Bite On It!

We had a crustaceans fiesta last weekend. As I wanted to clear the Prima Taste DIY Singapore Chilli Crab since the expiry date is drawing near and PiggyBeng was craving for some prawns. So we went to the market and grabbed some crabs and prawns and had chilli crabs on Saturday and asam prawns on Sunday. I prepared the chilli crabs and PiggyBeng was the chef for the asam prawns.

This was one of PiggyBeng’s ’specialities’ and it tasted so yummy that I wallup almost 3/4 of it!

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Ingredients

• 10-12pcs Big Prawns (Tiger Prawns) - cut the shell along the ’spine line’ lightly so the sauce is able to sip into the prawns
• 20-30g Tamarind (add 8tbsp water to get the juice)
• 1/4tsp Black soy sauce
• 1tbsp Brown sugar

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Methods

1. Mix tamarind juice with black soy sauce and brown sugar.
2. Clean prawns and dried them using some kitchen towel before marinade for 20-30 minutes in the tamarind juice mixture.
3. Heat up wok with 2tbsp oil on medium fire, slowly place the prawns and let them fry on slow fire till cooked. Lift up when cooked.
4. Pour the remaining marinade juice into the wok and sti till boil and glaze the cooked prawns.

I always crave for sourish dish! I just don’t understand but the sourish taste give me good appetite for sure!!

It has been some time since I cook this dish and I just love it especially if it’s cooked by my mom. Since I don’t stay with her now, I will have to prepare this myself. It turned out quite ok - I guessed! However, it will taste even better if I had used some pork belly instead of all pork pinic shoulder for this dish. Pork belly will get soften more easily and the oil will give the sauce more aroma.

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Ingredients

• 400-500g Pork belly or pork picnic shoulder - cut into cubes
• 3/4 bulb Garlic - chopped finely
• 7-8 Shallots - chopped finely
• 2pcs Dried chilies
• 1pc Fresh red chili
• 2pcs Asam pieces (asam Gelugor)
• 2tbsp Glutinous rice wine (optional)
• Dark soy sauce
• 1tbsp Tau-chu (preserved bean paste)
• Water (around 3/4 - 1 cup)

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Methods

1. In a separate sauce pan, boil some water for removing the porky smell from the pork cubes. When water is boiling, pour in the pork cubes and keep stirring for about 1 minutes, drain and put aside.
2. Heat up wok or casserole pot with 2-3 tbsp of oil, saute garlic and shallots till fragrant. Add in dried chillies and sliced fresh chili, stir for another minute.
3. Add in the boiled pork cubes, stir, add in dark soy sauce, stir and add in the glutinous rice wine (pour at the side, around the wok or casserole pot) while continue to stir for a minute. Cover for a few minutes.
4. Add in the asam pieces, stir and add in the tau-chu, stir for a minute, add in water, stir and let it simmer for 30 minutes. Stirring occasionally.

Most of the time we associate turnip with ‘carrot cake’ or ‘lobak-ko’ that most dim-sum places offered in their menu. In the Chinese context, turnip is regarded as ‘white carrot’, thus the given name for that particular dish.

Turnip is considered as ‘cooling’ vegetable, hence not many Chinese will use it in their cooking. However, the Japanese uses turnip almost daily in their meals either cooked or raw.

What I like about turnip is, it has this sweetness from within when we cook it, especially in soup. I’ve even tried ‘turnip cool tea’ which is supposed to heal dry cough when boil with rock sugar… tasted so good!

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Ingredients

• 1pc Turnip - Large or medium size
• 1-2 Carrots - Medium size
• 300-400g Pork ribs
• 8-10pcs Red dates - pitted
• 3-4 pcs Dried cuttlefish (1″x1.5″)
• 3.5-4L Water
• Fish sauce or salt for taste

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Methods

1. Slice away the skin of the turnip, cut into free-shape cubes of about 2″. Same for the carrots.
2. Boil water till boiling, add in pork ribs and allow to boil for 5 minutes before adding in the turnip and carrot cubes. Boil for a while and add in the red dates and dried cuttlefish slices. Boil under small fire for about 2-2.5 hours.
3. Add fish sauce or salt to taste.

