Friday's Special #6: Char beehoon

"Char beehoon" is such a common dish here.  Everyone has their unique style, must-have ingredients, and probably some must-have accompaniment, like savory chicken curry to drench the vermicelli or crispy hot spring rolls, to go along with their plate of "char beehoon".

Mum's "char beehoon" is always a colorful platter of green, red, black and white.  Generous strips of green cabbage, red carrots and dried black shiitake mushrooms are carefully tossed so that these can be evenly embraced by thousands of threads of bouncy yet softly crunchy white beehoon.  Mum's char beehoon is usually vegetarian.  No meat will be added.  We are not vegetarian, but whenever we have "char beehoon", there will be chicken curry.  These two go hand-in-hand.  They are inseparable in my family.  Vegetarian "char beehoon" offers a clean, crisp and refreshing taste when eaten with dollops of savory chicken curry.  Adding meat to the "char beehoon" tends to laden the palate with excess richness, especially if chicken curry is offered at the same time. 

My version of char beehoon

The first time I had non-vegetarian "char beehoon" was at my boyfriend's house.  It was a plate of culture shock.  Firstly, there was meat.  Secondly, it was dark brown and had a shine that I was not accustomed to.  And lastly, most importantly, there were no vegetables in sight!  How can you not have greens, I thought to myself.  For someone who grew up with more greens than meat in her plate, it was an amazing sight at that time.  It wasn't polite for me to refuse even a small bite.  But I never regretted that first bite.  In fact, I was totally smitten.  My boyfriend's mother, who is now my Mother-in-law, had used canned stew pork, thick black soy sauce and generous sprinkles of oil to create that plate of shock.  It was such a marvelous jolt that I happily surrendered to its repeated assaults.  To put it in simple language, I stuffed myself with it.

The Hubby undoubtedly adores his Mum's "char beehoon".  He asked me to recreate it shortly after we got married.  I did, but it definitely was not Mummy's "char beehoon".  For one, there were vegetables.  It was not the full meat version Mum-in-law normally makes.  I just had to ensure some form of crispy greens accompany every pop into the mouth.  The Hubby was rather forgiving and supportive; he said it was almost there and that I just needed a few more practices.  A few more practices, as advised, dutifully performed, until this final version was reached a couple of years back with resounding approval.  Of course, not without adding a touch of my own, making this my children's "Mum's char beehoon".  For them, Mum's "char beehoon" is a colorful plate of green, red, black, white and brown strips.  The final touch, the crowning glory I suppose, is strands of golden yellow omelette, for without it, Mum's char beehoon is incomplete. 

My char beehoon with garnish

Char beehoon

(A product from the marriage of two Mums' "char beehoon")

Ingredients

400g dried vermicelli, softened by soaking in water, drained

cabbages as much as you like, julienned

carrots, ditto

dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked, ditto (keep soaking water as seasoning)

1 large can stew pork ribs (or use stew pig's trotters if preferred)

2 cloves garlic, chopped

4 shallots, thinly sliced 

Seasoning

3 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce

3 tbsp soy sauce

350ml water

Garnish, my crowning glory

3 eggs (or more if kids are crazy about eggs) 

dash of soy sauce

pepper

dash of sesame oil

Method

1. Prepare seasoning by mixing all the ingredients together.  If soaking water from shiitake mushroom is added, just top up with plain water until 350ml is reached.

2. Canned stew ribs/pork must be processed ahead of time.  This means that meat has to be de-boned, excess fats removed, excess oil floating on top of the sauce scooped out.  Set the sauce aside for use later.

3. Prepare garnish.  Beat the eggs together with the rest of the seasoning.  Heat wok with some oil, wait till the wok is slightly smoking before adding the egg mixture.  Swirl the wok about to spread the egg mixture.  Quickly flip the omelette to the other side and brown it slightly.  Dish out and cut into strands, or any other sizes preferred.  Sometimes, I just chop the omelette into small bite size before dishing them out.

3. Heat up about 3 tbsp of oil (depending on the amount of vegetables used, discretion is necessary here), fry chopped garlic and sliced shallots until lightly browned and fragrant.

4. Add the shiitake mushrooms, fry for about 1 minute.  

5. Add the carrots and cabbage and fry until slightly softened.  Season lightly with pepper and salt.

6. Add 2-3 ladles of seasoning mixture (Step 1), bring to gentle boil, add the whole lot of softened vermicelli.  Toss all the ingredients together slowly and gently with chopsticks.  Toss until moisture has dried up.

