White Fungus Mung Bean Sweet Dessert Soup (银耳绿豆甜品汤)

White fungus or white wood ear fungus (白木耳) or snow fungus (雪耳) or silver ear fungus (银耳), whatever you called it is a species of fungus that grows on dead tree.  This fungus is white with a gelatinous fruit bodies and said to have medicinal benefits.  In Chinese cuisine, we mostly cook it in sweet soup or herbal savory soup.  You can even stir-fry with it.

I wanted to make split mung bean soup because it was quick and easy as it cooked really fast without  much prior soaking required.  Then, I remembered I made a nagaimo mung bean soup before which made me think what else could I used instead of nagaimo that I had at home.  Which came out to be white fungus.  I thought the crunchy white fungus would go well with my mung bean soup and hence this soup was created.  Got to say, it was good!  What a great way to trick my girls into eating the white fungus.

Oh, I had lots of broken bits of white fungus in my packet and thus that was what I used for this soup.  If your white fungus are in pieces, just take one and soften it in water and then cut it into smaller pieces.

Stir Fried Chicken Breast with Chayote (佛手瓜炒鸡胸肉)

I first read about chayote at Tigerfish's blog in 2009.  Since then, she had been cooking up a few dishes with chayote.  I saw chayote in the Asian market often but I just didn't pick it up because it was unfamiliar to me.  Also, I was afraid that my family would not like it.  Finally, almost 2 years since I last learned about it, I decided to pick it up at my last Asian market's shopping.

Chayote also known as 佛手瓜 (Buddha hand melon) or 合掌瓜 (closed palm melon) in Mandarin and can be eaten raw or cooked.  The fruit has very mild flavor and it has a crisp and crunchy bite to it.  It doesn't have to be peeled, just wash it clean with water, cut into half and scoop out the seeds.  Then, thinly sliced it for salad or just slice it however you want for the dish that you are intended to cook.  Chayote is rich in amino acids and vitamin C and have diuretic, cardiovascular and anti-inflammatory properties.  It is also very affordable.  It only cost me about 38 cent each.

Steamed Pumpkin Kuih 2 (蒸南瓜糕点)

This makes a delicious breakfast, afternoon snack, dessert, supper or even lunch.  With the abundance of pumpkin this holidays season, why not give this a try?  I used my old recipe here but this time I used fresh pumpkin to make this.  I steamed the cut pumpkin for 30 minutes and then just chopped it into small pieces with my cleaver.  You can squeeze some water out before adding into the rice flour batter for firmer texture.

Since the steamed pumpkin contained more water, the resulted pumpkin kuih is moist and soft unlike the steamed taro kuih even though the methods are the same.  Serve this with crispy fried shallots, chopped scallion and sriracha sauce.

The undress pumpkin kuih

Halloween 2011

My two princesses!

Got dress and ready to head out

She said this is how I'm going to say trick or treating at the door

My Experience with Common Warts and Curcumin

I found an interesting connection or an epiphany recently that I wanted to share with you.  On and off I have been a common warts sufferer for years.  But the most I had was about 1 or 2 warts in one hand and it would disappear after a year or so.  Common warts are small lesions on the skin, usually on the top part of your back fingers or under your fingernails that are caused by HPV, or human papilloma virus.  It is harmless but might leave an unsightly view on your fingers.

In the beginning of this year, I found warts on my fingers again, it started with one, and then it gotten worst and spread to other fingers on my hand.  I had a total of 6 warts on my fingers and 2 more under my fingernails and it looked utterly awful.  I was pretty good at hiding my ugly warts and tough it out until I went to see my OB/GYN (I had this for 4-5 months now), I showed her my hands and of course she recommended the over-the-counter freezing thing to remove it but she said it would be painful.  She said it would never go away.  But I knew it would go away on its own since I had it on and off for years before this.  Just that this time I got it bad, really bad that even I felt disgusted looking at it, it was like another living things attached to my fingers.  Remember during this time, my thyroid hormone was out of whack, I had low metabolism and I believed my immune system was pretty bad as well.  It was still as bad when I went to see my family physician 3 months later, I showed her my warts too and she suggested I try duct tape.  I didn't have duct tape at home at that time and so I didn't bother with it.

