Papaya and Mango Pickles

Ingredients

1 unripe papaya, seeded, skin removed and cut into halves
1 unripe mango, sliced
1 tablespoon salt
5 bird's eye chili
250ml vinegar
250ml water
280g sugar

Method

1. Cut the papaya into a thickness of 1 inch slices then cut each piece into thin slices without cutting all the way through. This allows the pieces to be opened up into a fan shape.


2. Cut the papaya into thin slices if preferred.


3. Put the pieces of papaya in a clean mixing bowl.


4. Add the salt, mix and allow to marinate for about an hour until the papaya turn soft. Remove excess liquid.


5. Put water, vinegar, and sugar into a heavy-based saucepan and bring to a low simmering boil for about 15 minutes. Remove saucepan from the heat and leave aside to cool completely.


6. Pack the papaya slices and chili padi in a glass jar and pour in the cooled vinegar syrup.


7. Allow to marinate for about 2.5 to 3 hours before serving.


8. Store the pickle in the fridge for an extra crunchy taste.
   

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Fried Spring Rolls (Popiah)

Once awhile I will buy some fried spring rolls (popiah) from nearby Malay food stall. But the taste wise or shall I say the ingredients inside was rather not satisfying. Due to increase in pricing for all the food ingredients, we can only get some tiny looking popiah from the stalls. Thus, I decided to make my own spring rolls to satisfy my taste bud. It was really fun to be involve in the whole making process. All the ingredients was very colourful and vibrant. It definitely increase the joy of making them. You don't believe is colourful?? You can have a look from the pictures below..

Happy cooking!!

Picture tutorial of popiah making:

Pan fry diced beancurd till brown. Dish up and set aside.

Sauteed shallots and garlic till fragrant with some oil.

Add in minced prawns. Stir awhile.

Add in diced french beans and shredded carrots.

Stir till well mixed. Add in shredded sengkuang. Stir well sengkuang and the rest of ingredients till it's soft. Add in salt, sugar and pepper to taste. Place a popiah skin on kitchen top. Add in cooked ingredients on top of the skin. Top up with pan fry beancurd. Roll up to form spring roll and set to hot oil to deep fry in wok till golden brown. Juicy inside and crunchy outside spring roll. The filling inside of the spring roll.

Best to serve with chilli sauce or it's good to even eat it on it's own. Thumbs UP!!

Ingredients

3 large prawns (shelled, deveined, and chopped into small pieces)

2 piece bean curd, diced

1 garlic, chopped

3 shallots, chopped

1 sengkuang, shredded

1 carrot, shredded

8 french beans, diced

salt, sugar and pepper to taste

frozen popiah skin

oil

cornstarch solution to seal the skin

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Coca-cola Wings

I bet most of us have tasted Coca-cola in some part of our lives. Coca-cola or famously known as Coke is a carbonated soft drink which is loved by young and adults. Besides serving it's purpose as a fizzy drink, there's various recipes that had used Coca-cola as part of the ingredients too. Today, I have tried to prepare to Coca-cola wings for dear Hubby's friend's house warming party.

The process of preparing them was pretty easy. I had included some pictorial tutorial in this post as well.

Heat up wok. Fry the wings till it's golden brown both sides without using oil. Set aside.

Heat up some oil in wok. Saute garlic, ginger, spring onions, cinnamon sticks and red chili till fragrant.

Add in wings, Coca-cola and rest of the seasonings.


Let it simmer till the gravy is boiling. Reduce to medium heat and let it simmer till gravy is thicken.


Stir well as the gravy is thicken to ensure the wings are well coated. Dish up and serve while it's still warm.

Aren't the wings looks so apetising and tempting??

Ingredients

1 kg chicken wings
5 tbsp light soy sauce
5 tbsp Shao Xing wine

2 tbsp cooking oil
1 small chunk ginger, sliced
2 stalk spring onion, use only the white part
5 clove garlic, bashed
3 star anise
1 cinnamon stick

1 red chilli

3 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp honey
3 tbsp Shao Xing wine
350ml or 1 standard size can of regular Coca-cola

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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.
   

