Oden - Japanese Yong Tau Hu (Fish Cake Soup)

Oden is a Japanese winter soup dish serve with multiple cooked ingredients like radish, konnyaku(jelly made from seaweed), processed fish cake and tofu stewed in a light soy-based broth. The ingredient might varies according to what is available. Oden is the most easiest dish to made as most of the cooked ingredients could be bought off the shelf in the supermarket or asian grocer.

Oden is similar to Singapore Yong Tau Hu  which is also a soup dish that serve with similar ODEN cooked ingredients but with slight difference. In Singapore, we serve it either dry or with soup and serve with sweet bean sauce. As I got a busy working week ahead of me, so I decide to cut corner and cook Oden for my lunch.

Oden

• 4 Fish Balls
• 2 Crab Sticks
• 4 Mushroom Pork Balls
• 4 Vege Balls
• 1 Pack Oden Dry Soup Stock (available at big supermarts or Japanese Grocer)

Boil 1 to 2 cups of water. Add in the Oden Soup Stock into the boiling water. Make sure you do a taste test to ensure the Oden soup don't get too salty. If you cannot find Oden soup stock, you can replace with chicken broth or vegetable broth whichever you have on hand. Add in the fish ball, crab stick, mushroom pork ball, vege balls into the Oden soup stock. Cook for 15mins and it will be ready to serve with rice or eat plainly.

New VS Old - City Square Mall VS Mustafa Centre

It been quite a while since I visited Mustafa Centre to acquire unique indian spices, so I decide to made a trip today so as not to waste the hard to come by long holiday weekend. I decide to bring my PSP camera along to take some shots of my trip. I decided to take the MRT despite it is longer route to Mustafa as I prefer constantly under "aircon". The MRT trip didn't took that long about 15 - 20mins and I drop off at Farrer Park and exit at Serangoon Road.

As I walked out of the MRT station, I'm surprised to see a new Shopping Mall (City Square Mall) is greeting me on the left as I've no idea a mall is in the midst of construction since my last visit to Mustafa. In the year of recession, it seem like new Shopping Malls is popping up all over Singapore and I wonder what this mall have to offer and decide to deviate my itinerary a bit to see what this new mall have to offer to shoppers.

City Square Mall is a mall that market heavily on being "Eco-friendly" with Metro as their major tenant. You will find adequate fashion house, consumer electronics and F&B evenly distribute on each level. As usual, I'm more interested in the F&B so I took the trouble to capture (Link1,Link2,Link3) the F&Bs that will be gracing this mall.Due to most of the retail space not taken up, I decide to cut short my trip in City Square and proceed to Mustafa Centre.

As usual, Mustafa Centre are still bustling with shoppers. It is only of shopping centre in Singapore to house the most products one could imagine from clothings, medicals, electronics, jeweleries to foodstuffs despite limited floorspace. Therefore, navigating thought the level could be daunting for first time shoppers.

The foodstuff section is the most popular section in Mustafa Centre. This is the only photo I manage to capture as the section is so pack with people any moment you get shove or push to one corner. For Indian culinary artist, you be awe by the type of spices sold in Mustafa Centre. It is a mecca for spices, you can find basically any spices needed for Indian cuisine here. For this trip, I bought saffron, curry leaves powder and mustard powder as I got some recipes need this few spices. It still early to say if City Square Mall will poise a threat to Mustafa Centre as both of them are catering for different market segment with City Square Mall targeting up market while Mustafa Centre targeting general populace.

Hari Raya Cooking Spree Afterthought

Seeking solace in cooking different kinds of cuisine is the only remaining simple pleasure I could afford nowadays with everything go up like nobody business. This Hari Raya holiday cookout was a bit of a rush as I need to juggle between a few cuisine all within the same day - Lok Lok Hotpot (for my friend coming over), Le Grand Sandwich (as lunch for my mum) and Chicken Korma (for my workday lunch).

Overall, I enjoyed the cooking experience immensely except for the internal family strife happened yesterday that mired any of the little joy I've collected over the holidays. I don't intend to air dirty linens here as I believe everyone more or less have their own that they wish they can bleach away with Clorox. This is Life and family strife bound to happen. Life is really tiring (for myself I don't imply those who read this blog lol) nowadays with constant tussle in the corporate world and struggles to make ends meet to let alone let family strife to erode away your last haven of happiness. I hope my current feeling of moodiness will subside soon as life still needs to go on. I will still continue to cook more exotic cuisine as "Food is the chicken soup for the soul".  

