Bite On It!

This is a long over-due post….

Remember my makan-makan trip up north back in June? We went back to our old hometown and there’s this wantan mee stall which was one of the better ones around since my father’s time and they are also our ex-neighbour. They actually made the noodles themselves and not get it from the noodles manufacturer hence their noodles are free from all kinds of preservatives.

Since we are going there, my dad called them up and ordered around 50 pcs of wantan noodles from them as my mom want to give to her neighbour in KL. My mom gave me some to bring back to Penang too. And this is what I came out with….

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Ingredients

• 200-300g Pork belly (minced)
• 4-5pcs Chinese mushrooms (soak and sliced thinly)
• 1/2 bulb Garlic (chopped finely)
• 5pcs Wantan mee (noodles)
• Black sauce
• Light soy sauce
• Pepper
• Water
• Choy Sum/green vege for garnishing (optional)

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Methods

1. Prepare the minced meat (topping) first. Heat up wok with a little oil and fry the minced pork belly (don’t have to use too much oil as the pork belly will have lots of oil when being fried). When it’s half cooked, add in the chopped garlic (add now so the garlic will not get burned) and stir till about 80% cooked add in the sliced mushrooms, stir and add in some black sauce to your desired tone. Add in some water (add more if you want more sauce) and cover the wok to let the water soften the mushroom.
2. In another sauce pan, boil water with a drops of oil to cook the wantan mee. Pepare a bowl of cold water (better if using iced water) to use as ‘crossing the cold river’ so the noodles will have this springy feel. When the water boiled, put in the noodles and cook till about 80% cooked take out and let it ‘cross the cold river’ before returning it into the hot water again for a brief moment and lift up.
3. Now back to the short braising of the minced pork, add in light soy sauce and pepper to taste before lifting it up.
4. On a clean wok, pour in the cooked minced meat and the cooked noodles and stir-fry till all are mixed well. Served with boiled Choy sum or other green vege of your choice.

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Yes! I finally made my first tom yam soup! Thought it might not taste as good as the authentic Thai tom yam but according to PiggyBeng and my MIL, it tasted just like the real thing lest the spiciness…

What actually made the soup super yummy was the fresh coconut juice which I added into the soup and boil to perfection!

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Ingredients

• 300g Fish bones
• 300g chicken bones
• 500g Prawns (medium to large size)
• 3 Squids (cut into rings)
• 200g sliced fish
• Kuay Chap (or any types of rice or glass noodles)
• Lots of Chili padi (mixed red and green and slightly smashed)
• 6 stalks Lemongrass (slightly smashed on the head area)
• 4-6 pcs Kaffir leaves
• 1pc Galangal - 2″x3″ (partially smashed)
• 3 Onions (sliced into rings)
• 1 bulb Garlic (partially smashed)
• 4-5 Tomatoes (cut into 4 parts and removed the seeds)
• 3-4 Lime (squeeze out the juice)
• 3.5 litre Water
• 1 Coconut (juice only)
• Salt and Fish sauce to taste

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Methods

1. Boil the fish bones and chicken bones for an hour or 1.5 hours. Removed the bones.
2. In a wok, boil the prawns’ shell with 1-1.5 cups of water for 15 minutes and sieve out the juice, put aside.
3. Throw in the lemongrass, galangal, garlic, onions, kaffir leaves and chili padi into the fish and chicken broth and let it boil for another 30 mins.
4. Add in the tomatoes and boil another 20 mins till the skins come off. Add in the prawns juice, lime juice and coconut juice. Stir and let it boil.
5. Add in salt or fish sauce to taste. Tom yam soup is ready.
6. In a saucepan, boil some water with a few drops of oil and cook the kuay chap or rice noodles till soften and drained till dry.
7. To prepare individual bowl, scoop some tom yam soup into a small saucepan, throw in the squid rings, prawns and sliced fish and let it boil. Add in the cooked kuay chap, let it boil and pour into a bowl. Served.

Yesterday was my 2nd wedding anniversary to my fat piggy. He has a conference call at 8pm (not 3, not 4 kind of timing) thus we can’t go out to celebrate. So I prepared a simple dinner, of course, with his favourite ingredient…. fish.

I have wanted to try cooking this dish for a while as it’s quite a popular dish here in Penang. And I must say, it’s expensive too as it used thick fish fillets. I would recommend to use sang-yu (the fish we used in yee-sang), kurau (also known as cod) or salmon as they have a stronger texture. I used siakap (barramundi) as we just purchase two whole fish last weekend… it cost us RM76 for 16 slices! Siakap was not meant to be deep fried but that was what i’ve got….