7. Continue to add seasoning mixture, a couple of ladles each time.  Repeat Step 6 until vermicelli is almost cooked.  

8. At this point, add the sauce from canned stew ribs from Step 2.  

9. Continue to toss until all liquid dries up.  Can be served immediately, garnished with omelette. 

Notes:

- using chopsticks to toss the ingredients together keeps the strands of vermicelli long and intact.  Frying with a wok spatula only tends to break the strands up.  Usually, I use a combination of wok spatula in one hand and a pair of chopsticks in the other.  I find this a good combination as the spatula works at scooping those vegetables at the bottom of the wok, while the chopsticks works at loosening the vermicelli gently so that the vegetables can be incorporated evenly.

- seasoning liquid control for this one pot dish is important.  Though a total of 350ml of liquid is specified, sometimes more is required, while at other times, not the full amount will be used.  It differs from time to time really, so testing the done-ness and softness of the vermicelli nearing the final stages is important.  

- the same discretion is necessary when adding the canned stew ribs sauce.  What I found is that the vermicelli should be about 90% cooked/soft before adding the sauce.  The effect of adding this sauce is to increase the flavor and richness of this dish, and complete the cooking and softening process for the vermicelli.

- It really takes a few practices before finding that right amount of liquid to incorporate to achieve the level of softness you like.  So have fun trying and failing until you can say "Bull's eye"!

Pan-fried salmon with teriyaki mustard glaze

Grilled teriyaki salmon was the initial plan, but boredom with repetition encouraged experimentation that transformed an already succulent dish into one that works the saliva glands into overdrive.  What a surprise! A normal teriyaki salmon is elevated into a mouthwatering and juicy treat with a simple and generous touch of mustard.  Should there be any expectations?  Perhaps not.  It is enough to have a curiosity to experiment on two ingredients that had been up to now used separately in the humble kitchen.  The hope is for the sweet saltiness of teriyaki sauce to work in harmony with those tangy yellow mustard.  The hope is for both ingredients to agree with each other. 

The peaceful agreement between teriyaki sauce and mustard was astounding.  Neither of them made any attempt to outshine the other, nor bully the other into oblivion.  Such bullying defeats the purpose of introducing two ingredients in the hope that both blend into the formation of something distinctively new, yet retaining the qualities and personalities of the original sources.  

The amalgamation of teriyaki sauce and mustard, reduced into a rich, creamy and shiny glaze, wrapped those salmon pieces with the sweet and salty, perked up yet mellowed and balanced with a prominent flash of sharp tang.  This is a glaze determined to keep the senses busy with enjoyment and surprises.  What a strange sensation...

Pan-friend salmon with teriyaki mustard glaze

(put together in a moment of boredom)

Ingredients

300-450g salmon fillets (about 1" thickness)

6 tbsp teriyaki sauce

1 tbsp fine wholegrain mustard (add more if zapping the brain is the ultimate goal)

a little oil (for pan frying the salmon)

Method

1. Marinate salmon fillets with 3 tbsp of teriyaki sauce for at least one hour, or more if time is not an issue, but not overnight unless tough fish meat is what you seek.

2. Heat a little oil in a non stick frying pan.  Meantime, pat away excess marinate from the salmon fillet.

3. Pan fry the fillets, approximately 1 minute on each side.  If fillets are thicker, increase frying time just a little.  Idea is to brown the outer layer while cooking the fillets lightly.

4. Dish out the fillets and set aside.  Remove salmon skin at this stage if preferred.

5. Clean away excess oil from the frying pan.  

6. Mix 3 tbsp of teriyaki sauce and 1 tbsp of fine wholegrain mustard thoroughly.

7. Pour mixture into cleaned frying pan and reduce slightly.  Return all the salmon fillets into the sauce, coat each fillet evenly.  Sauce would be adequately reduced by the time coating is completed.  

8. Dish out and serve immediately, piping hot.  

Notes:

- I cannot stand fishy smell or taste, so it's got to be piping, piping hot for me.  My girl takes after me in this aspect.

- Do not overcook the fillet at the pan-frying stage as it will be returned to heat again in the coating stage.

- Watch the heat when reducing the teriyaki sauce and mustard mixture.  This really sizzles up fast and caramelize fast too!

- My girl cannot tolerate the soft bouncy fatty salmon skin.  Neither can I.  Remove it if it bothers you, but it really is such a waste of nutrients.  Imagine all the omega-3 or is it omega-6 or perhaps it is both, that goes to the trash bin.

  

Of potted plants and my Kalanchoe

I am totally envious of those with green fingers, that special ability to make plants grow, revive an otherwise lifeless plant, encourage an almost barren plant to flower, promising a continuation of lineage within its potted kingdom.