Home Style Lok Lok - Skewer Mala Hotpot

Friend is crashing over my place for Ma La Hotpot. Due to the wet weather, it is ideal for hotpot. Rather than doing those normal style hotpot, I decide to do Lok Lok Hotpot for novelty. Lok Lok Hotpot is whereby the food condiments skewer on bamboo stick and cook in the hotpot. I did a basic skewer with standard cooked items and special chicken skewer and got quite a positive response from my friend.

Cooked Food Lok Lok

• Bamboo Skewers (retail at $2 at Daiso)
• Vegetable FIsh Balls
• Mushroom Pork Meat Balls
• Fake Crab Sticks
  
• Chikuwa
• Fried Fish Roll

You do not need to follow strictly the skewer items listed above. Feel free to experiment with other cooked items for the cooked food lok lok. Before you skewer the food items, check the depth of the hotpot with a skewer to see how much you food items you can skewer to ensure it could be fully cook when you immerse it in the hotpot .

Marinated Chicken Lok Lok

• Bamboo Skewers (retail at $2 at Daiso)
  
• 1 Chicken Thigh Chopped Chunk
  
• 1 Teaspoon of Garlic Puree
• 1 Teaspoon of Ginger Puree
• 1 Teaspoon of Cumin Powder
• 1 Teaspoon of Chili Powder
• Salt
  

Marinate the chicken chunks with garlic, ginger, cumin and chili powder with a pinch of salt overnight. As Daiso's bamboo skewer is pretty thick so if you need to take care in skewering the chicken pieces as you need use certain amount of prodding to poke through the meat. This marinated chicken lok lok taste equally fabulous if you pan fry or grill it.

  Mala Hotpot Hotpot Soup

• Mala Hotpot Soup Pack (retail $1.60 at Sheng Siong)
• 3 to 4 cups of Water

The Mala Hotpot Soup pack sold in Sheng Siong is heavily flavored, therefore you only need 3 to 4 cups of water boil it before you add in the Mala soup pack. Do not add in the whole mala soup pack into boiling water. Add in by tablespoon and do a taste test until the hotpot soup reach the spice level you are comfortable with. Then, you are ready to have a hotpot fiesta.

Hyderabadi Chicken Korma

I'm profess I'm quite an avid fan for Indian cuisine especially Indian curries as the curries although look the same but the taste can varies so much. While chatting with one of my friend (also Indian cuisine fan), he reminisce how he craved for Chicken Korma served with Parantha during his childhood years with it non-spicy yellowish gravy and succulent chicken drumstick that etched deeply in his memory.

This prompt me to google in the web for the recipe that matches his description. After much filtering, I managed to find the Bahavani's Chicken Korma matches closely to my friend description of Chicken Korma. I decide to give it a try with a twist in the preparation to increase the flavour of it.

Hyderabadi Chicken Korma

• 800 grams of Chicken Thighs Chunks
• 1/2 cup of Roasted Cashew Nuts Powdered
• 2 Green Chili Pureed
  
• 4 Cloves
• 1 Cardamon
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Garam Masala
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Cumin Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Turmeric Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Coriander Power
  
• 1 Tablespoon of Yogurt
• 1 Tablespoon of Butter
• 1 - 1/2 Cup of Water
  
• Salt
  

Marinade

• 1 Teaspoon of Garlic Chopped
• 1 Teaspoon of Ginger Chopped
• 1 Teaspoon of Cumin Powder
• 1 Teaspoon of Turmeric Powder
• 1 Teaspoon of Coriander Powder
• 1 Tablespoon of Yogurt

Unlike Bahavia's recipe, I prefer to pre-marinate the chicken piece as it allows the spice to permeate into the chicken better. After you rinse the chicken thighs dry and chopped it to chunky pieces into a mixing bowl. Add in the marinade ingredient with a pinch of salt and mixed it well with the chicken chunks. Take care to use a spatula or gloves to do the mixing to prevent your hand being stain by the Turmeric powder. After that, keep it in the refrigerator overnight to allow the marinade to soak into the chicken.

