Pan Fried Turmeric Chicken With Curry Leaves

With so much homegrown turmeric from my lil space, I used them all in my cooking ..Nyonya Acar, Pan Fried Chicken and the rest, I made ground paste for Assam curry etc which can be kept in the freezer for months before the next batch of turmeric is ready for harvest :)  It takes 9 months before I can harvest the next load, well , nothing comes easy but worth the waiting though. This dish is so simple and yet so flavorful.  I added homegrown curry leaves for extra oomph . Hubby Wild Boar loves this dish and I can cook this often for him if I am too lazy to try out new recipe. He doesn't mind eating tumeric fried stuff which makes homecooking so much easier at times :p  I prefers pounding the turmeric and spices using my inherited mortar and pestle from my dearest Mom than using a blender.  Nothing beats convention methods when it comes to cooking.  No short cuts if you want your food to taste really good.

 pound the turmeric, black pepper and shallots together 

for better taste

 marinade the chicken pieces overnight

or for at least 2 hours for a really good marinated flavor

add cornflour to the marinated pieces 5 mins

before pan frying for extra crispness

pan fried till cooked and crisps at edges

add then curry leaves 5 mins before dishing up

Pan Fried Turmeric Chicken With Curry Leaves
(for 2 persons)

1/2 chicken with or without skin - cut into pieces and drain off excess water

marinade paste - pound together the marinade ingredients

a few pieces of fresh turmeric - scrap off skin and sliced
1 tsp of black peppercorn
3 shallots- sliced

a tsp of salt and sugar to taste
1 tbsp of cornflour
a sprig of curry leaves - wash and drain dry

Method:

1.Cut the 1/2 chicken into pieces , drain off excess water before adding marinade paste, salt and sugar

2. Marinate the chicken overnight or at least 2 hours before pan frying. Add corn flour 5 minutes before frying.

3. Heat up  a non stick deep pan , add a tbsp of rice bran oil and pan fried till chicken pieces are crispy at the edges and cooked through.  Add curry leaves , 5 minutes before dishing up for extra oomph.

4. Dish up and serve with rice.

Enjoy!

Stir Fry Kailan With Roast Pork Belly

  Homegrown Kailan!!!! I am amazed at myself when I managed to successfully grow some kailan in container .Was actually trying my hands at growing some organic stuff and it turned out great.  Successful with my first batch of homegrown planting :)  So proud , and of course, I stir fried them with roast pork belly.  So sweet and crunchy. Even Wild Boar is pleased with my lil' space of edibles.  Anyway, a simple stir fry and we both enjoyed the dish very much.  From now on, I will grow more edibles.  A joy indeed to be able to harvest one's hardwork :)

 kailan can be cooked in many ways, I prefer this version of stir fry

and another delicious dish is to braise  with  yam

 a little gravy under the stir fry of  kailan :)

 so as not to spoil my picture perfect :p

 love the natural sweetness and the crunchy stem and leaves

 perfect for stir fry with pork belly :)

Stir Fry Kailan With Roast Pork
 ( serve 2 persons )

Ingredients

a small bunch of kailan -  soak, wash and cut into 1" inch length ,drain off excess water
3 cloves of garlic - chopped coarsely
2 slices of ginger
1/2 tbsp of rice bran oil
some roast pork belly

thickening - mix all ingredients till well combined
3-4 tbsp of water * more if you want more gravy
1/4 tsp of corn flour
1 tsp of chinese cooking wine

 salt and white pepper to taste

Method:

Heat oil in the wok till smoking, add in garlic and ginger slices and stir fry till fragrant. Add in the roast pork belly and continue to stir fry for a minute.  Add in the cut kailan and stir fry till cooked. Add in the thickening and salt and continue to stir fry till well combined. Before dishing up, add a dash of white pepper.  Serve hot with rice.

 Enjoy!

Stir Fry And Lightly Braised Bitter Melon

This is my all time favourite veggie dish.  After having a really scrumptious artery clogging hotpot last night, I cooked something light and appetizing for our  lunch today.  A simple stir fry and lightly braised bitter melon with some left over meat slices from last night.  Hubby loves this dish too. You can eat this with plain porridge and I did that. Cooked a pot of watery porridge and ate this aromatic dish.  Aromatic because of the fermented black beans sauted together with chopped chilli and garlic.  The scent and taste of this simple dish is so good that one dish is enough for the both of us :)

Stir Fry And Lightly Braised Bitter Melon

1 medium size bitter melon - slice into 1/4 inch thick
meat slices - I used left over meat from yesterday hotpot

