Posted by Eric.N
If you have checked out our blog, you will know that “chicken” is the most blogged recipe in Lama Kitchen. This is because chicken it is the most common dish to be prepared. I definitely love all varieties of chicken recipe because it is easy to be prepared and served for a comfort home meal. Therefore I am constantly looking to modify chicken recipes.
I have once tried the Braised Chicken with Mushroom and Dry Squid. It is a Cantonese style recipe and it has a quite distinct taste than the normal recipe. This recipe has a fresh taste that comes from the shredded dry squids, also adding the fried shallots gives it extra fragrant which I like.
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Posted by Bel.C
My boyfriend and I like eggplant, especially this Chinese recipe, Szechuan style Spicy Eggplant with Minced Pork (四川魚香茄子). If you know Szechuan, you will definitely know the place is very famous for hot and spicy food such as Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐), Spicy Pork Strip (魚香肉絲), and etc. Previously I was always wondering why the dish is called Yu Xiang Qie Zi (魚香茄子) in Chinese, literally means “fish-fragrant” eggplant. After getting to know more about Szechuan cuisine, Yu Xiang (魚香) is actually a Szechuan style of culinary tradition. It’s named so because the preparation of the sauce resembles the taste and flavor of the fresh fish, but it doesn’t use real fish in cooking.
The main ingredients for the Szechuan Yu Xiang (魚香) dishes are basically standard; dried red chillies, scallions, ginger, and garlic; not forgetting sugar, salt, hot bean sauce and soy sauce. The ingredients are well incorporated to bring out the essential flavor and tastiness of salty, sour, sweet, spicy, aroma, and freshness, that make it another mouthwatering dish to be served perfectly with steamed rice.
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Posted by Bel.C
This is one of my favorite Grandma’s recipes, my family called it as simple as “Asam Chai” or “Kiam Chai” in Hokkien, which means Sour Asam Vegetable Stew. When I was young, I really didn’t know what are the ingredients in the bottom of the pot. Whenever my grandma cooked this dish, I would just dug up the vegetables and soup and I could just eat it with plain rice. This dish is basically cooked using the key ingredient of Asam Gelugor, Asam Keping in Malay, or Tamarind juice. By adding in some dried red chilies, ginger and garlic that bring out more of its exotic taste. Thus the vegetable stew is filled with flavors of hot, sourish and spicy tastes that are mouthwatering.
While getting to know about this dish, some families cook it differently by using the leftovers from dinner, like after the Chinese New Year celebrations. This is the best time you can make this dish by using the leftover dishes such as roast pork, chicken, duck and cook them with fresh mustard greens or pickle salted mustard. It is famously known as “Chai Buey” or 菜尾, literally means leftover.
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Posted by Bel.C
When we talk about the good food in Malaysia, you don’t want to miss the famous Claypot Chicken Rice (瓦煲雞飯). I remember when I lived in Malaysia with my family, we loved to go to the hawker stall near my house in Klang for the claypot chicken rice. Essentially, the claypot is filled with rice, topped with chicken and other ingredients such as chinese sausages, mushroom and especially salted fish pieces that gave an extra taste. Then the claypot chicken rice is cooked using the most traditional way on top of charcoal fire which makes it so fragrant and delicious.
To cook a perfect claypot chicken rice, the most important thing is to know how to control the charcoal fire. You practically have to stand there to fan the charcoal in order to control for high or low heat, and not to burn the rice. One of the best parts of the claypot chicken rice is the crispy rice bits (not burnt rice) that are stuck on the side and the bottom of the claypot that makes it so unique tasty.
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Posted by Patrick.C
It has been raining cats and dogs since Monday until today and it will be raining tomorrow as well. Thank God for bringing us the rains due to the water crisis in California but sadly, the rain is way too much than what we long for and it flooded some areas in SoCal.
The indolent weather caused me so lazy and inconvenient to drop by the grocery store to pick up some meats after work. Thus my only meat choice to cook for tonight dinner was a pack of shrimps in the fridge. When I thought of peeling and deveining the shrimp, I felt so headache! Anyway, I had no choice but just dealt with the process. I’ve prepared the shrimps with scallion and ginger this time. Easy and delicious!
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