Loh Mai Kai

Inspiration - arhhhh...isn't it yummy......everytime I look at the photos, I feel like eating it up. I was determined to make my own Loh Mai Kai...translated Glutinous Rice with Chicken. This is a normal dim sum dish though the Chinese restaurants in Dallas usually have the rice wrapped in lotus leaf. So I kinda miss my round shaped loh mai kai, after researching some recipes on the net, plus minus some ingredients here and there....this is what I came up with - my very simple loh mai kai. It's so yummy.

Simple recipe

1) Glutinous rice - 200gm

2) Chicken -10-15 medium cubes - can use chicken breast or chicken thigh

3) Mushroom - 5-8 small pieces

4) Marinate for chicken - soy sauce, dark soy sauce, ginger juice, oyster sauce, salt, pepper, sugar, sesame oil.

6) Seasoning for rice - 2 tbsp oil or lard, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, salt, pepper and five spice powder.

5) Optional - Chinese sausage or Char siu- though I did not have it available when I was making this.

Simple steps -

1) Wash rice and soak overnight. Next day, steam rice for 30 mins. Remove and leave aside.

2) Marinate chicken for at least 1 hr. Overnight preferred.

Firstly, stir fry mushroom with some garlic and oil. Then add the marinate chicken and stir fry for a few minutes. No need to fully cook the chicken. Add a bit of water to fully integrate all the ingredients.

3) Arrr...the seasoning for the rice is very important. For the best taste, it is recommended to use some lard. So if you happen to have some pork/chicken lard, you can add to the overall mixture - soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark sauce sauce, salt, pepper, sesame oil, five spice powder and 2 cup of water. Mix well.

4) Mix the seasoning well with the rice.

5) Now for the preparation - Prepare 6 bowls - I just use my Chinese rice bowls. Grease it with some oil and then put in 2 pcs of Chicken and 1-2 pcs of mushroom. Then top the rice into each bowl.

6) Steam for another 30-40 mins till ready.

Voila! Ready to eat! Soooo yummy!

Stir fried Okra

Okra or actually I grew up knowing this as ladies fingers. Hmmm, it seems people here in US only calles it as okra... Anyway, when I was young, I would refuse to eat this. Kinda afraid of the slimy feeling. Anyway, I have since come to like this dish very much, and my mom taught me a trick to reduce the slimy effect.

It is a very simple dish and all I used was a bunch of okra, washed, pat dry and just slice to pieces. In a hot pan, I stir-fried some small anchovies (ikan bilis) and some minced garlic.

Now, to reduce the slimy sticky effect from the okra, turn up the heat, put in the sliced okras and give it a toss. add a bit of salt for taste. When the fire is big, this will make the cooking process faster and reduce the time for the sticky substance to come out from the plant.

Also, this will give the dish a good "wok's breath" (wok hei in cantonese). This is very important in Chinese dishes. I usually also add a bit of chilli or sambal, if I want a spicy taste. Voila! Ready to eat! Yum Yum!

Chicken Rice

Inspiration - I was looking for a hearty chicken rice meal but I wanted to make it really really simple and really really fast. My hubby was coming home for dinner soon. So with a little "help" and doing some short cuts with the chicken preparation, I actually made a yummy meal.


Simple Steps -

1) I used this ready made spice (Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice from Asian Home Gourmet) for the rice chicken stock but I did add more garlic and ginger. With a little oil or you can even use butter, I stir-fried some ginger and garlic slices and the pkt of spices and then added water enough for boiling of rice. Let the ingredients simmer for 2 minutes.

2) Wash the rice and then add the spices ingredient mixed earlier.

3) This was my short cut. With a piece of chicken breast (with some skin still intact) - marinate with just salt, pepper and garlic juice. I just place the chicken breast on top of the rice in the rice cooker and let everything cook at the same time. I really don't know how it will turn out especially concerned that the chicken may not turn out as well but then since I want it fast and simple, let's see.

4) Surprisingly, it turned turned out really well. The chicken was moist and tender and all I needed to do was to cut up to chicken slices. It looked like the real thing :)

5) As for the rice, it turned out not bad, though I was hoping that it will be more fragrant since I did add the pkt of spices. However, I don't think the spices were that great, infact the next time, I would probably made fresh spices myself.

6) Now for the complete feel of chicken rice, you must have the dips. I made 3 sauce dips. 1) Soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce and oil mixed together. 2) Garlic sauce - grinded with some lime juice and sugar 3) chilli sauce - grinded chilli with some garlic juice and lime juice.

7) And there you have it, my very simple chicken rice meal. Voila! Ready to eat! Yum yum!

Wonton Dumplings

Inspiration - Someone commented that my wan tan mee recipe did not have wan tan (dumplings) at all. Ha ha....I guess I was really focused on the mee portion. Somehow, in Malaysia, whenever I go out for wan tan mee, I am only thinking of the mee (noodles) and of course the char siu. The wan tan soup on the side is kinda just a side dish. Maybe that is just the case in Malaysia. I know in HK and even here in US, the Wan Tan are the focus for the dish with huge dumplings vs the tiny ones in Malaysia. Anyway, since I posted the wan tan mee, to make sure I have the actual wan tan, this is the one that I made recently. This is also the first ever time that I made wan tan from scratch so I definitely welcome feedback on better ways to improve :)

Simple ingredients -
1) Minced pork (1lb), Minced mushroom (5pcs), minced onion or shallots (1 pcs)
2) Wan Tan wrapper
3) Soup base = Ikan Bilis (anchovies) base.
4) Some choy sum

Simple Steps -
1) Stir-fry the minced mushroom and shallots. As you can see I only chopped it, try to do fast fast, I should have minced it since it ended up a bit too big for my liking.


