Balanda Vegetarian Salt Fish

Look at this beautiful appetizing sour-sweet flavoured vegetarian dish, suitable for all ages. It is simple and easy to prepare recipe. We all enjoyed a good meal with this dish, the kids love it greatly. The gravy that I have made is from my grandma recipes' collection and it is called "Balanda" and normally cooked with the fried salted fish. It consist of big onion, garlic and some slices of red chilly saute till fragrant, then added with tamarind juice and a little sugar, cornstarch to thicken the gravy....So with a little innovation, I have used the same recipe for the vegetarian salted fish instead!

Basically this packet of "vegetarian salted fish" is made up of seasoned beancurd wrapped in beancurd skin and a layer of seaweed, obtainable from any vegetarian grocery shop or hypermarket. It is wonderful to add "meatless" dish once a while as to add varieties on the dinning table.



All you need :

• a packet of the vegetarian salted fish - cut into slices
• 1 big onion - cut into wedges
• 4 pips garlic - cut into slices
• 1 red chilly - cut into slices
• 1 Tbs tamarind paste - add with a little water
• sugar to taste

Simple Process :

• Heat the pan with some oil and lightly fried the vegetarian beancurd - set aside
• Heat the pan with a little oil and saute the onion, garlic and chilly till aromatic
• Add in1/2 bowl of water, add the tarmarind, a little sugar to taste
• Bring to a boil, add the cornstarch to thicken the gravy
• Pour the gravy on top of the lightly fried vegetarian beancurd
• Serve immediately with steamed rice

** Tips: As the vegetarian beancurd is salted, do not add anymore salt

A Simple Tasty Vegetarian Salted Fish

Have an Appetizing Meal!

Rendang Chicken

Look at this beautiful and flavorful dish, it is called Rendang Chicken ** (see extracts from Wikipedia). This is my version of Rendang Chicken aka dried spicy chicken with fried grated coconut. There are many versions of recipe for preparing Rendang and as long as the key ingredients are used I believe it would taste just as good the homecook way, sure we cannot beat the ones served commercially.

A friend of mine onced shared with me that the Rendang Beef sold at the Nasi Kandar stalls are cooked over those balanced and kept for days...no wonder it taste so good! hahaha....

Rendang Chicken dish is a little spicy and creamy to taste with a beautiful aroma from the kaffir leaves (daun limau perut), lemon grass (serai) and fresh turmeric (kunyit) plus coconut milk and a good blend of fried grated coconut to make it complete.

Extracts from Wikipedia :

Rendang is made from beef (or occasionally chicken, mutton) slowly cooked in coconut milk and spices for several hours until almost all the liquid is gone, allowing the meat to absorb the spicy condiments. The cooking process changes from boiling to frying as the liquid evaporates. The slow cooking process allows the meat to absorb all the spices and to become tender.

Look at those herbs n ingredients that were used for this dish :

All you need : for 1/2 chicken

• 10 shallots
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 pcs of lemon grass (serai)
• 1 thumbsize turmeric (kunyit)
• 5 pcs red chilli
• Blend all the above together to form a paste
• some kaffir lime leaves (daun limau perut) ** a must!
• 1 box coconut milk 200 gms
• 1/2 grated coconut - fried it till golden brown (kerisik)

** I have omitted galangal (lengkuas) to prevent it from "overshadowing" the beautiful aroma of lemon grass, kaffir leaves and tumeric

Simple Process

1. Heat the wok with some oil and saute the grounded paste till fragrant
2. Add in the chicken and mix well with the grounded paste, add kaffir lime leaves
3. Add the 1 box coconut milk and let it simmer over low heat for next 30 minutes
4. Allow the meat to slowly absorbed the coconut milk and its ingredients
5. Keep stirring and when gravy starts to evaporate, add in the fried grated coconut and give it a good coat all over
6. Ready to serve with steamed rice

Have a Happy and Enjoyable Meal....

Omelette Bittergourd

A tasty vegetable dish and quick to prepare - Omelette Bittergourd. Most of the time, the kids tried to avoid eating bittergourd but since this Omelette Bittergourd was introduced years back by my mum, they would once a while put up their request to mummy...marvellous, at least we can all eat it together and happily... My hubby and I loves bittergourd, to know more of the wonders of bittergourd , just click the link. The tips my mum gave was inorder to avoid choosing the very bitter ones, tried picking those with wide line width on the surface of the vegetable and rub it well with salt and rinse before cooking.

So Simple, Beaten eggs and thin slices of bittergourd makes a great dish

All you need :

• 1 small bittergourd - cut into thin slices
• 4 beaten eggs
• rub salt onto the cut slices of bittergourd and rinse to reduce the bitterness

Simple Process :

• Heat a little oil in the pan and stir fry the bittergourd for 3 mins


• Drop the stir fried bittergourd into the bowl of beaten eggs, mix it up


• Next, using the same pan, drop a portion of the mixture filling the pan


• Let it cook till golden brown and slowly turn it over the other side


• Dish it out once both sides are golden brown

Ready to Enjoy...a healthy plate of Omelette Bittergourd

Fried Turmeric Meat

This is one of my favourite dish since young and I really really like the wonderful flavour of this dish, it is fried meat marinated with fresh turmeric or kunyit, it is very aromatic and the smell whets your appetite. Since young, we have been guided that taking fresh turmeric keeps our body healthy by my grandma and at present moment I have managed to share with my family the joy of having a healthy dish make from fresh turmeric. This beautiful root has great medicinal values in it and check this out yourself what this magical turmeric can provide for your body...believe it or not, see it for yourself!

