Bak Kua

Yeahhh, I finally made Tazz's bak kua. Her recipe can be found here. It took me awhile but glad I did it. I followed the original recipe provided by her blog. I baked mine in a convection oven.

I only made 1/2 pound of ground pork just to test it out. The result was delicious. Even my daughter kept asking for more. Definitely finger licking good and a die die must try recipe. What's more, super easy to make!

Eat it plain or sandwich it in the Hawaiian sweet bun for breakfast or snack, yummy! Will definitely make more the next time, but need to buy parchment paper first, out of it already.

Eve said it can be kept at room temperature up to 3 days in a plastic container. Thanks Eve! :) 

Meme: 10 Things I Miss of Mum's Cooking

I got tagged by Angie to do this meme. Seriously, I couldn't think of 10 things that I missed most. My cooking skill has long surpassed my mom and she couldn't bake at all. Still, I remembered her simple homecook meals when we were still at school. Mostly the dishes that I missed most are those that I couldn't make it here because we couldn't get the ingredients.

1. Turmeric Fish ~ I missed her turmeric fish. I couldn't get the fresh kembong fish here (I think that's the small fish called), and thus never attempted to make this dish here. I like the way she made hers, very fragrant and good.

2. Pork Kidney in Ginger Mee Sua Soup ~ Really missed this dish, mee sua in a little spicy fragrant soup with pork kidney, yum. As the new generation, I don't even know how to clean the kidney, what worst couldn't even buy it here. Always love to eat pork kidney, but haven't had it for years already.

3. Four Angle Bean Veggie in Sambal Belacan ~ Guess you probably know why I missed this dish by now. Hahaha.... Yup, couldn't get four angle beans here, one of my favorite veggies, thus can only dream about it.

4. Ngor Hiang in Pork Fat Skin ~ My mom used to make this when we were small. As last time people were not that health concious. What can I say, pork fat with five spice ground pork, the result is always delicious. Not sure whether you can still buy pork fat skin these days, or it already been substituted with dried beancurd sheet?

5. Reunion Dinner Steamboat ~ I missed my mom steamboat as I missed the joy of eating steamboat together with my family. She always prepared roasted chicken and mung quan char (stir-fry jicama) with lettuce wrap along with the steamboat and her homemade chilli sauce which I love. The feeling I felt on the table will be in my memory forever.

Sad to say, my mom hardly cook these days. As we left for college, she went back to work with my dad. Thus, after a day at work, it's hard to find the energy to cook, so she normally "to go" a few dishes and add a dish or two for the family members who are still at home.

Now, I would like to pass the "baton" to Lin (Sinfully Yours) and tt (Playing with My Food).

Pusiva's Acar

As you all probably know, I always in search of easy recipe to cook or bake. The other day when I browsed through Pusiva's blog, her acar recipe caught my eyes. It seem simple enough and I have all the ingredients in my pantry, so why not give it a try.

I made it few days ago and it was also my first time attempting acar. It was pretty good and I ate it like a salad for snack. Oh, I sprinkled grounded roasted peanuts and toasted sesame seeds before serving since I have both ready in the freezer.

Here's her recipe. Thanks Pusiva!

Prima Taste Singapore Laksa

My craving for a bowl of Singapore laksa finally made me purchased the $6 Prima Taste brand laksa. It was really expensive considering other premix brands only cost about $2-$3 per box/packet. My wanting to eat yet too lazy to make my own paste made me bought this. However, glad to say that the result was not disappointing, it was actually pretty good. The gravy was ready in 5 mins and the box came with coconut powder, laksa paste, dried laksa leaves and sambal chilli. All I needed to do was to prepare the noodle and garnishes for the laksa, very simple!

The downside was the serving was only for two, so $3 for a bowl of laksa gravy, don't you think it's a bit expensive? The store also sells Prima Taste Singapore mee siam which I have never tasted before. According to my friend, the Prima mee siam is pretty darn good too. Hmmm....perhaps I would buy and try it one day, just to see how mee siam with gravy tastes like. Never have it before, just saw some posted pictures of it in blogs or forum, very curious to find out the taste and flavor of it.

