I love this dish, especially at the Chinese restaurant whenever we have birthdays with grandma and grandpa. We would go to Tai San restaurant at this undisclosed location. We often go there at night and I would mostly be sleeping in the car due to motion sickness. And when I open my eyes, we would always just be driving into Tai San.
Come to think of it, people must have been richer then. We have cars and big houses. These days I can’t even afford a car or landed property. Have we improved or really become the new poor? We are more educated than our parents, but it seems we have lesser opportunities to break out of the poverty trap.
Anyway, the food at Tai San was always good. And we would always have our fill and family dinners were always about feasting and celebration. So this dish was always something that I would refer to as the menu filler. Scallops and Asparagus never really look like a main dish but more like a dish to make up the space in between great dishes. It was like a transitional dish to help make up the number.
It didn’t matter to me because I loved the dish as if it was a main. It was technically just as difficult as any of the other famous dishes to cook. If the scallops are not prepared properly, they would either be too raw or overcooked, and handling seafood is an art just like estimating the doneness in premium fillet mignon.
Here is my recipe for a very simple but delicious Scallops and Asparagus, hope you like it too.
Recipe
Ingredients
8-9 large stalks of Asparagus
6 large Japanese Scallops
2-3 Garlic (minced)
Drizzle of Light Soya Sauce
2-3 tbsp Olive Oil
Method
1. Shave the skin off the asparagus and sliced diagonally. Heat oil in wok, and fry the garlic until fragrant. Then throw in the asparagus pieces and fry at high heat. You want to create some gloss and be able to sear the vegetable.
2. Reserve the semi cooked asparagus and add oil again to fry the scallops. For this part, there is not much advice I can offer except that scallops cook rather quickly. Depending on the size you would want to moderate the heat in the pan. The end result you want to achieve is for the scallops to sear a little and to cook through.
3. Once the scallops are cooked through (most difficult part), add the asparagus back into the pan and continue to fry at high heat, add soya sauce and it should be just nice.
As a child I have loved the old school flavours of local delights such as the humble Mee Rebus. I don’t know where this dish originated from, maybe from the kitchen of some makchik or better still as a result of a mistake in someone’s haste to prepare dinner, and this new dish was discovered.
Whichever the manner it was created, we can only celebrate it by enjoying it. Which is what I am doing now. The one that Toast Box offers is by far one of the more consistent and easily available version. The sauce is thick and the ingredients are always superbly prepared. One of these days I am gonna make this dish and it will be the best and easiest thing to do.
But till then, I will continue to enjoy this yummy breakfast meal. Shiok!
I found a bottle of black sweet vinegar in my cupboard and thought – better quickly use or else spoy. So I decided to make Pork Trotters in Black Sweet Vinegar. Nice bo? Well nice or not, we will know after I cook it.
Incidentally if you are a mother-to-be without a confinement nanny, you may wish to follow this recipe and cook for yourself. If you can’t cook, ask your husband to cook. If he can’t cook, then too bad. But this recipe is so easy, anyone can cook. So no excuse if your husband cannot cook. Just follow only.
If you are a traditional mother-in-law-to-be and you don’t know this Cantonese delicacy, dont be ashamed. I also not Cantonese. I just see what works and if it works, then we all learn together. Sure nice one. However, if you want to be strict about it, then maybe this recipe might not work the magic for you. But if you wanna make it for dinner (like what I am doing) then can try-and-see.
Ready? Let’s try it.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 Kg Pork Trotters (pork hand)
4 large Eggs (hard boil)
100 grams Ginger
100 grams Rock Sugar
5 tbsp Sesame Seed Oil
1 bottle of Chan Kong Thye Black Sweet Rice Vinegar
Method
1. Blanch the pork trotters to remove scum. Then discard water. Pour sesame seed oil in wok and fry ginger (rough sliced) until fragrant. Add blanched pork trotters to fry until seared.
2. Boil the eggs until they become hard boiled eggs. Once everybody is ready, dump them all into a large pot and add the entire bottle of black sweet rice vinegar and 1 bottle of water (use the same bottle). Add rock sugar. Do a basic taste test. If nice then sure nice one.
3. Boil at high heat until bubbling, then reduce heat to allow it to simmer. You generally want to reduce the amount of liquid by about half. This will thicken the sauce and at the same time allow the fatty parts to gelatinized (is that a word?!) and your pork trotters will be absolutely fabulous.
Bon Appetit!
Blanched Pork Trotters
Rough Sliced Ginger
Stir Fry Pork Trotters and Ginger in Sesame Seed Oil
I have always wanted to make this soup and I can already imagine how delicious this soup would taste like even before cooking. The burdock soup with pork ribs was already delicious so with the addition of the black chicken, needless to say, this soup is gonna rock and roll.
The recipe is very much like the Burdock Soup 牛蒡汤 that I made recently, but except that now the recipe is complete. No more reliance on pre-packed herbal remedies. I have found the perfect confluence of ingredients for this soup.
Every ingredient brings to the table a slew of medicinal benefits. Otherwise it really makes for a great tasting soup. Try it!
Recipe
Ingredients
Half a Black Chicken (chopped into two parts)
80-90 cm length of Burdock Root 牛蒡
Bunch of Wolfberries
Bunch of Dried Red Dates Salt
Method
1. Boil a kettle of water. Clean and peel off bark of Burdock Root. Then slice thinly (see picture below). You may soak it in hot water for 10 minutes if you like. Otherwise if you prefer a stronger earthy taste, then just drop it into the pot.
2. Place the half a chicken into the pot. As you can see my black chicken is frozen. My intention is always to simplify the process. So frozen black chicken is fine, no need to thaw. Just drop it into the pot. Add Wolfberries, add dried red dates and a pinch of salt. Then add the hot boiling water and boil at high heat (with lid on) for 20 minutes.
3. Place it in thermal cooker after that for 12 hours (which is when I get home) and the soup would be delicious. Black chicken tender. Soup rich with flavour.
My family loves Szechuan vegetables stir fry with minced pork. It’s Wah-Shiok!! Just thinking about it makes me immediately 想要吃.
So I decided that we will have porridge today for lunch and cook up a dish of White Stomach Fish 白肚鱼. Just went to my regular fishmonger this morning and I saw a whole tray of that lovely fish and thought, mai-tu-liao and bought the entire tray. They look fresh. Well we will know soon. Sometimes buying fish is a hit and miss experience. The trial is to build trust between you and your fishmonger.
Oh a note on yesterday’s White Fungus Huai San and Chicken Soup, the wife said it was nice in flavour but that I made a blunder of not soaking the white fungus first! It was such a newbie mistake coming to think of it. Sigh. So naturally when the soup was ready, it was dry. The soup had all gone into the spongy white fungus!
Anyhoo. We learn from our mistakes and strive to be better! Back to the dish of the day. This is gonna be good. Try it.
Recipe
Ingredients
50-60 grams Minced Pork
1 small packet of ready-to-fry Szechuan Vegetable (you can get these from NTUC)
4 cloves Garlic Dark Soya Sauce Chinese Parsley
Method
1. Put a little oil, about a tablespoon into the frying pan. Minced the garlic and stir fry a little until fragrant. Add minced pork into the pan. No seasoning required. Fry until meat is about cooked.
2. Add Szechuan Vegetable and continue frying. Add a little bit of dark soya sauce and fry until fragrant. Perfection never look and tasted so good. Garnish with Chinese Parsley.
My colleague was sharing with me the other day about a soup that she said her toddler son literally polished two bowls of the soup. Yes, according to her, it was that good. Well, I have to try it to believe it. I asked her for the recipe of course and while she told me the portions, my lightning fast mind went to work on how it would be like if I were to cook it.
Unfortunately I was so in deep thought that I totally forgotten the last ingredient that she mentioned. It was some ingredient that enhanced the flavours of chicken and white fungus. I couldn’t be bothered to ask her again and decided that I would make up the third ingredient with something that I was familiar with – huai san – my oh-so-sticky friend.
The tuber is really one of the slimmest ingredient I have ever work with before, so that’s one of the reasons why I rarely employ the use of this ingredient. But I felt white fungus and chicken would do well with huai san for this soup. And so, here we go. My first attempt at this soup.
Oh by the way, I’m case you’re wondering, my wife thought the Oxtail Stew with Carrots that I made the other day was only so-so. Personally, I thought it was fantastic.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 large Chicken Drums (de-boned) A packet of White Fungus A tube of Huai San (you can get from NTUC) A few Chinese Scallops Salt
Method
1. Boil a kettle of water. Dump the chicken drums (with thigh meat) into the pot. Empty the packet of White Fungus into a bowl of water, let it soak for a while so that it will expand. Then once it is ready, dump it into the pot. (when I first made this soup, I made a newbie mistake of not soaking, and it soaked up all my delicious soup while it was in the thermal cooker!)
2. Clean the huai san and then chop into chunks, then dump it into the pot. Add a few dried scallops and salt to taste. Add boiling water. Turn to high heat for 15 minutes with lid on. Once done, place in thermal cooker to consume 12 hours later.
I have always wanted to make oxtail stew just plain in its own without much western influence or gastronomic fanfare. The thing that I like most is to also experiment in my choice of ingredients and hopefully conjure magic in my kitchen.
Oxtail Stew is that dish that I would always go for at the French restaurant but today I am making it as local as possible and in the style that I always like to cook, which is to cook it simply.
My oxtail stew is usually just oxtail, carrots, beef stock and a few slices of ginger. That is usually what I do. But for today’s stew, I am adding Black Fungus and Oyster Mushrooms just to complicate the flavours and hopefully achieve that special oxtail stew.
Wanna try it? It’s actually very easy.
Recipe
Ingredients
4-5 pieces of Oxtail
1 large Carrot
3 inches of Ginger
1 packet of Black Fungus (optional)
1 packet of Oyster Mushrooms (optional)
1 cup of Beef Stock (optional) Salt
Method
1. Boil a kettle of water. While the water is boiling, add oxtail, carrots (chunks), sliced ginger, black fungus, oyster mushrooms, a cup of beef stock to enhance the flavours and a a pinch of salt to taste.
2. Pour the boiling water into the thermal pot to boil at high heat for about 20 minutes. Once done, place the pot into the thermal cooker for about 12 hours. What will greet me tonight should be a thick pot of stew, probably my wife will hate it.
Some say you are what you eat. Eat wood, you become wood. Burdock root is well as truly wood. The woody stem of the Greater Burdock plant seems to have some nutritional goodness other then looking like a tree branch.
It tastes like ginseng and apparently help with eczematic skin conditions. Otherwise it is a very delicious soup to drink. The wife loves it.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 Metre length of Greater Burdock
Handful of Wolfberries
Handful of Dried Red Dates
250 grams of Pork Ribs Salt
Method
1. Shave the bark off the burdock. Sliced it diagonally and soak in hot water for about ten minutes.
2. Boil a large kettle of water. Pour it into a pot. Turn on high heat. Add pork ribs, Wolfberries, red dates, and when the burdock is soaked, add it in as well.
3. Boil at high heat for 30 minutes with lid on. Serve. The ribs might not be drop off the bone tender but the soup is very good.
I realized through much trial and error that the best fish for frying in a combination of dark soy sauce and rice wine is none other than the Golden Pomfret.
The skin of the golden pomfret it seems is rather elastic and hard to tear for some reason, much like the skin of the shark. Of course the shark’s skin is probably tougher. So because of this elasticity, the fish after frying still looks really presentable. Unlike the black pomfret or some other variety of fish. In fact the taste of the golden pomfret fried is delicious.
All you need is a little corn starch and it fries to a nice golden brown. Very nice. The interesting thing about the Hakka rice wine is that once it is added into the hot oil, it bubbles and kind of caramelises the oil into a sauce.
It is also the only fish that we would eat until it is left an unrecognizable carcass of bones. Steaming doesn’t cut it. Frying is better.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 medium Golden Pomfret
3 inches of Ginger (julienned) Olive Oilfor frying Corn Starch for coating the fish
2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
3 tbsp Hakka Rice Wine
Method
1. Heat oil in wok, then fry the ginger strips under low fire until crispy and slightly brown. Reserve the ginger aside.
2. Coat the pomfret with corn starch, just enough to cover the surface of the fish. Heat some more oil, sufficient for the size of the fish and when the oil is heated, fry the pomfret 5 minutes on each side under low fire.
3. Add the rice wine, and then the dark soy sauce and allow the sauce to bubble until the sauce goes into the fish. Once the fish is sufficiently doused in the sauce, serve with the ginger as garnishing.
If you like your kitchen to be smoking with delicious fumes, then this is the recipe for you. Contrary to what most cooks would have you believe, this is one recipe that requires you to have a huge exhaust or a airy kitchen. Yup, it’s gonna get real smoky indeed.
I am making roasted pork belly today and it is the easiest recipe in the world to do (I know I say this is easy and that is easy a lot, but it’s true!). There is no mystery about this seemingly difficult dish. All you need are the right ingredients, an oven or even the humble air fryer (which I don’t really recommend) and you are all ready to do this.
When it is done, you will get a kitchen full of smoke and a delicious crackling roasted pork belly or sio bak, and you will love it. Here’s how to make magic happen.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 piece slab of fresh Pork Belly (usually the butcher would have already cut the portion out for display) Five Spice Powder Shao Xin Hua Tiao Jiu White Pepper Powder Coarse Sea Salt
Method
1. Rub the Shao Xin Hua Tiao Jiu all over the underside of the pork belly. Be generous. Then rub a generous helping of white pepper on the same side. Don’t be stingy. Then rub the five spice powder onto the same side and make it generous as well. Lastly rub the sea salt (generously) on that same side. A lot of cooks suggest that you poke the skin with a sharp fork or sharp skewers. I think it is optional.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees. Place the marinated meat on a wire rack and the rack on a tray. Then place the pork belly into the oven and bake for 50 minutes. By the time it is nearly done, your kitchen should be covered in smoke. Make sure your exhaust is turned to full power.
3. Take the nicely roasted pork belly out to rest. Then with a sharp knife, slice and enjoy the cackle of crispy skin.
This has got to be my my mum’s favourite dish amongst all the dishes that she cooks. I know this simply because she cooks it every other week and it is always with my favourite preserved black beans. The sauce is wah shiok!
I think this was also the dish that turned me to love bitter gourd as a child. I never use to like vegetables all that much but overcoming bitter gourd was a milestone in my gastronomic journey. Everything else was palatable compared to bitter gourd.
She likes to stir fry it with beef slices marinated in ginger juice. She would pound the ginger into a pulp and extract the juice. I found a better way to do this and that is to grate the ginger instead. Beef was an essential source of iron and it was great for keeping anemic kids healthy. The tell tale sign would be to look at the palm of our hands and it would be decided that we would have stir fry Beef and Bitter Gourd for that day. Just kidding.
