Spinach Omelette

Remember Popeye, the sailor man? Spinach was the super food that gave him his strength. Whenever he wants to defeat his enemies, he will open a can and eat his spinach out of the can.

Unlike Popeye, most of the time we stir-fry our spinach with anchovies or just with lots of garlic and season with light soy sauce and salt. Sometimes we cook soup with it. Or, we can add spinach to our pizza or spaghetti. How many of us think about making omelette with it?

Well, I make spinach omelette quite often; it is easy to make and is delicious to our taste buds.

• Firstly, remove the roots of the spinach.

• Wash and soak the spinach at least 3 times to ensure all the soil is removed. 

• Squeeze the spinach to remove water from it. 

• Cut the spinach finely and set aside. 

• Beat a few eggs (enough to cover the cut spinach) into a bowl. Season the eggs with salt, light soy sauce and pepper.

• Add the spinach to the eggs and stir well to mix completely. 

• Heat the wok with 2-3 tablespoons of oil.

• When the oil is heated up, pour the egg batter into the wok and spread it out thinly. Turn the heat to medium. 

• When the bottom is browned, flip the omelette over to cook the other side. 

• When the other side is cooked, dish the omelette out onto a serving dish. 

Yam Kuih

There are many ways of eating yam:

• steamed and eaten with coconut flakes mixed with sugar,
• deep fried into crunchy fritters,
• used as one of the ingredients for Bubur Cha Cha,
• made into Yam Cake for snack,
• made into kuih called Yam Talam,
• braised with chicken,
• braised with pork belly (to form a Hakka dish called Wu Tau Kau Yoke)

to name a few.

Steamed Yam Cake is a popular savoury snack which is made with such ingredients as rice flour, dried prawns, Shitake mushroom and ground anchovies and topped with fried shallots, red chilies and spring onions.

Start with the yam:

• Dice about 400 g of yam. (Choose the yam which is powdery so that it melts when you bite into it.)

Prepare the batter:

• Mix the following;
• 250 g of rice flour
• 750 ml of water
• 1 tsp of salt

Prepare the condiments:

• Pound or grind about 100 g of dried prawns (can be more, according to one's preference)
• Dice about 100 g of soaked Shitake mushrooms.
• Wash and dry 100 g of anchovies. Fry them and grind them finely.
• Prepare:
• 1 tbsp of light soy sauce.
• 1 tsp of salt
• 2 tsp of pepper

Prepare the garnishing:

• Wash 2 red chilies, remove the seeds and cut them into short strips.
• Peel about 100 g of shallots, slice them and fry them into crisps.
• Wash and cut spring onions into 0.5 cm length.

Method:

• Prepare a steamer with water and turn on the heat to boil the water.

• Heat up the wok with 3 tbsp of cooking oil.
• Saute the pounded or ground dried prawns until fragrant.
• Add in the mushrooms and continue to fry.
• Add in the ground anchovies and continue to fry.
• Add the light soy sauce, salt and pepper into the rice flour batter.
• Stir the batter to ensure that there is no lump and pour them into the wok.
• Add the yam into the wok.
• Stir the batter and yam over medium heat until the batter is half cooked.
• Scoop them up into a 7 inch round pan.
• Level the batter using your spatula.

• Place the pan into the steamer of boiling water.
• Cover the pan loosely with a piece of aluminium foil to prevent water from dripping onto the batter.
• Steam for about 1 hour or until the yam cake is cooked. (Use a satay stick to test that the cake is cooked. Poke the stick into the centre of the yam cake and if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked.)

• Remove the pan from the steamer and let the yam cake cool completely.
• Garnish with the red chilies, shallots and spring onion.
• The yam cake is ready to be served with chili sauce or sweet sauce or both.

Acar (Spicy Pickled Vegetable)

Acar is a favourite dish amongst many people. It is sweet, sour and spicy and, thus, can whet up one's appetite. 

Making Acar involves a lot of work. Thus, it is better to divide the processes over 2 days.

