Asian Style Spagetthi

Did you miss my home cook recipe ? hihihi.... not something to be proud of actually.

I never buy spagetthi from our cafe as I always think that I can cook the "same" as they do. :-D I don't see anything special in their servings. Neither do they have a nice deco. Hence, I will turn to other choices.

I do not cook spagetthi because I want to have it. It is always because I do not have enough time to cook rice and sometimes I do not have "enough" ingredients to make up a few dishes. That's when I take out my spagetthi.

My ingredients always changes. This time, I cook it in Asian style, like "fried noodle". :-D (Got the idea from my colleague).

Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients that I used:
For frying
Sausage
Button Mushroom
Mix vegetable
Crab meat
Onion

For taste
a slice of cheddar Cheese per serving
tomato sauce
dash of Salt
dash of sugar
dash of pepper

For garnishing
Herbs

Method:
1) In a pot, bring water to boil and put in the spagetthi.
2) In another pan, heat up the pan and add some cooking oil.
3) Throw in onion and fry till fragrant. Add in all the "frying ingredients" and saute till fragrant.
4) Add tomato sauce, salt, sugar, half cup of water / milk.
5) Bring water/milk to boil. Turn off flame. Add in pepper and cheese.
6) Sprinkle herbs on top for garnishing.
and....... it's Ready to serve! :-)

My Asian Style Spagetthi. Something different from the usual Spagetthi Bolognese. :-D

Dragon Fruit Flower

Have you ever seen a dragon fruit flower before? It was my first time seeing it. Thanks to my neighbor for her love for plants! :)

I only came to know that dragon fruit flower blooms in the night from 9pm + to 11pm and it only bloom once a day. After that time, it will close up....

Here are some of the close shots that I took. Big and beautiful!

Sou Men (素麺) Soup

This is my first Sou Men (in Japanese) soup.

My neighbor taught me a very simple and fast dish which I never thought that it would be Such DeLlicious.
She cooked it with Yam cake made by herself and I replaced the yam cake to Sou Men. :-) (as I always do change recipes). hahaha

Serves : 4 ‾ 5

Ingredients:
1 pack (250g) Sou Men (素麺) 250g
4 shallots (finely chopped)
1 big Shiitake mushroom (soak till tender)
2 stalks Kau choy (ku chai)
1 bowl Bean sprout

Soup base (Seasoning):
3tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
pepper to taste
(adjust the soup taste depending on the brand and the intensity of the sauces)

Garnish (optional)
Parsley

Method:
1. In a pot, bring water to boil and put in sou men. (add a little oil) Boil till tender. Drain and flush sou men in cold water.

2. Fry shallots till golden brown. Put aside, add shiitake mushroom and fry till fragrant.
3. Add 3 bowls of water, cover with lid and bring water to boil.
4. Add Kau choy and bean sprout and seasoning, simmer for just a little while.
5. Turn off flame. Divide the sou men into each serving and add in soup.

And it's ready to serve ! This is one dish that you must try. But if you do not like shallot taste, then reduce the amount.

We all simply love it !

Mee Sua Yong Tau Foo

Hi... I'm back with my own recipe again. :-) LOL

I always test on new food. I don't have a "fixed" recipe for all my cookings. Such a nice phrase... LOL. Actually, I'm just trying to twist and turn so not to expose that I don't know how to cook. :-D

Maybe it's because I am really not a picky eater, therefore, I cook anything that I can find from my fridge or just anything that comes into my mind. As long as it can still be eaten, healthy and taste not bad, right ? See... I have great supporters to test my cookings. :-D

Not bad, mom...

Here it is, my Mee Sua Yong Tau Foo. :-D

Not to praise myself, hubby said it's very very good, especially the mee sua. :-D He took 2 big bowls.

Ingredients:
5 Mee Sua
Yong Tau Foo ( buy ready made fish balls, ladys finger, etc)
3tsp Sesame oil

Soup base :
2tbsp anchoves (mee sua and Yong Tau Foo itself somehow is salty. So, do not put too much of anchoves)
Water 4 cups
some black pepper to taste
2 slices of ginger

Method:
1) Wash and drain anchoves
2) Bring water to boil and simmer anchoves, ginger about 15 mins.
3) Drain anchoves away from the soup and add ready made Yong Tau Foo and pepper. Bring to boil and turn off flame.
4) In another pot, boil water and cook mee sua. Drain out mee sua.
5) Put all cooked mee sua in a big bowl and add some sesame oil. (Mee sua will not be sticky and lump into a big clog). Sesame oil adds fragrant too.
6) Divide mee sua into per serving, add soup and yong tau foo. If you have parsley, do garnish some on top for nice decoration.
And... it's ready to serve !

