Saturday, October 17, 2009

Martabak

This food is an easy version of the actual recipe. Instead of making the skin from scratch, I use spring roll wrapper.

Take about 200 gr of the cooked minced meat base recipe. If it is just cooked or defrosted, make sure you cool them first.

To a big bowl, add 5-6 eggs lightly beaten, finely chopped 1 brown onion, 1 garlic, and 3 green shallot, 1-2 teaspoon of curry powder and 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix them well then add the minced meat.

Get the spring roll wrapper and lay them flat. Put the filling in the middle, taking care because it is going to be a bit runny. Fold four sides into the middle and sealing the wrapper with water mixed with a bit of corn flour as you go. The end result will look like a square envelope.

Deep fry the martabak until golden.

Spring Roll

You need the minced beef base recipe for this. Mix into the minced beef recipe the following : some oyster sauce, a bit of sesame oil (optional, careful, just add a bit because this is strong stuff), and some light soy sauce.

Then you can add some vegetables. Chopped vegetables such as carrot and celery is one option, or you can throw frozen vegetables to save time. Or if you want to be more authentic, put in some bean sprout and carrot with julienne cut (small strips like match stick, or grated to save time).

Use spring roll wrapper ready made. Lay one on the bench and put in the filling : minced meat with sauce and vegetables. Roll them half way and fold the sides, then continue to roll till finish. Use water and corn flour to make a glue to glue the sides.

Deep fry the spring roll until golden.

Shepherd's Pie

Get one portion of the cooked minced meat base recipe. Stir in a jar of tomato sauce, chopped vegetables (celery, carrot, zucchini) and a cup of stock. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, you need to make mashed potatoes by boiling 4 potatoes until tender and mashing them. Add a little butter, milk and seasonings.

Spoon filling into a pie dish and spread the mashed potatoes evenly on the top.

Bake in 180oC for 25-30 minutes or until golden.

Serve with bread.

Mince Tortilla Bake

Take one portion of cooked the minced meat base recipe. Stir in enchilada sauce (ready made) and simmer for 30 minutes.

Spoon mixture into warmed tortillas. Roll up. Arrange in a baking dish, seam side down. Top with combined a quarter of a cup of sour cream and quarter of a cup o milk. Sprinkle with grated cheese.

Bake in 180oC oven for 25-30 minutes.

Open Savoury Mince Tarts

For this recipe you need minced meat base recipe, fillo pastry (ready to buy from supermarket, cut them in half), melted butter (for the fillo pastry), 1 cup prepared tomato sauce, 1 small chopped carrot, half a cup of frozen peas, seasonings and half a cup of grated tasty cheese.

Prepare the fillo pastry by working with one at a time. Brush with butter and fold into quarters. Push into shallow patty tin. Repeat to make enough cup for the filling.

Bake the pastry in the oven 180oC for 3-5 minutes or until golden.

Defrost the minced meat base recipe or take the freshly cook one and put into the pan, together with sauce, vegetables and seasonings. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Spoon the filling into the cases. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Crispy Coconut Crepes

1 cup self raising flour, sifted
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
200 ml coconut milk
¾ cup water
8 green onions, thinly sliced
2.5 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 portion of minced beef base recipe, mixed with 2.5 tbsp of fish sauce
600 cooked prawns, peeled, deveined, chopped
100g beansprout, trimmed

To make the crepes :
Combine flour, turmeric and salt in a bowl. Whisk egg, coconut milk and water in a jug until well combined.
Gradually pour into flour mixture to form a smooth, thin batter. Stir in half of the onions.
Heat crepe pan over medium-high heat. Add a bit of oil and swirl over base of the pan.
Add 1/3 cup of batter. Tilt pan back and forth to make thin crepes.
Cook 2-3 minutes or until base is golden.

Slide crepe onto a tray.
Arrange the filling : minced beef, prawns and sprouts.
Fold crepe over filling.
Keep warm in the oven while finishing the rest of the crepes.

