Durian orchard

Its during season again, we can see every corner of the city were full of durians and other fruits as well.  This is in fact a very big season, and very cheap.  We need not buy from the stalls because my friends and we planned to go and eat in the durian orchard.  After made arrangement with the orchard owner, Ah San,9 of us drove 2 cars to Chenderiang, a small town just near to Tapah.  We met Ah San at his sundry shop in Chenderian, he led us to his orchard about 3 km away. The road was good, we could even park over cars just next to the orchard.
Crossed a bridge over a clean,clear water stream, we were met by all the durian trees, old and young, big and small. We were told to wait at the hut, so Ah San and his worker would go and look for dropped durians. They brought back so many durians just within minutes.

These durians can be reached easily and so tempting

Ooh..ooh..open up!!

This is the original wild durian, can be differentiated by all the narrow sharp green torns. This type of durian has a greenly and wine taste. The tree is more then 100 years old.

This is (kucing tidur) one of the latest bud-grafted species.  Yum....very good taste.

All of us really enjoyed ourselves with all the species of durian, eat all we can and its was free.

One for the album, we have Japanese lady, sitting on the right, and Singapore lady, standing first row 2nd from the right. We interviewed our Japanese friend Chisan, through her, we understand that durian(the king of the  fruit)is the dream fruit of Japanese;esp for her. She has been dreaming of eating durian before she came to Malaysia. Now her dream came through. Malaysia is her second home now. She described that the taste of durian is a mixture of cheese, butter, honey and the smell is the bad smell of petroleum.  Anyway she loves durian very, very much. She really enjoyed a lot.  We were able to show her some tapioca trees and pull some of the roots for her to take home as well.

When we have enough of the durians, Ah San took us to his small little hut, he showed us the lost little wild piglet that his worker found. So cute and strong but with some body odour. However all of us were so excitedto take picture with it. It has become a star.

The little piglet

The cute little wild piglet

While were eating the durians and paying attention to the little piglets, the orchard workers went looking for more durians among the trees. They brought a lot more durians. We decided to buy some back for our family members. Finally our 2 cars were loaded with durians and some tapioca as well.  Ah San reminded us to visit him again during the next durian season. Of-course we will.

Butter Cake

I went to visit Agnes with Cecilia last week, she bake butter cake for our tea and the cake also  her son's favorite cake.  I usually do not take butter cake because of the taste of butter.  Agnes insisted me to try it out and convinced me that with the added coffee and chocolate will cover off the butter smell. Reluctantly I tried a small piece of it, oh, it taste so delicious and I love it.  I requested the recipe from Agnes and she just narrated out the ingredients  and method without looking at the recipe book.

the ingredients
300 g butter
250 g self raising flour(sieved twice)
220 g caster sugar
1/3 cup fresh milk/soy milk
4 whole eggs
4 egg yolks
100 g walnuts (chopped)

method
preheat oven at 180 degree Celsius. Use fast speed to cream the butter and sugar for a minute.  Slow down the speed until the mixture becomes light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, mix well.  Add in the flour and the milk alternately by 4 times.  Lastly add in the chopped walnuts.
Pour the batter to prepared 9x9 square baking tin and bake for 35 minutes.

This is the result of my butter cake

I love it and my sons too.

Vietnamese Roast Chicken

I bought 3 chicken thighs from the wet market. Wondering how to cook these.  Turn on the computer to search for other ways of preparing chicken rather then normal cooking like curry or so on.  Finally settled down with a recipe by Amy Beh, Vietnamese roast chicken.

the ingredients

400 g chicken
5 shallots
6 glove garlics
a small piece of ginger
1/2 tsp 5 spice powder
5 red chili
1/2 tsp fish gravy
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Washed and cut the chicken into bite size, drained.  Pound all the ingredients until fine.  Marinate the chicken with the pounded ingredients for at least 3 hours.  I was just in time to prepare this dish for lunch. Roast the seasoned chicken for 10 minutes at preheated oven at 220 degrees Celsius.

Marinate the chicken

The roasted chicken.

Turmeric fry silver catfish

Today bought two silver cat fishes form the wet market.  I used to steam this type of fish but Alfred suggested to fry the fish.  So, I  was wandering just deep fry or fry with marinate?  Finally, got some  fresh turmeric from the refrigerator, so decided to fry the fish with turmeric.

the fish about 1kg
150 g fresh turmeric
2 tsp fish chili powder
1 tsp salt
oil for deep frying
some curry leaves

Wash and cut the fish into smaller pieces, pat dry. Cut the fresh turmeric into smaller pieces and pound until fine.  Add in the chili powder and salt, mix well.  Marinate the fish for at least half an hour.
Heat the wok, pour in the oil .  Put in the fish pieces and the curry leaves when the oil is hot enough for frying.  Fry till the fish is cook.