Easy & simple. :-)

*Note: If it is not taken instantly after cooking, drain out the Yong Tau Foo from the soup to deter the Yong Tau Foo from being overly soft and not crunchy.

Twisted Pasta Soup

I got this idea from Bukit Jambul's "The White Coffee" restaurant. One of their menu "Nissin Soup Noodle".

In Japan, "Nissin" brand is famous for it's cup noodle. Just like Malaysia's "Maggi" brand. Again, as a "health freak", I turned it's "Nissin Soup Noodle" to become my own "Twisted Pasta Soup". :-D

There it goes....


Ingredient wise, I only changed the instant noodle to Italian twisted pasta and the soup base from instant soup to anchovies soup. Egg and sausage was the original dish served. It is sold RM 5.90 per bowl, if I'm not mistaken. Mine is more healthier, isn't it ? :-D

My ingredient:
Soup base :
Anchovies
little salt
1/4 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Garnishing :
1 egg
1 sausage
1 crab stick
2 tbsp bean sprout
1 stalk of siu pak choy

Easy, fast and healthy. :-D
Don't always have to prepare rice for dinner and it's yummy !

Ang Chiew Mee Suah (Hong Chau Min Sin-cantonese)

This is Hock Chiew's signature Mee Sua or Min Sin.

This is Sitiawan's famous dish. It's like Kei Si Hor Fun (sliced chicken noodle) in Ipoh.

My first try on this dish was back in 1999, almost 10 years ago. I can say that I like it very much.

What so special about this dish ? The soup base is not merely braised by chicken stock nor pork stock. It entails chinese red rice wine which soaked in for 3 months before it's ready to be used.

As below pic, glutinuous rice with red rice and wine cake.
Mix them together and soak for 3 months.


It is then kept in bottle and ready to be used to cook ginger chicken soup or saute chicken with it's rice wine. MIL used to cook soup whenever it's the birthday of any of the family members.

The mee sua is first cooked with plain water. After it is cooked, drain it. Then, scoop up some oil from the red wine soup and mix to the mee sua. In this sense, the mee sua will not stick in one big lump, and it is much tastier.


*Note: There are 2 types of mee sua from Sitiawan. One is fatter and the other thinner. I like the thinner type. It goes well with this soup.

In fact, this dish is also perfect to be eaten during confinement since it is made of rice wine and also cooked with chicken and ginger. I had it almost every other day during my confinement. nmm... it's yummy !

This Signature Dish has also been blogged by Motormouth from Ipoh earlier on. You can check out from his blog on where to find this dish in Sitiawan. As for Penang (mainland), there is one coffee shop selling this at night. It is at Tmn. Mutiara night food court, BM. Main road to Jit Sin (SRJK) Secondary high school, coffee shop facing the main road. (the morning wet market is at the back).

Hoe Si Fatt Choy-Stewed Mushroom, Oyster, Moss

My version of stewed Mushroom, Oyster without Moss. :-)

When I opened my fridge, all I could see was only chinese herbs, mushrooms, some dried food, cabbage and lettuce.....

Gosh... What can I cook from these ingredients ? Really scratched my head.

All of a sudden, I reminisce my grandma's Hoe Si Fatt Choy. We used to have this dish during chinese new year. But not anymore ever since she passed away 24 years ago.

Since I have Big Mushrooms and dried oysters in my fridge, I decided to stew them even though I hadn't got any moss nor pork for the soup base.

To compensate pork or chicken meat, I thought of using anchovies, but I remembered hubby didn't like the smell of it. Being obsessed with chinese herbs, I ended up using chinese herbs as the soup base. :-)

Soup base Ingredients:

10 red dates (pitted)

4 flower seeds ? (sorry, I forgot what it calls. If anyone can pic that, pls let me know. The one in brown color in the pic)

1 dried abalone (it's not 100% original abalone. Can get it from chinese provision shop).

