Daun Pegaga Masak Lemak (Centella In Turmeric Coconut Gravy)

Daun Pegaga aka Centella, Gotu Kola or the Asiatic Pennywort is mostly eaten raw in Ulam, a Malaysian rice salad or cooked 'masak lemak' style, that is, in coconut milk gravy.

Centella In Turmeric Coconut Gravy

It's also delicious in Urap, an Indonesian salad consisting of steamed vegetables mixed with seasoned grated coconut. I will try it this way one day. For now, I'm having my Daun Pegaga in a yummy coconut gravy with pounded fresh turmeric, strips of dried squid and anchovies. The aroma was tantalising and I felt an urge to eat it fresh out of the pan even before it touched the dinner table. Tsk, tsk!

Below is a picture of Daun Pegaga. It is a little tougher than most greens I know and is mildly bitter-tasting but not unpleasant. I munched away quite happy with the flavour.

Daun Pegaga / Centella Asiatica / Gotu Kola

Daun Pegaga Masak Lemak (Centella In Turmeric Coconut Gravy)
Ingredients:
- 40g daun pegaga (snip roots away, cut in half)
- 1 lemongrass (smashed)
- 1 red chilli (pounded)
- ½ thumb fresh turmeric (pounded)
- 15 dried anchovies (rinsed)
- 1 tbsp dried squid strips (optional) (soaked for 10 mins and rinsed)
- ½ cup coconut milk
- 1 cup water
- ⅛ tsp salt (to taste)
- Half ⅛ tsp sugar (to taste)

Method:
1) Heat milk and water in pan. Bring to a simmer, just below boiling point.
2) Then, add lemongrass, turmeric, chilli, dried anchovies and dried squid strips. Cook for a couple of minutes for the flavour to come together. Stir constantly and keep it from boiling.
3) Season with salt and sugar.
4) Finally, add in daun pegaga. Cook until done like you would any green leafy vegetable.

From top-left : Ingredients, Simmer All The Ingredients, Serve!

Best eaten with rice.

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Chrysanthemum Greens With Shrimp Paste (Stir-Fry)

I make it a point to include vegetables into every meal, breakfast being the exception. It's always a hot chocolate malt drink in the morning, occasionally a pastry and then off we go to work or start on our chores. Guilty as charged for rushing through the most important meal of the day!

Tong Ho or Chrysanthemum Greens as I know it, is one of the many leafy vegetables that receives a lot of love in this household, in the nom nom sense, that is! I would describe the taste as tangy, with a faint peppery flavour plus just a tinge of bitterness coming across.

Chrysanthemum Greens With Dried Shrimps and Shrimp Paste

This vegetable wilts quickly during cooking. It's best to have everything prepared and close at hand.

Chrysanthemum Greens With Shrimp Paste (Stir-Fry)
Ingredients
- 200g Chrysanthemum Greens
- 4 cloves garlic (pounded)
- 1 red chilli (sliced)
- 1 tbsp dried shrimps (rinsed and pounded)
- 1 tsp shrimp paste
- 4 tbsp water
- 2 tbsp cooking oil

How-to
1) Heat oil in pan.
2) Saute garlic and shrimp paste for a bit.
3) Add dried shrimps and chilli. Stir-fry.
4) Add water and then the greens. Stir-fry.
5) Once the greens wilt, it's done!

Note: I didn't have to season this with salt. The dried shrimps provided enough saltiness.

1) Chrysanthemum Greens. 2) Pounded Garlic and Dried Shrimps.
3) Saute garlic and shrimp paste. 4) Add chilli and dried shrimps.
5) Add the greens and some water.

Best eaten with plain rice.

Chrysanthemum Greens With Shrimp Paste

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Braised Zucchini And Carrots

The plain vegetable stir-fry is not as unexciting as it sounds. I think it compliments flavourful dishes - akin to having unadorned tea with decadent cake. Mmmm is how I think of it.

We have a pretty standard recipe for our vegetable dishes, which is just a swish swoosh in the pan along with garlic and a dash of salt. This mild tasting take is yum eaten along with hearty curry, wholesome meat stew or salty soy sauce chicken.

I'm posting a simple dish that is often overlooked and underappreciated in favour of more 'sinful' food , but is a regular at every one of our meals. Is this stuff bland? Perhaps, with a grin! One man's meat is another man's poison.

I went with a typical zucchini ribbon stir-fry with carrots added in for a bit more colour this time. The ribbon look was achieved using a wide vegetable peeler to get a thin, wide slice.

Braised Zucchini And Carrots

 
Braised Zucchini And Carrots
Ingredients:
- 1 green zucchini (slice into long ribbons)
- 1 yellow zucchini (slice into long ribbons)
- 1 carrot (slice into long ribbons)
(all vegetables about 8-inch long)
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- ½ tsp sesame seeds
- ½ tsp Knorr chicken seasoning powder
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Salt to taste

How-to:
1) Heat olive oil in pan.
2) Saute garlic and sesame seeds until lightly browned.
3) Add carrots and zucchini into the pan. Season with salt and Knorr chicken seasoning. Cook covered for a couple of minutes or until slightly limp.
4) Stir to combine, and serve with rice or as a side dish.

1) Carrot and zucchinis 2) Ribboned vegetables
3) Cook covered until slightly limp

Braised Zucchini And Carrots

Enjoy!

