Monday, July 28, 2014
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Thai Food in Malaysia
I don't know why but whenever I go back to Malaysia, I want to eat the Pandan chicken at a Thai restaurant. Perhaps the Thai restaurants in the U.S. do not sell Pandan chicken. Sure, I can attempt to make it here but I never try that because I can only get the frozen pandan leaves here. Guess, I am not really craving for it but it is just something that I want to eat whenever I go back. Do you have something that you must eat when you visit Malaysia?
Steamed whole fish in sourish sauce, what a treat! Living in Colorado, we are so used to the frozen fillets, we hardly have excess to fresh fish unless we want to pay a lot for it. So, steamed whole fish or fried whole fish was such a luxury for us.
Thai Pineapple Fried Rice, Kang Kong Belacan, Egg Fu Yong for my girls as they loved fried eggs. Oh, the water is not free in Malaysia, expect to pay 50 cent or more in any of the restaurant. I have cut sugary soft drink from our diet, and the best healthy drink for us is water. But sometimes, I will let them have fresh fruit juice instead of water. But most restaurants charged ridiculous prices for their drinks, you can actually order a plate of small dish with just few dollars more.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
More Malaysian Food
Alkaline Kuih (Tee Ya kuih?). On this trip back, I wanted to try this kuih because my late grandma always made it during the Chinese New Year. Hers was yellow in color and she would made a big rectangular size tray and we had it throughout the CNY. She would also pan-fried it to eat it with soy sauce three-layers pork. I wasn't too crazy about this back then, but this kuih managed to stick inside my memory and it was something that I wanted to revisit again. My dad also missed his mom's kuih and would go to eat this occasionally. I was happy that I got to eat it again but somehow it didn't taste quite the same.
The alkaline kuih was served with this braised three layers pork.
This fried lor bak was delicious!!
Fried broad rice noodle with eggy sauce (wor tan hor)
Hokkein noodle, just got to have this at least once when we go back. (sorry the picture turned out a bit blurry)
Wednesday, July 09, 2014
Malaysia Yong Tau Fu
When I went back last month to Malaysia, one of the food I wanted to eat was Yong Tau Fu. My girls enjoyed this tremendously too, they ate whatever I gave them.
My mom said it used to sell for 70 cent each but now the price has increased to $1.20 each. Since I haven't eaten this in a while, it tasted delicious just liked I used to remember. My wish was granted thanks to my dearest parents.
Nothing beat the Malaysian food, so many things to eat and try. I didn't get to eat all the food of course but I tried to eat what I really missed the most. I will have more delicious food pictures that I ate to share with you, some fancy, some just what I had missed. Stay tuned!
Monday, June 02, 2014
Chili Black Bean Chicken
Sigh, it does come at a time when I have no idea what to cook anymore. I like to try new things, cook new food instead of the same old same old. Furthermore, I can't post the same recipe again in my blog so I had to be creative! Colorful super-food will always be my priority in preparing my food, the above is just a usual home cook meal.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Lemony Lemon Brownies
When I saw this recipe shared on my Facebook page, I just had to make it. My girls loved anything lemony such as my Lemon Sables, Crispy Lemon Cookies and Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins. Needless to say, I have been making lots of lemony dessert lately. This brownie got my girls approval too, is a change from the usual chocolate brownie, but I like the fudgy brownie better. *wink*
I modified the methods in making this lemon brownie from the original version because I remembered I only needed a hand whisk to make the best brownie ever recipe. So, I improvised and experimented with it and glad to announce that it worked! So, you are free to use my lazy method or follow the original recipe. I also cut down on the sugar and changed the glaze recipe, as the glaze recipe provided by the original poster yields too much runny glaze and hence resulted my brownie looking like the above.
Monday, May 19, 2014
Cocoa Almond Butter
As you know, I have been making my own jam/preserves and learning that making homemade nut butter is also very easy hence I set it out to give it a try. My girls loved Nutella so I added cocoa powder into my experiment. It didn't taste very good at first so I tried adding some brown sugar and gave it a taste. It also felt a bit thick so I added a little peanut oil to make it smoother and the above was the result of it.
We really liked it and when I am out of the almonds, I might try it with peanuts since peanuts is a lot cheaper. I bet you can experiment with different nut for a different nut butter taste as well. Happy trying!
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Hijiki Seaweed Cold Side
I have to eat seaweed regularly to keep my Hypothyroidism under control. 2-3 times a week is sufficient for me. The most regular seaweed that I consume is wakame, cook in miso tofu soup. I also add wakame when I prepare my kimchi ramen, any chance I have for seaweed, I would use it. When I am too lazy to make the miso soup, I will switch to Hijiki seaweed since this can be prepared pretty easily. Right now, I would do a blood test once a year when I visit my OB/GYN to see if there is any changes. I noticed that if the reason of your hypothyroidism is the lack of iodine, you can easily modify your diet to keep it under control. For me, the regular consumption of seaweed really helped. It might not be for everyone but it works for me.
