Carrot Salad

Carrot Salad


Ingredients
Carrots, julienned or grated
2 garlic cloves, minced
1cm ginger, minced
a pinch of cumin seeds
a pinch of turmeric powder
a squeeze of lemon
1 bunch of parsley, chopped finely
salt, to taste
sugar, to taste

Method :-
1) In a pan, toast the cumin seeds, then add in some oil. Once oil has been heated a little, add in the minced ginger and garlic. Fry until fragrant.
2) Add in sugar to caramelise. Then turmeric, stir a little.  Put in the carrots, a little water and cook until just crunchy. Season with salt and garnish wit finely chopped parley. Eat warm or cold.

Steamed bean curd (tofu) with minced meat

 

When come to bean curd / tofu, I only a make them a few ways. My all time favourite is this simple ingredients tossed together. You can of course make it meatless.

Steamed bean curd (tofu) with minced meat

300gm white bean curd, cubed

1 purple onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

white pepper, to taste

soy sauce, to taste

toasted sesame seeds

spring onion, to garnish

150-200gm minced pork, Optional

Method
1)  In a steamer, put cubed  bean curd on heat proof serving dish. Steamed for about 10 mins.

2) Meanwhile, In a pan, heat some vegetable oil, sauté sliced onion until golden brown, add in the garlic and continue to sauté a little. Remove from heat and season with soy sauce and white pepper to taste. Pour this seasoned oil over the steamed bean curd. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds spring onions. serve immediately.

3) If serving with minced meat, just sauté and season mince meat. set it aside and just sprinkle over bean curd.

Turnip Dumplings / Soon Kueh / 菜粿

Never in my life I would thought of making these dumplings. But living in a foreign land, over time you'd learn to just stuck into making the street foods that you love. Often times, it is manageable, not that hard to recreate and most importantly gain confidence in your cooking ability ;)

Some notes for this recipe for my own reference:-
1) Halved the recipe. Would yield 7-8 large dumplings
2) Since I ran out of rice flour, I used plain flour to top up the difference. No effect textures wise.
3) Used 1 medium sized kohlrabi in replacement of jicama

Turnip Dumpling / Jicama Dumplings / Vegetable dumplings / 菜粿
Thanks to My Kitchen Snippets

Ingredients for the wrappers:
 
300g rice flour
100g tapioca flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
600ml water
Some extra tapioca flour for dusting
 
1. Sieve rice flour and tapioca flour into a big pot.
2. Boil 600ml water with salt. When boiled, pour into the flour and quickly stir with a big spoon till flour is well distributed and cooked.
3. Pour cooked dough on to floured table top. Add in 2 tbsp oil and knead well till smooth, adding more tapioca flour if necessary. Set the dough aside to rest for 10 minutes.
4. Wet your hands with water and knead dough again till smooth and pliable. Cover dough with dry towel to prevent drying.
5. Roll dough out thinly and round cookie cutter to cut out some round shape wrappers.
6. Fill each wrapper with 1m- 1 1/2 tbsp of filling and fold into a semi circle. Seal edges by pinching the sides together.
7. Place kueh on greased steaming trays, sprinkle with some water and steam over high heat for 10 minutes. When kueh puffs up, it is ready. Remove and brush with shallot oil.
8. To serve, sprinkle kueh with fried crispy shallots and dredge with some dark sweet sauce and chili sauce.

Ingredients for fillings:
600g bangkwang (jicama)
1 carrot
100g dried prawns (washed)
5 dried mushrooms (soaked and sliced)
300g shredded pork (optional)
3 tbsp cooking oil
5 cloves garlic, chopped
Seasoning:
1 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup water

1. Skin turnip and carrot. Cut into thin strips.
2. Heat oil in wok, fry chopped garlic and dried prawns till fragrant. Add in the shredded pork (if used), sliced mushrooms, carrot and jicama strips.
3. Add seasoning and some water and stir fry till turnips are soft and ingredients are almost dry. Dish up and leave aside to cool completely before using. 

