Broccoli with Scallops n Oysters

Wow...look at this yummy dish. It is one of the typical dish served during Chinese Lunar Year as the dish is called (in cantonese) "Hoe Xi Fatt Choy" - literally "prosperity comes your way"... How wonderful! You can find this menu in chinese restaurant during the Lunar Year. Hahaha....as I know how to prepare this dish, so it can be served anytime when we feel like eating it, dont have to wait till Lunar Year. My kids love broccoli and they came with the suggestion, so mummy make their request available on the dining table.

It is made up of blanched broccoli and served with fresh or dried scallops, dried oysters and fatt-choy (fine hair like seaweed), chinese mushrooms cooked in oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and a little cooking wine... As again, an easy to cook recipe :)) with good combination of beautiful aroma of dried oysters n chinese mushrooms.



All you need... some broccoli, 20 pcs dried scallops, 15 pcs dried oysters and a little fine hair-like seaweed, 8 chinese mushrooms, 2 Tbs dark soy sauce, 2 Tbs Oyster sauce, 1 Tbs cooking wine and chopped ginger n garlic ....and put it all together to get this beautiful delicious dish...

Simple Process :

1. First blanched the broccoli in hot water with a little salt for about 3 mins - dish out and set aside
2. Soak the dried oyster, dried scallop, chinese mushrooms, separately, till it soften a little before cooking. Fresh scallops can be used as an alternative to dried ones.
3. Heat the wok and saute the chopped ginger and garlic, add in the dried oyster,chinese mushrooms, oyster sauce, some water and let it simmer for a little while till you get a nice aroma
4. Add in the dried scallop, dark soy sauce, cooking wine and allow it to further simmer for 10 mins
5. Lastly, add the fine hair-like seaweed, a little cornstarch to thicken the gravy
6. You may pour it over the broccoli or just fill the centre of the plate surrounded with the blanched broccoli (your preference)
7. Serve with steam rice or eat it as it is ....
   

Have a Happy n Enjoyable Meal...

Assam Laksa Penang

Penang island or Pearl of Orient, a beautiful island situated at north of West Malaysia. A beautiful island for relaxation and a place for food lovers. It is a place where we can find plentiful of delicacies and one of which is Assam Laksa. Assam means sour flavour, thus the soup is sour in taste. A noodle that will whet your appetite by it's look and aroma. Agree it is colorful right there?

Assam Laksa Penang is a delightful dish which consist of "slippery" white rice noodle in fish n spicy soup and garnish with various types of leaves such as Peppermint leaves (a must) together with chopped lettuce, stripes of cucumber, chopped wild ginger bub and red onion rings. This dish must be complemented with "hae-ko" or shrimp sticky paste, to add extra flavour to the Assam Laksa. My home cook version is red-orangy colour whereas the commercial ones are close to brownish-orangy color (trade secret and not so healthy for frequent consumption). Okay, here is for me to share for those who miss home food...


These are the ingredients required to boil the flavorful soup. The fish stock are made from either fish like kembong or selar or sardine (mackerel). The cooked fish meat are debone for garnishing on the Assam Laksa together with the various types of vegetables as shown in the picture above.




All you need : Serve 5-6

To make Laksa soup

• 2 kg fish - ikan selar or ikan kembong or mackerel for the fish stock

To blend together and added into the fish stock

• 10 red chillies & 1 Tbs chilly paste
• 5 big onions
• 4 cm length lengkuas (galangal)
• 4 pcs lemon grass
• 3 cm length fresh tumeric
• 4 cm length belacan (dried shrimp paste)

2 sprig of laksa leaves (daun kesum), 2 Tbs tamarind paste and 2 wild ginger bub (bunga kantan) plus all the varities of vegetables for garnishing.

Simple Process :

1. Boil the fish in about 3 litre water for 20 minutes
2. Dish out the fish and to debone and set aside the fish meat
3. Filter the fish stock, add in the grounded paste (rempah) and add in the laksa leaves (daun kesum), wild ginger bub (bunga kantan) stems, 2 Tbs tamarind paste and let the soup boil for next 30 minutes over medium heat
4. Add in half of the fish meat into the soup

Serving Assam Laksa Penang

Blanch the laksa rice noodle (fat version)

Garnish with the various cut vegetables, bunga kantan, cut chillies, fish meat

Fill wiith Hot Soup and 1 spoonful of "hae-ko" (shrimp paste)

Happy Trying this "Fuss" Meal :))

Chicken Savoury Delight

I called this dish Chicken Savoury Delight. Simple and easy to prepare. The kids loves it very much as it has a beautiful gravy to go with their rice. The chicken strips are cooked with the pickled lettuce with a some cooking wine and black soy sauce. The pickled lettuce comes in the can and it need to be well soaked before cooking as it is a bit salty if taken as it is. This pickled lettuce is normally taken with congee aka rice porridge. I have improved the way to consume this pickled lettuce by cooking it with chicken instead, it is real tasty.

