Stir-fry Glutinous Rice

First I would like to apologize for the long hiatus from blogging. I’ve been busy with my daily life, dealing with moving, home based business and also traveling. I guess after more than 10 years of blogging I slowing losing my momentous doing it. I mostly post my cooking on my Instagram now. You can follow me there if you want to. Anyway, here is a short update on a recipe I did some time ago. I made this dish with some left over steamed glutinous rice.

Spicy Salted Eggs/Sambal Telur Masin

This is another dish that I learned from Shereen. She is so amazing that she even brined her own salted duck eggs. I enjoyed eating this simple ‘kampung’ (village) dish with rice.

Ingredients:

3 Salted eggs, hard - boiled and cut into wedges ( remove the shell )
1 Onion, thinly sliced
Salt to taste / if necessary

Chili Char

This is by far one of my most favorite Nyonya dish. I learned this dish from my good friend Shereen when I visit here in NZ. She is such a great cook and all her dishes were so delicious. This is not the only dish I learned from her but a few more and I will be sharing it here with you. With only this dish I can eat 2 bowls of rice. It is that good. It might looks like a very simple dishe but trust me, they were packed with great flavors. Please give it a try if you can get some nice good green chilies that are not too spicy.

Stuffed Onion Rings

I came up with this dish on the day that I ran out of idea of what to prepare for our dinner. I have some ground meat in hand and decided to mix it up with a few other ingredients and stuff it in some onion rings. Turn our pretty good to have it with rice.

Ingredients:

2 medium size onions – cut into ½” rings
3 tbsp of flour
2 eggs - beaten

Pork and Shrimp Shumai

Non - halal

Shumai is a type of Chinese dumpling, often associated with Cantonese cuisine. The half wrapped dumpling is filled with pork and shrimp and then steamed. You can find it serve at all dim sum restaurants.

I miss the Shumai from Malaysia which if full flavor and juicy when you bite into it. The shumai here is not very good. They were way too huge and don’t taste very good. I find some of it was too dry which I suspect they were being steam over and over again before serving it to the customers. That is why I hardly order it when I have dim sum. I’ve eaten a very good one though but it was in New York. So the best thing to do is make it myself. It was pretty good and the taste of this will do for me until my next trip home.

Steamed Savory Yam (Taro) Cake/Orr Kueh

I am a big fan of yam but I don’t buy it too often it can be quite costly at time. Usually it is around $1.79 - $1.99 a pound and if you buy the vacuum pack peel kind it is about $3.59 a pound. It happen it went on sale a few weeks ago and it was selling at $0.99 a pound so a bought a huge tuber. I used some to cook bubur cha cha and Taro Puffs (recipe coming soon) the rest for this yam kueh. The yams sold here are all good as I have yet to find a bad one. It has a powdery texture and it is really good to make yam kueh. I like a lot of yam in it so I added a bit more to it. Please be cautious when handling yam. I would advise you to wear gloves as it might cause some skin irritation.

Crispy Tofu with Shrimp Squares

I like this dish a lot. In fact I made a bit more and freeze some of it up so the next time I wanted to eat this all I have to do and take it out of the freezer and fry them up. You must be thinking why I like to freezer most of my food rather than eating them fresh. Well, I don’t cook everyday especially our Asian type of food and when I do I usually cook a bit more and freeze them up so I can have it anytime I want. It is usually dishes that freeze well like rendang, curries, stew, soup, curry puffs and etc. So now you know why I need two fridges when there are just two of us ha ha..

Anyway, back to this dish. My mom used to make this dish for us. When I called her last week on her birthday I asked her how to make this dish and she told me roughly what she put in it. I gather all the ingredients and made this the following day. The squares turn out really well. They were crispy on the outside, nice and moist on the inside.

