F is for friends and food

 

So, it’s a public holiday eve,

and in no particular order there were those: just got back from Netherlands, going buying graphic novel, recently got into a musical castings, flying  to Melbourne, been staying in Klang, THE royal queen of Ghana, fatso who just got back from Sydney,auntie took cab from Shell, and … so we created more reason to celebrate and feast.

Restaurant hoping is fun, after having hearty meals at Fong Lye, we spoke loudly in Alexis while having wine, desserts and coffee. Perfect company to end the day.

Selamat Hari Buruh !

Fong Lye Taiwan Restaurant                                                                   Lot T208 3rd Floor The Gardens Mid Valley City                         Kuala Lumpur Tel No: +603- 2282 8699                                                  (Non Halal. Open daily till 10pm)

Alexis Bistro & Wine Bar                                                                             Lot f209 1st Floor
The Gardens, Mid Valley City
Lingkaran Syed Putra
59200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel No: +603 2287 2281

loving spicy

Growing up in an interesting culture, I like my life of constant being spiced up. Or drama. Hence the spiciness in my choices of food. Hah. So lame.

So for Sunday dinner, I happen to have every dish to be … well spicy. And I had ‘em in peranakan version. Improvise peranakan version.

1. I had curried roasted sting rays

I use about 400gms of sting ray cubes, marinated with generous amount of curry powder, two onions, some garlic, chillies,  fish sauce, salt and pepper.

Pop into the oven at 180’c for about 25 mins. Then serve with some cilantro and a squeeze of lemon.

2. Blanched okra with mum’s sambal belachan 

It’s hard to wrong with this dish, and it’s EXTREMLY EASY. Since mum came for a visit, she never fail to being me some goodies from the kampung. Speaking of which, now i have 5 tubs of chopped and skinned ayam kampung in my freezer. This time, she add in a jar of sambal belachan. Lovely, thanks mum.

So you blanch the okra with a dash of salt and few drops of oil for about 3-4 minutes. And all you get is crunchy vegetable with perfect sauce pairing.

3. The instant prawn curry

I forgot to cook something with sauce (I love nasi banjir) i decided to make the oh-so-instant-prawn curry. I had some prawns, had them cut into half and remove the veins. For the sauce I use garlic and ginger, add in the tomatoes, the curry mix water and chicken stock. Salt and pepper to taste.

4.And everything on the table

See, a spicy Sunday dinner.

*note: this is dedicated to crazymonkey’s weekend where he had to work* Hahaha.

pimp my noodle

So, instant noodles deserve some … kinda respect too.  For being one of the easy, cheap, satisfying and very available kinda food, it is under appreciated. I feel. :P

So coming back late from work, and feeling hungry. I ‘upgraded’ my instant noodle dinner.

Big prawns, fishballs, and chow sum, and my tom yum flavoured noodle become even more yummy.

Since mum is in town, she brought me a jar of home made ‘sambal belachan’. as usual.

Chao Fan

Let’s fry rice again and feel free to improvise.

This time I have some diced prawns, sliced lap cheong, diced carrots,  chopped choy sum, an egg, onion and garlic.

The on a hot work, I use corn oil generously, and saute the onion and garlic, add in the lap cheong, then the prawns. Fry for about 3-4 minutes, crack in an egg, then the vegetables.

 

I have this tip that I always season the rice with the seasonings first. So few dashes of soy sauce, dark soy sauce, fish sauce, salt and pepper. Mix them well then pour into the wok. Stir here and there.

Serve and enjoy!

YumYumYum

Weekends and eggs

Well, having late brunches on weekends is always a comforting luxury. And for no apparent reasons, I always feel eggs and milk is comforting. These easy and basic ingredients.

It take less than 10 minutes to whip out this beautiful breakfast. I whisk some eggs with a splashes of milk, a pinch of salt and few dash of black pepper.

Heat skillet and grease ‘em with some butter. I insist on pure butter. Not margarine, and etc.  While stirring the egg mixture over the medium heat with a wooden spatula, pop in some toast.

Cook till you get the right consistency on those golden scrambled eggs, then serve it with a dollop of cream cheese spread, fruit jam, a glass of milk and sit by the balcony. ENJOY.

Easy to make, a lovely weekend breakfast.

