Pork My Way

Char siew served on top of aromatic rice and cucumbers

I would say that char siew has become one of my favourite foods in the recent years, probably due to the fact that my father has exposed me to perfect char siew in Malaysia (e.g., Bill Khoon and his Famous Seremban Favourites restaurant).

My definition of perfect char siew: roast pork, sticky and sweet, ever-so-slightly charred with crunchy bits, yet soft and tender with wobbly layers of fat. 

To me, pork belly is the best cut for char siew; the tender meat is sandwiched between melting layers of fat, and the crunch is formed through a mix of charred fat and sticky glaze.

I would not use pork neck ever again; I used this cut the first time I made char siew in Sydney (as recommended by the lady at the butcher's) many years ago. The result was a piece of well-flavoured meat, with the absence of juicy fatty layers.

What??? No fat??? How can??? My father was incredulous at the mention of no-fat char siew.

Pork belly, it is. A nice piece of pork belly can be cut length-wise into thin strips (about 6 cm in width).

This is one belly I love

Now that I have chosen the meat, then comes the marinade. I would break down the marinade to three components: sweet, salty, and aromatic.

Char siew marinade has lots  of sugar in it. Many recipes on the Internet would attest to that. After all, sugar is what gives char siew its charred sticky outer appearance and sweet flavour.What sort of sugar? Raw sugar? Refined sugar? Honey? Maltose? I believe more complex-flavoured sugars would add depth of flavour to the marinade, therefore, honey, maltose, and brown sugars would be suitable. I have also tried infused honey; I made a garlic-infused honey which goes well in the marinade.

Home-made garlic-infused organic honey

As for the savoury component, I use only light soy sauce. Many recipes use a combination of light soy, dark soy, hoisin, or oyster sauces. For me, I would like the savoury component to be as unadulterated as possible; dark soy sauce contains molasses and / caramel, which could be omitted since the marinade already has a high sugar content. Hoisin and oyster sauces contain MSG, amongst other things, which my palate would gladly forgo.

What do I classify as the aromatic component? Wines. I have added drinking sake to the marinade, and more recently, a combination of sake with rose wine, too. Sake balances the rose wine, which can smell too sweet and artificial, in my opinion.

No five-spice powder for me, thank you very much. I believe good-quality pork and a simple, yet flavourful marinade should be the stars of the show. Five-spice powder taints the marinade, and I think masks the musky smell of poorly-treated pork meat.

The marinade is added to the pork, then refrigerated overnight.

Cooking of the pork has proven to be a challenge. How do I cook the char siew to get a slightly charred outside, tender meat, and melting fat? Charred exterior and tender interior do not seem to be too difficult; I have made char siew with those characteristics. Melting, wobbly fat? Oh, that has eluded me so far.

So far, I have only used the oven to cook the meat. First, covered, at a lower temperature (130 degrees Celcius fan-forced), then, uncovered, at a higher temperature (180 degrees Celcius fan-forced). I have a theory to steam the meat before grilling it under high heat. I think that steaming the meat could loosen the fat and gently cooking the meat, then grilling it would char the exterior. I have not tried this method yet, though.

X thinks that I have mastered the marinade and charring. All that remains is the melting fat.

As your eyes trail down to this line, you would have realised I did not provide a recipe, nor the exact cooking method. That is because I have one last piece of marinated pork belly in the fridge. I shall cook that tonight, and document the method, in detail. Perhaps tonight's piece of pork belly would turn out to be the perfect char siew. If not, it is, yet again, a learning process for me, and a meal for my family. :)

Pork My Way

Tuesday Dinner

Was too lazy to go to the city to get groceries.


I looked into the drawer of dried goods... it is laden with stuff... now what could I cook tonight?


The snap-lock bag of split yellow peas stared back at me, beseeching me to cook them up before they get infested by moths. 


And tonight's dinner is dhal.


Dhal is probably the one of simplest and most satisfying food to cook and eat. Perfect for a cold winter's night. :)

Tuesday Dinner

Banana Bread

At this moment, the sweet scent of banana bread permeates the air. There is another 20 minutes to go before I check on it.

