Cooking Vegetables-Chinese Style

I love vegetables and feel incomplete if vegetables are not included in main meals.Fortunately, my children all eat and love their vegetables as well.

I do not like too much spices in vegetables. The Chinese method of preparing the vegetables suits my taste.

This is how I cook the Chinese stir fried vegetables.

Ingredients:
4 pieces each of 3 types of any mushrooms;(button,, abalone or black mushrooms)
4 pieces abalone
4 young corn
100g broccoli
6 pea pods
100g carrot
2 pieces bean curd
100g cauliflower

You can also use other vegetables you fancy such as water chestnuts, asparagus or celery.
All vegetables except the bean curd, and abalone are washed and cut to bite sizes and scalded in boiling water for 3 minutes and set aside.
Mix 1/2 cup chicken stock with 1 tbsp corn flour in a small bowl. Add 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp black pepper powder and 2 tsp soya sauce and set aside.

Heat a little oil in a wok or large frying pan and fry 4 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped.Add abalone. Add vegetables and bean curd (quartered) and stir fry lightly for 2 minutes.Stir in the stock for 2 more minutes until gravy thickens.

Enjoy hot with plain white rice.

WASTE NOT,WANT NOT

Your grandmother, if she survived during the Japanese invasion of Malaya, will tell you how the people has to skimp on their meals then. Food was scarce and I remember my Mum telling how they had to eat tapioca as a staple diet.
Nowadays, we have so much food that it is more often wasted. In Britain, one third of food purchased ends up in the bins and lands in the landfill.

A number of British chefs has given tips to reduce remnants in the fridge:

• Write a shopping list before you go shopping. Buy only what is listed and don't buy on impulse.
  
• Freeze leftover bread wrapped in plastic and toast it frozen as it defrosts very quickly.
• Used bread can be reused as crumbs to dress chicken or turkey with a touch of mixed spice and herbs.
• Combine stale bread with milk, eggs, cheese, fresh herbs,salt and whatever else you can find in the kitchen and voila, you can make a delicious savoury bread pudding.
• Cold pasta can be fried like fried mee or baked in a macaroni cheese style sauce on the top.

I have added the following:

• Cold rice fried with leftover sambal or whatever gravy and added with leftover vegetables makes delicious fried rice.Leftover chicken, beef of fish can also be added. I also add sambal belacan to the fried rice if this is available.
• Leftover fried fish added to certain vegetables makes delicious kerabus.
• Leftover fried fish can be used in freshly prepared sambals or soya gravy, or added with mayonnaise and used as sandwich fillings.
• Leftover gravies can be frozen and reused when thawed and added with fish, seafood, chicken or beef.

If you do not want leftovers, cook only as required. In that way, you save your money and reduce the wastage. In a long run, you help save the environment as you have used less energy to cook food, and store them. If you don't throw into the bin, you have also reduce the amount of rubbish in the landfill.

Remember, some people believe that to waste means being friends with the devil. That certainly is not the way to go.

WORLD CLASS

The ongoing Beijing Olympics is a showcase of guts and determination.
Michael Phelps has got his target of 8 gold medals and Malaysia has lost the only hope when our Lee Chong Wei lost to Lin Dan of China in the badminton finals.
My tribute goes to Phelps and the American swimming team, the 3 Jamaican ladies who won the gold and 2 silvers for the glamorous 100 m race, and Nadal the soon to be number 1 in lawn tennis. These are world class athletes. While others aim to get the gold medals, these champions want to be legends.They must share something in common to be champions extraordinaire.Something that is still lacking in our Malaysian psyche. Perhaps the feeling of greatness is not inbuilt in us yet unlike the Americans who are ingrained in the mind from birth that they are the greatest and nothing is impossible.

We must also learn from the less fortunate Ethiopians and Iraqis who reach world class standards in sports without much help from their governments.

