Jiu Hu Char ( Stir Fry Jicama with Dried Cuttlefish )

Jiu Hu Char is a one popular nyonya stir fry dish. I have been cooking this dish for years but not aware that this is a nyonya dish. Perhaps mine isnt really a genuine jiu hu char because all along i added dried shrimps to it and no cabbage leaves, something like a typical jicama dish that we find at the rice stalls. After deciding to make jiu hu char for the Penang Food Fest this month, i referred to the internet to check the ingredients again and decided not to put in the dried shrimps and added some cabbage leaves this time. Usually when i cook this jicama dish, i will add in more water for more gravy to go with the rice   A popular way of eating this is also to wrap it with cabbage leaves and if so, you do not need to cook more gravy and this time i go for the drier version. So adjust the amount of water here to your liking but most importantly, cook till the vegetables are soft while still maintaining its crunchiness. Oh yes, do not miss out the dried cuttlefish as this is the star ingredient to make this dish more tasty and flavourful.

this is normally how i cut the jicama into shreds, you can use a shredder if you like..but cutting it manually
will give a better mouthfeel

Recipe
1 medium jicama ( sengkuang) 450gm, shredded
1 piece carrot, shredded
2-3 pieces cabbage leaves, shredded
60gm shredded dried cuttlefish
4 pieces dried mushroom, soaked
100gm pork meat, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
1.5tsp salt or to taste
1/2tsp sugar, or to taste
dash of pepper
a little dark soya sauce for colouring
1-1.5 small chinese bowl of water

Method:
1. Heat up some oil in the wok and saute garlic till fragrant. Add in the dried cuttlefish and fry till aromatic,  followed by the pork slices and mushroom and stir fry them till the meat is cooked. Add in the shredded jicama, carrot and cabbage and stir fry them for a couple of minutes till they turn soft. Add in the water bit by bit to cook and soften the vegetables and keep stir frying .
2. Season with salt, sugar and pepper and pour in more water to further cook the vegetables. Cover the wok for about 5 minutes , taste to check the crunchiness of the vegetables or add more water if you need more gravy.

I am submitting this dish to Malaysian Food Fest ( Penang Month ) hosted by Alan of Travelling Foodies

Penang Nyonya Chang ( Rice Dumplings )

Really tiring making these dumplings...it was the wrapping that's killing me, hey and i am only talking 10 dumplings here! I was really struggling wrapping them, this is my 2nd time doing this. The first time was many years ago and that was really gone case, most of the fillings were leaked out during the boiling process. At least this time it is not that terrible...still it was tough for me, i had to use  the string to go round and up and down everywhere round the dumpling so that the fillings couldnt escape..ha! not in perfect shape though..

some dried butterfly flowers to extract the blue colour. 

Ok, before i start doing these dumplings, i was googling and noticed that most of the recipes online use fermented bean paste, do not have cekur ginger root and also grounded peanuts as part of the ingredients which i had followed from this book, Nyonya Flavours, a complete guide to Penang Straits Chinese Cuisine. Maybe that's the Malaccan version..i'm not sure. Also here in the book, coconut milk is added to the rice but i decided not to put that in. Just like many mentioned, this is a sweet and savoury type of rice dumplings and at the same time, i also find it quite peppery and unique as there's a kind of aroma coming from the corainder powder and cekur root. Well if you like it, then you will find it aromatic.,otherwise you may find it a little strong for your liking, this is very unusual compared to the normal bak chang ( rice dumplings ). Have you tasted one before?

A blogger friend of mine , Adeline of Lite Home Bake also posted a slightly different version of Nyonya Chang yesterday, drop by to have a look too!

cekur root

Ingredients for grinding..

...and becomes this..

the filling..meat, candied winter melon and peanuts

Today is the 5th day of the 5th month of the Lunar Chinese Calendar, it is the Duan Wu Festival and one of the activity that we do today is to eat rice dumplings, not a public holiday here but would like to wish all my chinese friends and readers, Happy Duan Wu Jie!

Recipe ( from the book,  Nyonya Flavours, A Complete Guide to Penang Straits Chinese Cuisine )
Ingredients
500gm glutinous rice, divided into 350gm and 150gm

Wash glutinous rice until water runs clear. Boil around 30 butterpea flowers to 2 cups of water for about 5 minutes, let cool and add that to the 150gm rice. Soak the remaining 350gm rice in water and soak both rice overnight, drain before use next day.

