Stir Fried Celery with Prawns

I must thank my auntie for introducing me to this wonderful vegetable. Many years ago, I visited my auntie during one of my semester breaks. My uncle very kindly fetched me from campus and I arrived at my auntie's house in time for dinner. My auntie is a fantastic cook and one of the dishes that stood out that evening was stir fried celery with prawns. It was a new vegetable to me and when I ate it, wow I really loved it! What made it even more delicious was my auntie's sambal belacan which she always pounds by hand.

Besides my auntie's cooking, one of the things I looked forwards to was sampling my cousins' heavy metal and hard rock music collection. My twin cousins were very much into AC/DC and Judas Priest, among others during that time. I also managed to watch videos of AC/DC and Def Leppard in concert.

As I mentioned in this post, my introduction to hard rock and heavy metal started when I studied in Assunta, PJ. After my SRP exams (now known as PMR), my dad was transferred to KL. To cut the long story short, I was enrolled in Assunta. I remember meeting the then principal, Sister Enda Ryan, on my first day at school. Sister Enda is a very warm and friendly Irish lady. The first thing she did was grab my exam result slip and scrutinized it intently while leaning against the office wall. "Hmmm...you have a distinction in Bahasa! (Malay Language). Clever girl!", she exclaimed. She seemed very pleased. 

I was promptly taken to class 4 Science 3. The classroom was  in a makeshift building known as The Shed (sounds like the title of a horror movie, hor?). By the way, I subsequently worked my way up to 5 Science 1. I wanted to keep the Terengganu flag flying, to impress the girls that Terengganu people had the smarts. No lah, actually it's because I have a fierce mother. She expects excellence in academia but I better not talk too much. My mother reads my blog (Hi Ma!). And guess what? My heavy metal initiation happened during bible study. Gasp! How did that happen? 

In 1982 one Pastor Gary Greenwald launched an attack on rock music and there is a recording of his lecture titled Rock A Bye Baby.  Back in Assunta, the Christian students would go for bible study when the Muslim girls were attending their Ugama Islam (Islamic Studies) class. The Catholics had their Catechism class while the "lain-lain" (others) were made to go to the field to play netball. At that time, I was one of the "lain-lain" but you would need a few horses to drag me to netball.

Serve this with sambal belacan or sambal tomato. Guarantee you will have second helpings.

So I chose to follow the faithful and took Brother Steven's class. One fateful day in 1983, we listened to Rock A Bye Baby as part of our bible study. Apparently, according to Pastor Greenwald, if you played Hotel California by the Eagles backwards, you can hear satanic messages. And Hotel California was a hotel where Anton Lavey established the Church of Satan, or so the story goes. Hmmm....And throughout the recording, a few sampling of rock and heavy metal music was played to illustrate the good pastor's point.

And there I was, this fat bespectacled and not-so-sweet 16 suddenly listening with full attention to the song clips. "Hey, this stuff is goood!", I thought to myself. I experienced an awakening and revelation of sorts. Satanic or whatever, I don't care. And that was how I became a rock and heavy metal fan.

I guess I may have mellowed with age but I still like rock music, but the more melodic kind. Not that I was ever into the ultra heavy stuff like Slipknot which scares the hell out of me. 

So you see, strange things happen in life or in a convent. I don't think Sister Enda would be pleased this time :)

Stir Fried Celery with Prawns
Recipe source : Phong Hong

Ingredients :
- 4 stalks celery, sliced
- 10 prawns, peeled and deveined
- 4 big cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce or to taste
- Dash of pepper

Method :
- Heat oil in wok and fry prawns until cooked. Remove and set aside.
- In the same oil, fry garlic until slightly brown.
- Add celery and stir fry until celery is tender but still crunchy.
- Add fish sauce, pepper and stir briskly.
- Add prawns and serve immediately.

Tomato Sambal

My mum once told me that my dad mentioned that when he was young, his family used to eat sambal belacan with tomatoes. The fresh tomatoes were pounded together with the sambal belacan. It sounded strange to me at the time. A few years later, I bought Kak Liza's book "Senangnya Memasak....Sambal & Sos" and I found a recipe for Sambal Tomato. That must be the sambal that Pa was telling Mummy about.

It is simple to prepare. Just make your usual sambal belacan and towards the end, add tomato wedges and pound it with the sambal belacan. It does get watery, so gently does it. I decided to try this sambal out of curiosity and I used my family sambal belacan recipe. My grandma and my mum add shallots to our sambal belacan. Another thing we add is a bit of sugar as we like our sambal belacan a little bit sweet. This is a characteristic of people who come from Terengganu and Kelantan.

