Monthly Archives: June 2021

Pan Fried Cod Fish with Soy Sauce

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MCO 3.0 Day 52
FMCO extended, as needed, since daily cases are still so high. I am not sure when daily cases can drop <4,000 if we continue doing the same thing but expecting different results. The light at the end of tunnel is the Covid-19 vaccination. Hope there’ll be more vaccination centres and we can achieve herd immunity sooner.

I tried another new recipe for dinner today. Pan fried cod fish with soy sauce. I like this better than the steam cod fish. It’s easier to cook and it’s tastier with crunchy skin and meat texture.

Ingredients:

  • 2 tbsp Soy Sauce
  • 1 tsp Sugar
  • Cod Fish
  • Starch
  • Cooking Oil
  • Salt
  • Black Pepper
  • Scallion
  • Coriander

 

Cooking method:

  • To prepare sauce, mix soy sauce and sugar and stir
  • Clean cod fish and pat dry with kitchen towel.

  • Coat both sides of cod fish with corn starch

  • Add cooking oil to a frypan
  • Once heated, sprinkle some salt to the oil.
  • Pan fry cod fish till golden brown

  • Sprinkle some black pepper on cod fish

  • Pour in mixed sauce

  • Decorate with scallion and coriander

I like the crispy texture of the cod fish and the sauce goes so well with the fish.

 

 

Fried Rice with Shrimps and Eggs

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MCO 3.0 Day 49: Lunch – Din Tai Fung inspired fried rice with shrimps and eggs

It’s flavourful, fragrant and pretty close to the restaurant standard, at fraction of the $25 price.
Ingredients:

Preparing prawns. There’s a method to make the prawns texture crunchy and I tried it today.

  • 12 mid size prawns – deshelled & deveined
  • 1 tsp of sugar
  • 1/2 tsp of baking soda
  • Cold water to cover prawns. The water must be cold, use some ice cubes and leave in fridge for 30 mins.

Other ingredients:

  • Cooking oil
  • 6 eggs, crack into a bowl
  • 4 cups of overnight rice
  • 1 1/2 tsp of chicken stock powder
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 1 tbsp of soya sauce
  • 2 stalks of spring onion
  • Dash of white pepper
  1. Heat pan in medium heat
  2. Cook prawns for about a minute or 2 on each side, dont over-cooked but about 80% done.
  3. Add oil to pan. Pour egg and stir around the egg to break the yolk. Cook until 80%, dont overcook as later we want rice to be coated with eggs.
  4. Put in rice and mix them up well. Make sure to separate rice so as not to clump together.
  5. Keep stiring to ensure rice is coated with eggs. Flip but not chop the rice.
  6. Add chicken stock powder and salt. Continuously flipping the rice and fry it till dry.
  7. Add in soya sauce to enhance flavour. Fry rice till crackling sound, jumping in wok so that it’s drier
  8. Add in spring onion and pepper to taste. Cook for a minute to let spring onion to release its flavour.

The good thing out of this MCO … I actually can cook!

Kimchi Bap

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MCO 3.0 Day 47: My 15 minutes lunch

Meal prep is my way to go for weekday meals while WFH. I will cook double portion for most of the food and use the 2nd portion to cook something else.

For today’s lunch, I used Jaden’s kimchi fried rice and cooked Kimchi bap. This upgraded kimchi fried rice is toasted for a lightly crispy crust with chewy edge from melted cheese. Quick meal and it’s perfect for my 15 minutes lunch today.

Ingredients:

  • Kimchi fried rice
  • ½ cup of shredded Mozzarella cheese
  • ½ cup of seaweed flakes
  • Pinch of toasted sesame seed

Directions:

  • Heat a fry pan on low heat.
  • Spread kimchi rice evenly on the fry pan.

  • Top the rice with mozzarella cheese.

  • Cover with lid and let cheese melt for 3 minutes.

  • Fold kimchi bap in half on a plate.

