Mohinga, Burmese Fish Soup Noodle

Recently, we were invited for Lunch at our friend's place. They are of Burmese origin and had served us Mohinga, a type of Burmese fish soup noodle. According to Wikipedia, Mohinga is a rice noodle and fish soup from Myanmar and is an essential part of Burmese cuisine. It is considered by many to be the national dish of Myanmar.

It is sort of like Asam Laksa minus the spiciness, looks a bit like mee rebus and tasted sweet, sour and a little sourish.. a very refreshing combination of natural taste without the use of salt or pepper which are quite core ingredients of most recipe.

After some googling around checking out on different recipes, I had attempted to try this out. Ingredients are quite easily available and all I needed was a little twist and combining the various recipes to render this version.

Please note that I had adjusted some of the ingredients due to my low carb diet, feel free to switch it to whichever you are comfortable. And this may not be authentic dish like those in Myanmar but rather my own adaptation based on information gathered from the internet.

Ingredients:

• 3tbsp of olive oil (you can use any oil like canola, or even peanut oil)
• 1/2tsp Natvia (if using sugar, use 1tsp)
• 1 shallots (sliced)
• 2.5 big onions (sliced)
• 6 garlic cloves
• 4 lemongrass stalk (2 pcs halved lengthwise and the other 2 sliced)
• 4-5cups of water
• 2tsp of turmeric powder
• 1tbsp of anchovies powder/granules (I used the japanese type)
• 2tsp salted anchovies paste
• 2tsp of tamarind paste
• 6 slices of ginger
• 300-400g of barramundi fish (cut to cube pieces, you may use any white fish and original recipe in Burma uses catfish)
• 1tsp of smoked paprika (if you are not cooking for kids, feel free to use crushed chilli)
• 1/4 cup of chick pea powder/flour (also known as garbanzo bean)
• 2tbsp fish sauce
• 4 hard boiled egg (either quartered it or sliced)
• 4 servings of cooked rice noodles (I used dried laksa noodle, boiled for bout 5-7mins)
• chopped red chilli for garnishing (and spiciness)
• sliced scallion for garnishing
• chopped cilantro for garnishing
• lime wedges (we used one lime)
• a packet of pea chips to serve along

Steps:

1. In the blender, blend these ingredients together till it form a paste: 1/2 portion of the onions, sliced lemongrass, smoked paprika and 3 slices of ginger.
2. In a pot (I'm using the french oven aka enamel coated dutch oven), add in water, turmeric powder, garlic (crushed), lemongrass (the halved), 3 ginger slices, tamarind paste, anchovies stock, anchovies paste and fish sauce. Let the boil and simmer for bout 5-6mins.
3. Add in the fish to the simmering broth and let it cook. It should only takes bout 2-3mins depending on the size of the cutlet. Sieve the fish out and side aside. 
4. Remove the lemongrass, garlic and ginger from the broth.
5. Pour the chickpea flour on a pan, on low heat, saute it till golden brown. Dish out and set aside once done.
6. Using the same pan, heat 1tbsp of oil in the pan, sprinkle the sugar in it and saute the shallots till light golden brown. Once down, dish out set aside.
7. Again on the same pan, add in the balance of the oil, saute the blended onion mixture till fragrant, add in the fish to give it a stir and coat the fish with the mixture. Dish out the fish and set aside.
8. Now dish the balance of the sauted onion mixture to the broth and continue to let it simmer. While simmering slowly stir in the fried chickpea flour so that it helps to thicken the sauce.
9. Add in balance of the onion to simmer. Simmer till the onion soften.
10. Once done, assemble the serving with noodle, top with the fish. Then scoop the broth with the onion over it. Sprinkle with chopped chilli, cilantro, crispy shallot and a piece of the pea chips.

Ramen Tonkatsu Broth with Soy Egg and Charsiew

Hubby had been sort of asking for Ramen for a while and since it is winter, I guess this is a must cook dish. So bought some ingredients and start doing it... extra can be stored to be used for other cooking.

 Ingredients for stock:

• 1+kg chicken carcass
• bout one big take away box of prawn shell (air fried min 10mins on 200c or fry it till crispy and smells good)
• a small piece of gula melaka, 
• a big handful of peppercorn
• one carrot
• pork hock (blanched with hot water to remove impurities and then air fried for 10mins)
• 4pcs bone marrow (blanched with hot water to remove impurities and then air fried for 10mins)
• 6 chicken feet (blanched with hot water to remove impurities and then air fried for 10mins)
• 1 roasted leek
• 1 roasted big onion
• a big handful of dried big anchovies, roasted
• water to cover the pot, roughly 2l
• salt to season to your preference

Steps:

Place all ingredients in the pot and set it to boil for 6-8hrs. Or use the pressure cooker to cook for 2-3hrs.

Note: my pressure cooker can't fit in all the ingredients in one go, so what I did was split it to half, pressure cook half the time then remove the ingredients, place the other half and pressure cook another half the time.

