Bah Ku Teh - Klang style

If you don't feel like cooking or just tired of elaborative food, try Bah Ku Teh.

Bah Ku Teh aka pork-rib soup (肉骨茶) is a Chinese soup consists of meaty pork ribs, star anise, cinnamon, cloves, dang gui, and garlic etc, boiled together for 1.5 - 2 hours. However, additional ingredients may include mushroom and dried tofu pok.

In addition, light and dark soy sauce are added to the soup during cooking, depending of how much you prefer, normally a ratio of 4:2. Garnshings include chopped coriander or parsley.

It is normally eaten with rice, and often served with strips of fried dough called Yu Char Kway (油炸鬼) or you tiao (油条).

Today, we tried Klang-styled Bah Ku Teh, followed the instructions on pack and the result is shown. It's a really simple & heart-warming dish. Together with rice, I like to have it with a mixed condiment consists of minced garlic, chili padi, dark soy sauce & light soy sauce. A mouthful of rice with some meat dipped with sauce, hmm... heavenly.

Makan Night Out @ Desire

Nicely done bread. Onion whole wheat bread. Bravo!

Fresh scallop air-flown from Japan. Lightly fried, crisp on the outside but juicy inside.

Unforgettable taste.

Foie-gras melting in my mouth.... Hmm... CY, let's try to make one at home one day.

Pig cheek, fantastically cooked. I couldn't make that at home because it was wrapped in a bag after seasoning and then put into a pot of hot water, simmer till all flavours went in. Yum yum...

OK!

I admit that I really enjoyed the food out there... only once in a while cos it's just too pretentious sitting there lady-ly, drinking with no sound "sip...sip" and definitely NO blenching after eating.

I am not so-high-class after all. I prefer eating my meal soundly in my cosy sofa with one foot in the air. So what!

Mixed Paella

Rice eater like me, can't live without chicken rice or PAELLA!

Method:
Heat oil in a big pan.
Sauté sausage until golden brown.
Add garlic and sauté until brown.
Add onions, yellow bell pepper, mixed vege. Sauté until vegetables are tender.
Add mushroom.
Add paprika.
Add 1.5 cup of rice.
Add 2 cups of broth with water to just cover the rice.
Add salt to taste.
Add saffron (or food coloring).
Simmer until rice is almost cooked. About 10 mins.
Add prawn.
Heat off.
Continue simmering until rice is finished cooking. About 5 mins.
Garnish with parsley.

From wikipedia:

Paella is a rice dish which originated in the Spanish Autonomous Community of Valencia near lake Albufera, a coastal lagoon in eastern Spain.Outside Spain, paella is considered one of the Spanish national dishes. Spaniards, however, consider it a Valencian dish, and Valencians often see it as one of their identity symbols.

There are three widely known types of paella: Valencian paella, seafood paella and mixed paella; but there are many others as well. Valencian paella consists of white rice, green vegetables, meat, snails, beans and seasoning. Seafood paella replaces meat and snails with seafood and omits beans and green vegetables. Mixed paella is a free-style combination of meat, seafood and sometimes beans.

Key ingredients include saffron, and olive oil.

This dish has gained considerable popularity in my family, which include my husband & me. :)

Lor Arp (Braised Duck)

Haha!

I was craving for duck lately and so I begged CY cooked this for me. I want to eat...please...

I haven't been eating this for a long time, and the last time I ate was a super-rubbery duck in CY's house with a failed recipe. Opps! I shall not reveal who cooked it. :p

Now is the time to make it right. We haven't tried braising one before so opted for half a portion for just 2 of us does make sense. However, unfortunately, there is only one whole duck on sale in anywhere of Singapore!

So after we have braised the WHOLE duck, I da-pau/packed half of it for the next day (see below). Judging from the way I cut it, I know it's not so professional but as long as it taste good, I think I pass!

We followed the recipe from Kuali.com by Amy Beh but did slightly different way to diminish duck fat. Here you go:

Ingredients
1 whole duck (approximately 1.5kg)

Seasoning (combined):
1 tbsp Chinese five-spice powder
1 tbsp salt
2 slices ginger
2 stalks spring onions (use only the white portion)

Gravy:
3 cloves garlic (whole)
2 shallots (whole)
6cm-piece cinnamon stick
110g galangal, sliced (Blue ginger)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
3 cups water

