Alternative to Hot-plate Tofu!

Yums! I see Nicole’s post up already! Anyway, I just came back from my school’s council’s chalet organised for us to relax after our exams and I am totally lack of sleep right now, but I thought I should post something related to cooking too!

My boyfriend, let’s call him NT; he prefers simple food, and he doesn’t take seafood other than fish, so when I am cracking my brains to decide what I want to cook for him, it doesn’t seems to be hard, isn’t it? But it is not easy either. He loves all types of tofu, plain ones, egg ones, tau pok, etc…but his ultimate favourite is hot-plate tofu which he has yet to find one that could satisfy his taste buds so far. So I decided to do this dish MY WAY. (:

Who says Hot-plate Tofu needs you to have a hot-plate at home? Well, to save the oil stains around your dining table, you can do without it!

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients:
3 tubes of egg tofu
125g of minced pork
2 to 3 tbsp of oyster sauce
1.5 to 2 tbsp of cornflour
2 tsp of oil
3 to 4 tbsp of water (depending on how much gravy you want)
An egg

For marinating the minced pork (best to marinate it for at least 2 hours):
2 tsp of sesame oil
1 tsp of light soya sauce
dash of pepper
1 tsp of cornflour

Method:
1. Cut the egg tofu into pieces, approximately 8 to 10 pieces per tube.

2. Pan fried the pieces of egg tofu on a frying pan or wok. Make sure you use sufficient kitchen towels to dry them after that.

3. Fry the egg using the frying pan and place it in the serving bowl.

4. In a separate wok, heat oil in it and stir fry the minced pork.

5. When the minced pork is about 80% cooked, add in the oyster sauce and add water. Bring it to boil.

6. Pour in the egg tofu pieces.

7. Add water (not warm or hot) to the cornflour in a separate bowl and stir to mix it. Pour it into the sauce when it boils. Stir it for a min or two and serve it in the bowl containing your fried egg earlier.

And you are done with one dish! It is a time-consuming dish but look at how your loved ones are satisfied with the dish, you will feel that everything was worth it! Nothing beats to seeing the smile of NT for me…and it taste exactly like hot-plate tofu! You can also choose to add in other ingredients like carrot, holland peas and onions…

It is an easy homely dish that anyone can cook. Try it! (:

With love,
Jacinta

南乳焖猪肉 (Hakka-styled Stew Pork with Black Fungus)

Yoohoo! I’m back from Phuket! I loved the shopping and PHAD THAI there!! The things sold there are definitly incomparable to the price that you could get them for in Bangkok. But its WAY CHEAPER than that of Singapore’s. We got a few dresses and pretty bikini at $12 each. Where can you get that? If you can? Please don’t be selfish, SHARE it with us!

Anyway, I’ve missed RL so much and was reminded of the latest dish that I’ve prepared for him and though that it was worth sharing with all of you. Well, this was my first attempt in preparing Chinese food. Take a look, you may like them like how RL and my family did.

Approx preperation time: 1 day

Approx cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1. 300g lean pork

2. 150g black fungus

3. 2 pieces of Sichuan Beancurd with Chilli Sauce and Sesame Oil (you can get a bottle at NTUC)

4. 2 cloves of scallions

5. 2 cloves of garlic

6. 3 tablespoons of black soya sauce

7. 2 tablespoon of oyster sauce

8. 2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Marinate:

4. 1 table spoon of sesame oil

5. 1 table spoon of light soya sauce

6. 1 teaspoon of 5 spices powder (I don’t really fancy this powder, if you are a fan of it, you could consider adding more)

7. 1 teaspoon of salt

8. a dash of pepper (RL loves pepper and so I added more than that)

9. Juice of the garlic and scallions (Extract the juice by pounding/using a food processor)

Prepare the pork:

1. Bring half a pot of water to boil.

2.Rinse the pork thoroughly with running water. (You may like to wear a glove when handlinf the prok)

3. Place the pork into the boiling water for 30 seconds (this will help to remove the bacteria from the pork)

4. Slice/cube the pork into bite size

To marinate:

