House of Annie

Sweet and Spicy Sticky Chicken Recipe

2009-11-25T01:19:00.001+08:00

This tasty recipe has all the flavors that I could imagine would make a chicken dish great. And it is a very easy recipe to put together for a weekday meal.

Sweet and Spicy Sticky Chicken

The title - “Sweet and Spicy Sticky Chicken” - doesn’t that just sound super yummy? It brings to mind a barbeque-like idea for this chicken dish BUT it’s not barbeque—it’s just a braised chicken dish that is delicious.

I’ve made this dish several times already. The recipe calls for chicken thighs but this last time I made it, I used chicken wings and that worked out good too. I think thighs and legs are probably the best parts to use, though, as they hold up better than wings in a braise.

Intensify the Flavor

Midway through the cook, you’ll have to take the chicken out so that it doesn’t get overcooked and mushy. The most important thing to remember is to reduce that sauce down a lot after taking the chicken out. The flavors really intensify when you let the sauce reduce to a thick sticky texture. Once the sauce gets to that point, it is a good idea to put the chicken back into the sauce to let the sauce really absorb into the chicken.

The flavors in this dish reminds me a little of adobo but the addition of ginger, dried chile flakes, and brown sugar gives it a special twist. For me, it’s not very spicy at all and if you like your dishes more spicy, you can definitely double or even triple the chile flakes. It works well for my family though—the kids can handle this level of heat and the adults still get a little sum’n sum’n.

Throw a little garnish of cilantro or extra green onions and you’re good to go. Make it and see how this wonderfully intense-flavored dish gets wolfed down quickly!

Sweet and Spicy Sticky Chicken

adapted from Cooking New American

Ingredients:

1 kg (2 lbs) chicken (dark meat is preferable or chicken wings)
1 Tbsp peanut or vegetable oil
3 scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced
Cilantro sprigs as garnish or just use another scallion, thinly sliced

Sauce:

1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/3 cup water
3 Tbsp rice-wine vinegar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger (about 2 inches)
1 clove garlic, minced (yeah, here I go again, I used about 2-3)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp crushed red chile flakes (or more if you like it spicier)

Sauce Ingredients for Sweet and Spicy Sticky Chicken

Method:

1. In a bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, fish sauce, water, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, pepper, and red chile flakes.
2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over med heat. Add the scallions and cook until soft, about 3 mins.
3. Add the chicken and the brown sugar mixture. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. As soon as it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer, turning the chicken occasionally, until cooked, 25-30 mins.

Adding Sauce to Chicken

4. Remove the chicken from the pan and cover with foil to keep warm. Increase the heat to high and reduce the sauce by half or until it is slightly thickened and resembles a bubbling caramel sauce. Return the chicken to the sauce to coat and absorb more of the sauce.
5. Plate up and garnish with the cilantro sprigs or scallions.

Sweet and Spicy Sticky Chicken

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

Hungry for More Chicken Recipes? Click Below:

Seven Secrets for Perfect Thai Fried Chicken Wings

Malaysian Chicken Wings: Two Ways

"Huli Chicken" recipe

3 Cups Chicken Recipe

Chicken with Vinegar & Onions, Warm French Lentil Salad with Smoked Sausage

Turkey Jook

2009-11-24T00:12:00.000+08:00

I hope you save that turkey carcass from Thanksgiving dinner, because you can use it to make turkey jook ("rice congee" -- aaahhh, just call it "jook"). And because I'm making it, you know the recipe has to be easy!

Turkey Jook

Originally posted 1 Dec 2008
Updated 23 Nov 2009

The Thanksgiving feast is done. Much of the remaining turkey meat has been cut off the carcass and saved for making sandwiches later. Now you’ve got a bare carcass sitting on your counter. You’re not going to throw that away are you?

Oh, heck no!

One of the best ways to deal with the turkey carcass is to make a big pot of turkey jook the next day. Making turkey jook takes relatively little work, especially compared to the culinary acrobatics that normally take place in the kitchen on Thanksgiving. Here’s what you do:

Put the turkey carcass in a big stock pot along with the thigh bones and wings, cover with water and simmer for 3 hours or more. You should get a rich, brown stock.

Turkey Stock

Ladle out half of the stock (about 7-8 cups) into another pot. Remove the carcass bones and let them cool. Chill the remaining stock and reserve it for something else (turkey tortilla soup might be good).

Optional: add to the stock pot a cup of dried scallops that have been reconstituted in warm water.

Adding Dried Scallops to Turkey Stock

Add a half cup of uncooked Japanese short grain rice, rinsed. We recommend short grain rice as opposed to jasmine, because the starchiness of the short grain will help thicken the jook. Let the rice simmer in the stock for 2 hours.

Meanwhile, peel the meat off the cooled turkey bones. Add half the meat to the jook and reserve the other half for (you guessed it) something else. (If you have any more leftover turkey meat, you might want to chop that up and use that too. But I'm lazy ;-) )

Peeled Turkey Meat

Adjust the seasonings with soy sauce to taste. Ladle the jook into bowls, then garnish with chopped green onion or cilantro, and a couple dashes of white pepper. Drizzle a little sesame seed oil on if you like.

There you have it. A nice, warm bowl of turkey jook to feed your soul.

Turkey Jook

Aloha, Nate

Hungry for more easy recipes? Click below:

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Gourmet Chestnut and Sausage Stuffing Recipe

2009-11-21T02:33:00.001+08:00

One of our most loved Thanksgiving recipes, a tried-and-true favorite stuffing dish. You’ll want to make a double batch just so you have enough for leftovers!

Chestnut and Sausage Stuffing

Over the years, we’ve made many different turkey recipes for Thanksgiving. The famous Good Eats Roast Turkey by Alton Brown was the most often used recipe. We’ve also used other recipes, like Melinda Lee’s apple juice-based Master Brine, our WSM Smoked Turkey, and a disastrous pineapple brined, smoked turkey (shudder).

For the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving meal, we like to try different things out. But one side dish has been a constant companion on our Thanksgiving table, for at least 5 years now: this Gourmet Chestnut and Sausage Stuffing.

Chestnut and Sausage Stuffing Thru the Years

Annie loves roasted chestnuts. Their complex sweetness adds a delicious oomph to many dishes, both Asian and Western. We can easily find packages of peeled, roasted chestnuts in our local Asian grocery. Then it’s just a matter of chopping them up at home to use in the stuffing recipe.

Chopped Roasted Chestnuts

Chestnut and Sausage Stuffing Recipe

From Gourmet Magazine, November 2003 edition

Ingredients

1 (1 1/4-pound) loaf country-style bread, crust discarded and bread cut into 3/4-inch cubes (8 cups)
1/2 pound sliced bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
3 medium onions, coarsely chopped
3 celery ribs, coarsely chopped
1 pound bulk pork sausage
1 turkey liver (optional), coarsely chopped
1/4 cup Cognac or other brandy
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
1 cup turkey stock or low-sodium chicken broth
2 large eggs
1 (14- to 15-oz) jar peeled cooked whole chestnuts, coarsely crumbled (3 cups)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons dried sage, crumbled
1 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
print a shopping list for this recipe

Method

1. Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 2 1/2- to 3-quart shallow baking dish.

2. Spread bread cubes in a large shallow baking pan (1 inch deep) and bake in lower third of oven until completely dry, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes. (Leave oven on.)

3. While bread bakes, cook bacon in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat, stirring, until crisp, about 10 minutes, then transfer with a slotted spoon to a large bowl.

4. Pour off and discard all but 2 tablespoons bacon fat from skillet, then sauté onions in fat over moderately high heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits, until softened, about 10 minutes. Add celery and sauté, stirring, 3 minutes, then transfer vegetables to bowl with bacon.

Bacon, Celery and Sausage

5. Cook sausage and liver (if using) in skillet, stirring and breaking up sausage with a fork, until meat is no longer pink, 8 to 10 minutes, then transfer with slotted spoon to onion mixture.

Frying Sausage and Turkey Liver

6. Pour off any remaining fat from skillet. Add Cognac (off heat), then deglaze skillet by simmering over moderate heat, stirring and scraping up any brown bits, 1 minute, and add to sausage mixture.

7. Increase oven temperature to 375°F.

8. Soak bread cubes in half-and-half in a bowl, tossing frequently, until liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Gently squeeze excess liquid from bread, then stir bread into sausage mixture, discarding remaining half-and-half. Stir together stock and eggs and add to stuffing, then stir in chestnuts, herbs, salt, and pepper until combined well.

Mixing the Stuffing Altogether

9. Transfer stuffing to baking dish, press it down flat, and cover with foil.

Smoothing the Stuffing Down Flat

10. Bake in upper third of oven 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake until top is crisp, about 20 minutes more.

I just love how all the flavors meld together so nicely. The sage and the celery just go so well with Thanksgiving turkey. I totally have to stop myself from taking more than 3 helpings at the table. Otherwise, there’d be none remaining for leftovers.

And we all know how good leftovers are, right?

Aloha, Nate

This post was entered in the Yeastspotting roundup for November 27.

Hungry for more savory bread recipes? Click below:

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Honey-Glazed Yams

2009-11-19T00:37:00.001+08:00

Try this sweet and simple side dish, which is elegant enough for a Thanksgiving party but also humble enough for a weeknight meal.

Honey-Glazed Yams

Annie made this dish for Thanksgiving last year, but we’ve only gotten around to posting it now. They were tuber-rific! I think we scarfed these down even before the turkey came out! My mom, who was visiting us in San Jose then, asked Annie for the recipe so that she could make it for the family Christmas party back home in Honolulu.

My mom doesn’t like overly complicated recipes. This recipe for Honey-Glazed Yams, originally from Bon Appetit magazine, couldn’t be simpler! Cut 5 yams into wedges, then rinse them and pat dry. Toss them with 1/4 cup of olive oil and a teaspoon of salt.

Honey-Glazed Yams

Arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 400*F for an hour. At the last 15 minutes, brush with honey. Serve, garnished with chopped parsley. So easy, even I could do it!

Aloha, Nate

By the way, even though I (and many Americans) call these tubers “yams”, they are really dark sweet potatoes. True yams come from the tropics, and are generally sweeter than sweet potatoes. Now you know.

I am entering this in the 210th edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Healthy Green Kitchen and administered by Haalo of Cook Almost Anything.

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Korokke

Creamy Winter Greens Gratin

2009-11-17T00:54:00.000+08:00

Looking for a flavorful side dish for your Thanksgiving or Christmas party? There’s no compromising on flavor with this creamy Winter greens gratin.

Updated 17 Nov 2009
Originally posted 25 Nov 2006

Annie last made this gratin a while ago but I wanted to revisit it because it was such a memorable dish. It was one of two, fantastic side dishes that she made for a Thanksgiving party at our place. (The other was a really wonderful green bean casserole that I unfortunately don’t have very good pictures of – guess we’ll have to make it again soon!)

This recipe calls for Swiss chard, but you can use almost any dark, leafy green like kale or even spinach if you have to. I love Swiss chard, though, because it still maintains some texture when cooked, not dissolving into almost nothing like spinach does. Swiss chard is especially good in soups, such as our Barley and Lentil Soup with Swiss Chard.

Swiss Chard

The recipe also calls for bacon, cream, butter, and cheese. Definitely not a low-fat dish! But you can be sure that it’ll be high in flavor!

Creamy Winter Greens Gratin

From Fine Cooking Magazine, February/March 2006 issue, p 41.

Ingredients:

1-3/4 lbs Swiss chard, center ribs cut away, leaves roughly chopped
3 strips bacon, minced and fried until browned
2 cloves garlic
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1 Tbsp melted butter
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Buttered Breadcrumbs, Parmesan Cheese, Browned Bacon

Method:

1. Fry the minced bacon in a large nonstick skillet until browned. Set aside.

2. Add the greens to the pan and toss until wilted, about 1 minute.

3. In a medium sauce pan, simmer 2 cloves garlic in 1 cup heavy cream until the cream is reduced to 3/4 cup. Remove the garlic cloves.

4. Toss 1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs with 1 tablespoon melted butter.

5. Place the greens in a casserole dish and spread them out evenly. Crumble the bacon over the greens. Sprinkle on grated Parmesan.

Swiss Chard, Bacon, Parmesan Cheese

6. Pour the cream over the greens. Top with the breadcrumbs.

7. Bake at 400*F until the gratin is browned and bubbly, about 25 minutes.

This dish was the first to be finished at our Thanksgiving party. It's not a lot of work, but there is a lot of flavor here!

