Sambal Prawns & Sambal Ikan Bilis

1. Chilli Paste recipe. Soak 20 dried chillies in hot water for 30 min (or boil if you can't wait). Cut chillies in half and remove as much seeds as you want (the more seeds there are, the hotter your chilli paste will be). Drain and blend with 2 large fresh chillies and 1 cm thick or 1 level tbs of belacan (roast belacan in oven first).
2. Blend 14 shallots, 3 cloves garlic and a bit of ginger. Fry this paste in 100ml of heated oil. Stir constantly till this paste turns fragrant.
3. Add chilli paste from No1 and mix well. Reduce heat and slowly fry till the paste darkens to a deep-red brown and oil separates (20 min or so).
4. Add 3 tbs sugar, 1 tsp salt and water (amount of water depends on how thick you want your sambal to be).
5. Add sliced Bombay onion and boil.
6. Add prawns or Ikan Bilis (for ikan bilis, separately fry it first in hot oil till crispy).
7. Stir and add sugar, salt, and other seasoning (eg light soy sauce) to taste.

NOTE: The original recipe calls for assam (tamarind) pulp juice to be added instead of water. I only use water. Reduce the amount of sugar if it's too much for you. I love my sambals to be sweet, so I think I use even more sugar than this recipe calls for! Also, the amount of chilli paste in this recipe may not be enough if you want your sambal to be hot. So make your own estimation. Good luck!

Sweet and sour pork

Follow recipe for Tonkatsu.

For the sauce:
1. Fry 4 cloves of garlic (sliced), quartered Bombay onion, few slices of ginger. Use the oil from frying the tenderloins for better flavour.
2. Add ketchup, dash of worcestershire sauce, some vinegar and brown sugar to taste. I also added some oyster sauce and light soy sauce. Oh, and water too.
3. Pineapple, green pepper, tomatos can be added if desired, I didn't.
4. Mix cut up fried Tonkatsu into the sauce. Serve hot with rice.


Background

I've never tried cooking this as I never had the confidence to do so. My mum cooks this really well and back in the good old days when Eddie used to cook for me (before kids...before marriage...it was the good old days remember?), he also made a mean dish of sweet and sour pork. He did not use bread crumbs to coat the meat, but used crushed Jacob's biscuits instead...yummm.

Back to reality now. After two plus years of cooking, I am now somewhat able to estimate the sauces/ingredients required in the simpler dishes I eat in restaurants. And this dish garnered praise from Mr Fussy himself. He's such a Chinaman, and had second helpings of rice because there were two pork dishes tonight, this and steamed minced pork, plus soup of course.

The boys, on the other hand, prefer plain Tonkatsu, without any sauce. I have a trio of hard-to-please palates in this house. Grrr....

Tonkatsu

1. Cut small incisions on tenderloins to tenderise. Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides.
2. Coat tenderloins with plain flour, shake off excess flour, next coat with egg, then bread crumbs
3. Submerge in hot oil for 2 minutes, turn and fry for another 2 minutes, turn and fry another 1 minute. Adjust heat as required.
4. Place on kitchen towel for oil to be absorbed. Cut into bite-sized pieces and add Tonkatsu Sauce (thick Japanese Worcestershire sauce).

Can be adapted to make:
Pork cutlet with chips, just do as above, then fry an egg and potatoes, kids won't know the difference :)

Economical Bee Hoon (Difficulty: 2.5)

1. Soak 1/2 packet bee hoon in warm water. I don’t like chewy bee hoon, so I use slightly hotter water. Add 1 tbs each of dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil for bee hoon to absorb.
2. After half hour or more, drain bee hoon, but keep the liquid.
3. Fry 1 tbs garlic. Add vegetables/meat if you like. Do not stinge on the oil.
4. Add bee hoon. Mix well to let bee hoon absorb oil. If too dry, add some of the liquid that was used for soaking earlier.
5. Add 2 tbs dark soy sauce, 1 tbs light soy sauce, 1 tbs fish sauce, 1 tsp kicap manis (optional), salt and msg (optional) to taste. Please note these are all estimates, add according to your own taste.

