Stuffed portobello mushrooms

This is yet another wonderful appetizer or anti-pasto.  You will definitely get a lot of OOs and AAHs for this one.  I bet you will have no left over.  I didn’t!

Serving for 4

Main Ingredients:

10 medium size portobello mushrooms

1 cup shredded fresh parmesan cheese

1 tbsp chopped chives

½ cup bread crumbs

Ingredients for filling:

(A)

250 gm minced pork of beef

1 tbsp chopped garlic

½  medium size chopped onion

gills of the portobello mushrooms

1 tbsp Olive oil

½ tsp Salt

¼ ts ground black pepper

Ingredients for the sauce:

¾  cup balsamic vinegar,

½ brown sugar

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp dried basil

Method to prepare the filling:

Blend garlic and onion in olive oil.  Mix minced pork or beef together blended garlic and onion in olive oil, salt and pepper.  Shape the meat patty into the shape a ball and put in the fridge for 2 hours.

Method to prepare the mushroom:

Discard the stem and scoop out the gills of the mushroom so that there is a recess for filling. 

Method of assembly:

Pour the bread crumbs on a plate and set aside.  Oil the baking pan with olive oil and set aside. Fill mushrooms with A generously and dip the mushroom with the filling side down on the crumbs to bread the filling.  Set the mushrooms on the baking pan and top them with cheese and chives.  Bake them at 350 degrees F or 175 degrees  C for 20 mins.  In the meantime, prepare the sauce.  Warm the balsamic vinegar in a sauce pan and reduce it about ½ cup and turn of heat and add extra virgin olive oil and dried basil.  When the mushroom is baked, remove from oven and put on serving plate.  Drizzle the sauce over the mushrooms before serving.

Stir fry pumpkin with fried sesame seeds - Featured in Group Recipes

This is such an easy dish to do but easy does not mean the taste will be just so-so.  On the contrary, this super duper easy dish is super duper tasty!

Ingredients:

1 medium pumpkin, skin removed and cut into chunks

3 tsp sugar

1/2 cube chicken bullion (mashed)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup water

1 1/2 tbs toasted sesame seeds 

Method:

Heat oil in wok and stiry fry pumpkin till the oil is being absorbed.  Add water and lower heat and simmer till the pumpkin is soft but not mushy, about 15 – 20 mins. Add sugar, chicken bullion stir fry for about 1 min and add toasted sesame seed and mix well.  Ready to serve.

Cabbage Roll - Featured in Group Recipes

This recipe is largely adapted from Chef Sam Leong’s recipe. Chef Leong was a Winner of the World Gourmet Summit Awards of Excellence in 2001, 2002 & 2004. In his recipe, he uses pickled snow vegetables (xue cai) but I could not find them in all the supermarkets near my home. So, I replaced it with pickled curry gerkins and use my own ingredients for the roll.  According to my food critic, it has passed the litmus test! However, if I can find xue cai someday, I will definitely do this again. This is a pretty and interesting appetizer.  I like the nutty flavor of the peanuts, with a tinge of sourness from the gerkins and a punch of spicy taste from the thai chilly sauce. I must say it is a great combination of flavors to whet your appetite before the main meal.  Try it!

Servings 4 (1 piece per person)

Ingredients:

4 leaves of Chinese cabbage

4 tbsp ground peanuts

2 tsp mayonnaise

2 pickled curry gerkins, cut into 8 strips 

4 stalks of 4 ins spring onion, white part only

4 slices of carrot

1 tsp Thai chilly sauce

8 thinly sliced red capsicum

4 thin strips of Japanese cucumber

Method:

Blanch cabbage leaves then plunge into cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain well.  Lay cabbage leaves flat and spread mayonnaise and ground peanuts.  Lay 2 pieces of pickled gerkins lengthwise and a stalk of spring onion over and rollup.  Slice off both the ends and cut roll into 2 ins pieces. Brush each piece with Thai chilly sauce. Decorate the plate with Japanese cucumber and sliced red capsicum.  Serve cold.

Note: If you cannot find curry gerkins, you can replace it with any kind of gerkins.

Steam minced pork with “Tung Choy” (preserved cabbage) - featured in Dishfolio

This dish brings back childhood memories.  It is one that my mum would prepare and leave in the fridge before she left for work so when I returned from school, all I have to do is to cook rice and when the rice is almost done, I would slide the pork on to the top of  the rice in the cooker and let it all steam together for about 30 to 40 mins till the pork is cooked.

Serving: 3 - 4

Ingredients:


300gms  of ground/minced pork


3 tbsp of tung choy (washed) (preserved Chinese cabbage)

1 tbsp Chinese wine

1 tsp of sugar


1/4 tsp pepper


1 tbsp of corn starch

½ cube chicken bullion

1 tbsp of sesame oil



Method:


Mix all the ingredients in a slightly deep plate that fits the rice cooker and marinate for 30 mins.
When rice is going to be cooked, place plate on top of rice and let the steam of the rice cook the meat for about 15 mins.

I have submitted this entry to  Malaysian Monday.  Do check out 3 hungry tummies or test with a skewer for more information.

