Images Veggie Cooking Guide

Here's something useful I found on my favourite infographic website visual.ly

It's a neat guide that gives you an overview how to cook veggies best in order to maintain its full flavour. I know I've broken more than one rule in this guide! Well, now I know.

Veggie Cooking Sheet infographic

Original post (includes a print option for chart) : Veggie Cooking Guide

 

Images Baked Mandarin Orange Chicken with Buttered Potatoes and Apples

Baked Mandarin Orange Chicken with Buttered Potatoes and Apples

Distributing mandarin oranges to friends and family during the Lunar New Year is an age-old practice for people with Chinese roots in my homeland. I received my fair share during the festive season. That said, this is a long overdue blog post, at least two months behind schedule!

Aaah..anyway, back to the oranges. I wish I could have eaten it all as is, peeled fresh and just out of the fridge, but there was more than this household could handle with two boxes in keeping. So, I did what I could to clear it off quicker - I decided to cook it. And this is really yummy stuff although it's a simple recipe! Then again, when it comes to food, I've rarely ever said yuck.

I didn't mess the flavour with too much seasoning. I felt the juice from the orange would be sufficient to pass for delicious and it did.

Ingredients:
- 2 chicken drumsticks
- 2 potatoes (sliced thin, not all the way through)
- 2 red apples (sliced)
- 2 medium red onions (quartered)
- 3 mandarin oranges (Peel skin off from the segments of two oranges. Squeeze the juice out from one)
- 1 tbsp salted butter (softened)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Cooking oil

How-to:
1) Season chicken with a little bit of salt, pepper and some mandarin orange juice.

2) Place the chicken on a lightly oiled baking tray. Add onions, orange segments and the remainder of the orange juice to create the yummy gravy. Sprinkle on a wee bit of salt and pepper.

3) Spread butter onto apples and potatoes. Place in a separate baking tray (also lightly oiled).

4) Bake for about 45 minutes at 175C. Baking time differs. You're done once the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are tender.

I garnished mine with some chopped celery leaves.
 

In the oven - Chicken with mandarin oranges

Baked Chicken and Mandarin Oranges

Images Nai Pak Choy (Extra Dwarf Chinese Cabbage) with Pork in Egg Gravy

Extra Dwarf Chinese Cabbage (Fairlady) in an Eggy Gravy

Extra dwarf chinese cabbage..mmm. Ok, that's a weird translation for"nai pak choy" but it was the closest description I could find on the internet. That, and Fairlady - something I connect only to Nissan..

Nai Pak Choy - it's fresh, it's so fresh!

It has a distinctive thick white stem with dark green scrunched-up leaves. This particular head that I'm holding up for the camera has also been in my fridge for four days but looks as fresh as when it was popped into my shopping cart.

I've often included this vegetable into soups. Soups are a must-have on our dinner table. It's almost a daily affair and I'm surprised I haven't resorted to pulling my hair out yet thinking what to put on the table everyday. When I'm short of time, the nai pak choy comes in handy for making a quick bowl of soup. I'd toss it into a hot pot of boiling water with just garlic, some seasoning and voila! Sneaky, I know.

Today, I wanted to try out an eggy gravy that I so often see served in Chinese restaurants.  It gives the otherwise plain stir-fry green vegetables dish more appeal and more "slurp".

It's a simple recipe but requires some quick work, so I would prepare everything before I even think of lighting up my pan and I would keep things close.

Ingredients:
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 200g / 7 heads nai pak choy (cut stemmed leafy parts away from main stem)
- 1 tbsp dried wolfberries (soaked for 10 minutes)
- 50g boneless pork meat - loin (sliced thin)
- Two small eggs
- 1-2 tbsp cooking oil
- 1-2 cups water
- 1 tbsp corn flour (diluted in 2 tbsp water)
- Salt and pepper to taste

How-to:
1) Heat oil in pan. Add garlic, fry until lightly fragrant. Add pork slices, stir it about.

2) Add 1 cup water or more (just enough to make the sauce). Once it boils, add wolfberries, vegetables and season with salt and pepper.

3) When the vegetables are almost cooked, stir in the corn flour and lift the pan off the fire.

4) Crack one or two eggs in, immediately stirring it but lightly. Quickly serve it out onto a plate before the egg cooks further.

The result? You can taste the juice from the pork, mixed with a mildly salted egg sauce. Along with it, is a tinge of sweetness when you bite into a wolfberry.