1 tbsp of fermented black beans - wash and drain dry
3 cloves of garlic - chopped fine
2 bird's eye chilli - chopped fine
1.5 tbsp of rice bran oil
1/2 cup water
salt to taste

Method:

Heat up wok, add in 1.5 tbsp of rice bran oil. Once the oil is heated up, lower heat and saute garlic, fermented black beans and chilli till fragrant.  Add in the meat slices and stir fry till cooked .Add in the bitter melon slices and stir fry for 5 mins. Add in water and cover with lid and lightly braised for another 10 mins until the bitter melon is cooked. Add salt to taste. If you like to have more gravy, make half a cup of thickening to the bitter melon . Once it thickens, dish up and serve with rice or porridge.

Enjoy!

Homemade Pumpkin Noodles

Those days when I was crazy over buying cookbooks, you will always find me in Popular or MPH or even Big Bad Wolf Sales in KL/Ipoh which I seldom miss and will cart home cookbooks which I don't even try out the recipe.  Thus, all those I bought are now sitting on my book racks for display only as quoted by  WB.  I have a tendency to hoard cookbooks and I have stopped buying in loads except for occasionally when I find a good one :p  For the first few months , I will be reading them every night before I go to slumberland, of course after my online call to my Heavenly Father :)  I will even bookmarked the recipes I wanted to try out.  But since , I am into photography, my time is divided and most of the night reading will be a chapter from the bible and some notes on photography :p

Okay, sorry for the digress , which is quite annoying at times , back to this homemade noodles. I have this book sitting idly on my book rack for almost a year and half. All on homemade noodles..all types of noodles. A sudden crave for homemade noodles since we are having steamboat/hotpot and grill for dinner.  It is a brilliant idea on my part but WB was not too keen BUT after making them and having tasted it , he said it is really good.  Wow, that is inspiring from him.  It is indeed a joy to have people enjoying your food and giving you a pat and a praise once in a while....isn't it ?  On a serious note, this is good. I used the Spinach Noodles recipe and replaced spinach puree with pumpkin paste.  Adjusted the water measurement and get to the right dough texture which should be harder than bread dough.  If you want the noodle to be chewy, you have to knead it longer. 

dough texture has to be harder than bread dough texture

remember to sprinkle more flour on both surface

for easy cutting and so that the noodles don't stick together

love the rich pumpkin color

Korean Cubed Radish Kimchi 깍둑설기 ( Kkakdugi )

Recently, I was recommended to try out the imported radish from Korea by my daughter and she told me that it is sweet and crunchy when eaten raw and that after which I will not want to eat the local ones :) seriously , it is true.  After having eaten it raw, I realised what I have been missing all this while . No wonder the korean loves their radish so much.  Upon her recommendation, I bought one big one from the K mart which sells all korean ingredients and utensils. 

Came home, could not wait to make them into cubed radish or 깍둑설기 ( kkakdugi ) in the korean language.  Making korean side dishes has become a simple task for me, for I have been making them since the day I was introduced to banchan :)  Since the radish is sweet, making banchan would be ideal.

cut them into cubes and seasoned with salt and sugar

after which add in the chilli flakes and mix evenly

add in the radish kimchi base

I prefer to give it character by not blending the ingredients

but chopped them fine

best to ferment them in glass jar

leave it a day in room temp before

storing them in the fridge

Korean Cubed Radish  깍둑설기 ( Kkakdugi ) - adapted from My Korean Kitchen

Ingredients:

1.1 kg Korean radish – rinsed and skin peeled (2.5 pounds), or other variety of white daikon radish 

3 stalks (50 g / 1.8 ounces) green onion – rinsed  

2 Tbsp raw sugar 

2 Tbsp rock salt or Korean coarse salt

 

Radish Kimchi base

1/2 small brown onion (70 g / 2.5 ounces), skin peeled, cut into small pieces to blend 

1/2 small red apple (50 g / 1.8 ounces), seed and core removed, cut into small pieces to blend  

3 Tbsp Korean fish sauce , I used anchovy sauce 

1 Tbsp Minced garlic  

1/2 Tbsp Minced ginger 

4 Tbsp Korean coarse chili flakes (gochugaru)  

1/4 cup water 

1Tbsp rice flour

 

Instructions

1. Cut the radish into medium sized cubes. (It could be smaller or bigger if that’s what you prefer. Just be mindful that the radish will shrink as they go through the fermentation process.) Put the cubed radish into a large mixing bowl and add the sugar and the salt and mix them well. Leave it for 1 hour at room temperature.
2. While waiting, chop the green onion into small pieces and make the Kimchi base. Blend the onion and apple with the fish sauce in a blender. (It can take a few minutes as the liquid isn’t as much as the solids.) Make the rice porridge by mixing the water and the rice flour in a bowl and heating them up for 1 min in a microwave. (It could be shorter or longer depending on the output power of your microwave). It should give you a mildly runny porridge texture. Mix all the Kimchi base ingredients (*except for 2 Tbsp of Korean chili flakes) in a medium sized bowl.
   
