Om Om Omelette!

A simple yet can be a delicious dish, I think the omelette is a flexible dish. How so? Well, it is flexible because you either cook it with eggs only, or adding different ingredients to create a more wholesome, awesome egg dish.

I'm not sure about you, but at my home, the omelette is versatile. We can combine with all kinds of ingredients - from simple sliced onions, French beans, bitter-gourd to a combination of seafood such as crab sticks and prawns. If you have the opportunity, do try it at the nearest restaurants in your area. Or when you visit Kuala Lumpur ^_^

I'm happy to share one of our household's favourite - the tomato omelette recipe.

First, slice up some onions and cut the tomatoes into wedges. Remove some of the seeds from the wedges. This is because when the tomatoes are being fried, the mushy seeds will become watery, making the omelette wet. Then depending on the number of people you are cooking for, crack some eggs into a bowl. Let's say, you are cooking for 4 people: Perhaps cracking 4 eggs or 5 eggs (if you like your omelette to be more... "Egg-gy"). Season the eggs with some pepper and soy sauce. Whisk them away, Sous Chef!

Frying and simmering away!

And here it is... the final porduct!

All nice and charred... NICE!

To be honest, this is not my first time cooking this dish. However, my previous attempts didn't turned out as how it would look like the photo above. It was always wet because of the tomatoes, and I just suddenly thought of this idea of removing the seeds. Hahaha, abit slow to figure that out ^_^ Nonetheless, it was yummeh, babeh!

TheLoyalFan says: "Very nice! Tomatoes indeed can be added into omelettes."

Yup, you are looking at my crock pot chicken too : P Both are fantastic with rice! Om nom nom noms...

Have a great weekend, folks!

Cooking Again - Crock Pot Chicken

Hey everyone!

It has been a while, okay lah... a long while, that I have written stuff in my blog. Over the past year, I've been busy adjusting with a new member in my family - LittleMissPoochi. She has been a bundle of joy to TheLoyalFan and I ^_^ We are truly blessed and thankful for her well being.

Alrightie then, let's get back to more cooking!

With LittleMissPoochi around the house, I find it challenging to prepare a meal. So Mum taught me a recipe that doesn't require much attention... which is cooking with the Crock Pot a.k.a. Slow Cooker.

The thing about this wonderful pot is that one doesn't need to jaga fire - standing by the hob, ensuring the fire is right in order to avoid our dish being burnt. All you need to do is put in all your ingredients and turn it on. So lots of our mothers (and our grandmothers) like using the crock pot as it can stew the meat, making the meat all sooo soft, juicy and yummy!

First, ensure your chicken is thawed and marinate it. Before you marinate, trim off some of the fat from the chicken in order to reduce the oil. I marinated my chicken with 3 ingredients - Chinese wine, soy sauce and white pepper. This is the same marinate method that I used for my steamed chicken. Cut some ginger into thin strips then soak some gei zhee (goji berries) and yoke chook. For the Chinese herbs, I soaked in water, about 2 or 3 tablespoons of water.

Once your ingredients are ready, put everything including the water from soaking the herbs, into the crock pot. Leave it in the pot for 2 hours. I adjusted the heat to high mode.

And after 2 hours...

Tadaaa!

Chickens were stabbed to check whether inside is cooked ^_^

I must say, this dish turned out great! A variation of my steamed chicken and I.LOVE.IT! Well, I'm a very ching chong kind of person. The sauce was tasty and complemented well with rice. Mum and CuteFuzzyBear gave a thumbs up for my attempt (yay!)

TheLoyalFan says: 'Such a good dish to come home to after a long day. Its good to have sous chef back!'

I'm glad that sous chef is back too! : P

Stay tune for more posts on my culinary journey back home. Till then, keep nommings!

The things I will miss...

