Braised Chicken with Bitter Gourd 苦瓜焖鸡 and Boon's Little Kitchen Cook Book

This is a very classic dish which most of us are very familiar with especially the Asian Chinese. Those children who do not favor bitter gourd will start to love this humble gourd once they are being introduced to this dish.  My children are no exceptional too.  When they were still at a tender age,  this is one of the many bitter gourd dishes which I introduced to them. Gradually, they had learned to like bitter gourd and in fact love this braised chicken with bitter gourd and fermented black beans.

I am glad to say that my preparation for this dish has improved since I came across this recipe from Boon's Little Kitchen, page 86. Boon's Little Kitchen is an ideal cookbook for those who are always scratching their head what to serve a "3 dishes 1 soup" meal for their beloved family. Well, with this cook book, you would not run out of ideas for simple yet wonderful and delicious home-cooked '3 dishes 1 soup" meal for your beloved family.  With just RM18, you will get 12 sets of  "3 dishes 1 soup" meals that comes with awesome and mouthwatering food pictures!!!  You may also like to visit his blog at http://boonslittlekitchen.blogspot.com.

Recipe source : Boon's Little Kitchen (with some minor modifications in red)

Ingredients :

- 1 bitter gourd (discard seeds and cut)

- 1/2 chicken (cut into bite sized)

- 1 tbsp fermented black beans/tau see (rinsed and roughly chopped)

- 1/2 tbsp minced garlic

- 200ml water

Marinate :

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1 tsp tapioca flour

Seasonings : (to taste)

- 1 tbsp oyster sauce

- 1 tsp of caramel sauce 

- a dash of sugar

Method :

1)  Marinate chicken for 30 minutes.

2)  Heat some oil in a medium sized pot.  Saute garlic and tau see until fragrant.

3)  Add in marinated chicken pieces.

4)  Fry until the meat become whitish. Add in bitter gourd.

5)  Add in seasonings.  Stir fry and mix well.

6)  Add water and cover.  Let it  cook for five minutes or until chicken pieces are cooked over low heat.

7) Finally, add a dash of sugar.  Stir and mix well.

8)  Dish out and serve with steamed rice.

Do add extra water if you like to mix your rice with the sauce

Isn't this a good way of introducing bitter gourd to your children?

Have a wonderful week ahead :)

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by Mich of Piece of Cake at this post.

I'm also linking this post with :Cook-Your-Books #4 hosted by Kitchen Flavours

To receive new updates, do LIKE me on FACEBOOK. Thanks!
http://www.bloglovin.com/en/blog/6015563 Follow this blog with bloglovin Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving me comments.. I really appreciate all your visits and comments! Have a nice day :)

Salmon in Japanese Vermont Curry

Japanese Vermont Curry is a  curry sauce mix which my children enjoy it very much as it has a touch of apple and honey. It comes in mild, medium hot and hot.  Hubby likes to stock up on Vermont Curry as it is very convenient and easy to prepare.  Moreover, it comes in quite handy when we have run out of ideas what to cook or have a craving for curry. 

We usually cooked it with chicken meat. Once I was very busy and asked hubby to pack food for dinner.  He said he would cook for us.  Of course, go ahead, dear...  I was grinning from ear to ear and here is the Salmon in Japanese Vermont Curry cooked by dear hubby!

It's very easy to prepare.  Even my girls can cook this too.

Ingredients :

- 2 cubes of Vermont Curry

- 1 salmon fillet (cubed)

- 2 potatoes (cubed)

- 1 cup of mixed Veggies

- 1 big onion (chopped)

- 3 to 4 cups of water (depending on how thick you want your sauce to be)

- oil

Method :

1)  For this, hubby just saute some chopped big onions in a medium pot until fragrant.

2)  Then, he added some cubed potatoes and mixed veggies and gave it a quick stir fry.

3)  Later, he added some water just enough for the sauce and let it boil.

4)  When the mixed veggies are almost cooked, he broke the curry sauce mix into pieces before adding it into the pot.

5) Cook over low heat and keep stirring until the curry cube is well mixed with the mixture.

6)  Lastly, he added pieces of salmon fillets.  Continue to simmer until the curry is thickened and the salmon in cooked.

7)  Dish up and serve it with steamed rice.

A simple dish with added special ingredient - LOVE

~Thanks dear for such a wonderful meal~

To receive new updates, do LIKE me on FACEBOOK. Thanks!
http://www.bloglovin.com/en/blog/6015563 Follow this blog with bloglovin Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving me comments.. I really appreciate all your visits and comments! Have a nice day :)

Refreshing Kelp with Old Cucumber Soup

Sea Kelp has a lot of health benefits and when make into soup, it's very refreshing especially with extra ginger added to it.  To know more about kelp, do click here--> Yakon Kelp Soup and Kelp Chicken Soup for its benefits and recipes.

