Sassezz's Kitchen

Potato Croquette

2010-04-30T17:51:00.000+08:00

I made potatoes croquette today!!!

This recipe was introduced to me by a dear friend... but I just modified it to my taste. It is not difficult to make and I was always not successful as sometimes the potatoes are just too soft and it broke off while frying... and sometimes I ran out of bread crumbs... so I did without which makes it less crunchy... but today I had most items in my kitchen except for onion... so I did without again... anyway here is how I made it... This serves about 2-3 persons... but since I love potatoes... I can finish all of them myself!!! Hahahaha...

Ingredients needed:
2 medium sized potatoes
1 teaspoon of butter
1 medium sized onion
1/2 can tuna flakes in oil(mine was 185gm can). If you are health conscious, then use the ones in brine
Salt and pepper to taste
1 egg white
Breadcrumbs

Method:
Boil the potatoes whole with the skin until soft. Remove the skin and mash them up. Mash them up while it is hot. It is easier to mash them.... I used a masher that looks like this..

If you are interested in purchasing this, head on to my online shop ... if you can't find it that means it is out of stock... but just drop me an email and I will see if I can re-order...

OK.. back to how to make potato croquette. Add the butter, salt and pepper to the potatoes and mix well. If the potatoes are hot enough, the butter will melt by itself.

Now add the tuna (please remove excess oil/brine... otherwise the potatoes will turn out to be too soft). Mix well. Chop up the onion and mix well into the potato and tuna mixture.

If you do not like tuna, you can also try using canned sardines/mackerel or corned beef or luncheon meat. If you do not like onions, just omit it.

Now, mix a little bread crumbs (about 1 tablespoon) to the mixture and mix well. Shape the potatoes mixture into little balls of about 2cm in diameter. Or in any shape you desire (patties, square, oval etc) But do not shape them too big. Otherwise it will be more difficult to fry.

Put the balls on a plate and do not let them touch each other. Put the plate of little potato balls into the freezer for about an hour to freeze them. Now, if you want to keep them for another day, you can. After they have hardened, just pack them up into containers and seal it tight. It can keep for about a week. Here is how mine looks after I freeze them...

Otherwise, you could proceed to fry them. You do not need to defrost them before frying. Before frying, coat them with egg white and bread crumbs. Make sure the oil is hot enough before you put them in to fry. Fry for about 3 minutes or until they are golden brown. Here is how mine looks like after frying.

I serve them with Japanese mayonnaise to dip in.... not the normal mayonnaise. I like the Japanese one better as it tastes more "eggy".

YUMMY!!!

Blog Revival

2010-04-20T21:40:00.000+08:00

It has been a few months ago since my last recipe. So sorry I have neglected this blog!!!!

But I am now going to revive this blog.... As I am now a full time mom, I have more time to cook and therefore more recipes up my sleeve!!! Hehe....

So I hope that I will be able to post at least one recipe every 2 days... Stay tuned!!!

Testing New Signature

2010-04-20T01:11:00.001+08:00

Here is to test my new signature.... how do you like it?

Contest Results!! Hot from the oven...

2009-12-01T17:36:00.002+08:00

YES!!! Here are the results. Winners will receive an email by me confirming their mailing address so that I am able to send them their prizes.

***Drum roll***

First Prize Winner: Zainab Mohd Ghazali
( Bit and Bytes)

Second Prize Winner: Khairun Nisa Ismail

Third Prize Winner: Mama Zharfan

And as for consolation prizes, you know who you are :)

I am in the midst of setting up the site now... For those of you who would like to have a peek now, please proceed to Bit And Bytes

Contest Closed!!!

2009-12-01T10:12:00.000+08:00

Thank you all for your participation! Now is judging time. I love all your suggestions. However, I could only pick one as the winner... So, stay tuned...

I will be announcing the winner within the next few days!

Name-A-Blog, Cook-A-Link CONTEST

2009-11-30T16:33:00.000+08:00

Remember my previous post on my wish to create a new blog for all cooking and baking fans to share their favourite links on recipes and where to get the coolest and best cookware/bakeware?

