Steamed Fish Cutlet

This is a piece of very fresh fish cutlet (ikan kurau) which cost me less than $15. it is meaty and sweet and I had it steamed with lots of chopped garlic and ginger and chinese cooking wine.... Emmmm, it is yummy! Cooking it at home means able to control the amount of oil used thus eat healthy. To keep the meat tender, just put in a ready steamer and steam for 15 mins and serve hot... Garnished with chopped spring onion.

Simple and healthy way of cooking....

Enjoy a happy and healthy meal at home..

Penang Law Mee (Noodle)

Wow...I am so happy to taste my own home made Penang Law Mee. A truly Penang delicacy which I missed very much. With a little exploration based on taste and remembering the beautiful aroma of the thick gravy and the braised meat and eggs, I can proudly say "I am almost there"... :)) Yummy and delicious!

All you need :

• 400gms lean meat
• 2 eggs - whisked
  
• 4 hard boiled eggs
  
• 1 kg prawn shells (keep the prawns and use the shells)
  
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 Tbs dark soy sauce
• 2 tsp 5-spice powder
• 5 Tbs tapioca flour

Simple Process:

• Marinate the lean meat with dark soy sauce, salt and pepper for 2 hours before cooking

• Braised the marinated meat over low fire with garlic and 5 spice powder added in together with 1 litre water over low heat for 1.5 hours or till meat is tender. Also, add in the hard boiled eggs to braised together.

• Stir fry the prawn shell till shell turns red and boil it with 500 ml water for 20 minutes to extract the prawn stock. Separate the shells and the stock by sieve.
  

• Set aside the cooked braised meat and eggs, use the meat stock to mix with the prawn stock

• Bring the two stocks to a boil, stir in the tapioca flour to thicken the gravy for the noodles

• Lastly, drip in the whisked egg into the thicken gravy and off the heat

• Blanched the Noodle, beansprout and garnished it with the pieces of braised dark soy meat and eggs

• Pour the thick gravy over the garnished noodle and serve with fried shallots
  

Enjoy a good home made Penang Law Mee...

Savoury Pulut - Sticky Rice

A yummy savoury glutinous or sticky rice aka pulut in our language. A beautiful contribution from my wonderful niece CKE - an authentic recipe from her mum. See, how well she has cooked this delicious dish for all of us, it is not too sticky and we just love the texture of the pulut. Bravo to her for sharing this recipe :))


The rice is soaked overnight before cooking. Drain the water and add some light and dark soy sauce to the rice. Steam the rice for 40 mins, sprinkle some water in between the steaming process to ensure pulut is soft and cooked.
For the ingredients to add to the steamed pulut - prepare thin slices of meat, thin slices chinese sausage, sliced black mushroom.
1. Saute the chopped onion and garlic till aromatic
2. Add in all the ingredients and stir fry
3. Add 1 Tbs oyster sauce, some dark soy sauce, pepper to the ingredients
4. Next, add in the steamed rice and stir fry till it is well mixed with the ingredients
5. Garnish with chopped spring onion and serve.

Enjoy a Delicious Savoury Pulut

Nasi Ulam Nyonya

This is a healthy plate of rice called Nasi Ulam *Nasi is Rice - Ulam is Raw vegetable* It is one of the Nyonya cuisine. The variety of leaves are grown in my little garden and I was so happy when it is time to harvest them to make into a good healthy meal for the family, they love it very much :)) All the leaves used has good nutritional values.

It taste so wonderful as the leaves used has a beautiful fresh aroma. The finely cut leaves are made up of turmeric leave, wild betel leave aka daun kaduk, peppermint leave, kaffir leaves, lemon grass and together with the fresh turmeric. I have not yet master the skill of fine cutting of the leaves as compared to my wonderful mum and grandma.

Extract of photos below are taken from the google image for reference.

With the all the finely cut leaves, it is then mixed with pounded fried salted fish and pounded fried grated coconut (kerisik), fine slices of shallots and dash of pepper. This is then mixed with the hot rice.

This plate shows the ingredients already well mixed with the rice, just before eating

Enjoy a good and healthy meal!

