This is my first foray into XO sauce territory. I have previously heard of the XO sauce but before I actually looked further into it, I thought it had something to do with the X.O. Cognac. Actually, XO sauce is supposed to be a premium sauce made up of ingredients such as dried shrimps, chilli, scallops, shallots and garlic amongst others. It is no wonder that it is one of the more expensive sauces around in chinese cuisine.

The XO sauce is touted to be a good sauce to use with seafood. As I love mussels, I decided to give it a stir fry using the XO sauce to see how it would turn out. I have never tried the sauce, let alone know how it would eventually taste like. So, prior to cooking, I dipped a spoon into the sauce and then tried out the chilli-oil based sauce just to have an idea what XO sauce tastes like. It is actually hard to describe the taste but I do remember that it was kinda oily. Being conscious of not using too much oil in my cooking, I made it a point not to scoop unnecessary oil from the bottle for otherwise, the dish might end up too oily for my liking.

Mussels cook easily. If you cook too much, it would turn slightly chewy and rubbery. I bought some frozen and vacuum-packed NZ Mussels from the supermarket and defrosted them overnight in the lower compartment of the fridge. When I added the mussels into the wok, I could smell the sweet aroma coming from the mussels. Each bite into the juicy mussels reveal a natural sweetness from the mussels nicely paired with the subtle hint of spicy XO sauce. My wife and I polished the whole plate with steamed white rice and stir-fried french beans with egg. A simple, quick and satisfying meal. Aren’t all meals supposed to be like that?

This is my quick recipe for Stir Fried Mussels with XO Sauce Read the rest of this entry »

This dish is easy to cook but a nightmare to think out a name for it. For starters, it is not exactly fried. Neither is it stir-fried, steamed, braised, stewed or poached. I would put it as a combination of a quick and light stir-fry mixed with quick stewing for a quick and delicious meal. Now, it is quite common in chinese homes to have seaweed soup which comes with minced pork. But it is altogether another thing to have it cook this way that I am sharing with you. Whereas seaweed soup may be bland to some, this dish is tasty to the core hence, the name Seaweed Delight.

Mum first learnt this dish from 1st aunt and thereafter, taught me how to cook this dish. It has now become my preferred dish if I were to cook seaweed at home. The basic ingredients are no different from cooking seaweed soup but the cooking method and seasoning is slightly different. As you read the recipe, you will know why. Anyway, this dish has always made its presence on the dinner table only to vanish in every meal session. So, resist trying it at your peril.

This is my 1st aunt’s recipe for Seaweed Delight. Read the rest of this entry »

I love pork ribs, especially when they are fried or roasted. One of my favourite style of pork ribs would be Champagne Pork Ribs, a well-known chinese-styled pork ribs with a hint of cooking wine used in the marinating process. I googled around the net for a recipe for champagne pork ribs but could not find one which would satisfy me. In the end, I decided to create my own marinate with absolutely no reference to champagne pork ribs.

I chose baby back ribs for this recipe due to the tenderness of the meat around the ribs. According to Wiki, “Baby back ribs, sometimes called loin ribs or simply back ribs, are taken from the top of the rib cage between the spine and the spareribs, below the loin muscle. They have meat between the bones and are shorter but meatier than spareribs. The rack is shorter at one end, due to the natural tapering of a pig’s rib cage.” You will see the whitish soft bone part on one end of the rib.

I gave the ribs a good 6 hours of marinating with a mix of sauces and it turned out well after frying. You can also roast the ribs if you have an oven by basting it regularly with the marinate. It turned out great, and definitely tasty and my two kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Give this recipe a try as it is simple and fuss free.

This is my recipe for Tasty Baby Back Ribs Read the rest of this entry »

What a contest it has been! 18 entries and 3170 870 votes came in for the various participants. After the voting log was scrutinized for multiple voting and results tallied, the winner of the USD$100 Giveaway is Entry No. 3 submitted by Babe_KL.

Babe_KL, who is a well known food blogger in Malaysia, cooked the nourishing Black Bean Soup. Being an experienced cook herself, she used the pressure cooker to cook this soup to great effect. Check out her blog for more simple and good food.

Next, the 2nd placed winner is HN who cooked a local favourite, Chicken Rice in Rice Cooker. A domestic adaptation of the ever popular Claypot Chicken Rice, this is one of HN’s favourite “lazy weekend dish”. The picture of the Chicken Rice in Rice Cooker was proudly taken by HN’s hubby. HN gets a 2 month placement of 125×125ad on the sidebar of this site worth $80.

The 3rd placing for this contest is won by The Cooking Momster who made a commendable attempt on one of my wife’s speciality, Mee Suah Kueh. Her family loved it and for a moment, they thought it was Lobak Kueh! The Cooking Momster gets a One month placement on the Featured Blogger Ad on the sidebar.

Full tabulated results after deletion of multiple votes are as follows:- Read the rest of this entry »