Black Pepper Beef Stir Fry

When comes to cooking this popular, Chinese stir-fry dish, the choice of beef is the key to success. The beef should be the first grade of beef fillet. Then you can be very sure to enjoy the tender, juicy, delicious beef seasoned with freshly grated black pepper. Some Chinese restaurants even serve this dish on a very hot iron plate, sizzling with rich black pepper sauce.

Almond Meringue (Dessert for Mother’s Day)

I made crème brulee for dinner yesterday and got some leftover egg whites. These four leftover egg whites got me thinking of what and how I should do with them. That’s a good problem for me though. Having seen the classic Australian dessert, Pavlov made by Donna Hay on MasterChef Australia, I was aspiring to bake one very soon. Quickly, I changed my mind without any reason and decided to make some mini almond meringues for the coming Mother’s Day.

These meringues can be kept in an air-tight container for quite a long time, or if they turn soft outside, just pop them in the oven and heat them to dry again. There are many variations you can make, for example, spread some chocolate cream between two mini meringues or simply sprinkle a bit of coco powder over the surface of meringues to your liking. It’ll be a great looking present for your mother. Sweet !

Omurice (Chicken and Tomato Rice wrapped in Fried Eggs)

Omurice, is a contemporary Japanese dish. I guess it’s invented not long ago, yet it quickly becomes a very popular dish around the world. It’s a kind of fried rice, commonly cooked with chicken, tomato sauce and ketchup, wrapped in omelette (a thin sheet of fried egg). In every Japanese restaurant, you’ll easily find this dish on their menu. Some restaurants even create their own variations of fried rice inside the omelette, with different meats and flavours. I like to cook this dish for my family, not only because it’s easily cooked, but also can I put all the delicious and healthy ingredients inside. The fried rice absorbs all the flavours of chicken and tomato sauce. The omelette outside is just cooked and retains its smooth texture. This dish usually goes with some baby greens.

Seaweed, Tofu & Pork Mince Soup

Seaweed is commonly used in oriental cuisine like Japanese, Korean and Chinese. I often use the seasoned seaweed to add flavours in soup, sometimes cook soups with the unflavoured ones, that normally comes in dried sheet form. Just soak a sheet of seaweed in water until it softens. After rinsing thoroughly, it’s ready to cook with other ingredients I like. This seaweed soup can be done in 15 minutes. It’s one of my favourite quick soups, that adds an extra boost of minerals to my meals.

When it comes to cooking this soup, I pick the kind of seaweed sheets without any seasonings, neither that one for wrapping sushi nor for decorating dishes. The one I used is different from Nori. It often comes in a round package, sold at any Asian stores.

Spicy Hawaiian Pizza

What I like making homemade pizzas is the unique toppings that I can create. I can add any of my favourite ingredients on top, and as many as I like. This spicy Hawaiian pizza was baked on the same day when I made the BBQ chicken pizza. One dough, two variations. I just topped the pizza with a few slices of salami, my daughter’s favourite, then turned the traditional Hawaiian pizza into a spicy one, adding a kick in flavour and going really well with pineapples.

BBQ Chicken Pizza (International Pizza-pie Incident)

Pizzas are one of the popular snacks in a party, especially those are straight from the oven. I’m not throwing any parties at home anyway. This is the post for joining an online pizza-pie party, that follows our first gnocchi party. It’s been a while that my family hasn’t eaten any pizzas. So it’s a good incentive to get myself motivated and bake some pizzas again. After a few email exchanges, the crews of our online party finally decided to name it as “International Pizza-pie Incident”. It’s so much fun that all the participants post their own recipes on the same day, as well as feel surprised to find out what kinds of pizzas others would have made.

Guess what pizza I baked......

For this pizza-pie incident falls on the same day of Penny’s birthday. Penny has put a lot of efforts and time to organize our party. I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank-you and wish her a “Happy Birthday”.

I made two different pizzas actually. The first one is our family’s favourite, BBQ chicken pizza, with thin and crispy base. To make the pizza special for celebrating Penny’s birthday, I stuffed extra Mozzarella cheese in the edge, adding richer cheese flavour, with a curl up edge that makes more rooms in the middle for more toppings. If any of our crews’ birthday in April that I don’t know before, this pizza is made for you as well.

The pizza dough is big enough for making two 10 inches pizzas. Apart from making a barbeque chicken pizza with cheese stuffed crust, I also baked a spicy Hawaiian pizza with homemade sauce. Considering this post is quite lengthy, I’d post another recipe in the next post.

Steamed Eggs with Dried Scallops

Dried scallops (or conpoy) are made from the abductor muscle of scallops, a prized delicacy in Hong Kong Cantonese cooking. For those who are interested in knowing more about this priced seafood, please read Helen’s post, “What are Chinese Dried Scallops?”

My kid loves eating dried scallops and would grab a bit from the fridge to eat as a snack now and then. To satisfy my kid’s craving, I used some dried scallops to steam with eggs the other day. Some Hong Kong people like to mix the cooked scallops in the whisked eggs, while others like sprinkle on top of steamed eggs. I like doing both ways. If you don’t add any salt in the whisked eggs, you might like to drizzle some soy sauce after the eggs are cooked through. Do whatever you like when you cook this dish. The smooth, silky steamed eggs infused with the heavenly tasty smell of dried scallops, goes very well with rice.

Bok Choy and Fish Cake Stir Fry

Many of my Chinese recipes are handed down by my mum. Whenever I’d like to have a Chinese dish on our table, I always turn to my mum and try what she cooked for us. She likes to make fish cakes, blended with shiitake mushrooms and dried prawns (dried shrimps), that could be traced back to her family’s heritage. My mum said, the choice of fish meat is crucial. The fish has to be very fresh, without any fishy smell at all. A pinch of pepper and a bunch of diced spring onion will add a kick. The fish cake can be eaten on its own. What a sensational taste when the springy pan-fried fish cake pops into your mouth, comes straight from the pan and still hot. Dip with some chili sauce if you like a spicy kick.

In Hong Kong, people like to choose Mud Carp (鯪魚). Unfortunately, I can’t find any in Australia here. So I used mackerel (馬鮫魚) that’s also a good choice of making springy fish cake.

As for bok choy, try to get the kind with shorter stems if you can. That’s the best kind with sweetest taste.

Coco-cola Chicken Wings

Coco-Cola (Coke) is always served on our dinner table, side by side with one of my loved one’s main course nearly everyday. I don’t quite understand why it’s so addictive. Some people can’t live without it. It’s not overstated if you know someone who is really addicted to coke. Not many people know what’s in coke and how it’s made. The flavour base for Coke is still one of the world's great trade secrets. That said, there’re only three people in the world know the formula of creating the unique flavour of it. Well, the cooking ingredients and method of this dish, Coco-Cola Chicken Wings has no secrets at all. That’s simple and easy to cook. You can’t taste any flavour of coke after cooking anyway. The chicken wings are tasty sweet, succulent, with rich soy sauce flavour though. The coke can tenderize the meat of chicken wings and add more flavours. Thus, I didn’t need to cover the chicken wings when cooking. The bones would easily come off otherwise. It’s not a pleasant looking if so.