Crispy Fried Popiah

I was doing the weekly grocery shopping with mom in hypermart, deliberately led her to the frozen food department and merely showed her the popiah skin. It was like she was suddenly struck with something long forgotten and replied : I know how to make crispy popiah. Her next inevitable question was "do you wanna eat?" I would be a total idiot if I said no but frankly speaking, I'm a fan of anything fried and crispy too. Umm... seems like I'm a fan for a a variety of food.

Mom stir fry the content to be wrapped in the popiah skin : slices of turnip, cabbage, black fungus and bits and pieces of chicken meat cut in small cubes. She said making this finger food is like snapping her fingers ; easy, fast and hey presto, the food is done.

One can't do without sweet Thai chilli sauce when it comes to fried popiah. We dipped generously into the chilli sauce and savoured the taste and the crispy popiah skin. Well, you just gotta eat it while it's still hot and warm, otherwise it will be soft and soggy.

Sigh...another yummy dish to go with our dinner.

Huh?? What?? Recipe?? Later lah. The weather of late is killing me and the new TNB meter is ticking away like nobody's business.

Steamed Vegetable Dumplings (Chai Kueh aka Soon Kuay)

When I was back in Singapore in March 2011, mom and John's MIL collaborated to make Soon Kuay. I gave a whoop of joy when  I saw what the 2 elderly women was toiling about in the pretty messy kitchen. One was frying the filling in the wok while the other was using all her might to make the skin and later on, wrapped it nicely using the Soon Kuay mould. When the steaming tray came out, I couldn't wait to sink my teeth in it and boy, the taste was super fantastic while the skin was absolutely soft , thin and silky. I couldn't forget the taste  many days after that.

Mom actually bought 2 packets of the Soon Kuay flour and brought it over to KL. I helped her with the frying and wrapping. I still need to practise a little on how to knead the Soon Kuay flour. She bought the Soon Kuay flour in Singapore under the brand name Sunflower. The flour is a premix of rice flour, tapioca flour, wheat flour and corn flour. If this premix is not accessible to you, you'll need to find out the exact measurement on how to make it. It's of course easier to use the premix. It is best eaten with a little sweet sauce (甜酱)  and chilli sauce.

Soon Kuay Flour premix. Brand : Sunflower

 Here's the recipe that has mom generously shared :

Ingredients :
2 mid size turnip (about 1kg)
1 tbsp dried shrimp - coarsely minced
300g thinly sliced pork (with a little fat in it)
8 small onions - thinly sliced
1 tsp cornflour - add with a little water
light soy sauce
oyster sauce
dash of salt
dash of sugar
dash of pepper
1 packet of Soon Kueh Flour (brand is Sunflower bought in Singapore)

Filling method :

1. Heat up oil, fry shallots till fragrant in low heat. Before it starts to turn color, add in dried shrimp. Turn on low heat.
2. When color changes to slight brown, add in sliced pork. Saute till meat is cook. Add in oyster sauce before adding in turnip. Saute and add in a little water.
3. Add in soy sauce, sugar, pepper and salt. Please taste it before you continue adding more of the sauces to suit your preference. If it gets drier, add in water little by little. Saute till turnips are soft. Taste it for one last time to decide whether you need to add in more of the sauces.

The mould to make Soon Kuay

4. Add in cornflour and stir before dishing out. Set it aside to cool while you work on the dumpling skin.

Dumpling skin method:

1. Pour 500ml of water into a pot, bring to boil. Add 260gm of Soon Kuah flour into the briskly boiling water. Turn fire off immediately. Add one soup spoonful of cooking oil into it, use a pair of chopstick or wooden saucepan to stir well, use palm to blend it hard until it forms into a smooth and elastic dough.
2. Divide dough into several portions and flatten into Kuay Sheet, wrap Kuay Sheet with prepared fillings.
   

Steaming Method :

1. Ensure steaming tray is fully "oiled" before placing the Soon Kuay on it to steam.
2. Steam for about 10 - 13 minutes, remove tray from steaming pot and glaze it with a little vegetable oil on top. Serve immediately with sweet sauce and chilli sauce

Steamed Silky Eggs

Lately, the weather is back to the usual sweltering heat. Mom was saying it'll be a nice change to have congee to go with some simple dishes for dinner. With mom around for the past 2 weeks, she has fed me and hubby with lots of super yummy food but the best of all is, there's food on the table when we got home from work :) Since it's congee, I told mom I'll make the Steamed Silky Eggs. It's fast and it's as simple as ABC. I've never tried this recipe before but it has been there in one of my recipe book for a long time. It turned out perfectly soft and silky as promised by the title. The trick is the heat and of course, the proportion of water added to the eggs. A swift way to know exactly how much water you should add (if you have more than 3 egss or the size of your eggs varies ) is to measure the portion of the beaten eggs. How much eggs it is, how much water you should add in. I should've scoop a portion of the egg to show how silky and smooth the eggs are. By the time I remembered, the eggs were almost gone from the tray.