Serve warm.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Tortilla Roll Ups and Crispy

For this you need the minced meat base recipe plus
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 capsicum, chopped
2 garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 can of Mexican chilli beans or kidney beans
Vegies like chopped tomatoes, grated carrots for added filling (optional)
tortillas wrap, ready to buy
grated cheddar cheese

Heat oil in a pan then put in garlic, onion and capsicum. Stir until tender. Put in the minced meat base recipe until all are cooked.

Add tomato paste, a bit of water so it won't be too dry and beans. Simmer until thickened slightly.

Prepare the wrap by putting them in the oven or microwave for a while. Don't put them too long in the oven, or they will be too crispy, unless this is what you want.

To make roll ups :
Lay the wrap flat and put the filling in the centre. Add some vegies and cheese. Roll the wrap tightly.

To make crispy tortilla:
Lay the wrap flat and put filling on the top. Add vegies and cheese. Repeat the process about 3 times and top the last layer with another wrap. Bake in the oven.

Serve with sour cream.

Pizza

Everybody loves pizza. And when you have basic minced beef recipe ready, all you need to add is the vegetables and cheese.

The minced beef should be cooked already or defrosted if you freeze them.

Cut the vegies of your choice such as mushroom, capsicum and pineapple.

Grate some tasty cheese.

Put some tomato sauce on the pizza base.

After that I like to put cheese first to make sure the filling won't fall off.

Arrange the filling on the pizza : minced beef, mushroom, capsicum and pineapple and top it again with some cheese. Don't overfill your filling.

Bake in the oven.

As an alternative, you can also use meatballs as your meat filling. I'll post the meatball recipe later on.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Beef Ravioli

Prepare 1 portion of Minced Beef Base Recipe. Mixed them with ready made pasta sauce or if you can you can make your own pasta sauce from canned tomato.

You need to get gow gee pastry wrappers. Place 1.5 teaspoon of the minced beef in the centre and brush the edge with water. Top with another wrapper and seal. Do this until you finish all wrapper. Place them in a single layer on a lined tray.

Heat oil in saucepan and cook onion and garlic (both finely chopped) until golden. Add 1 canned tomatoes and 3/4 cup of beef stock. Bring to boil. Then reduce heat and simmer until thickened (about 10-15 minutes). Stir in basil.

Boil salted water in large saucepan. Add ravioli and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and spoon over sauce. Enjoy.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Minced Beef and Eggplant Stir Fry

Again you need one portion of the Minced Beef Base Recipe.

Prepare the eggplant. If you buy the big ones, cut them into four lengthwise, or if you have the smaller ones, just cut them into two.

Start by deep frying the eggplant until they are soft, but not mushy, then set them aside.

Stir fry the minced beef and put in the cooked eggplant. If you like them a bit spicy, you can also put in chilli bean sauce (buy them in a jar in chinese groceries), or if you don't like them spicy, just put in hoisin or oyster sauce.

Enjoy with rice.

If your minced meat was cooked at the same time, you can choose to freeze them together with the eggplant.
However, if your minced meat was started from the frozen one, do not freeze them again.

Minced Beef with String Bean Stir Fries

For this recipe you need one portion of the Minced Beef Basic Recipe.

You need to prepare the string bean first. Clean and cut the ends. You can then cut into a finger sized long or leave it as it is.

Just deep fried the string bean until they are cooked and set them aside.

Stir fry the minced beef and put in the cooked string bean and some oyster sauce.

Enjoy with rice.

If your minced meat was cooked at the same time, you can choose to freeze them together with the string bean.
However, if your minced meat was started from the frozen one, do not freeze them again.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Spaghetti Bolognese

Use one portion of the Minced Beef base recipe.

Chopped some bacon, then fry them in a bit of olive oil.
After they are cooked, put in the minced beef base recipe.
Add some tomato paste and diced tomato tinned, stir them and put in herbs of your choice.

You can use ready made bolognese sauce. Or if you have tinned whole tomato , just break them as much as you can, and make sure that next time you buy the diced one, because with tomato tinned it is always every time that you will need to break them anyway.

