Bubur Gandum / Bubur Terigu / Wheat Porridge

We like to have some dessert after lunch, be it just fresh fruits, traditional kuih, cakes and the likes, or tong sui (any sweet warm soup) like red bean soup, green bean soup, bubur cha cha, sweet potato soup, etc. One dessert that I used to eat but which I have forgotten about is the bubur gandum or bubur terigu. Recently a Facebook friend cooked it and it reminded me of those olden days. Once reminded, I have cooked it very often for my family to enjoy. I usually cook a very big pot so that every one of us can have double or triple helpings.

Ingredients:

• 450 g wheat pearls (for 5 pax with double servings)
• 2.25 litre water
• 1 can (425 g) cream corn
• 400 ml santan
• 1/2 tsp salt
• sugar, to taste
• 8 pandan leaves

Method:

• Wash wheat pearls and add them to a pressure cooker or normal pot.

• Add water to the pot.

• Close the cover of the pressure cooker or pot.
• For pressure cooker, Setting: Beans, Time: 30 minutes.
• For normal pot, check the water level every now and then. Add water as required.)

• For pressure cooker, allow the pressure in the pot to dissipate before opening the cover. Transfer the wheat porridge to another pot. (If a normal pot is used, skip to the next step.)

• Add the pandan leaves, cream corn and santan to the pot and allow the porridge to boil.

• Add salt to the pot.

• Add sugar according to taste.

• The bubur gandum is ready to be served.

Tomato Egg Drop Soup

 

My elder daughter has mentioned many times about the Tomato Egg Drop Soup. She loves tomatoes and wanted to cook this soup herself. However, she is very busy with her work. So, I took it upon myself to cook it for her. After all, it is one of the simplest soups to make. The ingredients are simple and are available at home. I am sure these ingredients can be easily found in most kitchens too. Furthermore, it only takes about 10-15 minutes to cook up this soup. So if you are hard for time, this is the soup to go for.

Ingredients:

• 3 tomatoes, about 340 g
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 6 inches of spring onion, cut into 0.5 cm length, separating the green part from the white
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 1/2 cups water or chicken stock
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp white pepper powder

Method:

• Cut the tomatoes into small cubes.

• Heat up a pan with cooking oil.

• Saute the garlic till fragrant.

• Add tomatoes and white part of spring onion to the pot.

• Fry the tomatoes till they are soft and mushy.

• Add water or chicken stock to the pot.

• Let the water or chicken stock boil.

• When the water or chicken stock is boiling, stir it round and round.

• Add the beaten eggs to the pot, stirring the soup gently it round and round 

• Season the soup with salt, light soy sauce and pepper.

• Sprinkle the green onion on top.

• The egg drop soup is ready to be served.

Pandan Koo Kuih with Mung Bean Fillings

 

   

Nowadays, most people are very health conscious and try to avoid unnatural colouring in their food.  Thus, juices from fruits, vegetable and flowers have been used instead to add colour to their food, for example, green from pandan or spinach, red from beets or red dragon fruits, orange from orange sweet potato, purple from purple sweet potato, black from black sesame seeds and so on.

Pandan Koo Kuih is made from adding pandan juice to the glutinous rice flour to form the dough for the skin. It is the most aromatic of all the koo kuih. However, most koo kuih that we see in the market are red. The sweet filling is usually made from mung beans for the red koo kuih and coconut flakes cooked in palm sugar for the pandan koo kuih. However, I prefer to have the mung bean fillings for my Pandan Koo.

The ingredients and steps for making the Pandan Koo Kuih are as follows:

Ingredients:

For the base:

• banana leaves
• some cooking oil

For the fillings:

• 200 g mung beans
• 100 g castor sugar (Can be reduced to 80 g for those who do not want to take too much sugar.)
• 2 - 3 pandan leaves
• 100 ml water
• 4 - 5 tbsp shallot oil

For the dough:

• 300 g beige sweet potatoes
• 250 g glutinous rice flour
• 1 tbsp rice flour
• 150 - 160 ml water
• 11 pcs pandan leaves for dark green or 8 pcs for lighter green

Method:

For the base:

• Cut the banana leaves according to the size of your mould. My mould measures 6 cm x 6 cm so I have cut the leaves into 7 cm x 7 cm sq. - approximately 60 pieces (30 pieces to be used prior to steaming and the remaining 30 pieces for changing the leaves after steaming.
• Wash the cut banana leaves and wipe them dry.
• Grease the banana leaves with cooking oil so that the dough does not stick onto the leaves.

