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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Happy New Year to all of you my dear Recipes Finders!

To start off the year, I am sharing with you another recipe from the Mama Recipes book which we have bought last month. This is one of the easiest pork ribs recipes as it required very little ingredients and it taste really nice.

I have modified a little from the original recipe as I found it too dry. I have added some water which helps to soften the meat and it did not dry up easily as the sauces from the seasoning is not enough to give moisture to the meat.

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Ingredients

• 600g Spare ribs
• 50g Rick sugar (crushed)

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Seasoning

• 1tbsp Light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Oyster sauce
• 1tbsp Garlic (chopped/minced)
• 1 cup Water

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Methods

1. Marinade all the spare ribs with the seasoning for about an hour.
2. Heat up wok with some oil (2tbsp) and fry the ribs for about 15 minutes adding little water as your stir them so the will not dry up. Use medium fire and cover.
3. Then add in the crushed rock sugar and continue to stir till the sugar caramelized. Make sure your rock sugar are finely crushed or else it will not melt fast enough.
4. Lift up when the ribs look sticky.

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I apologise for not updating this site as frequent as I should.

The past weeks, I’ve been buying pork and potatoes so I must think of something using both ingedients. Sometimes eating the same thing can be unappetising but a little creativity can change all that. The secret is, by adding a side ingredient can make a whole lot of difference.

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Ingredients

• 300g Pork belly (not too fatty -minced)
• 2-3 Potatoes (cut into sticks like fries)
• 1-2 Bombay onions
• 5-6 Shallots (chopped finely)
• 1 Red chili (cut strips)
• 1 Chili padi (chopped finely)
• 3-4 cloves Garlic (chopped finely)
• Corn flour
• Pepper
• Salt
• Water
• Tomato ketchup
• Worchestershire sauce

Methods

1. Minced the pork belly, add in chopped shallots, chopped garlic, chopped chili padi, some pepper, salt, corn flour, a tsp oil and a little bit of water and mixed them together. Then even out to smaller portions, form them into small meat patties, and lightly fry till turn golden brown under small fire.

   

2. Cut the potatoes and deep fry till golden brown, lift up and set aside.
3. Heat up wok (or can continue from the heated wok after frying the pork patties) an saute the Bombay onions till semi soft. Add in the chili strips and stir for a while.
4. Add in the patties, stir, add in the fried potato sticks and continue to stir.
5. In a smaller bowl, add ard 2 tbsp of tomato ketchup, pepper, salt, 2 tsp corn flour and 1/3 cup water, mixed well and pour into the patties and let it get thicken.
6. When the sauce begins to thicken, put in a few dash of Worchestershire sauce and stir for a while before serving.

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We bought quite a lot of prawns during one of the week as I intended to cook tom yam. All these while I have been cooking Nestum Chicken but have never tried cooking Nestum Prawns before so I thought I’ll just give it a try. It turned out quite ok except the prawns that I bought was not deep sea prawns so it was not as springy as it should. I used sea-reared prawns. However, the colours was quite good… redish.

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Ingredients

• 12 Medium to large prawns (recommended to use deep sea prawns)
• 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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Methods

1. Deshelled the prawns (disect the back and remove all the dirt) 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 prawns lightly on small fire until 85% cooked (all curled up), 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 the prawns and continue stirring for 20 seconds, lift up and serve.

I had a request from Angeline a few weeks back asking for some spicy dishes. I seldom cook spicy dishes as they are rather heaty but I know my PiggyBeng will loves them so I have to cook one or two dishes of hot stuff once in a while. Though my MIL will cook some fish gulai (curry with no coconut milk and a more sourish version) but that ain’t enough so I will try to add some varieties if I can.

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My mom gave me some habaneros (one of the most intensely spicy chili peppers - Wikipedia) during my last trip back to KL and I have totally forgotten about them sitting in my chilies box in the fridge. Some has started to rot when I checked them out so decided to cook them asap!

Ingredients

• 300-400g Longbeans
• 100g Dried shrimps
• 7-8pcs Shallot
• 4 cloves Garlic
• 5pcs Red chilies
• 1pc Habanero or 3pcs Chili padi (I put them all!)
• 1/2″x1″ Belacan (Shrimp paste)
• Water or Tamarind juice
• Sugar (in case too spicy)

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Methods

1. Wash longbeans and cut to 2″ long. Heat up wok with some oil and lightly fry the longbeans till 60/70% soft. Lift them up.
2. Grind (blender) dried shrimps, shallots, garlic, red chilies, habanero and belacan. Add about 3 tbsp oil and fried the paste and adding a little oil after every 2 minutes and fry till fragrant. (try to fry using medium fire)
3. Add in fried longbeans into the chili paste and stir for a while, add some water (about 3/4 cup) and cover, stir occassionaly till the longbeans turn soft. Serve.