Loh Mai Kai

Ingredients:

• 250g glutinous rice-washed and soaked for 4 hours, steam for 30 minutes
• 1½ cups of water
• 150g chicken meat
• 15g Chinese mushroom, soaked and cut into thin slices
• 1 Chinese sausage (lap cheong), optional
• 4 shallots, sliced

Seasoning (A):

• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp ginger juice
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp pepper
•  ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp oil
• 1 tsp corn flour

Seasoning (B):

• 1½ tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp pepper
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• ½ tsp Five Spice powder (ng heong fun)

Method:

Cut chicken into slices. Marinate with seasoning (A) for 2 hours.

Heat oil in a wok and sauté shallots till soft and fragrant. Add mushroom slices and stir-fry quickly, then dish up.

Add cooked glutinous rice and seasoning (B) and water. Stir fry well for 5 minutes.

Greased a bowl that big enough. Put in fry shallots, mushroom slices, Chinese sausage and seasoned chicken. Fill up with glutinous rice and press down the rice. This is to compact the rice.

Steamed for 45 minutes. Then turn over the rice bowl onto a plate and serve with chilli sauces.

Curry Kapitan

A thick spicy chicken curry dish, broadly influenced in its spicing, Curry Kapitan conjures up some of the cosmopolitan atmosphere of old Malacca and recalls the traditional role of the 'Kapitan China' as the functionary who stood between the Malay Rulers and the Chinese communities. The 'KAPITAN' would have been a man of standing among both Malays and his own Chinese people and would have had considerable social mobility. 'Curry Kapitan' reflects this in culinary terms.

Beside serving as a main dish with rice, this dish is also nice to serve with Roti Jala or with bread. You can reduce the chillies according to your requirement.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg chicken, cut into pieces
• 1 cup coconut milk

(A)

• 5 dried red chillies
• 4 fresh red chillies
• 6 shallots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 cradlenuts (buah keras)

(B)

• 2 stalks lemon grass (serai)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric (kunyit) powder

Seasoning:

• salt to taste
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 lemon, squeeze out juice

Method:

Grind (A). Marinate chicken with 1 tbsp ground ingredients (A) and 1 tbsp coconut milk.

Heat 2-3 tbsp oil in wok. Stir-fry remaining ingredients (A) and add in (B). Add marinated chicken pieces and mix well. Add in coconut milk and simmer curry over low heat. keep on stirring. When chicken is cooked and gravy is thick, add in seasoning.

Ayam Ponteh

Ingredients:

• 1 kg chicken, cut into bite size pieces
• 500g potatoes, quartered and peeled
• 2 cups of water
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp oil
• salt to taste

pounded ingredients:

• 8 shallots }
• 4 cloves garlic } pounded together
• 2 tbsp salted soya beans (tau cheong)

Method:

Heat oil and lightly brown garlic and shallots. Add salted soya beans and fry until fragrant. Add chicken pieces and stir fry for 2 minutes.

Pour in water and seasoned with sugar, dark soy sauce and salt. Add in potatoes and cook until the potatoes are soft and the gravy is thick.

Serve hot.

Indian Mee Goreng

Oh! yes...this is my favourite mee goreng. When I was young & living in Penang, I used to buy the fritter where it was slit in the centre and stuff with shreded sengkuang, cucumber and blanched taugeh. Finally some sauce will be poured into the fritter. We used to called it "tikus" as it was shaped like a little rat.
Thanks to Winnie for making us the homemade noodles.



Ingedients for the fritters:

• 175g plain flour, sifted
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 130 ml water
• 1 tbsp finely chopped green chilli
• 1/2 medium size onion, finely chopped
• extra plain flour for dusting hand
• enough oil for deep frying

Method:
Combine flour, salt, sugar, baking soda in a mixing bowl. Gradually add in water to mix into a dough. Set aside to rest for 1 hour.
Mix in the green chilli and onion. Dust hand with the extra flour and shape the dough into ablong shape for about 3" in lenghts. Taper the ends.
Heat wok with oil and deep fry the fritters until golden brown. Drain well and cut into slanting pieces.
Ingredients for the sauce:
Spices-ground and combine:

• 7 shallots
• 2 cloves garlic
• 4 dried chillies, soaked until soft
• 2 fresh red chillies
• 1/2 tsp belacan

(A)

• 75g mashed sweet potatoes
• 75g gula melaka
• 2 tbsp tamarind, mixed with 50 ml water and squeezed for juice
• 125g roasted peanuts, pounded
• 600ml water
• salt to taste
• 4 tbsp oil

Method:
Heat oil and fry ground ingredients until fragrant. Add in A and simmer until the gravy turns thick.
Ingredients for frying the noodle:

• 1 packet noodles. Here I used the egg noodles that available in supermarket
• 150g taugeh.
• 2 medium size potatoes, boiled and cut into 1/2 cm thick slices
• deep fried firm beancurd. Use only half block. Cut into about 1cm square
• 3 eggs
• 3 fritters ( ingredients and method is as above), sliced 1cm slantly.
• 3 tbsp dep fried shallots
• some curly leaves for garnishing, slice thinly
• some lime wedges
• 3 tbsp oil

Method:
Heat the wok until hot. Put in the noodles and 21/2 cups of the rojak sauce ( ingredents and method is as above). Stir to coat well. Add in the fritters, potatoes, beancurd and taugeh. Stir well again for about 2 minutes.
Move the noodles to the side of the wok and break the eggs into the empty space of the wok. Scramble well and cover the noodles over the egg. Leave for 1 minutes and stir well.
Dish out to a serving plate and garnish with deep fried shallots, curly leaf and 1 lime wedges.

