Nyonya Acar / Pickled vegetables Nonya Style

During my trip back to KL last round, the first thing my mum was was what do we want to eat for lunch? Guess what did we ended up having?

We went to Madam Kwan’s at 1utama because i wanted to eat their Acar!!! 🙂 yes, we usually would order extra serving of Acar and that will cost like rm8 (sorry, can’t remember)… but trust me, their acar is super addictive and yummy!!!!!!!!!

And happened to be around the same time, there was a video on FB showing how to make Acar, it looked simple but deep down my heart i know i wouldn’t bother doing it because it is too tedious!!!

But, guess what?! after breakkie this morning, i just suddenly decided that i should try making my own Acar!! dun ask me what strike my mind but i just went ahead to grab cucumbers, carrots and cabbage! i didn’t even bother checking the recipe! then i came home happily! then i realize i missed out PINEAPPLES!!!!!!!!! Nvm…. i decided to continue with my Acar plan despite the missing pineapples…

Tadaa!! it is actually quite simple! it didn’t take up too much of my time! i cut up the vegetables then let them rest after rubbing salt in… then started to prepare the paste using my thermomix! easy peasy when you have a thermomix! without it, you’ll probably have to use a pestle & mortar or food processor… do note that you’ll have to blend candle nut which is quite hard too…

anyway, i’m glad that i made it! recipe is as follows…

Recipe for the paste:

• 4 red chilli
• 2 candle nut
• tumeric powder
• belachan
• dried shrimps
• 5-6 shallots
• oil

The rest of the ingredients:

• Cucumber
• Carrots
• Cabbage
• Sesame Seeds
• Crushed Peanuts
• Optional : Long Beans/Pineapples
• Lemon Juice

Steps:

• 1.cut up all the vegetables, sprinkle salt over and let it rest for 30 minutes. After that, give them a good squeeze to remove the water!
• 2. To prepare the paste, pour everything into the Thermomix bowl, turbo 1sec x 2 , then add oil to fry till fragrant.  5 min/varoma/reverse spoon stirring
• 2. after that pour in crushed peanuts and lemon juice then give it a good stir and finally add in the vegetables + sesame seeds.. mix well then you’re ready to serve! however, it will taste better if you let it rest over night! 🙂

Told you, not too difficult right?

 

Everything Homecooked

Remember i mentioned that I’m challenging myself with $10 dinner?

I’ve been doing it! but sometimes of course i do not stick to my budget cos i still want to provide a variety of meat for my girl especially fish and seafood. They are not cheap. But, I’m proud to say, $10 dinner is not too bad, you can actually still provide a nutritious meal for 2 Adults + 1 toddler.

Example of one of our dinners:

1. Fried Thread-fin $7
2. Stir fried broccoli + carrots $2
3. sunny side up $0.5

1. chicken drumstick cooked with Chestnut + Carrots with Chu Hou Sauce
2. Sambal Ikan bilis with boiled eggs
3. Stir fried ladies finger with dried shrimps

1. Minced pork + tofu stew
2. Fried batang fish
3. Watercress + ribs soup

1. Sambal Okra
2. Bean paste Fish
3. Sausages (left over from our weekend brunch)

This is one lazy day where i just prepared Mustard Green fried rice ( Kai Choy Fan) + lotus root soup ( forgotten to snap a picture)

1. Stir fried string beans with dried scallop
2. Ginger Scallion pork

My cheat version of Mee Soto + Bergedil (potato patty) + Roasted Chicken

Since we’re now a single income family, it is important to watch our budget a little, I’m not trying to be extreme but it is always good to save more for rainy days. After going to wet market more often, my conclusion is that, buying from wet market doesn’t mean it is cheaper! but it is definitely fresher and you have more variety! infact, i think it is more expensive to buy from wet market. not sure if it is because i don’t bargain or i don’t act aunty enough?

