Friday, December 21, 2007

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

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

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

Friday, December 14, 2007

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

Sunday, December 9, 2007

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

Sunday, December 2, 2007

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