Temosa (Fish Puffs)

Recipe: Fish Temosa (Fish Puffs)椰丝鱼角

Makes: 24

Fish temosa is one of the famous appetizers in Kelantan and Terengganu, Malaysia. Nevertheless, I can easily get fish temosa in my homwtown - Pahang too. I think fish temosa is only popular in east coast Malaysia because my hubby who is from west coast had never tasted it and didn't even heard about fish temosa until I first made them. I love fish and coconut deeply. Fish temosa is definitely something I like!

Ingredients

Dough 200g all-purpose flour ¼ tsp. salt 85g margarine / butter 90ml icy cool water

Filling 1 whole chub mackerel (ikan kembung) / galunggong fish (200g+ with head and bone in. To get about 120g flakes) 150g coconut 15g ginger 60g red onion Seasoning ¼ tsp. salt ¼ tsp. sugar

Preparation
Filling
1. Blend coconut, ginger and red onion until fine. No need to blend coconut if you are using grated coconut.	2. Gut fish. Chop off fish head and clean fish. Bring a small pot of water to boil. Add fish and cook over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until fish is done.	3. Rinse cooked fish under running water for seconds to cool it down. Flake fish. Discard bones and skin.
4. Mix fish flakes with seasoning and coconut mixture in step 1. Mix well and set aside.
Dough
1. Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add butter and mix with hands until it resembles coarse crumbs.	2. Add water to flour mixture. Combine by using a spoon.	3. Knead dough until you get a non-sticky dough.
4. Cover dough with damp cloth or cling wrap if you are not using it immediately.	5. Roll out dough to 0.25cm thickness. Slightly lift and move the dough after every alternate 2 to 3 rolls to make sure the bottom side of the dough is not sticking to your work surface.	6. Cut dough into 7.5cm diameter circles. Combine all the remnants and repeat rolling and cutting into circles process.
7. Place 1 TBSP filling in the center of each circle.	8. Carefully grab and hold a circle in your hand. Fold circle into half. Press and pinch the open edge in the center with your fingertips.	9. Press and pinch to seal as you move your fingertips along the open edge from center to left end.
10. Press the filling with your fingertip from the opening at right end. Fill the space with extra filling. Press and pinch to seal the opening.	11. Pinch and press along the edge with your fingertips again to flatten it. With the edge facing you, start making a twist and fold towards opposite direction from one end (if you start from left end, you should twist and fold over to the right).	12. Press with fingertips to flatten the edge after each twist and fold over.
13. Leave a tiny space in between each twisted fold over. Continue press, twist and fold over until you get a nice twisted edge.	14. Repeat step 8 to step 13 for each circle.	15. Arrange puffs in a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400oF preheated oven for 30 minutes until puffs turn golden brown. Alternatively, deep fry puffs at 350oF until golden brown. Let puffs stand cool before serving.

Notes

Fish is cooked when it turns opaque and begins to flake when a fork is inserted into the center.

Bak Kua (Chinese Pork Jerky)

Recipe: Bak Kwa (Chinese Pork Jerky)自制肉干 (Rou Gan)

Yield: 500g

Source: Go2Wellington

Ingredients

500g fresh ground pork 100g hot dogs / ham (minced) 110g castor sugar 1½ TBSP fish sauce 1 TBSP soy sauce 1 TBSP ShaoXing rice wine 1 TBSP cooking oil ½ tsp. pepper

Basting (optional) 1 TBSP oil 2 TBSP honey * Just mix together oil & honey.

Preparation
1. Mince hot dogs.	2. Put ground pork in a mixing bowl. Add all other ingredients except hotdog and basting. Mix evenly.	3. Add minced hot dog to the mixture in step 2. Mix well.
4. Line baking pan with aluminium foil (shinny side faces down). Press sides on foil to get shape of the pan. Lightly grease foil with cooking oil. Remove foil carefully and avoid pressing on the sides to maintain approximate shape of your pan.	5. Spoon about 3 TBSP of ground pork mixture to the center of the lined pan. Loosely cover ground pork mixture and aluminium foil with a large piece of cling wrap. Roll out ground pork mixture to about 0.2cm thick. Add more ground pork mixture as you roll if needed. Take out some ground pork mixture if it is too thick.	6. Repeat step 4 and step 5 to finish up the remaining ground pork mixture. Preheat oven to 350oF. Bake at 350oF for 12 minutes. Remove pans from the oven and drain off any excess oil or water if exist. Turn each piece to the other side. Baste the top surface with prepared basting once and pop back into the oven. Bake for another 5 minutes or until meat is cooked.
7. Turn each piece to the other side, baste top surface once and return to oven to GRILL for 1 to 2 minutes. Repeat this step until pork jerky turn into desired color. When done, turn off the heat and leave pork jerky sit in the oven for 10 minutes to slightly dry off. Remove pork jerky from oven and let stand cool.	8. Cut pork jerky into serving size. Let cool completely before storing in an air tight container.