Wednesday, May 07, 2014
Turmeric Spiced Chicken
This dish was me trying on something new. I was inspired by Phong Hong's Chicken Garam Kunyit and wanted to give it a try. But knowing me, I didn't go and shop for the ingredients but just made use or substitute what I had at home, this dish came out looking nothing like the post that I was inspired with. I think using the chicken breast in my part was a mistake as the meat didn't turn out juicy and tender. For this dish, the skinless and boneless chicken thigh would be much preferred. Oh well... Certainly learnt from my mistake. I still want to thanks Phong Hong for the recipe though! :-)
Friday, May 02, 2014
Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins with Lemon Glaze
I don't know, I love to buy lemon when it's on sale. And if it is 3 for $1, I would buy 3 instead of 1 even though I only needed one. Often time when that happen, I have no idea what to do with the lemons. I just realized that I can just cut it into slices and put it into an air-tight container in the fridge and take each slice out for use in my water (to make it alkaline).
Anyway, for these 2 lemons that I was left with, I decided to make Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins. I created this recipe because I want to make it into a recipe that is easy to make and less thing to wash. No electric appliance needed, just a bowl and a hand whisk! It turned out soft, lemony and delicious, even my hubby that normally doesn't eat sweet had 3 in a day! Of course the rest my girls walloped it up, now I will need to buy more lemons to make more of these yummies.
Soft and fluffy with the flavor of lemon and the crunch from the poppy seeds!
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Baby Bok Choy Kimchi
When I went to a Korean BBQ buffet, there was one vegetable kimchi that I really liked and that was bok choy kimchi. I was surprised at how good it tasted and I always want to make it in the back of my mind. This is a short cut version as no glutinous rice paste was used as well as no food processor. So, no onion, no apple and no pear. As you know, I am famous for the short-cut version. However, adding fruit and onion would provide additional sweetness to the dish. I heard that the glutinous rice paste is to give the kimchi extra shine. Anyway, I am too lazy to make those today so I am settle with this.
Verdict: I would try adding an apple or sweet pear next time. I bet it would taste better with the additional sweetness from the fruit. I would probably use 1 Tbsp. of fish sauce first and if it is not salty enough, at least you can add more and season to taste. Otherwise, if it is too salty, then it would be harder to adjust, just have to eat it with lots of rice.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Homemade Strawberries Jam without Pectin
Hey, it's Spring, with the abundance of cheap strawberries on sale, what are you going to do with it? You can make strawberry jam that last through the summer! I used to spend a ton on organic jam but not anymore! I have learned to make my own jam by following the simple rule of 1 lb.of fruit to 1 lb. of sugar (almost 2 cups). However, I do cut down on the sugar depending on the sweetness of the fruit, not a whole lot but some since we need the sugar to preserve the jam. If you click under my label on Jam/Preserve, I have since made kaya (Malaysian coconut jam), clementine marmalade, orange marmalade, pear jam, blueberry jam, blackberry jam and raspberry jam. Now adding to the collection is strawberry jam! I should stick to 2 lb. of strawberries next time, since it was my first attempt, I have no clue how much it will yield.
3 lb. of fresh strawberries yield almost 7 jars of strawberry jams for me. Sweet and oh so yummy!
Friday, April 18, 2014
Easy Stir-fried Celery
This dish was created because I needed a vegetable side dish for my Korean dinner and my refrigerator only had an organic celery and a tiny bit of cabbage. So, I picked up the celery, thinly sliced it and started working through the recipe while stir-frying it and doing the taste test. I added black sesame seeds for the color contrast and the celery was crunchy. I am quite happy with the result and would certainly make this when I am out of other green vegetable again!
Monday, April 14, 2014
My Version of Vietnamese Dessert
We loved Vietnamese dessert. Often time when we went up to Denver, we would go to a Vietnamese bakery shop to buy some of the kuih (Asian steamed cake), "tofu fah" and cups of sweet dessert like the above. It came with several variety and it was hard to pick a favorite, but often time I would pick one loaded with beans, sweet potato, sago and taro. I don't know how they really make theirs but I know it is sweet and covered with coconut milk.
