Saturday, May 29, 2010

Ebi Kuzu Kiri Soba Noodles


I modified this recipes from the Wagamama Cookbooks. For me, this is a sharp, intense sauce for finishing or dipping with lots of citrus flavours balanced by the richness of the oyster sauce. This will keep for up to 10 days.

The below recipies makes about 125ml:
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
juice of 3 limes

Gently heat sugar+ fish sauces until it discoves.
Cool it & combine with the opyster sauce & lime juice.

Cook the soba noodles in a large pan of boiling water for 3-4 mins. Drain it.
Prepare some onion, garlic, salt, bean sprouts, or bell pepper and spring onion.
Heat wok with vegetables oil, stir fry the noodle with the vegetable above & just before you off the fire, drizzle the ebi kuzu kiri sauce.


Carbs Freak

Who hasn't been tempted by no-carb diets? It seem to work, and it yield results quickly. But what about those of us who can't part with bread, steaming rice, noodles or pastry? I don't know about you, but I'm not willing to give up all that good, nutritious carbs. Sometimes, I even indulge in some of the not so healthy carbs- especially pastry (e.g. brownies/ chocolate cake). Moderation is always the key factor to maintain a healthy body & minds.

Breads and cereals can add fiber to your diet and give you energy to keep going! We all need those benefits! I love my bread- Ciabatta is good for sandwiches.
I've learned that you can eat carbs and still lose weight. You just need to make good choices and watch your portion sizes. Here are some healthy carbs for you to experiment with: whole-grain bread, whole wheat durum pasta,whole-grain cereal, barley, quinoa, brown rice, brown rice noodles, oatmeal, potatoes, popcorn, any type of sprouted grains. Grains are good stuff. The Japanese, Chinese & Korean love their grains. It is their main staple. My favorite fried rice with home made Kimchi. So delicious even my 6 years old love them. Kimchi are spicy but she love it.


Porridge are light meal that suitable for weight watcher. A healthier version is to cook multigrain porridge. The Cantonese (Chinese) love porridges. For multigrain porridge, pls soak the grains for 2-3 hours before cooking it. Mine is using the white rice. I love the smoothness of white porridge.


Italian love their pasta & pizza. Scandinavian love their rye. French & European love their bread. To me :Carbs are great!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Simple Fried Rice Noodles

Today is a public holiday. I am tired & would like to stay at home as much as possible. I checked through my pantry - found it. Today will cook fried rice noodles for lunch.

1) Soak the rice noodles & drain the water. I am using organic brown rice noodle.
200g for 2 adults & 1 child.

2) Get my 6 years old to pound the dried shrimp into a paste since she is busy disturbing me & wanted to help me so much.
3) Any ingredients can be used for stir fry : sliced fish ball, squid, dried shrimp, shallots, spring onion, black fungus, beans sprouts & choy sum.

4) Heat up the work, stir fry the above ingrediants, rice noodles, last in the bean sprouts & choy sum. You can add some seasoning to make it taste better- chicken stocks or oyster sauce in some water.
In the afternoon, I got myself a cup of coffee with some store bought Japanese cookies. I love Japanese snacks - they taste good most of the time.


Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Organic Red Bean Paste + Bun


Most Asian especially Japanese love read beans. They use a lot of red beans paste in pastry or cuisine. Chinese love red beans too, e.g. red bean soup, red bean steamed bun, red bean moon cake etc. Today, I am using the left over red bean to make into red bean paste for some baked buns.

-Cooked/Left over red bean
-Sugar - approx 1/3 of the weight of the cooked red bean
You may adjust the sweetness of the red bean to your personally taste

Method:
Blend the cooked red bean with sugar in the mixer.
Then cooked it with medium fire, keep on stirring until the water dry out.
Keep an eye on the red bean, otherwise, it will burn.

Below is the end result: coarse organic red bean paste.

I used the whole red bean paste including the skin. Therefore, it is not very smooth.


Just use the normal bread dough recipies:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/basic-bread-recipe

Method:
1) After you have done proofing the basic bread dough
2) Flatten the dough into a square shape if possible
3) Spread the read bean paste on top of the flatten dough
4) Roll it up like a Swiss roll
5) Cut it & lay the bread dough just like what you see here
6) Proof it until it is double in size

It is ready to go into the oven.

