Old Style Char Siew

This time I cooked in the air fryer (200C) but you can cook in the oven. It will be quicker to cook in the air fryer. Turn over the meat once half way of cooking. This is not a very sweet Char Siew, if you like it sweet, please increase the quatity of Maltose.

500 g pork belly (skinless, strip) or pork shoulder
Char Siew mixture (in a small bowl):
20 g fermented red beancurd/Nam Yu
1/2 tbsp Nam Yu water/sauce (in the same jar)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsps Maltose/Malt sugar or more
3/4 tsp five spices powder
1 1 /2 tbsps Shaoxing wine or rose wine

Marinate the pork with the Char Siew mixture overnight. Bake it in the preheat oven at 200C for about 20 minutes. Turn over the other side and continue to cook for another 10-20 minutes or until cooked (It depends on how thick the meat is).

Keep the remaining mixture sauce in the small pot and bring it to the boil until absorbed and thick. Pour the sauce on top of the Char Siew.

Simple Keow Teow Soup

Simple Keow Teow Soup

I often cook a quick Keow Teow noodles soup at home if I have leftover noodles. So, few days ago, I cooked this dish with kids. It is a very simple dish. I made only 2 portions because I only had 1/2 pack of noodles left.

I boiled about 430g chicken breast in 1.5 L water, 2 tsp salt, a bit of pepper and 4 instant cuttlefish nuggets. Boiled the noodles in a separate pot until just soft. Kids helped to chop 2 cloves of garlic and spring onions. Sarah fried the garlic to make garlic oil. Peeled or sliced the cooked chicken breast...tatata...our breakfast is ready. Have a nice day everyone and keep safe!

Homemade crispy Pork

My little girl loves crispy pork very much. It is our regular meal at home, she never tired of it. It is not difficult to cook at all. You need to have patient to wait for couple of day. Good food always need time to process. Hope you will like it. Happy cooking!

A quick video of cooking crispy pork

Asian Cooking Class- Melbourne

Stir-fried Lettuce with Garlic (1 dollar dish)

As far as I can recall, imported vegetables such as iceberg lettuce, celery, broccoli were very expensive in where I grew up. They were mainly consumed during special occasions and my mum used to said: "this is special and for occasions only". When she visits me in Melbourne she always asks for iceberg lettuces, celery, broccoli for stir fry. I told her that I am happy indeed because they are good for health and widely available. 

Here how one dollar dish works in Melbourne. If you’ve already got oyster sauce and soy sauce in your pantry but if you don’t, it is worthwhile investing a few dollars for these basic ingredients for Asian dishes. You don’t need them much and they cost you peanuts every dish.  

An iceberg lettuce is $1 to $3 depending on season. I paid a dollar for a good size iceberg lettuce at Coles last week and I used half of it only. It took me about few minutes to prepare and less than five minutes to cook. The sweetness and crunchiness were great and natural.

Stir-Fried Iceberg Lettuce with Garlic

300 g (10½ oz) iceberg lettuce

1 tablespoon oil

1 big clove garlic, finely chopped 

Soy mixed (mix all in a small bowl):

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

½ tablespoon soy sauce

1/8 teaspoon sugar

Break the lettuce into pieces, wash and drain well.

Heat oil in a fry-pan or wok and fry the garlic over high heat until almost golden. Add the lettuce and soy mixed and stir fry for about 1½ to 2 minutes.

Preparation time:  5 minutes                                         
Cooking time: 4 minutes

Serve 2 - 4

I hope you will enjoy this simple dish. Happy Cooking!

Chinese Cooking Class, Melbourne

Stir-fried Snow Pea Leaves (snow pea shoots) with Garlic

Snow peas, everyone knows snow peas. It is commonly used in either western or Asian cooking. How about snow pea leaves or some may call it snow pea shoots? If you have ever seen them in the market or you already have them in your backyard, what the next thing to do is turn them into a simply delicious stir-fry dish. I cannot describe much in here how tasty they are. I only can tell you that my toddle loves it very much. Basically, they taste naturally sweet. Try this simple and healthy way to cook snow peas leaves.

Stir-Fried Snow Pea Leaves (snow pea shoots) with Garlic

300 g (10 ½ oz) snow pea leaves

2 tablespoons oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 

¼ teaspoon salt or to taste

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Discard the coils of the leaves and rinse the leaves thoroughly.

