Easy broccoli and chicken stir-fry

This easy stir-fry chinese style brocolli serves up to 2 people.

Ingredients

1. 1 chicken breast (sliced to thinner pieces)

2. 1 bulb of garlic(chopped finely or minced it)

3. 1-inch piece of ginger (sliced thinly)

4. 2 tablespoon of soy sauce

5. 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch

6. 1 1/4 teaspoon of salt

7. 3 tablespoon of dry sherry or shaoxing cooking wine

8. 2 tablespoon of sesame oil 

9. 1/2 cup of water

10. 3 tablespoon of olive oil

11. 1 floret of broccoli

12. 1/2 big carrot

13. 2 tablespoon of oyster sauce or hoisin sauce

14.1 teaspoon of black pepper

Method:

1. Marinate chicken with half of the chopped garlic and ginger, soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of cornstarch, 1 teaspoon of salt, sherry/shaoxing wine and sesame oil and leave it for at least 15 minutes.

2. Heat the non-stick frying pan over high heat and add a tablespoon of oil. Add in the remaining garlic and ginger and fry until fragrant. 

3. Add in broccoli stems and carrots and stir-fry for about 30seconds. Add in the remaining florets, 2 tablespoon of water, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and season with black pepper. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes until brocolli is bright green but still crisp. Set aside.

4. Heat the frying pan again and 2 tablespoon of oil. Add in the marinated chicken and stir-fry until a little brown for about 2 minutes. Add in oyster sauce/hoisin sauce and return the brocolli and carrot into the pan. Also stir in mixture of 1 tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in 1/2cup of water into the pan.

5. Stir-fry for another 1 minute or until the sauce thicken. Serve while hot with steamed rice !

Japchae (Korean Stir-fry Glass Noodle with Mixed vegetables)

It was my first attempt making this korean glass noodle dish and I would say it tasted pretty good! I guess because of the nicely marinaded chicken and also the power of sesame oil ! I love putting using sesame oil for frying my fried-rice too because it makes the rice taste just like from the chinese restaurant! Hope you guys love this noodle recipe ! This recipe serves up to 4 people.

Ingredients:

1. 250g of Korean glass noodles. (you can get the normal glass noodle from your available store) 

2. 150g Chicken, beef or pork sliced thinly

3. 1 Carrot

4. 2-3 handful of Spinach (I forgotten this for this recipe though!)

5. 1/2 Onion chopped finely

7. 4 cloves of garlic chopped finely

6. 5 dried chinese mushroom (soaked and chopped into thinner slices)

7. Sugar

8. Salt

9. Black pepper powder

10. Soy sauce 

11. Sesame oil 

12. 1 egg

13. Olive Oil

Method:

1. Marinade the meat with 1.5 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 3 teaspoon of garlic, 1 teaspoon of black pepper and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and leave aside for half an hour at least. And soak the glass noodle in cold water for half an hour as well.

2. Parboil the spinach in boiling water, wash with cold water and drain out any excess water. Season with dash of salt and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil. Set aside.

3.  Boil the glass noodle in boiling water with 1 tablepoon of olive oil  for 5 minutes. After that rinse the noodle gently in running cold water twice. Drain the noodle and add in 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, 1.5 tablespoon of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of sugar and mix well. Set aside.

4. Separate the egg white and yolk and beat individually. Pan-fry separately into very thin layer like pancake.Slice into strips and set aside.

5. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and stir-fry onion, carrot and add in dash of salt and pepper to taste. Add in the marinaded meat and slices of mushroom and stir-fry at medium heat for until cook. 

6. Add in the marinaded glass noodle, spinach and mixed well with other ingredients. Garnish with egg strips. Serve and eat while its still hot from the wok!

Making your own homemade plain yogurt

The advantages of making your own homemade yogurt are easy, healthier and cheaper! Firstly you just need to have some milk powder and spoonful of plain yogurt as the starter which will be the source of beneficial active cultures. You do not need to go to the store again to buy a new bottle of plain yogurt once you have your very own homemade yogurt as you can use it as the starter for the new batch and so on.

Make sure the bottle of plain yogurt which you going to purchase has the label saying containing "active live cultures" and also doesn't say "pasteurized". This is due to the process of pasteurizing would have kill off the good bacterias aka the active live cultures/probiotics present in the yogurt.These live cultures in yogurt are good for our body as their inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria. They are fermented in milk at warm temperature turning the milk into pudding-lie consistency as lactose is converted to lactic acid thus giving yogurt slight acidic flavour. Hence people with moderate lactose intolerant can digest yogurt without a problem as the process of turning milk into yogurt transforms the lactose into lactic acid, which means our body don't need to process the sugars in the original milk product.These good bacterias can also relieve the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and prevent urinary tract infections. Other than that yogurt is also a source of various beneficial nutrients such as alcium, protein, and vitamin B2. It also helps in restoring the balance of your body's yeast levels thus preventing yeast infections. It can help prevent urinary tract infections.