Well, I am ready to create that blog! But the thing is I don't know what to name it! :( And so, I am inviting all of you now to turn on your creative juices and Name-A-Blog, Cook-A-Link by submitting the following:

ONE suggestion on what to name the new blog
MINIMUM ONE(1) and MAXIMUM up to THREE(3) links for blogs for the coolest recipes
MIMINUM ONE(1) and MAXIMUM up to THREE(3) links for blogs for getting the coolest and best cookware/bakeware

The more links you provide the more chances your name will be chosen as the my blog's name!!!!

1 link = 1 entry

PLUS, there are cool prizes to be won!

First prize: One of a kind Crotchet Towel Holder...

Second prize: One of a kind Crotchet Snail Pot Holder...

Third prize: A cute, adorable Crotchet pink muffin Photo Frame....

There will be consolation prizes too!

5 consolation prizes will be given away! And these will be really cute crotchet fridge magnets!

So, what are you waiting for? Submit your entry now!!

Email your entries to sassezz@gmail.com!!!

Oh, also, you are required to blog about this contest on your blog to qualify :)

Please include the following details in your email to me...

Name:
Mailing address:
Link to your Blog on this contest:
Suggestion for New Blog Name:
Link(s) for coolest recipe blog:

Link(s) for coolest blog to buy cookware/bakeware:

So come on now and submit your entry!

Closing date: 30 November 2009

Fish Head Curry

2009-11-19T16:27:00.007+08:00

This is not my first time making fish head curry but somehow all previous time when I tried making this it did not turn out quite nice. As I have 3 fish heads sitting in my freezer and have no idea on how to cook it, I decided to try this again today. Although this try is not perfect and can still be improved, I think it is passable :) So if you have some simple ways to improve this further, feel free to post suggestions to me.

Ingredients:
Fish Head (1 big one or 2 medium ones)
* You could use fish slices if you do not like Fish Head
3 pieces Garlic chopped fine
3 pieces Shallot chopped fine
1 packet of Fish Curry Powder (25gm)
1 packet of low fat milk (250ml)
1 tablespoon of chilli paste (cili giling)
1 onion, sliced to rings
6 pieces ladies finger, cut to about 5cm length
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 brinjal, sliced diagonally about 1.5cm thick
1/2 bowl tamarind juice
20 pieces curry leaves (tear it up a bit)
3 pieces kaffir lime leaves(daun limau purut)- same as curry leaves, tear it up a bit
2 tablespoon cooking oil
2 medium sized fish head

Method:
Saute the garlic and shallots in cooking oil until fragrant.
Add in chilli paste, curry powder, low fat milk and mix well. Put it to boil.
Add in tamarind juice, curry leaves and kaffir lime leaves and put it to boil.
Add in onion, ladies fingers, brinjals. Put it to boil until brinjals are cooked and soft.
Add in tomatoes and fish head. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Turn the fish head over carefully. Cover and simmer for another 5 minutes.
Dish up and serve hot!

Stir fry Kailan with Prawns

2009-11-19T15:32:00.005+08:00

This is a very simple dish of stir fry Kailan with Prawns. You can substitute the Kailan with other green leafy vegetables like "xiao bai cai" or green mustards.

It is also very fast to cook and is perfect to eat together with white rice for either lunch or dinner.

Ingredients:
2 pieces or garlic chopped fine
6 pcs of medium sized prawns
150gm kailan
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of cooking oil

Method:
Cut the leafs of the kailan to about 2-3 cm in length. For the stalk, slice it up diagonally to slices about 0.5cm thick.
Saute garlic with 1 the cooking oil till fragrant.
Put in the prawns and fry till the prawns turn red.
Put in the kailan leaf and stalk.
Fry until the kailan turns dark green and soft.
Put in the oyster sauce. Fry it and mix it up well.
Dish up and serve hot!

Simple and Delicious!

Char Siew... Yummy!!!

2009-11-18T11:55:00.005+08:00

Today, since I am no longer working, I decided to make something more complicated... so, I tried making Char Siew! I have never made this before and thus tried to experiment.... and the results is really yummy!!!

Want to know how to make?

Here is what I use.... my own version of Char Siew!

