Baked Chicken with Italian Herbs

 Ingredients

2 chicken leg quarters
2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp sea salt
dash of black pepper
1 tsp olive oil

Method

1. Wash and pat dry the chicken leg quarters
2. Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients for 1 hour or more.
3. Preheat the oven at 400F.
4. Place the chicken in the oven for 40 mins. Serve with some greens and rice.

Baby Bak Choy in Oyster Sauce

Recipe adapted fm http://rasamalaysia.com/restaurant-style-chinese-greens-with/

Ingredients

Your favorite Chinese greens (I used baby bok choy for my dish)
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon cooking oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
dash of white pepper


Garlic Oil & Fried Cuttlefish bits
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1 teaspoon oil
1 small piece of dried cuttlefish (cut into very small pieces)
1 teaspoon oil


Method
1)Prepare the garlic oil first by heating up your wok and stir fry the minced garlic until they turn light brown. Dish out and set aside. Alternatively, cook it in a microwave oven for 30 secs or longer until they turn light brown. Follow this cooking method for the cuttlefish as well.

2)Heat up a pot of water and bring it to boil. Add two small drops of cooking oil into the water. Drop your vegetables into the boiling water and quickly blanch them for about 20-30 seconds (depends on the quantity). As soon as they turn slightly wilted, transfer them out and drain the excess water off the vegetables. Arrange the vegetables on a plate.

3)In a wok, heat up the cooking oil, and then add the oyster sauce, water, sugar, and white pepper powder. As soon as the sauce heats up and blends well, transfer and drench it over the blanced vegetables. Garnish the vegetables with the garlic oil, minced garlic and fried cuttlefish bits and serve immediately.

Snow Fungus with Mushroom Soup

Ingredients
300g of chicken breast meat
1 piece of snow fungus
4 pieces of dried huai shan
3 pieces of hua qi sheng
3 pieces of yu zhu
12 red dates
12 fresh white mushrooms or can button mushrooms
2 slices of ginger

2 litres of chicken stock

Method

1. Soak snow fungus overnight or for a few hours to soften it.  Rinse and break into smaller pieces. Discard the hard center.
2. Blanch the chicken breast meat.
3. Boil the stock. Pour the boiling stock to a slow cooker. Add chicken and the rest of the ingredients. Boil on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. Otherwise boil on medium low in a pot to simmer for 2 hours.  Serve warm.

Wonton Soup

Ingredients
1 packet of wonton wrappers
1/2 lb chye sim
green onion/parsley to garnish
1 tsp of shallot oil
1 pot chicken stock or ikan bilis stock

Filling
100g shelled prawns, minced
200g minced pork meat
50 g water chestnuts, chopped (optional)
1 tbsp finely chopped carrot
1 tbsp chopped green onion

Seasonings
1 1 /2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp corn flour
pinch of pepper

Method

1. Mix the filling ingredients with the seasonings and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Place one teaspoon of the filling in the centre of each wanton wrapper. Fold into small pouches.
3. Bring the stock to boil.
4. Put in wanton in batch to cook. Remove and place cooked wanton in cold water.
5. Add in choy sum and cook for a while. Add the cooked wantons.
6. Add a dash of shallot oil and chopped green onion/parsley to soup before serving.

Braised Chicken with Chestnut

Ingredients

300 g chicken pieces

yellow bell pepper - cut into big pieces
1 carrot - chopped in chunks (optional)

10 fresh chestnuts - soaked in hot water or dried chestnuts

3 dried red chilli
1 star anise
1 tsp sugar

1 tsp rice wine
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil and boil the chestnuts for 5 mins.
2. Remove from heat and let cool in the water. Shell and peel, but leave whole.
3. Marinate the chicken pieces with salt and pepper for 15 mins.
4. Heat oil in a wok. Add in the boiled chestnuts and saute for 5 mins.  Remove.
5. Saute onions, ginger, star anise and  red chilli and add in the chicken pieces to brown them.
6. Add in the water retained from the chestnuts. Simmer for 15 mins. 
7. Add sugar, rice wine, oyster sauce and dark soy sauce.
8. Add in the boiled chestnuts and bell pepper and continue to braise until done.
9. Serve warm with rice.

Sweet and Sour Pork (咕咾肉)

Ingredients
1 lb boneless pork loin - cut into bite sized chunks
1 green and/or yellow bell pepper
3 dried red chilli
1 small can pineapple chunks - drained, reserve juice
1/2 cucumber - cut into bite sized chunks
1/2 white onion - diced
2 shallots - diced
1 clove garlic - minced
toasted seasame seeds

Marinade
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp cooking wine
1 tsp ginger juice
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper

Seasoning
3 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp vinegar
1/2 cup pineapple juice

Thickening
cornstarch mixture

hubby's first dish that got me clicking away....

Method

1. Marinate pork in salt, pepper, soy sauce, wine and ginger juice for 15 minutes.
2. Coat pork with cornstarch. Fry in hot oil until crisp. Drain and set aside.
3. Heat oil. Saute garlic, onions, shallots and chilli till fragrant. 
4. Add seasoning and bring to a boil. Add fried pork, bell pepper, pineapple and cucumber and mix well.
5. Simmer for about 10 mins or until vegetables are tender.
6. Thicken with cornstarch mixture
7. Sprinkle some toasted seasame seeds over the dish and Serve while hot.