Chwee Kueh and one of my favorite childhood games

In Cantonese, we call this “Voon chye go” and this is something that reminds me of my Mum’s good friend in Ipoh.  I called her “Ah Tai” (means the eldest).  According to my Mum, she got this nickname because she spoke with a very loud voice and all the neighbors on the street respected her and gave her "face" because she is the oldest and a very generous person.  She used to serve food and drinks to her mahjong “kakis” (mates).  One dish that she served that left a deep impression with me was her chwee kueh (rice cake).  They tasted out of this world delicious.! I remembered “Ah Tai” stayed in this famous street in Ipoh in one of the old shop houses. The street used to be called Theatre Street before our Government change all the streets’ name in Ipoh to Bahasa Malaysia.  Mum went there to play mahjong with her and her other friends. While Mum was playing mahjong, I would be playing with other children who lived there and one of our favorite games was kicking this colorful object which you will see in the photos below.  I have not seen this for 40 years since I moved from Ipoh to Kuala Lumpur. The other day when Stitch and I went to have lunch in one of our favorite Chinese coffee shops, we walked pass a shop and many of these were displayed outside on the varendah.  I turned to Stitch and told him I must buy one and share my story about it my friends.  Don’t ask me what this is called in English because I don’t have a clue.  Any of my Asian friends can tell me?  In Cantonese, it is called “Yin”.  Now you may want to know how did we play the game.  Okay, each of us would have our own“Yin”.  To play the game, we needed to kick this up in the air with one foot and continue kicking as many times as possible without letting it drop on the ground.  Once dropped on the ground, that will be our score. So who got the most score would be the winner. You will be surprised to know that the “Yin” we owned was one that we handmade by ourselves and we would decorate our “Yin” with very colorful tin can sheets and feathers. We would make it look very attractive and took great pride in it. We would compete with each other to own the best looking "Yin".  Sometimes we so admired our friend’s “Yin” that we made our “Yin” as a price to the winner.  It was a lot of fun kicking "Yin". In my opinion, games played during my childhood days were more outdoor, creative and interactive as compared to games played by kids today.  The next question for those who has never seen or heard of this game may be curious to know what this is made of.  They are made of  one very long nail with a rather big flat head and many layers of round rubber sheets and tin can sheets of about 3 to 4 cm in diameter. All the sheets were punched with a hole in the centre just big enough to let the nail go through.  The top and bottom layers had to be rubber.  In between were numerous tin can sheets.  Rubber bands were used to tie the feathers to the tip of nail.  Yes, it is that simple to make a toy for ourselves those days. It practically cost us nothing and yet we could derive hours of pleasure from it.

Now, coming back to chwee kueh, here is the recipe. Mine may not taste as good as At Tai’s but my mum and my friends love it so I presume it is worth sharing this recipe with you. 

Makes 30

Ingredients:

(A)

300g rice flour

½ tsp corn flour

2 C water

¼ tsp salt

(B)
3 C water

3 tbs oil

Toppings:

(C)

3 tbs oil

3 tbs garlic, chopped

150g dried preserved radish pieces (chai poh)

¼ tsp pepper

4 tbs sugar

Method:

Grease chwee kueh moulds of 4 cm diameter and place on steamer to heat. Mix (A) together in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.  Bring 3 C water to boil. Add to A and blend with a whisk to get a slightly gluey consistency.  Pour batter into each chwee kueh mould, filling to just below the brim.  Steam for 20 mins over moderate heat. Ensure water is boiling before covering the steamer.  Cool before scooping out.  Top with (C).

To make topping (C):

Heat the oil and fry garlic till golden. Add preserved sweet radish and fry for 5 mins till fragrant.  Add pepper and sugar.  Add more sugar if a sweeter taste is desired. Fry for another min.

You can serve this with sambal belacan or hoi sin sauce or tauchew sauce. 

Note: Vary the amount of corn flour to adjust texture.  Use moderate heat when steaming to prevent dimples from forming. Also, put vinegar into the boiling water in the steamer so chwee kueh will be white. There are 2 types of chai poh. Use the sweet one and not the salted. It is better to prepare the toppings before hand and keep in the freezer for a week. Steamed chwee kueh, if kept in air tight container in the fridge can last for 2 days.

 I have submitted this entry to  Malaysian Monday.  Do check out  3 hungry tummies or test with a skewer for more information.

Spinach Bacon mini quiche

Do you have days that you just want to eat something simple? Here is a recipe for a quick, simple and delicious meal. You can make a big batch of this and keep in the freezer. They come very handy on days when you just want to drop on your couch and eat your meal in front of the TV watching your favorite show.  Don’t even have dishes or cutlery to wash.