All you need :

• 2 pieces of chicken breast meat - cut into fine strips
• 1 can of pickled lettuce - soak well and filter with 3-4 times water before cutting
• some ginger and garlic - chopped
• 1 Tbs cooking wine
• 1 Tbs dark soy sauce
• a little sugar - to taste

Simple Process :

1. Heat the wok with a little oil and saute the chopped ginger and garlic till aromatic
2. Add in the chicken meat and pickled lettuce and stir fry, add 1/4 cup water and let it simmer for 15 mins
3. Add the dark soy sauce, a little sugar and cooking wine and stir mix well and let it simmer for another 5 mins
4. To thicken the gravy, just add in 1 Tbs cornflour starch
5. Ready to Serve with steam rice

Enjoy Your Meal! :)

Joyful Shrimp

A rich and colourful shrimp dish...dont be deceived by the color, no, no, it is not spicy. It is my new creation and my hubby n kids are happily enjoying it, hmmm....must be yummy! :)) It goes very well with warm rice.

A simple recipe that comes with a good mix of blended tomato, onion, garlic, a small amout of curry powder and the aromatic curry leaves.

As it brings lots of joy seeing my family enjoying it, I call it a Joyful Shrimps....

All you require are 1 rich orange tomato, 1 big onion, 8 pips of garlic and blend it together. Get ready the paste, mix with 2 Tbs curry powder (for fish/prawns). * & curry leaves. When you blend the paste, add as little water as possible.

Simple Process :

1. Heat the wok with a little oil and lightly stir fry the shrimps for 3 minutes, dish out and set aside


2. Next, saute the ready mix paste * add some curry leaves (10 leaves) till aromatic


3. Add in the shrimps, add a little salt, sugar to taste


4. Stir fry till gravy has thicken


5. Ready to Serve...

Have a Happy Meal!

Braised Mui Choy (Preserved Salted Mustard) with Meat

Braised Mui Choy aka as preserved salted mustard with meat is a wonderful dish to go with rice or porridge. The Chinese loves to have this dish to go with porridge as its savoury flavor blends well with the watery soft rice. As it is a salted vegetable, it takes time to soak in order to clear the excess salt, I therefore would cook a bit more and store the "extras" in food containers in the freezer. The beauty of this dish is it can be stored in the freezer for a week or so and just thaw it and reheat when you feel like eating. Enjoy trying!

Cleaning the Salted Vegetables :

The washing process takes a few rounds of soaking, draining the salt, re-soak and draining it for at least 3 to 4 times, cut into small pieces before blanching it over boiling water before cooking.

All you need :

• 2 or 3 big bunch of the preserved salted vegetables


• 1 stripe of pork belly or chicken breast meat - cut into small pieces (we prefer small pieces)


• 500 ml water


• dark soy sauce

Simple Process :

1. After the cleaning of the salted vegetables process has been undertaken, just put the cut vegetables and meat + dark soy sauce and water in a slow cooker and allow it to slow cook for the next 4 to 5 hours at Auto button


2. OR, alternatively, just put all the ingredients in a pot with the water and at low heat, allow it to simmer. Just add water bit by bit, if the water dries up and allow it to simmer. The cooking process takes about 3 hours plus and need to be attended occasionally to ensure water is added when necessary.

The dish is ready when the preserved salted vegetables are completely soften and gravy has thicken.

This is how the raw preserved salted mustard looks like in the picture - courtesy from "penangfaces" . It is obtainable from hypermarket or the wet market.

Fish n Yam in Rice Wine

Many years ago we had this beautiful dish at one of the chinese restaurant and it was one of the restaurant's signature dish at that point of time and as we all love it so much, I explore myself and I did it :) Till now, occasionally we would be enjoying this beautiful tasty dish at home. It is a simple recipe and easy to prepare.


