English Gourd and Carrot Soup

English gourd or chayote can be found at very reasonable price in hypermarket. I bought one less than MYR1. Besides using it for stir-frying, it's a good ingredients for soup boiling. Both cooking methods are  great with the natural sweetness of English gourd.

English Gourd and Carrot Soup

Ingredients:

1 English gourd, cored and cut into cubes

1 carrot, peeled and cut into bite-sized

8 red dates, pitted

250gm of pork ribs

1 liter water

Seasonings:

Light soy sauce or salt to taste

Steps:

1. Blanch the pork ribs in boiling water, drain and set aside.

2. Add English gourd, carrot, pork ribs and red dates into the inner pot of slow cooker. 

3. Bring 1 liter water to a boil. Pour it over the ingredients.

4.Simmer under high heat for 2 hours, and turn to low heat for the last few hours.

5. Add seasonings and serve hot. 

Cream of Mushroom

This is a shortcut of preparing the cream of mushroom using Campbell's instant soup with some fresh white button mushrooms. I was worried that preparing mushroom soup from scratch was time consuming, so I came up with this idea, a blend of both instant soup and fresh mushrooms :)

Cream of Mushroom
Serves 2


Ingredients:
5 fresh white button mushrooms, chopped
2 packet of Campbell's instant cream of mushroom
1tbsp of olive oil
400ml of boiling water

Steps:
1. Heat up oil in a pan. Sauté mushroom for few minutes.
2. Pour the instant soup mixture in a bowl. Add the sautéed mushroom.
3. Add boiling water and stir.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Friends, what did you have for your Christmas eve dinner? Although both my family and hubby's family are not Christian, hubby and I took this opportunity to cook some special food at home. We had a merry and romantic Christmas celebration this year. We celebrated our wedding anniversary and Christmas together. Does it sound double happiness?

Instead of roasted chicken or turkey on the Christmas eve, I made up my mind to prepare Chicken Cordon Bleu with sauté vegetables, mashed potato, and creamy mushroom soup. We enjoyed our shopping to pick up the ingredients. The feeling was just so warm and happy. What's more joyful was the scrumptious home cooked meal for this special occasion. We had a peaceful Christmas eve dinner. :)

I'm trying very hard to dig from my memory something special regarding my previous Christmas celebration. Sadly, I couldn't recall a memorable Christmas. Perhaps, this year marked a memorable one. I'm sharing this dish with Sweet Spot's What's Your Favorite Christmas Dish Giveaway hosted by Swee San.

Chicken Cordon Bleu


Ingredients:
1 chicken breast
2 slices ham
2 slices Cheddar cheese
3 tbsp flour
dashes of black pepper powder
dashes of paprika powder
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp salted butter at room temp
cooking oil

Steps:

1. Debone and remove skin from the chicken breast. Cut the chicken breast into half. Pound the chicken meat.

2. Brush the top side of chicken breast with butter. Sprinkle paprika powder and black pepper powder on top of it. Place a slice of ham and a slice of cheese on each piece of breast. Roll up and secure ends with toothpicks.

3. Coat each chicken roll thoroughly with flour. Dip rolls into egg, then roll on bread crumbs.

4. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

5. Heat some oil in a wok. Shallow fry the chicken rolls until golden yellow.

6. Transfer it to baking pan. Remove the toothpicks. Bake for 10 minutes in preheated oven.

Chocolate Cupcake

I made these chocolate cupcakes with reference to ncrazykitchen, but it was not as fluffy as her version. Her recipe measurement is by spoon and bowl. Perhaps if I have the right measurement for the milk, I would be able to have better cupcakes. Anyway, these chocolate cupcakes are suitable for the Christmas theme, which is 2 days away from now. Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Glutinous Rice Balls For Winter Solstice

Sharing a bowl of glutinous rice balls and wishing you Happy Winter Solstice! 冬至快乐!
Did you have your bowl of festival dessert already?

Okra with Sambal

During working days, I just allow myself less than 30 minutes to prepare simple dinner. Okra with sambal is a vegetable dish that suits my hectic life. To reduce the cooking time, I prepared the sambal belacan before hand and stored in a air-tight container in the fridge. So, I can serve the sambal with boiled okra or with white cabbage later on. This is another simple way to savor a vegetable dish.

