Corn, mushroom and tuna frittatas

Tried this for lunch at the work canteen the other day and just had to make my own version. I love how you can throw in any leftovers from the fridge and it makes such a fuss free meal. Made it in my happy call pan so minimum oil was needed for frying this. Would definitely be making this again!

Ingredients: (you can pretty much add any leftover COOKED items from your fridge)
2/3 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup milk
1 can tuna
1 can sweet corn, drained
a handful of brown mushrooms, sauteed in butter and garlic
2 medium eggs
1 cup shredded cheese
salt and pepper to taste
20g melted butter


Directions
Mix the flour, milk, eggs and butter until smooth then add all the cooked ingredients and mix again. Spoon into pan and just wait for it to set, when it has set, flip it and brown on other side. Voila! Serve with fresh blanched vegetables.

Pork and Conpoy Congee

Ate this at cell the other day and wanted to replicate it. It used to be a staple on weekend dinners for the husband so was quite pleased when he told me that the consistency is the same as what he used to have.

Ingredients:
2 chicken carcasses
8 bowls of water
3 carrots
cracked black pepper
3.5 cups rice
500g minced meat marinated with 3 tbps light soy, 5 tbps chinese cooking wine, 1.5 tbps seseme oil, pepper and 1 tbps sugar
7 whole dried scallops
2 tablespoons chicken rice mix (I used this as I forgot to buy ginger, and it was the only thing in my fridge that had ginger in it. if you do have ginger, just chop into slices and add while boiling the broth)

Directions:
First, I used my magic pot to slow cook the chicken carcasses with cracked black pepper and carrots for around 5 hours. If you have ginger on hand, throw it in at this stage. After 5 hours, remove excess oil from the broth and add a teaspoon of salt.

After that, take out the bones and the carrots and scoop out about 3 bowls of broth before putting in the rice and the scallops. Bring to a boil and then leave to simmer, stirring constantly. When the rice has soaked up all the broth, add the mince meat in chunks and stir porridge slowly. Add water/ broth to your desired consistency. The porridge should be left to simmer for about 1 hour as your cook the mince meat. When all the mince meat is added, bring to gentle boil and it is ready to serve.

Serve hot porridge over a raw egg(if you so desire) and with sliced preserved vegetables, fried shallots, seseme oil and light soy. Enjoy!

Prawn and mushroom risotto

For my first attempt at making risotto, I must say that it tastes almost as good as "kiam peng". The husband will beg to differ although this earned a "very tasty" from him, he still says that he prefers its asian friend. Nevertheless, this took like half the time to make, once again thanks to my magic pot.

Ingredients:
10 large banana prawns, deveined and shelled
Marinate for prawns:
2 tspn corn flour
1 tspn cracked pepper and soya sauce
a dash of fish sauce, salt, sugar and dried chilli flakes (for a spicy kick)

for rice:
1 brown onion, sliced
4 medium size mushroom, sliced
1 clove garlic
300g arborio rice
200ml white wine
600ml chicken stock
200g grated cheese

Directions:
Marinate the prawns and fry with garlic until pink. Leave aside.

In my "magic pot", I put the onions on brown function together with a combination of butter and olive oil. As the onions begin to brown, I put in the garlic. Add the rice and white wine and chicken stock, then the mushroom. I then put it on pressure cook function for 7 minutes and then stir in the grated cheese. I also added in some herbs and freshly cracked black pepper and its ready to serve. So easy and yet yummy at the same time!

Pan seared scallops with balsamic vinegar reduction

Note: top picture only.

Was in footscray market the other day and chanced upon a shop selling japanese frozen scallops for quite a reasonable price. As a lover of seafood, I simply had to take it home, unfortunately, I've never cooked scallops before, so this was a first try for me.

The trick in searing the scallops is to achieve a browning crust on the top and bottom while delicately cooking the scallop such that it is just slightly undercooked in the centre, thus preserving the sweetness of the dish.

To do this, use a combination of butter and olive oil in a pan, you can use it in the ratio 1:1. Make sure your room temperature scallops are washed and dried on kitchen towel before putting them in a pan. Season both sides of the scallop with a dash of salt. When the pan is really hot, place the scallops gently in the pan, if it sizzles, your pan is hot enough. Do not disturb the scallops but let them cook about 2-3 minutes on one side before flipping them over and cooking for another 1-2 minutes.

To make the balsamic vinegar reduction, combine 5 tablespoons of good quality 4 leaf graded balsamic vinegar with a knob of butter the size of your thumb. Bubble on medium heat and then drizzle on the scallops. bon appetit!

Green tea cheesecake

I love all things green tea. But my favourite has to be the matcha powder that goes so well with ice cream, cream cheese and milk. I didn't have matcha powder on hand, so I substituted it with greenmax matcha latte mix instead. The mix contains good quality matcha from Japan and a milky base that is not too sweet.

