Slyvester's Kitchen

2026-03-11T09:51:00.002+08:00

In hiatus at the moment. Will resume posting soon..

Again, The Day after Malaysian's MCO declared..

2021-06-23T11:17:00.001+08:00

Some of us might be stranded due to strict NO Movement Out of the house in view of Movement Restriction Order for prevention of propagation of COVID-19. As an essential Professional Health worker, I have the luxury to travel but limited within the district. Travelling across the state and inter district still posed risk both in term of law and nature of unknown disease progression.

Despite able to roam within close proximity within the area, I noticed the food stalls, food vendors and restaurants were all closed. For those who in their nature are not kitchen enthusiast, the restriction is somehow good opportunity for them because if their cooking skill is not improved, well, the daily meal is non nutritious and lack of balance diet.

Again, nothing much to do except binged at any streaming portal. Non productive but at least able to have decent meal without leaving upset stomach later on.

For my lunch menu, it is quite simple, "Vermicelli in grilled cockles condiment ."

Make sure have decent meal to enjoy the streaming portal

Vermicelli in grilled cockles condiment

Bon appétit

Steam Fish for holiday comeback...

2020-07-04T10:21:00.001+08:00

Being in holiday mood surely up boost morale among socializing groups after long stretch of Malaysian's MCO policy. Rather than using phrases Social Distance, I advocate Safe Distance since years ago. Why? Past few years, lot of thing happening in my page fold. It make me becoming more introvert, self reserve, overly conscious and at time, my burden feel to heavy as I seem to crush, crumble on my feet.

Life goes on and my passion to cook and eat my own food still being big motivation in time of bleak and in sorrow. Being away from work and in solace of place where most of the time I grew up, being after long hiatus, I want to share few pictures that I cook and eat yesterday. Fish, steamed with Lime and Asamboi.

I have no exact recipe for this dish. However, from the pictures, miss en place that you need to prepare would be:

Fish (I bought it from Batu 1 Jln Lutong-K/Baram, freshly landed from the sea)
Asamboi
Lemongrass
Ginger
Chili
Lime Juice
Spoonful of Fish Thai Sauce
Sprinkle of salt

Lime slices is used for garnish. If it steamed together, it will give bitter aftertaste to the fish and the broth.

Bon Appetit...

Grilled Chicken with Potato Carrot Gratin

2017-12-18T11:01:00.001+08:00

Splash of balsamic sauce to heighten the flavour

Given two days of unrecorded leave, again, I have no exact planning. After long tiring 2 weeks of outstation, being at home is a much relief that somewhat a luxury that I can afford. The problem with being at home is that you have to cook and prepare your meal by yourself. Wish my area have PizzaHut or KFC or Domino's delivery.... how fortunate is that...

Cheesy gratin and grilled chicken for my brunch

For today, I had oven grilled chicken and potato carrot gratin for my brunch. Oven grilled chicken is nothing of a cooking adventure. The potato carrot gratin is. The labourius mise en place prior having tasty and hearty gratin quite time consuming since I did not have mandolin to help me slicing the carrot and potato. The patoto and carrot chip have to be layered one by one, intermittently top with cream and cheese concotion between the layer. Having said so, a little more of an effort and sincerity won't harm if you want a good and blessed meal aren't you??

Bon Appetit...

Glass Noodle with Hainanese Chicken and chicken broth

2017-10-08T19:10:00.000+08:00

Hainanese Chicken quite popular dish among Malaysian. The chicken is cooked in slowly simmering broth of ginger, garlic and light soy sauce for about an hour. Once done, it has to be rested fully before chopped into bite size. Failure to do so will result in dry meat rather than juicy, succulent chicken bite. The remaining chicken stock will be normally used to cook the chicken rice. But for my version, the broth is used to soak the glass noodle.

Commercially, Hainanese Chicken will be served with array of dipping sauce from as simple as chopped garlic and ginger in light soy sauce to more laborious spicy chili condiment with tamarind juice. For home consumption, any condiment will do...

Chicken Biryani... Hearty Lunch Treat...

2017-09-18T13:44:00.000+08:00

When we talk about biryani, most often it is South Asia Dish that incorporated long grained rice, mix of spices and meat. For my version, I used chicken quarter, served with pickled carrot and cucumber.

Chicken quarter is marinated with coarsely ground spices composed of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and cumin. It is grilled separately from the rice in microwave convection oven.

