Meat Stir fry Yakiniku (JP) sauces with White Rice

Simple stir fry meat is always a favorite for kids. Today, I am going to show you how to do a simple yet delicious meal on a lazy weekend. It is 100% fool proof. By the way, you can also sneak in some vegetables in this stir fry dish. This is my "Rachael 30 mins Meals".

1st thing 1st, cook the rice using rice cooker. It is more authentic by cooking short & round Japanese rice which is more sticky compared to the Jasmine rice (Thailand). The Rice will be cooked in approx. 30mins. In the mean time, slice the meat (chicken, pork or etc) & vegetables (onion, carrot), ginger or garlic.

Then, heat the oil in wok, slightly fry the ginger or garlic, in the meat (stir fry 1-2 mins), then add carrot & onions. Add 2 tbsp of Yakiniku sauce with 3 tbsp of water, let it cook through. Serve hot with white rice. Guarantee delicious.

Tips: You can add in 0.5 tsp of dark soya sauce so that it will have the deep brown colour.

Below is Japanese Style Yakiniku sauces for your reference. You can get this from any Asian Store that sell Japanese food supply. Any brand will do.

I even sneak in some corns in this stir fry. It looks like western-style stir fry. Feel free to try different type of vegetable & meat with this sauces. It is really versatile.

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Steam Fish with Tofu & Salted Vegetables

White Pomfret by itself is very delicious. Well, today I am going to show you how to make a 2 in 1 dish. On a busy weekday night, this is a quick meal to serve. Please defrost the White Pomfret in the chiller over night. After a day work & back to home in the evening, the fish is almost done defrosted. You can steam it straight away. You can also prepare the sliced gingers, pickled shallots & salted vegetables the night before. Please soak the salted vegetable at least 15 mins before slicing it.

Ingrediant:
Fresh White Pomfret
Sliced ginger
Sliced salted vegetable (from Asian Store, remember to soak)
Sliced pickled shallots
1 box of soft tofu
Pepper (Salt is not needed because we have salted vegetable already)
1 Bird eye chilies (optional)
Some spring onion to garnish

Method:
1) Marinate fish with white pepper. Lay it on a plate.
2) Lay the cubed soft tofu, ginger, salted vege, pickled shallots, bird eye chilies on top of the fish. There is no bird eye chilies on the pic because I am out of stocks. You can garnish it with spring onion.
3) Steam it accordingly. The bigger the fish, the longer you need to steam it. Observe & make your best judgment.

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Easy Stir Fry Prawns with Soy Sauces

This is a simple recipes to for stir fry prawns. It is good if the size of the prawn is big, this mean less peeling during eating. I know it is quite messy to peel the skin off but you must keep the skin in tact when come to stir fry prawn. It will make sure that the flesh is still juicy. The outcome is the stir fry prawn is much more delicious.


Ingredients:
Fresh Big Prawn ( about 8ea-10ea)
Sliced Garlic
Sliced Ginger
Pinch of Salt
Oil for frying
Premix Sauces: 1tsp of soy sauces + 0.5tsp dark soy sauces +1 tsp oyster sauce + 4 tbsp of water +1tbsp of Chinese cooking wine

Method:
1) Heat oil in a wok or pan, in the garlic & ginger.
2) In the big prawn, stir fry for half a min, then in the sauce & cover with lid.
    Use high heat on this stage for 1-2mins.
3) Prawn can be cooked rather quickly, it will turn red when it is cook. Keep an eye on it. Serve Hot.

