X for XO for #AtoZChallenge: easy XO fried rice recipe

XO stands for eXtra Old for cognac - a variety of brandy liquor - that has been stored for a minimum of 6 years (from 2016 onward, a minimum of 10 years).

Cognac, named after the town Cognac in France, must be twice distilled in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in Limousin or Tronçais oak barrels.

Since brandy has been used for:
♥ cake & pie toppings
♥ steak sauces
♥ soups such as onion soup
♥ Christmas pudding
♥ XO fish head bee hoon (thick noodle) in Singapore 
May I recommend using XO cognac for simple home-cooked dishes like fried rice? 

Since I was using leftover rice for baby Ren - which I purposely cooked softer, my fried rice was slightly soggy.

For #AtoZChallenge on 2014 April 28 Mon, I lovingly present a recipe of XO fried rice by ServicefromHeart.

Colorful rice grains of mixed white, red, brown rice

Serving: 1
Preparation & cook time: < 15 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 1 bowl pre-cooked rice, dried & chilled
♥ 2 tbsp olive oil
♥ 1 tbsp sesame oil
♥ 2 cloves garlic, minced
♥ 1 slice ginger, minced
♥ 1 tsp anchovies powder
♥ 1 tsp dark soy sauce (kecap manis)
♥ pepper, to taste
♥ 1 tbsp spring onions, chopped
♥ 2 tbsp XO cognac
♥ 1 egg
♥ 4 scallops (optional)
♥ 1 carrot, diced (optional)
♥ 1 stalk celery, sliced (optional)
♥ 1 tbsp peas (optional)

Directions:
1. Heat oil using high heat to stir fry garlic and ginger until fragrant.
2. Sauté vegetables (carrots, celery, peas)
3. Add scallops. After a side is cooked, turn them over.
4. Add rice, pepper, anchovies powder, dark soy sauce. Stir to mix well.
5. Coat with sesame oil and XO for a shiny look. 6. Stir thoroughly.
7. Garnish with spring onions.
Tips:

1. Use cold and dry cooked rice. You want to use firm rice grains because they are easier to separate while stir-frying them. This choice is important to prevent your fried rice turning out soggy or mushy. To remove moisture, you can either (A) air freshly-cooked rice and then refrigerate the rice for a minimum of two hours or (B) use leftover rice from the night before.

2. Use medium to long grain rice such as medium grain of jasmine rice. Choose the sturdy grains that don't clump together when fried. Avoid short grain sushi rice or glutinous rice, which is softer and tends to stick together.

3. To acquire the smoky, slight burnt flavor, use high heat: a blazing hot pan / wok if possible. Add sufficient amount of oil to prevent your fried rice ingredients from sticking to the surface of pan. While the heat to stir fry our home-cooked version of fried rice may not be as hot as restaurants' ones, we can pre-heat our pan with a lid before adding ingredients.

4. To ensure thorough mixing of flavors and aroma, cook 1 to 2 servings at a time.

5. To have a crunchy texture, include vegetables like celery or long beans as ingredients.

6. For a stronger taste, you can pre-infuse your oil with ginger and garlic overnight.

7. To prevent the fried rice from turning out mushy or soggy, I prefer to separately cook the egg into a sunny side up or an omelette that can be thinly stripped to garnish on top of the fried rice.

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140428

U for udang for #AtoZChallenge: udang tim DOM (steamed DOM prawns)

Hello seafood lovers! Spending my early years in Indonesia - an archipelago with 18,307 islands*, I grew up loving seafood greatly. We had them fresh and relatively inexpensive as compared to landlocked regions. 

* according to a 2002 survey by National Institute of Aeronautics and Space of Indonesia (LAPAN).

Udang is an Indonesian name for prawn. Initially, I wanted to prepare wasabi prawn but changed my mind as its recipe requires deep frying. Our little kitchen has no separation from our living room, so I agree not to deep-fry anything, as it will cause the couch and living room floor turning oily.

Quoting Plato, "necessity is the mother of invention," I am motivated to think of ways to prepare delicious prawn dish without deep frying.

For #AtoZChallenge on 2014 April 24 Thu, I lovingly present a recipe of udang tim DOM / 法国廊酒蒸虾 / steamed DOM prawns.



♥♥♥

DOM Bénédictine (法国廊酒) is a Made-in-France medicinal herbal liqueur beverage (1) developed in 1510 in a Benedictine monastery in Abbey of Fécamp, Normandy, France, and later (2) rediscovered by Alexandre Le Grand in 1863. 


