Sitiawan Noodle ala PabloPabla

This must be one of the discoveries from Sitiawan. I was there for a trip recently and chanced upon these instant noodles being sold at a famous Kong Pia shop. Read about my review on the kong pia. Anyway, I've always known that the Foochows have great tasting noodles called "Kan Pua". And I believe these are the dried and instant type.

Seng Huat Hand-Made Instant Noodles

Having brought it home, I went to the wet market the next day, bought some char siew (with sauce), cucumbers and carrots and had a lip-smacking lunch ala PabloPabla. Almost like cold soba styled, it's simple, light, healthy and definitely, delicious! These noodles are different because of the texture and it does not break easily. It also does not clump up. Try it if you can get your hands on these noodles. Otherwise, just try it with any other types of instant noodles though I can't guarantee it will be as nice.

• 5 pieces Sitiawan instant noodles
• 200 grammes of char siew (sliced thinly)
• 1 medium sized cucumber (remove core, cut to strips)
• 1 medium sized carrot (cut to strips)
• 5 shallots (sliced thinly)
• 5 tablespoons palm oil
  
• Water for boiling

• 50 ml char siew gravy / sauce
• 3 teaspoons light soya sauce
• a couple of dashes of white pepper powder

Labels: Chinese, Noodles, Pork

Stir-Fried Instant Noodles

Whilst instant noodles can be REALLY EASY to cook, you can actually make a slightly more elaborate dish out of it by adding some ingredients which blend nicely with the springy texture of the instant noodles. For this recipe, I use bean sprouts, carrots and capsicum to give it a bit of crunch and fibre and I also add sliced fish cake for added flavour.

Ingredients

There are actually two parts to cooking this dish. The first part would be to cook the instant noodles in boiling water till al-dente (which is cooked but not soggy or soft). After cooking the noodles in boiling water, drain it and run it under cold / tap water to stop the noodles from cooking further. Running it through the cold / tap water also makes the noodles springy in texture.

Close-Up of a piece of Fish Cake

The second part involves the stir-frying of the ingredients together with the noodles. You will need a cooker which gives you really high heat or else, the noodles might stick to your wok. And if you used the wok to boil the noodles, I would recommend that you fry some sliced shallots in that wok, remove the oil and shallots and wash the wok before proceeding to stir-fry the instant noodles. Frying the shallots or even an egg for that matter will somehow "recondition" the wok to be less sticky.

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Instant Noodles


Ingredients

• 4 pieces of instant noodles (cooked by boiling as per above paragraph)
• 1 piece or more of fish cake (sliced) (substitute with whatever meat you want)
• 1/2 piece of capsicum (sliced thinly)
• An equal amount of carrots or more (julienned)
• 300 grammes of bean sprouts (rinsed and root removed)
• 2 stalks of spring onions (cut to 3 inch lengths)
  
• 4 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Seasoning

• 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon of light soya sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of dark soya sauce

Method

Heat oil in wok and saute garlic together with sliced fish cake till garlic begin to brown. Break the eggs over the sliced fish cake and gently stir till egg is thoroughly cooked. Add carrots and capcisum and stir-fry for 1 minute.

Add cooked noodles and seasoning and stir-fry for 1 minute to ensure that seasoning is evenly distributed. Sprinkle some warm water if the noodles are drying out or burning. Sprinkle the spring onions onto the noodles and stir evenly.

Dish out and serve hot with cut chillis.


Technorati Tags : Recipe , Noodles , Stir-Fry , Chinese

Labels: Chinese, Dinner, Lunch, Noodles, Vegetable

Stewed Pork Belly in Dark Soya Sauce (before slicing)

This recipe is VERY EASY and DELICIOUS. You have no reasons why you should not try it (unless you do not eat pork), even if you are a beginner. The ingredients are simple and can be obtained almost everywhere. In fact, I used to cook this dish during my university days in England and it was really nice to have it with steaming hot rice on a cold winter's night!



This is my recipe for Stewed Pork Belly in Dark Soya Sauce


Ingredients

• 300 grammes pork belly (whole)
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 whole bulbs garlic (separate into individual cloves)
• Approximately 15 - 20 white peppercorns
  
• Warm water
• 1 piece star-anise (optional)
  

Seasoning

• 3 to 4 tablespoons dark soya sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  

Method

Add sugar into a wok / saucepan which has been heated up. Let the sugar caramelise (turn liquid and brown).

