There are occasions that I find that the minced beef in supermarket sold over the butcher counter is not fresh. How can you tell?  First look for dark brown spots or patches.  The minced beef looks generally bright red, but if it is stale, there might be areas of ½ cm diameter of dark brown patches. Fresh beef should be bright red throughout.  Next, the test that never fail, is to smell it.  So far, the all butchers allow me to smell it before I buy (maybe some may not like it).  Ask for the packet from him before he seals it.  Fresh beef smells very nice with a fragrance that resembles tomatoes. Stale meat don’t have that smell, and usually gives a weak stench (it is not totally smelly, but you can pick up that stale smell). 

Ingredients

1. 1 hairy gourd
2. ¼ teaspoon salt
3. ½ tablespoon soya sauce
4. ½ teaspoon sugar
5. 1 garlic
6. 1 small bunch bean vermicelli
7. 2 tablespoon cooking oil
8. 1/2 cup water
9. 1 tablespoon scoop of dried shrimp or dried silver fish.

Method

1. Remove skin of hairy gourd and cut into thin strips (about ½ cm thick).
2. Soak bean vermicelli for 15 mins. Soak dried shrimp if using dried shrimp for 30 mins.
3. Peel garlic and minced.
4. Heat up a pot or wok with oil, add in garlic and dried shrimp or silver fish, fry till fragrant. Add in hairy gourd and stir fry for 3 minutes.  Add in bean vermicelli and 1/2 cup water (can use the water used to soak the dried shrimp too).  Cover to simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Add salt, sugar, soya sauce.  Stir and serve.
6. Vegetarian version do not add the dried shrimp or silver fish.

This is another version of the grill lamb cutlet with thyme, a more localize recipe with curry powder and curry leaves. 

Ingredients

1. 2 tablespoon Curry Leaves chopped
2. 6 slices of French Lamb cutlet
3. 3 teaspoon of curry powder for meat (pre-mix, sold in supermarkets)
4. ½ teaspoon Salt
5. 1 teaspoon honey
6. 2 tablespoon olive oil

Method

1. Wash the lamb chop, dab dry. Using tenderizing hammer or back of a cleaver, lightly chop the meat to make it more tender.
2. Wash the curry leaves, and use only the leaves, not the stem. Chop finely.
3. Sprinkle chopped curry leaves and curry powder evenly and pat it so that they stick on the meat.
4. In a mixing bowl, add in salt, honey, olive oil and mix thoroughly. Apply this evenly on both side of the lamp meat, and allow to marinate for 30 mins.
5. Heat up grilling pan until very hot.  Grill lamp for 3-4 mins each side.

Ingredients (serve 2)

1. 4 tablespoon dried Ikan Bilis (anchovy)
2. 2 bowl cooked rice
3. 2 egg
4. 3-4 shallots
5. ½ cm section of ginger
6. 5 tablespoon cooking oil
7. ¼ cup water
8. 3 tablespoon light soya sauce
9. Dash of pepper
10. 1 tablespoon chopped Spring onion

Method

1. Peel shallots and cut into slices. Cut ginger into thin strips (1-2mm thick). Wipe ikan bilis with damp cloth to clean of dirt (optional for hygiene).
2. Heat up wok, add in cooking oil.
3. Fry the ikan bilis till fragrant and lightly browned. Remove and set aside.
4. Add in shallots and fry till lightly brown, add in ginger and briefly fry (careful that ginger burn easily), and add in the cooked rice.
5. Add in the ikan bilis and keep stirring till the rice loosen up. Sprinkle water on the rice as you stir fry to keep it moist.
6. Push the rice aside to expose the wok, crack in the eggs, and stir. Mixed in the rice.
7. Add in soya sauce by dripping it evenly over the rice (so that it is even out) and add dash of pepper and keep stirring.
8. Add in spring onion and serve immediately.
9. Serve warm.

In this recipe, Yee Fu noodle can be purchased from supermarkets.  They come in dry form, and they are actually deep fried noodle.  Use those that are slim (1-2mm) and slightly flat.  The other type, usually call Yee Noodle (伊面) are a little fatter and round, and these are more suitable for soup based recipe.

You can make a vegetarian version by not using the chicken and fishcake, and add more vegetables like baby corns or bamboo shoots. 

Ingredients (serve 4)

1. 1 packet Yee Fu Noodle (see that it serves 4)
2. 100-200 grams Chicken meat
3. 1 piece fishcake
4. 20 french beans or snow peas
5. 1 carrot
6. 4 dried shitake mushroom
7. 2 garlic minced
8. 1/4 teaspoon Salt
9. 4 tablespoon light soya sauce
10. 1/2 teaspoon sugar
11. 2 tablespoon oil
12. 600 ml water

Method

1. Soak the dry mushroom for 2-3 hours.  Remove stem and slice into thin slices. 
2. Rinse the chicken, cut into thin slices.  Cut fishcake into thin slices.  Either snow pea or French beans, using fingers to break the ends and pull off the fiber that runs along the side of the pod.   If using French beans, wash and cut diagonally into strips.  If using snow peas, you may not need to cut.  Skin and slice the carrot. Minced the garlic.
3. For the health conscious, you may rinsed the noodle with boiling hot water to remove some of the oil from the factory, as Yee Fu noodle are deep fried noodle.  Otherwise, you can skip this step.
4. Heat up a pot or wok.
5. Add oil and minced garlic and fry till fragrant.  Add in chicken and stir fry for 1 minute, add in the rest of the vegetables, mushroom and fishcake and fry for another minute.
6. Add water and all seasoning, Allow to boil, and lower heat to simmer for 1 minute.
7. Add in noodle, and stir till noodle is soften and mixed with the gravy. Cover and allow it to simmer for 5 mins under very low heat. 
8. Serve hot.