Chicken Wine Mee Suah

We didn't have time to taste the chicken wine mee suah in Sibu. Really wanted to, as I was told the Foochow's wine is different from the rice wine we used here in Sabah. I have tried those from Ipoh which was cooked in red rice wine and they were very good even though kind of fury looking with the redness of the wine. Why is the rice wine red? 

Anyway, I did bring back some good, handmade (L insisted) mee suah from Sibu and I hand-carried them personally as they were a delicate lot.

I decided to cook this for my 5-minus-one (Mee is the one in the States) sisters on our Thursday breakfast date. We have these breakfast dates every Thursday come rain or shine for the past 18 years. It started after our dad passed away, as dad and mum enjoyed going for dim sum almost everyday, we wanted to make sure mum get to go out for breakfast at least once a week with her daughters. So this routine/ritual was formed and it is still continuing even long after my mum left the scene. It is one highlight of the week for all of us - to catch up with one another, to share our views and opinions on every topics (food, travel, health and most recently, politics) under the sun. Most times everyone is talking and no one listening... :D Sometimes when time permit, the breakfast would extend to shopping (food, crockery, furniture, clothings...) 

The noodle is so exquisitely smooth, silky and light but still retains a definite bite. Heavenly... 

For the chicken wine recipe, click here. I omitted the mushrooms, wolfberries and black fungus here, just wanted to keep the soup as unclustered as possible to better taste the mee suah. 

To cook the mee suah noodle:

~Boil a large pot of water (~4L) for 4-5 servings of the noodle (usually about 4 bundles).

~By the side get ready a big basin of cooked cold water. 

~When water boils, pop the noodles in, stir to keep the noodles from sticking.

~It takes less than a minute to cook. 

~Lift the noodles from the boiling water and drop them in the cold water. This will stop the noodles from cooking any further. 

~Drain and separate into serving bowls. 

~Pour boiling wine soup onto the noodles and serve hot.   

I have Agnes to thank for this almost zero oil content chicken wine soup. I find even the kampong chickens these days are quite fat. Apparently many kampong chicken rearers are using chicken feeds to fatten them up faster!

With this ingenious piece of tool, oil is filtered off from soups effortlessly. It has an extremely fine gauze as sieve which only allows water to pass through.

Tilted at an angle, it makes the job a piece of cake. 

Mooncakes, mooncakes and more mooncakes

Beside the conventional mooncakes, these are what we are having this year for the Mid-Autumn festival which falls on the 14 th September and that is tomorrow.

These jelly mooncakes are from Betty's mooncake collection. 

She is truly a master of mooncakes (see her ping pei mooncake here)

The red is made with dragon fruit which I didn't get to taste at all, the yellow is kiwi fruit while the green one is made with real durian!

I thought they were too just too beautiful to be eaten but K didn't thinks so and he cut this one late last night. I was force to take these picture under low light condition (K tried to help by holding up a torch light but the shots appeared too harsh so I had to use the highest ISO and that accounted for the grainy outcome which I found out is called 'noise' in photographic terms. Why? I haven't the faintest idea as I couldn't hear any noise...) 

Can you made out the durian flesh surrounded by the jelly? Yummy...

These cookies that don't look or taste anything like mooncake at all are from Sibu. Pit Fung was in Kuching last month and brought some for us to try. 

They are quite good as cookies but if the label didn't read "Kek Bulan" none of us would have guessed. They are sweet but with a slight savoury twist flavored either with five spice powder or the red fermented bean curd. 

Here I proudly present the Teo Chew mooncakes. So happy with myself after accomplishing these as they were such a success compared to the last few times I tried two years ago when the pastry turned out like shortcrust. That was the biggest challenge for me, the skin, that is to achieve the flaky layering that we find in lou po ping (wife's cookies)...

I was beaming from ear to ear when I cut open one and got these. It was light, flaky and crisp. Just perfect.

This recipe was from A, a fantastic cook and dancer who has since migrated to Canada. I like the filling of this mooncake, it is very much like the ham and nuts mooncakes (my dad's favorite) but without the ham. It is said that this ham yoke mooncake is an acquired taste, I agreed as I remember when I was young I would watched my dad eat and turned my nose up and wouldn't touch any myself as I then preferred those with lotus paste and egg yolk. I don't remember when I started liking them.

Here is the original recipe (the lotus paste I got from Pelangi was super sweet so I had to adjust the filling by adding more nuts/seeds and moi choy - reserved veg. and also reduced the sweet candied fruits).

Filling:

300g white lotus paste

60 g candied manderin orange (kit pian), chopped finely (40g - adjusted)

70 g candied winter melon, chopped finely (40g)

30 g sesame seeds (60g)

10 g melon seeds (50g)

30 g salty moi choy, washed, chopped and fried dry (60g)

1/4 t salt

Mix all ingredients together well.