Happy Halloween!!!

I want to wish my readers a Happy Halloween!!  Have a safe and fun time trick-or-treating!!  And keep the kids warm!

These spider cookies are very easy to make.  All you need are some round shape cookies, thin pretzels, Nutella/ peanut butter (I used Nutella) and mini M&M or raisins for the eyes.   Take one round cookie, spread it with Nutella/ peanut butter as a glue, then top with 8 broken pretzels as legs.  Spread the other half of cookie with more Nutella/ peanut butter, glue it together.  Take one M&M or raisin, dip with some Nutella/ peanut butter and glue it on top of the cookie as eye, finish the other eye.  There you have it!  Evy took this as her afternoon snack at school and she had a fun time eating it.

Korean Style Spicy Chicken (韩国辣子鸡)

This is one fingers licking good chicken!  Spicy, sweet and sticky, it will beg you to have more.  Very suitable for any party that you are throwing or bring it to a potluck party.  I believe it would be a hit!  I took a short-cut on this as I had some leftover fried chicken wings and drumettes.  If you don't have the leftover store-bought fried chicken wings, just make your own.  Marinate the wings and drumettes with salt and pepper.  Coat it with corn starch or corn flour and deep-fry in hot oil until cook.

As for the sauce, if you like it spicier, you are welcome to add the Korean red pepper powder or substitute it with cayenne pepper powder.  That would be an extra kick for you!

Sardines Fried Brown Rice (沙丁鱼炒糙米饭)

Sardine?  Have you been eating enough of this?  I certainly not!  But I would love to include it more into our diets.  Sardine in tomato sauce or spicy tomato sauce is very popular in South East Asia, I remembered my mom cooked it for us pretty often, according to her, it was packed with calcium and thus good for our bone.  Sardine is actually another power food because not only it's good to our bone, it's good to our heart and overall health as well.  It has the most concentrated sources of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, which have been found to lower triglycerides and cholesterol levels.  It's an excellent source of Vitamin B-12 (promote hearth health), Vitamin D (aid in calcium absorption), phosphorus (strengthen bone matrix), selenium (antioxidant), protein and niacin (vitamin B3).

You can also buy sardine packed in water or olive oil.  I just preferred it packed in tomato sauce, tastier to me.  Anyway, for this recipe I recommended one packed in tomato sauce as the flavor goes well with the chili sauce.  If you don't have chili sauce, you can substitute it with ketchup.  This is definitely one bowl of healthy and nutrients packed brown rice!  Hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

Dried Bread Snack

Before picture

I had a thing for dried bread.  I remembered when I was little, my mom used to buy the dried bread that was hanging at the back of a motorcycle from our Indian bread delivery man.  I remembered liking it and like my mom, I loved to dunk it in coffee.  I published my recipe before in 2005, in which I spread it with butter, top it with sugar and even Milo before baking.  This time, I made it healthier without any added butter nor sugar.  It really made a healthy and crunchy snack.

Bibimbap/ Korean Mixed Rice

Bibimbap is a Korean mixed meal or mixed rice, either serve warm or cold.  Usually consists of few banchan (Korean side dishes), raw or fried egg, beef (or pork/chicken) and mixed with gochujang (Korean red pepper paste), sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds.   "Dolsot Bibimbap" is mixed rice in a hot stone pot.  The stone pot will keep the rice warm.  I had some leftover from the Korean meal that I prepared earlier so I made bibimbap out of it.  I didn't add any gochujang, sesame oil or sesame seeds because my banchan and the dak-galbi already flavored with those.  

 

Mixed well together

It did not look too appetizing when mixed together but it was delicious!  To me, the vegetarian bibimbap that consists of all the veggies side dishes, mixed with gochujang, sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds is actually quite healthy.

Godiva Coffee

This post is part of a Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with Godiva Coffee.  I received two bags of Godiva Coffee's latest seasonal flavors - Pumpkin Spice which is featuring here and Caramel pecan Bark, which is available nationwide for a limited time only.

