Babe in the City - KL

Was first introduced to this Stir-Fried Manicai with Eggs in my earlier days of blogging when I used to stalk blogs belonged to Sarawakians. They were literally crazy over manicai which in Cantonese is shue tzai choy or in Malay cekur manis. One of them, Eddie who lives in USA literally have a box of these plants growing in his living room and he really took care of the plants like babies :p

I've never got around to cooking this dish cos preparing the vegetable is ermmm quite time consuming. The plucking and picking the leaves that is. I do love manicai in soups and especially so in pan meen. Hates it when they serve pan meen soup using substitute vegetables.

And so I did a bit of search and what more from a pretty lass with beautiful voice, Kelly Siew, who is a native of Bintulu. She had carefully listed down the steps to do with the leaves which I would never have known to salt the leaves to squeeze out the liquid before using. The reason for doing so is to get rid of the certain bitterness from the leaves.

Being the ever careless cook, I tend to forget to add ingredients hehe yeah even at work. Can you imagine the amount of times my boss would roll her eyes over this carelessness! And so I did the same with this dish which was so simple to make hahahaha... sighhh I've forgotten to add the water even though I've measured and place next to the pan, can you believe it? Darn fail!

Anyway the verdict from Capt'n Hook was good and I thought so too. I think I like my manicai slightly crunchy with a bite but would have gone if I had added the water. So in my recipe, I would say water is optional. You can even use chicken stock if you wish. I've also omitted chicken powder nor MSG since I don't use them in my cookings.

Stir-Fried Manicai with Eggs
Serves 2 - 4

200 g manicai (plucked weight)
1 Tbsp salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
50 ml water (optional)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp soy sauce

Pluck manicai leaves, wash and soak like the usual way you would do it. Drain and mix in the salt, tearing some of the leaves in between. Set aside for 10 minutes. Squeeze out the liquid from the manicai. Rinse out the leaves with a few washes of water and squeeze them dry another round. Set aside.

In a hot pan, heat up the oil. Add garlic and fry till fragrant. Stir in the manicai leaves. Add in water now if using. When it's quite dry, make a well in the centre and pour in the eggs. Let the eggs set before stirring them all together. Stir in soy sauce and mix evenly before dishing up.

This is my third entry for 8th Merdeka Open House 2013 Date & Theme: Treasures from Sabah & Sarawak.

I discovered this dish, Fuk-Tong Pad Khai, at one of the food stall in Chatuchak Market, Bangkok. As it was a short working trip, I had to grab a quick bite and nothing is faster than a mixed rice stall. I have to say, the 3 dishes that I took were all yummy but this one, Stir-Fried Pumpkin With Egg, was especially memorable.

So when I came back, I checked out the recipes online and found many versions to it but they uses Japanese pumpkin (kabocha). I guess the reason must be kabocha is much tender and has a crunchy texture. I managed to get a kabocha and I think I've nailed it on my first try testing out the recipe. If you love stir fry pumpkin, you'll love this.

Thai Stir-Fried Pumpkin With Egg (Fuk-Tong Pad Khai)

(A)
150 g minced meat (can be chicken or pork)
1/2 tsp fish sauce
1/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cornstarch
A dash of ground white pepper

400 g Japanese pumkin (kabocha)
2 eggs
1 - 2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 - 2 Tbsp chopped spring onion

(B)
100 ml water
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 Tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
Dash of ground white pepper

Mix (A) evenly together to marinade the minced meat.

Mix (B) together and set aside as the sauce.

To prepare the pumpkin, remove the skin but you can keep some on as this variety of pumpkin is pretty young and tender. Should you use the local pumpkin, remove all the hardy skin. Cut into wedges and remove the seeds. Then slice diagonally into 1 - 1.5 cm thickness.

Heat oil and fry garlic till fragrant. Add in the minced meat and stir fry till cooked. Next, stir in the pumpkin slices.

Spread and leave a well in the centre of the pan. Crack in the eggs and break up the yolks. Leave it to cook, do not scramble the eggs. Once the eggs cooked up, stir in the pumpkin slices.

Stir mixture (B) before pouring into the pumpkin and egg. Cook until most of the liquid dries up. Scatter in some chopped spring onion and dish up. Serve with steamed white rice.

