My family loves yellow bean sauce and recently I am able to get the brand that my mother has been using since I was a child. I only remember her using this brand and Yeo’s brand and not any other. She also always used the whole beans and she insisted that it is not actually hard work to roughly chopped the beans and they taste much better.

Now that I am all grown up I have decided there is logic in what she said and so I followed suit since. Today I cooked cod cheeks with yellow beans sauce as both the hubby and daughter are a big fans of fish without bones.

As usual I always said my recipe is a guide so make the dish your own with my TIPs. Enjoy.

TIP – When cooking fish and seafood always incorporate ginger, in slices if you don’t like to eat ginger, so you can easily remove them; julienned and fried crispy if you like to eat them like we do.

TIP – Bring the cleaned cod cheeks out from fridge to room temperature before cooking. Do not overcooked.

TIP – Please add a pinch of sugar to balance the taste.

TIP – Add the red chillies at the last minute, the spring onions and served topped with the earlier fried ginger, shallots, garlic slices and coriander.

TIP – After you added in your cod cheeks, at high heat your cook should be just about 5 minutes to dishing up.

Sometimes, actually most times I like to do a one dish. Often, we skipped breakfast, have early lunch and late dinner. Lucky for me hubby is one who do not mind eating the same dish for both meals and if it is Malaysian curry he can eat it for few days – kekekekeke

Today I decided to do a trio of braised soyabean products dish. It is said that soya products are very good for menopausal symptoms, and I am lucky that hubby is a huge fan of anything made from soyabeans. Heck there are soyabean products that he will eat, and I won’t! Funny man will eat like fermented beancurd especially the spicy ones with plain rice!

Soyabean has some of the most important nutrient required in the human body. Besides offering high-quality protein it is super rich in saturated fats, antioxidants, Omega-3 fatty acids, fibre, and phytoestrogens.

It has a long list of benefits, but I am only interested in the diabetes aspects, the potential of sleep regulating and the improving of blood circulation for the menopausal women.

We do eat a lot of soya produce, at least once or twice a week in one form or another. I do make my own soya milk often and it is pretty easy to just add a few egg yolks and steam for a smooth soft eggy dish.

When I make my own soya milk, I would also boil it in the morning and crack a couple of eggs in for breakfast.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this simple made-up dish. Please adjust and add anything you wish. I would have added other types of mushrooms if I had.

Note: To velvet your chicken just marinate with light soy sauce, cornstarch, salt and pepper. Before hitting the oil add in a sesame oil and loosen. Your chicken slices will be velvety smooth and won’t clump together.

Mee Hoon Kueh Soup 面粉粿汤 for today. We had them for both lunch and dinner though for dinner hubby requested for dryish version with ‘Hakka sauce’

I saw some amazing fresh sauropus at the new Longdan, Asian supermarket near me, so I just have to cook this. I made the dough last night and this morning we all had an early lunch. Then I made another round of dough for dinner. Normally I do not cook this because I seldom see fresh changkuk manis that is so fresh, and this dish cannot happen without it (in my opinion) It would just be wrong.

I have neglected my blog for a bit, due to holiday in Malaysia and life but as I have a few requests for blogging my version of Mee Hoon Kueh I decided to do so today as I have taken some passable photographs. I will ask someone to proofread for me later and will make any changes when and if needed (when cannot chuck it to artistic licence) kekekekeke

As I have blogged this I might as well give some TIPs.

TIP – I fried the shallots the other day so it is not too much hard work aka not all in one day.

TIP – I do not like to marinate my mince with anything dark because I prefer to have a clear broth, not brownish.

TIP – Cook your noodles in another pot of water before assembling and serving. This gives you a clearer broth and not so ‘starchy’

TIP – I used bread flour and not plain and it worked out fine as bread flour is high in gluten and the windowpane effect is absolutely good. No, no it is not bread as no levelling agent was used!

Note: Please do not ask why I do not have some measurements for if you cook anything at all you will understand it is all based on your taste and how much broth, meat etc you are using. Any cook will understand.

The only measurements I need to give you is the dough of course. BUT again, you have to also work that out for yourself. After a couple of hours rest/proofing and another knead the dough will be smoother so please do not be tempted to make it too ‘wet/soft’, certainly not as soft as bread.

