Glutinous Rice Rolls

This is made for our last breakfast for the year 2010 - Glutinous Rice Rolls. Since I had the whole week off from work, I had decided to give this recipe a try as Hubby loves glutinous rice and this is something new that we haven't try before; I told myself - 'Why not give it a try'. For those who don't know, I am not good in making Pau items as I always have difficulty in 'wrapping up' the dough with its filling. Anyway, that was certainly not an excuse for not attempting again.

Cooking the filling for this rolls was a pretty easy task as we just need to fry all the ingredients before rolling it up with the Pau dough. As I had anticipated, I was still a 'mess' in rolling up up the fillings. Nevertheless, I had managed to complete the task. WELL DONE for myself *clap clap clap*.

Special Message to Hubby here:

Thanks for always being by my side for all the ups and downs in our life. Hope that the year 2011 will a great year for you, I and of course for US. I love you!

Ingredients

Skin
(A)
400g pau flour
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp instant yeast
30g shortening
(B)
200ml water

Filling
200g glutinous rice (soaked for 4 hours, steamed till cooked)
2 tbsp dried shrimps (soaked, drained and chopped)
3 shallots, diced
7 mushrooms (soaked, drained and diced)
200g minced pork
2 tbsp oil


Seasoning
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp pepper

Methods

1. Place Pau flour on a clean working area. Make a well in the centre. Add in remaining (A) ingredients. Add (B) slowly, mix into a dough and knead with both hands till it becomes elastic. Cover and rest dough for 30 minutes.
2. Add 2tbsp oil to wok, saute onions, dried shrimps and mushrooms. Stir well, add in pork and seasoning. Add in glutinous rice, stir till its well mixed. Set aside.
3. Roll out the dough into a long roll. Cut into four parts, and roll out each part into rectangular shapes. Roll the filling using a plastic sheets (microwave wrap) to the same length as the dough.
4. Place filling on top of the dough. Flip over to encase the filling. Place a parchment paper below the glutinous roll and repeat for the remaining ingredients.
5. Steamed the rolls in a wok with boiling water. Steam over medium heat for 5 minutes and serve.

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ABC Soup

Boiling, boiling, boiling hot...

A simple soup to warm our hearts and tummy for the Winter Solstice dinner. ABC soup as easy as its' name tell us, it consist of carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, any type of meat (I had used chicken parts) and added with salt and peppercorns to taste. Yummy and simple for anyone of us.

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Dry Bak Kut Teh

Since we were staying nearby the famous Bak Kut Teh town, thus it is quite weird if I don't try to make this dish on my own. There's two version of Bak Kut Teh in Klang - the soupy type and also the dry type. For our Winter Solstice dinner celebration, I had decided to try out making the dry type at home to serve to our guests. It was much easier than I had thought it would be in preparing this dish.

Boiling the soup till the gravy thickens.

My home made - dry Bak Kut Teh.

Ingredients

(A)

1 pack Bak Kut Teh spices

1 kg belly meat (cut into bite size pieces)

4 garlic

2 litres hot water

salt and pepper to taste

(B)

10 dried chillies

2 tbsp thick soy sauce

50g dried squid (fried)

3 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tsp sugar

(C)

lady fingers, sliced

shao xing wine to taste

Methods

1. Place A in a wok, bring to boil. Reduce to low heat and cook for 45 minutes.
2. Remove meat, place in a claypot. Add in B and adequate soup to cover the ingredients.
3. Bring to boil. Stir in wine and cook till gravy thickens. Stir in lady fingers to cook.
4. Serve hot.

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Kai Lan with Chinese Sausages

I had used up 4 Chinese sausages for this dish

*desperately wanted to finish up the Chinese sausages in the fridge*

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil

5 slices ginger

1 tsp garlic, chopped

1 pair Chinese sausages (I had used 2 pairs)

200 g Kai Lan

Seasoning

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp oyster sauce

adequate water

1 tsp corn flour solution, thickening

sesame oil to taste

Methods

1. Heat up oil in wok. Stir fry garlic and ginger till fragrant. Add in sausages.
2. Add in Kai Lan, seasoning and stir fry till well mix.
3. Thicken with corn flour, sesame oil and stir well.
4. Dish up and serve hot.