Coke Chicken

This dish surprisingly turns up to be yummy. A friend of mine tasted this menu for CocaCola Chicken in a restaurant and she was describing it to me, so I thought why not, let me re-create it and see how it taste like...well, we enjoyed it very much... yeah! It is simple and easy to prepare, just marinate it for few hours and just cook it...that's it :))

It is a blend of sweet-savoury and lemon taste....yum-yum taste great!


All you need :

• 1/2 chicken
• 1 bottle coke
• 1 lemon - extract juice
  
• some chopped ginger and garlic
• 1 Tbs dark soy sauce
  

Simple Process :

1. Marinate the chicken with 3/4 bottle coke and lemon juice for 3 - 4 hours
2. Heat the wok with a little oil and saute the chopped ginger and garlic till fragrant
3. Pick up pieces of chicken and put it into the wok, stir fry till chicken turns white, keep the liquid aside
4. Add the dark soy sauce and mix well, put in the left over liquid and allow the chicken to simmer over med heat till the gravy thickens.
5. Serve hot

Have a Happy Meal

Broccoli with Pumpkin Sauce

Look at this yummy nutritious pumpkin sauce which I have made to spread on the beancurd and broccoli...nice color combination yeah! I have this dish created out of left over small amount of vegetables found in my refrigerator, so I thought, why waste it, do something then... Here comes the great rich taste pumpkin sauce... Pumpkin has a rich source of vitamins and definitely it gives us lots of benefit if consumed well.


All you need :

• some broccoli
• 1/4 pc pumpkin
• 1 pkt of seaweed beancurd
• 30 ml milk
• salt to taste
  

Simple Process :

1. Steam the pumpkin for 10 mins and blend it, set aside
2. Blanched lightly the broccoli and set aside
3. Steam the seaweed beancurd for 5 mins
4. Lay the broccoli and seaweed beancurd on a plate
5. Heat the blended pumpkin, add the milk, salt to taste and bring to a boil
6. Pour the pumpkin sauce over the broccoli and seaweed beancurd
7. Serve well with steamed rice

Enjoy a Nutritious Meal!

Baked Aromatic Chicken

Look at this very "sexy" delicious aromatic baked chicken for the family. A friend of mine shared this beautiful recipe with me not long ago and she is absolutely right, the baked chicken taste so-ooo good, words just cannot describe how good it taste, you got to try baking it. The meat is so tender and moist and yum yum... :)) And of course it is healthy to eat!

I used to baked the chicken with salt rubbed all over its body together with screwpine leaves (pandan leaves) but without the lemon grass (serai), and I just realised by adding the lemon grass together makes a lot of difference! (ie. provided you like the smell of the fresh lemon grass)


Simple Process :

• Clean and drain dry the whole chicken which has been slit at the centre
• Rub salt all over including inside the walls of the chicken
• Put about 10 screw pine leaves and 10 lemon grass on the aluminium foil papper
• Let the chicken sit on top of the herbs
• Wrap it up nicely with the aluminium foil paper and put in the baking tray
  
• Bake at 200 degrees C for 60mins

Have Fun and Enjoy!

Chicken with Sesame Seed Oil

A beautiful set meal for the family.....voila! There are days, a lazy mum like me trying to juggle my time for the day and still ensuring a good meal for the family. So, here goes a set meal - it's steamed rice with chicken stir-fry with young ginger in sesame seed oil. Wow, it's so aromatic and taste real good. I have add on butter- grilled french beans to make a complete meal.

Sesame seed oil is very aromatic and it has good nutritious value too. It is normally served for chinese ethnic mommies during their post-natal (1 month confinement days)

All you need : * half chicken - chopped into pieces * slices of young ginger * 1 clove chopped garlic * 3 Tbs Sesame seed oil

Simple Process :
1. Heat the wok with the sesame seed oil and saute the chopped garlic and ginger slices till aromatic
2. Add the chicken and stir well till chicken turns white, add 1/2 cup water, salt to taste, to add a little color, add in 1 Tbs light soy sauce
3. Simmer over low heat till chicken is cooked
4. Serve hot with steamed rice

Enjoy a simple delicious set meal!