INGREDIENTS:
500g minced meat (chicken, beef, pork as your preference)
300g peeled prawns (cut in dices with kitchen scissors)
2 fat Australian carrots (finely diced)
10 water chestnuts (finely diced)
1 jicama/sengkuang (6” diameter – finely diced – can be replaceable with more water chestnuts)
1 cabbage (6-7” diameter – finely diced)
8 Chinese mushrooms (soaked in luke warm water and finely diced – retain the juice)
3 big onions (finely diced)
6 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)
1.5” young ginger (grated finely)
3 Tbsp 5-spice powder (add more if you want it stronger in taste)
600g-800g peeled steamed crab meat
Salt
Sugar
Pepper
Soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Sesame Oil
Cooking Oil
1 pkt pre-packed spring roll skin (8.5” x 8.5”/215mm x 215mm)

OPTIONAL:
Some coarsely crushed deep fried sole fish (phee hoo) bits

MARINATES: 30 minutes
MEAT – 2 Tbsp sesame oil, 2 Tbsp oyster sauce, 2 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp 5-spice powder, pinch of salt and some pepper. Mix well.
PRAWNS – 1 Tbsp Sesame oil, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar and some pepper. Mix well.
MUSHROOM – 1 Tbsp Sesame oil, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar, ginger juice and some pepper. Mix well.

PREPARATIONS:
You would need a large steel basin to put in all the cooked items as we will be cooking individually prior to mixing all together.
1. Saute some chopped garlic in some oil. When brown, put in the diced mushrooms and stir fry until dry. Scoop up and place in basin.
2. Saute some chopped garlic in some oil. When brown, put in the diced prawns and stir fry until they turned orange. Scoop up and place in basin.
3. Saute some chopped garlic in some oil. When brown, put in the minced meat. Flatten it evenly and allow one side to be slightly brown. Flip part by part over and let it cook for another 1-2 minutes on medium fire. Scramble the meat in the wok into little chunks. Add in the diced onions and 2 Tbsp 5-spice powder. Stir fry until the onions look translucent. Scoop up and place in basin.
4. Heat up some oil in the wok and put in the diced carrots. Stir fry for about 2 minutes. Add in the diced jicama and stir fry for another 2 minutes. Finally add in the diced water chestnuts and stir fry for another 2 minutes. DO NOT OVERCOOK the vegetables as we would want to maintain a bit of crunch in the bite. Scoop up and place in basin.
5. Next saute some chopped garlic in some oil. When brown, put in the diced cabbages, 2 Tbsp oyster sauce, 1 Tbsp sesame oil, some sprinkles of pepper, a pinch of salt and stir fry until ALMOST cook. Again, we would want to maintain that bit of crunch. (You can sprinkle in some mushroom juice if it’s too dry)
6. Put in the rest of the cooked items in the basin and stir evenly.
7. Place a deep plate at the base of the basin and scoop the evenly stirred filling onto it. Note: This is to ensure that whatever oil and moist within the filling will be captured under the plate to enable a dryer filing for wrapping.
8. Leave to cool down prior to wrapping.

WRAPPING:
As for wrapping the spring rolls, there are a few steps to be taken care of to avoid any leakage. Just follow the steps in the diagram below and you won’t go wrong. You can mix some flour with water as the glue (or to patch up any broken holes) but I just used water since I had the experiences in wrapping the rolls well.

Scoop 2 porcelain spoons of the filling and place slightly below the centre of the spring roll skin. Place some crab meat and start wrapping. Laced an empty tray with a layer of kitchen towel and place the wrapped spring roll on it. DO NOT PLACE wrapped spring rolls on top of each other as they will get stuck to each other.

FRYING:
Heat up some cooking oil on HIGH. When you see some bubbles in the oil, lower to MEDIUM. Fry INDIVIDUALLY, starting from the thicker base while showering the top part with the hot oil. Turn over after about 15s and fry for another 10-15s or until golden brown. Make sure you have lots of kitchen towels laced in any deep container to drain off the excess oil. The trick is to let the spring roll stand vertically upwards. Serve while hot with the sauce of your choice.

SAUCES:
Option 1: Worchester Sauce (Lea & Perrins) with cut red chilies (RECOMMENDED)
Option 2: Worchester Sauce (Lea & Perrins) plus a bit of chili sauce with cut red chilies
Option 3: Simply pour some Thai chili sauce
Option 4: Put in 6 red chilies (removed seeds), 2 green chilies (removed seeds), 4 cloves of garlic, 2-3 Tbsp sugar, pinch of salt, and juices from 8-10 Kasturi lime into a blender. Top the amount with some boiled water. Blend until fine. Taste the blended sauce and adjust the sweetness and sourness to your liking.

STORAGE:
Any excess filling or skin can be kept in the freezer until further use for up to 2 weeks.

(Serves: 12-15 pax with approximately 40-50pcs)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

INGREDIENTS:
15g Radix Dioscoreae oppositae (淮山)
15g Polygonatum odoratum root slices (玉竹)
15g Euryale ferox seeds (芡實- fox nut)
20g lily bulbs (百合)
20g lotus seeds (蓮子)
20g dried longan (龍眼肉)
30g American ginseng slices (西洋參)
6 bowls water (about 2L)
120g rock sugar (add more to your preference)

PREPARATIONS:
Mildly wash all the herbs to get rid of any existing dust.

Slow Cooker:
Add in 6 bowls of water and set to HIGH. When water boils, add in all the ingredients and simmer for 4 hours on MEDIUM-LOW heat. Stir in the rock sugar to taste. Serve hot as a dessert or a beverage.

Pressure Cooker:
Bring the 6 bowls of water to boil on HIGH fire. Add in all the ingredients and close lid. When you hear the hissing sound from the pressure, bring fire to down to MEDIUM-LOW and cook for about 30 minutes. When the pressure is released about 5 minutes later, open lid, switch on your gas cooker and stir in the rock sugar to taste. Serve hot as a dessert or a beverage.

