Recipe: Braised fish maw with mushrooms and sugar snap peas

Nowadays, you can get Chinese New Year (CNY) ingredients at the shops two months before the actual celebration. We always stock up on lots of fish maw 鱼鳔 and Chinese mushrooms as soon as we can get our hands on them.  So, we've been cooking lots of different dishes with them and our favorite combination has to be this - braised mushrooms with fish maw and sugar snap peas.

This recipe is even EASIER than my last "Easy fish maw with mushroom stew" recipe - you pre-soak them in warm water for 2 hours hence you can cut the cooking time by half. Usually we soak it before we pick the kids up from school, hence when we get back, we can quickly braise it and the dish is ready in less than 30 minutes. A complete one-pot dish with enoki mushrooms (also known as straw mushrooms), Chinese mushrooms and sugar snap peas. Super tasty!

Braised fish maw with mushrooms and sugar snap peas
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes
Serves 2-3


Ingredients
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 cup dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked for 2 hours and stalk removed
1 (25g) fish maw, soaked in warm water for 2 hours
2 pack enoki mushrooms, ends trimmed
130g sugar snap peas / sweet bean, topped and tailed
250ml water
2 tbsp mushroom sauce
1 tbsp ginger wine


1.  In a saucepan, heat oil over medium high heat. Add garlic and stir fry for 2 minutes until golden brown.

2. Add Chinese mushrooms and fish maw and stir fry for about a minute, then add the water and bring to the boil. Once boiling, turn down to medium low heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the fish maw's texture is cooked to your liking. Season with mushroom sauce and ginger wine, to taste.

3. Add the enoki mushrooms and sugar snap peas and cook for a further 2 minute. Taste and season with some salt, if required. Serve immediately.

Note: Soaking the fish maw in hot/warm water will shorten its cooking time, convenient especially if you are in a rush.

****************

I am submitting this to the "Cook & Celebrate: CNY 2015" event which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe. To join, simply cook or bake any Chinese New Year recipes for the whole month of February 2015.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in February 2015 - please do not link older posts.Please mention our "Cook & Celebrate: CNY 2015" event in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

Recipe: Pork knuckle/trotters with black vinegar 猪脚醋

Pork knuckle /pig trotters are popular ingredients used during Chinese New Year (CNY). When I was dining at a Chinese restaurant last month, I was flipping through their CNY promotion booklet and saw a pork knuckle dish. I asked the waitress why pork knuckle is served during CNY and she told me that it's because it symbolises a hand clawing in more "gold and money" for the coming year. Chinese sure loves ingredients with prosperous sounding homonyms and symbolism.

The Hokkiens, including my family usually serve pork knuckle with sea cucumber (recipe here) during CNY. I read in an article last week that Hakka households serve pork knuckle cooked with black vinegar 猪脚醋 during reunion dinners, which in the dialect means "soaring high". Though I've never had it before during CNY, this was one of my favorite things to eat during confinement (confinement is the 30-day period an Asian woman undergoes after giving birth).

Pork knuckle / trotters with black vinegar 猪脚醋

To cook this dish, you can use either pork knuckle or pig's trotters (I love pig trotters, as they're more gelatinous- yummy!), which is simmered with water, old ginger, gula melaka (palm sugar) and vinegar. How long you cook it depends on how you like the texture - for us, we like the pork trotters to be soft with a slight bite and melting layers of gelatinous fat within. It is best to set it aside for 4-5 hours for the flavours to develop before serving. You can always cook a big pot, and eat it over a few meals - the flavours just get better and better!

I simply love the combination of sweet and tangy flavours of the braising sauce (yup, you can drink it all) - so appetizing! I'm so happy that my mum taught me how to cook this chu kiok cho 猪脚醋 dish. Thanks mum!

Pork knuckle/trotters with black vinegar 猪脚醋
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
Serves 4

Ingredients
1kg pork knuckle or trotters
320g old ginger, sliced and bruised
900ml water
400ml spiced vinegar
135g gula melaka (palm sugar)
1/2 tsp salt


1. In a large pot over medium heat, place the water, old ginger and gula melaka and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the vinegar and simmer for a further 10 minutes.

We use Yuen Chun Cap Datuk spiced vinegar (cuka hitam) when we make this dish.

2. In a separate pot, bring a pot of water to the boil, then blanch the pork for about 5 minutes. This is to remove any impurities from the pork.

3. Add the pork and salt to the pot (from Step 1) and simmer over low heat for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Remove from heat and set aside for 4-5 hours for flavours to develop/infuse.

4. Before serving, heat over medium low heat for about 30 minutes.

Note: Use old ginger for this dish as it tastes better with a strong gingery taste.

