A few weeks back, an interesting Facebook video on Szechuan mung bean jelly noodles caught my attention; since I had several packs of mung bean flour in my pantry, I decided to attempt making it during my Live Asian Kitchen broadcast on Twitch.

The mung bean flour packs I had are actually what’s called Tepung Hoen Kwe and they contain vanilla essence, since they’re used for making  Malaysian and Indonesian sweet kuihs (snacks).  I decided to wing it rather than try to hunt down some unadulterated mung bean flour, and it turned out just fine; no trace of vanilla came through in the final product.

Szechuan Jelly Noodles

INGREDIENTS:

120g mung bean flour (1 pack Tepung Hoen Kwe)
4 1/2 cups water

4 TBSP minced garlic
1 TBSP vegetable oil
1/3 cup chilli oil
1/3 cup black vinegar
2 TBSP sesame oil
2/3 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP chicken powder (or 1 tsp salt, to make it gluten-free and vegetarian)
1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, crushed
1/3 cup light soy sauce
2 TBSP sliced spring onion
2 TBSP chopped coriander

METHOD:

1. Mix the mung bean flour with 1 cup of water.
2. Bring the rest of the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
3. Stir in the mung bean flour mixture and cook until it turns translucent and is of a starchy consistency.
4. Pour into a mould and allow to cool completely; it took mine about 60-90 minutes to set, with some help from the refrigerator.
5. Cut into thin strips with a knife; if not using immediately, soak in cold water to prevent them from sticking.
6. Heat oil in a pan, then saute the minced garlic. Add the remaining sauce ingredients, mix well and remove from heat.
7. Serve noodles with sauce, spring onion and fresh coriander.

The post How to Make Liangfen – Szechuan Jelly Noodles first appeared on Jackie M..

I first got a taste of spicy cumin lamb skewers during what was meant to have been a satay feast at my parents’ house in Sydney’s southwest. In amongst the hundreds of Malaysian satays that were cooked up that day, there  were also some Xinjiang-style lamb skewers; apparently it was a dish introduced to them by their new northern Chinese friends from church.

As a loyal Malaysian, I was there for the satays, but I was immediately converted once I tasted the lamb skewers; I was even more impressed when I found out how easy they were to make. No lengthy list of ingredients and no marinating required beforehand; just skewers of lamb sprinkled with salt, cumin and chilli flakes as they cooked on the grill.

I did a quick online search and found some recipes that do require marinating and some additional ingredients, but this version was what I ate at my parents’ as taught by their Xinjiang friends, and I think it works great, so here it is.

Xinjiang Lamb Skewers with Cumin

INGREDIENTS:

1 kg lamb, cut into 2cm cubes

2 TBSP salt

2 TBSP cumin powder

2 TBSP chilli flakes

Oil for brushing

Bamboo skewers

METHOD:

1. Skewer the lamb pieces onto bamboo sticks; make sure there are no gaps in between the chunks of meat.
2. Place lamb skewers on hot barbecue or grill, brush with a little oil and sprinkle with salt, cumin and chilli flakes.
3. Repeat on the other side.
4. Cook until done, remove and serve immediately.

The post How to Make Spicy Lamb Skewers with Cumin first appeared on Jackie M..

Pickled green chillies are a popular condiment back in Malaysia, and most commonly served as an accompaniment to hawker stall dishes like wantan mee (wonton noodles). I make this only very occasionally, since I don’t often eat wonton noodles myself, and in all honesty, I don’t really measure the ingredients that go into it. Nonetheless, for your sake, here are my guesstimates.

Pickled Green Chillies

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups green chillies, sliced at an angle

2 tsps salt

1 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 TBSP sugar

Jar for bottling, boiled for 10 minutes, then dried in oven

METHOD:

1. Toss chillies with salt, then transfer into jar.
2. Combine vinegar, water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer until sugar is dissolved.
3. Pour hot vinegar over chillies, making sure they’re completely immersed.
4. Secure jar with lid; allow to pickle for at least an hour before use. Once opened, keep jar in refrigerator and consume within 6 weeks.

