House of Annie

3…2...1…Ready or not!

2010-07-29T00:16:00.001+08:00

Hide and Seek

It feels like forever since I’ve blogged a recipe on House of Annie. I think the last recipe post was back in May when we did the Fried Pork with Evaporated Milk dish. Then it was a whole series of eating out in Singapore , from our trip to visit relatives during the Gawai holidays.

But that trip was back in June, and we’ve had almost two whole months of cooking and eating. In that time, we only put up 2 new posts! So why all the hide and seek?

Guess Where I Am?

I’ve talked and hinted in the past about me wanting to move off of Blogspot onto our own domain name. I actually bought it way back in November 2008 (if memory serves). But I didn’t get really serious about moving over until early 2010.

It’s been a lot of starts and stops, frustrations and lost sleep. But this week has seen the culmination of my effort. After asking for (and getting) help from some of our dear readers to beta test the site, I think it’s finally ready to be revealed to the Blogosphere.

House of Annie has moved to…

www.HouseOfAnnie.com

(well, it was kind of a no-brainer, right?)

No more Chez Annies. We’re not trying to be either Chez Pim or Chez Panisse. We never were.

The new site, www.houseofannie.com , has a similar look and feel to the old one, but I’ve made getting around the site (hopefully) easier. But don’t take my word for it. Try it out yourself!

Poke around and see what you can do on the site. If there’s something broken, missing, or just not working right, I’d love to hear from you through the Contacts page. Most importantly, update your Bookmarks and Blogrolls because in a few days, I’m going to turn on a redirection script on the old site.

And Chez Annies will be no more. (Crossing my fingers.) And then we can get back to doing what we really love – blogging recipes!

Aloha, Nate

Need your help with the finishing touches…

2010-07-20T23:45:00.002+08:00

Rolling Out Sod on Our Old Backyard

Back when we were moving out of our place in San Jose, we had to re-sod the backyard. It was back-breaking work. First, we had to remove all our raised garden beds, then tear out the old, dead grass. Then I borrowed my neighbor’s tilling machine and turned the hard, compacted clay into beautifully loamy soil with the help of some compost.
We brought in rolls of new sod, and, with the help of our neighbor, proceeded to re-carpet the backyard. I’m so glad that we had his help – we couldn’t have done it without him! His advice and generous donation of time and labor was invaluable.
Well, I’m getting ready to move again, and I need your invaluable help.

House of Annie is (virtually) moving

No, we’re not picking up our stakes again and physically moving from Kuching. (Not yet, anyway.) But the House of Annie is virtually moving to a new address…in Cyberspace!
It’s a process that has taken months, due to all the starts and stops along the way. It’s such a beast to take all our content (almost 500 posts!) off of Blogger, reformat it, and put it back on a new WordPress blog. I’ll probably blog about some of that experience in the future.
But for now, I am happy to say that we’re almost there and I am ready to get some help from some of our readers to beta test the new site before I push the big “switcheroo” button. I need to know where the kinks are, where things are broken, where edges and corners need sprucing up. I need your advice on what doesn’t work, and what could work better.
If you want to help beta test the new site, fill in this form below:

Powered byEMF Email Form

I will then contact you with the web address to test out and instructions to follow. Sound good?

Aloha, Nate

Shopping on Orchard Road, Singapore

2010-07-13T23:59:00.001+08:00

Our last full day in Singapore was spent doing – what else – shopping!

Wheelock Place, Orchard Rd

Singapore is a Mecca for shopping. But on this past trip to Singapore, most of our time was spent with family and friends. Whether it was eating at Annie’s Aunt’s place, going to Noble House for dim sum, Imperial Treasure for Peking duck, or Rider’s Cafe for Western food, we didn’t really have time to ourselves to just shop.

So for our final full day in S’pore, we left the kids with Grandma and took a cab down to Orchard Road. Here, block after block of the glitziest malls are lined up for your shopping pleasure. We started at the newest and glitziest of them all, Ion Orchard.

Ion Orchard, Singapore

Malls aren’t just built above ground. They also go 2, even 3 levels down below ground. You can find fashion stores of every price range and kind, from cheap and cute flip-flops / slippers…

Havaianas, Ion Orchard

…to more expensive shoes.

Charles and Keith, Ion Orchard

We spent a little while trying on shoes at Charles and Keith. (Okay, Annie tried on the shoes. I just sat and watched.) She fell in love with a couple of pairs of heels there – they were quite reasonably priced! But we had a lot more shopping to do, so Annie put the shoes on hold, hoping to return later to purchase them.

We had arranged to meet our friend at Takashimaya a couple of blocks down, then go for a ramen lunch at Ippudo. Takashimaya is a huge department store. They are arranged like a Macy’s or a Nordstrom’s with jewelry and perfume on the main floor, with clothes and household goods on the upper floors. But the basement holds a grand bazaar of food stalls and counters.

Everything from fancy chocolates, teas, meats, you name it, are found here. We browsed around in awe. One counter was selling mochi ice cream balls of different flavors. We bought a few to try. They were good, but not as good as the mochi ice cream from Bubbie’s in Honolulu.

Mochi Ice Cream at Takashimaya, Orchard Rd

We came upon an artisanal choclatier called Jewels in another part of the Takashimaya food complex. They were featuring these specially flavored macarons. Our favorite was this macaroon with a salted egg and almond cream, topped with black sea salt from Hawaii. It was a deliciously surprising balance between sweet cream and salty egg.

Macarons from Jewels Artisan Chocolate, Takashimaya

In yet another corner of the bazaar, we found the 1A Curry Puff stall. They sell these amazing curry puffs that are beautifully patterned. Their curry puffs come in many different flavors, from the normal chicken curry, to Singapore chili crab (yes, it really tastes like chili crab), and the DURIAN cream puff. Of course, we had to try them.

Were they good? Oh, yeah.

Singapore Chili Crab Puffs from 1A Curry Puff, Takashimaya

There’s a Cold Storage in the basement of Takashimaya. We had arranged to meet our friend in front of the entrance there. We got there a little early, so we decided to browse the aisles. I got stuck drooling at all the cheeses they had on display. It was almost like being back home in a Trader Joe’s.

Cheeses at Cold Storage in Takashimaya

Well we waited and waited outside Cold Storage for our friend, but somehow didn’t make the connection. After waiting for half an hour, we decided to go on our own to Ippudo. On the way back, we were able to reach him on his handphone. It turns out, he was in the Takashimaya basement just then, still looking for us after having lunch at Tampopo Ramen!

So we hung out for a bit, but it was getting late and we had another appointment to make that afternoon. We had run out of time to shop. We never even got to go back for those shoes.

Annie’s still sore about that.

Oh, well. Maybe next time.

Aloha, Nate

Ippudo Ramen, Singapore

2010-07-09T00:57:00.001+08:00

These aren’t just any old ordinary instant noodles.

After the Peking duck dinner at Imperial Treasure, LK recommended to us a ramen restaurant called Ippudo, right across Orchard Road in the Mandarin Gallery hotel. We made plans to meet another friend there the next day. Annie wanted to go shopping down Orchard Rd, since it was our last full day in Singapore, and the Great Singapore Sale was on (more on that in another post).

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to hook up with our friend and so we decided to just eat at Ippudo on our own. We got there past lunch time, so the lunch crowd had thinned out. We were greeted with an enthusiastic “Irasshaimase!”, seated right away and handed our menus.

Order Up

The interior decor is quite nice. Modern but not stark. On one wall is a sculpture featuring dozens of different kinds of ramen bowls. On another wall, there’s a set of manga comics on the wall which talks about the style of ramen noodle served at this restaurant, and how to order it.

Manga on the Wall at Ippudo

But first, our appetizers: six pieces of pan-fried gyoza. Usually, when we make gyoza at home, they are quite hefty. But Ippudo’s gyoza are about the size of my thumb. They are tasty little morsels, with the emphasis on little.

Gyoza at Ippudo

I got the Shiromaru Classic ramen, which is a creamy, tonkotsu (pork bone-based) broth paired with thin, straight noodles. It comes with a couple of slices of chashu (roast pork loin), some green onions, and some pickled ginger. Though the noodles were thin, they were perfectly cooked. They held together well and still had some spring in them. Very nice.

Shiromaru Classic Ramen at Ippudo

Annie got the Kyushu Miso Tokotsu special. The broth was a blend of the Shiromaru broth and miso, giving it a stronger flavor. Her noodles were thicker and chewier than mine. Besides the green onions and chashu, it also came with some leeks and a boiled egg. Annie loved hers so much, she cleared the entire bowl!

Kyushu Miso Tokotsu Ramen at Ippudo

We haven’t had good ramen like this since Yotteko-Ya in Honolulu. Though the noodles here were pretty good, we both agreed that Yotteko-Ya was better.

Still, there’s nothing like eating ramen in Japan. Which is what we’re looking forward to. Because in about a month, we’ll be traveling to Tokyo for a week to see what we can see, and eat what we can eat. And you can be sure we’ll be eating lots of ramen! Stay tuned.

Aloha, Nate

Got any recommendations for good ramen or other good eats in Tokyo? Leave a comment and tell us about it!

Maria Elena’s Mexican Restaurant, Alviso

2010-07-06T01:12:00.001+08:00

Reading the obituary for Maria Elena Montellano, I am transported back a few years, to the day I visited her namesake restaurant.

It was one of those gloriously crisp, clear Fall Saturdays in the Bay Area, with the bright sun shining down its warm rays upon a chilly South Bay. I had just dropped Annie off at a friend’s house in north San Jose, near 1st St and Hwy 237. (Annie was catering a bridal shower.) So there I was, alone with the kids and nothing to do.

I didn’t want to head back home – too boring. I also didn’t want to drive too far away, since I needed to be back in a few hours to fetch Annie. So I decided to keep heading North on 1st St and cross over Hwy 237 to the little town of Alviso. With no plan in mind, what would I find?

Forget Me Not

Alviso is kind of like the town that time forgot. Where the rest of Silicon Valley has turned into busy highways, monolithic industrial buildings and tightly packed developments, Alviso has somehow retained its small town flavor. The two-lane roads are quiet, there is still a lot of wide open space, and the tract houses are characteristic of a bygone era.

I drove slowly down the street (at a very UN-Silicon Valley-like speed), marveling at how still everything seemed, yet how close we were to the hustle and bustle of Bay Area living. I meandered around Alviso’s roads. If I reached a junction, I just turned toward whatever looked promising. If I hit a dead end, I simply turned around and went the other way.

Taking a mental note of the nearly full parking lot in front of Maria Elena’s Mexican Restaurant (full parking lots are usually a good sign), I eventually found myself on Grand Boulevard leading out of town, towards the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge. Here, at the Southern-most point of the San Francisco Bay, are protected wetlands which provide habitat for thousands of migratory birds.

Pelicans at Don Edwards NWR

As luck would have it, that day happened to be “Shark Day” at the Environmental Education Center there. This event was geared toward teaching kids about the area’s watershed and how keeping it clean would help protect the wildlife living in these waters, including leopard shark pups. They had organized all kinds of crafts and activities to teach about the sharks. They even had a baby shark on hand that we could touch (well, at least I could touch; the kids chickened out).

As the day wore on, though, we began to get hungry. So I got the kids together and we made our exit.

Back at Maria Elena’s we were seated right away and given a menu, a basket of tortilla chips, and a bowl of fresh salsa. This tasty salsa didn’t have much heat, but it did have the distinct flavor of fresh thyme – a nice touch.

Whenever we go out to eat Mexican food, the kids usually got a quesadilla. I ordered a shrimp quesadilla for them. It turned out to be quite a huge tortilla, with lots of shrimp and cheese. It was more than enough for the two of them.

Shrimp Quesadilla from Maria Elena’s

I asked the waitress what their most popular dish was, and she highlighted their Chile Verde. For me, chile verde is how I determine whether a Mexican restaurant is good or not. The verdict on Maria Elena’s chile verde?

Good, very good. The meat was the most tender pork I have ever had in a chile verde. The sauce was unique, with more of that fresh thyme mixed in. I was impressed.

Though I thought the dishes were a little on the expensive side, the large portion sizes makes this restaurant a good value. I intended to return to Maria Elena’s someday, but never actually got to do it before we moved to Malaysia. Still, Maria Elena’s restaurant is an institution in Alviso and quite popular for those working in North San Jose. So while Maria herself may have passed on, I’m hoping that her restaurant will continue to provide good Mexican food at good value for years to come.

Aloha, Nate

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Rider’s Café @ Bukit Timah Saddle Club, Singapore

2010-07-03T02:46:00.001+08:00

I found the beef!

Do you remember that old Wendy’s Hamburger commercial with the old lady yelling “Where’s the beef?!?” when she sees a pathetically tiny burger patty inside a huge bun? That’s what I feel like yelling whenever I see a burger here in Kuching. The hamburger patties aren’t miniscule, but they are not that big either, AND they aren’t 100% beef as well – there’s a lot of soy mixed in.

Suffice to say, I’ve really been craving a good beef burger. Doesn’t have to be grass-fed, local beef from the North Shore of Oahu like the one I had at Town Restaurant in Kaimuki. Even a Double-Double Animal Style from In-n-Out would be better than the “Two semi-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese…” Big Mac I can get at the Kuching Airport McDonald’s.

Saddle Up!

So I was really happy that Annie’s cousin took us for lunch to the Rider’s Café at Bukit Timah Saddle Club hidden in the green heart of Singapore. This equestrian club actually has two Western restaurants on site – the casual Rider’s Café and a more upscale French restaurant called Mimolette. (Actually, I wouldn’t have minded Mimolette either – we haven’t had good French food since our visit to Bistro Moulin in Monterey last year.)

The Sunday lunchtime crowd wasn’t too bad. We were seated right away at a table out on the veranda, overlooking the stables. You can see (and smell) the horses out there. We had a choice of ordering either breakfast or lunch items. We decided to go with lunch.

First dish to come out was this deep fried calamari. I thought the panko crust was nice and crunchy but the batter itself was pretty heavy and thick.

Annie ordered this chicken paillard salad which is a butterflied chicken breast, grilled and served atop some salad greens and pine nuts. I thought the chicken portion was too much for the small amount of greens that came with it.

Esther got a Spaghetti Bolognese which came on this huge platter, but only filled the small bowl in the center. The sauce tasted all right, pretty standard and no worse than I’ve had here in Malaysia.

Annie’s cousin got the grilled halibut, one of her favorite dishes at this restaurant.

Annie herself ordered the grilled steak with mashed potatoes. Not quite sure which cut of beef this was (skirt? flank?) It came drizzled with (thankfully, not drowning in) some brown gravy. A decent hunk of beef, a little overcooked but passable. The mashed potatoes were too gummy for my tastes.

Actually, I was vacillating between ordering the steak or the burger. So it was a good thing that Annie ordered the steak so that I could get the burger. Mine came with melting cheddar cheese, REAL pork bacon, and sliced mushrooms. And a side of REAL steak fries!

Here’s the post-assembly, mouth-cam shot:

Look at that thick patty, the melted cheese, the salty bacon. The first bite was pure bliss. The crunch of raw lettuce and onion, the delicious taste of juicy beef fat. Best of all, they cooked the patty to a perfect medium inside. (If there’s one thing I can’t stand in a burger, it’s a patty that has been cooked till it’s hard and grey.)

Of course, I swapped plates with Annie to let her have a few bites of my burger while I sampled her steak. I liked it, but was more than happy when she returned the burger to me. ;-d

Overall, a decently good Western meal in an uncommon setting in Singapore.

Aloha, Nate

Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck, Singapore

2010-06-11T07:01:00.001+08:00

We share an excellent Peking duck meal with a popular food blogger in Singapore.

Back when we were planning to come to Singapore, I reached out to a few Singaporean food bloggers that I wanted to meet in person. Unfortunately, they were going to be out of town that weekend that we were coming. I commented about this to our friend Mike, who told us to contact LK, the blogger behind the popular blog Food For Tots. LK happened to be a Malaysian from Penang, living in Singapore.

So I sent LK an email and, after a few rounds back and forth, arranged to meet up at the Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck Restaurant in the Paragon Mall on Orchard Road. We arrived there, not too many hours past our dim sum meal at Noble House. Though we had never met before, we did know what each other looked like from our respective About pages. (Aren’t About pages helpful? ;-) ) Then we entered the restaurant where we were shown to our table.

You Gotta Get the Duck

LK and her husband said they had heard good things about this restaurant but haven’t had the Peking duck yet because this kind of meal calls for a larger party than just the two of them. So when we contacted them about a meetup, they thought that it would be a good excuse to try out the duck. They made the reservations, and the duck was served not long after we were seated.

Like any good Peking duck restaurant, the chef will carve up the duck right at the table. First he removed just the skin off the breast, which he did with deftness and skill. The shards of roasted duck skin were thin and crispy, like duck-flavored tortilla chips.

Next came a couple of platters of duck slices featuring both skin and duck meat:

Notice on this cut that the fat hasn’t completely rendered out of the duck – there is still a nice, juicy, delicious layer of duck fat between the crisp skin and the tender meat. It makes for a deliriously good bite when that melted duck fat envelops your tongue.