Note: Instead of taking it as a sweet dessert or as a beverage, you can OMIT the rock sugar and add in 300gms pork ribs as a savory soup. Add in salt to taste. (Cooking time – Slow cooker: 3 hours, Pressure cooker: 15 minutes)

(Serves: 3-4)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

INGREDIENTS:
600g raw big sized peanuts with red skins (wash, soak for about 6 hours & rinse)
4 pieces dried orange peels (1/2 an orange) or peels from one whole fresh orange
3 star anise (whole)
10 slices licorice bark
3 pcs cinnamon bark (about 2” length)
4 cloves garlic (peeled and smashed)
50-60gms rock sugar
3 Tbsp oyster sauce (premium/vegetarian)
5 Tbsp soy sauce (premium)
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp salt
1 1/2 tsp 5-spice powder
1/2 tsp pepper
6 cups water

PREPARATIONS:
Slow Cooker:
Add in 6 cups of boiling water and all the ingredients EXCEPT the peanuts on HIGH. Stir evenly. When water boils, add in the peanuts and simmer for 4 hours or until the peanuts are to your preferred softness. Drain and leave it to cool down before serving.
Pressure Cooker:
Bring the 6 cups of water to boil on HIGH fire. Add in all the ingredients while stirring evenly. When boil, close lid and wait until you hear the hissing sound from the pressure. Bring fire to down to MEDIUM-LOW and cook for about 20-30 minutes, based on your preferred softness. When the pressure is released about 5 minutes later, drain and leave it to cool down before serving.

Note:
1. Pour back all the ingredients into the pot and keep the broth for your next batch of peanuts.
2. The softness of the peanuts would sometimes depend on the different species of peanuts available at your local market. If the softness is not acquired, let it cook for another few minutes.
3. Some PREMIUM sauce can be quite SWEET. So adjust the sweetness to your liking.

(Serves: 4-6)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

INGREDIENTS:
1kg pork (1/2kg of pork belly and 1/2kg of loin meat – cut in huge chunks)
7 porcelain spoon premium soy sauce
2 porcelain spoon premium dark soy sauce
2 porcelain spoon premium oyster sauce
2pcs cinnamon bark (3”)
2 whole star anise
1 porcelain spoon sugar/brown sugar
1 porcelain spoon pepper corn (slightly crush)
1 porcelain spoon five spice powder
1 whole garlic bulb (removes roots only and slightly crush individual bulb)
5-7 porcelain spoon water (depending on the amount of gravy required)

OPTIONAL:
10 hard boiled eggs
5-10pcs deep fried bean curds (halved in triangles)

PREPARATION:
1. Wash the chunks of meat with salt and drain well.
2. Pour the washed meat into a pressure cooker and mix well with the rest of the ingredients.
3. Close lid and cook at HIGH fire.
4. Upon hearing a strong hissing sound from the built-up pressure, lower the fire to MEDIUM-LOW and cook for 15 minutes.
5. Wait for the pressure to be released about 10 minutes later and add in the optional items. Let them soak for about 30 minutes before serving with steamed rice, noodles, bread or buns.

Note:
1. I used a mixture of pork belly and loin meat as I do not want too much of fatty meat for my dish.
2. This version of cooking is very different compared to the Hokkien style as it has thicker but less gravy.
3. DO NOT add in bean curds if you intend to keep the dish for a few days as the bean curd will get spoiled easily under humid weather.
4. For freshness, it’s best in chiller for 3 days. Otherwise, store in freezer up to a week. For reheating, it’s best to steam the dish to maintain the meat’s tenderness. Microwaving the dish would dry up the meat and cause a lot of splatters due to the fat from the meat.

(Serves: 8-10)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

Scientifically known as Eucheuma cottonii, the Sea Bird Nest is more commonly known as Coral Grass or Organic Seaweed. These seaweeds which I obtained from the coastal areas of Sabah, East Malaysia, are naturally harvested with no artificial fertilizers. They taste quite similar to bird nest but less expensive and are enriched in vitamin A, B1, B2, B6, K and 56 mineral supplements which would be ideal for a perfectly balanced natural diet.

For generations, seaweeds have been used as one of the natural ingredients for health, vegetarian diet and beauty. They can be eaten raw as in salads or blended in fruit juice to obtain its natural enzymes. As for desserts, you can make jelly with them or even boil them as cooling desserts for health care. There have been many proven cases where seaweeds have been used as a natural alternative to promote good health. Some of the usages include regulating the blood circulation and high/low pressures, improving the vitality, resisting fatigue, weight-loss diet, beautifying complexion, osteoporosis, stabilizing proper thyroid function, cardiovascular disease, digestive disorders, constipation, etc. The seaweed’s high active substances and polar soluble fiber will also help in adjusting the insulin to maintain the blood sugar balance to prevent hyperglycemia as in the case of diabetes. They also eliminate free radical efficiently for detoxify body organs and activate cell tissues for metabolism and anti-aging.

INGREDIENTS:
150gms Sabah seaweed (Eucheuma cottonii seaweed/San Hu Cao/珊瑚藻/海底燕窝)
10gms American ginseng slices
250gms rock sugar
25 seedless red dates
3 pandan leaves (screwpine leaves – bundle up)
4L water

OPTIONAL:
Dried longan
Wolfberries/Goji berries
Quail’s eggs (minimize usage as they are super high in cholesterol level)

The Raw and Soaked outlooks of the seaweeds are shown below:

PREPARATION:
1. Wash the seaweed to rid the salt and soak in purified room temperature water for 5-6 hours, changing the water at least twice. You would get soft cartilage colored like seaweeds.
2. Get a 5L pot and fill up 4/5 of the pot with water.
3. Add in the red dates and bring to boil. When boil, lower to medium fire and boil for about 45 minutes. You would get about 3L left.
4. Add in the ginseng slices and rock sugar and boil for another 10 minutes.
5. Add in the soaked seaweed and the pandan leaves. Boil for 5 minutes.
6. Close the lid and leave for about 15 minutes.
7. Scoop to serve either hot or chilled.

Note: The soup would be more gelatin-like due to the thickened seaweed at the base when chilled for longer hours. Just stir it well and serve.

(Serves: 8-10)

Where to Buy: For those in Penang, you can purchase the Sabah Seaweed from I Mum Mum Pan Mee for slightly over RM12 for 200gms of good quality seaweeds. I had found theirs to be of better quality than those from certain Chinese medical shops.

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

Today, I’m going to share one of my HOMEMADE RED BEAN SOUP WITH LOTUS SEED recipes, which is beneficial to the general health. The red beans or commonly known as the azuki bean, are a good source of magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc copper, manganese and B vitamins. These beans act as a natural diuretic and help in reducing blood pressure.

