It’s another Saturday and I was fortunate enough to be able to go to the market this morning. Seeing some fresh medium sized brinjals on sale, I couldn’t resist getting my hands into 5 of them, no longer than 8 inches each. So, shall it be sweet and spicy brinjals or another one of the tried and tested brinjal recipes I have attempted so far? Considering that my wife was baking a cake, the oven would have been set up just nicely for a brinjal roast!

I have seen roasted vegetables in cook shows though roasted brinjals are kinda rare. Meanwhile, spicy brinjals are quite common here but I thought I would take it one step further by roasting the brinjals instead. It’s my maiden attempt and I am glad to report that it received favourable reviews from my wife and my sister-in-law. Though the brinjals were roasted, it was still packed with moisture and juicy to bite. The combination of dried prawns, buah keras and other ingredients which made the topping was nicely roasted to a fragrant aroma and delivered a riot of taste with each bite. For those who are not used to eating hot food, you can choose to ease off with the chilli but for those who prefer it sizzling hot, just add more chilli.

I believe the Roasted Spicy Brinjals would be suitable eaten with porridge (I actually had them with plain porridge) or steamed rice and would look incredibly appetising in any parties. Give it a try and be amazed by how delicious such a simple dish could be.

This is my recipe for Roasted Spicy Brinjals

Ingredients

• 5 medium sized brinjals (cut into half lengthwise)
• 50 grammes dried prawns (lightly soaked and drained)
• 5 buah keras (candlenuts)
• 2 cm belacan
• 3 red chillis (chopped as finely as you can)
• 8 shallots
• 5 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• spring onion for garnishing

Seasoning

• Salt
• Castor sugar

Method

Pound dried prawns, buah keras, belacan, shallots and garlic until well combined. Set aside.

Heat wok and add oil. Saute the combination ingredients above until aromatic and the paste begins to brown. Add chilli and mix well. Turn off the heat and allow to cool.

Heat up oven to 180°  celcius. Meanwhile, oil a baking tray with olive oil.

Sprinkle salt and sugar lightly on fleshy part of brinjal and then coat the flesh with combination ingredients. Lay brinjals (skin side down) on baking tray. Roast for 20 minutes.

Serve hot.

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Roasted Spicy Brinjals

This is a delicious and easy vegetable side dish, easy to cook and tastes really good. I used kailan (aka jie lan, Chinese broccoli, Chinese kale) – which is a popular vegetable in Chinese cooking. It is highly nutritious and has an inherently slight bitter taste (hence sugar is added during boiling to neutralize the slight bitterness).

As a result of brief boiling to cook the kailan, the vegetable is nicely cooked and retains its crunchiness while the dried scallops (kan bei) jazzes up the dish by making it sweeter and more interesting. I learnt this recipe from watching the local (Singapore) variety show三菜一汤and this was one of the dishes whipped up by Mediacorp artiste Michelle Chong. I was impressed with both her culinary skills and her recipe. I tried the recipe soon after watching the show and I really love it, so yummy. I made this from memory after watching the show so I am probably not following her recipe 100% but the end result is still good. Hope you like the recipe too.

This is the recipe for Kailan with Shredded Scallops

Ingredients (Serves 2-3)

• 300g kailan leaves
• ½ tablespoon chopped garlic
• 4 dried scallops
• Cornstarch solution (about ½ tbsp cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp plain water)
• 50ml stock/plain water
• Olive oil/vegetable oil
• Sugar

Directions

Give scallops a clean rinse, then soak them in a dish of water (just enough to cover) for at least half an hour to soften them.

In a wok or saucepan, add water (just about enough to cover the kalian), a bit of vegetable/olive oil and a bit of sugar. When water boils, add in kailan to cook for about 3-5 minutes until cooked (do not overcook). Take out the cooked kalian and arrange on a plate.

In a clean wok, heat a bit of oil and sauté garlic till fragrant. Use your fingers to separate the scallops strands and add in wok. Reserve the water from soaking the scallops.

Add water previously used for soaking the scallops, as well as some stock/plain water. Bring to a boil for about 2 minutes and thicken with cornstarch solution till the desired consistency. Drizzle the mixture over the cooked kailan.

Wiffy, a cheerful Singaporean lady who describes herself as a NoobCook dished out this recipe as my Guest Chef this time around. Yet, the food that she whips up certainly shows that she is not a noobcook as her recipes (which comes with great looking photographs) have been featured in a number of websites. Do check out the droolicious recipes on her site.

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Kailan with Shredded Scallops

It has been a hectic past 3 months and I have not been able to update this blog with more delicious asian food. I will be moving to a new house soon (with a new kitchen fitted with an oven!) and you can expect more recipes to come your way once I settle down.