Spice paste ( ground/grind)
1tbsp peppercorns
4tsp coriander powder
8 cloves garlic
20gm cekur root

3tbsp cooking oil
300gm belly pork, cut into small cubes
2tsp salt, or to taste
2-3 tbsp sugar, or to taste
a little dark soya sauce ( i added )
150gm candied winter melon, chopped
100gm roasted peanuts, pounded

250ml thick coconut milk, mixed with 1tsp salt ( i did not put )

dried bamboo leaves, soaked until soft and wiped dry
hemp strings, soaked
2 pandan leaves, cut into 3cm lengths

Method:
1. Heat oil in a wok to saute the spice paste, until fragrant. Add the pork belly and stir until cooked. Season to taste with salt and sugar. Add candied melon, fry for a few seconds before removing from the heat. Leave filling to cool and mix in the pounded peanut.
2. Bring water to a boil in a wok and steam the glutinous rice for 1 hour or until cooked. Stir in the coconut milk and steam for another 10 minutes. After wrapping, steam dumplings over rapidly boiling water for 20-30 minutes. ( I did not follow this step, i boiled the glutinous rice for 2 hours from raw and did not put in the coconut milk. )

To wrap the dumplings, i referred here and several youtubes video. Fill the cone with some  blue glutinous rice, then the filling and lastly some white glutinous rice. Top with a piece of pandan leaf and boil in a pot of water for 2 hours.

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest, Penang Month hosted by Alan of Travelling Foodies

Also linking this to Cook Your Books #1 hosted by Kitchen Flavours

Sri Lankan Tamarind Fish Curry

My love for curry..there isnt a week that i eat without curry..I'm trying out this sri lankan curry for the first time. It's quite similar to the Indian Style Fish Curry which i hv cooked a couple of times.. this sri lankan curry is more sourish in taste , doesnt contain coconut milk and not as heavily spiced compared to the former in my opinion, but just as good, just as shiok! If you love indian food or indian curry, then i suggest you can also try out the Indian Style Fish Curry and Sardine Curry. Also i know Joyce has a couple of good curry recipes in her blog when at a time she participated in an event where she had cooked a lot of Madhur Jaffrey's curry recipes. So drop by to check if you are interested.

It is fairly simple to cook this sri lankan tamarind curry. Start by frying the fenugreek, followed by the garlic and onions and just pour the rest of the ingredients to make the curry, simple right? Curry dishes endanger my waistline but such appetising dish, how to resist? how to stop? Happy to link this to Little Thumbs Up  organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids  and Doreen of My Favourites 123 and this month hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders with the theme, Curry Powder/ Curry Paste. If you are a lover of curry of any sorts, do check out the link here 

Recipe ( from the book, South Indian Temptations ) with some changes made
Ingredients
3 mackarel fish cutlets
4tbsp oil
1/2tsp fenugreek
4 cloves garlic, sliced
1 onion, sliced
a sprig curry leaves
50gm tamarind mixed with 2 cups of water, then strain the mixture
4 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsps chilli powder
2 tomatoes, quartered
1tsp salt, or to taste
1.5 tsp sugar, or to taste

Method:
1. Heat oil and fry fenugreek till you can smell the aroma. Add the sliced garlic, onion and curry leaves. Fry the onion till golden brown.
2. Pour in tamarind mixture, add the curry powder, turmeric powder and chilli powder ( you can put all these powder in a bowl first ), boil for 5 minutes. Add in the salt and sugar to taste followed by the fish cutlets and tomatoes.
3. Remove from heat when fish is cooked.

Also linking this to a new event, Cook Your Books #1 organised by Kitchen Flavours

Strawberry Hazelnut Cake

This is our 18th bake at The Home Bakers where all of us in the group are baking every single recipes from the book, Coffee Cake By Lou Seibert Pappas and now we're almost half way there. Just like Kit mentioned, i guess not many of us have actually baked so many recipes out from the same book. I'm actually now one bake behind, currently my fellow friends at THB already doing their 19th bake..ok, i'm catching up.

The original recipe supposed to be a marionbery hazelnut cake but we can choose to use any berries or combination of berries either with hazelnut or almond meal. I have chosen strawberry and hazelnut and baked them in cupcake form . I had halved the recipe and it comes to about 5-6 muffin sizes cakes. Some changes i made to the original recipe were i did not add reduced the sugar to 80gm, skipped the nuts and did not make the sugar crust topping. Am still glad with the outcome of the cake. For original recipe, please visit Janis of The Kitchen Is My Shrink, the host for our 18th bake and to view the group baking,  you can click here.

Chicken in Glutinous Rice Wine

I trust many of us will associate this dish with confinement..it is quite a common confinement dish for mother who has just given birth as it believes that it brings nutrition to the body, the wine to improve blood circulation, to warm the body and also getting rid of 'wind' in the body. Now that i mentioned 'wind' , i remember i was talking to a doctor long time ago telling him that i suspected myself had lot of wind in the stomach. He laughed and said, 'wind' ? what wind??  He then sort of corrected me and said it should be ' gas'..ok ..ok..Gas...no wind.. hehe..