These indulgent flavors are inspired by Godiva's most popular chocolates and crafted with high quality, medium-roasted, 100% Arabica beans for a rich, smooth taste.  Check out their website www.godivacoffee.com for exciting new ideas and recipes for serving up your fall-inspired coffee or incorporate it into your fall festivities.

I am sharing here a method that Malaysian loved in their coffee.  I used a fat-free condensed milk here (you don't have to use fat-free) and you can add half and half to make it richer.  This Godiva's Pumpkin Spice coffee is rich and smooth with a hint of pumpkin, really reminded me of fall and fall festivities.

My Experience with Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism, a medical term that was unfamiliar to me until recently.  When I went for my yearly physical check up at my OB/GYN office, I would request her to get me some blood tests done, such as cholesterol and glucose.  I asked her whether there was any other test that she could do for me and she suggested a thyroid (TSH) test, which I gladly accepted.  The result of my first thyroid test was on the high end of normal based on the chart but since I looked fine and my cholesterol and glucose tests came out normal, my OB said I probably shouldn't be worried about it and just go back for a follow up test in 3 months.   Since she phased it like that I didn't do much to change.  Then, about 2 months down, I started to gain weight, even though I had been killing myself at the gym.  So, I started to do a little more research on hypothyroidism (under active thyroid) and started to take my BBT (basal body temperature) every morning upon waking up.  The normal BBT should read 97.5'F and above.  If you were measured consistently below 97.5'F, from 2nd day of your menstrual cycle up to 5 days later.  You might be suffered from hypothyroidism (low metabolism).  My BBT temp. were consistently lower and in addition to gaining weight, I started to feel sore joints on my hands and legs (I thought it might be due to my stair master and track mile exercises that I did in the gym).  My hands would feel cold to the touch even though my daughter's hands were warm to the touch. I started to think I might have hypothyroidism!!!  Even though I didn't have most of the other beginning symptoms.

My Ob/Gyn office called me for the follow up blood test 3 months later and I went.  The blood test was much higher than my previous one (much higher than the normal range) and she referred me to see my family doctor.  I started to get serious about this and did a lot of reading on the web.  I came to a conclusion that my diet was messing up my thyroid!  First let me explain what is thyroid.  Thyroid is a small butterfly shape gland (under Adam's apple) in your throat that makes hormones called thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) that your body needs.  These hormones help control the function of almost all of your body's cells, tissues, organs such as heart, brain, and skin.  The thyroid stores iodine from food and uses it to create T4 and T3.  Not enough T4 made will signal your pituitary gland to release more Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). Therefore, high TSH equal to low T3 and T4 which means under active thyroid or hypothyroidism.  Under active thyroid also means low metabolism.  To learn more about hypothyroidism, symptoms and causes of hypothyroidism, read here and here.  Some of the common symptoms are unexplained weight gain, swollen face, hair loss, constipation, irregular period, heavier period, memory loss, joint pain, brittle nails, and fatigue.  After reading a lot of the articles, I came to the conclusion that I had iodine deficiency, even though it was common around the world but very unlikely in the U.S.  Why?  Because I stopped using iodized salt 4-5 years ago when I switched to kosher salt and sea salt because Food Network chefs use these salts in their shows.  Little did I know that my body was screwed by watching the Food Network and all the food magazines out there that listed kosher/sea salt as the salt used instead of iodized salt.  Another reason was I mostly cooked at home and in Asian cooking, we used a lot of soy sauce, oyster sauce, bottle sauces and fish sauce instead of salt.  And all these sauces were not supplemented with iodine.  My table salt was sea salt without iodized and the cooking salt that I used was kosher salt without iodized (I found out that you can actually buy iodized kosher and sea salt now, so please do so if you want to use kosher salt and sea salt, go check your label).  I hardly eat crustacean (shrimp and crab) and egg yolk and I didn't supplement with multivitamins and minerals.  So, where the heck was I going to get enough iodine in my diet? 

Turmeric Brown Rice (黄姜糙米饭)

If you look through the prevention and health magazines these days, you would notice that turmeric has always been a spot light as one of the super food.  Turmeric has been said to be antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, stomach-soothing (prevent indigestion), reduce blood-clot (protect against the heart), protect the liver from certain toxins, aids in treatment for arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, increase metabolism and so on.  And the active ingredient that provided turmeric with all these health benefits lies in a compound called curcumin.  Turmeric is also high in fiber, iron, potassium, manganese and small amount of folate, niacin, zinc, vitamin B6 and choline. You can read in more detail through this link here.

