Foodelicious!

One of my favorite food in this world. Hahahahahaha.. yes, I am a rice person and I must have my rice no matter where I am. Anyway, recently was craving for a home cooked chicken rice for the longest time. The last time I had a home cooked chicken rice was yonks ago and it was made by a hainanese woman and it was awesome.

Anyway, since my cravings was getting really bad and coincidentally, was having a dear friend over for dinner, I decided to make my hainanese chicken rice. Kampung chicken nicely steamed instead of boiled. I  like to give the chicken a bit of treatment of sesame oil and salt scrub before steaming. Hehehe..and of course, a must have, pestle and mortar pounded chili sauce and ginger sauce and added on a peanut and lotus root soup with a blanched kai lan. Oh yes! the rice, I cooked the rice like how the Hainanese woman did yonks ago.. with a slice or two of ginger, a dollop of butter, lots of good quality chicken stock and a small piece of pandan leave. Hehehehe.. the rice smell so good when it was cooking and that made me so hungry.

So, my dear friend came and we sat down to have our Hainanese chicken rice dinner which she enjoyed tremendously.. and without shame asked if she could take home some! Hahahahhaa.. with great pleasure! I always like the idea of my guests requesting to take home the food I cook.

It has been raining nearly everyday for the past month and such weather are expected during end of the year. This is one of the best times for me.. hehehehe.. as I love the rain. Without the rain, the weather here is simply.. HORRIBLE! always hot and humid with terrible blazing sun. But with the rain.. aaaaaaahhh... it's just so lovely.. and always, during such weather, I crave for warm comfort food and one of them is chicken porridge with century eggs.

I have a few versions of chicken porridge. Hehehehe.. I have the simple and quick one that you can see here or the complicated one. For today, I made the simple and quick version plainly because, I was greedy and hungry! Hahahahahahaha. The simple and quick version requires very little work.. just dump the rice and water to boil, leave it to boil stirring occasionally to keep it from sticky to the base of the pot.. and once the porridge is nearly done, add in the cooked shredded chicken. Season it with the usual salt, pepper, sesame oil and garnish it with spring onion, julienne ginger with slices of century eggs. It's one of the easiest comfort food that one can make when one is terribly busy.

Where else, the complicated version requires steamed chicken that has been seasoned with lots of chinese wine and salt. The method of cooking is the same but the extra work comes from preparing the chicken way ahead, steaming it, rubbing every part of the chicken with chinese wine, salt and a bit of pepper and leaving it to marinate for a few days. This complicated version is super delicious and I learnt this from my grandma yonks ago. Didnt I say we never waste food?? Hehehe...

Anyway, back to this simple and quick chicken porridge.. this is best as it is or if you like, you can have this with chinese fried curlers (yau char kwai) which I dont fancy. Life is always beautiful with simple things and Praise the LORD that I am blessed with such simplicity.

Sometimes I just dont know what to cook or feel like eating and on such occasions, I will just let fate takes it course. And last Sunday, as fate has it, I bought some really fresh prawns and after shelling them, I was left with a big bag of shells and being weekend, throwing them into the bin will most definitely attract strays cats or dogs to dig into my dustbin. So, with a big bag of shells, I thought the best way was to just boil it for broth. I added some ikan bilis and some chicken bones into it to boil and the broth was super tasty!

With such a tasty broth simmering on the stove and the rain pouring hard outside, I decided to have a simple dinner of noodles with prawn dumplings and steamed chicken breast and chives from my garden. Technically, I am to fry up the prawn shells before boiling them but I was not in the mood to do so much work and clean up, so, plain tasty broth.. wrap up seasoned prawns with wanton wrappers, blanched the noodles and chives, arrange the chicken and you get a yummilicious bowl of prawn dumpling noodles! It's sure a delicious comfort food on a Sunday night..

