MINCED PORK

When I was young meat was a luxury and not everybody can afford to eat everyday.  It was only during festival seasons such as Chinese New Year, birthdays, and important festivals that required prayer to the ancestors that meat was offered as a dish.  When my mother made minced pork pancake, she chopped the pork with a cleaver and minced the meat till fine.  She then added preserved cabbage (tung-chye), or sometimes salted fish, and seasoned the meat and steamed.

I like to mix the minced pork with dried mushroom, salted fish and lots of garlic.  Season the pork with sugar, salt, soya sauce and cornstarch.  Add in some water to the seasoning if you prefer more gravy for the dish.

GRILLED PEPPERS

Food that displayed multiple colors not only pleasing to the eyes but also increase one's appetite. When the red, yellow peppers and green capsicum appear in the market, a conjured image of a colorful salad led to a creation of this dish.

I bought 2 peppers, one of each color, cut into strips and sprinkled salt over them.  Add in onions, garlics and oil & grilled them in the oven till soft.  Remove from oven and sprinkled with balsamic vinegar.

The onions and garlics rendered the dish with sweetness and smokiness and integrated well with sourness from the vinegar.

FIG & CORN SOUP

My family cannot do without soup during meal time.

The figs and corns boil together with pork bones, astragalus roots and yu-zhu produce a sweet and fragrant soup.

Fig has bright colours and an aromatic scent, it is sweet and highly nutritious.  It contains fructose and glucose and moisten the spleen, stomach and lungs.  It can also reduce heatiness, dispel phlegm, stop cough and quench thirst.

LIGHT MEAL

Occasionally indulge in light meal helps with the digestive system.  Plain porridge with side dishes are often find on our dinner table during hot days. 

Plain Porridge

Side Dishes

Fried Fish With Black Beans

Stewed Cuttlefish

Preserved Lettuce

Salted Eggs

RED BEAN & LOTUS SEED SWEET SOUP

It had been raining dogs and cats during the weekend.  What's better than a bowl of hot red bean soup to chase away the rain.

Ingredients : Red beans, lotus seeds, sago pearls and 4 pieces of orange peels, rock sugar

I blended the red beans to paste after boiling for l hour.  Pour back the red bean paste into the soup and continue boiling.   Add rock sugar and serve.

TEA-TIME

The sky is very moody and has been crying all day.  A day suitable for baking, how about some cherry tarts for tea.   A sweet and delicious smell filled the house as the grass and flowers were given a bath by the torrential rain.  The delicious tarts accompanied by cups of aromatic lemon tea.  The almond flour renders a lovely fragrance to the tarts.

To add some bite to the fillings, almond flour were sprinkled on top.

ICHIBAN BOSHI

Our frequent patronage for Japanese food at Great World City for its fresh and cheap food.  One can buy fresh sashimi, sushi, cakes and Japanese products from the mini supermarket which occupies one-third of the place.

DH ordered a Ichiban Wazen set : tempura prawns, fried salmon, grilled eels, chewamushi, rice, miso soup, pickles and fruits - $23.50

Eldest daughter had a Gindara Nitsuke Wazen set : deep-fried cod fish, deep-fried toufu in soya sauce, rice, miso soup, pickles and fruits - $19.90

2 sets of Sashimi Sushi Wazen for myself and 2 younger girls : sushi rice, sashimi, chewamushi, prawn and straw mushroom soup in teapot, pickles and fruits - $24.60 per set

Set dishes of sashimi and sushi

Besides Great World City they have another branch at Suntec City.

SILVER !!

Congratulations to Singapore and the table-tennis team - finally a silver medal and Singapore making into the Olympic record after 48 years' wait.  When the Singapore flag was raised during the ceremony the pride and emotions that every Singaporeans felt was indescribable.

Steamed Golden Trevalley - may our tennis team plays as swiftly as the fish swims.

Sambal Fried Beans - may our tennis team's passion is hot as chillies.

Fried Tofu with Minced Pork - their playing tactics be flexible

Apples and Fresh Yam Soup - may they be calm and composed

TABLE-TENNIS

This is the moment we have been waiting for.  Singapore table-tennis team has managed to get into Olympics final and is guaranteed a medal, be it silver or gold.  They will be playing against China at 7.30 pm tonight.  Our yearly National Rally Speech by PM Lee tonight live telecast is being postponed to tomorrow night so that the whole nation could watch the game.

I had been busy cooking from afternoon in order to watch the game.    The simple dishes are steamed glutinous rice and sweet soup.

The ingredients for the rice are mushroom, roast pork (fried), tau-tow choy (preserved cabbage), dried shrimps, liver sausages, garlics and groundnuts.

Ginko nuts, barley, dried beancurd strips, lotus seeds, beaten eggs, rock sugar and quail eggs.

That's for now and off to watch the game.

