Now that CNY is over, it’s time to get back to do some cooking, and boy did it feel great!
Other than all those pictures and memory of yummy hawker foods in Penang over that period, mom also gave me a fridge full of fish/prawns/pork/chicken all nicely frozen, and they are now sitting in my fridge here in PJ. Basically over the next few weeks, my grocery shopping only consists of fresh vegetables and some spices.
Gotta love mom!
black pomfret with sauce, rice, and some vege
Anyway, today I’m going to share with you this fairly simple recipe of black pomfret with sauce that I improvised from the classic Malay dish that’s often referred to as bawal hitam ber-sos.
You can usually find this dish at Malay restaurants, but it is also fairly common in the repertoire of Penang Nyonya cooking.
Unlike normal pomfret that’s best steamed, black pomfret has harsher and leaner meat that isn’t as flavorful, a stronger tasting sauce makes a good compliment to this fish. So here goes:
oyster sauce, dark soya sauce, and a bunch of other ingredients
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
this is how you prepare the awesomesauce
You can start frying the fish, and in the mean time, prepare the sauce with another frying pan side by side. They should be done at just about the same time.
cooking instructions (fish):
cooking instructions (sauce):
fry the pomfret separately, then pour on the sauce
Pour the sauce over the pomfret and consume while hot. Best served with steam rice.
Happy cooking!
It’s been a while since I posted the last recipe, so here’s another simple to make soup dish that anyone can make at home – Chinese corn and spare ribs soup. If you want it without pork, feel free to substitute spare ribs with chicken wings or bones.
I use a pressure cooker for this, but a normal pot would work too if you just increase the cooking time a factor of 2-3. Preparation time for this dish is less than 10 minutes.
corn, red dates, dried cuttle fish
The ingredients are fairly simple to source, and they aren’t expensive either. This is good for 4 small bowls of soup
boil the spare ribs for a while to remove impurities
Now the cooking instructions:
just boil everything in pressure cooker for at least 45 minutes
The result is a clear soup that has the taste of sweet corn and spare ribs infused in it. It goes well with steamed rice or even just on its own.
Easy, healthy, and delicious, try it!
add a sprinkle of spring onion and you’re done – corn & spare ribs soup
I’ll be the first to admit, this blog isn’t exactly synonymous to healthy living. Most of the food entries in this blog are chosen only based on one criteria – they are tasty. The health aspect usually takes a back seat, or at least not featured prominently.
The good thing is though, you can actually eat healthy relatively easily – and this applies to both eating out as well as having home cooked meals.
There is one very simple rule of thumb – less oil and less fat.
I’m not saying one should avoid eating those sinful oily stuff completely, but toning it down is a good idea despite your age, and especially if you aren’t living a particularly active lifestyle to begin with.
fish noodle soup at B & Best, SS 4
There are always choices when it you are eating out, and avoiding having fried items like char kuih teow or mee goreng too often is a good thing. One of my favorites is in fact, fish noodle soup places such as B & Best at SS 4, other healthier choices include lui cha (vegetarian), kampar noodle, and beef noodle. All of which involves very little usage of oil, and aren’t deep fried.
BBQ crab, lamb, and other seafood at Hing Ket, Klang
In essence, try to choose food that are prepared with as little oil/fat as possible – steam, boil, and even bbq version are usually a lot less oily. Hing Ket grilled seafood at Klang immediately comes in mind, and there are even restaurants that prepares everything by steaming, such as Restaurant K.T.L at Cheras.
everything is steamed at restaurant K.T.L.
When ordering stuff that involves frying, there’s always the option to ask for less oil. More often than not, the chef/hawker operator will comply. (same goes with when ordering drinks – kurang manis!)
Other than avoiding oil, having more fruits and vegetable too is another way to get a balance dose of nutrients for your body. Replacing snacks with fruits is perhaps one of the best choice anyone can make. I’m lucky that my company actually provides free fruits on Fridays, but ideally one should have at least a portion every day.
Home cooked food:
For those who cooks at home, it is even easier to have a healthy diet since everything is within your own control. Recipes can always be modified to use less oil by incorporating or replacing it with other methods of cooking that uses less oil. For those with the budget, there are now “air fryer” that uses very little oil for deep frying (80% less). Do check out Philips Airfryer and Tefal Actifry.
