Seafood Emperor Noodle Soup

I was so inspired when I was reading this book entitled "Wagamama: Ways with noodles" by Hugo Arnold. A bowl of noodle can be prepared in so many ways beyond your imagination, yet so nutritious and that caught my attention. Noodle is definite the fast food of today, the pasta of the 21st century as stated by Hugo himself, agreed and the truth. Noodle can be easily cooked, simple. Just softened them in boiling unsalted water, refreshed under cold water then combined with other ingredents. Prepeared in many ways stir fry, in broth, stew, chilled and with varies toppings.


For today's post I would like to introduce a bowl of seafood emperor noodle soup. Here I had used a variety of seafood such as large prawns, fresh mussels, fresh clams, garupa fish slices, greens, emperor noodle and chicken broth.

A bowl of noodle:

2 large fresh prawns
5 large fresh mussels
5 large fresh clams
3 slices of garupa fish
greens
1 dry emperor noodle
350ml chicken stock
seasoning
2 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves

season the prawns, mussels, clams and garupa slices in a bowl. Put the emperor noodle into the boiled unsalted water to softened the noodle. Refreshed under cold water. Place them in a serving bowl.
Placed the prawns, mussels, clams, garupa and greens into the boiling the chicken stock. Do not overcook the seafood. Once cooked, dished them into the serving bowl together with the emperor noodle. Garnished with coriander leaves and serve.


From Steven Cheng

Dine with me......Chef Steven Cheng Part 2

Continuation.....

After the lobster dish, the remainder lobster shell and head were used to braise "yee mee" noodle(mun yee mien). Using the reaminder of this lobster to cook this noodle is marvellous and with the right seasoning, can be very delicious.


I also prepared the eight treasured duck "pak poh ngap" but this time I replaced roast pork with chinese pork sausage. With the right cooking timing and a well prepared ingredient for stuffing, this dish can be a jewel.




Next dish is the Boneless Mackerel "Mo Quet Kau Yee". A simple mackerel fish with an incredible way of preparation. Firstly the mackerel is being deboned and the flesh is then taken out, leaving the skin. Mix the mackerel flesh together with pork meat and seasoning. The seasoned meat is then being stuffed to the fish skin and deep fry. I finished this fish by topping wih special BBQ sauce.

I will stop here for the time being and will continue the last part in my next coming post.

From Steve Cheng

Dine with me......Chef Steven Cheng Part 1

Two days ago, I invited a few of my young close friends to my restaurant to taste some of my current and new dishes for this coming new year, 2008. They were so excited and so am I. I had prepared eight dishes and I also requested Chef Sunny to prepare the dessert.


Here I would like to introduce the first dish of the day, Double Happiness "Seong Hei Lam Moon". For this dish, a pair of local lobster had been used. Firstly the uncooked lobster meat is taken out from the shell and sliced and covered with ice cubes.


I had prepared the broth earlier by using old chicken, chinese ham, dried scallop and water. Boiled them for at least 2 hours and add seasoning.


How do we eat them? Easy......isn't it? Put the lobster meat into a basket spoon and cook them in the boiling broth. Reminder, do not cooked them too long, just a few seconds will do, then scooped them out to your plate and start enjoying them.


This lobster meat is tender, succulent, delicious and yummy. The soup is also gorgeous and full of flavour.

This dish cost about RM13/100gm but need to have an advance order as it is seasonal.

Yours Chef Steven

Stir Fry Potatoes

I got to introduce one of my current favourite young, modern and simplicity chef, Kylie Kwong. She is the chef and restaurateur of the popular restaurant Billy Kwong in Sydney, Australia, as well as the host of cooking programs on the Discovery Home Channel. She also writes a regular blog for The Huffington Post and also the fourth generation of the largest Chinese family in Australia.


I am amazed when I was reading through her latest book of Kylie Kwong entitled "My China" which just recently published on this November 2007. "My China" is a sweeping culinary travelogue through modern-day China and Tibet with lots of lavish photography, stories and recipes. I would say, this is a must have books, especially those like myself being a chinese borned abroad. I love this book as the photographs tell so much of stories and so much things that I never know, such a discovery and so fulfilling. A book that I will fall in love with.

Through the chinese food heritage, I also discovered that one of my dish is so similar to Kylie Kwong's discovery in "My China" entitled "fry potatoes with chinese sausage". Immediately I can recognised this is a very lovely and fragrant dish, especially the aroma of the chinese sausage and the crunchiness of the matchstick potatoes.


