Bite On It!

Kai lan (kale) is one of our favorite green leaf vegetable. In fact this is the only vegetable I was allowed to eat during my confinement.

So far, the best way to cook kai lan is to stir-fry with either meat or prawns and add in a little rice wine to boost the taste. On lazy days, I will just do the plain stir-fry with some soy sauce… of cause not so delicious lar!

If you look closely when you are in the market, there are actually a few types of kai lan on sale. The common ones are those in skinny bundle which was planted locally here. Another type is those they called Hong Kong kai lan where all the bundles came in almost similar sizes. The type I like is those with thick stem and really huge leaves (pictured above).

Today I’ll cook it with pork since I still have some left in my freezer.

 .

. 

Ingredients

• 300gm Kai lan
• 150gm pork/chicken/prawns
• 2cm ginger (sliced into fine stripes)
• 2 tblsp glutinous rice wine /cooking wine
• 2 tsp corn flour
• Water
• Soy sauce
• Sugar
• Pepper

.

.

Methods

1. Marinade meat with some corn flour, pepper and soy sauce and leave it for 30 minutes.
2. Cut kai lan into 5cm long and separate the stems and leaves.
3. Heat up wok and fry ginger till fragrant and throw in the marinaded meat and fry for 1 minute before adding in the kai lan stems. Sprinkle some water, stir and cover for 2 minutes. Add in the leaves and cover for another 2 minutes.
4. When the kai lan looked soft, pour in the rice wine and continue to stir.
5. Mix around 5 tblsp of water with corn flour, sugar, pepper and soy sauce for the sauce in a small bowl. Mix well. Pour into the cooked kai lan and stir until the consistency became thick before scooping out.

.

I have a bundle of longbeans and have no idea what to do with them. Was thinking to just stir-fry with some meat but the idea was rather boring so came up with this dish instead.

.

.

The process does look rather intricate but fret not! It’s rather easy to do and it taste good too!

. 

Ingredients

• 12 stalks longbeans
• 300gm Pork
• 15gm salted fish (mui heong type)
• 2 pcs chili padi
• 1 tsp corn flour
• pepper to taste
• water

.
Sauce

• 1 tsp Corn flour
• 30 ml water
• Pepper
• Soy sauce

.
Methods

1. Boil water with a little oil and salt and put in longbeans and boil until 80% soft. Take out and let it cool.
2. Minced the pork and add in chopped salted fish and chilies with corn flour and some water (to hold the mixture together). Mix well and add in a dash of pepper.
3. Weave the longbeans into a basket shape.
4. When all the longbenas have been weaved, stuff the minced pork mixture on top of the basket.
5. Heat up the frying pan or wok and add in a little oil and start frying the baskets (the top first).
6. When all the baskets are all golden brown…lift them up from frying pan.
7. To prepare the sauce, mixed all the ingredients. Heat up the wok with a little oil and pour in the mixture and stir slowly until it boils. Glaze the baskets with the sauce.

.

I seldom cook poultry dishes because these days chicken meat sold in the market are mostly from chicken factory farms where chicken are being fed with feeds that contained high level of chemicals which speed up the growth of these chicken.

As grains (corn and wheat) are getting more expensive, most factory farmers do not feed their chicken the way the small time kampung (village) farmers does. Also, in the village, the chicken will have the opportunity to run about picking on other natural food which are more nutritional and without chemical. That is why, farm-run chicken are far more expensive.

.

.

I bought some yellow-skinned chicken from the Taman Yulek wet market in Cheras during my recent KL trip. Can’t find this kind of chicken in Penang and according to my mom, only in this market they sell such chicken. Not sure if these are factory farm reared chicken or not but looking at the size (quite huge), I suspected that it must be but since my mom said it tasted much better than the ordinary chicken meat bought in the supermarkets so I bought a few pieces back to Penang.

Found some tumeric powder in my kitchen cupboard so decided to try cooking a dish with it. I remembered tasting something like that during my college’s day near Wangsa Melawati in one of those Malay’s gerai makan (food stall). It’s not so spicy but the taste of tumeric is really refreshing… I just love tumeric! If using fresh tumeric, the taste would be even better!

Since I only cook for 2 pax, therefore, the portion used may not suffice if you need to feed more mouths!

. 

Ingredients

• 1 pc Whole chicken thigh (chopped into smaller pieces)
• 1 tsp Tumeric powder
• 1 pc Onion (sliced into rings)
• 2 pcs Chili padi (sliced)
• 1 stalk Lemon grass (sliced thinly)
• 1 tsp Lemon juice
• A pinch of salt

.
Methods

1. Marinade chicken meat with tumeric powder, lemon juice and salt for at least 1/2 a day… the longer the better!
2. Heat up oil in wok/frying pan and fry the chicken until slightly dry and take out
3. Stir-fry onion, chilies and lemon grass until fragrant
4. Add in chicken and any left over juices from the marinade and fry for 2-3 minutes
5. Serve with hot rice

.
.