Recipe - Making "Sambal Belacan"



Sambal Belacan

Sambal belacan is a hot and spicy condiment. It is made using traditional tools such as stone pestle and mortar in order to have a coarse texture and consistency. The belacan is usually burned first to kill its pungent smell as to release its aroma. In Malaysia, sambal belacan is eaten with ‘ulam’ (leafy herbs) in a meal or herbs and other dishes or as a dipping sauce.

 

Ingredients

7 fresh red chillies

5 bird’s eye chillies

20 gm shrimp paste (belacan)

1 tomato (cut into pieces)

¼ tsp salt

Sugar to taste

2 Calamansi lime (limau kasturi)

 

'Shrimp paste'

 

Procedure

Slice open to remove seeds from chillies.

Roast the belacan over naked flame for 2 minutes. Set it aside.

Cut chillies into pieces.

Place chillies, belacan and tomato into pestle and pound with a mortar according to a consistency you refer.

Remove the paste from the mortar into a bowl.

Add salt, sugar and calamansi juice. Mix well.

You can store the sambal belacan in a well- sealed glass jar in the refrigerator for a week to be served with meals or as a condiment.

Recipe making "Mee Hoon Kueh"

‘Mee Hoon Kueh’ recipe.

‘Mee hoon kueh’ is my favourite. It is a Hokkien dish. 'Mee hoon' in English means wheat flour.

Traditionally 'Mee hoon kueh' is made manually by hands. There are two key ingredients to this dish mainly, the soup and the ‘mee hoon’ (dough).

It is recommended to cook ‘Mee hoon kueh’ individually so to avoid pieces of ‘mee hoon’ become soggy.

My late paternal grandma used to make delicious ‘Mee hoon kueh’. Every Sunday, grandma will make this dish for lunch. My aunts, my mum and the kids back then will help out by stretching, pulling and tearing the dough into small pieces and place it into the pot/wok to cook. While cooking ‘mee hoon kueh’, grandma kept herself busy making ‘sambal belacan’ as a dipping sauce.

My kids love ‘Mee hoon kueh’ too and I cook it often using grandma recipe (with some modification).

 

Ingredients

(4 servings)

Stock/soup ingredients

1.2 kg chicken drumsticks (skinless)

100 gm dried anchovies – (rinse twice to get rid of saltiness)

3 ltr water

[Bring a pot to boil, add all ingredients above and simmer for 1 ½ hours]

 


Dried Anchovies

 

'Stock/soup' after simmering for 1 and half hours.

Other ingredients

 

4 big shitake mushrooms (Soaked and sliced thinly)

1 bunch Choy sum (Chinese mustard green)

Shallot oil and crispy fried shallots (refer recipe - http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/jennifers-secret-ingredient-in-her.html)

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

chicken meat (slice into 32; 8 slices each person; marinade with salt and pepper)

 

 

Dough ingredients

3 cups wheat flour

2 tbsp shallot oil

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1 to 1¼  cup room temperature tap water

Mix the ingredients. Add water bit by bit. Knead and make a smooth dough and cover with a piece of damp wet cloth and let it rest for at least an hour.

Divide dough into four.

 

'Before proofing'

 

'After proofing'

Procedure

(Cooking for one person)

Prepare a medium size pot. Add about 700 ml of stock. Let it boil then reduce to small flame. With the ¼ of the dough, tear a bit, make into a piece; stretch, flatten, slightly pull all the sides and drop it into the pot. Repeat the steps until you finish making the dough. Half way through, add mushroom and chicken meat. Once a while, give it a stir in the pot to avoid pieces of ‘mee hoon’ stick together. Adjust to high heat, let it boil and add the vegetables. It is up to individual liking, you may add an egg into it. Cover the pot till vegetable is cooked tender crisp. Add salt to taste and stir in 1 tsp of shallot oil to bring out the flavour of the soup. Pour into a serving bowl and serve hot.

Repeat the same steps and cook individually for the other 3 persons.

 'Mee hoon' should look like the above before putting in the pot.

Garnish your ‘mee hoon kueh’ with some crispy fried anchovies and crispy fried shallots and serve with ‘sambal belacan’ (refer recipe http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/recipe-making-sambal-belacan.html ) as a dipping sauce.

 

 

My gorgeous granny and I. She left us on 14th May 1999.

 

Recipe - "Seafood Yee Mee"

"Seafood Yee Mee"

Recipe for Seafood Yee Mee

Seafood Yee Mee comprise of seafood and thin egg noodles. This dish can be easily found in food court, hawker stalls or Chinese restaurants in Malaysia.