The post How To Make Pickled Green Chillies first appeared on Jackie M..

Lately, my local greengrocer has been stocking the variety of eggplant that I grew up eating back in Malaysia (correct me if I’m wrong, but I often see them referred to here as Japanese eggplants), and it prompted me to get some for one of my favourite Indonesian Padang dishes known as Terung (Eggplant) Balado.

I air-fried the eggplants in my Optimum HealthyFry during my Live Asian Kitchen broadcast so as to free up my stove for the balado sauce, but you could just as easily pan-fry them with some oil or grill them in the oven.

Also, I used chicken powder in the sauce, but substitute that with half the amount in salt and just like that, you have yourself a vegan dish.

Terung (Eggplant) Balado

INGREDIENTS:

1kg long eggplants, halved
4 tomatoes
1 large onion
6-8 garlic cloves
¼ cup chilli paste (or sambal oelek)
1 TBSP chicken powder (or 2 tsps salt)
1 TBSP sugar
½ cup water
2 tsps lemon juice (optional)
⅓ cup oil

METHOD:

1. Brush eggplant halves with oil, then grill/airfry or pan-fry them until soft. Set aside.
2. Dice tomatoes; mince onion and garlic.
3. Combine onion, garlic and chilli paste in a wok or pan and fry until the moisture is reduced.
4. Add oil and fry until onion is caramelised.
5. Add tomatoes and cook for another minute, followed by all other ingredients.
6. Simmer until mixture is reduced by half, remove from heat and spread on eggplant to serve.

The Optimum HealthyFry air fryer is from Prestige Home Appliances; you can find out more about it in this link –

The post How to Cook Indonesian Padang-Style Eggplant Balado first appeared on Jackie M..

I rarely bake because I’m not much of a cake eater, but I have on occasion had to use up some leftover carrots, in which case my go-to option is to bake it into a carrot cake.  This recipe was originally sourced from the Thermomix recipe community, but I’ve made so many adjustments that it bears no resemblance to the original.

I find Western cake recipes to be way, way too sweet for my palate, so I halve the sugar or more as a matter of course, and it was no exception here.

Also, since I love cream cheese, I ramped up the topping 5-fold – the icing portion has less than one fifth the sugar called for in the original recipe, and more than 5x the cream cheese. You’ll probably end up with extra cream cheese topping; I do 500g because it’s nicely equal to two x 250g blocks of cream cheese and as an Asian cook, I never have any other use for it.

Finally, I never have walnuts in my pantry (again, Asian cook), so I make it nut-free and it actually works out well for when I take this to church for morning tea etc. because it conveniently avoids any allergy issues.

By the way, I’m a very unsophisticated baker; I throw everything together and mix it; no sifting/adding stuff in stages, blitzing at different speeds for x number of seconds etc. for me.

Carrot Cake

INGREDIENTS:

400 grams carrots, cut into chunks
2 eggs
100 grams sugar
160 grams cooking oil
1/4 tsp salt
200 grams plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Icing –
150g sugar
500g cream cheese
45g butter
1/2 tsp lemon juice

METHOD:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180’C. Line an 8-inch cake tin with baking paper.
2. Grate carrots, or if using a Thermomix, process for a few seconds until crumbly.
3. Add all other ingredients (except the icing stuff) and blend until well combined.
4. Transfer into baking tin and bake for 50 minutes. Check for doneness, remove and cool.
5. Combine icing ingredients in Thermomix or food processor, blend until well-mixed. Spread on cake; cut and serve.

The post How to Make An Easy Nut-Free Carrot Cake first appeared on Jackie M..

I remember Sang Har Yee Meen (literally, freshwater prawn crispy noodles) as a popular dish at open-air restaurants in Malaysia, but they’re actually pretty easy to make at home. If you’re not too fixated about using freshwater prawns, you’ll save a few bucks by using a cheaper and more commonly available variety like the banana prawns pictured here from my Live Asian Kitchen broadcast.

A couple of notes re: the noodle variety:

I use what I call “wonton noodles”, which are the thin egg noodles usually served with wontons. They puff up when deep-fried (you fry them straight out of the bag; DON’T rinse or blanch them beforehand), and they’re soft and silky when boiled.

