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).

Evy's First Halloween

I'm determined to get myself some candies tonight!


Oh wow, look at the candies I got!


Yum..Yum... Mommy I can't talk, I got a mouth fulled.

We decided to take Evy for her first trick-a-treat this Halloween. What else to dress her in but the traditional Chinese costume and made her the China Doll for the night. Does she looks like a China Doll? :) For added effect, I painted her cheeks with some red lipstick. She looked so adorable walking by her daddy side, holding hands and went trick-a-treating door to door. She even held her own candy bag and waved and said bye-bye to those that gave her the candies. She certainly seem enjoying the whole experience. We went to about 20 houses and looked at the candies she got!

Green Tea Melting Moments

I have been wanting to make this cookie ever since I saw how easy the recipe was early this year. However, I was just not motivated enough to really make it. What did it for me was the picture of Connie's melting moments at KC. She reminded me of this melt-in-the-mouth cookie again and thus the result of this afternoon labor. Sometimes all it took was a picture to snap me into action. Okay, now who wants to help me finish all the cookies? ;o)

Coconut Melting Moments

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 1/3 cup + 1 Tbp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Method:

The method is the same as green tea melting moments, except for this I used vanilla extract instead of green tea powder.

Shape the dough into 1- inch ball and packed it with coconut flakes and baked in preheated 325'F oven for 15-17 minutes. Remove to cool on wire rack. When cooled, placed the cookies in small paper cups (for decoration only, can be omitted).

Verdict: Taste better the day it was baked.


Sparkle Sugar Sequins Melting Moments
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As for this, shape into balls, flatten it with a fork and sprinkle sugar sequins on top. A favorite for kids!

Soy Braised Whole Chicken

I posted the recipe under Soy Braised Cornish Hen, for the whole chicken, just double the recipe. I slow boiled it covered for 30 minutes on each side and then I uncovered it and simmer it further for about 10-15 minutes on each side, depending on the size of the chicken. Dish out the chicken and let cool. Thicken the sauce by simmering it down or add some cornstarch mixture to it. Later use the thicken sauce to pour on top of the cut out chicken to serve.

Sambal Belacan Sweet Potato Leaves

Featuring one of my home cook dishes. This is my shortcut version of sambal belacan vegetable. Keep a canned of shrimp paste at home and you can whip up a belacan veggies anytime. :)

Ingredients

Sweet Potato Leaves
1/4 cup of dried shrimps, washed & drained
2-3 sliced shallots
2 Tbp. Caravelle shrimp paste in bean oil
1 Tbp. my homemade chillies in oil
1 tsp. belacan powder
salt to taste
sugar to taste

Method

Heat oil in wok, when hot, add in the shallots and dried shrimps. Stir well until fragrant, then add in the sweet potato leaves. Stir-fry until the veggies soften, add in the shrimp paste, belacan powder & chillies paste and a little water. Stir around and season with salt and sugar. Dish out and serves hot.

Note:
Good with kangkong, ladies fingers (or okra), Chinese long beans, esparagus and even Japanese eggplants.

Kung Pao Chicken

Featuring one of my home cook dishes.

I cooked this chicken all the times. Love it while in M'sia, thus when I came over, I just have to crack my head to come out with this dish. Over the years, it becomes one of my master dishes. No exact recipe for this, all agaration. But here's what I use.

Kung Pao Chicken

Ingredients:
1/2 Onion, sliced.
1/2 Carrot, sliced.
2-3 Scallions, cut into 2 inches length.
Chicken pieces from 1 chicken breast (marinate in soy sauce, dark soy sauce & cornstarch).
6-8 Dried chilli peppers.
1 inch piece of Ginger, thinly sliced.

Sauce Mixture:
Soy sauce
Dark soy sauce
sugar

Thickening:
Cornstarch + water

Method:

Heat oil, add ginger, when fragrant, add chicken pieces, stir-fry until chicken is half way cooked, add in dried chilli peppers. Stir-fry until chicken is cooked, add onion and carrot. Stir to mix then add the sauce mixture. Let it boil for a while and add in the thickening. Serve hot!

Stir-Fried Udon Noodle

I love fresh Udon noodle. It's delicious eating it in soup or stir-fry. It's a quick lunch to prepare in soup, just add in some marinated chicken pieces or shrimps, fresh vegetable, tofu pieces and fresh mushroom and top it with fried shallots or garlics and fresh cilantro. Serve with a bowl of chilli padi in soy sauce, can I say yum?

Of course it's delicious in stir-fry too. Just add in your favorite ingredients and for the sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce (if you prefer it dark), a little sugar and sesame oil.

Meme: Childhood Food Memories

Carrying on the baton from Lily's Wai Sek Hong

1. The giant shrimp cracker that I used to buy for 10 cent in my primary school. And then I dipped it in a special chilli sauce and enjoy it by hand. I bet a lot of people who came from that school will remember this giant chilli dipped shrimp crackers! :)

2. Everytime when the roti man rang his motorcycle horn to signal the arrival of him. And my mom would go out and buy the roti for tomorrow. Me and my siblings would go out with my mom and of course asked for little packets of snacks that were hanging on the containers at the back of the motorcycle. If my mom was in a good mood, she would buy those treat for us. Not sure whether they still sell roti this way?

