Ingredients
fresh cockles
3 eggs
Method
1. Remove cockles from their shells. Refer to my post here.
2. Crack the eggs, add a bit of salt and use a fork to beat the eggs well.
3. Heat up wok over high heat with 4 tablespoon of cooking oil. Pour the eggs into the wok and add the cockles. Tilt the wok slightly to allow the egg to coat the wok evenly. As soon as the sides begin to cook, flip the eggs over.
4. Continue to cook the eggs until the omelete is set. Dish out and serve immediately.
This is a really refreshing take at eating bittergourd.
Ingredients (makes 16 pieces of stuffed bittergourd rings)
70g prawns (de-shelled and de-veined)
Bittergourd (cut into 1 cm rings)
1 large potato (250g, cut into small chunks)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Cooking Oil, enough for shallow frying
Method:
1. Cut bitter gourd into 1cm thick rings and rub with salt. Leave it for 15 mins (to reduce bitterness). Rinse away the salt thereafter and pat dry with kitchen towel.
2. Mince prawns by smashing each one with the back of cleaver, and shred scallops into strips.
3. Boil the potato in salted water until tender (can poke through with a chopstick), around 10 to 15minutes. Drain water and return the pot to the stove. On low heat, shake the pot to evaporate excess moisture from the potato. Turn off heat and mash the potato while they are hot. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Mix together minced prawns and mashed potato.
6. Fill each ring with filling and compact it gently. Fry in medium high heat oil till browned, about 2 to 3 minutes a side.
7. For excess filling, make patties/croquette. Shape the filling into patties, lightly coat with plan flour, dredge them through beaten egg, coat with panko (bread crumps) and deep cry untiĺ crispy. Drain off excess oil before serving.
Mortar (and pestle) is used to grind or crush ingredients into powder or paste. But do you know the mortar can be used as a cooking tool too? I use it to flatten the chicken drumsticks during cooking to get crispy pan fried chicken drumsticks. If you don't have mortar and pestle, any heavy, flat-bottomed object (e.g. a brick) would also work.
Ingredients:
3 chicken drumsticks (deboned)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper or freshly ground black pepper
Lemon sauce (optional):
15g unsalted butter
50ml lemon juice (around 1 lemon)
20g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
80ml water
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tbsp water
Method:
1. Clean and wash the drumsticks. Pluck chicken feather if any. Dab dry. Debone.
2. Heat up the cast iron pan/skillet until smoking.
3. Meanwhile, sprinkle salt and white/black pepper on the meat side of the chicken and rub the salt and pepper in.
4. Put the chicken, skin side down, into the cast iron pan. Lay a piece of aluminum over the drumsticks, followed by the mortar. Pan fry the drumsticks undisturbed over low heat for 5 minutes. Note that the length of cooking depends on the size of drumstick and the stove heat.
5. After 5 minutes, remove the mortar and aluminium foil. Use the wok spatula to lift the drumstick to check whether it has crisped up. If not, cover with aluminium foil and mortar,and continue to pan fry for a few more minutes.
6. Once the chicken skin has crisped up, remove the mortar and aluminium foil and flip the drumstick, meat side down. Pan fry for 5 minutes.
7. Transfer the cooked drumstick to the chopping board and cut into thin slices.
Serve hot!
Ingredients:
2 pieces chicken thigh (deboned)
Seasoning: 1/4 tsp salt, dashes of freshly ground pepper, 1/4 tsp thyme, 1/4 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp paprika
8 pieces of smoked bacon
Method:
1. Season chicken thigh.
2. On a baking sheet, lay bacon strips across the sheet. Place the chicken thigh one end of the bacon strips, tuck the chicken thigh and roll it up using the baking sheet as tightly as possible. Then wrap the roulade using aluminum foil.
3. Boil a pot of water and add the roulades. Poach for 30 mins over medium high heat. Turn the roulades around for even poaching. After poaching, drain the liquid and set aside the roulades to cool.
4. Once cooled, remove the aluminum foil and baking sheet gently. Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken roulades and sear all sides until brown and aromatic.