Day 1:

• Preparing the sambal. It depends on how much Acar you want to make. I will usually make a lot and store them in boxes before freezing them up for later consumption. Please refer to my Sambal post on how I make my sambal. For this recipe, I am using all the ground chilli from my Sambal post i.e.
• 1 kg fresh red chilli
• 1/2 kg dried chilli
• 200 g bird's eye chilli (chilli padi) (optional)
• 2 big onions
• 1 bulb garlic
• 1 1/2 inch shrimp paste

• Preparing the peanuts (400g). I love putting a lot of peanuts in my Acar. However, not necessarily at one go during cooking. I keep the ready ones in a bottle and just sprinkle them on top of the Acar when I want to eat them.
• Wash and dry the peanuts.
• Toast them in the kuali without any oil until they are brown and fragrant.
• Remove the membrane.
• Let the peanuts cool down completely.
• Grind or pound them coarsely; I want to be able to chew them with the vegetables and sesame seeds. I also want to taste and smell the fragrance of the peanuts while eating the Acar.
• Store the ground peanuts in an air-tight container for later use.

• Preparing the sesame seeds (200 g)
• Wash and dry the sesame.
• Toast them in the kuali without any oil until they are brown.
• Remove them from the kuali and let them cool down completely.
• Store them in an air-tight container. 

Day 2

• Preparing the vegetables:
• Preparing the cucumbers
• Wash 4 big cucumbers (more if you prefer over other vegetables).
• Cut the cucumbers lengthwise into 4.
• Remove the seeds.
• Cut cucumbers into small 1 inch x 0.3 inch x 0.3 inch rectangular blocks.
• Put the cut cucumbers in batches into a muslin cloth and squeeze out as much water as possible. The more water you squeeze out from the cucumber, the crunchier they would be.
• Set aside

• Preparing the carrots
• Peel and wash 2 or more big carrots.
• Cut the carrots into sizes like those of the cucumbers.
• Boil a pot of water.
• When the water is boiling pour a capful of vinegar into it.
• Put the carrots into the boiling water.
• Blanch them for 3-4 minutes. (We do not want the carrots to be soft.)
• Scoop up and set aside.

• Preparing the cabbage
• Peel and wash 4 or more leaves of cabbage.
• Cut the cabbage leaves into the length of the cucumbers and carrots and width of about 2 inches.
• Top up the water used to blanch the carrots.
• When the water is boiling pour a capful of vinegar into it.
• Put the cabbage into the boiling water.
• Blanch them for 5 minutes or longer (if you prefer soft cabbage).
• Scoop up and set aside.

• Preparing the long beans
• Wash the 4-5 strings of long beans.
• Cut them according to the length of cucumber and carrots.
• Top up the water used to blanch the carrots and cabbage.
• When the water is boiling pour a capful of vinegar into it.
• Put the long beans into the boiling water.
• Blanch them for 3-4 minutes or longer (if you prefer the long beans to be softer).
• Scoop up and set aside.

• Assembling all the vegetables.
• Heat up some oil in a wok.
• Scoop the prepared sambal into the wok and saute it until it is fragrant.
• Once the sambal is fragrant, add in salt and sugar (both according to individual taste).
• Pour in rice vinegar and let it boil.
• Once it has boiled, turn off the fire.
• Add in the cucumber, carrot, cabbage and long beans and mix them up well.
• Sprinkle the ground peanuts and toasted sesame.
• The Acar is ready.
• Let the Acar cool down completely before storing them into containers and freezing them.

Leek Fried with Tofu and Fish Slices

Leek Fried with Tofu and Fish Slices is a simple yet delicious dish that goes very well with rice. Leek can be bought easily from the wet market and the hypermarket all year round. However, it is usually sold in abundance during Chinese New Year. In fact it is a must-have for the auspicious day. This is because Leeks, according to its Mandarin pronunciation means "to count". We definitely want to have lots of money to count in the year ahead. Thus, cooking leek is sort of "mandatory" for us who celebrate the festival.

