Sweet and sour meat patties

I like to use minced meat in cooking because it is very versatile. That day I decided to try using my japanese hambagu recipe and tweak it to make something different. So I came up with sweet and sour meat patties! Initially I wanted to make them into meatballs but it is much faster to make patties. Haha I am such a lazy mum.

Ingredients
approx 150g minced meat  
1/4 yellow onion
some chopped spring onions
sesame seeds (garnish)
1/3 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1 tbsp milk
1 egg
Fine black pepper
Salt 

Sauce
1 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp sugar
4 tbsp Water

Recipe
1. Finely chop the onion and add into the minced meat, followed by egg, milk and panko. Season it with black pepper and salt. (I added some chopped spring onions because I happened to have them.) Use one hand to mix the mixture well.
2. Shape the meat into patties of equal sizes (or meatballs if you want).
3. Heat some oil in the pan on medium heat and place the patties into the pan. Let it cook uncovered for 3-4 minutes. When it is nicely browned, flip them over to the other side and cook till it is browned too. Remove from pan and set aside.
4. Prepare the sauce in a bowl and add the sauce directly into the same pan.
5. Let the sauce came to a boil. Adjust the taste of the sauce according to your liking i.e. more vinegar if you wish it to be more sour.
6. Return the meat patties back to the pan and let the sauce thicken and stir to allow patties to be evenly coated.
7. Transfer to the serving plate and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.


Note: the sauce just coats the meat patties nicely. If you wish to have more sauce, you will need to increase accordingly.

Stir fry minced meat and pumpkin

I prepared this dish because my dear husband is a meat lover. If I don't cook enough meat for dinner, he would ask me why I cooked so little. It happens that I had one chunk of pumpkin sitting in my fridge so I decided to combine it with minced meat. It turned out to be quite a nice combination.

Ingredients
approx 80g minced meat
1 small chunk of pumpkin
1 dried shiitake mushroom
chopped garlic
chopped shallots
white pepper
soy sauce
sesame oil

Sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp normal dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar 

Recipe
1. Soak the dried mushroom in a bowl of water and set it aside to soften before cutting it into small cubes. Do not throw away the water. 
2. Cut the pumpkin into cubes but not too small else it will disintegrate during cooking. Marinate the minced meat with soy sauce, white pepper and sesame oil.
3. In the wok, heat up the oil and put in the chopped shallots. Let it cook for a little while and turning translucent, then add in the garlic followed by the mushroom cubes. Stir fry a little till it is fragrant.
4. Add in the minced meat. Let it cook for a little while before stir frying it to break it into smaller pieces.
5. When the minced meat is no longer pinkish, add in the pumpkin cubes. Let it for cook for a minute or two then add in the water for soaking mushroom. You can either prepare the sauce in a bowl or just add it directly into the wok. I did the latter. Test taste the sauce and adjust accordingly. Add a dash of pepper if you wish.
6. Cover the wok and let it simmer for a few minutes. Remember the longer you simmer, the softer the pumpkin cubes will be.
7. Transfer to a deep plate and garnish with chopped spring onions.

Stir fry pork slices with onions

For a beginner in cooking, I had many not so good experiences in preparing pork slices. I can still remember my first few times the pork turned out to be thick and tough to chew. But I never give up! I continue to "torture" my husband and son so that I can get better. lol Unfortunate for me, my husband never really likes ginger so I tried to use onion instead. It was great to hear him say, "I like it". Guess that is the real motivation to keep me cooking.

Ingredients
Approx 200g lean pork
1/4 yellow onion
Some chopped garlic

Marinade
Soy sauce
Chinese cooking wine
Cornstarch

Sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce (thick, sweet kind)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3-4 tbsp water 
1 tsp sugar (you can adjust to your liking)

Recipe
1. Cut the lean pork into thin slices and marinate using soy sauce, chinese cooking wine and cornstarch. Set aside.
2. Slice the onions into thin slices. Prepare the sauce by mixing the ingredients into a bowl.
3. Heat up the pan and pan fry the onion slices till it turns translucent.
4. Add in the garlic to stir fry for a while then add in the marinated pork slices.
5. Stir fry till the pork slices are no longer pink then pour the sauce in.
6. Mix well and let it cook for a few minutes. (Do not cook for too long else the pork will turn tough) You can do a taste test here and adjust according to your liking.
7. Remove from pan and serve on plate. Garnish with some chopped spring onions if you have them.

