Vin's Dinners

Ginseng Chicken Soup

2010-03-17T09:51:00.006+08:00

I happened to be reading this recipe on Ginseng Chicken Soup. And I was wondering how on earth can I get fresh ginseng... Then, I saw it in the supermarket near my place. I was so happy upon finding this treasure. It was quite cheap, 3 for 25 HKD only. So, I immediately bought it and asked how long I can keep it. The auntie told me I can keep it for as long as I like, as long as they are stored

Oyakodon

2010-03-17T09:44:00.004+08:00

After the try with Katsudon, I had to try making Oyakodon :p I found out that Oyako means a parent and child in Japanese, as it is made of chicken and egg! The Katsudon turned out to be a bit disappointing as I think we need to buy more expensive pork cutlets to bring out the tenderness of the meat. Iberico pork is very expensive... Maybe I should splurge on it one day!For the Oyakodon, I

Katsudon

2010-03-17T09:21:00.013+08:00

The other day, Ah 蘇 was on TV, showing us how to make pork cutlets. I was so inspired to give it a try. Hence, I decided to make Japanese pork cutlet rice - Katsudon.To make this pork cutlet, first, we need to buy boneless 猪栁. Make small cuts in the fats around the rim. Then, use the back of knife to hit on one side, and then use the flat of the knife to hit on both sides. Marinate the pork with

Mee Hoon Kway

2010-03-11T11:31:00.008+08:00

Really missed Mee Hoon Kway! I happened to see this recipe and decided to give it a try myself. I tried the recipe for the dough but it appears a bit too wet, no matter how I knead... It could be because I used extra large eggs, so I added more flour.It was also quite difficult for me to find good ikan bilis. Searched through a few supermarkets for them, before chancing upon them at the

Char Siew

2010-03-11T11:17:00.015+08:00

Char Siew is one of the first few things that I learned how to cook, and able to cook it well :) The important point is to add a lot of sugar, and not be afraid to “burn” the char siew. Before I owned an oven, I actually used aluminium foil to line my wok and to “bake” the char siew in it. Ingredients Pork (Pork shoulder or pork collar with a bit of fat) Marinate Sesame oil Sugar Corn flour

Loh Mai Kai

2010-02-24T11:10:00.012+08:00

I suddenly have a craving for Singapore's Loh Mai Kai. Haha... When I told my SG friends I'm going to try making it, they are quite surprised as normally you can find this everywhere in SG!I adapted the recipe from Lily Wai. Hers is more like the Malaysian version, and I wanted to make the SG version, which is white in colour, instead of black. Also, in terms of ingredients, it is normally just

Black Pepper Chicken Spaghetti

2010-01-29T13:17:00.009+08:00

I seldom prepare Western food, unless for special occasions or simple pasta meals. I have always heard that tomatoes go well with black pepper sauce. Hence, this time, I decided to cook this dish to try out and it turned out great!Ingredients Butter1 small potato cut into cubesSaltBlack PepperChicken thighs (My hubby prefers boneless) Lee Kum Kee Black Pepper Sauce Sugar Water Cornflour

滷肉飯

2010-01-17T11:07:00.008+08:00

In Taiwan, they have very big bookshops and there are books everywhere. It is amazing that the Taiwanese love reading and will hang out in the bookstores for hours. There was this bookstore that has more than 4 storeys of books and I was busy selecting the cookbooks.滷肉飯 is one of the popular Taiwan dishes and I found this recipe in one of the cookbooks that I bought. it is really yummy! :)

Cream of Chicken Soup

2010-01-17T10:47:00.009+08:00

I'm finally back from all my travelling - Taiwan and Singapore. One of the first recipes I tried when I'm back in HK is this Cream of Chicken Soup. In general, I don't trust recipe books, it is more practical to learn from all the housewives' blogs since they are tried and tested and relatively simpler. However, I do buy those mini cookbooks. One of them is the "Chicken Favourites" and I decided

Fried Wanton with Tomato-based Sauce

2009-11-14T20:52:00.012+08:00

It has been a long time since I have blogged... Well I'm back to my "stay at home" days. Hopefully, I will have more time to try out new dishes. This recipe is one of my favourites! This is also the only dish that I can cook before I was married haha… But in Singapore, we don’t have the habit of dipping the wanton into the tomato sauce. I picked up this recipe from Ah So but I have made some

Start of Work... Again

2009-09-27T17:28:00.003+08:00

I finally found work to do after resting at home for 1.5 months. It is with mixed feelings that I go back to work. Somehow, humans are contradictory creatures. When I have work, I longed for a break. When I was home, almost bored to death, I wished I can go back to work. Since I needed more savings, I’m happy that I finally found work. At least, it will stop my hubby from nagging at me,

賽螃蟹

2009-09-27T17:21:00.005+08:00

I made some mango puffs the other day and the recipe called for 4 egg yolks. Hmmm… What to do with the remaining 4 egg whites? The only dish I can think of is . It is a simple dish but it is one that requires skill and practice. This is my third try and I think it is already better than the previous tries.I soaked some dried scallop in hot water until they are soft and shred them. Drain them and

