Assam Meat Slices 亚参肉片

Recipe adapted from Y3K Recipes 38 Issue 09/10-2007

500g pork meat or sirloin (sliced)
2 tbsps assam pulp or assam jawa (mixed with 250 ml water, discard seeds)
2 pcs assam skin or assam gelugor

Spice paste: (ground fine)
4 pips garlic
8 shallots
5 buah keras or candlenuts
20 dried chillies
2 stalks serai or lemon grass
10g ginger

Seasoning:
some salt
some sugar

Method

1. Heat up three tablespoons of oil, saute spice paste and pork slices. Stir-fry well.
2. Add in both types of assam solution and assam skin. Simmer till meat has soften over medium heat.
3. Add in some seasoning. Taste and adjust before dishing up and serve.

Assam Jawa ( Tamarind Paste)

Pound into paste

Traditional Apple Pie 传统苹果派

Hope to improve the appearance the 'next time'

Really cant recall when was the last time I made Apple Pie. The good thing for home made bakeries are I reduced the quantity of sugar tremendously. My home made bakeries are less sweet compare to the commercial bakery shops. This apple pie doesn't look nice but taste good. My family really enjoyed the pie, especially my husband snap up almost half of it, when the pie is ready to be served. Hehe.... Here is the recipe 

 675g cooking apples 
100g sugar  
 6 cloves caster sugar for dredging  

Short Crust Pastry  
350g plain flour 1
/2 tsp salt  
175g of butter 
 flour for rolling out

1. Set the over at 200 degree C ( depend on individual oven, I set my at 140)
2. To make the pastry sift the flour and salt into a bowl, then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
3. add enough cold water to make a stiff dough.
4. Press the dough together with your fingertips.
5. roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and use just half to line a 9" pie dish.
6. Peel, core and slice the apples.
7. Place half in the pastry-lined dish, the add the sugar and cloves.
8. Pile the remaining apples on top, cover with the remaining pastry and seal the edges,
9. Brush the pastry with eggs and dredge with caster
10. Use a fork to prick some holes on the pie to let go steams during baking times
11. Bake in oven till golden brown about 30 to 40 mins.

Rub in method till resemble bread crumbs

Divide to 2 doughs

Roll on flat surface and line on Pie Dish, Please note my error here is -  the pastry should over hang the pie dish about 1/2 inch.  

Add in the sliced apples, smashed cloves and sugar

Brush with egg and use a fork to prick holes to release air during baking

Tips
I mixed sliced apples, sugar and smashed cloves together on step no. 7 and 8.
I omitted the dredging of sugar.
The original recipe call for 750ml pie dish, mine is 10'' pie dish, I presume 9" should be perfect.

Dumplings In White Fungus Soup 雪耳湯圓

My son and eldest daughter reached home 3.30am on 25th December for their year end break. Whole family went for dim sum at 9.30am and do some marketing. Back home, both of them continue their sleep. I decided to prepare a traditional Apple Pie (photos and recipe will post soon) for the family.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

This is my 1st attempt to make flourless chocolate cake, quite happy with the result. Syabas! (means congrats) Most important Tammie love this cake, the texture is super moist, and she named the cake as 心太軟 (soft heart), Hmmm... Sound appropriate, nice name!
Original recipe is to dust some icing sugar on the cake, but for very obvious reason, I omitted this step. I did not use ground almond too.
Special thanks to christine Ho for sharing the recipe. Click here for the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 250gm dark chocolate
• 5 eggs, separated
• 120gm caster sugar - I reduced to 90gm, still find a bit sweet, will go for 80gm for next attempt
• 150gm unsalted butter
• 50gm ground almond (almond meal), optional - I omitted this
• Icing sugar, for garnish - I omitted this

Paper Wrapped Chicken 纸包鸡

This is my mother, husband and Tammie's all time favorite; Tammie said this dish top the list of all style/ways of cooking chicken dishes. When frying the chicken, the aroma of the dish filled the whole kitchen, my daughter knows that her most favorite will be served on the dinner table soon. Hmmmm.......... so do try out the recipe and compare is it better than the famous Sri Kembangan Paper Wrapped Chicken? 

But I prefer to bake them in the oven for very obvious reason, less oil and less messy and most important is that is the easiest and simplest way to prepare.

Here is the recipe of my very own creation.

