Random Pa&Mi Photos of the Day

Here's mum and dad choosing some avocados the other day. They practically bought all of them. Mum blends them with condensed milk and some water. Yummy ice-cream substitute!

Jiu Hoo Char

Hi Everyone! Annette here writing on behalf of daddy for Favourite Grandma's Recipes. Last weekend I went home and mummy made her famous Jiu Hoo Char :)

The ingredients:
1 carrot
Some long beans
Chinese Radish
Pork
Tofu
Prawns
Onions
Garlic

Here's daddy risking his fingers slicing the carrot (kids, do not try this at home)

Mummy steamed the pork earlier to cook it first.

Sliced tofu

Green beans soaking in the water

Peeling the prawns.

Cutting the turnip or sengkung.

The prepared ingredients

More ingredients on the washing machine

Mummy starts off with sauteeing the onions and garlic together.

Then add the prawns.

Then add the sliced cooked pork.

Add some tau ew (soy sauce) after that.

Then sugar.

Add the carrots.

And the turnip or sengkung.

Add the oyster sauce.

Then lastly the green beans and cover to let it cook.

Ta-daaaaa! The finished product served with lettuce on the side. :D

Sambal Prawns

This is a delicious and tasty dish and can go very well with rice. Before you start cooking this dish, it would be better for you to get all the ingredients ready. The ingredients are as follows:
1. Chilli Bo. You can either buy this from the market, or you can make your own. Cut a bowl of dry chilli into smaller pieces and soak in hot water for a while. Then blend... without the seeds. You can store this in the freezer and use it whenever you need it.
2. Prawns...10 or 12 pieces. Peel and de-vein the prawns first. Cut into two if the prawns are big. Make them easier to eat.
3. Big onions ...4 or 5 big onions. Peel, clean and cut into rings.
4. Garlic....3 or 4 cloves. Cut into small pieces.
5. Assam Jawa ... 3 or 4 tablespoonfuls. Mix the assam jawa with half a cup of water. Add in the assam jawa to taste. Some like the sambal prawns to be a bit sour, and some like just a trace of the assam jawa.
6. Salt to taste.

Heat some oil in a non-stick pan and saute the garlic and the big onions. Put in 3 or 4 tablespoonfuls of the chilli Bo. This will depend on your taste. If you like it hot, just add more chilli Bo. Mix the onions and the garlic together with the chilli. Stir it well. When it is almost done, add in the prawns. Don't over cook the prawns. Add in the assam jawa a little at a time, tasting it all the time, until you get the taste that you want. Don't forget the salt. Scope up the sambal prawns onto a plate and serve.

Try this dish and let me know the results. Enjoy.

Pa.

Seaweed Soup

This is another favorite dish in mummy's recipes. In order to get the authentic taste of the soup, you will have to boil some pork ribs and some chicken meat, usually the breast meat which is quite tough to get a tasty soup. You need to boil the whole thing for about an hour or two. You can put in a piece of ginger to kill the fishy smell in the seaweed. If you have Muslim friends for dinner, you can use one whole chicken to make the soup. And if you are not fussy, you can also use chicken stock for the soup.

Next, you need to wash the seaweed. Normally the seaweed is sold in circular sheets. For a small family you only need one sheet or even half a sheet. If you love to eat the seaweed, then you can put in a bit more. Too much would make the soup too thick and it won't taste nice. Soak the seaweed in a basin of clean water. Lift the seaweed to another basin of clean water with your fingers. Sometimes there would be some sand at the bottom of the basin. Leave the seaweed until you need to put it in.

When the soup is done, you can remove the bones and meat. Knock in one egg and stir until the egg is completely cooked. You will get strings of egg. Then put in the seaweed. Cook for half an hour, and then add in some vinegar. The amount of vinegar will depend on individual taste. Some people will like the soup to be more sour...to bring out the seaweed taste. The seaweed soup is ready to be served. Add in salt to taste. All this will need some practice. Try it and let me know the results. Enjoy.

Pa.

Stewed Chicken With Vegetables

This is quite an easy dish to cook. For two people you'll need a leg of a chicken, i.e. an upper thigh and a drum stick. Chop it into smaller pieces. (You can de-bone it first if you like.Make it easier to eat. Less messy). Marinate the chicken with salt or soya sauce and pepper.Coat it with ordinary flour and fry in hot oil. Put it aside.

Boil some water, about a litre or a litre and a half. Put in a piece of chicken stock. Then cut one or two carrots, two or three tomatoes, dice a potato into cubes, cut two big onions into wedges or big cubes and cut a few stalks of celery into small pieces and throw all of them into the water. Boil the whole thing for about 20 minutes, then add in the fried chicken and continue to boil it until the vegetables are soft. This will be another 30 minutes or so. If you want the soup to be thicker add in a bit of corn starch---about a tablespoonful or a bit less. The flour from the fried chicken should thicken the stock(or soup) a bit. If not then add the corn starch.

I like this dish because it is simple to cook and quite tasty. You don't have to put in those vegetables if you don't have them in your fridge. You can put in any vegetables that you can find lying about in your fridge for a long time and don't know what to do with them!! What the heck!! Just dump them all in--- after cutting them up. That's the beauty of this dish. No hard and fast rules about the ingredients!!! As long as they enhance the taste of the dish. For more people, just increase the ingredients. That's all. Try it and let me know the results. Enjoy!!

Pa

Tim Bak -- Steamed Minced pork with eggs

For this recipes, you can use either pork or chicken meat. Of course, if you want the best results, pork would be the better choice, and the best choice of pork meat to use would be the belly part of the pig, where the lean meat is layered with fats. In Hokkien it is called "Sam Chan Bak".

For a start, you can buy two or three strips of one and a half inches thick, roughly about 300 grams. Remove the skin and mince the meat. The butcher will do it for you for free. You can also do it yourself using your own meat mincer, which I feel will be cleaner. Then use a stainless steel plate about 8 inches in diameter and about 2 inches deep. This will also depend on the steamer you have. If you have a smaller steamer, then the plate will have to be smaller. You must allow the steam to pass round the side of the plate.

Now for the important part :

Put all the meat on the plate. Add in some pepper -- a dash or two, white soya sauce -- about 3-4 tablespoonful, a dash of Worcestershire sauce (Lea and Parrin), knock in 3-4 eggs and mix thoroughly with a fork, beating slightly. Add in some plain cool water and continue to beat until you get the same consistency. The whole thing should be quite watery. Then steam for 45 minutes. If you find that it is not salty enough, then the next time you cook this dish, add more soya sauce. The same with the pepper.
If the meat is taken out from the freezer, you must allow it to thraw by itself, otherwise the whole thing cannot mix properly. Through practise, you should be able to cook quite a tasty dish. Enjoy!! -- Tell me if you have tried it. I would love to hear from you.

Pa.