CRIZ BON APPETITE

During the 3rd (Floggers) Food Bloggers’ Gathering in Penang recently, I had created a simple yet appetizing dish which most of the attendees that night loved it. None had ever thought that the unique sweetness of the jackfruits could blend in so well with fried pork slices. Well, since I had quite a number of requests for the recipe, I’m posting up the recipe for my STIR FRY PORK STRIPS WITH JACKFRUITS.

INGREDIENTS:
10 Slices Pork Fillet (about 500gms)
1 big onion (slice into semi rings)
8 cherry tomatoes (halves)
4 jackfruits (cut into strips)
8 tbsp all purpose frying flour
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
Sugar
Salt
Water
Oil

SAUCES: (mix well in a small bowl)
4 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp corn flour
1/2 tsp sesame oil
4 tspn water
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Shao Xing wine (1/2 tsp brandy/whisky)

OPTIONAL:
Chicken breast meat (in place of pork)
Coriander (garnish)
Spring Onions (garnish)
Green capsicum (slices)

PREPARATION:
1. Hammer the pork fillets lightly until soft.
2. Place all the meat into a mixing tray and add in one tablespoon soy sauce, half teaspoon sesame oil, one teaspoon turmeric powder, pinch of salt & sugar, 8 tablespoon frying flour. Add in some water to make it somewhat batter like. DO NOT MAKE IT TOO DILUTE! Leave aside to marinate for 30-40 minutes.
3. Heat up some oil and fry all the marinated pork fillets until golden brown. Leave on kitchen towel to cool and to drain all the excess oil. Cut into long strips.
4. Leave about 2 tablespoon of the remaining oil in the wok on medium fire. Add in the onions and stir about half a minute.
5. Add in the sauces stated above and simmer for another minute or so.
6. Add in the cherry tomatoes and jackfruit strips and stir for about a minute.
7. Put the fire on low and add in the pork strips. Stir for another two minutes.
8. Dish out to serve.
9. You can lace the plate with some lettuce and garnish with some coriander/spring onions.

(Serves: 4-6)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

Today is the celebration of the Dongzhi Festival or Winter Solstice Festival. It is one of the most important festivals celebrated by the Chinese and other East Asians during the Dongzhi solar term on or around December 22 when sunshine is weakest and daylight shortest. This year, it’s celebrated a day earlier due to being a leap year. This is the time when family members would gather, making and eating of colored balls of glutinous rice which symbolize reunion. Normally, the Tang Yuan would be taken in a sweet soup broth (plain or brown sugar) with or without a touch of ginger flavor. While waiting for this meal to be cooked, one can easily pass the time through games like 먹튀.

What I’m going to share today is the recipe for making this wonderful Tang Yuan in a savory soup version. This is normally home cook in some of the Hokkien families in China and would not be easily obtained in any of the local restaurants. I called the dish the SAVORY TANG YUAN.

INGREDIENTS:
250gms glutinous rice flour
250gms minced pork
250gms lean pork
1 small jicama (yam bean/sengkuang)
1 carrot
1 stalk Chinese celery
4 pips garlic (chopped)
2 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp corn starch
1/2 tbsp salt
Some pepper
3 liter water

GARNISH:
Fried garlic oil
Chopped Chinese celery

OPTIONAL:
Pork Liver
Pork Kidney
Pork Intestine

PREPARATION:
1. Heat up the wok. Add in 3 tablespoon of oil and sauté the chopped garlic until golden brown. Scoop and leave aside to cool.
2. Put the minced meat into a mixing bowl. Add in some pepper, 2 tablespoon each of chopped Chinese celery, chopped carrot, sesame oil, light soy sauce, corn/tapioca starch, and one tablespoon each of oyster sauce and fried garlic. Mix evenly.
3. Oil a metal plate and lay the rolled meat balls and steam for 5 minutes. Leave aside to cool.
4. Cut the remaining carrot, jicama and lean pork into slices.
5. Bring 3 liter pot of water to boil. Add in Item 4.
6. Add in 1/2 tablespoon salt, some pepper, 1 tablespoon oyster sauce and sesame oil and boil until left 2/3 pot.
7. Fold in some water, pinch of salt into the glutinous rice flour until dough like. (Note: sprinkle some more water if it’s too dry or lay the dough onto a towel if it’s too wet)
8. Take some dough and roll into a ball. Flatten it with your palm and fill it with a meat ball. Slowly roll it back into a ball. Repeat the same step until you used up all the dough. (Note: Lay a tray and place a towel on it. Place the rolled glutinous rice balls on it)
9. Bring a pot of water to boil and slowly put in all the glutinous rice balls. Cooked glutinous rice ball will float up.
10. Put whatever quantity of cooked glutinous rice balls into a bowl and scoop some soup onto it.
11. Garnish with some fried garlic oil and chopped Chinese celery.