My mother can breathe life back into a pot of dying dehydrating money plant just by trimming back dead parts, adding fertilizers and watering it.  My Dad, who works in a landscaping company, is needless to say, the master plant grower (can't claim that he is a horticulturist, for he is not).  He had offered his green touch to countless plants, as he goes on his daily rounds of landscaping maintenance, re-potting, watering and trimming rows and rows of shrubs and potted plants found in vast private residential properties.  Unfortunately, I had not inherited either of their green genes.  I do not have green fingers.  In fact, I am so lousy with plants that I had on two occasions, killed one little pot of cactus and one pot of succulent, by drowning them with too much loving moisture.  The cactus I had was the Gymnocalycium (Spider or Chin cactus), but I do not know the type of succulent I had drowned.  Those were two devastating experiences for me.  I wonder if you've ever had someone joked to you about the ease of growing cactus and succulents, cactus especially.  "These are sturdy plants, you hardly need to care for them.  You don't have to worry about them dying on you."  Well, they did, both of them, the cactus and the succulent.  I vowed not to kill anymore innocent green lives.

When I got married and moved into my new house with the Hubby, I was really tempted to add some greenery.  I have a tiny balcony extending from my living room.  It is the perfect spot for plants.  A little corner for greens; a relaxing sight to behold after a long day's work.  Finally, I gave in to temptation.  The Hubby has the same idea about introducing greenery to our living space, and so we bought a pot of money plant, with some trepidation on my part.  The Hubby did the bulk of caring for this pot of green.  I was only in charge of re-potting it, 4 times in total, over its 10 years of life with us.  This pot of money plant had grown well in the first 3 years with us, bearing new shoots, growing fat and tall with glossy dark green leaves.  But from the fourth year on, it had stopped growing.  The growth was in fact reversed.  It got thin, turning dry and yellow for a couple of weeks, before reviving itself to some shades of green again.  New shoots would appear near the soil, but these new shoots never grow up, instead withered and die off.  Some shoots would be lucky enough to age further, but in the end, we were just left with 4 skinny stalks of the plant.  It had shrunk and shrivelled to a shadow of its former healthy self.  This process of withering and reviving repeated itself over the next few years.  Nothing else we did could completely and permanently revive this plant back to its former glory: we had shifted it away from the sun, into the sun, near good ventilation, away from strong gust of wind, added fertilizers, reduced moisture, put in more water, and the list went on.  I felt really sad for the plant, and on various occasions, had wanted to just give up and throw it away.  But I would always be held back by a tiny hope that it might regain its health, that possible "if I do this or that, it could grow again."

I decided to put a stop to what I feel is abuse to the plant.  I've decided to throw it way.  The day I turn the plant out of its deep pot of soil, I found that the roots had started rotting.  I'd like to think that the plant is telling me its time is up; it's time to let go.

I plucked up the courage to bring a succulent back to my life.  I bought this Kalanchoe on 19th January.  It was meant to be that new potted challenge I'd like to face in the new year.  I was wondering around the florist looking for that perfect pot of flowering plant.  All of them looked so beautiful, so full of life, but none of them felt like the one that I would love to bring home.  I wonder if the feeling of "that blissful day", "that blissful meeting" is suitable to describe the sweet, tender moment I had felt when I set eye on this pot of Kalanchoe.  It was that special moment for me when I saw this pot of Kalanchoe with only 4 blossoming flowers.  I was actually on the way out of the florist, thinking that I would go empty-handed again.  

I am not sure how to describe this feeling, but it just felt right that I should bring this pot of succulent back home with me.  There were actually many more pots of Kalanchoe with red, pink, white and yellow flowers in full bloom.  Those were much prettier and a better deal than this pot full of orange buds.  Nevertheless, I would settle for nothing else but this.
What happened to the vow I made not to kill anymore green life?  I guess I needed a second chance to show that I could do this.  At least, the money plant had lasted 10 years instead of a few months, which was how long both the cactus and succulent had stayed with me many many years back then.  
I had taken care of the amount of water I gave this Kalanchoe, but not without first making that same old mistake of giving abundant loving moisture.  In the beginning, I watered this plant daily, for about 4 days.  Then I took a picture of my Kalanchoe and showed it off to my Dad.  Dad only had one comment: "Don't drown this plant.  Water it once in 2-3 days."  Oops!  Thanks Dad, thanks for saving the Kalanchoe from my over zealousness.

As the Chinese New Year drew nearer, my Kalanchoe showed increased exuberance at the approaching festivity.  I was grateful for the timely advice from Dad.  If I had persisted with giving the Kalanchoe a daily shower, this post would be about how I killed yet another plant.