The duck was served with shredded green onions and sticks of raw cucumber along with the obligatory hoisin sauce. Instead of the typical steamed bun to wrap the duck and veggies, Imperial Treasure served up some small, thin crepes. All the better; you don’t fill up on bread, so you can eat more! :D

The remainder of the duck meat was taken back and then incorporated into a wonderfully tasty duck meat and noodle dish. The dish wasn’t just a homey mish-mash of ingredients, but it was subtle and sophisticated. The noodles had good flavor on their own while the vegetables were prepared simply to showcase their flavors. Unfortunately, I did not get a good picture of the dish to show you how good it looked :-(

Other Excellent Dishes

Though we were there to sample the duck, we also ordered a few other dishes. Here are deep-fried silverfish, battered up and fried crispy like tempura.

A couple of dishes were recommendations by the wait staff. This dish of bamboo clams and asparagus looks simple, but the clams were prepared stunningly well. They weren’t chewy at all, but tender – almost like cod or other white fish. Definitely a highlight dish that we’d want to try again.

Also recommended was this tofu, spinach and mushroom dish. You can’t really see in this picture, but there are two different kinds of tofu in this dish. The bottom layer is actually a tofu incorporated with blended spinach. Served with the fresh mushrooms on top, this dish was a revelation.

We were quite stuffed by the end of the meal, and had a hard time deciding what, if anything, to get for dessert. But again the wait staff was very helpful. They suggested this trio of dessert creams. Bottom left is the roasted walnut cream. Bottom right is an almond cream which was thickened with egg white. The top dish, though is the winner. DURIAN cream.

Oh. My. God. So good. Soo goood.

This meal wouldn’t be possible without our gracious hosts. Throughout dinner, we “talked shop” a bit about food blogging, but mostly just discussed what life in Singapore is like. LK and her husband are very kind and friendly folks, and we are honored to have met them. Do check out the excellent Food For Tots website and check out her impressive breadth of recipes. Let them know Nate and Annie sent you!

Aloha, Nate

Dim Sum @ Noble House, Singapore

2010-06-06T20:15:00.001+08:00

Sunrise over Singapore

Although Kuching is known for a lot of good food that you cannot find in West Malaysia (or anywhere else) like Kolo Mee and Sarawak Laksa, Kuching is decidedly not Cantonese in its cuisine. If you are looking for any sort of Cantonese food, wait until you get to KL or Singapore. Especially if you want good dim sum. The advice given to us by locals about getting dim sum in Kuching is, “don ‘t even try.”

So when we were planning to go to Singapore, I had a major hankering for dim sum. I was determined to get me some really good dim sum. Not just any ordinary dim sum but really good, Hong Kong-style dim sum. (After all, this dim sum meal would have to carry me over until the next time I got to KL, Singapore or Hong Kong.

Laying Plans

With that in mind, I called my cousin 2 weeks before we left for Singapore to let him know that we were coming and to let him know that I was hankering for dim sum. He was more than happy to oblige. He made reservations at Wah Lok at the Carlton Hotel (supposedly one of the better dim sum places in Singapore) for the Friday we arrived. He also invited my mom to come along.

So I called my mom to let her know and to warn her not to make any plans for that afternoon because we were going for dim sum. I was gonna get myself some dim sum and then some!

Plans Unlaid

You know how “the best laid plans of mice and men go oft’ awry”? Well, on Wednesday night, I get a call from my mom. Wouldn’t you know it, another aunt of mine was so excited to see us, she decided to make popiah and invited all cousins, some of whom I had not seen in over 10 years, to come to her home That Very Friday for lunch!

“So what do you want to do?” my mom asked. “We could still just go with that one cousin for lunch but then you’d miss out on getting to see ALL your cousins.”

You know when someone gives you a choice that’s not really a choice at all? How could I possibly insult my aunt who had gone through all this trouble to prepare a feast and gather the family for us? And how could I miss this opportunity to catch up with all my relatives?

Resignedly I told Mom to call that one cousin to cancel the dim sum reservation and come over to the house. GUNFUNIT!

Making it Up

So did we have fun with the relatives that Friday? Sure we did. And did I regret not going for dim sum at the Carlton? Sure I did. But in the process of the conversation with my relatives, my aunts got wind of my hankering for dim sum so they all decided to take me to dim sum for lunch the next day. Just not at Wah Lok, but another place called Noble House.

(Isn’t it nice to be treated so well? This only happens when you don’t come around to visit so often ^_^)

So, yay! I was finally going to get me some dim sum! Several of my cousins and aunties came along - after all, dim sum is a meal best shared by many. They said that the last time they were there, it was very good (though it had been several years since).

Eating it Up

Was the better than anything we could get in Kuching? Definitely.

Better than my hopes and expectations? I wouldn’t say that. I have had better dim sum in Hong Kong (duh) and even in San Jose (Dynasty).

Did I stuff myself full of dim sum? Of course. :-d

But on the whole, only some dishes were real highlights like the char siu bao (that alone made the dim sum memorable – my kids ate three each!)

The yam puffs were delicate, fragile crispy bites filled with just the right amount of savory-sweet filling to make you want another.

The cheese balls were an interesting deep fried fusion of broccoli, shrimp paste, cheese and croutons. I would have eaten 10 of those except I was already so full!

The rest were pretty standard, good quality dim sum. Nothing that would make you speechless but nothing that would make you upset. Overall we ate everything and we didn’t complain. It was a parade of food, from the chicken feet…

…to the har gow…

…to the pork in bean curd skin…

…and the radish cake…

…followed by the cheong fun…

…and the fried tofu…

…and finally the shrimp and banana fritter.

Worthwhile?

Yes, my craving was satisfied. But more than that, the company of family turned what I would consider good dim sum meal into a really great and memorable meal. I can’t complain. What more could I have asked for? We got fun, we had food, we had family. I got to hang out with cousins who I hadn’t seen in years. I got to meet my nephews who I hadn’t seen since they were knee-high and now were towering over me.

I do still wonder how Wah Lok’s dim sum would have been. I suspect the dim sum would have been better there, but then again the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. The good news is, we’re close and there are opportunites to go back. I look forward to the next time I get to share a meal with my Singapore family.

Thanks guys for making it so fun!

Cheers, Annie.

Hibiki Restaurant, Singapore

2010-06-04T23:17:00.001+08:00

We’ve been deprived.

In California and Hawaii, we’ve been spoiled for good sushi. Whether it was Tokkuri Tei in Honolulu, Akane in Los Altos, Sakae in Burlingame, or the inimitable Sushi-Man in San Francisco, we feel that we’ve experienced some of the best sushi around. Despite the fact that Kuching is known for its fresh seafood, however, it is not known for having good sushi restaurants.

Our friends Mike and CW both told us to bypass the local Kuching sushi restaurants and just wait until we get to KL or Singapore. Well, we made it to Singapore, we were looking for a place to have dinner after our trip on the Singapore Flyer, and we found the Hibiki Japanese Restaurant on the ground floor of the Singapore Flyer terminal. Let’s have some sushi!

Sushi, or Not Sushi? That is the Question

Well, it turns out that Hibiki restaurant is more of a Japanese buffet restaurant instead of a sushi joint. At least, a Japanese buffet was all they had on offer that night. No ala carte!

Nowadays, we eschew buffets because Annie and I don’t really eat that much and neither do the kids. We never get our money’s worth like we used to when we were ravenous teenagers. But what the heck, we’re on vacation! We decided to just go for it.

The buffet system at Hibiki is not what you’d normally expect. Instead of having all the food laid out on a long table at room temperature, you just tell the waitress what menu selections you want and she’ll run back to the kitchen where they prepare your order. It’s a little slower this way, but at least the food is at the correct temperature.

First to come out was this chawanmushi, a savory steamed egg custard with mushrooms. It was very light and tasty. The kids gobbled theirs right up.

Chawanmushi at Hibiki Restaurant, Singapore

Hibiki doesn’t have much in the way of sushi, but they do have some maki (rolls) like the inside-out California roll and soft-shell crab roll. They also had some sashimi selections, including salmon, swordfish, and amaebi (sweet freshwater shrimp). The salmon was amazingly fresh, while the amaebi were quite enjoyable. We ordered a few more plates of these.

Sushi and Sashimi at Hibiki Restaurant

Annie’s mum ordered up some shrimp and veggie tempura. Also quite nice, but I think the batter was on the heavy side.

Shrimp and Veggie Tempura at Hibiki Restaurant

We ordered a few grilled items as well, including the asparagus wrapped in pork belly (awesome!) and this nice chicken yakitori. Both these items got extra callbacks.

Chicken Yakitori at Hibiki Restaurant

There were a few misses among the dishes, like a dismal agedashi tofu (no bonito shavings? come on!), a boring tabemono, and a grilled unagi fail (too much ginger, didn’t taste right). Service was okay, but the two waitresses got slightly overwhelmed when tables started filling up and they were preoccupied running back and forth from the kitchen. The dessert course was this tart pomelo-flavored jelly, which, though a bit sweet, was a nice save.

Pomelo Jelly at Hibiki Restaurant

With all said and done, we came out a few pounds heavier and about 150 Singapore dollars lighter. Quite full, but not quite satisfied because we still didn’t get the sushi we wanted. At least the weather outside was nice and balmy so we could walk off (a bit) of dinner.

Here’s a shot of the Singapore Flyer from the ground level at night. Like the Flyer, we’ll come ‘round Singapore again. Maybe we’ll find some really good sushi next time.

Aloha, Nate

Singapore Flyer

2010-06-02T21:50:00.001+08:00

Annie’s mum is from Singapore, and we haven’t seen the Singapore side of the family in over 4 years. With the long weekend created by the Wesak Day and Gawai holidays in Sarawak, we had a great excuse to book a trip over to see the relatives. On the first day we arrived, Annie’s aunt invited all the cousins over to her house for some popiah and other good food.

We had a good time hanging out at Aunty’s house and catching up with all the relatives. In the late afternoon, we had to catch a taxi to our next destination. Here’s Esther and Daniel’s reactions to what they saw:

The Singapore Flyer

Off in the distance is the Singapore Flyer, a giant Ferris wheel similar to the London Eye. At 165 meters high, it is (currently) the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. Along the outside of the wheel are 28 enclosed capsules from which people can stand and view the Singapore city and coastline during its half-hour rotation.

Though it was crowded due to the Wesak Day public holiday, the line moved steadily through the various gates and rooms up to the boarding platform. You have about 30 seconds between the time the capsule doors open and the staff usher you inside, and the time the doors close. Then, it’s up, up, and away!

Waiting to Board the Singapore Flyer

As the wheel turns and the capsule rises, you see more and more of southern Singapore’s landscape. Actually, there isn’t much land to see, as most of it is covered by high-rise buildings. Singapore is the world’s 3rd most densely populated country, even higher than Hong Kong! To the east is the Marina Bay Golf Course, and the East Coast Parkway runs off into the distance towards Changi Airport.

Directly north of the Flyer is Marina Bay. The Merlion Statue right in front of the Fullerton Hotel is dwarfed by the Singapore Central Business District’s skyline. The Merlion used to face open ocean before land reclamation projects created the Marina Centre and Marina South areas. So much has changed as Singapore has built new land and new developments!

Singapore Central Business District

In fact, those developments continue as we speak. To the west of the Flyer is the Marina Bay Sands integrated casino resort. Joining the three high-rise buildings is the SkyPark, an interesting boat-shaped feature that will have the world’s longest elevated swimming pool. Across the Expressway is the Garden at Marina South, a redevelopment of the Marina City Park which will include a climate-controlled conservatory.

We returned to Earth just as the sun set.

By then, we were ready for dinner. We didn’t have any plans, so we decided to check out what was available right there at the Flyer’s terminal. There was a Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen outlet, but I didn’t feel like fried chicken. Then there was the O’Leary’s Sports Bar & Grill, but they were closed for a private function. So, we decided to try out the Hibiki Japanese Restaurant…

Which we will talk about in our next post!

Aloha, Nate

Coming Soon...

2010-05-31T10:44:00.000+08:00

Just a little note to say that we're in Singapore for a short holiday and will be back to posting about our experiences in a few days. Stay tuned!

Cheers and Aloha,

Nate and Annie

Recipe for Fried Pork with Evaporated Milk

2010-05-27T23:49:00.001+08:00

An extremely delicious dish that had the whole family clamoring for more.

Fried Pork with Evaporated Milk

One day while I was cooking dinner, our helper Jessie (who gave us the recipe for Braised Squash with Lemongrass) mentioned this dish that she makes for her catered lunches that is always in demand. She said it was a fish dish that used evaporated milk and curry leaves. According to her, kids loved this dish.

I thought it sounded really good and asked if she would be willing to make it for us. She was very agreeable and told me that if I got her the evaporated milk, she would make it. She even bought the fish.

Now, having Jessie cook a dish for us on a weekday night is already a God-send. But not only that, this dish turned out to be extremely delicious. We ate it up and clamored for more. Fortunately, there was half a can of the evaporated milk left and Jessie told us that we could do this same dish with pork.

I just happened to have pork in my freezer (riblets to be exact—but pork belly chunks would’ve been even better). So Jessie agreed to cook this dish again the next day and even she agreed to wait till we got back home from work before starting to cook, so we could learn how to do it for ourselves. And now we get to share it with you!

Mingling Sweet and Savory

The key to this dish is to intermingling of savory flavors with sweet creamy flavors. This dish is reminiscent of the Malay style of cooking with loads of coconut milk (masak lemak) but instead of coconut milk, Jessie has substituted evaporated milk instead.

Evaporated Milk

And the highlight of the dish is the fried curry leaves. If you’ve never had fried curry leaves, you’ve missed out my friend. There is nothing like it.

Fried sage can’t hold a candle to fried curry leaves. The aroma, pungency and savory factor of the leaves makes it one addictive eats! You need to get yourself to an Indian grocery store and find some fresh ones if you can because they are totally worth it. And in this dish, it is the star!

The other aromatics help of course—chopped garlic, minced shallots, and some small bird’s eye chillies. All these ingredients pack a wallop and make for an enticing dish that keeps you coming back for seconds and thirds and…you get the picture!

Curry Leaves, Shallots, Garlic and Chillies

Recipe for Fried Pork with Evaporated Milk

Ingredients:
1 lb pork riblets or pork belly, cut into chunks
2 Tbsp tapioca starch (or cornstarch will work too)
1 tsp salt
dash of pepper
enough oil to shallow fry the pork riblets

For sauce:
3-4 shallots, minced
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
3-5 bird’s eye chilli pepper, diced small (number is up to you depending on how much spice you can handle but you must have at least a few)
a large handful of curry leaves (about 5-6 thick stalks)

half a can of evaporated milk, about 1 cup
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp chicken bouillon (or to taste)

Method:
1. Mix pork riblets or pork belly with the tapioca starch, salt and pepper and allow to sit for about half an hour to an hour.

Pork Riblets Marinating

2. Heat up oil in a wok and fry the riblets until golden brown on all sides, about 4-5 mins per side.

3. Once pork is thoroughly cooked through, remove from oil.
4. Remove all but 3 Tbsp of oil from wok.
5. Throw in the shallots, garlic, chillies, and curry leaves into the hot oil and stirfry till the curry leaves start to smell really fragrant and become slightly crispy. Make sure that you don’t burn the garlic and shallots.

6. Return pork to the wok along with the above ingredients. Cook pork a little longer (if fish, this part if not necessary but because it is pork, you want to meat to get a little bit more tender).

7. After about 10-15 mins, pour in the evaporated milk, followed by the sugar and chicken bouillon.

8. Let the whole dish simmer for a little while in this sauce (if needed, you could add a bit of water). Adjust seasoning—it should be savory with touches of sweetness and spicyness.
9. Plate up and eat with plenty of rice. Yum!

Fried Pork with Evaporated Milk

Try this dish and I guarantee you will love the combination of flavors. If you have a nice white fish (like dory), you could replace the pork for fish (except that the batter for the fish is slightly different and you don’t put the fried fish back into the sauce—you just pour it onto the cooked fish).

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

Since these curry leaves came from our neighbor’s tree, I am entering this in the Grow Your Own recipe roundup this month, hosted by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes.

Steamed, Stuffed Squid

2010-05-24T23:12:00.001+08:00

When the kids wolfed it down in no time and then asked for more, we knew it was good.

This squid recipe actually came about 2 months after the previous Fried Squid Fail. Annie had some time to shake off the bad mojo and was willing to have another go at cooking squid, something she wanted to do as one of her New Years’ Cooking Resolutions. But no frying this time.

Cookbooks Galore

We happened to be at Popular Bookstore, a bookstore in the nearby BDC neighborhood of Kuching. They have a wide selection of cookbooks, but not the usual ones by international publishers and authors famous in the West. These were mostly books by local authors and publishers, focusing on local dishes and cuisines. Annie was in heaven.

One of the books she was reading was called “Mama Steamed Delicious” by Jamie Jong. It was all about steaming different kinds of savory Chinese dishes. Annie kept saying to me, “Ooh, look at this recipe! I wanna make this!”

One of the recipes she was interested in trying was this Steamed Stuffed Squid. It looked simple enough, and sounded like it would taste terrific. So, she bought the book. Soon after, we went to the market to pick up some large squid and other ingredients.

Steamed Stuffed Squid Recipe

adapted from “Mama Steamed Delicious” by Jamie Jong

Ingredients:
400 grams squid (cleaned, heads & skin on)

Filling:
300 grams minced poprk
1 salted egg
1 Tbsp chopped garlic
1 Tbsp chopped shallots
dash of pepper

*Note: the original recipe called for a salted egg but we used a regular egg and about 1 Tsp of salt.

