Recipe - "Butter Prawns"

Butter Prawns

Butter Prawns

Butter Prawns is a flavourful prawn dish that is commonly served in Seafood Restaurants and in Chinese Wedding Banquet menus in Malaysia.

The combination of flavours from the curry leaves and creamy buttery milk in the sauce and spiciness from the bird’s eye chillies brings up the very essence of this dish.

The uniqueness of this dish is its luscious golden egg floss that adds to the pure crunch, firm, crisp texture when you bite into the prawn.

Here’s the following Butter Prawns recipe :-

 

Ingredients

King Prawns

500 gm Prawns (trimmed and deveined)

Egg Floss

80 gm salted butter

4 egg yolks (beaten)

½ tsp sugar

 

A

3 cloves garlic (sliced)

4 tbsp evaporated milk

Salt to taste

 

B

20 gm salted butter

4 sprigs curry leaves

3 red bird’s eye chillies (diced)

 

Procedure

Mix some egg whites in the prawns. Set it aside.

Preparing Egg Floss

 

Swirling egg floss

Heat butter in a wok. Pour in egg yolks into wok at a high point (from the height of about 30 cm) slowly but consistently and with the other hand swirl the yolk vigorously. Stir until oil is foamy/bubbles and egg yolk turns golden crisp floss. Sieve excess oil. Set aside golden crisp egg floss. Sprinkle some sugar, toss and mix well.

 

Preparing prawns

Deep fried prawns

 

With the left over oil in the wok, deep fry the prawns until cook. Drain on paper towel. Set it aside. Discard the oil.

Heat the wok. Add 20 gm butter. Fry garlic, chillies, curry leaves and diced chillies. Once the garlic turns golden brown, add milk. Pour the cooked prawns back to wok. Sprinkle salt. Stir constantly for about 1 to 2 minutes on high heat.

Remove prawns onto a serving dish and garnish with egg floss. Serve immediately.

 

 

Recipe - "Stir Fried Clams/Pipis"



Stir fried Pipis (Kam Heong)

Stir Fried Clams of Pipis

If you enjoy eating Clams or Pipis, you may consider this recipe. It only takes less than 5 minutes to cook this dish.

Ingredients

600 gm clams

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 brown onion (cut into 4)

½ tsp chopped garlic

3 slices of ginger

2 spring onions (cut into 2 inches length size)

1 red chilli (cut julienned)

4 dried chillies (fingers length - seeded)

3 sprig curry leaves

Sauces

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp dark caramel sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

½ tsp bean paste (taucu)

½ tsp sugar

Procedure

Place the clams in a bowl fill in with cool tap water. Let the clams sit for 20 minutes to an hour. During this time they will spit out the sand from inside their shells.

Lift each clam individually from the water and scrub it to clean any particles from the outside surface. Once clean, set aside the clams.

In a small bowl, mix all the sauces and set it aside.

Heat a wok or pan over high flame. Pour in vegetable oil. Fry onion and ginger till brown. Add garlic. Fry garlic till golden brown. Add curry leaves.

Pour the mixture of sauces into the wok. Add clams and quickly mix all the ingredients together in very high heat. Cover the wok with a lid and let the clams cook for 2 minutes or until the shells opened. Lastly add cut chilli and spring onions and toss briefly to mix.

Dish and serve immediately.

 

Frankfurter Roll

Chicken Frankfurter Roll

Frankfurter Roll

Chicken Frankfurter roll is my daughter’s favourite. She normally eats it for breakfast, bring one to school for her morning tea and another for her afternoon tea when she comes back from school.

There are two reasons why you should bake your own frankfurter rolls :-

1.            You get to choose good quality frankfurters

2.      The frankfurters are well cooked when the rolls are baked

Ingredients

Adapted from Don Yong – Bread Winners book

Sponge

280 gm  Strong flour (bread flour)

3     gm  Instant dry yeast

170 gm  Water

 

Dough

 

120 gm   Strong flour (bread flour)

15   gm   Milk powder

6     gm   Bread improver

8     gm   Instant yeast

80   gm   Sugar

6     gm   Salt

50   gm   Egg

20   gm   Water

60   gm   Butter (softened)

 

Filling

14        Frankfurters

 

Procedure

Firstly, par boil the frankfurters for 1 minute and set it aside to cool.