Korean-Style Steamed savoury Eggs custard

Steamed eggs custard regularly appear on my mom's diner table; however, I have never have the urge to make one since moving out. Then I stumbled upon this recipe ; which looks so simple and manageable plus promises a smooth silky finish, so I say why not make it?

Verdict : wow, so smooooth plus an extremely easy recipe! The most attention you need is making sure the water do not get too hot. That only takes up 15 mins. of your time.

Go here for the recipe at The Kitchn

Congee / Rice Porridge / Jook / 粥

Congee is really not for everyone. You either like it or don't. I, myself, is not a fan! Perhaps that's the reason why I've never have the urge to cook this dish since I started cooking. My mom is the cook back home, so I eat what's serve to us. No question asked!

I have to say, this bowl of congee was very comforting. I'll sure to make this again in the future. Although maybe not when it's 30°c outside , like today!

Basic congee
serves 4-5 pax

Ingredients
1 cup long grain rice, rinse and drain well
4 cups of liquid, I used 1/2 bone broth 1/2 water
salt, to taste
white pepper, to taste

Basic condiments to serve (any combo)
Fried shallots
Fried garlic
spring onions
parsley
coriander leaves
chicken slices
ginger, julienned
peanuts
hard /soft boiled eggs
soy sauce
chinese sausages
fried anchovies (ikan bilis)
bacon/ham
seafood
anything to contrast the texture of congee

Method :-

1) In a pot, pour in rinsed rice and liquid and salt to taste.
2) Cook on medium heat, stir occasionally.
3) Cooking time depend on the texture you liked. I cooked mine for about 30 mins.
4) serve sprinkle with condiments of your choice and white pepper.
** you may add additional liquid if it becomes to thick.

Tips that I just learned :D
1) To reach smoother texture, soak rice over night or even blend the rice before cooking it.
2) If choose not to soak, cook rice as per stated, keep adding water during the course of cooking until reach creamier texture. I guess like risotto.

Carrot cottage cheese cakes

Carrot Cottage Cheese Cakes

Ingredients
250gm cottage cheese (or ricotta)
1-2 pcs carrot, grated
2 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 slices onion, chopped finely
1 tsp fresh parley, chopped finely
cumin seeds, to taste
garlic powder, to taste
paprika powder, to taste
salt & pepper, to taste
bread crumbs, for coating
oil, for pan frying

 Method
1) Mix together all ingredients excl. bread crumbs. Set mixture aside to rest for for 30 mins.
2) After 30 mins. , start heat oil on non-stick pan. Shape mixture into flat cakes and then coat with bread crumbs. The mixture is a little soft. So, do it carefully.
3) Once oil is hot enough, pan fry cakes until crispy on the outside.
4) Serve warm as a side or with dips. 

Vadai , savoury snack from South India

oh wow.. I could not believe that I managed to whip this up! Thanks to this easy recipe by My Kitchen Snippets.


The only difference in ingredients were instead of lentils (dhall) , I've used split peas (made a mistake :p) . Red dried Hungarian paprika in replacement of red chilli. Also, curry leaves was omitted since it is not available in my kitchen. Obiviously with curry leaves the taste would be sharper.

The result fortunately was still quite similar to the vadai I'm familiar with despite the changes :)

I ate them with a cup of chai tea.... heaven!

Updated May 1, 2014 :-
I am including the recipe from the link above for my own reference.



Vadai 
Ingredients

200g dhall (lentils)
a bit of water
1/4 tsp cumin
1 green chili-finely sliced
1 red chili - finely sliced
1 tsp of turmeric powder
1 sprig curry leaves, finely chopped
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp rice flour

1. Wash and soak dhall overnight. Drain well, then put into a blender. Add water and process until dhall is coarsely blended.
2. Combined all the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Heat oil for deep-frying.
3. Wet your hands and take a spoonful of dhall mixture, place the mixture on the palm of your hand. Make into a round then flatten slightly.
4. Drop into the hot oil. repeat until all the dough is used up. Fry until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel.