Old Fashioned Chinese Fried Chicken - Chicken #1

When I was 4, when I woke up one morning.. I remember grandaunt holding a can of Brown and Polson cornstarch, that she fondly calls as butterfly powder. She looked at me and said, today I'll make something delicious for you with this butterfly powder.

I saw her chopping up a chicken, marinate a big plate of it for a few hours. Then I saw her frying them. When it was my dinner time (Yes, I am always the first to eat at 5pm), grandaunt gave me my favourite part, the middle wing. Then she told me, it's my birthday. That's why we have fried chicken today.

Being so young, I hardly knew what are birthdays, let alone my own birthday. In those days, children's birthdays were usually not celebrated, only birthday of old people are celebrated.

Steamed Arrowhead with Waxed Duck 腊鸭蒸慈菇- Arrowhead Week#1

3 years back, when I did my arrowhead chips post, I did say I want to do a few recipes using Arrowheads.
Finally I did it this year :) I'm a slow blogger, LOL. Very slow.

This is a dish introduced to me by my “ 3 Kow Mou”, the wife of my mother’s 3rd brother. That's how we call them in Cantonese.

Guangxi Style Steamed Chicken 广西白切鸡 - MFF Pahang #5

The Kwong Sai(guangxi) Chinese are mostly located in 2 places in Malaysia. First of all, North East Perak on the upper banks of Perak River and the biggest population of Kwong Sais are located in Pahang. In areas like Bentong and Raub, Kwong Sai Chinese is the main dialect group.

Kwong Sai cuisine is not much known out of these areas. Kwong Sai recipes from the internet are not the same as what is consumed by the local Kwong Sais. The local Kwongsais of which are mostly descendants of immigrants from the Rongxian county and that’s the type of Kwongsai cuisine found here.

My mom is one of them and this recipe is verbally taught to me by her.

Steamed Cucumber with Dried Shrimp 蒸青瓜- Cucurbits #3

I know this sounds weird to many.

Both my sister in laws, although Cantonese, have never heard or eaten this.
So far, I have never bumped into anyone who has eaten this before, besides my relatives.

This dish is simple to prepare, with simple flavours, doesn't look appealing but we find it appetizing. We grew up with it. The gravy was light and sweet. It's just a frugal homey dish.
I remember once, when I was about 10, I had 3 bowls of rice (spread out in a span of 2 hours) just because the cucumber that day was absolutely delicious. I just ate my rice with this steamed cucumber plus some gravy.


Pork Stew 卤猪肉 - Bellygood # 2

This is a popular home cooked dish. After blogging I got to know that Hokkiens call this Tau Yew Bak, but my family being Cantonese, calls this Lou Chu Yoke 卤猪肉. As in Pork Stew.

My mom cooks this so often that I almost got sick of it when I was in my teens. Being her, using just one pot and being able to cook this in advance makes this one of her favs. So often that we eat this almost weekly.
Sometimes she'll throw in some dried chilli, sometimes none. But basically she goes with the same few ingredients. My mom will saute the aromatics in the clay pot and then throw in the pork and seasonings, cook it for a while and then pour in the water to simmer. I on the other hand, prefers to cook the pork with seasonings until the meat is browned and oil starts to ooze out. Then only I put in the water. I don't own a clay pot, so I just cook this either in the wok or in a small pot.

Pot Stickers / Guotie - Wrapped # 1

Recipe recreated in July 2011

I first learnt to make these when I was 13 or 14. I forgot exactly when.

My friend, LSP's mom is a Taiwanese. She doesn't call these pot stickers, but instead as ShuiJiao.

To celebrate LSP's birthday, her mom, Mrs Loh organized a "ShuiJiao" session at her home. A few of us were invited over to make your own and eat your own dumplings. Since it was a first for most of us, we made the skin thick and fillings miniscule. LOL. Kids!

Mrs NgSK's Butter Cake - Butter Cake # 3

This is a side piece, not the middle, but it's sooooooo flat.

I don’t know about you. But I used to hate how short my butter cakes are.

