Chicken with Pineapple

When I was in KL my family took me to a restaurant in Serdang and they served a wonderful fried ribs with pineapple. The flavor and taste was really good but I am not sure what they used for the sauce. I tried to recreates it using chicken as I don’t have any ribs in my freezer. The flavor is not as similar to one I had but taste wise it was pretty good. Once I get some ribs from Chinatown and I am going to try to cook this again with some minor changes to the sauce.

Ingredients:

2 pieces of chicken breast – cut to bite size pieces
1 cup of cubes pineapple
Half red pepper – cut into ½” cubes
2 cloves garlic – chopped
1 tsp of chopped ginger

Marinate for Chicken

2 tbsp of soy sauce
½ tsp of pepper
1 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp of cornstarch
½ tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt

Sauce:

1 tbsp of tomato ketchup
2 tbsp of plum sauce
1 tbsp of vinegar
½ cup of chicken stock
½ tsp of dark soy sauce
½ tsp cornstarch
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp brown sugar (optional)

1. Marinate chicken for half and hour. In a bowl, combined the sauce ingredients and set it aside.
2. Heat up some oil in the wok and fried the chicken pieces until lightly brown. Remove the chicken and drain the oil on paper towel.
3. Remove all the oil from the wok and leave about 1 tbsp of oil. Add in chopped garlic and ginger. Stir-fry until fragrant and lightly brown.
4. Add in the sauce, bring it up to boil, let sauce thickens. Add in the pineapple and red peppers. Stir for a few seconds and add in the chicken. Toss until chicken is well coated with sauce. Dish out and serve warm with rice.

Pineapple Fried Rice

When I cook rice I will always cook extra so I can make fried rice the next day. This dish is a nice change from your ordinary fried rice. A very popular dish at the Thai restaurant serve in a hollowed out pineapple shell and you've got a show-stopper if you serve this to your family or any get together with friends.

Ingredients :

1 cup pineapple chunks – fresh is better but canned will work too
3 cups of cooked overnight rice
1 piece of chicken breasts - cut in thin strips
10 fresh shrimps – clean and roughly chopped
1 pepper – cut into cubes
1 small onion – cut into small cubes
2 cloves of garlic – chopped
2 spring onions – cut small
1 tbsp of curry powder
2 tbsp of fish sauce
2 tbsp of soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a wok or a large pan, heat up about 3 tbsp of oil over high heat.
2. Add in onions and garlic and stir-fry until lightly brown and fragrant.
3. Add in chicken, stir-fry until it changes color, add in pepper and shrimps. Stir fry for another minute and add curry powder, fish sauce and soy sauce.
4. Add in rice and pineapple chunks. Stir-fry until everything is well combined and hot. Check seasoning and add salt if necessary. Add in spring onions.
5. Serve rice in pineapple shell and garnish with some spring onions.

Nyonya Fried Noodles with Jicama and Pineapple Sambal - Day 23

My friend Shereen told me that almost all Peranakans/Nyonya will have a recipe like this in their family. The unique thing about these particular noodles is that it will be eaten with Sambal pineapple and cucumber. It is somewhat similar to a salsa albeit with a different taste and spiciness level. This noodle is usually eaten during happy occasion such as Chinese New Year, birthdays or family get together for a celebration. I replace the cucumber with jicama as I don’t have it in my fridge and I am too lazy to drive out just to get it.

Since the noodles and sambal were eaten together, I thought it will be a good idea to pile them up together into the jelly mould. The sweet and tangy taste of the sambal compliments the noodles really well. This is a very appetizing dish indeed. Thanks Shereen for sharing the recipes with us. I did some minor changes to the recipe to suit my taste and also the availabilities of ingredients in my fridge.

The Spirit of Hari Raya Feast

Each year, Malaysians from all walks of life, irrespective of their ethnic origin and faith join hands to celebrate the Hari Raya Aidil Fitri together with their Muslims friends. This celebration that falls on the first day of Syawal (the 10th month of the Islamic calendar) is celebrated with great enthusiasm, especially after the Muslims had completed a month of fasting during Ramadan (the 9th month in the Islamic calendar).