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Ingredients

• 4 slices Fish fillets
• Some flour and salt (to cover fish fillets)
• 1 pkt Beehoon (vermicelli) - soaked
• 2 Onions - sliced thinly
• 1 Red chili - sliced
• 1 Chili padi - sliced
• Grated carrot and Chinese cabbage or bean sprouts (preferred amount)
• Light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and pepper for taste
• Water (to soften the beehoon)
• Sambal belacan with calamansi juice
• Oil for deep frying fish fillets

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Methods

1. Pour enough oil in a small sauce pan to deep fry the cut fish fillets until light brown. (Those selling at the stall will normally deep fried with flour batter so the fish fillet would not break up easily)
2. Heat up wok with oil and sautee the onion, chilies and all the vegetables (if you are using bean sprout, add in when beehoon is almost ready) for few minutes till soft.
3. Add in beehoon and stir for a while, add in preferred amount of water, stir and cover.
4. Pour in dark soy sauce, stir, add in light soy sauce and pepper to taste and continue to stir for a few more minutes till beehoon is soft.
5. Served with sliced fish and sambal belacan… Yum!

Yesterday was the 15th of the Lunar calendar and as usual, MIL will go for a vegetarian lunch at one of the temple at Bayan Lepas and I went along. We had vegetarian buffet @ RM8 per person and both of us were so full we can hardly walk! After lunch, she decided to visit her sister who lives nearby but she’s not home yet so we went to Giant to do some shopping. As we were so full, MIL said she don’t feel like having dinner but my PiggyBeng still need to eat mah so suggested to her that I’ll fried beehoon instead. So bought some taupok (tofu puffs) and lettuce to add in.

We did not have any meat at home so I used ikan bilis and this is how it turned out…

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Ingredients

• 1 pkt Beehoon
• 80g Ikan bilis (anchovies)
• 1 pkt Taupok (9 pcs)
• 1 stick Carrot
• 6pcs Shallots
• 4 Chili padi
• 2 Eggs
• 150g Lettuce
• Black soy sauce
• Light soy sauce
• Pepper
• 2 cups Water

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Methods

1. Soak beehoon in water or boil for 3 minutes, sieved and put aside.
2. Heat wok with 3 tbsp oil and fry the ikan bilis till golden brown, lift and put aside.
3. Fry shallots with the oil which you used to fry the ikan bilis, add in chopped chili padi and continue stirring, add in shredded carrot and sliced taupok (add 1tbsp oil in between frying).
4. Add in beehoon, stir, add in black soy sauce (your preffered tone), stir, add in light soy sauce, stir, add water, stir and cover for 2-3 minutes or until all water is being absorbed. (If you think the beehoon is not soft enough, do add in more water)
5. Beat eggs and pour over the beehoon and continue to stir till eggs are mixed well, add in pepper.
6. Throw in the shredded lettuce and stir for a while, serve.

My fridge is stuffed with all the left over from our Hokkien Mee weekend. I must quickly clear all of them or else they will end up rotten in no time! So, I came up with this idea, a “All-In Fried Noodles” since I must use up all the yellow noodles, cooked prawns and beans sprouts.

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Ingredients

• 600gm Yellow Noodles
• 300gm Bean Sprout
• 100gm Lean meat (cut to thin strips)
• 150gm Choy-sum
• 100gm Cooked Prawns (disect to half)
• Chilies (3 chili padi & 1 red chili) - omit if cooking for kids
• 1 Onion
• 1tsp Corn flour
• Soy sauce
• Black Soy Sauce
• 4 Bowls of water (rice bowl)
• Pepper

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Method

1. Marinade lean meat with corn flour, soy sauce and pepper and leave for 30 minutes.
2. Sliced onion, chilies and cut up choy-sum to about 4cm length.
3. Heat up wok with approximately 3tblsp of oil and sauteed the onion until soft then add in the chilies.
4. Once onion and chilies are fragrant, add in the marinaded meat and stir till brown.
5. Throw in the cooked prawns and choy-sum and continue to stir.
6. Add in yellow noodles and black soy sauce (depending on how dark you want) then stir for a while then pour in the water, stir and cover for 3-5 minutes.
7. Put in the bean sprouts and continue to stir and cover for a few more minutes.
8. When the noodles soften, sprinkle desired amount of soy sauce and pepper to taste.

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Note: Do not pour in all the water or cover too long if you prefer the noodles to be more springy.

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