Well, maybe I want value for money. Butter is not cheap, hence I want a BIG cake for the block of butter, LOL.
I’ve tried using methods to make a big cake w/o using more butter like adding lots of liquid, then flour, but results have always been not favourable. Cracks and huge ones. Tried egg separation method, but still not really like as big as I would like it. Actually I don’t really mind the cracks on butter cakes. But I’d just like to try making one cake, just that one cake that doesn’t crack. I only want to dispel the jinx in me. Whether it’s due to me or the recipe.

Shallot Chicken Soup - Chicken Soup # 1

Let the recipes be light this week.
I know most parents are busy with exams, right?
I'm lucky my kids aren't at this stage yet. If not you'll see me like a Lion King everyday!

Soy Sauce Soaked Chicken 白油鸡 - Chicken Trio # 2

Dish prepared in July 2011

I'm calling this chicken dish this way to distinguish the usual soy sauce braised chicken that is oh-so common.

As some of you may know, I come from Perak and in Perak, a lot of Cantonese terms are different from other parts of Malaysia. We call light soy sauce as 白油(bak yau) and dark soy sauce as 黑油(hak yau). I know it sounds funny to you, but it's the way it's called here. I am proud to be a Perakian and I never change the way I call it , even when I was staying in Klang Valley for 10 years. The soy sauce terms are just 2 of the many that is different. I haven't even touch on 角龟(kok gwai, kuih)，青瓜(cheang gua, cucumber)，荷兰水(hor larn sui, carbonated drinks)，荷兰属(hor lan shu, potatoes)，Kopi 雪(shuit and not ping, iced coffee), 5 Gor Lui (5 sen), Yat Chien (10 sen), so on and so forth. Haven't heard of those, nevermind. The last 2 were monetary terms that I have no idea how to type in Chinese to make it sound like it is when spoken in Cantonese. But those of you who have heard of these, I'm sure it tickles you pink. Same goes to how it tickles us pink when we hear Klang Valley folks talk.

Kwong Sai (GuangXi) Stuffed Tofu 广西酿豆腐 - Heritage Week # 2

My mother's parents came from GuangXi, China. If you've heard of the beautiful mountains of GuiLin, that is located in GuangXi. But my maternal grandparents are not from GuiLin, but from Rongxian 容县, which is located in the South of Guangxi. So that makes me half Cantonese half Guangxi. Can I speak the Guangxi dialect? My mom refused to teach us, saying that this dialect is of no use here. No one speaks it, so there's no need to learn. My mom speaks Guangxi, Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew and Hokkien. But her kids can only speak Cantonese. Pathetic.... I may not know how to speak the dialect, but once I hear someone saying "Ngo Eew Lei " (I'm calling you) I know that person is of Kwong Sai origin as they speak "call" as "Eew", unlike Cantonese it's  "gew", or Hokkien is "giu", or Hakka it's "gew" as well. KwongSais will 'Eew" you.

When the KwongSai Chinese came to the then Federation of Malay States, they settled in areas where there are mines and rubber estates, doing 'dirty jobs' that is not done by the other dialects (Hokkien-businesses like  grocery shops, Hainanese-food, Hakka and Cantonese -Mining, Teochew-rice and liquor) Most of those in Perak settled along Perak river, mostly from mid Perak up to the north. Towns like Lenggong, Manong, and Kuala Kangsar and all small villages nearby these towns is where you find the most KwongSai Chinese. Other places with lots of Kwong Sais are in Pahang-- Bentong and Mentakab. If anyone that knows the whereabout of other Kwong Sais, please tell me. I'd love to know.There is one facial trait among the KwongSai, and that is the forehead 广西额头 which is typically wide and flat, with a high hairline. My friends who are KwongSais especially the men, they do possess this typical forehead (I won't say all, but just those that I happen to know). Even my mom has it, so does my brother.

Puppy Duck 狗仔鸭 - Heritage Week # 1

Puppy Duck isn’t cooked with dog meat. Relieved?
It’s duck cooked like how one will cook dog meat.
Why cook duck like one would cook dog? Frankly, they do taste similar
So that when one craves for dog meat, just cook duck to ease the craving.
You may want to ask, “Wendy, how do you know they taste similar?”
Don’t ask. You don’t want to know.

Pickled Papaya - Full Moon # 2

One of the favs of full moon!!