Ingredient

4 chicken whole thigh - Wash and cut into 4 pieces per chicken thigh ( I used Kampung chicken 菜園鸡 which is more tasty and meat are firmer)

Marinate the chicken with the following

3-4 tsp my special home made 'aromatic spice'
 2 tbsp Oyster sauce
1 tbsp honey
2 tablespoon of Chinese Shao Shin Wine


Wrapping paper as shown in the photos - cut into 10" X 10" square
Oil for deep frying

Method

Marinate the chicken for hours or preferable overnight.
Take a piece chicken and wrap with paper tucked in the paper nicely. Wrapped up all the chicken piecs.
Heat up oil for deep frying, lower the fire and put in the wrapped chicken pieces and deep fried on both side at about 5 mins each side. Make sure not to overcook it.
Unwrapped the paper and enjoy the yummy Paper wrapped Chicken 纸包鸡
Note: I have these secret recipe"aromatic spice" special prepared season salt passed down from my old antie for marinate meat. It comes very handy whenever I cooked Char Siew, Sweet and Sour Pork, Lamb Chop, beef, Chicken etc, either bake grille, deep fried, I just add some "aromatic spice", honey and chinese shao shin wine and be able to cook up delicious yummy dishes. I am intend to put on sale these very special "aromatic spice" RM8.00 per packet of 200gms excluding postage! The contents include salt, five spice powder, garlic, and herbs, no preservation.

ABC Sweet Corn Soup

I will cooked less rice whenever I prepare this soup, everyone love to eat the sweet corn, carrot and potatoes; my children normally add some butter in the smashed potatoes, its yummy according to my children. So with all these "ABC", we eat less rice. We do not take the meat.

Ingredients

1 kg meat bones/1 skinned old chicken ( wash and clean)
1 carrots - skinned and cut into big pieces
3 pcs potatos - peeled and cut into chunks
3 tomatoes - quartered
2 big onion - quartered
1 sweet corn - cut into big chunks
1 level tablespoon of Peppercorn - smashed
2 litre water

Method

1. Blanched the bones/chicken with hot water, keep aside
2. Boiled the water in the pressure cooker.
3. Add in all the ingredients and cover the pressure cover
4. Pressure cook for 20 mins. Off the fire, wait for 5 mins, release the pressure before open the cover of the pressure cooker. Add salt to taste and serve hot.

Or

1. Boil water in a pot, add in the bones/chicken, sweet corn and peppercorn for 1/2 hours
2. Add in carrot, potatoes, onion continue to boil for another 1/2 hours on medium fire
3. Add in tomatoes and boil for and 10 mins.
4. Add salt to taste and serve hot.

Note: I did not add any salt in the soup as the taste as good.

Ginseng Roots Dry Abalone Chicken Soup

Ingredients :
2-3 pcs Dry sliced Abalone, (wash and soak in water for about an hour, retained the water to add in the soup later on)
50 gam Ginseng roots,
3 - 4 pcs white fungus,
10 gm yoke chuk,
1 tbsp kei zhi,
7-8 red dates,
1 - 2tbsp dry longan,
1 bird kampung chicken ( can used old chicken instead)(remove the skin and chopped in 4-6 pcs)

Method

1. Put boiling water and all the ingredients except white fungus and kei zhi in slow cooker and cook for 3-4 hrs.
2. Add in white fungus and kei zhi 1/2 an hr before the soup is ready to serve.

Note
I normally stored some chinese herbal in my refrigerator, and just hand picked the herbal at random whenever I want to prepare herbal soup. There is no exact measurement on the amount.

Stir Fried Black Pepper Udon

I am in the believe that when cooking at home , I dont really measure the quantity of ingredients to put in the cooking, rather I follow the traditional way of agak agak (estimate), and the end result mattered most.

Stir Fried Black Pepper Udon

For the recipe I will guide on the method of prepare the dish, as for the quantity and ingredients are will up to individual likings. Hope you enjoy the dish.

