Sambal Ikan Bilis for Nasi Lemak

Don't we all Malaysians love a hot plate of nasi lemak (coconut milk rice) with kick ass sambal ikan bilis (dried anchovies in chilies paste) on any given day??? I do! I must confess that nasi lemak is indeed one of my favourite dish and I must have it as often as I can! I used to wallop 2 packets a day during my pregnancies... which is highly dangerous! :lol: The fat content from the coconut milk is pretty high so it could cause a string of problems for preggers.

What make nasi lemak so irresistable is definitely the sambal. The sambal is the STAR... some like it mild but most like it HOT! Personally I like it HOT and SOUR! I am drooling now as I am typing this! :D

A box of nasi lemak here is selling for AUD$5.50 and only for one portion. With that amount... well, maybe around AUD$8, I can feed the entire family for 2 meals. The only thing is, it is pretty labour intensive. So, if I were to crave for nasi lemak but wanted to observe my health, I will cut away the coconut cream rice and just make do with the sambal. Just a dollop of a kick ass sambal is good enough for me to clean an entire bowl of rice!

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Ingredients

• 200 gm Dried anchovies (washed and dried)


• 2 medium Onions (sliced)


• 1 tbsp Tamarind paste


• ¾ - 1 cup Hot water (depending on your preferred thickness)


• Salt to taste


• Oil for frying

Blend

• 10 pcs Red chilies


• 4 pcs Dried chilies - soaked (I used more as I like it HOT!)


• 4 no. Shallots


• 4 pips Garlics


• 1" Roasted belacan (dried shrimp paste)

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Method

1. Heat up 3-4 tbsp of oil in a frying pan and fry the anchovies over medium fire till golden brown and crunchy. Removed from pan and let it soak on a kitchen towel.


2. Blend red chillies, dried chillies, shallots, garlic and belacan in a blender till smooth.


3. Using the same pan add another 2-3 tbsp of oil and saute the blended chilies till fragrant on medium fire.


4. Add in the onion and continue to saute till onion is soft, toss in the fried anchovies and mix well.


5. Use the hot water to soften the tamarind paste. Sieve the tamarind juice over a sieve into the pan little by little till the chilies and anchovies mixture is thicken over low fire.


6. Sprinkle some salt to taste.


7. Squeeze some lemon or lime over it for a tangy taste before serving.

Simple Seafood Alfredo Portobello

Ever since I have 2 kids, I am always looking for easy to prepare dishes which takes less time to cook and something Darrius will enjoy as he has been a little fussy lately. As I have to cook 2 meals a day, sometimes I really have to scratch my head to think of what to cook since PiggyBeng can be quite fussy too.

Kids being kids, Darrius loves Western food more than his daddy so I'll try to cook stuff that PiggyBeng likes least for lunch. It is during lunch I will cook pasta or spaghetti which PiggyBeng tried to avoid as he thinks these carbo food are too fattening!

Being pressed for time, I don't cook these sauces from scratch anymore which I used to do last time. Now, I'll just grab a few cans of those pasta sauce each time I visit the supermarkets and they come in real handy when I want to have a quick bite for both Darrius and myself.

Campbell's came out with quite a few pasta sauce recently and I guessed this is the perfect time to try all of them... With some frozen fresh scallops stash from our reunion dinner, I made some yummy cream pasta that don't require much time.

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For this dish, I used the Alfredo Portobello sauce...

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With some fresh ingredients...

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Ingredients

• 150g Spaghetti or pasta of your choice


• 2 pips Garlic (sliced thinly)


• 4-5 Button mushrooms (caps + stipes)


• 3pcs Fresh scallops (sliced half and cut into 4 sections)


• 80g Fresh medium prawns


• 1 can of Campbell's Alfredo Portobello sauce


• 1/2 cup Water (optional)

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Method

1. Heat some water in a stock pot - half filled with a teaspoon salt and let it come to a boil. Toss in spaghetti or pasta and cook till preferred softness. Drained, add a teaspoon of olive oil, mix and set a side.


2. In a frying pan, add some oil and saute garlic till golden. Lift up and set aside.


3. Using the same frying pan, add another tablespoon of oil and stir fry mushroom, scallops and prawns till 70% cooked.


4. Add in the whole can of Alfredo Portobello sauce and mix well with the ingredients. Add 1/2 a cup of water if you want it to be slightly diluted and stir till cooked.