Low Cholesterol Diet

2009-09-27T16:55:00.014+08:00

My hubby finally went for a health check to monitor his cholesterol levels. Although he is stick-thin, he has slightly high cholesterol. It could be due to his lifestyle or maybe inherited in his genes. The night before, I decided to cook some low cholesterol dishes for him. It consists of celery soup, steamed fish, steamed tofu and red rice. For the celery soup, I used chicken breast (least fat

House Warming - Mini Quiches

2009-08-24T13:08:00.009+08:00

I had a series of 3 house warming parties the last two weekends. I think there is one more to go... It was tiring but really fun :) I would bake some mini quiches, chicken wings and mango puffs for the guests. The chicken wings that were really popular were the tangy wings from Wokking Mum. They are sour in flavour and taste really special. However, once the chicken wings are cold, they do not

Prima Taste - Hainanese Chicken Rice

2009-08-19T10:55:00.015+08:00

This is another of Prima Taste's pastes. I like it as they have 3 different sauces - black soya sauce, ginger sauce and chilli sauce. However, the chilli sauce is not as nice as the one you can find commonly in hawker centers. Every Singaporean must have at least one favourite chicken rice stall. For me it's either Boon Tong Kee or the one at Queenstown Hawker Center. How about you?This is my

New House - Kitchen

2009-08-11T15:05:00.014+08:00

My kitchen is a small L-shaped kitchen. We initially wanted to redo the whole kitchen but found out that since the cabinets are still in good condition, we can save some money. It used to only have a sink and cooking area, with no workspace. Hence, we took out the refrigerator and built another tabletop and put the oven below.In order for it to appear bigger, we also knocked down a section of the

New House - Bedrooms

2009-08-10T19:21:00.007+08:00

It's been awhile since I have blogged... Reason being I was on holidays. Will blog about my holidays later on :)The houses in Hong Kong are well known for being tiny. Before we found this new house, I can never understand how people can squeeze generations of people into a less than 600 sq ft home. Well... We found a house that is less than 600 sq ft. It is cosy enough for 2. However, we can only

Steamed Chicken with Black Fungus

2009-07-21T10:10:00.006+08:00

Now that I'm a housewife, I will take special care in preparing food for my hubby. He is very thin, however, he has slight cholestrol problems. So, all you thin guys out there, don't think that you won't have a cholestrol problem... It's better to run some tests.I was browsing through all the food blogs and considering what to cook. I came across one of my favourite bloggers - Lily's Wai Sek Hong

New House - Living Room

2009-07-20T10:40:00.019+08:00

Today marks the start of my housewife days… again… Hopefully, I can be kept busy playing with facebook, chatting and blogging :) I have been occupied tidying up the new place. Here are some of the photos I promised… The theme of the living room is modern black and white. I love the picture of the leaning Eiffel Tower in the background.We spent a long time seaching for a black leather sofa bed but

Tomato Beef

2009-06-25T17:09:00.013+08:00

I realised that we can find a lot of tomato dishes in HK. They have tomato egg, tomato beef, tomato noodles, tomato 拉面… etc. Tomatoes are very healthy food. They can help improve skin texture and colour. They can also help to reduce blood cholestrol. Tomatoes also contain lycopene (the red pigment in tomato) and this is a powerful antioxidant that can help fight cancer cells.

Goodbye Gold Coast

2009-06-25T10:32:00.005+08:00

We have finally completed the move to our new place :) The other day, when I was buying MacDonald for dinner at our old place – Gold Coast, I happened to be impressed by the views and took a couple of pictures.When we first moved in, we were wowed by the beautiful views and relaxing environment. But honestly, I didn’t pay much attention to the views in the 1.5 years that we stayed there.

Prima Taste - Laksa

2009-06-15T09:56:00.002+08:00

As I said before, the quality of food in HK is better than Singapore. For example, there are branches of Tonkichi in Singapore and in HK. I have tried both before and the one in HK is really fantastic!However, I still miss a lot of Singapore’s local food. That’s when I discovered Prima Taste! Prima Taste has a lot of Singapore's Favourites in Ready-to-Cook Pastes. They are simple to use and

Beautiful Wedding

2009-06-12T15:24:00.008+08:00

I attended a beautiful wedding last weekend. It was my sister-in-law’s wedding :) The wedding was held at a restaurant in Rochester Park, Singapore. They had a very beautiful wedding cake.It was a sweet and simple affair, which celebrated the union of two wonderful persons.Talking about weddings, I wished that I had a garden wedding instead of the normal oriental-style wedding dinners. Hmmm….

Fried Rice

2009-06-12T09:26:00.015+08:00

Fried Rice with Char SiewFried Rice with ChickenCooking fried rice is both easy and difficult. Easy, because it is just one dish, you do not have to think of other dishes to go with it. Difficult, because it is very tedious work to cook it. You have to slice all the ingredients to tiny pieces, then you have to fry each of the ingredients separately first, before combining them together.The most

Vin’s Fav – Black Pepper Honey Grilled Wings

2009-06-11T11:42:00.008+08:00

When I saw the white plate at a departmental store, I knew it would be perfect for chicken wings... Hee... One of the first things I tried cooking was chicken wings, as it is Vin’s favourite :) I tried frying chicken wings before but found that it will get burnt outside easily and the inside will still remain uncooked. Deep frying is too messy and unhealthy. Hence, I settled for grilled as my