School Holidays Pig Out!

On the last day of the 2 week school holidays... some of us SAHMs managed to get together after much postponement due to clash in schedules or illness (the haze is here).



We had 9 course lunch including soup. I sort of over did it but we had mostly veggies. Fried Chuin Quin (Seafood & Meat Minced with veggies wrapped in Fu Chok Skin), Steamed Taufu, Char Siew, Bittergourd, Long Beans & Sweet Corn Omellete, Chap Chai, Salmon Fish , Baby Choi Sum and Lotus Root Soup.

My home made char siew, tasted better this time round I think due to a better cut in pork belly. Kids loved this

My all time favourite is Bittergourd. This time I fried it with basic rempah & Onions.

This is a new entry. Grilled Salmon bites. Initially grilled it with salt & pepper but it turned out to be too "fishy" in smell... not appetising at all. So fried it in the wok with my spur of the moment creation of sauce made up of Maggi Abalone Sauce + HP Sauce + Pepper. Turned out to be quite nice afterall :p

Hong Bak

I've finally succeeded in cooking Hong Bak! It's my 2nd attempt ;p This dish is a typical Hokkien dish loved by my hubby & family of inlaws. Everyone will surely have a 2nd bowl of rice whenever there's this dish.

My 1st attempt was not successful as 1) it didn't look dark enough 2) taste wise also not salty nor fragrant enough.

My MIL doesn't use any special ingredients yet it tastes so good. It only contains the usual stuff like light & dark soya sauce, dash of Shiao Hsing Wine & a dash of Sesame Oil (I think). I never really observed her when she cooked this dish.. always missed the marinating part (I suspect she wanted to keep it her secret too ~ hehehe!)

This 2nd attempt was well prepared. Not only did I do my research over several recipes on Hong Bak, I also marinaded the pork belly pieces overnight.

Honestly, the secret to successful Hong Bak really is the chemistry of all the basic seasoning & trial and error! I will share with you my concoction of seasoning which I think was also luck :p

Serves 5 nicely
Ingredients

600g Pork Belly with Skin ~ cut to bite size

4 pieces of Tau Kwa (firm / prefried Tau Hu)

4 cloves of whole roasted garlic

Seasoning

5 Tbsp Light Soya Sauce

3 - 5 Tbsp Dark Soya Sauce

1 Tsp Brown Sugar ~ can add more while cooking if it's too salty

1 Tbsp Fish Sauce

2 Tbsp Vegetarian Oyster Sauce

Method

1. Wash & cut pork belly into bite sizes. Repeat the same with the Tau Kwa.

2. Marinade the pork belly with the seasoning overnight.

3. Remove from fridge & left at room tempreture for 15-20mins.

4. Heat pot with a little bit of oil. Stir-fry the 4 cloves of roast garlic (with skin ~ just remove 1 or 2 layers & rinse before cooking them) until fragrant abit. Add the pork belly pieces & keep stirring.

5. Then add the remaining marinade sauce into the pot & bring to slow boil. This is to braise the meat. Do not add alot of water! If you're worried the pork might stick to the pot, add 2 or 3 Tbsp of water is enough.

6. Keep it at slow fire with the pot covered & keep stirring occasionally. Taste the sauce. If it's not salty enough.. add light soya sauce. If it's too salty, add a bit of sugar. If it's too dry, add 2 - 3 Tbsp of water at a time.

7. It will take approximately 40 minutes to cook properly and also absorb the sauce into the pork pieces. Add the Tau Kwa towards the end.

Serve with white rice.

Char Siew

It was so coincidental, I had bought pork cuts suitable for making Char Siew and I was browsing "Tastes Like Home"'s blog... she beautifully made Char Siew & Siew Yuk! I fell in love with the photos she took too! I was inspired to try also! hehehehe!

So off I went to do my home work. I compared several Char Siew recipes from the recipe books I had to what's on the web. Looked pretty simple ;)


Ingredients
3 strips of Pork Belly without skin

Seasoning
2 - 3 Tbsp Dark Soya Sauce
3 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce (I used Lee Kum Kee brand)
1 Tbsp Tau Chu Sauce (blended fermented soya bean paste)
2 Tbsp Light Soya Sauce
2 Tbsp Xiao Shing Wine
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
2 Tbsp Garlic - chopped
a dash of sesame oil

Method
1. Mix all the seasoning ... taste as you go to see what you'd like to add.

2. Marinade the pork with the seasoning for at least 2 - 3 hours. Preferrably over night.

3. Before you heat your oven, take out the marinated pork belly & leave at room tempreture. Heat oven at 220'C for 10mins. The arrange your pork belly on the rack and roast it for 15mins. Then rub more marinade onto the pork and roast for another 15mins.