 

Sambal Dried Shrimps (Heh Bee Hiam)

   
I guess if you’ve been following my blog, you’ll notice that i love shrimps/dried shrimps! 🙂 hahaha, but i hardly cook prawns because hubby is not a fan of prawns! and it is not easy to cook just a few pieces of prawns, so i cook dried shrimps instead! 

this is a must order for me when i visit the Teochew porridge stall! but guess what?! they always charge me a bomb! A very small single portion will cost me $3-4! So, now that i’ve learnt how to prepare, i can boycott this Porridge uncle! 🙂 

i also prepared extra so i can freeze them and heat it up whenever i feel like eating. 🙂

Ingredients:

100g dried shrimps

10 fresh red chillies

3 shallots

3 clove garlic

5g belachan

30g cooking oil

30g sugar

    
Steps:

1. wash the dried shrimps,then place them in the Thermomix bowl to blend up.  20sec/speed5. Remove them from the bowl and set aside for later. 

2. add fresh chillies, shallots, garlic, belachan and cooking oil to blend. Turbo/1Second. 

3.Saute for 12 min/veroma/Speed 2

4.Add in the dried shrimps, continue to saute for 25 min/Varoma/speed 1.5

5.FInally add in the sugar and saute for another 5 min/varoma/speed1.5

 
This is how they should look after the cooking process…

  
Here’s my Heh Bee Hiam! 🙂 very good to go with porridge or simple dry noodle. You may use the extras to fry vegetables such as Ladies fingers/long beans or just sprinkle them over your fried rice! also, you may just spread some over a slice of toast!! I’m so going to have Sambel Heh Bee Toast for breakfast tomorrow 

Yummy!!!

Chinese mustard green flavorful rice

   
this simple one pot dish is very easy to prepare yet very healthy! the only problem is that, it is not easy to get the Chinese Mustard Green in the supermarket. I’ve only bought it twice but both times were from the wet market. This Vegetable is usually used to cook Chai Boey/Assam Veg/Choi Kiok with lots of  roast meat (usually leftovers). Since i still have quite a bit of the vegetable left, i may consider cooking it tomorrow! 🙂 but i need to get lots and lots of roast meat.

anyway, back to today’s flavorful rice. The ingredients needed are as follows:

 Chinese Mustard Green

Dried Shrimps

Sliced pork ( martinate with corn starch, soy sauce, shao xing rice wine, pepper and sesame oil for at least 15 min) 

Dried Shiitake Mushroom (soak in the water to soften it, and slice them up)

onion/shallots

rice grains

   
Steps:

Heat up the wok with some oil, sautee the onions till fragrant, add in dried shrimps, mushrooms, pork. Fry till they turn slighly brown. Then add in the washed rice grains. Fry it for 3-5min then pour everything into a rice cooker with water ( slightly less than the normal water you use to cook plain rice), then turn on “cook” mode. 

When the rice is cooked, stir in all the Chinese Mustard Green, add in seasonings( soy sauce, pepper, sesame oil). To increase the flavor, you may replace slice fresh meat with roasted pork and add in Chinese Sausages. My version is a healthy version as it will be my 2 years old’s dinner later. So, no roasted meat, no sausages, minimum amount of seasonings too. 

 
How do you like my simple one pot rice?  Alternatively, you may replace the Chinese Mustard Greens with Taro/Yam or Long Beans. The steps of preparing will differ a little bit but it is super easy. 

Happy Monday! 

Dry Chilli ( for Chilli Pan Mee)

    
Over the weekend, hubby drove us all the way to Macpherson Road to try out the Kin Kin Chilli Pan Mee. We’ve tried this many times in KL but not their branch in Singapore. Hub gave 2 thumbs up after his bowl of Dry Pan Mee and even asked if i know how to make the Chilli! 🙂 I rarely see hub being so interested in Chilli! 

On top of that, the girl is loving her Pan Mee..so i was determined to try to make Pan Mee at home. While hub likes the Dry Chilli with dry pan mee, i also put in a little more effort to prepare that for him! 🙂 Unfortunately, to fry this dry chilli, it is not as simple as i thought, the recipe i saw said fry for 30 min, but i ended up frying it for 50 min! luckily, i had my Thermomix to help! else, i will be screaming now from the aching arms!

Here’s my modified recipe:

1 handful of dried shrimps (soaked and dried with towel)

4 fresh red chillis 

2 medium size red onions

oil 

Steps:

1. Chop out all the ingredients except oil Turbo 1 sec

2. add in oil, fry for 30 min/100deg/Spoon stiring , then up the heat to 20min/Varoma/Spoon stiring

  
Remember to constantly open up the cover to check if it is burnt, adjust the cooking timing accordingly. 

Here’s how i prepare my Dry Chilli Pan Mee.. and in various styles too. Click here