Bak Kua (Chinese Pork Jerky)

Bak Kua, my all time favorite when I was a kid and now too.  Love to sandwich it in bread and have it as breakfast.  This is also one favorite for Chinese New Year, people give this as gift in Malaysia.  They also served this for people who visits their houses.  When I moved here, bak kua was non-existence.  All I found that was similar to this is American beef jerky which I couldn't stomach.  Then, four years ago, I found a very easy bak kua recipe shared by a fellow blogging friend.  I tried it and loved it and have been making it all these years.

 

This recipe is so easy to make and trust me it is really good.  The above has about 1lb. of ground pork, I thought I might be able to share with my friends until my hubby spotted it.  He never dared to try the bak kua I made all these years (he thinks it was yucky so more for us) and suddenly he came and grabbed a piece to try and kept coming back for more and more.  Needless to say, any food that he set his eyes on, will be gone in no time.  He only left few pieces for my girls and I.

Gong Xi Fa Cai & Xin Nian Kuai Le!!!

I want to wish all my readers a Happy Chinese New Year and may this new year brings you prosperity, health, happiness and things that you wished for.  I am off to celebrate Chinese New Year eve reunion dinner at auntie Lily's house.  Yeah I know I am lucky because I get to eat her Yu Sang and all the cookies she made for Chinese New Year. 


Go home and have a reunion dinner with your parents, family and relatives.  Nothing spread joy more than having your loved and closed ones close by and have a feast together.  Sharing food, laughter, stories and fun together.  Have a good one you all and enjoy all the 15 days of Lunar New Year.

Gong Xi Fa Cai 2009

I want to wish all my readers a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous Lunar New Year!! May this Ox year brings us great happiness, better economy, full tummy and wealth.

Too lazy to make pineapple tart this year, so I only pick easy cookies to make. For easy access of my recipes, click the links below:

Cornflakes cookies
Crispy Pizzelle
Peanut cookies
Kuih bangkit
Almond flavored sugee cookies

CNY Gift from a Friend :o)

Less Sweet Teh Tarik 3 in 1 and Pandan Kaya.


Assortment of Delicious Looking ChanHong Brand Products. BTW, I loved this brand!


OK, this is my favorite group because I'm a cookies & snack junkie!! Can't wait to try the Beloved Biscuit because it looks so different. But first of all, need to open the Chicken Biscuit now!


Hmmm...first time seeing this type of Chicken Biscuit! Had a bad experience with the previous chicken biscuit that I ordered from myTOA.


So fat fat one!


WOW! I Loved it! I loved this type too, very fragrant and even my hubby gave a thumb up. Ok, only got six in a packet, so order more if you like this biscuit. Hubby said, "3 for me and 3 for you". I said, " Then what about the kids?" LOL!




Thank you so much for your generous gift. You got the heart, we got the tummies! :P

For my readers, you can always order it online at myTOA.com. Just a click away to sample all these M'sian goodies yourself at home! ;o)

Chap Goh Meh, 2008 Dinner

My last day of CNY dinner spread. I told my hubby I'm going to cook something special tonight to celebrate the last day of CNY. I added one more dish into my usual two dishes.


Steam fish fillets, nothing special, I cooked this all the time, but this is one of my hubby's favorites.


Stir-fry Sweet Snap Peas with Chinese Mushroom, Baby Bamboo Shoots and Carrots. Hmm... I cooked this all the times too but not in this combination.


Butter Cereal Shrimps. Ha! this is something special as I normally don't cook so much shrimps for ourselves (I always sanction 3-4 for me and 4-5 for him, just want to be in moderation). But since this is the last day of CNY and it was my first time cooking butter cereal shrimps from scratch, what the heck right? Better enjoyed it! My hubby was actually shocked and asked me how many shrimps did you cook? HAHAHA.... So, I had to explain to him and also tell him don't expect any shrimps from me next week. So, we indulged! I will share my version of Butter Cereal Shrimps recipe in another post, if you want my recipe, stay tuned! :P If cannot wait, just do a search on Google lah, so many recipes on the net wat. :D

Sweet Red Beans + Tang Yuen Soup

Time flies, it's already the end of CNY. Today is the last day of CNY where we called it "Chap Goh Mei", the 15th day. Usually people will have a feast on this day and eating tang yuens to signified "tuan tuan yuen yuen", or togetherness, unity in the new Lunar year.