My one is rather simple, I just use potatoes, red belly pepper, green belly pepper and carrot. And cut them into the shape of matchsticks. Stiry fried them and add seasoning.

Ingredient
2 medium size potatoes
1 red belly pepper
1 green belly pepper
1 medium size carrot

seasoning
a pinch of salt
a pinch of white pepper
a teaspoon of oyster sauce
a dash of chinese wine

Cut all the ingredient into the shape of matchsticks. Use a tablespoon of oil, heat up the wok. Stir fry the potatoes until half cooked then add carrot, green and red belly pepper. Add seasoning and continue for few seconds. The dish is ready.

Such a simple, colourful and delicious dish should be dished out at our own kitchen for our lovely guests.

Steven Cheng

Red Wine Baby Pork Ribs

I love red wine, they are lovely to drink and also lovely to cook with. I still remember when I was in Ireland, few yers back, I consumed red wine just like drink grape juice or to be precise, like drinking water.....lol. I guess it is not easy to consume red wine as often as I want since I am back now in KL as they are expensive, oh, very expensive. So I decided to make this dish called Red Wine Baby Pork Ribs.

Recently my blogging pal, East Meets West Kitchen posted about her new venture into vegetable and fruit carving and I too decided to knife out a gold fish using tomato, cucumber and red chilly tip. I used tomato for the head and body, cucumber for the fins and red chilly tips for the eyes.

Back to the Red Wine Baby Pork Ribs, I firstly used chinese wine and pineapple juice to marinate the baby pork rib for over night. Then add some red food colouring. Once properly marinated then draining off the excess liquid. Add egg, corn flour and seasoning to the baby pork ribs. Deep fried them till they are cooked. As the baby ribs are getting cooked, you can now make the sauce. Fry garlic and onion, then add red wine and sugar. One the sauce reach the boiling stage, add your cooked baby pork ribs. Tossed them and then transfer them to your serving dish. Add the garnish.

300gm baby pork rib
100ml pineapple juice
30ml chinese wine

2cloves crushed garlic
1/2 medium size onion(chop finely)
50ml red wine
1 teaspoon sugar

Well this red wine baby pork ribs dish is really gorgeous and serve well with a bowl of steam white rice.

Hope this dish will give you some inspiration to try them out in your kitchen for your special guess or even for a romantic dinner for two.

From Steven Cheng

"Mat Lat" Parrot Fish

My blogging friends, especially Beachlover had been exploring ready make ingredients that come in pack form especially those made in Malaysia. So when I was looking through my unpublished post, I found this one. "Mah Lat" Parrot Fish. This dish had also been posted by my fellow dedicated floggers and great friends, Teckiee and Jacksonkah. "Mat Lat" is a famous szechuan dish in China which ultilise szechuan pepper corn and loads of chillies. Here today I am going to included the details:



There is a lot of variety of ready made "Mat Lat" paste but I use the about one. It taste as usual hot, hot and also comes with a hint of mutton taste.


Here I used a whole Parrot fish. To make a great whole fish, I deep the whole fish in a pool of oil at low temperature. "Yau Jum Yee" is a good cooking technique of cooking fish. Once the fish is golden brown in colour, your fish is cooked and ready.


Next is to make the "Mah Lat" sauce, pan fry some garlic and dried chillies in hot oil, put 1-2 tablespoon of "Mat Lat" paste then add some stock. Add seasoning to your liking. If you like hot, hot then add more of the "Mat Lat" paste. I prefer it to be a bit mild so that can taste the freshness of the fish.

Hope you can find this "Mat Lat" paste. I have a few packet of this "Mat Lat" paste left in my kitchen, if you like a packet of this, do let me know by emailing to bigboysoven@gmail.com which stock last.

Hope you can find this paste and try this dish... one word to describe... lovely.

From Steven Cheng

Salt & Peppered White Baits

"Chee Yim" or "Salt & Peppered" is a very delicious dish by itself. You can have it in prawn, squid, chicken, mantis prawn and even fish. Today I am introducing this dish with white baits. White baits are small fishes whereby all the bones are taken out before being cooked. As my good friend Sunny Yaw always say, easy and simple....lol!


