Spring into BST

Today we tuned our clock an hour forward, better known as British Summer Time(BST). So much to look forward to, as daylight is getting longer, weather is getting warmer and yes my spring bulb flowers are starting to take shape and showing off their vibrant colors. I love fresh cut flowers for display in my home, beauty and fragant, will definitely lift up your mood. Again enjoy the spring colors.

White Hyanciths, her perfume is so sweet . I planted them in the fall

Blue Delft hyancinths, so sweet they are in their almost dark blue purplish color

My hyancinths border in front garden, they filled me with lovely fragant

The versatile daffodils

Different varieties of daffodil cut flowers from my garden

Blue muscari, yellow primrose and white ranunculus

Early single white tulips in bloom

I think this is Queen of Night Tulips


My favorite white Ranunculus, look so beautiful with layer of petals

Also known as Persian buttercup-Ranunculus

So beautiful, isn't it?

Grilled cherry tomatoes on vine

Don't underestimate these little gems. So pretty they are on their vine, perfectly ripe, supple to the touch and perfectly sweet to the taste. I also learnt that tomatoes that ripen on their vine tasted so sweet compared to those that were loosely picked. Last year during summer I planted 2 cherry tomato bushes in pots and they yielded heavy crops throughout my summer months that I swore to be off from consuming tomatoes for awhile. I also learnt that if uneven ripen tomatoes on the vine, one can remove them from the tree and place them with banana to quicken the ripening process. Banana has a ripening agent.

I always try to eat them raw, use them in sweet & sour dish and one of my favorite is to simply grill them with lots of olive oil and drizzle of sea salt. Simple and nice to go with pasta dish or use them in salad.

Grilled cherry tomatoes on vine
Ingredients

• 10-12 cherry tomatoes on vine
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp of sea salt
  

1. Wash the tomatoes, pat and dry them with paper towel.
2. Place them in bakng dish. Drizzle with olive oil and coat. Sprinkle the sea salt.
3. On the oven grill to 190C and grill for 10-12mins, till the tomatoes just break off from skin.
4. Served.

Tender pork rib with yam

This is my hometown dish, only served as one of the dishes during wedding and birthday banquet. Me and my sis normally will aim for the yam(taro) that was perfectly steamed and moist, absorbing the savory sauce during steaming. I like this dish because the sauce is very well absorbed into the meat . It requires about 2-2.5hours to steam to perfection, the meat on the rib is so tender and lovely. Even my mum will be so envy of me now. :-)

Tender pork rib with yam(taro)
Ingredients (good for 2 persons)

• 300 gm pork rib (chopped into 1.5inches long)
• 2 tbsp of shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp of soya sauce
• 1 tbsp of honey
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• a dash of pepper

marinate the pork rib with the above ingredients overnite.

Sauce

• 2 tbsp tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp Maggi chiili sauce/ sweet Thai chilli sauce
  
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tsp dark soya sauce
• 1/2 tsp oyster sauce
  
• 1/2 tsp rice vinegar
  
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil

• 3 slices of spicy Szechuan preserved vegetable (soak in water for 10mins to remove the chilli paste and the saltiness)
  
• 1/2 big onion (diced)
• 1/2 green pepper, 1/2 red pepper
• 50 gm yam cut into wedges of 1cm thick
• 1 red chilli (use more if you prefer it to be more spicy)
  

• oil for frying
• some corn flour
  
• some sesame seed, corriander for garnishing (optional)
  

1. In a wok/fryer, fry the yam till lightly brown and drained. Coat the marinated pork rib pieces with a little of corn flour and fry them till lightly brown.
2. In a wok, pour in a tbsp of oil, once hot, add in onion, chilli and stir fry till fragant. Add in green, red pepper and Szechuan preserved vegetable and stir fry for 2mins. Then add in the fried pork rib and yam. Pour in the sauces and coat well. Add in 4 tbsp of water and continue to stir. Let it simmer for 3mins until the sauce thickens. Then scoop the dish into a porcelain bowl and cover it with a flat plate. Ensure that it's compacted.
   
3. Prepare a steamer. Place the bowl with flat plate into the steamer and let it steam for 2hours or until the meat is soft. You can use a fork to prick the meat, at this time the fork could easily prick into the meat without any effort.
4. Once done, removed from heat and turn the plate over and remove the bowl. Garnish with sesame seed/corriander . Serve with rice.

It's nice indeed. All the essence of the flavor(vegetable & sauces) blended and absorbed nicely into the meat. What an enjoyment.

