Yong Tofu

I grew up with traditional Hakka food and to me yong tofu is just that -  stuffed beancurd with mince meat (most times of pork but fish is more popular now for health reasons I suppose). I only learnt to eat all the different types of stuffed veggies when we were stationed in KL years ago. 

Mui Fong has taken on the task of marketing for me these days. She reckons home-grown veggies without pesticides and chemicals are easier to find in Tamparuli. These are some of the very fresh veggies she brought over, a few of each. 

So, to make a feast out of them, I sliced, slit and stuffed them...

The yong tofu without the tofu
 

I like to cook this dish as a one-pot-meal and the veggies go down easier for the young ones.

I was lazy so I bought two packets of minced pork from the Lido market, minced some fish flesh (about 300g) and mixed it into the pork. 

Stuff the veggies. 

Deep fry the stuffed eggplants, bitter gourd and chillies to brown, not to cook them but just to make them more attractive to the young ones. Drain and keep aside.

Fry some chopped shallots and garlic with a tablespoon of oil until fragrant. Set some aside for garnishing (which I forgot).

Add  a tablespoon of oyster sauce into the same wok.

Before the mixture burns add in 2 - 3 cups of stock (use the remaining fish bones to make stock or just boil some ikan billis or bonito flakes in water for 10 minutes, strain and use the stock). 

When boiling, place bitter gourd in first as they will take the longest to cook (omit this if some members of family don't eat this veggie), then chillies, egg plant and then lastly the lady fingers.

Cook until the stuffing turns color and the veggies slightly soft.

Thicken the gravy with 1t cornflour + 1T water. For a soupy dish, omit the thickening, just add more stock, season to taste.

Eat with a chilli/lime/garlic/soy dipping sauce.

My favorite from this selection has to be the stuffed red chilli (do deseed them before stuffing).

Food Of The Sea

Seaweed pickles

Have you seen these before? I goggled and found the closest thing resembling it is called Irish moss with a scientific name of Chondrus Crispus (very delicious sounding name) but these are only to be found in the colder parts of the world. 

The seaweed pictured above are found locally here off the coast of Sabah especially in Tawau, so if anyone out there knows what it is called locally or scientifically please feel free to enlighten. 

They come in fresh and dried form. I am yet to see the fresh ones but Pit Fung said she had seen some in Tuaran market. A friend gave me a packet of the dried ones few months ago and it was left in the fridge as I didn't know what to do with it. 

Then, Betty, my sister gave me some pickles and I noted some unusual ingredients in it. They were these seaweeds and they tasted great. They have a slight taste of the sea and the texture is like softened kelp. Unlike kelp these seaweeds are also beautiful to look at.

Quickly fished out the packet from my fridge and soaked the whole thing and forgotten to take any pictures. Anyway, they were not very photogenic when dried. Slightly brown and all shriveled up.

Soak them in water overnight and they turn into swans. 

If you don't like the sea taste to be too overpowering, change the soaking water more often. 

I soaked these for two days.

Rinse with lukewarm drinking water before preparation but do not, repeat, do not blanch with hot water or your seaweed will be reduced to thick liquid. I learned the hard way.

Pickle with shredded carrots, cucumber, onions and chili. 

Jazz it up with some szechuan pepper oil, chili oil or sesame oil. 

Chill and serve.

Can serve them stylishly atop a porky cold dish as hors d'ourves like I did with this jellyfish salad. 

Fish Maw Soup

When we were growing up, only during CNY festive season (or on wedding dinners) that this dish was served. So whenever the aroma of this fishy delicacy is detected, it triggers my brain cells to kicked into an overdrive of celebration gear. As I wasn't quite in a festive mood even a week before the CNY, I felt I had to self induce some. So I cooked the fish miaw soup and that did the trick because that same day I began to bring out the CNY deco for the house :-D.