While doing all that, make sure you boil some water to make the spaghetti according to packet instruction. Do not put oil in the water, just put some salt.

Serve the Spaghetti Bolognese with parmesan cheese.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Easy Lasagna

For this you need one portion of minced beed base recipe cooked, the one without the added vegetables. To that you add 1 can tomato soup, prepared pasta sauce or tomatoes.

2 tbsp herbs of choice
250 gr lasagna sheets
2 cups cream or white sauce
1.5 cups grated tasty cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Greased your casserole dish and line with lasagna. Then pour the cooked minced meat, cream or white sauce and last the tasty cheese. Make sure your lasagna have enough cream/sauce or it won't cooked properly.

Repeat the layers in that order until all ingredients are finished.

On the top layer, there should be cream and parmesan cheese.

Bake in moderate oven (180oC) for 30 minutes or until tender and golden.

Serve with salad on the side.

Minced Beef Plus Extras Base Recipe

This minced beef has some extras in it and you can make meatloaf, meatballs in many sauces, and burgers. I will post all the recipes later.

500 gr minced beef
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 cup of frozen vegetables (or chopped or grated fresh vegetables such as carrot and zucchini)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp tomato sauce
2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
1 tbsp chili sauce (optional)

Just mixed all the ingredients and continue with the next recipes for meatloaf, meatballs and burgers.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Minced Beef Base Recipe

This minced beef has no extra other than basic seasonings.

You can use them after you cook the basic recipe to make spaghetti bolognese, stir fries, murtabak (martabak/minced beef curry), tortilla, pizza, lasagna, open savoury mince tarts, pasta bake and spring roll.

Or put the uncooked meat in other wrapping then cook them to make ravioli.

Just follow the recipes I will post later on.

But for this one you will need :

500 gr minced meat
1 garlic and 1 onion, finely chopped
sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
salt and pepper

To cook them, start with frying the garlic in a small amount of oil, then put in the minced meat and seasonings. Break them up while cooking to avoid lumps.

You can then use them straight away or choose to let it cool before putting them in the freezer.

If you need to use them after they are frozen, just deforst them in the microwave.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Prawn Ekkado

Start by immersing bean curd (the one that look like a paper, not the stick ones) in warm water. The easiest way to do this is by putting them in a baking tray, so they are flat. Choose the ones that are intact, but if there is a little hole, you can carefully add another layer on the broken one after they are soft.

Prepare quail eggs. If you buy them in a tin, wash them first. Or if you buy them raw, boil them and peel them.

Once the bean curd are soft, lay them flat. Put some of the minced prawn base recipe in the middle and put one quail egg in the middle. Then make a wrap of the bean curd so it forms a money bag. Tie the top with cooking string.

How to cook them:
Deep fry them in hot oil. Just make sure that you lower the fire once they are hot so you do not burn the wrapper before the filling is cooked.

Enjoy with your favorite sauce.
PS : to make them look pretty, change the cooking string with shallot cut into strips once they are cooked.

How to freeze them:
If you want to freeze them you need to steam them until they are cooked first. When they are cooked, put them in a baking tray convered with baking paper. When they are frozen, you can keep them in plastic container.



Monday, August 31, 2009

Prawn Ball

Make one portion of the minced prawn base recipe.

Boil some water. Shape the minced prawn like a ball using two spoon. It might not be a perfect round, but definitely saves you from all the stickiness that may cause a mess. Then drop them straight into the boiling water until they are all cooked.

How to eat them:
Just make chicken stock and put the prawn ball in together with other types of balls (chicken and beef) and green vegetables. Season with salt, pepper and soy sauce.

How to freeze them:
Put them in plastic container and put into freezer. If you want to use them, just drop them straight into chicken stock.

Sesame Prawn Bread

This is also one of Chinese Yum Cha favorite which is easy to make.

