Timun Char Swee (Stir Fry Cucumber with Vinegar)

Stir Fry Cucumber with Vinegar

This is one of my all time favorite nyonya dish. Very little chance I get to eat this,...only see this dish during Chinese New Year ! I can't recall seeing this dish in any of the nyonya restaurants in Klang Valley.

Seems that traditional nyonya dishes are getting lesser and lesser...the only time I can really find all the dishes are during the Chinese festive season or some special occasions.

Better note it down somewhere before it extinct....

Preparations: Peel Cucumber and remove the seeds, slice, then marinate with a pinch of salt, sugar and vinegar. leave aside, cut the Carrot and Onion, minced the Garlic. (Forgot to buy Red Chillies)

Prawn(shelled) , wash and clean the Chicken Gizzard & Chicken Liver thoroughly. Slice thinly !

Heat up the oil, saute the garlic till fragrant. Add in the prawn, gizzard and liver and stir fry for 2-3minutes.

Throw in the cucumber, carrot and onion, mix all the ingredients. Add in some water. Pour in cornflour(premix with water) to thicken the gravy.

Lastly salt to taste.

Ingredients

400g Cucumber (peel, remove seed & cut)

80g Carrot (sliced)

50g Onion (sliced)

10g Garlic (minced)

150g Prawn (shelled)

30g Chicken Gizzard (sliced thinly)

30g Chicken Liver (sliced thinly)

1tbsp Sugar

3tbsp Vinegar

1tsp Salt

1tsp Cornflour (mixed with 3tbsp water)

100ml Water

Fuzhou Red Wine

Dedicated to all the "Foo Chows"

I have a Foo Chow friend who taught me almost everything about their Fuzhou Red Wine,... the food,...the restaurants in Malaysia...an even on the recipes how to prepare their delicacy the...Ang Chiew Mee Suah.

I was fascinated to xplore more !...So check it out !

I was in China recently and I was given the opportunity to check out one of the thousand wine breweries. Before I reached the destination, I was taken for a ride almost a mile journey through many back lanes just like the one you see....imagine yourself like a rat running around in a maze...no ending.

...till I saw this shop ! So it's for real....small wooden shop selling all sorts of Chinese wine.

Hooo....check out the backyard ! Thousands of urns filled with Chinese wine.

The owner took me tour round his factory, showing me the wine brewery equipment and took me through the wine making process....cool !

Of course it' never complete without the wine tasting to demonstrate the quality of their wine. Arrggh....too strong, taste almost like kerosene.

Now, the moment you have been waiting for....

Glutinous rice+Red yeast rice+Yeast

Cook the glutinous rice and let it cool down. Grind the red yeast rice and the yeast till they become powder form.

Mixed all ingredients together....

Wait for the fermentation process to take place ! 3 to 4 weeks.

To be continue....need to go back to China to check it out !

Ingredients

1kg Glutinous Rice

150g Red Yeast Rice

10g Yeast

3cups Water

bsg: You need to be there...it's coming your way

Fried Rice with Mustard Green

Mom's recipe !

I found a leftover mustard green lying in my fridge,....I told myself besides making tasty kiam chai boey what can I do with it !

So call back Penang and ask....this is what I came out with....

I don't know whether call to it...fried rice or lotus rice, coz the cooking method is similar to preparing the lotus rice...but without the lotus leaves.....so I cannot branded it as lotus rice, right!....so, fried rice !

My mom has been cooking this for at least few decades !!!!...Boring ! but then again now staying alone...kind of missing this dish. Oooh ! actually it's because of the mustard green has been lying around and occupying the fridge....so it's has to go ! Cook without choice !

Basic Ingredients; Rice, Pork Belly, Garlic, Shallots, Mustard Green, Shitake Mushroom, Ju Hu See (Shredded Cuttlefish) and Dried Shrimp.

Heat up the oil, saute the garlic and shallot till slightly brown. Then add in the pork belly, dried shrimp, shitake mushroom and ju hu see, stir fry for few minutes. Add in the uncooked rice, light soy, dark soy, salt and pepper to taste and stir to mix all the ingredients together.

Once all the ingredients are well mixed, transfer all the stuffs into the rice cooker and add in the mustard green.

Add water like how you used to cook rice but slightly lesser.

Done ! Half fried rice....half lotus rice ! Mom's recipe !

Trust me it's tasty. You get the sweetness from the pork, dried shrimp and ju hu see and yet you get a bit of the sour taste from the mustard green.

Serving for 4 paxs

Ingredients

200g Pork Belly, cubed

10g Ju Hu See, soaked

10g Shitake Mushroom, soaked

20g Dried Shrimp, soaked

500g Mustard Green, cut into chunks

10g Garlic, chopped finely

10g Shallots, chopped finely

11/2cup Rice

2tbsp Light Soy

1/2tbsp Dark Soy

1tsp Salt, or to taste

1/2tsp Pepper, or to taste

2cups Water

2tbsp Oil