Friday, March 26, 2010

Chicken Hor Fun Soup




My bf, Gregg, called me at the last minute lunch, and I said, just come home and you are going to have a healthy light quick meal. So I quickly pull out the pork stock from the freezer, add some capers in it to give it saltiness olivey flavour. Then take a bunch of hor fun (flat small size rice noodle) from the pantry, a piece of grilled chicken made few days ago sat in the fridge, some sugar peas from the fridge, some sliced onions and fresh cut cilantro from our garden, making into this fabulous satisfying quick lunch, less than 20 min.

Ingredients:-

1 piece of grilled chicken breast (or just plain chicken breast) cut into cubes or chunks
2 Tablespoon Capers
1 bunch Hor Fun (Flat small size rice noodle)
2 handful Sugar Peas
1 handful of sliced onions
some fresh chopped cilantro (optional fresh mint, basil or vietnamese coriander)
3-4 cups of pork stock (can use any other stocks)
Salt to taste
2 teaspoon Rice Vinegar

Method:-

1. Heat up the stock in a pot, add in the capers together. Boil for 2 min.
2. Throw in the hor fun, cook as instructed. (would say, 2 min)
3. Add in grilled chicken and sugar peas together.
4. Add salt and rice vinegar to taste.
5. Lastly, garnish with fresh cilantro and sliced onions. Good with Sri Racha chili sauce. Make into 2 bowls of Chicken Hor Fun Soup.


"Anda Boleh"

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Rice with Fried Capers, Chard curry, Halibut and Herbs Omellet


This is so Good!!!!!!! I can eat the plain steamed Jasmine rice with fried capers just like that. Easy to make, just fried the capers until it pops and little brown. Gosh, it is my comfort food and of cos, better with some chard or other vegetables curry (I used the leftover curry sauce), seared halibut and herbs omellet.

Lets start with herbs omellet:-

Make your usual omellet, stir a little so that the omellet is breaking up into small pieces. Also fried a little longer than usual omellet, so that you can see the little brown side. Add in chopped parsley, oregano, thyme and garlic salt. So so good!!!!!!

Chard curry:-

Pick some chard from your backyard, cleaned and sliced. Heat the pan with some cooking oil, cook until wilted and then add the leftover curry sauce you have at home, for about 1 min to simmer. Serve with warm steamed jasmine rice.

Enjoy My Way of Comfort Food

"Anda Boleh"

Miso with a Twist


This is a very healthy soup and meal of the day. Simple and easy to prepare, all you need is eggs, tofu, rice noodle and miso paste. I use "Shiro Miso Paste" which is lighter in color and taste. Just 2 tablespoon of it in small pot of water or stock, enough for 2 people, preparation time just less than 30 min.

Ingredients:-

2-3 Tablespoon Shiro Miso Paste or other miso paste
3-4 cups Chicken stock or just water
1 bundle Rice noodles
1 packet Firm tofu (cut into cubes or chunks)
1 Shallots (make into fried shallots)
1 Tablespoon Rice Vinegar
Salt to taste
Cilantro for garnishing
2 Eggs (beat and make into omellet)

Method:-

1. Boil the water or stock, add the miso paste and stir.
2. Put in rice noodles, cook as instructed. (I would say 2 min max)
3. Add in tofu, salt and rice vinegar to taste. (it should be little salty and little sour) cook for 1 min.
4. Once done, put in a bowl, garnish with fresh cilantro, omellet (cut into any shapes you want) and fried shallots.

Tips for frying shallots: Slice shallots in a ring shape, heat up the vegetable oil in medium. Slowly browing the shallots. Once it is half way to browning, turn off the heat and let it continues browning but not burning.

"Anda Boleh"

Thursday, March 18, 2010

White Pampano in Red Curry


There is a Seafood City market in Vallejo where we seldom go there to explore. Once we were there, it was a heaven for me and Gregg. I was excited to see lots of seafood especially the fish. I love Pampano and it is a luxury fish in Malaysia. Chinese usually will steam a fresh Pampano, with just ginger soy sauce and chopped green onions. Love it... so light and healthy.
This time, I was thinking of making a fish curry, due to the leftover curry sauce the other day. See, when you have some curry leftovers, always divide them in little containers, so that you can use it at any other time, with any other food you make.

Ingredients:-

1 whole Pampano fish cut in half (actually you can used any kind of white fish, ocean fish taste better)
Leftover curry sauce or soup you have from Asian restaurants
1 Tablespoon chopped parsley
Salt to taste
1 Teaspoon Fish sauce
Water

Method:-

1. To fry the fish, pat dry and seasoned with salt, both side.
2. Heat a pot of cooking oil, to deep fry the fish until really brown and little crispy. Charring the fish is much better, because we want the little charred taste in the curry, also soften the bones when go into the curry sauce. Then take out the fish and put aside.
3. Heat another pot to cook the leftover curry sauce and some water if the sauce is too thick. We need it to be little soupy, so that the fish can be soaked in it.
4. Once boiled, add the fried fish, fish sauce and parsley, also add salt to taste. Serve with the tumeric rice (recipe from last posting).



Pork Chop Capers with curry sauce and Saute Fan Kale


I asked Gregg what he wants for dinner. He said, Pork Chop. So I made Pork Chop marinated with soy sauce, curry powder, fish sauce, sugar and olive oil for at least 2 hours. He told me that he loves capers. So I thought of frying the capers to add some crunchiness and saltiness on top of pork chops. About the curry sauce, I have the leftover pampano curry sauce the other day (you can see my previous blog) and some leftover salad (diced cucumber, mixed fresh herbs, grapefruit, celery, corn, carrots and minced shallots). The Fan Kale was fantastic with the pork chops and the curry sauce. I actually seen this Fan Kale for the first time, just look like a Fan, little purpleish color. Taste good and soft when sauteed.

