Recipe: Stir fried savoury rice cake (Vegetarian)

Hi guys, how's your Chinese New Year celebrations going so far? Usually on the first day of CNY, we will have vegetarian food for the whole day. 

In the afternoon, we will usually cook a more elaborate meal with 5-6 courses, but for dinner, we usually keep it simple with a vegetarian noodle dish.  For past two years, I made this Stir fried savoury rice cake (nian gao) for my family and they thoroughly enjoyed it. Also perfect after many days of CNY feasting, when you're craving for something lighter.

Stir fried savoury rice cake (Vegetarian)
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes
Serves 5-6


Ingredients

400g white rice cake 白粿干, soaked in water for at least 10 hours
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
2-3T cooking oil
1T dark soy sauce or cooking caramel
1-2T light soy sauce
1 leek, sliced at an angle
2 cabbage leaves, washed and thinly sliced
Bok choy, cut into 1" lengths
2 dried Chinese mushrooms, rehydrated and thinly sliced
1 wood ear fungus, rehydrated and thinly sliced
1/3 carrot, julienned

150g Omnimeat strip
Salt
A few dashes white pepper

1. In a pot of salted water, cook the rice cakes for a min, then drain and rinse in cold water a few times to remove extra starch. Drain and set aside.

2. Heat oil in wok. Add Omnimeat and stir fry for 4-5 mins until lightly golden. Remove and set aside.

3. Add shallots to oil and sauté for 2 mins. Add wood ear fungus, mushroom, cabbage, carrot, leeks, bok choy and sauté for a few mins. Stir in rice cake and season with dark and light soy sauce, salt and white pepper.

4. Stir in Omnimeat and serve.

Note: You can buy the rice cakes here: https://shp.ee/6qd5qnd

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Recipe: Vegan Scallops with Sweet Peas

During Chinese New Year, scallops are often served, as it is an auspicious ingredient which symbolises new opportunities for the new year. 

Stir fried scallops with sweet peas is one of my favourite ways of serving scallops (recipe here). This year, I've created a vegetarian version to serve on the first day of CNY 2022 (we're vegetarians on the first day). The mock vegan “scallops” are created using king oyster mushroom which has a great meaty texture. I have to say they really do look like real scallops and tastes great too. Sweet peas and carrots pair well with scallops, and they are auspicious too - symbolising both unity and good luck. 

Vegan scallops with sweet peas

Recipe by Baby Sumo

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients
For the vegan “scallops”
200g king oyster mushroom
1 tbsp cooking oil
1-2 tbsp salted butter
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp cooking sake

For the veggie stir fry
130g sweet peas, ends trimmed
5-6 carrot slices, cut into flower shapes
1 tbsp shallot oil
1tbsp water
1/2 tsp mushroom or vegetarian stock powder

1. Trim the ends off the mushroom. Cut into 2-3cm pieces from the stalks.

2. Using a knife, cut cross lines on the mushroom. Watch the video in this post to learn how to cut the cross lines.

3. Melt butter with oil in a pan. Pan fry the mushrooms until golden, then flip, and repeat for other side. Once both sides are golden, add cooking sake and season with salt and pepper, cover and cook for a further min.

4. Heat shallot oil in another pan. Add sweet peas and carrots, along with water and seasoning and sauté for 2-3 mins.

5. Plate and enjoy!

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Recipe: Fu Gui Choy with Braised Mushrooms and Carrot Flowers

Chinese New Year is just one week away now. Time to stock up on auspicious ingredients for your reunion dinner and CNY meals. You may have seen this vegetable, Fu Gui Choy or Fu Gui Cai (富贵菜) in the supermarkets or on online supermarkets; they usually only make an appearance during the CNY festive period.

Fu Gui Choy 富贵菜 translates as Prosperity Vegetable in English, plus it looks really beautiful on the plate. Other than that, mushrooms symbolises longevity while carrots symbolises good luck. So, all in all, a very auspicious vegetable dish to serve during CNY.

