Chicken Satay & Nasi Himpit

I grew up in a town which is famous for satay... Kajang Satay. I tried to re-call back the last time I had satay is somewhere about 4 years back. Although I go back to my Ah Mah's house every Sunday, but satay is just out of my mind cos I am not a big fan for satay but... my Dearie Suki, YES!

Last 2 Saturday after we brought Ee-Thern's for his vaccination in Sunway Hospital, Dearie Suki suddenly think of satay. He wanted to have satay cos he loves the peanut sauce so much. We stopped by at the rest area along KESAS Highway to 'ta pau' the Satay cos the famous Kajang Satay Haji Samuri has a branch there.

To be frank I totally got no idea how much is a stick of satay. It used to be RM0.30 per stick and now it has doubled up to RM0.60 per stick for chicken and beef satay. Wow, and now they even have fish satay. If you wanted something different for example rabbit meat or perut lembu satay it cost RM1.30 per stick. Expensive ya.

Lunch we had Satay and I bought 20 sticks of chicken satay and 10 sticks of fish satay plus 2 packet of nasi himpit. Total bill - RM24.00 and my Dearie Suki enjoyed it so much. Like father like son, even my little girl same as her daddy loves the satay so much.

Guess how many sticks she ate? Total 5 sticks plus 3 pieces of nasi himpit.

Yam Abacus By Mom

Today is a boring Sunday in Ah Mah's house. Sis and her kids is on holiday in Chiangmai and left me and the kids plus Mom and Dad at Ah Mah's house. Mom called me up yesterday night over dinner that she will make 'Yam Abacus' and ask me to teach her to make 'Pau'. I told her to prepare the Char Siew filling and I will bring back the pau flour.

Reach Ah Mah's house at about 11.30 am and once reach the kids started running around as though they are just out from the jail. Me, helping Mom in the kitchen. Mom started to prepare her yam abacus and this is her 1st attempt as she saw the recipe over a Chinese newspaper and she is so eager to try out.

While she is preparing to cook, I started to take phototgraphs of her cooking the yam abacus and I 'kena taruk' from her why I keep snapping her photographs. She keep nagging, nagging and nagging and finally I give up and get into the house and copy her 'Yam Abacus' recipe. Emmm... not too bad but one comment from me is that, its better to add some chilli padi into it. Taste better and again I 'kena taruk' from her cos she is bit of 'kiasu' wanted people to praise her. Her reason to me is that the kids cannot take spicy food, so she ommit out the chili padi. Anyway, me and Joe think its nice.

Here is the recipe :

Ingredients A

600 gm yam cut into chunks, steamed till soft and mashed finely

300gm tapioca flour

1 tsp salt

some boiling water to mix (if necessary)

2 litre boiling water, 2 tbsp oil ( to boil the abacus )

Ingredients B
1 tbsp chopped garlic

3 tbsp chopped dried prawns

2 tbsp dried squids, shreds finely

200gm minced pork

3 mushrooms, soaked and shreds finely

3 tbsp wood's ear fungus, soaked and shreds finely

1 stalk leek, shreds finely

Seasoning

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp chicken stocks granules

1 tsp dark soya sauce

Salt to taste

Some pepper and sesame oil

1 cup water

Garnishing
Some spring onions and coriander leaves

Method :

1. Combine all ingredients A and mix into a pliable dough. Divide into small portions and form into the shape of a abacus. Cook in boiling water until they float up. Remove and rinse with cold water and set aside.

2. Heat some oil in a pan. Sautee chopped garlic till fragrant. Add in the dried prawns, minced pork, and dried squids and stir-fry till fragrant and aromatic.

3. Next add in shredded mushroom, leek and wood's ear fungus, and stir-fry again till fragrant. Add in the seasoning ingredients and bring to a boil. Stir in yam abacus and stir-fry till dry. Taste and dish up.

4. Garnish with spring onions and coriander leaves. Serve hot.

This is my mom, Yam Abacus. SOooooo delicious.

**************

After having our lunch, its my turn to teach her to make the pau skin using my recipe. This round my little girl KPC again wanted to make the pau together with PoPo. Again my Mom, start to nag, nag and nag.

Le-Ann makes few of her own version of mini pau and she he is helping PoPo to wrap the filling. PoPo and KongKong mentioned to me that her pau turned out to be ugly but cute and adorable.

Now Mom got so excited with the successful recipe and she is going to try again and make more pau next week.

Yong Tau Foo

Back to normal again and start my work in the office today. Reach office 1/2 an hour late and I think I am having PHD ( permanent head damage ) after coming back from my vacation and can't even think in the office. More than 300 emails lining up for me to open, read and delete but I am still delaying it in the office and start to lazying around, chit chatting, going through my photos I took in Phuket, sending SMS to my friends, MSN with ci mui friend, reading blogs from my blogger friends and finally 11.30 am I started my work. 12.30 pm ... Hooray ... out for lunch again.

