Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's pie when I first heard the name it really puzzled me. While the meat used has to be mutton or lamb to be call shepherd. It is simple and yet nice. Is like a layer of meat with a layer of mash potato. After eating it once, very excited to get my hands on it again and it did turned out great. Being an Asian, just meat and potatoes not a every month kind of dish.Finally whipping it up again after so many years.

Ingredients:

• 4-6 Medium             Potatoes
• 1Tbsp                      Vegetable oil
• 1 medium                  Onion chopped
• 600g                       Minced mutton
• 1Tsp                        Dried Basil
• 1 Cup                       Mix Vegetable
• 1 Cup                       Diced tomatoes
• 1                              Egg beaten
• 1/2 Cup                    Water
• 1/2 Cup                    Shredded cheddar cheese (opt)

Methods:

1. Boil the potatoes and mash it when it is cook.
2. Preheat the oven to 175 degC.
3. Coat a 2 quart casserole dish with some oil.
4. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat and add in the onion.
5. Fry it frequently for about 5 mins.
6. Add in the mutton and basil then allow it to cook for another 5 mins
7. Mix in the mix vegetable and tomatoes then allow it to simmer for 5 mins.
8. Transfer it to the prepared dish.
9. In a mixing bowl, mix the mashed potatoes, egg and water.
10. Then spread it evenly over the meat.
11. Baked it in the preheated oven for around 15 - 20mins or until the top turn brown.
12. Sprinkle with cheese and continue to bake for another 5 mins.

Jiao zi (dumpling)

When I had my first jiao zi here while still staying with my housemates from Tianjin (China),I was shock.Why? When they say eat jiao zi is really just eat jiao zi and no other dishes. To me and I also believe most people in our region might need to have rice and some other dishes to go along. They told me people from the northern part of China do not eat rice but home made noodle, pancake, pau or jiao zi. Different parts of China, people all have different types of main food not necessary rice. Mostly southern people will eat rice but might not other part of China. So for the first time, I had like 10 - 15 jiao zi to fill up my stomach. It was really nice to eat when it is still hot from the pot. So one fine weekend, finally get my hands working on it and learn the skill of making the jiao zi from them. Luckily I did manage to master the skill before they moved out and got praised by others but my favorite is the pan fried kind.

Ingredients:

Dumpling skin-

• 150g     Plain Flour
• 100ml   Water
• or just get dumpling skin from the shop.

Filling-

• 6-8pcs            Wom Bak
• 3-5tsp             Sesame Oil ( Xiang you)
• 300g               Mince meat
• 1tbsp              Cooking wine (hua tao jiu) 
• 1/2 - 1tsp       Dark soy sauce (lao chou)
• 1 tbsp             Light Soy sauce (shen chou)
• 1tsp                Chicken stock powder
• Dash of white pepper

Methods:

1. Mix the flour with water to form a dough, leave it aside to rest.
2. Marinate the mince meat with the rest of the seasoning.  
3. Chopped the wom bak into small pieces or mince it up in a blender.
4. Add salt into it and leave it aside for 10mins.
5. Then squeeze out all the water and then add 1 tbsp of oil.
6. Then mix well the mince meat with the wom bak.
7. Roll the dough and divide them into smaller balls.
8. Flatten the ball into thin round sheet.
9. Fill the sheet with meat mixture and wrap it up.
10. Boil a pot of water and add in the dumplings.
11. When all the jiao zi float to the surface and in some cold water to shock the temperature.
12. Scope out the jiao zi and ready to serve with black vinegar.   

Mee hoon kueh

This is one of my favorite soup base food. Been here for so long not easy to find this here till one day I saw Karen posted on this on FB. In my thoughts if Karen can cook this so can I, therefore start to ask around and finally this is what I came up with. You will never know that it is actually an easy meal to make. All you need is just ikan bilis stock then from there you can just marinate any meat and cook with the stock. With the marinated meat that is where you get the extra taste in the soup. As for me, I do not really like vegetable in my soup so you can add in as you like ok.