Bake in a piping hot oven.
Don't worry if the red bean paste burn a little. It is pretty common because it contains sugar. That was really good for my weekdays breakfast.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Fish Paste


Fish paste is very versatile in Chinese cooking. 1st of all, get the good quality plain fish paste from the market or you can choose to make your own. Actually, it is very easy to make those fish paste but it does consume some times. Just fillet the fish & use a spoon to scrap the flesh out.

The most important thing is to season the fish paste properly.

Seasoning:
Salt
Few tbsp of water mixed with corn starch (manual adjust- pour in bit by bit)
Chopped spring onion
Egg white
Pepper
Chopped red de-seeded chilis
Soy sauces
Ginger cut finely
Few water chestnut chopped finely

Method:
1.Put the fish paste & the above seasoning in a blender & mix it properly. Adjust the corn starch water manually. The fish paste will form smoothly.
2. Stuff the fish paste in any vegetables or tofu. Shallow fry it. You can serve it with chili sauces.


Smooth fish paste.

Stuffed white tofu & fried tofu.

Stuffed white tofu & fried tofu.

Stuffed chili for those who love spicy.

You can shallow fry the stuffed tofu on a grill pan to give it the nice grill mark.

You can even use a Nori or Japanese seaweed sheet with the fish paste. Evenly spread the fish paste on the Nori & then roll it like a swiss roll. Shallow fried it & steam it. Then, cut it across. You can have this very nice rolled seaweed with fish paste for week days dinner . My gal love those rolled seaweed very much.



Thursday, May 13, 2010

Travel Ipoh

A short local trip within the country is a good way to unwind yourself from everyday stress. I have been really stressed up due to the heavy 9-5 workload. The most important thing to plan in for the local trip is the "makan" place. "Makan" in local dialects mean "Eat". Ta-da...... let's me present the Ipoh Makan Trip.

Drive early from KL 5.30am in order to reach Ipoh by 8.30am to avoid the dim sum crowd. Breakfast at Foh San Dim Sum
http://www.fohsan.com.my/location_simpang_pulai.html

The steamed GLUTINOUS RICE CHICKEN deserved a thumb up.

We had Chef Big Bun, Prawn Dumpling, Pork Dumpling & Fried Prawn Dumpling. That's it! Because we need to save some space for the next "makan" destination.
Then, we met up with a good friend in the real OLD TOWN STREET of Ipoh. We have this local iced coffee called - "Kopi Ping". That was a good one compared to KL. I wish they put less sugar in the "Kopi Ping". That's my personal preference.

In Ipoh, the majority speak Cantonese. So it would be good if you can converse in the Cantonese dialect. Well, I will consider this as tea time. Let's move on to our next makan destination - Tanjung Tualang. We heard that the fresh water prawn there was good. Get some tips from my local buddy, then off we go. From Ipoh => Gopeng => Tanjung Tualang, it tooks us 40mins. We reach Tanjung Tualang about 1pm. It was a small happening town. You know what? There are lots of car plate "WXX" & "BXX" near the restaurant & pasar (morning market) area. Oh my, you see lots of people walking around that area holding a camera taking photos. This means most of them are tourist from KL. It is so happening in this small town. Lots of people walking under the hot sun. There are people doing business around the restaurant: selling snacks, local delicacy..etc By the way, there is only one street in this small town. I guess you can imagine what I am saying.

Tanjung Tualang is the place to be for fresh water prawns. It is good at its own category. There are a few good restaurant - Luen Fong Restaurant, Sin Mee Fong Restarant. We dine at Luen Fong restaurant at the corner of the shop house. Price is reasonable 1kg RM60. It worth going there.


Such old school chili sauce, really authentic. Love it.
Steam fresh water prawn. Crispy & juicy. The prawn texture is different from the sea catch.

Stir fried prawn in soya sauces. Thumb up.

On the way back, we even have time to visit the "kapal korek". There are only 2 kapal korek in Malaysia. Both are retired, one already sunk & that is the only one left for tourist.We visited Kellies Castles. It was built by a Scottish planter. Details see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellie%27s_Castle

After we reached home, I even have time to cook up a dinner using the chili dried prawn sauces that I bought in Tanjung Tualang. Honestly, it was good.


Sliced up the egg plant, spoon some chili sauce over the egg plants. Then steamed it for about 10-15 mins.