When combined with some grains, the concoction would supply high quality protein and this would be a great alternative to meat protein. The rich soluble fiber which can also be found in any other beans would help in stool management and also in the elimination of toxins and cholesterol in the body. That’s the reason they are widely used by the Asians to treat problems such as urinary dysfunction, bladder infections and as a diet for post cancer patients (with some other beans such as green beans minus the sugar of course).

INGREDIENTS:
300gms red bean (azuki bean/紅豆)
50gms lotus seed (蓮子 – peel into halves)
50gms Chinese lily bulb (pak hup/baihe/百合)
25gms rice grain/glutinous rice
Sun dried Mandarin orange peel (one orange)
200gms sugar (add more to adjust to your own sweetness level)
5 pandan leaves (screwpine leaves – bundle up)
Water

OPTIONAL:
Alkaline dumpling (kee zhang – diced to bite size)
Glutinous rice ball
Chinese New Year cake (thnee koay/nian gao)
White fungus
Dried longan
Sago

PREPARATION:
1. Get a 5L pot and fill up 3/5 of the pot with water.
2. Wash the beans and rice grains thoroughly to clear any unwanted substance. Pour both the ingredients plus the mildly washed orange peel into the pot.
3. Set the water to boil at high. When boil, turn the fire to medium and cook for 45 minutes (or until you see a small tear on the skin). Add in more boiling water if required. Note: Some beans, especially those older or frozen ones might need a little more cooking time. Just watch out for the tear on the skin if so.
4. Pour in the washed lotus seed and boil for another 15 minutes. Add in more boiling water if required.
5. Pour in the lily bulbs and boil for another 30 minutes.
6. Fill up the pot with more boiling water (4/5 pot) and add in the bundled pandan leaves. 7. Slowly stir in the sugar and let it boil for another 10-15 minutes.
8. Scoop to serve either hot or chilled.

(Serves: 8-10)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

INGREDIENTS:
250gms red sweet sauce (紅甜醬/tim zheong)
1 thumb size young ginger (slice thinly and cut into strips)
100gms chicken fat/skin/lard (cut into 2” strips)
oil

PREPARATION:
1. Heat up 4 tablespoon of oil in a wok in high fire.
2. Lower the fire to medium and put the chicken fat. Slowly sauté the fat until crispy brown. Scoop up and place on a kitchen towel to seep the excess oil. When cool, cut into smaller chunks.
3. Heat up the remaining oil and sauté the ginger strips until golden brown.
4. Put in the sweet sauce and sauté for about 3 minutes under low fire.
5. Put in the chunks of fat and stir evenly.
6. Scoop and serve.

Note: You can scoop up some of the oil if there is too much. It’s advisable to prepare this sauce 2-3 hours before serving as the oil would harden (due to the fat/lard) and turn white under cold environment. If this happen, just microwave the sauce in high mode for 30 seconds. Best consume within 2-3 days without needing to refrigerate.

(Serves: 10 and above)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

The amazing part of brewing this stock would be that it’s concentrated. You could easily store in small containers and deep freeze it for your future cooking. The stock would be almost gelatin like with no preservative or seasoning. All you need to do is to add half a container of water to a container of stock and put in some pepper and salt to taste. It’s just as simple as that. Let me show you how you could create this HERBAL STOCK for your favorite hot pot. It’s mild anyway for the consumption of all ages.

INGREDIENTS:

Stock:
2kg pork bones (big bones/tua kut)
3 whole chicken bones
50gms ginseng roots (人參鬚/Panax schinseng roots)
20 sweetened dates
10 liter water

Serving:
Dried Chinese wolfberry (枸杞/kay chee/gouci/goji berry)
Pepper
Salt

PREPARATION:
1. Bring to boil 12 liters of water in a 20L pot.
2. Wash all the bones clean with salt and slowly put all of them into the big pot of boiling water. Add in the ginseng roots and dates. Lower the fire, close the pot partly with a lid and let it simmer for about 6-8 hours. Filter out all the bones and you would get about 6-7 liters of stock left.
3. Scoop the required amount of stock for your hot pot into a new pot. Add in half that amount of hot water (2:1). Add in some dried Chinese wolfberry (about less than 1 tablespoon will do as too much will make the soup turn sour). Bring to boil and sprinkle some pepper and salt to taste. NOTE: Try to be lighter in salt usage as some of the hot pot ingredients such as the meatballs and fish balls have salt in them. Thus the longer the hot pot boils, the saltier it will get. Anyway, I will be sharing the dipping sauce recipe next to allow you to adjust to your taste bud.

Recommended Vegetables for Hot Pot:
Crown daisy chrysanthemum leaves (tang oh/茼蒿) and other vegetables such as Chinese Cabbage (菜心/choy sum), cabbage, spring onions (tied up), young corn, mushrooms, etc. Please take note that the usage of too much Enoki mushrooms might cause the soup base to be sour.

Recommended Add-in for Hot Pot:
All types of meat and fish balls which would be available at your location, either fresh or frozen, chicken fillet slices and seafood of any kind such as crab, clam, mussel, squid, cuttlefish, prawn or fish.

Simple Alternative Soup with the stock:
- Chicken fillet slices, white fungus and ginkgo nuts.
- Chicken fillet slices, lotus seed and lily bulb (百合/bai he/ pak hup).
- Chicken with chopped water chestnut balls, cabbage and rice vermicelli.
- Pork dumpling (sui kow/水餃), Chinese cabbage (菜心/choy sum) and wonton noodles.

