Rojak with Chickpea-Battered Spinach

Rojak with cucumbers, grilled tofu puffs, sweet pineapple pieces and crispy battered spinach leaves
tossed in a sweet prawn paste dressing with ground peanuts

I was thinking of what to do with the bottle of prawn paste ("hae kor") that was left over after using it for chee cheong fun last week, and rojak came to mind. Rojak is a Malaysian fruit salad that is a combination of local fruits, vegetables and a special prawn paste mixture that is black and sticky, but utterly delicious. It's a textural dish with lots of crunch, bite and juiciness. I love my rojak with chinese dough fritters ("youtiao") and water convolvulus ("kangkung"), but I didn't have any. So I made some deep-fried chickpea-battered spinach leaves and used that as a substitute. Yummo!

I came across CKC Sambal Rojak at the Asian grocery shop and decided to give it a try, and it actually tasted really good! I used up the whole bottle to make two servings of rojak (for dinner and lunch the next day). Here's what I did:

Rojak

Ingredients

(Roughly cut to bite-sized pieces):

1 cucumber

Some fresh pineapple (my fav!)

Jicama (I omitted this)

4-5 pieces of tofu puffs (I used the triangular shaped ones and popped them under a grill in the oven until crisp)

2 pieces  of chickpea-battered spinach

CKC Sambal Rojak

Some finely ground peanuts

Method

To make one serving, take 2 tbsp of CKC Sambal Rojak and mix with 1 tbsp of ground peanuts. You can add a few drops (like 1/2 tsp) of hot water if you wish so that it "mixes" better. Then toss in the cucumbers, pineapple, jicama and tofu puffs and mix it around until evenly coated. Toss in the spinach and lightly mix. Transfer to a clean serving plate and sprinkle all over with ground peanuts. And it's ready to eat!

Deep-fried spinach leaves in chickpea batter



Rojak

 

Sichuan Red Chilli Chicken

I had a thought about the diced chicken with red chillies dish which we ate at Red Chilli Sichuan last year, and decided to replicate it at home. It's basically tiny cubes of diced chicken, deep fried and coated with Sichuan pepper, and tossed in a mountain of dried red chillies. Tongue-numbing, fragrant and delicious. This is quick and easy to prepare, and is best served together with some soup to moisten the palate.

Sichuan Red Chilli Chicken Recipe

Ingredients

400g chicken breast fillets, diced into 1/2 inch cubes (to absorb maximum flavour)

1/4 cup potato flour

Marinade:

Salt, pepper, light soy sauce

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1 tsp minced ginger

1/4 cup chopped spring onions

1 cup (or more if you wish) dried red chillies, cut in half (do not discard the seeds)

1 tsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp chinese cooking wine

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, toasted and finely ground

1/4 tsp sugar (optional)

Method

1. Combine chicken with marinade and leave for an hour or so. Coat chicken pieces evenly in potato flour and deep fry till cooked (about 1-2 minutes). Drain and put aside.
2. Heat up 1 tbsp peanut oil in a wok. Fry garlic and ginger for a minute till fragrant, then add chillies (with seeds), oyster sauce and wine. Fry for 1-2 minutes, then add chicken, spring onions, salt and Sichuan pepper (sugar optional). Toss for a minute until evenly coated and transfer to a plate. Serve immediately.

Home-made Chee Cheong Fun

Steamed rice rolls with hoisin, peanut butter, prawn paste (hae kor) and Sriracha chilli sauce, garnished with
crispy shallots, dried shrimp and toasted sesame seeds

Well, I just couldn't get enough of chee cheong fun last night, so I decided to make my own rice rolls today. I also made the sauce a little thicker and added some peanut butter to the hoisin mixture.  And these steamed rice rolls taste even better than the store-bought ones I used yesterday. Soft, fresh and free of preservatives. Absolute yum and totally addictive!

