Mint Leaves Omelet

I'm not good in gardening. You can find there are only few pots of plant at my house. However, I have a dream...... I wish to have a small spice garden at home. :)

I started my plan about a month ago. The first herb that I grow in a small pot is the easy growing herb, the mint leaves. At first it didn't grow well. But day after day I observe new leaves started to grow. Then after some time, I noticed that it looks like it's dying, but miraculously the next day it is back to healthy looking again. So, I think I better do something before it's too late. I'm harvesting the first batch of home grown mint leaves. The first batch of leaves just enough for 2.

I used it for mint leaves omelet. My late grandma in law (MIL's mum) used to cook this when we went back to hubby's home town. She told me that it was my hubby's favorite. My mom never cook omelet in this way. So, I learned from late grandma. Late grandma was the chef at home. Although she faced some inflexibility in mobile, she insisted to cook until a year before she left us on 19th August 2009.

I'm sharing this dish with Baby in the City - KL's Merdeka Open Day 2010. The theme of this year is Food From Our Hearts. Happy Merdeka Day to all Malaysian!

Mint Leaves Omelet

Serves 2 to 3

Ingredients:

3 eggs
a handful of mint leaves
1 tbsp of cooking oil

Seasoning:

1 1/2 tbsp of light soy sauce

Steps:

1. Crack the eggs into a bowl. Add soy sauce and get the egg beaten.

2. Heat oil in a wok. Pour the egg mixture to fry. When it's almost cook at the bottom, toss the mint leaves on top of egg. Turn the egg to fry the other side for about 30 seconds. Fold the omelet into half and dish out.

Hawaiian Tuna Pizza (Tortilla Crust)

My first attempt of pizza making was the meat crust pizza. Although hubby keep on requesting for more, but I take no action. This round I used tortilla for the crust instead of meat. If you like thin crust, then tortilla is a good choice. This is a no fuss recipe that anyone can follow. With the same concept, you can add whatever toppings you like. You can even make a veggies pizza for a healthier selection.

With just a few steps, the hawaiian tuna pizza above is ready for our afternoon snack. The crust is crispy after baking and the melted cheese is just plain yummy.

Hawaiian Tuna Pizza (Tortilla Crust)

Makes 1 tortilla pizza 

Ingredients:

1 flour tortilla, 8 inch
3 tbsp spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce
pineapple cubes
3 tbsp of Mayonnaise tuna
4 cherry tomatoes, halved
about 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese at room temperature

Steps:

1. Place a tortilla on a baking tray. Spread spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce to within inch of edges.

2. Spread the mayonnaise tuna on the spaghetti sauce layer. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Top with pineapple cubes and cherry tomatoes. Bake under 180 deg C until the cheese melts. Serve hot.

Fruit Sponge Cake

Fruit sponge cake is the classic dessert to have for one's birthday. This sponge cake is soft and smooth, and the fluffy texture is kind of melting in your mouth. With a lavish coat of whipped cream and peach sandwiched in between the sponge cake, it tastes heavenly.

This fruit cake is just divine. I'm still drooling while writing this. Thanks to my dear! The cake  was bought by him from Bread History in Queensbay Mall.

Although I'm still a beginner in baking, but I hope I can bake a simple fruit sponge cake for him in this coming September. Basically I have an idea in my mind, let's see if my simple and healthy version of fruit cake will work out fine. Wish me luck. :P

Roast Chicken and Assorted Vegetables

My low cost tabletop oven is my good kitchen helper. Whenever I'm lazy to cook, it helps to perform the cooking. See, this is our palatable meal on last weekend prepared by the oven. We had roasted free range chicken with all sorts of vegetables. It took me very little effort to season the chicken, and my kitchen helper carried out the roasting task. Doesn't it look glorious and lip-smacking?

