What do you do if you have linguine (a type of pasta), chicken and siew pak choy? Cook them into a dish, of course! It will be handy if you have a can of pasta sauce in your kitchen cabinet.

This dish takes me 1 hour to prepare and cook. I am still an amateur and take a longer time to prepare the ingredients and cook them. Briefly, what I have prepared is pan-fried chicken breast, blanched siew pak choy and pasta sauce. Each can be a dish by itself but this is sort of a fusion dish using western and eastern ingredients. In fact, this is the first time I cooked this dish and I was quite pleased! (I am usually quite fussy over the quality of food I cook. My wife will attest to that!)


I hope you will give this dish a try and having learnt it, experiment on your own with the ingredients.

This is my recipe for Linguine with Pan-Fried Chicken Breast and Siew Pak Choy.


Ingredients

• 250 grammes of linguine (you can use any type of pasta)
• 1 large chicken breast
• 200 grammes of siew pak choy (wash and clean)
  
• 1 can of button mushrooms (halved)
• 1 can of Campbells Pasta Sauce (tomato, garlic and basil sauce)
• 2 large onions (chopped)
• 5 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of palm oil
• 1 pot of water
  

Marinade for chicken

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper powder
• A dash of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 tablespoon of HP BBQ Sauce
• A dash of black pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour

Seasoning for tomato-based sauce

• Salt to taste
• Black pepper powder to taste

Method

Marinade chicken breast for at least 1 hour or more.

Bring water to boil in a large pot. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of palm oil. Add in the siew pak choy and blanch till the leaves turn dark green / cooked. Remove the leaves and set aside.

Cook the linguine in the pot of water according to directions on packaging. Remove and drain. Set aside and drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil over it.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in frying pan and fry the chicken breast for at least 2 minutes on each side. Ensure chicken breast is thoroughly cooked by piercing the meat with a fork. Clear juice should flow when pierced. Remove from pan to cool. Slice the pan-fried chicken breast.

Heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil on a sauce pan and saute the onions till translucent. Add button mushrooms and stir well for 2 minutes. Add the pasta sauce and seasoning and bring to boil. Add half-can of water. Cover with lid, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Arrange cooked linguine on plate. Place sliced pan-fried chicken breast and siew pak choy to your liking. Pour an appropriate amount of the mushroom tomato pasta sauce over them and serve hot.


Technorati Tags : Pasta , Vegetable , Recipe

This is another simple dish to cook but great tasting. French beans can be cooked in many different ways including blanching and steaming but I find it most delicious when it is stir-fried with garlic and egg.

The crunchiness and sweetness of the french beans mixed with the fluffy-fried eggs gives this dish a good balance in taste and texture, not to mention the healthiness. Try choosing the younger and lighter green french beans which are younger, tender and less fibrous compared to the older and darker coloured variety.


Cooking time varies depending on how thinly you slice the french beans diagonally. Obviously, cooking time is lesser if you slice it thinly. You will also have to manage the heat from the cooker as you do not want to burn the garlic.

This is my wife's recipe for Stir-Fried French Beans with Egg.


Ingredients

• 150 - 200 grammes french beans (sliced diagonally thinly)
• 1 large egg
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Seasoning

• Salt to taste
• White pepper powder to taste

Method

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in wok on medium heat. Lightly stir fry the garlic till it begins to brown. Add french beans and stir fry at medium high heat for 1 - 2 minutes. If garlic is browning fast, reduce heat. Sprinkle seasoning to taste.

Make a well in the wok (i.e. move the french beans from the center of the wok), increase to high heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Break egg into the oil and let it fry till semi-solid. Mix and stir french beans into the semi-solid egg and fry for 30 seconds or so.

Remove from wok and serve hot with rice or plain porridge.


Technorati Tags : French Bean , Vegetable , Chinese Food

Chicken Chop is known to be a western dish and is commonly found in most western restaurants. In Malaysia, chicken chop is sometimes served in Chinese restaurants which serve western dishes and it is usually accompanied with a tomato based gravy.

