Broccoli and Pork Slices in Black Bean Sauce – Eat What Tonight
The kind of one-dish meal I can easily polish up a bowl of rice with ! This Broccoli and Pork Slices in Black Bean Sauce is a typical Chinese home-cooked dish that’s absolutely delicious and satisfying. Replace the pork slices with chicken if you’re unable to take pork which will be equally tasty too as the gist of this dish lies in the savoury black bean sauce more than anything else.
I used dry black beans for this and crushed them to bring out the flavors prior to cooking instead of using the bottled black bean paste. For one reason, it’s cheaper to just buy the black beans by itself rather than a whole bottle of the paste if you are not going to use it often. For second reason, you can better moderate how savoury you want the sauce to be in this way according to one’s preferences.
This recipe is a sure keeper because it’s super easy to prepare and perfectly ideal for a quick meal option. Do eliminate the chili if you are cooking for the kids though !
Trying out a new variation of fried rice and this was really good ! I blended my own chili paste which is quite the essence for this dish and added long beans and kang kong vegetables which traditionally should be included as well and I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout. The fried rice was very tasty and though the chili paste might seem spicy at a glance but after frying with the rice, it turns out to be very moderate spicy and was very delicious.
Initially I was still a a bit skeptical at the addition of the water spinach aka kang kong to a fried rice but as it turns out to be really acceptable and blended very well into the rice. This dish is very economical too as long beans and kang kong vegetables are two of the cheapest vegetables in the market now and whilst retaining its nutritional value, this one-plate meal satisfies the palate well and is definitely wallet friendly too considering how high the inflation have impacted our daily groceries nowadays.
These patties taste really awesome ! The salmon flakes, potatoes chunks along with diced carrots, onions and sweet corns combination turn out to be surprisingly good. I actually managed to finish a few of these Salmon and Potatoes Patties in one go.
Only a few simple ingredients are required and the whole process is pretty much a breeze ! Just mix everything together, mold them into patties and fried them completely.
The most cautious part of the cooking will probably be the frying part as there’s a tendency for the patties to break apart when frying. To overcome this, make sure the oil is hot enough before adding the patties into it and frying them in small batches to ensure the hot temperature does not dip. And once the patties are placed into the hot oil, do not attempt to flip them till they are browned at the edges. With some caution in so doing, these Salmon and Potato Patties will turn out great.
One of my favourite kinds of Chinese homecooked is a Stewed Chicken. Today I had it stewed with 3 different kinds of onions – shallots, yellow onion and spring onions. The chicken and the sauce is very fragrant and it’s the kind of dish where you can easily polish up your rice with. I even had extra of it freeze up so that it can be easily re-heated or microwave on busy days to enjoy.
After stewing in the sauce, the onions become very tasty as it absorbs all the flavours from the seasoning. It’s a simple Chinese homecooked that does not require a lot of efforts and will be able to be enjoyed by everyone in the family. The chili is pretty optional and can be eliminated if you are cooking a kids-friendly version.
Have not introduced a steamed dish for quite awhile already, so finally it’s time to post this after running through my long list of archives recipes to share. Usually served as a dim-sum dish for the steamed black beans pork ribs, but today I had the rice steamed from scratch instead of using the rice cooker before adding the black bean pork ribs onto the rice and steaming it further in the bamboo steamer.
The challenge of this dish actually lies in the rice as it can be difficult to gauge the amount of water needed to steam the rice. Too much of it, you get a sticky rice which will prove even harder to eat when the sauce of the pork ribs sips into the rice and too little of it, you get a hard and dry texture which people will often deem as uncooked rice. So tried and tested, this recipe serves the right texture of rice along with the ribs and fitted with the right serving portion to fit a standard 15cm bamboo steamer size as well.
When I ran out of ideas on what to cook, I will serve up my favourite stir fry vermicelli. I added some homemade chili and glass noodles to the usual vermicelli to give it a little twist today. And for this particular recipe, no oyster sauce has been used and the main seasoning came from the fish sauce and light soya which explains for the whiter colors of the vermicelli as compared to the usual darker ones.
