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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.

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Previously Patrick cooked the Steamed Shrimp with Minced Garlic, this dish is always a hot favorite among our friends. Especially when it is cooked with garlic and wine, made it extremely fragrant. One of our friends, Sit Yee suggested that we can even put some vermicelli or Tang Hoon (冬粉) underneath the garlic shrimp, the vermicelli will soak up the sweet broth from the fresh shrimp. That sounds like a delicious dish, thus I’ve decided to give it a try.

I suggest to use whole shrimp / prawn with shell and head on. This will give the broth a much sweeter taste. However this time I only used shelled shrimps without the heads, because I have bought the shrimps before I thought of making this dish. The broth was awesome with the fragrant Chinese Shaoxing cooking wine (紹興酒) and absorbing the sweetness from the fresh shrimp. Plus the aromatic fried garlic gave it a distinct taste too.

Ingredients:

2 handfuls vermicille
8 medium shrimps (preferably heads and shell on)
1 tbsp minced garlic
4 sliced ginger (finely stripped)
1 fresh red chili (chopped)
1/2 medium white onion (finely stripped)
Coriander leaves (garnish)

For the seasoning:
1 tsp peppercorns (crushed)
3 tbsp Shaoxing Wine
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
3/4 cup water or seafood stock
1 tsp fish sauce

Cooking Method:

1. Soak the vermicelli in cold water till soft, drain. Remove the shrimp’s leg and whiskers. Make a shallow cut on the back of the shrimp shell and remove the intestinal tracts, rinse.
2. Heat up 2 tbsp oil over high heat, shallow fry the shrimps for 10 seconds, drain and set aside.
3. Use a pot, heat up 1 tbsp fried shrimp oil, stir fry minced garlic and ginger strips till golden. Add in onion strips and chopped red chillies, stir fry till fragrant.
4. Add  2 tbsp Shaoxing wine, water (or seafood stock), sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce and peppercorns, bring to boil.
5. Add in vermicelli and shrimps, turn heat to medium low and simmer for 5-7 minutes till broth is fairly dry.
6. If you have a claypot pre-heat claypot about 5-10 mins on the stove. Place the vermicelli on the claypot, follow by shrimps on top. Ladle with broth, circle with 1 tbsp of wine and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve.

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Ipoh is famous with its signature dishes of Bean Sprouts Chicken (芽菜雞) and Shredded Chicken Hor Fun (雞丝河粉). You can actually find many of these combination food stalls all over Ipoh. The locals recommended Lou Wong (老黃) or Onn Kee (安記) in the town if you have a chance to pay a visit in Ipoh.

This time I was only preparing the Shredded Chicken Hor Fun or Flat Rice Noodle, and in an easy way. Usually a whole chicken (preferably free range chicken / 土雞) is used by poaching in a hot water bath till cooked, and then cool down in an icy bath. This is the important part to maintain the smoothness and juiciness of the chicken texture. But for a smaller portion I am just using a chicken quarter and breast for cooking.

The most important thing is the soup base. It will not be as original as the food stalls they might have secret recipes but close enough. I cooked mine with too much shrimps it get slightly fishy so I suggested to reduce the shrimps. For the bean sprouts and rice noodles, you just have to blanch in hot water for 5 minutes and drain.

A hot bowl of  “Sar Hor Fun”, it looks simple but yet so delicious. The flat noodle soup is served in a sweet broth, accompanied with silky smooth shredded chicken meats and fresh crisp blanched bean sprouts, garnish with chopped scallions and fried shallots. You will love it even if you are not a noodle fan!

Ingredients:

1 chicken leg quarter
1 chicken breast
1/2 lb Shrimp with Heads and Tails On (save about 8-10 shrimp heads)
1 small handful (around 15-20) of dried anchovies (remove heads and intestines, rinse)
1 lb Pork Bones or Pork Ribs (blanch in boiling water before putting into soup)
1-2 cans chicken broth
1 medium Jicama (cut into pieces)
1 tsp peppercorns (crushed)
1 1/2″ ginger (sliced)
6 cloves garlic (crushed)
3 tbsp Shaoxing Wine
1/2 packet Bean Sprouts
1 packet fresh Flat Rice Noodles
Salt & Pepper to taste

Serve: 4 -6 people

Cooking Method:

