Stir Fried Lala Clams with Fish Sauce

Posted on April 19, 2009
Filed Under Do It Yourself, Food | 3 Comments

This weekend, I decided that I’ll cook Lala when I saw those available in the wet market in the morning. I’ve tried to search the internet for the proper name of this shellfish but couldn’t really find any. At the same time, there are probably hundreds or thousands varieties of clams available. So, I think we’ll just call it Lala Clams then. That sounds a little closer to home

Anyway, before you start cooking the lala clams, you need to soak them in clean tap water with some salt. The lala clams will spew out lots of mud in the process. Keep changing the water till you observe the water is clear without anymore mud sediment. You can then have the water drained.

Let’s get on with the dish.

What you need?

600 gms – 1 kg of lala clams (depend on preference)
some shredded ginger
4 cloves of garlic (sliced)
5 tablespoons of fish sauce (ulam sauce)
2 pinches of salt

Method of preparation:

Get the oil heated up and start by stir frying the garlic and the ginger. Stir fry those over a medium flame till you can see the garlic develop a light shade of brown. At this point, put in the lala clams and stir fry them over a big flame. The stir frying process will take a while depending on the thickness of the clams’ shell. Anyway, just continue to stir fry the lala clams until they decide to open up and expose their naked bodies to you .. Hey, what are you thinking? We’re talking about lala clams, ok ?

At this point, add in the fish sauce and salt. Give the lala clams, sauce and salt a good stir and ensure that all of the lala clams are well covered with the sauce. Once all the lala clams are well mixed with the sauce, you can lift em’ up from the wok/frying pan and serve.

It’s really an awesome dish if you like seafood. Keep you eating and wanting for more as you eat it. Oh by the way, it’s way cheaper that you cook this yourself at home. If you were to order this at hawker stalls, it’s way overpriced and the amount you get is way less.

This is a shot of the dish when it’s served.

Looking at it makes me want to get another plate of that again

Anyway, have fun trying. Have you got yourself a different recipe with lala clams too?

Technorati Tags: Malaysian dish, lala, clams, lala clams, seafood

Stir Fried Soya Sauce Chicken

Posted on April 14, 2009
Filed Under Do It Yourself, Food | 2 Comments

I’ve decided to do another food post today, LOL. Somehow, I like my blog to look more colorful (with food that is) whenever a visitor is to visit my blog. Please bear with me, ok? Anyway, back to the dish.

It’s a relatively simple-to-prepare dish. This is one of my ‘quickie dish’ whenever I am rushing for time.

What do you need:

600 gms of chicken meat
5-6 pieces of raw mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic
30-50 gms of ginger
3 tablespoons of light soya sauce
1 tablespoon of thick soya sauce
2 pinches of sugar
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
3/4 bowl of water (small bowl)

Method of preparation:

Cut the chicken meat into small pieces. The size of the meat is up to individual’s preference.

Next, scrape off the external layer of the ginger. Cut the ginger into small pieces and later, have them cut into strips. For the garlic, have them cut into thin slices.

After that, have the mushrooms cut into slices of preferred thickness.

When all the ingredients are ready, start by oiling your frying pan / wok with the cooking oil over a medium flame. When the oil starts to heat up, put in the garlic and fry those for a short while till they start developing a light shade of brown. At this point, add in the ginger and fry them together with the garlic. Keep frying till you can smell the fragrance of the ginger and garlic combo.

Next, put in the chicken meat and continue frying. Turn the chicken meat thoroughly till all of them are cooked. After that, add in the light soya sauce and thick soya sauce. Stir fry the content and ensure that all of the chicken meat are covered with the sauces. At this point, pour in the water and let the mixture to boil. When the water starts to boil, add in 2 pinches of sugar and stir fry the mixture. After that, leave the mixture to boil for 2-3 minutes. This is to allow more sauce to be absorbed into the chicken.

After that, you can start lifting the mixture off the frying pan / wok and serve.

Have fun trying By the way, you can replace the cooking oil with sesame seed oil. It will further enhance the fragrance of the dish but it will be a little heaty.

Technorati Tags: Malaysian dish, chicken, mushroom, soya sauce, stir fry

Pork Ribs with Lotus Stem Soup

Posted on April 12, 2009
Filed Under Do It Yourself, Food | 3 Comments

It’s weekend again and that means it’s cooking time. This weekend, we had Pork Ribs with Lotus Stem Soup. It’s a relatively simple soup to prepare. Wanna know how I cooked that? Read on.

What do you need:

600 gms pork ribs
1 piece lotus stem
Some raw peanuts
2 pieces of carrots
3-4 cloves of garlics
4 bowls of water (standard soup bowls)
2 pinches of salt

Method of preparation:

Start by boiling the water together with the garlic and raw peanuts.

