Category Archives: By Ingredient

7 Basic Rules of Stir-Frying

We aren’t always about eating meat.

Stir-Fried Green Beans with Savory Tofu

stir-fried green beans with savory tofu

Really, truly!  I know that it must seem that way with the many recipes that I post that are always about meat—we have lots of chicken recipes, pork recipes, beef recipes, and not as many vegetable recipes.

The reason for this is simple.  Stir fried vegetables seem boring and easy.  Surely, most people know how to stir fry some vegetables and don’t need recipes for it?

Right?

Turns out that sometimes, what I take for granted isn’t as instinctive for others.  For me, salad isn’t that instinctive.  I like eating salads but I don’t think of it as a vegetable dish to make with my meals.  For many of you, salad is probably something you find a no-brainer.  Well, that’s how it is for me with vegetable stirfries. 

Anyway, I decided to let you know readers that we do eat loads of veggies.  As a matter of fact, every meal that I make is accompanied by a vegetable side, sometimes two. And they are mostly stirfries.  Why?  Because it’s fast and easy.

Here are my basic rules for stir-frying:

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Recipe for Bubur Cha Cha

No, “bubur cha cha” isn’t a type of dance. It’s a sweet, coconut-based soup that we enjoy quite often here in Malaysia. But the recipe is a bit different from our Honeydew Sago Dessert recipe, our Indonesian Es Teler recipe, or the cendol that we enjoyed back in Penang. Bubur cha cha is a Nyonya dish made with different types of sweet potatoes and yam (or Chinese taro). To the sweet potatoes, you add a little pearl tapioca for a textural counterpoint.

Bubur Cha Cha

Bubur Cha Cha

In Hawaii, you could find something similar in Vietnamese restaurants except that their versions were more pudding-like with more tapioca pearls than sweet potatoes. And I believe in the Philippines, they add bananas to their version.

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Braised Lamb Shanks with Garlic and Vermouth

You’ll swoon over these lamb shanks in buttery braised garlic sauce.

Braised Lamb Shank

For some reason, it’s really hard to find good beef here in Kuching. Last year when Nate was hankering for some steak for his birthday, I went to the store and got some ribeyes to grill up for him.

They were not good.

They were tough and did not have enough marbling. I had bought a big hunk of ribeye frozen and when we thawed them out, we had a feeling they weren’t going to be good. So, we’ve pretty much given up on getting good steaks here. The rest of that hunk ended up being sliced up and used for Niku-jaga which was a better application of that quality beef.

Anyway, why am I going on about beef when the title of this post says lamb shanks? Well, it’s because I want to let you know that even though we can’t get good beef here, we can certainly find good lamb!

The same place I got my beef, I also found some vacuum-packed lamb shanks that were super meaty. I got myself two shanks the first time; made this recipe and regretted not buying more. So the second time around, I made sure to get four shanks.

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Assam Curry Chicken Recipe

An easy and delicious, one-pot chicken curry meal that will tantalize your tastebuds.

Assam Curry Chicken

Recently at our Friday fellowship, we celebrated a birthday by having a potluck. Most times, on our regular Friday nights, we end the night with some food but mostly it’s bought food like kolo mee, cakes and snacks. But whenever we have a celebration potluck, we all try to bring something home-cooked. It’s a good time of sharing and also a good time of discovering new foods.

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