Neen Koh & Minced Pork and Fish Paste Balls

It had been raining the whole previous night until the wee hours of the morning. By the time we woke up, the rain had stopped and we were able to go for our morning walk.

Morning sky at 7:13am.

For the rest of the day, it was gloomy.

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Neen Koh or Nian Gao

Neen koh or nian gao or the sweet sticky glutinous rice cake is usually sold once a year before the Chinese New Year. When the neen koh has been steamed for many hours, it becomes a sticky gluey dough. As a kid, I love to twirl the sticky dough around the chopsticks or a fork and eat it off the chopsticks or fork. Another way is to roll the sticky dough with grated coconut mixed with a little salt and served as a snack. Usually my mom will cut the slightly harden cake into slices, sandwiched it between a slice of sweet potato and taro, dipped into rice flour and egg batter to be deep fried in oil. Another simple way is to coat the slices in beaten egg and pan fry them with a little oil over low heat.

My simple homemade neen koh or nian gao.

Ready made neen koh or nian gao is not cheap. I have tried making neen koh the traditional way once but I don't like the long hours of steaming. This time I tried the simple way with only 4 hours of steaming and it turned out beautifully. I quite like the colour of my homemade neen koh.

To hasten the hardening of the sticky cake for easy cutting, I chilled it in the fridge. When it was hard enough, I cut it into thin slices like the above. I stored them in a plastic container ready to be used. 

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What to cook for dinner? I went to the fridge and found minced meat and fish paste. I submerged both packets in water to thaw them which is one of the fastest way. After I have mixed the minced meat, fish paste and all the other ingredients together, I remembered Phong Hong's fried meatballs with corn and that gave me an idea. I had corn in the fridge and I removed the corn from the cob, mixed the corn into the paste before I fried the meatballs. If you are interested, you can click here for her recipe.

Ta Dah! Here is my minced meat + fish paste + corn meatballs.

(Ingredients used: minced meat, fish paste, corn, spring onion, egg, cornflour and oyster sauce. I didn't add salt because there is salt in the fish paste)

Blanched baby Chinese Kailan, drizzled with garlic oil and soy sauce.

Sweet and spicy Thai chili sauce as dipping sauce for the meatballs. This is the only chili sauce I have in the fridge.

Simple homemade dinner for 2 people.

We couldn't finish the meatballs, kept the remaining 7 pieces of meatballs in the fridge next day's lunch.

And I am sure that God who began the good work within you

will keep right on helping you grow in his grace

until his task within you is finally finished

on that day when Jesus Christ returns.

(Philippians 1:6, The Living Bible-TLB)