Few Sundays back at Ah Mah’s house, my Dad, cooked the best Ngau Lum Soup aka. Beef Brisket Soup for us. I had a chat with Dad the week before he cook this,.I told him I had the most expensive beef noodles at one of the coffee shop in Sec17, PJ during lunch.  I ordered a bowl of beef noodle add some ngau lum and  beef balls and that stupid bowl cost me RM12. Gosh… why so expensive one?

The week after that Sunday, I reached Ah Mah’s house and Dad told me there are Ngau Lum Soup at the kitchen. I love my Dad so much and he cooked a big pot of it. Eat till you drop. So sorry that there is no recipe to share cos when I asked the recipe from him, I felt it is so complicated to prepare. There are so many ingredients needed in order to cook this. Anyway, just forget about it. When I see the list of herbs and spices he used, I can faint. >’-'<

I am looking around for a new set of cooking pan. The expensive one from TUPPERWARE got burnt and I don’t think so they can either repair it back for me or ex-change a new one for me.  A friend introduced me to the all clad copper core cookware. Once I see it I fall for it. I think I am going to invest a whole set for my kitchen since it is also lifetime warranty products. 

The rice dumpling festival is here again. There is many types of dumpling i.e: Nyonya Chang, Hakka Chang , Pillow Chang,and many more. For me, I still like the version of Hokkien Bak Chang the most. With a big piece of fat pork belly inside the rice dumpling, wow… it makes me salivaing now. Learnt it from my Ah Kors and Dad in order to make a nice rice dumpling, you must have some fats from the pork so the rice is oily enough.

So this is my version of Hokkien Bak Chang and I used 500gm of glutinous rice and yield about 20 pieces of rice dumpling. What I do is, before I start wrapping, I divided everything into 20 portions in order for me to get an even wrapping. Nothing is bigger or smaller. Everything is ngam ngam. Hehehe

Ingredients :
500gm glutinous rice, soaked for 2 hours, then washed and drained well
Bamboo leaves and hemp string for wrapping

Filling ( everything divide into 20 pieces ):
Pork belly, cut about an inch
Dried mushrooms, soaked overnight
Dried chestnuts, soak in boiling water, discard the impurities then boil until soft
A handful of dried prawns, soak in warm water and chop into small pieces
1/2 cup mung beans - soak overnight, drain and add a pinch of salt and mix well
1 tsp chicken stock granules

Seasoning:
1 tbsp Chinese Five Spice powder
3 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp dark soya sauce
2-3 tbsp oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
6 shallots, sliced thinly

Method :
1. Soak bamboo leaves and hemp string in boiling water overnight. Clean and wipe the leaves with a damp cloth.
2. Heat oil and saute shallots and garlic until fragrant. Keep half of it for the rice.  The add in pork, dried prawns, chestnuts, mushrooms and seasoning. Stir well. Add 1/2 cup water and 1 tsp chicken stock granules. When pork is cooked, switch off fire and dish out filling ingredients.
3. Mix glutinous rice with the remaining fried shallots and farlic, 1 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp five spice powder, 1 tbsp dark soya sauce and 1 tsp salt. Stir thoroughly. Heat kuali and stir-fry seasoned glutinous rice till heated through. Remove to a big bowl and stir in mung beans. Mix well.
4.Take two bamboo leaves, make them overlap slightly and fold into a conical shape. Put 1 tbsp rice into the funnel base. Add a piece of pork belly, mushroom, and chesnut. Cover with some more rice. Fold leaves over rice to form a triangular prism. Tie with hemp string.
5. Boil a large pot of water. Drop the bundles of dumplings in and boil for about 2  hours over medium slow fire. Top constantly with boiling water to maintain level of water at all times. When cooked, remove the dumplings and hang to dry.

Note : You can add other filling like Chinese sausages, dried oyster, or scallops and salted egg yolk. 

