Showing posts with label - Homecooked. Show all posts
Showing posts with label - Homecooked. Show all posts

Monday 10 March 2014

Nissin Tonkotsu Flavour Instant Noodles

This packet of Nissin Tonkotsu Flavour Instant Noodles was bought from Taiwan. Whenever we travel overseas we would always buy back lots of food back to Singapore. Among the food we bought, there would always be instant noodles or cup noodles.

I ate this last year (2013) in September and have been wanting to document this down. At last, I found some time to do this. 
Noodles, Soup base (powder), Seasoning sauce 
It came with a packet of seasoning sauce (oil packet) and soup base (powder). 
Soup base (powder)
The soup base powder.

How I normally cook my instant noodles:
Step 1: Boil water, when water is starting to boil, add in noodles.
Step 2: After has been boiling for 15 seconds. Transfer the noodles to another pot of water with warm/hot water.
Step 3: Boil water. Add seasoning sauce followed by soup base (to taste) and cook the noodles.
Step 4: Add an egg (optional).
Step 5: Serve.
Step 6: Add shallots and/or a piece of cheese (to enhance the taste and for a creamier taste).
Nissin Tonkotsu Flavour Instant Noodles
Nissin Tonkotsu Flavour Instant Noodles
The Nissin Tonkotsu Flavour Instant Noodles was pretty good. The tonkotsu flavoured soup was tasty. Interestingly, there were sesame seeds in the soup base (powder). As with all instant noodles, this was simple and quick to prepare. Wish that such flavours are available in Singapore. 

Monday 6 August 2012

#CookForFamily Initiative: Ajitsuke Tamago and Chilled Beancurd

#CookForFamily Initiative is initiated by Daniel Ang from Daniel's Food Diary. The objective is simple and meaningful; to get 100 bloggers (hopefully their fans and followers) to start cooking and bonding with their families. To date, he has garnered 109 bloggers to join in this initiative.

I will not call mine a meal. It is more of a side dish and dessert. Well, as the title states, I made Ajitsuke Tamago and Chilled Beancurd

Ajitsuke Tamago is actually marinated soft boiled egg. It is the egg which is frequently served with Japanese Ramen, sometimes for an extra $2. The characteristic of the Ajitsuke Tamago is that the egg whites are hard boiled (solid but soft and delicate) while the egg yolk are runny/molten. 
Marinated  Ajitsuke Tamago

Ajitsuke Tamago (when sliced into half)
This is an item which is hard to gauge the response from my parents as they do eat Ajitsuke Tamago outside. But after so many attempts they are still eating it. While my sister comment is that I have improved after the past few attempts (especially the first). But can be better. How did I made it? Click here

The dessert which I made was the Chilled Beancurd (or lao ban beancurd, not exactly similar in taste). The recipe can be found here. This is quite an easy item to make as it requires just half an hour or even less to make it. Followed by another 3 hours to chill it before it is ready to be consumed. 
Chilled Beancurd
I have been making the Chilled Beancurd frequently for consumption within the family or for friends. This is a good item to counter the heat from our scorching weather. And this is something which the family enjoys. 

I certainly enjoying making both the Ajitsuke Tamago and Chilled Beancurd. I am likely to continue making them. In fact, have been making the Chilled Beancurd biweekly. The two recipes are posted online. You can take a look at them and try making them yourselves too. Moreover, both the Ajitsuke Tamago and Chilled Beancurd will not require long hours in making it or oily utensils or risk your kitchen becoming smokey/oily. Give it a try and do give me comments on improvements if any. Have fun making it!

Thursday 26 July 2012

Ajitsuke Tamago Recipe

Home-made Ajitsuke Tamago
Ajitsuke Tamago (Japanese Runny Egg) is marinated soft boiled egg. The egg is frequently served in Japanese restaurant along with Japanese Ramen, sometimes for an extra $2 (which I feel is ridiculous..expensive..)The characteristic of the Ajitsuke Tamago is that the egg whites are hard boiled (solid but soft, delicate yet firm) while the egg yolk are runny/molten. 

I am posting the Ajitsuke Tamago Recipe here. In addition, there are several tricks to making this. I will list those that I know in this post. (If you know of any others, please let me know. So that, we can share  it in here for everyone. Thanks.)

