Stir-Fry Choy Sum and Roast Pork with Sha Cha Sauce

What do you normally do with leftover Char Siew (Roast Pork)?

During festive seasons Ah Ma would fry them with dark soya sauce and sugar, which I don't really fancy. Normal days we would bring them back to feed the dogs.
But the other day I tried something new. Well, perhaps not entirely new, but because Mamo had a bottle of Sha Cha Sauce (it was vegetarian though), I've decided to add it into the dish. For my earlier adventures with Sha Cha Sauce see here.

So what do you need?

Chopped garlic, Char Siew, shrimps (optional), Choy Sum or Kailan and Sha Cha Sauce.

Now the simple instructions...

1) Heat up your pan or wok with some oil. Simmer the chopped garlic till brownish.

2) Now add in the Char Siew and shrimps. Stir till shrimps turn red.

3) Add in Sha Cha Sauce and stir well.

4) Now add in the Choy Sum or Kailan and fry them until they are cooked. You can add a little water if you wish to.

And ta da...

It's a simple and delicious dish that has both protein (meat and seafood) and fiber (vegetable) and goes perfectly well with your rice. The only thing I didn't like was the vegetarian taste from the Sha Cha Sauce (guess Char Siew are still meant to be bad and meaty, not vegetarian), still pretty much in love with the original Sha Cha Sauce! It's just so yummy!

Anywayz, I absolutely love Sha Cha Sauce! It tastes a little bit like in between BBQ Sauce and Satay Sauce and there are so much you can play with it! Just grab a bottle of it whenever you see them at the supermarket! Add them into your dish, fry noodles with it, put it into your steamboat soup or even just use it as a dip like sambal!

Now I feel like I'm promoting Sha Cha Sauce for the Taiwanese! :p

Tawainese Sha Cha Pork with Rice 沙茶猪肉盖饭

I first tried something with Sha Cha Sauce 沙茶酱quite a while ago in Taiping when Mamo brought me to this new restaurant selling Taiwanese styled steamboat. I tried the Sha Cha Sauce soup based steamboat and totally fell in love with it. It has this powderly texture and tastes a bit salty and a little spicy. Don't know how to explain it exactly. It's just unique and tasty! The 沙茶牛肉盖饭 I had in Taipei.
And when I was in Taipei, I tried the Sha Cha Beef at Wu Fen Pu and that was when I decided I MUST buy that so called 'BBQ sauce' home! And so I did! From the Carrefour near the hotel we stayed! I later found out you can easily find them in the supermarket here. I saw loads of them in Jusco the other day.My little bottle of Sha Cha Sauce. :D
Just buy them and you can try making this yummy Taiwanese Sha Cha Pork dish (Opted for pork as it's healthier than beef)!

Besides the Sha Cha Sauce, you will need...
Sliced yellow onion and ginger, thinly sliced pork marinated with light soya sauce, for a balance dish, I added some capsicum and French beans. Also, some cooking wine.

What to do?
1. Heat up some oil. Simmer the onion and ginger.2. Then add in the pork, capsicum and French beans.3. Add in some water, mustn't be too much of water though, this is not a dish with loads of gravy. Stir fry it for a while.
4. When you see the pork are almost done, add in about 2-3 tablespoon of the Sha Cha Sauce. Continue to fry. 5. Right before you switch off the fire, add in some cooking wine and that's it! 6. Remove them from the wok, put them over a bowl of rice and ready to makan!

I sprinkled some roasted sesame on top of the dish. You can't see the rice can't you? Hahaha... I always cook too much of food... :p
We had our dinner with soup of the day: ABC soup.
Well I really think with the beef, it tastes slightly better. But it's better to cut down on red meat lar. While the Sha Cha Sauce itself is quite flavourful, the cooking wine definitely doubles up the tastiness of the dish! Mama Mia~! :D

Leftovers are BLOODY useful!

Well, not exactly 'leftovers', since they are uncooked stuff...
Remember the Brickfields-inspired Chickpeas and the Tom Yam Fried Bihun I made earlier? Well there were some curry leaves and lime leaves left after the two dishes were done and I had them sitting in the fridge for one week until I decided to make some random dishes out of them.

