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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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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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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Hubby and the gal totally enjoyed it! Actually I have bought a few packets of the Szechuan Preserved vegetables to try. I told my mother we can’t buy them in big brown jars anymore. We used to get them like that in the olden days. Nowadays they are all prepacked and sealed. I can’t read much Chinese. I have trouble picking which to buy. So I bought one of each of the lot. I tasted them all before using and only 1 packet went into the bin.

All these packets were were all right except for the seaweed one. Terrible especially when I am used to the Japanese wakame salad. This was the only packet I binned.

TIP1 – I have never done this stage before and my mother said ‘why are you not hygiene conscious?’ She said must do this stage to ‘clean’ them. Yup, that is my mother. She don’t mince her words! She then insisted I must fry shallots and garlic in oil. I should keep frying until I can smell them. Only then should I add in the drained preserved vegetables.

TIP2 – You must give the preserved vegetables a good toss. Adding the sugar is also essential. This gives the preserved vegetables a much nicer extra crunch!

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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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I wanted to cook crab meat fried rice for awhile now. Luckily on my trip back to Devon a fortnight ago I managed to get some live crabs. Some were cooked chilly crabs immediately and eat with Man-tao bun and some I steamed and picked the meat and freeze.

It is extremely satisfying for me to do everything from scratch as I know I am eating real crab meat and not mixed with the fake ‘crabsticks’. Devon crabs are wonderful.

A guide to how I fry my butter crabby rice with TIPs.

Firstly gets everything ready. Use as much crab meat as you like. Don’t forget the brown meat as that’s where the taste is! I used 3 eggs, 2 chillies, a bulb of garlic, same size ginger as garlic bulb, 2 banana shallots, half bowl of green peas, 2 stalks of spring onions and a lot of love thrown in. Seasoning was only salt and pepper freshly ground. No condiments and no sauces, just crabs.

TIP – First add in half the eggs and let them set a bit before adding rice and the rest of the beaten eggs. This ensures that your fried rice get some nice bits of set eggs and some colour to the rice.

TIP – Only add the red chillies and spring onions at the last minute before serving as cooking them will make them soft, soggy and lose the fresh taste. (in my opinion)

TIP – I boiled my rice last night and let dry in the fridge and I make sure I separate each grains before using.

TIP – The seasoning I used was only salt and pepper as I wanted to taste the crab. There is a hint of ginger at the back; is what I like with my seafood. Although I would prefer a whiter rice, my Devon eggs yolks were extremely red! Next cometh the most difficult part. Plating.

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