Oyster, Meat Ball and Salted Eggs Rice Porridge

Rice porridge or congee ("jook" in Cantonese) is one of my fave comfort food. Great on rainy days to keep warm hehe even though it's still hot in our tropical weather.

This one is Cantonese style porridge where all ingredients are cooked inside the porridge unlike Teo Chew style where the condiments are served separately.



What I usually do is cook the rice and oyster in water (err have to guesstimate cos I follow my pot size, its usually double or triple the amount of water as compared to cooking rice) using low heat. Add some oil and salt. Cook until the rice breaks up or puffed up. It'll need to be stired in once in a while Could take up about an hour depending on the heat of your stove. Sometimes or rather usually I need to add on some hot water along the way to adjust the consistency of the porridge. Some like watery ones, whilst some prefer thick ones. I usually like watery ones but my other half prefered thick one. So thick one it is.

Hard-boiled a couple of salted eggs, shelled and chopped them up. Marinated mince meat with some soya sauce, pepper and cornflour. When the porridge thicken, I shaped the mince meat into balls using a spoon and drop into the porridge. Add in the salted egg. Give it a stir and let it re-boiled for a short while. Season it with salt accordingly before dishing out.

Best served hot off the stove and with a dash of soya sauce and loads of white pepper. Yummm yummmm...

UPDATED: Cheat's Chocolate Cup Cake

I've updated Cheat's Chocolate Cup Cake with the recipe. Happy trying!

Minced Meat Noodle

Sighhh I've been out of the net since last Thursday!!! Arggghhh... actually I'm on leave to chase after my cow, no, BULL more like it! It's so exhausting. Then, my home's PC's monitor conked, so we got a new one on Thursday but by the time we cart it home, the hardisk gave way!!! Urrghhh... finally got another hardisk to run as primary now.

Cooked this minced meat some time back. Rather easy. I minced chicken breast, then marinade it with some soya sauce and cornflour. Next chopped up some garlic. Fry the minced meat with some oil and add the garlic when the meat is about 3/4 cooked. This is to prevent them from burning as the meat takes a longer time to cook. Add some oyster sauce to taste and pour in some water, just enough to cover slightly over the meat. Simmer till cooked. Adjust the seasonings to your taste. Usually when I used oyster sauce, I'll omit salt as the sauce is already salty.

The noodle I've used this round were those homemade ones that goes by the name "pan meen". Literally translated means wood panel noodle. It is known so as the noodle is usually flat in shape, almost fresh pasta like. Just blanch them in hot water till al-dente.

I assembled this dish by placing the noodle in a deep dish. Lash on the mince meat and with some of it's sauce. Finally, topped up with some julliened carrots and cucumber.

Verdict: Simple and yummy!

Cheat's Chocolate Cup Cake

I've baked these just right after the IMBB 13: Cupcakes and Muffins Galore!. Hence, it was too late to submit to the event. Well this was an impromptu thingy that I did whilst my boiboi was having his afternoon nap.

It was a quick and easy recipe. Great for newbie like me heh... I don't have the recipe with me now, will post it up later. The texture was perfect, slightly moist. I varied the toppings with some halves cashew nuts, some chocolate chips and crushed peanuts. However, I just wonder why my nuts sank? Hehehe or maybe I should stick to making an icing for the topping instead??

They looked wonderful, don't they??

BTW, they tasted wonderful too :p

UPDATED (27th May 2005):

Ahhh finally got time to type in the recipe. I've copied it from the net somewhere, sometime back but can't recall where. Hence, can't give credit to the creator of this easy and fast recipe. Whoever you are, THANK YOU!

100g butter (preferably unsalted)
80gm plain flour
20g cocoa
1 level tsp baking powder
100g caster sugar
2 medium sized eggs
2 tbsp liquid*

Preheat oven to 190C. Line patty tins with paper cases.

Remove butter from fridge and leave at room temperature for 10-15 mins until soften (but not until melted or oily).

Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder onto a sheet of paper, twice. Set aside.

Place soften butter, sugar, eggs, liquid and sifted dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Beat with electric hand mixerfor 2 mins or stir manually using balloon whisk (which I did) until smooth for 2-3 mins.

Spoon batter into paper cases. Bake in pre-heated oven for 12-20 mins or until cakes are well risen and the surface springs back lightly when touched with a finger tip.

Transfer cakes onto wire tray. Dust cake lightly with icing sugar if you like just before serving or with a layer of frosting.

* For mocha cupcakes, the liquid should be made up of 2 level tsp instant coffee mixed with 2 tbsp warm water.