A lot of times I tend to stock up on longer lasting items in the fridge to prevent trips to the wet market. Items like cabbages, french beans, baby corn, fresh mushrooms, carrots, celery, bell peppers, tomatoes and squashes generally could last better. Green leafy vegetables does not last long as they turn yellow fairly quickly even after cling wrapped followed by another layer of newspaper. Lettuces could last a little longer though and I found out that storing vegetables in the plastic clear boxes that you buy salad leaves like butterhead lettuces, frisse, romaine lettuce etc could actually last longer in the fridge. Do give it a try!

So here's another stir fry with similar ingredients hahaha... well this time it has pan fried firm tofu squares, french beans, snow peas and baby corn. Pre-fry firm tofu squares and set aside. Heat up some oil and stir in chopped garlic. Wait till fragrant before adding in the french beans and baby corn. Next, stir in the tofu and a little water with a couple dashes of oyster sauce and some white pepper. Let it cook for a couple of minutes before adding the snow peas as these cook very quickly. Dish up and serve with rice.

If you love bitter gourd (fu kua in Cantonese) like me, you would definitely love this dish. This is actually a stir-fry and not an omelette since the amount of eggs are much lesser.

Halved a medium sized bitter gourd and remove the seeds with a spoon. Then slice them across into thin strips. Sprinkle some salt all over and rub them well to ensure they're coated evenly. I read somewhere that by doing this, it will remove some of the bitterness away, well  I can't really verify this. Let it sit for about 15-20 minutes before washing off the salt and drain away excess water in a colander.

Heat up a wok and pour in some oil. Chuck in some chopped garlic and put in the bitter gourd once garlic is fragrant. Fry the gourd till it changes to a slightly darker colour or soften (I prefer mine to be slightly firm). You may sprinkle some water but not much to help with the cooking process. Season with salt and some black pepper.

Next, pour in 2 eggs that have been beaten lightly. Let eggs set a bit before stir frying. Keep frying till the eggs are cooked through. Dish up and serve with rice.





I'm submitting this for Muhibbah Malaysian Monday blog event. This event is the brainchild of  Shaz (Test With A Skewer) and Suresh (3 Hungry Tummies). Read more here.

First my PC acted up and now the modem... so I'm without internet at the moment. I will post up the Lompat Tikam recipe later on since there were requests for it. Here's a simple recipe (well not really a recipe since there isn't any measurements :p) while I sulk waiting for magic to happen.

This is another version of stir fry of whatever vegetables I found in my fridge. If you follow my blog, I tend to do this a lot, well to clear up whatever I have plus this let me to be creative once in a while heh.

I just needed a little bit of everything and they really do bulk up when put together. This time round, I have a little of cabbage, a stick of celery, a small segment of carrot, a few pieces of oyster mushrooms and half a piece of firm tofu. Sliced up the cabbage, celery and carrot.

Cut tofu into slim sticks and pan fry them with a little oil. Remove from pan when all sides are browned and set aside. Add a little oil if there isn't enough of it. Once it's hot, stir in chopped garlic. When it's fragrant, put the carrot and cabbage in. Sprinkle some water all over so that they both can soften a little. Add in the celery, mushrooms and tofu. Stir and season with salt and black pepper. Dish up and serve with steamed rice.



So this is another one of my easy stir fry dish that contains lots of fibre and some protein.

By now you would have know that I'm really a very lazy person *chuckle* cos most of my dishes are darn easy with little ingredients. However I'm very creative though hehe since I could create dishes with basic concepts but just go round varying the ingredients.

Chicken and Snow Peas Stir Fry is yet another easy peasy stir fry that goes well with rice. I usually don't like to stir fry my vegetables with meat as I prefered them plain but this dish was an all rounder with the chicken added.

Prepare a little water with a few dashes of oyster sauce added into it. Brown some garlic in oil before adding in pieces of chicken fillet marinaded with some soy sauce, white pepper and corn flour. Stir and cook chicken till a little brown. Add in sliced carrots and the sauce mix.

Let the chicken and carrots cook for a short while before adding snow peas and sliced baby corns. Stir for another 2 minutes or so, dish up and serve hot with rice.

Oppsie daisie... sorry for yet another stir fry dish with similar ingredients :p

The home PC decided to act up and we're now waiting for the spare part to arrive. Hopefully by end of this week it will get sorted out. In the meantime, I'm using Capt'n Hook's Macbook and the thing is all my photos are in the PC, my back up hard disk cannot be read by the Macbook grrrr... I only have some stir fry dishes uploaded in my flickr album, so bear with me ok.

This post is dedicated to "quick and easy" Celine (Life, Love and Me) since this is another easy peasy dish but can look great to even serve to guests. Super healthy cos I only have this dish with brown rice as it has protein and fibre altogether in one dish.