(Serves: 4-6)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

When we talk about sago, these uncooked pearl-like 2mm in diameter white balls are usually presented in some of the South Asian cuisine desserts. Being a multi-racial country like Malaysia, we have so many desserts that have cooked sago as one of the ingredients, namely the Abok-Abok, Steamed Sago with Palm Sugar and Coconut Milk, Chilled Blended Honeydew with Sago or even the Mixed Leng Chee Kang with bigger and colorful sago pearls.

Did you notice a similarity in all these desserts? They are all served as sweet desserts. There is one sago dessert in the Teochew community which is fast becoming extinct and it is served salty but spicy. I’m going to share with you the recipe today on how to make this dessert. I call it the FRIED SPICY SAGO CAKE.

INGREDIENTS:
250gms pearl sago (soak for 10-15 minutes and drain)
1-2 Tspn chili boh/paste (according to your acceptance of spiciness)
200gms bean sprout (peel off roots if possible)
1 Tspn chopped salted turnip (Chai Po)
1 Tspn dark soy sauce
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Oil
Pepper
Salt
Sugar

GARNISH:
100gms of dried shrimps (flat type – fried and drain excess oil)
Some fried shallots
1 stalk spring onions (chopped)
Chillies (remove seed and cut in strips – optional)

OPTIONAL:
Prawns
Squids

PREPARATION:

(Serves: 5-6)

USEFUL TIPS: Do not worry about some tiny white spots left in the center. Leave it awhile as the heat itself would make them translucent. Depending on the freshness of the sago pearls, you might sometimes get 5% of the sago still with spots. You can ignore these as they are still edible.

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

Desserts would be something that most people would like to have after each meal. It could come in the form of cakes, jellies, crepes, puddings, crumbles, tarts, iced/hot sweet soups or even ice creams. What would you do if you have to hold a dinner and yet you are short of time to prepare desserts for your guests? On top of that, you would also like to impress your guests with something that is not easily available out there. Would you want to try out FRIED ICE CREAM?

You won’t need any special gadget or many ingredients to make them. It would only take less than a minute from wok to the dining table. It sounded easy right? Let me share with you the method to make this simple yet yummy dessert.

INGREDIENTS:
1 loaf of white bread (400gms)
1 tub of ice cream of your choice (800ml)
Some corn/tapioca flour (mixed with water)
Oil for frying
Kitchen towel

OPTIONAL:
Chocolate/Strawberry/Raspberry Syrup
Icing Sugar
Peanut chunks
Multi color candy rice

PREPARATION:

1. Roll all the slices of bread flat. You can use a roller or even a glass bottle to roll them flat. You may want to cut off the brown edges but I maintained them since I fount that it will be a waste to throw them away.
2. Use a small round/square bowl to lightly make a marking on the bread.
3. Fill up the space with some ice cream of your choice. It is advisable to use ice cream that won’t melt so fast at room temperature.
4. Coated the area outside the marking with some corn flour mixture.
5. Place another slice of bread on top and use the bowl to make the ice cream more compact. Try not to be too forceful as it would make the ice cream leaks out.
6. Use a spoon and firmly press the surrounding edges.
7. Use a kitchen scissors and trim the edges to make it presentable.
8. Keep all the finished products in freezer for at least two hours or when needed.
9. When you want to serve the fried ice cream, just heat up enough oil on high fire. You can throw in a small piece of bread to test the heat.
10. When the oil is boiling hot, put in one or two of the ice cream bread and cook for 5-10 seconds.
11. Take up, drain excess oil with kitchen towel and serve immediately with some or all the items in the “optional” section.