Recently, I tried cooking chicken chop for a change from the usual dishes we have for dinner. I bought two chicken legs (which consists of the thigh and drumstick) which I had it deboned. Apart from the chicken legs, the only other ingredients I used were cherry tomatoes and onions, excluding the marinade and seasoning, of course. It is fairly simple and not an intimidating dish to cook. To make it more elaborate, you can even add in fried potatoes (diced).

This is my recipe for Chinese-Styled Chicken Chop.


Ingredients

• 2 chicken legs (deboned. I had the chicken skin removed as well)
• 10 cherry tomatoes (of whatever tomatoes you fancy)
• 1 large onion (quartered and separated)
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Marinade (for chicken)

• 1 1/2 tablespoons 0f HP BBQ Sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of Lea & Perrins Worchestershire Sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• A couple of dashes of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour
  

Seasoning (gravy)

• 2 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
• Sugar to taste

Method

Marinade the chicken for more than 1 hour using the marinating ingredients above.

Heat a thin layer of oil in a frying-pan (I used a non-stick frying pan. If you don't have one, add more oil for the frying process) and pan-fry the chicken on both sides till thoroughly cooked. Pierce meat with fork to test for thorough cooking (clear juice should ooze out if cooked). Remove chicken onto a plate leaving the juice in the frying pan.

Add the onions onto the frying pan and stir fry for 1 minute. Add cherry tomatoes and continue to stir fry for 15 seconds or so. Add tomato ketchup and water and bring sauce to boil and thicken whilst adding sugar to taste.

Pour sauce over the fried chicken and serve hot with potatoes or rice.


Technorati Tags : Recipe , Chicken Chop

I am back after the long festive holidays. I had the chance of cooking a couple of dishes and this is one of them. My mum cooks this dish quite often too. I guess it's because it is quite easy and simple to cook. I usually remove the skin of the chicken prior to cooking this dish for health reasons. Furthermore, I don't like the dish to turn out with a layer of oil. In the picture below, I have yet to remove the skin.

Once you have mastered this dish, you can experiment with the ingredients - eg. adding baby corn, different types of mushrooms, celery etc.

This is my recipe for Chicken with Potatoes, Carrots and Mushrooms.

Method

Marinade chicken for 30 - 60 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oil in wok and fry potatoes till golden brown. Remove fried potatoes from oil.

With remaining oil in wok and at medium heat, saute the chinese mushrooms for 1 minute. Increase to high heat and add chicken and garlic and stir fry for another minute till outer layer of chicken is cooked. Add fried potatoes and carrots and continue stir frying for another minute.

Add seasoning and water and close lid. Cook for another 3 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.


Technorati Tags : Recipe , Chinese Food , Chicken

This is a very easy recipe to cook and uses only a handful of ingredients. You only need pork or beef, preserved szechuan vegetables, garlic, cooking oil and dark soya sauce. The preserved szechuan vegetable, which is spicy hot and salty, gives a natural flavouring to the dish and you don't really need to put any others seasoning apart from the dark soya sauce to give the dish some "colour".

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Pork with Preserved Szechuan Vegetable.

Ingredients

• 200 grammes of tenderloin pork (sliced thinly)
• 1/2 piece of szechuan vegetable (julienned and washed thoroughly)
• 4 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 50 ml of warm water

Seasoning

• 2 teaspoons dark soya sauce
• Sprinkle of sugar (optional)

Method

Heat oil in wok and add chopped garlic. Stir for 5 to 10 seconds. Add pork and preserved szechuan vegetables and stir-fry for 1 minute.

Add dark soya sauce and water and cook until pork is thorougly cooked and sauce has reduced. Sprinkle some sugar if you find it too salty.

Further to my last post on Long Beans Rice, I did mention there that it tastes great with soup. I am referring to Kiam Chye Tau Foo Soup which is basically Salted Mustard Leaves and Beancurd Soup in Hokkien dialect. Somehow or rather, the salty, sour and sweet nature of this soup complements the Long Beans Rice well.

