Pulut Tai Tai

I love this blue cake, usually people eats it with kaya. but I rather having it with gula Melaka.
(will be next post)

Bunga Telang It is a perennial herbaceous plant. Its leaves are elliptic and obtuse. It grows as a vine or creeper, doing well in moist neutral soil. The most striking feature about this plant are its vivid deep blue flowers.

The flowers of this vine have the shape of human female pudenda, hence the Latin name of the genus "Clitoria", from "clitoris". (Synonyms: Clitoris principissae.) "Ternatea", the name of the species, comes from Ternate, a location in Indonesia. In some languages (Tamil, Malayalam) it is named after the seashell, which is a euphemism for a woman's external sexual organs.

Owing to its similarity to a human body part, this plant has been ascribed properties affecting the same (a phenomenon also found in connection with the mandrake, among other plants). It was used traditionally to cure sexual ailments, like infertility and gonorrhea, to control menstrual discharge, and also as an aphrodisiac. This practice is rooted in an ancient belief recorded in the Doctrine of Signatures.

Clitoria ternatea root extracts are capable of curing whooping cough if taken orally. The extract from the white-flowered plant can cure goiter. Its roots are used in ayurveda Indian medicine.

Ingredient A
600g glutinous rice, soak in water for 4 hours and drained  |  300ml fresh coconut milk  |
150ml water  | 1 teaspoon salt  |  6 pieces pandan leafs, knotted

Ingredient B
30 pieces Bunga Telang  |  2 tablespoon hot water

Method
Combine all the ingredient A and steam for 45 minutes.

Crush the Bunga Telang with 2 tablespoon of hot water and extract the blue colouring.

Add colouring to 1/3 of the steamed glutinous rice and mix well.

Prepare a 8” x 8” x 2” square container and lay a piece of banana leaves at the bottom of the tray.

Place the colour rice and plain rice into the tray, flatten the rice,
cover with banana leaf and compress it with some heavy stuff,
leave it cool and serve with kaya.

Steamed Fish

Steaming works by boiling water continuously, causing it to vaporize into steam; the steam then carries heat to the nearby food, thus cooking the food. The food is kept separate from the boiling water but has direct contact with the steam, resulting in a moist texture to the food. This differs from double boiling, in which contact with steam is undesired.

Such cooking is most often done by placing the food into a steamer, which is typically a circular container made of metal or bamboo. The steamer usually has a lid that is placed on the top of the container during cooking to allow the steam to cook the food. When a steamer is unavailable, a wok filled less than half with water is a replacement by placing a metal frame made of stainless steel in the middle of the wok.

 













































Overcooking or burning food is easily avoided when steaming it. Health conscious individuals may prefer steaming to other methods which require cooking oil, resulting    in lower fat content. Steaming also results in a more nutritious food than boiling because fewer nutrients are leached away into the water, which is usually discarded.

In Western cooking, steaming is most often used to cook vegetables - it is rarely used to cook meats. In Chinese cuisine, vegetables are mostly stir fried or blanched and seldom steamed. Seafood and meat dishes are steamed.

Ingredients
600g fish, rub with little bit of salt  |  3 stalks spring onion, crushed  |  2 stalks spring onion, shredded  |
30g young ginger, shredded  |  2 red chili, shredded  |  30g minced garlic  |

Seasoning
2 tablespoon ligh soy sauce  |  4 tablespoon hot water  |  1 teaspoon sugar  |
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil  |  a little bit of white pepper  |

Method
Melt the sugar with 4 tablespoon of hot water, after that add in the rest of the seasoning, set aside.

Heat up 2 tablespoon oil to saute the minced garlic until fragrant and turn golden, dish out
and set aside.

Lay 3 stalks of crushed spring onion on a plate, place the fish on it, top the fish with shredded ginger.

cover and steam for 12 minutes with higher heat, dish out.

pour the soy sauce over the fish and garnish with shredded spring onion, shredded chili
and fried garlic.

serve hot with steamed rice.

Jiu Hu Char

I was wondering why this dish is such a favourite amongst the Nyonya families during
Chinese New Year. And then, I found out that this dish actually tastes really good!

