Braised Chicken with Galangal

Dedicated to the person who complained that I have been featuring a lot of stir-fries lately :p here's a braised chicken dish...

I've bought a couple of those bi-lingual books on confinement dishes some years back all cause the recipes looked really good and sounds very simple. They did gave my mother some meal ideas after my miscarriage, 3 years ago. Every now and then I would look up on these books and would cook up items like Steamed Ribs with Tasty Sauce, Black Bean Soup and Stir Fried Eggplants with Minced Fish.

This time while browsing, I chanced upon this dish that surprisingly does not contain the standard ginger in the ingredients :p which in it's place was galangal. I've adapted the recipe into a simple braising as the original recipe was way too sweet for our liking. This pic is my second try on this recipe which yielded a better and tastier version with the addition of spring onions.

Here's my adapted recipe:

Braised Chicken with Galangal

2 chicken thighs, deskinned and chopped
about 10 slices of fresh galangal
1 tbsp sugar (original recipe called for 2.5 tbsp!)
3 tbsp Stone's ginger wine
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce (can cut down if you don't like it dark :D)
500ml water
1 tbsp oil
1 stalk spring onions, cut into 1.5 inches in length

1. Heat oil in wok and add in the sugar. Cook until sugar is dissolved and caramalised into a golden brown colour.

2. Add in the chicken pieces and fry both sides till browned. Next, add in the galangal slices and stir.

3. Pour in water, light and dark soy sauce and bring to boil. Simmer on low heat until gravy thickens. Remember to taste and adjust according to your taste by adding light sauce sauce if not salty enough. If too salty, just add a little water.

4. Pour in the ginger wine and simmer for another 10 minutes before stirring in spring onions. Serve hot with rice.

Review: Weissbräu German Bistro & Bar

**Non-Halal**


There seems to be an influx of non-halal German bistros and restaurants in Klang Valley for the past couple of years and Weissbräu German Bistro & Bar is one of them. Located at the Connection floor, Pavilion KL where the 2 rows of restaurants with alfresco dining are.

It was a very hot afternoon, Capt'n Hook can't resist a glass of Franziskaner (RM31.80++) to chill. I wish I could then indulge in one but alas I can't since I wasn't allowed to take cold drinks as I was on TCM treatment.

For lunch, he ordered a Giant Wienerschnitzel (RM34.00++) even though he was thinking of having a pork knuckle but decided not to knowing that we might not be able to finish one. The Giant Wienerschnitzel is a deep fried breaded pork escalope (a piece of boneless meat thinned with mallet) served with mash potatoes and sauerkraut which he opted.  When it says "Giant", it really meant GIANT here. The whole piece of meat filled up the entire rectangular plate with excess meat hanging outside the plate!

Just to show you that I'm not kidding that it's really gigantic... the piece of meat against the fork & knife! I think for us, this piece of meat could have fed three of us nicely. Capt'n Hook did not managed to finish this and ended up packing the remainder home.

I felt like having a bit of everything, so I went for Alsatian Sauerkraut (RM38.00++) and opted for roesti for my carb. This platter has braised pork belly, loin and knuckle. These braised meats are rather plain tasting. The knuckle tasted like boiled meat. Wished the knuckle served is the roasted kind for variety sake since the other two parts were braised. There were two sausages on the platter which are frankfurter and nürnberger. Loved the grilled nürnberger here as I can taste the robust spices. At least the sausages here doesn't tasted like commercial factory made ones. Best dipped in mustard.

The roesti (pan-fried shredded potato strips) served on a separate plate is done to perfection. The inside is  steamy soft whilst the outside is crispy! The sauerkraut is a winner too.

I can't say much about Weissbräu since we have only been here once. I supposed we need to try out more items on the menu to decide if they really lived up to being a good German bistro. The litmus test would of course the pork knuckle. Another time then...

Weissbräu German Bistro & Bar
Lot 3.05.02 & C3.16.00, Level 3,

Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, 

168 Jalan Bukit Bintang,

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2142 0288
Opens daily 10:00am to 1:00am (till 2:00am on Friday & Saturday)
Happy hours throughout the day till 9:00pm

Cranberries Hot Cross Buns

(Trying to "instagram" the pic lol)

I really loved Donna Hay's Hot Cross Bun recipe which I've made last year. I've knead one today based on this recipe but with some changes in the ingredients. Loved the cinnamon smell whilst the buns are baking in the oven!

