I decided to think of better things by thinking what to cook for dinner. Step one was to picture what I already have in the fridge/freezer/cupboard/storeroom so I don’t have to spend money to order more ingredients while I havent used what I have. And so I remembered I have a pack of no-nitrates no chemicals/preservatives bacon from Jill’s Sausages in my freezer. But since I was going to blog, I couldn’t possibly cook bacon and pasta and call it a day. So since everyone’s not feeling too good, a bowl of comforting bacon potato corn chowder sounds really nice, I think!

And here’s how to make it – no flour needed! Best part? It cooks in one pot for incredibly easy washing up. Check out my other soup recipes.

The post One Pot Bacon Potato Corn Chowder Soup – No Flour! appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

No oil, no sugar, no salt, no cream, no flour, no artificial ingredients – just a whole lot of vegetables and natural sweetness. This soup is thickened with potatoes and corn. I used a handheld blender to purée the soup at the end, but you could transfer it to your stand-blender. Buy a handheld blender if you don’t have it.. it will save you so much time!

I often cook this for the whole family and add a bit of salt to ours. For an even yummier taste, you can add a tablespoon of butter at the beginning and saute your vegetables before adding water. For this recipe, I simply boiled all the vegetables together and puréed them in the end. Cbb loves having this with macaroni!

The post Creamy sweet corn soup for kids (with lots of vegetables!) appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

I was craving salmon soup so bad on Sunday morning that I told myself I must MUST cook it that night. I blame the chilly weather.

Now at 20 months, cbb often eats the same thing as us at meal times. A plus point for us is that we end up eating less salty and less processed. When I cook dishes like these (miso helloooo so salty), I just don’t serve her the soup and ‘wash’ her portion in hot water before giving it to her. She laps it up all the same.

You can slice the salmon before cooking if you prefer, but I like to keep my salmon fillet whole and cook it till about 80% done. Without being overcooked, the flesh is so creamy soft, it’s incredible! Here’s the recipe, I hope you enjoy it!

Tip: Click here to see my other baby food recipes. Will be adding more soon :) Like my Facebook page or follow @budgetpantry or @chuabeebee on Instagram to be updated on new recipes!

The post Wholesome salmon miso soup with mushrooms and vegetables appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

Everyone in Singapore is familiar with steamboat. More commonly called “Hot Pot” in other South-East Asian countries, eating “steamboat” refers to cooking meat slices, vegetables, fishballs, prawn, mushrooms, dumplings and other fresh ingredients in a boiling pot of stock placed in the center of the table.

Steamboat is a social meal and can often take up to 2-3 hours start to finish! If eating out, most steamboat restaurants offer “all-you-can-eat” menus, excellent for growing boys and bottomless pits. I meant that in a good way! I remember an experience in Hong Kong (they call it “打邊爐” instead of “火鍋”) where my friends and I ate from 6.30pm to 11pm. A group of college boys from the next table were there before us and were still going strong when we left. They probably continued eating til midnight.

If eating at home, steamboat is almost always a “festival” or “celebration” dish. It is a common choice for reunion dinners on Chinese New Year’s eve, and in my household, it also makes an appearance whenever there is something to celebrate. Today, we’re “celebrating” Jason’s annual leave. He’s going to be out-of-office for 32 days and that to him, is a major, major cause for celebration.

The most important item for steamboat, apart from the pot, is stock. Nowadays, there are so many choices in the market that consumers are spoilt for choice. I’ve used packet stock like pork bone, scallop, seafood, vegetarian, etc, and also chicken, fish and tom yum stock cubes for my soup stock. I sometimes also boil my own vegetable stock using cabbage, corn, carrots, onions and yellow beans. Today, I used Woh Hup Concentrated Chicken Stock.

The packaging says to use 1 teaspoon to 180ml water. My steamboat pot can hold 2 litres of water and I only used 2 tablespoons. The stock is concentrated enough to flavour your soups without the need to use excessive amounts. With the amount of stock still left in the bottle, my gauge is that 1 bottle is enough for 4 steamboat sessions. At $3.50 per bottle from NTUC, this is more “budget” for me than packet stock, which is $1.90 per use. Price-wise: Approved!