Ingredients

1. Udon noodles (1 person 1 packets will be sufficient)- washed and drained
2. Prawn, fish cake, sotong (squids), sliced meat and or any other ingredients of your choice,
3. and marinate with a bit sugar, cornflour and fish sauce (dont know why I like to add fish sauce in my cooking)
4. Green pepper - slice into strips ( you can add yellow pepper and red pepper)
5. Big onion - slice into strips
6. Chopped garlic
7. 2 tbsp of Black pepper sauce
8. 1 tbsp of oyster sauce
9. salt to taste
10. some black pepper corn corsely smashed
11. some oil for cooking
12. some dark soya sauce

Method

1. Heat up some oil in the wok add in the chopped garlic fry till aromatic, add in the big onion.
2. Add prawn, fish cake and sotong stir fry a while
3. Add in oyster and black pepper sauce, add some water, put in green pepper and udon noodles
4. Add in dark soya sauce. Keep frying till all well combined
5. Lastly add in the smashed black pepper and mix, dish up and serve hot.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

These cake is quite easy and simple to prepare, I got the recipe from my daughter's school mate.
My daughter Tammie has tasted the cake from her friend, since then, she is craving for the cake.
She got the recipe from her friend, and here I would like to share with you.
Recipe adapt from one of the cheesecake recipe book.
Recipe for the base

Sugar Dough Crust
200gm softened salted butter
100 gm icing sugar
1 egg

380gm plain flour
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Beat butter and icing sugar until well combined. Add in egg and beat well.
2. Lastly add in flour and vanilla and mix into a dough
3. Press dough onto 9" round springform pan and prick some holes with fork to release air, so that the pastry will not puff up during baking. Bake at 160 degree C until golden brow. Remove and leave to cool.
   

Note:
Can makes 2 sugar dough crusts for 9' pan
Pastry can be wrapped with plastic wrap and store in the freezer for 1/2 year

Cream Cheese Filling
A
300 softened cream cheese
5 oreo biscuits used only the cream filling
100gm butter
100 caster sugar ( I reduce to 70gm)

B
3 egg yolks 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp corn flour
40g dairy whipping cream ( I omitted this after few try and error)
6 pcs oreo, crushed

Method

1. Beat A at low speed until smooth. Add in eggs one at a time and mix well. Mix in vanilla, corn flour and dairy whipping cream. Lastly add in oreo biscuit crumbs and mix well
2. Pour cheese mixture onto crust and bake at 170 degree C for 30 minutes
3. Let cake cool in the oven with heat off for 1 hour. Chill in the fridge for 6 hours or overnight.

My husband said he can't wait for 6 hrs, he only can wait for 6 mins to savvy the cake.

Pan Fried Black Pepper Salmon

This is another simple and easy recipe of my own creation.

Marinate salmon block with coarsely pounded black pepper, fish sause, pepper, chinese shao shin wine and my own "wah yim" (optional) for few hrs. Heat up a pan, add in some butter and pan fried both side of the salmon. Add in the left over marinate sauce. Make sure not to over cooked the salmon, say few minutes on both sides will do, otherwise the texture of the salmon wont be as tender as it should be. Dish out and lastly squeeze some lemon juice on top and serve. Happy trying!

Nutritious Bitter Gourd Soup 苦瓜湯

 Bitter Gourd is said to be one of the best vegetable-fruit that helps improve diabetic and toxemia conditions.  Check out the nutrition information and facts about bitter gourd here and here.

Did anyone notice that there is no oil on the surface of the soup!  This is because I am using lean meat.   Hmmmm...... Best!

Healthy Lemon Grass Drink

Refer to Wikipedia for Lemon Grass


Ingredients

10 stalks of lemon grass (Serai) smashed
rock sugar to taste (I omitted the sugar, taste as nice)
1 lemon (sliced thinly)

Method
1. Boil enough water in a pot with smashed Lemon Grass and rock sugar for about 20 mins to 1/2 hour.
2. Off the fire and add in sliced lemon rings
3. Serve hot or cold.

As for myself I prefer to drink without sugar, will add honey instead for my children and chilled in the fridge for a cold and refreshing drink.

You may prefer  another post of Healthy Lemongrass ginger Tea .

Fresh Mushroom with Broccoli 一团和气 (三菇燴西蘭花)

Another favorite mushroom dish

Ingredients

500 gm green Broccoli - florets
1 carrot - cut into desired shape

150gm Fresh mushroom
2 pkts enokitake mushroom 金針菇
150gm abalone mushroom
1tbsp chopped garlic

Seasoning
1 tbsp Lee Kum Kee soya sauce
pepper,
1 tbsp abalone sauce
2 tbsp Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce

bit of sugar

1 tbsp shao shin wine

1. Just boil some cut broccoli in boiling water with a bit salt and 1 tbsp of oil, dish out and arrange the broccoli and carrot nicely on a serving plate.
2. Heat some oil in the wok, add in garlic and saute till aromatic.
4. Add in fresh mushroom, abalone mushroom
5. Add in the enokitake mushroom 金針菇 and seasoning
6. Lastly add in some shao shin wine. Dish out and arrange in the center of the vegetables, serve hot.