My hubby has a love affair with black-beans but he only appreciate the whole black-beans that I marinated overnight with rice wine/sherry and fresh chillies, not the commercial packets or jarred mushy ones. He knows how to enjoy his black-beans! He is a connoisseur of black-beans – kekekekeke

Today I made his favourite sauce but he don’t eat pork belly (fat) so I added in (toufo) tofu pop for him as they soak in all the sauce and he loves all things tofu or rather all produce from yellow beans.

As he was eating his lunch, he asked if I have saved some for dinner! His request were the tofu pop and all the carrot coins on my stir fry mix vegetables. I think he is one of the easiest men to feed by a long shot. He did not even ask why I cooked with pork belly instead of his favourite chicken breasts for him. I will have to reward him for that in a week or so. I will cook him his favourite chicken breasts black-beans with mustard vegetables.

Note : I marinated my black-beans with a minced fresh red chilli and 2 tbsp of rice wine. You can add more chillies but at the moment I cannot stand too spicy so going slowly to retrained my taste buds after Covid19.

Note : My rule of thumb is always season AFTER you braised a bit and ready to serve and not before as when you braise the taste will change. Different brand of black-beans also have a different saltiness scale.

Note : I did not add corn-starch slurry to thicken this time but you can always do so.

Note : I only add ginger and sesame oil if I am using seafood as my protein but it is of course entirely up to your and your taste.

Enjoy!

p/s I am loving my ‘tong san’ wok. It is getting more and more ‘licin’ smooth and non stick use by daily use.

This Jiangxi triple cooked pork belly dish is a very traditional and popular dish I learned from my ex mother-in-law. She cooked this dish a few times a year and as the youngest daughter-in-law I was terrified not only of this matriarch but of the oil spits!

She came to ‘Nanyang’ aka the old thermology for ‘Southeast Asia’ as in this case, Malaysia when she was in her 20s with 3 children on board an extremely small space on a Chinese junk because she was worried the father-in-law will look for a new wife! That was in the early 20th century.

She was an amazing woman and I am lucky to have learnt a few special Jiangxi home dishes from her after I overcame my initial fright and learned to speak the Jiangxi dialect.

This traditional homey triple cooked pork belly is one I have not seen in any recipe on the net or cook books. it is simple but oh so delicious! Mother-in-law cooked this on special occasion like festivals days only.

In Chinese it is called “Hui Guo Rou”, (回锅肉) , meaning the meat to be returned to the wok and to be cooked again. However this time not twice but triple cooked. That is, first boiled, second fried in oil and then stewed (simmered).

When she was cooking this dish I was always scared, the oil spitting and cleaning! It was scary! The huge amount of garlic to be minced finely, else we, the other sister-in-law and I will get THE look!

When it come to eating time, no one dare to take more than twice, aka 2 pieces or we get the matriarch’s STARE.

Today I have from my garden gathered some home grown spring onions and garlic. I am so happy to have my first harvest of garlic this year! I will definitely plant more next year! I wanted to use my garlic for a good dish, the best dish and I decided to pay homage to both my ex deceased mother-in-law and my home grown garlic.

This is also to document this Jiangxi triple cooked pork dish least I forget in my dotage.

Today I cooked Hainanese Chicken Rice, cooked the traditionally way. Both my children are at home today and my son though very western in his taste does enjoy chicken rice. So mummy is going to spoil everyone.

I have tried cooking and tasting this, with the chicken over rice steamed method but it is just not the same. The chicken is just not as smooth. The extra step of dunking the chicken in cold water does give the skin a smoother finish and a more enjoyable eat. I enjoy good food and it is not everyday I eat rice so it is a treat indeed!

As I have made some Loh Bak yesterday (Five-Spice Pork Roll), I decided to fry 2 rolls and served my Hainanese Chicken rice with them. My hubby is also a fan of garlic kai lan (broccoli shoots) but not cucumber, the norm vegetable served with chicken rice back home so we have that for our vegetable instead.

Hubby is a massive huge fan of the ginger dipping sauces both plain and chilli. He was making approving noises as he enjoyed his lunch.

I learned to cook this dish as a young teenager in Ipoh. My eldest Uncle came back from working in Holland after many years and he taught everyone how the place he worked make Hainanese Chicken Rice. He worked in a Chinese Restaurant there of course.

