Yummy mee hoon siam

I love spicy food. Love, love, love! :) So does my hubby. So, it is of no surprise I manage to get into my man's heart through this yummy mee hoon siam recipe *winks*

My mum was the one who first introduced me to my love for mee hoon siam. If I recall correctly, I actually learnt the step by step recipe from her when I was in my late teens, cooked it a couple of times and well, I kinda put it at the back of my mind until the last 1 year or so. And of course, paying RM2.50 for a small pack of mee hoon siam @ Nyonya Colors with very little ingredients motivated me to whip up this quick and simple recipe as well!

Ingredients

* Half a packet of mee hoon - soaked for 1 night

* 1 packet of cili giling (small packet @ RM0.70)

* 6 - 7 Small red onions, sliced

* 3 cloves of minced garlic

* 1/2 chinese bowl of minced dried prawns
* 2 pcs of tau kuah cut into small cubes and fried till golden brown
* 2 eggs beaten and fried into omelette style and cut into strips (add salt & pepper to omelette)
* 1 tbs of salt and 1 tsp of sugar
* Bean Sprouts (50 cents)
* Spring onion - 2 stalks cut into about 1 inch long each
* 4 limes, cut into half each
* 2 red chillies, sliced for dressing

Cooking Instruction
(1) Pour approximately 6 tbs of oil and fry the garlic and small onions till golden brown
(2) Fry minced dried prawns
(3) Fry cili giling till fragrant
(4) Add mee hoon and stir fry, adding water sparingly till mee hoon is medium-soft texture. Add 1 tbs of salt & 1 tsp of sugar
(5) Add bean sprouts and fry for a while
(6) Add tau kuah cubes and strips of omelette
(7) Add spring onion and stir fry for about 1 minute.
(8) Serve with sliced red chillies and limes as dressing

Apple Pie served with Ice Cream

My Aunt Connie taught me how to make apple pie. The 1st time I tried her apple pie, I fell in love with the combination of warm crust with apple, raisins and cinnamon filling, topped with vanilla and chocolate ice cream. Mmmmmm.... I am so drooling as I reminisce upon the delicious apple pie I had after a sumptuous steamboat dinner.

I attempted to bake a pastry for the 1st time and I have to say, after doing this more than 5 times, it just get easier every time. It's not easy to make the crust but practice makes perfect! :)

 Accessories
* 23cm pyrex plate
* Transparent plastic wrapper (those used to wrap text books)
* Cookie shaper (Mine is a flower shape)
* Weighing scale
* Rolling pin
* Plastic knife
* Measuring spoon
* Measuring cup
* Mixing bowl
* Brush (to glaze egg yolk)

Ingredients
Short Crust mixture (Mixture 1)
1 250g plain flour
2 30g castor sugar
3 120g butter
4 50ml fresh milk (don't have to pour all, just enough for dough to shape)
5 Egg yolk x 1

Short Crust instruction
1 Mix flour & butter - use plastic knife to cut butter with flour into smaller pcs
2 Use finger tips to mix flour gently until it becomes bread crumbs
3 Put sugar into pastry
4 Put milk portion by portion & knead dough accordingly till shape is formed
5 Wrap your pie crust in a transparent plastic wrapper. Then place in the fridge for 20 minutes, while you make the pie filling

Pie filling
1 6 granny smith apples - cut apples into half & sliced thinly
2 5g cinnamon powder
3 150g castor sugar
4 100g raisins (or slightly less 70-80g depending on preference)

Cooking instruction for pie filling
1 Boil sliced apples
2 Once apples boil, turn off off fire & remove excess water
3 Turn on fire, add sugar, raisin & cinnamon powder. Stir.
4 Remove once done & cool for about 20 - 30 minutes

How to combine crust and pie filling
1 Take half of pie crust. Place in between transparent plastic wrapper & use rolling pin to shape according to plate size (must be slightly bigger than plate to ensure you are able to cover the whole base)
Put 1st layer on plate's base ((use plastic knife to remove excess edges)
*Tip: Sprinkle some flour on plastic wrapper & pie crust before rolling. Make sure all cracks are mended.
2 Place cooled pie filling mixture onto base. Roll remaining dough for top layer.
3 Use fork to decor edges. If got balance dough, make floral decor.
4 Glaze top layer with egg yolk.
5 Bake in oven at 180 degree for 25 minutes. Approx. 5 minutes before removing from oven, glaze with another layer of egg yolk.
*Tip: To pre-heat oven at 180 degree for 20 minutes before baking.
6 Serve with ice cream

Garlic Toast

Jo jo absolutely adores garlic toast. This particular recipe that I got from the internet has been slightly tweaked to have the right amount of salt and garlic. I do believe you can easily get a garlic toast mix from the supermarket  but if you're feeling a little adventurous and you want to try a recipe that's a little tastier (at least that's what some of my friends told me), have a go at this recipe.

