Hot and Spicy Bean Paste Pork

Bean paste or taucu is a versatile cooking ingredient that can be used in many dishes. Since I had bought a bottle of taucu, I am constantly searching new recipes which use this item. Bean paste was very flavourful and it will help to enhance the flavour in the dishes. This dish is no exceptional either. It was very aromatic and flavourful which definitely increase our appetite as it's gravy was good to be serve rice.

Yummy porkylicious dish... Love the gravy and great to be served with rice.

Can I have another bite please??? Yumz...

Ingredients

400g pork belly, cubed

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 shallots, chopped

6 chili padi, chopped

1 tbsp curry leaves

Seasoning

1 tbsp bean paste (taucu)

1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

1/2 tbsp sugar

150ml water

Methods

1. Blanch pork belly in boiling water till cooked. Dish and drained.
2. Heat up oil, saute garlic and shallots until aromatic. Add in chili padi, curry leaves and stir fry until aromatic.
3. Add in seasoning and stir well. Add in pork, simmer for 20 minutes and stir well. Dish up and serve with rice.

Read more...

Broccoli with Mushrooms

Arrange the blanched broccoli on a serving plate.

Place in mushrooms and carrots in the middle.

Ready to be serve. Let's feast.

Ingredients

1 medium size broccoli, cut into florets

1 carrot, sliced

8 dried mushrooms, soaked with water, cut the stems

5 cloves garlic, diced

8 slices ginger

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

salt to taste

dash of pepper

300ml water

cornflour solution, for thickening

Methods

1. Heat up oil in wok. Saute garlic and ginger till fragrant.
2. Add in mushrooms and carrots. Stir fry until fragrant. Add in seasoning and simmer at low heat for 15 minutes.
3. Blanch broccoli in boiling water until cooked. Dish and drain. Arrange onto a serving plate.
4. Thicken the mushrooms and carrots with cornflour solution and pour over broccoli.
5. Serve hot.

Read more...

Sweet and Sour Pomfret

Pan fry black pomfret till golden brown both sides. Dish up and put on a plate.

Stir fry tomatoes, cucumber and red chili.

Add in sauce mixture. Stir till well mixed. Cooked till cucumber is tender.

Pour the sauce and vegetables on top of the fish. Serve hot.

Greedy me of putting to much veges till the sauce fully covered the fish. Nevertheless, it's still yummy and good.

Ingredients

1 black pomfret, scaled and cleaned
2 tomatoes, quartered
5 cloves garlic, minced
6 red chilli, sliced
2 stalks coriander leaves, chopped

Sauce:
4 tbsp tomato sauce
2 tbsps chili sauce
1 tbsp white vinegar
1-2 tbsp sugar (do a taste test, add more according to your preferences)
1 tbsp of light soy sauce

Methods

1. Make a few deep slits on both side of the fish. Rub both sides of the fish with some salt.
2. Pan-fry with low heat on a non stick pan to ensure that the flesh of the fish is cooked as well. Dish up and place on a plate.
3. Prepare the sauce by mixing the ingredients above and taste it according to your preference.
4. Saute garlic, chili, and coriander till fragrant. Next, add the tomatoes and stir-fry for awhile before adding the previously prepared sauce.
5. Bring to a boil and pour over the fish earlier.
6. Garnish with some coriander leaves and serve hot.
   
   

Read more...

Nian Gao Pancakes

This is my second post on Nian Gao related food. I had saw the posting of this recipe in Vivian's blog which attracted my to tried it out using the second small sized Nian Gao that Mummy had given to me during Chinese New Year. I am trying to use Nian Gao in making food items that I have not tried before. The outlook of the Nian Gao Pancakes does resemble Chinese Pancakes. The method is similar like making pancakes but we had used Nian Gao as the fillings inside. I am pretty happy with the end results. It was very fulfilling to our tummies too. Burp burp.. :)

I had snapped some step by step picture tutorial in the making of this yummy delicacies.

Slice Nian Gao to desired thickness.

Divide dough into 7 portion. Rolled each portion to a ball shape. Flattened each ball.

Place a slice of Nian Gao on top of the flattened dough.

Wrap the dough around the Nian Gao to form a pancake. Repeat the steps again for the rest.

Ready made Nian Gao pancakes prepared to be pan fry.

Add in small amount of oil in a non stick pan. Pan fry pancakes for 4-5 minutes each side.

Nian Gao pancakes ready to be taken out from the non-stick pan.

Eat the pancakes while it's still warm as Nian Gao is still gooey and chewy.

Can you see the Nian Gao filling inside the pancakes?

Yummy yummy!!!