Korean spring onion pancake

This was an impromptu dish prepared for one of our weekday dinners, all thanks to our friendly uncle manning the residents' vegetable garden. My son loves to visit him and he gave us a lot of spring onions. Usually I will use them for garnishing but this time I had so much I think it will take us a long time to finish it. So decided to try making a pancake to go with our dinner. For Korean cooking, I love to search for Maangchi's website. If you love Korean food and enjoy watching cooking videos, go search for hers in Youtube. For this recipe, please refer to the link -  pajeon! For your info, this recipe makes one pancake.

Ingredients
Few stalks of spring onions
 

Batter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup water
1 tsp taucheo beans
1/2 tsp sugar 

Sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 tsp sesame seeds

Recipe
1. Cut the spring onions into 3 inch length and set aside.
2. Using a metal spoon, mash the taucheo beans into paste. Add the rest of the batter ingredients into a bowl and mix well till you get a smooth batter.
3. Put some oil into the pan and heat it up. Place the spring onions parallel to each other and neatly into two rectangles.
4. Slowly add the batter in and let it cook. When the surface looks almost dry, pat it using the spatula and press it down a little.
5. When the bottom of the pancake turns golden brown, flip the pancake over and let it cook for a few minutes.
6. Flip back to the original side for a minute after the other side has turned golden brown.
7. Put the pancake on the plate and prepare the sauce by mixing the ingredients stated above.

Reminder to myself: I must double the recipe next time I make this! My husband complained it was too little. -_-"

Pan fried Teriyaki Salmon

Teriyaki salmon is one of the usual dishes I will order outside for my boy. He loves to eat Japanese food. I ever bought the ready made teriyaki sauce but find that the taste is not to my liking. That day when I had to cook for just me and him, I decided to make this simple salmon dish. To make a complete meal, just steam some broccoli or make side dishes to go along.

Ingredients
Salmon
Salt
Pepper
Spring onions (optional)
White sesame (optional)

Sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp chinese cooking wine

Recipe
1. Marinate the salmon with salt and pepper. Pat dry with a kitchen towel.
2. Heat a little oil in the pan and place the salmon skin side down. Let it cook for at least 4-5 minutes. Be really patient and do not try to flip the salmon. You will see from the side that it will start turning pink from bottom up. Wait till it has reached the mid-way before flipping.
3. Flip the salmon to the other side and let it cook for another 3-4 minutes. While waiting, prepare the sauce by mixing the ingredients together in a small bowl. You should see the side of salmon has turned all pink which means it is nicely done. Pour the sauce into the pan. 
4. Do not cover the pan. Let the sauce simmer and thicken before removing it and put on the serving plate. Sprinkle spring onions and white sesame to garnish.

Yakitori with capsicum

It has been a while since I last blogged! Still busy cooking on most days but I have much lesser time and energy to try new dishes and be adventurous. Yakitori is one recipe that I have been wanting to try but never got to doing it. Last week I randomly bought one bag of capsicums without deciding beforehand what I wanted to cook. In the end, I decided to try pairing it with chicken to make yakitori. My reference is from yakitori recipe from Just one cookbook!

Ingredients
2 boneless chicken legs (skin intact)
Red capsicum (half)
Yellow capsicum (half)
Green capsicum (half)
8 satay sticks

Sauce
Soy sauce
Sugar
Chinese cooking wine
Water
Cornstarch solution

Recipe
1. Soak the satay sticks in a tray of water for 30 minutes.
2. Cut the chicken legs into evenly bite size and set aside.
3. Cut the capsicums into small squares, about the same size as the chicken pieces. 
4. Arrange the chicken pieces and 2 pieces of capsicums alternately as shown in the picture.
5. Oil a frying pan lightly and heat it up on the stove. Depending on the size of the frying pan, for me, I placed 4 sticks at a time. Let it cook about 2-3 minutes on one side, ensuring the chicken is nicely char before flipping to the other side. Do the same for the remaining 4 sticks. 
6. Arrange the sticks on a baking tray and bake in the oven at 180 degree celsius for about 15 minutes.
7. For the sauce, I did not measure exactly how much I used. Soy sauce and water were about the same amount. Sugar was slightly lesser. I added chinese cooking wine because I did not have sake. Please adjust according to your preference. Except cornstarch solution, put the rest of the ingredients into a small pot and let it boil. Add cornstarch solution to thicken.
8. When the yakitori is done, place them on the plate and drizzle the sauce before serving.