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Hot and Spicy Garlic Steamed Fish

Recently we had been ordering steamed fish every time we had our dinner outside. Thus, I wanted to look for a recipe for steamed fish for this special dinner as well. In the past, I had always felt that it is a challenge to prepare fish dishes. Not to say that I had mastered the skill, but I am starting to be more confident nowadays with steaming fishes after a few try till date. So Hubby had personally hand picked the Siakap fish from Tesco the other day, so we will be having steamed fish as well for Winter Solstice dinner.

At the steamer

After steamed

Ready to be serve - best eaten while it's hot.

Ingredients

(A)

3 tbsp oil
6 tbsp garlic, chopped

8 chilli padi, chopped

5 limes, squeezed

4 stalks spring onions, chopped

Seasoning

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp sesame oil

1 fish, around 1 kg

Methods

1. Heat up oil. Stir fry garlic till fragrant, mix A with seasoning. Stir fry for a few minutes. Dish up and set aside.
2. Place fish on the steamer. Steamed for 5 minutes. Throw the 'fishy' water from the fish.
3. Place the fish again on the steamer. Pour the mixture over the fish. Steamed for approximately 20-25 minutes.
4. Garnish with some spring onions on top. Serve hot.

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Herbal Chicken

Chicken is a commonly prepared dish especially when it comes to Chinese celebration. So I guessed it's a SOP to have in my dinner dishes for this Winter Solstice dinner in our house. Since I am cooking all by myself, the simpler the preparation of the dishes involve, the easier my life will be in the kitchen. So here's another simple dish that I had chosen for the menu - Herbal Chicken. Just marinate, dump everything inside the aluminium foil and put on a steamer.

Yummy Yummy...

I had placed in lots of wolfberries as well.

Ingredients

1 kampung chicken

8 slices dang qui

3 tbsp wolfberries

2 tbsp ginger, shredded

Seasoning

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp Shao Xing wine

1/2 tbsp sugar

1 aluminium foil

Methods

1. Marinate the chicken with seasoning. Leave overnight in fridge.
2. Place in remaining ingredients and wrap in aluminium foil.
3. In wok, bring water to boil. Place the wrapped foil into wok. Steamed over 45mins-1 hour in medium heat.
4. Serve hot.

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Winter Solstice 2010

22nd December 2010 - was the Winter Solstice for the Chinese. During the old days, families will gather around to have their reunion dinner as it was said to be the most important day in the Chinese Lunar calendar. But in the modern days. I guessed this was not popularly practice anymore as people are busier nowadays and often this date falls in the middle of the week where working ones can't make it back to their respective home town. I had tried to practice and celebrate this dinner in KL even though we can't go back to be with our parents. This year I had invited a few friends to join us (Hubby and I) for dinner. At least we celebrate it with friends while we are away from home. We get to eat some Tong Yuen and spend some time with each other.

Ready made Tong Yuen - for lazy people like me.

I had used brown sugar for the syrup instead of normal white sugar. Added Osmanthus as well.

The feast I had prepare - minus the Satay on the table.

Happy Winter Solstice 2010!

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Simmered Chicken Wing with Mushrooms

Another chicken wing dish as I had bought a cook book all about chicken wings dishes. I love the presentation of this dish as I felt this dish is very suitable to be served during special occasion like family dinners since there's plenty of goodies in it - e.g mushrooms, broccoli and chicken. I had took my own sweet time arranging them in a presentable manner - just like in the chinese restaurant but now we are having it in the comfort of our own home in Kuantan. JOM JOM Makan time....:)

Ingredients

8 chicken wings
8 Chinese mushrooms, soaked and de-stem
100g brocolli
1 thumb size ginger, sliced
1 stalk spring onion, sectioned
300ml water

Seasoning
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp Shao Xing wine
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp dark soy sauce

Methods

1. Blanch chicken wings into boiling water. Dish out and drained. Keep aside.
2. Heat up 3 tbsp oil. Stir-fry spring onions and ginger till fragrant. Add in wings and mushrooms. Stir well till aromatic.
3. Add water and seasoning. Bring to boil and simmered at low heat for 10 minutes. Add broccoli and stir well.
4. Lastly, thicken with cornstarch solutions. Dish up and serve hot.

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Pan Fried Tofu Pancakes

This is different form of pancakes you can make as a change from the conventional ones using mainly flour. We have here Tofu Pancakes. It's main ingredients as mentioned in the name - Tofu. You can add in different variety of ingredients in making them. I have Chinese sausages and spring onions in making this. Maybe for shrimps lovers, you can throw in some small shrimps as well. It's best eaten while is hot as it will lose it's crispiness after being left for some time.