Ingredients:
3 garlic chopped fine
5 spice powder
3 tablespoons Hoisin Sauce
2 tablespoons Light Soya Sauce
2 tablespoons Shao Xing wine
1 tablespoon Sesame Oil
2 tablespoon brown sugar (can use normal sugar too)
2 slices of pork brisket (about 2 cm thick and 15 cm long)
A little red colour food colouring - optional (I did not use this as I do not like artificial colouring)

Method:
Slice away the pork skin from the pork brisket. Poke the pork with a fork so that the marinate sauce can seep better into the meat.
Combine all ingredients above and marinate the meat thoroughly. Freeze in the freezer overnight.
Next day, defrost the marinated pork. It is best if you can grill it. But, if you are doing it in your kitchen, there is little chance you have a grill handy. :)
So, what I did was improvise! Skewer the pork on fork and attached it to the tray in the oven. If you have some "S" hook, it works as well. Here is what I have done...

At the bottom of the oven I put a baking tray covered in aluminium foil so that the "drippings" when it is grilling will not drip down to the oven. Easier to clean later.
You need to "hang" it in the oven to cook and not just put it on the plate as the side on the plate will be "soaked" with the drippings.
Grill the meat in the oven for about 40 minutes at 180 degree Celcius. Some oven need less time. So do monitor yourself.
When the meat is done after about 40 minutes, remove from the oven and grill it over the kitchen stove for about 2 minutes to get the "charred" taste. I did not grill it for long as charred is not good for health...
Let the meat cool and cut it up into bite size pieces.

YUMMY!!!!

Sorry... was away for family emergency... and some GOOD NEWS!

2009-10-12T02:00:00.005+08:00

I miss my blog.... :) And so sorry to all for not updating it! There has been a family emergency and I was away. Things are more settled now and I am back! There are still lots more of recipes for me to share with all of you.

And now I got some good news to share with all of you! Sassezz's Kitchen is going full time next month! Yes, this is just the start. I will be sharing a lot more recipes as I will now have more time.

Also, I will be setting up another blog... this one will consist of links to interesting blogs for recipes and where to purchase quality baking and cooking items, ONLINE of course!

Also, I will be running some contests! So stay tuned... will announce new blog sooooonnnn.....

Spiky rambutans

2009-07-24T11:35:00.003+08:00

A few days ago, our neighbour gave us some local fruits (as in local to Malaysia). I think they are pretty unusual and therefore decided to blog about it. The flesh tastes like rambutans and therefore, I think they are just another species of rambutans. I do not know the correct name for these fruits and so I will call them spiky rambutans here.

The skin is similar to rambutans, though one might disagree.. hehe.. The normal rambutan's skin is hairy while the skin of this fruit is spiky. But then, the spikes are soft spikes and would not hurt (not like durian thorns that is really hard spikes).

And here in the picture, you can see the close up of the fruit that I have in a container after peeling them, ready to be stored in the refrigerator to be consumed later. I just sat down and peel off the "skin" of the fruit and store the flesh in a container in the refrigerator to be consumed later. It can keep for a few days. Moreover, I think it is nicer when chilled.

Potatoes and Chicken in Oyster sauce

2009-07-24T10:05:00.002+08:00

This is a simple stir-fry recipe for chicken and potatoes. If you fancy pork instead of chicken, simply replace lean slices of pork for chicken.

Ingredients:

Marinate:
1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 tablespoon of light soya sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch

2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cubed (about 1.5cm x 1.5cm)
1 piece chicken thigh + 1 drumstick + 2 pieces chicken wings, chopped to pieces of about 3cm cube
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 teaspoon of corn flour mix in about 2 tablespoon of water, stirred well
1 teaspoon of garlic
Cooking oil
1/2 cup water

Method:

Marinate the chicken with the ingredients under "marinate" section for about 2 hours before cooking.
Fry the potatoes in cooking oil lightly (for about 5 minutes). Drain the oil.
Remove the oil from the wok until only about 1 teaspoon remains. Saute the garlic with it.
Put in the marinated chicken and toss for about 10 minutes. Add in the oyster sauce.
Add in water and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
Add in the lightly fried potatoes. Toss it lightly so that the potatoes are covered with the gravy.
Stir in the corn flour mix slowly. Let it simmer forabout 5 more minutes for the gravy to thicken.
Serve hot with rice.

Non-baked cheese cake

2009-07-22T13:41:00.012+08:00

Apart from the baked cotton cheese cake that I made for my son's birthday, I also made another type of cheese cake, a non-baked one on the same day as we were going to attend a eat-together at a friends place the next day. And good manners dictate that we should bring something along although I am sure our friends would not mind even if we went empty handed.