You can eat your yogurt plain, or mix with some fruits. Eat with your oatmeal or you can also make delicious smoothie! Yogurt is also said can be the substitute for sour cream in cooking/baking. So how do we make our homemade yogurt?


Ingredients


1. 1000 ml milk
2. 33 g milk powder
3. 50 ml plain yogurt with active cultures



Directions


1. Pour milk and milk powder into a large saucepan at medium heat. Stir the milk powder until fully dissolve.

2. Do not boil the milk mixture but heat it until you see small bubbles start to surface at the sides of the pan because we do not want to kill of our good bacterias. Or remove the mixture from the heat when the temperature of the mixture reaches 82 degree Celcius.

3.Cool the mixture until the temperature has dropped to 45 degrees Celcius.
Add in the plain yogurt to the milk mixture and mix well.

4.Pour the overall mixture into a thermos flask to maintain the temperature of 45 degree Celcius for up to 8-10 hours. Another trick to maintain this temperature is by simply setting your oven to the temperature of 45 degree Celcius while your yogurt is kept in jars/thermos. The longer time of fermentation allowed the more sour your yogurt will turn into.

5.Do not worry if you see a thin layer of yellowish liquid on the top but mix it back into the mixture. Voila and your yogurt is ready! You can keep your yogurt in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks.

6.Save a little extra out as a starter for the next batch. But over time your homemade yogurt will start to lose it's potency as starter, hence every fifth batch you may want to use store-bought yogurt as starter. Do make sure it says ''live active cultures'' on the bottle!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

This is a non-butter chocolate chip cookies with oats added for health benefits. Instead of butter I used Canola oil. This recipe yield about 40 pieces of medium sized-cookie. Hope you guys like it!


Ingredients:
3/4 cup of wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Some cinnamon to taste
1/2 cup brown sugar 
1/4 cup of chocolate chips
3/4 cup of oats
1/4 cup of canola oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon honey




Method:


1. Preheat oven to 175 degree Celcius. 


2. Mix together wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, brown sugar, chocolate chips and oats. 


3. Make a well in the center and add in the canola oil, egg and honey. 


4. Mix together with a spatula. Form the dough into balls and flatten them slightly on the cookie sheet.


5. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes

Carrot Apple Yogurt Drink

I have been experimenting and making various of smoothies with different type of fruits using my homemade yogurt every morning. This is a refreshing drink especially for the health-conscious ones due to its vitamins,minerals and fibres benefit. In any of my smoothies, I do not use sugars but substituted with honey due to health concern.Hope you guys enjoy it!

Ingredients: 

1. 1 carrot (chopped into small cubes)

2. 1 apple (chopped into small cubes)

3. 100ml plain yogurt

4.  Dash of cinnamon to taste

5. 2 teaspoon of honey

6. A pinch of salt

7. 5 pieces of ice cubes

Method:

1. Blend everything except ice cubes until all well mixed.

2. Add in the ice cubes and blend for few seconds and it is ready!

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Whenever I am visiting Uncle Ronnie and Auntie Margaret in Singapore, I will never have to guess for long what they going to bring me out to eat for the very first meal upon arriving there. I remember I brought a friend to Singapore and I told him, I already knew what we going to have for lunch later while waiting for them to pick us up from a mall and yes, I was right - for their infamous Hainanese-style Singapore chicken rice. 


So the other day I craved for soft, tender and juicy steamed chicken. Normally the steamed chicken rice in KK will cost about RM4.50-5.50 and not much restaurants in KK are serve their chicken being tender and juicy, but normally taste quite bland, dry and they are not generous in giving portions as well for what we paid. When I started to cook, I just realised how much money could be saved and actually I am beginning to enjoy cooking at a beginner stage. So as I am normally eating alone, I bought half a chicken that cost me only RM3.88 ! See how much can I save and I can eat for the next one or two meals again sigh! So here is my version of Hainanese Chicken Rice.


