Gourmet Garden

Have you heard or try Savory Tang Yuan before?

It is truly a “Forgotten Recipe” from Hakka & Cantonese Dialect. We have received many readers request about this savory tang yuan recipe since we’ve posted the winter solstice from 2008.
Other than we talk about the sweet version which has tones of fans, we rather share those who are forgotten and unique from the rest.
We have prepare the steps with photo and recipe below, and do enjoy the cooking and happy winter solstice to you & your family

Step 1 & 2. Begin of the Yellow Bean & Anchovies Soup Base

Step 4. Chicken Gizzard to Give the extra texture

Slice Pork & Spring Onions

Tang Yuan In Bean and Anchovies Soup

Savory Tang Yuan Soup

Tang Yuan:

I don’t really know what and how to make the tang yuan dough, but all I know is using glutinous four to makes it up…heee

The only tips that I can share is, cook the tang yuan in boiling water and wait until its float on top of the water, and its cooked. And throw them immediately into Ice Water. This step is to make the ball springier and doesn’t go lumpy /mushy.

We don’t really measure what we cook for this Soup, and is all according to the taste

Soup base (basic soup base for wonton noodle soup):

Handfuls of Dried Soya Bean

Handfuls of Dried Anchovies

Chicken or Pig born

Water for soup

Ingredient:

Cabbage (coarsely shredded)

Chicken gizzard (thick slices)

Pork belly 600gm or more (in whole pcs)

Spring onion (4cm in length)

Home fried shallots

Step by Step:

1. Put Soya Bean & Anchovies into soup bag/sachet. Don’t insert the bag too full, when it cooks, the beans will be bloated. The ideal portion is 1/3 of the bag. Or put those 2 ingredients in 2 different bags.
2. After filled in the Soya Bean & Anchovies in the bag, put them all into boiling water and cover the lid, with medium to low heat, and cook about 30min or until you can smell the aroma.
3. Take out the soup bag. Leave the soup aside.
4. Boil water in another pot, to poach the whole pcs of pork belly and chicken gizzard until it’s done or tender. Take out and drain. Cut them into thin slices when it’s cooled. Set both aside.
5. Warm up the Anchovies soup and throw the cabbage in and cooked till tender. Add Salt to taste. Drain the Vege and set aside.
6. Basically the cooking step is all done.

Eating Step:

Just heat up the soup, scope all the precooked ingredient, tong yuan, cabbage, gizzard, pork belly, spring onion, and pour the steaming hot soup into the bowl and top with some homemade fried shallot. Enjoy!

Those precooked ingredient and soup can keep into the refrigerator and you may heat up for the next day. Except tang yuan, its good when eat its fresh.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Share/Bookmark

腊肠

润肠腊肠

近几年来, 在年尾时段总会听到余仁生在某家电台打广告. 你是否对 “腊味风一吹, 收工快快去”留下印象? 好一个朗朗上口的词句.

听到这句时, 表示冬至就快来临,也意味着旧的一年将会结束. 到时候炎热的大马, 刮起阵阵年尾北风,凉快非常, 这就是我最爱的季节和气候! 已往大概11月左右北风就会刮起, 然而今年的气候变化不定, 几天前才稍有微风的踪影,可算是迟来的北风。

每当北风到来, 华族必定想念那垂咽三尺的腊肉腊味. 那浓郁带有酒的悠香,咸咸甜甜的味道…叫人难以忘怀, 腊味配上现时盛产的芽菇一同蒸熟, 绝对是家家户户的座上佳肴。
腊味的品质与季节有莫大关联，每年就只有秋冬季是最佳的时刻进行生产，提前或超出此时间生产出来的腊味，会失去腊味独有的风味。

腊味是季节性食品.它和过冬吃汤圆是扯不上关系。
每年的12月22号是冬节, 吃汤圆是传统习俗, 象征家庭和谐、吉祥。“汤圆”是冬至必备的食品，是用糯米粉制成的圆形甜品，“圆”是意味着“团圆”及“圆满”，冬至吃汤圆又叫“冬至团”。民间有“吃了汤圆大一岁”之说。冬至团可以用来祭祖，也可用于互赠亲朋。
若你有兴趣做汤圆, 你可游览我们去年2008所写的英文版本的汤圆食谱。

腊鸭腿

何谓「腊味」？
「腊」是一种肉类食物的处理方法，把肉类以盐或醬腌漬后再风干。农历十二月称为 “腊月”，中国天气转冷且干燥，肉类不易变质且蚊蟲不多，加上秋冬季风较大, 适合风干制腊味，因以為名。

发源地
广东省的西北部连州, 地理位于河床谷地，秋冬季风力较大，干燥的北风，正是连州特有的气候和地理位置，成了别具一格、风味独特， 浓香可口的腊味。

历史
腊味流传至今已有300多年，远在清朝初期，人民生活富足.当时的猪肉屠宰剩余,一次偶 然的机会，当地有一位村民把剩余的猪肉用食盐铺撒面上，次日又将用盐腌制了一夜的猪肉用绳吊挂起来，时值冬至，连日大雪，无法出门，那户人家便将腌制的猪 肉取下煮食，却发现味道不同一般，咸香可口。从此，用盐腌制猪肉做成腊味的工艺便流传开去。
时至今天, 腊味的品种更为丰富和多元化，有腊肉、腊肠、腊鸭肠、腊鸭、腊鸡等之余还有没在大马吃过的, 如腊鸭胗、腊鱼、腊田鼠、腊狗、腊蛋呢!
腊味主要有生抽味、老抽味、酒香味三种味道。有吹干, 烘干, 晒干, 烟熏等做法。

中国腊肠
把肥瘦适中的猪肉切条或跺碎，用生抽、烧酒、盐、白糖腌制大约10分钟，然 后把肉碎灌进干肠衣去，用筷子头压实，然后把灌实的肠衣截成一段段，用细绳扎紧，拿去晾晒大概一个星期即可。

广式腊肠
口味偏甜，主要配料包括油、鹽、醬油、糖、酒等。作方法是將豬肉切粒腌製，然後塞入腸衣（一般用豬、羊等牲畜的小肠制作）风干，顔色比較鮮豔。

若你喜欢又想自己做腊肠, 敬请留意下一集 的”动手做家常腊肠”.

