Stir Fried 'Dou Miao' @ Snow Pea Shoots/Sprouts

Snow pea shoots is also known under the scientific name pisum sativum. Being an Asian plant, the snow pea shoots has various Asian names: the Chinese call it dow miu/dou miao, the Japanese name it tobyo and in Philippines, it is known as sitsaro talbos. Shoots are basically the plants that grow above the soil and the snow peas are one of the most popular species of shoots. Our local pea shoots are mostly imported from China. Due to the fact that is very low in fats and calories, the snow pea shoots are used in low calorie diets and in vegetarian meals.
The snow pea shoots have a tender flesh, which is delicious if it is stir-fried and topped with garlic or soy sauce (called tamari in the Asian cuisine) and spices, like ginger.

There are actually a few pea shoots available in the market, which are shown as the above pictures. For me, I enjoy the bottom picture's pea shoots which is bigger and crunchier. Or maybe you're interested in growing your own sprouts, click here.

Ingredients :

200gm dou miao, rinsed

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1 tbsp chopped ginger

100gm chicken minced

salt to taste

1/2 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce

Method :

- marinade minced chicken with a little salt, pepper, corn flour & sesame oil.

- preheat a pan/wok with about 2-3tbsp cooking oil.

- stir in minced chicken, saute the meat untill it's about to cook over medium heat.

- then stir in chopped ginger & chopped garlic, continue saute untill fragrant.

- now, add in dou miao & salt, and stir fry over high heat for about one minute.

- finally, off the heat and stir in the vegetarian oyster sauce, and serve.

This is also a very healthy side dish to serve in your daily diet. So, be sure you give it a try when you found this!

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Today's Menu....Ice-Cream Cake & A Finger

I guess today is just not my day! See, what happen to my finger! I accidentally cut my finger when chopping the chicken this morning. It happened so fast when the chicken suddenly slipping off and the knife landed on my finger....that it*chop*.... Luckily, my finger doesn't came off! Thank God! Pretty scary, isn't it! Yeap, ended up with five stitches. HH told me to take something sweet to comfort myself. So, I did! Ice-cream is now on sales! It happened that I grabbed a box yesterday and ended making this ice-cream cake.

Ingredients :

2 rolls vanilla swiss roll (roughly 9" length each roll)
1.8-2.0L raspberry ice-cream, softened
a 9" spring foam pan lined with parchment paper

Method :

- slice swiss roll into 18 pieces and arrange them nicely to the spring foam pan.
- whisk the ice-cream untill fluffy and then pour it to fill up the pan.



Finally, press in the balance sliced swiss roll and freeze overnight.

This is my first attempt and not knowing what's the actual quantity of ice-cream is needed! So, ended up not filled in probably. Cause I only used 1.5L of ice-cream.

Oh...just forget about my finger and let's enjoy this super dessert! I'm feeling much better now!

p/s Hey sis-in-law, don't tell my mom about my finger! OK. Thanks!

Fried Stuffed Chicken

It's never hard to prepare something fancy on your dining table for your family, if you have everything ready in your refrigerator. Just go ahead with a little mix & match. And ta..da...here comes another yummy recipe! Sounds easy, isn't it! What you need to do is try to prepare some food to keep in the freezer or fridge once in awhile, eventhough you think it won't be necessary to do so. For example, fish paste , I make that once a month or once in two months to keep in the freezer. It might come in handy when I need them! And this is just the right timing....

Ingredients :

2 whole boneless chicken legs
300gm fish paste (thin spread)
salt & pepper
a dash of ground rosemary
2-3 tbsp cornflour

Method :

- marinade chicken meat with salt & pepper and ground rosemary, for about an hour.
- spread fish paste to the inner side of the meat.
- preheat frying pan with just enough cooking oil for frying.
- coat stuffed chicken meat with corn flour.
- then place it to the hot oil and fry over medium heat.

- slowing fry the chicken untill golden brown.

- remove fried chicken from frying pan and then bake at 160'c for 20 mins.

- and keep warm in the oven untill serve.

This stuffed chicken is quite flavourful. I think it's a great match between the two, the tender chicken meat with the spongy fish paste! And it's perfect to go along with a nice bowl of vinegrate salad and some mashed potatoes. Or you may also add in a little plum sauce for extra flavouring to eat with rice. So, enjoy!

