# 6. Kangkung - Water Convolvulus

This is a South East Asia dish...cant tell for sure which country started this first or whatsoever. All I know is you can get it almost everywhere in S.E.A. be t Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam,Indonesia or ......you get what I meant.


Check Wikipedia for more info on this vegetable. There are 2 species that I know of land and water. The water base specie is thought to be tender and sweeter. The land specie.....tougher and more fibre.

I dont have a specific recipe to follow. Its all just from experience and watching others cooking it.

You will need

The vegetable of course - Kangkung

Dried Shrimp

Chilli

Belacan or prawn paste or here

Oil and Seasoning

Firstly, cut up the roots and then depending on how you want it. I usually leave them at about 6 inches in length as they will wittle once cooked. What am I talking about ? Cut them up into about 4 - 6 inches in length. There, isnt it better. Wash and drain.

Soaked the dried shrimp in running water for about 10 minutes. Drain and pound. Blend the chilli. Heat up a pan or wok, chuck the belacan into the heated pan or wok and toast the belacan. Remove and set aside. Using the same pan or wok, place a enough oil to sauteed the pounded dried shrimp till fragrant. Add in the toasted belacan and blended chilli. Be extra careful now as the fume will make you sneeze....chuckle. Do adjust the amount to your taste.

Lastly, dump the kangkung and stir or tosses them till they are fully cooked. Adjust seasoning. Dont think you will need salt or soy sauce as the dried shrimp and belacan is salty enough.

Till then

Enjoy !

Cheers !

# 5. Fried Vermicelli

Invited by our New Zealander friend Kelvin and having recently just cooked up something after some time, decided to contribute to his blog.








This dish was inspire by my wife. It is actually called Fried Beehoon in Malaysia - beehoon as in Hokkien or called Fujian dialect for vermicelli.


Here's what you need

Vermicelli - dried - about 100 gm - soaked in cold water till soft. Or you can use hot water and then rinsed off with cold water. Drain

Bean paste - 50 gm - minced
Black Mushroom - 50 gm - soaked till soft and julienne
Meat - i uses chicken - 50 gm thin slices
Chilli - 1 piece or number - chopped
Garlic - 2 cloves - chopped.
Oyster Sauce
Dark Soy Sauce
Sugar ( optional )
Oil
Water

In a hot wok, pour a little oil from the side. Once hot, sauteed the bean paste till fragrant. Add in the black mushroom, meat, chilli, garlic and sauteed for a few seconds. Dump in some oyster sauce and dark soy sauce to your taste. Add some water and bring to a boil. Lower heat. Pour in the vermicelli and stir with a chopstick or tong till well mixed with the sauce like liquid.

Served hot.

I actually did flambe with a little Shao Xing Rice Wine. Its optional though. You can also served this with some julienne chilli and some fresh coriander leaves.

Cheers !

Cooking Tips # 2

Stop Your Weeping !!!
Throw the onions into a freezer for 10 minutes or peel them under water - then cut them up.

Choosing The Right Chilli.
When deciding how "hot" you like it, work on the simple basis that the smaller it is, the hotter it will be. (The chilli that is !!!)

Simple Sushi.
Wash the rice and leave it to soak in cold water for 30 minutes before cooking. This moistens the cooked rice, helping it to stick to the fish.

Ripening Unripe Fruit & Veges.
Store a ripe banana with them, as the gasses given off by the banana speed up the ripening process.

Footnote: Maybe we should be taking "bananas" on our Poetry In Motion Tours (hehe)

Thickening Up A Thin - Sauce !!!
Mix together equal quantities of softened butter and flour in a mixing bowl, until it becomes creamy. Whisk this in small amounts into your "thin sauce", until it's thick.

Preparing Mushrooms
Never wash mushrooms in water, as their sponge-like flesh soaks up moisture, which will destory the texture.Wipe them all over instead with a paper towel.

Cooking Tips # 1 !!!

The Creamiest Scrambled Eggs
Whisk some free range eggs with a little bkack pepper & salt and pour into a heavy based pan with lots of melted butter. Use a spatula to stir them as they cook. When the eggs are about a minute away from been ready, remove from the heat. Add a couple of tablespoons of double cream to lower the temparature and serve on hot buttered toast.

Crisping Up Fish Skin
To crisp the skin of white-flesh fish, without drying it out, coat it in a little olive oil and toss in a little instant potato mix, then season before frying. Ensure your frying pan is hot, but not smoking.

Frying Salmon
When frying salmon, follow the above but add a little cayene pepper to your potato mix to enhance the flavour.

Marrinated Lamb
Dice the fat from the best-end of de-boned lamb and heat it in a covered pan until liquid. Allow to cool a little, but while still hot, add some garlic, thyme, bay leaf, rosemary and salt & pepper. Aloow the fat to cool, but not set and then coat the lamb. Cook.

A Tasty Joint
When roasting a whole joint, take it out of the fridge, one hour before putting it in the oven to ensure that it reaches an ambient room temperature. the meat will be more tender and evenly cooked.

Crispy Chicken
A combination of the juice of half a lemon and 2 tablespoons of olive oil drizzled over the skin of the chicken and rubbed in firmly, will give you good crisp skin and succulent flesh. Baste the bird after half an hour in the oven and again twenty mintues later. Rest for 15 - 20 minutes before serving as this allows the heat to spread throught the meat.

Recipe # 4 - Hainanese Chicken Rice

Have been advising and giving people recipe for Hainanese Chicken Rice and I realized that I havent been cooking this for quite some time. So, I went ahead and cook them. Somehow, I have to break them into 3 parts as I need to up date my blog more often or I will start losing readers and friends....chuckle

Started off with the chilli sauce and here's what you need.