For the bhasmati rice, it was cooked with unsalted butter with little bit of ghee, chicken stock and assortment of sultanas raising and cashew nut.

Spice it up further with spicy hot chili oil...

Spaghetti Meat Ball in tomato sauce

2017-09-14T20:45:00.000+08:00

Spaghetti bolognese might be an Italian origin but when it is spaghetti with meatball in tomato sauce, it is American. How can that be? There is a history behind it and it is up to you to find the rest. For me, it is the joyful moment of having delicious, mouth watering spaghetti and meatball served warm on my Japanese table that I cared most. Top with grated Parmesan, huh... it sure made my day a lot better.
For this dish, I prepared the meatball from scratch. Basically, I use the following:-

400g beef mince
1 large red onion, finely diced
3 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tbs dried mixed herbs
1 medium sized egg
4 tbs of corn flour
salt and pepper for seasoning

All the ingredient are mixed together in a bowl and shaped into a bite size meat ball. I refrigerate the meat ball for roughly 20-30 minutes so that it is firm enough to be fried without crumbling apart.

For the sauce, it is quite easy as it is basically simmering the cooked meatball in a tomato sauce. With addition of salt, pepper and few aromatic herbs, voila.... A Meatball in Tomato sauce. Just scoop the meat ball on top of al dente spaghetti, top with grated Parmesan and you are happy to go...

P/s: The meatballs can be cooked in sauce, cooled, and refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 3 months.

Lamb Stew... A relief in a Cold, Rainy Night

2017-08-14T22:01:00.000+08:00

Monday night, first day of the week and it’s raining heavily outside. Started to have runny nose and sneezing which are hallmarks the symptoms of flu, I had decided that I needs something warm and savory to overcome this chilly cold night. So here the idea of quick and simple spiced lamb stew full of potatoes, tomato, radish and leeks came on. It is very traditional, nothing in that stew is browned first, just all stewed together and allow to simmer inside high heat of microwave oven.

Ingredients (2 serving)

200g lamb brisket, cut into bite size
1 big onion, peeled and diced
2 med size potato, cut into 2cm cube
200g celery stalk, diced
100g cherry tomato
100g radish, thinly sliced
thumbsize of ginger, thinly sliced
mixed spice, (cinnamon bark, star annise, clove, cardamon seed)
500ml of water
1 tbs of gravy granule
3 tbs oil
salt and pepper for seasoning

Method

In a ceramic pot, microwave spices, ginger and onion in oil for 1 min in high heat. Stir the spice mix in between. Add in lamb brisket and potato, continue on high heat for another 4 min. Continue stirring at 1-2 min interval.
Add in water and continue cooking process in medium heat for 10 min. After 10 min, add remaining tomato, celery and radish along with salt, pepper and gravy granule. Mix well.
Cover the pot and let the stew cook for another 4 min under medium heat.
Allow for standing time of 5-8 min before serving. Serve warm.

Spiced Chicken and Summer Vegetables en Papillote...

2017-07-13T18:43:00.000+08:00

Cooking in paper (en papillote) is another technique that seal and retain all the wonderful cooking juices and flavor inside a dish without dissipated out. For my version, I use hindquarter of a chicken, marinated in spice mix, tossed in selection of summer vegetables: cherry tomatoes, celery, radish, green pea and shiitake mushroom. For fast and even cooking, I use maximum microwave heat for 5 minutes before continue on low heat for another 10 minutes.

Detail recipe as below (single serving)

Ingredient:

chicken hindquarter (roughly about 250g)
marinade (all spice mix, salt, pepper and sweet soy sauce)
3 cloves of garlic, lightly crushed
thumb size of ginger, thinly sliced
100g of green pea
100g of cherry tomato
50g of shiitake mushroom

Extra: Baking paper, approx 30cm square

Method.

Marinade chicken in a bowl and leave for 1 hour to allow the flavor seeps into the chicken meat.
At the end of marinating time, add in all the vegetables along with garlic and ginger. Roughly mix all the component together.
For en papillote, fold the baking paper diagonally in half to make a center seam. Place chicken hindquarter next to center seam and put the rest of vegetable mix on top of chicken.
Oppose the remaining half of baking paper and fold in the edge to make a tight seal as to resemble paper package. Put on microwave safe baking tray.
Microwave at high heat for 5 minutes and continue cooking in low heat for another 10 minutes.
Allow standing time for another 5 minutes before serving. Serve in unopened package.

