Zucchini Lasagna with Bistik Flavors - Low Carb Recipe

Urgh. Low carb, low carb, low carb.
I am not loving it, until a good friend of mine, the evangelist of low-carb diet, Miss ChicMcMuffin showed me  this low carb lasagna recipe.

Oh my! I had to try it!

Too add my own twist, aka. making it work with ingredients I have in my kitchen, I made it with bistik (Indonesian sweet savory) flavors .

Recipe (I made a small portion to try out, only good for 1-2 persons on diet max)
- 1 zucchini, cut into slices about 5mm thick
- 1 cup of minced meat (I used lean pork, the cheapest option here. You can use others)
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 2 shallot, sliced
- 1 tomato, diced
- butter, light soy sauce, Indonesian sweet soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, ketchup, nutmeg, pepper
- 1 tsp corn starch dissolved in a bit of water
- grated cheeses (I used cheddar, which was on sale ^_^. An addition of mozzarella would be perfect)

Preheat oven to 200C.

Saute garlic and shallot with a bit of butter (or olive oil) until fragrant. Add mince meat. Add diced tomatoes, season with sauces until you achieve the perfect balance of savory sweet tangy, add hot water to create more sauce. Thicken with corn starch mix, set aside.

In a vessel, add a bit of the meat sauce, add zucchini slices, top with meat sauce and grated cheese, add a layer zucchini again, and so on. The top one should be meat + cheese. Cover with foil and bake until bubbly (check after 15 mins? I checked mine too often - wasting my time a bit ^_^'), and continue to bake uncovered until the cheese and meat on top gets golden.


I like this low carb. But oh my... so high in fat and others! T_T

Who cares? It's YUM!

Indonesian Fried Meatballs from Bakso Goreng Indra, Semarang

Some Indonesian food pornage for ya.
My mom's in town for Hari Raya Idul Fitri holiday...and she brought some Indonesian goodies with her. This is one of them, I specifically asked for them.


Crunchy on the outside, fluffy and a bit chewy on the inside. Heavenly!
In Indonesia, we devour them with a tasty broth. My mom didn't bring the broth, so I tried to make it myself. The original street version probably has a bagful of MSG and then some. Mine doesn't so it doesn't have that certain "umami", but it's close enough.

Pork broth for bakso goreng
Recipe
- HK$20 worth of pork bones (with a quite bit of meat on them)
- 3 shallot, cut into chunks
- 2 cm ginger
- hot water, salt, pepper, sugar
- a sprig of chopped spring onion for garnish
- crispy shallot for garnish
- chilli sauce as condiment

In a stock pot, drop the bones into boiling water, simmer for about 30 minutes, turn off the heat, let it be for about 15 minutes, turn on the heat again, heat until almost boiling, turn off the heat again. Repeat this process for about 3 times or until the meat on the pork bones are super tender. Season with salt, pepper and sugar, serve with fried meatballs, garnish with freshly chopped spring onion and crispy shallot.

Family Dinner at SC's Mom's - Simple Homemade Chinese Food, I Love!

Dinner at SC's parent's means a satisfying meal of delicious homemade Chinese food!
Take a look of what we had yesterday for dinner :)

Steamed squid with glass noodles, garlic, chilli, fermented black beans, topped with plenty of fresh coriander. Imagine the glass noodles soaking up all those delicious flavors. Yum!


Steamed small crabs, served with vinegar. They're so tiny and cute!


Marinated (lo sui) beef shin and chicken gizzard. Tender, juicy and flavorful! She made extra so that we could pack some leftover for tonight's dinner.


Pan fried pork neck, simply seasoned with salt, pepper and sugar. Charred & flavorful exterior, tender and juicy interior. Fat at its most fabulous form!


Steamed pork with fermented beans and preserved vegetables. Love the touch of sourness in this dish. Baby M feasted on the tender potatoes from the homemade Chinese-style tomato soup.


Stir fried pumpkin with fermented black beans and garlic. SC's mom is the queen of using pumpkin in stir fries and her pumpkin dishes are always yummy!

