Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

This year is our first time celebrating ‘White Christmas’. Since it’s a first time for us and I thought I should have a new way of wishing you all a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year too…
Here it is in the video…

iBand

I did not say I recorded the video myself… Hope you like it. I like what technology can do for us.

Beef Rendang

Beef rendang or spicy beef stew with coconut is a very popular dish in Malaysia, Indonesian and Singapore. If I am not wrong, it’s a recipe originated from Minangkabau ethnic group of Indonesia. I love beef rendang since I was young and I always look forward to Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house because our Malay friends will serve us this aromatic and extraordinary scrumptious dish. I have never cooked beef rendang before because it’s known to be a very ‘demanding’ dish. Time, not to mention patience and dedication–alone is probably a main obstacle for most people.

To have beef rendang in Hershey is simply impossible because we couldn’t get turmeric, galangal and kaffir leaves. I was very happy that I brought 2 packs of ready-mix rendang paste from Malaysia, but without realizing that they required the spices mentioned above!! *knocking head against the wall* We searched all the grocery stalls and Asia malls nearby, all we could get is powder. Anyway, it’s still better than NOTHING. We bought turmeric powder and galangal powder at Harrisburg Asia Mall and kaffir leaves in Philadelphia. These are the most expensive kaffir leaves I have ever bought- around 20 leaves for $7, it’s like eating gold!! Lemon grass is common but not cheap too. I miss those days when we could have almost everything from the garden.

Maggi rendang paste from Malaysia which is only for 1 pound of beef

This was my first time cooking beef rendang so I checked online for different beef rendang recipes. I could only use what I have so I came out with my own simplified version. But again, I couldn’t believe that my simplified version actually tasted great and nothing different from what we normally had for Raya :P I prefer beef rendang with thick  gravy, so I opted to use crock pot/ slow cooker that I didn’t have to keep stirring it to make sure it’s not burnt. I cooked it the day before and I cooked more to serve it over a few meals because the fact is beef rendang only gets better with time!! Guess we had it for how many meals???

Ingredients

• 2 lb. beef  (cut into small chunks or cubes)
• 3 tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1/2 cup raisin (finely chopped)
• 1 lemon grass (cut into 3-inch length and pounded)
• 1 cinnamon stick (about 2-inch long)
• 3 cloves
• 3 star anise
• 1/2 cup thick coconut milk
• 2-3 tbsp. brown sugar
• 5 kaffir lime leaves (very finely chopped)
• 4-5 tbsp. kerisik or desiccated coconut
• Salt to taste

Spice paste

• 1 big sweet onion or 4-5 shallots
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 2 inch ginger
• 1 lemon grass (white part only)
• 1.5 tbsp. chili paste or 5-6 red chilies
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. galangal powder

Instructions

1. Marinade the beef with dark soy sauce and raisin overnight

2. Chop the sweet onion, garlic, ginger, lemon grass and then blend all of them in a food processor until fine. add in the chili paste, turmeric powder, galangal powder and mix well

3. Sauté the cinnamon, cloves, star anise, spice paste and ready-mix rendang paste until aromatic

4. Add the beef and the pounded lemongrass and stir to blend well with the paste

5. Add the coconut milk, kerisik, kaffir leaves, brown sugar, stir to blend well with beef and simmer on medium heat. Stirring frequently until the beef is almost cooked.

6. Transfer everything to a crock pot and cook on high for 3 hours or until the beef is very tender and the gravy has dried up

7. Add salt to taste. If not sweet enough, add more brown sugar to taste

8. Serve with rice or bread and cucumber

Notes: To prepare the kerisik, just add the grated coconut to a dry wok and stir continuously until they turn golden brown.

Steam Chicken with Mushroom and Ginger

This is one of my favourite recipes from my MIL. I like it because it’s very healthy and simple. All you need is chicken, chinese mushroom, ginger, oyster sauce, black pepper and a pinch of salt. However, my MIL will serve this with fried shredded ginger and dark soy sauce as dipping sauce which makes this taste even better.

Personally, I like ginger and I use a lot of it in my cooking, especially for meat and fish. It’s spicy-sweet taste not only get rid of the unpleasant flavor of meat or fish, it gives the dish a totally different yet wonderful taste and aroma. We know old ginger as a heaty spice. But a lot of people didn’t know that  the skin of old ginger is actually not heaty and it balances off the heaty ginger flesh. So next time, when you cook with ginger, don’t peel off all the skin. My mum used to cook ginger with egg and Foo-Chow red wine to ease my menstrual pain. It’s very famous among Foo-Chow people and the most important thing- It works!!

