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.

Banh Khot/Vietnamese Mini Savory Pancakes

I am so sorry for not updating my blog for over 2 weeks. I have been very busy and also having some problem with my car too. It was stolen from my driveway and it totally stresses me out. Thank God the police found it and it was in pretty good shape. Now I have to deal with the insurance, the DMV and whole loads of paperwork to be done before I can drive the car again. Anyway, I don’t want to bore you with all the details.

Now let’s talk about Banh Khot. Banh Khot is a mini sized rice cake that is fried and served with fresh lettuce, herbs and dipping sauce. I’ve eaten Banh Khot from a Vietnamese restaurant in PA and really like it. What I love about this snack is the crispy texture on the outside and soft and tender in the middle. To eat it you take a piece of the banh khot, place it in a bed of lettuce and herbs, a bit of the pickle carrot, wrapped it up and eat it. It is crispy, sour, sweet, salty and spicy at the same time. Really satisfying!!

I bought a Banh Khot/Ebelskiver pan from Amazon last year so I thought I try to make this at home. It turns out pretty well but not as crispy as the restaurant ones. I think it’s because I used too little oil to the pan when I was frying it. The last batch I added a bit more oil to it and it did turn out crispy. The Asian supermarket does sell the ready mix banh khot flour and you can use that. Since I am too lazy to drive out to buy it, I just goggle for the recipe. As for the dipping sauce I added some carrot to the dipping sauce as this way I don’t have to pickle the carrot separately. I serve mine with only lettuce since I don’t have any fresh herbs in my fridge but you can have it with any type of lettuce and fresh herbs.

Shrimp and Carrot Fritters

I love fritters of any kind. They were great for afternoon tea or even breakfast. I prepared this batch for fritters when my friend Nini’s came over for afternoon tea. We had it with some Chinese tea from Teavivre – Tea for Life . They sent me some sample packets to try out a few weeks ago. We tried out the Jasmine ‘Dragon Pearl’ Green Tea. When I opened the packet I can see the unopened bud and small leaves in it. I understand that the tea leaves were hand rolled into small pearl shape, which will slowly unfurl during brewing. The flavor is so delicate and light, with great aroma of sweet jasmine and faint hint of green tea. You have to drink this tea slowly to savor all the delicate taste.

Now let's get back to the fritters. I’ve made a lot of fritters but I think by far this is the best tasting one as the fritters came out crunchy and with a bit of sweetness from the grated carrot. It goes really great with a cup of tea. What a great way to cleanse the palette.

Chinese Style Prawn Fritters

I made these last year when a couple of friends came over for tea. I like this thin kind of fritters as it is much crispier. I used the recipe of Nasi Lemak Lover but I replaced the chives with spring onions and add a bit of pepper to the batter. It turns out really good and it was well received by my friends.

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.

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

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!

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.

Pork Jerky/Bak Kua and Shrimp Fried Rice

I’ve been very busy for the past 2 months. Flew to New York twice to take care of Diana and don’t have time to do much especially cooking, baking, blog posting or blog hopping. Meals at home are mostly simple salad, sandwiches or one pot meal. Just before I flew to NY, I wanted to finish up the few pieces of Bak Kua in the fridge. I am too lazy to turn on the big oven just to warm them up I simply cut them up and throw it into the fried rice. Carlos like it a lot and told me to cook our next fried rice meal again with it but I told him he might need to wait till the next CNY before I make another batch of bak kua again. So if you have any leftover of bak kua from CNY why not use it to make fried rice. I am pretty sure you are going to like it.

Fried Dumplings with Honey Mayo Dipping Sauce

This is one of dim sum favorite and it is usually served with mayo dipping sauce. For 4 pieces it cost around US$3.00 which I think it is too expensive. It is not difficult to make it yourself and with a few ingredients and a few bucks you can feed the whole family. It usually made from shrimps but you can be creative with the filling. I added some ground pork to it but it can be any combinations of your liking. I made these for our CNY dinner and we enjoyed it a lot. They are crispy on the outside and flavorful on the inside.

Prawns Wrapped in Taro Paste

This is another prawn dish that is nice to serve for Chinese New Year. I made this dish a few years ago but never posted it in my blog. I am recreating it again so I could post it here for my record. This dish will be ideal as an appetizer too. The taro which is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside compliments well with the succulent prawn within.

Ingredients:

15-18 large prawns – shell,deveined and leave the tail intake
2 tbsp flour

Creamy Butter Prawns/Nai Yau Har

My mom cooked a lot of traditional dishes for our Chinese New Year reunion dinner and one of them is this prawn dish. She once saw a chef on TV demonstrating a prawn dish using evaporated milk and she cook it for us. We like it a lot but I tweak recipe a bit by adding additional ingredients to it. Many Chinese families like to cook prawns/shrimps, as a prawn in Cantonese is ‘Ha’ which in English means ‘laughter’ and that associate with the idea of happiness and joy all year round. Being Chinese, all the dishes serve during the festive season need to have auspicious name or meaning to it. This is my version of mom’s dish. Finger licking good!!

