Hainanese Chicken Rice / Eggplant Steak / Work Hard Bento

Heh heh ... this was yesterday night's dinner. I seem to be getting better at making the chicken tender and moist and just as delicious as the kind from back home! The rice was so fragrant and tender, so uh ... I kind of dug in before remembering to snap a photo. The untouched one is Sean's.

Complete with 2 sauces! XD Excelsior

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Last night's dinner was somewhat vegetarian. Simply because I was going to make dijon pork chops, but the pork tenderloins were not defrosted in time so I improvised ... eggplant chops with dijon mustard, it turned out really really delicious, so much so that Stewie finished his entire slab of eggplant, his rice and edamame.

Sean did not care for it too much, though.
I used the leftover rice (there is always a ton in each side serving package **sigh) heated up more edamame, threw in some hotdogs, and made this nice bento for Sean to take to work tomorrow.

Colorful! Now some kind people please send me cheap Bento boxes so this can be even more fun >_> LOL

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It is all about food today huh, hmm ... I have been suffering from PMS so been fatigued more than usual and sleeping more. I did, however, manage to miss Stewie's dental appointment and will have to reschedule. We have booked and paid for the hotel in Myrtle Beach for the second week of August (when Kirsty comes!!!) and I just planned our itineraries. With the help of Priceline, I was able to find a hotel room for only $60 a night!!! We are going to try to share the room, and that will make it cost around $35 per person for both nights total. That is an unbelievably good deal.
Hmm ... pretty ... my first self-manicured French nails.

It was a reward to myself after deleting Colleen from my life. Wow, I sure do go through friends like water. Maybe it is because I hate Augusta so much ... that I kind of reflect that hatred subconsciously, and everything to do with Augusta I detest, and people sense it in me. The other day I called U-Haul to rent a truck for this weekend so I can finally toss our couch out, and the girl on the other end had such an uneducated drawl/accent that I absolutely had to hang up, and then beg Sean for help. He somehow can understand the slang and hear through it (that is because he is awesome, and is great at his job tee hee) but almost always, I find myself crying for help when it comes to trying to talk to these people. It is not quite the Southern slang, because I understand Paula Deen perfectly well >_> it is that weird uneducated accent that people pick up that sounds like they are too lazy to even enunciate, I feel like taking a bat to their face screaming "SPEAK UP?! I CAN'T UNDERSTAND A WORD YOU'RE SAYING!!!" /end rant.

Paan Mien

Suddenly this craving for paan mien (a poor man's food with everything thrown in) is spread out across the recipe blogs. Of course it made me hunger for it as well. Here is my own take on the dish as I substituted udon noodles instead of the normal "torn" dough pieces. It gives the dish a chewy bite that goes splendidly with the smooth strong aroma of the soup, which should be the highlight and VIP of the dish to begin with!

Long Yoke (Bak Kua)

THANKS TAZZ for re-creating and posting this delicious treat for all to enjoy.

Here is the pork mixture as described to be sticky/gluey. It kind of was. Since I could not find any pork mince that was fatty (I could not obtain any at Walmart and they only had the healthy lean pork in Publix) I added 1 tbsp of vegetable oil.

The anticipation builds as I wait for the outcome ... it smelled Heavenly!

After a few more minutes ... TADA! Perfect! The edges were slightly crispy and the center parts gooey and chewy ... woah delightful. I baked it over my cookie cooling rack too, since it had the square marks that is usually found on KL made bak kua. Plus it helped me press out the meat until it achieved the thinness that I wanted.

Char Kuey Teow

Adopted from Malaysianfood.net I found fresh rice noodles at Jin Long (on Bobby Jones Expressway) opposite Walmart. Yay. Still they came out hard and stuck together, so I had to presoak them in warm water but they became too soft afterwards. ARGH! I don't like prawns in my CKT, I don't like lap cheong (Chinese dried sausage) either ... yealar I was brought up on the delicate taste of just the sauce and vegetables alone. I couldn't find si ham (cockles) either so too bad.

With the dark soy sauce my mom sent me (Thank YOU!) the taste I achieved was almost akin to the kind of ckt you will find in KL. Then while I was happily chowing down (the hubby loves it too) the Baby Stewie woke up. So I was carrying him and took a piece of noodle and popped it into his mouth. He was chewing and chewing ... then I took another piece and before it even reached his mouth, he was leaning forward with his entire body and mouth open bigger than I have ever seen before!

This boy is MALAYSIAN guaranteed!

He passed the test, and chowed down on almost half my portion too. Of course I didn't give him the veges as he can't chew those yet, but the egg and noodles, wow ... he loved it so much. Darn the flash in this photo but look he's showing his pleasure at both being up past his bedtime AND having something new and delicious in his mouth.


He is saying "Thanks mum! And poh poh for the kicap pekat!"