(Serves: 10 and above)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

INGREDIENTS:

Chili Paste:
10 tbsp chili boh (about 35 deseeded, soaked dried chilies – blended in 3-4 tbsp water)
15 shallots (blended)
6 cloves garlic (blended)

Stock:
2kg pork bones (big bones/tua kut)
2-3kg prawn shells (blended)
2pc rock sugar (ping pong ball size)

Garnishing:
500gms pork
1kg prawns
6 eggs (hard boiled)
300gms bean sprouts (remove roots if possible)
Some fried shallots
5-6 stalks of morning glory (kangkung – optional)
300gms pork ribs/trotters (optional)
150gms pork fat (cubed & fried until crunchy – optional)

Others:
1kg yellow noodles (chow mien)
1pkt rice vermicelli (bee hoon)
1pkt instant noodles (optional)
Water
Salt
Pepper
Rock sugar
Soy sauce
Oil

PREPARATION:

1. Wash all the bones clean with salt and slowly put all of them into a big pot of boiling water (about 20 cups). Lower the fire, close the pot with a lid and let it simmer for about 2 hours. Filter out all the bones and you would get about 15 cups of stock.
2. Heat up about 7-8 tablespoon of oil in a wok and sauté the blended garlic and shallots (do leave 1 tbsp of the blended shallots for the cooking of stock) for about 5 minutes under low fire. Add in the chili boh and sauté until fragrant. Add in a pinch of salt. It would take about 15 minutes. Scoop and put aside the chili paste while leaving about half a tablespoon in the wok.
3. Heat up the wok again with additional 1 tablespoon of oil and put in all the prawns. Stir fry until all the prawns are curled up beautifully. Scoop and leave aside. You may slice these prawns into halves or leave it as it is. I left a few of the prawns with the tails intact just for photography presentation purposes.
4. Using the same wok again, heat up 4 tablespoon of oil. Put in the blended prawn shells (drain the shells as dry as possible while keeping the remaining juice for the stock). Saute the shells until you get that thick aromatic prawn smell. By then, the shells would be in bright crystal orange color. Pour in the remaining juice from earlier plus another 3-4 cups of water. Let it simmer under low fire for about 2 hours.
5. While waiting for the prawn stock to be ready, heat up 2 tablespoon of oil in a soup pot and sauté the reserved 1 tablespoon of blended shallots for about a minute. Put in about half to one tablespoon of the cooked chili paste (depends on your spicy level). Mixed well and add in the bone stock. Bring to boil and add in the pork pieces/pork ribs/trotters. Lower the fire to simmer further.
6. By then, your prawn stock would be almost ready. Slowly and carefully sieve the prawn stock (leaving out all the shells) into the pork stock pot. Bring to boil while adding in 2-3 tablespoon of soy sauce, rock sugar, a sprinkle or two of pepper and salt to taste. Remove the foam on the surface while retaining some of the floating oil. The oil would keep the soup at a high boiling point.
7. Lower the fire and check if the pork ribs/trotters and cooked meat are tender. Scoop up in separate bowls. Sliced the meat thinly. Leave all aside for garnishing later.
8. Cut the hard boiled eggs into halves, quarters or rings to your liking.
9. Heat up a wok of water and blanch the bean sprouts and morning glory (1.5” length) separately. Make sure you drain the excess water well. Set both aside.
10. Soak the rice vermicelli (bee hoon) for about half an hour (or according to the directions on the pack). Blanch to soften it. Drain well. Do the same for the yellow noodles (if possible get the higher quality ones which would be thinner and would not have the “lye water” after taste). Instant noodles too can be an option.
11. To serve, place some bean sprouts and morning glory at the base of a deep and roomy bowl. Add in your preferred noodles then top with some prawns, sliced meat, pork ribs and egg. Pour some boiling soup over the noodles and garnish with some fried shallots and chili paste for that extra spiciness. Some may even want to garnish the noodles with some crunchy pork lard but I opted that out for health reasons.

Secret Notes:
1. The secret for a good tasting bowl of Hokkien Mee stock lies in the species of prawns used in the cooking. There are hundreds of species in the world and the most suitable one would be the Green Shell Prawns (Cheh Kak Hae, almost similar to the Australian Fenneropenaeus indicus species but with a slightly darker grey-green body) found commonly in the water of this region. Tiger prawns (Marsupenaeus japonicus, Penaeus esculentus or P. semisulcatus depending on your region) should not be used as these species have an overpowering shellfish taste which would not be suitable for the stock.
2. Some people may use a small piece of shrimp paste (belacan to pep up the taste of the stock). I did not use it due to the product being not easily obtainable internationally. Moreover, the raw ingredients used for my home cooked version of the stock were already sufficient enough.
3. For the sweetness and color of the stock, most people would use palm sugar (gula Melaka). For my case, I prefer the usage of rock sugar for a more natural and milder sweetness. After all, the soy sauce would have the required faded brown color for the stock
4. Another secret to thicken the stock would be by using some finely pounded bread rusk, a sort of unsweetened dry bread normally used with meat to bind them well. I did not use this method as my stock was already almost gelatin-like with the large amount of bones used.
5. Chicken bones may be use to substitute the pork bones but it would not give you the thick and meaty flavor required for the stock.
6. Roasted pork pieces, fish cakes, fish balls, pork intestine (粉腸), pork skin and baby kailan (Chinese broccoli or kale) may be added if you need a richer bowl of Hokkien Mee.

(Serves: 10 and above)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

If you are in an Asia Pacific region, getting the fresh ingredients would be quite easy. In the case of foreign countries, the best alternative would be from Chinatown or any of the Chinese grocery stores. Let us now look at the required ingredients and how easy it is to prepare this delicious salad. I have attached an animated view of the ingredients below to let you have a look on how they are cut.

MAIN INGREDIENTS:
1/2 pomelo (about 6-7 segments – use flesh only and slightly peel apart)
1 big unripe mango (about 300gm – cut into strips)
5 shallots (slice thinly)
5 kaffir lime leaves (slice thinly)
100gms water chestnut (dice)
50gms dried shrimps (soak, dice and slightly pound)
10 bird’s eye chili pepper (cut thinly)
25gms peanuts (roasted and crushed)
10gms sesame seeds (toasted)
2 stalks coriander (pluck the leaves)

DRESSING:
4 Tbsp lime juice
4 Tbsp plum sauce
2-3 Tbsp fish sauce
3-4 Tbsp fine sugar

GARNISHING:
Leave a bit of the roasted and crushed peanuts, toasted sesame and coriander leaves as garnishes.