Spaghetti Seafood Aglio Olio

2017-07-05T17:07:00.001+08:00

Spaghetti aglio olio is one of the most basic and easiest pasta based recipes. As compared to traditional more sophisticated spaghetti bolognese, this pasta is made with garlic (aglio) and oil (olio). For my version, addition of prawns, squids and chili flakes is what it needs to compliment simple aglio olio..

Ingredients (1-2 serving)

150g of uncooked spaghetti
1/2 cup of oil - for best health benefit, use an olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
chili flakes - shredded from 1 whole dried chili
100g of prawn
100g of squid
salt and grounded pepper to taste

Method

In a large pot, bring lightly salted water into boil and cook spaghetti until it is al dante. Once done, drain and set aside in large bowl.
In a flat bottom skillet, toss sliced garlic in hot oil until golden brown. Reduce to medium heat and add in remaining of chili flake, prawn and squid. Allow to cook for 5 minutes (Do not overcook the seafood).
In a spaghetti bowl, stir in salt and black pepper into the spaghetti, season as your preferences.
Add in the seafood aglio e olio into the pasta. Mixed well, preferably allowing the oil coat all the spaghetti. Serve while still warm.

The trick to get the most flavor is to heat the sliced garlic to golden brown, reduce the heat before adding other ingredients. If the garlic too light, you won't get enough flavor to infuse into the oil. Too dark, you will end up with bitter garlic oil. Happy trying... C,")

Fettucine in Creamy Mushroom Alfredo Sauce

2017-06-23T12:29:00.002+08:00

Fettucine in Mushroom Alfredo Sauce

Having pasta in local western eateries often disappointing because the sauce merely coat the pasta and it seem as it is not enough to satisfy my taste but. When time permits, I rather brew my own pasta sauce. Today, I would like to share one of my favourite pasta sauces, The Alfredo, whipped from mostly basic ingredients such as butter, cooking cream and cheese. It is versatile enough that with addition of minced chicken and slices of shitake... voila...you have a nice creamy sauce that go well in this fettuccine breakfast.

My Fettucine in Creamy Mushroom Alfredo Sauce as below....

Yields: 1-2 servings

*For this recipe, I used microwave oven all way through...

Sprinkled with paprika for the zings..

Ingredients

The Pasta

200 g of Fettucine
½ tablespoon of salt
½ tablespoon of oil
1-1.5L of Water

Shitake gives amazing aroma to the sauce

The Sauce

50g Of Unsalted Butter
¼ Cup of Cooking Cream
½ Cup of Cream Cheese
½ cup of Minced Meat
½ Cup of Sliced Fresh Shitake
¼ cup (56 g/2 oz) unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt and ground pepper, to taste

Bon Appetite

Instructions

In a large microwave safe container, immerse fettuccine in water, add salt and oil and cover with cling film; punctured 2 hole on top to allow the steam to escape
Microwaved the pasta at high heat approximately 10-12 minute or until the pasta texture al dente. (Using hot water will reduce cooking time). Allow standing time for 5-8 min before drain the water and left aside for a moment.
For the sauce, in microwave safe container, heat the butter, onion and garlic together at high heat for 1-2 min. This will sauté the onion and garlic and melts the butter.
Then, add in minced chicken and continue the heating for another 1 min.
Once done, incorporate cream cheese and cooking cream into the mix. Reduce to medium heat and continue to cook the sauce for 4-6 min with 2-3 times stirring throughout the cooking process.
Add in salt and pepper for seasoning and allow additional 5 min standing time. After five min, add the sauce into the pasta, mix well and reheat at microwave in medium heat for 2-3 min.
Serve immediately while still warm. You may garnish with chop Italian herbs or just a sprinkle of paprika to heathen your taste but.

Happy Trying...

Another Day with Pasta..Now it is a Meat Sauce

2016-12-03T15:53:00.000+08:00

Fusilli is one of my favorite pasta. Because of its twisted shape, fusilli tends to trap more sauce compare to straight or flat pasta such as spaghetti, fettuccine of linguini. Any sauce will be great to go with this pasta. We all know the easy way though, buy a jar of spaghetti sauce, brown some ground meat in a pan, add the jar of sauce, mix and simmer a bit, and there you go. But for me, I would prefer for an extra mile. How - by preparing my pasta sauce from scratch.

A feast for the eye as well...

