Stir-Fried Pumpkin with Dried Shrimps

I like pumpkin. I miss the one which Mommy cooks with dried shrimp. It’s simple, delicious and healthy. It’s my first attempt and it tastes exactly the same as Mom’s *grins*

Ingredients:

• 1/4 of a pumpkin (peeled, seeded and cut into pieces)
• a small handful of dried shrimp (washed and chopped finely)
• 3 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)
• a pinch of salt
• sugar to taste
• some oil for stir-fry
• some water

Method:

1. Heat wok with some cooking oil.
2. Add in chopped garlic. Fry until golden in colour then add in dried shrimp.
3. Stir-fry dried shrimp until fragrant.
4. Add in pumpkin, stir-fry for a while.
5. Add in water just nice to cover the pumpkin. Let it boil for a while.
6. Add in a little bit of sugar and a pinch of salt to taste.
7. Cook until pumpkin is tender.
8. Serve it hot.

Happy cooking!

Nonya Cuisine

Curry Kapitan

Ju Hu Char

Lobak

Stewing

Chicken Fricassee

Stew Herbal Chicken

Herbal chicken with wolfberries & tong kwai

Stew bean curd & vegetables

Stew Bean Curd With Vegetables Ingredients

2 pcs Japanese Tau Foo

50g chicken meat (sliced)

30g carrot (sliced)

4 nos black mushroom (soaked)

4 nos young corn shoot (cut halves)

2 bush spring onions (cut 4cm length)

6 slices ginger

1 tbsp chopped garlic

10g snow peas

200ml chicken stock

2 tbsp oil

For seasoning:

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp Chinese wine

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp sesame seed oil

A dash of dark soy sauce (for coloring)

A dash of pepper

1 tbsp cornflour mixed with water

Method:

1. Heat work with enough oil. Pan fry Tao Foo till golden brown. Dish up and set aside.

2. In the same wok, saute garlic till brown. Add in chicken stock, all of the ingredients, seasoning and Tao Foo.

3. Simmer for about 5 minutes or till cooked.

4. Thicken with cornflour mixture.

5. Garnish with spring onions and serve hot.

Hawker Food and Curries

Fried Bee Hoon

Char Koay Teow

Char Hor Fun

Claypot noodles

Sayur Lodeh (coconut milk stew vegetable)

Assam Pedas Fish

Chicken Curry

Nasi Kunyit

Grilling

Grilled lamb

Grilled chicken

Grilled fish

Grilled sausages and vegetable

Grilled corn on the cob

Mint sauce for grilled lamb

BBQ sauce for the sausages

Tamarind sauce for grilled fish (also suitable for any other kind of seafood)

Roasting

Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat. This is another healthy cooking method apart from steaming because it requires very little oil. Slow roasting (200 degrees C) is the best to retain the moisture and the tenderness of the meat. During roasting, meats and vegetables are usually covered with butter or oil to reduce the loss of moisture by evaporation.

French roast chicken with roasted squash & potatoes

Tandoori chicken

Chinese roast chicken

Salad

Chinese Roast Chicken Recipe

1 chicken drumstick

1 tsp 5-spice-powder

1/2 tsp sugar

A pinch of salt

Method

1. Wash chicken drumstick.

2. Pat dry with kitchen towel.

3. Make a few slits on the chicken surface.

4. Marinate it with 5-spice-powder, sugar and salt.

5. Leave it over night in the fridge.

6. Place aluminum foil on a tray and put chicken on the aluminum foil.

7. Roast at 200 degrees C for 25 minutes.

*The time varies depending on the size of the meat.

Steaming

Today’s topic is about steaming. Steaming is the best and the healthiest way of cooking method. There is no oil required and it is definitely nutritious. In fact, steaming is better than boiling. I love steamed food. Every weekend, Dad enjoys steaming fish for the both of us. Whenever I insist to do it, he will say ‘Papa cho’ (means Daddy will do it in Hokkien). Since I have gone through today’s lesson, I guess I have a better reason to steam for him next time.

Today, we cooked chicken rice, steamed and baked vegetable with white sauce and grated cheddar cheese and cawan mushi (savoury cup custard) for lunch, using the steaming method. We even made the chilli garlic sauce for the chicken rice from scratch. It is the most nutritious meal I have ever had after 5 weeks of studying here *grins* and I seriously like the cawan mushi. Let me share with you the recipe here as I find it very simple to make.

Cawan Mushi

CAWAN MUSHI INGREDIENTS (make 4 to 5 small bowls)

30gm of chicken meat (cut into cubes)

Some shiitake mushroom (soaked in warm water till soft and sliced)

3 crab sticks

1/4 tsp of soya sauce

1/8 tsp of sugar

2 whole eggs (slightly whisk)

1 1/2 cup of chicken stock

A pinch of salt

METHOD

1. Marinate chicken meat and mushroom then put them into small bowls.

2. Whisk eggs and chicken stock. Make sure your chicken stock is cool enough before adding it into your beaten eggs mixture.

3. Pour the mixture into the small bowls by going through a sieve.

4. Cover the bowls with plastic wrap/aluminium foil and place them on a hot steamer.

5. Steam at high heat for 1 to 2 minutes.

6. Turn low the heat and continue to steam for 15 minutes until the egg mixture is set.

Chicken Rice

Chilli garlic sauce for chicken rice

Steamed and baked vegetable with white sauce and grated cheddar cheese

Salad

Coleslaw

Waldorf Salad

Waldorf Salad is a type of salad which consists of sliced apple, sliced celery, chopped walnuts and mayonnaise as the dressing.

Gado-Gado

Gado-gado is a vegetable salad from Indonesia which comes with blanched kangkung, long beans, bean sprouts, sengkuang, potatoes, hard boiled eggs and fried tau kua. It is served with peanut sauce dressing.

Peanut sauce dressing for gado-gado

It taste like satay sauce. I like the crunchy grounded peanuts in it.

Boil, Blanch, Glaze and Sauté

Today’s class is about vegetables. We were introduced different types of vegetables and different ways of cooking them such as boiling, blanching, glazing and sautéing. These are all cooking terms. I am sure all of us know what boiling is. Blanching is a method of boiling vegetable at 100 degrees C and after that remove and plunge the vegetable into iced water or placed it under cold running water to stop the cooking process. Glazing, in cooking terms, means to make the food look shinny. Here, we glazed carrots with butter and chicken stock in a sauce pan over medium heat for a start then towards the end, turn on high heat to finish it. The carrots are caramelized. Sautéing is a method of cooking food that uses a small amount of fat in a shallow pan over relatively high heat.

Group A1 – Cooking in process

My version for today’s lesson

(from clockwise: glazed/caramelized carrots, sunny-side-up, blanched & sauté mix vege)

Potato Dish

Today, we learned all potato dish. We made mashed potato, baked potato, potato salad, potato wedges and gratin potato. We used various types of potatoes; from China, India, Indonesia and the US. Russet potatoes are starchy potatoes which has ‘flourish’ texture that is suitable for making wedges and french fries while the rest are considered waxy potatoes which has firmer texture that can be used for salad. It was fun to learn so many ways of cooking potatoes. We had a great time washing, peeling, cutting, boiling, dipping and frying potatoes and in the end? We all ate till ‘jelak’! Haha. Anyway, I like baked potato the most. Nothing but just pure baked potato with a drizzle of salt 🙂

Potato Salad

Gratin Potato (it’s baked potato with milk and cheese)

Mashed Potato (like the one in KFC.. haha!)

Crispy Potato Wedges

Tadaah!