21/06/2020 - asian dishes i tried cooking

• omelette
• prawn omelette
• add sugar as prawns are salty, and i like sweet omelette
• slice the prawn thinly and fry them before, use mince garlic 
• onion omelette
• perpendicular slice the onion so they cook faster, fry beforehand
• silverfish omelette
• use the tiny ones. fresh, cooked (boiled) ones are ok
• scent fry them with minced garlic till golden brown 
• use less soy, or salt than usual
• caipo omelette
• use sweet caipo (dried good section)
• salty one also can, but must boil to leach out the salt and add sugar
• scent fry with mince garlic beforehand
• add less salt or soy to the egg mix
• greens
• sambal sauce
• sambal petai
• slice petai in half, there's a weak spot somewhere, rid the inside shoot also (they smell so good when they are fresh, i dont understand why they are called stink beans)
• scent fry chunked garlic, add perpendiular slice onion, cook, then add water to often, and cook further to reduce moisture
• add in sambal mix (i use asyuri or something like that), heat, add water, add petai, stir, add water, cover to steam the beans, around 2 to 5 minutes.
• no seasoning required as sambal mix is used
• prawns optional, but i like it plain
• add mince meat for sweetness, or sugar
• the prep is tedious, cater time or you will delay meal time
• sambal prawns
• defrost prawns, scent fry with mince garlic, add sambal, add water, cook 3 mins
• oyster / soy / sugar sauce
• works for shanghai green ( or baby qing bai, those greens are great for beginners, quick cook, sweet, great smell when frying, no separating leaves or skinning required, just pluck from the main stem and wash), kailan florets or hongkong style kailan (thicker stems, prep need to skin) etc. i dont recommend baby kailan because their stems are thinner but fibrous, extra skinning prep)
• or meat chunk + potato slice stir fry
• for fibrous vegetables like kailan i recommend buying thick stemmed ones, pluck out the leaves, then set flat in the board and use a a peeler, i hold thicker end to thin end and work from there, because the fibre is usually thicker there and you start off with more force), then i flip it and skin the thick end which i obviously can't skin yet because my fingers are holding it, then slant slice it, boil the stems then add the leaves
• add corn starch and water to thicken
• precook or blanch vegetables, a few minutes, there's a sweet smell when the vegetables are cooked, 
• or add a little water and steam in the microwave if you dont want to leach nutrient by boiling
• scent fry garlic chunks for 1 min in just enough oil, low to medium heat, too much oil, the garlic doesn't brown well, until garlic chunks their bottom is browned, add in vegetables, quick stir to infuse the scent and leach some vegetable into the oil, then add in the sauce / thickener mix, quick fry and plate them
• i prefer to pre cook the vegetables, i can smell it when they are ready, the gravy is also less overcooked, vs cooking them in the frying pan and covering them
• this sauce mix requires no salt, it also goes well with meat stirfry, the meat essence also blends with the oil and the gravy to give a transformed aroma
• red fermented beancurd
• red fermented beancurd (fuyee) + ginger + garlic 
• cabbage, fresh black fungus (no need soak), lily bulb, taupok aka fried beancurd, carrot, tanghoon aka bean vermicelli
• i usually leave out carrot (too sweet, hard to match dishes, end up waste food, if you use do thin-slice and pre cook it), lily bulb (need to tie i lazy), tanghoon (need to soak i lazy)
• cabbage needs to be chopped and the thicker parts need to be chopped thinner
• precook the cabbage, the taupok needs to be blanched to remove oil (smells good)
• scent fry the aromatics, add in the fermented, add water for easier, i mush the curds before adding. i add 3-4 pieces of curds
• use a wok, it's easier. cap and steam for a few minutes
• if you add tanghoon, add last and lean towards adding more curds, it will soak the gravy, also shorten the strands and mix well or you end up with a clump of tanghoon
• garlic chilli
• for chye sim taugey, brocolli
• again fibrous veggies must separate the stem, skin, precook separately
