Spaghetti

It has been more then ten years since I last cook spaghetti. I can't recall when did I last cook this dish for my family. When I went for shopping yesterday, walked pass the noodle and spaghetti section, picked up a packet of angle hair spaghetti. According to my friend, this type of spaghetti cook very fast like cooking normal noodles.  Picked up a can of tomato paste and some fresh tomatoes and was ready to cook the spaghetti sauce.  Here are the ingredients that I used for my spaghetti.

the ingredients

3 cups diced tomatoes
1/2 packet of the spaghetti
1 can 250 g tomato paste
2 tbsp of cooking oil
basil
oregano
1 chopped onion
3 pips of chopped garlic
300 g chicken breast
salt to taste
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp corn flour
1 tbsp light soy sauce
shredded carrot and cucumber

Wash and clean the tomatoes.  In a sauce pot, boil enough water so to boil the tomatoes for about  minutes. Remove the tomatoes and put into a basin of ice cold water, this helps to remove the skin of tomatoes easily.

Meanwhile, clean the chicken breast, sliced and minced.  Season with the pepper, corn flour and light soy sauce.  Set aside.

Peel off all the skins of the tomatoes and diced . In a sauce pot, heat up the oil and fry the onion until fragrant.  Add in the diced tomatoes, basil and oregano and stir mix well.  Let simmer for about 1 hour in low fire.  Keep stirring in between the cooking time.  After an hour of cooking, add in the tomato sauce, salt and sugar. Stir well.

In a frying pan, heat up a tbsp of oil, fry the garlic until fragrant, briefly stir in the seasoned chicken breast for about 2 minutes.  Remove and pour into the spaghetti sauce. Cook for another 2 minutes.

Chicken breast spaghetti sauce

In another pot , boil enough water with a tsp of salt and oil .  Put in the spaghetti when the water is boiled. Cook for about 5 minutes or until is soft enough, drained.

Serve hot with shredded carrots and cucumbers.

Looks good and taste good too.  Not bad though it has been a long time.

Salted egg fry prawns

I remembered the 1 kg of big prawns that I bought from Pantai Remis that have been deep free zed with some sugar water(to keep fresh).  Today to steam or what??  Most of the time I like to steam as long as the prawns are still fresh.  Anyway I like to try other way of cooking .  I will try to stir fry the prawns with salted egg yolks. 

the ingredients
500g prawns
2 salted eggs
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp corn flour
30 g butter
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp chopped red chili

seasoning
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp chicken stock/water

Trim the legs and the sharp parts and clean the intestine of the prawns, drained. Season with the pepper.  Meanwhile boil the salted eggs.  Lightly smash the egg yolks when the eggs were cooked.

Heat enough oil  in a wok. Sprinkle corn flour over the prawns and deep fry for about 30 seconds.  Remove from the wok and drain.

The prawns after quick deep frying

Heat butter and oil in a wok. Add in the chopped garlic and chopped chili and fry until fragrant. Blend in the smashed salted egg yolks and prawns.  Add in the seasoning and toss briefly until prawns are cooked through.  Remove and garnish with chopped spring onion.  Serve hot.

Mmmm, look good, and taste good too. I like the salted egg yolks that stick to the shell of the prawns.  Its really finger licking good .

Chicken herbal soup

With the chicken stock, I add in a packet of Chinese herbal, and bought a black chicken to add in the stock.

the ingredients
8 bowls of chicken stock(add water if there is not enough of stock)
1 whole black chicken(chopped into 4 pieces)
1 packet of Chinese herb for soup
salt to taste

All the contents of the packet of the herbal for the soup

Wash the herbs and put into the boiling chicken stock.   Turn to low fire to cook for half an hour.

Remove the skin of the chicken and scald in hot water for about 1 minute.  Wash and drain.  Put into the herbal soup and simmer for an hour.  Add in salt to taste.

This is the ginseng herbal soup.  It has the taste of ginseng and the sweetness of the chicken stock.

Chicken Rice

Last weekend my old time classmate, Cheah Ngah Mooi came and visit me from Teluk Intan , she brought me a real kampong chicken. Now aday is quit difficult to buy this type of chicken unless we go into villages to look for them.  Those so called kampong chicken in the markets were from chicken farms that were kept in the cages or long chicken house.  They were not allow to roam around unlike the kampong chickens, they were free to run and chasing around among their friends.  Thus, their meat were really though and sweet compare with those in the farms.

This is the well cleaned kampong male chicken

I will turn this chicken into (pak cham kai) and the chicken  stock to cook chicken rice and herbal soup.

ingredients

for the chicken

1 whole chicken

enough water for boiling

1 thumb sized piece of young ginger(crushed)

5 cloves garlic(peeled and crushed)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp light soy sauce

for the rice

2 cups of rice,washed and drained

2 tbsp of butter

2 cm piece of young ginger, (crushed)

2 cloves of garlic (crushed)

salt to taste

3 pandan leaves

2 stalk of lemon grass

3 cups of chicken stock

for chili garlic sauce

8 fresh red chili

2 cm piece of young ginger

5 cloves of garlic

dash of salt

juice of 3 calamansi limes

3 tbsp of chicken stock

In a deep pot, boil the water with the ginger, garlic and salt, put in the chicken and cook for about 15 minutes in medium fire without the cover. Change the position of the chicken in between the cooking time . Turn off the fire and put on the cover of the pot and let the chicken cook in the hot water for 20 to 25 minutes.. Remember to change the position of the chicken again.

Use chopsticks to poke into the tight area of the chicken, the chicken is cooked when there is no more blood flow out from it.  With the help of the chopsticks, poke under the wings area and put the chicken into a cold basin of water for cold bath for 10 minutes.

