Stir Fry Mallow Green with Cellophane Noodle and Dried Shrimp (清炒青瓜粉丝虾米）

This is a simple stir fried vegetable dish and you can generally found it in those food stall selling "mixed rice vegetable and meat".

Ingredients :-
青瓜，粉丝，虾米
The ingredients are Mallow Green (actually I don't quite know the actual name, it looks like cucumber but it is not), Cellophane Noodle and Dried Shrimp.  All these can be easily found in supermarket.  A small size Mallow Green can easily serve up to 6 person shares.  A small handful of Cellophane Noodle will do (usually when you buy it comes with a big bundle) as it will expand later when cook.  Another small handful of Dried Shrimp will do.

Cooking Instructions :-

1.  Soak both the Cellophane Noodle and Dried Shrimp in water for about 30 minutes.

2. Peel off the skin of the Mallow Green and wash it thoroughly.

3. Slice the Mallow Green into small rectangular strip.  Well for those who can't really slice it nicely, just cut into half, then from the half cut into another half and so on until the length is reasonable.  Next cut it into rectangular tube shape.

4. Heat up the wok/frying pan and once heated, put in the Dried Shrimp to stir fry first

5. Next put in all those sliced Mallow Green.

6. After like 1 or 2 minute stir frying them, add in water, enough to like half-filled the Mallow Green and Dried Shrimp.

7. Then put in the Cellophane Noodle.  Now the "trick" is at this stage.  The Cellophane Noodle will absorb the water so you have to watch carefully the water level in the wok/frying pan.  If required add in water.

8. The cue for the dish to be cooked and ready is the Cellophane Noodle.  The Cellophane Noodle should become soft.  Hence, as you stir frying the dish, you can pick up small portion of the Cellophane Noodle to see whether they are soft enough.  Another method is cover up the wok/frying pan with lit and let it kind of steam for between 1 to 3 minutes (depend on your water level in the wok/frying pan).

9.  You can also add some some soy sauce to give it some taste.

10.  At the end, the dish should still have some water and not totally dried.

Well, to certain extend, it is not an easy to cook dish due to the Cellophane Noodle but once it is nicely done, it will taste very nice.

Stir Fry Japanese Green with Sea Cucumber and Dougan (清炒日本青海参豆干)

The dish that I'm going to introduce here is a matched and mixed type of dish, probably can't find it anywhere as far as I know of.  It gave a fresh combination of stir frying vegetable.

Ingredients :-
日本青，海参，豆干
Japanese Green, Sea Cucumber and Dougan are the ingredients that are needed.  All these could be found in supermarket.  There is another type of similar vegetable, Shanghai Green, either of this is ok.  I'm using Japanese Green here as I have used Shanghai Green before and provides some alternative that all.  However, do note that Sea Cucumber does not come cheap as such you can choose the smallest piece when you buy.  1 packet of Japanese Green (2 packets if you are going to serve at least 4 person share), a small piece of Sea Cucumber and 1/2 to 1 piece of Dougan (if you are doing at least 4 person share, you probably need 1 piece of Dougan)

Cooking Instructions :-
1. Wash the Japanese Green

2. Wash the Sea Cucumber and cut into slices.

3. Wash the Dougan and cut into slices as well.

4. Heat up the wok/frying pan and once heated, put in the Sea Cucumber to stir fry.

5. Sea Cucumber in general is a bit the "hard" so after stir fry a short while, add it water as going to use the "boiled water" to help to steam them to soften it.

6. After add in water, cover up the wok/frying pan for 1 minute for steaming of the Sea Cucumber.

7. Next add in the Japanese Green and Dougan and stir fry together.  Have to be careful here as Dougan is very soft and if not careful in stir frying, they will end up in smaller pieces.

8. Again, cover up the wok/frying pan to steam them for about 1 to 2 minutes and it is finally done.

What you can find in the dish is Dougan is soft, Sea Cucumber if well cooked is smooth and Japanese Green is crunchy.  Hope you like it :)

Stir Fry Cucumber with Sea Cucumber and Prawn (清炒黄瓜海参虾)

The most common place you can find cucumber is with chicken rice and it is eaten raw.  Tired of eating raw cucumber ? (well raw cucumber is nutrition for your information) Here going to introduce a dish to stir fry cucumber with sea cucumber and prawn.  Well this dish could be expensive as sea cucumber doesn't come cheap.