(Serves: 5)

USEFUL TIPS: Make sure you use “harder” ice cream for this dish or else you might end up having too watery ice cream fillings. The King’s Dragon Fruit Ice Cream which I had used tends to melt too fast. I would advice Walls or Magnolia which is less creamy but hard enough to make this dessert. In case you have accidentally created a “leak” on the bread, just patch it up with thicker corn flour mixture before freezing.

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

Cooking Nyonya cuisines which are normally spicy, tangy, herbal and aromatic has always required a lot of patience. In fact, the preparation alone for most of the dishes would take up a long time as it involved so much hard work in slicing, cutting and chopping of herbs and ingredients. Some such examples could be seen in dishes like Laksa, Perut Ikan, Acar Awak, Otak Otak and many more. But there is one dish that even some of the established Nyonya restaurants such as Hot Wok did not have it in their menu as it involved a lot of tedious fine slicing of many herbal leaves – SPICY NYONYA NASI ULAM (JUNGLE HERBS RICE)

This dish is definitely a very healthy diet as most of the ingredients are taken raw. My demised grandmother had made this yummy dish all the time, so have my mother some of the time. Before it ended up in my generation that none of us would even remember the existence of this dish, I would like to take some time to prepare this dish and share with you my heirloom recipe. Although I am not the descendants of the Baba-Nyonya, I would love to see someone pick up this recipe and be proud that it has been part of the Malaysian cuisines.

INGREDIENTS A:
4 plastic cups of rice (about 1kg of cooked rice)
100gms dried shrimps (soak, dice, fry & cool)
100gms salted ikan kurau (treadfin) meat (cut small thin slices, fry and cool)
1 teaspoon belacan (shrimp paste) powder – Maggi
3 tablespoon kerisik (toasted and pounded grated coconut)
1/2” fresh turmeric (chop finely)
10 mint leaves (daun pudina – chop finely)
3 screwpine leaves (daun pandan – knotted)
Salt, sugar and grounded black pepper to taste

INGREDIENTS B (FINELY SLICED):
6 shallots
1 stalk lemongrass (serai – use the thinner end only)
1/2 stalk torch ginger flower (bunga kantan)
4 kaffir lime leaves (daun limau purut)
6 polygonum leaves (daun kesom/laksa leaves/Vietnamese mint)
6 asiatica pennywort leaves (daun pegaga)
2 turmeric leaves (daun kunyit)
15 basil leaves (daun selasih)
4 galangal leaves (daun cekur)
10 wild betel leaves (daun kaduk/Piper sarmentosum)

GARNISHING:
1 cucumber (halves and sliced)
Sambal Belacan (fresh shrimp paste chili sauce)
Some wild betel leaves (optional)
Some mint leaves (optional)

PREPARATION:

1. Cook rice. When cooked, loosen the rice and fold in the knotted screwpine leaves. Leave aside to be fully cool. Make sure the rice maintain the grain shape but still soft.
2. Find a large container (4 times the amount of the rice would do).
3. Toss evenly all the ingredients in A & B and serve.
4. You can eat it just as it plain or garnish it with the above garnishing with side seafood dishes like Assam Prawns, Assam Fish, Grilled Fish or even some dry meat curries. Sambal Belacan and cucumber is a must if you like the dish spicier.

(Serves: 4-6)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups rice grain
250gms minced meat
30gms dried oysters (~6 pcs – soak in hot water to soften and slice thinly)
30gms dried baby scallops (~20 pcs)
1” thumbsize young ginger (slice thinly)
1pc salted duck egg (boil 10mins and cut into cubes)
2pcs century eggs (cut into cubes)
1 tin braised peanuts (170gms)
6 cloves of garlic (chop and make into garlic oil)
1 stalk spring onions (chopped)
Sesame oil
Oyster sauce
Soy sauce
Salt & Pepper
Sugar
Hot water (9-10 cups)

SEASONING FOR MINCED MEAT (MEATBALLS):
2 Tablespoon oyster sauce
3 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
2 Tablespoon corn/tapioca flour
1 Tablespoon salted pickle vegetable (Tong Chai – chop until fine)
2 teaspoon fried garlic (minus oil)
Some pepper
Pinch of salt