5. Transfer to serving plate and rest 10 minutes. Then cut up the roulades into thick slices and serve!
叁峇魔鬼鱼
Ingredients
1 slice of stingray (550g)
A few pieces of banana leaves ( blanched in hot water for a minute)
A few pieces of tumeric leaves (blanched in hot water forca minute)
140g shallots
5 cloves garlic
40g dried shrimps (chopped into small pieces, then soaked for 30minutes)
Dried chilli (around 10 pieces, increase/reduce quantity depending on the spiciness you want, de-seed and rehydrate for 30minutes)
Fresh chilli (around 5 pieces, increase/reduce quantity depending on the spiciness you want, de-seed)
3 stalks of lemongrass (white/tender part only, about 5-6 cm from the base/roots, cut into small pieces)
3g belachan (toasted in wok until dried and crumbly)
5g galangal (blue ginger)
10g tumeric (yellow ginger)
6 candlenuts
2 tablespoon brown sugar
Juice from 6 limes
Method
1. Use mortar and pestle to pound shallots and garlic until they are broken and fine. Transfer the meshed shallots and garlic to the wok.
2. Place the rest of the spices (chilli, candlenut, lemongrass, toasted belachan, galangal, tumeric) into the mortar and pound until you get a paste.
3. Add one tablespoon of oil into wok. Stir fry shallots and garlic mix until fragrant.
4. Add the paste from step 2 into wok. Stir fry for 5 minutes or until the oil is released from the lemongrass and chilli. If you are using a lot of chilli, stir fry until the paste turn dark red. Turn off heat.
5. In a separate wok/pan, add 2 tablespoon oil and stir fry the shrimps until frangrant. Then add the shrimps (including the oil) to the wok with the spice paste (also called "rempah"). Turn on heat to medium and mix until well combined.
6. Add lime juice to the rempah and mix in. Add brown sugar and mix in. Do a taste test and adjust seasoning (e.g. salt, lime juice). Turn off heat.
7. Lay the banana leaf in the wok/pan, and place the tumeric leaf on the banana leaf. Spread 1/3 of the rempah on the tumeric leaf. Place the stingray on the rempah. Cover the wok and grilled for 5 to 8 minutes under medium heat.
8. Prepare another banana leaf and place tumeric leaf on top. Spread 1/3 of the rempah on the leaf. Once step 7 is done, transfer the stingray to this set of banana and tumeric leaves. Flip the stingray so that the side that was cooked with the rempah in step 7 is facing up. Coat the remaining 1/3 rempah on the stingray. Cover the wok and turn on heat to medium. Grill for 5 to 8 minutes. Insert a chopstick/skewer into the thickest part of the stingray flesh to check that the meat is cooked (if your stingray is thick, you need to increase the cooking time).
7. Transfer the stingray (including banana/tumeric leaves to serving plate and serve hot.
猪肉排
Came across this pork chop recipe from FoodNatics. It is so good I have been cooking it at least once a month.
Ingredient
2 pieces of pork steak (1 inch thick)
Brine: 800ml water, 2 dried bay leaves, 6 garlic cloves (smashed, with skin), 1 tablespoon salt, 1 teaspoon soy sauce and 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.
Marinade: 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 tablespoon cooking oil
Method
1. Prepare brine by boiling for 5 minutes. Then leave to cool to room temperature.
2. Place the pork steaks into the brine and soak overnight in fridge or at least 30 minutes.
3. Remove the pork steaks from the brine and dab dry with kitchen towel. Discard the brine solution.
4. Prepare the marinade and mix it well. Brush the pork steak with the marinade. Set aside for at least 1 hour.
5. Heat up the heavy iron skillet until it is smoking. Add a tablespoon of oil and lower flame to medium heat. Place the pork steaks into the skillet and fry each side of the steak until the edges are nicely browned and crisp.
6. Transfer the steak to serving plate and top with salad and french fries. ENJOY!
This creamy dish is very straight forward to cook. I adapted this recipe from Lieblingsrezepte.
Ingredients
1 salmon fillet
2 tablespoon garlic butter (I use Kerrygold Herb and Garlic butter)
8 cherry tomatoes (cut into halves, then de-seed)
50g baby spinach (more if you like this dish to have more vegetables)
60ml heavy cream
15g parmesan cheese (grated)
Basil (cut into very small/fine pieces)
Parsley (cut into very small/fine pieces)
1/4 salt
dashes of black pepper
Method
1. Remove the skin from salmon fillet and lightly coat the skin with corn flour. Heat a heavy based skillet (I use cast iron skillet) until it is almost smoky. Put the salmon skin into the pan (no need to put oil) and pan fry the skin until it is light gold brown and crispy. Remove from the pan to serve as topping/side later.
3. Using same skillet again (medium heat) and the fish oil released from frying the salmon fillet, add the garlic butter. Once it has melted, add the cherry tomatoes and stir fry for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Then add in baby spinach and stir fry until the leaves have wilted. Pour in heavy cream and add parmesan cheese, basil and parsley. Lower the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes until the sauce has reduced.
Done! Enjoy!