Rising up nicely

I sit at KT's computer typing this entry whilst waiting for the bread to be cooked. It is a sunny day, with a slightly cool autumn breeze. 


The smell of good food makes me happy. 


I found this recipe on Christie's fig&cherry blog, and was attracted by the lovely photos of the finished banana bread. Lots and lots of nuts? That is right up my alley.


Ingredients: 
125g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 very ripe bananas
1/2 packed cup brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground cloves
1 and 1/2 cups of plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
Two handfuls of pecans, toasted and roughly chopped


Method:

1. Pre-heat oven at 160°C fan-forced. Grease then line a loaf tin with baking paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add the melted butter, mashed bananas, sugar, egg, vanilla extract, cinnamon and cloves. Mix to combine.
3. Gradually sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt. In between adding in the flour, add the chopped pecans. 
4. Bake in the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted leaves a few crumbs.
5. Remove from tin and cool on a wire rack. 

Missing a tiny slice from the left corner. :) 

I have taken the bread out of the oven. It is very, very dense. I have cut a slice and slathered it with Harmonie Organic Butter (I happened to use the same brand as Christie). It is dense, moist, crunchy with nuts, and surprisingly, just nicely sweet. :) 


I have to restrain myself from having a second slice. 


Mmm, I am indeed happy. :)

Banana Bread

Much Ado About Chickens Roaming Free

X came down with a sore throat on Thursday morning; she has since not fully recovered. 

I have been cooking congee almost every dinner since Thursday.

Twice I have cooked chicken congee, using different brands of free-range whole chicken.

Before I go any further, I would like to stress that I do not endorse any brand, I only state my opinion.  

On the first occasion, I used Red Lea free-range whole chicken to cook the congee. I did not add anything else to the congee other than a few cloves of garlic and salt.

Verdict: KT, X, and I found the chicken to be "sweet"-tasting.

On the second occasion,  I used Macro (Woolworth's brand) free-range whole chicken. I added Astragalus membranaceous (bei qi / huang qi) slices.

Verdict: the chicken tastes "sweet", but not as sweet as compared to that of Red Lea's.

Conclusion:

I found Red-Lea to be sweeter-tasting, but due to the fact I added different aromatics to each batch of congee, it may have altered the taste slightly. The take-home message is, free-range chickens taste better than non-free-range chickens. :) 

Much Ado About Chickens Roaming Free

Pizza for Dinner



Four cheese and sage pizza - Gruyère, Cheddar, Gorgonzola dolce latte, Mozzarella





Four cheese and sage pizza fresh from the oven - salami (sopressa) and mozzarella pizza in the making



Sunday night we had pizza. Sunday night we had pizza we made. We bought a 33cm pizza stone for the occasion. It was a successful first attempt; very, very satisfying to make as well as to eat. We used recipes from the Gourmet Traveller, with embellishments. :P 


The pizza dough was surprisingly easy to make, 1 quantity of pizza dough yields four 33cm pizzas (we like the crust to be thin and crisp) which was plenty for 4. 

The ingredients for each recipe were for 1 quantity of pizza dough, but we made half-quantity for each recipe, and pretty much overloaded the base with topping. :) 

The oven was set at 230°C fan-forced. The pizza stone should be pre-heated so that the crust is crisp. 

Pizza dough
(Adapted from the Gourmet Traveller)


Ingredients:
15g yeast
400g strong plain flour / '00' flour
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil


Method:
1. To activate the yeast, combine yeast with 100mL of lukewarm water in a small heat-proof bowl. 
    Stir to get an even mixture, then stir in 2 tablespoons of flour. Cover and stand in a warm place 
    for 30 minutes or until mixture is foamy.
2. Place remaining flour into a large bowl, create a well in the centre, add in yeast mixture, olive oil, 
    a pinch of sea salt, and 140mL of water. Mix until combined. Knead until dough is smooth and 
    elastic (about 5 minutes). Divide dough into four, and place onto an oiled oven tray.  
    Brush dough with olive oil, cover and stand in a warm place until doubled in size (45 minutes - 1 
    hour).

