Phoa

Pronounced as ‘fuh’

Commonly known as Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup with savoury broth and tender beef slices.

I have chosen to use beef shin for this soup.

The stock has a combination of beef bones, water, onion, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, peppercorns, cloves and coriander seeds.

Best garnished with a generous amounts of fresh mint leaves and basils leaves.

How do you prepare this dish?

Check out this link for the details.

https://flofoodventure.wordpress.com/2014/10/23/beef-kway-teow-flat-rice-noodles-soup

 

 

 

Nutritional value of Pig Skin

These days, scientists have discovered that the regular consumption of pig skin or pig trotters will delay aging.

(This is a photo of the braised pork skin which I have prepared)

 

Due to the presence of large amounts of collagen in these pig skins, it is believed to slow down cellular aging.

Pork skin is an excellent source of Vitamin B12. The presence of collagen on the skin with special nutritional role, can promote skin cells to absorb and store water to prevent wrinkles and making it rich smooth.

The pork skin protein, fat and carbohydrate content are very rich, pork skin nutrition which also improve immunity.

To make the pork skin dish more interesting, I have added Nyonya Achar to the shredded pork skin for more flavour.

An interesting combination.

Recommendations:

Check out this link for more porkilicious dishes.

https://flofoodventure.wordpress.com/category/recipe-by-category-pork-dishes/

Lotus Seed Dessert

Commonly known as Lien Chee Suan

Introduction:

Lotus seeds or lotus nuts are the seeds of plants in the genus Nelumbo, particularly the species Nelumbo nucifera.

Ingredients:

2 packets Lotus Seeds

1.5 litres water

6 screw pine leaves (pandan leaves) knotted

250g brown cane sugar

3 tablespoons potato flour

Method:

Heat up sauce pot and caramelized brown cane sugar with some water.

Immediately remove from the heat otherwise it will turn bitter.

Add the lotus seeds together with the knotted screw pine leaves and bring to a high boil.

Lower the heat and simmer until the lotus seeds are softened.

In the meantime dissolve the potato flour with some water and add to the sauce pot.

When the mixture thickened, remove from heat.

I prefer to serve this dessert hot.

Tips:

The trick about preparing this dessert is the balancing of the sweetness with brown cane sugar and the consistency of having to stir the mixture well so that it does not coagulate.

If you need to reheat, add some water and stir slowly into a paste.

Recommendation:

Check out this link for some wonderful photos of the Lotus Flower developments.

https://flonatureblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/15/no-mud-no-lotus/

 

 

 

Craving for Ipoh Hor Fun?

From time to time,  I would crave for Ipoh Hor Fun.

I have chose country yellow chicken drums sticks for this dish.

Do not discard the boiled prawn shells.

Don’t forget to drizzle prawn oil over this dish.

The prawn oil gives a flavourful boost to the dish.

Just remove the prawn head shells and simmer in cooking oil until the heads are slightly crispy.

Drain the bright orange coloured and flavoursome prawn oil and set aside.

For details of this recipe, check out this link.

https://flofoodventure.wordpress.com/2014/12/18/ipoh-hor-fun-flat-rice-noodle/

Braised Small Intestines

These pork small intestines also known as sweet intestine, powdery intestines or pink intestines. Not available from local markets unless you have a good buddy butcher who can supply.

 

Compared to the large intestines, has a finer, sweeter flavour with extra delicate fat tissues outside that lends to a more milky and silken flavour.

Large intestine is called feichang, literally “fat intestine” because it is fatty.

Small intestine is called zhufenchang, literally “pig powder intestine” because it contains a white, pasty or powdery substance.

Large intestine is typically chopped into rings and has a stronger odor than small intestine. It is added to stir-fry dishes and soups. It is also slow-cooked or boiled and served as a standalone dish.

Small intestine is normally chopped into tubes and may be simply boiled and served with a dipping sauce.

I prefer to cook these small intestines by braising.

As you can see from the photo, this small amount of small intestines are very fresh and does not require much cleansing.

Just simply rub with coarse salt a couple of times under tap water and blanched quickly in boiling water until the small intestine hardened.

This is how the small intestine looked like after the quick blanching.

Next step is to braised the small intestines for flavour.

Braising sauce with a combination of premium dark and light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and sesame oil.

Add three to four pieces of star anise, one piece of cinnamon bark, five cloves of garlic and few slices of ginger.

Combine the sauce and ingredients together and cover the blanched small intestines with sufficient water to simmer for about one hour depending on the quantity used.

From time to time, check the water level of the braising sauce and add some water if required.

Its best to have a thicker flavourful sauce.

Taste and adjust seasoning to your taste bud.

Recommendation:

Check out this link for more offaly recipes.

https://flofoodventure.wordpress.com/category/offaly-recipe/

Hotplate Tofu

Introduction:

There are many variations for preparing Tofu Hotplate.

One of the hot favourite dish at Zi Char stalls and goes well with rice.

The sizzling eggs on the hot plate add aroma to this dish.

The basic to preparing the Tofu dish is to get a hot plate.

You can pair with different types of ingredients for the Tofu dish such as minced pork or seafood combination of squids and  prawns  Sliced carrots and different types of  mushrooms.

Method:

Remove the wrapper from the egg tofu, cut the tofu into bite size pieces and  lightly coat with corn flour and deep fried till golden brown.

Drain with paper hand towel.

Add some cooking oil in the pan and minced garlic and fry till fragrant.

Add two tablespoons of minced bean paste.

Now add your choice of ingredients and mix with the sauce.

Include a dash of sugar and a teaspoon of sesame oil and two to three tablespoons of water.

Bring to a boil.

Heat the hotplate over the stove and coat with one to two tablespoons of cooking oil.

Once the hotplate is hot, pour the beaten egg and spread evenly over the entire hotplate.

Gently placed the golden  tofu pieces around the hot plate.

Pour the ingredients over the tofu and served hot.

Garnished with generous amount of chopped scallions for added flavour.

Here are some hotplate tofu dishes with different ingredients.

Served with prawns, button mushrooms and sliced carrots.

Served with minced pork, button mushrooms and sliced carrots.

Served with minced pork and brown bunashimeji mushroom that has a meaty taste and firm texture.

Recommendation:

https://flofoodventure.wordpress.com/category/tofu-dishes/

 

Komochi Caraft Shisyamo

 

Best grilled or deep fried in it’s entirety as the fish can be eaten from head to tail.

This time round, I have coated these Komochi Caraft Shisyamo with plain flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs.

These salt water fish smelt are filled with roe or tiny fish eggs.

Best eaten on its own to taste the freshness of these salt water fish without any garnish such as grated daikon nor soy sauce.

Recommendation:

Check out this link for more interesting ways of preparing fish.

https://flofoodventure.wordpress.com/category/recipe-by-category-fish/