DOM stands for "Deo Optimo Maximo" ("To God, most good, most great") and is a commonly used abbreviation at the beginning of documents of the Benedictine Order. Aspiring like the highly dedicated manual & intellectual work of the Benedictine monks for God, we sincerely hope to produce delicious and nutritious meals with optimum and maximum love for our loved ones.

While the exact recipe of this 40%-alcohol liqueur is a closely guarded secret hitherto, we know that it is distilled in antique hammered copper pot stills and aged in oak barrels for four months. 

Nowadays, the ingredients include 27 ingredients. The list includes herbs and spices such as angelica, hyssop, juniper, myrrh, saffron, aloe, arnica & cinnamon.

When I just delivered baby Ren, I was given several bottles of DOM. The generations of our parents and grandparents believe that luxurious DOM helps mothers to recover from childbirth, especially during confinement. Thank you for such a gift with over 500 years of tradition! 

♥♥♥

Servings: 2
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes or until prawns are cooked

Ingredients:
♥ 6 large prawns (known as shrimps in US)
♥ 3 cloves garlic (蒜头), minced OR 1 small knob ginger (姜), sliced
♥ 1 tbsp sesame oil (麻油)
♥ 1 tsp DOM Bénédictine (法国廊酒)
♥ 1 tsp salt (盐)
Below are optional:
♥ 1 tsp wolfberries / Goji berries (枸杞子), washed & soaked
♥ 1 tsp light soy sauce (kecap asin)
♥ 1 tsp coriander / cilantro (胡荽叶) / parsley (香菜), finely chopped

Directions:
1. Trim the head and tail end of the prawns using a pair of scissors.
2. Devein both back & under sides using a tooth pick.
3. Soak deveined prawns in salted water (to enhance the texture) for 10 minutes, drain & rinse.
4. Place ginger / garlic at the bottom of bowl, prawns on top of ginger. 
5. Sprinkle DOM and sesame oil on top of prawns.
6. Steam at high heat until prawns cooked & turn orange (check once in a while to prevent overcooking). Cover bowl with aluminum foil.



Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140424

G for ginger for #AtoZChallenge: Ginger milk curd recipe by ServicefromHeart

Fragrant and hot, knobbly ginger has been popularly used as a medicine and a spice to enhance diverse cuisines - for example Chinese, Indian, Caribean.

As a spice, the pungent flavor of ginger removes fishy flavor in seafood. In the confinement of East Asian mothers, it seems that every meals go with old ginger, from stir-fry vegetables to meat dishes.

People have used ginger to alleviate stomach related discomforts, including motion sickness, morning sickness, colic, upset stomach, gas, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, appetite loss, menstrual pain, post-childbirth bloating during confinement.

American Cancer Society highlights that preliminary results in animals show some effect of ginger in slowing or preventing tumor growth, though the mechanisms remain elusive (PMID: 17175086). 

For #AtoZChallenge on 2014 April 08 Tue, I lovingly present a recipe of ginger milk curd by ServicefromHeart.



Ginger milk curd (also known as ginger-juice milk curd / ginger milk pudding / 姜汁撞奶) is delicious and healthy desert for toddlers, new mothers and each of us who loves ginger.

This Chinese dessert originated in Shawan town of Panyu District, Guangzhou, China.

Ginger contains an enzyme (termed as protease zingipain) that coagulate the milk proteins to form curds.

Servings:1
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 100 ml water (水), filtered (过滤)
♥ 1 knob old ginger (老姜)
♥ 3 egg white (蛋白)
♥ 300 ml fresh milk* (鲜奶)
♥ 1 tbsp honey (蜜糖)

* It is better not to use low-fat / skimmed milk so that ginger can curd the milk. 

Directions:
1. Boil water with old ginger chunks. Let it cool & remove ginger chunks.
2. Gently yet thoroughly mix milk, egg white & honey into the ginger water.
3. Steam over low heat until you can put a spoon on top of the curd without sinking. 



Other recipes that I love:
♥ no-egg no-steam ginger milk pudding recipe at (1) Travelling Foodies by Alan & J and (2) My Baking by Siu Kwan of Simonne Bakery
♥ 108 ideas of cooking / baking with ginger @ Chef and Sommelier
♥ Ginger soybean curd by Joceline Lyn

For faster to prepare recipes, please check our #5minutemeal recipes. 

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140408

celery apple mandarin (CAM) juice

Sometimes, I do snack once in a while. Perhaps it is an easy access to a vending machine selling relatively inexpensive snacks.

An afternoon in this week, my choice was Made-in-Singapore Combe Snack of BBQ Chicken & Cheese flavour, because it has a Healthier Choice Symbol on its packaging.

