teng's recipes

Yong Tau Foo

2010-10-06T20:34:00.007+08:00

We always love Yong Tau Foo. But so far in Perth, we haven’t found a restaurant selling Malaysian/ Ampang style Yong Tau Foo. So I resort to making my own.

To start, I looked up on Amy Beh’s Yong Tau Foo recipe from Kuali. I have made some adjustment to the recipes, changing the vegetable to what are my favourites, using blender to help making the fish paste easier, as well as adding stock and dipping sauce recipes of my own.

It is a little time consuming to prepare this dish- stuffing the tofu/ vegetable with fish paste one by one. Nevertheless it is not a difficult dish. And you will end up with a decent amount of Yong Tau Foo.

Most of the Yong Tau Foo we buy outside are being deep fried. I don’t deep fry my Yong Tau Foo, I just cook them all in the stock. This way, it is healthier and at the same time save my kitchen from a mess. And everyone seems to love it.

Ingredients:
Yong Tau Foo
500g Spanish mackerel or Barramundi, flake and keep bones and skin for stock
1 tbsp tapioca flour
½ tsp pepper
½ tsp salt or to taste
4 tbsp ice water
1 block bean curd, halved and slit to make a pocket
1 bitter gourd, remove seed and cut into 2 cm thick rings
4 red chillies, slit down the middle and remove seeds
5 ladies fingers, slit down the middle and remove seeds
1 brinjal, cut into 2 cm ring and slit horizontally to make a pocket

Stock:
Leftover fish skin and bones from preparing the fish paste, some soy beans and lettuce, or whatever you want to salvage from your fridge.
Water, half a pot, enough to cover the yong tau foo
Salt and pepper to season

Dipping sauce:
2 tbsp chilli sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
a little stock (from cooking yong tau foo), enough to mix
Add these three ingredients together and give it a good stir

Methods:
For the stock: Bring water to boil and throw in all the stock ingredients. Let it boil for a while and turn the fire down to simmer while preparing yong tau foo.
For the fish paste: Put fish meat into blender and blend to mince. Add salt, pepper, ice water and tapioca flour. Blend again into a sticky paste with springy texture.
For the yong tau foo: Stuff the fish paste into the tofu and vegetables. If there is leftover fish paste, make into balls.
Cook the yong tau foo and fish balls in the stock. Season with salt and pepper. Serve yong tau foo in the stock with rice and dipping sauce.

Crème caramel

2010-09-19T23:47:00.003+08:00

This state of the art Curtis Stone ramekin set is a birthday present from Noel for my birthday last year. It is a set of one rectangular casserole, one silicon mat and four see-through double glass ramekins. I have kept it for a year and used it only once. Not only it is such a luxury to use but more importantly, how often can one make crème caramel? ^_^

I used it for Donna Hay’s crème caramel recipe. It came out beautiful. It tasted velvety smooth and creamy, and it melted straight in the mouth. It was heavenly.

Mexican Bun with Milky Buttercream Filling

2010-09-02T12:46:00.010+08:00

Follow the success of making Polo Pau with Cheese Filling, I went back to Corner Café to try out another bun recipe- the Mexican Bun. But I cheated, I replaced the taro filling with an easier version- milky butter cream filling. (Please go to the Corner Café to get the full recipes and illustrations on how to make these buns, it is complicated!)

Basically the same dough is used for these two type of buns. So I decided to divide the dough into two portions, using one for Polo Pau and another one for the Mexican Bun.

Turned out both types of buns are stunning. I invited a couple of friends over to taste them. And of course, the feedback is great! Personally I preferred the Polo Pau as I think the milk powder-butter-sugar filling for the Mexican Bun I made was a little bit overwhelming. But then my friend Kin actually liked it more.

So I guess you have to try the recipes yourself to know which one tastes better.

One final note, it is very time and strength consuming to prepare the dough if you don’t have a bread maker. I remember I spent the whole afternoon kneading and throwing the dough. Having said that, it is all worthy!

Polo Pau with Cheese Filing

2010-09-01T20:44:00.013+08:00

I know I have stopped blogging for a while, but I haven't stop cooking. I am going to post some of the recipes I tried in the past few months. First, it is going to be the Polo Pau with Cheese Filing.