4. Roast for another 15mins if you find the meat not cooked properly.

5. Boil the rest of the marinade to make a sauce.

all sliced up on the chopping board

this is me trying to get an artistic shot of my Char Siew

Dinner combination ... # 35?

Tuesday's menu :

Baked Beans with Egg & Fresh Tomatoes

Fried Baby Bawal

Stir Fried Spinach (Bayam) with Anchiovies (Ikan Bilis)

Fried Soft Tofu with Minced Meat Special

Sweet November ~ Tau Fu ... Take # 4?

It's the 1st Tuesday of the month of Nov'08 & am on Chef Duty yet again. I've sort of reduced my initiative to really put my thinking cap on to decide what shall I cook for this family of 8 adults (including myself)... the reason being was :-

1) MIL somehow still likes to contribute to the dinner menu

2) Inlaws not used to non-Chinese cuisine ;)

Hence, this is MIL's suggestion for tonight's menu :-

• Stir Fried Tau Fu with Leek/Spring Onions with Siew Yuk ("roast pork")
• Stir Fried Japanese Cucumber with Har Mai & Egg
• Stir Fried Spinach
• Stir Fried Fish with Ham Choi ("salted veggie")

Ok-ok, Chinese home cooking is mostly Stir Fried or Steamed or Deep Fried. Today everything seems to be stir fried.

Stir Fried Tau Fu with Leek/Spring Onions with Siew Yuk ("roast pork")

This is my special impromptu dish. Wanted to do a simple sambal but there was no chilli giling (grinded) in the hse. So I dug out curry paste instead & fried it with carrots, big onion & red capsicum. Not bad :p

Disappointment #6 ~ Peppercorn Chicken ~

I got inspired by http://www.mykitchensnippets.com/2008/10/spicy-szechuan-peppercorns-chicken.html

Her's looked and probably tasted much better. My chicken pieces don't look as evenly brown or crispy as her's. I didn't know where to find Szechuan Peppercorns.. so I just used whatever type of Peppercorns that was in my MIL's kitchen.

Think I failed the frying technique / skill with this dish. Somehow my version turned out to look like Kong Po Chicken instead ~ only less dark.

Chow Faan a.k.a. Fried Rice

The most common dish around, Chow Faan (cantonese) a.k.a. Fried Rice / Nasi Goreng (malay). Had so much left over rice from over a week, left over fried fishes here & there, a few sausages, crab stick, frozen peas, few strands of long beans etc. Think you get the picture. So much left overs here & there, had little choice but to cook Fried Rice for dinner.

Ingredients : Left over rice, sauages, crabstick, deboned fried fish meat, chopped carrots, frozen peas, chopped long beans, chopped garlic, & 4 eggs.

Little Chef's handy helper couldn't resist beating the eggs

The final product. Served with chilli, tomato ketchup if you like.

Pan Mee Homemade Style

Forgive the poor photography... was starving & trying to snap a shot of it ;)

This is my MIL's homemade recipe. The normal Pan Mee available at the hawker stalls usually flatten their noodle dough with a little noodle make machine. It's either flat like Fettuccine or round & slim like Spaghetti. Ours at home is just pinched & flatten with our fingers ~ hence, homemade.

To make the dough, just use normal wheat flour (tepung gandum) about 1 kg can make enough for 10 large bowls of noodles.

Sieve the flour into a large round & flat stainless steel pan, add 1 egg & mix it. Then slowly pour in salted water into the dough. It shouldn't be too wet. So just slowly add as much salted water until all dry flour becomes a sticky dough. Then you'll have to knead it like making bread.

Boy! Speak about inexperience : it took me 40mins to actually knead the dough into shape. It was tiring! Sorry, my hands are not that strong :p

Leave the dough to sort of soften / expand.

Our soup base is made of anchiovies (ikan billis). Then we used already sauteed mushrooms which were previously steamed. Sliced them to desired bite size pieces. Pork slices were marinated with L&P sauce, Xiao Shing Wine, Dark Soya Sauce & Light Soya Sauce ~ stir fried with chopped garlic.

Start pinching & flattening out your Pan Mee dough into bite size pieces. Don't allow it to be too thick as it'll be uncooked in the middle. Throw them into your pot of Anchiovie Soup Base together with some Choi Sum (or any favourite veg) and let it come to boil. When your Pan Mee pieces start to float.