Since I wanted something different from my usual brown sugar ginger syrup, I made red bean soup to go with it. Added some mini tapioca pearls, dried orange peels and glutinous rice as well.



Also reserved some to eat with my favorite peanut + sugar coating. Evy really loved it, she "sapu" (finished) all below, asked for more and later ate her daddy share!! I think I managed to eat three balls only! Later I served her the red bean soup with tang yuens and she finished all the tang yuens in the bowl and asked for more but left the red bean soup basically untouched.



I am glad that I got to meet all my girlfriends this CNY. :) Extra big hug to V for purposely drove all the way down to "pie nian" with me, I am really touched and it showed what a great girlfriend she is. Wait for me to make the "kuih kapit" okay? :D

Dinner Feb 13th, 2008

One of my special CNY dinners.


Soup with bamboo fungus, dried beancurd sheet and enoki mushroom.


My "Mung Kwan Char" (stir-fry jicama). Not "Ju Hur Char" because no dried squid was used. This is a traditional CNY dish for us but I slightly adapted it my way. This dish is delicious and tastes better the next day. We used to eat it wrap in lettuce, with a piece of baked chicken and spread with homemade chili sauce (sambal), wrap it and enjoy! Delectable! I'm traditional like that, I need to eat my "mung kwan char" every CNY.


Emperor Baked Chicken. My house smelled absolutely divine when this chicken was baking.


Can see the crispy skin or not? Baked with my vertical roaster stand. Tigerfish, here's the pictures I promised you. Moist and juicy chicken with crispy skin, my hubby's favorite!

Baked Red Bean Nian Gao

I decided to make this red bean nian gao to bring to Lily's party and to serve at my party. This recipe was shared by Lin, and it is so worth a try. Thank you Lin for sharing this fantastic recipe. :*



This is seriously good. Tasted so much better with the added red bean, I will make this again next year. Oh yeah, have you spotted my mistake yet? I forgot to swirl the red bean paste around the batter when I dropped it in and thus some part had red bean while other didn't. Not pretty too but look can be deceiving! ;) Anyway, I learned from my mistake.

My Yi Lu Fa Cai

This is my copycat dish of Chef. Steven "Hou See Fatt Choy". I added some wolfberries for extra color effect. Whether it's a good idea or not, I don't know but wolfberries is good for us, so why not? Why I didn't name mine "hou see fatt choy" you might asked. That's because I couldn't find any dried oyster here. Nada...not one in sight. So, have to make mine without the dried oyster and gave it a new name which I read at Tigerfish's blog. This is the dish I brought to Lily's house.



Does this dish looks appertizing to you? I would really love to know because my hubby thinks this dish is soooo unappealing that he didn't even bother to try one. *Sorta pissed to learn later that he didn't even bother to try one of my CNY dish creation because to him it looks unappertizing, my own hubby!* You tell me!

Lastly, I want to wish my readers a "Happy Valentine's Day" !
Hubby wants to bring us out for dinner and so no cooking for me. :)

CNY Potluck Party, 2008

I had a potluck party at my house on Feb 10th. Sharing some food pictures here. It turned out to be a good gathering. Great food and met some new faces too.


The spread.

Highlight some of the dishes here:

My mixed vegetable with fa cai.


My sambal cutterfish and shrimps.


Y's store-bought good looking roasted duck.


Am's homemade yummy jiaozi (she is from China).


M's delicious dry chicken curry.


Su's Mushrooms with Bok Choys.


Sh's Fried Noodle.


T's store-bought orange chicken.

The below came late thus didn't make it in the 1st. picture:

Sa's oyster sauce veggie.

Sa's potstickers.

Sh's yummy egg tarts, my steamed cassava kuih and red bean nian gao.

My Nian Nian You Yu Agar-agar.

Su's Kuih Salat.

You guys should recognize this right? :P

Snack containers.

Look at all the shoes!!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai, Xin Nian Kuai Le!

I would like to wish all my readers who celebrate CNY:

Sorry so blur because Evy kept saying "Gong Xi, Gong Xi" and Edda kept moving her hands.

Happy Lunar New Year! Let's the feasts begin!