Sweet & Sour Pork with Rice

It is time to celebrate! TheLoyalFan's exam has finished and we can celebrate C.N.Y. without any worries or stress. For that reason, we made one of our favourite dishes back home - 'Kou Lou Yoke Fan' or simply Sweet & Sour Pork with rice.

This recipe was made by Mum when she came to the UK for Christmas last year and I thought we shall give it a try... weeee!

The preparation was split into 2 parts - frying the pork and making the sauce. First, marinate the pork that has been cut into cubes with pepper and soya sauce. Then coat the pork in batter. For this, I put equal amount of plain flour and corn flour onto the pork - malas to make the batter in a different plate (LOL!). Once the pork cubes are coated evenly, deep fry them until golden brown.
Next, fry the onions with the same oil used for frying but just 2 or 3 tablespoons will do. Then stir fry the tomatoes and cucumbers (and capsicums if you want) for a short while. Pour in some water and season with tomato ketchup, vinegar and sugar for the sweet & sour taste. And... voila!

We just LURVE sweet & sour pork! I think it is one of my default dishes when I needed to tapao dinner for myself. Ahhh... I miss Brickfields Sin Kee's food. But now that I know how to make it, it will treat my 'missing Malaysian food' illness. hehehe...
However, one thing to note from this dish was the taste of the sauce should be concentrated and fuller so that when it is mixed with pork and rice, you can still taste the sweet & sour effect.

TheLoyalFan says: 'Very crispy pork... I wish there were more...'

The pork was very crispy indeed! We'll be making more supermarket trips this weekend to look for some ingredients to prepare more Chinese dishes for the C.N.Y. period : )

Till then, have a great weekend and keep nomming!

An annual vegetarian treat of goodness & togetherness

Whenever the New Year comes, I am always looking forward to Chinese New Year. My grandmother would cook a dish that she cooks it only once a year and only on one day, the first day of Chinese New Year - her vegetarian dish. According to Chinese tradition, the Chinese people will be a vegetarian for a day because it is believed that this will ensure longevity. As for the Buddhists, a vegetarian dish helps to purify and cleanse out the body as well as it honors a Buddhist tradition that nothing living should be killed on the first day of the New Year. But for me, it reminded me so much of home and my growing up days having vegetarian dish for lunch although when I was a kid, I didn't like it at all.

Last year, the 'duty' has been transferred to my mother to cook this dish as my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer. I remembered that my grandmother was tutoring my mum and being the usual Kaypo girl, I sat in, helped out and learn from the guru herself : ) This year, being away from home, I decided to try this dish on my own.

I think for the proper vegetarian dish, it has 18 ingredients and each ingredient has a symbolic meaning. But my grandmother's was quite simple and I just like the mushrooms!!! Hehehe. After cooking and having it for dinner, I noted that it was nearly as good as my grandmother's. Only problem was the cabbage - it was quite fibrous and we made a mental note to never, ever buy cabbages in the UK. Not NICE : ( Oh yes, I also O.D.-ed the 'dong fun' too! LOL... so it was like vegetarian noodle dish... but not bad also lah!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Got transported back to a traditional Chinese New Year meal, eaten with chopsticks on a marble table... hehe it was good.'

This Chinese New Year has made me appreciate the people who prepare special meals for this season. I realised that it takes a lot of effort and planning for a meal to be really yummy and special. Well, this is just the beginning for me... and it has just started to get exciting.

Till then, keep nomming!!!


Ingredients: nam yee (red fermented bean curd), cabbage, mook yee, black mushroom, dong fun, foochook.

'Ken Tiao Pan'

I always tell myself that I must learn how to cook and prepare dishes that I like to eat. Why? Morbid as you might say about me, I'm worried that some day there is no chance of eating the 'famous assam laksa at Jalan XXX', famous this and yummy that at XYZ restaurant. Hence, I made a simple goal to myself - to learn to prepare dishes that I like to eat ^^. So far, I've learnt a couple of dishes and this time, in the spirit of Chinese New Year, I thought of learning to make one of my favourite recipes - pan mee.

'Ken Tiao Pan' is similar as pan mee, the only difference is the shape. Instead of rolling through the noodle maker machine, it is torn by hand. I learnt this recipe from my Mother-in-law and thought of giving it a go for our dinner tonight : )

First, I prepared the dough. As this was my attempt at kneading a dough, I was quite scared of ruining my dough. But TheLoyalFan told me not to worry as it is just a matter of balancing out the ingredients. Hehehe, not only TheLoyalFan is my food tester, he's kinda my advisor too!
The ingredients were simple - plain flour, eggs, salt and water. After kneading the dough and getting the right texture, the dough was completed and it was covered with a damp cloth and rested for half and hour.