Ingredient (for 1-2 serving)
Handful of cherry tomato, halves
1/2 cup of ground meat
1 stick of sausage, diced
1 slice of chicken ham, sliced in long strip
2 tablespoon cooking oil
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 tbs of cream cheese
1 cup of tomatoes puree
1 tbs of sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Served and ready to be eaten...

Method

In a large saucepan, over medium heat, fry sliced chicken ham until it is crisp. Drained and set aside. Using the same oil, sauteed an onion and garlic. Add on ground meat, sausage and cherry tomato. Stir frequently until tomato soften.
Add in tomato puree and cream cheese to thicken the sauce. Bring to simmer until most of the liquid evaporated. Add in sugar to reduce the acidity of tomato puree.Season with salt and pepper as per your preferences.
Served over pasta of your liking while the sauce still hot and garnish with crispy fried chicken ham for a crunchy texture.

Crab and Sweet Corn Soup

2016-11-24T01:29:00.000+08:00

Hearty crab and sweet corn chowder is a healthy and delicious way to warm up on a cold rainy evening!! Coupled with crunchy garlicky crouton sprinkled with a pinch of paprika will instantly warm me from inside out. It is always been my favorite and further more, this chowder is so easy to put together, and without a doubt, it is amazingly tasty, soul comforting and very filling...

Hearty corn and crab chowder, hot milo and sure it make my day

For the ingredients, I used these following

500g of sweet corn (equivalent to amount of kernel removed from two cobs of medium size corn)
3 cups of chicken stock
200g of crab sticks
1 medium sized potato (diced)
2tbs of cream cheese
Pepper and pinch of salt for seasoning

Crouton add an extra crunchy to the chowder

Method

Combine the kernel, crab sticks, chicken stock and potato in a large saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat and bring to the boil. Cook, uncovered, for 5 minutes.
Reduce heat to low and stir in the cream cheese . Taste and season with salt and pepper. Leave for 2-3 minutes under low heat
Once done, scoop about 3/4 of the soup and pureed until smooth consistency. Add back into remaining 1/4 of the soup and leave on low heat for another 2 minutes. (I purposely did not pureed all the soup because I want to have a chunky bit on the remaining corn kernel.)
Removed from heat and your corn chowder is ready to be served.

For additional kick, sprinkled with paprika

For garnishing, I simply add on garlic toasted crouton that I had prepared earlier on and sprinkled with paprika. For more creamier taste, may add splash of cream on to the chowder.

Oven Grilled Lamb Shoulder, Creamy Potato Gratin and Baked vegetables...

2016-10-15T00:59:00.001+08:00

Lamb Shoulder is the most economical cut, carved from forequarter of a lamb and quite often, it is cut into chops. Having a few chops in my fridge, I decided to have grilled lamb shoulder for my diner. As a side dish, I had creamy potato gratin and oven baked vegetables mixes.

For the lamb, I simply marinated it with dry herbs composed of curry powder, all spiced powder, coarsely ground black peppercorn and a few pinch of salt. Leaving the lamb on dry marinade for almost 3 hour, it will ensure the end result would be nice, tender lamb shoulder. While waiting for the lamb, I had prepared myself a creamy potato gratins. The recipe for my potato gratin can be found here.

To complement the grilled lamb shoulder, I had prepared creamy cheesy mushroom black pepper sauce. So what’s my secret? Well as the name implied, I guess you can determine easily the ingredient for the sauce.
Ingredients (single serving)

1 tsp unsalted butter
3 medium sized shiitake, sliced
1/4 cup of water
1 piece of cheddar cheese
1 tsp of cream cheese
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste
Salt as appropriate

Instructions

Heat oil in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add sliced mushrooms and stir-fry until they are lightly browned, reduce heat to medium.
Add cream cheese, salt, pepper, water and bring to a boil. Cook for 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally and watching that the cream doesn't over boil.
Once the sauce has reduced by half, add cheddar and cook for another minute. Remove from heat and serve over your favorite lamb chop.

Bon Apetite...

Evening's Well Spent...

2016-09-04T20:13:00.000+08:00

Its has been ages since I have the luxury of a day off. Starting from last Jun, most of my weekdays spent in office or elsewhere where the services need my presence. Given a hard well earned day off, I think it is a good idea to have earthy home cooked meal. After getting all the ingredients I need, my journey in Slyvester's Kitchen once again unfurled. For this evening, I had prepare microwaved biryani rice served with grilled chicken and sauteed vegetables.

