Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

The name of the drink is quite a misnomer for there’s no tea content at all.

Boon Yee, my dear ex-colleague, shared with me this antedote to ‘morning sickness’. Her mother in-law made it for her during her difficult first trimester and it was effective in toning down the nauseous sensation. It is the ginger that does the job. The rest of the ingredients make the drink really palatable.

Here’s the recipe…

Ingredients:

10 Red Dates (soak for 10 mins. Brush away the dirt trapped in the creases of the skin)

16 Dried Longans (Rinse. I used ‘AA’ quality from Thailand)

Peeled and crushed 2″x 2″ ginger (Old ginger is more potent. If using young ginger, just add more)

Rock sugar (amount according to personal preference)

Method:

1) Bring 5 cups of water to a boil.

2) Add all ingredients and simmer in moderate heat for about 15 mins.

3) Serve while hot. Can be drank chilled as well.

I was informed that this drink is commonly prepared for women during their 1-month confinement too. The red dates are supposed to be good for iron supplement to make up for blood loss during delivery.

Oh ya, I booked my confinement lady liao. Hee hee. :)

It’s coming to the end of the year again. Towards the end of each year, I’d sit back and reflect on some of the key events and decisions made in the past year or so. It’s a pretty interesting exercise as you’ll see the decisions that turned out right, and those that turned out all wrong; all with the benefit of a mite bit of hindsight at the end of the year now.

So, running off my head and in no particuar order:

Going to Phuket first in June then Bali later in September (WIN). Because right smack on the week we were in Bali in September, thousands of travelers in Singapore had to postpone their Phuket trip because the airport had shut down! Too funny for words. Bali posts tagged here, with Phuket ones here.

Having a baby (IN PROGRESS). Well, not saying too much away here, but the decision wasn’t an easy one. There were concerns about health and well-being for example. Funnily, we faced little of the ‘traditional’ sort of pressures. Oh, Ling’s mum asked about it now and then, but there was absolutely no (even polite) queries or pressure exerted on my side of the family. Nor did the announced incentives in August factor into our decisions. First announced here.

Going with a Nissan Latio (WIN). Well, on the upside, the car hasn’t broken down. Moreover, our Latio survived pretty much unscathed compared to the Honda Civic I bumped into nearly a year ago. On the down side, Ling’s been remarking that the car makes funny squeaky noises occasionally, and doesn’t give her the vibes that the Latio is better built than the old Civic we were driving. And we haven’t been getting the 14 km/litre fuel consumption milleage some drivers claimed. But a 12.5 to 12.8 km/litre isn’t too bad. First blogged here, then here.

Red and silver.

Publishing a book (WIN). This, funnily, was the hardest decision I’ve made this year. My work and research has been published in several places prior to this of course, but publishing in academia is quite different from producing a commercial publication. There’s all the legalese in the author’s contract with the publisher, all my liabilities since there’re now new issues of distribution, ownership and copyright. And to top if all off, it’s not as though my book is gonna be selling a million copies allowing me to enter early retirement. The summative royalties I expect are essentially, for lack of a better word, non-existent. First blogged here.

Deciding between a PS3 or an XBox 360 (WIN). No kidding! I had long chats with Matt about the virtues of one console over the other. Moreover, the decision wasn’t as simple as which had the games I was interested in or studying. The decision to go with one of them was made when the high definition standards war was raging, and investment in the PS3 wasn’t a sure decision. It could had turned into a white elephant! First blogged here then here.

Of course I could have bought both, like Matt…

Ling having a go with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

Investing in a new camera system (IN PROGRESS). And what a huge investment it turned into. I was determined to get it right this time by doing proper research, and proper accounting to what I was acquiring. So far, so good. Ok, so the photos are still a long way off to progressing from ‘crappy’ to ‘mediocre’, but I’m working on it! First blogged here.