Perhaps the plant could hear my wishes every time I take a look at it whenever I leave my house to run errands.  The tiny orange flowers bloomed slowly, but steadily over the next few days and weeks after I brought it home from the florist.  From a plant dotted with light orange and yellow buds, it now boast of clusters of bright orange red flowers; as if rays of sunset had decided to dwell a little longer on the pot, giving a much needed encouragement to that person who lacked a little green touch.   

Notes:
- A tip I came across on the net about Kalanchoe.  There is no need to discard the plant after the bloom is over.  All there is to do is to cut off the flowering head, let the plant rest with reduced water and then resume with normal care.  Normal care means to be moderate with water, letting the soil surface dry out between waterings.  Yes, this is my weak point, I am always anxious that my plants are not drinking enough.  Then I've got to make sure that the Kalanchoe has plenty of warm, bright and sunny exposure.  

My vegetable seller's recommendation: Shark's fin melon soup

"I don't know what to make for soup, I have run out of ideas for soup."  

This was what I said to the vegetable seller I buy all my greens from, an "uncle" who is probably in his sixties.  "Uncle" is in parenthesis, because he is not related to me in anyway.  But he is an "uncle", because this is the way we address any male person who are older than you are (and is already slogging away in the workforce; for a person still studying and is older is called the "gor-gor", which is the Hokkien or Teochew dialect for elder brother), out of affection and respect, as some might explain it.  There is nothing derogatory in this address.  In fact, it is rather habitual.  On the other hand, I should say, it is for the lack of a better term to address this older or elderly person, be it man or woman (the version to address a woman is "Auntie") and avoid being disrespectful.  Anyway, the usage and cultural aspects behind "uncle" or "auntie" used in Singapore is not what I wish to share here.  This vegetable seller "uncle", by the way, has been selling vegetables at the same spot, to my mother and now to me, for almost 30 years.    
What I want to share is how I came to make this shark's fin melon soup.  It is a simple story, resulting from my simple yet desperate utterance.  Basically, after making dinner almost everyday for about 2.5 years after I quit my job, is sort of taking its toll.  I have run out of ideas for soup, even though there are many recipes vying for my attention.  I stood staring at all the beautiful and fresh vegetables at "Uncle's" store, and contemplated for a while on the day I do my grocery shopping.  I can normally decide on what to cook and buy quite instantly as I have a habit of planning my weekly menu.  But this week, try as I might, there is little desire to attempt new dishes or even simply recreate familiar recipes that I had tried before.  I announced my problem to "uncle".  Immediately, he suggested Chinese spinach with fish balls soup.  But I will be making it the following day.  Just as "uncle" was racking his brain to come up with another soup for me, I caught sight of an interesting looking melon in front of me.  It has white, almost translucent firm flesh and a skin that looks a little like a watermelon.  Raising it up, I asked "uncle" what that was.  
"Shark's fin melon.  Boil it until the flesh separate into strips, like shark's fin.  That's why it's called shark's fin melon.  Add some enoki mushrooms and some strips of ham.  The kids will love it."  Those were "uncle's" advice.  To me, it is a cheaper and more humane alternative to a much debated Chinese delicacy.  More importantly, it is something new to add on to my list of soups.  I bought that melon; I think it must have weighed about 800g, and two packets of enoki mushrooms.  I swap ham for bacon.  I could imagine the smokiness and saltiness fried bacon will contribute to the chicken stock I happen to have in the fridge at home.  This was going to be some lip-smacking savory soup.
"Uncle" had suggested another method of preparing the shark's fin melon.  He said to steam the melon, scrap off and discard the seeds, then scrap the strings of flesh into some stock.  Boil the melon in the stock until it becomes a thick soup and the melon stringy, add enoki mushrooms and ham.  He didn't tell me for how long I should steam the melon.  And so, armed with these descriptions, I started creating and cooking my version of shark's fin melon soup in my head as I drove home with my purchases.

Shark's fin melon soup
(Recreated and improvised based on my Vegetable seller "uncle's" description)
Ingredients
about 600-800g Shark's fin melon
2 packets of enoki mushrooms
3 pieces of streaky bacon
800ml chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp vegetable oil (can be reduced depending on the amount of bacon fats)


Method
1. Cut the shark's fin melon (with skin on and soft spongy portion that holds the seed together still intact) into rather large chunks, measuring about 5cm by 8cm.
2. Steam the melon for about 15-20 mins.  The melon would still retain some raw crunchiness but certain portions would feel juicy and a little soft.  Set aside to cool.
3. Once the melon is adequately cooled, scrap off the seeds (the spongy portion will come off together) and discard.  Scrap the softened flesh off the skin.  It is okay if portions of the flesh comes off in strings, this is how it should look like, strings of melon flesh looking like shark's fin. Set the flesh aside and discard the skin.

