Lately I have been quite fond of eating Bak Kut Teh, a herbal soup with pork parts (predominantly ribs). Bak Kut Teh is transliterated to the Hokkien / Eng Choon dialect as “Pork Rib Tea”. All these while, I would buy Bak Kut Teh from a nearby stall and have it for dinner with steaming white rice. That was until the thought of cooking it myself came about when I popped by at a Chinese herbal medicine shop. I wanted to see if I could replicate it at home.

Ready made Bak Kut Teh herb sachet are commonly found in supermarkets and grocery shops and the different brands available can be quite mind-boggling. We bought ours called the Chat Lin Brand, manufactured in Semenyih, Malaysia. So, last Saturday morning, I went to get myself about 700 grammes of pork ribs and loin and the experiment began.

The recipe was simple and easy to follow, though I did add the seasoning to my personal taste. I also added some Goji berries to sweeten the soup. The end result was a satisfying dinner for the family and I am looking forward to cooking the other sachet soon. There are 2 sachets of about 8 grammes each in a packet.

This is the Bak Kut Teh recipe Read the rest of this entry »

I saw a recipe somewhere before on stuffed mushrooms but did not take down the recipe. So, relying on the basic idea on how it should be prepared and cooked, I came up with my own Stuffed Mushrooms recipe. The mushrooms which I used are the dried chinese mushrooms which were pre-soaked to soften them. You can also use Shiitake mushrooms. These mushrooms are chosen due to the natural shape which looks like a plate when turned upside down and are not too small (like button mushrooms) or too big (portobello, oyster or grey mushrooms). The ideal way is to have them in bite sizes, not unlike a dim sum treat.

For the ingredients, I initially wanted to use salted egg whites as one of the ingredients but silly me, I cracked the egg with the black coating still on the egg without realising that I should have washed the coating off first. In the end, I could only salvage the salted egg yolk but it was interesting as the salted egg yolk gave the Stuffed Mushrooms a twist in the flavour. Sorry as I am unable to describe the taste in words but if you have eaten salted egg yolk mooncakes, you will know the taste.

This is my recipe for Stuffed Mushrooms Read the rest of this entry »

The Delicious Asian Food Fest has ended and though I am a little disappointed that there were only 3 submissions, nevertheless, I must say that the 3 submissions were of high quality and I must thank them for taking part. In fact, the 3 submissions are all some of my favourite chinese snacks and if you see the sample pictures here, you will know why.

The first to submit was Jo, the author of *~Riceballz~*. She shared her family recipe for Bak Chang (triangular shaped rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves). It is not a recipe for beginners and it can be a labourious task making these but the effort usually pays off when you dig into these lovely dumplings.

The next to submit was Takfenglili of Life is Beautiful; Life is Love. Takfenglili generously shared with me their (yes, Takfenglili is actually Tak Feng and Lili) recipe for Chai Kueh which is Vegetable Rice Noodle. A mixture of vegetable and prawns are wrapped in a rice noodle sheet before steaming to make this delicious looking parcel. Great for afternoon tea, I must say.

Finally, Elaine of A Series of Kitchen Experiments came up with her recipe for oblong looking Har Gows (Shrimp Dumplings) which is a favourite in Dim Sum restaurants. Reading the recipe makes one realise that these dainty treats take lots of effort to make. No wonder they are so delicious!

The best way to eat Kangkong (water convolvulus) is either to stir fry it with belacan or blanched and dipped in prawn paste eaten together with cuttlefish. I was not planning to cook kangkong without chilli but due to absent mindedness, I bought kangkong without buying chillies. Left with no choice, I had to do some improvisation and decided to give it a stir fry minus chillies.

I had with me tender shoots of kangkong, homegrown by some villagers nearby. Most of the stems were used as they were young shoots and not overly fibrous. I was pleasantly surprised that a simple stir frying with garlic and pre-soaked dried prawns brought out the natural hint of sweetness in the vegetable. Unlike stir frying with belacan which may overpower the taste of the vegetable altogether, this stir fry keeps it light.

This is my recipe for Stir Fried Kangkong with Garlic Read the rest of this entry »