Penang Hokkien Mee (福建面)

I have been craving for Hokkien mee since i set foot here. So i went shopping at the chinese store for all the ingredients that i wanted to cook hokkien mee/Ha Mien 虾面.



Ingredients
3 tbsp Ready made hokkien mee paste
15 cups of water
1/2 lbs of pork ribs
1/2 lbs of pork belly
1/2 lbs of prawn (with shell)
rock sugar to taste
salt to taste
5 cloves of garlic (peeled and crushed)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 lbs yellow noodle (scalded)
1 lbs vermicelli/bee hoon (scalded)
some bean sprouts (scalded)

2 hard boiled eggs (shelled and halved)

1 small shallot (fried until crispy)

1/2 pieces of fish cake

1/4 lbs of cooked prawn

Method
It's hard for me to collect the shrimp heads to cook the broth, thus i am using the ready made hokkien mee paste sent from Penang.

1. Heat up the cooking oil in a pot and stir fry the hokkien mee paste and garlic until aromatic.
2. Add in the cooked prawn, stir fry until they are well cooked. Pick up the cooked shrimps and set aside for topping
3. Put in the water and bring it to boil, add in the pork ribs, pork belly and prawns. Simmer for about 1.5 hour. Add in the fish cake to well cook.
4. Scoop up the pork belly and fish cake. Sliced thinly and set aside for topping.
5. Add in the rock sugar and salt.
6. When serving, place your desired yellow noodle, vermicelli and bean sprouts in a bowl. Then laddle the stock over and pour the stock back to the pot (repeat this action couple of time, that's the way hawkers in Penang do, in order to heat up the yellow noodle, vermicelli and bean sprouts). Then laddle the hot broth over.
7. Top with pork belly, egg, pork ribs, fish cakes, cooked shrimps and sprinkle with fried shallots.

Double happiness

Today, i woke up with a little surprise outside the house. IT WAS SNOWING!!! I was soo excited and Sly make me coffee and toasted bread, there i was sipping my hot coffee watching the snow falls in the dining room. What a Monday morning to begin with. I was like a little girl taking pictures of the snow flakes and the street covered with ice. I can't wait till i see the white snow covering the land. Should be one hell of breath taking scene. There was this Canadian told me that there are 2 groups of Canadian, one that likes the winter and the other hates the winter. I don't know which category i belong, but soon i will find out.

My second happiness was the parcel from home. The courier always came in on Friday when i wasn't at home to receive them :(

Anyway, i drove to the post office at Pharmacy Jean Coutu to collect it on Monday. Before i went out, the car was covered by snow. So, i have to learn another trick during the winter that all Canadian has to do, clean the wind shield before i hit the road. Gee.. i really looked like a student with my pink coat. There was once i went to buy a bus ticket with my pink coat on and the lady sold me the student bus ticket.

My mum sent me some hokkien mee paste, bak kut teh herb, plastic table cloth, balaccan in a tight seal box, hee.. you know how overwhelming the smell can be.

This is my first winter video taken from the balcony of my house. You can hear the birds chirping happily welcoming the white season and maybe, maybe the TV at the back (As I was watching TLC on baby story).

Stewed Pork Ribs ( 排骨酸）

I cooked lot of dishes with chicken lately. So today i want to cook something which i really love when i was in Malaysia. This "cho yok"/pork dish is very appetizing and once you start it, you can never stop. I used to ask my mum to guide me in the kitchen and i love the way my mum cooked the dish. Simply Fabulous..

I bought the pork ribs from my favorite chinese-ingredients shopping centre, 168 supermarket at Sumerset. You can get free car park and the shopkeepers are very helpful.

My mum used the taujiao/fermented bean paste and mix with chilli boh (blended chili paste), over here, i have a shortcut way of cooking this by using lee kum kee chilli bean sauce.

Stewed Pork Ribs （排骨酸）

Ingredients (for 2 serving)

450g pork ribs

2 cups of water

3 tbsp of chili bean sauce/ toban djan/ taujiao (Lee Kum Kee brand)
1 tbsp of tamarind pulp (soaked in 1/2 cup of warm water)

2 tsp of sugar (to taste)

4 cloves of garlic (crushed)

Method

1. Heat up a stew pot and saute the chili bean sauce.

2. Add in the garlic and fried till aromatic

3. Put in the pork ribs, follow by the tamarind juice (extracted from the pulp), water and sugar.

4. Bring it to boil. Lower down the heat and cover with lid. Slowly stew the ribs for about 2 hours. The meat will become tender by then.