Ginger in America is more expensive compared to Malaysia. Worst thing is I couldn’t get young ginger, turmeric or galangal here. Turmeric and galangal are the members of ginger family but they taste so different from one another. Imagine ayam percit or rendang without them!! That’s why I miss rendang so much now *sigh*. Anyway, I have some ready mix rendang paste and I am going to cook it very soon

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Ingredients

• 2 chicken leg quarters or 6 drumsticks
• ginger (sliced and shredded)
• 3-4 pieces rehydrated chinese mushroom (sliced)
• 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
• black/ white pepper
• salt (to taste)
• sesame oil (optional but it gives credit to the dish)
• 3 tbsp. dark soya sauce
• sugar

Steps

1. Trim off the skin and fat of chicken.  spread the oyster sauce, pepper, salt, sesame oil, ginger and mushroom on the chicken
2. Steam the chicken for  40-45 minutes
3. Meanwhile, fry the shredded ginger until brown and crispy and set aside
4. Boil the dark soya sauce with 2 tbsp. of water and sugar (to taste). It’s supposed to be thick and sweet
5. Serve the chicken together dark soya dipping sauce and fried ginger

Enjoy!!

Happy Thanksgiving

This is our first time that we are celebrating Thanksgiving in US. We are excited to experience the celebration here. We are invited by our church friend to celebrate with their family and we are looking forward to it!

This year, we are thankful for God’s provisions and blessings upon our life. He has led us into new phase of life and a journey that is nothing short of excitement! Ezra 3:11 says

With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD: “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid

Anyway, we just want to wish you Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Chirps Chirps

One of my new found hobbies here is to bird observing. We have quite a big back yard here. There are always squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks and birds in our yard. But I was so excited when I first spotted a blue color bird. Later, I got to know from the internet that it’s called Blue Jay. From then, I developed my hobby of taking photos of birds and recognizing their different chirping sound. I never have the chance to observe birds back in Malaysia because we stay in apartment and we just don’t have time to do so. With the trees getting bold, bird observing has also become easier.

Most of the birds here are very colorful and ‘fat’ because they have to get ready for winter. Some birds here are migratory birds but we are not encouraged to feed them because they will stop migrating to the South during winter as they have stable food supply.

These are few of my favorite and common birds in Hershey. These are some of the pictures I took at our backyard and around Hershey.

Blue Jay. I think their churps are not as nice as their color =P

Northern Cardinal (male)

Northern Cardinal (Female)

Robin. One interesting thing about Robin is they have blue color eggs!!

Black-capped chickadee. It’s so hard to take nice photo of them because they are tiny and very fast in action.

Canadian goose

Migrating Canadian geese, I can hear them every morning during summer and early fall. I guess it’s too cold for them to be here now.

We are not allowed to feed the birds in the park as the steady source of food will change their migratory pattern.

We bought this bird house in a garage sale and hope to have birds building their nests in it soon.

Tomato Salsa Chicken

I cook almost everyday and sometimes, I am really out of idea what to cook. I got this ‘brilliant’ idea when I was preparing to cook tomato chicken (another of my own recipes). Why not use up the salsa I have made?! Save my time from chopping and the best thing is I don’t have to throw away the salsa. So, I come out with this recipe- tomato salsa chicken. It’s sweet and sour and it goes well with rice. To my surprise, KC likes it. So I will definitely cook this again!!

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken leg quarters
• ½ sweet onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ cup salsa
• 1 tbsp. rice wine
• 3 tbsp. tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp. chili sauce
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• salt to taste
• corn starch (optional)

Instructions:

1. trim off the skin and cut the chicken into smaller pieces. Pan fry the chicken until brown to get rid of access fat and set aside.
2. Sauté the onion and garlic until brown, then add in the chicken, wine, salsa, tomato sauce, chili sauce, sugar, balsamic vinegar and salt.
3. Simmer for 10 minutes or until the gravy thickens to your liking, stir occasionally. Add in a bit of corn starch helps to thicken the gravy and serve.

Cream Cheese Cake

KC and I celebrate our 3rd anniversary today. You want to know how we celebrate? Well, we don’t because he is still not fully recovered. He still feel dizzy if he moves his head too fast and can’t walk steadily. We have been ‘quarantined’ for 3 days!! But since he has had better appetite, I thought of making something he likes for our anniversary. He loves cheese and he has been asking for cheese cake. I like making this cheese cake because it’s doesn’t require baking and I didn’t fail making it the last time!! =P

However, the texture of this cheese cake is nothing like the baked one. It’s very soft and it melts. It needs a bit of trick when you cut, especially the first piece.

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 (9 inch) ready-made graham cracker crust

Instructions

1. Cream together cream cheese and condensed milk until smooth. I use only 3/4 of condensed milk because I don’t want it to be too sweet and please make sure that you get condensed milk, not evaporated milk.