Aloha, Nate

Hungry for more side dishes? Click below:

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Bread Pudding Recipe

2009-11-14T00:56:00.002+08:00

This recipe for bread pudding is so easy and can be used for just about any stale bread you have lying around.

Sometimes, when I’m making sandwiches, I save all the crust pieces in the freezer. If I have end pieces of bread, I save those too. When I’ve got a lot stashed up, I just break them all up and make this delicious bread pudding.

Of course, if you happen to have day old brioche bread, you could use that and have a really rich bread pudding but I think it’s just fine with regular bread. Matter of fact, when my friend’s mom gave me this recipe, she told me that you could use pretty much anything you have leftover that is going stale—bagels, doughnuts, sweet breads, french loaves, or any other bready thing.

Tips for Making Bread Pudding

I’ve baked this bread pudding quite often and here are some tips I recommend:
1. When you’ve assembled the bread pudding and poured the custard over it, leave it in the fridge for at least a few hours if not overnight so that the bread gets to soak up all the yummy custard. This will lead to a more cohesive bread pudding. Also, if you leave it overnight and bake first thing in the morning, you get to enjoy this for breakfast. Yum!

2. The original recipe called for raisins and apples to be placed on top. If you plan to use any fruit in it, especially dried fruit, don’t sprinkle the fruit on top. Instead, bury the fruit in between the bread. That way, the fruit won’t get dried out and burnt on the top (notice how burnt my apple slices got on top?).

3. The better the bread, the better the bread pudding. If you use wonder bread or really cheap white bread, you’re going to get gummy bread pudding.

4. Stale bread works better than fresh bread (you should be EATING your fresh bread anyway). But if you absolutely have to, I guess you could get some fresh bread to make this (toast it first to dry it out a little). OR, do like me, and go to those bread shops that sell day-old bread and buy some OR go to your favorite bread vendor at the farmer’s market and ask if they have day-old bread to sell to you.

This recipe normally makes enough to fill a 13x9 rectangular baking pan but if you want to make a smaller bread pudding, just cut the recipe based on how much bread you have and the size of your pudding container. Today, I used a deep round casserole dish and thought that the recipe might be a bit much, so I just cut it down by 1/4.

This bread pudding recipe also doesn’t give precise amounts for the broken bread. I would say just tear up the bread to fill your pan and then just pour the custard over it. For my casserole dish, I used about 10 or 11 Pullman loaf-sized slices of bread.

Alrighty then, on to the recipe.

Bread Pudding Recipe

makes one 13x9 pan

Ingredients:
12-16 slices (4-5 cups) stale bread or anything bready, broken up into pieces
4 cups milk (whole is best)
1 stick butter (4 oz), melted
1 1/4 cup sugar (I’ve gotten away with less especially if you’re using sweetened bread)
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Optional ingredients: dried fruit (raisins, cherries, etc), fresh apple slices, bananas
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Bread Pudding Mise en Place

Method:
1. Place broken pieces of bread all over pan. If using fruit, layer some in the middle of the bread and cover with more bread.
2. Beat eggs with vanilla and then mix this with milk, butter and sugar. Whisk to ensure ingredients are mixed evenly.
3. Pour mixed ingredients (custard) over broken bread.

4. Sprinkle with cinnamon on top.

5. Place bread pudding in fridge and let soak for at least 2 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 350 F.
7. Bake for about 1 hour or until tester comes out clean. If using a deep dish casserole, expect it to take a little longer.

I have another bread pudding recipe to share but that will have to wait for another post. That one is a tropical bread pudding that my friend Melissa made for our Ultimate Backyard Lu’au a few months ago that was also a great success. And I recently saw a post by Foodgal on a savory bread pudding from Thomas Keller’s “Ad Hoc at Home” cookbook that I am keen to try too. Man, talk about carb overload. I will need to make more friends to share all this yumminess!

In the meantime, enjoy this easy bread pudding and let me know if you like it!

Cheers, Annie

This post is entered into the Yeast Spotting Roundup for November 20.

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Ayam Pong Teh (Nyonya-style Braised Chicken with Potatoes)

2009-11-12T00:00:00.000+08:00

A sweet and savory, easy to make Malaysian chicken dish that has become a mainstay in the House of Annie’s kitchen.

I first tried Ayam Pong Teh at a Nyonya restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. My cousin had taken me to eat it and we all enjoyed the flavorful tender chicken and potatoes and also the savory sweetness of the sauce on our rice. It was the most popular dish that day.

I had been wanting to try to make Ayam Pong Teh ever since then. So imagine my surprise when I saw that this recipe was featured in one of my Saveur magazines many years ago.

When I saw the feature on Malacca and saw the recipe, I must admit I was skeptical. Very often, I don’t trust Western magazines to do justice to Asian recipes (they often substitute and “westernize” the flavors a little so that they are no longer truly authentic). But when I looked at the Ayam Pong Teh recipe, I thought it sounded pretty good. And I should have trusted them more—Saveur’s editor is James Oseland after all and he has spent many years in this part of the world, even coming up with a cookbook that I love. And next to Fine Cooking, Saveur is the other food magazine that I love. (Man, I’m missing both these magazines right now!)

So, I tried the recipe, and ever since that first time, this has become a mainstay in my kitchen. The flavors were just right! Also, it’s quite a simple recipe really for something that delivers so much flavor.

The key is the use of gula Melaka (palm sugar) in the making of this dish. The smoky sweetness imparts a depth that cannot be substituted with regular sugar. If you can, do try to get yourself some gula Melaka (or gula Jawa at the Asian grocery stores) when making this. Don’t use Thai palm sugar for it, it’s not the same. You need the dark smoky flavors for this dish. If you absolutely cannot get it, dark brown sugar will do in a pinch but it won’t have that same rich sweetness.

Try this recipe tonight and see if it doesn’t become a mainstay in your kitchen too!

Ayam Pong Teh recipe

(Nyonya-style Braised Chicken with Potatoes)
adapted from Saveur Magazine

Ingredients:
2 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped (I tend to double this as I like the flavor of shallots)
5 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1/4 cup peanut oil (or vegetable oil will work too), and I have used a little less oil with no problem
1/4 cup taucu (brown bean sauce)

3 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp palm sugar, chopped
1 3-3 1/2 lb chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces, about 18 pieces
4 small boiling potatoes (I find Yukons or Reds will hold better in the braise than Russets), peeled and cut into large pieces (if the potatoes are really small, leave them whole).
3 cups water
salt to taste

Method:
1. Pound shallots and garlic into a coarse paste. Set aside.
2. Heat oil over medium heat, add shallots and garlic paste and fry for about 2 mins, making sure not to burn the paste.

3. Add taucu, dark soy sauce and palm sugar. Stir until palm sugar has dissolved and liquid has thickened, about 30 seconds.
4. Add chicken and potatoes and the 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil.
5. When the water boils, reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1-1 1/2 hours.
6. Season with salt and soy sauce to taste. Depending on how sweet your brown bean sauce is (some brown bean sauce is sweetened), you might need to add a bit more salt/soy sauce to balance out the sweetness. The end flavors should be a nice marrying of savory saltiness with undertones of sweetness.

Serve over rice.

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

I am entering this post in the October 2009 edition of A Worldly Epicurean’s Delight, created by Chef In You and hosted by Annarasa.

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Homemade Pho Ga (Chicken Pho Noodle Soup)

2009-11-10T00:37:00.002+08:00

Learn a few simple tips to make un-pho-gettable, pho-lavorful pho like a pro.

When I first moved to Hawaii, I discovered Vietnamese noodle soup - more specifically Pho. The first time I had it was in Honolulu’s Chinatown where a friend had recommended we go to this one restaurant that specialized in Pho. When we got there, there was a line out the door—a sure sign that the food was going to be good. And it was and my love affair with Pho started.

Un-pho-gettable

When we got to San Jose, I discovered that the Vietnamese population here was even bigger and we got exposed to so many more Vietnamese dishes. But even as I learned to love many other dishes, I had to have my pho every so often and every time I sat down to a bowl of Pho, that first sip of the broth would have me sighing contentedly. There was just something so heartwarming about the soup—the spices and herbs along with the hearty meat stock marrying together and creating a fragrance unlike anything else.

Even though beef pho is more common, Nate and I will sometimes order chicken pho (pho ga). The broth is often cleaner but with a more distinctive sweetness from using chicken stock, I suppose. Whatever it is, it is just as compelling as beef pho. We love them both equally. How about you? Which do you pre-pho?

Looking Pho-ward

Now that I’m in Malaysia, I find that Vietnamese food is not as popular here. I suppose that Malaysians have so many noodle dishes already that people are not as impressed by the subtleties of pho (or maybe they just aren’t aware of it). Our family misses this noodle soup quite a bit (Daniel and Esther gave a cheer when they heard I was making it). Thankfully, we brought most of the spices we would need to make it ourselves.

However, I have never made beef pho. Every so often, I have made chicken pho in California. That being the case, I decided that I would save the more daunting task of cooking beef pho for another occasion (it seems more daunting because beef stock is very unfamiliar to me). So today, I went to the market to get all that I needed for chicken pho.

The first thing I did was to make sure I got myself a really good chicken (I bought a free range chicken) and some extra chicken bones (I had saved some from previous cooks). Then I went looking for the fresh herbs and beansprouts that I would need for the garnishing. The noodles were an easy acquisition since pho noodles are very similar to kuay teow and I could find fresh ones at the market.

Everything else I already had at home in my pantry so I was set to go.

Can We Say Pho-lavor?

Before I first made pho, I heard from friends that making pho broth is a real production that takes days. But I learned how to make this dish from a student friend in my graduate student days. She made it look so simple, basically just boil some chicken with spices and aromatics that had been charred in a fire, add some seasonings, garnish with fresh herbs and dashes of lime and fish sauce. She alone convinced me that pho could be a simple meal and soon I was making it like a pro.

The one key thing that I learned from her was that the flavors in pho formed from the charring of the spices (cinnamon, black cardamom, cloves, star anise) and aromatics (ginger and onion). When we were in the dorm, we didn’t have access to a gas stove so we just broiled these ingredients in the oven till they had blackened in some parts. The charring lends the soup stock more depth and color.

Charring Onion and Ginger

Once that is done, just put all the spices in a large stock pot and add the chicken and chicken bones. Fill with enough water to cover the chicken (about 15 cups). You want to have enough water at the start so that you don’t have to add water later which will then dilute the flavors. The stock is then simmered for a long time to extract the most flavor out of the chicken bones. You do want to take the whole chicken out midway (around 30-40 minutes) and cool it before removing the meat. The carcass is then tossed back into the stock to simmer some more.

As for seasonings, I find that you need to season quite strongly as the noodles themselves are very bland. I normally add salt and fish sauce and also a little bit of chicken bouillon. I also add some rock sugar into the stock to sweeten it up a little (I learned this from a former ESL student who was a cook at a popular pho restaurant in San Jose, and Andrea Nguyen also recommends it). When you taste it, it should be more strongly flavored than a normal soup. This will balance out once you add the noodles and beansprouts.

Pho-nishing Touches

The rest of the dish is really pretty simple. As the stock is simmering, just assemble the garnishes—beansprouts, Thai basil, sawtooth leaf herb, some jalapeno or other chilli peppers, and lime. Prepare the noodles—if you have dry ones, blanch in hot water quickly to soften, or if using fresh noodles, just give a quick rinse in cold water. Cut up the chicken meat into bite sized pieces.

One other trick that I have when serving I learned from observing the hawker stall vendors here that serve noodle soup. Ladle some hot soup into your assembled bowl of noodles and beansprouts and herbs, drain the soup back into the soup stock (which should be boiling hot by the way). Then ladle the soup back into the noodles again. This is to blanch and heat all the ingredients thoroughly and ensure that the soup itself is piping hot when served.