Rempah Udang (Pulut Panggang)

This is a fantastic tea time snack. I have been longing for this for a long time. The only thing that stop me from making this is because of banana leaf. You need the banana. The smell of burnt banana leaf imparts the rempah udang with a smoky flavour. Many thanks to Gina for sharing her banana leaf that she grows in her garden. We met-up recently & have a go at our rempah udang making session. Also thanks to Ling, who helps us to grill the ready one. She says that it brings back her childhood memory where she used to help her grandma making this kuih for a living.
We are going to have more of this session girls!

Ingredients:

• 300g glutinous rice, washed, soaked overnight and drained
• 200ml thick coconut milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 banana leaf, cut into 20 pieces (of 14x12cm rectangles), scalded to soften and wiped dry

Filling:

• 125g white grated coconut
• 50g dried prawns, soaked, drained and pounded finely
• 1 tbsp oil

Ground finely (A):

• 1 tbsp coriander powder
• 1 small piece cekur root (sar keong)
• 1 clove garlic
• 5 shallots
• 2 red chilli, seeded

Seasoning (B)

• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 3 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
• 3 tbsp water

Method

Mix coconut milk with salt and sugar. Add to the glutinous rice and steam for 30 minutes.

Pan fry the grated white coconut until evenly browned then pound until fine (kerisek). Heat oil in a wok and fry ingredients (A) until fragrant. Add the dried prawns, seasoning (B) and kerisik.

Dish out and set aside to cool. Place 2 tablespoonful of glutinous rice in the centre of a banana leaf. Spread one tablespoonful of filling in the centre and top up with another tablespoonful of rice. Wrap each roll firmly in the banana leaf, press the ends together and secure the ends with staples. Pan-grill the rolls in a frying pan, to brown the banana leaves all over, until aromatic.

Claypot Chicken Rice (Nga Po Fun)

This rice is usually cooked in a clay pot. As I do not own one, I decided to cook it in the rice cooker.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of rice, washed and drained well
• 4½ cups of water
• 1 piece of boneless salt fish , chopped

(A):

• 1 tbsp oil
• ½ tsp sugar
• dash of pepper
• 250g deboned chicken meat

(B):

• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
•  tsp pepper
• ¼ tbsp fresh ginger juice
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 3 black mushrooms, soaked till soft and cut into thin slices
• 25g Chinese sausage (optional), sliced thinly

Seasoning (mix together):

• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp garlic oil
• ¼ tsp dark soy sauce

Method:

Marinade chicken with (B) for 1 hour or overnight. Marinade salt fish with (A) and leave aside for 10 minutes.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok and stir-fry marinated chicken meat. Add mushroom slices, sliced Chinese sausage and seasoning. Dish out and put aside.

Mix rice with water. Put rice into an electric cooker and cook rice as usual. After seven minutes, or when rice is almost cooked and dry, add stir-fried chicken meat and the marinated salted fish. Continue to cook till rice is completely cooked. Dish rice into a serving bowl and garnish with chilli strips and chopped spring onions.

Serve hot.

Chee Cheong Fun

This is one of my favourite breakfast. As it is difficult to get a good chee cheong fun in Exeter, I decided to look around & tried all recipes that I've found & finally I managed to modify the recipes to make a real smooth chee cheong fun.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of rice flour
• 1 tbsp of tapioca flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp oil
• 3/4 cup of cold water
• 1/2 cup of hot boiling water
• 1 tbsp of chopped spring onions

Fillings:

• 16 pieces of big prawns or
• some char siew or
• 3 tbsp of dried prawns, soaked to soften

Sauce (mix and combine well)

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1-2 dash of sesame oil
• 1/2 cup of boiling hot water

Method:

In a mixing bowl, combine the rice flour, tapioca flour & salt with 3/4 cup of cold water. Stir until smooth. Add in 1 tbsp oil. Add in the hot water and the chopped spring onions.

Lightly grease 2, 7" to 8" pan. Here I used the sandwich pan. Lightly greased the pan each time it has been used. Also prepare a cold water bath by filling a second large pan with cold water

Bring the water in the skillet to a boil. Put the greased pan in the steamer to heat it through. Stir the batter and ladle 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan . 

Spread the batter evenly by tilting slightly. Put in the filling and cover to steam for 3 minutes or until the sheets has cooked through. Transfer the pan to the cold water bath for 1 minute. Use a spatula to loosen the sheet along one edge, then roll it up loosely. Transfer the roll onto a plate. Repeat with the remaining batter, cleaning and oiling the pan each time, and replenishing the simmering water in the skillet as necessary.

Serve with some chilli oil and sauce.