Tau Yu Bak (Braised Pork in Soya Sauce)

I hyperventilated when I saw the fats. Since young, my mum removed all visible skin from any type of meat at every meal so I practically grew up not eating chicken skin, kong ba bao etc etc.

When  I made this and I saw the frightening jelly-like skin, I got so turned off but the sauce is not bad lah. Of course I removed the skin before eating.

This when served hot with rice, is amazing. The sauce is like.. undescribable. I think every family cooks this dish differently but noone in my family made this before so I don't have a secret recipe or whatever.

Well, I like the saltiness of the sauce to overpower the sweetness.

Ain't a healthy dish but..... I kinda like it. The best thing is, it goes so well with rice.

Some people add potatoes to the dish. But I thought the amt. of carbs is mega overpowering already.

Ingredients

1. 500g pork belly
2. 4 eggs
3. 10 dried chinese mushrooms
4. 1 block of firm tau kwa
5. 4 stripes of tau pok
6. 2 tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
7. 3-4 tbsp dark soya sauce
8. 1 litre of water
9. 2 star anise
10. 1 cinnamon stick
11. 5 cloves 
12. 1 garlic bulb (skin unremoved but slightly bruised)
13. 1/2 tsp 5 spice powder
14. 1 tbsp white peppercorn

Directions

1. Mix dark soy sauce and kecap manis together. 
2. In a pot or wok, brown pork belly and sauce on each side. 
3. Add water, star anise, cinammon stick, cloves, garlic, 5 spice powder, peppercorn and mushroom. When it boils, lower fire and simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Cook eggs till they are hard boiled in another pot. Peel egg shell.
5. After 30 minutes, add tau kwa, tau pok and peeled eggs. Simmer for another 30 minutes. 
6. Taste and adjust accordingly. 
7. Serve hot. 

Sweet and Sour Pork

I love sweet sour pork. It's one of my must order when I buy cai fan. I love the combination of all the colours!

I made this the other time but I wanted to try out Rasamalaysia's sauce.

It's yummy but the batter is still a little weird. As in it's not what we would find at the usual zi char stall. I  think it would taste better with more sauce though. 

Anyone has another recipe for this?

Ingredients

1. 200-300g pork tenderloin
2. 1/2 of a green bell pepper
3. 1/2 of a red bell pepper
4. 1 pc pineapple ring (cut into small pieces)
5. 1 clove garlic (minced)
6. 2 stalks scallion (only the white part, chopped diagonally)
7. Oil (for frying)

Marinate

1. 1 tsp light soy sauce
2. 1/2 tsp corn flour
3. 1 tsp hua tiao jiu

Batter

1. 1/2 cup water
2. 4 tbsp plain flour
3. 2 tbsp corn starch
4. 1/2 tsp baking soda
5. 1/2 of an egg
6. 1 tsp cooking oil
7. Pinch of salt

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1. 1 1/2 tbsp tomato ketchup
2. 1 tsp plum sauce
3. 1/4 tsp rice vinegar
4. 1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
5. 1 tsp oyster sauce
6. 1 tsp corn starch
7. 1 tsp sugar
8. 2 tbsp water

Directions

1. Mix ingredients for sauce and leave aside.
2. Cut pork tenderloin into bite sized pieces and marinate for half an hour.
3. Mix dry ingredients for batter then add in egg, water and oil to form a thick batter.
4. After pork is well-marinated, transfer them into batter and ensure that they are well coated.
5. Add cooking oil for deep frying into wok and wait till it heats up.
6. Deep fry tenderloin till it's golden brown.
7. Remove pork and drain oil using paper towels.
8. Heat up wok, add cooking oil and add in chopped garlic and stir fry till they are light brown.
9. Then add bell peppers and pineapple pieces. Stir fry till there is a peppery aroma.
10. Add in sweet sour sauce, pork, scallions and fry.