Cranberries Hot Cross Buns
Adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2

Ingredients:
For the buns:
1 tablespoon dry yeast
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cups milk, lukewarm
4 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted
2 teaspoons all spice
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
50g butter, melted
1 egg
1 cup dried cranberries

For the crosses: (mix the ratio of flour and water into thickish but still runny)
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup water

For the glaze:
Strawberry jam, warm in microwave for 10 secs cos I was too lazy to make the glaze (see I told you guys I'm a very lazy person!)

Method:
1) Place the yeast, 2 teaspoons of the sugar and milk in a large mixing bowl. Set
aside for 5 minutes, until the mixture starts to foam. When it forms, it means
the yeast is active.

2) Add flour, all spice, cinnamon, butter, egg, raisins, cranberries and remaining sugar to the yeast mixture. Use a spoon to mix until a sticky dough forms.

3) Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for about 8 minutes, or until it feels elastic. You can use the hook dough on your heavy duty mixer but I didn't. Stretching this dough is not all that difficult.

4) Place in a large oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and allow to stand in a warm place about 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

5) Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll into balls.

6) Line a 9X9-inch cake tin with non-stick baking paper. Place the dough balls in the tin and cover with a clean tea towel. Allow to stand for 30 minutes in a warm place, or until they rise.

7) In the mean time, preheat the oven to 200°C. Combine the flour and water for the crosses. Place in a piping bag or a plastic bag with the corner snipped off and pipe crosses on the buns when they are ready to be baked.

8) Bake for 35 minutes or until browned and springy to the touch.

9) Brush the hot cross buns with the warm strawberry jam while the buns are hot. Serve warm, with butter.

Ref: Modern Classics Book 2, Donna Hay

Have a blessed Easter!

Lompat Tikam (With Recipe)

Ok I've some requests to have this recipe posted, so here it is from Flavours magazine (March - April 2011). Happy weekend!

Lompat Tikam
(makes about 10 portions)

Pandan Layer:
6 pandan leaves, cut into 1cm pieces
1 litre water
100g rice flour
1 tsp kapur water

1. Blend pandan leaves with 200ml water and strain mixture into mixing bowl. Whisk in the rice flour and add 300ml water.

2. In a large saucepan, bring remaining water to boil, turn down heat to low. Add in the pandan mixture and kapur water. Whisk continuously for 10 mins until mixture is smooth and thick. Remove from heat.

3.  Divide mixture into 10 small glasses. The pandan layer will set as it cools.

Coconut Cream:
200ml thick coconut milk
100ml water
1 tbsp plain flour
1/4 tsp salt

1. Combine coconut milk and water in small saucepan and stir 2 - 3 tbsp of the mixture into the flour to form smooth paste. Whisk the flour paste into coconut mixture and add in salt.

2. Place saucepan over low heat and bring to a boil, stirring continuously. Remove from heat.

3. Pour a thin layer over pandan layer. Leave to cool.

Gula Melaka Syrup:
150g gula melaka, chopped
75ml water
1 pandan leaf, tied into knot

1. Place all ingredients in saucepan and cook till gula melaka melts and syrup thickens. Remove from heat and discard leaf.

To serve:
Serve lompat tikam drizzle with gula melaka syrup.

Mixed Vegetables and Tofu Stir Fry

First my PC acted up and now the modem... so I'm without internet at the moment. I will post up the Lompat Tikam recipe later on since there were requests for it. Here's a simple recipe (well not really a recipe since there isn't any measurements :p) while I sulk waiting for magic to happen.

This is another version of stir fry of whatever vegetables I found in my fridge. If you follow my blog, I tend to do this a lot, well to clear up whatever I have plus this let me to be creative once in a while heh.

I just needed a little bit of everything and they really do bulk up when put together. This time round, I have a little of cabbage, a stick of celery, a small segment of carrot, a few pieces of oyster mushrooms and half a piece of firm tofu. Sliced up the cabbage, celery and carrot.

Cut tofu into slim sticks and pan fry them with a little oil. Remove from pan when all sides are browned and set aside. Add a little oil if there isn't enough of it. Once it's hot, stir in chopped garlic. When it's fragrant, put the carrot and cabbage in. Sprinkle some water all over so that they both can soften a little. Add in the celery, mushrooms and tofu. Stir and season with salt and black pepper. Dish up and serve with steamed rice.



