Ayam Sioh (Chicken in Spicy Tamarind Sauce) is a variant of Duck Sioh (Itik Sioh). This dish is essentially a sour and sweet based stew with a strong hint of tamarind juice (asam jawa) and ketumbar (coriander) spice. I have a feeling that this dish is a Baba-Nyonya Peranakan dish but I stand corrected. Anyway, I was introduced to this dish by my mother-in-law a couple of years back and took a liking to it due to its appetizing taste.

Thankfully, my lovely wife has inherited her mother’s recipe and over the weekend, decided to cook up this dish for Father’s Day lunch. We could not finish the dish as we used 1 whole chicken but we are not complaining because the longer this dish keeps, the tastier it gets. For better results, duck is preferred as the meat is “tougher” to withstand the marinate using tamarind juice. If you can’t find duck, try using “village / kampong” chicken or free-range chicken. Read the rest of this entry »

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Once in a while when I eat out at “mixed-rice” stalls (stalls which sell white rice with a mind-boggling choice of side dishes which you can choose and be priced accordingly), I will eat this dish - Ginger Sauced Chicken. Well, I confess that I don’t actually know the real name of this dish but since it is a ginger sauce based dish with chicken, I reckoned it should be called Ginger Sauced Chicken.

After a few tries outside, I attempted this dish and it turned out quite okay. Only thing is I haven’t actually perfected the art of having the chicken nicely fried without having too thick a batter. Whilst the picture above was as a result of what I cooked, I am modifying the recipe a bit into what I think would be better. You can actually fry the chicken pieces beforehand or don’t. It is up to you really. But the highlight is the ginger sauce. Give it a try.

This is my recipe for Ginger Sauced Chicken Read the rest of this entry »

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I love simple to cook dishes. And with vegetables, I like them quickly cooked so as to retain the texture and nutrition. Hence, this dish is one of my favourites. Choy Sum (sometimes known as Chinese Mustard Leaves or Chinese Flowering Cabbage or Sawi) is one of the most popular leafy greens available in markets in South East Asia. It can be cooked and eaten on its own or cooked with other ingredients.

In most chinese restaurants (especially those in Malaysia), you can order this dish but the price which they charge (approximately RM6.00 and above for a plate) does not justify the price of Choy Sum and the ease of preparation. It’s like getting ripped off. If you can get them from the market, you can cook this dish by your self at home. As long as you know how to boil water and fry “something”, you can be a chef just like those at chinese restaurants. Read the rest of this entry »

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One of the commonest fish found at wet markets in Malaysia has got to be the black pomfret (the cheaper cousin of the usual silver pomfret). The black pomfret, however, usually has a slightly more “fishy” taste / smell and therefore, it is not usually steamed compared to its more expensive cousin. At home, our usual way of cooking the black pomfret is to fry it after marinating it with a little salt. In case you are wondering whether I eat fish, yes I do. Just that I usually have them fried with simple salt marinade and I thought it is TOO SIMPLE a dish and that’s why I don’t post them up on this blog.

Anyway, with black pomfret, some cook it with assam-based gravy and some with tau-cheo based gravy. Mine here is more a simple chilli sambal which is “pasted” on top of the fish. The chilli sambal can also be considered a dip and you can serve it using another sauce plate in case you don’t want to spice up the fish (if you have little kids around) by smearing it with the chilli sambal. Read the rest of this entry »

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