Prepare the sponge by mixing all the ingredients and knead until the sponge is firm, dry and cool to touch. Ferment the sponge for 4 to 5 hours in a fairly large airtight greased container at about 27 degrees Celsius.

When the sponge is fermented, prepare the dough. Place the remaining dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Add egg and water, mix and combine well. Cut sponge into a few pieces and add to the mixture, knead it. Lastly add butter and mix together. Mix and knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is fully developed.

Round up the dough and rest on a flour dusted table for 10 minutes. Divide the dough into 55 gm pieces and round up again.

Leave the dough pieces to rest for 5 to 10 minutes and then roll out each dough piece between your hands until it’s about 2 ½ times the length of the frankfurter or about 35 cm. Take a dough strip and wrap it around a frankfurter by forming 5 to 6 coils of dough over it.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the shaped rolls on the paper. Cover the rolls with clean cloth.

Prove rolls for 1 hour in a warm place until the dough doubles in size.

Brush egg over the surface of the rolls, sprinkle some sesame seeds on top if desired and bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 12 to 15 minutes until the rolls turn golden brown.

 

 

Recipe - "Doughnut"

Doughnut

Doughnut

 

My daughter loves doughnut and I decided to make doughnut for breakfast and her tea break in school.

Ingredients

Adapted from Don Yong – Bread Winners book.

 

Sponge

350 gm  Strong flour (bread flour)

4 gm      Instant dry yeast

210 gm  water

 

Dough

50 gm    Strong flour (bread flour)

100 gm  Plain flour (all purpose flour)

30 gm    Milk powder

10 gm    Baking powder

8 gm      Bread improver

8 gm      Instant yeast

75 gm    Sugar

5 gm      Salt

30 gm    Egg

40 gm    Water

60 gm    Unsalted Butter (softened)

 

Procedure

Prepare the sponge by mixing all the ingredients and knead until the sponge is firm, dry and cool to touch. Ferment the sponge for 4 to 5 hours in a fairly large airtight greased container at about 27 degrees Celsius.

When the sponge is fermented, prepare the dough. Place the remaining dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Add egg and water, mix and combine well. Cut sponge into a few pieces and add to the mixture, knead it. Lastly add butter and mix together. Mix and knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is fully developed.

Round up the dough and rest on a flour dusted table for 15 minutes. The dough must not stick to the table.

Cut the dough into 50 gm pieces. Round up the dough. Lightly flatten into your palm. Place your thumb in the middle to make a hole.

Prove dough for 45 minutes in a warm place until the dough doubles in size. Fry in hot oil (180 degrees Celsius) for 45 seconds on each side until golden brown.

Drain on kitchen paper towel and coat with sugar.

 

Shells pasta with bacon and cherry tomatoes.

Shells pasta

Shells pasta with bacon and cherry tomatoes

I am pleased to share with you a simple but delicious recipe. It is called ‘Shells pasta with bacon and cherry tomatoes’. It is a dish that my kids love. A single helping is never enough for them.

 

Ingredients

500 gm shells pasta

250 gm cherry tomato (halved)

3 slices of short cut bacon (cut in pieces)

1½ tbsp unsalted butter

1 brown onion (blend into paste)

½ tsp chopped garlic

100 ml stock (chicken and anchovies)

2 tbsp thicken cream

parmesan cheese (shredded)

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

100 gm baby spinach leaves

Basil leaves

Olive oil

 

Procedure

Heat a pan. Slightly pan fried cut bacon and set it aside.

How to cook pasta al dente? Prepare a pot (25 cm diameter x 14 cm height). I roughly half fill the pot with water and place over high heat. When the water begins to boil, add 6 tsp of salt. After the salt has dissolved and the water is really boiling, add pasta to the water and stir frequently the first two minutes, then occasionally until the end of the cooking process. Drain the pasta and toss back into the pot. Pour some olive oil and mix well. Lid on.

Meanwhile, upon waiting for the pasta to cook, we shall continue to cook the pasta sauce.

