Gingery Trout with Caramelized Sugar and Vinegar (糖醋鱼)

Ingredients:

1 large trout or 2-3 fillets, cut to three sections each

Marinate: 

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp Chinese black rice vinegar

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp cornflour

2 tbsp oil

Gravy Seasoning:

6 tbsp sugar

9 slices ginger

9 tbsp Chinese black rice vinegar

6 tbsp light soy sauce

1 cup water

1 stalk spring onion, segmented

Method:

To prepare the fish:

Marinate fish with all the marinating ingredients for at least 30 min; set aside.

In a sauce pan, heat oil over medium high heat and brown both side of fish until fragrant and cook.

Transfer to serving plate and sprinkle-on spring onion, set aside.

To prepare the gravy:

In the same sauce pan or wok, discard excess oil and melt sugar over low heat till golden and caramelized.

Add-in ginger and stir until fragrant and golden.

Pour-in vinegar, soy sauce and water.

Leave simmer over medium high heat and stir occasionally until gravy is thicken and bubbly.

Remove from heat and pour immediately onto the prepared fish.

Best serve warm with steamed rice.

Pan-Fried Stuffed Buns (水煎包)

Ingredients:

Dough

150 g all purpose flour
80 ml water
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp yeast
1/2 tbsp oil

Filling (in excess)

300-400 g minced meat
10 shrimps, shell removed, cleaned & chopped
1 ½ tbsp grated ginger
1 tbsp white pepper powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 ½ tbsp cooking wine
1/2 tbsp cornstach
1/2 cup chopped cabbage
1 stalk scallion, chopped

Method:

To prepare dough:

In a large bowl, combine all dough ingredients, knead till soft and smooth.

Lightly greased a container, place-in the dough, cover and let proof till doubled in size (about 1.5 hours).

To prepare filling:

In another large mixing bowl, combine all the filling ingredients except cabbage and scallion.

Stir thoroughly to give sticky texture.

Lastly add-in cabbage and scallion, stir to homogeneously incorporate.

Adjust taste accordingly with salt.

To assembly:

Over a lightly floured surface, punch down the dough and knead again for another 3 minutes.

With floured knife, cut dough into small pieces according to preference sizes.

Sprinkle-on some flour, flatten each small dough and roll out thin into rough sheet.

Place a spoonful filling onto the center of pastry, twist to seal the top and flatten lightly.

Place the filled buns on heavy floured plate with seal side down, cover with kitchen towel and leave to rise for about 20-30 minutes.

Lightly grease a non-stick pan, pan-fry buns to brown one side for about 1-2 minutes.

Flip over buns, sprinkles-on about 1 tbsp water around each bun, cover and steam for about 3-4 minutes to brown the another side and cooked thoroughly.

Once water just dried out, flip over buns, and cook the previous side for about 1 minutes covered again.

Remove buns from heat and best serve warm.

Shanghainese Crispy Noodle-Pancake (兩面黃)

Ingredients:

120 g (4 small coils) dried egg noodles
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 cup finely stripped pork
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp light soy sauce
drops of sesame oil
1/4 tsp pepper powder

2 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 carrot, cut to thin strips
2 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked and thinly sliced
2 spring onion, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

Bring a pot of water to boil, branch noodle till soft and cooked.

Drain well and seasoning with oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce and sesame oil; set aside.

In a bowl, marinade pork with its following 4 ingredients; set aside.

In a flat non-stick saute pan, heat oil and saute garlic till fragrant.

Add-in marinated pork, stir-fry for few minutes or till almost cooked through.

Add-in carrot and mushroom, stir-fry to soften carrot and cooked thoroughly.

Remove from heat and stir-in spring onion; set aside.

Over medium heat with lightly greased saute pan, spread-on half of the cooked noodle evenly onto the pan as base layer.

Spread-on half of the precooked filling at center as another layer and top with the remaining noodles as final layer.

Pan-fry noodle pancake till bottom side turn brown and crispy.

Carefully inverse the noodle pancake and continue brown the other side till crispy (add some oil to avoid burning).

Pour egg all over the edge of noodle pancake and leave to stand till cooked through.

Transfer noodle pancake onto a flat plate and spread-on the remaining filling to serve.

