Meat Based Recipes

Meat Based Recipes

Pot Steamed Meat With Cassava Shoots

Traditionally, this dish is cooked in bamboo but being a working mom, I can't afford losing the precious minutes looking for bamboo. Hence, this improvised version! 😜 The tumeric leaves play a crucial role in giving it its authentic aroma.

Ingredients ☝:

1/2 a chicken- chopped, cleaned and drained

2 stalks of lemongrass- crushed coarsely

3 thumb sized ginger- crushed coarsely

Cassava shoots- washed and shredded between two hands

1/2 tablespoon of salt

1-2 pinches of seasoning

Tumeric shoots- sliced

Method:

1. Mix well chicken meat with lemongrass, ginger and salt.

2. Add in cassava shoots and mix well till the leaves are shiny (well coated by chicken fats).

3. Arrange 4 tumeric leaves at the bottom of the pot with lighter green side up.

4. Pour chicken mix onto the tumeric leaves.

5. Cover pot with lid on the smallest heat for 20 minutes.

6. Uncover the pot and stir to turn the sides.

7. Cover the pot again and leave for 10 minutes. This is how it looks.👇

8. Add some water till chicken bits are submerged. Add in 1-2 pinches of seasoning.

9. Cover the pot and leave for 5 minutes. Done!👇

10. Garnish with a sprinkle of sliced tumeric shoots.👇

Suggestion: Can add coarsely sliced bunga kantan or tepus together with cassava shoots.

I hope you enjoy this healthy Dayak dish as much as I enjoy cooking and sharing it!😘

How I Began To Learn Cooking.

How I Began To Learn Cooking.

So FOOD is a BIG thing in the family. Dad cooked more (he was in the field force, literally translated as "forest police") when I was younger and mom learned most of what she knew (Chinese food) from him or our neighbour in Miri, Chik Seniah (Malay food). Mom excels at cooking Bidayuh food and making preserved meat, fish or vegetable. Dad is more into his Chinese roots. He would observe how the food is cooked in the shops or ask the cooks in  the restaurants and try to prepare it at home.

Mom with her grandchildren 

I started getting interested in food preparation when I tasted how different and better the rice my sumbuk (Bidayuh maternal grandmother) cooked on her ancient wooden fireplace (during my 2 weeks school holiday) compared to the one cooked on my mom's modern gas stove.

I started helping mom in the kitchen cooking rice when I was 12. At 13, during school 1st semester holiday at my (maternal older uncle) Soma Sama Teddy's quarters in Ipoh, my cousin Julia and I burned our first leaf-wrapped fish cooked on the stove. We got an earful from our (aunt) Tua' Sino Teddy.

Since then, I made it a point to learn how to cook. I enrolled in the school Cooking Club and learned to cook fried noodle. Then in Tae Kwan Do Club, I learned how to prepare and sell sardine rolls. I have improvised much of the recipe since (I disliked the raw onion mixed with canned sardine taste).

At 14, when again I spent my 1st semester holiday at Soma Sama Teddy's quarters in Kulim, I was assigned by my aunt to cook for the family (except my little cousin's food) to help me improve my cooking skills. Since then, I would monopolize the kitchen whenever I am around.

At school, I made sure I took an active role in the Interclass Cooking Competition (we cooked freshwater fish dishes), the Ecology Club fundraising food sale (we cooked sambal tumis sotong and udang) and Girls' Volleyball Team Cooking Competition (we cooked Kuzi Arnab) to get the hang of  various cooking skills, techniques and recipes.

Back home during the one month year end holiday, my parents would share with me their own forte. I learned how to cook all the Bidayuh dishes from mom. I bought Chinese recipe books that contain recipes that my dad liked and learned how to improvise the taste.

When I got to know my boyfriend (now my husband), I truly understood what it means by "The Way To A Man's Heart Is Through His Stomach"! Hahahaha!!

Why This Food Blog?

Why This Food Blog?

My typical home cooked dishes

It has been my longest conceived dream to write a blog about the food I learned to cook from my mom and the food I love to cook and eat.

This 2018 year end school holiday gives me the chance to start compiling the lovely wholesome recipes. My intention is to provide a reference point to my kids later when they are living far away from home.

I remember those campus days of calling my mom whenever the urge to cook and eat her home cooked food came. Be it day or night, I would call and jot down her recipes. Sometimes a few times a day! Especially when I couldn't get the exact familiar taste. Usually this is due to one or two missing ingredients! Hahaha!!

Being in a mixed parentage family, we are versatile eaters. My mom says I eat anything except stones and wood! Hihihi. When I was little, dad used to feed me with  his own spoon whatever he wanted me to try eat. I remember he fed me python meat  (thankfully minus the skin!) which tasted like chicken meat but more tender. Why is this gesture important to me? For those who know my dad, he is not the type who would say or do tender nothings into your ears. So, the fact that he was willing to do so is still endearing to me. This symbolizes what he would do to get me venture out into this world and savour every experience I encounter.