Char Kway Teow

I never thought of cooking myself a plate of Char Kway Teow. When I was in Malaysia, it was readily available in nearly every hawker center. So all I needed to do was drive out to any hawker stall and just order "1 char kway teow, no 'si ham', yes chilli" and within minutes I would be enjoying a hot yummy sizzling plate just like picture above.

But now here in US......it is just not the same. I can get Char Kway teow but eating it in a restaurant is vastly different from a hawker stall. No hawker stall concept in US. Therefore, I thot I would settle for trying my own version at home.

The most important ingredient is getting the kway teow or called rice noodles. This is readily available in any Chinese grocery stores. However, it is semi frozen and not the fresh ones you get in Malaysia. Better than nothing and probably work as well.... beggars can't be choosers.

The Other ingredients -

1. Chinese sausage (lap cheong)

2. Bean sprouts (taugeh)

3. Egg

4. Spring onions

5. Garlic, soy sauce, salt, pepper and not forgetting some chilli paste

6. Prawns but since I don't have it in fridge, I opted for some roasted pork. :)

Simple Steps -

1. Stir fry the garlic, chinese sausage and roasted pork in some oil. Put in the rice noodles / kway teow and continue to stirfry. Add in seasoning of soy sauce (or some fish oil if preferred). salt and pepper.

2. Move the noodles to the side of wok and then crack on eggs in the middle of the wok. Mix the egg with the noodles.

3) Add in the bean sprouts and spring onions and continue to stir fry. Add more soy sauce for taste as needed. The key in frying a good char kway teow is the fire, therefore ensure the fire is big but you must be fast to control all the ingredients elements.

4) This is my first attempt in cooking up a char kway teow. With trying to cook and trying to take the photos of the cooking process....I must say the results is not too bad. Of course, it does not have the look of a hawker's stall char kway teow but importantly is that I brought a bit of the hawker stall aroma back into my kitchen. Voila! Ready to eat! Yum Yum!

Fried WonTon

After successfully making my wonton dumplings, I decided to try something a little bit more adventurous and try to make fried wonton. The ingredients are the same and the process to wrap the wonton is also the same.

Please refer to this link for my earlier recipe. Steps 1-7 are essentially the same.

Simple ingredients -

1) Minced pork (500gm), minced onion or shallots (2 pcs), green onions - chopped

2) Wan Tan wrapper

As you can see below, my wrapping process is not excellent *grin* - as long as the minced meat stays intact, I am ok.....

In a small pot, I try to use as minimal old as possible, if it covers half of the wonton, it's fine. You will just need to move the wontons about so that all parts will touch the oil. If you prefer you can actually fry with more oil so that the wonton will cook evenly.

Voila, just scoop up when ready, drain the oil by placing the fried wontons on a paper towel and serve. Becareful yeah cos it is hot inside. It is irresistable to try it immediately but beware , so that you don't burn your tongue. Ready to eat! Yum! Yum!

Simple Tofu with minced pork

Inspiration - I have to confess that I am not a fan of tofu. All tofu fans - please don't boo me. I am just not a bean person! :) But my Hubby-D loves tofu so as a good wife, I try not to deprive him of tofu.

The only tofu that I eat is Japanese tofu which I was made to understand that it is made of egg thus minus the tofu taste. Since I am no expert in tofu, I just made a very simple and fast tofu dish.

Simple Ingredients -
1. Egg tofu - available in supermarkets - shaped in a circular long shape. Just remove, soak in water and then cut. Some tofu are pretty delicate so be gentle with it.


2) Some minced meat and dried small prawns and some garlic/shallots.

Simple steps -

1) Firstly, stir-fry the garlic/shallots, add the dried small prawns and then the minced meat till fragrant.

2. Scoop up onto tofu, add a dash of soy sauce. Actually, you can already eat it as is but since I am not a fan of tofu whatmore cool tofu, I microwaved it for just one minute.

3. Voila! Due to the heat, the tofu let out some moisture which acts as sauce base. And it's ready to eat! Yum Yum! Try it yeah!

Seafood Soup

Ok, this is really simple and I do think that it is rather yummy. If you want a quick hot soup after a hard day's work, give this a try and let me know if you like it.

Simple ingredients -
1) Some prawns
2) Some seaweed - it is dry so soak it a few times to get rid of the dirt.
3) Some fish balls, sotong balls - whatever you like.
4) Some carrot
5) Some napa cabbage.
6) Soup base - anchovies (boiled) or just use the read made Maggie cubes :)


Simple Steps -
1) It is really quite simple so not that many steps. Firstly bring the water to a boil in a pot. If you are using anchovies, you can fry it a bit with some oil before adding water. If you are using the Maggie cube, best to have the water boiling before adding the cube. Next add in the carrot and napa cabbage. Then add the balls and only add the prawns and seaweed last. Bring it to a boil for at least 15 mins in medium heat.

2) Voila! It is so easy. You have a hearty hot seafood soup ready for dinner! Yum yum!