Stir-fried Okra with Minced Pork and Sha Cha SauceYup Deardo and I really love Sha Cha Sauce. Remember I last bought a bottle of it from Taiwan? You can actually easily get them from any supermarket. It is a little bit like a Taiwanese version of Sambal Udang, nice scent and adds great taste to your dish!
For this dish, I simply simmer some garlic, red onion and then the Sha Cha Sauce with the pork and then the Okra to make a very simple but BLOODY YUMMY dish! Deardo and I just love the Sha Cha Sauce and the curry leaves which basically perfected the dish! :D

Stir-Fried Prawns with Lime LeavesThis is even simpler!
I actually got the idea when I was at Step 3 of the Tom Yam Fried Bihun recipe. By the time I fried the chicken with the garlic, onion and lime leaves, the whole thing was already smelling very good. So, I used the same method, only this time I used prawns and just added some salt to taste. Provided if your prawns are fresh, this dish is actually FREAKING DELICIOUS! You get the juiciness and original taste of the prawns, with the very nice scent from the lime leaves. Absolutely tempting!

I am loving curry leaves and lime leaves! :)

I made Vietnamese Dried Noodles!!!

Yeap, that's the same noodles Deardo fell so in love with after trying it at Vietnam House in Genting.
And it was 80% successful!!!
But I don't really think I will make this again. You will know why after reading this post...

I'll go straight into the entire process. You will pick up the ingredients along the way.
For the noodles:1) Soak appropriate amount of thick bihun in water until they are softer.
2) Then boil them up in some hot water. Drain and set aside.

The MOST IMPORTANT gravy:
1) Melt appropriate amount of sugar in some boiling water.2) As the water became sugar syrup, turn off the fire.
3) Add in some nicely chopped red chili (seeds removed) and garlic, squeeze generous amount of lime into it, then generous amount of fish sauce to taste.4) From here on, I just tasted the gravy and adjust the taste accordingly until I think it tasted okay.
5) To make it a refreshing and soothing noodles, chuck the gravy into the fridge before consuming.

The raw peanuts:
1) Fry the peanuts in a dry wok over medium fire.2) Stir accordingly until you can see some of them turning black.
3) Remove from wok, try to remove as much of the skin as possible.4) As the peanuts get cooler, dumb them into a blender and blend until they are like crushed peanuts. (That's the lazy way lar, we don't have the traditional rock crusher mah...)

For the Chicken:
I used some chicken chops to replace the deep fried spring rolls.
1) Marinate the chicken chops with Sha Cha sauce (yes, it's our favourite Sha Cha sauce!) for at least 3 hours.
2) Simply just pan fry them until they are cooked. Remove from pan and cut into strips.
(This is exactly like the Sha Cha Chicken Chop with Aglio Olio I made earlier.)

The rest of the ingredients: Simply boil some fresh beansprouts, cut cucumbers, carrots and lettuce into strips. And pinch some fresh and clean mint leaves.
Finally in a bowl, combine all ingredients, pour in the gravy and stir them well for a bowl of refreshing and very healthy Vietnamese Dried Noodles! Colourful, isn't it???

HUGE phew~~~!!!
Isn't that a lot of work before we could enjoy the meal, finally? Without Deardo's help I think I might have to spend probably the entire day in the kitchen preparing this dish! Even he was so exhausted he said that was the first and last time we are making this! Taste wise, the dish was, like I said, 20% off the perfect score. The problem was the gravy was not sweet and salty enough. But the noodles went pretty well with the Sha Cha Chicken! :)Deardo was a huge supporter of the dish from beginning till the end! :)
It was definitely a very tough job preparing the dish. I don't know how many of you would try this at home but well, maybe if you are free enough then you should! And guess what, some of these ingredients can be used in other methods to make the Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls. And that includes the gravy as the dipping sauce!

By the way, while people are busy rallying in the city of KL, I am home in Taiping for a nice and sweet weekend! :)

It's Chef Shirlexia again!

Do excuse me if you think I'm blogging a bit too frequent. But that's because if I didn't screw up my own medical check-up, and nothing goes wrong in between, I'm starting work next Tuesday! Yea... I know it's a bit too soon but what to do? I'M NEEDED! :p
Since I'm going to start work very soon, I'm afraid I won't have that much time to crap in my blog anymore, so I better finish blogging about everything I have left on hands... Damn it sounds like I'm working for someone and is chasing against time to meet deadline...==|||