They’re NOT the same as the thin egg noodles used for stir-fries, which don’t puff up, but rather, turn hard and cakey when fried, and which have an al dente-like texture when boiled. You can tell the difference between the two by the fact that “wonton noodles” look like they’re lightly dusted with flour, whereas the other egg noodles do not. It’s not a dealbreaker if you use the latter variety, just keep in mind the texture will be different.

Also, you’ve seen me use “yee meen” for crab noodles; those are Hong Kong-style fried egg noodles, and they’re much thicker and you can buy them pre-fried in cake form at Asian grocery stores. Yee Meen in Malaysian noodle dishes more commonly refer to the thin variety per in this recipe.

Crispy Freshwater Prawn Noodles

INGREDIENTS:

200g fresh wonton noodles
1 cup Choy Sum, cut into 3-inch lengths
2 cups prawn stock, chicken stock, or water
½ Tbsp chicken powder
½ Tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
½ tsp white pepper
1 tsp potato starch or tapioca starch + 2 Tbsps water
1 tsp minced garlic
1 egg
Freshwater prawns or large prawns, halved
1 Tbsp cornstarch or tapioca starch
Oil for deep-frying

METHOD:

1. Heat oil to 180°C; drop batches of noodles into the oil to fry until they puff up and the bubbles begin to dissipate.
2. Remove and allow to cool, then arrange on serving plate.
3. Toss prawns with cornstarch, flash fry in oil for a few seconds, remove and drain.
4. Remove all except 1/2 Tbsp oil.
5. Heat oil, add garlic and saute until aromatic; add prawns followed by oyster sauce and Choy Sum.
6. Add stock/water, chicken powder, pepper and fish sauce.
7. Bring to a low simmer, then thicken with tapioca starch + water mix.
8. Turn off the heat, crack egg into sauce and stir in one direction.
9. Pour hot sauce over noodles to serve.

The post How to Cook Sang Har Yee Meen (Crispy Freshwater Prawn Noodles) first appeared on Jackie M..

This is a more recent recipe for Soon Kuih or Chai Kueh that I used during one of my Live Asian Kitchen broadcasts on Twitch. I was much happier with the texture of the skin, which was softer and less rubbery, hence why I’m posting it here.

(BTW kuih and kueh are the same word in Malay; they can be used interchangeably, though kuih is a more modern spelling, at least if you are a product of the Malaysian education system of the 70s-80s.)

The previous iteration was posted here – http://jackiem.com.au/2017/10/04/make-soon-kueh-aka-chai-kueh/ 

Nyonya Soon Kuih aka Chai Kueh

Pastry –

(recipe for pastry from Nyonya Passions by Andrew Kow)

125g glutinous rice flour

100g wheat starch

100g tapioca starch

300ml water

½ tsp salt

1 Tbsp oil

Filling –

2 Tbsps cooking oil

2 Tbsps garlic, minced

2 Tbsps dried prawns, soaked and minced

500g yam bean (aka jicama/sarkot/sengkuang) – grated

50g carrot, grated

200ml water

1 Tbsp sugar

2 tsps chicken powder

½ tsp white pepper

Garlic oil –

150ml oil

4 Tbsps garlic, minced

METHOD:

1. Make garlic oil by frying minced garlic until lightly browned and aromatic. Set aside.
2. Heat 2 Tbsps oil, then add garlic and saute until lightly browned.
3. Add all other ingredients and simmer until mixture is almost dry and yam bean reaches a translucent appearance. Allow to cool.
4. To make the pastry, combine water, salt and oil in a pot and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
5. Mix all the flours in a bowl, add the hot salted water and stir with chopsticks.
6. Knead into a soft dough, then roll into a cylinder. Cut into equal portions and roll out to a thin pastry about 4 inches in diameter.
7. Fill with one tablespoon of yam bean mixture, then pleat and/or pinch to seal.
8. Steam on medium heat for 8 minutes or until the pastry is translucent.
9. Drizzle with garlic oil, garnish with chopped spring onions and serve with chilli sauce.