Singapore Hokkien Mee

Even though I’ve been to Singapore so many times but I don’t think I ever tried this noodle dish before. They are very different from our KL style Hokkien mee. KL hokkien mee uses thick yellow noodles braised in thick dark soy sauce. As for the Singapore Hokkien Mee it is white in color with yellow noodles and rice vermicelli/ bee hoon and it’s braised in flavorful stock and serve with sambal chili and lime, giving it that extra zing and tanginess.

I made this dish hoping to submit it for AFF – Singapore month but I didn’t make it. I am just too lazy to blog nowadays. I guess after blogging for nearly 8 years, I am slowly growing out of it. I used to put out 3 post a week now it is just once a week. I still cook and bake but mostly  repeat and easy dishes. Anyway, I hope I am able to find my mojo to blog regularly soon.

Sweet Blueberry Focaccia

When I was in Vancouver I tried out blueberry focaccia from one of the famous bakery and they were really good. They made it into small individual serving size but they were not cheap though. A piece with tax cost around $4.00. This bakery is also famous for their grape focaccia. Since it is summer and there are plenty of blueberries around I thought tried to replica this at home. Can you imagine the smell in the house when I was baking this?

Man, it turns out so good if I should say so myself. The focaccia was soft on the inside and with the crunchy sweet sugary topping, I was hooked. I gave a few away and my friends love it too. I am planning to bake this again but it will be with grapes. I think this would be perfect to serve for brunch, cocktail party with some cheese and wine or like me enjoyed it for breakfast with my morning coffee.

Baked Eggplant with Garlic Sesame Dressing

I am trying to cut down on meat in my diet and I am cooking more vegetable dishes for myself. I still cook meat as Carlos still like his meat. Anyway I love eggplants (aubergine/brinjal) cook in any style. Did you know that eggplant skin contains a powerful antioxidant called nasunin? Nasunin is supposed to be good for brain health, helping to protect the fats in brain cell membranes (which protect brain cells from free radicals). Eggplant is also an excellent source of fiber and manganese. So it is good to have more eggplant in our diet.

Initially for this dish I plan to steam the eggplant but I was too lazy to take out my big steamer so I end up putting them in the oven. I actually like it better this way as the eggplant is not too mushy and by baking, it gives it a nice toasty aroma. To some people this dish might sounds bland but it is far from being tasteless. The soft eggplant just soaks up all the yummy dressing. They were so good and all I need is just this one dish for my meal.

Sambal Shrimps/Shrimps in Spicy Chili Sauce

This is one of my favorite Malaysian dishes. It is sweet and spicy and goes really well with rice. Sambal is a terms used in Malaysia and Indonesian cuisine to describe a variety of spicy condiments and side dishes used to add flavor to other dishes. There are different types of sambal available in the stores but I will usually make my own. Every household will have their own version of sambal so there is no right or wrong to it. As for me, I like adding some dry shrimp to my sambal and some might not. I will usually make a huge batch and freeze them up and whenever I want to use it for my cooking it is readily available. I use the sambal to cook chicken, beef and seafood.

For today dish I used shrimp. I left the shrimps unshelled but you can always shell it if you find that easier to eat and you can substitute the shrimp with squid, chicken or beef but it will take longer for it to cook. You can get the sambal recipe here

Chicken Teriyaki

The pictures of this dish have been sitting in my file for a long time and it is time to post it out. I made this chicken dish for the AFF – Japan event but I just can’t find the time to post it during that time because of work commitment. This is a simple recipe yet very satisfying. I cooked this in a skillet instead of grilling it but you can always do so.

Ma’amoul Cookies with Pistachio and Walnut Filling

Is time for Christmas baking again and Sam at Oh Nuts sent me some nuts for my baking this year. They came just in time for me to bake some Ma’amoul cookies for AFF – West Asia Month event. Ma’amoul is small shortbread pastries filled with nuts, dates or dried fruits. They are very popular in the Gulf countries especially on religions festival. The Muslims eat them at night during Ramadan, the Christians eat them during Easter and the Jewish communities eat them on Rosh Hashanah or Hanukkah. They may be in the shape of balls or domed usually decorated by hand or be made in special wooden molds. Since I don’t have any of the molds I just shape them using my tart mold.