Our Malaysian athletes are given a lot of support and incentives.Except for Nicol David and the national squash players, and the national Bowling team, the rest are inconsistent in their performances. Physical and mental preparations must be equally important. The knowledge to build strength and stamina, physically and mentally, is something we need to acquire. We need to learn how the Americans, the Chinese and Koreans train thier sportsmen so that we can achieve world class standards like thay have.

The best place to start is in the schools especially the sports schools. As they say, shaping the bamboo must be from the shoot. The sports schools have been churning great sportsmen and women but still thay are not top world class yet.

As for you students out there, you too can excel in whatever you do. Students who are overseas on government sponsorships are already world class potentials. Prove to everyone that you are indeed world class. With globalization, the world is your oyster and you are not the village champion or the frog under the proverbial coconut shell. You can start by targeting your goals to meet world standards. Upon graduation, you should be far sighted and open-minded and ready to serve anywhere in the world.
Prove to the world that Malaysians can be respected and are indeed world class material too.

KERABU TAUGEH (BEAN SPROUTS SALAD)

Any kind of sprouts is good for you as sprouts supply the nutrients to the young plant. Try making your bean sprouts from mung beans (Kacang hijau). I am sure many of us learn how to do this in our Science class in primary school. The sprouts you get from the d-i-y lasts longer and tastes better. It is crunchier too unlike the ones you get from the market which turn soggy and sour after a day or two.

The beansprout salad is a nice change from the ordinary stir-fried vegetables.


Ingredients:

500g bean sprouts
1 cup oilfree toasted grated coconut, pounded for use as kerisek. You can use desicated coconut if you are not accesible to freshly grated coconut or you can buy ready made kerisek in the market.
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup cooked shrimps
toasted sesame seeds
2 fresh chillies,sliced
1 sprig cilantro, 1 sprig spring onion and 1 sprig celery (daun sup) chopped
a liitle sugar and salt for seasoning

Boil some water and pour over the beansprouts to scald them. You can also use the microwave oven to do these.
Mixed all ingredients except the bean sprouts in a large bowl till evenly mixed. Finally add the bean sprouts and serve.

ACAR CINA or CHINESE PICKLES

I wonder why it is called Chinese pickles in my recipe book. I have never seen it in Chinese cooking. At a wedding my family attended on Sunday, this vegetable dish was served. It is actually a Malay dish normally served at weddings. Perhaps the Malays adapted it from a Chinese recipe.

The ingredients are:
1 cucumber(remove the core), 5 strands of long beans (French beans if you cannot find long beans), 1 carrot, all cut into 5 cm strips.
2 fresh red chillies, 2 fresh green chillies, split halfway into 4
5 shallots, cut into 2, or 2 onions,cut into 4

To be grounded:
4 fresh red chillies,
5 cloves garlic
2.5 cm ginger
3 shallots

Other ingredients:
1 tsp mustard seed
a handful of oil-free toasted sesame seeds
4 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
a liitle salt
3 tbsp oil

Heat oil and fry the grounded ingredients in a saucepan till fragrant. Add vinegar, sugar and salt. Add the vegetables and cook quickly but not for too long so that the vegetables remain crunchy. Remove from the heat and sprinkle the sesame seeds.

Cucumber Pickle (Acar Timun)

This acar timun is normally prepared during wedding feasts or can be eaten with normal plain rice,tomato rice or beriani.

3 cucumbers-remove the centre and cut into strips of 3 cm each.
1 carrot-shredded or cut into strips like the cucumber
1 big onion-sliced
2 red and 2 green chillies-halved
2 tbsp roasted sesame seed
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar, or to taste
1/2 cup vinegar
3/4 cup oil

Ingredients to be blended:

6 cloves garlic
3 cm ginger
2 cm fresh turmeric
10 dry chillies
10 candlenuts

Mix vegetables with 1 tsp salt, using a strainer, press out the juice.Heat oil in pan and fry blended ingredients.Fry until fragrant.Add sugar, salt and vinegar.Fry until sauce thickens and the oil seeps to the top. Leave to cool.When cooled, add the vegetables and sesame seeds.