For dessert, we had lots of fruits, watermelon, rockmelon...and we had the juiciest, sweetest, biggest lychees I've had so far!

SC's mom shared a tip of now to make the lychees less "heaty", which is soaking them in salted water. Leave them soaked in the fridge if you wanna serve them cold. You can rinse the water off before serving.
Nothing's more refreshing than these cold lychees.

What a dinner!
Show me the yummies you had last weekend, will you?

PS. You must've noticed that the pictures were all distorted and weird? That's because I was playing with my brand new wide angle lens. Heheheh

Udon Goreng Siram Telor - Fried Udon with Meat & Egg Topping

I miss kwetiaw goreng siram telor (fried hor fun/flat rice noodles with meat & egg topping), and there's no place in Hong Kong that serves this Chinese-Indonesian dish.

As luck would have it, the day I wanted to try making my own version of this dish...I couldn't find rice noodles anywhere near me.
Bah! As if that would stop my craving.
No rice noodles, udon it is :D

It worked well and I love the extra chewiness that udon has.

Recipe
(serves 3)
- 3 packs of udon
- seasoning for udon: dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, a touch of oyster sauce
- 1/2 lbs sliced meat for stir frying (normally, it's beef. I used pork, and you can replace with chicken or seafood)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- fish sauce, salt, a touch of sugar, white pepper, corn flour diluted in water, vegetable oil for stir frying

Marinate meat in fish sauce, white pepper, a bit of sugar, and corn flour, set aside. Prepare about 3 tsp of corn flour dilluted in a small bowl of water and beat the eggs, season with a bit of salt. Saute garlic in hot oil, add meat, stir fry until cooked and season well. Add diluted corn flour, add egg mixture, stir well, set aside.

I "separated" my udon in a big bowl of hot water for a couple of minutes, drain and discard the water. Heat up a bit of vegetable oil in a frying pan, add udon, season with light soy, dark soy and a touch of oyster sauce.

Pour the meat and egg mixture on the fried udon, serve hot.

Ideally, add a bit of vegetables (kai lan or choy sum or others) into the egg and meat mixture, and you'll get yourself a well balance one dish meal.

Enjoy! :)

Eggplant & Minced Meat in XO Sauce

Another favorite ingredients combo of mine...hearty minced meat with soft, sauce-thirsty, fibre-rich eggplants. Yum! Don't we all love one-dish weekday dinners?

This time, I'm using the free XO sauce I got as a souvenir from my dinner at Satay King. You can slather anything with XO sauce, and it should taste fan-bloody-tastic.

Recipe
- 1 eggplant, cut into long pieces
- 0.5 lb minced meat
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 cm ginger, crushed
- 2 clove shallot, sliced thinly
- 1 tbsp xo sauce (try to include as little oil as possible)
- olive oil, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, pepper, hot water, crispy shallot (optional)

Saute garlic, ginger and shallot in olive oil, add minced meat, season a bit with fish sauce, let cook until the color changed. Add eggplant pieces, cook until they change color, add sauces, add hot water and cook until the eggplants are deliciously soft. Adjust seasonings if necessary, garnish and serve with steamed rice.

Hearty, spicy, savoury, and most importantly, as always, easy ;)

Pan Fried Meat & Corn Patties

Another easy peasy delight for weekday dinners :)
Some supermarkets have these patties ready-to-use in packages for you, simply pan fry, grill, or steam them...or you can make them for scratch.
It's no rocket science, it's tasty, hearty, satisfying, and it has both the meat and veggie factor :D

Recipe
- 0.5 lb minced meat (pork or chicken or beef)
- half a cup corn kernels
- 1 small shallot, finely chopped (optional)
- 1 tbsp corn starch, fish sauce, chicken stock powder (optional), salt, sugar, white pepper
- olive oil for pan frying

Mix all ingredients and form patties. If you want to pan fry, but do not want to pan fry for too long, to ensure that the inner part is cooked, you can nuke the patties in the microwave for a couple of minutes before pan frying. Pan fry both sides until golden brown and serve with chili sauce.