Ingredients:
For 2-3 people

• A dash            Pepper
• 140g              Pork Belly
• 1 1/2 tbsp      Light soya sauce
• 200g              Minced meat
• 120g              Lean meat (sliced)
• 4 pcs             Chinese mushroom(soaked & sliced)
• A bunch         Cai xin(2cm lengthwise) opt
• Eggs

Kueh:

• 250g             Plain flour
• 100ml           Water
• 1tsp             Oyster sauce
• 1                   Egg
• 1/2 tsp        Salt

Stock:

• 1/2 cup        Ikan bilis
• 1                   Dried scallop(soaked)
• 3-5 cups      Water

Methods:

1. Mix the oyster sauce, egg, salt with water
2. Sift the flour into a large bowl.
3. Dig a well and add in the water mixture.
4. Knead into a dough, cover it and leave it aside for it to rest.
5. Marinate the meat with light corn flour, soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper for 10-20mins.
6. Wash the ikan bilis and allow it to boil for 20-30mins
7. Scope out 3-5 scoops of stock into another pot
8. Heat it up and add in the meats and mushroom.
9. Pinch the dough into thin pieces and drop it into the pot.
10. Add in cai xin and an egg.
11. Pour into a bowl and top it off with fried shallot & fried ikan bilis.

Mee hoon kueh

Char Siew

Been here for so long hardly eat the char siew here as they usually cut the meat into big chuck which will affect the taste. So actually by cutting the char siew thinly will taste better. Finally one fine day, I made it after getting the recipe from my aunt to make it for my friends from China to have a taste of it. Here you go.

Ingredients:

• Approx 1-1/2 kg Pork Collar-butt
• 3 tbsp               Sesame oil
• 10 tbsp Sugar
• 3-4 tbsp Light soya sauce
• 2-3 tbsp Black thick sauce
• 2 teaspn Salt
• 1 teaspn Chicken stock powder

Methods:

1. Cut collar butt into 3 lengthwise strip.
2. Mix the above marinate – stir till sugar almost dissolved.  Marinate the meat, preferably, overnight
3. Put the meat on a wire rack over a pan of water. (Oven about 160 deg C.)  
4. Roast for 30 minutes on one side then turn and baste with the marinate and roast for 30 minutes.  
5. Turn and baste again with the marinate sauce.  
6. Roast for another 15 minutes, turn and baste, repeat same for the next 15 minutes and the meat should be ready.
7. Collect the dripping and pour into a saucepan. Add enough water to make the sauce and boil slowly.  Strain the sauce to get rid of the scum.  
8. Put the sauce back into a clean saucepan and boil again.  Add enough sugar to taste.  (stir a little cornstarch with water) Add cornstarch mix to thicken the sauce .
9. Slice meat and arrange on a plate with sliced cucumber and pour some sauce over the meat.  Serve with “Chicken Rice”  (rice cooked in chicken stock)

Nyonya Laksa

Seriously nothing beats my Mom's laksa those who had tasted my mom's laksa will know that. Home cooked laksa alway the best cos you can always put more ingredients. Since I came here, Aunt's Laksa was close to Mom's but still different. So I decided to put my hand to it and treat my friends from China, some tried it before but some are total stranger to it. Nevertheless of cos they all enjoyed it.  A lesson learnt when I first time preparing the paste, I bumped into some problem. Well I bought my shallots some time back already and had been sitting on the table for a while therefore I decided to do up the paste like 4 days earlier. I called mom and she said was ok so I went ahead with it. When the day finally comes, the paste turn green so I suspect was the work of the garlic regardless of that I still went ahead cooking it. Even when I called mom , she had no idea too but I think I should have freeze it up instead. So yeah after all my effort pay off after I added the paste the colour of soup is yellow.

