This is similar to the Malay version of Gado Gado or Tauhu Goreng. We need the same recipe to make deep fry bean curd (but half the portion will do) and I will repeat them here.

Ingredients

1. 2 block (10cm x 10 cm x 3cm) of bean curd (豆干), there are different hardness available in the market, get those that you like.
2. 1/2 teaspoon salt
3. Cooking oil for deep frying or pan fry
4. Handful of bean sprout
5. 1  cucumber
6. 1 tablespoon oil for cooking sauce

   For the sauce

1. 3 table spoon ketchup,
2. 2 table spoon chilli sauce
3. 3 table spoon sugar
4. 1 table spoon soy sauce
5. ½ teaspoon salt
6. 1 teaspoon corn flour
7. ½ cup water
8. 1 clove of garlic
9. 5-10 table spoon crush peanuts

Method

1. Process the cucumber to make it less bitter (see tips).  Split the cucumber lengthwise into half and then into quarters, and then remove the seeds by slicing it horizontally.  (removing the seed is optional).  Slice the cucumber diagonally.   Lay them on the bottom of a plate.
2. Bring a pot of water to boil, put in the bean sprout for 1 minute and drain dry.  Lay them on top of the cucumber in the plate.
3. Rub the salt (about ¼ teaspoon per block) on the bean curd, and leave it aside for 10 mins (allow the saltiness to season into the curd)
4. Deep fry or pan fry till golden brown. Cut each up into 4 to eight small pieces.  Lay them on top of the bean sprout.
5. Mix all the ingredient for the sauce in a bowl except the crushed peanuts.
6. Heat up sauce pan, add 1 tablespoon oil and chopped garlic and fry till fragrance and lightly browned.
7. Pour in the mixture and bring to boil until thickens.
8. Pour the gravy over the bean curd.  Top with crush peanuts.
9. Serve hot.

 Suitable for vegetarian

Cut about 1 inch off the top of the cucumber in 1 clean cut with a sharp knife, and quickly rub the 2 exposed surfaces together in a circular motion.  You will see white foams appearing.  Wash away the foams.  This will make the cucumber less bitter.

The scientific reason to this is that there are many very fine “veins” that runs along the length of the cucumber.  Exposing one end and rubbing creates a capillary effect that draws the bitterness out along the length of the cucumber.

Crush peanuts is used often in cooking, especially Malay dish like tauhu goreng, satay sauce, and also used in Chinese deserts like glutinous rice balls.

Put the dry peanuts kernel (without the shell) into a frying pan, and keep stirring on low heat, until fragrance.  The skin should be slightly burnt.

Leave it to cool down, and then remove the skin.  You could either do it one at a time with your finger tips, or simply rub them with your palms till the skin are cracked and loosen, then blow them out (this is messy, but fast, best if you have an outdoor garden).

Put them in the food processor and grind them into bits (depends how chucky you like it)

This portion serves 2.  Suitable for vegetarian.

Ingredients

1. 1 can bake beans
2. 100 grams dried spaghetti
3. 1/3 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Boil the spaghetti in a pot of water till the softness you prefer (some like it Al dente, while some like it soft)
2. Drain dry, and cut into small strips with scissors.
3. Mix the spaghetti with the bake beans, add in salt, and cook in a pot or sauce pan till hot (don’t really need to boil since all ingredients are cooked).
4. Serve hot.

Especially during Chinese New Year, Chinese exchange gifts and winter meats is one of the favorite items.  Or you may see winter meat being sold on the streets during Chinese New Year and just wondering how you can cook them.  There are many ways you can use these meats in Chinese cooking, such as fried rice, fried kuay teow or omelette, Steaming is the simplest way to get the original flavoring! (原汁原味).

Occasionally this is mistakenly called “waxed” meat as the word “La” in mandarin or “Lap” in Cantonese in sounds like wax.

Ingredients 

1. 2 Winter Sausage (臘腸)
2. 2 Liver sausage (膶腸)
3. 1 piece of winter duck (臘鸭)
4. 3 or 4 bulbs of chinese arrow roots tuber (Tse gu) (easily available during Chinese New Year period).
5. All the above are optional and you can choose and match any combination.

Method

1. Wash the meats.
2. Slice the meat into thin 2-3 mm slices. (Liver sausage may need to be a little thicker because it might break apart)
3. Peel off the skin of the arrow root and slice them into ½ cm slices.
4. Lay the arrow root slices on the steaming plate.
5. Place the meat on top of the arrow root slices. (the juice will flow and absorbed into the arrow roots during steaming)
6. Steam for 10 mins.
7. Serve hot.
8. It may not be very healthy, but for the gravy and oil collected after steaming, you can mixed a table spoon of it into your white rice, it makes the rice extremely nice!