And so, since I am in the mood for cheese cakes, I decided to make this non-baked cheese cake which I have not baked in years.

As the name goes, this cheese cake does not require baking. And since it does not require baking I decided to "bake" this into many small "containers" instead of one big baking tin. This way, I can take out small portions to consume (Yes, I did not bring the whole cake over to our friends' place. We brought only half the cake, which is in one container).

Non-baked cheese cake

Ingredients:
Crust:
125gm butter
250gm cracker crumbs **
50gm cereal **
80gm sugar

** Note: I did not use the crackers and cereal but I used instead about 250gm of Marie biscuits, crushed. And since Marie biscuit is sweeter than cracker crumbs + cereal, I reduced the sugar to 60gm instead of the original 80gm.

Cheese Cake
500gm cream cheese (I used 2 blocks of Philadelphia brand cream cheese)
1 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons gelatin (If you want it to be harder, you can add on a bit more)
200gm condensed milk
1 tin of canned fruit (I prefer peaches as the taste blends well with the cheese)
3/4 cup syrup from canned fruit
1 teaspoons agar-agar powder

Method:

Crust:

Melt butter and mix with sugar and cracker crumbs/cereal. (In my case it would be crushed Marie biscuits instead cracker crumbs/cereal).
Press(so that it is very compact) this to the bottom of the cake tin and freeze in the freezer for about 3 hours.

Cake:

Cream the cheese. Add condensed milk and lemon juice.
Mash the fruit (leave some for decoration) and mix into creamed mixture.
Melt gelatin in 1/2 cup syrup in saucepan and mix into creamed mixture.
Pour in the mixture into the cake tin (or "containers" in my case) that has the crust base.
Decorate and glaze with remaining fruit. Put in refrigerator for at least 5 hours. If you can leave it in the refrigerator overnight, it would be better.

This picture shows that the cake is still unglazed.

Glazing: Boil the remaining 1/4 cup syrup together with 2 tsp agar-agar powder. Pour it on top of the creamed mixture and decoration.

And this is how it looks like after it has been glazed.

You will see in my pictures that some of it is with foil and some without. This is because I lined my containers in foil first. And the reason is so that I can easily remove the cake from the container later.

Cherry Tomatoes, anyone???

2009-07-22T09:48:00.002+08:00

I am in the phase of being crazy about cherry tomatoes now. I bought these tomatoes from the supermarket and when I ran out of peaches to use as decoration on my cake, I just used these. Turns out that it looks not bad after all... but then of course, the taste does not really blend together with the cheese...

And for fun, I took some close up pictures of the tomatoes..

They are really fresh and sweet. A healthier snack than those potato chips or popcorns laden with butter!

Baked Cotton Cheese cake

2009-07-21T03:39:00.011+08:00

It was my son's birthday a few days ago and I bake this for him. It is not my first time baking this cake but I normally bake this cake without a crust and also icing. I just bake it plain... meaning only the cake itself in a lined cake tin.

It was my first time baking it with a base and cream cheese "icing"... and so, it ended up a tad too sweet as I took the base from another cheese cake recipe and modified the the cream cheese "icing" from a cupcake recipe...

I like this recipe for baked cheese cake as the texture of the cake is really cottony and since it use a whole block of cream cheese, it is really very cheesy too! And if you bake the cake itself only, it is actually not too sweet.

And it is not too complicated to make even for first time bakers. So, all in all, I was quite satisfied with it. The only thing that I need to improve on is the technique that I apply the icing. Honestly speaking, this is the first time that I have tried to apply any kind of icing to cakes. I usually go without but was just adventuorous.

You can see from the close up pictures that the icing is not spread very evenly. And also it is not very smooth. I will need to improve on that in the future.

I have also decorated it with lots of Ultraman because that is what my son loves at this stage. He is only 4 years old. And I was actually going to decorate with peach slices but I ran out of it while making a non-baked cheese cake (Yes, I made 2 cheese cakes that day, one baked and one non-baked - and will post the recipe for the non-baked cheese cake in another post). Anyway, since I ran out of peaches, I had to improvise unless I want to run out to the store to get another can of peaches. I rummage through my refrigerator and found some cherry tomatoes.