So this is another one of my easy stir fry dish that contains lots of fibre and some protein.

Google Voice Search now in Bahasa Malaysia

We were invited to the launch of Google Voice Search in Bahasa Malaysia recently courtesy of Google Malaysia. Funny you might think why food bloggers were invited to such event but really it's all cos we have been using Blogger since 2004 and their PR company, Emerald Communications, picked Babe in the City - KL up last year for Google 10th year anniversary interview with NST. We are indeed honoured to be recognise as one of the loyal users of Blogger :D



Anyway back to the launch, Andrew McGlinchey, Product Manager of Google SEA announced the availability of Google Voice Search in Bahasa Malaysia which is essentially knowns as Carian Suara for mobile phone users of Android 2.1, 2.2, iPhone and Blackberry. You can access it via m.google.com.my/voicesearch. Next, Hanson Toh, Country Consultant, Google Malaysia demonstrated how this Carian Suara works.



With this Voice Search, after selecting Bahasa Malaysia as your choice in the setting, all one need to do is click on the microphone button next to the search bar and speak directly into your phone in Bahasa Malaysia (or the other 19 languages that Voice Search recognises). The next thing you know, your list of search results will be displayed!



This really makes things easier since well you know, how small the keypads are on these smart phones, not really helping when one has fat fingers like mine :p You'll see the same search results as you would typed your query, alphabet by alphabet but in a quicker and accurate manner.





We have tested the accuracy... seriously it managed to spell out my query of Char Koay Teow and displayed the results! Impressive indeed. It also worked with longer sentences, all you need to do is speak clearly into your phone and voila, the sentence will appear in the query together with the results.

Voice Search is indeed making our mobile usage fast, easy, efficient and convenient! Go activate Google Voice Search at m.google.com.my/voicesearch.




Other than this feature, we got a glimpse of another very helpful search which is now in beta version. It's search by image known as Google Goggles. Using your mobile phone, capture a picture of landmark, work of art, or products. Google will then scan that image and identify what it is and display the search results, just as you would have typed a query in the search. Go download and try it out now, really cool stuff! Wowwee how time has evolved eh?

Lompat Tikam

Updated:

I've posted the recipe here due to requests.

------------------------

If you have the current copy of Flavours magazine, you would agree with me that the cover really made one salivate over! All the tea time treats in this edition are all really yummilicious looking. In fact when I first got my copy, I quickly got on my toes to make Lompat Tikam contributed by Rohani Jelani which looked so good. Lompat Tikam is basically a green pandan custardy layer topped with a white coconut milk layer and served with gula melaka syrup.



Anyway, my version doesn't turned out as good as it looks :( the pandan colour is so pale in comparison and I think I know why lol cos Rohani's pandan leaves are huge and very green in colour. I have doubled the amount of leaves but yet the colour looked so pale sighhh. My version also doesn't set firm which I think maybe I did not cook it long enough. The pandan and coconut layers do not contain any sugar and it's sweetened by the addition of the gula melaka syrup which is great as we can control how sweet we prefer these to be.

Go grab this copy of Flavours for this Lompat Tikam recipe and other tea time treats or if you can't get a copy, do drop me a mail. My next mission is to recreate the sago kuih rolled in fresh grated coconut featured on the cover. Wish me luck!




I'm submitting this for Muhibbah Malaysian Monday blog event. This event is the brainchild of  Shaz (Test With A Skewer) and Suresh (3 Hungry Tummies). Read more here.

Review: Reunion Restaurant

**Non-Halal**


Tucked in a corner on the second floor of Bangsar Village II is where one can find the most sinful Chinese dishes in this part of Kuala Lumpur. Reunion Restaurant which is owned by E&O group is not a big restaurant so it is advisable to place your reservation ahead, no matter if it's lunch or dinner cos it's almost always full house.



The specialty here is Fried Hokkien Noodles :p Capt'n Hook's Caucasian friend loves the noodles here so much that each time he meet up with Capt'n Hook, it would be here in Reunion. I can so understand why he's smitten and so were the hoards of food bloggers whom have blogged about the Hokkien noodles here. The thick noodles are really dark glistening with oil and hidden in there are loads of crispy pork lard (chu yau char in Cantonese). I loved the inclusion of pork liver which was perfectly smooth and tender other than prawns, pork meat and squid which made the dish very old school. Our small portion for 3 (which we can't finish) costed RM29.80, not exactly cheap but it's really worth it.