Note: If you prefer to taste the natural sweetness of the turnip, try not to add in fish sauce or salt but instead put in more pork ribs.

Guessed some of you knew that I loves to eat beans. It’s yummy, nutritious and easy to cook. Steam, stir-fry, deep fried, grill and braise.

I’m going to share this recipe which is one of the all time favourite in my family (my own family, not PiggyBeng’s). In fact I have a cousin who only want this dish everyday! So, when he was staying with us at one time, my mom just cook this dish almost every other day!

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Ingredients

• 12 strands Longbeans - cut to 2″ long
• 150g Pork loin - cut to strips, marinade with corn flour and soy sauce and pepper
• 3 cloves Garlic
• Dark soy sauce
• Light soy sauce
• 1 chili padi (optional)
• Water (1/2 cup)

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with a little oil and lightly fry the longbeans till light brown, lift up.
2. Add another 2tbsp oil into wok and sautee chopped garlic then chili padi.
3. Fry the pork until about 50% cook, add in the longbeans, stir, add dark soy sauce, stir, add water, stir and cover for 5 minutes on slow fire.
4. Add in light soy sauce, stir, cover till the water starts to thicken (about 15 minutes).
5. Serve.

I’ve never attempted cooking curry with coconut milk as I tried not to cook too much of high colestrol food at home since we are eating them outside when we are not cooking.

Last weekend, I have a sudden crave for curry chicken… probably after cooking the DIY Singapore Curry, I just need to have another fix of curry again. I’ve wanted to cook the dry curry using curry powder but PiggyBeng don’t normally eat as he think it will cause constipation… ok, he can be crappy at times with loads of theories!

So, PiggyBeng drove me to the market to get the necessary ingredients but I’ve missed out the most important item - coconut milk! Well, too late to turn back as the market has already closed when I remembered so went to Tesco and bought those so-called fresh coconut milk but pre-packed ones. The verdict - not as fragrant as the fresh one but taste quite ok.

And being me, I always like my food on the sourish side (PiggyBeng prefers those really lemak type) as I will be eating most of it!

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Ingredients

• 4 pcs Chicken thighs with drumsticks (cut into 3 pcs)
• 4pcs Potatoes (medium size and cut into 4 sections)
• Water (approx. 1 cup)
• Coconut milk - 1 whole or approx. 200ml

(A) - Blender/grind

• 8 Chilies
• 2 Chili padi (optional)
• 1 stalk of Lemongrass
• 4 cloves Garlic
• 6pcs Shallots
• 1tbsp Turmeric powder
• Belacan (0.5mm x 1″)

(B) - Additional

• 1 stalk of Lemongrass - smash the end
• 1pc Cinnamon stick
• 6pcs Shallots - cut into 4 sections
• 1pc Tomato - big or medium size, cut into 4 sections
• 1tbsp Lemon juice
• 3 stalks Curry leaves (removed the stems)

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil enough to fry the potatoes till golden brown.
2. With remaining oil from the potatoes, fry the chicken pieces lighty for 2-3 minutes.
3. Blender item (A). Put about 2tbsp of oil and fry till fragrant, add in the stalk of lemongrass, curry leaves and cinnamon stick. Stir for a few minutes then add in the cut shallots.
4. When shallots soften, add in water and continue to stir (you may want to change over to a caserole pot if you are using a non-stick wok to avoid scracthes by the chicken bones) and when boil, add in the fried chicken pieces and stir.
5. When the curry boils again, add in the fried potatoes pieces and stir till boil before adding the tomato and lemon juice.
6. Before serving, add in the coconut milk.

Tips: Frying the potato pieces is to help it to disintegrate at a slower pace