Epiphyllum – Midnight Bloom For Soup

Epiphyllum – Midnight Bloom

For our family, this is the most exciting time – when the Epiphyllum blooms. We will all rush out from our house around 10 pm and witness it’s arrival, my dad will be walking in and out of the house every hour to peep at the process. My mum, oh well, she is too sad to see the spectacular bloom and how it’s life will be gone in the next couple of hours. I will wait with my father and put him to sleep after he has had enough of time with his flowers, for now that is. I will have my shears ready by the next morning and cut them down for our soup of the night. 

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Recipe for Midnight Bloom Soup

Ingredients:

• 400 grams of lean pork
• 4-5 stalks of midnight blooms
• Chinese herbal herbs: Bei Qi 北芪, Dangshen 黨參, Huai Shan 淮山 , Yu Zhu 玉竹
  , Gou Qi Zi 枸杞子, Nan Xing 南杏 and Bei Xing北杏. ( If you are near a Chinese Medical Hall or Chinese Herbal Shop, just ask them for these herbs to be mixed for 4 servings)
• 1 piece of Dried cuttlefish
• 3 red dates

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Braised Trotters - A Cantonese Recipe

Braised Pig Trotters (front)

First let's talk a little about this famous and best loved dish of all time among the Chinese community, it does not matter where you come from within China, this is one dish that speaks unity. There are of course many ways of cooking pig's trotters. Hakka way, Cantonese way, Teochew way, Hokkien way and whatever ways, it still taste just as lovely. Oh yes, coming from Singapore, there's the Peranakan way - Babi Pongteh way. I got a recipe for Babi Pongteh with trotters stored away in my head and my note book, this recipe was given to me from a friend's mom who's from Kuching, they are from a very traditional Peranakan family background,  I will post this secrete recipe in another post.

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Quick and Yummy Late Night Soy Milk Omelette – Philips Airfryer

Late Night Omelette – Philips Airfryer

I was feeling a little hungry while watching a late night online movie,  ran to the kitchen and looking around for some food. No, there wasn’t any left overs around. So I decided to whip up something quick and yummy to satisfy my hunger desire and enjoy the next movie with less growling distractions.

Ingredients:

• 5 Eggs
• 6 tbs Chicken Stock / **1/2 tsp of chicken powder (add 1/4 cup soy milk unsweetened)
• Cheese (I could only find grated Parmesan cheese)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sausages/ Ham / Bacons

** I used this for this dish ( the Soy milk really made the difference)

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E Fu Fried Noodles with Shrimp

This is one of my mum's favorite dishes for lunch, I always try to cook it at least once a week for her, this dish should be eaten a little dry without much sauce, but she likes it to be a bit saucy. You can cook it in less than 10 mins, but may take about 15 mins to prepare.All in all it's quite easy to cook.

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On Sales Now 4 days only _ 10 kilo rice at $19.90

10 Kilo : rare find, how to carry home?

Better hurry! Think this is for Hari Raya sales. I never seen a 10 kilo pack of rice before, maybe a bit swaku,(yokel). Thought of buying it but I will need to rent a pickup and 4 hunks to help me carry home. Dropped the idea. Hahaha.

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How To Marinate Minced Pork – The Chinese Way

Marinated Minced Pork 

Ever wondered why you can never get that tender and juicy flavor in your home cooked minced pork just like the hawker’s and food court uncles in Singapore?  Here’s my recipe and how to make it right. You’ll never can go wrong if you follow these few simple steps here.

One other very important factor other than just following these steps is the choice of your pork. Of course, if you choose the fattier parts it will even taste better, however, if you are a health conscious  person, you can try this with lean pork cut too, but it may not give you that extra oomph feel when you bite into it. Well enough of talking, let’s do some woking now.

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Deep Fried Pork Belly With Fermented Bean Curd- The Hakka Style

Deep Fried Pork Belly With
Fermented Bean Curd - Hakka Style

This is a dish that my whole family loves, it’s not my family’s recipe as it’s a traditional Hakka dish. My ancestral roots are from Foo-Chow, China. My mother’s family from Canton, I have learnt most of my cooking methods from my grandmother and our family’s old cook. But today I would like to share this recipe that was given to me from my partner’s father, he was a chef once, (I don’t know what he is doing now in the world yonder, maybe a chef too, who knows?)

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My First Wok

My brand new steel wok

Needed a new wok, as my  old Teflon wok has worn out.  Off I went to my neighborhood supplies store. This time I wanted to get a 14 inch traditional Chinese steel wok. Picked one with the right weight and made sure I had a good "feel" towards it. ( Just my way of looking for a good wok) not necessarily based on any logic, just my feel.

The guy that runs the place looked at me and asked if I run a food business, I said no; he then refused to sell me the wok. He said if you are not in the food business I can't sell you this wok.

Oh well, I thought, maybe he had his reasons, but I was still a little curious as why he refused to sell me the wok. He then came over to me and asked me nicely,

"Do you know how to use this wok?";

"Yes"

" Ok, tell me, how?"

"with care and love"  I grinned, " of course I know how to handle it" and in Chinese I told him "open (cure)  the wok first before I start using it lah"

"how, tell me how" ; he started his test...

ok this is how to cure a wok. I told him not in such details here but rather animated when trying to explain to him.

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