If you have the time, you can make the sauce first before preparing the chicken and use it to baste the chicken in between the baking time. For me I did it after work and it was super rushed so I prefer to prepare the chicken first and use the baking time to make the sauce. I love yakitori with the chicken skin on. It makes a lot of difference especially when it is a little charred. Yummy!

Baked grouper with cheese and panko

How do you like to cook your fish? My first choice is always steam because it is easy and does not make your kitchen oily. Next is pan fried - although I love the taste, it always make my kitchen oily. This time I tried to cook my fish a different way - baked in oven with panko. I must say, my boy is really not used to eating fish like this but my husband said it's not that bad tasting.

Ingredients
2 portion of red grouper (or any firm white fish / I think fillet works even better)
1/2 cup Panko (breadcrumbs)
1/4 cup grated Gouda cheese 
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp lemon juice 
Salt
Black pepper

Recipe
1. Season the fish with salt and black pepper and set aside.
2. Melt the butter in a bowl and add lemon juice to it. Mix well. 
3. Coat the fish in the butter mixture and place on the baking tray.
4. In a bowl, mix the grated cheese and panko together. This time I did not add any oil to the panko and it does not brown that well. I suggest you can add some butter/oil to the panko so that it will brown nicely.
5. Spread the panko mixture over the fish nicely. I think it is easier to spread all over when it is fillet.
6. Bake it in oven at 180 degree celcius till it is cooked. You can check with a toothpick or fork to see if can pierce through the centre nicely. Mine took about 20 minutes as it was quite thick.
7. Sprinkle some parsley on top if you like.

Chicken soup with apple and pear

The weather has been very hot these days so it's good to prepare this soup. The apple and Chinese pear make the soup sweet and children friendly. I have added white fungus which is very nourishing for the lungs too. 

Ingredients

1 Chicken leg (skin removed/cut into half)

1 Chinese pear

1 Apple (I use Royal Gala)

1 Pc of white fungus (about palm size) 

6 Red dates

Recipe

1. Put the chicken into boiling water and boil for a few minutes till the scum appears. Drain and rinse it before putting into the slower cooker.

2. Peel the skin of the pear and apple and cut them into large chunks. Add the pear and apple into the slow cooker.

3. Put in the red dates and pour in water to cover the ingredients. Turn the slow cooker to auto mode for at least 3-4 hours.  

4. About 30 minutes before serving the soup, soak the white fungus till soft. Remove the stem and cut into desired size before putting it in the soup for 10-15 minutes.

5. Season with salt before serving. 

Note: I have seen some recipes which used dried figs and Chinese almonds. Shall try it next time!

Ham and cheese muffins

Just want to share another muffin recipe that I tried yesterday. I wanted to try baking something savory but not too difficult for me and chanced upon ham and cheese breakfast muffins by this interesting blog "She wears many hats".

Ingredients
1 cup of plain flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 ham slices
2 cheese slices
1 egg
3/4 cup fresh milk
3 tbsp olive oil 

Recipe
1. Cut the ham and cheese slices into small pieces and set aside.
2. Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Stir and mix well.
3. In another bowl, put in the wet ingredients and whisk till well combined.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl. Gently use a spatula to fold till you do not see traces of flour. Do not overmix.
5. Add ham and cheese and mix to distribute evenly.
6.Fill the cups to about 3/4 full. Bake in oven at 180 degree celcius for 25 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean when inserted in centre of muffin.

Our family enjoyed these muffins and I think this is great for breakfast to go. Will try to make it again! To note, the taste is slightly too flavourful for me. Shall try to reduce the seasonings next time.

Blueberry yoghurt muffins

This week is muffin week as declared by my boy. I will usually prepare simple jam or kaya sandwich for him to bring to school but he requested me to bake for him.  With blueberries and yoghurt in my fridge, I decided to try making muffins. Since the steps are relatively simple, I asked him to join me in making them. He had a good time mixing the ingredients! There are many recipes and I decided to try this recipe from Taste of Home - blueberry yogurt muffins.

Ingredients
1 cup of plain flour
6 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup fresh blueberries
1 egg
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp fresh milk
3 tbsp olive oil

Recipe
1. Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Stir and mix well.
2. In another bowl, put in the wet ingredients and whisk till well combined.
3. Pour the blueberries into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix well. Then pour the wet ingredients into the bowl. Gently use a spatula to fold till you do not see traces of flour. Do not overmix.
4. Fill the cups to about 3/4 full. Bake in oven at 180 degree celcius for 20 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean when inserted in centre of muffin.

