I love answering questions like that because that is the kind of cook I am.
This is my cheap and easy way to cook spare ribs which I shared on Quora.
I boil soup on a daily basis with soup bones or chicken. On days I want to cook with spare ribs, I will add about 6 to 8 pieces of them to the pork or chicken soup I am boiling for the day as this will help me save time. I like it that the additional spare ribs added will also enhanced the flavour of my soup.
You will be surprised to know that the ingredients I use in one of my regular soups is similar to what you would use in making Western soup stock. Check out the recipe I shared at the following link if you would like to do the same.
If you do not plan on making soup or soup stock, you can just boil the spare ribs in a pot of water. You want to boil them till they are soft enough to bite into but not falling apart, which is about 30 minutes on high heat or about 45 to 60 minutes on low heat.
Once they are ready, you can remove them from the soup or stock and stir fry them in a wok with:
-8 to 10 table spoons of water (or soup/stock) -1 Tbsp of white or brown sugar (or honey) -1 Tbsp of garlic oil. -1/2 Tbsp soya sauce. -1/2 Tbsp oyster sauce -Dash of black or white pepper or -1 Tbsp BBQ Sauce
Stir fry till the liquid is reduced and the sauce thickens to glaze the ribs. If you have been too heavy with the sauce, just add more water. You can then thicken the sauce by whisking together 1 tablespoon of corn starch with 2 tablespoons of water to create a slurry. Once the sauce starts to boil again, add the slurry in bit by bit while stirring till it thickens.
This dish can be eaten with rice.
Spare ribs tend to be more expensive. Here is another way to reduce cost to purchase a larger quantity if you plan on cooking for more people to eat. Boiled spare ribs can be kept in the freezer. Each them you use them to make your soup stock, you can store them in an airtight container. Once you have accumulated enough in your freezer, you can thaw them to marinate for a day before you airfry them to serve as shown in this video.
You can watch the video from the beginning if you would like to know how the Char Siu Sauce (BBQ Sauce) is prepared and how it can be used to cook other dishes.
These are the ingredients used in the video to make the Char Siu Sauce (BBQ Sauce) for 1kg of spare ribs:
You can omit the following ingredients suggested if you do not have them:
2 Tbsp Onion Powder
1 Tbsp Five-spice powder
2 Tbsp Cooking Wine
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
3 Tbsp Shallot Oil
Your other alternative if you do not have all the ingredients is to use ready-made Oriental BBQ sauce. My go to brand is Lee Kum Kee.
This is how you prepare the spare ribs to airfry with the homemade or ready-made sauce:
Other than spare ribs, this sauce can also be used to make char sui with the following parts of the pig:
-pork butt or shoulder
-pork collar
-pork belly (very fatty)
-pork loin (leaner option can turn out dryer when cooked)
If you like the way I cook my spare ribs, you should also like the way I cook pulled pork.
Do you know that tea has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties? You can brew your tea to drink or leave it to cool down to use as follows:
-as a toner for your skin to calm redness, reduce puffiness or minimize pores. -to fight signs of aging.
Don't throw the tea leaves away as you can add them into your face mask or scrub to use. If you brew your tea with tea bags, you can also chill them and use them as compress for your tired eyes. So, don't throw away your used tea bags either because you are going to discover many more ways to use them after watching this video.
Now that you are aware about this, here is a cost saving idea for you.
When you are on a holiday, do you keep the complimentary sachets of coffee or tea in your hotel room? I have a collection of tea bags and mini sachets of instant coffee like this at home.
You will wish you had collected them once you know that you can make Dalgona Coffee or Dalgona Milk Tea with them.
You can learn how to make Dalgona with what you have at the following link:
My first airfryer was a gift from my sister because she does not know how to make full use of it. My son was the first one who experimented cooking with it and I got hooked. When he moved out, I gave him that unit and got him to buy me a unit in larger capacity since I am cooking for three in the family.
Many people think that an airfryer is just a gimmick. I can only say that they are just not playful enough to create interesting fusion of Asian or Western dishes with it. I use my airfryer to:
-thaw and cook frozen food and ready to eat meals. -reheat food and continue to keep it warm by leaving it inside. -deep fry frozen food without oil. -toast my bread, pancakes, pizzas and wraps. -melt my butter. -make my deep fried food crispy again. -roast. -bake. -grill.