 My intention of this post is actually for the submission to the Malaysian Food Fest Sabah event.. In Sabah, particularly to the Kadazan-Dusun ethinc group, they have a very similar traditional dish to this glutinous rice wine chicken. They call it Sup Manuk Lihing or Drunken Chicken. Instead of using the regular glutinous rice wine, they use a traditional homemade rice wine called Lihing rice wine . According to the host of MFF Sabah event, Mary of A Pepper's Love, this Lihing rice wine has a very distinctive flavour and can be enjoyed as a beverage or to be added to a savoury dish. As I am not able to obtain this Lihing rice wine here, i just use a regular glutinous rice wine and here i followed Mary's recipe for her version of Drunken Chicken. If anyone of you are interested to purchase the Lihing rice wine, you can hop over to Mary's blog
here for the supplier's contact.

This is Lihing rice wine..photo credit : A Pepper's Love

i have used this ....

and another time used this..i prefer the one above.

Recipe ( from A Pepper's Love )
1/2 kampung chicken / village chicken, chopped into pieces
300ml lihing rice wine ( i used glutinous rice wine )
1 medium piece dried black fungus, soaked and cut into strips
60gm ginger, shredded
2tbsp oil
250ml water or more
1tsp salt
1/2 tsp ajinomoto ( optional )

Method:
1. Pour the oil in the wok or pot and heat up. Add ginger and saute till fragrant.
2. Add in the chicken pieces , stir on high fire till they are lightly browned. Pour in the wine, add in the black fungus, bring to a boil and let the alcohol evaporate. Then pour in water, let it boil and lower fire to let it simmer for 5 minutes. Add salt and add in more water or wine as desired to suit taste. Add ajinomoto if needed. Serve hot.

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest ( Sabah Month ) hosted by Mary of A Pepper's Love

Steamed Cassava Parcels/ Pais Ubi Kayu

Couldnt be much simpler making these snacks. This tapioca parcels is one of the local delights coming from the state of Sabah, Malaysia. Not sure these delights originated from which ethnic groups in Sabah because there are so many. Probably this is also one of the quickest kuih/cake i have made in recent months. Made with simple ingredients and wrap in banana leaves, it is fragrant and very nice to eat. I read that some also eat this along with bananas. Most of the pictures i see in the internet are mostly made from yellow fleshed tapioca but i forgot to ask the seller and just grab one, so i can see that this is the white fleshed one. It is not very sweet, depends how sweet you can go, you can add another 2-3 tbsps of sugar into the mixture, can try tasting it during the mixing..

just these ingredients...grated tapioca/ cassava, grated coconut and sugar

put the filling..

fold over the top and bottom part 

then tuck in the ends of the sides..

after steaming...

Recipe ( from Table for 2 ..or more )
1 cup packed grated tapioca/cassava ( dont have to squeeze dry )
1/2 cup packed freshly grated coconut
1/4 cup sugar
7-10 pieces banana leaves, depending on the amt of filling ..cut into 8" x 5", blanched in boiling water to soften ( mine turned out to be 8 parcels )

Method:
1. Mix the grated tapioca, grated coconut and sugar together in a big bowl.
2. Put one heaped tablespoon onto the banana leaves , wrap and fold into parcels. Steam on high heat for 10 mins. Remove from steamer.

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest ( Sabah Month ) hosted by Mary of A Pepper's Love

Parmesan Seeded Crackers

I like these crackers a lot, they are crisp and i added a little parmesan cheese to the dough making them a little cheesy too. I also think they do look quite similar to the Jacob cream crackers, only that they are a little smaller in size here and if i want to compare to jacobs, i think they are a little heavier than the jacobs one but nonetheless, still very good. With this basic dough recipe, you can make your own variations like lemon thyme crackers, omit the seeds and add some lemon zest and some fresh thyme or maybe plain ones if you like, or use a combination of wholemeal flour and add some flax seeds, sesame seeds, etc. Just like normal crackers, you can choose to eat them plain or top with some cream cheese salmon spread or anyway you like. The dough is also easy to manage, easy to cut into shapes,  you can either use your hand or a food processor to mix to form the dough.

I am baking these crackers with Joyce and Zoe for our bake along event, i am also looking forward to see what flavours they are making for these crackers and also do visit the rest too who will be joining us for this crackers bake. For our next bake along, the theme will be Cottony Soft Cheesecake. Any kind of soft light cheesecake will be accepted eg Japanese Cotton Soft Cheesecake, Featherlight Cheesecake with any flavours of your choice. You can check the internet for the recipes if you do not have one, all are welcomed to join. One friendly reminder, please only link new and current post. The linky will be opened on June 24, 2013 for 10 days, thanks !