4. Cut off the stiff and tougher root portion of enoki mushrooms and tear into strips.  
5. Cut streaky bacon into thin strips, trim off fatty portions if necessary.
6. In a soup pot, heat about 1 tbsp of oil and fry the strips of bacon till slightly browned.
7. Add melon flesh and fry for about 1 minute.  Add the chicken stock and bring it to a boil.
8. Once the liquid comes to a boil, bring the flame to medium-low and simmer till melon flesh soften further and disintegrate further into strings.
9. Add enoki mushrooms, continue to simmer for about 2 minutes.  Before turning off the heat, add salt and pepper to taste.

I love the taste of this soup.  The melon has a sweet scent, reminding me of winter melon.  The smokiness and saltiness of the streaky bacon actually complements the sweet melon very well, balancing both the salty and sweet.  A dash of pepper worked its magic, bringing this simple soup to the level of a hearty chicken soup on a cold winter's day.


Notes:
- A note about steaming the melon.  When I made this soup, I steamed the melon for 15 minutes. The melon was still rather firm, though the flesh near to the spongy core has softened quite nicely to be scrapped off quite easily.  I suppose the melon can be steamed further until completely softened, but I don't know if the flesh would be easily manageable if it is too softly steamed.  
- After simmering the rather firm melon flesh in the chicken stock for about 15 minutes, I find that certain portions of flesh (those parts nearer to the skin) still maintain it's chunky shape.  I had to scoop those out and mash it down lightly with a fork.  These actually fall apart into strings quite easily after being squashed with the fork.








   

Friday's Special #5: Pasta with mini chicken-pork patties

This was meant to be that something special for dinner two Fridays ago.  But it was not to be  as we had an invitation.  So I made this last Tuesday and post it this week ^_^  I wonder if my new year resolution should be "I will not procrastinate posting in my blog".  And look at when I am making my new year resolution? February!?  Well, better late than never, as the saying goes.  Anyway, on with this special.  Usually, I make meatballs instead of patties, and it will be full pork meatballs.  The first time I made meatball pasta was about two years back.  Before that, I will always be frying up my minced meat before emptying a 575g of store-bought chunky tomato pasta sauce.  Two years ago, I bought a recipe book that offers 100 ways to make pasta.  Meatball spaghetti is one of them.  Ingredients are pretty easy to procure, and so I decided to try it out on the kids.  I don't make this very often, but whenever I make it, the kids are always pleased by this deviation from the daily stir-fries I place before them for dinner.  After two years of not so frequent meatball spaghetti, I thought it is time to do things slightly differently.  That's right, a change in the meat type and the shape of these meaty morsels.

I have to confess, first and foremost, that this recipe will be a "guess-timation" with regards to the weight of the meat.  I usually buy my meat from the wet market and the quantities there are usually not in grams or kilograms but how many pieces of chicken breasts deboned and how many dollars of meat to grind.  I'll be providing measurements such as "feels like 300g of such and such..."  And I've never weighed out the other ingredients like onions, or measure the amount of mixed spice, pepper and light soy sauce used to season the meat.  These vary all the time, depending on the amount of meat.  This is really a "play by the eye" type of cooking.  I suppose most cooking will be such. 

To be honest, I have never made chunky tomato pasta sauce from scratch, even though it seems pretty easy when I refer to that pasta recipe book I bought.  The problem lies with the tomatoes available in the local wet market.  They did not look anything like those lusciously ripe red globes from Italy that look on the verge of bursting with sweet and tangy juice (yes, I associate pasta with Italy, ripe and beautiful tomatoes with Italy too).  The tomatoes available here always come with more tang than sweet.  More than often, they appear in shades of dark orange and deep yellow than bear any resemblance to that sunset red which tomatoes making their appearances in Asian Food Network would have.  Then again, perhaps I have not looked hard enough.  And of course what we have here are of a different species from those grown in Italy.  I suppose I could get hold of some very promising tomatoes from gourmet shops or supermarkets.  But the truth is, I am not willing to fork out that extra cash for a pot of tomato sauce ^_^  And so I have stayed faithful to bottles of chunky tomato with basil sauce from Prego or chunky Napoletana sauce from Leggo's.