Next the charsiew.
Ingredients:

• 1 slab of pork belly (roughly 800g-1kg)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sake
• 1/2 cup mirin
• 2tbsp sugar
• few slices of ginger
• 1tbsp minced garlic
• few pieces of spring onion white
• string to tie to the pork belly

Steps:

1. Measure roughly 3x the length of the pork. Roll the pork belly up and place the string underneath the belly. Start with the middle of the string at the very end of the belly, inter twine the string and roll tie it upwards, try to tie it as tight as possible as the pork belly will shrink after cooking and you want it to hold on to the round shape. 
2. Prepared some hot boiling water and blanched the belly all sides.
3. Then place all ingredients in the pot. If using pressure cooker, cook for 30mins. If normal pot, cook it for 2-3hrs till tender soft. Try to turn the pork around to absorb the sauce if the pork is not fully submerged in the sauce.
4. Once done, remove and cool it so that it is easier to slice.

Soy Egg:
Ingredients:

1. Eggs
2. Water
3. Soy mixture from the charsiew

Steps:

1. Place eggs in cold water, bring it to a boil and cook (entire process takes 4.5 mins for gooey yolk, 5mins for moist yolk, 5.5 mins for just cooked yolk - this is for winter time... during summer, reduce time by 30seconds).
2. Remove the eggs from the boiling water and run it over cold water.
3. Remove shell, soak the eggs in the soy sauce mixture for min 30mins, the longer the better it absorbs the color and taste to the eggs.

Once done, assemble the noodle, charsiew, egg with the other condiments such as spring onion, seaweed, ginger slice, bamboo shoots, etc.

Beef and/or Pork Adobo

Heard bout this Filipino dish for a while but has not tried eating or cooking it. And a friend recently attempted it and hence I thought I'll give it a try since it is rather easy.

Ingredients:

• roughly 350-400g of beef, slow cook fillet, slice to roughly 1.5cm thickness
• pork rashy, roughly 200g, cut to 1.5cm thickness
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup malt vinegar
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3pcs of bay leaves
• 1tbsp of peppercorn
• sprinkle of crushed pepper

Steps:

1. Put everything into the pressure cooker pot, mix it evenly. 
2. Turn on the pressure cooker, set to manual, KPT5mins.
3. After the 5mins, cover the valve with a piece of cloth and manually release the pressure.
4. Then leave the valve setting to baking and set to bake for 5mins.
5. Once sauce thicken, it is all ready to be served with your favourite veggie, rice or noodle.

Cloud Bread

Stumble across this thing called cloud bread, which is actually not bread, not biscuit, but more like softer version of a meringue. It looks simple and I thought it will be a great snack for the kids yet reduce a little carbo amount on their diet.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs, separate yolks from white
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 85g cream cheese (can be substituted with thick yogurt or ricotta cheese too)
• 2tbsp honey
• a pinch of salt 

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 140c.
2. Prepare some baking tray and line them with greased paper or for me I used the silicon mat (it is easier to take off).
3. Place the egg white and cream of tartar in the mixer. Beat till the egg white reached stiff peak. It should be really thick, fluffy, won't fall off when you turn the bowl upside down.
4. In a separate bowl, beat the cream cheese till smooth. Add in the rest of the ingredients (egg yolk, honey and salt) and beat till it is all well mix and the mixture turn into pale yellow colour.
5. Slowly fold in 1/3 of the egg white to the cream cheese mixture and continue till you finish with all the egg white. Do not over do it and do it slowly to avoid deflating the air in the egg whites.
6. Once done, scoop the mixture on the baking tray to your desired size. Do not place them too near as they will slightly inflate after baking.
7. Bake for 35mins at 140c for till it is dry and crispy on the outside. You will not be able to remove it if it is not ready.

Home Made Custard Cream

Seeing a friend posted profiteroles and those contestant in the cooking competition preparing it, felt like trying it out on my own. But, wait, I need some custard cream and I know we can do that at home without using the custard powder.

So, started my googling and did a little adjustment to meet what I have in the kitchen.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups hilo milk
• 0.5 cups of light thicken cream
• 3 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar (need to reduce this, I find it too sweet)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp flour

Steps:

1. First, mix the milk and cream together in a saucepan. Put it on high fire and leave it to simmer till it starts to bubble, lower the fire to as low as possible. I'm using the electric cooktop and I remove the entire saucepan from the heat.
2. Mix the egg yolks with sugar, vanilla extract, salt, cornstarch and flour till even.
3. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the milk mixture (at this point, I had return the milk mixture to the cooktop, but did not turn on the power yet.
4. Make sure you continuously stir the mixture so that the egg does not curdle up and ended up with cooked yolk rather than custard.
5. Once both the mixture are evenly mix together, turn on the fire up high for half a min while constantly stirring the mixture. Once thicken, quickly remove from heat and still stirring it to ensure that there is no plastic like layer formed up and this help the mixture to cool down.
6. Pour it into a container, cover it up and let it cool in the fridge.

