Cooking with Ribs, Lamb Shank : Soup Stock

Today i would like to share a little secret of my cooking especially when cooking beef/lamb in making soup/stew. This little tip is suitable for soups that are thick / creamy in nature as the ingredients used will cause the soup to be murky not clear. First of all.. credit goes to one of my idolised chef - Chef Wan: the food ambassador of Malaysia. It was back in mid 90's i watched his cooking show where he shared his little secret of having delicious meat after simmering for hours. So- let's start.

Coat any meat of your choice with sea salt, pepper & corn flour.

The one that i'm using in this post is a quarter of lamb leg.

Note: by coating the meat with seasoning & flour,

simmering it for hours till tender will help to regain the sweetness of the meat.

 

Heat the pan with olive oil or corn oil and

pan fry / sear the meat till the coating covering the meat is golden.

Once done in all sides of the meat, put it aside.

 

On the same pan, pour in more oil (if needed) and with medium heat,

caramalise 1 big yellow onion & 1/2 Australian big onion.

This may take a while. Caramalizing the onions this way would

result into a sweeter & creamy taste to the soup- and i find that using

a combo of yellow onion and Australian big onion gives better taste.

 

Once caramalised, put in the onions into the pot with the meat.

 

Pour water enough to cover the meat, put in a few bay leaves,

1 cube of knorr beef stock. Let it simmer till the meat is half tender then the stock is ready.

Note: when the meat is half tender- pour in the main ingredients of any soup that you wish to make and let it simmer till the meat tender.

 

 

 

Penang Curry Mee

There are many versions of Curry Mee.. but the one i like most is Penang Curry Mee.. it is definately a comfort food during rainy days.

mmmm... definately slurp slurp all d way!!

There are a few sets of ingredients needed to make Penang Curry Mee:
The main ingredients:

1a. The 'rempah'/ spice paste: 
1tbsp coriander seeds, 1/4 tbsp black pepper, 3-4 shallots, 3 garlic, 1/2 big onion, 2 lemon grass, 1 1/2cm ginger, 1 cm tumeric root, thumbsize shrimp paste, 2 candlenuts and 2tbsp fried dried shrimp. Blend all the ingredients above till fine and add in 4 tbsp of dry chilli paste.

1b. Prawn stock:
Ingredient: Shell of 1kg of fresh prawn, peanut oil, 1 tsp sea salt & 1 liter of water.
Method: i. wash the prawn shell properly and toss.
ii. heat peanut oil in the wok in high heat and put in the shell and sea salt. Fry the shell till they are crispy and pour in water.
iii. simmer for 1 hour and once done, seive the stock.



1c. 1/2 cup of coconut milk. (.. try with half cup first and then add more to yr liking.)

 2. 3/4 cooked fried tiger prawns, 3/4 cooked cockles (de-shelled), tau fu pok, fish balls & fish cakes. ( a few more varieties of fish balls and yong tau fo could be added.. but then- i would like to enjoy d cockles more..)

3. The garnishes for this dish i minimised them to a minimum as to i would to focus more one my big cockles & tiger prawns:-
Garnishes: boiled egg, blanched bean sprout, spring onions, deseeded calamansi, red & green chillies and dry squid sambal.

to make dry squid sambal- you may need: 1/2 big red onion, 5 shallots, 4 tbsp dry chilli paste, 1/2 tbsp tamarind paste, 1 tbsp brown sugar & fish sauce. Use fish sauce sparingly as the dry squid is quite salty.

method: fry the onion & shallots till golden and pour in tamarind paste & chilli paste. Put in brown sugar and fish sauce. Once the paste is cooked (oil surfaces)- put in dry squid which has been presoaked and cut into small pieces. Pour in a bit of water and cook the dry squid till the sambal dries a bit. The taste should be sourish sweet and chilli hot.

4. Blanched yellow noodles and rice vermicelli.


Method:
1. Use the oil that previously used for frying dried shrimp and tiger prawns to fry the blended paste.

2. Cook the paste till fragrant and oil surfaces from the paste. Pour in 1/2 cup of santan and the prawn stock.

3. Let it simmer and put in the fish balls, fish cake. Once the fishballs & fishcakes are done, put in cockles, prawns and tau fu pok.

