Cold noodles with Peanut sauce

Summer seems to have arrived in Singapore AGAIN. After the nice cool rain in January, the heat and humidity seems to be coming back with a vengeance. This is the kind of weather where one wishes for some nice cold noodles. It also helps that it is a quick and easy AND healthy one dish meal with minimal fuss and washing up.

Ingredients (for 2)
200g chicken breast
80g soba noodles
1 large firm tomato
.5 tbsp sesame oil
1 tray of ice cubes
peanut sauce - 4 heaped tbsp ground peanut, 1.5 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, .5tbsp fish sauce, 8 tbsp water

Start by boiling 1 big pot of water for the noodles.
At the same time, put the chicken in another pot of water and start boiling the pot too.
Meanwhile, prepare the sauce by mixing all the ingredient for the peanut sauce well.
Add pepper to taste.

Cook noodles in the boiling water.
Wash and dice tomato while waiting for noodles to cook.
Remove cooked noodles in strainer and rinse in cold water with ice cubes.
Add sesame oil to noodles while in strainer. Toss well.
Divide noodles into 2 bowls.

By this time, the chicken should be cooked. Remove chicken from pot and rinse in cold water. Shred by hand.
Add chicken, tomato and sauce to noodles.
Serve.

This makes a good one dish meal or cold appetizer which can be made before hand and kept in the fridge.

prawns Aglio Olio with asian twist

According to Wkipedia, Aglio olio is a traditional Italian pasta dish that can be made cheaply without seasonal or store-bought ingredients. It is usually spaghetti served with sauce made of sauteed garlic in olive oil.

I love Algio olio as it is easy to make with minimal preparation and cooking time, makes it a good dish to have when you are very hungry, like in the case of lunch today.
Ingredients (serves 2)Spaghetti for 2 / dried pasta of choice
8 large prawns
2 bulbs of garlic
2 chili padi
3 large dried scallops washed & soaked in warm water for 20mins
2-3tsp olive oil
Lemon juice ~1tsp
Freshly grated parmesan cheese

Boil a large pot of water.

While waiting for water to boil, prepare the rest of the ingredients. Peel & crush the garlic, de-seed and roughly slice up the chili, peel and de-vein the prawns, drain and flake the scallop, and not too forget, grate the cheese.

Now that all the "hard work" is out of the way, the water is probably boiling.
Make sure that the water is boiling vigorously, add 1 heaped tsp of salt to it followed by the dried pasta. Give it a good stir. Do NOT add oil to pasta water!

Heat up olive oil in skillet. At medium-low heat, add garlic followed by prawn heads. (the prawn heads and garlic helps give flavor to the olive oil)
When the prawn heads are cooked halfway, turn up the heat & add in the prawns.

At this point, it will be good to give the pasta another good stir.
Stir fly the prawns and remove the cooked prawns.
Add scallop and chili to the skillet.

Check on the pasta which should be cooked to al dente at just about 1-2mins from now. (it helps that the pasta I bought was instant spaghetti which cooks in 8 mins compared to the usual 11-12mins)
Drain the pasta. Do NOT rinse in cold water!
Add the pasta and prawns to the skillet. Squeeze some lemon/lime juice and give the pasta a good stir.
Serve immediately with cheese +/- parsley.

The Aglio Olio I made is full of garlic as I love garlic, especially these which are so soft and sweet. In the really hungry situation, a good alternative to dried scallop is dried shrimps (Hei Bi) as it takes away the need for pre-soaking.

fast & yummy Lotus Root Soup

I love soup. Soup is transcultural, it evokes warmth, is a great comfort food, and reminds me of home. Plus, soup is easy to cook, difficult to fail but hard to perfect. In the modern kitchen where time is a luxury, it always helps to have the niffy little device called the pressure cooker. Now, I'm not sure if pressure cooker made soup taste any different from the traditional Cantonese slow-cooked soup (made over charcoal fire nonetheless), I'm happy with homemade soup any day.

So, here's the recipe for lotus root soup with peanut and pork ribs

Ingredients (serves 4-6)
1 kg pork ribs
Handful of red dates washed
2 bulbs of garlic washed & separated into cloves
1 big bowl of shelled peanut
1 big lotus root ~1 kg washed, peeled and cut crosswise into 0.5cm slices
Bones from 2 chicken
1 muslin bag
Marinate for pork ribs: 3-4tbsp light soy sauce, 1-2tsp of sesame oil, sprinkle of shaoxing wine, dash of white pepper. Exact measurements not required as soup is very forgiving

Put chicken bones, garlic and red dates into muslin bag. Option to add couple of pieces of dried cuttlefish. Some feel that it helps with the umami flavor of the soup but I find that it detracts from the natural sweetness of the soup. There are also others who advocate adding carrots/tomatoes which I feel is unorthodox and does not add to the flavor of the soup.
Place lotus root, peanut and muslin bag into pressure cooker and fill it with water with water level about 2cm just above the bag. (It's always easier to add water to dilute the soup later) Cook in pressure cooker under high pressure for 30minutes.

Meanwhile, wash and blanch pork ribs. Blanching means putting pork ribs into a pot of boiling water for a couple of minutes. It helps to remove any excess fat/blood/smell from the meat and ensures clear soup.
Marinate the blanched pork ribs for 30mins.

After 30minutes, mash up the contents of muslin bag with a wooden spoon to release all the goodness into the soup. Remove bag from the pot.
This forms the soup base.

Add the marinated pork ribs to the soup base. Pressure cook under high pressure for 15-20minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. And voila! Yummilious and hypernutritious lotus root soup. The natural sweetness of the soup coupled with the soft boiled peanuts and crunchy lotus roots brings about great comfort.
The soup can be served immediately. However, I find that placing the soup in the freezer helps remove the excess oil (oil floats to the surface and freezes which can be scraped off easily) and enhances the flavor when it is reheated the next day.