Stir Fried - Cashew Nut Shrimp

 Do you know that it claimed that the Chinese method of stir frying is one of the healthiest ways in which we can cook food? This is because the food is cooked extremely quickly, at a very high temperature, preventing most of the natural nutrients being lost. All you need is a good wok and some fresh ingredients!

You will need some prawns, cashew nut (fried), friend chillies (fried-only add at last), onions (cubed), spring onions, ginger and garlic. For seasoning a little fish sauce, dark soya sauce(sweetened one preferred). I sometimes like to marinate my prawns in a little sesame oil, chinese wine and soya sauce before stir frying them. I believe it adds some flavour.

Heat the wok and fry the onions, garlic and ginger until fragrant. Now, add in the prawns, and let them turn pink. Add in the appropriate amount of seasoning. and once it taste good-throw in the dried chillies and cashews. Of course- the spring onions too!

That is all too it. Just make sure your wok is hot enough. Serve with plain rice, steaming hot...and you don't need anything else to complete the meal.

Papa John's Pizza- Just For a Change...

It has always been Domino's or Pizza Hut for a common Malaysian family when it comes to pizza, so why not try Papa John's for a change. I have seen some reviews that say that Papa John's Pizza is not as nice as the other two giants. But to me it is a matter of taste.

So what makes Papa John’s Pizzas taste so good?  I love the generous serving of their complimentary garlic butter and pizza sauce which came with each order. Thank god,  they don’t charge extra for requesting additional sauces. While some people may want to dip their bite size crust into the sauce, others love to gobble up my pizza with the sauces on the toppings. I however, like to dip my breadstix into the sauce for ultimate satisfaction. Papa John's Breadstix taste way better than Pizza Huts.

Garlic Butter Sauce

Pizza Sauce

Dip and Enjoy!

The menu boast a selection of different types of pizzas. I do like the pizza here, because the crust is just nice, neither too thick nor too thin. In addition to that, I found the pizza less greasy. Below were the pizzas we had the other day.

They also have this pickled jalapeno pepper (I think). Sorry...i bit off the tip...hehehe...

Steamed Fish Head - Old Klang Road

This is my third visit to this restaurant. It is not actually a restaurant, more like a huge stall. Right after Old Klang Road. Westcourt, there is a sort of overhead or fly-over-and right below this, is the restaurant.

My first visit was because of their Bak Kut Teh. Every time we use pass by, we noticed the crowd, so we thought we should try the place judging from the crowd. What we failed to notice on our first visit was. their speciality which was the Steamed Fish Head. We only got to know when we queried the waitress when we were paying the bill.

The next time we went we ordered, the Steamed Fish Head, Ginger style. The do have quite a few varieties of this dis, but they always use the head. They have Ginger Style(whic we tried-but I don't have photo-due to our excitement of the dish, we gobbled it all up before we could take some shots), Assam Style(photos below), Soya Sauce and some more which I can remember.

The restaurant owner said they used a fish known as Tongsan. The meat was fatty in a good way, and quite meaty and fullfilling. Their fish is always fresh, and when served steamed, and steaming hot, goes perfectly well with white rice. Since it was a Bak Kut Teh outlet, we always order a bowl of Bak Kut Teh to complete the meal. On top of that, Bak Kut Teh is my son's favorite, so we just had to order one. Their Bak Kut Teh is light, and is not overpowering. So for those who like a mild tasting Bak Kut Teh, this will definitely suit their taste buds.

Price wise, they do charge a very fair price. A meal for three, with Fish Head and Bak Kut Teh, a pot of tea and rice cost approximately MYR45. Not too bad....

A Fresh Family Dish - Chicken Meatball Spaghetti

This hearty chicken meatball tomato with spaghetti is easy to make and a true comfort food. Meatballs itself is greta, but I added a twist by adding my own ingredients to it. The fun part is on the assembly of the dish.  Remember to sprinkle a generous amount of cheese on the top....

 Here's a quick and simple pasta using ready made sauce from the supermarket, but with a luxurious feel. Try this easy recipe for a fast meal, or to impress your family and friends.

Chicken Meatball
Minced Chicken
Grated Carrots
Coriander Leaves(sliced thinly)
Tumeric
 Chilli Powder
A little cumin seeds
Egg & Cornflour

Mixed all the ingredients together, and let it marinate. Make into balls and fry them.

Meatball sauce
Pasta sauce (I like to used Prego)
Cream
Milk
Grated Cheese
Mushrooms(sliced them small-you can use any type)
Garlic
Olive oil.

Hubby packed this for dinner...and some for his friends too....

Fry the garlic in olive oil until fragrat. Add the sliced mushrooms and fry them too. Then add in the pasta sauce and let it simmer. Add cream and milk accordingly, and grate some cheese in. Let the sauce cook, and add in the meatball and let it simmer. Allow the meatballs to take in all the flavour from the sauce.
 Boil your pasta separately. Cool them off, and assemble.

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Colourful Variety of Malay Desserts.

Isn't this such a pretty sight? All the colours, yummy, sooo apetizing... These are some sweet treats that can be found here in Malaysia.