For the fillings:

• Wash and soak mung beans for about 3 hours.
• Put the mung beans into a metal plate.
• Wash and cut the pandan leaves into 2-3 inches length.
• Place the pandan leaves in between the mung beans.
• Bring water to boil in a steamer.
• Place the metal plate in a steamer and steam the mung beans for an hour or until the beans are soft.
• Once the beans are soft, transfer them into the food processor.
• Blend the beans with water, sugar and shallot oil until the beans are smooth.
• Pour the beans mixture into a non-stick pan and fry them until it becomes a thick paste which can be rolled into a ball.
• Remove from the fire and let the mixture cool down.
• Once the mixture has cool down, shape them into balls. The weight of your fillings depends on the size of your mould. With my 6 cm x 6 cm size mould, I made the filling  into 12 g so that when it is wrapped inside the dough, the whole dough ball with the filling will fit nicely into the mould. So, you have to experiment a bit before deciding on the weight of your filling.
• Once the fillings have been shaped into balls of the size that you want, cover them with a damp towel and set them aside until you need to use them.
• Note: You can make these one day in advance. Keep them refrigerated if you do so.

For the dough:

• Wash and cut the sweet potatoes.
• Place them into a metal plate.
• Bring water to boil in a steamer.
• Once the water has boiled, place the metal plate of sweet potatoes into the steamer.
• Steam until the sweet potatoes are soft.
• Remove the sweet potatoes from the steamer and mash them while they are hot.
• Put the glutinous rice flour and the rice flour into a mixing bowl.
• Put the mash sweet potatoes into the mixing bowl. Use a spoon and mix the sweet potatoes and the flours until well combined.
• Juice the pandan leaves and water. Strain to obtain the pandan juice. Add in pandan juice, bit by bit, until the dough can be shaped into balls. To fit my mould, the weight of my dough ball is 24 g. So, you have to experiment to get the weight which can fit into (with the filling wrapped inside) the mould nicely.

• Note: If your dough is too soft, the pattern on your dough may disappear.

Assembly:

• Take a piece of dough ball, flatten it and put the filling onto it. Slowly bring the flattened dough to cover the filling and roll it back into a ball.
• Dust the mould with glutinous rice flour.
• Place the ball into the mould and press it down to cover the mould nicely. If there is any dough higher than the mould, it means that the dough is too big. So, you have to adjust accordingly.
• Knock the wooden block of the mould on a table. The dough will easily drop off if you have dusted the mould well.
• Place the moulded dough on the greased banana leave.
• Repeat this until all the dough balls and filling balls are finished.
• Bring the water in the steamer to boil.
• Once it has boiled, place all the moulded dough onto the steamer rack.
• Steam the moulded dough over high heat for 4 minutes. Open the steamer cover, quickly brush the dough with some cooking oil. Once completed, cover the steamer and continue to steam the dough at high heat for another 4 minutes. This process will help to maintain the design of the kuih.
• Remove the kuih from steamer and let them cool down completely.
• Remove the kuih from the banana leaves and place them onto fresh ones. Cut the banana leaf according to the kuih.
• The pandan koo kuih are ready to be served.

A Simple Stir Fry of Mustard Green, Long Cabbage and Carrots

 

Cooking for our family need not be a tedious affair. We can simply stir fry vegetables with either garlic alone, chicken, pork, beef, seafood or bean curd and turn them delicious dishes. I like to fry sawi with just garlic and Chinese cooking wine. For kailan, I stir fry it with prawns, squids and pork slices. I stir fry chives with cubed taukwa, long beans with preserved radish, broccoli and caulifower with prawns and Shiitake mushrooms. The list goes on.

