Gu Lou Yuk (Sweet and Sour Port)

My friend taught me how to make her special Gu Lou Yuk:-

 

Tenderize the pork. My family loves less fat so I get leaner meat. Below is the tenderize meat. I been hitting it for about half hour.

Put the pork into a bowl and mix it with juice (Salt, lemon, celery and onion)

Marinate it for at least two hours. While it is being marinated, I prepared the sauce using :-

1. Hoisin Sauce
2. HP Sauce
3. Lea Pearins
4. Tomato Sauce
5. Salt

Deep fried the meat after it is marinated. Before deep fried, I dried the meat with paper towel.

Cook the sauce, after it is boiling, put in the meat and cook it.

Served in a plate

TADA!!!!

Yam Rice

Out of the sudden, I wanted to cook yam rice. Never done this before, so I decided to give it a try.

The ingrediant are:-

yam (1/2 small size diced into bite size)

Pork belly (one long piece - cut into bite size)

Chinese Sausages (2)

a handful of dried prawn (cut it into smaller pieces)

3 pieces of Shitake mushroom (cut into thin slices),

4 onions (diced)

2 garlics (diced)

White long grain (3 cups)

Dark soy sauce

sweet dark sauce

soy sauce

Salt

Pepper

oil

 

1) marinate the pork with some salt and pepper (for 2 hours)

2) wash the grain and put aside

3) put some oil into the wok and heat it up

4) with small fire, fried the onion then garlic till crispy (make sure not burnt)

5) add in the pork and fried till it is nearly cooked

6) put in sausages, dried prawn, mushroom and yam, add in salt and pepper.

7) after frying till it is cooked, put in the grain and stir it. add in the Dark soy sauce, soy sauce, sweet soy sauce (all to taste). I like it not so sweet so my portion of the sauce was 3:2:1/2 (all using chinese soup spoon)

8) after frying, put the food into the rice cooker and add in sufficient water (like normally how you cooked the rice, I put in additional of  a quarter more water compared to the normal cooking).

9) The rice turn out to be perfect!

Patrick's Signature

We bought a groupon coupon which give discounted meal at Patrick's Signature. It seems to be a good deal according to my mom. We went there weeks ago (only now I have the chance to upload this, sorry for the delay).

First dish out was the salmon. It was sashimi kind, mixed with lemon or "kit chai", chillies and basil leave. It was very refreshing and tasty. This was a very very good dish. Next was the pork belly (it was stewed). It tasted just like a home cooked dish that my mom always made. however, the meat was quite fat to my liking. Another dish that was served was the snapper. I forgot the name of the dish however the gravy was very delicious and spicy. My brother like it though.

The vegetable that was served was the kailan with oyster sauce and there is nothing to shout about. Our Next favourite was the steamed chicken. It was very good. The meat was succulent. The timing of the steamed chicken was just right.

We shall be coming back for more. :)

Chinese pumpkin cake (lo bak kou style)

My SIL's mom made some Chinese pumpkin cake for us to eat. It was so delicious that I requested the recipe while munching it.

This shall be the first time I make "kuih". A good friend of mine saying it was not easy but Aunty L said it is a piece of cake.

The recipe as below:

Ingredients 
600g of pumpkin
500g of rice flour
2 piecs of Chinese sausages (lap cheong)
4 pieces of medium mushroom
1- 2 tbsp dried prawn
2 1/4 bowl of water
Water for soaking
Oil
Salt

Garnishing 
Preserved radish
Big red chillies
Fried onion
Spring onion

1) Soaked the flour into water for 6 hours and throw away the water after that.

2) Shread pumpkin, sausages, mushroom, dried prawn, garnishing item.

3) Heat up the oil and fried the onion until it is fragrant.

4) Add in mushroom, sausages and dried prawn. Fried till fragrant.

5) Put in the pumpkin, fried and add some salt to taste.

6) Add in the soaked flour and mixed it. You still can add in salt if you thinks it is not sufficient.

7) Put the 2 1/4 bowl of water and mix. I put in bit by bit and mix until it is thicken.

8) After it is , put it in a pan and steam for an hour

9) Take out and garnish it with the garnishing item.

10) Served after it is cool.

Ching Fah Restaurant, Donggongon

Ambience : Noisy, like any other Kedai Kopi
Food Taste : 8 / 10
Waiting Time : Fast
Price : Moderate


My mom loves to eat the salted egg yolk bitter-gourd that was cooked by Ching Fah Restaurant. So tonight we went there again.