Below is another easy to make salad that does not need any cooking.I observe this salad being prepared by the Nasi Beriani hawker near my house.

Easy Cucumber Salad:

2 cucumbers, remove centre and cut into strips as above.
1 carrot, cut as cucumbers,
1/2 pineapple,remove skin, core and cut into strips like the cucumber.(You can use canned pineapples and you need not add anymore sugar).
a little sprinkle of sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup vinegar

Salads and Kerabu

Having only a microwave oven often limits your choice of types of meals to prepare.However, preparing certain salads and kerabu ( the Malay equivalent of salads)does not need any cookers or ovens.

Here is a family favorite,the tangy mango kerabu.Kerabus are popular in the northern part of Malaysia.It must be from the Thai influence.

Ingredients for the Mango Kerabu:

2 unripe mangoes,cleaned and skin removed
100g shallots or onions,sliced
10 bird's eye chillies, sliced
75g dried anchovies
a handful of raw peanuts
1 tbsp dried shrimps, soaked and coarsely pounded

Salad dressing

3 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar or to taste

Fry anchovies until fragrant and crispy.Dish out and set aside.Heat wok until hot, then put in raw peanuts and salt.Lower the heat and stir-fry constantly for 10-15 minutes with a quick to-and-fro motion.Fry until the peanut skin begins to blister and turns brown.There must be no compromise for this, otherwise the peanuts will end up with a burnt skin outside and still raw inside. Before dishing up, test the peanut by tasting it.Make sure it is crunchy.Remove from the heat and allow to cool before removing the skin.You can do this frying at home where you have the normal cooker if you only have a microwave oven in your rented apartment.For those living away from home,other than in Malaysia, I am sure you will be provided with a hotplate at least.
Shred mango with a shredder.If you don't have a shredder, you can cut it into small strips manually with a sharp knife.Combine mango with sliced shallots or onions, bird's eye chillies and dried shrimps to the salad bowl.If bird's eye chillies are too hot for you, you can substitute with normal red or green chillies.
Mix dressing ingredients together and add into the mango mixture.Toss well to combine.Just before serving, stir in the peanuts and anchovies.

Variations to the recipe above:

You can exclude the fish sauce if you cannot find it in the market.I normally add shredded wild ginger flowers, (bunga Kantan) and the children would love it.

More on Microwave Cooking

Perhaps the most important thing to remember, never, never put anything metallic such as a spoon,knife, aluminium foil or steel mug or teapot into the microwave oven.The oven will catch fire and may be damaged.The other thing is not to reheat cakes, doughnuts or bread for too long. They come out tough and dried and as for hotdogs, they will be not only be shrivelled, but look and taste unpleasant. When reheating, without any instructions,try to experiment in spurts of 10 seconds or less so that your food is not overexposed to the microwaves.Reheating food in gravy is not too difficult as the liquid will act as a buffer.Stop heating when the liquid is heated not till the food is all dried up.

Referring back to making the sauces, you will note that I did not put any onions, garlic or ginger in them. I do not personally like the taste if you do not fry them thoroughly as in 'tumis'in the art of Malay cooking.If you are preparing the sauces the normal way using oil and a saucepan, you are recommended to use onions or shallots, garlic and ginger, all grounded.

I hope the tips I have written here suffice for ordinary everyday microwave cooking for novices and beginners.Anyone with queries are welcomed to ask.I do not pretend to be an expert because I am not, but I feel honoured to share my experience.

Well Nurul,Zaty, Ikmal may have questions. For sure Afif and Zayye will not have any cos' they are still at home, most of the time, enjoying food served to them without having to prepare them themselves.

Making the Sauces

I mentioned earlier that you need to buy the gravy sauces or prepare them traditionally before adding to the cooked fish, seafood, chicken or meat in the microwave oven.Meat or poultry will have to be marinated well and placed in the fridge at least one hour, better overnight, before they are cooked in the microwave so that they taste good.