5. You can either pour on top of your spaghetti or you can toss in your spaghetti and stir fry it for a minute. Garnish with the saute garlic and some vegetables.


6. If you love herbs, you can sprinkle some mixed herbs for extra flavors.

Pumpkin Porridge with Dried Scallops and Minced Meat

With the unusually hot weather since the beginning of this year, I have made it a point to cook porridge or jook at least once a week to cool our body down beside boiling liong-cha. When Darrius started solid some 4 years ago, I will normally cook just a small pot solely for him since PiggyBeng is not a fan of porridge. To him porridge can't fill his tummies (see the plural?) up so he prefered to have rice with dishes.

To many people, cooking porridge is simple and healthier as there are more water content in porridge as compared to cooked rice. Especially when we are sick, a hot bowl of porridge is so comforting! :)

I was never a fan of pumpkin until I was living in Perth many years ago. I was staying with my aunt then and there was once her neighbor gave her a huge pumpkin which she grew in her backyard. Both my aunt and I was cracking our heads on how to finish up such a huge pumpkin! So, I told my aunt why don't we cook porridge with it since the weather was a little chilly then. It was an instant blast!

Then a uni-mate from Norway fell sick and she can't seems to get food into her. So, I offered to cook her some pumpkin porridge with a few other ingredients and she fell in love instantly and told me she has never tasted anything as good as this!

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Ingredients

• 1.5 cup Rice (wash and drained)


• 3L Water


• 150g Pumpkin (you can put more if you like)


• 1 stick Carrot


• 2pcs Dried scallops


• 100g Groundnuts (washed and pre-boiled to remove dirts)


• 150g Mince meat (pork/chicken)


• 1tbsp Oil + salt to be added into rice and soak for 10 mins


• Salt for taste


• Lettuce & Egg omelette cut into strips for garnishing

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Method

1. In a pot, when water is boiling add in the soaked rice and let it boil.


2. Cut pumpkin and carrot into small cubes, wash the dried scallops and groundnuts before  tossing them into the pot.


3. For the mince meat, add a little salt and oil and let it marinate for 30 minutes or so.


4. Stir the porridge constantly every 15-20 minutes so it would not stick at the bottom.


5. Boil the porridge for an hour and when it gets thicken, add in the mince meat and stir so it won't be a big lump.


6. Continue to let it boil for a while but constantly stirring to avoid the bottom from getting burnt.


7. Serve hot with lettuce and egg omelette strips.

Egg Omelette with Chives and Shrimps

The other day we went to the old Sunshine Farlim which has been converted into a warehouse style of wet market cum hypermarket to get some stuff for the coming Lunar New Year. The place was rather quiet though it was about 5pm in the evening on a weekend.

Though the conversion was less than a year, a few tenants have moved... probably due to the poor patronage. There used to be a few vege sellers occupying the 'wet market' area but now it was left with 2 or 3 sellers only. Business was brisk that day though..

After we gotten what we intended to buy, we went to check out some of these vege stalls and I saw some very fresh ku-chai or chives. It has been a while since I cook chives and I kinda miss it so decided to get a bundle.

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Ingredients

• 2 Eggs


• 50g Chives


• 50g Shrimps (shelled)


• Salt & pepper for taste

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Method

1. Heat up frying pan with some oil (put more if you're not using non-stick pan).


2. When oil is hot, toss the shrimps in and stir fry lightly for a minute before tossing in the chives (cut into 1" section) and stir fry for another minute.


3. Beat eggs in a bowl, add in some salt and pepper.


4. Pour in the fried shrimps and chives into the bowl of beaten eggs and mix them well.


5. Add new oil into the frying pan and when it is heated up, pour in the egg mixture and fry the omelette till golden brown.

Mango Salad

If you've noticed now is the Thai mango season here. We have been buying lots of mango over the last few weeks as all of us love them so much and without fail will indulge in some even when their prices are on the high side. PiggyBeng loves those Green Skin King Mango which is exceptionally crunchy and sweet even when the skin is still dark green in color.

I was shopping at one of the local supermarket chain when I saw that there was an assortment of Thai mango on promotion. Only RM2.90/kg which is so cheap! The Elephant Task looks really nice so I can't resist getting some and thought I'll do mango salad with them since I've chosen some really green and unripe ones. The sour and tangy feel gave me a really good vibes! :P

We have been eating too much meat lately so thought a salad dish will be good for the heart and the body!