This dish comprises of firm tofu, assorted mushrooms (you can use all sorts of fresh mushrooms) and carrots for colour; served on a bed of blanched dou miao (pea shoots). Just need to shallow fry firm tofu that has been sliced into squares and set aside when golden brown. In the meantime, quickly blanch some pea shoots, drain and place them on the serving plate.

Using the same pan on medium heat, make sure the amount of oil is just enough for your serving size. First stir in some sliced garlic. When it's fragrant, add in the sliced carrots and stir. Next stir in mushrooms and fried tofu. Pour in a little water, a few dashes of oyster sauce and a tiny dash of dark soy sauce which you can omit. I've used it just for some colour. Season with some white pepper. Taste and adjust accordingly.

Simmer for a few minutes or till liquid is dried up (you can add cornstarch solution to thicken). Serve this over the blanched pea shoots.

Yummy or what?

I loved the colour of how this dish turned out, it's so vibrant and pretty... makes the dish looked appetising. I've used eryngii mushrooms, carrots and yellow capsicum (bell pepper). If I've added some red and green capsicum, my dish would have looked lovelier!

Very very simple, just heat a little oil and add in some chopped or thinly sliced garlic. Once fragrant, stir in sliced carrots. Pour in a little water to soften the carrots, omit this if you like your carrots to be crunchy. Cook for a couple of minutes. Next mix in the mushrooms and capsicum. Seasoned with salt and black pepper. Dish up and serve with steamed rice.

Had enough of the festive dishes? Time to have loads of greens then...

Baby Kai Lan is one of my favourite vegetables. I usually blanch them but another way is to stir fry them. Most times I uses garlic and oyster sauce but this time I remembered how my mother does it. She uses ginger and Chinese cooking wine or DOM and sometimes brandy too.

My version is very simple, I just cut old ginger into thin strips and fry them in oil till brown and crispy before adding baby kai lan. Keep stirring and sprinkle a little water to help with the cooking process if necessary. Add some salt to taste. When it's cooked, I poured in a couple tablespoons of Stone's Ginger Wine. Give it a stir before dishing up. Serve hot with steamed rice.

**Non-Halal**




I've cooked this very simple dish but packed a punch in terms of nutrition, ermmm well except for the fatty bits of the roast pork (siew yuk) :p Flowering Chives can be found easily these days at the wet markets and supermarkets but I know quite a number of people dislike them cos they have a distinct pungent flavour. So it's either one likes it or hates it.

There are only 2 main ingredients ie. chopped roast pork and flowering chives cut into sections. Seasonings needed were chopped garlic, oyster sauce, salt (only when necessary), a few grains of sugar and white pepper powder. Easy peasy... first, fry chopped garlic in oil till fragrant before adding the roast pork. Stir and brown the pork a bit. Add in the flowering chives and stir. Next, pour in a wee bit of water and add in the seasonings. Cover with a lid for a few minutes so that the flowering chives can turn a little soft with the steam generated. If you prefer them to be crunchy, do not cover too long. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt if necessary or you can add more oyster sauce. Dish up and serve hot with rice.

This is a simple stir fried that one can almost always find in Chinese restaurants. The celery slices retains it crunch coupled with squid slices and fresh prawns making this a rather refreshing vegetable dish.

Just need to use a vegetable peeler to peel off the woody bits of about 3 sticks of celery before slicing them diagonally. Some slices of carrots to add some colour, also cut diagonally to match the celery. I've tailed the prawns, about a handful. As for the squid (I've used 2 medium sized ones), cleaned up all the slimy bits inside and remove the outer layer. Then lightly score the inside into diamond patterns before slicing them up.

Prepare about 4-5 tbsps of water (guesstimate ok). Into it add in about 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp cornflour, a pinch of salt, sugar and white pepper powder to taste.

Fry some chopped garlic in hot oil till fragrant. Add in the carrots and stir. Then stir in prawns. When prawns all turned pinkish, add in squid and celery. Keep stirring. Pour in the prepared sauce and stir about 3 mins or so, well depends how much crunch you prefer on your celery. Dish up and serve with rice.





I'm submitting this for Muhibbah Malaysian Monday blog event. This event is the brainchild of  Shaz (Test With A Skewer) and Suresh (3 Hungry Tummies). Read more here.