3 dried oysters (not those big ones during CNY. Got it from sundry shop).

2 dried longan

2 tbsp of Kei Chi

8 dried shitake mushrooms, soak in a bowl of water, retain water for cooking

1 tbsp of thick soya sauce

Marinate Mushroom -for 15 mins after mushroom is soft.

1 tbsp of corn starch

1 tbsp of oyster sauce

1 tsp sugar

Method:

1) Wash and soak mushroom for 1 hour and drain.

2) Soak for the second time and retain the water for stew.

3) Drain mushroom, add starch, oyster sauce and sugar. Leave aside.

4) Boil water with the soak mushroom water together with all the soup base ingredients for 15 mins.

5) Put the mushroom and the pot of soup into slow cooker, add thick soya sauce and leave it to stew until soft.

This was my first time preparing it and hubby said it's tasty. Before I stew them, I took out a cup of the sup base and let my kids and hubby taste. They all like it. :-) It leaves me more confident to stew them using the soup. :-)

Though, it is not the original Stew Mushroom, Oyster and Pork, but this is as good.

Javanese Jawa Mee

I was chatting with my friends yesterday about cooking Jawa Mee and they said that I never posted anything about Jawa Mee. I remembered snapping some photographs of it the 1st time I cook at my new home. I must have forgotten to post it again. Yesterday was my 4th time, if I've not mistaken..

Here is my Jawa Mee, the revised version suitable for kids - not so spicy and with healthy ingredients.

Serving: 4

Preparation + Cooking Time: 45 min

Ingredients:

Yellow noodles

Rice vermicelli/rice noodle

Soup / Gravy

3 medium sweet potato

2 medium potato

3 small tomatoes (in replacement of Asam Jawa)

100ml tomato ketchup sauce (add more or less to suit own taste)

3 tbsp chili sauce (add more if spicier taste is preferred)

4 shallots

1 tbsp light soy sauce

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

** Optional : 40g chili paste with onion (bought from wet market or buy RM1.00. Half for the gravy and half for garnishing sauce)

Garnishing
3 medium eggs, hard boil
1 stalk chinese lettuce, shredded

2 cups bean sprouts, briefly blanched

1 tofu (soy bean cake), thinly sliced
Fried beancurd slice (in replacement of prawn cracker)

2tbsp chili paste to taste

fried shallots to taste

Garnishing: Prawn Cracker (MIL's secret recipe)

300g medium sized shrimp

300g flour

100g frying powder Hup Loong Batter Premix

salt to taste

Method

1. Bring 3 cups of water to boil.

2. Skin sweet potato and potato.

3. Cook sweet potato, potato and tomato until tender.

3. In another pot, cook hard boil egg.

4. Wash, drain lettuce, bean sprout and tofu.

5. Shred lettuce and cut tofu into cubes.

6. Marinate tofu with sugar and light soy sauce, put aside. (for better taste. You many skip this one).

7. Drain out sweet potato, potato and tomato. Blend them together until very smooth.

8. Remove from blender and pour it back to the pot that boils the potatoes. Mix it and boil with low flame.

9. Saute shallots until golden brown. Add chili paste and saute till fragrant.

10. Pour in shallots and chili paste into the potatoes pot. Mix it well.

11. Add in tomato sauce, chili sauce, little salt and light sauce.

12. Bring it to boil or until soup is thicken.

And it's done ! Ready to serve

Oops ! I forgot to put on shredded lettuce ! :-D

* In my previous cooking, I added lime for a more intense sour taste. However, I find that Ernest always have throat irritation at night each time after having the Jawa mee. He has no throat irritation after I eliminated lime into the cooking. Thus, I guess, he is allergy to lime.

Wanna give a try ?

Lunch at Victoria Station

"Victoria Station" is not a new place for any steak lovers. However, it is new for me to dine in for a lunch. A very heavy lunch, I had today with my colleagues, 25 of us in total.

While waiting to be served. I order a strawberry milk shake, which is Ernest's favorite fruit juice. It's very tasty.



We were then served a bun. Till we finished up the whole bun, our soup was still not served. We kept waiting and finally.....
Crabmeat Sharkfin soup. It would be much satisfying if the soup was 100% hot.


And.... our main course is here..... :-D
Just joking.


