Char Kway Teow.. the dish that I used to eat a maximum of once a year, if not once every two years. I remember when I first met Jason, I had quite a culture shock knowing that he had CKT once every two weeks or once a month. Same for Laksa. It has never occurred to me that anyone can eat these so frequently, until the girls and I were discussing this one night at Ru’s place, and then I realised I am the “weird” one. They all felt it is ok to eat Char Kway Teow once every two weeks.

The conclusion that night was: most people have never been morbidly obese (I was 95kg at my peak when I was just 16!), never had to make drastic changes to their diet, and so aren’t that mindful about what goes into their bodies.

That said, Char Kway Teow is a glorious dish. Whenever I do eat Char Kway Teow outside, I make sure I eat it with lots of crispy pork lard. What’s the point right, without lard? When cooking this at home this afternoon, I left out the lard because I didn’t want my family to eat all these unhealthy stuff. Char Kway Teow can still be delicious and “less unhealthy” with less oil and a smaller portion.

This is a picture of the dark soy sauce that I used, available from NTUC. You can also use Hainanese Chicken Rice Dark Soy Sauce.

I made this version without chilli cos the aunt’s stomach is very sensitive to spiciness. You can add some sambal to your liking plus fresh cockles if that’s your thing (clean them thoroughly, soak in some water, drain and add in together with the spring onions). Cook your Char Kway Teow at home.. control how much oil you add, include more greens and it can still be a not-so-sinful meal!

A point to note- this recipe is for 2 servings. If you want to cook for more people, don’t double the ingredients and fry everything together but instead fry in batches of two plates each. Don’t distribute the love, it’s just not the same ;) Concentrate on one batch at a time!

The post SG Hawker Favourites: Char Kway Teow 炒粿条 appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

Yes, I still have the 闲情 to go make yong tau foo from scratch! Yong tau foo is a big part of my diet because I love to deceive myself just how healthy it is! It is healthy if you choose the fresh ingredients like broccoli, xiao bai cai, seaweed, tomato, lady’s finger, and maybe add a dumpling or two, but it is NOT healthy if you order alllll the deep fried stuff and eat it with curry gravy!

But that’s just the way I like it! Apart from curry or laksa gravy, I also really like the gravy of Hakka Yong Tau Foo. I am hesitant to call this recipe ‘Hakka’ YTF because all the versions I’ve eaten before outside are stuffed with a mixture of minced meat and fish paste, but I only used fish paste and salted fish for mine. Can someone tell me more about authentic Hakka YTF? The gravy is quite close to what I’ve tried though. Shiok with ladled on top of all those (air) fried stuff!

The ‘tedious’ part is in making the fish paste mixture, but if you have a food processor, just chuck everything in and 80% of the job is done for you. Then it is just a matter of stuffing your vegetables or wrapping the bean curd skins. I airfried my ingredients (except the fish balls and fresh bean curd skins, which I boiled) after brushing with a thin layer of oil, but of course, you can also deep fry.

Let’s see if I have the time (or the energy) to make this again before Chua Bee Bee comes out! I want to make a version with fish, pork belly and salted fish!

The post Homemade Yong Tau Foo 酿豆腐 appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

I had a hard time rounding up these 9 dishes! How hard? Imagine giving up Tiramisu, Dumpling Noodles, Shio Koji Chicken, Stewed Pork Noodles and Focaccia, that’s how hard!

I chose Budgetpantry’s Top 9 based on two things: taste and photography!

And here you go, in order of preference:

1. Shakshouka, December 2014
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/shakshouka/

2. Easy Apple Crumble with Custard and Blueberry Compote, June 2014
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/easy-apple-crumble/

3. Homemade Tomato and Bacon Cream Soup, September 2014
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/homemade-tomato-and-bacon-cream-soup/

4. Custard Cream Puffs, August 2014
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/custard-cream-puffs/

5. Airfried Roast Pork/ Sio Bak, April 2014
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/airfried-roast-pork-sio-bak/

6. Hawker Staple: Prawn Ban Mian (Handmade Noodle Soup), January 2014
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/ban-mian/

7. Bacon and Peas, August 2014
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/bacon-and-peas/

8. Seared Scallops, September 2014
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/how-to-sear-scallops/

9. Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk, December 2014
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/jamie-olivers-chicken-in-milk-recipe/

Don’t agree? Let me know your favourite! Thank you for sticking around for the past year. You have no idea how much your ‘Likes’, comments, concern and (virtual) friendship means to me. I hope you continue to read my little blog in 2015 and beyond! =)

Love,
Chris

The post My Favourite Recipes of 2014! appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

Ok la, ok la, this is not exactly Nasi Goreng because the sambal rice is cooked in the rice-cooker. But that’s the closest I can call it ok? Ah-mm calls it “Nasi Lemak”, even worse right? She had this “nasi lemak” for lunch anyway and said the rice was “nice leh”. I asked her, “有 sambal 味吗?” (“Any sambal taste?”) and her reply? “没有leh!” (“Don’t have leh!”) Priceless.

