Lamb Cutlets with Seasonings

Having lamb chop with red wine in winter.... what a great taste. 

They are too many recipes and guidances to cook lamb when I searched at Google. Finally I decided to cook the lamb with the resources that I have at home, and imagined how it could be if I mixed those seasonings.

To make it simple, I marinated the lamb for a night and kept in the fridge. For the following day, I just need less than half an hour to have it cooked and served on the table. 

Ingredients:
4 chops of lamb
Potato wedges (frozen)
Mixed vegetables (frozen)
Coriander

Seasoning:
Salt and pepper
1 tsp Fennel seed
1 tsp Szechuan pepper powder
2 tbsp Oyster sauce

Method:

1. Marinate the lamb cutlets with seasoning for a night or few hours.
2. Preheat oil in the frying pan.
3. Put marinated cutlets lamb and finely fry for 10 minutes with the medium heat.
4. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and add frozen vegetables. 
5. Return to boil until cooked through, drain in a colander and serve.
6. Preheat oven to 230 degrees Celcius, spread the potato wedges in a single layer and baked for 10 minutes, turn and continue heating for another 10 minutes until crisp and light golden.
7. Serve on the table with coriander as the garnish. 
   

The lamb was so tender and juicy.  To make it perfect lunch treat, having a glass of Shiraz from Handpicked Wines, keeping you satisfied until late dinner.

Steamed Tapioca Layered Cake

Steamed tapioca layered cake tastes like the jelly cake, chewy and soft. It's known as kue lapis kukus in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. In Vietnam, it's known as Banh Da Lon. Mung bean and rice flour are added as the additional ingredients in the cake. In Thailand, it's known as Khanom Chan, and it symbolises for the bride and groom mean moving forward in life and building family together. Anyway, it comes with colourful layers, usually in red, green, brown and white. 

The way I prepare the colouring:

I prefer using the natural food colouring. For green colour, I am squeezing the juice from pandan leaves. For brown layer, I use the palm sugar or coconut sugar. For the white layer, I just use the tapioca batter. But with the red layer, I have to use the food colouring, that's why I only make it for 1 layer of red colour. 

Ingredients:

4 cups of tapioca flour

3.5 cups of water

1.5 cups of coconut milk

2.5 cups of sugar

Instruction:

1. Mix well 4 cups of tapioca flour with 1.5 cup of water. Make sure to stir it very well to get the smooth batter.
2. In a pot boil of water (2 cups of water), add sugar and pandan leaves together till sugar dissolved. 
3. Turn off heat, discard pandan leaved and add coconut milk. Stir well.
4. Pour to the tapioca flour batter while hot.
5. After mix well, divide mixture in four portions. I got three equal portions for brown, green and white layer, but less portion for the red layer because I only make 1 layer for the red colour.
6. Now I have 4 mixtures with different colour on it, which are white, green, brown and red.
7. Prepare the steamer and the mould. 
8. Steam each layer with the alternate colour for about 5 minutes until all the mixture is used up. I prefer to steam 2 layers of the same colours before continuing with another colour.
9. Leave the layered cake until cool completely, dislodge from the mould and ready to cut. It's easier to use the bigger knife to cut it. 

Salmon Avocado Salad

The healthy salad for our lunch in winter. I am a bit addicted with avocado salad and mayonnaise. It's a perfect taste combination between Salmon and Avocado, served with salad and mayonnaise.

As we know that Salmon is one of the best natural sources of Omega-3. It's essential for brain development and function, heart health and immune system.

I used the Atlantic Salmon for this dish, which I could get the fresh fillet at the fish market. 

This dish only takes a while to prepare, probably half an hour. 