The concentrated stock was rich and flavourful without the usual taste of “chicken seasoning” , you know, when you use powdered stock? With 50% less salt than regular stock, it also carries the “healthier choice” logo and that is a big decision-making factor for me when buying processed food items.

What ingredients can you see? My secret ingredient for cooking stock: honey dates. The double-boiled soups that you have outside? Cooks add honey dates to them too, for that rich, savoury flavour that simply cannot be achieved otherwise. I also like to add corn, carrots and cabbage for extra sweetness.

We also had scallops and imitation abalone. I didn’t even know that imitation abalone is made of seasoned squid recently! :) What a delightful meal that warmed my tummy!

If you have a favourite way to prepare steamboat stock, leave me a comment and tell me how you do it!

The post Steamboat Day! appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

A hearty stew is usually made up of a few core ingredients- potatoes, onions, a type of meat (beef and pork are common and impart great flavour) and (surprise!) celery. I know how most of you feel towards celery. Trust me, no one knows celery better. In a desperate attempt to lose weight (the wrong way) more than ten years ago, I survived on ONE stalk of raw celery per day. I hated celery. I lost a lot of weight (so would anyone, on the crazy diet) and lowered my blood pressure to a healthy range (it was 160/100 at my peak- very scary) and still hated celery. But I knew it was, and still is, good for me. What I want you to know, though, is that cooked celery tastes NOTHING like its raw form. It tastes earthy and potato-ey if cooked in a stew, and is essential to making a great stew. It is also used in chicken pie fillings.

Please do not leave out the celery if you decide to cook this dish. Please do not cook this dish if you intend to leave out the celery- it will not do this stew justice.

The version I’ve done above is a cross between a soup and stew because today I decided to serve this with rice instead of bread. This was after about 1.5 hours of slow cooking on a lowered flame. The stew gets thicker as it simmers. After two hours of slow stove-top cooking, this is what you’ll get:

A beautiful comforting soup, great with some warm crusty bread roll.

Makes 4 servings

What I used:

500g pork shoulder, chopped into 2-cm pieces (use beef if whoever you’re cooking for takes beef)
1 large onion, wedged
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 litre chicken stock (use beef stock if whoever you’re cooking for takes beef)
1 small Beijing cabbage, chopped
2 potatoes, chopped into chunks
2 carrots, chopped into chunks
1 tomato, wedged
4 stalks celery (leaves and white stems removed), chopped to 1-cm pieces
1 can mixed beans (kidney beans, chick peas etc, optional)
5 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp corn flour

1. Marinate pork pieces in some oyster sauce, soy sauce and corn flour for 15 minutes.
2. Heat up the oil in a pot, brown meat on both sides then set aside.
3. In the same pot, fry the onions til slightly soft, then add the garlic. Fry for 1-2 minutes then add the celery.
4. Fry for 5 minutes. Add stock if too dry.
5. When the celery is softer, add the rest of the stock and return the meat to the pot. Scrape the sides of your pot with the stock to get all the goodness.
6. Add in the carrots, potatoes, tomato, cabbage and bring to boil. Lower flame and simmer for 1 hour.
7. Stir in tomato ketchup and oyster sauce. Continue to cook for 30 minutes or til consistency is to your liking.

How much I spent:

$2.35 for pork
$1.20 for Beijing Cabbage
$0.60 for potatoes
$0.40 for carrots
$0.30 for tomato
$0.40 for celery
Everything else from my pantry

Total cost per serving: $1.32

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Because this is so good, I recommend that you make a batch of this in a large pot. Cover leftovers and refrigerate.. heat it up for dinner the next day. You can also freeze leftovers in an airtight ziplock bag (keeps for 2 weeks if frozen properly) and reheat when you feel lonely.

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