Ingredients
* 1 loaf of french loaf
Mixture A (to mix thoroughly)
* 115gm butter
* 1 tbsp parmesan cheese
* 1/4 tsp oregano
* 1/ tsp chives
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 tbsp garlic (chopped till very fine)

Toasting instruction
1 Cut bread about 1/2 to 1 inch thickness
2 Spread mixture A on both sides of bread
3 Put on cookie sheet (optional)
4 Bake at 175 cel until toasted (abt 8-10 minutes)

Rosemary Roasted Chicken - 1st time roasting chicken

Seems like there is a lot of "first" for me :) That's because I've only been actively cooking when my son started to eat solid food. So, for a true amateur like myself, I never imagined that I would be able to roast a chicken cos neither my mum nor my mother in law has done it before!

And that my friend would mean that if I can do it, anyone can :)

So, for my 1st attempt to roast a chicken and prepare a 3-course western dinner, I'm delighted to have purchased an electric oven just over 6 months ago which has been used pretty efficiently thus far. I knew nuts about purchasing an electric oven. So, I'm grateful for my hubby's input when we went shopping for one. Not that he's any better than me *winks* We finally decided on a Faber Electric Oven Model No. FEO40. Good size with a good list of components available and definitely user-friendly.

I have to admit I was a little jittery during my 1st attempt to roast one whole chicken and complement it with a garlic toast recipe I learnt online but I soon discovered how easy it was and got all excited to try it again! Special thanks to Pek Kuan for the recipe :)

Ingredients
* 1 chicken, trimmed, washed, patted dry
* 3 large onions quartered
* 4-5 potatoes quartered
* 2 carrots cube into cubes

Marinate ingredients (A)
* 1/2 bowl of olive oil (or slightly less)
* 1/4 bowl of chopped garlic
* 1/8 bowl of rosemary
Note - Bowl measurement is based on the small Chinese soup bowl

Preparation
* Mariante chicken with 1 tbsp of salt and marinate (A) for at least 1 hour. Make sure marinate is applied thoroughly

Baking instructions
1 Preheat oven to 180 degress
2 Place chicken on a rack in a large baking pan. Marinate the rest of the ingredients in the leftover of mariante (A) and sprinkle some salt for taste. Place the rest of the ingredients on a rack right under the chicken.
3 Bake for 45 mins to 1 hr (till chicken is cooked)

Steamed yam cake - 1st recipe from my "nai nai" (Mother in law)

Yam cake is the 1st recipe that I had learnt from my mother in law. She used to make yam cake for family and friends when they had parties in their homes. Her yam cake was commended as "ho chak" (delicious) as she's never stingy with ingredients.

It's a pretty long and tedious process to make yam cake but if you've got the passion for cooking, do try this recipe.

Size of serving : 32cm tray

Bowl = Chinese soup bowl

Pre-preparation:-
(1) Small red onions, sliced and fried till golden brown – 600g
(2) Dried prawns, cleaned by soaking in water and subsequently minced into fine pieces – 3 / 4 a bowl
(3) Mushroom (medium size), cleaned by soaking in water and subsequently minced into fine pieces – 4 to 5 pcs

Dressing:-

(4) Red chilies, cleaned and minced finely – 2 pcs

(5) Spring onions, cleaned and sliced medium fine – as per preference

** Above can be done and kept in the fridge the day before except red onions, to keep in a air tight Tupperware / container

Liquid mixture – to soak for at least 30 – 45 minutes prior to cooking and weave liquid mixture into another bowl before pouring into work

(1) 6 bowls of clean water (fill till 1 cm left from top of bowl)

(2) Tepung beras – 1 packet (500 g I think)

(3) Corn flour – 1 spoon (full)

(4) Salt – 1 spoon

(5) Sugar – 2 spoons

Yam – 2 small to medium size yams, cut into small cubes (to cut on the day of cooking and put into fridge if not cooking immediately)