Ingredients :-
黄瓜，海参，虾
Cucumber, Sea Cucumber and Prawn that what were needed for this dish.  1 stick of Cucumber, a dozen of prawn and 1 piece of Sea Cucumber will do.  This will be enough for 4 to 5 person share.  All these could be found in supermarket.  Price wise could be expensive as both Sea Cucumber and Prawn are priced by weight.

Cooking Instructions :-

1. Wash the Cucumber, Sea Cucumber and Prawn (after the shell was peeled off)

2. Now you have a choice either to peel off the Cucumber skin or leave it intact.

3. Cut the Cucumber into slices

4. Cut the Sea Cucumber into slices

5. For the Prawn, you could either leave it as a whole or cut into small pieces.

6. Heat up the wok/frying pan and once done put in the Prawn to fry

7. Next put in the Cucumber and the Sea Cucumber

8. After stir fry for about a minute or so, pour some water and cover up the wok/frying pan for about 2 to 3 minutes.  This is to use the steam to soften both the Cucumber and Sea Cucumber

9. Once done, get ready to serve.

Stir Fry Dow Miao With Braised Peanut (豆苗清炒花生豆)

Been a long long time since last posted.  Sorry for that :)

Today dish is stir frying Dow Miao with Braised Peanut.  Dow Miao is one of the most worth for money vegetable.  Reason being, the price of 1 packet of it costs the same as 1 packet of vegetable like Xiao Baichai, Kailan, Broccoli, Cauliflower, etc and 1 packet of Dow Miao can easily serve 4 to 5 person share whereas the latters about 3 person share.  There are couple of way to stir fry Dow Miao too, some doing just plain with garlic (i'm afraid by doing so, the children might not like the taste of Dow Miao), another simple way is to stir fry with Oyster Sauce and that would add some additional taste to it but a bit the plain too.  Here, going to stir fry Dow Miao with Braised Peanut.

Ingredients :-
豆苗，花生豆
The ingredients are just Dow Miao and a can of Braised Peanut.  All these can be brought from Supermarket easily.  As mentioned 1 packet of Dow Miao can serve up to 5 person share.

Cooking Instructions :-
1.  Wash the packet of Dow Miao.

2. Open up the can of Braised Peanut, do not pour away the sauce as will be using it to stir fry the Dow Miao to give it some taste.

3. Heat up the wok/frying pan.

4. Once heated, put in the Dow Miao and stir fry it.  Within a minute, the Dow Miao should be cooked.

5. Next pour in the can of Braised Peanut and continue to stir fry them together for another 3 minutes or so.  Can add it some water if you see the Braised Peanut sauce is drying up.

6. Once done, ready to serve.

This is a simple dish and if you are rushing for time, can consider this.  Am sure your kids will love them especially the peanut :)

Stir Fry Cauliflower with Dried Prawn and Carrot (清炒菜花萝卜虾米）

Cauliflower is another one of those "versatile" vegetable apart from Cabbage.  You can stir fry, make a soup out of it or just plain boiling it to make a dish.  Hence, going to do a simple stir fry dish with it.

Ingredients :-
菜花，萝卜，虾米
Cauliflower, Carrot and Dried Prawn are just the ingredients needed.  From the supermarket, 1 packet of Cauliflower (depends on size too) roughly can serve up to 3 person.  1 Carrot will be enough and a small handful of Dried Prawn will do.

Cooking Instructions :-
1.  Wash the Cauliflower and then cut into small portion.  The thick stem portion might want to consider peel off the outer layer of the skin first and then cut into smaller pieces.

2. Peel off the skin of the Carrot, wash it and then cut into thin slices.  Thin slices so that it is easier to stir fry as it can get soft faster and easily.

