KY cooks – Thai Minced Pork Cucumber Soup

This Thai minced pork cucumber soup is something that we came across while staying over at Khaolak for degassing purposes after a satisfying live-aboard diving trip at Similan Islands.

The soup was so good that when we came home, Haze and I tried to re-create the same dish at home, and I think she got it pretty close. Here’s the resulting soup that is somewhat healthy, simple to make, and may I say, quite delicious.

Thai Minced Pork Cucumber Soup

Ingredients:

• big fresh cucumber
• fish sauce (or salt)
• white pepper
• minced meat (300 gram or enough for stuffing)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

ingredients are simple, we use fresh cucumber

Instructions:

• While heating up 3 bowls of water, remove cucumber skin, cut in halves, then into bite size, remove the seeds
• mix minced meat with generous amount of pepper, a teaspoon of fish sauce (or a dash of salt), and a teaspoon of sesame oil
• apply minced meat on cucumber where the seeds used to be (you can 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch to make the mixture more sticky)
• carefully put the cucumber into boiling water with meat side on top
• boil for 15-20 minutes or until cucumber is soft
• serve while hot

minced meat and cucumber is a great combination

This soup usually comes with tong fun (glass noodle) so if you wanna add that, do go ahead. For even more flavorful soup base, feel free to add chicken/pork bones too.

Happy cooking!

OK Lets Talk About Eating Healthy (with recipe)

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):

• watercress (I got this at supermarket for RM 2)
• 4-5 pieces of pork bones (chicken wings or chicken bones for halal version) for soup taste
• half a dozen dried red dates
• 3-5 pieces of dried scallops (optional)
• 3 bowls of water
• salt to taste

boil meat/chicken, then add watercress, done!

Instructions:

• boil the meat/bones in a separate pot for 2-3 minutes to get rid of impurities
• in the main pot, bring water to boil and add red dates, meat, and dried scallops
• add watercress
• keep boiling on low temperature for half an hour
• add salt to taste

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.

KY cooks – Baingan Bhrata recipe (Indian style eggplant)

One of the things I learned from going to college in the States was that Indian food is not limited to spicy curry, tandoori, nasi kandar, and roti canai. There were a host of other dishes that are mostly vegetarian, and mostly absent from the local Indian/mamak restaurants back in KL.

Later I would find out that India is a big country, with varying culinary cultures in different regions. The version of Indian food here in Malaysia is mostly influenced from the Southern region of India, while those available in States usually originates from the Northern region.

ingredients of baingan bharta, vegetarian

My favorite dish from this Punjabi/Northern Indian cuisine is Baingan Bhrata – a name that took me a while to remember and be able to spell it. It is basically an eggplant dish with mixture of onion, tomato, garlic, chili (or capsicum) and curry spices all cooked into almost like a pulp.

While presentation is never easy for something that looks like a pile of mud, this dish is quite strong tasting and flavorful. This is not a difficult dish to prepare, but one that is quite tedious in preparation, but here goes!

the key is to roast the eggplant first

Ingredients:

• one large eggplant (brinjal, aubergine, or whatever you want to call it)
• 1 tomato
• 1 capsicum
• 1 yello onion
• 7-8 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
• 2 tablespoon cooking oil

stir-fry everything till soft, add garam masala too

Instructions:

• roast the eggplant in oven at 175 Celsius for 40 minutes, you might want to turn it over half way. The eggplant is ready when the skin is charred and start to cave in. Alternatively, you can put it in a microwave for 8-10 minutes, or grill it on your gas stove too
• in the mean time, chopped all other ingredients finely
• heat up cooking oil, and start frying onion, garlic, and capsicum for 3-4 minutes or until onion is translucent
• next add tomato, stir for a minute
• finally add eggplant and all the spices, and stir fry everything for a few more minutes until you get everything a pulp
• add coriander as garnish (should have chopped them but I forgot)

Serve while hot, goes well with chapati or basmati rice but normal steamed rice will do too.

Happy cooking!