A year of adventure will be coming to an end. There were so many good memories that were created while we're here. And here goes... of the things I will miss in the UK:

Clockwise from top left: Nawaab (Indian buffet), Tops (Chinese / World buffet), a  variety of salads on a platter at Bem Brasil (Brazillian buffet)

Buffet in Manchester!
Known as THE 'Buffet Hub' in the UK, there are so many types of cuisine that one can choose from. From Chinese, Indian, Thai to Brazillian and 'World Buffet', ahhh... staying one year here is definitely not enough to try all of them! Furthermore, you can get a proper buffet meal under a tenner and stuffed yourself silly! I don't think I can ever get this price in Malaysia...

Dairy products
I am going to miss this real bad! Well mainly because where I come from, there are limited choices of cheeses and milks (whole, semi skimmed, skimmed). Plus most of it are imported and hence, the prices are quite expensive for us to buy and enjoy them. We still buy them nonetheless although it is pricey... we need our daily calcium intake ma! ^_^

In this year of adventure, I have learnt to cook dishes with double cream, crème fraîche and with cheese. Not only that, we drank milk every day too! I will remember the recipes I've learnt and cook them for my family when I'm back... the next time would be, spaghetti cabonara, made in Malaysia! ^_^

The stairs
The faithful flights of stairs that we use throughout our stay here in Manchester. Whenever we head out to the city, we'll use it to go downstairs instead of the lift. When it is cold and wet outside, it is our 'exercise apparatus' and we would go 2 to 3 laps a day. I think TheLoyalFan and I will surely miss our 'Stairs Master' exercise when we're home...

Clockwise from top left: The Great Orme, sheep on a meadow, piggies! and Tudor architectures in Chester

The UK itself
There are so many things that I have learnt to appreciate while I'm here and one of them is history. Everywhere we visted, there's always old buildings from the Victorian era, Georgian and even Medieval times. The city councils have preserved them really well and I have learnt and understand more about the history and how we have evolved to become a better civilization towards the 21st century. Not only that, I will miss those wide pavements for pedestrians to walk, to push their buggies and for their wheelchairs. Although the pavements are dirty and full of chewing gum residue, I enjoyed the walk very much. We still walk during the bitter cold winter and we've survived although we're from the tropical climate country : )

Last but it is definitely not the least, I'm gonna miss those cows, sheep and pigs whenever we travelled around the country. I love the view of the green plains with grazing cows and sheep. And during winter, it would be a snowy white plains to the end of the horizon. Brilliant view indeed!

As we'll be starting to pack up, go home and start new chapter of our lives, our adventure will always be a great memory to cherish and the UK has a special place in our hearts as well...

Till then, keep nomming!

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!

Steamed Egg with Mince Pork

Steamed egg is another 'ching' dish and I really like it very much. The texture of the egg is smooth and silky, at the same time, this dish doesn't make you feel all stuffed when you eat it a lot! Hehehe.

I think there are many ways of cooking steamed egg. The famous Japanese chawanmushi, for example, is also a variation of the steamed egg. As for the Chinese, there are 3 kinds that I know of - the standard steamed egg, 3 types of eggs and the egg with mince pork. LOL! So here goes...

Beat 2 eggs into a bowl and add equal volume of water with the egg. Whisk them together and put it aside. In a separate metal plate with a little depth, marinate the mince pork with soy sauce, oyster sauce, pepper and a pinch of corn flour. Once the marinate is complete, spread out the mince to cover the base of the plate with a fork (or spoon ^_^).

Prepare the pan / wok with boiling water and a steamer stand. Once the water starts boiling, turn down the heat. Pour the egg mixture onto the metal plate and season with some pepper. Place the metal plate onto the stand and steam for about 7 - 10 minutes, depending on the size of your dish. Here's the tricky bit - you'll need to keep an eye on the dish in order to ensure that your meat is thoroughly cooked.

The egg is finally ready! If you fancy, you can garnish with some spring onion too!

Needless to say, this was absolutely satisfying. Although it is not a fancy smanchy dish, it reminded so much of home cooked food and the Chinese restaurant's food back home. A real comfort food for both of us.

Juicy and nice! Om nom noms... 