The dish has a good blend of rice wine, longan, red dates and black fungus, ginger together with fried fish and yam in it..... You may use brandy as an alternate to rice wine, it taste good too. It is super delicious drinking it hot during a cold rainy weather. Looking at the the ingredients, the Chinese believe it has good nutritional values especially the red dates, longan which is supposedly good for nourishing our bloodcells. The black fungus are known to reduce bad cholestrol....how wonderful! oops, what about the fried fish..nvm, it's ok to indulge once a while.... Here you are, give it a try and I am sure you will like it as much as we do...


All you need :


A medium size fish and cut into cutlets. A small yam cut into small pieces. Some shredded ginger, some red dates, some dried longan and a handful of dried black fungus together with 1/4 cup rice wine.

Simple Process :

1. Heat the pan with some oil, coat the fish cutlet with cornflour and fry it till golden brown


2. Dish out and set aside the fried fish


3. Boil about 1 litre water, add in the ginger, black fungus, longan, dates and yam over medium fire


4. By the time the yam has soften, it is almost ready, just add in the fish and 1/4 cup rice wine * and bring to a boil


5. Serve hot with warm rice

* rice wine or alternate brandy - amount of wine is based on your preference

Enjoy a good and healthy meal

Honey Oyster Shrimps

A word of thanks to my SIL for her wonderful contribution - a beautiful plate for me ^ _ ^

So here goes this beautiful shrimp/ prawn dish with honey and oyster sauce. An easy and simple recipe and is out for "snatch" when served.... :) . What I did was to marinate the prawns for about 2 hours before cooking. It has a good blend of sweet from the honey and savoury from the oyster sauce, sure, its finger linking good. It goes well with warm rice.

All you need :

• some medium or big size prawns
• 3 Tbs oyster sauce
• 2 Tbs honey
• a little salt

Simple Process :

1. Marinate the prawns with oyster, honey + a little salt for 2 hours prior to cooking


2. Drip the prawns from the marinated sauce and oil-fry them till cook.


3. Use the marinating sauce and bring it to a light boil, add a little cornstarch to thicken the sauce


4. Put the fried prawns in and coat it with the sauce


5. Ready to Serve - Voila!

Have a Wonderful and Happy Meal....

Braised Lotus Roots with Chicken

Lotus Roots are quite commonly used in Chinese cooking. I love to make lotus root chicken soup with red dates and accordingly to my mum lotus roots has lots of nutritional values. There are few ways of making delicious meal using the Lotus Roots. I have this simple recipe, it is braised Lotus Roots with Chicken...sure, it is extremely tasty, try it.





This is a short extract I obtained from this website Chinese Food Recipe. "Lotus Roots also stops diarrhea, clears Heat and improve appetite. Lotus roots contain much iron, vitamins B & C. The rich fibre content of lotus roots stimulates peristalsis and relieves constipation. Drinking 2 to 3 glasses of lotus root juice a day can stop bleeding of the esophagus an stomach (vomiting blood); bleeding of the rectum, intestines or stomach (blood in feces); nose bleeding or gum bleeding".



All you need :

• 2 pcs chicken breast meat or 1/2 chicken
• 2 medium size lotus roots - cut into slices
• 5 pips garlic / 1/2 pc fermented beancurd (tauju) /1 tbs fermented soy bean
• 2 Tbs plum sauce
• 2 Tbs oyster sauce

Simple Process :

1. Blanched the slices of lotus roots in boiling water for 5 minutes


2. Heat a little oil and saute chopped garlic, fermented beancurd, fermented soy bean till aromatic


3. Add in the chicken, blanched lotus roots, plum sauce, oyster sauce, stir to mix well


4. Add a 1/2 cup of water and let it simmer over low heat till lotus roots soften and by then chicken would be cooked too


5. When it is almost ready, add in some cornstarch to thicken the sauce


6. Ready to Serve with warm rice
   

Enjoy your Meal...

Chicken Stew

Chicken Stew is one of our family favorites. A yummy and colorful dish to go with hot rice. Kids would love this dish as it has a tasty thick gravy to blend with the rice. It comes with a simple recipe and easy cooking too. The chicken and vegetables are stewed over low heat together with a good combination of LP sauce (worchestershire sauce), salt, pepper and cornflour.

