Assam Laksa

Yes. You read it right : ) We all know that Assam Laksa is quite a tedious dish to prepare. If I read correctly from the Internet, you'll need to prepare a lot of ingredients such as the Ikan Parang, Assam Keping, Belacan... the list goes on. However, my mother-in-law taught me this version of Assam Laksa - almost instant and economical. I couldn't believe it myself and decided to learn and try it too!

Meet the ingredients! As you can see, most of the stuff are in a can. (Cheap cheap!) Hehehe and I think most of these stuff can be bought at the normal supermarket. I think the prawn paste, chilli powder (of which I forgot to place in the group photo) and assam keping might need to get it from the Asian Supermarket. Apart from that, you're ready to roll and make your own Assam Laksa! Weee!

First, chop and slice up the onion, cucumber and pineapples. Then, using a can opener, open up all your tinned fishes (Tuna & sardine, or both sardines) and tomato. I used peeled plum tomatoes because it is cheap! Once done, you're ready to move on the next step.

Stir fry a little bit of onion in a pot until fragrant. Then pour your tinned fishes and tomatoes and give it a good fry. Add water to increase soup volume, otherwise, the soup would be lumpy than the 'soupy' texture. As an alternative, I think you can add another can of tomatoes if you're cooking for more people.
For its sour and spicy taste, put in some Assam Keping. Do note that the assam keping needs to be boiled for a good half an hour so that the sour flavouring will be released into the soup. Add in chilli powder or dried chilli for the spicyness.

If you find that your soup has become too sour, balance it out with some sugar. Not sour enough? Add more assam keping lor... ^ ^ Let the soup simmer for about 30 - 40 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure the meat does not stick at the base of the pot. Season with salt if you find it too bland.

Usually the noodles would be thick rice noodles. However, we can't seem to find it in our Asian Supermarket and hence, decided to use... spaghetti! Hehehehehe. So boil the noodles as the usual method and we're ready to serve.

Turns out that our Assam Laksa was quite good. With some prawn paste added into the noodles, the dish just reminded me so much of Penang's Assam Laksa. We didn't make it too spicy as TheLoyalFan was having sore throat. Nonetheless, adding more dried chilli or perhaps fresh chilli will make the soup more spicy. If you are able to find the Daun Kesum (Completely clueless in english) and mint leaves, splendid! The spaghetti? Well, we think that it was a good choice as the noodles does not change the taste of the soup. In fact, it gave a more 'Al Dente' texture compared to the rice noodles. Oh yes, spaghetti is a cheaper ingredient than other noodles in the UK too : )

TheLoyalFan says: 'Had to force myself to eat slower in order to savour every last yummy bit! Cleaned out my whole bowl'

I agree! I ate mine really slow and enjoying every bit of the soup. And after cooking this method, I think I can cook Assam Laksa anytime that I want or have cravings for it. It is so easy and the ingredients are easily available in supermarkets.

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!

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!

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.