To jazz up the flavors, you can add freshly chopped coriander and or chopped red chili into the patties. I didn't add them since SC has developed a sudden hatred towards coriander ^_^'

Tasted fantastic with rice, and maybe add them into soup like meat balls or serve with pasta and sauce.

You must have noticed that my posts get shorter and shorter these days.
No lame excuses, plain and simple, my ass grows bigger and I get lazier ^_^'
Maybe tomorrow the post will have no word and no photo at all :D

Mun Tahu with Sawi Putih - Tofu, Minced Meat & Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce with Chinese Cabbage

Another quick one-dish dinner for busy weekdays...and this time, no canned food, I promise...
...although maybe not for long. Hehehe~


I wanted to do the classic Chinese inspired Indonesian dish, mun tahu (stir fried tofu with minced meat), but I wanted to incorporate my veggie of the day into it, as of course, I am too damn lazy to create another veggie side dish.

Thanks so my sister's lunch habit of ordering mun tahu with stir fried chinese cabbage, I decided to add Chinese cabbage into the dish and call it a night.

So I did.


Recipe
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed, divided
- 1 medium head of Chinese cabbage, cut into 2 cm slices
- 0.5 lb minced meat (pork, beef or chicken)
- 2 pieces of soft tofu
- 1 pack (around 8-10) fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced (feel free to replace with other mushrooms)
- olive oil, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, black pepper, fish sauce, corn starch, water

Saute a clove of garlic in hot olive oil, add Chinese cabbage, let cook, season with a bit of fish sauce, set aside. Saute the rest of garlic in olive oil, add sliced mushrooms, cooked until wilted, add minced pork, let cook, season with oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and black pepper. Thicken the mixture with corn starch dissolved in a bit of water, add the chinese cabbage, mix well, heat through, and serve.

Normally this dish is garnished with spring onion, but since I didn't have any, I just added crispy shallot.
Owh, you can finish a couple bowls of steamed rice with this.

Meat? Check! Veggie? Check! Extra tofu and mushrooms? Check!
Fresh? Check! Tasty? Check!
Go for it :)

My Hot Dog & Poutine Wannabe Dinner

I've never tried Poutine in my life...so, how weird of me to try "recreating" it at home. How was I supposed to know how it tasted like? Therefore, please excuse my beyond inauthentic poutine wannabe and just go along this yummy ride, will ya?

From what I heard, poutine is essentially french fries served with cheese curd and gravy.
They had me at cheese.
Heck, they had me at fries!

So, here we go...
My Poutine Wannabe
The Fries

I planned to use store bought french fries or frozen fries. But since I couldn't find any that day, I just sliced a couple of potatoes, rinse them until the water runs clear to get rid of the excess starch, pat 'em dry, and oven baked them with some butter and olive oil. I try to avoid deep frying whenever I can.

The cheese

In a sauce pan, I threw in 2 tsp butter, 1/2 cup of skim milk, plenty of grated cheddar cheese, a pinch of salt, white pepper, a dash of paprika (I just did it for the love of red dust) and a bit of corn starch dilluted in water to thicken. I added a few chunks of cheddar at the end.

The gravy

I despise store bought gravy, plus, I need to prepare my lunch for the next working day, so I used the gravy of this beef dish on my "poutine". Saute a clove of crushed garlic and a quarter of diced onion with a bit of butter and olive oil, add beef chunks, add mushrooms, drizzle some red wine, add some diced vegetables (I used peas, carrots and corn), add beef/chicken stock (optional) or just hot water, add mixed herbs (I used rosemary, oregano, and thyme), season with salt and black pepper, thicken with a bit of corn starch dilluted in water...and I got my version of gravy sorted.

The assembly

Two servings of "fries". Since they will get soaked in sauces anyway, don't worry too much about them being not as fluffy or crispy as normal french fries...and you don't need to season them.


I couldn't resist but adding a few chunks of beef before pouring some gravy over 'em.


