我的试验室 My Lab

Actually I am not sure whether it is really known as XO sauce or not, but I think the name is not important, is the taste that counts.

Ingredients:

• 10 dried scallops soaked in cold water overnight - cleaned and shredded
• 3/4 cup dried shrimps - clean roughly chopped
• 3 onion - minced
• 1 bulb garlic - minced
• 2 chilies - sliced
• soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster and sugar to taste
• olive oil

Note :  Ratio of dried scallop and dried shrimp is about 1:1
Procedure:

1. Fry onion until fagrance, add chili and garlic, continue frying for 1 more minute.
2. Add chopped dried shrimp and shredded scallop and continue frying.
3. Add all the sauces and sugar to suit your taste.
4. Continue frying until it is dry.
5. Cool down and keep in refrigerator (up to ~1 week).

It tastes good with white rice/ bee hoon/ bread... or even on its own.

Probably we can reduce the saturated fat intake by adding some ingredients in the mayo? 

Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp Mayonnaise
• 3 tbsp chili sauce
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1/2 tsp mustard powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander
• 1 tbsp diced capsicum

Procedure:

1. Mix all ingredients.

Serve it with bake potato wedges.

No compromise on taste at all!!

Ingredients:

• 1 small lemon (extract the juice) - can be substituted by balsamic vinegar, apple cider,white vinegar,...
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar/honey (optional)
• 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seed (optional)

Procedure:

1. Mix all ingredients and store in the fridge.  Use it within 2 days.

Ready to serve.

I am into Thai cooking lately.  So, here I am, reading 'Simple Thai Cookery' by Ken Hom.  I like this book because the recipes are really simple, and the ingredients called for are just basic ingredients which are easily found in the pantry.  After reading this book, chilli oil is my first attempt.  It turns out...... good!

Ingredients:

• 150 ml groundnut oil (I use olive oil)
• 2 tbsp chopped dried chillies (I grind them with Sichuan peppercorn)
• 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
• 2 tbsp whole salted black beans

Procedure:

1. Heat up the wok.
2. Add oil, followed by all the rest of the ingredients.
3. Cook over low heat for about 10 min.  Then remove from heat and leave it to cool.
4. Pour into a jar and leave for 2 days, then strain the oil.
5. Store in a tightly sealed glass jar in a cool dark place.

I made it yesterday.  Immedietely, I used 1tsp for my Ma Po Toufu 麻婆豆腐.  Wah, what a big heat!!

"I want 麻婆豆腐 again, but without the chilli!" Zhe saids while scratching his sweating head :-)

Well, I make up the name of this dipping sauce.  Probably this is one of the most common homemade dipping sauce that you can't be bothered to name it.  It is rather unfair, right?  So, let's give it a name today, let's call it Coriander Dipping Sauce, agree?
As you know, we are coriander fan.  So, we find this sauce so special even though it is so simple.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chopped Coriander
• 3 big cloves of chopped garlic
• 2 big red chili (more if u want it hot) - sliced/chopped
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sweet soy sauce (I use Indonesian Sweet Soy Sauce by Bango)

Note:  The ingredient is just a guideline, you can vary the quantity according to your liking.

Procedure

1. Mix all ingredients and it is done. 

It compliments well with fried fish, steam/boil chicken and Bak Kut Teh.  And, it is healthy ( Apart from the soy sauce :-))!

• 
  
  3/4 cup dried fermented black bean
• 
  
  Shao Xing (just enough to cover the mashed black bean)
• 
  
  2 big bulbs of chopped garlic
• 
  
  2 medium size chopped brown onion
• 
  
  2 tbsp chopped ginger
• 
  
  3 big red chili - deseed and slice (Add more if you like it hot)
• 
  
  3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 
  
  1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 
  
  2 tbsp light soy source
• 
  
  2 tbsp sugar
• 
  
  1 tsp pepper
• 
  
  sesame oil

1. 
   
   Rinse black bean and drain well. 
2. 
   
   Use pestle and mortar set to mash the black bean lightly.  Note that if you mash it too much, it will have slight bitter taste at the end product.
3. 
   
   Pour Shao Xing just enough to cover the mashed black bean then set aside.
4. 
   
   Heat oil, saute garlic,onion, ginger and chili until onion is slightly brown, add the black bean mixture.
5. 
   
   Add oyster sauce, light soy sauce, sugar and pepper to taste.
6. 
   
   Continue frying until the sugar caramelised.  Remove from heat.
7. 
   
   Let it cool down, keep sauce in sterillised jar.
8. 
   
   Pour sesame oil over just enough to cover the sauce.
9. 
   
   Keep it in the fridge. 

Today, we went out the whole day, so decided to 'da bao' KFC. Oops, run out of chili sauce. It was such a coincident, I just visited a website last night about Thai Chili Sauce and decided to give it a try.


Ingredients:

• 3 large cloves of garlic (I used 8 large cloves)
• 2 red Jalapeno (I used 4 medium size red chili, add more if you want it hot)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup vinegar(I used 1/3 cup)
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 2 tbsp water

Procedure:

1. Blend first 6 ingredients in blender.
2. Pour the mixture into saucepan to simmer it at medium heat until garlic & chili are slightly soften, it took me about 5 minutes.
3. Add 2 tbsp of water to 1 tbsp of corn starch and mix until no lump.
4. Mix corn flour mixture into the chili sauce and stir briskly to avoid forming lumps. Once the chili sauce starts boiling again, continue stirring(avoid burning) and simmer for another minute. The chili sauce is ready.
5. Let it cool down completely. Store in a glass jar and refrigerate it.
6. Let the chili sauce rest/settle for 2 days before using it.

Note/tips :
Use clean and dry spoon to scoop chili sauce from the bottle can prevent
contamination, so can keep the chili sauce longer.

OMG, Jia asks me not to get store bought Thai chili sauce again!!

I sincerely think that the original writer is a genius.