Okra with Sambal

Ingredients:
12 Okra, get the head and tail discarded and cut into half
1 tbsp of garlic oil
water

Sambal :
5 red chili
4 bird's eye chili
1.5cm cube of balacan
3 calamansi
3 Kaffir lime leaves (choose the young leaves) - optional
1 tsp of sugar
1 tbsp of light soy sauce

Steps:
The Sambal

1. Toast the belacan in oven preheated at 200deg C for 10 minutes. Leave it cooled and mash it with a spoon.

2. Blend the chillies, belacan and Kaffir lime leaves till paste form.

3. Sieve in the calamansi juice.

4. Season it with light soy sauce and sugar.

The Okra
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add a tbsp of garlic oil. Blanch the okra in boing water for several minutes. Drain and dish out on a plate. Top the okra with sambal. Serve hot.

Money Bag Wonton

This is what I learned from my eldest sister. She used to cook this dish whenever we are invited to have dinner at her place. According to her, this Money Bag Wonton is a famous dish in a local Chinese restaurant.

In fact, the original size is bigger, and the filling consist of some other secret ingredients. Well, for my home made version, it’s been simplified in terms of ingredients and method. No more deep-frying is required as the job is taken over by oven. Sounds healthier right? The only thing is that the crispiness through the baking process won’t last long. So, it’s recommended to serve hot.

Money Bag Wonton

Ingredients:
1 packet of wonton skin
3 screw pine leaves, cut into thin strips about 10cm long
1 stalk of spring onion, get the green portion chopped
vegetable oil
banana leaf, cleaned and dried
a small bowl of water (to seal the wonton skin)

Filling:
100 grams lean pork, minced
110 grams medium-sized prawn, shelled, deveined and minced
2 dried shiitake mushroom, soaked, stalk removed and chopped
2 shallots, peeled and chopped

Marinades for the filling:
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
½ teaspoon of oyster sauce
1 teaspoon of glutinous rice wine
1 teaspoon of corn flour
Dashes of pepper

Steps:
1.Marinate the filling for 30 minutes.
2.Line a baking tray with banana leaf.
3.Preheat oven at 200 degree Celsius.
4.Put a piece of wonton skin on a clean chop board. Add ½ teaspoon of filling to the center of wonton skin. Top the filling with chopped onion. Wrap up the wonton and tie it up with a pre-cut screw pine strip. Rest it on the baking tray.
5.Repeat step 3 until the filling is used up.
6.Brush the wonton with vegetable oil. Bake for 20 minutes under 200 degree Celsius.

Lotus Root & Peanut Soup

This bowl of Lotus Root & Peanut Soup means a lot to me. It was cooked, dished out and photo shot by hubby. He even send over this photo to me while I'm at work. Can you imagine how precious is it? He knows nothing about cooking except soup boiling. That's what I trained him. So far, he did it pretty well. To my surprise, he prove his talent in food presentation. Can you see it from this photo?

For the recipe, please refer here.

Sweet Potato Leaves Stir-Fry

My parents in law's domestic helper plucked some sweet potato leaves for us to bring home. Instead of stir-fry it with sambal, I change another way to cook it. I just stir-fry the sweet potato leaves with garlic, chili and fermented bean. This is another way to savor this precious home grown vegetables.

Sweet Potato Leaves Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

Sweet potato leaves, rinsed

2 red chilies, seeded and chopped

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

1 tbsp of fermented beans

cooking oil

water

Seasonings:

Light soy sauce to taste

Steps:

1. Rinse the sweet potato leaves with water. Separate the leaf and stalk. Peel off the skin from the stalk. Cut the stalk into 5cm length.

2. Heat oil in a wok. Saute garlic, chilli and fermented bean till fragrant. Add sweet potatos leaves and stalk. Stir fry till evenly coated with oil. Pour in some water and bring to simmering.