Some look forward to pork trotters vinegar. Some look forward to turmeric rice with curry chicken. Some look forward to pickled young ginger. But most look forward to pickled papaya.

I guess pickled papaya is a local full moon fare. I don't think in China this is served. Do papayas grow there? I don't know, but it's like anywhere and everywhere here (besides in the concrete jungle of course). Throw some seeds onto the ground and few months later, you can pick papayas off the tree. They're one of the cheapest fruits around.

Nian Gao Taro Rolls - CNY Week #3

 

My father’s 2nd younger sister, my “Sai Ku Cheh 小姑姐” told me last year about how her friend fried her nian gaos. She found it to be very delicious because nian gaos are sweet and when contrasted with a slightly salted coconutty taro filling, it tasted fabulous.

This year, with a nian gao given by my neighbor, I tried out the method she recommended. It was a refreshing change from the usual methods of eating. I gave some to neighbours from both sides and brought them to Mike’s shop. No one knew what I was serving them until they bit into the roll : ). It was fun making people guess. They all thought I was serving them spring roll.

**Charissa, please tell your mom we all loved this version.

Nian Gao Taro Rolls
Recipe source: Wendyywy inspired by Grace Ho
Taro Filling
500gm taro (芋头, keladi )(cleaned weight)
100gm fresh grated coconut
2 Tbsp sugar
1/3- ½ tsp salt (use 1/3 tsp first, taste and add more if needed)
1. Slice taro and steam until cooked(soft).
2. Mash taro while it’s still hot and put in coconut, salt and sugar. Mix until well combined

Assembly
300gm nian gao, cut into 2 inch long strips (mine were anywhere from 8-12gm each)
Spring roll wrappers (125mmX125mm)
Egg white to brush on edges

1. Place wrapper onto a flat surface, eg: a plate.
2. Place 1 tbsp of taro filling onto wrapper (I used 20gm filling since I had about 32 pieces of nian gao), lightly spread it out.
3. Place 1 pc of nian gao onto taro and wrap (see pictures)
4. Brush edge with egg white before rolling up.
5. Fry the prepared rolls in medium- medium low heat until golden.

Frying was a breeze, no splattering and even the wrapping is hot hard to do, because the taro filling is not soggy wet but easy to handle cos it won’t fall apart.
I made about 29 rolls from this recipe.

The sunlight today was bad, my pictures had high noise problems. Somehow I'm beginning to hate taking pictures. It's getting boring, LOL.

Tomato Curry Chicken

A dish that my mom told me verbally how to cook.

When I was in my teens, someone told my mom about a curry that is without coconut milk but uses tomatoes. She told me to come up with what she told me. Being the obedient child that I am (hahaha!!), I gladly obliged. And the outcome was a wonderful dish to go with rice.


Tomato Curry Chicken
Recipe Source : Verbal instructions from Wendyywy's mom

1.5kg chicken (1 bird)
250gm tomato (2 large ones)
1 tsp salt
250gm carrots
150gm onions
3 cloves garlic
2 red chillies
2 Tbsp meat curry powder
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt to taste
1 tsp cornstarch mix with ¼ cup water

1. Chop chicken into small pieces and marinate with 1 tsp salt for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, peel and cut carrots into longish chunks, quarter tomatoes, cut onions into wedges and loosen the onions, slice chillies thickly, and peel and smash the garlic.
3. Heat wok until very hot, put in onions. Toss until the onions are fragrant, then put in 1 tsp oil and toss until it looks browned and very slightly charred. Dish up and set aside
4. Put in 1 Tbsp oil and put in carrots and let them brown for a while then the tomatoes. When everything is slightly browned and fragrant, toss up and set aside.
5. In the same wok, put in 2 Tbsp cooking oil and put in smashed garlic and chilli. Fry until garlic is fragrant, then put in chicken and cook until it starts to brown and get dry. Put in curry powder and fry until fragrant and you can start to see more oil seeping out from the skin.
6. Put in the Worcestershire sauce, carrots and tomatoes, put in enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover and let it simmer for 15 minutes or until chicken is more tender.
7. Remove lid and put in onions. Reduce gravy to preferred amount.
8. Taste and season with salt if not salty enough. Sugar will not be necessary.
9. Thicken gravy with cornstarch mixture to preferred consistency. Bring back to a boil and dish up.