PREPARATION

(Serves: 4-6)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

INGREDIENTS
500 gms chicken breast meat (cut into bite size cubes)
10 chilli padi (cut into small slices)
6 stalks curry leaves (wash well and pluck all the leaves)
5 Tspn margarine
3 eggs (separate the egg white and egg yolk)
40gms (8 Tspn) Nestum Cereal
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Pepper
Sugar
Multi-purpose frying flour (recommended Hup Loong brand)

OPTIONAL
You can even replace the chicken meat with the same weight of prawns. Peel the prawns, cut the back and take out the intestines. Marinate with a bit of soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper. Fry quickly in some hot oil until curled up. Scoop up and leave aside.

PREPARATION

(Serves: 5-6)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

INGREDIENTS
1 box flour vermicelli (mee suah – 10 pcs)
250gms chicken breast meat (dice, marinate with pepper, soy sauce & sesame oil)
250gms prawns (dice, marinate with pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil & pinch of sugar)
1 piece thick fish cake (halves and cut into cubes)
6 button mushrooms (halves and slice)
20-30 gms sharkfins (boil to soften and marinate in 1 Tspn brandy/Chinese rice wine)
1 egg (beaten with a bit of soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper)
2 pieces artificial crabsticks (cut into 4mm thickness)
2 Tspn soy sauce
2 Tspn oyster sauce
2 tspn sesame oil
1 tspn brandy/Chinese rice wine
3-4 Tspn corn flour (mix with a bit of water)
4 soup bowl water (about 800ml)
Some oil
Some pepper & salt to taste
3 cloves garlic (chopped and sauté with oil for garnishing)

OPTIONAL
3 young corns (dice)
Some crab meat
6 straw mushrooms (slice)
Spring onions (chop)
Black Vinegar

PREPARATION

1. Heat up the wok with low fire and sauté the chopped garlic with 4 Tspn of oil until golden brown. Dish out into a dish bowl and leave aside.
2. Boil a pot of water. When it gets hot and bubble, put in the box of Mee Suah (10pcs). Stir for 3 minutes (or until soften) and sieve it dry. Distribute it into 4 plates. Mix in some of the garlic to ensure that it would not lump up later. (Optional: You can actually put the mee suah into the gravy before scooping out to serve. I did it this way so that it can be divided equally amongst 4 persons.)
3. Heat up the wok again and put in 3 Tspn of oil. Stir fried the diced chicken meat, prawns, fish cake with 2 Tspn soy sauce, 2 Tspn oyster sauce and 2 tspn sesame oil with low fire.
4. When you all the combinations are cooked, pour in the water. Let it boil.
5. Add in the corn flour to thicken the gravy. If not enough make more as some brand of corn flour won’t thicken easily.
6. Add in the brandy/Chinese wine and salt and pepper to taste.
7. Put in the crabsticks, mushroom and sharkfins and let it boil.
8. Stir in the beaten egg until it becomes creamy.
9. Dish out onto the mee suah and garnish with some garlic oil and spring onions.
10. You are ready to serve.
11. You can add in some black vinegar if you like it to be sour a bit.

(Serves: 4-5)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

There I was writing about remembering my childhood days and here I am experiencing the scary signs of growing old gracefully. Do you know what would be the worst nightmare for a food blogger? It is either all the photos turned out to be over exposed, under exposed, and blur or forgetting to take a snap shot of the food that was served to them on the table. Sometimes, it could also be due to the fact that certain owners disallowed taking shots within the premises. My nightmare was none of the above as I got even worst! I forgot to take a snapshot of one of the dishes I cooked last night. Arggh!! Haiz… I think it’s time for me to get some Gingko Bibola to rejuvenate my brain cells. 😛

After having spent so much on restaurants food these few days, I had decided to spend some time in the kitchen to cook some simple meals. Since it was a meal for four, I cooked some cans of rice with some herbs and spices and fried with some butter, eggs, raisins, roasted chicken meat chunks and garnished with fried onions. Bingo! I had my Buttered Roasted Chicken Fried Rice. There’s the BUT here! I forgot to take a shot of this dish. I guessed somehow with the migraine medication I was taking, it made me kind of a blur king. LOL! Anyway, not even one grain of rice was left in the pot. It must have been real good then. 🙂

As for the side dishes, I came out with Deep Fried Prawn Paste Squids (Fried Belacan Sotong). This is a simple yet mouth-watering dish that can be taken with either Thai Chili Sauce or Mayonnaise.

