Durian - "Mountain Cat King" Season

The stall where we always buy durian from "Fruit Top 1" is having promotion from now till next Sunday, 8/3/09 with free delivery service. Whenever they have promotion or when they has good quality durians, they will inform me or my aunt. So my aunt defintely won't miss this sales eventhough just last Sunday, we already had it. This time round, she specially ordered for my brother and of course my dogs who get to eat too.

Their Promotion:
Mountain Cat King - S$10/kg
Others type like D24/D13/Red prawn - all 3 for $10
She ordered 8 fruits and plus 2 free fruit from the boss for compensating her for previous purchase where a few seeds were not very good. See, how generous they are with good marketing strategies. That explains why their business is always so good. The total weight for 8 fruits were 15 kg so she paid $150 for it.

Just for the fun of it though a bit gross...LOL! The small flatten seeds are from "Mountain Cat King", they are the best durian thus far, the flesh is very creamy, fragrant, yellowish & thick. It's more worth it to buy this durian by Kg than any other type because you are actually paying for the flesh not the weight of the seeds. To make the comparison, the big seeds are from D666 (FOC to us), you can see the big difference! For Mountain Cat King durian, just 3 to 4 seeds are already very satisfying & full.

Fruits Top 1 Department Store
Blk 183 Toa Payoh Central
#01-306
Singapore 310183
Head Office:
608 Geylang Rd Lor 36
Singapore 389547
Contact: Ah Yi 91090051

Korean BBQ Pork (Kalbi)

Korean BBQ at home! Sound complicated but it's quite easy after all except for the oil & smoke it caused. I did not BBQ it at the dinner table, it was pan-fried over a grill pan in the kitchen. I tried it once doing it on the dining room, wow it's really oily & smokey. So is better to cook it in the kitchen & serve.

This was how I prepared the korean BBQ pork by using the ready marinade sauce I got it from Sol Mart at Square 2. It's easy, yummy and economical too. To have this at Korean restaurant is rather expensive. And it's taste as good as those serve in the restaurants. Instead of beef short ribs, I used pork collar meat. Collar meat is good for BBQ, the meat is juicy and tender.

Ingredients (Serve 4):

600g Pork collar/Beef (from Mmmm Sq 2 at S$9.90/kg)

140g Kalbi marinade (from Solmart at S$4.60/240g bottle)

1 no Yellow onion (sliced)

Lettuce

1-2 tbsp Ssamjang bean paste (for dipping)

Method:

1. Marinate the meat, sliced onion with the kalbi marinade for at least 4 hours or overnight in the fridge.

2. Grill it over the pan till cooked & cut into bitesize.

3. Serve with rice or eat it with lettuce wrap.

This is how we eat our BBQ:

1. Pick up the meat.

2. Put the meat onto a lettuce wrap.

3. Put a dab of ssamjang onto the wrap. (or if you like a slice of fresh garlic)

4. Wrap it up, stick it into your mouth. This is really heavenly.
5. To complete, wash it down with a spoonful of kimchi soup and rice. Wow, it's beyond words to describe the satisfaction to the palate...

My Weekend Cooking ~ Korean Dinner

My weekend woking - Korean Food. My brother was the guest tonight. Since he never tried my kimchi soup before so I decided to cook korean's for him. This was what we had for dinner...

Kimchi Fish Soup (See Recipe)

Korean BBQ Pork (Kalbi) w/Lettuce Wrap

Side Dishes: Kimchi, Ikan Bilis, Soybean Sprout & Roasted Seaweed
My saturday home-cooked Korean Dinner. Enjoy...

I'm glad that all of them enjoyed the dinner and we have durian for dessert. Actually, this was what my brother came for, "Mountain Cat king" durian. My aunt ordered from Fruit Top 1 and they delivered to my place in the afternoon.

Steam Jacket Fish w/Preserved Veg (Meicai)

Mei Cai, one type of preserved vegetables. It can be brasied, stewed, stir fried and steamed. Cantonese cooking uses it more often. I like it very much especially this brand from Hong Kong (Mei cai wang). Last night aunt used it to steam jacket fish. Quite a good combination and it's delicious.

