Thus far I have cooked 2 dishes. – Salted fish steamed with pork belly

Salted fish braised with toufo.

Fry toufo after coating with a mixture of rice and corn flours before frying garlic and shallots. Add the carrots and a whole head of Chinese leaf cabbage. Including the soaked mushrooms and the soaking liquid. Seasoned with a touch of oyster sauce, salt and pepper and light soy sauce. Hubby loves it.

Slicing, frying and packing.

Signed Sealed Delivered – All mine

Zeepers – Keepers

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Awhile ago I wrote a post on Yong Liew. In this dish, you stuff fish paste into different vessels. Then you fry them or cook them in your chosen broth. Please refer to this recipe here

Today I have an update. I tried this combo a few times. I found I really like it. Good fish paste is very hard to get in the UK. More often than not, I am most disappointed. Can’t even get the fish I want most times when I feel like making. So I decided to combine chicken and prawns and I found it very palatable. So this is a new take on Yong Liew I am not posting again my recipe again. Please use the link above as guide. Instead this update will be all pics with guidelines.

This paste is 500g chicken meat, 500g prawns, 1 tsp shallots oil, 2 heap tsp cornflour, salt + pepper to season and half cup water.

As I am frying the stuffed vegetables, I decided to fry some prawn crackers first. This not only flavoured the oil but less wastage because I will bin the oil after.

TIPs 1 – Put in more oil in the beginning when frying the prawns crackers. Then remove as I go on.

TIP 2 – First fry the inside out stuffed toufo-pop. They need more oil to crisp all round evenly.

TIP 3 – Then comes the stuffed aubergines as they also needs more oil to fry. If you have stuffed the paste well, the stuffing will remain intact. Your pot must be just right for the pieces to sit up close and personal. This ensures the stuffing does not break loose or fall out.

TIP 4 – When frying the toufo, it is a MUST to handle gently and this soft toufo breaks easily. Remove some oil before placing the toufo in stuffing side down. Leave them to fry for a good 2 minutes before flipping gently or you will mess them up, aka breaking.

TIP 5 – Remove even more oil before frying mushrooms and chilies. When you tidy your chilies to stuff, you must consider which side to place them. This way, they can be placed stuffing side down in the oil. You literally only need to fry the paste side. Remember you do not need to fry the vegetables. This means your paste stuffing will NOT fall out of your chilies.

TIP 6 – You can stuff bak choy and anything you wish. Just needs to gently press the paste into the nooks and corners. Again you make sure oil is only like 1cm deep. Just fry the paste side for 2 minutes. Then flip and remove. The residue oil will wilt the leaves.

TIP 7 – You can freeze toufo-pop because they freeze well for months. You can also freeze ‘hard/tough’ vegetables like bitter gourds. But soft vegetables like aubergines, bak choy, long beans, do not freeze well. They become horribly soft and mushy when defrosted. Well, you can if you like baby food.

Side Note – After you stuffed your vegetables they are all in room temperature. When hot oil hits them, they cook in minutes. Please do not fry too long. This is especially important for the toufo-pop if you want to freeze them and air fry another day. Today I braised some with ginger and yellow beans because hubby is nursing a bad tooth abscess. Hence all the soft toufo goes to him but he loves the stuffed chilies too.

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I cooked a simple one pot braised dish tonight but thought I will blog it for my son. He bought his own place and moved out for a few years now and he has picked up some cooking skills along the years. In fact in the last year he has been cooking his own food a lot and so his skills is much improved, The wonderful thing is he is actually enjoying it. He said cooking his own food saves him a lot of monies. I attribute that to his frugal mum and her Chinese teaching! On the other hand my gal is not that interested in cooking except learning the few dishes she loves! Alamak!

Many a times I get a text or a call, “mum how do I cook this or that” or even “mum, I remember that sauce you cooked for…., how do I cook it?” I have to admit, it gladdens my heart. One gained a bit of knowledge here and there and a lot of peoples’ post a recipe for others to follow but I noticed they never give out the “important” tips! I like to think I am not like that at all. I share everything I know because to me there is actually no point in keeping the knowledge I have gained as secrets, for each individual cook will ultimately turn out to be different. No one can replicate another cook exactly even if the recipe is followed to the letter.

