Cincalok

"Cincalok" is fermented small shrimps or krill in cooked rice and salt. (Some people also use rice wine.) It is usually served as a dip  in a mixture of fresh cut chilies, shallots and calamansi juice. Other than a dip, it can be used in many other ways depending on your creativity and it is delicious.



Cataching Krill

Cincalok is synonymous to Malacca and almost everyone if not all who knows what cincalok is thinks that the origin is Malacca. As a kid the Portuguese in Malacca is known as "Serani" and their nickname is "gerago". The "gerago" or krill is the main ingrident for the cincalok and I think that they were main players involved in harvesting these tiny little delicious creatures fom the sea. I guessed that was how they were nicknamed "gerago". Some people that I know said they make the best "belachan" and it looks almost like a cannon ball in shape.

Recently I had the urge to eat "cincalok" and I remembered those that my mum made which was really good. I decided to make it myself because I believe it would be more delicious than those sold on the rack. Down the road once in a while, we do get a person selling this very evasive krill. Every time when we passed by this place, I'll check whether that person is selling it or not.


Krill

A couple of days passed then weeks and there was still no krill. We even drove all the way to the beach to look for it but it was a disappointment. One fine day on our way back from a shopping trip, we saw the krill and the person selling it. I had mixed feeling whether to buy or not to because I ..... err no idea why. Anyway my princess turn around as she was driving and so I bought. I almost stuck my nose into the krill to make sure that they were fresh before buying them. The smell instantly brought back memories when I was catching this little creatures a very long long time ago, it was fun!

Once back home, the krill were cleaned and all necessary ingredients were checked for availability. Portion out the ingredients, do the necessary, mix and I have got "cincalok". The "cincalok" have to stand for a day or two before it can be eaten and more waiting.



Cincalok
 

When it was ready, we did the taste test and it was SALTY!!! and so the hunt for krills was on again in an attempt to dilute the saltiness. Even though it was like super salty, it was almost finished when we got our second batch of krills. The amount used for this second batch is very very much less and it is YUMMIE!!!

The Good Stuff!!!

Ham

Ham to me is a very delicious cured and cooked pork that is ready to be eaten. Chicken ham, turkey ham and whatever other ham is just nonsense. It was really difficult for me to enjoy ham in the past because of the extremely high unjustified cost so it is just look, salivate and bye bye.

I wanted to make ham earlier but was put off by the difficult and almost impossible curing process at home and in this hot tropical climate. I guess I was looking at the wrong site. Some of the sites mentioned that a curing chamber is a must to cure ham, guess they are making a different kind of ham. Anyway I was naive at making ham and all I know at that time is just to eat it.

Anyway December last year Home minister once again brought up the subject about making ham since I had success in making bacon and sausages. Hmmm....... bacon & eggs, sausages, ham also ..... wah!!! can have mat salleh breakfast almost every day huh!!! Yes, I was with Google soon enough clicking away on how to make ham. There were many sites on how to cook cured and raw ham until I came across this Making Ham At Home site. After reading through, I thought to myself that it is not as difficult as I had imagine. I guess I had been looking at the wrong place all this while.

Next is to look for the hardware required to do the job and guess what, yes they are already available and does not take up much space in the fridge. Ingredients were also already available except for the raw ham itself. Almost everything is already there and all it needed was just to put them together.

Five days later, we were enjoying the most delicious ever cooked ham for breakfast and it is really easy to do. If you ever thought of doing cooked ham at home, just do it!!

