Korean chicken stew

Preparing weekday dinners sometimes can be quite tiring. It is especially for me who is working part time in the afternoon. I have only got a few hours after sending my son to childcare then rushing to market to buy groceries before heading home to prepare dinner. Chicken stew is one of my favourite dish to cook on days that I totally ran out of ideas or having not much time to cook! Because this stew is sweetened with honey, my picky son absolutely loves it. ^^b

Chanced upon this wonderful food blogger on YouTube for her Korean chicken stew - Maangchi. *strongly recommended* I love watching her videos to learn cooking. She makes cooking seemed so fun and easy! Video linked here for your reference. :)
https://youtu.be/I16AwkdIZOw

Adapted from: Maangchi's Korean chicken stew

Ingredients

Chicken wings / fillet

Potatoes
Carrot
Bunashimeiji mushrooms
Korean glass noodles
Sesame seeds
Spring onions
Soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Honey
Garlic

Recipe

1. Heat up some oil in the wok and add in the chicken wings (or fillets). Let it cook around 7 minutes and turning it occasionally.
2. Cut the potatoes while waiting for the chicken to be cooked. When the chicken is no longer pink, add in the potatoes and let it cook a little longer.
3. Add in water to cover the chicken and potatoes. Prepare the sauce in the bowl by adding 2 tbsp oyster sauce, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp honey and 1 tsp dark soy sauce (for colouring). Mix well before adding to the chicken. Let it boil with the wok covered.
4. Cut the carrot into slices and remove the stems from bunashimeji mushrooms and add into the wok. Soak the Korean glass noodles in hot water to soften before adding it in as well. Now let it cook with the cover removed for about 10 minutes to reduce and thicken the liquids. Make sure the glass noodles turn translucent. Cut the green parts of the spring onions into short lengths and add it in.
5. To make the garnish, just use the remaining white parts of the spring onions and cut along its length. Soak it in a bowl of water. When the stew is done, turn off the fire. Put the spring onions on top and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Porridge with wild yam and carrot

Saturday is usually a no-cooking day for me but sometimes I do prepare porridge for simple lunch. Happened to have some leftover wild yam and carrots so decided to put them into the porridge.

Wild yam is also known as 淮山(huai shan) in Chinese. To read up on its medical benefits, you can check out this website. http://chinese.herbs.webs-sg.com/articles_30.html

Fresh ones can be found in both supermarket and wet market. The ones sold in supermarket comes from China but I think the ones from the wet market are from Japan. It is recommended to wear gloves when you peel off the skin as it has a slimy mucous film which can cause your hands to itch. I did that initially but as I cook it more often, I chose to process it quickly before washing my hands.

This recipe is friendly for toddlers. My poor husband who was suffering from sore throat gave thumbs up for this soothing porridge! 

Ingredients

Wild yam
Carrot
Minced meat
Spring onions
Rice
Sesame oil
Soya sauce
Pepper

Recipe

1. Marinate the minced meat in sesame oil, soya sauce and pepper.
2. Prepare a pot of water and add in the washed rice. Turn on the fire.
3. In the meanwhile, peel the wild yam and carrots and chop them into small cubes before adding them to the pot.
4. Boil the rice till the desired consistency for your porridge. You can add water if you see it turning too thick.
5. Add the marinated minced meat into the pot. You can put the whole chunk in and mash it up with the ladle like I did. Or you can wet your hands and roll the minced meat into balls before adding if you prefer.
6. When the meat is cooked, try to taste porridge. You can always add in a little more soya sauce or pepper.
7. Turn off the fire and add chopped spring onions for garnish. Serve it hot!

Stir fry lotus root with egg tofu

Lotus root is a common ingredient found in the wet market and usually comes covered in mud or pre-cleaned. I would usually choose the cleaned ones as I find it troublesome to wash off the mud. I love to cook it in soup with pork ribs and a handful of peanuts. One day, I saw on the Facebook cooking group with members sharing their different ways of cooking lotus root and got inspired to try out a new way of cooking! Then I got the idea to try stir fry lotus root with what I had in my fridge. Love the crunchiness of lotus root in this dish! 

Ingredients
Lotus root
Egg tofu
Dried shitake mushrooms
Capsicums (red, yellow and green)
Garlic
Oyster sauce
Soya sauce
Sugar

Recipe
1. Cut lotus root into thin slices and soak in vinegar solution to prevent it from darkening. Soak the dried mushrooms in water till fully constituted. Cut the capsicums into small cubes and egg tofu into pieces.
2. Pan fry the egg tofu on each side for 2-3 minutes in a saucepan till it is brown. Remove and set aside.
3. Pat the lotus root dry with a kitchen towel then pan fry in the same saucepan for 2-3 minutes. Remove and set aside. 
4. Prepare the sauce in a bowl by adding water (from soaking mushrooms), oyster sauce, soya sauce and sugar.
5. Heat up the wok and add some oil. When the oil is hot, add garlic to fry till fragrant. Then add capsicum cubes to stir fry before adding mushrooms.
6. Pour in the sauce and let it cook for a while. Prepare cornstarch solution and add in to thicken the sauce.
7. Once the sauce thickens, then return the lotus root and tofu back to the wok. Stir fry and coat the sauce evenly and it is done. 
  

A new beginning!

I started blogging 11 years ago and stopped after I started working. Looking back, those were the carefree days posting about my boring studying days. Never imagine that I would pick up blogging again after so many years and now I have been promoted to "mummy" status.

The idea of starting a blog was actually suggested by my good friends as I have posted many of my cooking experiments on Facebook. Why not, have a place to record down the recipes? It will be great to share with others what I have cooked as I have also benefited from many online cooking blogs.

I hope this will be a nice little place full of my kitchen memories when I look back another 10 years later.

*Stay tuned* :)