Chilli sauce recipe can be found here >> http://jackiem.com.au/2017/09/16/make-chilli-sauce-dim-sums/

The post How to Make Nyonya Soon Kuih aka Chai Kueh first appeared on Jackie M..

I sometimes feel sorry for those not born into the culture trying to learn all the nuances of Chinese food. It’s hard enough trying to wrap your head around the topic, let alone recognise all the different iterations of specific dishes by different Chinese dialect groups.

Radish cake is one such example; the Cantonese version found at yum cha here is often incorrectly translated on the menu as turnip cake (lo bak go), which doesn’t help. The Cantonese-Yum Cha version is a pale white colour and contains bits of Chinese sausage; it’s served cut into slices and lightly pan-fried, and the flavour is overall pretty subtle.

Then there’s the radish cake called Char Kway Kak in Penang, and Chai Tow Kway in other parts of Malaysia, or Carrot Cake in Singapore (another misnomer brought about, I suspect, by the direct translation into English of “white carrot” which is what radish is called in Chinese) – cubed steamed radish cake that’s fried up with a soy-based sauce along with egg, garlic, chives and beansprouts (it was one of my signature dishes back in the day, and Malaysians still ask for it at my infrequent market events).

Growing up as a Hakka, I’m familiar with a Hakka version which, like the Cantonese radish cake, is served cut into slices and pan-fried. That’s where the similarities stop, because a lot more go into Hakka radish cake – fatty pork that’s cooked until it falls apart (since yours truly doesn’t eat pork, I’m using chicken in this recipe), lots of onion and garlic, and five spice powder. 

The end result is a dark-coloured, aromatic and delicious snack that my parents used to toil for hours to make once in a blue moon. We used to eat it with homemade garlic chilli sauce, the recipe for which you can find here >> How to Make Garlic Chilli Sauce

This here is my hack of my parents’ Hakka Radish Cake – I tried calling my stepmom for the recipe right before I went On Air in my Live Asian Kitchen, but she didn’t pick up, so I kind of made it up based on my memory of the dish, and I think it turned out pretty good. (Caveat – I’m writing this down several weeks after my attempt at this dish, so allow for plenty of agak-agak ie. guesstimating in your quantities esp with regards to seasoning.)

Lo Pek Pan | Hakka Radish Cake

INGREDIENTS:

200g shredded radish

2 brown onions

8 cloves garlic

800g chicken, skin off, deboned

200g rice flour

1 ½ Tbsps tapioca flour

1 Tbsp chicken powder (or 2 tsps salt)

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp five spice powder

1000ml water

METHOD:

1. Mince garlic and onion, combine with shredded radish, chicken and 800ml water. Simmer on low heat until chicken falls apart. Remove chicken and allow to cool.
2. Shred chicken and return to saucepan.
3. Combine rice flour, tapioca flour and remaining water and mix to a smooth paste. Add to saucepan.
4. Add seasoning, bring to a simmer and cook until mixture is thickened to a porridgy consistency.
5. Transfer into a grease tray. Line steamer lid with a towel to prevent condensation dripping back into the tray.
6. Steam on medium heat for 30 minutes or until done.
7. Allow to cool, then cut into slices about 1 cm thick; pan-fry with a bit of oil and serve hot with garlic chilli sauce.

My Live Asian Kitchen broadcasts are made possible with the support of the following –

The post How to Make Hakka Lo Pek Pan (Hakka Radish Cake) first appeared on Jackie M..

Yee Chai Peng (Cantonese for “ear biscuits”) were these intriguing spiral-patterned, curved fried pastries from my childhood in Malaysia, which were crunchy, slightly sweet and yet savoury. The only ones I ever ate were factory-made; this wasn’t one of those things that you would find people making fresh at home or at their street stall – certainly not in my hometown of Seremban anyway.

Since I’ve yet to see these biscuits here in Australia, I decided to research how to make them myself; I came across Guai Shu Shu’s blog and ended up using his recipe as a guide (with minor tweaks) during one of my Live Asian Kitchen broadcasts.