I get the recipe from the Corner Cafe, where you can find a very extensive explanation on the making of it. Since I don't think I can do any better job than that, I will just share with you the photos of the buns I made.

...............................Before putting in the oven

..............................Coming out hot from the oven

It taste really good especially when served hot. It is just like one of those Taiwanese/ Japanese buns you would find in a typical Malaysian bakery.

Simple Butter Cookies

2010-02-26T16:35:00.010+08:00

I am back! This time I am making a simple treat to go with my afternoon tea- butter cookies.

I saw this recipe in Karen Cheng's website some time ago. It looked simple and made me want to try. So I bought myself an electric hand mixer.

Two days ago, I finally decided to give it a try. The recipe was indeed simple, and the end result was the perfect texture and flavour butter cookies.

I was too lazy to go out and buy butter, so I substituted it with olive oil margarine. Next time, I am going to try it with butter and see whether it gives the cookies a better aroma.

One final note, I needed a higher temperature and slightly longer time to get the golden brown colour. I am not sure if it is because I rolled the dough too thick. I would like to keep the original recipe until I try it again

Recipe:
Ingredients:
150g butter
¼ tsp almond or vanilla essence
½ cup castor sugar
1 egg yolk separated
2 Tbsp milk
2 cups plain flour

Methods:
1. Oven at 150ºC.
2. Cream butter, essence, sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in egg yolk and milk.
4. Then stir in flour til firm.
5. Roll. Cut.
6. Bake 15-20 minutes until light golden brown.

Steamed Fish Chinese Style

2009-07-27T23:46:00.007+08:00

I like to prepare steamed dishes as part of my Chinese style 3-dish with rice. This is because they are so simple and fuss free, not to mention it is also a healthy and delicious choice. I normally make steamed fish, chicken and prawn. The freshness of the meat is very important when it comes to steamed dishes.

The first steamed dish I am going to share is Steamed Fish Chinese Style. I really love steamed fish and I prepare it all the time. I would say the key to a successful steamed fish dish is the right timing. Once the fish is overcooked, the meat will be tough and it cannot be fixed. It takes experience to work out the right timing as it depends on the size of the fish, the steamer/ wok and how well the lid covers the wok.

I got myself a wok with a lid, a steamer rack which is to be placed in the middle of the wok and a pair of special tongs which comes in very handy to place/ remove plates from the wok with steaming hot water.

Recipes:
Ingredient:
Seasoning:
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp sliced ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
¼ tsp white pepper
cooking oil

Garnishing:
1 handful cut Coriander leaves
Little sliced chillies (if prefer spicy, add chillies before steaming)

Methods:
Sautéed garlic with cooking oil and pour onto the fish together with the other seasoning. Steam fish for 10 minutes (varies based on size of fish) and remove promptly. Add garnishing.

Remark: Some people prefer to pour away the water produced after steaming the fish and make new gravy for the steamed fish. You might want to try this if you find the water produced after steaming to be too "fishy" for your liking. I prefer to retain the water and serve it as it is, and I think it tastes great.

Chicken Drumstick Herbal Soup with Thread Noddle

2009-05-03T23:28:00.008+08:00

Last Wednesday after coming back from work, I was kind of tired and lazy. It is when I decided to settle dinner for something quick yet nutritious. Chicken Drumstick Herbal Soup with Thread Noodles seems to be a good choice since I just bought a pack of thread noodles not too long ago and I have all the other ingredients at hand.

No doubt it was my first attempt, but it is so simple I must say it straight away turned out to be a successful dish.

Recipes (serve 2):
Ingredients:
2 chicken drumsticks
Thread noodles/ Mee Sua
½ tsp salt
Chinese herbs includes:
dong kui (radix angelicae)
pak ki (astragali)
tong sam (codonopsis pilosula)
sook tei (radix rehmanniae)
kei chi (wolfberry)
red dates
black dates
(quantity roughly as shown in picture)

Methods:
1. Bring 3 bowls (medium size) of water to boil in a medium size pot. Ladle out roughly 1 bowl of boiling water to rinse the chicken drumsticks.
2. Put in the rinsed chicken drumstick and herbs (slightly rinsed with cold water) into the pot and continue boiling with medium fire for 15 minutes.
3. Turn the fire to small and continue simmering for another 45 minutes. Add in small amount of salt.
4. When the soup is ready, bring another small pot of water to boil, put in the desired amount of thread noodles and cook for a while, remove once the thread noodles turn soft.
5. Serve thread noddle in two separate big bowl and top up with herbal soup as well as chicken drumstick.

