Copycat Garlic Hoisin Chicken

Malaysia Budget 2009 is no goodie bag. To me, that is. No extra significant moolah in sight. To me, that is. *sigh*

This door may have closed but look, an open window! USD100 up for grabs. Choose to follow a clear and simple step by step recipe to prepare a meal and hope to win USD (mind you, not Ringgit Malaysia) 100! Wow.

Ok.

Time is short as the dateline is tomorrow. So many dishes, so little ingredients I have. But look, a Garlic Hoi Sin Chicken recipe! *Rummaging fridge shelves* I know I have it somewhere.. I just know it... come out, come out wherever you.. there you are! Long time no see. *flip it around* Ok still not expired. Let's do this. Copied wholesomely from saviour post (minus my pictures) :-

Ingredients
• 3 large chicken drumsticks (deboned).• 4 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
• Oil for deep / pan frying

Marinade
• 2 tablespoons Hoi Sin Sauce
• 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of light soya sauce

Method
Clean chicken and pat dry with kitchen towel / napkin. Marinade chicken for at least 3 hours. The longer the better.
Before frying, dust chicken with corn flour.

Heat up oil and deep fry or pan fry the chicken using high heat till browned. Remove from oil and set aside.
Cut fried chicken into bite / smaller pieces. If chicken is still not cooked (reddish flesh), return chicken into oil and fry for another minute or two. As the chicken is now cut into smaller pieces, any uncooked bits will be cooked in a short period of time. If you fry it too long, it will not be juicy or tender anymore.
Clean the wok and heat up 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil. Add garlic and saute till aromatic (but before turning brown) - this should take a couple of seconds only. Add chicken, stir well to coat chicken with garlic and dish up when garlic starts to brown.

My deviations from the recipe:-
1) I used 2 pieces of chicken breasts.
2) The meat was cut into strips before marination.
3) I forgot to saute garlic separately but threw fresh into the chicken pieces at the end of the cooking process.

End results, taste was not as I expected. Even the colour differs from what was posted here. BUT still good.Next time, maybe I'll try to follow the recipe strictly to see the difference. In the meantime, vote for me here, okie?

Centrepoint Coffeehouse and Restaurant, Termeloh.

This is one really overdue post. I pun sudah lupa. If you look at the date at the bottom right corner of the photos, you'd be astonished! My apologies for this delay. This was taken on a one day trip to Temerloh during CNY. Sadly, i didn't get to drive for i was chauffuered in a Camry. After the fruitful ang pow collection session, we adjourned for lunch at this place called Centerpoint Coffee House. It's a pretty well-known establishment and the food served is definitely one of the better ones here.

The menu we had. Sorry, folks i can't translate Chinese, but this was the set we ordered.

The first dish - My FAV Yee Sang. I love Yee Sang and it's possibly one of the things i look forward to during CNY. Long live Yee Sang!
This dish was rather special, especially the one with the aluminium foil wrapping.

These are quite common in KL, but the crabstick was a bit too sweet for my liking.

This is the one that really got me hooked me on. It's chicken, wrapped in foil, cooked with herbs and spices. Absolutely delicious.

Next up was the sharks' fin soup. Tasted really good, and there was definitely a generous amount of sharks fin in it.

Next up, herbal chicken. Not a fan but when it's good, i'll go for it. It turned out rather well, and i had 4 servings! A new record for herbal chicken and me. This little girl here certainly enjoyed her herbal chicken and we were even fighting (well, sort of) for the last few bits and pieces and the gravy.

Deep fried fish with lychee. I couldn't believe my eyes when i saw it. I guess thelychee was used to inject some sweetness and fruitiness into the dish but it felt odd. The fish was great, but lychee? Sorry, it's like having a nice and healthy tuna sandwich with pieces of lard on it.
Deep fried prawns. Fresh and succulent. No complains here.
Ah, braised vegetables with pacific clam, tofu skins and prawns. I love this dish. The gravy went superbly well with the fried rice.
The fried rice didn't look good, but it was really good; heaps better than some hotels in KL. I had 3 bowls. Love it!
Dessert. Cold. A must for me. Nothing to shout about here but on a hot CNY afternoon, this was a blessing. Longans with sea coconut.

The dishes were simple, but it's just different in taste and you need not be a food connoisseur to appreciate. Iwas of course, well filled to the brim, ready for the journey back to KL, and so did this girl.

My rating: 7.5/10.

NON-fried Fried Vermicelli (Bee Hoon)

“Should not miss this”

“ Must not miss this”

“Again”

Step right up folks. Yessirree! You’ve read right. NO frying to produce this:-I swear (It seems to be the current 'in' thing to do) on my heaviest cookbook.

Ingredients:-

1) Stock soup. Mine was pre-prepared and kept refrigerated for many uses. Otherwise, just dissolve stock cubes in water. Or small cheap RM0.70 (maybe less) premixes paste like this.