3. Soak the Dried Prawns in water for at least half an hour so that they are soften and easier to cook.

4. Heat up the frying pan/wok.  Put in the Carrot slices first to stir fry.  Once you see the Carrot slices kind of turns bright red, put in the Dried Prawn next.

5. After stir fry both the Carrot slices and Dried Prawns for a while, put in the Cauliflower.  Stir fry them a while and then pour in some water.  The usage of the water is to accelerate the cooking of the Cauliflower with the help of steam.  After pouring some water, cover up the frying pan/wok and let them steam for a while.  The steaming will help to soften the Cauliflower, Carrot and Dried Prawns.  About 3 to 5 minutes later, this dish is done.

6. The whole process probably take you not more than 10 minutes.

The Cauliflower and Carrot should taste sweet and soft.  Dried Prawn will be crunching.

Stir Fry Kailan With Minced Pork (清抄芥兰猪肉)

Stir Fry Kailan is pretty common in Singapore and one of the most common dish which you can find in food court is stir fry Kailan with Oyster Sauce.  Here what I am going to introduce is stir fry Kailan with Minced Pork.  This is one dish which I personally like it very much whenever my mother cooked it in the past.  It is quite straight forward in cooking that but need a little bit of effort in processing that all.

Ingredients :-
芥兰，碎猪肉，生姜 (可无)
Kailan, Minced Pork and Ginger are the only ingredients needed and both can be easily purchased from supermarket.  If you happen to go to wet market to purchase, there is an option of Kailan that is not being sprayed with insecticide and if you can go for those as it will taste better but the price is slightly more expensive.  Ginger to me is optionally in this dish.  If you don't want it, it is ok.

Cooking Instruction :-
1.  Soak the Kailan in salt water for half a day to one day.  Reason for doing so is to remove the strong insecticide on it and also to soften the stalk.  Kailan is perhaps one of the "hardest" vegetable.

2. Separate the stalk of the Kailan with the leaf.  For the leaf portion, cut into small little portions.  For the stalk, first you need to peel off the skin.  It is a must if not will get kind of difficult in chewing it.  After that, cut the stalk into small little cubic size.

3. If you have Ginger, cut into small slices will do.  Here I don't use Ginger.

4. Wash the Minced Pork and you only need about 1/3 to 1/2 of the whole packet of Minced Pork that you bought from supermarket.

5. Heat up the wok/frying pan with oil.  Once heated up put in the cubic size Kailan stalk to fry first.  They are hardest so need to get them cook first and soften before putting in the rest.

6.  Next put in the Minced Pork to fry together with the Kailan stalk and if you have Ginger put them in also.

7. Once the Minced Pork is cooked, put in the Kailan leaf and stir fry all of them for about 3 to 5 minutes.  In between, you can add in some water to dilute the oil and at the same time made use of the hot water to "boil" the stalks and leafs to make them soft.

8. Once done, ready to serve.  1 packet of Kailan can serve about 3 to 4 person share.

The best way to enjoy this dish is to scoop the Kailan leaf, stalk, Minced Pork and the juice and mix them with the rice to eat.  It is very nice.  Try it out, sure your kids will like it.

Stir Fry Cabbage With Dried Prawn, Carrot (包菜抄虾米萝卜)

Cabbage is one of the most "friendly" vegetable as I known of.  "Friendly" as in the sense that you can stir fry ( with basically almost every things ), boil, steam, use to make soup and marinate ( Korean Kimchi ).  Here, I'm going to introduce stir frying it with Dried Prawn and Carrot.

Ingredients :-
包菜，虾米，萝卜
Cabbage, Dried Prawns and Carrots are ingredients all I need here.  Note also, there are various type of Cabbage, some come in a bulb shape and some come in fan shape (Chinese Cabbage they are called).  Regardless of the shape, all can be used.  Again, all the ingredients can easily get at supermarket.

Cooking Instructions :-
1.  Wash the Cabbage and then cut it into stripe shape like as shown above.

2. Get a handful of Dried Prawns, wash it and you might want to soak them in water for 15 to 30 minutes as this will soften it, making it easier to cook.

