Review and recipe: Sambal French beans with Tempe and beancurd

You would probably know this dish if you frequent any Nasi Padang stall. The highlight of this dish would be the Tempe, fermented beans packed with protein. It's quite hard to describe the taste but I would say it is like al denta beans compressed, bland, but good with sambal!
Traditionally, Tempe is handmade and wrapped in leaves. However, thanks to Today's technology, you can easily find it at NTUC supermarket, under the halal cold section. (See pic below)
So I'm very happy to find everything I wanted in NTUC. French beans, Tempe, bean curd and Kokita's Sambal Balado.
According to my Indonesian friend, Kokita is a very famous brand so we are blessed to be able to have it readily available in Singapore. I would say that this paste is a little spicy so if you would prefer it to be spicier, you can dice chili padi to add extra punch to it. It is also on the salty side, so people like me who prefers your sambal to be a little sweet can add sugar to it. Otherwise, it is good alone. With this paste, it recommends you to make sambal hard boil eggs, which is good for nasi lemak, Nasi Padang or even Briyani.
Overall, this is a versatile sauce and it made my mum take notice of the dish, complimenting and checking out more of its products. So it's worthwhile getting!

Ingredients:
1 pack french beans washed, plucked off ends and cut
1 pack Tempe diced
1 pack bean curd sliced
Oil
2 tablespoon Kokita sambal Balado
1 tablespoon brown sugar

1. Heat the wok on medium heat and pour in oil.
2. When oil is heated, place bean curd and do not touch it until it is thoroughly cook through, if not it will break as the skin will stick to the wok.
3. Flip over when the beancurd is cooked through and is brown.
4. When both sides are brown, it is done. Remove from heat.
5. Place in diced tempe and pan fry on both sides until golden brown. Remove from heat.
6. Sautée French beans and add Kokita's sambal Balado and sugar. Stir fry and simmer for a while. Add a couple of tablespoon full of water if you desire.
7. When French beans are almost cooked through, add Tempe and beancurd and make sure every piece is coated in the sambal.
8. Now it's done! Enjoy it with hot rice!

Inspiring yummy mummies
PoshPearl

Easy Japanese Bento Set recipe.

Preparing Japanese food at home can actually be easy and hassle free. You just got to decide what you want to eat then head off the buy ingredients, cook and assemble.

The following bento takes less than 1 hour to prepare!

Here's the little dishes incorporated in my bento:
Unagi
Yakitori (chicken and quail egg)
Yakiniku
Chawamushi
Mild Japanese chicken curry
Salmon sashimi
Japanese Rice

Please look through the ingredients list and cook in the following order to maximize time and freshness of food.

1. Japanese Rice
3 cups Japanese rice for 6 servings
Cook according to package.

2. Chawamushi:
Ingredients:
(makes 6 cups of chawamushi)

6 frozen shrimps, thawed (frozen packed shrimps are crunchier than fresh ones and are used in restaurants)
3 kani (imitation Japanese snow crab legs)
6 slices of Kamaboko (Japanese fish cake)
1 chicken thigh cut into 6 cubes
6 quarter sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 tablespoon of Japanese shoyu (available from Daiso or Medi-ya)
Pepper
280ml of water
60ml of Kikkoman Hon Tsuyu (available at NTUC finest or Medi-ya)
3 eggs, beaten
Optional: salmon roe/caviar/sliced
Unagi

Equipments
6 sets of daiso chawamushi
Porcelain cups with lids
Steaming cloth if there's no lid on cups
Sieve
Measuring cup
Frying pan
Steamer
1 satay stick

1. Season cubed chicken thighs with shoyu and pepper.
2. Slice Kani into halves.
3. Heat frying pan, add a little oil, heat for 1 minute on low heat.
4. Pan fry cubed chicken thigh on both surfaces for 1 minute on each side. Remove and set aside.
5. On Medium heat, pan fry shrimps for 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side, or has changed color.
6. Place in each cup, 1 of each: shrimp, chicken, kani, Kamaboko, shiitake mushroom.
7. Mix water and kikkoman Hon Tsuyu. The taste should be like Japanese broth. Add more Hon Tsuyu if you like.)
8. Add beaten eggs to broth and sieve egg mixture.
9. Carefully pour egg mixture into each cup, making sure you cover the filling. If there's excess, distribute the mixture again.
10. If you don't have porcelain cups
With lids, pls get a steaming cloth from Daiso, wet and tie the cloth to the cover of your steamer, add water to steamer and bring to boil.

