Stir Fry Yam Strips,Beancurd Puff And Wood Ear Fungus

This recipe is from one of the chinese food magazines I bought.  Love it the moment my eyes caught the picture on one of the pages. Love the fact that it has yam in the dish. My all time favorite tuber. So deliciously healthy for it contains strips of carrots, beancurd puff,  wood ear fungus and spring onions and strips of chicken breast and not to forget the star of this dish, yam strips.  An easy to prepare dish that takes less than 30 mins to whip up.  This is so good....the fluffy yam strips with the crunchy carrots and wood ear fungus really give this dish the thumbs up.  Never knew a simple stir fry like this could taste so good.  A light seasoning sauce is all it needed to finish the dish.  Try it to believe me...it tastes as good as it looks :)

fry the yam strips in two tbsp of hot oil till crisps and cooked

the yam strips needed to be fried in oil till crisps before stir frying

so that it retain its form after stir frying with the

other ingredients

lightly stir fry the chicken strips with chopped garlic till cooked

before adding in the rest of the ingredients

add in the carrot strips, wood ear fungus strips, beancurd puff

and spring onions

add in the cooked yam strips and stir fry till well

combined...lastly add in the light seasoning mixture

give it a quick stir fry and dish up

as soon as the seasoning mixture thickens

yummy !

Stir Fry Yam Strips

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast - cut into strips

 (marinate with a drop of light soya sauce, a drop sesame oil and 1 tsp of corn flour )

small yam -   cut into thick strips

beancurd puff - cut into strips

wood ear fungus - soak ,cleaned and cut into strips

half a carrot - cut into strips

2 stalks of spring onion - cut into 1"  length

a tbsp of chopped garlic

2 tbsp vegetable oil

seasoning sauce mixture

1 tsp of oyster sauce

1/2 tsp of chinese cooking wine

a dash of freshly grounded white pepper

1 tsp of corn flour

1/3 cup water

a pinch of salt to taste

method:

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in the non stick frying pan. When oil is heated up, add in the yam strips and fry till the yam strips are lightly brown and 3/4 cooked. Dish up yam strips and keep aside, add in garlic and chicken strips and saute till fragrant and cooked, add in the rest of the julienned vegetable and yam strips, continue to stir fry till all the rest of the vegetables are cooked. Add in last the seasoning sauce and continue to stir fry till seasoning sauce thickens.  Dish up and serve with rice.

Enjoy !

Roast Pork Neck

The pork neck is a well muscled and flavorful part of the meat. It has a lot more fat than the pork shoulder and yet still a lot less fat than the pork belly.  The pork neck is the best part to use in many preparations and you will be amazed at the juiciness and flavor when it comes off the grill. Use this cut for the best BBQ pork chops you have ever had ! 

I was introduced to grilled pork neck by my daughter Jo a few years back. She introduced me to grilled pork neck at a Thai restaurant and since then I have been asking my regular butcher to give me the neck part...:p   Marinate it overnight in the fridge and grill or roast it the next day... you will have a flavorsome and succulent piece of meat to serve your guests and family.  Wild Boar is the happiest person when it comes to meat :)

marinated with my own concoct sauce

after roasting in the oven for 40 mins..it was aromatic and

looks so juicy..mmmm

Roast Pork Neck

600 g piece of pork neck - remove fat and skin

marinade sauce

1 tsp of thick soy sauce

1.5 tsp of sea salt

1 tbsp of ginger juice

2 cloves of garlic - minced

1 tsp of red wine

1 tsp of marmalade jam

Method:

Mix all the marinade ingredients and rub evenly on the piece of pork neck.   Marinade overnight in the fridge. Take out the marinated pork neck from the fridge 30 mins before roasting.

Grease the baking pan with butter.  Place the pork neck on the pan and roast it at 230 deg C for 40 mins or until the meat is cooked . Occasionally, baste the meat with the remnant marinade sauce during roasting. Slice thinly before serving .

Enjoy !

