Dried Sole

Dried Sole - The meat portion

One of my new readers asked what is dried sole, and since I have a couple of pictures on hand, I thought I’d post them. Actually, I didn’t know what’s the name of this ingredient in English until I read it in Rasa Malaysia’s Stir-fried Brussels Sprout with Dried Sole post.

I cannot find dried sole in the Bay Area so I had my mom bring them for me when she came over to help with the new baby a few months ago. Thanks mom!

She brought the raw ingredient just so as to educate me on how a dried sole looks like, since I was only familiar with the fried end-product, as in Rasa Malaysia’s recipe pictures, and in Teochew, we call it “tee po” (sounds about right). They are usually cut into squares and then fried with a good amount of oil. The bony portion of the dried sole is difficult to cut, so do use a sharp pair of kitchen scissors and be careful!

I use dried sole quite a bit, like in soups, stir fried vegetables, Minced Pork with Tofu and Wantons. It is packed with flavor!

I still have a bottle of pre-fried dried sole stored in the freezer for use whenever I need it. Mmm… what shall I cook with it next?

Fried potatoes with beef cubes - how difficult can it be to make this dish right? This recipe which requires approximately 45 minutes of preparation and cooking time took me overnight!! :D How can this be? Well, I can only cook when the baby is sleeping, else I feel guilty not stimulating my baby during every bit of his waking hours :O A is for Asparagus, B is for Broccoli, C is for Crazy mom…

I did the prep work the day before:
- During one of Baby J’s short afternoon naps, which ranges from 20 minutes to 45 minutes, I washed and cubed the potatoes. I had more potatoes than I needed, so I actually cubed all four white potatoes, although I needed only two. I deep fried them and put them on paper towels to drain off the excess oil, then portioned them into two bags - one to be put into the freezer for future use, and the other for the next day.

- Baby J sleeps from 7:30pm-10:30pm every evening, which gives me time to have dinner, wash up, take a shower and surf the net or prepare meals for the next day. I took this time to cube and marinate the beef and cut the onion wedges to the amount I want. This really makes the actual cooking a breeze as everything is really and I just need to throw them together for a quick stir-fry.

Ingredients (serves 2-3):
- 1/2 tsp minced garlic
- 1 lb beef, cubed (buy those that are meant for stir-frying)
- 1/4 onion, cut into thin wedges (or thick wedges if desired)
- 1 1/2 cups frozen vegetables, or more if desired. (Frozen vegetables are really handy!! I used a mix of corn, peas and carrot)
- 1 tbsp Oyster sauce
- 2 white potatoes, skinned, cubed, deep fried and seasoned with salt. (I feel that white potatoes are firmer than russet potatoes so when deep fried, they don’t mush up as easily.)
- a few sprigs of cilantro (for garnish only)

Marinate for beef:
- 1/4 pc beef stock, broken into small pieces and mixed with beef (this can be replaced with 1/2 tsp salt)
- a few dashes of black pepper (quantity is up to your own preference)
- 1 tsp sesame oil (optional)
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce (oyster sauce makes this a Chinese recipe. :p)
- 1 tbsp rice wine (optional, can also use any other type of cooking wine)
- 2 tsp corn flour (add to marinated beef last, so that the beef can be marinated with the rest of the seasoning first, before the corn flour is used to “seal in” everything.)

Cooking Method:
1. Heat up 2 tbsp oil then stir fry minced garlic until fragrant.

2. Add marinated cubed beef and stir fry until half-cooked. Set aside. If baby cries, turn off stove, and check on baby. Carry baby for a while if required and ask baby for permission for mommy to finish cooking.

3. Add onions and frozen vegetables and stir fry until the onions reach the desired softness. If baby fusses, just let him fuss a bit more or else you will never ever finish cooking.

4. Return beef to wok and mix well. Add oyster sauce to taste.

5. Add fried potatoes and mix well. Garnish with cilantro. Check on baby and oh thank goodness! He is sleeping :)

Cook’s Notes:
- Beef need not be marinated overnight. Just before cooking will do.