APPLE SALAD

With the remaining green apples after making pie, I use them for salad.

Cut the apples into thin strips, with skin on and marinate with salt.  Boil crab sticks in hot water for 5 mins and tear them and cut 1 onions into strips.  Mix ingredients together and add in mayonnaise. Refrigerate before serving.

APPLE PIE

Crunchy crunch - An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

My family like fruits and they are one of the main items on the grocery list weekly.  Occasionally green apples, Granny Smith are used in salad and dessert.   When eating it as a fruit salt is sprinkled to counteract the sourness.

On a weekend I used 3-4 apples to make an apple pie, using the crust recipe from Donna Hay's cookbook. 

After the pie is half baked, sprinkle almond flour onto the whole pie and lay apples over pie.

Spread a thin layer of marmalade jam over the apples and sprinkle again with almond flour.

Continue process till pie is full.   Bake till apples are juicy.

Spread the top layer with jam and grill under the oven till apples are caramelized.

KUDZU ROOT SOUP

Ingredients - 1 kudzu root, gram beans, ginger, red dates, sugar cane and sweet date.

Gram beans are slightly larger than red beans and have a distinct white eye.  It helps to relieve water retention in the body.  When cook with kudzu root, the soup helps to cleanse the kidneys and bladders.

Kudzu root (Fun Kort or Arrow Root) is a yam-like tuber.  It has fibrous texture and is starchy when cooked.  As the root is hard and the structure not even, it is tedious peeling the tuber.  Tiny eyes grow all over the tuber and they have to be rooted out.

No meat needs to be added as the soup gets its sweetness from the sugar cane and sweet date.  The soup tastes like peanut soup.

NATION BIRTHDAY COLORS

Color of our National Flag!

FOODIES

Singaporeans will go where there is food.  Airport is one of the places for leisure even though one do not have any business to be there.  Changi Airport Terminal 1 canteen is always well patronized and we are one of their regular customers.  Varieties of food are available.

The most popular store with long queue is the braised duck rice and noodle store.

Duck Innards, Pig Ears, Tau-Kau and Eggs - favourites

Kueh Chap to go with the braised dishes

Tender braised duck

Side Dish - Preserved Vegetables - not salty enough

Nasi Penyak - shiok rempah

Oyako Don - full of eggs

Rojak - not as good as the one in Whampoa market

Grill Tau-Kau - ok

Bak Choi Mee-Sua - enough kick from vinegar and chilly

Kueh Lopei - thick gooey gula melaka sauce

Kueh Dadar - thin skin with generous fillings

Bubor Cha-Cha - tasteless with more carrot than sweet potatoes, yam mixed with flour

Overall rating is average with reasonable price.

SESAME OIL CHICKEN

This is a very fragrant and delicious dish. During my confinement my mother cooked this dish for me. The chicken fry with sesame oil and ginger helps to promote circulation, provide nourishment and stimulate energy, especially for women who have just given birth.

As sesame oil is "heaty" you can reduce the proportion of the oil when serving this dish on normal days.

Ingredients :
Half the chicken (if you do not like breast meat, you can cook with chicken wings which I do)
2-3 medium slices of mashed ginger (squeeze out 2 tspn juice)
2 cloves of mashed garlic
1 tbsp chinese wine (glutinous rice wine)
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
salt and sugar for seasoning

Wash chicken and cut into serving pieces (if whole chicken)
Marinate chicken pieces with seasoning, dark soya sauce and ginger juice
Heat cooking and sesame oil in a wok
When oil is hot fry ginger slices and garlic till fragrant
Put in chicken and stir fry for 5 mins
Add seasoning and cover wok to cook till chicken pieces are cooked
Pour in wine and stir fry for another 10 mins
Serve with rice

MANGO PUDDING

Can you see that the pudding is not mixed thoroughly and is uneven, even curdle due to my impatience.  Should have allowed the unset jelly to cool down before adding in the evaporated milk.  Never mind, a lesson learnt.

Ingredients :
2 packets of mango jelly powder
400 ml water
100 ml evaporated milk
2 mangoes (cut into cubes)

Mix mango jelly powder with 200 ml hot water and stir until dissolve
Add in another 200ml cold water
Add in evaporated milk only when the mixture is thoroughly cold enough
Pour into individual mould and add in mango pieces
Refrigerate

SYRUP

What do you think? - Cough syrup! Oh no, they are elderberry and lingonberry syrup which are sold in IKEA. They make a refreshing drink on a hot day.

Today's weather is a killer.  It was so hot that I felt like jumping into the pool.  I made myself a delightful and refreshing elderberry drink.  Just mix about 4 tablespoons of syrup with plain water.  Drop in ice cubes and a slice of orange.  The taste of the drink is sourish and is fragrant.

In the meanwhile I will think of what to do with the syrup instead of making only drinks.  Hope to have some ideas soon.  Anybody any suggestions?