The noodles to be eaten with the sambal, they went hand-in-hand indeed.



The other dish that kept us ordering is the roast meat combination. Our 2 combi (RM24.80) that evening was BBQ pork (char siu) and roasted pork (siu yuk) that comes with some fried salted peanuts on the side. BoiBoi loves the char siu most as it's not overly sweet and charred just nice. Crispy cracklings with flavourful tender meat, what more can one ask for in a piece of siu yuk?



Dining with BoiBoi means we have to order a dessert for him *roll eyes*. In Chinese restaurants, it's almost always Chinese pancake and the daddy ordered the lotus paste pancake (RM13.80). As I noticed the price is not cheap in fact more expensive than Xin Cuisine in Concorde Hotel as Xin only charges RM10 for a pancake.



The pastry, no doubt, is very flaky filled with ample amount of lotus paste. It's a tad oily though, my only complain here.



All the above dishes with one serving of Chinese tea (Tie Guan Yin) and 2 plain water (foc) came to RM83.75 inclusive of 6% Government tax and 10% service charge. I  know, we can have many plates of fried Hokkien noodles at dai chow places with that amount but I guess indulging in such sinful noodles with a nice cosy environment and fantastic service once in a while it's quite worth it.


Reunion Restaurant
2F-18/19, 2nd Floor
Bangsar Village II
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 2287 3770
Opens for lunch and dinner

Chicken and Snow Peas Stir Fry

By now you would have know that I'm really a very lazy person *chuckle* cos most of my dishes are darn easy with little ingredients. However I'm very creative though hehe since I could create dishes with basic concepts but just go round varying the ingredients.

Chicken and Snow Peas Stir Fry is yet another easy peasy stir fry that goes well with rice. I usually don't like to stir fry my vegetables with meat as I prefered them plain but this dish was an all rounder with the chicken added.

Prepare a little water with a few dashes of oyster sauce added into it. Brown some garlic in oil before adding in pieces of chicken fillet marinaded with some soy sauce, white pepper and corn flour. Stir and cook chicken till a little brown. Add in sliced carrots and the sauce mix.

Let the chicken and carrots cook for a short while before adding snow peas and sliced baby corns. Stir for another 2 minutes or so, dish up and serve hot with rice.

Review: Baba Low's 486 Bangsar

I've been reading about this little Nyonya place sometime back but never got a chance to give it a try as it was tucked away in the old housing area of Bangsar. Baba Low's 486 is located in a row of shop houses near Bangsar Heights. Since it's surrounded by houses, there isn't much parking spaces here but most times one can get lucky since most people doesn't park here for long.

Capt'n Hook decided to eat light but somehow he ended up ordering 3 appetisers and of course I took bites of them. The first was Tauhu Sumbat which is basically fried tofu stuffed with cucumber and turnips (sengkuang/jicama) strips drizzled with a sweetish chilly peanut sauce. Baba Low serves a rather plain tasting version with the flavourings only coming from the sauce.



Then there's a Otak-otak served with bread pieces. Kind of a first for us having them with bread. There are 2 largish pieces of cat fish (ikan keli) if not mistaken with bones and all intact. Capt'n Hook who dislikes to eat fish because of bad experience with its bones didn't like the idea of having otak-otak this way. For me, if one has the time to suck on to the meat and bones, then it could be enjoyable.



The popiah is well stuffed with cooked turnips, cucumber strips and sliced omelette. The skin looked homemade to me as it's thickish and not paper thin.



Then my piece de resistance, Nyonya Laksa! It came in a medium sized bowl and looked like a rather small portion but do not be fooled by it's size! The thickish santan (coconut milk) laced soup filled one up rather quickly. Luckily the noodles portion is just nice and has a good number of shredded chicken in it.



I have to order the cendol when Capt'n Hook was on his way for his second bowl. The ice is shaven fine piled over pandan tainted cendol strips and soft kidney beans topped with fragrant gula melaka and coconut milk. I concurred with Capt'n Hook that the cendol here is not too bad at all! The sweetness of the gula melaka is just nice and loved the creaminess of the coconut milk used here.



I've lost the receipt and I can't remember how much we have paid for this meal. The prices are more than coffee shop definitely and it's quite reasonable but I don't mind paying a little more since the restaurant is airy, spacious and quite comfortable, but most importantly the food is not bad to boost.