祝您有个美满和幸福的冬节!

Popularity: 10% [?]

Share/Bookmark

After reaching KL from Penang, we headed to Rocket United for a very late dinner and call it a day, last night. Today, we had skip breakfast to get some work done. For lunch we had quick and easy one somewhere around Desa Petaling, chicken rice was what we had. I don’t know the road name but here’s the coordinates to the place.

The chicken rice shop/stall that we had our lunch was call ‘Sang Kee’. They serve poached and roasted chicken, ‘suen choi’ or sour vegetables soup and ‘char siew’. The chickens that they have are quite big in size and very meaty, plus customers can choose from either farmed chicken or free range chicken depending on your preference.

On that hot Friday afternoon, we only had desire for poach free range chicken and ‘char siew’ with a side order of ‘suen choi’. The poached chicken skin was yellowish in color similar to those seen on Hong Kong serials, ‘wong yau kai’ or direct translation yellow oil chicken. The last time I had chicken that looked like this was last year in Setiawan and Pangkor Island while attending wedding dinners of relatives. The poach chicken at ‘Sang Kee’ was quite meaty but a bit bland for my taste buds. The skin was firm and rich though.

As for the ‘char siew’, it had quite a good ration of lean meat and fats, and the taste was above average with a sweeter after taste. A must have for me, if we do go back again.

I can’t speculate about the ‘suen choi’ for I was afraid that my stomach acid was acting up again, but from Gill’s feedback was that it also have an above average taste.

The chicken rice was normal, it had a very light seasoning with chicken essence which some may not have even tasted its presence if he she is accustom to out side food.  And the accompanying broth was very light, clear and sweet, with a hint of cabbage flavor in it…very comfortable soup. And that was all we had for lunch.

To sum up our experience at Sang Kee Chicken Rice:

Taste & Texture: 3.0/5 (Chicken was slightly bland and the rice was just mediocre)
Money Value : 3.0/5
Service: 3.0/5
Cleanliness: 3.0/5
Atmosphere: 3.0/5

In the early evening we had attended the AFC preview party at NEO, after which we headed Jalan Kasah for ribs at Ribs by Vintry. We have been to that area for Italian food, but not to either Ribs or their sister restaurant Vintry.

We were told ribs, be it beef or pork, were their specialty at  Ribs by Vintry, so for our mains we ordered 2 variations of pork ribs. One was their ‘Saute Butter Cream Sauce Ribs’ and the other was their BBQ pork ribs. And for desserts we shared their, also specialty, ‘Tiramisu’.

Gill was praise for the ‘Saute Butter Cream Sauce’ which was different, or fusion in taste. This variation of cream sauce was surprisingly fresh with the usage of some Asian herbs (lemon grass and some hint of orange peel) and not too overwhelming in terms of the after taste. The accompanying sautéed potato was equally tasty and creamy with a fluffy texture, but not much could be said about the side vegetable salad. Ribs wise, my only complains are that there were not enough meat on them and there was a hint of that ‘frozen’ meat taste left in the ribs. I was told that the ‘frozen’ meat taste was the effect of importing the ribs from Europe to acquire the the cut and taste that the chef wanted to present to their customers. Local pork ribs could have been sufficient, but then it is hard to get consistent supply of the cut and texture that the chef want. We too also have found that same cut of pork from different pork sellers in different areas have varied taste and texture. This may be due to the feed, age and condition of the pigs reared in.

The BBQ pork ribs also shares the same ‘frozen’ taste problem and insufficient meat on the bones. Taste wise, it tasted similar to the common BBQ ribs offered else where except the extremely smooth potato mash that was hidden at the bottom of the ribs.

The ‘Tiramisu’ was at first the most criticised item we had for the night at Ribs by Vintry. The ‘Tiramisu’ was bland(no cheesy richness or taste), no liquor taste and the biscuit was already soggy. This biscuit actually reminded me of water soaked dry corn cereal(Nestum). And it was one of the reasons or products that gave us a better insight of the confidence and responsibility of the staffs of the restaurant. After we made our complaints known on paying, we were assured that our grievances will be looked into. And immediately the cashier, Edmund, went into the kitchen to look into our feedback and brought another glass of their signature ‘Tiramisu’ for us to reevaluate. We tried it and it was a lot better than the glass that we paid for. The cheese taste was richer, there was a stronger hint of ‘Kahlua’ flavor and the biscuit was still firm.

To sum up our experience at Ribs by Vintry:

Taste & Texture: 3.3/5 (The pork ribs were slightly hard in texture and lack meat, but the fusion type sauce was something refreshing to our taste buds)
Money Value : 3.0/5 (not a whole lot, but sufficient to last out the whole bowl )
Service: 3.9/5 (not much attention during our dining due to under staffing, but the effort to answer our complains were main decision maker in our grading here)
Cleanliness: 3.5/5
Atmosphere: 3.5/5

Popularity: 7% [?]

Share/Bookmark