◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 6

Finally we cooked Nasi Lemak, a popular and authentic dish of Malay heritage. Nasi Lemak means “coconut cream rice” which is cooked in coconut cream instead of using plain water to give it a nice coconut aroma. You can add in Pandan or screwepine leaves for additional fragrance. Nasi Lemak is traditionally wrapped up with banana leaves with other sides such as roasted peanuts, hard boiled eggs, anchovies (ikan bilis) and most importantly the Sambal (chili).

For a more deluxe version, you can always order other entrees to go with it, such as Curry Chicken, Mutton Curry, Sambal Cuttlefish, Kangkung Belacan, Sambal Egg (mostly spicy dishes) and etc. You can find the recipes in the site and prepare to accompany the Nasi Lemak.

I’ve prepared the Nasi Lemak with Ikan Bilis Sambal (Anchovies with Spicy Chili Paste), serve with sides and the Ayam Rendang (Dry Curry Chicken). Loved it. Toast to the celebration of fall.

Ingredients:

Nasi Lemak
3 cups rice
1 can coconut milk
3 stalk Pandan leaves (knotted)
A pinch of salt
1 tsp cooking oil
2 crushed garlic clove

Sambal Ikan Bilis (Anchovies Chili Paste)
1 cup anchovies (cleaned, rinsed)
1 medium red onion (sliced)
3 tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp tamarind juice
1-2 tsp sugar
Salt to taste

To Ground ingredients:
5 red chilies
15 dried red chilies
2 garlic
5 shallots
1 tsp belacan

Other Sides
hard boiled eggs (cut in half)
cucumber (silced)
roasted peanuts

Serve 4 people

Cooking Method:

1. Wash rice then put rice into rice cooker with garlic,  a pinch of salt, and pandan leaves(knotted). Pour in 1 can of coconut milk. Check the level of liquid and add water if necessary up to the correct level.
2. Cook rice until cooked and loosen with rice ladle.
3. Prepare the grounded Sambal ingredients.
4. Heat oil in a wok over medium low, stir fry anchovies till golden. Set aside and drain.
5. Add in grounded sambal into the wok over low heat, let sambal cook and separates from the oil, stir fry till fragrant.
6. Add in fried anchovies, add in red onion slices and stir fry till soft, combine well.
7. Add in tamarind juice, sugar, adjust to taste.
8. Prepare hard boiled eggs cut into halves, slice the cucumber and roast peanuts.

Serve Nasi lemak and Ikan Bilis Sambal on a plate, with sides of hard boiled egg, cucumber slices, roasted peanuts and choice of meat entree.

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 6

Happy Mooncake festival to my dear friends, hope you have a nice gathering with your family. Living in the US without family, we celebrate most of the Chinese festivals with our friends. So grabbing a bite of mooncake and just hanging around friends, nothing better than just chill. Back home in Malaysia, traditionally we will light up lanterns, eat mooncake with Chinese tea, and sometimes we will do hot pot. Here we basically just have simple dinner.

Anyhow I wanted to make Chicken Rendang (Malaysian Rendang Ayam) for a long time. This week I finally did it. Rendang is a dry curry version of stew meat dish, slowly cooked in coconut milk and other spices. It is an authentic Malay cuisine, yet a very popular dish served during celebrations or special occasions. The meats are stewed for several hours depending on the meats used. Chicken or duck uses shorter time, beef needs to cook for 2 up to 4 hours.  The slow cooking process allows the meat becomes tender and absorbs all the spices and herbs. Some of the herbs used are galangal, tumeric, ginger, lemon grass and chillies.

However I haven’t really master Rendang recipe, so this time I only used premade Brahim’s Rendang paste my mum brought over from Malaysia. I have added additional spices to make it more flavoring. Rendang is even better when cooking for 2nd or 3rd day. It serves well with coconut milk rice or white rice. If you have a good Rendang recipe, please do not hesitate to share with me.