There are two ways of making the noodles. Cook the ready fried ‘Yee Mee’ in the stock or pour gravy over the fried ‘Yee Mee’. I prefer the latter because I like my noodles to be fresh, crispy and crunchy. Here’s the recipe.

(One Serving)

Ingredients

100 gm Fresh thin egg noodles

3 fresh Prawns (cut prawns half way through on the inner curve and spread open to make a butterfly) - season with salt and pepper.

2 Squid/Calamari (medium size) – cleaned, cut each squid into 4 and season with salt and pepper.

8 Scallops (small size)

Fish cake (4 Slices)

Ginger (6 slices)

1 Egg

Choy Sum (Chinese mustard green)

Garlic (finely chopped)

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

1 tbsp Tapioca starch (mix with water to thicken)

Oil

500 ml (Chicken stock)

 

(Other seafood ingredients you may wish to include : fish ball, crab sticks, crab meat or even lobster meat)

 

Procedure

 

Making Crispy fried thin egg noodles

 

Heat pan over high heat. Add oil. Once oil is hot, turn the heat to low. Evenly spread the noodles over the base of the pan, allow the noodles to gently fry until golden brown and crisp on the bottom. Gently flip the noodles over, crisp the other side. Remove and drain on paper towel. Place fried egg noodles on the serving dish. Discard oil in the pan.

(You can buy ready made fried egg noodles in Asian grocery stores)

 

Method cooking other ingredients

In the pan, add a little amount of oil. Pan frying both sides of the prawns until cooked. Set it aside.

In the same pan, sear the scallops about 10 seconds on each side. Set it aside.

 

'Stir frying squid, fish cake and choy sum in the wok'

 

Heat wok, add 2 tbsp shallots oil [refer recipe -  http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/jennifers-secret-ingredient-in-her.html ), toss in ginger (2 slices) then 1 tsp garlic. Stir fry a few seconds and mix in squid and fish cake, fry on high heat till squid is cooked. Add Choy Sum. Stir for 2 minutes. Add about 50 ml of chicken stock. Stir with high heat until vegetable is cooked. You may sprinkle some salt and pepper to your taste. Turn off heat. Remove all ingredients.

  

Plating

 

 

(Without gravy)

Arrange all the cooked ingredients on top of the crispy fried egg noodles.

Method cooking gravy

Heat wok, add 1 tbsp shallot oil. Add ginger (4 slices). Saute ginger until slightly light brown. Add 1 tsp chopped garlic. When garlic turns lightly brown, pour in 500 ml chicken stock. Allow the stock to boil and then with low heat, let it simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. If necessary, add salt, pepper and seasoning to your taste. Add tapioca starch and stir to mix well. Let the stock boil over high heat. Turn off stove and immediately pour in beaten eggs. Give it a good stir. Lastly, pour the gravy over the plated dish.

Serve hot with pickled green chillies (refer recipe - http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/recipe-pickled-green-chillies.html )

 

Recipe "Making Lard oil and Crispy fried croutons pork lard"

Recipe making lard oil and crispy fried croutons pork lard

Pork lard is frequently used in Chinese cooking. It is perfect for it because it enhance the flavour of the dish. I use lard oil and crispy fried pork lard when cooking some of the following dishes  namely Char Kuey Teow, Hokkien mee, Dry wan tan noodles, Kolo mee and Vegetable filling for Popiah.

 

Lard cut in cubes

Ingredient

The only ingredient for this recipe is Pork fats. Cut the fats into small cubes. Set it aside.

 

Procedure

The method of making this recipe is very simple.

 

Simmering 5 minutes

Heat a wok (cast iron). Add lard cubes in it. Simmer over low heat. In 5 minutes later, stir occasionally. You do not need any oil for frying the lard cubes, as the oil will be rendered with heat. The lard will start to fry itself in the hot oil.

20 minutes later

 

In 20 minutes later, the pork lard will turn into light brown colour. Turn off stove. The lard pieces will continue to cook in the hot oil for about 5 minutes.

 

Lard continue to cook while stove is turned off

Once you are satisfied with the colour, remove the crispy croutons of pork lard with slotted dish. Dish on paper towel.

 

Let the lard oil cool completely. Then transfer it to a bowl.

Store the cool fried lard and lard oil in airtight container or jar. Refrigerated it.

