Roast Chicken

This is my first whole roast chicken, I’ve always been roasting ‘bits & pieces’ of chicken as there’s never enough people to feed an entire chicken to. But this time I decided to do it right and roast a whole chicken…and deal with the leftovers.

So I chose Jamie Oliver’s simple roast. The roast turned out really well with succulent meat and real crispy skin. Excuse the stab wounds in the photo, that was just me being nervous about ensuring that the chicken is properly cooked!

Fish Curry (Malay Style)

This fish curry contains santan and is not the usual asam fish curry that I'm used to. Unfortunately I think my dish should be called okra or ladies fingers curry instead of fish curry as the fish 'melted' into the curry. This has happened mainly because I chose the wrong type of fish being unfamiliar with the fish found in this region...'ang moh' fish!

Penang Hokkien Mee

Hokkien Mee is one of the must dos everytime I go home to Penang. Now the thing with people from Penang is that they will have their own personal favourite stall for each particular dish. For me, hokkien mee must come from the lady who runs the stall with her husband (husband sells Kooy Teow Th`ng) in the Tanjung Bunga market. There is also a kopitiam (coffeeshop) opposite the market which sells hokkien mee as well, my mum has since defected to the hokkien mee in the kopitiam but I'm stil loyal to the stall in the market.

My cheat's version of the hokkien mee made with ready-made paste for the soup below:


Unfortunately, all you see is the 'liau' as the bowl is too deep!

Loh Pak Ko (Radish Cake)

After the 'failed' attempts of making koay kak, I decided to turn the rest of the radish into radish cake. This is one of the kuih that one would get from the nonya kuih man/woman/stall/ thingy! I do not know if the origin is nonya but it makes a nice breakfast snack!

Char Koay Kak

Koay Kak is made from chinese radish or daikon (japanese). I have come across this root many times in the shop but had no idea that this is the main ingredient for making koay kak. However, finding a good recipe is proving to be difficult, I tried a few recipes and have become 'tired' of grating radishes but still no closer to the texture that I want for the koay kak. Below is the closest that I can get to but the texture is still lacking in comparison to the hawker's. So if you have a good recipe, please pass it on, I am willing to grate the radish just one more time!

Char Hor Fun (Cantonese style fried noodles)

Char Hor Fun to me is a very much a dinner dish. According to hearsay, in my mother's time, it is considered a 'good' gesture if the young comes courting with a packet of char hor fun for the parents of his intended, usually given during supper time. I think it is just an excuse to go visit his sweetheart after dark!!

My version of Char Hor Fun below, if you notice, it is lacking a few ingredients such as the fish cakes... this dish was created before I discovered that the chinese shop here does sell ready made ones... will update the photo the next time I make this dish!

Kiam Chai Th'ng (Salted Veg Soup)

This is the pièce de résistance of the chinese new year meal! This sour although the name suggests salty soup is the dish that all waits for, a certain level of patience is required or else the soup will not turn out well. The waiting is with the other dishes cooked for new year, they have to be at least a day old before the soup can be made. It is also known as the pot of gold, where we carefully ration ourselves over the first two days of chinese new year to ensure that we have enough leftovers for the soup.

Braised Duck

Braised duck is another Chinese New Year recipe at home and this is one of my favourites, it only appears on the table after the 2nd day of new year. The tender duck meat is to die for and sauce is delicous, if you can get pass the thick layer of duck fat. Finding the ingrediants here in Scotland was a bit of a challenge as I have the hokkien names but the shop is run by mandarin speaking chinese! However, the dish was successfully created and I had a satisfying CNY lunch!

Mixed vegetables

Although this is a simple dish in itself, it is part of the Chinese New Year menu that we have every year at home. The CNY lunch (reunion dinner is steamboat) is cooked by my eldest aunt. The dish is cooked and eaten for first 2 days and then what's left is dumped into the 'Kiam Chai Th'ng'. So the year that I did not go home for CNY, I recreated my aunt's dishes just for the 'home for new year' feeling but really I wanted to eat 'Kiam Chai Th'ng' and wanted it to taste authentic with 'leftovers' in the mix!