And after decorating it with the cherry tomatoes and Ultramans, it looks good, except for the uneven application of icing. But the most important thing is, I guess, my son loves it when he saw it!

And now without further ado, here is the recipe:

Baked Cotton Cheese Cake

Ingredients:

Crust:
125gm butter
250gm cracker crumbs **
50gm cereal **
80gm sugar

** Note: I did not use the crackers and cereal but I used instead about 250gm of Marie biscuits, crushed. And since Marie biscuit is sweeter than cracker crumbs + cereal, I reduced the sugar to 60gm instead of the original 80gm.

Icing (which is actually cream cheese frosting):
150gm cream cheese, room temperature
20gm butter, room temperature
A pinch of salt
20gm sugar

Cheese Cake:
250ml fresh milk
250gm cream cheese
90gm butter
1 teaspoon lemon zest
20gm top flour
20gm corn flour
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
6 egg yolks
6 egg whites
140gm sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence ***

*** Note: As I did not like the smell of vanilla, I omitted this.

Method:

Crust:

Melt butter and mix with sugar and cracker crumbs/cereal. (In my case it would be crushed Marie biscuits instead cracker crumbs/cereal).
Press(so that it is very compact) this to the bottom of the cake tin and freeze in the freezer for about 3 hours.

Cake:

Pre-heat the oven at 190 degree Celcius (Top heat) and place a tray of water** in it.
**Note: This cake requires the baine marie cooking method (steam and bake at the same time)
Sift the flour and corn flour and set aside.
Cut the cream cheese into smaller pieces and put the fresh milk and cream cheese in a double boiler. Sitr the mixture all the time over fire till smooth before adding the butter and lemon zest. Keep it warm.
Whip the egg white, cream of tartar and sugar till fulffy but not too firm. Add the sifted flour(and corn flour mix) briefly at low speed.
Pour in the cream cheese mixture (from step 3) with the whisk running all the time.
Finally add in the yolks and whisk for a few seconds.
Pour in the mixture into the cake tin that has the crust base (or lined cake tin if you are baking without the crust base) and bake in the baine marie for 10-15 minutes till lightly brown at top heat. Then lower the temperature to 150 degree Celcius top and bottom heat for 1 hour till the cake is cooked.

Cream Cheese Frosting (Icing):

Beat together the cream cheese, butter and salt until light and airy.
Add the sugar, a little at a time and beat until thoroughly incorporated.
Use immediately, or cover and refrigerate until needed.

Sauces that I use

2009-07-16T15:15:00.004+08:00

After joining the Discuss Cooking forum, I realise that the different sauces used in cooking in typical normal Malaysian Chinese food is known differently in different parts of the world. And so, to avoid confusion on what kind of sauce do I mean in my recipes, here are some pictures of the sauces that I typically use in my cooking.

Light and Dark Soya Sauce

The bottle on the left is the light soya sauce. This soya sauce is salty and on the watery side. I prefer to use this brand as it is more fragrant. But if there are other brands, it will do as well.

The bottle on the right is the dark soya sauce. This soya sauce is thick and darker than the light soya sauce. It is not as salty as the light soya sauce. Normally it is added to a dish to darken the colour of the dish. Sometimes it is also known as the thick soya sauce.

Shao Tsing Hua Tiao Chiew

This is a kind of Chinese wine which has a very fragrant smell and is only used in Chinese style cooking. In Malaysia, it is relatively easy to get this in Chinese medicine shops. Not sure about overseas though. Perhaps can inquire at Chinatown in your area.

Sweetened Black Vinegar

This is the vinegar that I use for cooking the pig trotters. Besides using this to cook pig trotters, it can also be used as a dip for Chinese dumplings. If you can't find this brand, you can use other brands and add on some rock sugar/brown sugar if it is not sweet enough. If you use this brand, then there is no need to add on anymore sugar as it is already very sweet.

I am missing some pictures on Oyster Sauce... Will post that up soon in a separate post.

Discuss Cooking

2009-07-15T19:15:00.003+08:00

Recently, I have joined a forum which discusses about cooking and baking and it is named aptly www.discusscooking.com

People there are very friendly :) They made me very welcomed.

