Sunday 26 February 2006

Beef Stew

babe beef stew


This is my version of beef stew based on this recipe. I made it using my pressure cooker which cut down the cooking time tremendously. My aunt gave it to me years ago but I never had the courage to use it until recently with the help of hubby since he had used pressure cooker before when he was younger.

I cubed the fillet of beef and marinated with salt, pepper and thick soy sauce for 10 minutes. Sprinkled flour to coat beef. Heated oil in the pressure cooker and fried cinnamon stick, star anise, cloves and onions. Added in marinated beef and fry for another three minutes to seal in the flavours.

Added a few dashes of oyster sauce for flavoring as I do not have any beef stock cube with me, potatoes, celery, fresh button mushrooms and carrots, and some water. Once it's boiling, I cover with the lid and cooked it according to the instructions.

This is a very easy one dish meal and I have to say it's utmost delicious. I served the stew with some crusty French loaves.

Monday 20 February 2006

This Is My Refrigerator!!!

I mean the content!!!

I remembered there was a one time meme sometime last year in the food blogsphere but just like umami, I can't really recall who started it. umami had featured her two fridges in December and I was thinking why not showing mine off. These pictures were taken just a few days before Chinese New Year. I have got quite a large fridge judging that there are only two adults and one pre-schooler at home. I think its more than 500+L in size.

fridge

Check out the fridge portion. Filled to the brim with Tupperware since I'm a Tupperware lady hehehehe... I have more in my kitchen cabinets, adui kekekeke... I stored all sorts of sauces, medicines, vegetables, fruits, drinks, cheeses etc in here.


freezer

I usually have a rather empty freezer but because we have a week off during Chinese New Year, I stocked up on some meat and fish (my boiboi's cod fish). Nope no prawns this year cos the price was exhorbitant! I do not usually make and store my ice cubes in the containers that came with the fridge. I've them inside the dark blue ice-cream tub.

There... this is my fridge, care to show yours?

Sunday 19 February 2006

Vegetarian Stir Fry Noodles

vegetarian fried noodles


Hubby observes being a vegetarian on the 1st and 15th day on the lunar calendar. The place we're staying do not have much choices of vegetarian food except those mixed rice sold at the market but I don't really like them cos they're full of MSG. The other choice was the vegetarian shop at the neigbouring housing estate which I don't really fancy either but hubby kinda liked it there. I had bad encounter eating noodles there which are almost always way too salty albeit its MSG-free. Hence the recent Chap Goh Mei I cooked for hubby instead of going to that shop.

Can you see the tiny brown strips bits? Can you guess what are they??? It's not the black strips cos those are mook yue (black/wood ear fungus cut into thin strips). Those brown bits are actually dried shitake mushroom stalk. Usually I will save the dry stalks up and keep in the fridge for usage in soups but this round I was inspired by the delicious fried rice I ate during Chinese New Year at Yue Yee Chai, a vegetarian restaurant located in Pudu, opposite Shaw Parade. I checked with my vegetarian colleague what were the delicious brown bits in the fried rice that kinda resembled dried anchovies (ikan bilis) and that was when she told me it was the stalk. Wooo... wonderful! So what I did was soak some stalks in water till they're soft. Then I painstakenly shred them into thin shreds using my fingers. Then drain and let it dry a bit.

I have some instant vegetarian noodles which I cooked as per instructions on the packet minus the powder for the soup. Drained and set aside. I've also some shredded cabbage, carrot and wood ear fungus.

First off, heated some oil in the wok then fry the shredded mushroom stalks till golden brown. Next I added in the carrot, cabbage and wood ear fungus and stirred. Dumped in some salt and pepper for seasoning. Fried till cabbage and carrot were soften then stirred in the prepared noodles. Add in some soya sauce for a nicer colour. Mixed well then dished up and served.

It's so easy and fast to prepare and cook. Since I did not plan this in advance, the ingredients are simpler as to what I had in my fridge that day. I think next time I will add in some kind of beancurd, maybe tau pok (deep fried beancurd) or meen karn (a type of vegetarian gluten) to balance up. It's one more week to go before the 1st day of the second lunar month... mmmmmmmm.... lots of options!

