Christmas 2013 in Singapore

Another year has passed! We went to Orchard Road to see the Christmas light up!

So many lightings and decorations! My favourite time of the year!

We walked from one street to another, along Orchard Road, just immerse ourselves in the Christmas atmosphere!

A little drizzle that day, made the streets even prettier!

One of my excitements for Christmas was to spot all the giant Christmas trees displayed in the shopping malls.

Spotted the inverted Christmas tree! Interesting, eh?

Candy houses!

The child in my heart exploded with colour!!!

Have yourself a wonderful Christmas everyone!

Bobo Chacha Dessert

I didn't blog for a long time, besides busy with the progress of growing old, I lost passion for blogging along with some other things. But yesterday, when I cooked this dessert for everyone, I got so much praise that I decided to share how I cook this on my blog.

 Ingredients:

Yam, peeled and cubed
Sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
Pumpkin, peeled and cubed
1 cup of mini rice ball (can also use sago or tapioca jelly)
1 packet of coconut cream
 Sugar to taste

 Cooking:

Boil the cubed yam in water until slightly soft. Add in cubed pumpkin and sweet potatoes, then continue to boil until soft but not mashed. Lower the heat and add mini rice balls, when the rice balls is cooked, add sugar and coconut cream to taste! Done!

 Note: if you want to put ice in the dessert you should put less water to make the soup thicker, but I like to eat it chilled, so I wait for the soup to cool down and then keep in the fridge!

Fried Wonton

I'm not sure if I want to turn my diary blog into a cooking blog, but currently, this is what I enjoy doing!!!

Another simple and mouth-watering dish, it's Fried Wonton!!!

 Ingredients:
+ Minced meat, prawns, scallions, dried mushrooms, wonton skins.

 Preparing:
+Wash prawns, remove shell, devein, and cut into pea-size pieces. Soak dried mushrooms and chop finely, also chop scallion into smaller pieces.

+Combine the minced meat, prawns, mushrooms and scallion in a bowl, add cornstarch, seasoning powder and pepper. Mix well.

+ Fill each wonton skin with about 1 teaspoon of the filling, fold into half, if you use the square wonton wrappers, then fold into a triangle shape.

 Cooking:

Heat oil in a deep pot then deep fry the wontons, fry both sides until the wontons turn crispy and golden. Drain the oil from the wontons. Enjoy when it's hot!!!

Pan-fried Squid Patties

Another of my hometown dish that I love to make! It's pan-fried squid patties! It's very easy to make and it's super addictive to eat as a snack!

 Ingredients:
+ Fresh squids, onions, corn starch, seasoning powder.

 Preparing:
+ Wash squids, pull out the tentacles, discard the innards, ink, eyes and mouth. Peel the skin membrane, remove the quill (it's inside the body, resembles a shard of plastic). Thoroughly wash the inside of the squid body tube, using your finger to pull out any residual innards. Pat dry then cut the whole squid into ring pieces.

 Note: The skin membrane (the outer skin of the squid) is edible, you don't have to worry about peeling it off, but I just like to do so, as a habit.

+ Prepare blender, blend squid rings, head and tentacles, together with chopped onion.

+ After done blending, pour the paste into a bowl, mix together with corn starch and seasoning.

 Cooking:

+ Heat oil in a frying pan, when the oil is hot enough, lower the temperature and fry the squid paste. Oil the spoon to make the patties, so that the paste won't stick to the spoon. Cook both side until golden! Done and enjoy!

 Note: If you like herbs, you should add dills to the squid paste!

Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls

One of my hometown dish that I often cook, it's Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls in northern Vietnam style.

My favourite dish, made by me, absolutely love it!

 Ingredients:

+ Minced pork meat, marinated with seasoning powder.
+ Prawns, deveined, remove heads and shells.
+ Glass noodle, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes, drained and chopped.
+ Wood ears, dried mushrooms, both soaked in warm water for 10 minutes and sliced thinly.
+ Onions and carrots, both chopped finely.
+ 1 to 2 eggs.
+ Bean sprouts, chopped. (optional).
+ Rice papers.

 Preparing:

+ Combine all the above ingredients in a bowl, except the prawns and rice papers. Add seasoning powder to the bowl, mix well.

 Note: separate the prawn eggs from the head and add to the mixing bowl. It'll bring out the nice aroma when frying.

 Wrapping: Wet the rice paper, fill in one or two tablespoons of the mixture, place one prawn on the mixture, fold both sides in, then roll the rice paper to envelope the mixture.

 Frying:

+ Heat oil over medium-high heat. It's better to fry when the oil is very hot, slightly reduce the heat to lower temperature when frying the spring rolls, turn both side to cook thoroughly until golden.

+ Drain oil out of spring rolls, serve with dipping sauce.

 To make the dipping sauce: put one tablespoon of sugar into a bowl, add 3 tablespoons of water to dissolve sugar, add one tablespoon of fish sauce and vinegar to taste, slowly adjust the taste to your liking by adding more sugar or fish sauce or vinegar. Add a few drops of lemon for the aroma. Finally add in chopped garlic and chillies. Done!

Oriental pork liver stir-fry

It's quite a pleasure to be able to cook everyday for people who enjoy eating my food. Another dish added to my blog, it's Oriental Pork Liver Stir-fry.

This is a very delicious and healthy dish, plus it's simple to cook! Let's see!

 Ingredients:

+ Pork liver.
+ Scallions, gingers, garlic.
+ Baby corns, bean sprouts, coriander. (optional)

 Preparing:

+ Slice pork liver and marinate with seasoning and corn starch.
+ Slice scallions, garlic and gingers thinly.
+ Slice baby corns and coriander.
+ Wash bean sprouts.

 Note: I like to slice ginger into two types when cooking this dish, one with thin strips and the other is big thin pieces (as shown on the pink plate in the first picture). I like the savoury taste of ginger eaten together with liver.
 Cooking:

+ Heat oil, toss in garlic, stir until slightly fragrant, add in scallions and gingers, continue to stir for a while before adding livers. Increase the heat to cook the liver in big fire and try to sauté everything fast, (the big fire will bring out the nice aroma of all the ingredients and sauté fast to avoid the liver hardening.)

+ When the liver is about to be done, add a bit of soy sauce and rice wine if you have, then add corn starch diluted with water, stir until slightly thicken! Just taste and adjust the sauce according to your liking! Add baby corns and bean sprouts when the liver is done, stir for a while more, turn off the heat and add coriander last! Serve and enjoy!!!