 

Fish maw is the gas bladder of a fish that helps it to change depth without swimming.
I have always bought them ready to cook. Usually they come in the dried form and you would have to deep fry them first before they can be added to a dish.
This batch of fish maw we bought this year was from Hong Kong and was processed a little differently. They were not deep fried in oil but deep fried in a wok of tiny rock salt pebbles, I was told.
I prefer this method becouse I have always had doubts about the freshness of the deep frying oil used commercially. Also, when the maws are deep fried in oil they have to be consumed within a short time or the oil would turn rancid and rendered the maw inedible.

Two fish maws when soaked yield about 2 cups.

All you need for the soup are:

1 kampong chicken, cut into small pieces
2 carrots, peeled and sliced or diced
10 red dates, washed and stoned (flatten them with the side of a chopper and the stones can be easily remove)
some dried mushrooms, soaked until soft
a bowl of soaked fish maw
2-3 L water

salt and pepper 

~Bring water to boil.
~Add the chicken and when the water begins to boil again, lower heat and simmer for 1/2 hour.
~Add carrots, dates and mushroom and simmer for another 1/2 hour.
~Add fish maw, bring to boil and let it cook for about 3 - 5 minutes.

~Season to taste.
~Serve hot.

Beside making soup, fish maw can be cooked stuffed with minced meat like yong tau foo or braised with chicken and mushroom, all delicious.

Beringgis Seafood Restaurant, Papar

Daniel recommended this restaurant that is nestled next to the Taiwan Restaurant (which is famous for its pork trotter and fried roti canai) along the road to Papar. There are only a few restaurants we go to when craving for seafood and I have featured most of them, I think. This one is a new one so here goes:

Ambience-wise, we, especially hubby love the rustic wooden deco and airiness of this place. That's one reason why we have been here twice in the last month.

Distance-wise, it is about the same as Tuaran, about 30km from Kota Kinabalu.

Taste-wise, some dishes we had were good, some were not.

Soft shell crabs in batter RM25

Our favorite. Can you see the crab meat?? Very fresh and well done but apparently not available all the time.

Butter prawns RM40

Done so well that the shell was crispy enough to be eaten yet the prawn's flesh was done just right, moist and soft. 

This talapia was perfectly steamed in a very simple, light but tasty soy sauce. RM34

Not bad but don't think we will order this again. RM25 for a couple of clams...

I like this claypot with local tofu. RM15 

But the rest of the clan preferred this sizzling Japanese tofu hot plate. RM18

Peas sprouts sauteed with garlic, perfectly done. RM15

These were some of the dishes that we had and don't recommend.

Look is deceiving here. Three words. Bland, bland and bland. I still can't figured out how this good looking kung po sauce can be so bland and even the squids were bland. RM18

This talapia was steamed with a spicy sauce which I think came out of a bottle of thai chilli sauce. A definite no no. Too super sweet.

Price-wise, can't beat Welcome but cheaper than Gaya Sport and others. An order of a fish, a 1/2 kg prawn dish, a tofu dish, a veg., a shell dish and an extra dish came up to about RM160

Nyonya Paste

Nyonya chicken

I love nyonya food but when it comes to cooking it, that is a different tale. I find that is one of the most tedious and with the most preparation. So when Betty cooked this delicious meehoon (vermicilli) kerabu and gave me the recipe for the rempah (spice paste), I had it sitting in the drawer for months before I finally gave it a try. Now, my preconception about Nyonya cooking has change but not that much...not as tedious (that's with a lot of help from the food processor) but still so much sobbing involved (the shallots, obviously). 

The result, I must say, was worth all the tears though. It was this heaven of aromatic fragrances that intoxicate all of the senses. 

It goes well with steam fish, fried fish, chicken and even pork, not just vermicelli.

I started off wanting to double the recipe as I figured I might as well get more for the the same amount of work and according to Betty this paste keeps well in the fridge for a month or so. Alas, it turned out I didn't have enough dried chillies, so I had to stick with one recipe and that turned out plenty, enough for at least 6 dishes! 