Turmeric has been used for thousand of years in India and China as a medicinal treatment for certain illness and also in cooking.  In India, it has also been used as dye or coloring.  Therefore, the downside of this spice to me is that it stain.  If you accidentally touch it, it can stain your fingernails, but it will come off after a few days.  If it stain your countertop, try cleaning it baking soda and water solution or bleach or wipe it with Magic Eraser sponge.  If you cook your rice like me with a rice cooker, it can stain your rice cooker as well.

I read that small amount used in cooking should have not much impact as a cure for certain diseases, but I think as a prevention it should be alright.  If you want to take it as a supplement (as with any supplement), you need to consult with your doctor first as turmeric has to be taken in caution with pregnant women, people with gallstones, stomach ulcers, bile duct obstruction, serious heart and liver conditions. 

I have a friend whose mother (who is Indonesian) drink her daily milk with a teaspoon of turmeric powder mixed in.  When I first heard it, I was like that was a great way to incorporate turmeric in your daily diet for prevention but it was not for me as I don't drink milk.  And then while researching on turmeric, I chance upon this recipe, it is a turmeric milk recipe for cough, colds and sore throat!  Wow, isn't it interesting and it is said to be an ancient remedy for treating cough, colds and sore throat. 

As for me, I finally thought of a way of adding turmeric in my daily diet, that is to add it in my brown rice.  In South East Asia, we have a common turmeric coconut rice that is served with chicken curry or rendang.  But I have limit my coconut milk intake due to its high fat content.  So, I gladly omitted the coconut milk so that I can have turmeric brown rice every weekdays.  I normally eat out on weekends.  I think my girls are pretty adaptable, they were fine when I switched to all brown rice, they were fine when I added garlic and ginger in cooking my brown rice and they are even fine with this yellow color turmeric brown rice.

Korean Fish Patties/ Saeng Son Jon

 

When I saw this recipe in a Korean cookbook that I borrowed from the library, I found it intriguing.  I never thought of adding chopped fish into a pan-fry eggs before.  But after I gave it a thought, actually Chinese also have our version, we called it "Egg Foo Yong", but instead of fish, we used shrimps and BBQ pork.  Since this recipe intriguing me, of course I wanted to see how it would taste like and made it myself.  Chopped fish went so well in fried eggs and this fish patties were actually scrumptious.  But I wouldn't recommend to eat it often as it was a little oily, as with all fried food.  Later I asked my elder girl whether she knew what was in the patties that she loved so much and she had no clue.  After I told her it was fish, she was like ewww.  Well, I didn't know why that was her respond because she is not a fish hater.  I guess if you want to encourage or trick your little fish hater to eat fish, you can make this dish.  Hahaha...

Making an all Korean meal took a lot of work.  So I actually served this with Belacan sweet potato leaves and mint egg drop soup.

Mungbean Sprout MuChim/ SukJu MuChim

Another simple Korean banchan (side dish) that I liked.  When I started to make Korean food, I realized why their food are considered healthy.  They eat lots of banchan which were mainly vegetable either pickled or boiled and seasoned with mainly salt, sesame oil, sesame seeds, red pepper powder, minced garlic and light soy sauce.  As you know, garlic, sesame seeds, sesame oil, red pepper powder are all considered good for us, so I could see generally Korean food is healthier.  This recipe works well with spinach and soybean sprout too.  Just par-boiled the spinach and squeeze the water out before adding the seasonings, but omit the green onion.
 

Tamarind Chicken/ Assam Ayam

This is a variation of the Babi Assam that I tried many years ago.  Since I am going to cut down on buying pork these days and just stick to chicken or turkey from now on, unless that is a particular pork dish that I really wanted to cook, I will refrain from buying pork.  There is no special reason just that I want to switch to my original diet plan before I started slacking and buying more pork few years back.

