HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dear readers,

Thank you for visiting my humble blog. For those that took the trouble to leave me comments, just want to let you know that it is greatly appreciated. Because I believe together we learn from one another.

I feel that I have to say sorry for some of my home cooking recipes because it didn't come with the exact measurement. Thus, I realized that it might not be suitable for the beginner cooks. Just know that cooking gets better with time and trial and error. So, happy cooking and experimenting!

Hopefully the new year will bring all of us joy and happiness and what our hearts desired.

Happy New Year Everyone! :D

Look who came to visit!

This adorable baby boy is Lily's grandson. He is getting bigger from the last time I saw him. Not sure what was up with my daughter. She just sat on the sofa the whole time the visitors were here, no smile and speechless the whole time. Not sure whether she knows how to play with a baby or not! One thing though, she didn't get jealous when I was carrying him.








Isn't he just adorable?

MeMe - You are What you Eat

I got tagged by Tazz to write this Meme, in which I have to write my top 10 favorite food. Got to say, I'm not someone who likes to do this meme homework. Hahaha... Just not a person who likes any kind of homework, not even in college! Anyway, here it is:

1. Nasi lemak - I just love this fragrant oily rice. The coconut rice mixed with spicy anchovy sambal, a little roasted peanuts, some hard boiled egg and crunchy fresh cucumber, can I say YUM!

2. Chicken - I eat chicken all the times because it's healthy and low fat. Normally I buy skinless and boneless chicken breasts, cut it into strips and use it for my stir-fry.

3. Vegetable - A must have for my daily cooking. I can't do without veggies because it provide us with fiber, antioxidant and all the good stuff that our bodies need. Not to say delicious too!

4. Garlic - Garlic lover here, the more the merrier. Nothing can beat lots of fresh garlic with some chilli padi in light soy sauce as a condiment with rice. I use it in stir-frying my veggies, make garlic oil for noodle soup, fried rice and more.

5. Tofu - I love all kind of tofu. Soft tofu for my mapo tofu, firm tofu to pan-fry, deep-fried tofu (tau kwa) for curry noodle, pork dish, bak kut teh, taufu fah as a dessert, even sweet soy bean milk. What's more is it's good for our bodies!

6. Chinese Herbal Soup - Oh yeah, I love it! I like Tung Kway and ginseng just to list two because I can't named the others (too difficult to remember). I will try my best to cook it at least once a week for my family, normally with chicken drumsticks or pork bones.

7. Fish - Loveee fish. BUT not all kind of fish though. I don't fancy red meat fish at all like salmon and tuna. I know it's good for me, but I just can't stomach the firmer texture of the fish meat. Love fish steamed or deep-fried, yummy. Oh, definitely not raw like in sushi. Hahaha....

8. Crab & Lobster - This I like but we seldom eat it because it's not cheap. We normally eat it for special occasion or once in a while treat. I like lobster in cream sauce and salt & pepper crabs.

9. Mee Siam & Mee Hoon - Grew up loving it and thus I enjoy eating it now. It's quick and easy meal for my lazy weekend or holiday.

10. Steamboat - steamboat is best enjoy with lots of people, mainly your family, relative or friends. It gave me a sense of unity and closeness whenever I had steamboat. I guess partly because my mom always made steamboat on CNY eve, so I associated it with family unity. The piping hot sweet chicken stock with all sort of seafood, meats, veggies, tofu, fish balls, etc...ahhhhh.

Okay, now the fun part of passing this meme over to:

Lily- Wai Sek Hong

Rantings from a Solidary Reverie

My Kitchen- My Laboratory

Tang Yuan

Tang yuan is so easy to make and yet I hardly ever make it at all (lazy mah). Tazz kept reminding us to cook tang yuan for Dong Zhi day which is Dec. 22nd, guess I got persuaded by her. Hahaha... Her blog these few days have been about Tang Yuan and how it symbolized unity in a family, guess I'm sold. So, here's my tang yuan.



I added red bean as filling because I like mine with filling. I made gula Melaka & ginger syrup to go with it.

