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.


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.


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

Lately, Dwarf Bok Choy is commonly sold in markets. Bok Choy or Pak Choy is a commonly cooked vegetable in chinese cuisine. Generally, the vegetable has dark green leaves and white or greenish spoon-shaped stems. Siew Pak Choy (Small Pak Choy) is a favourite to many and has greenish coloured stems whilst the Tai Pak Choy (Big Pak Choy) has a darker green leave atop white coloured stems. Dwarf Bok Choy, I believe, is a miniature version of the Tai Pak Choy, which you can see in the picture.


I find the Dwarf Bok Choy sweeter in taste rather than the more bitter Tai Pak Choy. That is not to say that it tastes sweet but rather, bitter sweet. I usually cook this vegetable with garlic and dried prawns. Somehow, I find the combination of garlic and dried prawns bring out the nice bitter sweet flavour of the vegetable. I also understand that cooking with dried prawns enable the vegetable to cook faster. You will notice that I do not use any seasoning as I prefer the original flavour from the garlic and dried prawns. The dried prawns are in itself, slightly salty.

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Dwarf Bok Choy with Garlic and Dried Prawns


Ingredients

• Approximately 200 grammes of dwarf bok choy (wash and rinse to remove dirt)
• 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 30 grammes of dried prawns (rinsed for a couple of seconds, pre-soaked in 50 ml water for 20 minutes - retain water for cooking)
• 1 tablespoon of cooking oil (palm oil preferred)

Method

Heat oil in wok and stir-fry the dried prawns for about 10 seconds. Add garlic and continue stir-frying till garlic begin to brown. Add dwarf bok choy and stir-fry for another 15 seconds or so. Add the water (previously used to soak dried prawns) and close lid.

Cook dwarf bok choy according to how soft you want the stems to be. Add a little water if you wish to have more gravy and add salt to taste (if not already salty).


Technorati Tags : Vegetable , Bok Choy , Recipe , Chinese Cooking , Stir-Fry

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.


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

I like vegetables. I think I am okay with all types of vegetables except the obvious bitter ones eg. bitter gourd. I know it is good for health but I usually give it a pass. Not with green leafy vegetables though.

There are many varieties of lettuce around and most of them can be eaten raw or cooked. If you intend to stir-fry the lettuce, make sure that your wok is really heated up to very high temperature (smoking) so as to minimise cooking time and to prevent too much water oozing out from the leaves. The idea is not to have the vegetables swimming in a pool of gravy. You also lose a lot of essential vitamins and minerals by prolonged cooking of the vegetables. Here, I use a type of lettuce known as "Yau Mak" which is a slightly smaller version of the romaine lettuce. I should have taken a photo of it before the leaves were separated and rinsed.

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Yau Mak with Garlic


Ingredients

• 2 pieces yau mak (or to your desired amount but bear in mind that they will shrivel and reduce in size as you cook, separate leaves and rinse well. Drain in colander to remove excess water)
• at least 5 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 4 cloves of shallots (sliced thinly)
• 3 tablespoons of palm oil

Seasoning

• 1 1/2 tablespoons of oyster sauce

Method

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

Add garlic into remaining oil and stir fry for about 10 seconds followed by yau mak. Give it two or three stirs and add oyster sauce. Stir till leaves are evenly coated with sauce. I like the leaves crunchy, so I do not usually stir fry them for more than 1 minute.

Sprinkle fried shallots prior to serving.


Technorati Tags : Lettuce , Recipe , Chinese Food

Let's cook porridge / congee today! I like to eat porridge especially on for lunch on weekends. It is light and suitable on hot days especially when you want to eat something non-oily. When I plan to cook porridge for lunch, I will usually drop by at the wet market in the morning to buy yau char kuey (fritters) to compliment the porridge.

Porridge can be cooked with many different types of ingredients. Actually, the types of ingredients are only limited by one's imagination. Here, I have added minced pork, pork liver and dried oysters. The dried oysters add a little sweetness to the porridge whilst the other ingredients each have its individual taste. I also like to break an egg into the bowl prior to pouring boiling hot porridge over it. It is a taste I acquired since young (runs in the family).

