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I like eggplant. We often pick up eggplants from the market for cooking. Many times we ended upcooking our own recipe of Szechuan Spicy Eggplant with Minced Pork , or omitted the spiciness for a simple version of Stir Fry Eggplant with Minced Pork. However I know not many people like eggplant maybe because of its texture, it will get mushy if it is overcooked. Or maybe they just don’t know how to handle eggplant.

Eggplant is really weird kind of vegetable or fruit. It has spongy texture and slight bitterness when raw. What I normally will do to prep the eggplant is cut it into pieces then soak and rinse with salt water. This will soften the texture for faster cooking and also help to reduce the amount of oil that absorbs in the eggplant when cooking.

I have discovered a very simple method of making Chinese style eggplant dish. Trust me, this is an easy and delicious dish that you do not want to miss. By just steaming or boiling the eggplants, then make a nice sauce over it and top with fried crispy shallots. Wala, with just couple of steps turn it into a simple yet yummy-licious dish. Great for easy weeknight dinners.

Ingredients:
2 medium eggplants (cut into 2″ length, cut into strips)
3 shallots (sliced and deep fried til golden and crispy)

For the Sauce
2 tbsp warm water
3 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1/4 dark soy sauce
Few dash sugar

Cooking Method:
1. Heat a pot of water, add dashes of salt and 1 tsp cooking oil, bring to boil. Blanch the eggplants till soft. Drain and set in a plate.
2. Heat a pan and cook the sauce until warm. Drizzle over the eggplants.
3. Sprinkle the deep fried shallots on top.

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Rex Sole is one of the fish that we usually order if eating in a restaurant back home. It is absolutely delicious, the flesh is tender and mild, not fishy at all which is very important to me. I don’t like fish that smells and tastes fishy. Moreover it is inexpensive. I’ve got this fish in the Asian market for just $1.99 per lb, so cheap and so big.

The Rex Sole is kind of “flat fish” species like a flounder, both eyes are on the same side. The fish is indeed very weird looking but flesh is soft. Another wonderful thing about Rex Sole is the spine and bones are attached to the fish tightly. When you eat you can easily remove the whole spine from the fish. No loose bones at all. Y0u can easily prepare the fish, either pan fry till crispy, or simply just steam it.

Ingredients:

1 1-11/2 lb Rex Sole (cleaned)
2 tbsp rice wine
Some salt for rubbing
2 stalks scallions (cut into 2 inch, finely strips)
2″ ginger (cut into finely strips)

For the sauce:

1 tbsp rice wine
1 tbsp soy sauce
few drips sesame oil
A bunch of ginger strips
A bunch of scallion strips
some cilantro (for garnish)

Cooking Method:

1. Rinse the fish inside out, rub some salt all over the fish.
2. Place some ginger strips and scallions on the platter with the fish, add some rice wine to the fish.
3. Bring water to boil in the steamer, place the platter on top of the steamer. Cover and steam for 7 -9 minutes. .
4. Check fish for doneness, check if eyes turns white, flesh turns white and can be pull easily from the bones.
5. Remove the platter from steamer and pour off steaming liquid accumulated around the fish. Discard scallions.
6. Mix the sauce of rice wine, soy sauce and sesame oil, pour over the fish. Top with new scallions and cilatro. Serve immediately.

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The Chinese Arrowroot Soup (粉葛湯), many people may not have heard of or taste of arrowroot or the soup. The Arrowroot is a type of root plant similar to yucca, taro or potato root plants. So you can find it in the produce sections with the potato, yucca or taro. However the arrowroot is harder in texture and it is extensively starchy than potato. When it is cut up, it has patterns on surface that looks like the ages of a tree trunk.

The arrowroot is high in protein and fiber which is very beneficial to our body. Since the arrowroot is very fulfilling, sometimes we will make good old pot of soup as substitution of our meals as well. I like to drink the soup more than eating the arrowroot actually as the soup is really sweet and tasty. We cook the soup by adding in seafood ingredients such as dried oysters and dried squids, this makes the soup so refreshing sweet with the natural sweetness from dried seafood. You can omit if you don’t like seafood, just add in more pork ribs or pork bones.

For more information of arrowroot, search in wikipedia.