Divide into 10 - 12 portions and shape them each into a dics about 5 cm in diameter.

 

A (water dough - outer skin)

100 g plain flour

40 g shortening (I used lard)

~ 50 g water

1/2 t lemon juice

Rub the lard into the flour. Add the water bit by bit and get to a rather soft consistency but make sure the dough does not stick to the finger. 

Combine together well but lightly and leave for 15 - 20 minutes.

B (oil dough - inner skin)

100 g superfine flour

60 g shortening (or pork lard)

Mix well lightly and leave for 15 - 20 minutes.

1. Roll A (water dough) into a thin flat sheet.

2. Spread B (oil dough) onto A.

3. Fold the flat sheet into 1/2 then 1/2 again.

4. Roll out into a thin sheet (make sure the oil dough stays within the water dough).

5. Fold 1/2 and 1/2 again and roll out into about 1/4 cm thick.

6. Cut into 10 - 12 portion.

7.  Roll dough to fit the filling. Wrap a piece of filling each with the skin. Press down to flatten. 

8. Eggwash each cake and sprinkle black sesame seed on top.

9. Bake at 170 C for 30 minutes. 

After all been said and done about mooncakes, I favorite is still my first love, lotus paste with salted egg yolk. A must have for me every year or it won't feel like Mid-Autumn.

Happy 中秋節.

Braised Fish With Tomatoes

Grew up with these gorgeous heirloom tomatoes before the introduction of those genetically engineered strains. I just love the distinctly sweet yet acidic tangy flavor they impart.

They are usually smaller, flattened, have more pronounced ribbing (these ones shown above are so much rounder than usual, I hope they are not hybrid) and thinner flesh with more seeds than the normal plum or beefsteak tomatoes. They are not suitable for salad but are delicious when cooked with meat or fish.

Here I cooked the tomatoes with fish slices and tau cheong (fermented soy beans). For this gravy-loving family  this dish always calls for second helping of rice. 

Braised Fish With Tomatoes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2 slices of fish

4 small tomatoes, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

small thumb-size ginger, julienned

1 T tau cheong (sweet fermented soy bean)

salt and pepper

light soy sauce

sugar

1 T corn flour

1 red chili, seeded and julienned

Wipe dry fish and season with salt, pepper and coat thinly with corn flour.

Heat enough oil in wok to pan fry fish (wok must be very hot when oil is added and when just about to smoke, add fish slices (this would ensure the fish not sticking to the wok). 

Brown both sides well, take out and set aside.

Leave 1 T oil in the wok and add ginger and garlic, fry till fragrant.

Add tau cheong and chili (leave some for garnishing), fry for a minute or so and add the tomatoes.

Spread out the tomatoes slices at the base of wok and place the fish slices on top.

Pour about 1/2 cup of water in and bring to boil.

Lower heat and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes.

Turn the fish once during the simmering.

When the gravy thickens, season with sugar and light soy sauce.

Dish out and indulge with white steaming rice. Yum!

Loh Hon Goh

This best home-brewed tong sui recipe came from my sister, Pit, many years ago which has since become one of our favourites. We call it loh hon goh but I think in the kopitiam (coffee shop) it is referred to as tung kwa leong cha (winter melon cooling tea). I find most shops would use candied winter melon instead of fresh melon. It really taste so much more aromatic with fresh melon. Another trick to give this tong sui a rich caramel taste and aroma is to add a few pieces of gula melaka (palm sugar) when adjusting the taste. I also like to add more lieu (ingredient) like dried longan meat, thinly sliced dried persimmon or sea coconut, if available, to make this more a dessert than a drink.

Fresh winter-melon, loh hon goh, tai hoi lam, rock sugar, longan

4 L water

2 loh hon goh (Buddha's fruit), wash and cracked open

10 tai hoi lam, washed and soaked

200g winter melon flesh, finely shredded

1/2 cup dried longans, rinsed

rock sugar  

gula melaka (optional)  

Tai hoi lam is an olive-like dried fruit. When soaked in water it expands more than double its size and the flesh is transparent and feels like jelly. The outer skin has to be discarded and that's the part I find most tedious in this whole process of preparing the tong sui. The skin can be easily detected when soak in water as they are opaque while the flesh is transparent. At the top of the bowl of soaked tai hoi lam you can easily see a small black triangle speck floating on the water - that's the skin to be discarded. This ingredient is used more for the texture than its taste. Strain away the soaking water and it is ready to be used. 

Bring the winter melon, loh hon goh (skin and seeds) and water to a boil, lower heat and let simmer for 3 hours. 

Fish out the loh hon goh and discard. 

Add the sugars to taste. Turn the heat off. 

Add the soaked tai hoi lam and dried longans. Let it stand for a minute and it is ready to be served hot.

Leave in the fridge and you can have icy cold tong sui whenever the weather get unbearably hot.

