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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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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When I am gifted something, I like to make the best use of it. I like to think ummm……’out of the box’ sort to speak and I enjoy tremendously the drafting period.

I was given some chayote fruits and I wanted to cook something different with them. I have 2 ideas and today I used one fruit to make ngoh hiang. My only criticism is that next time I would not use my nakiri knife. I would avoid julienning them so finely because I missed the ‘bite’. Hence next time I shall slice thicker if I use them like so.

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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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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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Yesterday we had very light dinner so we all woke up a tad hungry this morning. I decided to cook this fast dish as I have everything on hand. So breakfast was within half an hour. Managed to cut some spring onions from my garden. Really needs my spring onions to grow faster.

I have garlic and shallots oil ready. I also have minced pork ready as I always have some in my fridge. This is for a quick kon loh mee or sometimes hubby like the mince on brioche fingers! Try it. It’s very good the combo of sweet brioche and slightly salty mince. I also use them as toppings for a lot of other dishes of mine. Today I added some fish balls for the hubby too. Oh and I also like to tail my beansprouts when I am sat down watching the television. Then I will put them into a vacuum container in my fridge. Last for days and only soak and rinse with cold water when you want to use them and never before!

When I come back from Malaysia I usually dry my salt fish from Kuching. Then I fry them all up and portioned them. They go into my freezer and I eat at will. The loh shu fun was from Singapore, and it is not a bad brand. I happened to see them in a shop yesterday. So, I am a few packets richer now.

TIP – Please season with salt, pepper, pinch of sugar etc. I did not with mine because my mince were highly seasoned and I used shallots and garlic oils. To me just a touch of dark soy sauce and oyster sauce was enough. Season to your taste and make it yours. There is also no need for corn-starch slurry because I used 2 eggs. Break and mix, smooth and yum already. Season anyhow you wish. Make the dish yours.

Note – Just for F-Sake use a claypot. If not please don’t call it claypot noodles. Frying on a wok then serving it in a claypot is wrong! Call it stir fry if you do that! Enjoy.

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The joy of hubby working from home is having lunch with him in the garden. Such a day as today makes it special. The sun is shining, the hubby though British enjoys and loves my cooks and can take spicier than me!

Step A – blend onions and garlic and fry in your pot slowly.

Step B – blend the Fresh Chili, dried chili, curry powder, lemon grass whites and tauchu (fermented yellow beans). Add a tad of the mashed sweet potatoes to help blend easier.

Step C – blend the washed and soaked dried shrimps.

Step D – After frying everything for about 15 minutes, it’s time to rinse the blender out. Make sure all the steps from A – C are done. Rinse it with some water and add in your chicken stock. Use any other stock you want but I happened to have and prefer chicken stock. I do not like my kuah rebus to look brown. Add in your mashed sweet potatoes. Allow everything to come to a boil. Then, let it simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.

Optional – Today the sweet potatoes are a tad stringy. I decided to blend them a little. Hubby does not like the stringy bits. I am going to be extra kind to him. I saved half a poached chicken breast from the chicken rice the other day for him. He don’t know it yet but he is going to buy us tickets to Malaysia for Christmas – hahahahahahaha

It is much easier to cook mee rebus than say, curry chicken. Once you blended A, fry in pan, then B and so forth. When your broth is simmering, tidy the stuff into the dishwasher. You can then go watch television and pick your beansprouts. To assemble, just boil some water in your kettle to rinse your noodles and beansprouts. Put the prawns fritters into the air fryer to crisp up and then just serve on top of your dish. Make the dish your own family recipe but adding or taking anything out you do not like.

TIPs – Seasoning is the time you adjust to your taste. A pinch of salt, sugar, more chili if you need spicier. I added some black pepper freshly ground in the frying process. We are now told turmeric and black pepper are good for us. Have fun cooking and making the recipe your own.

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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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This is an update post to my old post HERE with TIPs I have learned with age. I like to think with age come wisdom? I much preferred to make it this way nowadays. It is easier and for me a lot more convenient. My recipe remains the same but cooking method differ. I do not do everything in a day.

One day to wash, portion my chicken and marinate. Another day to cook and lastly to assemble and steam. I usually make quite a few to gift to friends and feed my freezer.

I don’t like my rice mushy but al dante. I actually give my chicken a spa treatment, chopped and marinate them beforehand, 2 days ago. I stored them in vacuum sealed containers. I also cooked the chicken and mushrooms yesterday and soaked my rice last night. Today it is only a matter of slicing the Chinese sausages, assembling and steaming them. I made 2kg of glutinous rice and a whole big fat chicken it takes two rounds of steaming. Tasting and packing takes time.

TIP – Save some of the chicken oil to oil your stainless steel tin ramekins.

TIP – I have discovered it is better to use water chestnut flour. Corn starch turns your stock watery but water chestnut flour would not.

TIP – When you fill your stainless steel ramekins, tap it on a chopping board but do NOT press hard. If you press hard you will have uncooked rice in the middle! Tapping is done at a slight angle so your rice don’t jump out.

TIP – Arrange your filled ramekins on your steamer. Then add the soaking rice water to just barely noticeable on top. That would be enough if you have soaked overnight.

TIP – I prefer a 40 minutes steaming on medium heat after water boiled. If you plan to freeze and steam again before eating adjust your time accordingly.

With all my love – enjoy making. They freeze extremely well. To eat just defrost in fridge overnight and them steam for like 10 minutes. Double the time if steam from frozen but common sense prevails – aka depending on the size of you LMK

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