So Zaty has to come home to make her sauces.Better still, I will prepare them earlier, freeze them in small microwave containers and she can bring them back to her apartment when she comes home for the weekend. But poor Ikmal,being a few thousand kilometers away, cannot come home for his supplies.He will have to prepare them himself the normal traditional way and freeze them for the times when he is too tired or has no time to cook as exams are coming.

I normally cook extra during the days when I am free and freeze the leftovers in small microwave containers.Whenever I find that I don't have much time to cook,i.e upon returning home near mealtimes when everyone is hungry, I will take out the leftover gravies and thaw them in the microwave oven.If their are leftover fried fish, I will add them to the gravy.If not, fresh fish is used after thawing and frying them seasoned with salt and turmeric.Small fish do not need thawing in the microwave as they thaw pretty fast when placed while still wrapped in plastic into a bowl of water.

Meat and chicken cook faster after they are thawed in the microwave before being added to curries and other gravies.

Making the different sauces:
You may need to vary the amount of ingredients to your taste.

1. Black Pepper Sauce

Ingredients
1 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp black pepper powder, 2 tbsp corn flour, 2 tbsp soya sauce. 350 ml water, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 Knorr Stock Cube ( optional).

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Mix black pepper,cornflour, soya sauce, water and salt and add to hot oil.Stir thoroughly so that gravy thickens well and if it is too thick add more water.

If cooking in a microwave you can put all the ingredients, blended first, together and cook for about two minutes before stirring and letting it stand.

2. Sweet and Sour Sauce

Ingredients:

1 tbsp oil,2 tbsp chilli sauce, 2 tbsp tomato sauce, 1 tbsp soya sauce,1 tsp vinegar,1 tbsp cornflour mixed in some water,1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar if desirable.

Method of preparation is similar to the black pepper sauce, either traditionally or by microwave. The water should be added gradually so that the sauce is not watery but slightly thick but runny. Adding pieces of pineapple slices makes a tasty addition to the sweet and sour sauce.The sauce mixes well with fried fish, chicken or meat.

3. Plum Sauce

Ingredients and cooking method are similar as black pepper sauce but add dried Chinese plums and use light soya sauce instead of dark soya sauce.Makes a lovely sauce for steamed fish.You can microwave the fish in a little sauce separately before adding to the cooked sauce.
The garnishing will include cut ginger slices, cilantro,celery, carrots or any vegetable of your choice.You may place the garnishing together in the sauce just before end of cooking time.
For a more elaborate sauce for steamed fish, see my earlier posting in May.
4) Chilli Sauce

Ingredients:
1 onion, 10 cloves garlic,cooked in a little oil before adding 5 tbsp chilli paste. Cooked the chilli well before adding 1 tbsp cornflour, 1 tsp salt, all mixed in some water and 4 tbsp vinegar. Add 5 tbsp sugar.You can add mashed papaya or mashed mango instead of sugar for a delicious flavored chilli sauce.You may need to adjust the water volume to get a saucy consistency.Add water little by little, not simply pouring it in one go.This sauce can also be used as dips for crackers or fritters.

As curries need a different cooking method,it will need a separate posting.Asam Pedas and Sambal has been included in earlier posts.

Microwaved Scrambled Eggs

I looked up Amy Beh's recipes in kuali.com and came across only one microwave recipe as below:

Scrambled Eggs the Microwave Way

Ingredients
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp milk
• Dash of salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp butter
Method
Beat eggs with milk and add in salt and pepper. Put butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Melt butter on high for 30 seconds.

Add beaten egg mixture to the melted butter and microwave on high for 1 minute 15 seconds.

Remove bowl and stir or whisk the set pieces of eggs from the sides of the bowl in towards the centre.

Cook on high for a further 1 minute 15 seconds to 1 minute 45 seconds, stirring or whisking twice.

When the eggs are three-quarters cooked, you can still see a significant amount of runny egg in the bowl but when the eggs are cooked, they will be moist but not completely set. Leave to stand for one to two minutes, then remove the scrambled eggs and serve immediately with toasted bread.

