I am a strong believer that you gotta do something slightly crazy once in a while to stay sane in this world, so last Saturday I invited a bunch of daring friends and hosted an Insect Cook Out. The attendees were Kim, Su Ann, Sammy, Terence, ST, Dree, and of course my house mate Rachel. The following 6 minute video is the whole insect cook out adventure, check it out!

The whole idea actually started right after Terence, Dree, and I went to Bangkok and had our weird and wonderful creatures including insects, worms, and frogs. Kim was protesting the fact that we did not bring back anything for her, and that’s when Terence came up with the idea that we should just cook some ourselves.

the ingredients from aquarium shop and grocery store

I eventually tabled the idea to Kim and she responded enthusiastically, then I got Su Ann, Sammy, and the rest of the gang to join in as well. This thing is actually going to work!

So I set up the official time for this unusual cook out at 5pm on Saturday evening. I went out to grocery store to get the seasonings: pepper, curry leaves, shallots, dried chili, and garlic. Just half an hour before the cook out, I got to an aquarium shop near Sunway and got a box of good size worms (RM9) and 120 crickets (for RM3)

ahhh, glorious protein enriched food

Contrary to Su Ann’s believe that we googled for the recipe, it was completely original sans the “salt juice” suggested by Terence.

First I fry some shallots, garlic, dried chili, and curry leaves to flavor the oil. These are then taken out and the crickets and worms thrown in the hot oil. Some salt juice is then added for extra kick. It’s that simple, and boy it turned out great! (the insects were freeze in the fridge for about 15 minutes prior cooking to prevent them from jumping everywhere)

the crazy diners

The dish actually tasted a lot better than what we had in Bangkok, and we didn’t even save up anything for my buddy Douglas who came late. The worms were a bit like soft shell crab (as described by Sammy), and the crickets still juicy inside while crispy on the outside. Very nice.

There’ll be another short video for this where Rachel and Kim ate the bugs raw, stay tuned!

I’m so going to prepare this again for the next x’mas eve party!

Tags:  cookout,  crazy,  crickets,  dree,  eats,  insect,  kim,  ky,  rachel,  st,  su ann,  terence,  worms

Posted by KY | 75 Comments »

Got a request from the special one for chicken porridge. I have never cooked porridge before, but since I know the basics and happened to have bought some decent quality dried scallops from Vietnam, I did not hesitate to take on this project.

the finished product looks pretty good isn’t it?

After a short 15 minute trip to Giant and RM 7+ later, I got the necessary ingredients and started to get busy.

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups of rice
• 2 pieces of chicken ribs, remove meat from the rib bones
• sliced ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• some dried mushroom, sliced
• spring onion, chopped
• some dried scallop, sliced or whole

Steps:

• boil about 8-10 cups of water, and add in ginger, chicken, and scallop to make chicken soup
• after 10-20 minutes, use everything from the chicken soup as the “water” to cook porridge
• you need around 3 times more water compared to cooking rice, for 2.5 cups of rice, have enough water in the pot for 7-8 cups of rice.
• add sliced mushroom in the pot and start cooking the porridge
• add salt to taste (2-3 tea spoon should suffice)
• fry the chopped garlic with vegetable oil till golden brown
• serve porridge with fried garlic and chopped spring onion

ingredients and the preparation method

The end product actually tasted pretty good. The dried scallop certainly contributed a dash of luxury to the taste of the chicken porridge. I actually had to add some soya sauce due to the conservative manner in salt usage, but it’s always better than having the whole pot goes to waste if too much salt is used.

Try it, if you don’t have a rice cooker with the porridge setting, a normal pot would work too, just have to watch out and not leave the porridge too dry.