**Non-Halal**


I've no idea what is the proper name for this dish that is very common in Chinese household here in Malaysia. I've known it as Chau Lup Lup (Stir-Fried Diced Vegetables?? :p). The ingredients are almost similar as Stir-Fried Preserved Radish with Tofu, just that the execution is slightly different. All ingredients are diced rather small or cut into an almost uniform size and then fried, hence chau lup lup.

Essentially, this dish consist of French beans or some uses long beans, deep fried peanuts, preserved radish and tofu. However for this time, I added some leftover diced rock hard char siu (bbq pork) that we have eaten at Good Friends Restaurant in Highland which I will reserve the review for another time.


* Apologies for the poor quality pics cos have to feed a few hungry tummies :p

This dish involved some work like chopping the ingredients to almost uniform in size. Deep fry peanuts with skin on for about 5 minutes or thereabout till golden brown, and set aside. Next, deep fry the diced dry type of tofu till golden brown, dish up and set aside.

Stir-fry some chopped garlic in oil till fragrant before chucking in the diced sweet preserved radish (wash and soak before cutting). Stir and add a little water. Simmer for a couple of minutes to soften the radish otherwise your jaw will ache from all the chewing :D

Next, stir in char siu, followed by French beans. Pour in a mixture of about 2 tbsp water + 1 tbsp oyster sauce + 1 tsp soy sauce + 1/4 tsp sugar. You can adjust the seasoning with some salt and white pepper powder. Then stir in tofu and peanuts. Keep stirring till the gravy vapourised and essentially this dish should be completely dry in nature. Once it's nice and dry, dish up and serve!

Best with plain rice or congee (rice porridge)!


I'm submitting this for Muhibbah Malaysian Monday blog event. This event is the brainchild of  Shaz (Test With A Skewer) and Suresh (3 Hungry Tummies). Read more here.

Another dish of my childhood memory is this simple stir-fried french beans with tofu and strips of preserved radish (sweet choy po)! For my version, I've added some leftover cabbage and coloured it with some carrots.

I've washed the sweet preserved radish and soak them in water for about 20 minutes before cutting them into strips. Then, I sliced up firm tofu into squares and pan fried both sides in a little oil until browned. Remove and set aside.

Fry up some chopped garlic (can be omitted if you're strict vegetarian) in some oil till fragrant before tossing in the preserved radish and stir. Add in some water, cover wok with a lid and simmer for about 10 mins on low heat or until water almost dry up. This will soften the radish a little but yet retain a little crunch, otherwise your jaw is going get tired from the amount of chewing needed :p

Add in french beans, carrots and cabbage. Stir and add in some oyster sauce and pepper to taste plus a teeny pinch of sugar to bring out the flavour. Only add salt if necessary as the oyster sauce is salty already. Put in the tofu and gently stir till well mixed. Dish up and serve with rice.

**Non-Halal**




Made this on the 2nd day of CNY. I usually cook leek and arrowheads (ngar ku) with siew yuk (roasted pork) but I did not have any roasted pork so made do with minced pork instead, I supposed minced chicken meat can be used as well.

Sliced and clean leeks into 2" in length. Peel, clean and sliced arrowheads, rinse and drain the water away. Marinaded minced meat with some soy sauce, pepper, a wee bit of sesame oil and some cornflour. Do add a bit of water inside so that the meat is not too tough.

Heat a little oil in a wok and put in the leeks. Fry till they started to turn brown at the edges. Dish up and set aside. Add some oil to the wok again and fry the minced meat till cooked. Add in leek and arrowhead. Pour in some water and let it come to a boil. Pour in oyster sauce to taste and add in a little dark soy sauce for some colour. Add a little sugar to bring out the taste. Cover wok and simmer till arrowhead slices are soften or to the texture you prefered. By then the gravy would have dried up, or you may thicken with some cornstarch solution.

Dish up and serve.

Check out these too:
Stir Fry Roast Pork With Lotus Root And Arrowhead
Stir-Fried Roast Pork With Leek

This was an easy peasy stir-fry with whatever I need to clear from my fridge last weekend. I had bought the fresh button mushroom for a Western dish in mind but since I was pressed for time, I didn't get to use them. So I put on my thinking cap after rummaging the fridge and came out with this dish inspired by this Mushroom and Garlic tapas that I've made before.

Prepare the bunch of asparagus by cutting of the bottom woody part and use a peeler to shred away the hard skin before cutting into1.5" in length.

For the celery, remove the stringy strands either using a knife or peeler. Cut them into sticks similar to the size of asparagus.

Clean the mushrooms with paper towel before slicing them. Chop up 2 cloves of garlic.