Recipe
Ingredients
200 grams of Beef Flank(NTUC has one of the best beef flank and it is perfect for Stir Fry) 1 tube of Bitter Gourd 3 inches of Ginger 3 cloves of Garlic 1 tbsp Salted Preserved Black Beans 1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce 1 tsp White Pepper powder 2 tbsp Olive Oil
Method
1. First boil a kettle of water. This is for cooking the bitter gourd. Then sliced the beef fillet thinly. Once done put the beef slices into a ziplock bag. Add soy sauce and pepper into the bag. Then grate the ginger into the bag as well. This forms the Marinate for the beef slices to make it tender. Marinate for about 5-8 minutes.
2. Slice the bitter gourd thinly and then blanch in a pot of boiling hot water (pour the kettle in). As the bitter gourd is sliced thinly, it should also cook quite fast while still retaining some crunchiness.
3. Pour the oil into the frying pan and heat it up. Once heated fry the garlic pieces until fragrant. Then add the marinated beef slices and stir fry until semi cooked. Then add the blanched bitter gourd slices and stir fry until the juices come out.
4. Add the black beans and continue to fry until flavours are thoroughly mixed. Once ready, serve with steam rice.
The item on the extreme right is frozen pork ribs just in case you are wondering. This is one of my favourite no-brainer soup for those days when you don’t want to plan or worry too much about what to cook for dinner. Some families call it the A-B-C Soup in Singapore, a hearty nutritious soup that every family with a young kid would love.
The ingredients when cooked together will truly produce one of the best flavours ever. Guaranteed that you and your family will love it. All natural and wholesome ingredients – what’s not to love? The sweet corn that I used is the covered one that when you unveil, is a sweet crunchy vegetable. I was surprised how sweet it was and even sweeter if they are from the farms in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. For the tomatoes, some like the soup to be sourish, so if you’re one of those that like it like that, then add more tomatoes. So after adding all the ingredients, the soup would be already be very tasty. Just a tablespoon of salt and 12 hours of thermal cooking, it would be ready to be served.
I also loved Shiitake Mushrooms in my soups. Normally I use the dried ones as they tend to keep longer. However, my wife and son are not fans, and so I decided to leave it out.
Some of you may ask, why use a Thermal Cooker instead of a regular pot over fire? Well the thermal cooker will help tenderise the meats – kind of like a slow cooker, and everything is just more flavourful if you cooked your meals that way. It works for busy families, where you would cook the soup in the mornings before heading off to the office, and then come back to re-heat it when you’re home at night.
A pot of A-B-C Soup is just perfect with steamed rice or Maggi noodles.
Anyway, I said all that to say that this recipe is so easy to prepare. Anyone can do it. Easy until I wanna cry.
* please note that I have included amazon affiliate links to the products I use, so check them out if you wish to support me, and if I can get these items from NTUC Supermarket, I would just indicate.
Recipe
Ingredients
200 grams Pork Ribs (Indonesian pork is the best) 1 ear (haha) of Sweet Corn(better still if they are from Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, those are white in colour and very juicy and sweet) 2 medium Carrots 1 medium Tomato or up to three Tomatoes (for that slightly sour taste) 1 Tablespoon of Salt
Method
1. Boil a kettle of water. Place frozen pork ribs in thermal pot. The thermal cooker that I use for this is the Zojirushi SN-XAE60 Thermal Pot, just in case you’re interested to mimic the same cooking conditions.
2. Chop the corn into 8 parts. Slice the carrots into bite sized chunks. Quart the tomatoes. Dump everything into the pot. Drop in 1 tablespoon of salt. Pour in the hot water until it covers all the ingredients.
3. Turn on high heat for 15 minutes. Make sure the lid is on, and the water is bubbling. Then turn off the fire, and place the pot into the thermal cooker itself and close the outer lid. You can serve it 12 hours later or when you’re back from work, it would be perfect for dinner.
This is my wife’s favourite dish and one that she couldn’t wait for me to come back home to cook. So she decided that she would cook it herself whilst I was still caught in the typical expressway rush hour jam.
I must say she cooked the simple and delicious dish so well and made it look like a walk in the park. The tua cai is so soft and mixed with the stewed pork, it was just simply so amazing. The best part about this dish is, it is so easy to prepare.
Wanna try? Why not.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 whole Tua Cai (vegetable, easily found in wet markets)
1 can of Stewed Pork (narcissis brand)
Method
1. Wash and cut the tua cai and throw into a claypot. Open the stewed pork and dump the entire can into the pot with the vegetable.
2. Turn on high heat, with lid on, cook for about 10 minutes. After that stir and reduce heat to low and allow the tua cai to simmer in the broth. Turn off fire after 20 minutes (total cooking time 30 minutes).
My wife’s friend used to bring delicious glutinous rice made by her mother and everytime her mum made it, we would get to taste some. It was the most delicious glutinous rice dish ever and I swore to myself quietly that one day I too would try to make the most delicious glutinous rice dish.
And that day is today. The inspiration to cook delicious glutinous rice struck me this morning on the way to work and I knew that I cannot escape not making it.
So here, this is my first attempt at making delicious glutinous rice. I know it will be delicious. I tried it. And true enough, it is delicious.
Recipe
Ingredients
400 grams Glutinous Rice (soaked and drained)
60 grams Dried Shrimps (also soaked and drained but in hot water)
6 pcs Dried Shitake Mushrooms (soaked in hot water, then sliced thinly)
4 pcs Garlic (minced)
4 tsp Light Soy Sauce
2 tsp Dark Soy Sauce
2 tsp Oyster Sauce
2 tsp Hakka Rice Wine
Half bowl of Water White Pepper Sesame Seed Oil (drizzle) Olive Oil
Optional
Meat from 1 Chicken Thigh or;
100 grams of Pork Belly
Method
1. Heat olive oil in pan, then when oil is sufficiently heated, fry garlic, mushrooms and dried shrimp until fragrant (add chicken or pork belly if you like). After that’s done, throw in the drained glutinous rice. Some say the longer you soak, the better it is. I soaked maybe 10-15 minutes, you can soak overnight if you like.
2. Fry the glutinous rice over medium heat for a while and combine ingredients. Then add the pre-mixed sauces (which you would have already mixed in a separate bowl) into the frying pan and give it a good stir fry until all the ingredients are covered with the sauce. Continue frying for another 5-8 minutes. Once sufficiently fried, drizzle a thin layer of sesame seed oil over the rice. Powder the white pepper over and give it a good mix.
3. Next scoop the rice into a large bowl or round metal pan. Flatten it nicely. Wet the rice with water, I pour about half a bowl of water into mine. After that, steam the glutinous rice over high heat for about 45 minutes. The rice should be softened by then, if not, add more water and continue to steam at high heat. Do a taste test and if the rice is too dry, wet the rice with a little more water. The end result should be soft fluffy, sticky delicious glutinous rice.
There comes a time in the journey of a home cook that you would have to experiment with what you have in the fridge, cooking out of necessity rather than as an art. That moment is today, as I stare down the vegetable cabinet and the emptiness seemed to resonate the treble and bass in my voice as I mumbled to myself.
Drats! That’s all I have, arrowheads and radish. I guess that will do. Time to make magic happen.
Everybody knows that arrowhead (the waterchestnut looking thing in the picture) goes well with the Chinese yam huai san, but desperate times call for desperate measures and the only other tubular vegetable that I have left in the fridge is the humble white radish. Any-hoo, that will do.
I had my first taste of real Sichuan Mala spiciness when I visit Beijing in 2004, it was just after a humanitarian trip to help some Mongolians build their own shelter under a scheme to eradicate global homelessness with a non-government organisation. We had initially spent about 6 days in Mongolia building and working alongside home owners-to-be, gleaning off their life experiences and learning from them their culture, food and language. We ate, laughed, perspired and ached with the Mongolian volunteers as we laid brick by brick towards their dream home. There was such a sense of community there and we all had simple expectations of each other.
Beijing was a sort of R&R for the team of volunteers who contributed both financially as well as physically towards the building of the two homes. We only managed to complete part way of the homes, only laying the foundations of the two plots of land in the middle of nowhere near Erdenet City. I have never been to Beijing, so it was a real treat when I had my first taste of Mala Sichuan peppers renown for their insane levels of spiciness and ability to turn every hard man into a puddle of tears. My friends and I randomly selected a Chinese restaurant and ordered all the foods that we wanted to try. Mala Spicy Fish was one of the dishes that left an indelible memory for me.
When the dish came to our table, there was no fish in sight as it was all swimming under a graveyard of chilli oil and Sichuan red peppers. Just peering over the bowl and staring at the contents inside the bowl caused us to break out with great droplets of sweat intermingled with blood (joking). But you could imagine the fine capillaries around our faces bursting at the thought of consuming such fiery foods. To put it in local slang, it was spicy beyond belief. We almost had to jerk back violently so as to protect our corneas from tearing as the sizzling fumes of the chilli peppers could very well cause much damage to our vision.
We waffled for a moment as to who should be the one to try it first and then we decided that we would all eat it at the same time. The fish was hidden beneath a glass coffin of chilli oils and peppers. The fish was superbly prepared and it was both fragrant and delicious when we ate it. It was so good that we forgotten how spicy it was for a moment and gobbled down the entire dish in a matter of minutes. Either we were too hungry or we were not thinking straight. I reckon it was the latter. However, what subsequently followed was sheer pain mottled all over every pore on my embattled tongue. We were pleased that we conquered Sichuan cuisine on our virgin attempt, but our lips had by now become bloated and swollen. Those earlier years of belachan and chilli padi training allowed my tastebuds to gear up with what we had just experienced in our mouths. But clearly it was way over my ability to handle spiciness. Both my cheeks had began to flow great beads of sweat that became like tributaries converging at the lowest point of my chin. I was literally melting into a puddle.
So when I saw these Mala stores popping up all over the island, I thought and remembered my Beijing encounter and those bittersweet memories of that Mala Fish began to flare up the synapses in my brain. I had to try it. I also realised at the same time that it was the most expensive thing to eat in the world. These Mala stalls usually charge each ingredient category according to the weight of the items. And everyone knows that if you weigh certain vegetables eg. bamboo shoots, you are likely to pay quite a bit for just one item. I felt the pricing system was a tad unfair.
Then I came across Ri Ri Sheng Mala Pot and it was by far one of the best places to go for Mala Hot Pot. The reason was because the items are counted individually and by portion as opposed to being measured by the weight of the ingredients. That is unreal considering that almost every other shop was going by the weight of the ingredients. You can find Ri Ri Sheng Mala Pot at Chinatown, and also there is a sister shop of the same name located at Blk 823 Tampines.
If you’re around Tampines area and don’t know what you would like to eat, then you should really consider Mala Pot. It is as close to Chinese cuisine as you can get.
My wife and I love this zi char place (read: small eatery) located along Purvis Street next to the famous Chin Chin Eating House (which we also like). But we love the claypot fish head there (that is the shop next to Chin Chin) and would make a weekly pilgrimage on Sundays after church.
Each time we had it, we would almost swear by it and stare at each other with glee written all over our faces. That claypot fish head was by far one of the best that we have ever had. The boss was this heavily jowled, grumpy-faced Chinese uncle that didn’t look happy all the time. I think I have never seen him happy before. And his shop looked run down and almost falling apart. But, they served gold in a claypot and as far as we are concerned, nothing else mattered. Most of the times, we would lick the pot clean save for a few bones.
That all changed one Sunday when we went back and realised to our dismay that they had mysteriously shut the business down. No word, no goodbye message. Nothing. It felt like the end of the world. Honestly, we felt betrayed and hurt. How could they do that to us, their loyal customers. Never mind the fact that each time we went there we ordered only their clay pot fish head, we really felt connected when we were there. These days we have become like wandering spirits in search of that elusive clay pot fish head shop, but alas, our efforts have all come to a nought. Needless to say, the rest of the clay pot fish head places that we have come across so far all seem to fall short of that place. Worse still, we totally never got their name nor name card. Something that we regret much till today.
So what’s so special about their clay pot fish head? Firstly, it is not too salty and has little or no MSG (many sick gourmands), I don’t get that dry throaty feeling after eating, which was a clear indication of how much MSG went into the cooking. The thirstier I got, the more MSG went into the cooking, and that irks me to the core. If you are a good cook, you can do the dish without MSG. What’s wrong with salt? The sauce was a thick, not watery mixture of all things wonderful. The fish head was as fresh as the morning dew on periwinkle petals.
Fast forward many unhappy claypot fish head meals later, we stumbled across this gem tucked away like an enclave, wedged in the middle of OG (read: OG stands for Ocean Garments Shopping Mall) at Albert Complex. Located on the second floor of OG, was this place known as 一口未, and they served really delicious clay pot fish head. I snapped a cannot-make-it photo with my cannot-make-it handphone camera below for all to drool. Trust me, it was drool worthy. They used Song Fish (which I don’t really like) but the sauce was exactly like that shop that we used to eat from.
Looks Shiok right?
However, being the perfectionist home-cook that I am, I wanted to make my own clay pot fish head. All these years of wandering around, finding for that perfect clay pot fish head, has somewhat taken its toll on our discriminating palate, and in a sense our taste buds may have been already damaged by the over MSGed meals that we have had.
So here is the result of much tinkering, my very own adapted clay pot fish head recipe. Tweaked to my liking and more importantly, my wife endorses it. She say 90% like the shop at Purvis with a score of 8 out of 10. I hear already chin happy. My version looks more swee than the picture above, and got more liao. Are you ready? Read on.
Updated 16 February 2015
My friend suggested that I do it again and post with photos, and actually I did do it again, and this time around I found that it tastes even better with Red Garoupa Fish Head! So no more Red Snapper for me, but you can still continue to use if you like. I used a Neoflam Kiesel Claypot for this because I think it cooked better than the traditional claypot. So maybe you may want to check that out.
* please note that I have included amazon affiliate links to the products I use, so check them out if you wish to support me, and if I can get these items from NTUC Supermarket, I would just indicate.
