Char Kuay Teow

Char Kuay Teow which simply means fried kuay teow, is a famous Penang dish and it is available at almost all coffee shops in Malaysia. But, not every stall is yummy & tasty. We both love Char Kuay Teow very much and used to eat it almost every week! Well, sometimes, more than once in a week... hehehehe.

This dish is quite tricky because you'll need a very hot wok to fry your ingredients. Nonetheless, with a little patience and effort, I think everyone can cook it : )

So here goes the awesome Penang dish... slightly modified by yours truly, due to incomplete ingredients : P

Clockwise from top left: Ingredients are chopped nicely; Bean Sprouts;
Kuay Teow soaked and drained; Prawns soaked in sugar water.

First, fry some finely chopped garlic & some chopped dried chillis in a liquid of hot cooking oil. Then quickly put in your lap cheong and fry them until it is fairly crispy. Add in some prawns and sear it until it is almost 70% cooked. Once that is almost done, put in your kuay teow (or also known as rice sticks) and bean sprouts together. Give it a quick toss.

For the seasoning, you'll need to prepare this concoction before you start the cooking. In a bowl, pour in soya sauce, dark soya sauce, fish sauce, dashes of white pepper, salt and some sugar. However, I do not have dark soya sauce and hence, replace it with oyster sauce : ) Stir to mix well.

After you have toss your kuay teow and sprouts, pour in your seasoning mixture. Then the final ingredient, egg! Push your noodles aside and crack an egg. Once it is cook on the base, mix everything together and it is ready to serve!

Round 1: Fried by SousChef

Round 2: Fried by TheLoyalFan. Looks nicer than mine...mmmm! 

Our first attempt of this was quite good although we have missed out 2 important ingredients - cockles and chinese chives. Nonetheless, the sauce does make it taste like the hawker stall's version. The noodles were well coated with oil, making it looks so glossy and yummy too! I wished that the lap cheong was crispier but it can't be done because the garlic was going to be burnt. Hence, I think for my next attempt, I shall try to fry the lap cheong first, then only the garlic. Hopefully my theory works lah!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Oh Char Kuay Teow... how I love you so! Nom nom noms... I don't know what to say. I love Char Kuay Teow!!!'

The sauce mixture was referenced from Rasa Malaysia. Please feel free to check it out ^_^ Mine is sort of the simpler version.

Till then, keep nomming!

Ingredients: Garlic, Dried Chilli, Lap Cheong, Peeled Prawns, Kuay Teow (Rice Sticks), Bean Sprouts, Egg.

Marmite Chicken

Finally! After contemplating for a couple of months whether I should get a bottle of Marmite, we finally bought one! Yum yum YUMMMMY! I LOVE Marmite very much, especially when I mix it with a plate of porridge. Mmm... the aroma itself makes me drool too!

And since we have a bottle of it, we thought 'let's try to make the Tai Chow's Marmite Chicken!'
Tai Chow = Literally means big fry in cantonese. However in Malaysia, it means a Chinese restaurant that serves simple dishes at reasonable prices during lunch & dinner times.

We managed to google up some recipes that have been tried and tasted by other fellow bloggers. And we decided to try this simple recipe from Pig Pig's Corner...

First, chop up the chicken into bite size pieces. Then marinate with Marmite, honey, soya sauce, a dash of white pepper and some cooking wine. I've put 2 tablespoons of Marmite, 1.5 tablespoons of honey, 1 tablespoon of soya sauce. If the honey that you're using is not a premium quality, like kinda diluted or less sweet, then I would recommend to add another tablespoon for good measure : ) Once marinate is complete, place the chicken back into the fridge for at least an hour.

Once you're hungry (hehehehe...) or ready to cook the chicken, heat up some cooking oil. Pour alittle bit more than your usual frying, perhaps another tablespoon will be OK. Fry some garlic until it is fragrant and then pour the chicken meat along with the marinate into the pan. Keep frying until the sauce has been reduced and you can feel that there is the sticky texture formed due to the caramelisation of the honey.
Taste the chicken and if you feel it is bland, add in some water and some marmite into it. Repeat the frying process until the sauce has been reduced.