I wasn't sure if I should use ripe or semi-ripe tomatoes as Kak Liza didn't mention it in her recipe. I decided on semi-ripe and I guess it does not really matter. And I hauled my  family heirloom out of storage, the good ole Lesung Batu (mortar and pestle) which my mum gave me. My goodness, it was very heavy! I haven't pounded sambal belacan for a long time, opting to use the blender instead. This time, I wanted to do it the good old fashioned way. I toasted the belacan first over the stove and pounded it with the chillies and onions (I used a big onion instead of shallots). When the sambal was almost done, I added the tomato wedges. All I did was just to bruise the tomatoes. 

Before serving, I squeezed the juice from one lime into the tomato sambal. Even before I added the lime juice, the sambal was already a little bit sour from the tomatoes. But I still added the lime juice because what is sambal belacan without the fragrance of lime? I used limau nipis instead of limau katuri because I prefer it's stronger aroma.

Verdict? It was really good! The tomatoes added a lot of bite and flavour to the sambal. Besides, I appreciate that sambal belacan pounded by hand tastes and smells way better that the one prepared in a blender. It is very true, this sambal belacan was excellent, worth the trouble and effort. If you are one of those people who can't live without your sambal belacan, I highly recommend this tomato sambal.

Serve the tomato sambal with extra tomato wedges which are not pounded.

I love this sambal a lot and I will definitely make it more often. And you can be sure that I will use my lesung batu more often now :)

Tomato Sambal

Recipe Source : Adapted from Senangnya Memasak....Sambal & Sos by Chef Hanieliza

Ingredients :

- 6 red chillies

- 1 big onion (or 5 shallots)

- 2 small semi ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges

- 1 inch belacan (toast this for more fragrance if you can)

- Juice from 1 lime or to taste (I used limau nipis)

Method :

1. Pound belacan, chillies and onion until fairly fine.

2. Add tomato wedges and pound to bruise the tomatoes.

3. Add lime juice before serving.

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Doreen of My Little Favourite DIY and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids.

Stir Fried Iceberg Lettuce

My grandma in general is not a fan of vegetables. She dislikes cabbage but loves kangkung a lot. Another vegetable that she is fond of is iceberg lettuce stir fried with garlic and salt. She loves it because the lettuce is very soft and easy on her palate when it is fried. When I was growing up, grandma used to fry lettuce quite often. Later on when I came to live in PJ, I noted that there is a similar vegetable dish - fried yau mak.

I decided to have a simple meatless meal after all the goodies I had during Chinese New Year. I thought stir fried lettuce and some taukwa (beancurds) would make a nice light meal. So, I fried a whole head of lettuce with one whole bulb of garlic and some salt. I love garlic and it may sound like a lot of lettuce but it cooks down considerably. I enjoyed the lettuce very much, it tasted very much like what my grandma used to cook.

Talking about childhood memories, I wouldn't be wrong to say that most of us (at least the over 40 age group) became interested in pop music when we were in our teens. At least that was how it was for me. My grandma's opposite neighbour's son was the source of my initial introduction to pop music. I never got to know the guy (never even set eyes on him, believe it or not) and he used to crank up his dad's hi-fi with songs from the late 70's and 80's. That was the era of Saturday Night Fever, you know the one where John Travolta strikes a pose while pointing his finger to the ceiling.

And I have a confession to make. At that time, I did enjoy sentimental songs. Looking back, some of them are quite sappy. One of the first songs that made an impression on me was All Out of Love by Air Supply. Not that I was in love or anything like that (I did have a crush on the late Andy Gibb, though) but I loved the melody. Up till today, I still go for melody and beat in a song. I don't really care what they sing about unless of course it's something really bad.

And that being the disco era, I liked upbeat (aka hot) songs like Funkytown by Lipps Inc (I still like it ***cringe***), Ring My Bell by Anita Ward (Riiiing my beeelll...eellll...eelll, ring my bell, ding dong, ding dong...) and of course Night Fever by The Bee Gees.

Kids these days start a lot earlier. I was quite taken aback when my little nephew was moo, moo, mooing away to Maroon 5's Moves Like Jagger. I guess parents are quiet liberal now and in the internet age, kids get a lot more exposure compared to kids during my time.

