Here’s another version of my oyster sauce chicken! This time it’s with lots of dark sauce gravy (my niece loves this) so you can slurp it up with rice. Sorry for the less-than-fabulous pictures under poor lighting conditions!

My big tummy nowadays means I prefer to settle dinner using my slow cooker. Just prep everything the night before, add water and turn on the slow cooker on before leaving for work. Remember to cook this on low so the chicken doesn’t end up tough. Contrary to belief, meat doesn’t necessarily get more tender the longer you cook it! Overcook it on high, and the the ‘boiling’ water will overcook the meat. Same goes for cooking soup over the stove top. Simmer instead of boil for long hours to get the meat soft and tender.

The post Slow-Cooked Oyster Sauce Chicken and Potatoes (with lots of gravy!) appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

I can’t believe it’s already the end of the year. 2015 seemed to have whooshed by in a flash! I had fun cooking and experimenting, although not as much as I’d like due to job demands and terrible lighting at dinner time :) I hope to bring us even more quick and simple recipes in the coming year!

I have posted about 100 recipes in the past year, and if you’re looking for a few to start with, here you go! My favourites of 2015, in order of preference:

1. Creamy Homestyle Chicken Stew, June 2015
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/homestyle-chicken-stew/

This is a family recipe, passed down from my 80-year-old aunt. I’ve never seen anyone else cook chicken stew this way! Everything is from scratch and I don’t use canned soups or packaged creams. I ate this as a child and still love this today. My favourite way to cook this is on the stove top. This dish is perfect with rice and my #1 comfort food! Try it and you’ll know why!

2. Airfried Cod Fish with Crispy Skin, HK Style, January 2015
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/airfried-cod-fish-with-crispy-skin/

I often cook this dish, or variations of this dish using different types of fish like sea bass and salmon. The best part is that it can be done easily in the airfryer. You don’t have to worry about over steaming it, nor do you have to care about skin that sticks to the pan (and messy splatters!) if you choose to fry in oil. I love how the rock sugar and boiling hot oil (that you ladle over at the end) really makes a difference to its flavour.

3. Mongolian Chicken, October 2015
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/mongolian-chicken/

I seldom deep fry my food, but when I do, I make sure it’s worth it! And this is worth it! ‘Mongolian Chicken’ doesn’t seem to be available in Mongolia, just like how Singapore Noodles is non-existent here, but deep fried chicken pieces slathered in creamy, buttery gravy perfumed with evaporated milk and curry leaves is too good to pass up, no matter where this dish really is from.

4. Wok Fried Kam Heong Prawns, October 2015
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/kam-heong-prawns/

One of my missions for 2016 is to make seafood-in-a-bag with kam heong sauce! Imagine crabs, prawns, lala, corn and carrots served Dancing Crab style but with kam heong sauce.. I think it’ll be a great match. Let’s see if it happens!

5. Salted Egg Sotong, March 2015
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/salted-egg-sotong/

I did a few versions of salted egg sauce this year. This version is my favourite. I prefer not to steam the egg yolks first to get the sandy texture and more fragrance. The addition of stock also made a big difference to how this dish turned out. This recipe recorded the highest hits ever for the blog, with over 5000 unique views in a day!

6. Traditional Pumpkin Rice 南瓜饭, May 2015
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/traditional-pumpkin-rice/

This is another of my go-to recipes for fuss-free dinners, especially when I don’t know what to cook! When you’re out of ideas, all you want is to throw everything into the rice-cooker and let it do its magic.

7. Airfried Cajun Salmon, December 2015
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/airfried-cajun-salmon/

When cooking salmon, always remember not to overdo it! I’ve had my airfryer for 3 years – it’s the first generation Philips 9220 and it has served me well. The one thing I have cooked the most in my airfryer? Salmon. I will never pan fry salmon again with this fool proof recipe. Just wash, sprinkle on Cajun spices, and airfry for 7 minutes in a preheated 180C AF. This recipe is so simple, dinner is literally on the table in 10 minutes, including prep time!

8. Low carb lunch idea: Grilled Cauliflower Steaks, June 2015
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/grilled-cauliflower-steaks/

One of the most beautiful dishes I have photographed.. I’m not a fan of cauliflower when it’s stir fried but when roasted, grilled or baked, cauliflower is totally transformed, emitting a delicious, intense, nutty flavour. So good!

9. Hakka Abacus Seeds for Noobs, December 2015
Recipe at: https://budgetpantry.com/hakka-abacus-seeds/

I had to include this because it was the most back breaking thing I have ever attempted. If you’re a noob at this like me, you’d like this recipe.

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So that’s my round-up for 2015! Thank you for sticking around, especially those who are with me on my Facebook Community – you have no idea how much your likes, shares and comments mean to me!

Love,
Chris

The post 2015 Budgetpantry’s recipe round-up! appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

This is a popular dish you see at economical rice stalls. If you’re not familiar with ‘economical rice’, it is simply rice eaten with small portions of side dishes. You select 2-3 dishes to go with your rice and a meal of 1 meat and 2 vegetables typically cost $2.80 – $3.20. I guess they’re so named because it’s a cheap way to eat.

What’s your favourite combination at these ‘zhup cai png’ (literally translated as mixed vegetables rice) stalls? I almost always go for long beans with dried shrimps, brinjals and this sliced pork with garlic sprouts. And of course, must put curry gravy. I also like tomato egg, fried pork and fried meat balls. Super unhealthy sounding I know, but they’re da bomb. If I say ‘zhup cai png’ is luxury food, will you believe me? Yes, I indulge in one whole packet of zhup cai png with my favourite ingredients once in a while.

