Nam yue, nam yue, I love you! π Nam yue εδΉ³ or also known as hung fu yue η΄ θ δΉ³ is red-colored fermented bean curd. The red color is obtained by using red yeast rice. Whether it’s fried, braised, grilled, steamed or roasted, nam yue tastes fantabulous with pork. In this post, I’ll be sharing a roasted nam yue pork recipe.
Roasted nam yue pork ribs with meat. π
I was introduced to ginseng soup at a young age by my grandma and mom. During all those growing up years, I have never felt any after effect from drinking ginseng soup. Young and energetic ma. It’s only when I got much older that I can finally feel the differences in my body the day after. Ginseng helps boost one’s energy. Whenever I go for a holiday, I would pack a packet of sliced ginseng with me. If I got tired of walking or depleted of energy, I would pop one in the mouth.
To make the ginseng soup extra therapeutic (in Hokkien & Cantonese we say poh), we add black chicken. Black chicken doesn’t mean chicken with black feathers. It means the skin, meat and bones are black! We usually buy black chicken at the morning market or wet market. You can also find black chicken in some supermarkets. They are pricier than regular chicken, with good reason!
What can you do with wild pepper plant (pokok kaduk in Malay)? Why not use it as wrappers to make cute meat parcels?
Minced pork wrapped in wild pepper leaves. π
Wild pepper plant is also known as wild betel, however, it’s better to call it by its former name. Because you see, the name wild betel is most often confused with another almost similarly named plant, called betel (sirih in Malay). The shape and color of the betel leaf can look quite similar to wild pepper from a distance. However, both taste a world’s apart. Anyway, make sure to use the correct leaf for this recipe ya. If not, you’ll be in for a big shock! Hehe
Garlic fried rice is such a norm dish in Japanese restaurants that one never realizes one can make it right at home too, very easily in fact. At least that was my case. Haha My sister cooked a very perfume-y butter infused garlic fried rice recently for her packed lunch, and that got me inspire to cook for my mom’s and my own packed lunch. While she had a vegan patty to accompany her garlic fried rice, I choose to go with the more straightforward route, that is with prawns (ebi γ¨γ in Japanese).
Fried prawns were what I had in mind. That’s when I stumbled upon tatsuta-age. Both tatsuta-age η«η°ζγ and the more common karaage εζγ has the -age ending which means deep-fried. But what are their differences? For tatsuta-age, the ingredient is marinated and then coated with potato starch and fried. For karaage, the ingredient is coated with seasoned wheat flour and deep fried. Although karaage nowadays are mostly marinated as well. Confuse still? The main differentiator is the use of non-similar coating; potato starch vs wheat flour. If you find a karaage using potato starch, most likely it’s actually a tatsuta-age. Do correct me if I’m wrong.
Hi all, here’s wishing you a very Happy Chinese New Year! Wellness and prosperity always. π
There’s one more day before CNY is over! π
I’ve always known I can make toasted grated coconut easily, and yet my ego always gets the better of me. It tells me to just forget it. LOL. These days (well, since last year), I’m all about learning and finding ways to reduce waste as much as possible. When it comes to food waste, it’s certainly a very big concern. We can definitely reduce food wastage with the right mindset and ideas. Using all parts of an ingredient is the first step, and cooking food just enough for the right amount of people, or/and keep the leftovers for next day consumption are the next best moves.
Homemade toasted grated coconut.
Throwback to 3 weeks before 2018 CNY, sis and me made kuih kapit following my grandma’s recipe after 9 long years. Kuih kapit (love letters) uses lots of santan (coconut milk), and if I’m my old self, I would have discard the used grated coconut after squeezing all the juice out. The new me put the leftover grated coconut in a bowl and freeze it (as we’re busy making kuih kapit that day), intending to make toasted coconut when I’m freer. Click to read my kuih kapit making experience, recipe and tips (both are old posts).
I’ve never dealt with red lentil before, so when my cooking plan went a bit off track (lentil became too mushy for salad), I tweaked it to become a dip. And that’s how this recipe came to life. Also, I actually wanted to make arrowhead chips out of the arrowhead, and since I have a mandolin issue, I decided to be creative with the arrowheads that I have on hand. And that’s how I used the arrowheads for this dip, and also for this miso noodle soup.