OPTIONAL:
50gms cuttlefish strips (oil fry and drain well – to replace dried shrimps)
1 inch lemon grass stalk (chopped finely)
1 red chillies (dice finely for the extra color)
1 tsp ginger flower bud (chopped)
1 clove garlic (chopped)

PREPARATION:
1. Mix the dressing thoroughly and adjust according to your taste as some may like the salad to be a bit salty (fish sauce) or sweet (sugar). Please note that some brands of plum sauce are already sweetened.
2. Mix the first 7 ingredients in a salad bowl, occasionally adding in a spoonful of the dressing to taste. Lastly, add in the last 3 ingredients. Please do not over stir the ingredients as it might cause the dish to be watery.
3. Garnish with the reserved items mention above.
4. Best serve while the fruits and vegetables are chilled prior to mixing.
5. Serve immediately to maintain the crunchiness of the ingredients.

(Serves: 6-8)

Note: It is not necessary to add in all the optional items but you can do so if you prefer a more spicy concoction. The bird’s eye chili (cili padi) can be replaced by any other chili pepper you would prefer as not many people can stand the hotness from this small sized fella. You can use mangoes that are slightly ripe (as I did) if you are not in for so much of sourness.

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

Spicy Pomelo Mango Salad

Well, a birthday without a cake would not be a birthday at all. Somehow my brother decided against the idea of having a cake as all of us had consumed too many cakes and cookies during the recent Chinese New Year celebration. I personally find that a Chinese meal should end with a dessert which I find the café could not provide me with. In the end, I had decided to create a healthy dessert which would suit all ages to surprise them. I came up with my healthy recipe for CHRYSANTHEMUM GINSENG WOLFBERRY JELLY WITH RAW HONEY.

I had used quality chrysanthemum flowers as these are believed to fight against flu related viruses. I had also used ginseng roots to alleviate fatigue, headache, amnesia and weakness and dried Chinese wolfberries to enhance the general health of the body system. The above mentioned two ingredients would be brewed for hours and sweetened with rock sugar and made into jelly. This bitter sweet dessert would then be served with some diluted raw honey. It would be better if you could get hold of one of my most trusted brands of jelly powder, imported from Thailand as this brand had never failed me in giving the jelly a firmer texture.

Won’t it be great if you could come out with this great recipe to serve your guests? Let me share with you the recipe here.

INGREDIENTS:
80gms first grade dried chrysanthemum (乾菊花)
15gms ginseng roots (洋参鬚)
15gms Chinese wolfberry (枸杞 – 5gms to reserve for garnishing)
250gms rock sugar (冰糖)
4.5 liters water （水）

GARNISHING:
6 Tbsp raw honey (diluted with 6 tbsp of the brewed potion)
5gms of the Chinese wolfberry above (soak and drain)

OPTIONAL:
Flowers and herbs for decoration.

PREPARATION:
1. Wash the chrysanthemum, ginseng root and Chinese wolfberry clean from dirt.
2. Bring the water to boil in a large pot.
3. When boil, put in the chrysanthemum and ginseng root and let it brew in medium fire for 30-40 minutes.
4. Sieve the concentrated brewed potion. You would get about 3.5L left. (You can retain and boil the brewed ingredients by adding in more water for more cooling beverage as it would be a waste to throw them away. Sieve and add in sugar to taste)
5. Pour 2.5L of the brew into another pot and slowly stir in the jelly powder.
6. Heat up the brew in medium fire and add in the rock sugar. Stir until the rock sugar dissolves.
7. Add in the Chinese wolfberry (10gms only. Balance for garnishing) and let it brew in low fire for another 10-15minutes.
8. Scoop the potion into selected jelly moulds and let it cool. Chill immediately when hardened.
9. Serve the jelly chilled with some diluted raw honey and soaked wolfberry.

Note: Since there is no preservative in this brew, you can keep it fresh if well refrigerated for 3-4 days.

(Serves: 8-10)

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Wolfberry

The dinner was expected to be around 6.30pm that day and it was almost 3.00pm here. When I thought the best alternative was to go around town to search for good food to compliment with the noodles, the results was none as all my favorite places were still closed for the celebration. My mind went berserk seeking for solutions. Should I cook up something? What have I left in the refrigerator that I can cook up in less than 3 hours? Luckily, I’m a person who would always keep my fridge well stocked or else it would be dooms day.

I rushed to the nearest shopping mall and grabbed whatever ingredients I needed for the rest of the meal. The noodle dish would need to be pepped up with flavors as the taste was not as I wanted. Even the soup needed some fine tuning. Moreover, the ingredients and garnishing were not that impressive to be served to my guests. I had to cut the meat slices smaller and halves all the large prawns that came with the order and marinate them again with some pepper, soy sauce and sesame oil and fry them with chopped garlic. On top of that, I had some pounded dried flounder to garnish the noodles as this pounded ingredient would give the noodle a unique fragrance. I then gave the noodles a final touch by garnishing with some scrambled eggs, chopped spring onions and coriander. Viola! The “LAM MEE” had a total makeover!

One dish settled. The next was another headache as the clock was clicking real fast and I did not even know what would impress my guests. I needed to think of a dish that would require minimal cooking time. I grabbed some apples, pears, hami melon slices and cherry tomatoes that I had in the fridge and cut them into cubes. I then diluted some mayonnaise and mixed with some fine sugar, pepper, pasta herbs, milk powder and a dash of sesame oil. I folded in the fruit cubes. Since I had just bought some chicken fillets a day ago, I sliced them thinly and marinated the slices with some sesame oil, soy sauce, some grounded black pepper and ginger juice. I then coated them with some multi purpose frying flour and deep fried them to golden brown. These pieces were then garnished on the fruit salad with an additional sprinkle of mixed herbs. Here’s the masterpiece – Crunchy Chicken with Fruit Salad.

Two dishes on the table sounded odd as three would be a great number for a Chinese family. Three means “San” which has a similar intonation and meaning of “alive”. Now what else could I cook to make up the number? I remembered having some roasted chicken in the fridge. Half a large bird would be enough for everyone but serving that plain would be quite embarrassing, especially in the eyes of my guests. Well, I had the bird chopped up into bite sizes. I then sautéed some chopped garlic in some oil, throw in some ginger slices and stir fry them until fragrant. I added in some soy sauce, a pinch of fine sugar, some pepper, some dark say sauce, some oyster sauce, some sesame oil and mixed them well in the wok. I then pour in some stock and let the chicken simmer for awhile. To thicken the gravy, I had used some corn starch. When the gravy thickened, I poured in some Chinese wine (Shao Xing) to add that special taste into the dish. I called this dish Braised Roasted Chicken in Wine.