Cuttlefish are caught for food in the Mediterranean, East Asia, the English Channel and elsewhere. Although squid is more popular as a restaurant dish all over the world, in East Asia dried, shredded cuttlefish is a popular snack food.

shredded carrots and yam bean.

Chinese lettuce.

 

Ingredients
100g shallots  |  1 tablespoon minced garlic  |
50g dryed shredded cuttlefish  |  500g yam bean (shredded)  |  200g carrot  (shredded)  |
40g mushroom (soak and diced)  |  200g pork, (diced)  |

300g chinese lettuce

Seasoning
1 tablespoon light soy sauce  |  1/2 tablespoons dark soy sauce  |
1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce  |  1 teaspoon sugar  |  1/4 teaspoon salt   |
5 tablespoons water  |

Method
heat up 5 tablespoons oil, stir-fry the shredded cuttlefish until golden brown, drain and set aside.

leave 3 tablespoon in wok, saute the minced garlic and shallots until fragrant.

add in pork fillet stir-fry for a while and add in mushrooms, yam bean and corrat keep stir-frying
for a minute.

add in seasoning, turn to lowest heat and simmer for 10 minute.

at last add in the cuttlefish and dish out.

wrapped in chinese lettuce and serve.

 And these are the reference for Jiu Hu Char.

Lion's Head

The plain variety is usually stewed or steamed with napa cabbage. The red variety can be stewed with cabbage or cooked with bamboo shoots and tofu derivatives. The minced meat in the meatball tends to be made from fatty pork (lean pork making for a less desirable taste), often with some chopped water chestnut for textural variation.

The name derives from the shape of the meatball which is supposed to resemble the head of the lion and the cabbage (or other vegetables), which is supposed to resemble the lion's mane.

The dish originated in the region of Yangzhou and Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province, with the plain variety more common in Yangzhou and the red variety more common in Zhenjiang. The dish became a part of Shanghai cuisine with the influx of migrants in the 19th and early 20th century.

In Northern China, especially in Beijing, the dish is known as "Sixi Wanzi" (四喜丸子，"Four Happy Balls") because the meatballs are usually served in a set of four. These meatballs tend to be smaller than the Southern variety.

Ingredients A
600g minced meat  |  100g water chestnuts (minced)  | 
100g carrot (minced)  |  2 stalks of spring onion (only white portion, minced)  |

seasoning A
1tablespoon oyster sauce  |  1 tablespoon light soy sauce  |  1 tablespoon corn starch  | 
little bit of pepper  |

Ingredient B
200g Chinese cabbage (thick strips)  | 
1tablespoon corn starch + 1 tablespoon water (for thickening gravy.)

seasoning B
500ml water  |  1 tablespoon soy sauce  |  1 tablespoon light soy sauce  | 
1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce  |  1 teaspoon sesame oil  |
 
method
mix all ingredient A with seasoning A set aside for 30 minutes.

Divide into 10 portions and shape them into meat balls.

Deep-fry until golden brown, drain and set aside.

Bring seasoning B to boil, add in meat ball and chinese cabbage and simmer with lowest heat
for 30 minutes, thicken gravy with corn starch water.

Dish out and serve with steam rice.

Yong Tau Foo

In Malaysia, the Ampang region of Kuala Lumpur is particularly famous for this dish.
It is ubiquitous in Singapore food courts, too. Essentially the dish originated in the early 1960s
in a restaurant called "Chew Kuan" as tofu stuffed with a meat paste of fish and pork,
thereby earning the dish its name "Yong Tau Foo," which means "stuffed bean curd."

Since then all variety of vegetables and even fried fritters have been similarly stuffed, and the name Yong Tau Foo has thus been used liberally to apply to foods prepared in this manner.

Yong tau foo is essentially a clear consomme soup containing a varied selection of food items including fish balls, crab sticks, bitter gourds, cuttlefish, lettuce, ladies fingers, as well as chilis,
and various forms of fresh produce, seafood and meats common in Chinese cuisine.
Some of these items, such as bitter gourd and chili, are usually filled with fish paste (surimi). 

