Tofu Patties

When I came across this recipe, it reminded me of the tofu patties a classmate from Indonesia taught me.   

These are the ingredients required to cook it.

This is how I cook this dish with marinated minced pork added:

Chopped srping onions or corriander can also be added to the tofu and meat mixture before frying.

About fats and oils

Do you know what the most healthy or the least healthy cooking oils are?  I used to think that vegetable cooking oils are healthy until I saw this cooking oil scorecard by Dr Steve.

I did a search online and came across a video by Dr Steve Ekberg.  I do not know if he is the same doctor mentioned on the scorecard.  This is his list of the worst cooking oils which I have extracted from his video.

I am glad to see that the worst cooking oils listed by him turned out to be the more expensive types of oil sold in Malaysia.

As the doctor said in his video, if you are extracting oil from vegetable, you would think that it should be edible throughout any part of the processes.  However, as hexane is used as a special-use solvent to extract edible oils from seeds and vegetables and also as a cleaning agent, the oil has to be refined before it is edible.  Hexane (C6H14) is a hydrocarbon extracted from crude oil.  I read that it has gasoline-like odor which is why it has to be deodorize so that its flavour will become mild.  Also, the oils may still contain trace amounts of hexane after the process.

He also shared the negative result of refined vegetable oils.

A cooking oil's smoke point refers to the temperature when the oil starts to smoke.  We tend to use high heat when we cook Chinese dishes. So, we should use oils with a high smoke point as they are ideal for frying, sautéing, stir-frying and searing.  So take note of the smoke point of cooking oils recommended by Dr Steve Ekberg because once an oil reaches its smoke point, it is an indication that the fat in the oil is breaking down. 

Overheating oils past their smoking point has been linked to the formation of carcinogens and can also create an off, burnt flavor.  So, if you need to cook a dish with high heat, the smoke point of 250 °C or 482 °F for ghee is a good choice. Palm oil is produced in Malaysia. It is noted on Wikipedia that its smoke point is 235 °C or 455 °F.  However, it has to be noted that it is expelled from the palm kernels via pressing or hexane extraction.

The doctor also suggested that we should not often deep fry our food with oil and to avoid repeatedly heating cooking oil which is often the case in restaurants where they reuse cooking oil over and over again.  I hope that by sharing his clips, you will take the time to watch his video and understand better how he came to his conclusion for all types of fats and oils.  You will also pick up some cooking tips from him.

Stir-fried Okra with Eggs

 I usually stir fry or steam okra with chilli paste.  This is an interesting way to cook it with eggs and onions.

Weird Scrambled Eggs Combination

Most children enjoy eating food with eggs added as ingredients.  I wonder if steamed eggs with okra served topped with meat sauce will encourage children to eat their vegetables.

These are the ingredients required to cook it.

Love eating corns?

 Other steaming your corns with salt and butter, you can also make fritters with them.

These are the ingredients required:

Broccoli

 There are two methods to prepare broccoli to cook.  This is the Western way.

I prefer the Chinese way to prepare it. Chef Lau, who used to run a Chinese restaurant, shared in this video how broccoli should be selected and cooked.

I read from Woks of Life that chefs in Chinese restaurants blanch the broccoli first because it cooks faster and speeds up the stir frying process.  This dish can be cooked with meat added.  

These are the ingredients you need to cook the dish:

This is a dish that I cook with pork on a weekly basis because my daughter loves it.  I do not blanch my broccoli to cook it. To wash it, I cut each florets out and soak them in water with coarse salt added.  As the florets will float up, I will place a plate over them so they stay beneath the salted water.

I do not use baking soda as I use a meat mallet to tenderise the pork.

Frozen in this size, I can use them to fry pork cutlets.  I usually cut one to two pieces into strips if I need them in vegetable dishes like this.  This is my simplified method to cook it.

I have been cooking broccoli this way for years.  Maybe it is time to change how I cook and serve it.

Ginger Soya Sauce Chicken

During my younger days, during Chinese New Year, my grandmother will boil a whole chicken.  The boiled chicken will be placed on the altar.  The broth will used to cook chicken rice.  After prayers, the chicken will be cut up to be eaten with the chicken rice.