Ingredients:

1. 1 ripe Avocado, cut slice
2. 2 Atlantic Salmon Steaks (served for 2 people)
3. Mix Salad (which can be bought at supermarket)
4. Coriander
5. Salt and pepper
6. Oil to fry

Instruction:

1. Wash the mixed vegetable, combine it with Avocado and coriander.
2. Drain out the water and serve on the plate.
3. Marinate Salmon with salt and pepper for 5 minutes. For the optional, add herbs for seasoning as well.
4. Heat oil in the frying pan, and fry the salmon for about 6 minutes (it depends on how thick the Salmon is) for all the sides.
5. Once it turns brown, remove it from heat and drain out from oil.
6. Served with salad and mayonnaise.

Healthy. Nutritious. Simple.

Red Tortoise Cake or Ang-Ku-Kue (adapted from Teochew language)--Salty Filling

I am not very sure why people call red tortoise cake. It's not made of tortoise, and to related to tortoise at all. It's because the mold is similar form with the tortoise shell. 

Ang-Ku-Kue has a soft sticky rice and glutinous flour skin wrapped around the sweet or salty feeling in the center.The cakes are traditionally red in color. In my home town Indonesia, there is another shape of the mold, an asymmetry leaf shape.  

I am going to make the Salty Tortoise Cake, with taro and peanut as the filling. I don't pretty like the food coloring for food, as far as I can to avoid the food coloring for this cake. The performance is not much interesting, but the taste is yummy and healthy for my family. I Love It!

Ingredient for filling:

1 small medium size Taro or yam, skin removed, washed and shredded

100 gr peanut, cooked with pressure cooker before mix-up with taro

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

Salt 

Pepper

In some occasion, i could change the filling with the glutinous rice (the similar filling as Zongzi or Bakcang).

Ingredients for pastry skin :

500 gram rice flour

75 gram tapioca flour

3-5 tbsp of oil

1 tsp salt

2-3 cups of water

Prepare the Tortoise mold and Banana leave for cover the steam tray.

Instruction for the filling:

1. Heat oil in a wok and fry garlic until light brown.
2. Add shredded taro or yam, followed by peanut and other seasoning.
3. Stir-fry for about 10 minutes.
4. Dish out and set aside to cool.

Instruction for the pastry skin:

1. Put rice flour, tapioca flour and salt in the mixing bowl.
2. Pour water and stir until dissolved.
3. Add boiling water gradually and stir with a wooden spoon. Add in the oil and knead into a smooth dough.
4. remove dough out on to a lightly floured tabletop. 
5. Cut the dough into small pieces, and roll it into a small ball.
6. Flatten each ball of dough and slightly and add 1 tbsp of filling.
7. Pinch and seal the edges to enclose the filling.
8. Spread some oil over the mold, and press the dough into the mold.
9. Knock mold lightly to dislodge the dough from the mold, and place on the leaves of banana.
10. Steam the tortoise cake in a medium heat for about 5-8 minutes.

Serve this cake while warm. I prefer to have it fried after put in the fridge for a night. The flavours are rich yet the dish is wholesome. Nothing says special for the Sunday breakfast, served with apple juice.

Mung Bean Paste (Tausa-adapted in Teochew language)

I love to treat my family with dessert besides preparing the healthy food everyday. I like eating sweets, but recently i have decreased the sugar consumption at home. It's for the healthy reason. When I asked my family about the dessert, they prefer the Mung bean paste. I was so happy they could do me a favor, especially to mash the bean when it was hot. 

Mung bean paste known as Tausa (in Teochew language), used as the filling for bun, sweet red tortoise cake, glutinuose ball, or some other filling for dessert or pastry.

Ingredients:

500 gr Mung bean 

175-220 gr of Sugar 

5 tbsp of oil

Pandan leaves

Instruction

1. Wash and soak the mung bean for about 5 hours
2. Cook with pressure cooker for 15-20 minutes.
3. Mash the bean, It's easier to mash it when hot.
4. Heat Oil in the non-stick frying pan, put the mashed bean in the pan and finely stir.
5. Add sugar and stir well. After add sugar, it's easily to get burnt if not finely stir.
6. Cook for about 30 minutes or become thick paste.
7. Dish out and set a side to cool.

