Chinese Recipes | Cooking Tips | Good Eats

Tag:Beef, beef satay, easy asian recipe, easy chinese recipe, prima taste premix

I have been cheating and not cooking everything from raw ingredients because:

1) It’s quite tedious to make sauces and gravy from scratch (excuse)
2) Too many plates and utensils to wash after that (lazy)
3) I don’t have the proper kitchen utensils like Mortar and Pestle (Ikea is quite far), KitchenAid Mixer / Blender (expensive)
4) I don’t know how to (truth).

But I am no doubt learning more each day, especially from all the experienced cooks out there in blogosphere who have posted so many recipes of food I am familiar with and I would love to try them out.

This beef satay was done with the help of the Prima Taste Satay Premix. Satay is somewhat like a meat kebab, Asian style. My favorite Satay stall in Singapore is FatMan Satay in Lau Pa Sat. The beef is juicy and tender, the gravy is spicy and full of peanuts pieces. The difference between grilling satay over a charcoal grill versus grilling them over a stovetop is great. The charcoal taste and smell is just something that you cannot get over a stovetop.

The Prima Taste Satay Premix comes with
- 1 packet of Satay Prima Marinate,
- 1 packet of Satay Prima Basting Oil and
- 1 packet of Satay Prima Sauce.

The Satay Prima Sauce tasted a bit wimpy. It was a bit sour and did not have any chunky peanut bits. Hence I went with the Spicy Satay Sauce, Glory brand, as recommended by Tigerfish.

Ingredients (Makes 18 sticks of satay, Serves 3):

- 1 lb Top Sirloin Steak
- Prima Taste Satay Premix
- Glory brand Spicy Satay Sauce

A. Preparation of Satay meat:

1. Cut beef into thin slices. (Tip: If you find the sirloin steak too difficult to slice, put it into the freezer for about half and hour for it to harden a little.)

2. Mix cut beef with Satay Prima Marinate. Leave in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

3. Thread meat on satay sticks or skewers. (Note: My skewers were a bit long, so my satay “thread” is longer than usual. The recommended amount of meat to use for the Premix was 310g, which is about 0.7lb or 104 oz. This means I actually had too much meat for the Premix.)

B. To cook Satay meat:

1. Brush Satay meat with Satay Prima Basting Oil. (Prima Taste recommends using a stalk of lemon grass to brush satay meat. Simply use a knife to divide the end of the stalk into sections to turn it into a brush.)

2. Grill Satay meat until cooked. (My Ikea grill pan was the only pan big enough to hold the full length of my skewers without needing to cut the skewers.)

C: To cook Satay Gravy:

1. Pour Satay Prima Sauce into a pot and heat for 1 min on medium heat.

2. To keep warm, leave on low heat.

If using Glory brand Spicy Satay Sauce, scoop as much Sauce as you want into a microwavable bowl and heat in microwave.

D. To serve:

1. Cut cucumber, red onions and ketupat (compressed rice).

2. Serve Satay with gravy.

Cooking Notes:

1. The beef sirloin steak meat was a bit too lean. Satay always taste best with some fats cos the flavor is in the fats. If possible, buy beef that has 20% fats.

2. If grilling Satay to be eaten later, use a convection oven to heat up, rather than a microwave oven. There is something about microwaves which makes the meat chewy. J said the Satay tasted a bit chewy after microwaving, but when I had leftovers for lunch the next day, I removed the beef off the skewers, poured some Glory Spicy Satay Sauce over the meat and heated it at 450 degreeF in a convection oven. It tasted great! That could also be because there was some oil on the Satay Sauce.

3. For indoor cooking, best to use a grill pan, and not broil the satay in an oven, as I had done for my first Satay attempt. It’s important to have some burnt bits on the Satay. Those are the yummy bits.

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Tag:crispy baby squid, Fish Head Curry, Food Review, Prima Taste Restaurant

I finally got to eat my Crispy Baby Squids at Prima Taste Restaurant last weekend because I specifically called in to ask if they have that “in stock”. The waitress might even recognize my voice since J and I frequent that restaurant and usually ask for the same “tried and tested” dishes.

This time round, I wanted to eat something other than Hainanese Chicken Rice (since I can make that at home anyway right?) So I went through a process of selection by elimination on what would pair up well with Crispy Baby Squids.

Curry Chicken - Not so nice. Chicken was tough. Curry gravy was thin and wimpy.

Prawn Dishes - Mom said not to eat too much prawns so this was out.

Sambal Kang Kong - There wasn’t enough sambal in this Kang Kong dish.

Beef Rendang - Don’t feel like it.

We finally decided on plain white Rice, Crispy Baby Squids and Fish Head Curry!

Crispy Baby Squid: $8.75

The Crispy Baby Squid served here is somewhat different from the ones I have eaten in Long Beach Seafood Restaurant in Singapore. The ones in Prima are actually nicer! The Baby Squids are bigger, slightly thinner, crispy and not too sweet. The ones at Long Beach sometimes end up overcooked and chewy instead of crispy.