I've not cooking any chicken dish since the last dish of chicken stew. We limit the intake of chicken and try our best to only consume free range chicken at home. Since I have a fresh free range chicken, so I used half of it for the roast chicken. For the roast/bake chicken recipe, you can refer to my earlier post as listed below:

Bake Chicken with Home Made Sauce

Roast Chicken Thigh with Herbs 

Roast Chicken Thigh with McCormick Onion Gravy Mix 

Roast Chicken Thigh Platter 

Roast Chicken with Rosemary  

Roast Drumstick with Fruits Salad  

Enjoy!

Bak Kut Teh （Pork Ribs Tea Soup) 肉骨茶

Bak Kut Teh (Pork Ribs in Tea Soup) is  my dad's favorite. My dad is a pork lover. He likes almost every part of a pig from pork ear, pork belly, pork tail, pork trotter to pork intestines. Although mom seldom cook Bak Kut Teh at home, but cooking it once in a blue moon does cheer him up.

I don't like Bak Kut Teh until the recent years. This is my second time of cooking bak kut teh over the past few years. The savory soup is heavenly infused with Chinese herbs, but not overpowering. It'll be so blissful to have a bowl of hot soup on rainy day to warm up my stomach.

A bowl of home cooked bak kut teh...hmm...can you smell the aroma? I don't add pork intestines, but I have pork belly, pork ribs, meatballs, enoki mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, green veggies, and fried-beancurd. With the dipping sauce, that's enough to boost my appetite.

I'm sharing this non-halal dish in Merdeka Open House 2010 organized by Babe in the City - KL

Bak Kut Teh （Pork Ribs Tea Soup)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

450gm of pork ribs, chopped into pieces
250gm of pork belly, cut into bite size
20 meatballs
3 pieces of hard beancurd, cut into bite-sized and fried till golden brown
6 caps of dried shiitake mushroom, dehydrated
200gm of enoki mushroom, cut-off the bottom part and cleaned
1 bulb of garlic, cleaned
40gm of bak kut teh spices mix (I use a packet of "Claypot" brand Bakuteh Kau)
yau mak or lettuce 
2 liter water or more

Seasonings:

1tbsp of oyster sauce
1/2 tsp of dark soy sauce (for coloring)
light soy sauce to taste

Dipping Sauce (Mix-up all):

chopped garlic
bird's eye chili, chopped
dark soy sauce
light soy sauce

Steps:

1. Bring water to boil in a pot. Add a bulb of garlic and the 2 filter bags of bak kut teh spices. Leave it simmers for 15 minutes.

2. Blanch the pork ribs and pork belly in hot boiling water to remove scum.

3. Add the pork ribs and pork belly into the soup and leave it simmer for 1 hour. Top up water from time to time. Add seasonings.

4. Add the shiitake mushroom and fried beancurd. Leave it simmers for another 1 hour.

5. Add meatballs, enoki mushroom and veggies. Dish out and serve hot with white rice or yam rice.

Cheese Baked Fish

A couple of weeks ago, my lady boss gave us a lunch treat in a restaurant. The Western food that I ordered on that day was Cheese Baked Fish. That's where I learned to make this at home. It tastes almost the same, except my choice of Sutchi fish does not have the muddy smell like the Dory fish that served in that restaurant. This will be the credit to my home made version. :)

Cheese Baked Fish

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 medium fish fillet (I use Sutchi fish)
16 cherry tomatoes, half
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and grated
Half lemon, juiced
black pepper powder
salt
cooking oil
Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Steps:

1. Line the baking tray with aluminum foil. Oil the base with vegetable oil. Place the fillets onto it.

2. Sprinkle both sides of fillets with grated garlic, salt and pepper. Top the fish fillets with shredded Mozzarella cheese. Arrange halved cherry tomato on top of it.

3. Bake at 200C for 12 minutes or until fish is done.

4. Sprinkle the fish fillets with lemon juice and serve hot.

Steamed Meatball and Nagaimo

I tweak the previous Shrimp Ball Tofu recipe into this Steamed Meatball and Nagaimo. I replaced the shrimp ball with mushroom meatballs and tofu with nagaimo. For the food presentation wise, I made some changes as well. Instead of using goji berries to bring out the color of the dish, I substituted with grated carrot this time.