Chinese Chives Box (韭菜盒)

Ingredients:

Dough

240 ml all purpose flour
80 ml hot boiling water
40 ml cold water

Filling

2 cup diced Chinese chives (about 1 cm length)
1 ½ cup ground pork (not lean)
1/3 cup dried shrimp, soaked and drained
handful of segmented glass vermicelli noodles
1 tbsp shao xing wine
1 tbsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp pepper powder
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1 tbsp of garlic or shallot flavored olive oil

Method:

To prepare dough:

In a large bowl, add-in flour.

Pour-in hot water and stir with chopstick or fork to form crumbs.

Pour-in cold water and knead to form dough (dough will remain sticky).

Set aside covered to rest for at least 30 minutes.

To prepare chives filling:

In another large mixing bowl, add-in pork and seasoning with wine, soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper.

Stir thoroughly to give sticky texture.

Add-in shrimp, noodles and chives, stir to homogeneously incorporate.

Adjust taste with salt and stir-in the remaining oil thoroughly.

To assembly:

Over a lightly floured smooth surface, knead dough into smooth long log (about 5 cm in diameter).

With floured knife, cut dough into 15 pieces.

Sprinkle-on some flour, flatten each small dough and roll out thin into rough sheet.

Place a spoonful filling onto the center of pastry, fold one side of pastry to the another, press edges firmly to seal and pleat accordingly to shape.

Over a non-stick pan, dry-fry or pan-fry dumplings with little oil over low heat to brown both sides and cooked through.

Best serve warm.

French Crepes

Ingredients:

1 egg
1/3 tsp salt
1/3 tsp sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 ⅓ tbsp butter, melted

Sweet Filling Options:

Jam/Apple butter/Nutella/Chestnut cream/Butter and sugar/Sliced bananas with chocolate sauce and whipped cream or ice-cream/Fresh berries marinated with sugar and grand marnier/crepes suzette

Savory Filling Options:

Grated cheese/Sliced ham/Egg freshly cooked on crepe/Sauteed spinach/Sauteed mushroom in cream sauce/Mushroom and chicken in cream sauce/Shrimp and shelled mussels in cream sauce/Ratatouille/Cooked sausage/Green salad with vinaigrette

Method:

In a large bowl, beat eggs with salt and sugar till dissolved.

Add-in milk and mix thoroughly.

Gradually, add the batter to flour and beat to eliminate lumps.

Pour-in butter and beat to incorporate.

Place the batter into fridge for at least 40 minutes.

Heat a 18 cm frying pan or crepe pan over medium-high heat and grease it lightly with butter (about 5 g each).

Pour-in 1/3 of the batter to the preheated pan and swirl it quickly to coat on the pan.

Cook for 2-3 minutes or till the crepe light golden brown on the bottom.

Flip it over to brown the other side.

Meanwhile, fill-in with a preference filling and fold accordingly.

Transfer the crepe to a serving plate with the seams on the bottom side.

Repeat for the remaining batter.

Best serve immediately.

Yield 3 crepes.

Sticky Soy Sauces Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken wings.

Marinade:

6 tbsp light soy sauce
6 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp fresh ginger juice (from 2 inch knob)
3 tbsp rice wine
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp white pepper powder

Method:

In a bowl, mix together all the marinade ingredients.

Marinate wings for at least 1 hours or overnight covered in refrigerator.

Heat a large non-stick deep pan over medium high heat, pan-fry chicken wings with marinade till golden brown, sticky and cook-thoroughly (about 30 minutes).

Alternatively, grill the wings till golden brown and cook-through (occasionally, bath wings with marinade).

Remove wings from fat gravy in pan and best serve hot/warm as an appetizer or with rice.

Char Siew (Chinese BBQ Pork)

Ingredients:

300 - 500 g skinless pork belly or marbled pork, cut into about 1 ½ inches wide strips.

Marinade:

2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1 ½ tsp light soy sauce
4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp Shen Yuan Hua Diao wine or any cooking wine
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder
1/2 tsp black pepper powder
1/4 tsp salt

Glaze:

1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp oil

Method:

In a bowl, mix together all the marinade ingredients.

Marinate pork for at least 2 hours or overnight in refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 220 °C.

Wrap pork together with marinade gravy with aluminium foil, transfer onto a baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes.

Remove pork from oven, uncover the pork and broil pork till gravy thicken (turn pork from time to time for even coating).