Recipe
Ingredients
800 grams Red Garoupa Fish Head (Split down the middle into two halves) {I buy my fish head from Blk 628 Market at Ang Mo Kio St 61, no regrets! Only $12) 1/2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce 1/2 tbsp Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu 1/2 tbsp Ginger Juice 1/2 tsp White Pepper Powder 3 tbsp Hakka Rice Wine 1 Egg (beaten) 3 tbsp Cornstarch Olive Oil (for deep frying, you may use Vegetable Oil if you like a cheaper alternative) 1 packet Bean Curd Puff (mini tau pok, cut into diagonals) 1 small Yam (sliced thinly) $3 worth of Roasted Pork Belly 1 inch Ginger (peeled and sliced thinly) 1 medium Yellow Onion (peeled and sliced thinly) 4-5 dried Shitake Mushrooms (soaked, sliced thinly as well) 1 small can Button Mushrooms (cut into halves) 2 tubes Red Chillies (seeds removed, roughly sliced) 3-4 cups of Chicken Stock 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce 1 tbsp Sesame Seed Oil 3 stalks of Spring Onions (sliced into 2 inch lengths) 2 clusters of Baby Romaine Lettuce (sliced into half)
Method
1. Marinate the Red Snapper in a ziplock bag with the soy sauce, shao xing hua tiao jiu, white pepper and ginger juice for about 10 minutes (if you have more time, you can marinate longer). 2. Mixed 2 tbsp cornstarch and 2 tbsp of water and an egg and mix it into a thick creamy batter. 3. Mixed 2 tbsp cornstarch and 2 tbsp water and set aside. 4. Heat olive oil over high heat and when it is about ready, dip the red snapper pieces into the batter, and deep fry for about 5-8 minutes. Tip: the more oil you use, the less likely the fish will burn. After frying both sides to a crispy brownish colour, set aside. 5. In another pot (this is where the clay pot magically appears and takes its place), add some oil, and fry the sliced ginger and onions. Fry them until they are softened and fragrant. Add chillies, two types of mushrooms, yam slices, mini tau pok and roasted pork belly, and continue frying. You may turn the heat up high for this part. 6. Add the chicken stock (I bought the packet type of chicken stock, although if you’re hardworking, you can also prepare it from scratch), sesame seed oil, hakka rice wine and oyster sauce. 7. Ensure that the ingredients are cooked fairly well, especially the yam and the tau pok. Then add the fried fish head pieces (whole, no need to cut small) back into the clay pot and simmer over low heat for about 8-10 minutes, constantly stirring to ensure evenness in cooking. 8. Last part, add the spring onions and mini romaine lettuce on top and if need be, add the cornstarch water to thicken the sauce a little. You may also pour the remainder of the egg batter into the pot and give it a good stir. Serve immediately with steamed rice.
My chef friend Alvin taught me this dish a long time ago when we were still in the business, and I liked it so much that it has now become one of my favourite dishes to prepare if I have a little more time on my hands. Alvin was always quick to prepare everything, and it was a little challenging to glean off the master, but after a while, I managed to work out the recipe and managed to make it work in my home kitchen.
To make this dish, you got to have the freshest green mussels. Finding them fresh is not difficult as we have them harvested locally in our waters. The only problem was that the ones caught locally were too small for this dish. I usually get them at $3 a kilogram for my steam mussels recipe, but I was looking for the bigger ones. Cold Storage sells these in sealed packets, imported from some exotic location, and they are expensive.
Good thing they sold them in smaller packets, a little cheaper, and the portions was just about right for two persons. You just need to wash and de-beard the clams and they are ready to be used. It does seems like a lot of work at first for something that is so simple in terms of number of ingredients, but personally I enjoy the process of creating this dish, so I don’t really mind.
Then there is the herb pesto sauce which is, in and of itself, another recipe. I am not kidding. I literally wrote a recipe for that. Check it out here. Recipe: Herb Pesto Sauce.
Okay now that you already have the basics of what this dish would require, let’s try it.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 packet of Green Mussels (about 750 grams)
200 grams Spaghetti
2 tbsp of Herb Pesto Sauce White Button Mushrooms (quartered)
3-4 cloves of Garlic (minced) Olive Oil Chardonnay Salted Butter Sea Salt
Method
1. Boil a kettle of water and then add it into a pot for cooking the spaghetti. This helps shorten the cooking process. The pasta that I usually use, cooks in 8 minutes. If you want them a little softer, you can cook them a little longer, like another 3 minutes. Be careful not too cook too long. Remember to pour a little olive oil into the pot. Once ready, scoop the pasta out onto dinner plates.
2. Saute the mushrooms in salted butter in a small pan until they are fragrant. Remove the mushrooms and then add the minced garlic to fry. Do this until you can smell the garlic. Then add the herb pesto sauce and give it a good stir. Then add the mussels and a splash of chardonnay. Seafood usually cooks very quickly, so you want to monitor your seafood carefully.
3. Add a little sea salt for taste, then add the mushrooms back into the pot and continue cooking. Once the ingredients are are sufficiently cooked, pour them over the cooked pasta and serve immediately.
I love thick stock asparagus, and especially if fried with tiger prawns or large prawns per se. Somehow the two of them tango very well. The social glue here that makes it all great is the minced garlic and light soy sauce.
When they all come together, it is just simply amazing. You got to try this simple recipe. It doesn’t become the main dish, but it really enhances the meal at dinner.
With the Chinese scallop dancing in between them, magic truly happens.
Recipe
Ingredients
7-8 large stalks of Asparagus
1 tbsp of minced Garlic
6 medium fresh Prawns
5-6 Chinese Scallops
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
Method
1. Cut asparagus into diagonal slices, ensuring consistency in shape and size. Reserve aside.
2. Heat oil in frying pan, then add minced garlic. Turn heat to medium and watch over garlic to make sure it doesn’t burn but only browns. To prevent burning you can add more oil, although most would prefer not.
3. Add dried scallops into frying pan to fry. I know the recommendation is to soak them first, but I want the flavour to be stronger and for it to infuse with the oil. Once the fragrance of the scallops has been mixed with the garlic, it is time to add the prawns. Stir fry the prawns until it turns a hue of red, then immediately add the asparagus into the pan.
4. Fry till asparagus is shiny and softened. I use a pan-flip technique for this dish so that there is proper mixing of ingredients. I find this technique really useful when you want to get an all round even cooking outcome. Add the soy sauce and continue to do the pan-flip.
5. By now you should also observe that the minced garlic has caramelised with the juice of the prawns into a fragrant paste. Wah, delicious. If it smells great by now, that’s because it really is.
Some people ask me why I post images of raw foods as opposed to delightfully photoshoped pictures. Well, I wanna show the freshness of the ingredients and to show that cooking is all about the beginning (as well as the journey) when you are about to cook because everyone will cook and their individual outcomes may all look different.
Don’t worry, I am sure you will make this dish look absolutely fabulous.
So drunken prawns with wolfberry and dates! Is this difficult to do? No way. It’s so easy I could have cooked it with my eyes closed. Try it.
Recipe
Ingredients
Freshest Prawns in the world
Handful of Wolfberries
4-5 Red Dates
Quarter cup of Hakka Rice Wine
Method
1. Shave off the whiskers of the prawns. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. But they look better clean shaven.
2. Arrange them in a steaming platter. Drop in the wolfberries and the red dates. Drizzle the rice wine all over the prawns. Place the plate in the steamer and steam for about 5 minutes and leave it there for another 1 minute with fire off but lid on. Then serve.
3. Steaming times differ. Depending on the size of the prawns, also if the water is boiling, the type of rice wine used, etc.. Blah blah blah.. Okay Nuff said, enjoy the process. I am sure yours taste the best.
This is a one of those life hacks that we all need to know. Especially if you are a home cook like me that needs to measure out portions, or make sure that things are nearly arranged at the home freezer.
Learnt this from the singapore home cooks Facebook fan page and I think it so totally rock. I made a little adjustment to mine though so that it is sensible to me.
I portioned the minced pork so that I can easily break it into biscuit like cakes and reserve the remainder portions without having to defrost the whole lot. Previously I used to store them into different plastic bags and that took two more processes than this. I had to weigh them and pack them neatly into bundles.
The problem with that was the plastic bags that I was using to pack them were thin and they tend to stick to the meat which made it difficult to handle the meat immediately. Also, there was a lot of wastage as I usually throw the plastic bags thereafter.
With this method, I can reduce my carbon footprint, reuse the zip lock bag and do my bit for recycling. Try it. It is so easy.
1. Spread the minced meat into the ziplock bags, and then make sure there are no air bubbles as you lay the meat as flatly as possible into the bag.
2. Seal the bag. Then with a chopstick, measure out the middle section of the bag and you have effectively portioned out the meat into two halves. Easy.
3. Just fold the ziplock bag into half and you would have effectively halved your storage space requirement in the freezer.
Note:
A. If you want to have more than two portions, arrange them in the direction of the opening seal. This is to allow easy snapping/separating of the minced meat for thawing.
Another quick and simple to make herb pesto sauce. Ingredients are easily available and not too expensive. Try it.
Recipe
Ingredients
A bunch of Italian Parsley
A bunch of Basil leaves
7-8 cloves of Garlic Olive Oil
Method
1. With a good processor, minced all the ingredients together. Add enough olive oil and then mix well. Store in a bottle with lid and throw it into the fridge for use later. Easy.
Yesterday my wife and me took leave to go shopping and also have a little couple time together. We decided to have breakfast at our favourite sandwich shop called the sandwich shop and I pondered over the nondescript naming of the cafe. I guess there is no harm in calling a spade a spade.
But we were greeted with a smorgasbord of sandwiches and every permutation that we could imagine that could be placed on tiny shelves. There was roast beef, cold cuts and brie, egg mayo, wild rockets and crayfish.
Wifey wanted pasta and somehow the spirals with sundried tomatoes looked appealing as well. And so we decided on that and ate our breakfast. The pasta was cold and probably sat in the fridge chiller for a tad too long.
It was then that I vowed to myself that I would cooked a better pasta breakfast then that which we purhased at the shop. Here’s the recipe. Enjoy.
Recipe
Ingredients
1. 150 grams of Barilla Penne
2. 4-5 White Button Mushrooms
3. 2 slices of Breakfast Ham
4. 20 grams of Salted Butter
5. Pinch of Sea Salt
6. Sprinkle of Mixed Italian Herbs
Method
1. Cook the Penne in a small pot of boiling water for about 11 minutes to al dente. If you wanna make it softer, continue cooking for another 2 minutes. Don’t forget to add some sea salt.
2. In another pot, melt the butter over low heat, be careful not to burn it, and then add the sliced mushrooms to cook. Turn up the heat to medium. Flambé the mushrooms if you can. If you can’t, don’t worry, I understand.
3. Remove and reserve the mushrooms and add the shredded ham to cook in the juice of the mushrooms. Add a sprinkle of mixed Italian herbs. Cook till you can smell ham.
4. After that’s done, pour the ham and mushrooms into the penne pasta in the other pot and give it a good mix. It should look like the photo above.
One of my all time favourite pasta to eat as well as to prepare, the spaghetti cabonara, a cream based pasta that will tantalise your tastebuds and bring you all the way to Italy. Truly, there is no pasta that is so distinctively yummy as this one.
I made my pasta a little more creamy just so you guys can see the texture of the pasta. I am using spaghetti here instead of linguine because I still have spaghetti at home. But that said, linguine makes a better pasta as it can soak up the cream based sauce really well.
I know some recipes call for eggs and parmesan cheese, but my version doesn’t require all these, it is simple, and easy to do. Anyone can do it. So are you ready?
Recipe for 1
Ingredients
125 grams of Barilla Spaghetti
50 grams of Streaky Bacon
4-5 pcs of White Button Mushrooms
4 cloves of Garlic
100 ml of Cooking Cream
15 grams of Salted Butter
100 ml of full cream Milk
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Mixed Italian Herbs
Pinch of Sea Salt
Method
1. Firstly we cook the pasta in the pot. I use Barilla Spaghetti which cooks in 5 minutes to an al dente. Remember to add a little sea salt and olive oil. If you prefer it a little softer, add a 1 or 2 to the cooking time.
2. In another pot, stir fry the quartered button mushrooms in salted butter. I find salted butter much better to work with as opposed to unsalted butter when it comes to cooking, but if you’re baking, then perhaps unsalted butter might work better for you. Once the fragrance of the mushrooms can be inhaled (lack of a better word!) you should remove the mushrooms and set them aside. Then in the juice of the mushrooms, cook the minced garlic, cooked until fragrant. Then add the chopped streaky bacon. Fry this until the fragrance of the bacon can be breathed (still trying to find a better word!). I am not using olive oil in this recipe because butter goes better with cream in this carbonara recipe. Furthermore the oil in the streaky bacon is more delicious.
3. The pasta should be about al dente by now. You can remove the pasta or continue to cook it longer until it is softer. In the meantime, you add the cooking cream into the ingredients and cook, add the milk to dilute the carbonara sauce a little. If you like the sauce to be a little thicker, you can just use the cooking cream and leave out the milk altogether. Add herbs flakes and black pepper. A little salt to taste. Cook till the sauce is hot. After that drizzle it over the pasta and give it a good mix. Serve with grated parmesan cheese if you like, but it is already quite rich if you ask me.
My wife said to me one day, “can you cook some other kind of soup?” That to me is a sign that I have to constantly innovate and come up with new concoctions of soups. I guess I have been a little lazy as well, opting to cook the convenient Easy as ABC types of soups and admittedly, we have been drinking a lot of those soups as well, especially the Lotus and Radish Soup which I have been cooking week-in, week-out. Maybe wifey drink until scared liao.
So I asked her, “what kind of soup would you like to drink then?” The answer was kind of unexpected because she wanted a really simple Chicken and Potato Soup. That sounds like Chicken Soup for the Soul (think: Best Selling Book). Well, as I love a good challenge, and since we already have the required ingredients in my well stocked kitchen, I set out to develop a simple recipe. I think it’s gonna be great!
So I decided that I would bring together my great collaborators – Chinese Scallops and Yellow Onion. They are distinctively different, but yet somehow, they add to the great flavour that is Chicken Soup. I can already smell the flavours coming together. Here’s my recipe for Chicken and Potato Soup.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 x Chicken Drumsticks
1 x Chicken Carcass
15-20 Chinese Scallops
5 medium size Potatoes
1 large Yellow Onion
Half a teaspoon of Sea Salt
Method
1. First of all, place the chicken carcass and the chicken drumsticks (frozen) into the pot. Boil a kettle of water, then pour it into the pot, make sure that it covers the chicken. Then add the scallops into the pot and turn on high heat to boil.
2. Then peel potatoes, and rough chop these into pieces. After that is done, add them into the pot to cook. Slice up a yellow onion and add in the pot last. Continue to boil for another 10 minutes. Add salt to taste. Then turn off fire and put pot into the thermal cooker. That’s all, easy.
It seems like the unlikeliest of collaborations, more unlikely than the Lotus and Radish Soup. The bitter gourd and pork ribs is what most of us would already know, but to have an octopus swimming around in the soup, I bet the final taste would be out of this world.