The fish before frying

marinated and fried silver fish

Steam Fry Fish

Yesterday bought a white snapper fish and wanted to steam it but due to certain circumstances did not cook it.  Today I will steam fry it and prepare a simple sauce to spread on it. Steam fry is to fry the fish by very low fire and cover it with wok cover while frying.  One side will be well fried and the other will be steamed.

The ingredients

a fish about 600g
dash of pepper and salt
2 tsp corn flour
oil for frying

the sauce   2tbs fish sauce
                 1 tsp black soy sauce
                 1 tsp oyster sauce
                 3 cloves of garlic(chopped)
                 10g of ginger(finely sliced)
                 1/4 bowl of water
                 1 tbs of oil
                 1tbs corn flour mix in 3tbs water.

garnishing  1 red chilli(sliced)
                 1 stalk spring onion(chopped)

Wash and pat dry the fish.  Season  the fish with the pepper and salt for about twenty minutes.  Heat up the wok, add in the oil ,let the oil come to boil, dash the corn flour on the side of the fish to be fried.  Place the floured side of the fish onto the wok to fry. Turn the fire to low and fry for fifteen minutes with the cover lid.
Dish out the fish and place on a plate.

This is the result of the steam fry fish, one side is fried while the other is steamed.  Remove the extra oil from the wok and leave about one table spoon of oil for frying the sauce ingredients.  Put in the chopped garlics and ginger and fry till fragrant.  Pour in the water mixed with fish sauce, oyster sauce and dark soy sauce. Bring to boil.  Slowly stir in the cornstarch mixture.  Let boil and dish out the sauce and place onto the cooked fish. Garnish with sliced chilli and chopped spring onion.

We can try out  with whatever fish we have.

   

Pumpkin Cheesecake

My friend gave me a medium-sized pumpkin. What to do with it?  While looking through my recipe books, found a pumpkin cheesecake recipe by Amy Heng.  So, get all the necessary ingredients and started to prepare for the baking.

The ingredients
for the base ,  200g digestive biscuits(finely crashed or chopped)
                      20g brawn sugar
                      100g butter(melted)
the filling,        600g cream cheese
                      100g honey
                      30g cornflour
                      1 tsp ground nutmeg
                       3 eggs (beaten)
                      250ml UHT whipping cream
                      550g pumpkin flush(steam and mashed)
topping           some nutmeg powder for dusting

Mix melted butter with chopped biscuits and the brown sugar until well-combined.  Press onto a 9" loose-base cake tin. Refrigerate until set. About an hour.
Preheat oven at 150 degree Celsius. Beat the cheese and honey until creamy.  Add in cornflour and ground nutmeg.  Add in whipping cream and eggs.  Finally, add in mashed pumpkin.  Pour into the prepared cake tin. Steam bake for one hour and a half or until firm to touch.  Leave the cake in the oven for thirty minutes with door closed but temperature turned off. Remove cake from oven and dust with some nutmeg powder.  Cool well and refrigerate for six hours before serving.

Steam bake means put the cake tin on the baking tray fill with some water.

Baked pumpkin cheese cake

I tasted a small slice of the cake, not very sweet but taste good.

                         

Braised soy sauce pork

The second dish that I cook for the lunch was braised pork in soy sauce.  This is a very popular dish that my mother used to prepare for we Hokkian people during festive seasons when we were young.

the ingredients

600g pork belly or thigh meat
2 whole garlic
6 Chinese dried mushroom(pre-soaked)
4 eggs pre-boiled
some sea-cucumber (optional)
1 tbs dark soy sauce
3 tbs light soy sauce(special for cooking this dish)
1 stick 2 inc cinnamon stick
1 pcs of dried mandarin peel
dash of pepper
1 tbs of dark brawn sugar(or gula melaka)
1 tbs oil

Wash and cut the pork into bite sizes, par-boiled and drained.  Marinate the meat with the dark and light soy sauces and pepper.
Clean the garlics and make a slight smash on them.  Heat up the oil, fry the garlic, cinnamon and mandarin peel, add in the meat and stir fry for 5 minutes.
Add in sugar before transferring to the pot for braising. Add in enough water to cover the meat in the pot. Add in the eggs, mushrooms and sea-cucumber.  Braise for an hour or until the meat is soft and tender.  Serve hot with rice.

This is the result of my braised pork but where are the mushrooms? I was out of the dried Chinese mushrooms, so I have to cook without them.