To tenderise the meat, I use a combination of baking soda and corn starch. The bouncy texture you get at Chinese restaurants or zi-char stalls is baking soda in action. You can skip this step, and I sometimes do, but lean meat is tough and it has an extremely low fat %. I don’t use baking soda if I’m cooking this dish with pork shoulder butt or pork collar shabu shabu. Be sure to rinse off all the baking soda before cooking to avoid a bitter aftertaste.

This dish isn’t life changing but so comforting. I could eat this every day!

The post 家常便饭/Easy Homecooking: Sliced Pork with Garlic Sprouts appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

Oyster sauce chicken has always been one of my favourite dishes. There’s a stall in Clementi market and hawker centre that sells a really yummy version, but when you can cook it yourself at home, why not?

This dish is comfort food, a familiar favourite. I usually only cook this on days that I can eat rice.. I eat very little carbs and no rice/noodles/bread Mondays to Fridays. All I can say is: 如果你没有肥过，你是不会了解的。Haha. I like this dish with lots of gravy so I can spoon it generously over my precious bowl of rice on weekends. Sooo good!

I had some leftover chicken drumlettes in my freezer and thought to use them up in this dish. You could also use mid-joint wings or chopped chicken pieces. I recommend chicken thigh as the tender meat goes very well with the soft potatoes, carrots and glorious gravy. This dish is super easy to cook. In a nutshell: fry onions, add chicken, wine, carrots and potatoes, seasonings, cover and simmer. Don’t add the cooking wine together with the seasonings but directly to the chicken, before the rest of the seasonings. You’ll see how a splash of wine creates magic in the hot wok, instantly lifting the overall aroma and flavour of the dish.

I used Taiwan carrots and spring onions for this recipe. Chicken drumlettes (frozen) and potatoes from Giant and yellow onions – 4 for $4.65 杀人放火 from Cold Storage. I bo bian have to buy cos I needed it for a last-minute dish and the only accessible store was Cold Storage.

This portion is enough for the four people in my family. My pictures just show half a portion. This recipe yields two plates with lots of gravy! We eat quite simply. Most of the time, I cook one all-in-one dish or soup and the husband laps it up with rice. As an average family of four, 三菜一汤 is too much for us as an everyday meal.. (I’m not talking about Chinese New Year.. we go allll out *guffaws*).. how do people finish the food?

The post Oyster Sauce Chicken 蚝油鸡 appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

It’s been a long while since our family had lo-bak. Ah-mm used to cook a big pot with pork belly, extra pieces of lean meat (I don’t like those. haha!) and lots of eggs every 2-3 weeks when we were all still living together. At one time, there were 11 people in our household including our helper.. and dinner (and home) was always fun, interesting, and something to look forward to. The house was almost never quiet. Ah-mm would be watching her TV til late at night (as she does now), and Cheng Lip would be flying down the stairs to cook packets of instant noodles for supper. Alex and Michelle would be chilling in the adjacent room, and when Slimer was awake- and he rarely was- he would be plonked in front of his computer 打 game-ing. I still remember the “biu-biu-biu!!!!!!!!!!” that blasted on his speakers whenever he fought those enemies. And more distantly, I remember the time Slimer put Cheng Wu into the washing machine because the pesky toddler just wouldn’t shut up.

My family is a bit different.. but we have wonderful sibling relationships, even if Slimer refused to spend recess time with me on my first day of school in Primary 1 (he was in Primary 3). Well technically he fulfilled his duty, because Mom just told him to “meet” me during recess and made sure I knew where to go. So he just brought me to the tuckshop, made sure I was eating, and told me, 10 seconds later, “Ah-ger 你留在这里啊” while he ran off very quickly to play catching with his friends.

Whenever I think of my family, I think of home-cooked food. And whenever I think of home-cooked food, I think of Ah-mm, our Masterchef. And as I cooked this version of lo-bak for her yesterday, it made me happy that she took a bite and said, “好吃，好吃” and defended my cooking when 88 said it wasn’t salty enough. “lo-bak 都不用太咸”, she said. We called it “lo-bak” and not “lorrrr-bak” because we’re Teochew.

In other news, 88 everything also not salty enough la, but I cannot go against my principle by serving her sodium-laden food!

Here are some pics to help you along. The spice packet that I bought- star anise, cinnamon, and cloves:

Braise the pork belly in whole pieces, then slice only after cooking:

Some tips:

-Use pork belly which is already sliced length-wise and not too thick. When cooking, cook the whole piece together and only slice into smaller pieces when ready to eat. Choose pork that is not too fatty since the texture will be melt-in-your-mouth anyway. I got the pork belly from Sheng Siong. They’re sliced fresh and come in nifty packages. The packages are then sold by individual weight.

-When covering the pot with water, do not add too much water. The water level should come up to just above the ingredients. You wanna braise the meat, not boil it.

-Pan-searing the meat in caramelised sugar enhances the taste and creates the melt-in-your-mouth texture. Some recipes skip this step but you don’t want to!

-If you’re serving the whole pot, remember to remove the star anise and cinnamon sticks before serving. What? You’ve never accidentally bitten on a star anise?

-Erm last tip: Remove the topmost fatty part including skin before eating. That’s how I eat pork belly. And it still tastes good!

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The preparation time is worth it when you bite on a piece of melt-in-your-mouth pork belly that YOU cooked. This dish is not difficult, and definitely doable for a kitchen noob. Feel free to ask me any questions, and I have a confession: this is the first time I’ve cooked this, too!

The post Teochew Braised Pork Belly rice/ Lo Bak/ 卤肉饭 appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.