Finish by adding a squirt of lime and peppers to your taste. Serve hoisin and sriracha on the side if you like (I mainly use this as a dipping sauce for my meats but omitted it this time as the chicken was tasty enough without it)

Chicken pho (Pho Ga) recipe

serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 whole free-range chicken (the better the chicken, the more superior the stock), about 1.5 kg (3-4lbs)
additional chicken bones (I used some chicken feet and neck and also an extra 2 whole rib bones)
2 large yellow onions, skin removed
3 inches ginger, skin removed
3-4 star anise
3-4 cloves
1 inch stick of cinnamon (thank you White on Rice couple for providing us with authentic Vietnamese cinnamon)
1-2 black cardamom pods, slightly pounded to allow flavors to be released
15 cups water
2 Tbsp salt
3 Tbsp fish sauce
1 inch chunk rock sugar
1 tsp chicken bouillon
1 tsp ground black pepper

Garnishes:
2 cups beansprouts (I err on the side of more in case some people like more sprouts in their bowl, whatever is leftover can be used in a stirfry or in making Vietnamese summer rolls later)
1 bunch Thai basil, washed
8 sawtooth herb leaves (optional)
2 limes, quartered
1 Jalapeno chilli, sliced
4-5 green onions, diced
Hoisin sauce and Sriracha sauce on the side

1 kg (about 2 lbs) fresh pho noodles (koay teow noodles) or a packet of dried rice noodles that have been softened in hot water

Method:
1. Char the onions and ginger over an open flame till they have dark brown bits all over. Do the same with the star anise, cloves, cinnamon, and cardamom (I just hold it with my tongs under the fire for a few seconds).

Charred Onion, Ginger, Cinnamon, Star Anise, Black Cardamom, Cloves

2. Put the charred aromatics into a large pot with the chicken, chicken bones and water.

3. Bring to a boil. Skim off the scum that has risen to the top. Turn fire down to low and let simmer for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

4. About 30-40 minutes into the simmer, take out whole chicken and rinse in cold water to stop cooking. Drain and let it dry and cool. When cool enough to handle, remove wings, legs, thighs and cut off the breast meat. Return the rib carcass to the stock pot. Place the meats (uncut) on a platter and keep cool until needed.

5. Clean and wash beansprouts, sawtooth leaf herb, and Thai basil. Prepare plate with the garnishes, green onions, lime wedges and chillies, if using.

Garnishes for Pho: Thai Basil, Bean Sprouts, Sawtooth Herb, Lime Wedges

6. Prepare noodles (wash with cold water if using fresh noodles, and soften dried noodles in hot water).
7. Slice chicken into bite sized pieces. Remove dark meat from bone.
8. When ready to eat, taste broth and adjust seasonings if needed. Remember that the stock should be strongly flavored (it should have a nice saltiness with an underlying sweetness). Put in freshly ground black pepper and bring stock back to a rolling boil.
9. Assemble bowl: place noodles, sprouts, herbs and chicken on the bowl. Ladle hot stock into bowl and then drain back into stock pot, without letting the other ingredients fall in (use a slotted spoon to hold them back). Re-ladle stock into soup bowl. Finish with a handful of green onions.
10. Squirt lime and add chillies to individual taste.

Pho Ga: Chicken Pho Noodle Soup

Go Pho It! (i.e. Enjoy)

Cheers, Annie

Since we used White on Rice Couple’s Vietnamese cinnamon in this dish, we are entering this post in Weekend Herb Blogging #209, hosted by Paul Chen’s Food Blog and administered by Cook Almost Anything.

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Fancy Baked Mac and Cheese

2009-11-05T02:00:00.000+08:00

What do you do when your kid wants mac and cheese and you don’t want to give him that gross boxed stuff? Make it from scratch, and fancy it up!

By now you know that Nate and I love our food. We love to cook / grill / barbecue it, eat it, sample it outside, wander around farmer’s markets and taste what’s in season. We love the textures of food, and the aromas and the visual appeal of foods.

Sadly, most times our two kids are happy to eat junk foods like french fries, chips, and - to Nate’s disgust - the so-called “Hawaiian” pizzas with ham and pineapple. As for our son Daniel, who loves all things cheesy, his most requested meal is…Mac and Cheese. It doesn’t have to be any fancy kind either (he snubbed the truffled mac and cheese at Alexander’s Steakhouse); he’d be super happy if I fed him that Kraft Mac and Cheese boxed stuff everyday!

Ick.

One day, our friend Felicia served this amazing baked Mac and Cheese at her house. She said that she got the recipe from Ina Garten on the Food Network. My son devoured it in a minute flat and came back for seconds even before we adults had started on our meal! It was really delicious, so I decided I would have to try to make it too.

Fancy Baked Mac and Cheese

The first time I made this baked mac and cheese, I thought the amount of sauce was too much. Being the pake Chinese I was, I added more than the one pound of elbow pasta. I decided I could stretch it out and make a pound and a half.

That was a mistake. My son told me, “Mommy, Aunty Felicia’s mac and cheese is better!” I told him, “Fine! Get her to make it for you from now on!” and went off to sulk.

Well, hellooo? It was my own fault for being cheap by trying to stretch it. I had lost the rich, decadent flavor that was the point of this whole mac and cheese recipe! So the next time around, having learnt my lesson, I stuck to only one pound of pasta (which, by the way, still makes a LOT of mac and cheese).

I did adapt it a little this time but not in a way that makes it less tasty. Instead of gruyere, I used Parmesan (I actually prefer the flavor of Parmesan). And instead of fresh breadcrumb, I used panko (Felicia was the one who gave me that tip) and increased the amount because who doesn’t like a nice breadcrumb topping!

The outcome? Absolutely delicious. My son wolfed it all down and asked for seconds AND thirds! There you go, it’s been given his seal of approval.

(Basking in the warmth of son’s approval).

So if you’re looking for a more fancied up version of Mac and Cheese, do give this recipe a try. This recipe really isn’t too hard. Probably the most time consuming part is the grating of the cheese. Other than that, it’s quite quick to assemble.

(It does involve quite a number of pots, though. That part is no fun when you have to clean up. Thankfully, I have a dishwasher named Nate. ^_^)

Fancy Baked Mac and Cheese

adapted from Ina Garten, Food Network

Ingredients
Kosher salt
1 pound elbow macaroni or cavatappi
1 quart milk
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
12 ounces Parmesan (the good kind, please don’t use the pre-grated stuff in the green cylinder), grated (4 cups), original recipe called for Gruyere
8 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (2 cups)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 pound fresh tomatoes (4 small)
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs (or more, I used almost double), original recipe called for fresh bread crumbs

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Set a large pot of water to boil and make sure to salt it well. When boiled, add the macaroni and cook according to the directions on the package, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.
3. Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don't boil it.
4. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a large (4-quart) pot and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth. Turn off the heat, add the Parmesan, Cheddar, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

5. Add the cooked macaroni and stir well. Pour into a 3-quart baking dish.
6. Slice the tomatoes and arrange on top.

7. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, combine them with the fresh bread crumbs, and sprinkle on top of the mac and cheese.

8. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the breadcrumb topping is golden brown.

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

I am entering this post in the November 13 edition of Presto Pasta Nights, hosted by Sweet and Savory Says it All.

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Recipe for Khau Yoke (Pork Belly Cooked with Taro)

2009-11-03T02:19:00.002+08:00

House of Annie takes you step by step to create this ambitious, yet delicious, dish of marinated pork belly and taro.

When I first got to know Nate, I found out that he loved Khau Yoke (spelled kau yuk in Hawaii). More specifically Wu tau khau yoke (wu tau is taro or if in Malaysia, known as yam). I love this dish too but had never tried to make it at home. It seemed like something that only good restaurants could make and I never thought I’d be able to replicate it at home.

But my friend Elizabeth (whose mom used to run a chicken rice stall and is a fantastic cook) shared her mom’s recipe for khau yoke with me many moons ago. I’ve always wanted to try it just never found the time or ambition. But recently, when I was looking through my list of recipes to try, I reconnected with this dish. And having had a taste for yummy pork lately, I decided I had to make this dish (and please my hubby at the same time!).

A bit of this and a bit of that

The only thing about Elizabeth’s recipe is that it doesn’t come with exact measurements. This is very common for recipes handed down from our parents’ or grandparents’ generation—I’ve found that so many of them just use the eyeball method so they never have precise measurements. “Oh, just throw in a bit of this and a bit of that and then taste and adjust” seems to be their mantra. So for this khau yoke recipe, I had to guess on amounts (and lucky you, readers, I noted them down—though again, use my measurements as a guide and go with your own tastebuds for best results).

Now, khau yoke is an ambitious dish and I recommend you do this only when you have the time as there are many steps. It isn’t totally difficult but there are many different cooking methods employed and then the steaming time is rather long so read the whole recipe through and map it out in your own head before attempting!

Things I learned

Here are some things I learned after making this dish:
1. Make sure your pork and taro are the same size in thickness and height. I had some pieces of taro that were taller than the pork and the bowl and those pieces did not soak up any of the sauce and so remained rather hard.
2. Steam it for the full 3 hours for maximum tenderness on the taro.
3. Don’t slice the pork and taro too thick but don’t make it too thin either as that will cause the taro to disintegrate. 1/4 inch thickness seems to be reasonable (I had 1/2 inch thickness and the taro did not soften well).
4. Make sure you get taro that is “powdery”. I have no idea what this meant really but thankfully, here in Malaysia, I just had to tell the seller at the market that I was making khau yoke and she chose the right taro for me. According to my mom, if you touch a cut piece of taro, the good ones will leave a trace of white powder on your finger or your knife. Try that out and see if that works for you.

5. When preparing taro, don’t get the taro wet as you’re peeling it. This will cause the taro to become slimy and slippery AND on top of that it could make your hands itch. Instead, use a paper towel to hold the taro as you’re cutting off the skin. Wipe off any residual dirt from the cut taro and do not wash. (If you absolutely have to wash your taro, slice them first, then put into a colander and run some water through and drain.)
6. Making khau yoke does involve boiling, deep frying, and steaming. Prepare ahead. It’s a complicated dish. And yes, I actually deep-fried AGAIN! Can you tell I love my husband?

Now, this recipe did end up giving me a LOT of khau yoke so I recommend that if you only want a small portion to halve it. OR, impress your friends and share some.

Khau Yoke recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 lb (300g) pork belly (buy it in a big slab)
1 medium taro (ask the vegetable seller to recommend a fluffy taro)
1/2 Tbsp thick soy sauce
2 tsp chinese 5 spice powder
Marinate:
1 1/2 cube nam yue (preserved red beancurd)
1 Tbsp taucu (brown bean sauce)
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp thick soy sauce (divided)
Oil for deep frying
Sauce:
3/4 cup - 1 cup water (add more water if you prefer more sauce)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
dash of pepper
pinch of Chinese 5 spice powder
1 tsp soya sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp Shao Hsing Wine
1/2 cube nam yue
1/2 tsp thick soy sauce

Method:
1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Blanch the pork belly for 2-3 mins to make for easier slicing. This process also helps to get rid of the porky smell and helps to achieve a slightly crispy skin when deep frying.
2. Remove from water and let cool. When cool enough to handle, use a fork to prick all over the pork belly skin several times.
3. Rub the belly pork with dark soy sauce & Chinese 5 spice powder. Leave to marinade for 30 mins.

4. Heat oil for deep frying. Deep fry the pork belly till skin becomes crispy. Drain it on paper towels then cut the pork belly into thick slices. Don’t worry if meat is not cooked, you’ll be steaming for a long time!

5. Marinate pork slices with preserved red beancurd, brown bean sauce, sugar and dark soya sauce. Set aside while you prepare the taro.
6. Peel the taro. Slice taro into thick slices about the same size as the pork belly slices. Deep fry taro pieces until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and set aside.

7. Use a deep bowl (not plate). You can either use individual porcelain rice bowls (to serve as individual portions) or a big porcelain bowl (I used a small claypot bowl and an oval corningware deep casserole dish). Alternate slices of yam & pork belly (make sure the skin side of the pork is facing down) in the bowl/s. Taro slices should be on the outer side on both ends (meaning start with taro slice and end with taro slice).

8. There should be some remaining marinade in the bowl where you have marinated the pork belly. To this bowl add the sauce ingredients.
9. Pour this mixture evenly all over the pork belly & yam slices in the steaming bowl.
10. Steam for 3 hours or until pork and taro are tender in a covered wok or steamer. Don’t forget to replenish water every so often to prevent burning your wok!

Before serving, Elizabeth recommends that you arrange lettuce leaves on a round large serving plate. Remove khau yoke carefully from the steamer & let it cool a little. Turn the steamed khau yoke over onto the lettuce leaves carefully.

If you’re not so good at this, forget the lettuce leaves and just place a plate over bowl and turn over that way to ensure less mess (like me!). Then decorate sides of dish with cilantro or other greens to make it attractive. And yes, this is important since you have taken the time to make this immensely complicated dish. Present with pride and watch husband devour!