400gm white baits (other white fish meat can be used too)
1 egg
a pinch salt
a pinch white pepper
1 teaspoon sesame oil

tapioca powder
oil for deep frying

3 tablespoon white wine
3 sliced green chilli padi
a pinch salt

Marinated fish baits with salt, white pepper, seame oil and set it aside.
Heat up deep frying oil
Coat fish baits with tapioca flour.
Deep fried them till light golden brown.
Heat up a clean wok.
Put all those deep fried fish baits on to the work.
Dashed in white wine.
Throw in green chilles and a salt.

I would recommend you to order this when you are dining at my restaurant as it had be come a favourite dish with my dinners.

Have a try yourself in your own kitchen too.

Yours Steven Cheng

"Lat Chi Kai" Dried Chilly Chicken

Got to say that Chef Steven's "Lat Chi Kai" is one of the most delicious shanghainese chicken dish in town. I had tried a few such as those at Jalan Ah Loy cooked by a chinese chef from China, verdict not too bad but still not that tasty. I had tried Dragon-I, verdict, great but too many dried chillies, tried De Hunan's at Khucai Lama, verdict, the chicken pieces are too small and hard (deep fried to long I guess).

This "Lat Chi Kai" consists of small cut of chicken meat and deep fried and a quick stir fried with dried chillies, whole garlic and ginger. Oh I got to say it is lovely and it can be eaten by itself, rice or with the company of a few pint of beer, a truely discovery of shanghainese dish.

If you are at Chef Steven Cheng's restaurant, do not miss this lovely dish. It is one of my favourite dish where I truely recommend this to you to try.

Yours Sunny Yaw

Lemongrass Prawns Hokkien Style

This dish is a very special dish, why?

My late dad taught me this dish, yes my late dad. He is a real cook and I think he learned from his aunt when he was young... I think. I seldom see this dish serve in any restaraunt which is strange. Yes it is my late dad's recipe. This dish main ingredient is prawns and lemongrass. You need to cut lots of lemongrass to prepare this dish but not as difficult to prepare a dish called "ikan perut"and this dish is flavoured with fresh turmeric. So I recommended that Chef Steven Cheng to try this recipe and this is how it turn out.


400 gm large prawns
20 stalks lemongrass
1 inch fresh turmeric
1 big onion
4 bulbs garlic
3 chilli padi
1 cup coconut milk (1/2 cup double cream)

Unshelled the prawns and clean properly
Marinate the prawns with a pinch of salt and pepper
Thinly slice the heart of the lemongrass. Take about an inch.
Minced turmeric, onion, garlic and chilli padi
Deep fry the sliced lemongrass untill fragrant. Take them out.
Fry the minced onion,turmeric, garlic and chilli padi till fragrant.
Add in prawns, once cooked and in lemongrass.
Add in coconut milk and add in seasoning.
(* if you want a drier dish add in less coconut milk. )


This dish is lovely and smells so fragrant. This dish is specially prepared by Chef Steven Cheng.

Yours Sidney

Eight Treasure Duck

Well, eight treasure duck is something very new to me although this dish had been around for ages. The process of making this duck dish usually takes about a day or two. Firstly you need to clean and wash the duck properly, then marinate with salt, pepper, five spices and coat the duck with soya sauce and dark soya sauce. Leave it for an hour or two, then deep fry the duck

Stir fry ingredients such as chestnut, lotus seed, mushroom, sliced roast pork, shrimp, button mushroom, dice onions and diced carrots with seasoning. Stuff the duck with the ingredients and double boiled with concentrated chicken soup.

This eight treasure duck is gorgeous and delicious. The meat is so tender, soft and so full of flavour. Once you open the duck cavity, you will see so many treasure of goodness in it.


If you like to try this dish just let us know a day or two earlier, so that I can prepared this dish for your dining at our restaraunt.

Yours, Steven Cheng

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall

"Buddha jumps over the wall"? Was this dish so sinful for Buddha that he had to jump over the wall to escape? After reading a few articles on this, I found out that is not true. It was about a Fuzhou scholar who went picnicking with friends. He had placed all the ingredients with him in a jar and was heated over a charcoal flame. The aroma and lovly smell spread all the way to a nearby temple and was so inviting the monks could not resist and jumped over the wall tp partake in this hearty dish.

A poem in praise of the delicious dish was rendered, in which one lined read, "Even Buddha himself would jump over the wall".