Ingredient:
One box 100gms Nona All Purpose Seasoned Flour (Prawn Shrimp Recipe)
Some pepper
2 Tspn sesame oil
Oil
250gms squids (clean and cut into rings)

Method:

1. Drain the excess water from the squid. Sprinkle some pepper and add in the sesame oil. Mix thoroughly.
2. Add in the prawn shrimp flour gradually until all the squids get mixed well. Put in a bit of water to make it into a batter like mixture. Add in a teaspoon of oil and mix thoroughly.
3. Heat up some oil in a wok. Lower the fire to medium when it is hot. Scoop the ringed squid pieces by pieces with a spoon and slowly put it into the wok. BEWARE! The oil might explode everywhere due to the little amount of water added earlier. You might want to consider laying some used newspaper on the floor. When the squids become golden brown, take them out and put onto a plate laid with kitchen towel to drain the excess oil.
4. Transfer the cooked squids onto a plate and you are ready to serve.

(Serve: 3-4)

Note: Try frying a piece first to taste the saltiness as some brands of flour do not have salt in the content. If not enough, drip some soy sauce into the batter.

Since both of the dishes were fried dishes, I decided to have another dish with gravy base. Let me introduce you to my Broiled Cabbage with Steamed Meatballs. This is another simple and yet delicious recipe that my demised grandmother used to cook for us.

I got up real early this morning just to prepare a meal for my family today although it is a Sunday. Have you ever encountered trying to think of what to buy back for lunch on a Sunday? If it is not Fried Rice then it would be the usual noodle dishes that I got rather bored with. With a little of creativity, I came out with something you cannot buy from any stalls around, which I would like to share with you all. Here is the recipe to my CHINESE CHIVES FLOWER ROASTED PORK FRIED HOR FUN.

INGREDIENTS
1.5 kg hor fun (open up and cut into 1.5” strips)
600gms roasted pork (chopped)
300gms Chinese chives flower (cut into 1” length)
1 piece thick fish cake (halves and cut into strips)
2 pieces artificial crabsticks (cut into 4mm thickness)
5 eggs (beat with 1 Tspn sesame oil, 2 Tspn soy sauce and pepper)
10 porcelain spoons vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic (chopped)
6 Tspn soy sauce
1 Tspn dark soy sauce
3 Tspn sesame oil
3 Tspn oyster sauce
Pepper
Salt
Sugar

PREPARATION

1. Heat up wok with 6 porcelain spoons of oil and saute some chopped garlic. When the garlic becomes slightly brown, lower fire, pour in the hor fun. Add in 1 Tspn of dark soy sauce, 3 Tspn of soy sauce, 1 Tspn oyster sauce, 1 Tspn sesame oil and some pepper. Higher fire and stir until it looked slightly dried up. Scoop and leave aside.
2. Put in some oil and chopped garlic. Stir fry the fish cake for two minutes. Scoop and leave aside together with the diced crabsticks.
3. Put in 3 porcelain spoons of oil and sauté some garlic until brown. Pour in the roasted pork, 1 Tspn soy sauce, 1 Tspn sesame oil, 2 Tspn oyster sauce, pinch of sugar, and some pepper and stir fry for about two minutes. Add in the Chinese chives flower and stir until cook. Scoop and leave aside.
4. Add in the balance oil, sauté some garlic on high fire. When slightly brown, pour in the beaten eggs and scrambled it until loose.
5. Lower the fire. Pour in the fried hor fun and stir thoroughly. Next, pour in the rest of the ingredients and stir thoroughly.
6. Sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste (if not enough)
7. Scoop into dishes and serve while it is hot. You can garnish with fried shallots and serve with shrimp paste chili (sambal belacan).

(Serves: 4-6)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.