Char Siew Soh (Chinese roast pork puff)

Been awhile since I bake, mainly because my cranky oven make a hell lot of noise when in fan mode (luckily my neighbor has yet to complaint) and secondly it requires a long time even to bake muffins. So I decided to dismantle it and clean thoroughly the fan. With a little effort and some elbow grease, I managed to get the oven working less noisy and at least there is oven heat to bake :-).

I'm making char siew puff, yes I've make them many times before but never got the chance to upload them, either the photos were not up to my standard or rather the puffs were all long gone before I've the opportunity to shoot them. You decide :-).

Char Siew Puff is really nice to go with a cup of Chinese tea, my friend tend to go it with English tea. Whichever way, it is char siew puff that matters.

Char Siew Soh ( Chinese Roast Pork Puff)
Ingredients (make about 16 puffs)

Char Siew(Roast Pork)

• 300 gm pork fillet/ pork belly (nice with some fats)
• 1 big onion-diced
• 1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
  

Marinating ingredient

• 4 tbsp honey/ 3 tbsp sugar
  
• 2 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
• 2 tsp five spice powder
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp white pepper
  
• Natural red coloring (optional)

alternatively you can buy Lee Kum Kee Char Siew Sauce (use 3 tbsp sauce to marinate 300gm of pork)

Delicious Roast Pork just out from oven

Puff

• 350gm Just Roll Pastry Puff
• some sesame seed
• 1 egg yolk for brushing
  
  
  

1. Marinate the pork with char siew marinating ingredient and leave for at least 2hrs.
2. In a oven roast the pork at 180-190C for about 25-30mins, basting the pork with the marinating juice. You can switch to grilling for the last 5mins to get that charred look on pork.
3. Removed and cooled. Diced the pork into small pieces.
4. In a pan, heat 2 tbsp cooking oil, brown the onion until fragant, add in the roast pork and stir fry for 2-3mins. Add hoisin sauce, sugar, sesame seed and water and let it simmer for 4-5mins on low heat. It should be moist but not wet. Remove and let it cool.
5. For the puff, roll it into thickness of about 1.5mm. Cut into 2.5in x 3.5in rectangular. You should get about 16 pieces.
6. Lay the pastry, scoop a tbsp of char siew and roll, press both edge flat to form a pillow. Use a fork to imprint the fork mark onto both edges. Also make fork holes on the top side of the puff. This allow the inside ingredients to breath while cooking, else the puff will expand and breaks.
7. Continue for the rest. Lay them on a baking tray that has been layered with baking sheet or tin foil. Brush with egg yoke and sprinkled with some sesame seed.
8. Bake for 20mins on 190C, or till it turn golden brown.....look like a golden pillow :-) .

Heavenly Char Siew Soh as I called it Char Siew Puff .......

Melon sago

This is a refreshing dessert that one can easily associated with good dim sum restaurant. I remembered back then, one of my favorite Chinese restaurant is non other than Crystal Jade.
Having bought, buy one get one free canteloupe melon from Tesco, I thought why not prepare this easy desserts for lovely spring day...ideally this desserts is superb for summer.

Melon Sago
Ingredients (good for 4 persons)

• 1 canteloupe melon/ honeydew melon
• 120 gm sago soaked
• 1/2 cup coconut milk + 1 cup of water
  
• pinch of salt
  
• sugar syrup to taste (this depend on how sweet your melon is)

1. Half the melon and scoop out the seeds.
   
2. Use a melon scoop to scoop out the flesh and form into melon balls from half a melon.
   
3. The other half, remove flesh and liquidize in a food processor. Chilled.
4. In a pot pour in some water to boil. When it is boiling, pour in the sago and let it cook. Continue to stir until all the sago white beads turned transparent(this will take approximately 15-20mins) . Drained under running tap water.
   
5. Add melon ball, sago, coconut milk, salt, sugar syrup into the melon puree and mixed. For those healthy option you can opt out coconut milk, can be replaced with millk, still taste as good.
   
6. Served chill.

I also make sago ball coated with desicated coconut to go with my melon desserts since I have leftover sago, nostalgic, as my mom used to make this sago ball for us to bring to our primary school party.

Cod in Thai Sweet Chiili sauce with bed of rocket grapefruit salad

I'm keen on creating a fusion dish tonite. I always like fusion food where there are element of different taste blended nicely together, just like east meet west.So I'm bringing this superb, easy to make dish for you all to try out.