I love this dish as it very simple and easy to prepare, minus the frying part, of course...hahaha. It is simple because I just need to marinate the meat and refrigerate and start frying when it is time to cook... that's it!

All you need :

• some lean meat (pork or chicken) - cut into small pieces


• 2 thumbsize fresh turmeric (kunyit) - pound finely


• 2 stalks of lemon grass - use only the bottom portion (cut into slices and pound finely)


• salt and sugar to taste

Simple Process :

1. Marinate the meat with the pounded turmeric and lemon grass, salt, sugar for 2 hours or more


2. Heat a non stick pan with a little oil and pan-fried it till golden brown


3. Ready to Serve. Goes well with steamed rice

Have a Healthy Meal..

Sour Pork Ribs

Wow...hohoho...look at that...here goes a simple and easy to prepare 1 set meal for the family. I had this Sour Pork Ribs cooked and served as 1 simple set meal..the aroma of the garlic and ginger is irresistible, and of course the sour flavour brings thrill to the palate. Anyway, we had a wonderful dinner, it taste so good and yummy, it's totally complete with garlic fried vege and steam rice... Alternatively, I do use this easy to cook recipe for chicken too. As again chicken gets tender very fast, so just reduce the simmering time to get a "just right" tenderness of the meat.

See the beautiful color of the cooked sour pork ribs, complement with garlic fried green baby bok choy. Delicious looking :))


All you need : Serve 4

• 2 pork ribs - chopped into small pieces


• 2 clove garlic - chopped


• 2 thumbsize young ginger - chopped


• 1 Tbs chilly paste - add more if you want it extra spicy


• 2 Tbs tomato sauce


• 1 Tbs tamarind paste


• 1 Tbs cornflour
• salt to taste
  

Simple Process :

1. Boil a pot of water and add in the pork ribs, give it a quick boil and dish out, set aside


2. Heat the wok with some oil, saute the chopped ginger, garlic, chilly paste till fragrant, add in the pork ribs, stir to mix well


3. Add 1 cup of water, 1 Tbs tamarind paste, 2 Tbs tomato sauce and simmer over low heat for the next 40 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid burnt *


4. When meat has soften and cooked, add the cornflour to thicken the gravy


5. Ready to Serve...

** Tomato sauce is an extra ingredient here

Have a Happy Meal with your family...

Kerabu Cucumber - Salad Cucumber

Wow, look at this beautiful appealing color kerabu or salad. Well as all of us is aware, eating uncooked vegetables are good to our little body and it is fun to add varieties to the way we prepare the greens. This is a typical Nyonya dish and it is called Kerabu Timbun or Salad Cucumber.

As again, no cooking is required and it is just mixing all the required ingredients together and that's it..perfectly yummy for those who loves spicy and sour stuff. It can be an appetizer or as a dish to eat with steamed rice.

There are varieties of choices where we can make as Kerabu or Nyonya Salad , just click the link to see more.

No cooking is required here, just a good mix of sambal belacan (pounded chilly with roasted shrimp paste), lime juice, roasted dried prawns and slices of shallots. Here are the ingredients required and the process is simply "Mixing the cut cucumber in it".... Voila!

Be Happy and Enjoy a Healthy Meal

Chicken with BitterGourd

Look at this yummy Chicken BitterGourd in Black SoyBeans which I have prepared for my family. :) they enjoyed it! It is a delicious savoury dish with thick yummy gravy to go with steamed rice.

BitterGourd has great nutritional values. My mum used to make bittergourd n celery juice for mantainence of good health. Bittergourd as the name suggest, it sure has a bitter taste, my mum's advice was to choose those bittergourd with broad width lines on the surface and that should taste just good.

All you need :

1. 1/2 chicken or 2 pc chicken breast meat - chop into pieces


2. 1 med size bittergourd - cut into slant pieces


3. 6 pips garlic - chopped


4. 2 Tbs fermented black soy beans


5. 1 Tbs fermented soy beans


6. 1 Tbs cornflour * mix with 1 Tbs water

Simple Process :

1. Marinate the chicken with dark soy sauce for 30 mins before cooking


2. Heat the wok with a little oil and saute the chopped garlic, fermented black soybeans and fermented soy beans together over med heat


3. Add in the chicken and stir well, add in the pieces of bitter gourd together with a little water (3 - 4 Tablespoonful) and allow it to simmer over low heat. The chicken will release some water during the process of cooking.


4. Allow the chicken and bittergourd to simmer slowly till chicken is cooked or till gravy has more or less thicken


5. Lastly, add the cornflour before dishing it out.

Have a Happy Meal!