Asparagus & Bell Peppers Omelet

Featuring one of my home cook dishes. This is my new discovery dish. Asparagus goes very well with omelet, even better than the french beans, so a must try for everyone out there. :)


Ingredients

~ 3 eggs, beaten with soy sauce & white peppers.
~ 6-8 asparagus, cut into small pieces like shown above.
~ Red bell pepper (about 1/4), cut into small pieces.
~ Yellow bell pepper (1/4), cut into small pieces.


Method

Heat up oil in a skillet. When hot, add in the chopped vegetable. Stir-fry until veggies soften and add in the beaten eggs. Flip it over a few times until both sides are cooked and slightly brown.

Mee Siam Malaysian Style

This is the mee siam I used to eat in Malaysia. I have no idea there is another kind of mee siam which comes with gravy and they called it Singaporean style mee siam until recently. I have not tasted it before and have no idea how it tasted like as well. Would love to try it if I have the chance.



This is my version of mee siam. The main seasoning is of course chilli sauce which gives the noodle the red color and makes it spicy, just the way I like it.

Cookies...Cookies...

Ahhhh....is the season to make some cookies! I have a tea party on Dec. 17th (today) which gave me an excuse to make some cookies, or play with the dough. :P I actually had a few patterns that I wanted to try out, but it didn't turn out so well as I was using the melting moment recipe (added more flour to make it crunchy). The dough was still too soft to shape! Thus got to make do with my last minute patterns, whichever works!



From left clockwise,
Peppermint & Vanilla Cookies, Peppermint Cookies, Strawberry & Vanilla Cookies, Peanuts Cookies, Orange-Cranberries with Brandy Cookies


Individually packed to prevent flavor mixed up.


Then into the gift bags ready to be given away. This is my "Thank You" gift for coming to the tea party. :o) Hope they like it.

Nasi Lemak

Nasi lemak is one of the Malaysia National Food. So simple and yet so good. The translation for nasi lemak is oily rice. The rice is oily because it is cooked with coconut milk. Rice cooks in coconut milk is fairly common in Malaysia. Coconut milk is one of the staple in Malaysian cooking and it is widely used in Malay cooking.



This is my version. I like it simple and original. If it is wrapped in banana leaf, I would be in heaven. Fresh banana leaf is hard to come by here, basically non-existence. Only the frozen one is available in some of the oriental stores here. When I was back in Malaysia, the only nasi lemak I wanted to eat were those wrapped in banana leaf that cost about $1 (used to be 50 cents). I just love the fragrant that the banana leaf gave to the rice. Smell so good.

Who Would Know

Look at what my 20 months old is doing now? She is addicted to pbskids.org and has to be on there a few times a day. Hahaha... Oh yeah, she would climb on top of the chair, sit herself nicely and says, "Mama...mama...PB....". Of course I will get her to pbs kids and from there, she would surf it on her own, find her favorite games and play. If she go to a page that has song, she would dance to the song. She knows how to paint and play some simple games. Look at how concentrated she is in the picture below!



Oh yeah, hope that this early use of computer will make her smarter and interested in the computer. Well, she's definitely interested in it now. I told my hubby, we will have to get her her own computer set when we move into our new house, so that she would leave ours alone. Hahaha...



She is painting one of the boohbahs on the picture above. Boohbah is one of the kid shows feature in PBS T.V. channel here. Boohbah and Teletubbies are suitable for her age to play, and she knows how to go and find it to play.

Vietnamese Honeycomb Cake

Thanks tt for this wonderful recipe. :) I first saw him posting this recipe at Jo's Deli a couple months back. The picture and simple recipe just attracted me to it. Got to copy it and put in on my to-do list.

I have a tea party next Sat. and thus have to think of something to bring. And I saw this recipe again while surfing through tt's blog. So, why not this!



This is my trial & test version because I have not make it before and I just don't want a last minute disaster and plan B kinda thing going on next Sat. Glad to say that it turned out great. I just have to grease and flour my bundt pan the next time I make it. (If you just grease it alone, it will stick to the pan)



This is a close up picture of the cake. This cake tasted like a kuih, chewy with a hint of pandan and the sweetness is just nice. It is called a honeycomb cake because it has holes all over inside of the cake and looks like a beehive.

Note 1: Use 1 tsp. of Pandan paste for more pandan flavor. I only used 1/2 tsp. and my hubby complaint not enough flavor. He wanted it sweeter too.