This is an all time favorite.... glutinous rice with mushroom and chicken all nicely seasoned with evergreen seasoning like soya sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and a dash of pepper and a pinch of salt.. simple but awesome! It's a great dish for breakfast or snacking.. hehehehehe.... nothing beats a good wholesome snack anytime of the day!

Anyway, I had this nagging craving for this for the longest time. The ones sold outside didnt do the trick, I should know.. hahahhaa.. but being lazy, I thought my craving can be satisfied by getting a serving from the "mills"... hahahaa.. So, when craving wasn't satisfied, I know I have to get my lazy ass up and start making a batch.....

Lazy as I am, I didnt bother to put them into cups or bowls.. I just put them in a tray and when it's ready, it smell so good... I love the taste of steamed glutinous rice.. it has that springy feel and a certain aroma that incite one to eat and eat and eat and eat.. ok! enough said. Hahahaha..

So, I kept some for my snack and the rest I brought to work and share.. it was indeed a joyous occasion where everyone enjoyed a good hearty breakfast! 

The other day I walked by a restaurant and saw everyone was having sui kows, (dumplings) and instantly wanted to have some. However, as I dont consume pork, sui kows sold outside are not for me.. hehehee.. so, arm with mince chicken, prawns and fish paste, some water chestnuts, chinese mushrooms, spring onions and shredded carrots, I set out to make my own sui kows.. It's a easy peasy process that can be quite therapeutic....hehehehe.. A little bit of everything could give me quite a few sui kows which I kept the balance in the fridge in an air tight container for consumption as and when I like.. hehehe..

I had my first round of sui kows with lots of choy sum from my garden in a simple ikan bilis soup. Other times, I had my sui kow with some mee suah soup with lots of vege, or simply steam and eat it just like that or deep fried them is yummy too!! Nothing beats a home made sui kow.. I love it! Hehehehe..

I was approached by a lady over the phone one day and she enquired if I was keen to cook for her on Sunday and she drops by to pick the food up. I was taken by surprised!! Hahahahaha.. and so, from that day, I was thrown into the roller coaster of dinner catering ..there is the planning of the menu, the sourcing of ingredients and finally, the works. Tiring but a good experience and an opportunity to explore my cooking creativity. Heh! heh! heh!

As these food are kept in the fridge as most of my customers are working people, I am mindful that the food I propose have to taste just as good if not better after being kept in the fridge. Hence, a lot of times, I make sure I have a variety of meat and vegetables that can be kept for a few days in the fridge and taste as good as it was just freshly cooked.

 

The above is a traditional full moon pack done up for my customer who has just welcomed her grandson. This pack consist of nasi kunyit with curry chicken, 2 red eggs, 2 angkus (this time around, it's round shaped angkus to signify baby boy), preserved ginger and a packet of sweet. The custom of including a packet of sweet I was told is to wish the baby a sweet life with good human relationship. Different dialects have different custom and it's always interesting to note such little but significant customs!

For once, I have a Sunday to myself.. no orders.. no rushing.. no nothing.. it's a great change from my usual Sundays. Hehehe...

The other day as I was watering my vegetables, I noticed one of my yam plants was pushing out of the soil and out of curiosity, I pull out and lo and behold! a reasonably sized yam was looking back at me. Hehehehe... it didnt take a long time to grew yam as I thought. Goodie! I have another 3 yam plants in my vegetable patch.. hehehe...

Anyway, I couldnt make up my mind as to what I want to make with the precious yam I harvested.. Should I cook the yam with chicken? Should I make a chinese dessert with the yam? Should I simply deep fried the yam? At the end, I was exhausted trying to figure out what I am going to do with the yam when I remembered that I have always crave a good woo tau koh.. aka yam cake.

Frankly, I prefer salty or savory kuehs and when I was young, I remember eating very good woo tau koh.. nothing like the ones nowadays. The ones we get nowadays are simply an insult to the mouth! Terrible texture, terrible flavor, terrible combination... tsk! tsk! tsk! Because of this, I have not eaten woo tau koh for a long long time. So, this morning, I set out to make a goot tray of woo tau koh.. hehehe.. I dug out my home science book from school days and went to make myself a good tray of woo tau koh...