2. Add lemon juice and blend well.

3. Pour into graham cracker crust.

4. Chill for overnight (at least 6 hours) before serving.

Just in case, you can’t get ready-made graham cracker crust, you can make one yourself!! All you need is 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup butter (melted). In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, butter and sugar. Mix well and press into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.

Well, cheese cake is for dessert and we have lotus root soup for dinner.

Garden Tomato Salsa vs Vertigo

This is my second time making salsa. The reason I choose this recipe is because I have all the ingredients in my fridge, except cilantro and all I need to do is chop or blend. It’s pretty easy, simple BUT tasty!! KC is not a salsa fans (because he doesn’t like cilantro) but surprisingly, he said this is a good one.

Ingredient:

• 6 fresh tomatoes
• 1/2 sweet onion, chopped
• 1/2 green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 5 slices pickled jalapeno peppers, or to taste
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
• 1/2 lemon, juiced (or lime)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Instruction:

1. Coarsely chop 3 tomatoes and quarter 3 tomatoes.

2. Place onion, bell pepper, cilantro, garlic and jalapeno peppers into a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped.

3. Add the quartered tomatoes, and pulse just a few times until the tomatoes are coarsely chopped. Transfer to a bowl with a tight-fitting lid.

4. Add in the coarsely chopped tomatoes and mix well.

5. In a separate bowl, whisk together olive oil, red wine vinegar, lime juice, and salt.

6. Pour dressing over tomatoes, and stir well. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

I made this for the young married couple meeting but we ended up in ER  because KC was sick. At first, we had no idea what had happened to him. He was happily drinking Pepsi and the next moment, he felt very dizzy, as if the whole room was spinning. He could not move his head, not even open his eyes!! Once he moved his head, he would start throwing up. I was very worried because we are in a foreign place and I have no one to turn to. I prayed for him and for myself. We hoped that he would get better after a nap, but no! So, I decided to bring him to ER at around 6pm with a friend’s help because by then he had threw up for at least 5 times and he could be dehydrated.

We spent almost 5 hours in ER but praise the Lord that KC did not have to spend a night in the hospital. He was on drip and feeling better but he started to vomit again when we were leaving the ER. I could see that water was all that he threw up then. He did not eat anything and that was the 10^th time…According to doctor, viral infection was the reason to it and the dizziness will last for few days, even up to a week. It’s very common here but this is our first encounter with this fancy friend- VERTIGO!

He is on medication and resting at home. He still feels dizzy when he moves his head but praise the Lord that he has stopped vomiting. We have a walker at home which helps him to move around a bit. Get well soon, dear… I need you to finish the salsa!!

He has been having minced meat porridge for the whole day, but he is happy to have chai-boh nui (prickled raddish with eggs).

Sweet and Sour Prawn

This is my first blog posting and let me first introduce myself before talking about, well, the title of this post.

I am from the land of the Hornbill, Sarawak, Malaysia and currently living at Hershey, Pennsylvania. Since I stay at home most of the time and my husband is away for work, I try to cook as much as I can for him. Well, they said, the way into a man’s heart is through his stomach. However, unlike what most will think that I have a lot of time being a stay-at-home-wife (SAHW), in contrary, I don’t. Times passes by in a whoosh...

Anyway, I thought I will like to share with all of you some of my cooking recipes which most is through trail and error.

I am sharing with you the recipe for sweet and sour prawn. It’s easy to make and quick too.

Ingredients

• Prawns
• Green/ Red chili pepper (Capsicum)
• Pineapple (fresh/ can)
• Garlic
• Tomato (optional)
• Sweet onion (optional)

Gravy:

• Chili sauce
• Tomato sauce
• Plum sauce
• Corn starch
• Sugar
• Thai chili sauce (optional)

Steps

1. Mix the gravy to your liking, either to be more sour, sweet or spicy. The tomato, chili and plum sauce are mix in 2:1:1 ratio.

2. Stir fried the garlic until fragrant.

3. Then, add the prawn, followed by chili pepper, pineapple, tomato and onion.

4. Finally, add the gravy which has been pre-mixed and cook until thicken to your liking.

You may add sugar or chili sauce to your liking. I will like it to be spicier to give it an extra kick and not too sweet. As you can see, I prepared it with more gravy because KC would love to mix it to the rice. It’s hard to get fresh seafood here at Hershey and we normally buy cook frozen prawn from Giant. However, it definitely taste better with fresh prawn.

New author

I have just added my wife as an author to this blog too. So, hopefully you will get more postings and updates from us. I am almost sure, we shall add a new category of posting to the blog too, which will be classified as ’recipe’.