Chinese 3-Dishes with Rice

2009-04-05T23:52:00.008+08:00

This is a typical home cook Malaysian Chinese meal, a few dishes of vegetable and meat for everybody to share and to go with their bowl of rice. This is the type of meal my mom has been cooking since I was little. This is also my bf's favorite meal and therefore I have been preparing this kind if meal very often.

There are countless possibilities for the dishes; it can be pork, poultry, fish, seafood, egg and a wide variety of vegetables. There are many ways of preparation as well; be it stir-fried, steamed, stewed, deep-fried, water-blanched or roasted.

The general rule of thumb is that the number of dishes should be about the same as the number of people eating together. As for us, I always cook three dishes thinking of variety and at the same time, trying to create a balance diet.

It shouldn't be too difficult for me to cook these dishes as I grew up watching and helping my mom prepare them. Well that is what I thought at first, but cooking these dishes seem to be more difficult than I thought when I use my mom's cooking as the benchmark.

River Bank Estate Winery

2009-03-29T13:00:00.010+08:00

Last weekend my sister Tin and her husband Lim, came to visit me in Perth. It was only for a short four day visit though. I was their tour guide for three days and they chose to be on their own on the last day.

Since it is Tin’s first visit to Perth, and the last time Lim was here was 20 years ago, considering their short stay this time, so their itenarary only included places near and around Perth.

Day 1-
am: Drove around South Perth, dropped by shops along Angelo Street, strolled along Mill Point Rd admiring the panoramic city view
noon: Went to Subiaco market to buy some fresh fruits and shopped along Rokeby Rd
evening: A refreshing walk in King’s Park
pm: Dinner at Tony Roma’s for their famour pork rib followed by late night city shopping

Day 2-
am: Visited Perth Mint
half a day: Swan Valley, lunch at River Bank Estate Winery
evening: strolled along Esplanade, South Perth, took a ferry ride across Swan River to the city, and took a ride on The Wheel of Perth
pm: Dinner at Emma’s (Chinese) Restaurant, Albany Highway

Day 3-
Spend whole day in Fremantle, shopped in Fremantle Market, Adelaide St, E-Shed Market and dinner at Kailis Fish Market Cafe for their famous fish and chips

I am sharing here the pictures of River Bank Estate Winery, Swan Valley, where we had our lunch. The beef was superb, the fish was excellent, and the Chef's Tasting Plate and chesse plate were perfect with red wine. And the view, simply breathtaking!

We had loads of fun during Tin and Lim's visit, and I started missing them right after they left.

Weekend Breakfasts

2009-03-15T16:00:00.013+09:00

I must say breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. It doesn't really matter what time I wake up, it is simply the first meal after I wake up - and this can be at noon during the weekends. Haha!

I love eggs for breakfast! There are so many ways to prepare eggs for breakfast, half-boiled eggs, poached eggs, fried eggs, scrambled eggs and omelettes. Sometimes I make pancakes for breakfast too. So far I am very proud of my omelettes, but I am still struggling with my poached eggs.

This time I will just share some photos of my weekend breakfasts! (in the picture: poached egg, omelette, pancake and scrumbled egg)

Classic Tomato Spaghetti

2009-03-05T23:45:00.005+09:00

I am amazed how easy it is to prepare spaghetti from scratch, and it could be tastier than the ones you have at fancy restaurants. What’s more, this recipe is a healthy dish too, in which spaghetti is a good source of complex carbohydrate, and the simple tomato sauce is low in calories.

I must say I wasn’t a big fan of spaghetti until I tried this Classic Tomato Spaghetti from Jamie Oliver’s cook book, “Jamie’s Ministry of Food”. The recipe is meant for 4~6 persons, so I cut down the dried spaghetti from 400g to 350g. Even so, my bf and I were eating it for dinner and had the remaining for lunch the next day. Anyway my bf complained that it turned soggy the next day, but to me, it was still as delicious.