Next, boil the pork ribs in some hot water for about 5 minutes. This is to wash away the blood from the ribs.

Cut the carrots into your desired size. It can be in small pieces or in slices.

Scrape the surface of the lotus stem with a knife till it’s clean. After that, cut the lotus stem into thin slices. The thickness of slices is up to your preference. Personally, I liked them to be thinner as it gets softened faster and nicer to eat.

Once the ingredients are ready, put all those into the water with garlic and peanuts. Boil those over a big flame for about 10 minutes. After that, boil the soup over a small flame for about 1 hour. Once it’s ready, add in 2 pinches of salt and give the soup a good stir. Let it boil for another 5-10 minutes and it’s ready to be served. Check it out:

Simple to prepare, right? Give it a try. I think you’ll like it

Technorati Tags: Malaysian dish, pork ribs, lotus stem, soup

Ladies and Gentlemen, please meet BloggerUnited

Posted on April 7, 2009
Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments

I wanted to write this post for a while but the idea kept getting delayed one day after another. So, I make it a point to write this today and dedicate this post to all the good folks in BloggerUnited.

So, what is BloggerUnited? A Blog Pinger? A Blog Directory? Well, it has all those plus a lot more in it. It’s a place where all bloggers meet.

What can you do/find in BloggerUnited?

You can find bloggers from all walks of life in BloggerUnited, ever ready to give you their best write ups freshly brewed from their mind.
You can share your thoughts/opinions in the ever active Lounge.
You can have your own blog listed there too to contribute to the readers’ community there that are ever hungry for something new and nice to read. In return, it means more traffics for you
You can find blogs of all sorts listed there to read, from technology to lifestyle, personal thoughts as well as food blogs too … all gathered under one roof.
You can meet a whole lot of new people and make new friends. Exchanging ideas too

So, what say you? Lots of fun waiting for you there. JOIN ME in this ever active community and make it a better place for all bloggers to meet.

Last but not least, I would like to thank Rei99 for putting in the effort to come up with the cool idea of BloggerUnited. Without Rei, BloggerUnited wouldn’t have existed.

Technorati Tags: bloggerunited, blogger community

Spicy Steamed Fish with Lemon Grass

Posted on April 4, 2009
Filed Under Do It Yourself, Food | 4 Comments

Weekend is here and again, it’s cooking time. Today, we had spicy steamed fish with lemon grass. I got this recipe from my friend, GC. After checking out the recipe, I thought of giving it a try today. Read on for the ingredient and method of preparation.

What you need?

a slice of fish fillet
2-3 stalks of lemon grass
coriander leaves
3-4 cloves of garlic
3 fresh red or green chillies
3-4 tablespoons of fish sauce (ulam sauce)
4 tablespoons of calamansi lime juice
2 pinches of sugar
5 tablespoons of water

Method of preparation:

To prepare the sauce, have the garlic and chillies finely chopped. For the chillies, if you don’t like it to be too spicy, you can use a mix between red and green chillies. If you want it to be extra hot, you can replace the chillies with bird’s eye chili pepper.

Once you have the garlic and chillies chopped, add the fish sauce to the garlic/chillies in a small bowl. After that, add in the calamansi lime juice and water then stir. Later, add in 2 pinches of sugar to the mixture and stir till the mixture is evenly mixed.

For the lemon grass, have them peeled off from the stalks. After that, cut the ‘leaves’ of the lemon grass into 2. Later, have the lemon grass roughly crushed.

Next, have the fish fillet cleaned and place the fish fillet over a bed of lemon grass on a steaming tray. Pour the sauce evenly on top of the fish.

Steam the fish over boiling water for about 15-20 minutes till it’s cooked. After that, garnish the dish with coriander leaves and it’s ready to serve. Here is a snapshot of dish when it’s ready.

That’s all folks. Give it a try, I think you’ll like it too. Just like we did

Have you tried cooking a new dish lately ???

Technorati Tags: spicy dish, home cooked, fish, steamed fish, lemon grass

Hot and Sour Calamari

Posted on March 30, 2009
Filed Under Do It Yourself, Food | 1 Comment

Last Saturday was rather a tiring day, at least the first half was. Nonetheless, I still cook for dinner. I opted for something simple and not complicated to prepare.

One of the dish I cooked was Hot and Sour Calamari. For the sauce, you needed to have the ready mixed curry spices. I’m not referring to those that are sold in powder form. I’m referring to those that you need to buy from the wet market where the seller actually have the ingredients grinded into super fine form using a blender. Well, you can just walk over to the stall and tell the fellow you needed to cook curry and it will be sour base. He’ll know how to mix those up for you. Usually, the ingredients will contain red chillies, yellow gingers, garlic, onions as well as lemon grass.