As you can see from the results, they look accidentally rustic; I’d been meaning to have another go at this so I could produce a prettier result before posting the recipe, but I’ve already waited too long, plus they tasted great anyway, so here it is.

Ear Biscuits

INGREDIENTS:

White dough

⅔ cup plain flour
40mls of water
⅛ teaspoon of baking soda

Brown dough

¾ cup plain flour
30mls of water
2 Tbsps brown sugar
2 Tbsps oil
1 ½ tsps fermented bean curd
1 tsp five spice powder
⅛ teaspoon of baking soda
Pinch of salt

Oil for deep-frying

METHOD:

1. Combine white dough ingredients and knead to a soft, pliable texture. Roll into a rectangular shape, approximately 1-2mm in thickness.
2. Combine brown dough ingredients and do the same.
3. Brush brown dough surface with a little water, then place white dough on top and press down gently.
4. Brush white dough with water, then roll the dough sheets into a tight sushi-style cylinder.
5. Wrap with cling wrap and freeze for 20-30 minutes.
6. Remove cling wrap and cut into thin slices about 1mm in thickness.
7. Deep-fry at about 160-180’C until golden brown; remove and drain.
8. Cool completely, then store in an airtight container.

My Live Asian Kitchen broadcasts are made possible with the support of the following –

The post How to Make Yee Chai Peng (Ear Biscuits) first appeared on Jackie M..

(By the way, I enjoyed the session enough that I’m currently open to offers to do more of these workshops, so if you represent a company or organisation interested in this high priestess of Malaysian cuisine coming to your venue to run a class, hit me up before I change my mind or my schedule gets clogged up).

I made some tweaks to the recipe to accommodate a combination of my own flavour preferences and what ingredients I had on hand.

Here’s the second half of a recent Twitch Live Asian Kitchen broadcast during which I made this dish >>

And here’s the original live broadcast from the Grand Hyatt KL (it’s a couple of years old), starting from the laksa portion (ie. about 10:48s in) –

Here’s the recipe I used in the workshop and also in my Twitch stream, to the best of my memory (allow for a large dose of “agak-agak” ie. guesstimating) –

Curry Laksa

INGREDIENTS:

3 brown onions, peeled
12 cloves garlic, peeled
6 large red chillies
40g mild chilli powder
100g minced lemongrass
60g dried shrimp
3 bunga kantan (ginger flower bud, optional)
150g fish curry powder

4 stalks curry leaves
2 cups oil

2L water or stock
1L coconut cream
1 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsps chicken powder
200g tofu puffs
Noodles
Vegetables
Seafood or meat etc.

METHOD:

1. Combine ingredients to fish curry powder in a blender, blend till smooth.
2. Add oil and curry leaves, and fry until the onion caramelises, the paste is aromatic and the oil separates.
3. Transfer half the paste into a stock pot, add water/stock, coconut cream, sugar, chicken powder and tofu puffs.
4. Simmer for about 10 minutes, adjust seasoning and remove from heat.
5. Separately bring water to boil in a saucepan, and use it to blanch or cook noodles, vegetables and any seafood or meat you’re using.
6. Arrange in a bowl and top with the curry laksa soup before serving.
7. Serve with an optional side of sambal belacan tumis (fried shrimp paste sambal).

Sambal Belacan Tumis

INGREDIENTS:

1 ½ cups chillies, cut into chunks
6 bird’s eye chillies (optional)
1 ½ onions
2 Tbsp belacan powder (or equivalent if using Thai shrimp paste or Malaysian/Indonesian shrimp paste blocks)
1 ½ tsp sugar
2 Tbsp soya sauce or fish sauce
½ Tbsp chicken powder (optional)
½ cup oil

METHOD:

1. Blend chillies and onions to desired consistency.
2. Heat oil in frying pan. Add chilli/onion puree and all other ingredients and cook until oil separates and onion is aromatic – approximately 15-20 minutes.
3. Allow to cool, then store in glass jar. Sambal will keep in fridge for 6 weeks or in freezer for 6 months.

The post How to Make Curry Laksa (aka Curry Mee) – Cooking Class Recipe first appeared on Jackie M..