Baked cookies from the picture but they don't taste like cookies, it's tofu pancakes!

A close up of my pancakes.

Ingredients

3 block of soft tofu, mashed

6 tbsp tapioca flour

2 Chinese sausages, diced

3 stalks spring onions, chopped

3/4 tsp five spice powder

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp pepper

Methods

1. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Add a bit water if the mixture is too dry.
2. Heat up 2 cup of oil. Spoon 1 tbsp tofu mixture into wok and deep fry until both side are brown. Repeat with the rest of the tofu mixture.
3. Dish up and serve hot.

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Dong Po Pork

It's another porkylicious post for the day. I have always enjoyed this dish as I love the melt in my mouth feeling with every bite of this sinful dish. Let's just say, we need to forget about cholesterol and etc while enjoying them. My first experience in having this yummy dish was with a bunch of my colleagues back then in Esquire Kitchen. It was just pure heaven as I remembered correctly during that time. It's been quite some time since I had savoured this dish in the restaurant. So it's back to memory lane for me to have my first attempt to make this dish ALL by myself. The verdict after making them - IT'S WORTH IT! LOVE IT TO THE MAX! That's the same comments from my family too. :D

Layers of fat is essential in Dong Po Pork and the skin just melted when you bite it.

Pour the gravy on the meat. You're ready for an 'sinful' porkylicious journey.

Cut it with scissors so that every one can have a fair share of the meat.. Hehe...

Can you see the goodness of the Dong Po Pork. Soft and moist meat chunks infused with the aromatic gravy and of coz not forgetting the melt in your mouth soft jelo like skin.

You can steamed some flower buns or mantou to be eaten together with Dong Po Pork too. SLURP SLURP !

Ingredients

1kg pork belly, skin on

100g spring onions
50g ginger

500g Shao Xing Wine
100gm light soy sauce
20gm dark soy sauce
80gm brown candy sugar

cornstarch solution

Methods

1. Bring a pot of water to boil and cook pork belly for 5 minutes. Drain.
2. Cut spring onions into long lengths to fit base of pot. Slice ginger and sprinkle over.
3. Put boiled pork belly onto spring onions, skin side down.
4. Put in both soy sauces and sugar. Lastly wine. Add some water if the liquid level is too low. Make sure the pork is at least almost covered with liquid but remember not to add to much water in the pot. (I had made a mistake here, thus I needed to add in more Shao Xing wine later to enhance the flavour)
5. Bring pot to a boil on high heat, reduce to low and simmer for 2 hours (flipping the pork halfway), or until it is tender enough to be easily poked thru with a chopstick.
6. Remove pork belly (no gravy) from pot and put into a steaming dish, skin side up.
7. Steam on high heat for 30 minutes.
8. Add some cornstarch solution to the gravy in the pot to thicken it. Let it boil for another 5-10 minutes.
9. Pour gravy (in pot) over pork when it has finished steaming.
10. Serve with buns or mantou.
    

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Grilled Corn On The Cob

A very easy side dish to prepared during BBQ events. All we need is to get some fresh corns and grilled them over the grill. Brush with butter, salt and pepper. Voila, freshly grilled corn ready to be served. Very simple but yet still tasty. :)

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BBQ Baby Potatoes

Baby potatoes filled with herbs and olive oil flavour

This is one of the side dishes that I had selected as part of our BBQ dinner menu. As I had just come back from a short trip from Cameron Highlands, I had bought some baby potatoes from Cameron. Thus this is a perfect time for me to prepare this yummy side dish.

Ingredients

750g baby potatoes, unpeeled

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp thyme leaves

2 tbsp salt

Methods

1. Boil baby potatoes until just tender. Drain and lightly dry with paper towels.
2. Put potatoes into large bowl. Add oil and thyme. Toss gently and leave for 1 hour.
3. Grill potatoes for 15-20 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot.

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Nam Yee Honey Chicken Wing

For Nam Yee lovers, you can tried this type of marinades for your BBQ.

Ingredients

10 chicken wings

2 pcs Nam Yee

1 tbsp oyster sauce

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp malt sugar / honey

1 tbsp Shao Xing wine

1 tbsp sugar

Methods

1. Rinse chicken wings and drain well. Season with marinade for 4-5 hours or best overnight.
2. Placed chicken wings on the grill. Grill for 15-20 minutes until cooked thoroughly and golden in colour. Serve hot or warm.