As it is, the mixture of the bitterness that is in the bitter gourd juxtaposed with that of the fishy aftertaste of octopus, is probably gonna taste really yummy. I can’t wait to taste this soup tonight. Something about pork ribs that makes the soup taste so much better than chicken bones. It’s such a simple recipe anyone can do it.
1. Boil water, then pour into pot with ribs and octopus and let them get acquainted. After boiling for about 10 minutes, add the sliced bitter gourd and some sea salt. Continue to boil for another 5 minutes at high heat.
2. When done, take and place in thermal cooker and eat it when you get home. Perfect.
Friday lunch and we all thought that we would go for our favourite kway chap stall at Tampines Round Market. The lure of the pork just doesn’t seem to let down and once it gets you in the insides, you are literally gutted and you need to go eat.
So here we are at Round Market and guess what? The kway chap is closed, it has once again dumbfounded many of their loyal patrons as to why they would close on the one day that they say that they would open. Anyway, the next best porky alternative was the Pig’s Viscera Pork Ribs Prawn Noodle. The name of the stall is a tongue twister and what in the world is viscera? Doesn’t sound too appetizing. Anyway, I decided on Pig’s tail noodle soup with added handmade meat ball and it was fantastic. Look at the picture below and tell me what is not fantastic about it. See, I am right. It is fantastic.
What is more fantastic is that after I 加料, it was only SGD 4.00. That is unbeatable value in my humble opinion. So much 料 and still under five bucks. Very value for money.
You can miss it when you go there. There is perpetually a queue.
Up till now I have been making Bak Kut Teh using pork ribs which is fine but somehow the shiok feeling of being able to tear the meat off the bones seem to be missing. So in an attempt to recreate that old familiar Sin Ming Ave Bak Kut Teh feeling, I bought prime ribs from my local butcher. I know it will be sure nice one.
You can check out my other recipe which is basically an adaptation of Makansutra’s version if you prefer something more serious and structured (that one got YouTube video of Seetoh). But if this works for you, then do it this way.
I have basically removed all the frills and in a sense demystified the entire Bak Kut Teh experience. To me, pepper is the key ingredient. You don’t even need best quality white peppercorns. Just get the cheap cheap ones at the wet market but put more than the usual quantity. Sure peppery one. Trust me.
The picture above is exactly what it is, three simple ingredients, absolutely no other magical ingredient. Just load it up with water and the magic itself is really in the slow boiling of the prime ribs. That’s one reason why I love the thermal cooker so much, it is a slow extraction of flavour. By the end of the day, the prime ribs are soft, tender, and si beh shiok. Dip it in dark soy sauce and fresh cut red chillies and make yourself a cup of hot Chinese tea. The end result is really same same.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 large Prime Ribs
4 packets of White Peppercorns (I got the cheap cheap ones from the wet market, 50 cents per packet)
10-12 cloves of Garlic Salt to taste
Method
1. Place the ribs, garlic (unshelled) and the peppercorns in a pot. Add water to cover the ribs. Boil at high heat for at least 15 minutes. After that dump the pot into the thermal cooker and come back home in the evening to eat. Don’t forget to add some salt.
One of the best kai lan vegetable are the ones that are from the wet market (always thought that there was only one type). But where were these from? I don’t know, and I don’t really care unless I was tasked to write a thesis on the types of Kai lan vegetable in the world. That I guess is also not about to happen any time soon, so yup, don’t really care.
But that said, wet market kai lan is really good. The vegetables is crunchy and stays fresh even though we kept it in the fridge for over two days before frying it up.
So if you want something simple and easy to prepare, this is it. Enjoy.
Recipe
Ingredients
Bunch of Kai Lan
7-8 Chinese Scallops
4 cloves of Garlic
80 grams of Pork Belly Olive Oil Light Soy Sauce
Method
1. Heat 3 tbsp of oil in wok, then fry minced garlic over low heat until fragrant. Then throw the pork belly into the wok and turn the heat to medium and stir fry until pork belly is fragrant (these are the pork belly that I made and store for frying vegetables).
2. Then add the Chinese Scallops and continue frying. After a few minutes, now dump the kai lan into the wok and fry until the kai lan vegetable is softened. Add a little light soy sauce and serve.
There is something quite whimsical about sitting at a coffee shop and eating soft boiled eggs with a cup of kopi. It’s almost as if time had come to a standstill and we were all still speaking dialects and stirring guttural sounds out of our throats, aiming and spitting and missing the spittoon. Ah, the good old days of acting like a gangster and flicking the singlet rapidly with finger and thumb in the sweltering heat of the afternoon sun. These days that same experience is now diluted with air-conditioning and perfectly boiled huge omega-infused eggs the size of buffalo testicles. Okay, maybe I am exaggerating, but you sort of get the idea. Eggs today are perfect; too perfect.
Even the old familiar smells of melted butter in the coffee seems to be missing as some coffee places have opted for fine arabica beans over local coffee powder suppliers. There are very few places that reminds me of the old-school charm of a coffee shop. Good thing I found a coffee place near my office that still offered some semblance of a by-gone era. Nothing like getting your fingers burnt while cracking open the soft-boiled eggs. Nothing like getting the timing correct for the eggs and seeing perfectly congealed egg whites and runny egg yolks. Or even getting them wrong is not such a bad thing. I usually start the timer function on my smart-phone and make sure that the buzzer goes off after 5 minutes. That is usually how much time it takes for eggs to form perfectly cloudy rounds of golden yellow goodness.
Some things are worth missing; some moments worth reminiscing.
The humble ham and cheese sandwich, one of my favourite sandwiches of all time. It’s got to be since considering the fact that I have been making them every morning. The recipe is so simple you can also do it. The ingredients can be purchased at cold storage or ntuc finest, not a problem. If you wanna cure the meats yourself, go ahead, nobody will stop you.
Incidentally, I am looking at getting a hydroponic system (aerogarden) to grow my own herbs like thyme, rockets and basil. I think that would so totally rock. I am always buying these herbs at the supermarket and they can cost quite a bit. So having an indoor herb garden will really be very convenient. And very cool. Need thyme? Not a problem, just pluck!
If you wanna know what goes into my sandwich, here’s the recipe.
Recipe
Ingredients
Ham – it can be any type of sandwich ham Wild Rockets – I am not referring to Scud missiles Butter (salted) Cheddar Cheese squares Whole-grain Mustard 12 grain sandwich bread
Method
1. Spread butter on bread, spread Whole-grain mustard on the other side, then layer on the cheese, the ham on the other side, add a heap of rockets.
If you are thinking invasion of the body snatchers, well you may not be entirely wrong. With their long extensible arms and legs ever ready to snatch anything within their grasp, it might not be so far fetched to think that they could be aliens from a distant galaxy.
Or if you just watched Penguins of Madagascar, then these three baby octopuses might not be so foreign to you. In fact they do look somewhat scary and cartoonish all at the same time if you thought about it now. But I am not introducing them as aliens or clever animation, they are in fact part of my latest tweak to my ABC Soup in an attempt to make the soup flavourful in a natural way.
If you are doing confinement as a newbie mummy, then maybe plain ABC Soup should be suffice. But if you want that extra bit of flavour, then a piece of the dried baby octopus would turn your very simple soup into an artisan masterpiece, worthy of mention in the many social dinners to come.
Hmmm, I can almost smell it now as the soup boils.
My mother-in-law’s recipe (which she shared in a hazy manner) and my after a few times trial and error to get the right consistency and taste. My official food taster (and my greatest critic), my wife, tends to be a little more critical of the dishes that I copy from her mummy. Naturally if it were my mum’s recipe, I would be a little more strict with the taste-test. This time around though, it is her mother’s recipe and I got to respect the taste. Furthermore, it is a dish that she likes. So I got to get the taste right.
But me, being me, I will usually do it the way that I think is the right way to do it and not the way that people tell me is the right way to do it. I am stubborn like that, but really, it is important to develop your own flair in cooking and be yourself. There are many ways to skin a cat and when it comes to cooking, there is no hard and fast rules to it. To me flavour is everything, everything else is secondary.
Of course this maverick way of cooking only applies to cooking per se and not baking. Where baking is concern, proportions are very important. Baking is more of a science and cooking is like fine art. I can taste my way to perfection if I were cooking Coq Au Vin but if I got the proportions wrong with baking, the Tiramisu will be ruined. There are no two ways about it. So respect always goes to bakery chefs first, and then applause to the celebrity chefs and whatever it is that they are cooking.
So, this I think is perfection. Wifey ate the fish, and enjoyed it silently. Needless to say, I am pleased.
Want to know how it is done? Let me assure you, it is not rocket science. In fact the way I do it, anyone can follow – caveat: you can only if you have the freshest ingredients and the magical Hakka Rice Wine.
1. Julienne the ginger into thin strips. Fry in oil until crispy and fragrant. Once ginger strips starts to brown lightly, remove and set aside. Add more oil if needed, and turn the heat down. Pat dry the pomfret and slowly place the fish to fry. You may slowly increase the heat and ensure that the fish is fried till it is crispy.
2. Fry both sides of the fish, turning every so often to prevent it from burning. The skin of the fish is likely to peel off, that is normal. You can only achieve a high level of frying if you have lots of oil in the wok. As for me, I didn’t want to waste oil, so I didn’t use that much. Once the fish is more or less well cooked, you may add the dark soy sauce into the wok and flip the fish a few times so that the sauce gets onto the fish. Then add the magic hakka rice wine and watch the sauce bubble and you know deep in your heart that it is ready for consumption.
3. Once it is ready, garnish the ginger on the fish like in the picture above and you can serve.
Spicy Szechuan Vegetables with Minced and Pork Belly
This is a childhood classic for me. I remember the nanny cooking this for lunch on a few occasions, although I can’t really remember the details of what she cooked though, I mean who can? It’s been so many years. Alright, I know I said I had a photographic memory before, but this is different.
So when she told me that it was from Szechuan province, from a far away place and that it traveled very far to get to our home. It was a little unbelievable at first. She said that everyone from that place simply loves and adore the vegetable, and that they would eat it day and night. I thought that they must be extremely proud and sad at the same time eating it. I mean I would be proud knowing that the world was eating my “vegetable”, but yet at the same time, I would be sad because everyone in the world would think that it was all that we ate all day. There was probably nothing much else to eat. Of course I am sure they do eat other vegetables but as a child, we thought in absolutes.
Years past and the dish has become commonplace in many caifan 菜饭 places. Some places do it well while others just cannot make it. Anyway, wifey wanted to eat this dish and since we had the szechuan vegetable in the fridge, I thought that it was also good time to cook it.
My rendition of the classic dish is to add pork belly and minced pork with some chilli padi and a dash of dark soy sauce. I bought my szechuan vegetable from the wet market, which basically meant that it was likely to be spicy and very high in salt content. There are different types of szechuan vegetable that are being sold in the supermarkets and these are already shredded nicely for the cook and they are not so salty. They come in a variety of spicy and non-spicy which really helps if you want to make a non-spicy version.
Recipe
Ingredients
half a dollop of Szechuan Vegetable – purchased from the wet market, high in salt content and spicy
100 gramsof Pork Belly – following from the recipe for preparing boiled pork belly
150-160 grams of Minced Pork
a tbsp of Dark Soy Sauce
4-5 pcs of Garlic
4 pcs of Chilli Padi
Method
1. Soak the szechuan vegetables in a bowl of hot water. I realised that it is better to slice them thinly first before soaking. This would help a lot. Recommended to soak at least 30 minutes. While that is soaking, mince the garlic and heat up the oil in the wok. Fry until fragrant.
2. Add in pork belly and fry, moderate the heat to a medium. Then add the minced pork and fry until the colour just change which suggests that it is semi-cooked. Then add in the shredded szechuan vegetable along with the shredded chilli padi. Fry the dish until it is more or less cooked, then add a dash of the dark soy sauce and continue stirring. The end result should look a little bit like the picture below.
If you like your soju, I am sure you will like this simple but yet very nice way of having your Korean soju. When we were on holiday in Korea, we stumbled upon a shop that had watermelon soju which was served in a glass.
I thought why not serve it in the watermelon itself! Wouldn’t that be a great conversation starter?! The only challenge would be how to get your guests to share the straw and convince them that it is totally okay to do that.
Alright, maybe your friends are not so comfortable with that idea. In any case, let them figure out the drinking part, where there is soju, there is a way. So here’s a really simple recipe to get you started on your journey to becoming a great host.
Recipe
Ingredients
Watermelon (whole) about 7 – 7.5kg
A bottle or two of soju
Method
1. Cut off a small section of the top of the watermelon. Then with an ice cream scoop, dig out the insides into dollops of watermelon fruit. Reserve them in a bowl and then throw the bowl into the freezer. Leave overnight. The watermelon dollops will be frozen and act as ice cubes for the soju.
2. When about to serve, dump the watermelon fruit back into the watermelon shell. Then pour the soju into the watermelon and serve. Easy.
We love fish as a family, and so it is natural that I would buy as much fish that I can get at the wet market for the weekly menu. From left to right in order of appearance.
A beautiful angoli which is not ang (red colour in hokkien) at all. It is a beautiful hue of gold streaks across its body. I bet it is delicious and I have plans to cook it in thai style. Can’t wait.
Next we have the family favourite, the white pomfret. We love it steamed teochew style with Kiam Chye, salted plums, dried shitake mushrooms and tomatoes. These are the main characters in the teochew style of cooking the fish. Ginger is a must and Chinese Parsley as garnishing is totally optional.
Third in line is the black pomfret, a mysterious fish of dark origins. Somehow I feel that since the fish is already somewhat dark, it should be cooked in a dark style. I propose a dark soy sauce with shredded ginger and rice wine to send off this mysterious fish.
Interestingly our next friend is the golden pomfret, a fish with a strong oily flavour and very meaty. Most people fry it until it is crispy but my plan is to do this fish in Hong Kong style with leeks and ginger. That I think would be delicious.
Next to it is the silver trevally, a very nice fish to steam the teochew style. In fact a lot of teochew porridge stalls have this fish. So happy to be able to find this one this morning.
Then comes the red snapper, a fish that works very well in a coconut flavored curry sauce with white cabbage and tau kee. Can’t wait to prepare this fish.
The last remaining two friends are the Selar and Kembong. They both belong to the mackerel family and are best if cooked with Chilli stuffed in its side. Read my Sambal fried fish recipe.
That’s all for introductions. Now the games begin.
I learnt how to make Pasta when I went overseas to study in Australia. And one of the few things that I learnt as a student was learning how to cook Pasta. I used to live in student housing just off campus in a very small property. There were quite a few Singaporeans residing there as well, so it wasn’t so tough for me especially dealing with homesickness and loneliness. Ah, those bittersweet days.