Any dishes you can cook in an oven can be cooked in your airfryer and in a shorter time too, even though you have not preheated it. It is more economical to use an airfryer, especially if, you have a smaller portion to bake. This video gives you a general idea how you can use the airfryer to cook which is possibly why you think cooking with it is such a hassle.
However, you may reconsider using an airfryer if you use the tips I shared below:
Try to avoid cooking food directly in its basket by using a metal container.
From the video you can see that the ingredients are placed on the basket to be cooked. I don't do that. I have many round stainless steel food containers with lids like these.
They are handy for storing food in the refrigerator and for steaming food over a pot of soup or in my airfryer. Most of my meat are marinated ahead and stored in such round metal containers. When it is time to cook, I just remove its cover and place the container on the basket to airfry. Once the meat has thawed enough, I separate them to cook further. By doing that I save the time and hassle of cleaning up a my heated airfryer to cook the next dish,
Spread oil in your metal container.
If I am cooking room temperature raw ingredients like meat or fish, I will spread garlic oil in the container before I place the food inside it to cook. The oil will prevent the ingredients from sticking to the container which will make it easier for me to turn them over to cook further.
To avoid burning raw minced garlic, use garlic oil instead.
I prefer my greens with sauce, so, I will not consider cooking them in an airfryer. Also, instead of adding minced garlic in to airfry, consider using garlic oil. You make it by deep frying minced garlic in a pot of oil. When it is time to cook, just place the ingredient in a metal container and spread 1-2 tablespoon of garlic oil over it before airfrying.
Use a piece of bread to catch oil drips.
It will be easier for you to clean your airfryer if you place a piece of bread below the basket to catch oil dripping out of food like bacon or fried chicken you are airfrying.
Don't wash the airfryer to cook the next dish.
You can use a piece of kitchen towel to wipe down and remove any bits of food still sticking to the basket. That will also help maintain the heat of the airfryer to cook the next dish.
You can easily find recipes for dishes that you can cook in your airfryer. Webspoon World shared 7 such recipes that have gone viral on TikTok that should interest you to try making.
Every morning your dad makes breakfast for us. This morning, it is sardine sandwich make with our non-stick electric sandwich maker.
To make the sandwich taste better, he spread butter on each piece of bread before spreading the sardine. This is how how the sardine sandwich will turn out.
If you are able to get up early enough to make this sandwich for us, this is my recipe for the sardine.
I like to add Worcestershire sauce because its vinegar and tamarind content make my sardine taste more sourish, which is the way I like it. If I run out of it, I will use white vinegar.
I am very particular about the can of sardine I use. Currently, my go to brand is from Lotus as the sardine is still flaky when it is being mashed up with a fork.
Don't buy the other house brand under Value, they also carry. It is too mushy for my liking,
One can of sardine cooked with onion can be stored in my 420ml glass container which I received as a gift from Signature Market.
It is safe to store the cooked sardine in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container. It can be eaten with rice too. This is what is left of the sardine after the sandwiches have been made.
Whether or not you make use of an electric sandwich maker, these are other ingredients you can add to enhance the flavour of your sandwich:
-sliced tomatoes. -sliced cucumber. -fresh produce like coriander, lettuce, celery or avocado. -pickles. -sliced or chopped hard-boiled eggs. -cheese. -sauces like mayonnaise or chilli sauce.
This is how you use an electric sandwich maker to make your sandwich.
If you do not want to use the electric sandwich maker, you can toast my home made bread with sardine spread over it in the airfryer. It will taste even better if you roll the sardine up in puff pastry to airfry. Making your own puff pastry takes time. You can buy them ready made. This is my go to brand.
You can learn ways to roll or fold up your pastry puff with sardine or any other ingredients you would like to try using by watching this video.
A tart is a pastry dish with opening so that you can bake it filled with sweet or savoury ingredients like:
-fruit -custard -chocolate -cheese -mushrooms, -curry -pastry cream, also known as, crème pâtissière
Shortcrust is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart, quiche, pie, or flan. To make a basic shortcrust pastry you require:
-plain flour -butter -milk -a pinch of salt
Sugar can be added for sweet shortcrust pastry. Some recipes use an egg yolk to to create a richer, more tender, and flavourful crust with a golden hue. A thin layer of egg yolk can also be brushed on the blind-baked shell to seal it and prevent the filling from leaking.
You can watch this video to learn how to make it.