These are the vegetables that is being added into the chicken stew - carrots, potatoes, yam bean and most important the wonderful onions ** celery can be added (optional)

All you need :

• 1/2 chicken - chopped into med size
• 2 carrots - cut into med size
• 3 potatoes - cut into med size
• 1 small yam bean - cut into med size
• 2 onions - cut into wedges
• 3 Tbs worchestershire sauce
• salt, pepper to taste
• 2 Tbs cornflour
• 1 cup of water

Simple Process :

1. Heat a little oil in a saucepan and saute the onions for 1 min, add in the potatoes, carrots, yam beans and give a good stir


2. Sprinkle in the cornflour and stir mix with the vegetables
   
3. Add in the chicken, stir and add in the 1 cup water, lower heat
   
4. Add the LP sauce, salt, pepper and stir well
   
5. Simmer slowly over low heat for the next 40 minutes, stirring occasionally

Serve with hot rice......so yummy!

Have a healthy and happy meal....enjoy!

Yummy Steam Fish

Steam fish is one of our favourites. ^ _ ^....wanting to eat healthy and going for easy preparation. LOOK at this beautiful colourful plate of fish, I like this simple and easy recipe of my mum..... as usual the fried garlic makes the difference...yeh!



Simple stuff required : slices of ginger, chopped corriander leaves and spring onions, a clove of chopped garlic for making fried garlic / garlic oil, red chilly for garnishing, few drops of chinese cooking wine.



Got this big fish (oops, don't know the name, me poor in fish names, all I know the meat is very sweet and equivalent to promfret) from the wet market @ $16, if you were to order this piece at the chinese restaurant it will cost you no less than $35.



Simple Process :

1. Wash the fish well and cut diagonal lines on top of each surface


2. Rub some salt on the body of fish and spread some ginger strips all over


3. Put the fish into the boiling steamer for about 20 minutes - or till eyes of fish "pops"


4. While fish is steaming, heat the pan with some oil and fry the garlic till golden brown - set aside for garnishing


5. When fish is ready, drop a few drops of chinese cooking wine and simply garnish with chopped corriander, spring onion and spread well the fried garlic and garlic oil, drop a few slices of cut red chilly
   

Serve Hot and have a Happy Meal

Hot Ladies Fingers

I just love this spicy ladies fingers aka kacang bendi. It is one of my favourite dish as I love the flavour of the aromatic chilly. This is just another method of getting this beautiful vegetable served. In my earlier post, I have shared one of the simpliest and tasty method of cooking it, feel free to refer recipe here.

This dish is slightly spicy as it is cooked with grounded chilly with dried shrimp paste (belacan), onions and dried shrimps. It taste so good yummy with hot rice....

All you need :

To ground together ingredients 1 - 4

1. 10 ladies fingers *
2. 5 red chillies or alternatively just use 2 Tbs ready-made sambal belacan
3. 1 big onions
4. thumbsize dried shrimp paste / belacan (if sambal belacan is used - then omit this)
5. some dried shrimps (udang kering)

* Tips : just flip the tail end of the ladies fingers to check if its crunchy n "young" :)


Simple Process :

1. Cut the ladies fingers at a slant into 1cm thickness


2. Heat the wok with a little oil and stir fry the grounded paste till aromatic


3. Add in the ladies fingers, put in 1/4 cup water and stir well


4. Allow it to simmer over low heat till gravy is thickens or till ladies fingers has soften


5. Ready to serve with hot rice

Taste So Yummy.....Enjoy Your Meal!

Nyonya Achar - Pickled Vegetables

An authentic Nyonya (Peranakan) dish called Achar which is a spicy pickled vegetable dish. The vegetables are cooked in grounded aromatic chilly paste and rice vinegar. We still find my grandma's achar recipe is the BEST and so far and I have not found any good similar tasty Achar at the eatery outlets. Achar is one of the many delicacies found in any Nyonya wedding luncheon. I remembered this Achar was one of the many dishes served during my wedding luncheon at my house.... wow, sweet memories of Grandma and many aunts were busy preparing so many dishes at the "extended" kitchen... :)

The cooked vegetables are very crunchy, a little skill is required to maintain the crunch.
Some blanched the vegetables before cooking but I dont. This dish can be taken as an appetizer, a dish with hot rice or go with pieces of bread. My kids loves to eat the achar with bread, so do I and my hubby. The taste of achar is simply great, it has a well-blended mixture of spicy, sweet-sour and savoury flavour.

This dish consist of simple grounded ingredients as shown in the photo below. The grounded paste are saute till aromatic before adding in the cut vegetables and stir fry till the grounded paste are completely absorbed by the vegetables and with a final touch of rice vinegar, sugar, salt and grounded roasted peanuts. Yep...It is Yummy!