- Oil needs to be very hot for frying potatoes else potatoes will end up soggy.

Conclusion:
Fried potatoes with beef cubes - an easy Chinese recipe only when the baby is sleeping.

I don’t know what’s the big deal about breastfeeding. There is so much hype here in the US about breastfeeding and its benefits that I feel soooo guilty everytime I give my baby formula. I struggled for the last eight weeks - with breastfeeding and with the guilt that I think it’s not healthy.

I wanted to breastfeed becos it’s free (and yes, of course not forgetting that antibodies in mom’s milk is good for the baby). Now I decided breastfeeding is not really free - I still had to buy a pump (pump extra to increase milk supply) and bottles and nursing pillow, nursing apron and OMG I bought a glider too! I thought it’s kinda cool to breastfeed in public. I now change my mind. It’s quite hard if I am struggling with a hungry baby. I thought breastfeeding will let me spend precious time with the baby - yes… too much time! I love my baby, but not to the extend that I want him latched on every other hour!

Anyways, I am currently only 70% feeding direct or with expressed breast milk and 30% formula feeding. What I learnt is that though breastfeeding has its own intended benefits, it may not be for everyone so don’t beat yourself up if it doesn’t work. As long as you have given it your best shot, the baby’s and mommy’s health and sanity are the most important.

Papaya Fish Soup

Friends told me to eat more fish postpartum so as to help increase milk supply for breastfeeding. Angela’s sister-in-law also had a baby recently. Her daughter is 10 weeks older than Baby J and she was so nice to pass me this recipe.

Ingredients:

- 1 white fish tail or fish bones or fish meat ~ about 1kg
- 100g raw peanuts (or black beans)
- 1 raw or half-ripe papaya, about 1kg - cut into cubes/wedges
- 1 piece tangerine peel
- 4 slices old ginger
- 1.5 litres boiling water
- 2 tbsp oil

Cooking Method:

1. Heat oil & fry ginger slices, then fry fish in oil until brown.

2. Put all ingredients into the slow cooker and simmer for about 2 to 3 hrs - generally until the soup smells really fragrant. Enjoy!

Unfortunately, I could not find green papayas in the 2 Asian supermarkets I frequent so I made do with almost ripe ones. Also, since I belong to the Pork Lover’s Association, I HAD to add some minced pork to the soup. This is the picture of my version: (added minced pork 300g, and did not put raw peanuts and tangerine peel.)

Did this soup really increase my milk supply? I am not sure. All I know is that these days, Baby J seems contented after suckling. The “psychological” effect that the Papaya Fish Soup has on me seems to be working.

I wanted to post this before I gave birth, but I went into labor a week before my estimated due date and the freaking labor started at 2am 6th June and lasted 32 hours until I delivered on 7th June, 7:50am to a healthy baby boy: J Junior. After that, life became a frenzy and a cycle of smelling poop, spraying pee, changing diapers, baby crying (bloody murder), me trying to nurse (and boy I did try real hard!!!) .. and in the blink of an eye, 6 weeks passed.

I finally got used to expecting the unexpected and manage to have some time for myself to blog. I probably have thousands of blog entries I am keen to catch up on and see what my online friends have been up to. I would like to thank all the kind people who have sent me sweet notes when I disappeared from blogosphere. I am still alive. *phew*

Here’s the entry that I wanted to post 6 weeks ago :)

Stir Fried Pork With Button Mushrooms

For best flavor and tenderness, meat should have a small amount of marbling. This applies to beef, it also applies to pork.

Pork shoulder butt is the primal cut for pork and that includes the front leg and the section at the top of the leg. Meat from this section is relatively fatty, which makes for juicy, tender, and flavorful roasts.

You can find pork shoulder butts sold in strips and they can be used for kabobs, stir-frying or stewing. The shoulder is one of the most flavorful and economical cuts and they are a better cut than the picnic. Reference The Cook’s Thesaurus for a picture of the various cuts of pork.