Recipe later.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Fast and Easy Leftover Chicken Curry Soup with Rice Noodle


Leftover curry sauce or soup from a restaurant? Easy, always easy to make it over. For South East Asian, we love to have curry with noodles. There are so many different type of noodles. This makeover, I am using Rice Noodle which you can find it at the Asian market near you. You can use others as well. The main thing here is the curry itself. Also the condiments and garnishing are important to give the curry soup a zest of life. So aromatic with fresh mint and vietnamese coriander. Enjoy it while the curry is still good in the fridge for days.

Ingredients:-

Leftover curry sauce or soup
Chicken breast
Water
Salt to taste

Garnishing:
Fresh Mint
Vietnamese Coriander

Method:-

1. Boil the curry sauce with 2-3 cups of water to dilute it. If it is a soup, maybe just 1 cup is enough.
2. Cut the chicken breast into chunk or cubes, add it in the hot simmer curry soup. Cook for 3 min until the chicken is cooked. Then add salt to taste.
3. Add the rice noodle into the soup, cook for 2-3 min until it is soft.
4. Serve with fresh mint and vietnamese coriander.

Better than Rachel Ray 30 min cooking!

"Anda Boleh"

Friday, March 12, 2010

Tumeric Rice with Chinese Sausage


You got chinese sausage at home? Easy for this recipe. I was alone in the house in this wet windy cold weather. I decided to have a quick dinner, and steamed rice is Chinese favourite. I had 3 string of chinese sausage in my fridge, have the craving to eat it. I decided to make a steamed jasmine rice (the portion is up to you, but I used 3 cups), with bayleaves (3-4 leaf) and tumeric powder (1 tablespoon) or curry powder if you have one. Fast, clean, simple and less than 30 min cooking. Put in all the ingredients in the rice cooker, add salt (1-2 teaspoon) and let it cook. Once done, just add in some butter (half stick) to make it taste better and glossy. Yummy just to eat  like that, or have fried eggs on the side. Love it... I had 2 bowl already.

"Anda Boleh"

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Mixed Greens and Fruit Salad with Ginger Omellet


This is for lunch. I always give surprises to Gregg, my partner, every time he comes home for lunch. So I decided to make something healthy and light. I had leftover mixed greens salad from work yesterday, sat in the fridge and some grapefruit, grapes, green, yellow, red chards and some herbs from the garden bed. I used simple dressing, just some olive oil, lemon juice and garlic salt, since the leftover mixed greens salad have some dressing in it. However, I added a little kick into the dressing, minced shallots. It helps the whole salad taste. Love it.


Recipe will be posted soon.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Sticky Rice Dumpling with Leftover curry sauce


Kampar is famous of its sticky rice with bbq pork and curry sauce. Little introduction about Kampar, small town in Perak State of Malaysia, my Kindergarden, Primary and Middle School year. Very multi-cultural. Mostly every weekends, my family and I would go to the Kampar Market for food and sticky rice with curry sauce was one of them.
This picture shows the Vietnamese sticky rice dumpling with meat and beans in it, and on top of it is the leftover makeover curry sauce I made. We Chinese called it "Jung". Well, I made this because of some Jung leftover from the Chinese New Year celebration, Auntie Yau gave it to me. She is a Vietnamese and they used the banana leaves to wrap the jung, square in shape, adding the pork and some pinto or black eyed peas in it, seasoned with salt. So to reheat the whole banana leaf wrap sticky rice, take away the banana leaves and put on a plate. Heat it in the microwave oven for about 2 min.

About the leftover curry sauce, I got the it from the Asian Wok, a Malaysian restaurant in our neighborhood. I love their red curry sauce, so thick and flavorful. Here in my fridge, I have some persimoms chutney I made. So I mixed them together in a pan, reduce it a little. Then spooned on top of the warm dumpling which I cut into small square size and Wola!!!!

Love it.

"Anda Boleh" (You Can).

Friday, March 5, 2010

Pancit Noodle


Malaysian loves having instant noodles such as Maggi and Cintan, and every household has few packs at home for a fast satisfying quick meal. I went to Seafood City supermarket the other day and got some instant noodle, Pancit brand. I dont know how it taste like and tried making it for quick lunch, my style. The picture shows it all, very similar to Maggi and Cintan instant noodles in texture wise. However, the seasoning is abit bland for me. Therefore, I made the thick dark soy sauce noodle with beansprouts, brocolli and fried egg. The seasoning is just a teaspoon of each: thick dark soy sauce or they called sweet soy sauce (just like molasses), fish sauce, oyster sauce and pure sesame oil. Add in little garlic salt to taste (optional).

Method:-

1. Boil a pot of water, hot. Cook the instant noodle first for 2 min.
2. Add in the vegetables (your choice) into the pot, cook for a min. To maintain the crunchiness of the beansprout and brocolli. (Asian loves crunchy vegetables).
3. Once cooked, drain it.  Put it back into a big bowl or platter or use back the pot for mixing all the seasoning together. Add in some shallots and garlic oil if you have some.
4. Fried an egg and garnish with cilantro or cut green onions or red pepper.

"Selamat Mencuba"