Trying to fatten Matt up (LOST). As soon as Matt firmed up arrangements to visit and stay with us for a month in June this year, Ling and I drew up a strategy to make sure that this time, he’d leave Singapore weighing heavier than he arrived. And boy, did we try hard! We enlisted everyone’s help. Even my mum, and Doreen. Even our small group was involved. But Matt easily showed that he could beat us all without trying, and he left Singapore weighing less than when he arrived. So we failed miserably again.

He conquered durians even.

But as soon as he’s firmed up plans for a third visit, this time, it’s WAR. If we have to bury him with Banquet pratas or drown him with teh tariks this time, we will!! Ling’s tribute to The Champion here.

There you go. If I can think of any more significant milestones, I’ll append them here later.

That was today’s breakfast menu.  Easily done and delicious. An ex-colleague shared this recipe with me and it has only been recently that I used it again.

Ingredients

Fresh white button mushrooms (1 tub)

thick slices of bread

butter

salt

ground black pepper

Italian dried herbs

Method

1) Clean the mushrooms off any dirt. It is okay to use tap water; it is a myth that mushrooms will absorb water.

2) Slice the mushrooms.

3) Heat up the frying pan with 2 tbsps of butter and lightly stir-fry the sliced mushrooms.

4) The mushrooms will soften and release their delicious smells and this is the time to add a dash of salt, pepper and Italian herbs. Liquid will start to ooze out of the mushrooms too. Stir fry for another 30 seconds or so and then transfer the mushrooms onto a plate. It is okay that the mushrooms are wet.

5) Toast the bread slices using a toaster.

6) Apply butter to one side of toast and distribute the mushrooms (do not include its fluid) on it. Optional: you can also add other light greens such as alfalfa or lettuce. Sandwiched with another buttered toast.

7) Enjoy while the toast is still crispy. :)

We don’t have a toaster at home. So we used our oven set to grill mode to do the toasting. It was better as we could toast 6 slices of bread at one go. :) Yang loved it.

The nutritional value of this recipe is high. Instead of using ham or sausage for breakfast, the traditional protein supplement, mushrooms are also rich in protein. Other advantages of using mushrooms: they are rich in fibre, good sources of antioxidants (prevents cancer) and have almost no fats. The only thing to watch out for is the use of butter which is rich in saturated fats. You can substitute it with olive oil for the sauting and soft margarine for the breadspread. But I feel that a little butter is fine especially when no oil can match up to butter for its wonderful aroma rendered in cooking. Eat in moderation and exercise to keep fit. Don’t forget to drink lots of water, eat a colourful variety fruits and vegetables and have the correct amount of sleep. Enjoy life! :D

Yang’s mother cooks great dishes. Matt can attest to that :) Recently, Yang missed Hainanese pork chops and asked me to try whipping up the dish.

I bought too much pork (~450g) and hence had to remove the potato slices from the recipe. Otherwise we’ll have trouble finishing up the food. The traditional recipe calls for potato. I’ll do that the next time. :)

I learned two new methods while preparing this dish: 1) Using crushed Hup Seng Cream crackers as bread crumbs, and 2) tenderizing the meats using the blunt spine of my chopper. Yang had fun creating the crumbs by pressing them in a ziplock bag while I enjoyed ‘boxing’ the meats with the back of my chopper. :P

The result was terrific. The pork chops tasted hmmmm juicy and tender and the sauce complemented well. The only thing about cooking anything deep fried is the lingering smell and oilyness of the kitchen. The cleaning up always require more time and energy. It’s time to check out those deep fryers.