Sausages

 
Recently I had the urge to make sausages from scratch, maybe it was the sausage meat that home minister made a long time ago after she returned from her vacation in the United Kingdom. She just made the meat without stuffing it into a casing and it tasted good but it was just like eating flavoured minced meat.
I don’t actually care for commercialised sausages because they are really boring. I eat it because it’s there and the only sausages that I did thought of wanting to eat were those from Euro.Deli until I made my very own – yummie!!!
First problem encountered is getting casing because nobody sells the casing here. Hmmm…… no casing, sausages not in casing just don’t feel right to me even though many web sites do have recipes without the casing. Like I mentioned earlier, eating sausages meat without stuffing into casing is just like eating flavoured minced meat. I guess I had to make it myself ……….. OK.
Did a lot of research both on and off the web, pork intestine was my bet because it is easily available and I had eaten like thousand of miles of it.  It is really nice to eat and the large intestine cooked with pineapple ..WOW!!! is really yummie!! which is a dish that only my mum used to cook.
Got my first length of intestine from Tesco and I cleaned it by myself which is my very first time. Hey, it is kind of a fun and real easy too!! Lots of salt inside out, that’s it!!
For the filling mix I consulted my best friend Google, there tons and tons of recipes for sausages and it was a difficult choice at first. After awhile with lots of imagination to the taste and checking what ingredients are available and Bratwurst was elected. With some modifications to the recipe, I proceeded to making the sausages manually …… yes all with my two bare hand.
Now the hardware, yes besides the usual kitchen hardware like cleaver, chopping board, mixing bowl ………. a special tool is required that is the sausage stuffer. Well I thought we did not have one so I improvised and made a very simple one and managed to stuff all the 1 kilo of Bratwurst. It wasn’t easy and my arms felt like they were about to drop out of their sockets after I finished….ouch!!
Wow!!! homemade sausages are sausages, they are really good and worth every drop of sweat, err……… no sweat dropped into the mixture in case you were wondering. Princess cooked a sausage meal with the sausages I made and it was really ………….. mmmm……. yummie delicious.
My mind was working on the next flavour of sausages to make immediately  after having tasted the very first one I made. People says that the cook usually don’t like to eat their own cooking, yes I guess they are just cook but Chefs will always love their own food and that’s me ……… hehehe!!!!!
I was also thinking how can I improve on the improvised on the stuffer.  Currently it takes like a whole lot of time and muscle power to stuff them. I was thinking of a giant syringe kind assisted by a some kind mechanical thingy to press the plunger …… then I remembered that home minister mentioned about some meat grinder she got like ages ago and it is not functional. I had a look at it and it is like a toy, all plastic and guess what, it has a sausage stuffer attachment …….. what a delightful discovery.
With the discovery of the stuffer, I started working on the next batch to test out the toy like thing and it worked!!!! Yahooo!! making the stuffing process almost breeze. From then on the mileage of sausage of different flavours just keep on increasing, one thing for sure they are all so yummie!!!!

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Check out Princess blog for her part of the action in sausage making and eating!!

☺

BACON

 

Every morning all around the world for a very very long time, there is definitely at least one person will be having bacon and eggs for breakfast, if not hundreds, thousands or even millions. Yes bacon, eggs and croissants is the king of breakfast, well at least to me is the breakfast of all breakfast. It must be real pork bacon or else it is just nonsense.
In the past I used to look at the bacons that were sold in the supermarkets but were more disgusted with them than wanting to eat them. Looks OK in the packing, super thin slices and lots of fats when opened, disappear when fried!!! This is what you get in this part of the world.
It was about a year or more ago that I first thought of making my own bacon since I wasn’t able to enjoy those store bought bacon like thingie which should be labelled as cured lards!!! I googled and was discouraged on doing so because of the many equipments and refrigerator space required. To make matter worse I was thinking of smoked bacon which means more equipment is needed.
Everything seems impossible then and had to drop the whole idea. The thought of having to eat store bacon is still a NO NO for me and the burning desire to have real bacon becomes silently stronger and stronger day by day. Then late last year home minister asked me about making bacon again while cleaning a beautiful piece of pork belly which she just bought from the butcher. With the pork belly in sight, the burning desire to have real bacon was really strong and I could just taste it!!
I started to google “Making bacon at home” and once again the same disappointing site appear on the screen. This time I am much more determined and search further ……... Dry cured bacon, WOW!! it is really easy to make with a bit of common sense.

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Self-made bacon is indeed a real joy to eat, it is super delicious and I can never get enough of it ….. yum yum!! Try it and you’ll never want store bought bacon anymore!!!!
Now I am thinking of self-made croissants …….. the King of Breakfast!!!