The leftover chicken from lunch will be used to fry Ginger Soya Sauce Chicken to be served for dinner.   I discovered from this video that the Thais have the same tradition as we Chinese have.  This is a Thai version of Ginger Soy Chicken ไก่เค็ม (gai kem).

These are the ingredients required:

I do not boil a whole chicken for prayers during Chinese New Year too but I boil soup on a daily basis.  I usually steam additional dishes or heat them up over the pot of soup I boil for the day. If I need cooked chicken to make this dish, I will place my cut chicken in a bowl and steam it over my ABC Soup. The liquid in the bowl can be used instead of water to flavour the dish.  I can also pour it into the ABC soup to enhance its flavour even though I have already added pork soup bone to boil it.

This is my Malaysian version of Ginger Soya Chicken.

Cooking on a budget

If you are on a budget, try to cook dishes with ingredients that you commonly have in your kitchen.  Following are the most common stocked ingredients in any household whether Western or Asian dishes are often cook: 

-eggs
-salt
-pepper
-butter
-cheese
-bread

So let us work on making egg sandwiches without adding any fish or meat in it to make it budget friendly.

1st variation:

-Boil 2 eggs

-Mashed it up with the seasonings to taste.

-Spread butter on 2 slices of bread.

-Top 1 slice of bread with the mashed eggs.

-Place second slice of bread over it to eat.

2nd variation:

-Beat 2 eggs with seasonings.

-Heat butter in pan till it melts.

-Pour eggs in to scramble and cook it to your liking, ie, still runny or well cooked.

-Spread butter on 2 slices of bread.

-Top 1 slice of bread with the scramble eggs.

-Place second slice of bread over it to eat.

3rd variation:

-Heat butter in pan till it melts.

-Break an egg in to fry with seasonings.

-Cook it to your liking, ie, well cooked with crispy edges or sunny side up.

-Spread butter on a slice of bread.

-Top it with the egg.

-Fold to eat.

4th variation:

-cook based on variation 1 or 2 or 3.

-toast bread before adding eggs.

-add a slice of cheese.

5th variation:

You can change the flavour of your sandwich by adding what you have in your kitchen. If you often cook, the most common ingredients you are likely to stock is cucumber and tomato. Other greens you can add to your sandwiches without first cooking them are:

-Lettuce

-Onions (I prefer them fried till soft)

-Peppers

-Sprouts

You can also add fruits like these:

-Bananas

-Apples

-Pears

-Strawberries

-Peaches

-Avocado

-Pickles like olives

Check out this link to Fruits and Veggies to see if there are any fruits or vegetables that you can experiment with to make your sandwiches creatively.  

I shared a very good example in an earlier posting of a deep fried sandwich creatively made with commonly used ingredients in Asian and Western dishes:

-Mashed potato

-Mashed eggs

-Mixed veggies (carrots, corn, green peas)

-Minced onion

-Relish

It is actually a popular Korean street food. If I make it on a budget, I will not include sasame seeds and relish since they are not common ingredients in my kitchen. The sausage or other meat of my choice can be added as an option. Since cornstarch and flour are used in making the batter, it will turn out crispy even without coating the sandwich with panko bread crumbs to deep fry.

Also check out the kind of condiments that you can add to your sandwiches to make them tastier too.  Some of them may already be in your kitchen:

-Yellow mustard

-Relish

-Vinegar

-Wasabi

-Hot sauce

-Dijon mustard

-Mayonnaise

-Ketchup

-Barbecue sauce

-Soy sauce

You can watch this video for ideas on how some of the above condiments can be used to make your egg sandwiches more flavourful.

These are the ingredients and steps used for making them:

1st variation:

2 Boiled Eggs (mashed with fork)

Season eggs with:

2 Tbsp Mayonnaise

Pinch of Salt

1/4 Tsp Pepper

1 Tsp White Vinegar

To serve:

Spread mashed eggs on 1 slice of white bread before topping with the other.

2nd variation:

2 Eggs (Scrambled with 1 1/2 Tsp butter)

Season eggs with:

Pinch of Salt

1 Tsp Butter

To serve:

Toast 2 slices of bread.

Spread mayonnaise on both slices of bread before adding scrambled eggs on 1 slice.

Add Pepper to scrambled eggs.

Top that with a few slices of cucumber.

Spread hot sauce on second slice of bread before topping it over first slice of bread.