Notes

Add extra 20g castor sugar to mix with the ground pork if you are not using basting. Basting prevents pork jerky to turn too dry and give it a nice shinny look. Store pork jerky in an air tight container at room temperature for up to several weeks. Beware when using a toaster oven. Aluminium foil can cause overheating of the oven and cause fire. Read the manual of your oven about safety warning regarding metal foil beforehand.

Bak Kut Teh

Recipe: Bak Kut Teh(肉骨茶)
Serves: 3 - 4




Ingredients

• 700g pork spareribs
• 300g pork belly
• 3 garlic heads
• 1500ml water
• 3½ TBSP light soy sauce or to taste

Side Ingredients

• 2 shiitake mushrooms (soaked)
• 100g enoki mushrooms (rinsed)
• lettuce (rinsed)
• 6 - 10 pcs tofu puffs (halved)
• 400ml water

Bak Kut Teh Sachet

• 10g dried pilose asiabell root（党参）
• 7g dried angelica sinensis slice（当归片）
• 10g dried polygonthemum（玉竹）
• 5g barbary wolfberry / goji berry（枸杞）
• 1 tsp. rhizoma ligustici wallichii（川芎）
• 1" x 1" size rehmannia root（熟地）
• 2 slices licorice root slice（甘草）
• 2 pcs dried longan meat（干桂圆肉）
• 4 pcs whole cloves（丁香）
• 1/8 tsp. fennel seeds（小茴香）
• half of a star anise（八角）
• 3g cinnamon stick（桂皮）
• 5g whole black peppercorns（黑胡椒粒）
• 1" x 1" size dried tangerine peel（陈皮）

Dipping sauce

• bird's eyes chilies (cut diagonally)
• minced garlic (optional)
• light soy sauce

Topping For White Rice (*optional)

• shallot crisps

Measurements: tsp = teaspoon | TBSP = tablespoon

Preparation
1. Put all the all the bak kut teh sachet ingredients in a tea filter bag or wrap them in muslin cheese cloth and tie it tightly with a string. You may pound all the ingredients except for black peppercorns.	2. Soak garlic heads in water for 1 minute. Peel the outer skin of garlic heads, leave the inner skin on the cloves. Remove any spoilt cloves. Briefly rinse garlic heads with running water and set aside.	3. Slice shiitake mushrooms. Trim off about 0.5" of the bottom stems of enoki mushrooms (do not cut them thoroughly), separate them roughly into 0.25" bunch. Chop lettuce lengthwise. Cut bird's eye chilies diagonally, put them into a condiment saucer, add soy sauce to cover the chilies.
4. Fill half a deep pot with water and bring to a boil. Parboil spareribs and pork belly in boiling water over medium heat for 2 minutes until froth rises to the surface. Turn off the heat.	5. Fish out spareribs and pork belly. Briefly rinse them under cold running water and drain.	6. Discard water in deep pot. Re-fill deep pot with 1500ml clean water and bring to a boil on high heat.
7. Add bak kut teh sachet and garlic heads. Cover with lid and simmer over high heat for 2 minutes.	8. Add soy sauce and continue simmer over high heat for 1 minute, with lid on.	9. Add spareribs and pork belly. Cover with lid. Let bring to a boil again over high heat, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low and continue simmer over low heat for at least 1 hour.
10. After bak kut teh is done, transfer the used bak kut teh sachet and 2 cooked garlic heads in a small pot. Fill the pot with 100ml bak kut teh soup base and 400ml water. Cover with lid and bring it to a boil. Turn heat to low and continue simmer for 10 minutes.	11. Transfer the used bak kut teh sachet and garlic heads back to the bak kut teh pot. Add shiitake mushrooms and tofu puffs to the small pot. Press and immerse tofu puffs in the soup with a soup ladle. Cover with lid. Simmer on medium low heat for 8 minutes.	12. Add enoki mushrooms. Press and immerse them in the soup with a soup ladle. Simmer on high for 40 sec - 1 minute without cover. Add salt to taste if needed.
13. Turn off the heat and add in half of the chopped lettuce.	14. Slice pork belly, about 1cm thick. Arrange spareribs and sliced pork belly in a claypot or a large serving bowl, ladle bak kut teh soup into the bowl. Top bak kut teh with the remaining chopped lettuce. In another serving bowl, pour the side ingredients and soup into it. Serve bak kut teh hot with steamed white rice garnished with shallot crisps and chilies in soy sauce as its dipping sauce.