The Babi Assam kept calling me as I remembered I liked the sauce and flavor a lot.  So, I attempted to recreate this dish with drumsticks and with the ingredients I have at home.  This sauce went so well with rice even my girls enjoyed this slightly spicy sourish sauce with their rice.  If you want to cook something different with chicken, give this dish a try!

Korean Tofu BuChim/ Dubu BuChim

This recipe caught my eyes when I was browsing Aeri's Kitchen for some Korean recipe ideas.  It caught my eyes because it looked exactly like a tofu dish my friend served at her house recently.  So, I added this dish because it was so simple to make and I have the organic firm tofu at home.  This tofu buchim didn't fail me, the sauce was delicious and did I say it was so easy to make?  Give it a try if you are having a lazy night and want a quick and delicious side dish for your dinner.  Oh, I liked Aeri's website for Korean food as she also made the trouble of making videos of her preparing the dishes.  I really kudo to those who did the extra step.

Korean Spicy Chicken/ Dak-Galbi

I didn't know what gotten into me, I just felt like having a Korean meal.  When I got that planned, I didn't know what I gotten myself into.  I made three out of four banchan (side dish) before and everything seem simple on the surface.  Only when I started working on it, only did I realize that it was actually quite a lot of work when making it all in a day, like slicing the Korean radish and scallions.  Then, the different methods of cooking the anchovies and bean sprouts.  Anyway, to cut it short, I spent the whole afternoon preparing and washing and ended with a sore back, that's mean I stood for too long.  Hahaha....  I have to admit, I like to take my time in the kitchen, that's why I cannot work in a restaurant setting, I would be so slow that all the customers would walk away and I would be left stressful. 

For the banchan recipes, I provided the links below:

Korean Scallion Salad (Pa-Muchim)

Mu- Saengchae (Spicy Korean Radish)

Myulchi Bokkeum (Stirfried Anchovies)

Mungbean Sprout MuChim/ SukJu MuChim 

Stir Fried Yam Leaves

My family loved yam leaves and sweet potato leaves.  So when shopping in the Asian market, I often would buy this veggie.  Usually I would cook it with the shrimp paste in soy bean oil but today I wanted to try something different.  I wanted to cook it without the paste and just seasoned it with some fish sauce and fragrant it with bird eye chili and garlic.  You might be familiar with this way of cooking too.  I had to cut the stem with kitchen scissor after I done cooking for easy swallowing.

This picture did not do the veggie justice.  It definitely taste better than it looks.

Chinese Scallion Ginger Chicken (葱姜油鸡)

This recipe was inspired by a Chinese cooking show that I watched, called 美女私房菜.  Her recipe called for cooking the chicken in a spice soy sauce broth and then deep-fry the chicken until crispy before adding the scallion ginger fragrant sauce on top.  I bookmarked it because it seem so interesting.  My chance came when I had some leftover oven roasted chicken wings and drumettes.   While I was thinking of what to make of this leftover wings, her recipe came to mind.  So, I pan-fried my wings and drumettes and then cooked this scallion ginger fragrant and put it on top of the chicken to serve.  I truly loved this scallion ginger fragrant sauce and it can easily be used to top with fried fish, deep-fried pork ribs, shrimps, or anything you can think of.  My attempt at recreating a leftover to another new dish. 

Stir-Fried Romaine Lettuce Heart with Tofu

I prefer the romaine lettuce heart which sold three in a packet instead of the romaine lettuce sold individually.  I found it more suitable for stir-frying as it hold it's shape better and provided more crunch to the dish.  This veggie has to be cooked quickly to preserve the green color or else it will turn black and it will look unappetizing.

For vegetarian, just omit the dried small shrimps and add the tofu for protein.  You can also read more about dried small shrimps here.  It has calcium and magnesium which said to prevent osteoporosis, reduce blood cholesterol level, regulate the blood flow and help in hypertension.  We only use a little bit of this in each dish.

Braised Black Vinegar Chicken (红烧黑醋鸡)

I created this dish because I saw a Chinese food show that talked about the many benefits of consuming black vinegar. Black vinegar originated in China and then spread across Asia.  It is made from fermenting grains such as rice, barley, millet, wheat and sorghum.  My Chinese friend introduced me to Chinkiang black vinegar (鎮江香醋) which is made from fermented glutinous rice.  Black vinegar made from rice has a slightly sweet and more complicated flavor.  Chinese has been using it as a marinade, in braising, as dipping sauce and as a stir-frying sauce.  In Japan, a lighter version of black vinegar called "Kurozu" is bring sold as a health tonic.  One in eight Japanese drinks a small amount of black vinegar daily because of its health benefits.