For the four-cheese pizza, we used Gruyère (coarsely grated), Cheddar (coarsely grated), Gorgonzola dolce latte (crumbled), and Mozzarella (thinly sliced). Roll out on a lightly floured surface one portion of the pizza dough. Scatter the cheeses evenly onto the base, making sure to leave a little margin. Top with sage leaves. Bake on the pizza stone for 10 minutes or until golden. Drizzle with garlic-infused olive oil and serve immediately. 

For the salami and mozzarella pizza, we used sopressa (roughly torn) and Mozzarella (thinly sliced). The sauce was made by frying up some chopped up garlic and onion, adding in passata and blended red peppers, season slightly with sea salt (not too much, as the salami can be quite salty), then simmer until it becomes thick (10-12 minutes), stir constantly. Remove from heat and let cool. Roll out on a lightly floured surface one portion of the pizza dough. Spread tomato mixture evenly onto the base, making sure to leave a little margin. Top with cherry tomato slices, sopressa, and mozzarella. Bake on the pizza stone for 6-8 minutes or until golden. Drizzle with garlic and oregano oil and serve immediately. 

For garlic and oregano oil, cook oil and garlic in a small saucepan over medium heat until garlic is golden (3-4 minutes), add oregano, remove from heat, season to taste and set aside.

Pizza for Dinner

Indian Feast

X came up with this "vegetarian once a week" idea not too long ago, claiming that it could help to reduce carbon emission. Third week running, already we have had a few hiccups with what and when to cook.

I referred to some of the recipes featured on Food Safari, and decided we would go vegetarian the Indian way. Toor dal tadka, palak paneer, and gujarati potatoes sounded like a true vegetarian feast to me.

I have most of the spices required, which was convenient. I couldn't get asoefatida, dessicated coconut, fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi), and paneer, but decided to forge on anyway.

The recipes did not state the number of serves; therefore, I did a bit of guess-work to serve dinner for five.

The toor dal tadka turned out nicely, although I did adjust the recipe to make it saltier and hotter. I wonder how it would have turned out had I have asoefatida powder on hand (according to the SBS glossary, asoefatida / asoefatid is dried resin from a foot plant of the fennel family, with a flavour similar to garlic and onion, and used as a digestive aid to reduce flatulence brought on by a diet high in fibre and legumes).

The palak paneer, as expected, fell short, due to the lack of the key ingredient, the paneer (I ended up substituting it with cream cheese). However, the pseudo-palak paneer fulfilled the vegetarian theme, so everyone was happy. KT also commented that he didn't like the onions in the palak paneer, I probably could have diced it a bit finer, or used less of it.

The gujarati potatoes were so easy to make - I couldn't get pontiac potatoes, I made do with brushed potatoes, which turned out well. I also sprinkled more sesame seeds to the potatoes after coating them with the seasoned oil; I love sesame seeds, and also to make up for the dessicated coconut.

The above were served with rice; everyone went back for seconds (in KT's case, even thirds). That night, though, both X and I had bad stomach cramps, diarrhoea, and flatulence. Probably because I didn't have the asoefatida in the dal, eh? :|

Indian Feast

Taro / Yam Paste

I used the base recipe obtained from Corner Cafe then made a few changes. I wanted a smooth paste for a ping pei mooncake filling.

Ingredients:
1 medium-sized taro, about 750g
125g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
Pinch of sea salt

Method:


1. Peel skin off taro and cut into fairly even small cubes.

2. Place taro cubes into a metal plate, making sure the cubes are evenly
distributed on the plate. Sprinkle some water over the cubes. Avoid stacking
cubes on top of each other. If necessary, steam taro in batches, over high heat
for about 30 minutes, or until soft.

3. While still hot, mash taro with a potato masher until there are no lumps. Pass
mash through a fine sieve to get a smooth mash.

4. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add taro mash, sea salt, and half the
sugar. Add a little water (about 50mL) if mash is dry. When sugar dissolves, add
the remaining sugar, or to taste. Stir continuously until paste thickens. Adjust
taste. It should taste buttery and fragrant from the combination of taro and
butter, and sweet. Remove from heat.