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

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Recipe for Kalua Pig with Cabbage

2009-10-30T03:04:00.001+08:00

Updated 30 October 2009
Originally posted 13 June 2007

This recipe for Hawaiian Kalua Pig with Cabbage calls for simply roasting a pork shoulder in an oven bag. No heavy lifting involved!

Kalua Pig with Cabbage

When Annie and I got married in Hawaii, one of my groomsmen made kalua pig for the big banquet after the wedding. Real kalua pig, cooked in an imu in his backyard the night before the wedding. Instead of coming to my bachelor party, the guy stayed up late to tend to the pig. That was a special wedding meal!

We don't have a pit in our backyard in San Jose but we still like to enjoy Hawaiian-style kalua pig and cabbage every now and then. For our Ultimate Hawaiian Backyard Lu’au, we made our kalua pig the night before. We shredded the pork and reserved the juices from the bag too cook the cabbage on the day of the lu’au.

Recipe for Kalua Pig with Cabbage

Ingredients

1, 5lb pork shoulder
2 Tbsp Hawaiian sea salt
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
4 cloves garlic, peeled
3 slices ginger
2 tsp liquid smoke
2 heads cabbage (or more), chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 325*F.
2. Place the pork shoulder in an oven roasting bag.
3. Add all the ingredients to the bag and massage it in to the shoulder.

4. Seal the bag and place it in a roasting pan. Cut a few holes in the top of the roasting bag to allow steam to escape.
5. Pour some water into the pan until it comes about halfway up the sides of the pan.
6. Insert a remote probe thermometer through one of the holes in the bag and into the center of the pork shoulder. Set the target temperature for 195*F.
7. Place the pan in the oven and roast until the shoulder reaches the target temperature.
8. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the pork to cool.
9. Remove the pork from the oven bag, but reserve the juices from the bag in a stock pot. Refrigerate the stock.

10. Shred the pork shoulder using a couple of forks. The pork should shred fairly easily, but you can also chop up some of the tougher chunks.

11. The next day, you will find that the fat from the pork juices has risen to the top of the juices and congealed. You can now easily remove all the fat.

12. Bring about half of the reserved juices to a simmer in a large pot or saucepan. Add half the chopped cabbage and cook the cabbage down until softened, then add half the shredded pork.

13. Mix well until the pork has been heated through. Empty the kalua pig and cabbage into a serving tray and cook the remaining stock, cabbage and pork.

Enjoy!

Aloha, Nate

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House of Annie’s Third Bloggerversary

2009-10-27T01:35:00.001+08:00

Today marks the 3rd anniversary for the House of Annie food blog and boy did it come up fast! We originally had plans to do something big and fun to celebrate but since Annie and I were out of town in KL, we didn’t have enough time to work it all out. Oh well; there’s always next month…

A lot has changed in a years’ time! A year ago, we were happily living, eating out and cooking in San Jose, California. The blog was growing, and I think we were beginning to hit our stride and get noticed. We even got a little mainstream press attention when I wrote our memorial to Ryo, the Sushi Man of San Francisco, who was unfortunately killed at the beginning of this year.

An Eventful Year

We got to go to the Fabulous Food Festival and also participated in online blog events such as Grow Your Own and Weekend Herb Blogging. But our biggest, most fun foodie events were throwing the Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 parties at our house. Starting off with the Chinese New Year Cioppino, followed by the Ultimate Rib Showdown, and then the Ultimate Backyard Lu’au, we were excited to not just cook for ourselves but organize larger and larger parties for our friends.

But we hit the brakes when we found out in April that we had to move to Malaysia . It really put a damper on our blogging activities while we prepared for the move. But it also got us excited over the possibilities of blogging from Annie’s homeland.

We arrived in Kuching, Sarawak in August and almost immediately began making friends. We got to know about local foods, local ingredients, and local markets. We even got to do another Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 post, this time focusing on a local delicacy of Sarawak Layer Cakes. And once our kitchen supplies arrived, we started up cooking and baking again!

I really want to thank all you loyal readers who have stuck with us through the ups and downs. And welcome to all the new readers who have joined us this year. Special thanks to those of you who comment regularly – you really bring a smile to our faces by letting us know we’re not just posting into a vacuum but building a virtual community.

There is so much more that we want to do with the House of Annie. More baking, more cooking, more events, more giveaways. There is still the matter of migrating over to our own domain. Let’s see what the next year will bring!

Aloha, Nate

Click below for more

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Bad Ass Coffee: A Little Taste of Hawaii in KL

2009-10-24T03:49:00.001+08:00

I’ve joined Annie in Kuala Lumpur on holiday for just a couple of days. Annie’s cousin has been graciously taking us around to makan (eat) at places around town. One place she said she must take me is Bad Ass Coffee Company of Hawaii because I’m Hawaiian (well, Hawaii-born at least).

Bad Ass Coffee Company of Hawaii, Tropicana City, Kuala Lumpur

Bad Ass Coffee Company is located on the ground floor of the Tropicana City Mall, a newer mall in the SS22 area of Petaling Jaya. We showed up there around 4 PM on Friday afternoon. We couldn’t see too many patrons there at the time – just a table of young guys enjoying the free WiFi, and another couple sitting on tables outside the establishment.

Bad Ass Coffee Company, Tropicana City, Kuala Lumpur

One thing we noticed right away was that they were playing Hawaiian music over their sound system. Not the hapa-haole, steel guitar, touristy muzak, but good, contemporary Hawaiian music by artists like Keali’i Reichel, Makaha Sons, and Amy Hanaiali’i Gilliom. Wow, I haven’t heard real Hawaiian music played at a restaurant since the last time we were in Hawai’i! Nice touch.

There were other touches of Hawaii evident in the ambiance of the restaurant, like the surfboard above the counter and the staff clad in Hawaiian print shirts greeting us with a hearty, “Aloha!”

Bad Ass Coffee Company Surfboard Sign

Still, this is a lone coffee shop in a mall that also boasts a Starbuck’s. What would make anyone want to come and have a cuppa joe here? Two words: Kona Coffee.

Coffee connoisseurs know that Kona coffee – coffee grown on the Kona side of the Big Island of Hawaii, is among the best tasting coffee in the world. Bad Ass Coffee Company sells two kinds of coffee, a “Kona blend” which contains only 10% beans from Kona mixed with other beans from Columbia and Brazil, and 100% Kona coffee. 100% Kona coffee is expensive, but after you’ve tasted it, you will understand why this coffee is so prized around the world.

Bad Ass Coffee Company Coffee Menu

Besides your standard coffee preparations, they also have special flavored coffee concoctions that you can get either hot, iced, or blended. For non-coffee drinkers, they have fruit smoothies that are blended with milk, or “Hawaiian Ice” which is basically a fruit smoothie without the milk. (I was a bit disappointed to hear that, because I would have expected something more like a Hawaiian shaved ice.)

There’s a glass case to the side of the counter that contains various sweet desserts and pastries. Annie’s cousin wanted us to try their macadamia nut cream pie, which is a small pastry tart containing chopped macadamia nuts, and topped with a toasted meringue (but interestingly, no cream!). I opted for the passion fruit mousse. The mousse was delightfully tart, but a little dried out from sitting too long in the case.

Passion Fruit Mousse, Macadamia Nut Cream Pie from Bad Ass Coffee Company

What was also interesting about this place was they had a kitchen that was serving hot entrees like “Hawaiian Pizza”, “Tom Yummy Spaghetti”, and “Lamb Pita Bread”. You don’t find many coffee shops with such an ambitious and varied menu. At least, not in Hawaii.

Bad Ass Coffee Company Hot Food Menu

Daniel was enjoying the music, but he wanted to know if they could play the song “Ala Moana Annie” by Amy Hanaiali’i Gilliom over their system. I went up to the counter to ask, but the staff there said they didn’t know how to access the songs – the songs were played from the owner’s iPod plugged into their sound system. Then Annie’s cousin pointed out that the owner was actually sitting at another table there just outside the doors of the restaurant.

I went over to the table and asked if they had that song, explaining that I was from Hawaii, my wife’s name is Annie, and my son really likes this song. The owner said that he didn’t know if he had that song in his playlist. I thanked him and returned to our table.

A little later, the owner came over to talk to us. It turns out that he used to live in Hawaii, and graduated from the same alma mater – Hawaii Pacific University - as me and Annie’s cousin! He said that I was the first Hawaiian to visit his restaurant, so he wanted to meet me.

He also had one of his servers bring over a slice of cheesecake and a humongous sugar-coated donut, on the house. The kids devoured the donut while Annie and her cousin shared the cheesecake, which they liked. I thought that the cheesecake would have been better with some actual coffee grounds mixed in.

Bad Ass Coffee Company Cheesecake

The owner said that he had really fallen in love with Hawaii, and wanted to bring back a little something from Hawaii to Malaysia, especially the laid-back, aloha spirit. This coffee shop is the first Bad Ass Coffee Company to open in Southeast Asia and it’s been open for only two months. He has plans in the future to expand to other areas of Malaysia, and other SEA countries as well, but first he wants to spend time building up this flagship store and building a reputation for good, quality coffee as well as good customer service.

The hot foods menu, he admits, is a work in progress. He has a chef developing recipes for the menu, but it’s tough to balance the desire for authentic Hawaiian dishes with the Malaysian palate. (To be honest, I really didn’t think the menu was very Hawaiian. Maybe he could try selling a Spam musubi, using Turkey Spam?)

As for the drinks, the kids loved their mango smoothie. My “Jitter Juice” blended coffee drink gave me heart palpitations after drinking about 1/3 of the cup. And Annie’s cappuccino ended up as a latte after some confusion and miscommunication with the counter staff.

Bad Ass Coffee Company Latte

The restaurant’s location in a far corner of the mall, next to the San Francisco Steakhouse, is out of the way for regular mall traffic except on Saturdays. But he hopes that business will pick up when the new office tower opens up, and people begin finding out that there is good, Kona coffee being served here. I wish him well.

Aloha, Nate

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Microwaved Cabbage and Carrot, a Bachelor’s Tale

2009-10-21T22:03:00.002+08:00

The House of Annie has been pretty quiet lately, as Annie took the kids with her to Kuala Lumpur to visit with friends and family. I’ve been staying here at home in Kuching, living the bachelor life for the past five days. Fortunately, there’s a public holiday coming up on Friday so I’ll be joining Annie and the kids in KL for a few short days over the coming weekend. (Yay!)

So, what have I been eating? On Saturday, I ate pretty well, thanks to our friend Mike who took me to have FooChow beef noodle soup in the morning, Hainam chicken rice for lunch, and thosai and garlic naan for dinner. But the rest of the time, I’ve been eating leftovers for dinner.

Annie left me with a big dish of kau yuk – fried and steamed pork belly and taro . It took me three nights to eat it all, but I finally finished it. So here I am on Wednesday night with no more leftovers to eat. Besides finishing the prepared leftovers, Annie told me that I should cook the head cabbage that was left in the fridge.

What the Heck?

I rooted out the cabbage in the veggie bin and also saw some tomatoes left over from the braised pork belly dish she made last week, plus a bell pepper and a carrot. What the heck can I make with that? We don’t have any potatoes, so I can’t make colcannon (besides, there’s no corned beef to enjoy it with!).

On top of that, I wanted to make something fast, and I wanted to make something that didn’t require a lot of cooking implements. Life as a bachelor means a lot of eating in front of the tv or computer, and a lot of unwashed dishes in the sink. If I could minimize the amount of dishes to wash and maximize my time out of the kitchen, all the better. So I got the brilliant idea to cook everything together in the microwave.

Unfortunately, Google is no help in finding recipes for cooking cabbage in a microwave. But there is an Indian recipe site, run by my friend Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons, that talks about easy microwave cooking. And surfing her site brought me to Veggie Platter, which sparked an idea that I could actually toast spices like cumin, coriander, and mustard seed in the microwave, and use that to cook my veggies with.

I thought I’d give it a shot. I’m no gourmet chef. I am barely passable with a knife. But I’m only cooking for myself, so who’s it gonna hurt?

I started off by shredding the cabbage. Then I julienned the bell pepper, then thinly sliced the carrot. Finally I cut the tomatoes into chunks.

Hey, that didn’t take long at all!

In a large glass bowl, I heated a couple of tablespoons of oil on high for 2 minutes in the microwave. Meanwhile, I ground up some coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and white peppercorns in our mortar and pestle. When the oil was done heating, I tossed the spices in. Back in the microwave for 2 minutes on high, give it a quick stir, and two more minutes.

