Bite On It!

The other day we went to the old Sunshine Farlim which has been converted into a warehouse style of wet market cum hypermarket to get some stuff for the coming Lunar New Year. The place was rather quiet though it was about 5pm in the evening on a weekend.

Though the conversion was less than a year, a few tenants have moved… probably due to the poor patronage. There used to be a few vege sellers occupying the ‘wet market’ area but now it was left with 2 or 3 sellers only. Business was brisk that day though..

After we gotten what we intended to buy, we went to check out some of these vege stalls and I saw some very fresh ku-chai or chives. It has been a while since I cook chives and I kinda miss it so decided to get a bundle.

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Ingredients

• 2 Eggs
• 50g Chives
• 50g Shrimps (shelled)
• Salt & pepper for taste

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Method

1. Heat up frying pan with some oil (put more if you’re not using non-stick pan).
2. When oil is hot, toss the shrimps in and stir fry lightly for a minute before tossing in the chives (cut into 1″ section) and stir fry for another minute.
3. Beat eggs in a bowl, add in some salt and pepper.
4. Pour in the fried shrimps and chives into the bowl of beaten eggs and mix them well.
5. Add new oil into the frying pan and when it is heated up, pour in the egg mixture and fry the omelette till golden brown.

I was asking mom why she did not cook any vegetables for me and she said I can’t take any vegetables yet until 7 days post partum. The weather was pretty unforgiving the past weeks with lots of rain which resulted in the availability and rising cost of vegetables in the market. Since mom has limited stuff to cook this time (also due to all the yadda-yadda of not to cook this ingredients or that ingredients), she has to find alternatives.

Luckily in my mom’s small garden, there were some ‘Ngai’ plants growing (I don’t have the scientific name for this plant) but the leaf’s shape is like those of chrysanthemum. It was believed that these green leafy has the ‘wind expelling’ agent similar to Basil leaf. It tasted a little bitter but have a very fragrant aroma. To make it taste even better, my mom added them into egg omelette together with some glutinous rice wine… and it is yummy!

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Ingredients

• 2 Eggs
• 50g ‘Ngai’ leaf
• 1tsp Glutinous rice wine
• Salt for taste
• Sesame seed oil

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with some sesame seed oil and stir fry the ‘Ngai’ leaves for about 1 minute on medium fire.
2. Beat egg, add in salt and pour onto the leaves to form omelette.
3. When omelette is turning golden, sprinkle the glutinous rice wine over and serve hot.

Supposedly the Malaysian Northern regions have very fresh and juicy beansprouts especially in Perak. My mom used to buy 2kg back to KL each time we went back to our hometown near Ipoh. If you’ve been to Ipoh, their Nga-Choi-Kai or Chicken with bean sprouts is one famous dish. People will order a plate of stir-fried bean sprouts to go with their chicken rice/noodles. Normally we have to pay at least RM4 a plate but if we do it ourselves, it is less than RM1.

We folks in Penang do not get to have such good quality bean sprouts all the time. We do get them occasionally but not all the time. Most of the time we get the longer and skinner type/species. My PiggyBeng loves bean sprouts regardless of their size.

One of the weekend he bought a big pack home but he forgotten about it after keeping them in the fridge. I was looking for ingredients to cook a few days later saw them and some are about rot so decided to quickly cook them. I was lucky I still have my last bit of Kurau salted fish with me.

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Ingredients

• 100-150g Bean sprouts (if you have the time, pluck away the roots)
• 3pips Garlic - coarsely chopped
• 1/2 Carrot - cut into thin strips
• 1″x2″ Salted fish (preferably Kurau) - sliced thinly
• 1 Red chili - cut into think strips
• 1 stalk Spring onions/Coriander leaf - cut into 2″ long sections
• Pepper & light soy sauce for taste

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil and light pan fry the sliced salted fish till fragrant, lift up and set aside.
2. Add some more oil to the walk and saute the garlic till fragrant before stir fry the carrot strips for 2 minutes, toss in the chili and fry for another minute before tossing in the bean sprouts and fry for 2-3 minutes.
3. Sprinklesome pepper and some light soy sauce to taste before tossing in the spring onions or coriander leaf.
4. Lastly add in the salted fish and mix well before serving.

