Holiday! We all love holidays ! I love famous cuisine publisher, they always got quality recipe published on mags ! Here's one from " Vegetable soup page 102-103" .
I love chinese chives, good for digestion and good for stomach. Does any one why houseflies always got attracted to chinese chives ?
Clean the prawn
Mince the prawn using back of cleaver , season with salt & pepper. Fridge it.
Clean the chives thoroughly, there are some hidden soil in between.
The other thing i like about chinese chives is, it is so cheap! one big bunch only RM 1 ~!
Ingredients - for 3 persons
300g prawns
1/4 bunch of chives
2 eggs
salt & pepper
a. clean the prawns,pat dry, mince it, season with salt & pepper.
b. Whisk the egg and combine with diced chinese chives
c. Heat up the wok, put 2 T of cooking oil, fry the omelette , pour in 2-3 bowl of water.
d. Drop in the prawn balls now , and let simmer for a while.
Here you go, I was attracted by Terri's Okra & Belly Pork Rolls . Immediately I thought of, why not try bacon wrapped Okra. The reason is, SIGH! I hardly goto market to buy fresh belly pork, i dont even have mirin at home.. the fastest way is use frozen bacon, to wrap my fresh okra! :D
It tastes really good, not dried at all. One Bite on the roll, chewy on the bacon but crunch & fresh inside. (argh, whatever description).
I cook some garlic fried rice as well. Pretty easy, Lightly browned the garlic, dish up, use the same wok/pan, immediately put in the rice and throw in an egg and quickly stir n mix. Sprinkle some salt & Pepper. Finish up with fried garlic & cut shallot. Ready to serve.
Ingredients
1 pack of okra
1 pack of frozen bacon
Method
a) Blanch the okra until just cook. dont cut any ends. Leave it cool
b) Roll each okra generously with bacon! :)!!!! I use 2 bacons for each roll.
c) Use a pan, no need put cooking oil, just line up all the okra wrapped with bacons and cook. Constantly turn around to prevent burnt on each side. Dish up, slice half and ready to serve.
My mum used to cook Okra (Ladies' fingers) by just blanch the vege, and top with dried shrimp. I felt so bored with it and so tasteless! I found the above recipe, Okra with tomato sauce taste is very appetizing and, something different too!
Thanks to Food-4tots.com 's recipe. I adjusted a bit by adding some Plum sauce & oyster sauce in order to get rid of the ' tomato' green smell!
Ingredients
200g chicken breast ( about half of the medium chicken breast)
Okra, 6-8 sticks
2 large tomatoes, diced.
1/2 medium onion, chopped finely
Sauce
4 T tomato ketchup
1 T light soya sauce
1 T Oyster sauce
1 T plum sauce ( optional)
1 t sugar
Marinate
2 T light soya sauce
1 T corn flour
1 t sugar
Method
1. minced the chicken, marinate with light soya sauce, corn flour and sugar. Mix well. Cover well and Fridge it for at least half an hour.
2. For tomatoes, remove the stems, use the tip of knife to cut a very shallow " X" on the bottom. Drop the tomatoes into the boiling water for 1 minute and removing them quickly. Let it cool for a while, peel off the skin and chop finely. ( You can ignore this step by just chop the tomato finely with the skin)
3. Wash and rinse the okra. Boil some water in a pot/pan/ wok, seasons with some salt, and blanch the okra for 2 mins. Dish up.
4. Heat up the wok with oil, Add in minced chicken. Do not stir fry immediately. Let it cook with medium heat for a while until slightly browned. Turn it over and continue cook until browned. Reduce the heat to low, and start breaking up the minced chicken into small pieces.
5. Now add in onion at this stage, and fry . Add in tomatoes and mix well.
6. Add in enough seasonings and let it simmer a while. ( Adjust the taste to your likings. If it is too sour, add in sugar, if it is too sweet, add in more ketchup. If it is too dry, add little bit of water)
7. Pout it over the cooked okra and serve immediately.
Marinating...
"X" at the bottom
Remove the skin
Let the meat cook until slightly brown on one side, then flip to the other side.
Tung Choi , the preserved cabbage / green mustard according to Wikipedia. Very tasty , an extra flavour to the whole bowl of soup / noodle If Tung Choi is added. I remembered whenever mum ask me to cook mustard green with egg soup
( 青菜汤) , I will put a lot of " Tung Choi" , and mum will always say
" Ah Tng, are we eating 青菜 or 冬菜 here?
So yeah I do not have any leftover broth at home! I need to steam these again leftover cabbage in the fridge, I need something ' flavourful' and I only can think of "tung choi", instead of salt!