Saturday 18 February 2006

Stir Fry Roast Pork With Lotus Root And Arrowhead

**Non-Halal Post**

Sorry, very late in posting such festive dish as we can only find arrowhead (ngar gu or chi gu) around Chinese New Year only. Since I'm into speed blogging ala James style, I won't be explaining what are the ingredients, just click on the link to learn more. Sorry hor...


stir fry siew yuk with arrowhead n lotus root


I made this by first deep fried the sliced arrowhead (thickness according to liking but not too thin though else you'll end up having chips instead) till slightly golden brown. Removed and drained on paper kitchen towel. Next stir fried the sliced lotus root in some oil then removed and set aside.

Removed all the oil in the wok and add in the sliced roast pork (siew yuk. The fats on the roast pork will sort of like melt and drain on the wok, hence after frying them, discard the oil). Lightly fried till brown and removed from the wok. Next heated some oil. When its hot, added in a couple of cubes of lam yue (red fermented beancurd, the amount one need to add depends on the portion size and do not use too many as it can get too salty, so taste as you go along. If you feel the taste of lam yue is not enough, just keep on adding and taste) and crush or flatten them. Waited till it's fragrant then added in the roast pork. Next dumped in both the arrowhead and lotus root slices. Stirred till mixed well. Poured in some water and cover. Simmer for about 15 - 30 minutes depending how soft you would prefer the roots and roast pork to be. Voila!

This is my first time using lotus root in this dish since I can't find any Chinese leeks at my market. Taste wise, its fine but I think the leeks will lent more fragrance to the dish. Looks like you may need to wait till next year before you can try making this dish.

Thursday 16 February 2006

Review: Adai Village Fish Head

My colleague brought me to this shop for lunch once and I have been going back there since to savour the delicious fish head noodles (yue thau mai) whenever hubby or I have a craving for one. This dai tzau (literally big stir fry, a term started a few years back as a place that cook all sorts of Chinese stir fry dishes for rice or noodles) shop called Adai Village Fish Head, is located opposite Pudu Plaza. Just look for the 7-11 convenient store and Adai is located 2 shops away in the same row.

The reason why we loved to go for the fish head noodles here is we can opt for fish slices instead of fish head. Since both hubby and I are not fish head lover as it's a tad tough having to suck the meat off the bones, this is really a boon to us. One can opt for plain fish slices or deep fried fish slices. This time I asked for deep fried fish slices which you can see in the bowl below. Yeah... lots of slices you can see there. Adai has always been generous with their ingredients. Other ingredients in the bowl were sliced ginger (to get rid of the fishy smell), tomatoes, harm choy (pickled green mustard) and of course thick rice noodles (tzhou mai fun). The soup is kinda whitish because the addition of evaporate milk into the soup just before serving. Since we both liked the soup, we usually leave this place with an empty bowl.


adai fish head mai fun

The next item I loved to order is the tzing zhau mai which if I'm not mistaken its a version of Singapore Stir Fried Rice Noodles. Again you can see the generous amount of ingredients on the plate which are basically squid, sliced fish, shrimps, loads of cabbage and sliced red chillies. Adai's version had enough of wok hei (heat of a wok) and their version do not used any chilli nor tomato sauce. It's simply divine!

adai sing chau mai

Prices here are pretty reasonable where small portion of noodles averaging between RM6.00 - RM7.00. If you're around in the vicinity or craving for some fantabulous yue thau mai, do give Adai a try and I can bet with you that you'll crave for more. Here's the phone number and address in case you got lost.

adai

Tuesday 14 February 2006

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

UPDATED 16 Feb 2006:

Yikes the link on the IT is wrong. When I was typing this few nights ago, some part of my paragraph went missing and I didn't know the link got screwed until just now. No wonder Lilian was like hmmmmm... but nevermind, my gift should be coming sooooonnnn.......