3rd variation:

2 Eggs (boiled and mashed)

Season eggs with:

2 Tbsp Mayonnaise

1 Tbsp Onion (chopped)

2 Tbsp Coriander (minced)

1/4 Tsp Pepper

1 Tsp Lemon Juice

1/4 Tsp Garlic

To serve:

Spread butter on 2 slices of bread and top 1 slice with eggs.

Sprinkle chili flakes over eggs.

Top with second slice of bread.

Toast one side of bread on pan and spread butter on the other side.

Turn over to toast buttered side.

When you have a budget to meet, always find ways to make use of ingredients before they reach their expiry date.  This bread and eggs topped with cheese breakfast should be an easy meal to cook if you have bread that you have kept in the fridge because it is going stale.  It is also a great way to get rid of overripe tomatoes.

Simple Egg Kimbap (Seaweed Rice Rolls)

I often see kimbap made and eaten on Korean dramas.  I found the recipe for it at Breakfast for One.  There is a video to show how it is made.

It is a great way to clear leftover rice that you have cooked with too much water in it.  If your rice is too dry, you can add water to it and microwave it for a minute or 2.  The total number of ingredients required to make it is 12.

You can also fold the seaweed sheet up if you do not have a mat to roll it up.

Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes

I have been on a look out for recipes for scrambled eggs cooked with tomatoes eversince my son told me that he likes eating his eggs that way.  I think he will like the way this Chinese Eggs & Tomato Stir Fry is done in the video by Thai chef, Pailin "Pai" Chongchitnant.  

This is how it is cooked at a glance.

I have shared many recipes for scrambled eggs as my family loves eating them.

Here is another soup that I discovered I love drinking during a trip to China for a holiday.  It is Hot and Sour Soup.  This is how Chef Lau, who used to run a successful Chinese restaurant in New York made it.

Chef Lau used 21 ingredients to cook his Hot and Sour Soup.  If you are new to Chinese cooking, preparing so many ingredients for a soup can be intimidating.  However, if you break down the steps to parepare and cook it, you will realise that it is not such an arduous task after all.

I am happy to discover that Lotus, where I often buy my groceries from, do supply mix mushrooms.  This pack weighs 400g.

You do not have to use all the types of mushroom mentioned in Chef Lau's recipe.   Here is another version from Dana with no mushrooms.  Her recipe included two secret ingredients that her uncle used in his Chinese restaurant.  They are dried mandarin peel and lily flower.

Check out this article if you do not have Sriracha Hot Sauce in your pantry:

Best Sriracha Substitute: 10 Alternatives Ranked

Pickled Vegetables

Have you tried the acar served with Nasi Lemak at Madam Kwan's.  I like it so much that I have an urge to make my own.

I found this video instruction from The Meatmen Channel.

These are the ingredients required to make it:

2 cucumbers
2 carrots
1/2 chinese cabbage
1/2 cauliflower
5 Long Beans
4 chillies
1L water
650ml white vinegar
10 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp salt
120g shallots
4 cloves garlic
15g tumeric
4 candlenuts
1 stalk lemongrass
100g fresh chillies
50g soaked dried chillies
20g belacan
4 tbsp oil
250g ground peaunts
50g fried shallots
40g toasted white sesame seeds

After checking out the amount of ingredients I will have to prepare to make it, I have decided to go for the simpler Japanese version.  I found the recipes at Japanese Cooking Channel. 

These are recipes I picked out from the video that do not require mirin to make since I do not stock it in my pantry:

The good news is that I can replace mirin with rice vinegar on a 1:1 ratio as substitute.  According to All Recipes, since mirin is much sweeter than rice vinegar, I will have to add about a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar per tablespoon of rice vinegar. 

Here is another recipe I found on Daily Cooking Quest that I would like to try making:

I am glad to read from a comment posted by Anita, the cook, that though kombu will give the pickle a bit of umami, it will still be delicious without it. 

Western Style Roasted Chicken

 You can learn how to carve and plate your roasted chicken by watching this video.

Cooking Clear Soup or Stock

I discovered chef, Jaques Pepin, while reading a question answered on Quora.  If you would like to boil clear soup or stock watch him in this video.  

