An egg-tremely fast and simple fried rice to whip up with a minimal of ingredients. All you need is some overnight refrigerated rice, eggs and some basic ingredients in your pantry and bravo! … you can whip up this fried rice in no time at all.

Ingredients
(serves 2)

- 2 cups cooked rice, refrigerated
- 1 egg, beaten, seasoned with a bit of light soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp oil
- 5 cloves of garlic, minced
- 3 shallots, minced
- spring onions, chopped (garnishing)
- sea salt

Directions
- Heat oil and fry garlic & shallots till fragrant.
- Add cooked rice, use turner to flatten the rice balls so that they are separated.
- Add egg evenly, use high heat to fry the rice (or else it will be soggy) till rice mixture is dry. Season with salt and garnish with chopped spring onions.

A simple vegetable juice recipe for a busy mid-weekday. When I saw these cute looking red radishes at Bollywood Veggies (picture below), I couldn’t resist buying some. Finally decided to make fruit juice out of them because it’s easy and also nutritious. One seldom see radishes being added in a fruit juice and I guess it’s because their taste can be quite sharp & spicy when consumed raw. The trick is not to add too many radishes, and blend them with cherry tomatoes and carrots as their natural sweetness will balance out the overall taste.

Beautiful red radishes I bought from Bollywood Veggies - so fresh they still have their leaves on

According to this site, “Radishes can be beneficial to our health as they are sources of Potassium, Magnesium, Vitamin C, Iron sulphur and Amylase. Radish juice has been used for treating skin conditions, asthma and sinus problems.” I just think that it is yummy, so when it’s also healthy, I think that’s a great bonus

Ingredients
(Makes 1 glass about 250 ml)
- 1 to 2 carrots, peeled and cut to chunks
- 15 cherry tomatoes (can substitute with normal tomatoes)
- 2 red radishes (can substitute with other types of radishes, about 70g), peeled and cut to chunks

Directions
1. Just blend everything in a fruit juice extractor and consume as soon as possible.

My friend, Rian, who is an Indonesian Chinese, taught me how to make this delicious and spicy vegetable stir fry. I think IndoChine cuisine is similar in some ways to the Chinese/Malay food in Singapore, because we have influences from various ethnic races so our food is also spicy. You can substitute sweet potato leaves with kangkong (kangkung) if you like. I cut the stems to smaller pieces because I think it’s easier to eat them cut, and this was inspired by the delicious stir fry vegetables I had at Bollywood Veggies. The result is a wonderful balance between salty and spicy. This goes really well with rice.

Ingredients
(Serves 2-3)
- 200g sweet potato leaves 番薯叶 (I use the “baby” type but you can use the regular type too)
- 1 large red chilli, sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp vegetable/olive oil
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 shallots, sliced finely

(A) For pounding (See step 2)
- 1 tbsp salted soya beans (aka dou jiang, ‘tauco’, ‘tao cheow‘, 豆酱)
- 3 chilli padi (bird’s eye chilli), sliced
- 3 shallots, finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tbsp shrimp paste (belacan)

Directions
1. Trim the stem ends of the sweet potato leaves, then cut to separate the sweet potato leaves and the stems. Slice the stems to about 2-3cm lengths and set aside.
2. Pound the ingredients in (A) using a mortar and pestle.
3. Heat oil in pan, fry the sliced shallots, sliced large chilli and minced garlic till fragrant.
4. Add the pounded ingredients prepared in step 2 and stir fry for a minute till fragrant (see cooking note 2).
5. Increase to high heat, add the stems and stir fry for a minute or two.
6. Add leaves, water and light soy sauce. Stir fry till the leaves have just wilted and cooked.

Cooking Notes:
1. The large chilli is for colour while the smaller chilli padi is for spiciness.
2. When frying the chilli paste, make sure your kitchen is well ventilated because the fumes from cooking the paste can be stinging.
3. It is important to stir fry the vegetables in high heat so that they have a nice crunchy bite when cooked.

