Fried Shallots using Microwave

No, you didn't see it wrongly... this recipe is for making fried shallots with a microwave. It's very easy and convenient, and best of all, no splatters or oily kitchen!

Recipe adapted from Blessed Homemaker.

Ingredients

Sliced shallots

Cooking oil

Salt

Directions

1. Put the sliced shallots in a Corelle microwavable bowl.
2. Pour cooking oil and make sure the oil covers the shallots. Give the shallots a good stir to make sure the oil coats all.
3. Put the shallots and oil mixture into the microwave, microwave on high for 5 minutes if using about 20 shallots. Open the microwave and check the shallots. Give it a stir, and microwave for another 3 minutes. Keep checking and decrease the microwave timing gradually until the shallots are a light golden brown. Usually 5 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute, 30 sec.
4. Once the shallots look light golden brown, take out from the microwave, put 2-3 pinches of salt and give the mixture a good stir. The shallots will continue frying in the hot oil. Be careful not to scald yourself.
5. Once it reaches a nice golden brown, drain using a strainer.
6. Use scotts towel to absort the excess oil from the fried shallots. Once cooled down, store in a airtight glass container.
7. Put the cooled down oil into a glass bottle. This can be used for stir-frying.

Oil just covering the shallots.

After microwaving for 5mins.

After another 4mins - I split into 2mins each and check.

After another 2 minutes, light golden brown. I split into 1min, 30sec and 10sec.

Golden brown.

Sieve and drain.


Put the fried shallots on scotts towel to get rid of excess oil. Once cool, store in a glass air-tight bottle.

Shallots infused oil... very fragrant.

Kept in a glass bottle for stir-frying. :)

This Slicer is Awesome

I managed to test the slicer I bought from Daiso... super easy to use and slices pretty well for my fried shallots. I even shared it on the SHC facebook page and lots of ladies rushed down to Daiso to buy haha... sales at Daiso must have jumped that few days. Good thing must share right?

I washed the slicer with soap and water before using.

Peeled the shallots and placed the slicer over a bowl.

Lifted the cover, placed the shallots in. You can put 2-3 to fill the hole.

Place back the cover and slice! No more holding onto the shallots and slicing. And the cover protects the fingers from being sliced by the slicer... how great is that? Very wonderful toy for people not so apt at slicing stuff, isn't it?

And walah! Half a bowl of shallots in a short time!

A Visit to Daiso

OPF was telling me about this mini slicer after I told her I sliced the shallots manually for the fried shallots. So after meeting her and Lok for lunch today, I headed to Daiso at Chinatown to find this mini slicer.

Not too hard to find... and I bought a lot of other stuff too... total damage at Daiso was $18. Seriously when you walk into Daiso without anything to buy, you somehow always leave with loads of stuff. Talk about impulse buying haha, but OMG it feels great! I wanted to get the pasta measurer, but they were out of stock... disappointed. Next time then.

Will test out this toy when I make fried shallots. :)

Another toy I bought which I will test using when I bake pineapple tarts... the riceball shaker... imagine not having to mold it in my hands and to use this shaker instead. Not sure if it will be efficient or not... must test to find out.

Ngoh Hiang

Recipe adapted from Noob Cook and Travelling Foodies

Ingredients
40 grams bean curd skin wipe both sides with slightly damp cloth; then cut to 15x10 cm (6x4 in) pieces
1 egg white for securing the ngoh hiang or use the marinaded meat mixture
Some vegetable oil

(A) Meat Filling
600g minced pork (ask for more fats)
200g shallots, finely chopped
500g prawns coarsely chopped, shelled and deveined
10 water chestnuts, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 tbsp chopped spring onions
1 carrot, finely chopped

(B) Seasoning
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp five-spice powder
Dashes of white pepper powder
1 egg lightly beaten
1 tbsp plain flour

Directions

1. Add (A) to a large bowl and season with (B). Mix thoroughly and marinade overnight in the fridge.
2. To fold the ngoh hiang, lay a piece of cut bean curd skin on the work surface. Place two and half tbsp of meat filling in the lower half of the bean curd skin, leaving a small gap at the bottom and at the sides. Fold the bottom flap up and dab the side edges with egg white. Fold the sides over the meat filling and roll the meat roll tightly towards the top. Secure the remaining corner with egg white to seal the roll.
3. Prepare a steamer lined with parchment paper. Arrange the ngoh hiang such that they do not touch one another, and steam in batches for 10 minutes each time. Let the steamed ngoh hiang cool and air dry completely on a wire rack.
4. Brush the ngoh hiang with vegetable oil. Airfry at 180 deg celcius for 3 mins on each side. Serve hot.

