Crispy Prawn/Meat Balls with Cereal

Inspiration - Hmmm... I love "Lai yau" prawns (buttered prawn). Not really the prawns but those tiny strands of buttered egg "hair". This was supposed to be my first attempt of making it today but unfortunately I did not manage to buy evaporated milk (which is a key ingredient). No worries I remember I bought a packet of crispy Prawn cereals which serves the same purpose. Effort made simple ! It is by MasFood sold in markets and sundry shops. It is called Instant Crispy Prawn with Cereal (without the prawns of course) and it looks extremely yummy.

Good thing I have a curry leaves plant at my back garden, hurray!

I did not have enough prawns so I decided to add fried pork meat balls which my mom made yesterday. Also there is really no need to remove the shell of the prawns but my mom did it without my knowledge. Well, the good point is that, I do not need to use my hands when I am eating to remove the prawn shells later.

Don't forget the "I leave without" cilipadis and magerine or butter for the fragrant taste.

Simple Steps :-

1) Dip prawns into batter (flour mixed in some water). Heat up oil for deep frying, put in prawns and deep fry till cook. Put aside to drain the oil. I then put in the fried meat balls just for a quick fry. Put aside to drain the oil too.

2) Remove the access oil. Put in a table spoon of butter in same wok, remember low fire ok, throw in the curry leaves and cili pad and mix well.

* Notice how I leave the food at the side while I cook the other ingredients. It is a habit and also for speed but it does not work all the time. So don't follow if you are not used to it.

3) When curry leaves are fragrant, put in the instant cereal mix and continue to stir. Mix the prawns and meat balls together. Ready to eat! yum yum!!

Ingredients -

1) A packet of Instant Crispy Prawn Cereals from Masfood (available in market or sundry shops)

2) Some prawns (main ingredient) or meatballs (my simple way) if you like

3) Curry leaves

4) A tsp of butter

5) Cilipadi

6) Oil for deep frying

Tong Yuen

Inspiration - Tong yuen or tang yuen is glutinous rice flour dough with different fillings (red bean, peanuts, sesame seeds, plain etc) served in ginger syrup soup. My advise don't bother trying to make the tong yuen on your own cos it is so easy to get the ready made ones from supermarket and mind you it is delicious. Of course this is the ones with fillings which I seriously think it is just too much effort to make on yr own.

Simple steps -

1)Firstly just get a packet of the glutinous rice balls. I especially like the sesame seeds and peanuts fillings..yumyum! When you bite into it, the fillings spills out all over yr mouth.

2) Then put in some water into a pot to make the ginger syrup soup. Cut a few slices of ginger and throw into boiling water with some pandan leaves. Put in some rock sugar or just plain sugar as required. I recommend less dosage of sugar as the fillings in the rice balls are already rather sweet.

3) Now with a new small pot, fill it with some water and start to boil. As the water starts boiling up, throw in the glutinous rice balls. Remember, do not need to defrost the packet of rice balls, just when ready to cook, take it out from fridge. When the balls is ready, it will float up to the top.

4) Serve the balls onto bowls and pour in the ginger syrup water. Ready to eat! Yum Yum!

Ingredients :-

Glutinous Rice Balls (available from supermarket)

Pandan leaves - 2 leaves

Ginger - 2-3 slices

Sugar - a bit

water - for syrup base and boiling

Food, food, yum yum food.

I am no chef, I don't refer to recipe books, I cook occasionally and I am also very particular about food (meaning - a lot of food I don't eat) but I enjoy cooking. This food made simple idea came up hoping that it can help more wannabe cooks to try their hands on this art of cooking. Now I call it art cos I sincerely believe that cooking is not science, it does not require strict and complicated formulas. Just feel the food, taste it, enjoy it and then roughly figure out how to cook it. I will be detailing all my simple food conquests whether succeed or fail , you will only know when you try.

Again....I am no chef but I enjoy cooking and sharing how I cook my dishes. This blog will document step by step on how I cook my dishes and even my baking steps. It may turn out and sometimes it may not, so I do welcome comments and suggestions from everyone out there. Let's learn together. Please visit http://www.mysimplefood.com/ for more of my culinary adventures. Contact me at mysimplefood@gmail.com