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Bok Choy Greens In Ginger-Garlic Oyster Sauce

Bok Choy Flowers (the decoration) have been a regular feature in my meals ever since I learned how to do them. It's hard not to get carried away with something this pretty and too easily done.

Besides using it as a centerpiece on several noodle and rice dishes, I also serve it the typical oyster sauce way along with white rice.

This recipe is just one of the versions I cook regularly. When it comes to working with oyster sauce, I let my moods take over so I end up with a variety of gravy. Sometimes I use onions instead of garlic, sometimes I add a tablespoon of rice wine, sometimes I sprinkle in a bit of black pepper. You get the idea!

Bok Choy Greens In Ginger-Garlic Oyster Sauce

Ingredients:
- 3 pcs bok choy greens (slice through just below the leafy parts, about one inch from the bottom, as shown below)
- 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
- ½ tsp grated ginger
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce or to taste
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- ¾ tsp tapioca starch (mixed with 1 tbsp water)
- ½ cup water or more
- 1 tbsp cooking oil

1) Slice bok choy stems away. This makes the flowers.
2) Blanch bok choy in water.
3) Admire bok choy flowers for a bit.
4) Arrange bok choy on serving plate.

How-to:
1) Blanch bok choy (stem first because it takes longer, then leaves) in boiling water until almost cooked. Leave aside on a strainer. Immediately begin making the sauce (below) to pour over.

The Sauce
2) Heat oil in pan.
3) Saute garlic and ginger until lightly browned.
4) Add water, fish sauce and oyster sauce. Stir to combine.
5) Once it begins to boil, switch the heat off. Stir in tapioca starch to thicken.
6) Place blanched bok choy on a serving plate. Pour oyster sauce over.

Bok Choy Greens - Well, don't wait too long to eat it!

Goes well with white rice.

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Food Decoration : Bok Choy Flowers

I've always found cooking an adventure of sorts. To me, it's a playground of endless ideas and creativity.

Check out this tip I picked up from our Facebook group. The stem of a bok choy vegetable, once sliced, looks like a flower. This is what I call a food decoration quickie. For me, it also makes the humble bok choy more attractive to eat.

How-to : Cut the vegetable between one inch to one-half inches from the bottom part (shown below).

Bok Choy Flowers

Rinse with water. I used a small brush to clean the in-betweens.

Cleaning Brush

It's ready to be used.

Bok Choy Flowers

How am I eating this? I'm blanching these in water and drizzling yummy gravy over.

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Veggie Cooking Guide

Here's something useful I found on my favourite infographic website visual.ly

It's a neat guide that gives you an overview how to cook veggies best in order to maintain its full flavour. I know I've broken more than one rule in this guide! Well, now I know.

Veggie Cooking Sheet infographic

Original post (includes a print option for chart) : Veggie Cooking Guide

 

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Nai Pak Choy (Extra Dwarf Chinese Cabbage) with Pork in Egg Gravy

Extra Dwarf Chinese Cabbage (Fairlady) in an Eggy Gravy

Extra dwarf chinese cabbage..mmm. Ok, that's a weird translation for"nai pak choy" but it was the closest description I could find on the internet. That, and Fairlady - something I connect only to Nissan..

Nai Pak Choy - it's fresh, it's so fresh!

It has a distinctive thick white stem with dark green scrunched-up leaves. This particular head that I'm holding up for the camera has also been in my fridge for four days but looks as fresh as when it was popped into my shopping cart.

I've often included this vegetable into soups. Soups are a must-have on our dinner table. It's almost a daily affair and I'm surprised I haven't resorted to pulling my hair out yet thinking what to put on the table everyday. When I'm short of time, the nai pak choy comes in handy for making a quick bowl of soup. I'd toss it into a hot pot of boiling water with just garlic, some seasoning and voila! Sneaky, I know.

Today, I wanted to try out an eggy gravy that I so often see served in Chinese restaurants.  It gives the otherwise plain stir-fry green vegetables dish more appeal and more "slurp".

It's a simple recipe but requires some quick work, so I would prepare everything before I even think of lighting up my pan and I would keep things close.

Ingredients:
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 200g / 7 heads nai pak choy (cut stemmed leafy parts away from main stem)
- 1 tbsp dried wolfberries (soaked for 10 minutes)
- 50g boneless pork meat - loin (sliced thin)
- Two small eggs
- 1-2 tbsp cooking oil
- 1-2 cups water
- 1 tbsp corn flour (diluted in 2 tbsp water)
- Salt and pepper to taste

How-to:
1) Heat oil in pan. Add garlic, fry until lightly fragrant. Add pork slices, stir it about.

2) Add 1 cup water or more (just enough to make the sauce). Once it boils, add wolfberries, vegetables and season with salt and pepper.

3) When the vegetables are almost cooked, stir in the corn flour and lift the pan off the fire.

4) Crack one or two eggs in, immediately stirring it but lightly. Quickly serve it out onto a plate before the egg cooks further.

The result? You can taste the juice from the pork, mixed with a mildly salted egg sauce. Along with it, is a tinge of sweetness when you bite into a wolfberry.

The ingredients - Nai Pak, Wolfberries, Pork, Egg and Garlic

Toss the vegs in once the water boils

Nai Pak Choy (Extra Dwarf Chinese Cabbage) in an Egg Gravy

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