It was over

Chinese New Year celebration was over with Chap Goh Mei on 5 February.  My mil insisted on cooking that evening instead of going out for dinner. 

Fortunately not all needed to be cooked, as we bought some dishes in the morning. 

The one that we needed to cook was this ginseng salted mustard chicken soup. My mil never tasted such soup, so I made this tasty, appetizing chicken soup for her to try. 

We cooked half of the big prawns that we bought in the morning. Steamed with lots of garlic and egg. 

We also bought this pre-packed jelly fish from the wet market. This pack cost around RM15, it was hubby's favourite. 

There was some Kuching sio bee (siu mai) in the freezer, we took some to steam and have for Chap Goh Mei dinner. 

We also bought 3 pieces of ngoh hiang from wet market. RM7 per piece. We ate the ngoh hiang with this lettuce. I took few leaves from the lettuce and remaining, I stir fried with garlic.

How we ate the ngoh hiang?? Just wrap it with the lettuce and pop into your mouth. 

Learn this eating way from my dad. 

After we were done with our dinner, we played firecracker to end the Chinese New Year celebration. And then it started to rain so we waited till around 7pm to bring the kids out for some fireworks fun before calling it a night.

A cousin of hubby from Sibu passed this biscuit to my mil who loves this snack. Crushed peanut coated rice cracker. And we managed to finish it off that evening with the help of our niece!! 

Last day

It was the 5th of February. Chap Goh Mei. The last day of CNY celebration. 

A long day for me as I woke up around 530am, brought my mil to 3rd Mile wet market.

After done with our shopping, we bought our breakfast from this coffee shop. While waiting, both of us had a morning drink and took a rest  Tapaued Sarawak laksa for me and kolo mee for the others. It was slightly after 630am when we reached home.

We planned for Chap Goh Mei dinner, so we cleaned the farm rear prawns. RM60 for over a kg of prawns, we used up half for the dinner. Balance, in the freezer for future consumption. We also bought some salted mustard to cook chicken soup. More in my next post.

So after settling down our loots and have breakfast, we went out around 10am, this time hubby tagged along. We went to collect 1 white chicken and 1 black chicken (RM99.20) from a friend's house and then proceed to pick up hubby's niece and we had lunch together.

We went to  and as it was late in the morning, the mixed pork soup has run out!! So they only managed to make one bowl of noodle for hubby!! RM7 for his noodle with whatever they have left. 

I didn't want noodle, so I ordered this nasi banjir (curry rice) for RM11 as my lunch. 

Yay!! In the morning, I had Sarawak laksa and now in the afternoon, I ate curry rice!! Luckily my tummy can stand such spicy tastebuds that day! Lol. 

My curry rice was alright. Spicy with lots of meats. It sure took me a lot of effort to finish my plate. Lol. 

Hubby's niece went for fried noodle while mil ate few chai kueh. No photos taken. After we were done, we went to Emart to fix hubby's spectacle before went home and rested. Next post is on our Chap Goh Mei dinner. Stay tune!!

Curry with carrot and potato

A new recipe I learnt from my mil. Chicken curry with carrot and potato. Yup, carrot added to curry. Not we found commonly in our curries. But I enjoyed the sweetness of carrot in the curry even more. 

 

My mil used this brand of curry powder for her curries. 

She used lots of garlic, shallots, lemongrass, curry leaves  and ginger in this cooking. Give this curry a try. And again, no exact measurement; based on your preferences.

Ingredients:

Garlics, shallot minced

1 star anise

1 -2 cinnamon sticks

2 lemongrass, bruised

Handful of curry leaves

2 - 3 spices of ginger

4 chicken thighs, cut, blanched and drained

4 potatoes, cubed

1 carrot, cut

1 pack of Babas meat curry powder, 25g

Salt to taste

1 pack coconut milk, 200ml

Cooking oil

Water

Methods:

1. In a wok, heat up cooking oil. Then toss in garlic, shallots, ginger, star anise, cinnamon sticks, lemongrass and curry leaves. Saute till fragrant. 

2. Add in curry powder to the wok. Saute for a minute before added in the carrot and potatoes. Mix well and cook for few minutes.

3. Add in the chicken meat and saute for few minutes before added water. 

4. Let it cook till boil. Lower the heat and cover the wok. Let it simmer till meat is cooked and carrot and potatoes are soft. 

5. Add salt to taste. Then coconut milk at last stage, mix well and serve warm. 

Another day in Kwong Hup

Back dated to last year. Few days before the New Year. Hubby and I were up earlier and we decided to venture further instead of settling for the usual place in our neighbourhood. 