I am still exploring the forums and so far, it looks good. So, why don't you head over there and see for yourself?

Seafood Tofu

2009-07-08T13:26:00.006+08:00

Yeap... Today's recipe is without pork... hehe... But then, seafood is another favourite of mine. And one of my favourites is crab. But since crab is pretty expensive and not that easy to cook, I did not cook this with crabs.

But this still turn out pretty well. Before I could serve this up on the lunch table, my hubby has already been at it, taking a prawn here, a piece of squid there....

Ingredients:

6 pieces of medium sized prawns, shelled
2 squids, cleaned and cut into bite sized pieces
Approximately 20 pieces of sweet peas
1 packet of Japanese Tofu
2 tablespoons of Oyster sauce
1 teaspoon of finely chopped garlic
About 1 cup of cooking oil (for frying Japanese tofu)

Method:

Cut up the sweet peas into pieces (1 sweet pea into 3 pieces).
Cut the Japanese Tofu into pieces of about 1.5cm thick. Heat up the cooking oil in a wok. Fry the Japanese Tofu until it is slightly browned on the outside. Remove from oil and drain.
Leave 2 tablespoonful of cooking oil in the wok. Saute the garlic with it.
Put in prawns, squid and sweet peas and stir fry them on medium to high fire. Continuously stir it to prevent it from getting burnt.
After about 3 minutes, put in the oyster sauce. If you like it a bit salty, you could add in a more oyster sauce.
Stir fry it some more for about 3-5 minutes or until the squid and prawns are cooked. If you feel that it is too dry, you could add in about 2 tablespoons of water. Do not add on too much water as the seafood will "generate" water.
Finally, add in the Japanese tofu that you have fried earlier in step 2. Stir it lightly. Be careful that you do not break the tofu.
Serve hot .

Stuffed Squid

2009-07-08T01:08:00.004+08:00

It seems like most of my recipes involves pork... well, what can I say, I am a pork lover... hehe... and yes, although this unassuming title is Stuffed Squid, and one would automatically assume that this recipe would not involve pork. Well, I am sorry to say that you are wrong! Because, what else did I stuff into the squids but minced pork, marinate minced pork!

Did I mention that I love pork? Hehe... now on to the recipe..

Ingredients:

About 4-6 squids
Approximately 200gm of minced pork
1 tablespoon of soya sauce (less if you do not want it to be too salty)
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
Minced ginger (about 1 tablespoonful)

Method:

Marinate the minced port with soya sauce and sesame oil for about 1 hour.
Clean the squids thoroughly.
Stuff the squids with the minced pork till it is about two thirds full.

** Do not stuff it until it is 100% full as the squids will shrink and pork will expand when cooked. If you stuffed it 100% full, the squids will burst and your pork will be "pouring" out of the squids when cooked.
Now, put the stuffed squids onto a plate and top it with the minced ginger. Steam the stuffed squids for about 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Pig's trotter cooked in black sweetened vinegar

2009-07-03T23:20:00.003+08:00

Today I got this one recipe to share... My hubby and myself just love to eat this. This is also one of my all-time favourite dish during confinement after delivery of my 2 kids.

Ingredients:

1 pig’s trotter (remember to ask for pig’s trotter and not leg) –weighs around 600-800 grams
* trotter is the two front legs of the pig and there are more tendons, meat than fats whilst the two legs behind are mostly fats and usually very big. In Cantonese, trotters are called it "chee sou" (aka pig’s hands) and the back legs are called "chee keok" (aka pig’s legs)

1 bottle of sweetened vinegar (it is sweetened vinegar and not black vinegar)
**I use the Anchor brand Sweet and Sour Black Sauce which can be found only in Sandakan. If you use this, then you can omit the brown sugar below as it is already very sweet

5-6 tablespoon of sesame oil
3 tablespoon of brown sugar (omit or put in less or more depending to taste. Some people like it sour)
Salt to taste
1 large piece of ginger, break into smaller pieces, skinned and bruised (about 300-400gm)
Hard boiled eggs (optional)

Method :