I know Zaty has been cooking eggs in the microwave at home without using any oil.In the beginning during our experiment, the eggs were overcooked. However,cooking for about 15 seconds will result in half cooked ones.It is not wise to cook eggs in its shell as it may explode.But by putting it in a bowl of water, it may not explode if you cook it only for less than a minute.

Safety when Using the Microwave Oven

When using a microwave oven to cook food, one has to make sure the food is cooked thoroughly to destroy any bacteria that may be present.
You can cook pasta, rice, potatoes, meats, fish, poultry, vegetables, and any pre-cooked meals. Fruits and vegetables are more nutritious because less water is used and the shorter cooking time reduce nutrient depletion.
Food cooked in the microwave has to be laid evenly in a covered dish and added with only a little liquid if needed. The dish is covered loosely with a lid or plastic wrap; so that there is an outlet to let steam escape. The moisture created from the heat will help destroy harmful bacteria and ensure even cooking.
Large cuts of meat are not cooked on high power (100%). They are be cooked on medium power (50%) for longer periods. This allows heat to reach the centre without overcooking the outside.
Food cooked should be about the same size. This helps to distribute the heat more evenly and cook them thoroughly.It is better to cook the meat separately and added to the sauce which have been cooked earlier.
Stir or rotate food midway through microwaving to eliminate cold spots where harmful bacteria can survive, and for more even cooking.
Meats, fish and poultry can be cooked in the microwave, but it is important to check that it has been cooked until the inside is no longer pink or bleeding. Foods keep cooking after the microwave is off, so allow standing time.

Uneven Heating

Unwanted microorganisms may thrive in the food if it is not cooked evenly.
Manufacturers use stirrer fans and turntables and recommend standing times to help alleviate the problem of uneven heating. Many microwavable meal packs carry the instruction to stir the food part way through the cooking process. Items such as lasagne that cannot be stirred should be allowed standing time to allow the whole product to reach a uniform temperature.

It is better to divide large portions into smaller portions for reheating than to heat a large amount for longer.
Care should be taken that frozen food has been completely thawed. Water absorbs microwaves far more easily than ice does; incomplete thawing will result in uneven cooking and the potential survival of undesirable microorganisms in those parts of the food, which have been insufficiently heated.

You have to make sure that frozen food are thoroughly thawed before cooking.You can thaw it fast, though,using the microwave.Microwave ovens' safety feature is that food can be taken from the freezer, thawed quickly, cooked and served without it spending long periods of time in the danger temperature zone between 4°C and 60°C, which provides favourable conditions for dangerous microorganisms to thrive.

Accidents with the Microwave Ovens

Microwave ovens are less likely to cause burns than are conventional ovens.
Burns have occurred from the steam emitted from microwaveable popcorn bags and similar closed packages and from the boiling portions of foods, which heat unevenly. An example of this is a jam-filled donut; the jam centre may exceed the boiling point of water while the donut itself is only warm. Frozen macaroni cheese is another example as the cheese reaches a high temperature more quickly and retains more heat than the macaroni.

When warming up milk,test the temperature before drinking.You would not want your tongue to be scalded with boiling milk.

Always use oven gloves to remove items from the microwave oven to avoid unexpected burns.

Containers and Films for Microwave Cooking

Only utensils designed for the purpose should be used in a microwave oven.

I prefer to use ceramic or porcelain as opposed to plastics because plastics may migrate to the food at high temperatures and may be dangerous to imbibe on a long term basis as it can be carcinogenic.
Only those plastic containers, which have been specifically designed for microwave cooking, should be used, and they should be discarded when the surface shows any signs of breaking down.
When plastic films are used in microwave ovens, it is preferable that they are not in direct contact with the food they cover. Meals to be reheated on a plate may be covered with clean white absorbent kitchen paper to prevent spatter.
Frozen food containers which have been designed to package frozen or chilled foods such as ice cream or margarine, should not be exposed to high temperatures in a microwave oven. The low melt temperatures of these plastics may result in migration of undesirable contaminants into the food or in physical disintegration of the containers themselves.