11. Place cups in aluminum tray and steam for 15 minutes on medium heat. To check if cooked, use satay stick to pierce through and if liquid comes out clear, you are done!
12. Serve immediately! Top with salmon roe/caviar/sliced
Unagi if you wish.

3. Mild Japanese chicken curry
Ingredients:
1 pack mild Vermont curry
1 big yellow onion roughly chopped
2 russet potatoes peeled and roughly chopped
Cubed chicken thighs, pat dry
Oil
1. heat pot and add oil.
2. When oil is heated up, add onions and potatoes.
3. Pan fry until brown, add chicken and pan fry until surface brown.
4. Pour water to over all ingredients.
5. Bring to boil.
6. Simmer till potatoes are cooked through.
7. Add curry cubes, according to thickeness and liking. Do taste test.
8. When satisfied bring to a boil. Now it's ready!

4. Yakitori (scallop and quail egg)
Ingredients:
12 scallops
12 Boiled quail eggs
Yakitori sauce
Shredded seaweed for garnishing
1. String scallops onto skewers and Pan fry on medium heat on your flat pan.
2. Turn down to low heat. Add Yakitori sauce, simmer for a while on both sides.
3. Once scallops are cooked through, remove and add quail egg. Drizzle more yakitori sauce and it's ready!

5. Yakiniku
1 pack Shabu Shabu pork 200g
1 tablespoon Yakiniku sauce
Sesame seeds for garnish
Oil
1. heat wok with oil.
2. On medium heat add Shabu Shabu pork and use chopsticks to separate the slices to cook evenly.
3. Add yakiniku sauce and stir fry for 2 minutes. Now it's done!

6. Unagi
Get a pack of frozen unagi of your choice and place the sealed bag of unagi in boiling water for a few minutes. You are done with that!


7. Sashimi
Buy your own choice of sashimi and only prepare when you have assemble the rest of the dishes.
Do use the given wasabi and use your clean and dry hands to shape it into a leaf shape and use toothpick to create veins of the leaf for decoration.


Now enjoy this lovely Japanese dinner with your loved ones! Hope you like this recipe!

Inspiring Yummy Mummies
PoshPearl



R

Simple and tasty Malay snack- Prawn Fritters!

These are highly addictive and easy to make fritters! It resembles the Indian vadai as I added prawns. To give it additional texture and fragrance, I also added curry leaves and onions. It is a hit at gatherings and parties and will be gone in an instant so do make more!

Makes 8-10 medium size fritters
Ingredients:
1 pack Adabi Tepung Cucur Udang mix (available at Sheng Shiong Supermarket)
225ml water
20-30 tiny fresh prawns with shell on, washed, cleaned and pat dry
1 onion diced
1 handful of roughly chopped curry leaves

1. Whisk the adabi mix with water until you reach a thick consistency.
2. Fold in onions and curry leaves.
3. Heat up oil to 140 deg Celsius.
4. Place prawns in and on each spoon of batter and place in oil to deep fry till golden brown on each side.
5. Serve with raw green chili! Enjoy!

Inspiring yummy mummies
PoshPearl

Savory ham & cheese petite pancakes for little hands

Pancakes are a hit among children usually. Instead of making it sweeter by adding golden syrup, why not try a savory version by adding honey shaved ham and sliced cheddar cheese? Honey shaved ham also make a better option than regular sliced ham as a thinner slice is used, making it lesser in sodium without compromising in taste as the texture of shaved ham is light and the taste of honey shaved ham with a choice meat cut is better than the regular picnic ham which is made of put anything but real meat, hence the price difference. You could also try using sliced turkey breast at the deli, whichever that works!
The brand of pancake mix used is morinaga. It uses wheat flour and produces really fluffy pancakes. The fluffiness makes it good for making this savory pancakes as the filling is hidden in the pancake itself.
Also, use a piping bag or a squeeze bottle to make it easier to create round petite bite sizes. My elder daughter loves these in her lunch box and I hope your children love it too! For my little daughter, I made them plain or you could add fresh berries and serve with applesauce.