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Tofu with Dried Shrimp

This is one of my favorite recipes for weekday cooking night. You can whip a meal in less than 30mins with simple ingredients. This is an extremely kid friendly recipes.
Ingrediants:
1 pkt of soft Tofu
1 tbsp of dried shrimp (soak in water for 15 mins & drained)
3ea shallot (peeled & sliced thinly)
2tbsp Chinese dried sweet radish (cubed, optional)
Soy sauces
Oil for frying

Method:
1) Remove the tofu packaging & pop it on a plate. Soft tofu can be eaten raw.
2) Heat a tbsp of oil, fry the shallot & dried shrimp. Remember to keep stirring & keep your eye on it as you want make sure that it did not burn. Then, you can add in the Chinese dried sweet radish & stir fry for 1-2 mins.
3) Top the tofu with the above. Just pour some light soya sauces over it. Not too much.
4) You can garnish with some chopped coriander/ cilantro or spring onion.

Tips  to make this a successful dishes: good quality dried shrimp. I bought those from Kuala Sepetang. It is fresh & less salty.

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My Bread Journey - Basic Baguette Recipies

It is an amazing journey for me to learn about bread - the real bread. Finally, I have discovered the correct way to bake real breads. In my personal point of view, I always believe in one thing - if there is a will, there is a way to do it. Honestly, I have learned from others professional baker's experience by reading their books....etc.  Frankly, I must thank them for sharing their successful bread making technique. Of course, I cannot stop experiment with new recipes & technique. So I believe everyone can bake a good loaf of bread if you really put your heart into it. 

Once I have learned how to make real bread, then I learn to add my personal touch into the bread. This is a very natural process. For example, when I have learned to make the basic rustic country bread. My brain will tell me...why not add some sun dried tomato into it? And I did (see below pic), it turns out great as savory bread.

Later, I will think how to eat these bread to fully maximize its delicious flavour. Hm....a slightly toast bread,  simple omelet (salt & pepper) with ham is super delicious. That's our Saturday breakfast. My kid just love it.

 

 Lots of ideas come naturally, I thought of baking a Focaccia olive bread with cherry tomatoes. It works!

We just sandwich the omelet in between & it makes a wonderful breakfast. Perhaps some of you must be wondering why I always cook omelet? That's because it is super fast to cook an omelet on a lazy Saturday morning.:)

My child prefer tight crumb texture bread - occasionally I will make Pain Brie (see below ).

 

 I prefer light Rye bread with has a earthy aroma (see below pics). Normally I do not use too much rye flour because it tends to give a heavier textured crumbs. This is also to avoid my child complaint on the heavy type of rye bread make her teeth more painful. That is because she is in the process of losing her babies teeth.

Today I am going to share a recipes that suits the adults & children. The Basic Baguette which is very versatile. It is good for making sandwiches, crispy on the outside & soft in the inside. It is a very common bread for beginners baker. You can use this simple recipes to make the regular baguette long log shape, round shape, small loaves (proofed in the rattan basket for the beautiful marks. Don't forget to slash your bread before pop into the oven to give those beautiful marks. See below pics:

 

 Recipes:

 500g unbleached bread flour

 10g salt

 5g dried yeast

 340g plain water ( it is ok to use direct from the tap)

 Method:

1) Mix the bread flour with salt & dried yeast. Mix thoroughly.

2) Add the 340g water into the above. Slightly mix it with a plastic scrapper.

3a) BY MACHINE: Use the kneading hook to knead the bread. Using the slowest speed to start mixing for at least 3 mins, then change it to medium speed for another 7mins.When the flour mixture turns into a smooth surface & come together in a dough. If it is not properly form yet, give it another 2-3mins of kneading at medium speed. Make sure the gluten in the bread is properly formed so that it gives structure to the bread.

 Or

3b) BY HANDS: Beginners are advise to start making bread by hand because you need to get the "feel" of the dough. Hands on is the 1st step to successful bread making. Use you palm to knead the dough. Naturally, you can feel the flour & water is forming the dough. It will get less sticky, after about 8 mins of kneading, you should be able to get a proper dough. Otherwise, you can add another extra 3-5 mins of kneading until the gluten is properly formed. 

4) Form a ball shape & let it proof for 45-60mins. It should be double the size now.

5) Gently use your palm to "punch" the double size dough, release all the air from the dough. Then, divide the dough into 3 portion equally. Then, shape it into a log shape. Let the baguette log shape dough proof in the baking tray for about 45mins.Mark it with beautiful slashes. Then, it is ready to bake.