Ingredients :
300ml water
3 eggs

Seasoning :
1/2 tsp salt
dash of pepper
dash of chicken stock granules/ powder
1 thsp chopped spring onion
1 thsp gried garlic oil
1 tsp light soya sauce

Method :

1. Combine water, eggs, seasoning, and mix well. Strain into a steaming tray
2. Steam at low heat 10 minutes or until set. Remove.
3. Sprinkle choped spring onion, fried garlic oil, light soya sauce on egg and serve.

My cooking tips : Lightly beat the eggs to avoid too much air from getting in. This is to ensure the surface is smooth and nice. Do not steam the eggs with high heat, otherwise the texture will be course and not smooth.

Mince Pork Porridge

Of all the dishes I've cooked at the spur of moment, this porridge is really the last of all the last-minute dishes. I was down with a terrible sore throat , was feverish (for the 1st time in my life) and my bones were aching. My throat was still very sore and I desperately need to eat something bland and light. Anything that is not fried and without chili for a change. At 1.40pm, hubby called to say he had a lunch appointment and therefore, we couldn't have lunch together. I was hungry and still unwell and immediately after I hung up the phone, I went to the kitchen to start cooking my porridge.

Here's what I did :

1. Boil half a cup of rice (since it's only for my own consumption) with water
2. While boiling, chop some carrot to small cubes, slice some ginger, then add into boiling rice.
3. Chicken cube - add half in.
4. When rice is about to become porridge, add in the marinated mince pork (marinated with sesame, soy sauce, pepper and salt)
5. Stir in well and let it boil till your desired porridge texture
6. Lastly, garnish with spring onions and parsley

Here's a pix of my porridge boiling and gurgling in the pot.

In 30 minutes time, the porridge was ready for consumption. Just in time before I faint from hunger :)

Fried Carrot Cake (Chai Tao Kueh) - Batu Pahat style

I miss Batu Pahat's fried Carrot Cake aka Chai Tao Kueh (CTK). Sure you can get it in KL but the way they fried it here is black in color and I can tell you a hundred times how much I hated the distinct taste of just thick soy sauce. I reckon if I were gonna eat this BP style CTK, I'll have 3 options to choose from : (1) drive 3 hours back to BP to eat it, (2) wait for mom to visit me in Year 2011 (God knows which month) and request her to fry it for me or (3) buy the carrot cake and fry it myself (but still I need to get the carrot cake from Singapore). Seems like the best options among the worst would be the last option.

During my recent trip back to Singapore, my sis in law got me these 2 gigantic bomb look-alike carrot cake. I threw in lots of chopped garlic, lots of chaipo, lots of chili and lastly mediocre portion of spring onion. My fire was big but somehow, I couldn't quite bring out the wok taste. Nonetheless it was definitely way better than those I've eaten in KL. Hubby commented it was a tad too salty (chaipo being the culprit) and that mom fried it better than me. He took a look at my face and quickly rephrased that mine was good but it's just that my mom is too skillfull at this dish. I choose to believe him.

Steamed Silky Tofu with Crispy Dried Shrimp

Here's another easy dish done in just 5 mins using my recently purchased i-chef steamer pot. I just need to fry some dried shrimps over slow fire, dish it out and set aside. For the gravy part, I could just pour some soy sauce over the tofu but this time, I've decided against it. Instead, I pour a teaspoon of oyster sauce mixed with abalone sauce, add a little hot water and a little soy sauce and stir it. After the tofu is done, gravy was poured on top, then top it up with the dried shrimps, fried shallots + oil, corriander and spring onion (which I didn't have in my fridge) and.. it's done. See...it's even simpler than your ABC soup.

Fresh herbs. Anyone??

Look, what a spread of assorted fresh herbs I have here. They were just given to me just hours ago and my brain was already spinning and working busily to figure what dish I could cook with them. Let's see... I've got Dill and I'll probably panfry it lightly over fire with a nice fish fillet, just like the way I reckon Jamie Oliver will do it. I intend to roast a chicken again with Thyme and Rosemarry. As for the corriander, I could use it to steam another fish, probably tomorrow. Hubby still has got his huge fish head in the freezer and probably he could use the Kaffir Lime Leaf to cook an Assam Fish Head. So, I'm left with Peppermint, Marjoram and Oregano. Does anyone has any suggestions how I should use them? Or maybe provide some ideas how I should used the other herbs which I have planned earlier on? C'mon... I need ideas. Anyone??