Stir Fry Beansprouts with Scallions and Chilies – Eat What Tonight
This isn’t any specialty dish or recipe but instead a very down-to-earth and homely fare which we usually enjoy with Teochew Mui (Chinese plain porridge). And for those who loved a good vegetarian dish too, this will fit the bill too. In fact if you were to be cooking a whole big bunch of it, you probably can enjoy it alone as a main course too. The scallions and chilies pack a good bunch of flavour and spice into the dish and with some easy and light seasoning, it’s yet another comfort and very affordable Chinese homecooked dish which pack a bunch.
And here’s to presenting on how I usually cook mine for your easy reference.
A long-awaited blog post to get everything sort out to be posted here ! So much things to do yet so little time and I really wish there’s more “out-of-office” time to do up more things. But before that, let’s enjoy this really awesome Braised Chicken with Potatoes that was served up with plain porridge !
Chinese style braised chicken are generally easy to whip up which you can rarely go wrong with the standard seasoning of oyster sauce, light and dark soya sauce, a pinch of sugar and touch of pepper to balance up the flavors. And to make a complete one pot meal, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, radish, chestnuts, eggs, etc are just a few to name that we can add to the course to make the dish more wholesome. While the rest of the ingredients are pretty simple to add-on during the braising process, potatoes can get a little tricky as they tend to get mashed up easily especially when the braising of the chicken takes a longer time while the potatoes doesn’t get to be infused well in the flavors if they are added last.
So here’s to sharing the recipe on how to get the flavors well into the potatoes during the entire braising and yet staying soft and tender instead of getting all mashed up thereafter.
Those who reside in Singapore should be familiarize with “Ah Kun 亚坤” which boost of an old school Kaya Butter Toasts and local coffee chain of food stores that you can literally find in every estate. I’ve always been a huge fan of such toasts since Kaya jam is probably the only kind of jam that I’ve ever liked. The “Ah Kun” style of Kaya Butter toasts is made up of 2 thinly sliced old school Hainanese loaf bread before sandwiching with cold butter and kaya jam.
So technically, this isn’t much of any recipe to share. However attempts to duplicate such toasts at home might prove some difficulties as if you would have realize, the loaf bread that Ah Kun uses in their store are generally thicker than those found in the bakeries and supermarkets. So it makes slicing of the bread easier. In fact, I’ve attempted on several occasions on using store bought Hainanese bread to slice them thinly but it never works out well simply because 1) the thickness is not thick enough to be given a clean slice 2) the bread is too soft and has too much crumbs after slicing.
Of course, you may say another way is to make your own bread and sliced them to your desired thickness. But I guess I’ve pretty much found the way to making thin and crisp Kaya Butter Toasts at home without too much effort is by using a Press Griller. Then it suddenly dawned on you that the Press Griller can be used in such way other than for grilling too ! So here’s a quick video to demonstrate how to achieve that so desired crispy and warm Kaya Butter Toasts at home but with minimal efforts.
I was never a huge fan of banana cakes or the liked, especially when everyone was going all gaga over the famous charcoal baked Banana cake across the Causeway which honestly speaking was really good even to someone who doesn’t fancy such cakes. But since the pandemic had kept everyone within their own borders, so I guess the next best alternative is to roll up your sleeves and baked one for yourself, especially when strong random cravings liked such just come and you have had to get it fixed.
Using overripe bananas is always the way to go for such cakes and though we couldn’t achieve that charcoal baked fragrance from our home oven, but it was still quite one of the best that I had, simply because I knew there was no essence being used and the aroma and sweetness of the bananas were just so well infused into the cake.
The Banana Cake was kept overnight in the fridge and reheat slightly in the microwave before consuming the next day and it was marvellous. So I guess the best way to enjoy such cakes is to allow all the flavours to be infused completely into the cake by cooling it overnight and enjoy them the following day. So hopefully this little bake of mine can inspire you to try baking your own Banana Cake at home too !
Ever since my mum introduced me to using these dry fermented black beans, I’ve been using and cooking them up more often than the bottled fermented black bean sauce. One thing is that the dry beans can be readily stored for a longer period of time and secondly, I can adjust the savouriness of the seasoning sauce more easily according to my own preferences.
