Instead of plain rice, how about this simple fried rice served with other meats and vegetables dishes?

A classic dish, fried rice is believed to have originated in the city of Yangzhou, a province in China. Made with barbecued pork, shrimp and spring onions, Yangzhou Fried Rice is the standard and by far the most popular of fried rice dishes of Chinese cuisine.

Here, is a simple and basic recipe to enjoy fried rice.

Plus, It’s great way to use leftover rice cooked for the next meal.

What is good about fried rice is that you can turn it into a main meal by adding meat/seafood and vegetables.

Ingredients:

• 1 - 2 green onions. More if you like
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pepper to taste
• 4 tablespoons oil for stir-frying, or as needed
• 4 cups cold cooked rice
• 1 - 2 tablespoons light soy sauce or oyster sauce, as desired

Preparation:

Wash and finely chop the green onion. Lightly beat the eggs with the salt and pepper.

Heat a wok or frying pan and add 2 tablespoons oil. When the oil is hot, add the eggs. Cook, stirring, until they are lightly scrambled but not too dry. Remove the eggs and clean out the pan.

Add 2 tablespoons oil. Add the rice. Stir-fry for a few minutes, using chopsticks or a wooden spoon to break it apart.

Stir in the soy sauce or oyster sauce as desired.

When the rice is heated through, add the scrambled egg back into the pan.
Mix thoroughly. Stir in the green onion and serve hot!

I love to mix colors and variety in my cooking.
Especially when preparing curries and soups. Its hard to go wrong with them.

Also for benefits of health. For example: Tomatoes contain Lycopene, Carrots with beta carotene, both help to prevent muscular degeneration of the eyes as we age. So eat more of them if you want to have a better view!

The nutrients we need are the substances that give food their distinctive colors. There are just too many possibilities to keep track of. So just infuse more natural color in your meals, the better. EASY!
For more information, see Colors of health

So think broccoli and red cabbage, eggplant and tomatoes and red and yellow and green peppers and..

As long as you keep colors as basic ingredients in your kitchen cabinet, You can prepare any meal or dish that is tasty easily. Some prepared paste and sauces are good to have.

p align=”left”>For this dish, the green curry paste is great and is so easy to prepare.

For this meal all you need are garden vegetables, onion, garlic, 1 can of 400ml coconut and the green curry paste.

When grocery shopping, try to get a mix of colors in your vegetable basket.

Here I mixed and the main vegetables, to give it a really visual treat and nutritious meal.

Ingredients:

• 200g sliced chicken breast
• 1/2 cup diced Carrots -Orange
• 1/2 cup diced Tomatoes -Red
• 1/2 cup diced Potatoes -Yellow
• 1/2 cup diced Onions -White or Red
• 1/2 cup chopped Long beans -Green
• 2 tsbp Green curry paste
• 2 tsbp of vegetable oil
• 1 can of 400ml Coconut water

Fry green curry paste till fragrant. Add chicken slices and coat evenly. Add coconut water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add carrots and potato and simmer for 10 mins. Add rest of the vegetables and simmer another 5 mins.

Add basil to garnish and serve with rice. Enjoy!!!

Snapper is one of New Zealand’s most priced and favorite fish to catch. Snapper mostly live in shallow water (10-50 metres), although they are also found down to depths of 200 metres on the continental shelf of the North Island and northern South Island. See more information here

This beauty was caught one evening, surf casting along the shores.
We really enjoyed it as it was cooked to perfection.

This dish was prepared by Matt as he caught the Snapper. Often people will fillet it without the head, bones and all. But cooking fish with its head retains more moisture and the nutritional omega 3 fish oils.

Same ingredients can be use to steam fish.

Ingredients:

• 1 fresh sea bass, snapper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sesame oil + 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp finely-shredded fresh ginger
• 1 small onion
• 1 sprig of basil leaves
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped

Preparaton:

Clean the fish! De-scale, de-gut and de-gill it. Rinse and dry the fish well. Using a sharp knife, score both sides of the fish as far down to the bone, on both side, with a sharp knife. Rub salt and sesame oil all over, inside and outside of the fish

Place fish in a baking tray. Sprinkle the rest of the ingredients on top and inside of the fish. Cover with foil and baked in a preheated over at 200 c. degrees for 15 to 20 mins. (Depend on size of your fish)

For steaming:

Place fish on a platter and in a very hot steamer. (Of inside a wok on a rack) Steam vigorously, under cover or 12 to 15 mins.

Enjoy your fresh fish with steamed rice and vegetables on the side!

I always wondered how fresh wanton taste from the usual prepared wanton skin that you would get from the grocery store.

Decided to try my hand last evening at making my own wanton skin. It was different from the usual wanton, as it was fresh and more chewy, as you would expect with more gluten in the flour, especially since it is prepared fresh.

The challenge was to roll them out real thin, so that the fillings would cook nicely. Half of the dumplings were steamed and half were deep fried.

Recipe for fillings:Prepare the meat fillings 1st. It gives it time to marinate when you prepare the wanton skin. (you can substitute with other meats)

• 500g minced meat (prawns, chicken, beef, or pork)
• 2 bundles of Chinese chives finely chopped (replace with scallion if you can’t get them)
• 2 tsp of sherry or rice win
• 1/4 cup of woodear mushroom diced (dried Chinese mushrooms, shitake or any other to replace)
• 1 tsp of sesame oil
• pinch of salt and white pepper to taste

Seasoned mince meat with all ingredients. Set aside when preparing the wanton skin.

Recipe for wanton skin: To make just enough for 500grams of mince meat fillings.

• 1 Egg
• 1 and 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1 tbsp of water
• 1/2 tbsp of vegetable oil
• pinch of salt

Beat the egg first, add salt, 1 cup of flour and water to mix it well. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of flour gradually, until it is well mixed, nice and firm, but not too tough. The dough should be medium firm. Let it rest for 5 mins, then knead again.

This time roll the pinch out ball sized dough, roll out on a floured surface and rolling pin. As moisture in the air tends to make the wanton skin sticky, keep them nicely dusted with flour after rolling them