Tung Po Ruo

Su Tung Po, a famous Chinese poet was reputed to have concocted this ravishing dish. A romantic who could also cook...

This dish takes a while (a long while!) to cook but the procedures are very simple and easy to follow and the result is simply a mouth watering, melt-in-the-mouth sensation. Definitely a dish for a special feast. Duan wu jie, dragon boat festival is just round the corner so this would be a good dish to consider if you are celebrating.  

 

1.5 kg pork belly

1 T light soy sauce

3 cups oil for deep frying

3 stalks spring onion

5 slices ginger

1 star anise

500 ml water

Sauce

3 T sugar

5 T light soy sauce

150 ml shaoxin wine or mei kuei lu (Chinese rose wine) or brandy

Garnish

200 g taiwan bak coi, blanched, dipped into cold water and drained

Submerge pork in boiling water for 10- 15 minutes. Drain. 

Rub all over with light soy sauce and let it marinate for 10 minutes.
Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown. Drain.

Arrange pork and all the remaining ingredients except the bak coi into a casserole.

Cover and steam at high heat for 3 hours or up to another half hour more (if pork doesn't yield easily to a poke with a chopstick) until pork is meltingly tender.

Remove and leave to cool.

Cut pork into slices and arrange on top of the blanched bak coi in a serving plate.

Reheat the remaining gravy on high heat until thickens and season to taste.

Pour gravy over pork and veg.

Serve hot. 

Have a lovely weekend, everyone...

Note: Using different wines will yield subtly different aroma and taste to this dish but they are all delicious (to me).

Kung Bao Chicken

A kung bao chicken I tasted years ago when we were stationed in KL has set the benchmark for this dish. I have since given up hope years ago in finding one that rivals or even come close to it. I seem to be a sucker where this dish is concerned (very much like hubby's obsession with tom yam). I can never resist ordering it if I see it on the menu and more times than ever I came away feeling disappointed and deprived.

That was until I found this recipe... 

This is not the watery wash-down version we always seem to get whenever we ordered this dish in restaurants.

I found this recipe featured in one of the few Hawkers' Fair magazines I bought a while back. I have experimented with it several times and now, I nailed it down to just the way I like it and I can say it is as good as that elusive dish I craved. Of course the wok hei of chinese restaurant cooking can't be duplicate unless I get one of those pressurized kerosine stove but other than that, this is it.

Gong Bao Sauce

10 dried chillies, washed, seeded and chopped into small pieces

2 T chopped garlic

2 T chilli sauce

3 T black vinegar

2 T oyster sauce

1 T soy sauce

1 T sugar

1 t sesame oil

1/2 cup water

5 T oil

Heat oil and saute chilli and garlic until fragrant.

Add in all ingredients except water. Cook until the oil resurface.

Add in the water and cook at low heat until sauce thickens slightly (but not too thick because it will thickens further when chicken is added).

1 chicken breast, sliced or cubed

1 onion, cubed

5 slices ginger

1/2 each of red and green bell pepper, seeded and cubed (optional)

2 stalks spring onion, cut 3 cm lengthwise 

2 T water

To marinade chicken:

1 egg white

1 T corn flour

1/2 t salt 

a dash of pepper and sesame oil

Marinade chicken and leave for 30 minutes or so. 

Deep fry in hot oil for 3-5 minutes.

Drain and keep aside.

Leave 1 T oil in wok, saute ginger and onion until fragrant.

Add in chicken meat, gong bao sauce and water.

Stir well for a minute or two and add in spring onion.

Dish onto a serving plate (can leave and discard some of the red chili oil in the wok) and sprinkle with toasted cashew nuts.

Serve with a simple stir-fried leafy veggie and steaming rice.

White Fungus Tong Sui

Having a serious bout of flu for the past two weeks. Started off with a minor sore throat which quickly followed by an on and off fever. Later develop spasm of gut-wrenching cough that last for a minute or so a session and leaves me with a husky vocal like Rod Steward :p. Latest verdict - the minor sore throat grew into energy-zapping bronchitis.

There were many tips as to what to eat and drink to soften the cough but I did this because these were the only ingredients I could find at home. Just too exhausted to have gone out shopping for pears or whatever these recipes call for.

Just wash and soak some white fungus, about 1 cup. They double in size after a few minutes in water. Get rid of any hard parts that doesn't soften up after 10 minutes or so of soaking. Drain.

Wash a handful of red dates. Get the stones out by flattening each date with the side of the cleaver.

Wash a tablespoon each of wolfberry (枸杞) and dried longan meat.

Boil 2 litre of water in a pot, add fungus and red dates. Simmer for about an hour. Add longan and wolfberry, cook for 2 minutes. Add rock sugar to taste. I add a small piece of gula melaka (palm sugar) to give it a richer aroma. Off heat.

