2 dishes 1 soup for a sat evening (两菜一汤的温馨晚餐）

Decided to cook a nice dinner for K and me.. initially planned 3 dishes and 1 soup, but the 3rd dish, cheese baked giant tiger prawns, couldnt be done cos NTUC doesnt sell it today! :(

Anyway this is what we have for today

1) 十全大补鸡汤 （Herbal chicken soup)
2）红椒鸡精洋葱鸡柳 ( Red pepper chili,onion with chicken fillet in chicken essence)
3）蘑菇枸杞波菜 (Spinach with button mushrooms and wolfberries)

十全大补鸡汤 （Herbal chicken soup)

you just need the following:

1) convenient herbal pack from supermkt or chinese medicinal hall. ( 十全汤包）
2) 2 chicken drumsticks

Remove all the excess fats from the chicken drumsticks. Clean it throughly.

Pre boil it to get rid of impurities, blood and excess oil.

Transfer chicken drumsticks to soup pot of boiling water and add in all ingredients except wolfberries. ( i added in some red dates as well)

Boil the soup for 1 hour under low heat on the stove. Add some salt and a bit of light soya sauce, to your preferred taste. ( i like it original so i added very little salt and K commented its a bit on the bitter side, but i reckon the soup is more 补like that, too much salt will kill the natural properties of herbal soup and so try not to add too much salt. ) ( salt gives u water retention!)

After 1 hour on low heat ( fire big enough for it to simmer) you can transfer to the thermal cooker if you have 1.. if not,then its best to leave it to boil for 2-3 hours.

Add in the wolfberries to the hot soup 10 mins before you serve the soup.

End product:

2) 红椒鸡精洋葱鸡柳 ( Red pepper chili,onion with chicken fillet in chicken essence)

What you need:

1) Red/Green/Yellow pepper chilli/capsicum ( you can add all for a beautiful colour, as only 2 of us eating, i only use the red one)

2) Chicken fillet ( cut into cubes/ small pieces)
3)  Onion and garlic
4) Chicken essence
5) Button mushrooms  (optional)
6) Water

Marinate the chicken fillet in a bit of sugar, salt, corn starch and sesame oil and leave it in the fridge until you ready to start cooking. I put in for 2 hours..


First, Fry the garlic and onion until fragrant ( i love this part most.. cos i love that smell!)

Next, add in the red pepper chilli, mushrooms and the chicken cubes..

Add about 5 tbsp of water and let it simmer.

When the chicken is 3/4 cooked, you can slowly stir in the chicken essence.

Let is simmer till chicken is throughly cooked, serve. ( the onions really taste heavenly!!!! K love this!!)



3）蘑菇枸杞波菜 (Spinach with button mushrooms and wolfberries)

What you need:

1) Spinach 中国波菜  (i recommend the one with red roots)
2) Button mushroom from can
3) Wolfberries  枸杞子

Personally i like the one with red roots cos i cooked it once and i think the taste is just different.  K love this too.

Chop off the roots and wash the spinach thoughly and rinse at least 2 -3 times as i notice this type comes with more soil and sand althou it taste better.

 I did not take photos for the other steps as K went to take shower and i told him i can manage.. haha.. but i notice i cant cook and take photo at same time.. but cooking veg is very easy.

1) fry garlic till fragrant
2) pour in spinach and add oyster sauce
3) add water enough for veg to simmer

Let the spinach cook in the frying pan/wok, and make sure enough water to simmer it..

When the spinach is cooked, remove from the pan (drained from the water for simmering) and lay them on a big serving plate.. best if there is a bit of depth for the gravy..

There should be remaining water left in the pan, that is a mixture of oyster sauce, garlic pieces, we will make a gravy with this...

Mix corn starch with a bit of water. Pour and mix into the pan on low heat.

Add in wolf berries, mushrooms and let it simmer until the gravy starts to thicken. ( you may stir in an egg if you want a 蛋花。。）When gravy starts to thicken, off the fire and pour the gravy on top of the spinach.