When my mum was growing up, my grandpa was very strict. They were only allowed to listen to classical music, you know, the likes of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Vivaldi. Don't ever mention Elvis or The Beatles or you'll get a lecture from grandpa. And my aunt (the one who taught me cooking) was made to cycle to town immediately to return a record she bought. It was the song Witch Doctor by David Seville (1958) that got her into trouble!

Once, grandpa took me to town to buy cassettes when he noticed that I liked listening to music. I was hoping to get the latest disco hits. But grandpa asked the record shop owner "You have old hits?". Alamak.........what a spoiler. I went home with two cassettes. I still remember one of the songs in there. One way ticket, one way ticket to the blues..............That's how I felt lah when I ended up with the greatest old hits.

And how on earth did I get into hard rock and heavy metal? Well, that will come up in another post. Just to give you a sneak peak, it all started in Assunta, PJ. Yeah, lots of stuff happen in a convent. I hope Sister Enda Ryan is reading this. Hee...hee.....

Stir Fried Iceberg Lettuce
Recipe Source : Phong Hong's Grandma

Ingredients :
- 1 head of lettuce
- 1 small bulb of garlic
- salt to taste

Method :
- Wash and drain lettuce leaves.
- Tear leaves into smaller pieces.
- Peel garlic by smashing it a little and leave whole.
- Heat oil in wok.
- Add garlic and some salt.
- Fry the garlic until it is just slightly brown.
- Throw in the lettuce leaves and stir fry until wilted.
- Adjust seasoning and serve immediately.

Grandma's Fried Mee

No, no, I did not eat this recently. Hee..hee...I am now on my low or rather NO carbohydrate diet (very tough, leh!). This noodle dish was cooked sometime December 2012 when I was doing a lot of comfort eating. Somehow carbohydrates like potato chips, kerepek ubi, cakes and noodles cheer me up when I am feeling down. And my favourite pastime is eating so, what can I do? Hee..hee...excuses......

As far as fried noodles are concerned, I prefer meehoon (vermicelli) or koay teow (flat rice noodles). I like mee (yellow noodles) in soups but I make an exception for Grandma's fried mee. I used to enjoy her fried mee during  the weekends. The noodles are fried with a spice paste made simply by pounding fresh chillies, onions and garlic. And in addition to soya sauce, my Grandma uses our Terengganu magic sauce - kayciap, which can be substituted with sweet soya sauce (kicap manis).

Blended chillies, onions and garlic.

One thing to remember when frying yellow noodles is to take note of the saltiness of the noodles before adding your sauces. The saltiness varies between different brands. I remember my Mum had a misadventure with her fried noodles when it turned out too salty to serve. It was a case of "Char Mee Siow Kiam" (in Hokkien that means Fried Noodles Too Salty) and  it became a little joke between us at home. So remember to taste the noodles first.

My Grandma uses either chicken or pork to fry the noodles and as for the vegetables, it was mustard greens (chye sim) and beansprouts. Sometimes she will also add prawns. I had a case of carbohydrate hunger and instantly craved for my Grandma's fried noodles. The recipe below has been recreated from memory and based on best estimate. It turned out pretty good :)

Grandma's Fried Mee

Recipe source : Phong Hong's Grandma

Ingredients :

- 450 grams yellow noodles

- Chicken meat from 1/2 chicken breast, cut into cubes

- 2 cloves garlic, minced (to season chicken)

- 1 tablespoon light soya sauce (to season chicken)

- 100 grams mustard greens (chye sim)

- A handful of beansprouts

- 3 tablespoons kayciap (or sweet soya sauce)

- 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce

Blended ingredients :

- 2 red chillies

- 2 big onions

- 3 big cloves of garlic

Method :

1. Season chicken meat with soya sauce and minced garlic. Set aside for 15 minutes.

2. Blend chillies, onion and garlic.

3. Blanch the yellow noodles in hot water to get rid of excess oil and drain.

4. Heat oil in wok and saute the blended ingredients until fragrant.

5. Add chicken and stir fry until cooked. You can add some water and cover the wok to cook the chicken.

6. Add kayciap/sweet soya sauce and dark soya sauce. Stir to mix.

7. Add mustard grees and fry till wilted.

8. Add noodles and stir until well mixed with sauces.

9. Fry until noodles are fairly dry.

10. Add beansprouts at the last minute and continue to mix to distribute the beansprout evenly.

Note : If you prefer your noodles more moist, you can add some water. I generally like my noodles dry with the exception of soupy noodles or noodles with gravy. Garnishing with fried browns onions will make the noodles tastier :)

Spicy Tapioca Chips (Kerepek Ubi Kayu Pedas)

I, Phong Hong, hereby pledge to kick start my diet and low carb eating regime after the Chinese New Year. So help me God. And as if I needed another addictive snack to tank my resolve, here I am making Spicy Tapioca Chips (Kerepek Ubi Kayu Pedas). I love this spicy snack but all this while it never occurred to me to make the chips myself. Thanks a bunch Esther! It was Esther's comment on my Ngaku Chips post that got me all itchy. Tsk! Tsk!