Our family likes leek a lot. I have cooked it in many ways. Sometimes, I fry it with tofu, fish fillet, carrots and Shitake mushrooms. At other times, I just fry it with fish slices and tofu or just with tofu alone.

I take the following steps to make this dish:

• Clean and cut the leek in a diagonal manner of about 1 inch. We need to wash the leek thoroughly as a lot of soil is trapped between the many layers of the leaves. So, usually after cutting them, I will soak them for about 10  minutes for the soil to be dislodged from the leaves. Set aside.
• Wash and cut the fish into slices. I usually use the Grouper or the Snapper fillet for this dish. Heat up the wok and fry the fish. If you do not want the oil to splash all over, coat the fish slices with a thin layer of flour. Dish the fish slices out after they are cooked. Set aside.
• Remove the tofu from the plastic casing. Rinse and cut them cylindrically into half centimeter thick. Coat with flour and deep-fry them. Set aside after dishing them out from the wok.
• Saute garlic. Add in the leek. Add a bit of water. Stir. Add in the seasonings - light soy sauce, salt and pepper according to your taste. Add in the fish slices. Do not overcook the leek. Finally, when the dish is almost done, add in the tofu. Stir gently so as not to break the tofu.
• When done, dish the leek, fish slices and tofu out from the wok.

Deep Fried Brinjal or Steamed Brinjal

Deep-fried Brinjal

                                           Steamed Brinjal

Brinjal by itself is very sweet. There are many ways of cooking it. It can be deep-fried, steamed or cooked in various types of curry like vegetable curry, fish curry or pajeri.

Deep-fried or Steamed Brinjal is one of the easiest dishes to prepare when we are in a hurry: 

• Peel, wash and chop up 7 to 8 cloves of garlic. Saute them until they are fragrant. Set aside.
• Wash and chop up some chilies - either the big ones or the chili padi if you want your brinjal to be very spicy. Set aside.
• Wash and cut some spring onions.
• Wash and cut the brinjal into 3 parts width-wise if your brinjal is very long or 2 parts if it is shorter. Then cut into 4 parts, length-wise.
• Heat up the wok and when the oil is very hot, turn to medium heat and put the brinjal in. Dish out the brinjal pieces onto a serving plate when they are soft.
• If you are steaming them, bring the water in the steaming pot to boil. Put the brinjal into a metal plate. Place the place on the metal rack in the steaming pot when the water has boiled. Close the cover of the pot. Steam for 30 minutes and check to ensure all the brinjal pieces have softened. If not, increase the steaming time for another 10 minutes. Once they are soft, arrange them onto a serving plate.
• Pour some light sauce over the brinjal.
• Sprinkle the cut chilies onto them.
• Sprinkle the cut spring onions over them.
• Sprinkle the sauteed garlic onto the brinjal.
• Your dish is ready to be served.

Wholemeal Bread

My family tries to eat as healthy as possible. One of the healthiest bread is wholemeal bread which according to Wikipedia is a type of bread made using flour that is partly or entirely milled from whole or almost-whole wheat grains. It is one kind of brown bread and its fiber content is four times that of white bread.

I bake wholemeal bread 2 to 3 times a week. Sometimes I bake loaves while at other times I shape them into buns.

The following ingredients are required to bake wholemeal bread:

• 250 g whole wheat flour
• 30 g wholemeal flour
• 80 g high protein or bread flour
• 16 g sugar (I usually use brown sugar.)
• 6 g salt
• 6 g instant yeast
• 225 g warm milk
• 1 egg at room temperature
• 20 g olive oil (I sometimes use corn oil.)

The method:

• Grease and line a loaf pan 8 inch x 4 inch x 4 inch. Set aside.

• Put the flours, sugar, salt and yeast into the mixing bowl.

• Pour the warm milk and break the egg into the mixing bowl.

• Add the oil into the mixing bowl. (Sometimes I use butter instead of oil. In this instance, I will add the butter only when the dough has formed into a ball.)