 Before--> Dried Sea Kelp

After--> Soaked and washed Sea Kelp ready to be used

Ingredients :

- 1/2 free range chicken (chopped into chunks, blanched)

- 2 small old cucumber (washed, discard the seeds and cut)

- 1 bowl of sliced kelp (washed, soaked and cut)

- 3 thumb sized ginger (crushed)

- salt (to taste)

Method :

1)  Fill water in a pot enough for the soup.

2)  Add old cucumber, sea kelp and ginger.  Bring to boil.

3)  Then, add chicken and continue to boil at high heat for about 30 minutes.

4)  Lower the heat and simmer for about 2 hours.

5)  Season with salt.

Serve hot.

This is a very refreshing, healthy and nutritious soup.

Enjoy this with your loved one :)

To receive new updates, do LIKE me on FACEBOOK. Thanks!

http://www.bloglovin.com/en/blog/6015563 Follow this blog with bloglovin Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving me comments.. I really appreciate all your visits and comments! Have a nice day :)

Refreshing Sweet Potatoes Dessert

Having a bowl of refreshing sweet potatoes dessert on a lazy raining Sunday is heaven!  I would usually cook dessert during weekends when every member of my family is at home and we have time to enjoy it at our own sweet time instead of in a rush rush.

Ingredients :

- 4 medium sized sweet potatoes (peeled, cut and soaked in water so as to prevent it from turning dark, drained)

- 2 thumb sized ginger (crushed)

- 1 bunch of pandan leaves/screw pine leaves (washed, knotted)

- honeycomb sugar (to taste)

- enough water

Method :

1)  Fill water in a pot and add sweet potatoes and ginger.

2)  Bring to boil and let it simmer until the sweet potatoes is semi-cooked.

3)  Add pandan leaves and honeycomb sugar and continue to simmer until the potatoes are soft.

4)  Serve hot.

A very refreshing dessert.  Reduce the ginger is you are not a ginger lover.  As for me, I LOVE ginger and I like to add extra into the dessert.

Alternatively, you can also cook Barley with Sweet Potatoes (<-- click here for the recipe) too and it's also very refreshing. 

I am submitting this Post to Little Thumbs Up September - Pandan hosted by Joceline @ Butter, Flour & Me, organized by Z OE @ Bake For Happy Kids and Little Mui Mui @ My Favourites DIY .

To receive new updates, do LIKE me on FACEBOOK. Thanks!
http://www.bloglovin.com/en/blog/6015563 Follow this blog with bloglovin Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving me comments.. I really appreciate all your visits and comments! Have a nice day :)

Fragrant Snake Gourd Egg (Meatless Recipe)

Previously, I had posted a dish on Snake Gourd (Pudalankai) Stir Fried with Salted Egg and the benefits of snake gourd.  As such,  I am not going to brag on its benefits here as I don't want you to get bored with my grandma's stories.  Just click at the link on Snake Gourd (Pudalankai) Stir Fried with Salted Egg if you want to know more about the goodness of eating snake gourd.

This dish is slightly different as I added curry leaves and turmeric powder to the dish. Besides  that, I used the leftover salted egg white from my previous Sha Zui Fish with Salted Egg Yolk.    Frankly speaking, it's so much better than the previous Snake Gourd (Pudalankai) Stir Fried with Salted Egg and my girls love it very much :)

Ingredients :

- 1 snake gourd (halved and use a spoon to scoop out the seed, sliced)

- 3 eggs (beaten with a dash of salt)

- 1 mashed hard boiled salted white eggs (you can used whole salted egg.  I only used the whites as it was the leftover from previous dish)

- 1 tbsp dried shrimps (washed and finely chopped)

- 1 tbsp garlic (finely chopped)

- 2 sprigs of curry leaves

- 1 tsp turmeric powder

-  a dash of Chinese cooking wine (optional)

- soy sauce (to taste)

- Ghee oil for frying

Method :

1)  Heat some ghee oil in a pan and saute garlic and dried shrimps until fragrant.

2)  Add sliced snake gourd and stir fry for a few seconds.

3)  Push aside the snake gourd and pour in beaten egg.  When the egg is about to set, scramble it and mix it with the snake gourd and stir fry.

4)  Add turmeric powder and stir well.

5)  Then add mashed salted egg white and curry leaves.  Continue to stir fry until aromatic.

6)  Turn off the heat and add a dash of soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine to taste.

7)  Stir and mix well.  Dish up and serve.

This is a very healthy and yummy dish.

It would be more flavourful if you add some red chilies or bird eye's chilies.  I had ran out of chilies and just made do with whatever is available.

Hope you like it.  Do enjoy :)

I am submitting this to the Little Thumbs Up "Egg" event organized by Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY and hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out. 

To receive new updates, do LIKE me on FACEBOOK. Thanks!

http://www.bloglovin.com/en/blog/6015563 Follow this blog with bloglovin Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving me comments.. I really appreciate all your visits and comments! Have a nice day :)