So, what are the benefits and what's so great about black vinegar?  Black vinegar contains acetic acid which can prevent cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension (lower blood pressure), coronary heart disease and stroke.  It also contains citric acid which helps to increase body energy and metabolism.  It is high in antioxidants and contains many essential amino acids that help to repair muscle tissue, balance the body's pH level and to heal everyday ailments.

Since I am not sure I can drink this like the Japanese, but I can certainly use more of it in my cooking.  Now I am thinking is that why in Chinese confinement, we have a black vinegar pork knuckle soup for woman who just gave birth.  I drank bowl and bowl of this sweeten black vinegar soup during my confinement.  Anyway, how did you use your black vinegar?   I used it in my Bean Threads Noodle too.

Pan-Fried Lemon Pepper Salmon

I have not pan-fry salmon for ages.  I always took the least time consuming method by baking it in the oven.  After a while, I guess I miss the crispy crust of pan-frying salmon.  This salmon dish is super duper easy especially if you already have the McCormick Lemon & Pepper seasoning salt in your cupboard.  I saw this seasoning in my pantry and realized that I hardly used this seasoning.  So, I took it out to be used in my salmon.  The salmon fillets that I bought was without skin.  So, in order to get the crispy crust that I was looking for, I patted both sides of my salmon with cornstarch.  And this got the job done.  I served it up with my Asian style stir-fried broccoli.  Or you can do my American style microwave butter broccoli, even easier.

Pear Preserves Cake

One of the reasons I made the pear preserves was I wanted to make this cake.  This cake was soft and moist and well received by my girls.  In fact, I am going to make this cake again.  I could taste the pear preserves in the cake.  The dried pineapple that I added increased the cake sweetness.  I would omit the dried pineapple next time I made this cake as I wanted to taste the pear alone without any competition from other flavor.  The dried pineapple sank to the bottom of the cake pan while baking and sort of glue to the pan and resulted the finished cake got stuck to the pan.  Hence, I advice you to line the pan with parchment paper if dried pineapple is used.

You can definitely substitute pear preserves with apple sauce or apple butter.  It should come out equally good even though I have not tried it before.

Pear Preserves

I sampled a pear preserves at my friend's house and really liked it.  Since Bartlett pear is in season now, I would love to make it myself.  I did a search on the web and found some recipes at cooks.com.  It gave me a general idea of how it was made.  What I liked best about this preserves is no pectin required.  For my recipe, I used less sugar (as I found the American version was too sweet), added some ground cinnamon and made it in my bread maker.  Direction for stove top is provided as well for those who don't own a bread maker.

Both my girls loved it.  We spread it on crackers and toasted bagels.  Yummy!  I even used it to make cake.  The recipe for Pear Preserves Cake will be coming up soon!

Merdeka Open House 2011: Makan Through Malaysia: Klang Bak Kut Teh

Bak Kut Teh or 肉骨茶 or "meat bone tea" is a mixture of complex Chinese herbs, garlic and spices pair with pork ribs and simmer for hours.  Tenderloins, pork intestines, mushrooms, fried tofu puffs are sometimes added.  A handful of lettuce would be added into the soup just before serving.  It is believed that Hokkien preferred saltier food and thus more soy sauce was added and created the darker soup base.  Another variety is Teochew which has the lighter soup base and more white pepper is added (Singaporean seem to prefer this).  As for Cantonese, they loved a stronger flavored soup by adding more medicinal herbs into their bak kut teh.   The well known condiments for bak kut teh are red chili, chopped garlic in light or dark soy sauce.  Chinese fried dough stick or yu tiao can be ordered as side.  Hot water and tea would be offered along side to wash down the oily broth soup.