2) Bottled Tomato sauce or Chilli sauce or Sambal Udang Kering. Again this is something I would prepare in bulk and kept refrigerated.

3) Mixed vegetables. My fridge only held some leftover Chinese cabbage and 1 stick of carrot.Larder empty. Think most of you would have mushrooms and many other greens. Just add whatever you fancy. Meat if affordable, would be very good.

4) A bundle of Dry strands of bihun or vermicelli (replaceable by any types of noodles). For dry noodles, rinse under running water to rid probable dust and dirt. DO NOT soak until soft.

Method:-

• Easy step A
  Pour Stock with ingredients 2. into wok. Do add in the meat (if any) to cook here. Fire up until boil.

• Easy step B
  Put in 3. and salt or sugar to taste.

• Easy step C:-
  Add 4. Stir to mix well until dry. If the dry noodles were soften beforehand, the final product may turn gooey, no?

• Serve.

In the spirit of our beloved country’s Independence Day, I have opted for a most economical tummy filling dish. After all, as Malaysians (no home in China), I believe I must make an effort to adopt our oh-so practical National Campaign since a majority of proud Malaysians would not have elected a high flying nincompoop to rule and govern right?

Okay, maybe some think it’s irrelevant today as lo and behold, our country’s fixed petrol price had unexpectedly flipped earlier than the date announced. Hey, no political manouvering this. Just another act by a considerate authority to give back to its loyal citizens.

Oh I digressed. Back to why my dish is kept economical (especially in comparison to my celebration last year). Other than the fact the reduced percentage compared to the June increase is negligible, chances of calling (especially by our wise and considerate government) for traders to lower their prices in line with the reduction in commodities will flop.

H a p p y M e r d e k a M al a y s i a n s.

Look, Babe, I finally made it this year!

L A for ..

....

...

....

...

...

...

...

...

...

Local Avocado!

Could it be for anything else?

Yay, feels sooo gooood not to be the last to know of this. Dear young grasshoppers out there, blame the supermarkets. Why don’t they sell locally grown avocados AND the fruit is always in purple?
Got the fruit from a Rest and Service Area along the North South Expressway . Sorry but I cannot remember which one other than it was within Perak territory.

I would have missed it if not for the stall keeper’s gigantic sign. AVOCADO 1KG RM10. Being green (both fruit and me) and for that size, I am guilty of having mistaken it many times for mangoes. According to the jolly man, Perak produces 2 types. One forever green like this while another type turns purple when ripe.

Oooh I had mine in ecpc cold cream style. Try it.

• Cut into halves.
• Discard seed.
• Scrape flesh into a fridge or freezer friendly container.
• Add a desirable amount of honey.
• Mix well until creamy.
• Refrigerate or freeze. Consume when cold.

My effort maybe ugly but Y U M M Y !!

Note:-
The stall seller mentioned that an avocado a day keeps wrinkles away. Pity I forgot to ask for pictures of his wife and daughters (if any). He? He looks good for the age he claimed he is.

Do you know ...

.. what this is? Actually that was. It and its few members have been fully digested and toilet-ed a few moons back. I mean the green fruit, not the table spoon.

A Northern Malaysian produce!

Before:-After:-

Feeding Time at Pulau Kapas, Terengganu

The variety of food on the small island maybe limited but good. There were 5 (I think) budget resorts with own eating outlets. We visited 2 in our recent 2 nights stay.

Before boating over to the island, we took a safe Malaysian breakfast - Roti Canai with Teh Tarik.This was the only stall opened during that morning at the jetty.For lunch on Pulau Kapas aka Cotton Island, we discovered a Dutch owned budget resort, Kapas Beach Chalet (KBC).

Lime JuiceFresh Fish Set which came with Rice, Fish (own choice of cooking style). Chose Sweet Sourand a plate of cut Watermelon and Pineapple.

2 orders of Special Fried RicePancake (own choice of honey, syrup, jam, butter or everything since it was self service)Bill:-Verdict? Did you see the portions? We went back for dinner.

Burgers with a complimentary plate of fruits.Bill:-

Though it was quite a distance from where we stayed, Duta Puri Resort, nothing beats a breezy sandy walk by a calm blue sea before breakfast. So the next day, we sat at the same table for Toasts!

No food picture, only bill (sowry):-After a spot of beach side snorkelling, back for lunch.

We had rice with an order of Fish done in Ginger Soya sauce,Prawns & Squids in Curry.Mixed vegetables in Ginger Tumeric sauceComplimentary plate of FruitsBill:-Haha by now you must think dinner would be no different.

Wrong.

We chose Kapas Island Resort since there's quite a crowd there. And much nearer to where we stayed.

Free Fish Crackers as appetisersMee BandungChicken ChopMee Goreng MamakFish & ChipsBill:-Last day on island, we went to bid farewell at KBC by breaking fast there.

Coffee with sumptous Egg SandwichesBill:-

Maybe you noticed that no meals were taken at Duta Puri Resort. Well its restaurant was empty at all times so it did not look promising.