   
3. After one hour, rinse the radish in cold running water a couple of times and drain any excess water for 5 mins.
4. Put the radish into a clean mixing bowl and add 2 Tbsp of Korean chili flakes.  Mix the chili flakes with the radish evenly. (By adding this chili flakes separately and earlier than rest of the Kimchi base, you are giving a nice vibrant colour to the radish). Add the chopped green onion and the Kimchi base and mix them evenly and thoroughly.
   
   
5. Move the seasoned radish into an air tight glass container (1.5L glass jar for the above-listed quantity) and leave it at room temperature for between 6 to 24 hours depending on the temperature  After that keep it in the fridge.

My Basket Of Korean Stuff From WB...Valentine's Gift ?

We went shopping with my daughter at a Korean Mart nearby Solaris, KL  after we had our korean lunch at Chicken House. Hubby told me to get what I needed  and he will pays for it. Wow...my early Valentine's gift ????  Just kidding, we stopped buying gifts for each other on Valentine Day. We buy gifts for each other as and when we like, as we strongly believe in showing love and respect to each other all the days of our lives, not only on V day. It would be great though that we take this special day to eat out.  We both deserve to be served by others on this special day :)

I picked up a few items which I can't get from Ipoh and at a cheaper price too. As shown on the photo above, we got ourselves a Korean-Dolsot-Ddubaegi , a 1 kg tub of Gochujang hot paste , a bottle of Lemon honey ,  Korean radish ( very sweet, should have bought more for making pickled radish banchan ) , 1 kg of Korean wild short grain rice and not to forget a packet of fresh Perilla leaves for wraps when eating grilled meat. 

this Korean-Dolsot-Ddubaegi...can cook on stove directly and

serve with it..save washing and it keep food hot for a long time

...........no need to lug it back from Korea since

I know where to get Korean stuff in KL

the vegetables like fresh perilla leaf and radish are air flown from Korea too

a must buy if you even see Korean radish...so sweet that you can eat them raw

and the texture is different too...it is more ' fluffy' not compact like our local ones

A basket of Korean ingredients.. perfect for all my korean dishes that I will be cooking in the net few days.  Thank you Yo-bu for supporting me in eating all my Korean dishes without grimaces :)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO ALL MY READERS

THIS IS WHAT I MEAN , LOVING ME ALL THE 365 DAYS

DROPPING BY EVERY DAY TO READ MY POSTS

NO MATTER HOW BUSY YOU ARE , 

MAKING EVERYDAY A VALENTINE'S DAY FOR ME

MY BLOG HAS REACHED ALMOST 3 MILLIONS VISITORS

THANK YOU AND LOVE YOU GUYS TOO !

HAVE A BLESSED VALENTINE'S DAY!

Tofu And Fish Kimchi Jjigae

I love Korean food and needless to say, I will cook Korean very often.  On my recent trip to KL, my daughter took me to K mart, a korean shop selling korean ingredients and cookware. My daughter knows I love Korean products and introduced me to this earthenware bowl.  Love this black earthenware bowl so much that I can't wait to use it . I cooked kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) with it. On a healthier note, I just add tofu and fish to the kimchi jjigae and I can have just this one dish for dinner.  You can make pork belly kimchi jjigae if you like . I think my next kimchi jjigae will be pork belly...slurp!

The reason why I make a big load of kimchi is for making kimchi jjigae besides serving kimchi as a side dish.  Kimchi jjigae is a very versatile dish. You can add any other ingredients you want but the important ingredient is the kimchi and the base sauce . Without the kimchi, it will be not otherwise be called kimchi jjigae. A very healthy dish no doubt and hubby (Wild Boar ) and I love kimchi jjigae !  It is a blessing that my Wild Boar loves kimchi :)

 

my new black eartherware from the K mart and the kimchi I made

some time back ...kimchi can keep for 3 months in fridge

this dish is easy to make, add kimchi and base sauce, chicken broth 

 into the black earthenware and boil over medium heat

once the kimchi stew has been simmered

 for a while and is aromatic , add in the fiish fillets

and give it a quick boil

dish up and garnish with spring onions ( mine are homegrown )