Yesterday I stir fried green mustard, long cabbage and carrots with Shiitake mushrooms, egg tofu and pork slices and it turned out to be a colourful and yummy dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 long cabbage leaf, washed and cut.
• 1 small mustard green leaf, washed and cut.
• 2-inch carrot, sliced thinly.
• 1 Shiitake mushroom, soaked overnight & sliced
• 50 g pork slices
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 inch ginger, sliced
• 1 cylindrical egg tofu
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• Cooking oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/8 cup water
• Corn flour/tapioca flour/potato flour for coating

Method:

• Heat up a wok with cooking oil. Cut tofu into 1-cm slice. Coat the slices with one of the flours. Fry them till golden brown. Remove them and set aside.\

• Remove cooking oil from wok and add sesame oil.

• Add ginger slices. Fry till fragrant.

• Add chopped garlic. Fry till fragrant.

• Add Shiitake mushrooms and sliced pork. Fry till the mushrooms are fragrant and the pork slices are almost cooked.

• Add carrots, long cabbage and mustard green and fry till they are cooked.

• Add water to the vegetables if they are too dry.

• Add fried egg tofu.

• Add seasonings of salt and light soy sauce.

• Add some water to the remaining flour that was used to coat the egg tofu. Add it to the wok to thicken the sauce. Once the sauce boiled, the dish is done.

• Dish up to serve.

Dong Po Rou

Dong Po Rou is pork belly cooked in light and dark soy sauces, Chinese cooking wine, spring onion, ginger, cinnamon stick, star anise, brown sugar and water. I seldom use cinnamon stick and star anise in my day-to-day cooking except when I am cooking curry. However, when I use them to cook the pork belly, these ingredients plus the Chinese cooking wine give out a very distinctive sweet aroma 

Ingredients:

• 450 g pork belly
• 50 g spring onion
• 2 inches of ginger, sliced
• 1 piece of 5 inch long cinnamon stick
• 2 small pieces of star anise
• 30 g brown sugar
• 150 g light soy sauce
• 100 g Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing Huatiao Chiew)
• 15-20 g dark soy sauce (Dish will be bitter if more is added.)
• Water, approx 500 g

Method:

• Use a knife to scrape the skin of the pork belly to remove any impurities.

• Remove any hair from the skin of the pork belly. Wash the pork belly.

• Boil a pot of water. When the water has boiled, put the pork belly into the pot skin side down.

• Lower the heat and blanch the pork for about 10 minutes.

• Remove any scum that floats up to the surface.

• Once the time is up, remove the pork belly and rinse it under running water.

• Cut the pork into cubes of at least 2 inches by 2 inches.

• Tie the cubes with butcher's string. This is to prevent the pork belly from falling apart as it will be cooked till very soft (melt in the mouth). Set aside.

• Prepare a pot to cook the pork belly.

• Cut the spring onions into 6-inch length.

• Line the spring onions on the bottom of the pot. This is to prevent the skin of the pork belly from sticking to the pot.

• Next add the ginger slices to the pot.

• Arrange the pork belly on top of the spring onion skin side down.

• Add brown sugar to the pot.

• Add cinnamon sticks and star anise to the pot.

• Add Chinese cooking wine (Shiaoxing Huatiao Chiew) to the pot.

• Add light soy sauce to the pot.

• Add dark soy sauce.

• Add water, enough to cover the pork belly.

• Cover the pot and cook the pork belly over low-medium heat for at least 20 hours. Check every now and then to ensure that the pot does not dry up. Add water if required.

• When the melt-in-the-mouth texture is achieved (approx. 2 hours), reduce the sauce in the pot till about 1 inch is left.

• Remove the pork belly from the pot and remove the butcher's string.

• Gently arrange the pork belly on a serving dish with some sauce on it.

• Serve with rice.