Biryani Rice (2-3 serving)

a cup of Bhasmati rice
equal part of lukewarm water
1/4 cup of dark raisin
1/4 cup of cashew nut
150g of salted butter
pinch of all spices
2 cloves of garlic, 1 medium sized shallot, thumb sized of ginger (blended together)

Method

In a deep covered ceramic cooking ware, combined 50g butter, spices and pre blended garlic, shallot and ginger.
Cooked in microwave oven under full power setting for 2 minutes with the lid off. The mixture should give off pleasant aromatic smell that wafted around the kitchen.
Once done, add the rice grain into the mixture, combine well. Add equal amount of lukewarm water into the pot and covered with the lid.
Microwaved the rice under full power setting for total 10 minutes, stirring the rice to cook evenly once or twice during the process.
After the microwave process done, removed the rice from heat source. Stir in remaining butter and allow another 8-10 minutes of standing time prior to serving. (*take caution as steam emanated from the pot can cause severe scalded)

Time to enjoy the meal.... chap..chap...

Spicy Creamy Butter Mud Crab...

2015-12-06T16:24:00.003+08:00

Freshly caught Mud Crab

Mud crab is another delicacy that most people look for when they visiting coastal or fisherman settlement. Freshly caught mud crab with a good size may reach up to MYR60/- especially if it is female and laden with roe. Having the skill to locate and catch will ensure that I have a fresh crab every time I back in my hometown . The dish can be vary but what I like most will be Spicy Creamy Butter Mud crab...

Ingredients

5 med sized mud crab (roughly half a kilo, gutted and cleaned )
100g of butter
1 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup of creamer
1/2 cup corn flour
5 chilies, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Ginger, approx thumb sized, finely sliced
Salt, pepper and seasoning as appropriate
2 eggs (separate yellow for egg floss and white for coating)

Mud Crab, garnished with egg floss

Method

Frying the mud crab. Seasons mud crab as your liking, thinly coated with corn flour and egg white. Deep fry on high heat for 5-8 min until the shell turn red. Strained from excessive oil and put aside.
Preparing egg floss. In frying pan, melt 50g of butter in heated 1/4 cup of cooking oil. Once butter fully melt and cooking oil hot enough, add in yellow egg with constant stirring motion. It will be bubbly. Keep eyes on egg floss. Removed and strained from excessive oil when it starts to turn golden brown. Put aside for the moment.
Combining the dish. In frying wok, melt remaining butter. Once melted and the wok is hot enough, add in chilies, garlic and ginger. Saute the ingredients until it give out aromatic aroma. Add on creamer into the mix and let simmers 2-3 min. Tastes and seasons well. Lastly, add in fried mud crab and fold in for 5-6 min so that the butter incorporated into the crab. Let simmer for another 2-3 min.
Serving. Put the dish on to the plate and drizzle the butter on top of the crab. Garnish with egg floss on top. Served while still warm. Best eaten as it is or served with rice.

You won't get any messier when you having mud crabs for lunch. Ignoring sense of civilization, it is best devoured using a pair of clean hand and sturdy set of teeth.

Lunch with a Squirell

2015-10-19T14:26:00.000+08:00

A squirrel, lemongrass and turmeric

Sometimes, you can't escape from over eagerly friend who like to give away exotic animal that he caught just because he knew how much you like that special delicacy. Luckiest enough, today I was presented with decent size squirrel that hmmmm.... sure enough will be on plate during lunch. I won't go into detail on how to prepare a squirrel because it is more to technical skills but rather, I would like to share with you the simplest dish that can be prepared without much ingredients.

Gutted and cleaned

Stir Fried Squirrel with lemongrass and turmeric (single serving)

squirrel (roughly 400g), cut into bite size
three sticks of lemon grass, crushed
thumb sized of turmeric, crushed
3 medium sized red onion, diced
1/4 cup of cooking oil
salt and pepper for seasoning
1/4 water

Squirrel with simple ingredients-lemongrass
and turmeric

The process of stir fry very simple. All you need is thick bottomed wok, high heat and fast stirring action.
So let us begin...

In a wok, heat up oil under high heat. Add on diced onion, crushed lemon grass and turmeric and constantly stir the mixture to prevent from charred.
Add the squirrel into the wok and stir fry under high heat for 6-8 minute. Add 1/4 of water just to allow the meat to cook thoroughly. Lets the juice reduces until it become thick, creamy gravy.
Season with salt and pepper. Served with rice.

Crispy shortcrust pie with beef and potato stuffing....