With Chinese translation

500克 西兰花 -切塊

1胡萝卜-切成喜欢的形状

150克鲜蘑菇

2 包香菇金针菇 - 切根洗淨

150gm 鲍鱼菇

1汤匙蒜茸

2汤匙油

调味料

一汤匙李锦记酱油，

胡椒粉少許

1汤匙李锦记鲍鱼汁

2汤匙李锦记蚝油

1糖半茶匙

1汤匙紹兴洒

1。煮沸水，加一茶匙盐1汤匙油，放入西蘭花和胡萝卜煮熟，捞起, 排在一个碟 上。

2. 烧热油镬中，加入蒜茸爆香。

3.加入鲜香菇，鲍鱼菇, 加入调味料

4. 加入金針菇

5.最后加一1汤匙紹兴洒。

6. 起鍋, 排在碟的中间，趁热上桌。

鲜菇本身含有水份，所以不用加水

這是一道健康好味, 老少闲宜的菜肴

Stir Fried Eryngii Mushroom

Fresh Eryngii Mushroom

From Wikipedia, Eryngii (also known as king trumpet mushroom, french horn mushroom, king oyster mushroom) is an edible mushroom native to Mediterranean regions of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, but also grown in parts of Asia.[1] In Chinese, it is called xìng bào gū (杏鮑菇, lit. "almond abalone mushroom").

Pleurotus eryngii may naturally contain chemicals that stimulate the immune system.

I stumbled upon this mushroom while I was shopping at Jusco, the promoter let the shoppers tasted the dish. Hmm..... It tastes delicious, bought a packet home and my family member love it. Its simple, quick and easy to prepare, that is the main reason for people as lazy as me.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients

1 pkt Eryngii Mushroom - cut into pcs
few sliced ginger
some chopped garlic
some dried chillies - cut in 1 inch length ( I add this to the dish, to enhance the extra 'ouhm' ( kick).

Seasoning

oyster sauce
soya sauce ( I used fish sauce)
1 tbsp shao shine wine

Method

Heat wok with some oil, put in ginger, stir fry a while add in garlic, then dried chillies till aromatic, add in the mushroom, continue to stir fry till soft and juicy.
Add in seasoning, lastly the shao shine wine. Dish out and serve.

Note: Water is not necessary as the mushroom is juicy by itself.

Pumpkin Congee (Porridge) 黄金瘦肉咸蛋粥

Pumpkin Congee (Porridge) 黄金瘦肉咸蛋粥, my family all time favorite weekend lunch.

 

Ingredients -

Rice - 2 cups
Water - about 2 litre

Minced meat (seasoned with fish sauce, pepper, sesame oil. cornflour, sugar for at least 1 hr)
2 salted egg (boiled till cook and cut into small pieces)
Mussel 淡菜 (soaked and cut into small pieces
2 pieces Dry scallops (optional - soak in water, break into pcs)
Pumpkin ( skin and cubed)
spring onion (chopped)
Some mee hoon (deep fried till crispy)

[There is not specific amount of ingredients that I followed, just agak agak (own judgment) only]

 

Method

1. Wash rice, boil with water add in mussel and dry scallops, boil for about 45 mins, keep stirring in between, add in pumpkin, continue to boil till pumpkin tender.
2. Add and stir in minced meat, lastly add in chopped salted eggs.
3. Top with fried mee hoon, spring onion, sesame oil. Serve hot.

Note:

1. Texture of the congee should me soft and starchy; just like the congee we eat during dim sim time

2. Century egg can be added.

Dry Prawns Sambal with Petai

Updated on 28/5/2019  Cooked the dish again as the dish has been absent from the dinning table a long time. 

This is the photo that I submitted for an online contest and won with the most votes. The prize that I won is a cook book 'Microwave oven's Recipes book 2' by Lisa Yam 方太.


This dish is passed down to me by my mother, its goes best with rice and eat with bread as sandwiches.

Here is the recipe ~
Ingredients

150 - 200 gm Dry prawns

70 gm Petai (parkia speciosa) - Optional

150gm Chili paste

Few lime leaves

2 tablespoon of Tamarind (Asam Jawa) mix with ½ bowl of water, strain.

