Braised Pork Bun (Kong Bak Bao / 扣肉包)

Braised Pork (Kong Bak / 扣肉)  is a popular Chinese dish, and even catering services include that in their menu. People eat it with buns and name it Kong Bak Bao, 扣肉包, or Braised Pork Buns. It's so delicious and easy to make! My son loves this dish hence we want to try it out and learned from our senior relatives!

Braised Pork Bun (Kong Bak Bao / 扣肉包)

Does that make you drool? It's really a very simple process to cook and you just have to follow the below steps.

Ingredients

500g of Pork Belly

1 tablespoon of oil

4 tablespoon of dark soy sauce

6 dried mushrooms

6 de-shelled hard boiled eggs

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

4 cloves

6 garlics

4 Tau Pok (Dried Beancurd)

10 sugar cubes

Lettuce

Buns

Steps

1. Soak the dried mushrooms till soften. Cut into slices and squeeze the water out.

2. Blanche the pork belly. 

Blanching the Pork Belly for 2 minutes in hot boiling water

3. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil, and fry the pork belly till it become brown under medium heat for 10 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce and fry for about 5 minutes.

4. Add 1 liter of water, cinnamon stick, star anise, cloves, garlic, mushrooms, sugar into the pot and 2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce. Simmer for 1 hour under medium heat.

5. Add the de-shelled hard boiled eggs and tau pok (cut into fours) after an hour and under slow heat to simmer.

Frying the Pork Belly with dark sauce mixture 

6. Cut into thin slices before serving. You may use lettuce to add the colour of the home-made sandwich! You may accompany this dish with rice.

How to eat

1. Place a piece of lettuce between the bun.

2. Add a thin slice of the braised pork belly inside.

3. Munch!

Notes

1. Make sure you don't over burn in the initial frying of the pork belly. Medium to high heat will do.

2. Do not use too much of the spices. Use the amount as stated above.

3. You may wish to simmer as long as about 2 hours, till the meat is softer.

4. For the buns, you may wish to get the ready made ones from supermarkets.

5. Sugar cubes are optional as it enhances the sweetness of the entire dish.

Stir Fry Petai

Petai are great dishes to serve as appetizers for your meals. 

Stir Fried Petai with Prawns

Ingredients

A packet of petai (100-150g)

2 big red chilli (de-seed)

1 tablespoon of Salt

1 tablespoon of Soy sauce

2 tablespoon of Oil

(Optional) Some Prawns

Frying in progress

Steps

1. Wash the petai, and cut into half.

2. De-seed the big chilli, and chop into 1cm width.

3. Heat oil with salt, add petai and chilli. Fry till fragrant. After 5 minutes, add the soy sauce and the prawns. 

4. Serve.

Notes

1. Cutting petai needs patience and at times, there will be worms inside. Discard those petai seeds with them. Don't be shocked.

2. You may wish to exclude the prawns and make it a pure vegetarian dish. It's delicious.

3. You may wish to add more chilli padi to enhance the spicyness. 

Corn and Carrot Soup (with Chinese Yam aka Huai Shan 淮山)

A healthy soup that won't go wrong! My children love to drink soup and they love corn. Hence, it's easy to prepare different types of soups with corn in it! Corns have natural sweetness to make the soup fragrant. And honestly, it's very easy to make this soup.

Corn and Carrot Soup

Ingredients

2-3 corns

1 carrot

Some pork slices

15cm Chinese Yam (淮山)

Throw all the ingredients into the pressure cooker

Steps

1. Chop the corn, carrot and Chinese yam into 2cm width.

2. Add 3 bowls of water into the pot with the pork slices and the ingredients.

3. Boil for 30 minutes.

4. Serve.

Notes

1. I use organic corn as I feel they are much healthier.

2. For carrots, I usually don't remove the skin as it contains lots of vitamins. Rinse well the carrots and eat with the skin.

3. Chinese Yam is great for digestive system and it's really sweet as it blends well with the meat and corn.

Nasi Lemak Rice

Nasi Lemak Rice! It's also known as Coconut rice, and it tastes superb with sambal chilli, fried chicken wings and fried egg.

Our very own Nasi Lemak

Crispy Fried Chicken Wings

Recently, we tried out fried chicken wings for the first time at our house! And it was so successful! Even our guests love it so much.