Recipe - Crispy Fried Vegetable and Prawn Pancake

Crispy Fried Vegetable & Prawn pancake

Crispy fried Vegetable and Prawn pancake is a savory pancake. It is a tasty finger food. You can eat it as a snack or side dish.

 

Various types of cabbage

 

Ingredients

 
150 to 180 gm cabbage (Any type : Plain/Savoy/Red or Chinese) - Shredded

1 carrot (Shredded)

3 sprigs spring onions/scallion (cut into 1 inch long)

8 medium size fresh prawns (cleaned & devined); slice into half; marinade with salt   and pepper

Oil 

 

Batter

1 cup plain flour

1¼ cup water

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp butter

1 egg

 

Procedure

Mix flour, salt, butter, egg and water. Make a smooth batter and let it rest for ½ hour.

Combine cabbage, carrot, spring onions and prawns into batter.

 

Heat a large skillet or frying pan over medium heat. When hot, add oil, followed by a tablespoon of the pancake mixture. Allow the pancake to brown up on the bottom, then flip, brown the other side. Then remove pancake and drain it on paper towel. Serve hot.

 

Chilli sauce

You may use any brand chilli sauce for dipping. My preferred choice is ‘Life’ chilli sauce.

Recipe - "Mee Goreng"

Recipe for ‘Mee Goreng’

‘Mee Goreng’ is a classic Malaysian dish. It can most certainly be found in hawker (mamak) stalls.
 

Yellow noodles

 

Bean sprouts, dried prawns and shallots

 

'sambal'

 

Ingredients

500 gm Yellow noodles

60 dried shrimps (de shelled, washed and pounded)

5 shallots (thinly sliced)

2 tsp garlic (finely chopped)

1 tbsp of “sambal” - optional (http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/recipe-for-making-sambal.html )

1 bunch of choy sum

Fish cake (slice thinly)

‘Tau kwa’ or fried beancurd (cut into pieces)

1 tbsp soy sauce

½ tsp dark caramel sauce

½ tsp pepper

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 packet of bean sprouts

3 eggs

 Procedure

Rinse noodles in cold tap water, drain and set aside.

Rinse, wash and cut choy sum. Set aside.
Beat eggs, add pepper and salt. Fry eggs omelette style. Cut thinly in strips. Set aside.

Heat wok medium heat. Add oil, saute shallots till lightly brown, add garlic. Saute both shallots and garlic till golden brown, add in dried prawns. Cook it well until it produces aromatic smell. Add sambal, stir fry to mix well. Add choy sum, fish cake and fried beancurd. Stir fry everything for two to three minutes. Add in noodles. Drizzle all the sauces and pepper. Lastly add in bean sprouts and toss all ingredients over high heat.

Dish onto a plate and garnish with omelette eggs sliced.

 

Mee goreng in the wok

Recipe - "Making 'Mee Siam' with gravy"

'Mee Siam' with gravy

Recipe for 'Mee Siam' with gravy

Wet 'Mee Siam' consists of sweet, spicy, sour with tangy gravy. The key or main ingredient of this dish is the gravy. This dish is full of flavour. It is tedious to prepare but it is totally worth the effort. This dish is also perfect for party or pot luck.

Ingredients

Stir fry Rice Vermicelli

 

200 gm 'Bee Hoon'/Rice Vermicelli

20 gm dried prawns (de shelled, washed and pounded)

10 fresh shrimps (cleaned and devined); marinade with salt and pepper.

1 tsp garlic (finely chopped)

1 brown onion (finely chopped)

1 tbsp of “sambal”

2 tbsp coconut cream

1 tbsp soy sauce

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp vegetable oil or shallot oil

50 ml water

 

Gravy

"Taucu"

1 brown onion (finely chopped)

70 gm dried prawns (de shelled, washed and pounded)

2 tbsp minced bean paste (taucu)

1 tbsp of “sambal” – (refer recipe : http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/recipe-for-making-sambal.html )

1 tbsp coconut cream

2 tbsp tamarind juice (jus assam jawa)

1 tsp lime juice

500 ml prawn shells stock or chicken stock

2 tbsp vegetable oil or shallot oil -(refer recipe : http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/jennifers-secret-ingredient-in-her.html )

  

Garnishing

 

Cucumber (slice thinly)

Eggs (hard boiled or omelette)

'Tau pok' or 'tau kwa' (cut and fried)

Fish cake (fried and slice thinly)

Bean sprouts (blanched)

Crispy fried shallots

Spring onions (finely chopped)

Fresh lime

Procedure
 

Stir fried rice vermicelli

 

Method in cooking stir fry Rice Vermicelli

Sock Rice Vermicelli in cold  tap water for 30 minutes and drained.

