Babe in the City

Friday, 5 October 2007

One of Chinese Cooling Drink

This post is dedicated to IX XI :-) I hope the name and photo would be able to help you with your purchase and cooking.

Errr I don't know the name of this drink/sweet soup (tong shui) but if you can read Chinese, check on the packet below. Nowadays the Chinese Medicine Hall tends to prepack their herbs readily for buyers' convenient. I just bought this packet without asking for its name, silly me!

This packet of drink consisted of the following:
Suet Yee (White Fungus)
Pak Hup (Lily Bulb, Mandarin is Bai He)
Yuk Chuk (Mandarin is YuZhu)
Dried Longan (Mandarin is Longyanrou)
Lin Chi (dried lotus seeds, Mandarin is LianZi)
Candied Ginseng (Mandarin is Renshen)

All I did was dump in all the ingredients into a pot of water (use more as it will dry up as you boil along, however, if you think the ingredients ratio is too much as compared with water after boiling for 2 hours, add in hot water bit by bit to your desired amount) and simmer on low heat for about 2 hours. Sweetened with brown rock sugar to taste towards the end.

Kinda like the usual Pak Nien Hoe Hup but this one have candied ginseng which is the first time I came across this item. This candied ginseng did lend a hint of ginseng flavour in this drink.

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tong shui

Wednesday, 3 October 2007

Review: CCF, YTF & ABC at Madras Lane Stalls

**Non-Halal**

LOL

Was trying to type out those names in full but decided they were too long, hence used the acronyms. Now that I looked at them, these acronyms kinda widely used by us, no? CCF - chee cheung fun (flat rice noodles); YTF - yong tau foo (tofu/vegetables stuffed with fish paste); and ABC - air batu campur (shaved ice concoction).

We went to Chinatown recently to grab some stuff on a Saturday and decided to drop by Madras Lane, behind Pak Peng Building, to have a bite. Since my boiboi was with us, we ordered his favourite CCF and some YTF to go with them. As usual he went on his "don't wanna eat" mode and showed his puppy eyes protest but the moment the CCF arrived, he was tucking them in. Asked for fishball and helped himself to deep fried foo chuk (soy bean sheet) too! Now, that's my boy!

I can't recall the stall number of the CCF cos there were 2 there. Hubby ordered from the busy stall as he usually prefer to go by the flow. Later he noticed why the other stall wasn't so busy... cos their CCF costed a bit more, if not mistaken 20 sens more per plate. I like my CCF to be soaked in bean paste sauce, chilli sauce AND pickled green chillies (not shown on pic cos I added later)! Each piece of YTF is 80 sens which is freshly cooked and disappeared fast from the trays! The workers have to prepare, stuff and cook them non-stop as the demand is forever high.

We have ABC and cendol (pictured) later to cool down as it can get hot and stuffy at the hawker centre. Nothing to shout about these two but at least the cendol is not the frozen type.

Just a reminder, before you order, do ask the stalls where you can sit to eat their food. The hawkers are very territorial here! Other than CCF, YTF and ABC, my makan kakis like to come here for assam laksa and curry laksa too! Hmmm yumyum... thinking about the thick curry with loads of cockles now!

To access here without walking thru the market, walk thru Pak Peng Building, Jalan Petaling or via the lane opposite the Sri Mahamariamman Indian Temple, Jalan Tun HS Lee.

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malaysian food

Tuesday, 2 October 2007

Review: Euro Deli Shop

**Non-Halal**

Before Elcerdo (must click to view new outlook of website, very cute haha) arrives at our shore, Euro Deli is THE place to have our fix of German Roast Pork Knuckle. We usually patronise the outlet, Euro Deli Grill, at Jalan Yap Kwan Seng where it is a spacious restaurant as compared to the Deli at Damansara Kim. Nevertheless, this round we visited the Deli together with a bunch of friends.

Since a few of us arrived pretty early and have gotten hungry staring at the various sausages and cold meat in the fridge, J decided to order some appetiser whilst waiting for the rest to arrive. She asked for a plate of potatoes cooked in bacon bits and added another order of spaetzle later on. The potatoes were nicely fried in the yummy bacon fat, the floury texture of the potatoes went extremely well with the crispy bacon bits. Needless to say this plate of potatoes disappeared in a jiffy but luckily I managed to snap a bit of whatever that is left on the plate before they got polished off as well.

