Bitter Gourd with Goji Berries and Egg

"Go healthy eating", said my husband. So here it is another healthy dish with little oil and no salt - Bitter Gourd with Goji Berries and Egg. Bittergourd and gojiberries with all their health benefits would appeal those looking for healthy food.


Ingredients:

• I bitter gourd, about 8 inches long
• A handful of goji berries
• 1 egg
• 2 cloves garlic
• Cooking oil
• Light soy sauce

Method:

• Wash and cut bitter gourd into half lengthwise. Then slice each half thinly.

• Wash and soak goji berries.

• Chop the garlic.

• Heat up some oil in the wok and saute the garlic.

• Once the garlic is fragrant add the bitter gourd. Stir.

• Add the goji berries. Stir the bitter gourd and goji berries.

• Add some water.

• Break the egg into the wok. Do not stir until the egg has firmed up slightly.

• Then fry the bitter gourd till they are cooked.

• Add the soy sauce (according to taste).

• Dish up and serve.

Baked Char Siew

 

In the past I have made Char Siew using an easy way and with just 3 ingredients - pork belly, soy sauce and sugar. The Char Siew always turned out very soft and fragrant. I try to give my family a different taste altogether by making use of the ingredients of my earlier Char Siew and those used in making Crispy Roast Pork and baking the marinated pork belly.  It turned out very delicious with a bit of charred taste.

Ingredients:

• 2 strips of pork belly, about 450 g each
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp five spices
• 2 pieces preserved bean curd
• 2 tbsp preserved bean curd sauce
• 2 tbsp Shao Hsing Hua Tiao Chiew (Chinese cooking wine)
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp Hoisin sauce
• 2 tbsp honey

Method:

• Wash and pat dry the pork belly.

• Put all the other ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix them up well.

• Marinate the 2 pieces of pork belly; better if they are left overnight in the refrigerator. Otherwise, marinate them for at least 4 hours.

• Bake the pork belly at 180 deg C for 1 hour. (Remember to line the base of your oven or air-fryer for easy cleaning.)

• Fifteen minutes into baking, glaze the pork belly with the marinade.

• Turn the 2 pieces of pork belly after 30 minutes.

• Let them bake for another 15 minutes before glazing them again with the marinade.

• Once done, remove the pork belly from the oven or air-fryer.

• Pour the marinade into a wok.

• Let it boil.

• Put the 2 strips of pork belly into the wok. Keep on turning the meat until the marinade reduces in amount, caramelises and coat the meat.

• The Char Siew is done.

Pajeri Nenas

I had eaten Pajeri Nenas a few times but the most delicious pajeri that I had ever eaten was that sold at the R&R Semanggol on my balik kampung trip a few months ago. Pajeri is a thick, dark, spicy, coconut-rich, sweetish curry often cooked with pineapple or brinjal (Oxford Dictionary). It comes in 2 types, one with santan or coconut milk and the other without. I consulted my Malay friends and browsed through various recipes online before cooking it. This version is without the santan.


Ingredients:

• 1 pineapple (1 kg without the skin and core), quartered lengthwise and then cut into smaller pieces. You may also cut it into thin rings.

• For sauteing:
• 50 g onions, chopped
• 2 gloves garlic, chopped
• 1 1/2 inch ginger, skin removed and thinly sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 star anise

• To blend:
• 5 chili padi (maybe reduced for a less spicy pajeri)
• 250 g onions
• 3 gloves garlic
• 1 1/2 inch ginger
• 25 g dried prawns, washed and soaked

• 2 tbsp curry powder

• 2 tbsp kerisik

• 1 cup of water (to add more slowly if the sauce is too thick)

• 2 tbsp sugar, either white or brown

• 1 tsp salt or according to taste

• cooking oil

Method:

• Heat up the wok with cooking oil. Saute onions, garlic, ginger, cinnamon stick and star anise till they are fragrant.

• Add in the blended ingredients. Fry them till the oil separates from the ingredients (pecah minyak).

• Add the curry powder and kerisik. Stir well.

• Add water and stir.

• Put in the sugar and salt.

• Add the pineapple.

• Keep on stirring to prevent the thick sauce from burning.

• Cook till the pineapple softens. 

• The pajeri is ready to be served.

Brinjal with Mince Pork and Mushrooms

We used to frequent a Chinese restaurant and will usually order a plate of Brinjal with Mince Meat to eat with mantou or rice. That dish was very tasty and has now become one of our favourite dishes at home. However, being home-cooked, I have made the dish in a healthier manner - by reducing the amount of oil used, by steaming the brinjal instead of frying it with a lot of oil and by adding Shiitake mushrooms which are low in calories and offer a good amount of fiber, vitamins, minerals and other health-promoting compounds.


Ingredients:

• 1 piece of Shiitake mushroom
• 1 medium-size brinjal
• 1 stalk of spring onion.
• 2 cloves garlic
• 250 g mince pork
• cooking oil

Method:

• Wash 1 piece of Shiitake mushroom well as we will be using the water in our cooking. Soak the mushroom in hot water till it softens. Slice the mushroom thinly.

• Wash and cut the brinjal into quarters lengthwise. Then cut each quarter into smaller pieces diagonally. (You may cut into any other shapes that you prefer, for example, rectangular shape.)