Tofu And Fish Kimchi Jjigae

ingredients:

 3/4 cup aged kimchi
1 japanese cucumber or zucchini - cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 firm tofu - cut into cube size
2 pieces of fish fillets
2 cups chicken broth
 spring onions - for garnishing

jjigae base sauce
1 Tbsp Korean chili flakes (gochugaru)
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Korean chili paste (gochujang)
1/4 tsp minced garlic
3 sprinkles ground black pepper

 Method:

Add the aged kimchi, tofu, cucumber/zucchini, jjigae base sauce , chicken broth to an earthenware  bowl and boil it under medium heat till aromatic.

Add in the fish fillets last and give it a quick boil. Once it is ready for serving , garnish with the spring onions and serve it hot with rice.

 Enjoy !

Nyonya Acar

Wow, time flies ...now it is back to my normal routine after a week of CNY celebration . Kids have gone back to work and we are back in Ipoh enjoying our lazy laid back days. Me to my baking, cooking and my  and not to forget my photography lessons :) and my other half back to his own work. I have retired for two years now and I am still enjoying the laid back days :) People asked me whether I am bored..of course NOPE.  The reason being cooking and baking and gardening and photography lesson is enough to keep me occupied and excited.  Each time I cook or bake something interesting, photography lesson will be in progress :) and needless to say gardening and photography goes hand in hand !  How can I be bored :p I wish there are 28 hours in a day...4 more hours to enjoy my gardening and cooking !

Okay back to this Nyonya Acar an appetizing pickled vegetable , with its sour and spicy taste, normally served as a side dish  with a main dish .  I have been wanting to make this appetizing and flavorful Nyonya side dish many months back but did not due to my travelling to and fro to Semenyih in the last one year . As promised not to procrastinate this year, I made this side dish using My Kitchen Snippets recipe and gosh I am glad that I made it at last :)  Worth all the hard work getting this dish done. 

these are the ingredients used for making nyonya acar :) 

I used 4 types of vegetables only, some add pineapple to it

but for me I made it simple just using carrot, cabbage, cucumber and longbeans

 

 pounded ingredients consists of fresh turmeric, Serai (lemongrass ),

galangal (aromatic rhizome ), shallots, garlic, chilli paste, shrimp paste (belacan)

 

toasted peanuts and toasted sesame seeds are to be added to the sauce

and as garnishing for the nyonya acar.  I toasted the peanuts and sesame seeds 

a day before making the Nyonya Acar so as not to 

load myself with too much work :p

love the yellow color of this dish..so good for the eyes and

it makes me drool the whole time while I was making this dish

Nyonya Acar - adapted from My Kitchen's Snippet

Ingredients :

3 cucumber - (removed the seeds) and cut into 4cm strips
300g cabbage leaves, cut into 2.5cm squares
2 carrots cut into 4cm strips
150g long beans, cut into 4cm strips

To make into paste:

6 fresh red bird eye's chillies
15 dried chillies –soak in hot water until soft
12 shallots
6 cloves garlic
2 cm fresh turmeric root
 1" galangal (lengkuas)
5 candlenuts/almond or macadamia nuts
2 stalk lemon grass, sliced finely
1.5” of shrimp paste (belachan) - optional

 Vinegar mixture:

1cup of white vinegar * I used only 3/4 cup
1 cup water
10 tbsp of brown sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
2 tsp salt
300g roasted peanuts, skinned and pounded
10 tbsp roasted sesame seeds

For blanching the vegetables:

600ml water
400ml vinegar
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp sugar


Method:


1. Rub cucumber slices with 1 tbsp salt. Leave aside for one hour. Wrap in clean towel or muslin cloth and squeeze out excess liquid. Put all the ground ingredients in a food processor and ground into paste and set it aside.

2. Bring water, vinegar, salt and sugar for blanching vegetables to a rapid boil. Blanch the vegetables (except cucumber) one type at a time for 15 second. Remove and using a clean kitchen towel, squeezed the water out of the vegetable and set it aside.

3. Heat up about 3-4 tbsp of oil in frying pan and stir-fry the ground ingredients until fragrant and the oil begins to separate. Stir in water and vinegar. Add sugar and salt and bring to a boil, then leave to cool completely. Check seasoning as you might need to add more sugar to it.

4. Stir in all the prepared vegetables, peanuts and sesame seeds. Store in a clean jar and refrigerate.

Enjoy!