The history of Bak Kut Teh as quoted in wikipedia, "Bak kut teh was introduced to Malaya in the 19th century by Chinese coolies and workers of Hokkien origin. The dish is reported to supplement the meager diet of port coolies and as a tonic to boost their health. The Teochews came later and the main visual difference between the Hokkien and Teochew version of bak kut teh is that the Hokkiens use dark soy sauce and thus the soup base is characteristically darker in colour." 

Klang Bak Kut Teh or 巴生肉骨茶 is a popular Malaysian breakfast.  I remembered my dad would drive us all the way to Klang for its Bak Kut Teh every Sunday morning.  The place that we frequented many years ago situated behind a Chinese temple (I later learned that it was a Hokkien Association Building) in an enclosed open area.  It was run by a husband and wife team.  I am not sure whether it is still there or not after almost two decades (can anyone confirm?).  The business was good back then and it served the Hokkien version of Bak Kut Teh (one with dark soy sauce).   My dad would bring his own tea leaves.  And it was our ritual to watch my dad carefully used the hot boiling water provided to clean the tea pot and each tea cups before pouring us our tea.  My dad would order the fried Yu Tiao (Chinese fried dough sticks) for us to dip into the soup and we would be really disappointed if they ran out of yu tiao as it was our favorite.  Another thing we liked about this place was they served with dark sweet soy sauce along with soy sauce for the chili and chopped garlic as condiment.  We fell in love with the sweet soy sauce condiment and even now I want my bak kut teh with sweet soy sauce.  Here, I served up my Klang Bak Kut Teh as I remembered it, with fried yu tiao, chili, chopped garlic in sweet soy sauce.  Alas!  I forgot to prepare a cup of green tea to go with it!

I am gladly submitting this post to Babe in the City ,who hosts the yearly Merdeka Open House on August 31st.  Feel free to click through the below link for more information.  All Malaysians, local or abroad are eligible to participate.  If not, go there on the 31st for the full roundup feast! 

Stir-Fried Okra/ Lady's Fingers

Okra or Lady's Fingers as Malaysian called it is often found in stir-frying, in curry, in young tau foo or simply steam it whole.  But in the US, it is often found in gumbo or dip in batter and deep-fried.  When the seed pods are cooked, it produces "goo" or slime.  To prevent sliminess, you can keep the pod intact.  I actually enjoyed the slime and loved this veggie.  Do you like okra too?

I am sharing an easy way for stir-frying okra.  Ingredients are easily available in the Asian supermarket.  This method is without using the shrimp paste in oil and thus different from my previous method.

Easy Nai Pak

Sharing with you my easy vegetable dish that I cooked at home.  It was so common that I believed a lot of you might have made it at your own kitchen.  This was how I made mine.  First you wash your vegetable, then you boil a pot of water, add in a dash of salt and a little cooking oil.  When boiling, add in batches of the veggie and parboil for a minute.  Dish out and place on a plate and finish the rest of the veggie.  After you are finished, pour some oyster sauce on top and garnish it with fried shallots to serve.  Mix well before eating.  Super duper easy right?  You can find this veggie at most of the Asian supermarkets.  I loved the dark green color so I often buy this veggie.

Stir-Fried Garlic Chive Flowers with Frozen Tofu (韮菜炒凍豆腐)

I saw a frozen tofu post at Food 4 Tots and was so intriguing that I just had to try it out.  Frozen tofu was new to me and after I tried it, I really liked it.  Frozen tofu is also known as Thousand Layer Tofu (千葉豆腐) and is pretty common in Taiwan.  Simply drain the tofu, wrap in cling wrap and into a ziplock bag and freeze. Just thaw overnight in the refrigerator and squeeze out the excess water before using.  The resulted texture was spongy and porous as ice crystals develop within the tofu when freeze.  Thus resulting in the formation of large cavities that seem to be layered.  The spongy thaw frozen tofu can absorb the sauce or marinade really well, therefore the end result was more flavorful than the normal tofu.  I was sold at first try and hope you will try it too.  The nutritional value of tofu is not lost if you freeze it.  What a great way to store the tofu that near or just pass the expiry date. ;-)

This is a picture of my thawed and water squeezed out tofu, preparing for cutting.  Really looked like a sponge huh?

