Pan Fried Pork 煎猪肉

In memory of Grandaunt. Happy 102 birthday, if you were still here.

This was the only “cha siu” made at home. Though not a char siew, but it’s the closest. My grandaunt is particular about names of dishes and will never teach us to call this char siew. It’s Pan Fried Pork, Pan Fried Pork, Pan Fried Pork according to her. She’s a very strict cook… just by observing her when I was a kid, I have learnt a lot. And I try to recreate her dishes from memory, all thanks to the opportunity to watch her in the kitchen

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.

Caramelized Sweet Potato - Sweet Potato #2

Grandaunt is the type of person who likes to repeat dishes. Don’t tell her you like it, if not you eat that at least 4 times in a week. Serious! Ask my brother about her infamous bean paste fish, he’ll puke if he ever thinks of that now. Or the ex workers of my mom’s salon who in the end got so sick of her Fish Paste Stuffed tofu that they picked the fish paste and left the vege carcass behind, and that made grandaunt furious. She has this notorious habit of repeating dishes and she hates it when people refuse to eat anymore. LOL.

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.


Wonton Skin in Broth - Noodle Week # 1

Our family business, which was a coffee stall passed down since my great grandpa’s days, was situated next to a noodle shop for almost 40 years. The noodle shop make their own wonton skins and wonton noodles. So, they tend to have excess bits from the sides or some broken pieces that can’t be used to wrap the wontons.

What they’ll do is, they’ll dry the unusable wonton skins and collect a heck lot of it. They’ll either give them away to friends or sell it if others want it.

Steamed Pork Slices with Bean Paste

Grandaunt used to make a lot of steamed dishes. Only steamed pork and she has loads and loads of recipes. This is one of them that I love to eat.

The gravy is very, very nice with rice.

Steamed Pork Slices with Bean Paste Recipe

200gm pork fillet or other soft meat (You may use chicken meat if prefered)
2 tsp hot bean paste (or substitute with 1 tsp finely chopped chilli and 1 ½ tsp regular brown bean paste)
1 tsp sugar
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp cooking oil

1. Thinly slice pork fillet.
2. Put bean paste, garlic, water and sugar onto pork and mix well.
3. Put in cornstarch and mix. Finally add in oil.
4. Let the pork marinate for at least half an hour before cooking.
5. Steam on high heat for 10-15 minutes. I prefer pork to be very well done, so I do it on 15.

Salted Fish Steamed Pork

A dish that everybody in my family reminisces about Grandaunt.

Grandaunt is my paternal grandma's eldest sister.
She's the eldest in her family and I love to hear her stories from Panyu, China.
From how she gave birth to her 3 daughters on her own (yes, with no help at all, house door opened, with scissors and pot of boiling water by her bed), to how she catches "Woh Choong" , a type of water slug to cook. And how she will make dried shrimp in a large clay vase for the whole year's comsumption.

Grandaunt smokes, not Dunhill or Rothmans or Malboro. But pure tobacco rolled in paper, and she says those packet ciggies are tasteless. Tell her to stop smoking and she'll ask you," Who are you to tell me to stop, my dad taught me how to smoke". And she'll tell us how it all started. ...... She was planting in the field and got so tired and sat down to rest. Then her dad handed her a ciggie and told her to smoke it, so that she'll have the energy to work. Hahah!!! And she lived til she was 94. Died due to a fall that broke her leg on that eventful day when half of Malaysia blacked out (1996??), and when her broken leg failed to heal, her health faltered in a year. Should we sue TNB for that horrible blackout? We actually hoped that she'll live til 100 and make her cetenary celebration darn big!!! But she went home to Heaven a bit too soon.