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Ingredients

• 2-3 Mango (preferably the sour and unripe ones)


• 1/2 stick Carrot (optional) - I added in for color purposes


• 1 stalk Lemongrass


• 2-3 Shallot


• 2 Lime (take the juice and thinly sliced the rind)


• 1-2 Calamansi/Limau Kasturi (take the juice and thinly sliced the rind)


• Some Corriander (leaves only - finely chopped)


• 1-2tbsp Dried prawn - pan fried and chopped coarsely


• 2-3tbsp Dried shrimps (optional)


• 1 Chili padi - sliced thinly


• 2-3tbsp Fish sauce


• 3tbsp brown sugar


• A pinch of salt


• Some chili powder (optional)


• 1/4 cup Roasted peanuts (whole or coarsely chopped)

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Methods

1. In a low heated pan, simply pan-fried the dried shrimps and chopped dried prawns till it is slightly fragrant. Lift up and set aside.


2. Sliced the shallot, lemongrass (just the head), coriander leaves, chili padi, lime and calamansi rinds very thinly.


3. Slice away the mango skin and shred them into thin strips. Do the same for carrot if you are adding them.


4. Put everything into a big mixing bowl and add in brown sugar, fish sauce, lime and calamansi juice and some salt. Mix well before adding the roasted peanuts and mix once more before serving.


5. Best if served right away or else the juice from the mango will 'wet' the mixture.

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If you can get hold of some ginger flowers, you can add them in too as they will give the salad a better taste.

Fried Pumpkin with Dried Prawns

I used to buy pumpkin on a weekly basis last time when Darrius was still on porridge. I cut down after he moved on to rice so I only buy once in a while. I normally steam a few slices in the rice cooker and smash it up with the rice and serve it to Darrius. Pumpkin is highly nutritional and good for kids as well as adults.

There was still a big portion left after a week so I decided to cook this dish, one of my favorite pumpkin dish. Not sure where this dish originate from but I learned it from my mom.

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Ingredient

• 200g Golden pumpkin (cut into thick slice)


• 30g Dried prawns (soften by crushing them in a mortar & pestle)


• 1tbsp Garlic (corsley chopped)


• 1tbsp Brown sugar


• 1/2 cup water


• Light soy sauce for taste

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Method

1. Heat up wok with some oil and fry the dried prawns till fragrant. Lift them up and keep aside.


2. Add some more oil to the wok and pan fry the pumpkin slices till golden brown. Lift up and set aside.


3. Add oil to the wok again and saute the chopped garlic till fragrant. Toss in the pumpkin, stir and add in the brown sugar. Add in water, stir and simmer for 5 minutes.


4. Toss in the dried prawns and continue to stir before adding some light soy sauce. Lift up and serve.

Chinese Cabbage Soup with Fish Maw

It was the Lunar New Year a few weeks back and here in Penang, majority of the people will have steamboat for their reunion dinner which is the meal on the eve of the Lunar New Year. However, we did not have any steamboat this year as we went to celebrate the occasion with my parents in Ipoh.

Then we went to KL on the 9th Day of the Lunar New Year for almost 2 weeks. During our stay in KL, my mom managed to whip up a few meals for us to enjoy. During one of the meals she boiled this really yummy Chinese cabbage soup using a particular Chinese cabbage which is only available during this festive season... well, according to her lar! :P

So, upon returning to Penang, I have to do some marketing to stock up for the week and I found this particular cabbage selling in Tesco. Since the weather is extremely hot here, having cabbage soup is ideal since it has a cooling effect (according to the Chinese lar).

I bought some fish maw during our pre-CNY  groceries shopping and since we did not get to use them for reunion dinner I added them into the cabbage soup instead. These gave the soup more fragrance.

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This cabbage looks a little different as compared to the regular Chinese cabbage

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Ingredients

• 1 whole Chinese cabbage peel and cit into half


• 2 sticks Carrot (cut into small blocks)


• 250g Pork ribs


• 2L Water


• 10-12 Red dates (de-seed)


• 6-8 pcs Dried oysters


• Some Dried cuttlefish


• 50g Fish maw


• Salt for taste

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Methods

1. Heat up water in a pot and put in pork ribs when it boils. Let it boil for a while and remove all the scums.


2. Add in the red dates, dried cuttlefish, dried oysters and carrot and let them boil on slow heat for about 30 minutes. Add in the Chinese cabbage and continue to boil till it is soft... approximately for another hour.