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KY cooks – Sambal Asparagus

Ladies and gentlemen, today we’re going to talk about asparagus. Now most of us associate asparagus as sort of a Western style vegetable, something you find in a fancy restaurant sitting pretty next to your steak (such as this side dish at Mandarin Grill), or being wrapped in bacon and BBQ-ed (ala BBQ Addict’s menu).

You will be right, but I’ve always known asparagus from Sambal Belacan Asparagus, one of my favorite dishes from childhood, a Hokkien/Penang Nyonya specialty of sort.

ingredients for sambal asparagus – sambal, garlic, ginger, dried shrimp

This dish is also surprisingly simple to make, but it is mighty handy if you’ve already have some ready made sambal belacan. For instruction on how to make a jar of wholesome sambal belacan, click here – sambal belacan fried rice.

Anyway, here’s the ingredients:

• a bunch of asparagus, cut into 2-3 inches, only retain the top 2 sections, throw away the bottom wooden parts
• 2 table spoon sambal belacan
• 15 shalots
• 10 cloves of garlic
• 10 dried shrimps
• 4 fresh prawns, peeled

the secret is the steaming

Cooking this dish is fast and simple too!

Instructions:

• use pastel and mortar to pound shallots, garlic, and dried shrimp
• marinate peeled prawns with salt for a couple minutes
• heat up a couple table spoon of cooking oil in medium heat
• throw in prawns first, then everything else
• fry for 5 minutes, then add a quarter cup of water, and close the lid to steam the vegetable for 2-3 minutes
• remove lid and fry again till water evaporates
• food is ready to serve!

a few prawns go a long way

The secret to cooking asparagus is really the steaming part, since the vegetable can be a little tough if not properly cooked, but frying it too long will get the outer layer burnt. So there you go, another recipe from yours truly who reignite the cooking passion ever since our kitchen is renovated.

I’ve recently gotten Astro B.yond PVR installed at home too, and check out what sort of programmes we have recorded.

Yes, mostly cooking shows. It’s brilliant, I can’t tell you how many times I missed out crucial part of cooking show just because they go over it a tad too fast. With the PVR’s record function this problem is a thing of a past. Of course PAUSE and REWIND function comes in mighty handy too.

I’ll be reviewing the PVR’s function soon too. In the mean time, happy cooking!

KY cooks – Kimchi Jiggae (Kimchi Soup recipe)

Whenever we cook dinner at home, I usually take a photo and post up the main dish of the night on twitter, and since we started cooking at a regular basis about a month or so ago, the Kimchi Jjigae (kimchi soup) dish is by far the most sought after recipe from my tweeter and facebook friends.

“By far” also means like, 3 of you, but here is how it’s made

glorious bowl of Kimchi Jiggae

You can get this at pretty much any Korean restaurants and they are usually served with a bowl of steamed rice. They’re usually priced close to RM 20, with the cheapest I’ve had coming in at around RM 10.

This recipe calls for ingredients worth about RM 20 or so but serves 3-4 person.

ingredients for kimchi jiggae, minus the pork here

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of Kimchi (you can get it at cold storage/isetan or Korean specialty stores at Ampang, the more fermented the better)
• 200-300 grams pork of pork belly slices, cut into squares
• 3 table spoon of miso paste
• 2 red onion, slices
• 1 packet of soft tofu, cut into your desired shapes
• 6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 6 cilipadi (or Jalapeño peppers if you can find them)
• 3-4 slices of ginger
• 3-4 stalks of scallion, cut into 3 inches in length
• 2 table spoon cooking oil
• 1 table spoon of butter (optional)

first you fry, then you stew, it’s that simple!

Here’s the steps:

• heat up frying pan with cooking oil in medium heat, then fry onion, garlic, ginger, chili, and pork belly for 2-3 minutes
• add kimchi, continue frying for another 2-3 minutes
• add half a liter of water, add miso paste, stew for 20 minutes
• add tofu and scallions 2-3 minutes before serving

Haze and Cendawan enjoying dinner, I think it’s spicy? hehe

For those who doesn’t prefer pork (the horror!), you can make this dish with chicken or beef too. For those who loves more vegetables, you can also add radish when you start stewing.

Happy cooking!