Start by cutting some bread to a bit sized pieces. You can also make shapes you like with cookie cutter.
Put about a tablespoon of the minced prawn base recipe on the bread, then sprinkle the top with sesame seeds.
Deep fry them in a hot oil. Just put them on low fire once they are hot, otherwise you can burn the bread quite easily. Fry the bread until golden.

Enjoy with your favorite sauce.

How to freeze them:
You can freeze the prawn bread before you fry them. But they are probably best to be fried straight after you make it, rather than freezing it first.
But if you need to freeze it, do this with a new or day old bread, but not the bread that has been frozen, because the prawn minced will not stick to the bread that has been frozen.
Just lay them on a baking tray covered with baking paper. Once they are frozen you can put them in plastic container.
If you want to cook them, put them in hot oil straight from the freezer without defrosting them.

Prawn Cake (Kekian)

Prepare a rather thick plastic bag for food by cutting it at three sides. This way, the bag would open like a big one sheet paper.

Put the minced prawn in the middle of the sheet and roll them. Make sure they are tight enough so when they are cooked, they stick together. Leave empty at both ends to be tied up with cooking string.

Steam the roll until cooked.


How to eat them:
Cut the roll, about 1.5 cm deep and shallow fry them.

Enjoy with your favorite sauce, mine is the mustard.

You can also use the prawn cake in your stir fries with green vegetables


How to freeze them:
Just freeze them as is. When you are ready to eat them, deforst them by steaming or in the microwave. Then cut the roll as above.


Minced Prawn Base Recipe for 1 portion

Another variation of the minced chicken and pork recipe. This one, it's only prawn. But they have similar ingredients and you can make another 4 recipes from this one base : Prawn Ekkado, prawn ball, prawn cake and prawn bread.


Ingredients:

500 gr peeled prawn minced

1 beaten egg

2 tbsp corn flour

5 cloves of garlic, minced or finely cut

1 shallot finely chopped

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt


Mix all the ingredients.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Fu Yung Hai

This one might not the real Fu Yung Hai you know, because they usually use crab meat. But I found this quite useful for any extra minced chicken or pork base recipe that are just left over from filling the warpper because you do not have to worry about having another wrapper and having another filling because now you have too many wrapper and not enough filling.

How to cook them:
Basically all you do is to beat some eggs, just make sure they are proportional to your left over chicken or pork.

Then put in all the left over, mix them together and add some more seasoning to taste.
Then just shallow fry them in a pan like you would with an omelette.

How to freeze them:
just lay them flat on a tray covered with baking paper. To make it easier to keep, cut them first into wedges. When they are frozen, take them out of the tray and keep in plastic bag.

And for the sauce : (don't freeze this, just make it when you are ready to eat)

1 garlic, finely chopped
50 ml water
5 tablespoon of tomato sauce
1 tsp corn flour, mix with 2 tbsp of water
50 gr peas
sugar to taste if you find the tomato sauce too sour

How to make the sauce :
Fry the garlic with a tablespoon of oil, then put in water and tomato sauce.
Wait till they boil, then put in the corn flour mixture while stirring constantly.
Put the peas in (deforst them first if they are frozen) and stir.

Enjoy the Fu Yung Hai with the sauce.

By the way, for the real Fu Yung Hai this is what you use :
100 gr crab meat
100 gr young bamboo shoot, cut like a matchstick
2 shallots, finely cut
1 garlic, finely chopped
3 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper to taste

And you mix them together and shallow fry them and enjoy with the above sauce.

Chicken Nuggets

Cover a shallow baking tray with baking paper. Spread the minced chicken on the baking paper so they are flat.
Cut them to size while they are still in the baking tray, do not remove them. Just make sure the cut is deep enough so later on it is easier for you if you want to take the pieces.

If you want you can make shapes with cookie cutter for kids. Just press the cookie cutter so it cuts a shape, but do not remove the minced chicken. You only remove the excess out, but leave the shape on the tray.

Put the tray in the freezer.

How to cook them:
Take the tray out of the freezer and take out each of the cut shape. Roll them in beaten egg and bread crumbs then deep fry until golden.

Enjoy with you favourite sauce.