Topped with the liquid gold...cheese sauce with chunks of cheddar cheese...
Yum. Amen.

I went even more inauthentic with the next serving...but I didn't regret it...

I added the whole beef, veggie, and mushrooms with the gravy altogether before pouring the cheese.
At least it is healthy---er, right?

...and while I prepared the hotdogs, I keep them in low oven to keep warm...

It's amazing how I could peel myself off them.

They were begging to be consumed right away.

Oh my~

The hotdogs

Johnsonsville's Turkey Cheddar hot dogs on lightly buttered and toasted hot dog buns, served with mayo, ketchup, relish, sambal ABC (Indonesian chilli sauce) and grated mixed cheese.

Nothing else I could say but yum!

PS. SC blamed me for the 2 lbs he gained after this meal :(

Shiok-ing Experience: Turning Char Kway Teow to Nasi Goreng Campur Campur

Still feeling a little silly from my not-too-successful attempts at Singapore Char Kway Teow and Dry Fishball Noodles, I saw something that made me feel even sillier...

There's actually a Singaporean Kitchen and Bar that serves exactly what I failed to recreate at home!
:S

Naturally, I booked a table ASAP to see if they can help me with my Singapore food cravings...

We had the Char Tow Kway (Fried Carrot Cake), the white version. I was really happy with this dish, it's very close to what I had in Singapore, tasty carrot cake chunks fried with eggs, and I especially enjoyed the delicious sambal (chilli paste) it was served with.


Their Bakuteh isn't the brown, Malaysian type I normally make at home (with ready-to-use instant spice pack, of course), it's the peppery clear broth version. The broth was not too bad, and I like the intestines, but the ribs were nowhere near tender enough. I won't order this again.


The Bak Chor Mee (Dry Fishball Noodle) I tried to make at home...after simply mixing the whole bowl, something still wasn't right...something's missing.


Yep! It's the thick black sauce with chilli they served on the side, after mixing everything, bingo! The flavors were exactly the ones I've been missing. In terms of flavor, I'd totally go back for this bowl of noodles, but the noodle itself lacks the chewy quality the Singapore version has. If I managed to find the correct vinegar for this dish, I'll try to recreate this again at home using fresh fettucini.


When I saw Singapore fried rice noodles with see ham (cockles) was the Tuesday Special, I ordered it immediately! When it was served, I had my doubts seeing how pale the color was compared to Singapore char kway teow. Seeing how it is served with sambal and half piece of lime, I was wondering if they made this the way they make mee goreng, instead of char kway teow? Mee goreng or char kway teow, it lacked flavors. I had to ask for another serving of sambal for more flavors, and it still ended up flavorless.

I gave up, but no way I'm gonna waste a good amount of noodles. I had most of the dish packed to be "tweaked" at home.

Since I still have some leftover rice...I turned the kway teow goreng/char kway teow leftover into a version of...
Nasi Goreng Campur Campur (Mixed Fried Rice)

I simply added 1 clove of minced garlic, sauteed in a bit of olive oil, added a bowl of leftover rice, a dash of fish sauce, light soy sauce and sweet soy sauce....and I could pack two servings of lunch.

^_^
Absolutely delicious, nothing's wasted.


The barley drink isn't sweet enough, maybe it's the healthier less-sugar Hong Kong version ^_^ but the kaya smoothie was a delight! The pandan is very fragrant, and it's mixed with sweet and rich coconut milk (it should probably be named pandan smoothie though?). Anyway, absolutely sinful and delicious!

PS. I was extremely disappointed when I was informed that they didn't have grilled stingray that day. Sad, sad, sad.

PS2. Have you ever doggie-bagged less-than-satisfying restaurant dish to tweak at home?

PS3. If you wanna try...
Shiok
G/F, 66 Peel Street, Central, Hong Kong
中環卑利街66號地下
Tel: +852 2899 2001

Baked Indonesian Croquettes - Kroket Panggang

Love Indonesian croquettes so much, but not in love with the idea of deep frying (as always).
I wonder if I could get away with baking it...if I could bake shrimp cakes, surely I can bake these too?
Yayaya, so I thought.