****************

I am submitting this to the "Cook & Celebrate: CNY 2015" event which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe. To join, simply cook or bake any Chinese New Year recipes for the whole month of February 2015.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in February 2015 - please do not link older posts.Please mention our "Cook & Celebrate: CNY 2015" event in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

Recipe: Stir fried leeks with Chinese mushrooms and king prawns

It's finally February, which means that Chinese New Year is just 18 days away! Woohooo! This month, I will be hosting Cook and Celebrate: CNY 2015 with two wonderful ladies, so do submit and share any CNY recipes you have with us.

To kick-start this event, I'm sharing an auspicious dish, fit to be served at your dinner table throughout the CNY period. Leeks 蒜 are commonly served as the name is a homophone for "calculating (money)" (算suàn), mushrooms 冬菇 mean longevity and prawn 虾 sounds like laughter "ha ha ha". Last year, we cooked a similar dish with dried shrimps , but this week we bought some really nice, fresh and juicy king prawns so it went into this dish.

Such a simple, delicious dish - the kids got their hands (and mouths) on all the prawns as soon as I finished with the photo taking.

Here's to more money, longevity and happiness in the Year of Goat. :)

Stir fried leeks with Chinese mushrooms and king prawns
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 8-9 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
350g leeks (4 stalks), trimmed and sliced into 2" lengths at an angle
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp cooking oil
3 Chinese or shitake mushrooms, rehydrated and sliced thinly
12 king prawns, shelled and deveined with tails intact
1 tsp ginger wine
1 tsp chicken stock granules


1. In a wok, heat oil over medium high heat. Add garlic and fry for 2 minutes, until lightly browned. Add mushrooms and stir fry for a minute.

2. Add the leeks and stir fry for about 1 minute, then add the ginger wine and allow to cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the king prawns and cook for 1-2 minutes, until prawn are cooked through. Season with chicken stock granules and serve immediately.

Note: For those who cannot take alcohol, you can omit ginger wine completely or replace with ginger juice (grate and squeeze).

****************

I am submitting this to the "Cook & Celebrate: CNY 2015" event which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe. To join, simply cook or bake any Chinese New Year recipes for the whole month of February 2015.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in February 2015 - please do not link older posts.Please mention our "Cook & Celebrate: CNY 2015" event in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

Recipe: Chinese Black Bean Soup 烏豆湯

Growing up as a child, at dinner time, we often had rice, vegetables, meat, egg and soup. I love drinking Chinese soups - they're warming, comforting as well as nourishing.

One of my favorite Chinese soups is this black bean soup 烏豆湯. You can easily get black bean in supermarkets but we always get ours from Eu Yan Sang (RM9 for 300g). My mum always pre-soaks the beans for 1 hour before cooking, hence I followed her instructions when I cook with black beans too. You do lose some of the colour from pre-soaking the beans, but in a way, this turned out to be a good thing as my kids prefer brown-coloured soup rather than black.

When I make soup, I usually use either chicken carcass (which you can get easily and cheaply from the wet market) or chicken breast (the soup will be less oily, hence more healthy). With chicken carcass, you will need to skim off the scum and excess oil. I also like adding some dried oysters and dried scallops, as well as onions as they make the soup taste super sweet and delicious! Everyone should try making Chinese soups - it's so easy, it's all a matter of dumping the ingredients into a pot, bring it to the boil and then once it's boiling, lower to simmer and cook for 2-3 hours. I certainly love having a bowl of soup with my dinner :)

My happy, healthy kids!

Chinese Black Bean Soup 烏豆湯
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 2-3 hours
Serves 4-6


Ingredients
2l water
3 chicken carcasses, chopped into rough chunks
200g black bean 黑豆
3 dried oysters
A large handful dried scallops
3 large onions, quartered
1/8 tsp salt


1. Place black beans in a bowl and cover with cold water. Leave to soak for 1 hour. Drain and set aside.

2. In a large pot, place water, black beans, dried oysters, dried scallops, onions and chicken carcass. Bring to the boil over medium high heat. Once boiling, lower to low heat and simmer for 2-3 hours. Skim off any excess oil or scum using a ladle. Season with salt, to taste.

3. Serve, as part of your meal.

Note: You can use 1.5 chicken breast in lieu of the chicken carcass. If you prefer the soup to be a darker shade, then do not presoak the black beans. Just rinse and add into Step 2.

Do check out the recipe for Chinese ABC soup with sweetcorn  here.


If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

Recipe: Mee Goreng (Malay-style fried yellow noodles)

Today, I am sharing the recipe which I wrote for my guest post on The Beesley Buzz last month as part of the WORLDFOODS International Fusion Recipe Swap Challenge.The dish I chose to showcase was mee goreng, a much-loved Malay-style fried noodle dish which can be eaten anytime of the day.