Next up …

Fish Head Curry: $11.95 for half a fish head

The sharp, lemony aroma of the gravy was very appetizing. The piquancy quotient of the Curry Fish Head was lifted with the assam, the ’souring’ ingredient that provides the tang.

The picture above was how the Curry Fish Head was served - in a claypot, with slices of eggplant, a few long beans, pieces of tomato and pineapple and of course the fish (hiding below)!

The fish that Prima Taste Restaurant used was Salmon Fish Head. I love eating the cheeks and top of the head. These are the smoothest part, in my opinion. (I don’t dare to eat the fish eyes. Do you?)

This picture was showing the “wrong side” of the fish, hence it looked like a picture out of Aliens.

The assam gravy drizzled over rice was delicious. We had asked for the lightest heat (chilli / spiciness) intensity so that the heat was manageable for us. The light sweetness of the Crispy Baby Squids helped to counter the heat.

We finished up all the ingredients in pot and even asked for the gravy “to-go” so that we can dip our Roti Prata into this spicy tangy Fish Head Curry gravy. Oh so yummy!

Prima Taste USA
1701 Lundy Ave. #100
San Jose, CA 95131

Tel (408) 392-9268

Hours
M-F: 10-3 pm & 5-9 pm
Sat: 11 am to 10:30 pm
Sun: 11 am to 10 pm

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Tag:crispy baby squid, Food Review, hainanese chicken rice, Prima Taste Restaurant, roti prata

There was one time whereby I nearly gave up on Prima Taste Restaurant. J and I had ordered Roti Prata, Hainanese Chicken Rice and Crispy Baby Squids. It happened that a couple who arrived later sat behind us and they also ordered Hainanese Chicken Rice and Crispy Baby Squids.

While J and I were busy devouring the crispy and chewy Roti Prata, we saw the waitress serve Hainanese Chicken Rice and Crispy Baby Squids to that couple. We were like… How come like that? We came first right?

Never mind that. We waited for our turn and horror of horrors! The waitress came by and apologized that they have run out of Crispy Baby Squids! She then suggested we order Curry Chicken. Grrrr! First of all, we ordered first. Secondly, she committed the Crispy Baby Squids order to the other couple and served them before us. Then thirdly, she came back and said they ran out of squids and suggested a poultry dish knowing that we already ordered one! Grrrr!

In the end, J and I had one Roti Prata each, and just the Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Roti Prata: $2.95 each (expensive!!!)

Hainanese Chicken Rice: $8.95

The Roti Prata at Prima Taste Restaurant never failed us. In fact, after trying the Roti Prata at Penang Village and Layang Layang, we personally prefer the Prima Taste Roti Prata because it is crispy, yet chewy. The ones at Penang Village and Layang Layang were a tad too thin and crispy (they don’t give us our money’s worth of Prata!)

The Hainanese Chicken Rice was also one of their better dishes. The chicken is smooth and tender and the rice is not too oily. The chilli sauce, garlic sauce and thick sweet soy sauce all have the familiar taste of the sauces served with Hainanese Chicken Rice in hawker centers in Singapore.

On the whole, the food made up for that small incident at Prima Taste Restaurant. J even gave them a good tip. He’s such a dear.

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Tag:Appetizers, easy asian recipe, fish cake, fish paste, otah, otak otak

I promised myself I will make Otak-Otak (also called Otah, both pronounced as “o-tar”) one day and before that day came, I sat around sulking surfed the internet for a recipe. I actually have an Otak-Otak recipe in my new recipe book: Singaporean, Malaysian And Indonesian Cuisine. However, that recipe was only for the non-spicy Otak-Otak. I wanted the orangey spicy one!

So I continued to sulk hoped and prayed and continued to browse the net and finally oh-so-wonderful Melting Wok made her Otak-Otak Asian Frittata and shared her recipe!

However, I met with obstacles. I couldn’t find all the ingredients she listed.

1. Tumeric powder - the spice section in Ranch 99 did not have this.

2. Kaffir lime leaves - Can I pluck these off a lime? She asked for 6 stems. The limes sold in supermarkets are leafless. Dang!

3. Lemongrass powder - I have lemongrass, but not the powder. Am I supposed to pound the grass into a powder?!?

4. Fish granules - If this is the same as fish sauce, then I have it. Since Melting Wok said “a dash of fish granules” I reckon this is the same as fish sauce, cos I can dash the fish sauce too!

5. Belacan powder and chili paste - I guess these can be substituted with belachan paste.

The tom yum paste already has kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass as its ingredients, so I bravely omitted those ingredients and hoped and prayed *again* that all would turn out well.

Below is the abridged version of my Otak Otak, which literally pales in (color) comparison to Melting Wok’s because I read “tbsp” as “tsp” and got the portion of tom yum paste and chili paste (which I substituted with belachan paste) wrong. LOL!

