More Malaysian Food

Alkaline Kuih (Tee Ya kuih?).  On this trip back, I wanted to try this kuih because my late grandma always made it during the Chinese New Year.  Hers was yellow in color and she would made a big rectangular size tray and we had it throughout the CNY.  She would also pan-fried it to eat it with soy sauce three-layers pork.  I wasn't too crazy about this back then, but this kuih managed to stick inside my memory and it was something that I wanted to revisit again.  My dad also missed his mom's kuih and would go to eat this occasionally.  I was happy that I got to eat it again but somehow it didn't taste quite the same.

The alkaline kuih was served with this braised three layers pork.

This fried lor bak was delicious!!

Fried broad rice noodle with eggy sauce  (wor tan hor)

Hokkein noodle, just got to have this at least once when we go back.  (sorry the picture turned out a bit blurry)

Malaysia Yong Tau Fu

When I went back last month to Malaysia, one of the food I wanted to eat was Yong Tau Fu.  My girls enjoyed this tremendously too, they ate whatever I gave them.

My mom said it used to sell for 70 cent each but now the price has increased to $1.20 each.  Since I haven't eaten this in a while, it tasted delicious just liked I used to remember.  My wish was granted thanks to my dearest parents.

Nothing beat the Malaysian food, so many things to eat and try.  I didn't get to eat all the food of course but I tried to eat what I really missed the most.  I will have more delicious food pictures that I ate to share with you, some fancy, some just what I had missed.  Stay tuned!

Chili Black Bean Chicken

Sigh, it does come at a time when I have no idea what to cook anymore.  I like to try new things, cook new food instead of the same old same old.  Furthermore, I can't post the same recipe again in my blog so I had to be creative!  Colorful super-food will always be my priority in preparing my food, the above is just a usual home cook meal.

Lemony Lemon Brownies

When I saw this recipe shared on my Facebook page, I just had to make it.  My girls loved anything lemony such as my Lemon Sables, Crispy Lemon Cookies and Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins.  Needless to say, I have been making lots of lemony dessert lately.  This brownie got my girls approval too, is a change from the usual chocolate brownie, but I like the fudgy brownie better.  *wink*

I modified the methods in making this lemon brownie from the original version because I remembered I only needed a hand whisk to make the best brownie ever recipe.  So, I improvised and experimented with it and glad to announce that it worked!  So, you are free to use my lazy method or follow the original recipe.  I also cut down on the sugar and changed the glaze recipe, as the glaze recipe provided by the original poster yields too much runny glaze and hence resulted my brownie looking like the above.

Cocoa Almond Butter

As you know, I have been making my own jam/preserves and learning that making homemade nut butter is also very easy hence I set it out to give it a try.  My girls loved Nutella so I added cocoa powder into my experiment.  It didn't taste very good at first so I tried adding some brown sugar and gave it a taste.  It also felt a bit thick so I added a little peanut oil to make it smoother and the above was the result of it.

We really liked it and when I am out of the almonds, I might try it with peanuts since peanuts is a lot cheaper. I bet you can experiment with different nut for a different nut butter taste as well.  Happy trying!

Hijiki Seaweed Cold Side

I have to eat seaweed regularly to keep my Hypothyroidism under control.  2-3 times a week is sufficient for me.  The most regular seaweed that I consume is wakame, cook in miso tofu soup.  I also add wakame when I prepare my kimchi ramen, any chance I have for seaweed, I would use it.  When I am too lazy to make the miso soup, I will switch to Hijiki seaweed since this can be prepared pretty easily.  Right now, I would do a blood test once a year when I visit my OB/GYN to see if there is any changes.  I noticed that if the reason of your hypothyroidism is the lack of iodine, you can easily modify your diet to keep it under control.  For me,  the regular consumption of seaweed really helped.  It might not be for everyone but it works for me.

Turmeric Spiced Chicken

This dish was me trying on something new.  I was inspired by Phong Hong's Chicken Garam Kunyit and wanted to give it a try.  But knowing me, I didn't go and shop for the ingredients but just made use or substitute what I had at home, this dish came out looking nothing like the post that I was inspired with.  I think using the chicken breast in my part was a mistake as the meat didn't turn out juicy and tender.  For this dish, the skinless and boneless chicken thigh would be much preferred.  Oh well... Certainly learnt from my mistake.  I still want to thanks Phong Hong for the recipe though!  :-)

Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins with Lemon Glaze

I don't know, I love to buy lemon when it's on sale.  And if it is 3 for $1, I would buy 3 instead of 1 even though I only needed one.  Often time when that happen, I have no idea what to do with the lemons.  I just realized that I can just cut it into slices and put it into an air-tight container in the fridge and take each slice out for use in my water (to make it alkaline).