3. In a separate saucepan, boil some water and blanch the pre-soaked fish maw for about 5 minutes. Don't have to cook too long as the gelatin will melt away.


4. When the soup is done (around 1.5 to 2 hours) add in some salt for taste and toss in the the soften fish maw for another 10 minutes on high heat. Serve.

Seafood Fried Rice

Sorry that I have not been posting regularly here as I have too much to handle! I have quite a few photos lined up and are just waiting for me to finish up the recipes.

I love to do fried rice when I have extra left over rice from the night before. Sometimes I will even purposely cook more rice if I have ingredients for fried rice the next day.

One of the days, I managed to get some baby octopus from the afternoon market behind my house and was excited to cook them. PiggyBeng cooked some and I still have about half which I ended using them to cook Seafood Soba and this yummy seafood fried rice on a separate day.

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Ingredients

• 4 bowls of Cooked rice (refrigerated)


• 150g Prawns (shelled)


• 150g Baby octopus (cut into small chunks)


• 100g French beans (cut into 1/2" long)


• 2 Eggs


• Chopped garlic (optional)


• Bonito flakes for garnishing


• Salt/light soy sauce/pepper for taste

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil and gently stir fry the French beans till soft, lift up and set aside.


2. If you like to have garlic in your fried rice, using the same wok but add more oil and saute the chopped garlic until they are fragrant.


3. Break the eggs and continue to stir until eggs are 'fried'.


4. Toss in the prawns and baby octopus and stir until they are half cooked.


5. Toss the French beans back into the wok and mix them well with the rest of the ingredients.


6. Add in a few dash of salt/light soy sauce and pepper for taste.


7. Sprinkle some Bonito flakes as garnish.

Seafood Soba

I've always love noodles. In fact when I have nothing better to eat I will first think of cooking a packet of instant noodles to nurse my hunger. That means, I have a huge stock of instant noodles nestling in my kitchen. :mrgree:

Besides instant noodles, I will buy other types of noodles occasionally. One of my latest craze is Korean and Japanese noodles. I bought a packet of Soba sometimes back from Daiso during my last trip to Singapore. I have wanted to cook the cold version but my hubby is not a fan of cold noodles so I decided to make it hot instead.

During a visit to the afternoon market near my place, I found some baby octopus and bought a kilo. At home I found some frozen prawns my hubby bought and the idea hit me... why not some seafood Soba? This is definitely a healthier choice! My boy love his bowl of Soba too. Without the baby octopus of course...

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Ingredients

• 2/3 packet Buckwheat Soba


• 200g Prawns (shelled and leave tail unshelled)


• 200g Baby octopus (clean and cut into 4 sections)


• 150g Hong Kong choy sum


• 2tbsp Wakame (Japanese seaweed)


• 1.5L Water


• Fish sauce + pepper for taste

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Methods

1. Boil water in a medium large pot. Throw in the prawn shells and let it boil for 20 minutes so the soup will have a good aroma.


2. While waiting for the soup to be ready, heat up another pot of water in a medium saucepan. Add a little oil and sugar. When the water boil, blanch the Hong Kong choy sum till 90% cook and remove from pot. Using the same pot of boiling water, blanch the Soba till springy soft and set aside. Do the same to the Wakame.


3. Remove the shell from the soup.


4. While the soup continue to boil, toss in the prawns and the baby octopus till they are cook. Remove them from the soup and put aside. Add fish sauce and pepper


5. In a bowl, place some Soba and top with Hong Kong choy sum, prawns, baby octopus and Wakame. Pour enough soup to cover Soba before serving.

Sweet Buttered Prawns

PiggyBeng likes to buy prawns once in a while if he sees good ones in the wet market that he frequents. He knows the prawns much better than me so I will let him do the buying most of the time.

So happened while watching a food show on TV one weekend, there is this restaurant that prepared a very easy prawn dish which is also one of their signature dishes... I decided to try it out since we have some prawns in the freezer.

It is a little unhealthy but the taste was really good!

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Ingredients

• 300g Medium prawns (cut away the legs)


• 3tbsp Margerine


• 3tbsp Sugar


• Pinch of salt (optional)


• Curry leaves (optional)

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Methods

1. Heat up wok and melt the margerine. Add in the sugar and continue frying.


2. Toss in the curry leaves (if you have) stir for a while before tossing in the prawns. Stir fry till the sauce starts to caramelized. Sprinkle with some salt if you like it to be saltier as margerine already contains salt.