Marmite Chicken! Wished it was on a bed of lettuce though...

Marmite Chicken with vegetables, on a bed of fragrant white rice! Yums!

My first attempt turned out quite OK (phew) although it has a stronger Marmite taste. One thing to note is that if you keep frying and not letting the chicken just sit and simmer away, it would give more Wok Hei : P Wok Hei = Translated directly as Wok Smell. A term the Chinese used to describe aroma of the dish.

TheLoyalFan says: 'The sauce was sooo good.Sticky and caramel-ey. My plate of rice disappeared in seconds!'

Mmmm! Marmite, you're the best!

Fried Rice

You might be thinking of the western version of this dish... rice fried with egg and some mixed vegetables and that's it. But it is not. You see, back in Malaysia, fried rice is considered as an individual meal. Not only it has egg and rice, it has other ingredients too! Prawns, Chinese sausages (lap cheong) and some even have proper chicken meat in it. Needless to say, it is definitely delicious and you'll want more!

Me heart fried rice and I thought of sharing this awesome and easy-to-prepare dish!

First, chop up some garlic and onion if you want some sweetness in it. I prefer garlic and I chopped quite a handful of it : P This dish is really a flexible dish. You can put in any vegetables and any meat as you like. For me, I've chopped up some carrots and french beans into small bite sizes. As for the meat, mmm... luncheon meat! Good and wholesome meat in a can! It is slightly salty and when you fry this together with your rice, it gives a wonderful fragrance that makes you drool... mmm! Boil your rice a couple of hours in advance and place them in the fridge.

Alright, heat up some oil in a pan. Be generous with your oil as you'll be frying lots of ingredients. When the oil is ready, fry your garlic until fragrant. Put in the luncheon meat and followed by the vegetables. Once they're quite properly cooked, push the condiments to one side of your pan. Then break an egg (or 2) onto the empty side. Let one side of egg to be slightly cooked and mix up all the ingredients together. At the same time, try to break up the egg into smaller pieces too.

Pour the rice into the pan and give it a good mix and fry. Season your fried rice with soya sauce, pepper and oyster sauce. For a different twist, you can add HP sauce too! It tastes good too! If you find it difficult to mix the sauces evenly, add in some water to ease it. Make sure all water is completely dried so that your rice will have the "fried" taste instead of the "boiled" texture.

Toss and toss. Fry and fry! Ooo... look so yummy!

Et voila! 

Ready to be eaten! 

Mmmm... the fried rice was really tasty and fragrant. Every grain of rice was coated with oil and somehow I felt the rice was so pretty... hehehe. Although the taste cannot compare with Brickfields Sin Kee's fried rice, this gives us a real homey taste. Really comfort our hearts and stomachs : P

TheLoyalFan says: 'Nom nom nom nom nom noms. Best fried rice I had since we came here.'

Well, that's because we don't eat fried rice from other shops mah! LOL!

Till then, keep nomming!

Fish Soup-Stew

You must be wondering... 'Fish soup? Er... wouldn't it be too overwhelming on the fishy taste and smell? Ugh' Well, I shall let you decide for yourself because everyone has different taste on fish : ) We were watching a TV program on BBC called 'Two Greedy Italians' and they cooked up this dish and it looked so yummy. And so, we've decided to give it a try... how bad can it be, right?

The ingredients are fairly simple and easy to get. And here goes the cooking part...

First, slice up some onion and garlic. Then fry them briefly in a pot with some cooking oil. Add in a can of chopped tomatoes (or equal amount of fresh tomatoes), some proper red wine and a fresh chilli into the pot. We didn't have fresh chilli, hence, used dried chilli as an alternative. Then for herbs, put in parlsey and fennel seeds. Well, I modified it and just poured in my handy bottle of mixed herbs : P
Last but not least, season with some pepper and salt, and then let it simmer for about 10 minutes. If you find that the soup texture is too thick, you can add in water.

