#ewew cooks Pan-Fried Pork Meatballs/Patties Many Ways

Ah, pork meatballs or patties is one of the most welcomed dishes on our table.....a dish that everyone likes, so it obviously becomes a dish that's cooked regularly in my household.  It's great eaten with rice (along with other dishes) or as a snack on its own (when or if there are leftovers).

Not only are meatballs cooked frequently in my household, they're also posted often on my blog as I've showcased them in many of my dishes, some of which include sweet and sour meatballs, spaghetti and meatballs, meatballs with potatoes and baked meatballs.

My meatballs recipe has always been the same with the usual 3 ingredients of pork mince, onions and spring onions (besides egg and cornflour, of course) but, since I make this all the time, I recently started to experiment with other ingredients (so that it's not the same old boring meatball) and they came out tasting great even with just 2 ingredients.

The first one is the ever popular Pork Meatballs with Salted Fish.  You'd find this commonly sold at chap fan stalls though it's usually in the form of a salted fish pork patty (ham yue chee yoke paeng) rather than meatballs.

These pork meatballs/patties were made with just pork mince and salted fish.  For this, you'll need the ikan masin tenggiri masam or salted mackerel fish which I bought from NSY Trading (through Shopee) for the first time.  I found the salted fish fresh and fragrant, so I was pretty happy with the quality.

Since we're using salted fish here, there's not much need for any other seasoning except perhaps some white pepper.  I then use egg and cornflour to bind the mixture together into a (workable) paste and form them into balls (or more like lightly flattened mini patties).

The salted fish can be treated in two ways (you can choose either way).  Some would add the raw salted fish directly into the minced pork though it's a bit difficult to tear apart/separate the salted fish (in its raw state)...so I used a pair scissors to help me snip them into smaller pieces before I mixed them in with the pork mince.

Others would pan-fry the salted fish first before adding to the mince.  This way the cooked salted fish is much easier to handle/mash up.  The lazy me did the first method and regretted my choice soon after.  Next time I would just cook the salted fish first coz handling raw salted fish left my fingers smelling like salted fish after...like a long time after....lol.

End result....saltish but absolutely fragrant little morsels of deliciousness that you can't help but pop one (or two) into your mouth as soon as they're fried! ;)

For my next meatball recipe, I used one of my favourite fragrant vegetables (coriander or Chinese parsley) or is that a garnishing?  You won't find many lovers of this (certainly not my son) but if you love coriander (like I do), this Pork Meatballs with Coriander is really simple but good.

You just need to chop up some coriander, stalks and all, and mix them up with the pork mince.  This one I didn't even bother to use egg and cornflour.

The coriander brings a truly fresh and fragrant flavour to the meatballs.  If you're a fan of coriander, try this simple combination and you'd be very pleased with the results.

Of course when I make this, I have to make it with another type of meatball.  So, for my third option, I experimented with a combination of pork mince and dried shredded cuttlefish, you know, the same ones you'd use to fry with jicama/yam bean (or sengkuang) in a dish like jiu hu char.

You can get this from any dried goods seller but make sure you get good quality ones.  I would use them to fry vegetables (like cabbage or cucumber too) as it imparts a fragrant flavour to the vegetables.  I would also use them to flavour soups when not using dried cuttlefish heads.

If it's good enough to flavour soups, it's good enough to flavour meatballs.  You know those commercially produced pork meatballs that have dried cuttlefish studded in them, they taste extra good, so that was the thought behind this.

Just finely chop the shredded dried cuttlefish (or snip it with a pair of scissors) and mix that into the minced pork.  I added some finely minced carrot just because I had them (you can totally omit this).  Again, I skipped the egg and cornflour.

For seasoning, you can use a combination of soy sauce, oyster sauce (not too much of these two though as it'll darken the meatballs considerably when fried), salt and white pepper...or even garlic powder, onion powder, chicken powder, anything you like.

You can just imagine the fragrance emitted by those finely chopped shredded dried cuttlefish once it's fried. Yet another winner! ^_~

So, the next time you're bored with your usual preparation of meatballs, you have these three options to add to your repertoire of meatballs to cook at home if your family happens to be a big fan of meatballs (like mine).  They all taste wonderful in their own way! ^o^

#ewew cooks Stir-Fried Black Pepper Beef with Vegetables

Inspired by the success of my Black Pepper Pork Stir-Fry, I had been wanting to do a beef version like forever and I finally got my chance when I got hold of some beef from Aeon one day.