This is my version and it tasted just like the one sold at the store. It is not difficult to make but involved a few steps like cooking the tapioca pearls or strips first and steaming the sweet potato or taro if used. Then, you just mix it all together and place into an individual serving bowl or cup and refrigerate until serving. It is best eaten on the same day as the tapioca strips might harden when kept in the fridge for too long. If you make this, please feedback to me ya! Enjoy!
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Assam Sambal Prawns
We loved nasi lemak or Malaysian coconut rice. One of the dishes I missed the most when I first came to the U.S. would be nasi lemak. In my 20s and totally a newbie in cooking, I thought nasi lemak was very hard to make. It was like eating it would only happen in my dream. Then one day, a friend taught me how to make it and I was really surprised at how easy it was to make one. I remembered I once made some nasi lemak and asked my husband to bring it to his school to share with his Malaysian male friends and how happy and thankful they were.
For this nasi lemak, I added turmeric powder thus the yellow color (Since the curcumin in turmeric is good for us so I wanted to incorporate it more into our diet). The recipe I am sharing here is the assam sambal prawns as I bought some medium size shrimps and I wanted to make a dish that pair well with it. I was referring this recipe to Nonya Flavours Cookbook and will be sharing the cookbook recipe with some of my changes. I wonder why the photo in that cookbook looks so oily and red whereas mine looks completely different?
Sunday, April 06, 2014
Stir-fried Shredded Potatoes (Kamja Bokkeum)
Frankly I have no idea whether this is originally a Chinese dish or a Korean dish. We were served a big tray of this shredded potatoes in a Chinese New Year party that we attended. I was seriously surprised that a dish that looked so unappealing and plain can be so tasty. I didn't even want to try it at first but I told myself that I have to try every dish there and be adventurous. I tried it and couldn't help but went back for a second! Interestingly this dish is also served as a banchan in Korean restaurants. Evy fell in love with this banchan and I wished I know how to make it. I always looking for easy banchan to serve with my Korean meal, but I think nothing is easy when you have to make a few in a day. Anyway, this is my version and it tasted a little bit different and I have no idea why, do you think they par-boiled the shredded potatoes first? Outcome is all of us loved this plain potato dish and that's what matter most.
Tuesday, April 01, 2014
Mexican Squash Pancake (Jeon)
When I starts, I couldn't stop! I have been cooking tons of Korean side dishes lately and I have no idea what's gotten into me. I made this to bring to a Korean friend's house and just so happen that she was making the exact same thing!! Down to the same Mexican squash!! Talk about coincident as zucchini pancake is more common. I bought this because I have no idea whether the store that sells the zucchini is GMO or non-GMO unless I buy organic, so I picked Mexican squash instead. I couldn't tell the difference between these two anyway except one is dark green in color. This is one popular Korean side dish and serve on special festivals. It is not hard to make at all just the pan-frying part is a bit troublesome. We all loved this so next time I would have to train my Evy to make this!
Friday, March 28, 2014
Seaweed Rolled Eggs
I have learned this version of rolled eggs from watching a Korean variety show, "Dad, Where are you Going?". Haha...from now you have known that I watch quite a few of Korean variety shows right? It provided me with a good laugh and it was fun to watch. I liked those with kids, for example this and "The Return of Superman", it was just too cute!
Anyway, one of the dads cooked this for the kids and it looked good to me and what's best was it was very easy to make. Without hesitation, I made this for my girls and got their approval. Sometimes I made this for their lunch boxes, easy and nutritious! They loved to open it into a strip and eat it like that too. The eggs won't stick because of the seaweed.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Toast Pizza
I saw this Pizza using bread in someone blog before, but couldn't really remember where (Maybe Tigerfish?). I have also seen pizza using tortilla and pita bread. It just so many lazy and easy variation out there these days, and some even made dessert pizza. I made this for my girls' school lunchbox. I wanted to give them a different variety of lunch boxes instead of the same old thing. So, I toast it and make it looks like mini pizza instead of making it into a sandwich.
This was made in a different day without the spinach and cooked chicken breast. All packed in their lunch box. They preferred it this way instead of wrapping it in foil. I would add a cutie into their lunch box too.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Arugula Elk Garlic Pasta
I love the Sweet & Spicy Tuna Arugula Pasta that I made earlier. But this time I wanted to try it with ground elk meat ( of course you can use any ground meat of you choice as a substitute) that I bought at Sprouts. Got to say, this combination tasted better with the sweet and spicy tuna, but it was not too bad either.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
2 Ingredients Pancake!
When I first read about this 2 eggs and 1 banana pancake, it was shared on a health website on my Facebook page. They called it Paleo pancake. I was like okay it was interesting. And then I saw it again on a Chinese cooking page on my Facebook and I got really interested then because I like simple and easy recipe, furthermore I have frozen banana in my freezer calling me to use it. So, this time I thaw one banana in the refrigerator and set up to give this recipe a try because I was quite skeptical. In my mind, I was like would it really work?
