HK Style Cheese Baked Rice

I'm like on a cooking spree these week, perhaps its just an appreciation of my free time remaining before I start losing it next week in a different work setting...

Another new thing I've not really tried before, but conceptually it shouldn't be too difficult, the HK Style Cheese Baked Rice. It basically goes with most chinese stir fried dishes, and just adding an additional layer of cheese on top and baked it in the oven. Tonight, the base is gonna be Stir fried Pork with Broccoli and Chinese Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce. Yup, the name is a handful, but the ingredients aren't.

You'll need 400g-450g of pork, about 10-12 dried chinese mushrooms (soaked a few hours till soft), 1 big broccoli, garlic (cloves crushed), oyster sauce, shredded cheese (cheddar/mozzarella), rice. So whilst cooking the rice (I used brown rice here, hence taking longer), boil some water and cut the broccoli into bite size pieces. Pour the boiling water into a pan, and steam the broccoli over it in the covered pan for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, slice the pork thin lengthwise, about 2-3 cm each. In a bowl, season the pork with some cornflour and dark soy sauce. Take care not to oversteam the broccoli and it's perfectly cooked with a nice crunch (not mushy!)

Heat the oil till hot in the wok, fry the garlic, add in the pork and show of your wok stir frying skills :P After 5-7 minutes, or whenever is pork is almost done, add the mushrooms and broccoli in to the mixture, add a little bit of water for more sauce, and add 1-2 tablespoon of oyster sauce (it's very salty, adjust the amount to your taste buds). Gently mix and coat with the sauce and it should be done when the pork is cooked.

The final step is simple just assembling your cheese baked rice, get an oven proof plate/bowl, spoon some rice at the base and gently place the stir fried dish on top, sprinkle generously with some cheese of your choice (red leicester is possible too, giving you an orange topping!), and pop it in the pre-heated oven of 160C for 2-3 minutes and dinner is ready!

Back to Basics

First things you always crave for after not cooking for ages are the ones you grew up eating... And for me its nothing more than simple homey styled dishes, improvised of course with what's available in Britain.

Spring onion and ginger is always a match made in heaven for Chinese cooking, it somehow gives a subtle invigorating flavor to meat dishes. Goes particularly well with white meat, e.g. fish, chicken and frog (yes, frog meat, which tastes something like poussin). However, nowadays its common with red meat like beef too, and can be pretty much found on the menu of any chinese hawker-style restaurants.

I'll stick with the classics for now, starting with Chicken with Ginger and Spring Onion. Thighs/drumstick meat is preferable (chicken breast is ok but drier texture). So for a you'll need about 6-8 sprigs of spring onion, 2-3 inch ginger, 400g-500g chicken meat, dark and light soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, chilli (optional).

I used thigh meat, and de-boned about 8 thighs and cut into bitesize pieces. Spring onion stalks are chopped about 2 inch long, separating the white bit (at the bottom) and the 'leaves' (the green bits at the top). Slice the ginger thin, producing a size like your thumb print. For the garlic, I prefer to just skin them and crush the cloves with the back of the knife (yup, I'm one of those that actually love fried garlics, hehe), and we're ready to go!

So heat up a little bit of oil, and once hot, put the ginger and the white stalk of the spring onions in and stir quickly. About 2-3 minutes, the ginger should be brown and then add the garlic and chicken meat in whilst tossing as usual. The key point should be here, add a few drops of sesame oil for wonderful nutty aroma and flavor, then the usual light soy sauce for taste, dark soy sauce for a little bit of color... Do add a little bit of water if its too dry, and the meat should be roughly cooked in 5 minutes or so. Remember to add the green leave bits of the spring onions, and continue to stir fry for a minute or so, and its done! You can garnish with finely chopped red chillies on top for that extra spicy kick :)

The next vegetable dish is somewhat of an experiment, inspired by a dish in Chinatown recently. It was some sort of tofu dish with leafy vegetables stir fried in bean sauce. Here's my version of it with long beans instead.

It's just a 5 ingredient dish!! 1 carrot (sliced into matchsticks), fried hard tofu or taukwa (sliced lengthwise), long beans (sliced into 2 inch pieces), garlic (crushed cloves), and fermented soy bean sauce (tau chu). This sauce is available in many Asian grocery stores, and is basically soy beans fermented and tastes sweet and salty.

Heat some oil in the pan, and let the garlic sizzle in it till slightly brown-ish. Carrots in first, and 2 minutes later the long beans. Alternatively, you could actually pre-cook the long beans and carrots by steaming them for about 3 minutes before stir frying if you prefer. It's perhaps faster and healthier. For the former case, the stir frying time is longer, and adding some water helps. 5 minutes later, or whenever the vege are cooked till your preferred level of crunchiness, add in the tofu and half a tablespoon of the bean sauce, adjust to taste, and it's ready to be served with some rice!

The Simple Life back Home

Yes, I'm back from beautiful Greece!