Then, I dumped all the chopped veggies into the bowl, sprinkled on a little curry powder, added a cup of water, and put it back in the microwave for 2 and a half minutes. I took it back out, tossed and turned the veggies, then cooked it for another 2 and a half minutes. When it was done, I tossed the veggies once more and gave it a taste.

Needs salt.

I could have gone for the kosher salt, but since this was an “Indian-ish” dish, I thought I try sprinkling on some Indian Kala Namak salt that we got from our friend Tammy the Spice Hound. This salt is a finishing salt with a high sulfur content, so it tastes strongly of eggs. A little dash’ll do ya!

Here’s the final product.

How’d it taste?

I’m not going to say it was the best thing I ever put in my mouth. I thought it was lacking something, maybe garlic or onions or soy sauce. But it was edible. And I was hungry. So I ate it. In front of the computer. As I’m writing this post. And you know what?

It’s all gone. AND I only have one dish to wash!

Aloha, Nate

Annie will be back to the House soon, cooking legitimately good dishes. So subscribe to our site and receive all our latest posts to your RSS reader or to your Inbox.

I'm entering this post in the October edition of the "Microwave Easy Cooking" roundup, created by Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons and hosted by Suma of Veggie Platter.

Wanna read about more of my cooking experiments? Click below:

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Evolution of Dessert: Sake-Poached Asian Pears with Ume and Li Hing Sauce

Braised Pork Belly with Tomatoes in Soy Sauce

2009-10-19T22:00:00.001+08:00

Pork is so tasty here in Malaysia compared to the US. I don’t know what it is but there is just more flavor to the pork meat here. It is unabashedly porky and isn’t dry like what I have found in the US, where I always have to brine the pork for it to taste like anything at all. Maybe it is also because the pork we get here at the market is really fresh and mostly locally raised. Whatever the reason, it’s just delicious.

The interesting thing about buying pork in Malaysia is that if you go to the wet market, you will find all the pork vendors in a separate part of the market away from the rest of the other meat vendors. Pork is non-halal for Muslims so whenever you want to buy pork, you need to buy it from a special section. The same happens if you go to a grocery store—they have a special section for all the non-halal items including some imported desserts and foods that may contain lard, gelatin and other pork parts.

The other day, I was at the grocery store in the non-halal section and found some pork belly on sale at a 25% discount. Though it was a thin slice, it had beautiful layers of meat and fat and was just calling my name. I decided that I had to buy it and figure out something to cook later on.

The next day, when deciding on what to make with it, I looked to see what I had and saw that I had some onions and some tomatoes. I decided that I would make a braise with tomatoes and onions and use dark soy to give it a rich salty-sweet flavor. Combined with the tomatoes, this made a really nice braise. So simple and yet delicious.

Braised Pork Belly with Tomatoes in Soy Sauce Recipe

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium yellow onion, halved and sliced
1/2 lb (300g) pork belly, cut into bite-sized chunks
3 medium or 5 small roma tomatoes, large dice
8-10 button mushrooms, halved (optional)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
2-3 Tbsp soy sauce
dash of white papper
Garnishing: chopped cilantro and halved cherry tomatoes

Method:
1. Heat up oil in a medium-sized heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Stir in garlic and onions and saute till onions are just softened.
2. Add pork chunks and let it brown (move onions and garlic to sides). Stir every so often to ensure pork pieces get evenly browned. Season with a little salt.

3. Add tomatoes and the rest of the seasonings. Stir to combine well. Once ingredients come to a boil, lower heat and let simmer for 30-45 minutes or until pork is tender. If using mushrooms, add it now.

4. Taste and adjust seasonings. The dish should taste salty and slightly tart-sweet from the tomatoes.
5. Plate up and garnish with cherry tomatoes and cilantro.

There you have it, a quick weekday meal.

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

Hungry for more porky dishes? Click below:

Ultimate Rib Showdown

Pork and Daikon Soup with Red Dates and Carrots

Tau Yu Bak (Pork Braised in Soy Sauce)

Homemade Breakfast Sausage

Braised Char Siew (or Non-bake Char Siew)

Dutch Apple Bread

2009-10-16T00:10:00.000+08:00

Dutch Apple Bread

Several Thanksgivings ago, a friend, Andrew, made this fabulous Dutch Apple Bread and shared it at a church dinner. It was so simple looking but on that cold evening, with the bread still warm from the oven, it was a total hit. The bread was moist, hearty and infused with apple flavor. It was comfort dessert at its best.

I ate a slice and it stayed in my memory for days. I love homey cakes and quick breads without the frills of adornment especially when the flavors satisfy every craving I have. And it’s not just the flavor, it’s the texture and the simplicity of good ingredients that make it so memorable for me.

So I talked to Andrew about the bread (it is really more like a cake) and in our conversation he mentioned that he had gotten this recipe from a cookbook called “More With Less” by Doris Janzen Longacre. Our conversation left me intrigued about the cookbook and even though I had asked him to email the recipe to me, I had to look the cookbook up in my local library. Lo and behold, they actually had a copy and I ended up getting the book before he had sent me the recipe!

A Real Treasure

This cookbook is a real treasure. It’s not flashy and it doesn’t have pictures but the recipes in this book are truly comfort foods that use everyday ingredients. For an older cookbook, this is one that is classic and is not dated at all. Her ideas and philosophy are as relevant today as it was then.

I flipped through the cookbook and quickly found this recipe. Even though Andrew had not told me the name of the bread, I surmised from reading the recipe that this was the one. The only thing that stumped me was the sour milk in the ingredients list.

I didn’t quite know what “sour milk” meant. And even though the author gave a substitute suggestion, I really wanted to use the sour milk. So I emailed Andrew and asked what he did. He told me that he usually just put in a teaspoon of vinegar into warm milk and let it curdle. So I did just that and it worked out great (my technique was to put the vinegar into cold milk, stick it into the microwave for about a minute and – tadah - curdled milk!).

The only other thing I changed around was the margarine (I used butter instead). And instead of chopping the apples, I went with Andrew’s suggestion of putting the apples through a large-hole box grater. The bread was really easy to make and most of the ingredients I easily had available in my pantry.

Now that apples are in season, you really need to get yourself some apples and bake this bread. You won’t regret it!

Dutch Apple Bread Recipe

from “More With Less” by Doris Janzen Longacre
(makes 1 loaf)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine (or butter)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup sour milk or orange juice
1 cup chopped apples (or grated with box grater)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup chopped cranberries (optional)—I didn’t use them

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).
2. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well, scraping down sides after each egg.
4. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt.
5. Alternating with the dry ingredients, add the sour milk or orange juice.
6. Fold in the chopped apples and nuts (and cranberries, if using).
7. Bake in greased 9x5” loaf pan for 55 minutes or until loaf tests done.

Dutch Apple Bread

Let cool, remove to a plate, slice, and…

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

This post was entered in the 2009 edition of World Bread Day.

Hungry for more bread? Click below:

Recipe for Corn Bread with Bacon

Buttery Dinner Rolls Recipe

No Knead No More

Pandan Kaya Bread

Foccacia w/ Poached Garlic

Roasted, Salted Pumpkin Seeds

2009-10-14T23:33:00.001+08:00

Roasted pumpkins seeds are a favorite snack food here in Asia. And, they’re quite easy to make at home. All you need is a pumpkin.

Last year, I made a pumpkin swirl cheesecake using a Halloween pumpkin that the kids had decorated. It wasn’t carved, so the pumpkin was still intact and unspoiled. I cut the pumpkin up, roasted it, and pureed the flesh to use in my cheesecake.

After first sectioning the pumpkin, I scraped out the pulp and the seeds.

Then I put the seeds and pulp in a colander and rinsed them off while the kids picked out any stray bits of pulp.

After the seeds were cleaned off, I spread them out onto a sheet pan to dry. The kids were kinda impatient, so I broke out the hair dryer. Daniel did the “heavy lifting” as he diligently dried those seeds.

After they were dried, I drizzled a couple tablespoons of olive oil onto the seeds and tossed them to coat. Daniel and Esther then stepped in to grind some sea salt onto the seeds.

They went into a 300*F oven for 30-35 minutes until they started turning brown.

After cooling, we started snacking. And we didn’t stop. Those seeds were gone by the end of the night!

Aloha, Nate.

This post was entered in the October edition of the Heart of the Matter recipe roundup.

Hungry for more pumpkin and squash recipes? Click below:

Pumpkin Mee with Prawns Recipe

Kabocha Squash with Spinach in Coconut Milk

Pumpkin with Egg and Green Onion

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Bacon

Recipe for Banana Cream Pie

2009-10-13T00:36:00.001+08:00

Banana Cream Pie

I love, love, love pies! There’s something about crust filled with yummy things that just appeal to me (to the cost of my hips). When I first came to the US, I was amazed by the variety of pies and I just couldn’t get enough of them.

I discovered banana cream pie when an acquaintance who attended the Hawaii Writing Project with me brought them one day to share. They were so delightful that I had to get the recipe. She generously shared it with me.

Testing, Testing

I baked this banana cream pie recently because I’m testing out the microwave/convection oven that came with our house. I figured if the crust didn’t turn out, it wouldn’t be as big a loss as a whole cake. From my research into other similar types ovens plus all the help I had gotten from some of you, I plunged ahead with this pie as my first bake.

And it turned out pretty good despite the oven not coming with any manual at all. The crust did bake up brown but I think I still need to work out the timing and temps a bit more to get it perfect. For a first attempt, I was quite happy.

I also chose to bake a banana cream pie because I am now in a land of plentiful bananas. Local bananas are so varied and delicious that we are eating a bunch or two a week. For this pie, I used Pisang Rastali/Kering, a banana that is very similar to the apple bananas you find in Hawaii. They are creamy but have a slight tart apple finish. Simply delicious—my absolute favorite variety!

Lessons Learned

The first time I tried to bake a banana cream pie, I must have had beginner’s luck because everything turned out really well. There have been a few times since then that the egg paste curdled when I mixed it into the milk. I suspect that the milk was too hot when I added the egg yolks (I get impatient and crank up the heat sometimes) and that is what caused the curdling. So make sure you keep the heat on the milk low when you’re adding the egg paste. Don’t let the milk come to a boil! But if you do get some curdling, all is not lost—just strain the pudding before filling the pie.

The recipe for the crust makes a really flaky and tender crust. It’s not the most flavorful crust because it doesn’t have any butter in it. But since the banana and the pudding is very flavorful already, this crust is a nice complement. If you want more flavor, feel free to substitute butter for the shortening, but you will lose the flaky texture you get from the shortening. Maybe next time, I will try it with half butter and half shortening. Anyway, if you are making this dough as it is written, be sure to chill the dough first so that the crust won’t shrink back too much while baking.

This recipe bakes up enough crust and filling to make two pies. And I recommend making two as they disappear very quickly. I served this at a church small group meeting and when the evening was done, I only had a quarter of one pie left to take home as leftovers.

Banana Cream Pie Recipe

(makes 2 pies)

Pie Crust Ingredients:
A:
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup crisco (I used a butter blend here in Malaysia)
B:
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk

Pie Crust Method:
1. Rub ingredients A together to form a shaggy dough in a medium bowl. Yes, I know it’s quite a bit of fat but you can always add more flour later if it’s too wet. It’s the fat that makes this pie crust flaky and tender.
2. Mix ingredients B together to form a paste in another bowl.
3. Add B to A and mix gently with a spatula until it forms a dough. If it’s too wet, add more flour to the dough to get a nice soft dough. Don’t overwork the dough; the crust will be more tender and flaky the less it is worked.

4. Form two balls, cover them in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

5. Preheat oven to 400 F (210 C).
6. Roll out your dough into a round, about 1/8 inch thick, dusting with flour to keep it from sticking. Place dough rounds on your pie pan and press into pan and crimp edges to the side of the pan. Dock with a fork all around the crust.

7. Cover with foil or parchment paper and cover with pie weights. In truth, I normally just press the heavy duty foil into the crust and I’ve never needed to use weights. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
8. Remove foil/parchment paper and bake for another 10-12 minutes till golden brown.
9. Cool pie crust.

Pudding ingredients:
4 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar (or less, you can taste the pudding later and if it’s not sweet enough, you can add more sugar)
6 heaping Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
6 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla essence

Pudding method:
1. Heat on stove 4 cups milk and 1/2 cup butter over med-low heat in large sauce pan.
2. Mix in another bowl the sugar, flour, salt and yolks. Add to this mixture enough milk from the sauce pan to make a paste.
3. Add paste to milk/butter mixture on stove. Make sure the milk mixture is not too hot when adding the paste or the eggs will curdle. Whisk mixture constantly over med-low heat until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil.
4. Remove from heat immediately and stir in vanilla essence. Let it cool slightly. If you want a smoother pudding, strain it so that the bits of cooked egg will be strained out.