• don't overcook chye sim taugey, separate cook the chyesim leaves together with taugey
• scent fry garlic, when light brown add bird's eye chilli, i keep a stash of de-seeded cut chilli padi in my freezer, and since its frozen i have to cover and lower flame to heat it (covering increases heat so lower the flame). chilli adds its own smell and is spicy, also covering reduces the chances of sneezing madly)
• add the vegetables to the scented oil, scent cook a little
• add salt sugar cornflour water mix to the vegetables, quick stir and plate
• anchovy
• suitable for spinach
• at least precook the stems and cut them short for better mouth feel
• i prefer to use sugar>salt as i prefer the spinach to be sweeter
• my family always complains the stems are fibrous but i dont care because there too many to skin i just give up, i do half the thicker stems though, maybe i will just skin the thicker stems next time
• spinach roots must be snipped
• rinses several time because spinach is extremely sandy
• get a washing bowl, one with holes and the other no holes, soak, agitate, dump the water (the top bowl should be the one with holes), won't have to worry about escaping vegetables
• scent fry garlic chunk, then scent fry medium size anchovy together, then add sugar and a teeny bit of salt)
• quick stir fry vegetables, then lastly add  few drops of fish sauce, quick stir and serve
• spinach with three eggs
• i omitted the normal egg because too many eggs already, unless you want to use half egg for each kind of egg
• salted egg, century egg, anchovy, garlic, fish sauce, shitake, wolfberry
• it is extra steps on top of the above method
• if you boil the spinach, keep the water
• century egg and salted egg. i find century egg a little fragile so take your time to deshell it
• mush the eggs in a cup
• after the frying add water, sliced shrooms, egg mix, let them cook then add in the wolf berries later so they cook less and preserve the nutrients. add fish sauce at the end, add sugar (moreish), add a little salt for taste. the eggs will muddy the soup and add some depth. 
• honestly this is not really my favourite, i find the eggs smelly, i tried to prefry them
• maybe scent frying with the garlic and some silverfish can be tried
• silverfish is fresh wet baby anchovy, can be boiled. it is used for salty porridge and smells great when fried is and makes a great crunch/topping
• panfry fish
• frozen white snapper fillet, you will need lemon for frozen fish
• get rid of fishy smell; defrost in microwave, wash, dump the dirty water, half a lemon and use a fork to juice it, soak the fish in lemon juice, removes the smell and gives a nice smell after cooking
• soak a while, do other stuff, then dump the lemon juice, soak in a thick corn flour mix (5 teaspoons of flour and enough water to half cover the fillet), this is the batter
• pan fry, you can save on oil, until you see browning, if you want you can scent fry with mince garlic to have fragrant oil, for easy cooking i usually fry fish chunks and each person gets a chunk of fish
• salsa
• fish goes well with "salsa", so anything acidic like mush tomatos, mangoes will go well, plus some sugar for sweetness
• for the salsa, i scent fry the garlic oil, slice up tomatoes, add water and cook the tomato while mushing it up with a wooden spatula, adding chilli padi and sugar
• pour it over the fried fish and plate
• for oily fish like salmon, you dont need batter or scented oil. for "fresh" fish aka fish was fresh and you kept it in the freezer, you can skip the lemon
• steam fish
• again acidity works here, but this time with salt. chilli padi because salty sour and spicy is a big winner, makes my stomach growl
• teochew style = shredded ginger, rinsed and squeezed salted plums, rinsed mustard green slices (just buy the ready packed), chilli padi, tomato quarters, sliced fresh shitake mushrooms, and washed white fish fillet, spring onion,sesame oil
• ginger will take care of the fishy smell, i am just too lazy to skin ginger so i try to avoid it unless necessary
• put into steamer for 10 mins and serve

i wanna try

• cantonese steam prawn
• nonya steam prawn
• nonya zhup chye / mixed vegetable fry - seems to be red beancurd + fermented beans aka tau jiu
• four heavenly kings