Sunday, September 20, 2009

Noodles - Ipoh Tauge Hor Fun/ Ngar Choi Gai

I dont know why but i feel like posting this post....well, mainly cos i had a lot of difficulties trying to find relevant recipes online for this. Again, ngar choi gai come in many shapes forms and types and this is my take on the dish.



There are 3 parts to the dish....chicken, taugeh/ngar choi, hor fun/kueh tiaw....


Ingredients:

Sauce:
1st thing is the sauce...this is used for the chicken and taugeh:
2 tbsp oil from fried scallions
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp seasme oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp water


Part 1: Chicken

Check out my previous post on Hainanese Chicken Rice. However, the sauce is different....use the sauce in this recipe. And top with coriander

Part 2: Taugeh

Two handfuls taugeh/ngar choi

Part 3: Kueh Tiaw

Soup:
3 pieces ginger
2 cloves garlic
2 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp clove
2 star anise
2 to 3 litres water
chicken bones/feet or just use stock.

packet of kueh tiaw/horfun

Preparation methods:

Take ingredients for soup, fry with oil till brown and add water and boil till about 1.5 litre of water is left. Add salt and pepper to taste

While soup is boiling, cook chicken according to previous recipe.

At the same time,the ingredients for sauce and simmer till sauce is semi thick. Add more water if too thick. Set sauce aside.

When chicken is ready, pour sauce over the chicken. Add fresh coriander on top of chicken and serve.

Blanch bean sprouts/taugeh with hot water while making another portion of the sauce in the pan. Drain bean sprouts are semi soft. Transfer the bean sprouts to pan with sauce and stir with heat off. Serve.

Last but not least, boil the hor fun/kueh tiaw until cooked. Transfer to cold water and back to boiling water. Put in bowl and serve with soup. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Soup - Ginseng chicken soup (Korean - Samgyetang)

I must tell u.....korean food is simple but heavenly...i just wonder why im so addicted to korean food. So this is a recipe for SamGyeTang.....cool thing is, theres red dates and ginger and glutinous rice stuffed in the stomach.....



Ingredients:

1 chicken
1 cup glutinous rice
6 red dates
3 slices ginger
3 stalks scallion (chopped in 2 inch lenghts)
1 packet ginseng (i used ginseng powder)
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation methods:

Soak glutinous rice overnight.

Drain rice and add red dates, ginger and stems of scallion and ginseng or ginseng powder. Mix and stuff into a deskinned chicken's stomach. use toothpics to cover opening and put in pot to boil, with water enough to submerge whole chicken in water.

Use high heat, bring water to boil and change to medium heat. Boil for an hour or more until chicken meat is soft. Serve

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Chicken - Thai Pandan Leaf Wrapped Chicken

Apparantly its called gai haaw bai dteuy. Doesnt matter anyways. This was my all time fav thai food as a kid!! What can get better? :) Cheers


Ingredients:

Chicken:
150g chicken cut in cubes size of a thumb
2 inch lemon grass
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp coconut milk
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp shao xing wine
pinch pepper

Sauce:
5 tbsp water
3 tbsp soy sauce
2.5 spoon sugar
2 inch lemongrass
1 piece ginger
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds
pinch pepper

Pandan Leaves

Preperation Methods:

Use mortar to mince lemongrass and garlic and add ress of ingredients and marinate overnight. Alternatively use a blender and blend all the ingredients and marinate chicken.

Fold pandan leaves and stuff chicken in. Or wrap and hold with toothpick. Heat oil for frying on medium and fry chicken till cooked. About 4 to 5 minutes on each side.

For sauce, heat a tbsp of oil, add ginger and lemongrass and fry till fragrant. Add soy sauce, water and sugar and simmer till sauce thickens. Add sesame seeds.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Pork - Kuey Chap/Kueh Chap/Kway Chap

This is one recipe which i am really proud of. I kinda got inspiration from a thai kuey chap recipe Mikkie gave me last year but i added way more different kinda herbs and tweaked the whole thing into what is supposed to me one of my favorite kuching hawker food.