Dim Sum @ Restoran Fu Lin Men, Cheras Mahkota

Had a good night rest, despite chatting till late into the night ... so much to talk about :)  Anyway, to cut the story short, we woke up feeling hungry and remembering that I have to cook the ' Kiam Chye Boey ' for the kids ( my partners-in-crime actually ) , we quickly drove to the wet market to look for the chinese mustard .  But alas, the wet market did not have the chinese mustard, so we had to drive on to Jusco, Cheras Mahkota, and thank God, we managed to get some chinese mustard.  After that , we went for dim sum at Restoran Fu Lin Men, which is a stone throw from Jusco .  The restoran offers not only dim sum but chinese dishes too.  We ordered some dim sum to satiate our rumbling tummy.  The dim sum we ordered was not bad but of course Ipoh dim sum is much better :p  

I love their stir fried radish...yummy!

the ' lou sa bao ' is good too , though a bit tiny for me

I can eat all three if I wanted to...

their salted egg yolk custard is not oozy type

but soft custard texture

fish ball roll...love this !

steamed prawn dumplings

prawns are fresh 

Restoran Fu Lin Men,

Chinese/Dim Sum Restaurant

No. 56-58, Jalan Temenggung 13/9,

 Bandar Mahkota Cheras, 

Cheras, 43200

Mon.-Sun. 11:30-14:30, 17:30-22:30

Mon.-Sun. 07:30-14:30 (Dim Sum)

Tel No:  03-90113398

Homemade Gyoza Wrappers

I never intended to make my own gyoza wrappers.  I wanted to make gyoza for my cell group thanksgiving get together. I went to Jusco to get the ready made ones but alas there was no stock. Panic mode took over and WB had to calm me down. He asked me to make my own wrappers.  What a joke ! Me , make my own gyoza wrappers ?  Okay , calm down Elin....

I came home, googled for the recipe for homemade gyoza wrappers and I found a good one from Justonecookbook. I knew I would not go wrong for Nami is a great cook  :)  I truly enjoyed making the wrappers...all the patience and guess what ? it paid off when my cg family was enjoying the gyoza that I made from scratch.  The gyoza wrapper making was a success... smooth with a nice chewy texture ....everyone enjoyed the homemade gyoza.  Tired but I came home happy dancing on my trotters.  Thanks Nami for your wonderful gyoza wrappers recipe.  A keeper for sure ! I know I will not buy the ready made ones anymore. I will make my own wrapper from now on :)

divide dough into two equal portions, 

each portion , shaped into a roll and wrap with cling crap

and let it rest for 30 mins in room temperature

cut each roll into 12 equal portions 

and roll them into round balls

potato starch for dusting

roll each ball into a round disc 

make sure to dust each piece with the potato starch as 

you stack them on top of each other and

cover with a damp cloth to prevent drying

Homemade Gyoza Wrappers - adapted from JustOneCookbook

Ingredients:

240 g all purpose flour or ( 120g bread flour + 120g cake flour )
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup or 120g just boiled water plus more if necessary ( 120g - 150g )

potato starch for dusting
3" (8cm) cookie cutter


Method:

Stir the flour in the bowl, scoop it up with a spoon into the 1-cup measuring cup, and level off the top. Put the flour into a medium bowl. The amount of flour shoud be close to standard 4.25 oz (120 g) per cup.

Sift the flour into a large bowl.

Add salt to just-boiled water and mix until completely dissolved.

Add the just-boiled water into the flour little by little, stirring with a rubber spatula. You will eventually need to use your hands to form the dough into a ball. If the flour is still separated, add ½ Tbsp. water at a time till you can form the texture into a ball.

Transfer the dough to the work surface and knead the dough for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, the texture of the dough will be much smoother. Cut the dough in half.

Shape each half into a long log, about 1½ inches in diameter (it doesn't have to be perfect if you’re going to use a cookie cutter later). Wrap each log with plastic wrap. Let it sit for 30 minutes.

Unwrap the dough. Sprinkle a little potato starch on the work surface and cut each log crosswise into about 12 pieces (may vary depending on the log length and width). Since we’ll be using a cookie cutter, don’t worry if each piece of dough has slightly different size.

Cover the dough with damp kitchen towel at all time to prevent from drying.

For each piece of dough into a ball shape.

Press the ball onto the work surface.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough, but DO NOT roll out (flatten) the TOP and BOTTOM edge. This is a trick to make a nice round shape.

Rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat rolling the dough to make a nice round shape. Try to roll out the dough to a thin circle. The size should be bigger than 3” (8 cm) cookie cutter.

Press down the cookie cutter and remove excess dough. Cover the scraps with the damp towel. Later combine all the scraps as long as they still squish together and haven’t dried out too much. Re-roll the scraps and repeat the process.

Sprinkle each wrapper with potato starch and stack the gyoza wrappers. Make sure to the wrappers covered with damp kitchen towel. Once all the dough is used, wrap the gyoza wrappers with plastic wrap and freeze or refrigerate until you’re ready to use. You can keep gyoza wrappers for about 3-4 days in the refrigerator and up to a month in freezer. Defrost in the refrigerator prior to use.

Note: Different brand of flour will absorb water differently.