[Video] How to cut spring onions for food garnishing

Screenshot (not the actual video): How to cut spring onions for food garnishing

Here is a video tutorial on how to cut spring onions for food garnishing. This is a request from reader Jonie (sorry it took me soooo long to make it happen) who asked in my steamed tofu with minced meat recipe, how I made the spring onions curly wily. I have made a short video showing how it is done, along with 3 other basic techniques for cutting spring onions, i.e, finely chopped, flower-shaped & slanted. Please pardon my noob knife skills and hope these simple tips will come in handy for you in the kitchen. Thanks to B for shooting & editing the video. Look out for more cooking videos with full cooking video recipes coming soon.

Video: How to cut spring onions (YouTube link)

Previous Cooking Preparation Video:
- How to cut a flower pattern on a mushroom
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Stir-fried Chayote with Pork 佛手瓜炒肉丝

Stir-fried Chayote with Pork 佛手瓜炒肉丝

I remember when I first ate chayote (at a vegetable rice/菜饭 stall), I mistaken it for cucumber and I wonder how they manage to stir fry it until so crunchy and sweet. It was only after a while that I found out that I had eaten chayote and not cucumber (though they are in related food family). So now, whenever anyone asks me what chayote tastes like, I always described it as an enhanced version of cucumber – inherently sweet without that “tap water” taste of cucumber (maybe it’s just me), and also nicely crunchy after stir frying.  I like the natural taste of chayote so much that in this recipe, I don’t use strong tasting sauces such as dark soy or oyster sauce. I like to cook this when I’m busy since there is vegetable and meat in one dish (2 in 1). If you are a fan of chayote, check out my other local recipe of stir-fried chayote with tang hoon (vermicelli).

Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐)

Simmered Tofu in Spicy Bean Sauce

Mapo tofu (doufu) is a tofu and meat dish cooked in a spicy chilli bean sauce.  It is a popular dish in Sichuan (Szechuan) cuisine. Growing up, I really love this dish and I was delighted whenever my family ordered it. The dish packs a fiery savoury punch and we always needed more rice than usual to enjoy all of the spicy sauce. The sauce has a numbing and lip-stinging effect depending on how much Sichuan pepper is added, though the home cooked version is usually toned down. I never imagined that cooking this dish at home can be so cheap and easy. I have cooked this dish so often that I can now make it in under 15 minutes from preparation to end – definitely a good recipe to fall back on for busy days. If you like a localised version of Mapo Tofu without the dou ban jiang (豆瓣酱) and Sichuan pepper, do check out my simmered tofu with minced pork recipe. 

Fish Cake Omelette

This is an unbelievably fast and easy recipe. I have a few fish cakes 鱼饼 in the fridge which I intend to pan-fry and eat with porridge for lunch. Then I remembered my mum used to whip my this simple dish to go with plain porridge during our school days. So I rang her up and asked her how she made it, and she gave me the instructions in under one minute – there are really so few ingredients and steps. Ten minutes later, this omelette was cooked. Fish cakes and fried eggs are nice on their own, but when paired together, they are heavenly. My mum explained that minimal ingredients is needed since the fish cakes are already salty and flavourful on their own.

Easy Baked Mackerel

– just olive oil, salt, pepper and bake

Some time back, I saw maameemoomoo’s grilled saba with teriyaki sauce recipe, and I fell in love with it. Her grilled fish not only looked so deliciously beautiful, I also like the fact that they were oven-baked instead of grilled or pan-fried on the stove, saving lots of effort. My version, ever the lazy one, involves seasoning the fish with basic salt and pepper. This is a quick way to sneak in one more side dish to the dinner table effortlessly.

Steamed Chicken Herbal Soup

Steamed Herbal Chicken Soup

This is a lazy recipe for chicken soup cooked via steaming instead of the usual simmering method. I just came back from holiday and caught a cold, so I was not really in the mood for cooking anything fancy. I was just yearning to drink some nourishing home-made chicken soup but since there is no one to cook it for me, I use this short cut and equally good method to get rich herbal chicken soup. For convenience, I used a packet of pre-packed Chinese herbs for stewing chicken soup (in this case I used half a packet for half a chicken). Since less water is used, the soup is concentrated and rich. If you like steamed chicken dishes, don’t forget to check out my other recipes: steamed chicken in D.O.M & steamed chicken with salted fish and fungus

Bitter Gourd with Egg Stir Fry (苦瓜炒蛋)

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Stir-fried Bitter Gourd with egg (苦瓜炒蛋)

Note: This is an old recipe which is re-written and updated with new photos.

Bitter gourd is a healthy vegetable and it is known to reduce “heatiness” – a really much-needed attribute for tropical dwellers like me who is living in hot and humid Singapore. Bitter gourd is very much an acquired taste for me because when I was a kid, I did not dare to eat it at all, but now I have since grew to love it. This is a classic local home-cooked Chinese dish where fermented black beans and eggs are used to stir fry with the bitter gourd slices.