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay may be known to be mean, but he also makes a mean meal of scrambled eggs as well. I saw his recipe at lifehacker which also comes with a youtube video demonstrating how he does his scrambled eggs. I tried the recipe and it sure was a winner - the scrambled eggs are of a nice velvety and creamy consistency. He uses interesting techniques such as only whisking the eggs in the pan and seasoning them only at the end - who would have guess that these are the secrets to perfect scrambled eggs?

Ingredients
(serves 2)
- 4 eggs (see cooking note 1)
- 1/2 tbsp crème fraîche (see cooking note 2)
- small knob of butter (roughly 20g)
- chopped chives
- sea salt and freshly cracked pepper

Directions
1. Break eggs in a saucepan and add butter. Do not whisk the eggs or season them at this point.
2. Turn on the flame and whisk the eggs in the pan using the spatula.
3. Keep stirring the egg mixture, and as soon as it starts to thicken a little, get it off the heat and continue stirring.
4. Alternate between stirring the eggs while they are on and off the heat, repeat a few times (about 3-4) until the scrambled eggs are of the right consistency (creamy and fluffy).
5. Take the eggs off the heat, mix in crème fraîche to cool it down, season with salt and pepper and fold in some chopped chives.

Gordon Ramsay’s Perfect Scrambled Eggs Tips:
- Whisk the eggs only when they are in the pan.
- Give the eggs a break from the heat once they get going, so they can combine and avoid drying out.
- Season the eggs right at the end. If you season them in the beginning, the salt will break down the eggs and they will turn watery.

Cooking Tips:
1. The original recipe calls for 3 eggs per person, I reduce it to 2 eggs per person to suit my preference.
2. If you cannot find crème fraîche (I saw it at Cold Storage Centrepoint Singapore, but quite expensive), you can substitute with fresh cream, thickened cream, heavy cream or sour cream.
3. I had my scrambled eggs with parmesan toast. To do this, mix equal amount of butter and grated parmesan cheese, spread the mixture over my baguette and toast it in the oven till its warm.

Drunken prawns (醉虾) is a dish which is unbelievably cheap and easy to prepare at home, but if you were to order it at the restaurant, be prepared to pay at least three times (but usually more) more than it would cost you to prepare it at home. Seafood is always so expensive when it is ordered outside.

If you think that it’s cruel to use live prawns, you can substitute with non-live ones. In my opinion, the key to delicious drunken prawns is to “marinade” them when they are still alive.  My (unproven) theory of why Chinese restaurants use live prawns, is that the prawns will ingest some of the wine, hence the wine aroma is deep within the prawns, else the aroma of the Chinese wine is kind of on the surface only. In the case of live prawns, I think the taste is more distinct and sweeter.

If you are looking for affordable live prawns in Singapore, refer to this post

Ingredients
(Serves 2)

- 10 live prawns (some call them shrimps)
- 3 tbsp Chinese wine (Hua Diao Jiu 花雕酒 or Shao Xing Jiu 绍兴酒)
- a handful of wolfberries
- 3 thick spring onion stalks (the bottom white part)
- 3 to 5 slices of ginger
- spring onions (cut to wispy thin strips) and coriander

Directions
1. Place prawns in a deep vessel with lid (I use my 4.2l slow cooker pot).
2. Drizzle 2 tbsp Chinese wine over prawns and close the lid (because the prawns will jump :P)
3. Wait till the prawns have stopped jumping. This will take about 10 minutes or more.
4. Trim the feelers off the prawns, arrange them in a single layer on a steaming plate that has a bit of depth. Pour the marinating wine over.
5. Place spring onions stalks, ginger and wolfberries on top. Drizzle one more tbsp Chinese wine over the ingredients.
6. Steam till the prawns turn completely red (this takes only a few minutes - do not over cook).  Garnish with spring onions strips and coriander.

“Marinating” the prawns “敬酒”

My happy loot! Live prawns (still alive when I reached home)

It’s certainly a cook’s dream come true to cook with the freshest ingredients on hand. And when it comes to fresh seafood, nothing beats purchasing them while they were still alive :p For my foodbuzz 24 writeup, I needed live prawns to prepare one of my fb24 meals, drunken prawns, and I was really happy to find them at Grand Atlantic Fishery, a seafood stall located at Farmart.

