Terengganu Delights

You might have come across some specialties from the states of Malaysia in the blogsphere the past few months, I think this is the 3rd month if I am not mistaken.   An online event, the Malaysian Food Fest that aims to introduce culinary specialties from the 14 states in the country is ongoing and October is Terengganu month and hosted by Lena of Frozen Wings.   An event worth following, you will get to know many mouth-watering dishes, after all eating is known as one of our favorite pastimes :)

Before this, it was always the beautiful sandy, crystal clear beaches that comes to mind whenever this state is mentioned.   Then comes the Keropok Lekor and Nasi Dagang, now I know there are so many more!  Intrigued by  dishes shared by Phong Hong of Phong Hong Bakes, with recipes coming from  her family's heirloom,  I tried 2 of her recipes Kay Hong and Kay Pachok.   Hints of Nyonya influence from the name of the dishes and the ingredient list was the other thing that caught my attention.

I first tried the Kay Hong which means Braised Chicken in Hokkien.   The original recipe calls for a mixture of chicken and pork belly.  Unfortunately, I only had pork ribs and belly on the night that I chose to try out the recipe, so it was pork ribs instead :)  I am not sure if this twist will deem it unacceptable for submission to the event.  Anyway, it turned out delicious.

This other dish is Kay Pachok, Kay like Kay in 'Kay Hong' means Chicken in Hokkien and as for Pachok, it's the Terengganu Malay dialect for skewer, so it's Chicken on Skewers when put together.  Similar to Satay, another meat on skewers specialty but the spices used are different and this one is lightly steamed before hitting the grill.

Verdict? They were delicious!

Kay Pachok behind a veil?  I love this improvised Malay style food cover :) 

Kay Hong without the Kay?

Recipe source - Credit to Phong Hong of Phong Hong Bakes

Kay Pachok 

Kay Hong

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest, Terengganu Month hosted by Lena of frozen wings 

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One Stone Kill Many Birds

Steaming, the 1 stone kill many (yes, many, definitely more than 2) birds method of cooking.   Easy, fast, retains the original texture, freshness and flavor of the food thus keeping nutrients intact.  Notice the colors remain vibrant too?  One of the healthiest way of cooking.  Works especially well when ingredients are really fresh (fish for example), the heat from the steam gently diffuses through the food and let it cook in its own juice.  Yummeh! 

Besides steaming, this dish has an added health benefit factor.  Some Chinese herbs, specifically red dates, wolf berries and dried longans were used.    Common ingredients that the Chinese used for making herbal soup known to nourish the body.   

What's unique about this recipe is the herbs were first boiled together for awhile to make a soup base before pouring it onto the fish slices and steamed.  Because of this, the taste of the herbs was more prominent and blended into the fish.  The juice from the fish made the broth even tastier which made it good with rice and could be drank directly like a soup.

It is best to take steamed dishes as soon as it is ready.  We had it on a cold rainy day (the monsoon season has started over here) and with a dash of Shaoxing wine on the dish, it did feel so good to have it warm our stomachs :)

Recipe

Source : Steamed Cuisine by Hoe Yee (variations in blue)

Ingredients

Part A

• 500g fish slices (I used threadfin, original recipe was for frog)
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp fried shallot oil (obmitted, lazy on the pretext of trying to reduce oil intake)
• 1/2 tbsp corn flour

Part B

• 8g Dang qui (obmitted, not in little one's favour)
• 10g wolfberries
• 10g dried longan
• 10g Yuk Chuk (refer note at the bottom)
• 10g red dates
• 100ml water

Seasoning

• 1 1/2 tbsp ginger juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Method

1. Place ingredients Part B in a small pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, let it simmer for 5 minutes and leave to cool.
2. Season fish with seasoning and corn flour and arrange on a steaming plate for at least 1 hour.
3. Pour cooked ingredients B (together with soup) on fish and steam on high heat for 7 minutes or until cooked.
4. Give fish a dash of Shaoxing wine and fried shallot oil if prepared.
5. Server hot with steamed rice.

Note:- I made a very silly mistake here, the recipe stated yuzu, and since it was a chinese translated one, I had to guess what yuzu was, I thought it was yuzu the citrus.  After many hours, fish long digested, it suddenly struck me it was Yuk Chuk the Chinese herb!  I was more familiar with it known as Yuk Chuk in Cantonese instead of Yuzu!  I asked hubs to reconfirm from the Chinese characters! What a blunder, but i think it didn't do much harm instead it was nice because Korean yuzu is slightly tangy and bitterish compared to the rest of the herbs which are sweet.   How silly of me!

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Stewed Pork Ribs in Orange Juice

I came across this interesting twist to the otherwise quite a common homey dish for Chinese families.  Instead of stewing in soy sauce, orange juice was used.  And because it was stewed instead of fried and drizzled with orange sauce, the flavor was much more intense. The meat was tender but with some crisp parts due to some slight browning and bursting with rich orange flavors. 

Dish was well received, we had this over dinner, hence the poor night lighting photo.  I don't like the shiny finishing caused by flash lights.  So most of the time I try making dishes that are blog-worthy during the day :) But I am glad that the orange tint is quite obvious and with some orange fibre bits in sight for this dish to lift up to its name.

One thing to bear in mind, make sure the oranges are sweet, apparently this is the key thing for this dish.  Not sure to what extend but I took it so seriously that I cut another after tasting that the first one wasn't exactly sweet.

Recipe

Source : Christine's Recipes

Ingredients

• 700g pork ribs
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 1 tsp finely chopped garlic
• 2 tsp white cooking wine

Ingredients for sauce

• 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, sifted
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp raw sugar
• 1/2 tsp orange zest (only the orange part) - I obmitted this, was afraid i would end up with some white parts that will make the sauce bitter and spoil the dish

Method

1. Rinse pork ribs and wipe dry with kitchen papers. Season with salt and pepper on both sides.
2. Use a claypot or a large saucepan. Pour in the sauce and bring it to a boil over medium heat.
3. While heating sauce, brown pork ribs on a frying pan until both sides are lightly golden. Push pork ribs to sides of pan, add a bit more of oil and saute grated ginger and garlic until fragrant. Sprinkle wine. Quickly stir to combine all ingredients.
4. Transfer to the boiling sauce and cover with a lid. Cook until it boils again.
5. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours, or until sauce reduced to about 1/5, thickened, and the pork is softened and caramelized. Serve hot with steamed rice.

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