Ingredients:

For soup:
4 clove garlic
4 inch ginger (sliced)
3 tbsp black peppercorn
2 tbsp cloves
3 tbsp star anise
4 cinnamon sticks
5 tbsp dark soy sauce
3 tbps light soy sauce
4 black cardamom
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp five spice powder
3 to 4 tbsp of fried garlic oil

For noodles:
1 to 2 packets of rice flakes (thai ones)


Meats:
2 pork knuckles
1 packet frozen pork intestines
4 hard boiled eggs (without shell)
(p/s what u put in and amount u put in is up to u)

Preparation method:

Use hot water and boil the pork knuckle till all the blood has come out from it. Use a knife and carve out the skin as well as the meat of the pork knuckle.

Heat a large pot wif about 3 tbsp of oil. Dump the garlic, cloves, ginger, black peppercorn and all the other herbs in and fry till fragrant and the garlic is browned. Add about 4 litres of water into the pot. And bring to boil. Add in the rest of the ingredients for the soup and boil for about an hour.

Meanwhile, heat up about 3 tbsp of oil and fry the pork intestines. Until cooked but not browned. Add water to cover intestines and bring to boil for a bout 5 to 10 minutes. Dump the water and add boil with water for a second time. Repeat process until the smell of intestines have dissapeared.

Once the soup has been reduced about 2.5 or 2 litres, dump the egg, intestines, meat and skin in. In my case, i put those in after boiling for about 3 hours under low heat (covered). Boil the meat and egg for half and hour under low heat. (what i did was boil 15 minutes and left it in the soup overnight)

Continue boiling till the soup has reached the consistency or thickness u want (probably about 1.5 to two liters) and taste. Add salt and pepper if necessary. Pepper is very important for this soup to bring out the herbi-ness of the soup.

When soup is ready, boil the rice flakes till cooked. top wif fried garlic oil and serve with soup.

Pork - Pad Pra Grau Muu (Basil Stir Fry Pork)

This is probably one of my favorite dishes to eat when i want something fast, appetizing and super good



Ingredients:

250g minced pork
2 clove garlic
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp chili powder (love it super hot)
1 tsp sugar
1/4 lime ( i like it a bit sour)
1 tbsp water
pinch pepper
as mch basil as u want (handful will be great)

Preparation Method:

Dice garlic, heat wok wif oil and fry garlic till brown, add dry chili and fry till u start sneezing. Add mince meat and rest of ingredients except for basil and fry till meat is cooked. throw basil in, stir fry for less than a minute and serve with rice.

Kuih - Seri Muka/Kuih Salad

This is one kuih taht most of us love!! or us malaysians....its officially called seri muka i think but in Kuching, we call it kuih salad. I dare not claim this recipe is mine....i stole it....and did not even tweak it.......Kuali, this goes to u!


For the bottom layer
  • 300g glutinous rice, washed and soaked for 4–5 hours and drained
  • 200ml santan (coconut milk from the box)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2–3 pandan leaves (screwpine leaves), knotted

    Green topping
  • 2 eggs
  • 100g castor sugar
  • 80ml santan (coconut milk from the box)
  • 4–5 pandan leaves (screwpine leaves), cut into 4 pieces and blended with 100ml water
  • 5 tbsp santan powder
  • pinch salt
  • 40g (6 tbsp) plain flour

  • Preparation Method:

    Soak glutinous flour overnight ( or at least 3 hrs). Then put in tray or pan (17 inch) and add the 200ml coconut milk. Tie the screwpine leaves in knots and put on top of the rice. Steam for 30 minutes till rice is cooked.

    Meanwhile blend the screwpine leaves, add the santan and santan powder. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir till smooth.

    Press the cooked rice down evenly. Scarth the top of rice with fork.

    Sieve the contents and pour on top of the rice. Steam for another 12 to 15 mins.

