Herbal Chicken Soup

炖鸡汤

This is a classic herbal soup which is nutritious and nourishing for the body. You can either buy the Chinese herbs individually and put them together or buy a packet of ready herbal mix from supermarkets. 

Ingredients (you can double the quantity of herbs for a stronger herbal taste)

1 chicken

1 litre water

2 dried ginseng roots

1 slice Indian bread

2 tablespoon lotus seeds

2-3 pieces Chuanxiong rhizome

2-3 pieces Chinese angelica root

4-5 pieces Liquorice root

1 tablespoon wolberry fruit (Goji Berry)

1 Honey date

1 Jujube

Method

1. Cut off the chicken feet, wing tips and tail. Remove excess fats around the chicken. Rub 1 tablespoon of salt all over the chicken to clean it and wash the salt away under running water. Blanch the whole chicken with water to remove impurities and scum. Rinse the chicken and set aside.

2. Put the chinese herbs except Goji Berry into a pot with 1 litre water. Add the chicken and bring the water to a boil. Then lower heat and simmer for 1 hour.

3. After 1 hour, take out the ginseng roots, slice and return them to the soup. Simmer for another 1 hour.

4. Add Goji Berry and season the soup with salt. Simmer for another 15 minutes.

5. Remove from heat and serve warm.

Three Cups Chicken

三杯鸡

This is a Taiwanese dish and "Three Cups" in the name of this dish refer to the seasoning used, which is equal proportions of Chinese rice wine, sesame oil and soy sauce.

Ingredients (serves 3-4 pax)

4 chicken thighs (de-boned and cut into bite size pieces)

3 tablespoons sesame oil

3 tablespoons Chinese rice wine (I use huadiaojiu)

3 tablespoons light soy sauce

3 inch ginger (cut into thin slices)

6 garlic cloves

1 bunch of spring onions (cut into 5cm strips)

Method

1. Heat up sesame oil in a wok. Add the ginger slices and garlic cloves into the oil and fry over low heat until the edges of ginger slices crisped up and garlic cloves are light brown. Remove the ginger slices and garlic cloves and set aside.

2. Heat up wok until smoking. Add the chicken pieces and sear/brown them over high heat.

3. Turn heat down and mix in the light soy sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes.

4. Drizzle the Chinese wine onto the chicken and stir to mix in. Simmer for 5 minutes. 

5. Add the spring onions, fried ginger slices and garlic cloves and mix in thoroughly.

Serve hot!

Pizza Crust (Improved)

Pizza 

This pizza dough will yield a pizza crust that is crispy on the outside and soft inside. As the amount of liquid is high, it is best made using a stand mixer with a dough hook. Of course you can knead by hand too.

Ingredients:

500g bread flour

10g semolina flour

1 tsp yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

15g olive oil

1 tsp salt

330g / 350ml water (room temperature)

1. In the mixing bowl, combine the bread flour and semolina flour, add the salt on one side of the bowl and yeast and sugar on the other side. Pour water and olive oil into the bowl and start to knead on slow speed until the dough comes together. Then increase the mixer speed to medium and knead until the dough comes away cleanly from and flaps against the sides of the mixing bowl.

2. Turn the dough onto the table. Use the scrapper to quickly gather the dough together, then work the dough by stretching and folding a few times to trap as much air as possible inside the dough. Use the dough scrapper to gather the dough into a ball.  Lightly oil the mixing bowl and place the dough ball into the mixing bowl, cover the bowl with a plastic/cloth and let the dough rest for 45minutes or until double in size. For better crust and flavor, rest the dough in the fridge and leave it overnight (or up to 48 hours - bring the dough to room temperature before using it). 

3. Mix a tablespoon of bread flour with a tablespoon of semolina flour. Turn the dough (weight, around 830g) onto the table. Divide into 4 (around 200g each), roll into a ball and lightly coat each ball with bread and semolina flour mixture. Cover the dough balls with cloth/plastic and rest the dough balls for up to 1 hour (or overnight in fridge - bring the dough to room temperature before using it). 

4. Preheat oven to 230 deg celcius (or as high as it will go).

5. Lightly dust the baking tray with bread and semolina flour mixture, and place one dough ball on it. Shape the dough by using your fingers to push/stretch the dough from the center towards the rim until you have a rough circle of about 20cm in diameter with a 1 cm rim.

6. Drizzle a little olive oil over the pizza and spread one tablespoon of tomato sauce evenly over the pizza. Bake the pizza for 5 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven and add toppings. Then continue to bake the pizza until the edges become golden brown and crispy.