Heat oil in wok. Add brown onion, stir fry till lightly brown.

Add garlic, stir fry till garlic turns lightly brown. Add dried prawns. Cook well until it produces aromatic fragrant.

Add ‘sambal’ and fresh shrimps. Cook it.

Add coconut cream and water. Let it boil.

Lastly add rice vermicelli. Stir fry till rice vermicelli is cooked.

Sprinkle some salt and soy sauce. Taste it. Set it aside.

 

Method in cooking Gravy

Heat oil in pot. Saute brown onion till golden brown.

Add dried shrimps; cook it well until it produces aromatic fragrant.

Add “taucu”.

Add “sambal”.

Mix well.

Add coconut cream.

Add in stock. Bring it to boil. Simmer it on low heat for a few minutes.

Add tamarind juice and lime juice.

Taste it and once satisfied with it, turn off heat and set it aside.

 

Serve 'Mee Siam' warm in a bowl. Add all the garnishing on your dish. You only pour warm gravy when you are about to serve to your guests.

Recipe - "Curry Puffs"

Curry puffs (karipap)

Curry puff is a popular snack in Malaysia. For this recipe, I will be using readymade puff pastry from the frozen section of the supermarket to bake my curry puffs.

Ingredients

6 potatoes (preferably washed potatoes)

20 gm dried anchovies (remove heads, tiny bones and intestines)
20 gm dried prawns (de shelled and wash)
200 gm skinless chicken meat
4 shallots (pounded)
2 glove garlic (pounded)
2 tbsp curry powder (Baba’s brand)
2 sprigs of curry leaves
3 tbsp shallots oil (refer to recipe)
water
1 egg
Puff pastry (Pampas brand)

 

Washed Potatoes

 

Dried anchovies and dried prawns



Curry Powder

Procedure

Wash and remove potatoes skin. Cut into small cubes.
 

Cut chicken meat into small pieces and marinade it with some salt and pepper.

Pound or blend the anchovies, dried prawns, and curry leaves. Set aside. (A)

Heat wok or frying pan. Add oil. Saute shallots, garlic until golden brown, then add ingredient A. Saute all ingredients until it produces aromatic smell. Add curry powder. Next, add in potatoes, chicken meat and some water. Cook until potatoes are soft, taste it and if necessary add some salt.

 

Puff filling

Once all the ingredients are cooked and water is reduced, turn off the fire flame, remove it and set it aside to let it cool.

 

Cut the puff pastry according to the size and shape. Fill in the filling and fold it. Place Curry puffs on a line baking tray with baking paper. Brush puffs with beaten egg.

 

Bake it in the oven at 180c fan forced. It takes about 15 to 20 minutes to cook. I normally observe the puffs colour. When it turns beautifully sparkling golden brown, the puff is done and ready to serve.

 

Recipe "Fried Bee Hoon/Rice Vermicelli with Stewed Pork Sliced"

Recipe Fried Bee Hoon/Rice Vermicelli with Stewed Pork Sliced

A simple dish yet aromatic with full of flavour.

Ingredients

500 gm Bee hoon/Rice Vermicelli

8 to 10 shallots (slice thinly)
1 tbsp garlic finely chopped
1 brown onion finely chopped
Fish cake (sliced)
Stewed Pork Sliced (2 cans)
1 bunch of vegetable, choy sum (sawi)
450 gm bean sprouts (1 pack)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
150 ml water
2 red chillies (sliced)

Sauces

4 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp dark caramel sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp salt

Procedure

Soak bee hoon in cold tap water for ½ hour or so.

Drain and set aside.

Rinse, wash and cut vegetable. Set aside.

In a bowl, mix all the sauces.

Heat a big wok to high flame. Add oil. Once oil is hot, lower the flame to medium heat.

Firstly, saute brown onion and shallots until medium done, add garlic and saute both till golden brown. On high heat, add in stewed pork sliced (including gravy from both cans), fish cake, sauces and water. Let it boil then add vegetable. Stir fry for a few minutes. Add bee hoon. Taste stir fried gravy and if necessary add soy sauce or salt.

Lastly add bean sprouts when bee hoon is cooked. Bean sprouts should be nice and crunchy when served together with bee hoon.

Turn off heat and serve hot. Garnish it with some fried crispy shallots (refer recipe : http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/jennifers-secret-ingredient-in-her.html). Eat it with some sliced red chillies.