Hokkien Mee and A Car for my Wife - Pre Birthday Celebration!

My wife likes Hokkien Mee very much, so today I cooked Peteformation Authentic Penang Hokkien Mee for her. Since I used very little water compared with the amount of prawns, the soup turned out very tasty and sweet. My daughter ate 3 bowls and this is the first time I see her eating so much! LOL!

Made this bowl of Hokkien Mee for my neighbour!

Peteformation Authentic Penang Hokkien Mee Recipe : http://peteformation.blogspot.com/2008/10/authentic-penang-hokkien-mee-prawn-mee.html

Since the kids are busy preparing for their music exam and also school exam; we decided not to eat out today. Then, I thought of baking a cake.......took out the ingredients and started baking! The cake batter

Adding some colours; chocolate and pink

Aiya! I went outside and chit chat with my neighbour, forgot about the cake in the oven, luckily I realised on time but it was already slighty burned!

Now, what to do ahhh? Scraped off the burned part, still doesn't look nice!

Then I sketched out the shape of a car and ‘ta daaaaa’, it turned into a Beemer like the movie Cars! I used strawberries as the wheel! When my little toddler saw the cake he kept on saying, car, car , car; his favourite show! Ha ha ha!

Looks like the happiest person tonight was my little toddler! Peteformation Red and Chocolate Marble Cake Recipe I did not follow any recipe found in the book because I was actually estimating the amount of ingredients to use so that all of it would fit in just nice in to my baking pan. Luckily the cake turned out ok! I used only 1 cup of sugar for 5 cups of flour because my wife likes cakes that are not too sweet. Normally, 2 cups of castor sugar would only be sufficient for 5 cups of flour to make a cake.

Ingredients
Flour, 5 cups
Castor Sugar, 2 cups or less if you don’t want it to be too sweet
Baking powder, 2 teaspoon
Baking soda, ¼ teaspoon
Butter, 250 gms
Vanilla essence, 1 tablespoon
Cocoa powder, 1 table spoon
Red colouring, a few drops
Eggs, 5 pcs

Beat butter and castor sugar mixture until they turned light yellow. When you turn the bowl upside down, the butter and castor sugar mixture should not fall off when they are well mixed. Add vanilla essence and eggs. Mix well. Add baking powder and soda bicarbonate (baking soda) in to the flour. Use a strainer to air the flour. Add the flour into the cake batter. Mix well. Then take out around 5 table spoons of the batter, one into each bowl for the chocolate and red colour. Add in the cocoa powder to the first bowl and red colouring into the next bowl. Pour the rest of the batter into an oiled baking tray. Use a spoon to make a few ‘drains’ on the batter. Then add in the chocolate and red batter into the baking tray. Use a long stick or butter knife to pull some lines on the batter so that there will be lines of different colour in the cake. Bake in preheated oven at 180 Deg C for 35 minutes.

Copyright Material of Peteformation Foodie Adventure

Cute Little Stray Puppy – Mmmmm, maybe I will name it Cupcake! LOL!

After meeting my friends for lunch, I saw 2 guys and a lady trying to help this poor little lost puppy. They were worried that it might drop inside the drain or maybe get run over by a car because the traffic is rather busy here. However, they were not sure of what to do with it. It is a female puppy, most probably an offspring of some strays around the area. I guess by looking at the size and colour, the puppy might have some mixed pedigree blood with either an Alsatian or Rottweiler. Then, I picked it up and was very tempted to bring it home. My kids would be delighted to have this cute little puppy but then I might not have the time and capacity to take good care of it. At last I thought of my mechanic whose workshop is nearby and his workers there love dog very much. Cuddling the little puppy, I walked up to my mechanic workshop. The workers there stop whatever they were doing immediately and pat it lovingly! I have seen them taking good care of a stray puppy before this and it is now a fully grown dog. I hope I have found a good place for this cute little puppy to stay! I pray that when fully grown, it won’t chase me when I cycle pass this area! Ha ha ha! Have a nice weekend!