Ingredients:


A. For the chicken


     1.  Half kampong chicken (normal bigger chicken if serving more)
     2.  1 bulb of garlic ( separate to their cloves and cut or bruise them to release more flavour)
     3.  1/4 of big onion ( cut into half and separate from the layers)
     4.  Slices of ginger ( about the same amount as big onion)
     5.  Salt to rub on chicken




B. For the rice

1.      2 cups rice

2.      Chicken broth from steaming the chicken (Do not throw away the leftover ginger, garlic and onion)

3.      3 slices of ginger

4.      4 cloves of garlic chopped into tiny pieces

5.      Half tablespoon of butter

(PS: I am making garlic rice instead because I don’t have pandan leaf which you cook together with the other ingredients in the rice cooker and you’re done! You don’t need garlic and butter if you’re cooking the normal pandan chicken rice)

Method:

A.Steaming the chicken

1.      Rub salt all over the chicken.

2.      Stuff the half of the garlic, ginger and onion inside the cavity. (For my case of using half chicken I just stuff underneath the half cavity facing the steaming plate).

3.      Put the remaining half garlic, ginger and onion at the bottom steaming plate and top of the chicken. (Make sure your steaming plate is deep enough to collect chicken broth)

4.      Cover and steam the chicken over high heat for 50 minutes.

 5.      Cut the chicken when it has cooled down. Do not throw away the collected chicken broth which can be used to make your chicken rice.

B. Chicken Rice

1.      Cook rice in the rice cooker using the chicken broth and the ginger. (If you do not have enough chicken broth just add more water; or you can add more of your own chicken broth with the chicken cubes)

2.      When the rice is cooked, melt the butter on the heated wok then fry the garlic until turn golden brown.

3.      Pour in the rice and stir well in the wok for 1-2 minutes and it’s done!

Pumpkin Soup

When I was in my final year of Undergraduate studies, I remember cooking this nutritious pumpkin soup and toasting some slices of French loaf with garlic spread to go with it. The first time I served it to my housemates they immediately fell in love with it and then they craved for it ever since then, asking when could I cook this soup again all the time. This is one of the easiest recipes for soup where you can also get all the nutritional values and goodness from the types of vegetables added in. I altered this recipe a bit by adding in potatoes (you can also add in carrot or celery ) along with the main ingredient pumpkin. So here it goes and I hope you like it just like my friends and I do.

Ingredients:
1. 500g pumpkin (peeled and cut into small pieces) – Alternatively if the pumpkin is too hard to cut for you, you can soften it by steaming it and then scooping them out into a bowl.


2. 2 medium-sized potatoes (peeled and cut into small pieces) - optional


3. ½ chopped big onion (into small pieces)


4. 1 tablespoon of butter


5. 500 ml of chicken stock – Alternatively you can cook your own chicken stock by boiling chicken thigh and chicken bones with a bit of ginger or else just use Maggi chicken cubes


6. 1 cup of milk


7. Salt and pepper to taste




Method:

1. Steam the pieces of pumpkins (optional- and potatoes) until soft for about 15-20 minutes and then mashed them. Do not worry if you can’t mash all of them until smooth as the bit of chunks goes quite delicious in the soup too. If you want a very smooth puree texture, alternatively you can blend them in the blender.


2. In a medium sized pot, fry the onion in the butter until soft.


3. Mix in the mashed (or puree) of pumpkin and also the potatoes, stirring them well.


4. Add in the chicken stock, cover and let it simmer for 10 minutes.


5. Add in the cup of milk and simmer it for another 5 minutes.


6. Add salt and pepper to your own preference.

Easy Chinese Chicken Soup

This soup is very easy to prepare, not only a healthy choice of soup but also low in calories for those who are looking after their diet. I remember my mum always cook this soup for supper whenever we were close to exam period during the school days. 

Ingredients:

1. 1 kampong chicken (you can also use mixed breed or ordinary chicken but its better you have their fatty skins removed)
2. 1/2 tsp of salt
3. Dried chinese mushroom (soaked and soften)
4. Chopped gingers
5. Red dates (Fung Zhao)
6. Wolfberries (Kee Tzu)
7. Water (Enough to cover chicken)

Method:

1. After cleaning the chicken, chop it to bite sizes and place the chicken meats in a bowl. Evenly rub the chicken with salt.
2. Sprinkle ginger on top of it. Add in the red dates, wolfberries and dried mushroom.
3. Bring some water (enough to cover chicken) to boil.
4. Carefully transfer bowl with chicken to the pot and cover tightly.
5. Boil at low fire for 1 - 2 hours depending on how soft you want the chicken to be and flavourful the soup to be. Normally people boil up to two hours if they are adding Yok Choy or chinese herbs which is optional for this recipe.
6. If you want a quicker one, you can also steam it for 30 minutes.