Here are some tips I picked up from watching this video:

-start boiling the chicken (meat) with cold water so the scum (solidified gelatine from the bone) from it will come to the top.
-do not cover pot while soup is boiling as it will become cloudy.
-remove the scum with a little skimmer during the first 10 minutes of boiling the soup. 
-push fat with ball of laddle and skim it out.
-season soup (he used bay leaf, thyme, black peppercorn, rosemary, and clove).
-reduce heat to simmer soup for 35 minutes.
-turn off heat and let it cool down.
-remove chicken to remove skin and debone it.
-put the bones back into the soup to cook further for 1 hour.
-strain the soup to remove bones and fat by putting a paper towel or two in the strainer.
-you can also keep it in the fridge overnight so that it is easier to remove the cogealed fat.
-wipe pot clean with a paper towel and pour strained soup back in.
-add vegetables to soup to boil for only 20, 25 minutes (he used leak, onion, carrot, butternut squash, mushroom and cabbage).

You can reduce your salt in take in the soup by bringing the flavor up with:

-dry spice like hot pepper, fennel seed, oregano, thyme, rosemary, etc.

-fresh seasoning like onion, parsley chopped, scallion, garlic, the rind of lime and the rind of lemon, cilantro, tarragon, ginger, etc.

-sweet like honey or maple syrup mixed with sour like vinegar, tomato or lemon.
-crystallized the top of meat or fish by heating it on very high heat.

The tips can be applied for making Chinese soups too.

Asam Pedas Fish

I have seen my sister cooked asam fish from scratch and it was quite a tedious effort.  First she must prepare the paste by pounding with a pestle, the following ingredients in a mortar.  That is because we did not have an electric grinder:

Garlic
The white part of lemongrass
Shallots
Dried chillies
Belacan or prawn paste (we knew what she was going to cook when we smelled that)

Then she has to prepare the following ingredients to be added to the dish:

Okras
Tomato 
Daun kesum 
Tamarind pulp

You can watch how it is cooked from scratch in this video.  This cook used more flavouring ingredients in her dish.

So, I am glad I found this Asam Pedas Ikan ready made paste from Mak Nonya.  You can learn how to use the paste from their website.  

Asam Pedas Ikan can be cooked stir fried or steamed.  So, what type of fish are suitable for steaming?  I like the suggestions shared at Mira Gas.  The fish should have less bones and do not have a strong fishy odour.  These are what they recommended:

cod fish
grouper
snapper
sea bass
tilapia
halibut
salmon

If you are steaming a whole fish, look out for fish that has clear eyes, firm flesh and red gills.  However, if you are worried about the muddy flavour or fishy odour of other type fish you use, you can remove it by coating the fish well on all sides with any of the following:

-lime juice
-vinegar
-tamarind juice

You can also remove the odour by soaking the fish in diluted saltwater or rice washing water for about 15 minutes before rinsing it with clean water.  I prefer to rub the fish all over with coarse salt and rinse it off after 15 minutes.

This is how the ingredients are prepared to be steamed:

As I did not boil soup for the day I decided cook the dish by stir frying it.  I used siakap by cutting it into three sections.  I made some changes to the standard instructions given.  I sliced my onion thinly and fry it with garlic oil before adding the paste to fry.  As I do not want to break up the flesh of the fish as I stir fry the vegetables, I added it to cook only after I have poured water into the wok.  The fish will be infused by the flavours of the paste as long as it is completely immersed in the sauce as it cooks.  

Pan Bread Pizza

Since I bake my own bread, I am never short of bread but I am short of ideas of how to serve it till I came across this recipe for Pan Bread Pizza.  Check out how it is make by watching this video.

I have also seen how it is made on Facebook.  The cook turned the bread over to brown the other side before adding the tomato sauce and toppings.  As I prefer my bread fried crispier, I have decided to change the instruction as follows:

I should be able to figure out what other kind of toppings I can use to make my Pan Bread Pizza.

Roasted Chicken

Recently, I visited Giant supermarket and managed to buy a roasted chicken for RM10.  Usually they are selling at RM19.90 each.

When I eat roasted chicken, I remove the flesh with a fork and knife so that the bones and skin from the chicken are clean enough to be used for boiling soup.  

This is how I make soup stock out of the carcass.

-place carcass in a pot.
-add enough water (or soup) to cover it to boil for at least half an hour.
-sieve out soup stock and discard carcass. 