 ☺

Braised Leg of Pork.

After having eaten the "mui choy kau yoke" it is time to really deal with the porkie leg, you know the braised kind with tender chewy skin and fats that melts in your mouth ...... it is really delicious .....hmmm..... just had some of the left overs from my successful first attempt and it is still as good ..... yum, yum!! Used to have this dish when I visited Sg. Petani for business trip with my collegue, yes it was good and I am really happy that I can cook this dish myself now, and I can have it whenever I want now ....hehehe!!!!!!.

I started my quest for the perfect braised pork leg after my breakfast and morning paper routine towards end of last year. Home minister had to wake up real early, around 5:30am to get the porkie leg and she only managed to get it from another stall instead of the original shop she usually went too. That day was the last major festival for the Chinese before the coming new lunar year and pork was in extreme high demand, so even though home minister was there before 6:00am they were almost sold out. I guess she had to pay a premium from the other stall, anyway important thing is that we got the leg.

The premium porkie leg was nicely cleaned and one of the large bones removed.  I would have preferred that the bone intact so that the meat won't shrink as much when it is fried but I might have to cut the leg into two pieces to fit into the wok for frying. This dish call for the three process of cooking that is boil, fried and braised. It took me nearly the whole day to cook this dish but the desire to eat push me on ☺and I was really worn out at the end ot it.

All the tiredness and aches just disappeared when I took my first mouthful of this very very special sin food of mine, it is just simply scrumptious ......... want some?

"Mui Choy Kau Yoke"- Yummie!!

It had been a very very long time since I had this very delicious sinful dish and I had no idea where in Malacca can I indulge myself with this so very delicious mouth watering dish. The desire to have this dish again is really bugging me so I decided to make it myself with no knowledge of how to at all ......... thanks to the www (world wide web) I managed to check like out so many sites posted with this delicious dish.

After sieving through many recipes I could almost taste the flavour and the fats of the pork melting in my mouth .... yeah!!! yum!! yum!! Finally I narrow it two recipes base on the way it is prepared, ingredients and a vivid imagination ....... hehe!!! Then it is off to the Chinese foodstuff shop in Kampong Pantei to get the "mui chi" the sweet variety. The porkie?? Home Minister had two beautiful pieces of pork belly in the freezer and it was perfect for the two recipes.

Prepared both dishes at the same time, one for lunch and another for dinner .......... ding dong ding dong ding dong and the first one was ready for lunch. Wow!!! the aroma was really mouth watering, took a whole spoon full and stuffed my face ...... wah!!ha!!ha!! very 'kiam' salty I mean, looks like sweet "mui chai" is also kind of a salty ........ the pork very tasty but on the hard side and the fats did not melt in the mouth.

After having a salty experience for lunch, at dinner suspecting that the "mui chai" is going to be salty too, I was more careful so I took only enough to taste it. Yup! I was right it was just as salty. The mean was of the same texture but less tasty ....... anyway after discussion with Home Minister we decided to just eat the pork and reuse the "mui chai" with a modified and improve the two recipe also adding in some of our very own know how.

A couple of days later after getting over the shock of the earlier failure, Home Minister got another beautiful piece of belly meat to try out with modified and improved recipe and to reuse the “mui chai”. This time the “mui chai” was thoroughly washed and instead of steaming, we had it pressure cooked. The ingredients was also adjusted ……………. it was really smelling wonderful and thinking of it now is making me ………. I WANT MORE!!!! YES!! YES!! YES!! This time is the real thing, it is heavenly …….. I did it …. yahoo!!!

Me n Oats

My last cholesterol check up was like about a month ago and six months before that I had been faithfully taking oats for almost every meal. Yes, almost every meal like 99% of it because I think I want to believe the craps in their advertisements. The only time when I do not take oats is when I had noodles or western food which is not that often but definitely I will have oats at least in one of my daily meals. I think I already had consumed like a few tons of it!!!! Hehehe!!! Just joking.