Method:
1. Clean out the squid bodies, reserving the heads and not removing the skin.

2. Mix the filling ingredients.

3. Spoon the filling into each squid, about 3/4 full.

4. Use a toothpick to skewer the squid and secure the head back onto the body.

Stuffed Squid, Ready for Steaming

5. Steam over high heat for 15 minutes. Remove and let cool before cutting the body into chunks.

6. Arrange the squid chunks and spoon over some of the liquid collected from the steaming plate.

Serve with rice.

This was a completely delicious dish. The minced pork filling with the garlic and shallots was so tasty! I ate my squid with a little sweet chili sauce drizzled on top. The kids gobbled up their squid pieces (sans chili sauce) and declared to Mommy that it was good.

I am amazed that this steamed squid dish was so easy to prepare. The hardest part was cleaning out the squid. But if you can get your fishmonger to do it for you, then this recipe wouldn’t be hard at all!

I hope that you will get to try this steamed stuffed squid recipe out.

Aloha, Nate

Fried Squid Fail

2010-05-21T22:58:00.001+08:00

Squid, squid, squid. Every time I go to the market, I pass by the fish section, and whenever there is fresh squid there, they taunt me. “You are too chicken to try to cook us!” “Nyeah, nyeah, we know you’re not going to buy us—coward!”

Tray of Squid at Stutong Market

And truth be told, I walk away. Every. Single. Time. Without buying them. In the back of my mind, I think to myself. “C’mon, I can do this. Cooking squid isn’t that hard. What’s the big deal?” And then I think, “Oh man, the year is going to go by and I’m going to have to confess that I didn’t try cooking squid even though it was part of my resolution.”

So finally, one day, I stopped and taking a deep breath, I approached a fish vendor and bought half a kilo of his smallest squid. Because I didn’t know any better. And because small ones would cook faster and I would be less likely to botch it. See…I had my mind set on frying calamari. So I took home my half kilo and set to work.

Cleaned it out (that part took longer than I thought—first mistake I made in buying those much too small squid), cut them into rings. Tried a really simple recipe that looked way easy and pictures looked way delicious.

Squid Pieces Soaking in Milk

The instructions in that recipe said, “Don’t fry squid for more than a minute otherwise they will get tough.” Ok, so I fried them for all of 20 seconds (in my heightened anxious state, every second seemed like 10 seconds). Dumped them on a paper napkin and fried some more (in batches right? For maximum crispiness?). Um, no…

I made so many mistakes. You already know mistake number one—they were too darned small (hard to clean, and see…squid shrinks when they cook so they turned out even smaller). Then there was the whole laying down my fried calamari on paper napkins—not wise at all. This from the woman who has advised you all to never let deep fried chicken touch a napkin lest you get a soggy mess. I mean, what was I thinking? Yeah, I blame that heightened state of anxiety again. Obviously, it short circuited my brain.

Mistake number three? Frying them for all of 10 seconds! Wait, didn’t I just say 20 seconds? I LIED! I tell you, I just stuck them in the oil (which was also too hot), and then before Nate (who was helping me) could pick up his camera to take a picture, I was screeching, “Take them out, they’ll be overcooked and taste like rubber! Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

So, we ended up cooking the half kilo and when we were done with the last of it, I turned to the plate and realized that the earlier batches were soaking in oil (because I didn’t have time to let it drain well in my hurry to remove the ones I had just put in) and the napkin was soaking up all the oil which was then being resoaked back into the squid.

So what did we have? A soggy, lump of battered squid. The last ones were still decently fried BUT when we took a bite, we might as well have had squid sashimi. They were undercooked, underwhelming in taste and certainly UN-crispy.

Fried Squid Fail

I don’t blame the recipe I tried. I am sure it would have worked out better if I wasn’t hyper with nervousness about cooking squid. And I’m sure it would have been better if I had eased myself into cooking squid by doing something a little less challenging. I mean, talk about trying to conquer all my fears at one time. I already have issues with deep frying and to try to do squid for the first time AND deep frying is just cooking suicide. I thought I was being so bold and brave and sticking my tongue out at those taunting squid. I think I was just over ambitious.

So my first attempt was dismal. In this fight, the squid won and Annie went down in disgrace. Final tally—squid:1, Annie: 0.

But hear this squid—there will be other days ahead. I will pluck up my courage again and try another dish. And when that day happens, I will rise victorious and your taunts will no longer bother me.

Cheers, Annie

Pork with Leeks and Basil

2010-05-18T07:07:00.001+08:00

This is one of those slap-dash dishes that turned out better than expected.

Pork with Leeks and Basil

This dish came about one day when I looked into my fridge and realized I had a little bit of this and a little bit of that left that needed to be used up. I had a couple leftover leeks from the leek and potato soup I made. And I also had some Thai basil and green onions left over from the last time I made larb. With all these random herbs and greens in my fridge (including some red chillies), I decided I would do something that would use it all up in one dish.

Leeks, Thai Basil, Green onions and Chillies

I always keep some some sliced pork in the freezer that I had divided up for days just like these when I am in a hurry but wanting to make a stirfry quickly. I would get some tenderloin or country style pork ribs and slice up the meat into thin slices. Then put them into quart-sized ziplock bags and lay them out as flat as possible. Then freeze them. Don’t forget to label them—meat somehow takes on an undistinguishable character when it freezes (is this pork? chicken? beef?—yeah, I’ve been there!). Once you have them frozen in this way, it is so easy to take them out to defrost. The thin flat layer makes it a quick defrost when you’re in a hurry.

Marinating Sliced Pork

Armed with my leftovers and meat, I was set to go. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to season it but I decided to just let my instincts take over. And it worked really well. The soy-based sauce complemented the basil and leeks very well and made it somewhat Malaysian. The fish sauce, Thai basil and chilli gave it a Thai flavor. I guess you could call this a Thai-Malaysian fusion dish! (If the fusion is both Asian, would you still call it fusion? Hmmm…somewhat confusing eh? ^_^)

Confusing terms maybe, but the flavors were spot on. The leeks were just wonderful with the pork. And the Thai basil gave it a nice licorice-y sweet flavor. Somehow, they all played so nicely together even though in the beginning I worried that I would have too many competing flavor.

Pork with Leeks and Thai Basil Recipe

Ingredients:

1lb pork, sliced
2 leeks, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup Thai basil leaf
1/2 bunch green onion, chopped
1 red chilli, sliced
1-2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Marinade:

2-3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1/2 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp salt

Method:

1. Season the pork with the marinade ingredients and leave to marinate for 30 minutes.
2. While pork is marinating, prep the rest of the ingredients: chop the garlic, slice the leeks, chop the green onions, slice the red chilli, and remove the leaves of the Thai basil from its stem.
3. Heat wok over high heat and put in the vegetable oil. Throw in garlic and leeks and stirfry, making sure to keep tossing them around so as not to burn them. Continue to stirfry till leeks are slightly wilted.

Stir-frying Leeks

4. Add pork, along with all the marinade and toss around for about 5-8 minutes until pork has cooked through.
5. Lower heat to medium, add the Thai basil, green onions and chilli and toss to mix.
6. Taste and adjust flavors—the dish should be distinctly salty-savory with a hint of sweet, smoky, caramel notes from the thick soy sauce and sugar.

Dish out and enjoy over rice.

Pork with Leeks and Basil

So next time you find yourself looking in your fridge and you have a host of different herbs inside looking to be used up, be adventurous and put them together in a stirfry. You just never know what new flavors you might unearth as you play with your food.

In the meantime, you can of course, always intentionally get all these ingredients and try out my dish to see if it works for you the way it did for me.

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

Marmite Chicken Recipe

2010-05-14T01:31:00.001+08:00

This sweet-savory and simple chicken dish is “die die must try!”

Marmite is one of those things that make people either wax lyrical or shudder in horror. This spread which is made from a concentrated yeast paste has a really strong smell and flavor. The Brits eat it with toast or bread. I have never eaten Marmite in that way. As a matter of fact, even though I’ve heard of Marmite and Bovril (another similar product) all my life, I have never eaten it until more recently.

And the only reason I’ve discovered it in the past few years is that it has become a common ingredient in Malaysian cooking. I remember having Marmite chicken the last time we were home in Malaysia about 4 years ago and then just recently, we ordered it again here in Kuching at a Chinese restaurant. Both times, the Marmite flavors were tempered with honey and other flavors to balance out the yeasty flavors. Somehow, the combination works in highlighting the chicken in a “cannot get enough of this” kind of way.

Jar of Marmite

So this last time when we ate it at the restaurant, I decided I would have to try to make Marmite chicken at home. This decision was easy for me to make because my kids wolfed down that dish and clamored for more. I figured why spend the money ordering it outside, when I could easily make it at home. It looked simple enough. After googling some recipes, I realized it was pretty easy.

So I set out to get myself a jar of Marmite. Then I gathered the rest of the ingredients I needed—some chicken breast, a little bit of vegetables to add color—carrots, peppers, celery and onions, and some other seasonings. I was good to go.

Spoonful of Marmite

Most of the recipes I looked up called for deep frying the chicken. Oh well…good thing I had made that resolution not to be afraid of deep frying! But honestly, I think a shallow pan fry would have been just as good.

As for the sauce ingredients, most recipes also called for maltose but I didn’t want to invest in yet one more ingredient that I would hardly use (the Marmite was my splurge already). So I improvised and managed to come up with this lovely and pretty tasty dish.

The only change I’d make is to add a little less Marmite—2 Tablespoons was just a little bit too potent. But you must not let this potent flavor dissuade you from trying it. Marmite in chicken, when used in just the right amount gives the chicken a subtle new character that is hard to explain but very addictive eats.

Marmite Chicken Recipe

adapted from the Star Online recipe by Amy Beh

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 a carrot, sliced thin
1/2 a bell pepper, cut into large dice
1 stalk celery, cut into large dice

Marinade:

1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp corn starch

Sauce:

1 Tbsp Marmite

1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp chicken bouillon
100 ml water

Method:

1. Season chicken with marinade and marinate for 1 hour.

Marinating Chicken

2. Deep fry chicken in hot oil until browned. Remove from oil and drain.

3. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan and fry the vegetables until softened. Add the sauce ingredients and reduce until sauce is thickened.

4. Add the fried chicken to the pan and toss to coat. Dish out and serve with rice.

Marmite Chicken

The combination of savory saltiness of the Marmite with the sweetness from the honey (and maltose if you have it) is just such a smart Chinese invention. Instead of sweet sour, this new dish brings in sweet savory which is just as good! Try it out and let me know if this is as good as the ubiquitous sweet sour dishes the Chinese are so popular for.

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

Pork, Lotus Root and Black Bean Soup

2010-05-10T00:09:00.001+08:00

This healthy soup is so delicious, you’ll be begging for more!

We were having dinner in a Chinese restaurant the other day. Nate wasn’t feeling very good and so he wanted some herbal chicken soup. But the waitress said they only had two soups for that day—one was a black chicken soup and the other was this lotus root and black bean soup.

I remember that the Chinese believe that chicken is not good when you are coughing. Strange eh? I also remember another friend who had recommended black beans as a cure for coughs. So we agreed and ordered it. I told her that Nate’s throat wasn’t feeling very good and she immediately pointed to the black bean soup.

When the soup came, the whole family drank it up in no time at all. It was seriously good! The pork bones and the lotus roots were tender, the black beans were creamy and the soup was just comforting in flavor besides being very delicious. Esther actually wanted some more soup at the end when we were all done. We tried to get her to do an Oliver and go to the kitchen with her bowl and ask for more but she was too shy :-)

We didn’t want to order another big bowl just for her so I told her I would try to make the lotus root soup for her the next day. Good thing this restaurant was next to a grocery store so I picked up some black beans and lotus roots. I already had pork bones at home so I was good to go.

How’d it Get So Tender?

Oh, during the dinner, Nate and I had a discussion about how they had gotten the pork so tender and the beans so creamy. We ended up pondering double-boiled soups, pressure cooker cooking and slow cooker cooking. All of which I could not do as I didn’t have any of these items at home. Oh well…

I started the soup in the late morning as I wanted to make sure that I gave the soup plenty of time to simmer to get optimum flavor. I did my usual parboiling of the bones and tossing out water from the first boil. Then I started the bones again with new water.

Once that came to a boil, I put in my presoaked black beans and lotus roots along with some red dates. As soon as they all came to a boil, I turned the soup down to low and let it simmer for more than 4 hours.

How do I Get it So Tender?

After that time, I must say, my beans did not soften and get creamy the way the restaurant’s did. It wasn’t hard but it wasn’t creamy. I even made sure not to add any salt until the end as I had learned that beans don’t soften up when you add salt while cooking it. But somehow, the beans still had some bite to it. I couldn’t wait too much longer so I seasoned my soup and a little later served it for dinner.

Esther still drank up the soup and ate the beans but she told me, “mommy, the beans are not as good as the one we had yesterday, but I still ate it!” I guess that is not the worst criticism to get. Overall, I managed to achieve the same flavors in the soup as the restaurant but I didn’t manage to get the tenderness in the meat or the beans. If you know how I could have done this without using a pressure cooker or crockpot or double boiler, would you leave a comment and let me know?

Pork Lotus Root and Black Bean Soup Recipe

Ingredients:
500g pork bones (usually the neck bones are good to use, or rib bones are also good)
8 cups water
10 red dates, washed and rehydrated
4-5 tubular pieces of lotus root (choose the ones that look least bruised and discolored), joints cut off and sliced 1/4 inch thick)

Sliced Lotus Root

1/2 cup dried black beans or peanuts, soaked for several hours before use (at least 2-3 hours)

Dried and Soaked Black Beans

salt to taste
dash of fish sauce
pinch of chicken bouillon

Method:
1. After parboiling pork bones and tossing out water from first boil, rinse bones and boil again in 8 cups water.
2. Once water comes to a boil, add red dates, black beans and lotus roots. Let stock come to a boil again and then set the fire to low and let simmer, covered for 4-5 hours.

3. Once the pork bones, beans and lotus roots are tender, add seasonings—about 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp fish sauce and a pinch of chicken bouillon (or to taste). Stir and simmer to incorporate flavors. Taste and adjust seasonings accordingly.
4. Serve and enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

This recipe using lotus root was entered into the Weekend Herb Blogging recipe roundup, organized by Haalo of Cook Almost Anything and hosted this week by Lynn from Cafe Lynnylu.

Steamed Chicken with Salt Fish Recipe

2010-05-05T22:19:00.001+08:00

Stuck in a rut, and looking for something new and tasty to do with chicken?

It was Sunday, and I was tossing ideas in my head of what I should cook. I had taken out some chicken drumettes from the freezer the night before with some idea that I would cook it tonight for dinner. The whole morning, I tossed some ideas around in my head. What could I do with those drumettes?

Stuck in a Rut

I considered making Pim’s fried chicken but Nate was a little sick and it wouldn’t be a good idea to do anything fried. Then I thought of making my simple go-to dishes—oyster chicken, soy sauce chicken, or even curry chicken. But none of these choices really appealed to me.

I felt like I was really stuck in a rut. I needed to do something different. After all, it was Sunday, I wasn’t rushing too much and I had not taken any work home. So, I was really free to explore new dishes.

Right around late morning, I thought, “I’ll do something steamed”. And suddenly I recalled a recipe I had bookmarked a long time ago in one of Amy Beh’s books. It was for steamed chicken with salted fish. Hmm…I have salted fish. So, I looked for the book and there it was, this very recipe.

Amy Beh had written a little footnote on the bottom of the page saying “This is a simple yet tasty dish to cook. When you find that you have run short of ideas as to what is good to serve your family, you can try this recipe.”

It was like she KNEW what was on my mind—I had run short of ideas. I was looking for something good to serve my family (Nate had just come home after a week away in KL), and I wanted something easy but tasty. BINGO! That settled it.

Chicken with an Accent

And really, she was right. It was so easy to do and sooo delicious. Don’t be put off by the idea of using salted fish—it was the accent to an otherwise normal chicken dish.

The little flecks of salted fish gave this dish so much yumminess that it was very hard to stop eating. When you go looking for salted fish, try to find the ones that are a bit more meaty (most Asian grocery stores should carry some salted fish). Of course, over here in Kuching, the choices for salted fish are amazing and the one I got was a freshly salted fish—it wasn’t dried out, it was still somewhat soft.

You do have to marinate the chicken for at least 4 hours before cooking so I do recommend you plan ahead. Other than that, the rest of the ingredients are really simple—some young ginger, and some salt fish and you’re good to go. The only change I made was to fry the salt fish first before cooking the ginger and chicken. I thought that would allow the chicken to pick up even more salted fish flavors.

Steamed Chicken with Salt Fish Recipe

adapted from “At Home with Amy Beh 2” by Amy Beh

Ingredients:
500g chicken (I used 10 chicken drummets)
scant 1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp Shao Hsing wine
1 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 large thumb young ginger, peeled and finely julienned
50g meaty type salt fish, sliced (actually, I just eyeballed it—I used about a 2”x1/2” piece of fish)

Sliced Salted Fish and Julienned Ginger

Garnish (optional): sliced red chillies and diced green onions (I didn’t use this)

Method:

1. Season chicken with salt, sugar, Shao Hsing wine and sesame oil. Mix and leave to marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight in the fridge.