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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.
   

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Spring Onion Pancake

Ingredients

200g plain flour
150ml boiling water
100g spring onions, diced
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Methods

1. Place flour into mixing bowl. Pour in hot water, stir well. Pour mixture on clean working area. (Add in extra water if it's too dry).
2. Add in oil, knead till it becomes a smooth dough. Rest the dough for an hour.
3. Roll the dough into longish flat shape. Glaze with oil and sprinkle salt, spring onions on surface. Fold into half across. Cut in to equal pieces. Roll up and flatten.
4. Heat oil and pan-fry the pancakes till golden on both sides.

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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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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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Baked Mozzarella Cheese Sticks

Backdated post:

I had been cracking my head thinking of what kinda finger food to be served to my guest during our pre-CNY gathering. Since I had mistakenly bought Mozzarella cheese instead of Cheddar cheese for one of my baking experiment (which had failed - no post on that, too paiseh to mention); I need to make use of the Mozzarella cheese before their expiry date. Thus I had been searching over the net looking for a recipe to use them. I had found this recipe in Recipezaar and it sounded so simple to make. Thus, here's my finger food for my guest to munch on during the dinner. Best to be eaten while it's hot, we can practically see the cheese oozing out from each stick.

Ingredients

2 eggs
1 tbsp water

1 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 1/4 tsp rosemary

1 1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp pepper

20 stick of mozzarella cheese
3 tsp flour

1 tbsp margarine, melted
margarine/butter for greasing

Methods

1. In a small bowl, beat eggs& water.
2. In a plastic bag, combine bread crumbs, rosemary and oregano, garlic powder, and pepper.
3. Coat cheese sticks in flour, then dip in egg mixture and bread crumb mixture.
4. Repeat egg and bread crumb coatings.
5. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.
6. Place on an ungreased baking sheet& drizzle with butter.
7. Bake, uncovered, at 200 Celsius for 6-8 minutes or until heated through.
8. Allow to stand for 3-5 minutes before serving.

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Egg and Sausage Tortilla Wraps

As much as you can read from the title, this simple tortilla wrap was my dinner tonight. Thursday night = Hubby's night with his gang for badminton sessions. As I am pretty much exhausted mentally and physically the whole week trying to catch up and reaching my target for my work. Therefore, I am kinda lazy to even think of what to have for dinner. Since the tortilla were pretty much 'crying' out loud asking me to 'eat' them; or shall I say I need to eat them before their expiry date, I had decided to make use of whatever sitting my fridge to prepare a simple and wholesome meal for my dinner.

My usual 'tenant' in my fridge were 'Mr. Sunny Egg' and 'Ms. Hot Sausage' and not forgetting 'Mrs Lettuce' and 'Mdm Red Tomatoes'. So I had used all of them and Voila ------- My wholesome Tortilla Wraps were ready and sitting at the dining table for me to savour them.. OMG, I think I am really going nuts with naming all the raw ingredients in my food by calling them names. What to do rite? We need to chill out and let our imaginations run wild once a while especially after a whole week of stress. I am just so glad that I had managed to pull thru and achieve my goal this month. But now I am beginning to worry about the next month. Just hope things will be running smoothly in August too. Till then, let me go and enjoy my dinner first....

My yummy dinner

The wrap was simple but it's fulfilling enough for me.. :)

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Peanut Pancake Roll

I always love peanuts since small. Peanut butter, braised peanuts, roasted peanuts - you named it, I loved them. So when I saw this particular recipes, I am very tempted to give it a try. The preparation was pretty simple but making the pancake needs some skills. Some of the pancake I made using my wok failed coz I didn't flip the pancake fast enough. So ended up some of the pancakes having some holes here and there. Nevertheless, they still taste good with the nice aromatic peanut flavour. Yumz....