Tenderloin with red pepper

Ingredients

1. 200-300g tenderloin
2. Red bell pepper (half)
3. 1/2 tsp of Crushed black pepper
4. 2 Dashes of grounded white pepper 
5. 1 tsp corn flour
6. 3 cloves of Garlic (minced)
7. 1 tsp corn starch
8. 1 tsp hua tiao jiu
9. 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
10. 5 tbsp water
11. 1/2 tsp sesame oil

Directions

1. Chop the tenderloin into pieces and marinate with rice wine, corn flour and white pepper. Leave for 30 minutes.
2. Heat up 1tbsp of cooking oil and add in garlic. Stir fry till garlic turns light brown.
3. Add in tenderloin and stir fry till half cooked.
4. Add bell pepper and continue stirfrying until there is a peppery aroma. 
5. Add in water, hua tiao jiu, oyster sauce and sesame oil. Mix well or you can premix the sauce before hand.
6. Sprinkle black pepper on top of the dish.
7. Serve hot.

Fried Eggs with Chai Poh

After making carrot cake, I still had a lot of preserved turnip left so I had to think of ways to use them up instead of leaving it forgotten in my fridge.


My grandmother cooks this type of eggs in a really frightening way. No chai poh, A LOT of light soy sauce, A LOT of pepper and when I say A LOT, it's really A LOT.

Maybe like 5 tbsp of soy sauce?

Oh well, pardon the chao ta bits on the eggs and this is how I make my chaipoh eggs.

Ingredients

1. 3 eggs
2. 2 tbsp of chai poh

Directions

1. Beat the eggs lightly in a bowl
2. Put chai poh in and mix.
3. Fry!

Fried carrot cake

My grandma is a huge fan of carrot cake. She either eats this or chee cheong fan. Her heart wavers among these two but I think she just likes her food really sweet.

I went fairprice and saw pre-packed radish for stirfrying and i thought it would be a good idea to try something I thought I would never cook.


Ingredients

1. 480g carrot cake (for stir-frying)
2. 2 tbsp oil
3. 1 tbsp sweet sauce
4. 1-2 tsp fish sauce (depending on how salty you want it to be)
5. 1 tbsp chopped garlic
6. dash of White pepper
7. 2 eggs, beaten
8. 1 tbsp chai poh (preserved turnip)
9. 2 stalk spring onion (chopped)

Directions

1. Chop carrot cake into pieces 
2. Heat oil in wok and fry carrot cake till slightly light brown
3. Add chopped garlic and chai poh 
4. Add pepper and fish sauce and continue stir frying
5. Pour eggs over carrot cake and wait till it sets and turn over
6. Drizzle sweet sauce over carrot cake and mix evenly
7. Serve with chopped spring onions

Sambal Shrimps with French Beans

Don't be mistaken. I know I just cooked french beans yesterday but but but, I think sambal shrimps will go well with that, thus the repetition.

Ingredients

1. 400g Shrimp with tail-on
2. 2 tbsp light soy sauce
3. Dash of pepper
4. 1 tbsp oil
5. 2 1/2 tbsp woh hup sambal shrimp
6. 200g french beans
7. 5 tbsp water
8. 1 tbsp baking soda
9. 1 egg white
10. 1 tsp corn starch
11. 1 tbsp chopped garlic

Directions

1. Submerge shrimps in water, add baking soda to water and massage shrimps gently. Soak for 30 minutes and run shrimps under running water.
2. Drain water and pat shrimps dry. Add egg white, starch and massage. Marinate for half a day or overnight.
3. Add 1 tbsp light soy sauce and a dash of pepper to the shrimps and marinate for 10 minutes.
4. Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok. Add chopped garlic, fry till light brown.
5. Add  2 1/2 woh hup sambal shrimp. Stir fry till fragrant.
6. Add french beans, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 5 tbsp water and stir well. Cover and cook for 2 minutes.
7. Add shrimps and stir fry till done. 

recipe from the woh hup jar (tweeked)

Garlic French Beans

I had french beans at my bf's place the other day. His mum makes wicked food. As in they're really wickedly delicious. Every meal's like a different adventure.

I made this dish but it didn't really taste like hers but well, considering how lousy I am... this should do!

