The second dish I wanted to make with the chayote fruit is Jiu Hu Char. I grew up in Kuching, Sarawak. My mother will cook this traditional dish – Jiu Hu Char with jicama (bangkwang) every Chinese New Year. It is one of my more favoured dish. We sauced it with baked beans. Even then, it must be the certain brand that begins with the alphabet ‘H’. We were indeed quite spoiled.

Today I used the chayote fruit but I did not ‘cook’ it. I washed and soaked the cuttlefish strands (Jiu Hu, in Hokkien dialect) and drained. In hot oil I fry till the wonderful aroma emerges. Then I added in beaten eggs. Actually would be better if I make omelette and sliced thinly but I am a tad lazy today. All day it has been wet and cold and deary in Hertfordshire. Then I hand sliced the chayote fruit and added in after heat off from my wok. Together with spring onions and one red chili. I do prefer colourful dish. Seasoning was salt and freshly ground pepper, pinch of sugar and I harvested my calamansi lime and added the juice. Served on iceberg lettuce with dash of chili sauce. Heaven is a filled lettuce leaf?

Most enjoyable time was eating these wraps – kekekekekek I love cuttlefish any which way period. Grilled, processed with chili and sugar, dried and fluffed etc. Today’s cook affirm to me that I do prefer to eat my chayote more towards the raw side.

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There is a Farmfoods supermarket near my house. They recently had an offer on their raw prawns. I am a fan! Needless to say today I went to town on them. I made 3 different types of pastes

1 – Ratio of 50/50 chicken mince to prawns

2 – Mince half prawns to fine paste and the other half mince to about 70%. The paste helps to stick and the rest for that nice bite.

3 – Mince half the prawns to fine paste, half to about 70% and then add more whole prawns. I put 2 whole prawns into each wraps.

The first tub of paste 50/50 was used to make yong liew – here

From the young liew we have 2 meals for 2 days.

The second tub of paste was used to make prawn toasties – here

And the third tub was use to make beancurd wraps – here . I have actually make 3 different types of wraps for 3 different usage. Note – I fried these wraps just lightly. This is because I want to air fry them before serving. This ensures that they are more crispy and also help to get rid of some oil. It will brown more then. As for the ones for freezing I fried them literally just a minute on each side. Next, I have to wait a few hours. Let them lose their crispness before storing them into zip-lock bags. Then freeze them. TIP – for the freezer ones I used a longer beancurd sheets because I air fry them for noodles. With curry noodles they would be a great ‘soaking’ vessels for curry broth.

All these I got from 2.5 kg of prawns because they are on offer now 3kg for £30! I hope you enjoy trying!

p/s will update my braise dish when it is cooked.

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I love prawn toasties. However they often tip a tad onto the oily side. My daughter is a big fan of prawns. Even my husband, who termed them as scavengers/cockroaches of the sea, loves prawn toasties. So I have to think of a way of frying them yet not too oily. This is how I have done it.

Prawns paste recipe – 500g prawns. Add 1 tablespoon of cornflour. Include salt & pepper to taste. Use 1 tsp of sesame oil (optional) or you can use shallots/garlic oil. Add in half cup water more or less slowly till combine into a paste. TIP – I added more prawns after my paste is done. I like to have that ‘surprising’ prawn bite texture, so I do not blend them too finely. It is entirely up to you.

TIP – Melt a 50/50 measure of butter/oil. To fry, place a tablespoon of the butter and oil mix onto a non stick pan. Place the bread paste side down and leave it for 2 minutes on medium heat. Press down with a flat wide spatula. Then flip over for a minute before removing. Repeat with all the slices using a tablespoon of the butter and oil mix each time. It is that simple.

Before serving place into air fryer and on max heat, heat for 5 minutes. Remove, slice as you wish and serve. This removes more oil and crisp them up to perfection. Goes very nice with beer! Enjoy!

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First phase. The first basic rule of thumb is 3 : 1 ratio of rice flour : self raising flour. And 1 tbsp of corn flour.

Second phase is where you season to your heart content of whatever spices you like. Add in 2 tsp of baking powder. Today I added 2 tsp turmeric powder; 2 tsp hot paprika powder and 2 tbsp of shallots and garlic oil. I did not add salt and pepper because I added 1 tbsp of chicken powder. I know the dried shrimps (udang kering) I am adding is gonna be a tad salty.

Add in 2 eggs (because I made a big batch). I was also generous with my dried shrimps, I pounded finely and 500 g of prawns was used.

