Wishing All A Happy 2016

We had a simple New Year eve dinner at home......

English Roast for Wild Boar

a simple chicken drumstick marinated with glutinous rice wine

with ginger and wood ear fungus for yours truly

Looking back into the year 2015

2015 had been a wonderful year despite the ups and downs in our lives....three wonderful things happened - (1) in early March, I opted for early retirement and (2) our son Josh got married in June and he gave me a wonderful new daughter Elaine and (3)our daughter Joanna graduated in August and is now taking a year off to do what she loves doing which she deserves :) 

During the earlier months of 2015 , I suffered pains from my frozen shoulder and Hallelujah I am healed now - I believe sometimes God give us pain is to make us strong and God has been gracious by giving me Wild Boar aka hubby and BFF to help me through my discomfort and pain. Cooking for me when I am not able to do it and supportive kids to encourage me to do what I love to do most....baking, cooking and to be a shutter bug too :)  

My early Christmas gift - Nikon DSLR D3200 is a good start to be coming a shutter bug comes 2016 and I will face 2016 with positive attitude. One is never too old to learn as long as the will to succeed is always present. 

I  wish my loved ones, friends and readers a Happy 2016 and that you all will have a positive attitude too :)

Dry Curry Pork Ribs

Oh gosh, this is the most delicious dried curry ribs I have ever cooked till date.  I bought this cookbook just a few days ago and I knew I had to tried it out ! Wasting no time , I cooked it for our dinner this evening .  I tweaked it a bit...opt out the galangal and instead added in turmeric leaves.

Boy, wasn't I thrilled at the end results... succulent ribs coated with a layer of luscious aromatic curry. I enjoyed seeing the way WB tucks in the  ribs.  A keeper for sure and I will surely cook this dish again .  I am sure my sons and daughters would love this !  WB will pester me to cook this again and I don't mind as the ingredients are easily obtainable and easy to whip up unlike other curries which entails a lot of preparation. 

meaty pork ribs , pounded ' rempah ' ( a combination of 

fresh turmeric, shallots, garlic, lemongrass,fresh chillies

and dried chillies  )  brown sugar

curry powder and coconut milk

so aromatic...love it !

Dry Curry Pork Ribs  

Ingredients A

1.5 kg pork ribs

3 tbsp of vegetable oil

* I added 1 turmeric leave - roll up leave and cut it into fine strips

Ingredients B ( to be pounded )

100 gm  shallot

3 -4  cloves garlic

5 red chillies

8 dried chillies

1 inch turmeric

2 stalks lemongrass

50 gm galangal * I opted out

Ingredients C

300 gm coconut milk

400 ml water

1/2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp  meat curry powder

salt to taste

Method:

1. Wash pork ribs and blanched in hot boiling water , drain well and set aside.

2. Heat oil in wok, pour in ingredients B and stir fry until fragrant and oil surfaces . Gradually pour in some coconut milk and stir fry till fragrant. Add in pork ribs and stri fry until fragrant, followed by remaining ingredients C, mix evenly. Cook over medium heat until gravy is almost dried up and ribs has soften , add in thecut  turmeric leaves. Dish up and serve.

Enjoy !

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.

Korean BBQ And Ssambap @ Home

I received an electric Pan Grill for my birthday from WB... hehehe and ever since then I have been thinking of korean bbq and my all time favorite Ssambap ( a korean lettuce wrap ) with ssamjang dip sauce.  I told WB , "lets have our own Daorae Korean BBQ at home " and I was surprised he said YESSS.  We bought a few pieces of spare rib chops from our regular butcher and had them marinated with my own marinade sauce....mmmm I managed to whip up my own marinade sauce, almost 90 percent as close to the one from Daorae... after having eaten and tasted Daorae ( just kidding )  I made my own marinade sauce which consists of gochujang paste, sesame seeds, marmalade jam and light soy sauce and a tiny drop of sesame oil. Wow, it was good...really tasty.  I marinated the spare rib chops in the morning...cling wrapped them and kept them in the fridge till needed.

I made some ssamjang dip sauce for the lettuce wrap )  I googled for the recipe and found one that I think would be flavorful  - it consists of gochujang paste, local beanpaste, sesame oil, chopped onion,chopped garlic and finely sliced spring onions. 

marinade sauce

we chose spare rib chops

beautiful chops....juicy and tender and flavorful

as it sizzles in the pan grill...the aroma made us hungry

added some red onion slices for the wraps

once it is cooked, we cut the chops into thinner pieces

for ssambap ( lettuce wrap )

this is a must have for ssambap...the Ssamjang dip sauce

my lettuce wrap(Ssambap) 

filled with slices of grilled chops , ssamjang sauce,

pickled garlic and kimchi and fresh mushrooms

DELISH!

With the leftover ingredients, I stir fry some rice on the grill pan

korean style...so tasty  !

Yummilicious fried rice :)

Enjoy !

Saba Mackeral Kimchi Stew

Many of my readers know that I am a fan of kimchi and even make my own kimchi at home.  Making kimchi may involve a lot of work but worth the trouble taken when you you have a jar of ready homemade kimchi in the fridge.  At any one time you feel like cooking kimchi stew , it is there for you. Save the dollar is one thing but it is also  freaking healthy because you know what you put inside your enzyme packed kimchi.  