4. The liquidity of the curry depends on how you like it to be. I use a little coconut milk as using candlenuts is quite creamy already. :)

Serve with yellow noodles and blanched rice vermicelli, bean sprouts, boiled egg, spring onion, half deseeded calamansi and top up with dry squid sambal. Bon Appetite.. :)

As featured in Asian Food Channel : Fan Submission (November)
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Acetes Fritters

Acetes serrulatus.. or as Malaysians call them Udang Geragau... Whenever my sight caught this mini scrumptious shrimps - i would definately 'borong' them ..if possible all.. hehe.. Just luv the taste..what more when they are fresh from the boat itself! One of my favourite ways to enjoy these fresh acetes is to make them into fritters and serve them with cucumber, fried tofu and peanut gravy.

Ingredients:
1 cup of rice flour
1/4 cup of unbleached flour
1/2 cube of anchovies stock
1tsp tumeric powder
1tbsp meat curry powder
sea salt
pepper
oil for frying






Method:
1. Clean acetes and toss them.
2. In a bowl- mix the rice flour, flour, anchovies stock, curry & tumeric powder, salt & pepper & water - make it into a batter (the consistency should be like fried banana batter consistency).
3. Heat the oil in the wok.
4. Drain excess water from the acetes and drop into the batter.
5. Scoop the batter containing acetes and deep fry them in a medium heat.
6. Fry tofu and cut into cubes. Cut cucumber into cubes.
7. The dish is served hot with peanut gravy.

.. know what.. this will definately goes well with a cuppa steaming hot coffee... bon appetite.. ;)

Fresh Pesto Shrimp Conchiglie

.. Sweet basil.. the fragrance itself would never fail to make my mouth watery.. To celebrate such good herb.. i choose to make it into pesto. This simple pesto goes well in my Shrimp Conchiglie dish today.. :)

Making the Pesto basically requires:

1 packet of sweet basil, 150gm of macadamia nuts, 1/4 cup of olive oil, sea salt.

Method:
1. In a food processor, chop macadamia nuts till fine and put in sweet basil.
2. Pour in olive oil slowly into the inlet of the food processor.
3. Blend the paste till fine.

 

Note: Normally, making pesto paste includes garlic and parmesan cheese. However, i prefer to cook the garlic and add the parmesan later when cooking the pasta.

 

~ Cooking the Pasta ~

Ingredients:

 

1 box of rice conchiglie (any pasta to yr liking) cooked el dente, 3 garlic chopped finely, a few sprigs of sweet basil, a cup of shrimps & tiger prawns, sea salt, pepper & parmesan to taste.

 

Methods:

1. In a pan, heat up olive oil & stir fry garlic in a medium heat.

2. Cook till the garlic are soft (not brown) and put in prawns, salt & pesto.

3. Stir fry the paste for awhile and add in pasta.

Mix well and add in parmesan, pepper and sweet basil.

 

~ bon appetite ~

 



Clam Chowder

They say when the moon is full- it is the best time to purchase crabs & clams. It is the time when these scrumptious creatures are meaty. I was at the market a few days ago and i saw fresh clams..remembering that it was a full moon the previous night..with the sight of the peeping clams from their shells..seemed as though they are waving at me..calling me.. come.. its time.. ;)



 

To make clam chowder, you'll need:



1kg of clams, 1 chad potato, 1/2 carrot, 1/2 Australian white onion, 1/2 celery, 1/2 packet of cooking cream, olive oil, 100gm of salted butter, frshly crushed black pepper, a few sprigs of fresh italian parsley & thyme, 1 1/2 tbs of flour, clam juice & chicken stock & salt.

Note: 1 whole yellow onion can be used as substitude for Australian White onion.

 

Method:

1. Dice potato, carrot, onion in small cubes.

2. In a pot of boiling water, put in clams in a few minutes. Once the shells begin to open slightly- toss the clams and save one cup of the juice.

3. In a medium heat pan, pour in olive oil and melt half of the butter. Add the onions and cook until transculent.

4. Add the potato & carrot and saute them till they are tender.

5. Pour in the clam juice and chicken stock and let it simmer for a few minutes.

6. Let it cool for a while - pour everything into a blender. Blend it till it becomes smooth. Put aside.

7. In a small pot, melt the remaining butter and whisk in the flour. Cook over very low heat and stir constantly till the flour becomes slightly golden.

 

 

8. Whisk in the blended ingredients constantly. Simmer for a few minutes and pour in cooking cream and stir. Add in the clams and celery.