2015-10-06T20:57:00.000+08:00

Making a pie pastry from scratch is not that daunting. It is easy as 1-2-3, which is 1 part liquid, 2 parts fat, 3 parts flour, plus keep everything cold. Having pre made my shortcrust pastry earlier, here I just want to show the end result of my Crispy shortcrust pie with beef and potato stuffing.

Latticework just for cosmetic effect


Baked using microwave oven

An end result....

Sandhoshamaa saappidunga...

So what are you waiting for, it is easy as 1-2-3......

Mee Goreng Basah... Why?? It is fried and it is wet...

2015-07-28T16:38:00.000+08:00

Guess what? Today was another adventure in Slyvester's Kitchen. Having forgotten to eat my fried noodle that was purchased from Chinese Hawker last night, I came out with an idea of transforming not so appetizing over-the-night fried noodle to something that...ummm...yummy.. a Mee Goreng Basah. It is basically a stir fried noodle immersed in delicious broth.After ransacking my entire fridge, I came out with few ingredients which transformed my fried noodle to Mee Goreng Basah. Basically, what I am doing was preparing the broth since I already have a fried noodle.

Ingredients (single serving)

Fried noodle - single portion

A cup of chicken broth

2 tbs of corn flour

1/4 cup of water

1 egg white

1 medium size red onion, diced

5 slices of fish cake

Bak choy

2 tbs of cooking oil

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Method

In a wok, heat up the oil and sautéed red onion until it is translucent. Remember, not to allow the onion browning too much as you will end up with darker broth later on. Add in fish cake and allow the fish cake to cook thoroughly. Add the chicken broth and allow to simmer under medium heat. In a cup, add in the corn flour into the water.

After that, with continuous stirring motion, pour the corn flour mixture into simmering broth. Take note that continuous stirring motion is mandatory as you will end up with gooey lump of corn starch if you do not do so.

After achieving thick creamy consistency, reduce the heat and add in egg white into the broth. Make a gentle whisk to form a strand of egg white inside the broth.

Lastly, add in bak choy, season well with salt and pepper prior to turn of the heat.

For serving, pour the broth on to the friend noodle. Garnish with chillies and fried onion

Bon appetite...

Fish head curry....plain but the gravy is marvelous...

2015-07-03T14:25:00.000+08:00

Fish head curry quite popular among Malaysian. It can be prepared using any commercial fish curry powders are but starting from a scratch won't be much a hassle. For my version of curry paste, I simply use coriander, chilli, turmeric, asam keping, lemongrass, shallot and garlic as my curry base. Below are full recipe of my Red Snapper Fish Head Curry...

Ingredients
1 Medium sized Red snapper head, cleaned, scaled and cleaved into half
4 tbsp oil
2 stalks lemongrass, lightly bruised

2-3 cups water
1 cup coconut cream
2-3 tomatoes, quartered
2 slices of asam keping
5 okra
Coriander leaves for garnish

Curry paste (Blend finely all the ingredients below)
2 large shallots
5 cloves garlic
1 inch galangal
1 inch ginger
1 inch of turmeric
5 sticks of medium sized dried chili
2 tbs of ground coriander
2 tbs of ground cumin

Method

Rub some salt over the fish head and set aside for 1/2 hour before rinsing it off. This will ensure ensure the fish head taste good.
In the meantime, heat up 4 tbsp oil in a large pot. Fry the blended curry paste and lemograss for 3-5 minutes. Then add in asam keping and coconut cream . Continue frying for another 2 minutes.
Add in fish head into simmering curry paste and gently fold over so that the curry paste coated entirely the fish head.
Add water and bring to boil for 2-3 minutes. Add in tomato and okra to the mix and cover the pot. Let the fish curry simmer gently for 10 minutes until the fish is cooked, okra and tomato soften and the oil rises to the top.
Once done, turn off the heat and let it sit before serving. Garnish with chopped coriander leave while serving.

Slow cooked chicken as in "Ayam Pansuh"

2015-06-15T14:40:00.000+08:00

Ayam pansuh is Sarawakian specialty specifically more common among the natives. Traditionally, ayam pansuh is prepared by cooking a chicken with minimal amount of water in a bamboo stuffed with tapioca shoot, which later will set upon on open fire. Employing this method of cooking, free range, local breed chicken which normally have tough and chewy meat will tenderize under steam pressure that accumulate and circulate within the bamboo. In city, where luxury of open fire and bamboo is out of equation, ones still can mimic the taste, aroma and texture of traditionally prepared ayam pansuh using conventional slow cooker or cooking it in a heavy bottomed pot under low heat for longer duration. In any methods, the trick behind is to cook the chicken with minimal amount of water without it getting burned.