I love mushrooms, so does the Tiny Man.  The Hubby is neutral, anything is okay, he would say.  The problem lies with my girl.  She is totally disagreeable with mushrooms.  She would avoid them like the plague, and sometimes refusing to touch any dish that comes with a little bit of mushrooms.  I love mushrooms, and I love including tonnes of mushrooms into those store-bought pasta sauce.  I am not about to relinquish the pleasure I find in munching on fat juicy bits of mushrooms well coated with tomato sauce.  To please everyone in the family, and most importantly, the Mum (that's me), I add meaty mushrooms.  And by meaty, I really mean MEATY.  It will always be those huge king oyster mushrooms (eryngii) that resemble chicken drumstick (sometimes we call it drumstick mushroom) and fresh button mushrooms or chestnut mushrooms, and the occasional gargantuan portobellos.  Apart from satisfying my palate, choosing these meaty fungi over those more frilly and fragile types has another function.  It makes picking them out easier for my girl.  Simple as that ^_^

The day I made this dish, I could not get hold of any meaty mushrooms from the supermarkets nearby.  I was too lazy to walk 20 minutes to the other supermarket I know would definitely stockpile on these meaty mushrooms, and walk 20 minutes back home.  Of course, I have no intention of driving out just to get these mushrooms.  A compromise was necessary and so I did with a packet of those slightly frilly types of oyster mushrooms from a supermarket very close to home, wondering how it would taste with pasta and tomato sauce.  It did not taste weird.  It did not taste incompatible.  But it didn't have the crunchiness and juiciness of meaty mushrooms.
It had always been simply frying up some minced meat before dumping a bottle of store-bought sauce two years ago.  After the first attempt of introducing meatballs, I had never gone back to just plainly frying up the minced meat.  But things got a little boring, at least for me, not too sure about the kids and the Hubby.  I wanted to add some different texture to pork meatballs (and reduce the fat a little).  Adding chicken breast meat seemed to be an obvious answer and so add the breast meat, I did.  Here's the recipe, shaping the meat into balls or flat round patties is but a personal preference.


Pasta with mini chicken-pork patties
Ingredients (this amount is meant for my 2 kids and my Hubby plus me)
For the meat patties (feel free to roll these into balls)

feels like 300g minced pork (best to mince pork shoulder butt)
feels like 300g minced chicken breast (remove the skin please)
about 1 yellow onion, diced
about 1/2 tbsp mixed spice
about 1 tsp pepper
about 2 tbsp light soy sauce
about 1 egg, beaten
about 1 tsp corn starch


as much mushrooms (or none at all) as you like to eat
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 bottle, about 600g, of your favorite tomato pasta sauce
enough pasta to feed 2 large and 2 tiny being in the family (shapes of course is to your preference.  I've written before that the Hubby loves spaghetti and the kids love fusilli.  Satisfy your bosses!) 


Method
1. Dice yellow onion into about 1cm cubes, fry these onions with small amount of oil until fragrant.  Onions should be slightly browned and soft.  Set aside and allow to cool adequately.  These will be added to the minced meat.
2. Mince the pork and chicken breast meat together (or get your butcher to do it for you).  Add the onions from step 1 (after adequately cooled).  Season the meat and onion mixture with the rest of the seasonings.  Cover with cling film and let the meat rest in the fridge for at least 3 hours.  It is a good idea to prepare this the night before, provided time is available.
3. If using meaty mushrooms, process these into about 1.5cm cubes.  The juicy and bouncy crunchiness is really a pleasure.

4. When ready to prepare this dish, shape the meat into desired size and design.  Heat up some oil in a frying pan and brown your meat morsels.  I usually do not fully cook the meat at this stage.  Dish the meat out and set it aside. 
5. Add the mushrooms (if using) to the remaining oil in the frying pan, add more oil if necessary.  Fry the mushrooms for about 1 minute, if desired, more onions can also be added at this stage.  Add the garlic and fry until garlicky fragrant is detected.
6. Empty your chosen brand of tomato pasta sauce, bring it to a slight boil.  
7. Once pasta sauce starts to bubble gently, add the half-cooked meat morsels and bring to a full bubble.  Basically the meat needs to be fully cooked.  
8. Before turning off the heat, taste for adequate saltiness.  Add more salt if desired.  I will always add another generous dash of dried oregano and pepper.
9. Cook desired amount of pasta in adequate amount of salted water according to packaging instructions (^_^ can I really call this description useful instruction?).  Drain the pasta and drench them with the sauce, adding as many meatballs or patties as you like, then serve.  Tossing the pasta in the prepared sauce is another option, but I normally just ladle the sauce over the pasta.  I love to let the meat flavored liquid find its own path at dressing my pasta.