Anyway, for these 2 lemons that I was left with, I decided to make Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins.  I created this recipe because I want to make it into a recipe that is easy to make and less thing to wash.   No electric appliance needed, just a bowl and a hand whisk!  It turned out soft, lemony and delicious, even my hubby that normally doesn't eat sweet had 3 in a day!  Of course the rest my girls walloped it up, now I will need to buy more lemons to make more of these yummies.

Soft and fluffy with the flavor of lemon and the crunch from the poppy seeds!

Baby Bok Choy Kimchi

When I went to a Korean BBQ buffet, there was one vegetable kimchi that I really liked and that was bok choy kimchi.  I was surprised at how good it tasted and I always want to make it in the back of my mind. This is a short cut version as no glutinous rice paste was used as well as no food processor.  So, no onion, no apple and no pear.  As you know, I am famous for the short-cut version.  However, adding fruit and onion would provide additional sweetness to the dish.  I heard that the glutinous rice paste is to give the kimchi extra shine.  Anyway, I am too lazy to make those today so I am settle with this.

Verdict:  I would try adding an apple or sweet pear next time.  I bet it would taste better with the additional sweetness from the fruit.  I would probably use 1 Tbsp. of fish sauce first and if it is not salty enough, at least you can add more and season to taste.  Otherwise, if it is too salty, then it would be harder to adjust, just have to eat it with lots of rice.

Homemade Strawberries Jam without Pectin

Hey, it's Spring, with the abundance of cheap strawberries on sale, what are you going to do with it?  You can make strawberry jam that last through the summer!  I used to spend a ton on organic jam but not anymore!  I have learned to make my own jam by following the simple rule of 1 lb.of fruit to 1 lb. of sugar (almost 2 cups).   However, I do cut down on the sugar depending on the sweetness of the fruit, not a whole lot but some since we need the sugar to preserve the jam.  If you click under my label on Jam/Preserve, I have since made kaya (Malaysian coconut jam), clementine marmalade, orange marmalade, pear jam, blueberry jam, blackberry jam and raspberry jam.  Now adding to the collection is strawberry jam!  I should stick to 2 lb. of strawberries next time, since it was my first attempt, I have no clue how much it will yield.

3 lb. of fresh strawberries yield almost 7 jars of strawberry jams for me.  Sweet and oh so yummy!

Easy Stir-fried Celery

This dish was created because I needed a vegetable side dish for my Korean dinner and my refrigerator only had an organic celery and a tiny bit of cabbage.  So, I picked up the celery, thinly sliced it and started working through the recipe while stir-frying it and doing the taste test.  I added black sesame seeds for the color contrast and the celery was crunchy.  I am quite happy with the result and would certainly make this when I am out of other green vegetable again!

My Version of Vietnamese Dessert

We loved Vietnamese dessert.  Often time when we went up to Denver, we would go to a Vietnamese bakery shop to buy some of the kuih (Asian steamed cake), "tofu fah" and cups of sweet dessert like the above.  It came with several variety and it was hard to pick a favorite, but often time I would pick one loaded with beans, sweet potato, sago and taro.  I don't know how they really make theirs but I know it is sweet and covered with coconut milk.

This is my version and it tasted just like the one sold at the store.  It is not difficult to make but involved a few steps like cooking the tapioca pearls or strips first and steaming the sweet potato or taro if used.  Then, you just mix it all together and place into an individual serving bowl or cup and refrigerate until serving.  It is best eaten on the same day as the tapioca strips might harden when kept in the fridge for too long.  If you make this, please feedback to me ya!  Enjoy!

Assam Sambal Prawns

We loved nasi lemak or Malaysian coconut rice.  One of the dishes I missed the most when I first came to the U.S. would be nasi lemak.  In my 20s and totally a newbie in cooking, I thought nasi lemak was very hard to make.  It was like eating it would only happen in my dream.  Then one day, a friend taught me how to make it and I was really surprised at how easy it was to make one.  I remembered I once made some nasi lemak and asked my husband to bring it to his school to share with his Malaysian male friends and how happy and thankful they were.

