Bite On It!

This is one of my favorite dish which I learned from my mom many years back. I am not too sure if this dish is from Hakka, Hokkien or Cantonese influence as we are a mix of the three. What I like about this dish is the varieties of ingredients used and of course it is extremely yummy and appetizing but required a little more work.

Previously, like some 20 years ago, we can get really good ‘tau-kua’ or a type of bean curd which is harder than the normal tofu. They used to be yellow in color and has a very fragrant smell. However, I can’t seem to find this particular ‘tau-kua’ anymore. Though they are still selling the same thing but the taste and texture is completely different.

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Ingredients

• 200g French beans (cut into small piece of 1.5cm)
• 2pcs ‘Tau-kua’ - hard bean curd
• 150g Lean pork or pork belly (not too fatty ones) - cubed
• 2pcs Red chilies
• 150g Raw peanut (toasted with skin removed)
• 10g Preserved black beans
• 3 cloves Garlic (minced)

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil and lightly fry the French beans and tau-kua separately. Lift them up and put aside.
2. Add some more oil into the wok and stir-fry the pork cubes until 50% cook. Lift up and put aside.
3. If the wok has not enough oil, add a little bit more and saute the garlic, add in the red chilies (squares) and stir for a while before throwing in the preserved black beans and continue to stir.
4. Add in the pork cubes, French beans and tau-kua and stir further for another few minutes till the pork is thoroughly cooked.
5. Before you life them up, throw in the roasted peanuts and stir.

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This is another emergency recipe that I’ve came out with. Like what I’ve mentioned before, I will buy beans (long-beans, French beans, Snake beans) to keep almost every week for those ‘just in case I don’t know what to cook’ occasion. At such time, I will rummaged throw my fridge for stuff that I can use and these beans always come in very handy as they are so versatile.

You can stir-fry, braised, boil, steam and even fried them! The possibilities are endless if you have the creativity to use them. The other reasons why I like to buy and keep them as they have a slightly longer shelf life as compared to other vegetables if you keep them in the right way.

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Ingredients

• 200g French beans (cut into 4cm strips)
• 1″ square Salted fish (use the Kurau/Cod fish type) - sliced
• 2 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil and lightly fry the French beans till about 70% cook. Lift up and put aside.
2. Add more oil into the wok and saute the salted fish slices till it turns sandy, put on one side of the wok.
3. With the balance oil in the wok, saute the garlic till fragrant before mixing with the salted fish and stir.
4. Throw in the fried French beans and stir well for a few minutes before serving.

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Sometimes I do get really lazy to do much cooking. These are the days where I will just cook the simplest dish… fry eggs! There are times when I have a little of this and that left over from some other cooking adventure and they are about to go to the bin but I will try to used them and not let it to waste.

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Ingredients

• 5 strands Longbeans (sliced thinly)
• 1 Red chili (sliced thinly)
• 3 Eggs (medium)
• Salt and pepper for taste

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Methods

1. Heat up a non-stick wok with 1 tbsp of oil and fry the longbeans lightly till it started to turn golden brown on some.
2. Throw on the chili and stir for a while till it’s soft.
3. Beat the eggs and add in salt and pepper to taste and pour onto the fried longbeans and chili. Let the beaten egg spread around the wok but lifting the wok and let the egg flow but still leave a thicker layer at the centre.
4. Let the egg omelette fr on small fire till it turn slightly golden brown before serving.

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.

With the festive season recently and insane weather, good ole veges’ priceshas somehow sky-rocketed in the wet market. Not to mention the limited choices offered by these vege sellers.

Last Sunday was Chap Goh Meh (last day of the Lunar New Year) and the wet market was basically a battle ground with people mountain-people seafighthing for whatever is left on the racks… not to mention about the insane price increased for the occasion. Therefore, I seldom swing to the wet market now as I can’t really tell what I’m paying for is actually the right price… these sellars will just tell me so much is the amount and I will pay them… pretty silly isn’t it? Even if I asked, I still can’t mentally calculate the $/kati/kg or whatever… I’m not a math person.

So, as a customer, I should have the rights to know what I am paying for. Where else but supermarkets where they won’t feel offended if you dump back that bundle or packet of spinach if the price is not right? I love shopping at supermarket these days… apart from not to have to wake up early, battle with the crowd and with air-condition, they are just as good from the good ole wet market though I must confess that sometimes some fresh produces are not ‘very’ the fresh but at least I can see the dates it has been packed. Best of all, it indicates the weight and the $/kg. Fair deal especially when I’m buying price controlled items. The chicken sellars always give me different quotes!

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Back to the topic, I saw these gigantic beans last Sunday at Tesco. My mom bought them a few times when I was back in KL the last time but so far I’ve not seen them being sold here. OK, must confess again that Penang is still quite backward! It is called lentil beans… it’s a bigger version of the sweetpea but lest the shinny surface. One thing I like about this bean is, it’s crunchy even after I fried them for quite a while.

Ingredients

• 1 pkt of Lentil beans (around 10pcs cut diagonally about 1″ in length)
• 25g Ikan bilis - chopped
• Carrot (a few slices)
• Light soy sauce and pepper for taste
• Water

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil and lightly fry the lentil beans for about 5 minutes. Lift up.
2. Add some more oil to the wok and fry the chopped ikan bilis till fragrant (3 minutes)
3. Throw the lentil beans back into the wok and stir for a while then add in the sliced carrot and continue to stir for another 2 minutes
4. Add a little water (around 1/4 cup), stir and cover wok for 2-3 minutes
5. Before lifting, put a dash of light soy sauce and pepper to taste

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Note: Ikan bilis is generally salty, so if you prefer it to be saltier then add more light soy sauce or if you prefer to use salt, you can put a pinch but not too much or it will over the sweetness of the beans