• Knead the ingredients into a smooth dough. This will take about 20 minutes or slightly more.

• Grease a bowl with oil.

• Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and put it into the greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap.

• Leave the dough to proof until it double in size.

• Once it has doubled in size, remove the dough from the bowl onto a slightly floured table-top.

• Knead it manually for about 5 minutes.

• Then roll it into a rectangle and roll it up to fit the loaf pan. (You may also shape them into buns. Weigh the dough and divide it according to the number of buns that you wish to have. I usually divide my dough into 9 parts to obtain 9 buns.)

• Cover the loaf pan with a wet towel.

• Let the dough double in size.

• Pre-heat oven to 175 degree Celsius.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, bake it in the oven for about 30 - 35 minutes.

• Remove the pan from the oven.

• Remove the bread immediately from the pan and let it cool down on a metal rack.

• Slice the loaf once it has completely cool down.

Banana Bread

According to Medical News Today, bananas are rich in potassium and fiber.  They may help prevent asthma, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and digestive problems.

Most of the time we eat bananas as they are; our favourites are Pisang Berangan and Pisang Rastali. Sometimes, we eat them with our cereals for breakfast or made into pancakes for breakfast or snacks or as a dessert with ice cream. We also add them into our Bubur Cha Cha. We also love banana fritters as tea time snacks. Usually, we will buy Pisang Awak or Pisang Abu for frying them into fritters. We also use bananas to bake Banana Cake, Banana Muffins or Banana Bread.

We bake Banana Bread quite frequently as it is delicious, aromatic, soft and easy to bake. The latter involves only mixing of a few ingredients. To make it, we need bananas of course, all-purpose flour, baking soda, oil, sugar, milk, salt, oil, eggs and some chocolate chips:

Dry Ingredients:

• 2 cups of all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon of baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Sieve and mix these 3 ingredients in a bowl and set them aside.

• 1/4 cup of sugar

• 1 cup of chocolate chips

Wet Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup of oil

• 100 ml of milk

• 2 eggs

• 1 1/4 cup of mashed bananas (I use Pisang Berangan.)

In another bowl, mix the oil and sugar. Whisk until the sugar is dissolved.

Add in the milk and whisk until they are combined.

Add in the eggs and whisk till they are well mixed.

Assembly:

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celcius.

• Grease and line a loaf pan of 8 in x 4 in x 4 in.

• Put 1/2 of the flour mixture into the bowl of wet ingredients. Stir to mix them up using a

        spatula. Then, do the same with the remaining flour.

• Add in the mashed bananas. Mix well.

• Finally, add in the chocolate chips.

• Pour the batter into the pan.

• Bake for 50 minutes.

• Once the bread is baked, remove it immediately from the pan

        and let it cool down on the wire rack. (You may test if it is baked by inserting a skewer 

        into the middle of the bread.)

• Remove the parchment paper from the bread.

• Let the bread cool down completely before cutting it.

Fried Fusilli

Fried Fusilli is a great meal for lunch or dinner. You can prepare it the Western way or the Chinese way like I have done. The Western style may be a bit heavy for some people due to the addition of cheese. The way I have cooked it merely involve frying the fusilli with meat, eggs and vegetables. You may replace the meat with seafood like prawns, crab meat, fresh scallops, mussels or even fish slices which had been deep fried. You can also add the various types of mushrooms that you can find in the market or supermarket.