For this nasi lemak, I added turmeric powder thus the yellow color (Since the curcumin in turmeric is good for us so I wanted to incorporate it more into our diet).  The recipe I am sharing here is the assam sambal prawns as I bought some medium size shrimps and I wanted to make a dish that pair well with it.  I was referring this recipe to Nonya Flavours Cookbook and will be sharing the cookbook recipe with some of my changes.  I wonder why the photo in that cookbook looks so oily and red whereas mine looks completely different?

Stir-fried Shredded Potatoes (Kamja Bokkeum)

Frankly I have no idea whether this is originally a Chinese dish or a Korean dish.  We were served a big tray of this shredded potatoes in a Chinese New Year party that we attended.  I was seriously surprised that a dish that looked so unappealing and plain can be so tasty.  I didn't even want to try it at first but I told myself that I have to try every dish there and be adventurous.  I tried it and couldn't help but went back for a second!  Interestingly this dish is also served as a banchan in Korean restaurants.  Evy fell in love with this banchan and I wished I know how to make it.  I always looking for easy banchan to serve with my Korean meal, but I think nothing is easy when you have to make a few in a day.  Anyway, this is my version and it tasted a little bit different and I have no idea why, do you think they par-boiled the shredded potatoes first? Outcome is all of us loved this plain potato dish and that's what matter most.

Mexican Squash Pancake (Jeon)

When I starts, I couldn't stop!  I have been cooking tons of Korean side dishes lately and I have no idea what's gotten into me.  I made this to bring to a Korean friend's house and just so happen that she was making the exact same thing!!  Down to the same Mexican squash!!  Talk about coincident as zucchini pancake is more common.  I bought this because I have no idea whether the store that sells the zucchini is GMO or non-GMO unless I buy organic, so I picked Mexican squash instead.  I couldn't tell the difference between these two anyway except one is dark green in color.  This is one popular Korean side dish and serve on special festivals.  It is not hard to make at all just the pan-frying part is a bit troublesome.  We all loved this so next time I would have to train my Evy to make this!

Seaweed Rolled Eggs

I have learned this version of rolled eggs from watching a Korean variety show, "Dad, Where are you Going?".  Haha...from now you have known that I watch quite a few of Korean variety shows right?  It provided me with a good laugh and it was fun to watch.  I liked those with kids, for example this and "The Return of Superman", it was just too cute!

Anyway, one of the dads cooked this for the kids and it looked good to me and what's best was it was very easy to make.  Without hesitation, I made this for my girls and got their approval.  Sometimes I made this for their lunch boxes, easy and nutritious!  They loved to open it into a strip and eat it like that too.  The eggs won't stick because of the seaweed.

Toast Pizza

I saw this Pizza using bread in someone blog before, but couldn't really remember where (Maybe Tigerfish?).  I have also seen pizza using tortilla and pita bread.  It just so many lazy and easy variation out there these days, and some even made dessert pizza.  I made this for my girls' school lunchbox.  I wanted to give them a different variety of lunch boxes instead of the same old thing.  So, I toast it and make it looks like mini pizza instead of making it into a sandwich.  

This was made in a different day without the spinach and cooked chicken breast.  All packed in their lunch box.  They preferred it this way instead of wrapping it in foil.  I would add a cutie into their lunch box too.

Arugula Elk Garlic Pasta

I love the Sweet & Spicy Tuna Arugula Pasta that I made earlier.  But this time I wanted to try it with ground elk meat ( of course you can use any ground meat of you choice as a substitute) that I bought at Sprouts.  Got to say, this combination tasted better with the sweet and spicy tuna, but it was not too bad either.

2 Ingredients Pancake!

When I first read about this 2 eggs and 1 banana pancake, it was shared on a health website on my Facebook page.  They called it Paleo pancake.  I was like okay it was interesting.  And then I saw it again on a Chinese cooking page on my Facebook and I got really interested then because I like simple and easy recipe, furthermore I have frozen banana in my freezer calling me to use it.  So, this time I thaw one banana in the refrigerator and set up to give this recipe a try because I was quite skeptical.  In my mind, I was like would it really work?

I wish I can trace it back to the original creator and give him/her the well reserved credit, but it's just too much work.  So, I just want to say that this idea was not created by me.