If you like your egg to be tastier than this version, you can add in some soy sauce and pepper into the mixture before you pour onto the mince. I guarantee you that it compliments super well (yes, super duper well) with rice : P

TheLoyalFan says: ' So smooth and soothing... Makes you miss home.'

Well, it does made us miss home... but this dish does help us cope with our occasional 'home sick' ^_^

Till then, keep om nom noming!

Steamed Chicken

Steamed chicken is a very 'ching' dish. 'Ching' which literally means, clear in english, doesn't just mean it has clear gravy or a bland taste. To the Chinese, it simply means a simple and tasty dish but its flavour is not too overwhleming. Somehow this 'ching' taste comforts one's soul. Well, for me, 'ching' dishes always make me feel happy and all fuzzy inside : P

There are a couple of ways to make this steamed chicken. One is to marinate the chicken with salt and steam it; the other method will be marinating more than just salt. The Hainanese has its famous steamed chicken method where it is boiled in boiling water and soaking the cooked chicken in icy cold water. But today, I found a recipe that is simple yet very tasty.

Firstly, ensure your chicken meat is completely thawed to room temperature. This is to ensure that all areas of the meat has a consistent texture and the meat will be cooked evenly. Give the meat a good rinse and place it in a plate. Marinating requires only 3 ingredients - Chinese wine, white pepper and light soy sauce. For this, I recommend that the soy sauce and wine should be 3 tablespoon each. Scatter some shredded ginger onto the chicken.

Prepare the pan/wok with water and a steaming stand. Once the water is boiling, place the plate onto the stand and let it steam for about 30 - 40 minutes. Occasionally, use a spoon and drizzle he juice in the plate onto the meat.

Once the chicken is completely cooked, drizzle on some garlic oil and spring onions.

Tadaaa!

Doesn't it look yummy? Well, not only did it look so yummy, I was already drooling when I smelt the aroma of it! *slurp slurp slurp*

The chicken meat was really smooth and tasty. It reminded me so much of the 'pak cham' chicken back home at the chicken rice shop. We didn't make any oyster sauce dip as there were lots of good nutritious chicken 'essence' stored in the plate. The essence was tasty and not too salty. Also, it was really nice with rice too. Ooo... what a feeling! *nom nom noms!*

TheLoyalFan says: 'Super smooth chicken and extremely yummy sauce. Our extra helpings of rice did not last long... hehehe.'

*Blushing* Yea... it was really good and I had second helpings of rice : )

Till then, keeping nomming!

Stir Fried Cucumber with Egg

When this dish was first introduced to me, I thought that this is quite a weird combo. From the day I knew how to eat, cucumber has been eaten raw in my family meals. From cucumber slices as a side for Chicken Rice or as a main ingredient in my father's cucumber salad, somehow I have never eaten cucumber that has been cooked. (This doesn't count old cucumber that is boiled in soup.)

TheLoyalFan introduced this dish to me one day at his home and the moment I ate it, I LOVED IT! Yum Yum Yum! I never knew that this combo was so good and I always try and eat as much as I can especially when I'm having a meal with him : P

First, cut the cucumber into half lengthwise (sounds like a tongue twister : P). Half the cucumbers again. You should have 4 long cucumber quarters. Then cut off the seed or the core and slice them into medium chunks. Prepare some garlic for Chinese stir fry style.

Heat up the oil and stir fry the garlic. Once the garlic is fragrant, pour in the cucumbers and continue to fry. Season it with oyster sauce. Perhaps slosh an extra dollop of it for good measure : ) Once the cucumber has been fried for about a couple of minutes, create a 'crater' in the center of the wok. Beat an egg and scramble the yolk and white together. Let the egg set  for a while and stir fry the cucumber together with egg.

This is a simple Chinese stir fry vegetable and it is simply delicious! You don't really need to add water into this dish because the cucumber will release water from itself. One thing to note is to ensure that you do not let the cucumbers boil or stir fry too long. Reason being is to maintain its crunchy and 'bouncy' texture when you eat them.

TheLoyalFan says: 'Tasted just like home, even with the British cucumbers. Full of eggy 'wok hei'... nom noms!'