• To fry the fusilli, first boil it according to the instructions on the packaging. Once done, set it aside. 
• I am using minced meat in this dish. Usually I will buy the ready one from my butcher. 
• I like using broccoli as it is sweet and it gives a contrast to the beige colour fusilli. Wash and cut into little florets and set aside. 
• Peel the carrots. Wash and cut them and set them aside. 
• Sometimes I will add cauliflowers. In this instance I will be using only broccoli. 
• Prepare 2 eggs. 
• Prepare some garlic. 
• Heat up some cooking and fry the eggs. Stir to break the eggs up and once cooked, dish them out. Set aside. 
• Pour some sesame oil into the kuali. Saute the garlic till fragrant. Add in the minced meat. When they are almost cooked, add in the stems of the broccoli and the carrots. Half-way through add in the broccoli florets and stir fry them till cooked, adding some water if necessary. Add in the chilli padi. 
• Pour in the fusilli when the sauce is boiling and stir. 
• Add the seasonings like salt, light soy sauce and pepper. 
• Your dish is ready to be served.

Bubur Cha Cha

Some people like their Bubur Cha Cha with lots of santan as in the first photo while others don't. And some like theirs to be thick while others like their Bubur Cha Cha to be watery. I like my Bubur Cha Cha to be thick with lots of santan as the latter has a natural sweetness to it. My mother used to cook it by boiling water in a big pot and cutting the potato, yam and banana and putting them into the pot to boil till they are soft. However, I do it differently:

• Wash 100 g of black-eye beans. Boil a pot of water. When the water is boiling, pour the beans into the pot. Let the water boil. Pour away the water of the first boil. Fill the pot of beans with water and let it boil till the beans have softened. Drain the beans and set aside.
• Take 50 g of sago and put them into a bowl. Fill the bowl with water to soak the sago.
• Peel 200 g of yellow sweet potatoes. Wash and cut them into little cubes of 1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm. Put them into a metal plate.
• Peel 200 g of orange sweet potatoes. Wash and cut them into little cubes of 1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm. Put them into a metal plate.
• Peel 200 g of purple sweet potatoes. Wash and cut them into little cubes of 1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm. Put them into a metal plate.
• Peel 200 g of yam. Wash and cut them into little cubes of 1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm. Put them into a metal plate.
• Fill a steamer with water and let the water boil.
• Once the water has boiled, put the 4 metal plates of sweet potatoes and yam into the steamer. Turn off the fire once the sweet potatoes and yam are soft.
• Fill a large pot with one-third of water.
• Wash 5-6 pandan leaves and put them into the large pot of water. Turn on the fire to boil the water.
• Once the water has boiled, pour the beans and four plates of sweet potatoes and yam into the pot. Let it boil again.
• Add in 300 g or more santan.
• Add in a teaspoon of salt.
• Add in sugar, the amount depending on individual taste.
• Pour in the sago. Turn off the fire after a final boil. Cover the pot to let the sago turn transparent.
• The Bubur Cha Cha is ready to be served.
• Some like to have bananas with their Bubur Cha Cha. Slice a banana on top of the Bubur Cha Cha before serving it. Or, you may slice a few bananas into the pot and let the bubur boil for a minute or two before serving.

Chicken Green Curry

My mother-in-law taught me this dish many years ago. I seldom cook it as it requires a lot of work even though it is a very delicious dish. It is only during festivals and special events that I cook it for my family, relatives and friends.

The ingredients are:

• 1 chicken -  about 1.2 kg, wash and cut into 8 big pieces, then rinse
• 18 stalks of lemongrass, wash and cut into small rings, to be ground
• 20 shallots, peel and wash, to be ground
• 20 cloves of garlic, peel, wash and slice
• 10 pieces of green chilli, cut into 2, lengthwise
• 200 ml santan
• Salt, according to taste

The method:

• Grind together lemongrass and shallots till fine.
• Saute ground lemongrass and shallots till fragrant.
• Add in the sliced garlic.
• Add in half of the green chilli. Set aside the remainder for later use.
• Add in the chicken. Stir till all the pieces are covered.
• Add a bit of water if required. Note that the sauce must be thick and not watery.
• Let the sauce simmer until the chicken is cooked.
• Add santan and let the sauce boil again.
• Add in the remainder of the green chilli. (The earlier batch would have become very soft and turned yellowish. These remaining ones should not be overcooked to maintain their greenness.)
• Add salt to taste.
• The green curry is ready to be served.