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Smokey Sweet Sauce Chicken Wing

Smokey Sweet Sauce Chicken Wing ready to be served to our guests.

My second recipes for my BBQ wing - a sweet and garlicky flavoured chicken wings. For those who have a sweet taste buds, you can opt to try this flavour out as well.

Ingredients

10 chicken wings
3/4 cup brown sugar
6 cloves garlic, diced
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper

Methods

1. Rinse and cleaned chicken wings. Pat it dry.
2. Mix all ingredients of the marinade in a large bowl.
3. Add the wings and toss to coat evenly. Marinade 4-5 hours or best overnight.
4. Grill the wings on the gas grills for 15-20minutes until its brown in colour.
5. Serve warm or hot.
   

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Grilled Mayo Black Pepper Chicken Wing

My first grilled wing from the new gas grill. It was very peppery flavoured.

This is the first selected recipes for my chicken wings. The main ingredients used for the marinades were mayo and black pepper. The wings were infused with the black pepper flavour with subtle taste of mayo. Give it a try if you're looking for some new recipes for BBQ chicken wings instead of the conventional honey baked BBQ ones.

Ingredients

10 pcs chicken wings
1 tsp black pepper
4 cm fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp sweet soy sauce/kicap manis
2 ½ tbsp of mayonnaise
salt to taste

Methods

1. Clean and wash chicken wings and pat it dry.
2. Put the rest of the ingredients into a blender and blend into a paste.
3. Marinate the wings with the paste for at least 4 hours or overnight.
4. Grill for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.
   

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The Wings Galore

Chicken wings is always a must when it comes to BBQ session. Few reasons for it to be the must have items in the BBQ as the wings offers us a more juicy, soft and tender meat, easy to be handle and the meats were not too thick which makes our waiting time for BBQ-ing them much more lesser. This is also the must have items which comes into my mind while preparing for our family BBQ session.

My next posts - all about the WINGS..

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Satay Peanut Sauce

My first attempt of satay peanut sauce. Loved the flavoursome peanut sauce. Yummy!!

How could I not try my hand on making my own satay peanut sauce as I am already preparing the satay on my own. You can read about the satay recipe here. I had made some amendments from the original satay peanut sauce recipe as I felt it was not spicy enough for my liking.

Ingredients

3 cup dry roasted peanuts (unsalted)
2 cup water
3 tbsp sweet soy sauce @ kicap manis
2 1/2 tbsp sugar (palm sugar preferred)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
4 heaped tamarind pulp (soaked in 1/4 cup water for 15 minutes, squeeze the tamarind pulp for juice and discard the pulp)

Spice Paste:

24 dried red chilies (seeded and soaked in warm water)
6 cloves garlic
6 shallots
4 lemon grass (white parts only)
2 inch ginger (galangal preferred)
2 tbsp coriander powder (optional)

Method

1. Crush the peanuts coarsely with mortar and pestle or blender and set aside.
2. Chop the spice paste ingredients and blend until fine.
3. Heat oil and fry the spice paste until aromatic and smell spicy.
4. Add the peanuts, tamarind juice, water, sugar, sweet soy sauce and stir thoroughly.
5. Simmer in low heat while continue stirring for about 3 minutes until the peanut sauce turns smooth. Serve at room temperature with the satay.
   

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Chicken Satay

As I had mentioned previously that I had bought a new gas grill to bring back to Kuantan for my family BBQ dinner. I had searched for satay recipes as I always wanted to make my own Satay and now it's the opportunity to try making satay and utilize my new gas grill. Satay was one of my favourite food items. I always love to dip lots and lots of peanut sauce while having satay. Since it's home made, I had cut the chicken meats into bigger chunks as I love a more meaty bite for my satay.

Marinated chicken meat thread into bamboo skewers

Hot from my newly bought grill.

One set of my home made Satay to be served.

Ingredients

6 chicken thighs, deboned and cut into pieces

Spice Paste:
2 tsp coriander powder
4 stalks lemon grass
12 shallots, peeled
4 cloves garlic, peeled
8 tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp chili powder
4 tsp turmeric powder (kunyit)
8 tsp kicap manis
2 tbsp oyster sauce
bamboo skewers (soaked in water for 2 hours to avoid burning)
1 cucumber, cut into pieces

Methods

1. Cut the chicken meat into small cubes.
2. Grind the Spice Paste in a food processor.
3. Add little water if needed as the spice paste mixture.
4. Marinate the chicken pieces with the spice paste for 10-12 hours or best overnight.
5. Thread the meat on to bamboo skewers and grill for 3-5 minutes each side. Serve hot with fresh cucumber pieces.
   