Here’s an idea on how you can serve it:

Fu Gui Choy with Braised Mushrooms and Carrot Flowers
Recipe by Baby Sumo

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 Fu Gui Choy, kept whole
5 Chinese mushrooms
1 cup water
Vegetarian oyster sauce, to taste (about 1 tbsp)
1/2 tbsp Shaoxing wine

A few dashes white pepper
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 tbsp cooking oil
5-6 carrot slices, cut into flower shapes
5 Goji berries, soaked in water for 10mins

1. Soak and rinse the fu gui choy in water 3-4 times to remove dirt.

Before cooking

2. In a small saucepan, heat oil and sauté garlic for 2 mins. Add mushrooms and water, and season with vegetarian oyster sauce, white pepper and Shaoxing wine. Braise over low heat for 10-15 mins.

3. Fill a wok 3/4 full with boiling water. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 tbsp of oil. Blanch carrots for a min. Remove. Blanch Fu Gui Choy for 2-3 mins, until cooked.

4. Place fu gui choy on a plate. Arrange mushrooms and carrots, and pour the braising liquid over the vegetable. Garnish with goji.

Note:
1. If serving this on the 1st day of CNY as a vegetarian dish, you can omit the garlic.
2. I wanted to keep the vegetable as a whole floret for beautiful presentation. When eating, you can use scissors to remove the stalks from the bottom stem that's holding them together.

You can buy Fu Gui Choy here: https://shp.ee/c46kpe5

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Recipe: How to Make Vegetarian "Abalone"

On the first day of Chinese New Year, our family will eat vegetarian food for the day. Usually, for the first meal of the new year, we will cook "jai"素 as well as a few other vegetarian dishes containing auspicious ingredients such as mushrooms, carrots and fatt choy (black moss). 

Abalone, is a popular ingredient during Chinese New Year as it symbolises definite good fortune. It is however not vegetarian, so we actually made these look-a-like, mock vegetarian abalones using eryngii mushroom for the first day of CNY. 

Eryngii, also known as king oyster or trumpet mushroom have thick meaty stalks, with texture which has been likened to abalone. I first pan fried the "abalone" in some butter to give it some colour and then braised it with vegetarian oyster sauce... it was delicious! So, from next year onwards, we can have "abalone" on the first day of Chinese New Year!

How to Make Vegetarian Abalone

Our first meal for the Year of the Ox

How to Make Vegetarian Abalone
Makes 8 "abalones"

Ingredients

200g eryngii mushrooms 

A pat of salted butter

Vegetarian oyster sauce, to taste

150ml water

To serve

A few broccoli florets

Chinese mushrooms

1. Slice eryngii mushroom stalk, about 2.5cm thick. Get an oval cutter which has a smaller circumference than the mushroom. Using the oval cutter, press down in centre of the mushroom stalk, to about 5mm of the height of the mushroom. Next, using a knife, trim off about 5mm from top to the outer edge of oval cutter to get the abalone shape. If you do not have an oval cutter, you can manually cut out the oval shape using a knife.

2. Place butter in pan over medium heat. Add mushrooms, cook for 2 minutes, then flip and cook the other side for another 2 minutes.

3. Add water and vegetarian oyster sauce, and braise for about 5-10 minutes. Serve your "abalones" with braised mushrooms and steamed broccoli. 

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Recipe: Stir Fried Leeks with Prawns

Leeks is a must-have ingredient during Chinese New Year. Its name in Chinese 蒜 shares the same homonym as "calculating (money)" (算suàn), hence the Chinese believe that having leeks during CNY equals lots of money to calculate in the coming year. For our recipe video, we paired the leeks with two other auspicious ingredients - carrots which symbolises good luck and prawns 虾 (which translates to "ha") symbolises laughter and happiness.

Stir Fried Leeks with Prawns 

As you can see in the video, this is a very easy dish to prepare for CNY. Give it a try during the upcoming festive season. Happy cooking!

