Grilled Bird with Baked Broccolini

I know I have been lazy. No, not lazy to cook. In fact I have been cooking all along, just that there was no motivation to blog it down simply because time is a huge factor. With 3 kids and now helper-less, after a cookout and wash up, all I wanna do is to retreat back into my room to stone. Hahahah. 

Anyway, am running out of ideas what to prepare for the family's dinner. The usual rice and 3-4 dishes if taken everyday, really makes us grey. So, I decided to change out the menu for tonight and did a grilled bird with greens. Nothing can go wrong with chicken meal right? Lol!

Ingredient:

- 1 small Spring Chicken (discard head, neck and the butt)

- 1 onion (chopped into 4 rings)

- 1 blob of butter 

- Extra-virgin olive oil 

- Salt

- Broccolini

- 1 whole Garlic (chopped roughly)

- Lemon (halved)

- bowl of ice water

Other accompaniments: - optionals 

- baby potatoes 

- corns

- carrots 

Marinade:

- Cajun powder

- Paprika powder

- Garlic Salt

- Black Pepper

- Salt

Steps:

1. Wash the bird thoroughly by scrubbing the body with salt and wash it under the tap. Pat dry with kitchen towel and set aside. 

2. Salt the bird, follow by black pepper, then rub some Cajun powder and Prapika and finally a dash of garlic salt. Set aside for 4 hours or longer. 

3. Boil a pot of water, adding a dash of salt and some olive oil. Add in the Broccolini when the water boils. Remove the vegs when water starts to boil again, which is about 5 mins. Add the veg into a bowl of ice water. Remove and pat dry. 

4. After 4 hours, preheat the oven. Set to 180 degrees and switch to 60mins. Olives-oiled the tray. 

5. Place the 4 rings of onions in a 2 X 2 format. Lay the bird on top of the onion rings. Add the blob of butter on top of the bird. And .... Let it Roast, let it roast.

6.  20 mins into roasting, add in the optional accompaniments (baby potatoes carrots, corns). 

7. At the last 10 mins, add in the Broccolini and the chopped garlic. 

8.  Plate nicely and serve. Just before tucking in, drizzle some lemon juice onto the Broccolini and the bird for that refreshing taste. 

Enjoy!

Happy mum

Passionfruit Honey Mint Camomile Tea

Ok I was doing my Supermarketing when I saw a whole lot of passionfruits. To be honest, i super love Passionfruit for its sourish, refreshing and perk me up taste. And weather hasn't been too kind, with the readings in the 30-something-degrees. Figured I can do up a cooling drink for the folks at home. And we'll, it was also another good bonding session between the kids and me. 

Ingredients:

Camomile Tea (about 3-4 sachets) 

Honey x 3 teaspoons

Passionfruits x 6

Mint leaves x 3-5 sprigs (lightly crushed)

Strawberries (optional)

Steps:

1. Extract the passionfruits by cutting them into half and cupping out the pulps and seeds into a siever.

2. Drain the juice using a siever. 

3. Infused the teabags and set aside for about 5-8mins. 

4. Prepare the strawberries and mint leaves and set aside. 

5.  Pour the tea into a pitcher and add in the honey followed by the honey. 

6. Add in the strawberries and mint leaves. 

7. Send into the fridge and consume when it's cold. 

Happy cooling day!

Happy mum

Preserved Plums and Cherry Tomatoes

I'm 

Yeah, healthy snackings should be the choice instead of chips. The husband had craved for this addictive snacking delights and hence decided to satisfy his craves. 

Ingredients:

- cherry tomatoes

- sour plum (甜话梅) - about 5-6 or more depending on ur preference 

- honey

- ice water

- pot of boiling water

Steps:

1. Pour boiling water over the sour plum and set aside. 

2. Score a line over each tomato

3. Boil a pot of water and add the tomatoes in. Dish out after 15 seconds and submerge into ice water. 

 

4. Peel the skin. U may like to keep half of the tomatoes with skin intact and some peeled. I think that makes the colours more interesting. 

5. Drop the tomatoes into a glass jar and add in the soaked preserved plums. Add in the leftover plum water.

6. Add in 2 tablespoon of honey. 

7. Refrigerate for 1-2 days in the fridge before snacking away. 

Happy snacking!

Happy mum

Ginger Scallion Sauce

Condiments are so important. They usually play very good supporting role for all the mains. So today, I was supermarket-ing and saw a small bottle of ginger sauce and it is retailing $6.95! Well, I just had to have a try in doing a home-made bottle. 