3. Serve.

Long Beans with Salted Fish

This is another emergency recipe that I've came out with. Like what I've mentioned before, I will buy beans (long-beans, French beans, Snake beans) to keep almost every week for those 'just in case I don't know what to cook' occasion. At such time, I will rummaged throw my fridge for stuff that I can use and these beans always come in very handy as they are so versatile.

You can stir-fry, braised, boil, steam and even fried them! The possibilities are endless if you have the creativity to use them. The other reasons why I like to buy and keep them as they have a slightly longer shelf life as compared to other vegetables if you keep them in the right way.

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Ingredients

• 200g Long Beans (cut into 4cm strips)


• 1" square Salted fish (use the Kurau/Cod fish type) - sliced


• 2 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)

• Salt and pepper to taste

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil and lightly fry the long beans till about 70% cook. Lift up and put aside.


2. Add more oil into the wok and saute the salted fish slices till it turns sandy, put on one side of the wok.


3. With the balance oil in the wok, saute the garlic till fragrant before mixing with the salted fish and stir.


4. Throw in the fried long beans and stir well for a few minutes, sprinkle with some salt and pepper before serving.

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Stir-fry Sambal Asparagus

It has been a long time since I buy asparagus and cook it. Happened on one of my groceries shopping trip to Tesco I saw some really fresh stalks so decided to grab a bundle to cook with the dried prawns sambal that I made earlier.

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Ingredients

• 1 bundle (+/-250g) Asparagus


• 3 tsp Dried prawn sambal


• Some water

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Methods

1. Wash and cut asparagus about 45 degree slanted 1.5" strips.


2. Heat up wok with 2 tbsp oil and lightly fry the dried prawn sambal till fragrant. Throw in the asparagus and stir.


3. Add a little water and cover for a few minutes.


4. Serve hot.

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Bottled Dried Prawns Sambal

Sometimes it is a hassle to prepare ingredients just to cook a small dish. When I need to grind or ground chillies or other condiments, I prefer to do a huge batch and keep them in the freezer for future use so I don't have to wash my blender every time I want to cook or use the particular ingredient or mix.

This is when the small bottle container comes in handy. I used to give Darrius some bottled/jar food when we were traveling and I will keep these bottles as there are quite useful for keeping moist items. In this case, I stored the excess dried prawns sambal so I can use them when I need to and don't have to go through the hassle to grind just a small portion.

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Ingredients

• 1 cup Dried prawns


• 7pcs Red chillies (cut into big chunks)


• 2pcs Chili padi (cut into small chunks)


• 4-5 cloves Garlic (cut into small chunks)


• 7-8 pcs Shallot (cut into small chunks)


• 1" Belacan (cut to smaller pieces)

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Methods

1. Mix all the cut ingredients into a big bowl. Scoop 3-4 spoonful into grinder and grind till everything are really smashed up. Continue till all ingredients are done.


2. To store, put them into small bottles, around 2-3 portions in each bottle. Store them in the freezer.


3. When you need to use, bring one bottle down to defrost in the fridge. One small bottle can stored up to 3 portions (use 3 times for cooking a normal plate of vege).

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Seafood Tom Yam Kuay Chap

Yes! I finally made my first tom yam soup! Thought it might not taste as good as the authentic Thai tom yam but according to PiggyBeng and my MIL, it tasted just like the real thing lest the spiciness... :P

What actually made the soup super yummy was the fresh coconut juice which I added into the soup and boil to perfection!

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Ingredients

• 300g Fish bones


• 300g chicken bones


• 500g Prawns (medium to large size)


• 3 Squids (cut into rings)


• 200g sliced fish


• Kuay Chap (or any types of rice or glass noodles)


• Lots of Chili padi (mixed red and green and slightly smashed)


• 6 stalks Lemongrass (slightly smashed on the head area)


• 4-6 pcs Kaffir leaves


• 1pc Galangal - 2"x3" (partially smashed)


• 3 Onions (sliced into rings)


• 1 bulb Garlic (partially smashed)


• 4-5 Tomatoes (cut into 4 parts and removed the seeds)


• 3-4 Lime (squeeze out the juice)


• 3.5 litre Water


• 1 Coconut (juice only)


• Salt and Fish sauce to taste

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Methods

1. Boil the fish bones and chicken bones for an hour or 1.5 hours. Removed the bones.


2. In a wok, boil the prawns' shell with 1-1.5 cups of water for 15 minutes and sieve out the juice, put aside.


3. Throw in the lemongrass, galangal, garlic, onions, kaffir leaves and chili padi into the fish and chicken broth and let it boil for another 30 mins.