Note 2: Made my second batch yesterday using a 8" square pan. Added 1 tsp. pandan paste and 1/4 cup more sugar. This definitely more to my liking as the flavor and sweetness go. (added 12/17)

The recipe is posted here:
tt's blog

Coconut Shrimps

After I tried a coconut shrimp in a seafood restaurant here, I have been thinking of how to make it myself. It's very popular here, normally served as an appertizer or your choice of main side dish.

This is my version of it, shouldn't be too far off from the real thing and very easy to make. It's crunchy with a hint of coconut, even my hubby said it's good.

Homemade Chicken Floss

This is my first time making chicken floss, all the while I have been making pork floss. Why the trouble of making my own floss right? I just have no idea how long the floss here have been sitting on the selves because the one sold here are just not fresh like the one we buy in M'sia. And since it's a meat product, I just couldn't bring myself to buy it. My life would be easier if I can take the leap isn't it? Haha...

Anyway, the method is the same as my pork floss just that it only takes an hour or less to simmer. I added some curry powder and no dark soy sauce in this. Since chicken meat is fairly tender, it's very easy to shred and I got the flossy texture that I want in a floss.



However, I have encountered a few problems on the way that I have no idea what went wrong. I got the flossy texture but the floss turned out to be hard and chewy!! Thinking that my heat must be too high, I added some water and turned the heat to low and stir-fried it some more. To cut the story short, I did that twice in order to save it but still ended out with chewy floss, the one that's hard to swallow.

Think...think...think....finally my last attempt of saving my chicken floss, I placed it on a baking sheet and baked it at very low temperature (200'F) for 30 minutes. Now I have crispy chicken floss. Still not the fluffy one that Lily and I wanted but better than hard & chewy anytime. A failure chicken floss! :(

Questions:
1. Not sure why it takes longer for me to stir-fry the chicken floss compared to pork floss? I thought it should be shorter.

2. Why the flossy texture didn't produce a fluffy taste? *scratching head*

I think it will be a while before I attempting to make any meat floss again. Hahaha....

Bah Kut Teh

Made this bak kut teh for dinner yesterday. I used the Yew Chian Haw bak kut teh premix. I love this brand as it comes with pieces of herbs and got a herbal flavor. I added tau pok in mine.

Vietnamese Influence Turkey Noodle Soup

The best way to get rid of the turkey bones or the drumsticks and wings is to make stock or soup. If you make a lot of the stock, you can freeze it in some containers and take out one to defroze overnight in the fridge for next day use.

For this noodle soup, I used one back bone, two drumsticks and a wing and did a Vietnamese twist to it by adding lemon grass, star anise, 5 spice powder, roasted onions and ginger, fish sauce and salt & sugar to taste. I simmered it for four hours. I got the inspiration from tt's beef noodle. :D



As to serve, I got some fresh basil, saw tooth herb, quick blanched bean sprouts and onion, turkey meats and DoDo fish balls. Oh tt, if you read this, the saw tooth herb really won't hurt my mouth. Hahaha... Thanks!



After the noodle had been assembled. The herbs gave it such a nice fragrant and the crunchy bean sprouts gave it an extra bite to the noodle soup. I served it with Sriracha Hot sauce and Hoisin sauce.

BoBoChaCha

I made this as a dessert on Thanksgiving night since I have some leftover yam from the yam kuih. Bobochacha is actually very easy to make and here's my version.

Ingredients:

~Yam, cut into cubes and steamed for 30 mins.
~Sweet Potatoes, cut into cubes and steamed for 10 mins.
~Gula Melaka or the yellow hard sugar, to taste.
~Coconut Cream/ Thick Coconut Milk.

Steps:

1. In a saucepan, add in the amount of water you want. When boiled, add in the gula Melaka, add to the sweetness you like (need to taste test, if too sweet, add some hot water, if not sweet enough, add more gula Melaka). Stir until sugar dissolved. Lower the heat and add in the coconut cream and the steamed yam & sweet potatoes, stir to mix well, about 5 mins. Turn the heat off. Serves hot or cold. Enjoy!

Simple Thanksgiving Dinner for Two

As the title said, it's simple and quick to prepare. As most of you probably know, I'm lazy when come into preparing an elaborate meal especially just for the two of us. So, I had been cracking my head of what to cook on Thanksgiving night that's super easy to make.