The chicken is having a cold spa after the hot water bath

The next step is to hang the chicken dry by the strings under the wings.

Brush the mixture of light soy sauce and sesame oil on the whole of the chicken and let dry.

Next is to prepare the rice.  In a wok, heat up the butter, fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant.  Put in the rice and stir fry for 2 minutes.  Transfer all into electric rice cooker.  Pour in the chicken stalk, salt, the pandan leaves and lemon grass and cook the rice.

While waiting for the rice to be cooked and the chicken to be dried, I prepare my chili garlic sauce for dipping.

By using the blender to blend all the ingredients , the chili sauce is ready in just minutes.

The rice is cooked.  Once open the rice pot cover, the aroma of both of the pandan leaves and lemon grass was so pleasant.

Chop the chicken into serving sizes, decorate with some cucumber slices and garnish with spring onion and coriander.

Chocolate banana cake

I was looking at my old photo albums and recalled that my children like to buy chocolate banana cake from the Secrete Recipe for my birthday.  Looking at those pictures made me yearn to have the taste of the cake. So, I decided to give it a try to satisfy my taste bud.  Finally I found a recipe by Amy Heng and

the ingredients are

for  chocolate chiffon cake
A; 30g cocoa powder (mixed with 120ml water)
4 egg yolks
100 caster sugar
130g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sodium bicarbonate
60ml corn oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
B; 4 egg whites
60 g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

for cake filling
500ml chocolate whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
11/2 tbsp instant coffee(mixed with 1 tbsp hot water)
1 tbsp gelatin(dissolved in 40ml water)
6 ripen bananas(sliced)

for chocolate frosting
140ml UHT whipping cream
350g cooking chocolate
1 tbsp butter

I used only half of the ingredients so to bake a smaller cake.  Hand whisk and mix well ingredients (A).
Whisk the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar until stiff.  Fold in  (A) into (B). Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes at 180 degrees C.

Just baked chocolate chiffon cake

Invert the cake and let cool completely before cutting into 3 layers by cake cutter.

The 3 layers of the chocolate chiffon cake

For the cake filling, whisk the chocolate whipping cream until stiff.  Add in vanilla essence, then coffee mixture and finally the gelatin mixture.  I was so involved in the making and spreading of the filling that forgotten to snap the pictures of the whole  process from the 1st layer to the top of cake. When completed with the filling, leave in the fridge to set.

While waiting for the cake to be set, I then prepare the chocolate frosting.  Heat the whipping cream in double-boiler and add in chocolate and butter. Stir until chocolate has melted.  Leave to cool slightly before pouring on top of the cake.

Making of the chocolate frosting.

Pour the frosting over the cake. I decorated the cake with some lightly toasted walnut. Refrigerate until set.

Mmm.......I like it but not as good as those from The Secrete Recipe.

Soya and sweet potato

This morning I want to make use of my  multifunction hi-fibre food processor (Sheline) to prepare bread fast for 3 of us, me, husband and father-in-law,(so ya and sweet potato  tong sui)
the ingredients
40 g soy bean
40 g red bean
20 g black glutinous rice
100 g sweet potato(yam)
1/4 cup coconut milk
30 g rock sugar
1.5 lt hot water
2 pandan leaves

Wash and soak the soy bean, red bean and the black glutinous rice for 3 hours. Peel and cut the sweet potato into about 5cm cube,(usually I will soak in salt water for about 15 minutes before cooking).

The ingredients

The beans and black rice after steaming

As instructed by the manual of the food processor, Pour in 500 ml of hot water into the plastic cup, let the water turn a few round, add in all the ingredients and let the processor to do the work for 3 minutes.  Pour in the rest of the hot water, mix well and pour out into pot. So, the hot and delicious tong sui is ready for our bread fast.

This greenish and brown coloured beverage is the  mixture of soy beans red beans black glutinous rice and pandan leaves.

We add in some crackers into the beverage.

So this is our home made healthy bread fast.

Yong Tau Foo

Yong tau foo (stuff tofu and other vegetables with fish paste) is a very famous and delicious hawker food in Ipoh.  Today I am going to make this dish by my home made fish paste that I had prepared a few days ago.

the ingredients

300 g of fish paste(can get from wet market)
1 bitter guard
8 lady fingers
4 white tofu
1 medium egg plant
( can use other veggies that you like red and green chili)
1tsp bean paste
1tsp chopped garlic
1tsp chopped red chili
2 tbs cooking oil
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1tsp light soy sauce
1tsp corn flour
1/2 bowl water
1 stalk of spring onion(chopped)

These are the veggies and tofu that I had bought this morning.

As usual, wash the vegetables then soak in home made garbage enzyme for about 40 minutes. Cut the bitter guard and the egg plant in such way that we can stuff in the fish paste . Split open the lady fingers and scrape out the seeds.  Halved the tofu and use a spoon to scrape out the internal of the tofu, the residue can be added in to the fish paste, mix well.

These tofu and vegetables are ready for the fish paste stuffing

Use a butter knife to take some of the fish paste and fill up the tofu, lady fingers, bitter guard and the egg plant slices.

Place the stuffed veggies into a plate and steam for 8 minutes. You may also like to deep fry all these, but I prefer the steaming and serve with a bean paste sauce.

Heat up a wok then fry the chopped garlic and the bean paste until fragrant.  Pour in half of the water, let it boil. Slowly put in the stuffed veggies into to  the wok.  Simmer for about 3 minutes. Add  in the dark soy sauce and sugar.  Mix the corn flour, light soy sauce in the remaining  water, pour into the wok slowly and mix well and off the fire. Serve hot with the sprinkle of chopped spring onion and chopped red chili.

This is my home made yong tau foo.