Simply translated as “Fish Stomach”. This curry is accompanied by herbs and vegetables. It is difficult Nyonya dish and a long process to cook. Here is the recipe:

Curry paste stock
2 Tsp chilli powder
10 shallots (minced)
2 Tps minced lemongrass
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp blue ginger powder
2 tsp belacan powder
100 grams tamarind juice
1.5 litres water
60g pickled fish stomach
600 grams peeled fresh prawns
1 can diced pineapple (400g)
2 eggplant/aubergine (cut 2.5cm)
10 snake beans or 500 grams french beans (cut 2.5 cm length ways)
1 ginger bulb/bungah kantan

Finely shredded vegetables
20 Vietnamese mint
30 beatle leaves
2 turmeric leaves
5 kaffir lime leaves

salt and sugar to taste

Method
1. Boil curry paste stock for 15 minutes.
2. Add the shredded vegetables, pickled fish stomach and prawns.
3. Add seasoning.

Voila! Enjoy!

Marinated chicken skewers accompanied by peanut sauce.

Recipe:
600 grams chicken

Seasoning for the chicken
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp curry powder
5 shallots (grounded)
2 garlic (grated)
1″/half tsp blue ginger/”lengkuas”
2-3 Tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Skew the marinated chicken and grill.

Gravy (Peanut Sauce)
600 grams peanut (pounded coarsely)
4 candlenut/”buah keras” (blended with a cup of water and sieve)
2 garlic (grated)
3 Tsp minced lemongrass
1″ blue ginger
4 onions (large)
6 cups water
1 Tsp cumin powder
1 Tsp fennel powder
2-3 Tsp chilli powder
8 Tsp sugar
3 tsp salt

Method for the gravy
1. Saute chilli, cumin and fennel powder with half cup of oil.
2. Pour 6 cups of water.
3. Add candlenut, garlic, lemongrass, blue ginger and chopped onions.
4. Simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Add grounded peanuts, sugar and salt.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day! What did you all do?  Christmas lunch? Dinner? BBQ with family? Well, I’m posting some of the food we ate.

Strange name but this little restaurant easily sits approximately 40 people.  Not many Chinese restaurants along Burwood Highway but a few pizza eateries.  I spotted a Sri Lankan restaurant across Easy East.  This restaurant owner chef serves an exceptional braised duck.  You’ll need to pre-order the duck a day before.     Most of dishes were adequate servings, just right for 8 people.  Great food, well priced and excellent service; the Chef came out from his kitchen to ask how was the food.  Now, that’s service.

Braised Eight Treasure Duck

Braised Pork Belly with Taro

Deep Fried Flounder tossed with Spicy Salt

Braised Tianjin Cabbage with Seafood Combination

Easy East
26 Burwood Highway
Burwood 3125
Tel: 9808 3222

I will post the recipe soon. (*Eggplant known to some as Aubergine)

Another of my favorite spot… the Footscray Market.

The Footscray Market is a fresh produce and seafood market, catering particularly to the various ethnicities and local restaurants. Another large market in Footscray is Little Saigon, which opened in 1992 to cater to the growing Asian population, but now has customers from all backgrounds. Little Saigon is noisy and crowded, with a wide array of tropical fruits and Asian produce.

The weekends are fun too, even it is too noisy.

(without soup)

(with soup)

We wanted to try something different today for lunch.  Instead of the usual Pho that we normally have, this was more satisfying.  We had this noodle combination in Footscray (next to Footscray Market).  You can have it either with or without soup and your choice of egg or rice noodle.

Phu Vinh Restaurant
93 Hopkins Street
Footscray Vic 3011

There are many versions of Curry Mee.  This Penang Curry Mee or the Aussies call it Curry Laksa, used to be the signature dish at the hotel I used to work as a Chef. Apparently, regular guests and ex-colleagues still talk about it these days

I’ll post the recipe soon.

Foodbuzz has put together the September “24, 24, 24″ video… check it out! So, let’s keep on buzzing

Yambean (mungkuang) as shown above is vastly available in Australia from any Asian Grocery.  Though these yambean were small but they were cheap this Spring.  For this recipe, it is normally shredded with some carrots too.

This Nyonya dish is traditionally cooked during Chinese New Year.  You can have it with rice or as a starter.  I would normally serve with sambal belachan (chilli paste) and wrapped with lettuce (preferably Chinese Lettuce).

… more photos after the jump …

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