Method

1. Rub the inside and outside of the duck with the combined seasoning ingredients.Place ginger and spring onions into cavity of duck.
2. Poke the duck breast a few times, piercing the skin.Place a wok and fill with 2-inches of water, turn the heat to medium. Set a rack insert inside the pan and lay the duck on the rack, breast-side up. Steam the duck for 45 minutes, checking the water level periodically.
   Steaming the duck first melts away some of the fat and shrinks the skin.
3. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok, add sugar and three to four pieces galangal slices; when oil turns a dark gold, turn off heat. Add dark soy sauce. Return duck to the wok and coat well with this sauce.Combine all the gravy ingredients in a saucepan.
4. Bring to a boil then pour the cooked gravy ingredients over the duck (sauce should cover more than half the duck). Bring to a boil then simmer, covered, for 40 to 45 minutes over low heat or until duck is tender and the sauce thick.Dish out duck and cut up into bite-sized pieces. Arrange duck pieces on plate and pour gravy over. Serve hot.

One last word, I never knew that we can braise duck with galangal! I thought braising duck usually use star anise & cinnamon. But this recipe actually not bad! Both of us finished the WHOLE duck within 2 days. Haha!

Pasta Carbonara

Pasta Carbonara, a hearty pasta based on eggs, cheese, cured fatty pork of either Pancetta (Pig's belly) or Guanciale (Pig's cheek) and black pepper. This pasta is popular as it is very easy to make, if you have all the required ingredients available.

The pork is fried in fat; a mixture of eggs, cheese, and olive oil is combined with the hot pasta, which cooks the eggs; the pork is then added to the pasta.

As simple as that.

However, since I don't want to waste money to buy whatever fatty pork which might increase my risk of getting heart disease & I do have some bacon left in the fridge, I prefer to make my own Carbonara with bacon.

It's simple yet tasty!

Method:

1. Cook spaghetti according to package instructions, reserve some pasta water
2. Prepare the sauce in a mixing bowl: 1 raw egg, half a cup of Parmesan cheese, mix all together
3. In a pan, fry bacon strips until golden brown using 2-3tbsp olive oil. Add some shallots, fry till soft, add some dry basil & black pepper
4. Then, add cooked spaghetti into the pan, coat them with oil & bacon, turn off the heat
5. Pour in cooked pasta (while it's still popping hot) into a mixing bowl, keep on stirring
6. Add some pasta water if the sauce is too thick
7. Garnish with parsley

Tips

1. As the Parmesan cheese is quite salty, I didn't add salt
2. Try to add some herbs such as basil or oregano to add another dimension of flavour

Origin and history of Pasta Carbonara (from wikipedia)

Like most recipes, the origins of the dish are obscure, and there are many legends about it. As the name is derived from the Italian word for charcoal, some believe that the dish was first made as a hearty meal for Italian charcoal workers. This theory gave rise to the term "coal miner's spaghetti," which is used to refer to spaghetti alla carbonara in parts of the US.

Others say that it was originally made over charcoal grills. Still others suggest that it is so named because the specks of bacon and pepper in the pasta look like bits of charcoal. It has even been suggested that it was created by, or as a tribute to, the Carbonari ("charcoalmen"), a secret society prominent in the unification of Italy.

Japanese Curry

We went to Takashimaya not long ago, tried the Japanese Curry there. Almost instantly, we were hooked!

Besides some prejudices I might have previously due to the fact that curry was not originated from Japan, Japanese curry has totally different flavours as our Malaysian's or Indian's which really put me off. Nonetheless, this time, I totally accepted its flavours as it is.

Japanese curry is best eaten with Japanese rice. We tried it on Prata & cous cous, the prata experience turned out to be ok, but it was a total failure with cous cous.

I bought Golden Curry sauce mix, followed the instruction on the package and satisfied with the result. :) My ingredients include:

1. Vege mix
2. 3 potatoes, cut into small cubes
3. Some pork

Mushrooms Pizza

This is a pizza using leftover mushrooms, anchovies, ham, etc. except that the Buffalo cheese on top was bought to make this pizza.


We love to make our own pizzas because I can decide what to add, what to take out. I can also decide how thick my crust is, or whether to add in white wine as what some Italians would suggest. To me, making pizza is decisive.

Somehow, people think that making pizza is troublesome. Not really. In fact, the whole process only takes about 1.5 hour, including rising the dough to make the crust. The end product is salivating & homely.

To learn how to make pizza dough, please click here to link to my previous post. After making the dough, you can decide to add whatever ingredients you like or rather, to finish up leftovers in my case. Haha!

Ingredients such as tomato paste, mozzarella cheese are essential. But you can always substitute tomato paste with olive oil with fried garlic if you like, to blend in better with other ingredients to create your own recipe.