Stir fry cabbage with bunashimeiji mushrooms

I like to buy cabbage and cook it nearer to the end of the week. The reason is simply because I only go marketing once a week on weekends. When I first started this whole marketing/cooking, I was unaware of how fast the vegetables will spoil and always ended up throwing some yellowed vegetables. Through experience, now I know cabbage is one of the more lasting vegetables that I can safely leave it in my fridge for a few days and not having to worry about it spoiling. And it's very easy to cook too!

Ingredients
1/2 Beijing cabbage
1 tsp dried shrimps
Chopped garlic
Bunashimeiji mushrooms
Oyster sauce 

Recipe
1. Soak the dried shrimps till soften and cut off the bottom parts of the mushrooms. Cut the cabbage into half. Cut off the thick part of the cabbage and cut the cabbage into slices. (thickness to your liking)
2. Heat up some oil in the wok and put in the chopped garlic and dried shrimps.
3. Let it cook till you can smell the nice fragrance of the dried shrimps.
4. Put in the bunashimeji mushrooms and give it a good stir before putting on the cover to let it cook for a while. 
5. Open the cover and add the cabbage. Mix well and put on the cover again. Allow the cabbage to release the moisture and cook. (The timing will depends on how you prefer the texture to be. My family likes softer texture so I will leave it to cook and check from time to time to ensure it is not dry up. You can add a little water if it is too dry.)
6. Season with oyster sauce according to your taste. Stir well and let it cook for another few minutes before dishing up to serve.

This can be a rather good time saving dish. I must admit sometimes after I add the cabbage in and cover, I will proceed to do other stuffs like washing some dish, seasoning the soup or even checking out my son in the living room. You don't have to keep watching the cabbage being cooked! :) 

Steamed salmon with lemon

This week has been a little hazy on and off and my poor little boy is down with runny nose and cough. So I have been trying to do steam dishes everyday so that it is less heaty for him. Whenever I steam salmon, I will stick to soy sauce and keep it simple as salmon has more flavour compared to other fish. I was wondering if I could try a different variation of steamed salmon and lemon came to my mind. I happened to have it in my fridge as it is very useful for various dishes.

Ingredients
1 Salmon fillet
Lemon slices
Ginger
Spring onion
Sesame oil
Salt
Cooking wine

Sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cooking wine 
3 tbsp water

Recipe
1. Rub salt over the salmon fillet and pour 1 tsp cooking wine on it. Let it marinate for 5 minutes.
2. Prepare the sauce by mixing the listed ingredients above and set aside.
3. Cut some ginger slices and place them on the steaming plate. This is to prevent the salmon skin from sticking onto the plate. Also cut some ginger strips and chop some spring onions for garnishing.
4. Discard any liquid from the salmon and place the salmon on the steaming plate. Arrange some ginger strips, followed by lemon slices then spring onions.
5. Drizzle some sesame oil, then pour the sauce onto  the salmon.
6. Steam using electric steamer until it is done.

Did you notice my salmon was not a complete piece? I actually asked the uncle from the fish stall to help me cut into 3 portions. It is easy to thaw and I can steam one piece if I want to cook a smaller portion. :) 

Steamed chicken

One of our family's favourite is chicken legs. No matter how you cook them, they will be tender and not as dry compared to chicken breast. So whenever I go to the wet market, I am always buying deboned chicken legs from the stall. It really saves me a lot of time when I do not have to debone the chicken. I just have to marinate it and put it in the oven. I have also previously uploaded a few recipes like Baked lemon chicken leg in Italian herbs that I depended on when my weekdays get crazy.

Today I thawed the chicken legs but decided to try and steam it instead. Tried to search for recipes online but mostly are for whole chicken and making Hainanese style chicken rice. So I stick to a few basic seasonings and lucky it turned out well received.

Ingredients
2 deboned chicken legs
1 knob of ginger 
1 stalk of spring onion 
local lettuce (optional)
tomato (optional)
Sesame oil
1 Tbsp Soy sauce
Salt

Recipe
1. Apply salt on both sides of the chicken legs and set aside.
2. Grate half a knob of ginger then apply evenly to the chicken. Cut the remaining ginger into slices.
3. Smash the bottom white part of spring onion with the knife and cut into long strips.
4. Pour 1 tbsp of soy sauce on the chicken and drizzle with sesame oil. Ensure the marinate is well coated on the chicken. (I prefer to use my hands to "massage" the chicken)
5. On the steaming plate, arrange white part of spring onions on the bottom, followed by the ginger slices. (Use a deep plate as the chicken will produce a lot of liquid)
6. Place the chicken legs on the plate. Make sure it does not overlap so that it can be cooked evenly. Put the remaining spring onions on top of the chicken.
7. Steam using a electric steamer for approximately 20 minutes. To check if the chicken is cooked, poke a chopstick at the thickest part of the meat. It is cooked when the liquid is clear.
8. Remove from steamer and let it cool down. Arrange the lettuce, tomato on the serving plate while waiting.
9. Cut the chicken into slices and place on serving plate. Pour some of the steaming liquid over the chicken before serving. The remaining steaming liquid can be poured over white rice if you want.