Here's how I made my version, yields about 6 large croquettes:

Stuffing
- 1/2 cup of minced meat (beef/pork/chicken/corned beef/etc)
- 1/2 cup of mixed vegetables (I used frozen green peas, diced carrot and corn kernels)
- 1 small clove of garlic, finely minced
- 1 small clove of shallot, finely minced
- salt, white pepper, sugar, ground nutmeg, olive oil
- Cheddar cheese, cut into 1x1x1 cm cubes (optional)

Saute garlic and shallot, add minced meat let cook until almost done, add mixed veggies, season and cook until done. Set aside. Keep the cheddar cheese cubes refrigerated

Potato part
- 4 large potatoes
- salt, pepper, sugar, butter, ground nutmeg, milk powder
- egg, beaten
- breadcrumbs
- olive oil

Bake potatoes until soft enough to mash (about 2 hours in 180C oven). I've tried boiling/microwaving before, but the result was just too watery....

Once soft, mash potatoes, add 1 tsp butter, 2 tsp milk powder (skip if you don't have, it's not worth buying a whole tin of milk powder), season with salt, pepper, sugar, and ground nutmeg, mix well.

Assembly
Grab a heaping tbsp of potato, add mixed veggie and meat filling in the middle, add a cube of cheddar cheese, cover with another tbsp of potato, roll into an oval-ish ball shape. Continue until you've finished all the potatoes. You might end up with leftover filling, feel free to eat it with rice. I also ate all of the leftover cheddar cheese cubes :D

Eggwash the croquettes and roll them into breadcrumbs. Lay them in baking sheet/plate and refrigerate for a couple of hours (my impatient self skipped this step and kept opening my oven to check on my croquettes, so they cracked and went out of shape T_T).


Baking
Preheat oven to 200C, line a baking sheet with foil (if your baking sheet is all burnt like mine), lightly grease with olive oil. Line croquettes on baking sheets, leaving some space in between, brush them lightly with olive oil or melted butter, bake until golden brown.

Or...of course, you can also deep fry them :D

See I made a tiny croquette ball? It doesn't have any meat/veggie filling, just a cube of cheddar cheese and it tasted fantastical! I'm gonna make these tiny babies next time.

Despite the cracks and the flattened bottoms, when I took these out of the oven, I could still kinda mold them back into a decent shape...and they get firmer once they've cooled down...and they tasted good. I will try perfecting them again soon.

Now, I really have to show you this...
SC's idea of cool food styling is...

of course, sticking the parsley into the croquette like a mini tree :D
He went mad when I rolled my eyes and refused to take this shot.

What do you think? You likey?

Soto Betawi - Indonesian Creamy Beef Soup

Nothing I love more than a get together than involves...ehm, food.

Especially some food that has a special sentimental value to us.
Oh, my hormones are making me extra sappy and romantic these days~
That's right. Blame it all on the hormones.

So, last Friday, after having been craving this dish for a while...my friend Ieie and I decided to brave the lack of instant seasoning pack and make the dish we went through our college days with...from scratch. Gasp!

Making anything from scratch might be nothing special for most people. But for Ieie and I, instant seasoning princesses, it calls for a celebration.

Soto Betawi
Recipe
adapted from here

Beef stock
- 1 lb beef (I used brisket, you can use other parts of beef with some offals)
- 1 galangal, crushed
- 1 stalk lemongrass, crushed
- 3 salam leaves (Indonesian bay leaves)
- water
Boil beef with galangal, lemongrass and salam leaves until tender. I used a pressure cooker, so this only took 30 minutes, if you are not using pressure cooker, bring to boil and simmer for at least 1.5 hours. Since I wanted to get rid of the fat from the brisket, I prepared this one night ahead, cool it down and keep it in the fridge. The next day, the fat has hardened and I could take it out easily. If you are using leaner meat, you can skip the fat removing process.