Cooking chicken with minimal amount of water also posed problem in which during cooking process, water tends to seep out of chicken especially the part that is not in contact with water leaving the end result less succulent. However, parts in which there are plenty skin covering such as the drumsticks and wings rarely have this problem as the skin act as container that prevent water to excessively seep out of the flesh. After knowing the tricks behind, anyone can fools their guests into believing that one has prepared ayam pansuh which in actuality, just employing new method of cooking that gives similar taste, texture and aroma of traditionally prepared ayam pansuh.

Ingredients (serving size: 3-4 people)

half kg of chicken wings

10-15 pieces of tapioca shoots, hand squeeze until almost shredded

one stick of lemon grass, crushed

2-3 cm ginger, crushed

half a cup of water

salt and seasoning

Methods

Clean chicken wings thoroughly and cut into two at the first joint line.
Add chicken, tapioca shoot, lemongrass, ginger and water into a wok. Cook at medium heat until steam starts to appear. Add salt and seasoning accordingly and stir so that it is evenly distributed.
When the outer of meats seem to be cook, transfer to slow cooker or heavy bottomed pot (I'm using clay pot) Close the lead and cook under low heat. Let it simmer for about one to one and half hour.
Occasionally check and stir so that the meat evenly cook. Add water when it is too low. You know it is ready when the aroma wafted across your kitchen.

Hot, spicy black pepper crab baked with shallot and spring onions

2015-03-03T20:37:00.000+08:00

Traditional way of catching mud crab

Black pepper mud crab very synonyms with little island of Singapore. It is tasty, delicious, and gain more and more preferences from chili crab due to its non messy and convenience to dine in. It is simple to make. Living near the mangrove, fresh supply of mud crab is not an issue if one's are hardworking enough to hunt the crab in knee deep mangrove mud. Best time to search for mud crab burrow is when the tide is low and the burrow exposed. Using a traditional method of search and dig which I already used to since my younger year, it is a must activity when I am at my hometown. There is nothing more rewarding than having freshly caught succulent mud crab. Today, I prepared my version of baked black pepper mud crab. Below are the recipe. Lurid red color of mud crab signify it is cooked

Lurid red color of mud crab signify it is cooked

Ingredients ( 2 serving)

2 medium sized mud crab
2 tbs of ground black pepper
2 large shallot, roughly sliced
2 clove of garlic, crushed
Handful of spring onion, cut into 2-3cm length
Salt for seasoning
2 tbs cooking oil

It is done and ready to be served

Method

Clean the crabs by removing the carapace, lifting it from sides. Throw away the gill and the abdominal cover underneath. Crack the large claw of from crab meat using back of knife or a cleaver.
In a ceramic earthenware, heat up an oil, saute sliced shallot, garlic and spring onion along with coarsely ground black pepper.
Add the crab pieces into the pot and mix well with shallot, spring onion and black pepper. Season with salt as your preference.
Transfer the pot into preheated oven, cook in 300'c for 10 minutes.Voila, you already have your own baked black pepper mud crab

Even though there is many variation of black pepper mud crab, I found out that by baking it rather than deep fried, I am able to reduce the need of oil and at the same time preserve the fresh original taste of mud crab. This wonderful baked black pepper mud crab best eaten with rice or as it is. So why don't you try for yourself today??

Brunch...late for breakfast but still early for a perfect lunch....

2015-02-03T12:43:00.000+08:00

An earthy meal, stuffed chicken roll and potato cheese layer

Brunch is an exceptionally common especially during weekends in which people do not need to hustle up in preparing their breakfast. In fact, they will opted to have it rather late in the morning and save themselves to cook another meal for their lunch. Normally, a perfect brunch incorporates breakfast element that enjoyed together with slightly heavier savory dish. However, out of simplicity, most people regards their brunch as lunch meal that is taken before conventional lunch time.
Dating back to 1896, the term "brunch" believed to be coined by Guy Beringer in his article of Brunch: A Plea which was published in Hunter's Weekly and was later became a popular word among students.Since then, brunch almost replace breakfast and lunch altogether. As with the rest of the people that consider weekend should be started as late as possible, i.e: remains in one's comfort of blanket before actually move around to do weekend's chores, I found the idea of having brunch instead of early morning breakfast very much alluring... Wake up around 11.30 am, which was considerably late, however, I manage to come up with fantastic brunch, a combination of oven baked potato cheese layer and oven baked stuffed chicken roll bathed in chicken stock.