So that was how we ended at Kwong Hup Cafe. When mentioning this coffee shop, one would think of its fried kway teow and popiah. Unfortunately the popiah stall didn't opened that day so we could not enjoyed its yummy popiah. 

Luckily we still able to enjoy the fried kway teow. We loved the Penang fried kway teow as it was cooked on hot plate. Hubby initially wanted it with clams but it was not available. No clams, so we settled for sotong (squid) instead. Also, not bad!!

Not many customers that morning, so the stall operators were pretty free, chit chatting among themselves. 

On another day (i.e. 8th day of CNY), we came here again for breakfast. This time, we brought Jan and mil along. 

This time, the popiah stall was opened. We ordered one RM3.50 while waiting for the Penang fried kway teow which took quite sometime.

My mil went for fried kway teow with bamboo clams whereas hubby and I had prawns with our noodle. 

RM21 for 3 plates of fried kway teow. 

Shangtang Ramen

It was 3rd day of Chinese New Year. After dropped Janice off to her classmate's house in Matang, together with hubby and mil, we went to Borneo 101 for shoulder and foot massage. An hour massage, so by the time we were done, it was almost 12 noon. 

Since we were in 101 Premier, we decided to settle our lunch there. Not many coffee shops were opened then. Even they did, not many stalls were. 

Nothing much to eat on 3rd day so left without much choice, we chose this Shangtang Ramen for its ramen. I guess our tummies already can't wait to digest some food, so anything would do. 

This Shangtang Ramen is one of the Chinese Steamboat shop that we went to last year.  Same owner, same concept. 

Few occupied tables in the shop but we opted to sit right in front of the shop. Can see a young man making ramen through the glass panel.

Hubby and mil had the same ramen, pork rib ramen soup. 

I went for the signature pork belly ramen soup, which was if same broth. RM10.80 per bowl. 

The ramen was nice, springy. We also bought 2 packs of kolok mee (dry noodle with mince pork) for the boys and 2 Chinese tea egg home. 

Claypot pork belly

My mil loves to use claypot to braise and on one of the days, she cooked this simple yet tasty claypot pork belly with hard-boiled egg. No measurement for this recipe, it is based on your preference and taste. If you like it salty, then add more dark soy sauce or salt. If you like the sweeter version, then substitute the dark soy sauce with the sweet soy sauce. 

 Ingredients:

Rock sugar 

5 spices 

Garlic and ginger, minced

Dark soy sauce 

Water 

Pork belly 

Hard boiled egg 

Cooking oil

Methods:

1 Blanched the pork belly for a while, then rinse and drain. 

2. In a claypot, heat up some cooking oil.  Then toss in garlic, ginger, Chinese 5 spices and rock sugar. Saute and mix well till fragrant. 

3. Add in dark soy sauce, stir for a while before adding a cup of water. Let the water boil before adding in the pork belly. 

4. Lower the heat to small, cover the claypot and let it simmer. 

5. In between, stir the ingredients in the claypot and add in the hard boiled egg. Cover and let it cook till meat is tender and broth has reduced. 

6. Cut the pork belly to biteable size, place in a bowl. Add in egg and broth. Serve immediately. 

Took over

Since the Kueh Chap stall moved out last year we rarely go for breakfast in this food court. By the way, our favourite kueh chap has moved to Petanak area since late last year. 

Anyway, one morning last month, together with my hubby, mil and Jay, we went to the food court for breakfast before dropping Jay off to his tuition. A new cha kueh stall was opened that day so we ordered a small portion of salty version to try. RM5 for small portion. Not bad.

As for the kueh chap stall, new person has took over not long ago. We wanted to try for comparison, so hubby and I shared this bowl for RM10. They had chicken feet on the menu so I ordered that and wanted to give it a taste. 

But really, other than it looked presentable, the taste was totally not to our liking. Not the broth was not nice, the pork was frozen/overnight as my hubby was pretty sensitive when it comes to pork. The taste of frozen pork instead of using fresh pork, totally not his cup of tea.  I also not like the kueh chap. So totally a disappointment for us. No, we didn't finish it as the pork wasn't tasted good. Left more than half of the bowl untouched. 

Since my mil flew over 2 weeks prior to CNY, she has been taking over my kitchen most of the time. Clearing some stuff in freezer to make way for CNY, like the raw oysters that hubby bought last year.  She doesn't take raw food so we had to open up the oysters to take them out and cook them with eggs. An oyster omelette!! Not bad for first time cooking but maybe need to drain the oysters next time as the fluid made the omelette wet. Lol. Anyway, they went into our tummies and no stomachache or diarrhea after that.