Ingredients:
Jacket Fish (season with 1/4tsp salt, 1/4tsp vetsin & sesame oil)
110g Preserved veg (Rinse, cleaned, slightly soak & chopped. Then season with 1/2tsp light sauce & 1tsp oil)
1/2tbsp Potato flour
2slices Ginger
Red chillies & spring onion for garnishing

Sauce:
100ml Stock
1/2tsp Vetsin
1tsp Light sauce
2tsp Fish sauce
1/4tsp Sugar
Pepper
Sesame oil

Method:
1. Heat some oil to fry the preserved veg till dry and add in potato flour. Continue to fry till crisp & fragrant. Set aside.
2. Place fish on dish. Top with ginger, sauce and fried preserved veg.
3. Steam over high heat for 7mins.
4. Garnish with chillies & spring onion.

See previous post using preserved veg as ingredient.

Sweetest Moments - "MANYUE"

This was from my colleague Louis, his new born baby girl full month. This afternoon he left a few boxes in the pantry for us to share. I like the packaging and few of us had kept the boxes. I took a few too. There were good luck red eggs, ang ku kuehs, swiss roll, fruit tarts, mochi & glutinous rice. I tried the glutinous rice, fruit tarts & ang ku kueh, all quite tasty. This is an impressive full month gift with tasteful packaging. For those who are going to be parents & married, can consider "Sweetest Moments". Other than baby full month packages, they cater for wedding & specialise in cupcakes too.

Sweetest Moments

Office Address
31 Lowland Road Singapore 547424
Tel: 62862553 Fax: 62862055
Office Opening Hours
Mon - Sun : 9.30am to 5pm
Public Holidays: 9.30am to 1pm
To send orders & photos: sales@sweetestmoments.com.sg
For enquiries: enquiries@sweetestmoments.com.sg

Cute Mouse Pineapple Tarts

This was a little treat from my colleague, Sandra. She saw this cute little mouse pineapple tarts when she was lunching at Old Airport Road Food Centre. She bought some for us to try. The pineapple tart was low fat & less sugar that why it does not have the melt in the mouth texture so was more like pineapple cookie.

Muay Lee Hng Seafood

Thursday night, dine out again at one of my neighbourhood zi char at Toa Payoh Lor 4 with my uncle family. My aunt used to frequent this stall when she stayed nearby. The food generally was quite nice especially the soup & sambal fried rice/beehoon/Mee.

Clockwise: Hotplate Spring Onion Deer Meat $12, Deep Fried Ginger Frog Legs $16, Fuyong Egg $6, Kailan w/Slice Fish $8, Bittergourd Soup $4, Sambal Beehoon $4.

Penne w/Sausage & Fresh Mushroom in Tomato Sauce

I'm bringing pasta to office tomorrow to share with my colleagues. All ready and packed, just need use microwave to heat it up during lunch time. This pasta recipe is from Chef Yong. The sauce is all home made from scratch using fresh tomatoes & puree. I tried tasting it, wow it's yummy. Can't wait to have it for lunch tomorrow.

For the basic tomato sauce recipe, can refer to Chef Yong Blog.

My homecooked pasta lunch at office. My colleagues enjoyed it and all of us ate till very full. A few of them wanted to get recipes from me...

Ah Chuan Fried Oyster Omelette

One of the 15 best and most popular hawkers listed under Makansutra Hawker Legends 2005. The best part is it's so near my house and I didn't know about this stall at all after staying in Toa Payoh for more than 10 years. Since I was buying dinner home might as well buy a pack home to try. Well, it's the type of oyster omelette I like. Soft, chewy & moist with the right amount of seasoning & the oyster was fresh and quite big. Someday I want to try having it there instead of takeaway and see what is the difference. Is it oily? Sure is oily... Most local delights are oily, is the oil that make it tasty... So is advisable to have it once in the blue moon.

