Chicken & Shrimp Wontons

This is a deep fried version of chicken & shrimp wontons which is extremely easy to make and it serves as an excellent appetizer, side dish, or even a snack.

Just start by grinding into a paste the shrimp, spring onion, ginger and garlic.

In a bowl, combine well the paste, minced chicken, cornflour, white pepper, light soy sauce, salt and sugar.

Take a sheet of the store bought wonton pastry and place 1 tsp of the mixture in the middle. Wet the edges with water and scrunch up all the sides to makes the wontons.

Heat some oil in a pan and start frying the wontons once the oil is hot enough. Fry the wontons till golden brown and remove from heat and place on kitchen towel to drain the excess oil. Serve hot with soup or preferred condiments.

CHICKEN & SHRIMP WONTONS

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INGREDIENTS:

200g minced chicken
100g shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup spring onions, chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, finely grated
1 tbsp garlic, finely grated 
1 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp white pepper
3 tsp cornflour
1/2 tsp sugar
Salt to taste
1 packet wonton pastry
Oil for frying
Water

METHOD:

1) Grind together the shrimp, spring onion, ginger and garlic to make a paste.
2) In a bowl, combine well the paste, minced chicken, cornflour, white pepper, light soy sauce, salt and sugar.

3) Take a sheet of the store bought wonton pastry and place 1 tsp of the mixture in the middle. Wet the edges with water and scrunch up all the sides to makes the wontons.

4) Heat some oil in a pan and start frying the wontons once the oil is hot enough.

5) Fry the wontons till golden brown and remove from heat and place on kitchen towel to drain the excess oil. Serve hot with soup or preferred condiments.

*This recipe makes about 24-30 wontons

Fried Egg Noodles (Yee Mee Goreng)

This recipe is perfect for those who are living by themselves or like me, left to rot alone at home without food. So, I decided to  fix myself something to eat and this recipe appealed to me the most since is tasty and quick to make.

To make this dish, I used dried egg noodles, which you can easily obtain from the supermarket.

I started to boil some water in a pan and cooking one disc of the dried egg noodles. Once the egg noodles are al dente, strain the noodles and keep aside.

Go on to prepare all the other necessary ingredients.

In a wok, heat some oil and fry the sliced onion and garlic till soft and fragrant.

Add in the cubed chicken, prawns and chicken stock and fry for about 1 minute.

Throw in all the veggies and continue to fry for a bit.

Add in the dark soy sauce and mix well.

Lastly, add in the cooked egg noodles and give it a quick toss and remove from heat. Sprinkle some chopped spring onions and serve hot.

FRIED EGG NOODLES (YEE MEE GORENG)

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INGREDIENTS:

1 disc dried egg noodles
1 red onion, finely sliced
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
50g prawns, shelled & deveined, cut into small pieces
50g chicken breast/fillet, cut into small cubes
1/2 cubed chicken stock, crushed
1/2 medium carrot, grated
4 snow peas, sliced
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 1/2 to 2 tbsp oil
A pinch of salt (optional)
Chopped spring onion (optional)

METHOD:
1) In a pan, bring some water to boil and drop in the dried egg noodles. Cook it for about 3-4 minutes, till its al dente.
2) Once the noodles are done, strain it and keep aside.
3) In a wok, heat the oil and fry the sliced onions and minced garlic till soft and fragrant.
4) Add in the cubed chicken, prawns and cubed chicken stock (crushed) and fry for about 1 minute.
5) Throw in all the veggies and continue to fry for 30-45 seconds.
6) Add in the dark soy sauce and mix well.
*At this point you may add a pinch of salt, if necessary. I did not add any salt since the chicken stock I used had already had salt added.
7) Add in the cooked egg noodles and give it a quick toss, about 45 seconds to 1 minute.
8) Remove from heat and sprinkle some chopped spring onions. Serve hot.

* This recipe serves 1

Stir Fried Veggies With Egg Tofu

This stir fry recipe is an extremely simple and satisfying one. I could just have this alone for lunch or dinner.

Slice the egg tofus and fry till golden brown. Once done, remove from heat and place them on a kitchen roll to absorb the excess oil.

Go on to blanch all the vegetables. Make sure not to blanch them too long to ensure that the veggies are still crunchy. Once blanched, immediately place the vegetables in cold water. This is because it stops the cooking process and the vegetable remains crunchy. Blanch the vegetables separately.

In a wok/pan heat some oil and sauté the onion and garlic till soft and fragrant.

To that add some oyster sauce and a pinch of salt.

Add the blanched veggies and fried egg tofu and give a quick toss. 

Remove from heat and sprinkle some chopped spring onions, if desired and serve hot.

STIR FRIED VEGGIES WITH EGG TOFU

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INGREDIENTS:

1 spanish onion, sliced

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 packet egg tofu

3/4 cup broccoli florets

6 snow peas

1/2 cup red bell pepper
3/4 tbsp oil

1 tsp oyster sauce

A pinch of salt
Oil to fry the egg tofus
Water to blanch the veggies

METHOD:
1) Slice the egg tofus and fry till golden brown. 
2) Once the tofus are done, remove from heat and place them on a kitchen roll to absorb the excess oil.

3) In a pot, bring to boil some water. Once it has reached boiling stage reduce the heat and start blanching the veggies. Blanch the veggies one after another, separately. Make sure to blanch for only 30-45 seconds, to ensure that the veggies are still crunchy.
4) Once blanched, remove from the hot water and immediately place the veggies in a bowl of cold water and remove them after a while.
5) In a wok/pan heat 3/4 tbsp oil and sauté the onion and garlic till soft and fragrant.

6) Add the oyster sauce and a pinch of salt and continue sauteing for a few mmore seconds.
7) Add the blanched veggies and fried egg tofu and give a quick toss.

