Pan-Fried Yam Cake

Once in a while, my mom will make her secret recipe yam cake. I have not learnt this up from her yet. Also, I'm not too sure about the ingredients. But after eating them for so long, I think I managed to guess the ingredients. :P It must be a mix of yam cubes, stir fried dried shrimps, shallots, and all sorts of flour mixture. After the batter is ready, it'll be poured into a baking pan for steaming.

When the steamed yam cake is done, mom will devide the cake into 4 portions. My eldest sis, my 2nd sis, and myself will get 1 quarter each, while mom will keep the balance quarter for herself, dad and also my brother's family. So, 4 of the siblings get the equal portion. Happy ending! Well, that's not the end of the story yet. We don't eat our steamed yam cake just like this. There are few more steps to follow before we can enjoy mom's delicacy...

Hmm...I sense that my mom used to spoil me. :-) I'm the youngest daughter, of course la. Normally, I'm the only one who will "win" her special service. She helps me to cut the yam cake into thin slices and arrange nicely in a food container to bring it home.

What I need to do is to pan fry the yam cake till it's fragrant and crispy. My trusty non-stick pan plays an important role here. So, this is what I get. Serve it with chilli sauce, it's superb!

Chicken Thigh In "Chinese Red Wine" 红糟鸡腿

I'm lucky to get one bottle of Hong Zhao from Wai Wai 2 weeks ago. This is the harvest from Elaine's MIL after marinating the Hong Zhao for 2 months. Each time her MIL will just have only 12 bottles for sale. Sorry for other customers cuz I've cut queue. ;P You must be jealous as this special bottle of Hong Zhao and some dry ingredients were dedicated to me for free of charge! Thanks again. Elaine.

Hong Zhao 红糟 aka the Chinese red wine. Main ingredients include glutinous rice, red rice and wine biscuits. According to Elaine, all the ingredients were grounded, mixed and left fermented in a big clay container. When the time's due, the content will be sieved.

Elaine also shared her recipe on how to cook 2 dishes, one is the dry version and another one is the soup version. I tested with the dry version. For the very first time, I experimented it with only one chicken thigh. It was a successful experiment. I fell in love wih its smell and taste. In fact, Hong Zhao is used as main ingredient in confinement food.

Recipe for Chicken Thigh In "Chinese Red Wine" (红糟鸡腿)

Ingredients:

1. 1 chicken thigh, remove skin and fat. Marinate with dry ingredients for 1 hour

2. Ginger slices

3. 1 full tbsp of chopped garlic

4. 2 tbsp of sesame oil

Seasoning:

1. 1 tsp of sugar

2. 1 tbsp of light soya sauce

3. 1 tsp of corn flour diluted in 4 tbsp of water

Method:

1. Heat sesame oil in a wok.

2. Stir fry ginger and garlic till fragrant.

3. Pour in marinated chicken and stir fry for a while.

4. Add 1/3 cup of Hong Zhao and cover the wok for 2-3 minutes or till chicken is cooked.

5. Pour in seasoning and some light soy sauce to taste.

Black Dates & Longan Tea

Black dates and longan tea is a nourishing drink with natural sweetness. When both of the ingredients combined, it’s effective in fighting against anemia and fatigue, and boosting energy levels. Or in other words, they are good in building blood and regenerating Qi.

Black date is rich in iron. It has a pleasant taste and high nutritional value, and is often used to disguise unpalatable prescriptions. It is recognized as valuable medicinal herb.

Dried longan helps to improve blood circulation, improve heart efficiency and reduce stress and tension.

Ingredients:

12 red dates, washed and pitted

10 dried longans, washed

5 cups of water

Method:

1. Boil and simmer ingredients in 5 cups of water for 45 minutes until the liquid is fragrant and tasty.

2. Serve warm.

Nutritious Peanut Soup

Peanuts are a rich source of protein. Its nutritional value is equivalent to meat and egg protein for human growth and health. I like to use it for making soup.

Ingredients:

70 gms raw Shandong peanuts without skin.

70 gms raw peanuts with skin
200g of pork ribs
800ml of water
salt or light soy sauce to taste

Methods:
1. Bring water to boil in a pot. Then pour it to the slow cooker.

2. Put in pork ribs and both type of peanuts. Cook it under automatic mode.

3. Let it simmer for at least 5 hours. Add salt or light soy sauce to taste before serving.

The Manhattan Fish Market

It was one of the working day, when I was lazy to cook our dinner at home. So, we just went out to settle our dinner. As a working young lady, cooking and cleaning up the kitchen sometimes can be a tiring and exhausting. Don't you agree?

As usual, our destination - the Queensbay Mall. This time we decided to give Manhattan Fish Market a try. It's located at the basement of Queensbay Mall. I heard quite a number of positive and negative comments from friends and relatives.

On that day, we saw a lot of tourists from Middle East. Almost half of the restaurant was occupied by them. Maybe they were from the same tour?

Hubby ordered his Tropical Breeze, while I had my Mango juice. Tropical Breeze is a mixture of several fruit juice and diluted in sprite. It is kind of strong taste, and it's too sweet to my liking.

We shared the order of Grilled Gala for 2. On the big plate, there were prawns, squids, fish fillets and mussels. All seafoods were perfectly grilled. It's served with fragrant butter rice and fries.

We were glad that we made the right choice. Grilled seafood tastes more better than the deep fried seafood. It's a healthier cooking method with less oil. We tasted the original freshness. :)The serving is just nice for 2 of us, with some left over rice. Wasting is always a bad habit. :(

The dinner cost us RM70.95. It's a bit pricey.