On the same pan, melt butter over a medium heat. Fry onion till lightly brown. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add chicken and anchovies stock. Let it boil. Add bacon and cherry tomatoes. Season the stock with salt and ground black pepper. Add thicken cream and lastly parmesan cheese.

Pour the sauce together with the baby spinach into the pot of pasta. Stir and mix well.

To serve, top with fresh basil leaves and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Bon appétit!!!

Stir Fry Squid



Stir fry squid

Stir Fry Squid

Stir fry squid is one of my mother’s signature dishes and this dish is also our (my siblings and I) favourite. I cooked this dish recently and my kids love it too.

It is a simple dish to cook. Please allow me to share with you this recipe.

 

Ingredients

250 gm squid (cleaned)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 brown onion (cut into 4)

½ tsp chopped garlic

1 tbsp soy sauce

¾ tbsp dark caramel sauce

¾ tbsp oyster sauce

¼ tsp white pepper

1 fresh red chilli (sliced thinly)

 

Squid

 

Chilli and brown onion

 

Procedure

Score each piece of squid to make a crisscross pattern, cut the squid into 2 x 2 inch squares.

Heat a wok or pan over high flame. Pour vegetable oil into it. Fry onion till brown. Add garlic. Saute garlic till golden brown.

Add squid and continue to fry in very high heat as quickly as possible. When pieces of squid begin to curl up, add the sauces. Stir and mix well.

As a result of using very high heat, the squid is perfectly cooked. It becomes tender and juicy and not chewy or rubbery.

 

Lastly add cut chilli and toss briefly to mix.

Dish and serve immediately with rice.

 

 

Stewed meat, mushrooms, eggs and intestines

Stewed meat, mushrooms, eggs and intestines

This is my favourite dish. Once the intestines are thoroughly cleaned, subsequent cooking procedure is easy.

 

Ingredients

 

750 gm big intestines (cleaned and blanched)

700 gm lean pork (cut into 4 big pieces)

5 big shiitake mushrooms (soaked, rinsed and remove the stalks)

3 slices of ginger

8 cloves of garlic

2 cloves

2 star anise

5 cm cinnamon stick

5 hard boiled eggs (de shelled)

 

Sauces

 

5 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp dark caramel sauce

1 ½ tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp vegetable oil

 

Procedure

Blanch big intestines and pork in hot boiling water for 3 minutes.

Heat a pot. Add oil.

Low heat, saute ginger till lightly brown. Add garlic and all the spices.

Add intestines, pork and shiitake mushrooms. Add soy sauce and dark caramel sauce. Mix well. Add a little bit of hot boiling water. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes with lid on, stirring occasionally. Add another 200ml of hot boiling water. Simmer for an hour with lid on, add oyster sauce and hard boiled eggs. Cook intestines and meat until tender (stirring occasionally).

Add more soy sauce to taste.

Leave to sit in the gravy overnight. Heat up before serving.

 

How to fry fish roe - A step by step guide

Fish roe

How to fry fish roe – A step by step guide

 

   1.    Leave fish roe to drain after cleaning and washing it.

 



2. Marinade with salt, fish curry powder (Baba’s brand).

Fish curry powder

 

 

3. Coat it with some corn flour.

Use canola, peanut or sunflower oil for deep frying. Those oils are relatively cheap, flavourless oil with high smoke points.

 

 



4. Prepare a pan or wok on the stove and wait until it is hot, then pour oil into it.

                 5.Once oil is hot, turn the burner to low flame.

 

6. Use a tong. Gently lowering the fish roe piece by piece into the oil before dropping it.

 

7.   If the oil splashes, turn off the burner.

 

8.  Once you have placed the fish roe into the oil, adjust the burner to low flame again.

 

9.  Fry for 3 to 4 minutes.

 

10. Cover the wok or frying pan with a lid.

 

Low Flame





11. Use your lid as a shield when you flip the fish roe. If oil splashes, turn off burner. Then only flip the fish roe.
 

After flipping, turn on burner again to low flame.

 

Note  :  Adding too much fish roe into the hot oil in a single go will cause the oil temperature to drop rapidly, reducing the effectiveness of your fry.

