Stir-fried Beef

As mentioned in my previous blog, here is the recipe for the stir-fried beef. I adapt the recipe "Stir-Fried Beef with Leeks" from my cookbook; Light Chinese Dishes by Kathryn Hawkins. I made some changes to certain ingredients to suit my likings. Instead of using leeks, I used green peppers and I do not use the dry sherry as indicated in the recipe.
Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

450g (1lb) lean rump or sirloin steak
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp cornflour
4 oz spring onions
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup beef stock

Trim any fat from the beef and cut into 3/4 inches pieces. Place in a bowl and mix in soy sauce, sesame oil, black pepper, and cornflour. Cover and chill for 30 minutes. Slice the green peppers thinly and wash well. Trim and shred the spring onions.

Heat oil in wok (since I do not have a wok yet, I used my large frying pan) and stir-fry beef mixture for 1-2 minutes until beef is browned. Add green peppers, spring onions and sugar and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes until browned. Pour in the stock and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened.

Served on top of plain rice. Yummy!

Last Saturday, while we were groceries shopping, I saw Pillsbury Flag cookies on sale. These cookies were on bargain! 2 boxes for $1 and there are 2 dozens cookies. So without hesitation I quickly put 2 boxes in the shopping cart.. hehe.. So last night, I baked these cookies. Before I took my first bite on the cookie, I kept looking at the cookies, wondering how they stamped the flag in the center without messing the cookie?????????

Shrimp Wantons (deep-fried)

Tonight, we had some home cooked Chinese Food. I cooked shrimp wantons, stir-fried beef, stir-fried cabbage and some eggs. I followed the recipe by Rachel Edelman. I saw her video in About.com: Chinese Food. She uses uncooked shrimp but I used the cooked shrimps and even add some chopped spring onions. ...nice..... I miss eating the Chinese food back home.. Wanton shredded chicken wanton noodles, chicken rice, fried kuehteau, carrot cake and so much more... (oh my thinking of these food makes me hungry again..lol)

For this recipe, you will need:

• 1 pound uncooked shrimp, shelled and deveined
• 1 egg white
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• ginger root
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• cornstarch (for dusting baking sheet)
• 1 8-ounce package wanton wrappers, (use 2/3 package; thaw if frozen)

Unwrap the wantons and keep them covered with a moist cloth so they don't dry out.

Shrimp Wanton Dipping Sauce Ingredients
You will need:

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp hot chilli flakes
• water

Pour the shrimp into a food processor, and pulse shrimp until they're finely chopped.Then transfer the cut shrimp into a large bowl, and mix in the egg white, cilantro, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Peel some ginger, and grate about 1/2 teaspoon into the mixture. Mix everything together.

Lightly dust a baking sheet with cornstarch. Take one wanton from the plate, and put it on the baking sheet. Fill wantons one at a time. Place 1 teaspoon of shrimp filling on one side of wanton wrapper. Moisten the edges with water.

Fold the wrapper diagonally over filling to form a triangle. Firmly press to seal the sides. You can make a different shape for the wanton. Place 1 teaspoon of filling in the wrapper. Pick up all the sides, and squeeze it to seal. You can even twist it a little, so it looks like a money bag or a purse.

I prefer to deep-fried my shrimp wantons instead of the boiled one. So to deep-fry the wantons:
Heat oil in a pan to about 360 degrees. Add the wantons in small batches. Fry them, turn them occasionally, and after about two minutes on each side, they'll be golden brown. Remove with tongs or a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Serve the wantons warm or at room temperature with the dipping sauce or the sweet black sauce. (I did not make the dipping sauce because I prefer to have with the sweet black sauce.)

You can also boil the shrimp wantons by bringing a large pot of water to a boil. Add the wantons, about six at a time. The wantons are done when they rise to the surface. This may only take 3 minutes. Remove them with a slotted spoon or a stainer. Place on a tray in a single layer, cover and keep warm.

The picture below is just to show, our Chinese dinner. I will blog about the Stir-Fried Beef tomorrow. Enjoy! :)

Leftovers - Lemon pepper chicken and my hard boiled egg....

This chicken and egg mayo is so good. We bought a rotisserie lemon pepper chicken yesterday and had plenty of leftovers. I felt bad to throw away the leftovers. I shredded the meat so I can make chicken mayo. The chicken mayo reminds me when I was back home, every time, I go to Subway, I always ordered tuna mayo with plenty of salad, tomatoes, black olives and green peppers with honey mustard and sweet onion sauce. **yummy** hmm.. could have done the tuna mayo too.. lol..

After I shredded the chicken, I decided to add one hard boiled egg. Its funny about hard boiled egg.. I do not even know when the egg becomes a hard boiled egg. haha.. coz seriously, i don't usually eat hard boiled eggs. Even when I do, its was not me who boiled those eggs... hahha.. Anyway, as I was preparing, my significant half came back home for lunch. I didn't realized the time. I was still boiling the egg and I was like"gosh, you are home, my egg is not hard yet".. So I thought maybe its hard, I had to pick up the egg with a spoon and crack the egg open... it was still soft and so I had to dump it back into the hot water again and let it in there for another few minutes...