    Friday, September 11, 2009

    Salad - Grilled Pork Vermicelli Salad

    This is one of my fav vietnamese food. other than pho.....so yea....



    Ingredients:

    Pork Marinade:
    2 pieces of pork chop (100g each)
    3 inch lemon grass (bottom)
    10 - 15 leaves of thai sweet basil
    1 tbsp fish sauce
    1 clove garlic
    1 tsp sugar
    1 tsp honey
    pepper

    Salad:
    Handful cooked vermicelli
    3 tbsp roasted chopped peanuts
    3 tbsp red onion (sliced)
    3 to 4 tbsp shredded lettuce
    5 to 10 leaves of thai basil torn to smaller pieces
    fresh chili

    Salad dressing:
    3 inch lemon grass (bottom)
    1 clove garlic
    2 chili (deseeded)
    2 to 3 fresh lime juice
    3 tbsp of fish sauce
    3 tsp of sugar
    1 tsp honey
    1/2 tsp black pepper
    5 pieces of thai basil (optional)

    p/s Coriander and watercress can be used together with the thai basil.


    Preparation Method:

    Add the ingredients for the pork. Blend it and use as marinade for pork for at least 30 mins. Meanwhile. Take all the ingredients in the salad dressing and blend it. Put in fridge.

    Heat the pan, pan fry the pork till brown on both side. put the ingredients for salad in a bowl. Once pork is cook, slice and put on top. Serve with salad dressing.

    DO NOT USE ÀLL OF THE SALAD DRESSING. THE RECIPE OF THE SALAD DRESSING CAN BE USED FOR TWO SERVINGS

    Thursday, September 10, 2009

    Dessert - Creme Caramel

    Probably the easiest dessert I have made


    Ingredients:

    100 ml full-fat milk
    200 ml fresh cream
    4 eggs
    30g sugar

    150g brown sugar

    Preparation Method:

    Caramalise the 150g of brown sugar. Meanwhile mix the rest of the ingredients and beat it ill smooth. Prepare 4 ramekins. Pour some caramalised brown sugar so that the bottom of the ramekin is covered with caramalised sugar. pour the rest of the mixture on top. And steambake for about 30 mins at 130 degrees. Cool for about an hour or two. Turn over ramekin on and serve. It helps to loosen the sides with knives....

    P/s here it shows that i did not caramalise the sugar properly...was in a rush

    Kuih - Apam Balik/Ban Jian Kuih (Soft kind)

    I made this thing cos i feel like eating...lols.....i used to love it...not taht mch anymore but the craving is just unbearable....i mean really..unbearable

    Ingredients:

    200g of flour
    2 tsp baking powder
    1 tsp sodium bicarbonate
    pinch of salt
    50g brown sugar
    130 ml milk
    120 ml water
    1 egg
    40g melted butter


    1 cup chopped peanuts
    more sugar

    Preparation Methods:

    Mix first group of ingredients and beat till smooth. Heat a non-stick pan (no oil or butter) and put some batter in the middle and spread it out. Sprinkle chopped peanuts and sugar ( i used brown sugar). Fold when cooked and serve

    Pork - Bak Gua/Bak Kwa/Bak Poh/Pork Jerky

    I had this certain craving the other day...for bak gua or watever it is...anyways....this is how it turned out

    Ingredients:

    500g fatty minced pork
    3 tbsp light soy sauce
    3 tbsp Shao Xing Jiu
    2 tbsp fish sauce
    2 tbsp sugar
    2 tbsp maltose or honey
    1 tbsp pepper
    1 tsp 5 spice powder
    half a handful san cha pia (optional)

    Preparation Methods:

    Blend minced pork and san cha pia together. Take it out and mix rest of the ingredients together. Put some meat on baking paper and cover meat wif cling wrap and roll out the meat. Flatten it as much as u can. Bake meat for 10 minutes. Take out the meat flip it and get rid of the water produced by meat with kitchen towel. Put a layer of honey or maltose of the meat and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes till brown. Alternatively bbq the meat on grill.