Stir-Fry Sambal Belacan Okra

Ingredients:

10 okra (lady finger), cut into about 4 cm length
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 stalk green onion, chopped
1 tbsp dried prawn, soaked, drained and roughly chopped
2 tbsp sambal omelek chili paste
3 tsp belacan powder (toasted dried shrimp paste)
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 cup (40 mL) water

Method:

Heat oil in a wok or non-stick pan.

Stir-fry garlic, onion and dried prawn until fragrant and starting to be golden brown (about 5 minutes).

Add chili paste and belacan powder, stir-fry for another 1 minute or till fragrant.

Add okra, stir-fry for 3-4 minutes.

Sprinkle with water and continue stir-frying for another 1 minute.

Add sugar and salt.

Reduce heat and simmer till okra just right cooked-through (still remain a bit of its crunchiness).

Dish up and serve hot with rice.

Homemade Peanut Butter

Ingredients:

1 cup roasted peanut, skinned
1/2 tsp sesame oil/onion oil
1/4 tsp salt or to taste

Method:

With bullet blender, process peanut till coarsely broken up (I added some skin-on roasted peanut to yield darker color jam but yet to alter its taste).

Add-in oil and salt, continue to process the mixture till the desire creamy texture (shake blender occasionally for even blending) is achieved.

Yield about 1/2 cup.

Chapati (Indian Roti)

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour (extra flour for coating and rolling)
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
120 mL water
oil for coating

Method:

In a bowl, mix flour and salt.

Gradually pour-in water, knead till smooth dough (the more it is kneaded, the lighter the bread will be).

Lightly oil both hand palms, form dough into ball, set aside for an hour or more (if left overnight, the chapatis will be lighter and tender; wrap dough with plastic wrap for that).

Flours working surface and rolling pin.

Lightly oil both hand palms, knead dough again for another 2 minutes.

Shape dough into smaller ball about the size of 3 cm in diameter (the size depends on the size of griddle and personal preference) .

Flatten dough ball with hand palms, pick another smaller piece of dough, coat all surface with oil, place it into the center of flattened dough, wrap-up to seal, reform to ball again, repeat the filling and shaping steps for the remaining dough.

Heat-on griddle or high heat resistance frying pan till very hot.

Flatten dough balls with hand palms, smear dough around with flour to coat.

Plate on floured working surface, roll out dough to a circular shape with the thickness of about 2 mm.

Flip thin chapati around both hand palms for few times and lastly flip it on griddle.

Cooks chapati till proof-up small air-trapped bubbles, lightly spread-on some oil or ghee on both sides with spoon.

Flip chapati around continuously till brown spots formed at both sides (occasionally press lightly for a second interval around the surface of chapati with kitchen towel to encourage bubbles to form and thus yield lighter chapati; punch-down large air-trapped bubbles with spoon for even griddling).

Serve immediately with butter or dry curries.

Yield 12 chapati with 12 cm in diameter.

Chili Crab

Ingredients:

1 kg crab, cleaned and chopped
4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp Shen Yuan Hua Diao wine or any Chinese wine
1 tbsp sesame oil
3/4 cup water
1 tsp cornflour
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves

Seasoning:

2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy bean paste
3 tbsp sambal omelek chili paste
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp white rice vinegar

Method:

In a bowl, mix together all the seasoning ingredients; set aside.

In a wok, heat oil.

Add-in garlic, stir-fry till fragrant.

Add-in onion and ginger, stir-fry till aroma and golden yellow.

Add-in crab, stir-fry for another 2 minutes.

Pour-in wine and sesame oil, stir-fry for a while (about 1 minute).

Pour-in seasoning mixture, stir-fry for another short while to evenly spread the seasoning.

Pour-in water, cover and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Remove cover, add-in cornstarch and egg, continue stir-frying to break the egg and obtain thick gravy.

Add-in coriander leaves, stir-fry for another short while.

Dish up and serve immediately.

Yau Char Kway (Chinese Cruller)

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
120 mL water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp cornmeal (optional)
oil for deep-frying

Method:

In a bowl, mix flour and baking powder; set aside.

In another bowl, dissolve salt and sugar in water.

Pour water solution to flour mixture, knead dough till soft, smooth and elastic but remain sticky; set dough aside covered to rest for few hours.

Flours working surface, pin roller and hands.

Divide dough into 2 portions.

Shape doughs into rectangular shape on floured working surface, sprinkle-on cornmeal.

With pin roller, stretch doughs out into 1/4 inch thick rectangular with the desired length X width.

With a knife, cut doughs into individual long strips of about 1/2 inch wide each.

With bamboo skewer dipped in water, swipe onto the center of alternate strips to draw a middle line.

Place undrawn strip on top of the drawn strip.

With wet bamboo skewer, lightly press on the double layers strip to create a middle line on top surface, set aside covered with wet towel while working on the remaining strips.

Repeat these stacking and pressing steps for the remaining strips.

Heat oil in deep wok over high heat.

Pick a double layers strip, hold both end and gently stretch it out.

Drop into hot oil, wait till it floated, turn it continuously with wooden chopstick till it fully expands and golden brown on all sides.

Drain on supported wire rack.

Serve warm with or without dipping sauce (example: mayonnaise, peanut butter, rojak sauce, coconut jam and etc.).

Red Bean Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups dried red bean, soaked overnight in water
4 cups water
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup brown cane sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cake flour (tipo 00)
2 tbsp corn flour
3 tsp baking powder

Method:

Boil soaked red bean with 4 cups water till soft and cooked thoroughly (I used rice cooker till almost dry but yet burn), allow to cool to handle-able temperature, mash; set aside.

Grease a cake pan (26 cm in diameter), dust bottom and side of pan with bread crumbs and tapping out the excess; set aside.

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

In a bowl, combine mashed red bean and sugars, beat to incorporate fully.

Add-in eggs and oil, beat till well blended.

In another bowl, combine flours and baking powder.

Add dry ingredients into the red bean batter, mix well.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of cake comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool thoroughly.

Chinese Fragrant Spareribs

Ingredients:

600 g pork spareribs
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1/4 cup plum sauce
2 1/4 tbsp water
2 tbsp Shen Yuan Hua Diao wine
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1/2 tsp black pepper

Method:

In a saucepan, stir to incorporate soy sauces, plum jelly, water, wine, garlic powder, five-spice powder till jelly dissolves.

Let the mixture to cool to room temperature.

Pour mixture into a zip-lock bag, add-in spareribs, seal bag and shake to coat spareribs with sauce.

Keep in refrigerator to marinate overnight.

Place marinated spareribs on an aluminum foil baking tray, cover with foil (reserves the marinade).

Bake spareribs in preheated oven at 230 °C for 30 minutes.

Remove spareribs from oven, drain liquid from baking tray.

Return spareribs to oven and bake uncovered at 180 °C for another 15 - 30 minutes or till cooked thoroughly (turn and bast spareribs several times with the reserved marinade).

Remove spareribs from oven and serve hot with rice.