Drunken Prawns - Made with live prawns (recipe here)

At the seafood stall with tanks of fresh seafood

Grand Atlantic Fishery sells a wide variety of seafood - including lobster, crabs and clams, in addition to prawns. Not all the seafood are alive, though it seems to me that they always have live prawns for sale.

Uncle weighing the prawns I ordered

You can request that they place the prawns in a special bag with oxygen pumped into the bag, so that the prawns will still be alive when you reach home, at no additional cost. Otherwise, I think they would just place the prawns in a normal plastic bag for you. If you want them to stay alive when you reach home, go home as soon as you can after purchasing the prawns, as the oxygen in the bag can only last for a few hours. You also need to trim the prawns feelers before you prepare/serve the dish.

Uncle at work

I was lucky one time and managed to get the live prawns at an offer price of S$12/kg. I purchased half a kg and only paid S$6 for the entire bag of prawns you see in the photo below (we counted and there were 29 prawns inside … what a steal!). When there are no promos, the usual price is around S$20/kg,  but you get much bigger prawns than the S$12/kg lot. Still quite reasonable as compared to the prices at supermarkets, especially when they are so fresh.

Bag of prawns with live prawns at home

P.S. This is NOT a paid review, everything written here is my personal opinion.

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Place: Grand Atlantic Fishery Pte Ltd
Opening Hours: 8 am - 4pm (Closed on Thursday)
Location: Farmart Centre (67 Sungei Tengah Rd Unit 30 , Singapore 699008)
Phone: ‎+65  67649035

With Halloween just around the corner, I’m glad this pumpkin soup (and the adorable pumpkin soup bowl it’s contained in) gets to make its starry (hopefully not scary) appearance on my blog before Halloween, hehe.  Roasting the pumpkins before putting them in the soup really draws out their natural sweet flavours (process of cameralization), and I adore the taste of natural sweetness over sugar sweetness. This recipe is really flexible because I actually made two versions with it - one which is chunkier (almost gravy like) for B who prefers chunky soups, and one version which is creamier and smoother (think cream of chicken type of consistency) for me. With the basic puree, you can adjust the stock and cream to achieve the consistency that you like.

I saw mini pumpkins being sold at Vivomart (and selected Cold Storage, Jasons outlets) and I purchased one for photography purposes. The cheapest I saw so far was S$3 each (at Vivomart) but my friend told me that nearing Halloween (which is now I guess) the prices may be slashed  further as the supermarkets try to clear the leftovers. I’m going to check out the supermarkets tonight and hope I get lucky

Happy Halloween!

A close up

Ingredients
(Serves 4)

- 500g pumpkin flesh, cut to small chunks
- chicken broth/vegetable broth (600ml for thick, chunky soup, at least 800ml or more for creamier, more watery consistency - see cooking note 1)
- 2 sprigs of rosemary leaves, chopped finely
- 1 large white/yellow onion
- 8 cloves garlic, peeled
- 30g butter
- extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt and freshly cracked pepper
- 1/4 cup of thickened cream (the one I used contained 35% milk fat)
- 2 tbsp white wine (optional)
- cinnamon or nutmeg powder (garnishing)

Directions

1. Arrange pumpkin chunks in a single layer on roasting tray with the garlic and drizzle liberal amounts of extra virgin olive oil till pumpkin pieces & garlic cloves are well coated in the oil. Season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle chopped rosemary over.
2. Roast pumpkin in preheated oven of 200C (400F) for 30 minutes till they are soft (if you like, you can turn them over after 20 minutes for a more even cooking).
3. Melt butter in heated pan then cook onions over gentle flame till the onions have just started to caramelised (soft, translucent, shrunken). This takes about 4 minutes or so.
4. Add the stock, followed by the roasted pumpkin and garlic, then bring to a boil. Simmer with lid on for another 10 minutes, then off the flame. The pumpkin pieces should be really sweet and tender by now.
5. Process the soup in batches using either a blender or food processor till smooth (see cooking note 3). At this point you can add more broth to get the right consistency you like.
6. Return the soup to the saucepan and stir in the wine & cream and season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Warm through, without boiling. Ladle into bowls and garnish with a few drops (or swirls) of cream and cinnamon/nutmeg. Serve with toast.