You can learn more about tart from Hali, a French-trained baker, at the following link:
I have discovered another way to cook my Marinated Chicken with BBQ Flavour from CP.
I airfry the frozen BBQ chicken in a metal container according to the setting for cooking it on my airfryer. Half way through cooking, I will turn the chicken over. Once the cooking cycle is over, I will cut up the drumsticks into bite size pieces. It is alright if my chicken is not well cooked as I will be stewing it in a pot with:
-1 cup of water -a few slices of ginger -4 cloves of garlic -3 seeds from a pod of star anise -4 white flower mushroom (Bai Hua Gu) -1 tablespoon of oyster sauce -1 tablespoon of sugar or 1 to 2 pieces of rock sugar
Once the liquid is boiling, I will turn down the fire and let it simmer till the mushroom is tender enough to eat. If the mushroom is not tender enough, I will add half to a cup of water to the pot to continue simmering it further. I will add cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce.
This is what white flower mushrooms (Bai Hua Gu) look like.
You can see from this video how the mushroom is prepared to be cooked the traditional way:
I do not use flour to wash them though. I just rinsed them clean and soak them in hot water to soften them so that I can cut the stems off. The stems can be included to add flavour to the stew. You can omit them when it is time to serve the dish. Before adding the mushroom to the pot to cook, you can decide if you prefer to quarter it. As for the water for soaking mushroom, I will sieve it into the pot to stew.
This is how you can marinate your chicken if you are not using the prepacked BBQ chicken:
If I have leftover Ginger Soy Sauce Chicken, I can cook the mushroom the traditional way to add to the dish.
You can check out the other ways I mix and match this BBQ chicken to cook other dishes at the following link:
I enjoy looking at how food is being prepared. Have you heard of Jianbing? It is a popular street food for breakfast in China. The first time I saw this pancake being made was at the wet market in Balakong (Batu 11, Cheras). The vendor was a lady from China.
It also has a very interesting story on how it was first made by soldiers fighting a war in Shandong Province 2,000 years ago. Check out how it is made by a street vendor in China:
It is a very cheap breakfast meal, which is why in the Shandong Province, jianbing (aka the Chinese crepe) vendors are on almost every street corner. So, if you plan on starting your own Jianbing store in Shandong Province, what can you do to beat the competition and draw customers to you? From a free course I took, sponsored by eHomemakers; "Science of Product Innovation", one of the ways, is to make your product different from others.
Check out the Jianbing created by these innovative vendors.
What will you wrap in Jianbing to localise the flavour? That will make it different too.
I read from Woks of Life that instead of making the batter, I can use store bought frozen pancake. The one that I can think of is this Paratha with Onion from Kawan that I often buy.
Oil is not require to fry this Paratha but I will add a little oil to the pan since I usually cook it with an egg and cheese added. Here are the steps:
-cook one side on a non stick frying pan till it is golden brown. -turn it over and spread egg over it (you can scramble the egg if you want to). -turn it over again to cook the egg side. -(optional) cut a slice of cheddar cheese in half and place in the middle of Paratha. -once the egg is cooked enough, fold the sides up to cover the cheese. -the heat will melt cheese. -remove from pan to serve.
If I want to make it Jianbing style, I can add chopped scallions and cilantro and spiced it up with chillie sauce of my choice. The one used at Woks of Life is spicy bean sauce.
180g All purpose flour 60g Millet flour or Fine Cornmeal 1 tsp Five spice powder 1 tsp Salt 420g Water
The toppings and sauce required for Jianbing are:
8 Eggs (2 per Jianbing) Guobie (crispy fried dough) or deep fry dumpling skins Handful Cilantro or Green Onion 2 Tbsp Tianmianjiang Sweet Bean Paste with 2 Tbsp Sugar added
Optional toppings for Jianbing:
3 Tbsp Chili Sauce Lettuce Meat (“王中王火腿肠” from the brand Shuanghui (双汇), spam, American hotdog) Black Sesame Seeds
Watch their video and you will also learn about the utensils you need to make it properly.
I think if I make, it I will use the batter recipe that I have shared earlier for making Onion Paratha:
Nougat is a chewy confection I discovered during a holiday in Australia. I like eating it because there are nuts in the candy.