It was 6.30pm right on the dot when I heard someone came into the house. Phew! I had everything handled well except that I did not have time left to prepare desserts. To my surprise, both guests brought in an ice cream cake each. I was saved!

I just hope that I won’t have to face such limited time again to come up with an impromptu dinner. It could really be stressful mentally and physically.

Anyway, another related feasting problem, especially for those image conscious people, would be the amount of fatty food they had consumed during this festive season. There’s also a remedy to that but you have to be aware that you have to regulate the amount taken per week as the fruits by the name of Chinese hawthorn berries, Crataegus pinnatifida (Shan Cha – 山楂) are believed to be regularly used in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) for digestion of meat and fatty food, strengthening heart function, lowering blood lipids, and dilating blood vessels to promote blood circulation and anti skin tumor activities. They do come in tablet forms too.

KY did mention that he found a coffee shop in Penang selling this beverage. In fact, I had taken this beverage at another place – Claypot Restaurant at Hillside, Tanjung Bungah, Penang. Unfortunately, we could not get hold of fresh hawthorn berries in Malaysia. The best alternative would be the dried Chinese hawthorn slices. China is one of the largest producers of dried hawthorn berry slices, thus you can see the country producing candies out from the fruits. One main candy that you would see very common in Malaysia would be the hawthorn flakes (Shan Cha Bing -山楂片) which would come in many shapes (round, square and rectangular). Some adventurous bakery would even use these soaked flakes in their baking such as in the making of the Indonesian Layer Cake. Without more crapping, let me just share with you the simple recipe for the HEALTHY HAWTHORN JUICE.

INGREDIENTS:
150gms dried Chinese hawthorn slices (wash clean)
3 medium size Granny Smith green apples (cut into 4 pieces each)
250gms rock sugar
4 liters water

OPTIONAL:
4-5 pieces dried orange peel (one orange makes 8 pieces)
Raw Honey
Grounded Ginger
Grounded Cinnamon

PREPARATION:
1. Bring 4L of water to boil.
2. Put in the washed Chinese hawthorn and green apple slices. Lower heat to medium and boil for 15 minutes.
3. Set the fire to low and add in the dried orange peel (I had added this in for the extra tangy flavor) and rock sugar. Let it brew for another 45 minutes. Stir a few times in the process while mashing the green apples.
4. Sieve the juice and leave to cool. You would get about 3L left.
5. Serve chilled, iced or hot.
6. You can stir in some honey if you like it sweeter or sprinkle some grounded ginger or cinnamon to suit your taste as the juice could still be a bit sour.
Note: Since there is no preservative in this brew, you can keep it fresh if well refrigerated for 3-4 days.

(Serves: 8-10)

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INGREDIENTS:
3 Asian Pears (3” diameter)
1 tablespoon fine sugar
1 tablespoon chopped crystallized ginger (ginger candy)
1 teaspoon grated lemon skin
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon yellow raisins
1/2-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (depending on your preference)
2 teaspoons sesame seeds (toasted)
2 tablespoon walnut (slightly crushed)
Pinch of salt

OPTIONAL:
Margarine with pinch of salt (to replace butter)

PREPARATION:
1. Peel and core the pears. Cut a pear into 4 quarters. From each quarter, cut the piece into another 4 slices. You would get a total of 16 thin slices. Remember to soak the pears and cut slices in a bowl of water mixed with one teaspoon of salt to avoid them turning brown when exposed to the air.
2. Heat the butter in a wok and pour in the pear slices. Saute for about 5 minutes on medium fire.
3. Add in the lemon juice, chopped ginger candy, grated lemon skin, sugar, ground cinnamon and sauté until the pear slices are translucent and tender. That would take about 10-15 minutes. You can add in more sugar if you like the dessert to be sweeter and also a pinch of salt if you are using margarine instead.
4. Fold in the yellow raisins, 3/4 of the walnuts and 3/4 of the toasted sesame seeds. Cook for another 5 minutes.
5. Scoop onto a dessert plate and garnish with the remaining walnuts and toasted sesame seeds.
6. You can serve it hot or room temperature cold.

(Serves: 4-5)

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In short, it’s BRAISED OYSTERS AND SCALLOPS which had eight wonderful combination of seafood, meat and nuts. There’s a secret to this dish. I had used Chabot’s Napoleon Armagnac 1998 brandy to pep up the taste. It even got a thumb-up from the experienced 64 years old chef, Malai Chong. Here’s the recipe but please take note that cooking this dish required lots of patience and time as each items would be cooked separately before combining all. Moreover, all the items are not cheap. A small bowl selling in some restaurants (not so much similar to the way I had cooked) would cost around $13-$33 (RM40-RM100) and they would use only 3-4 of the ingredients I had used below.

INGREDIENTS:
300g pork belly meat (slice thinly)
100g dried oyster
50g-100g dried baby scallops
100g baby Japanese mushrooms
100g dried Chinese chestnuts
150g peeled/tin ginkgo nuts
25g hair moss (Fat Choy)
1 tin braised peanuts (170g net weight, 110g drained weight)
100g young ginger (scrape off skin, maintain 6 thin slices, grate the rest for juice)
3 cloves garlic (chopped)
Pepper
Sugar
Salt
Soy Sauce
Dark Soy Sauce
Oyster Sauce
Sesame Oil
Brandy/Whiskey
Water
Oil

METHODS & MARINATES (leave minimum 1 hour):

Oysters:
- Cover the dried oyster with some hot water until soften. If the dried oysters you had bought were too hard. You can always pressure cook them (covered with water) for 15 minutes. Retain the juice for cooking.
- Drain well and marinate with 2 tbsp each of ginger juice, sesame oil, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp brandy/whiskey and a dash of pepper.

Scallops:
- Cover the dried scallops with some hot water until soften. If the dried scallops you had bought were too hard. You can always pressure cook them (covered with water) for 15 minutes or steam for 25 minutes. Retain the juice for cooking.
- Drain well and marinate with 1 tbsp each of ginger juice, soy sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil.

Mushrooms:
- Cover the dried mushrooms with some hot water until soften.
- Drain well by pressing softly but firmly. Retain the juice for cooking.
- Cut off all the legs.
- Marinate with the balance of the grated ginger (juice plus fiber), 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil and 1/2 tsp fine sugar.

