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This is a fairly simple lamb salad I made with leftover baked lamb shoulders I had. The next time you have leftover meat, don’t throw them away! I simply cut the lamb shoulders into small pieces, then heat the pan with a few drops of olive oil and heat it up over low flame. Then drop in a few drops of cooking wine to bring out the fragrant again. If you have the sauce for the lamb, drop them in like I did (otherwise replace with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lighty salt and pepper). Then just spread them over your vege and its done!

You can use any vege, arrowhead, butterhead, etc. I usually buy those organic aeroponic vegetables top with cherry tomatos :). This stuff is super healthy and very addictive (the lamb!).

Makan first, think later

Yeah BBQ time again! This is a very simple recipe for BBQ…

BBQ Chicken Wings
I prefer to buy my chicken wings at the wet market, although it cost more but you get bigger size chicken wings (almost double the size of those you get at hypermarts).

Wash the wings and dry them, then get the marinate ready. Basically pound lemongrass and ginger (garlic can be added too) then spread them evenly all over the wings. Add a mixture of oyster sauce, light soya sauce, pepper and chinese cooking wine to the chicken. Top it off with sliced kaffir lime leaves and lime juice (lots of them).

BBQ Pork Ribs
Only pork ribs can do the job! Nothing else. Got a bit ambitious and try to bbq the whole rack, but I find that its easier to bbq them in chopped size. The marinate for ribs is not too much different from the wings, pound ginger and shallots, spread them over the ribs. Add in a mixture of light soya sauce, pepper, honey and chinese cooking wine (some oyster sauce is ok is fancy) on to the ribs. I dropped in a few sliced bay leaves as well.

Bag the wings and ribs in the fridge for at least 4 hours or best overnight. Then bbq or grill them to your liking complimented with streaky bacon & streaky ham and you will have a power bbq, yummy!

Makan first, think later

This is probably one of my most favourite thing to cook, yummy old lamb shoulders! You can either oven bake or bbq this.

First of all, marinate lamb shoulders (just get those frozen one from the supermarket) with oyster sauce, light soya sauce, pepper, wine (I use left over red wine or chinese cooking wine) and top it up with dried rosemary leaves. Then leave it in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours, best is overnight.

If you are bbq-ing, just put them on the bbq rack and cook them. For oven, just oil a baking pan with sesame oil (olive oil ok too) and place your lamb evenly.

Baked the lamb on mid fire (150-200′c). Turn them if required occassionaly. Juice will flow out from the lamb, so there is no need to add marinate into the baking lamb. It will take about 45 mins to 1 1/2 hour… depends how well you want to cook them. Don’t wait till they are too dry, as long as its evenly cooked is fine. You can optionally add sliced potato half way through the bake if you like.

Now for sauce, just take a pan, heat it and pour in the marinate. Then stir slowly and you can further dilute it with some wine if you like, otherwise I just like to add pepper. Once its cooked to a boil, just add in corn flour premixed with a little water mix them well. Its done, serve the lamb with the sauce hot!

Makan first, think later

This is my very own chinese version of fried pasta… basically its pasta fried with bacon and vegetables. It’s really simple and fast thing to cook, simple ingredients includes pasta, dried shrimps, chopped garlics,bacon (I use bacon chips, its cheaper) and vegetables. Just boil the pasta till they are good and drain them, add a bit of oil in the boiling pasta so that it won’t stick together when drained. Put the pasta aside and start on the rest.

Oil the pan and fried shrimps with garlic on slow fire, once its brown drained them and set aside. Now fried the bacons with the remaining oil, once they are slightly cook, add in cooking wine (can be anything, leftover wine, chinese cooking wine, etc.). Once the bacons are absorbing the wine, add in the vegetables and stir fried them well.

Now mix a bowl with Oyster Sauce, Light Soya Sauce, a little Dark Soya Sauce, pepper and a little corn flour. Pour them in and add pasta. Stir until its all mix and cover well in slow fire. Then top it with the drained garlic and dried shrimps. Yummy!!!

Makan first, think later

Decided to migrate my recipe blog here too, easier to maintain
Here are the 3 entries from the blog:

Recipe: BBQ Salt Fish

I know what you all thinking, how to eat a fish when its all covered in salt, but that’s the idea. Besides steaming the fish, I think this is another best way to eat it and its superbly easy to do!

The idea of salt is that it will absorb moisture out of the fish, leaving pure and nice flesh! You can use any fish for this but I recommend sea fish. I used “left mouth fish” which is cheap (average RM4-8 per fish) and I ask the fishmonger to clean the internal but DO NOT scale it.

Simply prepare a piece of aluminium foil and make a bed of sea salt (get the cheapest you can find, its about 30-40 cents per bag, average 2 bags per fish), you may add in dried herbs into the salt to enhanced the flavour if you want but I find it not necessary. When you have the foil and salt bed ready, just slice some lemon and chinese parsley and stuff into the fish. Then place the fish on top of the salt bed and cover the top with more sea salt. Fold your foil up on the side so its easy to pick up and place it on top of your BBQ fire.

Leave it there for about 20-30 mins, not too long otherwise the flesh will be too dry. One good way to judge if its ready is that the salt will dry and form a rock like surface.

Remove the fish from the fire, crack open the salt, then cut the skin from the head and pull the whole skin up, do it gently and you will be able to remove the skin in 1 piece. Then simply dig into the flesh! You can supplement it with chilli sauce or whatever you fancy
Try it, its fun!

Recipe: Simple Nasi Lemak

Here’s a quick guide to making simple and easy to make Nasi Lemak at home. Stuff to prepare includes Ginger, Shallots, Coconut Milk, Rice, Salt & Pandan Leaves. Slice the ginger and peel off the skin of the shallots. Wash your rice (usually I use 1 cup per 2 pax) then add in ginger, shallots and pandan leaves. Top it with the coconut milk and salt then cook in rice cooker, when it’s almost cook, stir it and top it with a little more coconut milk if needed.

As for the sambal, I usually use the shortcut, just buy the sambal chili or chili boh from the supermarket. Firstly I will fry sliced shallots or onions with some oil, then add in ikan bilis (anchovies) and lastly the chili. You will need to add salt, sugar and lime juice to taste. Don’t need to cook this too long, once you got the right taste scoop it up to cool and don’t use too much oil
You can add other complimentary stuff like sliced cucumbers, fried ikan bilis, boiled eggs, etc. My only purpose is to eat it with grill fish
Recipe: Banana Leaf Grill Seafood

Here’s a simple recipe for grilling seafood at home, its basically curry marinate mixed and book on banana leaf for the special aroma.

For this round, my dad managed to help me buy some cheap baby river cat fish, 30 cents each! I went on to the market and bought some squids and prawns. To marinate, I rub fish curry powder all over the seafood, then added soya sauce, pounced lemon grass, curry leaves, lime juice and coconut milk. Let it sit for 4-8 hours in the fridge.

When ready, just have your banana leaf cleaned and grease with cooking oil. Then heat the pan, wrap the banana leaf over the seafood and grill them on mid-low fire till cooked.

Perfect to be served with nasi lemak!

Makan first, think later