Below is the recipe for those who are interested. :)

Ingredients (serves 2)

250 g pork chops / pork loin

1 small potato, sliced

1 tomato, cut into wedges

1 onion, quartered

Frozen mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, peas), 4 tbsps

9 Hup Seng cream crackers, crushed into fine crumbs in ziplock bag (alternative: panko)

1/4 cup plain flour

1 egg, beaten

Vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil)

Marinade for pork chops

a pinch of salt

rice wine, 1 tbsp

a dash of pepper

a dash of 5-spice powder

a few drops of sesame oil

cornstarch (1/2 tbsp)

Sauce Mix

water (1/2 cup)

cornstarch (1/2 tsp)

light soy sauce (2 tsps)

sweet chilli sauce (1/2 tbsp)

tomato ketchup (6 tbsps)

sugar (2 tbsps)

rice vinegar (1/2 tbsp)

a few drops of sesame oil

Method

1) Sandwich the pork chops between 2 sheets of cling wrap and beat lightly with the blunt side of chopper knife or a meat mallet to tenderize them. (Note: thick chops must be sliced to at least 1 cm thickness)

2) Mix pork with marinade, wrap and set aside for 1 hour in the refrigerator.

3) Pan fry potato slices until lightly brown. Set aside.

4) Get ready the flour, beaten egg and crumbs in 3 separate plates. Dip pork into flour, then egg and finally crumbs. Make sure pork chops are thoroughly coated with crumbs before deep fry until golden brown.

5) Let the chops cool before cutting them into strips. Arrange them on a serving dish.

6) In a non-stick pan, saute onion. Add tomato wedges and frozen mixed vegetables and stir-fry for 2-3 mins.

7) Add water & cornstarch mixture. Next, add sugar, chilli sauce, ketchup, light soy sauce and vinegar. Stir to mix evenly.

8) Add fried potatoes. Allow sauce to thicken. Add a few drops of sesame oil. Adjust seasoning if needed.

9) Pour over the pork chop strips and serve immediately with steamed white rice. Enjoy! :D

Sigh, have to cross out another favorite food of mine because of the reputation of MIC (made in China) products.

As Yang and I was eating our home-style stir-fry dish of sliced pork, asparagus and golden mushrooms for dinner just now, I became horrified all of a sudden. ”These golden mushrooms are cultivated in China! The substrate used might be plasticky!” I cried. I always detested the chemical smell drifting from the plastic wrapping whenever it was cut. What was that? It seemed to resemble the smell from those disposable chopsticks. Sulphur dioxide? Worse still, was the substrate made up of ground used disposable chopsticks? *Shudder*

Pardon my wild imagination. :)

Anyway, the list of MIC items I’m avoiding is growing by the day. So far, the list goes like this:

1) China fruits (pears, Fuji apples, nectarines, hami melons)

2) China vegetables

3) China luncheon meat (This should be the first on my list. Yang knows the story)

4) China fungi (golden mushrooms, shiitake)

5) China dried products (scallops, birdnest, dates, seaweeds)

6) China biscuits

7) China rabbit sweets

8) China imported medicine, including dried herbs (mother would be upset)

Well, I have to be more resourceful now especially when alternatives can be much more costly. :(

Sheez, it had been a long, afternoon affair making wantons and soup!

Had it not for the fact that I was relatively free today, I’d have made a mess out of the kitchen. The preparation of the pork broth for wanton soup was truly therapeutic in the aromatic sense. The ingredients of the broth include pork bones, dried shrimps (hei bi), onion and garlic. Ahh, the taste of the homemade broth after 3 hours of simmering was simply delicious! It was a real pity that I had to dilute the broth to increase its volume as it turned out to be insufficient for submerging the cooked wantons later.  Next time, I’d know better.

I wanted the prawns to have that signature succulent bite of har gau (shrimp dumplings - dim sum version). I remembered that my ex-colleague once casually mentioned about the method. After confirming the method from various sources on the Internet, I soaked the peeled and de-veined prawns in salt solution for 10 minutes. Well, I think the prawns did become plumber and had more crunch. However, something seemed to be amiss. May be the prawn taste was too strong?

The wrapping of the wantons was fun but time-consuming for the first-timer me. I tore a few wanton wrappers and tried to seal the tear by nipping the skin with my index finger and thumb. I took care to remove as much air as possible from the wantons during wrapping so as to minimise any ugly ballooning later. Being paranoid that water will not glue the wanton skin together, I really pressed them as firmly as possible. No wonder I felt exhausted after that!

