Soul Society

Shitakei mushroom is one of my favorite mushroom. You can buy that at any hypermarket either dried or wet type. Dried type you can keep for months but wet type can keep only for few weeks. However, wet type actually taste better. The mushroom taste are heavier. There are couple of types of shitakei mushroom. Common one are from China and expensive one are from Japan. If bought those wet type, it taste good with just simple stir fried. Ingredient: - 6 pieces of wet shitakei mushroom - 1 tablespoon butter - 1/4 teaspoon of salt Preparation: Wash the mushroom cleanly. Cut off the mushroom stem. Then slice the mushroom into half / quarter. Heat the pan with the butter. \ Add the slice mushroom and stir fried it slowly. The mushroom will slowly absorb the butter and the great smell will be release. Add some salt and cook until the white parts turn light brown. The mushroom is ready to serve. You can add some onion leave for taste or topping. This dish is very easy and simple to cook. It tas...

Kacang botol (Winged Bean/Four Angle Bean/Square Bean), ai shiii a lot of name for this vege. Mostly we can find this vege in economy rice. The cooking style most likely sambal fried. I try couple of times to replicate the taste. Here is the recipe. Ingredient: - 6-7 pieces kacang botol - 1 piece of onion (slice) - Dried prawn / replace with prawn - 2-3 cloves of garlic (chopped) - 2 tablespoon chili paste (cili giling) - 1 teaspoon belacan (shrimp paste) Preparation: 1. Cut the kacang botol about 1/2 inch. 2. Pour some oil and fry the belacan until it mix well with the oil. 3. If use dried prawn, cut the head and tail then blend it. If use prawn, it is best with peel off shell. 4. Stir-fried the dried prawn/prawn with the belacan. 5. Drop the garlic, garlic and chili paste into the pan. Stir for 5 minutes until the prawn cook. 6. The nice smell will come out and sometimes it may cause cough due to the spicy. 7. Drop the kacang botol and stir-fried for 1 minutes. Make sure the it is mi...

Broccoli always know as healthy vegetables. For me, I like dried mushroom the most due to the taste and smell. For softer and better taste, dried mushroom is better if soak overnight with water. Ingredient: - 4 pieces of dried mushroom soak overnight - 1/2 broccoli cut into pieces - 2 tablespoon Oyster sauce (can replace with vegetarian oyster sauce) - 1/4 teaspoon salt - 2 teaspoon rice wine - 2 cloves of chopped garlic - 2 teaspoon of corn flour Preparation: 1. Cut the mushroom into 4 sides. Means cutting it into 1/4. 2. Heat the pan with oil at high temperature. 3. Fried the garlic and mushroom.  4. Mix the oyster sauce with 1/2 cup of water. Pour the mix water. 5. Turn the temperature to medium and cover the pan. Cook for 10 minutes. 7. Drop the broccoli and salt. Cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes. 8. Pour the rice wine and stir. Then pour the corn flour (mix with water). This to create the gravy. 9. While pouring the corn flour, keep stirring it to avoid get sticky starch. Read...

I personally like steamed fish than fried fish. Basically fried fish is high cholesterol especially the deep fried one. It is also too heaty to our body. The thing I hate the most about fried fish is after frying the fish, it make my kitchen oily and smelly. That is why I prefer steam than fry. Steam fish also will contained the nutrient within the fish and the gravy. The nutrient from the fish will flow to the gravy and together with all the ingredients, it taste great and nutritious. Ingredient: - 1 piece of fish (any kind of prefer fish is fine) - Slice onion - Cut tomato - Slice ginger - Slice chinese mushroom - 2 piece of asam java - Slice red chilies - Chopped garlic - 1/4 teaspoon of salt Preparation: 1. Clean the fish and place it on top of the plate. You may wash the fish with salt. 2. Soak the asam java with some water, garlic, ginger, onion and mushroom for 5 minutes. 3. Pour the asam java sauce together with the ingredient on top of the fish. 4. Place the tomato and chilies...

Do not know what to cook for chicken? Tired of fried chicken? Teriyaki chicken is also one of the most simple marinated style. Ingredient: - 2-3 pieces of chopped chicken breast or thigh. Can be boneless but try to reserve skin. - 2 tablespoon of rice wine - white pepper - 2 tablespoon of sugar - 4 tablespoon of teriyaki sauce Preparation: 1. Mix all the ingredients into a bowl. Marinated it and keep cover and drop into the fridge for 1 hour. The longer the better. Marinate it in the early morning for lunch or marinate it during lunch and cook during dinner. 2. Pour some oil (1 tablespoon) on the fry pan. Heat the oil. 3. Drop the marinated chicken together with all the sauce. 4. Cook 5 minutes at 160 degree. Keep stirring. 5. Lower the temperature to 120 degree and keep stirring for 5 minutes. 6. Cover the pan and lower the temperature to 80 degree. Cook for 10 minutes. Stir it once it a while to avoid getting too sticky on the pan. 7. You will see the teriyaki sauce turning from ligh...

