Category: Asian Dishes

Asian Dishes, Malay, Seafood

Asam Pedas Version 1

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Asam Pedas – a perennial Malay favourite. My Mom claims she could eat this every single day and not get sick of it. There’s so many different variations but the basic ingredients are the same throughout – chilli paste and tamarind water.

One day, my Mom had to go to the market and so I asked her to buy for me some fish. She got for me two beautiful red snapper and cleaned them for me. How sweet, right?  Having to cook dinner one weekend, I decided to take the red snappers out from the fridge and cut them into three (OK I got the Help to do that) and proceeded to make the paste. Now, this chilli paste is actually very standard- dried chillies, onions, garlic, turmeric(fresh), belacan. However, that evening, I remembered watching an episode of Chef Wan and he threw in one lemongrass finely sliced and a couple of kaffir lime leaves in the blender! My Mom, my Guru of Malay home cooking, never did that. Feeling adventurous, I though what the hey, and did the same.

 

Add plenty (I know that sounds scary) of oil in a deep pot and fry the chilli paste till the oil separates from the chilli paste. Oh, throw in one lemongrass in too.
Use about a palm-sized amount of tamarind. Add water to make a paste.
Add the tamarind water into the pot. Bring to a slight boil. Add salt.
Asam Pedas Version 1

Oh, add in two kaffir lime leaves after putting in the fish. Make sure to do a taste test and season, use sugar if too sour etc. That night was the plain basic asam pedas, using kaffir lime leaves to flavour. Feeling rather proud of my effort (heh, how often do I cook ‘real’ Asian dishes?) I brought some over to the in-laws. FIL was cute, though it made me reflect on this dish.  Asking MIL to try my dish, he started by saying, “_ eat. You look at the colour like that but it’s actually good.” I wonder what went wrong? Maybe for Version 2, I’ll try using a combination of dried and fresh chillies so hopefully it’ll turn out more authentic. 🙂

 

Asian Dishes, Chinese, Snack

Tea Eggs

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Sometimes when I pass through neighbourhood shopping malls, I’d smell this wonderful rather strong herbal smell of pushcart sellers boiling Chinese tea eggs. They smell wonderful. I’m not particularly fond of eggs but I am game to try anything new – within my religious restrictions, however.

So one day at my friendly neighbourhood ‘senseh’ shop, I chanced upon this…

After verifying with the man in the shop that the ingredients are all plant-based, I bought this packet and for weeks it has been sitting in my cupboard. Until this morning…

There are two sachets in each pack. When I read the instructions at the back, it called for twenty eggs. I did some very elementary math and decided to use ten eggs for one sachet. Ha ha. The smell that wafted as I was steeping the eggs in were divine.  The Hubby thought that I was cooking chicken! Well, close enough – chicken eggs.

Steeping the eggs in over extremely low fire. It takes a minimum of 2 hours. Add a tablesppon each of light and dark soy sauce and salt.
Just follow the instructions at the back of the packet and you've got tea eggs for the whole family and more!
Asian Dishes, Poultry

Soy Sauce Chicken Wings

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Chicken Wings when grilled in the oven using a rack comes out real crispy. My chicken wings turned out reeeeal good today. The marinade was simply dark and light soy, ginger slices and garlic. The secret is to put them on a rack and they’ll crisp up.

Push the wingtips inside so that they won't burn.
After they're done on one side, turn them over so now, the wingtips will get cooked too.
I had them with plain rice and fried baby kailan.
Asian Dishes, Poultry

Ayam Bul-Bul

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OK, nobody I know have heard of this dish. It even has a weird name. The worst part is that my mom told me that she got this dish from my father-in-law’s mother so I proudly cooked a batch years ago and he’s never even heard of it! Strange, right? I checked with my aunt, who is my father-in-law’s sister-in-law (it’s complicated) and again, she said that she learnt to make this dish from her mother-n-law which my father-in-law has not even heard of nor tasted! I still don’t get it.

Well, whatever the story is, this is one fabulous dish. It starts with frying small winglets and baby drumlets till cooked. Then, in a wok, you fry curry leaves, dried chillies, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, finely diced onions, garlic till really fragrant. And then you add in the fried chicken. And then you add a bit of brown sugar and chilli powder. Stir till everything’s well-coated.

I cooked this again recently but I used chicken thighs instead. The loveliness actually comes not from eating the chicken but all the lovely spices with hot white rice.

The oil is wonderful!

Asian Dishes, Malay, Salads and Vegetables

Pucuk Ubi masak Lemak (Cassava Leaves in Cocounut Milk)

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I love this dish. Once in a while, I’ll crave for it. Luckily for me, the Giant hypermart near my place, stocks up on potato or cassava leaves and they cost like 50 cents a bunch. Less actually. My grandmother taught me her recipe to cook this dish. She uses, besides the usual onions and garlic, chilli padi(!) and ikan bilis. And, she’ll add sweet potatoes in. Lovely!

However that day when I made this, I decided to use only one fresh red chilli so that The Little Girl will be able to enjoy the dish too.

Blend not too finely ikan bilis, an onion, two to three garlic cloves, belacan, fresh turmeric, one fresh red chilli.

However, before this step, you must boil the cassava leaves till soft in plenty of water and a wee bit of oil. After its cooked (mind you, this can take more than an hour!), drain, wring excess water out, cut into smaller pieces and put in back in a pot. Then, you add the blended spices.

After you’ve added the blended spices, add some water, and then add coconut cream/milk. Add salt. If adding the sweet potatoes, boil them till soft first before adding the leaves and spices.

The potato leaves after being boiled.
The finished product.

Mind you, these are not sweet potato leaves, the ones you get easily at NTUC. They’re tapioca leaves. For something different and more kampong-style, try this.