If you don't eat beef, replace it with other kinds of meat. Next time, I will add some bone-in chicken pieces too, to give the soup some glorious golden tinge.

Spices
- 5 shallot
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 cm ginger
- 1 tbsp ground corriander seeds
- 1 tsp cumin
- white pepper, salt, olive oil
I threw everything into my food processor and pulsed until it forms a fine paste. In Indonesia, we normally use mortar and pestle.

Soup
- 400ml coconut milk
To finish the soup, bring beef and stock to boil, add spices, and add coconut milk. Adjust seasonings and spices according to your taste. The soup is done.

Other Ingredients
- 2 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced into 8-12 sections each
- 2 tomatoes, sliced into 8-12 sections each
I pan fried the potato slices on a non stick pan with minimal amount of olive oil (only about 1 tbsp), pan fry slowly on medium heat until softened, crank up the heat afterwards to brown the surface. Alternatively, you can soften the potatoes by baking or microwaving them.
The tomatoes do not need to be cooked.

Garnish
- spring onion, thinly sliced
- crispy shallot
- red chillies, sliced thinly
- Indonesian sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
- emping (belinjo crackers) or prawn crackers (optional)
- lime (quartered)
To serve, place potatoes and tomatoes in a bowl, scoop some beef, pour soup over it, sprinkle some crackers, crispy shallot and spring onion. Serve with kecap manis, chilli and lime slices on the side as condiments.

Yummy with steamed rice ^_^

I am crap at food styling. But although the above pictures were crappily styled, the way we devoured it was even worse...

We devoured the soto with a mountain of Indonesian crackers.

It did send us back to our young, cute, but far-from-innocent college days :D
Ah, nostalgia~

Pumpkin, Carrot & Corn Chinese Soup in a Pack

One of the beauties of living in Hong Kong....apart from...
- HK$10 wonton noodle
- Coffee shop whole day breakfasts
- In some places, food being smashed on your table delivered to you within seconds after you uttered your orders
- HK$18 BBQ pork lunch boxes
...is Chinese Soup in A Pack

The locals drink their Chinese soup religiously.
Each soup has its own health benefits such as...as quoted the locals:
- good for skin
- good for the heart
- good for heat
- good for cold
- good for health
good good good...I wonder if they have some soups that's good for love/good for career/good for the economy?

My knowledge about Chinese soup is...nonexistent.
I don't know which ingredient goes with what, and I don't know which soup is good for what.
I might have been drinking soup which is "good for gentlemen"...since I seem to have grown quite a lot of moustache these days. Oppps. (No, Rita. Don't blame it on the soup. You've had moustache since...like..forever)

Anyway, based on my Chinese soup related cluelessness, soup in a pack is my best bet.

Last weekend I've chosen...
Pumpkin, Carrot and Corn Soup Pack

It's a Chinese soup combo that I haven't seen before, and despite the persistent scorching heat, autumn is coming, so something with pumpkin sounds perfect.

I just grabbed a pack, it costs HK$18.50 (around USD2.3), it has all the necessary ingredients for the soup. I've added another pack of pork tenderloin too.


...and it doesn't get easier than this.
Simply dump everything into a pot (an impatient bitch that I am, I used a pressure cooker ^_^), add boiling water, bring to boil and simmer for about 1 hour.

Since I use a pressure cooker, I could've been drinking a bowl of soup after just 15 minutes.
But I want everything richer, sweeter, thicker, and tender, so I cooked my soup for 25 minutes. For pressure cooking vegetables, that's like...forever!

See my darling cooker blowing off steams?

That promises deliciousness.

...wow!
The soup is naturally sweet from all the sweet ingredients with a touch of meatiness from the pork tenderloin, I simply added a bit of salt to make everything perfectly balanced.


Yum!...and the meat? Melt-in-your-mouth tender.

Now back to the most important issue again. Does anyone know any soup that can make me richer, slimmer, prettier, and also smarter?
(Note to self: Chinese soups can only do so much, not the impossible)