One of the first few foreign friends that I made in the first couple of months was this Tongan bloke by the name of Ma’afu. He was studying to become Pastor and was attending seminary school elsewhere. He was part-timing as a tutor for the students that lived in that property, kind of like a property manager. We became friends, and on one occasion, he taught me how to make Pasta.
For him, pasta was actually Spaghetti Bolognese. Of course I didn’t know any better, so I just follow lor (Singaporeans were very good at doing that.) So as soon as I learnt how to actually do it, I never forgot it. That’s the one thing that I never really understood about myself. I just needed to see a recipe once and it would retain in my memory. It’s been more than 20 years, but I can still remember how it was supposed to be done.
From that time until now, I have also learnt a whole lot more about food handling and how to extenuate the natural flavours of the ingredients that I was using, and that helped too. The key I believe is to use fresh minced beef, and nothing comes as fresh as the minced beef from Cold Storage. I like shopping at Cold Storage, the ingredients there are somehow fresher. The only bad thing about them is that they are a lot more expensive.
So wifey said that she would like to eat Pasta, and for me the decision to make it is a no-brainer – it has to be Spaghetti Bolognese.
Here’s how it is done.
Recipe
Ingredients
Half a box of Barilla Spaghetti – cooks in 5 minutes
150 grams Minced Beef
A punnet of White Button Mushrooms
4 pieces of Garlic
A bottle of Prego Pasta Sauce (Traditional)
Olive Oil
Butter (salted)
Sea Salt
White Pepper
bunch of Basil Leaves
Sharp Cheddar & Mozzarella Cheese mix
Method
1. Boil a pot of water for the cooking of the spaghetti sticks. They should be done in 5 minutes if you want them to be Al Dente. Remember to add some oil and sea salt into the pot. This helps the pasta to not stick together and it also flavours the pasta. If you don’t really like it Al Dente, you can opt to cook it a minute or two longer. Quart the mushrooms, and then fry them in about 30 grams of butter in a small pot. Fry until you can smell the mushrooms. Then off the fire and reserve the mushrooms one side.
2. Place the minced beef in a bowl and add a pinch of salt and white pepper. Mix the salt and the pepper into the minced beef and let it marinate the meat for about 5-10 minutes. Mince the garlic and then fry them in a wok with about 2-3 tbsp of oil. Fry until the fragrance of the garlic comes out. Then add the marinated minced beef in the wok to fry. Don’t fry too long. Just until it turns from reddish to light brown. Then add the buttered mushrooms into the wok and continue to fry under medium heat.
3. Then add the pasta sauce into the wok and cook until the sauce starts to bubble slightly. Then add the basil leaves and continue to cook over low heat. The pasta should be either Al Dente or softened by this time (it’s all about timing it properly). With a food tong, serve the pasta onto the plate, there should be about enough for two servings and a little more. Measure them out if you like, about 170 grams (ideal) or equally. Then ladle the sauce over the pasta and top it with sharp cheddar and mozzarella cheese mix. Easy.
A friend of mine posed me the challenge of trying out something new; a new recipe. Gordon Ramsay’s Beef Wellington. As if it isn’t difficult enough already to prepare for Christmas dinner, but to re-create a classic like the Beef Wellington in my home kitchen is going to be a challenge, and in a sense, I like the challenge. But preparing it would mean inviting an army to help me finish it.
Gordon does it in classic style and there is always that intensity in the way he does his cooking, hoping around like a monkey. As for me, I like to take my time and make my cooking easy and on my own terms. I think cooking shouldn’t be so intense. But I guess it depends on who is running the kitchen and who’s the slave driver.
I am following Gordon’s fantastic and easy to follow YouTube video on making this classic Christmas Roast – Beef Wellington. You can also do likewise. A caveat though, I have a feeling there could be some “special steps” that were snipped off the video so that he could squeeze it into a short 8 minute video. And we all know that nobody cooks in double that time either.
Equipment List
I always start with a mandatory stock check of inventory when it comes to equipment needed to make something that requires more than a pot and a wooden spoon. Of course, I always try to reduce my equipment list to a pot and a wooden spoon, but I have a feeling that this recipe is going to require a lot more than just that.
Items needed
Food processor – to mince the brown mushrooms.
Clingwrap – this one can easily get it at NTUC.
Brush – Phoon Huat sells a nice brush.
Oven – if you don’t already have one, don’t bother trying to cook this dish, and don’t bother buying one of those cheap ovens at some hypermart because I assure you the experience and the technical compliance of the equipment is equivalent to the price you pay for the item.
Recipe – I gleaned this off Gordon’s recipe. I think the best form of flattery is imitation. That said, if not nice, don’t blame me, I only follow.
Ingredients
For the Beef Wellington:
900 grams piece of Beef Fillet of even thickness (from the centre cut) – the problem I have with that is that I usually shop at the wet market, and the butcher only sells one variety of meat – beef. The specialty stores are usually far away from where I live, so I guess I will have to buy this off at Cold Storage.
Sea Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper
2 tbsp Olive Oil
English Mustard, to brush meat
For the Mushroom Duxelles: don’t worry about the name, it just means mushrooms paste.
700g Chestnut Mushrooms, cleaned and stalks removed – I can only find and use Brown Mushrooms or White Mushrooms, essentially they are all the same.
handful of cooked Chestnuts – this is the gao-lat that we usually buy by the roadside where the uncle usually shouts “gao-lat!” at the top of his voice.
1 Garlic Clove, peeled and chopped
2 Thyme sprigs, leaves only
For the assembly:
8 slices of Parma Ham
500 grams ready-made all-butter Puff Pastry
plain Flour, to dust
2 Egg Yolks, lightly beaten with 1 tbsp water (eggwash)
Method
1. To make this Gordon Ramsay Beef Wellington recipe, trim the beef of any sinew and season well with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a high heat, add the fillet and quickly sear the outside all over for about 5 minutes until evenly browned, turning as necessary. Transfer to a plate and while still hot, brush all over with mustard. Set aside to rest.
2. For the duxelles, put the mushrooms, chestnuts and garlic in a food processor with a little salt and pepper and blend to a fine paste, stopping to scrape down the sides a few times. Heat a dry large frying pan. Scrape the mushroom paste into the pan and add the thyme leaves. Cook over a high heat, stirring occasionally, to drive off the moisture and intensify the flavour. The duxelles must be sufficiently dry otherwise it will make the pastry soggy; the mixture should adhere easily. Spread out on a tray to cool.
3. Place a large piece of cling film on a clean surface. Lay the Parma ham slices on top, overlapping them slightly, to form a rough rectangle large enough to envelop the beef fillet, making sure there are no gaps. Season the ham with a few twists of pepper then, with a palette knife, spread the duxelles on top, leaving a 2.5cm margin along the edges.
4. Lay the beef fillet along the middle of the mushroom layer. Keeping a tight hold of the cling film from the outside edges, neatly roll the Parma ham and duxelles over the beef into a tight barrel shape. Twist the ends of the cling film to secure. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to firm up.
5. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a large rectangle, the thickness of a £1 coin and brush with some of the eggwash. Unwrap the beef from the cling film and place it in the middle. Leaving a large enough rectangle to wrap around the beef, trim off the excess pastry. Roll the pastry around the beef to envelop it and then press the edges to seal. Pinch the pastry at the ends to seal and trim off the excess. Wrap the log tightly in cling film and chill for 10 minutes, or overnight if you are preparing ahead.
6. Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas 5. Remove the cling film and brush the parcel all over with egg wash. Lightly score the pastry at 1cm intervals with the back of a small knife for a decorative effect, if you wish. Place on a baking tray, sprinkle with salt and bake for about 35 minutes; if the pastry appears to be browning too quickly, lower the setting slightly. Leave to rest in a warm place for about 15 minutes before cutting into thick slices to serve, with the accompaniments.
A simple peranakan style of frying fish with sambal or chopped/pounded Chilli filled in between cuts along the sides of the fish. Usually Selar or Kembong fish would be ideal for this slightly spicy fish dish. Sambal here refer to Chilli, plain and simple.
The fish is lightly salted and finished off with lime juice after frying it. The key is to cook the fish until it is crispy and fragrant. I also julienned strips of ginger and fried them until crispy as well. These are great as garnishing. I have also recently discovered green chilli or sambal hijau. It’s become my favourite, and it is so easy to prepare as well. Just cook the green chilli until soften in oil and salt. Shiok.
Sidetracked, ready to try Sambal Selar? Here’s the recipe.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 x Selaror Kembong fish 3 pcs of Red Chilli 4-5 cm of Ginger Limes Olive oil Sea salt
Method
1. Julienne the ginger into strips. Then chop Chilli and then pound into a paste. Scored the fish along its sides and stuff the Chilli paste into the sides of the fish. Lightly salt the fish and leave it aside.
2. Heat about 6-7 tbsp of oil and then fry the ginger strip till light brown and crispy. Remove the ginger and place in a bowl. Now fry the fish already marinated with the Chilli paste and salt. You would want to fry till crispy. Do this over medium heat and make sure the fish is evenly cooked.
3. Once the fishes are cooked, garnish the ginger and squeeze juice of 2 limes onto the fish and serve.
Bon Appetit!!
Fill the sides of the scored fishes with Chilli paste.
Probably one of the best inventions of the 21st century, that is, the humble air fryer. It doesn’t fry air, don’t be mistaken. Instead it uses hot air to fry. Now we know when we say something’s full of hot air, it is usually quite useless, but that can’t be said of the air fryer.
This product is just one short of magical. Hot air it seems can be used to fry stuff, not just to fly stuff (think: hot air balloons). How does that work? Honestly I don’t know, I could guess how it works, but I don’t really care.
I am only interested to know how it fries my chicken wings to a beautiful crispy golden brown.
The air fryer that my wife bought was the smaller one of the two sizes offered by Philips. At first I thought, “what a cumbersome way to cook!?” but when I tried it, it worked like a charm. Beautiful to say the least.
So if you wanna try making chicken wings another way, then maybe the air fryer is for you.
Recipe
Ingredients
6 pcs Chicken Wings
Method
1. Place the chicken wings in a mixture of corn flour and shao xing hua tiao jiu and light soy sauce. This marinate can be prepared in a ziplock bag.
2. Once chicken wings are coated, place them in tray of air fryer. Turn on 8 minutes at 160 degrees. Then after that is done, turn over the wings and turn it on at 200 degrees for another 8 minutes. That should result in a crispy and nicely browned chicken wings.
I never had dou miao growing up back in the day, so when this very simple bean-sprout-like vegetable started appearing in our supermarkets, I thought maybe it was some mutant version of the even more humble bean sprout. Then I realised that you could grow this indoors with your very own hydroponic starter kit for beginners. Yup, I searched it out on Amazon. Pretty amazing huh? Of course, I also realised that you could grow pretty much whatever you wanted to at home.
So by the name I guess it originated from China or Taiwan (actually I don’t really know). And since nobody bothered to change the name, I guess dou miao it is then. The taste of the vegetable is slightly bitter and has that raw chlorophyll-like taste if uncooked (actually I don’t know what chlorophyll tastes like), so it has to be cooked well. It is usually thin and skinny, about 8-10cm lengths, although I half suspect dou miao in other countries probably might look slightly different. So maybe the name dou miao could be a generic term for vegetables that grow from bean sprouts.
Anyway, my wife loves dou miao and that’s all that matters. I bought a pack from the local supermarket and decided to cook it the way I like. Lots of garlic and with Dried Chinese Scallops. Yum.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 pack of Dou Miao
7-8 dried Chinese Scallops
4-5 pcs Garlic Olive oil LightSoy Sauce
Method
1. Soak the Chinese Scallops in hot water. Mince the garlic. Then heat the wok with the olive oil. Once oil is heated, fry garlic over medium heat until garlic is fragrant.
2. Fry scallops together with garlic, reserve liquid as stock. Add dou miao and fry until soften, add stock of scallops and cover lid of wok for 5 minutes. Once dou miao is softened, add light soy sauce and stir fry a little more.
I recently discovered this wonderful way of making chicken in rice wine. Hakka Rice Wine to be precise. Somehow when you cook chicken in rice wine and excessive amounts of ginger, over a slow fire, what you usually get is a concoction that literally brings a smile to the face. The rice wine has a sweet sugary taste to it which makes the chicken taste really yummy.
It’s so good that I have decided to bring my six “friends” (drumlets) together for this wonderful confluence of flavours. We already consumed the wings and since then I have been thinking of a nice recipe to send off these guys.
Finally they are ready to go. This is their finest moment.
Recipe
Ingredients
6 Chicken Drumlets *after using the wings in the airfryer*
Lots of Ginger *maybe 8-9 cm of one inch thickness*
Half a bowl of Hakka Rice Wine White Pepper
2 tbsp of Light Soy Sauce
2 tbsp of Dark Soy Sauce
3-4 tbsp Olive Oil
Method
1. Carve the meat off the chicken drumlets for ease of cooking. Marinate the meat and bones with light soy sauce and white pepper. Allow the meat to marinate at least for 5-10 minutes.
2. Julienne the ginger (I usually diced), and then heat the olive oil in a clay-pot over low fire. Then fry the ginger strips until brown and crispy.
3. Add marinate chicken meat (including bones) into the clay-pot for cooking. Over slow fire continue to cook until chicken pieces turn whitish in colour. Add dark soy sauce and continue cooking. Finally add the Hakka Rice Wine and allow the chicken to simmer and cook. Once cooked serve with steam rice.
If there were such a thing as comfort foods, then this would be it. Simple, easy to cook and none of the hassle. But to do it well would require some kung-fu skills and minor athletic agility. If you don’t have that basic requirement, no worries, just follow my recipe and you would do fine.
Wifey and me love this easy dish, quick to prepare and full of flavour. We always have a can of stewed pork trotters stashed away in the corner of our kitchen cupboard, and just nice wifey wanted to eat this for lunch. Naturally being the ever optimistic home-cook, I immediately jumped into action *think minor athletic ability* and made the most wonderful bee hoon with stewed pork.
You can too.
Recipe
Ingredients
2-3 pc ofdried Bee Hoon *A1 Brand, vermicelli*
1 can of Stewed Pork Trotters *narcissis brand*
Bunch of Kai Lan *vegetables*
3-4 pc Garlic
3-4 pc Pork Belly *reserved from the 漂亮 Pork Belly*
10 pc of dried mini Scallops *buy from Chinese medicine shop*
4-5 pc of dried Shitake Mushrooms *buy from Chinese medicine shop*
1 cup of Fish Stock *optional*
2 tbsp Olive Oil
Method
1. Soak the bee hoon and mushrooms in hot water. This should take about 5-10 minutes for them to soften. Once the mushrooms are done, slice them into small strips. Meanwhile, mince garlic and chop pork belly into smaller pieces. Wash and shred the kai lan.
