Fried Spagetti

This was inspired by the need of feeding my family a healthy breakfast besides the normal bread, cereals, yogurt combo. :p

Fried Spagetti

Ingredients
3/4 Spagetti pack
2 Cups Taugeh (Beans sprouts)
4 pieces of Fish Cake sliced thinly
1 punnet of Mushrooms (fresh - any kind you like)
1 piece of Fried Taufu (thin type) sliced thinly
2 Eggs (Omellete style for garnishing)

2 Tbsp Soya Sauce
1 Tbsp chopped Garlic
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Oyster Sauce

Method
1. Boil water to cook the spagetti & set aside.
2. Fry the eggs into an omellete. Slice & set aside for garnishing.
3. Fry the sliced pre-fried thin type of Taufu & the sliced Fish Cake. Once brown a bit, set aside. Fry the chopped garlic with mushrooms & add Oyster Sauce.
4. Next add the Taugeh (Beans Sprouts) & stir fry for 30 seconds & add the spagetti, taufu & fish cake. Fry the spagetti until everything starts to be fragrant, then it's ready to be served.

Add soya sauce to taste. Garnish with egg.

Dhal Curry

I was inspired by greenhoihoi's version of dhal curry during one of my many visits to her house for chit chat or to grab a bite ;) She used pumkin in her version of dhal curry. Since I had 1/2 of a pumpkim lying in the fridge plus had all the other ingredients available, I made my own dhal curry!

Of course I did some research on what other recipes ingredients involved especially their spices used and I improvised them into my own recipe.

Ingredients
1/4 Pumpkin
1 Round Brinjal / Aubergine
3 Potatoes
1 Medium Carrot
1 Medium Red Onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 Cup Dhal
1/2 Cup Red Lentils
1 Tsp Tumeric Powder
1 Tsp Curry Powder
a pinch of Cumin Seeds & Mustard Seeds
Salt to taste

Method
1. Soak dhal & lentils over night. Rinse & place in pot
2. Cut all vegetables to bite size pieces & add them into the pot. Add water enough to cover all vegetables
3. Cook in medium fire/flame. Stir occasionally & can add a little bit of water if not enough.
4. Cook till dhal & lentils are soft.

Serve with Roti Canai or Chappati! Initially I wanted to make my own Chappati also but couldn't get the Atta Flour around my housing area :p ~ it will be my next recipe!

Kak 'Ain's Nasi Tomato & Ayam Masak Merah

Thanks Kak Nor'ain for sharing your recipes :) I've given them a try here though I bet yours tastes way better than mine! Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

NASI TOMATO
Ingredients
4 cups of brasmati, washed and strained
4 garlic, 8 shallots, 3 cm ginger, grind till fine
1daun pandan
1 cinnamon stick
5 cardamons
3 star anise
4 cloves
2 tablespoon Ghee
2 tablespoon cooking oil
1 cup ideal milk
1 cup coconut milk
1 and a half cup HEINZ tomato soup
2 and a half cup water
salt to taste
1 tablespoon sugar

Method
1. Heat the cooking pot, melt the Ghee and oil.
2. Once the oil is hot enough, put in the cinnamon stick, star anise, cloves and cardamons. Stir.
3. When you can smell the aroma from the spices, add the grounded ingredients. keep on stirring, until there is no more water left, and oil can be seen in between the grounded ingredients.
4. Add daun pandan and the liquid (milk, santan, tomato soup, water plus salt and sugar). Let it boil, while stirring from time to time.
5. Once boiled, add the rice. Keep on stirring from time to time. When the liquid is almost dried, lower the fire to the minimum level and cover the pot.

AYAM MASAK MERAH
Ingredients
1 chicken cut into small pieces, marinate with tumeric powder and salt for 20 minutes.Then fry till half cooked.

Blend 4 garlics, 12 shallots, 3 cm ginger till fine.

