Fresh Tuna Purple Potato Salad

Tuna is a common fish in Malaysian cuisine. The local tuna is smaller in size than the ones we eat in Japanese restaurants or those found in colder waters. The local tuna is known as ikan tongkol and it's not an expensive fish to consume. There is another fish that looks almost the same, known as ikan kayu, and I wasn't able to distinguish between the two, until the fish monger placed them side by side. The local tuna, ikan tongkol's skin is actually bluish, looks pretty when the sun shines on it.

Ikan kayu has a much larger bloody area when cooked, tastes more fishy and has a drier texture.

Lao Beef Larb - Indochina AFF Laotian #2

Larb is the national dish of Laos. It is also eaten by the people in Isan, Thailand of which most of its population are of Laotian descent. There is another Northen Thailand version that uses spices to season. Some people will make it with fresh raw beef, and it is alright if you want to have a cooked version. I'm not that brave to go for a Tatare version.

Japchae @ Korean Glass Noodle with Mixed Vegetables

I have a tongue that is usually adventurous and accepts a wide range of cuisine. But there is one, that my tongue has yet been tamed for it. I tried a few dishes before and I find it a bit hard to accept. Maybe I tried them at the wrong places and asking for the wrong food. And kimchi is one of my problem too.

But when I saw these dried noodles at Jusco, that were thicker and had a darker colour than our usual glass noodles, I turned to the back and saw a recipe. It sounds delicious.

I refered to the recipe on the back of the noodle pack and cooked this. Presentation wise.... not quite the usual way. Hahaha. Do you recognise the resemblance??

I am happy that I tried cooking this. And it was yummy!

Healthy noodle salad with lots of  vegetables.

So different than what I had at a so called Korean restaurant in Ipoh that later on folded. I am not surprised they didn't last long as the food was really not good. Their japchae was all soggy and mine tasted better, hahahaha!

I used less sesame oil than in the recipe as I worried about the 'heatiness'.
Feel free to use all sesame oil to saute the ingredients.

Japchae @ Korean Glass Noodles
Recipe source: CJ Noodle wrapper.

250gm Korean glass noodles
200gm onions (2 large), sliced
100gm carrots, julienned
200gm spinach, sectioned
2 eggs
150gm sliced pork/beef, marinated with 6tsp sugar+1.5Tsp light soy sauce+1tsp sesame oil
5 chinese mushrooms, soaked and sliced

Few Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Seasoning
1 Tbsp sesame oil
3 Tbsp light soy sauce or as needed

1. Fry the egg into omelettes. Cool and thinly slice.
2. Add 1 Tbsp of oil and use high heat to saute the onions until softened. Remove and set aside.
3. In the same wok, put in little bit of oil and put in spinach. Toss it around and cook it until it wilts. Remove and set aside.
4. Make sure wok is dry with no leftover juices from cooking spinach. And in the same wok, put in little bit of oil and put in carrots. Toss it around and cook it until it wilts. Remove and set aside.
5. Add in 2 Tbsp of oil, wait until oil is very hot,then put in pork slices and give it a quick stir fry until it is cooked and fragrant. Remove and set aside.
6. With the wok dirty from cooking pork, add in mushrooms and deglaze with 1/s Tbsp soy sauce and ½ cup water. Let it cook until the mushrooms have no more visible liquid. Remove and set aside.
7. Cook noodles boil cook according to instruction
8. To serve, mix everything together with seasoning.

All tossed and ready to be served!

I am submitting this to Asian Food Fest Korean Month, 

hosted by Sharon of Feats of Feasts.

Urab Bali @ Balinese Salad - Indonesia AFF #3

An addictive salad that made me keep on munching.

I remembered an urap on my Balinese Rijsttafel that I had in Kunyit Bali restaurant that was quite unforgettable, but I forgot the name, not the taste. Haha. After cooking this... I found that it wasn't what I was looking for. Nonetheless, it's still a very nice dish.

The dish that I was actually looking for was Jukut Urab, oh... too late too late. Never mind, I'll save the recipe for another day to cook. The problem of not knowing the local name makes google search soooo difficult.

The difference between the two is that Jukut Urab has a refreshing taste of naturally sweet coconut milk with no grated coconut in it, whereas Urab Bali has the wonderful aroma of a fried coconut sambal. I remembered my husband looking at me slurping up all the gravy from the Jukut Urab, hahaha!

Urab Bali
Reference: Cooking Tackle 

7 pcs long beans
1 cup bean sprouts
4 stalks water convolvulus (kangkung)or amaranth (bayam)
1 cup grated coconut
2 Tbsp coconut oil or cooking oil

Blend to a fine paste
5 shallots
3 clove garlic
2 candlenuts
Birds eye chilli and chilli according to your preference
Galangal, lesser galangal, shrimp paste, eye ball 1 tsp each
3 young kaffir lime leaves, midrib removed

Seasoning
1 tsp brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt

1. Toast coconut in pan until slightly golden. Remove and set aside. Heat coconut oil in pan and saute the paste until it starts to release oil. Add in salt and sugar and then the toasted coconut. Combine it well. Taste it, it should be very slightly over salted.
2. Lightly blanch all the vegetables, dunk them into cold water and cut into preferred lengths.
3. Put the cut vegetables into a bigger bowl and put in all the spicy coconut. Toss it around with hand and if you can, using a gentle squeezing motion, as if you are marinating the vegetables.
4. Serve with some crispy shallots if preferred (I didn't put).