Pork shoulder butt is mom’s favorite cut of pork. Well, since she came to visit, I figured I better make use of her cooking skills and learn to make some more home-cooked meals before I lose that source of knowledge when she goes home.

For this Stir Fried Pork With Button Mushrooms dish, she simply asked me what other ingredients I have in the fridge and with that, she was able to whip up something delicious, that could go with plain white rice, porridge, bao skin or simply a piece of bread.

For convenience, mom usually just add the garlic and ginger to the pork together with the pork seasoning, then add them to the hot oil to stir fry, instead of stir frying the garlic and ginger first.

Ingredients (Serves 3):

- 1/2 lb pork shoulder butt
- 4 button mushrooms, sliced
- 3 stalks of scallions, cut into 2″ diagonals
- 1/2 yellow onion, sliced

Seasoning for pork:
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp corn starch (to give pork a smoother texture)
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 3 slices ginger, julienned

Seasoning:
- 2 tsp light soy sauce
- 2 tsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce (for color)

Cooking Method:

1. Add salt, pepper, cornstarch, garlic and ginger to pork and mix well.

2. Heat up 2 tbsp oil. When oil is hot enough add pork and stir fry until fragrant.

3. Add button mushrooms and mix well. Allow to cook for 1-2 minutes, then add light soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, scallions and yellow onions and mix well. Cook till onions soften to desired texture.

Bánh Khot - Crisp rice flour cupcakes with shrimp and scallions, served with lettuce, mint and basil.

If not for Wandering Chopstick’s recommendation, I would never have ordered this dish. In fact, I may not even step into Vung Tau Restaurant in San Jose because:

1) I don’t know how to pronounce the restaurant’s name.
2) I don’t know how to pronounce Bánh Khot.
3) Crisp rice flour cupcakes doesn’t sound appealing to me without a picture.

Last weekend, I stepped out of my comfort zone, took the plunge and ordered Bánh Khot as recommended.

I was pleasantly surprised at what was served. Actually I did not know the proper way to eat it! There was a separate plate of lettuce, mint and basil served with the Bánh Knot. We had to ask the waiter “Er… how do we eat this?” He patiently explained that we can cut the Bánh Knot into half (cos it was steaming hot), put it on the lettuce with a piece of mint and basil, wrap it up like you would for a tortilla, then dip into the sweet sauce and DIG IN!

I tried my first Bánh Khot “wrap” without the mint and basil cos I thought I wouldn’t like the taste of that combination, but for the second round, I added a leaf of mint and basil and whoa! the taste absolutely changed! The flavors of the mint and basil complemented the juicy shrimp and fragrant crisp rice cupcakes very well and gave a light refreshing lift to the tight aromatic package “wrap”.

According to Wandering Chopsticks, Vung Tau is a coastal town so seafood is their specialty. Banh Khot is one of Vung Tau’s specialty dishes. It is made from rice flour with some coconut milk. Shaped into small, round rice cupcakes by hand, it is crispy and delicious with a shrimp in the middle. This particular dish must be eaten with the assortment of green garnishes (lettuce, mint and basil) used to wrap around each morsel.

Mint and basil are characteristic of Vietnamese cuisine, commonly eaten in salads, raw spring rolls and phở and this post is my contribution to this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Küchenlatein.

Vung Tau Restaurant is a Vietnamese family business.

Vung Tau Restaurant
535 E Santa Clara St
San Jose, CA 95112
(408) 288-9055

Vung Tau II Restaurant is the second restaurant they opened. The menu may differ slightly from the original Vung Tau Restaurant.

1750 N Milpitas Blvd
Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 934-9327

I have this block of silken tofu sitting in my fridge for almost 2 weeks already. I bought it because J was supposed to be away on a short business trip and I thought I would make a tofu dish for myself. The trip was canceled and so the silken tofu was left in the fridge, forlornly looking at me each time I opened the refrigerator door.

Since mom is in town, I pushed the cooking responsibility to her and asked her if she could make something out of minced pork and tofu.

Mom: Give me 3 shitake mushrooms.
Me: Ok. I have green onions too. You want?

