My mom’s secret recipe on “moi te”

I believe that not many people ever try “moi te”. For those who haven’t got an opportunity to taste the “moi te”, let me introduce it to you. Actually “moi te” is a kind of rice fritters made by ingredients like steamed rice, dried prawns, tapioca flour, etc…..I’m not sure where or how my mom learned about it, or maybe she discovered the method by herself. Any how, since my mom’s cooking experience is about half decade, I strongly believe that she has added her own secret ingredients on the “moi te” to make it tastes more delicious. All my family members, and our neighbours like it very much. Oishidesne!

Here, I would like to share with you my mom’s secret recipe on “moi te”. Kindly take note that my mom is more to “qualitative” rather than “quantitative”. Hence, I’m not able to share with you the quantity of each ingredients, as my mom never measure it before. She is based on her 50-years cooking experience to determine the ratio for each ingredients to taste the best. Feel sorry if you cannot follow.

“moi te” – Rice Fritters

Ingredients
Steamed rice

(A) Mixed together and sieved

• Rice flour
• Tapioca flour
• Water

Seasoning:

• Salt to taste
• Dash of pepper
  

Ingredients (B)

• Dried prawns, soaked and chopped coarsely
• Shallots, sliced
• Garlic, chopped

Method
1. Heat 4 tbsp oil and saute shallots till crisp. Remove and leave the oil in the wok. Fry the chopped garlic, add dried prawns and saute till fragrant.

2. Mix ingredient (A), ingredient (B), seasoning and steam rice. Mix well to combine until mixture turns sticky like dough.

3. Heat enough oil in the wok. Divide mixture into small portions and make into balls. Fry in the wok. Flatten the balls become fritters. Fry the fritters until golden brown and crispy.

4. Continue to make as many fritters as possible. Remove the fritters from the wok and drain on a wire mesh.

5. Best served with chili sauce.

Crispy Chips From Ngaku

About two weeks ago, as usual, we went to shop at Tesco hypermarket for groceries. Since Chinese New Year is around the corner, new year stuffs can be found everywhere. I noticed that there was a stall attracted a theater crowd. With an inquisitive mind, I joined the crowd. Eagerly wanted to discover what is the item that able to arouse people’s interest. Ehh??!! What is that? It looks like garlic, but the tag was labeled as “China Ngaku”, “Arrowhead”? Hmm…..really no idea what is it for, but feel reluctant to ask the rest because seems like everybody knows it’s usage. Each of them was busy packing the “ngaku” into plastic bag. Some with one full bag, and some even got up to two or three full bags.
China Ngaku

None of my family members know about “ngaku”. After asking around, my sister in law discovered that “ngaku” can be stir fry with meat slice to become a dish. Besides, we can also process it into crispy chips. My sister in law tried it out, and it works. “ngaku” chips taste like potato chips. Crispy, but it’s more solid. Interested to know the methods of making “ngaku” chips? It’s so simple, as per following steps.
1. Cut off the head and tail of the “ngaku”, and peel off the skin.
2. Slice thinly with a slicer.
3. Dip the slices into salt water for about 15 minutes.
4. Drain the water, and dry off the slices.
5. In a wok, heat oil until hot. Deep fry the “ngaku” slices until golden brown and crispy. Drain and cool.
6. Add icing sugar to taste.
Easy, right? Now it’s time to enjoy it.
Crispy “ngaku” Chips

Custom Made Weekend Breakfast

It is almost like a routine for me to go to Sungai Ara wet market every saturday to buy myself some breakfast. One of my all time favourite is the “koay kak”, served in front of a coffee shop beside the wet market. Although the ingredients are not much, but the koay kak is prepared right there and then and taste good too. You can always see some customers standing beside the stall awaiting their turn, and you can bet one of every 3 order there is some “special requirements” to it.

Yes, if you just stand there and listen to the customer’s order, you’ll notice there is actually a lot of combination to it, e.g. “No chilli”, “No eggs, No tau geh”…..etc.Looking at the “variable” ingredients available for this simple koay kak, we have:
1. Chilli
2. beansprout
3. kuchai
4. eggs
5. chai bo

2 possibilities for each ingredient, either “yes” or “no”, we have 2^5 possibilities of the order, which makes 32 combinations in total! It is quite a challenge to remember the combinations alone, what’s more to prepare it on the spot!

What to do, we Penangites are pampered with good food and all, every one developed their own unique taste bud…..for me, I always love the koay kak with all the ingredients, served hot.

Rabbit Business

I was thinking of putting up this blog a few days ago, however, I was not feeling well to write anything for a few days. I was hit by irritating flu. Took some Horamine 4MG and now feeling a bit better. Anyway, here is the account. When I go back to my hubby’s hometown in SP, I always watch out for a group of rabbits that will hop around in the most leisurely way possible, oblivious to any danger around them. They would come out and play whenever the owner lets them out from their cage, and will go back to their cage after they are tired.

*This image is captured in the eveningThey have a good friend 🙂 , a dog, which doesn’t seem to take any interest in them at all. It is an interesting sight. Normally other rabbits would “run” for safety whenever there is a stranger going near them. However, these cute little rabbits doesn’t seem to mind any strangers at all, they just keep on with their rabbit “business” and just hop away a step or two when you go near them.  I wonder how they will be able to escape from some predators like nasty cats and dogs…..but amazingly they are still there……for more than a year!