Good thing that they now have organic food delivery which made going organics so much more convenient and do-able. Friends who are organic creatures swear that organic foods are much tastier and not just healthier. They insisted that organic food like organic grown vegetables, organic farm chicken and even pork taste totally different from the mass produced foodstuffs.

I have to admit that I never really go into organic cooking because I find it so hard to prepare an organic meal when I do not have access to organic home delivery.

So, if you are one of those lucky ones have the convenience of organic food, whether delivered to your home or available in the neighborhood, do go organic.

With all those pesticides horror stories, the depleting minerals in our earth and all kinds of scary stories we read on the papers, it is certainly a good choice. If you are a mom like me, then, all the more you should start preparing healthy meals for the little ones with safe, healthy and organic food.

However, it turned to be radish and not carrot. Oh well, in Hokkien, we call carrots, ang chai thau (red carrot) and radish, pek chai thau. Therefore, they must have made a wrong translation.

Since I ended up with a huge root vegetable like that, I cut it into chunks and make kiam chye boey with it. My kiam chye boey is so delicious with the radish because it does not have the ‘earthly’ smell like our local white radish. Now, I wonder if I can make radish cake with this? It will be a breeze to grate them and the pink version does not have as much sap/juice like the white one. Anyone has suggestion how to prepare this root vege other than boiling it with pork ribs and make soup? Care to teach? Hehehe, I am a total jakun and yet reluctant to ask the next auntie at the aisle what these vegetables are because I fear looking like a dumb housewife.

There is a type of canned food which is mui choy khau yoke.  But the fatty pork inside is extremely, extremely oil and will possibly shorten your life by 10 years. So, the best thing is to make our own mui choy khau yoke, keep them in small batches and freeze it.  I normally do that.  When there is not much foods, take it out and reheat.  It tastes good.

I didn’t manage to take any photo of the fatty pork shimmering in the dark soya sauce vegetables so you have to use your imagination. 

The above is the two types of mui choy.  It is basically a type of preserved vegetables.  Notice that one have a lot of salt and the other, at the lower bottom of the photo is without the white flaky salt?  They call it sweet mui choy and salty mui choy.  When we cook, it is good to have them mixed together.  Normally, I use two parts sweet mui choy and 1 part salty mui choy.  Remember to soak both of these vegetables and wash them thoroughly because they have a lot of sands in them.  It is also to reduce the saltiness and soften the vegetables.

What I did with mui choy khau yoke is :

Chop one bulb garlic  and stir in hot oil till fragrant.

Add the  :

Belly pork which are cut into big slices

Mui choy which has been soaked and cleaned into small pieces

Stir fry for a while.  I added two oysters inside for the extra oomp.  Flavour with some dark soya sauce and simmer for at least an hour or until the belly pork is absolutely melt-in-the-mouth soft.  Usually, no salt or sugar is required because the dish is tasty as it is.

I didn’t bother with the layerings like those served in restaurants.  I believe they steamed the mui choy rather than simmer like my version.  Whatever way, it works for mine.

I tried to fine out more information about this mei kwei lu Chinese wine but can’t dig out much.  It is a very fragrant wine which is suitable for meats and is an important flavourings for making bak kua or barbeque pork.

My sister-in-law used this mei kwei lu to season the mince pork and the meat turned reddish.  Hmmm…I don’t know how that happens because the wine is colourless.  However, Mei Kwei means rose (the flower) and I suppose this is made from rose flowers.

Note that this is a very potent brew indeed.  There is 49% alcohol in it so I bet it will knock the drinker off after a few sips.  I didn’t try to taste the wine so I can’t tell what it tastes like.  So far, I only use it in seasoning pig trotters.

I would appreciate some cooking ideas for this Mei Kwei Lu so that the wine doesn’t evaporate before I manage to finish using it in my cooking.  I read that this is Yang Kwei Fei’s favourite wine?  Yang Kwei Fei was the legendary beautiful concubine of the Chinese emperor.

First off, this is the dried oyster. There are several grades and the prices range greatly. The one shown above is RM80 per kilogramme. I normally buy only RM10 ‘cos as you know, it is not very healthy to eat too much of these dried, preserved, salted (sometimes) seafoods as they are one of the reason why Chinese have more nose, throat and mouth cancers. However, an oyster or two put into certain dishes like porridge, stewed pork, flavour rich soup and steamed glutinous rice will be heavenly.

This is the fish fillet that I normally used in stir fry vegetables. The price is RM70 per kilogramme too. And of course, 100 grams is more than enough because these are very light. One can deep fry it and pound or what I did was to pop into the microwave and grill it till crispy. Sprinkle it on vegetables or tofu dish for that extra delicous taste. For a normal plate of veggie, one needs just half a fillet. The shop uncle told me not to wash or wet it, just throw it straight into the hot oil or the fish won’t be crispy.

Do not mistaken another type of dried fish, called ‘wood fish’ (ikan kayu) which is much cheaper. The ‘wood fish’ is bigger and thicker and only suitable for cooking porridge. Both of these dried fishes are NOT salty like salted fish.

This is the dried shrimps or hairbee. Again, dried shrimps have several grades and some are exhorbitantly priced like the above. There are local dried shrimps which are more expensive than those from Thailand. The shopowner explained that local Malaysian varieties are better because there are less preservatives and salt. Normally, for these expensive grade, I will use them sparingly in stir frying foods whilst the cheaper varieties are used for sambal hairbee. To know if the shrimps are good, give a sniff. It should not be pungent or smells like wet socks. Ewwss….The outer appearance should look a healthy, oily pinkish colour and not covered with white specks (could be salt or mould).

Before I forget, I must remind Chinese parents not to flavour their babies porridges with any dried seafood, not even dried scallops or dried anchovies. I know that many grandparents love to prepare porridge with dried scallops but this is not a healthy choice. Firstly, these seafoods have been preserved for too long with unknown chemicals (if any), secondly, they are full of salt and (maybe) moulds and thirdly, do not spoil a kid’s taste buds with strong flavours. Seafood also may cause allergies and are not suitable for babies below one year old.
For anchovies, I did prepare some for my toddler because it is full of calcium. However, what I did was to soak the anchovies in water till it is no longer salty. Then, I dry it in the microwave and roast it till crispy. After that, I pounded (or use a grinder) the dried fish till it turn powdery. Remember to use the bones too.