Aside from that dish, we also ordered:-

Deep fried cuttlefish. Crunchy outside and the flour is flavourful. The chewiness of the cuttlefish is just right. I love to eat this with the mixture of chilli sauce and mayonnaise.  

The next dish which is also my favourite is this steam tauhu. The main ingredient for this gravy is soy sauce. You must ordered this. The tauhu is smooth and silky.

We brought fish for them to steam. They restaurant is good in steaming this fish. The fish is not overcooked and the sauce real savory. Fresh fish that steamed just right = Thumb up.

We also ordered the pork. Although this pork was quite fatty, the dish is good. If you love to eat pork, try to order this dish.

Bak Kut Teh (Meat Bone Tea)

My SIL wanted to cook Bak Kut Teh, my bro's favourite. We requested it to be slightly spicy (Sabah Style).

She first blanche the meat, like the way she did the pig trotter. After that, she boiled garlic and the packet of Bak Kut Teh herbs. After half hour, she put in the meat into the soup and also insert lots of black peppers, some dark soy sauce and light soy sauce, to taste. let it boiled for 2 hours and served.

Non-Halal Lunch at Foh Chuan, Xiang2 Pan Mien & Chub Grill

Been to a few places for lunch recently. These are the good places that you guys should try next time.

1) Foh Chuan at Bundusan, Penampang.

This restaurant is very famous for their stir fried choy sum, ham choy, roast meat and other dishes. My mom suggested me to try for the Ham Choy Mee Hoon (Stir Fried Vermicelli with salted veggie). We order RM10 and sufficient for 3 ladies. It has generous amount of tauhu, salted veggie and meat (roasted meat and sitr fried meat).

It was super delicious. Taste sour-sweet and has the slight saltiness. Roast meat were crunchy and not fatty. The noodles has the pork lard taste. they might be cooking it with pork lard. Yummy to the MAX!!

We also ordered kon lau meehoon kosong (Vermicelli mix with soy sauce) only at RM2. The meehoon were not only mix with soy sauce but also pork lard. This was tasty. I can finish the whole plate without any meat. Just the noodle itself is good enough.

2) Xiang Xiang Pan Mien, Damai 

This restaurant selling flat flour noodles. They let us choose three kind of noodles; flat shape, round shape and hand-pulled shape. Those noodles can be cooked in a soup broth or in a dried sauce (kon lau).

I ordered the flat shape in soup broth. It was served with deep fried anchovies, minced pork, mushrooms, sayur manis and deep fried wan tan. The soup was tasty, it had slight saltiness. I put in some lime and it had slight sour-vary taste. The mixture of the meat and veggie were delicious and crunchy while the noodles are not springy.

I also ordered a leafy juice (xiao mai chau). Very refreshing and cooling.

3) Chub Grill, Karamunsing Capital

This restaurant are famous for its grilled food. I always loved their grilled chicken and lamb. The meat is marinated well, it is juicy, tender and one can taste the marinate even to the bone ..... slurp :P

I ordered the chicken while my friend order pork. Both meat are up to my expectation. However, the side dishes are nothing to shout about.

Definitely come back for more!

Pork Knuckle with Dark Vinegar Sauce

My Sis In Law is having a long holiday. She decided to make my dad's favourite dish. Pork Knuckle with dark vinegar sauce. I am putting up step-by-step cooking steps for your easy reference.

Ingredient
Pork Knuckle (we bought one whole front leg, cut into pieces)
1 whole piece of Ginger (cut to small pieces)
2 tsp Brown Sugar (you can cut down if you dislike it sweet)
8 pieces of Red Dates (washed and throw the seed away)
Dark Soy Sauce (to taste)
400ml Dark Vinegar
7 hard boiled eggs (you can add more)
Water
Sesame Oil (sufficient to cook the ginger)

 

1) Heat up the sesame oil (in low heat). Once it is heated, put in the ginger and stir until it is fragrant. Take out the ginger and put it in the cooking pot.

 2) Put the pork knuckle and water under medium fire. Blanche the meat (the water will become greyish and smelly).

 

 3) Put the knuckle into the cooking pot that already contain the ginger and sesame oil. Mixed it under low fire.

4) Put in water (just to cover the knuckle).

5) Cooked for half hour.

6) Put in the brown sugar, vinegar and red dates. Put in the eggs. Mix them and boiled for another half  hour.

 7) If the colour is not dark enough and the taste is quite sweet, add in some dark soy sauce to taste.

 8) Boil the dishes in another half hour under low fire.

9) Served.

  

The meat is tender, not too hard nor soft. The sauce is sour-sweet. it was very delicious. Yummy!. Happy trying.