One of my favourite dishes at Chinese restaurants is ‘Dried shrimp with long beans’. The long beans are deep fried before being tossed further in oil with the dried shrimps. Together with the ‘wok-hei’ (smokey, charred flavour due to ridiculously high heat), the dish is simply addictive and calorific!

I don’t usually like to stir fry vegetables because many leafy types don’t turn out very well at home as I don’t use a lot of oil. Home cooks also can’t achieve the wok-hei, ever! What to do when I feel like having leafy vegetables but am sick of having them in soup? Choose the gloriously crunchy types that stay crunchy! And tonight I chose nai bai, a variation of bok choy. I never seem to know what these are called in English.

I decided to do an easy stir fry with dried shrimps and garlic, plus very simple seasonings. When doing a stir-fry, be sure that the oil is hot. If you attempt to cook vegetables in oil that is not hot enough, the vegetables will start to absorb oil once they come into contact and you end up with a sad plate of soggy vegetables. I also tend to pat dry my vegetables as much as I can as wet vegetables will just end up giving off steam in the wok and again, end up sad and soggy.

This is really easy to do. The trick is to start with hot oil to fry the garlic and dried shrimp, best if you could pound them both together in a mortar and pestle. Then add the vegetables and toss everything quickly before adding the reserved liquid from the dried shrimps along with some seasonings. The entire dish is done in less than five minutes.

I also make it a point to wash the vegetables really thoroughly. I peel each leaf from the stem instead of having them ‘whole’ like what you get in zi-char stalls or restaurants. There’s always bound to be dirt trapped in between, and nobody likes eating dirt.

Serve these with steaming white rice.. vegetables never tasted so good!

The post Stir fried Garlic Nai Bai with Dried Shrimps appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

I love boiled vegetables. I can eat broccoli, carrots, spinach, cauliflower, kailan, and most other vegetables simply boiled or steamed, without any other seasonings. The rest of my family think I am crazy- you know the Chinese, they gotta stir fry their vegetables, even lettuce– and insist that I am “doing this” because I am trying to lose weight, but no.. I really, really enjoy eating vegetables plain. I am super low maintenance like that.

So I was in the mood for some crunchy kailan stems the other day. Much as I would love to serve blanched kailan (because it is delicious) to the two old ladies at home, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I didn’t want to risk them worrying if I was so broke that I could only put boiled veggies on the table. I ended up doing a garlic sambal prawn and kailan stir-fry. You know, prawn= expensive= she-can-still-afford-it so they can sleep at night. They also finished up a huge bowl of rice each and kept telling me, “好吃，好吃。” (“yummy, yummy.”) I’m sure I wouldn’t have heard that if it had just been plain kailan.

This dish works better if you use medium to large-sized prawns as they match with kailan better. I didn’t have those but I had a huge packet of smaller prawns in my freezer (very handy to add to noodle dishes!) so I used those. One tip to not over spend when preparing meals is to work with what you already have in your kitchen. You can also use more sambal according to your tastebuds. I am an advocate of bottled pastes and sauces because they save me so much time. If you’re someone who’s into pounding and frying your own sambal, will you send some my way? :)

The post Chinese Stir Fry: Mild Sambal Chilli Prawn with Kailan appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

Celery isn’t exactly my choice vegetable because I don’t like the feeling of chewing on them as it prolongs the taste of celery in your mouth, which to me, isn’t very pleasant. The irony is, I love celery juice, the more potent the better. I’m a bit weird like that, but it really does make sense: my problem is with chewing celery, not tasting it. I’m hard to understand, most times. Go figure.

Although I don’t like eating it, I really do love cooking celery in a quick stir-fry with a sprinkle of sugar. I once read somewhere that adding sugar to a celery stir-fry enhances the dish, but I don’t remember why it does. All I know is when I cook celery with a bit of sugar, Ah-mm and 88 never fail sing praises of the dish, but when I leave out the sugar, their reaction is almost always muted, like they’re not very excited at all. I associate that with the sugar, or lack of it. And after my mini-experiment with and without sugar, I have always added sugar when cooking celery for cleaned-out plates every time.

Makes 3 servings

What I used:

3 strips chicken fillet, cut into small pieces and marinated with: 1.5 tablespoon shaoxing wine, 1 teaspoon light soy sauce, half teaspoon sugar and a dash of white pepper
4 stalks celery, sliced diagonally
Half a carrot, sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
3 cloves shallots, sliced
1 teaspoon olive oil
Half teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons chicken stock or water
Parsley and red chillies, for garnish (optional)

1. Heat up oil in wok til very hot, add shallots and garlic and fry for a minute. Add celery and carrots, then the half teaspoon of sugar. Mix well to combine.
2. Add in the chicken together with the marinate, stir fry for a few minutes then add the chicken stock.
3. Cook til heated through and stock is reduced. Dish up and garnish with parsley and sliced red chillies if using. Serve hot with rice.