It's this one. I ordered Lobster + beef set. It comes with one special side dish, i.e bake pumpkin. It's 90% similar to fried wedges. We did not notice it until we tasted it. Very nice. :-) The lobster was baked with cheese. I find it a bit overcooked. The beef was just ok for this set.


This was another main course ordered by my colleague. Lobster + Salmon. This set isn't in the menu, they special ordered it. The salmon, nmm... it's not nice.


The 3rd set is Lobster + Lamb. I don't like lamb, but this lamb was good. Really good. It's very tender.

A complementary deep fry prawn from my colleague. The portion was too much. She can't finished hers, but I can 'cas I have an elastic stomach. :-D


We all were actually more than full, really full and for the girls, none of us could finished up our own portion. I meant including all the side dishes in the serving.

Yet, we still have another dessert...
Chocolate mousse cake with a scoop of ice-cream. Some were served with cheese cake or coffee cake. Cheese cake was the best among them.


At the end of the course, we were served with a tea / coffee. Me and another colleague couldn't tolerate anymore. We needed something non-sweet and thus, we put a deco lime on the fruit juice into our tea ! :-D Well, that was nice for a temporary digestion. :-D

I couldn't elaborate how full we were, but I didn't had any dinner tonight. It was just too much. I think I will not take anymore seafood or beef for at least another few months.

The sets were RM 73.00 each. (1 soup, 1 main course, 1 dessert + coffee/tea). Worth it, isn't it ? Will you try it out even if it's not a treat?

Pizza at Bella Italia, Belissa Row.

Pizza anyone ?

Going to Pizza hut for pizza seems nothing new. In fact, kind of boring. I personally don't really like the base of the pizza made by Pizza hut. I feel that it is either too thick for the normal crust or too thin for the pan pizza. Don't they have something very similar to the Real Italian Pizza ?

I was craving for one true Italian Pizza. Since we were at Penang and Ern chosen to go for pizza, we came to this restaurant, Bella Italia. :-) This was my 2nd time to this restaurant. The first was few years back (it does not mean that it is not nice. Just that it is far from home).


We arrived late and we were starving. So we got outselves a mushroom soup and some garlic bread first while waiting for our main course.


What to order ?
There are varieties of pastas. To name a few, Fettucine, Penne, Ravioli, Penne, the famous and common spagetthi and also lasagna.


Apart from the pastas, there is of course our delighted Italian pizza.
Pizza Margherita-only tomato, cheese and basil as toppings. It's for people whom likes mild taste and plain type.
We ordered Pizza Quattro Stagioni. We can't eat much but wanted to try different flavour. This quattro stagioni comes in 4 different taste in 1 pizza.


While waiting for the main dish to be served... we had garlic bread w mushroom soup. We waited for long for the main course to be served. The kids were already making noise. So, the manager offered us more garlic bread at no cost. :-D



The restaurant was full. We were seated outside the restaurant. Thus, mosquitoes everywhere...especially on the head area

While waiting.... Too boring nothing to do...
I like these oil bottles very much.


At last, our Ravioli came. Ravioli are pasta that wrapped with cheese inside and is served with cream sauce. This is also one of my favorite menu. Recommended. ;-)


Our pizza only came in 45mins after we ordered and after we had finished everything. Thus, I could only managed to snap this quarter left pizza. :-D
As soon as it was served on the table, it was grabbed and taken all by the 3 boys.
Take a look at the pasta. It is very thin and soft. Not crispy like Pizza hut's. It is bake in very low heat at charcoal fire place. The pizza were still very juicy. Recommended. This is a must try menu.

Very cheezy.... very delicious ! nmm.... yummy.

Our bill came to about RM 70+. It's abit too expensive but still affordable once awhile.

Bella Italia provides genuine Italian tastes food. A restaurant you must not miss. ;-)

Our Beautiful Adeniums

This is one of our Adenium plant given by MIL when we moved to our new house. MIL said, these few were her most beautifully grown ones.

4 months later after we moved, the flower blossom so much. So Much. Unbelievable. It was so beautiful.. so, I thought of snapping a few shots and keep as rememberance.


Every branch that has leave, will bloom few flowers ever at the very short trunk.

Amazingly nice.




Now my house has 11 pots and all of them bloom beautifully. My neighbors too grow Adenium at their house, but is still waiting for it to bloom. Maybe, they take too much care of it. :-D