诗人李白

Just heard this on FM93.3:

Q: 李白是怎么死的？

A: 诗写过多

WIN LIOW LOR! HAHA!

After Death

Can't remember where I saw this quote the other day... it totally tickled me.

What if after you die, God asks you:
"So, how was heaven?"

Irony. :)

Selection of Block Colour Scheme for Repainting Works

We received a notice to select our block colour. Wow! First time ever that the town council actually seek our opinion in the colour scheme! So it was quite exciting.

Today when we came back from Johor, we quickly had a look at the notice board. So the colours are:
A. Grey and Orange
B. Grey and Light Yellow
C. Grey and Light Pink.

BORING!!! Like duh? Grey?! So depressing. We had a look and were flabbergasted... seriously got difference meh?? All the colours so boring.

We will choose orange... cos it is the brightest of the lot... but really... the orange patches are minimal... most of the block will be white and grey.

Excitement turned to disappointment.

Chinese Wild Yam with Pig Coccyx (Tailbone) Soup 淮山猪尾骨汤

Yields:
2 - 3 servings

Ingredients:
300g Pig Tailbone (about $4 worth), cut into pieces
300g 淮山, cut into pieces
1 litre of water
A handful of wolfberries, soak with boiling water for a minute, discard the water

Instructions:

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Put in the pig tailbone, and boil for 40mins.
3. Put in 淮山 and boil for another 15mins.
4. Put in pre-soaked wolfberries and boil for 5mins.
5. Serve.

Stir-fried Snow Peas

Yields:
2-3 servings

Ingredients:
Snow peas, remove tips to remove the stringy fibre running across both sides of the pod
Baby corn, halved
Carrot, sliced thinly
250g prawns, shelled and de-veined
Dried shrimps, soaked and softened
Garlic, minced
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp corn flour

Seasoning:
2 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
Dash of pepper
1 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Marinate prawns with light soya sauce and pepper.
2. Blanch snow peas, baby corn and carrot with a tsp of salt. Drain and put aside.
3. Heat cooking oil, add in garlic and stir-fry till fragrant. Add in dried shrimps and continue stir-frying. When fragrant, add in prawns and greens (carrots, corn, snow peas).
4. Add fish sauce and oyster sauce, pour in some water.
5. Mix cornflour with some water and add it in to thicken the sauce.
6. Serve with rice.

Steam Minced Pork with Salted Fish 咸鱼蒸肉饼

Recipe adapted from Fong Kitchen Journal

Yields:
3-4 servings

Ingredients:
300g minced pork (asked the butcher for more fats)
Tung chye 冬菜
1 piece of salted fish
Shredded ginger

Seasoning:
1 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp cooking wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp of sugar
Pinch of salt
Dash of pepper
1 tbsp of water
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tbsp cooked shallot oil (drizzle on top before steaming)

Instructions:

1. Marinate the minced pork with tung chye and seasoning and chill in the fridge for an hour.
2. Spread and press the meat patty evenly onto a plate. Put the salted fish and shredded ginger on top of the meat patty.
3. Drizzle some shallot oil onto the patty.
4. Steam on high for 10 minutes.
5. Serve with rice.

Jade Garden Seafood Corner 翡翠园海鲜酒家

Address: Lorong Siakap 1, Sungai Rengit, Pengerang, Johor
Hours: 11:00 - 23:00
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jade-Garden-Seafood-Corner%E5%9B%9B%E6%B9%BE%E5%B2%9B%E7%BF%A1%E7%BF%A0%E5%9B%AD/644180449010245?fref=ts

Visited 17 Mar 2016.

During our road trip to Desaru, we dropped by Jade Garden for lunch... cos it's a pretty popular and recommended seafood place when you visit Desaru. The seafood restaurant was very easy to find, and driving in Desaru is quite easy... not many roads, and very simple to drive... but do look out for the potholes on the roads.