Then I made the condiments a.k.a. 'liew' (hehehehe). I debone some drumsticks and for this, I learnt from a Youtube video uploaded by an American Chinese. Once the drumsticks were chopped into smaller pieces, I fried it in a pan together with some sliced mushrooms and mook yee. Then added some water to make gravy and season it to be slightly saltier than normal tasting. I also made an ikan bilis soup by frying ikan bilis and poured fish stock to boil together. Thereafter, I've added in lettuce since there is no 'pucuk manis' in Manchester.

This noodle can be eaten either the dried version or the soup version.

The outcome? Both versions were really good. Although I had a panic attack while kneading the dough, I think this dish can be prepared by anyone who loves pan mee. I tried to make the sauce abit thicker... but made a mistake by putting the flour directly into the sauce. The correct way is to dilute the flour in water then pour into the dish. LOL!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Perfect food for a cosy reunion dinner. Completely satisfying...YUM!'

I'm glad that this was accomplished - one favourite dish done and many more to go. Woohoo!!!

That's all for now. Wishing you a wondeful Chinese New Year and enjoy those sunny days, cookies and all goodies that are only available during the Lunar New Year. Till then, je vous souhaite une bonne journée. Au revoir! (I wish you a good day ahead. Goodbye!)

Can we cook like Heston Blumenthal?

One of Heston's episodes that we watched a couple of days ago was about beef and we tried to cook our pork chop the same way like he did for his steak... hehehe, well, it's all about experimenting and we thought of trying this method : )

For the conventional method, it takes 3 to 4 minutes to 'sear' one side of a steak and then turn the other way. But Heston cooked differently - instead of leaving the meat to 'sit' on the pan for that amount of time, his was slow and easy, turning the sides at every 15 to 20 seconds. Hence, to start off with our experiment, pour in the oil and make sure the oil is super hot, like 190c (he has a thermometer to check it... but I, just agak agak only : P). Then I seasoned my pork chops with salt and the searing began. With a pair of chopsticks on my right hand and a frying spatula on my left, I turned the pork chops based on the timing until it is cooked completely. Then I season some pepper and pour in a glass of port & a knob of butter into the pan and let it boil for a short while and remove the pan from the heat. Let the meat rest for about 5 minutes and it is ready to serve.

The pork chops turned out to be really nice! It was juicy and it is slightly brown on the skin. However, I should have poured in more port as mentioned in the recipe though... the sauce was really sweet and it complimented with our veggies and mash : )

TheLoyalFan says: 'The wine sauce goes very well with the pork...'

So, back to the question... Can we cook like Heston? Can... but it would be nice to have a thermometer though... hehehe.

Aglio Olio

This is one of our favourite dishes that we have ever made and it is always a delight for us! (Plus, it gives us another way to use our dried chillis)

First, cincang the garlic and dried chillis. Today I have the privilege to 'officiate' the Chopper and I must say, it chops everything really, really fine! Way better than my usual knife. (Thanks, SZ!)
If you are not in the mood of cincang-ing the dried chillis, I'm sure there's chilli flakes available from the supermarket (or Domino's Pizza...hehe). Heat up the oil in the pan, and be alittle generous with the oil as it will help your toss later.
Once the oil is hot, put in the chillis and garlic. Let them sizzle in the hot oil for about 30 seconds or until it is golden brown. Remove the pan from direct heat and pour in the drained spaghetti. Give it a good toss with some utensils and it is done!

We also made some omelettes to compliment our spaghetti too! Since Gong Xi Gong Xi is just around the corner, we've added some lap cheong in it...yum yum yums! The capsicums? Hehehe, we like to eat them raw and so happen we have some extras in our fridge : )

TheLoyalFan says: 'Simple and satisfying *rubs tummy*'

And I second that too!

I am looking forward to next week because... it is Chinese New Year! I can't wait to try out new recipes... yay!!!

Have a wonderful Chinese New Year and please remember us when you eat all those CNY goodies such as  Lou Sang, Pineapple Tarts, Kuih Kapits and many many more!

Minestrone Soup

I have always wanted to cook up this dish as it is always sold either in tinned version or at fancy restaurants. After looking at the recipe a couple of days back, I thought of giving it a go!

First, prepare vegetable stock in a pot and pour tinned chopped tomatoes and bring to boil. Then, put in spaghetti that has been broken into shorter lengths and let it simmer for a while. Lastly, pour in frozen mixed vegetables, pesto and season it with salt, sugar and pepper - DONE!
Basically, this dish is like a super simple equation:

Minestrone Soup = (Stock + chopped Tomatoes) + Veggies + Spaghetti

*felt abit like a mad scientist... hence, the urge of writing this equation : P*

Garnish the soup with a bit of grated cheese and it is ready to serve.