How to freeze them:

Once they are hard enough, take them out of the baking try. You can store them in zipper bag or plastic container. You can take as much as you want and still keep the rest.

When you are ready to use them, do not defrost them, just follow the instruction above.

Extra Tasty Chicken Wings or Drumstick

This one is actually a bit tricky, but once you master this, not only you can do wings or drumstick, but you can do the whole chicken as well.

Start by preparing the wrap, which is actually the skin of the chicken. What you need to do is carefully take out the bones and meat out of the chicken.

Do this by carefully running your fingers between the meat and the skin. When you feel the join, try to carefully break them, without breaking the skin. For chicken wings, just do this for the first two part and leave the bond at the end part because they are too small anyway to be filled in without breaking the skin.

When you finish cleaning the inside, set them aside.

You can then use the chicken meat to make the minced chicken base recipe. Of course they won't be enough, just add chicken breast and prawn meat. If you like pork, you can also add minced pork in it. Continue to prepare the filling like you would with the minced chicken base recipe.

Fill in the skin with minced chicken filling, then secure the opening with toothpicks.

If you want to add some variation, put boiled quail egg inside, just wrap it around with the chicken minced.


How to cook them:

If you want to cook them straight away after you finish your preparation, you can choose to bake them in the oven or deep fry them in oil.

If you want to bake them, the secret to a yummy chicken is to put a bit of butter on it, before putting them in the oven.

Enjoy with your favourite sauce.


How to freeze them:

To freeze them you need to make sure the shape stays. That's why you need to steam them first until cooked through. Let it cool, then you can freeze them.

Next time you want to cook them, defrost them first in the microwave, then continue cooking as mentioned above.

Egg Roll

Start by making the wrapper.
Beat eggs, seasoned with salt and pepper. Put a bit of oil inside a pan, then make a very thin omelet in a shallow frying pan. When cooked, set them aside to cool.
Make a few of these omelet wrapper.

When the wrapper are ready, lay them each flat and fill in with the minced chicken base recipe, about two spoonful. Then roll the omelet so it covers the filling. Wrap this roll with a food plastic bag, making sure they are tight enough so the shape stays. Then steam them till they are cooked through.

How to eat them:

Cut the roll about 1.5cm deep. Then you can have them in two ways.

One, you make a chicken soup, put the egg roll inside together with green vegetables.

Two, you can beat eggs, dip the cut roll in the eggs, then dip them in bread crumbs. Deep fry them until golden. Enjoy them with your favourite sauce.

How to freeze them:

Just put the roll in the freezer until you are ready to use them. When you do, just put them in the microwave to defrost or steam them till they are soft.

Kentucky Fried Chicken

This is not actually part of the other recipe, but I tried this yesterday and it was a big hit with everyone.

Ingredients:
Half of a chicken, cut into 6
lemon
500 gr self raising folur (or plain flour with a bit of bicarb soda)
250 gr rice flour
3 pieces of garlic, finely crushed
1/8 tsp coriander powder
1/8 tsp nutmeg powder
1 tsp chilli powder (optional or can be less)
2 eggs, beaten
salt
pepper

How to cook them:
1. Squeeze the lemon juice on the chicken and let it sit for 10 minutes.
2. Turn to the other side than do the same thing for another 10 minutes.
3. Mix the garlic, half of the coriander powder, half of the nutmeg powder, half of the chilli powder, half of the intended salt and pepper together. (the other half will be used for the dry mix later).
4. Wash the chicken.
5. Rub the garlic mix into the chicken and leave it for another 10 minutes.
6. Make the following mix :

Wet mix :
a bit of the self raising flour, a bit of the rice flour, then mix with a bit of cold water to make a paste. Do not make them too runny but do not make them too thick as well.

Dry mix:
the rest of self raising flour, rice flour, coriander powder, nutmeg powder. chilli powder, salt and pepper.

