Stirfried Bittergourd with Beansprout

Stirfried Bittergourd with Beansprouts (28 Mar 2012)

Not many places serve this simple yet unusual combination of bittergourd with beansprout. So far, I've only had it at Good Fortune Restaurant, Bandar Puchong Utama. The restaurant is famous for country village food and it claims not to use MSG. The food didn't looked fancy but it tasted home cooked and had good flavours.I decided to cook the dish myself seeing that my parents loved it so much.

All you need is bittergourd, 30 cents worth of beansprout and some minced garlic. The only advice I would give is to soak the bittergourd in salt water to reduce the bitterness. 

Stirfried Bittergourd & Beansprouts Recipe

Ingredients:

1 medium bittergourd

50gm beansprouts

1 tbsp garlic, minced

1/2 tsp chicken stock granule (optional)

1 1/2 tsp soy sauce

A dash of pepper

2 tbsp water

Method:

1.  Cut bitter gourd into half length-wised. Use a metal spoon to scoop and remove the centre pulp and seeds. Slice bittergourd thinly then soak in salt water for a while.
2. Wash and drain the beansprouts. Remove the black husk and roots if any.
3. Heat up wok. Add a tablespoon of cooking oil. Saute garlic until fragrant.
4. Add the bittergourd and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add chicken stock granule and water. Cover with lid for 30 seconds.
5. Add in the beansprouts, soy sauce and pepper. Stirfry for another 1 minute.
6. Ready to serve!

Deep Fried Curry Pork Belly

Deep Fried Curry Pork Belly (27th Mac 2012)

If you saw my last post, you'd know how "motherly" I've become lately. I aspire to be a good mum before the little ones grow up and leave the nest! Sniff, sniff.... How fast time flies?

I usually cook pork belly Hakka style which is to use fermented beancurd and 5-spice powder to marinade the pork before frying. Today, I decided to do something more Malaysian. Marinade the pork following the recipe from the last post. However, 15 minutes before deepfrying, mix 2 tablespoon of meat curry powder to the pork. Deepfry until golden brown.

If you feel experimental, I'd suggest you try turmeric powder, chili powder, lemongrass or a combination of all that, to give the pork the extra edge.

Fragrant Garlic Pork Belly

Fragrant Garlic Pork Belly (28 Mar 2012)

"Indulge your kids with delicious food & they'll be happy all year round!"

I truly believe in my motto. Meal time is always a wonderful time for my children especially when Mummy makes an extra effort to cook something special. My boys would frequent the kitchen to see what's going on and even help out whenever they can. They seem to be at their best behaviour without even trying (before, during and after the meal!)

I am certainly not asking you to feed them like cattles! I take my children's diets very seriously, but I also take time to LISTEN to their personal views on food that they like or dislike. So by the "extra effort" I mentioned, I basically mean to listen to my child's individual food preference and cater to that while providing the nutrition he needs! You will see a wonderful bond growing between you and your child (Not unlike when you show interest in his favourite cartoon or make time to watch him play soccer at school).

Anyway, it's a Tuesday and I felt that my boys needed a little "pick me up". I suffer from Monday blues so why can't my kids, right?  So, I went to my freezer and took out a strip of pork belly to defrost. That's one similarity between them that I can work with - they both love pork! But how do I cater to their individual preference but not spend any extra time cooking?

Thus, the creation of "one pork belly kills 2 dishes"! I made two totally different flavours with the same seasoned pork belly. I've separated the pork marinade recipe which you could marinade the night before or 1 hour before frying.

Pork Belly Marinade

600gm pork belly, sliced thinly
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Shao Hsing wine
A dash of pepper
1 tbsp cornflour

Mix well and keep refrigerated and covered.




Fragrant Garlic Pork Belly

Ingredient:
300gm marinaded pork belly
1 1/2 tbsp garlic, chopped finely
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp chilli sauce (Maggi chili sauce or garlic chilli sauce is fine) 
1/2 tsp sugar (omit if you use Maggi chilli sauce. It's sweet enough on its own)
1 tbsp water

Method:

1. Take the marinaded pork belly out of the fridge at least 1/2 hour before frying.
2. Deep fry pork belly until it turned golden brown. Drain and put aside
3. Heat up the wok. Put 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. Saute the chopped garlic until fragrant.
4. Add the rest of the seasoning and water. Bring to boil before returning the fried pork belly to the wok
5. Mix well until all pieces of pork is coated with sauce. 
6. Ready to serve!

Maggi Goreng (Fried Maggi Curry Noodle)

Maggi Goreng (21 Mar 2012)

9 Aug 2012
I just had to add to this post. It's amazing that this is the post with the highest number of hits! Thank you to all the supportive Maggi Goreng fans out there! Just a thought... since it's so popular, perhaps I might be able to open a Maggi Goreng stall in Australia in the near future?


21 Mar 2012
It might be Mac & Cheese or Hot Dog for you but this is my all time favourite supper! It's a Malaysian thing and the quickest tastiest way to cure that poor tummy growl after a late night movie! I'd really like to know who is the brilliant person who invented this mind blowing snack? Please tell me if you know!