Ingredients:

4 eggs

2 cups milk

1 1/4 cups shredded Asiago cheese

1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 red capsicum, thinly sliced (if want spicy, replace with 1 red chilli)

2 to 3 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dry wasabi

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1 (10 ounce) package spinach, cooked, chopped and drained

1 (9 inch) short crust pastry (divide by 4 make 4 mini pie shell)

Method:

In a large bowl, beat eggs; whisk in milk, 1 cup cheese, capsicum,onion, bacon, salt, mustard and paprika. Add spinach. Pour into pie shell. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted halfway between the center and the edge comes out clean.

Braised Lamb Shank in garlic foam – Big Disappointment!

First I do not eat lamb, and I just cannot stand the gamey taste. There have been many times when everybody told me the lamb at a certain restaurant had no gamey taste, and I've tried, but the musky "gamey" taste is always there. Since both my hubby and son love lamb, I want to learn how to make this dish for them. So I found a recipe for lamb shank in Chef Sam Leong's recipe book. I followed the recipe to the dot and cannot tell what went wrong. I am not happy with the result of this dish. My food critic said the flavor was good but my lamb shank is not tender enough. I did not know that it is so difficult to get it right. No wonder I don't like it. LOL! I would love to hear your opinion on this. Any of you dear friends have a good lamb shank recipe, please point me to it ok? Pretty please?

Adapted from Chef Sam Leong’s recipe

Ingredients:

60g lamb shank,

½ tsp cooking oil

40g Edmame beans

salt to taste

Sauce:

50g diced carrot

50g diced celery

3g rosemary

3g thyme

1 bay leaf

160ml chicken stock

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp tomato paste

2 tsp red wine

Garlic Foam:

20g peeled garlic

50ml chicken stock

30g whipping cream

½ tsp salt

Garnish:

Pink peppercorns

Chives

Method:

Pan sear lamb shank until brown on all sides. Place a pot with sauce ingredients and braise for 1 hr. Reserve shanks but discard other ingredients. Deep fry whole garlic until brown. Steam with chicken stock for 30 mins until garlic is soft. Add cream and process mixture in a blender until foamy. Season with salt. Heat oil and sauté edamame beans. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Place edamame beans on a plate, top with lamb shanks and spoon garlic foam over. Sprinkle with pink peppercorns and chives.

Steam three kinds of eggs

My son and hubby loves eggs. You can cook them in any variation, they will still love it.  To me, my mum makes the best steam eggs. This may look simple to do but to get the right consistency and texture are not so.  Before I started this blog, I never pay any attention to how mum makes this dish. I just know that I love it and have not found any restaurant in Kuala Lumpur that can make it better than her. There are times when I craves for it. Whenever that happens, all I have to do is said to mum, I want to eat steam eggs. "PUOOFF!" the steam eggs will be served at dinner time! I consider myself VERY lucky to have mum staying with me.  She is my BEST friend, someone I can confide in and be myself.  There are times when I go cranky and become nasty and blow my top unreasonably.  Mum puts me back on track by giving me a nice scolding which I deserved! She is my guardian angel. 

As usual, mum does not follow any measurement.  When I asked her how she makes the steam eggs, she said, a pinch of this and a bowl of that and use this aluminium plate to hold the eggs. So, I have to explain to her that I need accurate measurement in order for me to share this recipe with my readers and blogger friends.  They don't have the same size bowl or the aluminium plate we use. I told her I need to measure all her "pinch of this and handful of that" and "a bowl of this and that" to get it right. You know what she said to me?  She said "Aiyoh, why so "Ma fan"(troublesome)?, I don't need so many cups and spoons to cook. All I have is my ten fingers!" LOL! So there you go, here is the recipe carefully measured from my mum's ten fingers.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 egg

1 century egg

1 salted egg

¾ cup water

1 tsp chopped garlic, deep fried

1 shallot, thinly slice and deep fried

1 tsp diced chives

1 tsp sesame oil

Method:

Crack the regular and salted eggs in an aluminium plate. Dice the salted egg yolk. Add water and beat them lightly. Remove shell from century egg and cut into bite size and spread out into the salted egg and regular egg mixture.   Heat steam on high heat till water is boiling. Place plate with eggs mixture into the steamer and gently stir the mixture for 30 sec. Keep heat on high and close lid but just allowing a little gap. You can use a spoon or spatula to create the gap, this is a secret to getting the perfect steam egg custard with silky smooth surface. Steam for about 15 to 20 mins. Drizzle sesame oil on top of steamed eggs and garnish with deep fried garlic, deep fried shallots and chives. Serve hot.

Are you a romantic or a cynic? We are both!

When I arrived at the hotel and walked into the our room a day before Valentine's day, I saw this little arrangement on the dressing table. 