Alternately, pan-fry pork over medium heat by continuous stirring till gravy thicken and well-coated (pan-fry approach is easier!).

In a bowl, mix together glaze ingredients.

Pour glaze mixture onto pork and return pork to oven or continue pan-frying for short while till just well polished with glaze.

Roti Maryam

Ingredients:

1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp salt
2 cups bread flour (I used 1 cup all purpose flour mixed with 1 cup bread flour)
1 tbsp (15 g) butter
1/2 cup lukewarm water
butter for brushing (about 3 g or more for each roti)
vegetable oil for pan-frying

Method:

In a bowl, beat egg and egg yolk together with salt; set aside.

In a separate bowl, add-in flour and make a hole in center of the flour pile.

Pour-in eggs mixture, gradually covered with side flour and stir to incorporate.

Add-in butter and knead to mix fully.

Gradually, pour-in water, knead to smooth and non-sticky dough.

Lightly coat dough with oil and set aside covered to rest for about 3 hours.

Divide dough into 8 portions.

Over a lightly oiled flat surface, via rolling pin roll out each portions covered with lightly greased plastic to very thin and transparent oval sheets.

Brush-on butter all over on the exposing surface.

Gently, pick-up two ends, twist ends in co-current(opposite) direction into a thin log and form to spiral shape on greased working surface (overlap a bit while spiraling to prevent holey roti).

Covered with lightly greased plastic again and flatted spiral doughs with rolling pin to about 0.2 cm thick.

Carefully, transfer sheeted doughs onto a preheated flat pan (over medium flame)/griddle, pan-fry/grill till both surfaces are golden brown (flip occasionally for even browning).

Remove from griddle/heat, brush-on some butter and best serve with curries.

Grilled Spicy Sour Fish/Stingray/Skate Wing

Ingredients:

1 (300 g) fish
1 large piece banana leaf/aluminum foil, greased
1 lime, cut into half
1 tbsp oil for grilling

Paste:

2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 knob fresh ginger, peeled
2 shallot, peeled
1 stalk lemongrass (white part only), sliced
1 or 2 dried red chili, softened in hot water
1/2 tsp belacan (toasted dried shrimp paste)
1 tsp tamarind paste in 2 tbsp water, strained and discarded seed
1 lime juice
1/3 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp fish curry powder
1/2 tsp dark brown sugar or to taste
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Dipping Sauce:

1 shallot, sliced
1 red chili, sliced (I used 2 tsp sambal omelek chili paste, it contributes to the red color)
1 lime juice
1/2 tsp sugar or to taste
1 tsp belacan (toasted dried shrimp paste)
1/2 tsp light soy sauce or to taste
1 bird's eye chili, chopped

Method:

Clean fish, make some gashes on both sides; set aside.

With blender, blend together garlic, ginger, shallot, lemongrass, chili and belacan till fine paste; set aside.

Heat oil in a wok or non-stick pan over medium high heat, saute paste till fragrant and aroma (about 2 minutes).

Reduce heat, add-in tamarind juice, lime juice, turmeric powder, curry powder, sugar and salt.

Stir to incorporate and cook for another 1 minute or till paste is thickened slightly (adjust taste accordingly).

Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Rub both sides of fish well with half of the paste (including the internal part and inside the gashes).

Spread half of the remaining paste onto the greased aluminum foil, lay-on fish and spread all the remaining paste on fish.

Fold the aluminum foil into a packet and seal completely; set aside to marinade for 30 minutes.

Heat-up grill pan or a heat resistance flat pan with 1 tbsp oil over medium heat, place the wrapped fish on the pan, cook each side for 5-6 minutes or till cooked through.

Remove from heat, squish-on additional lime juice if desire and serve hot along with dipping sauce as appetizer or with rice.

To prepare the dipping sauce, just mix together all the dipping sauce ingredients to form a homogeneous solution and it is ready to apply.

Hainanese Roast Chicken

Ingredients:

1 whole or half chicken, cleaned and pat dry

Marinade:

2 tsp garlic powder
1 thumb (3 cm) fresh ginger, minced
1 shallot, minced
1 tbsp sweetened soy sauce
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp Shao Hsing wine
1/2 tsp 5 spice powder
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp salt or to taste

Dipping Sauce:

2 fresh red chili, chopped
2 clove garlic, chopped
3 slices fresh ginger, chopped
1 tbsp chicken stock
1 lime juice or 1 ½ tbsp white rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Method:

In a bowl, combine all the marinade ingredients.

