I once ate something similar from a chinese take-away and decided to give it a try. The Napa Cabbage used in this dish is also known as Chinese White Cabbage (大白菜) or similar to Kimchi. It is longish and sweet in taste and widely used in East Asia. Though I usually stir fry this dish or use them in soups, this is my first attempt at steaming them after rolling them up like popiah.

There are 3 main steps to this dish. Preparing the stuffing, softening the cabbage and steaming the cabbage rolls. This recipe makes about 10 to 12 rolls with each roll using a single napa cabbage leaf. Actually, the stuffing can be left to your creativity. I used pork and prawns here. You can use fish paste, chicken meat or even beef or lamb mince depending on the seasoning applied.

The result was good and I was happy with how it turned out. The stuffing was nice and firm (and does not crumble) whilst the napa cabbage leafs were not overcooked and retained a slight resistance when bitten. Rather healthy dish, I must say. Tasted great with steaming white rice and a favourite with the kids. I should cook this for Chinese New Year Eve Dinner

This is my recipe for Napa Cabbage Rolls Read the rest of this entry »

Sweet Potato shoots goes well with fermented beancurd and it’s quite common to find this dish in chinese eateries in Malaysia. Miso Sweet Potato Shoots however, was more an accidental finding as I had run out of fermented beancurd on the very day that I decided to stir fry some sweet potato shoots. With two little kids at home, stir frying the sweet potato shoots with belacan was out of the question. As I rummaged through my fridge for ideas, my eyes set upon the pack of miso paste on the slider drawer and I thought this is it!

As miso paste is also some form of soybean product, I thought that it might taste as good with the sweet potato shoots just like fermented beancurd. And I was right! It tasted great especially with fried garlic slices which had a little smoky flavour. However, taking the cue from readers who told me that miso must not be boiled, I had to get around the problem of cooking the sweet potato shoots without cooking the miso! So, it turned out to be a two part cooking process - blanching and quick stir frying. If you have miso paste at home, don’t just settle for miso soup. Try this for a change.

This is my recipe for Miso Sweet Potato Shoots Read the rest of this entry »

Tangy Ladies Fingers. A rather exotic sounding name for a dish, isn’t it? Well, I am not good in giving names to recipes which I create or experiment with but this would do. For this dish, I have stayed away from using sambal to cook ladies fingers (okra) but have opted for something which even children can eat. It tastes sweet and tangy due to the use of sugar and calamansi juice. The use of fried shallots give it a nice smoky aroma and fish sauce complements it well.

Most importantly, this dish is easy to cook and is fuss free. I suppose the time taken to slice the okra (ladies fingers) is longer than the actual time to cook this dish. Do use a really hot wok as you will need to cook this dish very quickly to maintain the okra’s crunchiness.

This is my recipe for Tangy Ladies Fingers Read the rest of this entry »

I know some of you might squirm at the thought of eating something fermented but fermented beancurd is something of a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. Also known as “tau zhu” in hokkien, the fermented beancurd comes in many varieties - red fermented beancurd (which is usually used in the marinating of meat), fermented beancurd with sesame or plain spicy fermented beancurd.

Local chinese eateries here serve leafy greens stir fried with fermented beancurd amongst other styles. The fermented beancurd gives the vegetables a slightly spicy (owing to the use of chilli in the fermentation process) and salty (salt is also used in the fermentation process) taste. Usually, a small piece of fermented beancurd suffice. You can use “yau mak” or any suitable lettuce to cook this or you can follow me by using the tender sweet potato shoots (”fan shee mew” in Cantonese or “fan soo chai” in Mandarin).

This is my recipe for Stir Fried Sweet Potato Shoots with Fermented Beancurd Read the rest of this entry »