Pan-Fried Dumpling (Guo Tie 锅贴)

Today I was planning to make guo tie. But everything went wrong! The garlic chives turns out bad, the sesame oil was out, the bean vermicelli (so hoon) that I bought turns out to be rice vermicelli (bee hoon), and to make things even worse.. the gyonza skin that I kept in the fridge got fungus...

So I asked my hungry hubby to go to the market to buy some dishes (since we already cooked the rice) and to buy some gyonza skin + sesame oil.

We went home around 8pm, and I manage to wrapped and cooked the guo tie in 15 minutes. The guo tie turned out to be just nice. Even though we had our dinner very very late, but I think it's worth it haha..

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 8-10 minutes
Servings: 2
Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients:
- 120gr mince meat
- 120gr shelled and deveined prawns
- 2 cloves of garlic finely minced
- 1 tbsp garlic chives (ku chai)
- 1 tbsp spring onion
- 1 tbsp bean vermicelli
- 0.5 yellow toufu, cut into small pieces (normally I used yunyi toufu)
- 1 tsp salt
- 0.5 tsp white pepper
- 0.5 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 0.5 tbsp tapioca starch
- 1 tbsp soy sauce (Kikoman)
- 1 tbsp Chinese wine
- gyoza skin, as needed (The wrappers are round and a little thicker than wonton wrappers)
- 3 tbsp cooking oil
Sauce:
- Soy sauce
- Rice vinegar
- 3 slices ginger, sliced thinly

Directions:
1. Combine the mince meat, prawns, garlic, ku chai, spring onion, toufu and bean vermicelli with salt, pepper, sugar, sesame oil, tapioca starch, soy sauce and chinese wine



If you noticed, I didn't put the toufu coz I cannot find yunyi toufu here. So if you are in Bandung, wah.... you are lucky...

2. Fill the gyoza skin --> check here to know how to wrap it

I was very hungry and in a hurry so I couldn't check the internet on how to wrap the guo tie properly. Nevertheless, I still manage to wrap it nicely.

3. Cover the bottom of the skillet with the cooking oil
4. Arrange the guo tie in the skillet
5. Pan-fry on high heat for about 2 minutes
6. Add about 1.5cm inch of water, quickly cover the pan, reduce the heat to medium high, and let it cook for about 5 minutes until the water evaporates.
7. Serve with the dipping sauce

I didn't take a lot of pictures coz I was in a hurry and quite hungry -_-!

Lucky, the guo tie taste quite good haha! It is the first time I cooked the dish. Well.. there's always room for improvement.

Wonton Soup

Preparation Time: 40 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 4
Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients:
For the wonton
- 300gr mince meat
- 300gr shelled and deveined prawns
- 2 tbs dried shrimp, rinsed with water
- 3 water chestnuts - (馬蹄 mǎtí)
- 1 tbs oyster sauce
- 2 tbs soy sauce
- 1 tbs Chinese rice wine
- a few drops sesame oil (2-3 drops is enough.. don't be too much)
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- wonton wrappers, as needed

For the soup
- a handful of ikan bilis, rinsed with water
- 4 bunches of baby bok choy (xiao bai cai), cut into shorter sections
- salt
- 1.5l water

Directions:
1. Finely chop the prawns
2. Rinse the water chestnut under warm water. Peel the skin (like you peel an apple) and finely chop.
3. Fried dried shrimp till it turn crispy



4. Combine the mince meat, prawns, dried shrimp and water chestnuts with oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and white pepper.



Mix it well :)



5. Fill the wonton skins --> check here to know how to wrap it



Me, making the wonton..



Put in a container to keep if you are not going to cook it immediately

6. In a pot, bring 1l water to boil. Add washed ikan bilis and boil for 10 mnts
7. Using a slotted ladle, remove ikan bilis.



8. In another pot of 500ml water, bring water to boil. Add wontons.
9. When the wonton cooked (until they rise to the top and the filling is cooked through), transfer to the pot with ikan bilis stock with a slotted spoon.
10. Add xiao bai cai. Cook for another 5-8 minutes.
11. Add salt to your taste.



12. Serve hot.

Benefits of water cheastnuts :
It is a relatively cooling food and is said to help relieve coughs

Salted Radish (aka Cai Po 菜脯) Omelette

Some mom's cooking cannot be forgotten. I remember my mom used to cook omelette with something that is crunchy, sweet and a lil bit salty. It was very nice. I don't know what she put in the omelette until she told me that it was salted radish (aka Cai Po 菜脯).

She bought me 1 pack of sweet spicy Cai Po and teach me how to cook it :) When I told my hubby, he said that his mom also likes to cook this dishes and he said he will cook it for me :D

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 2
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:



40gr of Cai Po
2 eggs
salt

Directions:



1. Whisk the eggs until the yolk has been broken
2. Rinse the Cai Po and cut into smaller pieces
3. Heat up a bit of olive oil in a frying pan
4. Add Cai Po, stir fry until tender



5. Pour in eggs
6. Tilt the pan so that the egg covered all the Cai Po



7. Cook until the edges/ bottom is slightly browned
8. Flip over and do the same

Look at him... so happy :P



Yum... Yum... :)



Result : A happy wife ^^

Thanks mom! and thanks dear (hope you can cook for me more often hihihi...)