Give this recipe a try. If some of the ingredients are not your type, feel free to omit them or substitute them. If you need clarification, just post them in the comments below.

This is my recipe for Pork and Dried Oyster Porridge


Ingredients

• Approximately 50 to 100 grammes of rice (rinsed once and pre-soaked in water for 30 minutes)
• 100 grammes of minced pork
  
• 50 grammes of pork liver (sliced)
• 5 to 10 pieces of dried oyster (pre-soaked in water for 30 minutes and cut into half)
• 1 to 2 pieces of yau char kuey (cut across like in the picture above)
• 4 cloves of shallots (sliced thinly)
• 3 eggs
• 3 bowls of Water
  
• 2 tablespoons of palm oil
• 3 teaspoons sesame oil
  

Marinade (for minced pork)

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

Seasoning

• 2 teaspoons light soya sauce
• Salt
• White pepper powder

Garnishing

• Chopped spring onions
• Chinese salted vegetables or Tung Chai
  

Method

Marinade minced pork for 15 minutes or more.

Place water in a cooking pot and add rice. Cover with lid and bring to boil. Unlid and reduce heat to medium low and cook till rice becomes porridge / cooked and broken (approximately 20 minutes). Add a little hot water when it becomes too dry. You shall strive to cook it a little runny in consistency. Midway through cooking, add the oysters.

Meanwhile, place cut yau char kuey into a toaster oven to toast it till crisp. At the same time, heat oil in wok and fry the sliced shallots till golden brown. Remove fried shallots and set aside.

Once you have cooked the porridge, bring to boil again and add the minced pork (using a teaspoon, scoop one teaspoon of minced meat at a time) and stir. After you have finished adding all the minced pork, add the pork liver and stir the porridge till pork liver is cooked (no more blood oozing out - yes, I know it sounds gross but it's delicious, I tell you!). Add seasoning to taste.

To serve, break an egg into bowl (you will have about 3 servings here) and pour boiling hot porridge over the egg. Drizzle one teaspoon sesame oil and add garnishing. If you still have some of the oil used to fry the shallots, drizzle a bit as well. Finally, sprinkle the toasted and crispy yau char kuey and fried shallots over the porridge.

Enjoy! I know it may sound a bit complicated but it is actually very easy to cook if you try it.


Technorati Tags : Porridge , Recipe , Pork , Food

Once in a while, we will cook Fish Ball Bee Hoon Soup for lunch on a weekend. Bee Hoon is also known as Rice Vermicelli. The clear soup is refreshing especially on a hot day. We usually use Ikan Bilis stock for the soup as it makes the soup tastier.

I would advise that you buy the Fish Balls from the wet market and have it cooked the same day to enjoy its freshness. If you are unable to cook them on the same day, do keep them in the fridge and cook them the next day. I don't think preservatives are added to these fish balls and so, they don't last long.

This is my recipe for Fish Ball Bee Hoon Soup. Serves 4 people.


Ingredients

• 1/2 packet of bee hoon (approximately 150 grammes) (pre-soaked in water for 30 minutes to soften)
  
• 15 to 20 fish balls
• 100 grammes of pork tenderloin (sliced thinly) (optional)
• 200 grammes of choy sum (chinese mustard leaves) (washed and cut into 6 cm lengths)
• 5 to 8 shallots (sliced thinly)
• 100 grammes of ikan bilis (dried anchovies)
• a pinch of salted chinese vegetables (tung chai)
  
• 3 tablespoons of palm oil
• 1.25 litres or 5 soup bowls of water

Marinade (for pork tenderloin slices)

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

Seasoning

• 2 tablespoons of light soya sauce
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon of MSG (optional)

Method

Marinade pork tenderloin slices for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, boil ikan bilis in water for at least 45 minutes. Remove ikan bilis when done.

