How to make Curried Prawns

Recipe for Curried Prawns made with lengkuas, lemongrass, fresh turmeric, buah keras, chillies, shallots, belacan and coconut milk.

Ingredients for Curried Prawns:

• 500g fresh Tiger prawns - keep heads and tail, take off a little of shell around middle and remove the dark thin streak around the back

Ingredients to be ground:

• some curry leaves
• 4 slices of lengkuas
• 2 stalks of lemongrass - sliced
• 1/4" fresh turmeric
• 4 buah keras (candle nuts)
• 10 large red chillies - seeded
• 1/2 teacup shallots
• 1/2 tsp belacan
• 1 teacup thick coconut milk
• 1 tsp curry powder
• salt to taste
• 4 dessertspoons vegetable oil
• coriander leaves (optional)

Method:

1. Mix prawns and all other ingredients except the oil.
2. Put oil in frying pan and when hot put in prawns etc.
3. Simmer, stirring occasionally, till prawns are properly cooked and dry. Do not over cook as prawns will be tough.
4. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with Jasmine rice.

Image Credit - ChasingFoodDreams

Recipe for Egg Foo Young, Egg Fu Yung

Chinese omelette dish Egg Foo Yung is the most well-known egg-based dish in Chinese cooking. Easy and cheap, Egg foo yong is also a popular Chinese restaurant and kopitiam dish in Singapore. Egg Fu Yung can be served with or without gravy.

Ingredients for Egg Foo Young or Egg Fu Yung:

• 5 eggs, beaten
• 1 tbsp fresh milk (optional)
• 5 medium prawns, clean, peeled and finely chopped
• 1/2 chicken sausage, finely chopped 
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup finely diced mushrooms
• 1 spring onion, chopped into small pieces
• 1/2 cup bean sprouts, rinsed and drained
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
• dash of pepper
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

How to make Egg Fu Yung:

1. In a large bowl, add in eggs, spring onion, bean sprouts, soy sauce, pepper, salt, milk and water. Beat egg mixture until smooth and salt dissolved. Mix thoroughly.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a frying pan. Once the oil is hot, add in onion, prawn, chicken sausage, diced mushrooms, and stir fry for around 1 minute.
3. Pour in the egg mixture, make sure the fried ingredients are fully covered by egg mixture. Turn to medium heat.
4. Fry until golden brown, flip and repeat for the other side, about 4 minutes. Do not overcook the eggs.
5. Remove the omelet with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
6. Served hot with steamed Jasmine rice.

Image Credit: Suzie Ridler

Chicken Vindaloo

Vindaloo is a hot and spicy dish from the Goa region of India. There are many variations of the vindaloo recipe. Authentic Goan vindaloo is not a curry but more of a dry sauce-based dish, which tastes better as it ages. Source. - A Pub that serve this dish in Singapore - Bojangles.

Ingredients for Vindaloo:

• 1 chicken (1 1/2 lbs.) - cut into pieces
• 12 small red onions, sliced
• 3-4 dessertspoons vegetable oil
• 4-5 dessertspoons vinegar
• Sugar to taste
• Salt to taste
• Ingredients to be ground separately (a), (b), (c), & (d)

Ingredients to be ground separately:

• (a) 3 dessertspoons jintan puteh
• 20 dried chillies (seeded - do not seed if a hotter curry is wanted)
• 1 small piece tumeric
• (b) 4 cloves garlic
• (c) 1 1/2 tsp fresh ginger
• (d) 1 tsp mustard seeds - coarsely

Method:

1. Put oil in pan.
2. Fry ground garlic (b) till slghtly brown.
3. Fry sliced onions.
4. Fry ground ingredients (a).
5. Add ground ginger (c) and mustard seeds (d).
6. Add chicken and salt. Fry for a few mins., add a little water, and cover pan.
7. When chicken is almost cooked, add vinegar and sugar, according to taste.
8. Simmer chicken till chicken is tender. (This is a dry curry).
9. Serve with hot white rice.

Printable Version - Chicken Vindaloo
Image credit - tiny banquet committee

German Buffet in Wanchai

I love buffet, but good deals are not easy to find.  Some are too expensive, some are not my favourite taste.  German buffet is not too expensive, however the foods are quite good.  I had it couple of years ago and had one recently. 

Don't assume that knuckles and sausages are crown jewels.  On the day of my visit, the dessert and salad bar were doing the best.

Here is the crown jewel of the day - Serradura.  I had never tasted such silky soft lovely serrudura even at Macau top notch Portuguese restaurants.

