Pan seared Oregano Butter Prawns

When I want something that cooks fast and taste good, one of my choice will be prawns/shrimps. Simple seasoning and you will get tasty prawns.

While waiting for the bread to finish baking, I took out some prawns and was thinking how to prepare it since the main course for the evening is Wagyu beef stew. Looking through the spice cabinet, I took out 5 ingredients -

1 tsp onion powder 

1 tsp garlic powder 

1 tsp oregano flakes

Salt & black pepper, to taste 

Method

1. Remove the shell and deveined the prawns. Leave the tail on. 

2. Mix the onion powder, garlic powder and oregano flakes together. 

3. Coat the prawns well in this spice mixture.

4. Heat pan with 1 tbsp of butter and olive oil. Once pan is well heated, place the prawns in the pan. Do not overcrowd them in the pan. Once the prawns change colour, grind some salt and black pepper onto the prawns. When the prawns turns orange on the side facing down to the pan, turn the prawns to the other side. Remember not overcook it.  

5. Dish up and serve. 

It still taste good when it's cold.

Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes is always my love. Oh...I just love the creamiest of this mashed potatoes.

I have tried a few times before Mr W concluded this recipe will be the one I will make in future. But I am still thinking of altering it. *Lol. We shall see how it goes.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

5 large russet potatoes, peeled & cubed

80 ml sour cream

3 cloves of garlic, finely minced.

1 cube of chicken bullion 

100g cream cheese

100g butter

Salt & pepper, to taste

Oregano flakes, to taste

Method

1. In a large pot of boiling water, cook the potatoes, garlic and bouillon until potatoes are soft.

2. Sieve the potatoes and garlic, place them in a large bowl. Reserve the water. 

3. Mash the potatoes. Add in the sour cream and cream cheese; incorporate them into the mashed potatoes. Add the reserved water to it, if needed. 

4. Add the butter and mix well. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. 

5. Sprinkle the oregano flakes before serving. 

Simple and easy. 

Note: 
1. This dish can be prepared a day ahead. Place the mashed potatoes *without adding butter into a slow cooker and allow it to slow cooked on low. Before serving, add in the butter and season it with salt & pepper. 
2. To achieve a smoother mashed potatoes, you can whisk it.  

Bacon Baked Beans

This side dish is so simple. Transforming the ordinary can of baked beans to a yummilicious one. 

Ingredients
1 can baked beans
¼ cup brown sugar

¼ of a yellow onion, chopped

1 tbsp ketchup

1½ tsp English mustard

½ tsp Worchestire sauce

½ tsp red wine vinegar

Salt & pepper to taste

2-3 slices of bacon

Method

1. Combine the above except bacon in a baking dish. Bake it at 150°C for 30 minutes. Remove from oven. 

2. Bake the bacon separately. For crispy bacon, please refer here for the recipe. Once baked, remove from the oven and cut the bacon to smaller pieces. 

3. Sprinkle the crispy bacon on top of the oven baked beans.

You will love the savoury beans with a light crunch of the bacon. 

Oven Baked BBQ Pork Ribs - Baby RIbs & St Louis Pork Ribs

It is rather difficult to find a good rack of ribs at a reasonable price, so I decided to try one at home and it turned out to be surprising good. The dry rub on the ribs is important. You can find the ingredients for the dry rub here.

The picky Mr W likes the seasoning of the baby back and the only thing he thinks I ought to reduce is the amount of BBQ sauce I added, which I agreed.

*Update - 19 May 2020...
I have added honey into the BBQ sauce for a nicer glaze and not overpowering BBQ. Mr W said the taste is just right. I have a picky husband. Hard to please. This time I used St Louis Pork Ribs which are bigger compared to the last time (I used baby ribs). So the temperature and baking time defers. I will indicate in the Method.

 

Ingredients (Serves 4)
2 pounds of baby back ribs/1 rack of St Louis Pork Ribs
1/2 cup of BBQ sauce
1/4 cup of honey
Dry Rub

Method
1.  Using a butter knife to remove the membrane at the back of the ribs. *By doing so, you will definitely get tender ribs.


2. Apply the dry rub all over the ribs and wrap the rack in a non-stick baking sheet and then another layer of aluminium foil.

Foil below and baking sheet on top

3i. Here are my St Louis Pork Ribs after removing the membrane & applying of the rub.

St Louis Pork Ribs

St Louis Pork Ribs

3ii. This is the baby ribs.