1. Fill a big pot with water enough to cover over the chicken, bring to boil then turn heat off. Put the leg quarter and breast into hot water and stand for 45 minutes to an hour. Check for doneness.
2. Take out chicken pieces and place it into a large bowl of ice bath to stop the cooking process.  When the chicken is cool down, shred the chicken meat with a fork or by using your fingers.
3. Keep the poached chicken stock and add in another 1-2 cans of chicken broth for more flavors, bring to boil.
4. In the mean time, remove shrimp heads & shrimp shell, cut the shrimps into halves horizontally. Save about 8-10 shrimps heads to put into soup (try the soup base during cooking and adding shrimp heads slowly)
5. Put all garlic, ginger, peppercorns, anchovies, shrimps heads, pork bones, jicama and wine into the boiling chicken stock. Cook for 15 minutes and turn heat to low, simmer for 11/2 -2 hours. The longer it cooks the more flavorful. Try the soup base and add salt & pepper to taste.
6. Bring another clean pot of water to boil, blanch the rice noodle, bean sprouts and shrimp halves separately.
7. Place individual portion of rice noodle into a bowl, ladle with soup base,  top with shredded chicken meats, handful of bean sprouts and couple of cooked shrimps. Garnish with chopped scallions, fried shallots. Serve with bird’s eye chilies soy sauce dipping.

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I heart all kinds of omelette from all time American to Asia (because I adore eggs). Shrimp omelette is one of the Chinese omelettes I love the most especially in those street food catering stalls or Chinese restaurants in Malaysia.

This dish consists of an omelette with a filling primarily composed of luscious shrimps. Onions or scallions are sometimes added for an intense taste. In the past, pork lard was often used to fry the omelette to provide an extra fragrance but less and less people are using it these days due to health conscious.

It is a scrumptious and uncomplicated dish to prepare at home. Try it!

Ingredients:
4 eggs (beaten)
12 shrimps (peeled and deveined)
1 tbsp minced garlic

Marinade:
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp soy sauce

Seasoning:
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 dash of sesame oil
Few dashes of white pepper powder

Cooking method:

1. Mix the shrimps with marinade for few minutes.
2. Heat up 1 tbsp oil and sauté the garlic until aromatic. Add in shrimps and stir-fry until cooked. Dish up.
3. Mix the egg batter with seasoning and cooked shrimps.
4. Heat up 3 tbsp oil, pour in the mixture and fry until cooked.
5. Dish up and serve.

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I went to the market to get breakfast and saw the asparagus was on sale, immediately I picked up a bunch home.  On Sunday I was thinking to make the asparagus and shrimp combination with Sambal Belacan. Previously I’ve made the Stir Fry Asparagus with Clam in white sauce. If you want something more exotic, you definitely have to try this. But my roommate had reminded me I cannot eat spicy food because I just had my upper wisdom teeth removed last Friday. No spicy food, no solid food, no drinking from straw, no alcohol …. and so forth of restrictions from my dentist. I guess there is nothing but liquids, porridge and soup for me this week.

Anyway, I still ended up cooking the Malaysian style Sambal Belacan Asparagus with Shrimp as this looks far more tempting, so all of these go to Eric as he loves spicy food. I used a super easy and lazy way of making the Sambal Belacan and it came out just great. I used the pre-made Sambal Oelek bought from the Asian market, it is grounded red chili and garlic, stored in a clear round plastic bottle with a green lid, and a chicken symbol in the front. Don’t confuse with Siriracha which is a chili paste. This Sambal Oelek you can still see the chili seeds, sometimes I use it for dipping sauce too.

To make Sambal from scratch check on the Sambal Okra for the preparation of  it.

Ingredients:

1 bunch fresh asparagus (trim the bottom off about 1.5″, then cut into 2″ pieces)
12-15 shrimps (deveined, shelled)
12-15 tiny dried shrimps (roughly 2 tsp soaked and chopped)
2 garlic cloves (peeled, minced)
1-2 tsp pre-made Sambal (depends on spiciness)
1 tsp Belacan (dissolve with some water)
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt or to taste
2 tbsp water

Cooking Method:

1. Heat 2 tablespoon oil over medium, stir fry the chopped dried shrimp until fragrant, add in minced garlic and stir fry till golden brown.
2. Turn heat to low, add in Sambal (depends on spiciness preferred) and belacan, let the paste cook till it surface from the oil.
3. Add the shrimps and give a quick few stir, then add in the asparagus.
4. Add in sugar, salt and some water. Continue to cook until asparagus and shrimps are cooked but not overcooked.

Serve hot.