She's the one who brought my grandma to Malaysia and became the baby sitter of 2 generations, my dad's and ours, while my grandma goes out and earn money for the family. Being the one at home, rather than my grandma, obviously some in the family regards her closer than my grandma, something of which my 2nd bro and I errr... don't really like. Grandma is still grandma, and nothing can replace that. But not to say that I do not appreciate Grandaunt's efforts, I do, just that she's still my grandaunt, and not my grandma. I can't do that to my grandma (even when she's gone for more than 29 years). When she had Alzheimers (before she left us for good), everybody knew how jealous she was towards grandaunt, she was mumbling "All snatched from me, all snatched from me" all the time, just because her kids were closer to grandaunt instead of her.
Sigh, should I pity Grandaunt or Grandma? Well, I just hold both close to my hearts. One gave her time to earn money to feed the family, one stayed behind for the kids and became the family's financial controller.

Well you may ask, what about her own kids? She had 3 daughters, gave away 2 while she was still in China. She brought the only daughter she was left with to Malaysia who later married the son of her boss who is a relative of my grandpa. Her sister(my grandma) is maried to my grandpa and her daughter married our relative, so, it's double relation.When she stayed with us for good, her daughter's already married and has a family of her own. Her grandkids are doing very very well now, and the only grandson is a prominent paediatrician in Singapore and another granddaughter a prominent medical figure in Malaysia's breast cancer field. Unfortunately, we seem to be closer to grandaunt compared to those who call her grandma. Maybe because she spent 50 years of her life with us.

Actually I do not know much about Grandma, cos she left us when I was not more than 2 years old, and Grandaunt stayed with me until I was 18. Grandaunt cooks our daily meals. She has a lot of "famous dishes".
And she's damn good in making steamed dishes. If I were to do her steamed dishes, one dish per dinner, It might take me more than 2 months to copy all her steamed meat dishes. Her forte is in marinating. She's got a good feel to what she adds. And she tastes everything before she steams it. Yes, even the pork before steaming. She'll dip the finger in the marinated dish and put the finger onto her tongue, let it sit in the mouth for a while, spit the thing out and gargle with water.

Well, anyway, here's one of Grandaunt's most well loved dish. Not really tasted when raw.. Gosh, can't do that myself.. yucks!

I can't really copy her version.. Nobody could really does things the way she does.
The taste is abit off from hers, maybe I used too much salted fish or black beans... Sigh, but I do believe that one day I will be able to do it like her.

So, this is for my own reference... and I'll try to perfect this one day.

100gm pork belly, thinly sliced
30gm salted fish (definately should reduce this next time)
1/2 Tbsp preserved black beans, rinsed and chopped
1 thumb sized ginger, smashed and coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp oil
2 Tbsp water

Combine everything and marinade for 30 minutes. Steam on high heat for 15 minutes.
This portion is enough for 3 pax.



I'm submitting this to Babe_kl's Merdeka Open House
Do join in the fun in conjuction with Malaysia's 53rd Independance Day.

Caramelized Anchovies & Peanuts 焦糖江鱼仔花生

When I was a kid, I love this dish made by grandaunt. It goes very well with plain rice porridge.

½ cup cleaned split dried anchovies (don’t wash them!)
½ cup raw peanuts
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
3 Tbsp cooking oil

1. In a dry wok, low heat, fry peanuts for 2 minutes or until skin is dry and can be removed easily. Remove skins by rubbing them with fingers and blow the skins away.
2. Medium low heat, heat oil and fry anchovies until golden. Dish up.
3. With remaining oil in wok, return peeled peanuts into oil and fry until light golden. Put fried anchovies back in and put in sugar and soy sauce. Stir until lightly caramelized.
4. Turn off fire and continue to toss until nicely caramelized. Try to toss until warm and not hot, so that the anchovies won’t stick to each other later.

Steamed Chinese Whitebait 蒸银鱼仔

Chinese Whitebait, or some call it Silver Anchovies, or baby anchovies, even blue eye anchovies..
Anyway, it's those teeny weeny white coloured dried mini anchovies.

My late father loves this simple dish. My late grandaunt taught me how to make this.

Very simple to make:

Ingredients
50gm mini anchovies (rinsed and drained)
1 tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 Tbsp finely chopped red chili
1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic

Mix everything together and steam for 10 minutes or just put plate on top of rice when water in rice cooker is reduced.