You can have your spaghetti with just the basic tomato sauce, or you can add in your favorite ingredients to transform it into your personal dish. I have included the few serving suggestions from Jamie and two from myself (I just added whatever I could find from my kitchen at that time) at the end of the recipe.

Recipe (Serve 4~6):
Ingredients:
2 cloves of garlic
1 fresh red chilli
a bunch of fresh basil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
350g dried spaghetti
Olive oil
1 x 400g tin of chopped tomato
100g Parmesan cheese

Methods:
1. Peel and finely slice the garlic. Finely slice the chilli. Pick the basil leave off the stalks and put aside. Finely chop the stalks.
2. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the spaghetti and cook according to the packet instructions.
3. Meanwhile, put a large saucepan on a medium heat and add 2 good lugs of olive oil. Add the garlic, chilli and basil stalks and give them a stir.
4. When the garlic begins to brown slightly, add most of the basil leaves and the tinned tomatoes. Turn the heat up high and stir for a minute.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Drain the spaghetti in a colander, then transfer it to the pan of sauce and stir well.
7. Taste and add more salt and pepper if you think it needs it.
8. To serve your pasta, divide them between your bowls, or put it on the table in a large serving dish and let everyone help themselves.
9. Roughly tear over the remaining basil leaves and grate over some Parmesan.

These can be added to your tomato sauce when it’s finished. Just stir in and warm through:
1. Add a handful of baby spinach to the sauce at the same time that you add the pasta- when the leaves wilted remove from the heat and serve with some crumbled goat’s cheese on top.
2. A few handfuls of cooked prawns and a handful of chopped rocket, with some lemon juice.
3. A tin of tuna, drained and flaked into the sauce with ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon, some black olives and some lemon juice.
4. A handful of fresh or frozen peas and broad beans.

The extras that I added for my spaghetti:
1. Bacon cook in boiling water and cut into small pieces.
2. A small tin of salmon (instead of tuna), ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon and some lemon juice.

Cirque Du Soleil

2009-02-26T21:11:00.007+09:00

Last Sunday, we went to watch Cirque Du Soleil-Dralion at Langley Park, Perth.

We booked the ticket four months in advance, and I was so excited and was looking forward to it. The show was great and we had a good time. I must admit that I am already looking forward to their next visit to Perth.

Hey, check out the hat I got for myself from the Cirque Du Soleil souvenir store before the show began, it did put some smiles on my friends’ faces and other audiences’ faces as well. This picture was taken by my bf during the break.

Unfortunately I was not able to take any photos of their acts as camera use is prohibited during the performance. However, you can always check out their official website at http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/. You can even find the video clips of their performances there.

Valentine's Day

2009-02-21T20:59:00.008+09:00

We went to the Globe Coffee House and Restaurant in South Perth for the V-day dinner. I always like this restaurant, its cosy with a dash of classy setting and its healthily prepared fresh food. What’s more, it is just a stone throw away from where we live.

The restaurant was seated to its capacity that night. Nevertheless, it was romantic, with the live singing and seeing the young and old couples throughout the restaurant.

What I like most about this restaurant is the food they served. It is western style, and the preparation is rather simple, with small amount of flavouring just to accentuate the main ingredient. It is the type of preparation that only works for fresh ingredient.

It was a lovely dinner.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I make my own roti canai!

2009-02-10T20:50:00.008+09:00

“I made my own roti canai!” I was so proud when I told my sister that, which prompted her to reply, “Why bother to make one when it cost only Rm1 each?” Yeah, but that only happens in Malaysia, and definitely not in Perth. Then I started telling my friends around that I made my own roti canai. At first they seemed amazed but not too long before they would say, “Do you know you can buy the readymade frozen one from the Asian grocery?”

Even then, I am still very proud of my homemade roti canai. It all started from one bad roti canai I tasted when we were eating out. Then I recalled I saw the recipe for roti canai from Kuali, which seemed very easy. So I went back that day disappointed but ambitious, “I will make my own roti canai.”