Copyright Material of Peteformation Foodie Adventure

Spicy Kung Po Prawn with Pineapple Recipe

I like kung po style gravy very much. It goes along very well with many types of seafood and meat. The dried chillies that are used in this dish would soak up all the tasty gravy and I love chewing it! I did not use cashew nut because I don’t have it in stock and I rarely cook dishes that require the use of it. Kung po paddy frog is a dish that I normally order sometime when I eat in restaurants but I found that it is not easy to get local paddy frog these days. The one being sold are imported species which is green in colour and they are not as sweet as our local species! Ok, back to the prawn dish! I did not deep fry the prawns before adding in the gravy but I think the dish would taste much better if I did.

Ingredients
Prawns, large 400 gms (skin intact, you might want to deep fry the prawns first for better aroma before adding it into the gravy)
Ginger, 6 slices
Garlic, 3 cloves, chopped finely
Onion, 1 pc, cut into four
Spring onions, 2 stalks, cut into 1 inch length
Dried Chillies, 5 pcs, soaked in water to remove seeds
Oyster sauce, 1 table spoon
Soya sauce, 2 table spoons
Dark soya sauce, 1 tablespoon
Pineapple, 10 pcs
Salt to taste
A dash of sesame oil
Cashew nuts, ½ cup (optional)

Deep fry prawns and put aside. Heat up wok and put in around 2 table spoons of vegetable oil. Sautéed ginger, garlic, dried chillies and onions until fragrant. Add in the soya sauce, dark soya sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and salt to taste. Add in the deep fried prawns, spring onions, cashew nuts and pineapple. Put in a little corn flour mixed with water to make the ingredients in the dish shiny for presentation purposes! Serve the kung po prawns with pineapple dish hot with steamed rice!
Copyright Material of Peteformation Foodie Adventure

Quickie Fried Curry Stingray Recipe

I bought this big stingray cut from the Kepong Baru wet market. First, I thought of cooking Nyonya curry with it but then somehow I decided to fry it instead. Anyway I was also out of lady fingers to go with the curry. My eldest son likes stingray very much, I guess not only it is tasty but there are no sharp bones but cartilages in stingray! Then I cut some chili padi (bird eye chili), add in some light soya sauce and lime juice as dipping sauce for the stingray! Mmmmm, nice Stingray!

Ingredients
Stingray cut, 1 piece, 500 gms
Curry powder, 2 tablespoons
Turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon
Lime juice from 2 limes (limau nipis)
Salt to taste
Serai (lemongrass), optional, 1 pc, pounded into paste

Marinade the stingray with all the ingredients. Put it aside for around 20 minutes. Heat up wok and put in some vegetable oil. I used non-stick pan convenience sake. Fry the stingray with slow heat at first then high heat when it is about to be well done. You can also grill, bake or barbecue the stingray. It tastes great no matter how you cook it! LOL!

XxxL Eggs – Wah So big!

My brother in law gave me a tray of eggs. At first glanced they look like normal eggs but when you put it next to normal eggs, the size is longer and bigger. These are double yolk eggs. I have eaten many of these types of eggs from my uncle’s farm when I was a kid. After visiting my late maternal grandma who stayed with my uncles, we would bring back trays of double yolk eggs! A tray of xxxl eggs, double yolk. The double yolk compared to normal eggs! Young hens that have just reach maturity will normally produce double yolk eggs. These young hens’ productive cycles have not yet being synchronised which resulted in rapid ovulation and two yolks joint together when the eggs are formed. But after a few batches of double yolk eggs, the young hen would start to lay normal eggs. Double yolk eggs, if fertilised would not produce any chicks because there would not be enough nutrients in the eggs for two chicks in it to grow. Mmmmm, it would be nice to see ‘twins’ small little chicks! Anyway, I guess it would be nice to use these eggs to make cakes because they have extra yolks! I love to eat egg yolks and immediately I fried two of them, sunny side up (hor pau tan, mata kerbau, mata sapi)! LOL! The best thing is, I don’t have to buy eggs from the market for the next few weeks. Ha ha ha!

Mei Gai Yuan Restaurant, Jalan Burung Pucung, Taman Bukit Maluri, KL – Simple Family Meal

The restaurant outdoor section and indoor airconditioned section directly opposite each other across the road.