Rub the marinade mixture all over the dried chicken, internally and externally; set aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes or overnight in refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 220 °C.

Place chicken in roasting pan or rotatable roasting rod and roast for 20 minutes.

Reduce temperature to 180 °C and continue the roasting till the chicken is brown and crisp (for about another 20 minutes).

Alternatively, pan-fry each side of chicken for 15 minutes or till the skin is golden brown, reduce heat and cooked covered for another 10 minutes or till cooked thoroughly.

Remove from heat, rest chicken for about 15 minutes and slices to bite sizes if desired.

Serve as appetizer or with rice along with dipping sauce.

To prepare the dipping sauce, just blend all the dipping sauce ingredients to a homogeneous paste and ready to serve.

Ban Jian Kuih (Peanut Pancake)

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp potassium carbonate & sodium bicarbonate solution
2 tsp oil
1 cup milk/water

Filling:

2 tbsp toasted peanut coarse
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp butter

Method:

In a large bowl, combine together the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Add-in potassium carbonate & sodium bicarbonate solution and oil.

Mix well to a smooth batter; set aside covered for at least 2 hours.

Lightly grease a nonstick pan (22 cm in diameter).

Heat the pan over medium heat.

Pour-in all batter, evenly spread the batter via pan swirling or by using ladle.

Once batter turns to translucent (about 5 minutes), sprinkle-on peanut, sugar and butter.

Cook covered for even heating for 15 minutes or till bottom surface become golden brown.

Remove cover, release all sides of pancakes with spatula.

Remove pancake and fold immediately into half; set aside to cool for about 10 minutes.

Cut into triangle shape and serve hot.

Chapati (Indian Roti)

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour (extra flour for coating and rolling)
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
120 mL water
oil for coating

Method:

In a bowl, mix flour and salt.

Gradually pour-in water, knead till smooth dough (the more it is kneaded, the lighter the bread will be).

Lightly oil both hand palms, form dough into ball, set aside for an hour or more (if left overnight, the chapatis will be lighter and tender; wrap dough with plastic wrap for that).

Flours working surface and rolling pin.

Lightly oil both hand palms, knead dough again for another 2 minutes.

Shape dough into smaller ball about the size of 3 cm in diameter (the size depends on the size of griddle and personal preference) .

Flatten dough ball with hand palms, pick another smaller piece of dough, coat all surface with oil, place it into the center of flattened dough, wrap-up to seal, reform to ball again, repeat the filling and shaping steps for the remaining dough.

Heat-on griddle or high heat resistance frying pan till very hot.

Flatten dough balls with hand palms, smear dough around with flour to coat.

Plate on floured working surface, roll out dough to a circular shape with the thickness of about 2 mm.

Flip thin chapati around both hand palms for few times and lastly flip it on griddle.

Cooks chapati till proof-up small air-trapped bubbles, lightly spread-on some oil or ghee on both sides with spoon.

Flip chapati around continuously till brown spots formed at both sides (occasionally press lightly for a second interval around the surface of chapati with kitchen towel to encourage bubbles to form and thus yield lighter chapati; punch-down large air-trapped bubbles with spoon for even griddling).

Serve immediately with butter or dry curries.

Yield 12 chapati with 12 cm in diameter.

Green Split Peas Burgers

Ingredients:

500 g green split peas, soaked overnight and drained
3 medium onion, chopped
1 cup chinese parsley/coriander/cilantro, finely chopped
5 dried red chili, soaked, drained, deseeded and finely chopped
3 tsp chinese five spice powder
3 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp black pepper powder
4 tsp salt
1/2 cup bread crumbs for coating
oil for pan-frying

Method:

With blender, blend split peas and onion.

In a large bowl, mix blended split peas, onion, parsley, chili, five spice powder, garlic powder, black pepper powder and salt, mash to incorporate.

In a shallow pan, heat 1 tbsp oil over moderate heat.

Scoop up split peas paste, form into ball and coat with a layer of bread crumbs.

Drop on pan, press-on firmly and shape into burger with spatula, pan-fry for few minutes and turn over for another sides.

Turn and press-on firmly with spatula occasionally till browned on both sides.