Notes:
- after all the seasoning ingredients are added to the meat, massage the seasoning into the meat with your fingers in a claw-like manner.  I find this method good in producing juicy meat that is both tight and juicy.  My Mum also taught me another method.  Scoop the whole lot of meat up and slap it back into its container.  Repeat this a couple of times.  One can detect a difference in the moisture level and tightness after a couple of slaps.
- I've specified "about 1 egg, beaten".  This really depends on the amount of meat used.  Sometimes more is required, sometimes less.  This is visual cooking at work. 

Chinese New Year: Cashew nut cookies and some ramblings...

What a hectic start to Y2012 and the Year of the Dragon!  So hectic that I've stopped visiting my blog for about 2 months.  The Tiny Man has finally joined his sister in Primary school and I, am finally spared of the daily speeding-around-the-eastern-part-of-Singapore drives, executing the task of fetching the kids.  Not complaining here, for I am thankful for the two full years of opportunities to improve on my driving skills.  But now, it is time for a life less on the road.

Not visiting my verbal sanctuary does not equate a stagnation in cooking and baking.  During the Nov-Dec school holidays, I still cooked (albeit lesser in frequency) and still make some efforts to create that something special on Fridays.  However, I had lacked the will to complete the motion with clicking the shutter and posting those few creations here.  I would readily blame it on the school holidays or the kids who drove me crazy with their noise, but honestly, the Mum had gotten lazy in the last two months of the year.

Well not totally lazy, if you consider the number of hours spent in spring-cleaning.  The panic I felt when the number of days dwindled throughout December last year, increasing in momentum throughout January.  There were so much to clean and so little time.  "CNY this year comes so soon!  Goodness! There's no time to prepare at all!"  A very common comment I hear wherever I went in the last 3 weeks before CNY.  Guess I wasn't the only one in panic-land.  

Spring-cleaning is a strange phenomenon to me.  For me, this term is never far away from the Chinese New Year.  It meant cleaning those obscure nooks and crannies that I would have otherwise ignored throughout the rest of the year.  It meant emptying cupboards, cabinets, closets and every other container to rid all old stuff in order to welcome the new.  It meant an opportunity for me to throw away items that I kept, "in case I need them in the future"; but come the time for spring cleaning, I would know very well that these items will not be required for they had been sitting there for a full year, and some, for longer.  Spring cleaning also meant that every washable item needs to be washed and every "wipe-able surface" to be wiped down.  The curtains, the sofa, the dining tables and chairs, the bedsheets, cupboards, cabinets, closet, toilets, windows and window grills and the kitchen wall tiles.  You name it, I've either washed it or wiped it down.  It's not that I'm a total slob, ignoring the virtue of house-keeping for the rest of the year, only to find myself overwhelmed with an incredibly dirty house to spring clean.  I cleaned and washed away merrily (well, as merry as I can manage when faced with such routine) throughout the whole year.  But when the Chinese New Year draws near, there will be this urge to engage in relentless cleaning.  Perhaps it's this saying that the Chinese have, 除旧迎新, rid the old to usher in the new.  I believe in cleaning out the old and dirty, which I associate with bad luck, in order to provide room for the new and clean.  Needless to say, I associate the latter with good luck.  Irrational superstition, yes I know and believe me I do agree with this observation of my irrationality.  Yet, I cannot help but staunchly spring-clean every year.
Speaking of the old, this is one old item that I had fond memories of and would be absolutely sad if it were to be thrown out.

It's my Mum's stove.  I am not sure exactly how long she had been using this stove, but I guess at least 30 years is a pretty good gauge.  That is right, this stove is at least 30 years old.  Mum, like me (or perhaps it should be the other way) is a fanatic "cleaner".  She cleans the house, diligently, daily and more staunchly than I can ever manage up to the point when the Chinese New Year approaches.  If it had not been for her relentless cleaning, this stove would have been scrap metal ages ago.

This stove came with an oven large enough to roast a turkey, a compartment to place the  familiar blue tanks of LPG to cook our Chinese stir-fries and some sort of heater/grill to warm our food, if we ever got adventurous enough to use it (but of course Mum never did).  

