jessiefoodinthekitchen

Today I would like to share a recipe with Malay condiment – cincalok (salty shrimp paste咸虾酱) . The ingredients of this condiment are fermented tiny prawns or krill.   Believe me or not. I have never come across this condiment since I was young. The smell is too heavy and fishy for my liking. But now it becomes one of my favourite. How my dislike became a favourite. I was taught the "5 Second Rule" by someone, which was counting backward from 5,4,3,2, 1... I then had my first bite of the cincalok steaming pork belly. The flavour is wonderful. And now this condiment is always stocked in my pantry. The unfinish cincalok can be stored in the refrigerator.  Cincalok originated in Malacca, Malaysia. Some of my friends recommend buying the one originating from Bintulu, Sarawak. Anyway, I'm not picky about cincalok brands.   I basically went with the first brand I saw at the grocery store. There are various uses of cincalok. Some are making sambal cincalok as cucumber dippi

  Do you like to make your own fishcakes? Have you ever tried prawn fishcakes? This prawn and fishcake are crispy golden pops of seafood dressed with a tangy sweet slightly spicy kind of sauce and lot of fresh herbs. This prawn fishcake is slightly different from the classic fishcakes. Let’s talk about the type of fish to use. My late mom used to use mackerel for making fish cake. I am using a snapper for this recipe. In fact, you can choose any kind of firm white fish. Or you can use salmon also. To make the fish paste, my late mom used to scrape the fish meat with a metal spoon and chop it with the back of the knife until it turns to fine paste. I cut my fish fillet into a small chunk blend it with a food processor. How easy was that!! You may use a food processor to blend the prawn paste, but I prefer to manually chop them to give my prawn paste a truly chunky texture with so, the fishcakes will pop a little of sweetness. Kaffir lime leaves are the next ingredient and one of

Dong Po Rou （东坡肉） – wine braised pork belly. It’s rich and savoury, tender that melts into your mouth. Traditionally, the pork belly is pan-fried before being braised or stewed for one to one and a half hours on low heat. Some of the recipes even call for steaming for an additional half an hour after stewing. It is very time-consuming. But as you are aware, I enjoy making recipes simpler without compromising the taste. You, too, I'm sure. Therefore, I skipped the pan-frying step and proceeded directly to braising the pork after blanching it, and then continued to cook with a pressure cooker. Don't worry; the dish's flavour remains unaffected. I'm hoping this simplified method may come in handy for your regular cooking. Trim off the edges of the pork and cut it into 3x3 cubes. Tie cooking twine around each cube. This will assist the cubes in keeping their form while cooking. If the pork that you bought is at the mid portion of the belly is ideal, there is a nice bala

How would you eat a whole fish? Eating the entire fish is certainly the greatest part, regardless of whether you decide to grill, roast, deep fry, or steam it. How do you prepare the sauce for the fish? The most common type of sauce I always make is sweet and sour sauce. I would like to share with you today an alternative method for making fish with a sweet and sour flavour.   The flavour is both acidic and sweet. However, the components and the process of making the sauce are completely different. The traditional components of the sweet-and-sour fish dish include vinegar, sugar, and tomato sauce. The main ingredients in this dish are tamarind juice and fresh chilies, which I use not only to give the sauce a beautiful and vibrant colour but also a spicy flavour to the dish. One advantage of this dish is that I can prepare the sauce ahead of time and simply reheat it right before serving. This is a great recipe to serve seafood and other dishes to a large group of people without h

Do you enjoy eating bean curd rolls? A delicious dim sum dish was served at the restaurant. A mixture of ground pork and other ingredients are filled into the sweet, soft bean curd skin, which is then covered in a creamy, mild sauce. This is a dish that my mother-in-law likes to make for Chinese New Year. Her recipe is different from the dim sum restaurant which is not coated with any thick sauce. Typically, a mixture of ground pork, shrimp, and other ingredients makes up the filling. Usually, she would shape the bean curd rolls, steam them, and store them in the freezer. Place it in the fridge the night before New Year's Eve and allow it to defrost. After that, remove it from the refrigerator and leave it for around half an hour at room temperature. The customary way is to deep fry them and serve them with a dip of chilli sauce. Sometimes I make it as a vegetarian bean curd roll for my brother. I'm using yam instead of pork filling. But today, I want to combine some of the

  In our house, when the kids were little, this dumpling was the best breakfast option. Compared to traditional dumplings, this is considerably delicious, healthier, and easier. Having those lazy dumplings made and ready to re-steam for ten minutes as breakfast for kids or adults makes a big difference during the school weekday morning rush. My family will never tire of eating it every day. Family members will occasionally ask to have it made for lunch or perhaps dinner. The dumpling wrapper is the main ingredient in this delicious treat. I'm using store-bought dumpling wrappers since I want to make this dish as simple as possible. It was purchased from the market. It has a completely different filling than the pan-fried Japanese dumplings called gyoza. It has black fungus and scrambled eggs in it.   Egg gives a simple and nutritious breakfast choice. Black fungus has relatively high protein and fiber.   One thing good about this lazy dumpling is you don’t have to pleats along th

I cooked sea cucumber for the first time, and I really like it, especially the chewy texture. For all these years, I've never considered cooking it since I assumed it would be challenging to prepare at home. It's not too hard to cook this food; the tricky part is soaking the dried sea cucumber in preparation. My husband received a pack of eight sea cucumber slices from his uncle. This sea cucumber weighs about 300 grammes and is about 6 inches long. The fact that this sea cucumber has been cleaned and soaked is the greatest part. This meal is much simpler to prepare because the soaking sea cucumbers step is skipped. I browsed at a lot of recipes on YouTube and recipe books before deciding on a braised sea cucumber with chicken and fresh mushrooms. Came up with this simple, hassle-free way considering the little amount of time I had to cook. In addition to being a luxury cuisine, sea cucumbers have a great deal of medical value. The sea cucumber is slippery (almost gelatin

This stir-fried beef dish is a n excellent weeknight supper option, particularly when juggling routine duties and chaotic situations. In addition to being delicious, this quick and simple stir-fried beef dish is also quite flexible and high in protein. You'll be able to eat well all week long with this amazing dish.  There are a few tips I would like to share on how to make a beef stir-fry that is so tender you won’t even believe it with a beautiful sticky glossy BBQ sauce. One question that comes up frequently is this one. How to stir-fry beef while keeping it nice and delicate. First is how to start off with a tender cut of beef?   Slice the beef against its grain, which shortens the fibers by cutting through them. As a result, the flesh is softer and simpler to chew. Ingredients for the sauce come in second. I know that the common sauces for stir-fried beef include oyster sauce, soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine. But I highly suggest adding BBQ sauce to this recipe. There is al

  Have you ever tried this rice vinegar and cane sugar-pickled mixed ginger in a jar?   Let me share with you how to stew a whole chicken in these assorted pickles ginger. The taste is sweet and sour. It’s an appetizing dish. It contains buckwheat, red pepper, cucumber, red carrot, turnip, white melon, papaya, and ginger. This assortment of pickled gingers will take your cuisine to the next level, making it delicious and full of goodness.  I learned about this dish from my mother-in-law. In a way, this is one of the specialties of Kota Belud, the hometown of my husband. It only needs one pot to prepare. Simply combine the chicken with the pickled ginger in a pot, add enough water to cover, and boil until the chicken is cooked through. How simple was that? To give the chicken a lovely hue for putting on the table, the chicken must be lightly fried, which is one of the essential processes. Don't throw away the extra gravy. The soup has all the essence. The next day, you can use it