10-15 dried chilies*, soaked and seeded

30 red small onion (shallots), peeled 

1 bulb garlic, peeled

5 stalks lemongrass, use white parts only

1 bunga kantan (ginger flower)

5 buah keras (candlenut)

3 thumb sized lengkuas (galangal)

*buy big fat dried chilies with smooth shiny skin if you don't want a too spicy hot paste

 otherwise go for the slimmest, most wrinkled-up skin chilies for the ultimate burn.

Blitz all the ingredients until fine in a food processor (and if you like the exercise or torture, use the mortar and pestle which some purists would swear make better paste).

With 2-3 tablespoon of oil, fry the paste over medium heat until fragrant and dry. Season with salt.

The paste keeps well in the fridge for a month or so.

The picture of nyonya chicken at the top most of this post was readied in just the time it took to cook through the chicken pieces, about 20 minutes. 

Nyonya Chicken

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

1 chicken, chopped into small pieces

3 T nyonya paste

3-4 kaffir leaves*, washed and shredded coarsely

1 T sugar

2-3 T lime juice (can be substituted with yogurt or tamarind juice)

salt to taste

Marinate chicken pieces with the paste for 30 minutes or overnight in fridge. 

Heat up 1 T oil in wok and add chicken pieces to brown.

Add 1/4 cup of water and bring to boil, lower heat to simmer.

When chicken is soft, add kaffir leaves* (will give the dish a bitter taste if added too early), sugar, lime juice and salt to taste.

Cook until gravy thickens a bit and dish out. 

Nyonya Fish

It is just as easy with fish, just fry the fish as usual. Then add 1 or 2 tablespoon of the paste in. Add a little water, lime juice (or tamarind), sugar and salt to taste.

Voila...yum yum.

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!

Cuttlefish Rice

Came across this recipe in a chinese blog, ikumichan. I am not very sure whether it is Japanese but by the look of most of the ingredients used I assumed that's what it is. It is such an elegant and unusual way to serve rice  and yet so easy to prepare. Next time I do this I am going to add some dried mushroom and cilantro for more flavor as I find the filling a little too bland. So the recipe given here is what I would do when I cook this dish again. 

10 whole small to medium cuttlefish, heads and hard spines removed, guts cleaned, towel dried

1 cup short grain rice (Calrose, Japanese or our Bario hill rice) soaked for 3 hours

1 1/2 cup minced pork

3 T finely chopped dried mushroom (soaked and drained)

3 T chopped cilantro

salt and pepper

Combine seasoned meat, rice, mushroom and cilantro together well. Fill each cuttlefish with the rice mixture to about 80% full (as the rice will expand when cooked). Secure the opening with a toothpick. 

Sauce:

2-3 cups water

2-3 T kikoman soy sauce

2 T cooking sake

2 T mirin

1-2 T sugar

Mix all ingredients together and bring to boil. Drop stuffed cuttlefish into the sauce. Bring to the boil again and simmer in medium heat for 40-50 minutes.

Adjust taste and thickness of sauce at the end of cooking.

Serve with some lettuce.

Turmeric Fish In Creamy Sauce

This blog should be named the lazyeasyallinone...

Another easy, lazy, all-in-one recipe that would only take less than 30 minutes from start to dinner table. This dish is adapted from an old and dear friend from Kedah. She was a magnificent cook who could dish out sumptuous feast from seemingly ordinary everyday ingredients. Her method was a little more elaborate than the one I did as I tend to shortcut on muscles but not on the ingredients. I am not very fond of using the mortar and pestle in which she would pound and grind anything and everything.

300g fish fillet (any white firm flesh will do)

2-3 tomatoes, quartered

1 cup long beans, 2-inch in length

3 stalks lemongrass, crushed with the back of chopper

a small thumb-sized ginger, sliced

4 cloves garlics, sliced thinly

1 cup of thick santan from 1/2 coconut

3 cups water

3 slices assam keping (tamarind slices)

2 big red chillies, halved and seeded

1 t kunyit powder (turmeric)

2 kaffir leaves

fish sauce

Put 1 T oil into a heated wok, add garlic, ginger and kunyit and stir fry until fragrant. Put in lemongrass, assam keping and water. Bring to boil and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add in long beans, red chillies and tomatoes. Cook until veg are half done, then add the thick santan. When the santan is bubbling and creamy add the fish and kaffir leaves. Cook until the fish just done about 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness of fillet. Please do not overcook the fish. Season with fish sauce.

