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Last weekend, Baby and I decided to cook our own version of Yee Mee (deep fried noodles). Now we usually don’t follow any recipe to the tee but we substitute ingredients and make do with whatever we have to suit our taste buds. Mind you, while this dish looks simple, it actually takes awhile to prepare. So, if you’re looking for a quick meal, don’t try this…haha

Ingredients (Serves 4-5 people):
2 large yellow onions
3 cloves of garlic
Ginger (lots of it)
Cherry tomatoes / tomatoes
Fresh lettuce
Baby corn
Grey Oyster Mushrooms
300gm fresh chicken breast
1 pack of fish balls / fish cakes / crab sticks
1 pack deep fried bean curd (taufu pok)
1 egg
1 pack of Yee Mee (usually comes in a pack of 5 in the supermarkets) 
3 tablespoons of cooking oil
Pepper and soy sauce to taste

Broth:
1 pack of herbal soup mix
Chinese cooking wine

Garnishing
Spring onions
Coriander

The ingredients

Chopped spring onions, coriander and lettuce

The base of the broth

Chinese cooking wine…the more the better ;)

Firstly, to prepare the broth, fill half the pot with water and then add the sachets of the soup mix together. Separate half the portion of the chicken breast, fish balls, deep fried tofu, then add that half portion to the pot and bring it to a boil.

While waiting for the broth to boil, prepare an extra pan, add cooking oil and stir fry the ginger, garlic and onions.

Once the garlic, ginger and onions are golden brown, add in the remainder of the chicken breast, fish balls and deep fried tofu.

Stir fry until cook then add in Chinese cooking wine and bring it to a boil. Now, you can add how much wine you like as long as it suites your taste. For Baby and I, we like ours “strong” =)

Once the broth is boiling, add in the remaining chicken breast, fish balls and tofu, together with the oyster mushrooms, tomatoes and baby corn. Also pour in the contents of the pan that contains the cooking wine into the pot, add soy sauce to taste and simmer it for about 45 minutes.

Add in soy sauce and pepper to taste

After 45 minutes or so, do a taste test on the broth to see if there is enough flavor. At this point, you could add in more wine (yums!), chicken stock, pepper and soy sauce.

Once the broth is to your liking, prepare a separate pan to prepare the noodles. Take about 3 ladles full of broth from the pot into the pan, then add in the noodles.

Cook till noodles soften then add in lettuce and egg

At this point, the noodles will absorb the broth, so you should add more broth into the pot and bring it to a boil. Once it’s cook, you can serve it with chopped spring onions and coriander on the top for garnishing and extra flavor.

And there you have it, our version of Yee Mee with Chinese Cooking WIne. Thanks Baby for the idea and the preparation. Hope you guys can experiment by adding different ingredients and tell me about it. Until then…happy cooking! =)

I came across this picture and I thought it was kinda cute. Hey, it’s Friday and I’m really looking forward to the weekends. These days, my weekends are spent in the kitchen cooking and experimenting dishes together with Baby. No, not experimenting like the picture above, but experimenting on simple food dishes. We always have fun cooking in the kitchen together. I love cooking…or experimenting with food rather. I told Baby that I really don’t mind picking up culinary arts as a part time thing. I also don’t mind taking a bar tending course to which Baby gives me evil stares. But seriously I love to cook….I just don’t like to prepare, wash and clean! Haha….so let’s see what we will cook this weekend. Stay tuned! :)

Here is how to prepare a simple and quick delicious snack. I came up with this simple recipe myself but you could use different ingredients as substitutes if you like.

Ingredients:

1 pack of White Oyster Mushrooms
1 pack of Grey Oyster Mushrooms
1 table spoon of unsalted butter
1 clove of minced garlic
2 chopped red onions
Black pepper
Teriyaki sauce

Firstly, soak the mushrooms in a large bowl of water for about half an hour then drain the water and slice the mushrooms into small pieces.