Not that I'm happy that my holidays are over, but its still feels great to come back to London. Yup, I actually missed the weather slightly, as it was just freaking 35C permanently in Athens and Santorini. One good thing about Greek summer is that clouds don't seem to exist there, which proved great for sunsets and spotting shooting stars in the starry starry nights! I'll leave the rambling of the trip to the next few posts as it's still work in progress as I've way to many pictures to consolidate :)

In the meantime, there are a few things about Greece that reminded me very much of home:
1) The obvious hot weather
2) Athens feels and looks like Klang/Petaling Street (no kidding here)
3) The slower pace of life in general

Which brings us to another episode of home cooked Malaysian food ...

This is something I whipped up during the weekend for the housemates since it's been a while I cooked something homey. The beauty about home cooked stuff is that it's simple, no fuss, yet delicious and generally healthier than eating out

This is Stir Fried Pork with Mushroom and Carrots, garnished with some chopped spring onions (could have named it some Dragon/Phoenix related/Funky-Pig-Jumping-Over-the-Carrots or whatever, but sod it, its midnight and it's been a hard week with not much brain juice to spare ...)

Seasoning is simple like the theme: marinade the pork for at least an hour in a bit of corn flour, light soy sauce, sesame oil (for extra oomph!) and dark soy sauce (for color, if you fancy). For the vegetables, just chopped them in whatever shape you like (I did a flower one for the carrots), and sliced the mushrooms thinly and you're pretty much done! Of course garlic is always your base for stir fries, and all you have to do is brown them in oil, and then add the carrots (they take a while to cook) first, and the pork 5 minutes later, and the mushrooms last, adding very tiny amount of water if necessary. Remember to test the flavor and add a pinch of salt if necessary (season to taste).

Bought a 400g loin of cod of the highest grade in the supermarket seafood counter for the classic Cantonese style steamed fish, which costed a tiny bomb, but well worth it as it was fresh and flaky when done. Lay the sprigs of spring onions below the cod pieces, and fine ginger slices on top, and then just add light soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil before steaming it for 10 minutes or less, depending on size/thickness of the fish.

If you squint your eyes properly you could probably see another dish in the top left of the picture that just looks brown. Forgot to take a picture of that, but it's a dish that I grew up with: Steamed egg with Chinese Mushroom and Dried Prawns topping. Judging from feedback, it was the most popular dish of them all that night :D Promise to do one special post on the steam egg dish as I recently learnt a secret to the perfect one from a friend.

Anyways, expect lots of delicious Greek foodie banter next!

Chinese Snacks

Cravings, cravings, what has it done to me? :P

I realized how much I missed this Chinese snack upon spotting the road side stall miles away, through my nose :)

Even in London, it's common to find Chinese crullers/you tiao/yau char kuey, sold by Chinese bakeries and the dim sum restaurants. It's a popular breakfast (yes, really) item in Hong Kong, served with warm congee (rice porridge). In Malaysia, it's commonly dipped in soya bean milk and also Bah Kut Teh (literal translation: Pork Bone Tea) soups.

Yet, there are many variations to this and this is my favorite one called Ma Keok (Horse's Foot). self explanatory as it looks like the horses' hoof. It's sprinkled with LOADS of sesame seeds and has some spice-y (no I don't mean hot) flavor to it. I think it's 5 spice powder or something. It's best crisp and fresh out of the hot boiling oil, cooled for a few minutes or so to allow all the oil to drip dry.

Another variation is called Ham Chim Peng. In this category, there is 3 types: salty, with glutinous rice, or with tau sar (red bean paste). You can call it a "Chinese donut", it can definitely rival the Krispy Kreme I must say. It's made out of flour, some 5 spice powder, ammonia powder and water. This is the tau sar version below.

Sinful stuff, I know. But what's life without some of them occasionally?

Mapo Tofu

Tofu has always been one of my favourite dishes as it's pretty versatile and adds different texture to dishes. There are mainly the soft, silken tofu's that are very fragile and breaks easily, or the harder, firmer version which are usually deep fried. Yet both types can still be used in soups, stews and stir fry dishes.

So here's a recipe for a classic tofu dish for those who love a slightly spicier kick to the relatively bland tofu, it's called Mapo Tofu, quite standard in most Chinese restaurants I'd presume. Getting the sauce right with a good balance of sweet, salty and hot is the key to this dish. The version I present below is a quick and simple method, do try it out! And of course, let me know how it goes :)

Mapo Tofu

Ingredients

2 x 400g packs of firm white tofu (in water), slice into big cubes
100g of minced pork
Garlic, 1 bulb, skinned and chopped coarsely
Spring onions, sliced coarsely
Chilli, deseeded and sliced coarsely
4-5 bulbs of shallots, deep fried
2 table spoon of preserved bean paste (tau cheo)
1 table spoon of hot chilli paste or sambal (I used a mixture of grinded fresh chilli and garlic)
300ml water
1 tablespoon of cornflour, dissolved in 2 tea spoon of water
Sugar, to taste

