Homemade Spicy Taucu Sauce Steam Fish

Making sauces at home is easy. You control what you put in, adapt to your own preferences and no additives and preservatives. You know what you are eating. It's not only healthier, but actually it's more delicious too. 

I usually don't make too much at a time, each time, I'll make sauces that can use up to 3~5 times only. 

Ingredients :

2 pcs fresh Red Chilli

3~4 cloves of Garlic

4~5 pcs of shallots

2 tbsp of bean paste (taucu)

2 tsp of brown sugar

Some water

1 pcs of talapia fish

Step :

1) chilli, garlic and shallot- Fry to fragrance. 

2) Add in bean paste and brown sugar. Add some water to simmer.

3) The sauce is ready when it thicken. The longer you simmer is the better. Do not add too much water at a time. You should add water bit by bit so the sauce will not dry up.

4) Cleaning fish - descale and remove all the organs. Do not break the gut (black colour thing) as it will make the fish bitter. 

5) Steam fish for 15 mins. Check fish if fish is cook by using chopstick to poke the thickest part. If it goes it directly, easily, it means it's cooked. 

Remove some of the fish sauce that caused by the steaming process. You may keep it to cook vegetables .

6) Pour some sauce over the fish and let it steam for a while about 5mins.

Photo helper

Mix and cook all together.

Once you see that the sauce have get thicker, it's ready. Transfer to a jar to cool down before storing in fridge. Leave it in fridge for at least 1 week so that the taste and aroma become stronger.

Korea Fresh Ginseng Chicken Soup

Happened to came across The air-flown Korea Fresh Ginseng, brought in by Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp into Tastefully KL last weekend. 

As most of you may know,  ginseng have been traditional taken to aid many health condition and often taken for general health. it's taken to improve thinking ability (good for work n studies), anti-inflammation and improve immunology system and many others. 

As I have been working hard lately and find myself get easily tired and poor focus. I decided to make some tonic and herbal to drink. Mom says, ones get younger by consuming tonic. 

The Ginseng that I came across at Tastefully is small and slim but the aroma n flavour is powerful. The leaves and stem is also edible. 

Since we got this good stuff, I have make into a Ginseng Chicken Soup, double boil for 8 hours to consume. 

Ingredients :

1 pc x Korea Fresh Ginseng

1 Whole Chicken leg n Thigh

2 pcs x Jujube

Pitch of salt

Step :

1) Boil water - you will need it to pour into the double boil electric boiler.

2) Clean chicken and de-skin. Remove any fats. 

3) Boil the chicken in another pot and let it boil over 15 - 20 mins or until completely cooked. 

4) Wash ginseng thoroughly and de-seed jujube. 

5) Place chicken,  ginseng and jujube into the ceramic pot, pour in hot water, cover it and put into the double boiler. 

6) I turn under high heat until the water is very hot then switch to auto to let it simmer for 8 hours. 

The soup is clear and golden in colour. 

Double boil

Cover with a ceramic lid. 

Double boil,  is a Chinese cooking technique that is commonly used to cook soup and herbal. It uses a ceramic jar put inside the larger pot filled with hot water. The soup is cooked from heat generated from the steam. It cook over long hours,  6 - 8 hours, to finish. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_steaming

It's Simply Tastefully 11.11

Mark your calendar. Something is coming up in town. Tastefully F&B Expo is here! This is my 3rd time participate in Tastefully event this year. First in Penang, 2nd time in Johor. For both, I have seen quite alot of local brands selling all sort of ingredients and stuffs that makes cooking easier.

This weekend, 11 - 13 Nov, is happening at Mid Valley Convention Hall. Make sure you wear a comfy shoes, come in hunger state and bring a shopping bag. Expect alot of eating and drinking as there's more than 300 booths to check out.

This is a place to try out those sauces that you never buy but aways see them at supermarket shelves. This is also the place to sample some stuffs that you never buy from the supermarket freezer.

Here's some recommended brands that makes good soup. I like the Bak Kut Teh n Chicken soup from Claypot and Mo Sang Gor.

Sweet, you will get a free Bak Kut Teh to try at home when u present this coupon (below). 

Yuen Chun special offer from 12pm - 4pm - RM1 for any item. Wonderful, I like Yuen Chun brown soy bean sauce. It makes wonderful bases for many types of sauces - Jeong Jing or braise. 

Another thing you cannot miss is the abalone sampling session. The owner, generously, will make few types of Abalone for you to sample. They are also selling it at a very good price. Time to stock up for CNY.

I don't know why it's call Abalone noodle and Scallop noodle. I doubt they uses these to make the noodle. Anyway, you can try using this noodle to make 'gon-lou' or 'chao mien'. Finger licking good.

Freegifts, who doesn't like freegift.

