Recipe: Roast Beef with Carrot, Daikon and Broccoli

I posted a picture of this dish on instagram and facebook, and a lot of people are asking me for the recipe. 
So I decided to post it here :)

I have been addicted to cooking shows lately, especially the Taiwanese cooking show 美食鳳味
I learned a lot of great recipes and cooking techniques from the show.

Roast Beef with Carrot, Daikon and Broccoli
Serves: 2, Recipe adapted from 美食鳳味

Ingredients:

• 300 grams beef chuck tender
• one medium size carrot 
• one small size daikon/white raddish 
• 10 slices ginger
• 20 cloves garlic (keep it whole)
• two pieces star anise
• 200 grams broccoli
• 200 ml water
• one tablespoon cooking oil

Seasonings:

• one tablespoon tomato ketchup
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons rice wine
• one teaspoon sugar
• one teaspoon white pepper

Method:

1. Cut broccoli into florets
2. Peel and cut into triangles for both carrot and daikon
3. Clean beef and pat dry with kitchen towel
4. Heat oil in wok and fry ginger until aromatic
5. Add in carrot, daikon and tomato ketchup, fry for about one minute
6. Add in garlic and star anise, fry until aromatic
7. Pour in the rest of seasonings
8. Add in the whole piece of beef 
9. Add water and cover the lid. Bring to a boil, reduce to low heat and simmer for 50 minutes. Flip the beef once in between.
10. Once done, remove the beef and slice it.
11. Add broccoli florets into the wok and simmer for 3 minutes.
12. Remove from wok, serve and top with sliced beef.

This dish goes very well with rice. 

One pot dish is perfect for lazy days (less utensils for cleaning :p) and it is also great for lunch box :)

Notes:

The original recipe uses pork cheek instead of beef. It is kinda difficult to find pork cheek in Singapore, unless if you make good friend with the butcher and ask them to reserve for you :p 

Or else, you may substitute pork shoulder for the pork cheek.

The original recipe uses cauliflowers. But I always have broccoli stocked up in my fridge, so I substituted with broccoli.

Cook For Family Initiative

Ever since I got married, I try to cook as often as possible.
It is definitely healthier to have homecooked meal than eating out. We know exactly what are the ingredients that we are putting in our food. We are able to control the amount of salt and fat, and plan for a balanced meal.

It is also cheaper to cook than eating out. I usually prepare 2 dishes (include meat either fish, pork or beef; and vegetable) and one soup for less than SGD 10.

I love the feeling of eating together on the dining table as a family. I grew up eating my mom's homecooked meals. She might not be a great chef, but it was her time and effort preparing nutritious meals for us that made it so precious. And the conversation during the meal provide the opportunities for the family members to bond. I seriously hope I will be able to do this for my kids in the future.

And lastly, the smile on my hubby's face when he has his dinner ready on the table when he comes home from a day at work. It is just priceless :)

I am constantly searching for recipes and ideas; and I am really grateful that the advanced technology makes it is easy for us to find thousands of recipes online. And thanks to all the food bloggers and chefs that are willing to share their great recipes and secrets.

There are a few food blogs that I have been following religiously.
Firstly, it is my bestie Annie of Annielicious Food. She has shared a lot of amazing recipes on her blog. It is a breeze to understand and follow her recipes. Love how she provides the detailed explanation for the ingredients and steps applied. 
And here are some of food blogs that I have bookmarked in my computer: my fellow Medanese blogger Marvellina of What To Cook Today, Cuisine Paradise, Just One Cookbook and Rasa Malaysia. Drop by their site and find all the great recipes that they have posted.

Please also join the Cook for Family Initiative at their facebook page, which is to encourage everyone to experience the joys of cooking for their loved ones.

I am working on a few simple recipes that I am gonna share soon. Please pardon me for the low quality picture of my food cos most of them are taken by Iphone. I am usually either too hungry or too tired to grab my DSLR after cooking. I promise to take a better picture and improve my food photography skill :p

Disclaimer: I am not a professional cook and I won't label myself of food blogger. My purpose is solely for sharing the great recipes that I have found and tested.