Little chewy balls with a surprise centre and fluffy coating above is called Ondeh-Ondeh.These are pleasantly soft chewy balls made from glutinous rice paste with sweet gula Melaka or palm sugar filling and coated with fluffy, slightly salty grated coconut.

Another sweet treat, Kuih Dadar, a type of green pancake made of rice flour and the colour is from the "daun pandan"or screwpine leaves , and is filled with grated, sweetened coconut.

We also had the pulut inti  ~ steamed glutinous rice with coconut milk, topped with shredded coconut in palm sugar and wrapped in banana leaf.
With so many sweet treats around, well it is hard to watch our weight, isn't it? Hahaha...

Sate Galore @ Haji Samsuri, Kajang

It was the weekend, and I am relieved of my cooking. Then it now time to crack our heads to decided what to eat. It has been some time, since we had sate. We wanted to go for a short drive at Putra Jaya, so we thought that we can drop by "the Haji Samsuri" for sate. Sate Kajang Haji Samuri is a famous Sate Kajang fast food restaurant chain Malaysia. My, oh, my...look at how things have changed! Sate is a fast food now!!
Sate Kajang Hj Samuri is the most successful satay operator from Kajang and it is a huge business with outlets everywhere.

I find their sate taht the rest because the portions are bigger at RM0.60 per stick for the chicken, RM1.20 for mutton ans RM2.00 for rabbit. They also have  beef, tripe, liver and fish varieties. We wanted to try the venison but they did not have when went there.Besides a bigger portion you get on a stick, they have also removed all the pesky fats and chewy bits from the meat making it an easier meal for everyone.

However, what attracts me the most is the delicious peanut sauce. The suace is a thick peanut sauce which comes with the separate sambal. You can customized your gravy according to your taste, you can add as much sambal as you like to give it all the kick you wish. A must have of course is the Nasi Impit (Compressed Rice Cubes in English) that goes so well with the sauce. If you wish for something besides satay, the outlet also serves nasi goreng, nasi paprik and mee bandung, but it was not to my taste. Go there for the sate.


In short, the sate is good, not great, there may be other sate sellers who may have a better version(I do not know). But it is worth a try, and multiple visits.

Instant Roti Canai or Paratha

 Well, another simple meal formula....It is easy to go out and grab some roti canai. But it is healthier to take one frozen piece from the fridge and fry it myself. I bought the Kawan Puff paratha from Giant, which I would say is pretty good. Just take the frozen dough, and allow it to defrost for a while. Heat up the pan (here I used the pan that we Indian use to make thosai). I chose to add ghee, to add some luxury to it. You do know that in most shops, they use majerine...yucks. Toast it over the hot pan, add more ghee if you want.Turn it a few turns and tadaaa…puffy pratha done to perfection.

Now, how do you want to have your roti canai. It such a diverse dish, that you can eat it with anything, if you put your imagination to it. Just look at all those mamak stall, and how they serve the roti canai. Anyway let's keep it simple here... I cooked prawn and drumstick curry, so my boy chose to have that option.

I, however, had mine with sugar. Well, there you go, one of our national dish-The Roti Canai...

Claypot Fish Head(Pork Free Version) : A One Pot Dish

One Pot Dish, indeed....there is so much of deliciousness in it, you don't need any other dish. It is such a simple dish, and one does not need any skill to make this dish. A mother's dream, I would say..hassle free dish.

I was introduced to this dish when I was a small girl. My family and I used to frequent this very "antique" Chinese Restaurant in a market, back in my hometown-I think we used to call it Fatty Restaurant. Mind you, not only the restaurant does not exist anymore, the market has also long been shifted...I remember my mom tried to replicate the dish as home, and it was one of our favorite "luxury" food back then.

It has been years, and years now, and I have just decided to try this dish. Luckily, I was spot on, whereby, the dish turned out perfectly nice, and everyone loved it..

Guess, no harm in sharing my version...

Fish Head                                                                                                      

Mushrooms, Carrots, Cauliflower, Japanese To-Fu, Capsicum, Chinese Cabbage (these are the veges I used, but you can add anything you like as long as the taste does not clash)                                                         

Onions(cubes), Garlic (light crushed) , Ginger (Sliced)                        

Seasoning : Oyster Sauce, Fish Sauce, Corn Flour                               

Marinate : Turmeric, Salt, Egg, Cornflour 

Rinse fish head and cut into pieces, season with  salt ,tumeric and a little corn flour.Break an egg and mix .Leave it to marinate for a while. Heeat up oil, coat fish heads with corn flour and deep fry until golden brown, dish up and drain.

Heat up some oil, fry it garlic, ginger and onion until fragrant. Add in oyster sauce, and a little fish sauce Add in the mushrooms, carrots (any hardy veges) and the Japanese To-Fu (The To-Fu is added in early so it can absorb the flavour.Add in the rest of the veges (except any leafy veges, and anything else that you want crunchy). I left out the Chinese Cabbage leaves and the Capsicums because I wanted them crunch. Then add in the fish. Let it simmer until the veges cook, and the fish absorbs the flavour. Add liquid accordingly.Add a little corn flour to some water. Add the mixture and add remaining veges. Simmer for 5 min or so. Serve hot with steam rice.