Ah Chuan Fried Oyster Omelette

Blk 22 Toa Payoh Lor 7

#01-25

Opening hour: 3pm to 9pm

Closed on Tuesday

Thai Cooking Class (Elementary) ~ Lesson 3

My Thai Cooking class - Lesson 3 at Cairhill. Today the menu was not that interesting and tasty to me as compared to last week. The Galangal chicken soup was something new to me. It tasted like Tom yum soup, sourish & quite appetizing using lots of young blue ginger to cook the broth. I like the vermicelli salad w/minced pork. This is one of my favorite thai salad. Forest's version was healtier as compared to the restaurant. There was no trace of oil at all in the salad eventhough minced pork was used. This is good. As for the desset, is not my cup of tea but I like the fresh honey mango... of course la so fresh & sweet! LOL...

Galangal Chicken Soup

Vermicelli Salad w/Minced Pork

Steamed Glutinous Rice w/Mango

Lesson 3 @ 24th Feb 2009

Forest Leong conducts cooking classes at Shermay's Cooking School and PA. Please check out the related websites for details if anyone is interested in attending her classes.

A Busy Weekend...

Last weekend was a rather busy day for me, I cooked lunch and baked some sugee cookies. I wanted to give away as birthday gift for one of my colleague, Connie.

Happy Birthday, Connie... Hope you enjoy the cookies!

My weekend cooking - Pasta w/Scallop & Zucchini in White Wine Basil Sauce. Quite delicious... Recently, don't why I kept craving for pasta.

Fruits Top 1 Department Store

After dinner, Aunt wanted to buy durian so we went to our favorite durian store at Toa Payoh Central. Usually Aunt will buy 'Mao Shan Wang' but now is not the season so the boss recommended D13, $8.00/kg. D13 was very sweet with very deep yellow fresh or rather they called it red meat. Is too sweet for my liking, I prefer those sweet bitter type.

We always buy the ''guarantee eat'' type, that means by kg. The boss, Ah yi/Ah Peng really know what is customer service. If the durian was not up to expectation when we brought home, just give him a call and tell him how many of them are not good, he will replace for you FOC without any question asked. Their business is so good that last year, they open another branch, now is their head office at Geylang.

Fruits Top 1 Department Store
Blk 183, Toa Payoh Central
#01-306
Singapore 310183
Head Office: 608, Geylang Rd, Lor 36
Singapore 389547
Contact: Ah Yi 91090051

Five Stars Hainanese Chicken Rice

Sunday dinner... Kampong Chicken Rice at Five Stars along Upper Bukit Timah Road after grocery shopping at NTUC Finest. It was rather crowded during dinner time but the serving time was very fast & efficient even for the zi char dishes. I was amazed as we sat down gave our order, the food was served less than 5 min later. Well to me, overall so so only not really very fantastic but was above average chicken rice standard. Personally I prefer Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice. This is a good place for a quick dinner and the zi char prices are very reasonable.

Five Star Hainanese Chicken Rice
6/7 Cheong Chin Nam Road
Singapore 599731
Tel: 6466 3000

Easy Crispy Puff w/Pork Mushroom Pate

My Sunday morning breakfast - Easy Crispy Puff w/Pork Mushroom Pate. This is an very easy snack to make anytime of the day using instant frozen prata as the pastry and just fill it with tuna, sardine, salmon or anything of your choice. This morning I happen to have a canned of pork pate to use it as the filling. You be surprised at how easy and tasty this prata can be by baking it this way.


Ingredients:
Frozen Prata
Filling of your choice
Method:
1. Remove 1 side of the wrapper and let it stand for awhile to soften.
2. Spread the filling onto half side of the frozen prata.
3. Fold the prata into half and seal by pressing harder at the round edge.
4. Freeze it again to remove the wrapper smoothly.
5. Bake at 180C w/fan for 10-15min or till puff up & golden brown.
(Can use toaster to bake too.)