The ingredients are really simple and cheap, the steps are really easy, and I bet you will end up as proud and satisfied as I am. Since the recipe is good for 10 roti, I always make a few varieties out of them, roti canai (plain), roti planta (with butter or margarine and sugar) and roti telur bawang (with egg and onion). As for the gravy, I just used the instant curry paste and add lentils to them to make dhal. I used the “Indian Butter Chicken” packet and followed the instructions from there. I forgot the brand of the packet but I sure will update once I find out. You can always substitute it with your favourite curry. Meanwhile, have fun making your own roti canai!

Recipe (for 10 roti):
Ingredients:
400g plain flour, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
20g sugar (about 5 tsp)
40g margarine
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
Oil or ghee for greasing and cooking

Fillings (optional):
Egg and onion (for 1 roti):
1 egg
one handfull chopped onion
Butter and sugar (for 1 roti):
a few small pieces butter/ margarine (as shown in picture)
one handfull sugar

Method:
1. Put flour, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Rub in margarine and mix egg and the rest of the ingredients well to form a soft dough. Leave to rest for 20-30 minutes.
2. Divide dough into 10 pieces. Roll into balls and rub oil or margarine lightly over each ball. Keep the balls in a container and leave aside.
3. Grease a marble slab. Press and flatten the balls of dough with your palm on the slab. Use your fingers to make each ball very thin.
4. Twirl the flattened dough until it becomes thin.
5. Optional: Add additional fillings at this point- egg and onion/ butter and sugar.
6. Fold the sides to the centre. Flatten the dough again.
7. Place on a hot griddle and cook slowly over a low heat. Turn over dough and spread more oil when needed to brown both sides of the roti.

p/s: I started by pulling the dough slowly instead of twirling it to make it thin. Later I learnt how to twirl (like a profesional) from youtube. Till now I only know folding four corners of the thin dough into the center to make a square roti, but don't know how to make a round one, can somebody teach me?!!!

Garlic Ginger Chilli Sauce

2009-02-05T23:30:00.004+09:00

It is so easy to prepare and it gives you a tasty chilli sauce instantly. It goes well with chicken rice, steamboat, salmon bee hoon soup, and almost everything else!
Basically you just have to throw all the ingredients you see in the picture above into a blender and before you know it, the chilli sauce is ready!

Recipe:

Ingredients:
7 pieces red chillies
4 cloves garlic
4 cm ginger
pinch of salt
a wedge of lime
light soy sauce

(this is the amount of ingredients I used, but you can adjust according to your preference)

Method:
1. Cut the chillies lengthwise, deseed and cut them into half again. Skin garlic and ginger.
2. Put all the above into a blender and grind until no more big pieces. Add a small dash of salt while grinding.
3. Remove chilli paste from the blender into a small glass container, sprinkle lime juice over it.
4. Keep the chilli sauce in the fridge and it should be good for up to one week. When serve in sauce plate, add light soy sauce to taste.

Tips:

Put a kitchen towel on top of the chillies and roll them back and forth a few times before cutting them lengthwise. (The reason for using kitchen towel is to prevent your fingers from getting 'hot and spicy' afterwards.) The rolling of chillies will detach the chilli seeds from the stalks and make the deseeding easier. Learnt this from my mom.

Salmon Bee Hoon Soup

2009-02-03T23:55:00.003+09:00

Last Sunday, another ordinary weekend, my bf and I just lazed around at home. We woke up late, had a late breakfast and had to settle for a late lunch. We were too lazy to go out for a decent meal, and I was too lazy to cook a banquet. So I went through the fridge having in my mind a quick simple meal.

There was nothing much in the fridge except some Chinese cabbage, fried garlic oil and garlic ginger chilli sauce, all left behind after the steamboat. There was also a piece of salmon cutlet in the freezer (I always like to keep a piece of salmon as a spare). So I thought, maybe I can cook bee hoon soup with Chinese cabbage and salmon.

It was really quick, healthy and delicious meal!

Quick- except the kitchen got a little bit oily after frying the salmon

Healthy- I am a big fan of salmon (besides lentils), go omega 3!

Delicious- my bf gave a thumbs up! Although the salmon might be little bit overcooked, but the garlic ginger chili sauce complemented it.

And I thought I own this recipe, so I should come out with a beautiful name.... emm... emm... so I call it.... Salmon Bee Hoon Soup. Haha... that is the best I can come out with.

p/s: that night, we watched Rafael Nadal vs Roger Federer in Melbourne Open final, what a game, go Nadal!!