 Healthy Crispy Fried Chicken Wings

Ingredients

20 Chicken Wings

5 tablespoons of Sesame Oil

5 tablespoons of Light Soy Sauce

2 tablespoons of Salt

A few dashes of Pepper

Marinated Chicken Wing

Steps

1. Marinate the chicken wings as shown in the list above, for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat the Philips Air Fryer for 3 minutes at 160C.

3. Place about 10 pieces of chicken wings into the pan. Air fry for 10 minutes.

4. Turn up the heat to 180C for 10 minutes to make the chicken wings crispy brown.

5. Serve.

Air Frying the chicken wings. 

Notes

1. We didn't add cooking oil in this recipe, meaning it's a healthier way of cooking the chicken wings.

2. It's so much easier compared to conventional cooking! And we are just so amazed with the finished product.

3. We used a piece of aluminum foil at the bottom of the Air Fryer, so as to have easy washing after cooking.

Nasi Lemak Chilli (Sambal Chilli)

Nasi Lemak Chilli (Sambal Chilli) has lots of variation, and I managed to learn from Eve's auntie, who used to work in a Baba family for over 8 years! Hence she taught me the recipe and it's totally delicious! One important point to take note is: Good food takes effort and patience. This dish honestly involves persistence and hardwork. Feel that in school, detentions should get the students to do the pounding with mortar and pestle. It takes mind and physical work to complete the task.

Nasi Lemak Chilli (Sambal Chilli)

Ingredients

6 candle nuts

4 pieces of belachan of 1cm thickness

50g of dried chilli

500g of chopped onions

3 tablespoons of brown sugar

6 tablespoons of coconut milk

6 tablespoons of cooking oil

Candle nuts and pieces of belachan

Chopped onions

Steps

1. Soak dried chilli with hot water till moist. Remove the seeds and pound the chilli flesh using a mortar and pestle till it's into a paste. Put into a bowl.

2. Pound the chopped onions and put into a bowl.

Picture of me with the mortar. It takes effort to keep pounding and pounding!

3. Pound the candle nuts and belachan together. Slowly add the onions together with it. Make sure they become paste-like. Do in batches.

Finished product of the paste with onions

4. Hand mix the chilli and the paste together.

5. Heat up oil and fry the chilli paste till fragrant (about 20 minutes), and add the sugar and coconut milk.

Frying of the chilli paste and it's fragrant!

6. Leave it to cool and serve!

End product of the Nasi Lemak Chilli. You can even eat it on it's own!

Notes

1. Candle nuts are used to absorb the moisture from the onions and chilli. It's a small tip from my Auntie.

2. The pounding takes about 30 minutes to complete. No pain, no gain.

3. The coconut milk can be freshly squeezed or bought off from the supermarkets.

4. Do not add too much belachan as it may cause the whole chilli paste to have much sour smell.

5. Eat this chilli with rice. It's very delicious and addictive! Give it a try!

Egg with Silverfish

This dish is superb with porridge and it's so easy to cook!

Occasions
Lunch
Dinner

Ingredients
200g of fresh silverfish
3 eggs
1 tbsp light soy sauce
Oil

Fresh silverfish

Steps
1. Wash the fresh silverfish.
2. Wash the eggs and beat them in a bowl with light soy sauce.
3. Mix well the silverfish with the egg.
4. Heat up oil and add the mixture.
5. Fry till fragrant!

Make sure that the silverfish are all swimming in the eggs.

Notes
1. These fresh silverfish are so nutritious! Rich in calcium. And they are so easy to manage.
2. The amount of oil is subjective. Some prefer more oily eggs.
3. You may add spring onions under Step 2 to add the flavor of the egg!

Fried Egg with Fresh Silverfish

Crispy Onion Shallots

Shallots are great for any kind of toppings! From plain eating, to breads, and to even toppings on plain rice! We love it and our children like the crispiness!

Crispy Fried Shallots

Occasions
Lunch
Dinner

Ingredients
20 small onions
Some salt
Oil

Steps
1. Slice the onions into consistently thin slices. Dry them with kitchen towels.
2. Heat up cooking oil with some salt.
3. Once it's heated, add the chopped onions into the oil, make sure they are well-covered.
4. After 7 minutes, they will turn to light brown and get ready to take them up.