The only complaint I hear from my husband about this dish is "you cooked too little!". Maybe I need to add an extra tier to cook more chicken next time.

Pan fried scallops with mandarin orange sauce

I cannot remember when I bought this pack of scallops but I do know it has 6 more months to expiry. Since it is Chinese New Year period, I thought it will be good to cook it for the festive season. I was trying to decide on what recipes to use for cooking the scallops and ended up pairing it with mandarin orange since I have many leftover oranges. Found a similar recipe at Martha Stewart - scallops with orange butter sauce and simplified with whatever I have in my kitchen. It was yummy and my husband was pleased.

Ingredients
14 scallops (frozen/Australian)
1 mandarin orange
Black pepper
Salt
Butter

Recipe
1. After thawing the scallops, give it a rinse and pat dry using kitchen towel.
2. Season it with black pepper and salt.
3. Heat up the pan with some olive oil and pan fry the scallops for about 2-3 minutes each side. Place on the serving dish once it is done.
4. Peel the mandarin orange. Find a nice piece of the peel and cut some strips using a sharp knife. The peel will be used for decoration.
5. Cut the mandarin orange into half and use a manual juicer to extract the juice.
6. In a saucepan, add a small knob of butter. After the butter has melted, add in the juice.
7. Allow the sauce to come to boil then turn down the flame to lowest. Let the sauce reduce to half then season with salt.
8. Pour the sauce over the scallops on the serving dish and garnish with the orange peel strips cut earlier.

It was a new experience cooking scallops. It was not as difficult as I thought but the scallops became very much smaller. Maybe next time I shall try with bigger scallops (wait for another CNY). Also, it smelled so strong when I was pan frying the scallops that my husband came to kitchen to check on me. Lol that was a funny moment!

Steamed cod with wolfberries

It has been a while since I steamed cod fish because I did not have time to go wet market to buy from our usual stall. This is a simple recipe that I used many times! Very simple steps and the ingredients are easily available at home. I think I said it quite a few times but steaming dishes are good for weekday dinners because you can prepare another dish while steaming this to save time.

Ingredients
1 slice of cod
1 knob of ginger
1 Tbsp of wolfberries
Chopped spring onions
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
White pepper
Water

Recipe
1. Soak the wolfberries in a bowl then discard the water after it has softened.
2. Cut the ginger into strips and arrange some on the steaming dish.
3. Place the cod on the ginger strips and add some more ginger strips on top.
4. Put the soaked wolfberries on top of the cod and around the dish.
5. Put a dash of pepper on the fish and drizzle some sesame oil on it.
6. In another bowl, add in some water and soy sauce. This will be the steaming sauce. You can adjust the taste to your liking.
7. Pour the solution into the steaming dish and steam the fish till it is cooked. This really depends on how thick your fish is. Normally I would steam around 8-9 minutes.
8. Garnish the fish with chopped spring onions when it is done. Alternatively you can add in the spring onions to steam together with the fish but the colour of the spring onions will not be as nice.

This is one of my default dish when I don't have any ideas what to cook. It does not matter how simple the dish is, as long as my family likes it. :)

Hotplate tofu

Hotplate tofu is one of my favourite dish to order whenever I go Tze Char. Although I do not have the hotplate at home, I tried to recreate the dish without the hotplate and my son loves it very much. Mine is a lot simpler and sometimes I will try to clear the leftover vegetables in the dish. This time I did not have much vegetables in my fridge hence I used only the carrot.