You may also like Singapore Curry Laksa.

JapChae

This is my version of Jabchai. I didn't know such a noodle existed until I had it in a Korean family house while we were at Memphis. Of course I fell in love with the texture of this noodle since it was so different from what we used to.

So, of course I need to buy and cook it myself. The packet of noodle I bought before came with a recipe so I had been using that for awhile. But the packet now doesn't come with one and thus I have to make it up with what I still remember and what ingredients I have in the fridge.


Closed up

Normally the recipe calls for thinly sliced pork/beef marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, a little sugar and some cooking wine. The thinly sliced chinese mushroom will be marinated in the same marinade as well. I forgot what veggies are supposed to go with this, but here I used onion, cabbage, carrot and garlic.

As for the sauce of the noodle, it's purely soy sauce, dark soy sauce, salt, sugar and sesame oil.

If you haven't tried this noodle before, you should give it a try! Here's how the noodle looks like. Boiled the noodle until soften, then rinsed with cold water, set aside. Then, mixed the sauce with the cold noodle and top with prefried ingredients. Stir to mix well and lastly added some toasted sesame seeds to toast well.



Enjoy!

Kee Chang

These are store-bought kee chang that I found at the Vietnamese store frozen section. Not sure whether they are out of glutinous rice or they don't sell it because I just couldn't find it. What a disappointment!! :( Guess my plan of making bak chang has to be postponed or cancelled completely. What a bummer! I was so looking forward to eating some bak changs.


I made some Gula Melaka syrup to go with the kee chang. For the syrup, just boiled some coconut milk with the Gula Melaka, then simmered it down to the consistency you like.


It actually has mung bean filling, but I love the taste of Gula Melaka syrup with my kee chang. At least, this will satisfy my craving for chang for a while.


As for the leftover Gula Melaka syrup, I made some green bean soup with it. Just added the syrup in the end and now my green bean soup dessert is flavored with coconut milk and gula Melaka, sweet and fragrant.

Chicken Wings

You can find my recipe here:
http://barbeque.allrecipes.com/az/MalaysianBarbecueChickenWi.asp

I submitted this recipe ages ago. It can be grilled or baked and then broiled in the oven.

I baked the above in convection oven 350'F for 30 mins and then broiled it at 500'F for 5 mins.

To grill, grill in a very small flame until the skin turns ultra crispy, baste with some cooking oil while grilling.

Evy is going to have a ...

Little Mei Mei!!! Guess all of you guessed it wrong. Hehehe...


The three lines signified a girl.


Her cute little face! Can see her eye, nose, mouth and her hand with a little thumb.


Her little feet!

I was hoping for a boy and thought I would be greatly disappointed when I found out it will be a girl. Strangely though I didn't, guess deep down I was thinking girl since I have a few girl names that I really like but none of the boy name that caught my eyes.

She was so cute during the ultrasound. When the tech. trying to measure her head, she did a complete 180' (from facing up to facing down) and the tech. had to look at her spine instead. Everything looks great and she sures is an active one. I could even feel a few punches from her during the ultrasound.

Can't wait to see her sweet face again. Guess we will pay for a 3D ultrasound in 10 weeks so I can see her in my womb again. I can't believe how fast I fell in love with this baby already. :o) It's like love at first sight with this 2nd ultrasound. I didn't with Evy until she was one month old. Strange huh?

What is it going to be?

Huh.... you asked me?


Haha... you tell me!


Look at my funny expression!


See, I'm holding baby ultrasound picture!


Want to see clearer?


The baby is my little ... (stay tuned for result!) *mouth sealed for now*

Just Dinner

Stir-fried Brussel Sprouts in Garlic Sauce



Stir-fried Chicken with Fish Maw and Bamboo Fungus (hmm...can't really see the bamboo fungus in the picture)

I love brussel sprouts, but man this veggie can be so hard to clean. The inside always filled with little insects or it's eggs or soil. I always soak it with salt water first, to make sure all the insects are dead. Then I clean it one by one. Then I cut it into quarter and clean it piece by piece again. Lots of work just to eat this veggie huh?