1 cinnamon stick, 2 star anise, 5 cardamon, 3 Tbsp blended dried chilli (rebus dulu cili tu sebelum blend), 7 Tbsp tomato ketchup, 4 Tbsp chilli sauce & a little asam jawa mixed with water, salt & sugar

Method

1. Heat the wok, add oil, when it's hot, add the blended ingredients plus cinnamon, star anise and cardamon.

2. Stir until water is dried and oil can be seen oozing out from the ingredients.

3. Add the blended dried chilli, again keep on stirring till oil starts to form. Then add the sauces, let it boil before adding the half cooked chicken.

4. Stir thoroughly and add salt and sugar to taste.you can also add santan or ideal milk to have a different taste to it

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

Tempeh madness

Tempeh madness? Well, my MIL's maid enjoys eating Tempeh. It's more common among Malay cuisine over here than a Chinese cuisine. However, thanks to "Flavours" magazine which had a feature on Tempeh some time back... I got some rough ideas from it & also what I saw being sold at our local "Ekonomi" rice stalls.

I whipped up :

1) Tauchu Tempeh with Tau Kwa (Firm Tauhu) &

2) Dry Sambal Tempeh

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 packet Tempeh - cut into bite size pieces

1 piece TauKwa (Firm Taufu) - cut into bite size pieces

1 Tbsp Taucheo (Fermented Bean Paste)

1 Tsp Garlic chopped

Method

1. Heat wok with 3 Tbsp Oil. Fry the Tempeh till golden brown & set aside. Repeat the same with the TauKwa.

2. Leave about 1 Tbsp of oil remaining in wok, stir fry the chopped garlic & Taucheo abit. Then toss in the pre-fried Taukwa & Tempeh together. May add a bit of water if it's too dry.

Serve with white rice.

Serves 2
Ingredients
1 packet Tempeh - cut into bite size pieces
1 piece TauKwa (Firm Taufu) - cut into bite size pieces

2 Tbsp Rempah (homemade - garlic, shallots, serai, tumeric etc)
1 Tsp Garlic chopped

Method
1. Heat wok with 3 Tbsp Oil. Fry the Tempeh till golden brown & set aside.
2. Leave about 1 Tbsp of oil remaining in wok, stir fry the chopped garlic & rempah until fragrant. Then toss in the pre-fried Tempeh. May add a bit of water if it's too dry.

Serve with white rice.

Sweet & Sour Dory Fish

With a new kitchen available, I've been motivated a bit more to prepare fresh & nutritous meals for my kids after they come back from Kindy.

So off I went to Carrefour to get some groceries & ended up with frozen Dory Fish Fillet. My son in particular LOVEs Sweet & Sour sauce... so here was one of his enjoyable moments of lunch food :)

Fried the Dory Fish Fillet - cut up to bite size bits. I added cornflour & 1 egg to fry them. I should have used just the egg yolk / whites as the whole egg resulted with fish fried in egg.

Tried this with Maggie's Sweet & Sour packet ~ powdered form sauce (add water). Taste was nice though I added Maggie Tomato Ketchup for more thickness & colour. I added Red Onions ~ quartered, Yello Capsicum ~ chopped & Red Chilli ~ sliced

I also prepared a simple soup to accompany our lunch that day. Used Miso base (unsalted), 1 Tbsp Fried Ikan Billis (anchiovies), 2 small potatoes, 1 tomato, and 1 medium red onion & salt to taste.

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

Malaysian Nasi Lemak

My absolutely favourite breakfast choice! If I could, I'd have it almost everyday like all the other working Malaysians! It's the tastiest & most conviniently found breakfast sold anywhere.

Will share the recipe soon.... (to be cont'd)


My little satisfied customers (^_^)... though they didn't have chilli sambal, theirs was a vegetarian tomato base sauce (cucumber, tomatoes, onions & little buttom mushrooms)

Classic Potato with Minced Chicken

One of my childhood favourites : Potato with Mince Chicken! I was reminiscing about this dish... so I decided to recreate my mother's easy & common dish.

