Seafood Hokkien Noodles

Serve about 4 person

Ingredients
1 Fried Hokkien Flat Noodles
10 fresh white clams, soak in cold salt water for 2 hours
10 fresh prawns, separate head and body
1 fishcake, slice
4 cloves garlic, mince
A handful of bean sprout, or any leafy vegetables of your choice
1 stalk chinese parsley, cut to inches
2 cups water

Seasoning:
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp chinese wine
Salt and pepper


Method

1. Fry garlic till fragrant 
2. Add prawn heads and fry until fragrant
3. Add ee fu noodles, fish cake, clams, prawns and water.
4. Cover and cook till clam shells opens
5. Add vegetables halfway while clams are cooking.
6. When all the clams shells are opened, switch off fire.
7. Discard those clams that did not opened up.
8. Garnish with chinese parsley
9. Serve immediately

Seafood Tang Hoon

Serve 3


Ingredients
180 gm Sweet Potato Noodles or Tang Hoon, boiled until just softened and then drained.
1 chicken leg
1 flower crab
6 pcs of large prawns, separate head and body
3 pcs of wong bok leaves, cut to 5mm slices
50gm ginger, slice
4 cloves garlic, mince
2 stalks of spring onions
2 stalks of chinese parsley
Some sesame oil for drizzling

Seasoning:
4 tbsp fish sauce
4 tbsp chinese wine
2 tbsp oyster sauce
Half tsp salt
Pepper to taste



Method

1. Using small fire and 4 tbsp of oil, fry the drumstick on both sides.
2. Add prawn heads and cover lid while leaving a small gap. It will splatter as the prawn head has liquid in it.
3. When prawn heads are browned and fragrant, add garlic and ginger.
4. Fry garlic until fragrant
5. Add 2 litres of hot water
6. Simmer for 1.5 hours. There should be half amount or 1 litre of broth left.
7. Taste the broth and add additional seasoning if you prefer.
8. Add wong bok and tang hoon.
9. Add the flower crab and prawns on top of the tang hoon.
10. Simmer for 5 mins.
11. Drizzle with some sesame oil.
12. Garnish with spring onions and chinese parsley.
13. Serve immediately.

Note

• I am using a 2.9 litres Tanyu claypot.
• The broth should taste saltier to compliment the bland noodle.
• I am using this brand of Tang Hoon, which is also called Sweet Potato Noodle.

Video tutorial

Other attempt

This is a versatile recipe where any ingredients of your choice can be used.
I like to store my prawn shells in the freezer to make soup stocks like this one. The prawn shells are fried and simmer together with chicken bones. Discard the prawn shells and chicken bones before adding vegetables and noodle.

Shrimp Dumpling Soup

Thanks to Kymm Lee for sharing this recipe at Singapore Home Cooks!
This recipe make 24 large wantons or 30 small wantons


Ingredients

100 gm pork shoulder butt with some fats, finely chopped

100 gm fish paste

10 pcs tiger prawns, diced, set aside head for stock
5 water chestnuts, skin removed and diced

1 stalk spring onion, diced

Dumpling skin

Seasoning for wanton
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp chinese wine
1 tsp sesame oil
A pinch of salt and pepper

Stock
10 pcs of chicken feets
3 litres of water
6 cloves of garlic
30 gm of ginger, sliced
A handful of caixin, chopped into 1 inch length
1 stalk spring onion for garnish
Salt and pepper to taste


Method

Preparing stock

1. Simmer chicken feet with garlic and ginger for 1.5 hours
2. Add salt and pepper to taste
3. Discard chicken feet and prawn heads
4. Add caixin and boil for 2 mins
5. Set aside

Preparing shrimp dumplings

1. Mixed minced pork, shrimp, water chestnuts, fish paste, spring onions and seasoning together
2. Wrapped with dumping skin and seal the sides with water.
3. Placed them on a lightly floured surface
4. Bring a pot of water to boil
5. Add a few pieces of dumplings at a time to prevent over crowding
6. Boil for 2 to 3 mins
7. Transfer cooked shrimp dumplings into soup bowl
8. Pour chicken stock over shrimp dumplings
9. Served with spring onions and pepper

Other attempt

White dumpling skin is a better option. Taste better, easier to wrap and does not need water to seal the sides.