Below is the recipe for making five Ajitsuke Tamago.

Items required:
1) Two pots (one for boiling water, the other for ice water) 
2) Thumbtack 
3) Spoon
4) Timer / Mobile phone
5) Ziplock bag / Bowl & Paper towel
6) Fridge

Ingredients: 
1) Five room temperature eggs
2) One pot of boilding water
3) One pot of ice water
4) Soy Sauce
5) Water (boiled water that has been cooled to room temperature)
6) Brown sugar 
7) Mirin (not necessary - depending on type of marination sauce)
8) Sake (not necessary - depending on type of marination sauce)

To make the Marination Sauce:
Two methods, either (a) or (b)
(a) 
2 cup water (boiled water that has been cooled to room temperature)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 tbsp brown sugar / white sugar, to taste
Combine the water, soy sauce and brown sugar. Mix well and ensure that the brown sugar has been dissolved before adding in 1 slice of ginger. You can add other ingredients such as spring onion, seasame oil, anything to your liking. Also, change the proportion of soy sauce, water, sugar to suit taste.
(b)
1 cup water (boiled water that has been cooled to room temperature)
1 cup sake
1/2 cup mirin
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 tbsp brown sugar / white sugar, to taste
Combine the water, sake, mirin, soy sauce and brown sugar. Mix well and ensure that the brown sugar has dissolved. You can add other ingredients such as spring onion, seasame oil, anything to your liking.   Also, change the proportion of soy sauce, water, mirin, sake, sugar to suit taste. 

Steps:
1) Pierce the base of each egg with a thumbtack to make a small hole. This will prevent the egg from cracking when placed into boiling water. (My recent past few attempts I skipped this step) 
2) Using one pot of water (enough to cover the eggs), bring it to a boil. After that, reduce the heat to bring it to a bare simmer. Gently lower the eggs in with a spoon and start the timer. 
3) Cook for 5mins and 45 seconds. Using a spoon, take out the eggs (draining away the hot water) and put them into a pot of ice water for at least 5 minutes. This process is called 'shocking', it will stop the cooking process and create a layer of air (from the difference in temperature) between the shell and membrane making it easier to peel. 
4) Gently de-shell the eggs. This is the hardest part as the egg (white) is very delicate and fragile; wobbly and soft.
5) Two ways, choose either (c) or (d)
    (c) Pour the marinade sauce into a ziplock bag, place the eggs inside and seal it, squeezing out as much air as possible. 
    (d) Pour the marinade sauce into a bowl and place the eggs inside. Cover with a paper towel so that the towel soak the sauce, hold it over the top of the eggs and marinate the whole egg (as the egg will float). 
6) Refrigerate and marinate for at least 2 hours and not more than 12 hours. 
7) Discard the marinade sauce. Serve cold immediately or store eggs in a seal container in the fridge for not more than 3 days. Other methods of serving includes letting the eggs cool to room temperature or putting them into simmering broth for 30seconds if you need to serve them warm. 

Tips:
1) Use room temperature egg
2) Use 3 to 6 day old eggs. Older eggs are easily to peel.
3) Bare simmer means that there are pin dot size bubbles rising up around the eggs. It should not be on a rolling boil as this will crack the eggs
4) Extreme care is required when peeling the eggs. Instead of tapping the eggs on a hard surface (e.g. table), put a wet towel (to cushion the impact) on the table and try to crack the egg shell on the cloth gently. Ensure, all surface area of the egg shell has small cracks before you attempt to peel it. Any excessive force will break the egg and you will have to eat it immediately. (In the first few attempts, on average I ate one egg for every five eggs I peel.) 
5) Ensure that the membranes are all peeled as they are unpleasant to eat and will cause stained patches on the eggs. This will be obviously (and unsightly) after marination
6) If this is your first attempt, make (use) more eggs than require as you may loss some due to cracking when it is cooking and some during the peeling process
7) The timing of 5mins 45secs is for making five Ajitsuke Tamago. This timing will differ depending on the size of the egg, the number of eggs, the size of the pot, amount of water and the heat control. 

