My recipe: Simple Peppery Gingery Oat Porridge

Suddenly I have this idea of cooking healthy meals or recipes when I have this craving to "cook to de-stress". Plus I don't want to take too much time in the kitchen when I have important assignments or exams due. Opening my pantry, I suddenly realised I have a medium size Milo can of oatmeal ... remain untouched since a month ago.  I remember a good friend in uni who was totally crazy over chicken oat porridge. I usually have my oat mixed with milk but I was advised to go on a non-dairy diet recently so making porridge out of oatmeal seemed like a great idea. Plus it is super easy!

Ingredients (1 person serving)

3 cups of water

2 inch of ginger (pound or slice thinly)

1 spring onion (finely chopped)

a handful of minced chicken or pork (round into meatballs)

5 tablespoon of instant oatmeal

salt and white pepper to taste

Method:

1. Heat the water in a pot and bring it to boil.

2. Reduce the heat to low and then put in the ginger, spring onion and the meat ball. Simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Add in oatmeal and stir slowly. Simmer for another 2 minutes.

4. Add salt and lots of pepper to taste.

5. Serve.

Note:

You may substitute with chicken stock if you want something more savoury. You may also add in a few drop of sesame oil to fragrant it.

I would like to tribute this entry to Che Sue Ella for inspiring this recipe. Selamat mencuba!

Love from Down Under,

MJ

My Recipe: Ginger and Garlic Steamed Chicken Wings

Lately, I always experience terrible mood swings, muscle cramps and bloating during period. And since entering my 30s ... it became heavier. These past few months though, since I have better sleeps and rest ... the flows are lesser but still heavy. 

My late maternal grandmother used to advise the ladies in the house that ladies must also adhere to some strict confinement routines during period. Example ... no ice water, bath in warm water or cannot wash your hair. I am not very sure how and why such rules existed. In fact, I felt the confinement practice after giving birth in most Asian cultures doesn't have much medical evident to say that Asian women fare better than their Western counterpart in their older age. Especially in the era when work and life stress reign supreme and make your body go haywire anyway. The way I see it ... it is the best excuse for the ladies to recover ... physically, mentally and emotionally from childbirth without interference from their hubby, and of course giving full attention to the "new" love of their life. 

Anyway ... Period is not a wonderful time for me emotionally so I need something comforting, spicy, yummy and soothing for lunch today. One of my favourites is ginger and garlic steamed chicken wings. You can used other chicken parts if you like but my favourite is always the wings. To me it is the most versatile and yummy chicken parts. Though back home, most of my lady friends don't like to buy wings for fear of growth hormones.

Miuchu (left) and Shaoxing wine (right)

Ginger is expensive in Australia but a woman got to do what a woman got to do.

I usually used lots of garlics and ginger for this recipe. Sometimes I will also add in Shaoxing Wine or Benedictine D.O.M at the end to enhance the peppery and gingery flavour. My housemate use Chinese cooking wine called miuchu, which is actually like sweet sherry in his version of this recipe. 

Ingredients

8 chicken wings (cut to two parts)

10 cloves of garlic (crushed)

2 inch ginger (preferably crushed, but can cut to smaller pieces)

fresh crush peppercorn

pinch of sea salt

2 teaspoons of sesame oil

3 tablespoons of Shao Xin Cooking Wine

Preparation

1. Mix the crushed garlic, ginger, peppercorn, seasalt, sesame and chicken wing pieces in a bowl.

2. Marinate for 10 minutes.

3. Arrange the chicken wings in the baking tray or caseroles and put it in the steamer.

4. Steam for 30 minutes.

5. Take the tray out from the steamer and pour in the Shao Xin wine all over the chicken.

6. Ready to serve. (You may garnish with coriander leave if you like)

I love slurpping the chicken soup, juice or gravy that was produced during the steaming so I will usually ensure that it is well flavoured with salt and pepper during the preparation. However, sometimes I put in less salt and enjoy it later with cencalok dipping or cut fresh chillies with sweet soy sauce and lime.

Personally, I think eating food cooked with lots of ginger and garlic is good to calm and warm the body.  After a hectic day at work, this dish is something i will look forward to for dinner. It is simple, healthy and easy to prepare.

Do give it a try.

Love From Down Under,

MJ

Recipe Testing: Stir Fried Pork With Cincalok

One thing about staying overseas, especially in Western-centric countries (Australia included) is they don't have much hawker fares. Eating out means eating in cafes or restaurants. Yeah, they do have street foods but it is more towards snacking rather than a complete meal on its own compared to our nasi lemak, char kuey teow or mee goreng mamak.

So nak tak nak mak kena jugak masak sendiri sendiri sebab tak sanggup nak spend AUD 15 setiap kali makan kat luar. Pastu sebelum mai Brisbane, tak sempat pulak mak makan segala makanan yang sesuwaiiii dengan jiwa mak kat Malaysia nun. 

Okay I decided to try out a well known Nyonya recipe - Stir Fried Pork With Cincalok. You may try out this recipe with chicken breast meat for Muslim readers. Cincalok is actually fermented krill (a type of small shrimp) in salt and rice mixture. Quite famous in Malacca - and it is a must in many of the Nyonya dishes. In Penang, they have two types - one for cooking (less salty) and one for dipping or condiment together with chillies and lime juice. Not sure about Malacca coz I usually found the one used for making condiment.

Cincalok Melaka

Despite having Nyonya blood from Penang, I am incline towards Nyonya food from Malacca. Hahaha pembelot kann ... kalau mak gi Melaka kan ... mak rasa macam mak balik kampung coz jumpa ramai Cina yang tak cakap Cina. Ramai keturunan Baba Nyonya Melaka yang mak jumpa or kenal memang ala-ala macam mak jugak hahahah. 

Anyway, you can get Cincalok easily in shops selling Asian products in Chinatown (Fortitude Valley). Also Yuen's in Sunnybank Market Place. It is salty and maybe quite an acquired taste for Westerners. I was craving this dish lately especially after I bought this Cincalok in Sunnybank's Yuen. There are many versions of Stir Fried Pork With Cincalok recipe in the internet but the one that caught my attention is from Frozen Wings blog. 

I changed it a bit coz I don't like ginger torch so I replaced it with lemongrass and I added in lime juice to make it a little acidic (hehehe my Penang Nyonya blood kicked in). Please bear in mind, I never cooked this dish before and I was pretty anxious of the outcome.

Recipe
Ingredients
3 tbsps cincaluk 

150gm pork belly ( sliced thinly)
3 tbsp oil
1 chilli, sliced

1/2 lime

Ingredients A
4 shallots , sliced
20gm ginger, shredded
1tsp kaffir lime leaf, shredded

1 lemongrass, shredded

Ingredients B
1/2 cup water

Method:
1. Saute ingredients A with oil till aromatic and add in cincaluk, onion and chilli.Stir fry them for a minute
2. Add pork and continue stir fry for 2-3 minutes, add ingredients B and simmer till almost dry.

3. Add lime juice before serving.

Ok my experiments ...

Cantik kan kaler bahan-bahan in Ingredients A.

Voila ... my version of Stir Fried With Cincalok

I would say it came out very nice and my housemate and I ate 2 plates of rice that day. Hahaha ... 

Selamat mencuba!

Love From Down Under,

MJ