Place the marinate dry rub baby ribs on the baking sheet

4. Wrap the ribs up with the baking sheet and then the aluminium foil like this.

Wrap it up! *This is not a baguette!

5. Place them in a ziplock bag before putting them in the fridge to be marinated for a minimum of 6 hours or overnight. *because the meat will "sweat".

6. Remove from the fridge.

7. Preheat oven at 150°C/160°C for 10 to 15 minutes. Bake the ribs (still in the foil) in the oven at
i) for baby ribs - 150°C for 2 hours
ii) for St Louis Pork Ribs - 160°C for 2.5 hours (this is due to the thicker bones & mass)

7. While they bake in the oven, stir in the honey to the BBQ sauce.
*Note: I made my bbq mixture based on our liking. So after stirring in the honey, do a taste test to see how you like it. You may add more BBQ sauce or honey to your own preference.

8. Remove the ribs and lay them on the tray.

9. Spread your BBQ mixture on the front and back of the ribs, continue to grill them (bones up) in the oven at 175°C.

9ii. Remove and turn over the ribs (this time meat up) and apply the mixture again. Grill for another 15 minutes.

*Note: you may also just apply the BBQ mixture and baked for a straight 30 minutes without removing it from the oven. I did this method with the baby ribs.

10. Serve it with mashed potatoes or bacon baked beans.

Dry Rub for Meat

What makes me wanna write this entry is because most of us don't know that dry rub is pretty important for meats. Be it chicken, pork or beef...even mutton. So far I have use this dry rub for my pork rib and chicken. it is absolutely delicious.

In the beginning, I was somewhat skeptical about it because of the cayenne pepper and paprika powder. But the end result was amazing.

Ingredients
¼ cup brown sugar
1½ tbsp paprika
1 tbsp kosher salt
1½ tbsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder

¼ to ½ tsp cayenne pepper (depends on your preference)

Method
Combine the above mentioned ingredients and mix well.

*Note: you can make this dry rub in advance. Keep it in a airtight container. It can be kept for a month.

A Treasured Terengganu dish - Kay Hong

When I first come across this dish, it was at Mr W(then my boyfriend)'s sister's place. This is one of Mr W 's favourite Terengganu Nyonya dish. The name of this dish when I first got to know was "Hong". After 5 years, I got to learn that the name of this dish is Kay Hong. This is a very popular dish for the Nyonya to serve for prayers or Chinese New Year. It keeps well and needs no refrigeration. The more you reheat it, the better the dish becomes.

I am not crazy over this dish but I won't mind eating it. As for Mr W, I can say he is crazy over this dish. He can go for round two when I cook this. He loves having the sauce over his rice and the hard boiled eggs. One thing I have to admit is that this savoury sweet sauce tends to be pretty addictive.

By the way, Mr W said no one except his mom cooks the best dishes, even his sister can't replicate them. My mom-in-law ever told me that she would love to teach me all the dishes she used to cook and all the kueh kueh she used to prepare. But at her age of 94, she doesn't enter the kitchen anymore. Despite her age, she is still very alert and healthy. She will tell me the ingredients for the dish but the rest is all dependent on me. *Stress*

Yesterday was my first trial to cook this dish and I was very pressurized. I need to cook this dish to suit the very picky Mr W's taste. Before I prepare all the ingredients, I gave my mom-in-law a call to confirm the ingredients.

Now let's start with the Ingredients
4 chicken thighs
200g of pork belly
4 hardboiled eggs, peeled
1 pieces of gula melaka, to taste
2-3 tbsp preserved bean paste aka tau cheo
70g shallots
30g garlic
2 cups of water
1 tbsp dark soy sauce, depends on your colour preference
3 tbsp of kicap manis

Method
1. Pound the shallots and garlic. Set aside.
2. Parboil the whole piece of pork belly and chicken thighs. Remove the meat pieces and discard the water.
3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok. Fry the pounded shallots and garlic until fragrant.
4. Add in the gula melaka and tau cheo and stir fry for a few minutes.

5. Add the pork belly and chicken pieces and stir fry.

6. Pour in 2 cups of water and allow it to simmer.

7. Add the dark soy sauce and kicap manis, give it a stir. Put the hardboiled eggs in and let it simmer until the pork and chicken are cooked.
8. Dish up the pork belly and slice them into 1 cm thick. Put them back into the wok or you can dish up the chicken and egg with the delicious sauce and serve with a plate of steam white rice. Enjoy!