These are the ingredients required to make it:
100g Butter
250g Marshmallow
250g Milk powder | (4.3 cup/6.3 oz)
30g Raisins
40g Almonds
40g Pistachios
40g Dried cherries (cut into smaller bites)
Here are the steps: -heat pan to melt the butter. -add marshmallow to melt. -add milk powder to blend in till smooth. -add the nuts and candied fruits into the mixture
-refrigerate for 4-5 hours.
I read from Meaningful Eats that classic nougat is not made with marshmallow.
You start by melting in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat:
2 Cups Granulated Sugar
2 1/2 Cups White Corn Syrup
1/4 Tsp Salt
Beat on medium-high speed for 2 minutes until starting to thicken/foam:
1/3 Cup Egg Whites (from 3 large eggs)
Once syrup mixture comes to a boil, pour 1/3 of it with the egg white and continue mixing on low speed. Continue heating the remaining syrup in the pot before adding to the egg white to mix on medium-high speed for 5 minutes. With the mixer still running on low, stir in:
1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
6 Tbsp Butter (room temperature and cut into small pieces)
2 tsp Flour
Once the mixture is thoroughly blended in and has thicken, stir in:
1 Cup Salted Peanuts or nut of choice (optional)
Pour the mixture into a 9×13 pan lined with parchment paper and grease with non-stick cooking spray.
Allow to cool overnight or for at least 4 hours. Use a greased knife to slice into pieces. Store in an airtight container between pieces of wax paper or parchment.
Do you like eating curry puffs? This is the process for making them.
These are the ingredients required:
You can also make this snack when you have leftover chicken curry. This is how I cook my curry chicken:
However, if I plan to make curry puff with it, I will cook it with extra potatoes and use chicken breast instead of drumsticks. When it is time to make my curry puffs, I will remove the leftover potato and the chicken with a tong so that I can dice them up.
Instead of making my own pastry dough, I use the puff pastry from Kawan.
In one packet there are 10 square pieces. As I have a stainless steel rack, I do not have any problem airfrying all 10 pieces in my airfryer. Once the filling is enclosed, I fold the pastry in half and press the edges together with a fork. They taste alright without the hard boiled egg added. I will airfry them according to the setting for baking pastry of my airfryer. .
I can bake this at night if I have to leave the house early the next morning. The curry puffs can be kept in the fridge once they are cool enough. They can be eaten for breakfast after heating them up in the airfryer for 3 to 4 minutes.
There are many ways to make snacks with puff pastry. In this video you can see other kind of fillings you can use and ways you can fold the pastry to bake.
I have shared earlier, how nian gao is made and how it can be eaten, deep fried with sweet potato and yam. These are other ways, Nian Gao can be served.
You can fold it in puff pastry squares and airfry them, as shown in this video.
Or bake them in an oven.
You can also wrap Nian Gao in rice paper or spring roll wrappers to pan fry or deep fry, as shown in this video.
When I was younger, my mom used to make Rock Sugar Egg Syrup (冰糖鸡蛋糖水). She used a double boiler to gently cook the raw eggs which she added one by one into the pot of rock sugar syrup that she had prepared. In that way the yolk will be cooked but the whites will not break away from it too much. They looked like poached eggs but the yolks are well cooked.
I found an image of the enamel double boiler, she used at What To Cook Today. Marvellina is the publisher of this website. She also develops her own recipes which she shares with clear instructions and lots of photos.
If you do not have a double boiler, you can use a pot and a glass or metal bowl to do the job, as shown in the following video. However, the bowl must have a lid for it.
Drinking rock sugar water or syrup has a cooling effect on the body. I was told that it can become heaty to consume if it has been cooked over fire for a period of time. I guess that must be why my mom used the double boiler. Read the following articles if you are curious to know what I mean about cooling and heaty food and their effects on the body.
These are the steps for making a bowl of 冰糖鸡蛋糖水 (Rock Sugar Egg Syrup) if you use the above makeshift double boiler:
-boil water in the pot.
-place a glass or metal bowl over the pot as shown in the video.
-the base of the bowl should not be touching the boiling water.
-place rock sugar (a small piece) in the glass or metal bowl.
-add a bowl and a 1/4 of boiling water to the rock sugar.
-stir till rock sugar has dissolved.
-cover the glass or metal bowl.
-lower heat and continue to boil.
-add a raw egg when the water in the bowl starts steaming up and is hot enough.
-cover the glass or metal bowl and continue heating.
-it is ready to be served once the egg looks like poached egg.
