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.

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!

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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.

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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 

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.