Bite On It!

This is a delayed post… supposed to put it up on Sunday but only download the photos last night.

We have abundance of dried mushrooms (MIL brought bak from Germany where my SIL operate a Chinese restaurant) and if we do not finish them up those tiny beetles will start to invate as our fridge is over stuffed with so many things so we can’t keep them in there. Since we had another round of spring cleaning last Sunday, I decided to help by cooking.

Had a bottle of pasta sauce and a packet of clourful vege spiral pasta so came out with this idea… another east meet west dish!

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Ingredients

• 1 pkt Pasta (I used the 3 colours vege pasta)
• 1 btl Pasta sauce (tomato with onion base)
• 1 can Button mushrooms (sliced)
• 4pcs Dried mushrooms (cubed)
• 1 stick Carrot (cubed)
• 5pcs Onions (cubed)
• 4pcs Tomatoes (cubed)
• 1 or 2pcs Green bell pepper or capsicum (cubed)
• Water (add less for thicker sauce)
• Salt for taste
• Magerine or butter to loosen cooked pasta
• Mixed herbs
• Pepper (black pepper preffered)

Marinade

• 1 whole Chicken breast meat (deboned and cut into cubes)
• 2tsp Corn flour
• 1tbls Soya sauce
• Pepper for taste

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Methods

1. Boil pasta till soft then drained, add some magerine with a sprinkle of mixed herbs and stir till all loosen, put aside.
2. In a separate saucepan, boil the cubed carrots and dried mushrooms.
3. Heat up wok or large pot with 4-5 tbls cooking oil or olive oil and sautee the onions till soft and add in the sliced button mushrooms, capsicums, dried mushrooms, all stir for around 3 minutes each in between before adding the next item.
4. Next add in the marinaded chicken cubes, stir till 70% cooked, pour in the pasta sauce, stir and add desired amount of water, stir and covered for a few minutes. (I had 2 cups or 250ml)
5. Lastly, add in the cubed tomatoes, stir and add salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle some mixed herbs.

Mixed vegetables or chap-chai is one of my favourite… especially the east meet west type. Why east meet west? I used dried mushrooms, which is considered very Chinese so I named it East and West because I used broccoli as it’s more of a western type of vegetable. (the dried mushrooms were hidden below, hence can’t see in the photo)

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Ingredients

• 1 head Broccoli
• 1/4 stick Carrot (sliced thinly)
• 3 pcs Dried mushrooms (sliced thinly)
• 200g Lean pork (cut strips)
• Few slies of ginger

Marinade (pork strips)

• 1 1/2tsp of corn flour
• 1tsp oil
• 1tbsp soya sauce
• pepper for taste

Sauce

• 2tsp Corn flour
• 1tbsp Soya sauce
• 1/2 cup Water

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Methods

1. Boil brocoli and carrot in a saucepan for about 3 mins, sieve away water.
2. Heat up wok with cooking oil and lightly fry the ginger till golden brown, pour in marinaded pork strips and stir for 3-4 minutes (till pork is about 70% cooked).
3. Add in dried mushrooms, stir for 2-3 minutes and add in the boiled broccoli and carrot. Add a little water and cover for a minute.
4. Pour in the sauce mix and continue to stir until sauce thicken, lift up and serve.

With the recent case of beta-agonist used by pig farmers in Malaysia, many people tried to avoid buying and eating pork. I don’t do so much marketing these days since my MIL is doing the marketing and cooking. Unless she is unable to cook then I will help her out. My MIL has assured me before that the stall she bought the meat from are free from the beta-agonist jab.

The past few days MIL has been entertaining a friend visiting from Singapore so has been out most of the time. PiggyBeng prefers to eat home cooked food so I have to do the cooking but MIL will do the marketing every morning before she go off with her friend for the famous Penang hawker fare…

Found a packet of minced pork meat in the freezer so thought of cooking something with it. And here is what I came out with….

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Ingredients

• 300gm Minced pork
• 2pcs Dried Mushroom (cut square)
• 1 Chili padi (chop finely)
• 1tsp Cooking oil
• 1 1/2tsp Corn flour
• 2-3tbsp Water
• Salt and pepper for taste

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Methods

1. Mix minced pork with dried mushroom, chili padi, cooking oil, corn flour, water, salt and pepper.
2. Press and roll the mixture into a ball and try to do the passing from one palm to another until the mixture is well glued together. Divide into smaller portion and roll them into patties.
3. Heat up wok with oil and fry on slow fire.

There was half a pot of rice left from last night and since I was going out for dinner with MIL tonight, I decided to fry the rice for PiggyBeng… he has got a conference call so can’t join us.

I did not managed to get any chicken meat and not wanted to let PiggyBeng eating too much salted fish, then I thought of using those anchovies (ikan bilis) that I bought during my previous KL trip. The anchovies gave the fried rice a good fragrance and it’s definitely healtier than salted fish.

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Ingredients

• 3 cups Cooked rice (best if kept in the fridge over night)
• 40-50g Anchovies
• 1 Onion (sliced thinly)
• 2 Chili padi (chopped)
• Carrot (cut to strips)
• 1 Egg (beaten)
• 1/2 tsp Dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp Light soy sauce
• Pepper for taste

Garnishing:

• 1 Egg - Beat and fried into ommelet then cut into thin strips
• Carrot - Sliced and boil
• Brocolli - Boil

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with 2 tbsp oil and fry the anchovies until turned light golden brown and lift up.
2. Use the remaining oil in the wok and sauteed onion till soft and add in carrot strips and chopped chilies, continue to stir.
3. Mash up the rice before pouring it into the wok and fry together with the onion and chillies. Add in dark soy sauce and light soy sauce while continue to stir.
4. Beat egg and pour in slowly while continue to stir until all are well mixed.
5. Add in the fried anchovies, stir and lift up from wok.

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Tips: Keep adding cooking oil little by little while frying and not pouring so much oil at one go as the rice will absorb the oil very quickly and make the rice too oily when you are done.

Soup soup soup…. ok… I’m addicted to soup drinking… hehehe

Like winter melon, old yellow cucumber is another soup that have a cooling effect. So, if you are in your early stage of pregnancy, do try to avoid those soups that have melon as a main ingredient.

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I seldom prepare this soup but I used to drink a lot when I was younger as this is one of my mom’s favourite soup. Even my grandmother loved to prepare this soup and during the bygone days, there are not so much choices in the market everyday anyway, so the old yellow cucumber is one of the daily item you can find in the vege stalls… ok… I hope I don’t sound too crapy with this yesteryear stuff… hehhee

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Ingredients

• 400g Pork ribs
• 3L Water
• 1 Old yellow cucumber
• 8-10pcs Red dates
• 3-5pcs Dried osyters (ho-see) or dried squid
• 1 stick Carrot (optional)
• Fish sauce or salt for taste

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Methods

1. Cut the two tips off the old yellow cucumber and gently rub the end of the cucumber using one tip on one side. You will see some foamy stuff coming out after a few seconds. Do for about 20 seconds and wash away the foam. (I was told that this process will wash away the bitterness from the cucumber) Cut the cucumber into half and remove the centre (seeds) then cut into thick long strip (1st picture above). Leave the skin on.
2. When the water come to a boil, put in the pork ribs then boil for 5 minutes. Add in the cut cucumber and carrot (cubed) followed by red dates and dried oysters.
3. Wait for it to boil for 5 minutes and turn to slow fire. Continue to boil for 2.5 hours.
4. Add in fish sauce or salt before serving.

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