Tip – Rinse the bought fried toufo with hot water and drain before using. This will remove the “factory oil” taste.

Sauce – Water from the soaked mushrooms, sieved to remove impurities. Oyster sauce (1 tbsp), salt & Pepper, pinch of sugar and I used water chestnut flour instead of cornflour to thicken. It might be an age thing but I have moved away from using a lot of soy sauces or cooking anything with thick, sweet, sticky sauces. Not sure why but I have gone off those for the moment. I have been using water-chestnut flour more instead of corn-starch for sauces. It is lower in carbohydrates too. It cannot be a substitute for all food but for sauces it is fine.

TIP – It is important to freeze your beef beforehand to harden it a bit and use a very sharp knife to slice to 1mm thickness or in the case thinness! Actually if you learn to handle beef well, there is no such thing as tough beef, well not in my book anyway!

TIP – Just before you add your beef to your pot, you can marinate with anything you like, salt & pepper, soy sauce, cornflour if you want velveting but I did nothing today. I tend to stay away from using ‘tenderiser’ powder like bicarbonate soda etc. If you slice thinly you just do not need it. However the most important thing to remember is to add a couple tablespoon of oil and mix well just before adding to your pot as this will separate them nicely and they won’t clump together. I used shallots and garlic oil. Of course you may use sesame oil.

All my TIPs are based on my experiences of cooking almost daily for nearly 3 decades. Enjoy.

Topped with some forages from my garden. Wash and soak in cold water with a touch of vinegar before using.

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Fragrant Yam Rice, Taro Rice (芋头饭)

Ingredients

Ingredients

• Mushroom (washed & soak the night before, water reserved)
• Garlic and shallots minced
• A few thin slices of fresh ginger
• Handful of dried shrimps
• 2 – 3 stick Chinese sausage (I used 4 as we love them, and I am giving some to a friend)
• 2 Chicken breasts sliced into cubes (as same a size as the yam as you possibly could)
• 4 – 5 Small cups Rice

Seasoning

• Salt & freshly ground peppers
• 1 – 2 tsp Five spices
• 1- 2 tsp Dark soy sauce
• 1 – 2 tbsp Light soy sauce
• 2 – 3 tbsp Oyster sauce
• 3 – 4 tbsp Rice Wine
• 1 – 2 tbsp Sesame oil

Extra ingredients

• 1 tin abalone (optional)
• Chinese dried bacon (optional)
• Fresh spring onions

Notes

Note – Fry and seasoned everything well separately before assembling like you would nasi biryani.  

When everything is ready I bring to boil in my pot covered for 15 minutes medium heat. About that time you will smell the unmistaken aroma and know it is done. Turn the heat off but do NOT open your pot at least 10 minutes or until serving time.

I use a cast iron pot with a heavy lid. You need to adjust to your cooking pot.

19th July 2024 – As we cook more and more, we discovered new ways of cooking better. Updated today with new pics and new TIPs. TIP 1 – When I fry the Chinese sausages I added a generous amount of rose wine. I like the smell. TIP 2 – I lined the base with fried mince pork and crispy lards with some oil to make sure rice does not stick to the bottom and burn. TIP 3 – I sliced my yam a bit bigger but when frying the yam I tried tasted and added a touch of the mushroom soaking liquid, taste to make sure that the yam will be just cooked NOT mushy after cooking. If the yam is too hard then it may be too tough later. TIP 4 – Add the rice in slowly making sure they get to all the nicks and corners TIP 5 – lastly topped with a tin abalone.

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Braised trio soyabean products – toufo, dried beancurd (fu chok) and fried toufo

Ingredients

Ingredients

• Semi firm toufo
• Fried toufo pop
• Fried dried Beancurd skin (Fu cheok)
• Mushrooms
• Bak choy
• Spring onions
• Garlic, onions (shallots if have) and ginger

Seasoning

• Seasoned oil (pork lard) for frying
• Oyster sauce
• Dark soy sauce
• Salt & Pepper
• Pinch of sugar
• Corn-starch slurry
• Chicken stock
• Sesame oil
• Rice wine.

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Updated 21/02/2023 with dough made with added chopped changkok manis – style signatory mine.