3. My late grandma (dad's side) was a very good kuih maker. She used to make kuih-muih and sell when she was young. However, by the time we knew her, she was no longer in the selling business. But we got to enjoy her kuih everytime she came down to see us or when we visit her during CNY. She would make a variety of steamed kuih for CNY and it were always very good. Now, I really miss her yellow steamed radish kuih. She usually made it in big block and cut it into smaller pieces to pan-fry and serve it in the morning of CNY. YUM! I think all her knowledge and recipes of the kuih she made died with her as I don't think she copied her recipes down and passed it on to her daughters.

4. My mom's lettuce wrap that she made for CNY reunion dinner. I always enjoyed this dish, bite into a fresh crispy lettuce with stir-fried jicama, slices of soy sauce chicken and top with homemade chilli sauce, where juices dripped down on my fingers and I got to lick it off, such a fond memory. Not sure whether this is the authentic way to make the lettuce wrap, but it was how my mom made her.

5. Help to make CNY cookies at my grandma (mom's side) house. I was pretty young and anxious to help and they were making the kuih kapit (love letters) and kuih bunga (honeycomb cookies). You learned while you help and glad to say that I did. What was best was we got to take home big tins of cookies home with us. Hehehe... always a plus.

Now I would have to pass the baton on to,

Rantings from a Solitary Reverie

Glutinous Rice

Made this last week using Amy Beh's recipe. I made this using the rice cooker and added too much water and thus the rice was too soft. I usually steamed the rice and the texture was just perfect. I have no idea where I boxed my steamer and thus the used of the rice cooker.

Lynda's Lor Bak

Thanks Lynda! The recipe is from her sister in-law Ah Soh. Thanks Ah Soh! :D

Abalone with Chicken Soup

Look at the Abalone slices! They are not stingy about it.



This is the packet that I used. Strongly recommended. :)

I tried to cook chinese herbal soup once a week. I will alternate different type of herbal soup to cook each week so that it's a new flavour every week. I just dump two chicken drumsticks and the packet above and slow simmer it for few hours. What a yummy and nutricious soup to drink. The abalone was so soft and got such a nice bite to it. My mother in-law sent me those from M'sia.

It's Snowing!!

Her cheeky face!

It's a snow day today and very cold. This kind of day just make you want to curl up in bed and keep warm. Hmmm...a warm soupy noodle, beef stew sound very good now. Since it's the first snow of the season, we dressed her up and took her outside to snap some pictures. She sure love cold weather, not sure whether it got anything to do with she was born in cold weather??

Chinese Red Bean Paste Cake

Finally I made my long awaited Chinese Red Bean Paste Cake! :D I got motivated after I saw it at SeaDragon blog. Since I have some red bean paste in the freezer and all the ingredients in the boxes, what the heck, let's do it. I adapted the recipe from Revised Chinese Snacks by Huang Su-Huei, published by Wei-Chuan's Cookbook.


Red Bean Paste Cake (Yield about 5~6 cakes)

Note: I modified this recipe to yield more thin pancakes. (updated Nov. 8, 2005)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cup water

Red bean paste
Oil for frying
Plastic wrap for handling red bean paste

Step:

1. In a bowl, mix egg + water well. Add sifted flour and mix into a thin batter.

2. Grease a non-stick frying pan in medium heat. Add a scoop of the batter and rotate the pan to form a thin sheet. When cooked, remove and set aside. Do the same with the remaining batter.

3. Use a plastic wrap to press the red bean paste into square and transfer it to the center of the cooked sheet, remove the plastic wrap. Fold the sides of the sheet to the center to form a square shape. Seal the edges with some tapioca flour + water mixture ( 1 tsp. tapioca flour + 2 tsp. water). Do the same with the remaining sheet(s).

4. Heat the frying pan with 3 Tbp. oil and pan fry the square cake until both sides are golden brown and crispy. Remove and drain on paper towel. Repeat for the remaining cake(s). Cut the cakes into pieces and serve hot.

Note:

1. When making the thin sheet, make sure you wait until the sheet is set before attempting to remove it. If not, it will break apart. Since it's so thin, you don't even have to flip it over. When set, just remove it.

2. Make sure the red bean paste you use is sweet enough.

Moved In

After 3 days of moving, glad to say that we finally settled down in the rented house. We closed our house on Friday morning and passed over the keys to the new owners. It was our first time meeting the new owners as well and they sure seem excited. We were tired out from all the moving and cleaning, furthermore had to wake up early in the morning to go to the title company. All in all, we were glad to sell our house because that's mean we will get to move into our new house when it's done. :D

The rented place is actually pretty nice eventhough it's a 30 years old house. It has new carpet, countertop and new paint so it's pretty decent looking. I like the backyard because it's open space so no one can look inside the house and I could open my blinds 24 hours a day. Love to sit on my patio while watching Evy plays in the backyard, privacy is bliss. Better enjoy it while the weather permit. :)

Well, I'm not going to unpack most of the stuff because we will be moving again in 4 months. Thus my living room and front entry are packed with boxes, sure serves as a storage area for now. But if I feel like baking, I sure know where to dig those boxes.