3. Add light soy sauce to taste. Dish out and serve hot with rice.

Home Grown Vegetables

My parents in law's new domestic helper started her job back in May 2010. Since then, I'm seeing a major make over to the back yard. She plants quite a number of species there. She started with tomato plants. However, it was not a successful start. The plants were damaged by 2 rabbits from a neighbor. The rabbits hopped in from the front gate and enjoyed a nice meal munching on the tomato plants. :P

After the incident, she change her strategy to plant bird's eye chilli, screw pine and lemongrass. Then, new species were added by growing sweet potato leaf, sweet leaf (Pucuk Manis), spring onion, Kaffir lime leaf, pineapple, banana tree and papaya tree. 

The following are the snap shots of her hard work. 

 

Kaffir lime leaves

Sweet potato leave

Bird's eye chilli

Sweet leaf aka pucuk manis

Spring onion

Bali Hai Seafood Market

Bali Hai Seafood Market
90,90A,90B,90C,90D, Persiaran Gurney, 10250 Penang.
Tel: 04-2288272
Fax:04-2288273
Website: http://balihaiseafood.com/

Bali Hai Seafood Market is a place located along the Gurney Drive Penang. They serve dim sum for breakfast and seafood for dinner. A few hut shelters were set-up at the side. It's was so enjoyable to have our dim sum breakfast in one of the shelter. What made me happy was the delicious dim sum that hubby chose from the dim sum array. All suits my taste buds. Both of us left the restaurant with satisfying tummies.

My favorite crispy prawn roll served with Mayonnaise. A fried dim sum that I used to like these recent years.

Guo-Tie or Pot Stickers served with ginger in black vinegar. These are the well-done guo-tie. It's in  my to-do list now. 

Prawn dumpling or Har Gao. The prawns are fresh and juicy.

Braised chicken feet with spices. I seldom take chicken feet when dine out. So, most of it went to his stomach. :)

Minced pork and crab stick in seaweed.

Pork dumpling or Siew Mai. It tastes average.

Assam Curry Prawns

Prawn is actually a good source of Protein that has lower calories compared to other meat. Its Cholesterol content is also much more lower than crab and squid. Just get the head discarded and veins removed in order to savor prawn in a healthier way.

My mum's assam curry prawn is the dish that makes me mouth-watering whenever I think about it. How can one resist to have such an appetizing spicy tamarind curry? That's why I got my mum verbally pass on her recipe to me. The assam curry prawns is cooked through the similar steps as assam curry fish. I truely enjoyed my weekend lunch savoring the fresh, juicy and tender jumbo prawns. Viola!

Assam Curry Prawns

Serves 5

Ingredients:

500 grams jumbo prawns

fresh curry paste

3 stalk of lemongrass, get the white portion bruised

1 ginger bud, quartered

5 Kaffir lime leaves

1 tomato, diced

1 Japanese cucumber, cut into bite-sized

1 onion, peeled and diced

cooking oil

50ml water

Seasonings:

light soy sauce to taste

brown sugar to taste

a ping pong-sized of tamarind pulp with 200ml of water (mix and strain the juice)

Steps:

1. Heat up the wok with enough oil. Stir fry the onion, Kaffir lime leave, lemongrass, ginger bud and curry paste for few minutes until fragrant.

2. Sieve in the tamarind juice and 50ml of water. Bring to a boil. Add prawns, stir and cover the lid for a while. 

3. Add tomato and cucumber. Stir well. Add seasonings to taste. Cook until the prawns curled up. Serve hot with rice.

Black Bean Soup

Black bean really comes in handy in my kitchen. Whenever I lack of fresh ingredients for soup, black bean soup will be the soup of the day. The soup is nutritious as the black bean contains fiber, protein, flavonoid anti-oxidant, vitamins and minerals. More info can be found here. 

Some people boil the soup with dong quai, but I used to boil the black bean soup with garlic and pork ribs, and seasoned with light soy sauce. That's about it, and finally let the slow cooker perform the simmering job. It sounds extremely easy, right?

