Hail Nonya dishes!

Ok, let's talk about food. Finally more free to try some new dishes I have been waiting to cook.

All these are fast, shortcut, typical home-cooked dishes, hehe.  I cooked Aloo Mutter, a vegetarian Indian dish. I play cheat because I got the ready made sauce. I only added potatoes and green peas. It was real good.  Kailan with Mushroom sauce (instead of oyster sauce). I steamed the veggies with a pinch of salt and sieved them up. Separately I prepared the sauce with garlic, cornflour, sugar, salt, mushroom sauce, and poured the hot sauce over the Kailan and sprinkled some fried shallots on top.  Next is Ham Omelette. With the hot and spicy ham (with real chilli) my cousin brought from Bangkok, I added these and made an omelette with shallots. For Assam Pedas, I play cheat again, as I have the spicy tamarind sauce, just added fish and okra (ladies finger). Lest for the veg dishes, I did not try my "creations" but I think they were ok.

Even easier to prepare and the kids just prefer/love these  anytime. Fried Chicken Nuggets and Lotus Root Soup.  But it is unhealthy to eat fried nuggets everyday and the boiling of soup takes a long time (3-4 hours) for the essence of the soup ingredients to attain its wholesome flavour.

Must show case the next 2 Nonya dishes. I have been wanting to try cooking Ayam Ponteh, ever since watching the Little Nonya on TV cooking Babi Ponteh (Ayam is chicken, Babi is pork). Plus I was motivated and inspired by Saripartygirl  or Michelle, a fellow young blogger who is a fantastic cook. You can check the recipes over at her side. I bought a whole chicken already cut into pieces, potatoes and I added chinese mushrooms. The important ingredient I thought was the sugar or rather, I used gula melaka, so the gravy is a little sweet, along with black soya sauce and soya bean paste (tau cheo). Here they are simmering in the pot.

The end result was a darker version of Ayam Ponteh. I did not manage to try it myself but there were no complaints from the family. I fancy the gravy was a little oily, probably due to the chicken skin (even though I have had 80% extracted). Next time I will probably try Babi Ponteh!

Next is a Nonya dessert, Durian Green Bean Soup, again courtesy of Michelle's recipe.  We have tried Green Bean soup but adding durian was a first time. I bought about 1.5 durians packed into 3 boxes. Boil the green beans together with pandan leaves, and adding again gula melaka, and a pinch of salt. Halfway, I added the durian and let it simmer till the flesh of this king of fruits fell apart and melted into the green bean mix.

This is it - Durian Green Bean Soup. And adding a little coconut milk  made this a very sweet, rich and aromatic dessert. Also a sinful one too.  It was quite nice when it was piping hot. I think I added a little too much durian and lesser green beans, as the soup was very thick and milky, like eating a hot durian! Hahaha.....

I told Michelle I felt as if I am Julie (in Julie & Julia movie) and she Julia, as I wanted to try cooking all her dishes, because she made them sound so easy and simple to prepare. Maybe I should set myself a deadline to cook all her dishes aka Julie's resolution. However, note to self, I will not be making the Nonya Chang (glutonious rice dumplings) because it is simply tooooo leceh (troublesome) to make. Haha, thanks, Michelle!