Serve hot with lots of rice to go with the heavenly tangy, creamy gravy.

Jo

Simple Grilled Fish

Moodie foodie comments on saba shioyaki in the previous
post got me thinking about grilled fish. Bought some really fresh 'wong mui chee' (don't know the name of this fish in English but in Malaysia we called it Ikan Kembong). Usually I like this fish fried but thought I would try grilling it like saba fish.
As this fish is not oily like saba, after patting it really dry, I drizzled a generous amount of oil and rock salt on the fish.
I used my small toaster oven (just nice for cooking 3 small fish) as the full sized oven would be an over-kill and a waste of energy. Set the timer to max. 15 minutes and pray for the best as I have no control over the temperature.
Well, the fish turned out great with a dash of shoyu and lime juice. Sweet and surprisingly juicier than fried.

It is getting late (promise myself to sleep earlier after the bout of crippling flu)and I seem to have a lot of trouble uploading pictures to the post. Will show you in another post how and with what we ate the fish to give it a more Japanese feel.

Good night.

Jo

Pan-Fried Mackerel with onion pickle

A very light and simple dish that goes so well with rice and best eaten with fingers.

Pan-fried fish:
Marinate 3-4 slices of fish (here I used tenggiri - mackerel) with salt, 1 tsp. of ginger juice and a dash of curry powder. Pan-fried on both sides until just done. Dish out on to a serving plate.
Red snapper fillet or small whole fish like Kembong can be done the same way too.

Onion pickle:
Peel and thinly slice 4-6 red onions (shallots). Rub them well with salt and leave to soak for 10-20 minutes. Squeeze out excess liquid from onions. Add 1 T lime juice (or vinegar or red wine vinegar), 2 T sugar and 1 T fish sauce to taste. Add as much or as little chopped chilies and cilantro as you like. Spicy or otherwise depends on whether bird's eye or big chillies are used.

Spread onion pickle on fish or serve separately and enjoy with rice.

Jo

Fa Cai Fried Rice

I love fried rice, to cook and to eat. Especially at this time when the fridge is packed with so many ingredients to choose from.
This dish was made in between the busy mahjong sessions. Quick and easy but extremely delicious. This is truly a feast in a dish packed with all the festive's essence.
More liau than rice :P


As the exact amount of ingredients in this dish isn't crucial, I do not specify the amount so you are free to experiment - add or omit, entirely up to you.
These are the many goodies I found in my fridge...


Fa Cai Fried Rice
~overnight cooked rice, loosened
~fresh prawns, peeled and diced
~chinese sausage, thinly sliced
~carrots, peeled and diced
~pumpkin, peeled and diced
~dried prawns, soaked and chopped
~leek, sliced
~fresh mushroom (shitake, button or enoki), cleaned and sliced
~yam, peeled, diced and deep fried (I used the 'khew nyuk' leftover yam)
~celery, diced
~red pepper, de-seed and diced
~eggs
~garlic, chopped
~big onions, peeled and diced
~oyster sauce
~light soy sauce
~sesame oil
~oil
~salt and pepper

Heat oil in a hot wok.
Add the chinese sausage, onion and dried prawns then garlic and fry till fragrant.
Add pumpkin, yam, carrots and cook for 2-3 minutes until veggies soften.
Add fresh prawns and leek.
Push these to one side of wok (take out if wok too small), add another 1-2 tablespoons oil and add eggs.
Keep stirring to break up the eggs, add rice and put in the rest of the fried stuffs.
All these are done over very high heat so constant stirring and tossing is essential to avoid burning.
Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt and pepper to taste.
Lastly add the red pepper and celery to give an extra crunch and sweetness to this special fried rice.
Dish out and sprinkle some chopped spring onion to garnish.