Black Bean Soup

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

150 grams black bean, rinsed with running water

1 bulb of garlic, peeled

200 grams of pork ribs, blanched

1.5 liter water

light soy sauce to taste

Steps:

1. Add pork rib, black bean and garlic to the slow cooker pot. 

2. Bring water to boil in a pot. Pour it into the slow cooker pot. Leave the ingredients to cook under high heat for at least 3 hours. Then shift it to low heat and leave it simmers for another 2 hours or until the bean is softened.

3. Add light soy sauce to taste. Serve hot with rice.

Home Grown Spring Onion

I'm in the progress to achieve my dream to have a little spice garden at home. I have very little knowledge and experience in gardening. First, I started to grow mint and parsley back in August this year. The Parsley didn't last long. Within a week, the plant was dried up. On the other hand, the mint plant grows pretty well. I'm neither a green thumb or black thumb. 50-50, I would say? So far, a few batches of home grown mint leaves were harvested to make mint leave omelet, assam laksa and mint leaves soup. 

About a week ago, I planted a few shallots into a pot. Now, each shallot blossoms into spring onion. It is so easy to plant it at home and it shoots pretty fast. Furthermore, it requires no special care, except sun light and water to survive. Spring onion doesn't last long in fridge. So, it is a good idea to grow on your own and harvest it anytime you need it.Soon, I'll utilise this fresh home grown spring onion in my culinary, either raw or cooked.

Fried Macaroni - The Fusion style

When I was a kid, I hate to have macaroni. I just don't like the taste when cooked in chicken stock. It's too bland to my liking. However, ever since I discovered this fusion style fried macaroni, it has become my favorite meal at home. Through simple cooking, the macaroni has transformed into a flavorful one-pot-dish. Well, I do change the ingredients from time to time to get a different flavor. Overall, I would say macaroni cooked in this way tastes so good! yummz!

Fried Macaroni - The Fusion style
Serves 3


Ingredients:
Macaroni, portion for 3, cooked per the packaging instruction (I cooked it longer to get softer texture)
3 Brussel sprouts, sliced horizontally
1 onion, peel and diced
a half palm-sized portion of char siew, chopped
2 caps of dried shiitake mushroom, dehydrated and chopped
2 eggs, beaten lightly
cooking oil

Seasonings:
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp chili paste
2 tbsp water

Steps:
1. Heat up 1 tbsp oil in a wok. Fry the egg in 2 batches into 2 egg sheets. Set aside for cooling. Roll up a piece of egg sheet and sliced it thinly. Do the same for the 2nd piece. Set aside for the garnishing later.
2. Heat up 2 tbsp of oil in the same wok. Fry onion till transparent. Add char siew and mushroom to stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add Brussel sprouts and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Toss in the boiled macaroni and seasonings. Fry for 3 minutes.
3. Dish out and garnish with egg strips. Serve hot.

Peri-Peri Grilled Fish

I have no regret in buying a non-stick grill pan. It's is one of  the essential cookware for me right now. My first cooking experiment with the grill pan goes to Peri-Peri Grilled Fish. Just like the chicken kebab, the fish fillets were basted with Nando's Peri-Peri sauce and chopped garlic. It was then pan-grilled to perfection. This is a simple way to spice up a fish dish. Next, I shall try to pan-grill meat/poultry, seafood and even vegetables. 

Peri-peri Grilled Fish

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
220 grams fish fillets (I used Kurau fish), de-boned, cleaned and pat dried
1 tbsp of vegetable oil

Marinades:
2 tbsp of hot Per-peri sauce
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
pinch of salt

Steps:
1. Marinate the fish fillets and leave in fridge for 2-3 hours.
2. Heat oil in a grill pan. Brown the fish on both sides. Serve hot with rice.

Meat Ball & Capsicum In Tomato Sauce

Meat ball and capsicum are perfect match. Pair it up with onion and tomato sauce, and you'll get a delectable dish to serve with rice. To simplify the cooking, the meat ball can be shallow fried in non-stick pan or wok instead of deep frying. The meat ball is equally tasty with 2 different methods, but shallow fried version sounds more healthy.