Remember the water used to boil the belly pork in the Long Beans Rice recipe? The stock is used for this soup and in fact, you can retain a couple of slices of the pork to enhance the flavour of this soup. Nothing goes to waste! See the Long Beans Rice recipe for the preparation of the stock.

This is my recipe for Kiam Chye Tau Foo Soup.

Rice cookers are not meant just to cook plain rice. Prior to this, I have a recipe for Chicken Rice cooked in a rice cooker. Apart from Chicken Rice, you can also cook other types of rice, one of which is Long Bean Rice.


A meal on its own, you will find out here that you can also cook a soup as a side dish arising out of the use of the ingredients here. I will give the recipe for the soup another day. Anyway, the fact that all the ingredients are firstly stir-fried and then cooked in the rice cooker gives the whole dish maximum flavour from the various ingredients used.

Long Beans can be stir-fried on its own with belacan or even garlic and is highly nutritious. Eat too much, however, you may end up with too much gas in your stomach which is common among beans. Once you master this dish, you can substitute the long beans with other vegetables such as cabbage, pumpkin or even "kua chye" - I am still trying to find out what's the anglo-name for this vegetable.

This is my recipe for Long Bean Rice.

Ingredients

• 2 cups rice pre-soaked for 30 minutes (measured using the cup that comes with your rice cooker)
• About 15 pieces of long beans (cut to 2 inch lengths)
• 400 grammes of belly pork (try to get the 3-layered pork. Remove skin)
• 5 to 8 pieces dried chinese mushrooms (pre-soaked till soft. Remove from water and cut to slivers but retain water for later use)
• 30 grammes of dried prawns / shrimps (pre-soaked for 5 minutes. Remove from water but retain water for later use)
• 5 bulbs shallots (sliced thinly)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 3 bowls of water
  

Seasoning

• 4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder
• 2 teaspoon light soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• A pinch of msg (optional)

Method

Bring water to boil. Add belly pork and let it boil till cooked. Remove pork. Cut into small pieces.

Heat oil in wok and fry shallots till golden brown. Remove fried shallots.

With remaining oil in wok, fry the cooked belly pork till beginning to brown. Remove pork. With remaining oil, fry the dried prawns and chinese mushrooms for 1 minute till fragrant. Add long beans and put back the pork into the wok and continue to stir fry for 1 more minute. Add seasoning and a little bit of water (used to soak mushrooms / dried prawns) to keep it moist.

Add pre-soaked rice into the ingredients and stir well for 1 minute.

Transfer the ingredients into rice cooker and add water till it covers rice completely just like how you usually cook rice. Turn on the rice cooker and wait for it to cook automatically.

Sprinkle fried shallots over rice before serving.


Technorati Tags : Recipe , Rice , Recipe , Chinese Food

Stingrays are sometimes sold at the wet market and we buy it once in a blue moon. The most common method to cook stingrays are to grill them after marinating them in some spicy sauce. In fact, most hawkers selling grilled seafood will have stingrays amongst other seafood available.

We don't grill our food at home because...we don't have a grill in the first place. But what we do like is to cook the stingray with taucheo chilli and salted vegetable. The taucheo chilli gives the stingray a slight spicy taste whilst the salted vegetable lends an interesting salty twist to the dish. Taucheo is preserved soya beans which are bought from grocers in bottles. The salted vegetables mentioned are also known as kiam chye (in hokkien) or preserved mustard leaves.

Stingrays can have a rather "fishy" smell and that's one of the reasons why it is cooked with chilli. By past experience, we find that the ones where the white-coloured flesh is riddled with black dots are tastier and have less "fishy" smell. If anyone can share the name of this specie or why it is riddled with black dots, that would be most appreciated.

This is my recipe for Stingray with Taucheo Chilli and Salted Vegetables.