Ingredients:

4 drumsticks or 1 Leg quarter & 1 chicken breast (cut into pieces)
2 stalks lemon grass (use only the bottom white part, pounded)
1 pack Brahim Rendang Paste
1/2 can coconut milk
1/2 tsp tumeric powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
a bunch of curry leaves
1-2 tsp sugar
Few dashes of salt & pepper to taste

Additional Ingredients:
2 red chillies
2 shallots
2 clove garlic
5 slices ginger
4 slices galangal
4 slices tumeric

Serve 2-4 people

Cooking Method:

1. Finely chopped all chilies, shallots, garlic, ginger, galangal, tumeric.
2. Heat a pot with 2 tbsp cooking oil over medium, add in lemon grass stir fry a bit, followed by chopped ingredients, chillies, shallots, garlic, ginger, galangal, tumeric, stir fry till fragrant.
3. Add in rendang paste, cook over low heat for couple minutes.
4. Turn to high heat, add in chicken pieces, stir fry and combine well.
5. Add in coconut milk, bring to boil. Add in coriander seeds, turmeric powder, cumin powder and curry leaves.
6. Simmer the dish over low heat for at least 1 hour to 1 and half hour, stirring ocassionally.
7. Add in sugar, season with salt and pepper.
8. Serve with Nasi Lemak or white rice.

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 5

I like tofu so much and I’ll always stock up some different kinds of tofu in the fridge for cooking. They are so many varieties ranging from extra firm to extra soft tofu, including the fresh tofu, braised tofu, deep fried tofu or any other processed tofu. Tofu itself has no taste and many people think that they are plain and bland. One of my coworkers doesn’t even like tofu and I don’t understand why. I like the texture of tofu, it is so soft that just melts in your mouth. Most importantly when you cook it together with other ingredients, the tofu will absorb the taste and flavor of the dish.

You can see how the Korean people like tofu so much because the ‘Spicy Tofu Pot’ is one of their well-known cuisines. Tofu is beneficial to our health as it is made from soybean that contains calcium, iron and magnesium. As a matter of fact, Korean spicy tofu pot is a bit similar to Mapo Tofu dish that I am presenting today, they are both spicy tofu dishes but ingredients used are different.

Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐) is a famous dish in Chinese Szechuan or Sichuan cuisine. Mapo Tofu is cooked with ground beef or pork in spicy bean sauce that covers it completely in red and spicy sauce. One special ingredient used is the Sichuan peppercorns that will numb your tongue, this is added to create an extra hive to the spicy numbness (麻辣) of the dish. Here I substituted ground beef with ground pork based on preference, but the original dish uses ground beef. Having this dish especially in colder nights warms me up, I could gobble my bowl of rice with just the Mapo Tofu. See other Szechuan dishes for Spicy Egplant with Minced Pork, Kung Pao Chicken.

Ingredients:

1 block soft or regular tofu, not the silken (cut into 1/2″ cubes)
1/2 lb ground pork (marinate f0r 15 mins)
5 slices ginger (finely minced)
4 clove garlic (finely minced)
2 stalks green onions (chopped)
2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns (花椒)*

For pork marinades:
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp cornstarch

For the sauce:
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
2 tbsp spicy preserved soy bean (辣豆瓣醬)
1 tsp Sichuan ground red chile
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp cornstarch (dissolve in water)

Instructions:

1. Heat some oil on medium low, add in Sichuan peppercorns and stir fry for 1 minute.
2. Turn heat up to medium high, brown ground pork, addd in ginger and garlic, stir fry together.
3. Add in the sauce, wine, follow by spicy preserved soy bean, ground red chile, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and some water.
4. Add the tofu, gently fold and combine well. Cook and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
5. Taste and adjust seasoning for extra salt or sugar.
6. Add in corn starch mixture, bring to boil to thicken the sauce.
7. Garnish with chopped scallions. Serve.

*Note: Becareful for the peppercorns while eating that will numbs and have a bitter taste. Optional method is to ground the peppercorns to powder and add into the sauce.