Cod in Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce with bed of rocket grapefruit salad
Ingredients (good for 2 pesons)

• 2 cod fillets ( about 180-200gm)
• some sea salt
  
• 3 tbsp of Thai sweet chilli sauce
• 2 tbsp water
  
• some olive oil to grease cast iron grill pan
  

Salad

• 2 bunchful of rocket leaves
• 1/4 grapefruit sacs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• a pinch of sea salt

1. Rub sea salt on the fish fillet. Then marinate the fillet with thai sweet chilli sauce for alf an hour.
2. While the fish is left to marinate, prepare the salad. Add the grapefruit, olive oil and salt to rocket leaves, mixed well (I use my hand to mix them). Leave aside.
3. Grease the grill pan with some olive oil and heat till hot. Then brown the skin side of cod fish till brown and slightly cisp(takes about 4-mins), then turn over and drill the other side for another 4 minutes. Don't overcook as meat will flake off. Just cook it jus nicely and it will be so tender and lovely.
4. Do not throw away the marinating chilli sauce. Add in 2 tbsp of water to the sauce and cook it in another sauce pan. Simmer and remove, add in corriander if you like.
   
5. In a plate lay a handful of the salad, lay the cooked cod fillet on top of the salad and drizzle some sauce over the fish.
   

The peppery rocket salad goes really well with grapefruit, the tenderness of fish goes well with the marinating sauce, and the whole combination is pleasing to one tastebud. Enjoy this lovely, healthy meal.......I bet you'll love it.

Spaghetti with chargrilled vegetables and tuna flakes

Lately my weekends were mainly spend on tidying up my garden for spring display. That explains my lack of activities and updates on my blog. Another good reason is , weather has been of spring theme even we're still officially in winter. But nevertheless, I enjoyed the earlier spring anyway :-) and fresh air outside.

I also tend to cook easy meal for lunch so that I can maximize the time spend on daylight outside :-). Here's an easy recipes and quite healthy.

Spaghetti with chargrilled vegetables sauce and tuna flakes
Ingredients (good for 2 persons)

• half a bag of dry spaghetti
• half a bottle Bertolli chargrilled vegetables sauce
• 1 small can of tuna flakes
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• a bunch of corriander finely chopped
  
• 1/2 lemon juice
• some black pepper
• some grated parmesan cheese
  
• 3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• a dash of sea salt

1. Cook the spaghetti till al-dante (this takes about 11-15mins). Drained in colander. Put in a bowl and pour in the olive oil and sea salt and toss.
2. Meanwhile the spaghetti is cooking, pepare the sauce. In a little of olive oil, fry the garlic till fragant. Add in the tuna flakes and stir fry for about a minute or so. Then pour in the vegetable sauce and simmer for about 3-4minutes, add the lemon juice. Remove from heat and add in the chopped corriander. Stir and mixed well.
3. Put the cooked pasta on a plate and dressed with the sauce. Drizzle with black pepper and grated parmesan cheese.

Quick yet tasty meal and I'm off to my garden :-).

Here are some flower pictures from my garden which I took yesterday. Enjoy the vibrant color :-).
Light purple crocuses in full bloom

Christmas rose or Hellebores

Dark purple iris

Hue of purple crocuses basking in the sunlight

white crocusses, don't they look like little chicks coming out from their shells

White daffodils blooming in the pot

Sweet & Sour Fish Fillet

Food for thoughts "There is only sweet & sour pork" in authentic Chinese cuisine. I think this is an understatement. My great grandparents hailed from southern province of China ( Foochow in the province of Fujian) and settled down in Malaysia in the early 20th century. Apparently most of our authentic cuisines are base on sweet and sour style. Be it pork, fish, fish maw, chicken, sea cucumber, crab were cooked in sweet and sour style.

Tonite I cook sweet and sour fish fillet. Very nice indeed.

Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet
Ingredients (good for 4 persons)

• 500 gm boneless white meat fish fillet(red snapper, grouper, cod)
• 4 tbsp corn flour for coating
• oil for frying

Sauce

• 4 tbsp tomato sauce+2 tbsp Thai sweet chilli sauce+1 tbsp lemon/lime juice+1 tsp oyster sauce+1 tsp light soya sauce+1/2 tsp sesame oil+1/2 tbsp castor sugar+ 4tbsp water
  
• 2 medium tomatoes quartered
• 1 big onion diced
• 1/2 red chilli sliced
• 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
  

1. Sliced the fish into 1 cm thick slices. Coat with corn flour.
2. Heat a wok/pan, pour in oil and deep fry the fish on high heat for about 2mins until slightly golden brown.Removed and drain with paper towel.
3. In a pan, heat 1/2 tbsp oil, stir fry the onion and chilli till fragant. Pour in the sauces and stir nicely. Once simmering, throw in the tomatoes and off the light. Add the fried fish fillet and coat with sauce.
4. Served hot with rice.