Ingredients

1. 1 tbsp olive oil
2. 1.5 tbsp garlic (minced)
3. 250g French beans, chopped into 1.5inch pcs
4. 2.5 tbsp dried shrimps(soaked in warm water and minced)
5. 1/4 cup water

Directions

1. Heat up the wok, add olive oil and fry garlic and minced dried shrimps
2. When garlic turns light brown, add french beans and stir fry for 1 minute.
3. Add water and continue frying till french beans are cooked. (approx 5-8 minutes)

Cheese Scrambled Eggs

This is how I like my scrambled eggs to be like. Wet, cheesy and super eggy.

It isn't the 'right' way to cook this but it's how I made mine.

Ingredients

1. 1 tsp of oil
2. 2 eggs
3. 1 piece of Chedder cheese
4. Parsley and chilli flakes
5. Dash of pepper

Directions

1. Heat up oil in pan
2. Break the eggs and start stirring. Take pan away from heat occasionally but continue stirring.
3. Add a piece of cheese and a dash of pepper. Keep stirring.
4. Serve on plate and garnish with parsley and chilli flakes.

I love egg with cheese but as I've mentioned, my mum hates it and claimed that it makes her want to gag. 

Black Pepper Bacon wrapped Asparagus

Chanced upon many sites that raved on the combination of bacon and asparagus but all gave me recipe for roasting.

I decided to try deep frying since I don't have an oven and it tasted surprisingly nice so I started wrapping all my left over bacon strips from the previous Twister recipe. 

This kinda reminds me of Tori Q.

Ingredients

1. 5 strips of bacon
2. 5 thin asparagus (cut into halves)
3. 1 tbsp Black Pepper Sauce (I use Woh Hup's)
4. 2 tbsp Teriyaki Sauce
5. 1 tbsp water

Directions

1. Chop asparagus into halves
2. Wrap each strip of bacon around 2 stalks of asparagus and fasten using a toothpick
3. Deep fry till bacon turns brownish, drain oil on paper towels and place on serving plate.
4. Mix black pepper sauce, teriyaki sauce and water together. Bring to a boil and coat onto bacon.

** you can choose not to put any sauce. The bacon is salty!

Chicken Balls

Ingredients

1. 200g minced chicken
2. 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
3. 1/2 tbsp corn starch
4. 1/2 tsp hua tiao jiu
5. 1 tsp sesame oil
6. Dash of white pepper
7. 1/3 tsp baking powder

Directions

1. Marinade chicken with the above ingredients for 30minutes and roll the minced mixture into balls.
2. Boil them.

White Fungus Soup

Bought a premix spice bag from Fairprice and I wanted something easy to cook so I made this soup. I cheated and didn't add any chicken with bones inside so I added a chicken stock cube.
I made my own chicken balls but you can get the ready made ones.

Ingredients

1. 10g white fungus (soak in hot water)
2. 1 canned button mushrooms
3. 200g chicken balls 
4. Premix spice bag
5. 1 tbsp wolfberries
6. 1 cube chicken stock
7. 1.5l of water
8. 1 tbsp DOM liquor.

Directions
Add all the ingredients except for Dom into pot and simmer for 1 hour. Stir in DOM after that.

Sweet and Sour Pork

This is one of my must-order dish whenever I order caifan. I liked it so much I wanted to eat all of 'em up.

Got the recipe from rasamalaysia.

Ingredients

1. 200-300g pork tenderloin
2. 1/2 of a green bell pepper
3. 1/2 of a red bell pepper
4. 1 pc pineapple ring (cut into small pieces)
5. 1 clove garlic (chopped)
6. Premix sweet sour sauce

Marinate

1. 1 tsp light soy sauce
2. 1/2 tsp corn flour
3. 1/2 tsp hua tiao jiu

Batter

1. 1/2 cup water
2. 2 oz plain flour
3. 1 oz corn starch
4. 1/2 tsp baking soda
5. 1/2 of an egg
6. 1 tsp cooking oil
7. salt

Directions

1. Cut pork tenderloin into bite sized pieces and marinate for 15-20minutes.
2. Strain dry ingredients for batter then add in egg, water and cooking oil to form a thick batter.
3. When pork is well marinated, transfer them into batter and ensure that they are well coated.
4. Add cooking oil for deep frying into skillet.
5. Dish pork out and drain on paper towels.
6. Heat up wok, add cooking oil and add in chopped garlic and stir dry till they are light brown.
7. Then add bell peppers and pineapple pieces. Stir fry till there is a peppery aroma.
8. Add in sweet sour sauce, pork and fry.