I was reading The Star and Baba Low's proprietor is from Malacca and is of Baba Nyonya descendant. The family owned an eatery in Malacca and I wonder if it's the one that is named 486 Baba Low?


Baba Low's 486 Bangsar
Lorong Kurau, Bangsar

59100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 012-324 7200 / 03-2284 8486
Business hours: 7.00am - 7.00pm (Mon-Sat)
Map




I'm submitting this for Muhibbah Malaysian Monday blog event. This event is the brainchild of  Shaz (Test With A Skewer) and Suresh (3 Hungry Tummies). Read more here.

Steamed Pork Ribs with Bean and Salted Plum Sauce

**Non-Halal**



I saw Celine posted a Steamed Pork recipe recently and it's quite similar to this steamed pork ribs that my mother used to make. I supposed it's a dish where most of us, Chinese, used to have on our dinner table since we were young. You can find similar dish on dim sum trays.

This version has the combination of preserved bean sauce (mien si in Cantonese) and salted plum (comes in a glass jar). Let me guesstimate the ingredients, I've used about 300-400g spare ribs, 1.5 tsp (remember to use more if you're used to salty dish cos mine is the less salt version) minced preserved bean sauce, 1 salted plum (smash it a bit), 1/4 or less tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp cornflour. Just mix up all ingredients and marinade for around 20 minutes, then steam for 20 minutes or until ribs are cooked. You can scatter some chopped spring onions on top after steaming but I don't have any hence the ugly looking pic.

I've also made another version with the addition of fermented black beans which really enhanced the taste further.

I just search my blog and found this Steamed Ribs with Tasty Sauce! Totally forgotten about this recipe heh :p The ingredients are a little long but it does tasted tasty as it claimed.

Review: Restoran Chat Masala (Vegetarian)

Phewwww... am so glad the PC is finally fixed. I so missed out reading all my fave blogs! Okie, let's roll...

Let's do some back logs. We visited Restoran Chat Masala back in January, the day before Ponggal festival and what a day to pick to drive through Brickfields *roll eyes* 45 minutes crawled from the police station to front of Chat Masala! Actually we wanted to check out another place further down but the just-after-lunch-hour-cum-Friday-cum-Ponggal jam was just really bad and we were both getting hungry! Law abiding Capt'n Hook couldn't even bothered to get a proper parking lot :p he just joined the shoppers and park by the road side. There's a massive sprucing up in Brickfields but seriously it's not helping with the parking and traffic woes here :( What a pity as the transformation was really colourful.

Anyway back to the restaurant... whilst Capt'n Hook went to park his car, I went to the restaurant to grab a place as it was jammed pack since it's a Friday where a lot of Indians go on vegetarian diet. I joined a lady who was finishing up her lunch. I managed to browsed at the dishes available at the heated server right up front and I couldn't believe they are all vegetarian dishes heh. I even checked with the staff twice kekeke but it's not helping when he kept saying it's Chicken Varuval, Mutton Curry etc! These vegetarian dishes are cooked using mock meat made of soy products, hence they do look and at times tasted like real meat.

We have a very simple lunch of vegetarian chicken varuval. Very spot on except the "chicken" was boneless :p



Capt'n Hook had a tosai that is crispy on the sides. It was served with dhal and tomato chutney.

 

I had a chapati which was served with dhal and "chicken" curry. Too bad the chapati was pre-made, hence it's not a fluffy as I would like one. The dhal and curry are commendable though.



We both loved the fresh cow's milk masala tea! It's creamy but yet light and not overly sweet, just nice with the right hint of spices.



Seems like Chat Masala is popular with their afternoon snacks but they weren't available yet when we left the place. Capt'n Hook did pack some Indian sweetmeats back and he told me they were good and not sickly sweet unlike the usual sweetmeats. Anyway I do noticed that I do not need to ask for "kurang manis" (less sweet) these days after the rise on sugar price, was it just me?

I can't verify for sure if Chat Masala uses onions and garlic in their cooking but if you're looking for an Indian restaurant that do not uses onions nor garlic, do check out Gopala Vegetarian Restaurant which is located a short distance away long Jalan Thambipillai. Gopala serves not only Indian style food but a rather Malaysianised menu where the satay is really good.


Restoran Chat Masala
259G Jalan Tun Sambanthan
Brickfields
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2260 3244