* For orange chocolate cupcakes, the liquid should be made up of 2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice mixed with 1 tsp grated orange rind.

Chapati and Such

Wooohooo this is almost like 'live' reporting hehehe cos I'm gonna post what I had for lunch today. I went down town for an errand. Passed by big green signage that I couldn't resist walking into Santa Chapati at Jalan Tun HS Lee.

This was my lunch...



Walked up to the counter and told the Indian chap I wanna bungkus (take-away in Malay). I rattled off I wanted 2 chapatis and kheema (minced mutton curry with green peas). Aiks I saw the guy shook his head. "Kheema habis" (Kheema finished already in Malay). Sighhh very disappointed and it was only 1pm!!! This place serves one of the best kheema around.

So I opted for a dry curry chicken (sorry dunno the name in Indian) and some dhall to go with my chapatis. Whilst the chap was busy packing up my stuffs into plastic bags... goshhh I can't resist those yummy crispy pakoras.

So I told him I want pakoras too. Whilst he was packing them up, I reminded him that I wanted the chutney. He chuckled and said this ...

Chap: Wahh... banyak pandai makan!! Mau chutney ini. (Wahh... you're very good in eating to ask for chutney to go with the pakoras)
Me: Sudah banyak kali mari ma. (I've been here many times)

Made him damn kembang (proud) that a Chinese gal knows what she's ordering and the chap was kinda scooping me extra helping of everything hahaha... He scooped 3 pieces of chicken already and was ready for one more piece until I told him to stop cos I know I can't finish them all. True enough actually cos I managed to down one piece of chapati and 2 pieces of chicken. What am I gonna do with the rest?? Will think about it later.

I still have these yummy pakoras and chutney to snack on for tea. I know I'll be sharing these with my colleagues. This chutney is superb dip for the pakoras. From what I've tasted... garlic, chili and mint could be detected in it.

Hmmmm maybe I know why I can't finish 2 chapatis in one go cos I did not eat together with my hungry makan (eating) gang hahaha

Verdict... chapati (a kind of flat bread made of atta flour) was good but could be better if I eat it, there and then, off the griddle. Curry chicken was tender and not overly spicy. Thick dhall (a type of lentil gravy) which I liked. Pakoras are actually deep fried vegetables fritters made of chick pea flour. The slight tangy chutney dip is fantabulous to go with the fritters!!!



I had a great lunch today, what about you? Sorry about the crappy photos. I've used a FOC "play" mini digicam which doesn't focus well hahaha can only take photos from afar! OK time to get back to work!

Updated: Forgot to add on that all those costed me RM5.50 only!!!

Steamed Prawns

I was rumaging my freezer and found that I still have a container of prawns. Looks like I better cook them fast! I was lazy to stir or fry anything that day cos after doing so, I need to clean up the kitchen. Thinking fast and checking out what other ingredients I have on hand... thought of a simple recipe for lazy people and taddaaaa... I've got garlic and ginger. These two ingredients are seafood's best friend in Chinese cooking.

What I did was minced up loads of garlic and ginger. Place the prawns in aluminium foil (make sure you'll have enough to wrap them up). Add in some soya sauce, dash of pepper and the minced garlic and ginger. Mix well and you can leave it to marinade for a short while. Before placing them in the steamer, add in some cooking wine. I've used Stone's Ginger Wine. You can use others like mirin or rice wine. I haven't tried western wine yet though. Fold up the foil tightly to prevent the steam going into the parcel.



Place the parcel in a heat proof plate and steam for about 10 minutes depending on the amount and size of prawns. It will turned out looking like this...

Bird's Nest Soup

Something exotic in the menu today hehheh... but it's really nothing exotic on this part of the world. Bird's nest is actually swallow's nest made from their own saliva. Sounded yucky eh? Actually the process is quite tedious from the moment the nests are harvested before it reaches our table. You can reach about it here.

I got this box of bird's nest from Kuching via a friend. Kuching is famous for the majority of the nests came from the famous Niah Caves. However, nowadays the traders set up bird's house to cultivate bird's nest. This is how the boxed up nests looked like. Err bad photos cos I've used XDAII to capture these whilst my poor digicam went in for a checkup at it's clinic.



After it's opened.



Close up on bird's nest. The colour you may noticed is very different from those usual ones which are snowy white. I was told this is the pure form of the nests where else those white ones are usually bleached.



To cook bird's nest, one can either make it savoury or sweet. For us, we usually make sweet ones. First I soaked the nests with some water for a couple of hours. Next clean them up. Since I've bought a better grade nests, not much effort is needed to clean up the nest. The bulk of the feathers have been removed.