Rasamalaysia provided a recipe for the sauce but I didn't use that. Shall try this again some other time.

Pancakes with blueberries (chaota)

Ouch. The horrors. Why does my pancakes looked so burnt here?
Anyway, they might be a lil burnt but they sure taste better than they looked. I followed the recipe from fortheloveofcooking.
Ingredients

1. 1 cup of plain flour
2. 1 tbsp sugar
3. 1/2 tsp baking powder
4. 1/2 tsp salt
5. 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
6. 1 cup of milk
7. 1 egg
8. 2 tbsp olive oil

Directions

Mix the dry ingredients together. 

Then pour in the others and mix till you get a thick batter.

Separate the mixture equally(depending on how many pancakes you want)

Once the bubbles appear on top of the pancake, flip.

Serve with maple syrup and blueberries or any other fruits.

Mushroom with cheese crepe

I was craving for the Shilin's mushroom with cheese crepe but I really don't justify the amount I'm going to pay for that so I tried to replicate one.
Brother loved it!

Ingredients

(serves 1)

1. 1/4 cup plain flour
2. 1/4 cup water
3. pinch of salt(optional)
4. pinch of sugar(optional)
5. 1/4 egg
6. Button mushroom (amt adjust to your liking)
7. Mozzarella cheese
8. Tonkatsu sauce
9. Parsley and chilli flakes(optional)

Directions

1. Boil/fry the mushrooms and remove them from the pan.
2. In a bowl, mix the flour, water, egg, salt and sugar together. Whisk till you get an even consistency.
3. Heat up your pan and add a little oil to prevent the mixture from sticking to the pan.
4. Pour the mixture in and let it set for a while. 
5. Flip to the other side and place the mushrooms on the crepe
6. Sprinkle a generous amount of cheese on the mushrooms
7. Wait till the crepe is slightly light brown.
8. Fold both sides of the crepe together. 
9. Pour the sauce on the crepe and place the plate into the microwave oven for 12 seconds to heat up the sauce. (i placed the sauce in the refrigerator before that so yea.)
10. Garnish with chilli and parsley flakes. (optional)

This is my first attempt and I didn't get a really thin crepe 'cuz I was too impatient and poured everything into the pan without spreading the mixture properly. 

Egg with cheese on toasted bread

I cooked dinner but they need a lot of polishing and are definitely not post-worthy.
I've always loved the idea of an all day breakfast. I crave for breakfast late at night. Well, maybe that's because I'm an egg lover. I like all types of eggs.

This is a really easy peasy dish but really yummy!



Ingredients

1. 1 egg
2. 1 slice of bread
3. Mozzarella cheese
4. Parsley flakes
5. Chilli flakes
6. Black pepper(optional)
7. Butter

Directions

1. Place some butter into the frying pan and fry the egg till the egg white is set but the yolk still runny. (Lower the fire but put the lid on.)
2. Place the bread into the bread toaster.
3. Place the egg onto the bread and add cheese onto the egg.(cheese will melt as there's heat or alternatively, you can place the bread with egg and cheese into the toaster and toast till the cheese melts.)
4. Garnish with parsley and chilli flakes.
5. Sprinkle some black pepper(optional)
6. Serve immediately.

Definitely one of my favourite egg breakfast dish.

Steamed eggs

I loveeeeeee the steamed eggs my boyfriend's mum cooks. I got the recipe from her the other day!

