Mum's Experiments: Crispy Seafood Noodle (Sheng Mian)

I love Crispy Hong Kong Noodle with Gravy (Sheng Mian 生面)! The crispy bits are the best, but the noodles with the gravy are tasty! The noodle is crowned with a treasure trove of goodies: Sotong, Prawns, Mushrooms, Sliced Pork and Veggies! Delicious!!

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Mum's Experiments: Crispy Noodle Pancake

Yet another of Mum's Experiments: Crispy Noodle Pancake! It had loads of hidden goodies inside: Mushrooms, Sliced Pork, Bean Sprouts and Wood Ear Fungus! They are smacked inside a huge cake of crispy noodles fried until brown!

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Mum's Experiments: Sweet Vinegar Chicken with Dates

Another yummy experiment by Mum after watching the cooking programme! It had red dates and mushrooms (the ones that look like potato wedges!) too.

It is sweet with just a hint of tangy sour from the vinegar. Goes really well with rice or porridge.

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Uncle's Birthday: Satsuma Shochu Dining and Bar

August is a festive month of Birthdays! Singapore, Mum and Uncle! We had a birthday at Satsuma Shochu Dining and Bar at Gallery Hotel. Sorry for the lack of photos; the lighting was very dim and it was hard to take decent shots.


This is the Tuna Salad, the tuna is lightly seared on the outside, so it's still raw inside. As much as I love Japanese foods, I'm still not used to raw fish and sashimi. :X But this was quite nice and the dressing was very appetising.

Their Sumiyaki items are also quite good; I simply love charcoal-grilled food! This one is Shittake Mushroom Stuffed with Chicken. We also tried Ox Tongue, Chicken Yakitori, Oyster Rolls, Foie Gras, Silver Cod and Enoki Mushroom wrapped with Bacon.



Other dishes include Hiyashi Momotaro, Sashimi Moraiwase, Cheese Mentaiko Tofu, Mentai (Spicy Cod Roe) Spaghetti, Dried Fugu (Puffer Fish) and Shishamo Ten. The Mentai Spaghetti was, albeit on the salty side, unique and delicious. The Cheese Mentaiko Tofu was an interesting combination which blew me away with its incredible smoothness! The Shishamo Ten was very crispy and full of eggs, too bad they had only 1 serving left so I could only have 1 fish. :( This was my first time eating Fugu! Not bad; tasted chewy and savoury like Bak Kwa! :P



And of course, for dessert, we had Birthday Cake! Cousin Jamie made Carrot Cake that night, while we also had this Tiramisu Cake from Sweet Secrets the day before! (:

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re-Tweak: Cream of Mushroom Soup!!

Shiitake and Friends Creamy Mushroom Soup's back for take-two! This time, I used chicken fat ("butter") leftover from Mum's Chicken Soup and olive oil to fry the shallots and garlic instead of ordinary butter. Added some slices of mushrooms for the extra chew, and sneaked a few strips of bacon in the soup for that alluring aroma. I also made it a little more chunky and less creamy for that extra hearty feel. (:

So what was Mum and Dad's verdict this time? Two Thumbs Up! =D

The next soup I want to try out would be Seafood Bisque, a hearty tomato-based seafood soup! I might even try that out with some puff pastry on top! So keep your eyes peeled for the next delicious post! ;P

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Hawker: Wanton Mee

Sometimes when there's no choice but to eat a quick meal at the hawker centre near my house, I sometimes pick this Wanton Mee for lunch. It has a yummy QQ texture and springy bite to the noodles, but there is a slight hint of "boric acid taste". The other ingredients aren't that great, but I do love my noodles!