Stir fried leeks with prawns

Recipe by Baby Sumo

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 8-10 minutes

Serves 2


Ingredients
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
200g leeks, sliced at angle
1/4 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
8 peeled prawns, deveined
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp chicken stock granules

1. Heat oil in wok over medium high heat. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute, until lightly golden.

2. Add carrots and cook for 1 minute. Add prawns and cook for 1 minute.

3. Add leeks, then season with chicken stock granules. Add water and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently, until leeks are tender. Serve.

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How to Make Year of the Ox "Cow Yee Sang"

Chinese New Year is coming! It's the Year of the Ox this year, so we will be sharing with you this simple video on how to make a cute Cow Yee Sang to celebrate.

For our Cow Yee Sang, we used a selection of fresh fruits and vegetables such as lettuce, radish, cucumber, beetroot, carrot, chuka wakame, strawberry, blueberry, pear and pineapple. Many of these ingredients symbolise good things for the year to come, such as carrot which symbolises blessings of good luck and pineapple's homonym "ong lai" sounds like "luck come".

A Yee Sang is not a yee sang without the "yu" as it symbolises abundance for the new year- you can use salmon sashimi, fish roe or abalone. We chose the latter, which symbolises definite good fortune.  Before tossing, pour in the crackers (use bo cui or Tam Tam crackers, which both look like gold ingots) to symbolise the whole floor filled with gold, crushed peanuts to mean a household filled with gold and silver and your sweet dressing (may life always be sweet). 

Happy Niu Year everyone - have an a-MOO-zing year in 2021!

Check out the YouTube video here (link here)

Year of the Ox Yee Sang Year of the Ox Yee Sang Year of the Ox Yee Sang Year of the Ox Yee Sang Year of the Ox Yee Sang Year of the Ox Yee Sang Year of the Ox Yee Sang Year of the Ox Yee Sang

Cow Yee Sang (Abalone Yu Sheng)
Recipe and design by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1/3 radish, peeled and julienned
1/2 carrot, peeled and julienned
3-4 lettuce leaves, washed
1/2 Japanese cucumber, peeled and julienned
Chuka wakame (seasoned seaweed)
6 strawberries, thinly sliced
1/2 pear, peeled and julienned
Pineapple chunks
Beetroot
Blueberry
Roasted (nori) seaweed

Abalone

Condiments
1/2 cup peanuts, crushed
Tam Tam Cracker (or Bo cui cracker)

For the dressing
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey



1. For the dressing, place oil, balsamic vinegar and honey in a bowl and mix well.

2. Take some of the radish and add a tablespoon of beetroot juice to colour it pink.

3.For the Year of the Cow (Ox), use the white and pink radish to form a cow face. Form ears using pear and horns using carrot. Use blueberries for its eyes and nostrils. Cut out some roasted seaweed for the black spots on cow face. I also arranged the pineapples to form a sun and cut some of the strawberries into heart shapes. Arrange the rest of the vegetables and fruits in an attractive manner.

3. Just before tossing, place crushed nuts, and crackers on the plate, and pour the dressing all over the yee sang. Toss, shouting out "good wishes" and enjoy!

Note:
1. To assist with julienning the vegetable, get the julienne peeler from Daiso... so handy and does the job really quickly! You may also use a spiralizer.

2. If you do not have white balsamic vinegar, you may substitute with 3-4 calamansi limes. The sauce should taste sweet and sour. You may also use 1 tbsp plum sauce to 2 tbsp oil.
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Recipe: Chunky Vegetable Soup (Using Leftover Turkey)

So the first thing I made after making the turkey stock was this - chunky vegetable soup! We've been experiencing a slew of rain recently, so soups are perfect for those cooler evenings. 

Once you have your rich, flavorful turkey stock, you just need to add in your choice of vegetables - potatoes are a good choice as it helps thicken up the soup. I also added carrots and zucchini, and simply season with some salt and black pepper. You can also add in some of the shredded turkey to the soup to make it more substantial. That's one tasty, warming soup! You can serve the soup with crusty bread, or if you have leftover turkey meat, make some turkey sandwiches to go with your soup.