 12. Lid on again and let it fry for 3 to 4 minutes. Once cooked, turn off burner.

 

13. Remove and drain on a paper towel. Leave it to cool.

 

 

 

14.  Use a skimmer to fish out any crumbs left in the oil.

 

Preferably use the above skimmer with smaller holes.

 

Repeat step 6 to 14 until you finish frying all the fish roe.

 

 

15. Allow the fish roe to cool, cut into smaller pieces.

 



16.  With the clean oil, turn burner to high flame and fry fish roe till crisp. Lid off.

 

17. Ta dah! Dig in. Enjoy!

Recipe - "Hokkien Mee"

"Hokkien mee"

Hokkien Mee (KL Style) Recipe

Hokkien mee is served in Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding region. It is a dish of thick yellow noodles braised in thick dark caramel sauce with pork oil, pork, prawn, fish cake and cabbage as the main ingredients and croutons of crispy fried pork lard (sometimes pork liver is included). This dish is usually cooked over a raging charcoal fire. As for home cooking, you can cook on a stove with a wok.

 

 

 

Ingredients

 

 

1 packet of Hokkien noodles  (500gm)

  

1½ tbsp pork oil  (refer recipe : http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/recipe-making-lard-oil-and-crispy-fried.html )

 

4 shallots (thinly sliced)

  

2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

  

150 gm pork (sliced) – marinade with soy sauce, pepper and corn flour

  

10 medium size prawns (de-shelled and de-veined)

 

1 bunch mustard green (choy sum) – cut

 

2 tbsp of crispy fried pork lard

 

300 ml chicken stock

 

1 tbsp dark caramel sauce

 

2 tbsp soy sauce

  

1 tbsp oyster sauce

  

½ tsp pepper

  

Salt to taste

 
 

Procedure

Rinse and drain the noodles briefly under cold water.

Blanch noodles with hot boiling water. Drain and set it aside.

  

Heat a wok. Add pork oil. Fry shallots till brown. Add garlic and fry both until golden brown.

 

Add meat, prawns, fish cake and crispy fried pork lard. With high heat flame, stir fry until just cooked. Add mustard greens. Pour chicken stock into the wok.

 

Add dark caramel sauce, light soy sauce, oyster sauce and pepper. Mix all and bring to boil. Add salt to taste. Add noodles and mix well with all the ingredients. Fry until noodles are tender but till al-dente.

  

Remove onto a serving dish and add more crispy fried pork lard. Sprinkle some crispy fried shallots (refer recipe:  http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/jennifers-secret-ingredient-in-her.html ) if you wish.

Serve immediately with sambal belacan. (refer recipe : http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/recipe-making-sambal-belacan.html ).

 

Recipe - "Braised Chicken with Shiitake Mushrooms"

Braised Chicken with Shiitake Mushrooms

 

My sister shared this recipe with me. It is a classic dish and easy to cook. This dish is delicious.



Dark caramel sauce and Soy sauce

 

Oyster sauce

Ingredients

1.2 kg of chicken (cut in pieces)

10 shiitake mushrooms (soaked, rinsed and remove the stalks)

2 shallots (thinly sliced)

5 slices of ginger

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp dark caramel sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Salt to taste

 

Ginger, shallots and mushrooms

 

Procedure

 

Heat wok or non-stick pan. Add oil.

Low heat, saute ginger till lightly brown. Add shallots. Saute both till fragrant.

Add chicken and shiitake mushrooms. Allow to simmer for 30 minutes with lid on, stirring occasionally.

There is no need to add water. The chicken will generate water on its own.

Add soy sauce and dark caramel sauce. Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Lastly add oyster sauce and mix well. Taste it. Sprinkle some salt if necessary.

Serve warm with rice.

Recipe - "Popiah"

Popiah Recipe

In my previous recipe, (http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/recipe-making-popiah-skin.html) I shared the making of popiah skin. This time, I will be sharing with you on how to make popiah filling.

