Mui Choy {Salted Mustard}

Chilli Paste

Ingredients : Fresh Chilli (95%), Salt, Preservatives


ETA 16/8/08
I now make my own fresh chilli paste since fresh chilli is more readily available at a reasonable price.

Shao Hsing Hua Tiao Chew ~ Chinese Cooking Wine

Tung Fun ~ Vermicelli

Black Peppercorn, All Spice and Cloves

Pot steamer

The ocassional steamed dish can be difficult for many households as they often do not have the traditional steamer.

I rummaged through my cupboards to see what I could use if I wanted to do some steaming using existing kitchen utensils.

The following set up could easily be used to steam homemade chee cheong fun.

This cast iron pot is 10" in diameter with a height of 4½".

Use a bowl, small pot or any available container to elevate the food tray - high enough so that the boiling water will not get into the food during the steaming process.

The food tray is put on top of the bowl.

The food tray is just one of my baking trays which fitted perfectly into the pot.

Food is covered during the steaming process.

Round Baking Tin

These are my 8" cake tins. Besides baking layered cakes, I find they are exceptionally good to use as a tray for making chee cheong fun and kway teow. The black one seems to have a better surface as the flat rice noodles seems to slide off easier than on the grey trays.

Traditional steamer

This steamer is the most common in Asia. It comes in several sections. The bottom part is for water only. Some come with several steaming trays where a lot of food can be cooked at once. My steamer (as pictured) only comes with 1 steaming tray.

Wheat Starch ~ Tung Meen Fun

Tung meen fun is wheat starch and must not be mistaken with wheat flour. It is a non-gluten flour.

Surimi Crab Flavoured Stick

I prefer to use the crab sticks as against the surimi salad mix. The crab sticks are frozen individually wheras the salad mix pack is frozen in a block form making it difficult if you only need a few pieces to make a quick salad.





Frozen and individually wrapped in plastics

Gula Melaka

Best Foods Mayonnaise

This is our preferred brand of mayo especially when making our seafood salad.

Coconut milk / cream

I prefer this brand of coconut milk as it is thicker.

The ingredients are coconut cream and stabiliser with no added water.

Kicap Manis ~ Sweet Soy Sauce

ABC is the preferred brand for kicap manis.

SureBake Yeast

Edmonds Surebake is a blend of active dry yeast and bread improvers to make breadmaking easy.

Reecommended for home breadmaking and use in breadmaking machines.


Ingredients : yeast, wheat flour, emulsifiers(472e, 481), flour treatment agent(300), sugar, vegetable oil, enzymes.

Sweet Fruit Chutney

This is not the Redneck's preferred brand of fruit chutney but he has no choice as he cannot get his favourite brand anymore.

Dry Mixed Herbs

I use a sprinkling of this when making savoury bread.

Brown Onion Gravy

For convenience we use this gravy on roast, steak or lamb chops.

Plum Sauce

DIY Foil Baguette Mould

I have given up trying to buy a french baguette mould and I have also given up proving baguette on a floured cloth. It sticks !

So here I have decided to make my own.

A flat roasting tray - preferably one without the sides coming up.

Mr Redneck rolling his tray flat with a soft roller

The one on the left was done by free hand. Mr Redneck's mould on the right was moulded over a round pipe.

A bit rough but it works. The baquette is not the length of the traditional as I prefer to shorter ones.

Soy Bean Paste

There are 2 types of fermented soy bean - ground or whole (as shown in pic)

Candlenut aka Buah Keras

Ground candlenuts are used to thicken curries.
It is highly toxic in its raw state.

If candlenuts are not available, substitute with macadamia nuts.

Flat Dried Shrimp

Yuen Chun Dark Soya Sauce

This dark sauce is highly recommended. It gives the chinese noodles and dishes a really authentic asian taste.

Baba Chilli Powder

BABA'S Chilli Powder is made from 100% red hot chili peppers.

I prefer to use this brand as it is made of pure chilli and gives a very nice colour to the curry.

As a convenience, I use this in place of dried or fresh chilli.

Red Onion

Tamarind Skin

Palm Sugar

Natural Vanilla Essence

Tapioca Flour aka Tapioca Starch

Roasting Stand

Rice Flour

Rice Vinegar

Yellow Rock Sugar

Instant Lo Hon Kuo

Szechuan Peppercorn

Lye Water ~ Kan Sui

Lye water is also known as alkaline water or air abu (Malay).



Ingredients :
Water, Potassium Carbonate and Sodium Bi-Carbonate

















This is the current bottle of lye water I am able to buy from Auckland.

Premium Soy Sauce

This soy sauce is naturally brewed.

When buying soy sauce look at the label and try to buy natural brewed soy sauce.