After enjoying few bites, I read that it contains tartrazine (E102) -  a synthetic lemon yellow azo dye - which is banned in Norway and Austria.

***

In the evening, Garima and Mohan gave me a bowl of chocolate ice cream. How can we resist such a delicious treat?

***

At the end of the day, what I want next is to detox and cleanse my body. How is about a glass of refreshing celery apple mandarin (CAM) juice?



A lot of fiber... tastes refreshingly sweet salty 



Serving: 200 ml (for 1 person)
Preparation time: 3 + 2 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 1 green Granny Smith apple (青苹果), peeled & cored
♥ 1 Mandarin Murcott (茂谷柑), peeled & deseeded
♥ 2 stalks celery (芹菜)
♥ 1 tbsp honey(蜜糖)
♥ 100 ml boiled ginger water OR 1 tsp minced ginger (姜) + water

Directions:
1. Soak celery with vinegared-salted water* for a minimum of 2. 10 minutes to remove pesticides, if any. Rinse and dry.
3. Squeeze Mandarin.
4. Blend apple, Mandarin juice, celery, ginger until smooth.
5. Stir in honey. Enjoy!

*Vinegared-salted water: 100 ml vinegar, 1 tbsp salt, 200 ml water.



Other recipes that I love:
♥ cucumber apple celery ginger juice
♥ homemade sprays for fruits and vegetables
♥ Green Apple Ice Pop with lime, sugar & cinnamon stick
♥ yogurt salad with green apple accompanied by onion, Japanese cucumber, carrot, nuts (e.g. walnut / pistachio / peanut)

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140328

Star anise & DOM for braised sea cucumber recipe

Star anise, shaped like an eight-pointed star, is the fruit of a small evergreen tree native to southwest China.



Scientifically known as Illicium verum, star anise contains anethole - a derivative of aromatic phenylpropene.

Anethole has potential antimicrobial properties against bacteria, yeast, and fungi. In large quantities, anethole is slightly toxic, so please consume star anise moderately.

Star anise is commonly used in diverse cuisines, including Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Vietnamese ones.

Star anise is an ingredient of the traditional Chinese / Peranakan five-spice powder.

Indonesian rendang curry, Indian meals of Briyani / biryani and masala chai also use star anise.

Warm in nature, star anise has been used to relieve  rheumatism and cold.

Star anise also contains shikimic acid, a precursor compound for the anti-influenza drug oseltamivir, popularly known as Tamiflu, manufactured by Roche.

♥♥♥

DOM Bénédictine (法国廊酒) is a Made-in-France medicinal herbal liqueur beverage (1) developed in 1510 in a Benedictine monastery in Abbey of Fécamp, Normandy, France, and later (2) rediscovered by Alexandre Le Grand in 1863. 


DOM stands for "Deo Optimo Maximo" ("To God, most good, most great") and is a commonly used abbreviation at the beginning of documents of the Benedictine Order. Aspiring like the highly dedicated manual & intellectual work of the Benedictine monks for God, we sincerely hope to produce delicious and nutritious meals with optimum and maximum love for our loved ones.

While the exact recipe of this 40%-alcohol liqueur is a closely guarded secret hitherto, we know that it is distilled in antique hammered copper pot stills and aged in oak barrels for four months. 

Nowadays, the ingredients include 27 ingredients. The list includes herbs and spices such as angelica, hyssop, juniper, myrrh, saffron, aloe, arnica & cinnamon.

When I just delivered baby Ren, I was given several bottles of DOM. The generations of our parents and grandparents believe that luxurious DOM helps mothers to recover from childbirth, especially during confinement. Thank you for such a gift with over 500 years of tradition! 

♥♥♥

Sea cucumber is rich in proteins and minerals. Eating sea cucumber helps in strengthening the kidneys, relieving dehydration and nourishing blood. Sea cucumber is also often consumed post-surgery to aid wound healing.

We are grateful for the gift of sea cucumber from Zhen and Emerald brand scallops (products of Canada) from Agnes & Francis. Thank you!