Ah-mm is my precious aunt who will be 79 this October. When I was a little girl, she fed me til I was obese and then sewed dresses for me to make up for it. BECAUSE CAN’T FIND MY SIZE AND THEN she and 88 (my other aunt- they’re sisters) made up stories like oh, no la, outside de dresses pattern not nice so we sew for you. I bought their story and felt so special. lololol. I love them both so very much :)

ANYWAY. Today I “made”/ assembled Sambal Rice for Ah-mm and Jason. Yamie Rice sent me two new items- Sambal Rice and Black Pepper Rice and I was interested to see how the sambal rice would taste like. Honestly the thought of buying this didn’t even cross my mind because I always cook, and something “instant” isn’t really my style. But I know how pre-packaged-easy-to-cook rice can be a God-send for people who don’t cook, like one of my good friends who lugs back boxes of the stuff to China where she is stationed.

The rice came in a box with a single pouch inside. It is easy to cook and not exactly “instant” because you still need the rice-cooker, which is a good thing because engaging the ricecooker makes it feel more like “real food”. My idea of “instant” was “mix water, stir and eat”. Sorry, I am an amateur at this. What you do is empty the pouch into your rice cooker, add water, let it cook, keep warm for 15 minutes and eat.

Being quite a health conscious person, I like to read nutritional labels. And being a huge MYOJO Char Mee 100 fan, if I gotta eat “instant” and carbs, I always reach for Char Mee. When faced with a new product, I always compare it to Char Mee to gauge whether the level of satisfaction is worth the calories. Here’s the side-by-side nutritional comparison:

Each pouch serves 2 normal people or 1 husband. Here are the cooking instructions. Pretty straight-forward:

When I first opened the package, I caught a whiff of fragrant sambal and thought, “Hey, veryy promising!” It also came with some anchovies. When the rice was cooked, it didn’t smell as nice but give chance la. This was when the uncooked rice was emptied into the ricecooker:

Naked cooked rice:

I dressed it up with airfried begadil from Sheng Siong, airfried silver fish, a sunny side up, cucumber slices and more sambal. Jason’s verdict: “Can eat if dressed up.” Ah-mm’s verdict: “Nice!”

My verdict (I snuck a teaspoon because I’m not supposed to eat carbs): Pre-packaged rice will always have that pre-packaged taste. I wouldn’t say it is not nice but I won’t go out and buy 10 boxes of it (“My Kuali” made me want to go out and buy cartons of the stuff). The sambal taste can be stronger but I think that is a fair trade off for a convenient product with no added MSG.

This is a great option for people who like or need the convenience, don’t like cooking, and who are away from Singapore! Plus, if you’re just starting to cook, dressing it up the way I did can 1) boost your confidence and 2) wow your family with minimal effort.

Will be trying the Black Pepper rice on another occasion. Thank you to the folks at Yamie Rice who sent these new items my way!

The post Nasi Goreng Sambal Special appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

This is one dish that Jason asks for over and over- Claypot Ee Mee. Ee Mee, also called “Yi Mein”, “Ee-fu Noodles” or “Yee Mee”, depending on your dialect group, is essentially a type of wheat noodles, DEEP FRIED and usually sold in a packet of 4-5 round noodle blocks.

Here’s a picture of what it looks like (picture credits to foodsze.com):

The type I buy from Giant costs $1.35 for 4 servings, so that works out to about $0.35 per noodle block. Cooked with an eggy gravy with some meat balls, vegetables, carrots and mushrooms, this is something that tastes great at a low budget. You can substitute the meat balls with seafood, chicken, fishcakes, or leftover ingredients and this will still taste great. Mushrooms are essential in this dish as they give the base for the gravy.

You can choose to add in a beaten egg or crack an egg on top and let it cook whole, til just about set, like I did:

This portion is for two people so I used two eggs and two noodle blocks. If cooking for one, reduce the quantity of the liquid and seasoning by half and don’t be afraid to check for taste while the mushrooms are cooking. I added my favourite mushroom seasoning powder for extra taste. To see what it looks like, go to my recipe for Simple Vegetable Soup. I use it in place of chicken stock/ seasoning most days now. It really adds a savoury flavour to soups, stews and gravies.

Happy noodle braising!

The post Braised Claypot Ee Mee (Claypot Noodles) appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.