Fried Rice with Minced Beef and Lettuce

Hobbit husband prepared this HK style fried rice adapted from one of our Periplus Mini Cookbooks. He is really inspired to become a good cook (and a good husband of course) and plan to take over the kitchen the next time we have guests over! In fact, he has been taking over most of the time, especially in doing the dishes. As I am typing this out, he is busy baking cookies!

If you enjoy Chinese fried rice, you got to try this recipe which we modified a bit to suit our tastebuds. I really like the combination of lettuce + minced beef in this recipe. When mixed together with other ingredients used in this recipe, the lettuce + minced beef brought a lot of Chinese flavor to the fried rice. So here's the ingredients...

Marinade:
2 tsp light soy
1 tsp sugar
1tsp cornflour
pinch pepper
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup minced beef
5 tsp oil
1 egg, beaten
3 cups cooked rice
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup lettuce, shredded
1 tsp diced spring onion
1 tsp sesame oil

1. Combine all marinade ingredients except for the olive oil. Then add the beef and set aside for 10 mins.
2. Heat wok with 3 tbsp of oil and fry the minced beef until it just loses its pinkness, breaking it up with a fork as it cooks.
3. In a clean wok, heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil and scramble the egg for 20 sec. Stir in the cooked rice and saute well.
4. Add the light soy and pepper, minced beef and shredded lettuce to fry evenly. Sprinkle in the diced spring onions and the sesame oil. Transfer to a serving dish.

This measurement serves 2. :)

Stir-fried Mixed Vegetables

This was the only vegetables I had for the CNY gathering.

Ingredients without exact measurements:

soft white fungus, soaked and trimmed (You can use black fungus too!I ran out of black fungus)
baby corn, sliced to half
canned button mushrooms, halved
cauliflower, cut into sprigs
carrot, sliced
broccoli, cut into florets
soaked and cooked Chinese mushrooms, halved
1 tbsp olive oil
1/3 tsp salt
1/3 cup vegetable stock (use cubes)
1 tsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp mushroom sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil

1. Boil a small pan of water and blanch the white fungus. Rinse in cold water, drain and set aside. Blanch the baby corn and the button mushroom in the same pan of water and rinse.
2. Heat the olive oil in a wok. Add salt, cauliflower and carrot and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the baby corn and broccoli, button and fresh Chinese mushrooms and white fungus. Stir to combine.
3. Pour in the stock and continue cooking for 1 minute. Season with soy sauce, mushroom sauce, sugar and sesame oil.
4. Adjust the flavor to taste.
5. Serve.

Five Spices Chicken and Egg Herbs

I tried a new recipe today and tadaa...
Poured too much spices. Must lesson the spices next time.

Beef Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Mixed Vegetables

The next day we grilled the steak with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables as the side dishes. We wanted a quick fix so we used these readymades...

Just had to mix it with water and put it into the microwave.

Stir-fried with some sprinkles of salt.

Quite heavy for dinner! :)

Beef Steak with Baked Potato and Salsa

I realized that I have been unproductive since coming back from Sabah these few days. What is worst is that I don't have the appetite to eat anything but whole wheat bread + nutella and more nutella. Only chocolates and chocolaty stuff could satisfy my taste buds so far. This evening I decided to put something together and try to be myself again. So I asked Hobbit to do the shopping so I could prepare everything. Hence we had beef steak with baked potato and salsa for Sabbath dinner! It was indeed a lovely and enjoyable meal. Hobbit testified to it and told me he especially liked the baked potatoes and the half done steak.

Since this was a impromptu self-created recipe, I am quite hesitant to share. Didn't put so much thought on the ingredients unlike other dishes. Thus I don't know whether it is any better.

Two problems. One, I overestimated the bake time of the potatoes. They actually took longer to bake. Two, we had no proper table knife for the steak! Tomorrow lunch time will be another round of steak since we have another big chunk marinating inside the fridge. Wonder what will the side dishes be...

Happy Sabbath everyone!

Daron's Burger Sandwiches

Daron, Deanna, Lorena and Julie did an impromptu visit early one Sunday morning. Hobbit and I only managed to brush our teeth the minute they reached our apartment door. I opened the fridge and found that we had enough ingredients to put a burger sandwich together. Knowing that I have in my house someone who is good at preparing food, I asked Daron to be the chef of the day!

So here are the ingredients he used:

1. Whole wheat bread
2. Sliced cheese
3. Lettuce
4. Tomatoes
5. Chicken burger
6. Butter
7. pepper
8. Tomato/chili sauce (optional)

Method:
Prepare the bread, spread some butter to the bread, bake the burgers, slice the burgers horizontally into half, slice the tomatoes, wash the lettuce, put everything together, sprinkle some pepper on to the burgers, bake the prepared sandwiches and viola!

That easy!

Thanks a lot for the scrumptious breakfast Daron. Good luck with your next journey!