7. Then do the following in order:
Chicken into the beaten egg, then into the wet mix, then the dry mix. Deep fry them.

Make sure the oil is not too hot, as the coating will burn first, but the inside of the chicken is still uncooked.
Leave it on one side for 15 minutes, then another side for another 15.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

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Chicken Balls

How to cook them:
Start by boiling some water in a pan. Use spoon to form a ball from the minced chicken bas recipe, then drop them into the boiling water. Boil till they are cooked (you know when they are cooked when they are floating, then just add a few minutes to make sure).

How to freeze them:
Just use a baking pan lined with baking paper. When they are frozen you can move them to plastic container.

When you are ready to eat them, you can put them in chicken stock seasoned according to taste, and put some green vegetables and noodle.


You can also enjoy them together with the previous recipe of steamed tofu.

Steamed or Fried Tofu

For this one you need to use hard tofu. Hard enough so you can make a hole on its top, fill it in and then stand the tofu on a steamer.

How to cook them:
Make a hole on the top of the tofu with a spoon, then fill in the hole with the minced chicken base recipe. If you do not want to throw away the tofu that you dig out, just minced them and put them together with the minced chicken bas recipe. Just make sure that you season them again a bit.

When you finished filling them in, just put them in a steamer for about 30 minutes.
When they are ready then you can eat them in three different way.

One is you leave it as a steamed tofu and prepare peanut sauce (you can buy ready made from Asian groceries or make them from finely grind peanut mixed with water then seasoned. Enjoy them with tomato sauce and kecap manis (sweet soy sauce).

Two, you can still leave it as steamed tofu but eat them in a chicken soup with green vegetables. Just put them in and they are ready to eat.

Three, you can deep fry them and eat them with sweet chilli sauce or with peanut sauce, tomato sauce and sweet soy sauce.

How to freeze them:
Unfortunately tofu is not very good for making frozen food. When it comes out from a freezer, the water content inside the tofu that has been frozen started to thaw and ruins the texture of the tofu. So this one needs to be eaten straight away.

Siu May

Get dumpling wrapper from chinese groceries. Get the square one. Take out one portion of minced chicken or pork base recipe and fill in the wrapper. You can again either cook them straight away or freeze them.

How to cook them:
Steam them till they are cooked. Serve with soy sauce.

How to freeze them:
Line your baking tray with baking paper. Just line up the dumpling and put the tray into freezer. Once they are hard, you can take them out of the tray and store them in plastic container for later use.
When it’s time to cook them, you don’t need to thaw them first. Just put them straight into the steamer.

Dumpling Soup

Get the square dumpling wrapper from chinese groceries. Take out one portion of minced chicken or pork base recipe and fill in the wrapper. You can again either cook them straight away or freeze them.

How to cook them:
Boil them in chicken stock. Put Chinese green vegetables cut into bite size. Add sugar, salt, pepper and soy sauce according to taste. Serve with fried shallot (you can buy ready made from Chinese groceries as well).

How to freeze them:
Line your baking tray with baking paper. Just line up the dumpling and put the tray into freezer. Once they are hard, you can take them out of the tray and store them in plastic container for later use.
When it’s time to cook them, you don’t need to thaw them first. Just put them straight into the chicken stock.

You can enjoy dumpling soup with noodle.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Fried Dumpling

Get square dumpling wrapper from chinese groceries. Take out one portion of minced chicken or pork base recipe and fill in the wrapper. You can again either cook them straight away or freeze them.

How to cook them:
Deep fry the dumpling in canola oil until they turn golden. Serve with sweet chilli sauce.

How to freeze them:
Line your baking tray with baking paper. Just line up the dumpling and put the tray into freezer. Once they are hard, you can take them out of the tray and store them in plastic container for later use.
When it’s time to cook them, you don’t need to thaw them first. Just put them straight into your deep fryer.

Gow Gee

Get gow gee wrapper from chinese groceries. It is the round one and a bit thicker than the square one. Take out one portion of minced chicken or pork base recipe and fill in the gow gee wrapper. You can then either cook them straight away or freeze them.
How to cook them:
You can cook them by shallow frying them or steam them.