4. Add in the tomatoes and boil another 20 mins till the skins come off. Add in the prawns juice, lime juice and coconut juice. Stir and let it boil.


5. Add in salt or fish sauce to taste. Tom yam soup is ready.


6. In a saucepan, boil some water with a few drops of oil and cook the kuay chap or rice noodles till soften and drained till dry.


7. To prepare individual bowl, scoop some tom yam soup into a small saucepan, throw in the squid rings, prawns and sliced fish and let it boil. Add in the cooked kuay chap, let it boil and pour into a bowl. Served.

Nestum Prawns

We bought quite a lot of prawns during one of the week as I intended to cook tom yam. All these while I have been cooking Nestum Chicken but have never tried cooking Nestum Prawns before so I thought I'll just give it a try. It turned out quite ok except the prawns that I bought was not deep sea prawns so it was not as springy as it should. I used sea-reared prawns. However, the colours was quite good... redish.

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Ingredients

• 12 Medium to large prawns (recommended to use deep sea prawns)


• 2 Chili padi


• 2 strands Curry leaves


• 1 tblsp Brown sugar


• 4-5 tblsp Nestum


• Light soy sauce


• Corn flour


• Pepper

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Methods

1. Deshelled the prawns (disect the back and remove all the dirt) and marinade with light soy sauce with sprinkles of corn four and pepper for about 1/2 hour.


2. Heat up wok with a little oil and fry the prawns lightly on small fire until 85% cooked (all curled up), lift up and put aside.


3. Heat wok with a little oil and fry the chopped chili padi and curry leaves. Once fragrant, put in the brown sugar and fry for a while until half melt and quickly pour in the Nestum and stir until the sugar is mixing well with the Nestum.


4. Add in the prawns and continue stirring for 20 seconds, lift up and serve.

Asam Prawns

We had a crustaceans fiesta last weekend. As I wanted to clear the Prima Taste DIY Singapore Chilli Crab since the expiry date is drawing near and PiggyBeng was craving for some prawns. So we went to the market and grabbed some crabs and prawns and had chilli crabs on Saturday and asam prawns on Sunday. I prepared the chilli crabs and PiggyBeng was the chef for the asam prawns.

This was one of PiggyBeng's 'specialities' and it tasted so yummy that I wallup almost 3/4 of it!

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Ingredients

• 10-12pcs Big Prawns (Tiger Prawns) - cut the shell along the 'spine line' lightly so the sauce is able to sip into the prawns


• 20-30g Tamarind (add 8tbsp water to get the juice)


• 1/4tsp Black soy sauce


• 1tbsp Brown sugar

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Methods

1. Mix tamarind juice with black soy sauce and brown sugar.


2. Clean prawns and dried them using some kitchen towel before marinade for 20-30 minutes in the tamarind juice mixture.


3. Heat up wok with 2tbsp oil on medium fire, slowly place the prawns and let them fry on slow fire till cooked. Lift up when cooked.


4. Pour the remaining marinade juice into the wok and sti till boil and glaze the cooked prawns.

Longbeans with Sambal Shrimps

I had a request from Angeline a few weeks back asking for some spicy dishes. I seldom cook spicy dishes as they are rather heaty but I know my PiggyBeng will loves them so I have to cook one or two dishes of hot stuff once in a while. Though my MIL will cook some fish gulai (curry with no coconut milk and a more sourish version) but that ain't enough so I will try to add some varieties if I can.

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My mom gave me some habaneros (one of the most intensely spicy chili peppers - Wikipedia) during my last trip back to KL and I have totally forgotten about them sitting in my chilies box in the fridge. Some has started to rot when I checked them out so decided to cook them asap!

Ingredients

• 300-400g Longbeans


• 100g Dried shrimps


• 7-8pcs Shallot


• 4 cloves Garlic


• 5pcs Red chilies


• 1pc Habanero or 3pcs Chili padi (I put them all!)


• 1/2"x1" Belacan (Shrimp paste)


• Water or Tamarind juice


• Sugar (in case too spicy)

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Methods

1. Wash longbeans and cut to 2" long. Heat up wok with some oil and lightly fry the longbeans till 60/70% soft. Lift them up.