How is your Sunday?

Muffins

2am, vanilla muffins. YUM

Almond Biscotti

Friday evening and here’s what I’m baking in my lil’ oven.

 

I use:

45g of butter (use real butter, not margarine)

2 large eggs

and 530gm of the right mix

Cream up the butter then add the egg, one at a time, then the mix.

Get messy with you hands and knead it till it sticks together and forms a dough ball

Make it like a baguette slightly apart from each other.

First bake: 180’c and about 20 minutes, then let it cool down about 15 minutes

Using a bread knife have them cut into…well appropriate biscotti sizes.

Second bake: at 140’c for another 12 minutes.

Tadaa ! all done in about an hour !

Okay I cheated, I used the easy biscotti mix !

7 + 1

7 dishes,

a dinner for 8

The signature tofu. I just point, at the picture on the wall, didn’t know what is it called. It’s so good, we ordered two. YUM YUM

‘Yat Chi Kuat’ literally means, a bone. Not too greasy, reminds me of chicken breast it’s actually a pork dish. Taste;  like a combination of ‘char siew’ and braised meat.

Sweet potato leaves, stir fry with garlic.

Stir fry bitter gourd with salted egg. YUM.

Steamed ‘pak sou gong’ Freshwater catfish. YUM.

Pineapple pork, YUM YUM YUM.

‘ Siu har’, sizzling prawn. YUM

 

7 beautiful dishes and a  lovely Thursday evening dinner with close friends.

 

Restoran Sun Yao Tak Teng (1st Floor)

(Corner lot, next to Guardian Pharmacy)

Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, KL

Thursday

Heavy rain. Cloudy. Windy.

So a warm, soupy fuzzy meal would do the trick.

No special skills required to cook porridge, just chunk everything in and have it to your preferred consistency. So i add in chunks of carrots, potatoes, thin slice of pork shoulder cut and few pieces of the rich flavours of dried oysters.

Cook till it’s mushy and soupy, add in few dash of sesame oil and salt.

I always like my porridge with salted eggs. Oh, my nasi kandar too.

Serve with some fried shallots, a dash of pepper and some chopped cilantro.

Fuzzy? YumYum.

 

Wednesday

Mid of the week, I always feel happy and exited on Wednesdays.  Not to mention when I cook too, it’s like a constant supply of ‘happiments’

A simple Wednesday dinner, I’ll have a stir fry vegetable, and some soupy meaty dish (so I save time on a soup & meat dish)

 

The ingredients;

For the stir fry vegetables dish, I’m going for … I call it my ‘crunchies’. A rojak of any vegetable that I can use, as long as they are crunchy. Feel free  to improvise this, cause the main thing that I am looking for is the texture.

So I have broccoli, baby corns, carrot, wood ear- fungus  ‘muk yee’, and Chinese mushrooms. The flavors would come from ginger, garlic, dried shrimps, and the sauces.

Cooking this dish is not difficult, but the texture to me is very important. So i give attention to it’s cut, and I prefer a match stick cut or  ‘julienne cut’. And I’ll have them blanched  for about 3 minutes and then stop the cooking process under cold running water.

The objective is to get a nice soft but crunchy texture but at the same time maintaining the shape. If you stir fry then straight away, and  to get the texture as I preferred, it would be overcooked. or unpleasant looking.

Well, maybe this is just me.  :P

So, then I’ll heat the wok and oil, put in the dried shrimps and ginger, then the garlic. about 20 winks later, add in the wood ear fungus and mushroom, about 3-5 tablespoon of water, a dollop of oyster sauce , soy sauce and pepper then put in the blanched vegetables. Stir fry for about 40 winks, ( agak agak, 3-5 minutes lah) and it’s ready.

And start munching the ‘crunchies’ 

Optional: Can also use: cauliflower, celery, zucchini, radish, turnips, and some other crunchies la.

Then the meat dish, this is less tedious to prepare.

I have sliced pork marinated in generous amount of ShaoXing wine, pepper, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Lay the dish with garlic and ginger and pour over the meat and the marinade.

Steam it for 13-15 minutes and serve it with a touch of cilantro.

Ooops, I suppose to put the wolfberries ‘kei chi’ on the meat but I accidently had them hiding beneath em.

Have a happy Wednesday everyone.