For the challenge, we were required to incorporate WORLDFOODS sauces into a favorite or typical dish from our country and I have chosen the "WORLDFOODS Indonesian Fried Rice 'Nasi Goreng' Paste". Having used this sauce before to make fried rice, I was confident that it would taste good in the mee goreng recipe too.

For mee goreng, we usually use thin yellow noodles, however a good substitute if you cannot find yellow noodles where you are is spaghetti. Other ingredients that we can find in mee goreng is chicken strips, prawns, fish cake as well as vegetables such as choy sum and cabbage. The WORLDFOODS paste includes garlic, dried chillies, shallots, onions, turmeric and tomato paste hence the noodles is fragrant with a slight spicy kick. If you prefer it spicier, then add in more chilli paste.

Mee goreng is commonly served with a fried egg, or you can also have it with a spicy egg sambal. Enjoy the recipe!

Mee goreng (Malay-style fried yellow noodles)
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 12 minutes
Serves 2-3

Ingredients
300g yellow noodles
2 heaped tbsp WORLDFOODS Indonesian Fried Rice 'Nasi Goreng' Paste
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 fish cakes
80g chicken breast, sliced
3 stalks choy sum
1 cabbage leaf
10-12 prawns
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp cili giling (chilli paste) (optional)


1. In a large saucepan or wok over medium high heat, add the oil and garlic, and cook for 1 1/2 minutes, until fragrant and lightly browned.

2. Add chicken and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the WORLDFOODS paste and fry for a further 1 minute, until fragrant. If adding chilli paste, you can add it at the same time as the WORLDFOODS paste. Add the fish cakes and cook for another minute.

3. Add the noodles, and toss until evenly coated with the sauce. Add the choy sum greens, cabbage and prawns, and season with dark and light soy sauce. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, until greens, prawns and noodles and cooked through.

4. Serve immediately with some sambal at the side.

Note: You can substitute the yellow noodles with spaghetti. Cook the spaghetti until 80% cooked, then add in as you would if using yellow noodles.

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's Facebook page on 10 December 2014.

Best Wings Recipe: Sticky Gula Melaka Glazed Chicken Wings

Let's end November with a fantastic recipe - sticky gula melaka glazed chicken wings! After experimenting with lots of different marinades, this is by far the best chicken wing recipe I've tried. If you love wings, you gotta try this!

What I like about this recipe is definitely the ease of making and availability of the ingredients. I have everything I need in my kitchen pantry, and all I need to do is measure it out and mix it in a bowl and pour it over the chicken wings. So easy! Plus it tastes really really really good.

Sweet, salty, sticky, juicy wings... absolutely glorious! Worth getting your hands dirty, and they're so good you'll wanna lick your fingers afterwards. Yup, finger licking good they are!

My kids absolutely adore these chicken wings - my boy surprised me the other day when he ate one after another wing and kept telling me how yummy it was. He likes to do this "tick" sign with his fingers as a sign of his seal of approval. We usually serve this with a side of salad to keep things simple.

This is a recipe so easy that you can even assign it to your children to make. Baby D made the ones we had a couple of weeks ago - from marinating to arranging them on the baking tray, as well as making the salad (I helped him pit and peel the avocado but he did everything else). I make this recipe at least once a month now as my family tells me "more of this, please" ;)

Sticky Gula Melaka Glazed Chicken Wings
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 1 minute
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
12 chicken wings, cleaned

For the marinade
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin or ginger wine
3 tbsp gula melaka (palm sugar) syrup or concentrate
1 tsp coarse black pepper
1/2 tsp shichimi powder
2 tbsp cooking oil



1. Place all marinade in a bowl, and mix well. Pour over the chicken wings and marinate for at least 6 hours in the fridge.

2. Preheat oven to 190C (roast mode). Line a baking tray with foil and arrange wings on tray in a single layer. Pour the marinade over the wings and cook for 25-30 minutes, until the meat is cooked through and the skin is sticky, and a beautiful golden brown.

3. Remove and serve immediately with some of the marinade leftover in tray as a dip.

Note: Gula melaka syrup is available in supermarkets- they usually come in a 500ml bottle, costing about RM5-7 depending on brand.

Avocado, lettuce and cherry tomatoes salad
For the salad
1 ripe avocado
1 baby butterhead lettuce
6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 lemon

For the dressing
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey
Salt

1. To pit the avocado, first you need to find the stalk and remove it. Hold it horizontally, with a knife through the centre until you hit the seed then move the knife in a circular motion until you go all the away around. Twist the avocado halves in opposite direction and it will come apart easily into 2 halves. Sink the knife into the avocado seed and remove. Squeeze lemon juice all over to avoid discoloration. Chop the avocado into bite-sized chunks. Season with salt.