2. Heat the wok and pour in the oil, then stir fry the garlic over medium heat, taking care not to burn the garlic. Then immediately as the fragrance of the garlic permeates the kitchen, fry the pork belly pieces. Then add the sliced mushrooms and continue frying until fragrant. Add the fish stock and the dried scallops. Cook with lid covered for a few minutes.
3. Add the can stewed pork including the preserved oil/sauce within the can. This adds to the flavour. Then add the shredded kai lan and stir fry a little before again covering the lid to allow the vegetables to soften a little.
4. Once you have softened the kai lan, you can add the bee hoon. Mix and combine the ingredients with a food tong and ensure that the ingredients are well mixed. You may wish to add light soy sauce if you like, but I thought the flavour from the stewed pork and the mini scallops was more than sufficient. Once cooked, serve.
They have become the unlikeliest of friends, meeting once a week every Saturday morning as they get jostled together and acquainted in the dirty and grimy vegetable stall baskets reserved only for customers. It’s always a bumpy and bruise-full meeting at first, as they are slotted into plastic bags and then heap together with other vegetables.
Then somewhere throughout the week, they are reacquainted again, this time washed and chopped, and all ready to be boiled in a pot with chicken bones and a slice of dried cuttlefish. The end result is often a thick beautiful broth of nutritious goodness.
The lotus root and the radish, uniquely different in their taste, but when brought together in a soup, just makes so much sense. It’s a great confinement soup as well for new mummies, if you wish, you can leave out the cuttlefish and even the sea salt. Just have it plain and it would still be full of flavour.
* please note that I have included amazon affiliate links to the products I use in my recipes, so check them out if you wish to support me, but don’t feel obligated though.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 large or 2 medium tubes of Lotus Root*try getting short rounded cylinders* 1 pc Radish *medium size* 1 pc Chicken carcass *bones* 1 half dried Cuttlefish Sea salt
Method
1. Wash then peel off the outer layers of the lotus root and radish. Then chop into smallish bite-sized pieces for the radish, and for the lotus root, just thin half a centimeter slices will do. This will ensure that the flavour is maximized.
2. Put the chicken carcass (whole) into the steel pot of the thermal cooker and a piece of cuttlefish *optional for newbie mummies* and sea salt to taste. We usually don’t take so much salt in our soups so maybe a teaspoon or less is sufficient. Also, if your chicken bones are frozen, you can either place it frozen in the pot or defrost it. I usually don’t bother defrosting if I am gonna boil it anyway.
3. After all the dry ingredients, vegetables and bones are placed in the pot, add about 1 litre of boiling water and turn on high heat for about 15-20 minutes and when that is done, place the pot into the thermal cooker. The soup should be delicious and ready by the time you get home from work. Just right for dinner.
“僵尸肉” as my mobile phone’s Chinese hanyupinyin text input tells me, and then my friends on Facebook tells me that the Chinese words were all wrong (Ok, so my Chinese give back my primary school teacher already).
I tried searching for the right words in Chinese, but I guess after a while, that was immaterial. What’s most important is how to make it awesome, and I think I have the perfect recipe.
The ginger must be shredded into really thin strips. You generally want them sliced thin because you would want to make sure they are crispy when you eat it later. The ginger is fried in a combination of sesame seed and olive oil. It just tastes better when you eat the dish with lots of ginger. I cooked the ginger strips in a small clay-pot because the heat is more evenly distributed than if it were cooked in a regular metal pot. Furthermore doesn’t burn so easily either. Pork with shredded ginger is also a very good confinement food for new mothers.
Recipe
Ingredients
250 grams lean pork
4-5 inches young ginger
4-5 tbsp sesame seed oil
4-5 tbsp olive oil
4-5 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
White pepper
Method
1. Shred the ginger into thin strips. Meanwhile, heat the sesame and olive oil in a mini clay-pot and make sure the oil is hot before putting the ginger in to cook.
2. While the ginger is frying, slice the lean pork and allow it to marinate in the light soy sauce and white pepper. You can powder the pepper as much as you wish. Mix the pork well. You can opt to slice the pork first before frying the ginger, the choice is yours. The pork should be sliced as thinly as possible to allow for quick cooking.
3. Once the ginger turns slightly crispy, add the marinated pork into the mini clay-pot to fry. Make sure the pork changes colour to a whitish colour before adding the dark soy sauce. This is to ensure that the pork is well cooked prior to the adding of the dark soy sauce.
4. Best to cook over medium or low heat so that the pork doesn’t become too tough. Once ready serve with steam rice.
Bon Appetit!
Fry ginger first.
Fry pork till whitish colour.
Add dark soy sauce only when pork is nicely cooked.
Wifey asked me what was for dinner tonight and all I had in the fridge was this Sea Bass, and I declared, “Thai-style Steam Sea Bass”. She cringed at the sound of “Thai-style..” and understandably so, I guess we have been eating quite a lot of Thai-style Sea Bass or Pla Neung Manao and she is beginning to think that my cooking skills are severely limited.
So I decided that I would put her out of her misery and do the Sea Bass differently this time around. I remember a simpler way of cooking Sea Bass would be to just steam it with sliced ginger and spring onions drizzled with light soy sauce.
I found this really good video by this Hong Kong Chef Andy Chu and I thought this guy speaks like me. So just imagine that it was me that is preparing this dish, and follow the video if you have a problem listening to instructions.
Recipe
Ingredients:
1 whole Sea Bass *descaled, gutted*
1 stalk Spring Onion
3 inches Ginger
Light Soy Sauce
Method:
1. Sliced Ginger, and chopped the spring onion in the same way as Andy does it. Line the plate where you are steaming the fish. Then placed the Sea Bass on top of the ingredients.
2. Steam the Sea Bass for 7-10 minutes under high heat. I don’t use the kind of steamer that Andy uses, and my pot with lid works the same as well. Once Sea Bass is fully steamed, shred finely ginger and spring onions and then place it on the top of the fish.
3. Boil a pot of oil till very hot and then drizzle it over the top of the fish. Drizzle light soy sauce over the fish for taste and shine.
The ubiquitous french toast, now existing everywhere across the island. It is an almost existential experience as we eat, we are also one in our experience.
Here’s my quick and dirty rendition of the classic french toast. Simple, and easy to make. No great mysterious ingredient, just everyday items you would find in your well-stocked kitchen.
The recipe makes for two slices of french toast, and if you wanna save money and make another two, you might as well be pushing it. Best recommendation is to double the portion of ingredients.
Nevertheless, I tried to push it. Double the output with the same input of ingredients. Kind of sound like any government’s push for productivity. Or management’s desire to derive more from using the same factors of production.
That said, there was no evil intention here I assure you. The recipe makes two slices of french toast for one person, and there was just enough mixture leftover. Not wanting to waste it, I decided to make two additional toasts. But the after effects is just terrible. The two best toasts were the first two.
Case in point. Don’t be stingy.
For those of you that need to have visuals, here’s a pretty good YouTube video to glean off.
How to Make Quick French Toast:
Ignore her and follow my recipe.
Recipe
Ingredients:
1 egg
1/4 cup of milk
2 slices of any kind of bread
1 tbsp butter
2 tsp dark brown sugar
Method:
1. Break the egg into a mixing bowl and whisk slightly with a fork. Add a quarter cup of milk and continue whisking.
2. Once the mixture is ready, dip the bread slices into the mixture, and soak it for a few seconds.
3. The butter in the pan must be on low fire, make sure it doesn’t burn. Place the slices in the pan and let it cook. It should brown like the picture above and you can eat.
4. With the dark brown sugar, mix with some hot water until it becomes a thick sugar syrup. Drizzle over the toast and it is fantastic.
One of my favourite meat dishes which I grew up eating when we had a maid servant who was Singaporean. I used to call her Ah Soh, and it seems that was a sign of respect. Anyway, it was much later that I realized the term of reference was what my parents called her. I should have used some more polite term.
Anyway she was an excellent cook and would whip up local delicacies some of which I would refer to as our heritage dishes. I call them “heritage dishes” because if we don’t cook enough like our forefathers do and if we aren’t chefs with a passion for local cuisine, then these dishes might become a recipe most suited for the archives, and labeled as “heritage”. Dishes that our parents and their parents brought from where they came from to our shores.
I don’t know if braised pork belly in soya sauce counts as a heritage dish, but I guess if it can’t be found commonly cooked in the homes anymore, it should count as a heritage dish. For example, the delicious bak kwa is considered heritage because nobody in their right mind would attempt making it at home. I might actually make an attempt though, just to see how tough it is to do so.
So I boiled this huge 漂亮 beautiful pork belly last Saturday and I threw it into the freezer, only to defrost it today for such a time as this – to make braised pork belly in soya sauce. It is quite simple to do actually, and because the pork belly is already cooked, making it now is purely assembling all the ingredients together into the pot. So easy.
Recipe
Ingredients:
Boiled Pork Belly *sliced thinly*
2 Chinese spoons x Dark Soya Sauce
5 cm of Cinnamon stick
1 cup Pork Stock
Handful of mini shitake mushrooms
Method:
1. In a pot of water, put shitake in to boil. After mushrooms are soften, discard water.
2. Add cinnamon stick, pork stock, boiled pork belly, two Chinese spoons full of dark soya sauce. Cover lid of Claypot and boil at low heat, stirring every few minutes to ensure pork slices are covered in sauce.
3. Optional: many cloves of unshelled garlic.
This is my mother-in-law’s recipe. Which I tried to follow but failed miserably because I was busy doing some other things – like paying bills. So multitasking is just another word for distraction. Nuff said.
She cooked this lovely pork belly, boiled and it was just the simplest dish in the world. I dipped it in home-made chilli sauce and it was out of this world. I had to learn and do it.
I asked her in my mixture of pidgin Chinese and deciphered enough to know that it was really the easiest recipe in the world. The only criteria was that the pork belly had to be beautiful or 漂亮. I asked her how to know if it was 漂亮, she said that I would know it when I saw it.
And so, I met the butcher this morning and he offered me what he had left for the day. The slab of pork belly had two nipples on it, and I thought maybe this was what she (MIL) meant by 漂亮.
So I asked the uncle to give me pork belly that was 漂亮, and he proudly said “这个很漂亮!”
I guess since he was the butcher, he can’t be wrong, and so I paid the man $15 (SGD) and the rest was as they say, history.
Recipe
Ingredients:
1 kg of 漂亮 Pork Belly
Sea salt
Method:
1. In a large pot, boil water till boiling. Place pork belly into pot with water covering the meat. With slow fire, boil for at least 45 minutes. After the meat is cooked, turn off the fire and allow it to sit in the pot for another 15 minutes.
2. Take the cooked pork belly and then rub it with sea salt. Allow the meat to cool and then wrap it up in a ziplock bag and throw it into the freezer.
3. You can keep the meat for all kinds of dishes, either sliced and eaten in its own. Or fried with vegetables. The stock can be preserved into plastic containers and used for flavoring for other dishes.
I have never baked chocolate cookies in my whole life, but I decided that I would try out a recipe from some generic US website and see how I can make it my own.
Cookies by right should be sweet, these ones that I made using the US website were a little too sweet like the Subway Cookies. I prefer them less sweet, so I will perhaps reduce the castor sugar by half in my next attempt. Also, I made the mistake of getting chocolate from Cold Storage. The problem is the descriptions of the cooking chocolates that they sold at the supermarket was written as Chocolate Chips. I thought they were until I opened them up for use. They were Chocolate Kisses that was for melting and for use in cooking. Not quite what I wanted.
Phoon Huat is still the best. At least can see what it is that I am buying, and everything in that shop is for baking. Anyway, I made these chocolate cookies following the US website’s cookie recipe and I think it rocks, except that it is a little too sweet for my liking. That said, you might like it. Enjoy.
Recipe:
Ingredients:
1. 1 block 250 grams SCS butter (salted)
2. 1 cup brown sugar (Billington’s from NTUC)
3. 1 cup castor sugar
4. 1 teaspoon baking powder
5. 2 teaspoons hot water
6. 2 eggs (Large ones)
7. 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8. 2 cups chocolate kisses (Cooking Chocolate from Cold Storage)
9. 3 cups all purpose flour (Plain Flour from NTUC)
Method:
1. Cream butter, brown sugar and castor sugar
2. Mix baking powder in a bowl with hot water, then pour into mixture, mix at low speed.
3. Add one egg, mix then add the other egg, mix.
4. Add vanilla extract, then mix.
5. Add all purpose flour.
6. Add chocolate chips, then mix.
7. Oven at 180 degrees pre-heated.
8. Place the cookie mixture in dollops on baking tray lined with baking sheet.
9. Bake cookies for 10 minutes. Take out and let it cool.
This is a recipe that I have always wanted to try out and make at home, and today, somehow, I felt the inspiration to do it. So naturally I needed a good recipe that I could follow and try out on my own. Sometimes not everything that you read online is true or makes sense in your own kitchen, but this lady from YouTube “Hot Thai Kitchen” (she’s not that hot) makes a really great Thai style Steam Sea Bass with Garlic and Lime.
I adapted her recipe to the exact measurements, and my wife thinks that it is the best steam fish I have ever prepared and presented. My presentation of steam fish is usually a garbled mesh of ingredients. I only focus on taste, and score very low on presentation.
Here’s the YouTube video to inspire you servant-less cooks to greater heights.
Recipe
Ingredients:
1 whole sea bass 500 grams
3 Tbsp chopped garlic
4 pc Chilli Padi *sliced small*
3 Tbsp Thai Fish Sauce
2 Tbsp Palm Sugar syrup
1/4 cup Lime juice
1 stalk Lemongrass
1/4 cup of Chinese Parsley
Method:
1. Put garlic, chilli, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar syrup in a bowl and mix.
2. Score the sea bass at its thickest side to allow for even cooking. Stuff the belly of the fish with lemongrass.
3. Steam for 10 minutes over boiling water with lid covered.
4. Once done, mix parsley into sauce and pour the sauce over the fish.
5. Serve with steamed rice.
This is my all time favourite local dish. I guess you would know by now that I have a lot of all time favourites. It is okay I supposed since we are Singaporeans. Every local delicacy it seems is an all time favourite with most of us. Anyway, I love Bak Kut Teh and I am always on a lookout for a good Bak Kut Teh stall. To me the one at Prome Road at Balestier rocks. Second in line is the one at Sin Ming Ave. The rest of the Bak Kut Teh stalls that people rave about is just so-so IMHO.
Anyway, so I decided that I would replicate the humble Bak Kut Teh for dinner. A quick search and guess what? Mr Seetoh from Makansutra has already beat me to it and has developed a simple and easy to cook Singapore styled Bak Kut Teh. Enjoy people. If you noticed, I have already wrote a Bak Kut Teh recipe, but I really love this dish, so this time, I decided to try it again, but without the spice packet that I would usually get from NTUC. I want to see if I can make an awesome Bak Kut Teh without “cheating”.
