Stir fried Mee Sua aka Longevity Noodles

I have always love mee sua. Be it be soup or stir fried.

Most of the time, my granny or mom will cook mee sua soup, which is a very simple dish. Because with any soup, just add in mee sua, it will become a filling meal. I can take mee sua day in day out without complaints.

Lately I have been having headache what to cook so I decided to try stir fried mee sua. To my surprise, it tastes good.

Ingredients wise, you can choose whichever you prefer. There is no restriction. Just remember to basic - Fry the mee sua then boil the mee sua. It's one more step but worthwhile.

Ingredients (Serve 4)

4 bundles of mee sua
6 kailan/caixin
8 fresh scallops
8 prawns, deveined
1 cod fillet
Pork tenderloin/Chicken thigh
Half a carrot, shredded

Braising sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 rice bowl of water
1 tsp shaoxing/huatiao wine
1 dash of fish sauce
1 dash of pepper

Method

1. Pour some oil in a frying pan. Amount of oil to use will be determine by the mee sua. Please ensure that it is enough to cover half of the mee sua. after 3 minutes or so, use a chopsticks or tongs to gently turn the mee sua to the other side. The mee sua must be golden brown. Don't worry if you over fried it and it becomes darker brown. As long as it is not char.

2. Once the mee sua becomes a nice brown inside out, remove and set aside to allow excess oil to drip off. I placed them on kitchen towel.

3. Boil a pot of water, place the mee sua inside to allow them to soften. Use a chopstick to loosen mee sua. Once cooked, remove the mee sua and set aside.

4. Season the fish and pork tenderloin for 10 minutes. Set aside.
a. Slice the pork tenderloin thinly. Season with soy sauce and sesame oil.
b. Cut the cod fillet into 1 inch length. Season with pepper, sesame oil and soy sauce.

5. In a bowl, add the ingredients in the braising sauce and mix well. Set aside.

Now you are ready to use a wok to stir fry the rest of the ingredients.

6. In a heated wok, add a tsp of cooking oil. Add pork and stir fry for a 2 to 3 minutes.

7. Add in the prawns and scallops. Stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes.

8. At this time, use a tongs or chopstick, add the mee sua bit by bit and stir fry. This is to avoid breaking the mee sua.

9. Add in the cod and kailan and carrot. Give it a few stir.

Note: I like my kailan crunchy so I added it late. Fish tends to cook pretty quickly, so it is added in last.

10. Pour in the braising sauce. Give it a few stir again. You can choose to cover the wok with a lid til the water reduce or just gently stir fried till the sauce is reduced.

Note: Those who doesn't like fish sauce, like Mr W. You can choose to omit it.

After cooking this stir fried mee sua, I don't think I will order this from any restaurant or zi char anymore.

My Colourful Aglio Olio

Nowadays I tried to wake up early in the morning to prepare lunch for work. So being a working wife, I need to ensure we get all the nutrients from what we eat. Most of the time, we eat out and I do not know what seasoning they add and the food - are they fresh??? So I decided to prepare lunch at least twice a week on weekdays.

Last evening, I saw my friend prepared aglio olio for her family, so I was hmm...I have pasta at home and I have some seafood as well. So I might as well cook this for lunch tomorrow.

Easy to prepare and well all the ingredients use are packed with their respective nutrients.

Ingredients
Pasta
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 chili padi, finely sliced and deseeded
Olive oil
3 - 4 anchovies
Cod fish fillet, skin removed
Prawns, deveined & deshelled
Scallops
Cherry Tomatoes
Broccoli Florets

Method
1. Boil water for pasta. Cook the pasta til al dente. Drain and set aside.
*Note: I cooked my pasta the night before. Make sure it is undercooked & do not rinse the pasta. Drain the water and allow it to dry. Keep it in a air tight container and put it in the fridge. The next morning, I boil a pot of water with salt and place the pasta in for it to warm up and cook to the doneness you prefer.
2. Remove the pasta from the pot of water. Using the same pot of water (heat off), add in the broccoli florets.
3. Heat a pan with olive oil, sautee the garlic till fragrant.
4. Add in chili padi and anchovies. Saute the anchovies till somehow they melt.
5. Using low heat, add in the prawns and scallops. Allow it to cook.
6. Once the prawn and scallops are almost cooked, add in the al dente pasta, cherry tomatoes and broccoli florets into the pan. Add olive oil, as desired. Combine well.
8. Plate it up and set aside.
9. Season the cod with pepper and salt. Pan fry it for about 6 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillet.
10. Flake the cod and combine with the rest of the ingredients.

There you have it, a sumptuous meal that is easy to prep. Garnish with parmesan cheese and chili flakes and even chopped Italian parsley, which apparently I don't have any of the three.

Watercress Pork Ribs soup

I am not very good in brewing soup. Since I am craving for soup and it is the easiest on the stomach. I decided to try cooking one of my favourite soup - Watercress Pork Ribs soup.