For the turkey sandwiches, lightly butter and toast your buns. Then, add your turkey (cold or you can heat them up slightly in the pan with some leftover gravy) and a dollop of cranberry sauce. 

Chunky Vegetable Soup (Using Leftover Turkey)
Recipe by Baby Sumo

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 30-40 minutes

Serves 4


Ingredients
1.2l turkey stock (recipe here)

1 carrot, cut into chunks
2 potato, cubed
1 zucchini, sliced then halved
150g leftover turkey meat, shredded


1. Place turkey stock with potato in a pot and simmer for 20 minutes over medium heat. 

2. Add carrots and zucchini and cook for further 10 minutes. 

3.Using a masher, roughly mash the potatoes and carrots. This will help thicken the soup.

4. Add leftover turkey meat. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with crusty bread or sandwiches.

Note: I have shredded all the leftover turkey meat and placed them in tupperwares (in the freezer), about 300g each and take them out of the freezer whenever I need them.

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Recipe: Cucumber Chive Kimchi (Oi Kimchi 오이김치)

This Cucumber Chive Kimchi (Oi Kimchi 오이김치) is my all-time favourite kimchi. It is also one of the quickest and easiest kimchi you can make at home. The regular cabbage kimchi usually takes 3 days to ferment before you can eat it, but you can make this and eat it on the same day. 

The first time I had this was at Shinmapo, served as ban chan (side dish) to our Korean BBQ meal. I make this at home whenever we have Korean food at home. This kimchi usually consists of cucumber, garlic chives and onion, however I omit the onion when I make it at home since I prefer it without. The recipe is quite flexible - adjust gochugaru or fish sauce according to how spicy or salty you like it. It is recommended to set the kimchi aside for at least two hours before consuming. Hope you enjoy it!

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Cucumber Chive Kimchi (Oi Kimchi 오이김치)
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from here

Preparation time: 5 minutes 
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 Japanese cucumber

3-4 stalks garlic chives, cut into 1 1/2" lengths

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp gochugaru (Korean red pepper powder)

1 tbsp grated (or pureed) pear

1/2 tbsp honey

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp fish sauce

1. Cut the cucumber to 1 to 1 1/2 inch lengths. Halve and then cut into three parts for each half. Place cucumber and chives in a bowl and sprinkle over salt. Set aside for 30 minutes.

2. In a separate bowl, add the gochugaru, grated pear, honey, garlic and fish sauce. Mix well. Add the cucumber and chives to the mixture and set aside at room temperature for at least 2 hours before consuming.  

Note: 

1. Add more fish sauce if you like your kimchi to be saltier.

2. There is no need to rinse the salt off the cucumber (after Step 1). 

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Recipe: Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls

Hainanese chicken rice is a famous dish in Southeast Asia, whereby poached chicken is served with seasoned rice cooked in chicken stock, chilli sauce and cucumber.

A couple of weeks ago, I made the Melaka version at home, serving the rice in ball form rather than just in bowls. History has it that the rice were shaped into balls as they keep warm for longer; from the time it is made in the morning at home until the time it is consumed at work later on in the day. We personally like it this way cos it's much more fun to eat as you can just pop them straight into your mouth.

The kids had fun helping me roll and shape the rice into balls. The rice is usually seasoned with ginger, garlic, salt and chicken stock and cooked with pandan leaves. For convenience, I used the Taste-Me Hainanese Chicken Rice Paste, which contains all the prerequisite ingredients to make an authentic tasting Hainanese chicken rice. Simply add the paste to your rice and water in a rice cooker and stir well to combine and voila!

The chicken is also extremely easy to make - I used chicken breast, which is first poached in boiling water and sliced, then drizzled with a sauce made from chicken broth, soy sauce and sesame oil. The remaining broth can be seasoned with just a little salt and you have a delicious bowl of clear soup to go with the meal as well. Taste-Me Sos Cili Padi is the perfect accompaniment to your chicken; it's pretty fiery and definitely has a kick to it.