Life has to go on, what to do. Reach home late today and cook simple dinner for Dearie Suki and start to blog again. Browsing through my folder and found some of the dishes I cook last week have not been blog. Better start doing it before all the pictures started to pile up again in my laptop.

Make some Yong Tau Foo for dinner last week. Stuffed some beancurds and vegetables with the fish paste and pan fried it till cook. Then I cooked some sauce using oyster sauce to drizzle on top of the assorted Yong Tau Foo. Uses brinjal, ladies finger and red chillies from my garden ( I plant it on my own ), bittergourd, beancurd skin and taufoo pok.

Yummy....I prefer to make my own rather than having outside maybe I think mine is more stuffing compared to the outside stalls. Hmmm.... so easy and yet one dish can ' kau tim' the whole night dinner. My Dearie Suki certainly enjoyed the deep fried beancurd rolls I made for him.

Yam with Pork

First time making this dish and in Cantonese they called it "Wu Tou Kow Yoke" or simply it means "Yam with Pork Belly". Both me and Dearie Suki usually ordered this when we eat outside. While I was flipping through the Oriental Cuisine Magazine -Feb'07 issue in the office, I came across this and I found out it is actually quite easy to prepare.

My hubby's aunt who is the expert doing this dish always tell me it is hard to do and very troublesome and when I try to get the recipe from her she will twist and turn and tell me all her grandmother stories. Aiyar... just a recipe why izzit so hard to give meh.

Finally I give it try and ehh... not too bad wor. It is not as hard and troublesome as she mentioned to me. So what do you think ?

Here is the recipe to share.

Ingredients :
500gm pork belly ( with skin )
1 yam peeled
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp cornflour for thickening


Seasoning A:
2 pcs red fermented beancurd ( smashed )
1 tbsp sauce of the red fermented beancurd
1 1/2 tsp soya bean paste / tauchoo
3 pcs star anise
4 pcs cloves
1 inch cinnamon


Seasoning B :
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp Hsiao Hsing Wine
2 bowls of water


Method :
1. Blanch pork belly in boiling water for 15 minutes, then rub with some dark soya sauce while hot, then pierce the skin with a pork.
2. Heat frying pan with some oil, then saute the pork till both side turns brown. Dish out and rinse under water until skins shows fine lines. Then cut into 2 cm thick slices.
3. Cut the yam as the size of the meat. Then arrange them alternately in a deep bowl with the pork skin facing down.
4. Heat 2 tbsp oil and saute the garlic and seasoning A until fragrant. Then pour in seasoning B and bring to boil.
5. Thicken with cornflour. Pour the gravy over the meat and yam.
6. Steam the dish for 2 hours.

Yam Ring - Fatt Put

For months I didnt go out and eat at the restaurant because of the kids--> HAVOC and I rather eat at home. One of my favourite dish that both of us ( me and dearie Suki ) must order is the 'Yam Ring ( Fatt Put )' either with 'Kung Pow' 'Kai Ting' or 'Har Kow' !

Search through the recipe from the web and finally found one.

Ingredients :
For Yam Ring
300gm yam, cut into small pieces
45gm tang mien fun
50gm shortening
Some beehoon
Some cashew nuts

Seasoning :
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice
A dash of pepper

Method :
1. Steam yam till soft. Then mashed the cooked yam with a pestal till smooth.
2. Then mix the yam with the tangmien fun, shortening, and the seasoning ingredients.
3. Chill for 30 minutes in the fridge.
4. Shape the yam dough into a round ring.
5. Deep fry in a very hot oil till golden brown. Set aside.
6. Then deep fry some beehoon till crispy. Set aside.

Ingredients :
For Kung Pow Kai Ting
3 chicken breast, cut into cubes
1 big onion, sliced
6 pcs of dried chillies, cut into 3 cm lengthwise
1/2 cup of mixed vegetables
Some spring onions, cut into 3 cm lengthwise
Cornstarch for thickening

Seasoning :
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tsp dark soya sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sugar
A dash of pepper
Some sesame oil
1 tsp Hsiao Hsing Wine

Method :
1. Heat oil in pan. Sautee the sliced big onion and dried chillies till fragrant.
2. Add in chicken cubes and stir fry till cooked.
3. Add in the seasoning ingredients.
4. Mixed well and then add in the mixed vegetables and spring onion. Stir for a while and lastly add in the cornstarch for thickening.

To assemble the 'Yam Ring'
1. Use a flat plate.
2. Put the fried crispy meehoon on the plate.
3. Then lay yam ring on top of the fried crispy meehoon.
4. Scoop the kung pow kai ting into the ring and top with cashew nuts.