To prepare wanton noodles, mix dark soya sauce, hoisin sauce or oyster sauce, chinese wine, sesame oil and small amount of stock. Bring to a simmer. Toss cooked one portion of egg noodles with 2 to 3 tablespoons of sauce. Serve with blanched caixin and a bowl of wanton soup.

Simple Homecooked Pen Cai 盆菜

Ingredients
1 napa cabbage, cut into pieces and separating the stem and leafy parts
4 dried mushrooms, rinsed and soaked
4 dried scallops, rinsed and soaked
8 pcs of fresh scallops, sliced into halves
8 pcs of prawns
2 roasted chicken drumsticks, bones removed
1 pkt golden mushrooms
1 small carrot, cut into flower shape and slice into 5 mm thickness
3 cups chicken stock
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 stalk spring onion, chopped

Seasoning:
6 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp chinese wine
Dashes of pepper


Method

1. Fry garlic till fragrant.
2. Add chicken stock and seasoning.
3. Stir well.
4. Add the stems of napa cabbage, followed by leafy parts.
5. Laid the carrots on top of napa cabbage.
6. Bring to boil.
7. Switch to small fire, cover and simmer for 15-20 mins till napa cabbage had softened abit.
8. Set aside some carrots for arrangement.
9. Arrange the rest of carrots, mushroom and dried scallops around the claypot.
10. Using a flat plate slightly smaller than the diameter of your clay pot, arrange the rest of ingredients on it. Arrange some carrots around the ingredients.
11. Use your hand to push the ingredients so that they slide into the clay pot with the arrangement still intact.
12. Cover and simmer for 10 to 15 mins till ingredients are full cooked.
13. Add spring onions.
14. Serve in claypot.

Notes

• I am using a 2.9 litres Tanyu claypot.
• The chicken stock seems little to begin with but after simmering, the water content in napa cabbage will seeped out. You can add more stock after napa cabbage had softened (if you prefer).
• Use small fire and cover with lid while simmering the wong bok. This is to create a "steaming" effect with the small amount of stock in the claypot.

Watch video



Other attempts

In other attempts, roast pork was added at the sides and simmered together with the cabbage. The roast pork became tender and the broth is super yummy!

You can thicken the broth with corn starch by adding them after everything's been cooked. Just transfer some broth into another pot, add corn starch water until desired thickness before pouring them back into the pen cai claypot. Do not boil the broth after adding corn starch because it may burnt at the bottom of the pot.

A BonAppetour Experience with Pen Cai 盆菜 

Have you ever wish you could dine at some local's place when you travel?

I always wished I could visit their house and tastes their home cooked food. When I was approached with this concept, I thought it was awesome, except for one thing - I am the host instead of the guest! I felt quite apprehensive about opening up my home to complete strangers who will pay me for their meal. Erm, did I just said I wished I could eat at some strangers' house?

I was cracking my head. There are wide varieties of cuisines available in Singapore. What type of food is not easily available to foreigners or tourists?

So, I decided to make a Pen Cai (盆菜). We usually eat this dish during Chinese New Year and strangely, this one-pot wonder is so easy to make but I don't remember having it on a regular day. You can use many of your favourite ingredients to flavour the dish. I asked my guests for their choice and they chose chicken as the meat ingredient. In this Pen Cai, there's prawns, fresh scallops, roast chicken cooked in broth flavoured by nappa cabbage, dried mushrooms & dried scallops.

At around 6.30pm, the guests arrived at my place. They were from Beijing, Italy and Singapore. My hubby helped showed them to their seats while I served the pen cai and some seafood tofu puffs as side dish. I prepared some sambal belacan as dipping sauce but the Italian could not take spicy stuffs.

We had a good chat about their stay in Singapore. It was eating, talking and laughing throughout the dinner. I totally enjoyed hosting this dinner experience with BonAppetour. I am going to Penang early next year and I heard Penang already have three hosts! I look forward to be a guest dining at their place!

