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Friday was a day off (yay! doing my little day off dance at the background), and I was thinking how to spend the day.
I ofcourse chose to conveniently "forget":
- an avalanche of dirty laundry at the corner of my bedroom (and living room, and bathroom, and dining room) screaming to be brought to the laundry shop
- floor desperately needs vaccuming
- furniture begging for dusting
- the bathroom laughing hazardously every time I almost slipped on the life threateningly dirty tiles
- clean dishes, pots and pans mocking me as they took over my tiny kitchen
...the list is endless...
But all I could think about was how I've been missing kering tempe, and how inconvenient it is to do kering tempe on work days. So, dodging the dirty laundry, pirouetting past the dusty furniture, pranching over the dirty floor, I went straight to the nearest Indo shop and bought myself a pack of tempe (Indonesian soy bean cake), and got it going. I love the wet and moist version, not the dry and crunchy one, but both are delicious. :)
Ingredients
- 1 pack of soy bean cake, diced
- 1 medium potato, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 4 cloves of shallot, sliced
- a bit of ginger, crushed
- 3 red chilli, remove seed, sliced
- palm sugar
- kecap manis
- salt, pepper
- 3 tbsp of coconut milk
- cooking oil
Soak palm sugar in a bit of hot water (I used 3 of those) until totally dissolved
Tempe - the soy bean cake - tempe can be used as a meat replacement
Dice the tempe into a tiny rectangular shape, sprinkle with salt
Fry until golden but not too dry. This can already be eaten. I had to fight myself not to "sample" too much
I like the softness of potatoes as a contrast to the crunchy tempe. Fry the diced potatoes until golden.
Saute garlic, chilli, shallot, ginger in hot oil, add tempe and potato, add the dissolved palm sugar, salt, pepper, kecap manis, stir in the coconut milk, bring it to boil, serve.
Serve with hot steamed rice.
OK. I couldn't live in a dirty flat. So, finally spent the whole afternoon off cleaning. The kering tempe made a perfect reward :)
PS. Retno of Kedai Hamburg also made her version of Kering Tempe. Check it out! :)
I've grown up eating bistik in Indonesia. The word came from Dutch biefstuk which means beef steak. The version we had at home is so different from regular beef steak. It is a mix of beef fillet and potatoes cooked in kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), regular soy sauce, garlic, shallot, and grated nutmeg. Ofcourse, in Indo, we eat potatoes with rice.
My version accomodates the busy and the lazy as usual. Mixing the beef with lots of tomatoes and tofu as veggie substitute (Bistik Trio of Beef, Tomato & Tofu Puff), so I didn't have to cook the veggie separately. It saved me a LOT of time, which was productively used to watch more TV (enjoyed The Heartbreak Kid yesterday night) and grow myself on my sofa. lol
Ingredients
- HK$25 beef for stir frying
- HK$3 tofu puff
- HK$2.50 tomatoes
- finely chopped garlic, thinly sliced shallot (shallot vs garlic ratio = 2 to 1)
- kecap manis (Indo sweet soy sauce, I can't live without this) & regular soy sauce (kecap manis vs regular soy sauce ratio = 2 to 1)
- chopped chilli (remove seeds)
- a little corn starch + water
- olive oil
Marinate beef in kecap manis, regular soy sauce, a bit of corn starch while prepping the other ingredients. Saute beef with a bit of shallot and garlic, set aside. Saute shallot, garlic, chilli, add tomatoes, tofu puff, add kecap manis, regular soy, add beef, heat up everything. Serve with steamed rice.
I didn't manage to get my lazy bum to the store to get nutmeg powder, so my version had to go without. Still tasty though :)
...and...I am submitting my Satay Beef Ramen for Presto Pasta Nights. Enjoy!
Check it out & join the fun!
This is one of Snacks in Black I purchased earlier. Finally I tried making this pudding, thanks to sous chef's persistent follow up (what a good project manager)
Day 1
SC: Are we having the black sesame pudding tonight?
Me: Hmmm...it's too late...maybe tomorrow...
Day 2
SC: Are we having the black sesame pudding tonight?
Me: I'm not in the mood, maybe tomorrow...
Day 3
SC: Black. Sesame. Pudding
Me: I have a headache, maybe tomorrow...
...Day 10SC: Where. Is. My. Black. Sesame. Pudding!
Me: It's that time of the month, maybe tomorrow? I promise!
Day 11
5:10 pm...
SC: We're having black sesame pudding tonight right?
Me: (reluctantly)...yes...
8:15 pm...
SC: Yeah! Yeah! Black sesame pudding! You need to start preparing it
Me: maybe after exercise class?
10:30 pm...
Me: (ah maybe I don't have to make the bloody pudding after all..hihihi)
11:15 pm...
SC: (Eyes sharper than flying daggers) Aren't you going to prepare the pudding??!
Me: (sigh...seems I can't put this off any longer, moved my ass off to the kitchen, forcing a smile)...OKOK...gonna do it now...
OK. "Making" may not be the correct word, as I actually didn't "make" anything. All I did was...
1. Taking pictures of the Black Sesame Instant Pudding Mix and the milk
2. Pouring 400 ml milk, mixing it with the powder, heating it up
3. Pouring the mix into these little plastic moulds, letting it cool off and moving them to the fridge
Day 12
Both: Yum..........so creamy, sweet, smooth, & velvety..
