Macaroni and cheese - Chinese homestyle

Came across Pioneerwoman's macaroni and cheese on youtube Pioneerwoman's macaroni and cheese youtube. Thanks Ree.  Tried it for lunch today with slight variation for Singaporean palette.  Served with roasted chicken with thyme/salt/peper, and capsicum/corn salad.

Ingredients

• 4 cups dried macaroni
• 1 whole egg
• 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 2 tablespoon Djorn mustard
• 2 cups mozarella
• Salt
• Seasoned salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• spices: 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 cup Chicken stock
• 1/2 cup Spring onion
• 1 small onion chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic finely diced

Directions

Cook the macaroni until still slightly firm. Drain and set aside.

In a small bowl, beat the egg. In a large pot, melt the butter and sprinkle in the flour. Whisk together over medium-low heat with garlic and onion. Cook for a couple of minutes, whisking constantly. Don't let it burn. Pour in the milk and chicken stock, add the Djorn mustard and whisk until smooth. Cook until very thick, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low.

Take 1/4 cup of the sauce and slowly pour it into the beaten egg, whisking constantly to avoid cooking the eggs. Whisk together until smooth. Pour the egg into the sauce, whisking constantly. Stir until smooth. Add in the cheese and stir to melt. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt and the pepper. Add any additional spices if desired. Taste the sauce and add more salt and seasoned salt as needed! DO NOT UNDERSALT.

Pour in the drained, cooked macaroni and fresh spring onions and stir to combine. Serve immediately (while it's still very creamy) or pour in two batches in Happy call pan (no mess, no need oven, clean kitchen but need to watch fire as it heats up fast)  and brown on both sides.  Time to enjoy, YUM!

Seafood and Vegetable Pancake Fritters

Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time : 25 mins
Serves 4


Batter:
300g Plain flour
1 egg
1tsp turmeric powder
1tsp curry powder
1tsp salf
300ml water

Ingredients:
400g fresh prawns peeled
300g fresh squid sliced
400g fresh fish sliced thin
50g cabbage sliced thin
30g of carrots sliced thin
Olive oil

Sauce:
ABC Sweet Ketchup Manis sauce alone (for kids) or with some sambal chilli to give some kick.
Mayonaise and Djorn mustard for more creamy and savoury taste.

1. Put batter ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix well,should resembe a pancake mix consistency.
2.  Add in the cabbage and carrot, squid, fish and prawns and fold into batter.
3.  Heat up oil for deep frying, I used the Happy Call pan as it uses less oil, and I can flip it over to brown both sides.  Besides, its keeps the kitchen clean without al the oil and smoke.
4.  Once both sides of fritter turns golden brown and crispy, remove and serve imediately.
5.  Garnish with spring onions and parsley, and serve with both sauces on the side.  Simply delicious.

Made it the first time, and was gone in under 15minutes with kids giving it the thumbs up.  Must try recipe and will redo in near future as its simple, clean kitchen and a “1-pot” meal.

Vietnamese Pho Beef Kway Teow Soup - Singapore Family style

For the broth:

• Chicken bones trimmed of fat
• 3-inch piece of ginger, unpeeled
• 1 large onion, halved and peeled
• 1/3 cup fish sauce - or to your taste
• 4 whole star anise
• 5 whole cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon corriander or fennel seeds
• 3 bay leaves - optional
• 2 beef stock cubes - for beefy taste if you don't use beef bones/oxtails.

For the garnish:

• 1 packet Kuay Teow from NTUC (serves 4)
• 2 bunches spring onions, sliced thin
• 1/2 cup tightly packed fresh parsley leaves, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup mint leaves 
• 1/3 cup fresh onions sliced thinly
• 1 1/2 cups bean sprouts, trimmed of roots, washed, uncooked
• 3 large thai limes, cut into wedges and seeds removed
• Red sliced fresh hot chilies (optional)
• 2 packets of frozen stir fry beef (NTUC) or fresh flank steaks ($2.39/100g from MMM (Meat marinates shop) sliced very thin depending on budget
• Fried onions for ganishing 

For the 2 sauces :

• Kid's favourite: 2 tablespoon Hoisin and 2 table spoon peanut butter
• My favourite : 2 table spoon fish sauce, 1 table spoon sugar, lime juice - adjust to your taste buds

Directions

Put all the ingredients for the broth into a large stockpot and add enough water to cover the bones by 4 inches Bring to a full boil and then lower the heat to a rapid simmer. Skim the scum that rises to the surface.

Let the broth simmer, uncovered, skimming occasionally. After 1 hours, remove the spices, onion,bay leaves and ginger from the pot and discard. Taste the broth and add more salt or fish sauce as needed.

Meanwhile, blanche the Kuay Teow in hot water. Arrange the sliced spring onions, fresh onions, parsley, mint leaves, fresh bean sprouts, lime wedges, and chiles on a platter in separate piles.

Rice noodles can quickly become gummy, so don't let them overcook. Drain the noodles. Divide the noodles among the bowls.

For the two sauces, mix ingredients and set aside.  You can thin the hoisin and peanut butter sauces with a little beef stock to get the right consistency. Placed both sauces on table. 

Just before serving, return the broth to a full boil. Quick blanche the raw stir fried beef in the stock, don't overcook, long enough to reduce the bloody color. Set aside beef in separate bowl.  

Arrange the slices of beef, spring onions, fresh onions, mint, parsley, spring onions, fried onions, fresh chillis, over the noodles in each bowl. (One kid doesn't like parsley, so adjust as necessary, for me, the more fresh herbs and garnish, the better)  Carefully ladle the boiling broth over all; the beef should be submerged in the broth. Serve immediately, along with the platters of garnish and lime wedges.

Yummy time!

Solar Eclipse 上海外滩 , 21 May , 6am

Checkout photos with Lumix T10 of solar eclipse at Shanghai Bund.  Happened to be out at 6am, when the whole Bund turned dark, and caught the eclipse on my Lumix.  Enjoy

Start Early, Live Within Your Means

Start Early, Live Within Your Means

The most important thing in life....

Is Unconditional Love!  Saw this on youtube and it resonated immediately with my soul.  Demonstrated by Warren's dad, Jesus and now........   myself so that my kids will always know they can come home no matter what.    I'm going to do something about this with my kids, starting with my little girl, we'll go on a father-daughter camp and chill out.  I'm kind of apprehensive cos it will be the first time with going out with my little girl for a camp without mummy.  But I'm know its the right thing and better now than never.  May this camp bond us and just to let her know i'll love her no matter what.

I'm 43

 Stay tuned as I honestly don't know where this is all going to lead to...... but its feeling exciting!!