Chinese Chestnuts:
- Soak the dried Chinese chestnuts with some hot water.
- Drain well and use a toothpick to get rid of any remaining red skin still attached to the nuts.
- Heat up a pot of water and boil the nuts for 20-30 minutes until the nuts are soft. Do pick up one to test out the softness as some brands of nuts or too dried ones would take a longer time to cook.

Ginkgo Nuts:
- The easiest way would be by getting a tin of cooked ginkgo nuts or a pack of frozen precooked ones but it would not taste as great as those fresh ones.
- If you happen to get hold of fresh ones, there would be more work involved. You would need to knock the shell and peel of the orange brown skin.
- After all the hard work, you have to cook them in a pot of boiling water for 10-15 minutes. Drain well.
Important Note: Please check with your supplier if the nuts are young nuts. Older ones would have well developed embryos/growth within and these would make the nuts bitter. Slit slightly on the head and get rid of the embryos before boiling them.

Hair Moss:
- Soak the hair moss with some hot water.
- Semi drain the hair moss while leaving some water inside (about 2 tbsp).
- Marinate with 1 tbsp each of ginger juice, soy sauce, sesame oil and 2 tsp of brandy/whiskey.

Pork:
- Rub the pork with some salt and wash off.
- Cut into 1.5” strips and slice thinly.
- Drain well and marinate with 2 tbsp each of sesame oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce and a dash of pepper. Mix thoroughly.

OPTIONAL:
Chicken breast meat (in place of pork)

PREPARATION:
1. You can combine all the retained juices in a bowl. Make sure you sieve the juice prior to using.
2. Heat up 2 tspn oil in a wok and sauté the marinated oysters to golden brown. Scoop and leave aside.
3. Heat up 1 tspn oil and sauté the marinated scallops to slightly brown. Scoop and leave aside.
4. Heat up 2 tspn oil and sauté 1 tsp chopped garlic until brown. Pour in the marinated mushrooms and sauté them until slightly brown and dry. Scoop and leave aside.
5. Heat up 3 tspn oil and sauté 1 tbsp chopped garlic until brown. Pour in the marinated pork, 1 tsp of dark soy sauce, 6 slices of ginger and stir fry them until cooked.
6. Add in 2.5 cups of the retained juice and simmer under high fire for 5 minutes. You can add in some hot water if not enough.
7. Lower the fire to medium and add in the Chinese chestnuts and the whole can of the braised peanuts. Simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
8. Add in the oysters, scallops and mushroom. Stir evenly and let it simmer until the water is halved.
9. Add in the ginkgo nuts and stir thoroughly for about 5-10 minutes.
10. Scoop up the cooked items into a bowl while retaining as much gravy as you can in the wok.
11. Pour in 1.5-2 cups of hot water and bring the gravy to boil.
12. Pour in the hair moss and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
13. Pour in the cooked items in the bowl and stir evenly. Lower fire and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. You can add some hot water if the gravy become over dry as some hair moss would absorb more water.
14. Best served with white rice.
Note: You can keep any remains in the freezer for weeks. When you need the dish, you could always defrost it and add some hot water to bring it to boil. Make sure that you let it boil until your preferred choice of dryness. Good Luck!

(Serves: 8-10)

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INGREDIENTS:
10 Slices Pork Fillet (about 500gms)
1 big onion (slice into semi rings)
8 cherry tomatoes (halves)
4 jackfruits (cut into strips)
8 tbsp all purpose frying flour
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
Sugar
Salt
Water
Oil

SAUCES: (mix well in a small bowl)
4 tsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp corn flour
1/2 tsp sesame oil
4 tspn water
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Shao Xing wine (1/2 tsp brandy/whisky)

OPTIONAL:
Chicken breast meat (in place of pork)
Coriander (garnish)
Spring Onions (garnish)
Green capsicum (slices)

PREPARATION:
1. Hammer the pork fillets lightly until soft.
2. Place all the meat into a mixing tray and add in one tablespoon soy sauce, half teaspoon sesame oil, one teaspoon turmeric powder, pinch of salt & sugar, 8 tablespoon frying flour. Add in some water to make it somewhat batter like. DO NOT MAKE IT TOO DILUTE! Leave aside to marinate for 30-40 minutes.
3. Heat up some oil and fry all the marinated pork fillets until golden brown. Leave on kitchen towel to cool and to drain all the excess oil. Cut into long strips.
4. Leave about 2 tablespoon of the remaining oil in the wok on medium fire. Add in the onions and stir about half a minute.
5. Add in the sauces stated above and simmer for another minute or so.
6. Add in the cherry tomatoes and jackfruit strips and stir for about a minute.
7. Put the fire on low and add in the pork strips. Stir for another two minutes.
8. Dish out to serve.
9. You can lace the plate with some lettuce and garnish with some coriander/spring onions.

(Serves: 4-6)

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What I’m going to share today is the recipe for making this wonderful Tang Yuan in a savory soup version. This is normally home cook in some of the Hokkien families in China and would not be easily obtained in any of the local restaurants. I called the dish the SAVORY TANG YUAN.

INGREDIENTS:
250gms glutinous rice flour
250gms minced pork
250gms lean pork
1 small jicama (yam bean/sengkuang)
1 carrot
1 stalk Chinese celery
4 pips garlic (chopped)
2 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp corn starch
1/2 tbsp salt
Some pepper
3 liter water

GARNISH:
Fried garlic oil
Chopped Chinese celery

OPTIONAL:
Pork Liver
Pork Kidney
Pork Intestine

PREPARATION:
1. Heat up the wok. Add in 3 tablespoon of oil and sauté the chopped garlic until golden brown. Scoop and leave aside to cool.
2. Put the minced meat into a mixing bowl. Add in some pepper, 2 tablespoon each of chopped Chinese celery, chopped carrot, sesame oil, light soy sauce, corn/tapioca starch, and one tablespoon each of oyster sauce and fried garlic. Mix evenly.
3. Oil a metal plate and lay the rolled meat balls and steam for 5 minutes. Leave aside to cool.
4. Cut the remaining carrot, jicama and lean pork into slices.
5. Bring 3 liter pot of water to boil. Add in Item 4.
6. Add in 1/2 tablespoon salt, some pepper, 1 tablespoon oyster sauce and sesame oil and boil until left 2/3 pot.
7. Fold in some water, pinch of salt into the glutinous rice flour until dough like. (Note: sprinkle some more water if it’s too dry or lay the dough onto a towel if it’s too wet)
8. Take some dough and roll into a ball. Flatten it with your palm and fill it with a meat ball. Slowly roll it back into a ball. Repeat the same step until you used up all the dough. (Note: Lay a tray and place a towel on it. Place the rolled glutinous rice balls on it)
9. Bring a pot of water to boil and slowly put in all the glutinous rice balls. Cooked glutinous rice ball will float up.
10. Put whatever quantity of cooked glutinous rice balls into a bowl and scoop some soup onto it.
11. Garnish with some fried garlic oil and chopped Chinese celery.