Spiced Pear Cheese Cake

I have some pears sitting in the fridge for quite sometime, seems like no one wants to lay their hands on them. Never ever waste fruits nor food! I think cream cheese should be the best thing to help me clearing up the pears. So, here's what I did!

Ingredients for Base Crust :

200gm biscuit, crashed
50gm roasted almond, crashed
125gm butter, melted

- combine all ingredients and mix well.
- then spread and press mixture evenly to a 8" spring foam tray.
- chill untill firm.

Ingredients for Cream cheese Filling :

2 green pears, sliced
1/4tspn ground cardamom
1/3 tspn ground nutmeg
3 tbsp brown sugar
500gm cream cheese, softened
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
30ml lime juice
1 tbsp lime zest
90gm yogurt

Topping : 60gm apricot/marmalade jam + 3 tbsp water

Method :

- preheat frying pan with 2tbsp butter.
- stir in sliced pear, ground cardamom, ground nutmeg and brown sugar.
- simmer the sliced pear over low hear untill tender then leave aside.



- combine cream cheese, yogurt, sugar, eggs, lime juice & lime zest in a mixture bowl.
- beat the mixture untill smooth and well combined.
- pour half portion of the batter to the biscuit base crust baking tray.
- line in the cooked pear and then cover with the other half portion of the batter.
- decorate the top with the balance spiced pear.
- wrap the bottom baking tray with aluminium foil nicely.
- finally, bake at 160'c for 1 hour and 20 mins (water bath method) or untill the centre is set.



Then for the topping, melt jam with water over double boiler. Spread the mixture over the cake once it's ready and leave cool. It's best to refrigerate the cake overnight before serving.

How does it look? Tempting or what? Cardamom and nutmeg are both quite strong and unforgettable flavour! I'm glad I only added in a tiny bit of each, just nice and thin to go along with the pear. What a great pair indeed!

Red Dragon Fruit Simple Baguette

I wanted to make something red badly.....inspired by Silvia @ Citron & Vanille of her red beet gnocchi. Absolutely gorgeous! I got myself a red dragon fruit instead of red beet which is more juicy and it's best for making bread. Dragon fruits are very common over in Asia and it's inexpensive fruits yet very delicious. Dragon fruits also called as Pitaya and it is a wonderful nutritious gourmet fruit.

Dragon fruit helps to lower blood glucose levels in type 2 diabetes, prevent formation of cancer causing free radicals, helps moisturize and smoothen skin and decrease bad cholesterol level, improve appetite, helps improve digestion and reduce fat, improves health of the eyes, helps strengthen the bones and teeth, helps in tissue development for example promotes healing of cuts and bruise and dragon fruit can also helps improve memory. So, I make sure my family eat lots of fresh dragon fruits every now and then especially myself cause I have bad memories or rather small memory space! haha....

Ingredients :

350gm mashed red dragon fruit

500gm all purpose flour

5gm salt

5gm yeast

20gm butter, softened

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Method :

- combine all ingredients to form a soft dough.

- leave to proof for an hour and then press & knead to release air from dough.

- then place dough to a floured working table.

- divide dough into two portion and shape them up.

- place dough to baking tray and leave to rest for 1/2 hour.

- then make a few cuts to the surface of the dough and leave to proof for another 1/2 hour.

- finally, bake at 200'c for 35-45mins.

- leave cool before serving.

After the cuts, I supposed to let them proof for another 1/2 hour which I didn't because it was late already. So, I just put them straight to the oven. And the bread didn't smile as what I'm expecting.

However, they look very attractive though! How I love the RED..... remember that song..."Lady In Red" by Chris De Burgh! Ooo... I just love that song!

Simple Rice Cooker Chicken Rice

I guess simple meal always a housewife favourite choice in cooking, right? Even it's a simple meal yet things need to be done like chopping, cleaning, cutting etc. We're always hoping to do the least work and can enjoy a great meal at the same time. Aren't we? So, hope this recipe might help.