Cooking instruction
(1) Pour about 5 – 6 table spoons of oil

(2) Fry a spoonful of red onions

(3) Pour minced dried prawn into wok and stir fry

=> To take out a portion of dried prawns for dressing

(4) Pour minced mushroom into work and stir fry

(5) Pour yam pieces into work and stir fry

(6) Pour fried onions (600g) into work and stir fry

=> To take out a portion of fried onions for dressing

(7) Pour weaved liquid mixture into wok

(8) Add salt, sugar and pepper – taste to check that it’s ok

(9) Constantly mix contents of work with ladle till mixture is “keat” or solid

(10) Once mixture is solid, turn off fire

Steaming instruction

(1) Slightly grease the steaming tray

(2) Pour fried mixture into tray and even it out

(3) Put tray into a wok with boiling water

(4) Steam for about 1.5 hour

After 1.5 hr, to keep yam cake to cool for about 4 hours before putting the dressing on top (fried dried prawns and onions, minced red chilies and chopped spring onions)

Note: If you want to add minced pork, you need to pour into wok after step no. (4). Amount of pork should be not more than 1/2 a bowl.

Also, if you want to make it in a smaller tray (which I do), just cut everything into half.

Porridge - My 1st attempt at cooking

I was probably 15 or 16 then. That was the first time I attempted to cook porridge. It was for a "friend's" mother who was not feeling very well at that time and I was trying to get on her good books :p

Too thick for my liking and not salty enough. That's what I remembered about the pork porridge that I had cooked for the very first time. I guess it is true that "it's the thoughts that count"... or perhaps I was given the impression that she liked it to encourage my good intentions :)

Today, I would have cooked porridge for at least the 100th time or so. My son could testify to that :) Alternating between 4 different types of porridge for now - pork, chicken, fish and sweet potato porridge with beancured and minced meat, dried prawns, mushroom and carrot, I'm going to share my recipe for a very simple yet delicious chicken porridge.

Serving : 3 - 4 pax

Ingredients

* 160ml measure of rice (rinsed till clean)

* 1/4 chicken OR 1 leg of chicken, skin removed and cut into small/medium size
* 2 pieces of beancurd (tau kuah)
* 3-4 shallots / small red onions
* chopped spring onions (optional)

Seasoning

* 1 1/2 tsp to 2 tsp of salt

* pinch of white pepper

Preparation

* Chicken broth - boil chicken in approx 1,5 to 2L of water for 1 hour. Once done, remove chicken from broth and set aside to cool. Debone chicken and shred the meat into strips.
* Cut beancurd into small square cubes (approx. 1 cm) & lightly pan-fry till golden brown
* Slice shallots and pan-fry till golden brown

Cooking instructions
1 Cook rice in chicken broth and bring to boil. Once boilining, reduce heat to simmer and stir occasionally until rice grains are almost cooked (80%).

2 Add seasoning.
3 Add fried beancurd and meat strips. Continue boiling with low heat for about 10 minutes or till rice grains are completely cooked.
4 Switch off heat and add fried shallots. Stir to let the ingredients mix thoroughly.
5 Pour onto rice bowls and top up with spring onions. Serve hot.

Kitchen Talk Vol 1

I've been reminded time and time again that I should pursue my passion. As far as I am able to recognize, my passion in life right now is to be able to learn the dishes I've enjoyed eating as a child, a teenager and as an adult so that I could provide my family with delicious home-cooked meals.

I've always been wary about cooking as I'm an "ingredient-dummy". I can't differentiate one vege from another, one type of meat from another nor can I distinguish between the many types of fishes available in the market. I can't even tell which one is fresh and which one's not. And although I visit the nearby wet mini market every weekend, I seriously don't know the prices of vegetables, meat or fishes. I'm one of those urban working mothers that never bothered to check prices or compare prices simply because I can afford to pay for it with my monthly income.

As I explore this cooking journey, I began to face my fears and try out recipes that I've never tried before. There is an ocean of knowledge that I have yet to explore and skills that I have yet to master. I am excited! But I still feel more confident when I learn by watching someone else prepare the ingredients and cook the dishes.

To my mum and mum-in-law, I'll be bugging you both... so be prepared! *winks*

To my family... and also my friends, be prepared to be my guinea pigs... wahaha *grins*