Home-sweet-home

A few days ago, I have committed a house tour, and today I’m delivering it.  Instead of just bringing you around the newly completed kitchen, I’ve dig out some old photos to make a before and after comparison.  It’s interesting to see the evolution.

Before renovation, our living room is triangle in shape and a small enclosed kitchen.  Due to the layout of the apartment, the ventilation is not very well.  We have to switch on the fan the entire day and my mom dislike staying in the kitchen for a long period of time. 

…So when we decided to renovate, we wanted the kitchen wall to be demolished and have an open kitchen concept.  Of course, our initial concern is the greasy from the kitchen.   To further enlarge the space, we decided not to have dining table anymore and settle all means on the elevated breakfast counter.  We approached 2 contractors and finally we went for the one who quoted the highest price.  … reasons… simple, he actually put in extra effort to design out of the box; and secondly, we do see quite a massive hidden cost for the other contractor.  Overall, I still rate the quotation cheap… although at the end I slaughter him with massive.. I mean massive discount!  Paiseh Victor.

…and here go … In mid of June the renovation started.  Originally we wanted to stay in during the work, but it was just too dusty so we decided to move out 1 day before the renovation day.  So, on timely, worker came to hack down the wall and whole house turn naked.  It was an unimaginable mess…

The renovation was messy.  We moved out to my cousin’s place for 2.5 weeks and we have to move back cos it was less dusty and we are so paiseh to stay longer.  Moving back, we still live like living in refugee camp.  No stove, no sofa, no fridge… eat out everyday, not a normal life.  When it is finally over 4 weeks later, that was Pat’s graduation.  We have to force the contractor to work so hard because Pat’s Parents and Boon Siong is visiting.  We need the place to be clean and kitchen ready as all of them do not like to eat out.  Goshh…. On the day cabinet is done, I work till 4am in the morning to unpack everything and arrange them into cabinets.  Get the house ready for our guess.

I must say it’s a job well-done.  Not exactly the same as design, but still look good.  Everyone had their thumbs up for the design.  Even our neighbour felt that it’s a complete face-lift… it is beyond recognition... in a good way :P.  We love it.  As a bonus, there is no grease issue. May be it s because we have installed a good kitchen hood. 

As for me, it's a money worth spending because it bring laughter to everyone.  It is now finally a place we can call home-sweet-home.

Belacan BeeHoon - the secret family recipe with a twist of our style

It's either you pick this up today or... that's it... :P

This is for SURE ... i repeat for SURE NOT a healthy food ... that's why we sort of agree mutually at home that we are making it just once every quarter ... and sort of twist the original recipe a little to something a little more less "damaging"... hahaha... not so serious... but again... eat it sparingly. 

for me, today I'm writing this is this blog to document this family recipe which should continue from our mom to us.

So.... lets get started.  Remember, I learn this from my mom in law, and usually our mothers' recipes are measured by feeling... sort of main agak-agak.  i introduce in some measurement here, but normally i also agak-agak.  You probably need to adjust it a bit to suit your taste.  Let me warn you first, the smell of belacan is strong.  So shut the door and turn on the kitchen hood before you cook.  :P

you need:

6 shallots
6 cloves of garlic
2 table spoon of dried chili paste
half cup dried shrimp (soak to soften and pound)
50g belacan
50g asam paya (tamarind paste)
1 tablespoon of soya sauce
4 tablespoon of sugar
1.5 liter water
Blenched bihoon
Blenched bean sprout
thinly sliced cucumber
Oil for cooking

1.  Blend shallots, garlic and chilli in a blender.  In a large pot, fry the paste for 3 to 5 minutes under medium heat.  Add in the pounded dried shrimp and let it fried for another a minute or so.
2.  The belacan and asam paya will be dissolved in 1.5liter of water before hand.  Pour the belacan and asam solution (don't pour in the asam seeds) into the pot.  Now we are half way done with gravy.  Let the gravy simmer for 10minutes under low heat.
3.  Add in soya sauce to the gravy to give it some brownish colour.  Season the gravy with sugar.  At this point of time, you sound taste it and adjust the taste according to your liking.  There is no salt required because the belacan and asam is already salty.... so don add any salt.  Once you get the right taste, the gravy is done... so easy neh.
3.  Serve it with bihoon, taugeh and cucumber.  See the picture.  you will get it.

My mom in law usually will increase the acidity by adding some rice vinegar.  I'm avoiding that because vinegar can be a bit harsh to the tummy.  I usually will add more asam in the asam/belacan solution.  But if need to, i will put may be half a tea spoon of apple cider vinegar.

Little secret which may be not too many of us in the family know is... it is best to cook this the night before because the sweetness of the dried shrimp will infused into the gravy.