The aromatic coconut sambal that is going to dress the blanched vegetables

I realised all the Balinese food I cooked for this week's postings all looked shreddy. And so, the photography looks a bit boring.. believe me, it's no fun taking pictures with dishes with the same visual characteristics. I'm not a creative person to come up with different settings, and I am seriously bored with taking pictures nowadays.

I am submitting this to Asian Food Fest Indonesia Month, 

hosted by Alice of I Love. I Cook. I Bake.

Cabbage Salad with Chuka-fu Dressing - Easy Japanese Fare #3

About 10 years ago, when I was still in Klang Valley, I frequent this Japanese eatery Ryu Men Tei in Subang Jaya on a weekly basis. I have roughly eaten about 90% of what is on their menu. My then bf, now husband, loves the restaurant as well. The restaurant was always packed, even on weekdays.

Fiddlehead Fern Salad~ Kerabu Pucuk Paku- Penang MFF #4

My hubby's aunt has a favourite Penang nonya restaurant in SS2 Petaling Jaya and we dine there quite often together with her. One of the dishes that she always orders is this "kerabu pucuk paku"

Actually I didn't plan to cook this for MFF Penang, but that fateful morning..... after a hot spell, came the rainy days and the wet market was once again selling fern shoots and that morning's collection was utterly beautiful! Sometimes, they look matured and skinny but not this morning... it was fat and young, not too young that it's super slimy, but just perfect! I totally cannot resist and quickly bought everything I needed for this dish.

Coral Seaweed Kerabu - MFF Sabah #6

The Semporna Islands off Tawau are flourishing with seaweed farms.
The cultivated seaweed is sold either in fresh or dried form with only the dried form out of state.

Coral seaweed is also fondly called Sea Bird's Nest as they are also rich in collagen, the protein responsible for beautiful taut skin. The seaweed has no taste on its own, but readily takes on any flavour it is being infused with.

Homemade Yee Sang Sauce - Kumquat #3 自造鱼生酱

My family never eats out during Chinese New Year, due to the heavily inflated price that is often called as crazy. Hence, I never ate 'yee sang' until I was 16, and I went out with friends for dinner during this festive period. I felt it was delicious, but chickened at eating raw fish, that was long ago..... now I eat sashimi like a shark.

For those who have no idea what is 'yee sang', it's a festive Chinese Salad that is made up of raw fish (shashimi) tossed with fine strips of vegetables and crisps in a sweet and sourish dressing. It's a popular Chinese New Year dish in both Malaysia and Singapore. During the tossing, one should say all the nice things, wishing everybody prosperity and everything that is good. The higher you toss, the better it is. So, it can get kinda messy if you have friends like mine, who likes to say non sensical things during the tossing and hence the laughing and subsequent mess. LOL.

Mango Salad with Dried Cuttlefish - MFF Kedah Perlis #9

The last of my Kedah Perlis dishes! Phew! All done!

Because this month, I am host cum organizer, I am supposed to do 6 dishes, but since there weren't much on the internet, I decided to do more so that there will be more ideas and more recipes to choose from.

Kerabu or Salad made with dried cuttlefish is quite common in Chinese restaurants, but normally they come with cucumber. But in Kedah, especially Serdang area, the restaurants have come up with versions that uses green mango (see here), guava(see here) or even green apple(see here). Again, I saw this on the TV show,  Taste with Jason (Axian)

Tomatoes in Sour Gravy ~ Air Asam Tomato

The perfect side dish for Nasi Daging Kedah

Air Asam Tomato  (Tomatoes in Sour Gravy)
Recipe referred : Rinnchan

1 red onion, sliced
1 tsp finely sliced bird’s eye chilli
3 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp sugar
½ -3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1-2 Tbsp vinegar (or more lime juice)
1 tsp finely minced torch ginger bud
2.5 cups diced tomatoes
Chinese parsley (daun sup) for garnish

1. Mix sliced red onion with lime juice, sugar, salt, chilli and fish sauce. Let it sit for 1 hour.
2. Taste it and adjust with vinegar and more salt if needed. It should be sourish, spicy and a saltiness level that is just right (not oversalted).
3. Just before serving, mix in minced torch ginger and diced tomatoes.
4. Serve this with nasi daging/beef rice

BLT Pasta Salad - Pasta Week #1

Recipe tried out in Sept 2011

Love this salad.

Well, who doesn’t love BLT
Bacon--- Lettuce---Tomatoes.
A wonderful combination, usually in sandwiches.

Autumn Chopped Salad - Pear Week # 2

There's no autumn here. It's summer whole year long, 365 days a year, oh next year will be 366.