Ingredients

• 400 grammes of stingray (wash thoroughly and cut to bite sizes)
• 3 to 4 red chillis (remove seeds and pound finely. Use more chilli if you like it spicier)
• 3 bulbs garlic (chopped finely)
• 4 slices of ginger
• 2 teaspoons taucheo (preserved soya beans)
• 3 to 4 leaves of salted vegetables julienned (kiam chye / preserved mustard leaves)
  
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 1/2 cup water

Seasoning

• Dash of white pepper
• Sugar to taste
  

Method

Heat oil in wok. Add chilli, garlic and ginger and stir till fragrant or slightly brown. Add taucheo and salted vegetables (preserved mustard leaves). Stir fry for 30 seconds.

Add stingray and stir till the meat is turns colour / cooked on the outside. Add water and close lid. Cook for 2 minutes on high heat (till stingray is thoroughly cooked).

Add a dash of white pepper and sugar to taste prior to serving.


Technorati Tags : Stingray , Recipe , Chinese Food

Once in a while, I have no "inspiration" to cook and struggle to cook something. So, having some lamb shoulder chops in the freezer comes in handy. Though this is not strictly an Asian recipe, it is still cooked by an Asian :)

Actually, I sort of learnt this dish from my mother-in-law and I have sort of modified it a bit by adding a bit of this and a bit of that. One of the best part of this dish is actually the fat! Yeah, by the time the lamb shoulder is cooked, the fat just melts into the mouth. If you are on the health concious side, just trim away the fat prior to cooking but I suspect, it would not taste as nice.

This is my recipe for Lamb Shoulder BBQ Sauce.

Ingredients

• 6 pieces of lamb shoulder
• 1 whole garlic (choppped)
• 1/2 teaspoon of Italian Herbs
• 2 tablespoons of BBQ sauce (buy from supermarkets)
• 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 - 2 teaspoons of sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• A dash of black pepper powder
  
• 100 ml warm water
  
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Method

Heat oil in wok and fry lamb shoulder for 1 - 2 minutes each side turning once only.

Remove lamb shoulder and set aside. With remaining oil, fry garlic for about 15 seconds and add water, BBQ sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, salt and black pepper powder to taste.

Once the sauce boils, add the lamb shoulder and cook for 1 minute by coating the sauce thoroughly over the lamb shoulder.

Serve hot with rice or potatoes.


Technorati Tags : Lamb , Recipe , Sauce

It's amazing what people can find to make delicious food. Who would have thought that the root or rhizomes of the lotus plant which is submerged in muddy-like waters in ponds or lakes can be very delicious indeed? Some have used it in stir-fries with sweet peas and baby corns. Some cook soup with it.

One popular chinese-style soup is the Lotus Root Soup with Red Dates and Peanuts. You can even add dried cuttlefish for added flavour. After hours of simmering, it tastes robust and is apparently good for your body. It tastes even better if it is cooked using charcoal fire.

This is my recipe for Lotus Root Soup with Red Dates and Peanuts.

Ingredients

• 300 grammes of lotus root (wash thoroughly, gently scrape the skin and slice not more than 5 mm thick. Discard the points between the sections)
• 300 grammes of pork ribs (ask butcher for ribs suitable for stewing soup)
• 10 - 15 Red Dates
• 100 grammes peanuts (uncooked)
• 4 pieces dried cuttlefish (optional. Cut into halves)
• 2 1/2 soup bowls of water

Seasoning

• Salt to taste

Method

Boil water in pot. Upon boiling, add pork ribs. Remove layer of scum on surface of boiling water.

After about 2 minutes of rapid boiling and having removed scum, add the rest of the ingredients and bring to boil again for 2 minutes.

Cover lid, reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 hours. Add salt to taste before serving.


Technorati Tags : Soup , Recipe , Lotus , Chinese Food

I have not been posting since the 2nd October. Not that I have not eaten but I have not been cooking and I have not eaten anything which I deem interesting enough to share it here. Recently though, my mum cooked Mixed Vegetables consisting of cabbage, carrots, wood-ear fungus, mushrooms and dried lily buds (kim cham).