Once sugar fully caramelised, add pork belly and let it "sear" for 1 minute on each side. Add water to cover the chicken pork belly (*thanks to Tummythoz for identifying my error) by 1 to 2 cm. Add the rest of the ingredients and seasoning. Once water begins to boil, reduce to medium low heat, cover lid and let it simmer for 30 minutes to an hour.

To serve, separate gravy from the rest of the ingredients. Slice the pork belly to desired thinness.


Technorati Tags : Pork , Recipe , Food

Labels: Chinese, Dinner, Pork

Stir-Fried Pork Tenderloin with Enoki Mushroom

I like to eat enoki mushrooms. They are also known as "kim cham" mushrooms (meaning golden needles in hokkien) as they are longish with a small cap. These mushrooms are sometimes added to soups like Bak Kut Teh and commonly used in Japanese cooking. The stems have a crunchy bite despite it being rather thin and needle-like in appearance. It has a mild and delightful flavour and compliments well with meat dishes.

Enoki Mushroom

I usually cook enoki mushrooms with meat, pork tenderloins to be exact. You can substitute the meat with chicken breasts. The enoki mushrooms are added in towards the end of the cooking time as too much cooking will render the stems tough and stringy.

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Pork Tenderloin with Enoki Mushrooms


Ingredients

• 200 grammes of pork tenderloins (sliced thinly)
• 1 packet of enoki mushrooms (cut off and discard the bottom of the cluster of mushrooms and gently rinse them to remove any dirt)
• 1/2 piece of carrot (julienned) - for added colour to the dish
• 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 50 ml of warm water
• Corn starch (prepared using 1 tablespoon of corn flour mixed with 5 tablespoons of water)

Marinade

• 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce
• a couple of dashes of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour

Seasoning

• 3/4 tablespoons of oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon of chinese cooking wine
• Salt

Method

Marinade pork tenderloin for about 30 minutes.

Heat oil in wok on high heat and stir-fry the garlic till beginning to brown. Add pork tenderloin and carrots and stir-fry till meat is almost cooked. Add oyster sauce and salt to taste followed by water and bring gravy to boil. Then add the enoki mushrooms and chinese cooking wine and stir well for 30 seconds.

If it is too dry to your liking, add a little bit more warm water. If the gravy is too runny, add a tablespoon of corn starch at a time.

Serve hot with steaming white rice.



Technorati Tags : Recipe , Pork , Mushroom , Chinese Food

Labels: Chinese, Dinner, Lunch, Pork

I have previously shared with you how to cook Bee Hoon with Stewed Pork Ribs. But yesterday, we have no stewed pork ribs in stock at home. What we have is chicken frankfurters. So, I decided to mix and match and am quite pleased with the outcome.

This is what I did :-

Ingredients

• 250 grammes bee hoon (pre-soaked till soft and drained)
• 4 pieces chicken frankfurters (cut diagonally - or whichever way you like)
• 5 pieces dried chinese mushrooms (pre-soaked in one bowl (about 250 ml) of water till soft and slivered. Remove stalk)
• 50 grammes dried prawns (pre-soaked in about 150 ml of water)
• 100 grammes chinese mustard (more if you like)
• 2 eggs
• 4 bulbs garlic (minced)
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 3 pieces Lime

From top (clockwise): Beehoon, frankfurters, eggs, minced garlic,
chinese mustard, dried prawns and dried mushrooms

Seasoning

• 3 teaspoons light soya sauce or to taste
  
• Dash of white pepper powder to taste
  

Method

Heat oil in wok. Fry the chinese mushrooms for about 30 seconds and remove from oil.

Proceed to fry the dried prawns for 30 seconds. Add garlic followed by the frankfurters and eggs. Stir-fry till eggs are done and add back the chinese mushrooms.

Add bee hoon and stir fry for about 3 minutes, gradually adding water which was used to soak the mushrooms and dried prawns a little at a time to keep the bee hoon moist. Add seasoning followed by chinese mustard.

Continue stir-frying till chinese mustard and bee hoon is cooked.