This is how the bamboo fungus looks like. Please correct me if I have the name wrong. Also, is there any other way to cook this besides in soup and the one I did above?

Adabi Beef Rendang

I got a few packets of Adabi rendang paste while in Malaysia last year, however this was the first time I cooked it with beef. I cooked it with chicken other times. Can I say YUMMY! I love this rendang paste and will sure save my last packet for beef.


This is how the packet looks like. I got it at Giant supermarket in M'sia.



This is my finished product, soft tender beef with excellent gravy.

By the way, all the oil you see on top came from the coconut milk. I didn't add any oil to cook the rendang paste. The oil came up when the gravy thicken. Got to say can't eat this too often because I used the whole can of coconut cream!! Cream okay not milk!! *faint* But it was so delicious even my daughter loved it.

Last Minute Dinner

Why last minute dinner you asked? Because I had no plan to cook dinner at all, was planning to go out and eat. However, my hubby got other plan in mind. He was in the middle of his computer game and asked me to simply whip something out. *Darn!*

Thus, opened my refrigerator and took out what little ingredients I had and cooked this two dishes.

Spicy Thai Fried Rice ( I called this Thai fried rice because I used fish sauce and Thai shrimp paste)

Dressed up IndoMee (haha...this is for my daughter who couldn't take too spicy food)

All in all, a satisfied dinner! The Thai fried rice turned out very good, added red chilli padi to stir-fry and "walau eh", it turned out super spicy. The easy IndoMee also enough flavor, added some salt to it. My hubby cleaned both the plates. :)

Phat Thai

I made Phat Thai noodle yesterday. It's a popular Thai stir-fry noodle dish which probably is available in most Thai restaurants. I didn't have bean sprouts and substitituted it with Chai Hsin (haha) and added some pork and chicken breast meats as well.



This is a recipe taught by my friend, Peng in her cooking class last time. I doubled the recipe and cut down on the sauces and the result was a yummy Phat Thai dish.



Too bad my girl seem unable to eat this noodle because of the added ground peanuts. She has allergy towards peanut butter and peanuts (sometimes) which was shocking to us because none of us have it. Later I read that pregnant mom should avoid peanut butter because the baby might have an allergy reaction towards peanut later on. See, while I was pregnant with her, I read that peanut butter was good for pregnant mom and thus I had it everyday throughout my pregnancy. Therefore, this must be the culprit of Evy having the peanut allergy (not the severe type but bad enough for her to have rashes and itches all over her face and throat and red swallon lips).

I will experiment with this baby. I hardly eaten any peanut butter with this pregnancy thus far and will test the baby after the one year birthday with some peanut butter and see what happen. If this baby really doesn't have an allergy reaction, then peanut butter really is the cause.

Oh yeah, I finally felt the baby moves! :) Sometimes it felt like a little fish swimming inside, other times it felt like some light punches or kicks. Pretty cool and definitely put my mind at ease. :)

Evy Posing for the Camera

She loves to take picture these days. Always ask her daddy or me to take picture of her. Look at her posing for the camera...hahaha...








Recently, she started to watch T.V. cartoon especially Nick Jr. and PBS channels. She loves Dora the Explorer, Blue Clues, Little Bill, Max and Ruby, Lazytown, Osward, Sesame Street, Dragon Tales and Barney. Thus, instead of fighting over the computer, now she is fighting over the T.V. *roll eyes and sigh* I guess we will have to get another T.V. soon!

Simple Dinner & Update

Featuring one of my everyday dinners. Look at the date, it has been a while back. Have been getting lazy these days, not sure whether it's pregnancy related or not. :P


Spring onion omelette


Spicy ground pork with sliced tau kwa


Stir-fry baby dou miao

Oh man, I'm getting the pregnancy brain which makes me very forgetful these days. I forgot to video call my mom two weeks in a row!! Beat me, I hardly being this forgetful before. Another thing is I think I also becomes a blur queen because I can't tell whether I have felt the baby moves or not. People said you will feel it sooner with your 2nd because you should know how it feels like right? But blur queen here, can't really tell whether it's the baby or just my inside shifting. I thought I felt some kicks, but can I really feel kicking this early?? It's supposed to be flutters right? So, I don't know.... Which made it worst was my OB couldn't detect my baby heartbeats for the longest time during the last visit. I was almost sweating thinking of the worst because it never happen with Evy. Luckily she found it after what seem like forever. I would definitely feel much better if I can feel my baby moves, at least then I know he/she is okay. The unknowning is pretty scary especially now we are equiped with all the knowledge from the web. It helps but it also makes one wonders.

