Traditional Chinese Steamed Pork-Patty with Salted Egg Yolk

It was totally a bad experience for all Sabahan (including me) for the past two weeks.  The first ever earthquake in Malaysia took place at the our most popular tourist spot, the Mount Kinabalu on the 5th of June at 6.0 magnitudes.  I was alone at home and was in the middle of preparing to go out when it happened.  I thought I was not well and collapsing and at that particular moment I felt like the house is going to turn upside down and I started to hear people screaming and strong running footsteps from my apartment. Without hesitation, I grabbed my handbag and ran out of my apartment too.  Once I was out of the eight storey building and managed to get hold of my husband on the mobile, whom also experienced the same tremor in his office and had confirmed it was an earthquake.

The aftershock had caused my health level went down tremendously, even until now was not fully recovered.  Same goes to my appetite has dropped too.  Suddenly this dish pop-up in my head - steamed pork-patty with salted egg yolk.  I remembered this was what my late mom always like to prepare for me when I am not well and it was suppose to go together with plain rice porridge.

I grown-up from a very conservative Chinese family and I have been always explored with traditional Chinese cooking.  Steaming pork patty is one of them.  It was always blended with either preserved vegetables, salted fish, etc., but the most I liked was when it matched with salted egg yolk.  The minced meat is preferably self-chopped, as then it will produce good tenderness on the patty.  This dish will perfectly go well with plain rice or rice porridge and is simple to prepare.  I promise you will love it very much like I do!

Kung Pao Chicken

Hi everyone, I am back!  Time flies.... It has been exactly six months since my last post, that is, on the eve of the 2015.  Feel so bad for leaving this blog un-touch for so long. The first six months of 2015 indeed were an aggressive and adventurous for me in both my working career and personal life.

Now that everything has almost stabilized, is time for me to get back to the kitchen to try on some recipes out and share with all of you.  

Today, I am going to bring you a very popular Chinese dish - Kung Pao Chicken.  I believed this dish is not only popular in Asian countries, but has reached out to other parts of the globe too.  I remembered I had made this dish during the Chinese New Year and had shared out on my personal Facebook's Timeline, I was surprised by the over-whelming responses, even some are not local or non-Chinese.  So, for sure I knew this would be one of the looking forward recipe.

My original version of Kung Pao Chicken spiciness level is quite high and I am sure some of you will not able to take it.  No worries, I have my way to assist you in this area and make sure you it will not run away too far from the original taste and save you all the hassle to order a takeaway from the restaurants.

Sweet & Sour Pineapple Meatballs to end #2014

It was three months since my last post on this blog.  I wish to extend my thousand apologies to all the readers or viewers of this blog.  Its been busy months since then......(sighing).

Today marked the last day of 2014, a year full of challenges in Malaysia.  With a complicated heart while writing this post as we Malaysians had confirmed a bad news on an airline tragedy happened three days ago.  But life still have to goes on, my writing has to go on, this blog has to go on.... Let's say good-bye to 2014 and welcome 2015 with a positive heart.

This recipe is an idea to welcome the new year, perfect for home parties or gatherings.  Sweet and Sour Pineapple Meatballs is the name.  You can cook it as a dish or you can make it as a snack or bites food if you are organizing any parties, potluck or gatherings.

I choose to use minced pork meat but you have a choice of beef or mixture of both.  I prefer to deep fried the meatballs before I combine them with the sauce.  As for the pineapple I used sweetened can pineapple chunks.  Please don't throw away the juice, as I will use it as one of the sauce ingredients.

Let's get into the kitchen and I will show you how make this yummy meatballs.  

Me and my hubby (the photographer behind this blog) would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a great Happy 2015!  We will come back in some new changes of the features of this blog, stay tune!

Steamed Eggplant Stuffed with Minced Meat

Finally,  I have time to sit down to share another recipe on this blog.  It's took me more than three weeks to complete this post.  We (me and my hubby) were too involve with some apartment management issues, where we are staying now.

Today I am sharing a healthier way of cooking eggplant.  Normally when we Asian want to match eggplant and minced meat, you will thought of to stir-fry them, that same goes to me.  But this round I choose to steam the eggplant.  Steaming is always the best way to retain the nutrients in the food especially vegetables and is proven with this recipe.  You will able to taste the wholesome of the eggplant once you take a bite on it.  What more is, it goes perfectly with some savory minced meat on top.  Amazing!

You have an option the minced meat to add on with some spiciness on it.  For me, I prefer it to be spicy, so I have some bird eye chilies and also a little of chili paste to blend with the fermented sweet beans.  You will love the aroma that came from this two ingredients.  You have a choice of pork or chicken for the minced meat.     

So, can you imagine how delicious of this recipe?

Rice-Cooker Yam Rice (Taro Rice)

I been craving for Yam Rice since I have moved to Sabah.  That is why triggered me to try on this recipe.  Yam is also know as taro by some of you but in Malaysia, its always called as Yam.

The first time when I tried yam rice was about 20 years ago, at a "Bak-kut-teh" (Bak-kut-teh is a Chinese Pork Herbs soup popularly served in Malaysia and Singapore) stall located somewhere in Kuala Lumpur.  They served yam rice with "Bak-kut-teh" instead of white plain rice.  I fell in love with it straight-away. It tasted so good and I can't forget the aromatic of the rice as it cooked under charcoal stove and served in a small clay pot....yummy!

I do not have a charcoal stove but I have a rice-cooker, which  also can make the same recipe too.  It is so much easier.

In case you are not sure what kind of "yam" I am referring to in this recipe, it also known as "taro" and does not refer to sweet potato as some of the countries do.