:P

My wife is the number 1 fan for this... i hope everyone reading this will like it  :P

A "Tea"dious matter

2 days ago, i watch Foodnetwork's "Good Eats" on YouTube while i was running in the gym.  ...and the episode i watch was about tea.  I was quite surprise when the host classified tea only to 3 categories, namely Green, Black and Oolong.  My memory straight away tells me at least there are few more type.

I did another small research today on wikipedia and true enough there are more than just 3, but surprisingly also not as many as i thought.  I always tot Oolong, Iron Buddha, Biluochoon, Dragon well etc are tea from different categories, and turn out to be... I'm wrong.  This is what wikipedia says:

Tea is traditionally classified based on the techniques with which it is produced and processed.

• White tea: Wilted and unoxidized
• Yellow tea: Unwilted and unoxidized, but allowed to yellow
• Green tea: Unwilted and unoxidized
• Oolong: Wilted, bruised, and partially oxidized
• Black tea: Wilted, sometimes crushed, and fully oxidized
• Post-fermented tea: Green tea that has been allowed to ferment/compost

Well, as much as i like to drink Chinese tea, I'm not such an expert.  I only drink Oolong and Greentea except LongJing or Dragon well.  I just find the taste too "grassy" :P

My favourite favourite tea of all... is Teh-C.  In Singapore, a good teh-c from well known coffee shop chain like Ya Kun or Toast Box can cost as much as $3 a cup.  My favourite favourite would have to be Ya Kun as the taste is very consistent from store to store.  A proof of quality control.  As usual, i too have a home version... hahaha... my friend always say "what else that you don't make at home?"  :P  hahaha... actually, we are very experimental... we try to reproduce things we eat outside at home :P



To make Teh-C is not difficult.  All we need is a good tea powder, evaporated milk and little sugar...of course hot water.  I like Boh because the taste is strong.  It will give me the "kao" taste.  There is no secret other than pour the evaporated milk to the hot tea and add little sugar.  The real secrete to get the tea "kao-kao" is the tea filter.  In HongKong, this is called a stocking filter  :P 

With this filter, I can pour out the tea and return it to the pot through the filter a few times like making teh-tarik.  hehe... it's delicious.  and it doesn't cost much to make at home.  when you did it at home, you will realize how high the profit margin is for this drink sold at coffee shop and coffee shop chain.  :P

"Steamy" question, BoonSiong asked

During our usual chat over email, our good friend from KL spoke about his new lather sofa... and wrote about doing cooking himself and we said, hey... why not i post something on the blog today and dedicate it just for you my best friend.  ... and here it is. 

BS asked...how to use the steam basket which come together with the rice cooker.  Hey, i thought it's a good time to ask Auntie Kimberly what can BS do with that basket.  Unfortunately our blog "production" time is usually in the midnight when the lil Jane went to bed and we have a little time for ourselves, Auntie Kimberly is also sleeping already, so, yup BS, you gotta count on uncle delik now  :P

OK.  when BS mentioned about rice cooker with a steamer rack... i assumed it's the same as the one we have at home.

I imagine you can easily make a few dishes on top of the cooking rice.  Like killing many birds with one stone.  I will suggest the few below:

These are very simple dishes we can do while the rice is cooking.  ... BUT the basket is not very big.  you could probably do 2 or 3 dishes the most, with very small bowl.  :P

Happy trying. ...

Yo! "Home"licious is back :D

Well well well, it has been a while since we last posted something interesting. and today we are back. Our kitchen is still busy cooking and we are still counting our blessing everyday for the great food we enjoyed. Lots of things happen in our small kitchen. We had our kitchen and living room renovated, the wall between them was demolished. now we have a chic open kitchen... most people will say it is not suitable for heavy cooking family... but it works fine. now... here's a little promise. This week, I'll give you a tour to our newly renovated kitchen. emm...

So... what happened for the pass 2 weeks... For 2 weeks we had confined ourselves at home during weekend because Pat was busy with the school work stuff. So, mega home cook food is part of the fun activities to keep everyone comfortable at home. hmm... 2 of the below are just among the few specialties we made at home.

both are food from different "planets". Caesar Salad is healthy and of course we spice it with our own twist on the dressing and the garlic panini bread stick. emmemm emm... Belacan beehoon on the other hand is super delicious but super unhealthy. Don't ask me how many calorie that was and how much cholesterol in it. We choose not to think about it. but then again.. belacan beehoon is a one every quater feast... so i guess it's ok.

Ok... sometime this week, we will also share the recipe. Well, for those who are fan of my mom in law's belacan beehoon, do stay tuned because it's the only chance you can pick up this secret recipe :P

ok... bye