Spaetzle is a type of German dumplings made of flour. The dough is pressed thru some holes into boiling water to form into dumplings, drained and cooked with bacon bits. The texture of the spaetzle is soft but chewy, flavourless but when cooked with the bacon bits and chopped onions, the fats melded with the spaetzle, creating a lovely fragrant.

We were served with basket of lovely buns, whilst we were enjoying seconds, a couple of guys in our party arrived and kicked a fuss over the unsalted butter served. They asked for the salted version and managed to get them whilst the ladies downed the unsalted butter without much problem. I wonder if it's a guy thing?

I had a Pork Cordon Blue that came with thick fries and coleslaw. The pork is stuffed with ham and cheese before breaded and deep fried. Very sinful indeed haha but once in a while I guess it's all right to indulge. Had to be careful when I dug in cos the cheese filling was super hot. I find the pork is a little over fried which rendered the meat on the dry side but eaten with the cheese filling, it was all right.

Hubby, as usual had the Roast Pork Knuckle which is his standard order at Euro Deli. The crackling of the skin was perfectly crispy that I could heard my the other friend who was having this crunching on them. Portion is huge for me but for a guy, I think they could easily down one knuckle without much challenge.

J had pork chop, I think, which she can't finish and passed on to the official DBKL or it's supposed to be Alam Flora now? The rest have pork shoulder and steak (beef one!) that came from the set meal options. Look out for them on the blackboard. Set meals came with a soup, choice of mains, dessert and coffee/tea for a very reasonable price. I heard the pork shoulder was kinda tough but the steak was pretty ok since our youngest diner, 2 and a half years old, chowed on them with a gusto. It was a joy to watch this little fellow eat, downing his bread, soup, meat followed by ice-cream that came with the set oh so heartily. Wished my boiboi would chew on steaks!

If you're not familiar with this area, coming to this part of Damansara Kim can get a bit trickly. Check out the map first and remember to save the phone number, just in case you're lost.

Euro Deli Shop
No. 41, Jalan SS 20/11
Damansara Kim
47400Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Tel: (603) 7726 7495

Euro Deli Grill
No. 29, Jalan Yap Kwan Seng
50450 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (603) 2162 6991
Daily: 12:00 noon - 3:00 pm & 6:00 pm - 11:00 pm
Sundays: 12:00 noon - 3:00 pm & 5:00 pm - 11:00 pm

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pork knuckle +

damansara kim

Friday, 28 September 2007

Low-Fat Chocolate Chip Muffins

Don't these babies looked terrific?? Best of all they're low fat! Indulge...

As I went through the recipe again and again, I noticed there isn't any addition of chocolate chips in there despite the title of the muffin. Hence, I adapted the recipe, adding this and removing that. The texture is little dense but since they're muffin, I guess that was how they were supposed to be like. For myself, I prefer cupcakes' texture as they're lighter and fluffier, nevertheless, these muffins were well received by the recipients or maybe they were polite?

Low-Fat Chocolate Chip Muffins

For muffins:
300g plain flour
25g caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 lightly beaten eggs
115 ml sunflower oil
175 ml low fat milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 handfuls of chocolate chips

For icing:
2 tbsp margerine, softened
175g icing sugar, sieved
30g cocoa powder
4 tbsp low fat milk
A handful of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 175C. Grease 12-cup muffin tin. In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and cocoa with a spoon. In a large bowl, combine eggs, oil, milk and vanilla with electric whisk (I used manual which worked as well) and beat till combined. Add flour mixture and stir till just combined before adding chocolate chips. Do not overmix. Spoon batter into prepared tin. Bake for 20 mins. Remove tin from oven and cool for 5 mins. Then remove muffins and cool on a rack.

In actual fact, I've used the small muffin paper cups which yielded 18-20 muffins (sorry can't recall). They looked terribly cute in them!

For icing, combine all ingredients except milk. Add the milk slowly, beating with electric whisk to make a firm but spreadable mixture. Add in chocolate chips. Spoon the icing onto the cooled muffins.