Tea Egg (Cha Yue Tan)

I had packets of herbal (tea) egg pouches sent to me from Malaysia by my mom, and I finally gave them a try.

Of COURSE being me, I would actually kick them up a notch using my nose and tummy rumblings.

I added more dong kuai, pak kor, kei chi and some others. I forget now, but I also added dark soy sauce and some sugar. After boiling overnight, it achieved this result:

After two days it looked even darker and more beautiful like this:

It was so delicious! I think I ate over 6 eggs within two days (of course I tossed the yolk and ate just the whites) In order to start a new batch the next time and have it as good as the first, I conserved the liquid in a container in the fridge.

Thanks MUM! For both the packets of herbs and the slow cooker!

PohPoh's Fried Rice

PohPoh's Fried Rice (Poh Poh is grandma in Cantonese)
1 can of Spam/Luncheon meat, cut into 1 cm cubes (optional)
1 cup cooked day old rice (the long grained Jasmine or Basmati rice works, why day old? Because it's drier and soaks up more flavor while cooking and doesn't become mush in the pan)
1 stalk of fresh chives, chopped coarsely (optional)
4 pieces of garlic, chopped finely
1 egg (optional, some people don't like egg)
2 tbsp soy sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Fry the Spam cubes in a pan until crispy, scoop out the cubes and lay them on a paper towel to soak up the extra oil. Don't toss the oil in the pan out!.
2. In a wok or large, deep frying pan, heat the Spam oil (and if the oil isn't enough, add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil) at high heat and the chopped garlic. This part gets tricky as you have to do everything very fast or it overcooks!
3. When the garlic is browned (gives out an aroma) add the cooked rice and mess it all up with the garlic and oil, then push it aside in the pan to make a space for the egg.
4. Add the egg, and into it, the soy sauce, and some pepper. Scramble it until it's almost all cooked, then mix the rice into it and mess everything up together.
5. Toss in your Spam cubes at this point, and fry mix for another 3 minutes (you can also add more soy sauce here if you want it more salty!) until your rice is light and fluffy. Then last but not least, toss in your chopped chives and mix that up into the rice. Serve and enjoy~!

Notice that most ingredients I put as optional, this is because the rice, soy sauce and garlic are the essential basic ingredients to any fried rice dish. You can add cooked chicken in place of Spam, and omit the egg, or chives. However, this is my grandma's recipe and to follow it to a T ends up delicious :) Tell me if you try it!

Chicken Curry

MALAYSIAN CHICKEN CURRY
(again!?! but Sean was so happy when I told him what I planned to cook tonight)

You need:
Onion / shallots (chopped fine)
Garlic (chopped fine)

Curry powder (my mom sent me Baba's Meat Curry Powder so I used that)
Chicken pieces (I usually use dark meat - drumsticks / thighs)
Potato (baking potato or red potato works)
Coconut milk (I used canned because it is more convenient and tastes the same anyway)
Butter / lard / oil
Salt and pepper

You want to rub some salt and curry powder all over the chicken pieces, and let sit in your fridge for about 30 minutes minimum.

Then while you wait, you can chop the onions and garlic, as well as cube up the potatoes.

Next, you drop the butter into a heated pot and add the onion-garlic mix. Fry that on medium heat until the aroma is released, and have them slightly browned.

That being done, this is where the potato cubes come into the game. Fry them for a few minutes, until they are coated in the base mixture too. Then add a bowl of water (we are talking chinese rice bowl size here, or equivalent - 1 cup water), cover and cook on medium heat until the potatoes soften slightly.

When potatoes are softened and cooked, lower the heat and then add your chicken pieces and another cup / bowl of water, so that it just slightly covers most of the contents. Here you might want to add more curry powder as well
(and start cooking your rice!)

Simmering it at medium low heat about 15-20 minutes it should look like this:

Or at least simmer until your chicken pieces are fully cooked. I do not recommend boiling on high heat because the chicken meat falls off the bones and disappears into the void! Ha ha

Top off on your rice and DONE! Oh and if you like it more spicy, just add some ground up chili paste, or dried chilis. I always forget :(

Wan Tan Mee w/ Pork Wontons

WAN TAN MEE (or er won tons as it is known here in the States)

Meat mix has:
*** Deveined and deshelled prawns / shrimp
*** Ground pork
*** Ginger, Chopped spring onions
*** Sherry (or Chinese cooking wine)
*** Pepper, Salt, Soy Sauce, Garlic Powder

Blended the shrimp to a paste together with the ginger and spring onions. Place in a large bowl, and mix it with the ground pork. Add the sherry and soy sauce, mix that. Add the rest of the ingredients. It smelled sooooooo good!

Whip out your wonton wrappers. Place a small amount in each wrapper so that you can actually close the top so the meat does not spill out.