Japanese food always come in very handy cooking. Even a noob may able to cook a very nice curry. Japanese curry is nice if eat with rice. Ingredient: - 2 potato - 1 carrot - 1 onion (slice) - 3 cube of Japanese curry Preparation: 1. Pour some oil into the sauce pan / pot. 2. Heat the oil and drop the onion into it. 3. Stir fry the onion until the smell release from the pot. 4. Drop the cut carrot and potato. 5. Stir fry for 5 minutes at 120 degree. 6. Pour 2 bowl of water into it. Avoid pouring too much water so the curry will stay gravy. 7. Boil the soup for 15-20 minutes at 120 degree. The longer you boil, the softer the potato and carrot. I use to boil for 30 minutes. 8. Break the curry cube into small tiny pieces and drop into the soup. 9. Keep stirring the curry to avoid it get sticky at the bottom of the sauce pan / pot. Stir for 5 minutes and it is ready to serve. Serving size = 2 person Estimate time = 30 minutes Food Health = 6/10 Difficulty = 4/10

People nowadays don’t like sweet potato. When our grandparents still here, they like to tell us story how they actually survive during the World War II by eating sweet potato. The potato were steamed and eat by peeling off the skins. It may be not much taste but this is how people survive during war. Sweet potato is healthy food. Just that it is quite hard to make it delicious. If it is cook with Fried Yee Mee (the noodle use for cooking claypot noodle), the taste will be delicious. Ingredient: - 1 sweet potato - 2 packet of Fried Yee Mee - 2 tablespoon of Gei Ji (Lycium) - 1 teaspoon salt Preparation: 1. Boil a pot of water, estimate with 2 bowl of water. Place the chopped sweet potato and let it boil for 15 minutes until the potato turn tender. 2. Pour the sweet potato together with the water and blend it. 3. Pour the blend sweet potato back into the pot. Add the salt and Gei Ji. Boil it for 5 minutes. 4. Drop the fried Yee Mee into the potato soup.  5. Boil for 5 minutes. 6. It is r...

This is kind of western po piah style. Mission Wrap is a brand that can be found in Tesco. It is quite delicious with any kind of ingredient. Ingredient: - 2 piece of Mission Wrap - Salad vegetable - Tartar sauce - 2 Chicken Sausage - 1 Carrot, chopped - 1 Onion, chopped - Yellow Mustard - 1 boil egg - slice pickles Preparation: 1. Boil the sausage and egg. Heat the pan at medium temperature. Place the Mission Wrap on the pan and heat it for 1 minute per side. Place it on a plate. 2. Wipe some tartar sauce on the wrap. 3. Place some salad vegetable on the wrap. 4. Place the rest of the ingredient on the salad vegetable. May add additional sauce base on individual preference such as tomato sauce, chili sauce, olive oil, vinegar and etc. I add some dry parsley and white pepper for better tasting. 5. Roll and wrap it. Just the po piah way or Japanese hand roll style. 6. Serve with some vegetables as side dish. Serving size = 2 person Estimate time = 30 minutes Food Health = 7/10 Difficult...

When hungry at near midnight, or raining heavily outside, and not planning to have just bread with butter. Well Kon Lou Mee can be a nice and simple food taught by my mom.   Ingredients: - 1 tablespoon of thick soya sauce - 1 tablespoon of fried garlic oil - 1 teaspoon of Lea Perkins sauce - 1 teaspoon of sugar - 1 teaspoon of sesame oil - sprinkles of white pepper - 3/4 tablespoon of vegetarian oyster sauce - 1 packet of plain instant noodles.     Preparation: 1. Boil a pot of water. Wait until the water at boiling stage, drop the instant noodle. Avoid the instant noodle soak in the water for too long. Cook for 2 minutes and drain the water. 2. While waiting for the water to boil, start preparing the sauce. Drop all the ingredient into a bowl. Thick soya sauce, fried garlic oil, Lea Perkins sauce, sugar, sesame oil, white pepper and vegetarian oyster sauce. 3. Place the hot noodles into the bowl and start mixing it until it get evenly. May serve with vegetable. In my case, I serve wit...

Again, steamboat leftover. You won’t like eating porridge everyday. Therefore, sometimes noodle can be a good replacement and easy to cook. Ingredient: -  Chopped salad vegetable - Chicken Sausage - Pork meatball - Taiwan sausage with skin off - Fish ball - Thick rice noodle (you can replace with any noodles you like) - Fried garlic oil - Ginger slice - Sesame oil - 1/4 teaspoon of salt - 1/2 teaspoon of chicken stock - 1 teaspoon Lea Perkins sauce. Preparation: 1. Chopped slice the salad vegetable. 2. Boil a pot of water. Estimate with 2 and 1/2 bowl of water. 3. Drop the chicken sausage, pork meatball, fish ball, ginger slice and Taiwan sausage. Boil for 10 minutes. 4. Drop the sesame oil,  chicken stock, Lea Perkins sauce and teaspoon of salt. Stir it well. 5. Boil for 2 minute. 6. Boil another pot of water. At boiling peak, drop the noodles and cook. Make sure it is boiling before dropping the noodles else it will cause the noodle too soft and mashed. 7. Place the noodles in a bowl...