Ingredients
150g Morinaga pancake mix
1 medium size egg
100ml full cream milk
Honey shaved ham diced
President sliced cheddar for burgers diced

First prepare pancake batter by whisking flour, milk and egg and spoon the mixture into a squeeze bottle or piping bag.
1. Heat happy call pan or non stick pan on low heat for 2 minutes.
2. Squeeze bite size round pancake batter on to pan.
3. Place ham and cheese in the middle of each pancake batter.
4. Squeeze more batter just to cover the fillings.
5. Wait till you see the batter is cool through then flip over.
6. Off the fire and let the remaining heat cook the pancake.
7. Now it's really to serve! Enjoy!

For young children, you may place sliced berries as fillings and serve with applesauce.

Inspiring yummy mummies
PoshPearl

Strawberry shortcake recipe: a simple taste for little ones

I got a four leaves strawberry shortcake for Trinity when she was 1 year old cos I feel that it is uncomplicated, simple sponge cake with fresh strawberries and since during infanthood, babies have not been exposed to cakes due to sugar and whole milk content, hence to begin eating, should be something light on the palette. And if all else fails, just eat the fresh strawberries for picture sake!
So for Tiffany's 1st birthday, I wanted her to have a strawberry shortcake as well. The only difference this time is that it is homemade! My baker friend Stephanie told me that strawberry shortcake consist of 2 things. A good sponge cake and creme Chantilly.
So I began researching on various recipes and in the end, I got 2 delicious recipes which worked together perfectly!

To create, I used my kenwood mixer and here's my tips:

1. Make sure eggs used in this recipe is 60g each and must be at room temperature. Cold eggs DO NOT reach their maximum potential when whipped which means that meringue for the creme Chantilly will not be as voluminous as it ought to be.
2. The traditional way to make creme Chantilly is to place your mixing bowl under a bowl of ice water but how are we going to achieve that using the kitchen stand mixer? Well, I place the entire mixing bowl and whisk attachment on the fridge and chilled it for at least 1-2 hours before use. This way, the bowl and whisk will be icy cold and nice!
3. I used Korean strawberries. These strawberries are really
Sweet and nice! If not, go for organic strawberries which has a tender texture and sweeter than regular strawberries.
4. Do try serving them as cupcakes literally. I got the silicon cupcake bakeware for coldstorage.
It comes with saucers too! In white or pink!

Here's my recipe combined from cakeboss' website and my creme chantilly recipe.

For sponge cake:
Recipe from the cake boss website

http://www.cakeboss.com/cakebossspongecake.aspx

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup butter (lightly salted)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt


1. Beat eggs in large mixing bowl with paddle attachment for 4 minutes. Do not skip this step!

2. Add sugar, and continue beating for another 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and stir on low until just combined.

3. In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Add to eggs and sugar on low speed until just combined.

4. In a saucepan, heat milk and butter on low heat just until butter is melted. Add to batter, beat just until combined.

5. Pour into 2 greased 20cm round cake pans and the silicon cupcakes moulds. I fill them
3/4 full

6. Bake at 160 deg celsius until the middle springs back when touched, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The cupcakes took less than 20 minutes while the cake took 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand in pans for 10 minutes. Then turn out onto wire cooling racks and cool completely.

Hint: Cakes are close to being done when you start to smell them.


Creme Chantilly

2 cups whipping cream
2 tablespoon icing sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Place your metal mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the refrigerator and chill it for 2 hours.