Hyacinth Bean Soup

23/1/2017 : Correction:
The bean featured in this recipe was previously named wrongly as Lima bean. The actual name is Hyacinth Bean

I haven't been cooking much since June... most of the postings nowadays are back posts of what I've done in the previous weeks. Well, when one has a bun in the oven, there are always excuses that can be made at every corner, anytime, to be lazy.. kekekekeke...

Lima is five in Malay language.. This is not a Five Bean Soup..

In Cantonese it's called "pang mei dau". I think it's called lima bean, as that is the closest that I can get from the internet. It is a bean about 3-4 inches long, pale green colour with a matte surface in the shape of an eyebrow.

This is my grandaunt's favourite soup and she'll eat a lot of the beans because she believes this bean enhances our eyesight, and with that she claims the reason for her being able to thread a needle at 90.

1 1/2 cup lima beans (correction : Hyacinth Beans)

300gm pork ribs or just meat (scalded)

10 peppercorns

1.5L boiling water.

Salt to taste

Trim the beans by discarding the top bits and pull away the top ligament.

Boil water, put in everything to simmer for 2 to 3 hours.

the Lima Bean.. I think

The beans are out of the pod after being boiled...

Chicken with Chinese Mushrooms 冬姑木耳鸡

Whenever this dish was cooked at my home (parent’s), the first thing that gets snapped up were the mushrooms and fungi. The chicken gets left behind… which is the other case when I cook this for my hubby. Different family with different taste buds..

Chicken with Chinese Mushrooms Recipe

1 chicken whole leg (cut small)
½ tsp salt

6 dried shitake mushrooms
2-3 pieces of wood ear fungi (mook yee)
2 Tbsp cloud ears fungi (wan yee)

2 inch ginger (smashed with a cleaver)
1 clove garlic (chopped)
2 tbsp oil
1 cup water

2 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
½ tsp sugar

¾ tsp cornstarch mixed with ¼ cup water

Method:
1. Soak mushrooms and fungi in cold water until they soften. Clean and cut into small pieces. Cloud ears need not be cut, just trim off the ends.
2. Marinate chicken with salt for 15 minutes.
3. Heat wok and put in oil. Saute garlic and ginger until fragrant.
4. Put in chicken and stir fry until meat is browned.
5. Put in 1 cup of water and let simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Put in light and dark soy sauce and sugar.
7. Put in mushrooms and fungi. Simmer for another 5 minutes.
8. When gravy has evaporated to desired amount, put in cornstarch mixture.
9. When gravy has thickened, dish up and serve with rice.

************
Wood ears and cloud ears will enlarge about triple in size after being soaked.

Watercress Soup 西洋菜汤

The Chinese boils watercress for soup or for a cooling drink (liang cha). While Westerners use raw watercress for salads and sandwiches.

Watercress in Malaysia is not suitable for use in salads or eaten raw. Because...... they are grown in water that is fertilized by sacks of chicken droppings soaked in the ponds they are grown in. This way... I don't think one will eat raw veg bathed in chicken s**t water.. hehehehe.. lots of bacteria, and they may have a few slugs stuck between the petioles..
But hey.. without those precious stuff from the chickens, u won't get those fat juicy watercress from Camerons..

Watercress Soup recipe
300gm soup bones or ribs
250 gm watercress
6 red dates, pitted
10 white peppercorns, crushed
1 tsp salt
1.5L water

1. Trim leaves and tip off the main stem of the water cress. Keep them seperately.
2. Scald soup bones or ribs.
3. Boil 1.5L water and put in the stems, bones, red dates and peppercorn and simmer on med low heat.
4. After and hour and a half of simmering, remove stems and put in the leaves and tips of watercress.
5. Simmer for another 30-45 minutes and season with salt.


***
Usually my grandaunt will throw the stems away after simmering, saying that they are tough to be chewed. But if I'm around, she'll leave them for me to eat.

I usually see other people cutting the water cress into 2 inches length and putting the whole watercress stems in to boil together with the leaves... hehehe.. but not the way my grandaunt taught me.. she just retained the leaves and tips to be put in at a later stage .

