Buttered Prawns

Simple ingredients :
1. 8 - 10 Big Prawns (keep the shells and head intact). You can use tiger prawns.
2. 1/2 Stick of Butter (60gm)
3. 200gm Evaporated milk
4. 3-4 Small chilies (chilli padi)- reduce if you cannot take the spice
5. 5-6 strands Curry leaves
6. 2-3 cloves oof garlic (chopped till fine)
7. 5 tablespoon of oil for frying

Simple steps
1. Heat oil and fry the prawns with some curry leaves till fragrant. Remove and keep aside.

2. Remove oil, put in the butter, fry the curry leaves, garlic for 2-3 mins. Make sure low heat.

3. Pour in the evaporated milk. If you like it thicker, you can add a bit of corn starch mixture. Continue to stir.

4. Once the buttered sauce is boiling, put in the fried prawns and let the sauce fully mix with the prawns.

Prawn Sambal

Prawn Sambal or know more as "Sambal Udang" in Malaysia is traditionally a Malay dish. "Sambal" is a spicy condiment used especially in Indonesia and Malaysia, made with chili peppers and other ingredients eg pounded shallots/garlic or coconut.

I had a packet of Brahims "Sambal Tumis" and it's expiring soon so I just had to cook it. I can't remember when I bought it (must have been from my mom's house) as I usually prefer to pound the chilli myself. Nevertheless, I used it and cooked a fast and simple dish of prawn sambal. And it was pretty good.

Simple ingredients -
1) 1 packet of Brahims Kuah Sambal Tumis
2) 10-15 large prawns shelled with the tips intact.
3) One onion quartered
4) Some water.

Simple steps -
1) I did not use any oil as the "sambal" inside the packet usually contains oil. I just removed and put the paste into the wok. Add some water and the add the quarter onion. Simmer for 10 mins.


2) Add in the prawns last as prawns cook pretty fast. Simmer for another 5 minutes and it is ready.

3) It's that simple. Ready to be served. Best served with hot white rice. Voila! Ready to eat! Yummy! Yummy!

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!

Har Bee Luah aka Spicy Dried Shrimp

Inspiration :- This is a tribute to my grandma, she is a wonderful woman, she may have love-hate relationships with the family but we all know deep down she is a woman who worked hard all her life to raise 5 kids and now trying to grow old gracefully. As far as I can remember, tracing back to my childhood, she has always cooked this spicy dish. In Hokkien "har bee luah" literally translated to "dried shrimp spicy". I love this dish and probably where I picked up my palate for spicy dishes. So, here, I am in Dallas trying for the 1st time to replicate one of my grandma's signature dish.

Simple ingredients -
1) Dried Shrimp - one handful

2) Chilli paste - depending on how spicy you want

3) Salt and sugar to taste
4) Oil for frying


Simple steps :-
1) Soak dried shrimp for at least 30 mins. Then mince it. It does not need to be too fine. Some texture taste better.



2) Filled wok with 3-5 tablespoons of oil. You can also start with stir-fry of minced garlic and shallots. Then add in the minced dried shrimp. Stir-fry till fragrant in medium heat.


3) Add the chilli paste, mix well and continue to stir-fry.



4) For those with sensitive noise, be warned that you may accidently get a whiff of the spice through the nose and it may inadverdently spark a series of uncontrollable spicy "ah choooos".
I often hear it whenever my grandma or mom is cooking this dish.

5) Once the shrimp is aromatic, slighty reddish brown and then Voila! Ready to eat! Yum yum!

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

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