I have the corrected ingredient portions below (I estimate 2 teaspoonful is equivalent to 1 tablespoonful) and the portions are according to the 4 servings of Otak-Otak that I made. Each serving is about 6″ by 2″.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

- 1/2 lb fish paste (I bought dace fish paste)
- 60 ml coconut milk (about 1/5 cup)
- estimated 1/3 beaten egg
- 1 1/2 tsp tom yum paste
- 2 tsp belachan paste
- 2 pcs dried shrimp
- 1/2 small shallot
- 1 pc ginger (about 1/3″ thick)
- 1 pc fresh galangal (about 1/3″ thick)
- 1/3 tsp sugar
- dash of fish sauce

Wrapper:

- 4 pcs banana leaves, cut into 8″ by 5″
- wooden toothpicks, pre-soaked in water

Preparation and Cooking Method:

1. Put dried shrimp, shallot, ginger and galangal into a blender to mince them together.

2. Add all the ingredients to the fish paste. Mix thoroughly until it becomes a smooth and sticky mixture.

3. Place 2 heaped tbsp of mixture in the center of a banana leaf. Fold the banana leaf and flatten paste, then insert a toothpick at each end to create a small “packet”.

4. Preheat oven to 450 degF (230 degC) and bake the fish cakes for 15-20 minutes. Note: If you are using an open grill, bake each side of the fish cake for 15 minutes.

5. Serve with rice, nasi lemak (coconut rice) or as a sandwich filler.

Otak-Otak Conclusion:

Apart from the fact the my Otak-Otak fish cake looked paler than normal and taste-wise not as spicy as it should have been, the texture of this Otak-Otak fish cake was surprisingly quite good! I attribute this to the minced mixture of shallot, ginger and galangal.

It took me quite a bit of effort to get all these ingredients together and I was worried that I would not be able to finish using them. However, my fears were allayed when I found another recipe - Tom Yum Soup - which used similar ingredients like galangal, fish sauce, shallot and tom yum paste. *phew!*

Otak-Otak Otak-Otak! I’ll definitely make this again!

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Tag:easy chinese recipe, herbal soup, honey dates, lotus root pork soup, slow cooker, Soup

Lotus Root - I used to use this for my artwork to make prints, now I use it for soup.

I tell you… this soup is so sweet, my tastebuds went into a delightful frenzy!

It has been a while since I had this soup. I used to eat Lotus Root Pork Rib Soup at the food court at Amara Hotel in Singapore. There is a herbal soup stall selling soups like Black Chicken Herbal Soup, Duck with Salted Vegetable Soup, Pork Rib Watercress Soup etc. They serve their soup with yam rice which is very unique.

I came across this Lotus Root Pork Rib Soup Recipe from Rasa Malaysia. She said that if Tigerfish and I moved down to Irvine, Southern California, she will cook for us. Wait… let me re-read her comments… oh, she said we will have a big cook-out. Sure! Rasa Malaysia cooks, the rest of us eat. Deal?

While I hone my cooking skills and drool over her pictures, I got to cook my own soup. As you may already know, dried shrimp and dried scallops are the secret ingredients to my soups. Rasa Malaysia revealed that her secret ingredient was honey dates. Now, I can’t have too many secret ingredients, can I? Will they cancel out each other’s effectiveness? I decided to use honey dates for this one and spare my dried shrimp and dried scallops.

Also, I used pork and pork bone instead of pork ribs cos I ran out of cash tend to only drink the soup and use pork as a flavoring ingredient.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

- 8-10 dried red dates
- 3 dried honey dates
- 1 lotus root (about 5″ long)
- 1/2 lb lean pork, bone-in
- 6 cups hot water
- Salt to taste

Preparation and Cooking Method:

1. Soak red dates and honey dates in warm water for 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, scrub lotus root clean, discard the ends, peel and cut lotus root into 1/3″ slices. Transfer lotus root, red dates and honey dates to slow cooker.

3. Blanch pork in boiling water to remove scum. (I bought pork picnic, bone-in, so I used the bones as well. I also had the butcher cut the pork into smaller pieces so that they are more manageable and can fit snugly onto the base of my Rival Crockpot. )

4. Transfer pork to slow cooker. Add hot water to crockpot. Set on high heat for 4 hours, or low heat for 6-8 hours.

5. Add salt to taste.

Cooking Notes:

The honey dates and red dates make the Lotus Root Soup so sweet!

Rasa Malaysia suggested using 2 honey dates for a ready-in-one-hour soup, and 1 honey date for a slow cooked soup. My honey dates (not shown here) looked smaller than the ones in her picture, so I used 3. More power? I don’t know, but the soup tasted great!

She also said not to over boil the soup. Mine tasted fine. Maybe because it was slow cooked at low heat?

I was also surprised that the pork had a sweet taste too after being slow cooked. That usually doesn’t happen for my Watercress Soup or Black Bean Peanut Pork Rib Soup.

You really got to make this Lotus Root Soup. I repeat. You really got to make this Lotus Root Soup.

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