5. Allow paste to cool at room temperature before storing in an airtight container
in the refrigerator.

Taro / Yam Paste

Mooncakes, mooncakes, mooncakes!!!

Mid-autumn festival is around the corner!!!

Time to improve on my mooncake-making. :)

I bought a taro to make taro paste.

Going to make ping pei and ordinary mooncakes.

Watch this space. :)

Mooncakes, mooncakes, mooncakes!!!

Scotch Eggs

X saw Adam Liaw's recipe for Scotch Eggs at Coles'. She took the recipe home, C got excited about it, and we made them yesterday for dinner. The sambal was my mother's recipe, and we made the sambal much much spicier. We even used century eggs in two of the Scotch Eggs, which C thought was much better.




Verdict? We were not too sure what the hype of Adam Liaw's Scotch Egg was about. It was certainly inventive, perhaps Scotch Eggs were not our thing.

Scotch Eggs

Taste of Sydney 14th March 2010

The Taste of Sydney - I went two days in a row, once with C and her boyfriend, and the second time with X. We tried more dishes on the first day, a few hits and misses, and when I went with X, we zeroed in on the hit dishes, and scratched our heads deciding on a few others I had not tried the day before.

My tastebuds probably have more choice words in relation to the food, I shall let the photos and the captions tell the story for now...

Our first must-try dish of the day - Beef Ribs Smoked in Watermelon with a Watermelon and Avocado Salad - Danks Street Depot

The smoked, slightly sweet flavour of the ribs balanced by the refreshing watermelon salad. This was a crowd favourite, I heard so many people talking about this.

Chilled Vichysoisse, Salmon Caviar, Hawkesbury River Oyster Beignet - Berowra Waters Inn

Loved the vichysoisse and the salmon caviar, not so much the oyster

Wagyu Beef Daube with Paris Mash - Guillaume at Bennelong

The famous Paris mash - smooth and creamy, the beef was flavoursome, although I found it a bit dry

Romeo Baudouin of Victor Churchill, Charcutier preparing a terrine of pig's head - the poor pig's head was smiling away at the corner


Bailey's with a hint coffee on ice-cream - intoxicating


We saved this for the very last - Vanilla Panna Cotta with Lavender Honey and Fresh Pomegranate - Jonah's at Whale Beach

The quivering work of art deserves another take - not too sweet, yet indulgent - oh-so-very indulgent

Barramundi in a Bag alla Taste of Sydney - with cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, and fennel

I even managed to take notes on how to cook barramundi in a paper bag (shown by Richard Ptacnik of Otto), which I tried the following night. It was incredibly easy to cook, and my first attempt managed to produce a delicious, edible dish!

I'm not a fan of fennel, but this recipe sold me the idea to give fennel another go, and I was pleasantly surprised.

All in all, we had a lovely time at the Taste of Sydney, and until now, my tastebuds still tingle at the thought of some of the dishes I had tried there.

Taste of Sydney 14th March 2010

Lemons and Life

I've been visiting Mr. and Mrs. C quite frequently for the last few months. I've known them since I started working at Campsie. They are the nicest people - warm and unassuming, who treat me as one of the family. :)

Last week Mrs. C took me to have a look at her backyard / garden. She had a lemon tree growing at one corner, and she was eager to pick some ripe lemons for me to take home. Goodness, they were the largest lemons I've seen, so heavy that I joked I could knock someone unconscious with them.

I'm trying to look for a dessert recipe which would do justice to these lemons; otherwise, my back-up plan would be to make a cold refreshing lemonade with them. :)




Much later, I found a recipe on Gourmet Traveller, lemon and pink grapefruit syrup cake with vanilla bean ice-cream which I would adapt to be lemon and orange syrup cake, since I have oranges on hand instead of pink grapefruit. :) I'm in the process of making them now, sans the ice-cream, too much for work since I don't have an ice-cream churner. I shall post up pictures once I have them done, hopefully. :)

It's amazing what wonders employment can do to my cooking and blogging productivity... I managed to finish baking the syrup cakes, take decent-ish photos (thanks to X for taking my camera, I have to rely on my 3.2 mega-pixel Sony Ericsson W890i), and post up the adapted recipe AND photos. I feel so accomplished...



