Buta Jiru

Buta Jiru

Buta means pig an Jiru means soup, so literally pork soup!

Promised my friend Judy that I will show her how to make miso soup. Most of the miso soups that you get in restaurants are just tofu with seaweed, but in home cooking in Japan, almost anything can be thrown into the soup. For example, you can have:
sliced onions with beaten eggs
nameko (a kind of slimy mushrooms) with tofu
clams with tofu
cabbage with sliced pork
mange tout

These are just a few ideas, but what I made to show is called Buta Jiru. And because it was last minute, I only used what I could find in my pantry and freezer.
You can add burdock root or gobo as well.

Buta Jiru

Ingredients: for 4 ppl
Daikon - cut into quarters and sliced thinly
Carrots - ditto
Belly pork - sliced
Konnyaku - blanched in hot water for a few minutes and cut into slices
Dashi - 1 packet
Miso - 1 ladleful (you can use red or white, I used a combination of both)


Method:
1. Bring about 3 cupfuls of water to the boil and then add dashi.
2. Add all the ingredients and simmer till daikon has softened.
3. Lower the fire and you could either slowly stir the miso in the ladle to slowly dissolve it or use a strainer and strain the miso through.

chap go mei dinner

Chap Go Mei Dinner

Soaked some buah keluak as I wanted to make it for the dinner with friends, but as these buah keluak have been kept for so long, I was afraid that half might be bad and not useable. So did not make them and kept them for the dinner tonight. But my goodness, only 2 were not good, the rest were as good as black gold. Pun intended!

Initially thought it was just going to be us 2 old foggies again, but then I thought it was the last day of CNY, I invited the children back. So last night cooked the buah keluak and the babi pongteh first as they need time to cook. And digressing a little, I think I mentioned it before in my previous buah keluak post, no need to go through all that trouble to ketok them with a hammer or the lesong but just hand them to Pat who uses a band saw to cut them. Simple! hehe. Anyway, back to dinner....
So tonight, just prepared and cooked the fish tempra and szechuan green beans with minced pork.

Ayam Buah Keluak


Babi Pongteh


Szechuan green beans with minced pork


Fish Tempra

Sambal Lengkong - Fish Floss

Sambal Lengkong aka Fish Floss


I have been wanting for the longest time to make this dish. I have been asked by a friend for the recipe and told her that I would try it out myself first before giving it to her.

I looked at so many recipes on the net and the one that appealed to me was Lily's recipe Lily's blog. as it uses the microwave to cook it. I am all for quick and fast food!

This is her recipe below. I modified it slightly.

Ingredients:

2 pieces of fish fillet
300 ml thick coconut milk
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 heaped tablespoon Thai Red Curry Paste - use less if you dont want it too spicy
1/2 tsp roasted belacan powder

Method:

1.Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. When it comes to the boil, put the fish fillets in for a couple of minutes until it is cooked.

2. Flake them when they are warm and they should be flaked very finely.
Mix the red curry paste, belacan, salt and sugar with the coconut milk in a large microwable bowl until well combined.

3. Add in the flaked fish and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir thoroughly. Cook further, until it is almost dry. (I had to microwave it for more than 2 minutes)

4. Turn them onto a baking tray and put in a pre-heated oven at 160 deg. Bake for a couple of minutes but watch carefully as they will catch and burn very quickly. Once the floss is coloured and crispy, put them into a food processor or liquidiser and process them till it gets nice and light and airy. (I added this step)

Below is the final result.

Friends for dinner

Lo Hei

I have been baking cakes and cookies non stop since the 2nd week of December. Non stop as in after work, cook dinner and start baking till around 12.
Cupcakes for a school bake sale, Katrina and James's wedding and christening cakes, another christening cake, christmas cakes and tons of pineapple tarts for a CNY carnival, orders and home consumption. Plus kuih bangkit and peanut cookies. Boy, am glad it's over now and I can rest for a bit again. My left wrist is playing up, whether it is due to too much kneading or I sprained it somehow or due to arthiritis. But luckily, will be going to see my consultant for my regular arthiritis check in a couple of weeks, so I can find out what it is. Simple actions like washing hair, washing face, putting on bra - all these hurt my wrist - what can I say - getting old sucks! haha

Anyway back to the topic in hand. Invited some friends to dinner and made the following:





Yu Sheng


Satay Babi


Nonya Chap Chai


Beef braised with Daikon


Deep fried tofu with fish paste


Ngoh Hiang


Itek Sioh


and for dessert - Mango Pudding and a friend made Chocolate Pavlova.

My "Reunion" dinner

Our "Reunion" Dinner

I cannot even call it "Reunion" dinner as it is only Pat and me for dinner! I was only going to cook my normal everyday dinner but I thought since everyone in Singapore is having such a good dinner, then perhaps I should do a little bit more then "normal" dinner.

I know steamboat is the easiest dinner to do, but Pat does not like soupy stuff, so decided to cook Sukiyaki beef, soy sauce prawns and spinach fried with shitake mushrooms. It is one dish extra as our everyday dinner normally consists of a meat or fish and a vegetable dish.

We have invited some friends over for dinner on Saturday, so we will have our Lo Hei then.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Hope this Rabbit year will be a blessed and prosperous one for everyone!