2. Place ingredients for dressing a bowl and whisk well to mix.

3. Place avocado, butterhead lettuce and cherry tomatoes into a salad bowl and then pour over dressing and toss. Season with more salt as necessary and serve immediately.

The wings and salad that Baby D made ;)

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's Facebook page on 5 December 2014.

Recipe: Korean Grilled Chicken (Bobby Flay)

Eaelier this month, I tried and posted a Korean-style marinated steak recipe from Bobby Flay and today, I am posting yet another Korean-inspired dish from him - Korean Grilled Chicken (one of his most popular dishes on Food Network). Looks like Bobby Flay is a fan of Korean flavours!

For this recipe, Bobby Flay uses a whole chicken but I opted to use chicken maryland instead since I find that drumstick and thigh are best for roasting and the cooked meat is moist. The meat is marinated in a mix of Korean red pepper paste (gochujang), light soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, ginger and garlic. Only 1/2 heaped tablespoonful of gochujang is used in this recipe, so I would say this is pretty mild but just perfect for me since my kids would be eating it too. By all means double or triple the gochujang quantity if you prefer a spicy kick.

The chicken is left to marinate for 4-8 hours, then oven roasted until a beautiful golden brown. You can also grill the chicken if you prefer. The chicken is then served with some of marinade sauce which has been reserved. In his original recipe, Bobby Flay serves this with some tortilla wraps, but butterhead lettuce works just as well. Simply wrap the chicken in some lettuce, top with dipping sauce and enjoy!

A very easy chicken recipe, with big flavours. 

Korean Grilled Chicken
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Bobby Flay
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 chicken maryland, separated into 8 pieces

For the marinade
1/2 cup low-sodium light soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tbsp Korean red pepper paste (gochujang)
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 spring onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Freshly ground black pepper
3/4 tsp toasted white sesame seeds


To serve
4 (6-inch) flour tortillas, warmed (optional)
or 1 butterhead lettuce, leaves washed


1. Place the ingredients for a marinade in a bowl and whisk together. Add half of the mixture to the chicken, then turn to coat. Cover and let the meat marinade in the ridge for at least 4 hours or up to 8 hours.

2. Add the spring onions, sesame oil, black pepper and sesame seeds to the remaining marinade and reserve as a dipping sauce for the finished chicken.

3. Preheat oven to 180C (roast mode). Line a baking tray with foil, then arrange chicken on tray in a single layer. Place in oven and cook for 25 minutes, until cooked through and skin is crispy and golden brown. Arrange chicken on a platter, and serve wrapped in tortilla (if desired) with dipping sauce on the side.

4. Alternatively, you can cook the chicken on the grill or BBQ.


Note: You can also serve the chicken with some lettuce. Wrap the chicken in the lettuce with some dipping sauce.

**************

I am submitting this to the "Cook Like Bobby Flay" event which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Grace of Life Can Be Simple. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe from any Bobby Flay websites or cookbooks for the whole month of November 2014.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in November 2014 - please do not link older posts.Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Grace of Life Can Be Simple and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:


If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

Recipe: Sambal telur (Malaysian Egg Sambal)

Last week, I cooked mee goreng and as an accompaniment, I also made sambal telur. Sambal telur, also known as egg sambal is a Malay dish whereby hard boiled eggs are coated in a spicy, sambal sauce. This recipe is pretty similar to the sambal telur tauhu recipe that I posted last year but with slightly less ingredients.

Sambal telur, absolutely enticing!

This is a much healthier version compared to the ones you get outside as I did not deep fry the eggs, and just pan fried them with a little oil. Lots of onions is a must for me and you can adjust the spiciness to your liking. This is great with any noodle dish or simply a bowl of white rice.

Try it and you'll love it!

Sambal telur (egg sambal)
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients
4 hard boiled eggs
2 tbsp cooking oil
3 onions, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2-3 tbsp cili giling (chilli paste)
100ml water
1 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp soft brown sugar
1/8 tsp salt


1. Heat oil in a large wok. Add the eggs and lightly pan fry for 2 minutes. Remove and set aside.

2. Add the onions and garlic in the wok and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until the onions have softened slightly. Then, add the cili giling (I used about 2 tbsp first) and fry for 1-2 minutes until fragrant. Add the water and cook for another 3-4 minutes, to further soften the onions.

3. Add the eggs and allow to cook for another 2-3 minutes. Season with light soy sauce, soft brown sugar and salt. Add more cili giling if you like it spicier. Mix to coat well.

4. Serve with rice or noodles.

Note: For instructions on how to cook hard boiled egg, see Step 1.

Photo by Baby D, using my iPhone.. good job boy x

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's Facebook page on 23 November 2014.