Recipe
Ingredients
400 grams Garlic
50 grams White Peppercorns
1 kg Pork Ribs
1 kg Pork Bones
5 litres of Water
3 tsp of Sea Salt
Method:
1. Par boil the pork ribs, then discard water to get rid of scum. Then boil a fresh pot of water – 5 litres. Add the garlic, (slightly bruised), white peppercorns (slightly cracked and roasted over a pan). Add sea salt.
2. Boil on high heat for 15 minutes, then place the pot into the thermal cooker.
3. When you’re back from work, boil the broth again, and then have a taste test. Adjust with sea salt accordingly. Serve with steam rice.
Braised duck or the teochew like to call it, lo ack (which basically means braised duck). I decided that I would learn and make an awesome braised duck yesterday, and that’s exactly what I did today. Thanks to this awesome braised duck video that I saw on YouTube.
Grandma’s recipes. Totally rocks! I decided that I would adapt her recipe to my preference and style of cooking. I like using the thermal cooker, so my recipe works with the thermal cooker.
Are you ready? Here goes!
Recipe
Ingredients
1. Half a duck *chopped*
2. Galangal or blue ginger – 6-7 slices
3. Raw sugar – 4 Tbsp
4. 1 cinnamon stick
5. Dark soy sauce *tai hua brand, standard quality* small bottle can liao
6. 250 ml of water.
Method:
1. Salt the duck lightly and then wash it away. I skipped this step because I found it quite dumb. Plus I didn’t want to waste salt.
2. Heat the sugar in a wok until it turns brown. Make sure it doesn’t burn. So moderating the fire is critical.
3. Dump the pieces of duck into the work and allow the sugar to coat the duck. The grandma video say 8 Tbsp of sugar. I think it is too much, so I used half.
4. After you roughly got some sticky sugar onto the duck, you then add half a bottle of dark soy sauce. Don’t go and buy the big bottle and add half a bottle. It is not the same Ok?
5. Add the sliced blue ginger into the pot. If you don’t like the ducky smell, add more ginger. Or par boil the duck first.
6. Add the cinnamon stick. Then add water. Adjust accordingly.
7. Boil at high heat for at least 15 minutes, then dump the pot into the thermal cooker and allow it to slow cook for at least throughout the day or overnight. Up to you.
I realized while trying to pen down this recipe that there was no way of phrasing this delicacy without murdering the name of the dish. Maybe not murder but definitely it would be a herculean challenge to describe the name in just one language alone or one that everyone would understand.
If I said Kiam Chye Arc, you might think it was a monument of some sort. Or salted mustard duck soup and it might be a tad too literal for some. Furthermore, it might not bring to mind that old familiarity. Or if I were to call it 咸菜鸭, you might wonder why I am writing this recipe in English. Either way it would be best to come to a compromise of terms. So Kiam Chye Duck it is then.
Anyway, this is my first time trying this recipe and according to the law of trying a recipe for the first time, I should really hammer in the works but yet not cloud the original intention of the dish. You got to taste the salted mustard, the indelible flavour of the duck and the sourness of the tomatoes and sour plums. Everyone else in this quintessential Macbeth broth is secondary. Now all you need is a little lightning, thunder and rain and it would be perfect.
Recipe
Ingredients
1. 1 kg or Half a duck *buy from wet market is cheaper*
2. 500 grams of Kiam Chye aka salted mustard
3. Bunch of garlic.
4. 100 grams of ginger *sliced*
5. 4 sour plums *Chinese preserved plums*
6. 3 medium Tomatoes
Method
1. Par boil the chopped duck pieces for about 5 minutes. Discard the water. This is to get rid of scum as duck meat tends to have lots of that. Also it is very oily, so best to boil twice and discard the water.
2. Place the Kiam Chye leaf by leaf into the pot. Cut tomatoes into quarts and dump them in. Dump the garlic in the pot and the sour plums. Dump the sliced ginger into the pot. Once they are all in the pot, make sure the water covers the ingredients.
3. Boil the ingredients in high heat for 15 minutes before putting the pot into the thermal cooker to slowly braise the meat further. By evening it would be ready and delicious.
My all time favourite (I realized I have a lot of favourites!) Bak Kut Teh – home cooked, and very easy to do actually. These days with the easy herbs spice sachets available at NTUC supermarkets, you have no reason not to try it out.
My only issue with these herbs spices is the taste at the end of the day. Sometimes some brands the taste cannot make it. By far red man brand from phoon huat is the best. The blend and taste is really tok kong. So I couldn’t get to phoon huat that day and so I settled for this other brand Seah’s something-something from ntuc.
The taste is not too bad just that I may have added too much garlic perhaps. But it’s so so easy to make. Try it.
Recipe
Ingredients
1. 500 grams of pork ribs *ask the butcher to give you the type for making bak kut teh.*
2. 1 packet of spices *Seah’s*
3. A bunch of white peppercorns.
4. A bunch of garlic 6-7 pieces.
Method
1. Boil a pot of water. Par boil the ribs for about 5 minutes and discard water to remove the scum. Add a fresh container of water. Then continue boiling the pork ribs in the new water.
2. Add the sachet of bak kut teh spices. Add white peppercorns and garlic pieces. You may leave the skins on.
3. Boil for 15 minutes at high heat. Off the fire and place pot of soup into thermal cooker to allow it to continue cooking in the vacuum pot.
4. By evening it would be perfect. Succulent, meat falling off the bone. I still prefer red man bak kut teh spices though. Much nicer.
I have always wanted to cook Rendang. But until now, I never had a good reason to try it nor a good recipe either. We invited some friends over for National Day dinner at our home and naturally I wanted to impress. To do that, I intended to cook a variety of foods to show off my skills. A little bit of Indian cuisine, a little bit of Indonesian and the evening’s menu would be somewhat complete. The only problem now is I have never cooked Rendang before. So this is going to be a little challenging.
Anyway, I already know Mdm Nair’s Fish Curry, so that alone would rock the socks off my friends, that I am very confident. The problem now is to find a recipe for Beef Rendang that would also do the same. A quick look on Google, and I found what would become one of my frequent-cooked recipes. Mrs Russell Wong’s Beef Rendang recipe. The pictures simply ooze flavour and desire. I knew then, deep in my heart, that this recipe would be a keeper. It will definitely make my recipe book.
So I found the recipe on this guy’s food blog, his name is Marc don’t know what, don’t know what. The name’s not really that important as the recipe. Personally I think he puts in a lot of effort into his blog posts, so the only decent thing to do is to acknowledge it and put a link to his site. That would only be the fair thing to do.
So instead of blaring out all the gory details, here’s the link to his site, and you can go discover the story yourselves. Apparently he got the recipe from the wife of Russell Wong (famous Singaporean photographer) and how his wife swears by the recipe. Okay, maybe she didn’t swear, but she might have?
http://norecipes.com/recipe/beef-rendang-recipe/
I take it that you have already tried the recipe and cooked that awesome Beef Rendang. If you saw my ugly photo above, you would probably see something like that as well if you cooked it. The recipe so totally rocks. Delicious, flavourful and not too sweet or salty. Just perfect. I got all my ingredients from NTUC Finest (Bishan) and I must also say, they have everything you would need to make a fabulous Beef Rendang.
This is the invention that I have been waiting for all my life and it is finally here. The Rotimatic. The name in and of itself already conjures images of freshly baked unleavened breads in the comforts of your igloo. Yes, it is possible to use the Rotimatic in an igloo, that’s if you have a power-socket built in. Power-sockets aside, this is one mean unleavened bread machine. The prata man would be proud. So the machine does exactly what it says it would do, and that’s to make roti (unleavened bread).
I can’t imagine why would anyone want to create a machine like this, unless they are catering to the second most eaten food in the world next to rice. Of course the market potential in India alone would be phenomenal and more than reason enough to market and produce for. But these guys are probably eyeing a worldwide market takeover of epic proportions. They want to overtake the rice cooker. And from the looks of it, they just might be able to take up some market share and pinch the rice cooker manufacturers where it hurts.
Here’s a rather sexy video of the Rotimatic in action. Try not to drool.
If you stayed all the way to the end of the video, good for you. I gave up when the lady came on to give the pep talk. If you know where I can get my hands on one, please let me know.
The imagery of how the chef cooked the local delicacy was seared in my memory like a fillet of salmon on a hot griddle. It was undoubtedly any gastronomer’s journey to prepare this dish, like a rite of passage for all aspiring Singaporean cooks and that’s none other than our very own Singapore-styled Chilli Crab. I too decided on that journey recently.
I was at NTUC just taking a walk and wondering at some dinner options. I’m kind of sick of food courts and their exorbitant amounts of MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) and whatever it is that they introduce into the flavours of their dishes. There’s often a dry raspy feeling in the throat and you almost always know that you have just been MSG-ed. No wonder the dubious moniker – Many Sick Gourmets. I was determined to make my own dinner that night.
And there they were all gleaming in their shiny-shell glories. I knew this is the night. I was going to make them mine. But it was a little difficult getting to them at first because there were these foreign talents standing on either side of where the crabs were displayed. They appeared to be browsing, like window shopping. The Indian guys were all discussing dinner options – what to buy; what not to buy. They looked largely undecided with their wide-eyed bewildered expressions. “Great.” I thought, and the aunties on my left were looking rather disinterested, poking at the squids on display as if to test if they were fresh. This was my only chance, I thought and literally threw myself forward and wedged in between them.
Flanked by two of the world’s most populus nations represented here at the seafood section, I felt that I had to grab the opportunity before it all goes away. The mud crabs were looking gloriously fresh, like as if they just stepped out of their sand dunes for a sun-tan, minding their own business and next thing you know they are congregating on ice trays far far away from home. There were a few large ones, perfect for chilli crabs. I made sure i took enough for what I wanted to do. Two mud crabs with a total weight of one point one kilograms. Perfect.
The Chinese ladies on my left started muttering to themselves speaking in their native tongue. “Hey.. look, that man’s buying crabs.. Oh! Look how large they are! Maybe we should buy them as well.. But oh! He’s taking all the big ones..” Needless to say, I was pleased to say the least. The Indian guys on my right were still discussing and still looked undecided. Oh well. No prizes for taking your time dudes.
Preparing chilli crab is just about as difficult as making ice cubes in a tray. It’s pretty much a no-brainer as there are only so many things that could go wrong in the preparation. Like for example, you forgot to pay your monthly gas utility bills and thus there was no gas. Things like that. But other things remaining constant, preparation is a walk in the park. Like I always say. If I can cook, you can cook too.
The other ingredients for the preparation of this particular recipe requires large white onions. These are the kind of onions that they use to cook French Onion Soup. Don’t ask me why they aren’t called French Onions at the shop. I am using three large white onions and four pieces of garlic. Two inches of ginger, and four large red chillis. I couldn’t find red chilli padis at the NTUC as they only had the green ones which weren’t nice. But chilli padis would definitely give it more kick.
A small square of Belachan, which is a fermented mixture of tiny seafoods like shrimps, squids and other microbiotic creatures, is needed. Some background on Belachan. Apparently some fisherman in Malaysia once found a puddle of prawns and squids rotting with maggots and there was an awful stench coming out from it. Undaunted by the smell, he brought it back home and cooked it for the family and ironically they loved it. In fact their food was so fragrant that the neighbours wanted to know what secret ingredient that they were using that night. And that kind of got him thinking that this could be a multi-million dollar business – selling rotting carcasses of tiny sea creatures to the world. Brilliant!
I use canned tomato paste and tomato puree as they offer a nicer texture to the taste of the chilli crab. Less of the artificial flavouring that you would get if you dumped three bottles of Maggi Tomato Sauce as some are fond of doing. It’s too much salt I think. You can choose from any of the brands but personally I think Hunt’s is a good brand. So all that’s left is basically the way of doing this. This is where i will use my trusty kenwood food processor to help me in the preparation. If you don’t have one of these, you should really consider getting one. It can chop, cut, dice, mash. Whatever you want.
Firstly put in the white onions, blend it, then put in the garlic, ginger and chillis.. continue to blend until it’s a pulpy texture..
Then chop and wash the mud crabs, breaking them into pincers, and mids.. reserving the eggs. (if any)
After this, you’re ready. Fire up the wok with about five tablespoons of oil. Once heated, spoon the blended paste to fry till fragrant. Then add in the Belachan and a bowl of water. After which you add in the tomato paste and puree and continue frying. Add in a tablespoon of light soy sauce. Once that’s done, you can throw (literally) the crabs into the wok and fry.
This is where you should also add in three tablespoons of Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu aka chinese cooking wine. Throw on the lid and let the spicyness of the mixture fuse with the juicy freshness of the crabs. Then let it simmer for about five minutes and you are just about done. Crack in an egg or two and a little parley for garnishing. Easy!
This is a recipe that I learnt from my friend Andrew Lum. Simple, exotic and delicious. I finished all 170 grams of the spaghetti and my tummy is still rumbling. I think I must be very hungry, or the pasta is really yummy. I suspect it is the latter. Simple to prepare and great for gatherings, you can prepare this pasta in less than 15 minutes. Of course, you need to know what you are doing in order to meet the 15 minute timing. But no worries, can one.
The only problem I find with this particular recipe is the availability of the Anchovy. I use canned Anchovy from Cold Storage, and it seems that NTUC, even Finest, don’t really sell the preserved fish. They sell all kinds of Sardines, Tuna, but somehow I can’t seem to find the Anchovy. Ok, that said, maybe I didn’t try hard enough. Maybe I should also ask someone at the store? I admit that I am the if-I-can’t-find-it-at-the-store-it-is-likely-to-be-sold-out type of shopper. Either that or I don’t bother to ask. Okay, I am lazy.
1 can Anchovy Fillets in Extra Virgin Olive Oil (50 grams) *Waitrose brand from Cold Storage*
1 Egg *raw*
5 Chilli Padi *reduced the chillis if you can’t take the heat*
1 Punnet Cherry Tomatoes *sliced*
1 Box Sweet Basil leaves
Parmesan Cheese
Method
1. Boil a pot of water. Add oil and sea salt. How much depends on yourself. Add pasta in the pot once the water is boiling. Note the number of minutes that is needed to cook the pasta to al dente, this is usually indicated on the packaging of the Barilla Pasta box. If you want it a little softer, then you cook it a minute of two longer.
2. For some folks, they sometimes complain that the pasta noodles have an odd smell. I don’t have that problem. Maybe it might be a case of the quality of pasta? Who knows.