So here we were at Jade Garden... the place is huge. We flipped through the menu and I was quite disappointed... the price was on the high end... not cheap one. And my bad for not doing my research properly, and not knowing to order the lobster. We ordered kangkong, lala, poached prawns and deep fried baby sotong. We had to wait really long for the deep fried baby sotong too cos the cook was overwhelmed. Only the poached prawns was ok... the rest so-so only. This place is over-rated and we left disappointed... will not visit this place again.

U Mobile UMI 30

Since we have been travelling a lot to Johor, we decided to get a prepaid SIM that has some mobile internet. It's hard to travel around without mobile internet... when you want to Google a place, or use iphone map, then oops, no mobile internet. Feels so handicapped.

So after googling a little, decided to get U Mobile UMI 30... comes with 1.5 GB (+1GB limited time offer), 5sen/30sec call to all networks, 30min call time, all at a monthly subscription fee of RM30. Very worth it lor.

Uncle Tetsu

Address: No 47, Jalan Austin Height 3, Taman Mount Austin, 81100 Johor Bahru
Hours: 10:00 - 21:00
Telephone: +607-364 7777
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncletetsumalaysia, https://www.facebook.com/uncletetsumountaustin/
Website: http://www.uncletetsu.com.my/home

Visited 26 Feb 2016.

This was our maiden trip into JB, first time we are driving into Malaysia without my dad. We were joined by OPF, Lianne and Makcik Elena. Initially it was pretty 心惊胆跳 cos of all the "horror" stories about driving in Malaysia... but hubby was really brave and drove like a pro. Armed with printed addresses and names of the destination, and the car GPS system... we made it into and out of Johor without any hiccups... we did a bit of detour here and there, but that was expected... GPS is quite a confusing thing sometimes... and we made it. That trip paved the way for more future trips for hubby and I... so much that now, my dad just lets my hubby drive when he joins us for our JB trips.

Anyway, OPF said that there is this very famous cheesecake which used to have a shop in Orchard, but closed down, called Uncle Tetsu. And I was like... got meh? Never heard of it before. So ok, googled and printed down the name. When we finished shopping at Aeon Tebrau, we went to the shop to buy cheesecake. I still remember along the way, we kept saying how come OPF bring us to such ulu places (GPS keep bringing us to small roads)... bring us to sell is it? When we reached Jalan Austin Heights... wow, we were surprised... the area seemed really atas, as they had a lot of restaurants and shops... all looked trendy and upmarket too. And we bought one chocolate and one original flavored cheesecake to bring home. The cheesecake has to be kept in the fridge if not consumed within 12 hours, so we usually try to coincide this place as the last stop.

The cheesecake is soft and light... in fact, feels a bit like eating sponge cake. Pretty good... @ RM21 for the signature cheesecake... less than S$10 for a cheesecake leh... value for money.

They have this in original and chocolate flavor. Both are nice. The chocolate flavored one reminds me of the Rich & Good Cake Shop's swiss rolls.

Uncle Tetsu Cheese Zuccotto (Hat Series) 

We wanted to try the Strawberry flavored one, but at 2pm they were sold out already! Next time then.

IVINS Peranakan Restaurant

Address: 19/21 Binjai Park Bukit Timah Singapore 589827
Telephone: 6468 3060
Hours: 11:00 - 15:00; 17:00 - 21:00 (closed on Thursday)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IvinsPteLtd

Visited on 4 Apr 2016.

I have known this place since I was a little girl, and surprisingly, I have never eaten here till I met my hubby some 10+ years later. I was having piano lessons at Binjai Park and one day we noticed this restaurant had opened below my teacher's house. Somehow, my dad never brought me there to eat, despite us passing by every Saturday and seeing the long queues... I think my piano lessons were till 6pm, which was dinner time.

The food here is value for money... affordable, small portion and will not burn a hole in your pocket. Hubby and I always order their Ayam Buah Keluak, Bakwan Kepiting and Sambal Kangkong... remember to ask the waitress for their belachan chilli as they only serve it if you ask. We also always order their nasi kuning (yellow rice)... which has a faint coconut fragrance.

Today we tried something new, assam pedas... the red snapper fillet they used was very fresh, and on first taste... I was shocked cos the sauce tasted exactly like the ayam buah keluak sauce! How is that even possible? So weird right?

Try not to visit this place during the weekends as the queue is horrible and service will be super bad. Also we have tried the Heartland Mall branch... somehow it tastes different from the Binjai Park one... not too sure why though. Our preference is still the Binjai Park branch.