Serve with a squeeze of lime.

This recipe serves 3 to 4 persons.

Bee Hoon with Chicken Frankfurters and Chinese Mushrooms

Labels: Beehoon, Breakfast, Chinese, Dinner, Lunch

When I go to mamak stalls, I sometimes order mee goreng (fried noodles). Most of the time, the noodles are cooked in slightly dark coloured gravy due to the use of dark soya sauce. As for me, I have not been able to replicate the same type of mee goreng probably because I do not use the same type of ingredients.

I do, however, have my own recipe for mee goreng in which I use yellow noodles, tomatoes, fried beancurd, bean sprouts, chinese mustard (sawi), onions, garlic and fried fish cake (see photograph on right for ingredients used). If I have left over fried chicken, I will also put it in for extra flavour.

My mee goreng is basically sweet, sour and hot in taste as I use tomato and chilli ketchup. Do try it as it is not difficult at all.

Mee Goreng PabloPabla style

Ingredients

• 500 grammes of yellow noodles
• 1 large onion (chopped)
• 3 bulbs garlic (minced)
• 2 cups of bean sprouts (remove root)
• 200 grammes of chinese mustard (sawi) (cut into bite sizes)
• 2 pieces hard beancurd (cut into strips)
• 1 large tomato (cut into 8 wedges)
• 2 large eggs
  
• 2 pieces fried fish cake (cut into strips) (you can also use any form of pre-cooked meat eg. fried chicken, fried beef, etc)
• 3 pieces lime (halved)
  
• 4 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 1 cup warm water
  

Sauce

• 3 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
• 2 tablespoons of chilli ketchup
• 1 teaspoon of light soya sauce

Method

Fry beancurd strips in wok till golden brown. Remove from oil.

Whilst the oil is still hot, fry the onions, garlic and fish cake strips (or meat) till fragrant. Add eggs and stir fry till eggs are semi-cooked. Add noodles gradually whilst stirring. (Cook at high heat to ensure noodles do not stick on wok)

Having stir fried the noodles for about 1 to 2 minutes, add fried beancurd strips and cut tomatoes. Continue to stir fry, add beansprouts and sauce (adjust amount of ketchup to taste). Add a little bit of water to keep noodles moist.

After 1 to 2 minutes, add chinese mustard and stir for 1 minute (chinese mustard cooks fast and gets limp easily in yellow noodles).

Serve with a squeeze of lime.

Labels: Breakfast, Chinese, Dinner, Indian, Lunch, Malaysian, Noodles

Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs in the wok

This is my recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 Pork ribs cut into 2 inch lengths (approximately 400 gms)
• 1 large onion (quartered and separated)
• 1 green capsicum (slivered)
• 2 large tomatoes (cut into wedges)
• Oil for deep frying
• Corn flour
• 1 teaspoon of Salt and 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper powder to marinade pork ribs
  

Sauce

• 3 tablespoons tomato ketchup
• sugar to taste
• 1 cup of warm water

Method

Marinade pork ribs for about 3 hours or more. Adjust amount of salt as marinade according to your preference.

Deep fry the pork ribs till golden brown and cooked. Remove and drain.

Add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil into wok at high heat. Fry onions and capsicums for 30 seconds. Add tomato ketchup. Sprinkle sugar to taste (depending how sweet or sour you want the sauce to be). Gradually add a little warm water depending on how thin you want the sauce to be. Finally, add the tomatoes and fried pork ribs.

Stir and coat the pork ribs in the sauce and serve hot. Excellent served with Egg Fried Rice.

You can also add cucumbers (diced) or pineapples (diced) into the dish.

Labels: Chinese, Dinner, Lunch, Pork

Fried Beehoon with Stewed Pork Ribs

On festive occasions, my mum will cook beehoon with stewed pork ribs. The stewed pork ribs are sold in cans and purchased from supermarkets. Of course, you can just heat up the stewed pork ribs and eat it with rice but this is another method to cook it. Tastes good!