Heat up the non-stick frying pan or pot and add in the butter and let it melt. Made sure the heat is set to medium so that the butter doesn't burn. Next add in the Cardamon & Cloves and fry till you smell the fragrant then add in all the dry spices and stir it vigorously at medium low heat for a few sec till the butter separate. Add in the blended green chili and fry it for 1 minute then add in the yogurt fry for another 2 minutes. Add in the marinated chicken in to fry. If you find it too dry you can add in a bit of water. Next, add in the cashew nuts as it will give the curry more body and flavor. After 5 minutes, add in half a cup of water and lower the heat to let it simmer 10 to 15 mins so that the chicken will remain succulent and not overcook. Now you can add in salt to adjust the flavor to your liking.


 

Le Grand Jerk Chicken & Ham Sandwich

Recently, I just chanced upon McDonald new burger release - Le Grand Beef Sandwich retail only in selected McDonalds restaurant (Lido Ground Floor & Bras Brasah). It is big Ciabatta bread sandwich serve with oversized beef patty top with mayo, onion, tomato slices and 2 slice of cheese. The sandwich didn't left much impression on me solely because it was serve cold despite it was freshly made by the McD's staff.

However, the sheer size of the Ciabatta did impress me and I decided to do a ala-home version of Le Grand Sandwich with the leftover ingredients (honey baked ham, sliced jamaican jerk chicken, mozzarella & hormel's chili) I had left from previous cooking expedition. Upon chance, I manage to find cheap Ciabatta (6 for $1.95) at Giant Megamart and I decide to go all out making my Le Grand Sandwich.

Le Grand Jerk Chicken & Ham Sandwich

• 1/2 Jamaican Jerk Chicken Thigh Sliced
• 2 slices of Honey Baked Ham
• 1 loaf of Ciabatta
• 3 Tablespoon of Hormel's Turkey Bean Chili
• Mozzarella Cheese or Cheddar Cheese Slice

There is no strict rule in making this sandwich and you are free to substitute with leftover ingredients like sausages, bacon, egg you conveniently find in your fridge. As for how to make Jamaican Jerk Chicken I will post the recipe at a later date. On to making the Le Grand Sandwich, slit the Ciabatta lengthwise and unfold it as you fliping open a book.


Add the sliced Jamaican Jerk Chicken slice first onto the Ciabatta and top it with 3 tablespoons of Hormmel's Turkey Bean Chili. Next slice Honey Baked Ham in the middle and lace it on top of the Chili. Then, top it with lot of mozzarella or cheddar cheese slice close the Ciabatta and grill it using Kenwood Griller or alternatively at the toaster oven for 5 minutes till the cheese melts and you have a nice tasty Le Grand Sandwich that even supersede the original.

Saturday Cooking Spree Afterthought

With recession still in the loom, restaurant and foodcourt have been busy giving out promotions to retain customers but little effort  improving or maintaining the food quality and taste. Most of them is either busy cutting down food proportion or doing marketing to mislead general consumer that their food had improve but when you go to any of the restaurant and order their so called improved menu, you be won't surprised you don't get what they advertised.

I tried many newly open eateries and restaurants at Orchard ION but the food quality and taste doesn't not really live up to the franchise in Japan. There are a lot of food bloggers out there blogging on ION's restaurant and eateries so I won't dwell further in it. Cooking in home is not an arduous task as one believe. There are fast and easy way to cook without sweating. Microwave oven is one cooking device that can cut down cooking time as you can pre-cook certain food items and heat them up before serving and the person who consume it will believe you just cook it.

Cleaning is the next dreadful task one would shun cooking at home as seeing all the cooking utensil piling in the sink will enough to turn you off (even for "sex" lol). If you're skillful enough, you can cater some of the cleaning in certain time slot during the period of cooking like steaming or simmering which got long period of inactivity that doesn't need your personal attention. By the time the dish is ready, you have nothing much to clean and lot of times to enjoy your fruit of labor. The next dread is you do not want to stuck with the same food all day long, this can be easily resolve by rehashing the same ingredient with different style of cooking or serve it differently with rice or noodles.