Once the egg became hard-boiled, I peeled and mashed it, chopped parsley and cilantro and mix with mayonnaise. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Spread on the slices french bread and there you have... Chicken and egg mayo sandwich.. yummy...

(Sorry these are not good pictures.. )

(I always like to put extra black pepper)

You'll need:
shredded chicken (leftovers)
hard-boiled egg - mashed
green onions - chopped
cilantro - chopped
mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all together.

Enjoy over slices of toasted bread. :)

POP that chicken and favorite coleslaw

What to do with a few slices of chicken tenders?? Yummy popcorn chicken. It is quick, easy and satisfy. Just be careful when you deep-fry the chicken meat. The popping oil got to my skin and burnt me! Ouch! Blisters.. :/
To go with the popcorn chicken, made some easy coleslaw.

Popcorn chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken meat (cut into cubes)
Eggs
Wheat flour or cornmeal flour
Salt to taste
Oil for deep drying

**The above recipe is only basic hence no measurements are given.

Beat eggs and add salt. Dip chicken meat into the egg and then dredge through the flour. Deep -fry in batches in hot oil until golden brown.
(These batches, I tried by mixing the flour to the eggs and make it like a batter, still good!)

Coleslaw (KFC style.. hehe)

Ingredients:
1/4 small cabbage - chopped
2 medium carrots - chopped
1 small white onion - chopped

For dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp honey mustard

I put the cabbage, carrots and onion in a food processor. This makes it much easier than chopping one by one. In a separate bowl, mix together dressing ingredients and toss into salad.
Transfer to a serving bowl. Chill coleslaw before serving.

Enjoy these snacks while watching TV or movie... :)

Rolling those wraps.. traditional chinese egg rolls

We got some quick-ready-to-eat egg rolls from the grocery store before and they don't taste any good. I cant described it (its been long time) and I know I will never buy those stuff again. I would rather spend a little more time making my own rolls.

Here we go.. At first I wanted to use mom's recipe for the fillings but I used the recipe from Vitasoy USA Inc instead. You can get the recipe from their website too. Inside the packaging also have some recipes. I omitted the bean sprouts and I used powder ginger instead, the rest remains...

Be sure to drain and crumble the tofu before stir-fry.
Stir-fry tofu and ginger in wide skillet over high heat until lightly browned, 2-3mins.

Add carrot, cabbage and spring onions; cook for 2 minutes. Stir in Oyster sauce. Stir well.

Then let the mixture cools before putting the filling in the egg roll.
Place filling diagonally on wrapper.


Fold corner over filling, roll snugly half-way to cover filling.


Fold up both sides snugly against filling, moisten edges of last flap.

Roll over flap to seal; lay flap-side down until ready to cook.


These traditional egg rolls were so simple and they were delicious. Even better dipping in sambal or sweet chilli sauce.. Yummy!! Maybe cooking with love, even hubby said its so good.. hehe..

Happy Fourth of July. Sweet tooth n comfort food!!!!!

It's Fourth of July, United States Independence Day. We got some fireworks and I was looking forward to play....Unfortunately, the weather is not so nice today, raining... we have to postpone to tomorrow's evening.. :( Well, in celebration of Fourth of July, I baked a yellow cake/cupcakes with a vanilla cream cheese frosting. The small heart cake was for us and the cupcakes were for his friends. It was sweet and delicious..... :)

Since it was raining today, I wanted to make some comfort food for dinner... so I had to browse my recipe books... I looked at my "Step by Step Comfort Food" by Bay Books. I always preferred recipes books with step by step instructions accompanied with pictures.... make it a little easy for me.. hehe... Well, I chose Shepherd's Pie for our dinner today... :)

Ingredients:
2lb 4 oz (1kg) potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 oz (30g) butter
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2lb 4 oz (1 kg) minced (ground) lamb - I used ground beef
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup (250ml) vegetable stock - I used beef stock
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup (155g) frozen peas

1. Cook the potatoes in large pan of boiling water for 15-20 mins, or until tender. Drain well and return potatoes to the pan over low heat. Remove from the heat, add the butter and milk, and mash until smoot. Season with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 350F/180C.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until soft an just beginning to color. Add the meat, increase the heat and cook until browned.

3. Add the carrot to the pan and cook for a few mins. Sprinkle on the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 min. Slowly add the stock, stiring constantly, Add the Worcestershire sauce. Bring to the boil and cook for 2-3 mins, or until the gravy thickens. Season to taste. Stir in the peas and transfer the mixture to a 8 cup(2 litre) ovenproof dish.

4. Spread the mash evenly over the meat, Use a fork to swirl the surface. Bake for 40-50 mins, or until the potato is golden.

My shepherd's pie in the oven for bake.......

After the bake, this is what it looks like......

Served with slices of bread and some prawn crackers..... ~~DELICIOUS~~

P.S: We were at our friend's house (around 5pm), when we were told about a terrible tragedy happened just a few hours ago..... about a former quarterback player, Steve McNair, who led the Tennessee Titans was found dead with multiple shots in Nashville. It was unbelievable. We were in Nashville on Friday and today, a famous ex-NFL was killed. This is so sad.... :( Our deepest sympathy on to his family. R.I.P.