Shrimp with Pomelo and Mango Salad

I love Thai food. There is something about their food that is so addictive. I think it is the taste of sweet, sour, spicy and salty of their dishes and not forgetting all the fresh herbs they used in their cooking. One particular dish that I will order is their salad. It can either be green mango, papaya or their pomelo salad. I’ve visited Thailand countless time and there was once I tasted their green mango and pomelo salad at a buffet restaurant and they were so good. Till today I still think of this particular dish and I am recreating it in my kitchen so I can submit it for the AFF event hosted by Lena of Frozen Wings. This salad with the addition of grill shrimps makes a terrific lunch or even as starter to any Thai or Asian-style meal. You'll find it very unique and refreshing, and so will your guests. ENJOY!

Homemade Char Siu (with Pork Belly)/Chinese BBQ Pork

non-halal

It has been awhile since I last make some Char Siu. I posted a recipe here before and I used pork loin for it. I bought a piece of pork belly a few weeks ago and it was pretty lean (it has more lean meat than fat) so I decided to use it to make char siu. So which char siu we like better? We like the pork belly one as the meat was sinfully juicy and very tender but most of all we like the charring part. Of course there is a bit of fat there but most of it renders out when I cook it in the oven. So from now on I will be using pork belly for char siu. I gave some to my a friend of mine and she just can’t get enough of it and she wanted me to show her how to make it ;).

 

 

Agedashi Tofu

Agedashi tofu is a simple Japanese way to serve hot tofu. Soft or firm tofu is cut into cubes, is lightly dusted with potato starch or cornstarch and then deep fried until golden brown. It's then served in a hot tentsuyu broth made of dashi, mirin, and shoyu (Japanese soy sauce), and topped with finely chopped green onions and bonito flakes.

Ingredients:

1 block soft tofu
Some potato starch
Some cut green onions
Some bonito flakes

Fish in Fermented Black Bean Sauce

My mom and grandma hardly cook anything with fermented black beans so I am not familiar with this ingredient at all. We only used bean paste/tau cheong in our cooking. I only start using it after seeing some of my friend here cooking with it. They will use it to cook pork, fish or vegetable. As for me I like to cook fish with it. I just love how the fish soak up all the wonderful flavor of the fermented black beans. I will steam the fish if I can get them real fresh but since this tilapia came frozen I decided to pan fried it first before cooking it in the sauce.

Nasu Dengaku/Grilled Eggplant with Miso Glaze

I will order this particular appetizer whenever they have it in the menu. It is light, silky texture and the savory miso glaze at the top. I just can’t get enough of it. Actually it is not difficult to prepare it at home. You can either grill it or just bake and broil it in the oven like I did. I used the Japanese egg plant from my garden but I’ve tried it with the Italian eggplant and they were just as good but it takes a bit longer time to cook though.

Ingredients:

3 medium size eggplants (I used 5 tiny ones)
Some vegetable oil – for brushing
Toasted sesame seeds – for garnish
Some sliced spring onions – for garnish
Some seaweed – for garnish

Thai Red Curry with Prawns and Green Eggplant

When I have time prepare spices for curry I normally do it in big batches so I can portion them out and freeze it up so each time I want to cook it is ready but nowadays we can get readymade paste from the Asian market without any problem. It does make cooking so much easier and I do keep a jar of it in case of emergency or I ran out of homemade paste. I have the recipe here if anyone of you wanted to make it from scratch. You can use it to cook chicken, duck, beef, pork or any type of seafood and even noodles with it. For today I used the paste to cook this prawn dish.

Miso Maple Glazed Salmon Rice Bowl

We were having some pretty hot summer here in Northern CA and during days like this I like to prepare meals that are quick and easy so I don’t have to spend too much time at the hot stove. This particular meal is one of our favorite and I will prepare it at least once a week. It tasted so light and substantial at the same time and it was a wonderful meal in a bowl!