Tea Leaf Egg

茶叶蛋

Missed Taiwan's tea leaf eggs so much! They are so delicious, we bought them from 7-11 convenience store everyday while we were holidaying in Taiwan in April 2024. I followed the recipe from this youtube and cooked 10 instead of 20 eggs.

Ingredients:

10 eggs

50ml soy sauce

20g rock sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 types of tea leaves (1 lipton tea bag and 1/2 teabag of wu long cha 乌龙茶 tea leaves)

2cm cinnamon stick

2 star anise

Method:

1. Put eggs in a pot and fill with sufficient water to cover the eggs. 

2. Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat to low and boil the eggs for 20 minutes. 

3. After 20 minutes, turn off the heat and set aside the eggs in the pot (do not drain the water) for 20 minutes.

4. After 20 minutes, drain the water and use a spoon to crack the eggs by giving each egg a light tap on the round end, followed by 3-4 taps on the side of the egg. This is to create the marbled effet and to allow the flavors from the tea soup to infuse the eggs. 

5. Put the cracked eggs into the same pot and add the tea soup ingredients (soy sauce, rock sugar, salt, tea leaves, cinnamon stick and star anise). Add water until it just covers the eggs.

6. Bring to a boil, then boil over low heat 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn off the heat and let the eggs soak in the tea soup for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, boil the tea soup for a final 20 minutes. Turn off heat and the eggs are ready to be eaten!

How to cook steak on stovestop

 

Pan-searing in a cast iron pan is the easiest way to cook steak. 

Ingredients:

Steak (preferably ribeye or sirlion)

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon salt (not too much or your steak will be salty)

2 garlic cloves (smashed lightly, skin on)

Fresh herb e.g. rosemary or thyme (optional)

Method

1. Make sure the steak is at room temperature before you cook it, and pat dry on both sides so that there is no excess moisture.

2. Season with salt and dash of freshly ground black pepper. Then lightly coat the beef with bread flour (helps to get the brown crust).

3. Turn on exhaust fan and heat up the cast iron pan until it is smoking. Add a little cooking oil into the pan.

4. Set the steak into the pan and just leave it. You only need to turn once. After about 2 minutes, turn and you should get a nice golden brown crust.

5. Add butter, garlic and herb (if using) into the pan. Baste the steak with the garlic infused butter. Cook for another 2 minutes (to get medium rare steak).

6. Transfer the steak to a serving plate, cover with aluminum foil and rest it for 3 minutes (to get juicy steak). Once it’s properly rested, take a sharp knife and you should easily cut through the steak like butter. Enjoy!

How to make sambal balado

Sambal Balado

Learnt to make this from my mother's Indonesia helper, Tri Handayani, who is a very good cook. She used to run a small restaurant in her hometown. Sambal balado is an Indonesian chilli paste which can be mixed with many ingredients (e.g. hard boiled egg, fried ikan bilis) to make great dish.

Ingredients

Group A

3 fresh red chillis (de-seeded)

1 fresh tomato

1 knob gula melaka

Group B

6 pieces of candle nuts

6 peeled shallots

6 peeled garlic cloves

Group C

2 shallots (peeled and sliced thinly)

Group D

2 kafir leaves (cut into small pieces)

2 bay leaves (cut into small pieces)

 4 slices galangal / blue ginger

1. Put Group A ingredients into a blender and bland until fine.

2. Put Group B ingredients into a stone mortar and pound using the stone pestle until fine.

3. Make fried shallots using the sliced shallots in Group C, then set aside to cool.

4. Using the same wok for frying shallots, put in the paste from step 2 and stir fry until the paste is fragrant. Add more oil if necessary. Then add in the paste from step 1 and stir fry until it is fragrant. Finally, add in Group C ingredients and stir fry until fragrant. Season with salt for taste. Done!

This is one dish made with sambal balado. It's called Telur Balado (Hard boiled egg in Sambal Balado).

Blanched Orka

烫煮羊角豆

This is really a very simple dish to make which I learnt from Just One Cookbook. It starts with selecting the okras at the market. Choose those that are tender, small (less than 4 inches), free of blemishes (dark spots/marks/patches) and the stem is not dry/brown. That done, the rest of the steps is easy peassy.

1. Cut off the stem to about 0.5cm and peel off the hard part around the top of the okra.

2. Put the okras on the chopping board and sprinkle some salt over them. Then gently rub them by rolling on the chopping board. This step will remove bitter taste and bring out the bright green colour of the okras. Don't need to rinse the salt from the okras.