I wish I can trace it back to the original creator and give him/her the well reserved credit, but it's just too much work. So, I just want to say that this idea was not created by me.
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Korean Style Cold Tofu Banchan
There is a reason why I like to eat at a Korean restaurant, I will get to sample their banchan/ side dishes and then discover new banchan to cook at home. There are some Korean restaurants that serve up non-traditional banchan that use mayonnaise, fruit salad and salad. But I like the traditional banchan more especially those that I am not familiar with. I find it great to sample food that I have never eaten before from another culture. My husband is the least adventurous of all as he won't touch some of the banchan such as kimchi. Luckily I have exposed my girls to kimchi early on and they all love kimchi now and three of us will finish the kimchi in the restaurant.
This spicy cold tofu dish is the replica of what I had recently. I am not sure whether this is the right way of doing it but this is my way of making it and I think it turned out pretty good. I think it make a quick and easy banchan. My hubby didn't like it, he didn't even want to try it at first but took a tiny bite after I asked him. Oh well... more for me then!
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
PURO Fairtrade Coffee
I am a coffee drinker and love my morning cup of coffee to kick start my day. So, imagine the joy I felt when I read that 2 cups of coffee a day is actually good for us. Sometimes I would have another cup in the afternoon or evening but not more than 2 cups a day. Not long ago, I was contacted by Puro Fairtrade Coffee to give their coffee a try and write a honest review about it. Frankly, I have not heard of Puro Fairtrade Coffee (of course because they are not in the U.S. market yet, but quite popular in Europe) so I just ignored it. But luckily she was persistent and wrote to me again so I thought why not and decided to try their coffee.
As I becoming more health and environmental conscious, I favor organic farming, sustainability and fairtrade practices. We need to give back to the earth so that the earth can provide. So, I like what Puro Fairtrade Coffee stands, they understand that people and planet are just as important as profit so they want to give back and also help to preserve the rainforest. Some history behind Puro. Puro was created by Miko in 2004. Miko is family owned and Belgian born in 1801 and is one of the oldest coffee roasters in the world. This is a brand dedicated to sourcing ethical shade grown Fairtrade coffee that also addresses environmental issues. A percentage of global Puro coffee sales is strategically directing into the purchase and protection of rainforest in coffee producing countries. Watch this documentary that they proudly made last year to learn about who they are and what they do to give back to the environment.
Puro has four types of coffee. Puro Organic- made with 100% finest organic Arabica beans. Medium roast combining with notes of sweet chocolate with tangy cirtus. Puro Noble and Puro Noble Decaf- 80% finest Arabica + 20% premium robusta content. Rich and lively medium roast, with hints of fruit and hazelnut. Lastly, their Puro Fuerte- 50% finest Arabica + 50% premium robusta content. Fragrant dark roast with a touch of spice and a full body. I tried the Puro Noble first and the coffee was smooth with a hint of fruit. I couldn't tell whether I could taste the hazelnut since I am not a coffee expert. If you support what this company do to the environment, give them a try! As of now, you can only buy it online but they are also currently looking for a US distributor, if you like what they do and want to be a distributor, please visit this link for more information and see more short films.
Disclaimer: I received free products in exchange for a honest review. This post was written with my own opinion.
As I becoming more health and environmental conscious, I favor organic farming, sustainability and fairtrade practices. We need to give back to the earth so that the earth can provide. So, I like what Puro Fairtrade Coffee stands, they understand that people and planet are just as important as profit so they want to give back and also help to preserve the rainforest. Some history behind Puro. Puro was created by Miko in 2004. Miko is family owned and Belgian born in 1801 and is one of the oldest coffee roasters in the world. This is a brand dedicated to sourcing ethical shade grown Fairtrade coffee that also addresses environmental issues. A percentage of global Puro coffee sales is strategically directing into the purchase and protection of rainforest in coffee producing countries. Watch this documentary that they proudly made last year to learn about who they are and what they do to give back to the environment.
Puro has four types of coffee. Puro Organic- made with 100% finest organic Arabica beans. Medium roast combining with notes of sweet chocolate with tangy cirtus. Puro Noble and Puro Noble Decaf- 80% finest Arabica + 20% premium robusta content. Rich and lively medium roast, with hints of fruit and hazelnut. Lastly, their Puro Fuerte- 50% finest Arabica + 50% premium robusta content. Fragrant dark roast with a touch of spice and a full body. I tried the Puro Noble first and the coffee was smooth with a hint of fruit. I couldn't tell whether I could taste the hazelnut since I am not a coffee expert. If you support what this company do to the environment, give them a try! As of now, you can only buy it online but they are also currently looking for a US distributor, if you like what they do and want to be a distributor, please visit this link for more information and see more short films.