Today my garden did not have enough spring onions so I used some coriander instead. It adds not only to the taste but the aesthetics; I am vain? – kekekekekeke

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Now for the TIPs

1 – Your mixture must be runny, the consistency of semi-skimmed milk. This is important to get the very light crispy texture for the side. Think of tempura.

2 – You must not use too much oil. I used about half a cm. You just add the oil when you need. This is because we use eggs and if too much oil you gets a lot of bubbles. Please remember to let the oil heat up before you drop in your next batter.

3 – The bigger you chopped your prawns the less crispy the parts where the prawns are. So a balance is your target. To eat all crispy is not nice and to eat all soft is just not nice. A balance of crispy with soft surprising burst of prawns is perfect for my taste. It is entirely up to you. Adjust to your own taste.

Have fun and enjoy. Have a look at this normal cucur udang recipe —–> Crispy Prawns fritters

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Remember when you keep your eggs in the fridge they will set a bit more. If you want to warm up your onsen eggs but not into a hot broth then you can just boil the kettle, pour hot water into a mug, wait a couple of minute then take your eggs from fridge and place in. Do not cover. Then enjoy.

Below are some pics of how I have used my onsen-styled eggs.

I set a temperature of 63C for 50 minutes because when the alarm beeped; when I managed to drain the eggs without breaking any; add in cold water and ice, it takes a couple of minutes too. Set temperature and when right temperature, place in all your eggs and bring to temperature again before setting time to 50 minutes.

After you Sousvide your onsen styled eggs, place in the fridge and use at will. I like to turn the time to 50 minutes instead of an hour just so it is nice when warmed up during serving.

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It has been a very long time since I last made spring rolls. I had a gathering the other day and a friend made some and brought over. Ever since then I had spring rolls in my brain. No choice then, I had to make my own today. Luckily I have got a packet of spring rolls wrapper in my freezer. This is also one of the recipe that was lost with my old blog so I might as well make them and blog it, least I forget with old age. As today is hubby’s office day, he will be so surprised when he come home for his hour lunch break.

Decades ago I had an idea to wrap my spring rolls like so. The family and my close friends are always making fun and laughing WITH me about my ideas. Some ideas of course needs a lot of experimenting and not all are good but for my spring rolls I give myself a ‘pat on my shoulder’ – job well done and thought of.

The filling of course all depends on yourself but I will give you a few of my TIPs (personal opinions)

TIP 1 – When you are frying your fillings, do not use ‘dark’ stuff, like soy sauce, oyster sauce etc. It’s make the spring rolls unattractively black.

TIP 2 – Do not put hoisin sauce, honey or any sweet stuff. A pinch of sugar is fine for balance or you will find your spring rolls with dark unsightly spots

TIP 3 – Use vermicelli or glass noodles as they soak up the sauce and your spring rolls stays crispy for longer time.

TIP 4 – If you are intending to freeze your spring rolls, DO NOT use vegetables, especially beansprouts unless you completely have no teeth! Nothing taste as bloody awful as mushy spring rolls fillings! If you want to freeze and fry them up for a party, use Carrots and daikon (mooli) or yam bean if you are lucky enough to find some in my part of the world, UK. (No I do not like the Thailand ones, sorry but yes I am that fussy)

TIP 5 – By all means use beansprouts and vegetables if you are eating straight away. However be aware NOT to overcook your vegetables are you are going to fry your rolls after.

Hope my TIPs are helpful. I am a Virgo, so my food has to be pretty, symmetrical and spring rolls in my opinion MUST be round, not flat! Else they would be called FLAT wraps right?

These pics below will be self explanatory. You can use any protein you like. Today I used chicken, mushrooms, dried shrimps …..

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Stir-fried Glutinous Rice (生炒糯米飯)

Ingredients

Basic must have

• Glutinous rice
• Dried shrimps
• shallots
• garlic
• Eggs omelette cut into strips
• Spring onions
• red chilli

Add on (optional)

• Chinese sausages
• Dried scallops (soaked and separated)
• Mushrooms (soaked and sliced)

Seasoning

• Chicken stock – Chicken powder + water
• salt & pepper
• Dark soy sauce
• Light soy sauce
• Pinch of sugar

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Duck Baozi

I have made sambal ikan billis and petai ayam for my husband as well.

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We have soya milk drink for breakfast.

For lunch I made jiggly egg toufo especially for hubby

And then we have a special pudding – collagen overload. Presenting – Peach gum soya milk jelly.

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