Yee Sang Salad / Prosperity Toss Salad

Chinese tradition toss Yee Sang or Prosperity Toss Salad on the 7th day of CNY.  Now most of us toss Yee Sang from the Eve to the 15th Day of CNY....hahahaa....

Today families are more likely to prepare this at home.  I personally prefers to have homemade Yee Sang instead of eating out, i find that most restaurants served commercial yee sang straight from the packaging instead of everything made fresh.  I always experience too much packaging stuff mix in, preservative, coloring, strong smell, heavy taste and whatever that is, making the whole salad taste weird.  Not to mention the salmon...it suppose to taste fresh or smoked but it taste weird.  The whole dish is about the sauce, if you have a weird kind of sauce taste a little too much of everything, everything will taste weird and so complicated.

Actually Yee Sang Salad is fun and easy to prepare ourself.  No complication and it is healthy, fresh and tasty too.  No colorings, No preservative, everything made fresh and most of all, I teach you how to make your own Yee Sang sauce, perhaps its the most easiest you could ever imagine, after you tasted this sauce, i assure you won't go back to those packaging one.

This recipe has no food coloring will be used.  I used natural colorful vegetables like carrots, cucumbers, pamelo and fish snack, garnish with sesame seeds and ground cashew nuts.  You may add a variety of colorful vegetables of your choice, like pickles ginger, red ginger, onion, cilantro, jicama/bengkuang, lettuce etc.  for my version, all ingredients are easy to get work with and it is hassle free.

Below pic is one of my Yee Sang Salad.  My shred vegetables are little too rough with knife this time...*lol sometimes i use vegetable shredder and sometimes i manually jullienned them, it is best to use vegetable shredder more fine result.  I have been making this for almost 10 years, not only i make for CNY, i make whenever i feel like it as a bowl of prosperity salad. bhahaha.... too yummy.

YEE SANG SALAD / PROSPERITY TOSS SALAD

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 STANDARD SERVING PLATE 

1 carrots ( shred/julienned )

1 seedless cucumbers ( shred/julienned ) 

1cup of pamelo 

handful amount of fish snacks ( cut half )

Other optional ingredients:

Smoked / Fresh sliced Salmon, rice crackers, wanton wrappers, japanese red pickled ginger, sliced ginger, sliced onion, lettuce, jicama, green apple, seaweeds, capsicum etc.

Garnish

2tbsp toasted sesame seeds

1/4cup roasted cashewnuts ( crushed )

Other optional Ingredient:-

Peanuts

SAUCE

3tbsp plum sauce

1tbsp sugar to taste

1tsp soya sauce 

1/2 water

Other optional Sauces/Spice:-

Lime Juice, Kasturi Juice, Lemon Juice, Honey, 5 spice powder

METHOD:

* Heat frying-pan, whisk in sauce, let it simmer and taste, off fire, set aside. 

* In a serving plate, arrange all colorful vegetables according to your liking.

* When ready to serve, pour dressing over salad and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and crushed cashew nuts or peanuts.  

* When all ready, toss salad the higher the better making good wishes for the new year in chinese tradition, 

Happy Cooking!

Thai Mango Salad Chicken

I know this will sounds weird to you! guess what, im making this Thai Mango Salad without using Fish sauce!! is that weird to you?! haaa..Indeed it would be weird to those who knows the exact ingredient for this dish.  I was actually ran out of fish sauce but i have tones of mango to eat them up. 

Thai Mango dish is one of our favourite, i went on to prepare this this without fish sauce.  I replaced fish sauce with light soya sauce, it taste as good as fish sauce just less of that sharp fish sauce smell in the dish but i guess still taste marvellous to me.  This bowl of mango salad goes with my crispy chicken, so this is a Thai Mango Salad Chicken Dish. 

Mango Salad Ingredients:-

2 half ripe Mangoes

3 parsley

3-4 shallots

2-3 chilies

1 lemongrass

Fish sauce / light soya sauce

Thai chili sauce ( you can omit this if you use fish sauce ) 

2 lime juice / 2tbsp lemon juice

shave about 2tbsp palm sugar to taste ( if not sweet enough, add some brown sugar to taste ) 

* cut all ingredients and seasoning set aside. 

Crispy Chicken

Marinate chicken

salt, peper, cornstarch & egg white 

3tbsp cornstarch for coating

Fried peanuts for topping. 

Deepfried till golden brown. dish up and chopped set aside served with Mango salad on top and sprinkle with chop peanut.

Salmon Salad Breakfast

29.03.2014 Nongsa Batm.  Make myself a healthy breakfast quick and easy with a little bit of salmon fishy up my salad.  Dressing i used for this salad are olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon and a whole passionfruit.