We're hoping that we're able to cook this more often since Spring is here... and hopefully the supermarkets are selling them cheap too! LOL!

Have a great weekend, folks! Ta!

Pork Braised in Vinegar

I've heard some different terms for this dish... Pork trotters braised in black vinegar, Ginger Vinegar (direct translation from Cantonese) but the outcome of these are all the same with 3 main ingredients - pork, ginger and black vinegar.

This is a 'famous' dish for confinement ladies. If I'm not mistaken, the Chinese believed that eating more ginger will 'heat' up the lady's body so that she does not catch a cold. At the same time, the ginger also 'removes' wind within our system as well. It's like some herbal remedy for confinement; you must eat ginger for 1 month! : )

But we're not here to talk about confinement. For me, this dish can be considered as comfort food. I like vinegar and whenever I have the braised seafood soup in the 2nd course, I would pour in a spoonful of black vinegar. Yum yum yum... As far as I can remember, I always perceived that this dish is a difficult dish to prepare and cook. So I thought of giving it a try...

Cut pork into cutlets. The proper part used in traditional cooking is the trotters but it's kinda difficult to buy it from supermarkets here. Furthermore, it's quite fat : P So we mixed ours with pork belly and pork chops for some 'pork fat' but not too much of it. Then, smash ginger (lots and lots of it). Fry the ginger with some oil in a pot until it is fragrant. Add in pork and stir fry until the outer layer is cooked. Then, pour in the vinegar and some water if you wish to dilute the sourness / sweetness. Let it simmer for an hour and a half and served it warm.

As you can see, my sauce is very black because I didn't use black vinegar. Instead, I used sweetened vinegar. I also added in water because the vinegar was very sweet but not sour. Hence, I've added some vinegar into the dish to make it sharper. Another thing to note is this dish should be braised in a claypot, if possible. I'm not sure how true is this, the reason this dish is braised in a claypot is to avoid 'metal' taste in it. This is due to the nature of the vinegar and may corrode some 'metal' from the pot. 

Well, although I've braised mine in a stainless steel pot, the outcome was still good. The pork was soft and tasty. We enjoyed it very much with our rice.

TheLoyalFan says: ' Anyone can enjoy this even if you're not pregnant... ho ho ho!'

One more dish checked in my list and I'm surprised that this dish is not difficult to prepare. You don't need to hire a professional in order to eat this. All you need is time to braise it : )

Pork & Leeks with rice

Have you tried chicken/fish/pork fried with ginger & spring onion? It is a common dish in all chinese restaurants. Trust me, no matter how 'high class' or simple coffee shops that you've visited, this 'ginger & spring onion' combo is definitely in their menu : )

However, it is rather not 'value-for-money' when you buy spring onion in the UK. Hence, as an alternative, we decided to replace spring onion with... leeks!!! You see, 1 packet of leeks can cook up 3 meals whereas the spring onion is just merely a garnish for a dish - not so worth it : P

Anyways, we have tried to cook this once and it is quite tasty. So I thought of blogging this up and here goes:

Marinate diced pork with pepper and soya sauce. Then slice up ginger and leeks. Heat oil in a pan and stir fry the ginger until fragrant. Thereafter, add in the leeks and fry for a while. Put in the pork, season it and add some water for some sauce (compliments well with rice. YUM!). You can add some wine for a nice 'sweet' taste. Well, I like to put wine in almost all dishes that I cooked.

The outcome? Slurp slurp SLURP!!! It is 'TOO GOOD, mind blasting' as Rusell Peters would say. When you boil the leeks, it will soften and caramelise. This thickens the sauce. With some sauce onto the rice, mmm... speechless! The leeks give a slight different texture than spring onion although they're from the same family (i think). Leeks are more robust and can be cooked longer, i.e. stewing. No need to worry about overcooking : )

TheLoyalFan says: 'So good with rice!!! It was so difficult to stop eating more.'

As the weather becomes colder and bitter this week, food like this just makes you all warm and fuzzy... Ahhh!

'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!)

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 ^_^)
 

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!