The verdict? With my tender, loving squeeze, the wontons didn’t ‘explode’ (spill their contents) when cooked. Yay. :D Yang and I each ate a big bowl of wonton soup with chilli padi in light soy sauce as a side condiment. I’ll say it was, er, passable. 3 out of 5? Yang wasn’t excited about the dish at all. At least, he didn’t give any negative comment. I don’t think I’ll make this dish again unless I chance upon a better recipe or someone’s in the mood to throw a wonton party :P Wouldn’t it be fun to wrap wontons with a group of friends as a form of social gathering?

After an unsuccessful attempt at beef stew (I added too much red wine! Sobs!), I was determined to do it right. But this time, I chose something easier - chicken stew.

I went on a recipe hunt on the Internet again and found a well-reviewed and tested recipe on Recipezaar. Initially, I was skeptical over the reviews as the ingredients were too simple to be true. Nevertheless, I went ahead to give the recipe a shot and it turned out to be simply delicious! The soup was bursting with aromatic and delectable flavours. I believe the vegetables did it together with the chicken broth. Tomatoes, potatoes and carrots: they make up the terrific trio in the soup. They blend so well. Why, my mother also used this combo before but with water instead of chicken broth. The result was still irresistable. I remember sitting at my family home’s kitchen table sipping at her home-made soup with such contentment.

There’s another wonderful ingredient which Yang and I love to include in almost all of our home-cooked dishes. Fresh mushrooms, of course! Yang favours the white buttons while I enjoy a greater range of fungi. Anything from white/brown button mushrooms to shiitake, golden mushrooms, padi mushrooms, oyster mushrooms and portobellos. And do you know where to get the cheapest mushrooms? Not Cold Storage or NTUC. It is Sheng Siong supermarket. But it is a pity that the take-up rate of fresh mushrooms at Sheng Siong is poor. I feel so sad whenever I see those mushrooms ‘withering’ in their containers on the shelves. Yo people, start eating fresh mushrooms leh. They are good for you; high in fibre, protein, minerals and antioxidants (prevents cancer!) and low in fat. :)

This is one of those rare weekends where my mind is in the care-free mode.

I’ve finished marking, returning and discussing my students’ work and now they are all busy with their final preparations for the examination tomorrow. In the meanwhile, they didn’t know that their teacher is having a great time :)

I called Doreen, my best friend of 20 years, to find out whether she was free to do some catching up. We managed to squeeze out a common time yesterday afternoon to do some cooking, chit-chatting and watching BBC’s Pride and Prejudice together. Since I had been keen on trying out a Ratatouille recipe taken from the Internet, and darling dearest doesn’t like eggplant, this was a perfect opportunity to cook and eat with my best friend who is adventurous in food. :)

The list of ingredients and steps for the dish looked daunting enough for me but the actual dish turned out to be surprisingly easy without a messy kitchen Yang had expected. Hee hee. *victory sign* “D The only thing about preparing this French dish is having the patience for the eggplant to release its juices during the simmering process.

We ate Ratatouille with slices of baguette and oh, it was so healthy and satisfying. We ate it warm but it was also good after it had cooled down to room temperature. :) The recipe I used had an unconventional ingredient, i.e. button mushrooms. In addition, the recipe I chose seemed to be easier to manage than others available on the Internet. :)

I found out that Doreen had been going through house-keeping training in her mission study course too! She used to take her own sweet time (me too!) to wash the dishes but yesterday changed my perception of her. Oh you should see how fast she was in helping to clean the dishes. I’m impressed. She’s definitely good for being a missionary and also a home-maker. Hee hee. :D

Having picked up a used 50mm f1.8 prime lens for cheap from my colleague and also resurrected my 20 year old 70-210mm lens, the last lens to finish up the series was to be a macro lens.

I haven’t got into macro photography before, as firstly I’m not big on insects; and secondly, I’m not big on flowers either.