Besides the sumptuous array of delicious food, songs and dances, this festive celebration inculcates the spirit of sharing, caring and forgiving. Similar to the Thanksgiving Day celebration, the Hari Raya Aidilfitri instills Muslims with the need to seek forgiveness and blessings from other fellow Muslims and friends. In this way, Muslims can fortify their relationships among their friends and relatives by choosing peace and harmony as their way of life.During this month-long celebration, Muslims will invite their relatives and friends over to their homes to join in the celebration and merriment. This special invitation – which is open to all visitors, irrespective of their race, creed and social status – is generally known as the “Open House” – a tradition that our foreign visitors find very fascinating. Primarily, the objective of the “Open House” is to create harmony and forge a better understanding among friends and relatives. This is the time of the year that you can sample the most delicious dishes from the traditional Malay culinary repertoire.

Sweet And Sour Meatballs

My mother love making these meatballs when we have a family gatherings. She will normally made a bit more so she can cook this sweet and sour dish the next day with the leftover mealballs. These meatballs is great on its own and will make a great appetizer for party and with the leftover you can make it into this delicious sweet and sour dish.

Ingredients for meatballs

1 pound of ground meat (can be pork, chicken or beef)
1 carrot – finely grated
6 water chestnuts - finely cubes
2 spring onions – finely chopped
2 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of soy sauce
2 tbsp of cornstarch
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Put all the above ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix well and let it marinate for an hour.
2. Form it into little balls . At this stage you can either deep fried the meatballs or bake it in a 400 degree F oven until golden brown.

Ingredients for the sweet and sour meatballs:

15 cooked meatballs
1 cup of pineapple - cubes
Half cucumber - cubes
1 small onions – quartered
1 large tomato – cut small
1/2 carrot - sliced thinly
1 clove of garlic - finely chopped

Sauce
4 tbsp of tomato ketchup
2 tbsp of sweet chili sauce
Juice of 2 lemon
2 tbsp of sugar
1 tsp of cornstarch
1 cup of chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and set it aside.
2. Heat some oil in a pan, stiry fry garlic, carrot and onions until fragrant.
3. Add in the sauce, bring it up to a boil, add in meatballs, cucumber, pineapple and tomato. Stir well until sauce reduce and thicken. Dish out and serve with rice.

Shrimp In Fruity Sauce

Most of us should be familiar with sweet and sour chicken or pork dish. Carlos and I are not a fan of pork so I decided to adapt this dish to shrimp. This is a quick and easy stir-fry dish that can be done in minutes.

Ingredient :

1/2 pound of shrimp - peel and deveined
1/2 cucumber - cut in chunks
1 cup of pineapple - cut in chunks
6 strawberry - cut in half
1/2 a mango - cut in chunks
1 medium size onion - quartered
2 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 tsp of freshly grated ginger

Sauce :

3/4 cup of orange juice
3 tbsp of lemon juice - optional
2 tbsp of plump sauce
3 tbsp of tomato ketchup
1 tsp of corn starch
1 tsp of sugar - optional
salt and pepper to taste

1) Mixed all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Heat up a pan with a little bit of oil. Add in chopped garlic, onions, ginger and stir fry till lightly brown.
2) Add in shrimps and stir fry for a few second until it changes color. Then add in all the cut fruits and cucumber. Stir for a few second and add in the sauce.
3) Stir and bring to boil and check seasoning.
4) Serve with warm rice.

Yee Sang and CNY Dinner 2011

This year CNY falls on a weekday so it is just like any other working day here in the US. Diana can’t be home until Friday so we decided to have our dinner only on Saturday, the 3rd day of CNY. I prepared the usual CNY dishes like Yee Sang (Asian Salad), Ngor hiang (5 spice meat rolls), Siew Yoke (roast pork) Hong Bak (siew pork in black soy sauce), sweet and sour chicken, Butter prawns and a mix vegetable dish. It took me nearly the whole just to prepared and cook these dishes. By the time it was done I was dead tired ha ha... but most important we enjoyed the meal and so was our guest.

This is the first time I prepared Yee Sang and it turn out really well. I even made this dish for our Malaysian get together the very next day and it was well received by everyone. I am happy with that.