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I have often been asked what sort of zonzi type is mine and my truthful answer is – “my mother’s”

Nowadays there are so many types/styles of zongzi! I cannot keep up with all the names people made up for their types/styles, mostly to grab attention for business purposes. As for me I only wrap this way years after years because these are the types I grew up with. Always start with a tablespoon of rice and ends with a tablespoon of rice, no more no less.

Bak chang wrapping by my mother as I remembered in Kuching, Sarawak, she used pandan leaves. There is not a cat in hell’s chance that I can buy them here in London so reconstituted dried bamboo leaves will have to suffice. Some years you get excellent nice leaves and some years you get all broken and holey leaves. It’s hit and miss but we just have to use them like patchwork on a bad year.

This post is not a recipe as such but is to document my mother’s and my revised recipe so I can remember it in my old age. some years I really have to refer to old pics to make my shopping list so that I do not miss a thing.

I have also marked it as main because if you eat one of my zongzi I guarantee you it’s a main.

I will however attempt to translate my pinches and ‘by eye’ ‘by feel’ and give as much tips as I could with each pics. Mushrooms, pork belly, winter melon and dried shrimps are fried with pork lard, five spice powder and celery salt with the exception of pork belly added with dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine and pepper. Do your cooking a day before so that they can marinate in the fridge overnight.

TIP – The week before make peel and fry your shallot, garlic oils and pork lard oils

TIP – The lentils and black-eye peas do not over soaked. You want them al dente not mushed.

TIP – First wok I always boil for 3 hours as my rice is not fried or soaked. Second wok onward 2.5 hours as the marinate has tenderised the rice a bit.

p/s The size of the zongzi depends on the sizes of the bamboo leaves.

p/s The person who dare suggest for me not to add my mother’s winter melon and dried shrimps combo has not eaten my zongzi since. True! it is not that I cannot accept constructive criticisms but this is my style of zongzi. You may suggest ways to better it but not to change it!

To know more about the History and Legends of the Dragon Boat Festival please read – it’s very interesting. read for your children, least not we forget our Chinese legends. https://www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/dragon-boat-festival-history.htm

Just for a laugh these are MY personal criteria for MY zongzi (bak chang) aka Chinese sticky rice dumpling

Must be able to see the fillings amongst the rice.
Must have a balance of sweet from the winter melon & Chinese sausage to savoury.
Must be able to taste/eat the fillings with every mouthful.
Must have a whole egg yolk. 
Must have equal balance of fat and lean pork.
Must have al dente rice and beans, not mushy.
Must have nice mushrooms.
Must have nice dried shrimps.
Must hold the 3D pyramid shape.
Must not have a waist.

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Yong Liew (Yong Tau Foo)

Ingredients

• 500 g Mackerels or white fish or the frozen one in my pic
• Freshly ground white pepper
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Cornstarch
• 1 bowl Cold water

Notes

TIP – Use a clean chopping board
TIP – If you are using a chopping board make sure to line your floor with paper and board on top as the fish paste will fly everywhere.
TIP – You can use a food processor but make sure not to overflow it as they get stuck in the middle inside the blade.
TIP – Use enough water to reach the consistency and softness you want. Fresh fish may needs more water.
TIP – Use cold salt water to wet your hands when you are throwing the paste.

The Paste Mix. You can just use the fish paste on it’s own by adding, salt, white pepper, cornstarch and cold tap water. As far as I could remember this was how my grandmother used to do hers. 

I have make fish paste mix with salted fish, fish paste with dried shrimps and chicken with prawns. I love all of them. Remember if you use salted fish and dried shrimps it is better to fry them first for that amazing umami taste. Wash and soak dried shrimps and pound them slightly before frying.

Please remember you can add in sesame oil, chicken powder and soy sauce even. Adding mince pork makes for firmer paste. Use the mixture of fish and prawns for bean-curd wraps and bak choy. They are better with softer paste. 

The vegetables you can use to stuff with your paste. You can use not only the usual toufo fresh or fried, bean-curd skin, chillies, long beans, bitter-gourds, mushrooms, Chinese fried dough you tiaw, aubergines, flipped inside out toufo pop, baby pak choy …….let your imagination run wild.  

Misc pics. 

The final presentations.

Enjoy trying.

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