The oven, powered by electricity, had seen countless batches of butter cookies, cashew nut cookies and pineapple tarts baked whenever the Chinese New Year approaches.  I supposed Mum would have kept the tradition of baking some new year goodies alive had the fuse not blown.  But it did during one of our baking sessions; that spelled the end of something that I looked forward to every year.  Every year, I would imagine visiting Mum during the last few weeks before CNY and find ourselves busy over cutting out cashew nut cookies or painstakingly rolling out thin strips of dough to decorate our pineapple tarts.  But I suppose neither of us have the time now to while away afternoons like we used to.  
One of the reasons why I had started baking is the desire to relive the nostalgia of baking, those happy times I had with Mum in the kitchen, getting messy with flour and butter.  Of course making butter cookies had been the first recipe I attempted.  Mum's butter cookies are really simple to make.  It only takes a little patience to rub in 250g of good quality butter into 500g of flour and 250g of icing sugar and bring it into a somewhat dry dough by adding an egg yolk.  The only thing left to do is to cut into desired cookie shapes, glaze with egg yolk and bake them.  I had made a couple of variations with Mum's butter cookies: cashew nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, hazel nuts.  I thought all of them tasted pretty okay and one of my cousins sang praises of these mouthfuls.
Since the process of making cookies I had been exposed to is the rubbing-in method, imagine my skepticism when I came across a cashew nut butter cookie recipe that specifies beating the butter and sugar until light and fluffy using a mixer.  For me, this method is only applied when I need to bake a butter cake.  Of course I had to try it out, as part of the new year goodies baking line-up.

Not knowing what to expect, I experimented with a reduction of the original recipe.  Beating the butter and caster sugar till light and fluffy was not difficult.  I could manage that, and did it with hand held mixer (that's the only mixer I have anyway).  It is this particular step that I was wary of: turn to low speed and gradually add in sifted flour. Coming to this step in the recipe, I had imagined flour spewing all over the my kitchen counter top, mimicking December snowfall in some faraway winter land.  How do you beat in flour with a mixer whirling around,even though at low speed, without sending some (I hope not the whole lot) flying everywhere but not into the butter/sugar mixture?  Wondering and worrying would not give me an answer, so I did just what the recipe said, beat them in.  The truth is, it wasn't as messy as I imagined.  Some flour still managed to escape from my mixing bowl, decorating the counter top with specks of white, but most of them stayed put.
Once all the flour and ground almond were mixed in, I let the soft dough rest for about 15 minutes in the fridge.  The recipe did not specify this step but I did it anyway.  Simply because the dough was far too soft, I should say the softness is not what I am accustomed to when baking cookies.  I was pretty worried about rolling out such soft dough and cutting them into shapes, so I thought letting it rest in the fridge should firm it up a little, in the hope to make handling easier.  Anyway, it did not really work.  The initial first few rolls and cuts were okay, but with our weather, the butter started to soften again.  It was quite messy that in the end, I decided to just pinch a teaspoon amount, roll it into a ball, flatten it slightly before popping on a cashew nut for decoration. 

So how did this cookie taste?  Buttery, like the butter cookies I am used to, with a bit of crunch which I had not expected as there was no bicarbonate of soda added (you see, I associate the crunchiness in cookies with bicarbonate of soda, which is a must in Mum's cookies).  Keep these cookies in an airtight container for about 3-4 days (in other words, let it age) and it will taste better.  Gave some of my experiment to Mum and she approved of this deviation from her method.  Gave some to this cousin who is a fan of my rubbing-in method cookies, and he swooned.  I think I had found a staple for my new year goodies must-bakes. 

Cashew nut cookies

(adapted from "Famous Cuisine No.71", November-December 2011, Famous Cuisine Publisher Sdn Bhd) 

Ingredients
250g butter
130g caster sugar
230g low protein flour (I used cake flour)
130g corn flour
55g ground cashew nuts (I used ground almonds)
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (I used 1 tsp)


Glaze
Egg yolk
Cashew nuts for topping


Method
1. Sift low protein flour, corn flour and baking powder, set aside.
2. Cream butter and caster sugar until fluffy.  Add in egg yolk and mix well.
3. Turn to low speed and gradually add in sifted flour.  Add in vanilla essence and ground cashew nuts.  Mix well to form soft dough.  (I added the vanilla essence after the egg yolk.)  
4. Roll out dough onto lightly floured surface to 7mm thick and cut into desired shapes and place space apart on a greased baking tray.  (I did not bother with cutting into shapes, just rolled into a ball, flatten and decorate with cashew nuts.  I also find that it is not necessary to grease the baking tray and the butter in the dough is enough to prevent sticking.)
5. Lightly brush cookies with egg yolk and add halved cashew nuts on as decoration.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes over 180degC.  Let it cool for 2 minutes before transferring into a container.


Notes:
- when removing the cookies after being cooled, tap the tray lightly on a flat surface to loosen the cookies.  I am not sure but I guess this step may not be necessary if the baking trays are greased.
- it is not necessary to let the dough rest in the fridge.  In my next attempt, I used the dough immediately after preparation.
- use a teaspoon as a measurement if you choose to just roll the dough into tiny balls.  I scoop about half a teaspoon for each cookie, roll it into a ball and flatten it in the baking tray.