Well, we all know that black pepper with pork or chicken is good.....but black pepper with beef is even better.  After all, black pepper sauce is a mainstay of steaks and it's so popular that it's probably one of the most ordered sauces to pair with steaks.  So, here's my take on Stir-Fried Black Pepper Beef with Vegetables which is one of my favourite things to cook and eat.

I didn't have to do anything as the True Aussie topside beef stir-fry I got was already pre-sliced.  This 250g pack costs RM18.33 and is good for two single servings for one (I used only half the packet for this cook) as a one-dish meal (with a little rice) or the entire packet as part of a 3-dish family meal with rice.

You cook black pepper beef pretty much the same way you would cook black pepper pork (above)...and you start by marinating it in a simple marinade of cornstarch, light soy sauce and lots of freshly cracked black pepper.  You can even add a bit of water to the cornstarch marinade if it's too dry.  The cornstarch is what helps make the beef tender and smooth.

You begin by searing the beef slices in a little oil in a medium hot non-stick pan.  Resist the urge to flip them immediately but let them sit for a while until you're happy with the browning....then flip.

Once done, remove them onto a plate.  It's alright if they aren't cooked all the way through as they'll be twice cooked later anyway.  You can, of course, choose to velvet your beef by other methods like blanching or deep-frying.

Add more oil and start sauteeing your onions (this was one large onion) until soft and translucent.  The more caramelised you get the onions, the sweeter they will be.

This dish is great just like that...with onions, spring onions (for a bit of colour) and black pepper....but can be even better if you add a variety of vegetables to go with it.  When your onions are nearing done, add in the vegetables.  I threw in some chopped garlic as well.

Here I used half a red capsicum (for taste and colour), sugar snap peas (not snow peas) and onions.  If you ask me, I feel stir-fried beef tastes the best with capsicum of any colour....and if you use all three colours of red, green and yellow, the dish will be vibrantly colourful and appealing.  You can cook them lightly if you prefer them crunchy or longer for a softer texture (that's the way I like it as the sweetness is more apparent).

Once the vegetables are cooked to the texture you prefer, you can add back the cooked beef to the pan.  At this time, you can drizzle over a bit of thick dark soy to give it that visually black colour of black pepper beef.

Taste and check your seasoning to see if it needs more tweaking.  You may need an extra pinch of salt or even more freshly cracked black pepper (I know I do) to further strengthen that black pepper flavour.

And my Stir-Fried Black Pepper Beef with Capsicum, Sugar Snap Peas & Onions is done! ;)  The plate may look visually colourful but these vegetables bring so much more and are a delight to eat.

The lightly charred red capsicum and caramelised onions are sweet and juicy while the sugar snap peas give you that nice crunch for a textural contrast.  A good replacement for the sugar snap peas would be french beans or (if you don't mind the cost) asparagus that would offer your dish that same crunchy texture.

Beef is such good mates with black pepper that it's a no-brainer...and that's why you see it as the most requested sauce for steaks (even chicken chop) by many patrons. ^.^

Of course a home-cooked version will not be quite the calibre of a restaurant-quality one as we don't go through a proper velveting process, so expect the beef to be not as smooth.  Also this beef came already pre-sliced, so the slices were slightly thicker than I would cut them myself.  Still, the end result was really good. If there's one thing better than a black pepper pork stir-fry, it would be a black pepper beef stir-fry.  There's no denying that beef and black pepper is a perfect match....like a perfect couple...lol!

Black pepper beef is one of those dishes I'm always inclined to order at restaurants coz it's just so tasty but they come at a price.  There was a time I had it at a ridiculous price of RM80! O_o  So, if you like beef, I urge you to try making this easy-to-cook dish at home...and be amazed at the resulting good taste which comes at a fraction of the cost of what a restaurant would charge (about RM9 excluding the veggies...based on half a packet used).  Try it.....you'll like it! ^o^

We Need Some Cheat Meals in our Lives!

No, no.....I know what you're thinking.....but my kind of cheat meal is not one where you're trying to abstain from a certain type of food that will temporarily break the rules of a diet you're following...like indulging in a sweet dessert or eat carbs when you're not supposed to.

Well, my cheat meals have nothing to do with foods you're not permitted to eat in your diet....they're more like cooking cheats that produce cheat meals that look (and taste) the part with little toiling in the kitchen...lol! :D  And we all know we definitely need some of those secret recipes in our repertoire...hehe.