Basing on the advertisement by oats companies and write ups in the Internet, my cholesterol level should be a big fat ZERO!!! or at least within specifications or at least lower than the level of my previous check up before this. Craps!! it is higher, much higher …….. "Hey!!!! oats makers what kind of crap are you people talking about!!!!” Never like oats anyway and the wonderful point is that I do not have to eat oats any more …………. Great!!! :)

Now who is the wise guy who wrote the specifications levels anyway?? ……… ever wonder about that?? Huh!! There are so many kinds of people in this world ….. big, thin, fat, small, ugly, pretty and so on and so on ………. can we all be generalized??? Ohh well …………… Life is too short so guess I’ll just enjoy it ain’t got no time to play with this boring cholesterol thingy anymore!

Oats

In the early sixties or earlier I had my first taste of oats and one thing for sure it is Quaker Oats. Till today the first thing that comes into my mind when anybody mentioned Quaker, oats will quickly register in my mind because Quaker was the only brand available when I was growing up I think. In those days we get to eat oats quite often for a while for breakfast only because it was really fast to prepare. It was kind of a fun then because I get to prepare it myself, actually everything was on the table and I just had to mix it myself after mum pour the boiling hot water in it. The recipe was very simple just oats, sugar and boiling hot water. I just cannot remember why or when I stop eating it but I can remember the taste, it is just a sweet and boring. I guess it must be the do it yourself part that makes me eat it and when the novelty died out I guess that is also when I stopped eating it ……hmmm ….. Maybe!

Just recently I just restarted to eat oats as a weapon to help me in my never ending battle with cholesterol and the famous battle of the bulge ……hehehe!! Even Sun Tzu is not able to help me here. Taking oats is my last resort at fighting cholesterol and if it does not work then…….. I stayed away from oats because eating oats is really boring and yucks!! So is exercising. Playing game and doing constructive labour is my way of spending energy other than the daily routine needs of walking, talking, eating and etcetera. Let’s hope I don’t really need to rely on exercise to help expand the stored energy.

OK I did mentioned that I tried walking and it was nice initially but I guess when it becomes a routine it is just boring to walk aimlessly even though I was burning calories. Swimming, errr …. Let us just continue with the oats OK? Hehe!! ….. Never thought that I would be eating oats again after all these years, oh well!!

If you were to Google oats you would get something like more than seven million sites talking about oats and I guess all of them are talking about how great oats are against cholesterol. Many people that I know say likewise and some even swear by it but not doctors, as far as I know none had recommended oats to me but fish yes…….mmm, I wonder why? To make eating oats bearable I first tried eating it by mixing with my coffee for breakfast and it tasted OK but I had to drink more coffee after drink eat the oat coffee so I guess it is a no no because coffee consumption will increase. Next I made oats sandwiches and it tasted quite good with lots of bite. It is really easy to make, just spread butter and kaya or jam if you like on a single slice of bread and top it up with instant oats. Then fold the bread once and hold tightly the end that is going in the mouth last so that the oats do not fall out …… try it, it is quite interesting and better than whole meal bread …hehe!!

Eating with bread the amount of oats consumed per day would not be enough so I decided to have for lunch and dinner as well if possible. Being an Asian and rice being my staple diet it is quite easy to include oats in my meals, I just reduce the amount of rice I am having and replace it with oats. There is no need to boil or cook the oats just use instant oats and add it into the rice and gravy or soup it. Oats don’t really have any kind of strong taste so everything just taste the same except for the structure, it is just like eating rice cooked with too much water. The beauty of it is that there is no real increase in intake and I should feel my pants getting looser.


So far to date I think I had consumed more than two kilos of instant oats and there are so much more variety of brands to choose from nowadays. I usually chose the cheapest and to date I had eaten three different brands and they are all the same in taste, I guess instant oats are just instant oats. My next cholesterol test is in September, so till then I am really keeping my fingers crossed.

