Fish Cake and Char Siew Noodles with Fish Ball Soup

I bought some juicy fish cake at Chinatown Complex this morning. That inspired me to make my own "konloh mee".

My version has all my favourite ingredients.





No lard. I used pumpkin seed oil instead. Just a dash of it together with ketchup, chili sauce, ground black pepper and the juice of one lime.





Fresh noodles must be eaten the moment they are ready or they will turn into a soggy lump of starch. So cook the soup before you start on the noodles.

Mini spinach is so tender when blanched in a stock made with dried silver fish and a clove of garlic. The fish balls give the soup extra oomph. Ground black pepper helps to balance the flavours.




Cook the noodles, put them in the prepared sauce, mix. Top the noodles with fish cake and char siew that have been warmed in the microwave for a few seconds. Garnish with chopped spring onions.




"Konloh mee" with fish ball and spinach soup. A healthier version with no heart-clogging lard.

Cinnamon Buns

I love cinnamon buns.

But I don't like the mass produced ones sold in the shops.

They smell.

So I made my own.

Cinnamon buns are scrumptious with tea.




They are easy to make too.

First make a dough in a bread machine.

Roll it out and brush it with melted butter.






Next, sprinkle the dough with raisins, brown sugar and cinnamon.

Leave a border along one edge of the dough.





Then, roll the dough up like a Swiss roll.

Make sure you start from a covered edge and roll towards the uncovered border.




Press the edges together to seal the roll before slicing it.





Place the slices in a lightly oiled tin and cover it with cling wrap.

Put the tin in a warm place to allow the dough to rise.




After about 40 minutes, it will look like this.




Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and bake the buns for about 20 minutes.



Melt some sugar in a bit of water to make a thick syrup.

Brush the buns with the syrup once they are out of the oven.




Let the buns cool on a wire rack.

Eat them while they are warm.




The buns can be kept in the fridge for a week.

Warm them in the microwave oven in the morning for a yummy breakfast.

But they are so delicious they might all be eaten the moment they are done.

One-Egg Scramble

Eggs are perfect scrambled with cheese.

Some may say that's too much of a good thing.

To lessen the guilt, use only one egg in the scramble.

Add tomato to give it a healthful boost.

First fry the tomato with a clove of garlic and one shallot in a bit of olive oil.



Beat one egg with grated parmean and add to the tomato.



Season with freshly ground black pepper. Turn off the heat when the egg forms clumps.

I prefer not to add salt because I like the natural savoury taste of the egg and parmesan.




Spread mayonnaise on two slices of home-made wholemeal bread and pile the egg onto one of them.





Press the other slice on top of the egg, cut the sandwich in half and serve at once.





Oh, and take a picture before you eat the sandwich.

I had some spinach soup to go with it.

Lily's Stuffed Pumpkin

I had a pumpkin sitting on my dining table for two weeks.

Lily saw it and gave me this recipe for steamed stuffed pumpkin.

First cut off the top of the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds.

Fill the pumpkin with sliced boneless chicken breast seasoned with oyster sauce, pepper and a dash of sesame oil.



Steam the pumpkin for about 40 minutes.



When it's cooked, transfer it to a serving dish.

Scoop out the chicken together with the pumpkin flesh and serve warm.

The pumpkin held its shape very well and the chicken was surprisingly tender even though it had been cooking for 40 minutes.

I enjoyed this very much. 

The next time I cook this, I will marinate the chicken in curry.

I am looking forward to pumpkin curry.

Pissaladiere - Almost

I had Provence on my mind.

That led me to pissaladiere.

I tried making some.

It was somewhat difficult to be true to Nicoise tradition when I had only 4 olives and 2 anchovy fillets.

So I chopped up the olives instead of using them whole.

I then mashed the anchovies to a paste.

Voila - pissalat, minus the herbs.

Just so the pissaladiere won't look too dull I added cherry tomatoes, blanched and skinned.

Then, I thought why not some sun-dried tomatoes as well.

To take things a bit further, I spread tomato paste on the dough with the "pissalat" before heaping on the fried onions, tomatoes and olives and some grated parmesan.

Hmmm - maybe I made pizza instead!

In any case, it was a delicious lunch eaten with some carrots left over from dinner.

Sister Number 2 and 5 were the beneficiaries of this pissaladiere experiment.

Leftovers

Some people like to turn leftovers into new dishes.

I like to eat them mostly as is.

All that's needed is a bit of display skill.

My Christmas dinner tasted just as yummy the day after.

Virginia ham with honey and pineapple glaze, apple sauce, cranberry, pineapple and ginger chutney, salad, steamed pumpkin and mashed potato.

All home-made.

Strictly speaking, the pumpkin was not from Christmas.

I had steamed it 2 or 3 days earlier for lunch.

But it did kind of go with the Christmas theme.

So there you go, leftovers that look good and taste even better.