KY cooks – Mint and Egg Soup

This is one of the fastest soup to prepare that is perfect to clear up sinus problem – the mint and egg soup. Everything can be done in about 10-15 minutes, and makes a perfect companion to another dish, or even to be consumed just by itself.

I’ve always thought that making the mint and egg soup means chucking everything into the pot and just boil away. As it turns out, the process involves a few more steps in between, and here’s how you do it:

the two main ingredients – mint leaves and egg

Ingredients (for two as companion dish):

• a bunch of mint leaves – pluck and use only the leaves
• 1 egg – lightly beaten
• ginger – in strips
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon oil
• half a chicken cube (or soup stock if you have)
• salt and pepper for seasoning

with some oil, fry ginger, garlic, then the mint leaves

Cooking instructions:

• with a pot, heat up cooking oil then fry ginger as it takes longer to cook
• a minute or two later, add in garlic
• when garlic is fragrant, add mint leaves, stir till you can smell the mints, around 1-2 minutes
• add egg, and cook it to the consistency of soft scrambled egg
• add 1.5 bowl of water and chicken cube (or soup stock)
• bring to boil, add salt and pepper  according to taste

make a scramble egg, almost, then add water and chicken cube

So there you go, 2 small bowls of mint and egg soup ready to serve. The frying process, together with the addition of ginger and garlic really brings out the flavor of the soup. The only little tricky part with the mint soup is that mint leaves generally doesn’t last very long in the fridge before turning black and bad. You should always cook it at the lastest 1-2 days after purchasing for best results.

Get cooking! There are more recipes here.

and it’s ready to serve after boiling for a couple minutes

P/S: the recipe for prawn dish on the photo above is here.

KY cooks – Fried Prawns with Soya Sauce

It’s time for another recipe sharing session. This time it’s seafood – fried prawns with soya sauce, a simple to prepare and yet pretty luxurious dish (just because prawns are so expensive these days).

I had some prawns in hand thanks for mom who actually works in a market, and since I ran out of asam to make my favorite nyonya style sam prawn, I went online to look for something simple to prepare, and landed on this fried prawns with soya sauce recipe from Babe KL. I know Babe KL & Capt’n Hook personally and was sure that her recipe wouldn’t go wrong.

trim off all sharp edges, add pepper, salt, corn starch

Anyway, here are the ingredients you need:

• big prawns, I had XL prawns, bigger the better
• 1 bulb garlic – chopped
• 2 inches ginger – cut into stripes
• 2 tablespoon corn starch
• salt & pepper
• 1 tablespoon worchestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon soya sauce
• a couple stalks of spring onion
• cooking oil

cook the prawns and place it aside

Prawn preparation steps:

• trim off the all appendages of the prawns with a scissor
• clean and pad dry the prawns with paper towels
• marinate prawn with salt, pepper, and cover with corn starch
• heat up some cooking oil and fry prawns till reddish (2-3 minutes)
• set prawns aside

ginger, then garlic, then prawns, and all the sauces, finally spring onion

there you go, classic fried prawns with soya sauce

So there, the dish really turned out pretty well, I actually wished that we had put in even more garlic & ginger cos they really brought out the taste of the prawns and went well with rice. For those who likes it a little sweeter, feel free to add a teaspoon of sugar too.

For more recipe from yours truly, click on my cooking category.

KY cooks – Braised Pork Belly with Yam recipe (芋头扣肉)

After cooking regularly for a better part of a year now, I thought it’s about time we try dishes that is a little bit more challenging, and since Haze has a thing for braised pork belly with yam (芋头扣肉), we decided to give it a go.

The following recipe is perhaps the simplest formulation for a good braised pork belly with yam, but that being said, it still requires at least 3-4 hours of cooking time to complete. The result though, if done properly, is a serving of yummy succulent pork with buttery soft yam good enough for 4 person.

braised pork belly slices with yam

The ingredients:

• pork belly – 600 gram
• one small/medium size yam
• 2 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• 6-8 shallots
• half a bulb of garlic
• 2 cubes of namyu (fermented bean curd)
• cooking oil
• 2 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon soya sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon five spice
• pepper to taste

a big slab of pork and yam, enough to feed 4 pax

Cooking method can be divided into 4 major steps, pork preparation, yam preparation, frying, and steaming. Divide and conquer make things easier now isn’t it?

step 1 – yam preparation:

• cut yam into thick slices (same thickness as pork)
• heat up frying pan with 2 tablespoon of oil, then fry yam for 3-4 minutes

dark soya sauce is used in the second stage of pork preparation

step 2 – pork preparation step:

• boil the whole slab of pork for 10-15 minutes
• remove pork from water, pat dry, then cover the whole slab with dark soya sauce
• heat up frying pan, then fry pork till brown
• remove pork from frying pan and cut in thick slices

shallots, garlic, and namyu to bring out the flavor

step 3 – frying:

• heat up a couple tablespoon of oil
• fry chopped garlic and onion till fragrant
• add pork, yam, and namyu
• add oyster sauce, soya sauce, five spice powder, and sesame oil
• stir fry till even (try not to break the yam, or meat)

finally, arrange pork/yam and steam for 3-4 hours

step 4 – steaming:

• arrange the pork and yam alternately in a bowl (or in this case, a metal plate)
• steam for a minimum of 2-3 hours

And you are done! Do always keep an eye to ensure that your steamer don’t run out of water in the process. If a pressure cooker is used, the steaming process can be cut short considerably (20-30 minutes, I will try this method next time).

Do check out more recipes on this site, and happy cooking!

KY cooks – Home Style Chicken Chop recipe

OK, here’s a chicken chop recipe that’s so simple and versatile even the most amateur of kitchen warriors would have no problem preparing it. Best of all, it’s far healthier than the deep fried variety you get at “western food” stalls, and easier on the wallet too.

get your friendly chicken seller to cut the thigh & drumsticks in one piece

A useful tip – go to your local wet market and get the chicken seller to prepare chicken chop cuts for you. They are professionals and can do it within seconds (takes me 10x as long), and you also get the leftover bones that you can use as soup stock.

So here are the ingredients I use, and there’s a great flexibility here.

• two pieces of thigh + drumstick, cut in chicken chop style
• 2 table spoon oyster sauce
• 2 table spoon dark soya sauce
• a pack of king oyster mushroom
• 1-2 yellow onion
• 1/4 cauliflower
• pepper and some rosemary (optional)

fry for a bit before putting everything in oven

Cooking instructions:

• marinate the chicken with dark soya sauce, oyster sauce, and pepper. Feel free to add some rosemary too. Let this sit for at least 15-20 minutes
• heat up the grill pan, and pan fry the chicken with minimal usage of oil for 1-2 minutes on each side
• place the mushroom and vegetable around the chicken and shove everything into the oven (start heating it at 175C during the pan fry process)
• bake for 20 minutes, remove and sprinkle some salt on the vegetables
• serve while hot

a bit of capsicum would have given the chicken chop better color, oh well

And there you go, a meal for two that is easy to prepare, rather healthy, and positively delicious! I make this about once every couple weeks, and each time with different side dishes (vegetables). You can actually do the same with pork as well, though I usually make namyu pork chop instead.

Happy cooking and do check out other recipes.

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!