Happy New Year!

Hello everyone! It is time to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new again. Lets say good riddance together to all things ugly; unhappiness, bad relationships, rotten luck and hope for a better year ahead.

I would love to take the opportunity to thank all my readers who continue to visit my blog, brave enough to try my recipes and also kind enough to share my humble blog with others via social media of every kind. 

I hope you are all celebrating NYE in style! I am going to share a bottle of wine and watch the fireworks with my dear friend F from our veranda. Posting will resume on the 2nd with the MMM roundup for the month of December, see you then!

P.S photo taken from our veranda :)

Rice Cooker Egg Rice 電飯煲蛋飯 - "Malaysian Monday 66"

I wanted something quick and easy to fill my stomach while planning our Christmas lunch menu. The bowl of eggs in front of me reminded me of of a wonderfully simple but delicious meal (or snack) that I loved as a child.

The residue heat of the freshly steamed rice does all the work for you, very much like spaghetti cabonara but without all the unnecessary guilts afterwards. If you have had enough of leftover turkey and ham until next Christmas or simply want to hang up your kitchen apron for a few days,  this might be just the dish for you.

P.S I hope you are all enjoying the holidays and I will start posting what we had on Christmas day in the coming days.

recipe from the tummies' kitchen
recipe per serve
you'll need;
3/4 cup of jasmine rice, washed, rinsed and cooked in a rice cooker
2 to 3 very fresh free range eggs, lightly beaten
dash of soy
dash of sesame oil
a small pinch of white pepper

Crack the eggs into a bowl and lightly beaten with the seasonings.

When the rice is cooked; fluff the rice with a fork, pour in the beaten eggs and mix well with the rice. Remove and serve immediately.

Serve with some extra soy on the side. The rice is extremely fragrant with each grain of rice encased in the delicious "egg sauce". 

I am hosting this month's event, please send all your entries to sureshchong@yahoo.com

To find out more about the event and on how to enter, please click HERE.

Merry Christmas And Happy Holidays

It is another scorcher here in Melbourne! Fortunately I did manage to finish the remaining shopping for our Christmas lunch before midday. Two of our friends are coming to join us tomorrow and I am looking forward to a very pleasant afternoon with plenty of food, drinks and laughters.

We would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and happy holidays! I will try to fit in a Malaysian Monday post on Boxing day so see you then.

Simple Braised Tofu 醬燒豆腐

More is less is all I can say about this simply prepared tofu dish. My grandmother used to say "a good cook must be able to serve the simplest dishes and be proud of everyone of them" and I can't agree more.

I think this will be a perfect dish to have before or after the impending big Christmas meal many of us are going to have.

Feel free to play with the seasonings a little; hot bean paste, hoisin sauce or a handful of mashed up fermented black beans perhaps?

recipe from the tummies' kitchen
serve 2 to 4 as part of a Chinese meal
you'll need;
1 container of fresh soft tofu, halved sidewise
oil for cooking
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2 to 3 bird chillies, chopped
3 tbs of oyster sauce or  mushroom sauce*
2 tbs of light soy
1 tbs of dark soy
1 tsp of sesame oil
2 tbs of sugar
dash of white pepper
dash of Chinese cooking wine
1 cup of water
3 spring onions, cut into 3 cm lengths
* use mushroom sauce or vegetarian oyster sauce for a vegetarian version

Prepare the garlic, chillies and spring onions.

Pan fry tofu on both sides until golden,  remove and set aside.

Saute garlic and chillies with a little cooking oil then add in the seasonings and water.

Return the tofu to the wok and let simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

When the sauce has reduced by half add in the spring onions and cook for a minute more.

A bowl or two of pipping hot steamed rice is all you need to go with this simple but delicious dish.

Baked Beans In Tomato Sauce With Egg And Frankfurter On Rice - "Malaysian Monday 65"

For this week's MM post I decided to give the classics and hawker favourites a miss but instead introduce you to this rather bizarre way of serving baked beans with rice that I grew up with.

I cannot be sure if it is a common practice to serve baked beans with rice in other parts of Malaysia, but it certainly is very popular in my hometown of Cameron Highlands... another English legacy perhaps?

It has taken me a while to pitch this dish to Tummy, fortunately he was opened to the idea of baked beans on rice for dinner. He also happily finished off the leftover with some toast the following morning.

recipe from the tummies' kitchen
serves 3 to 4 as a one dish meal 
you'll need;
1 packet of frankfurters
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 eggs, very lightly beaten
3 cans of baked beans in tomato sauce
3 tbs of oyster sauce
2 tbs of light soy
dash of white pepper

Cut each frankfurter into 4 and make 4 x 1 cm cuts on both ends. Crack eggs into a bowl, season with a little salt and pepper and beat the eggs lightly.

Brown the frankfurters with a little oil, remove and set aside.

Saute chopped garlic with a little oil for 30 seconds then push the garlic to one side before pouring in the eggs.

When the eggs are half set, add the baked beans and mix well. 

Return the frankfurters to the pan and season with oyster sauce, soy and pepper.

Serve over a bed of steamed rice and enjoy :)

I am hosting this month's event, please send all your entries to sureshchong@yahoo.com
To find out more about the event and on how to enter, please click HERE.

Chicken Parma From The Tummies' Kitchen

I remember having my first chicken parma washed down with a few beers at The Standard Hotel in Fitzroy more than a decade ago, many more followed over the years at different pubs across Melbourne. Though I prefer a decent roast beef sandwich these days, chicken or veal parma will always be the ultimate Aussie pub meal for me.

As a meat lover my choice for this recent invention rather than the more traditional eggplant parmigiana is an obvious one. With some leftover mozzarella I decided to recreate my version of chicken parma at home and I must say it tasted just as good without all the noise and rowdy people speaking on top of each other.

