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.

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!

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!