Thai-Style Stir-fried Arrow Heads 薯菇炒猪肉-泰国式

 Thai-Style Stir-fried Arrow Heads  薯菇炒猪肉-泰国式

 Thai-style stir-fried arrow heads with pork belly

I have this Thai recipe with me for the last 30 years and yet I have not tried cooking it before. The recipe used "winter yam" and I could not figure out what "winter yam" was. Three weeks ago as I flipped through my recipe books, I came across this recipe again and it suddenly dawned on me that "winter yam" could be arrow heads! The realisation came because arrow heads are now in season! It so happened I had bought 2 kilos of arrow heads just that morning. The photo shown in the book used plenty of dark soy sauce which made the winter yam unrecognisable. I immediately bookmarked that page, making a silent promise that I would try that recipe which had been eluding me for more than 30 years!

I made several changes to the original recipe as I do not want the dish to be too hot and spicy, nor too dark in colour. Well, it turned out beautifully.

Ingredients

350g pork belly
1 piece fried five-spice powder flavoured tofu, cut into slices
3 pips garlic, minced
7 shallots, thinly sliced
10 chili padi, bruised
1 tsp dark soy sauce
a dash of pepper 
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
300g arrow heads, remove skin and cut into slices 4 mm thick
1/2 cup wine
1 1/2 Chinese rice bowl of water
3 tbsp oil
1 stalk spring onion
1 sprig of Chinese parsley

 Raw arrow heads

 Arrow heads with skin removed

A piece of five-spice flavoured deep-fried tofu

Instructions

 

1.  Heat oil in a wok. Saute the sliced shallots and minced garlic until fragrant.
2.  Add the arrow heads and stir-fry for 1 minute
3.  Add the pork belly slices and stir-fry at high heat for 3 minutes.
4.  Add 1 1/2 bowls of water and tofu pieces. 
5.  Let simmer until almost dry and the arrow heads are softened.
6.  Add the bruised chili padi, wine, pepper, salt and sugar.
7.  Add the spring onion and Chinese parsley and mix well.
8.  Switch off the flame and dish up.

Cookies : Cashew Nut Cookie 腰豆曲奇

Cookies : Cashew Nut Cookie 腰豆曲奇

 

Cashew nut cookies to celebrate Chinese New Year

Recipes Source :  Booklet distributed by B & P Butterfly Cornflour

The Chinese New Year for 2013 falls on the10th of February 2013.  Chinese households celebrating the Lunar Chinese New Year are now busy spring cleaning and decorating their homes in readiness to usher in the year of the snake. It's less than a month away so it's about time for me to start baking cookies, to buy more goodies to celebrate the Lunar Chinese New Year as well as to plan what to cook for the reunion dinner.

These cashew nut cookies are crunchy with nutty fragrance from the cashew nuts. The moment I I started to eat one piece I tend to want another, and then another....it's kind of addictive munching on them.  

I am happy to share the recipe.

Ingredients

370g flour                              }  to be sieved
100g cornflour                       } together
225g butter
225g castor sugar
50g cashew nuts, coarsely pounded
200g cashew nut for decorating, split the cashew nuts into 2 halves                 
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 beaten egg for glazing

Raw cashew nuts

 Instructions

1.  Preheat oven at 175 degrees C.
2.  Cream butter and castor sugar together until creamy.
3.  Add egg and the 50g of pounded cashew nuts.
4.  Fold in the two types of flour and baking powder. Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface and  knead with hands until smooth.
5.  Roll out dough into 1/2 cm thickness and cut with cookie cutter into the desired shape.
6.  Put on greased baking tray. Decorate with cashew nuts.
7.  Brush with egg glaze.
8.  Place into preheated oven and bake at 175 degrees C for  12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 

hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover

Clay-pot Pork Rib Porridge With Dried Oyster And Century Egg 瓦煲排骨蚝干粥

Clay-pot Pork Rib Porridge With Dried Oyster And Century Egg 瓦煲排骨蚝干粥

 

 

Hot & steaming scrumptious porridge

It is Saturday today and all of us woke up late. We had our fill of fried noodle at our favourite  char kuay teow stall . Since all of us were not very hungry, SK cooked something light for our late lunch. He prepared this scrumptious porridge. 

Ingredients

100g rice
30g dried oysters ( wash and soak in 1/2 a Chinese rice bowl of water for 1/2 an hour. Retain the water for later use )
1 century egg ( remove the mud and saw dust layer, wash it clean and remove the shell )
200g pork ribs
1000ml water
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp shallot oil
1 tsp chopped spring onion
some Chinese parsley

 A century egg covered in mud

 With the mud removed

 With the shell removed 皮蛋

 Pork ribs

Instructions

 

1.  Wash rice.
2.  Chop the the pork ribs into bite-sized pieces. Blanch in hot water for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3.  Place rice, soaked dried oysters with water and pork ribs in a clay-pot. Add in water.
4.  Bring it to the boil and reduce to low fire.
5.  Let simmer for 20 to 25 minutes or until cooked. 
6.  Switch off the fire and add salt, shallot oil and century egg pieces.
7.  Garnish with chopped spring onion and Chinese parsley.
8.  Serve hot in clay-pot.