Notes
1. Do not use too high heat. Medium heat will do.
2. Always monitor the shallots. Do not over cook them as it will cause sore throat when you eat them.
3. You can store them in air tight containers.
4. The remainder oil is excellent for porridge seasoning and frying of vegetables!

Make sure that the fried shallots are well covered with oil

Fried Silverfish

This dish is perfect for porridge, toppings on dishes, eat with bread etc. It is very versatile and the good news is that my children love it too!

You can get small fresh silverfish from wet markets and it costs around $2-$3 a packet.

Occasions
Breakfast
Lunch
Tea break
Dinner

Ingredients
Silverfish
Cooking oil
Garlic

Steps
1. Soak the silverfish in cool water for about 20 minutes. This is to remove the excess salt in the silverfish.
2. Dry the silverfish with kitchen papers.
3. Heat the cooking oil at medium high and place the damp silverfish with garlic into the pot.
4. After 7-8minutes, the silverfish will become brownish and you can take them up.
5. Place on kitchen papers to absorb any excess oil.
6. Serve.

Keeping
You can keep them in air tight glass bottles or plastic containers. This is to keep them crispy.

Pork Porridge

For children, at times they need porridge in their diet. Hence for my children, I prepare for them daily porridge and one of the type is pork porridge. I will add in a few vegetables, so that the whole meal will be a well-balanced one. And it's really commenting that they finish their lunch most of the time!

The best thing is that the whole preparation and cooking time is around 10-15 minutes. I would prefer them to have these home cooked food, rather than those quick fix such as bao, rice crackers, biscuits etc to bring to school.

Occasions
Breakfast
Picnic
Dinner

Ingredients (for 2 children)
1 cup of rice
5 tbsp of minced pork
6 cherry tomatoes (halved)
3 white button mushrooms (diced)
3 fresh black fungus (chopped)
Some spinach leaves
Some sweet tapioca (sliced)

Steps
1. Place 3 cups of water together with the rice and sweet tapioca. Place them on medium high heat. Cover the pot throughout.
2. Place the minced pork in a bowl of hot water. Stir it so as to remove the blood. Place the blanched meat into the pot.
3. Place the mushrooms and the black fungus after 5 minutes.
4. Place the spinach and the cherry tomatoes after 8 minutes.
5. Let it boil for another 2 minutes.
6. Serve.

Asparagus with Squid

A little about Asparagus
Asparagus are delicious vegetables and it's better to get thicker ones. They are usually from Australia. The thinner ones are from Thailand. *Do note not to get those bases that look quite dried up. These asparagus are old and not tasty at all.

Asparagus are amazing because they are able to absorb the sweetness from seafood and enhancing it's original flavor. I will usually peel off the skin of the asparagus because it is usually too thick. After peeling, it leaves the tender flesh of the asparagus.


Occasions
Lunch
Picnic
Dinner

Ingredients
1 Squid
8 Australian Asparagus
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp Sesame oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce

Steps
1. Slice the asparagus into inch length.
2. Cut the squid into strips.
3. Heat the pan with oil and add garlic with sesame oil. Fry till fragrant.
4. Add the asparagus and cover with lid for 2 minutes. Add the squid with soy sauce and mix them.
5. Fry for another 2-3 minutes. Make sure the squid is cooked and serve.

For this dish, you may add some chilli padi at Step 3. There will be a blend of sweetness from the squid as well as spiciness! Love the combination.

Shellfish with Chilli

Shellfish or clams are very nutritious food. Once in a while, I will get half a kilogram of shellfish back home to cook. The cleaning part is important before you cook. This is to ensure that the sand inside the shellfish are removed by itself.



Cleaning process
Place the shellfish in a bowl, covered with water and add a little salt. The live shellfish will spurt out the sand. After about an hour, most of the sand are removed by itself. Discard and rinse them twice to ensure no more sand is visible.

Occasions
Lunch (best with white congee)
Dinner

Ingredients (Serves 4)
Half kilogram of shellfish
2 cloves of chopped garlic
1 clove of chopped onion
Some ginger
Some chilli padi
2 tbsp of black bean sauce
Salt

Steps
1. Fry the garlic, onion, ginger, chilli padi and black bean sauce together till fragrant.
2. Add the shellfish and cover with a lid. Add a small portion of hot water.
3. Stir well and ensure that the shells are opened up. Those that didn't open are dead ones. Do discard them. If you feel that they are persistent ones, remove those cooked ones and continue to cook them. At times, they may open up.