6) Remember to preheat the oven @230'C about 20mins before the bread is ready for baking. Remember to spray some water on the bread surface just before it goes into the oven. This will give the bread a beautiful brown crust. Bake the 1st 5 mins @230'C, then turn down the head to 180'C for another 15-20mins. No home oven behave the same. You may need to observe the oven & adjust the time accordingly if necessary. It could take longer time if the oven is not hot enough. After remove the bread from the oven, you can tap at the bottom on the bread. When it give a hollow sound, it means it is done. Please cool the bread properly before storing.Ta-da~~ That's the beautiful bread for tomorrow breakfast.

 

Love the big holes insides the bread. It taste especially good when it's toasted.

That's my breakfast sandwiches - tuna spread with alfalfa sprout. Yummy~ I find it rewarding to bake my own bread.

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Begger's Chicken - How to eating guide?

Begger's Chicken - why is it called a Begger chicken? According to the China legend, there was a begger who was desperate for food but do not have the stove to prepare the chicken. So what he did was...covered up the chicken with mud & burned it in fire. There are a few stories behind the begger's chicken but this make the most sense the me. In today China in big cities like Beijing, they called the "Begger's Chicken" = "Emperor Chicken" = "Rich & Noble Chicken". It carried the opposite meaning of "Begger's Chicken". We can understand that a high class 5 stars restaurant can't have a "Begger's Chicken" on their menu.

We bought this Begger's chicken in one of our local tour, this is a more humble version. You can't really make the authentic Begger's chicken at home because it is really messy. These are baked in a traditional oven. However, there are simple Chinese herbal rubs that you can buy from the store for steam/bake from the Asia Store.

Refer to the above pic, we used a kitchen hammer to break the baked mud. Then, we use a jam spreader to open up the cracked mud. Be creative, use whatever tools we got in the kitchen.

Continue to work hard for a delicious chicken....

Finally, we removed all the pieces. Then, you will see there is a wax paper protecting the chicken from the mud.

Tear off the wax paper........

Carefully removed all the wax paper, then you will see the final aluminum foil wrapping "protecting" the chicken .....

Ta-da ...finally we can serve the chicken. Hungry....

The Begger's chicken was stuffed with lots of Chinese Herbs. The flavour is more intense & the meat is juicy. The cooking method using mud & traditional wood fire oven make it so special. It is just similar to the method making salt baked chicken, the cooking process itself is the main contribution factor for the delicious meal.

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Flower Crab - How to prepare ?

My friend bought us some flower crabs. These are local caught flower crab. You can only harvest 30% meat from these crab. They had less meat proportion to their body weight. But the plus point is the flavor of the flesh is more intense.  By the way, this is the first time we process the crab. Got to use some brain juices to crack the puzzle.How to "gut" the crab?? Hm.......
First thing first, wash the crab with brush & water. You can see in the below pictures, we are preparing to use the Chinese big knife to smash the crab clamp later. You can twist the arms or legs for bigger size crab. However, we just kept it intact because the size is not big.

We can still recalled he told us, look for the triangle flap on the crab belly. He is right there is a triangle flap. Can you see it?

Open the triangle flap; use force to tear open the body. It was pretty easy to handle because the crab was small.

Lastly remove the spongy gills & small paddles. Then use a knife to chopped the crab into two.

Use a spoon to scoop out the roe (crab butter). You can keep it or discard it depending on your preference. Those thing are quite high in cholesterol but taste freaking good. Eat sparingly.

For fresh crab, just steam it with some salt or can cook with plain rice porridge (flavors are better with the crab roe).

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Thai Wun Sen Salad with lots of corianders

I am craving of Thai food recently. I am so into Thai style salad. Honestly, we just can't get enough of it. Therefore, I had decided to make myself some salad.

