Chinese Restaurant Style Braised Broccoli Recipe

Broccoli with either Taukan or Dried Chinese Mushroom are normally served in Chinese restaurants, especially during 8 course meal. The secret of each Chef's recipe lies in the soup stock that they used in this dish. Normally, the Chef would also use this soup stock in other dishes like Sharkfin soup.

You can make similar stock in a simple way by boiling dried scallops, dried dace (Suppose to be dried sole. Thanks lena for highlighting it in her comment) and old chicken (ayam pencen) in water. Since a little of the soup stock is required in this dish, you can keep the rest for making very tasty and flavourful soup.

Ingredients
Broccoli, 1, cut into bite size
Carrot, 1 pc, cut into slices
Ginger, 5 slices
Shao Shing Chiew (Chinese Cooking Wine), 1 teaspoon
Light soya sauce, 1 tablespoon
Dark soya sauce, a few drops
Pepper, a dash
Soup Stock, desired amount
Salt to taste
Corn flour and water mixture to thicken the gravy
Garlic, 5 cloves, chopped finely
Sesame oil, 1/2 teaspoon
Prawns, 5 pcs

Heat up wok and put in a little vegetable oil. Saute garlic until fragrant. Put garlic aside. Boil broccoli in hot hot water until you notice that the colour changes. Drain away excess water and put brocolli aside.

Heat up wok and pour in some vegetable oil. Fry ginger until fragrant and add in the sliced carrot. Put in the broccoli, pepper, sesame oil, light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, shao shing chiew and prawns. Stir fry the mixture for a short while. Add in soup stock and corn flour to thicken the gravy. Add salt to taste. Garnish with crispy fried garlic before serving.

Note : You can also add Taukan (Wet beancurd blocks) or Dried Chinese Mushroom to this dish.

Thyme and Oregano Roast Chicken Recipe

I love the aroma of oregano roasted chicken. Instead of using rosemary herbs, I opted for thyme, which is not overpowering so that I can still keep the aroma of oregano on the chicken. You can soak the chicken in brine solution and keep it in the fridge overnight. The brine solution would keep the chicken juicy even after roasting in the oven.

Ingredients
Chicken, butterfly cue, 1 whole, soak in brine solution overnight
Sugar, 1 tablespoon
Oregano, 1 tablespoon, dried powdered
Thyme, 3 springs  or 1 teaspoon of dried ones
Worchestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon
Lemon juice from 1 lemon
Dark soya sauce, just enough to rub the whole chicken skin

Remove chicken from brine solution and drain away excess water. Rub the chicken with all the ingredients and leave it for around 30 minutes to 1 hour. Roast chicken in preheated oven for 1 hour at 180 Deg C. Check it from time to time to make sure that the chicken is not burned.
Happy Cooking!

KFC Maggi Mee Assam Laksa

When I was about to cook Maggi Assam Laksa instant noodle for supper, I noticed that there is still one piece of Kentucky Fried Chicken breast meat on my dining table. This always happen whenever KFC packed chicken breast meat for my take away meal; sure to have left over....lol!
Anyway, instead of wasting it or let it sit in the fridge till the next morning, I removed the meat from the breast bone and cooked with my instant assam laksa noodle.
Yum yum.......my KFC Maggi Assam Laksa....ha ha ha!

Kepong Kaka Bak Kut Teh Restaurant

Kaka Bak Kut Teh has been around quite some time and I think this is the second time I ate here. I dropped by here to have my favourite bak kut teh meal with my lady foodie good friend a few weeks ago. Kepong Kaka bak kut teh has been enjoying very good review from many bloggers. Therefore the place is always very busy during dinner time. I heard that they open till the wee hours in the morning; till 3 am; so to all the nightbirds out there, you know where to get your shot of bak kut teh after your late night clubbing! LOL!

We requested for lots of vegetable for our bak kut teh soup!

Pushing the vegetable aside to reveal the tender and aromatic pork. The soup is flavourful and full of Chinese herbs aroma! Nice!

We ordered a plate of lettuce with shallots, vegetable oil and oyster sauce.

My lady friend opted for yam rice and I went for white rice. She said the yam rice is 'so so' only.

Aiya, I forgot the bill amount liao!.....sorry ya!

Kepong Kaka Bak Kut Teh Address

Jalan Kepong (Opposite Carrefour, same row as RHB Bank)

Simple Kung Po Chicken Recipe

Still remember my Kung Po Paddy Field Frogs dish ? Well, this time I used 'real' chicken instead of Thin Kai (Paddy field frog)! LOL! Normally deboned chicken meat are used in kung po recipes but I found that cooking it with pieces of chicken with bones intact would make the dish nicer.

Check out my simple kung po chicken recipe

Ingredients
Chicken, 1/2 bird, cut into small pieces
Ginger, 7 slices
Garlic, 5 cloves, smashed
Onions, 1 pc, cut into four
Dried Chillies, 7 pcs or to taste, soak in water and remove seeds
Dark Soya Sauce, 1 teaspoon
Light soya sauce, 1 tablespoon
Shao shing chiew, 1 tablespoon (Chinese cooking wine)
Oyster Sauce, 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Spring Onions, 3 stalks, cut into 1" length
Cashew nuts, ½ cup, (optional)
Corn flour and water mixture to thicken the gravy

Put in around 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in hot frying pan. Sauté ginger, garlic, onions and dried chillies until nice aroma fill the air. Add in the chicken and stir fry until they are cooked thoroughly. Add a little water if the dish is too dry so that it will not get burned. Add in dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, shao shing chiew, oyster sauce, cashew nuts, salt and sugar to taste. Pour a little corn flour water mixture into the wok. Garnish with spring onions, celery and serve.

 

Simple Cucumber Tofu Salad with BBQ & Thousand Island Dressing Recipe

This is a very simple recipe to prepare and I would make this whenever my kids grow tired of stir fried vegetables. There are so many ways of cooking tofu and it can also be made into nice salad dish. For some greens and crunchiness, I topped the tofu with some fresh cucumber strips. You can also add some croutons to this salad.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients
Tofu, 3 blocks, cut into four each
Cucumber, 1 small, remove seeds and cut into strips
Hickory Barbecue sauce, to taste
Thousand Island Salad Dressing, to taste (Alternatively you can also use Mayonaise)
Salt, to taste
Pepper to taste

Deep fry tofu in hot oil until they turned golden brown. Drain away excess oil and arrange to tofu on a plate. Top the fried tofu with the cucumber strips. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour the hickory barbecue sauce and Thousand Island Salad Dressing on the Tofu Cucumber salad.