It has been a while since I ate these spicy chips. The last time I bought the chips from 99 Speedmart, I did not enjoy that particular brand. It had a stale taste although the  expiry date was quite far ahead. I reckon it is the stale oil that spoilt the whole thing. Besides, the chips were quiet oily, wet and soggy. Yuks!

My search for the recipe brought me to Subhie's Passions' Kerepek Ubi Kayu Pedas-Spicy Cassava Crisps. The recipes I found in other blogs were quiet similar but most did not give measurements. After trying the recipe, I figured that you could basically "agak-agak" (estimate) the ingredients for the chilli sauce.

The ingredients for the chilli sauce are quite basic. Fresh and dried chillies, garlic, ginger, sugar and salt. But after tasting the end product, I prefer it without ginger. Most of the recipes from the Malay blogs that I found did not contain ginger but this is a matter of personal taste.

Fresh and dried chilles, garlic and ginger.

Blend till medium fine.

The blended ingredients are then sauteed in oil until fragrant and some water is added. Simmer until the raw smell of chillis disappear and mixture is a slightly thick. Add salt and sugar to taste and set aside to cool.

And of course you will need cassava/tapioca. I call it tapioca and for this recipe I used a medium sized one, measuring about 7 inches long. It was actually slightly more than 12 inches in length when I bought it but 5 inches of it went soft. Just peel the tapioca, not that difficult as it has a skin that you can quiet easily peel off. If I remember correctly, my grandma once made a kerabu using the tapioca skin. I must check with my Mum or my Auntie.

Just make a slit along the tapioca and peel.

Give it a rinse and pat dry. Slice the tapioca thinly using either a mandolin or knife. Then simply deep fry until it turns golden brown and crispy. Once the chips are cool, toss them in the chilli sauce and you are good to go!

Because my tapioca chips were much less than what it should have been, the chilli sauce was a bit on the generous side. No complaints as I enjoyed every bit of it :)

Spicy Tapioca Chips (Kerepek Ubi Pedas)
Recipe source : Adapted from Subhie's Passions

Ingredients :
- 1 medium sized tapioca (about 12 inches in length)
- oil for deep frying

For chilli sauce
- 6 dried chillies, soaked to soften
- 2 fresh chillies
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/2 inch ginger (I would leave this out in my next attempt)
- 2 tablespoons honey (or sugar to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- About 1/4 cup water

Method :

To prepare chilli sauce :
1. Blend chillies, garlic and ginger till medium fine.
2. Saute blended ingredients till aromatic.
3. Add water and simmer until chilli sauce becomes thick.
4. Add salt and honey/sugar and mix. Simmer for about 1 minute.
5. Set aside to cool.

For tapioca chips :
1. Peel and rinse tapioca.
2. Slice thinly using mandolin or knife.
3. Deep fry until golden brown and crisp.
4. Drain on paper towels.

Once the tapioca chips are cool, toss them in the chilli sauce until well coated. Serve or can be stored in an airtight container.

No more chips after Chinese New Year. Sigh....

Cranberry Oat Cookies

What did I tell ya? That's right, more cookies from me! I cut out this recipe from Amy Beh's Cook's Nook which appeared in The Star on 18 December 2012 and you can find it here. That was way before I was hit by the cookie bug. There I was with a growing stack of cookie recipes and nothing much was happening except that I was stocking up on raisins, cranberries, oats, chocolate chips and what not like there is no tomorrow. And my tin of Nestum was still very much a virgin for almost one year.

It was only two weeks before Chinese New Year that I was somehow motivated to get my butt moving. My first experiment was with the Cornflakes Butter Cookies which failed initially due to my inexperience. Some of the cookies turned out gritty and some turned out raw in the middle. But I learnt a lot from that cookie which led me to the Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies which was my first successful cookie.