Anyway, I was back in Kuching early March and my mother-in-law cooked this dish which I found most interesting indeed. Here, we have the bitter gourd (some find it bitter, some insists that it is bitter sweet) given a stir fry and coated with salted egg to give it a unique light salted taste. The other interesting thing I found about this dish is that the bitter gourd is not sliced diagonally or sliced across but rather, the bitter gourd is sliced length-wise, not unlike the satayman who deftly slices cucumber to pair with satay. Basically, you hold the bitter gourd and slice away from you and slowly turning the bitter gourd clockwise or anti clockwise as you continue slicing through. The seed is discarded.

This recipe is easy to cook though I must confess that I did not taste it at all. In case you forgot, I am not partial to bitter gourd. Nevertheless, my wife loved it and there were no leftovers. If you are a fan of bitter gourd and you are bored with the usual bitter gourd chicken recipe, why don’t you give this recipe a try?

This is my mother-in-law’s recipe for Fried Bitter Gourd with Salted Egg

Ingredients

• 1 medium sized bitter gourd (sliced, seed discarded)
• 1 salted egg (break into a bowl and using a butter knife, gently cut the yolk into smaller pieces in the bowl)
• 3 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Seasoning

• Salt and pepper to taste (if necessary)

Method

Heat oil in wok till smoking hot. Reduce heat to low and add garlic. Stir briskly and add bitter gourd. Increase heat to high and stir well.

Sprinkle warm water once in a while to keep bitter gourd moist and cook until bitter gourd is limp or to desired softness.

Once bitter gourd is cooked to desired softness, pour salted egg over the bitter gourd and stir until salted egg is cooked. Add seasoning if desired.

Dish up and serve with steamed white rice.

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Fried Bitter Gourd with Salted Egg

What a name! Sure, this dish may be common but did you know that simply by putting in a little effort to carve your vegetables, you can create give a new and beautiful breathe of life to an ordinary dish? My little daughters were fascinated with the carrots and broccoli stems which were cut to resemble flowers sitting in the midst of a bed of freshly blanched green broccoli. To give it a more “garden feel”, I used orchid mushrooms as well in this dish. I bought the orchid mushrooms in can and they are quite delicious with a light crunch. You can also use any other suitable mushrooms such as straw mushrooms.

The prawns were cut to resemble like butterflies but being an amateur, I can’t say they look like one. What I did was to remove the heads, middle shell and legs by fingers and leave the tails attached. Next, I use a knife to make a slit down the centre back of each prawn and removed the guts (brownish black thread running down the back of the prawn). When the prawn is cooked, it will give a nice slightly opened shape.

To cut the carrots or broccoli stems into flower-like shapes, you will need to first scrape off the outer layer. Next, cut the carrots into 6 cm lengths. You will need thick broccoli stems for the same purpose. Then, lay the carrot onto a chopping board and make a slanted cut (about 5mm deep or lesser) length-wise along the carrot. Then make another parallel slanted cut just next to it so that both cuts resemble a V shape. You will then be able to remove the whole strip thus leaving you a length-wise groove. Repeat this over the other parts of the carrot until you get at least 5 grooves. Then, slice the carrot sideways and voila! You’ll get the flower-shaped carrots.

Get creative. It makes a whole world of difference to the eating experience!

This is my recipe for Butterflied Prawns in Eden

Ingredients

• 8 to 10 pieces medium sized prawn (butterflied)
• 150 grammes broccoli (cut into florets. stems cut into flower-shape)
• 1 medium sized carrot (cut into flower-shape)
• 1/2 tin of orchid mushrooms
• 3 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
• some cornstarch
• 300 ml hot water
• a pot of water
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil

Seasoning

• 1 1/2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• salt to taste
• a couple of dashes of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of light soya sauce

Method

Bring a pot of water (about 2 litres) to boil. Once boiling, add 2 teaspoons of salt and drizzle some cooking oil. Then blanch broccoli florets till your desired softness. Remove and drain. Place aside to cool. Repeat process with carrots and broccoli stems.

Heat oil in wok. Add half the chopped garlic into the wok together with prawns. Stir fry briskly and add 1 teaspoon of light soya sauce. Remove prawns once it has completely cooked and curled up. Set aside.

Add oil into wok followed by garlic and orchid mushrooms. Stir fry briskly for about 30 seconds before adding 300 ml hot water. Bring to boil and add seasoning to taste. Cover with lid and reduce heat to medium. Allow gravy to reduce to half.

Meanwhile, arrange broccoli florets in a ring on a deep plate. Place carrot and broccoli stem flowers on top of the broccoli florets. Place remaining flowers in the middle.