Notes

Shiitake mushrooms and tofu puffs can affect the original taste of bak kut teh. I am particular with the taste. So I cook them separately to have one pot with the original bak kut teh soup base to serve with meat and another one to serve with the side ingredients. If you are using a claypot, bring your claypot bak kut teh to a boil just before serving and turn off the heat as soon as it starts bubble. Then only garnish with the remaining chopped lettuce. Bak kut teh is commonly served with Chinese crullers too.

Cantaloupe Seafood Bowl

Recipe: Cantaloupe Seafood Bowl哈密瓜海鲜盅

Serves: 4

This is a simple stir-fry seafood dish. But with the cantaloupe bowl, it gives an elegant look and will definitely impress your guests.

Ingredients

Ingredients A 1 cantaloupe (approx. 1250g)   Seasoning 1 TBSP cooking white wine 1/4 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. sugar less than 1/8 tsp. sesame oil   Starch Mixture 1 tsp. corn starch 1 TBSP water * Mix corn starch and water evenly.   Garnish chopped cilantro chopped parsley

Ingredients B 1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil 1 stalk spring onion (chopped diagonally into 1" sizes) 1/4 red bell pepper   Ingredients C 1 cup water 100g shrimps (deveined with tail on) 100g squid (chunked and slightly score) 100g crabstick (cut diagonally) 4 button mushrooms (sliced) 2 TBSP sweet corn kernels 2 TBSP carrots (diced) 4 TBSP edamame (pre-cooked) 1/4 cup cabbage (julienned) 1 cup water

Measurements: tsp. = teaspoon | TBSP = tablespoon  

Preparation
Cantaloupe Bowl
1. Slice the top 1/3 to 1/4 of the cantaloupe off with a horizontal cut. Keep the top aside to use as bowl cover later.	2. Scoop out the cantaloupe seeds content with a spoon.	3. Run a knife along 0.5" inch to the inside from the edge of cantaloupe. Beware not cut too deep inside to avoid cutting through the bottom.
4. Carefully chunk the meat off the cantaloupe, leaving 0.5" edge. Do it part by part until the whole cantaloupe looks clean.	5. Cut zig zag pattern along the edge of cantaloupe. Steam the cantaloupe bowl and its cover in a hot steamer over high heat for 2 minutes to enhance its flavor.	6. Cut cantaloupe meat into small chunks. Place them in a bowl and set aside.
Seafood Stir-Fry
1. Prepare ingredients. Cut red bell pepper into 1" chunks.	2. Bring 1 cup of water to boil. Then, parboil all ingredients C except crabstick and cabbage until squids turn opaque and shrimps are cooked. Fish out all ingredients. Parboil cabbage over high heat for 2 minutes. Drain and set aside. Reserve the parboil juice to use for cooking later.	3. Heat up 1 TBSP olive oil in a saucepan. Saute spring onion and bell pepper (ingredients B) on medium low heat until fragrant for about 1 minutes.
4. Add parboiled ingredients and saute for 1 minutes on high heat. Add 1 TBSP white cooking wine and half cup of the parboil juice (water used for parboil just now). Simmer with lid opened until it starts bubble.	5. Turn heat to low. Season with sesame oil, salt and sugar to taste.	6. Keep saute over low heat as you stir in starch mixture.
7. Add cabbage and crabstick. Saute to combine. Continue saute for about 30 seconds until sauce slightly thicken. Turn off the heat.	8. Add cantaloupe chunks. Saute to combine.	9. Ladle stir-fried seafood into the cantaloupe bowl. Garnish with chopped cilantro and parsley. Serve hot.

Notes

Choose a cantaloupe with flattish bottom so it won't roll around.