Sea cucumber soup......................................................and Butter Squid

Stir fried French Beans and Braised tofu with chicken meat

All the dishes we had

I have passed by this restaurant many times but never try the food here before. One day, I decided to take my family to this restaurant to try out the dishes there. The Mei Gai Yuan restaurant in Tmn Bkt Maluri has two sections; one in the air conditioned shop lot and another section directly opposite it which housed an outdoor eating area and also the kitchen. Therefore, the air conditioned section is rather clean and not smoky at all! We ordered Butter Squid, stir fried French Beans and Braised Tofu. I saw there was a promotion for sea cucumber soup, so I ordered a single serving one just to try it out. The butter squid (RM12) is fried to perfection and is also very flavourful. Everyone loves it, especially my kids! There is nothing to shout about the stir fried French Beans but the serving is rather generous. It cost RM8 per plate. The Braised Tofu looks quite plain but then it actually tasted very nice. I like the fresh and crunchy spinach in this dish. The pre fried tofu has nice aroma and the sauce is savoury! They cooked the Sea Cucumber Soup like the usual starchy shark fin soup. Anyway, I find it very nice and I ate most of it! The total bill plus tea came up to be RM44.50. (4 adults, 1 child, 1 toddler)

 Address : Restaurant Mei Gai Yuan 38, Jalan Burung Pucung, Taman Bukit Maluri, Kepong, 52100, Kuala Lumpur (They have a Manjalara branch too, but I don’t have the address) Tel 012 3177946, 012 3335118
Business hours : 1 pm to 12 am
Map to Mei Gai Yuan

Peteformation Cinnamon Bread Recipe

The dough before baking...........a piece of cinnamon bread....my litte boy stole a bite before I can take the photo!

I have been experimenting with quite a number of bread recipes and it is a very enjoyable hobby. The basic bread recipe is the same and it is up to our own creativity to add in whatever ingredients that we fancy. For convenience sake, I baked a whole loaf of cinnamon bread instead of making it into smaller buns, like ones available commercially. Anyway, I made a mistake of adding too much water to it this time and the whole dough expanded until some came out from the bread baking container! But then, I ended up with a moist and soft loaf of cinnamon bread! LOL!

Ingredients
Flour, (I used normal flour), 4 cups
Cinnamon powder, 2 teaspoon
Sugar, 5 tablespoons
Yeast, 1 teaspoon
Shortening, 3 tablespoons
Butter, 4 table spoons
Salt, 2 teaspoons
Warm water
Milk powder, 2 tablespoons

Mix flour with yeast, sugar, shortening, butter, milk powder and salt. Stir the mixture until they are well mixed. Slowly add water and knead it thoroughly or for at least for 20 minutes. Leave aside for around 2 hours. Give the dough a punch....yeah right, a punch like, Bruce Lee does.....LOL! This is a bread making process known as ‘Punching the bread’. Make a few folds with the dough and add in the cinnamon powder after each fold. Shape the bread to fit in to you bread baking tray. Let it rise for another half and hour. Bake the bread in preheated oven at 200 Deg C for 20 to 25 minutes. The best thing about baking cinnamon bread is the whole house would be filled with nice bread and cinnamon aroma!

Shortcut Nasi Tomato (tomato rice) with Chicken Kurma, Fish Maw Soup and Tau Miu (Sweet pea sprouts) – EWNS Family Meal

Tomato rice

Tomato rice, chicken kurma curry and fish maw soup Chicken kurma and stir fried tau miu (sweet pea sprouts)

Sometimes when the children grew tired of eating plain rice with dishes, I would cook nasi tomato for them. Normally, evaporated milk and tomato puree are used in cooking nasi tomato. Since this is our daily regular meal, I have to improvise the recipe to a simplified one! Nasi Tomato goes well with Ayam Masak Merah (Red Curry chicken) but since I have a packet of kurma spices in my shelf, I decided to cook chicken kurma instead. I cooked fish maw soup to go with the nasi tomato. This is a fusion east west north south family meal! Ha ha ha!

Ingredients

Rice, 2 cups

Tomato sauce, 5 table spoons

Star Anise, 2 pcs

Screw pine leaves (pandan), 3 pcs

Garlic, 3 cloves, removes skins

Butter, 1 tablespoon

Salt to taste

Wash rice and put in all the ingredients in the rice cooker. Add water around 10mm above the rice surface. (The amount of water varies for different types of rice used). Serve while still hot.

Chicken Kurma Recipe: http://peteformation.blogspot.com/search/label/chicken%20kurma

Fish Maw Soup Recipe: http://peteformation.blogspot.com/2009/08/fish-maw-hu-pioh-in-hokkien-chinese.html