Meat Ball & Capsicum In Tomato Sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients:

200gm of minced meat (pork, beef or chicken)

Cooking oil

Marinades for the meat:

1 1/2 tbsp of light soy sauce

1 tsp of sesame oil

dash of pepper

1 1/2 tbsp of corn starch

2 shallots, chopped

The Sauce:

1/2 onion, diced

1 green capsicum, cut into rectangle shape

1 yellow capsicum, cut into rectangle shape

3-4 tbsp of tomato sauce

1 tsp of light soy sauce

1 tsp of brown sugar

200ml water

Steps:

1. Marinate the minced meat for 20 minutes. Then wet your palms with water and shape the marinated meat into meat balls. Set aside on a clean plate.

2. Heat some oil in a non-stick pan or wok, shallow fry the meat balls using medium heat. Rotate the meat balls from time to time until all surface turned golden brown. Rest it on kitchen towel and transfer it to a serving plate.

3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a clean wok, sauté onion for 2 minutes. Add capsicum and stir fry for another 2 minutes. Add all ingredients for the sauce and bring to simmering. Off the flame, and pour the sauce over the fried meat balls. Serve hot with rice.

Koay Teow Th'ng aka Flat Noodle Soup (粿條汤)

"Koay Teow" is a type of  flat rice noodle that is made of rice flour. The very thin layer of rice flour mixture is then steamed to thin sheet and laminated with vegetable oil before cutting into flat rice noodle. Flat noodle soup aka koay teow th'ng is one of famous Penang street food. If you dine out for koay teow th'ng, most probably your meal portion is over dosed with MSG. It can't be avoided. Hence, to be at the safe side, I prefer to cook it at home.  

The cooking step is pretty simple and straight forward. Dish blanched koay teow into a bowl. Pour chicken stock over the koay teow. Garnish it with hand-pulled chicken strips, fish balls, lettuce and fried garlic. It's best served with bird's eye chili dips. Viola! I love this type of homey meal.

I'm sharing the dish with PPN#189 (by Ruth from Once Upon A Feast) which is hosted by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours.

Vegetarian Fried Rice With Spices

This is a good recipe on a meatless day. It’s my own version of vegetarian fried rice with spices. With so many fresh spices around in Malaysia, it’s definitely an advantage in cooking a vegetarian meal. For example, the ginger bud and Kaffir lime leaves that I used in this fried rice could easily be found in the wet market. The spices are not only infused the rice with pleasant fragrance, but it also make the food more presentable.  Anyone said vegetarian meal is bland? This will proof you wrong.

Vegetarian Fried Rice With Spices
Serves 3


Ingredients:
1.3-1.5 cups of rice, cooked and leave it cooled
1 broccoli stem, cubed
1 carrot, peeled and cubed
12 French beans, chopped
8 cloves of shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
6 Kaffir lime leaves, cut into thin strips
1/2 of ginger bud, chopped
cooking oil

Seasonings:
3tbsp of light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp of dark soy sauce (optional)

Garnishing:
1/4 of ginger bud, chopped

Steps:
1. Heat enough oil in a wok. Fry the shallots till golden yellow.
2. Add carrot and sauté for 2 minutes. Toss in the French bean and broccoli stem to sauté for another 1 minute.
3. Pour in the cooled rice and light soy sauce. Fry till the rice is evenly coated with soy sauce.
4. Add Kaffir lime leaves and ginger bud. Stir to mix well. Of the flame and dish out. Garnish with chopped ginger bud.

Spaghetti Stir-Fried With Laksa Leaves

The fresh laksa leaves that was left over from the assam laksa was utilized in this spaghetti stir-fry. I thought the spaghetti will be infused with lemony flavor from the laksa leaves, Who knows, it's pretty tasteless per hubby's feedback. So, don't be fooled by it's appealing look. Anyway, hubby was very supportive as he finished up all the portion that I specially prepared for his lunch. 

Spaghetti With Laksa Leaves
Serves 1

Ingredients:
spaghetti, portion for 1
1 Brussel sprout, horizontally sliced
18 pieces of laksa leaf
6 medium-sized prawns, shelled and deveined
1/2 onion, peeled and thinly diced
cooking oil
chili for garnishing (optional)

Seasonings:
Salt and pepper



Steps:
1. Cook the spaghetti per the packaging intruction till al dente. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat some oil in a wok. Saute onion till soft it not browned. Add laksa leaves and Brussel sprout to combine and  stir fry for 2 minutes.
3. Ass prawns and saute for 2 minutes. Toss in spaghetti and saute with the ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Dish out and garnish with chili.

