Easy-Peasy Salmon

Ingredients:
2 fillets of fresh boneless salmon
Olive oil
Spring onion
Water

Seasoning
Dark soy sauce
Light soy sauce
Balsamic Vinegar
Lea & Perrins
Dry sherry cooking wine (Hua Tiow Chiew can be used as well)
Sugar to taste

Garnishing
Coriander (optional)

Method:
1. Heat up olive oil. Pan fry salmon.
2. Add dash of dark soy sauce, maggi seasoning, balsamic vinegar, lea & perrins and cooking wine.
3. Let the sauce seep into the salmon. Sprinkle sugar on salmon.
4. Wash and cut tomatoes (optional) and spring onion.
5. Turn salmon over to cook other side.
6. Add spring onion. Add a bit of water (more if you prefer more gravy). Simmer.
7. Garnish with coriander before serving.

REVIEW:
When cooked: Saturday 25 November 2006
Which meal: Dinner
Which try: Have cooked this many times
Missing ingredients: None
Exchanged ingredients: None
Difficulty Level: 2
Others: Nil

Verdict: Brian loves salmon cooked this way. It's really easy to cook. No garlic to chop or ginger to pound. Serve with rice and you won't need any other dishes. My kind of dish, easy-peasy.

Braised chicken with onion (Difficulty: 2)

1. Heat 2 tbs oil, fry 1 tsp minced garlic and a few slices of ginger till fragrant. Stir in sliced large yellow onion and fry till slightly soft.
2. Add chicken and fry well.
3. Add 1 tbs oyster sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce, a big of rock sugar, 1 tsp hua tiow chiew and 1/2 cup water.
4. Braise over medium heat for 10 mins.
5. Lower heat and simmer for 20 mins (covered). Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Add spring onions as garnishing if desired. Add 1 tsp sesame oil before serving.

Adhe's oxtail soup

Source: Adhe (Indonesian buddy I met in Frankfurt)

Ingredients:
6 pieces oxtails
5 slices garlic
5 shallots
Tomato
Carrot
Onion
Pepper

1. Boil oxtail with salt.
2. Fry garlic and shallots till fragrant.
3. Add too oxtail soup. Add tomato, carrot, and onion.
4. Pepper to taste.

REVIEW:

When cooked: Long time ago, in Frankfurt
Which meal: Lunch
Missing ingredients: Nil
Exchanged ingredients: Nil
Difficulty Level: 3
Others: It was lots nicer when I ate this at Adhe's place.

Verdict: I love oxtail soup but no one else in the family will drink it.

Wendy's fried ginger liver

Source: Wendy Aw

Ingredients:
Ginger
Garlic
Spring onion
Dark soy sauce
Light soy sauce
Wine
Sesame oil
Pepper
Sugar

Method:

1. Fry ginger and garlic and spring onion.
2. Add liver (liver cut into small pieces).
3. Add wine, light ss, dark ss
4. Add sugar and water to taste.
5. Add sesame oil and pepper when done.

REVIEW:

When cooked: Long time ago, in Frankfurt
Which meal: Dinner
Missing ingredients: Nil
Exchanged ingredients: Nil
Difficulty Level: 2
Others: I'm the only one in the house who loves liver, so can't cook this often.

Verdict: Easy and yummy. Wendy, unlike me, is an instinctive cook. One look and she'll be able to cook the dish. Let's kill her.

Beef rendang

Source: Various

Ingredients:
1 kg beef, cubed
2 serai, crushed
2 daun kunyit
3 daun jeruk
3 daun salam
1 tbsp asam jawa
1 to 1.5 l coconut milk
salt to taste

Blend (A)
10 fresh chillies (5 if from Toom)
2.5 cm ginger
2.5 cm kunyit or 1 tsp turmeric powder
2.5 cm lengkuas/galanggal
10 shallots
5 cloves garlic

Instructions:
1. Tumis A with crushed serai/lemongrass, daun kunyit/turmeric leaves, and other leaves (optional) till fragrant. I recently added a few kaffir lime leaves.
2. Add coconut milk. Recipe calls for 1.5l, but 1 l should be enough.
3. Add 1 tbs asam jawa and salt, boil.
4. Add beef.
5. Cook on very low fire till meat turns dark brown (5 hours) and there's very little gravy. If you don't find it sweet enough, add some palm sugar.

When cooked: Long time ago, in Frankfurt
Which meal: Lunch
Missing ingredients: Nil
Exchanged ingredients: Nil
Difficulty Level: 5
Others: Maybe it's the beef I use, but the rendang never gets as tender as I like it. Best rendang I've tasted is Karen's mum's and Peramakan's (restaurant in Joo Chiat).

Verdict: Well, it's rendang, and rendang is always a treat for Eddie and I. Brian hasn't learnt how to eat it yet.

2008 Update: I got round to cooking this dish again, after 3 years! This time in Moscow. And I had to omit daun kunyit, daun salam and daun jeruk as I didn't have these. Still turned out all right. And this time, Brian has learned to eat rendang and ate 2 plates of rice with it!

Note to self: This takes a long time, so start early, not at 5pm!

Sept 2008 Update: Cooked this again, and this time I started early about 1pm, so rendang was ready for dinner. I've found the right cut of beef in Moscow so am so pleased cos the meat turns out so tender and delicious. You've gotta look out for cuts which have lots of tendons and some fats. This time I boiled just 500ml of coconut milk first, and added the rest of the 500ml (about 100ml each time) as the liquid gets reduced. Not sure if this helped, but the rendang sure tasted good today.