Ingredients:
- 250g cream cheese
- half cup vanilla yoghurt
- gelatin 2 tablespoons mixed in warm water
- 2 egg whites, beaten till stiff
- sugar, 90g
- Greenmax green tea mix, 2 packets (if you have green tea powder on hand, use 1 flat tablespoon
- digestive biscuits, 18 pieces
- 1 tsp vanilla essence

Directions:
For base
Crush biscuits finely in a plastic bag with the back of a tomato bottle. Put crush biscuits on a tray and mix melted butter into it. Press evenly into the base of a springform tin, then put in the fridge while you work on the rest of the ingredients.

Blend cream cheese, sugar, cooled gelatin, vanilla essence, yoghurt and green tea until smooth. In a seperate bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff and then fold the cream cheese mixture into the egg whites.

Pour the cheese topping on the base and chill in fridge until set. Decorate with green tea powder and enjoy!

Hoisin pepper pork ribs

This ribs are so easy to do and doesn't involve pre-marination. Plus, it does not require many ingredients and you could serve the sauce with a healthy serving of greens as shown in the picture.

Ingredients:

- Hoisin sauce, 3 tbsps

- Light soy sauce, 3 tbps

- 1/2 cup runny honey

- Chinese cooking wine, 4 tbsps

- 1kg pork ribs, cut into pieces

- Garlic, 6-7 cloves, peeled and chopped

- Freshly cracked black pepper, 1 tsp

- Dash of salt to taste, if needed

Directions:

First, score the meat with boiling water to remove surface dirt and oil, then in mix hoisin sauce, light soy sauce and honey. In a pan, heat with some oil and saute the garlic till fragrant, then throw in the meat, when the surface of the meat is cooked, add the pepper and the cooking wine and then simmer on the stove until the meat is tender. How easy is that! Reduce the sauce in the pan prior to serving to glaze the meat with a thicker sauce just before serving.

For me thanks to my magic pot, I could brown the garlic and the meat in the same pot before pressing the pressure cooking function for 30 minutes. The result is delicious fall-off-the-bones ribs, delish when served with fragrant white rice.

Kiam Peng (Savoury rice)

Kiam peng, literally translated as salty rice in hokkien, is a savoury rice dish that I've loved since I was little. Perhaps its because its such an easy dish to eat, or the fact that its an all in one meal in itself with balanced portions of vegetables and meat, whatever the case is, it fills the kitchen with delicious smells of a welcoming meal.

The trick to cooking kiam peng well is being able to achieve distinct grains after cooking. (i.e. the rice grains are not all mushed up when it is too soggy, or undercooked where some grains are still hard.) Kiam peng may be a little tedious as there are numerous ingredients to cut up and prepared but it is healthy and an all-in-one tasty meal. What you wish to add to the dish is really up to you, it is a versatile dish in that the ingredients may vary.

Ingredients:
(optional)
- Shallots (small red onions), finely sliced
- Sweet chinese sausage, diced
- Snake/long beans, segmented
- Fresh prawns, peeled and deveined, chopped
- Chicken/ vegetable broth

(basic)
- White rice, 2 cups, washed and left to dry.
- 6 large chinese mushrooms, rehydrated and sliced
- 300g pork belly/loin (cut into bits and marinated with 3 tbsp light soya sauce, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp chinese cooking wine, 1/2 tbps sesame oil)
- 1 medium carrot, cut into strips
- 5 leaves of cabbage, chopped
- 5 segments of garlic chopped
- a handful of dried shrimp (hay-bi), rehydrated and chopped

Directions:
Note: As usual, do not throw away the water used to rehydrate the mushrooms and dried shrimp. This will be added to cook the rice later.

Making shallot oil
If you are using shallots, first make shallot oil by frying the shallots until brown in a generous amount of oil. Remove the shallots from heat when they are just about turning brown into a glass/ceramic bowl. Do not use plastic containers as hot oil may have interactions will the plastic causing harmful substances to be released. Do not wait until the shallots are very brown as they do continue cooking in the hot oil after you have removed from them from heat and will turn black if you keep them on the stove for too long.

Part A
Using the residual oil in the pan, saute half a portion of the garlic with the dried shrimp bits until fragrant then fry the meat with the mushroom, chinese sausage and fresh prawns(if applicable). When the meat is cooked, adjust taste with sugar/salt and then remove from heat.

Taking some shallot oil, fry the other half of the portion of garlic and add carrots cabbage, long beans and adjust the taste with sugar and salt. Return Part A to the pan and add the dried rice and fry together until the rice takes on a light brown colour from the ingredients.

Part B
Put all the rice and ingredients into a rice cooker and add the water saved from rehydrating the mushrooms and dried shrimp. When compressing the rice and ingredients with a spoon in the rice cooker, the liquid should only rise to about an inch above the contents. Top up with chicken/vegetable broth if available, if not just add water. Continue cooking as per normal in the rice cooker. Serve with the fried shallots, chopped coriander and red chili for extra colour.