To assemble banana cream pie:
1. Slice 5-8 bananas (depending on size of bananas) in half length-wise. You can choose to slice them into rounds but I find that the pie slices hold better when you slice in half and lay them in circles around the crust. Cut as needed to fit all the bananas into the bottom of the pie crust.

2. Pour warm pudding over bananas until the bananas are covered and the pudding is almost at the top of the crust.

3. Cool in refrigerator until set, about 2-3 hours.
4. Just before serving, whip some heavy cream (about 1/2-1 cup depending on how much whipped cream you like), with 2 Tbsp sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Spread whipped cream over pie.

5. Slice into wedges and enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

We're happy to find that our combi convection oven can still bake something, and making plans to bake even more. Don't miss a bake! Subscribe to our blog and receive all our latest posts to your RSS reader or to your Inbox.

Hungry for more pies? Click below:

Zingerman’s Apple Pie

Golden Gate Bakery Egg Tarts

Polenta Pie

Vi’s Fruit Pastry

2009-10-08T00:46:00.001+08:00

My forum friend Vi shared this recipe with me a long time ago. She calls it a fruit pastry but to me it’s a coffee cake which is topped with fruit. It’s simply lovely at tea time or anytime at all actually! Just beware, it is a very addictive cake and after one slice, it’s really hard to resist going back for a second and third…

Plum Nectarine Grape Fruit Pastry

The recipe is so simple and uses the basic creaming method for the cake. And it uses up whatever excess fruit you may have handy. If you don’t have any fresh fruit handy, just use canned—they work too! I’ve used a combination of different fruit—strawberries, plums, peaches, blueberries, and mandarin oranges. Just don’t press down on the fruit when you lay it down on top of the cake batter. It will sink into the cake all on its own while baking.

Plum Blueberry Mandarin Fruit Pastry

The key to this cake is in the tangy ingredients—the sour cream and lemon/orange zest makes the cake come alive and is what makes you keep coming back for more. I always zest my lemons and oranges whenever I use them and put the zest in a ziplock and stick them in my freezer. That way, whenever I have a recipe that calls for only the zest, I already have some handy to use. My friend, Vi, suggests that instead of freezing, just put the zest into a jar with some sugar and that will keep it from spoiling and is great to be added as flavoring to any of your baked goods.

Plum Blueberry Mandarin Fruit Pastry

Vi’s Fruit Pastry Recipe

Ingredients:
200g sugar
3/4 stick (100g) butter
50g sour cream
3 eggs
210g all-purpose flour (I’ve substituted 1/3 with whole wheat without any issues)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp lemon/orange zest
500g fruit tossed with 2 Tbsp sugar (I find that 500g is sometimes too much so I slice up as much fruit as I think I will need and if I use canned fruit, I omit the sugar)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Cream butter and sour cream and sugar till light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time and beat till incorporated in batter.
4. Add vanilla essence and zest.
5. Stir in flour and baking powder and mix till smooth.
6. Butter and flour a 9” round pan. Pour batter into pan and even out top with a spatula.
7. Place fruit on top. Don’t press the fruit down into the batter. Decorate the fruit as you please.
8. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until tester comes out clean when inserted into the cake.
9. Cool and then remove from pan. If you want to pretty it up some more, you can dust the cake with some powdered sugar but it is really good as is too.

Plum Blueberry Mandarin Fruit Pastry Slice

You might even want to double the batch just so you can share with friends. Enjoy this cake and let me know if you are as addicted to this as I am (I love it so much that I’m now afraid to bake it as I am very capable of wolfing down half the cake myself!).

Cheers, Annie

This cake was entered into the “High Tea Treats” Monthly Mingle, created by Meeta and hosted by My Diverse Kitchen.

Hungry for more cakes? Click below:

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Our Favorite Layer Cake Recipe

Marble Cake Recipe

Malaysian Honeycomb Cake

Third Aunt’s Butter Cake

Seven Secrets for Perfect Thai Fried Chicken Wings

2009-10-05T22:45:00.002+08:00

Thai Fried Chicken Wings

Who doesn’t like fried chicken? I know it’s something I can’t resist. As a matter of fact, when I was pregnant with my kids, the only thing I ever had cravings for was fried chicken. No, I didn’t crave pickles, and I didn’t crave ice cream. I ONLY wanted fried chicken. And after eating it, I would be so happy and contented.

Thing is, I don’t really like to deep-fry at home. As a matter of fact, I try to stay away from deep-frying as much as I can. I just don’t like how it makes my whole house oily and how much it makes myself oily.

But ok, when I saw this recipe for Thai-marinated fried chicken at Chez Pim’s site, I just could not resist it. The chicken looked so scrumptious, and the flavorings were distinctly Thai but without the spicy bite. And I could just imagine the crunchy snap as you take that first bite into crispy skin. Yum!

Thai Fried Chicken Wings

And so even though I normally don’t like to fry at home, I gave in for this Thai fried chicken recipe. And it was worth it. The chicken was amazingly good. The flavors of the fish sauce, oyster sauce, garlic and cilantro made it mad good! Even my son, who is normally a selective eater, made approving noises while chowing down on these fried chicken! “Hmmm…um…this is very good, mommy! Mmm…can I have another one? Mmmm…” With praise like that, how could I not make this again? I actually have made this recipe about three times now since finding it. So much for not liking deep-frying…

But ah, readers, I have found the secret to deep-frying without too much of a mess: Use a deep dutch oven (like my beloved 5-quart Le Creuset oval dutch oven pictured below). You don’t have to fill with too much oil, and the oil stays pretty much contained in the pot.

The Le Creuset heats the oil very evenly leading to a really nice even browning of the chicken. And I find that if you have to fry, smaller parts are easier than big pieces of chicken. Therefore, I recommend frying chicken wings, which cook up faster and more evenly than chicken legs. I tried them both and the next time I made this Thai fried chicken recipe, I used only chicken wings.

The other trick that Pim recommended was to use rice flour in coating the chicken. I’ve also done this when I first discovered this trick while living in Hawaii in the graduate dorm. A Japanese friend was making chicken karaage using mochiko (glutinous rice) flour, and the deep fried chicken pieces were scrumptious—I’ll have to share that recipe sometime soon. The mochiko flour makes the Thai fried chicken crispy and flavorful! Give it a go and tell me how it works for you!

Thai Fried Chicken Wings Recipe

adapted from Chezpim.com

Ingredients:
2 lbs or 1kg chicken wings (or chicken parts)
4-6 cloves of garlic (if you’re like me, you’d go with 6!), peeled
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro roots (or the bottom stems if you cannot get the roots—I used them both!)

Garlic and Cilantro with Cilantro Roots

1/2 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp kosher or large grained sea salt (don’t use fine salt)
3 Tbsp oyster sauce
1/4 cup fish sauce
About 2 cups rice flour
enough oil for deep frying

Method:
1. In a mortar or food processor, pound or chop the garlic, cilantro roots, and kosher salt into a rough paste.
2. Transfer the paste into a large bowl, add the oyster sauce and fish sauce and stir to mix well.

3. Rinse and dry the chicken pieces thoroughly, then place them into the bowl. Toss and rub the chicken pieces all over with the marinate mixture. Cover the bowl with plastic and let marinade in the fridge for at least 3 hours (I marinated them overnight).

4. When you are ready to fry the chicken, place your pan over medium-low heat, fill it with enough oil (I used Canola) to cover about 2 inches from the bottom of the pan. Let the oil come up to frying temperature (How do you know the oil is ready? I use the Martin Yan method of placing wooden chopsticks in the pan and waiting for bubbles to form around the chopsticks).
5. Meanwhile, put the 2 cups of rice flour into a large plate (a pie plate works very well for this.) When the oil is ready, take the chicken pieces, one at a time, dredge them with the rice flour. Shake each piece to remove excess flour and place them, gently, into the hot oil. Do this in batches so as not to crowd your pan.

6. Don’t let the oil get too hot. If the chicken is browning to quickly and you see large bubbles forming around the chicken, lower your heat lest you get half-cooked chicken. It should just be gently bubbling and sizzling in the pan.

7. Fry the chicken until they are golden brown and crisp. If you are using larger pieces, cut into one to make sure they are cooked through. If the juices do not run clear, stick them into a warm oven to finish cooking.
8. To retain their crispiness, here’s a trick I learned from Alton Brown, place the chicken on a rack with paper towels underneath the rack to wick the oil away. If the chicken is placed directly on paper towels, the moisture from the chicken will get trapped in the paper towel and cause the chicken to get soggy. So by putting the paper towels under the rack, the oil still gets wicked away but the space between allows the chicken to stay crisp.

Thai Fried Chicken Wings

Enjoy on its own or add a little sweet chilli sauce to add another layer of flavor!

To recap, here are the seven secrets for perfect Thai fried chicken wings:

Use a deep dutch oven
Use smaller pieces of chicken
Dredge the chicken in rice flour instead of regular flour
Test the oil temperature with the bubbling chopstick method
Don’t crowd the pan
Gently cook the chicken
Drain the chicken on a rack over paper towels

Cheers, Annie

Since the cilantro roots were harvested from our garden, we are entering this post in the 37th edition of Grow Your Own, created by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes.

Hungry for more chicken recipes? Click below:

“Huli Chicken” recipe

Smoked Shoyu Chicken recipe

3 Cups Chicken recipe

Malaysian Chicken Wings: Two Ways

Braised Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

Grace Place Sarawak Laksa

2009-10-01T01:01:00.001+08:00

First off, I want to say thank you to all our readers, who have been bearing with us while we get settled in to our new home in Kuching. Even though Annie has been cooking most nights of the week, there haven’t been too many House of Annie recipe posts lately. Most of our posts have been about going out someplace to eat.

The main reason for this is, the big shipping crate carrying all our stuff (including kitchen appliances, all our normal herbs and spices, and the home computer with all our archived food pics on it) from San Jose hasn’t arrived yet. On top of that, the one tiny fluorescent lamp in our wet kitchen (where most of the cooking is done) has gone out, so it’s nearly impossible for me to get good pics of whatever Annie is prepping for dinner.

I never intended for this blog to be a restaurant review site. Most of you readers probably couldn’t fly here to Kuching to eat at the places we’re eating out at. That being said, I do want to tell you about a place we’ve found that serves some good Sarawak laksa.

Grace Place Sarawak Laksa

What is Laksa?

According to Wikipedia, laksa is a spicy, soup noodle dish, originating from the merging of Chinese and Malay cultures (also known as Peranakan or Nyonya) which is found primarily in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Okay now, show of hands: How many of you know have tasted laksa? All right, now how many of you have tasted Sarawak laksa? That’s what I thought, very few.

Like me, most people are familiar with the curry laksa, a coconut-and-curry-based dish found in Singapore or KL. There’s also assam laksa, that sweet-spicy-sourish, fish-based dish found in Penang (I am absolutely in love with assam laksa from Penang!). But I didn’t know about Sarawak laksa until one day on maybe my second trip to Malaysia, when Annie’s cousin in KL took us to a stall in Bangsar that was known for its Sarawak laksa.

At first, I didn’t know if I’d like it. The broth was thin and brownish. There were a few prawns in it, plus shreds of chicken and strips of egg omelette. There was coconut in it, but no sharp curry flavor like curry laksa. Instead it was a mysterious but harmonious blend of spices, punctuated by a generous helping of fresh coriander. After first tasting it, and then finishing the entire bowl, I knew it was something I could enjoy again and again.

Looking for Laksa

When we first arrived in Kuching, we tried some Sarawak laksa from a stall near the hotel. It wasn’t very good – heavy on the white pepper, which covered up the nuances of flavor. Disappointing, but not daunting.

Later on, we moved into a house rented from a friend. We were cleaning up the place one day, when the friend brought over some lunch (what did I tell you about Kuching hospitality?). It was Sarawak laksa (of course, being already in Sarawak, they just call it laksa here).

This laksa was awfully good. I finished it all in no time, and was left longing for more. Our friend said that the laksa was made by a relative who owned a laksa stall. She gave us the location so we knew where to find the place.

Grace Place Sarawak Laksa Stall

One thing I have to note here. In Kuching, everybody eats early. This is especially true if you want to eat ~~Sarawak~~ laksa. The best laksa stalls are sold out by midmorning; after 10 am, you may either get the dregs, or you may get nothing.