We grew up with sweet and sour dishes :-), so there it's lot more to only Sweet and Sour Pork.

Strawberries smoothie

This is one of my favorite breakfast "perks me up" drink and a treat for those who prefer to drink their breakfast :-) . Easy, healthy and really refreshing even small kids will love it.

Strawberries smoothie
Ingredients (good for 2 persons)

• 250gm strawberries
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 glass of orange juice/ or juice of your choice
• 125gm low fat yogurt

1. Put all the ingredients into blender and blend till smooth.
2. In a glass, pop some ice cube and pour the smoothie over (ice cube optional).
3. Served.

It feels like spring

Today we had really nice weather, sunny blue sky, temperature is quite mild of 13C, could almost feel it's the arrival of spring. Daylight are getting longer, the excitement of the arrival of spring and summer is such a joy. I'm spending a lot of time in my garden in preparation for spring and summer flower display. Pruning, dividing, propagating, planting seed, cleaning and etc in the garden. So much things to do in the garden :-). For those who followed my blog, one will noticed that I always decorated my food photos with flowers plucked from my garden over the different seasons. On display on my sandwich this time is a winter flowering flower named snowdrop.

I also tend to make quick, easy and yet healthy meal when spring arrives. It's a good way to spring clean our body as well. So I made spicy tuna sandwiches for lunch.


Spicy Tuna Sandwich
Ingredients

• 8 slices of wholemeal/ white bread remove edges
  
• 1 small can of tuna flakes in brine/water
• 1 tsp of white pepper
• 1 red chilli-minced finely (quite spicy)
  
• 1/2 big onion-minced finely
• 1tbsp of lemon juice
• 1/2 tbsp of olive oil
• Olive oil spread/margerine
  
• 1/2 cucumber sliced
• 2 medium tomatoes sliced
  

1. In a pan, heat the olive oil, stir fry the onion and chilli for 1 minutes. Drained the tuna flakes and tossed in the onion and chilli and stir fry for about 2-3minutes. Add in white pepper & lemon juice and mixed well. Turn off the fire. Let it to cool.
2. On a slice of bread spread with some olive spread. Lay a layer of cucumber, then followed by a large spoonful of spicy tuna and top with a layer of tomato. Closed it with another slice of bread. Use a bread knife and cut diagonally to obtain 2 slices of triangle. Repeat until all is done.
   

Enjoy with strawberry smoothies or fruit juice.

烧 鸭 腿 飯 Chinese Roast Duck Leg Rice

Over here in UK, traditionally we've English roast Sunday be it chicken, pork or beef, served with crispy roast potato, brocolli, yorskshire pudding and dollop of sauce. Roast meat which are properly done are very satisfying meal as it requires lot of patience :-). One of my English friend made the best roast potato I ever tried.
Again I'm craving for Chinese roast, back in Singapore/Malaysia one could easily drop into hawker centre/ market to get the roast anytime and fairly cheap . So here I am, putting my roasting skill to the test. Experiment: Duck . I've noticed that I have yet to post anything on duck. This dish is rather popular in chicken rice stall back home. Crispy aromatic skin, tasty and juicy meat.... you've got the picture? It's involves some additional work for a really nice roast duck, hence patience is needed here. Lots of patience.....

Chinese Roast Duck Leg Rice (烧 鸭 腿 飯)
Ingredients (good for 2)

• 2 duck legs (about 450 gm)
• marinate : 1 tbsp of five spice+ 1 tsp salt +1 tsp sugar
• basting : 1 tbsp rice vinegar+ 1 tbsp of honey
• 2 bowl of cooked Jasmine rice
• some greens ( can use bok choy, cucumber)
• chilli sauce: sambal belacan or Chow Zhou chilli paste
  

Roast duck sauce

• 1/2 tbsp of duck fat
  
• 1 tsp of hoisin sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp of light soya suace
• 1/2 tsp of dark soya sauce
• 1/2 tsp of sugar
• 1/2 tbsp shaoxing wine
• 5 tbsp of water
• 2 cm of ginger
  
• some corn starch solution to thicken sauce if needed

1. Boil some water to blanch the duck. Once boiling, place the duck leg and blanch for about 5 minutes. Removed. Pat dry and marinate it. Hang the duck leg (I left it overnight). This aim to dry the skin and drain some fats off.
   