Ingredients

• 300 gms of beehoon (pre-soaked for 1 hour and drained)
• 1 can of stewed pork ribs (do not throw the gravy away)
  
• 150 gms of cabbage (sliced) - you can have more if you like more vegetables
• 1 carrot (optional - sliced into strips)
• 2 eggs
  
• 3 bulbs garlic (minced)
• 5 bulbs shallots (sliced thinly)
• 3 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 1 cup of hot water

Flavouring

• 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• 2 teaspoons light soya sauce (more if you prefer the dish to be saltier)
• Dash of white pepper powder (to taste)
  

Method

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

With the same oil in the wok and at high heat, fry the garlic (till light yellow colour). Add eggs and fry till eggs are slightly brown. Then add cabbage and carrot and stir fry for 2 minutes till vegetables are slightly limp. Add in the stewed pork ribs and its gravy.

When the mix above starts to boil, add the beehoon (rice vermicelli) and stir fry for about 5 to 7 minutes. Add flavouring to taste whilst stir frying.

Add the hot water gradually to keep the beehoon moist whilst stir frying. Beehoon is cooked when it is no more translucent and is soft.

Serves 3 to 4 persons.

Labels: Beehoon, Chinese, Dinner, Lunch, Pork

Labels: Chinese, Dinner, Lunch, Vegetable

Labels: Beancurd, Chinese, Dinner, Lunch

I like this dish as it compliments rice very well. The rich stew tastes heavenly when poured over the rice and the meat is usually very tender by the end of cooking time.

Tau Yu Bak can be cooked using either belly pork or even pork ribs. In this picture, pork ribs are used together with tau ki (which is soya sheets).

You can also add hard boiled eggs or even tau pok (fried beancurd) as extra ingredients.

Taste can be a matter of individual preference and also depends on the type of dark soya sauce you use. Dark soya sauce (and even light soya sauce for that matter) differs in taste from one brand to another due to the individual recipe in the fermentation process. Some tastes saltier than others. Some tastes sweeter than others. For us, we usually source our dark soya sauce from our hometown in Pontian Kecil, Johor, Malaysia.

My mum's recipe is as follows:-

• 300 gms of belly pork or pork ribs. (If belly pork is used, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (fat at the top, lean at bottom). If pork ribs are used, choose meaty ones and ask butcher to cut into 2 inch lengths)
• 100 gms of tau ki (also known as foo chok. Ask for stiff type)
  
• 5 to 8 chinese dried mushrooms (pre-soak till soft)
  
• 3 whole bulbs of garlic
• 2 bowls of warm water (approximately 500 mls)
  

• 3 tablespoons dark soya sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 2 star anise
• 3 inches ceylon cinnamon (kayu manis)
• salt to taste
• white pepper to taste

Labels: Chinese, Dinner, Lunch, Pork

Labels: Chinese, Dinner, Lunch, Vegetable

• 5 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
  
• 3 slices of old ginger (pound finely)
  
• 3 tablespoons of tau cheo (preserved soy beans in can / bottles which you can buy from supermarkets) (pound finely)
  
• 1 to 2 red chillis (chopped finely)
  
• 2 tsp sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

Labels: Chinese, Dinner, Fish, Lunch

This is the first post in this blog.

I've pondered long and hard what recipe or Asian food I shall blog about. After much thought, I decided to share with you the humble "Egg Fried Rice". Why the Egg Fried Rice, you might ask?

Well, for starters, the very first dish I learnt to cook (after "graduating" from frying eggs) was Egg Fried Rice. I was only 11 years old then. It is a simple dish and sure fills the stomach. It is also popular in most chinese restaurants and take-aways.

This is my version of the no-frills Egg Fried Rice. Super simple and serves 2 persons.

Ingredients

• 2 cups / rice bowls cold cooked rice
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 4 shallots (thinly sliced)

Seasoning :

• 1 ½ tsp light soy sauce
• salt and pepper to taste

Garnishing:

• Chopped spring onions, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes

Method

Heat one to two tablespoons oil in a wok and fry shallots till fragrant and light brown. Remove fried shallots.

Whilst oil is still hot, add the rice and stir-fry well. Pour in seasoning and continue to stir-fry for about 3 minutes. Pour in eggs and fry until properly cooked. The rice should be coated and yellowish-brown in colour.

Sprinkle the fried shallots over the rice.

Dish out and serve with garnishing.

Labels: Chinese, Dinner, Lunch, Rice