Lemon and Orange Syrup Cake

Ingredients:
140g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
150g caster sugar
Grated rinds of 1 lemon and 1 lime
3 eggs
290g self-raising flour, sieved
200mL milk

Lemon and orange syrup:
200g caster sugar
150mL lemon juice
Rinds of 1 lemon and 1/2 an orange, thinly removed using vegetable peeler

Method:

1. For the lemon and orange syrup, slice lemon and orange rinds into thin strips. Blanch rinds in boiling water, drain, then combine with other ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil and cook over high heat until rind strips are translucent (about 1-2 minutes). Cool.

2. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Celcius, fan-forced. Beat butter, sugar, and lemon and lime rinds until mixture is pale and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition, then add milk, fold in flour gradually until well-combined. Divide among 8 1-cup capacity dariole moulds (fill up to 2/3 full). Bake until golden and centre springs back when lightly pressed (25-30 minutes). Cool for 10 minutes in moulds, then turn onto wire rack placed over a tray. Using a skewer, pierce several holes in tops of cakes. Drizzle with syrup while still warm, decorate with strips of rinds, and serve immediately with vanilla ice-cream.

The cake on its own is quite light and fluffy, not too sweet, with a hint of lemon. I would have preferred the lemon flavour to be a bit more pronounced, perhaps the problem was that most of the grated rind was stuck onto the grater... it's time to invest in a good-quality microplane, eh? :P

I haven't tried the finished cake yet, was too busy writing up this entry instead. The cakes would be our breakfast tomorrow. ;) If they're good, I might give some to Mr. and Mrs. C. We shall see...

Much much later:

I have to say that the cakes were very nice! Moist and not too sweet, with a very lemony kick from the lemon orange syrup.... mmm...

Lemons and Life

Double Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cookies

This post is long overdue. I made these biscuits for KT to take back to Malaysia in August. I excuse myself for not posting this sooner as I have been busy (it's the same excuse every time). :P

KT loves nuts, and since macadamia is a product of Australia (something that almost all Malaysians would take back to Malaysia as a gift for family and friends), I wanted to make biscuits with macadamia nuts. As usual, Google is my reliable source of recipes, and I came up with a few recipes which used macadamia nuts. Most of them combined the nuts with white chocolate.

Personally, I am not a fan of white chocolate as I find it too sweet. Therefore, I used both white and dark chocolate in the recipe.

Baked goodness

Ingredients:
2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
170g unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoon rum
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup macadamia nuts

Method:
1. Pre-heat to 150-160 degrees Celcius.
2. Beat melted butter and sugar for 5-10 minutes until pale and fluffy.
3. Add vanilla extract and rum into butter mixture. Mix to combine.
4. Gradually beat one egg yolk and one egg into the mixture until well-combined.
5. Sift together plain flour, baking soda, and salt.
6. Add dry ingredients gradually to wet mixture until well-combined.
7. Spoon one teaspoon of dough onto baking tray lined with non-stick baking
paper. Stick white chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, and macadamia onto
dough.
8. Bake for 15-17 minutes. Biscuits should only be lightly coloured and chewy in
the centre when cooked.

Tips:
1. When spooning dough onto the baking tray, make sure the dough is spooned as
high a pile as possible so that the biscuits maintain a dome shape when baked,
and to minimise spreading.
2. Make sure there is enough space for each biscuit to expand when baked.
3. Chocolate chips and nuts could also be mixed into the dough and spooned out
instead of sticking them onto the dough.

Double Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cookies

New Beginning

I got the job. They must really need someone in a hurry, because not long after I went for the second interview, the manager rang me and asked me to start the following day.

I've worked six gruelling days at the pharmacy. For the first few days, I was too anxious to feel physically tired after working all those hours, but I was mentally exhausted. It is a new environment for me, and I had much to learn. I still have much to learn, but at least I have grasped the basics. I feel a little more confident. Hopefully I can gain a bit more footing next week.