Codfish Village

It all start when my parents stayed in Toa Payoh area. They found "Codfish Village", a restaurant that sells Codfish. It was located at Lorong 1 Toa Payoh, near Toa Payoh MRT. The fish was very nice, so we decided to go there again.

When we were at Toa Payoh MRT, my sister was joking and said, "What if the restaurant had moved or closed? We need their phone number". I said, "Well.. the fish was nice, and the restaurant was full almost everyday, so I don't think they will close down".

My mom, my sister and her husband make a move to the restaurant first, while me and my dad were waiting for my hubby. Then, my sister called me, "The restaurant had moved to Lorong 7. I think you need to take a bus to go there. We will walk from here.." So, the 3 of us take a bus (No. 153).

The restaurant owner still recognizes us, and she was very happy to see us. She said she had just sold the place at Lorong 1 and moved to Lorong 7 two days ago, and she was glad that we took the trouble to patronize her.

These are what we ordered:



Claypot Codfish Head (Curry) ---> I forgot to check the price -___-! Sorry...



The curry was nice, hot and spicy.. Quite thick and tasty. Mixed with pineapple and eggplant, makes it a good mixture.



The fish head consist of mainly fat and a little bit of meat only.



The meat was quite rough, and it didn't blend in with the curry paste :( My hubby said, it was not too fresh.



Beancurd Fried with Kang Kong - $5 / $7 / $9

The Kang Kong was nice. My hubby likes it very much...



Crispy Baby Sotong - $12 / $16 / $20



This is my mom's favorite. They fried the baby sotong until it's very crispy. It tasted sweet and sour, served with cucumber and pineapple pickle.



Coffee Pork Ribs (Boneless) - $10 / $15 / $20

The taste was quite unique. Not too sweet, but I almost couldn't smell the coffee.

In the end the owner gave us a 20% discount to thank us for visiting them, even though they have moved away :)



Address:

Codfish Village
Blk 4 #01-107
Lorong 7 Toa Payoh
Singapore 310004
Phone: 6251 6008

Operating Hours:
Mondays - Sundays: 11.00am - 2.30pm, 5.00pm–11.00pm

Crispy Fish Bites

I like to eat crunchy food, that's why I come out with this fried fish recipe.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 2
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:
- 400 gr Tilapia Fish
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 1 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Cut fish into half:



Place fish on its side



Cut the fish head



Cut down its length on either side of the backbone.



Use a slight - very slight - sawing motion to slice the meat from the backbone towards the tail.

Make a slight slice, and adjust the knife to make sure it's actually scraping the backbone. Keep adjusting and slicing until you've reached the tail.



2. Cut it into bite size

3. Mix the flour, ground pepper and salt



4. Coat the fish with the flour mixture



5. Fried in the hot oil until golden brown



6. Serve with soy sauce and chili padi



I like to eat the fin and tail part, because they are very crunchy :D

My husband likes this dish, but he said he would prefer if it is without bones. I said better next time buy fish fillet :P

Sambal Belacan Lady's Finger (Okra)

The first time I cooked lady's finger, I cooked it with soy bean paste. Then my husband said that it is also good if it is cooked with sambal belacan. But since I don't have the sambal, so I never cook it that way for him.

Now I have sambal belacan already, so I planned to give him a surprise. I will prepare it for his lunch :)

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 2
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp sambal belacan
(To save time, I used bottled one. I will post the recipe some other time ;P)



- 6 stalks lady's finger, sliced diagonally
- 2 cloves of garlic (chopped)

Directions:
1. Heat up oil in wok
2. Stir fried chopped garlic and saute sambal belacan until fragrant



3. Add in lady's fingers, use high heat to stir fry until the lady's finger sticky and cooked



4. Dish up and serve

Result: A satisfied hubby.

Banana Cheese Crepes

I love banana. I eat banana for snack and sometimes I have it for breakfast. Since I made banana chocolate pancake and it turned out to be very nice, I want to try other recipe.. banana cheese crepes :D

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 2
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:
1 tbsp butter / margarine / olive oil
125 ml pancake mix
94 ml cup water
1 egg
2 bananas - cut into half
cheese
3 tbsp chocolate syrup

Directions:
1. Mix batter (pancake mix + water + egg) according to package
2. Heat butter in a pan over low heat
3. Pour in some of the batter (don't put too many, so the the layer of batter will be thin) and tilt pan until batter covers the bottom of pan
4. Cook until crepe is lightly browned and dry, turn crepe and do the same



Try to make it as thin as possible.

The crepe on the right was my 1st attempt... and it failed miserably T^T. But I manage to get it right on my 2nd attempt (on the left) :P.



This is how thin it should be..

5. On the crepe, lay 2 slices of bananas with the cheese in the middle
6. Roll up the crepe



7. Put in the plate and pour the chocolate syrup over the crepes

Benefits of banana:
- Banana is good for anemia, kidney and eyesight protection
- Banana is good for bones, because it can increase our body's ability to absorb calcium
- Banana can prevent high blood pressure and stroke.

Benefits of cheese:
- Cheese is good for bones, because it has very high calcium content
- Cheese contains substances called Conjugated Linoleic Acid and Sphingolipids that help prevent cancer

The fat in cheese depends on the quality of the milk it was made with. Full fat, cream milk, low fat or fat free milk will determine how high the fat content of the cheese is. Make sure to look for the fat content in the cheese before you buy it.