Carnivore

Address: 200 Turf Club Road, #01-16, The Grandstand, Singapore 287994
Hours:
Sat & Sun only: 11.00am to 3.00pm (Last Order: 2.30pm)
Tues – Thurs: 5.00pm to 10.00pm (Last Order: 9.30pm)
Fri – Sun & PH: 6.00pm to 11.00pm (Last Order: 10.30pm)
Closed on Mondays
Telephone: 6466 9418
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carnivore.sg/

It's been a while since we had Carnivore... this is a  Brazilian Churrascaria. I think it's been what, one to two years since we last ate there. The thing about this place is that before you go, you want to eat a lot of meat (sorry it's really not for the non meat lovers)... and when you leave, you swear that you cannot eat meat ever again.

Hubby has been craving for the buffet at Carnivore for at least a month already. When I saw the redemption rewards for Starhub - 500 points to exchange a 1-for-1 buffet dinner... it's a case of die-die-must-grab.

So here we are. They had a 1-for-1 Woodchuck cider promotion... so we ordered one. I still prefer Somersby over Woodchuck.

老档 Prawn Noodles

Address: Blk 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1,  Alexandra Village Food Centre
Hours: 09:00 - 19:30 while stock last (closed on Thursday)

Visited on 2 Apr 2016.

Hubby and I went to Alexandra to check out the refrigerators and decided to come here for brunch. We walked around the food centre and surprisingly a few stalls caught our eye, especially this prawn noodle stall. We saw someone else ordering and the color of the soup, milky white with a tinge of orange/yellow, reminded us of the prawn noodles at Zion Road.

The prawn noodles was quite good, but definitely doesn't win the Zion Road one. The flavor wasn't as intense because the Zion Road one is more 重口味, but overall still not bad.

Fried Carrot Cake

Yields: 2 servings

Ingredients:

Hiap Chen carrot cake 480g, cubed (use half of it)

Garlic minced
Chye por (preserved salted radish)
Fish sauce

5 Eggs
Pepper
Light soya sauce

Instructions:

1. Heat oil in pan, put in minced garlic and fry till fragrant and add in chye por.
2. Once fragrant, add in cubed carrot cake and continue stir-frying.
3. Add fish sauce and continue to stir-fry.
4. Crack 5 eggs, add some light soya sauce and pepper and beat lightly.
5. Add in the egg mixture from 4 to the carrot cake. Scramble and toss. Once eggs are slightly browned, serve.

Restoran Changman 常满 Dimsum

Address: 24G, 26G & 28G Jalan Bestari 5/2, Taman Nusa Bestari, 79150 Nusajaya, JB
Telephone: 016 765 1190, 07 2444 936
Hours: 08:00 - 18:00 (only closed on first day of CNY)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChangmanDimsum/

Visited on 28 Mar 2016.

Tried this place for dimsum after our massage at 古泉. Loved the food, especially the egg plant and the shark's fin dumpling. The chicken tasted like the kampong chicken we always have at Upper Thompson. The fishball can don't order, not that fantastic.

First bite, the taste explodes in your mouth... fragrance from the oyster sauce plus garlic.

Ever saw the Stephen Chow movie, 食神, with the chef that goes "太好吃了！" ... Thats exactly what we felt on the first bite of this, the secret is mainly in the sauce which is so good! Wanna make it last? Take a bite, then go for other food then come back to this again! 初恋的感觉！

Tender and great tasting chicken

油菜 was normal

Scallops dumpling... can't really taste the scallops

Xiaolongbao was really good, better than Dingtaifung

So naturally when we say 鼎泰丰，not everyone is convince whether it's really good or not. Let me clarify that when it first appeared in SG, I was not a fan of it as i felt it was overrated. Gradually the QC in 鼎泰丰's food has gotten alot better and is now one of my fave places for 小笼包. To say that its better naturally is saying alot!

Siew mai was great

Sharks fin dumpling is a must-order

I have to say i don't really have a good opinion of this dish when i ate it in SG, but I was always open to trying new food so hey whats the harm right? Amazing 上汤 which i suspect is seafood and chicken broth with really good ingredients like sharks fins inside! (Sorry WWF and Gordon Ramsey, yes we still eat sharksfins...) The dumpling skin is amazingly nice and the ingredients well mixed into the nice succulent soup, makes this dish one of the best in the shop.

Fishball - no big deal