5. The bean sauce is salty enough thus i don't encourage to add any salt in this dish. If you want to have more kick in this dish, add more tamarind juice

6. Another spicy dish (spicy, sour and sweet) is ready to be serve with hot steaming rice.

Three Cups Chicken Recipe (三杯鸡)

Before i fly to Canada, i had a nice farewell dinner with my family at Xuan Xin Restaurant @ Gurney Plaza, Penang. We ordered a dish call, 3 cups chicken. Ya, indeed, it sounds weird with direct chinese translation. Anyway, the dish is delicious. So, i thought of making the dish tonight for dinner.

Three Cups Chicken Recipe (三杯鸡)
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. boneless chicken drumsticks (marinate with 1/2 tbsp baking soda for 10 mins)
6 slices peeled ginger
4 cloves garlic (skin peeled and pressed with the back of the knife for better aroma)
1 tbsp dark sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
1 tbsp dark sweet soy sauce (Kecap Manis)
Thai basil leaves (up to your taste)

Method
The baking soda really make a difference to tenderize the chicken. So after marinate the chicken with baking soda, rinse it off thoroughly and dry them with kitchen towel. Then cut the chicken into pieces and season with soy sauce, shaoxing wine and kecap manis for about half an hour.
Heat up a wok on high heat and put in the dark sesame oil, stir fry the garlic and ginger until aromatic. Add in the chicken and stir fry a little. Cover the lid and simmer the chicken for about 5 mins. Then add in the basil leaves and stir well with the chicken. Serve with hot steaming rice.

**This dish will cook better with claypot because it will keep the dish warm longer than the metal container. Cooking in clay pots requires a slow cooking method, meats become more tender and moist and retain nutrients and natural flavors because the juices released by the food cannot escape from the pot. The need to add extra fats or liquids can be leave out.

only saint can do?!!

Tumbled over this beautiful story in my emails. The ending of the story is surprisingly unbelievable. I really don't know who will react that way if something happen.

The story goes like this...

One couple was blessed with a son after 11 years of marriage . Naturally the son is the pearl to the loving couple's eyes.

The boy was 2 years old. One day the husband was about to go to work when he saw on the table a bottle of medicine left opened.
As he was in a hurry, he told the wife to replace the bottle with the cover. After which he closed the door and left.

The wife was very busy in the kitchen and forgot all about what her husband told her to do. The toddler took the medicine bottle as he was curious and attracted by the colour, he drank all the medicine from the bottle.
The dosage was strong. The baby was rushing to the hospital but died of overdose eventually. The wife was terrified and didn't know how to face her husband.
The worried husband rushed to the hospital and was very sad to learn the bad news.
After looking at the son's body, he looked at the wife and said 4 words.

Guess what did he said?

"I Love You, Darling"

The reaction is Proactive (able to control the situation and not to be controlled by the situation). The reason: The death of the son is a reality.

Blaming and fighting would not bring back the son. Moreover, he was not the only one who is losing a son, his wife too.

The moral of the story is choices of making decision.
Facing a mishap, you can indulge in blaming, cursing the world or even self-blaming. All these will not change what has happened. In fact, it would change your subsequent daily life: carry on your life with a scar.
On the other hand, when one let go of resentment and fear, let go of the past, carrying on life with courage, the situation is not as bad as one may imagine. Proactive Behaviour will change the conditions around us and not to be affected and influenced of that.

This simple story, however how many of us could act like this? Just a simple 4 words. Nevertheless, it required very good self-development, tolerance and lot of wisdom to say such touching words under such situation.

I had the similar situation the other day, not about life and death but it really affected me.

Malaysian Curry Chicken

I loooove spicy food and i can not live without them. I am lucky to have found a partner who can take spicy food and all those erotic asian food with me :p



Malaysian Curry Chicken (咖哩鸡）

Ingredients (serving for 2)
Instant curry paste (4 oz), Maesri brand ($0.99/can)
4 oz peeled potatoes (cut into cubes)
1 lbs chicken (you can choose either drumsticks or thighs)
1 big shallots (peeled and sliced thinly)
1 lemongrass (white part only, pounded)
1 tbsp oil
2 cup water (if you want a thicker curry, put less water)
1/2 cup coconut milk (put more if you want less spicy curry)
curry leaves

Method
Cut the chicken into pieces and set aside.