Next, heat up the pan and put in a table spoon of unsalted butter.

Add in the chopped onions and garlic and fry till it turns slightly brown in color.

Add in the mushrooms and continue to stir fry

Add in black pepper. Personally, I like it with a lot of black pepper. At this point, you could also add in chili flakes to give it more “zing” if you have any.

Next add in about 4 table spoons of Teriyaki sauce

Continue to stir fry until mushrooms are cooked.

Pour into a bowl and serve. You can also add chopped spring onions on the top for extra flavor and garnishing.

And there you have it, a simple snack dish to satisfy your cravings. You can also combine it with other mushrooms like Shitake and Needle Mushrooms to create more flavors and variety. Try it out and let me know. :)

Baby and I were watching the Asian Food Channel last Friday night, when we saw Nigella Lawson making some French Toast for supper. Now, unlike any other French Toast, these are meant to taste like doughnuts. So we then decided to try it out since it’s relatively easy to make. Ok, we substituted some ingredients with our own so just to make it more authentic.

Here are the ingredients you need:

Our version:

1 loaf of bread (or any bread you like depending on preference)
4 eggs
2 table spoon of vanilla essence
2 tea spoon of unsalted butter
1 table spoon of vegetable cooking oil
Coarse sugar / fine powdered sugar
Chocolate spread or Strawberry jam

Firstly, put 4 eggs into a bowl

Beat the eggs until fluffy and add 2 table spoon of vanilla essence

Next, take 4 slices of bread, and slice them diagonally and soak them in the egg mixture

Heat the pan, and put 1 tea spoon of unsalted butter and together with 1 tables spoon of vegetable cooking oil. Adding cooking oil prevents the butter from being burnt.

Put the bread slices onto the pan and fry until golden brown. Remember not to burn the bread.

Finally, sprinkle some sugar onto the bread slices and serve with chocolate spread or strawberry jam on the side.

There you have it a nice and easy to prepare breakfast with coffee to go with. You can try using other substitutes such as fine powdered sugar or even ice-cream if you want to be adventurous. Give it a try!

And yes…I’m “Better than Jamie” :p

It’s now 145AM in the morning. I bet you would never guess what I’m doing right now. I’m still awake, blogging…and looking for cooking recipes! Yes, you heard me right. Now before you go “OMFG….NICK COOKS??!!” and wonder whether or not if I can actually cook, well…I would ask anyone (who dares) to swing by my place to give it a try and be the judge. Honestly, if anyone knew me, I’ve always like to cook….just that I don’t like to do the preparations and clean up after that (who would?) and many a times, I’m just lazy.

Ever since moving to my new place, I’ve always tried to “cook” something over the weekend because that’s the only time I would have to “prepare-cook-clean”. Cooking for me is always nostalgic as it always reminded me of my late mother. When I was a lot younger, I used to be a busy body whenever my mom cooks, so I guess I picked up a thing or two from her…at least on how to prepare certain things, ingredients, do’s and don’t’s…

Well I may not be the world’s greatest cook, but I definitely at the very least, know how to fry an egg properly and cook fried rice without actually burning the food or the house down (Hey, I know of some girls who can’t even fry an egg or cook rice ok!).

Ok, now seriously…I’m trying to keep it simple as I only am cooking for myself…unless of course you want to come by and help me out. Last week, I experimented with some ingredients and I made come Garlic Chicken, Omelette and Stir Fried Vegetables. It’s enough if you’re just eating for one. So anyway, I’m now looking for new stuff to cook over the weekend.

So far, I’m thinking of trying to cook Paella which is a Spanish dish which consists of rice, chicken, seafood, vegetable, saffron and other spices. A rather simple dish to make but I bet it would be a lot of work to prepare. It’s either that or Rosti, which is a Swiss Potato Pancake…also relatively easy to make and prepare.

So looks like I have to go grocery shopping soon before the weekend…anyone wants to be my tasting guinea pig this weekend?