Happy Birthday Annielicious Food

This is an overdue post, pardon my bad habit of procrastinating :p

We celebrated my bestie, Annie's blog turned one last month.

I am so proud of her, she is putting a lot of effort into her blog and she has gained popularity for just one year.

You just try to type 'pig stomach soup' or 'pig trotter in vinegar' or 'steamed cod fish' in google search box and her post will come on the first page of search result.

Sooooo, it was definitely worth celebrating :)

Linda and I ordered "All Chocolate" cake from Awfully Chocolate. It is a dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate fudge. 

It costs SGD 51.60 for an 8 inch cake. I really love the black n white theme of the box and the black ribbon. It looks so elegant and classy. 

Annie was so surprised when we showed up with this cake, it turned out that it was one of her favorite cakes.

We loved the cake so much. It tasted heavenly.

Andddd to reward us, Annie cooked one of her latest recipe then, which was Mee Rebus Johor with Begedil (deep fried potato patty). Lucky us!

Hard boiled eggs as one of the mee rebus condiments.

We help with the begedil preparation. Hence, the not so good looking begedil before frying :p

I grabbed the good looking begedil picture from Annie's blog, they are so pretty.

Check out Annie's atas Le Creuset pots. She is a big fan of Le Creuset and she has a huge collection in her house.

The super yummilicious mee rebus Johor. I have to control my saliva when I type this. This is definitely the best mee rebus that I have ever eaten in my life. Check out the generous amount of Annie's ingredients.

For the refreshment, we were served with the old school Orangina drink

and homemade longan jelly

You may check out Annie's Mee Rebus Johor recipe here and the Begedil recipe here
I am waiting for my food processor to arrive soon so I can cook this mee rebus at home. Yipieee

Mie Kangkung Belacan

This is my first recipe post. Therefore, I am gonna post the specialty food from my hometown, Medan (Indonesia), which is Mie Kangkung Belacan.
This noodle is always in my 'must eat' list whenever I go back to Medan.

The recipe is adapted from whattocooktoday

Ingredients (serves: 2)
200 gram of yellow noodle
Two handful of beansprouts
100 gram of kangkung
3 big prawns (deveined and shelled)
6 fish balls (sliced half)
2 tomatoes (quartered)
2 teaspoon of belacan
4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
2 eggs
3 tablespoon of red chili paste
2 tablespoon of sweet soy sauce
3 tablespoon of canola oil
1/4 cup of water

Method:
1. Soak the yellow noodle in cold water for a while to get rid of the smell and oil coated on the noodle.

2. Heat canola oil in wok. Saute chopped garlic until fragrant. 

3. Add in prawns and fish ball. Saute until half-cooked, then push to the side of the wok and crack the eggs. Break the yolk a bit and leave it. Let the egg settle for a bit and then mix everything up in the wok

4. Add in red chili paste and belacan. Stir fry

5. Add in water and tomatoes, let it simmer for about 1 minute

6. Add in beansprouts, kangkung, yellow noodles, and sweet soy sauce. Mix well. Cover the wok with lid and let it simmer for 1 minute

7. Remove from heat and serve hot

Tips:

Below is my favorite noodle. I always get my noodles, kway teow and hor fun from this brand. There are no particular reasons on why I love this brand. I first bought it because of the cute monkey logo. Okay, I know I am sucker for cute packaging :p I find them quite nice and the noodles don't have the fishy odor, so i continue buying them. You can find them from either Cold Storage or NTUC Fair Price. I can't remember the exact price but it is around SGD 1 dollar plus.

For the chili paste, you may do it yourself by grinding red chili with a little bit of water in food processor. However, I bought my ready chili paste from Sing Long brand. Unfortunately, I don't have the picture of the chili paste but it is packed in a plastic packet.