2. Heat oil in a wok, and fry the salt fish slices till they are golden and slightly crispy. Take out of the oil.

3. In the same oil, fry the ginger slices till fragrant (about a minute) but make sure they don’t get crispy or too brown. Adjust your heat accordingly.
4. Add chicken pieces (along with any marinate) and toss around till they have lost their raw look, about 3 minutes.

5. Dish out the chicken (and all the sauces) and place on a steaming bowl (I used a small oval pyrex dish). Sprinkle the fried salted fish on top of the chicken pieces.

6. Steam over rapidly boiling water for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Make sure your steamer has a lot of water to begin with so it doesn’t dry out in the middle of steaming.

Make sure you have plenty of white rice to eat this dish with. It is PERFECT with the rice. Only setback? It’ll lead to overeating! Try it and let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

Grow Your Own #40

2010-05-04T02:33:00.001+08:00

This edition of the Grow Your Own roundup features 38 tasty dishes prepared using ingredients that were either grown or foraged by the writers. While most of the participants hail from the US, we have entries from 8 different countries, including one from Kuwait! Check them all out.

Butternut Squash Casserole

Sweet Luvin’ in the Kitchen

Michele from Pleasant Grove, Utah

Salsa

Amundsen House of Chaos

Erin from Logan, Utah

Beetroot Salad

Living Healthy in Kuwait

Noura from Mubarak Al Abdulla, Kuwait City

Braised Mustard Greens

Sippity Sup

Greg from Hollywood, California

Liquid Gold

Humble Ambitions

Beth from Coldspring, Texas

Tomato Soup

The Claytons Blog

Gail from Exeter, New South Wales, Australia

Finnish Cloud Pudding

Rich Food for Lean Times

Sofya from Southwestern Wisconsin

The Best Cornbread in the World

Grandma Linda’s House

Linda from Snohomish, Washington

Fenugreek Dal

Dil Se

Divya from Los Angeles, California

Apple Blackberry Muffins

Vintage Savoir Faire

Amanda from London, England

Citrus Almond Cake

Foodology

Jackie from Palo Alto, California

Maple Syrup

Homesteading in Maine

Nancy from Ripley, Maine

Chocolate Espresso Biscotti

Esmaa’s Sense of Things

Esmaa from Loveland, Colorado

Bibb Lettuce and Parsley Salad

Kitchen Gadget Girl Cooks

Gudrun from San Francisco Bay Area, California

Cavolo Nero, Chestnut and Butterbean Soup

Allotment 2 Kitchen

Mangocheeks of Scotland, UK

Fig and Apple Crumble

Luciousness

Charles from Victoria, Australia

Pesto Pine Nut Bread

City Home / Country Home

Bonnie in Salt Lake City, Utah

Miner’s Lettuce Salad

Fat of the Land

Langdon from Seattle, Washington

Maple Sesame Noodles

Playing With Food

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Jill’s Passionfruit Butter

The Clayton’s Blog

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Wild Garlic Pesto Pasta

Always Autumn

Clare from Torquay, England

Vanilla Bean and Calamansi Flan

Baby Rambutan

Stella from Boston, Massachusetts

Small Winter Garden

ThinkLady

from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Strawberry Shortcake

Always in Good Taste

Tawanna from Miami, Florida

Arugula, Basil and Tomato Pizza

Little Blue Box

Megan from Houston, Texas

Bresaola Roll-Ups with Rocket and Dill

Erbe in Cucina

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Rosemary Butternut Pumpkin with Couscous

Eco-Lesbo-Vego

Aussie Elv from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Orange Almond Birthday Cake

Cooking in Mexico

Kathleen in La Cruz, Nayarit, Mexico

Roasted Tomatillo Soup with Chicken

Andrea’s Recipes

Andrea in Northern Virginia

Vegetarian Linguine

Little Blue Box

Megan from Houston, Texas

Green Tomato Sauce

Raspberries & Trumpets

Miss Anne from Melbourne, Australia

Spaghetti Squash

Voted with Our Forks

Leonie from Canberra, Australia

Rainbow Trout with Tarragon Mustard Sauce

Stephfood

Steph from Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Blood Orange and Olive Oil Cake

TasteFood

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Pesto Stuffed Flank Steak

No Empty Chairs

Kelly from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pasta Ponza

Little Blue Box

Megan from Houston, Texas

Stevia Tea

Chapman’s Landing Cooking Studio

Nancy in Nipissing, Ontario, Canada

Belacan Fried Chicken

House of Annie

Nate in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Thank you to all our participants, especially for waiting the extra month for me to get this organized and posted. As for you, dear reader, what are you excited about growing in *your* gardens this year?

Aloha, Nate

Penang Seafood Restaurant, Kuching

2010-04-29T13:08:00.001+08:00

Now *this* is more like it!

The previous night's meal at Rock Road Seafood Restaurant was unfortunately underwhelming. But at that meal, our good friend Mike started planning to introduce us to another restaurant the following night. He said that he'd swing by before they closed and make the reservation.

So the following evening, after we took our friend Elizabeth on a short jaunt to Satok Market, we arrived at Penang Seafood.

Penang Seafood, Kuching

Is it Any Good?

I remember driving past this restaurant sometime early after our move to Kuching. I remarked to Annie that, "It can't be any good, if it has to proclaim that it's from Penang." The sentiment being, if any restaurant has to say that its food is from someplace else, it inevitably is NOT as good as that someplace else.

Yet, here we were, at a place chosen by Mike who eats out a lot here in Kuching (and elsewhere). I trust his opinion on such matters. And checking his blog, you'll see that he has visited this place many, many times. So maybe my first inclination about this place was wrong.

Soup's On

After settling our drinks, the dishes started coming out of the kitchen. First up was this pork bone and red bean soup. After the bowls were ladled out and distributed, I took a sip: Delicious! Very rich, clear flavors.

Pork Bone and Red Bean Soup

Next came the fried long beans with minced pork. A dish like this can be oily or overdone but the beans still had some crunch to them and the minced pork was alluring.

Fried Long Beans with Minced Pork

Now *this* dish was out-of-this world yums. It's a patty made with ground pork and dried salted fish. I thought it was too salty but it was so addictive, I couldn't stop eating it! Even now, my mouth is watering.

Fried Ground Pork and Salted Fish Patty

Here is one of my favorite dishes to eat: Chinese Pickled Pig's Feet. Typically eaten by new moms, this dish of pig trotters braised in Chinese black vinegar beguiles me with sweet, salty, savory and sour notes. Best thing about it is how tender the pork is. What's his secret, I wonder.

Pickled Pig's Feet

The only dish that didn't wow us was the midin. We had it belacan and salad style at Rock Road the previous night. Mike's wife ordered it belacan-style again, but I guess the kitchen had a mix-up and it came out sauteed with Chinese red wine. The midin came out limp and unappealing.

Midin in Red Wine

Contrasting the previous night's Butter Prawns, we were served these assam prawns. The large shrimp were fried and coated in a sticky, tamarind-based sauce. Very nice, and tasty!

Assam Prawns

The last dish that came out was the piece de resistance, an assam curry fishhead. And it wasn't just any old fishhead. Mike had brought it back from his recent trip to Sibu, and placed it in the care of the chef that morning. These were very clearly Penang Nyonya flavors. Spot-on! Great depth of flavor, and the fish itself was tremendously good.

Assam Curry Fishhead

The Damage

As you can see, we devoured everything on the table, save for the red wine midin. That assam curry was good to the last drop!

Is it Any Good?

I was wrong. It *is* good. And good to know that we can get Penang food right here in Kuching. They even have assam laksa and char koay teow on Saturday mornings! Definitely worth going back.

Thanks for the introduction, Mike!

Penang Seafood
Jalan Tan Sri Ong Kee Hui, near the intersection with Jalan Tabuan
Kuching

Aloha, Nate

Rock Road Seafood, Kuching

2010-04-26T23:51:00.002+08:00

We dine out at the “best seafood restaurant in Kuching”.

We don’t eat out a lot at the House of Annie. Even though Annie and I are both working now, we still manage to eat in most nights of the week. Stark contrast to a lot of double-income Malaysian households who tend to get their meals at local restaurants and hawker centers.

But every so often, a special occasion warrants a special dinner. Just recently, Annie’s good friend Elizabeth (responsible for our Easy Green Tea-ramisu, Hong Siew Braised Tofu, and Khau Yoke recipes) came to Kuching to visit. Kuching being a port city known for its seafood, we decided to take her to Rock Road Seafood Restaurant, widely touted as the best seafood restaurant in Kuching. And since we wanted to sample more dishes than our little troupe could hope to eat alone, we invited our good friend Mike and his family to come join us.

Fresh is Best

When you walk into the restaurant, you are greeted by large fishtanks on one wall, filled with live prawns and fish. In the middle is an island showcasing bins of fresh fruits and vegetables to be used by the kitchen. There’s also a bin holding dozens of live crabs:

Along the other wall are more fishes and shellfish on ice. You select your seafood, choose what style of dish you want the kitchen to cook it, and place your order with the waiters there before heading upstairs to the elegant dining room.

Since we had arranged for an early reservation, there weren’t that many people in the restaurant when we were seated. The food started coming out of the kitchen in quick order. First up was a big platter of fried noodles with lots of veggies, chicken and sauce. Pretty standard fare.

Since this was Elizabeth’s first time in Sarawak, we decided to order a uniquely Sarawakian vegetable dish: midin (fiddlehead fern) cooked with belacan (shrimp paste). The sweet, crunchy vegetable was accented by the salty belacan and spicy chile slices.

We also ordered a second midin dish, this time a cool salad which was served with shredded red cabbage, carrots, and onions. The dressing was a sticky, sweet sauce that was a little too sweet for me. Of the two midin dishes, we liked the belacan one better.

Next up was this yam (taro) nest with chicken, cashews, veggies and dried red chiles. The nest is shaped from mashed cooked taro, then deep fried. In most other restaurants, the nest would be light and crispy. Here, though, the nest was dense and chewy. Not very well executed.

One of my favorite dishes is butter prawns. Deep fried prawns are combined with egg yolk “floss” and curry leaves which have been fried in butter. Talk about over the top! That’s why I love it so much (especially the fried curry leaves). If the prawns are fried correctly, you can eat the whole thing, shells and all. These prawns were underdone.

By now the restaurant had filled up, and dishes were coming out much slower. The next dish was this steamed grouper with soy sauce. Annie had wanted to order a live fish to be steamed, but Eliz was afraid it was going to be too expensive. So she opted to go with this previously frozen fish instead. The difference between using a fresh fish and a not-fresh one was like night and day. There was no sweetness, no lightness in the flesh. Kinda disappointing.

The highlight dish of the evening was this satay crab dish, a signature dish for the restaurant. Normally this dish is served with prawns but Mike said to try something different. These crabs were swimming in a delicious brown sauce that was so complex in flavor. The crabs almost played second fiddle to the sauce.

The best part about this dish was that they served it with fried man tou (steamed buns). You tear off a piece of the man tou, swirl it around in the sauce, and pop it in your mouth. Heaven. I would have been happy eating this dish first. Too bad it was the last to come to the table, after we had all eaten our fill.

The Damage

Actually, the total bill for 6 adults and 2 kids was not bad, considering the high prices that this restaurant is known for. All 7 dishes plus drinks came up to less than $100 US! Amazing.

Still, I don’t think we’ll be coming back. Besides the last dish of crabs in satay sauce, we weren’t wowed by anything else. You can find these dishes elsewhere, for better price, and perhaps even prepared with more skill. Best seafood restaurant in Kuching? Not in my opinion.

Aloha, Nate

Edit: Here's Mike's take on the dinner: http://kongkay1.blogspot.com/2010/04/with-annie-co-rock-road-seafood-jalan.html

Apologies and Announcements

2010-04-25T17:23:00.001+08:00

*knock, knock.”

Anybody still here? Echo! (echo, echo, echo…)

Yeah, I know the blog has been a little quiet lately. Sorry ‘bout that. The past couple of weeks have been really busy and it’s kept us away from blogging. First off, there was the US tax season. (What, you mean I’m the only one who procrastinates doing taxes until the week of April 15???)

And then I was traveling away for work in KL last week, which meant that I had no access to the home computer where all the food pics are, and Annie was too busy keeping the household together with me gone. Therefore, no blog posts last week. But we’re back now, and feelin’ the need to get back posting regularly.

Oh, by the way, something really awesome happened last week while I was traveling:

According to our StatCounter, which has been counting hits since January 2008, House of Annie passed 1 Million hits this past Sunday! What a milestone! All thanks to you, dear readers. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Speaking of traveling, Annie and I and the kids will be traveling to Singapore at the end of May for a short holiday. We’re going to visit with family, eat, take in some sights, eat, meet up with friends, eat…you know, the usual. Any Foodbuzz Featured Publishers wanna meet up that weekend? Drop me a line via our Contact Page.

Something else that is going on: I have been spending more time working on the new blog. Yeah, the long-promised move to our own domain is getting closer. I just hope I can get the thing done before we hit 500 posts here on BlogSpot.

Aloha, Nate

Chicken with Cognac

2010-04-14T23:18:00.001+08:00

Take a boring chicken and maximize the flavor with tons of aromatics and umami flavors…plus some delicious brandy.

I was at a friend’s house in Kuching a month ago and she served us a lovely chicken dish flavored with lots of lemongrass. It was cooked in homemade Chinese red wine, she explained, and she had added dark soy and shiitake mushrooms. It was delicious.

I decided that I would have to try to make it myself when I got a chance. However, I didn’t have any home-made red wine to use. What I did have was a bottle of really good cognac that had been left by the previous owner of our rental home. We don’t really drink too much liquor but I’ve always been able to use them in my cooking. Maybe this was a waste of really good cognac but let me tell you, this dish was the BOMB!

I started out by sweating a bunch of yummy aromatics (lemongrass, ginger, shallots, red onions, and galangal—all just stuff I had lying around my kitchen that needed using up). Then I added my chicken pieces to brown with a little salt. Once the chicken had taken on a little bit of color, I added my cognac.

Then I added some soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and a little bit of sugar. Tossed in 1-2 red chillies for some heat. Gave it all a good stir, let the whole dish come to a boil, then covered and simmered for about an hour.

The outcome—amazing depth and flavor! The cognac gave the dish a rich, sweet flavor, and the aromatics intensified the whole experience. I didn’t add any mushrooms but I will the next time as they would add even more umami flavors to this dish.

Chicken with Cognac Recipe

Ingredients:
1 chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces, about 18 pieces
4 garlic cloves, smashed lightly
5 lemongrass, bottom parts only, smashed to release flavors
1 large thumb of ginger, sliced into medallions
1 large thumb of galangal, sliced into medallions
1 small red onion, cut into wedges
3-4 small shallots, halved or quartered
2-3 red chillies
6-8 dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted and halved or quartered (optional)
1/2 cup cognac
1 Tbsp salt
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 Tbps dark soy sauce
2 Tbsp sugar (or to taste)
1/2 cup water
2 tsp white pepper
2-3 Tbsp vegetable oil

Method:
1. In a large pot, heat up oil over medium heat.
2. Add garlic, shallots, red onions, galangal, ginger and lemongrass. Saute to release fragrance and flavors, about 2-3 minutes.

3. Add chicken and salt. Let brown on all sides, stirring once or twice every 2 minutes.

4. Add cognac and stir to incorporate. (Notice that I put it through a sieve—this is because the cork had broken up and bits had fallen in and I didn’t want any of that in my dish). Let cook for about 2 minutes.

5. Add soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar. Stir to mix. Let chicken cook in this mixture for 3-5 minutes. If it looks like it is drying out, add some water.
6. Add chillies and white pepper. Stir these in and then turn heat down to low and cover. Let it simmer for 45 mins to 1 hour.
7. Remove cover and taste. Adjust seasoning by adding more soy sauce, salt, or sugar as needed.
8. Plate up and enjoy over rice.

Chicken with Cognac

We used a whole chicken for this dish so we had enough for leftovers the next day. Let me tell you, the dish tasted even better the next day! And with my working schedule, leftovers are wonderful things these days.

Cheers, Annie

Egg Fu Yong with Green Beans and Daikon

2010-04-13T00:46:00.001+08:00

A simple, yet satisfying dinner dish.

When I was growing up, eggs were not just something you had at breakfast. As a matter of fact, we probably had eggs more often at dinner time than we did at breakfast. I love all types of egg dishes. And I don’t really care what people say about eggs—they are the most economical and perfect food. One day, when I have my own place, I plan to raise my own chickens and get me some fresh eggs everyday!

So anyway, getting back to egg dishes, my mom would make egg fuyong every so often and we loved it. As a matter of fact, the simplest recipe—sauteed slice onions with beaten eggs (onion egg fuyong) is still one of my favorite egg dishes today. And my kids wolf it down too everytime I make it.

Sweeter Without the Shrimp

But every so often, my mom would make this style of egg fuyong—she would dice up some french or green beans and add some chopped up shrimp. After frying them, she would add the beaten eggs. Another dish I love!

These days I don’t eat as much shrimp. Firstly, they are expensive here in Kuching. Secondly, I am trying to cut down on shrimp (even though I love it very much) because of our concerns with wild-caught shrimp, and shrimp farming practices. So for this dish, I no longer add shrimp. I add diced onions instead for sweetness.