"Buddha jump over the wall" is a highly complex chinese soup or stew cosisting of many ingredients of non-vegeterian origins and requiring one to two full days to create. Recently Chef Steven Cheng had created this soup and make available at his restaraunt Mei Chixuan. This dish usually very expensive but Chef Steven Cheng make it available and affordable, a mini version of "Buddha jump ove the wall". This dish consists of :

Dried Scallops

Shark Fin

Abalone

Seacucumber

Mushroom

Chicken

Chinese Ham

Dried Bamboo Shoots

Chef Steven's version of mini "Buddha jump over the wall" or "Fut Tiew Cheong" is gorgeous and delicious. The double boiled soup is so aroma and so tasty and yet so affordable. We love this dish and it is a sure winner.

It is delicious that not left in the bowl except the bone. It is worth to try this gorgeous dish and my next stop would be Mei Chixuan. A bowl of this soup cost only Rm38.80(US$13), so affordable.

Your Sidney

Crab Craving? So Sinful!

I was not a great crab lover but it all started by this one crab dish and oh boy! since then I am stuck and can't do without it whenever I drop by a seafood restaraunt. I use to find crab dishes are such a hassle, to eat and not much meat, shell bits always get stuck in between by tooth and take such a long time to eat while other dishes get cold at the end of the day. But now, I would tell you yet another story, "eating pleasure, eat crab". The crab dish that strike me so much was the dry salted egg crab (ham tan hai), oh boy lovely. The shells are coated with salted egg yolk and enhance the taste of the crab. The freshness and the aroma of this dish can be enjoyed.

Myself and Sunny are now a regular at Mei Chixuan Restaurant, Kota Damansar and Steven Cheng is the head chef of this eatery and one of our big contributor to Big Boys Kitchen. We have no problem having him to cook for us as we trust his kitchen skill. Through him we also learn a lot of things regards to food that we never ever know till today and more to learn.

Back to crab, a lot of restaurant in KL and PJ offer a variety of crab dishes and do you know where this crab supply comes from? Locally? Well the demand is so heavy and the local supplies were unable to meet this demand and according to Steven, most of the crabs are imported from Bangladesh and Indonesia. The one below, dark and reddish is from Bangladesh and air flown. This type of crab, the meat is a bit soft and is good for cooking chinese dishes. As they are air flown into Malaysia, during this logistic, a lot of crab may be dead during the process, due to change of temperature. Thefore the price of this life crab can be expensive and sometime you may not get fresh one. I heard some of them goes straight goes into deep freezing and when cooked, they do taste different ,the meat become watery and soft or strainless meat and not an idea crab dish.

The one below is indonesia crab, it has a pale colour compare to the one above. The meat taste much better, the meat is much better, crunchier and it bounches when you bit into it. Lovely. I was told the are not as expensive as those from Bangladesh as the logistic is easier and the crabs are easy kept fresh.

We came to know that now crab dishes can be done in so many ways that can't be imaginable. The crab dishes that I am going to post are those dishes that we had eaten and cooked by Steven himself and we find them incredible marvellous. We usually pick a night to dine crabs when we are relax and when we are not in a rush as we like to spend time enjoying cracking those shell and sipping the meat out from the shell.

"Kam Heong Hai" is a delicious crab dish cook in dried shrimp, curry leaves and curry powder. Looks beautiful, remarkable taste".

"Sup Ham Tan Hai" Salted Egg Yolk Crab with gravy is very unique and something new to me as I alway have them done dried. Oh those rich gravy, what a winner!

Oh My favourite dish all time, salted egg yolk crab. No need to explain, try them yourself.....lol!

"Lat Chee Hai" Crab cooked with dried chillies is such a winner, we love them. you can taste the freshness of the crab... people says "sin mei". With the taste of the mild hot chillies and also the seasoning, oh oh....it is now my love at the first sight! Tell me why I would not want to have another kilo of this crab. "Lat Chee Kai" instead of crab, chicken is replaced, taste so gorgeous, just like being in heaven!

This "Tim Chau Hai" can be strange, definitely to us. Something new. Looks like I want to divorce them at first sight, why? Don't they look unattractive. Well, I would recommend you to have a bite, as we did that too...oh boy it was lovely, mild sweetness and aroma of home make chinese wine. I guess just like some of us, never judge a person by the look, what is inside can be a treasure.

If you around Tesco, Curve or Ikea, you can visit Steven as he is always there busy preparing great meal. Stven's Mei Chixuan restaurant is located at Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya.

Other links on Mei Chixuan:

Eat First Think Later
Living in Food Heaven

Restauant Mei Chixuan
N0 32A1, Jalan PJU5/10,
PJU 5, Dataran Sunway
Kota Damansara
47810 Petaling Jaya

Yours Sidney