Still, Ling is quite the amateur horticulturist, and she readily points out the names of various flora wherever she go. And she really does know her stuff. She can tell from a glance whether the leaves are really doing well or not while ignoramus fellows like me think that as long as it’s green, it’s healthy. So I figured why not give macro photography a go, since it’s something to learn and I imagine Ling will be fascinated with closeup pictures too.

After doing (a lot of the usual) research, I finally decided between three macro lenses. There was the very popular and well-received Tamron 90mm f2.8 which has quite a cult following among photography enthusiasts, the very slightly less well-known Tokina 100mm f2.8, and finally the Sigma 150mm f2.8 which isn’t quite in the same class as the first two given its substantially longer reach, heavier heft and better build and thus substantially more expensive. The Sigma lens was the one I got eventually too. As good as the Tamron and Tokina lenses are—heck actually most of the macro lenses available are all great—the fact that I’d probably go full-frame at some point in my life was in my mind, and a 90-100mm would give less reach then without the cropped sensor.

So I picked up the lens from Orient Photo after Sunday morning service on the 20th July (Reverend Philip Lim made a few opening jokes which I’ll blog later too), and mounted with my D300. The body with lens sure weighs quite a bit. Heck, the lens even has its own tripod collar. In fact, now I worry for my Benro travel tripod. Fortunately, there’s a weight hook that I can use. Here’s a quickie test shot I did yesterday before Ling helps me send the D300 for sensor cleaning.

And another shot from a restful cat that was lazing in the shade in Punggol Park while we walked around taking pictures of flowers.:)

The larger and sharper versions are here and here. It’s an interesting lens and seems as good as it’s been reviewed and raved about. The flower shots at Punggol Park didn’t turn out so well though, so there’s still plenty to learn.:)

Here’s another blast from the past.:)

The very first lens I had on my old Nikon FG-20 after getting into photography in 1985 was a 50mm f1.8 lens. I was sotong about photography back then, but I did learn quickly enough by reading library books about zoom lenses. There were two photography subjects that I was keen to get into as a secondary 2 boy; portraits, and animals. The 50mm prime lens was great for portrait work, but wholly unsuitable for animals.

So, I started saving up pocket money now and then and about 2-3 years later, I finally accumulated enough to buy on my own my first lens (the 50mm prime was purchased with the FG-20 at my parents’ dime), a Nikkor AF 70-210mm f4-5.6 (link points to a slightly newer D version of the lens) in 1988. Back then Nikon was manufacturing all those expensive and huge lenses with tripod collars already, and this Nikkor lens was pretty amateur grade. But I had no clue, and I was happy as a whistle. I remembered swooping off to the Singapore Zoo shortly after getting the lens and taking my first shots of animals. Some of my favorite animal pictures were taken during that period from 1988-1989.

My younger brother kept my two lenses in safekeeping for the next two decades thereafter while I was in NS, then NTU, then teaching for 7 years then PhD during which I moved from the FG-20 to my first digital camera in 1999 to prouser units and finally the KM5D DSLR. So, now that I’ve returned to Nikon DSLRs, I finally got round to trying out my venerable old 20 year zoom lens now.

And guess what; the lens still works! Unlike many of the Nikon consumer grade lenses made these days in China and Thailand, this baby was made in Japan. Metal mount, metal jacket, metal filter thread, metal everywhere. OK so the damn thing is heavy and shows visible wear and tear. And the thing makes a terrific racket while focusing too. But Ling was more than a little amused when I so lovingly caressed the cool metallic lens barrel with all those memories from 20 years gone by.:)

Ironically, the 55-200mm VR lens I’ve bought from Amazon.com (couriered by Matt haha) isn’t superseded by this old lens, but then again, that VR lens is soooo plastic; so there. Here’s a quick test shot I did very early morning at work, with the larger picture here. Oh yeah; the camera-phone picture of the D300+20 year old lens is with the Op/Tech strap that just arrived too.:)