 

Ingredients

1 kg yam bean (shredded)

2 carrots (shredded)

6 shallots (sliced)

3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

30 gm dried shrimps (soaked, drained and roughly chopped)

200 gm pork or chicken meat (cut into small pieces and marinade with salt and pepper)

250 gm round beans (diagonally sliced thinly)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Soy sauce to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

300 ml water

Lettuce leaves

 

Toppings

2 chinese sausage (sliced thinly)

1 cucumber – julienned fine

2 firm tofu (tau kwa), julienned fine – slightly fried and set aside

2 eggs (omelette) – thinly sliced

300 gm bean sprouts (blanched)

100 gm fine roasted ground peanuts

Crispy fried shallots (http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/jennifers-secret-ingredient-in-her.html)

Coriander leaves

 

Condiments

Garlic paste, sweet sauce (http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/recipe-sweet-sauce-tim-cheong.html) and chilli sauce

 

Procedure

In a large wok, heat oil and add shallots. Saute shallots for 3 minutes, add garlic. Saute both shallots and garlic till lightly brown.

Add dried shrimps, minced chicken or pork. Fry till fragrant. Add Yam bean. Sprinkle with some soy sauce and pepper. Low heat, fry for 5 to 8 minutes, add carrot. Fry for 2 minutes, add water and let it simmer to about 45 minutes.

Add round beans. Cook for another 15 minutes. Add salt and more pepper to taste.

To assemble the popiah, spread some garlic paste, sweet sauce and chilli sauce on the popiah skin.

Lay a Lettuce leaf on the sauces. Scoop about 2 tables spoonful of filling and garnish with the toppings.

Carefully flip over the right and left sides of the popiah skin and start rolling up the popiah, pressing gently and tightening the fillings as you roll up.

Serve and DEVOUR immediately.

Recipe - "Making Popiah Skin"

Homemade Popiah Skin Recipe

Popiah is a Hokkien word which means Spring roll.

In Malaysia, fresh popiah skins are easily available in morning market stalls or order fresh from popiah skin maker.

Making popiah skin is not easy. It takes a lot of practice and patience. A good popiah skin must be thin, elastic and springy. They should be strong enough to wrap the vegetable fillings without breaking apart. There are only a few ingredients in making popiah skin.

Ingredients

500 gm plain flour

1 tbsp tapioca flour

½ tsp salt

3 drops of vegetable oil

450 to 480 ml of water

 

Procedure

Mix all the dry ingredients and oil together. Add water bit by bit as you mix the batter. Knead the batter by lifting it up and drop it back in the bowl. Do this a few times until you get a stretchy texture on the batter. Cover the dough for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Heat up a non - stick pan and reduce the heat to low. Using one hand, scoop the batter in your palm and rub onto the pan with a circular motion. When the sides of the wrapper begin to curl up, use the other hand to peel off the wrapper. Place on a plate. Repeat the above procedure again. Once done, cover with a damp cloth over the popiah skin in order to keep the skin moist.

 

Recipe - "Jiu Hu Char"

Jiu Hu Char

Jiu Hu Char

‘Jiu Hu Char’ (Stir-fried shredded dried cuttlefish with Yam bean). ‘Jiu Hu Char’ is a Penang Nyonya dish. This dish is normally eaten wrapped with fresh lettuce leaves and some chilli sauce. This dish tastes better when kept overnight. You may serve this dish as an appetizer or as a side dish.

 

Ingredients

 

Dried Cuttlefish

Ingredients

Fillings

 

500 gm yam bean (shredded)

2 carrots (shredded)

5 shallots (sliced)

3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

20 gm dried shrimps (soaked, drained and roughly chopped)

5 shitake mushroom (sliced thinly)

1 dried cuttlefish (washed, soaked, rinsed and finely shredded)

100 gm minced chicken/pork (marinade with salt and pepper)

2 tbsp oil

Salt and pepper to taste

200 ml water

Lettuce leaves

 

Procedure

Heat a wok.  Add oil. Saute shallots and garlic till lightly brown. Add dried shrimps, cuttlefish, shitake mushroom and fry till fragrant. Add minced chicken or pork. Continue stirring until the minced meat is cooked.

Add yam bean and carrot. Stir fry to combine all the ingredients. Add water. Cover the wok with a lid and let it simmer with low heat for about 30 to 45 minutes. Stir occasionally until the yam bean and carrot turn soft.

Season it with salt and pepper.

Serve the dish with Lettuce leaves and some chilli sauce. Sprinkle with some fried crispy shallots. (refer recipe : http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/jennifers-secret-ingredient-in-her.html )