Ingredient: 

Scallions (Spring Onions) x 3 sprigs

Ginger x half (about 20 slices)

Garlic x 3 large cloves

Oil x half cup

Salt x 1 teaspoon 

Remarks: the portion of the scallions : ginger : garlic should be 3:2:1

Steps:

1. Chop the scallions.  Set aside.

2. Sliced the ginger into strips and chop small. Set aside. 

3. Chop the garlic and set aside. 

4. Heat up the cup of oil. 

5. Pour the mixture together including the salt in a blender. Pour in the boiling oil. 

6.  Blend away. Dish out to cool before storage. 

Happy making!

Happy mum

Addictive Meatballs and Money Pouches

Here something amazingly simple but addictive that almost anyone can prepare in their kitchen. This will also be one of those dishes that you can rope in your little ones to bond over with while preparing for this. 😊

Ingredients:

A packet of mince meat ($2-$3 worth)

A tub of fish paste (I love the Bobo fish paste.)

3 pcs water chestnuts (minced roughly)

Half stick of carrot (minced roughly)

1/4 teaspoon of salt 

Dash of pepper

Dash of 5-spice powder (五香粉)

For money pouch:

Wanton Skin (云吞皮) - for money 

For meatball:

3 pcs Cream Crackers (break them up into crumbs)

The ingredients above makes about 50 pcs assorted of the money pouch and meatballs. 

Steps:

1. Mix all the ingredients (except cream crackers and wanton skin) using a fork until the paste becomes gluey. 

2. Separate the mixture into 2 parts. One set will be used for meatballs and the other will be used as money pouches. 

3. Working on the money pouches first, scoop about 3/4 teaspoon of paste onto the center of a piece of wanton skin.  Gather the excess skin and stick them together to create a pouch. 

㊙️ Tips: You can also wrap them up differently. Some ideas: samosa shapes, dumpling shapes or anything u fancy, so long the fillings doesn't spill out. Take care not to fill up the skin with too much fillings too to prevent the wanton skin from breaking.  Set aside. 

4. For the meatballs, roll the paste in your palm into little balls, about 3cm in diameter or slightly smaller than a rocher chocolate. Coat the balls with the cream biscuit crumbs. Set aside. 

5. Heat up a wok of oil in medium fire. When the oil is hot, fry the money pouches batch by batch. It will take about 2-3 mins for the skin to turn golden brown. Dish onto a plate of paper towels and set aside. 

6. Next, fry the meatballs. The meatballs will be done on about 2-3 mins too, depending on how big or small you have rolled them. 

㊙️ Tips: As the meatballs are coated with crumbs, you should first fry the money pouches then followed by the meatballs. Some crumbs may fall off from the meatball and will turn black (from over frying).  Hence if you fry the meatballs first follow by the money pouches, you will notice the wanton skin may be coated with these blackish crumbs. 

Happy Huat-ing!

Happy mum

Hong Kong Style Steamed Greasy Grouper

Ok, the eldest son super loves steam fish with soy sauce. He is a picky eater and whenever we dine at restaurants, he will always request for that one dish only. As it is, that is a super expensive dish and I can't keep feeding him with that!  Hence, I decided to show him that he can have his favorite at home too, at one-tenth of the restaurant price. 

Ingredients:

Greasy Grouper

Salt (rub over the fish and its cavity)

Salted Plum x 1

Spring onions x 2 sprigs (chopped into 2 inch length)

Ginger (5 big slices and 3 slices julienned - strips)

Rice Wine

Shao Xing wine

Sauce:

Mixture of:

Light soy sauce (2 table spoons)

Sesame oil (1 table spoon)

Water (3 table spoons)

Oil (2 tablespoons) - set aside. 

Steps:

1. After washing of fish, pat dry with paper towel. Salt the fish totally including its stomach. 

2. Lay 1/3 of the spring onions and 1/2 of the big slices of ginger on the plate. Stuff the fish stomach with another 1/3 of the spring onions and 2 slices of ginger. 

3. Rest the fish on the spring onions and ginger slices. Garnish the fish with the slices strips ginger. Place a sour plum next to the fish.

4. Pour 1 teaspoon of rice water over the fish. Then another half cap of the ShaoXing wine over the fish. 

5.  Send the fish into the steamer for 10mins. 

6. Prepare the soy sauce mixture. 

7. Heat up the oil. 

8. When 10 mins is up, remove the plate and pour away the water on the plate (from the steaming process). Place the fish back into the steamer. 

9. Add in the last 1/3 of the spring onions on top of the fish. 

10. Pour the hot oil over the body of the fish and onto the newly added spring onions. You will hear the lovely sizzling sound. 

11. Pour the soy sauce mixture over the fish. 

12. Cover back the lid of the steamer. 

13. Off fire after 1 min. Dish to serve 

There you go, an inexpensive dish that is so expensive in restaurants. The greasy grouper is $6 from NTUC.  The last steamed fish we had from a restaurant recently is a whopping $180. That's crazy crazy!

Happy mum