When I studied Amy Beh's recipe, the butter fiend in me declared that the butter content was too low. I know, I know. I should watch my fat intake but this is Chinese New Year territory and I only do this once a year. Besides, I was going to load up the cookies with extra oats which would, I hope trap the fats. Hah! Hah! What wishful thinking. Just as well I didn't make the mark to get into medical school. I would have been banned from cardiology.

By the way, Valentine's Day has come and gone. How many of you were wined and dined by your other half? Valentine schmalantine, I say. If you think that accountants are the most unromantic people on earth, you are right. My better half, the Penang accountant if you recall from here has an opinion on Valentine's Day. "It's all a highly commercialized venture.  We should not subscribe to such shenanigans", said he or something to that effect. Yes dear, I agree with you. I'm an accountant too. 

And how many of you love those sappy romantic love songs? When I was in Assunta circa 1982/1983 the girls would go wild when the school band played Endless Love by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross while I was trying very hard not to throw up. Songs like When I Need You (Leo Sayer), If You're Not The One (Daniel Beddingfield) and The Power of Love (Jennifer Rush) are the sort of songs that I simply cannot tahan. Back then, I was into heavy metal (yeah!) with the likes of Kiss, AC/DC, Judas Priest and Van Halen.

My mum was very strict when I was growing up but she was quite liberal when it came to the music I listened to. It was fine with her if I saved my pocket money to buy Iron Maiden's latest cassette (back then there is no CD). Come to think of it, my mum is very sporting. One time I asked her to pick up Van Halen's latest cassette from the now defunct Kimisawa. The shop assistant told her point blank "Auntie, that one is rock you know!"

Well, that was a bit of story from Auntie Phong Hong's teenage years. And I still don't like sappy romantic songs. The closest thing to a love song that I will listen to is Joan Jett and the Blackhearts' I Hate Myself for Loving You. And I used to fantasize about becoming a rock star playing bass guitar on stage.

Before I left school after the SPM exams, we were required to fill up a form and one of the questions is "What if your ambition?". We were given three options and to the amusement of my classmate Carina, I listed 1. Rock Star, 2. Accountant and 3. Doctor. Well, at least I achieved option number two. Way to go, Phong Hong!

Cranberry Oat Cookies
Recipe source : Adapted from Amy Beh

Ingredients :
- 250g butter
- 120g castor sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
- 300g self raising flour
- 120g rolled oats
- 120g dried cranberries

Method :
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add egg and vanilla essence and mix well.
- Add oats and cranberries and mix well.
- Fold in flour and mix until mixture becomes a dough.
- Pinch a small amount of dough and roll into a small ball.
- Place on a lined baking tray, spacing the cookie dough about 1 inch apart.
- Bake in preheated oven at 160C for 15-16 minutes for a softer chewy cookie or 18 minutes for a crunchy cookie (you need to adjust oven temperature and timing according to your oven)

I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover

Pineapple Fried Rice

Pineapple Fried Rice came to mind when I thought about what other dishes I could come up with for this month's theme on Little Thumbs Up. I have always wanted to try the Pineapple Fried Rice at the Thai restaurants, you know the one they serve in a pineapple boat. Somehow, till today I never got a chance to do that.

And I thought, why not cook a Pineapple Fried Rice using my grandma's fried rice recipe. My grandma uses a spice paste made of fresh chillies, onions, garlic, dried prawns and belacan. Pretty much like the spice paste for Pineapple Kerabu except that the kerabu spice paste does not contain garlic. See how versatile this spice paste is? It is also used for cooking Mee Siam, something to be attempted in the near future.

Fried rice is best cooked using overnight rice as the rice grains are firm and dry. So the day before, I cooked some rice. I was a bit disappointed as the rice was a bit on the soggy side because I put a bit too much water. I remember my auntie telling me that the amount of water needs to be adjusted depending on whether the rice is "new" rice or "old" rice. When you have just opened a packet of rice, that is "new" rice. I usually like Basmathi rice but Aeon ran out of the small packets.

It didn't really matter as the fried rice turned out alright but there was something missing. Yikes! I realised that I had forgotten to add garlic to the spice paste. Drat! Double drat! But seriously, it wasn't that bad. The fried rice was still good as the belacan and dried prawns made the fried rice very tasty and the aroma was fabulous. And the sweet and sour pineapple made the fried rice even tastier.