3. Boil some water in a pot/wok. Put in the okras and blanch for 2 minutes (or longer, depending on the size of the okras). Be careful not to overcook the okras as they will become mushy.

4. Drain the okras and transfer to serving dish! You can cut the okras into small pieces before serving if you like.

Fried Chicken Wing Chinese Style

炸鸡翅膀

Ingredients:

1kg chicken wings (mid joints also can, refer to bottom of this post)

marinade:

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp fish sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

batter: 

80g tapioca flour

26g rice flour

10g plain flour

3/4 tsp salt

110ml water

Method:

1. Wash and clean the chicken wings, then dab dry with kitchen towels. Pierce the chicken wings with a sharp knife.

2. Marinade the chicken wings with salt, fish sauce and sesame oil. Ensure the wings are well coated with the marinade. Set aside for at least half hour (the longer you marinade, the better the taste) and turn the chicken wings over at least once, just to make sure that the wings are well marinated.

3. Heat up cooking oil in wok under medium-low heat.

4.Mix the tapioca flour, rice flour, plain flour and salt, then stir in water slowly with a whisk. Don't add all the water at one go. Stop adding when the batter is smooth and drips when the whisk is lifted from the batter. Don't overmix the batter. Add the batter to the marinated chicken wings and mix in thoroughly.

5. When the oil temperature has reached approximately 160 deg celcius, put in the chicken wings and fry until golden colour. Transfer the fried chicken wings to a wire rack to drain excess oil. Notes:

a. Fry the chicken wings in small batches.

b. Turn down the heat if the oil starts to smoke.

c. Single frying is sufficient as the chicken wing stays crispy for more than 1 hour (even 2). For super crispy wings, you can fry the wings again over high heat for about 30 seconds. 

6. Serve the fried chicken wings hot.

Note: Chicken wing mid-joints are easier/faster to cook. Just cut each mid-joint into two pieces and follow steps above.

Stir Fry Pork Belly Slices

葱炒三层肉薄片

Ingredients:

250g Iberico pork belly slices 

1 knob of ginger (sliced thinly)

Spring onions (cut into short strips)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 tsp salt

Method:

1. Heat the wok with 1 teaspoon of oil.

2. Fry the ginger slices over low heat until the edges have browned, about 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Push the ginger slices aside and add all the pork belly slices into the wok. Cook the belly slices undisturbed over medium heat until some of the pork fat oozes out. Flip the half cooked pork belly, add black pepper and salt, then mix in the fried ginger slices.

4. Stir fry until the pork belly slices are just cooked, turn off the heat, add the spring onions and mix in. Transfer to serving dish and enjoy hot with rice.

Bak Kut Teh

 肉骨茶

This dish, literally translated as "pork bone tea", is a soup with tender pork ribs cooked with Chinese herbs and spices. You can easily buy bak gut teh spice packets from supermarkets and wet markets in Singapore but most, if not all, contain MSG (monosodium glutamate) to enhance the flavour. We therefore prefer to prepare our own spice bag which is really very simple but just as delicious. Recipe below is adapted from guaishushu's Teochew Bak Kut Teh, where the soup is clear (instead of dark coloured) and contains less Chinese herbs/spices.

Ingredients (serves 3 pax)

700g prime pork ribs 大牌骨

4 garlic bulbs

1 - 2 licorice root

1/4 tsp black peppercorns

1/4 tsp szechuan peppercorns

1/2 tsp white peppercorns

1/8 tsp five spice powder

1 tsp salt (seasoning)

1.5 litre water

8 pieces of tofu puff (tau pok) - optional. Tofu puffs are actually deep fried in oil, use kitchen towels to press against each piece of tofu puff to soak up excess oil before using. 

Vegetables (Tang Orh / garland chrysanthemum, lettuce goes very well with bak kut teh) - optional

Method:

1. Blanch the pork ribs in hot water and set aside.

2. Heat up wok/pan and stir fry (without oil) peppercorns until fragrant. This takes about 5 mins. Transfer the peppercorns to a tea bag and crack the peppercorns to release flavour. Add five spice powder into the teabag.

3. Break the garlic bulbs into individual garlic cloves and roast them in a pan (use a wooden spatula to stir them around) until slightly brown.

4. Put pork, teabag, garlic cloves, licorice root and water into a big pot. Add in tofu puffs if using. Bring to a boil and simmer until pork is tender, about 1 to 1.5 hours. Add vegetables (if using) to the soup.

Before

After 

5. Season with salt to taste and serve hot with rice and a small dish of sliced fresh red/green chilli with dark soy sauce.