Beansprouts are usually served with the Ipoh's version of chicken rice, and since I had some homegrown beansprouts (which were fat and juicy), so why not just add it onto the meal. Simply blanch the beansprouts with hot water and then drizzle with some of the same sauce you used for your chicken. Everyone at home loved the Hainanese chicken rice meal;  super satisfying and delicious, and very healthy too!

Good news guys!

Sin Tai Hing is currently running the "Road 2 Recovery Promo" whereby with any purchase above RM5, you will get a FREE rendang paste! Promotion runs from 10 to 24 June, do visit either the Taste-Me official stores on Shopee and Lazada. Don't forget to also check out their Facebook page for the latest news and promos.

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Hainanese Chicken Rice 
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
For the rice balls
1/2 pack (50g) Taste-Me Hainanese Chicken Rice Paste
250g rice
400ml water
2 pandan leaves, knotted

For the chicken
400g chicken breast
1l water
1/2 tsp salt

For the chicken rice soy sauce
4 tbsp chicken broth
1 tbsp Taste-Me soy sauce
1 tsp Sin Tai Hing Fook Tong sesame oil

For the beansprouts
2 cups beansprouts

To garnish
2 spring onions (green parts only), finely chopped
1/4 red chilli, deseeded and sliced
1/2 Japanese cucumber, peeled, halved and sliced

A. For the chicken:

1. In a large pot, bring water to the boil over high heat. Once boiling, add the chicken and cook, covered, over medium heat for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and leave chicken to steep in covered pot for a further 15 minutes.

2. Remove chicken from pot and allow to cool for 10 minutes, before slicing. Plate.

3. Mix the ingredients for chicken rice soy sauce in a small bowl. Drizzle 3 tablespoons of sauce over the chicken and then garnish with spring onions, red chilli and Japanese cucumber.

4. Reheat the chicken broth over medium heat. Season with salt. Spoon into bowls and garnish with spring onions.


B. For the chicken rice balls:

1. Wash rice until water is clear. Place rice in pot or rice cooker, then add water and Hainanese chicken rice paste. Use a clean spoon and mix well. Add pandan leaves and cook, like you would normal rice, until rice is tender.

2. Remove pandan leaf and fluff up the rice, using your rice scoop. Transfer to a large plate to help cool slightly, so you can shape the rice into balls.

3. Grab a small mound using your hands and pat to form balls, the size of golf balls. This recipe yields about 20 rice balls.

C. For the Ipoh-style beansprouts:

1. Blanch beansprouts in boiling water for a minute. Drain and place on plate.

2. Drizzle remaining chicken rice soy sauce over beansprouts.

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Check out my other recipe using Taste-Me products - wantan mee with chicken char siu here.

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Recipe: Acar Jelatah

Introducing my favourite Malay pickle, acar jelatah. Crunchy, tangy and refreshing, acar jelatah goes perfectly with any Malay meal, as it cuts through some of the richness of the curries, rendang, rice or meat dishes.

Acar jelatah is usually made up of cucumber, carrots, pineapple, shallots and red chilli. This is a quick pickle recipe, and will be ready in under 30 minutes. It's so easy that I've been making this rather often during this MCO period. Any leftovers can be kept in a clean jar for a day or two in the fridge, but I do recommend finishing it on the day it is made.

Check out the step-by-step video instructions here on YouTube:

Here's the recipe:

Acar Jelatah
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10 minutes (+15 minutes waiting time)
Serves 4

Ingredients
100g Japanese cucumber, peeled at regular intervals
50g carrots, peeled and julienned
100g pineapple, cut into small chunks
1 shallot, peeled, quartered and sliced thinly
1 red chilli, thinly sliced

For pickling solution
1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
Juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt

1. Mix all the ingredients for the pickling in a small bowl, until all sugar is dissolved.

2. Put cucumber, carrots, pineapple, shallot and chilli in a large bowl and pour over the pickling solution. Leave for at least 15 minutes.