Ingredients
some chinese cabbage (China's one sweeter")
some prawns
4 clove minced garlic
pinch of salt
2T cooking oil
1 ~ 1/2 cup water ( depends how many cabbage u have)
1 T of Tong Choi
Method
a. Heat up the steamer.
b.Use a deep bowl , so when cooked, there's room for the soup.
c. Cut the back of prawn horizontally, then slice vertical for the top part. Stuff with minced garlic & salt. Cut the cabbage into Half from the center.
d. Arrange the cabbage at the bottom, and prawns on top. Drizzle with oil & put some water . Sprinkle some Tong Choi at the bottom and steam for 15 mins ~ 18 mins.
These cabbage very savory sweet with lots of prawn flavour! and most important...Tung Choi ! slurp! serve with bowl of white rice.
Here's a plate of vege that we quite like to eat. All you need is some sliced shallot and meat ( I used chicken breast).
Ingredients ( for 2 -3 persons) 1 bunch of Choi sum (mustard green) 1-2 shallot (sliced) 500g ~ 800g chicken meat / pork 2 T oyster sauce for marinate
sauce 1 T oyster sauce 1/2 t dark soya 1 t sugar 1 cup water
1 T corn flour 2T water
a. Clean the vege and cut into small sizes.
b. Mince the meat and marinate with 2 T oyster sauce for half an hour. Mix all the sauce and put aside. Mix the cornflour + water and put aside.
c. Heat up pot of water, drop 1 T of oil , few cloves of garlic and sprinkle some salt ( not necessary). Blanch the vege until cooked, but not too soft. * Add in garlic will somehow keep away the green smell.* U can drop in some slice ginger too, but I dont like the smell. Take out the vege and drain the excess water off.
d. In a pan, heat up 1 T of oil, fry the shallot until soften, put the meat and stir fry a bit. Add in the sauce and simmer a bit until the water almost dried up. Now thicken the sauce with cornflour water.
I am , er-hermm! (Clear throat).. 28 yrs old today! is a nice figure for everyone "8" ! another 2 more years I will be 30 lah! (no rush to depression yet)
I always had this thought when I m 18, that was, to dress up as -aunty- as possible! *Lolz~* So that people won't recognise my age ! i.e. I want to look more mature. Argh ! I realise it din't work. Instead, nowadays, I pick a skirt, as -short- as possible, to show off my meaty-legs.
Instead of baking cake for birthday like last year, I cooked a 8-prosperous vegetarian dish! 8 ingredients on the plate!
carrot corn cuke sticks for birthday
ha! less than 2 months will be 2009 Chinese New Year ! HO HO HO !
After my Bovril Pasta, I had that for quick breakfast for number of times already. Well, as comparing to tuna bread, omelette sausage bread, I think bovril pasta is so much lesser work + Hey it's morning! I need to get everything done before 6:30, then rush to my shower & change, dad leaves at 7:10 the most, so I dont have much time. O, I get up at 5:45, preparing my lunch box + breakfast + eating breakfast..
Stealing the idea from Terri's Okra , instead, I mixed the Okra with 1 teaspoon of Bovril + lots of fried garlic. so fragnant! I can finish this alone! but again, better not, otherwise I will overly cleanse my colon! ?
Ingredients 1 bunch of Okra ( say 240g?) 1 t of Bovril (careful, Dont put too much, Bovril can be VERY salty) 10 clove of Garlic, minced it (depends, I like garlic)
[Terri's tips] 1. Do not top or tail the okra to minimize the slime. Boil some water and drop the okra into the water. Do not overcook. Take the okra out, leave it aside.
2. Heat up a pan with 2 T of oil, turn to slow fire, fried the garlic until golden brown (I sprinkle some sugar, which enhance the flavour). Dish up
3. Slice the Okra . Take a bowl, Drop in bovirl + fried garlic + cut Okra. Mix well & serve on plate.
suddenly, I have an urge (like ACA, show up a warrant) to stop all the supermarkets selling margarine . They all made of hydrogenated fat = trans fat. I hate when I see margarine all over markets! A lot of people always think they are not eating cow-fat, hence healthier. A lot of them are paying to kill themselves. When I see ppl taking chunks of margarine from the shelf, I feel like grab back from their hand and substitute with chunk of , at least Local made butter.
Now, I am slowly telling my family, friends around me that stop eating non-dairy cream/whipping cream...which I have been eating that for the past 27 years! Non-dairy cream is make of hydrogenated fats. After L's explanation... I seriously stop buying all cakes/swiss roll from other shops, may be only buy from her or, to the most, i buy my own cream, eat it as it is. hahaha I love cream. that's why. Now, sis birthday on 1st Nov, my baker is not around. I feel feel so reluctant to buy her cakes from other places... I offer to bake her a cake, she said NO! unless I bake her Green-Tea cheesecake ( The only cake that impressed her !, but I feel lazy! How? ) my lil sis !