Dish your desired amount of Pan Mee & Choi Sum into bowl & add sliced mushrooms & pork slices. Garnish with fried shallots. :)

Pork Ribs Special

This is a slight variation from the Pork Ribs in Special Sauce per "Dinner for 6" blog

Ingredients:

600g Pork Ribs

Marinade:
1 Egg White
Sprikles of Masterfoods All Purpose Seasoning

1 Tbsp Xiao Shing Wine

1 Tsp Sesame Oil

Sauce:
3 Tbsp Tomato Ketchup
1 Tbsp Xiao Shing Wine
2 Tbsp Lee Perrins Sauce
2 Tbsp Teriyaki Marinade Sauce
1 Tsp Dark/Sweet Soya Sauce

Method:
1. Wash pork ribs and add in the marinade. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or longer.
2. Heat your frying pan with just enough oil for deep frying. I personally prefer to use a non-stick for this. Keep the flames at medium heat. Once the oil is hot enough, start to deep fry your pork ribs. Put them aside.
3. Remove the access oil from frying pan. Pour in your sauce mix & heat it up. Taste it to your liking ie salty enough or not. Then add the fried pork ribs & just stir it into the sauce.
Ready to be served. ~ this seems to be a favourite base on feedback of Inlaws :p

Mushroom Chicken Tau Fu

Wasn't sure what to do with the tau fu (beancurd) initially. Then I thought, why not cook it with minced chicken & dried shitake mushrooms. Didn't really have a recipe to follow but did get an inspiration from Popes Minced Pork with Potatoes dish which I had for lunch last week.

Ingredients
1 Large White Tau Fu
4 Large Shitake (pre-sauteed/cooked with light soya sauce, sesame oil & dash of pepper) ~ sliced
400g Minced Chicken (can always substitute with Beef or Pork)
1 Tbsp Garlic ~ chopped

Marinade
1 Tbsp Dark Soya Sauce
1 Tbsp Light Soya Sauce
1 Tbsp Corn Flour
Dash of Pepper

Seasoning
2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
1/2 - 1 Cup of Water
2 Tbsp Corn Flour diluted in water
2 Tsp Dark Soya Sauce

Method
1. Cut Tau Fu into bite size pieces, coat it with egg yolk/together with egg white & a little bit of flour.
2. Fry Tau Fu in oil till golden in colour. Put aside.
3. Marinade the Mince Chicken & keep refridgerated for at least 2 hours.
4. Heat wok with oil, fry chopped garlic & minced chicken with sliced mushrooms. Add the water & let it boil a bit. Then add the prefried Tau Fu & the rest of the seasoning. Add a little bit more water if it becomes too dry. Let it cook a while for the flavours to be absorbed into the Tau Fu.

Serve with Rice.

Lou Siew Peng On & other dishes

This dish is a simple dish which my MIL taught me. It's soft and safe enough for the very old & very young to eat.

Ingredients
3 Eggs
1 Toufu (white)
4 Tbsp Fish Paste (can be bought or home made)
1/2 Cup of Water



Seasoning
1 Tbsp Soya Sauce
Dash of Pepper



Method
1. Mix the Toufu & Fish Paste together.
2. Add the 3 eggs (beaten) & 1/2 cup water together with seasoning
3. Steam over low heat/fire for 20 minutes or so.


Garnish with spring onions & serve



The other dishes that accompanied dinner.

Steamed Lap Cheong with Mushroom

I've never eaten Lap Cheong this way before married. This is how my MIL likes to cook it.

Method

1. Scald the Lap Cheong in boiling water awhile. This is to sort of clean it & also make it easier to remove the skin.

2. Slice the Lap Cheong to desired bite size. Add in chopped garlic, a dash of soya sauce & sliced shitake mushrooms (optional).

3. Steam for 20 minutes

Serve with white rice.

Some vegetable dishes Stir Fried Romanne with sliced garlic, Stir Fried French Beans with sliced ham, and Vegetarian ~ Harm Choi with Vegetarian Fish Balls & Tauhu

Simple Dinner

After not having to prepare dinner for the family in 2 weeks due to half of them travelling for work, I'm back to my Little Chef duties.



Didn't really get to plan much, MIL pretty much took out whatever left in the fridge for me to cook. We had just 4 dishes to feed 8 of us. Stir fried Lettuce with Anchovies, Bak Neng (Minced Pork with Egg) ~ all time favourite, Stir Fried Cauliflower with sliced pork & carrots.
There's a 4th dish which was Steamed Fish with Mui Choi ~ sorry no pic of this, the fish was devoured before I could snap a photo :p

Double Mushroom Tofu

I started off with just Tofu & 1 box of mushrooms but thought it would look rather bare & insufficient. Then I noticed some pre-soaked Shitake Mushrooms & Lilly Buds my MIL soaked for a steamed fish dish she prepared for FIL. Hmmm, this would add flavour to my dish!

The Shitake Mushrooms were diced up. This dish is pretty easy to prepare & cook. Just make sure you have sliced ginger stir fried first before adding in the mushrooms & lilly buds. Add desired amount of water for your gravy (suggest using the mushroom soaked water, adds to the flavour). Once your mushrooms start to cook, add in the Tofu. For taste, add in 2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce. If it isn't salty enough for you, a pinch of salt / dash of light soya sauce.

