A Lovely Saturday Lunch at Karen’s

When I first met Karen (she works in PARKROYAL on Beach Road), I thought she can’t cook at all! But I am so wrong. Last Saturday, Karen whipped up some homecooked dishes and invited us over. It was a simple and delicious lunch, made even more enjoyable with foodie friends.

Karen cooks healthily. Just like this bowl of chap chye, she didn’t add any salt into it and solely use dried oysters to give it the flavour. It was the perfect complement to the other meat dishes. The vegetables were soft and very flavorful.

Steamed Chicken with sausages is a typical cantonese dish. It was my first time having this because I don’t have cantonese relatives.

Karen’s husband, Edwin, dropped by Hua Fong Kee Roasted Duck (Blk 128 Lorong 1 Toa Payoh, #01-811) in the morning and bought back this lovely plate of roasted duck. The meat is definitely tender and juicy, but the sauce is what makes the duck different.

Karen’s signature dish was “Stewed Beef with Red Wine and Mixed Vegetables”, she learnt it from her Mum since young and revamped it to suit for her little Ethan who doesn’t like vegetables. The dish was even featured in one of our local food magazine, Xin Flavour.

4 years old little Ethan was overjoyed every time Karen prepared the dish. He would say “meat meat!” and eat 2 bowls of rice! And for us adults, the beef stew was definitely a hit! The beef was tender and flavourful while the carrots were soft, simply delicious! Kind Karen has agreed to reveal her recipe in my blog, here you go:

2tbsp olive oil

500g beef steak, cut into cubes

2 large white onions, cut into pieces

4 cloves garlic, chopped

125ml water

375ml red wine

125ml beef stock

500g carrots, peeled and cut into pieces

2 tomatoes, cut into pieces

3 potatoes, peels and cut into pieces

4 stalks celery, sectioned

4 tbsp tomato sauce

some parsley

1. Heat oil in pan. Brown the steak, remove.

2. Heat oil in pot. Stir fry onions and garlic until fragrant. Add water, red wine and stock. Bring to boil and cook for 1 min.

3. Add steak, cover and simmer over low heat for about 1 hour, stirring ocassionally.

4. Add carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, celery and tomato sauce. Cover and simmer for 20 mins until beef is tender. Garnish with parsley and serve.

To end off, here is the happy little Ethan playing with iPhone!