Creamy Potato Salad ala Bonsay

On this summer weather, I was requested to bring along my potato salad for Australia Day lunch at my mom's friend's house. The simpleness and creaminess in taste, is too good to let it pass by.

Ingredients:
1.5 kg potatoes
6 eggs, hard-boiled
3 bacon rasher
150gr mayonnaise
1tsp mustard paste
1/2 lemon
6 sprigs thyme, leaves only
1 small onion, chopped
2 spring onion, chopped
1tsp garlic
salt and pepper

Methods:

1. Par-boil potatoes until cooked through but not tender. Let it completely cooled. Cut them bite-size with skin on
2. Meanwhile, stir fry bacon until cooked through. Set aside and let it totally cooled
3. In a big bowl, mix mayonnaise, mustard, and juice of 1/2 lemon. Add in thyme, onion, spring onion, and garlic. Add the bacon in, and mix it well. Season it with salt and pepper
4. Peel the eggs, and cut in cubes.
5. Add the potatoes into the mayonnaise mix, and mix well. Lastly, add in the egg, and fold
6. Put it in fridge, and serve it cold

Tips:
This salad is best to be made the night before

Pork Sang Choi Bao ala Bonsay

What's for the entree? This was the question popped-up in my head when I was designing the menu for a birthday dinner.

Normally, sang choi bao is found on the second course of your Peking Duck set menu. However, to create an entree to start a meal, there's no limitation of modifying it using pork instead. And it tasted exactly what it was supposed to be.

Ingredients:

1tbs oil

200gr pork meat, small diced 

1tbs finely chopped garlic

1tbs finely chopped ginger

8 dried shitake mushroom, soaked in water, diced

10 water chestnuts, diced

2 carrots, diced

1tbs oyster sauce

2tbs soy sauce

1tbs Chinese cooking wine

1tsp sugar

1tbs chopped spring onion

salt and pepper to taste

Ice berg lettuce leaves to serve

Methods:

1. Heat the wok, add in oil
2. Stir in ginger until fragrant, add pork and garlic, and cook until the colour changed
3. Add in mushroom, mix well
4. Add in oyster sauce, soy sauce, cooking wine, and sugar, stir well
5. Add in water chestnuts and carrots
6. Season with salt and pepper to your liking
7. Sprinkle with spring onion
8. Serve with ice berg lettuce leaves

Neil Perry's Sang Choi Bao vs Bonsay's Pork Sang Choi Bao

P.S. I was hitting Neil Perry's sang choi bao using minced pork and minced duck with chinese sausage when I was thinking about this entree

Stir Fry Sweet Potato Leaves ala Bonsay

I love vegetables, either eating them or cooking them. Sweet potato leaves in one of my favourites, as it is as crunchy as kangkung.

Cooking vegetables is best to keep it simple so not to loose its flavour and sweetness.

Cooking time: 5minutes
Ingredients:
1bunch sweet potato leaves, washed
1clove garlic, smashed
2 bird eye chillies, chopped
1tbs oil
1tsp salt


Methods:

1. Heat a wok, add in oil and garlic, stir until fragrant
2. Add in sweet potato leaves and chillies, stir until the vegetable changes its colour
3. Season with salt
4. Serve on the plate

Wonton Soup ala Bonsay

Honestly, I didn't know what to have for lunch at that time. I didn't have much ingredients left in my fridge. So I transformed what I had in to this Wonton Soup. Hope you'll enjoy it as I did.

Cooking Time: 30minutes
Serve: one
Ingredients:
8sheets wonton skin
2cups water
1clove garlic, smashed
1/2tbs miso dashi paste
a few choysum leaves
3fish balls, halved
a dash of fish oil

Methods:

1. Boil the water, garlic, and dashi paste
2. Add in fish balls, choysum, fish oil
3. After re-boiled, add in wonton skin
4. Test the taste and adjust to your liking
5. Serve hot

Kaylan Oyster Sauce

I love kaylan for its crunchiness. Therefore when I cook it, I never want it to loose the texture. Also, kaylan in oyster sauce is an easy side dish on you table when you are out of menu to feed your family.

Cooking time: 15minutes
Ingredients:
1bunch kaylan (Chinese broccoli)
1tbs oil
1tsp chopped garlic
1tbs oyster sauce
1dash fish oil
1tbs Chinese cooking wine
1tbs water


Methods:

1. Wash kaylan and boil in water until just cook, rinse under cold water straight away to stop further cooking
2. Heat up a wok and oil, put garlic in for 5seconds, then the rest of the ingredients
3. Add kaylan in, and stir until just heated
4. Serve

Chicken Wellington ala Bonsay

This recipe is modified from Gordon Ramsay's Beef Wellington, and I found using chicken breast instead of beef fillet is lighter for your diet 


Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
250gr chicken breast
2-3shaved ham
100gr spinach, chopped roughly
1tsp English mustard
Salt
1sheet pastry, thawed as directed
1 egg yolk, beaten
1 teaspoon poppy seed

Methods:

1. Preheat oven at 220C
2. Cut the chicken breast horizontally into two but  not until through
3. Roll the chicken and shape it  into sausage like, using cling wrap and freeze it for 10-15mins
4. Meanwhile, chop the spinach
5. Prepare the ham onto another cling wrap, top it up with chopped spinach
6. Heat a pan and drizzle with olive oil
7. Coat the chicken with salt and put in pan until the meat just change colour on all side of the chicken (at this stage, you don't have to cook the chicken well done)
8. Take out the chicken fro the pan, and cover with mustard, then put it on top of the spinach
9. Roll the arrangement, and freeze it for 20mins
10. After 20mins, unwrap the chicken, and put it on a pastry sheet, then roll up and make sure you close all edges
11. Wash with egg yolk, pattern the pastry skin with knife, spread the poppy seed and salt
12. Cook in the oven for 35mins

To serve:
Cut the wellington thick, it should not be thin. Serve it with green salad and mashed potato. Eat warm


Serve two

Gordon Ramsay's Beef Wellington vs Bonsay's Chicken Wellington

Roast Beef Canapes ala Bonsay

Ingredients:
1sheet puff pastry, thawed as directed
1egg yolk, beaten
 50gr sliced roasted beef
25gr cream cheese
1/2tsp salt
a crack of pepper
1sprig thyme
1tsp chopped spring onion
1tsp chopped garlic








Methods:

1. Preheat oven to 200C
2. Cut the pastry using 1 1/2 inch cookie cutter into 9 rounds. Wash with egg and put in the oven for 10mins or until golden brown
3. Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese, add in salt, pepper, thyme, spring onion, garlic. Mix well

To serve:
Put cream cheese mixture on top of the pastry and top it up with roast beef