Bite On It!

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.

I think more and more people are taking soupy dishes for their confinement these days as preparing soup is more convenient compared to other stir-fried dishes. However, many of the more traditional lots still believe that soup should only be taken earliest 7 days postpartum. That also depending on the types of ingredients used in the soup.

This time round, my mom prepared this simple and easy soup using shallots and lemongrass. She told me these two ingredients has the function of expelling ‘wind’ from the stomach so it is extremely good for me since I have a natural birth. I was lucky that my mom managed to buy some free range chickens for preparing this particular soup.

After taking this soup I can feel my tummy starts to work… yeah…. can feel the gas escaping!

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Ingredients
(2 meals)

• 1 Chicken (medium sized free range chicken)
• 10-12 bulbs Shallots
• 4-5 sticks Lemongrass (use the head and slightly smashed)
• 1L Water
• Salt for taste

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Methods

1. Wash and cut chicken into  sections. Remove skin if you want a less oily soup but most free range chicken are never too fat…
2. Boil water and place shallots and lemongrass in and let it boil for 20 minutes before placing the chicken pieces in and let it boil for another hour. Alternatively, you can place everything into a double boil pot and double boil for about 2 hours.

Wow! It has been 2 months since I last posted anything here! My sincere apology!

Well, currently I am 2 weeks post natal and I am still on confinement. There are still a lot of adjustment needed juggling 2 kids now and in another 2 weeks, I will be on my own when I return home to Penang. I can’t imagine my days ahead!

I count my blessings as my mom is helping me with my confinement now so I know I am in good hands. This time we decided to do it as simple as possible since my mom is baby sitting my nephew and also helping me to care for Darrius as I am not allowed to do heavy chores. One of the things I enjoyed during this period is of course those yummy confinement food which we can’t really consume when we are not in confinement! As most of these dishes are rated as ‘extremely heaty’ during normal days, some of us only can take them once in a while while not in confinement.

Since I don’t get to eat these special dishes all the time, I just want to share it with those of you who are looking for some simple yet delicious confinement dishes which you can incorporate into your confinement menu especially for those of you who did not engage a confinement lady to help. One of my favorite is this peppered pork dish which I have been having almost any other day!

The other reason why I prefer to have pepper over ginger is because my baby is suffering from newborn jaundice and I was ‘advised’ by some to limit my ginger intake for the first 10 days post natal.

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Ingredients

• 200g Pork loin (Sliced thinly and slightly knocked with the back of a cleaver)
• 10g Peppercorns (crushed)
• 3tbsp  Sesame seed oil
• Light soy sauce for taste
• Corn starch
• 1tbsp Glutinous rice wine (optional)

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Methods

1. Cut the pork loin into thin slices, knocked with the back of cleaver and marinade with the crushed peppercorns, some light soy sauce and some glutinous rice wine for 15 minutes.
2. Heat up sesame seed oil in frying pan, sprinkle some corn starch onto the sliced marinated pork before frying on medium low heat till cook.

Gosh! It has certainly been a loooong while since my last post here. I hardly go into the kitchen when my morning sickness started to kick in in early May. It was so bad that my hubby has to take over the cooking for almost 4 months. In those months we only have simple meals with steamed fish and soup only. The rest of the time I only munch on bread and dry biscuits as anything that has weird taste/smell made me feel like throwing up.

Now I am 32 weeks along and things has certainly got better. In fact I have been feasting quite a bit about 2 months… yeah, getting back! I’ve also took back the kitchen for a while but due to some traveling the past 2 months, I did not cook as much but rather enjoying all the unhealthy outside food…

Though I took back the kitchen, I did not do much new dishes or have the interest to experiment with new ingredients. And my Darrius is also not so cooperative and has been a little pain as he refused to eat by himself. Thus, I have to feed him almost every meal. So, to make life easier, I only can think of doing all the simple yet healthy dishes.

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Ingredients

• 200-300g Pork meat (use pork belly) – minced
• 3-4 Water chestnuts – coarsely chopped
• 2″ strip of Dried cuttlefish – coarsely chopped
• 3 Chinese mushrooms- coarsely chopped
• 1tsp Oil
• 1tbsp Corn flour
• 1.5tbsp Light soy sauce
• Dash of pepper
• Water

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Method

1. Mix minced meat with water chestnuts, dried cuttlefish and Chinese mushrooms  together with corn flour, oil, soy sauce and pepper. When well mixed, put it in a light curve dish and flatten the surface.
2. Pour some some water to nicely cover the top, add some light soy sauce to give some color and put into the steamer on medium heat for about 12-15 minutes or till cooked.

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.