I served my parma with oven roasted sweet potato chips but feel free to make your own chips if your heart desires. If you prefer a vegetarian version, please check out my baked eggplant and bocconcini in tomato sauce.

recipe from the tummies' kitchen
serves 2 as a one dish meal
you'll need;
2 x 200 g chicken breasts, butterflied and flatted with a kitchen mallet
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
panko (japanese breadcrumbs) or regular breadcrumbs
2 rashes of good quality bacon (optional), rinds removed
1 cup of grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese
oil for frying
oven roasted chips to serve
a simple dressed salad to serve

for the tomato sauce;
olive oil for cooking
1/2 an onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
a pinch of dried chili flakes (optional)
1 cup of passata
2 tbs of sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Crumb the chicken breast with flour, egg and breadcrumbs and set aside until needed.

To prepare the tomato sauce - Saute onion and garlic with some oilve oil until soften then add in the pasatta and cook on medium heat for 2 minutes. Add seasonings and cook for a further minute. check for seasonings and allow to cool.

Pan fry bacon until golden and set aside.

Shallow fry crumbed chicken until golden, drain well and set aside.

Place pre-fried chicken on an oven rack, top the chicken with bacon strips and tomato sauce.

Follow with a generous amount of grated mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Place under the grill and cook until golden.

Serve with some oven ready chips and a salad of ur choice.

Babi Kecap, Balinese Braised Pork With Sweet Soy

Malaysia shares many similarities with Indonesia in culture, religion, language and customs. After all a large part of the present day South East Asia was once simply known as Nusantara where seafaring tribes exchanged cultures and ideas throughout the once "border- less" archipelago.

After more than 500 posts, I think it is about time for me to explore the cuisine that is so similar but yet so foreign to many of us. 

My first Indonesian dish brings us to Bali - the island paradise that has given us one of the best pork dishes in the world - babi guling or spit roasted suckling pig. To replicate that at home is almost impossible so I decided to go for another wonderful pork dish that reminds me of my wonderful time over there.

Be warned! The melt in your mouth tender pieces of pork and the fragrant and complex sauce will have you coming back for a second serve. Use beef instead if your are not a pork eater. For a similar Malaysian dish using chicken, please check out my ayam masak kecap (Malay soya sauce chicken).

recipe adapted from Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey
serves 4 as an Indonesian meal
you'll need;
10 shallots, sliced
1 head of garlic, crushed
6 cm piece of ginger, chopped
10 bird chillies, chopped
3 long red chillies, chopped
1.5 kg of pork neck, cut into large chunks
1/3 cup of kecap manis*
4 tbs of dark soy
2 tbs of light soy
1/4 cup of tamarind concentrate
black pepper to taste
1.5 cups of stock
6 whole bird chillies
crispy fried shallots to garnish
chopped chillies to garnish
* available at all good Asian grocer, look for ABC brand from Indonesia. You may also come across ketjap manis (old spelling) from Holland which is a lot pricier.

Prepare the aromatics. Do adjust the amount of chillies according to your taste.

Prepare the tamarind concentrate and cut the pork into large chunks.

Prepare the fried shallots for garnish. Shop bought is fine but it is worth the trouble of making your own.

Saute aromatics with some of the oil for frying the crispy shallots until they turn a light golden.

Add pork and mix well, cook on high heat for about 5 minutes.

Add seasonings and stock together with the whole chillies if using. Bring it to a boil then turn it down to a simmer with the lid on for 1.5 hours.

Remove the lid during the last 30 minutes of cooking for the sauce to thicken. The pork will melt in your mouth after the slow and long cooking. The delicious and extremely fragrant sauce that is sweet, sour and savoury will cry out for more rice, so be prepared!

Garnish with fried shallots and some extra chopped chillies and serve as part of an Indonesian meal.

Serve with plenty of rice and a simple stir fried vegetable of your choice.

Nasi Lemak 2 椰槳飯(二) Coconut Rice With Side Dishes 2 - "Malaysian Monday 64"

As promised, a more detailed post on our recent nasi lemak meal. Though quite happy to have a very basic serving of nasi lemak (with sambal ikan bilis, fried peanuts, hard boilded egg and cucumber slices) for breakfast, I think a more extravagant or fancy version is somehow more appropriate to serve as a meal for dinner.

I am not going into details on this popular national dish of ours but I do encourage you to read my previous nasi lemak post that was served somehow differently. Compare the two; pick the elements that suit you taste and create your very own nasi lemak meal soon.

If you prefer a chicken dish to go with your version instead, I would highly recommend my nanny Kak Timah's fried chciken, chicken in spicy torch ginger sauce or Malaysian chicken curry.

served 4 as a one dish meal
for the coconut rice you'll need;
500 g of jasmine rice, washed and drained well
1 pandan leaf
3 cm piece of ginger, sliced
2 shallots, sliced
1 star anise
5 cloves
pinch of salt
200 ml of coconut milk
water
1 tsp of salt

toppings and side dishes;
1 cucumber, sliced
4 hard boiled eggs, peeled and halved
1 cup of whole peanuts with skin, fried till golden and drained well
sambal ikan bilis (dried anchovies in a spicy sauce)
beef rendang
stir fried green beans with chili and garlic

Place all ingredients for coconut rice into a rice cooker. Add enough water and cook as one would with plain rice.

When the rice is done, remove the pandan leaf and spices. This is now ready to be served with side dishes of your choice.

Have the side dishes ready.

A simple stir fried green beans and beef rendang.

Place a pieces of banana leaf on a plate, ladle some coconut rice on top and let your guests help themselves with the toppings and side dishes.

Mix well and enjoy. 

I am hosting this month's event, please send all your entries to sureshchong@yahoo.com
To find out more about the event and on how to enter, please click HERE.