Background

Ate this dish at Kat's place and have been scouring the net for the recipe since. It's called Economical Bee Hoon, because the original dish is really basic, just the noodles and garlic, maybe some cabbage/bean sprouts. But these days, they are sold with a whole variety of add-ons, such as Ngor Hiang, Fried Eggs, Luncheon Meat etc. I still buy mine 'kosong', ie plain. I like my food strip down to the basics, eg roti canai, best is kosong; nasi lemak, best is the 30sen a pack type with only rice, sambal and maybe a sliver of cucumber.

Back to Economical Bee Hoon, it looks benign enough, but I think it's a silent monster. You need to use quite a bit of oil for the beehoon to taste yummy. And it's entirely carbo, which transforms into...modern day poison...sugar!

I can already feel the effects of tucking into this dish for meals over 2 days, ie breakfast yesterday, lunch yesterday and dinner tonight. But it's so....darn shiok! Especially after I managed to make the garlic/ginger/chilli sauce that my aunt serves with her economical bee hoon during those Chinese Big Day (Tua Dit Chi). Will share that chilli recipe another time.

Barbecue BBQ wings (Difficulty: 2)

Source: Mrs Jones from M4M
1. Pound 4 cloves garlic and 2 slices ginger.
2. Marinate 1kg chicken wings with pounded garlic and ginger, 4 tbs oyster sauce, 4 tbs kicap manis, 3 tbs tomato ketchup, for at least 4 hours.
3. Bake at 190C for 20 min. Leave some marinade for basting. After 20 min, turn over, baste with marinade, bake 20 min on 180C, turn over, baste and bake another 10 min, longer if you like it drier or slightly burnt.

Dried Shrimps Soft Tofu (Difficulty: 2)

1. Soak 50g dried shrimps for 10 min. Drain and mince. Toast/fry with no/little oil. Set aside. Fry 4 sliced shallots and set aside.
2. Place soft tofu gently in boiling water, boil for 1 min.
3. Drain tofu, place on plate. Drizzle 1.5 tbs oyster sauce and 1.5 tsp oil.
4. Add fried dried shrimps and fried shallots.
5. Garnish with chopped chilli and spring onions.

Mee Hoon Kueh (Difficulty: 3)

1. Knead 400g flour, 1/2 tsp salt and water (add water bit by bit) into a dough. Knead bit by bit till the entire dough is smooth and not sticking to your hands. Takes more than 10 mins of kneading.
2. Knead a tbs of oil into dough.
3. Separate into portions.
4. Cover with damp cloth for 1/2 hour.
5. Boil anchovy soup (a fistful of anchovy boiled/simmered in water for at least an hour). Peel dough, add to anchovy soup. Add pork, prawns, chye sim and boil.
6. Add fried anchovies and fried shallots just before serving.

Background

Went over to Katherine's place for a lesson on making Mee Hoon Kueh. I have always, always, loved this Hokkien dish, more so if it's home-made, but never got round to learning how to make it. Kat's mee hoon kueh is just like how my mum makes it, authentic. Very yummy. Ate so much, with cilipadi and soy sauce of course. Best. (Best?! Best?!...Wilson must be cursing under his breath that I made his precious about-to-pop wife work so hard in the kitchen).

I'm not sure if it's a West Malaysian dish, but Ed who's from East Malaysia won't eat it. And when I first went to Singapore (back in 1989), not many people seem to have heard of Mee Hoon Kueh either. Only some years later did Meehoonkueh/Banmian shops start sprouting all over the island.

Oh, my eat-potato-peranakan Form 6 buddy and childhood friend Lily had us in stitches years ago when she refered to this dish as "pull-pull" mee. Needless to say, she married an angmoh.