Cheesy Pumpkin Bake 芝士培根烤南瓜

This is one of my favourite recipes and one of the best ways I like my pumpkin cooked. You can replace bacon crumbs with chicken dices as a healthy substitute.

Ingredients
1 quarter pumpkin, cut into small pieces
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
5 slices bacon
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Some olive oil


Method
Take the bacon slices cold from the refrigerator and start with a cold pan. (This will prevent bacon from burning and help to render out the fat). Fry bacon till crisp. Remove and crumble bacon. Set aside.

Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat and saute garlic. Add pumpkin and stir fry for about 8-10 minutes till slightly soft.

Arrange pumpkin on a casserole dish, sprinkle bacon all over it. Top with shredded cheese.

Bake in oven at 180°C for about 15-20 minutes till cheese melted and turn golden.

Seafood Soup 番茄海鮮湯

Been super busy with work, baby, doctor visits, household chores and cooking. That pretty much sum up what I did the past few weeks. It's good to be back at work and learning new things in a new team. At home, I am starting to cook baby food as Bryan is now 6 months old and ready for some semi-solids.

Today I'm sharing a triple tested and tried recipe that started off as a fish soup and after a few experimentations, I added host of other ingredients and it became a one-pot soup meal. You will need some fresh ingredients to make a good seafood soup. I got my seafood from De Costi at Sydney Fish Market. The soup is slightly sour because of the tomatoes and makes it very appetizing, and if you don't eat prawns, just add more fish and vegetables of your choice (tofu, seaweed, enoki mushrooms, etc).

Ingredients (Serve 2-3)
400g fish fillet
6 big prawns, remove shells and deveined
1 squid/calamari, cut into rings
1 small piece ginger, cut into thin strips
5 cloves garlic, chopped
Lettuce leaves
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 piece silken tofu, cubed (optional)
1 small piece dried seaweed (optional)
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Cooking oil
3 bowls water
2 bunches coriander (for soup stock)
Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method
Add water into a saucepan and bring to boil. Add tomatoes, some ginger and coriander, and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain stock through a colander; retain stock and discard ingredients.

Heat oil in a deep pan, saute garlic and remaining ginger till fragrant. Add seafood and pan fry for 2-3 minutes. Add stock, lettuce leaves, tofu and seaweed into pan. Bring stock back to boil for 1-2 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish soup with coriander leaves. Serve with rice.

Butadon 豚丼

It's hard to dine out these days with a baby, so I try to cook at home as much as possible and experiment with new recipes. It's going to be challenging next month when I go back to work part-time. I seriously don't know how Mummy B is going to juggle between work and family... I will tell you more in 2 weeks time.

Butadon, or "pork rice bowl", has thin slices of pork and onion simmered in a sweet broth and served on top of a bowl of rice. This is a quick and easy pork recipe, and the pork can be replaced with beef slices to make gyudon (beef rice bowl).

Ingredients
1 onion, thinly sliced
300g pork fillet, thinly sliced
1.5 tbsp mirin
1.5 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup dashi stock
1 tsp sugar
Cooking oil
2 stalks scallion, finely chopped

Method
Heat oil in pan and saute onion till soft. Add pork slices and stir-fry for a few minutes till brown. Combine mirin, sugar, soy sauce and dashi. Pour mixture into pan. Reduce the heat and simmer the pork, covered, for 5 minutes.

Serve over Japanese rice. Garnish with chopped scallion.

Steamed minced pork in egg custard 肉餅蒸蛋

The key to a smooth and perfect steamed egg is to steam over very low fire, and I find that it helps to cover the steaming dish with a plastic wrap.

Ingredients
250g minced pork
2 stalks scallion, chopped
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp corn starch
1 tsp sesame oil
Dash of pepper

2 eggs, beaten
stock/water (2 eggs:2 stock)
1 tsp soy sauce

Method
Marinate minced pork with light soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and corn starch. Mix all ingredients well and transfer to a shallow steaming dish.

Mix the beaten egg, stock and soy sauce in a bowl. Pour the egg mixture over meat and skim off bubbles on the surface. Cover steaming dish with a plastic wrap. Steam with lid covered over a low simmer for about 15-18 minutes.

Garnish with chopped scallion and serve.

Stir-fried chicken with ginger and scallion 姜蔥炒雞丁

This is another dish with the ginger, garlic and scallion mixture. Click here and here for some other recipes with the 3 ingredients.