End product:

I am glad all these is a success today!! ^^

Hope you enjoy what we have for you. Happy cooking!!

DIY Pizza

DIY Pizza by J

Lazy sunday at home, and we have some left over mozaeralla cheese, so K suggest we toast them with tomatoes.

Went markeitng to get tomatoes and i rem we have a can of button mushroom at home, and now we have got enough ingredients to make a decent 'pizza toast'.

What you need:

1) Bread
2) Mozzeralla Cheese
3) Button mushrooms (fresh or canned)

4) Tomato sauce

5) Fresh tomatoes

Firstly, slice the mushroom and tomatos into thin slices.



Erm i duno wat happen to the photo i cant make it horizontal.. LOL

Anyway, next you spread a moderate amt of tomato ketchup on the slices of bread, then top it with button mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and mozzeralla cheese. Mozzeralla cheese will give you the springy, pulling ( know pizza hut advertisement)  effect.. but unfortunately when i take out my cheese from the fridge , it has way past its expiry date and has turned kinda moudly, so i threw it away and use sliced cheese instead. i tear the cheese slice into pieces and use it instead of mozzeralla..

It will look like this.

you can add in ham, or pineapple or anything you like... feel free, but make sure you cut it into thin slices or small pieces first. i sprinkle a bit of garlic powder on it also. ( i love garlic!!)

Bake in oven for 7-10 mins until the cheese melts at around 130 degree celcius.

Done!!

Serve with tea for a cosy afternoon tea. ^^

西洋菜汤 by J & 腊肠鸡饭 by K

Water Cess Soup 西洋菜汤 (By J)

This is my fav soup and i like to cook this cos it is easy to cook and good to eat.
I read from magazine that it can cure water retention for ladies during PMS.

Ingredients:

1) Pork Ribs and big bones

2) Some wolfberries, red dates.

 3) Water Cess ( bought this bunch for only $0.80 )

You have to blanch/pre boil the pork ribs and big bones in a pot of water (with a little salt added) to remove all the blood and marrows and impurities.

the water really look yucky after that.. when u see no blood flowing out from the big bones, you can remove them and place it in the soup pot you using.

After boiling them for about 5 mins, you can add in the wolfberries and red dates.

Alternatively you can add in the red dates first and the wolfberries last. The red dates will give a nice flavour to the soup.. and K commented that the wolfberries dissolve after boiling too long and its not nice cos u cant eat it whole. He also told me 三菜一汤 chef recommended that wolfberries should be added 5 minutes before you drink the soup. So i will try that out next time. ^^

Last but not least, add in the water cess. ( i added in some fresh mushrooms that K intended to use for his lup cheong rice into the soup as well.. cos i dun intend to keep any leftovers in the fridge)

you can add in some salt and light soya sauce to season the soup. i added a bit of oyster sauce as well. (optional) Water cess will give a v nice flavour itself thus there is no need for too much seasoning.Go light on the salt if you intend to curb water retention.

Use low heat to brew the soup for 10 to 15 mins, then raise the heat to bring to a boil.. once boiled, transfer the pot to a thermal pot. ( the soup will continue its brew in the thermal pot.. and this pot is very useful in making the pork ribs soft and nice, it melts in your mouth!) K insisted on getting this pot and i now know why... save gas, works like a slow cooker yet save electricity as well!

End product:

Next: 腊肠饭 (By K)

This is a super easy recipe. Our dear friend Jane cook it for us one day before our MJ session, and it was heavenly!!!! I asked her how she did that.. and she told me only need 1 step.  Actually my mother in law cook this quite frequently and K knows how to cook too! So this time round since we having dinner ourselves, i suggest he cook it. And really.. only 1 step!

Ingredients:

Some chicken wings (separate the joints for easy cooking) and lup cheong cut into small pieces

Mushrooms cut into pieces. ( we uses fresh mushroom for this)

 Then what he did is, wash the rice, add enough water to cook the rice, add in the chicken wings, lup cheong and mushrooms. ( i kpo and sprinkled some garlic powder in as well for a bit of fragrant)

And the most impt step...