Recipe (for 2 persons):

Main Ingredients:
1. 1 piece salmon cutlet, cut into chunky bite size
2. 5-8 leaves Chinese cabbage, cut into chunky size

(put more to add flavour to the soup if no stock or meat is added in preparing the soup)
3. ¼ pack bee hoon (adjust individually)

Condiment:
1. Few cloves garlic, chopped
2. Small piece ginger, thinly sliced
3. Some cooking oil and sesame oil (optional)
4. 2 tbsp light soy sauce (or to taste)
5. Pinch of salt
6. Small bunch fresh coriander leaves/ spring onion, sliced

Method:
1. Soak bee hoon in a bowl of water.
2. Heat some oil in a non-stick pan and when the oil is hot, fry salmon shortly and remove when the outer layer is golden. Leave aside.
3. Heat some oil (1 tbsp cooking oil & 1 tbsp sesame oil) in a pot and fry garlic and ginger. When they turn golden, remove oil with garlic, leaving behind ginger with little bit of oil. Add a bowl of water and bring to boil. Then add Chinese cabbage, light soy sauce and salt to taste. Simmer the soup while preparing bee hoon.
4. Bring another pot of water to boil and add in bee hoon. Remove and drain the bee hoon when it turns soft, into two separate bowls. Add some garlic oil prepared earlier and give it a quick stir.
5. Add salmon into the soup and switch off the fire. Do this quickly so as not to overcook the salmon. You can even skip this step if prefer the salmon to be half cooked.
6. Place salmon and Chinese cabbage on top of bee hoon, pour in the soup, and finish with garlic oil and spring onion/ coriander garnishing.
7. Serve hot with garlic ginger chilli sauce.

Steamboat vs Chinese New Year Eve

2009-01-26T03:02:00.017+09:00

Chinese New Year is probably the biggest festival for my family and I. It signifies the beginning of another year with hope, prosperity and happiness. It is also the time for family reunions, visiting friends and relatives.

No matter where I was, I have been going back for CNY all these years. It is a tradition, just like we always have steamboat on CNY’s eve for the reunion dinner. I was quite disappointed that I couldn't make it home this CNY, instead I have to stay behind in Perth. So I thought, at least I should keep the tradition going... by having a steamboat dinner for CNY's eve!

Honestly, I am very excited about it (of course I miss everyone at home very much), that I am going to have a steamboat orchestrated all by myself! I actually started planning what ingredients to get for the steamboat two weeks before the occasion and started buying stuff as early as one week before the big day.

On that day, my bf and I invited a couple whom are very good friends of ours over for the big dinner. And dang dang…after all the planning and preparation, there you go, I have nicely and neatly laid all the ingredients, soup, sauces, etc. out on the table. But what you probably can’t tell from the picture is that there is another set of food, a duplicate of what is on the table, kept in the fridge. I am doing that to keep their freshness and more importantly, the table is not big enough for everything to be placed on it. I know it might seem a lot, but isn't it the CNY tradition to have food in abundance? Also, the soup does taste better through time, after the adding of more ingredients in it.

So you might have guessed it right, four of us only managed to finish half of what you see on the table, and all I can say is... I am not sure how many more days my bf and I have to feed on this... yummy steamboat!

Updated on Feb 01, 2009 at 1:30pm: There were comments from two friends in two separate occasions that they can't find any recipe in teng's recipes, which I thought steamboat is kind of straight forward and the other two dishes I have put the recipes in the links. But after considering their advices, I have decided to put in the recipes for all my previous posts starting from this one.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
1. Squid
2. Prawn
3. Pork
4. Chicken
5. Salmon (thumbs up)
6. Red snapper
7. Wan tan
8. Foo Chiew fish balls
9. Asparagus
10. Button mushroom
11. Enoki mushroom
12. Tofu
13. Chinese cabbage (must have)
14. Cauliflower
15. Lettuce
16. Eggs
17. Dry noodles
18. White rice

Soup:
To make the soup, add lots of water, some pork and some Chinese cabbage in a big pot, bring to boil, simmer for around 1 hour and put aside for later use.
Pour some of the soup in an electric pot/ steamboat and bring it to simmer. Dip ingredients inside and lightly cook before served.
Eat the ingredients with soup, and remember to add fried garlic oil!
Top up the soup in steamboat from time to time when it becomes thicker. Towards the end, when the soup become tastier and thicker, add water will do.

