Stir Fried Lady Fingers with Dried Shrimp

This is the 2nd time I attempted stir-frying lady fingers and I still find it simple to prepare and cook. I do not know when I started to like lady finger as I used to hate the slimey portion within it when you stir fry them. May be it is due to the change of taste buds thoughout the years.

I followed the recipe from Hochiak! Delicious Asian Kitchen. It is easy to understand and follow the steps.

I am certainly going to try out more of the dishes from this link.

Thunder Tea Rice

Thunder Tea Rice is originated from Hakka. It is one of my all time favourite meal. Not only it does not contain meat (except for the dried shrimp and fried anchovies), it is a very healthy. The rice (white rice/ brown rice) is normally topped with cubed & diced cooked long beans, tofu, cabbages, vegetables, dried shrimp, fried anchovies (ikan bilis) and peanuts. It also comes with a soup which is made from blended nuts, basil & mint leaves. The soup is normally poured into the rice and is mixed. Once mixed, you can indulge the rich taste and flavorful meal. Some people also enjoy taking the soup separately but there is no fix rule to enjoy the Thunder Tea Rice.

The tofu and fried basil omelette comes in a set with the rice with the top up of extra SGD 2.00. It goes well with the rice, hence, I usually go for it.

Thunder Tea Rice is not commonly found in Singapore. Probably it is due to the amount of work to prepare the soup and the ingredients. Once in a while, I enjoy a bowl of thunder tea rice at Food Republic ,VivoCity. The ambience at Food Republic reminds me of the 1950's hawker stalls with wooden chairs and tables. The ceiling is well decorated with red & bamboo lanterns. The walls are decorated with paintings and ornaments which suit the 50s theme. In the background, you can also hear some of the Chinese oldies being broadcasted.

Due to its uniqueness comparing to other hawker centres or food courts around Singapore, no wonder Food Republic is always crowded with people during peak hours.

Since VivoCity is quite near to where I work, I lunch quite often at Food Republic. Today, I ate Thunder Tea Rice and thought of capturing a few snapshots of the food court to be used here. All the photos shown in this page are randomly taken with my iPhone. I am glad the photos turned out OK. I am even happier I had my stomach and cravings fulfilled.

Steamed Sweet Corns

I was not really a big fan of corns as I thought the taste was a bit too bland for me and sometimes it took me forever to nimble and finish the whole cob of corn. However, I changed my thoughts about corns one day after I tasted the sweetest and the juiciest corn steamed by my mum. Those corns were bought from Cameron Highlands a day earlier. The flesh tasted sweet even when they were uncooked.

I have been staying in Singapore for almost 5 years now and I never really had a chance to buy Cameron Highlands' corns. The ones I normally stumbled upon were either from local Malaysia farm, Thailand or Indonesia. We bought these before but the taste of these corns were never the same.

One fine day about 3 weeks back, we came across a stall which sell the Cameron Highlands' corns in the local wet market. Eventhough they only had 3-4 cobs in the stall, we grabbed everything from them and ever since have been visiting the stall every Sunday morning.

The simplest yet the best way of eating the corns is simply by steaming or boiling them in very hot water for a few minutes.

Ingredients:

(yields 2-3 cob of corns)

2-3 Cob of Corns

2-3 litre Water

2-3 tsp Salt

Toppings (Optional):

Butter (as desired)

Salt (Sprinkle as desired)

Method:

1) Add salt to the water and pour into a wok/ pot. Cover with lid.

2) Bring the water to boiling point.

3) Put the cobs (the leaves & husks still intact) after washing into the boiling water and boil for about 12-13 minutes.

4) Take the corns out and peel away the leaves & husks.

5) Slab a fair amount of butter as desired and sprinkle some salt on the corns.

Results:

Simple & no mess yet filling, satisfying & yummy. I even tried them without the toppings and they still tasted good. Life can be as simple as this. I finished the whole cob within 5 minutes! Yummy.

Dinner at Annalakshmi

I dined out tonight at an Indian vegetarian restaurant and I think I should blog and promote this restaurant. Annalakshmi is the culinary arts section of Temple of Fine Arts (TFA), an artistic and cultural organization dedicated to serving the society through arts, music and dance. It is a non-profit restaurant whereby it serves donors with traditional Indian food, buffet style while payments/ donations from donors go to the needy. The donor only needs to pay from his/her heart for the meal.