2. On a grilling pan, grilled the duck leg on both side for about 10minutes until brown. At this stage you'll collect some fats for duck sauce and also will shorten the time for roasting and ensure crispy skin.
   
3. Heat the oven to 170C and roast the duck leg for 35minutes and then 25 minutes on 190C.. Baste the duck leg with the basting mixture(you'll need to baste about 4 times during the process)
4. Meanwhile you can prepare the roast duck sauce. In a pan add 1/2 tbsp duck fats and stir fry the ginger till fragant. Add in all other sauce ingredients and simmer for about 5 minutes. Thicken with corn starch solution if neccessary.
   
5. Once the duck ready, served with rice, greens and the sauce.

Still need to perfect the roasting color though.....apart from that little charred imperfection, my roast craving is satisfied.

Steam Sea Bass in Black Bean Sauce

As I'm typing this, there's heavy snow fall outside. It looks really pretty, even in the dark. I must say, the fresh snow falling upon the face it's such a nice feeling. I went out for a stroll just awhile ago, the crispiness of the air is so refreshing, the fresh powdery snow sent off flying as I kicked them....... snow , snow , snow.
For dinner I cooked steam sea bass with black bean sauce. It took me less than 20mins and my delicious and healthy dinner is ready. No hassle, just plain easy.

Steam Sea Bass in Black Bean Sauce
Ingredients ( good for 2)

• 1 medium sea bass (about 700 gm)
  
• 1 thumb size ginger, julliened
• 1 tbsp black bean sauce(I use Lee Kum Kee brand)
• 1/4 tsp chilli oil/paste (optional)
  
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp light soya sauce
• 1/2 tsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 tbsp of garlic oil
• a dash of white pepper
• spring onion/ corriander for garnishing

1. Clean the fish. Lay it on a dish and sprinkle the julienned ginger.
   
2. Mixed the black bean sauce, sugar, soya sauce, oyster sauce, garlic oil and pepper. Pour the sauce over the fish
   
3. Heat up the steamer/wok for steaming. Once water is boiling, place the fish in for steaming on high heat for about 10mins or so until cook.
   
4. Removed from steamer/wok, sprinkled with spring onion for garnishing, served hot with rice.
   

Yu Mein

When weather is cold, I resolved to having piping hot noodle soup to warm up. I made Yu Mein(fine egg noodles) as satisfying winter warming meal. The secret to a good bowl of Yu Mein lies in it's stock and dipping chilli garlic sauce. I even made my own chilli garlic sauce to go with my Yu Mein. Typically they cook each portion of noodle (for each person) in a small pot. It's a very popular noodles in Singapore and Malaysia.

Yu Mein (Fine Egg Noodles Soup)
Ingredients (serves 2)

Stock

• 1.5 litres of water
  
• some rock sugar
• one handful of dried anchovies
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tsp of fried shallot oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• a dash of pepper
  
• 1/4 chicken (esp on bony parts-his will give sweetness to the soup) or can use pork rib as well

Noodles

• 150gm fresh egg noodles
• 3 bok choy plant.
  
• 100gm minced pork(1/2 tbsp of shaoxing wine, 1 tbsp of pepper, 1 tbsp light soya sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp corn flour, half egg)
• spring onion for garnishing
• fried crisp shallot for garnishing
  
• one handful of dried anchovies-removed head and stomach- shallow fry till crisp
• 2 eggs
  

Chilli garlic sauce

• 1 big red chilli
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp rice vinegar
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• a dash of sea salt
• 2 tsp of water

1. You can prepare the chilli sauce before hand. Minced the chilli and garlic and place in a small dish. Add in lime juice, rice vinegar, sugar, salt and water. Set aside.
2. Prepare the stock. In a stock pot, add in water to chicken, anchovies and garlic. Let it boil on high heat and then turn to low heat and let it simmer for an hour. Add in pepper, rock sugar and sesame oil. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes or so.
3. Seived the stock into another pot, let it boil. Add in egg noodle and cook till float. With a spoon, scoop the minced meat in small bite size into the stock. Cook for about 2minutes. Crack the eggs and poached (soft boil) them in the stock . Throw in the vegetable and cook for another minute.
4. Served piping in bowl. Garnish with fried anchovies, fried shallot and spring onion. And don't forget your homemade dipping chilli garlic sauce.