Fermented black beans goes on well with many Chinese dishes, such as noodles, fish, chicken just to name a few. Whilst some may detest the raw smell of it, but the awesome flavors they bring to the noodles and meat once they are cooked would probably just make you crave for more there and then.
So here’s to sharing the recipe for this Fermented Black Bean Chicken with Tri-Color Capsicums which not only goes on really well with a simple rice or porridge, but also served well as an ideal one-plate dish especially if you just need to cook for yourself and looking for something simple and fuss-free.
Have always been a huge fan of flat rice noodles which is commonly known as the Kway Teow in an Asian context. From stir fry to soups, I think literally everything that has an option of Kway Teow to choose from, it will be top on my choice. And this dish is essentially a meal that can be enjoyed at anytime of the day. In Singapore, fried kway teow mee is something that we commonly enjoyed as a breakfast menu, and when it comes to lunch, this option is also available for selection. Even when you goes back home for dinner, this dish will appear at times too as it makes an easy one-pan meal.
Whilst you can commonly have it plain for breakfast with top up of instant fried foods, this version of adding fish slices to it is a healthier version and would certainly perks up the appetite instantly. With just an extra step of pre-marinating the fish and panfrying them, the little extra effort enhances this common dish to a more enjoyable one for sure.
This is the most recent recipe shared over at Instagram ! Usually my blog posts are kind of back-dated but since this is a really awesome recipe, so I thought I should give it priority to be shared here soonest possible. And so here it comes ! The family members enjoy this Otah-Otah so much that they requested me to make more and even come out with more flavors to sell.
Aromatics used for Otah-Otah
Good things are meant to be shared and good recipes all the more so. Loved this Otah-Otah that comes with a good bout of aromatics and spice and the texture stays moist and tender whether it is re-heated for the steamer or grill.
It’s actually not as difficult to make as well and pretty much a breeze once you pass the preparation stage. So hope this recipe will excite you as much as I do !
From this…To this… Freshly grilled Homemade Otah-Otah
Otah Otah
Recipe by Eat What TonightCourse: SnacksDifficulty: Medium
Hello all ! It’s been sometime since I last made any pastries of any sorts, so here’s one to keep the ball rolling again. And this time is a typical Chinese Dim Sum choice – the Char Siew Pastry which boosts of a crisp and flaky skin along with a sweet and luscious char siew filling. As with all other pastries, quite a fair bit of effort involved there but the end results is certainly rewarding.
To keep things simplified for easy starters, we used ready char siew for this but prepared the sauce for the filling and dough skin from scratch. In addition, we make do with a square shaped pastry this time as it’s the easiest shape to begin with and comes with minimal wastage.
It tastes as exact replicas of what we had from Dim Sum restaurants and after going through the process, it certainly seem to be less daunting as what’s originally perceived. Sharing the details here to keep a record of it and hopefully benefit anyone who will be keen to give this a shot !
Stir Fry Mee Tai Bak with Minced Meat – Eat What Tonight
There was quite a fair bit of positive responses on this recipe after it was shared on Instagram, so I thought I would post it here as well to benefit all the non-Instagrammers. Mee Tai Bak is what we commonly know as Rat Noodles because in Chinese it is termed as 老鼠粉. I guess it resembles the tail of the rat, hence the term for it. And I liked it a lot especially when it goes into soups and stir fry. It is also quite a “kids meal” as the adults generally like to order this for the kids instead of the usual yellow noodles or kway teow which I guess Mee Tai Bak is always easier for the kids to eat without getting too much mess comparatively.
Whilst I added minced meat to this recipe, you can always replace with other protein of your choice and it tastes awesome if you can just pack more beansprouts to it. And from one of my readers, her 13-year old can easily cook this her by herself which is pretty self-explanatory how fuss-free this dish is. Some people ask me about the reason for adding the fish sauce at the end of the cooking and not whilst cooking . I think fish sauce is a very “stinky sauce” by itself if you know what it smells like, but somehow it adds excellent flavour to Stir Fry Rice Noodles which just a small dash of it at the end of the cooking is good enough to bring out the aroma of the dish. So adding it in between the cooking might just diminish and cause the flavour of it to be evaporated during the cooking which explains why I always add it right at the end of the cooking.