Steps

First, heat up the wok and stir fry the chopped garlic till fragrant and add the minced pork.
Continue stir frying till slightly browned.
Then, gently put the tofu pieces in and stir carefully around the wok and try not to break them.
Add the sauce mixture of tau cheo and fresh chilli paste.
Continue stirring for a minute or two before adding the water and let the tofu simmer for 5 minutes or so.
Do give the sauce a taste and add some sugar accordingly. You wouldn't want it too sweet, salty nor too hot. The sugar should balance out some of the saltiness and spiciness.
When you're satisfied with the taste, then add the cornflour mixture and stir the tofu around for a few seconds till sauce thickens and turn off the heat.
While it's still hot, garnish with some chopped spring onions, chili and fried shallots before serving.

There you go :) Note that I was slightly unconventional in the version of this picture with added mushroom as well as a friend was a mushroom fanatic.

Marshmellow madness

It's been a while since I updated ...
But holidays are so far so good, weather's gettin' warmer with bright sun shine most days, with the exception of some PMS weather days where it rains and shines at the same time :)

Out of sheer randomness, I decided to re-live my college days boh-liao-ness and hosted a toasties +hot choc + marshmellows party, hehe, got the inspiration from Costa...

Here's Alvin caught in action, toasting marshmellows... YES, by my room heater! LOL The porter's are so gonna kill me when they find out! Anyways it was good to catch up with the rest whom I haven't seen for a bit :D

I went Paintballing for the first time last week too! It was fun but really tiring, and all I got was bruises everywhere, haha. Didn't want to get a picture of that, just in case it's too gross to view. Probably more enthusiastic about my army outfit than anything, though I'm definitely too impatient a soldier to be in the army. Someone who just rushes out and 'chiong' shooting people is definitely gonna get a few head shots first, LOL, start sniping and camp next time...

And here's what I did in a recent cookout party: Stirfry fish fillets with ginger and spring onion

Had too much gravy in that as I added too much water... haha, would be better with less :)

But other dishes were really good too!

Oyster Omellete (Ou Jian)

Brocolli with King prawns

Chicken stewed with ginger and wineDeep fried Calimari

Roast Lamb with herbs

Post with few words but lots of pics, hehe, let them do the talking... Ahh I want to go home, wish there is no such thing as Tripos :P

Dim Sum Cravings

Finally I'm reverting back to main food theme, hehe. Had a sudden craving for dim sum thanks to SH who changes his MSN pic DAILY, featuring a different dim sum dish everyday! LoL

Hence I took the opportunity to satisfy my cravings last weekend when I was in London for IC Malaysian Night (it was a good show!). We went to Royal China for dim sum before then and here are some of the pictures of what we ate!

Mini egg tarts

BBQ pork pastry (Char Siew Sou)

The legendary deep fried custard buns!

Chinese cruller's wrapped in cheung fun (rice noodles)

Har Kow (prawn dumplings)

King's of Siew Mai

Wu Kok (Yam Puff's)

Braised chicken feet

Fried prawn dumplings with mayo dip

Loh Mai Kai (glutinous rice with chicken in lotus leaf)

And FINALLY, a heart shaped mango pudding to end it all~ :)

And now I'm a happy bunny despite being broke :D

The D.D. Affair

Muahahah :P , isn't he cute? My all time favourite Disney character Donald Duck !

I went to Hong Kong for a visit and did a Disneyland trip as well to check out the hype. It's a tiny mini Disneyland really, and I wasn't really impressed with the rides, though it can be argued that I probably grew out of it, but I have to give credit to those who did the excellent landscaping for the AdventureLand especially. Leafy trees, lakes, and even a tree house for a Bali-like ambiance fits well with the occasional late afternoon breeze and chocolate ice cream :) Even the Space Mountain roller coaster ride, wasn't challenging or exciting enough for 13 year old teens as I overheard one of them saying so. Looks like for now it really is just a kids wonderland, but as its just at the baby stage, lets not be too critical and hope for more fun rides in future expansions!

Anyways, just mention HK's food scene and the word 'dim sum' will definitely appear in people's mind, and of course I didn't miss the chance to have my fair share of that! Being too engrossed in eating, I forgot to take pics of those, however here's another photo on the 'little eats' or 'xiao chi' (snacks/tidbits) in typical HK 'char chan teng's' (coffee shops):

Egg tarts, Po Loh Pau, Char Siew Pastry and Century egg pastry with lotus paste. YUMz!

It's my first taste of the authentic Po Loh pau of HK after watching it on TVB series for years, its basically a freshly baked bun with orange-y custard filling. Not bad but I still like others better like char siew pastry cause I'm a self confessed pastry addict though I know its not the healthiest thing around! LOL :) It's not often you get good pastries around too as some are just thick and tastes starchy, not like these crisp flaky ones I had. Looking forward to check out more Asian cuisine next time during my summer holidays... ;)