Also, I find that pickled daikon (takuan) or pickled radish works really well in this egg fuyong. It adds some sweet/sour flavors to this already umami-filled fuyong. And this is a great way to get my kids to eat their veggies without complaining.

Faster than a Frittata

What is an egg fuyong anyway? I actually didn’t know that they were called fuyongs until I went to the US. To me, they were just egg dishes. I believe that they are to the Chinese what frittatas are to the Western world. They are savory egg dishes with fillings mixed in.

However, the Chinese versions are much faster as we are not as concerned with keeping the dish together looking like a pie. It’s a quick toss and turn of the eggs and if some chunks break off, no biggie! Just flip pieces around until everything is cooked through and plate up.

Try it and let me know what you think.

Egg Fuyong with green beans, onion and daikon recipe

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups french beans or yard-long green beans, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
1/4 cup diced takuan or pickled radish
5 large eggs, beaten
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp soy sauce

Method:
1. Heat oil in a non-stick pan or well-seasoned wok over medium heat.
2. Add onions and stirfry till starting to turn translucent, about 1 minute.

3. Add takuan and green beans. Add 1/2 tsp salt. Saute till green beans are slightly cooked, about 1-2 minutes. Watch heat, make sure vegetables are not burning. If too hot, lower heat a little.

4. Beat eggs with remaining salt, white pepper and soy sauce. Beat to incorporate flavors.
5. Pour beaten eggs over beans and onions. Make sure that egg covers all the vegetables. Let uncooked egg run to the sides as you cook.

6. When one side is set, about 2 mins, turn over to other side. It’s ok if you end up breaking the eggs a bit. I normally flip about one quarter at a time.

7. Let other side set. If needed, flip over once or twice more to fully cook.
8. Plate up and serve with rice.

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

“8 Treasures” Sarikei Chicken Herbal Soup

2010-04-06T02:03:00.001+08:00

This super easy chicken soup will make you feel warm all over.

“Bek Ting / Ba Zheng” – 8 Treasures

A few of our friends here hail from Sarikei, a town about 5 hours’ drive from Kuching. They are quite proud of their town, especially of some of their well-known food products such as mee sua noodles, Sarikei pineapples, and kompia bread. What really piqued our interest, though, was mention of the special “Sarikei chicken”.

Big and Bold

Our friend tells us that there are actually two types of Sarikei chicken – the kampung (village) chicken and the non-local chicken. Basically, the kampung chicken is descended from local chickens, is allowed to roam freely outside, and is slaughtered at 7 months, about 1 kg in weight. Since it is a free range it has a deeper color and flavor compared to factory farmed birds.

The second type of chicken is not descended from local stock but instead imported as chicks. The farmers raise them in limited compounds on chicken feed for 3 months and then dry corn for 4 or more months until they reach between 2-3 kgs. The way these chickens are raised somehow causes the meat to become more tender while still having “free range” flavor.

These chickens are not easy to come by, as they are raised on small family farms and sold mostly to people “in the know”. They aren’t cheap, either. The bird that we bought through our friend was about 2 kg and cost us a whopping 42 Ringgit (which works out to roughly USD $2.80 per pound)!

Sarikei Chicken

There are a few popular ways to cook a Sarikei chicken, but the best recipe happens to be one of the simplest: 8 Treasures Herbal Soup. The “8 Treasures” (“bek ting” in Hokkien, “ba zheng” in Mandarin) refers to the 8 different types of dried herbs that are used in this dish. Interestingly, they aren’t always the same 8 ingredients; they vary slightly depending on who assembles the packages.

In this particular package, we have ginseng, angelica, sliced yam, Solomon’s Seal, clematis, gingko nuts, goji berries, and chinese dates. We placed the herbs (minus the fruit) into a large pot with a couple liters of water and brought it to a boil. We boiled the herbs for about half an hour to extract the flavor.

8 Treasures Herbal Soup

Then we added half the Sarikei chicken, cut into pieces. Covered the pot and reduced the heat to simmer. After about 45 minutes we added the fruits and simmered another 15 minutes.

You could skim off the fat at this stage, or turn off the heat, let the pot cool and then keep it in the fridge overnight. The next day you can scoop off the congealed fat before reheating the soup. Serve in individual bowls. Some people take out the herbs but I don’t mind eating them as they’ve softened due to the boiling.

8 Treasures Sarikei Chicken Herbal Soup

The different herbs add different flavors to the soup. The ginseng of course adds an earthy bitterness while the nuts, dates and berries add a balancing sweetness to the soup. But the real star is the Sarikei chicken.

You know that feeling that comes over you when you take that first sip of a really yummy, homemade chicken soup? That warm, comforting, “ahhhhh”-ffect that soothes your body and soul? This Sarikei chicken’s deep flavor intensifies that feeling two-fold. The slurp-a-liciousness is good to the last drop.

Aloha, Nate

Braised Squash with Lemongrass

2010-04-01T00:10:00.001+08:00

Simple ingredients, combined in a delicious, easy to make dish for weekday meals.

Now that Annie and I are both working, we have a helper, Jessie, who picks the kids up after school a few days a week, brings them home, and tidies up the house a bit before we come back from work. She has been a real blessing to us! Jessie was recommended to us by one of our friends, who buys lunch dishes from her. It turns out that she is also a pretty good cook!

One evening, Jessie let us try a sample of her braised squash with lemongrass. It was so delicious! When she told us how easy it was to make, we decided we would have to try to make it ourselves.

The following Saturday, we picked up a squash from one of the vendors at the community market. These hard squash were kind of like long butternut squash.

Squashes for Sale at Stutong Market

The next time Jessie came to our house, she showed us how to make the dish.

Braised Squash with Lemongrass Recipe

Ingredients:

1 kg hard squash, seeded, peeled and cut into chunks
2 shallots, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks lemongrass (white part only), minced
1 tsp chicken bouillon or salt
2 Tbsp oil
water

Squash Chunks and Minced Aromatics

Method:

1. Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a wok over medium heat. Fry the aromatics for 1 minute until fragrant.

2. Add the squash and stir to combine.
3. Add water to the wok until the squash are almost covered.
4. Mix in 1 tsp chicken bouillon or salt to taste.

5. Bring the water to a boil, then lower heat, cover, and simmer until the squash are just fork-tender, approximately 15 minutes.
6. Remove the cover and let the remaining water boil off.
7. Plate up and garnish with chopped cilantro or green onions.

Braised Squash with Lemongrass

The flavor of the lemongrass is so profound in this dish. It is incredibly easy to make, so much easier than our other squash dishes. The only dish easier than this one would be our Kabocha No Nimono recipe. I do hope you get to try it!

Aloha, Nate

Recipe for Thai Larb

2010-03-30T00:32:00.002+08:00

Interchangeable ingredients, crunchy counterpoints: an orchestra of flavors that can lead to overeating!

If you have never tried Thai larb, you really have to. It’s not really too hard to make and the ingredients are so interchangeable. And of course the flavors are distinctly Thai—a little sweet, a little sour, a little spicy and a little salty. Which is everything you need to lead to overeating! Thankfully, the dish itself is quite healthy with the amount of green herbs in it that you can justify the overeating.

The Thai Orchestra

I first got to know about larb when I lived in Hawaii and a group of Thai students arrived at my International dorm to stay for one semester. They cooked Thai food everyday and they were so generous in sharing all they made. I never ate as much Thai food as I did that one semester. As a matter of fact, I ate so much Thai salads and other dishes that I ended up developing a sore in my mouth from all the lemon juice they used in their cooking! The pain was totally worth it!

Whenever I make this dish now, I always think of my Thai friends fondly. They showed me that Thai food was an orchestra of different yet complementary flavors that would make beautiful melody in your mouth. You’d think they would be complicated but most of their recipes were simple and a matter of taste—a little bit of this and then that, taste, and add more to get the right balance. And here’s the wonderful thing about larb—it invites improvisation.

That semester, my friends made larb numerous times using ground pork, ground chicken, fish paste, and even cut up hotdogs. The herbs and vegetables that went in it also depended on what was available—cilantro, mint, Thai basil, sawtooth leaf, green onions, tomatoes, red chillies, and shallots. Use all or some of them as you wish or have on hand, with the only one that I find most necessary being the shallots.

Crunch Time

As a final touch, add a dusting of roasted rice powder for that nice crunchy mouth feel. I didn’t know where to buy roasted rice powder here in Kuching. In San Jose, I would normally just pick up a pack from the Asian grocery store. But it’s really easy to make it yourself. All you need is some raw rice that you roast in a dry, hot wok until the rice is nicely browned. Cool it down and then grind it with a spice grinder or in a mortar and pestle until you have fine granules of rice. Any extras can be kept for the next time you need it.

Once assembled, you just need a host of raw vegetables to act as the conduit for the larb. These vegetables are the counterpoint for larb’s yumminess. Usually, I like to use sliced cucumbers or iceberg lettuce cups to hold my larb as their refreshing crunch goes perfectly with the full-flavored larb. Other good options include green cabbage, French endive and bell peppers.

Thai Larb Recipe

Ingredients:
1 lb ground pork (or ground chicken, fish paste, or sliced hotdogs)
1 Tbsp vegetable oil (or you could even get away with just using a little water)
1 Tbsp fish sauce (we like the Three Crabs brand)
4-5 shallots, sliced thin
2 Tbsp roasted rice powder

Use a combination of 3 or 4 of the following herbs (or all if you so desire, just adjust amount if using all):
1/2 cup Thai basil, sliced
1/2 cup cilantro, sliced
1/3 cup green onions, sliced
1/3 cup sawtooth leaf herb, sliced
1/2 cup mint leaves, sliced
1/3 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered (about 8-10 cherry tomatoes)
1-2 (or more) Thai bird’s eye chillies, sliced thin (or black pepper if you can’t take the heat of the chillies)

For the sauce:
Juice from one lemon
2-3 Tbsp fish sauce
2-3 Tbsp sugar (or Thai palm sugar, or a sugar substitute which is what I use)

Method:
1. Heat up wok over medium heat and add vegetable oil (or water). Add ground pork and 1 Tbsp fish sauce and stir around till it is broken up and cooked through. Remove and cool.

2. Chop up your herbs and shallots. Add them to the cooked pork.

3. Add sauce ingredients. Taste and adjust seasonings. The larb should have a balance of salty, sour, sweet and spicy. Adjust to your own liking. Some prefer it sweeter, others more sour or salty.

4. Finish by mixing in the roasted rice powder.
5. Serve along with raw vegetables like sliced cucumber, iceberg lettuce, green cabbage, French endives, and/or bell peppers.

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

Since this recipe uses shallots, I am entering this post in this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging roundup, hosted by Haalo from Cook Almost Anything.

Chinese Chicken Salad

2010-03-27T02:01:00.001+08:00

This isn’t your grandfather’s Chinese Chicken Salad recipe…

…probably because your grandfather never heard of Chinese chicken salad in his hey day. The Chinese chicken salad that we’re familiar with – shredded chicken, raw lettuce, crispy fried noodles, and a sweet, sesame-based dressing – wasn’t popular until the 1970’s.

The Chinese in Asia typically don’t eat raw-leaf lettuce salads. They prefer their greens cooked. Chinese chicken salad as we know it was probably invented in California as a “fusion” of Oriental flavors with Western ingredients.

Options, Options

There may be 3 main ingredients to a Chinese chicken salad, but they’re not always the same from recipe to recipe. Iceberg lettuce is the standard, but we prefer Romaine lettuce whenever we make ours. We’ve also found that mixing in some shredded won bok (napa) cabbage is a nice addition. You can use softer lettuces such as red leaf but they tend to wilt faster.

The crispy fried noodles are typically made from rice or bean thread noodles. But sometimes we’ve used fried won ton strips or even fried wheat noodles. In a pinch, you can just crumble up a packet of Top Ramen noodles and toss those in! ;-)

As for the chicken, most of the time we use boiled chicken breasts for the salad. Sometimes if we’re lazy, we’ll shred up some rotisserie chicken that we got from Costco. Of course, you could use some other poultry in place of the chicken like duck or turkey, but I wouldn’t go too far astray there! After all, it is called Chinese chicken salad. :-)

And More Options

Beyond the main ingredients, you can add many other things to the Chinese chicken salad to keep it interesting:

chopped cilantro
shredded carrots
sliced cucumbers
julienned red bell peppers
a can of Mandarin oranges
ground peanuts
cashews
sliced almonds

The sky’s the limit! What are some things that you like in your Chinese chicken salad?

The thing that ties this whole Chinese chicken salad together is the dressing. It’s got to have sesame oil in it. To balance it, you can use white vinegar, but we prefer to use Japanese rice vinegar. Annie has a dressing recipe that we really like:

Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing Recipe

Ingredients

2 stalks green onion (diced)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup sugar (or 2 packets Splenda) or to taste (original recipe called for 1/2 cup which I found to be too much)
1/4 cup Japanese rice vinegar
1/4 cup sesame oil

Method

Put it in a jar, cover with the lid and shake it up to mix. Dress the salad right before serving. Use just enough to coat the leaves - you don't want to drown the salad.

Aloha, Nate

Stir-Fried Cangkuk Manis

2010-03-25T04:17:00.001+08:00

Here’s another quick and easy dish I learned to make here in Kuching.

Stir-Fried Cangkuk Manis

Cangkuk Manis (“Chong-cook Ma-Niss”, meaning sweet leaf) or Mani chai in Hokkien is a vegetable that is very common here in Kuching. As a matter of fact, the same day that we arrived here and were introduced to paku, we also got introduced to Cangkuk Manis. Its texture when cooked is like spinach, but without the bitterness. This vegetable has a natural sweetness to it (which is why it’s name has the word “manis” – meaning sweet - in it).

How Sweet It Is

My friend Paul and his wife, Adeline, told us that this veggie is really easy to grow. Cangkuk Manis is actually the leaf of a bush commonly grown in Southeast Asia. Contrary to what you read in an earlier blog post on Paku, it is actually Cangkuk Manis that you can grow easily from it’s stem. “Just stick it in the ground and pretty soon it will start to produce leaves again” was how Paul explained it to us. I haven’t yet tried to do this because it’s so cheap to buy Cangkuk Manis at the store. For RM1, you get a big bunch!

Cangkuk Manis for Sale at Stutong Community Market

We’ve also ordered this dish in several restaurants and most times we’ve cooked or ordered it, they stir-fry this vegetable with eggs. The sweetness of the Cangkuk Manis really complements the egg nicely. Be that as it may, I was puzzled that at one particular restaurant, their Cangkuk Manis stir-fry was always sweeter than the ones I made at home. From the instructions I had been given, it was a simple stir-fry—just some garlic, shallots, egg, cangkuk manis and a bit of salt. But somehow, when I made it, the veggie did not sing with sweetness the way this particular restaurant’s did.

Anyway, after asking around and not being able to figure it out, we went to yet another restaurant where the dish was also sweeter (in a savory way). And that was when it dawned on me, they used oyster sauce!

D’uh! I should have guessed and tried it earlier. After all, oyster sauce is one of my favorite condiments to put on stir-fry veggies.

So, in this latest attempt at stir-fried Cangkuk Manis, I added some oyster sauce and finally, I had the flavor mystery figured out. Try this quick stir-fry if you are able to find this vegetable near you. I believe that in KL, they use this same vegetable in their Pan Mein. If you know it by another name, would you share?

Stir-Fried Cangkuk Manis Recipe

Ingredients
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 large bunch Cangkuk Manis, leaves stripped from stem and crushed
2 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 shallots, sliced thin
2 eggs, beaten
1-2 Tbsp oyster sauce
1/2-1 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Stripping and Crushing Cangkuk Manis

Method
1. In a large wok, heat oil on medium high heat.
2. Add garlic and shallots and stir-fry for about a minute, until garlic is lightly browned and shallots are slightly translucent.
3. Add beaten eggs and stir them around quickly till they are all broken up and form little pieces. Be careful not to let them brown, you just want them barely cooked.

Stir-Frying Shallots and Eggs

4. Add Cangkuk Manis leaves and stir around.

5. Add seasoning (oyster sauce, salt and pepper). Stir to incorporate the flavors. Add a little water if necessary to keep vegetables from drying out.
6. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Plate up and enjoy over rice!

Stir-Fried Cangkuk Manis

Cheers, Annie

This post is entered into this week’s edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, administered by Haalo and hosted by frequent Grow Your Own contributor Graziana of Erbe in Cucina.

Belacan Fried Chicken

2010-03-18T01:18:00.001+08:00

“Guess what I’m craving?”

Belacan Fried Chicken

I asked Nate this the other day. The only time I say this is when I’m craving fried chicken so it was a no-brainer that Nate responded with, “Fried chicken! …KFC?”

I almost said yes to KFC but when I thought about it, I responded, “maybe I’ll just fry some chicken at home. Some belacan fried chicken?” “Yum!” was his reply. (yeah, he’s so not typically American—doncha just love him?!?).

Belacan, pronounced “b’lah-CHAN”, is a Malaysian paste made up of ground-up, fermented shrimp. It is typically packed in blocks and sun-dried. We came home with a few blocks of belacan from our recent trip to Penang.

Block of Belacan Shrimp Paste

The Big Hit

So how did I come about this recipe? Last month, a visiting preacher, who happened to be a chef in his former life, had cooked us a feast that included asam laksa, tomyam soup and nasi lemak. He had fried up this belacan chicken to go with the nasi lemak.