Knows more about Hydrogenated fat, Take 5 minutes to read this
Again, stop taking Equal /Nutra Sweet (all sugar substitutes) .' ok, I have 'grouch' enough here. I sound like my FIL! I hate.
Loofah, such a versatile name, the only vegetable that u can turn from food on table to personal products like Sponge bath ! Make ur own sponge bath. Probably, I make mine one and blog about that one day ( HAHA)
This is a very plain dish (Qing-Tan), not as flavorful as your stuffed tofu with minced meat.
[Ingredients] 2 small loofah 100g minced shrimp paste 100g fish paste salt & pepper to taste
1. Slice the skin and clean the Loofah. 2. Mix both shrimp + fish paste , sprinkle with some salt & pepper. 3. Angle-cut the loofah. Make a small whole on the surface for each loofah andstuff with the meat. 4. Heat up the steamer, steam for 10- 12 minutes. ( If u see ur meat separated from Loofah, dont worry, it is a good sign telling u the meat is cooked. - that's how my mum comfort me.) 5. Pour 1 Cup of chicken stock, and 1 t of cornflour to make the sauce.
notes: a. After cooked, the loofah will be very soft & mushy. b. Ur plate will full of water after steamed. Discard them. c.I didnt make the sauce. I dip mine with some oyster sauce! easy.
Wash & Soak & Clean these freshly picked groundnuts which mom bought it from Donggongong Tamu (local wet market) this morning. They are covered with lots of sandy soil, so wash & wash until all dirt are gone off from the shells.
Mum was complaining those groundnut / peanut seeds that she bought from grocery shops (for cooking soups) were not nice. She was thinking to let these raw groundnuts left dried under the sun, and make her own peanut seeds for her usual lotus soup. A kind of weird theory to shorten the cooking period of boiling groundnuts is to put handful of Tooth picks together while u boiling them! and this trick actually helps to soften these nuts too! (note, must use rough wood type tooth picks, instead of sharp-point polished tooth picks which u always get from restaurant.)
ha! the box says it! "Perfect" Tooth picks.
When my uncle & his family (They R from Denmark) came for holidays couple of months ago, telling K we named these tooth picks as "Kayu-Balak" (local language in KK)... means "Timber-log" in English!! K just rolled his eyes and the Dad further explained " This is Mini-Timber-Log" ! :P
Old-Fashioned "Timber-log" (A.K.A Tooth Picks)
So after the groundnuts are properly cleaned, Use a big pot, cover these nuts with water until just covered them. Put 2 teaspoons of salts for flavour.
These batch are cooked at 45 minutes. mum said they R young groundnuts, so take lesser time to cook. Usual ones are about 1 hour cooking time (Plus the help from ToothPicks)
This is my first time fried “Sabah Vege” (local language: Sayur manis), means when it's cooked, it has tint of sweetness! .There are some ‘vegetable’ that I never cooked before, such as:
(a) sabah vege(today the 1st time) : Dad very particular with Sabah Vege.He always requested for Sabah vege with tin of good quality corn beef. And mum must cook it personally (in fact most of the time mum in charge of cooking!), and always, this dish come out very yummy! So I never had the chance to learn fried sabah vege.
(b) pumpkin : I never cook pumpkin before! Not even to just simply boil it! Because I never like pumpkin, Not until lately, I tasted a sweet soup (Tong Sui) at Damai, she boiled Pumpkin with unshelled green beans! Excellent!!! I fall in love with pumpkin from that. I started to eat pumpkin from tat day! ( I mean pumpkin sweet soup… lately I been eating quite a lot of pumpkin sweet soup..and I realize I m quite ‘yellowsih’ now… I mean my skin colour!
SO back to sabah vege. I used to fry green vegetable...and I realised , not easy to fry a good plate of sabah vege , and today mum was not free with cooking sabah vege + egg! , she get me to cook that!
I never know, Sabah vege needs “A LOAD OF” cooking oil to fry! I already put 5 Tablespoons (soup type tablespoon) of oil! And still! my vege very ‘rough’ & dry when u eat it, and just not smooth-ly nice like u eat from the restaurant!
Plus to add-on egg on this sabah vege also another panicky thing!!!!! Due to close to no oil on the wok, my eggs were stick on the wok and it’s burnt on the surface! (if u notice from the picture).