3. Peel the skin off the Carrot, wash it and then cut it to slices.

4. Heat up the wok/frying pan and when the oil is hot enough, put in the Carrots.  Carrots are harder and take longer time to cook then the rest.

5. After a while, put in the Dried Prawns.  Stir fry both the Carrot slices and Dried Prawns for a while.

6. Next put in the Cabbages, use the spatular/ladle to stir fry all the three.  Cabbages can get cook easily so as long as you see the Cabbages shrink and get soften, pour in some water.  The water is used to dilute the oil and at the same time help to cook the Carrot slices and Dried Prawns.

7. After stir frying about 3 to 5 minutes, the dish is done.

If you can mix the juice with the rice and this make the rice taste nice :)

Hey Daddies, remembered said before Cabbage is a "friendly" vegetable, so next time if you run out of idea on vegetable dish, try the various method in cooking Cabbage.

Stir Fry Shanghai Green With Carrot (上海青抄萝卜)

Another vegetable stir fry vegetable dish which can be easily cooked.

Ingredients :-
上海青，萝卜，蒜头
Shanghai Green, a kind of green leaf vegetable looks like BaiCai but I'm not sure why it is being called Shanghai Green, Carrot and Garlic are all we need for this dish.  1 packet of Shanghai Green can serve 2 person share.  Need only 1 Carrot and cut into slices as shown.  Garlic probably need a few small bulbs of those and chop into tiny pieces.  You can grind, pound or use a chopper to do it.  Now think you can recall those chopping sound your mother made when she was in the kitchen cooking ?  Ok Garlic, I know the taste is not nice but hey, Garlic is good for digestive system.  That is why you chop into small pieces so that your kids or yourself can eat without concerning about the "awful taste".

Cooking Instruction :-
1.  Wash the Shanghai Green and if you wish can cut into smaller portion.  Normally, I will discard the top part of the stalk.

2. Peel off the Carrot skin, wash and cut into thin slices.  Why thin slices ? Carrot is quite hard to cook so to cut into thin slices get accelerate the cooking.

3. Peel off skin of Garlic, wash and then chop into tiny pieces.  You can use grinder, pounder or chopper to do it.

4. Heat up the wok/frying pan with oil.

5. When heated up, put in the tiny chopped pieces of Garlic, you just need to use the spatular/ladle to mix the Garlic a few times and you can instantly smell the Garlic being cooked.

6. Put in the slices of Carrot, you probably need a little bit longer time to cook the Carrot.  You can use the spatular/ladle to kind of press the Carrot and if they become soft mean cook already.

7. Lastly, put in the Shanghai Green, vegetable is easily cooked as when you see the colour turns darker and size shrink.

8. Optional step, you can opt to put in a small portion of water, for me the purpose is to use the water to dilute the oil and and the same time use the heated up water to assist in cooking the food.

9.  Whole process probably take you not more than 5 minutes and you can scoop up to serve.

You can see the tiny little white particle from the photo above ? Those are the chopped Garlic.  Remember to eat those also, they are good for your digestive system.

Thumb up for all Daddies, another vegetable dish for the family.  :)

Stir Fry Bean Sprout With TouGua, Spring Onion (生葱豆芽抄豆干)

Another simple vegetable dish.  Yet again, this is another dish that could ask your kids to help out.  Here what I'm going to do is to stir fry bean sprout with tougua and spring onion.

Ingredients :-
生葱，豆芽，豆干
Bean sprout, TouGua and Spring Onion are all that is needed.  All these can be easily purchased from supermarket.  1 packet of bean sprout can serve 5 person share.  TouGua usually 1 packet comes in 2 pieces and we just need 1 piece.  The remaining, well keep it in the fridge for other use.  Spring Onion just need a small branch will do.  If you go to wet market and you are in close term with the vegetable seller, hey good luck to you, you can ask them for a small branch of the spring onion after you purchase other vegetables from them.  Normally, they are willing to give it to you for free.  If don't still ok, Spring Onion is not that expensive though.

Cooking Instruction :-

1.  This is the part where you could ask your kids to join in.  Ask your kids to pick out the good bean sprouts and possible tear away the tail end of the bean sprouts.  Well this step probably is the most tedious step in doing this dish but hey with the help of the kids, again family bonding times !!!  After processing the bean sprouts, wash those which you have filter out to be used.