• Boil water in the steamer. Steam the brinjal till they are soft.

• Wash and cut the spring onion into 1-inch length. Set aside.

• Chop the garlic.

• Heat up the wok with cooking oil.

• Saute garlic until fragrant.

• Add the mushrooms. Stir until they are fragrant.

• Add the mince pork. Fry until they are cooked. Add some water if necessary.

• Add the steamed brinjal. Stir.

• Add the spring onion. Stir.

• Dish out.

Apple Rose Cake

There are thousands of varieties of apples grown throughout the world; some are crunchy and mildly sweet, some are crunchy and super sweet while others are crunchy and acidic to taste. So our choice of the variety depends on whether we just want to snack on it or to bake with it - Apple Cake, Apple Bread, Apple Turnovers, Apple Tart, Apple Pie, etc. or to make Applesauce with it.

Apples are superb in cakes. They make cakes moist, naturally sweet and at times a bit sour making them a great snack for tea.


Ingredients:

• 180 g butter
• 120 g castor sugar
• 180 g self-raising flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 green apple (Granny Smith)
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg (optional)
• 1 red apple for decoration

Method:

• Peel the Granny Smith and chop it up into tiny pieces. Soak it lemon juice so that they will not turn brown. Set aside. (You may grate the apple if you like. However, I would like to be able to bite into them and taste the sourness in them.)

• Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

• Add in the eggs, one at a time. Make sure that the egg is well-incorporated before another is added.

• Add the flour gradually till well mixed.

• Add the chopped or grated apple.

• (Optional) Add the ground nutmeg. Nutmeg adds a great flavour to the Apple Cake.

• Grease and line a 6 inch round pan.

• Pour the cake batter into the pan.

• Slice the red apple thinly.

• Arrange the slices on top of the cake batter to form a rose shape.

• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170 deg C for 50 minutes. Check to ensure the cake is done by inserting a thin wooden skewer into the cake.

• Let the cake sit in the oven for 5 minutes with the oven door slightly ajar.

• Take the cake out and let it cool down on a metal rack.

• Sprinkle powdered sugar on top of the cake.

• Serve. (You may serve with a dollop of ice cream on top of it.)

Creamy Cheesy Butter Chicken

Creamy Butter Chicken is a rich and savoury dish. It can be spicy or non-spicy. And it is easy to make. At most it will take you 30 minutes to cook and serve it. It can be eaten with rice or with bread, potatoes (boiled or roasted) and salad.


Ingredients:

• 400 g chicken, cut into small pieces
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp cornflour/all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp turmeric powder
• Cooking oil

• Sauce
• 50 g butter
• 4 cloves garlic
• 5 sprigs curry leaves
• 2 chili padi
• 100 ml milk - full cream/fresh/evaporated
• 2 slices of cheddar cheese

Method:

• Marinade the chicken with salt.

• Add in the cornflour/all-purpose flour and turmeric powder. Mix well.

• Heat up some oil in a pan.

• Pan fry the chicken till they are golden brown. (You may deep-fry the chicken.)

• Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.

• Put the butter into the pan.

• Add the garlic and curry leaves. Stir-fry until they are fragrant.

• Add the chili padi.

• Then add the milk and cheese.

• Stir until the sauce thickens.

• Pour the fried chicken back into the pan.

• Stir to ensure all pieces are coated with the sauce.

• Dish out the chicken onto a serving plate.

• Pour the remnant sauce onto the chicken.

• The Creamy Butter Chicken is ready to be served.

Chives Omelette

Chives are usually used in garnishing, for example, when we are stir-frying bean sprouts, we add some chives so that there is some greens in the dish. Otherwise, the dish of bean spouts will just be plain white and will not look appetising or appealing. Another dish where they are used as garnishing is fried kueh teow. Besides being used as garnishing, it is said that chives are a "nutrients-dense" food; they are low in calories but high in beneficial nutrients like vitamins, minerals and antioxidents. I do buy chives to stir-fry with prawns for my family. I also frequently buy chives to make omelette for my family. They are sweet and do not have an overly pungent smell or strong taste compared to its close relatives like garlic, shallots, leek, scallion and Chinese onion. Chives omelette is also an easy and fast dish to cook up when we are in a hurry.


Ingredients:

• 150 g chives
• 2 - 3 chili padi (optional)
• 3 eggs, Grade A
• Seasonings - salt, light soy sauce, pepper

Method:

• Pick out all the yellowish and rotten chives and wash them carefully as sometimes there is a lot of mud stuck at their lower parts near to the roots.

• Cut them into 0.5 cm length. It is better to soak them in a deep bowl after cutting so that the soil and mud remnants will sink to the bottom.

• (Optional) Wash and chop up chili padi and put them into a bowl.

• Break the eggs into the bowl, beat them and add the seasonings into the beaten eggs.

• Put the cut chives into the bowl of eggs and mix them up well.

• Heat up the wok with some cooking oil.

• Pour the egg mixture with the chives into the wok slowly to ensure that the mixture forms a round shape.

• When it is brown on the underside, slowly flip over the omelette ensuring that it does not break although it does not really matter if it breaks.

• When the other side has browned, ladle up onto a flat serving dish or you can cut them up into 8 segments or more before dishing them up.

• Serve the chives omelette with hot rice.