Lovely Salad for Brunch

04.04.2014 - Nongsa Batam.  I prepare a lovely Salad for my Brunch.  The best salad i'ver made.  I must be too hungry!! Making a good salad dressing is all up to how you want your salad to taste like.  

Very basic dressing you need is salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice.  For this salad dressing, i used 1tbsp mustard & 1tbsp mayo with a juice of one passionfruit and top with my perfect boiled eggs.   My simple healthy salad is ready in just a few minutes! It is beautiful and delicious!!

Crispy Chicken with Tropical Fruit Salad

Making the simplest dinner in the world!! and its so healthy.

Ingredients:-
1 Chicken Breast, coat with flour and deepfried
Handful Green lettuce
Cherry Tomato, slice into half
1 Orange, discard skin cut into cubes

Dressing:-
1 Orange Juice
1tsp Concentrate Orange Syrup, optional
1 Passion Fruit
3tbsp Olive Oil
Sat & coarse black Pepper to taste

Method:-

Pound Chicken to tenderize it.  Marinate with salt, pepper, dash of light soya sauce, & chicken granules for 30mins, set aside.  Deepfried chicken till golden brown, cut strips and set aside.


TOSS lettuce with tomatoes and orange cubes.  Top with chicken and drizzle with dressing.

Lumpiah Semarang

27.11.2013 - This is another delicious starter, appetizer or you can call it snack   It is delicious just like our malaysia version of popiah. With the delicious cooked lumpiah skin.  I made a few rolls to eat it raw without deepfrying and we found that without frying it, lumpiah taste even delicious and more healthier!! Trust me, it is really delicious!

Lumpiah Skin might be difficult to get from where you stay.  So your only choice to make Lumpiah is using Pastry Popiah Skin. I bought my lumpiah skin from fresh market. They selling everyday, it is fresh, and the skin is so thin, delicate and soft.  Make sure your lumpiah fillings don't contain too much water or the skin will break when you do the rolling.  

This lumpiah not yet into deep fry! but seriously, these lumpiah are so good, so much better than the fried ones.  

INGREDIENTS:-

15 sheets of Lumpiah Skin, i bought this from the wet market

200g Boneless Chicken Breast, cut into strips

200g Prawns, optional ( you can have only chicken or prawn or both is up to your desire ) 

200g Young Bamboo Shoots / Rebung

Few Corriander leaf/ chinese parsley

2 eggs, beaten ( i omit this ingredient )

2tbsp oyster sauce

Salt, Pepper, Sugar, Chicken granules to taste

3tbs corn starch + water as thickening agent. set aside.

1 egg to seal lumpiah skin 

Oil for deep-frying

SWEET DIPPING SAUCE:

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

300ml water

50g  of brown sugar, finely combed

1 / 4 tsp white pepper

25g granulated sugar

3tbs corn starch + water as thickening agent. set aside.

METHODS:

Making Lumpiah:-  

In a wok, heat 3 tbsp cooking oil. Sauteed garlic and dried shrimp until fragrant. Add in chicken strips mix well till combine. Beat in the eggs ( i omit egg ) Stir till eggs are evenly cooked. Add the bamboo shoots, mix well, stir fry for a little while and seasons and taste. Add a little just about 2 tbsp of water not too much or filling will be wet and mix well, if too watery thicken with cornflour water. Dish up and set aside to cool and after cool will do the wrapping with lumpiah skin. 

In a clean and dry dinner plate, place a piece of lumpiah skin. and scoop and tablespoon or more on lumpiah skin, fold both side and roll up. to seal the lumpiah with an egg wash. 

Ready a pan for deepfriying. Medium fire to deepfried lumpiah till golden brown.  Dish up! Drain access oil and served warm. 

Sauce:

Boil the garlic and water until boiling. Add in brown sugar, pepper and sugar. Stir until dissolved.  Thicken with corn starch and dish up.  Serve with sauce lumpia semarang.

This is how a fresh soft Lumpiah Skin looks like, it is different from frozen Pastry Popiah Skin

 Fillings : Stir fried Rebung / Young Bamboo shoots 

You can eat Lumpiah just raw without frying it just treat like singapore popiah, the skin is edible raw, i tell you, it taste even delicious.  About half a portion we eat just raw without deepfrying! two thumbs up!! :) 

  Golden brown Lumpiah is ready to dig in!!! Yummy but little too oily for me, i love it raw.. :)

Yum

Prawn with Avocado & Mango Salad

INGREDIENTS:-
1 Handful baby lettuce or mix vegy
1 ripe Avocado
1/2 ripe yellow Mango
50g Prawns ~ remove shells and vine, season with some salt and pepper and put prawns in boiling water till cooked, dish and put in ice water for a few minutes, drained. Use whole prawn or cut prawn into cubes
**substitute prawns with crab meat or lobster if you prefer

