Fried Nasi Lemak

When I was teaching in Selancar, I have always wondered how come the breakfast fried rice in the canteen, sometimes taste awesome, sometimes just so so. Until one day, I fried some leftover nasi lemak with egg. My brain went “tink”, the bulb lit up. The fried rice tasted superb because it’s made with leftover nasi lemak.

And today I had some extra coconut milk from making coconut agar-agar and I was busy doing the cake, so I better cook something simple for dinner. And fried nasi lemak shall be it! I purposely made the seasonings as close as possible to the accompanying sambal, except, there’s no tamarind.

Ji Jor

Chee Jor or Ji Zhor depends on how one is going to romanize it..It's a chewy sweet potato finger.

The non-muslim community in Kuala Kangsar will know of this snack.This is sold at a small hawker stall near the town's supermarket, only available evening onwards, made by a Hokkien lady who resides few doors away from my old residence, a family friend.. It's like those sweet  potato balls, but made into fingers.

Corn Silk Molasses Tea 玉米须黑糖茶

We often discard corn silk, and it's treated as waste. When I was a kid, I collected corn silk whenever I saw someone peeling fresh corn and played masak-masak with it. It's like playing with hair! Absolutely fun and environmentally friendly. LOL!

I saw this recipe years ago, it reminded me that I've seen corn silk sold at Cameron Highlands, and the store owner told me it's good for the kidneys. I've also read about it saying it's diuretic and good for people with water retention. According to Baike.com, it's good for edema, hypertension, diabetes, jaundice, gallstones and it's also good for lactation purposes. Benefits of corn silk can also be found on WebMD. And it could also help with fat reduction, as said in this research paper.

Vietnamese Claypot Caramelised Fish~ Cá Kho Tộ

I got to know about this dish when I watched Masterchef US back in 2012. Christine Ha, a blind cook of Vietnamese descent served this homey dish to the judges and won their hearts. Sounded delicious!

And so, I tried to cook this myself. I found Christine's recipe here on Doctor's TV. The featured recipe wasn't the full version, and I changed it based on how she said she added coconut soda and some recipes call for birds eye chilli, but other than that, I just tried to follow her method and the recipe.

Charcoal Mung Bean Buns 竹炭豆蓉包子

Recipe created in 2013

Few years back, baking with bamboo charcoal was popular. A lot of people were baking bread with bamboo charcoal powder, creating black loaves or zebra looking loaves. Bamboo charcoal does not impart flavour to the bake, but there is a mild difference in texture. I have no idea whether this is activated or non activated bamboo charcoal powder because it's not stated on the bottle it came with.