Bite On It!

We normally see the small siakap fish sold at the market but not those really big type which were from deep sea. Last year, we went to dine at one of the restaurant near by our house and was introduced to this deep sea siakap fillet which was really big and juicy. So, we went around hunting for this fish in the wet markets around our area and was lucky we found them!

I will usually make simple steaming with just ginger and chillies but as I like hot and sour stuff so went on to try this tom yum style instead. The siakap fillets goes well with this style too….

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Ingredients

• 2 pcs Siakap fillets
• 2cm Lengkuas (blue ginger)
• 1 stick Lemongrass
• Kaffir lime leaves (use the young sprouted leaves)
• 4 cloves Garlic (chopped)
• 2-3 Chili padi (if you preffer hot stuff…put more!)
• 2pcs Kaffir lime or normal lime juice
• Light soy sauce

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Method

1. Cut/chop all the ingredients and sprinkle on the fish fillets, a few dash of light soy sauce, all the lime juice and add a little water and steam! It is that easy!
2. Remember to check the fish before serving.

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I bought a big tin of Nestum recently as I heard that drinking milk with Nestum can help to increase milk production… not sure how true is that but no harm trying. Actually, Nestum is really tasty due to its crispiness. Normally we can order Nestum prawns from most ‘Tai-choa’ or Chinese Big Fry stalls. However, I did not buy any prawns this week so tilt the recipe a little and use chicken instead… All I can say is… it taste just as good!

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Ingredients

• 1 pair of Chicken thigh (drumstick + thigh)
• 2 Chili padi
• 2 strands Curry leaves
• 1 tblsp Brown sugar
• 4-5 tblsp Nestum
• Light soy sauce
• Corn flour
• Pepper

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Method

1. Cut chicken into smaller pieces and marinade with light soy sauce with sprinkles of corn four and pepper for about 1/2 hour.
2. Heat up wok with a little oil and fry the chicken pieces lightly on small fire until golden brown, lift up and put aside.
3. Heat wok with a little oil and fry the chopped chili padi and curry leaves. Once fragrant, put in the brown sugar and fry for a while until half melt and quickly pour in the Nestum and stir until the sugar is mixing well with the Nestum.
4. Add in chicken pieces and continue stirring for 20 seconds, lift up and serve.

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Some of you must be wondering why I’m using a type of pest for my cooking… don’t get me wrong as this type of anchovy is commonly know as ’silvery-fish’ or ‘ngan-yee-jai’ (silver-small-fish) by the Chinese, hence the name given. They are the smallest version of the common anchovy and we can’t really see their bones. Normally we will cook the entire fish together with it head. It’s salty at time but the level of saltiness is not so extreme as compared to the bigger anchovies. They are nice to eat when being fried till crispy.

The taste of tofu is bland so to add a little silverfish and dried prawns will make this dish a very appetizing starter.

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Ingredients

• 1pc Tofu (9×9 cm type)
• 30gm Silverfish
• 30gm Dried prawns
• 1pc Chili padi
• Light soy sauce

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Method

1. Cut tofu to small square (1 pc of tofu can cut up to 8 small square pcs). Heat up wok with some oil and fry the tofu lightly till golden brown. Lift up and put aside.
2. Wash and chop or grind dried prawns to tiny pieces. Fry dried prawns with some oil for 2 minutes and add in the silverfish and chopped chili padi and fry until golden crisp.
3. Dash some light soy sauce on tofu before topping with the fried dried prawns and silverfish.

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I came to know about this dish just 2 years back. The way they named this dish gave me the impression that it’s expensive but surprisingly it is not. In fact, they are all the common vegetable, legumes and bean. The 4 main items are lady’s fingers (okra), winged beans, snake beans (or can use longbeans) and brinjal (egg-plant). When such items cooked together with chili shrimps… it’s so appetizing that it make you want to eat more!

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Ingredients

• 150gm Snake beans
• 200gm Lady’s fingers (okra)
• 200gm Winged beans (kacang botol)
• 1 or 2 pcs Brinjal (egg plant)
• 100gm Dried prawns
• 3 Red chilies
• 2 Chili padi
• 4-6 pcs Shallots
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 10gm Belacan (shrimp paste)
• Black soy sauce
• Light soy sauce
• Water

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Method

1. Grind the dried prawns, shallots, chilies, chili padi, garlic and belacan.
2. Cut snake beans to about 1.5″ long and dry fried with some oil until half soft. Same proess for brinjal and winged beans. When done, lift them up and put aside.
3. Heat up wok with 3 tblsp of oil and fry the grinded item until fragrant then lift up and put aside.
4. Put in another 2 tblsp of oil and fry lady’s fingers for about 2 minutes and put in the fried winged beans, brinjal and snake beans and continue to stir fry for another 2 minutes or so then put in the sambal udang which we fried earlier. Continue to stir and put in some black soy sauce (put more if you like a darker tone).
5. Add in some water, stir and cover for 2-3 minutes and continue stirring. Add in soy sauce (not too much as the saltiness may come from the dried prawns and belacan) and stir until the mixture starts to look a little sticky. Lift up and serve.

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Note: Should you prefer it to be spicier, do add in more chili padi. Alternatively, you can also chop some garlic and sauteed them before going to #4.

Tips: If you do not want to use too much oil to fry the brinjal (they absort lots of oil), you can steam them first before frying but of course it won’t taste as good…

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I’ve been craving to have this dish for a while. Bought some mui-choy (a type of preserved vegetable) last week but no time to prepare so has KIV it till yesterday.

This recipe is not very acurate in terms of the ingredients’ portion so have to adjust according to personal taste preference.

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Ingredients

• 300gm Mui-choy
• 500gm Pork Belly (must have some fat)
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 3 Chili padi
• 30ml Glutinous rice wine or Chinese cooking wine
• Black soy sauce
• Sugar or brown sugar
• 3 bowls of Water

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Method

1. Wash away all the salt and cut mui-choy into small pieces. Soak all the mui-choy for at least an hour and change water 2-3 time to remove the saltiness.
2. Cut pork belly to cubes. Heat up wok with a little oil and fry the pork belly cubes until 70% cooked and remove from wok.
3. Squeeze all the water out from mui-choy and fry it lightly over small fire without any oil. This process is to dry up all the moisture in the mui-choy.
4. Heat the wok with 3tblsp of oil and put in chopped garlic. Once garlic gets fragrant, throw in the chopped chilies and stir for a while. Put in the pork belly cubes and stir then add in black soy sauce (put more if you prefer a darker tone).
5. Once the black soy sauce are settled evenly on those pork belly cubes, put in the mui-choy and continue to stir. Then add in at least 3-4 bowls of water, stir and cover over small fire before transfering to cook for 1-1/2 hours in a casserol and stirring occassionally.
6. Add in sugar should the taste of mui-choy is still very salty.
7. Just before you turn off the fire, add in the glutinous rice wine and stir for a while.