Mongolian Beef - Kylie Kwong 's Recipe

Years ago, I tried Mongolian Beef. It was a sweet sticky stir fry from a local Chinese take away shop in Perth. It was yucky and have nothing to do with Mongolian Cuisine.

I have been collecting small recipe booklets from our weekend newspaper reads. One of the booklets was from the famous Kylie Kwong who brought Chinese cooking too households in Australia. I tend to stay away from her recipes because I usually look towards my grandmother for some inspiration for home cooked meals.

I nearly flipped the page when I saw "Mongolian Beef" as one of the featured recipes. Interestingly enough though, it featured beef mince and salted cabbage. Especially the salted cabbage- can it really make a difference?

The end result? The salted cabbage added texture and crunch to the overall dish. I like how easy it is to eat this with some rice. Best of all, it is an one pot dish. Some fresh chopped chili and spring onions-and a meal is done.

I'm still not sure if it is Mongolian, but at least it is delicious to eat!

Mongolian Beef (Serves 5)

600 grams beef mince
5 cups of shredded Chinese cabbage (I had english cabbage though)
2 tsp sea salt
2 tablespoon of shao hsing wine
2 tablespoon of hoi sin sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 carrot shredded
1 red pepper sliced finely
3/4 cup of sliced spring onions.

marinate
2 tablespoons of shao hsing wine
1 tablespoon of light soy
1 tablespoon of corn flour
garlic cloves diced
1/2 tsp of sesame oil

Marinate beef mince for 30 mins.

Place cabbage and sea salt in a bowl. Mix well. Stand for 15 mins, then rinse under cold water and drain. Squeeze out any excess liquid.

Heat pan till out. Fry beef, and break up lumps. Pour in sauces and fry for 30 seconds. Toss in cabbage, carrot, red pepper and fry for min. Add spring onions. Toss. Remove from heat. Spoon beef onto bed of rice. Top with spring onions and sliced chili.

Mini Cornish Pastries

Sometime back, I was sick and at home.... doing some ironing while watching TV- Huey's Cooking Adventure to be exact. He was attempting to make cornish pasties which of course, means a light bulb went on in my head thinking that I could do this in my home kitchen too.

My cornish pasties turned out to be... like CHINESE DUMPLINGS! except it is beef and baked. I can't help but have a giggle when I saw them.

Since I have no idea how to fold the corners and I used my dumplings cutter to cut the circle out of the shortcrust pastries...that was what I got. It was tasty though and I dipped it in some chutney. Hubby loved this! That batched lasted us for 3 meals!

 Huey's Cornish Pasties (Recipe from his website)

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 smallish potatoes, peeled & cut into about 1 cm cubes
• 1 small turnip, peeled & cut into about 1 cm cubes
• 300 gm rump steak, trimmed of fat & sinew, cut into about 1 cm cubes
• sea salt & freshly ground pepper
• a splash of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup milk
• 2-4 shortcrust (or puff) pastry sheets
• plain flour

 

• Preheat oven to 180°C fan forced (200°C normal). 
• Combine the onion, potatoes, turnip, steak, seasonings and Worcestershire with your hands. 
• In another bowl, whisk the egg with milk. 
• Cut a large round in a pastry sheet and place it on a lightly floured workbench. Spoon a quarter of the mixture in the centre, brush around the edges with egg wash and bring up the sides to meet in the centre. Then crimp the edges to seal and place the pasty on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Repeat the process. 
• Make a small cut in each side of the pasties, brush them all over with egg wash and cook in the oven for about 35-40 mins. (If browning too much, loosely cover with a piece of foil.) 
• Serve with a good dollop of your favourite pickles or chutney.

Country Women's Association Cookbook- Seafood Cornflake Bake

 My colleagues and I-we are obsessed about food. There is something about food that brings different cultures together. It is also a stress-relief. It is a talking point of what to bring for our weekly morning tea (to sweeten our long meetings and calm our hungry tummies), or to discuss where can we find good value and fresh sushi (I can have it for lunch and dinner every day I think). Strangely, most of us are not even born in Australia.

I noticed a Country Women's Association Cookbook lying around and asked my colleague what is this about? She replied that Country Women in Australia often needs to be creative in their cooking- given the time and lack of resources sometimes. Not to mention, good value for money. I like the sound of it already. I quickly flipped the pages and this recipe caught my attention-really, it's the cornflake crust. I don't have the "proper" recipe and chose to recreate it from memory. I think it is even called something else! But I can assure you that it features tuna in it and cornflakes. Doesn't that combination sounds yucky?I can assure you that it turned out delicious!