I bought some brussel sprouts since it was on sales and I remembered watching Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) baked her brussel sprouts and according to her, crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside. So, I got to try it. Bought some baking potatoes too so why not baked it together with the brussel sprouts right. And I got the idea of pan-frying the turkey breasts from Rachael Ray (30 Minutes Meal), quick and easy. I cut my turkey breast thinly into slices so it's faster to cook compared to the whole turkey breast.

Baked Brussel Sprouts:

Preheat the oven to 400'F. Line a baking pan with aluminium foil and spread the washed and trimmed brussel sprouts on top. Sprinkle with EVOO, a generous amount of salt and freshly ground black peppers. Coat and mix everything together with your hands. Baked for 20-25 mins.

Potato Wedges:

Washed the skin of potatoes until clean. Cut and quarter the potato into wedges. Again spead it on aluminium foil covered baking pan. Sprinkle with EVOO, salt, black peppers, paprika and garlic powder. Mixed everything together with your hands. Baked in preheated 400'F oven for 20-25 mins. Turned the potato wedges over half way through baking.

Pan-Fried Turkey Breasts: (you can substitute it with chicken breasts)

Sprinkle the thinly sliced turkey breasts with EVOO, sage powder, salt, black pepper and garlic powder on both sides. Heat a frying pan with a little EVOO and pan-fry the turkey breasts until cooked. Do not overcook the turkey breasts as it will turn hard and dry. Take out the cooked turkey and place on a plate. Pour some white wine (that you drink) to deglaze the pan (or as the cook called it, to get all the good stuff out). When thicken add about 1 Tbp. or 2 Tbp. of butter into the sauce. Stir until the butter melted. Now, pour the sauce over the turkey breasts to serve.

Vinegar Green Chillies

I love to make all sort of chillies to accompany the dishes that I cook. Here's another one of them. Love it with wor tan hor and wontan mee.



Marinating in a glass bottle and stored in the refrigerator.



What it looks like.

This chillies is very easy to make. All you need are 2 ingredients, Jelepeno green chillies or Serrano green chillies and diluted white distilled vinegar. For those in Asia, use any green chillies you think is right for this.

Sliced the green chillies and put it in a glass bottle and then pour the vinegar on top to fill the bottle. Let it sit overnight on your kitchen counter and then put it in the refrigerator to store the next day.

Note: Make sure the green chillies you bought got a little kick to it. I once bought a wrong kind of green chillies which has no kick (or heat) at all and the end result was not satisfactory to me. Oh yeah, gave some to Lily so she should know. Hehehe...

Pork Floss

Pork Floss, my favorite snack as a kid. Love it sandwich in bread or mix in with porridge. My mom used to make it for us. So when I came over here, I just have to ask her for the recipe. She told me how to make it and what sauce to use but not the measurement.

As in all Chinese cooking, estimation is the best to go. I have not seen a Chinese cook using a measuring spoon for all his cooking before, what he does is do a taste test and then season to taste. Cooking is definitely a skill, so practise makes perfect. One needs to cook, the more you cook, the more you know how much sauce to add or what sauce or seasoning to use to create a balance flavor. With these knowledge, it also allow you to create new dishes and new flavor.

Okay, back to topic, as you can see my pork floss is not flossy enough. I might have used the wrong part of the pork (frankly I can't tell what is what, just used whatever pork I have in the fridge) or I didn't fry it long enough, no clue! Anyway, here's the recipe so you might do better than me.

Ingredients

Pork meats, cut into strips (I used about 2 1/2 cups)
(A)
Soy sauce
Double black soy sauce
Sweet soy sauce
A dash of salt
4 tsp. Sugar

Method

1. Covered the pork with some water and boiled it. When boiled, dished out the inpurity. Add in (A), lower the heat to low and simmer until the pork is tender (with lid), about 2-3 hours. After that, open the lid and let it simmer until the liquid thicken and almost evaporated. Dished out the pork to cool. And then shred the pork with your fingers.

2. Heat the wok with low fire and pan-fry the pork until dry and flossy. Might take an hour or more. Keep in a container when cool. For this recipe, I only yield about 1 1/2 cups pork floss, not much.