Noodle Pancake

Another recipe taught to me by Ainur, my Malay Minang housemate back in JB. I wonder when will I do a version of her masak lemak cili api.

She told me her mom always makes this for breakfast when she was still schooling. You can put anything you like in it, no rules!!! Just one rule, be patient when you do this. No high heat, if not the center won’t be cooked when the base is golden. And when you slowly cook it, the pancake will be very crispy.

Noodles Pancake Recipe
2 packs Instant noodles of choice
100gm bacon or sausage
1 small carrot, grated
2 sprigs of spring onion, sliced
4 eggs
2 slices of cheddar cheese, chopped
1 pack of noodle seasonings(from the pack)
Cooking oil or butter

1. Boil a saucepan of water and cook noodles until they just loosen up, no need to be soft. Drain. Snip noodles to shorter lengths (just chop the noodles a few times, or use scissors and snip snip snip)
2. In a pan, fry bacon on medium heat until golden. Dish up.
3. Divide bacon, carrot and spring onions into 2 parts.
4. Combine one piece of noodle with half the bacon, carrots and spring onion. Put in chopped cheese, ½ tsp of seasoning and 2 eggs. Mix it all around.
5. Heat pan and put in oil or butter.
6. Pour the noodle mixture into pan and cook on medium low heat. Cover the lid.
7. When the egg in the middle looks cooked and the sides are golden, flip noodle pancake and cover and cook again until golden.
8. Repeat step 4-7 with the other piece of noodle
9. Serve warm with sweet chili sauce or any other sauces you prefer. I could just eat it like that.

Black Chicken with Black Dates Soup

When I was a kid, my mom always double boil black chicken with angelica and black dates. And I was a kid, angelica tasted bitter to me. Well, maybe she used a lot, like one whole root of it, in just a small double boiler. I wonder why, with regular white chicken, it’s always red dates, but when it’s a silkie/black chicken, it’s always black dates. Hmmm… matching skins? Black with black? Uh-huh, I don’t know. I only know it taste good now, cos I used much lesser angelica than my mom.

Angelica is a lady’s herb, so, do not feed to much of this to your man or your pre-puberty kids. You don’t want to mess with their hormones. A bit is fine, as this herb is also used in Bak Kut Te h, the famous pork herbal soup from Klang, but not too much and not too often. And do not consume angelica when you’re pregnant too. That’s all I know.

The soup is very sweet, minimal salt needed to add a salty edge to it. I only used ½ tsp for the whole pot of soup. Without the dang shen, the soup looks clearer, so suit yourself, to use dangshen or not, but it’s really nice with it.

1 Black Chicken/Silkie, mine was about 900gm, dressed weight
80gm black dates
30gm dang shen
3 pieces Angelica Sinensis root, dang guei
1 Tbsp wolfberries
2.5L water

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, rinse the dangshen and wolfberries. Dangshen may contain dirt. Very lightly rinse angelica.
3. Remove seeds from black dates.
4. When water has come to a rolling boil, put in whole chicken and herbs. Bring back to a boil and lower heat to simmer for 2.5hours.
5. Season with salt and turn off heat. Let the soup sit for half an hour and skim off fat. But more fat will surface once you break up the chicken.

Nasi Goreng Kampung, Malay Countryside Fried Rice

When I was in Johor Bahru doing my teacher’s training stint, I had Ainur, a Malay and Ting, a Sarawakian as my housemates. People find it weird to have a Muslim Malay girl staying with 2 Christian Chinese girls. But hahaha, we are happy together and most of all, we clicked!! She was rumoured to be eating the "inedible"
while staying with us. But nope, she never did that. Both Ting and I, are very sure that didn't happen.

We cooked at lot, and I was the executive chef, with Ainur being the sous chef. Ainur loved Chinese food and both Ting and I will eat anything. We learn a lot from each other during this 11 months of staying together. I learnt to cook masak lemak cili api, noodles pancake (to be featured later), and of course, today's dish from my good Malay buddy. While Ting was a newbie in the kitchen, she soaked and soaked up whatever we were doing in the kitchen, equiping herself with culinary knowledge to be brought back to Sarawak later on.