Ma Po Tofu

This is my version of Ma Po Tofu. I have been cooking this dish for a long time using some easy to find ingredients. If any of you want the recipe, let me know. However, it won't have the exact measurement since all of my homecook recipes are agar-agar (estimation from experience), but at least you would know what ingredients to use. Even my hubby who normally doesn't like tofu finish this up.

Calling all mommies!!

I need your help. Can any mommies suggested what chicken soup to cook? There are books on confinement food and soup but they aren't any on food for pregnancy out there.

What I saw on T.V. whenever someone is pregnant, for the poor people in China, they would say eat boiled chicken eggs. As for the rich, go boil some chicken soup. But they only mention chicken soup, but what kind of chicken soup?

Well, at least I know no dong kui now. I actually cooked that soup when I was in my 2nd trimester with Evy a couple of times. Never experience any contraction though and only stopped when I asked my OB whether it's safe or not. And since she is a caucasion, she won't know a thing but since she said since this herb was associated with women reproductive system (I told her that), she said better not to take it. Ha, if I knew that it will cause contraction, I might cook it to drink at my last 2 weeks of pregnancy just to bring on the contraction. Hehehe... Do you think it's advisable? Hey, at my last 2 weeks of pregnancy, I become very desperate and willing to try anything.

Okay, what chicken soup do you recommend?

Orange Chiffon Cake

I made orange chiffon cake today mainly because I got a dozen free eggs from a recent grocery shopping. I still have a dozen at home so need to find a way to use it.



I made this using my Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe, just changed some of the ingredients.



I didn't add the orange food coloring thus the yellow color. Normally I would add it for the nice orange color.



I added orange icing after I shared the huge piece with my daughter because I found it not sweet enough. Oh yeah, guess I love sweet stuff too. :P

Penang Assam Laksa

Penang assam laksa, one of my favorite noodles to eat. I have been craving for it for quite sometimes and finally got all the ingredients, even got the prawn paste from aunty Lily the other day. Hence, no more excuse and viola! Well, it's not difficult to make with Hup Loong premix and canned sardine. Very easy actually, most of the time spent would be shredding the ingredients.



To serve with: Finely shredded cucumber, pineapple, red onion, iceberg lettuce, chilli padi, mint leaves (I couldn't find fresh one thus omitted it), lime slices (to drizzle on top) and prawn paste.



When stirred and ready to savor. :)

Best thing about homemade assam laksa is I put lots of fish and big pieces too!! I was so disappointed at the assam laksa served in M'sia, I tried the one at KLCC food court and some shopping centre food court, hardly could see any fish at all and the serving was so small. :(

I just found a Vietnamese grocery store in Denver selling Hup Loong assam laksa premix, what a thrill because now I know whenever I crave for assam laksa, I can cook it and eat it anytime I want. Don't have to day dream about it anymore. :)

Fried Fish

Featuring one of my home cook dishes.

Ingredients:

~ 1 Tilapia fish fillet
~ Thinly shredded gingers

Batter for fish:
Self rising flour, salt & black pepper. Mixed in with enough water to make a thick batter.

Method:

Heat up oil, made sure the oil is hot, if not the fish will stick to the wok. Or use a non-stick skillet. Dipped the fish fillet in the batter and slowly put it into the hot oil. Deep-fry both sides until golden brown. Dish out. Add in the shredded gingers and deep-fry until crispy, dish out and place on top of the fish. You can drizzle some soy sauce on top. Serves hot!

Great News!