It is alright to add hot water to the syrup if it is too sweet for you. However, do not make it with too little rock sugar or the 糖水 (sugar syrup) will taste too bland.
You can read how rock sugar nourish the body from the following article:
From there, I picked up 3 other methods to prepare it without a double boiler:
I can even use a rice cooker to make it with red dates and brown sugar:
I also like eat my eggs with white fungus cooked as a dessert or soup. These are the ingredients for the dessert:
-White fungus
-Wolfberry
-Red dates or dried longan
-Hard boiled chicken eggs and/or quail eggs
You can see how it is made by watching this video:
However, when I use white fungus, especially, in my soup, I like it to have a more gelantin texture. Watch this video if you like it slimy too. The hard boiled eggs, if required, can be added to the dessert with the white fungus.
Though it is suggested that you leave the dessert overnight in the fridge for the gelantin texture, it can be eaten as soon as it is cooked.
These are the ingredients for making the soup:
-White fungus (wash and prepare as shown in video)
-Wolfberry (for me it’s optional)
-Red dates (I just soak them in water and rinse them out twice)
-Yok chok (soak in water till soften and clean)
-Chicken (my choice drumsticks cut into 3 sections)
-Hard boiled chicken eggs (1 for each person) or quail eggs (15 per pack)
-1 Soup bowl of water
-Salt to taste
When I use my slow cooker for boiling soup, I prefer to boil the meat (chicken or pork) in a pot of water (1 1/2 soup bowl) first. In that way, when I pour the water into the slow cooker, I can sieve out any impurities from the boiled meat. Then I will add the rest of the ingredients to the slow cooker and cook it on low for 3 to 4 hours.
I enjoy reading postings on Quora. I have also been active there by sharing information about bicycles and useful tips about parts and stuff that I sell at my bike shop. I also enjoy collecting and sharing using tips I discovered at the site. Some of the information I keep may not be relevant to me but I am sure someone I know will find them useful one day because I have shared or saved them on one of my Pinterest boards.
This sums up my participation on Quora.
Today, I would like to share the following link to a collection of recipes used by the US Armed Force’s culinary professionals to serve up to 100 people. You can check out their Index Of Recipes for a quick look to see if any of the recipes there will interest you.
He said that they are all easy to prepare. As each recipe is for 100 portions, you will have to convert them to cater to the number of people you will be serving. He recommended trying out the Savory Baked Chicken.
When I do not have enough time to cook a meal for the following day, I will consider using a slow cooker to boil a soup or cook a dish the night before.
I like the way this Teriyaki Chicken dish is cooked in a slow cooker.
-a baking dish -12 eggs -feta cheese or any soft, spreadable cheese, such as, cheddar or Gruyère -salt, pepper and any other seasonings
After baking it in the oven at 400°F for 15 to 20 minutes, mash the cheese and eggs together to create a scramble. You can then sprinkle chopped chives or chili flakes on top of the mixture as garnish. You can then scoop the mixture out to roll it in a wrap to eat or serve it with your regular toast, bacon, tomatoes and avocado or other seasonal fruits.
Martha shared that the optional ingredients you can add to flavor this dish are:
-mushrooms -onions -spinach or peppers.
You can learn to cook with the above optional ingredients by watching this video I found on YouTube.
Here is another variation I found on YouTube. The cook added dry tomatoes, onions a handful of fresh herbs as garnish.
There are two methods to prepare broccoli to cook. This is the Western way.
I prefer the Chinese way to prepare it. Chef Lau, who used to run a Chinese restaurant, shared in this video how broccoli should be selected and cooked.
I read from Woks of Life that chefs in Chinese restaurants blanch the broccoli first because it cooks faster and speeds up the stir frying process. This dish can be cooked with meat added.
These are the ingredients you need to cook the dish:
This is a dish that I cook with pork on a weekly basis because my daughter loves it. I do not blanch my broccoli to cook it. To wash it, I cut each florets out and soak them in water with coarse salt added. As the florets will float up, I will place a plate over them so they stay beneath the salted water.
I do not use baking soda as I use a meat mallet to tenderise the pork.
Frozen in this size, I can use them to fry pork cutlets. I usually cut one to two pieces into strips if I need them in vegetable dishes like this. This is my simplified method to cook it.
I have been cooking broccoli this way for years. Maybe it is time to change how I cook and serve it.