Jo

Salmon Yee Sang 鱼生 (raw fish salad)

I think I better get this posted before the chap goh mei (15th day of the lunar new year when the new year celebration officially ends) so that you can also 'lou sang' without having to dig too deeply into your pocket!

Yee sang is a must-have CNY dish for us not only because it is sooo auspicious but it also tastes sooo good. The word yee (fish) means abundance and surplus. Sang means raw or lively. So yee sang literally means “raw fish” and symbolizes abundance, prosperity and vitality. What more can you ask for?

This recipe was adapted from Amy Beh's vegetarian dish featured in the Star newspaper many years ago. Since then, we have been doing it every year and it is a big hit with the whole family.
It requires a little more preparation but it is really well worth the effort.
No coloring, no preservatives, no msg and it is super delicious.

Traditionally, this was eaten on the seventh day of new year when the fishermen in Guangzhou celebrate their new year but nowadays, it is served all through the new year season.

Salmon Yee Sang
~2 cups white radish, shredded and soaked in cold water
~2 cups carrot, shredded and soaked in cold water
~1 cup green mango, shredded
~50g spring onions, shredded and soaked in cold water
~1 red chili, shredded
~2 cups pickled papaya, shredded
~6 pickled leeks, shredded
~2 cups pomelo wedges, peeled and separate the sacs
~4 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
~20g young ginger, finely shredded
~1 pair yao char kwai, sliced thinly and deep-fried until crispy (I substituted
this with homemade deep fried crackers made of flour, nam yee, sesame seed, salt and water)
~1 cup sweet potato, finely shredded and deep fried
~1 cup yam (taro), finely shredded and deep fried (not in the original recipe but I added this cos I love yam and it has an auspicious sound 'wu tao' means 'good beginnings' )
~2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
~3 tablespoons roasted peanuts, pounded coarsely
~200g chilled sashimi-grade salmon, thinly sliced
~1/2 lime

Sauce
~100g plum sauce (original recipe - 300g)
~1 tbsp apricot jam
~3 tbsp lime juice
~1 tbsp honey (original recipe - 3T which I found too sweet)
~1 tbsp sesame paste
~1 tsp sesame oil
~1/2 tsp salt or to taste
~1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder, put into a red packet

Combine the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a low simmering boil. Leave aside to cool completely before use.

Drain the shredded carrot, radish and spring onion well. Arrange the shredded ingredients attractively on a big, round serving platter. We used a huge 50 cm serving glass plate for the 14 of us!
Squeeze half a lime over the fish slices and arrange them on top of the shredded ingredients.

To serve, pour the sauce over the yee sang and sprinkle with the five-spice powder, the sesame seeds and roasted peanuts.

This is the fun part when we toss the salad together with chopsticks, wishing everyone good fortune, good health and greater success and lift everything higher and higher.

Jo

Ong T W's Steamed Fish

Here is another recipe from K's colleague, Ong. Since the roast pork turned out so good, K decided to try his steamed fish recipe too. It is very simple with very easily available ingredients.

Simple Steamed fish

Place cleaned whole or a fillet of fish on crushed ginger on a steaming plate.

If using whole fish place some ginger in the belly too.

Steam for 8-10 minutes depending on the size and thickness of fish.

While fish is steaming, heat 2 tbsp of oil and fry 2 tbsp. each of sliced shallots, minced ginger and garlic (separately).

Lift out the shallots, ginger and garlic from oil when golden and fragrant.

Add 1 tbsp. each of light and thick soy sauce into the same hot oil, let it sizzle and off the heat.

Pour soy mixture over fish, sprinkle some sliced chillies on top and steam for another 2-3 minutes.

Serve fish garnished with the fried shallots, ginger and garlic.

He also whipped up this ever-popular kerabu pakis, yumzz...

Our simple dinner ended with a special dessert from my brother, Tet Mui. He and his family went to Macau (thanks to Air Asia) for a holiday and brought home some delicious tidbits like this crispy roll with sea weed and meat floss.

One of the posts from our blog was featured in the Star newspaper last Sunday (6/1/08)! We learnt about it only last night thanks to Sonyart. Read about it here.

K and Jo