Drink it warm or cold. Warm if you are in my condition but I really like it cold straight from the fridge on a hot afternoon. I don't think it did much to ease the cough but it did help lift my spirit.

Jo

Kai Lan with Rice Wine

With the whole household waistlines expanding sideways, have to curtail the meat and carb intake (aaw..it is killing the 'fun tung' in me).
Saw this bunch of lovely baby kai lan (kale) selling at the sidewalk outside Consfood. Usually, very cautious about veggies from China but just couldn't resist these. I soaked and re- soaked them in salt water for hours (ham choi, anyone?) hoping whatever chemicals present will leach out. Think that'd work? Don't know.

~Simply blanch in boiling water for a few minutes.

~Dunk into cold water immediately. Drain and arrange on serving plate.

~Heat 1 tbsp oil in pan, saute 2-3 cloves of chopped or thinly sliced garlic and a tbsp of julienned ginger until fragrant.

~Add 1 tbsp of oyster sauce and 1/4 cup of sweet rice wine, bring to boil.

~Add a tsp of cornstarch+ 2T water solution to thicken (optional). Off the heat.

~Pour sauce over the veggie and serve hot.

~Add some pacific clams on top if feel like indulging.

Chemicals laden or not, they were very tasty - sweet with a soft crunchiness. Can do without meat but got to have my rice.

Jo

Lolo's 80th Birthday @ Royal China

Celebrated my father-in-law's 80th birthday last week, twice. One on the actual day itself and another a few days later when we managed to gather most of the clan together. Royal China (Tai Tung) was chosen not so much for its food but for the amenities it provides like ample car park, private rooms and lift.

Started with a four seasons combo appetiser. Only managed to grab one nori roll as everyone was hungry. That's always the case with the first course.

Shark's fin soup with crab meat.

Stewed pork trotter served with some soft buns. Very nicely done.

Steamed Grouper with four treasures, I found two only - slivers of mushroom and Chinese sausage.

Baked prawns with spicy coconut floss.

Braised mixed vegetables (enoki, shiitaki and button mushroom and sea cucumber too) with fermented bean curd.

Long life noodle, a must for birthdays.

Don took this shoot using my camera and commented that the cam is no good because it showed all the gravy smudges on the side of the bowl. Perfect imperfection (or the other way round)?? I said, 'Clean up before a shot!'

Dried longan with pumpkin and snow fungus for dessert.

Eaten together with these pancakes and jelly.

And the birthday cake of course.

With a few of his grand-daughters,

and grandsons

but not quite the whole clan...

Budding photographer

Happy birthday, lolo!!!

As I mentioned we chose the restaurant not for its culinary fame so we really didn't expect anything spectacular but much to our delight the food was quite good especially the pork trotters.

Maybe this is much like life, where there is no expectation, lovely surprises sping up at most turns.

Jo

Stopover @ KL

We were planning a trip to Taipei for this short school holiday.

Found out three days before the journey that there were some hitches in getting our special fare. As the children were all packed and ready for the trip we had to look for alternatives and fast too. Did a big turnaround and headed closer to home, Singapore. Leanne had not been to Singapore before and the last time Bryan went, he was about 5. So they were sold and very excited.

Managed to secure seats to KL and with Bryan's recommendation we decided to take the Aeroline bus from KL to Singapore. More excitement for Leanne who seems to have forgotten all about the building 101 in Taipei that she wanted so badly to visit. Within two days, air travel, land travel and the necessary accommodation were all duly booked and confirmed through the Internet. What would we do without the Internet?

Stayed a night in KL and ate our way thru until we boarded the bus bound for Singapore the next day...

1) Dinner at Cafe 2369,

First time Keshia ordered a cup of tea, must have been the cold weather. Raining when we arrived.

Sambal french beans, a little oily but packed with mouthwatering flavours.

Butter chicken. Very similar to butter prawns with the curry leaves and egg yolk shreds. Yumz.

Deep fried sotong (squid) with salted egg yolk. Good but it would have been better if the salted egg yolk had been incorporated into the batter instead of loosely scattered over the fried squid.

Signature dish. Fresh prawns and fish head noodles. Very tasty said K.

2) Supper at SS2 stalls...

Fish head soup for Heather

Clay pot chicken rice for Keshia.

Fried abalone mushroom..

and fried pork balls for everyone.

Refreshing apple and carrots juice.


ABC to sweeten the palate.

3) Breakfast the next morning at Raju, Jalan Gasing...

Started with a wadai

or two for some

Followed by a thosai

added some fried fish roe and chicken

and drenched it in coconut chutney and curry sauce.

Best breakfast ever! Sitting under shades provided by lovely big trees made it ever better.

A PSP at breakfast table, the most anti-social device ever invented.

Note: For those who do not know what a PSP stands for, it is 'play station portable'. I just found out too.

Jo