Baked Cheesy Seafood Fried Rice

 

I am sure all of us will fry rice once in a while especially when we have lots of cooked rice in our fridge or when we are short of time to cook a full meal or when we run out of idea on what to cook. Fried Rice is the easiest meal to cook up, a single pot with all the required carbohydrate, protein, fats, minerals and vitamins in it. I usually add a combination of such ingredients as eggs, prawns, char siew, carrots, peas, maize, long beans, cabbage, onion and bird eyes chilies in my fried rice. Another delicious way of frying rice is to add sambal and crispy anchovies to it.

I brought my simple fried rice to another level by adding cheese and baking it. It is simply delicious for the palate.

Ingredients:

• 200 g overnight rice
• 1 egg
• 75 g fish fillet
• 75 g prawns
• 75 g squids
• 1 tbsp butter
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped and divided into 2
• 1 tbsp flour
• 125 g milk
• 1/2 tsp + 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp + 1/2 tsp white pepper powder
• 100 g grated Mozzarella cheese
• 4 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

• Heat up the kuali with cooking oil.

• Fry the fish fillet till cooked. Ladle up and set aside.

• Add prawns to the kuali and fry till cooked. Ladle up and set aside.

• Add squids to the kuali and fry till cooked. Ladle up and set aside.

• Add half of the chopped garlic to the kuali.

• When the garlic is fragrant, add rice to the kuali.

• Break the egg onto the rice. Fry the rice till it is dry.

• Add 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper to the rice. Fry the rice till the seasonings are incorporated.

• Ladle up the rice into a baking dish. Set aside.

• Add butter to a saucepan. Let the butter melt over medium heat.

• Saute the remaining chopped garlic till fragrant.

• Add flour to the butter, stirring continuously till both are fully incorporated to form a roux.

• Add milk to the roux, stirring continuously till a thick sauce is formed.

• Add the fish fillet, prawns and squids to the sauce.

• Add the remaining 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper to the sauce. Stir.

• Pour the sauce with the seafood onto the rice in the baking dish. (You may stir and mix the sauce with the rice or you may just leave the sauce on top of the rice.)

• Sprinkle cheese on top and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 deg C for 25-30 minutes.

Kam Heong Squids and Prawns

Kam Heong is one of the most delicious ways of cooking crabs, prawns, clams, squids and chicken. The words are in Cantonese and can be literally translated as "golden fragrance". The kam heong spice/sauce is made up of a) blended dried shrimps, shallots, garlic and chilies, b) lemongrass and curry leaves and c) curry powder, oyster sauce, light and dark soy sauce and sugar. Kam heong dishes are best served with white rice.

This is the first time I try cooking this style, with squids and prawns. Later I will cook with my other favourite seafood like crabs and clams. Kam Heong Squids and Prawns turned out very delicious; not only tasty but also very fragrant. 

Ingredients: (A small portion only)

• 100 g squids (the tubes only and sliced in a slanting manner both ways from left to right and right to left)
• 100 g prawns
• 8 pc shallots
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4-5 pc bird's eye chili or chili padi
• 30 g dried prawns, soaked and rinsed, coarsely chopped (Can be more depending on one's liking.)
• 1 pc lemongrass, white part only, sliced slanting into 3 pieces, smashed
• 5 sprigs of curry leaves
• 1 tbsp curry powder (seafood)
• 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce (More, up to 1 tbsp, if you want a darker dish but it can be bitter.)
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
• 4 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

• Blanch the squid flowers and set them aside.

• Blanch the prawns and set them aside.

• Blend the shallots, garlic and chili padi.

• Mix the seasonings - curry powder, dark & light soy sauces, oyster sauce, sugar and salt.

• Heat up oil in a wok.

• Add the dried prawns. Fry them till they are fragrant.

• Add the blended ingredients, lemongrass and curry leaves. Saute till they are dry and fragrant.

• Once the ingredients are dry and fragrant, add the seasonings.

• Stir until all are incorporated.

• Add squid flowers and prawns.

• Stir till the squid flowers and prawns are fully incorporated with the sauteed ingredients.

• Dish up and serve with white rice.