X-Files: The Eerie Room

X-Files:  The Eerie Room

 

As a child K.K. lived in a small town about 70 km north of Kuala Lumpur. He lived with his family in a pre-war double storey shophouse. There were four rooms upstairs, two in front and two at the back. Now, for whatever reason, K.K. disliked the room on the left-hand side at the back. Well, you see, the room was unoccupied for as long as he could recall. It was dusty, stuffy and for whatever reason exceptionally dark and felt eerie. Every time when he walked past the room he tended to speed up and avoided looking inside even when his mom or some other adults were with him. On some days if he were to wake up and discover that everybody else had gone downstairs panic will set in because he had to walk past the room to get downstairs. He just hated it. Most of the time he yelled for his mom to come upstairs to accompany him downstairs.

One fine day after mustering enough courage he decided to take a peek into the room to see what it was that gave him the creeps. He was too scared to do it alone so he persuaded his childhood friend and neighbour, W.L.S to accompany him. W.L.S agreed to do so on one condition that K.K. bought him an ice-cream. So, the two of them, between anxiety and curiosity ventured into the room with K.K. holding on tight to W.L.S's hand to make sure he was not left alone after entering into unknown territory. There was an old dusty wooden bed that looked like it had not been slept in for ages. Then they proceeded to opening an old creaky cupboard with hinges that creaked as a result of not being oiled for umpteen years. Only some broken hangers were in the cupboard. They searched the drawers and found nothing of interest only some old story books were there. There were some cobwebs here and there other than that there was nothing that scared them. So they left the room and both of them breathed a sigh of relief.

So the next day, K.K decided to go upstairs alone to fetch a toy to play. He stayed with his mom and dad in the front right-hand room and as usual he needed to go past the eerie room but this time round he was not one bit worried or scared. As he approached the room a....... green gnarled finger with long curving fingernail appeared from behind the door beckoning him to enter the room. K.K. was stunned and stood transfixed to the spot and he couldn't move but he did manage to let out the loudest scream that could have broken glass if any were present then.

Just then his mom and other family members swarmed upstairs to see what the heck was happening. By then K.K was bawling like a baby and all he managed to do was to point at the finger which by now was no longer there.

From then on K.K never set foot in the room again.

Pineapple 黄梨

Pineapple 黄梨

There are a few varieties of pineapples grown locally in Malaysia. I like this variety the best because of its sweet, juicy and succulent flesh. The flesh can be eaten raw or made into juice or even cooked with meat, seafood and even curry. I always stick to this variety and nothing else.

I bought this pineapple for RM2-50 at the wet market two days ago. It hadn't fully ripen and I  have decided to keep it for two more days before eating it and it turned out beautifully.

One look at the pineapple I know it was harvested less than 24 hours ago. The crown looked firm and the leaves green and fresh. The stem at the bottom was firm and the base of the stem where it was cut remained white and fresh. I pressed the pineapple to see if any part was dented and it felt firm all over. As you can see only the bottom section has ripen to a dark orange hue. The farmers won't wait until the whole fruit has ripen before harvesting because the pineapple has got a short storage period of about 7 days.

A newly harvested pineapple

See how fresh and firm it is

With some of the eyes removed

With all the eyes removed

Cut in cross section

 

Is is extremely sweet and juicy

Crispy Crab Sticks 炸蟹棒丝

Crispy Crab Sticks 炸蟹棒丝

Crunchy munchies

SK's niece told me about this crab stick snack probably more than five years ago but I only got round to trying it out today. At that time it seemed it was the rage to make this crispy crab stick. All you need to do is to shred the crab sticks into flat, thin pieces and then you deep-fry them. Voila! you get this tasty crunchy munchies. It tastes more or less like prawn crackers. 

A good snack to serve to your relatives and friends together with cold beer when they come visiting this coming Chinese New Year

A packet of crab sticks

Shred them into thin and flat pieces like in the picture.

Then you deep-fry them in hot oil.

You'll get tasty finger food like this

Another Noodle House That We Like 另外一间我们喜欢的面饭店

Another Noodle House That We Like 另外一间我们喜欢的面饭店

 

A plate of deep-fried pork rice or char yoke fun in Cantonese 炸肉饭

A bowl of mushroom chicken feet wonton noodle in clear soup 清汤香菇鸡脚面

  A bowl of dumplings or sui kow in Cantonese 水饺

The dry style mushroom chicken feet wonton noodle 干捞香菇鸡脚面

The location of the shop along Jalan Ambong Kiri 1 , Kepong Baru, Kuala Lumpur.