Vegetables n Salted Fish Curry

Vegetables n Salted Fish Curry or fondly called Kiam-Hu Kut Curry, was one of my grandma's authentic collections. Grandma was a great cook and so is my mum... I love this dish and do cook once in a blue moon for daddy and kids and they seem to love it too, especially to eat it with blanched beehoon aka vermicelli.....oh it taste so yummy! I have a slight modification on this dish - I use low fat milk instead of coconut milk and also "no gering rempah" (using the old fashion grinding stone to grind the chilly paste, oh no!).... :)).

Besides the vegetables, few pieces of salted fish bones are added to give an extra flavor and beautiful aroma to the vegetable curry. Shrimps are added to add extra natural sweetness to the curry.... WoW! words just cannot describe the taste, you need to cook it and enjoy this good bowl of curry with rice or simply eat it with beehoon.

Can you see the "salted fish bones" lying in the plates with some of the prawns in the photo? Ya...not healthy to consume often but once in a blue moon, I believe it is fine. To clear the excessive salt in the salted fish, it need to be soaked and wash for at least 3 times before cooking.

I have used 2 small packet of the fish curry powder mixed with 4 big onion (blended) to form a curry paste. On standby is a bottle of 450ml lowfat milk to add in after the curry paste is well sauted and turns fragrant. Just add on some water if you wish to have more gravy...which I did. The vegetables I have put in are some brinjals, long beans, ladies fingers, cabbage and taufo pok (fried soft beancurd).

Simple Process :

1. Heat the wok with a little oil and saute the curry paste till fragant, add in some water followed by the bottle of milk.


2. Add in the salted fish bone, vegetables and let it simmer over slow fire for the next 20 mins till you can smell the beautiful aroma of the curry


3. Next add in the prawns and taufo pok and give a short boil, once prawns are cooked, it is ready to serve
   

Serve with warm rice or blanched vermicelli... it is Yummy!

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 ^ - ^