How to shallow fry the gow gee:
Heat 3tbsp of oil on a flat base pan. Line the gow gee so they stand of the pan. Keep on shallow frying them until the base turns golden. Then pour some water until it reach about half way the height of the gow gee. Cover the pan to let it steam. When the gow gee is tender, take out the cover to let the extra water dries up.
Serve with soy sauce.

How to freeze them:
Line your baking tray with baking paper, so it will be easier to take out later on. Just line up the gow gee so they are standing on the base. Put into freezer. Once they are hard, you can take them out of the tray and store them in plastic container for later use.
When it’s time to cook them, you don’t need to thaw them first. Just put them straight into your pan lining up.

Chinese Dim Sum

Use the minced chicken or pork base recipe to make various Chinese Dim Sum:
1. Gow Gee
2. Fried dumpling
3. Dumpling soup
4. Siu May

Recipe on how to cook each of them will be posted later.

You can eat just one type of dim sum or choose to mix and match.
Dim sum is usually served with a bowl of porridge. You can check my porridge recipe at my other blog : Yummy Left Over.

Minced Pork Base Recipe for 1 portion

This minced pork base recipe is just a variation on the minced chicken recipe before. Basically you just substitute the chicken with the pork. But for you who do not want to scroll down, here is the recipe again.

Ingredients:
150 gr peeled prawn minced or finely cut
200 gr pork minced
1 tbsp shallot, finely cut
1 beaten egg
2 tbsp corn flour
1 tbsp ginger juice (from 2 cm ginger, minced then mix with 2 tbsp of water, squeeze out the water)
1/8 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar
1.5 tsp salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp cooking oil (ie. Canola)

Mix all the ingredients.

Minced Chicken Base Recipe for 1 portion

Ingredients:

150 gr peeled prawn minced or finely cut
200 gr chicken minced
1 tbsp shallot, finely cut
1 beaten egg
2 tbsp corn flour
1 tbsp ginger juice (from 2 cm ginger, minced then mix with 2 tbsp of water, squeeze out the water)
1/8 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar
1.5 tsp salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp cooking oil (ie. Canola)

Mix all the ingredients.

From this basic minced chicken, you can make several dishes.
I usually make several portion of this basic recipe and prepare several dishes at once.
You can choose to eat one dish straight away and freeze the others.
I will post later on what dishes can be made based on this, and how to proceed on finishing the dishes.

For kids who do not like their greens, this is your chance to hide them inside the minced chicken. You can use grated vegetables like grated zucchini or carrot and they won’t notice it 

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Preparation

The first step to a speedy kitchen is to prepare your meat straight after you buy them. This way when you want to use them you do not need to clean them or prepare them again. All you have to do is take them straight out of your fridge or freezer.

I usually buy things in bulk. Something like five kilos of chicken breast, two kilos of chicken drumsticks, two kilo of chicken wings, three kilos of beef or lamb or three kilo of fish. So when I come home from shopping, I would start by cleaning them and putting them inside freezer bags, just the right amount that I would need for one portion of meal for my family. Then, when I want to make three portion of base recipe to make three dish, I would take three portion of the frozen meat and cook them in one go to save time.

The second step is to make sure you have the basics always ready in your kitchen. Or you can buy them together when you buy the meat. Always keep a note in the kitchen of things that you run out. This way, you always make sure you top up the basics when you do your shopping and ready when you need them. Don't think about running to that convenience store cause they will be more expensive.

The third one is to set aside a time to cook at bulk so nothing will disturb you in the middle. Run your kitchen like a pro at that time. Mince meat in one go if you are mincing them yourself or cut them in pieces if you are going to need them in pieces. Because it does not matter whether you just mince 100 grams of meat or 1 kilo of meat, you will still need the same amount of time to wash the food processor. It does not matter whether you cut one strip of chicken or two kilo of chicken, you will still need to wash one knife and one cutting board. By setting aside allocated time to cook, you can add some more into your mincing and cutting and make your meat ready for your next cooking.