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 5

Assam prawn is a Malaysian Nyonya recipe. I personally didn’t tried it before, but I did some research online and decided to give it a try. In fact it looks easy to prepare that is the main thing for a quick fix. The main ingredient for the dish is the Tamarind or Assam, you can always get the fresh tamarind or look for tamarind paste. You can use any kind of prawn or shrimp for the recipe, preferably with heads and shell intact.

The tamarind or Assam sauce flavor covered the whole shell and prawn heads, infused with soury and sweet taste which is very appetizing. I am sure you will suck up all the sauce because it is so good.  So prepare some napkins as you will be using your hands for this finger licking good recipe.

Ingredients:
1 lb shell-on prawns
2 tbsp tamarind pulps
4 tablespoons water
1-2 drips dark soy sauce
2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cooking oil

Cooking Methods:

1. Add water to tamarind pulps to mix till smooth, discard the pulps.
2. Make a slit on the back of the prawn to devein, rinse and pat dry with paper towel. Set aside.
3. Combine the sauce of tamarind juice, salt, sugar, 1-2 drips of dark soy sauce (not too much to prevent the prawns turn too dark), mix into the prawns, marinate for 10-15 minutes.
4. Heat up a pan with oil over medium high, add in the prawns and stir fry till cooked. Cook a bit longer to reduce the sauce and to slightly burnt the shells.  Serve.

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 5

We have been going through a Thai Curry tour by Patrick, introducing Thai  Red Curry, Green Curry, Yellow Curry, Panang Curry and Massaman Curry. Yes all curry dishes especially for you. We  hope you enjoy the curry as much as we do. I decided to have a change from the curry, but Thai food couldn’t live without spicy food. Presenting the infamous and delicious Thai Chili Fish.

For this dish, I recommend using catfish, seabass or salmon. Preferably to clean the fish and leave the head on, or you can also use the fish fillets. This is actually a very simple dish to make because I have skipped the deep frying part by having the fishman to clean and deep fry it in the Asian market. Many Asian markets in LA offer the fish cleaning and deep frying service.  The fish was perfectly cooked and hassle free, because deep frying in our small stuffy apartment will make the whole apartment smell like fish.

Now after I’ve got the fish deep fried, all ll I had to make is the sweet chili sauce. Blend or chop as finely as you can for the chilies and garlic, try to use the Thai red bird’s eye chilies which is really hot,  so be careful not to put too many.  For the sauce mixture, there is always an alternative option, you can skip all the sauce mixture, just get a bottle of pre-made “Mae Ploy” brand Thai sweet chili sauce available in the Asian market. Put a couple of tablespoon of sweet chili sauce,  saute to combine the flavors of the sauce. This sweet chili sauce can also be used as condiment for spring rolls and other appetizers.

Ingredients:

1 whole White Seabass
3-4 tbsp Cornstarch
1/4 cup plain flour
Few dashes of salt
Few dashes of black pepper

For the sauce ingredient:
6 cloves garlic
3 Thai bird’s eye red chilies/ cili padi (depends on spiciness)
a bunch of coriander leaves (finely chopped)
1/2 medium red onions (thinly sliced)
1 green mango thin slices (optional)

Sauce mixture:
(Option: substitute with 3-4 tbsp “Mae Ploy” brand Thai sweet chili sauce)
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vinegar
3 tbsp plum sauce
3 tbsp water

Cooking Method:

1. Clean the fish, pat dry, dust the whole fish with flour and cornstarch, salt and pepper. Heat pot with enough oil for deep frying, fry the fish until crispy golden brown. (I skipped this step by having our fishman in the Seafood department in the market to clean and deep fry the fish, it was hassle-free)
2. Blend red chilies and garlic. Heat up pan with some cooking oil, add in blended chili garlic stir for about1- 2 minutes till golden. Add in the sauce mixture, bring to boil until sugar dissolve, combine well. Taste to adjust the flavors, add sugar if too sour or too spicy.
3. Add the coriander leaves and sliced onions,  stir until the onions are translucent and the sauce is slightly reduced.
4. Pour the sauce over the fried fish, garnish with cilantro and green mango slices (optional).