You need about 20 mins to wipe up this dish.
Ingrediants:
180g bean thread noodles (Wun Sen or mung bean noodle)
2 clove of garlic, diced
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp lime juice  (lemon juice)
2 tbsp peanut oil
40g chopped roasted peanuts
2 spring onion, sliced thinly
half cup of fresh coriander (chopped)
2 small red Thai chili,sliced ( you can opt for big chili if you would like to reduce the spiciness or do without it)

Method:
1) Stand noodle in boiling water until just tender or become translucent. Drain. Use scissors to cut into shorter lengths.
2) Use fork to mix garlic, fish sauce, lime juice & oil in a large bowl to combine.
3) In the cooked noodle, peanuts, spring onions, coriander, chilies & toss toss toss to serve immediately.

TIPS: For most salad, please toss the dressing only when you want to serve. Otherwise, it will become soggy & not so presentable.

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Penang Streets Foods- Char Koay Teow

Almost anyone staying in Malaysia love streets foods. Last holidays, we had decided to visit the infamous Penang Sister Char Koay Teow @Lam Heng Cafe, 185 Macalister Road, Penang. It is so easy to miss the Lam Heng Cafe because it is just at the corner & it is quite difficult to get a parking. We have been circling the same street for at least 5 times just to get a parking. It was almost 2pm, I guessed whatever we ate must tasted so good because we were hungry. LOL.........

However, I was glad that we finally found a parking. Honestly the shop is very old, feel like I am going back to 80s. But the shop owner are e-commerce savvy, you can find them in Facebook. Take a close look at the Lam Heng Cafe signboard, it was tagged with "Facebook".

Char Koay Teow in Hokkien language (one of the Chinese language) means fried flat rice noodles. If you ever visit Penang, you must not miss this signature fried noodles. These flat rice fried in a sizzling hot wok with oil, bean sprout, eggs, prawn, chili (optional), cockles (optional) & chives. Most of the time, customer will drop the chili if they ordering for the kids. Some people do not take cockles due to personal preference. Please tell the stall owner when you order, they have very good memory even though the crowd is big.  Well, for myself, I will want all these ingredients in my Char Koay Teow.

Besides that, we also order Hokkien Mee (Hae Mee) & Loh Mee from the other stalls. I thought it was pretty good. Hokken Mee (Hae Mee) is noodles served together with hard boiled eggs, small shrimp, meat slices, bean sprouts and kangkung (water spinach) in a spicy prawn broth.

 

Loh Mee - noodles in dark soya sauce broth thickened with corn starch and beaten eggs, served with eggs, meat slices and bean sprouts.

We always prefer to stay in studios apartment. Gurney hotel offered a very reasonable packaging. In Malaysia, hotels price is higher on Friday, Saturday & Public holidays. It could be pricey to travel during those peak period. My recommendation is to travel off peak period because Penang had lots of tourist.

We continued our dinner "makan trip" around George Town. We recommend the below few dishes that you must try if you ever visit Penang. We just drive around George Town around 7p.m., then randomly pick an eatery full of people &  full of hawkers stalls. It will never goes wrong.

We had.......

Lor Bak - Marinated minced pork, rolled in thin soybean sheets & spices.Deep fried. Usually served with small bowl of Loh (a thick dipping sauces thickened with corn starch and beaten eggs) and chili sauces.

Rojak Buah- assorted fruit salad tossed in a special thick black prawn sauce. It is combined with sugar, tamarind  and lots of fruits (pineapple, guava, green mango, cucumber and pickles fruits) tossed in this sauce with crushed toasted peanuts and dried squid too sometimes. There are a few variations, Rojak Buah is my all time favorite after eating all those deep fried stuffs.

My kid favorite: Oysters Omelet is juicy & fresh.

.

By the way, when come to feasting, you should follow the crowd. We see a lot of customers ordering this stir fried clamps. We tag along to order the same things when the waitress served it up to the table next to us. Oh....YES! It was good.

P/S: The only side effect is I put on weight. @_@

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