1. Mix all the ingredients for marination and pork together in a bowl.

2. Place the mixed pork into a ziplock bag.

3. Store in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Prepare the Black Fungus:

1. Wash the black fungus.

2. Submerge the black fungus in water for 2 hours, changing the water every 30minutes. (you will observe that the fungus will absorb the water and expand over time)

3. Drain the black fungus and cut away the stem of the black fungus.

4. Heat up a saucepan.

5. Fyr the black fungus onto the heated pan until the black fungus dry up (no oil is needed).

6. Set aside the black fungus for later use.

Directions:

1. Heat up the wok and add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil.

2. Fry the garlic and scallions till fragrant.

3. Add the beancurd into the wok. Stir the beancurd and mix it well with the garlics and scallions.

4. Add 1 bowl (rice bowl) of water and stir.

5. Add pork and black fungus into the wok and leave in for 3 mins.

6. Add in dark soya sauce and oyster sauce and stir well.

7. Cover the wok and let simmer for 5 mins.

Optional (if you like thick gravy like me):

8. Mix 1 teaspoon of corn flour with 2 teaspoon of water

9. Add it into your pork stew and stir well!

Tada!! Your pork stew is ready to be served! It is best served with fragrance white rice! *slurps* Yes, this is not an easy task, but looking at my satisfied eaters, all the efforts are well paid off.

PS: Feel free to make any adjustments as according to the tastebuds of you and your eaters.

On a side note, I was watching New Beginnings on Channel 8 earlier on. Jessica Liu was so pretty and that reminded me of a past TV serial 幸福双人床 that she starred in years ago. She was a pretty, gentle and virtous wife that enjoyed baking for her hubby (Starred by Pierre Png). And that was actually one of my trigger to want to improve in my baking skills to show my love to my loved ones around. All thanks to Jac, I beileve, my dream is not too far now!

Love,

Nicole

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Finally I’m done with my exams for this semester! 4 papers to be completed within a range of 6 days! Hope I didn’t keep you readers waiting for too long for anyone of our recipes to be up!! (:

Well, as said, we shop, we cook and we BAKE! So introducing my favourite of all time; Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!

This was my first successful item since I started the journey of baking 4 years ago. It took me quite some time to get the right taste. At the same time, it became the favourite item of my boyfriend who will give me a smile whenever he sees it even though he might be tired or if I had irritated him. (: sounds fantastic isn’t it? You can decide the amount of chocolate chips you want to have, or even the amount of oats as well. Baking is a free & easy thing where you bake according to what you desire and feel that day.

If you are interested; have a go at it. ((:

Ingredients:
2 – 2.5 sticks of salted butter (a 250g of butter is divided into 4 sticks)
1/2 to 3/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 to 1/2 cup of fine sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla essence
1 tsp of baking soda/baking powder
1.25 – 1.5 cups of plain flour
1/2 tsp of salt (optional)
oats (according to your preference)
chocolate chips (accordingly to your preference)

Method:
1. Preheat your oven at 190C; beat butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla essence and mix well. Pour plain flour, baking soda/powder and salt to mixture and mix well. Add oats. Add chocolate chips.

2. Use teaspoons or tablespoons and roll the mixture into small balls of around 0.5 inch width in diameter and place them on greaseproof paper on your tray.

3. Bake for 8 – 9 minutes for chewy centred cookies, and 10 – 11 minutes for crispy cookies. Leave them to cool for a minute before removing them from the greaseproof paper (they are soft when taken out of oven immediately). Store in air tight container when they cool completely.

And you are done! Hmm, talking about it now, it makes me want to have another go at it this coming week for my boyfriend. He haven’t had it since Vday this year, and is very busy with work these days. This should do the job to cheer him up by a little! ((:

Have fun while baking! The most important thing to stay happy during the process of baking and put in your love in doing it! Leave a comment if you have any questions.

The next post should be posted by Nicole soon…be patient.

With love,
Jacinta

Hello! (:

Hello there!

A space specially set up just for the eyes of anyone who is a shopaholic and yet loves the art of cooking and baking. Stay tuned for updates which would be soon! Nicole is currently out of town enjoying herself in Phuket and Jacinta is mugging to finish her last 2 papers for this semester!

Nicole & Jacinta