Ingredients:
3 large potatoes ~ diced
1 large red onion ~ diced
1 cinnamon stick
300g minced chicken

Seasoning:
1 Tbsp Soya Sauce
2 Tsp Xiao Shing wine
pinch of white pepper
1 Tsp Sesame Oil

Sauce:
1 Tbsp Dark Soya Sauce
1/2 Cup water
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Heat oil and fry cinnomon stick & diced onions till fragrant. Then add potatoes & stir fry till half cooked.

2. Add the marinated minced chicken and keep stir-frying. Add water, Dark Soya Sauce and salt to taste.


Best eaten with fluffy white rice! Leftovers - if any can be used as sandwich fillings ;)

Chicken Pongteh

Adapted from Mary Gomes Best Seller recipe book called "The Eurasian Cookbook". Her recipe is actually Babi Pongteh found in pg.56.

As I wasn't sure whether I bought the correct cut of "tweebak" a.k.a. Lean Pork with Skin (from hind leg)... I replaced it with whatever chicken I had in my freezer i.e chick ribs & some drummets :p INNOVATE seems to be the "IN" word since 2007.

Ingredients

700g chicken parts ~ chopped to bite size pieces

10cm cinnamon stick ~ wash

4 onions }

7 cloves of garlic } to be blended till a fine paste

350g bangkwang a.k.a "yam bean" / "jicama" ~ peeled & cut into wedges/cubes

3 medium size potatoes ~ peeled & cut into wedges/cubes

2 or 3 Tbsp Oil

2 Tbsp grounded Taucheo a.k.a. preserved & salted soya beans

2 Tbsp Dark Soya Sauce

2 Tbsp Sugar

1/2 Tbsp Salt

720ml water

Method

1. Heat oil in Wok/Pot. Fry the cinnamon, onion & garlic paste till light brown & fragrant.
2. Add the Taucheo & fry for 1 min
3. Add the chicken & sitr-fry for anther 3 mins
4. Add the dark soya sauce, sugar, salt & water.
5. When chicken is half-cooked, add the Bangkwang & cook covered for 15 mins.
6. Finally add potatoes & cook till tender, bangkwang is soft, and stew thickens.

This was a HIT with the Inlaws (most importantly my kids enjoyed the dish) though...

my MIL somehow has some sort of "phobia" against too much spices. She keeps reminding me not to follow the recipe to the dot when it comes to spices like cloves, star of anise, fennel, cardamons etc. She's not clear to her reason behind it which I suspect from a Chinese Medicinal point of view certain spices may not be too good for you if you over consume especially if you suffer from certain illnesses.

Am no Chinese Medicine expert so instead of arguing the authenticness of her belief to be factual, I've just resorted to an acknowledgement & reiterated that the Pongteh only has 1 cinnamon stick :p to which she comments the taste of spices is a bit strong... it's just garlic & onion paste! Ha! There you go.. even the experienced tongues can be mislead ;)

Leftover Fried Chicken

We had half of a fried chicken left over from the other day. So to recreate a new dish from it, we have something like a "Kong Po Kai" (cantonese)

1. Add a bit of cornflour & egg white to the Fried Chicken.
2. Refry the chicken & set aside.
3. Heat 3 Tbsp oil in wok & fry the chopped garlic, a bit of "har mai", curry leaves & chilli padi until fragrant.
4. Add your refried chicken & lastly your sliced red onions.

Best served with rice :)

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

Nasi Lemak

I haven't had a chance to try it out myself just yet. But here are some simple recipes from our very own Malaysians. This is for the benefit of my dear frens living abroad & craving some good old Nasi Lemak :)

http://www.norlia.com/recipe_nasi_lemak_english.htm

http://www.malaysianfood.net/recipes/recipenasilemak.htm

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Malaysian-Nasi-Lemak/Detail.aspx

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. :)

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.