Famous Asian Recipes Blog

Ingredients:
500 grams  Sardine or Mackerel fish, 2 liters of water, 4 pieces of dried tamarind peel (soaked), some Vietnamese mint leaves, 300 grams cooked laksa noodles
Spicy Paste (process into fine paste with a blender)
6 fresh chilies (seeded), 10 dried red chilies (seeded), 8 small onions, 1 stalk lemon grass (use only about 4 inches from the bulb, crushed), 1 thumb size belachan
Tamarind Juice
Extract juice from 3 tbsp of tamarind paste with 1/2 cup water (repeat 3-4 times)
Seasonings
Sugar, salt and fish sauce to taste, Penang prawn paste (hae ko, add only when serve)
Garnishing
1 cup shredded cucumber, 1 red onion (sliced thinly), 1 bunch pepper mint leaves, 1 ginger bud (bunga kantan, chopped finely), 1 lettuce (cut into small pieces), 1 red chili (cut into small slices), 5 chili padi (cut into small pieces), 1 slice of pineapple (cut into thin strips)
Method

• Remove scales and innards of the fish and clean well. Bring 2 liters of water to boil in a deep pot then add in the fish and boil for about 10 minutes. Strain the fish stock into another pot and leave the fish to cool.

• Bring the strained fish stock to a light boil again then add in the peeled tamarind and the Vietnamese mint leaves and continue to simmer in low heat.

• Pick the flesh out from all the fish and discard the bones. Break the flesh into small pieces and return the fish into the stock and continue to simmer with low heat.

• Saute the spicy paste with little bit of cooking oil until it become aromatic then add it to the stock together with the strained tamarind juice and continue to simmer with low heat. Add seasoning to taste.

• To enjoy this sweet, tangy and spicy dish,  arrange cooked laksa noodle in a serving bowl and garnish with all vegetables. Pour the piping hot soup over the noodle and serve with a spoonful of Hae Ko.

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Ingredients for Stock
1 kilogram of shrimps heads and shells (rinse well and drained), 500 grams of lean pork, 2 tbsp rock sugar, 2 liters water, 500 grams yellow noodle (scalded), 1 packet of rice noodle (scalded)

Toppings
300 grams shrimps (shelled and deveined), water spinach (scalded), some bean sprouts (scalded), 4 hard boiled eggs (quatered), some crispy fried shallot

Chili paste
20 dried chilies (soaked in warm water and remove seeds), 3 cloves garlic (peeled), 6 shallots (peeled), 1½ tbsp water, 4 tbsp cooking oil

Method

• Blend all chili paste ingredients in a blender or food processor into fine paste. Heat up 4 tablespoons of cooking oil in a wok and stir fry chili paste to fragrant for about 5 minute. Add a little seasoning and set aside to let it cool.

• Add a little bit of oil in the wok and pan fry the shrimps till cooked. Sliced into half and and set aside for toppings. Using the same wok, heat little bit of oil again and stir fry the shrimps heads and shells for 10 minutes until ingredients become aromatic.

• Bring 2 liters of water in a deep pot to a boil. Add fried shrimps head and shells in and let it boil for 10 minutes then simmer with low heat for another 2 hours until the stock is well flavored with the shrimps taste. Strain the stock with a fine siever and discard the shrimps head and shells but keep the lean pork (sliced thinly) as toppings.

• Bring the stock to a light boil again then add in half the cooked chili paste. You can reduce the amount of chili paste in the stock if you do not want it too spicy.

• Add rock sugar and seasoning to taste and keep it warm.

• Serve both noodles in a large bowl top with sliced shrimps, sliced pork, water spinach, bean sprouts and hard boiled egg then ladle hot stock to cover the dish and garnish with little bit of crispy fried shalots.

• Add more chili paste at your desire and serve immediately.

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Ingredients

1/2 chicken, 450 gram winter melon, few slices of Yunnan ham, 2 slices of ginger, salt to taste

Method

• Rinse and chicken thoroughly, cut into chunks and scald with boiling water. Drain and set aside.
• peel and remove seed from melon, cut into chunks and set aside.
• Place all ingredients into an earthern pot except melon, add 2 liters of water to cover the ingredients, bring it to a boil and simmer with low heat for 1 hour.
• Add melon into the soup, bring it to a light boil and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes. Add salt to taste and serve hot.