9. Heat gently for a few minutes and sprinkle in chopped parsley and thyme as well as black pepper.

10. Serve hot with oven toasted baguette with butter.

 

 

~ bon appetit ~

 



 

Nyonya Herb Rice Salad.. Nasi Ulam Nyonya

Ulam... as Malays refer to an assortment of edible plant shoots, leaves, flowers and roots eaten raw. There many versions of nasi ulam.. varies according to region.. I remember my mom used to make nasi ulam with various shoots, leaves that may reached up to 14 types of ulam. However.. living in Penang nowadays particularly in the island- the supplies of various ulam is quite scarce.. to have an assortment up to 14 types of ulaman could be quite a challenging task to look for it. Apart from Malays, in Penang itself.. the Nyonyas have their version of Nasi Ulam which i really like and the assortment of ulaman needed for this dish is less than the Malay Nasi Ulam.

The original version of Nyonya Nasi Ulam is to assemble everything including the sambal & toasted grated coconut. I noticed that in assembling everything together- the dish will turn out soggy and it wont last long. To have a dry & fluffy nasi ulam, i prefer mixing the ulaman with the rice and serve them with the sambal & toasted grated coconut. This dish is best eaten with boiled salted egg and prawn crackers..  :)

Ingredients:

Part 1:

Part 1 consists of 4 shallots, 1/2 big red onion, 1 garlic, 1/2 ginger torch, 2 lemon grass, 2cm young ginger, 1.5 cm young galangal, 1.5cm tumeric root. Slice shallots, garlic, ginger torch, ginger, galangal, tumeric root thinly. Chop lemon grass finely & Dice the onion.

 

Part 2:
 



Part 2 consist of 6 types of ulam - 1 tumeric leaves, about 20 leaves kesom leaves, 4 kaduk leaves, 3 lime kaffir leaves, 6 cekur leaves, 1/2 cup of grated coconut toasted and sambal belacan.
There are various ways of making sambal belacan - and mine is a combo of 2 types of chillies - red chilly and the cili padi, shrimp paste, tamarind pulp, brown sugar & salt :

 

Part 3:



Wash 1 1/2 cup of rice and cook in a cooker after adding in 1/2 tsp of tumeric powder. Once cooked, set aside to let it cool.

Part 4:



Part 4 consists of a piece of fried salted mergui / kurau, 3 tbsp of fried salted prawns and a few chunks of fried stringray meat. I choose stingray meat as it has no fishy smell when it is fried.

Method:
1. Wash all the ulam, wipe them clean. Roll up all the ulaman into one neat roll and slice them very thinly.

2. Toast grate coconut till golden brown:

Let it cool and put it in a processor - blend it till it is finely chopped

3. To make the sambal, soak the tamarind pulp in a small amount of water and mash the pulp into water to make a thick tamarind paste. Put in the chillies, shrimp paste, brown sugar, salt and tamarind juice in a food processor and blend till it's quite fine:

4. In a mincer / food processor, blend the fish, salted fish and dried prawns separately:

5. In a large bowl, mix the part 1, 2 (EXclude sambal & grated coconut) and 4 well:

6. Mix in rice bit by bit till all are mixed well. Serve with boil salted egg & prawn crackers.

Bon Appetite. :)

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Pek-nga: Coconut Pancake

Pek-nga.. it's a term for a pancake-like dish filled with fresh grated coconut. Pek-nga is a well-known dish for almost every Malay household in northern part of Malaysia particularly in areas of Penang & Kedah. This dish for me actually- is often a routine at home especially when my mom has leftover fish curry. It's sort of a comfort food for me.. particularly in the morning and this would definately make a fullfilling evening snacks besides the usual menu- curry puffs & tea. Some may prefer to make them with a small amount of grated coconut. But - as for me.. i like it more..as it will make it crispy & creamy  :)

 

Ingredients:

1 egg ( gred B )

a few sprigs of spring onion (sliced thinly)

1 1/2 cup of flour
3/4 pack of full cream milk (200ml)
1 tbspn oil
salt
200gm fresh grated coconut

Method:
1. Combine flour, spring onion, salt, egg, milk & salt in a bowl. Mix well.

2. Put in grated coconut. Stir evenly.
3. Heat the pan and scoop the mixture with a ladle and level the pancake mix wth a spoon.

4. Cook each side till it is done.
5. Serve hot with fish head curry.
Bon Appetite. :)