The fried chicken was the big hit of the night and I was amazed when I found out how simple the ingredients were. Unfortunately, he (like most Malaysian cooks…sigh!) doesn’t measure when he cooks. Armed with the list of ingredients, I had to figure out the proportions myself.

Still, you should adjust your seasonings based on your own tastebuds and ingredients (this is becoming my caveat emptor in case you should find my food too salty, not salty enough, etc).

So here is a delicious recipe for belacan fried chicken. Yes, I know. Belacan is dried fermented shrimp paste and it’s stinky. But you know what? In this dish, belacan is the STAR and the taste is WONDERFUL! If you’ve never had belacan, you need to try this dish. You might just never go back to boring flavors for your fried chicken after this.

The trick with belacan is you need to roast the it till it is dry and crumbly. You can do this in several ways—you can cut up pieces of belacan and broil/bake them, or roast them right over a fire or dry roast them like we did in a wok/cast iron pan. NOTE: do this in a kitchen with lots of ventilation or else your house will really reek of shrimp!

Roasting Belacan

Once it is dry, you break it apart and either blend or pound it till it is powdery. Any extras can be kept in a dry jar to be used with other ingredients that call for belacan.

These days, you can find belacan at most Asian grocery stores. Look in the Southeast Asian aisle or if you really cannot find it, you can substitute with harm ha (fermented shrimp paste in a jar). It won’t be quite the same but close enough. You might not want to use as much as it will be saltier than belacan.

Curry Leaves

Nate and I decided to add a few sprigs of curry leaves from our neighbor’s tree to the marinade because we love fried curry leaves and thought it would work well with the chicken. It did. We thought that it might even be better if there was a little spice kick to the marinate. Oh well…next time! ^_^

This fried chicken is not like our crispy Thai fried chicken recipe. The batter is not crispy the way the other one is. You can really see the chicken and the crispiness is more on the chicken and its skin than an actual coating. It’s still very good though different. Give both a try and tell me which you prefer. I love them both equally.

Actually, there aren’t too many fried chickens that I don’t love. Teehee!

Belacan Fried Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:
4 boneless chicken thighs and 2 boneless breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces (or one chicken, cut into 16 pieces)
3 Tbsp oyster sauce
4 heaping Tbsp cornstarch
scant 2 Tbsp roasted and ground belacan (fermented shrimp paste)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp roasted sesame oil
2 sprigs curry leaves, stem removed (optional)
2-3 cups peanut oil or canola oil

Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients except for the oil together with the chicken pieces and let it marinate for at least 3 hours.

2. Heat oil in wok. Use chopstick test to check oil is hot enough (stick wooden chopstick in oil and if it bubbles out the end, it’s hot enough).
3. Slowly drop chicken pieces into hot oil and turn every so often to brown evenly. Do not crowd the pieces so that the oil doesn’t drop in temperature too much. The chicken should bubble vigorously as it fries. Don’t worry if the curry leaves fall out, it’s delicious to munch on the leaves on its own.

4. If you’re using boned chicken, make sure you watch the temperature of the oil to ensure the chicken is cooked through and not burned.
5. Drain chicken and serve immediately.

Belacan Fried Chicken

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

Since this recipe uses curry leaves from our neighbor’s tree, I am entering this in the Grow Your Own roundup this month. “Grow Your Own” is a blog carnival created by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes that celebrates foods cooked with ingredients you grew or harvested yourself.

Chinese Beef Stew with Tendon

2010-03-16T00:33:00.001+08:00

Stewed beef tendon has hearty flavor with a wonderful mouthfeel.

Well, I’ve been working for two weeks now and I’m beginning to feel a bit better although I’m still overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do every week. The hardest part has been coming home to cook after a long day at work. Some days, it’s really rough trying to get into cooking mode when all I want to do is lie down and veg! I have a new respect for all you working moms out there. If you have any tips for me on how to cope, I sure could use them.

Anyway, because of that, my weekends are now my major cooking days. Or at least one of the days, I try to make into a cooking day. The other day (usually Saturday), I put my foot down and insist on some rest—which means no cooking!

Yesterday, I decided I was going to make Chinese Beef Stew. It is something I’ve not made before but I remember distinctly having it at a friend’s house. She had used oxtail so it had a lovely beefy flavor along with the wonderful fragrance of cinnamon and star anise in the broth. She also told me that it was quite easy to make.

Winging It

Since I had gotten all my ingredients, I did not have time to wait for her to respond to my email for the recipe. I decided to wing it instead. And it worked out really well. It was quite easy like she said and full of wonderful Chinese spice fragrance. Also, the addition of tendon gave the stew a wonderful mouth feel.

The only problem I faced was that I started the stew much too late. I started prepping my ingredients around 4pm and realized at that point that my tendon wasn’t going to get cooked in time for dinner. Thanks to a can of Spam and some eggs, my family sat down to a simple dinner of scrambled spam and eggs and a simple veggie stirfry. The stew? It continued to simmer away till close to 9pm.

This problem turned out to be a good thing. First, stews are always better the next day anyway and secondly, I didn’t have to worry about dinner today.

If you have a chance to get some tendon for this stew, go for it. It is an ingredient that isn’t that exotic really. The texture is soft and gelatinous once it’s cooked down and the tendon absorbs a lot of the lovely flavors. I know it doesn’t sound like the most appealing thing but when tendon is cooked right, it is simply amazing! Unctuous and silky with just the right amount of sticky chewiness to delight your palate.

Beef Tendon

As for the beef, this is not the time to use an expensive cut. I went for a cheap cut with some fat marbling (chuck or brisket is a good cut for stews). Cut into large chunks and browned in a bit of oil before putting everything together for the long simmer, the meat breaks down and becomes tender and flavorful.

One other important ingredient would be the daikon. On its own, it adds some sweetness but more importantly, the daikon holds together really well in long braises unlike the potato which would break down to a starchy mess. It also absorbs all the flavors from the broth making it work harmoniously with all the rest of the ingredients.

As for the flavoring ingredients, the spices used in this stew are reminiscent of Asian five spice. Cinnamon, star anise, and ginger all added sweetness and heat. Some simple seasonings and a long simmer and the beef stew is done. Try this out if you’re looking for another way to cook a cheap cut of beef!

Chinese Beef Stew

Ingredients:
1 kg (about 2.5lbs) of beef (chuck or brisket is good), cut into 1 inch cubes
500g (about 1 lb) tendon, cut into bite sized pieces (1 1/2 inches)
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup Shao Hsing wine
2 cinnamon sticks
3-4 star anise
1 fat thumb ginger, peeled and sliced into thick disks
1 medium piece of rock sugar (or to taste), if you can’t find rock sugar, use regular sugar
1-2 tsp salt
1-2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 large or 4-5 small daikon, peeled and cut in large chunks
2 cups water

Method:
1. In a large, heavy bottomed dutch oven pot, add vegetable oil and turn heat to medium.
2. Brown beef chunks on all sides being careful not to crowd the meat. Brown in batches until all the beef is done. Remove beef and add Shao Hsing wine. Scrape the bottom of pot till all the browned bits have melted into the wine. Turn down heat a little if the wine is evaporating too quickly.

Browning Beef

3. Return the beef to the pot along with the tendon.
4. Add the cinnamon sticks, star anise, ginger, rock sugar, salt, soy sauce and water to the pot. Bring to a boil and skim off any scum that rises to the top.

Rock Sugar, Cinnamon and Star Anise in Beef Stew

5. Turn heat to med low and let simmer for an hour.
6. Add daikon and bring to a boil again. Immediately lower the heat to low and simmer for another 3-4 hours or until tendon and beef is tender. Make sure that the water level is close to the top of the meat (otherwise, whatever pieces are sticking out might get dried out and tough—stir every hour or so to ensure all the pieces get cooked through).
7. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Chinese Beef Stew with Tendon

Plate up and enjoy this hearty stew with some rice. Leftovers would also be good with dry-tossed wonton noodles.

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

Chocolate Haupia Pie Recipe

2010-03-14T01:59:00.000+08:00

You deserve a ∏ (Pi) today. So how about a Chocolate Haupia Pie?

Today is March 14: 3.14. If you remember your Geometry, 3.14 is a very significant number. ∏, or “Pi” is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Science and Math geeks like to celebrate the number on March 14. And since it sounds like the word “pie”, Science and Math geeks who bake will make pies on that day as well!

Last year, we threw a big, Hawaiian-themed party at our house. Our Ultimate Hawaiian Backyard Lu’au featured many popular Hawaiian dishes as well as desserts. Our friend Melissa, who is a great baker, prepared this Chocolate Haupia pie for us. (“Haupia”, by the way, is a Hawaiian-style, coconut milk-based pudding.) It was the best!

Thankfully, Melissa and her husband Pat had photographed the pie-making process in their kitchen, and had emailed us their pics. We hadn’t posted the recipe before, so I figured Pi Day would be the perfect time to do it.

The Chocolate Haupia Pie recipe comes in two parts: a crust containing macadamia nuts, and the haupia filling.

Haupia Pie Crust Recipe

from the “Hilo Haupia Squares” recipe by Sam Choy

Ingredients

1/2 cup macadamia nuts (roasted, unsalted)
1 cup cold butter
2 cups flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar

Method

1. Heat oven to 350*F.

2. Pulse nuts in food processor till coarsely chopped.

3. Cut butter into pat-sized pieces.

4. Add butter, flour, and sugar to processor.

5. Pulse till butter is fully incorporated; it will just look like a dry, crumbly mixture.

6. Dump it into a 9x13 baking dish, and press with your hands to cover the bottom and about an inch or so up the sides of the pan.

7. Bake 15 minutes, till golden brown.

While the crust is baking, you can start making the haupia pudding for the filling.

Haupia Pie Filling Recipe

adapted from “Maika’i Favorites” by way of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Ingredients

10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
2, 10-ounce cans of coconut milk (we like the Mae Ploy brand)
1-1/2 cups milk
1-1/2 cups sugar
3/8 cup cornstarch
1-1/2 cups water

Method

1. Whisk coconut milk, milk, and sugar together in a small saucepan. In a separate bowl, whisk the cornstarch and water to make a slurry. Bring the coconut milk mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Slowly pour in the cornstarch slurry, whisking until thickened.

2. Microwave the chocolate pieces in a glass bowl on high for 1 minute. Stir to melt completely.

3. Separate half the haupia mixture into another bowl. Add the melted chocolate into the bowl of haupia.

4. Mix the chocolate and haupia together until well incorporated.

5. Pour the chocolate haupia mixture into the baked pie crust and spread it evenly over the bottom.

6. Pour the remaining haupia onto the top of the chocolate layer.

7. Chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour to set. Garnish with shaved chocolate and whipped cream.

I do hope you get to try out this chocolate haupia pie recipe. It’s really very easy to make, and the results are well worth it.

Aloha, Nate

Ultimate Hawaiian Backyard Lu’au Recipes

Kalua Pig with Cabbage Recipe

Lomi Lomi Salmon Recipe

Ahi Limu Poke Recipe

Huli Chicken Recipe

Hosed

2010-03-10T10:01:00.000+08:00

Dear Readers,

I hosed myself. Twice. I am a double self-hoser!

A couple of months back, I found out that there was a scraper site (http://asianfood.aqimg.com/)stealing the House of Annie's (and several other food blogs') content. With no contact info on the owner, there was little I could do to get them to stop. It wasn't like the other scraper site I dealt with, who was hosted on Blogspot.

But I tried to file a DMCA report anyway, to see if the mighty Google could help.

Hosed

Unfortunately, I screwed up and told Google that the infringing content was located on the chezannies.blogspot.com domain, while the original content was on the scraper's domain. (Serves me right for not reading the form carefully.) When I realized my mistake, I sent an email to Google notifying them of my error. I also filed a corrected DMCA form. Then I hoped for the best.

Today, Google informed me that they had taken down the reported content...ON THE HOUSE OF ANNIE SITE. And then in a separate email they informed me that I can file a counter claim to get the content added back.

Say it with me: AAAAUUUUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!

I sent an email back to Google, saying I made a mistake and could they please reinstate my posts. Thankfully, they read the email and replied, saying I could take the posts out of Draft and republish them. Whew!

Double-Hosed

But then in my haste to get everything back online, I published all those posts without making sure they went back at the correct date. So that was why for about an hour, it looked like I had published about 20 posts today. And why a bunch of them got sent to you RSS readers.

I frantically went back and corrected the dates. I think everything is back to normal, and hopefully there was minimum confusion to those of you out there in RSS land.

To our dear readers: Sorry about that.

To the scraper site: I hate you.

To Google: It was my bad for not reading the form properly. Thanks for doing what I asked, twice.

To self: Get off BlogSpot, you hoser!

Aloha, Nate

Why I Am NOT Going Back to Penang for Chinese New Year

2010-03-08T23:24:00.000+08:00

You'd think that will all the good times and good food we had in Penang for Chinese New Year, I'd want to go back. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong.

Rose Cookies

We knew going in to Penang that all the famous Penang hawker stalls would be closed for the holidays, due to their owners returning to their own homes to celebrate. We knew that we would still be eating well, with all the big, home-cooked, celebration dishes and other holiday tidbits - such as the rose cookies above and these kueh kapit below - that we'd be snacking on during visits to relatives and friends. We just didn't know how much we would be missing.

Kueh Kapit – Love Letters

You see, Penang has some really awesome food. I've said in the past that Penang has some of the best food on Earth. And Annie and I have been missing that food since the last time we were in Penang, more than 4 years ago. But the problem is, if all the hawker stalls, restaurants, and various food suppliers are shuttered for the holidays, your chances of eating said awesome food are as small as this pineapple tart.

Tiny Pineapple Tart

We did manage to find some good food outside, but it wasn’t Chinese food. The Original Penang Kayu Nasi Kandar restaurant is Malaysian-Indian – they don’t shut down for Chinese New Year.

Original Penang Kayu

It was here that I got to have a few of the things I’ve really been craving while living in Kuching: roti telur (griddle-fried flatbread with egg), teh tarik (pulled tea), and…

Roti Telur and Teh Tarik

…thosai (dosa). Oh, I’ve really been craving a big, crispy thosai! They just don’t do them like this in Kuching (at least, not anywhere I’ve looked). Here at Kayu, they do them just the way I like it. Mmm!

Thosai

Later on that day, Uncle took us to Kedai Kopi Genting, at Lorong Delima 3. This kopitam has a good selection of hawker stalls featuring several popular Penang dishes, such as kway teow th’ng. The thin rice noodle comes in a clear broth, accompanied by some chicken meat (sometimes duck) and a few fishballs. The kids shared this bowl, but I wasn’t having any of it.

Kway Teow Th’ng

I was specifically here for some assam laksa from the Ayer Hitam stall. It was here where I fell in love with the sweet-sourish, fish-filled spicy soup noodle dish for the first time. I was so glad to see he was open on this visit, because sometimes he runs out early.

Ayer Hitam Assam Laksa

Unfortunately, the laksa today was not up to par. The soup flavor was good but not great, and the condiments of shredded banana flower and cucumber were lacking. Worse, the noodles themselves were lifeless. They lacked that nice, springy chew of a freshly made noodle.

I suspect that the regular noodle supplier may have either been closed for the holiday or charged too high a price (the Chinese New Year “surcharge”). So the vendor opted to use reconstituted, dried rice noodles. Whatever it was, I was not satisfied.

Annie ordered a platter of char koay teow, another dish that Penang is famous for.

Char Koay Teow

But, same as the laksa, this dish did not satisfy. Perhaps because she ordered it without chili sauce, but also I think the quality of the ingredients wasn’t there. We were disappointed, because we only had one more day in Penang before we had to return to KL.

Saved

When we were planning to come to West Malaysia, we of course desired to meet up with some food bloggers. I put out some feelers, and made contact with Criz Lai and Lingzie, both Penang food bloggers. But we couldn’t make any more connections, because all the other bloggers were going to be either traveling or tied up with their own CNY family obligations.

We made plans to meet up with Criz on the last day of our stay in Penang. Criz is a wealth of information about eating in Penang. He took us to a new hawker center in town called New World Park, where we were to meet up with Lingzie. I thought the hawker center was a fantastic concept: clean, open air, rooftops lifted high overhead, plenty of food choices and a fair amount of parking stalls so you don’t have to fight to get in.

First thing Criz got us was a Swatow Lane Special ais kacang.

Swatow Lane Special Ais Kacang

It’s basically a bowl of shaved ice with lots of fruits, corn, syrup and a scoop of mango ice cream thrown on. It was a yummy, but a bit too much fruit. I recall having a really good Swatow Lane ais kacang on one of our previous visits here, and it wasn’t nearly as chock-full of stuff.

Criz also ordered an otak-otak. This Nyonya dish is a spicy fish paste that is steamed inside a bamboo leaf. Actually, this otak-otak was probably one of the best I’ve had. Nice balance of flavors.

Otak-Otak

That dish turned out to be the highlight dish. This Chee Cheong Fun (steamed rice noodles) is served with chili sauce and the hae ko shrimp sauce that Penang is famous for. I thought the noodles were again lacking.

Chee Cheong Fun

Lingzie called Criz to tell him that she couldn’t make it, as some out-of-town relatives had just shown up. Argh! Darn Chinese New Year visiting!