Ingredients:

1 medium Arrowroot (remove skin, cut into small pieces or slices)
1/2 lb pork ribs
1/2 lb pork loins
3 piece dried squids (soaked, cut into small pieces)
6 piece dried oysters
1 cup of peanuts (optional)
10 dried red dates
Salt to taste

Cooking Method:

1. Blanch the pork ribs and loins in boiling water to remove any debris, rinse in cool running water.
2. Bring a medium pot of water to boil, add the peanuts, pork ribs and pork loins into water.
3. Add in dried squids, dried oysters and arrowroot pieces, bring to boil and cook for 5-10 minutes.
4. Turn heat to low and simmer the soup for at least 1 1/2 – 2 hours till the arrowroot is edible, peanuts and pork are tender.
5. Add salt to taste.

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We went to the market and wanted to get some fresh fishes, somehow the fresh cuttlefish laying on the seafood ice counter looked so tempting that attracted us so much to get it. I picked up a whole nice and big cuttlefish. So it was for the dinner, Sambal Cuttlefish or so called  Sambal Sotong.

The Sambal Sotong is usually served with Nasi Lemak (Malay Style Coconut fragrant steamed rice) or Nasi Bungkus (Pre-packed Coconut Rice) you can find in any Malay stalls. As previously mentioned, Sambal is a chili based paste used widely in cooking for Malay cuisine. Sambal is prepared from scratch with dried chilies, fresh chilies, garlic, ginger, shallots and other ingredients, grounded into paste. One important cooking tip is to cook the chili paste with oil on low heat until the oil oozes from the paste, or separated from each others.  The chili will turn into deep red in color, add some seasoning to taste.

Once you’ve learned to prepare Sambal, you can substitute with other ingredients. Check out our other posts for Sambal recipes, Sambal Okra, Sambal Belacan Asparagus, Rojak, Sambal Kangkung.

Ingredients:

1 fresh whole Cuttlefish (cut into 2″ strips, cut checkers patterns on bigger strips)

Ground Spice:
15 dried chilies
5 fresh red chilies
8 small shallots
1 inch ginger
4 cloves garlic

Seasoning:
1 tbsp Tamarind juices (soak 1 tbsp tamarind paste in warm water, discard pulp)
1 tsp belacan
1 tbsp sugar
Few dashes salt to taste

Cooking Method:

1. Ground all the ingredients in food processor into paste.
2. Heats 2 tbsp oil on low heat, stir fry the paste until the oil oozes from the paste, separated from oil.
3. Add in belacan, stir well.
4. Add in cuttlefish strips, stir fry till cook, about 1-2 minutes.
5. Add tamarind juice, sugar and salt, adjust to desired taste. Stir well and combined. Serve.

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Kangkung is a popular vegetable in my home country and most of Southeast Asia countries. Kangkung or Kang Kong, is also called Water Spinach or Hollow Spinach, or known as Ong Choy in Chinese. It is an Asian leafy vegetable,  inexpensive and nutritious. We usually eat it at home or in the restaurants. There is always an old saying that eating too much of Kangkung will make your legs go weak. Funny, I think this is because the Kangkung has long hallow stems that are empty like straws, which similar to weak legs that have no strength.

Previously I cooked the infamous Malaysian Style Stir Fry Kangkung Belacan (馬來風光), which is a very well-known dish in Malaysia, please check it out. This time I’ve cooked the Kangkung with fermented bean curd (腐乳), so called the Stir-fried Kangkung with Fermented Bean Curd or  Fuyu Kangkung (腐乳炒空心菜). Cooking with fermented bean curd is a popular Chinese cooking style, you can actually substitute with other vegetables such as You-Choy, A-Choy etc. The bean curd has been stored and fermented so it has a slight nice wine fragrant and the natural soy bean saltiness, so no extra salt is needed for this dish.

This is an easy and nice vegetable good for any weeknight dinners. Make sure you pick a fresh bunch of Kangkung, trim off the hardened part on the bottom (about 2″), leafs and the tender part are preferred. Prepare a lot of minced garlic, fermented bean curd (腐乳) and add some chopped chillies if you prefer some hotness. Give it a quick stir fry and there you go.

Ingredients:

1 pack of Kangkung (trim off bottom hardened bottom part and cut vegetables into 2″ pieces)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 red chili (sliced)
2 fermented bean curd (腐乳)
1 tbsp cooking oil+ few drips cooking oil
2 tbsp water

Cooking Method:

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in wok or heavy pan over medium high, add in minced garlic stir fry until golden. Add in chopped chillies and give it a quick stir.
2. Add in the Kangkung, stir well, add in water. Close lid until vegetable is almost tender green, about 1-2 minutes.
3. Add in mashed fermented bean curd dissolve with 1 tsp water, stir well with Kangkung.
4. Turn off heat, add a few drips of cooking oil and dish up.