Switch on the rice cooker. (LOL)

And when the switch changes to 'warm' the rice is cooked and we got Lup Cheong Rice!!! You have to add in light soya sauce and dark soya sauce as seasoning.. mix it well and this is what you get..

(K is a bit generous on the dark soya sauce.. you can add less..) Smell like claypot rice, taste like claypot rice too!!

Hope you like what we have for you. Happy cooking!!

Introduction to JK Creations

Hi Friends,thanks for liking my status in facebook that gave me the motivation to start this blog.
Cooking is my hobby, being a full time housewife is my ambition, and i am not kidding. I know that is so not ambitious, but that is my ambition. LOL... Since i was a little gal i have been day dreaming about being the best wife, best mummy. :)

I feel that a home will not feel like a home without 饭菜香 ( the aroma of cooking coming from the kitchen) and thus i will try to cook once in a while to make my home a more ideal home with the 饭菜香。。 i may not be the best cook, but i believe the effort will count. I am very much inspired by my mum, who cooks very well and my dad used to help out in the cookhouse during his NS times. So my dad is a good cook too. Last but not least, and something i am proud of.. i scored A1 for my food and nutrition for  O levels. I guess its the passion that made me score. :)

JK Creations (JKC)

J= Jessie
K= Ken

JK creations is basically whatever ideas me and my hub come up with.

I love to cook, he loves to cook too.. its a common interest we share and our fav show is 三菜一汤.  I strongly believe its common interest and goals that keeps a couple going.. so we decide to make this our common hobby and see how many dishes we can actually cook up. But one thing for sure, we cant work tog in a kitchen together at the same time.. LOL we have such different methods of doing things that if we work together we may be at war.

What i will post in our cooking blog will be some simple dishes which we will like to share with friends who are interested to know.

Last but not least, let me introduce my kitchen.

The kitchen is something that gave me a lot of headache during the reno process.. but i am glad all is well and the kitchen is done the way i want it.  (after a lot of tears shedded.. and i am not kidding, i cried at least 3 times over the whole reno of the kitchen)

My initial idea (3D hand sketch by K)

my first thought was to have a 'bar counter' to separate the cooking area and the dining area.. so i told K what i wanted so he can draw out something to show our carpenter. Then after much research we come to know that the kitchen must work in a triangle.. the stove (fire), fridge(elect) and washing sink(water) must be in a triangular plan. I read that in ikea kitchen handouts also.. So this plan is definitely OUT. And also, there is some problem with the cabinet (legs)... which i did not want to go into details to bore you... if you wan know more you can ask me directly.

So after reading more interior design magazine and working with our carpenter, we decide to do the L shape kitchen which most ppl have now.

My 2D drawing of my kitchen before the cabinet is done...(i draw this using paint all by myself.. thats y its 2D.. LOL)

Heard of the magic paintbrush? Our carpenter, Mr Liew turn my picture into reality ( i cant find the pic with the front view, but you get the idea.. )

i love the small island. Old HDB flat kitchen are ususally v long, as i intend to create a dining area, i have no choice but to make my cabinet short (and sweet and functional) and i added the island so i can keep pots and pans. This is actually v useful as even when we having steamboat on new year eve, we can push the island to the side of the dining table to put our ingredients. And when you want to be funny u can push it around and start calling " siew mai, har gao...cha siew bao, siew long bao....."

And the reason we choose the brown wood laminate for our cabinets is becos we had to find something that match the tiles for our sink area. And we found this wood looking tile that doesnt look like tiles for the sink area, so we choose the same colour laminate for the cabinet to make the whole thing match.
There are guests who asked us if the sink area is covered by laminate.. and i proudly say, its tiles!! 看不出来对吗？haha..

Last but not least, the dining area.. ( i am sorry for the mess.. i lazy to re-take a photo but the table was in a mess as the photo was taken right after we stick the wall decals)

This is just a brief intro to JK Creations (kitchen).. i will start my recipe sharing the next entry. Thanks for reading!