Tags:  chicken-soup,  chinese-food,  conge,  dining,  dried-scallop,  Eats,  food,  porridge

Posted by KY | 7 Comments »

I actually got the idea to make this dish from the “tai chau” place near one of the badminton halls I frequent. It tasted so good the first time I had it, we ended up ordering a second plate of the same thing. So when I decided to make a vegetable dish for lunch, it was just natural that I had to try to reproduce this french beans with dried shrimp (虾米玉豆). With this KY’s recipe, you can make it too!

this stuff was really good

Ingredients:

• French beans
• dried shrimps
• cili padi
• garlic

Steps:

• mince the dried shrimps and cili padi together and chopped some garlic separately
• heat the frying pan with cooking oil and start frying the chopped garlic
• add minced dried shrimps and cili padi after 20 seconds
• fry the mixture till golden brown, then add French beans
• add a sprinkle of salt to taste, fry the beans over high heat for a minute or two
• ready to serve!

very simple ingredients and preparation method

This is my very first trial in making this dish, and I must say it didn’t turn out bad at all. I had a little too much dried shrimp going on, and definitely way too much cili padi. However, the taste was still very good, crunchy and fresh tasting beans contrasting with the flavor of minced dried shrimp and the hotness of cili padi, a great combination. Try it yourself!

Tags:  cili-padi,  cooks,  dried-shrimp,  french-beans,  fried

Posted by KY | 10 Comments »

My third dish for the Chinese New year reunion dinner to greet the Year of Boar is steamed Pomphret (Pomfret) fish. This fish is a little pricey, and especially so during the Chinese festive season, however, it is very difficult to find a better fish as far as steamed fish dishes go.

looking at this is making me hungry again

Ingredients:

• a good size pomphret fish (preferably around 1KG)
• shitake mushroom
• chopped garlic
• finely sliced ginger
• salt
• soya sauce
• pork fat (optional)

Steps:

• clean the fish throughly and rub both sides with salt
• put the sliced mushroom, garlic, and ginger evenly on the fish
• sliced some pork fat (I got them from the roasted pork in the HK kailan dish)
• add some soya sauce to the fish
• steam it for about 15 minutes, and let the fish sit in the steamer for another 5 minutes after switching off the fire
• be very careful not to spill the very hot dish while transferring it from the steamer to dining table

can you spot the secret ingredient?

This dish turned out excellent as expected, the secret ingredient (pork fat) makes the fish even smoother and adds a layer of that Year of Pig aroma that is irreplaceable. The garlic and ginger removes any fishy smell that might be present, and the mushroom gives a different taste and texture to enrich the whole experience.

I think adding a little bit of parsley might give a better presentation, sort of like how I dressed up the fried pomphret. You can try this method with other type of fish too, though the result might be less optimal.

Tags:  cooking,  garlic,  ginger,  mushroom,  pomfret,  pomphret,  reunion-dinner,  steamed-fish,  year-of-pig

Posted by KY | 9 Comments »

After the lala miso soup, my second dish for this year’s reunion dinner is Hong Kong Kailan with Roasted Pork. This is actually the first time I made this dish, though had it a few times at various restaurants, usually with Choi Tam (Brussels Sprout). I would usually have my vegetables fried only with garlic, but since this is the year of pig, why not a spice it up with some roasted pork?

this dish sure looks yummy, isn’t it?

Ingredients:

• Hong Kong kailan
• roasted pork (RM 3-5, from morning market or hawker)
• sliced or chopped garlic
• corn flour
• cooking oil
• salt

Steps:

• heat up a few spoons of cooking oil
• throw in the garlic and then roasted pork, stir
• add in the vegetabl ewhen the garlic gets golden, shoots first, then the leaves
• add some salt for flavor (half a tea spoon should suffice)
• pour in the mixture of corn flour and water (2 table spoon of corn flour and half a cup of water)
• stir till vegetable is cooked

cooking this is easy as 1-2-3

The dish was pretty easy to prepare, and it did turn out great. The aroma of roasted pork complimented the fresh vegetable really well. Corn flour and water gives a slightly salty gravy that makes eating this dish with steamed rice a very good combination. Try it!

Tags:  choi-tam,  cny,  Cooks,  dinner,  fry,  garlic,  kailan,  roasted-pork,  vegetables

Posted by KY | 15 Comments »