So my right hand is in a hard plastic splint so I can’t really do all the swishing you would expect of a satisfying stir-fry. But the husband still need to eat right? I decided to make one of the easiest no-effort-needed dishes I can think of: Mui Fan 烩饭.

For a super quick dinner, I gathered all the core ingredients I needed: prawns, leafy vegetables, eggs, mushrooms and carrots.. and in 15 minutes, food is on the table!

You should really add some meat slices in this dish, but since I didn’t have any, I left them out. And although Mui Fan is a delicious, convenient and comforting dish to cook, I don’t actually recommend you cook it too often because of the sodium content. Yes, the gravy is so delicious, you will tend to finish every last spoonful. What kind of blogger am I to discourage you from cooking a recipe I’m posting? I dunno, a conflicted one maybe. And since I’m at it, this dish also has way too much carbs as compared to protein and vegetables, so only cook this in an emergency, like when your hand is in a splint.

You’re welcome to cook this everyday, though, in all sorts of variations, if you just want to eat tasty stuff. The gravy is great for hor fun and ee mee too. I love it! Enjoy!

The post 15-minute dinner: Mui Fan 烩饭 appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

I am back from Bali and now my tummy still feels spicy! Bali is a destination I have never thought of going. I have never been a fan of “getaways” where people relax in a resort or villa and spend money in bars. I am not adverse to any kind of travelling though- of course I had to sneak in a visit to the Kintamani volacano with a road trip out to Ubud from Seminyak, and add in lots of local food exploration. This was a birthday trip for Jason- he enjoyed the time and villa immensely and that is all that matters, for now only, while stocks last, for a limited period til 20 July. I don’t see myself ever going back to Bali again! It’s just not my kind of travelling.

With the exception of Naughty Nuri’s bbq ribs, we had Indonesian food for the rest of our meals. We had guidebook-recommended meals, hole-in-the-wall nasi padang meals, Anthony Bourdain featured Bali Guling (what was the guy thinking?), and in all honesty, the best things I’ve had in Bali were the chilies. They have this amazing mix of shallots fried in coconut oil, with green and red cut chilies which has the ability to single-handledly maximumly-up (there’s no other way to describe it) any meal you have in Bali. Or Singapore, or Italy, Hong Kong? France, London.. Cambodia.. the moon, etc. Mars. You get the idea.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will try to make this amazing shiokadoodles condiment and put it up here if successful. But today we’re going to learn to cook prawns.

This is an idiot proof “recipe” which will impress your mother-in-law, boyfriend, husband, tour guide, school professor or the fat cat next door. Two categories of human will hate you though- the ones on a no-carb diet and those who are constantly on a detox fast, because you will eat lots and lots and lots of rice with this. Yeah, yeah, I cooked this dish for me to hate myself.

Oh, and go ahead and cheat on the dish. I did, with this:

Makes 2 servings

What I used:

250g prawns (I used frozen cooked prawns because I wanted to see how they would taste in stir-fry but I regret.. 原諒我吧! Please use fresh proper prawns for this dish.)
1 packet Lee Kum Kee “Sauce for Tomato Garlic Prawns”
1 large red onion, sliced not diced
1 tbsp olive oil

1. Heat frying pan til smoking hot. Add in the olive oil and swirl it all around.
2. Add the onions and cook for 3-4 minutes til aromatic and soft.
3. Add the prawns and fry til pink, then add the packet sauce.
4. Quickly stir fry to combine, cook for 1-2 minutes then serve hot with lots of rice.

How much I spent:

$1.60 for Lee Kum Kee sauce
$2 for prawns (I used bouncy frozen cooked shrimp)
Everything else from my pantry

Total cost per serving: $1.80

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The sauce is amazing- even though I didn’t cook with a wok over a huge flame ala zi-char stalls, I could taste lots of wok-hei in the dish. Someone should invent an instant “Wok Hei” seasoning and sell them in packets like this. So instead of “Sauce for Tomato Garlic Prawns” or “Oriental Spare Ribs”, we can have a “Wok Hei Flavour” packet. Quite cool, don’t you think?

The post Tomato Garlic Prawns appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

Ok, Jason is looking at me like I am mad because here I am blogging a Furong Egg recipe at 11pm on the eve of our pre-wedding shoot and I have not finished preparing the things to bring tomorrow (Toto and Tato are going on an outing). I have not moisturised my face, I have not put on my face mask, and oh we fly to Bali on Wednesday and I have not packed anything too.

But as always, I prioritise. Blogging about Furong Egg is important, okayyy?

I remember preparing allll the ingredients for this dish in a hurry one evening after 88’s eye appointment. After everything was chopped nicely in record time, I opened the fridge wanting to reach for my three eggs. But you guessed it, we were out of eggs. How to cook Furong Egg with no egg? How come there are no eggs? Luckily my knight in shining armour volunteered to buy eggs for me so that he can finally have his dinner.. so this recipe would not have happened if not for Jason. So thank you Jason. For you only, I will add more red chilli when I cook Furong Egg next time.