Evy

Evy at 17 months. In a few days, she will be 1- 1/2 year old, yup...time sure flies on you. She can say 32 words already and what a fast learner she is. She understood a lot of things we said, so can't really say certain thing in front of her. As an example, her daddy said, "Don't give her the pensil, after she would poke it into her eye." And sure enough after hearing what her daddy said, she tried to poke it into her eye (she never know how to do that before). And she tried to do that again when her daddy said the same thing few days later. As you figure, I gave her pensil to express herself in writing and drawing, she knows how to write 1 and said it correctly at the same time. As for drawing, she can draw straight lines and circles already.

Will be MIA

Good news! We bought a new house which is currently being build and won't be ready until Jan next year. We just sold our current house and have to move out by end of this month. So, at the meantime, we will be staying in a rented old house until our house is ready. I'm very excited about my new house and can't wait to move in. :)

I have been spending the past few days packing my stuff. Oh lord...the stuff I have in the kitchen...one can faint. So not looking forward to packing but have to do it! Have to set aside certain items for Goodwill and giveaway too. I will move out of this house on the 28th so I probably won't have any Internet connection for these few days. And of course no cooking or baking or posting food pictures for some time until I'm settle down.

Chocolate Coffee Topping Mexican Bun

Made Mexican Bun with chocolate coffee topping the other day. I used coffee emulco & some instant coffee and found that I couldn't taste the coffee flavor. Perhaps the cocoa powder was over powering the flavor of coffee? Still need to experiment more with the topping. But here's the chocolate topping recipe.

Chocolate Flavor Topping

1/3 cup sifted cake flour

1/4 cup sifted icing sugar

1/2 stick of soften butter (or 1/4 cup)

1 egg

2 Tbp. Hersey cocoa powder

Steps:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Whisk until all blended and put it into a piping bag and pipe spiral on top of each bun. Bake in 375'F for 8-10 mins.

For the buns:

Use any basic sweet bun recipe. The filling will be salted butter straight from the fridge. Cut into cube to use as filling, about 1/2 Tbp. for each bun.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I made Pandan Chiffon Cake for Lily's grandson one month old party. I had tried several recipes that used different quantities of eggs and found this recipe is the best. It used 6 eggs and always produced very high chiffon cake unlike the others that I have tried. I have used this to make almond chiffon cake, orange chiffon cake and lemon chiffon cake before. 

The above is the picture of the Pandan paste that I used, usually selling for 99 cent at the Asian grocery store.  This is the brand and paste that I recommend to produce a fragrant cake, essence and powder form are not recommended. 

Lily's Grandson One Month Old Party

I got invited to Lily's grandson one month old celebration on Aug 27th. Her grandson is so cute and such a good baby. He won't mind being pass around and could even slept through all the noises. Yeah it was pretty loud on that day as Lily and Sandra invited a lot of friends and neighbors.

Look at what Lily cooked!! She cooked a lot and we all had a full tummy. I just love being around this family, makes me feel at home. And I just love homecook meal, so satisfying!

Lemon Biscotti Dipped in Chocolate

Made this for a friend's daughter. I used a basic biscotti recipe and added lemon zest, fresh lemon juice and lemon essence to make it a lemon biscotti and then dipped it in Baker's chocolate.

Ingredients

(A)
1 stick of butter or 1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. lemon essence
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon

(B)
3 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 Tbp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

(C)
4 cubes Baker's chocolate, melted
~microwave for about 1 min 15 or 30 seconds or til melted.

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 375'F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, beat together (A) until well blended. Add in (B) and stir to form a dough. Divide dough in half and roll each roll into the length of the cookie sheet. Then move each roll to the cookie sheet and press down to 1/2 inch thickness.

3. Bake for 20-25 mins or til golden brown. Remove to cool on wire rack. When it's cool enough to handle, slice each one crosswise into 1/2 inch slices with a serrated knife. Place the slices cut side up back to the cookie sheet and bake each side for a further 6 mins. Remove to cool on wire rack while preparing the melted chocolate.

4. When cool, dip each biscotti into the melted chocolate and let rest on the wire rack. Put it in the refrigerator for 30 mins for the chocolate to harden. Store in an air-tight container.

Note:
This recipe is very versatile, you can play with it to come out with any combination or flavor biscotti that you like. Like add in nuts, raisin, chocolate chips, etc.

If you want the lemon flavor to be stronger, use zest of 2 lemons and 1 Tbp. of lemon essence. The dipped in chocolate step may be omitted.

Potluck Picnic

A friend and I organized a potluck picnic with the theme Nasi Lemak last weekend. We found a really nice shaded park with a duck pond near downtown where we host the picnic. The turn out was great and everyone was enjoying themselves and the food. We had nasi lemak, sambal ikan bilis , nasi lemak ganishes, curry veggies, curry chicken, curry lamb, beef rendang, otak-otak, sambal prawns, fried chicken, mee goreng, spring rolls, pickled veggies, agar-agar, cakes, cookies, fruit salad and drinks.