Servings: 3-4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 + 60 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 1 sea cucumber (海参), washed & cut into bite chunks
♥ 3 scallops (带子)
♥ 4 shitake mushrooms (香菇), quartered
♥ 2 tbsp meat (肉), minced
♥ 25g lily flowers (金针花), washed & soaked in warm water for > 30 minutes
♥ 50g bean curd skin / bean stick ( 腐竹), washed, soaked in warm water, rinsed & cut into bite-size
♥ 5 cloves garlic (蒜头)
♥ 1 tbsp dark soy sauce (kecap manis)
♥ 1 knob ginger (姜), minced
♥ 1 tbsp olive oil (橄榄油)
♥ 1 tbsp sesame oil (麻油)
♥ white pepper powder (白胡椒粉), to taste
♥ 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder (桂皮粉)
♥ 2 star anise (八角)
♥ 1 tsp DOM Bénédictine
♥ 350 ml water

Directions:
1. Soak frozen pre-cleaned sea cucumber, scallop, dried mushrooms in room temperature water. Soak bean stick & lily flowers with warm water. Blanch meat.  
2. Wash, squeeze, cut mushrooms. Massage mushrooms with sesame oil.
3. Strain meat dry and mix with garlic & ginger.
4. Heat non-stick frying pan with olive oil.
5. Sauté garlic, ginger, mushrooms, meat over high heat until fragrant.
6. Add scallops, DOM, cinnamon, star anise, dark soy sauce over medium heat until scallops turn slightly golden brown at their edges.
7. Add & sauté bean stick & lily flowers.
8. Add and spread sea cucumber on the pan, add water to cover sea cucumber.
9. After water is boiling, turn heat to low and simmer for 60 minutes or until sea cucumber turn chewy. Stir occasionally. Ensure that sea cucumber is covered with liquid, else top up some water.



Tips:
♥ Zhen's advice not to overcook the sea cucumbers as they will dissolve into gel-like texture.
♥ The alcohol content of DOM has evaporated during the cooking process so I also enjoy this nutritious dish while breastfeeding.
♥ This dish can be frozen (for ~3 days) / kept in a fridge (until next day) and served with fast-cooking noodles to prepare for a #5minutemeal breakfast.


With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140328

easy ginger milk agar pudding with pistachio nuts

Perhaps our simple humble kitchen can be nicknamed as midnight kitchen, because I often use it around midnight hours.

Last night, I prepared a surprise dessert for Candida, who loves ginger a lot.



A mini jar of ginger milk agar pudding with pistachio nuts (姜撞奶布丁配开心果) makes a lovely heart warming dessert for an afternoon tea break.



Pistachio ... always brings back a happy memory of savoring delicious pistachio-flavored gelato in Italy! 



Servings: 12
Preparation & cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 10g agar / seaweed powder*
♥ 1 large knob (2 oz) ginger (姜), chopped
♥ 110g (4 oz) sugar (糖 )
♥ 500ml water, filtered if possible
♥ 500ml fresh milk (鲜奶)
♥ 4 tbsp pistachio nuts (开心果), chopped
♥ 2 tbsp peanuts (花生), chopped

* I bought Swallow Globe brand agar.

Directions:
1. Boil ginger & sugar with water. Strain to remove ginger remnants.
2. In a pot, add agar powder to milk & bring to boil. Add ginger water & stir gently until each ingredient dissolves evenly.
3. While hot, immediately pour ginger milk agar mixture into container(s) of choice. You can use jars, mugs, bowls, or lovely-shaped molds.
4. Garnish with nuts. If you want the nuts to stay on the top surface only, wait for 5 minutes before gently dropping the nuts. Alternatively, to create bilayers of nuts wrapping the milk agar pudding, you can pre-garnish the bottom part of jars with nuts.
5. Once the temperature drops to room temperature, keep in fridge. Serve chilled.



Tips:
♥ Buy non-colored agar powder. If you want to color it, use natural ingredients such as beetroot (red/pink) or spinach (green).
♥ If you prefer softer texture, may I suggest ginger milk curd with egg white?

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

Bonus! a ministory

It is fun to imagine the bilayers of nuts like the phospholipid bilayers that form membranes in our cells.

The nuts are like the hydrophilic phosphate heads that point out to the exterior on either side of the bilayer; the ginger milk agar pudding is like the hydrophobic tails that point in to the core of the bilayer.

A difference between nutty ginger milk agar pudding and phospholipid bilayers is that the former is static once it solidifies, whereas the latter is dynamic and dancing continuously in our cells.  

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140327

braised sea cucumber mushroom recipe

Sea cucumber is rich in proteins and minerals. Eating sea cucumber helps in strengthening the kidneys, relieving dehydration and nourishing blood. Sea cucumber is also often consumed post-surgery to aid wound healing.

♥♥♥

Mushrooms take up a lot of fat as they cook so it is best to use butter / extra virgin oil / pure sesame oil for sauteing / frying.



To get dry and non-soggy cooked  mushrooms using a frying pan, use a moderately high heat so that as mushrooms shrink their water evaporates and they don't stew in their own juice.