Ingredients :

1/2 chicken
1-1/2 cups rice
water
3 pandan leaves, washed
2 whole scallion, skinned
3 cloves garlic, skinned
4 slices ginger
1/8 tspn salt

Seasoning :
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tspn salt

Method :

- place in rice, water, pandan leaves, ginger, garlic, scallion and salt to the rice cooker.
- then place in the chicken and leave to cook untill it's done.
(while the rice is cooking , try to steam some veggies or eggs at the rice cooker upper steamer tray)




Now. remove the chicken to a plate. Rub the chicken with salt first, then follow by light soy sauce and lastly sesame oil. Leave aside for cooling down.



Remove pandan leaves from the rice and try to stir mix the rice a little. Let it keep warm in the rice cooker untill it's serve. Finally, cut the chicken once it's cool and steam for 5 mins before serving or you can serve straight away.

Now, this is how the chicken meat looks like after remove from the rice cooker.

And this is the chicken meat after steaming. Just look at those juicy pure chicken stock. Besides of that, get the dipping ready....some chopped garlic and chili mix with lime juice & light soy sauce. Emm...yummm.... And not to forget about the rice cooker upper steamer tray, veggies and eggs!

Red Wine Longan Bread

How many of you have heard of this Masters De La Boulangerie Competition? The other day, I asked Angie regarding this and without a minute.... she found all the infor for me! Thank you very much, Angie! We were both so excited. I made a loaf with red wine longan but I've omitted the walnut. Well, maybe the bread doesn't look exactly the same but I'm expecting a soft bread loaf instead of 100% artisan bread loaf. I have my recipe as follow.

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And here some links I would like to share with you.

www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16847/2010-bakery-world-cup

http://littlechi.wordpress.com/

www.thefreshloaf.com/.../red-wine-logan-sourdough-part-2-french-sourdough-breads-japan-and-quotvariety-breadsquot

http://globalvoicesonline.org/.../taiwan-the-winner-of-the-masters-de-la-boulangerie-2010-is

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Starter dough :

200gm flour

7gm yeast

150gm warm water

- mix all ingredients together and leave to proof overnight.

*At the same time, soak 100gm dried longan(rinsed) into 1/2 cup of red wine and leave overnight.

Main Dough :

450gm bread flour

150gm all purpose flour

150gm starter dough
1 tspn salt
200gm water

180gm milk

8gm yeast

60gm butter

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* glazing : one egg yolk + 1 tspn milk

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Method :

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- combine all main dough ingredients and soaked longan with wine.

- mix well to form a soft dough and leave to proof for an hour.

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- then place dough to a working table and knead for about 5 mins.

- roll the dough nicely and place it to a baking tray and let to rest for another one hour.

- finally, brush on egg glaze and bake at 195'c for about 30-35mins.

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I have never tried making bread with wine before and was very excited to check out the loaf once it's ready! Ooo... yes, it smell like a wine loaf..... you can definitely recognize that aroma! And the longan became a little mild and not too sweet nor too strong in flavour. I've tried to spread on some jam and it tastes fabulous. I think Angie will definitely come up with something amazing soon. Happy Baking to all!

Simple Mini Okonamiyaki

My first homemade not quite Japanese food! haha.... Does that sound weird or what! Japanese food usually made of mostly Japanese ingredients and sauce (do I need a Japanese frying pan too?), which I can't even find it in my living area. So, if I wanted to taste test it then I have to figure it out myself. And here's what I did....

Ingredients for Okonamiyaki Batter :

190gm all purpose flour (original recipe : tempura flour))

200ml chicken broth (original recipe : dashi)

1 egg, beaten

Add in ingredients :

200gm prawns, roughly chopped

100gm crab stick/meat, roughly chopped

180gm cabbage, finely sliced

2 tbsp pickled scallion/ginger, chopped

2 tbsp bonito flakes

dash of ground pepper

#Topping : nori, bonito, mustard mayo, mayonnaise & chili sauce/okonomi sauce.

Method :

- combine all okonamiyaki batter ingredients and mix well.

- stir in all the add in ingredients and mix well.

- pre-heat frying pan, add in oil just slightly coat the pan over medium heat.

- pour okonamiyaki mixture on the frying pan and cook untill brown.

- flip and cook the other side the same way.

- remove from pan once it's ready.

- drizzle mustard mayo, mayonnaise and a tiny bit of chili sauce.

- sprinkle with nori and bonito flakes, then serve.

Ta...da.... Not bad huh! For me, as long as my kids love it I think it's a good recipe cause my son is a very picky eater. So, enjoy!