Drop me a line if you want to try it out........ I will be happy to share ^ - ^

Fried Fish in Savoury-Sour Gravy

This dish is made up of fried fish cooked in a beautiful savoury-sour gravy. It is very appetizing and goes well with steam rice. It is one of my favorites which I have learnt from my grandma - supposedly a dish from a Nyonya kitchen. The gravy is made up of well blended ingredients of garlic, ginger, soy bean paste and tamarind juice. The colour may be a little dull but the taste is yummy! Well, because it is so simple to cook and tasty too, that's the reason I enjoy preparing it. Care to try?

Tips: The two types of fishes that goes well with this recipe is either ikan kurau (threadfin) cutlets or ikan bawal hitam (black promfret) where it can be deep-fried.

The ingredients required for 3 - 4 pieces of fish cutlets are :

1. 2 Tbs soy bean paste - minced finely


2. 1 clove garlic - chopped finely


3. 2 thumbsize ginger - shred finely


4. 1.5 Tbs tamarind paste - add 1/4 cup water

Simple Process :

1. Deep fry the fish cutlets or whole fish till golden brown, set aside


2. Heat a little oil, saute together the garlic, soybean paste and ginger till aromatic


3. Add in the tamarind juice and let it simmer for 2 minutes


4. Lastly, put in the fried fish and allow it to simmer for another 5 minutes


5. Ready to serve with hot steam rice

Enjoy Your Meal..........

Pork Belly with Yam Slices - Woo-Tau KowYuk

Non Halal

Wow.....we love this dish, it's rich and taste super delicious. The 5-spice powder gives a very good aroma to the dish. This dish is also known as "woo tau kow yuk" - in cantonese, it is layers of yam and pork laid together. There are many ways of preparing this dish but I prefer the few simple steps and but foregoing the most important process that is marinating well the meat before cooking. This dish goes well with hot rice as the gravy is real rich and it is very aromatic.



What you need :

1. 800gms pork belly - cut into 8cm in length


2. 1 small yam - cut into slices


3. 6 pips garlic - chopped

Seasoning for the meat : Marinate meat for 2 hours

• 1 Tbs 5-spice powder


• 2 pc red fermented beancurd (tau ju)


• 2 Tbs dark soy sauce


• 2 Tbs cooking wine or brandy


• some sugar - to taste

Simple Process :

1. Marinate the meat for at least 2 hours before cooking


2. Take out the marinated meat and keep the sauce aside **(A)


3. Heat the wok a little oil, and lightly fry the meat on both sides


4. Also, lightly fry both sides of the yam

Next...lay them nicely on a bowl and prepare for steaming. Steam for 30 minutes.
While the meat is steaming, prepare the sauce. Heat the wok with a little oil and saute the garlic till aromatic, add in the sauce ** (A) and simmer till sauce thickens. Lastly, when steaming is over, pour the sauce onto the meat and yam. Here you are, a Beautiful Delicious PorkBelly with Yam Slices - "Woo Tau Kow Yuk"

Have a Happy Meal!

Braised Chicken with Mushroom n Peanuts

Looking for a simple dish to go with rice, take this simple chicken dish with mushrooms and braised peanuts. I like this dish as it is fast to cook and the grave is very tasty. We love the beautiful aroma of the braised chinese mushrooms. All you need to do is put the marinated chicken and mushroom and simmer with some water over a low heat, when it is almost ready, just drop in the canned braised peanuts..... Beautiful simple dish and Mushroom is good for health!

The benefits of Mushrooms , enjoy reading to find out more about the medicinal values of mushrooms.

All you need :

1. 1/2 chicken - chopped into pieces
2. 10 chinese mushrooms - soak and wash well
3. 3 Tbs dark soy sauce
4. 2 Tbs chinese cooking wine
5. 1 clove garlic
6. salt to taste

Simple Process :

1. Marinate the chicken with dark soy sauce and chinese cooking wine for 30 minutes


2. Put in the clove of garlic, marinated chicken and mushroom in a pot, add a cup of water and simmer over low heat


3. Do stir occasionally, simmer for the next 30 minutes, when the strong aroma of mushroom appears, the dish is almost ready.


4. Just add in the canned braised mushrooms and it is ready to serve..

BRAISED PEANUTS

Have a Happy Meal!