For those of us without those fancy fryer, here’s a recipe for yummy watercress soup that is simple to prepare, awesome to taste, cheap, and wholesomely healthy. I used to make this soup when I was in the States and misses mom’s meal.
do wash and and only use the tender part of watercress
Ingredients (to make 2 bowls of soup):
boil meat/chicken, then add watercress, done!
Instructions:
the finished dish – watercress soup, healthy and tasty
There you go, a healthy bowl of soup that goes perfectly with steamed rice, ready in 30 minutes, and as homey as you can get. You can perhaps pair this with some steamed fish.
Eat healthy, stay fit, and live longer, happier.
P/S: Do tune into 1 Sihat Malaysia to get more health tips on eating habits and healthy living. The program is hosted by Fahrin Ahmad and features stories from the local celebrities. Head to gayahidupsihat.my for more, this post is brought to you by Ministry of Health.
It’s been too long since the last recipe was posted on this blog, so here goes.
This soya sauce chicken dish was first made by Haze off a recipe she obtained online, it turned out pretty good but I thought there were something lacking, so after giving it a bit of thought I came up with this version that took a cue from the tau eu bak recipe.
cloves, star anise, cinnamon stick, ginger, garlic
The ingredients are pretty similar to the tau eu bak – your usual suspects of Chinese/Nyonya cooking. I use chicken wings as the meat, but you can substitute this with any part of chicken, and I have reasonable confidence that it’ll work well with duck too.
1 part soya sauce, 3 part water
The cooking instruction is about as simple as you can get:
simmer for 30 mins, add sugar and a dash of dark soya sauce
The difference between this and the “original” recipe was the addition of dark soya sauce, this thickens the sauce quite a bit and adds a bit of complexity that sugar can’t bring out.
This is a very easy dish to cook and best enjoy with steamed rice. Happy cooking!
soya sauce chicken wings, le slurps
For more recipes from yours truly, check out ”KY Cooks” section.
I traveled to Vietnam on numerous occasions in one of my previous jobs, and one of my favorite things about Vietnam outside of those excellent beef noodles, was their coffee.
The coffee drinking culture in Vietnam is very much different from that of Malaysia. Instead of international chains like Starbucks and Coffeebeans, you can find many classy and some quaintly decorated independent coffee houses scattered everywhere in Ho Chi Minh City.
In fact, around Turtle Lake in HCMC, you can even find coffee houses that are easily mistaken as pubs or dance clubs. Coffee drinking is not just for the old folks, it is also a favorite past time for fashionable young adults.
Vietnamese Iced Coffee, known as “cafe da”, is usually plenty thick and fragrant. The coffee consists of about 1/4 condensed milk and best served with ice. I believe most coffee lover would find it enjoyable (albeit not the healthiest choice)
I would sometimes order drip coffee when I have my pho fix at Pho Hoa, but lately I’ve been doing it myself, and here is how you can too!
proper condensed milk is a must, not condensed creamer
The key to good food is in its ingredients, and there’s no difference when it comes to coffee. For cafe da, other than the ground coffee itself, you need proper condensed milk.
I purchased Milkmaid condensed milk from Cold Storage at a price of RM 9.99. You can get condensed creamer for RM 2.40 or so but that’ll be like drinking coffee with palm oil and sugar, it’s not the same. (if you’re interested in why condensed milk are imported, read this article on TheNutGraph by Tony Pua).
My ground coffee and the drip filter was given by a Vietnamese friend (Cheryl Mọi Rợ), but you can actually source them locally. The ground coffee that I got has a bit of a chocolaty aroma to it, and is rather rich and complex too. Trung Nguyen is a well known brand and they have a website at trungnguyen.com.my
use a French drip filter
So here’s how you make a cup of cafe da:
1/4 condensed milk, 3/4 coffee, 100% ice = win
While this is the most typical way to enjoy Vietnamese coffee, some prefer it with sugar or “kosong” too. Of course, ice is also optional.
Now excuse me while I make me another cup of cafe da. 
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For those who are still in the dark about the Celcom iPhone 4s launch tonight (0:00 15/12/2011 at La Bodega, Bangsar Shopping Centre, KL), I have some insider info: the 12 & 24 month plans with device price as low as less than RM 600.
click on the above photos to view the iPhone 4s plans by Celcom.