So easy yet so yummy...if it sounds too good to be true...I'll try it :)
"First love never dies" yeah. right. I don't think so. Everybody had their puppy love, and I forgot mine as easily as I forgot to bring my office access card every morning :)
If there's one love I can never get over, is my love for chicken. Call it my chicky love. The scene of a young girl waiting impatiently by the kitchen for the chicken to be served, skillful little hands meticulously peeling the meat off the bones, the big grin full of joy after every bite, face smeared by chicken bits and pieces while licking the bone of the fried chicken thigh, everything are still so vivid in my mind.
So, I hope I will certainly bore you with chicken-and-chicken-again postings. MUHAHAHAHA. 
This one is "adapted" from Jamie Oliver's Tender & Crisp Chicken Legs with Sweet Tomatoes. I've tweaked it so much due to (un)availability of ingredients and time constraint, it finally became something else (doesn't it always?)
Ingredients
- 4 x Chicken thigh fillet, cut half = 8 pieces
- as much tomatoes as you can fit in the oven tray (slice each tomato into approx. 8 parts)
- half an onion, just cut into a few parts
- a few cloves of garlic, don't bother to even peel the skin off (this is so Jamie)
- some broccoli
- olive oil, salt, pepper
Rub chicken fillets with some salt and pepper, to dramatically shorten cooking time, I pan fried the chicken fillets to crisp the skin. Pre-heat oven to 200 C, lay everything on oven tray, spread everything evenly, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper (I did this rather generously), bake for about 30 minutes or until the chicken meat is cooked through and covered with tomato juice.
You'll get tender, tasty, tomatoey and juicy chicken with crispy skin, chickeny tomatoes and broccoli...and the juice....hmm I think I just fell in love all over again.
PS. My sous chef is so against chicken. Between you and me, I think it's just jealousy.
Drink the burning-your-tongue-boiling-HOT TEA, enjoy the vast array of mouth watering dim sums, be prepared to be shocked by the seemingly rude service, where the flatware & utensils are almost being thrown onto the table, take every pulse of the busy and lively atmosphere, experience Hong Kong’s classic, favorite brunch, yum cha
THE TEA
My favorite is Bo Lei (pu-erh in Mandarin). Don't get intimidated by its darkness, it is much less bitter than jasmine tea and much less agressive than Iron Buddha tea. It is earthy and healthy. It washes down all of the oily dimsums we had (oh yeah baby, the dimsums might be steamed, but they come with more oil than my shiny T-zone)
THE ENTERTAINMENT FACTOR
In Hong Kong, be prepared to share tables almost everywhere. I grew to love it. I am a nosy bitch and I LOVEEEE listening to other people's conversations (well, if they didn't want me to listen, they wouldn't speak as loudly as the firework explosions on New Year’s Eve, wud they?).
By the end of each meal, you'd generally learn what are these people's occupation, the fact that they hate their boss & most of their colleagues, their jealousy over their neighbours/relatives' success, their recent overseas trip, or their recent extravagant purchases, how much is their property worth, and how much they earned/lost in the stock market.
If you do not wish to disclose your personal matters to half of the restaurant, you can try conversing in an incomprehensible language (this is handy for me, every time my sister visits, we'd talk about everybody else in Javanese, only to discover that they too, are Javanese. OMG!) or bring something to read. My choice was the U-travel magazine, and the most popular choice in Hong Kong is the local newspaper, all the uncles drool at the porn section, and all the aunties bitch about whichever celebs on the entertainment gossip section.
THE DIM SUMs
The ever so popular har gaw (steamed prawn dumplings) succulent and enticing
I love these crispy, glutinous, meaty, sweet & salty ham sui gok
Apart from the tapping your fingers 3 times beside your cup when someone poured you hot tea to thank them and removing the lid of the tea pot to get it automatically refilled, I just learnt another yum cha science from my sous chef
In Hong Kong, the dimsums do not come in push-carts. You are given a piece of ordering paper, where you can tick the items you'd like to have. It is always tricky to figure out how much we should order. I always wanted to try everything, and always ended up with too much dimsums. Good thing I don't read Chinese, so the ordering responsibility is generally not my problem lol
It is good to start small and order more later. But this could result in awkward silence (if you are dining with the boss you fear/colleagues you hate/relatives or neighbors you always jealous of). Worry no more. Someone has figured it out.
My sous chef learnt from TV (oh, what a reliable source!), that the formula when ordering dimsums is: number of people x 2.2 = no of baskets of dimsums. We have tested this formula over numerous work lunch, and it is pretty accurate. Hmm maybe except when I was there, cos...I'm not proud of this, but I always exceeded my 2.2 quota *grin*
Oh, the gorgeous dimsum above is the super yummy Gai Jak (steamed chicken, fish maw, ham, and mushroom, wrapped in beancurd skin)
My next favorite dimsum is jan chu gai (pearl chicken = glutinous rice with meat, salted egg yolk & mushroom filling). Rich & super tasty. It's like unwrapping a precious gift on Christmas morning (but I generally do not bite them)
The next one's gotta be char siew cheong fun (BBQ Pork wrapped in rice sheets). I am a big carb fan, so I love this silky smooth, chewy, handmade rice sheets, paired with the rich & tasty BBQ pork
I just wish the tea could also wash away the fat from yesterday's huge BBQ pork dinner I had :p
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