 

Kari Udang/Prawn Curry

I bought a box of large prawns from the Filipinos supermarket the other day thinking of using them to cook Sang Har Mee for Diana. On the packet it says 9-10 prawns in it but when I open it I found there were about 18 of them in it. So I decided to use half of it to cook this dish so I can submit it to MFF.

Ingredients:
Adapted from MyRecipe.com

10-12 large prawns
½ fresh pineapple – removed skin and cut into 1” chunks
500 ml coconut milk
2 stalk lemongrass – smash
2 tbsp fish curry powder
Salt to taste

Kanji Kedah/Kedah Rice Porridge

I was talking on the phone with my good friend Shereen last week and we were discussing MFF theme for this month and I told her I don’t really know much about food from Kedah or Perlis. She gave me a few suggestions including this rice porridge. Well, since I have all the ingredients in hand I decided to do just that.

Every state in Malaysia will have its version of Rice Porridge also known as Bubur Lambuk. What make this heartwarming dish so popular? It is available during the Ramadan month and it is prepared and distributed to the public for free throughout the whole month of Ramadan in the spirit goodwill. Usually this rice porridge would be cooked at the mosque compound for easy distribution. Cooking this involves a lot of effort and many volunteers will help stirring many big pots of this rice porridge. This rice porridge is very similar to Chinese version except for the addition of coconut milk, lemongrass and fenugreek in it. I actually like it a lot and will definitely cook this again.

Hong Kong Style Pan-Fried Noodles

This is by far one of my favorite noodle dish and I like can eat it either lunch or dinner. I love the texture of the crispy noodles and it will absorb all the flavor of the sauce. What I like the most about this dish is that you can use whatever ingredients you have on hand for the sauce. There are days I make it into vegetarian version using tofu, mushrooms and veggies and other days I make it into beef version and once a while into all seafood versions. The options are endless. For today I make a mix version using meat and some shrimps.

Ingredients:
(Serve 2)
Half packet of Hong Kong Style Noodles
4 oz flank steak, sliced thinly against the grain (can be chicken or pork too)
8 shrimps, peeled and deveined
4 button mushroom, sliced thinly
2 stalk bok choy, cleaned and cut
1 small carrot – peel and sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 slices fresh ginger

Sweet Potato and Taro Fritters/Banh Tom

I love these shrimp cakes. Banh Tom is a popular dish in Vietnam. It is made of thick cut sweet potato and shrimp, coated with light batter and deep-fried until golden brown. It is often served as an appetizer and commonly eaten wrapped with lettuce, pickle, herbs and dipped into nuoc mam sauce. It is very similar to our cucur udang except it has sweet potatoes in it. Since I have a small piece of taro in my fridge, I added it to the batter beside a few extra ingredients. The sweet potato is usually cut thick but I julienne it for faster cooking. The lettuce and vegetable pickle compliment so well with the crispy fritters, while the nouc mam sauce ties all the flavors together.

Prawn/Shrimp and Pineapple Curry

It was good to take a short vacation with my husband. Every weekend were occupied with something since we moved here until last weekend. Carlos took time away from work and we went to Monterey Bay and Carmel . We had such a great time and I took tons of pictures of the scenic views especially the 17th Miles Drive . We plan to go back again soon as we want to go for dolphins and whale watching. I will post up the pictures on my FB and my other blog later. In the meantime here is the sneak preview of one of the many pictures I took.

Now, let’s get back to this dish. I cooked this last week and I just love it. It goes really well with rice. My rice was swimming in the wonderful gravy and that is how I like to eat it. Yummy!!

Fried Tofu and Meat Sui Kow/Fried Tofu and Meat Dumplings

I was thinking of making a tofu dish but when I cut open the tube of egg tofu it was all broken. I can’t really slice it into round rings. So I decided to mash them up and mix it into the meat filling for the dumplings or Sui Kow. If your kid is not a fan of tofu you can make this and hide the tofu in the filling without them knowing it. I don't think they will ever figure out there is tofu in it. Not my hubby :)

Ingredients:

1 packet of dumplings wrappers or wonton wrappers
1 tube of egg tofu – mashed
6 oz ground pork or chicken
6 oz shrimps – peel and deveined and roughly chopped
1 small carrot – grated
6 water chestnut – cut into tiny cubes
2 spring onions
1 egg
1 tbsp cornstarch

Meat Spring Rolls

Hi everyone!! Greetings from SF. Carlos and I are here already but still living in the hotel the company set up for us as our things are still on the way here. Hopefully it will arrive by this week. Anyway, hope all of you are having a wonderful Chinese New Year celebration especially spending time with your family and friends and not to mention all the yummy food. This year CNY is a very low key one for us. We just went out for dinner on the 1st day of CNY but I plan to cook something either on the 9th day or the 15th day of CNY once we are all settle into our new home. I will post some pictures here later on of our new home.

Now back to these spring rolls. I made these last month with some leftovers spring rolls wrappers. Instead of the usual vegetables filling I used meat instead. It tastes pretty similar to the Vietnamese fried spring rolls or the Filipino lumpia and goes really well with rice or you can serve it as appetizer. Some people do pre-cooked the filling first but I don’t. Just make sure you don’t put too much filling in it and fried them over medium high heat so that the filling gets cooked inside.