"Sio Bak" & "Chiak Sio"

"Sio Bak" is Hokkien for roast pork and "Chiak Sio" is lean roast. For the Chinese roast pork is traditionally eaten with lean roast. The part for the roast pork must be from the belly and the lean roast usually just any lean part will do .......... the seasoning is different but I think it is quite simple. If you want to know I'll have to ask my wife, she is the expert, me I just eat only hehe!!

A great "sio bak" is not only in the taste but also in the bite and feel, all have to be perfect to make it special. If you have eaten "sio bak" I am sure you know what I mean right! There are just "sio bak", so so one and wow!!! mouth watering kind. The mouth watering kind is really hard to come by ............ it has to be perfect in taste, the meat is juicy and tender, the skin .......cruck cruck cruck yup crispy and crunchy ........ just thinking of it is making my mouth watering .........whoa!!! After much trial and error in the past, my wife's "sio bak" is classified in the mouth watering section ....yum yum!!! I think the trick is in the process of roasting.

From young I had never really fancied "chiak sio" because it is boring until my mum started making it herself. Stall bought "chiak sio" is meaningless, usually fibrous, dry and tasteless. My mum taught my wife how to do it and she made some modification to perfect it. Her "chiak sio" is full of taste, smooth and juicy making you always wanting more after the first piece. In simple words "HO CIAK"

A Treat

Yesterday our Princess gave us a lunch treat at the Saravanah Indian Restaurant down the road, yes it was a banana leaf curry rice treat for lunch. It was a great treat but I can't really say much about the food now. The last time we were there the food seems to be tastier but this time it is either too salty or just blend, the veggies were OK though. At the end of the meal there was a small surprise .......... a sweet desert drink. Thanks for the treat Princess. Pictures courtesy of Princess cellphone camera.

Black Forest Gateau

Black Forest Gateau is a cake that my wife had really mastered. My first taste of this cake is like err .... more than thirty years ago and that was when my wife then my girlfriend .......first learned to make it from a teacher friend and she loved it. Everybody loved the black forest gateau and she loved the compliments that comes with it. The taste is just ..... mmmmmm!! heavenly........ yum yum!!!!

The appearance is .... err the creativity is great you should see some of the cakes she made and decorated when she was into selling them. The Black Forest Gateau was a hit and the best seller too!! Nowadays she only sell her cakes to a selected few lucky people only. Our wedding cake, she made it too and the guest just couldn't get enough of it.

Other than black forest gateau, her range of cheese cakes are fantastic too. Eclairs, cream puff, steam cake .......... all yummy yum yum!! not only is she a great cook but a great baker too!! Join me for a piece !!

Basil

Basil is really a fantastic herb. Remember the basil plant that I mentioned in "Green Fingers", it is fully grown now. It is a great herb and is used a lot in Italian cooking. I really love the smell and taste of basil.

My Princess bought the basil seedling from Kuala Lumpur and one of her intention was to make pesto sauce. She had wanted to try spaghetti in pesto sauce but did not want to make use of commercially available ones. Yes she had already try it but did not like it, me I love it. On the second try, less of the pesto sauce was used and this time everyone like it. We tried adding it with spaghetti bolognese and it was ..... Mama Mia!!!! Delicious!!!

The surplus of the basil leaves are being dried for storage and distribution to people who are interested in it. The leaves of the basil must be constantly harvested or else it would be wasted. I am now waiting for the collect the seeds to plant new plants. Need some basil? :)

Good Eat

Yes it is "Good Eat" as in Hokkien "HO CIAK!!!" and that is how I would describe the recent harvest from the organic mini farm. The farm is mini but the yield and produce is gigantic and really "ho ciak"

The okra is long and fat and have thick walls. My wife cooked it with sambal belacan and every bite is just heavenly ......... full of bite, crunchy yet tender with full of mouth watering sweetness. Enjoy the photos below ........ yum!! yum!!

The "kai-lan" is just as great and it was stir fried with ginger and garlic.....yummy!!yum!!yum!!

The brassica or "chai sim" in Hokkien cooked with noodles and wah lau eh!!! just fantastic .......... gave some to my mum too!! just the veggie.

HO! CIAK!!! :)