Ingredients

Filling:

200g peanuts

100g caster sugar

1 tbsp oil

Pancake:

180g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

400ml water

1 tbsp oil

Methods

1. Remove peanuts' skin and pound coarsely. Add in caster sugar, oil and mix well.
2. Fry peanuts in wok until golden brown and aromatic.
3. Put all pancake ingredients into a mixing bowl. Mix into smooth batter and drain. Rest for 10 minutes.
4. Heat up a little oil in a non stick wok, pour in some batter and swirl into a thin, round shape pancake. Use the same method to finish all the batter.
5. Put some peanut filling onto pancake and roll up like spring roll. Serve.

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Crispy Egg Crepe with Chicken Floss

Yummy yummy..

Can you see the fillings inside?

I had bought a packet of pre-made crepe last week. Since there are some leftover of chicken floss from CNY that we haven't finish and still lying there on the kitchen table, I decided to 'invent' this snacks. The idea came from a snack available in a Taiwanese food chain (Shihlin Taiwan Street Snacks). We were waiting for their XXL Crispy Chicken to be ready and I saw their employee preparing this snack. So it may not be exactly how they prepare this snack coz I am just using whatever ingredients available in my fridge to prepare it.

Ingredients

2 pcs of crepes
2 eggs, lightly beaten, added some salt to taste
mayonnaise (according to your preference)
chicken floss (according to your preference)
oil for cooking

Methods

1. Heat up oil on a pan. Pour the egg mixture to the pan and fry the egg mixture till it was slighty harden.
2. Use a spatula or pair of chopsticks to loosen the sides of the egg. Carefully flip the egg over.
3. Set the egg aside.
4. Place the crepe over the frying pan and heat it up. Place the egg on top of the crepe, add in chicken floss and mayonnaise.
5. Roll the crepe with the other ingredients using a chopstick.
6. Place it on a plate. You may slice it to smaller bite pieces and garnish with chicken floss.
7. Serve it while it's hot.

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Herb Roasted Potatoes

This a an easy yet splendid roasted potatoes recipe that is great as a side dish or even as a snacks. It is so simple - a dish made of herbs and olive oil and get it roasted in the oven. The end result - finger licking good potatoes...

Ingredients

3 large potatoes, cubed
1/8 cup olive oil

3 tsp Italian Seasoning

(consists of Oregano, Basil, Red Pepper, Marjoram, Thyme, Rosemary, Sage and Parsley)

1/2 tsp salt

Methods

1. Preheat oven to 245 degrees Celcius.
2. In a large bowl, combine oil, Italian seasoning and salt. Stir in potatoes until evenly coated. Place potatoes in a single layer on a roasting pan or baking sheet.
3. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, turning occasionally to brown on all sides.

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Cream Cheese BBQ Dogs

DOGS, what will be the first picture that will be popping up in your mind when you hear this word. For lots of people, definately the first thing that comes into their mind will be of course dogs a.k.a the animal. You guys must be wondering by now, am I preparing dog meat as my meal. HAHAHA!! Of course not, though I wonder how does the taste of their meat. Hmm, or maybe should I cooked the real dog to find out to answer my curiosity. Today, I am preparing the other type of dogs, HOT DOG a.k.a SAUSAGES. Its a quick meal that we can actually dish it up in a short duration of time. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to savour this yummy DOGs, its all for Dearie Hubby. Wondering why, you'll find out in my next coming post. ^Keep guessing, wink wink^.

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter

2 ounce of cream cheese

1 onion, chopped

2 hot dogs or sausages

2 hot dog buns

BBQ sauce

Methods

1. Preheat grill or grill pan for medium-high heat.
2. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions, and cook slowly until the onions have softened and turned deep brown, about 15 minutes. Warm the cream cheese over low heat in a small skillet until very soft.
3. Grill hot dogs until well browned. Spread some butter on the hot dogs bun and lightly grill hot dog buns on both sides.
4. To assemble cheese dogs, spread warm cream cheese on toasted hot dog bun, add hot dog or sausage, top with onions and BBQ sauce.

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