What's new? Bak Neng

Main menu ingredients for tonight's dinner. Four dishes made up of:
1. Fried Kembong Fish
2. Stir Fried Sweet Potato Leaves
3. Bak Neng
4. Fried Kacang Botol a.k.a Four Angled Beans



Bak Neng ~ Literally Pork Egg in Hokkien


Ingredients:

350g Minced Pork (I used Pork Fillet / Tenderloin and minced it myself)

4 Eggs

2 stalks Spring Onions - cut into 3cm in length

1 Tbsp Tau Chu



Marinade:
1 Tbsp Xiao Shing Wine
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Pepper
1 Tbsp Garlic - chopped finely (I chose to use already prefried chopped garlic - adds a different flavour to it)

Method:
1. Marinade minced pork for 2 hours at least.
2. Beat the 4 eggs into the marinated mince pork & stir it.
3. Heat wok with 3 - 4 Tbsp Oil. Fry the mince pork omelet. When done, set aside.
4. Add 1/2 cup of water or more and add the 1 Tbsp Tau chu sauce and half of the spring onions. While the sauce is starting to boil, add back the fried pork omelet & cover the wok. Add the balance of spring onions just as you are about to dish it out.

Kacang Botol a.k.a Four Angled Beans

This is an easy veggie dish to prepare. Just cut the Kacang Botol diagonally & fry it with Har Mai & Garlic. For a little spiciness, can add 1 Tsp of Chilli Har Mai (ready made & easily found in your local grocery store) OR sliced Chilli Padi ~ Bird's Eye Chillis. Can add a little water while frying to avoid the wok getting too hot & burnt at the bottom.

Impromptu dishes

Chicken with Potatoes, Carrots & Bamboo Shoots
This was a rather impromptu dish suggested by my MIL for dinner tonight.

Ingredients:
500g Chicken Fillets ~ cut into bite sized pieces & marinated
2 large Potatoes ~ diced into similar size as the chicken
1 small Carrot ~ diced into similar size as the chicken
1/2 can Bamboo Shoots ~ diced into similar size as the chicken



Marinade:
1 Tbsp Xiao Shing Wine
1 Tsp Pepper
1 Tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Corn Flour ~ to be added into marinated chicken just before frying

Sauce:
2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce / Vegetarian Oyster Sauce

1 Tsp Dark Soya Sauce

1 1/2 Cup Water

1 Tsp Corn Flour mixed with 2 Tbsp water

Method:
1. Heat 3 Tbsp oil into wok / frying pan. Stir fry the potatoes for 3 minutes. Dish out & put aside.

2. Stir fry the chicken pieces for a bit and also put aside. Remove access oil, throw in the potatoes again, with carrots & bamboo shoots. Add 1 Cup of water & cover your wok / frying pan. Let it boil a bit.

3. Add in the half cooked chicken pieces and in the sauce. Simmer for another 5 minutes for the potatoes to soften. Taste the sauce to check if it's salty enough for your liking.


Waxed Chinese Sausages 2 types
Simple dish to prepare when running out of ideas. Good to keep some waxed chinese sausages in your stock. It's also very appetising when eaten with white rice.

Just blanch them into hot water for 1 or 2 minutes. Remove the skin. Slice them up and sprinkle chopped garlic and a little light soya sauce. Steam for 20 minutes. Ready to be served.

Sui Kau Sunday

Pork Dumplings a.k.a Sui Kau

A local common favourite amongst the Chinese Community here in KL. Pork Dumplings can be found at most noodle stalls served on it's own with soup or with noodles.

Basic ingredients of water chestnuts. Peeled & diced.





A close up of what diced waterchestnuts look like :p
Next basic ingredient is diced carrots. Preferrable diced smaller as carrots can be harder to get cooked. Don't want them too chunky.
The chinese celery and "Mok Yee" (Wood Ear Fungus) should be sliced thinly.


Of course the prawns, deshelled & diced. Seasoning of pepper, Xiao Shing Wine & a little Light Soya Sauce.

Mix the minced pork (approx 1kg) with all the above ingredients and can start to wrap them in wanton skin. Seasoning with Oyster Sauce, Sesame Oil, Pepper.

Cook the Sui Kau in hot water. Once it's cooked, the Sui Kau will float to the top.

Mix the cooked Sui Kau with some Sesame Oil. This is to avoid them getting stuck to each other.Voila! They are ready to be eaten :)

Tip : Even though you will have alot of Sui Kau that may not be eaten all at once, Cooking them first and then keeping them refridgerated / frozen will prolong it's shelf life.