Having a better understanding of the Country Women's Association, I appreciate their recipes even more. For the past few weeks, I have been struggling with meals and time. You may have probably even read what I mentioned before- cooking a few meals in one setting to make sure we have something warm and fairly nutritious when I return home late at night. It's starting to show and I even went through a period of time where I actually thought I lost my mojo in cooking and baking! Horror of all horrors!

I started to re-create some earlier recipes that I have blogged prior and reminded myself to be kind... to myself. That was why I started the blog, to show that meals can be quick and most of the time, healthy and low in fat and calories. It is OK not to have home cooked meals every day. It is OK not to re create something new every few days.

It is ok to be kind to myself ;)

Seafood Cornflake Bake (Serves 4-6) 

2 cans of tuna in spring water
150 grams of prawns shelled (I happened to have some prawns in the fridge)

2 tablespoon of spread
1 tablespoon of flour
1 cup of soy milk (I might have put around 1.5 cups)
1/2 of low fat cheese
around half a cup of corn flakes crumbs (u can buy them in a box!)
2 cups of frozen veges (I used peas and corn)


Melt spread. Add flour and cook till golden. Add milk and whisk till it thickens. Add cheese. Season. Add tuna, prawns and frozen veges. Spoon into a casserole dish. Top with corn flake crumbs. You can spray it with some oil to make it more crispy. Bake in a pre heated 200 C oven for 25 mins.

Onion and Mince Pie

My goodness! This is certainly been a winter meals week hasn't it been? I was flipping through Jamie Oliver's Minstry of Food book and the delish looking mince pie caught my attention this time. It was easy to do too, so I decided to try making a classic English pie for dinner one evening.

I think I didn't put enough flour in because the gravy isn't as thick as what I thought it should be. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a hearty pie with the crisp crust and tasty mince. What surprised me was that Jamie Oliver used marmite in this dish! woohoo, so grandma is not the only one who do that for her stews. Wait a mind, maybe Jamie Oliver took the idea from Grandma? Or maybe Grandma was influenced by the British way of cooking in her days as working as a nanny in British households (the days when Singapore was governed by British)?

English Onion and Mince Pie 

2 red onions chopped 
500 grams beef or lamb mince
1 bunch of rosemary coarsely chopped
1 carrot diced
1 cup of beef stock
1 small bunch of celery chopped
1 tablespoon of flour
1 tablespoon of marmite
seasoning. 

1 piece of puff pastry defrosted

Pre heat oven 180C.

Cook onion till translucent. Add mince and break it up as it cooks. Add all ingredients (just not flour). Simmer for 5-10 mins. Stir in marmite. Do a taste test and adjust taste accordingly. Stir in flour till mixture thickens. Cool slightly.


Spoon mixture in heat proof dish. Seal with puff pastry, slitting a cross in the middle and patching it up with some reminder of the puff pastry. Bake for 30 minutes till golden brown.

ps-one tip is to place the dish onto a baking tray so that it is easy to remove from the oven.

Vietnamese Style Prawns-Tom Rim

One of my favourite cookbooks is "The Secrets of the Red Lantern-Stories of Vietnam from the Heart"  It consist not just Vietnamese recipes but also stories from the authors. Pauline Nguyen spoke about their journey from Vietnam to Australia, their memories of the refugee camps and the start up of their family business in Sydney. As I read the recipes and their family story, I can't help but "taste" and "feel" each dish from their hearts.

This recipe consist of King Prawns sauted with tomato, fish sauce and black pepper. It actually resembles the way my own grandmother use to cook prawns in-except she uses tobasco sauce! I changed this recipe slightly as I cooked more than 12 prawns which was what the original recipe calls for.

The chili padi adds the kick without the punch. I like the use of ripe tomatoes and tomato paste as it gives such richness to it. It is definitely a recipe that I will use over and over again.

Vietnamese Style Prawns-Tom Rim 
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic
2 birds eye chili chopped
2 tsp of tomato paste
I used around 20 prawns shelled and devined
2 tsp of sugar (instead of 3)
crack black pepper
around 6 tablespoon of fish sauce
around 3/4 to 1 cup of water
2 ripe tomatoes chopped
spring onion

Saute garlic and chili. Add tomato paste, prawns and sugar. Toss to combine. Then add fish sauce, pepper, water and fresh tomatoes. Simmer for around 3-5 mins. Once prawns are cooked, remove prawns. Reduce sauce slightly. Pour sauce over prawns. Garnish with chopped spring onions.

HAPPY SINGAPORE NATIONAL DAY!!!! =)