Fry shallots in oil under medium heat till golden brown. Remove fried shallots from oil and set aside.

With remaining oil in wok / pot, stir-fry the pork tenderloin slices for 30 seconds. Add ikan bilis stock above and bring to boil.

Add pre-soaked bee hoon into boiling stock followed by choy sum and fish balls and let the ingredients cook for at least 2 minutes in boiling condition. The fish balls will float to surface when cooked. Add seasoning to taste.

Separate into individual bowls and sprinkle fried shallots and chinese salted vegetables prior to serving.

My other Bee Hoon Recipes :
Sarawak Laksa
Bee Hoon with Chicken Frankfurters and Chinese Mushrooms
Fried Bee Hoon with Stewed Pork Ribs


Technorati Tags : Fish Ball , Bee Hoon , Soup , Recipe

Ladies finger, also known as Okra, is a fibrous pod full of round white seeds. Packed with vitamins and minerals, it is often used in Asian cuisine especially in India. Back home in Malaysia, it is commonly added to Assam Fish or Curry Fish. It is also cooked as a dish of its own and I usually stir-fry it with belacan sambal.

When choosing ladies finger, choose the younger pods which are usually lighter green in colour and smaller in size. Usually, the younger pods will have softer fur-like skin. These younger pods are more tender in texture and less fibrous.

And again, just like Kangkong Belacan, you should cook this dish using really high heat as you want to cook it in minimum time to preserve its juice.

This is my recipe for Sambal Belacan Ladies Finger


Ingredients

• Approximately 15 pieces of ladies finger (washed and sliced diagonally. Discard top / head)
• A pinch of sugar
  
• 50 ml warm water
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Sambal belacan mix (pound / blended together)

• 50 grammes dried prawns / shrimps (pre-soaked for 10 minutes to soften)
• 20 grammes of belacan (buy from stores)
• 5 to 8 cloves garlic
• 5 to 8 cloves shallots
• 3 to 5 red chillis (remove seeds if you want the sambal to be less hot)

Method

Heat oil on wok at medium heat. Stir-fry the sambal belacan mix for about 2 minutes.

Increase heat to high and add ladies finger and sugar. Stir well for about 2 minutes or till the ladies finger is to your desired softness. Add a little water at a time if sambal belacan mix beginning to burn. As the sambal belacan mix contains dried prawns and belacan which are salty in itself, it may not be necessary to add salt.


Technorati Tags : Ladies Finger , Okra , Recipe , Vegetable

Kung Po Chicken is a common dish found in most, if not all, chinese restaurants. This dish is basically diced chicken stir-fried with onions, dried chillies, cashew nuts and capsicum. Some even add water chestnuts to the dish. The aroma from the chicken which was marinated with chinese cooking wine blends well with the spiciness of the dried chillis. Meanwhile, the tender bits of chicken meat is contrasted with the crunchiness of the capsicum and onions. The cashew nuts lend a natural sweetness to the dish.



Anyway, I am not that good expressing how a dish tastes like, so I shall keep it short and simple. This dish is best eaten with plain white rice so that you can savour the full taste and aroma of the dish. Some have substituted the chicken with cuttlefish, which is quite a good alternative.

In my recipe, I have simplified the dish to my own liking. I have omitted the use of the capsicum and perhaps, the sauce is a bit different from the original recipes by professional cooks. However, I am still confident that you will like this dish if you try it out.

This is my recipe for Simplified Kung Po Chicken.


Ingredients

• 300 grammes chicken breast (cut into cubes / bite sizes)
• 2 medium sized onions (quartered)
• 10 to 15 pieces of dried chilli (washed and pre-soaked for 15 minutes prior to cooking)
• 20 to 30 pieces of cashew nuts
• 1 1/2 cups of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 1/2 cup (70 to 100 ml) warm water

Marinade for chicken

• 2 tablespoons of chinese cooking wine
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of light soya sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
  
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of corn flour

Seasoning

• 1 1/2 tablespoons of dark soya sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of chinese cooking wine

Method

Marinade chicken cubes for at least 1 hour.