Pumpkin Toast (cooking note 3)

Cooking Notes

1. This recipe is very flexible. With the thick pumpkin puree, you can adjust the thickness of the soup based on your preference. For instance, if you like a chunkier soup, you can use lesser stock or even omit the cream. Likewise, for a more watery/creamier consistency, add more broth or cream accordingly.
2. To make pumpkin soup bowls, get mini pumpkins, carefully cut off the top, use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and strings, and use a paring knife to scoop out the flesh out all round. I’m sure you can do this better than my shoddy workmanship hehe
3. You may reserve some of the thick puree (step 5) to spread over baguette to make delicious pumpkin toast (pictured).
4. You can substitute rosemary with sage or thyme as you like.

More pumpkin deliciousness:

- Pumpkin Muffins
- Pumpkin Chawanmushi
- Steamed Tofu with Pumpkin, Prawns & Ebikko
- Pumpkin Rice

With Halloween coming soon, I decided to soak in the festive mood by cooking with pumpkin, starting with these adorable pumpkin muffins. Because I don’t really have a sweet tooth, I always like the idea of having a savoury ingredient like pumpkin in something sweet like a muffin. If you want to prepare this in advance before Halloween, you can freeze the muffins in the freezer and toast them for about 5 minutes in the oven to warm them up before serving. This is always a huge time saver for me when I want a quick and fuss free breakfast.

I’m pretty inexperienced at baking. For those who are experienced, could you tell me honestly if my muffins look ok? Are nicely baked muffins supposed to look like that? Also, they rise nicely when they are in the smaller cupcake cases as shown in the photos, but if I use the taller and bigger muffin cases, the batter do not cook well, and they will sink in the middle and then collapse. Does anyone know the reason for this? Your expertise is much appreciated.

On to the recipe now, if you still dare to follow a recipe shared by a noob hehe

Pumpkin muffins (with pumpkin milkshake in the background)

Ingredients
(Makes about 16 small muffins)

Adapted from 500 Cupcakes & Muffins by Fergal Connolly

- 200g plain flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 250g caster sugar
- 110ml vegetable oil
- 2 lightly beaten eggs
- 110ml milk
- 150g pumpkin flesh, blended to a puree

Directions

1. Flour mixture: In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar together, and mix well.
2. Pumpkin mixture: In a large bowl, beat the oil, eggs and milk. Stir in the pumpkin puree.
3. Combine the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Stir until just blended (and lumpy). Be careful not to over mix as it will result in a tough texture.
4. Place baking cases in muffin tins. Spoon the mixture into the cases (each slightly more than 2/3 filled).
4. Bake for about 20 minutes in preheated oven of 175C (350F). Remove the muffins and cool on a rack for several minutes before serving.

Just for Fun:

I baked a mini one for my hamster Mario.

And he seemed pretty happy about it Read about it here.

More pumpkin recipes:

- Pumpkin Chawanmushi
- Steamed Tofu with Pumpkin, Prawns & Ebikko
- Pumpkin Rice

“Rustic” … Singapore?

In this special foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 feature, I visited farms in Singapore to gain a glimpse into the lesser known “rustic” regions of Singapore to create more awareness on sources where one can buy fresh produce from our little country. I then created three simple meals of the day using the ingredients which were purchased from the farms.

Goats Milking at Hay Dairies

I name this article “Rustic Singapore”, though “rustic” is hardly a word used to describe our little country. When one thinks of Singapore, the words one will associate are usually “skyscrapers”, “modern”, “cosmopolitan”, “high-rise buildings” “crowded” and “dense”. We are a small (imagine a plane only takes mere seconds to whizz past Singapore, and driving only takes 45 minutes from one end to the other) and dense (population hitting 5 million) nation.

A farmer harvesting some spring onions at Kok Fah Technology Farm

But yes, there are still pockets of farms thriving despite the land scarcity. Besides getting the freshest ingredients a cook can possibly lay his and her hands on by visiting these places, these trips made great educational trips and sightseeing for both adults and children.