Penang Assam Laksa

Assam laksa is one of Penang's famous street food. The silky smooth rice noodle in hot and spicy fish soup is garnished with lots of fresh veggies and served with prawn paste as condiment. The contribution of mint leaves, ginger bud, laksa leaves, pineapple, lemon grass, tamarind juice, belacan, onion and cucumber gives the assam laksa a distinctive flavor. It's pungent, sweet, sour and spicy. It's mouth-watering indeed. Gosh, I'm addicted!

I'm sharing the dish with Presto Pasta Nights #188, which is hosted by Ruth from Once Upon A Feast.

Penang Assam Laksa

serves 4-5

Ingredients:

1kg fresh laksa noodle
5 mackerel fish, gutted and cleaned
a ping pong ball sized of tamarind, mixed with 200ml water, strained and retain the juice
3 tbsp of chili paste

(A)
2 liter water
15 sprigs of laksa leaves
half ginger bud, sliced into 4
3 stalk of lemon grass (the white portion), lightly smashed with the back of clever knife
                                   2 onions and 1.5cm cube of belacan, blended
Seasonings
brown sugar
salt

Garnishing
mint leaves
half bunga kantan, chopped
1 cucumber, cut into strips
quarter of a small pineapple, peeled and cut into steps
1 1/2 tbsp of shrimp paste diluted with 2 tbsp of hot water

Steps:
1. Put ingredient (A) in a pot. Bring to a low simmering boil for 2 minutes. Continue to simmer for 5 minutes. Add the mackerel fish and bring to boil for 10 minutes or until cooked.

2. Remove the fish from the soup and leave it cool. Then flake the fish, break into pieces and return to the soup. 

3. Add chili paste and sieve in the tamarind juice and leave it simmers under low heat. 

4. Flake the fish, break the flesh into pieces and return to the soup. 

5. Add seasoning to taste. Continue to simmer for 1-2 minutes.

6.To serve, put a handful of laksa noodles in a metal strainer and immerse in a pot of boiling water to scald the noodles for half a minute. Drain and put into a bowl. Add a little of each garnish. Pour laksa soup over the noodle and garnish. Drizzle a little prawn paste over and serve hot.

Flour Noodle Soup aka Pan Meen 清汤板面

After making the flour noodle, I cooked it into this flour noodle soup. The hand made flour noodle was very successful. When the noodle is cooked to al dente, the texture is springy. Most importantly, it's chemical free. 

For the garnishing, I follow the traditional pan meen, which includes fried anchovies, fish balls, meat balls, minced pork, pucuk manis and black fungus strips. I'm proud of it as everything's home made. This is another achievement that cheer me up for a whole day. 

See the al dente hand made flour noodle?

I'm sharing this dish with Presto Pasta Nights #187 founded by Ruth from Once Upon A Feast, and hosted by Tigerfish from teczcape-an escape to food.

Flour Noodle Soup 清汤板面

Serves 4

Ingredients:
home made flour noodle (portion for 4)

2 cups of anchovies, preferably to get the heads removed

1 cap of black fungus, soaked for 15 minutes and drain. Cut into thin strips

160gm of minced pork, marinade

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

a handful of pucuk manis

8 meatballs

8 fish balls

1.6 liter water

cooking oil

Marinades:

1tbsp of light soy sauce

dash of white pepper powder

Seasonings:

salt to taste (if required)

Steps:

1. Marinate the minced pork with 1tbsp of light soy sauce and dash of pepper. Set aside.

2. Wash and drain the anchovies. Dry it with kitchen towel. Spread it on a baking pan. Bake it in over under 150 degree C for 10-15 minutes.

3. Heat about 1/2 cup of oil in a wok under medium flame. Fry the baked anchovies until golden brown. Drain the oil and set aside.