Recipe ( from Williams Sonoma Essential of Baking ) with some changes
makes around 30 crackers, depending on the shapes and sizes
Ingredients
250gm plain flour
2tsps sugar
2tsp salt  ** update ** i used coarse sea salt
1tsp poppy seeds
1tbsp shortening
15gm cold butter
1/2 cup of dairy cream, plus 1/2 cup
1 handful of grated parmesan cheese

Method:
By food processor:
Combine the flour, sugar, salt and poppy seeds and pulse 2 times to mix. Add the grated cheese and pulse again to mix. Add shortening and butter and pulse 7-10times until mixture forms large coarse crumbs the size of peas. Pour in the cream and pulse a few times until dough comes together in a rough mass ( i added another 1/2 cup to the original )

Using a pastry scraper, scrape the dough onto a clean work surface and gently squeeze it together. Add few more drops of cream if dough will not hold a soft shape. Gently press dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for at least 20 mins or up to one hour. ( i chilled for 1/2 hour )

Position the rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 180C. Line your baking sheet with baking paper.
Unwrap the dough disk and place on a lightly floured work surface. Cut the dough in half or 3, roll out the dough into a rectangular shape or square shape as thin as possible without tearing, dusting it with flour as needed to prevent sticking to the work surface. Trim the edges of the dough to fit the prepared pan, then carefully transfer the sheet to the pan. Cut the sheets into shapes desired using pizza cutter or sharp knife. Repeat with the other half. Bake one sheet at a time until the crackers are crisp and brown, about 13-15 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool completely until crisp.If you hv baked the dough in sheets, break each sheet into pieces. The crackers are best when eaten fresh, and they can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

** update** at 12.51am may30
i just read in Jasline's post here that 2tsp of fine table salt will be much saltier than 2 tsp of coarse salt so if you are using regular table salt, you may want to reduce the amount of salt stated in the recipe.

get the InLinkz code

Jamie Oliver's Real Mushroom Soup

I know many of you already know how to make your own mushroom soup at home, my knowledge of western food is actually very very shallow and yes, before this i have never attempted making any mushroom soup of any kind even though it is a very common soup. After seeing Shannon  posted The Real Mushroom Soup at her blog, i thought i really wanted to try..i mean..i should also learn to make this one common soup too at home . I am sure those of you who had already made your own mushroom soup at home will probably never go back to canned ones, now i know why..hehe..yeah only now i know. It is so different, almost entirely different. This is really full of flavour, mushroom flavours and so hearty..and of course more expensive!  Please do not get offended if you are one of those who consume canned mushroom soup, if you are like me who have not tried making your own mushroom soup, why not give it a try too? Now having said that, would i still be buying the canned ones? Yes...haha! How irony it sounds! The canned ones can be used for making filling for pies and if i want to consume real tasty mushroom soup, i will definately cook my own now. I am not saying that i wont take the ones from the can anymore ...err...i may too ..i dont know, probably once in a while out of convenience .. but i know for sure this is much much healthier and richer and a lot more tastier.

Recipe (  as seen from Just as Delish, whom adapted from Jamie's Dinners )
Ingredients
Olive oil
300gms mixed fresh mushrooms ( shitake, oyster, button), cleaned and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
1/2tbsp butter
1tsp dried thyme ( or fresh thyme leaves )
500ml chicken or vegetable stock
Sea salt and ground black pepper to taste
Parsley leaves
2 tbsp cream ( omitted )
1 lemon, grate for zest and juice
Truffle oil ( optional)

Method:
1. Heat up a medium pot, add about 2-3tbsp of olive oil and the fresh mushrooms. Stir around very quickly for a minute, add the garlic, onion, butter and thyme. After 1 minute, you'll probably notice moisture cooking out of the mushrooms.Carry on cooking for abt 10mins until most of the moist disappears.Remove abt 1 tbsp of mushrooms and set aside for garnishing later.
2.Add stock, bring to boil and season to taste. Simmer for about 20minutes, remove half of the soup ( i removed abt 3/4 )and whiz it up to a puree with a blender or handheld blender and pour it back into the pot.
3.Garnish with parsley and drizzle with cream , if using and also the reserved cooked mushrooms.
4.You can serve this soup as you like. Jamie's suggestion, quickly stir fry some nice looking mushrooms and sprinkle on top of the soup with lemon zest and lemon juice. When you eat it, stir it and it gives a wonderful flavour. If using truffle oil, just a few drips on the top, just before serving.

I am linking this post to Little Thumbs Up event organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of My Little Favourite 123 DIY and hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours with the selected ingredient this month, ' Mushroom'.