I was at a friend condominium yesterday night to pass her some dumpling. I love her house and her patio furniture that come with an outdoor patio cushions. I did consider with Dearie Suki whether to get one condominium as our second house. It was in our plan either a condominium or a single story house so that we can stay when we were old. Both of us wouldn’t expect that our two kids will stay with us when they started their own family. Hence, its good that we start to plan now. Hehehe

I miss the night market in SS13, Subang Jaya. When I was with my ex-company, every Tuesday without miss, I will buy my cooking stuffs there. It was almost a year I didn’t step in the night market there. I used to buy a lot of Snake Head Fish ( Sang Yue ) from one of the stall there. But ever since I left, hardly I cook this fish for my son, Ee-Thern. It is quite hard to find this fish at the market nearby my house. You will only see it once in a blue moon at the wet market in SK.

Last weekend, when I was at the market, I found it. Bought two of it back home. That afternoon itself, I steamed one of it. The fish is quite big though and I divide it into two. I steamed it with Chinese herbs, i.e: Dong Kwai and Wolfberries with a dash of Hsiao Hsing Wine. The outcome is superb. The kids love the fish and also the fish essence dripping during the steaming. They can really eat a big plate of rice with it.

Ingredients :
1 medium size Snake Head Fish ( Sang Yue ), cleaned
Spring onion, cut into 1 inch length
Some young ginger, cut into thin strips
Salt, pepper and sesame oil for seasoning
5 pieces of Dong Kwai
A handful of wolfberries
1 tbsp Hsiao Hsing Wine
2 tbsp soy sauce
Some deep fried shallot / garlic with the oil

Method :
1. Clean the fish and season with some salt, pepper and sesame oil.
2. In an stainless steel oval plate, place fish, ginger strips,dong kwai, Hsiao Hsing wine and half of the spring onions on the plate. Sprinkle the wolfberries over the fish.
3. Steam over high heat for about 15 minutes.
4. Once done, pour the soya sauce and deep fried shallots/ garlic with the oil over the fish. Top with the remaining spring onion on top of the fish. Serve hot with white rice.

Remarks : Don’t over steam the fish as the fish meat will get hard.

I tried to do minimal stir frying nowadays because I am just too tired to clean the kitchen after cooking. Though I have a wet kitchen, but still, I just don’t feel like cleaning it. Trying to go as healthy as possible, I’ve been steaming and grilling a lot lately. The fresh button mushroom is on sale again last week at Tesco. Got 30% off and quickly grab 3 boxes. One box I used it to cook with spaghetti for the kids and another 2 boxes I grilled it over the oven this afternoon. I love it and the kids love it too.

Ingredients :
2 boxes fresh button mushroom, sliced
Some chopped garlic
Spring onion, cut into 1 inch length
Few dabs of butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Aluminium foil

Method :
1. Place sliced button mushroom, chopped garlic and spring onion on the aluminium foil.
2. Add few dabs of butter on it.
3. Sprinkle some salt and pepper and wrap up the foil.
4. Grill in the pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes.
5. Before you serve, sprinkle some black pepper on it.

I love weekend. Why? Because I will start watching the Korean or Taiwanese drama on full swing. Which means, after the kids slept, I will start to watch till early morning before the part time maid come. Terror or not? Dearie Suki was wondering why I am so energetic and won’t feel sleepy the next day. Sigh… I also don’t know why. But the bad thing is, I had a very big dark circles under my eyes this morning. Gosh… I looks like a panda bear. Hahaha

Hehehe… you must be curious what is this all about. Went for a free health screening in office last week and the medical officer told me I need to lost another 10kg. Gosh… ever since I work in this new company, I’ve lost 5kg and now they told me I got another 10kg to go. My colleagues were laughing 10kg equal to a big bag of rice. Losing the 5kg is just so hard and now I have another 10kg to go. Some of them recommended quicktrim.Will this work on me?

Went  to the beauty salon for facial last night after work. The lady boss who did the facial for me told me there is sign of wrinkles around my eyes. She  recommended me to go for a facial injection on my face.  I wouldn’t dare to do that because she is not a certified doctor to do that. Anyway I told her just recommend me the best wrinkle creams in town will do. I just don’t dare to go for the jab.

Dearie Suki came back last night and told me he had signed for a membership at the fitness center near to our house. I wonder where he has the time to go for workout at the gym.  Sigh… but now I know why because he would expect me to pick up on the days when he is suppose to go to the gym. There are many fitness center around in town. I think he must be serious this round because he signed for the ab workout plus a personal trainer to guide him. Gosh… this has cost him few thousand poorer this month.