4. Bring 1.6 liter of water to a boil in a pot. Add fried anchovies to simmer for 20 minutes. Sieve the broth and bring back to simmer.

5. In parallel to prepare the broth, heat 2tbsp of oil in a wok. Sauté garlic till fragrant. Stir-fry the marinated minced pork for 5 minutes. Set aside.

6. Add black fungus strips in the same wok to stir-fry for 1 minute. Sprinkle with some water if too dry.

7. Bring another pot of water to a boil. Cook the flour noodle for 8 minutes. Drain and divide the portion into 4 bowls.

8. Add meatballs, fish balls and pucuk manis in the simmering broth. Add salt to taste. Cook until the fish balls floated. Divide the ingredients into the 4 bowls with noodle. Garnish with fried minced pork, fried anchovies and black fungus strips.

Home Made Flour Noodle (Pan Mee) 板面制作

We invested on a pasta maker a couple of months back. However, it was just sitting in a corner of my  kitchen cabinet. Then one day I bumped into several interesting posts on home made noodle. Then I felt like my hands were itchy to try on my own too. Hence, I started with a simple recipe to make flour noodle (pan mee).

Overall, I'm happy that I got to learn how to make noodle. The only thing is the kneading's pretty tiring. Next, I'll proudly present to you my home cooked pan mee. :-)

Flour Noodle (Pan Mee)
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 cups of plain flour
1 egg
about 3/4 cup of water
1/2 tsp salt

Steps:

1. Add flour in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle. Add an egg and salt into the well. Using a fork, slowly bring flour surrounded the well to mix with the egg.

2. Add water slowly and mix the dough with hand. Stop adding water when all the ingredients are about to combine together. Knead the dough. Add more water if too dry. Continue to knead for a few minutes. Make the dough into a ball and store in a bowl and cover it up with wet cloth for 30 minutes.

3. After 30 minutes, you’ll notice the dough turns softer compared to earlier. Knead it for a couple of minutes.

4. Divide the dough into 4 portions. Dust the kitchen top with flour. Flatten one portion into sheet using roller pin. Roll the sheet over the pasta machine. Continue for the balance 3 portions.
5. Cook the noodle in your favorite way.

Home Made Makizushi 寿司巻

Hubby and I have been dining out for sushi quite frequent. We will have sushi for dinner almost every Saturday evening. We opt for something light when dining out, and eventually sushi become our favorite food. Also a packet of sushi making set was bought to DIY at home. 

After watching some video clips to pick up the basic skills, we hands on to make our own sushi. Hubby helped to cook sushi rice and mix it up with some vinegar. Also, he cling-wrapped the makisu (bamboo roll), as per my instruction, hehe... Then I prepared some other simple ingredients like Japanese cucumber, steamed crab stick filamen, fried egg and steamed sausage. I cut up all the ingredients into strips. Then, I followed the steps like what I learned from the video clips. See my first piece of work? Although it doesn't look perfect, but I'm satisfied with the first trial. That was our simple and yet fulfilling dinner.

To polish up my sushi making skill, I'll practice more to make different variety of sushi and to use other type of fillings. Stay tuned!

Chili Sauce

My earlier dish - the steamed chicken was served with this home made chili sauce. It's the common dips that you'd find in local chicken rice. It's a great condiment to complement the steamed chicken, roasted chicken and roasted pork. Without it, my steamed chicken will not taste such good. Thanks to the powerful chili sauce! It's pungent, sweet, spicy, salty, garlicky, gingery and zesty. It's so flavorful and yet simple to make!

Chili Sauce
Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
4 red chilis, seeded and cut into pieces
8 bird eye's chilis
1cm cube of ginger, peeled
3 cloves of garlic, peeled

Seasoning:
juice of 3 calamanci
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
salt to taste
brown sugar to taste

Steps:
Blend ingredients together. Add seasonings and mix well. Store in air tight container and keep in fridge. Try to finish it up in a week.