2) Mixed together with the minced pork, add some seasoning of salt, pepper, sesame oil, a bit of soysauce. Actually a key ingredient to have a nice crunch for the dumplings is to include chopped water chestnut. But since I did not have it, I just omitted it.

3) Now, for the wrapping process. this is really the "exciting" part cos since it is my first time, I kinda just fiddle my way thru. I lay out the egg white, wan tan wrapper and the minced meat = my assembly line!

4) Take one wrapper, I dab some egg white wash on each of the corners.

5) Put a small piece of minced meat on the middle of wan tan wrapper. Try not to be greedy and put a big piece cos during the process of boiling, the filling will likely just fall out.

6) I just wrap up each side of the wrapper.

7) And then do a little twist. I am sure there is a more professional way of doing it but this is my first try simplified version. Luckily it worked.

8) In a pot of boiling water, gently put in the prepared dumplings.....

9) When the wan tan float up, it is ready.

10) For the soup base, I just boiled ikan bilis soup and put in some choy sum. Put in the boiled wan tan, and Voila! Ready to eat! Yum yum!

Lobak Kueh again!!

Inspirations - This is probably my 3rd time making it and I am determined to get it just right. Actually my first two attempts were not too bad, only that it was a bit too hard cos there were a lot of ingredients and not enough water. So this time....I will remember to add more water and not be afraid that it will not harden.

Please refer to my earlier entry to the full recipe and step by step on how to make it. http://foodmadesimple.blogspot.com/search/label/Lobak%20Kueh

Simple ingredients -

This time I am making a smaller portion, so I kinda agak-agak all the ingredients quantities. Importantly I got the rice flour ( I only use half pkt abt 250gm) , Radish - a medium size - grated, a handful of minced meat, a palmful of minced mushroom, a cup of stirfried dried shrimp, stirfried onions or shallots, hmm I guess that's it.

Simple steps -

After stirfrying all the ingredients, I put in all into the rice flour dough. Rice flour stirred with water. I made sure that this time, my dough is watery and still easy to stir. Put onto steamer. Before you put on the lid to steam, continue to stir the dough mixer until it stiffen a bit.

I think my dough mixture this time, will turn out ok, though I am constantly watching it cos I am worried that it will be too watery. This time I also added a bit of dark soy sauce on the meat and that is why my mixture is a bit brownish, usually it is whiteish.

After 2 hrs of steaming, remove from steamer, I garnished with some fried shallots, you can add chopped green onions if you want.

You can eat this hot, or after one day, I usually like to cut into smaller thin slices and with a little oil in a non-stick pan, I would stir fry it a bit. So the texture is kinda crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Since it is homemade, I try to use as little oil as possible just to feel healthier. It looks a bit dry but it taste good :)

Wan Tan Mee - self made :)

Inspiration - OK, So I miss Malaysia and how I took for granted all those years when I can just go out and literally get wan tan mee anywhere at anytime. It is difficult to find the dry wan tan mee here cos mostly they have the Hong Kong style which is soup-based with big wan tan dumplings. I want dry wan tan mee..so I make myself loh. You notice that my "charsiu" is not really "charsiu", I just went for the simplified version...marinate the pork with soy sauce/oyster sauce and just bake. So it is more like roasted pork but it taste great.

Simple ingredients -

1) 1 strip of pork belly

2) Vegetables - Choy sum

3) Egg noodles - easily available at any Chi/Viet grocery stores

4) Soy sauce, oyster sauce, pepper, salt, oil, sesame oil.

Simple steps -

1) First start with the meat. Marinate the pork belly with soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, pepper. I was using a small sealable bag so I have cut up into smaller strips. Prefer to marinate overnite but at least 30 mins to 1 hr at least. Bake in oven at 350 for at least 20-30mins depending on the thickness and amount of meat.

You will be able to hear the crackling sound of the pork roasting but more so the smell the delicious roasted pork aroma coming from yr oven. Here, since I am making only a small portion, I am using the electric oven which serves the purpose just fine.

2) Ok, next just boil a pot of water. I usually boil the vegetables first. Here, I am using choy sum...hmmm to find out what it is called in English. Anyone??

Just boil for 5 mins or so, drain and put aside. You can also add some salt in the water for taste.

3) Now for the noodles, remove from pack and loosen the noodles as it is usually all clumped tight together.

In hot boiling water, put in the noodles, once the water start boiling again and the noodles float up, drain it. The next step is important though for it may seem unnecessary (cos u can technically just eat the noodles now) but trust me, if u do it, you will find that yr noodles will be springy and yummy.

The step is to put the noodles in cold water. You will see that all the hawkers stall actually do this process. They boil the noodles in hot water, remove and put in cold water and then put it back to hot water again before serving. In cantonese they call it "kor lang hor" (cross the cold drain)!

So remember, hot water, cold water and then hot water again before draining. Prepare the dry sauce - consisting of soy sauce, a bit of oyster sauce, salt, pepper, oil and sesame oil and also some dark soy sauce for color.


4) Toss the noodles together with the sauce.

5) Almost ready...........garnish with choy sum, and the roasted pork and Voila! Ready to eat! Yum Yum! Do try my simple self made "Wan Tan Mee"