Woo Tau Koh is relatively easy to make if you have all the right proportions of flour and water. There is also a little mixture of different flour to give the kueh a very slight bounce but yet, it's not firm or too soft... As for flavor, oo.. I like to add a little bit of home made 5 spice powder to bring out the yam flavor... Hehehehe.. and of course, a generous serving of dried prawns..but nothing is as important as the yam.. it must be fluffy, floury, flavorful.

Once the kueh is done steaming, it's important to add in the garnishing immediately. I like to have the traditional garnishing which are spring onions, fried shallots, garlic, dried prawns and chili.. Nothing beats the look of a well garnished woo tau koh.. it has such a happy color.. hehehe..

Once the kueh is properly cooled down, I couldnt wait to dig in.. Hahaha.. and it was just in time for Tea. I had a number of pieces as it was too yummy.. even without sauce.. usually, it's eaten with a combination of sweet sauce and chili sauce which I am not a big fan of. I like my food savory if it's meant to be savory.... hehehehe..

Oh yes, what I will do with the leftovers? Hehehee.. I am a chinese and nothing goes to waste.. Any leftovers will be lightly pan fried and eaten with chili sauce. woo hooo.. my breakfast is done for tomorrow!

Making this is a lot of effort.. hence, you dont find this dish nowadays. Even if you do, it's not as good as it should be... This dish is judge base on the cook's ability to balance all the fragrant leaves, rempah and taste, savory, sour, bitter and sweet and her skill of cutting! Oh.. this is all about the cutting!! Daun kadok, daun kunyit, daun kesum, bunga kantan, serai and lots more have to finely cut. Something that it rather impossible for me to do if there is no aunty! Hehehe..

Perut Ikan means fish stomach.. people those days eat every part of anything.. nothing is gone to waste or thrown away.. Everytime, a fish is cleaned, if its stomach is big enough, it will be preserved. The process of preserving the fish stomach is tedious and long to ensure it does not get contaminated or rot... so, again, it's all about skill.... There is no measurement for people then... they perfect their skills by observing.. It is an art!!

To cook this, a lot of work... and it will take a few ladies sitting around the kitchen to make it happen.. hahahhaa.. some will be peeling and pounding, some will be slicing, some will be washing and frying... ooo.. you cannot imagine the work.. but the end result is always a big pot of treasure!! Lovely treasure that will get better as the days goes by..

This is not something I will sell.. no amount of money is worth the effort and patience. But I am lucky to have learnt and watched how this dish is made... long time ago by my aunt's mom and now my aunt... and hopefully one day I will make it and someone will learn... passing on the skill, knowledge and art of making something so great....

You will not be able to find this dish being sold anywhere nowadays and quite frankly, most people dont even know there is such a dish! Hehehe... This is a bygone era dish. This dish is very popular with the Penang Peranakan clans. During those times, people are very frugal and I must say very creative to come up with dishes that does not require expensive ingredients but yet is extremely appetizing, flavourful and most importantly, filling to the stomach. You dont need a lot of this to eat plenty bowls of rice..With this dish, one will polish off at least 2 bowls of rice.. 2 big bowls!! This is plainly because the sauce or kuah from this dish is so seducing.. once it is mixed with hot rice, one cannot stop eating it.. spoon after spoon after spoons of rice.. and I always tell myself.. "ok! this is the last spoon.." but some how, it is never to be... Hehehehe...

To prepare this dish, one must have the patience of a nyonya.. hehehe.. I can just imagine girls born into and brought up by in a Peranakan family. These girls are required to have good cooking skills.. Everything has to be nicely done... there was no blender then and you just have to slave away using the mortar and pastel!! Peranakan girls are also required to cut everything finely, something which I will fail face down! Hahahahaha.. any fine cutting or chopping or slicing are always done by my aunt.. I dont have such patience... not even for food.. Heh! heh! heh!.. So, you can guess who did most of the work for this dish.