Heat oil in wok on high. Fry chicken cubes till golden brown. Remove from oil and place aside.

Remove cooking oil from wok leaving about 1 tablespoon in the wok. Add onions and dried chillis and stir-fry for 30 seconds to bring out the aroma. (If you wish to add capsicums which are cut into cube sizes, add them at this stage) Add pre-fried chicken cubes and cashew nuts and stir well for a minute.

Add seasoning and 1/2 cup water and close lid. Stir occasionally till water / gravy reduced by half.

Serve hot with plain white rice.


Technorati Tags : Chicken , Chinese Food , Recipe , Kung Po Chicken

"Oh no! Not another recipe with mushrooms!" Ha! Ha! Well, can't help it when I have a lot of mushrooms at home. Chinese dried mushrooms to be precise. But anyway, the mushrooms here are the supporting act. The main actor is the Kai Lan stems.

According to the Wikipedia, Kai-lan, also known as Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale, is a slightly bitter leaf vegetable featuring thick, flat, glossy blue-green leaves with thick stems and a small number of tiny, almost vestigial flower heads similar to those of broccoli. As a group of Brassica oleracea kai-lan is of the same species of plant as broccoli and kale. Its flavor is very similar to that of broccoli, though not identical, being a bit sweeter.

In this recipe, I use the kai-lan stems. These are usually imported and sold in supermarkets. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it prior to cooking. What you get is a stem roughly 15 to 20cm long and with very little or no leaf. It tastes much sweeter than the leaves in "normal" the normal kai-lan vegetable. I am told that this variety of kai-lan is grown specifically for its crunchy and sweet tasting stem.

The ideal way to cook this stem is to stir-fry it with medium or large sized prawns which have been deveined and cut "butterfly style". If you are rich enough, you can consider adding scallops! As I don't have any prawns at home when I decided to cook this dish and I am not rich enough to consider scallops, I used pork and mushrooms as the supporting cast.

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Kai-Lan Stems with Pork and Mushrooms


Ingredients

• 3 to 5 kai-lan stems (lightly scrape the layer of skin from the stem and slice diagonally)
• 50 grammes of pork tenderloin (sliced thinly)
• 2 to 3 pre-soaked chinese mushrooms
• 4 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
  
• 1 tablespoon of palm oil
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 teaspoons cornflour mixed with 1/2 cup water to make corn starch

Marinade for pork tenderloin

• 2 teaspoon light soya sauce
• a pinch of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon corn flour
  

Seasoning

• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• Salt to taste
• 2 teaspoons chinese cooking wine (optional)
• A dash of white pepper powder

Method

Marinade pork tenderloin for 30 minutes.

Heat oil in wok and fry garlic till beginning to brown. Remove garlic from oil.

Add pork tenderloin and chinese mushrooms into remaining oil in wok and stir fry for 1 minute. Add kai-lan stems and pre-fried garlic and stir-fry briskly for 1 minute. Add one or two teaspoons of warm water to prevent burning.

Add seasoning (except chinese cooking wine) followed by remainder of water and cover lid. Allow to cook for 1 to 2 minutes whilst checking occasionally for drying out of gravy.

Once the stems have more or less turned to a darker colour, add chinese cooking wine and stir well. If the sauce is too thin to your liking, add a little bit of corn starch to thicken it.

Serve hot with white rice.


Technorati Tags : Kai Lan , Vegetable , Chinese Food , Recipe

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

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.

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

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

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

There are many variants of fried rice. In fact, it is only limited by the chef's imagination. One of the most popular is Egg Fried Rice, a recipe which I previously shared in this site. Another way of frying rice is to add meat to it and this gives the fried rice a good dose of flavour.

Sometimes, I will buy char siew (barbecued pork) from the market and use it as an ingredient in my fried rice. Most of the "tai chaus" (restaurants) also fry their rice this way though I must qualify myself and say that my recipe is more home-style and perhaps, different in some ways. Whilst the list of ingredients may seem long, it is actually not too complicated a recipe if you actually put your hand to it and try it for yourself.