The ingredients - Nai Pak, Wolfberries, Pork, Egg and Garlic

Toss the vegs in once the water boils

Nai Pak Choy (Extra Dwarf Chinese Cabbage) in an Egg Gravy

Images Food Discovery : Rice Balls

Rice-Balls served with Steamed Chicken, Bean-Sprouts
and Boiled Egg in Soy-Sauce.

Have you tasted rice-balls before? My first tasting was in Hoe Kee Restaurant - famous for its chicken rice-balls, which is located at Jonker Street, Malacca.

It's just normal plain cooked rice - rolled compact into smooth round size of a golf ball. As the taste is plain, you would need other dishes to go together with the rice-balls for extra flavour. Of course, steamed-chicken is a must. But it is definitely something that home-chefs can prepare and cook themselves at home. 

You can even 'tweak' the preparation of the rice-balls to your liking, if you are the adventurous type. Examples - adding a bit of other ingredients, herbs and/or spices in the rice - you'll have a more fragrant rice-balls or stuff fillings in the rice-balls like minced chicken, stir-fry mushrooms, etc. Many options.

I, definitely am going to cook and experiment the rice-balls with stuffings as I think it makes the dish more interesting. ^^

Dining at Hoe-Kee Restaurant
(Looks like these dishes are something home-chefs can attempt to cook at home)

Images Herbs and Spices - Uses and Origins (Part 1)

Herbs are in general dried parts of plants, such as roots, blossoms, leaves, flower buds and barks. They are specially cultivated because of their rich, strong flavours. Herbs and spices are used in food preparation to enhance the natural flavour and tastes of the various dishes. In addition they are important for the digestion as they stimulate appetite and the flow of the gastric juices.

Herbs and spices grow all over the world and they are available in different qualities.

Bay Leaves

These are the leaves of the bay laurel or sweet bay trees or shrubs. They may be fresh or dried and are used for flavouring soups, sauces and stews. They are usually included in a bouquet garni or mirepoix.

Aniseed

This plant grows in all the Mediterranean countries and Russia. The seeds come from the ripe umbel and look very similar to the carra-way seeds. It is used for liquors, drugs for colds and coughs, biscuits, fish dishes and pastry dishes.

Basil

It is a plant which grows in any garden. The leaves and the pulps are giving the flavour. It is used for fish and meat dishes, salads and for pickling meat and vegetables.

Cloves

Cloves are unopened flower buds of a tree (8-12 m height) which is harvested in countries such as Zanzibar, Madagascar, Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka among others. The buds are picked when green and dried in the sun till they turn to a rich brown colour. They are used for flavouring vegetables, meat dishes, all kinds of fish, cakes, etc.

Cinnamon

It is the bark of the cinnamon shrub. The inner pulp and the outer layer of the bark are removed and the remaining pieces are dried. It has a pale crown colour and is obtained and used in sticks or powdered form. It is mainly used in bakery and pastry work. Doughnuts, Apples & Banana Fritters are passed through a mixture of sugar and ground cinnamon. It is another one of the spices that's blended for mixed spices.

Turmeric 

This plant comes from the Far East but also grows in other countries with similar climate. The root is peeled and dried and then it gets grounded into fine powder of yellow colour. It is mainly used for curry blends specially for the colour of the curry.

Curry

Curry is the name of the blend made from several spices. This mixed spice includes ginger, carraway-seeds, paprika, cayeen pepper, coriander, curcuma, cardamon, cinnamon and chilli pepper, etc. It is used for all sorts of curry dishes. The composition (blend) of the curry powder depends on the individual.


Credit Source - Kitchen & Operation Book 1 (Systematic School of Hotel & Catering Management)

Images Fifteen Useful Cooking Tips For Home-Chefs (Session 2)

(1) Always under cook pasta slightly before adding it to a finished sauce as the pasta will finish cooking in the sauce.

(2) Refresh cooked pasta in cold water to stop the cooking process and lightly toss it in oil to stop it sticking together.

(3) For a rich creamy dressing made in a healthy manner, substitute half the mayo with plain yoghurt.

(4) When cooking vegetables always have tons of water in the pot so the vegetables can move around easily.

(5) Never cover a pot when cooking green vegetables, the covered pot will make the veggies loose their lovely colour.

(6) When boiling shrimps, plunge them in salted boiling water & when the water re-boils they are done.

(7) When cooking steaks, sear them at very high temperature to trap in all the juices and prevent them from going dry.