To start making this dish, one has to get lime, wash them, grate off the green part nicely and make slit around the fruit. Boil a pot of water and drop these "processed" lime and scoop up. Leave them aside to dry. Slice garlic, onions, chilies finely. When I say finely, I mean finely.. like hair! Sun dry them together with red and green chili padis for a few days.. while those are taking a nice sun tan, one can start with getting the sauce ready.. tumeric, vinegar, sugar and lots of oil.. fry them and when everything is nicely blended, leave it to cool. Once this sauce is ready, just dump in all the nicely tanned and finely sliced ingredients.. mix and throw in the limes. Let them soak for days.. (if the whole thing bubbles up, you can kiss all your hard work goodbye and start again!) After a week or so, it should be ready.. and that's when you fry some fishes and drop them into the acar. The fried fish will soak up the flavour of the acar and together, the taste is extremely appetizing and exciting! It's savory, it's tangy, it's sweetish, it's spicy, it's aromatic, all your five tastebuds will be alive! Woo hooo...

And yes, on a draggy Thursday, I really need something like this to make my day. Hehehe.. yes, I am waiting, not very patiently though, for Friday to come....

This is an all time favorite with kids and adults since beginning of time! This dish is good with hot weather, rainy weather, no appetite days, fussy kids days or simply a lazy to cook days. Yup, take your pick as to what day it's today for me.. hehehehehe...

Originally, this recipe calls for Pork but since I dont eat pork, I substitute it with chicken fillet. Season the chicken fillet, chop up some onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and pineapples. Heat up the wok with oil till very hot, fry the chicken fillet, scoop up! Fry the onions, garlic, tomatoes, cucumber, pineapple and add in the sauce.. tomato sauce, a dash of vinegar, salt, sugar, plum sauce, worchestire sauce. Throw in the fried chicken fillet and toss it around a bit and dish up! Serve with hot rice and that will make a bad day seem bearable! Hehehe..

Tuesday started cloudy and dark with wind blowing and the many wind chimes around my house were happily dancing to the tune they make. My favorite weather.. aaaahhh... with such weather, it never fail to incite me to make something different.. today is something spicy and contrasting...

Yes, got everything together.. Yes, I always have most ingredients in my house.. either in the garden or in the fridge and slave away! Hahahaha.. yes, making this dish has a bit of slaving away work to do.. Gotta clean the serai, lengkuas, kunyit and a tiny bit of ginger which I yank out from my garden, pluck the chilies from my garden, peel the onions, toast the belacan a bit, put everything into the mortar and pastel and pound away. Yup, with all your might and anger.. very good for anger management! Hehehee... Once that is done, heat up the oil, fry the ingredients with a few pieces of kafir lime leaves, Vietnamese mint and if you have, torch flower till fragrant and oil floats up. Add in some cut up tomatoes and for today, I add in fresh pineapples. Add in tamarind water and once it starts to boil, add in fish, cut up brinjal and ladies finger. I like to season my dish with a twist of lime, sugar and salt and garnish with mint from my garden... My lunch is ready...

For me, it's always easier to cook than to go out to eat. Many a times, I stand and stare around at food court, restaurants, shopping malls not knowing what to eat.. Sad! Such incidents have taught me that it's always easier to cook... hehehe.. a simple meal of steamed 3 types of eggs and blanched vegetables with oyster sauce is just as yummy and satisfying as a meal in the most expensive restaurant cooked by the most renowned chef. Life can be great with simple things....

When I was in London, I noticed that people in London make use of every available plot of land around their housing area. Even tiny strips of land next to the road are used to cultivate something or another.. I even saw a chicken coop with a few chicken clucking away! Oh.. how I wish we are able to do just that here. Sigh.. this is the difference between a developed country and a non developed one like KL!!