All the cutting, peeling, chopping, slicing and blending some kind of a chilli paste isn't something we want to be doing often (perhaps not even at all).  Why go through all the work and hassle to make our own when we can simply resort to a ready-made paste...especially so when we need to buy so many ingredients (such as chillies, galangal, lemongrass, ginger, torch ginger, turmeric, tamarind, curry powder, all kinds of biji-biji or seeds and spices like cumin, coriander, fenugreek, cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, cloves, etc.) just to make a small portion (not that I know how some of these seeds and spices work anyway as my own-made chilli paste is super simple).

I've always loved food that is a little spicy and a little tangy.....like an assam pedas which literally means "sour spicy"! ;)  An assam pedas sauce is a spicy and tangy gravy which works well with seafood like fish, prawns or squid.

Since I had some prawns in my freezer (and don't know how to nor want to make an assam pedas paste from scratch), I asked my dry goods supplier if he has an assam pedas paste that he can recommend and he gave me this Tumisan Asam Pedas (or Assam Paste for Seafood) by Tean's Gourmet to try.

A 200g ready-made Tean's Gourmet Assam Pedas Paste is good for 600g of seafood with 400ml water, so you just need to follow the packet instructions to the tee to achieve desired results.  I've seen many ready-made pastes sold in the market but I seldom buy as I don't know which ones are good.  Since this one came recommended by my supplier, I dared to try.

To test-cook this paste, I decided to make Assam Pedas Prawns.  I used 300g prawns with the bodies shelled (for easier eating) but I left the heads (for sucking all the good bits + the prawn brains add even more flavour to the dish) and tails (for better presentation) intact.  You can choose to remove all the shells, your call.  Not knowing how spicy the paste would be, I decided to use a little less than the prescribed dose of half the paste (probably about 75g) with less water too (about 150ml). 

The only thing I did extra was that I sauteed about 10 sliced shallots before adding the paste.  In western cooking, there is no such thing as too much butter!  Well, in Chinese cooking pulak, there is no such thing as too many shallots! ;)  I always add extra shallots to any paste or sauce I'm making coz shallots just brings more flavour to the sauce by adding thickness and sweetness with a garlicky hint.  I also threw in a few kaffir lime leaves (from my neighbour's garden) for extra fragrance.

Once the shallots are translucent, add in the paste and kaffir lime leaves followed by the prawns.  When the prawns are almost done, add in the water the amount of which depends if you like your assam sauce thicker or more watery.  As you can see, I wanted it thicker.  Taste-test at this point to see if it meets your savouriness level but I required no further seasoning.

I've to say my first attempt at making assam pedas prawns was rather successful even if it was done with a pre-made paste....lol.  I thought the assam pedas flavours were spot on with its well balanced flavours of spicy and tart.

Seeing that I really enjoyed the assam pedas prawns, I used the balance paste (of about 125g) to make Assam Pedas Fish since I had a 250g piece of Spanish mackerel (ikan tenggiri or kau yue).  I prefer to pan-fry the kau yue first but you can choose not to.

I sliced one onion and cut into two 4 - 5 okras and one tomato into wedges coz a dish of assam pedas fish would not be complete without these vegetables.  I sauteed the sliced onions until soft first before adding the paste and about 250ml water to make a (more watery) sauce as this is assam fish after all.  I then added the tomato wedges and kaffir lime leaves.  Once the tomatoes soften, you can add in the pre-fried fish followed by the okras (which I already pre-steamed ahead to soften).

If your fish is not pre-fried first, then you can add it in sooner to cook with the vegetables (the okra need not be pre-steamed then) so that the fish has enough time to cook through (you may also need a bit more water for this).  Besides Spanish mackerel, you can make it with other types of fish that you fancy like grouper, snapper, stingray (ikan pari) or tilapia but it's especially good with black/white pomfret or Indian mackerel (ikan kembong).

The earlier assam pedas prawns I made were a bit drier and this assam pedas was a more watery version with vegetables and it was just as good, so you can go either way depending on your preference.  Note that there's a lot more sauce than what you see in the photo as I did not scoop all the sauce (or vegetables) onto the plate.

Just remember to season accordingly.  For the dry version, I didn't need any further seasoning and I added just a little bit of salt for the more watery version.  My dry goods supplier even recommended that I add a bit of sugar to round up the flavours (I didn't though).