Enjoy homemade Yu Mein, I love it.

Colorful Vegetable Stir Fry

Just realized I still have quite a number of mix vegetables in my fridge. I decided to clear them out so that can make space for fresh supply. So what do I have.....chestnut mushroom, baby corn, snap peas and yellow pepper. I could create a colorful stir fry so I decided....



Colorful Vegetable Stir Fry
Ingredients ( for 2 persons)

• 4 chestnut mushroom (remove stalk and slice the cup)
• 4 baby corn
• 8 snap peas
• half big yellow pepper ( diced)
• 1 clove of garlic
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp shaoxing wine
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 6 prawns (optional)

1. In a wok/pan, heat the oil. Throw in the garlic and lightly brown till fragrant.
2. Add in prawn and stir fry till they lightly turned pink, then add in all the vegetables and stir fry for about 1 and half mins on high heat.
   
3. Add in all the seasoning and stir fry and mixed well.
4. Served while it's hot.
5. Enjoy the colorful and bountiful vegetables.

The Wintry Week

Some of you have heard that London was battered by heaviest snowfall in 18years. All transport networks in London came to a standstill on Monday. But for me in Cambridge we do get our fair share of snow flurry as well. Almost every morning for the past five days we're gifted with white winter wonderland. Really pretty, I just noticed my neighbor's kids had been building a snowman for me.

Waking up each morning to white winter wonderland in Cambridge.

My car covered in thick snow.

On my way to work yesterday, I saw these 3 kids trying to roll a big snowball across the road. It was rather heavy for their size, they're trying really hard to push the ball until at point they just gave up and let me drive through.

Meanwhile at work during Friday lunchtime, we are normally served fish & chip with mushy peas. However one of my friend trying to convince me to post his buttie bun on my blog. I'm not convinced to try his bun though, well he said it is winter warming food though (of course with thick spread of butter, chips and mushy peas)..... what else aye!

Homemade Fresh Egg Noodle

My mom gave me a pasta/noodle machine last year, and frankly speaking it has been seating in a corner of my cabinet until today. It always feel comforting to have piping hot soupy noodle when it is this cold. It has been cold today as easterly Artic wind from Russia is bringing slow flurry and more heavy snow expected on Monday. Brrrrrr...... it has been really cold winter this year and this week going to be in sub-zero temperature again.



Homemade Fresh Egg Noodle
Ingredients

• 3 cups of plain flour
• 2-3 eggs (beat in a bowl)
  
• 3 tbsp of water
• 1 tsp of salt

Chicken stock

• 1 cube of chicken stock
• 1 tsp of oyster sauce
• 1 litre of water
• 1 tsp of caster sugar
• salt to taste
• dash of white pepper
• one portion of chicken breast about 100gm
  

Garnishing

• blanched bok choy
• spring onion chopped
  
• fry shallot flakes
• some pickled green chillis
• 1/2 tsp garlic vinegar
  

1. Put flour + salt onto a big kneading bowl, make a hole in the center and pour in the eggs.
2. Use hand to mix.
3. Add in water. If it's too dry add more water, if too wet add more flour. Transfer onto a floured work surface and continue to knead. Knead till dough is smooth and not sticky to your hand. Rest the dough for awhile before rolling in the pasta machine.
4. Roll the dough and cut into several portion.
5. Use a pasta machine, the flat roller slot to roll the dough portion to the desired thickness, start with higher thickness selection then move to thinner option, as you do this coat the dough with a bit of flour. Continue to roll untill all the dough is being rolled to required thickness.
6. Then change the slot to noodle slot, place the thinned dough to cut it into noodle. Dust with tapioca starch or corn starch so that noodle won't stick together. You can store the noodle in air tight container in freezer and can be stored for up to 2 weeks.
   
7. Prepare the chicken stock. Throw in the chicken and let it boil till cook, blanch the bok choy. Remove chicken and shred into thin pieces.
   
8. In another big pot pour in water to boil. Once boiling, put the required amount of noodle to cook. Once cook, the noolde will float on the surface. Depend on the texture you desire, this may take about from 5-10minutes. I prefer mine chewy, so I cook for about 5-6minutes. Drained and put into a bowl. Pour the chicken stock over, garnish with bok choy, chicken meat, fried shallot, green chillis and spring onion.

Oh my, oh my.....did you hear I'm slurping my noodles.... oops :-)

Here's a picture of my favorite cat Jerry(he's cahsing the snow flurry though) and some snow flakes on my primrose