I hope my cooking afterthought is enough to prompt those newbies in cooking to continue on. As in the long run, you will find the food you cook will even supersede those serve in eateries or restaurants at a fraction of the cost.
 

Dory Fish Herb Nugget

I had very bad experience with those "Ready To Fry" fish nuggets retailing in major supermarkets. They are a major disappointment as most are either thickly coated with flour or the fish nugget filling is fish meat blend into a mush then re-constitute into a nugget. The taste is not one who would desire.

Lately McCormick release a new product Fish Nugget Mix to address this issue. I bought a pack at NTUC Fairprice at promotion price of $0.99. I decided to give it a go since I got some Dory Fish available to experiment with. The dish came out quite appealing as the nugget is not too thickly coated and the herbs in the crispy nugget crust really compliment the dory fish well. The result is further justify by.the thumbs up given by my mum and her students.

   Dory Fish Herb Nugget

• 2 pieces of sutchi fillet slice nugget to nugget size
• 1 pack of McCormick Fish Nugget Mix
• 1 egg whip and dilute with a bit of water
• cooking oil

Make sure you wash and drain the sutchi fillet before you slice the sutchi fillet into nugget bite size. Dip the sutchi fillet in the egg wash and coat it with McCormick Fish Nugget Mix. Heat up a frying pan with cooking oil for 5-10 mins, fry the nugget until it turn golden brown. Drain and serve it hot with tartare sauce or mayonnaise.  

Aloo Bhaji

Beside the usual meat type curries India is famous for, actually there are a lot of vegetarian cuisine in their staple diet with primary focus on Dal. Aloo Bhaji (Potato Curry) is one of those easy to cook Indian vegetarian dish that is not too overwhelming for general people. It is ideal to pair it as a side with parantha or rice.

Aloo Bhaji

• 4 medium potato slice thickly
• 2 tablespoon of Shan Aloo Bhaji Mix (retail $1.90 SGD in Mustafa Centre)
  
• 1 medium tomato chopped cubes
  
• 1 medium onion chopped cubes
  
• salt
• 2 chili padi sliced thinly
  
• 1 chili slice thinly
  
• 1 1/2 cup of water
• 2 tablespoon cooking oil
  

Heat up the non-stick pot with cooking oil, add in the chopped onion and stirfry it until it start to brown and soften. Add in the chili and fry for another 2 mins and stir in the chopped tomato. If you find the masala too dry, you can add in a spoonful of water until you see the oil start separate. Add in the 2 tablespoon of Shan Aloo Bhaji Mix  into the masala and stirfry it for another 2 to 4 mins. Add in chopped potato and stir and ensure the masala coat every piece of potato for 5 mins. Add in the water cover let it boil for 10 mins. Open and check if the potato is tender by poking it with a fork. Once the potato is tender, lower the heat to a simmer to reduce and thicken the curry. Do a taste test and add additional salt if necessary. Once you satisfied with the taste, switch off the stove and serve.

Pan Fried Tandoori Sutchi Fillet

I start to feel I have been emphasizing too much meat recipe especially on poultry and it's getting kinda boring. I got some tandoori mix left from previous cooking expedition and decide why not do a Pan Fried Tandoori Sutchi Fillet as it will be quite a novel dish. It is best served with rice or you can innovate and serve it as a Tandoori Fish Burger with fresh lettuce. 

.Pan Fried Tandoori Sutchi Fillet

• 3 Pieces of Sutchi Fillet (2 Pack $3.20 at NTUC Fairprice)
• 1 Teaspoon Garlic Mince
• 1 Teaspoon Ginger Mince
• 2 Tablespoon Tandoori Mix
• 2 Tablespoon Yogurt ($1.20 at Sheng Siong)
• Salt
• Lime

Thaw the 3 pieces of sutchi fillet and made sure you run through water to clean it. After that, pat it dry with paper towel or squeeze out excess water with your hands. Sprinkle a bit of salt across the fillet and squeeze lime juice and give it a good rub and leave it to marinate for 15 mins.

Mix garlic, ginger, tandoori mix and yogurt to you get a fine paste. Applied it onto the sutchi fillet and ensure all of them are evenly coated. Leave it to marinate overnight for best result if not at least 1 hour. Heat a skillet or frying pan light coat with oil, panfried the sutchi fillet till each side start to brown.  

