Kimchi Fried Rice

It's been a while since I've felt like cooking something new.

We've come back to Ningbo for about a month now and in that time, I've cooked almost daily but nothing new. Just simple dishes and stir fries. We try to minimize eating out because it is quite difficult to enjoy our food and have to entertain Micah.

When we do eat out, I take some pictures but end up not being able to blog about it because of the Great Firewall. I've got a VPN service now - blogging has revived and so has cooking.

I've had kimchi in my fridge since our visit to the Korean restaurant. As much as I like it, I didn't find myself eating it often and looking at what's left, I doubt I'm going to finish it this year! And I've been wanting to try my hand at fried rice. Why not Kimchi Fried Rice.

It is no secret that to cook great fried rice, you should use overnight rice. The grains are less moist and remain nice and fluffy after frying. I cooked extra rice yesterday so that I could fry some today.

But sadly my rice was still soggy - just like all my previous attempts at fried rice. I figured that the heat for the wok is not hot enough. I was doing fine until I added beated eggs. I even had this method of frying up portions of rice so that I could make it fry evenly but it didn't matter because when I added the eggs, it didn't cook quick enough, instead got absorbed by the rice. Now I can't even tell that there are eggs in the rice!

I think I'd better fry the eggs separately next time and add it in. Or have more patience to wait for the eggs to set a bit in a well I made in the wok of rice before mixing it all up. Sigh!

Anyways the recipe is simple - garlic, onions (diced), fry until fragrant, add meat (I chose chicken), add kimchi cabbage which were chopped up together with the juice and finally, eggs. The method varies from one recipe to another but I think you get the picture.

I don't think David was impressed - it wasn't even spicy because Micah had a few mouthfuls of the rice :)

Bread

It took my few failed attempts to spur David to try and bake bread himself. He was successful on his 2nd attempt after lots of googling and tips from friends on Facebook! He is sure is proud of his bread! It has become his weekend task now and he bakes 2 at a go. Micah is enjoying the bread too.

Blocked

This is seriously not good. I can blog but I can't seem to get pictures posted. There are other ways but all seem to be limited somewhat. This is getting so frustrating.

I even tried purchasing a VPN but it didn't work so I am now waiting for my refund.

I gotta preservere and beat this!

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Jjajangmyeon

Watching Korean drama series get me hungry for Korean food. I watched a series where the lead actress was eating Jjajangmyeon all the time. In the story, she suffered amnesia and the first meal she had after being discharged from the hospital was Jjajangmyun. After that she sure ate a lot of it. And got me interested to try it too!

I finally tried it. It wasn't as delish as it was made out to be in the TV series but it wasn't too bad. A tad bland after eating Kimchi but it can count as comfort food.

I doggie bagged a portion of kimchi and was given another portion free by the proprietress. I can't wait to try and cook fried kimchi rice.

Pipa Fruit

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Originally uploaded by Tracy Tan

Loquat as it is more famously known, is in season. I first saw it a few days ago in the compound garden. (The garden is quite amazing - it has such variety of plants, bushes and trees. Some flowering, some fruiting. And there is something to observe almost every season). And so we were pushing Micah on his new trike and noticed this tree with lots of yellow/orange fruit. At first I thought it was kumquat but the shape of the fruit didn't correspond. With no one to ask, we just walked on. There was a sign on the tree but we can't read Chinese - in fact the management has labeled some of the plants around with its scientific names.

Yesterday, David's business partner gave us some fruits - it was a box of the yellow/orange fruit. I still didn't know what it was until David asked them today - they said it was pipa or peipa (Cantonese). The only peipa I know is my sore throat/cough medicine - King To Nin Jiom Pei Pa Kao! And now I am eating the actual fruit.

When I started writing this post, I hadn't tried it. David had and didn't have anything good to say - he mentioned that it was too troublesome to peel the skin, take out the seeds and remove a layer of translucent membrane inside. And it is a small fruit.

I had to try it myself. I stopped writing and went to eat one so that I can describe it. It was like eating a cross between a peach and a mango in texture but honestly the fruit is almost tasteless! And I agree. It is quite troublesome.

I wondered if I could use it to cook since there was a whole boxful of it or else it will be given away to our friendly security guards at the basement carpark. I found loquat chutney recipe.

The only question now is whether I'd want to sit and peel, deseed and remove the membranes of like a thousand of these fruits to make that chutney! Maybe Micah can help!!!!!

Note: I have to say that our stay in China is very 'fruitful'. I've tasted many new things and learned more about Chinese foodstuff we get in Malaysia (usually dried or preserved) or in medicines. My blogging about it also forces me to do research and now I know more.

Pumpkin Talam

The inaugural meeting of the Onde Onde Club started without me! But no matter - it is great to share from afar, especially since I've got other members who stepped up and took photos and did a write up!