No kidding, but you have to make a reservation to have a meal in this restaurant. Luckily, reservation was made ahead of our dinner. The entrance is lavished with heavy but beautifully crafted wooden door. The internal is lighted in a comfortable ambience and it is decorated with a lot of crafted figurines & paintings. Halfway through my meal, I realized that some of these figurines and paintings are tagged with price tags. I believe these are for sale and the earnings will go to the foundation for the needy as well.

I have always heard about this restaurant but this is the first time I've tried it. They are located at the basement level in Chinatown Point and there is one at Amoy Street. Although it is for charity, this restaurant is serious in offering good food too. It is a pity I only know the names of few dishes which I liked so much. Papadum (Crispy crackers), Orange Lassi (Yoghurt drink) and one of the sweet desserts with mini sago were very nice and earned a thumb up. The Lassi is not available at the buffet table but you can order it from the waiters.

The following is a photo of what I'd taken for dinner and I had it refilled!

We had a great time catching up. I truly enjoyed the meal and most important of all, helping the needy at the same time. Nothing could lift my mood as much as this!

I urge to those who read and seen this blog to visit and be a generous donor while having a good hearty meal at Annalakshmi. The website and phone number are stated in the first photo in case you want to make a reservation for a meal there!

Buns for the weekend

I am back again after a long MIA! I feel that I have to start baking and blogging again so that I can spend my weekends more meaningfully rather than watching tv and playing iPhone games for hours!

I came across some photos of my cousin's baked buns when I was browsing Facebook. The photos inspired me to do it again. So, I started looking for the ingredients that I still have in the cabinets and planned what I need to bake. It was a shame the bread flour had turned bad (with bugs in it!) and I had to throw it away. Luckily there is a "Shop & Save" across the street from where I stay. I went out and grabbed whatever I needed, headed home and started to prepare the ingredients for the buns. I was too excited to start again!

For a change, I decided to knead the dough with my hands instead of using the bread machine. Though I lacked experiences of kneading the dough manually, I knead it for about 30 minutes. Unlike my past experience where the dough just stuck awfully to the table and I had to helplessly scraped it off the table with a knife, I knead the dough in a big plastic bowl. I managed the dough this time without any problem. A good sign for a start!

Ingredients:

(yields 6 buns)

150g Bread Flour

50g Top Flour for HK buns

20g Caster Sugar

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Instant Yeast

130g Milk (I used fresh milk)

20g Unsalted Butter

Filling (Can be any fillings):

for Cheesy Garlic buns

30g Butter (soften at room temperature)

2 tbs Chopped Garlic

1 tsp Dried Parsley Flakes

2 tbs Shreded Cheddar Cheese (Optional)

for Hotdogs

6 hotdogs (room temperature)

Method:

1. Put all dry ingredients into a big bowl.

2. Slowly pour and mix the milk into the dry ingredients. Add butter last.

3. Knead the dough for about 30 minutes until it is no longer sticky. Perform the window pane test if necessary.

4. Take out the dough and oil the bowl.

5. Put the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a moist cloth or cling wrap.

6. Let the dough rest for 1.5 hours or until it has risen to double of its original shape.

7. Take out the dough and slightly knead on a lightly floured surface to release the gas.

8. Cut the dough into 6 equal portions and put them back into the bowl covered with moist cloth or cling wrap for about 15-20 minutes.

9.

for Cheesy Garlic Bun

a. Slightly flaten the dough into a round disc.

b. Roll up Swiss roll style, pinch the seams in place & shape it into torpedo shape.

for Hotdog

a. Slightly flaten the dough into long 1.5 inch wide strip.
b. Wrap a piece of dough in circular motion to a hotdog.

10. Place doughs seams side down onto the baking tray lined with aluminium foil or parchment paper.

11. Loosely cover with moist cloth or cling wrap for about 30-45 minutes or until it has risen doubly from original size.

12. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

13. After the dough is ready, brush them with egg wash.

14. For cheesy garlic buns, while waiting for the dough to rise, prepare the filling by mixing them together.

15. Cut a deep slit into the middle of each dough.

16. Pipe in the filings.

17. Bake the buns for about 15-17 minutes. For the last 5 minutes, I moved the tray to the top portion in the oven.

18. Once baked, take out the buns and air them on a rack until cool.

Results:

The buns turned out soft and nice. Hotdogs turned out to be the best in terms of the texture. I am definitely going to make more of these in near future!