Anywayz here are some of my cooking I don't dare to call them recipe to share...
Sha Cha Chicken Chop with Aglio Olio
This is something special I made the other day because Deardo and I were a bit tired of dishes with rice everyday when his mum was here. So right after she left, I made a quite random Western dish for dinner!I marinated the chicken chop with some Sha Cha Sauce that I've used here before for a few hours and kinda grilled it on a non-stick pan until it is cooked. Then made the Aglio Olio like this one, but this time around it was a successful one because I've put enough of olive oil and more chili flakes! :D Then I finally stir fried some Tow Miew (pea shoots) with bean sprouts with some garlic and chicken stock as the side dish. It's a bit like an East meets West dish which was a total success! Deardo loves it and I'm so happy it turned out yummy after some hard work! :D

Japanese Tuna Sauce Salad
I bought this packet of Tuna Pasta Sauce from the 100 Yen Shop not too long ago. I tried it with spaghetti before and it was pretty nice with some bits of tuna in it. But then the next day I didn't want to have spaghetti anymore so I heat up the sauce as usual, this time around with some chili flakes to make it spicy. Then added the sauce onto some boiled potatoes, eggs, corn and raw capsicum. Now the pasta sauce turned into salad dressing!Not too bad as a light and healthy lunch! :)

Honey Mustard Chicken with Spaghetti This is quite exactly the same thing as the Honey Mustard Chicken with Rice I did before for Papo and Mamo. But I forgot about the mushroom this time around(oooppssss...). And in stead of rice, we had it with some spaghetti.
Still amazingly delicious!!! Next time I'm gonna try making it to go with mashed potato!

I think I've forgotten to wish all my Malay and Muslim friends SELAMAT BERPUASA!!! I hope you wouldn't get too hungry reading my blog! :p

Home-cooked for the Hungry Mummy Shirlexia

Hi ya'll! Time for another round of Chef Shirlexia sharing her cooking adventure! No offend lar dear chefs out there, I know you guys don't like people calling themselves chefs when they are not qualified enough but this is just a nickname for myself when I blog about my cooking adventure lar, k?

So lately we have been trying to cook at home as much as possible cos eating out so much shouldn't be good for a mum-to-be I guess. So if we get home earlier from work I'll whip up a quick meal, most of the time porridge. On weekends too sometimes we just have porridge since Deardo wants to eat lighter dinners and he is finally in love with my porridge (now my future son will sure love mummy's porridge since it has gotten the difficult papa's approval too, hehe...), but I'll also cook something different occasionally.

So here goes...

#1 Chicken Porridge with Stir-fry Broccoli and Oyster Mushrooms

Most of the time I make my chicken porridge with Mamo's signature recipe, just cut chicken thigh meat and marinate them with soya sauce, Ajishio, sesame oil and a bit of cooking wine, then dump into the porridge with some Tang Chai (Preserved Cabbage) and that's it! Here I added some chopped carrots for some colours.

#2 Chicken Porridge with Stir-fry Water Cress with Goji

Here I also added some Shitake Mushrooms, which is Deardo's favourite. Also recently made all our porridge with unpolished rice which turned out to be awesome! And if you haven't tried frying your water cress then you really should start doing it! Get the younger water cress and I can assure you you will love the texture when you eat it! Water Cress is very high in iron okay! :)

#3 Tang Yuen in Red Dates & Ginger Soup

It was Winter Solstice so I bought some frozen Tang Yuen from the supermarket to go with some boiled red dates and ginger soup in stead of the usual sugar-made tong sui. Tasted pretty good though!

#4 Sesame Oil Chicken Soup with Bihun Served with Stir-fry Nai Bak with Goji

Recipe is almost the same as this, but with changes in certain ingredients.

#5 Complete Chinese Dinner V1

Stir-fry mixed vege (always my favourite vege dish), Lime Leaves Prawns, Fried Fish (first time frying fish at home and Deardo had to do it cos I hate frying stuff that have oil hopping out onto me), herbal soup and the oh-so-yummy 10-grain rice with Chinese sausage. Just slice the sausages and steam them with the rice and OMG the fragrant and the taste you'll get from your rice is so irresistibly addictive! 

#6 Complete Chinese Dinner V2

Made the Chinese Sausage with 10-grain rice again here to go with Stir-fry sliced pork with mushrooms & black fungus, stir-fry cabbage and carrot with dried shrimp (first attempt at making this and it was a success! yay!) plus an old cucumber soup for a wholesome dinner yo!