One night I bought a Donna Hay October edition to get some cash out. I discovered what I think has to be the simplest and yet most delicious and satisying cookie recipe - oat and coconut crisps. I had most of the ingredients on hand (I bought a big bag of coconut shreds to make kerisik for the beef rendang the other night, so all the more reason to put them to good use!), and it didn't require too much fiddling around!

Welcome Spring!

I tried the recipe out yesterday night. I adapted the recipe, of course, since I'm not one to follow a recipe to the letter. ;)

The outcome - very nice~

Oat and Coconut Crisps

Ingredients:
135g rolled oats
(KT had a bag of tropical muesli, so I used 135g of that instead, I picked out all the large bits of fruit)
40g shredded coconut
135g brown sugar (I used 130g, I didn't want it to be too sweet)
165g white sugar
(I substituted with 100g caster sugar, and 50g CSR coffee sugar crystals for added crunch and flavour)
35g plain flour, sifted
165g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celcius (340 degrees Fahrenheit).
2. Place the oats, coconut, sugar, and flour in a bowl. Mix to combine.
3. Add the butter, egg, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
4. Spoon one teaspoon of the mixture at a time onto a baking tray lined with
non-stick baking paper.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden.
6. As soon as they turn golden, take them out of the oven, leave on the tray for a
few minutes, then lift the baking paper from the tray and onto a wire rack to
cool completely.

Tips:
1. I set the oven at 160 degrees Celcius fan-forced.
2. I spooned only one teaspoon of the mixture at any one time, not one tablespoon
as per original recipe, as one tablespoon would spread too much. Make sure
that each teaspoon of mixture has enough room to spread whilst cooking.
3. Set timer at 10 minutes to start, the biscuits would take 10 minutes at most to
turn brown. If they are baked longer, the sugar would caramelise too much and turn quite bitter.


Voila! Simple and delicious!

New Beginning

Penchant for fondant

I love Australian Gourmet Traveller.

I made orange chocolate fondants with a recipe from the June issue of AGT.

Oozing lava

Chocolate heaven on a cold and chilly winter night...

Here it is:

Ingredients:
150g dark chocolate ( 61% cocoa solids), finely chopped
90g butter, coarsely chopped
30mL Grand Marnier
Finely grated rind of 1 orange
3 eggs
150g caster sugar
45g plain flour
30g Dutch-process cocoa
Candied orange peel (optional), to serve

Grand Marnier ganache
40mL pouring cream
10mL Grand Marnier
75g dark chocolate (61% cocoa solids)
20g candied orange peel, diced.

1. For Grand Marnier ganache, bring cream and Grand Marnier to the boil in a small saucepan, remove from heat, add chocolate and stand for 1 minute, then stir until smooth. Stir in candied orange peel and refrigerate until firm (2-3 hours). Roll heaped teaspoons of mixture into 6 balls, refrigerate until required.

2. Melt chocolate, butter, Grand Marnier and orange rind in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, stir until smooth (4-5 minutes), remove from heat. Whisk eggs and sugar in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until very thick and pale (7-8 minutes). Remove from heat, fold in chocolate mixture, sift over flour and cocoa, fold to combine. Refrigerate until firm (3-4 hours).


3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Half-fill 6 buttered and floured 150mL-capacity metal dariole moulds with pudding mixture, pressing mixture firmly into mould and making a small indentation in the centre with a teaspoon. Place a ball of ganache in the centre, top up with more pudding mixture to 1cm below rim, smoothing top. Bake until fisen and just firm to the touch (12-15 minutes), stand for 5 minutes, turn onto serving plates and serve immediately with marmalade ice-cream and candied orange peel, if using.

C didn't like the fondants much, she said that it was too rich. I might try another recipe some time soon.

When I get the time and muster up enough energy. :P

Penchant for fondant

Stir-Fried Fish Noodles

There's this shop in old town PJ which sells noodles made from fish meat. I've eaten it twice. The noodles are stir-fried kuey tiaw style, very very yummy.

I decided to make fish noodles today.