Ingredients

(A)
2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp yeast
1 cup water

(B)
7 slices Nian Gao


Methods

1. Put all the ingredients (A) into a bowl. Mix well.
2. Knead the flour till it becomes a smooth dough.
3. Cover and rest for approximately 30 minutes.
4. Transfer to table top
5. Divide into 7 portions.
6. Shape into balls and rest for 10 minutes.
7. Flattened each ball and wrapped each ball with Nian Gao to form pancakes.
8. Pan fry each side approximately 5 minutes or till it's brown.
9. Dish up and serve while it's hot.
   

Read more...

Nian Gao with Yam Roll

Before frying

Nian Gao in the middle wrapped with popiah skin filled with yam and grated coconut

Lots of Nian Gao rolls for our tea time

Nian Gao was a festive food commonly sighted during Chinese New Year. According to Wikipedia, Nian Gao is a food prepared from glutinous rice and consumed in Chinese cuisine. It is available in Asian supermarkets and from health food stores. While it can be eaten all year round, traditionally it is most popular during Chinese New Year. It is considered good luck to eat Nian Gao during this time, because "nian gao" is a homonym for "higher year." As such, eating Nian Gao has the symbolism of raising oneself higher in each coming year. I had requested a few Nian Gao from Mummy before coming back from Chinese New Year holiday. I had saw this recipe from Wendy's blog and tempted to try it out as it was something different from those I had eaten previously.

Ingredients

1 medium sized yam
1 medium sized Nian Gao
100g fresh grated coconut
popiah skin ( I had used the large size ones)
2 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
egg white to brush on edges

Methods

1. Slice yam and steam until cooked(soft).
2. Mash yam while it’s still hot and put in coconut, salt and sugar. Mix until well combined.
3. Cut Nian Gao to rectangular shape.
4. Place popiah skin onto a flat surface, eg: a plate.
5. Place 1 tbsp of yam and coconut filling onto the skin and lightly spread it out.
6. Place 1 piece of Nian Gao onto yam and wrap it.
7. Brush edge with egg white before rolling up.
8. Fry the prepared rolls in medium- medium low heat until golden.
   

Read more...

Steamed Pomfret with Pork Belly and Ginger

Ingredients

1 pomfret

2 tbsp ginger, sliced

2 tbsp pork belly, sliced

1 tbsp fish sauce

1/2 cup broth (2 tsp chicken stock+water)

1/2 tsp cornflour (for cornflour solution)

pepper to taste

coriander leaves for garnishing

Methods

1. Steamed fish for 5minutes. Pour away the fishy water after steaming
2. Heat oil in wok. Stir fry pork belly, ginger till fragrant. Add in fish sauce, broth, cornflour solution and pepper to taste.
3. Pour the gravy on fish. Steamed for another 5 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Read more...

Spicy Brinjal with Minced Meat in Fermented Bean Paste

Brinjal or eggplant was something that I never like since small. However during my uni days in KL, I had started to grow fond with this plant. One of the reason which influenced me during that time was as a student, we will normally have mixed rice as our lunch. Can you imagine patronizing the same mixed rice stall daily, seven days a week, having the same type of vegetable. Yeap, I bet you can picture the horror too. Thus I need to explore more other varieties of vegetable dishes or else I ought to 'die' of 'jelak-ness' which resulted in me falling in love with brinjal. For the brinjal non-lovers out there, do give them a try. You might fall in love too with them, just like me.

Ingredients

2 brinjals, cut into 2 inch chunks

2 tbsp garlic, minced

2 tbsp minced pork

2 tbsp chili prawn sauce

2 tbsp fermented bean paste (taucu)

1 stalk spring onion, cut 1 inch length

salt and sugar to taste

Methods

1. Heat oil in wok. Deep fry brinjals for a minute. Dish up and drain excess oil.
2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok. Add in garlic. Stir fry till fragrant. Add in minced pork, fermented bean paste and chili prawn. Stir fry till cooked.
3. Add in salt and sugar to taste. Lastly add in spring onion. Give a good stir and dish up.
4. Serve hot.

Read more...

Chicken with Potato

Chicken with potato was a must have dish for me when I was small. I love the aromatic gravy, the crumbly feeling of the potatoes every time I take a bite of it. Mummy used to prepare this for us as we can basically just have this alone with rice. Slurrp slurrp... It was always 'nasi tambah lagi' for me every time I had this. This time it was no exceptional at all. Hubby commented that I seems to have more rice yesterday when I prepared it for our dinner. Calories counter going up here... SOS SOS... I guess I just loved to eat... Piggy piggy me.. *paiseh paiseh*

Ingredients

500g chicken - chopped into pieces
5 shallots - sliced
4 cloves garlic
11/2 inch ginger, sliced
3 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
5 whole cloves
1/4 cup Shaoxing wine
2 cups water
3 potatoes - cut into chunks
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
salt to taste
sugar to taste

Marinade
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp white pepper

Methods

1. Mix together chicken pieces and seasonings, leave to marinade for about 30 minutes or best overnight in fridge.
2. Heat up in wok. Add shallots,stir fry until soft and aromatic.
3. Add in ginger and garlic, stir fry until aromatic.
4. Add in in star anise cinnamon, garlic cloves, stir fry until aromatic.
5. Add chicken pieces, fry until chicken is slightly browned.
6. Pour in Shaoxing wine and simmer awhile.
7. Add in potatoes and just enough water to cover all ingredients.
8. Let it simmer until gravy is thickened (about 30-45 minutes). Thicken with cornflour mixture.
9. Season with salt and sugar to taste.
   