Before I put the noodles in my mouth, I tend pick the noodles up with my chopsticks and pour some soup over them to "rinse" excess soy sauce. Think it helps reduce sodium intake? :/

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Recipe: Shiitake and Friends Creamy Mushroom Soup

I love Cream of Mushroom Soup, especially those greyish kinds with bits of mushroom pieces in. The yellow-white/pale ones remind me of Campbell, lots of cream but very little mushrooms. This is my very own recipe for a low salt Cream of Mushroom Soup. I use lots of Shiitake mushrooms because they are very fragrant, and together with other mixed mushrooms, I call it "Shiitake and Friends"! I'm very proud of this because it was successful on the first attempt! (:



Ingredients:
1 packet (200g) Shiitake Mushrooms
1 packet (250g) Mixed Mushrooms
1 clove Garlic, crushed
2 small Shallots, minced
1/2 or 1 Bayleaf
3 tbsp Full cream
1/2 cube Vegetable Stock
70g Butter
700ml to 800ml Water
Salt, Freshly Ground Black Pepper
A dash of Parsley (Optional)



1. Heat a pot on medium fire. Meanwhile, crush garlic, mince shallots and dice all the mushrooms into small pieces.

2. Melt the butter in the pot.

3. When all the butter has melted, add in the shallots and garlic.

4. Fry for about 3 minutes.


5. Now, add in the mushrooms. Keep stirring so that the mushrooms on top also get fried by the butter at the bottom. Make sure the mushrooms are well mixed, and fry for about 6 to 7 minutes. The mushrooms should be glazed and not dry and spongy.

6. Add the hot water and vegetable stock. Stir and boil for 5 minutes or until the stock cube has melted completely.

7. Add full cream and stir well until the soup becomes thick.


8. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, stir regularly. If you see a layer of oil forming on top of the soup, scoop it out and discard.

9. Blend the soup in a blender. If you like a chunky soup with bits of mushroom, separate the soup into two parts. Blend the first part until it becomes thick but not chunky. Then blend the second part to desired fineness. Do not blend too much if you like to chew on bits of mushroom in your soup.

10. Serve warm with a dash of parsley and/or freshly ground black pepper. Also goes well with toast, garlic bread or pasta. Bon Appetit! (:

Note: This is the low-salt version of the soup. You should add salt to taste just before serving or let guests help themselves with the salt-shaker.

You can make variations of the soup with different mushrooms. Porcini, Portobello, Button and Swiss Brown are all great mushrooms for this recipe. For a smoother, less chunky soup, you can either blend it more finely, add more cream or add less mushrooms.

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Friends @ Chomp Chomp

My parents came back home so we all went out for dinner at Friends @ Chomp Chomp (located at Serangoon Garden Village) for a dinner. We actually wanted to go to Aston's Express, but it was closed that night. My parents were apprehensive at first, at the thought of it being "casual fine-dining", but I told them they didn't need to be all dressed up to enter. ;)

First up was Wild Mushroom Soup for me and Dad.

This was delicious, but I think the chef deliberately made it bland so you can add the salt and pepper to your own preference. This was the soup that made me decide to try making my own!



Mum ordered the Spanish Dinner Set, which started with Marinated Eggplant with Raisins and Pine Nut, Mesclun Salad and Herb Vinaigrette.



Her main course was Stuffed Pork Cutlet with fig, olive and almond, served with mashed potato and fried beans. I love beans and mashed potatoes! Dad had the Char-Grilled Tenderloin (220g) which I stole quite a lot of! It was done medium rare as per request and it was really very tender and pink inside!



My main course was Seafood with home-made tomato sauce, essentially a Marinara Spaghetti dish. I didn't really like it... a little too garlicky for my taste, but that's just me I guess. :/ The pasta had generous amounts of seafood plus HUGE prawns, though. Aunt finished up every last bit of her Bacon Spaghetti Aglio Olio!



Mum's set included an Orange Crème Caramel. Actually it was more of a Crème Brûlée because the top layer had a burnt sugar crust. It came with vanilla ice cream and some (artistic?) syrup at the side.



I had half of Mum's share! This was my first Crème Brûlée, and I loved it, even though I don't have a sweet-tooth. The combination of a sugary crust and a custardy caramel beneath really tasted good. (:

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