Check the orchid mushrooms and add some cornstarch to thicken the gravy a little. It should be slightly runny but not watery. Remove from heat.

Scoop some orchid mushrooms and place on centre of the dish. Place prawns on top of orchid mushrooms and flowers before pouring the gravy over the whole dish.

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Butterflied Prawns in Eden

Kailan cooked in 2 ways or “yin yong kai lan” is a dish which I ate about 3 years ago in a restaurant in Shah Alam. I found it interesting – even though it is relatively simple. The kailan leaves are shredded and deep fried whilst the stem is given a light stir fry with garlic slices. I had totally forgotten about this dish and did not think about cooking it until recently when I saw a picture of it in a book which I was browsing at a store. My interest was reignited and hence, this dish was attempted last weekend.

I found this dish to be a bit time consuming as the kailan needs to be prepared in two ways. Firstly, the middle stem running along the leaves need to be removed. What I did was to place each leaf (yes, leaf by leaf) on my chopping board, fold it into half with the stem as the guide and then use a knife to cut the stem out. Once the stem has been removed, I then take a couple of leaves which have been given the same treatment and roll them tightly before slicing / shredding them thinly. As for the main stems, I remove the outer skin before cutting them into bite sizes.

The frying of the shredded kailan leaves also needs some care. You will need to use a generous amount of oil because the leaves tend to absorb the oil and they get burnt easily. It is thus important to control the heat – somewhere between medium to high if preferred. After frying them, you will need to drain them and leave them on kitchen napkins to have excess oil absorbed.

It is still an interesting dish to try out if you are bored with the usual stir fried kai lan with prawns or kai lan stems with pork and mushrooms. I sprinkled tiny anchovies or “ghun he” (in hokkien) over the deep fried kailan leaves. A good substitute would be meat floss.

This is my version of Kailan Cooked in 2 Ways

Ingredients

• 250 grammes kailan (choose those with big leaves and prepare them as explained above)
• 2 cloves garlic (sliced thinly)
• 200 ml hot water
• some corn starch
• 400 ml cooking oil

Seasoning

• 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon chinese cooking wine (optional)
• salt to taste
• white pepper powder to taste

Method

Heat up about 350 ml oil in wok and fry the shredded kailan leaves in batches until the leaves start to turn brown. When they are beginning to turn brown, remove the leaves and place on kitchen napkin to absorb excess oil. Continue frying the remaining kailan leaves.

Once all the kailan leaves have been deep fried, remove oil from wok and give the wok a quick wash. Then heat up wok with 50 ml oil.

Add kailan stems and garlic slices and stir fry briskly. After 20 seconds or so, sprinkle some water and continually do this until kailan stems are tender. Add remaining water and seasoning. Then, add some cornstarch to thicken the gravy if desired.

Dish up and serve together with the deep fried kailan leaves which have been sprinkled with fried tiny anchovies or meat floss.

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Kailan Cooked in 2 Ways

This dish is easy to cook but a nightmare to think out a name for it. For starters, it is not exactly fried. Neither is it stir-fried, steamed, braised, stewed or poached. I would put it as a combination of a quick and light stir-fry mixed with quick stewing for a quick and delicious meal. Now, it is quite common in chinese homes to have seaweed soup which comes with minced pork. But it is altogether another thing to have it cook this way that I am sharing with you. Whereas seaweed soup may be bland to some, this dish is tasty to the core hence, the name Seaweed Delight.

Mum first learnt this dish from 1st aunt and thereafter, taught me how to cook this dish. It has now become my preferred dish if I were to cook seaweed at home. The basic ingredients are no different from cooking seaweed soup but the cooking method and seasoning is slightly different. As you read the recipe, you will know why. Anyway, this dish has always made its presence on the dinner table only to vanish in every meal session. So, resist trying it at your peril.

This is my 1st aunt’s recipe for Seaweed Delight.

Ingredients

• 1/2 piece of seaweed (it comes in dried form and round shaped)
• 150 grammes minced pork
• 2 cloves garlic (minced and chopped into the minced pork evenly)
• 300 ml hot water
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil (peanut or palm)
• spring onions (chopped)

Seasoning

• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• Salt to taste
• a few dashes of white pepper powder

Method

Soak seaweed in a bowl of water to soften it. Rinse seaweed of impurities eg. sand. Drain and set aside.

Heat oil in wok and stir fry the minced pork until pork becomes cooked. Add water followed by seaweed. Bring to boil and add seasoning. Allow sauce to reduce and sprinkle spring onions evenly prior to serving.

Can be served with steamed white rice or plain rice porridge.