Serve on bread slices with salad or just as they are.

Apam Balik (Sweet Crispy Pancakes)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups water
A small pinch of yellow coloring (optional)
oil for greasing

Filling:

1 cup toasted peanut, coarsely grind
1 (125 g) canned sweet corn kernel
1/2 cup sugar
50 g butter

Method:

In a large bowl, beat eggs with sugar till thick, pale and fluffy.

Add-in baking powder, soda, salt, coloring and water, continue mixing to incorporate fully.

Add flours and mix-well to form homogeneous batter.

Heat up a non-stick pan, lightly grease with oil (clean-off any access oil with a paper towel).

Pour a ladle of batter into the pan, swirl the pan to spread out batter evenly.

Sprinkle some coarse peanut powder, sugar, sweet corn kernels, a few dollops of butter onto pancake and cover it.

Cook till center of the pancake is cooked, the edges is brown and crispy.

Remove from pan and fold into half.

Serve.

Teriyaki Pork Chop

Ingredients:

5 pork chops, scored
2 tbsp cooking oil

Marinade:

3/4 cup light soy sauce
1/2 cup sake
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
4 1/2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp black pepper powder

Gravy:

1/4 cup light soy sauce
4 tbsp sake
3 tbsp sugar


Method:

In a wok or deep pan, mix all the marinade ingredients, bring to simmer over medium heat and stir till sugar is fully dissolved.

Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

In a container, arrange pork chops in one layer basic, pour marinade over the chops, turn chops to evenly coat with marinade, marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight in refrigerator (turn chops occasionally).

In a non-stick pan, heat oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking and pan-fry chops 6 to 8 minutes on each side, or until just cooked through.

Remove from heat and set aside.

Mix all the gravy ingredients in a wok or pan, bring to simmer over medium heat with stirring to dissolve the sugar.

Return chops into the wok or pan to evenly coated with gravy.

Dish up and serve chops drizzled with additional gravy.

Serve hot with or without rice.

Roti Tissue

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour (Tipo O)
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
3 tsp sugar
1/2 cup oil/margarine/butter/ghee

Method:

Dissolve salt and sugar in warm milk.

Add-in flour into the warm solution to form dough.

Knead dough till soft.

Leave to rest for an hour or two.

Form into small 1 inch diameter dough balls.

Coat each ball generously with margarine, keep in a container and leave aside overnight.

Grease a thin layer of oil on a smooth table surface.

With oily hand, spread some oil on ball and flatten the dough ball with palm.

By the help of rolling pin, roll out dough to as thin as possible and follow by stretching as far as possible.

Leave to rest for 5 minutes.

Heat a flat bottom pan over high heat and evenly spread a little margarine on the pan.

Carefully transfer the ultra-thin dough layer into hot pan and pan-fry the individual dough tissue until brown spots formed and crispy. (Spread more margarine when needed).

Remove from heat and serve with sugar or sweetened-concentrated milk.

Roti Canai

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour (Tipo O)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup oil/margarine/butter/ghee

Method:

Dissolve salt and sugar in warm water and milk.

Add-in flour into the warm solution to form dough.

Knead dough till soft.

Leave to rest for an hour or two.

Form into small 1 inch diameter dough balls.

Coat each ball generously with margarine, keep in a container and leave aside overnight.

Grease a thin layer of oil on a smooth table surface.

With oily hand, spread some oil on ball, flatten the dough ball by tossing and pressing then stretch out as far as possible.

Twirl the stretched dough till thin.

Fold the sides to the center with trapped-air in and leave to rest for 5 minutes.

Heat a flat bottom pan over low heat and evenly spread a little margarine on the pan.

Lightly flatten the air-trapped dough again into just less than a cm thick.

Pan-fry the individual dough on one side till proof-up small bubbles, flip dough around continuously until brown spots formed at both sides of the roti (Spread more margarine when needed).

Remove from heat and serve hot with any of your favorite curry.

Pan-Fry Pork with Reddish Soy Cheese

Ingredients:

150 g lean pork, cut into bite size (better taste with fatty meat)
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Marinade:

4 pieces reddish soy cheese
1/4 tsp sugar

Method:

Rinse pork and pat dry.

Marinade the pork for about 30 mins or more.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan.

Pan-fry the marinaded pork till fragrant, cooked through and golden brown.

Serve hot with rice.