The spice was pretty moderate and I added a good amount of vegetables to this recipe which make it more appetizing and delicious.
Chicken and Beansprouts in Special Sauce Rice 酱爆鸡丁豆芽饭 – Eat What Tonight
Came up with this special sauce that pairs on deliciously with beansprouts and rice and made complete with a sunny side egg as a one-dish meal for one. The sauce was a mild spicy as it is cooked with dried chilies and spicy bean paste. And realized that I did not thicken the sauce this time with any starch solution as the chicken was marinated with corn flour already and hence after cooking the chicken in the sauce, the texture of the sauce was just nice to spread on with rice.
It’s quite a trial and error process that I manage to get the right amount of savories for this special sauce and something which I really liked but has never had it elsewhere before. The addition of beansprouts also help to bring out taste of the dish and it will be good to cook up a larger serving for guests serving in future too !
My typical kind of meal when I feel lazy and just needed something brainless. LOL. And whilst I thought the turnaround time for this will be quick, which is still the case but it wasn’t as fast as I had expected it to be because the “perfectionist” me decide to cook each and individual item of the noodles separately so that I can plate it better, I ended up taking a good 30 minutes for a 3-minute instant noodles. Hahaha ! Not to mention I had more plates to wash as well because the individual ingredients have to be placed separately too.
But I do love the combination of the dark soya sauce and sesame oil being tossed in the noodles which together with the sweetness from the vegetables and sodium-packed luncheon, it’s something that you won’t mind having again and again, just liked an instant noodles but a whole lot healthier since the noodles’ seasoning pack is not used.
Adding to my Modori Goodle Cookware is this all new Knife Set that presents itself as a sleek and functional display piece on the kitchen tabletop. What I so liked about this knife set is the 180-degree rotating knife holder that allows the knife set to be “concealed” as a beautiful display in the kitchen when not in use. For safety reasons and more especially so when there are kids at home, sharp objects liked kitchen knives may not be ideal to be displayed openly in the kitchen space. However with this “conceal” feature, kitchen knives can now be accessible within reach and yet at the same time make the cooking area visually safer, neater and more minimalist looking.
I once had a wooden knives holder and had a horrible experience as the wood starts to corrode and small roaches start to seep within the holes in the wood as they are inaccessible to be clean. So when I set my eyes upon this Modori Goodle Knife set, I thought it meet my expectations very well as the knife holder has large ventilation holes with the base being full detachable that allows for easy cleaning and drying which makes it a huge plus point.
Comprising of 4 different kitchen knives within the set is the Chef Knife, Kitchen Knife, Utility Knife and Fruit Knife. And for me, these basically covers all the functions I need for the entire purpose of kitchen knives. My most-used so far shall be the Chef Knife, which can goes beyond cutting fruits and vegetables and even poultry with a single cut or slice simply because it is made from high-quality grade of German stainless steel that keeps its blade sharper for a longer period of time, saving up much efforts for knives polishing which can be such a chore if you are used to manual sharpening like myself.
As for the kitchen knife, I see it as a smaller version of the Chinese cleaver which is pretty good for smashing garlics, pounding meat or cutting bulky fruits. The utility knife on the other hand, is really useful for slicing breads and hamburger buns as it leaves very minimal crumbs after cutting. I attribute this to the true sharpness of the long serrated knife which is often lacking in other bread knives.
The most important factor of any kitchen knife at least to me, is the knife grip which can easily make or break any cooking preparation job. The grip has to firm and solid without it being slippery especially when your hands are wet. I am glad that these Modori kitchen knives are able to serve this purpose well as the grip is well fitted to the contours of the hand and I am able to manage a good grip on the these knives without them slipping away easily when in use.
Do check out the Modori Goodle Knife Set over at https://modori.sg/products/goodle-knife-set for more details !