We hopped back in Criz’s car and he took us to his favorite cendol stop, the Penang Rd Famous Teochew Ceondol cart. On this hot day, the cart was doing brisk business. Criz stepped up to order some bowls.

Penang Rd Cendol Cart

Cendol is different from ais kacang. Cendol is a simpler shaved ice dish, featuring coconut milk, gula melaka (palm sugar), red bean, and these little green noodles which give cendol its namesake. It was very good!

Penang Rd Cendol

Standing there waiting for my cendol, I smelled the unmistakable aroma of assam laksa. This vendor was serving his laksa in the kopitiam next to the cendol cart. Criz asked me if I wanted a bowl of laksa, saying that his laksa was very good.

At first I was unsure, seeing how much food I’d already eaten just a little while earlier. But the mouth-watering smells called to me, and I answered yes. The vendor ladled his soup into a plastic bag to go.

Assam Laksa Vendor

Boy, am I glad I said yes! The laksa indeed was very good. Simple, yet strong flavors. The chili spice lingered on my lips, tongue and throat. Best of all, the noodles were just right.

Assam Laksa

That was pretty much it for our Penang eating adventure. Criz took us to the Hock Lock Siew bakery, where we picked up some baked goods as gifts to bring back home. Then he dropped us off back at Uncle’s place.

Later on, Uncle took us to a Nyonya restaurant that was supposed to be pretty good. Unfortunately, the restaurant was short-staffed due to the holiday, and were only serving set meals instead of a la carte dishes. The food came slowly, and was mostly uninspiring save for the Chicken Kapitan. We returned to Uncle’s house, where we packed up our suitcases, stuffed them into Dad’s (non-air-conditioned) car, and started the arduous journey back to KL.

Not Going Back

So ends our Chinese New Year eating adventure in Penang. It wasn’t until the last day did we get some decent Chinese food from the hawker stalls and kopitiams. And then, we only got to meet up with one food blogger.

Hardly a successful trip, I’d say. With airfares at a premium during Chinese New Year, you could almost say it’s not worth it to come to Penang for CNY. You miss out on too much.

So we’ve decided. We’re not going back to Penang for Chinese New Year. We’ll go a little bit later, say the second week when more stalls will be open, more food suppliers will be producing ingredients, and more friends / floggers will be free to meet up.

How does that sound to you?

Aloha, Nate

Announcing “Grow Your Own” #40

2010-03-08T12:27:00.000+08:00

Thank you to all the participants in last month’s “Grow Your Own” roundup. Let’s do it again!

Spring is officially in swing in the Northern Hemisphere. There are those of you whose gardens are not yet ready for planting, but you are still using up food stored from last year's harvest. Some of you may be harvesting Winter crops like citrus or greens. A few outdoorsy-types are even foraging for mushrooms, ramps or nettles.

Then there are those of you who live in tropical climates with year-round growing seasons. And let's not forget those who are in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is the peak of the Summer growing season, and all that it entails. I've even noticed that a lot of you are growing sprouts these days - you're all welcome to participate.

Show off

What are you cooking with all this stuff you've grown / harvested / foraged? Here's your chance to show it off! The rules are simple:

Make a dish that uses at least one item from your very own garden or farm and post about it. If you hunted or foraged, those items are also eligible. You can also use something that was given to you, but the giver must have personally grown or raised the item. If you paid for it, then it doesn’t count.
Anything edible that you have grown or raised qualifies, including fruits, vegetables, herbs, sprouts, edible flowers, nuts, grains, legumes, dairy products, eggs, livestock, and anything else I might have forgotten. Produce from both indoor and outdoor gardens are welcome! Different regions will have different things available, so feel free to feature things unique to your area. (Rambutan trees, anyone?) We are all about celebrating variety!
Please make sure your dish is posted during the month of the event because we like to celebrate seasonal items. One post per blog, please.
As a courtesy, please include a link to this announcement in your blog post, and then update later with a link to the round-up. A sample link would be like:

This post was entered into the "Grow Your Own" roundup, created by Andrea's Recipes and hosted this month by House of Annie.

Ready to participate? Because I and lots of other people would LOVE to see what you're cooking! To enter, just fill out the fields in this form:

http://www.emailmeform.com/fid.php?formid=532860

And make sure to include a pic (no wider than 300 pixels) of your food as well! The deadline for the February GYO roundup is March 31.

Aloha, Nate

Previous March GYO roundups:

March 2008
March 2009

"Grow Your Own" roundup #39

2010-03-06T02:36:00.000+08:00

With over 40 entries from 8 different countries around the world, this month’s “Grow Your Own” roundup has a lot to offer! Many of the US entries are about using up foods harvested the previous Summer, but some entries celebrate foods available right now in Winter, such as carrots, kale, or even foraged truffles.

You’ll notice a lot of lemon and tomato entries – two crops people grow a lot of at home. There are also entries featuring some unusual crops, such as hops and kefir. So without further ado, here are this month’s GYO entries, listed by ingredient.

Bananas and Papayas

Tropical Upside-Down Cake by Kathleen of Cooking in Mexico in La Cruz, Nayarit, Mexico

Basil

Pesto Hummus by Andrea of Andrea's Recipes in Virginia, USA

Anitpasto Pesto Pasta by Kim of Live: Love: Laugh: Eat in Portsmouth, Virginia, USA

Broccoli and Fennel

Broccoli-Fennel Stir-Fry by Esmaa of Esmaa's Sense of Things in Loveland, Colorado, USA

Carrots and Kale

Chicken Noodle Soup by Annette of Sustainable Eats in Seattle, Washington, USA

Cavolo Nero (Italian Curly Kale)

Cavolo Nero with Garlicky Butter Beans by Mangocheeks of Allotment 2 Kichen in Scotland, UK

Chilies

Dried Chili Flakes by Connie of Home Cooking Rocks! in Antipolo, Rizal, Philippines

Bombay Lamb Curry by Harrison of Homely Living in New Zealand

Curry Leaves

Spicy Pork with Fried Ginger and Curry Leaves by Annie of House of Annie in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Green beans

Scrap Soup by Leigh of 5 Acres and a Dream in South Carolina, USA

Green Onions

Pea Salmon Coconut Milk Onigiri by Ann of MomGateway in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

Hops

Citra IPA by Dave of Schrambrau in Nampa, Idaho, USA

Harvest Rye IPA by Peter of Better Beer Blog in San Jose, California, USA

Jalapenos

Kidney Beans Burgers with Jalapeno by Graziana of Erbe in cucina (Cooking with herbs) in Acireale, Sicily, Italy

Kefir

Three Secrets Chicken by Nika of Nikas Culinaria in Wales, Massachusetts, USA

Lavender

Honey Lavender Cake by Liisa of Liisa’s New Blahhhg in Medford, Oregon, USA

Lemongrass

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce by Ross of Twice Cooked Duck in Bangalow, New South Wales, Australia

Lemons

Sunday Sangria by Gudrun of Kitchen Gadget Girl in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA

Eggless Low-fat Lemon Loaf from Evolving Tastes in the USA

Lemon-Pomegranate Tango Dressing by Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms in Northern California, USA

Limoncello by Katja of Driving Like A Maniac in Salento, Puglia, Italy

Limoncello by Graham of Mason Jars and Mixing Bowls in Chandler, Arizona, USA

Lime

Red Quinoa Tabouleh by Lucy of Lavalily in Ocean View, Hawaii, USA

Mustard Greens

Sausage and Potato Flat Bread with Mustard Greens by Greg of SippitySup in Los Angeles, California, USA

Onions and Garlic

Quick Seafood Pasta by Janette of Bored Goldfish in New Zealand

Parsley

Chimichurri Dressing by Melissa of You Should Grow That! in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Pasta Sauce, Eggplant, Silverbeet

Summer Harvest Vegetarian Canneloni by Liss of Frills in the Hills in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Peppers

Jambalaya by Linda of MrsjayBob in Hartford, South Dakota, USA

Pizza Sauce

Deep Dish Pizza by Penny of All Natural Mama in Freeport, Illinois, USA

Pumpkins

Pumpkin Mochi by Rachel of The Crispy Cook in Saratoga County, New York, USA

Roasted Tomato-Pepper Mix

Turkey Chipotle Sauce Over Pasta by Sharlene of Solar Cooking for Mainstream Cooks in Willow Spring, North Carolina, USA

Root Veggies

Big Borscht by Brett of Trout Caviar in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA

Rosemary

Pureed Vegetable Soup by Lynn of Queen of the Castle Recipes in Los Gatos, California, USA

Tomatoes

Tomato Pasta Sauce by Christie of Home Grown in Victoria, Australia

Sun-Dried Tomato, Feta and Caramelized Onion Tart by Eliza of Appalachian Feet in Greenville, South Carolina, USA

Simple Saturday Pasta by Leonie of Voted With Our Forks in Canberra, Australia

Tomato Polenta with Mushrooms by Kathryn of The Eaten Word in Northampton, Massachusetts, USA

Tomato Jam by Gail of The Claytons Blog in Exeter, New South Wales, Australia

Homemade Tagliatelle with Edible Balcony Tomato and Basil Sauce by Indira of Saucy Onion in Sydney, Australia

Sun-Dried Tomato and Herb Focaccia by Kate of Urban Food Producer in Seattle, Washington, USA

Truffles

Foraged Truffles by Langdon of Fat of the Land in Seattle, Washington, USA

Winter Greens

Saag Tofu by Di of Di Hickman’s Blog in Simi Valley, California, USA

Thanks

My heartfelt thanks to all those who participated in this month's GYO. It’s so inspiring to see all the different dishes you make with homegrown or foraged food.

Stay tuned for the announcement of next month’s roundup!

Aloha, Nate

Chinese New Year in Penang

2010-03-04T00:42:00.000+08:00

Ever since Annie went to the United States to study 13 years ago, she hasn’t been back home for Chinese New Year. Sure, we’ve come back to Malaysia several times to visit, but never during this season which is the most important holiday celebrated by her family. So when we moved to East Malaysia and settled in Sarawak, one of the first things we did was book tickets to KL so we could spend this festive time reuniting with her family in KL and Penang.

Annie’s extended family on her father’s side are from Penang. When I say “extended family”, I mean EXTENDED. Her dad has many brothers and sisters, plus all the other cousins and relatives by marriage. It was said that you couldn’t throw a stone in Penang without hitting a relative. I was looking forward to the excitement of the family reunion.

And, of course, I was looking forward to the food.

Crossing Over the Bridge to Georgetown, Penang

It was a 4 hour-long drive up from KL. We had stopped at a rest stop along the way for some mediocre hawker fare. By the time we got to Annie's uncle's house (where we would be staying the next few days), we were exhausted.

But we had barely a chance to unload our car, wash up and settle down before Uncle announced, "come, you want to go eat?"

Well, how could we refuse? ;-d

Since it was Chinese New Year, most of the hawker stalls that Penang is famous for were closed. All the proprietors had gone home to prepare their own family feasts and functions. Uncle took us to Cafe Bali Bali, a kopitiam (coffeeshop) nearby that he frequents.

He ordered a Hokkien Prawn Mee (a soup noodle dish, completely different from the KL-style Hokkien Char Mee) for me, plus a Char Kway Teow to share and a couple of Assam Laksa to ta pau (take home). The prawn mee was okay only; the broth did not pack a good enough porky-shrimpy flavor punch for me.

Hokkien Prawn Mee

That night, we went out again to meet up with another Uncle and his family for dinner. We ended up at another kopitiam across the road from this Uncle’s house. I wound up getting a Klang-style bak kut teh (literally “pork bone tea”) which was decent. After I finished that, Auntie asked if I was interested in some Or Chien (oyster omelet).

Fresh oysters, wok-fried with beaten eggs and tapioca starch, then served with some chili sauce on the side? “Sure!”

Or Chien (Hokkien Oyster Omelet)

The next day was actually the eve of Chinese New Year. Almost all the immediate relatives in Penang would be here to have the first reunion dinner. Annie’s Mum and Aunty were busy all day in the kitchen, cooking.

One by one, dishes appeared on serving platters: a chicken dish, a prawn dish, a pork dish, a vegetarian dish…it was going to be quite a feast! Towards the end of the afternoon, Uncle went out to his favorite Nasi Kandar restaurant and came back with a big pot of Indian fish curry.

We were among the first to eat, before the crowd arrived. I have to say, this fish curry was really good! The sweetness of the onions, the savoriness of the curry, and the spiciness of the chili were combined into a wonderful balance of flavors.

Fish Curry

The times, they are a changin’.

Perhaps it’s because the economy is better, or airfares are cheaper. Or it could be that hanging around family is not as fun as it used to be when everyone was younger. In any case, there weren’t as many relatives at the reunion dinner this year, compared to previous times we’ve been back to Penang. A few of the families were actually traveling overseas for the holiday instead of gathering at home.

Those that did come, though, got to participate in a Chinese New Year “tradition” that was invented here in Malaya back in the 60’s. “Yee Sang” (or “Yusheng” depending on your dialect) literally means “raw fish” but sounds like the words for “increasing abundance”. It is made with strips of several different kinds of vegetables, plus crispy noodles, raw fish, ground peanuts, and a highly sweet, sticky sauce.

Yee Sang Platter

The idea is to have everyone grab a pair of chopsticks, gather ‘round the platter, and toss the whole mixture together in unison.

Tossing the Yee Sang

At the same time, they call out blessings and good wishes for the new year. Supposedly, the higher the toss, the greater the blessing. Everyone gets in on the fun and starts calling out things like, “good health” or “win the lottery” (for the older folks) and “find a boyfriend” or “get married next year” (for the single folks).

Tossing the Yee Sang

As with large families, sometimes things can get messy. Like a just-mixed platter of yee sang.

Yee Sang - All Mixed Up

But without all the mixing around, you’d never get a full taste of the yee sang in your bowl. The sour elements interact with the sweet, while the mushy elements interact with the crunchy. People might have their favorite ingredient but it wouldn’t be yee sang if you didn’t have the other ingredients to create a harmonious balance in your bowl.

Bowl of Yee Sang

The next day, the family all gathered together again for the traditional First Day vegetarian meal. Even then, things weren’t so harmonious. We had to discipline a tantrum-throwing Esther, who wouldn’t stop crying for some absurd reason (crying is a big no-no on the First Day).

Eventually, we all settled down and tucked in to the meal. It was a very tasty, Chinese vegetarian meal full of mock meats and tofu cooked in a variety of ways.

Afterward, we all gathered in the hall to take a family picture.

Neoh Family Picture

Aunties, Uncles, cousins and grandkids, all tossed together and mixed up like a platter of yee sang. It may not be pretty, but it’s family.

Aloha, Nate

Spiced Pork with Fried Ginger and Curry Leaves

2010-03-01T21:59:00.001+08:00

Savory, spicy pork tenderloin – so delicious!

It’s been a while since we posted. So much has been happening with us. The most important news is that I just got a new job!

I haven’t actually worked full-time in forever and this is my first job in more than 10 years. I started today actually, and I’m quite blasted after a whole day of orientation and meeting people in different departments. But I felt a need to write a post tonight.

As I adjust to work, I don’t really know what will happen with my cooking. I know that I will still cook. I just don’t know if I can do elaborate meals quite as often.

More Quick Dishes

What this will mean is that you will see me posting more dishes that are quick to prepare. So for you working moms out there, this should come in pretty handy. Case in point—we had spaghetti tonight for dinner—it was fast and delicious and I made enough that Nate and I will both have it for lunch tomorrow.

What made this easy was that I had made a large batch of my breakfast sausage a week ago and frozen them in small patties (besides using them at breakfast, they are wonderful for spaghetti!). This morning, before work, I took four patties out and left them to thaw in the fridge. I also took out some dried shiitake mushrooms, rinsed them, and then left them to rehydrate in the fridge.

When I came home, I just needed to boil some water, chop some onions and garlic and open a can of whole tomatoes. Everything else was pretty much ready—follow my instructions on easy pasta and voila! Dinner on the table in 30 minutes.

Then just now (which is about an hour after dinner), I’m actually cooking pork adobo which is a stew that does take some time for tomorrow’s dinner (I will post a recipe for this soon). Who says you can’t cook and hold a full-time job?

It’s all in the planning. I really don’t want to give in to take-out all the time so I’ve decided that I’m going to have to try to plan my meals better. Once the adobo is done, all I’ll need to do tomorrow will be a quick stir-fry vegetable and rice and again, dinner will be served.

Now, this really has nothing to do with this post’s recipe. I just had to get that off my chest as I haven’t written in a while and I wanted to let you, my readers, know that I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth. I’ve just been trying to get settled in (what with Chinese New Year, then my birthday and now starting work, I’ve been quite overwhelmed!).

An Inspired Riff

So now that you understand the silence, I wanted to share this recipe. It’s a riff off a fried chicken recipe that we tried over Christmas at a friend’s house. My friend’s husband had marinated some chicken and then fried them up. We just could not get enough of it. It was so delicious!

Of course, typical of most Malaysian cooks, he just threw things together without measuring. But he did tell me what went into his marinate—salt, a bit of sugar, tumeric powder, ginger juice, shallots, and curry leaves. I have been determined to try it since then.

One day when I had some pork tenderloin to cook up, I remembered his fried chicken and used his ingredients as an inspiration to create this stir-fried pork dish. What I did was I marinated the pork slices with salt, sugar and tumeric powder. Then I sliced up some ginger into really thin slices and fried them till they were crispy. I removed them from the oil and set aside.

