My wife cooked this after having it at a local “mixed rice” stall and it’s quite nice, I must say. It is simple and nutritious especially with the wolfberries (aka kei chee / goji) around. Moreover, cooking took us less than 2 minutes. The preparation time, which is essentially, washing and rinsing of the vegetables took longer. Do ensure that you rinse the vegetable well as it is known to have lots of sand around the stems and leaves.

This is my wife’s recipe for Stir-Fried Spinach with Wolfberries

Ingredients

• 400 grammes of spinach (washed and rinsed thoroughly, plucked at the stems and leaves)
• 10 grammes of wolfberries (approximately 20 to 30 pieces)
• 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon palm oil

Seasoning

• 2 teaspoons of light soya sauce
• salt to taste

Method

Heat wok till smoky. Add oil and garlic and stir-fry garlic till beginning to brown.

Add spinach, wolfberries and seasoning. If you feel like it, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water. Stir-fry till spinach is limp.

Dish out and serve.

Technorati Tags: Recipe, Vegetable, Chinese, Lunch, Dinner

Bovril Chicken

Marmite Chicken is probably more famous than Bovril Chicken. But since I only have Bovril at home, Bovril Chicken it shall be then. It is also my very first try and I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

There are two steps in this recipe. The first step is to fry the chicken and the second is to cook the bovril sauce before coating the chicken with it prior to serving. You will need to have fast hands with cooking the sauce because the sauce can dry out pretty fast. However, if you add too much water (to prevent drying out), it would be too runny and not as nice. Anyway, don’t let that fear you into trying this dish. It’s actually an experiment on my part and it works!

This is my recipe for Bovril Chicken

Ingredients

• 6 chicken supremes (the tender piece of the chicken breast, cut into cubes)
• 1 large onion (quartered)
• 5 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
• about 30 to 50 ml warm water
• Oil for deep frying

Marinade for chicken

• 2 teaspoons light soya sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chinese cooking wine
• a couple of dashes of white pepper powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon corn flour

Seasoning

• 2 heaped teaspoons of bovril
• salt to taste
• 1 teaspoon sugar or to taste

Method

Marinade chicken for 30 minutes or longer and deep fry till golden brown. Set aside.

Leave approximately 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in wok and saute garlic and onions till fragrant. Add seasoning and water and bring to boil. Return fried chicken pieces to wok and stir well to coat the sauce over the chicken.

Remove and serve hot with rice.

Care for squids? Squids, also known as sotong in Malay (and Hokkien), is great when cooked in sambal. It cooks pretty fast and usually, it is best not too cook it for too long or it might become chewy. To prepare it for cooking, push the “head” apart and reach into the “body / cavity” for a plastic-like strip. Remove that and wash the sotong clean.

I had been wanting to get rid of the leftover Sarawak Laksa paste which was lying in the fridge and last Saturday’s trip to the wet market gave me an opportunity when the fishmonger had some really fresh sotongs on sale. So, I bought 300 grammes worth of sotong and was drooling in anticipation of what I was going to cook that night. I also bought some lime to give this dish a slight tangy and refreshing taste to it. Otherwise, it would be too much of a plain sambal taste.

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Sotong with Sarawak Laksa Paste

Ingredients

• 300 grammes squid / sotong (washed and cleaned and cut across into 2 cm tubes)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sarawak laksa paste
• 6 lime (squeezed for the juice)
• 3 to 5 pieces kaffir lime leaves
• 2 medium sized onions (chopped roughly)
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 30 to 50 ml warm water

Seasoning

• 2 teaspoon sugar
• Salt to taste

Method

Heat oil in wok and saute onions till fragrant. Add sarawak laksa paste and stir well for 30 seconds. Add sotong, lime juice, kaffir lime leaves, water and seasoning whilst stirring. Sotong is cooked when it curls up.

Serve with plain white rice or coconut rice.

Spinach is a fast-cooking vegetable and packed with nutrients. That’s why Popeye loves ‘em. It can be stir-fried and it can be cooked in soup. Recently, my dear wife told me that she wanted to try cooking spinach soup with wolfberries (a.k.a. kei chee / goji).

Imagine all the goodness from the spinach doubled up with the circulatory benefits of wolfberries (get the good quality berries which are slightly plummer and sweeter in taste). It is definitely a power-packed soup. Oh yes, the stock is made from ikan bilis soup. So, there you go. My daughter of 3 1/2 years old loved it. I think you will too!

This is my wife’s recipe for Spinach Soup with Wolfberries

Ingredients

• 300 grammes of spinach (rinsed and plucked at the stems. Discard old or thick stems)
• 10 grammes of wolfberries (about 20 to 30 pieces)
• 100 grammes of minced meat (we use pork)
• 50 grammes of ikan bilis
• 3 soup bowls

Marinade (for minced meat)

• 2 teaspoons light soya sauce
• a dash of white pepper powder

Seasoning

• Salt to taste
• 2 teaspoons light soya sauce

Method

Boil ikan bilis in water for 30 minutes to make stock. Remove ikan bilis when done. Meanwhile, marinade minced meat.

Bring stock to boil again after removing ikan bilis. Scoop minced meat into meat balls using a teaspoon and add into the stock. Cook till all meat balls float to surface. Add spinach and wolfberries and bring back soup to boil. Add seasoning to taste and serve immediately.