Ok since I have a powerful blender so I threw in everything including the lemon grass galangal.. I started to fry my paste and got to fry it till the paste is cooked or oil can be seen. After cooking for like 15mins, no oil seen so I added more and mix but still nothing. No giving up, I continue to cook for another 10mins and still no luck. Anyway the paste should be cooked already after 25mins therefore I took it out. Mom told me to make it more delicious should use prawn stock. The longer I cooked, slowly the oil appears. Alright then people check it out.

Ingredients:

• 15-20 Shallots (Pounded)
• 10 Cloves Garlic (Pounded)
• 10-15  Deseeded Dry Chilli (Pounded)
• 1/2 cm  Turmeric (Pounded)
• 2 Lemon grass (Crushed)
• 1 small piece Lankaus( Galangal) (Crushed)
• 5-8 Buakras ( Candlenut) (Pounded)
• 5gram dry shrimps (Pounded)
• 1 Can coconut cream
• 15-20 Prawns
• 4-6 Cups Water ( Thickness)

Methods:

1. Pound all the dry spices together to form a smooth paste.
2. Add 3-4 tbsp of oil to fry the paste for 15mins or till the chilli oil is formed.
3. Set it aside
4. Pound the dry shrimps and fry it under low heat with no oil.
5. Till the shrimps are dry and cooked. Add  some of the paste to it then cook for 5mins.
6. Put it aside.
7. Boil the prawns in a pot of water. Not to overcook the prawns
8. Peel the prawns and boil the shells for another 5 mins.
9. Scope it out then add the paste and the shrimps mixture.
10. Allow it to boil then add the coconut cream, allow it to boil for a min
11. Add salt to taste.
12. Then the soup is ready.

                

Nyonya laska

Achar

Never really like vegetables especially raw carrots and cauliflower but after eating mom's achar and the one Anirda made was great. After returning from Spore and to eat Mom's achar again make me crave for more. With no choice but got to make a call to Mom to ask for the recipe. So here you go, it is easy only the cutting part take up more time.

Ingredients:

• 3 - 5             Cucumbers
• 2 -3              Carrots
• 450gm          Cauliflower
• 200gm          Cabbage
• 1stalk            Serai (Lemongrass ) smashed
• 0.3cm            Lengkuas (Galanga ) smashed
• 200-300ml     Vinegar  ( Can add more to taste )
• 4 - 6tbsp       Sugar ( Can add more to taste )
• 3 - 4 tbsp      Oil
• 2 - 3tbsp       Sesame seeds
• 80 - 100gm   Peanuts

Paste:

• 10 - 15          Shallots onion
• 8 - 12            Dried Chilies (Soaked & unseeded)
• 6 - 8              Cloves garlic
• 3 - 5              Candlenuts
• 1cm/1tsp       Kunyit (Turmeric)

Methods:

1. Cut the cucumber into stripes and remove the seeds.
2. Then cut about 2.5cm lengthwise.
3. Add some salt to it in a bowl and leave it aside till it release water.
4. Rinse it under running water and leave it to dry.
5. Skin the carrot and cut it into stripes.
6. Then cut about 2.5cm lengthwise.
7. Cut the cauliflower into smaller pieces.
8. Use hot water to scald it.
9. Cut the cabbage about 2.5cm lengthwise with about 1cm wide.
10. Roast the peanuts and blend it coarse.
11. Roast sesame seeds
12. Blend the ingredients under paste
13. Heat up the oil and fry the paste together with serai & lengkuas till fragrant.
14. Add in the sugar and vinegar.
15. Allow it to boil.
16. Lower the heat and add in the vegetable.
17. Toss it around and cook it for 5 mins. ( Do not cook it for too long )
18. Add in the sesame seeds and peanuts.

Note: To be able to keep it for a longer period, on the 1st day leave it outside. Only put in the fridge from the 2nd day onwards and only use a very dry spoon each time.