In today’s hectic lifestyle, one-dish meals have become a popular choice amongst busy mothers and career women. Today I would like to share with you a simple, healthy and practical one-dish meal that I recently cooked for both my son and myself. I selected my son’s favorite ingredients to be included in this meal (mushrooms, meat, beancurd and edamames) to wet his appetite. I also used my own concoction of “teriyaki” sauce (a combination of light soya sauce, mirin and sugar). With one bowl of rice, we slurped up everything on the plate. This means less washing up too!

The ingredients chosen in this dish, whilst being my son’s favourite, are also packed with nutrients suitable and crucial for a growing child. Of interest would be the edamame, which is packed with dietary fiber, iron, protein, phosphorus, thiamin and copper, and a very good source of folate, Vitamin K and manganese. You might also want to know that edamames have very low sodium content.

Hope you’ll enjoy savouring as well as preparing them. To all Chefs, let’s start wokking now.

Ingredients

• Assorted fresh mushrooms (shitake, button, enoki, portobello etc) – wash over running water and chopped (I used 3 white button mushrooms+1 large portobello mushroom approx 100g)
• 60g minced meat (or chicken)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• Handful of frozen/ fresh Japanese soy beans (edamames)
• 150g beancurd for steaming (½ block)

Seasoning

• 1 tablespoon light soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon mirin (Japanese sweet cooking sauce/ wine)
• 1 tablespoon teaspoon Chinese Shaoxing cooking rice wine
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Dash of pepper (to taste)
• Cornstarch (mix with water) for thickening

Seasoning (for marinating meat)

• 1/2 teaspoon light soya sauce
• Pinch of sugar
• 1 teaspoon cornflour

Method

Marinated minced meat with seasonings for at least ½ hour. Add 1 tbsp water if necessary.

Steam beancurd for 10-15 mins, drain water and cut into slices. Set aside.

Blanch frozen edamame over boiling water for 1-2 mins. For fresh ones, blanch using salted water. Do not overcook as you will lose the nutrients and colour with prolonged cooking.

Heat up wok with 1 tbsp oil. Sautee minced garlic until fragrant.

Add in minced meat. Do not stir fry immediately. Let it cook for a while until it is slightly caramelized. Turn it over and break it slightly. Let it cook for a while until caramelized. This will increase the aroma of the minced meat. Reduce the heat to low and start breaking up the meat. (I learnt the tip here)

Add in mushrooms. Stir-fry for a while. Add in seasonings. Let it simmer for a while until the sauce is thicken.

Add in cornstarch solution. Stir-fry until well combined. Dish up and pour over the steamed beancurd. Garnish with cooked edamames.

This recipe is brought to you by our Guest Chef Food For Tots. Food For Tots is a stay-at-home “multi-tasker” who loves to prepare simple, healthy and practical meals for the family. Her blog also share ideas on how to introduce healthy food to toddlers.

Browse through more recipes of mine at the All Recipes page.

One-Dish Meal

Wow! It’s been a couple of days since I last posted a recipe here. We haven’t been cooking much at home and even when we have, it’s mostly dishes which I have previously posted here on this site. As some of you might know, the kids were down with running nose and vomitting episodes and my missus was also not feeling well. Same for moi.

So, on Sunday last, we had a simple meal which only took 1 hour to prepare, cook and serve. It involves the use of some essential ingredients usually found in Malaysian chinese homes:- ikan bilis, preserved bean curds, onions, garlic and rice (to cook porridge). The only thing purchased for that meal was fresh pea sprouts (tow miaw).

To prepare this meal, cooking is in the following order – porridge, ikan bilis snack and stir-fried pea sprouts. The preserved bean curd comes in a glass jar and no cooking is needed.

Porridge :-

Rinse 200 ml (volume) of rice and place into a pot. Add 500 ml of water, cover lid and bring to boil. Then reduce heat to medium low, uncovered and continue cooking. Add boiling water if porridge dries out. Cook till your desired softness of the porridge.

Whilst cooking the porridge, proceed with the other dishes. These are the recipes for the Ikan Bilis Snack and Stir-Fried Pea Sprouts with Garlic. The porridge should be cooked by the time you finish cooking the two dishes. Serve with preserved bean curd (make sure you use a clean and dry teaspoon / chopsticks to take out the preserved bean curd from the bottle).

This meal is really satisfying because it is easy on the stomach and comes with different variety of tastes. The ikan bilis snack is sweetish whilst the preserved bean curd is spicy and salty. The stir-fried pea sprouts with garlic gives this dish a balance on fibre and nutrients. The porridge makes it easy eating.

Try this suggested meal. It’s good when you are all sick (pun intended) of eating out

Browse through more recipes of mine at the All Recipes page.

Simple Meal