Clean pig’s trotter really clean, removing hairs and any funny discolouration. Blanch it in hot water. Remove and drain well.
Heat up the sesame oil, fry ginger till golden brown and aromatic.
Dish out and transfer ginger into a claypot(or any other pot if you do not have a claypot) and add the vinegar. Bring to a boil.
Simmer for 30 minutes till ginger turns soft. Add the trotter, water, brown sugar and salt to taste and simmer over low fire till soft and tender. This takes about 2-3 hours. Please note that no water is needed unless you can’t cover the pig’s trotter with the vinegar. Add just enough so that the soup/gravy is not too diluted.
If you like, boil several eggs (hard-boiled eggs), peel and add into the soup/gravy when it is about halfway cooked. Make sure that the eggs are immersed fully into the gravy. The eggs will absorb the aroma and the yolk will taste very nice.
Every half an hour or so, just stir it so that the trotters(and eggs, if any) are immersed evenly in the soup/gravy and is evenly cooked.

Blanched vegetables with garlic

2009-07-03T01:49:00.007+08:00

Now, for today, here is an easy and healthy way to cook your vegetables. Blanching and then top it with light soya sauce and chopped fried garlic.

Vegetables suitable to be cooked in this style are green leafy ones like the chinese brocoli (or better known as kai-lan), chinese lettuce, xiao bai cai (or I think it is known as Chinese mustard green in English). Anyway, I think you get the idea.

Here, I use the Chinese Lettuce.

Ingredients:
2 cloves of garlic chopped finely
About 3 heads of Chinese Lettuce(washed)

1-2 tablespoons of light soya sauce
2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Method:

Fry the chopped garlic in oil until it is slightly browned. Remove the garlic and the oil from the frying pan.
Put some water to boil. Add in a pinch of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of cooking oil.
When the water has boiled, put in the vegetables and blanched it for about 2 minutes. Do not leave it in the boiling water for too long.
Remove the vegetables from the water and arrange it nicely on a plate.
Sprinkle 1 to 2 tablespoons of light soya sauce(depending on individual taste) onto the vegetables. Lastly, top it with the oil and fried garlic from step 1.

And... you are done!

Contact Me!

2009-06-30T13:49:00.004+08:00

Have a question to ask about my recipes? Want to discuss more? Seen something you like?

Drop me an email to just talk or if you have more questions/suggestions. :)

I can be contacted at:

info@sassezz.com

New look!

2009-06-30T13:01:00.003+08:00

YES!!! My blog now has a new look! How do you all like it?

I have just spent about 10 hours trying to get this new look right. And still it is missing the horizontal navigation bar which seems not to be able to displayed correctly in IE6. And as I am not using IE7, I guess that I would have to leave that out for now :(

And I spent like 8 hours trial and error, googling for solutions to make my horizontal bar look right. And after 8 hours of mind numbing work, I gave up. :) This will have to do for now. :)

Do let me have your comments on how you like this new look. And now, I will proceed to post more recipes after this!

New look? Yes? No?

2009-06-28T01:12:00.002+08:00

Arrgghh... I've just spent the last hour googling a new template for my site... something that is more related to cooking that have a navigation menu on top so that I can categorize things better here... but then I can't manage to find one that I can easily just plug and play to use it. I tried searching for one with cooking theme and top menu and did find one... But when I wanted to use it, it just tells me that I can't use a lot of my widgets with it? And so, I click no... and so, if someone out there knows of a free cooking blogspot template with top navigation that I can just plug and play for it to work, do let me know.

I mean, I don't want to spend like 3 hours just to learn how to use a template :(

Another porridge recipe.. Potato Pork Porridge

2009-06-26T23:15:00.003+08:00

Wow... I just realise that the name that I gave this concoction of porridge of mine is Potato Pork Porridge... aka PPP :)

And here is how it looks like after it is cooked

And the base for this porridge is also anchovies stock. On how to make anchovies stock is very simple. Just throw some anchovies (about 20gm if only using one cup of water) and put it to simmer over low fire for about 15 minutes. Voila! Anchovies stock is ready. This stock can also be used as base for some soups for noodles. Just use more anchovies and more water ... :) But more on the noodles in another blog...

Now for the porridge, method is the same as the Pumpkin Porridge in my previous post. just substitute the pumpkin with potatoes. You can also add in a few slices of carrot (thinly sliced). I have ran out of carrots that day and have omitted that.

So try it out. My little girl loves it. Finish the whole bowl. :)