3. Enjoy! Any unused pickles can be stored in the fridge for a few days.

Buy rice vinegar here: https://shope.ee/308yEGpb3B

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Recipe: Japanese Wafu Dressing (For salads)

In Japanese restaurants over here in Malaysia, whenever you order a set meal, you will usually be served a side salad. The salads are usually dressed with a wafu dressing. This wafu dressing which I adapted from Just One Cookbook, is very similar to that.  It's easy to put together and tastes great on salads. Try serving this when you serve a Japanese meal at home, such as the saba teriyaki. 

Japanese Wafu Dressing
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Just One Cookbook
Preparation time: 5-10 minutes
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
For the dressing
1 1/2 tbsp oil
1 1/2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tbsp yellow onion, grated

To serve
3 iceberg lettuce leaves, sliced
2 cabbage leaves, thinly sliced
1/2 carrot, cut into matchsticks
4-5 cherry tomatoes, quartered

1. Place all dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk until well combined.

2. Divide salad ingredients into 3 or 4 bowls. Spoon wafu dressing over the salad and toss.

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Recipe: San Choy Bow 生菜包 (Chinese Lettuce Wraps)

San Choy Bow (also Sang Choy Bau) is a classic Chinese starter of lettuce wraps with a chicken and mushroom filling. Sang choy translates to iceberg lettuce, so this is usually used as the wrapping vessel, however you may also use gem lettuce.

For the filling, you can use chicken or pork mince, cooked with shiitake mushrooms (I also added bunashimeji mushroom) along with light soy sauce and oyster or mushroom sauce. The sauce is then thickened with a cornstarch mixture before serving. Our kids love this as they get to assemble their own wraps before popping them into their mouths, for a wholesome, delicious bite. Fresh and tasty, this is a simple and healthy recipe, which will also get your kids eating more greens!

San choy bow (Chinese lettuce wraps)

San Choy Bow (Chinese Lettuce Wraps)
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
300g minced chicken breast
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 tsp grated ginger
6 shiitake mushrooms, soaked, ends trimmed and cubed
1/2 pack bunashimeji mushroom, trimmed
1 tbsp mushroom sauce (or oyster sauce)
1 tbsp light soy sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp cornflour
3 tsp water
1/2 iceberg lettuce, leaves separated and washed (or gem lettuce)


1. In a wok or large frying pan, heat oil over medium high heat. Add 3/4 of the spring onions and scald for about 30 seconds. Add the chicken and stir fry for about 3-4 minutes, until cooked through.

2. Add the grated ginger, shiitake and bunashimeji mushrooms. Season with mushroom sauce, light soy sauce and black pepper. Simmer for another 3-4 minutes.

3. Mix cornflour and water in a small bowl. Pour into the wok, for sauce to thicken.

4. Plate up the chicken and mushroom. Serve with iceberg lettuce. To assemble, place spoonfuls of chicken and mushroom onto the lettuce, wrap and enjoy! Use remaining spring onions as garnish.

San Choy Bow San Choy Bow  San Choy Bow  San Choy Bow  San Choy Bow  San Choy Bow 
Sang Choy Bau Sang Choy Bau Sang Choy Bau Sang Choy Bau Sang Choy Bau Sang Choy Bau
生菜包 生菜包 生菜包 生菜包 生菜包 生菜包 生菜包 生菜包 生菜包 生菜包 生菜包 生菜包

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Recipe: Oven-roasted chicken drumsticks and vegetables

Today marks the first day of the partial lockdown that we Malaysians face. At this time, we should try to practice social distancing and avoid going out except for essentials such as food.

Let's do our part and stay home during the next 2 weeks. It is still important to eat healthy during these times, so please try not to have instant noodles for every meal. Here is a very easy recipe you can try at home with minimal ingredients - oven-roasted chicken drumsticks paired with oven-roasted vegetables and fries.