  • Toast sesame seeds on top and eat with seaweed flakes

I was just in time for my 1pm meeting.

Kimchi Fried Rice (Kimchi Bokkeumbap)

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MCO 3.0 Day 45: Jaden and his very first Kimchi Fried Rice

Jaden has to do a cooking video for his school homework and asked me what he should cook. I asked him to cook his favourite Kimchi fried rice, something quite easy to cook too. He said OK and asked me if I may guide him, ie his idea of “Mother and Son bonding time”.

He is actually quite fussy, wanting to do a good job.

Ingredients:

  • 3 tbsp (20g) cooking oil
  • 1/2 cups (40g) green onions, finely chop
  • Meat: 2 sausages (65g) sliced thinly. ham, bacon or pork belly
  • 1/3 tbsp (3g) sugar
  • 1/2 tbsp (5g) soy sauce
  • 1 cup (160g) kimchi, cut into bite sizes
  • ¼ cup kimchi juice or water
  • 3 cups of steamed rice
  • 2-3 tablespoons gochujang or 1/3 tbsp (3g) fine red pepper powder
  • 3 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
  • Seaweed flakes
  • 1 tablespoon roasted sesame seeds
  • Fried eggs

Directions:

  1. Heat up a pan. Add the oil.
  2. Stir-fry the green onion and meat.
  3. When meats are golden, add soy sauce and keep frying.
  4. When the moisture is gone, add kimchi and stir-fry over low heat.
  5. Add kimchi juice or water if the seasonings are clumped.
  6. Once the seasonings are thoroughly mixed, add instant rice and break it up with a ladle.
  7. When the rice is all broken up, stir-fry over heat.
  8. Add gochujang or red pepper powder.
  9. Add sesame oil (signature ingredient in Korean food as seasoning and flavor enhancer)
  10. Remove from the heat. Scoop kimchi fried rice onto a plate.
  11. Sprinkle with chopped green onion, seaweed flake and sesame seeds.
  12. Top with a fried egg for a simple but perfect meal!

He had his Kimchi fried rice for lunch and said “Hmmm …. this is actually quite nice”.

Ma Po Tofu

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MCO 3.0 Day 31

Jaden requested me to cook Ma Po tofu for him for quite awhile already. I had not tried cooking it, so it required a little bit of work. We had the recipe in the cooking book that I bought previously for my helper to cook for us. Today, I used it for my own reference.

  1. Marinade meat
    • 85g minced meat/chicken/prawns
    • A dash of oil
    • 1/2 tbsp corn-starch
    • 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce (or ½ tbsp light soya sauce)
    • 1 tbsp water
  2. 450 g soft tofu, cut into 1 cm cubes
  3. For Cooking
    • 2 tbsp oil
    • 2 cloves of minced garlic} – 30 seconds till nice aroma
    • ½ tbsp chopped ginger }
    • Add meat
    • 1 tbsp hot soybean paste (or bean paste and 2 chilis)
    • 1/2 cup stock or water
    • 1 tsp sugar
    • 1/2 tsp salt
    • 1 tbsp oyster sauce (or 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce)
    • 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce (optional)
    • 1/4 tsp Szechuan pepper powder
  4. Add tofu, cover the wok and cook till boil
  5. Mix for thicker texture and flavor
    • 1 tbsp cornstarch
    • 1 tbsp water
  6. 1 tsp sesame oil
  7. 1 tbsp chopped spring onion – for garnishing

I cooked bigger portion to share it with my sister. She had been cooking for us and I’m happy that I can pay forward now. Sister said “What a lucky day” albeit she’s the one who has been cooking for us. After dinner she messaged me “Yummy. I added rice just for your tofu”.

Jaden is happy and gave me 8 out of 10. He has been stressed over his exam. Food gives comfort. I will reduce the oil and need to improve on the meat texture. It’s a bit mushy.

Happiness is right in front of us. We don’t need special moments or special occasions to find it.