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.