Tuna Muffin

It has been a long time since I last posted any recipe. Again, this is my own recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 small cans of tuna (I uses one with spring water and the other is corn with mayo)
• 50g butter (melted)
• 30g flour
• 1/8 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 handful of endamame beans
• 30g shredded mozzarella
• 1 egg

Steps:

1. Preheat oven at 180C.
2. Mix all the ingredients till even.
3. Scoop to the muffin mould.
4. Bake for 15mins at 180C

Frittata with Airfryer

This is for someone's lunch box tomorrow :D

Another of air fryer cooking that I found online, ingredients customised based on supply in fridge.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• a pinch of salt and pepper
• a handful of peas
• a handful of corns
• a big handful of mixed salad leaves, slightly shred with hand
• a handful of julienned capsicum
• a handful of julienned carrot
• 1.5 sticks of chinese waxed sausage, cut to side way long slices
• one tablespoon of chopped onion
• 1/8 teaspoon of oil

Methods:

1. Pour the sausage and onions into the baking tray and set the airfryer to 180C for 4mins.
2. Mixed the rest of the ingredients and mix it before pouring into the baking tray.
3. Set the airfryer to 180C for 4mins and then 200C for 1mins.

Kai Tan Kou (Egg Cake, no oil)

During the last month in KL, the girl was at my mom's house and I just found out that the girl likes kai tan kou, so I decided to hunt for the recipe to make it. What more now with the new toy, it makes baking even easier.

The only setback I noticed so far (only used it twice), there is no speed, either auto or pulse...

Anyway, here is the little teddy cake saying hi!

Ingredients
1 large egg
30gm sugar
¼ tsp vanilla extract

30gm plain flour
1/8 tsp baking powder













Ingredients:
2 large eggs
50g brown sugar
1/2tsp vanilla extract
50g flour
1.4tsp baking powder

* Need to increase the amount coz I notice this only make 5 of my teddy... so little.

Method
1. Place a greased kuih balu mould into a preheated 200C oven.

2. Whisk egg for bout 1min until light, pale and frothy.

3. Add sugar and vanilla extract and beat until thick and creamy.

4. In another bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Slowly add in the flour mixture little by little and each add, pulse the mixture a little

5. Scoop batter into the heated greased mould. Fill to the top of the mould.

6. Bake at 200C for 8 minutes or until the top is golden brown. The time and temperature depends on your oven. So, need to do a little test and trial or know your oven well.

7. Remove kuih bahlu from mould with the aid of a skewer and leave to cool on a wire rack. Continue with the the rest of the batter (step 5-7).

8. Store in an airtight container.

Baby Food

Steam egg: contains fish paste, potato, carrot, egg and water.



Steam Cheesey Brinjal: contains cheese and minced pork.

Millet with Sausages...

My lunch on Friday...

Cheesy Tomato Egg

Hubby has been cooking quite a lot lately. Yesterday, he was trying something new, Chessy Tomato Egg. Does not look quite good, but taste nice. Worth posting.

Dry Curry Okra and Drop Egg Potato Soup with Fish Cake

Tonight's dinner...

Pork Chop Dinner & Bitter Gourd Soup

Nutrient Packed Porridge

Had this really nutrient packed porridge for dinner today, tomoto, mushroom, fishball, egg, cranberry bean, black beans and crispy fried garlic (tipu a bit, use microwave).

Served with coriander fish (no chicken)... taste so so... hubby said too strong coriander taste, while I think I prefer plain bake fish... hehehe...

Stuffed Boiled Egg

We had fried beehoon sometime back and I made this Stuffed Boiled Egg to go with it...

Ingredients:

• 2 hard boiled egg (halved, keep only one egg yolk)
• 2 teaspoon of minced meat
• 1/2 teaspoon of chopped chillis
• 1 shallot (chopped)
• 1/2 teaspoon of cheddar cheese (chopped to small pieces)
• Few drops of soya sauce
• A pinch of pepper

Steps:

1. Mixed all the ingredients (minus egg white) till even.
2. Scooped the mixture to the egg white (fill in the yolk space).
3. Bake for 5mins under 250 degree celcius. But if u prefer a soft top, steam it instead.

Food Pictures

Bake Tuna with Mushroom

My Fav veg, plain stir fry

Spicy Chilli Fish

Pork Chop Onion Noodle

Fried egg, grilled tomato and prawn, and steam butter carrot

Pork Prawn Burger with Pork Chop

Colorful Cheesy Omelet

• 4pcs of eggs


• 1/4 teaspoon of salt


• 1/8 teaspoon of pepper


• 1 tablespoon of thinly sliced carrot


• 2 mushroom thinly sliced


• 1/2 onions, cut ring


• 3 tablespoon of cheddar cheese


• 1 tablespoon of spring onion, chopped


• 2 tablespoon of olive oil

1. Saute onions till fragrant.


2. Mix all other ingredients on a bowl.


3. Pour the mixture on the pan and spread it evenly.


4. Cover the pan and cook for 1 min.


5. Flip half the egg over and leave it for another min.


6. Dish and serve.

http://www.grouprecipes.com/20751/colorful-cheesy-omelet.html

Pictures of Food

Again, these are without recipes. Too long ago, cant remember the recipe well... hehehe...