Mom: Yes. And I will also add dried sole, dried scallops and salted fish.
Me: Yippee! I like the flavors of all that together.

Without any recipe book for reference and all knowledge of cooking stored in her experienced brain, she started preparing the dish as I stood aside, taking notes.

Ingredients (Serves 2-3):

- 1/4 lb minced pork (seasoned with a dash of salt, pepper, corn starch and mixed with 2 cloves garlic, sliced, and 3 slices of ginger, julienned)
- 3 shitake mushrooms, cut into pieces (I had dried ones, so they need to be pre-soaked in water first)
- 1 tbsp dried sole (pre-fried)
- 1 tbsp dried scallops (pre-fried)
- 1 tbsp salted fish (pre-fried)
- 3 stalks green onions, cut into 1″ diagonals
- 1 block silken tofu, cut into 1″ cubes
- 1/2 bowl water
- cornstarch solution (1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp water)

Seasoning:

- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce (for color)
- 2 tsp oyster sauce

Cooking Method:

1. Heat up 2 tbsp oil and stir fry minced pork until fragrant.

2. Add shitake mushrooms and light soy sauce and mix well.

3. Add dried sole, dried scallops and salted fish and mix well.

4. Add dark soy sauce and oyster sauce, mix well and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes then add green onions and mix well.

5. Add silken tofu and allow to cook for about 30 secs, then add 1/2 bowl water, cover saucepan and allow to boil. (No need to mix tofu with rest of the ingredients as you will break up the tofu.) Continue to boil for about 4-5 minutes to allow the tofu to absorb the gravy, otherwise the tofu will taste plain. (You may want to do a taste test here to see if you need more light soy sauce to increase the saltiness or more water to dilute the saltiness.)

6. Drizzle cornstarch solution over gravy to thicken the gravy. Gently shake the saucepan to allow the cornstarch solution to be mixed with the gravy.

Thanks to Tigerfish’s green onions and ginger condiment post, I realized that green onions (also known as scallion, a variety of onion) is actually an herb!! I use green onions quite a bit, so this is my contribution to this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Kalyn’s Kitchen. Green onions grow to reach about 20 inches in height and grow well in warm climates. Both the green and white portions of green onions can be eaten and the bulb portion is the part that is most often used as a drug. Green onions has traditionally been used only in Asian folk medicine and its usage for its medicinal properties is not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Mom prefers Chinese food to anything else, so last weekend, J and I brought her to Mayflower Seafood Restaurant in San Francisco to eat dim sum. This branch is much smaller in size compared to the one in Milpitas, CA. The restaurant opens at 10am, but there were already a group of hungry vultures waiting outside the restaurant’s un-opened doors before 10am.

The restaurant was too small to accommodate the typical dim sum carts, so all the dim sum were served by non-smiling, Cantonese speaking waiters/waitresses. Mom said there used to be a Mayflower Seafood Restaurant in Singapore too (located in Shenton Way area?) but they were knocked out by strong contenders like the Tung Luk Group and the Crystal Jade chain of restaurants.

We had a friend join us for dim sum. She works as a pediatrician in San Francisco so we needed to bribe her to give us free pediatrics consultation after the baby is born. After all, the dim sum bill for the 4 of us only amounted to US$42 with taxes and tips included, so it was a good deal.

Of course we didn’t drive all the way up to San Francisco (are you nuts?!) just to eat dim sum. This was just part of the one-day San Francisco “tour itinerary” for mom. We also brought her down the curvy wurvy Lombard Street, Chinatown and took pictures with her at the Golden Gate Bridge.

All these pictures below are not current. San Francisco last Sunday was pretty windy, so we did a “car tour” to save mom from the gusty winds that she was not used to.

Lombard Street (Picture taken in Dec 04)

Lombard Street is America’s crookedest street. Cars can only drive down Lombard Street at 5 miles/hour.