I love this dish especially with white congee. The sweet taste of the shellfish with the congee is really mutually alluring! Try it!

Lady's Fingers

I love lady's fingers! They are rich in fibers and vitamin C and D too. They are simple to cook and I tell you, you can prepare them within 10 minutes!

Where to buy
Supermarkets (organic section)
Wet markets

I will prefer organic ones because you never know how much pesticides one can use to grow the inorganic lady's fingers. Hence organic ones are slightly shorter and thinner. So you just have to cook more to compensate the amount.


Occasions
Lunch
Tea break
Dinner

Ingredients (Serves 4)
10-20 lady's fingers
Some cooking oil
Some salt
Seaweed as garnish

Steps
1. Wash thoroughly the lady's fingers and be careful of the small hairs. They may cut you.
2. Prepare hot boiling water and add salt and oil.
3. Boil the lady's fingers for 5 minutes or until they float on the water.
4. Serve with seaweed strips.

My children love this dish, especially the seaweed strips. Lady's fingers have the gelish taste which some people do not like. However, we love the crunchy and sweet taste.

Steamed Silver Pomfret

Silver pomfrets (金鲳鱼) are fishes that are mostly farm bred. And the freshest are found in the wet market. They cost around $5 each. I will usually get the fish seller to remove the innards for me. The best deal was when I bought 3 for $10!

My children love them so much because the flesh is sweet and I love to eat with the fragrant white rice!

I have steamed lots of fish before and I used to just place fresh ginger, garlic and sprinkle some spring onions and light soy sauce on the uncooked fish. The taste didn't come out so well. Hence I decided to fry the ingredients before steaming the fish. And it turned out to be fantastic!



Occasions
Lunch
Dinner
Confinement Food


Ingredients (Serves 2-3)
1 silver pomfret
Some chopped garlic, onions and ginger
Some salt
1 tsp of light soy sauce
1 tsp of sesame oil
2 tsp of cooking oil
Chilli padi (Optional)

Steps
1. Place some cooking oil into heated pan.
2. Add garlic, onions, ginger, light soy sauce and salt together. Fry till fragrant but not burnt.
3. Add sesame oil.
4. Place the sauce onto the silver pomfret.
5. Steam it for 8 minutes.

I will usually fry together with the chilli padi and it will bring about both spiciness as well as sweetness to the fish.

How to test that your fish is cooked?

You just use a fork and insert into the flesh of the skin. If there is no blood along the fish bone area, it's well done. Otherwise, steam for another 2-3 minutes. Do remember not to over steam your fish because it may be too dry and not tasty.

Radish and carrot soup

I chanced by my Bishan market and saw white radish! I am so amazed that they sold organic white radish that are grown in our home soil - Singapore! Wow! They looked so beautiful and I have decided to try cooking them.

Occasions

Lunch

Dinner

Ingredients
4 small white radish or 1 large radish
2 medium carrots
$2 worth of pork ribs
4 red dates
1 small piece of ginger


Steps
1. Blanch the pork ribs for a minute.
2. Remove the skin of radish and carrots. Chop them into 1cm thick and place into the soup of 1.5 litres of water. Add the
ribs.
3. Cut the red dates into half and add into the water, together with one small piece of ginger.
4. Boil for 45 minutes and serve.
5. Add salt to taste.

You may ask how come I want to add a piece of ginger into the soup. Will it spoil the sweetness of the roots? Apparently, radish are 'cold' 寒 in nature. In order to remove this coldness 去风, it is recommended to add ginger. Red dates also have this power to do so also!

Actually pork ribs are optional for this soup. You can omit it and make this as a pure vegetable soup as well. Radish, however have this special capability to absorb sweetness in meat, and when you bite it, you can taste the enhanced sweetness with its original taste. I urge you to try once with and without pork ribs. There is a difference in the sweetness.

I have tried organic radish as well as normal ones. And I'm really amazed to know that organic ones are so much sweeter and it's delicious. You can go to Blk 151 Bishan Street 13 vegetable stall to get these. Apparently the farmer grows at Lim Chu Kang. I really hope to go and visit his amazing farm one day. Organic radish are slightly smaller and thinner. Hence you need to get around 4-5 of them depending on the amount you need to cook.

A gentle note is try not to drink this soup too often. Probably once every fortnight is good enough. Love this soup so much!