The flowers were lovely and I love the little butterfly clip. I really appreciate that my hubby took the time to make this little arrangement for me. He did not buy me expensive fancy chocolates but he bought me my favorite Kit-Kat!  That was a surprise!  He surprises me a lot and sometimes I wonder when is he going to run out of ideas. Frankly, I am not as creative as he is so I have long ago ran out of ideas to surprise him. Now my surprise to him is, there is no more surprises! I think I can get away with it because I am a "Chinese Kampong Girl"! LOL!

When I was at the mall on Valentine's afternoon, it was crowded with long ques of people at chocolate, cake stores, and florists. Everybody were rushing to get their love one a Valentine's gift.  Obviously, commercial interests has contributed greatly to the publicity that surrounds Valentine's day. No one can argue that they are all designed to rake in the profits.  To me, commercializing any holidays can often replace the true history and tradition of it but on the other hand, because of that, the holiday stays alive and not forgotten.  I think we should not be obsessed with tangible things and forget what the holiday really stands for. It is a big mistake to think that a gift or a dinner for your love ones on this day is going to make up for the fact that you don't show care for the rest of the year. Love is a precious experience and should be celebrated everyday in our own way not just once a year.

That evening, while everyone flocked to fancy restaurants for a candle light dinner to celebrate Valentine's day, we had a quiet dinner at a Kopitiam in the hotel we stayed in. We ordered three of our favorite dishes and two glasses of champagne. The deep fried tahu with bean sprouts and onions in a thin rojak sauce was delicious.  The beef rendang goes well with white rice.  There is nothing to shout about for the oysters sauce kai lan but a meal did not seem complete without vegetables. We enjoyed our meal and the attention from the waiters.  The service was better than usual because there were only a few of us there. To us, this is so much better than going to a crowded fancy restaurant, pay a big bill for a set menu of little choice and get annoyed by lousy service. We celebrated love in our own way.

The longest delicious meal I have ever had! and I made Otak-Otak

Before I give you guys the recipes for the Pickled cucumbers and Otak-Otak, I would like to share with you my first time meeting my blogger friends last Saturday. There were seven of us and we had a potluck gathering at Reese’s place at the poolside. Although it was my first time with these wonderful food lovers and cooks, I feel I knew them a long time and I was very comfortable in their company.  We eat, chat and laugh a lot.  In the following photo collage, you will see some of the food we had that day.

They are:

1-    From Tracie http://bittersweetflavours.blogspot.com/

Nian Gou Puffs

2-    From Sonia http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.com/

Ikan kembung in banana leaves

Yee Sang

3-    From Reese http://reesekitchen.blogspot.com/

Lemon grass, pandan soda drink

Lemon grass chicken wings

Sausage

4-    From Swee San  http://thesweetspot.com.my/ 

Vietnamese rice paper rolls

Ispahan Mini Cakes

Nasi kerabu (jointly with Wendy)

5-    From Wendy http://wendyinkk.blogspot.com/

Bak Kwa

Jelly candies

Alive and kicking prawns

6-    From Pei-Lin http://dodol-mochi.blogspot.com/

Rojak

7-    From me

Shanghai Noodles (I added some prawns this time)

Pickled cucumber (scroll down to see recipe)

Otak-Otak (scroll down to see recipe)

Is your stomach growling after seeing all the nice food?

As food bloggers, there is no way we do not take pictures of the food right? Even Sonias’s son, Desmond will not give up the chance to do so for his mum.  Sonia, you trained him well. LOL!

As Swee San was the only one who knows how to start the fire, she did the most work and got herself all hot and sweaty.  Thanks Swee San for the hardwork.  You can see how hard she worked in the following photos.

While all of us were busy preparing the food, chatting and eating, the young gentleman, Desmond (Sonias's son)  and the pretty young lady, Cheryl (Reese's daughter) were getting aquainted and enjoying themselves.

The rain did not stop us from continuing our eating and chatting session as you can see we moved everything up to Reese’s apartment and continue the fun. Before we say goodbye to each other after a wonderful day together, we snapped some group photos for remembrance. Can you see those satisfied and happy faces? 

Once again, my dear friends, thanks for the delicious food and an enjoyable Saturday!

So much for the bloggers meet, here comes the two recipes which my friends would like me to share:

Pickled cucumber

Ingredients:

2 cucumbers, remove seeds and diced

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

2 red chilli padi (birds chilli) finely diced (for very spicy)

or

1 red chilli, remove seeds and finely diced (for less spicy)

1 tsp roasted sesame

1 tbs plum sauce

1 tbs water

1 tsp oil

salt and sugar to taste

Method:

Heat oil in sauce pan and fry garlic till fragrant. Add plum sauce and stir fry for a few seconds, add chilli and water.  Add salt and sugar to taste. Stir fry for a min or two. Let cool and mix well with cucumbers. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours before serving. Taste better when serve cold.

