Porky pork

Inspiration - Folks...this is my most fav dish. Trust me...I love it and it is lovingly called porky pork. It is like "siew yoke" but the taste is different. It is just yummy yummy. I can't describe it, you have to try to make it yourself. Just do it!

Simple steps :-

1) Firstly the pork. You have to buy pork with half fat and half lean meat. In Chinese, my mom calls it "far yoke" aka "flower pork" but basically mean the half fat/lean meat part. Errr...don't know what it is called in English..loin? side belly? just go to the Chinese pork seller and say "far yoke".

Bye the way, the meat is usually a long strip so in the pic above, the meat has been cut already. Anyway, marinate with salt, soy sauce, pepper. For more taste, you can also add oyster sauce. Marinate for at least 2 hrs.

2) When ready to cook, marinate with some flour, and corn-stach flour.

3) Next, fill wok with oil for deep frying. Fire up to heat oil. Only when oil is hot, put in the meat.


4) Put fire on medium while cooking. Watch fire to ensure that the outside do get cook to fast. Just incase inside of meat is not cooked yet.


5) When meat is brown and crispy, get ready to turn fire off. Usually, I like it more brown for the extra crispy taste.

6) Remove from wok and drain oil from meat. Serve on plate for it to cool down.

7) When ready to eat, cut it into pieces and Voila! Ready to eat! Yum yum!!

Tip - this goes ready well with a dip of garlic and chili padi in soy sauce. Super yum!

Simple ingredients -

1) Pork - "far yoke" in Chinese

2) Marinate - salt, soy sauce, pepper, corn-starch flour

3) Oil for frying

Steamed Fish with Tauchu

Inspiration...ok ok this is not by me, my mom made this..it is one of her popular and delicious dishes that I approve of :). I like it and it is really simple to make so decided to include it in my simple kitchen. Trust me..it is yum yum.

Simple Steps -

1) The fish. Seriously I don't really know the different names of fishes, thus also creating a lot of hesitation whenever ordering in restaurants therefore I don't really know fish my mom is using. It is likely Red Snapper or maybe Red Prompret. Cos in Cantonese it is called "hung fei chao". Let me know yeah if it is red snapper, prompret or talapia or whatever. Mom only use half of the fish since only 3 of us are eating.

2) Next is the special ingrediant. Ok ...again I am not sure of its official name but I know it is called Tauchu. In my limited food knowledge , I am guessing it is somekind of fermented beans. Ok...anyone out there to educate me a bit more?

Ok..take a table spoonful tauchu, cut some garlic and chili padi. Put a bit oil in wok, throw in garlic and cilipadi, stir fry till fragrant and then put in the Tauchu. Stir fry in low fire and you will begin to smell the yum yum fragrance of the tauchu.

3) Put the fried tauchu on the fish.

4) Ok..this is the simple part on steaming. It saves time and easy to estimate. Because this is a small fish, it is quite easy. Put rice to boil, and immediately when the rice is nearly cook meaning rice is nearly dry (no more water boiling) and just before the rice cooker indicates rice is ready, put the fish into the rice cooker. Just let it be for about 10mins minimum and trust me the fish would be just nice.

Ok if you are not keen to use it this way you can steam it in a wok or ricecooker filled with water at the bottom. With boiling water, the fish should be ready in 10mins. Turn off the gas and just let it simmer inside the pot for another 10 mins. Should be fine.... :)

5) When you are ready to eat your dinner, just remove the fish from the rice cooker/pot and Voila! Ready to eat! Yum yum!

Simple Ingredients :

1) Fish...errr Red Prompret....

2) One table spoon tauchu, some garlic, chili padi - mix and stir fry

"Yuk Kon" Sandwich with Egg

Inspiration - I needed breakfast, I still have the "yuk kon", mom bought bread, and so I decided to do a slight spin to my "yuk kon" sandwich. Nothing too mind-blowing - simply added egg.

Simple Steps -

1) Honey Oat Bread - Mom bought this from Berry's Cake House.




2) Hard Boiled egg - mash it up and add a bit of mayo. you can add a bit of salt for taste if you like.



3) Get the "yuk kon", lettuce, mayo, put them all together and Voila, Ready to eat! Yum yum!!




Simple ingredients -

1) Dried slice pork aka "yuk kon"

2) Honey Oat Bread

3) Hard Boiled Egg

4) Lettuce

5) Mayo

Verdict - Not too bad but I think without the egg better. I am not a fan of egg sandwich :(

"Yuk Kon" Sandwich

Inspiration - Hmm..hmm..this is a definitely a Malaysian favourite - Dried Slice Pork or famously called "yuk kon" (in Cantonese). You can eat it on its own, eat it with bread, eat it with rice etc. Though you can get this from the Dried Slice Pork shops anyday but this is much more in demand during Chinese New Year. Friends and relatives would buy it as gifts when they go house visiting. I had a slight craving for it and decided to get 500gm (RM33/-) from Bee Chee Hiang in SS2.

Start of work on 2nd of January, to make the day more bearable :), I wanted to make a good breakfast of "yuk kon" sandwich but decided to make it a little bit more of a culinary experience ( not much ) but still better than just filling it in between 2 slice of bread. And it turned out really well!

Simple steps -

1) Happened that I had wholemeal buns at home. Bought from Berry's Cake House for my mom. She can't leave without bread at home! I am now in wholemeal breads, thinking it that no harm munching down so called healthier bread.

2) Get a few slices of lettuce and mayo (I like the Japanese type). Don't forget the yummy "yuk kon".

3) Put the yuk kon into the bun, stuff in the lettuce and some mayo. Voila! Ready to eat! Yummy yummy!!

Simple ingredients -

1) Dried slice pork aka "yuk kon"
2) Whole meal buns, you can use bread too
3) Lettuce
4) Mayo

Tong Sui - Longan with white fungus

Inspiration - This is really easy. The super picky food person ME only really like longan tong sui so what better way but to make it. I actually made it 1.5 mths ago for my hubby. I feel very much like a Hongkie wife. Well you know, in the TVB series they always have tong sui for supper. This is the 3rd time I am making it and this time to celebrate the new year 2008. Tong sui according to old folks ..it is very "yun" (in Cantonese) - hard to explain but basically it means it is good for skin, I think!

Simple Steps -

1) Just get red dates, white fungus, longan and some rock sugar ready. Make sure that you soak and drain the all ingredients (except rock sugar) in water a couple of times.

2) Put a pot of water to boil, put in the red dates first to get the fragrant of the base water. Oh yeah...you should also slice each of the red dates a bit so that the taste is more enhanced. Throw in the longan after about 10 mins and continue to boil on medium fire.

3) Throw in the white fungus the last cos you still wanna the crunchy taste. Voila, Ready to eat! Yum yum!!


Ingredients -

1) Some white fungus
2) probably around 20 red dates
3) probably 20-30 longans
4) 2 medium size rock sugar. No need too much cos the longan and red dates are already sweet
5) Water of course

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