Heat up the wok and add the oil. Saute the shallots until light brown. Then add the curry paste and curry leaves, stir until aromatic. Add the chicken meat and lemongrass. Add water after 1 min of stirring.
At medium heat, wait till the curry chicken boiled and then lower the heat. Add the potatoes and simmer for 20 - 25 mins. Add the coconut milk and bring it to boil.

Serve hot with Man Tao (chinese steamed buns). I put more water in my curry in order to have more sauce to dip with.

Muar Chee

I like muar chee since i was young. The sticky glutinous chewy feeling with ground peanuts and sesame, yummy. I used to buy this desert whenever there was chinese opera near my house.

Feel like having muar chee for desert today. Sly always think that tapioca is very erotic and weird food, just like seaweed salad in japanese food. After he tried the muar chee that i have made, he said, this desert is actually pretty good :)

Here's the recipe, taken from RasaMalaysia.com

Ingredients (serving for 2)

4 oz glutinous rice flour

1 tbs tapioca flour

3/4 cup water

1 tsp oil for greasing

Fried shallot crisps

Roasted peanuts mixture

2 oz ground roasted peanuts

2 oz granulated sugar (to taste)

1 oz sesame seeds (lighly toasted)

Method:

Mix the glutinous rice flour and tapioca flour with water, then transfer the batter into a grease pan. Steamed over high heat for about 20 mins until the paste is completely cook through the centre. Then let it cool.

Mix the roasted peanut, sugar and sesame seeds in a big bowl. Cut small piece of the paste with plastic knife (clean cut with plastic knife) and then drop it into the mixture. The mixture is very sticky thus drop them one by one and coat well.

I personally don't like the fried shallots crisp, thus i didn't serve them on top of the dish.

Parcel from home

Today 3rd Oct, i went to the post office to collect a parcel from home. Hee.. i was thrilled like a little kid opening present on the X-mas. Thank you, Mili for spending her time hunting for Prawn Noodle (Hokkien Mee) and Assam Laksa paste for me. The paste is quite cheap but the killing part is the courier charges. These 2 bottles cost RM80 to fly...

I will force the white guy at home to try the Laksa :), muahahahaha..

My First Holloween

31st Oct is the Halloween night, just like the Chinese Hungry Ghost month. I went walking around the neighbourhood, houses putting big orange pumpkins outside the house, big blow-up balloons (shaped of evil smiling pumpkin, white ghost, evil witch etc) or a fake figuring sitting/lying at the doorstep. Kids will go to these houses for Trick-or-Treat.

Coded from wikipedia, the festival of Samhain celebrates the end of lighter half of the year and the beginning of the darker half. The celebration has some elements of a festival of the dead. The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the other world become thin on Samhain, allowing spirits to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home whilst harmful spirits were warded off. They believed that wearing costumes and masks can disguise themselves thus ward off the fierce and savage spirits.

We were invited to go watch horror movies at a friend's house. It's a norm for kids to go around neighbourhood for trick-or-treat, for adults/teenagers wearing costumes at work (normally a costume cost about $25 and nobody will repeat the costume the following year), attending costume parties or scare yourselves watching horror movies at home :p

We watched "SAW" that night and we heard a knock on the door. "Trick or treat!!", the kids shouted. Then i saw a kid with the mask exactly the same as in the movie. Creepy eh...

I guess kids enjoy halloween the most because they can get a huge bag of candies which can last them for a month. Just like Chinese New Year, i enjoyed the most when i was young. Busy counting the money of all the Red Packet "AngPao", collected from family and relatives by the end of Chinese New Year (on the 15th day).

Candies for Trick-or-Treat (finished by the adults, hee..)

The kids at the door, they sang for us and posted for the picture

Green Weekend

19th Sept, Sat

Went walking around Gatineau Park after a good french breakfast prepared by Sly. Oh, what a relax morning if there is someone prepare you breakfast, no?!! hee..

