Special Rice Dish

What so special about this rice dish? Special as in the cooking method is different, it took two steps. One is stir-frying the rice first, you can add in eggs for eggs fried rice, or leave it plain, just soy sauce and garlic. I left the rice above plain because I just had eggs fried rice the day before. Then, you prepare a white sauce dish to pour it on top. The white sauce dish can be shrimps with frozen mixed vegetable, or fish with Chinese green (chai Hsin) like above, or scallops with beaten egg white, basically anything you can think of. Serve it as one dish meal. I have a similar fish recipe here if you want to take a look. 

Because of the sauce laden on the eggs fried rice, it made the rice soft and can be easily digested by elderly people or young children.

Fried Bee Hoon or Vermicelli

 

My simple lunch on Sunday.  I don't normally cooked dishes and rice on weekends.  Usually it would be something simple like fried noodle (any variety) or fried rice.  We had something special today because I saved some jicama beancurd rolls for ourselves like what you read on my last posting. Simple fried bee hoon like what you get at the night market in Malaysia can be satisfying, simple like only fried with bean sprouts. I don't know what is the charm of this simple fried bee hoon, do you know?  Or perhaps it was just something we used to have when we grew up.

Delicious fried bee hoon!  I recommend the Elephant brand bee hoon and also Wei Wei bee hoon.  These brands of bee hoon/vermicelli are thin and won't break easily when stir-frying.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast. This is my first entry for the new year 2010.  Wow, it has been a while.  This week host is non-other than Ruth herself, do go and check out Once Upon a Feast delicious round up on March, 5th! It is also the Third Birthday of PPN.

Jicama Beancurd Rolls

 

This is my jicama beancurd rolls.  I made some of these to bring to my friend's party and save two for ourselves.  The filling is my mung kuan char or stir-fried jicama.  This mung kuan char consisted of jicama, carrot, woodear, garlic and dried shrimps, season with salt, sugar and chicken granules, very simple.  Then, I wrapped it with the beancurd sheet.  I made a mistake as I dipped the beancurd sheet in water, you are only supposed to soften it with wet fingers.  So, the end result was not as crispy.  Also funny looking skin texture.

It changed the beancurd skin texture and when deep-fried, it was not as crispy.

One of the roll burst opened when frying.  So lesson learned, never to immerse your beancurd sheet in water to soften before rolling, just wet it with your fingers.  I knew that but still decided to try it out because my beancurd sheet won't seal with cornstarch mixture.  Alas!  now really learned my lesson.  I made lots of mistakes in the kitchen too, I made mistake and learned from it, only then I can improve myself.  :-)

Rose Konnyaku Jelly

How you like my twin Koi fishes?  Spotted my mistake yet?  I made a mistake here when I made thing without thinking.  I should have pour some konnyaku liquid in the mold first before I added in the mixed fruits.  I just added the mixed fruits into the mold and pour in the konnyaku liquid and let it set.  So, the end result, not as pretty and some of the mixed fruits fell off when unmold.  Oops!

If you want my rose flavored konnyaku jelly recipe, you can get it here.  The rose flavored is really great, I loved it because it reminded me of the rose drink that the Malay served in Malaysia during Hari Raya.  Here nian nian you yu to all of us!

Shrimp Ball Mushrooms

Sharing a picture of a dish we had on Lunar New Year 1st. day.  I had to confess I didn't make this.  We paid $25/person to dine a 9-course meal in a Chinese restaurant with some Taiwanese friends.  This was one item served on that day.  We couldn't finish all the food and this was what I brought back along with white chicken, sauce duck, crabs and mei chai three layers pork. :P

But I can tell you how it was made, it was pretty easy actually.  The top was shrimp balls, the bottom was Chinese mushroom.  First, you minced the shrimps or processed it in a food processor, then you seasoned it with salt, white pepper, rice wine (or however you would like to season it) and shaped it into a ball shape big enough to place on top of your soften Chinese mushroom.  Afterward, you steamed it until cooked, probably about 10-15 minutes.  You can cut some broccoli for garnish.  Quickly boil it in salt water to briefly cook it or you can cook it in the microwave.  Garnished the broccoli around the round plate and placed the cooked shrimp ball mushrooms in the middle.  Then, you can prepare the white sauce to pour on top.  As for the white sauce, heat up a pan, add in chicken stock and let it boiled.  When boiling, add in the cornstarch water mixture to thicken and stirred in some chopped scallion, removed from heat.  Pour the thicken sauce on top to serve.  Enjoy!

Bak Kua (Chinese Pork Jerky)

Bak Kua, my all time favorite when I was a kid and now too.  Love to sandwich it in bread and have it as breakfast.  This is also one favorite for Chinese New Year, people give this as gift in Malaysia.  They also served this for people who visits their houses.  When I moved here, bak kua was non-existence.  All I found that was similar to this is American beef jerky which I couldn't stomach.  Then, four years ago, I found a very easy bak kua recipe shared by a fellow blogging friend.  I tried it and loved it and have been making it all these years.

 

This recipe is so easy to make and trust me it is really good.  The above has about 1lb. of ground pork, I thought I might be able to share with my friends until my hubby spotted it.  He never dared to try the bak kua I made all these years (he thinks it was yucky so more for us) and suddenly he came and grabbed a piece to try and kept coming back for more and more.  Needless to say, any food that he set his eyes on, will be gone in no time.  He only left few pieces for my girls and I.