What is Maggi Goreng? Well, we basically cook a packet of Maggi Instant Noodle Curry flavoured but instead of serving it soupy, we stirfry it with egg and its curry seasoning. As an added value, some stalls would add vegetables and tofu. As you can see, mine is just plain old noodle with egg, which my kids could smell from miles away. They devoured the whole plate of noodle as quickly as I prepared it (which was only 8 minutes to be exact!). 

Maggi Goreng Recipe

Ingredients:

1 packet Maggi Mee Curry Flavour

1 tsp garlic mince

1 tbsp cooking oil

1/2 tsp dark soy sauce / kicap manis

1 egg

Method:

1. First cook the noodle in boiling water as you normally would. Drain the noodle after 2 minutes or almost cooked.
2. Heat up 1 tbsp of oil in wok. Saute garlic mince
3. Break the egg into the wok and give it a good stir before adding the noodle.
4. Pour half the sachet of curry seasoning into the wok and add the dark soy sauce. (Some of you might notice that I've reduced from a whole sachet to half as I've found that it's too salty if I do not add any vegetable, tofu or meat to the noodle. But then again, if you like it really flavourful, by all means add the whole thing!)
5. Sprinkle a little water and stirfry for 2 minutes.
6. Ready to serve. Normally you'd squeeze half a lime on the noodle to give it a nice tangy flavour!

Steamed Tri-Colour Egg (Sam Wong Dan)

Steamed Tri-Colour Egg (24 Mar 2012)

When my baby girl started taking solids, steamed egg was one of the easiest food to introduce. (Precaution: We generally introduce eggs into the baby's diet at 8 months old. First the yolks, then the whites). It was silky soft and I could easily add meat and vegetables into the dish to make it nutritious. Chinese style steamed egg varies in its fillings.You could use minced meat, fish paste, mushrooms or even have plain steamed egg. In most recipes, the egg texture will turn out smooth as we use the same egg:water ratio. 

The colours are as lovely as the taste!

 I found some lovely salted duck egg, preserved century duck egg and kampung(free range) egg from my local wet market last Saturday. I knew straight away that I was going to make tri-colour egg over the weekend. How much did it costs? RM2.50 for a dish - cheap and tasty!

Steamed Tri-Coloured Eggs Recipe

Ingredients:

2 kampung eggs (You should have 1/2 a rice bowl of egg mixture after beaten)

1/2 century egg 

1 salted egg york

3/4 bowl of water

Note: Water:egg ratio is 1.5:1. So regardless of how many eggs you use, once you have beaten the eggs, add 1.5 times more water of the volume of egg mixture you use.

Seasoning:

1 tsp soy sauce

A drop of oyster sauce

A dash of pepper

1/2 tsp cooked garlic oil

Method:

1. First, put on the steamer on high heat

2. Clean the shells of the century and salted eggs. Place them in bowls like the picture above.

3. Beat your fresh eggs. Add seasoning and water. Make sure you stir well.

4. Slice the century egg into desired chucks. Break the salted egg yolk into pieces too. Place them in your steaming dish.

5. Sieve your egg mixture into the steaming dish.

6. Place the dish carefully into the steamer and steam on medium high heat for 5 minutes or until your egg is firm to touch.

7. If you steam with the steamer lid on, your egg would probably look rough on the surface and bubbles inside. The trick is to leave a gap when steaming. I leave a chopstick on the edge of the lid to let a little steam out.

Carrot Walnut Cake

Carrot Walnut Cake (21 Mar 2012)

As you know, I'm not quite a baker, hence the lack of sweets and desserts in my blog! However, since the carrot walnut cake is one of the most demanded cakes that my mum bakes, I've somehow got to give it a shot! The recipe is actually from my aunt (an absolutely multi-talented woman. Thank you, Auntie!) who is kind enough to let me post the recipe online.

This is a wonderful simple cake that you just can't have too much of. It's wholesome, healthy and great for any occasion. If you are good at cake deco (something I'm lacking of), do some fancy little carrots that I see most people put on top of the cake :)

Homey Wholesome Cake!

Carrot Walnut Cake Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups of cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp soda bicarbonate
2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup castor sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used corn oil)
3 cups grated carrot
1 cup walnut
2 tsp vanilla essence

Cream Cheese Topping:
250gm cream cheese
113gm butter (1/2 a stick)
1 1/2 cups of icing / confectionery sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Grease a 10 inch round / square pan, whichever you fancy
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda bicarbonate, cinnamon powder and salt. Set aside
3. In a mixer, cream the brown sugar, caster sugar and vegetable oil. Add the eggs one by one while mixing.
4. When batter is creamy, add the vanilla essence.
5. Alternately, fold in grated carrot and walnut.
6. Pour batter into greased pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes. Check with a cake skewer at 40 minutes.
7. When cake is ready, leave on wired rack to cool.
8. To prepare the topping, cream the butter, cream cheese and icing sugar. Add in vanilla essence and lemon juice.
9.  Spread the topping on the cooled cake. I sliced my cake into half so that I could get some of that yummy cream cheese in between :)