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My New Toy in Da House

Mummy mentioned about organising a BBQ dinner back in hometown. Since Hubby and I will be heading back Kuantan for this long holiday during the Merdeka week, I had decided to invest in buying a gas grill to be used for the BBQ. Initially I was torn between choosing a charcoal BBQ set or a gas grill type and at the end, my heart sided on the gas grill one as I loved the idea of charcoal-less and less hassle when I wanted to stored the grill back to my store. The only set back of gas grill as I found out after using it was the timing to BBQ the food items are slower as compared to a charcoal ones. It is one of the disadvantages of gas grill but yet it turn out to be an advantage too, we have a lesser tendency of over burning the food items as we couldn't control the fire when it comes to using a charcoal grill.

So everyone, at the end of the day is what you wanted which matters the most. As for me, the most important part is to be able to gather among family members and enjoy the moment of waiting for the grill food to be ready and the chit-chat session in between the waiting time. Now, are you excited to have a look at my new toy...... Here you go.......

My very own professional gas grill.

The interior of the grill.

Let's begin our BBQ session.. Catch up later in my next post for the food items that I had prepared during the dinner..... :)

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Rice Dumpling Festival Pot Luck Dinner Celebration

Rice Dumpling Festival or Dragon Boat Festival falls on the 5th day of the 5th month on the chinese lunar calendar and the festive was celebrate amongst the Chinese. I had took this opportunity to invite a few friends back to our place to have a pot luck dinner and also for them to sample the rice dumplings that we had made over the weekend.

Each of us had bought different varieties of food for the dinner. Since changing job, I have lesser time to actually cook. Thus for an easy way out, is to 'tar pau' food items and invite friends over with the theme 'Pot Luck'. Hehe.. (Lame excuses rite.... :p). Wanna know what we had over the dinner? We had lots and lots of food and as usual we were practically stuffed maximum before the dinner ends..... ^Burp burp burp^.....

Pork Satay from PJ Old Town Food Court.

Hokkien Mee from Restoran Damansara Hokkien Mee in Uptown

Roast Duck from the famous Loong Foong Restaurant in PJ

Yong Tau Fu from somewhere in Kelana Jaya area

More Yong Tau Fu items

Donashi from Big Apple Donuts

So we had an enjoyable time over the dinner. More pot luck session in the future? I think so... Will try to do it more often especially during festival celebration to create more sense of togetherness as nowadays everyone was really busy with work and own activities.. :)

So for the rest of my readers, I wished you all

'HAPPY RICE DUMPLING FESTIVAL'

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Betty's Midwest Kitchen

This was a backdated post for the month of May. I was looking thru friend's picture on some eateries and found this small gem - Betty's Midwest Kitchen which offers American food. What else after looking at their yummylicious picture, Hubby and I invited our usual 'Makan Kakis' aka CW and LYH for dinner. Note: Please come early if you don't want to wait as the restaurant has limited tables.

So we were there early around 6.20pm. Luckily for us, the restaurant was not packed yet. As we were seated, the diners crowd had started to come in. Phew phew! Lucky for us to be a bit early. The ambience in the restaurant was kinda homely. Pictures and paintings related to America were displayed there and did I mentioned that they served PORK as well. Yummy yummy..

Their menu.

Lemonade - RM 2.50

Root Beer (RM5) - it's recommended according to the menu but I had tasted it, nothing special. It's similar like any Root Beer served outside.

Dog Food aka Gravy Fries (RM7.50) - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. It's so cheeselicious and delicious.

Classical Meatloaf (RM15) - recommended. It's tender and every bit of it was filled with Meat, Meat and Meat.

Pork Chop with C. Gravy (RM20) - CW commented it was okay.

Pork Chop with Apple Sauce (RM20) - LYH don't quite like the taste. Maybe because it was a bit sweet to his preference. For those who love apple crumble, the sauce tasted similar.

Jucy Lucy (RM13.50) - RECOMMENDED. Nice and juicy pork patty.

The verdict: Recommended for western food lovers who wanted a great meal without a 'damaging' price tag. I WILL COME FOR MORE!

Betty's Midwest Kitchen

A-G-40, Jln PJU 1/43,

Aman Suria Damansara,

47301 Petaling Jaya,

Selangor.

03-78800196

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