Talk about cooking... hahaha. It reminds me of the stove cabinet. When we moved in, the house was bare, because we were the first tenants. It was totally bare besides whatever is given by the developer. And being girls who love to cook, we had to find a way to put the gas stove. Buy a table? Use chairs? Buy a Cabinet? The last idea was crazy, buy a cabinet to be used for 11 months??

One day, while Ainur and I were passing by the dumpster of our apartment, to my surprise, I saw a stove cabinet. In acceptable condition!!!!
I quickly asked Ainur to stop the car and pointed to the cabinet. She quickly parked the car nearby and both of us tiptoed to the dumpster. And quickly moved the cabinet up to our 10th floor apartment. Luckily no one saw us throughout the long journey. Well it feels longer cos we're being sneaky. When we got back to the car, both of us were laughing our hearts out, as if we're both half crazy. When our friends drop by our house, they were surprised to see us having a stove top cabinet. Haha, we just kept quiet about our "steal" from the dumpster.

And one thing about staying with Ainur. People always thought that she's the Chinese and I'm the Malay. Cos whenever we go out together shopping, salesgirls will always talk to her in Chinese and me in Malay. Both of us will be laughing and laughing, and that would make the salesgirl blush. Ainur also taught me about Minang culture, the way the inheritance goes to the girls instead of the boys, and wedding preps, how does it go about. I learnt a lot while staying with her, the good and the bad. The bad being "curses" or "reared ghosts" that is prevalent among the people she knows. A real eye opener to me.


One weekend, Ainur got up early and cooked us breakfast, Nasi Goreng Kampung, a Malay styled fried rice. Long beans, water convolvulus and dried anchovies are always featured in the Malay cooking and it comes together in this fried rice. This is not my first time eating this, thai-styled Malay restaurants have this in their menus and I’ve eaten this countless times. But she made it real good, and she told me how she did it. Pulverizing the anchovies as well. Ah ha!!!

So, here is a recipe, passed to me by my Malay friend to you

(A)
½ medium sized onion
1 shallot
2 cloves garlic
4 birds eye chilli (the ones that I bought are not spicy, so, please adjust this according to own’s preference)
1 heaped Tbsp dried anchovies/ikan bilis
1tbsp cooking oil

(B)
½ cup finely sliced long beans (not green beans )
1 large handful of water convolvulus (kangkung)

(C )

2 cups packed cooked rice

2 eggs
2 Tbsp dried anchovies (I use them dry, unwashed, so that they can be fried to a crisp)
3 Tbsp oil
1 tsp salt

1. Puree everything in (A) except oil. If you can’t get it smooth, add the oil, stir and blend again. It’ll get finer.
2. Heat wok on medium heat. Put in oil and fry anchovies until golden, drain and dish up.
3. With remaining oil in wok, put in (A) and 1 tsp salt and carefully fry it until it turns golden.
4. Put in rice and turn the heat on high. Toss until it looks even, push the rice aside.
5. Crack your eggs and put it in the center. Spread the eggs around. Immediately push the rice onto the eggs and toss the rice, making sure the eggs at the bottom are all brought up and broken up. Fry for a while.
6. Put long beans into rice and toss for 15 seconds, followed by water convolvulus. Toss again for 5 seconds, not too long. Dish up and serve.

Update: 4/7/2017: 
Ingredients (A) Grind anchovies separately. 
Method Step 3: Add in powdered anchovies when the aromatics have turned slightly golden.

Of course you may alter the recipe or ingredients as you wish, as fried rice is fried rice. But once the anchovies, long beans and water convolvulus is missing, it no longer ressembles Nasi Goreng Kampung, but just an ordinary fried rice. IMPO.

For me, if there are no prawns or cha siew in Yong Chow Fried Rice, should it bear the name of Yong Chow Fried Rice?? Or no tomatoes in bolognese.... Or use Szechuan preserved vegetables in Teochew Steamed Fish instead of salted mustard? I can't... and this is just me.

I'm submitting this to Merdeka Open House 2010 hosted by Babe_kl in conjuction with Malaysia's 53rd Independance Day.