If you are booking a meal with BonAppetour, you can enjoy a 20% discount using this promo code : BA-Cassandra (Valid till 31/01/2014).

Seafood Tofu Puffs 金包海鲜

Ingredients
2 boxes of tofu puffs, invert inside out
10 pcs tiger prawns, removed shells and coarsely chopped (left about 150gm)
150 gm fish paste
1 stalk of spring onions, slice thinly
1 clove of garlic, minced
Seasoning of 1 tsp fish sauce, half tsp sesame oil, 2 tsp cornflour, 1/4 tsp salt and pepper


Method

1. Mixed all ingredients & seasoning together.
2. Using a piping bag, pipe seafood paste into inverted tofu puffs
3. Fry until golden brown
4. Drain away oil
5. Enjoy with some good chilli sauce

Other attempt

Seafood Tofu Puffs done without inverting the puffs are not crispy as those inverted.

Chicken Ngor Hiang

Makes 16 - 18

Ingredients
250-280gm boneless chicken leg, remove skin, chopped
500gm prawns, deshell, dice
6-7 water chestnuts, remove skin, dice
1 stalk spring onion, dice
1 pkt bean skin, cut to squares
1 egg

Seasoning:
6 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp Chinese wine
1/4 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
A pinch of five spices powder (optional)

Method
- Mix all ingredients with seasoning
- In a plate of water, gently rinse bean skin and hand squeeze dry. Do not squeeze too hard because the skin will tear. It's ok that it's abit wet.
- Wrap filling immediately
- Heat up oil for deep frying. The oil must be very hot so that bean skin will not stick to wok.
- Gently drop the ngor hiang into oil one at a time to prevent the bean skin from sticking to each other. Do not slide it down from the side of wok as it will stick.
- Drain on paper towel. There will be water seeping out from the cooked ngor hiang.
- Transfer cool ngor hiang onto new paper towel
- Have a quick 3-seconds deep fry before serving

Notes:
- Rinsing the bean skin requires a quick 2-seconds rinse and squeeze. Prepare more bean skin if its your fist time trying this method.
- After deep frying the ngor hiang, there will be some water seeping out. You may want to drain the ngor hiang by placing 2-3 paper towels on top of a cooling rack.

Watch video here

Hot Pan Egg Tofu with Chicken and Prawns

Serve 6-8 person as part of a meal

Ingredients

1 boneless chicken leg, minced and marinate with 1 tsp Knorr Hao Chi seasoning, 2 tbsp soya sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp chinese wine, 2 tbsp cornflour and 1/4 tsp salt & pepper to taste

8 pieces of prawns, deshell, devein, dice and marinate with 1/4 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp cornflour and abit of salt

A handful of mixed vegetable

1 egg tofu, cut into 1 cm thickness, coat with 1 beaten egg

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 slices of young ginger

2 tbsp cornflour mixed with 6 tbsp water

3 eggs, beaten till frothy with mixture of ¼ tsp of vinegar, 1 tsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp water & 1 tbsp cornflour

Spring onion or chinese parsley for garnish

Method

Egg tofu:

1. Coat egg tofu with egg
2. Pan fry till golden brown
3. Set aside

Chicken and prawns mixture:

1. Fry ginger till fragrant
2. Fry garlic till fragrant and golden brown
3. Add minced chicken and stir fry till meat separates
4. Add 1 cup of hot water
5. On another stove fire, heat up the pan that you will be serving
6. Add prawns to the minced chicken
7. Add mixed vegetables
8. Bring to boil
9. Add cornflour and water to thicken the gravy
10. Discard ginger (if preferred)

In serving pan:

1. Heat up the serving pan
2. Add about ¼ cup of oil
3. Heat up until there’s some smoke
4. Using big fire, add eggs
5. When the sides puff up, add cooked chicken & prawn mixture
6. Add egg tofu
7. Cover and switch off fire
8. Let it simmer for 3mins
9. Garnish with spring onions or chinese parsley

Watch video here