Chayote in Spicy Coconut Milk @ Sayur Labu Siam

This way of cooking chayote is easy and nice. I have never eaten chayote other than those cooked with Chinese cooking methods.

This dish is part of Nasi Liwet Solo.

Daikon Beancurd Stew

A meat free dish. Flavourful, delicious!

It's easy to cook, goes well with rice.


I think I've cooked this 3 times, I think.. or at least twice :)
I slurp the gravy like soup

Thanks Peng for this recipe...

Dry Cooked String Beans 干煸四季豆

It’s about fire. It’s about the wok. You can’t be afraid of high heat and cook this dish.

I tried to follow the recipe as much as possible with the cook book except that I switched the amount for dried shrimp and meat. It wasn’t much like what I’ve eaten in Sichuan restaurants in Malaysia. They tend to make it spicy and tie the whole dish together with cornstarch.

But this version from this book is absolutely dry.

Beansprouts with Chinese Sausages and Egg 腊肠蛋炒牙菜

I loved to cook this when I was a teenager. It was easy and yummy.

Some people pick the ends of the sprouts to make the dish look more presentable. For me, I can't be bothered about it. It's not that they are inedible.

It's quite a no brainer dish, just go with your heart, as much of everything as you like :)
Add in some sliced chilli if you like it with some heat.

Urab Bali @ Balinese Salad - Indonesia AFF #3

An addictive salad that made me keep on munching.

I remembered an urap on my Balinese Rijsttafel that I had in Kunyit Bali restaurant that was quite unforgettable, but I forgot the name, not the taste. Haha. After cooking this... I found that it wasn't what I was looking for. Nonetheless, it's still a very nice dish.

The dish that I was actually looking for was Jukut Urab, oh... too late too late. Never mind, I'll save the recipe for another day to cook. The problem of not knowing the local name makes google search soooo difficult.

The difference between the two is that Jukut Urab has a refreshing taste of naturally sweet coconut milk with no grated coconut in it, whereas Urab Bali has the wonderful aroma of a fried coconut sambal. I remembered my husband looking at me slurping up all the gravy from the Jukut Urab, hahaha!

Urab Bali
Reference: Cooking Tackle 

7 pcs long beans
1 cup bean sprouts
4 stalks water convolvulus (kangkung)or amaranth (bayam)
1 cup grated coconut
2 Tbsp coconut oil or cooking oil

Blend to a fine paste
5 shallots
3 clove garlic
2 candlenuts
Birds eye chilli and chilli according to your preference
Galangal, lesser galangal, shrimp paste, eye ball 1 tsp each
3 young kaffir lime leaves, midrib removed

Seasoning
1 tsp brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt

1. Toast coconut in pan until slightly golden. Remove and set aside. Heat coconut oil in pan and saute the paste until it starts to release oil. Add in salt and sugar and then the toasted coconut. Combine it well. Taste it, it should be very slightly over salted.
2. Lightly blanch all the vegetables, dunk them into cold water and cut into preferred lengths.
3. Put the cut vegetables into a bigger bowl and put in all the spicy coconut. Toss it around with hand and if you can, using a gentle squeezing motion, as if you are marinating the vegetables.
4. Serve with some crispy shallots if preferred (I didn't put).

The aromatic coconut sambal that is going to dress the blanched vegetables

I realised all the Balinese food I cooked for this week's postings all looked shreddy. And so, the photography looks a bit boring.. believe me, it's no fun taking pictures with dishes with the same visual characteristics. I'm not a creative person to come up with different settings, and I am seriously bored with taking pictures nowadays.

I am submitting this to Asian Food Fest Indonesia Month, 

hosted by Alice of I Love. I Cook. I Bake.

Braised Mushrooms with Waterchestnuts 马蹄卤香菇

I made this for CNY 2013 because some on my husband’s side prefers vegetarian dishes. They are not vegetarian for religious purposes, but just for health.

Few years back, I made another braised mushroom dish with dried scallops and oysters for Reunion dinner. Sadly, it wasn’t well received by the younger ones, except for those above 40. It was barely touched during dinner! Quite sad actually.
Luckily, the next day, they were reheated and eaten by the older generation.

Cabbage Salad with Chuka-fu Dressing - Easy Japanese Fare #3

About 10 years ago, when I was still in Klang Valley, I frequent this Japanese eatery Ryu Men Tei in Subang Jaya on a weekly basis. I have roughly eaten about 90% of what is on their menu. My then bf, now husband, loves the restaurant as well. The restaurant was always packed, even on weekdays.

Zucchini Salted Egg Quick Soup - Zucchini Courgette #2

I cooked this dish based on another common quick soup in Cantonese cuisine, that is the Hairy Marrow Soup (毛瓜汤).

I thought, why not cook zucchini or courgettes this way too! As they are squashes and taste soooo sweet.
I liked the result, and so did my kids.

Summer Squash Pancakes - Zucchini Courgettes #1

Zucchinis and yellow squashes are expensive here. They used to be even more expensive, but now gone to RM6/kg. But when I saw them this time, they were on offer for RM2/kg. Yeah! I got myself about 1.2kg of yellow squashes and used 1kg to make these.

