Taking A Break Before CNY

Dear friends, if you've been reading my blogs, you'd have noticed that I've not been updating them recently. Reason being this is the last month before CNY (Chinese New Year, 7 Feb this year), and I've been channelling my concentration & efforts towards getting my house etc ready for it.

Though there's so much that I want to write & share about, this period I'm shifting top priority to my CNY project. So you'll likely hear from me again after CNY. Hope everyone enjoys a healthy, prosperous & fulfilling new year!

Broccoli & Carrot With Minced Meat

This is basically a stir-fry dish. If you have small kids, minced meat will be easier for them to eat than sliced meat. The red & green colours perk up their appetite too, especially if you have time to make some patterns like cutting the carrot & broccoli stem into shapes of stars, moons, triangles etc. They will enjoy the meal more by "hunting" for the next star or guessing what shape they'll get next. If you prepare the ingredients beforehand, it takes only a short while to cook.

Ingredients:
- 1 "ball" of broccoli
- 1 small carrot
- 100gm minced meat
- 1 heaped teaspoon of chopped garlic
- 1 tablespoon oil / sesame oil

Marinade:
- half teaspoon salt
- quarter teaspoon sugar
- half teaspoon vinegar
- dash of pepper
- half teaspoon cornflour
- half teaspoon soy sauce

Seasoning:
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- cornflour mixture (1 teaspoon corn flour dissolved in some water)

Method:
- marinate minced meat with above marinade sauce
- wash broccoli thorougly, cut & separate the stem from the "flowers". Remove some of the tough skin / fibre on surface of the stem. Cut stem into thin slices, & separate "flowers" into small florets
- wash carrot. Peel & cut into thin slices
- prepare garlic
- heat wok, add 1 tablespoon oil
- add garlic & stir-fry until fragrant
- add marinated minced meat, stir fry for a minute until almost cooked, ladle out & set aside
- add a few drops of oil / sesame oil if necessary into wok, add carrot & broccoli stem slices, stir-fry about a minute over high heat
- add broccoli florets, stir-fry for 2 minutes or until the colour change
- add minced meat from earlier on, stir-fry a bit, add some water / hot water
- add oyster sauce & soy sauce, continue to stir-fry for another minute
- stir corn flour mixture into the wok
- turn off heat, cover wok for short while, serve hot with rice or porridge

Tips:
- if you cut the carrot or broccoli stem into various shapes, don't slice them too thin, otherwise they'll break in the stir-frying process

If I only want to cook one dish for a meal, this is one of the dishes I prefer, as it's quite balanced in nutrition.

Delicious Steamboat

This is an all-in-one dish that my mum usually cooks for Chinese New Year or at times when she doesn't feel like cooking so many dishes. It's versatile as any ingredients can be used, though I usually use cabbage & seafood. The amount of food can also be adjusted according to the number of persons. And you don't need to cook all ingredients, you can just prepare the raw ingredients and serve them on plates for guests to choose & cook for themselves. Of course you have to provide the necessary "tools" for them like colanders etc. I like its flexibility in variety & quantity. Fun too!

Ingredients:
- a pot of hot water or soup stock
- vegetables, suggest cabbage
- seafood, suggest fish & prawns (even abalone if it's for Chinese New Year)
- others, suggest fishballs, mushrooms, carrot, quail eggs
- 1 or 2 slices of ginger, optional, to mask "fishy" taste

Method:
- prepare vegetables beforehand, wash & cut
- cut fish into slices, marinate with salt, pepper, sesame oil & a little corn flour
- for tastier soup use whole prawns. For easy eating, remove heads & shells, then also marinate with salt, pepper, sesame oil & a little corn flour
- prepare quail eggs by separately boiling & shelling them, just like making hard boiled eggs
- prepare all other ingredients, washing, cutting etc
- put sufficient hot water or soup stock into the steamboat, wait for water to boil, add a little salt & sesame oil if desired
- add cabbage, carrot, mushrooms, fishballs
- add ginger, fish, prawns
- add fishballs, quail eggs

Tips:
- fish, prawns & abalone cook rather fast, only put them into the boiling soup when you want to eat & ladle them out immediately when done
- turn down heat when not cooking. Prepare a little more soup / hot water than you need as soup in the steamboat will dry out due to constant heating. Add when necessary
- raw fishballs are cooked if they "float" in the soup
- you can add any other ingredients that you like, for example "yong tau foo", meat balls, crabsticks, "tang hoon" (vermicelli) etc
- if you don't have a steamboat, just cook everything in a big pot and serve with rice. Tastes nice too :-)