One look at the pictures, you should have guess what news it is right? :) That's right, baby number 2 is on the way. Baby will be due in October. These are our first glimpse of the baby. During the ultrasound, the baby was very active, bouncing and turning around, perhaps because the ultrasound guy was poking at my tummy and at the baby. He needed to get the measurement done and thus it was necessary. Got to see the beautiful beating heartbeat and heard it for a few seconds. :)



I went for the first trimester screening which included a blood work and an ultrasound to measure the fluid on the baby neck to check for any abnormality. Seem like this is something new because I was not offer this option when I was pregnant with Evy.



The pictures were not very clear, guess we couldn't really complaint since this was not a 3D one that others get. Still we could make out the head, nose and body. It was still too early to know the sex yet, so the ultrasound guy didn't even bother to check.



Look! He managed to make the baby facing us. Thus we could see the face with the eyes and mouth. Looks like I'm going to have a big head baby number two too!

Oh yeah, don't think I have it easy with this pregnancy. I was actually suffered from a pretty bad morning sickness since 5 weeks. Vomitted up to 3-4 times a day and felt sick most of the day. Last two days were the worst because I think I got stomuch flu/virus which resulted in severe vomitting (up to 7 times a day). Whatever I put in, out it came, even 1 french fry and water. Thus, I was not getting anything in for the last two days and actually lost 2 pounds. I never experience this before and thus it sorta freak me out.

Luckily I felt much better today and actually got to eat and not throw up. * knock on wood* This in fact is a great news because this morning I actually felt very weak from not eating for 2 days. Oh yeah, guess now I will have to blog about my pregnancy and baby too. Hehe...

Update April 3th: Both the blood and ultrasound tests came back normal. :)

The Big Two

My little girl is going to be two in a few days. It's great to see her grow up and being independent. I remember when she was a baby, I was thinking how I wish she could sit, then crawl, then walk, then talk and being more independent. Hahaha... guess I'm the opposite from all the moms who wish their babies will remain babies forever.



We got her a notebook after we moved. Now she has her own little corner in our computer room. I saved a few children friendly websites on the desktop and taught her how to open her notebook, use it, open the links on the desktop to play and shut down the notebook when she is done. She definitely is a fast learner because I only need to show her once and now she is a little expert.

Teaching her how to use the computer definitely paid off for me because now she learned to recognize A-Z and even pronounced all of it except a few she still couldn't. 1-10 in English and a few English words she learned while playing and surfing on her own. She already knew how to say 1-10 in Mandarin, I taught her that. She speaks Mandarin to us and can I say she starting to form sentences in Mandarin. I know she understood a lot of words but she still couldn't pronounce it, but I believe all this come sooner or later.

I am very happy with her progress. How proud I am of her speaking in Mandarin because no matter where we are, deep down we are pure Chinese and I don't want people to call her a banana (yellow outside but white inside) or being look down by Chinese in the future. No matter what, bilingual is a plus no matter where you are. I always look at the wider range and into the future and I strongly believe we made a right choice.

My little girl, mommy and daddy only want what's the best for you and for your future. A little obstacle in the beginning is nothing because you will be fluent in English in no time. All we wish is you remain speaking in Mandarin with both your parents and never forget the language.

Spaghetti with Homemade Sauce

I made this sauce using chopped garlic, chopped yellow onion, fresh mushroom, ground pork, Italian seasonings, diced tomatoes and canned tomato sauce. Served it with angel hair pasta and top it with chilli oil and grated parmesan cheese. Quite an easy dinner for a lazy night!


When stirred to coat well.

Crabmeat Cream Corn Soup

Featuring one of my home cook dishes.

Ingredients:

~ 1 egg, lightly beaten
~ 1 canned of creamy corn
~ Shredded wood ear fungus
~ 1 small canned of crabmeats
~ 1/2 cup of cubed tofu pieces
~ 2 canned Swanson chicken broth

Thickening:
Potato starch + water

Method:

In a big saucepan, add in the chicken broth. Turn up the heat and let it boil.

When boiled, add in the above ingredients except egg. Lower the heat and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

Turn the heat off and add in the beaten egg, when pouring the egg, write 8 with it with a chopstick so that it has the egg drop effect.

Lastly, add in the thickening and stir until the soup thicken.