Self-cooked

Cooking time: 2 hours
Ingredients: 600-700g lotus root, pork bone/soft bone 400g, dried scallops 3 pcs, red dates 8-10 pcs, 2 sticks Bei Qi, 1 stick of Dang Sheng, 2 pcs Chinese yam, 150g peanuts

Notes: for crunchy nuts, put in nuts only at the 30min mark to let it cook for 1h15min to 1.5 hours. Lotus root can put in at the start of cooking.

Cooked 1.1/3 cups of rice, found it too much for 2 pax. This quantity would be good for 3-4 pax.

Try 1 cup of rice next time, water mark as per rice cooker.

Set to “porridge” mode, it will take about 50 mins to finish cooking. At the 45 min mark, add the meat (fish/pork etc) to cook. Thereafter, set to “slow cook” for another 15-20 mins, adding hot boiling water to your desired consistency. Keep monitoring during this point as the porridge gets sticky real quick.

Note: Scallops were abit too undercooked, suggestion to boil some water with the scallops and add to the whole mixture before pressing “start”. Can also substitute some water with chicken stock for more flavour.

2 drumsticks, 3 shiitake mushrooms, 2 red dates, ginger, some salt to marinate, 1 bottle chicken essence. Steam for 30 mins

Steam on high/medium heat for 8 mins, and then turn off gas and leave for another 3 mins

Marinade: sprinkle some salt onto the fish, accompanied with some sliced ginger. Pour 1 (max 1.5) tablespoon of soy sauce and 1 table spoon of sesame oil around the fish and put it to steam.

Note: I used 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and found it too excessive..

Stir fried beef flank chunks (don’t cook it for too long!), pea shoots with mushrooms and steamed tofu

Light stir fry with dried shrimp and garlic

Asparagus with brown mushrooms and beef stir fry with a sprig of rosemary to enhance that beef flavour!

3 eggs, 1 cup water (of which 1/3 cup was chicken stock). Sieve the egg first, and stir in one direction. Steam on medium heat for 12 mins.
Notes: it turned out slightly firm, could use just abit more water (just slightly over 1 cup)

Marinade: garlic, 1 chilli, 7-8 limes, sugar, soy sauce, salt, ginger

Method: steam for 12 mins

Good for 5 pax
Ingredients: 400-500g pork bones, 3-4 slices of dried octopus, 3 dried scallops, 2 Chinese honey dates (the big ones), 5-6 red dates, 3-4 sprigs of wild yuzhu, 1 ring of winter melon, 1 carrot

Method:
1) blanch pork in boiling water for about 15 mins
2) rinse pork bones
3) 2.5 bowls of water (using the biggest soup bowl I had).. for future tries, 2 and 1/3 bowl is sufficient)
4) throw in all dried ingredients and pork, boil on high heat for 30 mins
5) after 30 mins, throw in winter melon and carrot, boil another 1 hour on medium heat
6) add salt and soy sauce to season (add only when about to serve)

Minced pork, brown mushrooms, tofu for a simple Sunday dinner

Baked at 200 degrees for approx 35 mins, second shelf from the bottom. Marinated overnight with 1.5 tablespoons of lemon juice (can do 2 tbs), chopped garlic (can try smashed whole garlic cloves next time) soy sauce, oyster sauce, oil, sugar, mustard, 3 sprigs of rosemary herb, some salt.