Sly is making pan cake. French way of eating pan cake is adding fine sugar and squeeze of lemon

Maple syrup is a must for pan cake in canada

The maple leaf is turning red in autumn

There is this unique lake, named Pink Lake. The Pink lake is green in colour. Why called a green lake pink, because of the earliest settlement of this Pinkfamily in 1830s. This lake is unique due to the water at a depth of 13 m or more contains no oxygen. Thus the green colour water of Pink Lake.
It took us about 2 hours to walk round the Pink Lake. Indeed, it was a great exercise for me :)

People cycling, camping, picnic, jogging, photographing or just merely people watching in the park. This park is equiped with facilities, so i have no worries if i have any nature calls.

Baguette with chocolate hazelnuts

Fajitas - Mexican food

After visiting to Gatineau Park, we headed home to have little french et mexican tea break.
oh, the weekend-makan is never ending as we went to this cozy cafe after the tea break. (Ya i know, i must have put on a few pounds after). We went down town to Cafe Paradiso for some drinks with Sly's friends. There was a live band playing jazz when we arrived and we sat down cozily with our coat off.

The night swayed with lounge music lingering at the back and sipping with sangria and mojito cocktail.

Ben from France came to visit

Blue recycle bin outside my house in Gatineau

Canada is an environment friendly country. In Malaysia, i will throw rubbish in one big rubbish bin without classify them. Well, they are garbage and waste to me and who cares about recycle anyway. At first, i have really hard time sorting out which one to go to the bin. Here, i have to put aside empty egg tray, milk box, juice box, plastic container etc and throw them in a blue recycle bin as picture shown above.

Sly and his friend, Ben (They were talking in french, only french and little english)

Sly's friend, Ben came to visit us with his gf last weekend. I tot they will like to have some chinese breakfast when they reach my house on sat morning. I make fried rice with waxed pork sausage, chinese# lap cheong and black pepper chicken. hee.. black pepper chicken is not so chinese anyway. Ben was kinda lost on his way, thus we finished the food without waiting for these french couple :)



Ingredients for fried rice
1 cup of Thai fragrance rice (better with overnight rice)
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp cooking/vegetable oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 small onion, chopped
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1 stalk of scallion, chopped
1 roll of lap cheong
1 tsp Lee Kum Kee chicken bouillon powder (dissolve in hot water become liquidise)
3 dashes white pepper powder
salt to taste

Method
Heat up a wok with oil. Add garlic and fry until aromatic, follow by lap cheong and onion. Stir fry until they are half cooked. Add in the rice and stir well with the ingredients. Add dark soy sauce, soy sauce, white pepper powder, chicken bouillon powder and continue to stir the fried rice for a couple of minutes.
Make a "hole" in the middle of the fried rice and pour the beaten eggs in the hold. Wait for 30 seconds and then mix the egg with the fried rice. Leave it for 30 seconds and continue to stir-fry. Dish out and serve hot. then sprinkle with the scallion on top of the fried rice.




Ingredients for black pepper chicken
1/2 pound of chicken breast (cut into small pieces)
2 tbsp of cooking oil
1 medium onion (cut into small square pieces)
1 small green and red bell pepper (cut into small square pieces)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp Lee Kum Kee black pepper sauce

Method
Marinate the chicken with the black pepper sauce, 1 clove of garlic for 10 minutes. Heat up a wok and add in the cooking oil. Add in the chopped garlic and onions stir-fry until aromatic or turn light brown. Add in the chicken meat and stir fry until the chicken is half done. Then add in the green and red pepper, continue to stir fry until the the chicken the red/green pepper is well cook.
i like my black pepper chicken a bit gloppy thus i add in a 1/4 cup of water. Stir fry for another minute and then serve with steam rice. yummy...

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For dinner, we went to The Works for some authentic Canadian food, burger!! It was packed on Saturday night and we have to wait for the seats for 45 minutes. Can you imagine we have to wait almost 1 hour for only burger?!!

Then after our big meal, we went strolling around the parliament.

Famous Canadian restaurant, selling only burger

We were looking at the menu while waiting for the seats for another 15 minutes

While waiting for our burger, we ordered the onion rings with hot spicy and bbq sauce

Time to savour my-long-waited burger


Sly had eee... forgot the name

I had Growler Five-O (mushrooms, smokey bbq, chedder and bacon) with spicy chips

Have a glimpse at the menu