Dried lily buds are unopened flower buds of lilies and also known as "golden needles". The buds need to be soaked in water for at least 30 minutes followed by tying itself in a knot at the middle. The wood-ear fungus also need to be soaked in water till soft prior to cooking as they come in dried form.

This is the recipe for Mixed Vegetables using Cabbage, Carrots, Wood-Ear Fungus, Chinese Mushrooms and Dried Lily Buds.

Ingredients

• 300 grammes of cabbage (cut across into 1 inch width)
• 200 grammes of carrot (sliced)
• 50 to 100 grammes of wood-ear fungus (soaked in water till soft)
• 5 dried chinese mushrooms (pre-soaked in 1 large bowl of water, cut into halves and with stem removed. Keep the water for cooking)
• 50 grammes of dried lily buds (pre-soaked till soft and knotted in the middle)
• 4 bulbs of garlic (chopped)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 1 tablespoon of corn flour (mix with 3 tablespoons of water to make starch)
  

Seasoning

• 2 teaspoons light soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• Salt and white pepper powder to taste
• 1 tablespoon chinese cooking wine

Method

Heat oil in wok at high heat. Add garlic, chinese mushrooms and wood-ear fungus. Stir fry for 1 minute ensuring the garlic does not burn.

Add carrots, dried lily buds and cabbage and continue stir frying for another 2 minutes. Add a little water (from the water used to soak mushrooms) at a time to ensure that the vegetables do not dry out.

Add light soya sauce, oyster sauce, salt and white pepper followed by 1 cup of water and let it boil with lid closed. Cook for about 3 minutes or until cabbage is slightly limp.

Finally, add chinese cooking wine and adjust seasoning to taste. This is followed by the corn starch to thicken sauce to your desired thickness.


Technorati Tags : Vegetable , Chinese Food , Recipe

Fishballs are commonly sold in wet markets in Malaysia especially by the chinese traders. It is usually cooked in soup and tastes delicious when fresh. I prefer those which are springy and "crunchy". Fishballs should ideally be cooked the same day it is purchased as it usually does not taste as fresh overnight.

One of the common ways to cook a quick and delicious soup using fishballs is to cook it with Tang Hoon (also known as Glass Noodles). It can be served as an accompaniment to rice or even eaten / drunk on its own. One of the important ingredients which you should strive to add to the soup is chinese salted vegetable as it adds a nice saltish flavour to the soup. The chinese salted vegetable can be bought from sundry shops.

This is a very simple and clear soup to cook which admittedly, might be too amateurish to some. Happy trying if you have not.

This is my recipe for Fish Ball Tang Hoon Soup a.k.a. Fish Balls with Glass Noodles Soup.

Ingredients

• 10 to 15 fishballs (actually, quantity up to you)
• A handful of Tang Hoon (usually sold tied in a small bunch) [pre-soak in water to soften it]
  
• Chopped spring onions for garnishing
• A pinch of chinese salted vegetable
• 50 grammes of ikan bilis (dried anchovies) [buy those suitable for making stock]
  
• 2 bulbs shallots (sliced thinly)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil
• 1 1/4 soup bowls of water (approximately 600 ml)
  

Seasoning

• Light soya sauce
• Salt
• White pepper powder
• A pinch of msg (optional)
  

Method

Boil water with ikan bilis for 45 minutes to make stock. Remove ikan bilis when done.

Fry shallots in cooking oil till golden brown and place aside to cool.

Once stock is ready (which should be at least 1 soup bowl full) and maintaining high heat, add tang hoon and fish balls. The fish balls will float whilst the tang hoon will turn semi-translucent when cooked. Add seasoning to taste.

Sprinkle chopped spring onions, pinch of chinese salted vegetables and 2 teaspoons of the shallot oil onto the soup before serving.


Technorati Tags : Fish Ball , Soup , Tang Hoon , Glass Noodles