Adapted from the 500 Cupcakes & Muffins, By Fergal Connolly book (published by PageOne Publishing)

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muffin

Thursday, 27 September 2007

Stir-fried Watercress With Garlic

Quickie post again as I'm a bit busy with work. This is a very lame stir-fried vegetable dish but of course I have a few tips to impart here. These watercress are done by heating up some oil in a wok before dumping in a heap of chopped garlic. Fry till fragrant before adding the watercress. Sprinkle in salt to taste and quickly stir till they turned a darker shade. Try not to over cook them. Dish up and serve. It's not necessary to add water as there would be some water that tend to cling to the watercress, well unless your watercress are absolutely very dry.

As watercress grew in water ponds, cleaning them is an arduous task! You'll need to go thru every single leaves and stems to spot for teeny weeny snails. I tried to take some pictures of them but they turned out rather lousy so I can't show them here.

Whilst cleaning, pluck the younger shoots, leaves and stems (make sure into small sections cos it's really fibrous to chew them all in one go); and placed them in one pile for stir frying or make a quick and simple soup (cook them in shortly in ikan bilis (anchovies) stock.

You'll noticed that there will be a lot of "leftovers" ie. the woody and fibrous stems. DO NOT throw these away! Clean them up as well to make a tasty and cooling drink by boiling them a couple of hours with dried/candied honey dates (mutt joe) sweeten with rock sugar if needed. Otherwise, you could also make a nutritious soup by boiling these stems with some meat bones, red dates and dried squid for about 3 hours.

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watercress

Wednesday, 26 September 2007

Roast Pork "One Pot" Rice

**Non-Halal**

At times when one is lazy, "one pot" rice using an electrical rice cooker would be the mother of all solutions. Ahhh the wonders of us, Asians, having a rice cooker in almost every household heh... Haha without slaving myself over some hot stoves nor pot, the rice cooker is indeed Lord sent. It's a very versatile electrical item where you can boil water/soup; cook your rice or congee/porridge; use it for steamboat or even bake a cake!!!

As with before where I've made a "One Pot" Rice that have ingredients like chicken, French beans, Chinese sausage, mushroom and black fungus; this time round I have roast pork which I've gotten from my butcher, long beans, dried shitake mushrooms and Chinese sausage.

In order to have an aromatic rice, other than using dried shrimps which I did not use this time, I sliced some shallots and deep fried them till a light golden brown. Remove the shallots from the oil. Keep the oil for other times ie cooking or dribble over noodles or vegetables.

Soak dried shitake mushrooms till soften and slice them up. Chop up a bunch of long beans into even length. Slice up Chinese sausage. Wash up some rice and add in enough water to cook them. Pour in oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Next, add in all the ingredients mentioned earlier. Cook in the rice cooker. Once cooked, continue to let the rice cook thru in the "Keep Warm" function.

Right before serving, stir in a couple dashes of Shaoxing wine, the deep fried shallots and chopped spring onions. Close the lid and let the aromas steep into the rice for about 5 minutes. Serve hot.

I tell you, this rice is so scrummy until hubby and I have seconds which is very rare for me. Even my boiboi ate up in a gusto!

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rice

Tuesday, 25 September 2007

Wishing All a Blessed Mid-Autumn Festival

I'm going back to my parents' tonight to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival with my family and my boiboi. I know he can't wait to play with lantern again tonight. Are you guys feasting with your family and friends too?

Wishing all of you a safe and blessed Mid-Autumn Festival.

No write-ups about the festival since I've done so previously. Not much mooncakes to share either since I don't have my digicam with me. Managed to captured these with my phone and they looked lousy since it's taken last night.

These are homemade TeoChew Single Yolk Yam Paste. This type of mooncake is deep fried hence the flaky pastry that spirals around the fillings are crispy and very fragrant. I liked this one cos it's not sweet and has yam, my fave. Have to finish these up quickly though as they tend to turn rancid very fast in our weather.

I've got a couple of photos that were taken last year but not featured here. These flat discs are actually a type of mooncake. Also from the TeoChew clan, these mooncake have flaky pastry as well but baked instead. The one shown here are with red bean paste filling. I've gotten a couple this year and I managed to get my favourite - white lotus paste filling and hubby picked a crystal filling that has candied winter melon. Will take the pics once I opened the package up. This year I got them from Setapak TeoChew Restaurant just as previously. Other than getting this type of pastry during the festival, I could also get hold of them other times from certain places but they sell those from the famous Yong Sheng Confectionery originated from Muar, Johor.