Ingredients
1 pack of egg tofu
80g minced meat
Carrot
Spring onions
Garlic
1 egg
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
White pepper
Cornstarch 

Sauce
Soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Sugar
White pepper
Water

Recipe
1. Marinate the minced meat with sesame oil, soy sauce, cornstarch and white pepper. Cut the carrot into small cubes and spring onions into short strips. Cut the egg tofu into small round sections.
2. Add oil and pan fry the egg tofu in a saucepan. It takes about 2-3 minutes for each side to brown. Set aside once it is done. Prepare the sauce in a bowl.
2. Heat the wok, add in the oil followed by minced garlic. Fry a while till the garlic is fragrant then add in the carrot cubes. Stir fry for a while before adding in the minced meat and sauce. Put on the lid and let it cook.
3. Turn down the fire when the sauce is boiling. Check if the consistency is thick enough else you can add some cornstarch solution to thicken it. When the sauce consistency is done, add in the egg tofu and chopped spring onions and stir gently to coat evenly for a few minutes. Turn off the fire.
4. Heat up the saucepan again. (I just used the same one for pan frying the egg tofu). Beat the egg and pour into the saucepan. Swirl around and make sure it is evenly spread. Let it cooked till the top is almost dried up. Using a spatula, gently lift it up and transfer onto a plate.
5. Pour the minced meat egg tofu mixture on top of the egg and serve hot. 

I did not measure the sauce ingredients so please adjust on your own to your liking.

Steamed chicken wings with mushrooms

I bought a pack of mid-joint wings from supermarket that day, wanting to make some baked wings. But my husband suddenly fell sick and was not feeling well. In the end, I decided not to bake as baked wings can be quite heaty. I switch to steaming the wings instead and it turned out just as yummy.

Ingredients
1 pack of mid joint wings (approx 10 pcs)
2 dried shiitake mushrooms (pre-soaked)
1 knob of ginger
Spring onions

Marinate
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Chinese wine 
1/2 tsp sugar 
Some sesame oil 
Dash of white pepper

Recipe
1. Prepare the marinate in a bowl and marinate the wings for 15 minutes. 
2. Slice the soaked mushrooms into strips and slice the ginger into thin pieces.
3. Smash white part of spring onions and cut the spring onions diagonally into strips.
4. Place the white part of spring onions along with some ginger on the bottom of the steaming dish.
5. Arrange the chicken wings on the dish and ensure there is no overlapping.
6. Add in the mushroom and the rest of the ginger and spring onions.
7. Add a few spoonful of water to the marinate and pour it over the chicken.
8. Steam over high heat for 20 to 25 minutes until the chicken is cooked. At 10 minutes, flip the chicken wings to the other side. (As the sauce will not fully cover the chicken, I flip the wings to ensure it is evenly colored.)

 I did not have time to google any recipe and just cooked the dish based on estimating the marinate ingredients. You can adjust taste to your liking by adjusting the proportion of the sauces and water used.

Steamed fish slices

Steamed fish is a very comforting dish especially when I have been sick for the past few days. I usually will steam the whole slab of fish but this time I decided to cut the fish into slices before steaming. This will shorten the steaming time and save some time.

Ingredients
1 pax portion of fish fillet (I used red grouper)
1 stalk of spring onions
1 knob of ginger
Some wolfberries
Soy sauce
Water
Sugar
White pepper

Marinate
2 tsp Chinese cooking wine
2 tsp Soy sauce
Cornstarch

Recipe
1. Marinate the fish slices using the marinate ingredients stated above.
2. Soak the wolfberries to soften. Cut the ginger into stripes.
3. Smash the white part of spring onions and cut them into parts. Cut the green part of spring onions diagonally into strips.
4. Place ginger strips and white parts of spring onions on the steaming dish.
5. Arrange the fish slices on top and add some more ginger strips.
6. Sprinkle the wolfberries and green strips of spring onions on top of the fish slices. Add a dash of white pepper on the fish slices.
7. In a separate bowl prepare the solution of soy sauce and water. Add a little sugar and mix well. Adjust the taste to your liking.
8. Pour the soy sauce solution into the steaming dish and steam it for 5-6 minutes.

Lemon honey chicken wings

Chicken wings are one of our favourite dishes. Preparation time is short and the result is always yummy! For busy working mummies like me, I would marinate the wings in the morning before going to work and pop them in the oven once I reached home. Sharing this easy recipe that I frequently used to prepare the wings.

Ingredients
10 chicken wings
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 lemon  

Marinate
Minced garlic
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
Dash of white pepper

Recipe
1. Put all the marinate ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Marinate the chicken wings for at least 4 hours.
3. Preheat the oven and arrange the marinated chicken wings on the tray.
4. Juice the lemon and drizzle over the wings.
5. Bake in the oven at 190 degree celcius for 15 minutes.
6. Brush the chicken wings with honey and continue to bake for at least 5 minutes till done.