Merdeka Open House 2010: Tamarind Stew Pork with Daikon/ Chinese Radish

I have been participating in Merdeka Open House hosted by Babe in the City since the very beginning, so of course I cannot left this year out.  This year theme for Merdeka Open House 2010 is Food From Our Hearts.  A local dish that I love and is lovingly prepared by my loved ones and tell a story about it.  My mom is the cook in the family so of course I had to pick my mom's dish.  The most memorable dishes that I missed from my mom are Acar Hu (Pickle Fish) and this Tamarind Stew with daikon.  I really like her Acar Hu but I never made it before because of the limited fish choices over here.  This Tamarind Stew can be made with chicken which I did a while ago over here or pork which I did for this year open house.

I really have no idea where she learned this dish from or it is a pass it down recipe.  The taste just stick to me because I like the spiciness from the dried chili, the sourness from the tamarind juice, the sweetness from the brown sugar, the softness of the daikon, and the tenderness of the pork, it just blend so well together.  When I came over to the U.S. this was one of the dishes I missed so much that I had to call and ask my mom for her recipe so that I could enjoy this dish here.  I hardly cook this dish though because my hubby and daughters do not like Chinese radish or daikon at all, thus every time I cooked this, I was the only one who ate the daikon.  Well, actually more for me because I do enjoy the daikon very much.

When I was stewing this dish for this post, my husband came home from work and said something smell like shit in the house.  I had no idea why this dish smelled like shit to him because it smelled fragrant to me.  He had the hesitated look on his face.  But guess what, he ended out enjoying this dish, even came back for second and third.  See, never judge a dish when you haven't tasted it!

There is still time to participate in this event if you or your spouse is a Malaysian, just go to visit Babe KL's blog for more details.

Rose & Vanilla Spirals Cookies

I was asked for this recipe from a reader last week.  Actually, I made this cookie a while ago back in 2005 and it was out of experimentation.  And I never made it again until today because I had to test out the recipe first.  I made that cookie in 2005 with simply threw more of this here and there and see how it was created.  The original recipe used mint extract and green coloring or strawberry extract and red coloring but I ran out of strawberry extract thus had to use the closes substitute which was rose extract.  Because this rose extract was already red in color thus the coloring was omitted.

This cookie dough was a bit soft at room-temperature thus had to use the scraper to move the dough and helped along with the rolling.  The texture of this cookie is crispy and then sort of melt in the mouth in the end.

The picture of my old post cookies can be found here.  It has the mint version.

Steamed Eggs with Topping

I didn't know how to steam a smooth eggs before but now I know.  I learned it from watching the Chinese cooking show.  I have been watching the CCTV 4 "Everyday Food" Chinese cooking show and learned some cooking tips from there.  I learned this steamed eggs with topping from that show as well.  Have been seeing two different Chinese chefs making this dish with their variation of topping and find it doable!  I have not seen people steamed eggs this way before, we normally steamed it plain or with minced pork or with salted egg or thousand years old egg in Malaysia.  So, this way of serving is new to me.  The chefs guarantee this way of steaming eggs will produce a smooth and silky soft eggs and they made it seem so easy so of course I had to try it myself.

Well, they were right, it is really that easy to produce a smooth and soft steamed eggs.  Now I have a new dish to prepare for my family.  We all loved this easy dish and with the topping, I can even make it a one dish meal.  This dish is suitable for young and old alike as the steamed eggs make it easy to swallow.

Edda Drawings Update

Remember I was complaining about Edda's drawings not long ago?  Click on the highlighted words to see her previous drawings.  And two months later, she surprised me with her flowers drawing.  That was her first real drawing that she had shown me and of course I had to save it.  I was really surprise because it looked so beautiful to me.  I praised her for her excellent drawing and after that, she started to produce drawings after drawings and they were not abstract anymore.  Wow right?  Look at her drawings below, I think it was real impressive and what a fast change, I was worry about nothing.  She started to draw these at 3 years and 9 months old.

 

Flowers by Edda, July 17, 2010

Garden by Edda, July 25th, 2010

Family by Edda, August 3rd, 2010

Drawing by Edda, August 9, 2010

Pan-Fried Mahi-Mahi in Ginger Soy Sauce

This is a pretty common way of cooking fish in my household.  I created it almost 16 years ago.  I remembered when I first cooked this dish for my parents and sibling 15 years ago when I went back to visit them.  My dad asked me what was the topping?  Okay, I did it slightly different, I added chopped garlic and chopped ginger, the ginger were not in slices back then.  I was surprised back then that he would ask me such a question so til this day, I still remembered it.  The reason being my mom didn't cook him this dish before, so he didn't know what was the topping.  So I had to explain to him what it was and he was supposed to take some of the topping with the fish and eat it with the sauce and rice.  I thought it was real interesting.

Next time when I go back, I need to make an effort to cook for them again.  I didn't do that the last few times because it was too hot, also my girls were little back then.  I really need to make an effort to cook for them.

If you want the recipe, click here.  But instead of using dark soy sauce, I used soy sauce in this, thus the lighter in the sauce color.  I think I added too much water too, or you can thicken it with cornstarch water.  And of course, if you think the ginger amount is too much, use as little as you like.

Chinese Snow Fungus Herbal Soup

Snow fungus (雪耳) can also be called silver ear fungus (银耳) or white wood ear fungus ( 白木耳).  It is just like the name implied, it is a species of fungus, white in color that grows on dead attached and recently fallen branches of broadleaf trees.  It is widely available in the tropics and is cultivated for used in Chinese medicine and Chinese cuisine.  White fungus contains much iron, vitamin C, calcium and phosphorus. It is said to be effective in nourishing the lungs, healing dry cough and clearing heat in the lungs.  We used it in sweet and savory dishes.  Most common dessert would be white fungus stewed in rock sugar with red dates and dried longan.  But I liked mine in savory herbal soup.

I think I didn't boil mine long enough as my snow fungus was crunchy instead of soft.  Is there any other way to make the snow fungus soft besides soaking it in warm water and long simmering time?