I listened to all his stories in awe. I remembered he said when the apartment he lived in had a fire drill or when a possession passes the street, the western ladies will ran out onto the street to watch naked!!! I am sure he enjoyed our shocked faces!

My TIP on the butter and the pinch of turmeric came from him of course. My Uncle chopped the chicken liver and gizzard and added to the rice when he fry them but here in UK chicken comes without either. So there is no choice for me.

We all enjoyed our lunch today but I did not give them any of the chicken broth as I am saving it for another special dish tomorrow.

KamPua Mee, Mee Pok, Kolok Mee, Hakka Mee, Kon Loh Mee, Mi Kolok, by any other names, in any other dialects are all basically dry flavoured noodles.

There is something about dried flavoured noodles that is so comforting to an Asian and especially to one who grew up in Kuching, Sarawak you just find it difficult not to have a deep desire to eat it when you are feeling a bit under the weather.

When I was working this is my weekend work. Making the ‘readies’ shallots crisps and oil, garlic oil, ginger crisps and oil, char sui for the freezer etc etc. In my house I always have ready mince even though I am not working now. Hubby will get very excited when he sees me frying this mince pork.

I remembered when we first moved from Kuching to Ipoh, Gunung Rapat area, there was a new Kedai Kopi with a stall serving Kon Loh Mee (Cantonese for dry noodles). The noodles were rather plain and wanting. My mother made friend with the lady seller and told her how in Kuching the Kolok Mee stall we frequent always have nicely flavoured minced pork toppings. That was the start of a great relationships! Mother then started to explain to her how she should have flavoured oil and flavoured minced pork.

The next time we ate there again, there were well fried and flavoured minced pork dotting here and there on the bowls of noodles and business for the lady improved! My mother was happy and I have always remembered this incident. Not sure why.

I can still remember the Kedai Kopi in my mind’s eye as it was next door to my Uncle’s the then Sundry Shop. Hmmm……a case of with age comes reminiscences? 😀 Certainly a sign of old age.

These noodles were from my old classmate. I must be not too bad a person to have good friends from school days who still loves me <3 At first I was rather sceptical about these dry noodles. I was thinking, nah they will never taste as good as the real ones ……. BUT I stand corrected! These were good! The dried KamPua Mee taste different to other dried noodles! I must get my hands on more! The hubby said they have a special springy bounce and I agrees wholeheartedly.

Sometime the hubby will just ask for kolok mee kosong. That means nothing added just the noodles, oils and mince! In his opinion simple is the best!

Updated 23rd September 2020. Added a few more pics and simple explanation of just making Kon Lo (dry noodles) kosong (with just mince pork, sauces and flavoured oils)

TIP – Fried mince pork can be kept outside (room temperature in a clean receptacle in UK) use a clean spoon when taking out for a week or if you have fridge space just put in your fridge. If you store in fridge please micro your prepared bowl before adding noodles to mix.

TIP – If you have any leftover by the end of the week you can fry rice with them, put on top of steamed toufo, fry mince with potatoes and many more.

When I lost my old blog this dish is one that I missed the most. I promised myself I must put this recipe back onto my blog but I have been a bit lazy due to the Chinese new Year celebrations.

This is also the dish that made my very British husband fell totally in love with spinach and I often only need to serve him this one dish and plain boiled rice. He often tell me don’t cook other dishes if I cook this one. Funny mat Salleh!

Recently I was chatting with a friend and she requested this recipe of mine so I cooked it the other day and took some pics.

One of hubby’s favourite chicken dish is the Cantonese roast chicken. In fact he is most happy if he can have Cantonese roast chicken with Hainanese chicken rice. He does not like the white poached chicken. He prefers ‘poached’ chicken if it is done in the Sous Vide. For someone who can’t cook he sure knows what he likes and doesn’t like!

Every time I buy a chicken he will ask hopefully if I am making Cantonese roast chicken. I always say no, that’s boring as it does not need any ‘intricate’ cooking.  So this is indeed an easy dish. Just marinate the chicken, stick it in the fridge for a minimum of 48 hours, turning it one or twice to make sure the marinate permeate the entire chicken. On the day of cooking remove it from the fridge and let it drain and dry for a few hours. Drying under the sun is the ultimate way and the skin looks like leathery after a few hours.  Bake this leathery skinned chicken in the oven and you will be amazed. Failing to have the co-operation of the sun you can plug in a hair dryer.