This is my recipe for Char Siew Fried Rice.

Ingredients

• 3 bowls of cooked rice (preferably overnight cooked rice) [bowl denoting rice bowl]
  
• 1/2 bowl of french beans (cut into tiny cubes)
• 1/2 bowl of carrots (cut into tiny cubes)
• 3/4 bowl of char siew (cut into tiny cubes)
• 5 shallots (sliced thinly)
• 3 bulbs garlic (chopped)
• 3 eggs
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Seasoning

• 3 teaspoons of salt
• White pepper powder to taste
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoon light soya sauce
• 1 pinch of msg (optional)

Method

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

With remaining oil in wok and at high heat, add garlic, french beans and carrots and stir fry for 1 minute. Add salt and pepper.

Make a "well" in the wok by pushing the french beans and carrots aside. Break eggs into the "well" and fry it till cooked. Mix with french beans and carrots followed by char siew. Fry and mix well for another 1 minute.

Add rice and stir fry the rice for 2 to 3 minutes whilst adding oyster sauce and light soya sauce. If wish to, add a pinch of msg. (The amount of salt, oyster sauce and light soya sauce can be adjusted to your prefered taste)

Serve hot and sprinkle fried shallots over the fried rice before serving.

Technorati Tags : Recipe , Fried Rice , Char Siew

I like beancurd (aka. Tofu). It is so versatile and many recipes can be created out of it. You can fry it, steam it, boil it, mash it with ingredients etc. And the best thing is, it is relatively cheap and highly nutritious.

There are many types of tofu. Some are hard in texture and some soft. I have a prior recipe here for Simple Tofu with Dried Prawns. In this recipe, however, I use the soft type of tofu which is measures approximately 6cm x 6cm x 2cm (W x D x H) and more ingredients are used.

This is my recipe for Beancurd with Minced Pork. Though it suggests minced pork, I have added other ingredients to give it some colour. Feel free to experiment!


Ingredients

• 3 pieces soft beancurd. Alternatively, you can use Japanese Beancurd.
• 100 grammes minced pork (season with 1 tsp soya sauce and a dash of white pepper)
  
• Carrot (cut to strips. Amount up to your liking)
• Chinese dried mushroom (pre-soaked and cut to strips) or other button mushrooms. In fact, any type of mushroom will do or you can omit it altogether.
• Spring onions (cut to 2 inch lengths)
• 2 bulbs garlic (chopped)
• 2 bulbs shallots (sliced thinly)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup corn starch (add 1/2 cup water to 3 teaspoons of corn flour)

Seasoning

• 1 - 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• White pepper powder (to taste)
• 1 teaspoon light soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon chinese cooking wine

Method

Fry shallots in cooking oil till brown. Remove shallots. Heat up the remaining oil and fry the garlic till beginning to brown. Add minced meat and stir fry for about 30 seconds.

Add carrots and mushrooms and continue stir frying for a minute. Add seasoning (minus the chinese cooking wine). Add water till it completely covers the ingredients and let it boil.

Once the water boils, place beancurd gently on top of the sauce / meat and cover the lid (in a way, you are steaming the beancurd whilst cooking the rest of the ingredients / gravy) for 2 to 3 minutes. Ensure that the gravy does not dry out.

Open lid, remove beancurd gently and place on a plate. Add chinese cooking wine to the meat sauce and stir to mix well. Add corn flour to the meat sauce to to thicken sauce to your liking. Add spring onions, give it a good stir and pour the meat sauce over the beancurd. Sprinkle fried shallots over the dish.

Serve hot with rice.


Technorati Tags Beancurd , Dinner , Lunch

Yesterday, we were rummaging through our kitchen to find out what we have which we could cook for lunch. In most Chinese homes, dried chinese mushrooms and dried prawns / shrimps are commonly found. So are bee hoon (rice vermicelli).

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

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.

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.


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.

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.