Condiment/ sauces:
1. Garlic ginger chilli sauce
2. Spring onion
3. Fried garlic oil (must have)

Hakka Yong Tau Foo- A Taste To Remember

2009-01-19T17:55:00.008+09:00

This recipe reminds me of a Hakka friend's mother, it is her signature dish.

Again, I found this recipe online. I tried it once (in the picture) and it is very tasty! I used chicken bone for the stock and the soup turned out amazingly delicious.

Admittedly this dish requires a fair bit of work not to mention time consuming (to prepare the minced pork and prawn even with a blender, to soak the soy beans for an hour and to boil the soup for 40 minutes, and then to fill each tau foo with the paste and to fry them all). But for that taste, you bet I will cook it again!

Having introduced this recipe, I must mention the website Kuali. It is so far my favorite cooking website! I always refer to it when I miss one of my mom's dishes or Malaysian hawker food. So far the dishes I have tried are easy to follow and meeting expectation. And of course I got this recipe from there too!

Updated on Feb 11, 2009, 11.43pm: Almost forgot I promised to put in the recipe.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
10 pieces semi-soft white tofu

For the broth:
100g soy beans
1.5 litre water/chicken stock
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Filling paste:
300g minced pork
200g minced prawn
75g salted Tenggiri fish (Mui Heong)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Method:
1. Soak the soy beans for an hour. Bring the soy beans, water/stock and salt to a boil. Boil for 40 minutes or until beans are soft. Remove from fire.
2. Mix together the filling ingredients to form a paste.
3. Cut the tofu into half. With the tip of a sharp knife, make a slit in the middle of the tofu half to form a pocket. Fill it with the paste. Smoothen the top by pressing with a wet metal spoon.
4. Heat 4 tablespoons oil in a pan to sear the tofu pocket until lightly brown. Add the tofu into the soy bean soup and bring to a quick boil before serving.

My all time favorite- Middle Eastern Lentil Soup!

2009-01-16T00:37:00.006+09:00

This has to be my first dish to post, it is my favorite! It is simple, healthy and delicious; full of all the goodness of lentils!

I haven’t seen or tasted lentil until I read this one book promoting low GI food and it mentioned lentils. So I started searching for something I haven’t seen before to buy, and found them in an organic shop. (Later only I found out it is quite common and can be purchased from most supermarkets.) I was so happy that day, bringing back a pack of lentils which I don’t know what to do with it.

Then I started searching online for lentil recipe and found this Middle Eastern Lentil Soup, which look easy and tasty. Since that day, it has become my all time favorite!

Now, I always get the ingredient ready in my cupboard and fridge: a pack of lentils, one onion, one capsicum, one lemon, one cup of plain yogurt, and a bunch of coriander (I substitute parsley in the recipe with coriander leaves, I just love coriander!). I cook this soup for a quick light meal by itself, or to go with grill salmon.

Goodness of lentils

Lentils contain 26% of protein, making it the third highest protein level plan-based food after soybeans and hemp.
Lentils are good for our heart, due to its cholesterol-lowering fiber, folate and magnesium.
Lentils are Low GI food. Their high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising rapidly after a meal, thus beneficial in managing blood-sugar disorder.
Lentils are also good source of iron and vitamin B1.

Updated on Feb 04, 2009, 11:26pm:

Recipe (for 2 persons):
Ingredients:
½ cup dried lentils
1 tbsp olive oil
½ onion, chopped
½ medium red bell pepper, chopped
½ tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp cumin
pinch of ground red pepper (optional)
2 cups water
¼ tsp salt
½ tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp plain low-fat yogurt
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Method:
1. Rinse lentils, discarding any debris or blemished lentils; drain.
2. Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat until hot. Add onion and bell pepper; cook and stir 5 minutes or until tender. Add fennel seeds, cumin and ground red pepper; cook and stir 1 minute.
3. Add water and lentils. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 20 minutes. Stir in salt. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes or until lentils are tender. Stir in lemon juice.
4. To serve, ladle soup into individual bowls and top with yogurt; sprinkle with coriander.