(Serves: 4-6)

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Did you notice a similarity in all these desserts? They are all served as sweet desserts. There is one sago dessert in the Teochew community which is fast becoming extinct and it is served salty but spicy. I’m going to share with you the recipe today on how to make this dessert. I call it the FRIED SPICY SAGO CAKE.

INGREDIENTS:
250gms pearl sago (soak for 10-15 minutes and drain)
1-2 Tspn chili boh/paste (according to your acceptance of spiciness)
200gms bean sprout (peel off roots if possible)
1 Tspn chopped salted turnip (Chai Po)
1 Tspn dark soy sauce
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Oil
Pepper
Salt
Sugar

GARNISH:
100gms of dried shrimps (flat type – fried and drain excess oil)
Some fried shallots
1 stalk spring onions (chopped)
Chillies (remove seed and cut in strips – optional)

OPTIONAL:
Prawns
Squids

PREPARATION:

(Serves: 5-6)

USEFUL TIPS: Do not worry about some tiny white spots left in the center. Leave it awhile as the heat itself would make them translucent. Depending on the freshness of the sago pearls, you might sometimes get 5% of the sago still with spots. You can ignore these as they are still edible.

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You won’t need any special gadget or many ingredients to make them. It would only take less than a minute from wok to the dining table. It sounded easy right? Let me share with you the method to make this simple yet yummy dessert.

INGREDIENTS:
1 loaf of white bread (400gms)
1 tub of ice cream of your choice (800ml)
Some corn/tapioca flour (mixed with water)
Oil for frying
Kitchen towel

OPTIONAL:
Chocolate/Strawberry/Raspberry Syrup
Icing Sugar
Peanut chunks
Multi color candy rice

PREPARATION:

1. Roll all the slices of bread flat. You can use a roller or even a glass bottle to roll them flat. You may want to cut off the brown edges but I maintained them since I fount that it will be a waste to throw them away.
2. Use a small round/square bowl to lightly make a marking on the bread.
3. Fill up the space with some ice cream of your choice. It is advisable to use ice cream that won’t melt so fast at room temperature.
4. Coated the area outside the marking with some corn flour mixture.
5. Place another slice of bread on top and use the bowl to make the ice cream more compact. Try not to be too forceful as it would make the ice cream leaks out.
6. Use a spoon and firmly press the surrounding edges.
7. Use a kitchen scissors and trim the edges to make it presentable.
8. Keep all the finished products in freezer for at least two hours or when needed.
9. When you want to serve the fried ice cream, just heat up enough oil on high fire. You can throw in a small piece of bread to test the heat.
10. When the oil is boiling hot, put in one or two of the ice cream bread and cook for 5-10 seconds.
11. Take up, drain excess oil with kitchen towel and serve immediately with some or all the items in the “optional” section.

(Serves: 5)

USEFUL TIPS: Make sure you use “harder” ice cream for this dish or else you might end up having too watery ice cream fillings. The King’s Dragon Fruit Ice Cream which I had used tends to melt too fast. I would advice Walls or Magnolia which is less creamy but hard enough to make this dessert. In case you have accidentally created a “leak” on the bread, just patch it up with thicker corn flour mixture before freezing.

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This dish is definitely a very healthy diet as most of the ingredients are taken raw. My demised grandmother had made this yummy dish all the time, so have my mother some of the time. Before it ended up in my generation that none of us would even remember the existence of this dish, I would like to take some time to prepare this dish and share with you my heirloom recipe. Although I am not the descendants of the Baba-Nyonya, I would love to see someone pick up this recipe and be proud that it has been part of the Malaysian cuisines.

INGREDIENTS A:
4 plastic cups of rice (about 1kg of cooked rice)
100gms dried shrimps (soak, dice, fry & cool)
100gms salted ikan kurau (treadfin) meat (cut small thin slices, fry and cool)
1 teaspoon belacan (shrimp paste) powder – Maggi
3 tablespoon kerisik (toasted and pounded grated coconut)
1/2” fresh turmeric (chop finely)
10 mint leaves (daun pudina – chop finely)
3 screwpine leaves (daun pandan – knotted)
Salt, sugar and grounded black pepper to taste

INGREDIENTS B (FINELY SLICED):
6 shallots
1 stalk lemongrass (serai – use the thinner end only)
1/2 stalk torch ginger flower (bunga kantan)
4 kaffir lime leaves (daun limau purut)
6 polygonum leaves (daun kesom/laksa leaves/Vietnamese mint)
6 asiatica pennywort leaves (daun pegaga)
2 turmeric leaves (daun kunyit)
15 basil leaves (daun selasih)
4 galangal leaves (daun cekur)
10 wild betel leaves (daun kaduk/Piper sarmentosum)

GARNISHING:
1 cucumber (halves and sliced)
Sambal Belacan (fresh shrimp paste chili sauce)
Some wild betel leaves (optional)
Some mint leaves (optional)

PREPARATION:

1. Cook rice. When cooked, loosen the rice and fold in the knotted screwpine leaves. Leave aside to be fully cool. Make sure the rice maintain the grain shape but still soft.
2. Find a large container (4 times the amount of the rice would do).
3. Toss evenly all the ingredients in A & B and serve.
4. You can eat it just as it plain or garnish it with the above garnishing with side seafood dishes like Assam Prawns, Assam Fish, Grilled Fish or even some dry meat curries. Sambal Belacan and cucumber is a must if you like the dish spicier.

(Serves: 4-6)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.