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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.

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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.

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Green bean (French bean or string bean) is definitely one of my top three favorite veggies. I like the fleshiness and sweetness of it. It’s so special! A simple dish like stir-fried green bean with chicken is good enough for me to gobble 2 bowls of steamed white rice. Nothing fancy is needed for this dish. Just few simple steps will give you a simple yet appetizing dish.

Another favorite green bean dish of mine is the干煸四季豆 (literally translated as dry-stir string bean). It is essentially a popular dish to be served in most Chinese restaurants and I will order it mostly. I will post the recipe for it next time.

Ingredients:

1/2 piece of skinless chicken breast (sliced)
10 green beans (cut into 1 1/2 inch length)
2 red chili peppers (sliced)
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
2 dashes white pepper powder
1 dash sesame oil
3 tbsp water

Cooking Method:

1. Heat up a pot with 2 tbsp cooking oil. Sauté the garlic until fragrant.
2. Add the chicken and stir fry until almost cooked.
3. Add the green beans and stir for 2-3 minutes.
4. Add oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt, white pepper powder, sesame oil and water. Stir well for another 2-3 minutes.
5. Dish up and serve.

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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.

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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.