I can use the soup stock to:

-boil porridge with meat from the roasted chicken and flavour it with soya sauce/oyster sauce, garlic oil and white pepper.
-add it to the soup I boil for the day to enhance the flavour.

Recently, I cooked my bell pepper dish again and had some leftovers.  

I decided to mix it with some meat from the roasted chicken.

I did not want to heat it up to eat by microwaving or airfrying it as they may become dry.  So, I decided to make puffs out of them.  This is how they turned out after airfrying under setting for making pies.

 

Kawan is my go to brand for puff pastry.

This time I rolled the pastry up with too much ingredients that, after airfrying them, some of puffs opened up where the ends meet. 

Note:  The next time I made it, I placed half a slice of cheddar cheese on the pastry sheet before adding the ingredients to roll up and airfry.  It tasted even better.

Shortcut for cooking curry ayam

I was looking for curry paste to buy at a supermarket and I came across a Malay lady who was also at the same aisle.  So I asked her which curry paste she would suggest that I buy if I want to make chicken curry.  She suggested that I buy Mak Nyonya Instant Chicken Curry Sauce and that is the only sauce I have been buying since.

If you follow the cooking instruction from Mak Nonya, this is how the paste is used:

-Sauté Instant Chicken Curry Sauce together with 1kg of chicken until aromatic.
-Add in 200gm potatoes and 300ml water, bring to boil.
-Add in 200ml coconut milk and simmer over medium heat until chicken are tender.

It is as shown in this video.

This is my shortcut way to cook it with my airfryer.  

I usually use drumsticks to cook the dish.  Once I have cut them up, I will store them covered in a round metal container.  When it is time to cook, I just take the container out from the freezer, remove the cover and airfry it.  The chicken will not be tender enough after I have airfried it.  After airfrying, do not pour the meat into the wok to saute with the curry paste.  Pick each piece up to add as there will be scums in the container.  After airfrying the potatoes, they will be slightly brown but not soft enough  Simmering them with the coconut milk will do the job. 

Whenever coconut milk is required, I usually use the one from Kara.  But now that I buy my groceries online, I tend to choose whatever is on offer, as long as I am comfortable with the brand of the product.

While I fry my curry paste with garlic oil to make it more aromatic, the cook in this video added shallots and curry leaves before adding the curry paste to fry.  Other than potatoes, she also add carrots, brinjals, onions and long beans.  Instead of cooking the chicken curry in a wok or pot, she used a pressure cooker.  She shared that it will take 15 minutes to cook it in a pressure cooker and 20 minutes in a pot or until potatoes are soft. Check it out.

You can also read how I used to cook curry dishes in an earlier posting at the following link:

Shortcuts for cooking a curry dishes

Substitutes for Potatoes

Do you know that if you run out of potatoes, you can use green bananas as substitute?  You can learn how to cook green bananas by watching this video.

This is a simpler version which is like how you would cook your potatoes but I would rather boil my potatoes in my ABC soup.  Makes me wonder how it will affect the soup flavour if I use green bananas.  I will let you know if I try this experiment.

I would just add butter and not cook the mashed bananas further if they are still hot.

I saw another green bananas recipe on Facebook. Instead of boiling the bananas, the cook grated them.  These are the ingredients required based on the video shared:

I did a search for other substitutes and discovered the following sites:

10 Healthy Alternatives To Mashed Potatoes

9 Low Carb Potato Substitutes + 50 Ways to Use Them

For days, when your bananas are too ripe for the above recipes, you can make pancakes out of them with eggs.

These are the ingredients for making these pancakes.

When to get out

Recently, I came across this question on Quora:

"How do I get my boyfriend to stop blaming everything bad that happens on me? Why does he do this?"

I am a subscriber of Psychology Today and this is what I read from their article, "Why Does Your Narcissistic Partner Always Blame You?":

"People who have narcissistic personality disorder cannot tolerate the idea that they might be to blame, so they accuse someone else instead." 

This is a subject that interest me because I often listen to stories about crimes of passion.  I do not want my children to be stuck in such a relationship and not realise the danger they could put themselves in, being attracted to someone who is narcissistic.