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Ooooo... it just got past midnite. Chinese New Year is officially over and I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day! Well, it's not necessary to be celebrated by lovers but amongst loved ones as well. For hubby and I, we hardly celebrate on this date. Even on our first Valentine's, I remembered we went to McD over at KL Tower's basement to eat the humongous Tower Burger. I wonder if they is still a McD up there??? I can't even recall if he had sent me any flowers on this date and incidently all the flowers have been replaced by blings blings or eating spree at posh places these days (after the wedding) hahahaha nice huh? That's one of the advantages of being married. *wink*

So this year there won't be much difference even though last year's pressie was really a surprise since it was like some years back since he got me anything on this day. His plan of surprising me this year got pooped as the person he had gotten to get the pressie all the way from US called up at 4.16am, a few days back to confirm the details. I was the one who answered the call and that was then I found out about the so called surprise. I should be getting IT in a couple of weeks time. Thank you darling but did you know I was longing for a bread making machine? Hehehehe... I think he's gonna sell the gift and get me the machine instead.

As for myself, I think the best gift for him gotta be the baby he has been longing for. So no material gift for him except maybe this would consider as one.

Anyway, darling, just want you to know that you're more than just my husband. You're the face I can't wait to see at the end of the day, the arms to wrapped around me when I'm feeling down and alone in the world, the only person in the world that I would ever want to spend the rest of my life with (even though sometimes you irritate the hell outta me :p hehehehe).

Loving you on Valentine's Day and always,
Babe


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Tuesday 7 February 2006

Something Is Cookin' In My Pot

Hi there, just in case you guys are wondering whether I'm still alive or not... yes, I'm very much well alive and kicking. The past two weeks have been crazy both at work and homefront. There seems to be never ending issues that arises for the project at work whilst at home, we have been busy preparing for the Chinese New Year plus we got away from Kuala Lumpur to visit a relative in Ipoh for a few days. I didn't managed to eat much around in Ipoh since we stayed very far away from town plus we have plenty of catching up to do and with the children running round about the house.

I have so much back log that I think it will take me a long while before I can post them all up but then again I might just skip them all. Might not have so much time now and in the near future. I do hope I could keep on updating but let's just see how things go...

The best part so far in the new year must have been the two lines that hubby and I have hoped to see for the past one year... the timing was just great huh? In case you wonder what lines??? These were the TWO lines we discovered a couple of days ago...

double lines


Yes, I'm pregnant! I'm actually having mixed feelings about the pregnancy whilst hubby had been ecstatic. Why? It's because I had waited for some time for it to happen that I've lost the kind of anticipation. To me now, the pregnancy = more pain = more responsibility = more worries = more logistic issues = more $$$$ needed = more joy = more blessed = more love = more tears = more saliva = more gain = and you know what? They never seems to end. Thank goodness hubby had been giving me the kinda of comfort and reassurances that every preggy women would loved to hear. It took me extra time to move my butt to get the test kit and now I can't decide which doctor I should stick to, let alone deciding when to get my first check up done.... kekekeke the differences of the first and subsequent pregnancy are so significantly different eh???

With my rough calculation, I should be due end of September joining the celebs to add a doggie in the family.

In the meantime, updating will be sporadic until my second trimester starts as I can foresee that I will be feeling sleepy and lethargic at around 10am, 3-4pm and after 9pm. So far the past few days I've no appetite to have my dinner, so much so I've been picking from hubby's plate instead. Looks like it's following the trait of my first pregnancy that I do not have much appetite especially during the first trimester. I remember once the nurse scolded me as I did not put on weight accordingly but thank goodness the doctor assured us that it's still within the safe limit.

As for now, I'm already half asleep but I kept my eyes wide awake not knowing what rubbish I'm typing here just to bring this news to you guys. Since it's not convenient to access to the net at client's, I thank in advance for all your warm wishes and kind thoughts.

ZZZzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz......... nite!

Blog Revamping

Hello... I'm in the midst of revamping my blog to make my life a little easier. So do not be alarmed as work is still under construction.

Cheers,
Babe_KL
16 Oct 2012