There were some modifications done for this dish. Well, it was partly my fault because I was having so much fun with the 'agak agak' measurements; I accidentally prepared too much water for the soup and had to add more veggies and spaghetti. Then I didn't have vegetable stock so I used chicken stock instead. According to the recipe, pesto was supposed to add onto the soup as a garnish but I ended up boiling together.
The outcome of the dinner? Well, an ultra contented pair which had 3 servings each and a bowl saved up for my lunch tomorrow... yummy!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Warms your body and makes you all fonzi & fuzzy... and sleepy too (snuggles under the duvet)'

Alrightie folks, I think I need to go to the toilet now : S

Have a great week ahead guys!

Let's have a cuppa!

Lovely isn't? Well, it's not coffee or tea though... it's Lo Hon Kuo - Herbal Tea! I really miss my leong sui so I've decided to make a pot of this wholesome goodness.

Ahhh... warms up a cold weekend for me already : )

Have a great weekend everyone!

Till then, keep nomming!

Spaghetti Puttanesca

Time to tryout a new recipe... yippie!

I did alittle research on the Internet to find some spaghetti recipe since we're changing our diet to suit our budget. Hehehe. Apparently, this dish is a classic Italian dish and it is really easy to cook it up as well.

Ingredients are as below... just slice up everything and I am good to start!

First, I put some oil into the pan and fried the garlic, anchovies, chilli flakes and the olives. We did some modifications to the recipe. According to the recipe, I was supposed to add in capers but I didn't because we didn't have any and rarely use them for our cooking so I used black & white peppers instead. However, the black pepper that we've got was not strong enough, so needed to add our Sarawakian white peppers. (Malaysia Boleh!!!)
Then, I poured in the plum tomatoes and cut them up into smaller pieces with my spatula. Mix them up well, season it with salt and a little bit of sugar because it was quite sour and put in the drained spaghetti and toss them up. Grate some cheese on it before serving.

Spaghetti Puttanesca - DONE!

There were some 'new' things for me in this dish that I have not tried or liked it. First, it was olives. I don't really like olives because of my past experience with black olives that were in a salad I had back home. Secondly, there was anchovies - fresh anchovies (not the ikan bilis that we can easily obtained back home). I know not alot of people liked it due to its strong fishy smell, but to my surprise, I quite liked it. Although the smell can really put one off to try it, it actually helps to bring the 'aroma' out from the dish.
As for the olives, I think I am starting to like it... I will be having more olives in my future dishes. But for now, I shall stick the green ones first : )

The overall taste of this was really nice and refreshing. It is a little spicy due to the chilli flakes and peppers. Furthermore, it is quite cheap in terms of cost of the ingredients... definitely will be part of our 'usual' dinner dishes.


TheLoyalFan says: 'Taste like 'ching-er' version of Bolognese... yummy without feeling guilty'

Something I've learnt from my French classes last year... j'aime faire la cuisine... Till then, keep nomming!

Pork Mooli

Tonight, I've tried to cook Mum's pork mooli (raddish). Its flavour is a combination of sour and spicy but I prefer it a little more spicy : )

So here goes: fry the onions in a pan or a 'wok' until fragrant. Then put the marinated diced pork and fry until it is cooked. Continue to put some dried chillies. If you prefer alittle spark instead of the full on spicyness, remove the seeds. After that, you can put the cut mooli, a couple of assam keping and water. Be careful on the ratio between the dried chillies and the assam keping though. When I was cooking this dish, I needed to 'balance' out the taste because the sourness was quite intense. Hence, I would suggest maybe 2 dried chillis and 1 assam keping - that should do the trick : ) If it is too sour, not to worry, just put sugar to reduce the sourness. Add oyster sauce and pepper for seasoning.
Let it simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes or until the mooli is soft and cooked (it will be transparent). I like my gravy to be lesser so I will let it simmer without a lid  for a while longer to reduce liquid from it.

And the final product would looked something like this:

The final verdict? Oh it was good! It warms your body up due to the spicyness and it feels really, really good. 'Happy days' as quoted by Mr. Jamie Oliver. Oh well, it definitely was 'happy days' for me and TheLoyalFan during this cold season.

TheLoyalFan says: 'Very good with rice!'

Ingredients: Pork, Mooli, Onion, Dried Chilli and Assam Keping.
(Measurements? What kind of cuts? No specified lah, boss... all agak agak only, ala our mothers' cooking method ^_^)
 

Meet the Crew

For every invention, there's always a place for 'inspiration' to take place. Likewise, for every cook, there's always a place for the wonderful (or disastrous) dishes to happen - the Kitchen and the relevant appliances! Muahahahaha! (syiok sendiri already...)