Simply drizzle some olive oil over the chicken drumsticks and season with salt and pepper and oven-roast for 25-30 minutes. The chicken is moist with crispy skin (tip: to ensure that the skin crisps up, ensure that you dry the chicken thoroughly with kitchen paper towels.)

To go with the chicken, I roasted some French beans with carrots, tossed in some olive oil, salt and a dash of soy sauce. French beans and root vegetables such as carrots are great as they keep longer than leafy vegetables in the fridge, so you can keep a stock of them in your fridge during partial lockdown times. I also made a simple gravy to go with the chicken. Happy cooking guys!

Oven-roasted chicken drumsticks

Oven-roasted chicken drumstick
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 2 minutes
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
8 chicken drumsticks
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
Butter
1/2 tsp thyme, if available

To serve
Gravy

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (roast mode). Pat dry and arrange the chicken drumsticks on a baking tray, making sure they do not overlap.

2. Drizzle over olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper and dried thyme (if using). Roast for 20 minutes, then remove and reserve juices for gravy. Place a sliver of butter onto each drumstick. Roast for another 5-10 minutes, until the skin has crisped up and is lightly golden. The juices should run clear when the chicken is pierced with a sharp knife.

3. Remove and serve with gravy.

4. To make the gravy, add 1/2 OXO cube and 1 cup of water to a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then add the reserved juices from roasting. Add 1 tbsp of cornflour (mixed with 1 tbsp of cold water) to thicken the gravy. Season with black pepper.

Note: Please ensure you pat dry the chicken to get nice, crispy skin.

For whole roast chicken recipe, click here.



Roasted vegetables
Preparation time: 2 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
16-20 French beans or green beans, cut into 2" pieces
2 small carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced vertically
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt
1/2 tsp light soy sauce

1. Place the vegetables and garlic into a baking tray, then toss with oil, salt and light soy sauce. Place in oven and cook for 10-15 minutes.

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满香海鲜饭店 Billion Seafood Restaurant, USJ 16

One of our favourite finds so far this year is this Chinese 大炒 dai chow restaurant in USJ 16 - Billion Seafood Restaurant 满香海鲜饭店. The restaurant is only open in the evenings from 5pm onwards, during the day the outlet operates as a hawker centre.

The food here at Billion Seafood Restaurant is very tasty and decently priced, and service is pretty quick too. They have an English laminated menu listing the available dishes here - from fish to chicken, pork, tofu, prawn, squid, lala, frog, vegetables, egg and soup.

Here are some of the dishes that we tried at Billion Seafood Restaurant: Steamed tilapia in bean sauce (cheong cheng) - RM38, Salted egg yolk squid (RM30 for medium), Siong tong la la (RM22), Sweet and sour pork (RM15), Ham yu fah lam - pork belly, salted fish and dried chillies in claypot (RM17), claypot tofu (RM12), Stir fried kangkung with belacan (RM9), Stir fried sweet potato leaves (RM9), Stir fried HK kai lan (RM10) and Vinegar pork trotters (RM20). All pretty standard dai chow fair, executed well. Our kids love the salted egg squid and lala most.

Steamed tilapia in bean sauce (cheong cheng) - fresh and meaty fish, great thick, flavorful sauce with pork lard

Salted egg yolk squid - golden, crispy batter

Siong tong la la - great herbal superior stock

Sweet and sour pork

 Ham yu fah lam 

Claypot tofu - nice eggy homemade tofu

Kangkung belacan

Sweet potato leaves

HK Kailan

Vinegar pork trotters - The vinegar pork trotters is a little different from what we're used to - the sauce here has been reduced until syrupy, and cooked with dried chillies for a spicy kick. Still nice nonetheless. 

Billion Seafood Restaurant is located inside Restoran Vest Inn. 

Opening time: 5pm to 11pm daily.

Price: Total bill RM202.90 for 8 pax for 10 dishes.

Location: 满香海鲜饭店 Billion Seafood Restaurant, No. 1, Jalan USJ 16/2g, 47630 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. (signboarded Restoran Vest Inn) (Street parking available)

Tel: 016-639 8616


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