Heat up some extra virgin olive oil in a hot wok and add in chopped garlic. Fry till fragrant but not brown. Add in asparagus first and stir. Next add in celery and mushroom. Keep stirring and sprinkle a bit of water inside. Add sea salt to taste and a generous pinch of black pepper. Keep stirring and drizzle in some Chinese cooking wine (in replace of white wine). Since I've over "sprinkled" more water than needed, I added a bit of cornstarch solution to thicken up the sauce. Serve immediately with rice.

Surprising this stir-fry came out tasting good. I loved how the olive oil and black pepper have given the stir-fry a new lease of life, completely different from the usual Chinese stir-fries. Give it a try ;-)


Technorati Tags: vegetable

**Non-Halal**

The Actor...



The Supporting Actresses...



The Drama...

Heat some oil in hot wok and stir in the sliced leeks. Fry till the edges slightly browned and add in sliced carrots. Stir in the roast pork (siew yuk). Pour in some water (not too much, depends how much sauce you would like in this dish) followed by oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and a wee bit of sugar to taste. Cover and simmer on low heat till the leeks are soften. You can thicken the sauce with some cornflour solution but I like to keep mine as it is. Dish up and serve with rice.

The Award Winning Movie...




Note: This dish used to be a seasonal affair and mostly eaten during Chinese New Year but these days Chinese leeks can be found almost the whole year round. Something to rejoice indeed!


Technorati Tags: roast pork + pork + leek

Been busy... something simple to tide things over but with a stupendous long name hahaha. In actual fact, it's just a simple stir-fried cabbage. All I did was slice the cabbage and tofu puffs (tofu pok or deep fried tofu) into strips. Wash and soak the dried shrimps for about 10-15 mins, otherwise they can be rather salty. Discard water and drain the shrimps. Heat oil in a wok and dump in loads of chopped garlic. Fry till fragrant then add the dried shrimps. When the shrimp turn golden brown, stir in tofu puffs. Next, stir in cabbage. Sprinkle in a little water whilst stirring. Pour in some oyster sauce to taste and stir to mix up. Dish up when the cabbage is cooked through and serve dish with rice. A great one dish that have fibre and protein for the day.


Technorati Tags: vegetable

Another simple stir-fry from the kitchen that comprised of 3 major ingredients ie. snow peas, Eryngii mushrooms and carrot slices. Heat some oil in the wok and put in chopped garlic. Once the garlic turn light brown, stir in the 3 ingredients. Quickly pour in oyster sauce to taste and sprinkle some water. Mix well before adding some rice wine or you can use ShaoXing wine. Give it another quick stir and dish up. Serve immediately.


Technorati Tags: vegetable + vegetarian

Another easy peasy AND super healthy vege dish cos no oil is used, unless you decided to make it more fragrant by drizzling shallot or garlic oil over before serving. Specially brought to you by babe_kl as an early Christmas pressie :D To a healthier 2009!

I will be taking a break next week since I doubt I would have the opportunity to be sitting in front of a computer. Happy holidays!!!

Stir-Fried Kei Chi Mix Vegetables

(A)
1 carrot, sliced according to your liking
1 bunch of asparagus, remove the fibrous layer with a peeler then sliced into lengths
1 pack of baby corn, remove husk and sliced into lengths
half a yellow capsicum/bell pepper, sliced

(B)
2 tbsp kei chi (boxthorn/lycium/Chinese wolfberry)
1/2 rice bowl water or you can use chicken stock

(C)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
A saucepan of water

(D)
1 tbsp oyster sauce or to taste
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp water

(E)
1 tsp corn flour mix with 2 tbsp water

1. Clean and soak kei chi in water for 30 mins.
2. Boil (C) and blanch (B). Remove and set aside.
3. Heat wok and put in combined (D). Pour in kei chi together with the water.
4. Add in blanched vegetables and stir.
5. Thicken with (E). At this stage, you can drizzle in shallots or garlic oil over but I didn't. Serve immediately.

Technorati Tags: vegetable + vegetarian

I usually stir-fry my french beans plain with garlic and a dash of oyster sauce but once I have too little french beans to make a dish. I peeped into my fridge and found some oyster mushrooms, carrots and beancurd sheet with fish paste. So I just sliced them all into strips and fry them with some oil and garlic. Add in a few dashes of oyster sauce to taste, sprinkle with some water and stir till cooked. Dish up and serve with rice. Yum... just be a bit creative and a new dish will emerge. No harm trying, you'll never know ;-) what's going to turn out.


Technorati Tags: malaysian food + vegetable