8) Remove from heat and sprinkle some chopped spring onions.

Chick Kut Teh

 

Chick Kut Teh is the chicken version of Bak Kut Teh (pork bone soup). My sister enjoys having Bak Kut Teh, so I thought I will try making some, but with chicken. 

This is a very simple recipe, but only the cooking time is a little long. I used ready made Bak Kut Teh herb mix, which I got 
from the supermarket.

Just start by bringing some water to boil and then add the herb mix, a couple of bulbs of garlic (cut a little at the top) and chicken. I used mostly chicken bones with little flesh only. I did this to enhance the flavour of the soup. Cover the pot and gently simmer it in low heat for 30 minutes.

Stir in all the seasoning ingredients and continue to simmer for 15 minutes.

Then add the shiitake mushroom and fried tofu puffs. Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Remove from heat. Discard the sachet and fish out the bulbs of garlic. You can eat the garlic with rice, along with the chick kut teh. 

Add the lettuce and sprinkle some chopped spring onion. Serve hot.

CHICK KUT TEH

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Ingredients:

1 packet ready made bak kut teh mix

2 bulbs garlic

2 liters water

500 g chicken

1 cup dried shiitake mushroom, halved

10 pieces fried tofu puffs, halved

2 cups lettuce

1 tbsp spring onion, finely chopped

Seasoning:

1 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce

3 tsp light soy sauce

2 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 cube chicken stock

Salt to taste

Method: 
1) Soak the dried mushroom in hot water for about 15-20 minutes.

2) Bring to boil 2 liters of water in a pot and add in the bak kut teh mix, garlic and chicken.

3) Cover the pot and gently simmer in low heat for 30 minutes.

4) Cut the shiitake mushrooms and fried tofu puffs into two. Keep aside.

5) Stir in all the seasoning ingredients and continue to simmer for 15 minutes.

6) Add in the mushroom and fried tofu puffs and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.

7) Rinse the lettuce and tear it into pieces. Keep aside.

8) Finely chop the spring onion. Keep aside.

9) Remove the soup from heat.

10) Add the lettuce and sprinkle the chopped spring onion. Serve hot.

Stir Fried Pak Choy

To accompany the honey lemon fish for tonight's dinner, I made some stir fried pak choy.

This is a easy peasy stir fry since it only requires four ingredients, including the pak choy! And this is my go to method when cooking green leafy vegetables.

fry garlic till fragrant

When I make stir fried veggies, especially the green leafy ones, I make it a point to add lots of garlic.

toss in the pak choy

simple stir fried pak choy

STIR FRIED PAK CHOY

Ingredients

Pak choy (about 3 cups)

Garlic 4 cloves

1 tbsp oil

A pinch of salt 

Directions

1) Rinse they pak choy well.

2) Finely mince the garlic.

3) Heat up oil in a wok/pan and add the garlic. Fry till fragrant and soft.

4) Toss in the rinsed pak choy and fry for about a minute. Do not overcook it to ensure the pak choy is still crunchy. 

Honey Lemon Fish

Since I baked the lemon cake last weekend, I had a few leftover lemons and wanted to us them up. So, I decided to make some honey lemon fish with the fish fillets which has been sitting in my freezer for a couple of weeks.

This recipe is very much similar to the lemon chicken which you usually get at Chinese restaurants, but instead of chicken I used fish and also piled on the ginger. That said, frankly, this recipe is a little time consuming, but it is worth the time and effort and it turned out really yummy!

The sauce for this dish requires finely shredded lemon rind. The way I do it is first I peel off the rind in strips using a vegetable peeler and then cut it into thin strips.

finely shredded lemon rind

Make sure to combine the ingredients required for the sauce and keep it aside before frying the fish fillets. This is to ensure that the fried fish fillet does not get soggy and stays crispy.

combined sauce ingredients

coat fish fillet with the beaten egg

then coat it with rice flour

After coating with the beaten egg and rice flour, shallow fry the fish fillets in a pan until golden brown

shallow fry coated fish fillets in a pan

Remove excess oil from fried fish fillets using kitchen roll and keep it aside.

Crispy fried fish fillets

Heat up the sauce mixture stir in the cornstarch.

heating up the sauce mixture

Once the sauce mixture reaches desired consistency, toss in the fried fish fillet and evenly coat it with the thickened sauce.

yummy honey lemon fish

HONEY LEMON FISH

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Ingredients

2 dory fish fillets (approx. 300g)

3 tbsp rice flour

1 egg (beaten)

Oil for frying

For Sauce:

4 tbsp lemon juice (more if desired)

1 tbsp finely shredded lemon rind (1 medium lemon)

1 tbsp grated ginger (less if not a fan of ginger)

3 tsp light soy sauce

2 tsp sweet thai chilli sauce

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp water

1 tsp cornflour/cornstartch

Directions

1) Combine sauce ingredients except cornflour in a bowl and keep aside.

2) Mix cornflour with about 1 tbsp of water and keep aside.

3) Cut fish fillets into desired size.

4) Heat oil in a pan.

5) Coat fillets with beaten egg first and then with rice flour. If you don't have rice flour, plain flour or cornflour will do.

5) Once the oil in the pan is hot enough, shallow fry the coated fish fillets.

6) Remove fillets from oil once they turn golden brown and place them on kitchen roll to remove excess oil.

7) Heat up combined sauce ingredients and add in the mixed cornflour. Stir until desired consistency.

8) Toss in fried fish fillets and coat evenly.

I added quite a bit of ginger in this recipe since I love ginger in my cooking. But those who don't like very strong ginger flavour in their food, may reduce the amount used by half. You can even substitute the fish for chicken.