Terrible experience!!! Nevermind… there’s always the first time ( ARGH! What a bad excuse)
[ my experience ]
I Heat up the wok with 5 T of cooking oil,
Fry the ginger & garlic until fragnant,
Throw in the vege ( ha! “Splash—blash” !! this is the sound that I always like to hear whenever I stir fry vegetables. U only get tt from a high heat work )and I quickly stir fry with the ‘wok-chahn’ . I was told by a hotel chef that, we household can’t get much wok hei from stir fry , mainly is because of our wok stoves. We have many types of stoves, like “mui-Fah-lou, foh-kim-lou , etc” However I read another article from USA ( my memory always fail me! I couldnt remember which artiicle ,either RasaMalaysia or another lady work together with RasaMalaysia) another tips to get good wok hei from home is (especially fry rice), when u stir fry, do not keep flip and fold the food on the wok, let it stand & stay a while, so the food will have sufficient time to absorb the heat from the Wok before u flip again.
Then mum said I must Cover the wok with lid for 30 seconds (so to get rid of the greeny smelt from the vege).
Open the lid , I pour ½ cup of stock (cuz I see my vege very dried!!)
Then Crack in 2 egg whites on the vege, and stir a bit ( this is the part I do not know how to do.. so u see my vege like scramble egg with sayur manis)
So anyone out there has any good tips on stir fry good sabah vege with egg? After I fried this, mum says:
mum: Ah Tng!!! Nei chao sue-jai-choi mm dim lah! Dai Bai Ngo Chao Sui-jai-choi, nei hok! (Next time I cook u watch and learn)
Row-Row-Row your boat Gently down the stream Merrily merrily merrily merrily Life is but a dream.
Roll-Roll-Roll your egg Slowly fold the edge Merrily merrily merrily merrily Life is but a food.
Ingredients 2 eggs ( U can add 1/2 tsp of fish sauce if u like) 1 cup shredded Cabbage 1 T dried shrimps, soaked, chopped 1 clove garlic.
Methods 1. Heat up the pan with 1 T oil, fry the minced garlic until fragnant. Add in chopped dried shrimps. 2. Sprinkle some salt & sugar ( very little) 3. Add in the cabbage, stir fried until cooked. Dish up 4. Wash the pan. Heat up the pan with 1 T oil again. 5. Crack 2 eggs in a separate bowl, whisk a bit. 6. Make omelette. when the egg is half-cooked, spread some cooked cabbage in the middle, slowly fold it. (note u need some skills here. Suggested u turn off the fire, and slowly fold it. U can play cheat like me, spread the half-cooked omelette on a plate, then u spread ur cabbage on it, slowly fold it, until become a tube size, then return to the pan and continue to pan-fried. 7. Cook a while.. until the egg is cooked. 8. Slice & Serve.
I wanted to make " Moussaka" , looking at the additional sauce that the dish required (butter+flour+milk+cheese+egg), Arghhh... better not. Simply Baked Eggplant with pasta sauce will do.
Ingredients
Left over pasta sauce
1 eggplant , sliced
1 cup mozarella cheese.( I used cheddar, and I found it's a bit salty)
Method
1. Sliced the eggplant, soaked in a salted water (to prevent brownish).
2. Drained the eggplant, and make sure it's dry , using kitchen paper to soak it.
3. Heat a pan, lightly oil, pan fried each sliced until golden brown.
4. Prepare a baking dish ..put the following into it.
eggplant - sauce - cheese (repeat it few times)
5. Bake at 180C, for 10 ~ 12 minutes.
(Argh I hate! My cheddar cheese looks like french-fries here! haha) that's all because I m so lazy to grate the cheese, I just cut it into sticks!
I like to eat all kinds of mushroom ! Especially Shiitake. Is the wooden smell that makes me love it so much ! Some good quality of shiitake gives Al Dente texure. "To the tooth". Yes! I love mushroom where when u bite, it gives slight resistance in the centre.
Mushoom that give total-soft-texture just turn me off ! Sometimes I hate Enoki mushroom that 'packed in tin"! it's too slimy .I feel like bunch of enoki stucked in my throat and I have to swallow it with many efforts! I feel that I can choke by that bunch of enoki anytime if I eat it again.
Stuffed shiitake [Ingredients] mix 1/2 portion of minced pork and 1/2 minced prawns seasons with salt & pepper. Mushroom to soak until soft
[method] 1. Steam the mushroom with some sugar, light soya & oil for 15 minutes 2. Drain the mushoom until dry. Keep the sauce in a bowl. 3. When the mushroom is a bit cool, sprinkle with corn flour, and scoop 1 Tspoon of meat on top. Press it with ur palm. 4. Steam the stuffed mushroom on a plate for 15~18 minutes 5. Use the remaining sauce from steaming the mushroom from step 2 and step 4, mix with oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar and some cornflour. 6. Cook the sauce until thicken, and pour on the mushroom. 7. Serve with Boiled greens.
[Boiled Greens] 1. Enuff of water, with bit of salt & cooking oil 2. Cook for 2 minutes or just slightly tender
