small ham slices, diced pineapples, sweetcorn.
10. Place your pizza into the oven for 15-20 mins.
11. Let it cool in the rack so the base does not go soggy.

Yes:P This picture is filtered 

#nofilter

I used this pizza base recipe to make blueberry buns as well, and it tasted good too! Please check out my next post for my blueberry buns recipe.

A little Trick for peeling Kiwi Fruit

Hi, today's post is a little different because it is not about cooking recipes, but an interesting trick I learnt from my sister. Most people tend to just cut kiwis in half and eat the flesh with a spoon or maybe peel it with a knife. I don't know where my sister learnt that from, and perhaps some of you might know it already, but to me, it's a really cool way to peel kiwi fruits. I thought it was really clever of my sister when I first saw it:P

Method:

1. Cut the ends of the kiwi fruit.

2. With a tablespoon, push it through the kiwi fruit as close to the skin as possible.

3. Then push the spoon away from you and makes your way around the kiwi fruit. The skin should come off nicely in one whole piece.

You can then just eat it whole like you eat apples (if you are lazy like me), or you may slice it into thin slices.

I personally think this is a much neater way of peeling kiwi fruits, and also safer and more convenient for those who are not good at using knifes.

Pork Ribs Basking in its Glory

Found an online recipe and decided to try it out, and it turned out really good! I am definitely going to make this again! I cannot wait to share this goodness with you!

You will need:
(2 serving)

8 pork ribs
3 1/2 tablespoon sugar;
3 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon diced garlic

Steps:

1. Cook the ribs.
2. Marinate the ribs with garlic and leave it for at least 45 mins.
3. Heat the ribs in a pan and then add in soy sauce and sugar as the sauce.
4. Cook until the sauce thickens and forms a glaze coat on the ribs.

I decided to plate it with some salad and rice.