As the soup is simmering away, we can start putting in the condiments. First, I put a proper fish - with head, tail and a skeleton... into the soup to boil. Hehe. You know lah, everything in the UK are all packed nicely with just meat only, rarely with bones : P Anyways...

Depending on the size of the fish, let it simmer for at least 10 minutes. Then take the fish out and remove the meat from its frame. The bones and head can be thrown away. Once this is done, you can start putting other seafood condiments such as mussels, prawns and other types of fish meat into your soup. Remember to put the meat that takes the longest time to cook first, followed by the shorter time. Prawns should be inserted last as it cooks very fast. For this attempt, I bought a sea bass and a tray of fish mix (used in fish pie)... Wished I've bought some prawns and mussels though : ( As you are putting in the seafood, season the soup with salt as the taste may start to become bland due to more ingredients in the soup.

Once the rest of the seafood is cooked, put the deboned fish back into the soup, give it a good stir to mix up everything proper and it is ready to serve!

We served it with pasta, but bread is fine too! 

The outcome of this dish was somewhat different than what we would have expected. There is a hint of spicyness and at the same time, it felt like we were having Assam Laksa all over again. Well, I guess it is like the Italian version of it : ) One thing to note is, do not put too much fish as what we did. Otherwise, it would be too fishy! Hahahahaha! And another point to remember is to have a moderate portion of seafood ingredients. We were stuffed after having a bowl of it. Oh yes, I would recommend to start the cooking with high heat and then change it to medium heat. Mine almost got burnt... that's because we changed our cooking hobs and I can't gauge the heat. Rosak liao! And and AND... always stir the soup too!

TheLoyalFan says: ' Tasted like the western version of Assam Laksa. Will need to use less fish the next time and make sure fishes are of the "fresh smelling" kind. Very filling...'

Seems like we're both agreeing on the same points. Will I try this again? Yea, I would but not so soon though. Maybe next month or later... If you want to find out who are the chefs in that TV program, please feel free to check it out from here!

Till then, keep nomming!

Maggi Goreng

Also known as Fried Maggi Noodles, this dish is a very common dish to all Malaysians. A casual trip to the Mamak Shop (a coffee shop business run by Indian Muslims), this is definitely one of the frequent orders made other than the famous Roti Canai.

As a special birthday treat, this dish was prepared by TheLoyalFan. ^_^ To be honest, his stir-frying skills are much better than mine and it's nice to take a break too!

So here goes...

First, chop up some onions and garlic (optional). For the ingredients of the noodle, it is really quite flexible. As long there's some meat, veggie and egg, it is A-okay!!! For ours, we always check what leftovers we have and just fry them up.

Slice up some lettuce and some meat. Place your instant noodles into a bowl with hot water and let it soak until it is semi-soft. Probably about 1 minute. The point here is to make it slightly softer but don't cook it completely. Otherwise, your noodle would be soggy at the end of the frying process.

Drizzle some cooking oil into your pan/wok and stir fry your onions. When they are fragrant, put in your meat and fry until it is almost completely cooked. Then beat an egg. Once the egg is cooked on one side, pour in the drained noodles and pour the curry flavour seasoning. Give it a good toss until all seasoning is evenly distributed. Last but not least, throw in your lettuce and give it a good stir. And finished!

As an alternative, you can try using similar ingredients as the Mamak chefs back home. If you plan to use cabbage, fry the cabbage before you fry the egg because it takes longer to cook the cabbage.

Souschef Su says: 'This always reminds me of home. Really yummy and I like the springy texture of the noodles. Would be great if there's some dahl (lentil) gravy served together. Mmmm!'

Well, since I was not the chef who prepared it, I thought for a change lah that I comment! Hehehehehe...

Have a great weekend everyone!