We (yeah, I'm working for PappaRich) giving out FOC. Come early to redeem cause it's usually finished by late afternoon.

Surprisingly, this Pau Sedap have good nice HALAL dimsum. I'm quite surprised their dimsum taste very well. 

Check out their Facebook for more information and offers. They are running Facebook promotion to redeem freegifts.

Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Taste-Fully-Food-Beverage-Expo-291202534266096/

Coffee Machine Review - DeLonghi ec680

Hurray! Finally I brought a new coffee machine. I have been eyeing this model for a long time but the price doesn't fit into my budget. Instead of RM1399, I brought this at RM999 in HomeDec.

For the first time, you will need to run a couple of time to make it function well and keep the consistency. Go through it with water will do. Just keep on repeating until you find your machine function smoothly. You will get to familiarise while you make your trial.

I think this machine is quite easy to function. The calibration is very simple, it have been pre-set. The warm-up is fast, within 1-2 mins is ready to make you cuppa.

This how the machine looks like. It's slim and looks good in the kitchen.

 Choose a shorter cup as the space is a bit short.

Double shot espresso 

Expect some noise during extraction. Extraction takes about 30 seconds.

Now, is the milk frothing part. The milk frothing wand is quite short, so getting a right pitcher is important. Too tall, you can't reach the milk, too short, the foam will overflow.  

To froth milk, keep the wand at the side, you can see the milk swirling. There's nozzle that will help the milk frothing.

My pitcher is too small, so the foam is not thick enough. And because I uses Low Fat Milk, the foam is not smooth enough 😋 Ehem, Low Fat Low Fat.

And, my Latte Art fail 😅

It's not done yet, I clean my machine after every use. simple, remove the used coffee from the portafilter. Run under water to clean the bits of coffee waste. Put it back to the grouphead then just press the double espresso button to let the water run out to wash the bits of coffee waste that stuck in the grouphead.

See, some coffee waste will drain out from the grouphead. Wash the portafilter under running tap will do.

Now, cover the steam wand with a cloth and turn on the steam to let some steam out. Clean steam wand with wet cloth.

Done. 

Oh yes, this machine have 3 colours to choose.

Black

Red

Stainless Steel

Homemade Plum Sauce Pork

The first thing that comes to my mind is 'Plum Sauce Chicken' when I found the 'fresh' dried plum while making market visit at Lulu Hypermarket, Capsquare.

Homemade Plum Sauce is definitely taste better than those in bottled. I'm replacing chicken with pork in this recipe (I didn't buy chicken lor).

(A)
Small thumb size Ginger ~ sliced thin.
3 cloves of Garlic ~ finely chopped
1 small Onion ~ finely chopped
1 stalk of Lemongrass ~ finely chopped
70g of Dried Plum - deseed
1 tsp of oyster sauce
2 tbsp of Honey
A pinch of 5 spices powder

(B)
200g pork - cut into cube size about 3cm
Salt & pepper
A pinch of soda powder (this will soften the meat)
2 tsp of sesame oil

Marinate the pork with all the ingredient (B) for half an hour.

Turn on Airfryer, preheat at 180°C for 5 mins. Put in pork into Airfryer and cook for 20 mins under 180°C or until you see the pork becomes brown.

Now, let's go to the sauce part.

If you have a blender, you can blend in everything together.

Saute Ginger, Onion, Garlic and Lemongrass until, fragrance.

Add in oyster sauce, dried plum, 5 spice powder and water. Bring to boil. Turn to medium-low heat and let it boil for half hour. Add in honey, adjust taste and sweetness.

This should make about 1 bowl. Once the sauce is ready, spare some for this dish and move the balance to a jar for future use. Keep in fridge.

Fold in the pork and mix well.

Ready to serve.

Vietnamese Coconut Braised Pork

The first time that I tasted this dish is at Pho Vietz, a upraising Vietnamese restaurant in KL. This dish left my palate with a very strong impression. The sweetness, light but yet powerful taste lingers in my tongue for a very long while. According to the Chef, this dish, called 'Thit-Heo-Kho' is a Vietnamese new year dish.

No, I didn't get this recipe from Pho Viet chef, although I dyingly wanted to. I got this recipe from another page online (here). I have modify the recipe to my liking. I did not marinate the pork and did not put in palm sugar as I think the coconut juice is sweet enough by it's own.

Ingredients

(A)
2-3 slice of Ginger
1 tbsp of finely chopped onion
half tbsp of finely chopped garlic
1 cinnamon stick
2 Anise Star
1 tsp of oyster sauce
About 200g Pork Belly/ Lean Meat

(B)
350~500ml of coconut water
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 tsp of dark soy sauce (for colour)
1 tsp of fish sauce

I brought Tropicana Coconut Water as I didn't get the fresh ones.

