Stir-Fry Squid with Broccoli Recipe

This stir-fry squid with broccoli recipe is supposed to duplicate the Chinese recipe I researched on the Internet. Unfortunately, we do not have rice wine on our shelf as we are not using such ingredient in our cooking. Rice wine is one of the required seasoning for this recipe. We were a bit lazy to go to the supermarket to buy one at the time. Nonetheless, having missed out one of the ingredients did not stop me from cooking this delectable dish. I replaced the rice wine with water and added cornstarch to thicken the sauce. The result was a delicious seafood-vegetable dish that is perfect for steamed rice.

So far I cannot tell the difference in taste if I had use rice wine, but I would love to test it in future. I’d like to point out though that the water is not a substitute for the rice wine in terms of taste, instead it was intended to replace the sauce that could have been produced by the rice wine.

Meanwhile, here is my recipe for the Stir-fry Squid with Broccoli.


Squid with Broccoli

Ingredients:
500 g squid, fresh
500 g broccoli, cut into small florets
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 thumb-size ginger, finely sliced
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
100ml water (as needed)
Cooking oil

Cooking Procedure:
1. Clean fresh squid. Remove ink and peel the skin. Score lightly on one side and slice to bite-size pieces.
2. Heat oil in a pan. Sauté ginger and garlic. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
3. Add soy sauce and sugar together.
4. Stir-fry the broccoli florets in the mixture for 2minutes over high heat.
5. Add water and cornstarch. Let it simmer for 2 minutes.
6. Add squid and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly.
7. Do not overcook the squid as it will turn out to be gummy.
8. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Linguini with Clams Recipe

We love watching cooking shows. This linguini with clams recipe is inspired by many pasta recipes we’ve watched in different shows. As I previously mentioned in my Clam Soup Recipe, clams are in season here and it’s a good thing to take advantage of its abundance because for sure they’re fresh.

There is actually nothing exactly like this recipe because I tweaked it a little, like instead of using parsley for the herb I used fresh basil leaves, which I and hubby are both crazy about. In addition, most pasta with clams recipe I’ve seen are using white wine for the sauce. I intended to skip the white wine, instead I planned to replace it with vegetable cubes to turn it into a broth but we couldn’t find any veggie cube so I settled for the pasta water for the sauce.

I may say my linguini with clams recipe is a success. Hubby enjoyed it so much and I would definitely love to prepare it again in the future.


Linguini with Clams

Here’s is my linguini with clams recipe:

Ingredients:
1 kg clams
500 g linguini pasta
½ bulb garlic, minced
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 handful fresh basil leaves
100 g parmesan cheese, grated
1 pinch dried chili flakes
olive oil

Cooking Procedure:
1) Clean clams well and soak in water for at least 2 hours. Replace the water every half hour. Throw away clams that have opened.
2) Cook pasta according to instructions. Linguini will be cooked al dente in boiling water with a teaspoon of salt for 10-11 minutes. Drain pasta and sprinkle with olive oil then set aside.
3) Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a skillet.
4) Sauté garlic, do not brown.
5) Sauté onion until translucent.
6) Add in clams and half cup of pasta water.
7) Cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until most of the clams have opened.
8) Add basil leaves and dried chili flakes. Stir well.
9) Turn off the heat. Add the cooked pasta and parmesan cheese in the same skillet and combine well with the sauce.
10) Serve hot. Sprinkle with dried chili flakes, grated parmesan cheese and olive oil if desired.

Thai Crab Curry Recipe

I love Thai food!

Having lived in Thailand for more than 4 years, I developed my fondness for Thai food. Fortunately, my hubby Boq has a penchant for the same.

Since I have now learned my way into the kitchen, I would like to experiment on Thai cooking especially on some of our favorites. For a start, I prepared Thai Crab Curry. In the days to come, I will be posting more Thai recipes.

Thai crab curry is one of our favorite Thai food. I checked a couple of Thai cooking tutorials and found out that it is not that hard to prepare it.

Thai Crab Curry
One setback in Thai cooking is that it involves a lot of ingredients and some are usually unique to Thai cuisine. Some of the original ingredients for the crab curry were not easy to find in the market here so I made do with whatever was available. The result was good especially for a first-timer but I know that I can still make it better next time.

Frying Crab Pieces
Here is the recipe for the Thai Crab Curry.

Ingredients:
½ kilo fresh crabs, wash clean
1 tbsp. Thai curry powder
1 stalk celery
2-3 stalks spring onion (scallions)
1 large onion (preferably white onion)
2-3 pieces red chili, sliced
2-3 tbsp. oyster sauce
½ tsp. ground pepper (preferably white ground pepper)
2 pieces egg
1 to 2 tbsp. Thai chili paste (preferably roasted Thai chili paste)
1 cup evaporated milk
Cooking oil

Chili Paste, Milk ang Egg Mixture
Cooking Instructions:
1) Combine the chili paste and the milk then beat in the egg. Mix thoroughly then set aside.
2) Remove crab shell then cut the crabs into pieces. Separate large claws and crack them including legs.
3) Heat oil in a large wok or deep pan then fry crabs pieces until done.
4) Add Thai curry into the wok.
5) Pour in the mixture of chili paste, milk and eggs.
6) Then add oyster sauce, celery and spring onions. Sprinkle with pepper. Mix well and continue cooking until done.

Preparation and cooking time: 45 minutes
Serving size: 2-4 persons

Garlic Shrimps Recipe

This dish was prepared by Boq two weekends ago. It’s a rather late post but it’s worth the wait. He knows I love seafood especially shrimps. Seafood, in general, are easy to cook and delectable.

Below are separate ingredients for garlic shrimps and lemon butter sauce:

Ingredients for Garlic Shrimps:

500g Shrimps, cleaned

50g butter

5 cloves minced garlic

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Chili flakes (optional)

Ingredients for Lemon butter sauce:

50g butter

¼ cup lemon juice

3 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

Cooking procedure:
Mix all the ingredients for the lemon butter sauce in a clean container. Microwave or steam the mixture to soften the butter. In a separate pan, sauté the garlic in hot oil until golden brown. Add the butter, followed by chili flakes (optional). Stir for a minute, and then add the shrimps. Cook the shrimps for 5 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.

This dish is appetizing. Try it.

Did you know? Shrimps are related to lobsters, crabs and crayfish. Unlike its relatives, shrimps are swimmers than crawlers. They swim backwards using their fanlike tails to escape from danger and they use the swimmerets on their abdomens to swim forward. Swimmerets are the abdominal limbs of shrimps that carry the eggs in females.