Usually bird's nest is cooked using double boiled method but this round I've used a slow cooker instead. I've used 3 slices of bird's nest, 4-5 pieces of dried red dates, a few pieces of sliced phau sum (Cantonese for ginseng I think), 2.5 bowl of water and some rock sugar to taste. I left it simmer on the slow cooker for about 6 hours. Here's how it looked like...

The Foodsters Guide 2005

Okay it's time for me to do a little bit of advertisement here. This food guide is compiled by my friends over at friedchillies.com. It took them a couple of years to come out with this guide. Judging the response from those people who have bought it, they gave very favourable review on the guide of being different as it contained not only restaurants but hawkers as well.

Congratulations to Adly, Fareen and Wai Meng! They are the brains behind friedchillies.com. Come to think about it, I actually knew them when they started the local food review site. The first time I met them was at the Chilibash 1.0 and guess who was the person I met outside TGV, KLCC?? Hahaha it was Wai Meng holding the friedchillies.com placard!! Wow, that was like 4 years ago??? Gee, how time flies!

Subsequently, a couple more of makan sessions... I managed to write a couple of reviews for friedchillies.com purely for the love of makan (Malay for eating) heh!

I was at their Best Nasi Lemak Places 2002 event. They have picked the best nasi lemak stalls in KL and hosted them for a charity event. However, I did not get to taste any of the nasi lemak as they were all sold off VERY quickly. Sighhh... we were kinda late. Well, technically we weren't late as the charity event was supposed to last till late afternoon. The nasi lemak was so HOT till it was sold out within a couple of hours of opening. At that time my boiboi was barely 2 months old! By the time we took care of his bath, feed and etc... and you know lah... the gist of it... haiyah (a Malay expression or shall I say Malaysian?)!

Gulp... and that was like 2 and a half years ago! Ok, ok, I'm not supposed to keep reminding that we're getting old. I'm very happy for them cos they have mentioned to me millions of time that they have wanted to have this guide to be published one day. I'm so glad that it had turned into a reality.

So, folks, tunggu apa (wait for what)?? Go grab your copy of The Foodsters Guide 2005!!! This cover rocks man! It's certainly an attention grabber as compared to the one I was shown earlier. Good job Adly, Fareen & Wai Meng! Errm did I missed out Hani? Is she part of your team now? If she is, do let her know that she did a great job too!

Cooling Drinks for Hot Weather V

This is the simple drink to make... barley with dried candied winter melon. Crush the winter melon into smaller bits then boil together with the barley until the barley fluffed up. Add in rock sugar to taste. You may omit this altogether as the dried winter melon could have done the job. Drink it cold or warm.

Fruits Rojak

I've no idea where this originated, some said Penang, some called this Singapore Rojak. Whatever it is, it's fruit rojak to me. Rojak is a Malay word for salad since it's ingredients are mostly raw except for the keropok (cracker).

Sighhh hubby bought a papaya a tad too raw so we ended up having to think what to do with it. Pickle it would be a problem cos neither him nor I would eat pickles. Boil soup, he would think it's really weird and it's only for new mothers under confinement. In this part of the world, it is believed that Young papaya soup is good to generate the milk flow. I've drank it during confinement, no difference though?? Some mothers swore by it!

Anyway, the next day we bought some ingredients and here's what we've got. All cut up and waiting to be mixed. Clockwise from top: bottle of pre-prepared rojak sauce, papaya, jicama/turnips, jambu air (Malay for water/rose apple), apple (it's an unusual ingredient for a rojak but since we've a lot of them, we decided to add them in), cucumber and pineapple.



We got a problem though, the prepared rojak sauce was kinda spicy. Hubby can't take them due to his stomach ailment. Out came my recipe books... found one that need prawn paste (har koe in Cantonese, it's a black color molasses-like-paste), tamarind paste (can't find any plus it's crazy for me to buy one whole block to extract 2 tablespoon of the juice hehehe... so i substitute with lemon juice), sugar to taste, belacan powder and chopped/pounded roasted peanut.

Round 1, made some non-chili paste by mixing up the paste and adjust the seasoning to taste. Add in the fruits and mix well. Scatter some chopped peanuts on top. This one we agreed doesn't taste good. Lacked something... no ummpphhh and too salty!



Round 2, I added some of those pre-prepared rojak paste to the Round 1 paste. Whoa, it tasted so much better... too bad hubby, I got to eat the better tasted one hehehe. We did not get those crackers or crullers, so it's just pure fruits.



Next time, I will just get hubby to go all the way to Taman Tun Dr Ismail and pack some from the stall that operates on the road besides KFC. This one is simple delicious!!!