Salt and sugar to taste

Fish sauce (Optional)

Oil

Ingredients to be pounded:-

10 small onions

1 clove garlic

2 pcs of kunyit (turmeric)

3 candlenuts

1 small piece of Shrimp paste (belacan)

3 stalk of serai (Lemon grass)

Method

1) Clean and soak the dry prawn for at least an hour, blend/pound it .

2) Heat up 1 tabsp of oil, fry the dry prawns till aroma. Dish out and set aside.

3) Heat up 3 tablespoon of oil fry the blended ingredients for about 5 minutes add in the chili paste fry till oil surface.

4) Add in lime leaf, dry prawns salt, sugar fish sauce and tamarind juice. Fry and mix well.

5) Off the fire and add in the petai. Serve

Note: This dish can be served with rice or with bread as sandwiches

Tamarind juice can be substitute by lime or lemon juice.

Updated on 7th February 2014.  (The eighth day of Lunar Year of the Horse)

I have prepared  a large amount of Dried Shrimp Sambal for my daughter to bring to Melbourne, Australia!  She can still get to enjoy the taste of homeland cuisine while further her study in overseas!   500gms of dried shrimp  were used to prepared and took me more than 2 hours for this time consuming and tedious chores in the kitchen to yield these 2 bottles!  

 

Will keep some at home for ourselves.  These can keep in the fridge for months!

螞蟻上樹 Lettuce wrap

Lettuce Wrap again on Saturday 11th June 2011

Do you think it looks like (螞蟻上樹 ) ants climbing the tree? hehe...

This dish was inspired when Hubby and I with some friends dined at Purple Cane.
The name of the dish is 螞蟻上樹 (literally means ants climbing the tree) but cant remember what is the name in English; literally translation is 'ants climbing on to the tree. I should break the fried mee hoon into smaller pieces so that they looks like ants. To eat, just put the fillings and fried mee hoon on the lettuce, wrap it and dip with chille sauce n 'wallop'.

To prepare -

Deep fry some mee hoon and break into small pieces.

Put some oil in the wok, add minced garlic, add cubed prawns (seasoned with fish sauce, sugar and pepper, a bit of cornflour), cubed taufu, carrot, mushroom etc or any veg or ingredients of your liking, stir fry a while, add seasoning, oyster sauce, salt to taste.
Arrange the lettuce, fried mee hoon and mee hoon resemble 螞蟻上樹 and serve.

Hari Raya Haji Feast from our very friendly neighbour again!
The food is so yummy and delicious, must get some cooking tips from my neighbour!
And we cebralate a day before the actual raya day!
Thank you so much Encik Samad and Salmi!

Home made Popiah

Popiah ~ My favorite food. The old lady I used to order popiah skin finally decided to call it a day. I have been searching for the replacement for thin and soft texture of popiah skin for some time. My best friend Annie (crazy with popiah like me) found another seller at Pudu market, which I go every week. So near yet so far!
We usually have popiah for lunch and popiah for dinner with friends at my place on sunday or public holidays.

Pie Tee (Top Hats)

Pie Tee is a popular nyonya  finger foods for party and gathering.

The ingredients for the fillings is up to individual liking with no boundaries

But making of pie tee case is tedious and time consuming, u need a lot of patient to deep fry the case with the special mould one by one. This finger foods snap up in no time.

The mould to make Pie Tee case

Ingredients for the Pie Tee Batter

180 rice flour 

60 gram plain flour

30 gram cornflour

1 egg

1/4 baking powder

salt to taste

400 ml water 

1. Mix all the ingredients together in batter and strain.  Set aside for 1/2 hour.
2. Heat enough oil for deep frying in a wok.  When the oil is hot dip the pie tee mould into the oil for a while, then into batter to coat the mould.  Then into the oil again.  
3. Once the pie tee case almost set, shake and jerk the mould to loosen out the casing, continue to fry the case till golden brown. 
4. Dish out onto absorbent  paper.  Repeat the process for the rest of the batter. 
5. Store in cooled pie tee case in air tight container for later use.

 As for the filling:

You may add in any fillings of your choice.

For example -  Blanch bean spouts, shredded cucumber, carrot, lettuce, prawns, sesame seeds  etc etc

Fry some shredded sengkuang with  minced meat or dry cuttlefish which is best to go with pie tee.  

Pie Tee Party Time!  Enjoy! 

I have 3 lovely grown up children and a caring hubby.
I have been cooking and baking for many years. Wondering when I can retire from cooking. But each time when the family enjoy the food that I prepared for them, that keep me going. Its really make me happy and feel good!