Dressing
100g mango yoghurt
2 tsp Lemon juice
some sea salt and pepper

Method:
Combine all Dressing ingredients and set aside.
Scoop out avocado flesh and reserve the skins to be used later as salad bowls.
Diced avocado and mango. Add cooked prawns and mix well, then lastly add in dressing and toss well.
Serve in avocado bowls or if you're lazy, just serve all into a pretty serving bowl.


kitchen note: To prevent avocado turns brown quickly, squeeze lemon juice over the exposed flesh and cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator before mixing with mango and prawns.
 


Enjoy!

Gado-Gado

Ingredients of Vegetables to Blanched or Steamed:
Half a bundle of Kangkung
1 small Sweet Corn
50g Bean sprouts
4 LongBeans
2 Potatoes
Half Chayote ( labu siam )

Fresh Vegetables:
Cucumber, sliced

Fried Items:-
Fried tempeh
Fried Taufu/ white beancurd

Other Complements:
Boiled eggs, wedged
Lontong (rice cake with log shape), cut into 1 cm thick
Melinjo crackers or Shrimp crackers


Gado-Gado Peanut Sauce:
200g roasted or fried peanuts
1 small chilli, if you want more hot, you could add more
2 cloves of garlic
25g palm sugar (or 2 tbsp brown sugar)
1 local lime
2cm kencur (white ginger – if you can get it)
salt to taste

Method:

Gado-Gado Sauce
1. Fry the chilli, garlic and kencur over a medium heat for a couple of minutes then remove from the heat and grind in a pestle and mortar, slowly adding the peanuts and continuing to grind until it is ground finely. Mix this mixture with water then transfer it back to the pan.  Bring the mixture to the boil then add lime juice, palm sugar, and salt to taste then simmer until thickened slightly, stirring constantly. Once the mixture has thickened, remove it from the heat and leave for at least a minute to cool.  

OR

In traditional way, use a flat stone mortar to ground the peanuts slowly adding in the kencur and garlic, continue grind slowly and add in palm sugar, lime juice, salt to taste, chili and slowly add water one at a time until your desire thickness of the peanut sauce mix well till combine, taste and dish up.

2. To serve, put the vegetables in a bowl along with the other ingredients pour a good few spoonfuls of the peanut sauce over the top and mix it all together.

Bruschetta

11.09.2013 - Batam. Eating too much food for the day. So with thought of having something light ....like eating appetizer..only for dinner!! So since i bought a lovely french baguette and have some big fat tomatoes, all ingredients just perfect for a quick Bruschetta.

Bruschetta (Italian pronunciation: [bru-sket-ta] is an antipasto from Italy whose origin dates to at least the 15th century. It consists of grilled bread rubbed with garlicand topped with olive oil, salt and pepper. Variations may include toppings of tomato, vegetables, beans, cured meat, or cheese; the most popular recipe outside of Italy involves basil, fresh tomato, garlic and onion or mozzarella. Bruschetta is usually served as a snack or appetizer. In some countries, a topping of chopped tomato, olive oil and herbs is sold as bruschetta.^[1]

In Italy, bruschetta is often prepared using a brustolina grill. In the Abruzzo region of Italy a variation of bruschetta made with a salami called ventricina is served. Raw porkproducts and spices encased in pig bladder are aged and the paste spread on open slices of bread which are sometimes grilled.^[2] This was a way of salvaging bread that was going stale.^[3] In Tuscany it is called fettunta and it is usually served without toppings, especially in November, to taste the very first oil of the season.  ( Bruschetta Wikipedia from google a basic knowledge, history and information )

Ingredients for basic bruschetta:

1/2 French baguette
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt & pepper
1 clove of garlic
For topping:

4 tomatoes, ripe and plum
¼ red onion, finely cut ( if you don't like spicy put less onion you may totally avoid it )
cut Basil leafs
salt & pepper

Directions

*  Cut tomato into half and remove seed and cut into cubes.

* And transfer to a mixing bowl. Then thinly slice red onion and fine basil leafs and add into the cubes tomato. Season with pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper and olive oil. ( you may add chopped walnuts and 1tsp balsamic vinegar before seasoning )

* First, cut the bread diagonally and toast bread on a large frying pan or bread toaster till brown each side. Now cut a clove of garlic and rub the bread slice with garlic and drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  This is the base of any bruschetta.

* Serve tomato topping on top and garnish with a basil leaf ( but i didn't add mine cos i ran out of basil leaf )