Fresh Red Chilli - 100 gm
Garlic - 40 gm
Ginger - 60 gm
Chilli Padi - 30 gm ( to taste )
Calamansi Juice - 20 ml
Sugar , Salt and White Pepper to taste
Chinese Parsley - 20 gm
Chicken Stock - 60 - 80 ml
Chicken Fat ( oil ) - 20ml


Blend the first 4 ingredients. Add in chopped parsley. Mixed in the rest of the ingredients. Season to taste.

Some people would want to cook this sauce. Go ahead then, No problem with it. The only difference is after blending all the ingredient, sauteed with chicken fats and then dump in the stock. Simmer and season. The question is, must you do that ? In the end you wont be eating this sauce warm or hot. It will still be either room temperature or chilled, right ?

Picture is so much clearer now that I followed Pusiva's Culinary Studio style of using white back ground with no flash and better lighting.
































The ingredient - note the salt between the chilli padi


















End product - looks good eh ?


Simple Ginger Sauce
100 gm Ginger - grated
10 ml Chicken Oil
Chicken Stock
Seasoning
Mixed the grated ginger with a little oil. Season and dilute with stock.





































Chicken Rice

Rice - 150 gm
Chicken Oil - 20 - 50 ml
Shallot - Chopped
Garlic - Chopped + additional 2 - 3 cloves whole peeled
Old Ginger - Grated + 1 cube peeled young ginger ( 1 inch )
Screwpine leave ( Pandan ) - 1 piece ( tie it up )
Margarine - 1 tablespoon ( for colouring and extra flavour )
Chicken Stock
Seasoning

In a stock pot or rice cooker, sauteed chopped shallot, chopped garlic and grated old ginger with chicken oil till fragrant. Add in the washed rice and mixed. Pour in chicken stock till enough to cook the rice. Dump in the rest of the ingredient and season. If using rice cooker, just press the cook button. If using stock pot, cook on medium low heat uncovered. Stir occasionally.

Once cooked, remove the pandan leave, cube ginger and garlic clove. Served hot.

















From Bottom left - chicken oil, shallot, garlic & ginger paste, Margarine, ginger, uncook rice, pandan leave, sauteed garlic.


















End product - light fluffy chicken flavour rice with a hint of ginger in every bite.

I prefer poach chicken over anything else for my Hainanese Chicken Rice. Cleaned whole chicken and trimmed fats. You can use that to render your chicken fat. Place whole chicken into a pot of water and bring to a boil for 30 minutes. Make sure it is cooked. I time mine as 39 minutes. So, i guess that will make the cooking time as 40 minutes. Place the chicken in another pot and place under running water for 15 minutes. This will get you smooth and tender chicken pieces as in Pak Charm Kai....if you like them warm, i suggest you watch the chicken after 25 minutes of cooking. Dont over cook them or you will end up with real tough chewy pieces of chicken.


















To serve, chopped the chicken up to bite size. Topped with mixture of soy sauce and sesame oil. Garnish with cucumber, spring onion and chinese parsley. Even tomato is a cool accompaniment.

Served with the chilli sauce and ginger sauce.


Cheers !

---

Recipe # 3 - Avocado Bread

http://messycucina.blogspot.com/2006/03/pan-de-aguacate.html

Avocado Bread.

Yeah, I thought so too.

But it's green and it's St. Patrick's Day weekend, so why not.

Incidentally, avocados are full of nutrition. No cholesterol or sodium, 5 grams of monosaturated "good" fat, 60 percent more potassium than a banana, and tons of vitamin B, folic acid and antioxidants!

The bread comes out looking slightly green and tastes nothing like guacamole. In fact the best way to describe the flavor is delicious and, well, familiar. Very much like banana bread, except your left wondering where the banana is.

Pan de Aguacate
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup rolled oats
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 scant cups white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe avocado, about 3 medium avocados
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup of your favorite nut, chopped and/or mini chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon orange zest

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and allspice. Stir in oats.

In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by mashed avocado.

Mix in the dry ingredients to the avocado batter, alternating between mixing in the buttermilk. Stir just until combined. Fold in nuts and orange zest.

Go ahead and taste the batter. I dare you.

Not bad is it?

Divide the batter evenly between the two loaf pans. Go ahead and lick the bowl, no one is watching.

Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Allow loaves to cool in pan for at least 20 minutes before removing.

Enjoy watching your family's faces scrunch up in perplexion when they ask what it is after declaring it to be so delicious.

Recipe#2 - Beancurd with Dried Scallop Sauce

I had this dish that one of my chef friend created for a restaurant where he works.

You will need the following ingredient.

100 gm beancurd ( preferably silken white )
50 gm minced fish meat
20 gm black mushroom - chopped coarsely
spring onion - to taste
flour
1 no egg
seasoning
Brocolli - 150 gm

Mixed all ingredient till well mixed. Form into shape and coat with another layer of flour. Fried over medium heat till golden brown.

For the greens, just blanch in water with salt and a little oil ( optional ).

For the sauce

1 - 2 numbers of dried scallop - depending on size. Soaked for at least 2 hrs
Garlic - 1 clove - chopped finely.
Chinese Rice Wine

Sauteed the garlic and shredded dried scallop. Pour in 2 dashes of Chinese rice wine. Stir and then pour in the water use to soaked the dried scallop. Add in a little water use in soaking mushroom. Bring to a boil, add in oyster sauce, salt and white pepper. Lower heat, add a little thickening agent usually corn starch till slightly thicken. It will stick to the spoon and yet kind of runny. Check seasoning again. Pour over arranged beancurd and brocolli. Served hot.


You can opt to see the pic in http://foodcrazee.blogspot.com/2006/02/recipe-beancurd-with-dried-scallop.html