Photos were taken by Rachel and the write up by Ling. All got to sample except Celia and me! And this is what Ling wrote:

What a better way to meet a fellow Malaysian than inviting her to make some kuih together! Pumpkin talam is an invention by our Onde Onde club consultant, Grace Chew (who is now in the heart of Africa while Sarah raids her garden!). Sarah, being the president of the club, did her share by providing all the ingredients! Rachel, our new member, took the responsibility of taking pictures when our official photographer had to keep up with her jet-set life style flying off to China! (Note: that would be referring to me!)

The pumpkin came from Grace's garden. I had to use my cleaver and a lot of muscle work to cut open the pumpkin. I used a quarter of the pumpkin to produce 2 cups of mashed pumpkin for the kuih. It was easily done, yes, you guessed it, just microwave it until pumpkin is soft and can be mashed easily. Then, we added water, sugar, tapioca flour and rice flour. Mix well and steam probably for about 15 minutes or until it's cooked. While we waited for the bottom layer to cook, Sarah started preparing the top layer. To make ourselves feel less guilty in terms of how fattening this kuih is, we used light santan! Mix santan, rice flour, tapioca flour and salt together.

When the bottom layer (pumpkin layer) is cooked, just pour the santan mixture on top and steam further until top layer is cooked. This is the agonizing part - patience!! We couldn't cut the kuih immediately as it had to be cooled down to set. So, Sarah and Rachel went home empty handed! But I promised to deliver the kuih to them the following day.

Recipe:

Bottom layer

2 cups of mashed pumpkin

1.5 cup of water

1 cup of sugar

1 1/3 cup tapioca flour

2/3 cup rice flour

Top layer

1 tin (400ml) santan

1/2 cup rice flour

2 tbsp tapioca flour

1 tsp salt to taste

Wonder what should we make for our next Onde Onde club meeting!! Any ideas?

Ling, Onde Onde Club VP

Organically grown pumpkin from Grace's garden.

When we visited their house early this year they were so tiny.

Pumpkin layer

Coconut milk layer on top of pumpkin layer

The finished dessert!

Restoran Siow Tiow

Ah, Klang food! It was either BKT or Siow Tiow, this round. There are so many good food restaurants to choose from but my cravings were limited to these 2.

BKT stands for Bah Kut Teh and the Klang style is termed 'kau' referring to the dark colored soup - my favorite type. Why choose? - have both! Suggests Meng, my ex business partner. We were law firm partners and the office is in Klang where he still operates. So a visit to Klang would inevitably include him and the generous fella did a stealth maneuver and paid the bill at Siow Tiow.

The food at Siow Tiow is consistently good. Everything taste just the same - the only difference is that the elderly lady waitress is not there anymore - the one who would complain if you ordered too much! I kinda miss her - she was always nice to me.

There's no menu and they don't serve white rice or provide chili padi. And there are only a handful of dishes to order but they cook them well.

First things first - a full bowl of red chilies and chopped garlic are served together with a bottle of light soya sauce and another for dark/thick soya sauce. We were early and the bowls were still full. These get passed from table to table. Condiment for all the food.

The first dish was something new. Meng ordered Abalone Kerabu! It was an interesting addition. A generous serving of abalone on a bed of onions, cucumber, spring onions and tomatoes with a sweet garlic sauce. They don't go easy on the garlic here.

Next came the Oyster Omelette. The oysters seem to get smaller and smaller - my only grouse. Otherwise the eggs were done just right - not too well cooked and leek is added which makes the Siow Tiow style a little different from the rest I've eaten.

Then came my favorite - Hokkien Noodles. Yellow noodles fried with some pork slices and green leafy vege. The dark and thick soya sauce makes this dish all caramel like and a bit sweet.

Then the Pièce de résistance. Steamed pomfret fish! Steamed to perfection all the time and topped with so much garlic that unless everyone at the table eats, the odd person out might have a hard time being up close and personal with us! And it isn't enough. Most of us dab more dark soya sauce with garlic before savoring the nice plumb white meat of the fish.

We had only 4 dishes and it was surprisingly enough for the 5 of us - even without rice. We took leave of our other friends and headed to pack BKT before leaving Klang. Our dinner plans are made! And I have satisfied all my cravings.

Lastly a picture of the shopfront. My friend Doris commented that with a facade like this, it's hard to believe that the food is good! Or that they serve abalone :)

The Onde Onde Club

What was said jokingly turned out to be a great name for our group. The Onde Onde Club is born. Forged together by a craving for Malaysian food, we have decided to put saliva into action (not literally speaking of course!). We need to recruit more members in Brisbane. We hope to get together to cook and eat. We are pooling our resources - experience, ingredients and knowledge - hoping to eat our way through life away from Malaysia.