Esther's fried chicken wings

Source: Esther Heng

Ingredients:
Chicken wings
Oyster Sauce
Finely chopped garlic
Pepper
Bit of baking soda
Flour
Cold water

Instructions:

1. Marinade chicken wings with oyster sauce, garlic and pepper.
2. Before frying, add cold water, baking soda and flour.
3. Deep fry.

When cooked: Long time ago, in Frankfurt
Which meal: Lunch
Missing ingredients: Nil
Exchanged ingredients: Nil
Difficulty Level: 3
Others: Nil.

Verdict: Very popular in the Leong household. But too messy for me, the amount of oil needed for deep-frying always puts me off making this dish. It's really delicious though.

Dawn's baked chicken wings

Source: Dawn Wu

Ingredients:

8 chicken wings
4 Tbsp light soy sauce
2 Tbsp wine
1 Tbsp honey
Spring Onion
1 tbsp sugar (optional)

Instructions:
1. Marinate wings with all ingredients, bake at 200 degrees.

Missing ingredients: Nil
Exchanged ingredients: Nil
Difficulty Level: 2
Others: Dawn cooked this for CNY eve dinner 2005 in Frankfurt, it was superb.

Verdict: I love this dish. Have forgotten how easy it was to cook this till I started looking back at my recipes. Everyone in the family likes it.

Karen's baked chicken wings

Source: Karen Tan

Ingredients:
6 chicken wings
Pepper
Salt
2 Tbsp curry powder
1 tsp coriander powder
2 Tbsp tomato sauce
Oil

Instructions:
1. Marinade chicken with pepper, salt, curry powder, coriander powder, tomato sauce.
2. Rub oil on chicken before baking at 200 degrees.

REVIEW:

When cooked: Long time ago, in Frankfurt
Which meal: Dinner
Missing ingredients: Nil
Exchanged ingredients: Nil
Difficulty Level: 2
Others: Karen cooks this better than I do.

Verdict: I love this dish. Very spicy, got kick. Sean obviously can't eat this. Brian's okay with it. Eddie doesn't like it.

Mum's steamed chicken wings

Source: Mum

Ingredients:

Sesame Oil
Ginger

Instructions:

1. Place chicken wings on top of ginger.
2. Add sesame oil
3. Steam for 30 minutes.

Note: Other parts of chicken can be used as well.

Mum's baked chicken

Source: Mum

Ingredients:

Pepper
Chinese Wine
Sesame Oil
Light Soy sauce
Oyster sauce (optional)
Ginger
Black Soy sauce
Honey
Slice of big onion

Instructions:

1. Marinade chicken with pepper, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, Chinese wine, Sesame oil and ginger for 2 hours.
2. When ready to cook, rub black soy sauce and honey on chicken.
3. Place chicken on top of sliced big onion.
4. Over 200 degrees skin up, turn occasionally. 15 min each side.

Others: Can be fried too. Use either wings or thighs.

MIL's sam cham bak (3-layered pork)

Source: MIL

Ingredients:

1 pack Sam Cham Bak
Pinch of salt
Corn Flour
Oyster sauce
Special light soy sauce
Ginger slices
7 slices garlic
7 slices shallots
1 cube rock sugar
Black soy sauce
Chinese wine

Instructions:

1. Marinate sam cham bak with salt, corn flour, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, and ginger for half a day.
2. Pound garlic and shallots. Fry till fragrant.
3. Add pork. Fry till slightly brown.
4. Add black soy sauce.
5. Add water, bring to boil.
6. Add rock sugar. Wine.

Others: Add oyster sauce and sugar to taste, if needed.

MIL's steamed pork ribs

Source: MIL

Ingredients:

1 pack ribs
Pinch of salt
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 Tbsp Chinese wine
Ginger
1/2 clove garlic
1/2 Tbsp Hoisin sauce
1/2 tsp sugar

Instructions:

1. Marinade pork ribs with salt, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, Chinese wine and ginger for half a day.
2. Pound or chop garlic. Fry.
3. Add hoisin sauce, sugar, turn off fire.
4. Stir pork ribs in.
5. Steam everything on big fire first, then small.
6. Add salt and sugar to taste.

Others: Add Chinese Wine when done (optional)

M4M's braised pork ribs with onions

Source: Mandy from M4M

Ingredients:
500g prime ribs (cut into 3" sections)
1 large onion(yellow type)
5 button mushrooms (optional)
some ginger slices
1 tsp minced garlic
2 cups water

Seasonings:
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce (I use kwong cheong thye Best grade)
a little sugar
1 tsp shaoxing wine
1 tsp sesame oil
a little salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Wash pork ribs and cut into long sections. Cut onions into shreds. Cut button mushrooms into 4 slices each.
2.Heat 2 tbsp of oil, fry ginger and garlic till fragrant then stir in onion. Add pork ribs and fry well then add oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, wine and some water. Stir well.
3. Transfer pork ribs and the rest of the ingredients into a pot. Braise over medium heat for 10mins. Lower the heat and simmer for 20mins.
4.Lastly, season with sesame oil, salt and pepper before serving.

REVIEW:

When cooked: Saturday 18 November 2006
Which meal: Dinner
Which try: First
Missing ingredients: Mushrooms
Exchanged ingredients: Hua Tiow Chiew instead of Shaoxing, Kwong Chong Thye Standard instead of Best Grade.
Difficulty Level: 3
Others: The ribs were still not tender after the required time, so I cooked it for at least 30 min more.

Verdict: Brian loved the dish, said it replaces Coca-Cola Pork Ribs as his favourite. Eddie finished all 4 ribs. Sean finished his dinner. I found the taste all right, a bit diluted.