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Cream Crackers-Pauper's Food??

Ever wondered where is the cream on the cream cracker...haha...? Anyway, when we think about the humble cream-cracker, we think poor man's biscuit or sick man's biscuit, right? Well, can't blame kid's nowadays, beacuse we have the Oreos, Famous Amos, Chipsmores and etc.. so why take a second look at our down-to-earth cream cracker...

Above is a the upgrade version of the cream crackers with sugar granules. I love this version of the biscuits because of the sugar. There other other version like the ones made of corn, I think, and even butter ones, which are slight yellowish in colour, and does taste a little oily.
I took the photo because I think the sugar looks nice with its sugar granules.

The simple biscuit accompanied with a cup of nescafe, and the wee hours of the day, as you watch a late nice movie...hmmm...imagine...good huh...

A shot of how I made my cup of coffee..yummy...healthy or not, I am not going to argue on that.

Very Good, Almost Original Sarawak Kolo Mee- Bintang Food Court

Kolo Mee is almost  like Wan Tan Mee, well minus the wan tan's and varies a little in taste. There is this stall in Bintang Food Court, Puchong that sells this type of noodle.

 The springy egg noodle, lightly coated with  sauce gives it a hint of sweetness and topped with minced pork and char siew slices. As you eat more, it get better and better.

It is served with soup(plain), and cut chillies(basically soaked in vinegar). If you find it too dry, just add on the soup, and mix,mix,mix, and just wallop it!!

It is simply an appetizing sight, but, nonetheless, it is equally good in taste.The stall owner (uncle) is a very pleasant man, and for MYR4.00, he gives a reasonable helping of noodles.I can't say if this is the best Kolo mee, in town, because I don't really enjoy hawker food in KL. I am from Penang-the Land of Food, so that is the actual reason I dont like KL hawker food(no pun intended). So I have not surveyed many places yet, but what I know is I love everything about this Kolo Mee.

Tea Time Snacks

I shall put up some local favourite snacks of Malaysia. Very scrumptious as tea time snacks, but not the common ones, though.

Above is the "Steam otak-otak" that I had bought from a Chinese stall. It was very meaty, indeed. Look at the chunks of fish, and seafood(but plse don't mind, there not so clear photo). Otak -otak is a savoury "cake" made of fish or seafood mix. It is traditionally served fresh, and it wrapped inside a banana leave.

Apam balik, is a common Malaysia delicacy is sort of like a pancake. The Apam Balik version that I like is t filled with sweet peanuts, and sometimes sweet corn too.

The other one that I had was "Ham Chin Ping"/Savoury Pancake with Red Bean Paste(I hope I got that right), This fried round pancake is a popular hawker or street food. It's also eaten by many Chinese Malaysian as the breakfast food.
 Eaten piping hot, it is just so delicious with the black bean paste, oozing out.

On the other plate, I had ondeh-ondeh and I don't know what is the other snack called, but it is filled with peanuts. Ondeh-ondeh is actually glutinous rice balls, filled with brown sugar and covered with coconut flakes.

These delicious local cakes best serve with hot tea or coffee.

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Easy Peasy Pie

I have been feeling very,very lazy lately, but the ambitious character in me wanted to make a pie for the family.There aren’t much foods in the fridge so whatever I could find, I dump them into this  pie.I cooked through all the pie fillings and hence, I just need to bake the puff pastry till it puffs up and turn a nice golden brown.
I took the burger patty and mashed it to make mince chicken meat, mushrooms and some basil leaves.Season with a little oyster sauce, salt, pepper, two teaspoon of cornflour and some herbs if you have. Stir fry them.

First fill up the bottom layer with the puff pastry.Boil  eggs and half them. Boil some potatoes too. Fill up the bottom of the dish with puff pastry.

Now arrange the cooked fillings, eggs and potatoes. Mix egg and cream, and pour them onto the dish.Sprinkle some cheese if you like.

.As I am using tiny squares of puff pastry, I arranged them as above. I used Kawan brand. I give the top an egg wash, press the sides to the baking dish and then, sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top.I baked the pie for about 30 minutes at 200 deg Celsius. It turns out so lovely and really tasty.

Puff pastry all golden brown...what a beautiful sight.

See the mushrooms, and cheese and potatoes...all minced chicken..lovely...

The results was a beautiful, fabulous pie, with generous amount of filling, and cheese oozing out....Yummy!!

Look at the amount of the filling inside

You can make the pie more nutritious by adding vegetables like asparagus, carrots, french beans or broccoli. I, however, just grabbed whatever I have in my fridge and it works well too.

You can make any version of a pie to your liking, spicy ones, seafood, fish pie and so on. Maybe the next time, I want to try a seafood pie.

The combination of the crispy puff pastry, the slow baking of the ingredients mixed with milk and egg alone make whatever you put into the fillings tasty.