If only I had been a little bit more industrious and peeled my own pineapple, I would have been able to fashion a pineapple boat to serve the fried rice. Oh well, I don't think it is that easy to carve out the pineapple flesh. I guess I saved myself the stress as I am quite sure I would have murdered the poor pineapple and there would not be a pineapple boat in sight!

Pineapple Fried Rice
Recipe source : Phong Hong

Ingredients :
- 600g overnight cooked rice
- 150g chicken fillet, cut into small cubes
- 200g prawns
- 350g pineapple cut into small pieces
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons light soya sauce
- oil for frying

Spice paste :
- 3 red chillies (more if you like)
- 1 big onion
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons dried prawns, soaked and drained
- 15g belacan

Method :

For spice paste :
1. Blend all ingredients and set aside.

For fried rice :
1. Heat oil in wok and fry prawns until cooked.
2. Remove the prawns and set aside.
3. In the same oil, saute the blended spice paste until aromatic.
4. Add chicken fillet and continue frying until chicken is cooked.
5. Add rice and stir until rice is well mixed with the spice paste.
6. Add soya sauce and fish sauce and stir to mix well. Taste and adjust if necessary.
6. Add the cooked prawns and pineapples and stir to mix with the rice.
7. Garnish with sliced red chillies and coriander if you like.

 

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of My Little Favourite DIY.

Pineapple Kerabu

Pineapple is my must have ingredient whenever I make Kerabu or Rojak. Somehow, without pineapple I feel that my Kerabu or Rojak is incomplete. The sweet and sour taste of the pineapple really lights everything up. Besides it is full of vitamins, minerals and lots of fibre. If I am eating pineapple just by itself, I like to rub it with some salt all over and it tastes really good.

I dislike the chore of peeling pineapples and cutting off the eyes. Ugh! Messy, messy, messy (OK, I admit - lazy, lazy, lazy!)! So I buy the ready peeled Crystal pineapple available from Aeon supermarket. It is quite small, weighing about 350g. I usually like making kerabu with an assortment of vegetables like cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, young papaya and of course pineapple. This time I decided why not make pineapple the star of the show. And since it is Chinese New Year, I have lots of Mandarin oranges in the house. So, in goes a few segments of the oranges too.

For the kerabu dressing, I am using my grandma's recipe. Pretty simple - fresh chillies, onions, dried prawns (heh bee) and belacan. Instead of calamansi lime (limau kasturi) my family has always used lime (limau nipis) instead. I prefer limau nipis as I find that it imparts a stronger taste and aroma compared to limau kasturi.

Blended fresh chillies, dried prawns, onions and belacan.

My grandma and my mum add sugar to the kerabu dressing for sweetness but I prefer to use plum sauce instead. I love plum sauce because it is sweet and sour and gives the dressing a thicker consistency.

Add lime juice and plum sauce. Yum!

For this pineapple kerabu, I did not add any of the usual herbs like mint (only used as a garnish), basil and bunga kantan as I wanted the taste of the pineapple to shine through by itself. The Mandarin oranges complemented the pineapple very well, it was a beautiful marriage of flavors.

Speaking of pineapples, this reminds me of a joke told by an ex-colleague at my previous workplace. Apparently, Lionel Richie was touring China and his last stop was at a province highly populated by Hokkiens. He wasn't sure if these people were familiar with his work and he decided to perform "All Night Long" since it was a very catchy number. This was how the master of ceremony introduced him. "Ladies and gentlemen, this evening we are very honored to have a very famous artiste from USA to entertain us. His name is Mr Longan Lychee and he will be singing his hit song Ong Lai Long (pineapple factory in Hokkien)". Ever since that joke, everytime I hear All Night Long, in my head it goes like this "Ong Lai Long! Ong Lai.......Ong Lai.......".

Pineapple Kerabu

Recipe source : Phong Hong

Ingredients :

- 1 small pineapple, sliced (350g)

- 1 Mandarin orange, segments with skin removed

- 1 red onion, thinly sliced

- Mint leaves for garnishing

Dressing :

- 3 tablespoons sambal belacan

- 1 tablespoon plum sauce
- 1 tablespoon dried prawns, soaked and pounded
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- Juice from 2 limes (limau nipis)

Note : The dressing should taste sweet, sour and salty. Please adjust as necessary.

Method :
- Mix all the dressing ingredients. Taste and adjust if necessary and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, put pineapple slices, mandarin orange segments and sliced onions. 
- Add dressing and toss to mix evenly.
- Garnish with mint leaves and serve.

I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover.

This post is also linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of My Little Favourite DIY.