I bought snapper fillets to make the fish meat. The fish needs to be minced until it is of lighter shade, then kneaded until it is of doughy, rubbery consistency. I added an egg to the paste, which made the dough a little bit sticky and harder to handle. I should have left out the egg. I added a little bit of oil and salt to make it shinier.

I put the fish paste into a piping bag and piped out thin strands into a saucepan of hot boiling water. Once the noodles float up, they were ready to be used.
The noodles needed to be seasoned quite heavily when fried, because I didn't add much salt to the fish paste.

I fried it kuey tiaw style, minus the prawns and cockles (I couldn't find cockles). Yummy yummy. I'll post a picture up when I get the time.

KT liked it, so that was a good thing. My sister that the noodles weren't as chewy as
the one in PJ, which my father thought was because of the snapper; tenggiri (mackerel) would have been a better fish to make fish paste. I didn't process the paste for long, which could have contributed to the lack of chewiness. :P

When I lay my hands on mackerel... :P

Stir-Fried Fish Noodles

Chinese New Year / Australia Day 2009

Yes, it was yummy!!!

I should realign this picture, but I don't have time. It's obvious KT enjoyed himself!

This is my first year and last year in Australia that the first day of Chinese New Year coincides with Australia Day. I was told by KT that this is a once in a hundred years occurrence.

Chinese New Year, Australia Day or not, a pharmacist works for bread and butter.

And Vegemite, of course.

Thank goodness I start an hour later today, that gives me some time to blog about my Chinese New Year cooking / eating dinner feast.

KT asked me to cooked loh hon chai ( a vegetarian dish) and a fish dish (fish in Chinese sounds the same as abundance).

I pestered my mother for a loh hon chai recipe, and tried it out yesterday night. Great success. :) KT was satisfied.

Fish dish? Oh, not so great success. I wanted to do a salt-crusted snapper, but the Donna Hay recipe turned out too salty. I have to look for a better recipe.

We had sambal prawn, too. Very great success. Spicy to the max. My nosed leaked like a burst pipe. So spicy that my stomach did acrobatics in the toilet, too. Not so appetising.

Chinese New Year morning? A staple - fried battered nian gao with sweet potato. Yummy. And the too salty fish? Fish porridge. Also yummy.

Chinese New Year / Australia Day 2009

Back in Sydney

I arrived in Sydney on 11th January 2009 morning.

I slept until 5pm that day.

Cooked dinner, which my father can take credit for - "man fan" - rice in broth.

Simple but yummy:

Ingredients:

• Pre-cooked rice
• 4 packets of bonito flakes
• 1 large piece of konbu
• 1 tablespoon Awase miso paste
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• Soy sauce - adjust to taste
• Suki-yaki beef
• Spinach, rinsed and chopped
• 2 eggs
• Fried ikan bilis (the small variety - ngan yu chai)
• Chopped spring onions
• Fried garlic in oil
• Black pepper to taste
• Chopped fresh red chillies, or Japanese chilli flakes (ichimi togarashi)

Method:

1. Boil bonito flakes and konbu for stock. Once the konbu softens, take it out, cut into strips, then throw them back into the stock. In this way, the konbu can also be eaten.
2. When the liquid comes to a boil, turn down fire to a slow simmer, skim away foam at the surface.
3. Stir in miso, mirin, and soy sauce to taste.
4. Add in beef. Broth at this point is at a simmer so that beef is not overcooked.
   
5. Add the eggs, stirring while adding to create egg strands in the broth.
6. When the beef is just cooked, add in spinach.
7. When the spinach is wilted, ladle broth over rice in a bowl, top with fried ikan bilis, chopped spring onion, fried garlic in oil, chillies or chilli flake, and black pepper.

Yes, I've been quite productive since I came back. That's because my sleeping pattern is off - I went to the bathroom at 5am and couldn't sleep ever since! I even had time to look up a recipe for lad nar. This web page is very informational, there is even a clip on how street vendors cook lad nar in Thailand! So tonight's menu is, yes! Lad Nar!

I really need to get some shut-eye before my gruelling 10-hour shift. Oh, no. :P

Back in Sydney