I served up my frozen tofu with garlic chive flowers or kucai hua as we Malaysian called it.   You can easily spot garlic chive flowers at the Asian supermarket.  It has a distinct flavor and most kids don't like it.  So, one woman was surprised when she saw that my girls ate this.  Well, they were trained to eat Asian food when born, so to me it's good for them.

Singapore Chili Crabs

Just sharing a picture of my Singapore Chili Crabs.  I added the "tang hoon" or glass vermicelli to soak up the sauce (too lazy to prepare mantou).  However I added it too early and thus it was all broken out.  I won't be sharing this recipe as it was not perfected.  I had better Singapore Chili Crabs at my Singapore friend's house.  One of the reasons of the broken glass vermicelli was I did a taste test and found it lacking and thus I had to add a few other things and therefore more stirring.

However, my two girls enjoyed this crabs a lot.  I guess they didn't know the real taste or what it supposed to taste like so they couldn't compare and thought this was good.  It was a good lesson for them to learn how to eat crab on their own.  Edda was good at using a toothpick to pick up the crab meat from the claws and this mommy happily enjoying her crabs too.

Looking forward to teaching them how to peel the shrimp shells too, that should be easier than crab.

Farmers' Market Picked

We went to a Farmers' Market at Old Colorado City recently and I enjoyed the experience.  I picked up these round summer squash which was called "Geode", it was light green and tasted like zucchini.  The round shape makes it suitable to sandwich with your burger.  I also picked up some sweet yellow onions and yellow carrots.  The easiest and tasty way to enjoy these vegetable is by grilling them or roasting it in the oven.  I took out some chicken tenders and seasoned it with some extra virgin olive oil, salt, rosemary, peppers, and sage.  I also added some yellow and red bell peppers.  Thus far, I have only seen "Geode" selling in the farmers' market here.  From my experience, don't pick the big one as it will have bigger seeds.

Custard Raisin Buns

The inspiration from creating this custard buns came from chatting with a Chinese chef whose friend owns a baking store up in Denver.  He told me his friend used custard powder in making his bread and said I should try it.  I have used custard powder in cookies and Malaysian kuih (dessert) before but never in bread/buns so I was up to the challenge.  I added raisins for the extra sweetness so that this bun could be enjoyed as it without extra jam or preserves.

The custard powder gave it a light yellow hue and smelled fragrant.  This bun turned out soft and fluffy with extra sweetness from the raisins.  Oh, if you are wondering why my middle bun look like that, I actually wanted to try something new but failed.  I cut the four sides of the bun with a scissor when proofed just for experiment and realized that I should cut it before it was proofed.  Since cutting the bun sort of deflated the bun slightly.  Well learned a lesson here.

Sambal Fried Tofu/ Sambal Fried Beancurd

This dish paired well with rice or coconut rice (nasi lemak), the spiciness from this dish would get you going and asked for extra rice.  Cut the extra firm tofu into pieces, pat dry and pan-fried in oil until golden brown.  Then, prepare your favorite sambal sauce and add in the fried tofu.  Sorry, I won't be sharing with you my  sambal sauce recipe.  But I am sure you already have your favorite sambal recipe that you cooked for your family that could be used in this dish.  I also tried it with pan-fried hard boiled eggs which was equally delicious.

I used a spoon to scoop off the chili and onion from the tofu before passing it to my girls.  I gave them 3 pieces each which they finished it all with glasses of water.  Not bad I would say because this sambal was really spicy, even I was sweating from eating this.  I think they have discovered that spicy food are delicious thus they have developed the tolerance for it.

No Bake Cheesecake Cookie Cup

I made baked cheesecake cups before back in the old days.  Today I wanted to try the no bake version.  I had some ginger snaps in my pantry and it worked well as a base for my cheesecake cookie cups.  I used a fat free blueberry nonfat yogurt which I was hoping for a light tint of blue hue for this cheesecake cup, but guess not.  The yogurt itself was fairly white in color and when mixed with the cream cheese mixture, well as you can see, the end color result of this cheesecake cookie cup.

This recipe yields 9 cheesecake cups and feel free to decorate the top with fresh blueberry or blueberry preserved for colors contrast.  This is one easy dessert to make and kids friendly too.