#7 Yellow Wine Chicken Mee Suah & Herbal Chicken Soup Mee Suah

Well Deardo has been craving for some Yellow Wine Chicken so I said well I can make it since we have the yellow wine that MIL made but I can't take it since I normally add yellow wine into the soup once I turn off the fire (wine that are not evaporated in cooking are still alcohol to preggers)so I made some herbal chicken soup for myself to go with mee suah too! Smart, right? LOL!
Anyway, I didn't do any research on how to make a Yellow Wine Chicken Soup, it was done based on what Deardo said he wanted it to be. So I pre-marinated the chicken with soya sauce, Ajishio and some yellow wine, then add into a simmered bunch of sliced ginger, fried them a little and add water, then the goji and black fungus, plus a little salt to taste. As I turned off the fire, I added about another 3 tbsp of the yellow wine. I didn't try the final product but Deardo was definitely happy with that bowl of dinner so I guess it was a success too! :)

#8 Home Alone Stir-fry French Beans, Carrot & Minced Pork with Sha Cha Sauce over Quinoa

Sometimes I do enjoy cooking for myself a lot cos that's the only time I can cook whatever I like to eat and whatever that is healthier too! I'm a big fan of Quinoa not because it's healthy or expensive (insanely expensive in Malaysia) but because of it's unique texture I just love to chew on. So on a night where Deardo wasn't home for dinner, I indulged myself in this plate of awesomeness and a bowl of 'Bat Chan' Soup for a nutritious, balanced and healthy dinner.

#9 No Carb Dinner Platter

Very yummy oven-roasted HP Sauce (and other sauces) marinated chicken drummets served with a cob of corn and a side of Stir-fry Sha Cha Sauce with Okra. Quite a fusion dinner I shall say. *wink~*

#10 Homey Dinner for the Tan Sisters

On a night where Deardo had dinner appointment, I enjoyed some private time with my two lovely sisters who came over and had a taste of home-cooked food (after some time) that the big sister made for them. So we had a Stir-fry Mixed Vege, Steamed Egg with Minced Pork, Butter Prawns and Herbal Soup to go with some awesome Chinese Sausage 10-grain rice for dinner! :) Always nice to have them with me as they always help in preparing dinner and doing the dishes. :p

#11 Minced Pork Omelet Soup with Glass Noodles

Again, on a night where Deardo enjoyed his Yellow Wine Chicken Soup Mee Sua, I enjoyed one of my favourite dishes that my Ah Ma used to cook, done in around 15 minutes. You can get the recipe here, but I added Goji for some additional nutrition this time around. 

Once again, thank you for watching! 

My Mashed Potato Recipe, etc

Here's a mashed potato recipe taken from my best mate in Perth, Jodi and modified by yours truly. Deardo and I definitely love it and he was very surprised at how easy it was to get this done!

1) Cut potatoes into cubes and boil them in salt water for no less than 15 minutes.2) Drain the water off and start crushing and pressing them with a spatula or whatever useful kitchen tool you have in your kitchen.3) Sprinkle enough salt to taste.
4) To make the mashed potato really creamy, pour in appropriate amount of milk and continue stirring, pressing and crushing until you really see the mashed potato like really fluffy.5) Add in mixed herbs and pepper to give it an extra flavour so that the potato won't taste so plain.
And that's it! We had our mashed potato with the Sha Cha Sauce (yeap, we are so in love with that sauce!) Grilled Chicken and some greens as a side. I just love the texture of the mashed potato! :D

Ohyea! The dressing for our green salad! Also something I learned in Perth. Simply mix some olive oil, vinegar, soya sauce and sesame oil to make a very very yummy salad dressing! Oh yea... Careful with the amount of vinegar if you don't want your dressing to be too sour, just like how ours turned out to be! :p Very simple and erm... Asian salad dressing I guess...

On other occasion, we made another quick and lazy salad at home, which I won't say it's a healthy salad but I would say... Interesting and tempting salad!
I bought some Char Siew from a restaurant near work, lay them all over some lettuce, cherry tomatoes and hard boiled egg. Then sprinkle roasted almond over it. I did tell you it is tempting, didn't I?
Now, the best thing is, I didn't even need to worry about the dressing! I just poured the Char Siew sauce the restaurant gave over the salad to make it a Char Siew Salad! Okay, I agree it doesn't look very appetizing at this point... But taste wise, it was marvelous!
Not very healthy as a salad but well, I guess it's still a good and bloody simple recipe if you are on non-carb diet lor! :)

Going home for Raya. To all of you who are going home for Raya too, have a safe trip and drive safe!!! :D