2. Combine everything and whisk till soft peak.

3. Cover and chill the creme until ready for use.

Strawberry shortcake

1. Remove cakes from pans carefully.
2. Chill cake in fridge for at least 30minutes to cool them.
3. Place 1st layer of cake, a layer of creme chantilly.
4. Place sliced strawberries neatly and lavishly.
5. Place 2nd layer of sponge and place a layer of creme Chantilly and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
6. Add 2nd layer of creme Chantilly and decorate with strawberries and it's ready!

Strawberry cupcake

1. Use a small sharp knife to make an incision in the middle of the cupcake. Remove a chunk, the hole should be the amount of creme Chantilly you want to fill with.
2. Use a piping bag and squeeze the creme Chantilly to fill the cupcake and place an inverted strawberry onto it!

Children will love filling the creme Chantilly and placing the strawberries! Do invite them to help!

Then it's party time!

Inspiring Yummy Mummies
PoshPearl

Review and recipe: Hakka abacus seeds 算盘子 quick fix!

We found this gem located at the basement of smith street chinatown wet market, a stall which has a banner stating "staircase stall since 1978". This stall has an amazing display of frozen goodness. We bought a few to try and the most outstanding one got to be the handmade cooked and frozen abacus seeds at SGD$7 for a large box!

All you need to do is to prepared the side ingredients and seasoning to stir fry together and you will get a satisfying meal! It was so convenient and good! The aroma of the yam was strong and it was chewy and tasty!

However, it is definitely more meaningful and economical to make it ourselves so I have also included the made from scratch abacus seeds recipe which is really easy!

Here's how I prepared the dish:

Abacus seeds:
Either store bought from chinatown wet market or
Made from scratch:
1 medium sized yam (about 500g)peeled and sliced
100g of tapioca flour sieved
A pinch of salt

1. Steam the yam until totally soft.
2. Mash the yam in a big bowl.
3. Add a pinch of salt.
4. Sieve in half of the flour and knead while yam is still hot.
5. Continue to sieve in the flour slowly and knead until you can shape the abacus seed and it doesn't stick to your fingers.
6. Coat lightly with excess flour to prevent the seeds from sticking before use.
7. In a pot of boiling water add just a teaspoon of oil and add the abacus seeds. Once floating, they are ready to be used. Do not over cook as you need to store fry the side ingredients together later on.
*you can also choose to wait for them to cool and pack them in an air tight container and leave them in the fridge for the next day use.

The picture of the fresh abacus seeds on a plate is made by my parents!

Ingredients:s
Group A:
500g Minced meat
1 1/2tablespoon light soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
3 teaspoons of corn starch
A dash of pepper
Group B:
1 box of ready hakka abacus seeds
4 Dried chinese Mushrooms soaked in hot water (keep the water)
1 dash of sugar
2 tablespoon minced and pan fried dried shrimps (you can make a batch before Hand and keep in the refrigerator. It's useful for Chinese cooking!)
1/2 tablespoon shallot sauce (refer to pic below, the best! Aromatic! Avail in Sheng Shiong supermarket )
1/2 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce (refer to pic below, my mum's favorite brand, taste is thick and nice. Avail in major supermarket)
1/2 bowl chicken stock

1. Combine group A and marinate for at least 30minutes.
2. Remove mushroom from water and press away excess water.
3. Dice mushrooms
4. Heat wok in medium heat. add oil. Wait for 30 seconds and add shallots.
5. Stir fry till partial golden, add mushrooms.
6. Add sugar.
7. Stir fry till golden brown, add minced meat.
8. Use the ladle to break the meat into pieces to prevent them from sticking together.
9. Flip the meat to ensure both sides are well cooked.
10. Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the abacus seeds, and sauté for a couple of minutes.
11. Add the abacus seeds and sauté until the abacus seeds are cooked through.
12. Now it's ready! Garnish with red chili and lettuce or spring onions if desired!

Inspiring yummy mummies
PoshPearl

My reflection on motherhood

Today marks the full year of me leaving full time lecturing for the Early Childhood department and my darling Tiffany will turn 1 in a couple of hours time! Here's my reflection written as follows in the pic :)