Bakcang or Zongzi (Sticky Rice Dumpling)

Adapt: family's recipe 
Sticky Rice Dumpling is traditionally eaten on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar (approximately in June). It made of glutinous rice with different filling and wrapped with the bamboo or banana leave.

The recipe that I use is adapted from my family. In my home town, we usually make two kinds of bakcang, salty and sweet (Lye water or Kan-Sui Zongzi-adapted in Cantonese). Nowadays, there are a lot of creation for the filling. It starts from salty egg yolk, five-spice powder egg, green bean, taro or yam, abalone, and shark-fin.

The difference from these two, Bakcang is filled with savory meat, and Kan-Sui Zongzi  is smaller than the savory one. It's tasteless and we have to put sugar or palm sugar or gula melaka to eat with.

Ingredients:

1 kg Glutinous rice, soaked for 8-10 hours

800 gr pork or chicken, slice into small pieces

100 gr dried-turnip, slice into small pieces

150 gr dried-shrimp

250 gr shiitake mushroom, slice into small pieces

100 gr peanut, cooked with pressure cooker before mix-up with other ingredients

150 gr chestnut, chopped

100 gr garlic, chopped

salt

pepper

bambu leaves for wrapping

Instruction:

1. Heat oil in a wok and fry garlic, shiitake mushroom, dried-shrimp  and dried-turnip until fragrant.
2. Add pork or chicken, peanut and seasoning. Stir-fry for about 20-30 minutes.
3. Dish out and set aside to cool.
4. For the glutinous rice, wash and drain out the water. Heat oil in a wok, fry garlic until fragrant and add the glutinous rice into the wok and water. Season with salt and pepper, cook for 3-5 minutes. Once most of the liquid has evaporated, dish out and set aside to cool.
5. For the bamboo leaves, it's better to use the fresh one. I couldn't find any fresh bamboo leaves in Sydney, I use the dry one which can be bought in Asian grocery shops. Firstly, boil the leaves for about 3 minutes. Drain out the water, and wipe with the wet cloth.

Instruction to warp Bakcang:

1. Prepare the same length ropes in a bundle for tying the Bakcang.
2. Stack two bamboo leaves on your left hand, cut an inch on each side of the leaves.
3. Bend the leave to form the cone shape, and make to have a good size Bakcang.
4. Put 1 tbsp of glutinous rice at the base, add 1 tbsp of mixed filling, and cover with 1 tbsp of glutinous rice.
5. Fold the bamboo leaves over the rice, and end up with the triangle shape. Then, fold the excess leaves to the left side follow the body of Bakcang.
6. Grab the rope and loop around Bakcang, and tie it.
7. In the boiling water, cook for about 25-40 minutes (depends on Bakcang size).
8. Carefully removed from the steamware and serve.
   
   
   
   

Kiam-Ko-Kue (adapted from Teo-Chew language) - Steamed Rice Cake

Adapted: family's recipe.

After working in front of the computer for couple of hours in the rainy day, i am craving for food and imagining of something salty and spicy for our dinner.

Kiam ko kue or Cha kue is a traditional steamed rice cake served with dried shrimp, salted turnip and fried garlic as toppings. It has a soft but chewy texture of rice cake, with tasty and fragrant topping. 

I prefer to use rice to be the base for the rice cake than the rice flour. Either of the rice and rice flour can be used. In some creation, change the topping to minced chicken or pork instead of dry-shrimp.

Ingredients:
4 cups rice (blended) or 500 gr Rice flour
3 tbsp of tapioca flour
3-4 cups of water
1 tbsp of cooking oil
1 tsp of salt

For the Topping:
Dried Shrimp chopped
Salted Dried turnip or radish chopped
Garlic chopped
1 tbsp sugar
Shallot chopped
Pepper

Instruction:

1. Dissolve rice powder with water, add tapioca flour, salt and cooking oil.
2. Boiled the rest of water, and pour into the mixture. I am not quite sure the exact measurement of water, because it depends on rice flour or rice itself. 
   I prefer use rice as the base of the cake. Make sure mashed up the rice into liquid and add boiled water into it. For the perfect measurement of water, test steamed a bit of the mixture after all the ingredients combined well. 
3. Pour mixture into small molds, and steam over high heat for about 15 minutes.
4. Remove from heat.