Steamed Cod Fish

Remember my previous experience on Pan-Fried Cod Fish? I bought the cod fish fillets from a supermarket. It wasn't frozened. The imported cod fish and salmon fish were sold just like local fish, on ice cubes. It looked fresh but tasted weird after cooked. That was a bad experience few months ago. Since then, I have no guts to buy cod fish. I'll dine out for cod fish instead. But, the price per piece of steamed fish fillet is more than MYR35. The price is doubled or tripled the price of a piece of frozen raw cod fish. 

One day, after getting my green light, hubby brought back few item of imported frozen seafood. That included a packet of frozen cod fish fillet, scallop and cat fish with a total price of MYR44. Reasonable price? I guess it is. In order to test whether the fish is fresh or not, steaming is the best method. I just proceed to steam the fish. With just the simple cooking method, the cod fish tastes fabulous! I gain confidence on frozen cod fish now. We can savor cod fish dish at home with lower cost from now on. :P

The cod fish is fresh, no fishy smell and velvety smooth.

Steamed Cod Fish

Ingredients:

1 piece of cod fish fillet, washed with salt and water

6 slices of ginger

3cm cube of ginger, peeled and cut into thin strips

cooking oil

Sauce:
1& 1/2 tspof light soy sauce

1/2 tsp of sesame seed oil
1 tsp of fried garlic

Steps:
1. Pat dry the fish fillet and put on a heat-proof plate. Arrange ginger slices on top on it. Steam over high heat for 12 minutes.
2. Heat some oil in a wok. Fry the ginger strips till crispy. Set aside.
3. Mix all the ingredient to form the sauce. Set aside.
4. When the fish is done, discard the excess liquid. Pour the sauce over the fish and garnish with fried ginger. Serve hot with rice.

Steamed Free Range Chicken

I like chicken cooked in this way. It's very simple to cook and the best part is the meat remains juicy and tender through out the steaming process. 

I don't usually cook a whole chicken, but this time, I did it. I got myself to learn something new today. Chopping up the chicken into pieces using clever knife is something that I haven't master and I have no confidence to do it at the moment.  Hence, I look for the alternate way which is to carve a chicken using a knife and a fork. I want to learn how to carve a chicken. I found this video, and I follow the steps.  I did it eventually! Just a few gentle cuts to the chicken and it's quatered nicely. Besides, I save the chicken carcass  for soup boiling next.

I'm glad to learn up a new skill today. A little accompliment can make me happy. That's the reason I like cooking.

Steamed  Free Range Chicken

Ingredients:

1 whole free range chicken

Seasoning:

1 tbsp of sesame oil
1/2 tsp of salt

Steps:

1. Clean the chicken. Leave the skin on.
2. Rub the chicken with salt, follow by sesame oil. Put it on a heat-proof plate
3. Steam the chicken for 20 minutes.
4. Chop or carve the chicken into pieces.

Hai Boey Seafood

Hai Boey Seafood 海尾海鲜
29, Mk-9, Pasir Belanda, Teluk Kumbar, 11920 Penang, Malaysia.
Phone: 013-4881114, 019-4791114
Open daily 5.30pm - 11pm

One evening after work, I thought of having some seafood. So, we drove all the way to Hai Boey Seafood again. We were their first customer of the day. Yes! Our food was served in few minutes time.

Spinach with Salted Duck Egg and Century Egg 上汤梘菜

Fried Flat Noodle with Gravy, portion for 1 cost MYR4

This is not as good as their fried emperor noodle. It's lack of fragrant smell from the frying process. The fried emperor noodle suits my taste better. 

Big Prawns Stir Fried With Dried Shrimp

This dish has nothing special, except the prawns are fleshy and succulent. Also, it is not as spicy as per the waiter's description. 

Mantis Prawn, 280gm cost MYR12

This is my favorite mantis prawn in Kam Heong sauce. It's crispy and fragrant. A very appealing dish to go with rice.

Meat Crabs Stir-Fried with Spices, 560gm cost MYR28

A dish that we wouldn't miss, the crabs. The crabs were steamed before stir-frying with spice. Love the fragrant smell from the curry leaves.

This is a nice place to dine in for seafood as you can enjoy the sea breeze and sea view. This round we just ordered a few simple dishes which we haven't tried before. If you want to know more about the Hai Boey's signature dishes, click here.