I am quite fond of baby corn as I find them tender, sweet and very appetising. The sweet nature of baby corns make it a wonderful accompaniment to mixed vegetables dishes. This dish, however, highlights the sweet baby corn in itself by pairing it with the irresistible sambal belacan - spicy and pungent prawn paste. It is quite simple to cook and ingredients are fairly minimal. Don’t let the photo presentation deceive you, this is a delicious dish on its own!

This is the recipe for Sambal Belacan Baby Corn Read the rest of this entry »

Soya Bean Sprouts are different from Mung Bean Sprouts. The former has a big bean head whilst the latter is smallish, which is understandable because soya beans are much bigger in size compared to mung beans. In the market, mung bean sprouts (most of the time just simply called bean sprouts) are easily available but not soya bean sprouts. You will also realise that mung bean sprouts have yellow coloured head (bean) after the removal of the dark green coloured skin covering the bean. As for the soya bean sprouts, you can see them above.

Cooking time wise, soya bean sprouts take a longer time to cook due to the bigger sized bean head. In terms of taste and texture, I think soya bean sprouts are slightly heavier in taste (sweeter) and no doubt, crunchier. When you are chewing on mung bean sprouts, you practically can only feel the texture of the body rather than the bean. I think soya bean sprouts are also more nutritious as what soya beans are famed for. If you can get your hands on the ingredients, try out this simple stir fry recipe.

This is the recipe for Stir Fried Soya Bean Sprouts with Ikan Bilis Read the rest of this entry »

I finally got hold of my mother-in-law’s recipe for pineapple jam. This pineapple jam is used to make pineapple tarts. Prior to this, I have posted the recipe for the pastry for Pineapple Tart. I didn’t know that the recipe for pineapple jam is so easy…though it does take an amount of patience to stir the ingredients till the juice is reduced and the pineapple mixture becomes sticky. The good thing is that the jam can be stored in the fridge for a few months, which would allow you to make a couple of batches of pineapple tarts

This is the recipe for Pineapple Jam Read the rest of this entry »

Teochew or Chaozhou Dumplings are good exercise for the jaw. Packed with plenty of ingredients including peanuts, dried shrimps, mushrooms and bamboo shoots, each bite gives you a riot of taste and texture - from the smoky peanuts to the soft mushrooms right to the crunchy sweet taste of bamboo shoots. My mother-in-law made this for supper during my visit to Kuching recently and the recipe is based on a cookbook which she adapted and slightly modified.

I was intrigued with the tang flour and caltrop starch which were used to make the dumpling skin. The end result is a skin which is slightly translucent and almost had a slight rubbery texture to it (which ensured that the filling does not burst out after steaming). I understand that this combination is used quite often in making other types of dumplings. Anyway, if you have time and you want to impress your family or guests, give this recipe a try.

This is my mother-in-law’s recipe for Teochew Dumplings Read the rest of this entry »