Instruction for topping:

1. In a heated saucepan, add in cooking oil. Add in garlic, dried turnip, and dried shrimp.
2. In a medium low heat, fry well.
3. Add in sugar and shallot.
4. Remove from heat.

For serving, put the topping on the rice cake. Add in a bit of soy sauce and chilli. Yummy....

Deep Fried Lobster

A good deal of live lobster in Sydney Fish Market. It feels like need to buy more for family dinner. It costs about $190 for 2 medium large sized lobsters. 

After having fried lobster in one of the famous restaurants near the Sydney Chinatown, I imagined how they could cook this delicious food. It was my first time to cook lobster and i was so glad everything was perfectly served on the table.

Ingredient:

2 medium large lobster

2 tbsp salt

1-2 tbsp pepper

1 lemon or lime

Salad for garnish

Instruction:

1. Clean the lobster and cut the lobster into bite sized pieces. Or it is easier if you have it cut at the fish market.
2. Sprinkle salt and pepper on it, and keep in the fridge for about 30-45 minutes
3. Pour oil into frying pan. Heat the oil to the high temperature.
4. Depend on the size of the frying pan, put lobster once at a time into frying pan, and cook for about 4-5 minutes until golden brown. 
5. Drain it and put on the big plate.

The fried lobster can be served with salad garnished around the plate and squeeze some lemon or lime juice onto it. So yummy...............

Chai Kue (adapted from Teochew language) - Vegetable Dumpling

Adapted: family's recipe

Chai Kue is a popular steam dumpling among the Teochew and Hakka. The soft chewy skin made from rice and tapioca flour, with slightly crunchy yam and fried garlic as the topping. 

A bit info about yam (Jicama):

Jicama, known as Bengkuang or Yam Bean, is high in Carbohydrate and Vitamins. It is composed of 86-90% water. There is a city in Indonesia, Padang-West Sumatera, is called the city of bengkuang. The local people use it as the complementary ingredient in rujak (a kind of spicy fruit salad combines with peanut sauce).

Ingredients

Pastry Skin:

500 gram rice flour

75 gram tapioca flour

3-5 tbsp of oil

1 tsp salt

2-3 cups of water

Filling:

750 gram - 1kg Yam Bean, skin removed and shredded

50 gram dried shrimp

100 gram shiitake mushroom, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

shallot (optional)

1 tsp sugar

salt

pepper

Instruction for the filling:

Heat oil in a wok and fry garlic until light brown. Add dried-shrimp and shiitake mushroom, stir-fry until fragrant.  

Add yam bean and other seasoning, stir-fry for about 10-15 minutes. 

Dish out and set aside to cool.

Instruction for the pastry skin:

1. Put rice flour, tapioca flour and salt in the mixing bowl.
2. Pour water and stir until dissolved.
3. Add boiling water gradually and stir with a wooden spoon. Add in the oil and knead into a smooth dough.
4. Remove dough out on to a lightly floured tabletop. 
5. Cut the dough into small pieces, so it's easier to roll out to form a thin layer (dumpling layer). Make it into the round thin layer about 8 cm in diameter.
6. Put a tablespoon of filling in the center of the pastry skin, gather up the edges and pinch to enclose the filling.
7. Arrange the dumpling on the lightly greased banana leaves, and steam for about 10-15 minutes in the medium heat. I prefer the banana leaves to cover the steaming tray, it smells good with it.
8. Served with fried garlic and chili sauce as the topping.

I enjoy eating Chai Kue with banana leaves as my plate, I don't have to wash the dishes and can smell the natural leaves and the fried garlic, it tastes yummy. 8 shouldn't be enough for me.