Shitake mushrooms are among a variety of tree mushrooms. While button mushrooms can be quickly fried, we need to cook shitake mushrooms thoroughly.



♥♥♥

I enthusiastically try a recipe of braise mushroom sea cucumber modified from Zhen's one.  She advices not to overcook the sea cucumbers as they will dissolve into gel-like texture.



Servings: 2
Preparation time: 2 + 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 10 dried shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
♥ 1 sea cucumber, washed, and cut into bite chunks
♥ 5 cloves garlic, pressed
♥ 2 tbsp sesame oil
♥ 1 tsp sugar
♥ 2 tbsp sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
♥ cilantro, to taste

Directions:
1. Soak frozen sea cucumber and dried mushrooms.
2. Wash, squeeze, slice mushrooms. Massage mushrooms with sesame oil, sugar, and garlic.
3. Heat non-stick frying pan and sautee mushrooms over high heat until fragrant.
4. Add and spread sea cucumber on the pan, add water to cover sea cucumber.
5. After water is boiling, turn heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until sea cucumber turn chewy. Stir occasionally.
6. Garnish with cilantro.



Tips:
♥  If you use fresh mushrooms, use as soon as possible after purchase.
♥ To ensure thorough cleansing of mushroom, invert and run water down their umbrellas.
♥ Initially, I wanted to buy oyster sauce. Reading the ingredients of oyster sauce sold raised a concern that many of them contains (MSG).
♥ Peiling Goh, in her book Falling in love with confinement, suggests that we can substitute oyster sauce with black bean paste.



Other recipes that I love:
♥ stewed pork ribs with sea cucumber @ Cook with Kathy
♥ braised sea cucumber with fish maw casserole @ The Jane Channel
♥ braised mushroom with sea cucumber using slow cooker @ The Cuisine Paradise by Ellena Guan
♥ braised pork knuckles with sea cucumber @ Nasi Lemak Lover by Sonia
♥ stewed sea cucumber and pork ribs  @ More than a Mile by Hsia Lei

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140321*

* Happy birthday Yanfeng!

easy red yeast rice soup recipe by Zhen

The first time I learned about red yeast rice (红曲米) was from Zhen, who refers to it as angkak or anka. Red yeast rice is produced when rice is fermented with a red yeast strain (红曲菌) scientifically known as Monascus purpureus.

Chinese people, especially in Fujian province, have been consuming red yeast rice to revitalize blood, reduce cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure.



The red yeast strain produces statins, that can lower cholesterol. The statins include lovastatin - which is  extracted, formulated & marketed by Merck as Mevacor for reducing cholesterol and risk of cardiovascular disease. 

These statins work by blocking action of the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, which is involved in cholesterol synthesis.

Since red yeast rice appears to be beneficial to our health, how is about enjoying a bowl of warm red yeast rice soup to begin our (cool) day? This red yeast soup is clear and relatively bland, so it can make a gentle starter to a more flavorful main course. 

In Singapore, I could not find red yeast rice in NTUC Fairprice but have purchased it from a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) hall / shop.



Baby Ren enjoys ginger-flavored pink milk mixed with red yeast rice soup.



Servings: 3
Preparation time: ~ 5 minutes
Cooking time: 65 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 1 tsp red yeast rice (红曲米)
♥ 8 red dates (红枣), pitted & soaked
♥ 2 thin slices ginger (姜)
♥ 200g meat (骨) & bone (肉), e.g. pork ribs (排骨)
♥ 1 liter water (过滤水), filtered if possible

Directions:
1. Wash and soak red yeast rice in water. Re-wash and drain.
2. Blanch bones and meats in boiling water for ~5 minutes. 3. Drain and wash.
4. Add all ingredients into a pot of boiling water.
5. Simmer over low heat for 1 hour.

Tips:
♥ Get red yeast rice from a reputable source to prevent exposure to toxic and carcinogenic Sudan Red G.
♥ For (potential) medicinal use of red yeast rice, please consult your doctor. In this post, we are merely sharing a food recipe.



Other recipes that I love:
♥ Red Yeast Rice Congee with Sweet Potato @ Chinese Cuisine Food by EchoMe
♥ Ang Kak and Ginger Chicken Soup @ Daily Cooking Quest by Anita Jacobson
♥ Char Siu duck @ Indonesia Eats by Pepy Nasution
♥ Home-Made Chinese Red Rice Wine （Foo Chow Ang Jiu) @ A Taste of Memories - Echo's Kitchen
♥ misua with red yeast rice @ What To Cook today by Marvellina



Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

With love,
ServicefromHeart
201403