My top pick of the day - Serradura.  I would really appreciate to have mini cups instead.  But big bowl was ok.  I ended up had several rounds of it.

Something new - German Luncheon Meat.  It was hided inside a loaf of bread.  The chef open it up for me to take a photo.  Of course, I had a slice of it, very yummy, taste really like luncheon meat.  But I thought it should be ham of some kind.

These mini lobsters were sitting on the salad bar along with some very lovely salads and vegetables.  Healthy and nice.

We could also picked our own ingredients and had a dish of cook-to-order spaghetti.  We could chose between spinach noodle and bow noodle; white sauce and tomato sauce.  However the dish size was quite big, we had to share between the two of us.

Here are the knuckles, but not stars of the day.  It was good but for some reason I thought it could be better.  The sour cabbage was however very good.

The sausages really upset me.  I really don't think a German buffet offers only two types of sausages and they were in no way pleasing.  They didn't look good nor taste good - extremely salty.  If you notice the assorted mushrooms and mini eggplants on the right hand side of my dish - those were the stars.  I collected them from the salad bar for several rounds.

The various desserts, jelly candy, serradura, puddings...all are lovely, not to mention the ice creams.

To wrap up the buffet, a cup of coffee/tea was included.  However if you want to have latte or Cappuccino, you would need to pay extra.

King Ludwig Beerhall

G/F, 183 Queen's Road East (tel: 2861-0737)

Weekend Buffet:  HK$189 +10% per person

Buffet starts 12:00

Hong Kong Food Blog - German Buffet

Chinese Steamed Fish

Chinese style steamed fish recipe. This is how to cook steamed fish stuffed with ginger, garlic and sprinkled soya sauce.

Ingredients for Steamed Fish:

• 300g. fresh fish
• 1 1/2 cm ginger
• 2 pips garlic
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp light soya sauce
• 1 stalk spring onion (cut into 2-inch length, and then cut into thin silken threads)

Method:

1. Clean the fish properly (discard scales, guts, gills, etc.) then patting it dry with a cloth or paper towel..
2. Shred ginger. Chop garlic finely.
3. Mix ginger and garlic with oil.
4. Stuff inside of fish with some ginger mixture and spread remaining mixture on fish.
5. Steam on high heat for 8-10 mins till cooked. Discard the fishy and cloudy fish “water” after steaming.
6. Sprinkle light soya sauce on fish.
7. Garnish with spring onion and pepper. Serve hot immediately with rice.

Image Credit - ButchokoyD

How to cook Minestrone Soup

Recipe for Minestrone Soup. Minestrone Soup with pasta, sliced chicken and vegetables recipe.

Ingredients for Minestrone Soup:

• 6 medium size potatoes, 300g
• 1 can stewed tomatoes, 300g
• 100-200g short macaroni
• 75g  boneless chicken thigh, sliced
• 2-3 tbsp butter
• 3 small zucchini, 
• 2 stalks celery
• 4 tbsp grated parmesan 
• 1 onion, chooped
• 1 large sweet pepper, cut into pieces
• Basil, parsley
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 chicken or vegetable stock cube
• Salt, black pepper to taste
• About 1 1/2 litres water

Method:

1. Cook chopped onion, crushed garlic, chicken, basil and parsley in butter until tender.
2. Add the tomatoes and other ingredients, cut into small pieces, except the macaroni and the sweet pepper.
3. Cook, covered, until almost done, then add the macaroni and the sweet pepper.

Image - ric_w 
Image is for illustration purposes only

How to make Barbeque sauce

This image is for illustration purposes only

This Barbeque Sauce is suitable for burger, fried meat balls, soft bean curd, macaroni pie, tomato salad and mixed vegetable salad.

Recipe for Barbeque Sauce.

Ingreduents for Barbeque Sauce:

• 1 dsp vinegar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp chilli sauce
• 1 tsp mustard powder (serbuk biji sawi)
• 1/2 tsp thick soya sauce
• 1 tsp margarine
• 1/2 onion
• 140 ml water
• 2 1/2 cm. cinnamon (kayu manis)
• 1/4 star anise (bunga lawang)
• 10 white peppercorns (lada putih)

Method:

1. Chop onion finely.
2. Boil onion in water together with cinnamon, star anise and peppercorns until onion becomes soft and left with 1/2 amount of water.
3. Remove peppercorns, star anise and cinnamon.
4. Add in vinegar, salt, sugar, tomato sauce, chilli sauce, thick soya sauce and margarine. Mix evenly.
5. Simmer for three mins. Taste.
6. Add in mustard powder and mix well.

Image credit - BrigKev2010