Anyway, you can have lots of fun making pizza.

Spaghetti with Pine Nuts & Cauliflowers

Most of the times, when we prepare meals at home, we have to face this problem: some leftovers. We have to crack our brains to find a solution and sometimes, it depends on how creative we are to orchestrate those ingredients. Last time when I was a student, I found this a real problem to me because after I cooked, I had to clean the kitchen which I hated the most, then found a place to store my ingredients, or even worse, to throw them away. It was quite a wastage. Luckily no one noticed or else I would be scolded like pig head. Now since my skills have been upgraded, I have more experiences to deal with leftovers. I think all of us have to go through this experience once to improve our cooking skills.

Same for my case that day, I still had some leftover pine nuts & cauliflowers in the fridge. I didn't have any clue how to make use of them. At the spur of the moment, we made them friends with spaghetti, which was also what left behind after previous meal. I love it!
It was a simple meal but also a satisfying meal.
You can search for my pasta recipe from here. Just change the ingredients to roasted pine nuts and cauliflowers. :)

Frankly speaking, it have more flavours then dishes that are prepared from fresh ingredients bought from markets because it used all leftover ingredients that could have been thrown away.

Chicken Stew in Lunch Boxes

Sometimes, I just don't know what to cook, like that day, I searched online for some inspirations and stumbled upon this recipe by food for tots . Suddenly, I knew what to cook!

As lazy as a pig, I thought this was a pretty good idea. So today, I decided to cook a large pot of this, and stored it into 4 different lunch boxes. So now I got my dinner and tomorrow lunch settled. Haha! I felt so good about this. La lar lar... Even danced on my kitchen floor...

Since I don't have any children at home, my variation has to include some wine. I can't have it without some omps! Besides, mushroom is a must, just that I added lots of different kinds of mushroom such as straw mushrooms, button mushrooms, shitake mushroom...bla bla bla... I don't care, so long it tastes good.

So now the lunch boxes are ready to go inside the fridge. See? Very senang (easy)!

You can get the recipe from here. Alternatively, you can try my version.

Serve 4
Ingredients:

8 chicken drumlets (2 per person per meal)- marinate with light soya sauce, white pepper, oyster sauce and cornflour

All Other Ingredients:

4 red small onions - finely chopped
4 potatoes - cutted into big cubes
2 large carrots - cutted into big cubes
Mushrooms - cutted into half
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp light soya sauce
Dash of dark soya sauce & sugar
80ml chicken stock
30 ml of water
Dash of sugar and pepper
1 bay leaf
Corn flour (for thickening)

Method:
1. Heat the oil and fry the onion until fragrant. Add in bay leaf now.
2. Add in all the ingredients (except chicken), stock & water, cooked about 6 mins.
3. Add in drumlets now, simmer with medium heat until all are cooked, about 15 mins.
4. Thicken with cornflour.

Fried Cod Fillet with Sauce

Fish is definitely our favourite. In fact, we have designated 1 day in our weekly menu as the 'fish' day. Not only that fish is a healthier choice, but it simply tastes good. fish are an excellent source of high-quality proteins with sufficient amount of all the essential amino acids. I heard that having more fishes in the menu improve our skin texture and makes it more translucent. So, do eat more fishes from now. :)


As for last week, we had this fried cod fillet with some pre-packed sauce that I bought from Shop N Save from the neighbourhood. Surprisingly, it turned out harmoniously, thought i admitted that I had doubts about the sauce originally. Hehe... Nonetheless I am convinced it goes well with the fish really. Here's the recipe:

Serve 2
Ingredients:

• 6 Shitake mushrooms
• 1 inch of old gingers, sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic, sliced to slightly bigger than ginger
• Cod fillet, depends on how much you can eat, here I prepare 300g
• Pre-packed sauce for Fried Cod, any brand
• Salt & pepper
• Parsley for garnishing

Method:

1. Season fillet with salt & pepper
2. Heat oil in a pan, medium high heat, fried the cod fillet till golden brown, approx. 4 mins each side. Take out to rest on plate.
3. Fry mushroom without oil to sweat. (to reduce its water content)
4. Heat some oil to fry garlic & ginger, till golden brown.
5. Return mushroom to pan, pour in the sauce, keep on stirring together with garlic & ginger, abt 1-2 min.
6. Pour it all over the cod fillet.
7. Serve.

Tips:

• Can serve with rice or with mashed potatoes.
• Ginger has to be cutted into equal size to better control frying outcome and for presentation.
• Sweat mushroom is important to have more intense flavour.