Disclaimer: I received free products in exchange for a honest review. This post was written with my own opinion.
Saturday, March 08, 2014
Chewy Rice Paper Pan-fried Nian Gao
This inspiration came about when I was watching a Korean Variety Show called "Happy Together". There was a winning dish that used the rice paper to wrap leftover and pan-fried it. Just so happen that I still have a small piece of nian gao/ steamed glutinous rice cake in the refrigerator, so I thought rice paper and nian gao would go well together and quickly set out to give it a try. We all loved this chewy variation of eating the nian gao too. Now I have a new way to enjoy the leftover nian gao from Chinese New Year! I bet you all have some nian gao laying around your house too right? Give this a try!! *wink*
Soft and chewy bite with melted nian gao/ tikoy/ steamed glutinous rice cake with a slight crispiness from the skin, simply divine! If you don't like it chewy, you can also try my Crispy Springroll Fried Nian Gao. You can omit other filling and just wrap it with the nian gao alone, crispy and delicious!
Tuesday, March 04, 2014
Almond Milk Pancakes
My girls wanted some pancakes but when I looked through my old keepsake pancake recipes, it called for milk. Since I don't buy milk anymore, I had to use my alternative almond milk and had to experiment with it. I told them they had to eat all the pancakes even though it didn't turn out soft and fluffy since this was an experiment. They agreed and so I gave it a try. Luckily, the pancake turned out just as delicious and it was also soft and fluffy!! My girls really enjoyed the almond milk pancakes.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Korean Boneless Spicy Chicken
I once made a Korean style spicy chicken wings and really loved it. However, I never make it again because I don't buy chicken wings (the fattest part of a chicken so I want to eat less of it), but my husband loved chicken wings so sometimes he would buy a bucket of buffalo wings to eat.
The other day, we ordered a spicy fried chicken dish in a Korean restaurant and I thought it would be wings and drumettes and was pleasantly surprised that it was actually chicken thigh. I wonder why I never thought of using the skinless and boneless thigh to make this before! It gave me such a great idea that I wanted to make this dish again. Now I can enjoy this dish more often but wondering would it be as good without deep-frying the chicken first?
Adapted from Korean style spicy chicken wings.
Ingredients:
2-3 skinless and boneless chicken thigh meat, cut into pieces
Sweet potato starch/ or cornstarch
Toasted sesame seeds
Sauce:
2 Tbsp. gochujang/ Korean chili paste
1 Tbsp. raw honey
1 Tbsp. mirin
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/8 tsp. white pepper
1 1/2 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 1/2 Tbsp. minced ginger
1 1/2 Tbsp. chopped scallion
Method:
1. In a bowl, add in all the sauce ingredients, mix until combined. Set aside.
2. Heat up your wok with oil. Coat the chicken thigh with sweet potato starch. Deep-fry until golden brown or cooked. Drain on paper towel. Set aside.
3. Pour away the oil. In the same wok, add in the sauce, stir to warm. Add in the fried chicken thigh and mix and coat each piece with the sauce. Dish out and serve on a plate. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds before serving.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Stir-Fried Arugula
Since I was introduced to arugula by mistake a while back, we learned that we actually like this veggie, even my girls liked it (even though it is slightly bitter and lemony). However, this veggie can be kind of fibrous, so I like to cut each leaf into half before stir-frying. We really loved the Spicy and Sweet Tuna Arugula Pasta and I hope you will get a chance to try it too. Because my girls like it so organic arugula has been in my vegetable rotation for my family. I have since added organic arugula and organic baby kale into our vegetables of choice. I tried to incorporate as much variety of vegetable and fruit into our diet each week as possible. Sharing with you this easy stir-fried arugula recipe!
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Slow Cooker Whole Chicken
This is one SUPER DUPER easy slow cooker whole chicken recipe. All you need are two ingredients, one whole chicken and a packet of Emperor Chicken spice mix. In your slow cooker, add in the washed whole chicken, pour the Emperor Chicken spice mix on top of the chicken and give it a good rub to cover all sides of the chicken. Put it breast side up and turn it to High for 5 hours. When the internal temperature register as 180'F, it is done. Soft and tender that it will be easily tear off with your hand.
A tip I learned from my friend's mom, to prevent the cover from moving, stick a piece of white paper in between the cover and the crock pot as shown. It prevents the moving and thus the noise and the sprinkling of water on the countertop.
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