So we were very fortunate when we recently showed up at 10:30 at the laksa stall, to find Aunty Rose still tending there. But as you can see, there wasn’t much soup left in her pot! She was literally scraping bottom to fill our order.

Grace Place Sarawak Laksa

Aunty Rose put a lot of effort into making a quality laksa. Every day, she would wake up at 4:30am to heat up her soup. By 6:30, she would be at the stall, selling her laksa. She’ll finish at around 2 pm, then head home to start prepping the ingredients for the next day. By 8 pm, she’d be done prepping and off to rest before the next day comes and the cycle begins again.

I don’t think I could survive that kind of life. But Aunty Rose does it with calm grace, and a smile.

Aunty Rose’s Laksa

Her laksa is thoroughly enjoyable from the first bite to the last slurp. Mix in a little homemade sambal belacan, add a squirt of kalamansi lime juice, and dig in. The thin rice vermicelli noodles still have a little crunch to them. The shredded chicken is flavorful in its own right. The bean sprouts, normally an afterthought, have their tips meticulously picked (another sign of the care she puts into her food).

And the broth? Oh the broth! Rich, savory, coconutty, with a pleasant chilli heat to it, it is slurp-alicious! This is not a broth to be left alone once you’re done eating the noodles. This is a broth that is good to the last drop. Next thing you know, it’s all gone.

You push back from your bowl with a sigh, face slightly sweaty, nose lightly runny, lips and throat tingly. You’re satisfied for now, but you know you want to come back for more.

Grace Place Sarawak Laksa

Unfortunately, you can’t have any more. You see, as of the end of September, Aunty Rose has retired from her stall. (Notice the “Stall for Rent” banner in the pic below.) I literally got the very last bowl of Aunty Rose’s laksa!

I asked Aunty Rose what she is going to do in her retirement. She laughs. “I’m going to clean my house!” Too many years of dedication to the stall, and to her laksa, left her with little time to do anything else.

I say she deserves her break. Of course, it would be a shame to just let her recipe be lost, wouldn’t it? So we asked her if she would share it.

That’s right. We got her laksa recipe!

And we’re going to share it. Because you see, our shipping crate has arrived in Kuching and will be delivered shortly. We have a contractor who is coming to replace and upgrade the lighting in the kitchen. Soon, we’ll be posting recipes (including laksa!) once more.

Life is good!

Aloha, Nate

Don’t miss out on any of our recipes! Subscribe now to receive our latest posts to your RSS reader or to your Inbox.

Hungry for more Malaysian noodles? Click below:

KL-Style Hokkien Mee Recipe

Pumpkin Mee with Prawns Recipe

Hokkien Prawn Mee

7 Tips for Making Mouth-Watering Char Koay Teow

Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: The Making of a Sarawak Layer Cake

2009-09-28T05:40:00.002+08:00

Kek Lapis Sarawak – Sarawak Layer Cakes

Want to know what goes into making such beautiful cakes? So did we!

Getting to Know You

Kek Lapis, or Layer Cake, is originally from our neighboring country of Indonesia. It is made of many, millimeter-thin layers of cake, baked one layer at a time to emphasize the layers. The recipe usually calls for butter, eggs, sugar, flour, and other coloring or flavoring ingredients, but no leavening agents. It’s more like a pound cake than the light layer cakes that we have baked in the House of Annie’s own oven.

About 20 years ago, Sarawakians took kek lapis to the next level by incorporating vibrant colors and different flavors than the original Indonesian recipe. They went even further by crafting intricate designs into the middle of the cakes. These beautiful designs are what makes Sarawak Layer Cakes so unique. The cakes are served on special occasions like birthdays, weddings, or cultural celebrations such as Aidilfitri, Christmas, and Chinese New Year.

Getting to Know All About You

I first discovered Sarawakian Layer Cakes back in my University Malaya days when my classmate, who hails from Kuching, would bring back these cakes after going home for the semester breaks. I was amazed by how tasty they were and also how beautiful. I’ve always thought that if I had a chance to visit Kuching, I would love to get more of these cakes and, if I happened to live here long-term, I would want to take classes to learn how to make them.

Well, it just happens that here we are, living in Kuching and we have been quite enthralled by a lot of the things that Kuching has to offer. When we visited the Satok market a month ago, we found some vendors selling these Sarawakian layer cakes. I was very excited and bought one to try at home. It was decent but not as good as the ones I remembered from back in college.

So it was a nice coincidence that one day when we were looking for a place to eat out, we ended up at a restaurant that happened to be next door to this Sarawak Layer Cake shop.

My Sara Sarawak Layer Cake Shop, Kuching

While waiting for dinner to be served, I ended up walking next door into the store and was greeted by a friendly staff who showed me a catalogue of all the different Sarawak layer cakes that they made. They had numerous cakes all stacked up in their chiller ready to go. But because it was the Hari Raya season (this was about two weeks before the end of the Ramadhan fasting month), ALL the cakes in the chiller were already reserved. Not only that, they weren’t taking any more orders until Raya was over.

Getting to Like You

Being one who never takes no for an answer, I asked if they had any samples at all that I could at least try. Off he went to the back of the shop and came back with not just a small sample, but large strips of discarded end pieces for me to try. With one bite, I could tell that these were no ordinary cakes. They were delicious—moist and buttery and with just the right amount of sweetness.

Lapis Masam Manis - “Sour-Sweet” Layer Cake

I hurried back to dinner next door and told Nate that he absolutely had to try these cakes. After tasting the sample, he too agreed that it blew the first cake we had bought out of the water. We ended up going to the shop after dinner because I wanted Nate to have a look at the store himself.

The staff member (who was actually the nephew of the owner) let us into the back of the store and showed us how they were baking the cakes. We told him we were food bloggers, and asked if we could come back next time with a camera to document the process. Astonishingly, he was more than happy to welcome us back. We got the number of the owner and promised we would return.

When Foodbuzz sent out the call for proposals for this months 24, 24, 24 blog event, I immediately thought that this would make a great event. These Sarawak layer cakes are truly beautiful and labor intensive. The opportunity to learn more about how they were made in a small family-run business was too good to miss out on. We were so excited when they accepted our proposal! We called the owner and arranged to meet him in his store on Saturday afternoon.

Getting to Hope You Like Me

Idris Ibrahim, Owner of My Sara Sarawak Layer Cakes shop

Idris Ibrahim and his wife Hamsiah own My Sara Enterprise. They have been baking Sarawak layer cakes for over 15 years. The storefront, which is located across from the Four Points Sheraton near the airport in South Kuching, is actually only 3 months old. Prior to that, all their baking was done out of their home.

His wife first learned how to make the Sarawak layer cakes from his sister, who teaches baking and other home skills at classes out in the rural communities of Sarawak. After observing her sister-in-law from a distance, she decided that she could do it herself. Without much training of any sort, she took it upon herself to make these cakes and found that she had a knack for doing it. Soon, people started ordering her cakes. Thanks to word-of-mouth advertising, business took off. Last year, they did 700-800 cakes during the Hari Raya season alone.

Idris works only part-time at the store, as he still has his full-time job as a site supervisor for a construction company. One of his best customers and enthusiastic supporters encouraged him to open the store in town to be closer to his customers. At first, he didn’t want to do it because, as he put it, “you don’t have to pay rent if you’re working out of your house.” But the move paid off – this year, they doubled their production with the new store.

In fact, they are so successful, that they were fully booked for the whole month leading up to Hari Raya. In the last few days, he and his staff worked from 7 am in the morning to 4 am the next morning to fulfill all the orders. It was grueling work, but they filled every order. They even managed to make a few extra for last minute customers.

Their layer cakes are famous throughout Sarawak. They are sold to the Sheraton across the street, served to visiting Sultans, sent to stores in Kuala Lumpur, and even shipped to Switzerland.

What is the secret to their success?

Putting it My Way

In a word, QUALITY. They do not cut corners on the ingredients. “Many layer cake makers use vegetable oil or margarine instead of butter. With margarine, the cakes come out drier. We use butter, but not just any butter. We have found that our cakes come out best with Golden Churn brand.” They also use only Grade A eggs and real chocolate flavoring.

Interestingly, it doesn’t take an expensive oven to turn out the best layer cakes. They use inexpensive, gas-fired ovens from Indonesia to make their cakes. Furthermore, they only use the bottom section of the oven. The reason this is that you are not really baking a whole cake – you are actually grilling (broiling) each layer with top heat very briefly. If you tried to bake the cake in a conventional oven, you would end up with a dry, overcooked cake.

Gas-Fired Oven for Baking Sarawak Layer Cakes

When Idris bought his wife an expensive, industrial electric oven for the store recently, he was scolded by the wife. She told him that the electric oven would not produce cakes that were as moist and delicious. With an electric oven, the heat circulates over the whole oven, thereby drying out the layers that are already done. In the gas ovens, the cakes remain tender and moist. This expensive oven now sits in his office unused as they continue to use the gas ovens.

But Nicely

When we arrived on Saturday afternoon, Idris told us that they had gotten a rush order, so his wife and their remaining staff who were not on holiday were back at the home, making cakes. But he stayed behind because he knew we were coming. He even started baking a layer cake for us, so he could demonstrate the process of building a Sarawak layer cake to us. How nice is that?!

A normal layer cake has between 12-20 parallel layers of cake. This particular Sarawak layer cake design has 5 parallel layers on the bottom, a fanciful design section in the middle, and 5 more layers on the top. For each layer, a small amount of batter is measured out, ladled on, and spread evenly in the pan. Then the pan is put in the oven for about five minutes before it is taken out and tamped down flat with a special tool before the next layer of batter is spread on.

Spreading Batter on Sarawak Layer Cake

The middle design will take strips of different colored layer cakes, cut into either square or triangular face.

Green Square Strips for Sarawak Layer Cake Design

Yellow Triangular Strips for Sarawak Layer Cake Design

You Are Precisely

Idris demonstrated how to get a triangular slice by holding a square slice between two, right-angle brackets and cutting between the brackets with a utility knife. The utility knife makes a very clean cut with no ragged edges.

After baking and tamping down flat the bottom layers, he laid down the triangular strips in parallel rows.

Laying Down the First Layer of Triangular Strips

Oh, I forgot to mention that Idris uses condensed milk as the “glue” to hold the Sarawak layer cake design section together. Other cake makers will use jam to hold the layers together but then the cakes don’t last as long.

Drizzling on Condensed Milk Glue for Sarawak Layer Cake

Next, he laid down the square green layer cake strips in the grooves created by the triangular trips.

Laying Down the Green Strips Layer

Another application of condensed milk “glue” and another layer. This time, it’s yellow square strips in the grooves of the green strips.

Laying Down Next Layer of Yellow Strips

And green strips again…

Followed by a last layer of yellow triangle shaped strips, which he then presses down so it is even and parallel to the bottom of the pan.

Pressing Down the Sarawak Layer Cake Design Section

With the design section done, he can continue baking on the top layers.

Spreading Batter for Top Layers of Sarawak Layer Cake

The final layer is the most crucial one. As each layer is baked on, the cake gets higher and the layers get closer to the gas flame. If you are not paying close attention, you will burn the top layer. If that happens, the cake cannot be salvaged and you must start over.

Tamping Down Top Layer of Sarawak Layer Cake

Once the cake is done baking, he cools it to room temperature before putting it in the chiller.

The process of building a Sarawak layer cake is so laborious and time-consuming. Here is a slideshow I put together of the entire process.

Slideshow of Sarawak Layer Cake Making Process

We stayed a full two and a half hours to watch him make one cake (and even then, he had already prepared some of the other layers ahead of time). I can only say that, after having the privilege of watching him make this cake, I am in awe of the people who bake these cakes. I certainly have changed my mind about baking it myself. Even if I knew how to do it, I don’t know if I have the patience to bake something that takes so long and yet is so quickly devoured!

For all the work he put in to making his Sarawak layer cake, his prices are so reasonable. He only charges $25 for a small 2”x2”x8” cake and $100 for a full 2”x8”x8” cake. Thanks to Foodbuzz and the 24, 24, 24 event stipend, we could afford to take home 8 cakes that day.

Before heading off, we walked across the street to the Four Points Sheraton. We went in to see the buffet at the Eatery Restaurant. There we found My Sara’s Sarawak layer cakes, neatly sliced and displayed on the dessert table

My Sara's Sarawak Layer Cakes at Four Points Sheraton Eatery

My Cup of Tea

After dinner, we called up our food blogger friend Mike to let him know we were coming over to his house with some Sarawak layer cakes to taste. Mike set up his special photo lighting stand in his kitchen so I could take pictures of some of the cakes.