2. Grind (blender) dried shrimps, shallots, garlic, red chilies, habanero and belacan. Add about 3 tbsp oil and fried the paste and adding a little oil after every 2 minutes and fry till fragrant. (try to fry using medium fire)


3. Add in fried longbeans into the chili paste and stir for a while, add some water (about 3/4 cup) and cover, stir occassionaly till the longbeans turn soft. Serve.

Anchovies Fried Rice

There was half a pot of rice left from last night and since I was going out for dinner with MIL tonight, I decided to fry the rice for PiggyBeng... he has got a conference call so can't join us.

I did not managed to get any chicken meat and not wanted to let PiggyBeng eating too much salted fish, then I thought of using those anchovies (ikan bilis) that I bought during my previous KL trip. The anchovies gave the fried rice a good fragrance and it's definitely healtier than salted fish. :)


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Ingredients

• 3 cups Cooked rice (best if kept in the fridge over night)


• 40-50g Anchovies


• 1 Onion (sliced thinly)


• 2 Chili padi (chopped)


• Carrot (cut to strips)


• 1 Egg (beaten)


• 1/2 tsp Dark soy sauce


• 1 tsp Light soy sauce


• Pepper for taste

Garnishing:

• 1 Egg - Beat and fried into ommelet then cut into thin strips


• Carrot - Sliced and boil


• Brocolli - Boil

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with 2 tbsp oil and fry the anchovies until turned light golden brown and lift up.


2. Use the remaining oil in the wok and sauteed onion till soft and add in carrot strips and chopped chilies, continue to stir.


3. Mash up the rice before pouring it into the wok and fry together with the onion and chillies. Add in dark soy sauce and light soy sauce while continue to stir.


4. Beat egg and pour in slowly while continue to stir until all are well mixed.


5. Add in the fried anchovies, stir and lift up from wok.

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Tips: Keep adding cooking oil little by little while frying and not pouring so much oil at one go as the rice will absorb the oil very quickly and make the rice too oily when you are done. :P

Tom Yam Style Steamed Siakap

We normally see the small siakap fish sold at the market but not those really big type which were from deep sea. Last year, we went to dine at one of the restaurant near by our house and was introduced to this deep sea siakap fillet which was really big and juicy. So, we went around hunting for this fish in the wet markets around our area and was lucky we found them!

I will usually make simple steaming with just ginger and chillies but as I like hot and sour stuff so went on to try this tom yum style instead. The siakap fillets goes well with this style too....

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Ingredients

• 2 pcs Siakap fillets


• 2cm Lengkuas (blue ginger)


• 1 stick Lemongrass


• Kaffir lime leaves (use the young sprouted leaves)


• 4 cloves Garlic (chopped)


• 2-3 Chili padi (if you preffer hot stuff...put more!)


• 2pcs Kaffir lime or normal lime juice


• Light soy sauce

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Method

1. Cut/chop all the ingredients and sprinkle on the fish fillets, a few dash of light soy sauce, all the lime juice and add a little water and steam! It is that easy! :)


2. Remember to check the fish before serving.

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Fried Tofu with Silverfish & Dried Prawns

Some of you must be wondering why I'm using a type of pest for my cooking... don't get me wrong as this type of anchovy is commonly know as 'silvery-fish' or 'ngan-yee-jai' (silver-small-fish) by the Chinese, hence the name given. They are the smallest version of the common anchovy and we can't really see their bones. Normally we will cook the entire fish together with it head. It's salty at time but the level of saltiness is not so extreme as compared to the bigger anchovies. They are nice to eat when being fried till crispy.

The taste of tofu is bland so to add a little silverfish and dried prawns will make this dish a very appetizing starter.

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Ingredients

• 1pc Tofu (9x9 cm type)


• 30gm Silverfish


• 30gm Dried prawns


• 1pc Chili padi


• Light soy sauce

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Method

1. Cut tofu to small square (1 pc of tofu can cut up to 8 small square pcs). Heat up wok with some oil and fry the tofu lightly till golden brown. Lift up and put aside.


2. Wash and chop or grind dried prawns to tiny pieces. Fry dried prawns with some oil for 2 minutes and add in the silverfish and chopped chili padi and fry until golden crisp.


3. Dash some light soy sauce on tofu before topping with the fried dried prawns and silverfish.

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