How much I spent:

$1.50 for chicken fillet
$0.60 for celery stalks
$0.20 for half carrot
Everything else from my pantry!

Total cost per serving: $0.77

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I marinated the chicken in a bit more shaoxing wine this time because it truly goes well with the celery, chicken and sugar. When preparing the celery, try to remove any visible fibres so you have an easier time when eating. Most of you know that I don’t particularly like frying vegetables (they almost always end up in soups or stews), but stir-frying has got to be one of my favourite things to do with celery. I also love cooking them in stews, or in chicken pot pies. Add this to your collection of vegetable recipes- it is a great accompaniment to any home-cooked meal. :)

The post Chinese Stir Fry: Celery Garlic Chicken in Shaoxing Wine appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

I really should be eating more lotus root because it is high in fibre, vitamin C, and most importantly for me, it can supply me with a healthy dose of copper, zinc and iron. Comparatively though, it is higher in carbohydrates (17g carbs per 100g) than carrots (10g carbs per 100g), broccoli (3g carbs per 100g serving), and is almost close to the carb content of potatoes (21g carbs per 100g). For diabetics, you can still enjoy this dish, lotus root, carrots and all, and even potatoes and rice (balsmati, for its low GI), as long as it is eaten in moderation. The key word is always moderation.

For example, I moderate myself to eat a maximum of one slice of black forest cake, one butter scone, one peach tart, 1 apple strudel, and 3 chocolate cookies in one sitting. Just kidding. That’s my secret wish.

Makes 3 servings

What I used:

One segment lotus root, sliced, enough to fill a regular plate (about 150g to 200g)
2 chicken fillets, chopped into pieces
50ml water or chicken stock
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
Half a carrot, cut into flower pattern or not is up to you LOL
Some spring onions for garnish
1 tbsp spicy bean paste
1 tbsp light soy sauce
Half tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp hua diao jiu; chinese cooking wine
1 tsp sugar
White pepper
1tbsp olive oil

1. Marinade chicken in bean paste, soy sauce, sugar, wine and pepper.
2. Fry ginger in olive oil for a minute, then add garlic. Fry together til fragrant.
3. Add lotus root and carrot, fry for a few minutes then add the water or stock.
4. Add in chicken pieces and stir fry to coat veggies with sauce.
5. Cook til chicken is cooked and heated through. Garnish with spring onions.

How much I spent:

$1 for lotus root
$1.50 for chicken fillet
$0.30 for carrot
Everything else from my pantry

Total cost per serving: $0.93

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If there’s one thing I would change, I would cut the chicken into strips instead of pieces so that more sauce is coated on them. If you prefer more gravy, add more water or stock, then season to your liking. As with all types of dishes, taste, taste taste during the cooking process!

Serve hot with rice and a clear vegetable soup for a balanced meal.

The post Chinese Stir Fry: Lotus Root & Chicken in Spicy Bean Sauce appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

This is a very simple garlic vegetable stir fry which has all the goodness of anchovy stock. The Shanghai Green is cooked til still crunchy and this is a very easy way to add some green leafy vegetables to your family’s diet. I hate cooking leafy vegetables.. I never know what to do with them. I can do a mean vegetable stew with carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, and mushrooms.. I can do a delicious curry vegetable.. I can cook broccoli and cauliflower in X.O Sauce, or sambal french beans with dried shrimp.. but put leaves in front of me (except spinach- I’ll cook it in sambal, or garlic dried shrimp), and I am lost. I usually add leafy greens to my one-dish meals like fried noodles or soup, and sometimes in a stir-fry like this which I don’t particularly love to do. I couldnt resist getting these beautiful Shanghai Greens though- 3 huge packets for $1 from the market opposite my place. I thought they tasted quite good!

Serves 2

What I used:

1 packet Shanghai Green
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp dried Ikan Bilis
1 tsp oyster sauce
1/3 cup water
A dash of sesame oil
A dash of white pepper
Cornstarch mixed with a bit of water

1. Soak ikan bilis in hot water for 15 mins, then drain. Reserve water.
2. Add oyster sauce, sesame oil and pepper to the reserved water.
3. Fry garlic in oil til fragrant, add the ikan bilis and fry for 2 mins.
4. Add the vegetables, cook for 1 min then add the water mixture.
5. Cook for another 2 mins then add cornstarch solution.
6. Let it simmer for 1 min then serve.

How much I spent:

$0.33 for vegetables
Everything else from my pantry

Total cost per serving: $0.16

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I served this with curry pork in potatoes and ABC Soup (carrot, potato, onion, corn) for tonight’s dinner, and the cost per person is about $1.40. Pretty amazing for a nutritious 1 meat, 1 vegetable and 1 soup dinner if you ask me. Look out for the recipes for the curry pork (I cheated!) and ABC Soup.

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