San Francisco Chinatown (Picture taken in Sept 04)

San Francisco Chinatown is the largest Chinatown outside Asia. There was some sort of festival (Mooncake Festival??) at the time this picture was taken, that’s why the road was closed and there were throngs of people. Sept 04! - that was how long ago I was in SF Chinatown! We brought mom to Chinatown to show her how difficult it is to get parking and so that she will never ever ask me to go there again when I tell her I cannot find a particular ingredient in Ranch 99.)

Golden Gate Bridge (Picture taken in Dec 04)

Everybody who has been to San Francisco would at least have a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge, wouldn’t you? BUT… is yours as picturesque as mine? Bwahahahaa… ok… I confess. All the above pictures were taken by J, not me. It was only late last year that I started using his camera cos he moved on to a new hobby.

Mom’s in town and I haven’t been cooking. I thought she would whip up some kick-ass dishes for me and J but I was dead wrong. She hasn’t been cooking either.

Coming from Singapore, a place where cheap and delicious food is readily available and people’s favorite past-time is eating, she was more interested to eat out and see what the Bay Area has to offer. We are not talking about any fancy shamcy restaurants here. The Ranch 99 deli was enough to make her happy.

We bought roasted duck from Ranch 99 two times in ten days. J and I ate the meat, while mom was happy eating the bones with porridge. I am not ill-treating her - she said the duck bones were very tasty.

I also had a taste of the duck feet and cow stomach from the Ranch 99 deli. These are things I would never have thought buying on my own, simply because they look too weird to be eaten J doesn’t eat such things.

Mom is good at eating stuff with bones, be it duck feet, chicken feet or fish. She would bite off a piece of meat with bones, manoeuver her tongue around the the bite, spit out the bones and eat the meat. I must have gotten that tongue-skill from her, that’s why I would be the one eating the stomach part of the fish (which has bones) while J takes the upper body of the fish, the meaty part. I wonder if this tongue-skill helps in French kissing?

Angela gave me a recipe for making Peng Kuih (translated to English, it means “Rice Cake”). Peng Kuih has a glutinous rice filling that is fairly easy to make. The recipe for making the dough also looked relatively simple. However, I had a hard time making the dough because the way the dough formed was way out of my expectations.

I mean, I am familiar with how a cookie dough looks like when I mix multi-purpose flour with eggs and a creamed sugar/butter mixture. That is a firm dough which I can roll out easily with a rolling pin.

This Peng Kuih recipe however, seemed to have too much water (to make the dough) and the batter needed to be heated over low heat to form a firm dough. I’ll probably use less water next time. I tweaked the recipe a bit and added shallots for more flavor.

Ingredients (Makes about 7 Peng Kuih):

For filling:
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3 pieces dried shitake mushrooms, soaked and chopped into pieces
- 25g (about 3 heaped tsp) of dried shrimp
- 1 small shallot, sliced (amounts to about 2 heaped tsp)
- 250g glutinous rice

For dough:

- 140g rice flour
- 10g tapioca flour
- 300ml water
- 2 drops red food coloring

Seasoning for filling:

- 1 tsp dark soy sauce (this is to give the filling a nice brownish tinge)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- a few dashes white pepper
- 1/2 cube chicken stock

Preparation and Cooking Method:

To make the filling:

- Wash glutinous rice then soak in water for 2 hours. Drain off water then steam for another 20 minutes. Make sure the water does not cover the rice when steaming.

- Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok. Fry garlic, mushrooms, dried shrimp and shallots until fragrant. Add seasoning and mix well.

- Add steamed glutinous rice and mix well. Set aside.

To make dough:

- Sift rice flour and tapioca flour. Add red food coloring to water. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture, slowly add water and mix well to form a wet batter.

- Transfer wet batter to a wok and continue to stir well under low heat until a dough is formed.

- Dust work top with tapioca flour. Transfer firm dough to work top and knead until smooth. Divide into small portions.

- Use a rolling pin to flatten out each small portion and place flattened dough into Peng Kuih mould.

- Transfer some filling onto the flattened dough, use a teaspoon to press filling into the mould, then wrap filling with dough and use rolling pin to flatten it out.