Read more...

Steamed Arrowhead with Chinese Sausages

Arrowhead or 'Nga Ku' was a commonly sighted items around Chinese New Year. I had missed the chance to try out cooking arrowhead last year, so I am determined to try out this recipe this year. I had used recipe from here minus the chicken meat. However, I felt that I don't quite like the taste of arrowhead cooked with this method. Arrowhead chips definitely taste better as compare to the steamed version. Maybe it was just me, there's others who loved steam arrowhead. Happy cooking or frying arrowhead at home during this festive season.

Read more...

Steamed Tofu with Prawns

I was tempted to try this dish as I was attracted to the food presentation by Wokkingmum in her food blog. I had used her recipe for this dish and modified a bit from there. Don't you agree that you will be tempted to try out the tofu by just looking at its presentation.

Read more...

Steamed Salmon

Steamed salmon which was a commonly sighted dish in Hubby's parents dining table. MIL version for her steamed salmon was with garlic and soy sauce only. Thus I am motivated to make and prepared this dish in our own home sweet home too with my very own version. I had added some mushroom into the fish too. Now let me confess one thing here; I am starting to feel regret of buying a big bottle sized of fish sauce last year. It was sitting at my kitchen for a LONG LONG time and it's expiry date is approaching in end March this year. Thus I am determined to try my level best to finish up the fish sauce as much as I could. So guess what seasoning that I had used for the steamed fish here.... Yeap yeap - fish sauce again. What to do rite, I need to prevent ingredient wastage in my kitchen. :)

Ingredients

1 salmon fillet
5 cloves garlic, diced
1 stalk spring onion, cut 1 inch length
3 mushroom, soaked and sliced
2 tbsp fish sauce
4 tbsp water
1 1/2 tsp sugar

Methods

1. Wash and pat salmon fillet dry. Place on a plate and into a steamer.
2. Steam for 5 minutes. Throw away any fishy water from steaming.
3. Add in mushroom and garlic on the fish.
4. Mix fish sauce, water and sugar. Drizzle on top of the salmon.
5. Add in spring onion. Steamed for 10 minutes or till the flesh is flaky.
6. Serve hot.

Read more...

Cantonese Style Yee Mee

Pan fried Yee Mee waiting for the gravy to be pour on top

Yummy - with gravy on top...

Greedy me of using 2 eggs mixture instead of 1 eggs for the gravy which resulted in a clumpy eggy gravy

Ingredients

1 Cantonese Yee Mee

chicken fillets

prawns, de-shelled and de-veined

1 fish cake, sliced
1 garlic, sliced

1 eggs, beaten (I had used 2 instead which makes the gravy more clumpy)

Choy Sum or green vegetables, washed and cut

(A)
1 tsp corn starch
1 tbsp oyster sauce

dash of pepper

(B)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 cups chicken stock

1 tsp of sugar
1 tsp of Shao Xing wine

Thickening
1 tbsp cornflour

2 tbsp water

Methods

1. Heat up oil in wok. Pan fried Yee Mee on both side till slightly brown. Dish up and set aside.
2. Marinate chicken fillets with (A).
3. Heat up 1 tbsp of oil and saute garlic until aromatic. Add in chicken fillets, fish cake and prawns. Stir well and add in (B). Bring the gravy to boil.
4. Add in Choy Sum and corn flour mixture. Lastly add in egg mixture.
5. Bring to boil and pour the hot gravy on the pan fried Yee Mee. Serve hot.
   

Read more...

Steamed Fish with Lemongrass

Ingredients

1 whole fish
4 stalks lemon grass, cut and bruised

Sauce:
2 bulbs garlic, chopped
5 chili padi, sliced
3 tbsp Thai fish sauce
3 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp sugar

Methods

1. Scaled, gutted and cleaned fish. Score fish with 2 diagonal cuts each side.
2. Mix fish sauce, sugar and lime juice. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add chili and garlic to the sauce. Let stand for at least 30 minutes before use to allow the flavors to blend.
3. Placed cleaned fish on steaming tray and steamed for 5 minutes.
4. Throw away excess fish water from the first steaming.
5. Stuff some bruised lemongrass on the fish. Layer the rest of the lemongrass on top of the fish.
6. Pour the sauce mixture onto the fish. Steamed over medium to high heat for 15-20 minutes till the fish is cooked. Serve hot.
   