Needless to say , when I have a piece of leftover grilled saba mackeral in the fridge, kimchi stew came to mind and with the mackeral , I added some crab meat mushrooms to the stew and GOSH it was lip-smacking good !  Believe me, it was so good that even WB asked for a bowl without the fish of course...he doesnt eat fish for your information..scared of bones....mmmmm he does not know what he misses.  Anyway, I always believe less man more share...LOL so wicked of me to say it...* shrug the shoulder *   If anyone of you would like to make your own kimchi..here is the recipe link for homemade kimchi.

smells good....you can add any kind of edible mushrooms 

to your kimchi stew or any seafood of your choice

Saba Mackeral Kimchi Stew

ingredients:

(A)
1.5 cup of chicken broth
1 cup of homemade kimchi
1 tbsp of gochujang paste
1 tsp of chilli flakes  *optional


(B)
1 pkt of fresh crab meat mushrooms - cleaned
grilled saba mackeral fish ( half a fish )

garnishing
spring onion - clean and cut into 1" length


 Method:

Combine (A) in a claypot and simmer under medium heat.  When it comes to a rolling boil, add in grilled mackeral fish and crab meat mushrooms.  Cook till the  mushrooms has soften and the sweetness of the grilled fish has been boiled into the stew. Add in a pinch of salt for taste . Off heat and garnish with spring onions.  Serve hot with noodles or rice.

Happy Sweet 56 Elin @ Food & Desire

Today I admit I am 56 instead of 26 . And today I decided that I will stop crapping so WB made it a point that I will remember this day by buying me a special soft shell crab birthday 'cake'.  Look at the picture and you will see that the crab appears to give a cheeky smile. It was a delicious soft shell crab burger.  I have taken soft shell crabs quite often in Japanese restaurant.  This is by far the biggest I have laid my tongue on.  Thanks WB for the delicious and scrumptious birthday dinner and thank you to all my cell group members and my children for celebrating a week earlier with me.

WB asked me where I would like to have my birthday dinner....I told him why not Food & Desire !  I love this place and its food.  Love their designer ice cream too. But for today , there is no more room for their designer ice cream.  The soft crab burger is named ' HOLY CRAB ' :)  I should have asked the owner why she named the soft shell crab burger ' HOLY CRAB '....  anyway it was a nice piece of deliciousness.....I pray that I will get to enjoy many more happy sweet birthdays with WB and my four children .   What was my birthday wish ?  hehehe I think I forgot to make a wish but I did remember to say grace before taking my first bite !

no birthday cake but just this soft shell crab burger

love it...mmmmm yummy!

Fish and Chips for me

I am happy it is NOT DORY fish

so super good

Grilled Chicken with black pepper sauce for WB 

I had a wonderful time chilling out with WB

just like the good old times :)

Food & Desire 
fusion - ice-cream-fondue

18, Jalan Medan Ipoh,
1D, Medan Ipoh Bistari.
31400,
Perak

Te; 012-5025540

Nam Nam Noodle Bar @ Suntec City - Singapore

Josh and Elaine introduced us Nam Nam Noodle Bar in Suntec City, to have a taste of Vietnamese street food.  They said the best Vietnamese beef noodle they have eaten ...as good as the one they ate in Vietnam . Old world recipe with a modern twist.  Since Nam Nam does not have a franchise in Malaysia, it will be good for us to try it out .  And true to his promise , it was DELICIOUS , the broth , I almost slurped down all . It was fragrant and the beef slices were fresh, sweet and tender. We felt we were transported to the streets of Vietnam I will definitely visit Nam Nam Noodle Bar again on my next visit :)  

We ordered some appetizer and gosh it was good especially the Crispy Imperial Rolls and their Southern Rolls with prawns,pork, fresh herbs comes with peanut sauce for dips. My son recommended me their special tamarind and peanut drink...so refreshing and good...a must try if you visit Nam Nam Noodle Bar.  The Vietnamese coffee is good too. Served in enamel mug :) of course, it gives you the feel like you are in Vietnam :) I will definitely come back to try out the rest of the Vietnam street food in their menu. Josh and Elaine are happy that we enjoyed our dinner :)

Our trip to Singapore was a short one 2 nights and 3 days. Went there for a mission and came back fulfilled :)  Will plan a longer one next trip

Pho Beef Combination - 

beef steak slices, beef balls, tendon and

honeycombed tripe

Pho Pork Balls

Pho Beef Steak slices served medium rare

Pho Wagyu Beef Slices -  served medium rare

Appetizers -  Crispy Imperial Rolls and 

Fresh Southern Rolls that comes with peanut sauce 

this is really delicious...crispy wrap ..inside is sweet potato paste

very delicious  and can be addictive :)

Fresh Southern Rolls- packed with prawns, pork, herbs

and dip with peanut sauce....delicious 

love all their appetizer ...will try out the rest on my next visit

this is the most delicious and refreshing drink I have tasted

fresh coconut water with tamarind paste and topped with peanuts

LOVELY ! a must try if you visit Nam Nam

another interesting refreshing drink...

Vietnam coffee with condensed milk

There are 6 Nam Nam Noodle Bar franchises in Singapore

SUNTEC CITY

#B1-131, Temasek Boulevard
Singapore 038983
t: 6884 5677
(closed between 3-6pm)

Raffles City
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-46/47
Raffles City Shopping Centre,
Singapore 179103
t: 63360500

Wheelock Place
501 Orchard Road,
#B2-02,
Wheelock Place,
Singapore 238880
t: 67351488

Plaza Singapura
68 Orchard Road,
#01-55, Plaza Singapura
Singapore 238839
t: 68372234

Resorts World Sentosa,
26 Sentosa Gateway 
#B1-225
Singapore 098138
t: 62389447

Owen Link, Connexion
1 Farrer Park Station Road
(Access via One Farrer Hotel &Spa
#01-08/10
Singapore  217562
t: 64431173