Verdict: I thought it would be hard because it was not flossy but was I wrong. It actually pretty good, much to my surprise and even my daughter loves it. But I still prefer the flossy texture though, now who can enlighten me on how to get that texture? ;) Fry until my hand break or there is a particular part of the pork to use for this? *Help!*

Josh's Braised Pork Belly

I bought a piece of fatty pork from my local supermarket the other day thinking of making Lily's roasted pork belly (siew bak). And then I came across Josh's braised pork belly and I thought this would be best suited for my wontan mee. He provided step-by-step pictures in his recipe so that was easy to follow.


Braising the fatty pork.


Dish out to cool before slicing.


I added tau kwa (deep-fried hard tofu) in the last hour of braising as well.

Verdict: Very delicious, the pork fat just melted in your mouth and the seasoning was just right, very flavorful. Hence, the tau kwa was also very flavorful. He said you can add hard boiled eggs in it as well.

Note:
You can get his recipe at kitchencapers.net under Asian Red Meat. I would cut down the oil to 3 Tbp. instead of the stated 6 Tbp. next time I make it. Because while making this dish, I kept scooping out the oil on top. :P

Wontan Mee (Wontan Noodle)

Using Josh's braised belly pork recipe, I served my braised fatty pork with wontan mee. Blanched some baby boy choy to serve as side dish and made some shrimp wontans soup. As for the soup, I was using Maggi no MSG ikan bilis (dried anchovies) granules, a little salt, baby boychoy, frozen mixed vegetable and shrimp wontans. Top with chopped scallion and crispy shallots.



Click below for Shrimp Wontan recipe:

My little artist

Evy loves to draw. She has been asking for a pen or pensil since she was 1 year old. Until these days, drawing is still her favorite playtime. Just give her a piece of papar and a pen and she would sit by herself, doing her own thing while talking to herself. :)



"Look here Evy. Mommy wants to take a picture of you."



"Give mommy a smile!"

Gina's Yam Kuih

I made Gina's yam kuih yesterday. You can get the recipe at Kitchencapers under Asian steamed kuih.



After it was pan-fried in the morning.

Verdict: It was a bit dry and hard to me. Thus I pan-fried it in the morning. Definitely tasted better as the oil gave it some moisture. Good with chilli sauce.

Dried Crunchy Bread Strips

Seriously I didn't even know what this is called. But it's dried, it's hard & crunchy and it's made of bread cutting into strips. Therefore, this name is born.

My mom used to make this snack for me and my siblings when we were young and we always enjoyed eating this crispy sweet treat. Thus when I came over to the States, I just have to make it. I remembered my sister and I were trying to make this bread while in the college dorm but we failed miserably because the bread remain soft in the middle. At that time, I had no idea what went wrong and we never make it again (At that time, I was neither a cook nor a baker, merely a 20 year old college girl).

While I was watching Paula Deen on the Food Network this evening making her dressing for All-Stars Thanksgiving dinner, she mentioned she used days old bread to make her own dried bread for the dressing and baked the bread at low temperature to dry the bread. Ding...ding...ding...it's just clicked. I have some bread sitting in the fridge so why not experiment with it right? Ta...da...



The butter & sugar ones.



With Milo added.



When cooled, packed away in a plastic container.

Chilli Oil

Malaysian just love their food spicy and what's best to spice up your food but some chilli oil. :) I made my own chilli oil because it's super duper easy. All you need is 3 ingredients and a clean glass bottle.

Ingredients:

1 cup Canola oil
1/4 cup Crushed red pepper flakes
2 Tbp. Cayenne pepper powder (to turn up the heat)

Method:

In a small saucepan, turned the heat to medium and heat up the oil. When heated, (dropped a little of the crushed red pepper, if it sizzle, it's heated) add the crushed red pepper flakes and cayenne powder, turned off the heat and stirred around. Moved to cool and leave it overnight. The next day, strained the chilli oil in a glass bottle.



As for the remaining strained chilli, you can reserved it for cooking or throw away. I used this to cook my Kung Pao Chicken, fried rice, fried noodle, etc or as a dip. To use as a dip, add some soy sauce and sesame oil to it.