In the same oil, I added sliced shallots and sauteed them, threw in some curry leaves and then the marinated pork along with one sliced tomato (just a last minute addition that I thought would give more flavor). Stir-fried everything till the pork was cooked through, then plated up and garnished with the fried ginger.

Spiced Pork with Fried Ginger and Curry Leaves

Ingredients:
1 lb pork tenderloin, sliced thin
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp tumeric powder
2 inches ginger knob, skinned, then sliced and julienned thin
3-4 shallots, halved and sliced thin
1 medium tomato, halved and sliced thin
1-2 sprigs fresh curry leaves, stem removed
2-3 Tbsp vegetable oil

Method:
1. Marinate pork slices with salt, sugar and tumeric powder for about thirty minutes.

2. Heat up wok and add vegetable oil. Fry the ginger till brown and crispy over medium heat. Remove ginger from oil and set aside.

3. In the same oil that has been infused with the ginger, add shallots and saute till translucent and just beginning to take on some color.
4. Add curry leaves and saute for another 30 seconds to a minute.
5. Add in pork and saute over med-high heat till pork is just turning opaque.
6. Add tomatoes and continue to toss till pork is cooked and tomatoes have started to exude their juices, another 2-3 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.

7. Plate up and garnish with fried ginger.

Enjoy over rice!

This pork dish turned out really tasty (of course fried chicken is ALWAYS tastier—my major weakness!) and the addition of curry leaves, ginger and tumeric powder gave it a savory spiciness that was reminiscent of Indian flavors. We all enjoyed it very much and it didn’t oil up my house too much at all.

It’s a nice and semi-quick meal that the whole family can enjoy! The slicing and frying of the ginger being the only humbug thing—which I bet could be easily adapted by just grating the ginger into the marinate. I still have to try to make the fried chicken but in the meantime, give this recipe a shot.

Cheers, Annie

Since the curry leaves came from our neighbor’s tree, I am entering this post in the February “Grow Your Own” roundup.

I Went to West Malaysia and All I Got Was…

2010-02-23T01:30:00.003+08:00

We traveled from Kuching to KL to spend time with family over the Chinese New Year holidays. We ate (a LOT) of course, but also brought back lots of goodies from Penang and KL. Here’s a sample of our haul:

Bak Kwa – Sweet Pork Jerky

Thin sheets of pork meat, covered in a sweet glaze and lightly grilled. One of my favorite snacks; they won’t last long!

Lup Chong – Chinese Sausage

Perfect for making fried rice or char kway teow.

Belacan – Shrimp Paste

Good shrimp paste is essential to making sambal belacan, for frying with veggies such as midin or kangkong, and for seasoning belacan fried chicken.

Bushels of Biscuits

During Chinese New Year, you see a lot of different kinds of biscuits being sold.

Him Heang Tau Sar Piah

One of the most popular biscuits sold in Penang are “tau sar piah”, a flaky pastry filled with sweet, green bean paste. And one of the most popular bakeries that makes these biscuits is Him Heang.

Hock Lock Siew Tau Sar Piah

Hock Lock Siew is another bakery which makes these biscuits. But they come in different flavors, such as a pandan-flavored one and a biscuit with a spicy shrimp filling.

Hock Lock Siew Pong Piah

Beh Teh Sor

There are other kinds of filled biscuits, such as “pong piah” – biscuit with a sweet molasses filling – and “beh teh sor" – biscuit with a caramelized shallot filling. Of the two, I like the beh teh sor the best.

Ribbon Biscuits

This may be called a “biscuit” but it’s more like sweet, fried won ton strips. The skins are slit in the middle, folded into itself, and then fried crispy. Very hard to stop eating!

Cookies and Chips and Treats, Oh My!

Pea cookies

Made from green pea flour.

Almond Cookies

More like a thumbprint cookie than our own Chinese Almond Cookies.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Annie's aunt in Penang made these crisp, choclatey morsels.

Kuih Kapit – Love Letters

These are pleasantly sweet, coconut-flavored wafers, so thin and crispy they shatter, then melt in your mouth.

Shat Kek Ma

This one is new to me. Think Rice Krispies treats, except they use fried won ton pieces instead of Rice Krispies, and molasses instead of melted marshmallows. Picked these up in Ipoh. Very nice!

Seedless Li Hing Mui

Also picked up in Ipoh. A big bag of seedless li hing mui (dried, salted plum). I am seriously addicted to this stuff. I think it’ll last at least 2 months! ;-P

Durian Chips

And last but not least: durian chips. Courtesy Annie’s sister-in-law from Thailand. These thin crisps have the faintest touch of durian flavor to them. I don’t know exactly what kind of starchy vegetable is thinly sliced then fried to serve as a crispy vehicle for that flavor. But it is extremely difficult to stop eating them!

This was just a sampling of the stuff we brought back. Most of it will be distributed out amongst our Kuching friends. But some of it will not pass back through the doors of our house ;-)

Stay tuned! we’ve got a couple of posts coming which talk about the foods we actually *ate* there in West Malaysia!

Aloha, Nate

Gong Xi Fa Cai - Happy Chinese New Year

2010-02-11T01:19:00.000+08:00

Wishing you a joyous and delicious

Chinese New Year

from the House of Annie

We're taking the kids back over to West Malaysia for the Chinese New Year holidays, to visit with family, pass out tons of ang pow - red packets - and (of course) EAT! We're going to be in Penang from the 12th through the 16th, then KL until the 21st. Looking forward to meeting up with some food bloggers there.

(If you're going to be around and want to meet up, send us an email via our Contact page!)

This will be the first time in a very long time that Annie celebrates CNY with her family. And it will be the first time ever for me and the kids to experience what a Chinese New Year is like in Malaysia. I'm so excited!

I'm not sure what our broadband Internet connection is going to be like while we're away, though. If I can get to a Starbucks, I may be able to upload some posts of where we've gone and what we've eaten. So stay tuned - you might get a treat!

Aloha, Nate

Hungry for some Chinese New Year recipes? Click below:

Homemade Pineapple Tarts

How to Make Dumpling Skins from Scratch

Cioppino Hot Pot

Cat’s Eye Fruit (Mata Kuching)

2010-02-09T01:52:00.001+08:00

Another of Borneo’s unique tropical fruit, the Mata Kuching (Cat’s Eye Fruit) is a cousin of the Longan (Dragon Eye Fruit).

Mata Kuching – Cat’s Eye Fruit

On the day we went to the market in Serian, we found this fruit which we had never seen before. It was round, about the diameter of a dime, and covered in tough, bumpy, leathery, yellow skin. We asked the vendor what it was, and she said “mata kuching”.

“Is it good?” we asked. Oh, yes, she replied. She let us peel open a few to taste. The fragrance and taste reminded me exactly of longan (dragon eye fruit). I thought to myself, why not give it a shot? So we came home with a kilogram of these fruit.

The Eye of the Cat

In the Bahasa Malaysia language, “mata” means “eyes” and “kuching” means “cat”. The fruit is called Cat’s Eyes because when you peel off the skin and expose the dark seed under the flesh, it looks like a cat’s eye.

Peeled Mata Kuching

Mata Kuching trees grow prolifically here in Sarawak and Sabah on Borneo. One of the explanations for how our city of Kuching got its name is that the city started along the banks of the river where many of these mata kuching trees were growing.

According to International Society for Horticultural Science, the mata kuching is actually a close relative of the longan (hence the similar smell and taste). There are 3 varieties of mata kuching fruit which have “warty” skins and a 4th variety which is smooth and most closely resembles the longan.

The yellow-skinned variety has skin which feels very bumpy on the outside, almost like a lychee. This fruit with a large seed pit and very little flesh. When I found out how little meat was on the “bone” of the fruit, I was put off and a little upset at paying so much for so little edible meat. I ended up tossing the rest.

A Second Eye

Our friend Mike recently gave us some mata kuching which he brought back from Sibu, a town about 6 hour’s drive away. These fruit were the same size, but greener in color, and less bumpy.

Mata Kuching from Sibu

They also had considerably more meat on them, and were sweeter than the Serian variety.

Peeled Mata Kuching from Sibu

These we finished eating in one sitting! ;-)

Aloha, Nate

This post was entered into the Weekend Herb Blogging roundup, hosted this week by Mele Cotte and organized by Haalo of Cook Almost Anything.

Hungry for more exotic fruits? Click below:

Fruits of Serian

Buah Tarap – Borneo’s Unique Tropical Fruit

Rambutans

Brian's Pink Pomelos

Nutella Rocks; No-Knead SUCKS

2010-02-06T02:22:00.001+08:00

WARNING: Our entry for this year’s World Nutella Day should not be attempted.

I LOVE Nutella. (Perhaps you can relate?)

Recently, I found some Nutella on sale at a grocery store here. The price was surprisingly reasonable. The catch? It was going to expire within a month. Ahhh! But so what? The way I eat Nutella, it doesn’t take me all that long to go through a jar of it. So I bought two jars!

I came home and decided that one jar was going into some baked goods. I remember Jaden from Steamy Kitchen doing a "no knead" challah with Nutella and Hazelnuts last year and so I went in search of some recipes. I was planning to do Jaden’s challah but got distracted by another post on Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy, who did a Nutella-pistachio "no knead" brioche. The picture of the Nutella oozing out of this really soft, yummy-looking bread and topped with pistachios just got me drooling big time. I just had to make it.

Third Time’s a Charm?

Longtime readers may recall, we have attempted no-knead recipes in the past, to less than spectacular results. But since I wanted to try no-knead one more time, I decided to go ahead with this recipe. I really wanted to be successful. I looked at the Artisan Bread in Five blog and got their brioche recipe. I read up on all the other people who had success. I made my dough THREE whole days ahead for ultimate flavor. I was excited. I was hopeful. I was drooling, thinking of my beautiful brioche filled with Nutella and Macadamia nuts (didn’t have pistachios).

Making the dough was a piece of cake! Just mix all the ingredients together and give it a good stirring and then cover loosely with plastic and let it sit in my fridge for 3 days. So far so good.

Baking day came along and I went to the fridge and got my dough out. I took off the plastic cover and the first thing that hits me is the smell of yeast. In fact, the yeasty smell was almost overwhelming. I was a little put off but gamely forged ahead.

Risen Brioche Dough

I took out a chunk the size of a cantaloupe. It was very sticky. So sticky that I had to flour my hands and my work surface quite a bit. I had to add more flour to get it to a workable dough. Then after shaping it (it was really nice and soft), and adding the Nutella, I put it in my pan and let it rise. Again, so far, so good.

After the rise and the eggwash and the sprinkling of macadamia nuts, I put it into my preheated oven and let it bake. I was hopeful. I was excited. I was drooling and thinking, Nutella brioche—yummy! My kids were all eagerly waiting on the sidelines (because I had forbidden them from eating any of the Nutella as I needed the whole jar for this recipe and they had finished the other jar—told you we wouldn’t have a problem!).

Nutella Brioche with Macadamia Nuts

It came out, cooled and I cut into it to let Nate take a picture and then, not able to wait any longer, I took a bite.

Yummy?

No.

Good?

No.

Decent? Ehhh…yes.

It wasn’t like any brioche that I’ve ever had at other bakeries. It wasn’t rich yet light and tender. It wasn’t flavorful, want-to-keep-eating-until-your-pants-burst bread. It wasn’t everything that so many other blogs had said they LOVED. It was decent, but not great. Not even close by a mile.

I felt deflated, upset and cheated. The Nutella was great, even awesome BUT I would have enjoyed it more on plain old sliced bread than this so-called “brioche”. My kids couldn’t wait to eat the bread and they didn’t complain. The Nutella had been calling to them after all. But it was telling that my daughter (who is a bread lover) actually only ate the bits where there was Nutella and left most of the bread untouched.

No Knead FAIL

I was going to post this recipe for World Nutella Day. I mean, how can you go wrong with Nutella and Brioche? You can’t, really.

Except somehow I did.

I don’t know what I did wrong. I followed the instructions. I read at least 10 different blogs and sites using this same recipe and all enthused and said good things and took pictures that looked right and droolworthy. I was sure this third time would be the charm and we would be able to proclaim like so many others that no-knead bread works! I REALLY WANTED IT TO WORK! Really really!

Can I just say that Nutella still ROCKS? Nutella ROCKS and if I had had any extra left, I would have made something, anything else to post.

But if Nutella ROCKS, then no-knead bread SUCKS! The bread’s texture and flavor was not good. I don’t know how to describe it well...The crust was tough and the crumb was chewy, almost as if it were undercooked. The brioche did not taste of yeast nor egg nor butter. It was like eating a Scotch-Brite Heavy Duty Kitchen Sponge. The only redeeming thing about it was the Nutella. It’s just not bread that I would want to keep eating.

So I’ll say it now: I’m DONE with no-knead breads.

I’m just not doing this again. The anticipation followed by the deflation is not worth it. “No-knead” is supposed to save you time and effort, but what good is it if the bread you get is something you don’t want to eat? Good breads just need more work I guess and I must be willing to put in the time and effort.

Maybe you’ve done no-knead before. Maybe yours turned out great. Maybe I did something wrong. But we’ve done it three times and all three times, they have turned out terrible. When I’ve baked breads using old fashioned kneaded recipes, they’ve all turned out wonderful. I don’t think I’m such a bad baker that I can’t get this right. So I’m calling it quits. I’ll stick to good old fashioned kneaded breads from now on.

Oh well…at least we enjoyed the Nutella! Happy World Nutella Day everyone!

Cheers, Annie

Hungry for more, successful bakes? Click below:

The Best Cream Scones Recipe Ever

Homemade "Rotiboy" Mexican Coffee Bun Recipe

Malaysian Honeycomb Cake Recipe

Dutch Apple Bread

Bread Pudding Recipe

How to Make Dumpling Skins from Scratch

2010-02-05T00:22:00.002+08:00

Homemade dumpling skins are better than store bought, and easier to make than you think!

Homemade Dumpling Skins

Way back in 1995, I took a tour around China. Of the many memories I cherish, I remember standing in the doorway of a large kitchen, marveling at a group of ladies sitting around the table, rolling out dumpling skins for a jiaozi lunch later. The process (for them) was quick and effortless. How in the world could they turn out such perfect looking skins?!

If at First You Don’t Succeed

When I returned home to Hawaii, I was invited to a party where some Chinese university students were making dumplings. Again, their skill at dumpling skin rolling was impressive. I tried my hand at making one but it came out woefully lopsided.

Since we were living within heavily Asian communities in Honolulu and San Jose, we had ample access to factory-made, store-bought dumpling skins like the ones we used for our Won Ton Soup recipe. Fresh, store-bought skins are good enough for our use. But I secretly harbored the desire to make my own skins at home.

Get Some Tips First

Last October for our Anniversary, I got Annie the Asian Dumplings cookbook by our friend and fellow food blogger Andrea Nguyen. We were both excited to get the book, and pored over all the recipes trying to figure out which ones we wanted to make. The very first recipe is her Basic Dumpling Dough. That’s a very good place to start!

So when we decided to throw a homestyle Japanese dinner party for our friend Paul and his family, we knew gyozas were going to be on the menu. Earlier in the day of the party, I prepared the dough:

Basic Dumpling Dough

taken from “Asian Dumplings” by Andrea Nguyen

Ingredients:

10 ounces (2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
about 3/4 cup just-boiled water

Method:

1. Put flour in a bowl and make a well in the center. Stir the flour while you add the water in a steady stream. Keep mixing until you have a shaggy dough.

Mixing Water into Dumpling Dough

2. Knead the dough to bring it together into one large ball.

3. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface (I used a Silpat silicone baking mat) and knead it for a couple of minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic. Seal the dough in a zip-top plastic bag and let it rest for up to 2 hours.

Kneaded Dumpling Dough

4. After the rest, pull out the dough and cut it into 4 roughly equal sections. Roll each section into a 1-inch thick log, then cut each log into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a thick coin or disc. Lightly flour the top and bottom of each disc.

5. Andrea recommends using a tortilla press to flatten out each dough disc. We don’t have a tortilla press, so we used two small plates and a cut-up sandwich bag to press them flat.

6. Now here comes the fun part. Holding the flattened disc gently, use a dowel rolling pin to press on just the outer edges of the disc. Roll back and forth once, then rotate the disc. Roll, rotate. Roll, rotate. Add a little flour if necessary to keep it from sticking and tearing.

Rolling out Dumpling Skin

7. You don’t want to make it too thin. It has to be thick enough to hold whatever filling you’re going to put in it. The final dumpling skin should be just over 3 inches in diameter.

Finished Homemade Dumpling Skin

(If you need to see the rolling process in action, Andrea just uploaded a new YouTube video on “How to roll out Asian dumpling wrappers”.)

Try, Try Again

Since Annie was making and wrapping the gyoza, she let me finish rolling out the dumpling skins. And guess what? With enough practice, I got to be good at it! I was more than happy – I was giddy with glee :D

I had finally made my own dumpling skins, skins I could be proud of!

Thanks, Andrea, for your wonderful cookbook! We will definitely be cooking (and posting) more recipes from it in the years to come.

Aloha, Nate

I am entering this post in the Presto Pasta Nights roundup, hosted this week by Once Upon a Feast.

Hungry for more food made from scratch? Click below:

Blueberry Muffins Recipe

Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas

Korokke

How to Make Miso Soup From Scratch

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