Anyways, I thought of giving an insight of what's in my kitchen (valid until September 2012) here in Manchester. It plays a special role in my life here as I learn to cook dishes that I don't cook back home and it gives me a chance to play 'masak masak'. Plus, I always have TheLoyalFan to try out the dishes.

Alrightie then, let's not delay this further - introducing... the CREW!!!
*cheers & applause*

Meet the Kitchen - this is where all the cooking, chopping and cleaning takes place. The space is quite small, but it is quite handy; everything's within hand's reach!

The Hob & the Microwave - without them, you can't really cook or defrost something, eh?

The kranky kettle & the 'Pot of Wonder' - Somehow this kettle produces loud growling sound when it is boiling water, kinda scary but it boils water fast! No complains from me : ) 'Pot of Wonder' was brought from home and it has served us well - from boiling rice to frying meat, this machine is really something.

The stir fry pan a.k.a. the 'Wok' & 'Pot on a hob' - Bought at a local supermarket last September. We use it for frying and stewing. Its slight depth gives us a chance to boil soup too! 'Pot on a hob' was brought by Mum when she visited us in December. Looking forward to use it for some 'soupy' dishes. *slurp!*

And recently joining the crew a few days ago, 'O Great Toaster' & the Chopper - Christmas presents from SZ & TOH and we're loving them to bits, especially 'O Great Toaster'. Well, TheLoyalFan is a huge fan of toasties and he LOVES it to bits! I'm looking forward to chop something with this cool gadget, but only time will tell me the right moment to use it. Hehehe.

So that's it on the introductory session of the Crew. Hope you didn't fall asleep while reading this. Till then, keep nomming!

One Pot Cooks it All!

What to cook when you have very limited stuff in your fridge? Not to worry, there's always the 'one pot cooks it all' dish also known as 'Pot of Goodness' as quoted by TheLoyalFan.

Basically, the title is self explanatory. We put the ingredients that we like into a rice cooker and after 20 minutes or so, voila! A pot of goodness is ready to be served! Yum yum!

Tonight, I made our favourite 'pot of goodness' - rice cooker lap cheong rice! (a modified version of claypot chicken rice) First, I cut ginger and lap cheong into slices. Then soak some chinese black mushroom in warm water(due to the water & weather condition here), cut off the stem and cut the shrooms into slices (or quarters if you like them chunky). Prepare the rice as how one prepares it (add a little bit more water for other ingredients that may absorb water) and before you pop it into the cooker, put all ingredients into the pot. Make sure everything is soaked beneath the water and add some seasoning. For this round, I've added chicken stock because I had some leftovers in the fridge and wanted to finish up. However, I've also added in soya sauce, oyster sauce and pepper. Well, these are the 'standard' seasoning I use for my chinese cooking :-) Once done, it should look like this:

Doesn't look quite appealing, eh? But don't worry, it will be yummy!

And put it into the cooker and wait for the switch to pop up.

After 20 minutes or when the switch pop up, you can smell the aroma from the rice pot and it is ready...Mmmm! What I like about this 'One Pot Wonder' is that you can put almost any ingredients into the pot. I've tried putting broccoli, chinese long cabbage, onion, chicken meat... it's like an experiment - Just put in the stuff, season it and once ready, open the lid and see the 'Pot of Wonder'! LOL!

Yum Yum YUMMM!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Om nom nom... Very good!*scrape rice pot clean*'

Ingredients: Almost any ingredient you fancy :-) For some taste and aroma, add in ginger, onion or garlic.

To Peel or Not to Peel

When it comes to lap cheong (chinese sausage), I always wonder whether 'to peel or not to peel' off the lining of the lap cheong. You see, it is not as easy as it seemed to be because the lining is stuck onto the meat and the oily surface is not helping to speed up the process either. But it has to be done although it is difficult, you wouldn't want to be pulling out the lining out of your mouth during a meal... that would be unpleasant for everyone!

So usually, I would cut the ends of the lap cheong, using my fingernails to 'separate' the lining away from the meat and gradually remove the lining. It can be quite frustrating because the bits of the meat will get stuck underneath your fingernails (yuck) and afterawhile, I would feel tired because of the amount of strength I used, just to remove the lining. TheLoyalFan suggested that I should try removing the lining under running water and so I gave it a try. True enough, the lining came out easier! (Of course, the ends have been cut off so that there is an opening to start with). The beginning part was slightly challenging but as you continue, the lining came out and you don't need to put much force/strength onto it.

A new discovery for me, hope it is for you too!

Now, I look forward to peeling more lap cheongs... hahaha!

Starting a New Year

Happy New Year everyone! Best wishes from FooSA and me over here.

A cooking/travel/adventure blog is something FooSA thought of one day, and I thought 'great idea!'. So we took a little time to convert FooChook to her new blog and here it is. I hope her stories will warm your hearts and give you small chuckles from time to time. Do enjoy!