Steamed prawn with tofu glass noodles with plum sauce

I came across this dish in The Little Teochew food blog which she, in turn, had adapted from a recipe in the blog "3 Hungry Tummies", and I liked it. However, I wanted to try this dish with my own sauce.  I was wondering if this unusual combination would go well with the plum sauce that I use for my Lemon Chicken recipe. So, why wonder? Just try it out and we will know, so I did this afternoon.  SUCCESS!  They taste fabulous and I must say "3 Hungry Tummies" has done a beautiful job of combining tofu, glass noodles and prawn!

Serving: 2 - 3

Main Ingredients:

1 tube silken egg tau foo (or any type of tofu you like), cut into 8 equal pieces

8 medium size fresh prawns, peeled keeping the tails intact

10g glass noodle, soaked and drained
1 stalk spring onion, diced

Ingredients for the sauce:

2 tbsp plum sauce

2 tb water

1 ts chopped garlic

1/8 ts ground clove

1/2 ts sugar
½ ts fried sesame
¼ ts ground white pepper
¼ ts grated ginger

Method to prepare the plum sauce:

Heat wok with vegetable oil and add chopped garlic and stir fry till fragrant.  Add plum sauce, water, clove, sugar and pepper and let it simmer for about 2 mins.  Add the grated ginger and simmer for another minute and turn off heat.

Method to prepare main ingredients:

First, In order to have the prawn in the shape of a ball, I formed them into balls, pinning with a toothpick, and dipped each prawn into small pot of hot water to let it  half cook to "set" its shape.  I cut the tube of tofu into 8 equal pieces and lay them on the serving plate.  Next I boiled the glass noddles for 5 mins and drain it well before and arranged some onto each tofu slice.  On top of the glass noodles, I nested the prawns.  Spoon a little of the sauce on each prawn and put the rest of the sauce in a small bowl and set it in the center of the serving plate. Sprinkle some fried sesame seeds onto each prawan and the rest go into the sauce. When the water is boiling in the steamer, steam the dish for 5 to 8 mins. Garnished with spring onion and serve the dish hot.  

Papaya Soup - Featured in Group Recipes

We Chinese folks have a practice of going into a time of confinement or "lie in" period after giving birth. This is not as predominantly practiced today, with modern obstetrics being the choice of many, but it was true when I gave birth to my son 23 years ago. During the confinement period, a regimen of a supplemented diet is enforced. While the mother bonds with the new arrival, she is treated rather like a queen, and fed foods designed to bring strength back to her body. There are also rigid dos and don'ts regarding hygeine and exercise as well. All of this practice is designed to keep mother and baby healthy and provide a good launch of their journey together. When I was on confinement, my mum (who was in much demand in those days as the reigning midwife and adminstrator of confinement within our circle of family & friends) made this soup for me at least twice a week.  The Chinese believe that eating papaya soup will invoke higher production of breast milk. While the effectiveness of the chicken and papaya soup has never been verified by scientific research, chicken is a good source of protein, and papayas are packed with minerals and vitamins A, C and E. These two main ingredients combined provide a healthy and nutritious meal for anyone, and is presumably good even more so for a breastfeeding mum.  I love it because it is delicious.  I don’t only drink the soup but I eat all the papaya as well. Interstingly, my Western husband loves this soup as well, and points out that chicken soup  is considered a tonic by many cultures. He even told me that in Jewish home remedy lore, chicken soup is often the first line of treatment,  and that the soup is sometimes called "Jewish penicillin". So I guess papaya soup is our Straits Chinese analogue to this home remedy, and a reflection of how different cultures managed with what was available in abundence. All that is interesting of course, but the main point is that chicken soup is delicious, and while the Campbell Co. has made a big business of chicken soup (as well as other varieties) you can do better in your own  kitchen. Aside advanatges of taste and smells of freshly made soup, remember, they can't put love in a tin can.

Serving : 4

Ingredients

1 big semi-riped papaya 

2 whole chicken breast without the skin

6 red dates

2 honey dried dates

1 cube chicken bullion

1 litre water

Method:

Wash papaya, remove skin and seeds. Slice half lengthwise and then cut across into chunks. Blanch the chicken in boiling water before putting into the pot. Put all the rest of the ingredients into the pot. Turn on high heat and let it boil for 5 mins without covering the pot.  Turn down the heat to low and cover the port and simmer for 2 hours. Add salt to taste and remove the chicken breast before serving.

Banana Foster - The original recipe from Chef Paul

I do not usually have a sweet tooth but this is one dessert, perhaps second to Crème Brulee,  that I love.  It is so simple to make but it just taste divine!  Want to know more about this recipe which was created in 1950, here is the link http://www.neworleansrestaurants.com/recipes/recipes_brennans.html

Serving: 4

Ingredients:

¼ cup (½ stick) butter

1 cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ cup banana liqueur

4 bananas, cut in slices about 1 cm thick

¼ cup dark rum

4 scoops vanilla ice cream



4 red cherries (optional)

Method:

Combine the butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a flambé pan or skillet. Place the pan over low heat on the burner, and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Stir in the banana liqueur, then place the bananas in the pan. When the banana sections soften and begin to brown, carefully add the rum. Continue to cook the sauce until the rum is hot, then tip the pan slightly to ignite the rum. When the flames subside, lift the bananas out of the pan and place four pieces over each portion of ice cream. Generously spoon warm sauce over the top of the ice cream and top each scoop of ice cream with a cherry. Serve immediately. (You can tell from my picture that pausing to take a photo can cost you a bit of melting but honestly,  it still tasted divine.)