Anyway, back to my stories, I was very inspired and motivated to start my farming again especially after a visit to Kew Gardens, London and with the many packets of seeds, I came back and planted some of them. After 2 months, I now have 2 very healthy zucchini plants in my mini vegetable farm.. a few cabbages are in progress, bell peppers fruiting.. oh.. the sight is simply very pleasing. It's such sights that give me tremendous happiness.. hehehe..

From my 2 healthy zucchini plants, I am able to harvest some zucchinis.. not big though but they are chemical free, organically grown with everyday produce as fertilizers.. grounded and used coffee beans, heads and ends and peels of vegetables that I use everyday, orange skin, lemon skin after having their juices, fruits and vegetable pulps from my daily juicing.. I dont need commercial fertilizer do I?? Hehehe...

With my harvest, I made this today for my monster's lunch. A very simple but deliciously appetizing dish.. zucchini and chicken in oyster sauce. Fry lots of chopped garlic, throw in cut up chicken fillet seasoned with a dash of pepper, salt, corn flour and sesame oil. Stir them up quickly, add in the sliced up zucchini, add a dash of oyster sauce, stirring all the time and lastly, a bit of water to give it a bit of sauce. When ready, dish up and serve with hot steaming rice. My monster can wallop 2 big bowls of rice with this dish! And my! the zucchini slices are so succulent and sweet!! I wish I could have more zucchinis in my garden! Hehehe...

With this, Monday dont seem so bad afterall.... Have a great week everyone!

When I was young, I wasnt much of a Curry Laksa fan..I still am not because very simply, my stomach has never been good and such rich and spicy dish dont sit well . This was always the case until years ago when I was in Penang. I had a spoonful of Penang Curry Mee from my uncle's bowl and I was bowled over!!

Penang Curry Mee is very light.. not thick with coconut. Infact, it's the opposite! It's light but fragrant and the taste is very pleasing. The broth is lightly flavored with a few simple spices balance off with enough coconut to please the tastebud. Where else, the condiments that went along with Penang Curry Mee is simple ingredients... a bit of bean sprout and long beans, a generous helping of freshly steamed prawns, slices of tender cuttlefish, a good heap of freshly peeled cockles garnished with mint and lots of taufoo puffs. For those who enjoy a more spicer kick, a spoonful of home made chili sambal will transform this Penang Curry Mee to another level of excitement!

Recently, I was craving for a good bowl of Penang Curry mee but couldnt find any in KL, so, I decided to make! Hehehe... read thru a few so called authentic Penang nyonya recipes but didnt quite find a good enough recipe to entice me.. so, decided to pick my aunt's brain on this. hehehe.. my aunt grew up in Penang and is a great cook.. So, with her information.. I set out to create this new excitement!

And yes! it was indeed great excitement to see my guests tucking into their bowls of Penang Curry Mee. Yes, it was bowls. They had a few rounds of it and was happily enjoying every single mouthfuls of it. Even the kids had a go at it! Hehehehe.. With that, I consider this a complete success! My Penang Curry Mee party at my secret garden was served with refreshingly chilled konikyaku jellies and a Roselle sangria drink. And yes, Roselle syrup are made from my secret garden too.... Life cannot be any better... great friends, good food and perfect weather are hard to come by these days...

The weather had been very very cranky lately! It's hot, humid and stale most of the time and this has render me very lethargic and sleepy, not to mention grumpy and no appetite... So, recently, when I saw pomeloes being sold, I bought them to make the above! Hehehhee.. the first time I had this was a long time ago somewhere in Phuket... and I remember it being very appetizing and refreshing..

This salad has very simple ingredients but when these are all blended together, it transform this dish into something delicious! Really really yumms....

Oh yes! this was also sold for a private party recently... call to check the price and availability.. pomeloes are not easily available..