Here is the recipe for the rice rolls, adapted from Amy Beh:

Chee Cheong Fun Recipe

Ingredients

580ml water

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp oil

Combine:
110g rice flour
15g corn flour
1 1/2 tbsp tang meen fun or wheat starch flour

Method

Put combined flour into a mixing bowl. Add water gradually to mix into a smooth batter. Mix in salt and oil then leave aside for one hour.

Lightly grease a square pan/tin that will fit in your wok. Spoon a thin layer of the mixture into the pan and steam over rapid boiling water for 5 minutes until cooked. While still hot, use a scraper to lift and roll the sheets up immediately. Repeat with remaining batter.

Sauce

To make the sauce, refer to the previous post on Penang-style Chee Cheong Fun.

Freshly made rice rolls

One nicely packed for my sister to take-away

Penang-style Chee Cheong Fun

What's the next best thing to eating instant noodles for a quick lunch at home? I have to say, it's Chee Cheong Fun ("CCF"). I just made two rolls for lunch yesterday, and saved the other two for G's dinner. It was super easy to make, and not having eaten this in a long time, it tasted pretty good. Of course, I just bought the ready-made rice rolls as they were far more convenient than making your own (which I have never attempted before). Update: I subsequently made steamed rice rolls from scratch! Click here for recipe.

This style of CCF uses hae kor (prawn paste used in chinese rojak) and a sweet sauce, which goes really well together along with the fried shallots and dried shrimp over the rice rolls. The texture of the rolls is pretty decent, although it's nothing compared to the ones you get in Ipoh. But still, it satisfied my craving and I will definitely be making this again soon.


Penang-style Chee Cheong Fun Recipe

3 fresh rice rolls, steamed for a few minutes

Sauce:
Sriracha chilli sauce (about 1/2 tbsp or to taste)
1 tbsp hae kor (prawn paste - CKC brand) mixed with 1 tbsp hot water
1 tbsp LKK hoisin sauce + 1 tsp creamy peanut butter (optional) mixed with 1-2 tbsp hot water

Garnish:
1 tbsp fried shallots in oil
1 tbsp dried shrimp, ground finely and fried in oil till crisp
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Method

Arrange steamed rice rolls on a plate (cut them into bite-sized pieces), drizzle the chilli, hae kor and sweet sauces over the rolls, then garnish with fried shallots (and oil), dried shrimp and sesame seeds. And it's ready to serve! :)

Imperial Pork Chops

After many attempts to make Imperial Pork ("Pai Gu Wang"), I finally came close to getting the sauce right. Over the weekend, we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant where we ordered Peking-style pork chops, and I loved the sweet sour taste of it that seemed to be a combination of black vinegar and plum sauce. So I decided to try replicating the dish for tonight's dinner, and I'm not sure whether Peking pork chops are synonymous with "Pai Gu Wang", but after having a taste of the dish I cooked, it reminded me instantly of the latter. Even G was impressed that it indeed tasted like the real thing (or almost).

Before I forget the recipe, here it is:

Imperial Pork

Ingredients

3 pork chops (approx 600g), flattened and tenderised with a meat mallet
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda, mixed with 1 tbsp water

Marinade:
Salt and pepper
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp five spice powder
1 egg
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp plain flour

Sauce:
5 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tbsp plum sauce
1 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar (or to taste)
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp Lingham's chilli sauce
1 1/2 tbsp sugar (or to taste)
Tiny pinch of salt
Dash of pepper
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water

Method

1. Cut the pork chops into 1-inch wide strips, and flatten them out with the mallet. Combine with the bicarbonate of soda solution, leave for 20 minutes and discard excess liquid. Combine pork with the marinade ingredients and leave for 4 hours.
2. Deep fry the pork until golden brown and cooked, then drain on absorbent paper and put aside.
3. Heat up 1/2 tbsp peanut oil in the wok, then add sauce ingredients, bring to a boil before adding the cornflour mixture. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
4. Once sauce is slightly thickened, add the pork chops and toss them in the sauce for 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a dish and serve with steamed jasmine rice.