Read more...

Choy Sum with Oyster Sauce

Preparing stir-fry vegetable is quite simple. You can basically drench the vegetables in boiling water for a minute or two and pour oyster sauce mixture on it and you got a plate of greens serve on the dining table. For garlic lovers, u can even add in some fried garlic oil to enhance the fragrant of the dish.

Ingredients

Choy Sum (or any leafy vegetables)
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp sugar
white pepper to taste

Garlic Oil:
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp oil

Methods

1. Garlic oil: Stir fry the garlic till light brown. Dish out and set aside.
2. Heat oil in wok. Add oyster sauce, water, sugar and pepper. Stir till the mixture is mixed. Dish up and set aside.
3. Bring water to boil. Add 2 drops of oil into boiling water. Blanch the leafy vegetables for a minute or as soon as they turn slightly wilted. Dish up and drain the excess water. Arrange the vegetable on plate.
4. Pour over the oyster mixture on the vegetable and followed by fried garlic oil. Serve immediately.

Read more...

Black Vinegar Chicken

Vinegar trotter is one of my favourite dishes. It's been quite some time since I had cooked this. This round I have used chicken instead of pork trotter due to health reason (less fatty). For recipe, you can refer to here. This dish still taste good though chicken was used but of course if pork trotter was used, this dish will even taste better. Okay okay, no more posting now as I am going to have my second helping of my Black Vinegar Chicken.

Read more...

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'

Read more...

Hokkien Fried Glutinous Rice Dumpling

Duanwu Festival ( 端午節), also known as Dragon Boat Festival, is a traditional and statutory holiday associated with Chinese and other East Asian and Southeast Asian societies as well. For this year, Duanwu Festival falls on 16th June 2010. We had been making our own Chang for the past 2 years, so this year was no exceptional too. Since we had some hands on experience in making Chang previously, the process of making them this year was much more easier. I felt I am getting slightly better in wrapping them, but they still looks very 'odd' to me. In terms of taste wise, the Chang are tastier as compared to the 1st and 2nd batches that we made previously. Words of compliments should be given to my dear Hubby as he is getting more expert in wrapping the Chang. His Chang looked more like those we bought from outside. Thus, I had told him, for next year, I'll be doing all the preparations of the fillings and glutinous rice and he shall be fully in charge for wrapping it.. Hehe... (Not bad idea rite).. :P

So ladies and gentlemen,

let me present to you.....

Our 2010 Chang..........

Hokkien Fried Glutinous Rice Dumplings

Fillings consists of Pork Belly, Skinned Green Beans, Chestnuts, Mushrooms, Chinese Sausages, Dried Shrimps and Salted Egg Yolk

Ingredients

800g glutinous rice

200g skinned green beans

bamboo leaves and strings

(A)

3 tbsp oil

8 cloves garlic, chopped

10 shallots, chopped

2 star anise

4 tsp oyster sauce

1 tsp 5 spice powder

2 tsp pepper

4 tsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

4 tsp sugar

4 tsp salt

(B)

1 tsp 5 spice powder

1 tsp pepper powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

2 tbsp rice wine

4 tsp dark soy sauce

Fillings

500g pork belly

24 chestnuts

24 mushrooms, soaked

50g dried shrimps

2 Chinese Sausages

24 salted egg yolks

Methods

1. Preparation for glutinous rice and skinned green beans: Rinse both separately. Soak separately for 5 hours and drain.
2. For A: Heat up oil. Stir fry garlic, shallots and star anise till fragrant. Add in oyster sauce and stir fry till fragrant. Add in glutinous rice and stir well. Add in 5 spice powder and pepper, stir fry till fragrant. Add in remaining seasoning and stir evenly. Set aside.
3. Rinse pork belly and cut into 24 pieces. Season with B, put in fridge overnight.
4. Soak chestnuts overnight. Pick out skin from slot.
5. Soak mushrooms overnight. Trim the stems. Rinse and squeeze out water.
6. Rinse dried shrimps and soak in water for 15 minutes. Heat up some oil, stir-fry till fragrant. Dish out and set aside.
7. Rinsed salted egg yolk and drained.
8. Wrapping: Overlap 2 bamboo leaves, placed the longer leaf below the shorter. Hold up leaves with hands, fold 1/3 of leaves to form corn shape. Fill cone with a layer of glutinous rice, add in skinned green beans and other fillings in correct sequences and cover with a layer of skinned green beans. Lastly place a layer of glutinous rice and press tightly. Wrap and secure with strings.
9. Base a pot with few bamboo leaves, add in 2 tsp salt and water. Bring to boil with the dumplings. Switch to medium heat and continue boiling for approximately 2 hours.

Read more...