(8) When cooking lamb chops they cook very quick if they are thin, the meat should still feel soft when they are cooked.

(9) Use fresh rosemary to scent roast lamb, veal & chicken, also use it to flavour roasted vegetables & grilled mushrooms.

(10) When making stocks never boil them, just simmer or they will turn cloudy. 

(11) Bring your soup or sauce to a slow simmer so you can scoop all the impurities from the centre with a ladle or spoon.

(12) To stop soups and sauces from getting too thick, leave a lid on the cooking pot all the time.

(13) If you slowly saute sliced onions they will almost disappear & become very sweet making a great base to brown sauces.

(14) After finishing a dark sauce, just add a dollop of fresh butter & stir it in whilst its hot to give it a great shine. 

(15) It's bad to add alcohol from the bottle into a finished sauce, the alcohol should be burnt off during cooking process.

* Ten Useful Cooking Tips For Home-Chefs (Session 1) *

Great cooking tips given by Chef Michael Saxon, the judge for the TV series - E&O search for 'AFC'S Next Celebrity'. He's also the current E&O Group Director of Hospitality & Lifestyle.

Images Spaghetti Chicken (Simple Style)

I have a friend who had continued his tertiary education in Rome, Italy a few years ago. And I remembered every time when he comes back for his annual holidays and even in his emails, he would complained loudly about the food over in Rome - that's it's all pasta and pizza. As I'm a pasta lover, I told him, why don't we switch place - I don't mind having Italian's authentic pasta almost every day ... I sure won't complain ! ^_^

I never get bored with cooking and/or eating pasta. But I prefer to cook spaghetti over others as the members in my family are more receptive to it - maybe it resembles my very own Asian yellow noodles :)

Anyway, this home-made Spaghetti Chicken is quite straightforward. I use tomato sauce and tomato puree together instead of making a tomato concasse as my family members aren't really receptive to pure tangy tomato flavour - or else, no one will eat it. :)

Ingredients :

Sauce 

- 3 pieces of medium-size drumstick (without skin, de-bone and cut into smaller pieces)

- Tomato Sauce (about half a 500gm bottle)

- Tomato Puree (one and a half standard can)
- 1 carrot (big size)

- 1 or 2 fresh tomatoes 

- 2 medium size onions

- a few cloves of garlic (chopped)

- a few teaspoons of sugar - according to taste (optional)

- cooking oil

Pasta

- 500g of spaghetti (serves about 4 persons)

- 2 teaspoons of sea-salt

- some butter

- Parmesan cheese (grated or shredded)

- a bit of cooking/olive oil (optional)

How-to:

1) Parboil tomatoes (with skin), then dice it (after taking out the skin & seeds)

2) Parboil carrots & onions (both with skin peeled off), also dice it. 

3) Heat up pan with cooking oil, put in the chopped garlic, stir it until near brown.

4) Put in immediately the chicken drumstick pieces, stir-fry it until near cooked.

5) Add in the parboiled carrots, onions and tomato, continue stir-frying under medium heat. 

6) When the chicken meat is cooked, time to add in the tomato puree and tomato sauce.

7) Stir evenly until all ingredients are covered in the sauce, add in sugar.

8) Add some water if you need to create more gravy for your pasta, bring it to boil. 

9) On another stove, bring to boil a pot of water that is big enough to submerge the pasta. 

10) Add in the salt, then slowly dip in the uncooked spaghetti.

11) Add in a little cooking oil if you like, stirring the pasta occasionally thru out the cooking.

12) Let it boil until 10 to 20 mins, depending on whether you like it al-dente (firm) or soft.

13) Drain the pasta, and toss it in a bowl, mix/toss some butter into the cooked pasta.

14) Serve a portion of the spaghetti on a plate, add in the sauce & sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on it.

Options:

- If you can take the acidic/tangy tomato taste in the sauce, you can leave out the sugar or/and you can even add more of the tomato sauce.

- If you like 'firm bites' of onions, you can leave out the parboiling process.

- After adding water into the sauce, if you like, you may add a bit of corn flour to thicken the consistency of the sauce.

- You may not need to add in oil while cooking pasta, but for me I still think it does help in preventing the pasta from sticking together in a clump, plus I like that it glistens the texture of the pasta.

- Instead of Parmesan, you can use Mozarella ... but it wouldn't have the same pungent taste and aroma - which I favour. ^^