*****************

Otak-Otak

I was so flattered. Desmond loves my Otak-Otak

Ingredients:

(A)

500gm salmon fish fillets, cut into 2 inches x  1 inch x ½ in thick

225 ml thick coconut milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

8 pcs kaffir lime leaves, removed the spines and finely sliced

20 pcs betel leaves (blanch in boil water and let dry)

½ tsp ground white pepper

½ tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

20 pcs 6 inches x 8 inches banana leaves, cleaned (see video on how to soften the leaves)

Ingredients for the paste:

(B)

10 pieces red chillies, seeds removed and sliced (don't remove seeds if prefer more spicy)

2 stalk lemongrass, finely sliced

4 petals of Bunga Kanta (phaemaria - pink rojak flower, finely sliced
1/2 in galangal

10 pcs candlenuts, roasted

1 pc shrimp paste approx. 1.5 in x 1.5 in

4 cloves garlic sliced

5 shallots, finely sliced

1.5 inch fresh tumeric

1 tsp Maggie chicken stock

Method:

Clean fish, remove skin and cut them accordingly. Blend all paste ingredients (B) in a blender. If you want it to taste even better, pound the spices using mortar and pestle instead.  In a large mixing bowl, add in (A) & (B) and mix them thoroughly.

Method of making banana leaf parcels for steaming:

In each banana leaf, place 1 or 2 betel leaves. Place 1 pc of fish and spoon the paste enough to cover the piece of fish before wrapping. Use staples to secure the folds and place the parcels on the rack of a steamer for approximately 7 mins or until fished is cooked and paste is set. Serve hot.

See video on how to make banana parcel

Our CNY celebration goes on and will not be complete without karaoke

On the 7^th day of CNY which is the called  “Yan Yat” (literally means “Everybody’s day”, my line dancing mates and I got together to have a jolly good time together, eating, making noise like having ten conversations at the same time at a Chinese Restaurant that has a karaoke room.

"Low sang" again!

From dancing mates to great friends! I feel blessed.

As you can see, we don’t only do all the above, we also enjoy singing our hearts out. 

Look, we are having so much fun!

The singing part of this get together brought back fond memories of the days where my Mum performed in Chinese Opera. I remember when I was six years old, my Mum and Dad were involved in charity work with a non profitable Chinese Opera Association in Ipoh (my birth place). My Dad was the chairman of the association and he was responsible to produce opera shows to raised money for charity. Due to that, Mum and me were recruited as part of the team.

My first performance in front of a huge audience was to sing a Chinese song "Mai fa lui" (a girl who sells flowers). I was six years old then. Those days, the microphone were a big thing hanging from the ceiling and even when it was at its lowest point, it did not reach me so I have to stand on a chair to reach it. I loved the applause I received after I finished singing.

At the age of nine, I was promoted to be a dancer. In every Chinese opera performances, it is the tradition to have an intro act where six generals with colorful facial make-ups and elaborated costumes come out to the stage to greet the audience. Along with them will come the horsemen and dancers and I was one of them. As you can see in the picture I was all made up and dressed up for the performance.  

Mum was the main actor for all the shows and here is a picture of her all dressed up with me and Dad. This was taken when we were in Kuala Lumpur in 1964 doing a two nights show to raise money to build a hospital.

Due to the influence from my mum, I like to listen and sing opera and enjoy watching Chinese Opera as well.  Although I am English educated and do not read a word of Chinese and have to romanize the Chinese lyrics and then memorize them to sing, it did not stop me from doing so because singing is one of my passions other than dancing and now cooking.  The song “Tai Lui Fa” is one of the many Chinese opera songs that I love the most. This is a favorite duet song for me and mum.  My mum would sing the male part while I would sing the female part.  Here is a short video taken at Mum's 70th birthday celebration. Mum still sing very well and did not loose touch at all.  Although the recording was not good as it was recorded by my handphone, I still hold dear to it. These are fond memories that will help me pull through difficult times in the future. You never know when life throws a curve ball at you.  I had many already.

Here is the link to the video clip of the original singers for the song. They are the most famous Hong Kong opera actor and actress of their time. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTuNliaG1iA

Black eye peas and peanuts soup

I have been eating too much rich food the past few days and just want something plain and simple for a change. I put a cup of cooked rice into this soup and I have a healthy meal. This is it!

Ingredient:

(A)

50 gm black eye pea, soaked overnight

50 gm peanuts, soaked for 3 hours

600 ml water

1 cube bullion chicken stock

(B)

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground white pepper

Method:

Add (A) in a soup pot and bring to boil.  Lower heat to medium and simmer for 1 hour. Add B and serve hot.