Makes 3 servings

What I used:

3 eggs, not those super tiny 10 for $1.30 types. Normal size
12 prawns, shelled, or use frozen cooked shrimp
1 stalk spring onion, sliced into rings
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 red (purple) onion
1 or 2 red chilli, not chilli padi, sliced or cut with scissors
Half a carrot, sliced thinly, for colour
Half tsp salt
White pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
Half tsp fish sauce (optional)

1. Beat the eggs with the salt and pepper.
2. Heat olive oil til hot, then add in onion. Fry for a minute then add in garlic. Stir-fry quickly.
3. Add prawns, spring onion, chili, carrot and mix well. Your pan should be a myriad of colours now. Add fish sauce if using.
4. Make sure the flame is on high, then pour in egg in step 1. Let it cook til nicely set then turn it over and cook the other side. You can break the omelette slightly when flipping over.
5. Cook for another 1-2 minutes and your Furong Egg is ready.

How much I spent:

$0.75 for eggs
$1.50 for prawns (I used bouncy frozen cooked shrimp)
Everything else from my pantry

Total cost per serving: $0.75

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This is one of my favourite zi-char dishes. Don’t leave out any ingredients especially the red chillies! If you decide to try this easy recipe out, ensure that the flame is BIG, and also please see to it that there are eggs in your fridge, unless you too, have a very hungry knight in a shining armour at home. Oh and if you have left over char siew, or char siew, add them in, but only if they are those red char siew with a tinge of sweetness and not those Hong Kong style dark-sauce-type char siew. I will blog again when I return from Bali, and wish me (us) luck for our photoshoot tomorrow! I hope my photographer is good at photoshop.

The post Furong Egg appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

I know right, what a contradictory title. And being always contradicting, I cooked these noodles for lunch even though I have never a) liked Hor fun style gravy nor b) been a fan of Tau Chiam noodles. I don’t even like the name of these noodles to begin with. In my (Teochew) family, we refer to bean vermicelli (glass noodles) as “Tau Chiang”, or “Dao Qiang”, if you will, in hanyupinyin. Then one day, Jason bought these Singlong noodles and called them “Tau Chiam”, which caused widespread panic and confusion. I spent much time calming those nerves. From that day on, I’ve secretly resented these noodles because 我们是不会承认你的。

But it is not Jason’s fault because what he simply did was call a packet of noodles a packet of noodles:

The small wordings under “Bean Mee” read “Tau Chiam”- the noodles just would not back down. Anyways.

I decided to cook this last week because Ah-mm and 88 love their gravy over carbs. Ok, so I lied. I cooked these last week because I wanted to do a one-dish meal to escape stir-frying the shanghai greens BECAUSE I hate cooking leafy greens. And also because Ah-mm and 88 love their gravy over carbs. I’ll prove it to you- they slurped up their Seafood Mui Fan dinner tonight. Evidence coming up soon in another post.

Back to the noodles. I did a light version without eggs because I felt that the noodles were heavy enough. They almost have the texture of ban mian.. not quite there, but still starchy. I soaked them to remove some of the starch which nobody needs to eat. A gravy that is not too heavy would work better here.

Makes 2 servings

What I used:

3 bundles of “Tau Chiam” noodles (Singlong brand), soaked in hot water til soft, then rinsed with cold water.
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed with the back of your knife
4 tbsp light soy sauce
A dash of sesame oil
A dash of chinese wine- hua diao jiu
6 prawns, shelled
Pork Slices
Leafy greens & spring onions (optional)
300ml chicken broth
Cornstarch solution (2 tbsp corn starch mixed with 4 tbsp water)

1. Heat up your cooking pan. Make sure the flame is at its highest. Add olive oil and wait til oil is hot, about half a minute.
2. Add garlic. Fry for a few seconds then add the pork and prawns. Stir fry for 2 minutes til prawns turn pink.
3. Add in the noodles, 3 tbsp soy sauce, sesame oil and chinese wine then swirl to combine. Remove from pan.
4. In the same pan, pour in the chicken stock and bring to boil.
5. Add the veggies, reduce flame, then gradually mix in cornstarch solution and remaining 1 tbsp soy sauce.
6. Turn off the flame and ladle over prepared noodles.

How much I spent:

$0.50 for noodles
$1.50 for prawns
Everything else from my pantry

Total cost per serving: $1.00

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I pre-fried the noodles for maximum flavour as I haven’t used a crazy amount of seasoning in the gravy. You can add in some fish cakes, crab sticks, carrots, or change your selection of carbs (ee-meen would be nice!). Add an egg if you choose a less starchy carb and let me know how it goes.

#tip: the addition of fish sauce is veryy good with this type of gravy. I’ll post up my (a bit different from this) mui-fan recipe next week.

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