Over the northern hemisphere, cranberries, pecans, pears and apples are in season few weeks back (some still are), and as usual, they land on our shores pretty much later. It may be Christmas soon, and it's usually associated with winter (but that's not the real thing anyway) so, it might be weird to serve an autumn salad with cranberries, pecans, apples and pears for Christmas, but then again, it's not really important because seasons don't play a major role here, except with the availability if imported fruits and vegetables. We just eat anything, anytime of the year.

Apple, Carrot and Orange Coleslaw - Salad Week # 3

Recipe tried out in August 2011

This is another beautiful recipe from my white elephant.

Coleslaws or affectionately called as 'slaw'. It's basically a raw cabbage salad. The most common is found in KFC, the whitish cabbage mush served with your favourite fried chicken. My FIL who doesn't eat vegetables eats coleslaw.

Appetizing Ribbon Salad - Salad Week # 2

Recipe created in July 2011

I admit, I didn't do a good job making ribbons. In a rush for dinner and photography, LOL!

This salad is beautiful when eaten with a cloying meal, because of the sourish and spicy dressing.
I prefer to pickle the onions in the dressing so that the flavour will mellow and be less pungent, but I like the pungency of onions, but it's definitely more pleasant when pickled.

Caesar Salad, Wendyywy's style - Salad Week # 1

Salad made in August 2011

Pei Sze, this week is for you! Congratulations with the new move! Happy salad making.

Caesar Salad, not Julius's I think. This is my twist on this classical salad.

How to Make Croutons - No Bake Version

I do get asked this question every now and then.
Actually it's pretty easy. You won't even need an oven for this.

Prawn and Mango Salad - Mango Week # 3

Pomegranate Cream Cheese Orange Salad

The star of the party. This is the dish that got the most raving from my guests at Lyanne’s party.

Lately I've grown not to like salads with mayonnaise dressings. Either it shows that I've grown up or I'm sick of it. Whichever way, it certainly isn't all that healthy when mayo is usually made with hydrogenated oils, and these are sources of trans-fat which are artery clogging and a main source of obesity, diabetes, cancer, infertility in women and liver problems. Mayo is not made with milk, haha. I used to think mayo is a form of dairy when I was a kid. Well, I'm not saying I want to diet and slim down, no no. But why eat something so bad for you while you can have better options in life. If I feel like having mayo, I think I'll still go back to my tomato cream. Choose a good oil when you make it, then it'll be much better for you. When I made that I only have corn oil in hand, and that is hydrogenated too, but since the amount is not as much as regular mayo, just keep one eye closed. Now, I have one bottle of grapeseed oil, which is far better. It's just how you choose your food.

This is the only dish that I remembered what and how much stuff I used to prepare it. But then again, what to put and how much to put in is up to you.

But when I planned for this salad, I gave it a few thoughts

Crunchy : Lettuce and croutons
Soft: Cheese and orange
Sweet: Pomegranate
Salty: Croutons and cheese
Tangy: Orange
Creamy feel: Cheese
Colour combination : Green, Pink, Orange, Yellow and White.

It was a nice combination, and I will do this again, if I have another party to do. Probably my housewarming party, but I do hope I can get pomies at that time of the year.

Mike’s aunt asked for this recipe, so I post this up for her reference.

You can actually use the dressing as your Chinese New Year Lou Sang dressing. Slice the lettuces instead of breaking them up, use parmesan instead of cream cheese, use mandarin oranges instead of Valencia (and skip the sugar), and the croutons… hmm… up to u to innovate with it so that it’ll be suitable for tossing with chopsticks.

Pomegranate Cream Cheese Orange Salad
Recipe Source: Wendyywy

2 heads of coral lettuce (I used Genting Garden brand)
1 large head of romaine lettuce (Genting Garden brand too)
3/4 cup pomegranate seeds (I used 2 Spanish pomies, Chinese pomies are pale and seeds are bigger)
125gm cream cheese (cut them when they are cold and firm)
2 valencia oranges (flesh only)
1 cup or more croutons (Recipe here)

1. Wash and drain both lettuces. Tear into small pieces and place in salad dish
2. Cut away skin from orange, including the white parts and remove wedges of flesh from the orange. Sprinkle orange wedges over lettuce. Squeeze leftover juice from the remains for the vinaigrette.
3. Cube cream cheese and sprinkle all over the lettuces. (a wet knife helps with the cutting)
4. Sprinkle pomegranate seeds over salad. Keep chilled until time of serving
5. Prepare vinaigrette.
6. When it’s time to serve, carefully drizzle vinaigrette evenly over salad and lastly top with crispy croutons. No need to toss.

Orange Vinaigrette
Juice from 1 valencia orange, plus extra juice from the leftovers after removing the flesh from the above 2 oranges
3 Tbsp light olive oil
¾ tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
Good dash of black pepper
Mix everything together and taste. If too sour, add more sugar. The dressing should be taste nicely salted (just like soups) and the sweetness nicely balanced with the tanginess of the orange juice.