My version of baked potato cheese layer

Ingredient

one whole potato, cut into chip
cream cheese
grated Parmesan
two eggs, separate egg white and yolks
chopped dill
butter

Methods

Cooks egg yolks, cream cheese and butter slowly using hot water bath and stirs continuously to prevent crumble formation.
Removes from heat once thick curd is formed. Mixes grated Parmesan and chopped dill into the curd. Seasons well with salt.
Add potato chips into the mixture and coats the chip evenly. Transfer into baking container. Bakes the potato cheese layer in 180°C for 20 minutes.
Serve while still warm.

Stuffed chicken roll

Oven baked stuffed chicken roll

Ingredients

half of chicken breast with intact skin, cut into thin fillet
stuffing-chopped dill, chopped parsley, chopped garlic, chopped onion and black pepper

Methods

Marinades chicken fillet with salt, black pepper and seasoning. Spreads the fillet evenly on flat surface.
Mixes all the stuffing ingredients and seasons well with salt and seasoning. Place the stuffing mixture onto the fillet.
Rolls the fillet and tie with strings to hold the shape.
Browns the rolled chicken fillet in a frying pan until the skin is crispy in texture.
Transfers into oven and bakes in 180°C for 8 minutes.
Rest the chicken before cutting. Can be served with chicken juice

Served with golden colored chicken stock

Fusilli in Neapolitan sauce

2015-01-15T22:15:00.000+08:00

Preparing pasta sauce from scratch quite tiresome thus it is not a surprise that most people opted for more convenience Prego that comes in all variety of sauce. Besides, it is readily available in most of the supermarket. However, giving enough time and with more effort, maybe instead of Prego, custom made sauce will be great because ingredients can be modified suit one's preferences. Such example is my Neapolitan pasta sauce.

Served with meatball

Neapolitan Sauce
Ingredients (4-5 serving)

1 cup tomato puree
10-15 button mushroom (sliced)
10-15 Shitake (sliced)
4-5 clove of garlic (finely chopped)
4 big onion (diced)
1 tablespoon black pepper (crushed)
3 tablespoon cooking oil
1/4 cup of water
salt and seasoning accordingly

Fusilli al dente, cook but still give resistance to bite

Methods

Heat cooking oil in a frying pan and saute diced onion and garlic until the onions is translucent.
Add tomato puree, sliced mushrooms and black pepper. Stir and allow to simmer for five to ten minutes. Add salt and seasoning accordingly.
Add water and reduce according to your preferences. If herbs to be added, it should be added and stirred into the sauce shortly before turning the heat off.

I like to put generous amount of sauce onto my pasta

As what I have said, the ingredients for the sauce can be modified according to own preferences. If meat/ mince is added as part of the ingredient, then it is a Bolognese sauce. Bon appetite...

"Siput sedut"..an edible mud creeper, fantastic menu for lunch

2015-01-14T20:51:00.000+08:00

Mud Creeper

While strolling along busy and crowded market earlier on, I encountered a stall that sell mud creeper, famously known in Google search as Siput Sedut. The Malay name is self explanatory as one has to suck the front opening in order to enjoy succulent, tasty flesh inside. Without much thinking, a RM5/- per portion (almost a kilo) will be a rare treat to enjoy during lunch since the last time I ate this shell was last June. Thinking of spicy mud creeper in soy sauce in mind, figuratively, I kept salivating and could wait no longer for another stroll around the market.

You know they are alive when they start crawling around

Spicy Mud creeper in Soy sauce

Ingredients

- 500g of mud creeper (chip off 1/3 of cone tip)

- 1 stick of lemongrass (crushed)

- 3-4 clove of garlic (crushed)

- 4-5 chillies (crushed thorougly)

- 2 cm ginger (crushed)

- 1/4 cup of dark soy sauce

- 2 tbs cooking oil - adequate water

- salt and seasoning

Method

Heat an oil in a wok and fry garlic, lemongrass, chillies and ginger until its aroma started to wafted around
Add the mud creeper, soy sauce and water and stir altogether. Bring to boil
Add salt and seasoning accordingly. Allow to boil for four to five minutes and then allow to simmer for another five minutes. Served with rice or can be eaten as it is....

Ready to be served