Like this.

Stock:
*** Pork bones
*** Water and salt

Simmer stock for an hour on low heat so you get all the juice out of the pork bones, easier to do before you start wrapping the wan tan so you do not have to wait.

When the wan tan are ready, remove the bones, skim off the top of the stock where the brown stuff is (it looks gross in soup) and then turn up the heat to a boil. Add your wan tan and boil for 5 to 10 minutes until cooked.

Get some Cantonese style egg noodles (if like me, fresh wantan noodles are not available to you ;~;) soak them in cold water until they come apart. Then drop them in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain. In a plate, put some vegetable oil, dark soy sauce, pepper and soysauce about a half tablespoon each. This was my grandma's recipe heh heh ...

Then put the drained noodles into the sauce mix and stir it around. Arrange your wan tan and tada~!!!

Dinner is served ^_^

Pandan Kaya

PANDAN KAYA

(Tto make normal brown kaya, replace sugar with palm sugar and omit the pandan leave paste, but include 2 strips of pandan leaf into the mixture while it is cooking. Remove these later.)

500g SUGAR
10 PANDAN LEAVES
1 CAN COCONUT MILK (400ml)
4 EGGS
CHEESECLOTH

Actually, I did not really follow a set recipe, I modified someone else's, these are just the basic ingredients. I forgot to take pictures of the pandan leaves cut up into inch pieces and put into a processor. Blend it well with the coconut milk until it becomes almost paste.

In another bowl (preferable stainless steel) break the eggs and mix it well with the sugar. Then strain the pandan paste mixture over the eggs with the cheesecloth or a strainer. Mix that up well until the sugar is dissolved. It should look like this:

Meanwhile, fill a pot with water to act as a double boiler for the steel bowl. When it boils, turn down the heat to low and place the metal bowl over the pot. Stir occassionally for about 30 minutes or until it thickens. One of the recipes called for straining again before putting to the boiler, I did not but you see I had a back up plan. It turned out lumpy like this because I did not double strain.

After the mixture cooks, it turns into custard-like consistency and looks like that. To make it smooth like store-restaurant type kaya, I put it in my blender and pressed "Whip" or aka. highest speed available. The texture became like this:

Then you put it on bread (toasted or untoasted) and butter and YUM!

PANDAN KAYA! Happy tummy~

Chikuteh - Chicken Herbal Tea Stew

CHIKUTEH (A chicken variation of Bak Kut Teh)
This dish was only just known to me during the pig plague, where people were not supposed to eat pork due to a virus that left many dead. Ew bad topic. Anyway, this came in a CARE Package that my mom sent me from home and I decided to try it out.

1 PACKET CHIKUTEH SPICES
CHICKEN PIECES (I eat a lot of chicken huh)
GARLIC (2 whole cloves)
WATER
DARK SOY SAUCE (Can do without)
SALT (to taste)

People usually eat it with rice, but I decided to just go with Chinese crullers.

CHINESE CRULLERS (it was so-so)

FROZEN BREAD DOUGH
OIL (for deep frying)

You want to thaw the bread dough, and then roll them into strips and deep fry til golden brown. That be it. I tore the pieces up and just dunked them in the Chikuteh soup. Yummy!

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Finally! I made what I have been craving for, for years now. Only to discover that it is so blindingly simple to make, just time consuming. Sean loved it, I enjoyed it much more than the dish ordered in that Penang restaurant in San Francisco. I do wish the rice were more fluffy though, damn the rice cooker and my laziness.

I bring you all, Hainanese Chicken Rice. No doubt Malaysians are very familiar with this dish, since it is very popular back home. I skipped out on several things, the chili sauce that I was too lazy to make and there was not enough broth to make the soup. Ha ha ... still it was delicious, not overcooked, nor underdone. For my first time too.

Also I did not make a whole chicken, like the recipe called for, because I dislike breast meat and only like the dark meat anyway. Sean bought the wrong kind of drumsticks, so I just stuck to thigh meat which was delicious in itself.

Yum!!! Found it off a site that introduces Malaysian food.

Http://www.malaysianfood.net

Enjoy.

Wan Tan Mee Basic

For lack of anything else to call it. Cantonese egg noodles, made Malaysian style? I used my grandmother's recipe that she taught me. Very simple and easy. Sean likes this dish. It is supposed to come with wan tons but I am too lazy to make them right now!

1-2 rolls Cantonese style egg noodles
2 tbsp Oyster sauce (I use Lee Kum Kee)
1 tbsp Vegetable oil
1 tbsp Light soy sauce
Dash of pepper

Soak the noodles in cold water, then boil them until softened. Mix the other ingredients on a shallow plate. Drain noodles, and add to the sauce. You can blanch spinach or bok choy and eat it with this dish. What I had in mine were meatballs. YUM!