Why Nagaimo? Because I'm so impressed by a cooking show that the chef uses Nagaimo in her healthy Chinese cuisine. She promotes the healthy benefits of eating raw and steamed nagaimo. That's where I learned to use Nagaimo in our daily diet.

Steamed Meatball and Nagaimo is not only low in calories, but it's high in Protein and minerals. Hence, it's a healthy dish to prepare at home.

I don't have exact measurement for this recipe, but I'll share roughly on the steps. First, the minced pork is marinated with soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, chopped mushroom and corn flour and store in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Next, peel the Nagaimo and cut into 2cm thickness cylinder. Arrange the Nagaimo on a heat-proof plate. Then, arrange the marinade pork into balls and place on top of Nagaimo. Top the meatballs with grated carrot. Steam over high flame for 8 minutes.

Fried Vermicelli with ShaCha Sauce 沙茶酱炒米粉

Shacha sauce is very popular in Taiwanese cuisine. The paste acts as seasoning for stir-fry dishes. I've been hunting for this ready-made sauce for quite some time, and I finally found it. :) There's only one imported brand from Taiwan that is available, so no choice for us as consumer. The only selection available is vegetarian or spicy non-vegetarian. So, I go for the latter.

Before adding it in my cooking, I personally smell and taste the sauce upfront. The shacha sauce is made of plenty of spices and ingredients like garlic, shallots, chilies, bean oil, brill fish, and dried shrimp. Though it is full of flavor, but it's not salty. That is for the one I got. The taste may be varies for other brand. Up to date, I've been using it for 3-4 times, mainly for fried vermicelli. I like my fried vermicelli with ShaCha sauce. How about you?

I'm sharing the dish with Presto Pasta Nights # 175 hosted by the founder, Ruth from Once Upon A Feast. Enjoy!

Fried Vermicelli with ShaCha Sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Vermicelli (amount for 2)
1 egg, fried and cut into strips
1/2 carrot, julienned
some cabbage, cut into thin strips
10 jumbo prawns, shelled and deveined
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
3 tbsp of vegetable oil

Seasonings (mix together):

1 1/2 tbsp of shacha sauce
3 tbsp of light soy sauce (adjust based on the saltiness of your ShaCha sauce)
1 tsp of dark soy sauce
100ml of water or less ( I add 50ml of water and the rest is added based on the judgment in the frying process)

Steps:

1. Soak the vermicelli in room temperature water for at least 20 minutes or until soft. Drain and set aside.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in the wok and saute garlic until fragrant. Add the prawns, and cabbage to stir-fry for 2 minutes.

3. Add vermicelli and seasonings and mix well. Continue to stir-fry until the sauce is thickening. Toss  the carrot and egg to the vermicelli. Stir-fry for 1 minute. Dish out and serve hot.

Sweet, Sour and Spicy Shrimps

We don't take jumbo shrimps that often.... so it is rare to find me cooking jumbo shrimps at home. Even if I did cook, jumbo shrimp is just a condiment to steamboat or noodle stuff like what I did for local Malay prawn noodle. I don't have a recipe of jumbo shrimps, but I'm now going into that path. For the first time of my shrimp recipe, I keep the ingredients to the minimal and the simplest cooking method....steaming. As long as the shrimps are fresh, steaming is the best way to retain the original flavor.

When the shrimp is perfectly cooked, you can feel its crunch and firm texture when you bite on it. This jumbo shrimp appetizer with sweet, hot and spicy flavors, hoo...hoo...it's really tempting.

Sweet, Sour and Spicy Shrimps

Ingredients:

10 jumbo prawns

Stuffing (adjust to your liking):
garlic, peeled and chopped
Thai bird's eye chili. seeded and chopped
parsley
calamansi juice
salt/ light soy sauce
sugar

Steps:

1. Cut off 1/3 of the shrimp head. Leave the shell on. Slit along the back of the shrimp about half depth of the flesh.Remove the vein and clean under running water. Set aside.

2. Mix all the stuffing ingredients. Stuff it into the back of the shrimps. Arrange the shrimps on a heat-proof plate.

3. Steam it under hot boiling water for 5 minutes.