Ingredients

1. 2 century eggs
2. 2 chicken eggs
3. 1 salted egg
4. 1/2 cup water

Directions

1. Crack the salted egg into a bowl/plate for steaming. Use a chopstick/fork/spoon to spread the egg yolk.
2. Crack both chicken eggs into the bowl.
3. Use a chopstick to stir the mixture. Do not beat for too long as there will be bubbles.
4. Chop the century eggs into small cubes or pieces and add them into the mixture.
5. Pour 1/2 cup water into the mixture and stir with a chopstick. Do not stir too violently.
6. Cover the bowl/plate with a lid and put it in the steamer.
7. Serve hot.

There you go! It might not be the sexiest looking food but it sure taste amazing.

Ps. My steamed egg ain't smooth cuz my aluminium foil stuck to the egg. zzzzz.

Potato Salad

Potato Salad
Here's part II of potato feast.
Easy dish!

Ingredients

1. 2 potatoes
2. 2 eggs
3. 1/4 cup mayo
4. 1 tsp garlic and herb spread
5. Parsley flakes
6. 1/4 tsp salt and pinch of pepper
7. Corinander/ Parsley

Instructions

1. Boil potatoes and eggs in different pots till soft and hard respectively.
2. Peel the skin off the potatoes and chop them into small pieces
3. Soak the eggs(shelled) in cold water for 5 minutes
4. Deshell the eggs and cut them into small pieces. 
5. Mix mayo, garlic and herb spread and sprinkle some salt and pepper on it to taste.
6. Mix the potatoes, eggs and the sauce in step 5 evenly
7. Garnish with parsley flakes and coriander or parsley.
8. Refrigerate.

Ps. Adjust the amt of salt depending on how salty you like it to be and you can add a little vinegar if you like the salad to be a tad sour.

Tada! Done!

Roasted Potatoes (cheat)

Roasted potatoes (cheat)

All right, I cheated!!! I've no oven so I microwaved them instead!

Today is potatoes day. I have left over potatoes from idk how many weeks ago after making abc soup and granny was complaining about the humongous amount of left over stuffs so I've to make something with 'em else I'll die from the nagging.

Ingredients
(serves 1)

1. 1 potato (cut into small pieces)
2. Garlic and herb spread
3. Butter
4. Parsley flakes
5. Chilli flakes
6. Pinch of pepper
7. Pinch of Salt (optional)

Instructions

1. Cut the potato into small pieces and place them on a plate.
2. Marinate the pieces of potato with garlic and herb spread, salt, parsley and chilli flakes
3. Sprinkle some pepper onto the potatoes
4. Place thin slice of butter in between the potatoes
5. Microwave on high for 5 minutes
6. Serve after letting it cool.

Kiwi Banana Milkshake

Kiwi Banana Milkshake

Got some kiwis for my grandmother but they turned out to be sour and she can't take sour food so I made milkshake. The vanilla ice cream helps in sweetening the drink. This is really filling so it served as my lunch replacement.

Ingredients

(Serves 2)

1. 2 kiwis chilled and peeled
2. 1 banana frozen and peeled
3. 200g vanilla icecream
4. 2.5 tbsp of milk

Throw everything into the blender and blend well.

ps. Add more milk if you don't like it to be so thick.

Black Pepper Beef

Black Pepper Beef
This isn't really an easy dish as it is pretty easy to overcook the beef. Kinda hard to get it right.


Ingredients

1. 2 tbsp sesame oil
2. 3 tbsp of oyster sauce(original recipe only states 2.5 but I don't like my beef to be so dry)
3. 1/2 red bell pepper
4. 1/2 green bell pepper
5. 2 stalks of celery
6. 8 slices of ginger(finely sliced after that)
7. 1/2 onion (cut into rings)
8. 1 tbsp black pepper (grounded)
9. 1 tsp white pepper (grounded)
10. 200g stir fry beef

Instructions

1. Heat the sesame oil and saute ginger and onions till the onions are soft.
2. Add the red, green bell pepper and celery and stir fry for a minute
3. Add oyster sauce, black and white pepper and stir
4. Add beef slices and fry. Take note not to overcook the beef else it will be tough on the teeth.

I added more black pepper as I thought the more the merrier but my grandmother complained that it's too spicy. I like it spicy though! Grounding black pepper is tedious. 

recipe from noobcook.com(modified)