What to do with the steamboat ingredient after CNY? Easiest way to clear it is cooking porridge for two. Ingredient: - 1 cup of brown rice (estimate for 2 person) - Chicken slices/strips - Any green vegetables - Squid - Cuttlefish - Taiwan sausage - Pork meatball - Fried garlic oil (get some chopped garlic and fry in oil until golden brown) - White pepper - 1/4 teaspoon salt - 1 teaspoon Lea Perkins sauce - 1 tablespoon of Chinese rice wine - 1 teaspoon sesame oil Preparation: 1. Rinse and soak the brown rice in water for 2-4 hours. The longer period will make the rice softer. 2. Boil the brown rice with 4 cups of water.  3. Drop the chicken slices, squid, cuttlefish, Taiwan sausage (with skin off), and pork meatball. 4. Boil for 15 minutes with high temperature.  5. Lower the heat to low, and cook for 30 minutes. During this period, it is better to observe the boiling. Stir when the bubbles appear. This to make the porridge equally cook and avoid sticking to the pot. It will also make...

Since I’m not a pro cook, sometimes sauce play important part if the food doesn’t taste good. Malaysian like to eat with chili sauce or tomato ketchup. It just like a must sauce when eating western food. Of course we can see it at every local western food hawker stall. The waiter use to carry the chili sauce and tomato ketchup around. For me, I feel sometime it taste good with original taste. When making some food and if the taste isn’t enough, here my signature sauce; tartar sauce. Ingredient: Mayonnaise. (preferable real mayonnaise, those with soya bean oil in the ingredient) lemon juice (half a lemon) 1 piece of gherkins pickles (chopped) 1-2 onions (chopped) Yellow mustard White pepper Dry Parsley Preparation: 1. Pour all the mayonnaise into a bowl. I get it into a plastic ware as I’m going to keep it. 2. Chopped some gherkins pickles and onion. If you an onion lover, the more the better. Same goes to pickles. In my case, 1 piece of pickle and 2 red onion is just nice. Mix the pick...

I just bought a non-stick pan. Instead of my previous stainless steels pan, it sometimes need to take awhile to allow the pan to heat before it able to cook without sticking. More oil also needed for stainless steels pan. Therefore I decided to purchase a non-stick pan. I went to Japanese Home shop and found there are some nice non-stick pan which cost around RM70. I also did some survey at AEON. Walking around and compare several famous brand. Finally I decided to go for Tefal non stick pan. Tefal pan have higher resistant from scratch (able to use metal for cooking), free leads, free cadmium, free PFOA. The best thing about Tefal pan that it has the termo-spot. A red color thingy in the middle of the pan where it will shows you when is the pan is hot enough for cooking. It cost me RM179. There are some model which is cheaper and cost around RM95. But because I'm using induction cooker, I need to buy the one that able to support induction cooker which more expensive than usual. A ...

Steamed egg have been a very popular dish for Asian. Chinese, Korean and Japanese have steam egg in their food menu. It just the way they do it differently. Steam foods are always healthier than fried food. Ingredient: - 1/2 cut cube chicken stock - 2 piece of mushroom, slice - 2 piece of black fungus, slice - 4 eggs - Parsley - 1 teaspoon of rice wine, I replace Sake with rice wine. Sake more expensive - 1/2 teaspoon salt - 1 teaspoon soy sauce - 1 teaspoon sugar Preparation: 1. Boil a pot of water. Estimate with 2 small bowl of water. Drop the chicken stock and boil the stock melt. Let it cool. If the chicken soup is hot, it will create too much pores in the chawanmushi. 2. Crack the eggs into a bowl. Drop the mushroom, black fungus, Parsley, rice wine, salt, sugar and soy sauce. 3. Do not whip it. Stir it slowly to avoid bubbles formed. Stir until it is mix well. 4. Pour the boil chicken stock slowly into the eggs. 5. Stir slowly so it mix well. 6. Pour the egg into the bowl and pla...

I was thinking of cooking something romantic for two. Western food will be most suitable. I went to hypermarket and shop for some ingredient which took me near an hour for that. Thinking of cooking some fish and start googling. I saw a video teaching how to cook fish and chips. Can find most ingredient here, so I modified my own. Also I don’t have a weighing machine. So I guess the amount by using anything I can find from the kitchen. Ingredients 2 pieces fish fillet. (I use dory fish) a plate of flour French fries (estimate for 2 person) Oil (vegetable oil or corn oil, don’t use olive oil as it will taste weird) mushy peas 1 bowl of frozen peas (estimate for 2 person) 1 teaspoon of salt butter/cold margarine (size of half ping pong ball) batter 1/2 cup of flour half bottle of cold lager beer (I use Tiger beer as it is the cheapest I can find here) 1 teaspoon of salt few sprinkle of white pepper tartar sauce mayonnaise (5 tablespoon as for my case) lemon juice (half a lemon) 1 piece of...