Cucumbers for sale at attractive prices at Kok Fah Farm’s market

Rustic Trail

(1) Hay Dairies

Hay Dairies is a local farm producing fresh goat’s milk. There are milking demonstrations every morning, and members of the public can buy fresh goat milk as well as view the goats in their barns.

Stars of Hay Dairies

Really love their faces because they seem like they are smiling. Don’t believe me? See for yourself!

Smiling Faces

After viewing the goats, you can buy fresh goat’s milk which are kept fresh in a cooler box

I bought an assortment of white and chocolate milk

(2) Bollywood Veggies

Mere minutes drive from Hay Diaries, I just have to drop by Bollywood Veggies for lunch and also check out what they had for sale that day. They usually have a cart of farm-picked vegetables for sale which varies every time depending on the harvest of the day. I like surprises! They also had a few pots of herbs for sale.

Decided to get some mini red radishes (the ones I usually see are white; bottom left pic) for making vegetable juice. I love it that they still had their leaves on, the ones at our supermarkets are usually trimmed already. That’s the advantage of buying directly from the farms! I also bought a green papaya for making soup, I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Scene from Bollywood Veggies

The green message at Bollywood Veggies

(3) Kok Fah Technology Farm

Crops at Kok Fah Farm

As I entered its market, I feel like I am at a farmers’ market. With so much fresh produce, it is truly a cook’s paradise.

Kok Fah Market

I cannot use words to describe to you how fresh their produce are, so I’ll just let the photos do the talking.

Some of the farm fresh vegetables on sale:

Farm Fresh Produce

Beans, lentils and dried goods for sale

It also had a nursery with lots of edible plants for sale… can you identify them?

Edible plants for sale at the nursery

Some of my purchases of the day in preparation for my foodbuzz 24 meals

(4) Farmart

Wanted to visit an egg farm but I found that they had all been closed to public due to the bird flu. So I visited Farmart where they are stalls selling locally produced eggs. Was eggcited  to find white eggs which I’ve purchased for cooking my foodbuzz 24 meals (see breakfast).

Besides eggs, I also drop by a seafood stall to purchase live prawns for one of my foodbuzz 24 dish, “drunken” prawns. All right, so the seafood was not bred in Singapore but imported from Malaysia. But I am making an exception to feature them in this segment because the setting is so rustic, and it’s such a treat to be able to purchase live seafood at affordable prices in Singapore. And hey, at least the prawns are still alive when they are in Singapore ;p

The prawns were still swimming in the bag when I reached home … this is as fresh as it can get!

(5) Myco Farm

On the way home, I drop by Mycofarm which is a mushroom farm. Bought a mix of mushrooms including the gorgeous emperor shiitake mushrooms pictured below (so fresh, you still see a layer of white spores on the caps).

Menu for the day, cooking with local ingredients

So with all this shopping, I have to put the ingredients to good use right? Check out the meals I cooked using the farm fresh ingredients

Breakfast

For breakfast, I had it really simple because I wanted to head down to get live prawns right after breakfast to prepare drunken prawns for lunch. Simple, but satisfying - an easy scrambled eggs with chives and served with fresh goat’s milk and toasted parmesan baguette (check out the recipe here).

A close up of my scrambled eggs breakfast.

Lunch

Since I had to cook three meals (and take photos!) for the foodbuzz events, all the dishes I chose for the day involved relatively easy and fast cooking.

For lunch, we had oyster sauce baby bok choy in garlic oil, “drunken” prawns and vegetable juice (carrot, radish, tomato). Served with white rice.

Dinner

For dinner, I’m glad I had chilled aloe vera drink with honey & lime to refresh and replenish myself after a long day.

For mains, we had three cups mushrooms & chicken, as well as sweet potato leaves in chilli, served with egg fried rice.

The egg fried rice was a last minute dish because I only realised that I went out of rice when I want to cook it. Luckily, I had a day old leftover refrigerated rice so I was able to make this 10-minute egg fried rice which turns out to be pleasant treat instead of white rice.