The below pictures show some of the cooking process of my recent attempt:
Step 2: Cooking process
Notice the pin dot size bubbles rising up? This is what is meant by bare simmer. 
Step 3: Shocking (ice water)
For marination choose either Step 5(c) or Step 5(d).
Step 5(c): Marination 
Step 5(d ): Marination (Paper towel has not been added over it)
The outcome should be smooth and beautiful exterior with soft but firm egg white and runny egg yolk in the interior.
These were made using the above method/recipe. If you are wondering which steps I chose, for marination sauce, I used (a). For Step 5, I prefer 5(c) using the ziplock bag.

Hope this post is useful. Have fun making it! 

Tuesday 1 May 2012

A Simple Lunch

Since I was alone at home, decided to cook a simple lunch; mee sua.
Ingredients
Ingredients
Ingredients include cabbage, mushroom, fish, golden mushroom, spring onion, dried scallop, boy choy, tomato and mee sua. 
A quick and simple home-cooked lunch!

Saturday 7 January 2012

Chilled Beancurd Recipe

Last year (2011), Lao Ban Beancurd has lead the craze on Chilled Beancurd. Today, there are several similar stalls such as 51 Soya Bean, QQ Soya Bean Curd and many more popping up. All selling the same type of chilled beancurd!

Many people online have frequently been searching for the 'Lao Ban Beancurd recipe'. Just last month, the recipe was shared on edmw. With that, I went about trying to make it too. 
Phoon Huat's 'Jelly Man Instant Jelly Powder (200g) $4.90
The trick in making the chilled beancurd is the Phoon Huat's 'Red Man Instant Jelly Powder'. I bought the small bottle, 200g at $4.90.
Ingredients Required
Other than the fact that the Instant Jelly Powder can be bought from Phoon Huat, the rest of the ingredients can be bought from NTUC. (Not all outlets in NTUC has Polleney Soya Bean Milk Powder)

Items required: 
1) Pot
2) Whisk
3) Sieve
4) Measuring Cup
5) Measuring Teaspoon (tsp) and Tablespoon (tbsp) or Measuring Scale
6) Bowls or Plastic Containers
*as I do not have measuring scale I will estimate the number of tsp or tbsp required.

To make Soya Milk (3 bowls):
60g of Polleney Soya Bean Milk Powder (2 tbsp + 1 tsp)
30g of Unisoy Soya Bean Milk Powder
700ml of Water
Stir to ensure that all the powder are dissolved. Ensure that there are no lumps.

To make Chilled Beancurd:
700ml of Soya Milk (or Drinho/Vitasoy/Yeo's/Seasons Soya Milk)
30g of Nestle Coffeemate Coffee Creamer (6 packets)
30g of Sugar to taste (not required if using carton-ed Soya Bean Milk) (2 tbsp)
14g of Phoon Huat's Instant Jelly Powder (2.5 tsp)

Steps:
1) Heat the Soya Milk in low heat till it is hot (Do not boil)
2) Add in coffee creamer and stir till it is fully dissolved
3) Add in Sugar and stir till it is fully dissolved
4) Do a taste check for sweetness level
5) Add in Instant Jelly Powder and stir till it is fully dissolved
6) Sieve out the bubbles
7) Pour into 3 bowls and leave to cool
8) Put in fridge for at least 3 hours and after that it is ready. Enjoy the Beancurd

Tips:
1) Keep stiring to ensure that the ingredients are fully dissolved. Using a whisk is better compared to a spoon/fork/chopsticks. This is to ensure that the Beancurd will not have 2 layers. (which was what happen to my first attempt)
2) Too much Instant Jelly Powder will result in the Beancurd being too hard (which was what happen to my first attempt)
3) Ensure you do a taste test before adding in Instant Jelly Powder. Add more sugar if required.
4) Pure Soya Bean Extract from Vitasoy did not really work as the taste was not right

My own chilled beancurd using the above recipe. Smooth, jelly-like and silky. Very similar to 51 Soya Bean taste. But not Lao Ban standard.

There that's it. This is the Chilled Beancurd Recipe. Have fun making it.

Sunday 1 January 2012

Happy 2012 and Best Wishes!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and Best Wishes for the year ahead.

How did you start off 2012 with?

For me I started 2012 by having steamboat and also experimented making a chilled beancurd (recall Lao Ban Beancurd / 51 Soya Bean)
Steamboat

Homemade Chilled Beancurd
Good Luck to everyone for 2012! Huat Ah!

Cheers,
FoodieFC
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...