According to Candice DeLong, an acclaimed psychologist and former FBI criminal profiler, narcissists are inveterate liars. They lie not only to others but to themselves. They tend to create a false reality in their lives to cloak their conscience. So, it will not be an easy task for someone to try to "fix them" as they will manipulate people they are involved with into thinking that there is nothing wrong in the relationship.

Due to their insecurity, narcissists will not be happy when their partners are doing well.  Get out of the relationship as:

-they strives on your adoration and will not be happy if you have other interest that does not involves him.
-they are often jealous of your success or ability.
-they often lie to you and will share implausible stories to cover their tracks.

My time spent watching true crime stories has not been in vain as I picked the above information from watching this video about "Narcissist's Obsession".

If you are still wondering whether your partner could be a narcissist, you should check out Danielle Radin on her YouTune channel. She shared top signs that you have a narcissist in your life in the following video:

Watch this video and you will know what your life will be like if you continue to stay in the relationship.

My alone time

When the children were younger, there was a trick I used to play on my family.  I used to pretend that I hate ironing clothes.  My ironing board is located in the laundry room which is along a small corridor at the back of the house.  I would tell my children, looking sad, that I had to iron clothes.  I get them to watch their favourite TV programes with their father, before I head to the laundry room. Their father will ensure that they do not distrub me while I was ironing.  

That was the most alone time I had for myself.  I had a portable radio there and I would listen to some cassette tapes that I had picked up from the Buddhist society.  They were moral educational tapes with very interesting story lines.  I remember one about a well-known noble man in ancient time.  A young boy insulted him in public and people around were surprised that he was not punish for being disrespectful.  A few years later the noble man regreted forgiving the young boy because he grew up fearless and killed someone.  It did influence the way I raised my children.

Punishment is not for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the criminal.
-Elizabeth Fry 

Now that the children are older, I have more time to myself and I still spend thoes moments listening to stories.  This time I use my mobile phone. Other than while I am ironing the clothes, I also do it while I am doing these mundane chores at home:

-weeding the garden
-cooking meals for the family
-doing the laundry

I am now addicted to listening to true crime stories on YouTube.   I also (mostly) listen and watch (now and then) them while I am taking my lunch alone at my bike shop or while I crochet. It stops my mind from wandering to matters I don’t want it to think about. Self pity will be one of them if I am doing a chore that I feel I should not be working on.

I have been told that watching/listening to crime stories is very negative as there are fights and death involved. But you will be surprised at the amount of information I can learn by listening to some of my favourite YouTubers. From them I learn about:

-the people and the environment of the towns where the crime occured (geography).
-the crime rate of the states involved (statistics).
-how crimes are solved (how investigators work).
-how scientific methods are used to solve crimes (science).
-how criminals think (psychology).
-why or how criminals kill and hide their crimes (life stories that led to the murders).
-the victims (how relationships can trigger crime of passion).
-unsolved crimes (which I can create awareness by sharing the stories)
-information of crimes that occured in other countries (general knowledge).
-sentencing of the criminals (law and how court hearings are conducted)

Do you know that the judicial system in South Korea is very lenient for sex offenders. A rapist sentence was reduced as he claimed that he was drunk when he raped an eight-year-old girl. When he was released he returned to his former residence which is less than 1km from the victim’s home. It is also not far away from schools and playgrounds where he had been seen hanging around. 

I picked that story up from Rotten Mango. 

You can learn a lot about Asian culture if you listen to Stephanie Soo on her podcast and YouTube channel. I also like it that, she is creating awarteness by highlighting what is actually going on so that we can take actions to push for change that will help victims of crimes.

How negative is that?

Rice Paper Meals

I shared how I can make braised pork and meat floss with soup bone earlier and after discovering that I can serve meat floss in rice paper, I became interested in finding recipes for them.  So, I am glad that Beryl Shereshewsky also shared such recipes in the following video because she had leftover rice paper from her last video.

There are additional recipes from this video for me to check out.

This looks so easy to make.  Just marinate bite size pieces chciken breast with salt, pepper and curry powder before wrapping each piece with softened rice paper to pan fry for 5 minutes.

Airfry 2-Ingredient Milk Bread

Yes, you can bake a bread in the airfryer too.  What I like about this bread recipe which I found on Tik Tok is that I require only two ingredients to make it.

You can learn to change the flavour of this bread by watching this video.