Saute Ingredient A until fragrance. Add in the pork and continue saute until you see the skin is browned.

Add in Ingredient B

Bring to boil and braise under low heat for at least 1 hour.

Ready to serve.

Nam-Yu Pandan Chickie

The initial idea of buying the pandan is for making red bean tong sui. However, I have changed my idea to Pandan Leaves Chicken when I'm staring at it. My mind is flooded with the Thai style ones but I didn't have the ingredients at home.

So, I thought of having this combination of nam-yu and pandan if the flavour will blend in well.

Marination
200g chicken breast or thigh - cut into small cube
1 cube of red fermented beancurb (nam-yu / 南乳)
1 tsp of fish sauce
Half tsp light soy sauce
A pitch of chopped garlic
A pitch of chopped onion

Marinate for at least half an hour. Take note on the saltiness as nam-yu and soy sauce is both very salty. Adjust your own level of saltiness. My recommendation is to add in a little of soy sauce so the flavour will be more layered rather than just for the saltiness.

Coat the marinated chicken with corn flour.

Wrap the chicken with pandan leaves. You may coat the leaves and chicken with some oil (optional).

Ensure you wash the pandan leaves thoroughly as there alot dirt.

Pre-Heat Airfryer for 5 mins @ 180°C

Put in chicken. Cook for 15 mins @ 180°C. 

Enjoy the pandan aroma while you can seat back and enjoy the TV. Cooking with Airfryer makes life easier for busy (lazy) people.

Salted Egg Prawn 咸蛋超仁

I'm so happy that my colleague from Perak have brought us some ham dan (salted egg). The egg is huge and the saltiness is just right with a very strong flavour. It is so nice. My colleague told me she brought it from directly from the ham dan maker. So it's really 'fresh'.

I'm not really a ham dan fans, so I seldom cook dishes with ham dan. When I received the eggs, the first dish that came to my mind is Ham Dan Prawn.

This time, I happened to be at NSK Rawang Jaya for roadshow. I'm happy to see this outlet have so many varieties of fresh food, vegetables and seafood. To be frank, this my first time going to NSK. 

Now, let's get back to the recipe. Here's what you need.

500g large prawns

3 large salted egg york

2 tbsp Butter

20 pcs of Curry leaves
Chopped onion

(B)

Chinese Rice Wine

Salt

Sugar

(C)

Corn flour

Oatmeal 

Steps:

Deshell, dehead and devein all the prawns. Wash the prawns thoroughly with water to remove any debris.

Pour in Chinese rice wine,  alot of salt and sugar to the prawns. No need add water. Let it seat aside for 10~15 mins. This step is important if the prawns is less fresh and have a stinky smell. If your prawns is super fresh, you may skip this step.

Steam ham dan york for 10 mins or less. The egg is ready when the colour turned. Smash the egg york into mushy-mashy.

Wash off the salt and sugar. Drain it dry. Coat the prawns with corn flour and oatmeal.

Heat up pan with 4 - 5 tbsp oil.

Fry prawns and oatmeal.

Once the prawns turned red and curled, quickly dish up and set aside.

Now, let's make the sauce.

Heat up pan and put in the butter. Becareful not to burn the butter. Add in onion and keep on stirring. You will see foam rise up.

Add in the mashy-mushy egg york into the butter foam. Mix the egg york well and add in curry leaves.

Add in prawns and coat sauce evenly.

Dish up and ready to serve.

Curry Asparagus with Chicken Bits

This dish look very simple but needs a bit of preparation work. I have prep the curry chicken in advance as you will need to soak the chicken in the curry sauce so that the chicken will be full of the curry flavour. When you cook the curry sauce, you may make it more salty as later on you do not need to add anymore seasoning when you cook it with asparagus.

Ingredient A

3 tbsp curry powder

1 tbsp paprika powder

1 tsp ginger powder

1 pc cinnamon 

2 pc bay leaf

Ingredient B

500ml water

1 small whole piece chicken breast fillet.

Ingredient C
Asparagus, cut interval on every 2 inch

Mix all Ingredient A into the boiling water. Mix well. Add in the chicken. Cook till chicken cooked thoroughly and until the juice left about half under medium-small heat.

Once ready, let it cool down and transfer the chicken and juices into a zipper bag or aluminum foil. Wrap it nicely to avoid food contamination. Keep in fridge/freezer at least 6 hours or overnight.

Final Cooking:

Slice and cut chicken into tiny bits.

Heat up frying pan and put in a little of oil. Add in the chicken and keep on searing it. When you see the chicken start to get to dry up, add in Shallot and Garlic. Keep on sear until become very dry and fragrance.

Add in Asparagus.

Ready to serve.