The foods are then sliced into bite-size pieces, cooked briefly in boiling broth and then served either in the broth as soup or with the broth in a separate bowl. The dish is eaten with chopsticks and a soup spoon and can be eaten by itself (served with a bowl of steamed rice) or with any choice of egg or rice noodles, or bee hoon (rice vermicelli).

Another variation of this dish is to serve it with laksa gravy or curry sauce. Essential accompaniments are spicy, vinegary chili sauce, similar to Indonesian sambal oelek, and a distinctive brown sweet bean sauce or hoisin sauce for dipping.

In Malaysia, the Malay Muslims have taken to yong tau foo in a big way. As pork consumption
is prohibited for Muslims, halal yong tau foo is generally soy based or stuffed vegetable fritters
or steamed bean curd with fish paste stuffing.

To prepare the dish, these, a steamed rice-flour roll (similar to that used for chee cheong fun)
and a vegetable called kangkong are boiled to heat and soften them. The food items are drained
and eaten with sprinkled toasted sesame seeds, chili sauce and a hoisin based sauce.

Another version commonly found in Perak state is the soup type where the food items are served
in a broth and provided with chili sauce and hoisin based sauce dipping. Halal yong tau foo
is normally sold by Malay vendors at night markets (pasar malam) and at halal food courts
by non-Muslim vendors.

Ingredient A (fish paste) 
1kg mackerel fish (ikan tenggiri)  |  600g minced meat  |
 2 tablespoon corn flour  |  1/4 teaspoon white pepper  |

Ingredient B (salt water)
1 tablespoon salt mixed with 250ml water

Ingredient C
3 blocks bean curd (half and make a hole)  |  10 tau pok (half)  |
5 red chillis (remove core) |  5 green chillis (remove core)  | 
5 ladies fingers (remove core)  |  2 egg plants (cut into 2cm thick)  | 
1 bitter gourd (cut into 1cm thick ring)

Ingredient D (soup)
1,200ml fish stock  |  half tablespoon soy paste  |  1 tablespoon oyster sauce  | 
1 tablespoon fish sauce  |  a little of salt

method (fish paste)
Extract fish meat and keep the bone.

Place the fish meat on a chop board, add in minced meat,
corn flour and pepper, mixed well.

Using the back of the chopper pound the fish meat and
adding the salt water regularly until all the salt water used up.

Stuff fish paste into all of the Ingredient C and pan-fry until both sides are golden brown, set aside.

method (soup)
boil the fish bone with 2,000ml water for 40 minutes with lowest heat, set aside.

heat up 1 tablespoon oil, saute minced garlic, soy paste and osyter sauce until fragrant,
add in 1,200ml fish stock, place in stuffed ingredient and bring to boil for 2 minutes,
seasoning with 1 tablespoon fish sauce and a little bit of salt to taste, dish out serve hot.

Wuxi Spare Ribs

Wuxi earned its nickname "Pearl of Lake Tai" because it's built on the shore of Lake Tai in a scenic setting. Wuxi was also dubbed "little Shanghai" because of its close proximity to the city, rapid urbanization and booming economy.

Although Wuxi means "No tin", scholars suggest the city name may come from "Wuxu" (吳墟), meaning ruins of the State of Wu, or a Baiyue word which may mean "god bird".

@Cuisine
Wuxi is known for its Wuxi-style spare ribs, sweetened pork dumplings and fried gluten.

I have no idea how “wuxi spare ribs” actual taste like!
well, I just found it from recipe book.

Ingredient A
800g spare ribs  |  1 tablespoon light soy sauce  |  1 tablespoon corn flour  | 
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine

Ingredient B
8 slices ginger  |  2 stalks spring onion (cut into 5cm lengths)

Seasoning
half teaspoon red rice (optional)  |  2 tablespoon light soy sauce  |  2 tablespoon tomato sauce  |
2 tablespoon Shaoxing wine  |  20g rock sugar  |  600ml water  |

Method
combined  ingredient A and marinate for 1 hour. Deep-fry in hot oil until golden brown, dish and drain.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok to stir-fry the ginger and spring onion until aromatic.

Add in spare ribs with seasoning and bring to boil turn lowest heat and
simmer for 40 minutes until tender. Dish out.