2. Next wash the TouGua and then cut it into slices.

3. Now the Spring Onion, cut off the base of it as that the part you won't want ( see the root portion ), wash it and then chop the remaining portion into smaller length.

4. Heat up the wok/frying pan with oil.  When the oil is hot, put in the Bean Sprouts, use the spatular/ladle to fry a few times then put in the slices of TouGua.  Again use the spatular/ladle to fry a few times.  However, this time must be careful as if you do it with too much strength, you could spoil the soft TouGua or smash them into tiny piece, this is not what we wanted.

5. Next pour in a rice bowl of water ( roughly 80% fill with water ).  Why we need water ? The usage of the water is to make the water boil and produce steam, using the steam to steam the Bean Sprouts to soft.  After pour in the water, put in the chop pieces of the Spring Onion and then cover up the wok/frying pan with the wok/frying pan cover.

6.  Leave it that for about 2 to 3 minutes as then the steam produced by the water would have soften the Bean Sprouts, TouGua and Spring Onion.

7.  Open up the cover, use the spatular/ladle to softly and carefully flipping the dish a few times and that is done.  Now the optional step, you can put 1/4 to 1/2 tea spoon of light soya sauce to the dish to make it a bit of the taste as some might just don't like that plain taste from the dish.  If you do put in the soya sauce, fry the dish a few times to ensure the soya sauce mixed thoroughly and that is done.  Scoop out and ready to serve !!!

Bean Sprout and TouGua are all very healthy food and by using "steaming" method to cook the food, this has made this dish not very oil and good for health.  Do encourage your kids to eat more of Bean Sprouts and TouGua.  

Stir Fry BaiCai With Fish Cake (白菜抄鱼饼)

The norm to process vegetable is to stir fry it apart from boil it.  Here going to show stir fry baicai with fish cake.

Ingredient :-
白菜，鱼饼
BaiCai, this is one of the most common vegetable around and can easily find it at supermarket or wet market.  One packet of it can serve 2 person share.  Just stir fry the vegetable will be a bit the plain and might not interest the children so I use fish cake along with it.  Why fish cake ? fish cake probably is one of the interested food by children.  Hey, you can use pork to stir fry with also.  Fish cake also can be easily bought at supermarket or wet market.  They come in a big piece so you would have to cut it to slices.

Cooking Instruction :-
1. Cut the BaiCai to shorter length, well this is optional but I do cut off the top part of the stalk.  Smaller and shorter length can help the kids to eat faster if not they will just chew and chew and chew.

2. Wash the BaiCai, this is a MUST as normally some soil particles or mud comes stick on to it, make sure you wash thoroughly to get rid of those soil or mud.

3. Wash the Fish Cake and then cut it into slices like show in the picture on top.

4. Heat up the wok or frying pan and add cooking oil to it.  Try to use less oil and healthy oil like Olive Oil.

5. Wait till the oil inside the wok/frying pan is heated up.  How to know that ? I placed my palm on top to feel to the heat or you could sprinkle a few drop of water onto it.  Should the water sparkle out that means the oil is hot enough already.

6. Put in the washed BaiCai and used a spatula or ladle to stir fry it.  Vegetable normally can get cooked very fast if you wok/frying pan is hot enough.  Once the vegetable is cooked, the leaf will change into a darker colour and the size shrinked.  Normally, after you put in the vegetable to the heated wok/frying pan, within 30 second, it will get cooked.

7. Put in the sliced Fish Cake.  Fish Cake normally is already cooked when you bought it so need not take a long time to cook it.

8. Use the spatular/ladle to mix the BaiCai and Fish Cake inside the wok/frying pan a few times.

9. Added some water into it.  This is optional, I do it as I wanted to dilute the oil away so that it made the cooked vegetable less oily.

10.  The whole process took about 5 minute max.  Remember don't over-cooked the vegetable if not all the nutrition will be gone.

Now ready to serve it to the kids and told them "Daddy stir fry that !!!!"