Do note that the sweetness of this sauce tends to overpower the saltiness, hence there is a need to balance both. Can't be too sweet, can't be too salty. Adjust the proportion to your taste. 

Spinach in Superior Broth with 3 types eggs

Since I have century eggs left after making the steamed tofu with braised sauce, topped with century eggs, I decided to buy a bunch of spinach. While I remember the spinach, I forgot about the salted eggs. Never mind, I will make do with the spinach, century eggs and eggs. I love spinach, who doesn't. Well I know Popeye may prefer this cooking method for spinach. :) Who knows. Hehe. 

Ingredients
A bunch of spinach
1 egg
1 century egg
1 salted egg
1 cup of chicken broth
1 tbsp of wolfberries
2 to 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Method
1. Wash the spinach individually and remove the fibrous layer from the stalk. Bend to break the stalk at around 2 to 3 inches. You will be able to see the fibrous layer, pull it backwards to remove them.
2. Separate the stalks and the leaves. Set aside.
3. Peel and dice the century egg and set aside.
4. Remove the black husk of the salted egg and wash it clean before boiling it.  Once the salted egg is hard boiled, peel and dice it. Set aside.
5. Wash the wolfberries and set aside.
6. Heat at the wok with a tsp of oil. Stir fry the garlic to fragrant.
7. Add in the stalks and fry for a few minutes, add in the leaves. Toss it for a while and pour in the chicken broth. Stir the spinach in the broth and allow it to simmer.
8. Once it is almost boiling, add in the century egg, salted egg and wolfberries. Give it a stir.
9. Lightly beat the egg and pour it over the spinach. Allow it to simmer for a few minutes and turn of the heat. Dish up and serve.

This is a simple dish and its so tasty. Although I miss out the salted egg, it is still delicious and most of all healthy.

For those who has high cholesterol, you may wish to use half of a century egg and salted egg.

Cheers!!!

Cold Dish - Steamed ToFu with braised sauce topped with Century Egg & Pork Floss

*Updated - 16 Jan 2016.
Everytime I steamed the tofu and chill it, the texture is different. So this time round, I use the tofu out of the box. Just rinse it with water and go straight to Method point 2.

I was told by an auntie at the supermarket that the tofu can be eaten out of the box. By steaming it and chilling again will cause the texture of the tofu to alter.

Hmm...so now I know. This is an update. Skip the steaming part and go straight to the prepping of sauce. *

Mr W has always like this dish but I have never try making it till today. It is pretty easy to prepare. Looks good & taste good!

Ingredients
1 box of silken tofu
1 century egg
1 tbsp crispy pork floss
1 chopped spring onion

Sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1-2 drops of dark soya sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
100ml chicken stock

For thickening
½ tsp cornflour with water

Method
1. Steam the silken tofu for 3 minutes. Set aside to cool. Pour away the excess water from steaming.
2. Prepare the sauce by combining all the ingredients under sauce in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil.
3. Stir in the cornflour mixture. Once it thickens, Remove from heat and allow it to cool.
4. Dice the century egg and arrange them on top of the tofu.
5. Once the sauce is cooled, scoop a tbsp of sauce at a time and pour it over the tofu. *The amount to scoop will be based on personal preference.
6. Chill in the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes.
7. Before serving it, top it with the chopped spring onion and crispy pork floss

A.T.M aka Apple Tuna Mayonnaise

Years ago, I stumbled across this way to prepare my A.T.M aka Apple Tuna Mayonnaise. Mr W was taken by surprise when he first ate this and he likes it. Since then I have been preparing tuna mayo the A.T.M way.

This method to prepare tuna mayo adds a crunch to it. The crisp, juicy sweetness of the apples add another dimension to this plain tuna mayo. I personally prefer to use tuna in brie water or olive oil. This way I can control the amount of mayonnaise to be added.

Ingredients
1 can of tuna in olive oil
¼ red apple
¼ green apple
1 tbsp mayonnaise
Ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Dice the apple into smaller pieces. Soak them in salt water for a few minutes.
2. Scoop the tuna out from the can. Remember to remove excess oil.
3. Drain the diced apples and add them to your liking; more red than green or vice versa.
4. Add the mayonnaise in and mix well.
5. Add ground black pepper to taste.

Mr W prefers more mayonnaise. So I usually prepare it with 1 tbsp mayonnaise. He will add more mayonnaise and black pepper when he takes his A.T.M breakfast. If your family prefers more mayo, just add it in. This is a simple recipe where you can adjust the amount of ingredients to use to your preference.

Enjoy!