Container shape may also influence the way a food reacts to reheating. Circular or oval containers help prevent edges of the food burning because energy absorption occurs evenly around the edges. Square containers tend to encourage burning on the edges of a product.

Asam Pedas (Hot and Sour Curry) in the Microwave.

Mix and strain to obtain tamarind juice:
2 tablespoon size tamarind paste, add more tamarind juice if it is not sour to your taste.You may also add a piece of tamarind skin(asam keping)
500 ml water

500g small mackerel(ikan kembong),cleaned, gutted and seasoned with a little salt and steamed or microwaved for a few minutes.
4 ladies fingers
1 tomato, cut into wedges
2 stalks lemongrass
2 sprigs polygonum leaves(daun kesum)
1 tbsp oil

Spices(grounded and combined)
6 shallots
3 cloves garlic
6 chillies, deseeded
2 thick slices galangal(lengkuas)
1 thumb size shrimp paste(belacan)
3/4 tsp turmeric powder

Seasoning
salt
1 tsp ikan bilis stock granules

Garnishing
1 tbsp finely sliced wild ginger or torch ginger flower buds(bunga kantan)

Put tamarind juice and lemon grass in a ceramic bowl and bring to the boil in the microwave oven.The bowl should be large enough so that the liquid does not spill over.You can cover the bowl loosely with a plastic cover while cooking.Add polygonum leaves and ground ingredients and cook again for a few minutes.
Add ladies fingers and tomato and cook for while before adding the fish and 1 tbsp of oil and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the fish is soaked with the gravy.
Stir in the seasoning, dish out to serve with a sprinkling of wild ginger buds as garnishing.You can also cook the wild ginger buds in the gravy if you prefer.

Microwave Cooking

Zaty only has the microwave oven in her apartment.The hotplate is not plugged meaning the landlord does not want the girls to be cooking on their own.Cooking could be a fire hazard if one is not careful.Or the landlord does not encourage excessive use of electricity.

After three weeks eating out, Zaty and her housemates are planning to cook.They have to plan their weekly budget well now that their sponsor has issued their scholarship for 6 months.I reminded Zaty that that should last 6 months and not 4 months or earlier.Staying on her own is a good practice for Zaty before she does likewise in a foreign land unlike her brothers who lived in a catered college environment where they need not worry what or where to eat for their next meal.

To cook with the microwave oven is easy.One has to learn to estimate the cooking time. It is easier if the microwave oven comes with a manual.Too long cooking time will make meat tough or bread hard as the microwave acts on the water molecules and dries the food.

The shortcut for Zaty to make dishes to accompany rice is to buy the sauces at the hypermarkets near her apartment or come home and make them, freeze and microwave when needed.The sauces can be added to steamed or microwaved fish, chicken, squids, prawns or meat.

Cooking vegetables would be easy too if you add a little stock to the cut vegetables.
You can use Maggi or Knorr cubes for stock.

The sauces you can buy or prepare before hand are:

Black Pepper Sauce

Sweet and Sour Sauce

Plum Sauce

Sambal Sauce

Asam Pedas ( Hot and Sour Sauce)and

Curry

Below is a simple recipe using asam pedas sauce bought at the supermarket.

Ingredients:

1 packet asam pedas

2 or 3 small fish (Kembong, bawal or selar.I am not suggesting the more expensive fish because it may be out of a student's budget). (You can get the fish gutted at the supermarket now)Clean and slit the fish on each side and season with a little salt.

3 or 4 okra or ladies fingers, cut into 2

1 onion cut into 4

Place the okra and onion in a microwave bowl or dish.You can use a ceramic bowl instead of the plastic microwave as the plastic will absorb colour with repeated use.Add the ready-made sauce.Microwave for a few minutes till the okra is half-cooked.Add the fish and cook for a few more minutes till the fish is cooked.

(Different ovens will cook at different rates depending on whether it is cooked at high or low.I prefer cooking at low.)

You can use the same technique for curries and other sauces.