Belacan Okra (or Ladies Fingers)

Update:
Finally sorta settled down into my new house. There are still some things that need to be changed, things to buy and landscaping to do. So, I might not be able to update as often, but here is one that I did weeks ago.




I love okra! To save time, I used the frozen cut okra right from the freezer and bottled shrimp paste sauce, belacan powder and bottled chillie garlic sauce to make this delicious comfort food.

Living in the U.S., we just have to adapt. Fresh okra is pretty hard to come by but the frozen ones are basically every where in the freezer section. This frozen okra is actually very fresh because it was packed and freeze right after it was harvest, clean and cut. One thing though, don't defroze the veggie, it would get soft and mushy. Just cut it open and pour into the hot wok to stir-fry. You don't even have to wash it.

The result? You can't even tell it is from a frozen package.

Will be MIA yet Again!

Finally the long awaited 7 months is coming to an end tomorrow (Monday), where we will close on our new house. Hooray! We will move on Wednesday and sleep in our new house from then on. We are not allowed to enter our new house until the closing day which is also the walk through day. So, I am really excited to see what's the finished product will be. Believe it or not, the walk-through is scheduled at 8am and the closing is at 12pm on the SAME DAY! We were like, they are sure felt very confident about their products (in this case, a house!). One thing though, our next door neighbor just moved in last weekend, at least we know we are not the only house that is occupied in that row.

I am packing getting ready for the moving day. So, no more baking of CNY cookies for me, at least not until I moved and unpacked my stuff first. It's great that we get to move in before the Chinese New Year as one great plus is that my Spring cleaning will be short and sweet because the house will be cleaned and presented to us. And luckily CNY lasted for 15 days!! So, after I moved, I still get to make pineapple tarts (if I'm not too bum out). :P

Therefore, I will be away for a week or so or until I have my Internet connection back again. Will definitely miss checking and reading on my fellow bloggers' blogs. Miss ya!

Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Chai to you!!!

Three Faces of Evy

I took some pictures of my little girl few days ago. Often time when I took picture of the food, she also wanted to be in the picture. Thus, the result of these pictures.

Snapping picture of her is not an easy task these days because she won't sit still for me to snap it. She would sit for a little while and then rush over to see her picture through my camera screen. My digital camera often takes its own sweet time to focus, lock and snap, so by the time the camera done all that, she already standing up ready to come over. As a result, I have all sort of weird and blur pictures of her.


1) Her Smiling Face!
2)Her Laughing Silly Face!


3)Her Serious Face!

Anyway, thought I will share the three different looks of my sweetie. They sure are growing up fast.

Stir-Fry Tom Yam Shrimps

I always looking for way to cook shrimps. I got this idea from Amy Beh's Vietnamese Prawns in her first cookbook. What can I say, I always attracted to easy recipe that tastes good. I made this recipe simpler by using the bottled key lime juice that available in all WalMart stores at the produce section. Hehe...short-cut all the way for me.

Featuring one of my home cook dishes.

Ingredients:

12 extra large shrimps, shelled & deveined but leave the tails on

1 lemon grass, cut into 1 inch length (optional)

2 Kaffir lime leaves, sliced (optional)

4 shallots, sliced

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

4 chilli padi (Thai chilli), chopped

2 Tbp. Tom Yam paste

1 Tbp. key lime juice

1 tsp. sugar

Drizzle of dark soy sauce

1/3 cup water

sesame oil

Method:

1. Heat the wok with some oil. When heated, add lemon grass and shallots. Stir-fry for a little while, then add in garlic, chilli padi and kaffir lime leaves. Stir- well until fragrant.

2. Add shrimps, give a quick stir. Add in tom yam paste, key lime juice, dark soy sauce, sugar and water. Stir-fry until the shrimps are cooked and sauce thicken.

3. Turn off the fire and drizzle a little sesame oil on top. Give it a quick stir and serve on a plate.

Stir-Fry Bean Sprouts

Featuring one of my home cook dishes.

Ingredients:

~ Bean sprouts
~ 2-3 cloves garlics, chopped
~ 2-3 Scallion, cut into 2 inches length
~ One small piece of ginger, thinly shredded
~1/4 cup dried anchovies, washed and drained

Seasoning:

Salt to taste, 1 tsp. chicken stock granules & 1/3 cup water.

Method:

Heat oil in a wok. When hot, add in dried anchovies and ginger, stir-fry until anchovies turned crispy and brown then add in garlic. Stir well and add in the bean sprouts. Give a few good stirs and add the seasonings. Let it simmer a little while and then add scallions in the last few seconds. Stir well and dish out. Serve hot.

Note:

Do not overcook the bean sprouts, it shoud be crunchy when you bite into it.

Double Chocolate Banana Bread Muffins

Made this using my marble banana bread recipe. But instead of marbling it, I mixed all the batter with the melted chocolate and added chocolate chips, thus made it a double chocolate banana bread muffins.

Note:

1. I think I overbaked it because I found it to be a bit dry.

2. Thus, for those that are trying, add 1/4 cup more oil into the recipe.