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Seaweed Delight

It was difficult for me to find the exact English equivalent for Sweet Tau Kee or Sweet Tou Kan, a type of soya product which is popular amongst vegetarians. Sweet Tau Kee comes in rectangular dried hard pieces and are brown in colour and you will need to soften them by pre-soaking in water for a few minutes prior to cooking. I have had experience where certain Sweet Tau Kee softens much faster than others depending on different manufacturers. After they have softened, you should cut them into smaller pieces as they measure approximately 15cm in length and 5 cm in width prior to cooking.

Sweet Tau Kee is not for everyone due to its unique taste, which can be bitter to some. Here, I have paired the Sweet Tau Kee with Choy Sum (菜心) or “Flowering Chinese Cabbage” so that there is a good balance between the subtle sweetness of the Tau Kee and the refreshing Choy Sum greens. This dish is quite easy to cook and with a little effort in presentation, you can dish out something which can rival what is being offered in the chinese restaurants. By the way, if you intend to serve this as a complete vegetarian dish, omit garlic from the ingredients.

This is my recipe for Choy Sum with Sweet Tau Kee

Ingredients

• 200 grammes Choy Sum (choose tender shoots, rinsed thoroughly to remove dirt)
• 3 pieces Sweet Tau Kee (pre-soak till soft enough to cut with scissors, yet with a little firmness. Cut into desired sizes)
• 3 cloves garlic (sliced thinly)
• Water for blanching Choy Sum
• Potato starch (mix 1 teaspoon potato flour with 100 ml water)
• 2 tablespoons peanut / corn oil

Seasoning

• 1 tablespoon mushroom / abalone flavoured sauce
• A pinch of salt
• A couple of dashes of white pepper powder

Method

Bring to boil in a pot or wok. Add a liberal pinch of salt and a couple of drops of cooking oil. Whilst water is boiling rapidly, add Choy Sum and blanch it until the leaves turn dark green, indicating that it is cooked. Remove and drain. Arrange Choy Sum on a plate.

Heat cooking oil in wok and fry the sweet tau kee for 1 minute on both sides on medium high heat. Once done, push the sweet tau kee to one side and add garlic to remaining oil. Saute till aromatic.

Then, push back the sweet tau kee to the garlic and add 200 ml water. Bring gravy to boil and add seasoning to taste. Gradually add potato starch to thicken gravy to your preferred consistency. Then, pour gravy with sweet tau kee and garlic over the pre-arranged Choy Sum.

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Choy Sum with Sweet Tau Kee

I had a small quarter of pumpkin the other day and we all know how sweet pumpkins are. But I was bored of stir-frying pumpkin with dried prawns and needed a change. After rummaging through my kitchen cabinet, I found a can of luncheon meat and I thought “why not?”. The sweetness from the pumpkin would complement the slightly saltish luncheon meat and that could be a good combo. So, what I did was to cut both ingredients into equal sized cubes and stir-fried them to make this pumpkin and luncheon meat combo. It turned out quite alright

For this recipe, I cut the pumpkin and luncheon meat into cubes. You can cut them into slivers if you prefer it that way. Somehow, I could not resist the use of dried prawns to give it a slight seafood bite. If you are unable to get hold of dried prawns, I would recommend just omitting it altogether. Do take care with the seasoning as the taste depends on how sweet your pumpkin is and how salty your brand of luncheon meat is. So, use salt judiciously. Otherwise you will have to take extra helpings of steamed white rice and a double dose of water to flush them out

This is my recipe for Pumpkin and Luncheon Meat Combo

Ingredients

• 100 grammes pumpkin (cubed)
• 100 grammes luncheon meat (cubed)
• 1 tablespoonful of dried prawns (rinsed and pre-soaked for 30 minutes in 150 ml water. Keep water)
• 4 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
• 4 shallots (sliced finely)
• 5 tablespoons cooking oil

Seasoning

• Salt / Light soya sauce and white pepper powder to taste

Method

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in wok and fry luncheon meat till golden brown. Remove and set aside.

Add 2 tablespoons oil into wok and fry shallots till golden brown. Remove and set aside.

Add garlic and pre-soaked dried prawns into wok and fry till aromatic and until garlic becomes golden brown. Remove and set aside.

Add 2 tablespoons oil into wok and fry pumpkin for 1 minute. Then add water previously used to soak dried prawns. Cover with lid and allow water to dry up. Uncover lid, stir well and add more water up to half the height of pumpkin. Repeat covered cooking process till pumpkin slightly soft. Then add fried luncheon meat, fried dried prawns, fried garlic and water. Add seasoning to taste.

Stir until water slightly evaporated and pumpkin has been cooked to your desired softness.

Remove from wok and garnish with fried shallots.

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Pumpkin and Luncheon Meat Combo