We had steamed fish at least 2-3 times a week, at the very least. Sometimes we had it like 5 times! My PiggyBeng feels that steamed fish is better as the juice from the fish will not ‘evaporate’ away so the nutritional value will be in the sauce. Well, I’m not too sure about that but I kinda get sick of steamed fish if we have it too often.

Another reason for steaming food is that our kitchen will stay grease free for a longer period. Therefore, there will be less cleaning up to do.

So, to get away from the ordinary, I decided to do some pan-fried fish for a change. Something simple and something my Darrius will like. Which is something with ketchup!

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Ingredients

• 1 slice Fish fillet (I used Barramundi/Siakap)
• 1/4 cup Frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 Bombay onion (the purplish type) - sliced
• 2tbsp Ketchup
• 1tsp Corn flour
• 1/2 cup Water
• 1tsp Light soy sauce
• Dash of pepper

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Methods

1. Wash the fish fillet and dry it with a paper towel. Sprinkle some corn flour all over both surfaces (this will avoid the fish from sticking to the frying pan)
2. Heat up frying pan with some oil. Make sure the oil in the pan is hot (you can see steam coming up) before you lie the fish on the pan. Fty till both sides turned golden brown. Lift up and set aside.
3. Using the same pan, saute the sliced onion and then the mixed vegetables until 80% cooked.  Pour in the ketchup mixed together with corn flour, light soy sauce, water and a dash of pepper and cook till boil.
4. Put the fish fillet onto the sauce and let it boil for a while before lifting it up and serve.

If you’ve noticed now is the Thai mango season here. We have been buying lots of mango over the last few weeks as all of us love them so much and without fail will indulge in some even when their prices are on the high side. PiggyBeng loves those Green Skin King Mango which is exceptionally crunchy and sweet even when the skin is still dark green in color.

I was shopping at one of the local supermarket chain when I saw that there was an assortment of Thai mango on promotion. Only RM2.90/kg which is so cheap! The Elephant Task looks really nice so I can’t resist getting some and thought I’ll do mango salad with them since I’ve chosen some really green and unripe ones. The sour and tangy feel gave me a really good vibes!

We have been eating too much meat lately so thought a salad dish will be good for the heart and the body!

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Ingredients

• 2-3 Mango (preferably the sour and unripe ones)
• 1/2 stick Carrot (optional) - I added in for color purposes
• 1 stalk Lemongrass
• 2-3 Shallot
• 2 Lime (take the juice and thinly sliced the rind)
• 1-2 Calamansi/Limau Kasturi (take the juice and thinly sliced the rind)
• Some Corriander (leaves only - finely chopped)
• 1-2tbsp Dried prawn - pan fried and chopped coarsely
• 2-3tbsp Dried shrimps (optional)
• 1 Chili padi - sliced thinly
• 2-3tbsp Fish sauce
• 3tbsp brown sugar
• A pinch of salt
• Some chili powder (optional)
• 1/4 cup Roasted peanuts (whole or coarsely chopped)

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Methods

1. In a low heated pan, simply pan-fried the dried shrimps and chopped dried prawns till it is slightly fragrant. Lift up and set aside.
2. Sliced the shallot, lemongrass (just the head), coriander leaves, chili padi, lime and calamansi rinds very thinly.
3. Slice away the mango skin and shred them into thin strips. Do the same for carrot if you are adding them.
4. Put everything into a big mixing bowl and add in brown sugar, fish sauce, lime and calamansi juice and some salt. Mix well before adding the roasted peanuts and mix once more before serving.
5. Best if served right away or else the juice from the mango will ‘wet’ the mixture.

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If you can get hold of some ginger flowers, you can add them in too as they will give the salad a better taste.