Gobi 65 - Flowers #3

Gobi 65 is a popular fried cauliflower dish from India.

Actually I didn't know of this dish until I stumbled upon it while searching for other things. I read up a few recipe and found that all of them varied greatly from the type of spices and the type of liquid used to bind the rice flour together. Or some just used cornstarch. So, I guess, there are no fixed rules to it, as long as it's a crispy fried spiced caulifower. Kindly correct me if I am wrong.

I posted a recipe last 2 weeks making Gobi 65 with leftover marinade from the almost tandoori like, Yogurt Spiced Wings. But this is a from scratch recipe.

Tofu Stuffed Pumpkin Blossoms - Flowers #2

Squash blossoms recipes are common on the internet. And they are usually stuffed. To me, why not I eat pumpkin blossoms too and a quick search on the internet confirmed that it is eaten as well.

As some of you might know.. I am currently contributing to Nourish! Mag. Not sure how long this will last but just taking every moment of it with joy. This is one of the featured recipes.

Actually I made these before the magazine and I decided on a pumpkin series theme, but since the boss liked my pumpkin flower recipe, then the rest followed. I did a series on how to eat the whole pumpkin, from leaves, seeds, fruit and of course the blooms.

Fly Head Stir Fry 苍蝇头 - Flowers #1

Fly swatters, keep at bay. Don’t worry.

There aren’t any Drosophilas  used here. Nothing flies or has wings in this recipe. That is unless the pig can fly, LOL.

Fiddlehead Fern Salad~ Kerabu Pucuk Paku- Penang MFF #4

My hubby's aunt has a favourite Penang nonya restaurant in SS2 Petaling Jaya and we dine there quite often together with her. One of the dishes that she always orders is this "kerabu pucuk paku"

Actually I didn't plan to cook this for MFF Penang, but that fateful morning..... after a hot spell, came the rainy days and the wet market was once again selling fern shoots and that morning's collection was utterly beautiful! Sometimes, they look matured and skinny but not this morning... it was fat and young, not too young that it's super slimy, but just perfect! I totally cannot resist and quickly bought everything I needed for this dish.

Acar Awak - MFF Penang #2

I love acar  awak.

The one I grew up eating was similar to the one by Rasa Malaysia, that is vegetarian with no belacan and dried shrimp, and consist of only the basic 5 vegetables. I couldn't decide on an exact recipe to follow because a lot of recipes do differ from one to another, but the basic idea is the same, hot and sourish pickled vegetables with lots of peanuts and sesame.

Pickled Cabbage and Vegetables - Chinese Cabbage #3

freshly pickled, still vibrant

My MIL loves eating pickles, and so I made this jar of pickles to be served during reunion dinner as an appetizer.

Today's post is going to be short as I can't wait to be on break. LOL.

I used chinese cabbage, red radish, carrots, cucumber and chillies for this pickle. I wanted a pretty colour combination. The red radish's skin lost its pigment after pickling, sadly..but still has a pink hue

Chinese Cabbage Rolls in Broth - Chinese Cabbage #2

This idea of doing something like this has been in my head for quite some time after seeing these on Anne's blog.

Finally I got it done and there are some regrets to it. I think my filling needs some changes. It's tender, but a bit too tender for me, it doesn't fall apart, but.. then.. maybe I should just skip the egg, give the mince more workout, because I used frozen mince, which tends to be softer than fresh. But it was well received by my kids and Lydia could eat up one large roll herself and asking for more, LOL.

Chinese Cabbage with Roast Pork and Imitation Abalone - Chinese Cabbage #1

When I saw this recipe long ago… wooah, it looked pretty expensive. Dried scallops are not cheap and so is roast pork. I have sort of forgotten about it until 2 hours before dinner time.

I was surfing the net looking at pictures of cauliflower, but don’t know why this picture of Sonia’s was included in the search. It looked familiar and I clicked it to view it again after so long. Haiya! I have everything on hand. I just took out a big chunk of roast pork to come to room temp thinking of reheating it in the oven later. Then, No no no, no reheating, I’ll be using the roast pork in this dish tonight.

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.

Fried Daylily Buds 炸鲜金针-MFF Pahang #7

The last of MFF Pahang entries, I think.

Fried daylily buds is a street food that you can find at Brinchang Night Market in Cameron Highlands.

Local produce are being fried in batter like tempura and eaten as snacks. Oyster mushrooms and daylilies and sometimes I see strips of sweet potato too. There might be new varieties of fried vegetables now as it's been years since I last went. Before I had Lyanne, we do go there very often, few times in a year. Sometimes we just drive up for tea and then drive down hill.

Honey Mustard Roasted Pumpkin, Beets and Carrots - Pumpkin #2

I made this for more relatives who came back from Australia few weeks later after the pumpkin sabzi.

They have past their 50's and are conscious of the things they eat. 

Having living overseas for quite a long time, they love to eat roasted vegetables.
Something my hubby find it hard to take in.

I took the opportunity to try out this dish.
Very well recieved by them. I was only so so about this.