Note:
My secret to delicious ground meat spaghetti, drizzle some chilli oil on your serving and fold to mix. Instant lift to the spaghetti and simply yummy!

Cheese Wontan or Crab Rangoon

Cheese Wontan which is also called Crab Rangoon is another Americanize food in the Chinese restaurants here. When I first came here, it was a surprised taste to me and not quite sure what it was. But over the years, it has become one of my favorite appertizers. It almost included in every lunch & dinner special menus these days. Got to love this little snack!

Well, since I bought some cream cheese the other day and got some wrappers in the freezer, why not try my hands on making this delectable snack right? So, here my afternoon experiment and verdict.


The Twin Dragon wrappers that I used and recommended.



Cheese filling that I came out with.



Before deep-frying. I can't seem to wrap it nicely in this shape. Hehe...


After deep-frying.


Cut open for a peek inside.

Guess what it is?

Look what I found in the market the other day! It must have been the first time I saw this or I have never paid attention at all. It looked so fresh and pretty that I just got to buy it and try. And it's called Broccoflower. The mixed of broccoli and cauliflower, brillient!



This was what I cooked for dinner. Just some easy stir-fry with imitation crabmeats and carrot. The verdict, it tasted just like cauliflower. I like it! Not sure whether the benefit of both veggies will be combined in one though, if yes, excellent! (or lagi bagus! in Malay)



Do give it a try if you see it in your local supermarket. :o)

Pork Wontan

Featuring one of my home cook dishes. Who wouldn't love deep-fry food? Deep-fry wontan is very common these days and it comes with all kind of fillings or you can simply create your own with what you have in your refrigerator and pantry. Any filling will be good as long as you seasoned it well. Furthermore, it's very easy to make.

Lazy Chicken Rice

Featuring one of my home cook dishes. Why I called it lazy chicken rice is because this dish is very easy to make. Another one of my easy shortcut version. Of course you can serve it with fresh slices of cucumber and a bowl of clear chicken soup.

Ingredients for the Chicken Rice:

~Rice
~Chopped garlic
~Chopped ginger
~Chopped shallot
~Canned Swanson chicken broth

Sauce for the cooked rice:
Soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and chopped scallion.

Main Ingredient:
Chicken breasts, cut and marinate in soy sauce, dark soy sauce, garlic powder and cornstarch.

Method:

1. Wash the rice & drain. Heat up the wok with a little oil, add in the chopped ingredients and stir-fry until fragrant. Add in the rice and stir well to mix til dry up. Transfer to the rice cooker and add in the canned chicken broth, give it a little stir. Cook as normal.

2. Heat soy sauce and sugar in microwave safe bowl for about 30 minutes. Stir until sugar dissolved. Add in some sesame oil and chopped scallion. This sauce is to be pour on top of the cooked chicken rice before serving.

3. Heat up wok with a little oil and stir-fry the marinated chicken pieces until cooked.

4. To serve: Place a ball of chicken rice in the center of the plate, top with chicken pieces and then pour the sauce on top of the chicken. Garnish with cilantro on top and slices of cucumber on the side. Serve with garlic-ginger chillies sauce.


Click for Garlic-Ginger Chillies Sauce recipe:

Sweet Bread (Pai-Pau)

I used Jerseymom's recipe from KC. What prompted me to try this bread was the great reviews given by those who had tried it and posted their pictures. It looked really soft and easy to make.

I encountered minor problem in the beginning because I forgot to add an additional milk to replace the water used for her yeast. I was using instant yeast and it doesn't require that step. Thus, my dough was not wet enough so I just improvised by adding more melted butter and oil to make it pliable. *I only remembered about the liquid after I done kneading the dough* One more obstacle I encountered was it was a cold day and my dough just won't proof or double in size. I tried the warm water in the microwave trick, managed to proof a little, and that's about it. So, I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.




Was I glad that it turned out alright after all. Got to taste one when it was still warm from the oven and it sure soft to the bite. I brushed the top with maple syrup and it added to the sweet taste of the bread. A yummy sweet bread indeed and a recipe to keep. Thanks Jerseymom! :o)

The real challenge comes tomorrow since this is the first time I made bread without any bread improver, hope that it will still remain soft.

Verdict: It harden the next day but a quick pop in the Microwave solved the problem (10 seconds for one).