This is a simple foolproof recipe that cooks in minutes. It's as delicious as it is easy to make!

Finely chopped the 3 ingredients and sauté them with 2 tablespoons oil and sprinkle of salt for a few minutes till aromatic and slightly brown. Remove and set aside. Stir fry marinated chicken pieces (soy sauce, sesame oil and corn flour marinade) till cooked and return the ginger scallion mixture. Mix them well with chicken and voilà! We are in business. Easy eh? ^__^

Steamed Hot & Spicy Pork Ribs 香辣排骨

It's been an extremely busy and taxing week, slapped with countless little things to do and a series of unpleasant encounters with some difficult people. There were so much packing, so much cleaning and washing, and I still have not finished unpacking stuff. I reckon when I finally settle down and have time to enjoy the new place, it's bout time to go back to work. -__-

While unpacking the books in my new home I found this recipe in the 47th issue of YUM YUM magazine. The original recipe has the coriander, onion, chillies and garlic blended into a sauce. I don't have a blender so I chopped up the ingredients as finely as possible. I have added more seasoning to the marinade to give it a bit more flavor. It was overall good but B thought it was a tad bland and not spicy enough. Will add more salt and chili padi next time!

Ingredients
400g pork ribs, cut into pieces
3 stalks coriander, finely chopped
3 red chilies, thinly cut
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste

Marinade
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp corn flour
1 tsp sesame oil
Dash of white pepper

Method
Mix pork ribs with marinade and keep refrigerated for at least 2 hours.

Heat oil in pan and saute garlic, chillies and coriander for 2 minutes till fragrant. Sprinkle some fine salt and stir well. Pour the mixture onto pork ribs.

Steam pork ribs over medium high heat for about 15 minutes till cooked. Serve with rice.

Chicken skewers 雞肉串燒

What a month! B is down with a stubborn cold that just don't go away. I am busy taking care of the two men (one little man) at home and getting ready to move to a new place and a bigger kitchen! ^_^

Stay tuned as the recipe of chicken skewers to be added shortly.

Ingredients
600g chicken breast
1 red capsicum
1 zucchini
1 can peanut sauce

Marinade
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp sugar
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Black and white pepper

Method
Cut chicken into 1.5 inch cubes. Marinate chicken and keep refrigerated for at least 3 hours.

Soak skewers in cold water for 30 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Thread chicken and vegetables onto skewers. Place on grill for 15 minutes or until cooked through, turning and brushing often with remaining marinade.

Serve with peanut sauce.

Steamed Red Snapper with Ginger and Soy 蒸红鲷

This post is long overdue.*_* This was our dinner two weeks ago, wait, or was it three weeks? Haha I seriously can't remember. Don't have much time of my own these days. It's never easy being a full time mum, doing chores plus cooking and trying to keep up a social life, well, not that I have any now. I am not complaining, motherhood is beautiful and such a blessing. ^_^

Ingredients
1 red snapper or fish of your choice
1 small piece ginger, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks spring onion, cut into rings
Sprinkle of salt
2 tbsp cooking oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp rice wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1/3 cup water

Method
Clean and scale the fish. Make three diagonal cuts on each side of fish. Sprinkle with salt inside and out.

Steam fish on plate or a steamer basket, covered, for 8-10 minutes over medium-high heat. Steaming time could be longer for bigger fish.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan and sauté garlic and ginger for 2 minutes till fragrant. Add all seasoning and water. Mix all ingredients well. Pour in the spring onion and give it a good stir.

Remove fish from steamer, drain and discard the juice. Pour the sauce over fish.

Serve immediately.

Stewed Pork Ribs with Pumpkin 南瓜炆排骨

Dinner last night was stewed pork ribs with pumpkin. We love pumpkins and I cook it at least once a week. Pumpkins are nutritious, firstly they are low in fat and calories, perfect for people on diet. They are also rich in antioxidants and beta-carotene, and good source of potassium.

Ingredients
350g pork ribs
Quarter pumpkin, cut into pieces
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsbp cooking oil
Water

Marinade
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp corn flour
Dash of white pepper

Method
Combine pork ribs with marinade and mix well. Set aside and refrigerate for several hours.

Heat oil in pan and saute garlic for about 1 minute. Add pork ribs and stir fry for 3-4 minutes till brown. Stir in some water and allow to simmer covered over a gentle low heat until ribs turn tender, about 20 minutes.

Add pumpkin and continue to simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Dish and serve.