East Meets West - Pork Satay/Kutupat Vs Hot Chili Chicken Chipolata HotDog

It is very fortunate to live in a heartland whereby you have 5 different supermarkets located pretty close to each other as you will be spoiled for choice with different exclusive offers given. After rummaging through the offers this week I decide to whip up a East Meets West Saturday lunch today with the offer items I gathered on Friday. Hot Chili Chicken Chipolatas HotDog not exactly a True West (LOL) as I don't have hot chili at moment and substitute it with beef keema that I had cooked in excess.

Pork Satay/Kutupat Vs Hot Chili Chicken Chipolatas HotDog

• 1 Gardenia Hotdog Bun (Hotdog Bun free from NTUC with Purchase 1 Loaf of Bread)
• 1 Chicken Chipolata ($4.95 10 Pcs Chicken Chipolatas Promotion from Carrefour)
• 1/2 Cup Mozzarella 
  
• 5 Sticks City Pork Satay ($7.00 Promotion from Sheng Siong)
• 2 Kutupat ($3.20 Promotion from Sheng Siong)
• 1 Beef Keema (substitute for Hot Chili)
  

City Pork Satay are sold in a pack of 20 stick with peanut sauce. Empty the peanut sauce in microwave bowl and heat it under high settings for 11/2 minutes. Heat up the electric grill and coat it with oil for 5 minutes then grill the satay each side for 5 minutes and ready to serve. For cooking the Kutupat, boil a pot of water with salt added add in the kutupat rice pack sure it is fully submerge into the bowling water and boil it for 45 mins or more, turning it at times until it is fully bloated up. You can do it the day before as the kutupat need to cool down adequately so that you can cut it without the rice sticking to the knife.

Heat a frying pan with a drizzle of oil, fried the chipolata until the skin start to turn crisp. Slit the the hotdog bun length wise and insert the chipolatas into the hotdog bun. Drizzle the hot dog bun with Beef Keema and top it with mozzarella cheese. Microwave it under high setting for 1 mins till the cheese melts.

Beef Keema

Keema is one of staple dish in North Indian Cusine serve with Naan bread toast over a tandoor. I used to frequent one of my favourite North Indian stall at Sim Lim Square Food Court as the chef there allow you to customize the spiciness of the Keema according to your preference. Since the stall had relocate to Little India, I hadn't have Keema for years and decide to indulge my craving by cooking my own Keema.

 Beef Keema

• 500g Minced Beef
• 1/2 Cup Green Peas (can add Corn Kernel or Carrot to reduce the meatiness)
  
• 2 Medium Onion or 1 Large Onion
• 2 Medium Tomato Chopped
• 1 2inch Cinamon Stick
• 2 Bay Leaves
  
• 4 Cloves
• 4 Green Cardamon
• 1 Teaspoon Garlic Mince
• 1 Teaspoon Ginger Mince
  
• 1 Tablespoon Coriander Powder
• 2 Tablespoon Chili Powder (1 1/2 Teaspoon Chili Powder for less spicy)
• 1 Teaspoon Cumin Powder
  
• 1/4 Teaspoon Turmeric Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Garam Masala
• Salt
• Cooking Oil
• Da Bomb Hotsauce (Optional)
  

Heat a non-stick pot with 2 to 3 tablespoon of cooking oil, add in the bay leaves, cloves, cardamons and cinnamon stick and fried it till you smell the dry spice fragrance. Add in the chopped onion and fried together with the spice until it start to turn brown. You might add a bit of water if you find it too dry to facilitate caramizing the onion. After that, add in the chopped tomato and ginger and garlic mince to fry it further until the oil starts to separate.


After that, add in mince beef and fried it for 4 to 5 minutes. Add in the Cumin Powder, Coriander Powder, Turmeric Powder, Chili Powder and Garam Masala and stirred the mince beef till it is evenly coat with the powder spices for 1 minutes. Next you can stir in the green peas and cook for another 2 mins. If you find the keema too dry, add in half a cup of water cover with a lid and let it simmer. Finally, do a taste test on the Beef Keema and add salt accordingly to your palate. The beef keema I cooked lack the spiciness I craving for therefore I add 1 drop of spice it up to my liking. For those faint of heart of spiciness, you have just follow the original recipe.