Heat oil in a fry-pan or wok and fry the garlic over high heat for 20 seconds or until lightly brown. Add the snow pea leaves, salt and soy sauce and stir fry to coat well in oil for about 2½ minutes. (If they are still tough, cover with lid and cook for another 1 minute).  

Preparation time:  >5 minutes                                   

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Chinese Cooking Class, Melbourne

Chinese Cooking Class- Melbourne

Chinese Food

Chinese Cooking Class, Melbourne

Do you know you can make your own dumpling dough easily at home?

Chinese Cooking Class, Melbourne

Chinese Cooking Class, Melbourne

Roast Pork

Stir-fried Bean Sprouts-Quick Chinese Cooking

FAQ: After using bean sprouts for stir-fried noodles, what am I going to do with the left over?

Answer: Turn it into healthy vegetarian dish with less than 5 minutes preparation and cooking time.

Stir-Fried Bean Sprouts

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

½ half long red chili, thinly sliced (optional)

1 spring onion, cut into 5 cm (2 inch) length (optional)
150 g bean sprouts, washed and drained

1/8 teaspoon salt or to taste

½ tablespoon soy sauce

Heat oil in a fry-pan until hot and add garlic and stir fry until lightly brown. Pour chili, spring onion, bean sprouts, salt and soy sauce into the fry-pan and stir fry for about 20 seconds (with this amount of bean sprouts or if you like it a bit wilt, you can cook longer but not more than 30 seconds). Serve immediately.

Tip: This dish needs to cook in the high heat quickly. Serve hot immediately for the crunchiness of the bean sprouts. 

Asian Cooking Class

Stir-fried chicken mince with eggplant

This is just a perfect dish for lunch or dinner with steamed rice.

 450g (1lb) eggplant

200g (7oz) chicken mince

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved with left over water from the fry-pan or wok (or 1/4 cup of water if you don’t have left over water)

Soy Mixture:

1½ tablespoons oyster sauce

1½ tablespoons light soy sauce

1 teaspoon dark soy sauce (optional)
salt to taste (optional)

Garnish: diagonally-sliced spring onion

Marinate the chicken mince with soy mixture and set aside.

Cook the eggplant soft, follow our method posted a week ago, keep the water from the fry-pan or wok. Cut the eggplant into bite-size pieces.

Heat the oil in a clean fry-pan and stir-fry garlic until lightly brown, add the chicken mince and stir-fry for about 2 minutes. Add the eggplant and stir fry for another 2 minutes. Add dissolved cornstarch, mix well and cook for about one minute. Serve it hot and garnish it with spring onion.

Note: Standard spoon measurement is level

1 tablespoon = 15 ml

1 teaspoon = 5 ml

Chinese Cooking Class, Melbourne

A secret of cooking eggplant soft in 5 minutes

                                                       

Ingredients:

1 eggplant (450g)

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Cut the eggplant into length pieces. Bring 1 cup of water to the boil in a fry-pan or wok with 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil, put the eggplant and cover it with a lid. Turn the fire into medium and let it cook for 5 minutes. The eggplant will cook until soft. Use it to prepare other dishes such as stir-fry, pan fry or salad (if you want it softer for salad, you can cook it for an extra 1 to 2 minutes).

Have a try, you will be surprised.

Enjoy cooking!

Chinese, Malaysian and Singaporean Cooking Class - Melbourne

                                 

Sticky Rice Dumpling

Chinese Sausage Omelette

Jean’s Chinese Style Sausage Omelette

Lightly fry the sausage to increase the flavour of sausage before adding into egg can make the original way of cooking omelette much better.

2 eggs

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Vegetable oil/ olive oil

2 Chinese sausages soak in water for one minute and thinly sliced

½ small onion, thinly sliced (optional)

Break eggs into a bowl and lightly beat them with soy sauce.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a fry-pan, stir fry the sausages for one minute, add onion and stir fry for another minute. Remove and mix all in the bowl.

Add 1 tablespoon of oil in the fry-pan, and pour the egg mixture, swirling quickly to coat well. Let it cook over medium heat for 2 minutes or until golden, turn over and cook for 1-2 minutes and serve hot.

Prep & cooking time: 10 minutes                                                          

Serve 1- 2

Chinese Cooking Class- Melbourne (Christmas Gift Voucher)

Easy Steam Fish

Chinese Cooking Class-Christmas Gift Voucher

Eggplant with salty fish and chicken

Moon Cake Festival- Asian Cooking Class, Melbourne

Happy Moon Cake Festival-Melbourne

Spring Roll- Chinese Cooking Class Melbourne

Oriental Chinese