Anyway, to prepare the dish, first of all, you need to clean the calamari. For the calamari’s skin, you can choose whether to have those removed or otherwise. It’s up to you. Usually I’ll have those fully removed but this time, I left them on, mainly to have more textures on the skin rather than just plain white. Another thing, for those who like the tentacles, you can have the tentacles slot inside the calamari. This will prevent it from getting over-cooked and hardened.

For the cooking, heat up the frying pan/wok with about 2 tablespoons of cooking oil over a middle flame. Once the oil is hot, put in the spices and give it a good fry. Keep frying till the spice mixture are evenly fried. After that, add in the calamari and fry them together with the spices. Once the calamari’s texture starts to harden, add on about half-a-glass of water and stir the mixture evenly. Add a small pinch of salt and some juice from a calamansi to enhance the sour taste. Let it boils and just stir the mixture for another while and it’s ready to serve. The nice part about cooking calamari is that it gets cooked pretty fast.

This is a snapshot that I took when the calamari was ready to serve.

Have fun trying. It’s pretty simple and easy to prepare.

Technorati Tags: calamari, spicy dish, home cooked, curry

Stuffed Chicken Wings

Posted on March 22, 2009
Filed Under Do It Yourself, Food | 5 Comments

It’s weekend and it’s cooking time. I wanted to try out something new with chicken this week. Rather than the usual fried chicken or etc, I tried to be imaginative with stuffing

For the chicken, I used chicken wings. I’ll tell you why I use chicken wing later as I go on. For the ingredient of the stuffing, it’s really up to your imagination. You can use whatever you like. As for me, I experimented using mushrooms and minced pork. On the details of the drama that I need to go through, read on.

As I mentioned earlier, I used mushrooms and minced pork. On the mushrooms, I used those small brown mushrooms because of the size. I also used those fresh standard sized mushrooms but I got those sliced up. As for the pork, have those minced with some light soya sauce and pepper to taste.

Now for the chicken wings, cut the wings into 3 portions, the mini drumstick, the middle section and the edge section. For the mini drumstick, make a small cut at the edge and have the bone removed. For the middle section, chop off the joints at both edges and pull out the bones. With the bones removed, now I have mini drumstick and middle section shaped like small cylinders and ready for stuffing. This is the main reason why I chose to use wings instead other parts of a chicken. Another reason why wings should be used is because wings are relatively thinner and get cooked faster. Once I got the bones removed, I added in about 1 1/2 table spoons of light soya sauce to the chicken. I also added some all-purpose seasoning powder and pepper and made sure the chicken is properly marinated.

Once the chicken are done, I stuffed some minced marinated pork together with a couple of mushrooms(the small ones and the sliced ones as well). Anyway, I can’t do much with the edge sections, so I just left them alone the way they are.

Once all the chicken are stuffed, I have them fried with some oil over a small to medium flame. I have the stuffed chicken wings tossed around to ensure all the sides are well cooked including the stuffed ingredients. Once the chicken’s color turns golden brown, you can have the chicken lifted from the frying pan / wok and they are ready to be served. The final outcome .. Tada ..

Overall, the taste was good for a first time experiment. But to further improve the taste, I think I’ll need to get the chicken marinated much earlier before I started frying them

Technorati Tags: stuffed chicken wings, chicken wings, mushrooms, minced pork, home cooked

Ads: Traveling For Charity

Posted on March 21, 2009
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

For those of you who love traveling, you seriously need to check this out. I got an email from Chloe of Hotels Combined who asked me if I’m interested to do a charity post by simply mentioning their site in my blog post. Everytime a blogger mentions them on a blog, they will donate $20 to one of the selected charities (WWF, World Vision or Make-A-Wish Foundation). I was pretty excited and decided to do it since it’s an opportunity to donate to charity with a blog posting. Pretty cool idea, eh

The site itself does not belong to any hotel but it works as a search engine for hotels. It helps travelers in term of checking and comparing the prices between participating hotels of their desired destinations. After trying things out myself, I felt the features available are pretty neat. Most importantly, the user interface is really simple and user friendly.

I tried to check for the prices of hotels available in Pattaya and the results were out within seconds. The thing I noticed and liked the most was the currency rate conversion. I think the site detected my host IP and knowing that I’m visiting from Malaysia, the rates were automatically shown in Malaysian Ringgit(RM). That saved me the trouble of checking the conversion rate and doing the currency conversion myself.

From the search results, you can further filter or narrow down your search using the various filters available like the Star Ratings, Hotel Brand, features/services provided by the hotels and etc.

There is also this price limiter that enable you to search the hotels based own your desired range of traveling budget. It’s another nifty feature especially for those who are planning a holiday trip with a small budget.

All in all, Hotels Combined helped me to get the information I needed without the need to look elsewhere. And guess what, by blogging about it, I’ve helped to donate $20 to charity ^^.

To check out more cool features of Hotels Combined, just point your browser to HotelsCombined.com

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