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Ingredients
800 grams large prawns, 4 tbsp Chinese celery (diced), 4 shallots (chopped), 1 tbsp red chili (cut into rings), 2 tsp curry powder
Marinade
2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine, pinch of pepper
Seasoning
100 ml chicken stock, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, dash of sesame oil, salt, sugar and pepper to taste
Method

• Trim prawns, keep shell and rinse well then pat dry.
• Marinate prawns for 20 minutes, coated with little bit of cornstarch and deep-fry briefly until slight golden in color.
• Saute shallots and curry powder to fragrant, return prawns and sprinkle cooking wine then add seasoning and stock.
• Let the dish boil for 2 minutes and when gravy thicken and almost dry up, stir in the celery and chili, toss wel and dish up.

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Ingredients

8 eggs, 4 tbsp sugar, 4 tsp Japanese soy sauce, 6 tbsp sake or dry white wine, wasabi and pickled ginger to garnish

Method

• Beat eggs in a big bowl and set aside. Mix sugar, soy sauce and wine then stir gently into the beaten egg mixture. Separated into two portions.
• Coat thin layer of cooking oil in a flat frying pan, pour half of the the egg mixture from one bowl, tilt to spread the egg even and let it set. Remove and set aside.
• Repeat the procesfor remaining egg mixture and roll up tightly 2 layers of egg each time with a bamboo mat then press neatly into a rectangular shape.
• Leave it to cool and slice the omelet into 1-inch pieces. Garnish with little bit of wasabi and pickled ginger and serve with soy sauce.

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Ingredients
3 pieces fish Japanese cake, 2 pieces sushi, 2 pieces mussel, 1 crab stick, salad sauce, wasabi, lemon wedges

Method

• Slice the Japanese fish cakes into ½ an inch in thickness. Scald mussel in boing water of a while and then arrange all ingredients on a serving plate.
• Spread salad sauce and lemon juice over the dish then keep it in chiller.
• Serve cold with wasabi.

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The make Tempura crispy, the batter should be lumpy so do not overmixing the batter and make sure the oil is efficiently hot.

Ingredients
400 grams skinless chicken breast (cut into bite sizes), 1 cup of flour, 3 eggs, ½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt, 1 stalk chinese lettuce, 1 cup of ice water

Method

• Whisk eggs and water in a large mixing bowl until blended, then stir in baking owder, flour and salt. Stir mixture well but keep it lumpy.
• Heat emough oil for deep-frying to medium-high heat. Dip chicken pieces in batter and fry in batches without over crowding in hot oil until coating urn brown and crysp. This should take about 5 minutes.
• Dish up and drain oil well then serve it with Chinese lettuce.

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Mei cai kou rou is surely one of the best dish among Hakka Food. Whenever you think about the Hakka, this dish would certainly comes into your mind even if you are not very familiar with Chinese cuisines.

Some people are confused with the term mei cai and moy choy,  but this is just a different pronunciation of Mandarin and Hakka dialect. Mei cai is actually a kind of preserved dried vegetable which can be obtained in salty and sweet type. It is best to get both flavor blended into this steamed pork dish and I strongly recommend to mix both salty and sweet mei cai.

Mei cai need to be thoroughly clean to remove the fine salt and sand. Rinse it under clean running water until it is clean and then soak it for at least 45 minutes to 1 hour to remove the saltiness. It would be very unpleasant if you find the dish sandy and too saltish only after you have done all the hard work. So, make sure this preserved vegetables is well cleaned before used.

Mei Cai Kou Rou Recipe

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One of the best way to prevent deep-fried chicken from burnt on the outside and yet you can keep your fried-chicken juicy inside is to wrap it up when deep-frying.

There are many types of materials you can use to wrap the well seasoned chicken. Foil is most convenience but the disadvantage is that it has higher heat resistance and need more time to cook.  Rice paper, cellophane paper or other greaseproof paper is more suitable for deep-frying process. Check out this Chinese recipe in my collection.

Paper-Wrapped Chicken Recipe

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It is commonly known that Nyonya cuisines are fusion dishes from Chinese cooking, Malay cooking and Thai cooking.

This characteristic is obvious in some of the recipes.

The Nyonya Black Fungus Salad or Kerabu Bok Nee is a typical example as Bok Nee (black fungus) is a very traditional Chinese ingredient, grated coconut, ginger bud (bunga kantan) and sambal belachan are popular ingredients used in Malay cooking and the sweet and sour finishing touch is very much of Thai style.

This combination of different cooking culture although simple to prepare, is a wonderful appetizer that stimulate your taste bud.

Nyonya Black Fungus Salad Recipe

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