I didn't realise it is that easy to have a pot of good soup. The most important ingredient is time.

Ingredients
500g - 600g pork ribs (I usually use a combination of prime ribs/spare ribs & soup bone)
1 bunch of watercress
4 gigantic red dates, soaked (if you are using small dates, use about 10)
4 conpoy, soaked
Salt, to taste

Method
1. In a pot, parboil the pork ribs. Rinse and set aside.
2. Trim and soak the watercress. Rinse and set aside.
3. Using a large pot, add in the pork ribs, conpoy and red dates. Cover them with water till around an inch away from the ingredients.
4. Bring it to a boil. Lower the heat and add in the watercress.
5. Let it simmer for 2 hours or more under low heat.
6. Season with salt to taste, if necessary.

*Note: if you allow the soup to simmer for a longer time, the soup will be bursting with flavours and you can forget all about the salt.

Non Baked Strawberry Jelly Cheesecake

When I first met this beautiful looking cake was when my colleague bought it for Xmas, so I told myself hmm...It shouldn't be difficult to "bake".

So I did my homework and...here comes my cheesecake. Just love the colour. 红红!

My first "bake" & success!

I made this on 2 January evening and finished the top jelly layer on the 3 January morning.

Cheers to all and have a wonderful new year ahead!

Ingredients (for 24 jelly squares)

For the bottom layer - Crust

300g digestive biscuits

150g melted butter

For the middle layer - Cheesecake

2 bloc Philadelphia Cream Cheese (500g)

1½ tbsp gelatin powder

1¼ cups hot water

2/3 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

12 strawberries (I used Korean Strawberries)

For the top layer - Jelly 

160g strawberry flavoured jelly (I bought Jello)

1½ cups hot water

1½ cups room temperature/cold water

Method

1. Melt the butter using in a water bath over the stove. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. Using a brush, coat a 9x13 inch baking pan.

    *As I don't want to scratch my pan and also for easy removal of the jelly cheesecake, I lined my pan with baking sheet and brush butter on it as well.

3.  Using a food processor, blend the digestive biscuits to obtain fine crumbs.

4. Place the fine crumbs into a large bowl and add the rest of the melted butter. Stir well to combine.

5. Scoop the mixture into the pan and press them down.

    *I used my spatula to press the biscuit butter mixture as evenly as possible.

6. Now once this is done, cover the prepared bottom layer with a cling wrap or if your pan (like mine) has a lid, cover and chill it in the fridge.

    *I let it chill for almost 1 hour in the fridge.

7. While waiting for the bottom layer to solidify and holds in shape, there are a couple of things to prepare.

a) Bring the cream cheese to room temperature and allow them to soften. 

b) In a small bowl, add in the exact amount of gelatin powder and hot water. Stir till the gelatin powder completely dissolve. Set aside and allow it to cool.

c) Remove the green top of the strawberries and wash the strawberries. Set aside for them to dry.

8. Using a mixer, place the soften cream cheese in the mixer bowl, add in the sugar and whisk till its light.

9. Add in the vanilla extract to the cream cheese mixture. Whisk.

10. Add the cooled gelatin mixture a few tbsp at a time into the cream cheese mixture and combine well.

11. Once all the gelatin mixture is incorporated, the cream cheese mixture should be a smooth runny mixture.

      *There shouldn't be any lumps. If there is lumps, sieve the mixture before pouring them into the pan.

12. Bring out the baking pan out from the fridge, using a fork poke holes into the bottom biscuit layer.

13. Pour the smooth runny cream cheese mixture on top of the biscuit layer. Allow it to rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.

14. In the meantime, half the strawberries and cut a v-shape at the top to remove the white portion. This should make the strawberries look like a heart shape.

      *which Mr W failed to make them looks like heart shape. Lol.

15. After the 10 minutes, gently press the halved strawberries into the cream cheese mixture. Space the strawberries 1 to 1.5 inches apart.

16. Cling wrapped it or cover with lid and place it in the fridge for minimum 4 hours or overnight.

17. Using 160g of Jello Strawberry powder, add in 1½ cup of hot water and whisk till the powder dissolve. Add in the room temperature/cold water. Mix well.

18. Bring out the baking pan, using a measuring cup, gently pour the jelly mixture on top of the cream cheese layer. Pour just enough to cover the strawberries.

19. My baking pan comes with a cover & this is how it looks like.

Alternatively you can cling wrapped it before placing it back to the fridge for another 4 hours.

I forgotten to take photos when I cut them. Pretty and delicious jelly cheesecake!!! You can omit the strawberries and jelly and you will have a Tofu cheesecake!

There you have it. It's a easy recipe except time consuming. We need to give each individual layer time to set properly.

For prettier presentation, you may slice away the 4 sides and eat them. Oh remember to pour hot water on your knife, wipe dry before cutting any cheesecake. With each slices, wipe the knife before cutting again.

Give it a try!