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Smiling Goat at Hay Dairies

This sums up my rustic food escapade for the past two days.  I enjoyed buying fresh ingredients and then trying to make delicious meals with them. It’s a great feeling to get away from the hustle and bustle of fast-paced urban life.

Scene at Mycofarm

I’m so heartened to still see a few pockets of farms left producing local food in Singapore. I hope that they continue to thrive. Maybe I will be back next week to stock up my pantry because now that I know what it is like to cook with such fresh ingredients, I’m hooked

Adorable rabbits kept as pets at Kok Fah Farm (pets = not for sale!)

Note: The detailed information about the farms as well as the recipes featured in this article will be published as blog posts over the course of the next month. Please stay tuned and thank you for reading

I first cooked this soup for my friend w who came to visit my place. W is a vegaquarian meaning he only eats vegetables and seafood (something I aspire to become one day) so I was flipping through my cookbooks the night before, looking for a meatless soup recipe. Finally found a recipe for “wild mushroom soup with sage” in the cookbook 500 Soups which I thought looked really delicious. We had this soup together with grilled scallops & large tiger prawns on angel hair pasta (recipe coming up) and Bakerzin blueberry cheesecake (which is 50% off this month). I tweaked the soup recipe based on the ingredients we can find in Singapore (for example, portobello mushrooms instead of wild mushrooms, thickened cream instead of double cream). I’ve always like portobello mushrooms for their deep, earthy flavours and “meaty” texture. The result of the soup is really good. I love the deep flavours of the portobello mushrooms which goes well with the subtle aroma of the white wine. The mushroom bits and cream give the soup a velvety and nice texture. The minute we reached home after sending w back, B asked for the soup again and finished the rest of the pot. Happy is a cook when there are no leftovers

Meatless Deliciousness - Cream of Portobello Mushroom Soup served with Basil Macadamia Pesto on Toast

The soup is creamy and slightly chunky so it is filling on its own. When I re-cooked this, we had it as a meal on its own, served with some basil macadamia pesto (pictured - recipe coming up) on toast. Yummy yummy.

Ingredients
(Serves 4 - 6)

- 25g butter
- 3/4 large white/yellow onion, chopped finely
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 850ml vegetable/chicken/mushroom stock (see cooking note 1)
- 650g portobello mushrooms, chopped to large chunks
- 5 fresh sage leaves, chopped finely
- 100ml white wine
- 100ml double cream/thickened cream (see cooking note 2)
- sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- chopped fresh parsley (for garnishing)

Directions
1. Melt butter in large and deep saucepan. And the onions and garlic, and cook over gentle flame till the onions have just started to caramelised (soft, translucent, shrunken). This takes about 4 minutes.
2. Stir in the flour and cook for one minute more, then gradually stir in the stock.
3. Add the mushrooms and bring to the boil. Don’t worry if it seems like a lot of mushrooms, they will shrink considerably when they are cooked.
4. Reduce heat, cover and simmer gently for about 15 minutes, until the mushrooms are tender. Stir in the sage.
5. Remove a couple of ladlefuls of the mushrooms, chop them to small pieces and set aside.
6. Process the remaining soup in a food processor or blender until smooth.
7. Return the soup to the saucepan and stir in the wine & cream and season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Warm through, without boiling. Ladle into bowls and garnish with chopped mushrooms you reserved in step 5, parsley and a few drops (or swirls) of cream. Serve with toast.

Cooking Notes:
1) I used “Woh Hup” brand of “Concentrated Mushroom Stock” for the stock base by dissolving 1 tsp of stock for every 200ml of water. This stock works really well for this soup and is very convenient.
2) The original recipe calls for double cream, which is something common in UK. However, double cream is quite rare in Singapore (so far, only seen it at Cold Storage Centrepoint) and pretty expensive. I substituted this with thickened cream containing 35% milk fat and it does the job well and is so much cheaper and easier to find at our local supermarkets.
3) Ingredients substitution: You can substitute portobello mushrooms with wild mushrooms. You can also substitute the sage with fresh thyme (1 tsp).

Love my soup bowl? I adore the beautiful, punchi blue colour Bought for S$2 at Daiso Singapore.