After a rather satisfying result with the assam pedas paste, I was eager to try Tean's Gourmet Tumisan Kari Ayam (or Chicken Curry Paste) next.  I decided to make Prawns & Squid Curry with Pineapples with 300g (fairly large) prawns, 2 squid and 2 wedges of pineapple cut into chunks.

The package instructions say 250 - 500ml (that's quite a lot, for a whole 1.5 kg chicken, maybe), though I did measure out 250ml but I didn't use it all, I probably used about half (125ml or half a cup).

Saute the paste for just a little bit with some curry leaves before stirring in the prawns, squid and pineapple chunks.  Next, add in the water (I think I added too much actually, so add in little by little to see how much you actually need).  Don't forget that as the pineapples cook, they release water and there's also the coconut milk).  Let it simmer for a minute or two until the seafood turns opaque, then add in 100ml of santan or coconut milk (I used Ayam brand, half a packet).

Taste wise, it's a light tasting curry with tangy flavours but don't under-estimate it's spiciness, it had a good level of heat.  

Although a tangy, lighter version of curry works well in a seafood version of curry, the taste wasn't what I was expecting.  It was ok but didn't exactly bowl me over.

I'd say it's more like a Nyonya curry that's lighter with sourish notes rather than a savoury-creamy-spicy Malay-type curry.  I wondered if it was the pineapples that made the curry sourish.  The next time I make this, I'll make sure to use less water and more santan for a thicker and creamier consistency.

With the balance half of the chicken curry paste, I wanted to try it with Chicken Curry as the paste was originally intended for (as per the packaging).  I used one chicken leg, 2 potatoes (pre-steamed for 10 minutes until soft) and 5 pcs of beancurd puffs (tau fu pok) cut into two.  Cook the chicken in the paste with about 100ml water.  Once the chicken is fully cooked, stir in the santan (I used the balance half left behind from my earlier Prawns & Squid Curry with Pineapples) and (pre-steamed) potatoes.

In my previous seafood curry, I wasn't sure if the lightly sourish flavour was due to the use of pineapples in the curry, so I thought such tangy flavours wouldn't work in a chicken curry....but the paste did work (and it didn't taste as tangy).

Somehow this chicken curry had a much thicker consistency and a more savoury taste than the seafood curry with pineapples.  I could still taste a very slight hint of tang but it wasn't as pronounced as the earlier prawns and squid curry.  The balance coconut milk I kept in the fridge turned into a much thicker state (like coconut cream) that I had to scoop it out with a spoon into the curry.

So, the chicken curry felt a lot more creamier (not sure if it was because of that or it was because I used less water).  I thought it was a very respectable version of chicken curry that came out of a pack.  I thought the paste worked better in a chicken curry.  Looking at the photo now, I realise I forgot to 'steal' some curry leaves from my neighbour (as something green always brightens up a photo).

But the greatest cheat meal of all has to be this sambal sotong I cooked made put together...lol.  You know sometimes when we buy nasi lemak, we'd ask for the sambal to be packed separately...and they sometimes give us too much.  I would make sambal sotong with it by just adding sliced onions and it'd (of course) taste pretty darn good with someone else's delicious sambal...hah..hah.

Ready-made pastes out of a packet is a godsend to busy homemakers and working moms to put out tasty dishes in little to no time at all.  It's the simplest, quickest way to put our favourite Malaysian dishes on the table.  Just open, pour, cook and serve.....what more can we ask for when we don't have to toil and sweat to make the paste ourselves and have someone else tumis sampai pecah minyak (stir-fry until the oil splits) for us...lol!

Everyone needs some cheat recipes in their repertoire that they can whip up in a jiffy.  Mine came courtesy of Tean's Gourmet.  This brand isn't new by the way but has been around for ages...just that there are so many brands of these ready-made pastes in the market that we don't know which ones to get or which ones taste good unless someone recommends it to us.  My dry goods supplier was on point with this one.

Between the two, I thought the assam pedas paste fared better than the chicken curry paste as the former was closer to its authentic taste.  The chicken curry paste was decent too but I think we've all eaten better curries than this though I'd still consider it a respectable one coming out from a packet.

I can definitely see myself using these ready-made pastes again...and would probably try some of their other flavours in due time (their tom yam and prawn mee pastes interest me).  Everyone needs some cheat meals in their lives, don't you agree? ^_~