Chinese Chives Soup 韭菜汤

Chinese Chives (gow choy) sounds the same as nine veg.. and many people refrain from eating this after having measles or chicken pox because, they believe they’ll get 9 times of that disease if they consume this 9 veg.

When I was a kid, I hated Chinese Chives… the smell was urgh!!!!!

Then grandaunt made this soup.. that was when it changed my opinion about this member of the onion family. It became my next favourite veg.

From a smelly green thingy.. it became the sweetest veg to my tastebuds…

A very easy soup to make

Chinese Chives Soup
½ cup dried anchovies, wash and drained
1 Tbsp oil
1L water
Salt to taste

10 fishballs
100gm Chinese chives cut into 3cm lengths)
1 egg , beaten

Heat a pot and put in oil. Stir fry anchovies until fragrant and pour in water. Let boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove anchovies and season with salt.

Put in fish balls and wait for them to float.
Put in Chinese chives and wait for soup to boil.
Drizzle in beaten egg while stirring continuously with a ladle.
Turn off the heat and serve.

Assam Prawns 阿萨虾

This is another family favourite from Grandaunty.

When grandaunty made this dish last time, she’ll divide the prawns equally among family members. The children have lunch and dinner at home, and the adults only have dinner. If we’ve eaten all our prawns by lunch, then it’s no more by dinner. No stealing!!! So, we’ll eat half of our portion and save the rest for dinner. We learn to cherish our assam prawns.

This is a slightly different version that most of the assam prawns that I’ve eaten in restaurants. Ours is slightly carameled, rather sweet and made with very simple ingredients.

Ingredients:
300 gm prawns (as thick as my index finger when shelled, about 200gm)
3 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp tamarind paste
½ tsp salt
1 red chili, finely chopped.
2 Tbsp oil

Method:
1. Shell prawns, leaving on the tail.
2. Add in sugar and salt.
3. Marinate for 30 minutes.
4. Add in tamarind paste. Combine well using fingers, removing seeds (if there is) as the fingers rub the tamarind paste onto the prawns.
5. Add in chili. Mix well.
6. Heat wok, add in 2 Tbsp oil and wait until the oil is hot, pour in prawns.
7. Fry them until prawns are slightly caramelized. Dish up.



***
The remaining oil is best used to fry kangkung… or other belacan based dishes.

***
Cook prawns immediately after adding in tamarind. If not they’ll taste half rotten later.

Chicken with Red Dates Soup 红枣鸡汤

I have a grandaunt who lived til she was 96. She was the eldest sister of my paternal grandmother. My father and I were babysat by her, so were my father's siblings and my siblings. So, she was very much involved in our lives.

She cooked our daily meals until.. she was.... 90. Well, she was a healthy woman until that great power disruption of 1997. Imagine her running after us with a cane when she was 85. She could cross a busy road while on the way to church for Mother's day or Easter celebrations. Taking awards for being the oldest person in church for many many years.. **she was born on the same year Kampar Chinese Methodist Church was established, 1903.

She was a disciplinarian, taking over the role from my grandma who was busy making ends meet for the whole family. Everybody will turn up for her big birthday, her own grandchildren (lesser) and us her niece, nephews, grand nieces and grand nephews making up the majority. Her passing away brought much sorrow to our family... most of all to my small ku cheh.. hehehe.

Memories of her remain.. We miss her cooking a lot. She could cook many dishes that none of us could ever recreate.

This soup is one of it. My favourite soup from grandaunt.

Chicken and Red Dates Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

• 400gm chicken (abt 1 quarter bird)
• 15pcs red dates
• 1.5L water
• 1/2 tsp salt.

Method.

1. Boil water.
2. Remove skin from chicken.
3. Hit red dates with the side of a cleaver and remove seeds.
4. Place chicken and red dates into boiling water and simmer for 3 hours.
5. When ready, season with salt. Pepper is not necessary.

**

I made this with a slow cooker, 4 hours on high. Heating up slow cooker, put in chicken and pitted red dates, then pour in boiling water.