Note: You can also simply wrap filling with dough and press onto mould. I did not do that as I was not sure how much dough is required to fill the mould. Also, I did not want a Peng Kuih with thick and uneven dough, so I used a rolling pin to flatten the dough before pressing it onto the mould.

- Remove excess dough from the sides of the mould. Invert mould, give it a hard knock and let the moulded dough fall out. Remove excess dough from the edges.

- Place moulded Peng Kuih onto cut pieces of banana leaves. Place on steaming tray and steam over low heat for 15 minutes.

The steamed Peng Kuih is a little sticky so I like to pan fry the Peng Kuih before I eat it. That makes the skin a bit crispy - ummmm… I like! Peng Kuih is best eaten with your favorite sweet sauce (I used ABC Kecap Manis - Perfect!).

What’s Beethoven’s favorite fruit or should I call it an herb? He even wrote a piece of music for it. Take a listen below. (Download may be a bit slow.)

Beethovan’s Symphony No 5. - I seriously think that Beethovan loved bananas :) don’t you?

Do you know that a banana plant is not a tree? Instead, it is called a pseudostem. Ok. You knew that?

How about: Bananas are considered as herbs. Oh you knew that too?

Well, I for one did not know that until someone mentioned it in Weekend Herb Blogging, so now I am also using bananas (copycat, kiss the rat, go home let your mother slap) as an entry to this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Rinku.

In Singapore and in some other Asian communities, a banana is a slang term used to describe an Asian person who is perceived as acting like a white person - yellow (skin) on the outside and white on the inside. It’s like “Look at that Chinese speaking with an American accent. He’s a banana.” I am not a banana. I still speak with a Singaporean accent.

In terms of nutritional composition of a banana, a banana contains 93% carbs, 3% fats and 4% protein. No wonder when I was on a weight loss program a few years back, my “spa lady” flipped when once, I told her I ate TWO bananas that day. “Noooooooo! You can only eat ONE!!!” she shrieked.

She will probably shriek even louder if I tell her I mixed THREE bananas with butter and sugar etc to make banana muffins. She’s definitely into “thin is beautiful” and wants all her clients to think the same.

Anyways, since I am out of her weight loss program (since working out in the gym or having a bout of stomach flu was definitely more effective), I made Banana Muffins. I had googled and looked at quite a number of different Banana Muffin recipes before deciding to try Wandering Chopsticks Banana Bread Recipe. Well, she used a loaf pan that’s why hers is called “Banana Bread” whereas I used a muffin tin, so I call them “Banana Muffins”. She also used yogurt, which I was kinda surprised (”oh, you can use yogurt in baking??”) but was pleased since I had yogurt leftover from making my chicken pies.

Ok. I know what’s in your mind right now. Where are the muffins? Well, since I like the top part of muffins only because they are cripsy, I decided to quarter my Banana Muffins into bite sized pieces after the initial baking, so that I could have more crispy bits. :)

I made a slight alteration to Wandering Chopstick’s recipe, based on the ingredients I had on hand and after some “consultation” with her since I am a baking idiot.

Ingredients (Makes approx 12 muffins):

- 5 tbsp salted butter (you can choose unsalted butter if you so wish)
- 155g (or 3/4 cup) white sugar
- 3 overripe bananas, mashed
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 2 eggs
- 200g (or 1 1/2 cups) multi-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
- 1/2 cup yogurt

Baking Method:

1. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugars, bananas and vanilla well. (I used a fork to do the mixing.)

2. Beat eggs by adding them in one at a time. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and toasted walnuts with butter/sugar/banana mixture. Add yogurt and gently fold in the yogurt. Do not overmix.

3. Put muffin cups into muffin tin. Transfer mixture into the muffin cups (till 80% full). Bake in a preheated oven at 325F for about 30 minutes or until browned.

These Banana Muffins are light and not as buttery as my Orange Muffins. The toasted walnuts provided a nutty texture and of course, keeping the bananas till they were blackened and overripe contributed to the sweetness and overall kick to these Banana Muffins.