Sarawak Layer Cake Medley

After all the photos were taken, we sat down to enjoy the cakes over cups of tea and conversation. Mike and his wife both agreed, these were top quality cakes. Each individual cake had its own delightful character and flavor.

We’re so glad that we found the My Sara Sarawak Layer Cake shop by chance. We were totally amazed by Idris’ warmth, humility, and willingness to share by allowing us into his store to document his cake-making process. And we are very thankful to Foodbuzz for allowing us to share this experience with you, dear readers!

Cheers and Aloha, Annie and Nate

My Sara Sarawak Layer Cake Shop is located at:

Lot 9957, Aras Lantai, RH Plaza
Jalan Lapangan Terbang, Kuching
Tel: 082-459842

It's near the Kuching airport, just across the street from the Four Points Sheraton, next door to the Bella Italia restaurant.

During the Raya season, you can also find their cakes in West Malaysia, at the Shazzen Sarawak Layer Cake outlets in Jaya Jusco, various locations, KL.

We have so much more to learn and share about the foods of our new home in Kuching. Don’t miss a thing! Subscribe now to receive our latest posts to your RSS reader or to your Inbox.

Stop, Blog Thief!

2009-09-25T10:36:00.013+08:00

Thanks to a lot of commenters and personal emails, we have been alerted to a site that has stolen content from the House of Annie blog and many others. Compare the two screenshots below:

Scraper's site

House of Annie site

I am extremely upset to see my work posted on someone else's site, because I have put in hundreds of hours building our site only to see someone else just come and copy our posts to their site. (Okay, they didn't just copy -- they also edited each post to take out our signatures and also changed the internal links to point to their site.)

Because this "scraper" blog is hosted on Blogspot / Blogger (Google), there are a couple of things you can do to report it. If this blog has stolen content from your site, file a DCMA report to Google. The URL for the online report is

http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/request.py?contact_type=blogger_dmca_infringment

For the rest of you dear readers who are just plain mad and would like to do something about it, report the blog as Spam by going to

http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/request.py?contact_type=spam&hl=en&blog_ID=&blog_URL=

and entering

http://hot-kitchen.blogspot.com

in the text box.

Hopefully Google will investigate and take this site down.

To the scraper who stole our content, I leave this haiku:

I wish you would get
A hundred thousand bug bites
Where the sun don't shine

Aloha, Nate

Update Oct 6, 2009: DMCA report submitted to Google. We'll see how long it takes to get the site taken down.

Update Oct 7, 2009: Google has taken down the site! Hot-kitchen has gone cold.

LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU BLOG THIEVES!

Simple, Sweet and Spicy Cucumber Salad

2009-09-22T22:32:00.001+08:00

I bet that for those of you that grow your own veggies, you’re probably inundated by cucumbers right now if you’re growing them. That and zucchinis—well, if you’re growing zuchs, you should expect to be inundated!

Cucumbers are lovely to eat when they’re fresh. Crisp, juicy, and so cool when the summer is so hot. Living here in Malaysia, cucumbers are used raw in so many dishes (mostly as garnishes but also as a nice contrast to spicy and heaty foods).

While visiting a friend’s aunt recently, we were invited to stay for dinner (have I already mentioned how hospitable everyone is here?). She served us this cucumber salad and Nate just loved it. It was really delicious, a nice combination of sweet, tart and spicy. I, of course, asked for a recipe. It was such a simple recipe and I couldn’t wait to try it out myself.

Picking Pickle

The next day, I went off to the market and bought myself two cucumbers, some Thai chili peppers, and a lemon among other vegetables. You know, I didn’t really know how to choose the cucumbers so I let the vendor pick it out for me. He showed me how the two he picked up still had the brown flower hanging off the end to indicate how fresh and young it was. I trusted him and they were very nice.

The reason I say I don’t know how to pick a cucumber is because the variety they have here in Malaysia is very different from that in the US. Over here, the cucumbers are not dark green the way they are in the US (I still remember the first time I picked one at the store in the US and looked for the least green, most fat and smooth one only to cut in open and find that it was very seedy and bitter!). They are light green/yellowish green with speckles of dark green. If anyone has any tips on picking cucumbers, whatever variety they are, please leave a comment!

Anyway, I took these two cucumbers home and halved them lengthwise and then sliced these half moons thinly.

Then I sprinkled sugar and salt on the sliced cucumbers.

Tossed it all together with my hands and then added the sliced Thai bird chilies.

Lastly I squeezed the juice of one lemon on the salad.

At that point, I tossed it with a spoon (never a good idea to use your hands when you’re working with hot peppers—might come back to bite you when you accidently rub your eyes!) and let it sit for an hour in the fridge. At that point, the salad released quite a bit of water. You can choose to drain the water, or just scoop out the cucumber leaving the juices behind. Et voila! A nice, cool salad to enjoy with almost anything Asian with a little spicy zing at the end.

So simple it seems silly to write the recipe down but here it is:

Sweet and Spicy Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:
2 medium cucumbers, halved lengthwise then sliced thinly
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tsp salt
Juice from 1 lemon
2-4 Thai bird chilies, sliced and deseeded.

Method:
1. Sprinkle sugar, salt and lemon juice over sliced cucumber.
2. Add chilies.
3. Toss with a spoon till sugar and lemon juice has coated cucumber slices.
4. Set aside for one hour or more in the refrigerator.
5. Serve and enjoy!

Simple, Sweet and Spicy Cucumber Salad

Cheers, Annie

This post was entered into the September 2009 edition of the Think Spice blog event, created by Sunita of Sunita’s World and hosted by Kitchen Chronicles.

Hungry for more simple recipes? Click below:

Corned Beef, Carrots and Colcannon Recipe

Quick and Easy Pasta With Light Cream Sauce Recipe

Sweet and Sour Fried Fish Recipe

Steamed Egg Tofu with Ground Pork and Shrimp

Ramadhan Bazaar Dinner

2009-09-20T00:45:00.001+08:00

I really didn’t feel like cooking last Thursday. It was one of those days when I just felt lethargic, and didn’t have any mood to do much. The day had started with rain and then more rain. The whole morning was dark and gloomy and by the time the sun deemed to peek out, it was already mid-afternoon. Somehow the weather just made me feel very unproductive. Or maybe it’s that one-month mark of being here…feeling not quite like this is home, missing California and feeling somewhat homesick (which is strange because I am Malaysian after all).

So when it came time to prepare dinner, I just didn’t have any energy to do it. I called Nate at work and told him that we’d have to eat out and get some food to go. He tried to convince me that we had enough food at home to make something and maybe we could just pick up a roast chicken or something to go with it. I tentatively agreed but I still wasn’t really feeling it. I was just not wanting to cook anything at all.

Then, it struck me. In all the chaffeuring I had been doing sending Nate to and from work, I passed by this Ramadhan Bazaar at Stutong Market almost every weekday. And almost everytime we passed it on the way home, I would say to Nate, “we should stop by one day and pick up dinner from here before the Ramadhan (fasting) month is over.” And by Thursday, the fasting month was quickly coming to a close; Aidil Fitri would be celebrated on Sunday. So I called Nate back and said, “let’s go to the Ramadhan Bazaar and pick up some dinner there instead!” He thought it was a great idea and so that was where we headed after work.

Ramadhan Bazaar at Stutong Market, Kuching

For those of you who were wondering what makes the Ramadhan month special in Malaysia, it’s the one month of the year when stalls pop up all over various neighborhoods in the evenings selling food and drinks to all the Muslims (and other opportunistic foodies like me) who were getting ready to break their daylong fast. Various dishes, appetizers, cakes, sweets and drinks are sold that sometimes would not be easily found at other times of the year.

This is actually the second time we had gone to a Ramadhan food center. The first was at the Satok Market that we had talked about in an earlier post. But we had gone there after walking the regular night market and we did not enjoy that experience as it was really crowded and we were already tired from all that walking. Plus, we had not planned to get our dinner at that market when we went.

This time, it was an intentional decision: we were looking for dinner. So when we walked in, I must say I was a little disappointed. Many of the stalls were empty (I think this was because Aidil Fitri was almost on us and some of the vendors had already packed up to go back to their hometowns to celebrate). The rest of the stalls were selling similar items: roti stalls selling murtabak (meat filled roti) and other rotis; stalls selling homemade dishes like curries and stews eaten with rice; and lots of stalls selling drinks.

Looking Back

But really, where was the variety? The excitement? The kuihs, cakes, desserts, finger foods, etc? As we continued walking, I had a sinking feeling that this was going to be a bust. I told Nate about how my Ramadhan experiences used to be in Kuala Lumpur. So many, many years ago when I lived in KL, Ramadhan was such an exciting time because I got to have all these different kuihs, finger foods, and ayam percik! Ayam percik was an East Coast specialty that was most easily found during this time. It was a grilled chicken that was basted with a coconut-based spicy sauce as it grilled and the flavor was just phenomenal (I guess I’ll have to attempt making it myself). After being away from Malaysia for more than 10 years, I was really looking forward to eating this again. Alas, Kuching is not KL and there was no ayam percik to be found at this Ramadhan bazaar.

Just as I was about to tell Nate we would have to go somewhere else for dinner, we came to the end of the row and saw lots of smoke rising. Ah…here was where all the grilled foods were being cooked and sold. No, we didn’t find ayam percik but we did find satay and also lots of grilled fish. We bought 10 sticks of chicken satay along with ketupat—rice cooked in a woven coconut packet. And we also got two fish—ikan pari (skate) and ikan sardin (though this translates to sardine, both Nate and I think it’s mackerel but we’re not 100% sure—where’s Pat the fishmonger when we need him!).

Chicken Satay with Ketupat

We took our dinner home and dug into the satay first. We immediately regretted not buying more. The satay sauce was really good and the ketupat had absorbed a smoky, nutty flavor from the coconut leaves. It was delicious! 10 sticks between the four of us meant the kids would only get two sticks each. Daniel calculated it out. “We should have gotten 8 to be fair.” Nate said, “no, we should have gotten 20!”

Ikan Pari – Grilled Skate Wing

Then we turned our attention to the fish. Let me tell you, these were really fresh fish. The meat of the skate was sweet, light and tender. Perfectly grilled and served alongside a sambal sauce and calamansi limes, they were wonderful! My kids kept on eating (without the sambal) and asking for more. I think Skate is one of those fish that is so kid-friendly because there are no real bones. There is only a middle cartilage which is easy to avoid. When skate is this fresh, it is just heaven.

Grilled Mackerel

The mackerel was just as fresh. It definitely had a stronger fishy flavor but again, it was so fresh that Nate and I tore into it and even though we gave some to the kids, we ended up eating most of it. And this fish was paired with a different sauce—it was a sweet soy-based sauce with grated onions and some chillies. That sauce partnered so well with the stronger fish flavor and it was so addictive that when we finished the fish, I caught Nate staring at the leftover sauce and I cracked up because I could tell he was contemplating drinking up the sauce!

Looking Forward

We were very tempted after we had finished dinner to go back the next day just to get more fish. So even though I didn’t find the things I remembered from my past, I found that there were other things that I never used to get that were just as fabulous. It makes sense I guess that they had good fish, after all Kuching is a coastal town and is known for its seafood.

I wish now that we had gone to that market earlier in the fasting month. Today is the last day and tomorrow we celebrate the end of that month. There will be other feasting opportunities now that we come to the Aidil Fitri and hopefully we will get to blog about that too. Regretfully, we won’t see those canopies heralding the month-long time of fasting and feasting till the next year when the Muslims have their month of fasting again.

For me, this month has been like going through a fast of sorts. I’ve been missing our friends in California, our church, the familiarity of my everyday life, the foods, the kitchen, the Bay Area culture and lifestyle. It’s been uncomfortable and sometimes unfamiliar and frustrating. I’ve had pangs of loneliness and emptiness.

But I’ve also made it through a month. And with a lot to be thankful for, I can now see the promise of potential, the beginning of different, exciting experiences. Who knows what other fish we will find when expecting chicken? What new finds to share, to enjoy and reclaim as my country woos me again?

I can’t wait to share them with you as I experience them myself.

Cheers, Annie

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Hungry for more celebration food? Click below:

Homemade Malaysian Pineapple Tarts, Part 1

Our Favorite Layer Cake Recipe

Jiu Hu Char

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