Palm Sugar Coconut Cream Sauce

I remember I said I won't be making any "Gan Sui Joong" this year, which are plain alkaline/lye water rice dumplings.
But due to "family" demand, I made them, but plain with no fillings. Mom just loves these.

Again, I didn't use boric acid (pang sar) as the additive to make it bouncy. 

But this time I made this sauce to go with the dumplings. Usually it's plain palm sugar syrup. But I've added some coconut cream into this, just like making a caramel sauce, coconut cream instead of milk cream. Pandan leaf instead of vanilla bean, and palm sugar instead of brown or white sugar.

This is a recipe given by a neighbour, Mrs Teh, the wife of the good man who taught me to make Toddy Buns.
She taught me how to make this sauce when I was 13, for a "Gan Sui Gou" which means alkaline rice cake.
The palm sugar sauce was really nice and the secret ingredient is coconut cream, or thick coconut milk.

So, here's what I learnt from a dear neighbour

200gm palm sugar (here I used gula kabung, which is darker, you may use the regular gula melaka)
few blades of pandan leaves, shredded and tied into a knot.
100ml water
100ml thick coconut milk/cream
small pinch of salt (if prefer a salty tinge to anything coconut milk related, and I didn't put)

1. Cook palm sugar with water and pandan knot on medium low heat until melted.
2. Let the sugar syrup continue to cook until the whole surface is very bubbly, it may take about 3-5 minutes for the syrup to slowly reduce.
3. Pour in coconut milk and salt, stirring or swirling the pot all the while.
4. Then bring the sauce back to a boil, and let it simmer for 1 minute.
5. Strain sauce and serve with dumplings or any other kuih you may prefer.

** the sauce thickens slightly upon cooling down to room temperature, something like runny honey.

Oh, again this is not a backpost. Just made this yesterday at my hometown, Kampar.

Light Honey Butter Cake

A recipe given by Mike’s aunt, Aunt Ching Peng (one of my followers, Thanks Aunt). And this recipe was given to her good friend, Aunt Kheng Hong. Good recipes are meant to be shared.

I made this months ago :)

Actually the original name given to this cake was, Super Light Butter Cake. I felt the name was a bit too much. I'm scared my readers might be misled hoping that this will be sponge light. So, I renamed it as Light Honey Butter Cake, as I really liked the honey tinge in it.

Light and airy. Yummy.

225gm butter

140gm sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp honey

5 egg yolks

200gm flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

¾ tsp salt (I omitted this because I used salted butter)

5 egg whites

45gm sugar

1. Preheat oven at 160C/180C. Line a 9 inch square pan.

2. Cream butter, 140gm sugar, vanilla and honey on medium speed for 5 minutes.

3. Put in egg yolks one by one, beating well after each addition.

4. Sift flour and baking powder and mix into the batter.

5. With another bowl, beat eggwhites until soft peaks, add in 45gm sugar gradually and beat until stiff.

6. Fold egg whites into batter.

7. Pour batter into lined pan.
8. Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Kailan with Pork and Mushroom Gravy

Kailan is Chinese Kale.

My mom used to do kailan almost this way. I added in shitake mushroom slices this time.
You can do the gravy in advance and pour it on the blanched kailan just before serving.

This portion is enough for 4 persons. It's too much if you're feeding carnivores and too little if feeding herbivores.

Kailan with Pork and Mushroom Gravy Recipe
300gm Hong Kong Kailan
Bring a pot of water (about3L), add in ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp sugar and 1 tsp oil. Blanch kale for 30 seconds. Drain well.

Gravy
1/3 cup pork, cut into thin strips, matching the mushrooms (Chicken breast strips may be substituted)
3 pcs large dried shitake, soaked and sliced
2 tbsp oil
2 shallots (sliced thinly)
1 clove garlic (chopped finely)

Seasoning (combine together)
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
½ tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp cornstarch
½ cup water or slightly more.

1. Heat wok and put in oil. Saute shallots until fragrant, add in garlic. Fry until both are lightly golden.
2. Put in pork strips and stir fry until meat is cooked.
3. Put in mushrooms and toss for 30 seconds.
4. Put in seasoning mixture and bring to a boil, adding more water if its too thick.
5. Let it simmer for 30 seconds and pour gravy on blanched kailan. Serve.