3. Once pasta is cooked, drain the pasta and immediately add the raw egg, chilli padi and anchovies (mashed). Mix thoroughly, and allow the egg to coat the hot pasta. This will also partly cook the egg. The egg acts like a sauce in a way. Add sliced cherry tomatoes and sweet basil and give it a good mix.
There comes a time in the extended new dawn that there isn’t much to be afraid of anymore, where vampires and werewolves are just a figment of ingenious creative writing and gnomes and goblins become neighbours. There was no prodding or shoving of any kind this morning and I naturally got up and decided that there could be a greater purpose today than what it was originally intended for.
Time to make my soup, and perhaps a little more.
Today’s complicated soup of the day (just to prove that I am capable of complicated soups that still taste decent and nice), is none other than my easy as ABC soup, but with a little more pizzazz. So a complicated soup like this, would mean something like an ABCDEFG soup. I personally think that this soup has got great potential. It carries with it all the ingredients that came from near and far, and their masters’ blessings, hopes and understanding. These ingredients would typically hold its own weight, and be staple where they may come from. Carrots from Australia, Scallops from the sea of Japan, snowflakes from the top of the Himalayan ranges near the border. Yes, very exotic.
Ingredients that have no known origins, (actually I know where most of them came from) but where exactly, that is immaterial. What’s most important is that everyone is represented here in this huge pot, all ready to blend together and become one soup. So is it really a complicated soup then? Or is it really just a collation of many varied ingredients with distinct characteristics that would wow even the richest sheik or the wealthiest tycoon? Perhaps.
Recipe
Ingredients
200-250 grams of Pork Ribs *frozen or thawed – it doesn’t matter*
2 Carrots *cubed*
1 Sweet Corn *chopped*
1 Medium Yello Onion *sliced*
5 Dried Scallops (Japanese)
5 Dried Red Dates
1 handful of Wolfberries
Method:
1. Par boil the pork ribs and then discard the water. Boil a fresh pot of water, add all the ingredients and bring to an intense boil.
2. Once boiled for 15 minutes. The soup is ready for the thermal cooker.
My romance with Indian food is like an endless bollywood dance. One day, when I have my own food travel show, I will visit India. Maybe my first stop in India would be Kerala. I heard that it is the place for all kinds of spices, kind of like a spice garden. It is like spice capital of India where traders from all around would gather and peddle their wares. I can imagine the marketplace to be perfumed with the scent of exotic spices.
But for now, I will just have to be content with what I smell at the Mama store, or the supermarket.
Anyway, I said all that to say that I love fish curry. The best fish curry in my humble opinion is the one that my friend Mdm Nair taught me. I still remember that Saturday morning in a crowded room with neighbourhood aunties and maids, she revealed her recipe for greatness. The fish curry was fabulous. Since those early days, I have been making Mdm Nair’s Fish Curry much to the delight of my Indian friends who tasted it. They say that it has a very Indian taste, whatever that means.
Where to shop?
The Mama’s Store has everything. The spices, the vegetables, everything is there except for the fish. As for the fish, you can get it at the wet market, or supermarket.
Recipe
Ingredients
Whole Fish (Angoli) 1 pc, 1 kg – (or you can use stingray, I prefer that.)
Red Chilli Paste 3 tbsp
Fish Masala Powder (Baba’s Brand) 6 tbsp
Mixed Spices (Brarath Brand) 2 tbsp
Ladies Fingers 10 pcs
Beef Tomatoes 4 pcs
Onions (sliced) 2 bulbs
Garlic (sliced) 4 bulbs
Fresh Green Chilli (sliced, seeds out) 1 pc
Tomato Puree (Gilda Brand) 1 can
Tamarind (Assam) 1 packet – (you can now get a smaller packet size, in which case it will be the whole portion.)
Carnation Milk 1 can – (I don’t really use that, so that’s optional.)
Curry Leaves 1 sprig
Salt
Oil
To Marinate:
1. Salt the fish for at least half an hour. Then wash and cut the fish into pieces. Mixed 03 tablespoons (tbsp) red chilli paste and 02 tbsp fish masala powder. Add a bit of salt and mixed with fish.
2. Take half packet of the tamarind and soak in half a bowl (5 cups) of water for half an hour.
3. Strain the tamarind and throw away the seeds. Put the tamarind water in a bowl and add 04 tbsp of fish masala powder, 03 garlic and 01 fresh green chilli and a bit of salt and stir.
Method:
1. Heat up the pan with oil. Fry ladies fingers till light brown and keep aside. Add mixed spices (02 tbsp), onions (chopped), 1 garlic (sliced), curry leaves till light brown and add tomatoes and fry till tomatoes are soft. Add the tamarind water with masala together with the earlier ingredients and stir. Close the lid until it boils.
2. Add ladies fingers, 1 tbsp of tomato puree and fish. Then add carnation milk (to thicken the curry). Leave for 5 minutes. Serve with white rice or Korean Instant Noodles.
The wifey broke my sleep and woke me up to the new dawn. She mumbled some words to which I had to say a “har?”. Maybe my brain is slow at processing slur words. So I asked her again, and it was then that I realized that she wanted me to cook one of my fabulous soups *shines fingernails*.
Alright, that shouldn’t be a problem, I thought to myself, making soups in the wee hours of the morning has now become my specialty. The only hurdle between me and making soup these days is probably the waking up part. It has been been a challenge since I got rid of that ridiculous cock-crowing ringtone which apparently irritated the entire population in my cluster; it also irritated my wife as well. So the ringtone had to go. Now in its place is this very zen and space-like ringtone named neon.
It’s not the John Mayer kind of neon with his signature slap and pluck style of guitar playing. But it was more like a vibrating double-stringed instrument sounding more like a cricket’s mating call. Very alien. Unfortunately it was also quite soft and good for if you wanted to continue to sleep.
“I already placed the black chicken in the sink.” came the voice in my semi-state of galactical subconsciousness. It was as if the voice transcended space and time to speak to me. “wake up lah.” My wife slapped my shoulder. Just as quickly my subconscious mind returned to full consciousness albeit my eyes still glued-closed due to excessive secretion of the tear duct (heaty?).
I peered into my mobile phone and it was just nice, one minute before neon; one minute before the new dawn. Now my quest can begin.
So to make black chicken soup the quick and dirty way, you really need a packet of dun ji tang herbs from the supermarket. This is the proven method of making the delicious soup. But the problem now is I am all out of the herbs! Jialat!
I really need to quickly summon my creative culinary powers in order to make sense of this newfound dilemma. Thankfully I always keep a stash of my favorite generic condiments somewhere, always ready to be deployed in any crisis of a lack of dun ji tang herbs.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 bottles of Brand’s Essence of Chicken
5 pieces of Japanese dried scallops
5 pieces of dried red dates
25 pieces of wolfberry seeds
Method
1. Par boil the chicken pieces to get rid of the scum.
2. Add in new water (not newater) and begin boiling. Add the chicken essence. Dump the condiments into the pot and close the lid.
3. After boiling for 10 minutes, place the pot into the thermal cooker and walk away. Serve at night when you return from work.
I have always thought that there are only three types of sauces for pastas and never really bothered to explore beyond these three types. To me, that’s it, there is no need for another type, or possibly could be another type, everything is sort of encapsulated in these three sauce base types.
First up, Olive Oil based sauces. These are really simple, healthy (debatable, it’s oil after all) and easy to prepare. Except that you can’t really drizzle knife brand cooking oil (you could actually) all over your pasta, I can guarantee you that it doesn’t and shouldn’t taste all that great. But if you’re sort of choices and you only have knife brand cooking oil to drizzle over your pasta, well then I would strongly encourage you to skip the meal for the day. Nothing is more sacrilegious than to drizzle cooking oil over pasta. I can’t bring myself to do that.
With Olive Oil based sauces, you can literally allow your mind to run freely as far as the rings of Saturn or the diminutive Pluto. You can whip up a mean and green pesto herb sauce, or you could infuse your olive oil (extra virgin is best!) with items like chilli, garlic or fresh garden herbs. These will definitely create a wicked flavour for your pasta. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is best drizzled and not cooked. So please don’t cook your olive oil and then wonder why the oil doesn’t taste as nice as when you had it at some respectable Italian Pasta place.
Next we have Tomato based sauces. So these are your Marinara sauces, your tomato based sauce in a convenient glass bottle that you can easily find in the supermarket. It doesn’t matter if they call it some fanciful name, if it is tomato based, then it is a bona-fide tomato based sauce. All the Italian names are saying the same things as you are, which basically means, tomato based sauce (Ok, I am generalising. But you get my point right?).
Again, with tomato based sauces, you can literally examine and study the varied concoctions that have been developed in the R&D labs of the food laboratory to capture your discerning palate. You can add garlic, chilli, mushrooms, whatever it is that you so desire. The best thing is, it just might work. I like my tomato based sauces in a particular way, so I usually don’t do the take out from the supermarket shelf and strongly discourage anyone that is intending to cook their own pasta to do that. It’s a total cop out to just buy the sauce off the shelf. You have to make it like the guys in Italy do, from scratch, if not, then semi-scratch.
Thirdly, the cream based sauce. This is such a lovely and easy sauce to prepare. Double or heavy cream, intermixed with full cream milk, and you have a very nice creamy liquid texture for the sauce. You can then go on to make the best and more delicious carbonara sauce in the whole world. That’s it. There is no mystery to it. And of course if you like your sauce with all those varied condiments added, infused or mixed into it. There is sure to be a flavour that you would love to pick off the shelves.
However, as an avid cooker of foods. I would strongly discourage you from the supermarket cop out. Try to make the sauce yourself, it would be trial and error but for the most part of it and especially when you have developed your own special blend of cream based sauce, you can literally create magic in the kitchen just like the professionals at the three michelin star restaurant.
Last but not least, and this is a sauce that I recently found out that could be used as a sauce. I basically use the sauce in my chicken stew (Coq Au Vin) to be my sauce for my pasta. I found that Penne works really well with the chicken stew. It’s odd really, but it worked and everyone I know loved it. It is a little unorthodox but heck it, if my son loves it, then I guess it can be done. If you want to try this, you can check out my Coq Au Vin recipe and basically throw pasta into the sauce and you have a very lovely sauce.
Day four of the new dawn. I could hear the crackling of thunder not too far away. When I looked out of the window, flashes of lightning lighted the twilight sky. It’s gonna be a good day today. I have always loved raindrops on the window of my Aircon bus.
Good days therefore deserves a good pot of soup. I decided that Herbal Black Chicken Soup would really make the day even more special. Don’t worry, baby won’t be partaking in this soup. I will be making plain porridge with minced pork and marmite for him. I know he sure like wan.
So just nice the black chicken would be so totally perfect for dinner. The wife even asked for a bowl when she returns home. I bought the herbs the day before at NTUC and I was sure the end result would be a perfect bowl of soup.
I was right.
Where I shop?
I got my black chicken from the wet market. There is something more fresh about buying fresh meats from the wet market. Okay, I needed to say that. Of course if there wasn’t a wet market around where I lived, I would have gone in search of one. Fresh meats are more fresh at the wet market (myth#1).
The herbs I got from NTUC. Once I heard from a friend that her child asked her..
Child: “mama, is there a giant in the supermarket?”
My friend thought to herself and polled Facebook for an answer on how to reply the child.
Me being the good-hearted person replied..
Me: “that’s not a problem, wait till she asks you if there is a National Trade Union Congress in the supermarket. That would require much more explanation.”
Okay, that was a lame supermarket joke.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 Black Chicken chopped into 4 parts
1 Packet of Dun Ji Tang herbs
2 bottles of Brands Essence of chicken
Method
1. Dump (I love the word!) the black chicken into the pot. Par boil it and then discard the water. Fill it up again.
2. Dump the herbs into the pot. Turn high heat and boil (bubbling) for 15 minutes. Switch off and load the pot into the thermal cooker.
This is my second time eating at this nonya food establishment, if I can call it that. My first impression of it was that they were more like fast food, quick nonya peranakan eats for the modern gourmand in a hurry. Perhaps that’s the niche that they set themselves to serve.
Their meals are cooked communally in the pot with the sides cooked at the sides (pun intended). It’s actually a very open and simple set up. The eatery whips up traditional peranakan favourites in a matter of minutes. In fact they have managed to piecemeal the entire preparation process to the critical five minutes. That’s about as much time anybody on a tight lunch hour would give any one eatery. It’s like make it in five minutes if you want me to patronize your stall again. Ironically peranakan cuisine is not known to be associated with quickness or smart culinary short cuts.
Most of their foods are typically cooked and stewed over long periods. So to have it prepared in five minutes, something’s gotta give.
In this case, I suspect it’s the quality. But even more interestingly they have somehow managed to ensure that that was not compromised. So it is nice to know that they care about their foods as much as they cared about their bottom-line.
I had their Ayam Buak Keluak which is a traditional favourite that is synonymous with peranakan cuisine. Do this right and you can assume that everything else in the shop will carry that old familiar flavour. The chicken is of course well cooked but not to my liking which kind of shows the level of skill of the cook. The Buak Keluak was excellent. I don’t remember the taste so vividly with the other peranakan restaurants but O’nya has set the standard for me. Everything else is forgivable. Ha! All in, they have managed to retain the flavour of peranakan cuisine, and that is a good thing.
There’s one outlet at Tampines Mall that I went with colleagues. I think I might go there again to try something else. Maybe the rendang.
Probably one of the best Dim Sum (Cantonese styled light meals) places – suddenly realized I have no proper expression for Dim Sum in English – in Tampines. Personally I think better than some famous Dim Sum restaurants in town. Speaking of which there was one terrible one that I do not care to mention the name, fwah 侠 level 9 terrible.
I had a tough time reconciling myself to the fact that they were once a leader in dim sum, with people queuing up to satisfy their cravings. Maybe that was also one of the reasons why they closed down in town and relocated themselves on top of a hill (which I don’t care to mention either) and then subsequently disappeared to I don’t know where. Very sad.
This dim sum place however, is located at a heartland coffee shop at Tampines Street 41 -Blk 419. The style of the dim sum reminds me of old Hong Kong. Yes, it’s that good. Their variety is limited, but they do well for their dim sum standards.
Siew mai, har gao, pai kuat are a must order. Glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves – must order two (pun intended). Chee cheong fun with char siew and char siew bao are also a must order. The rest I shall leave you to explore.
I don’t remember the stall name, but it’s unmistakable. You have got to be a topoking to not be able to find the place. I appended a map just in case.
Go try it. You won’t regret it. And oh, did I mention that it is also very affordable (read: cheap)?
Day three of the new dawn. I am tired. My lifeforce seems to have been zapped by some mysterious incubus. Either that or I am still riling over the fact that baby didn’t like my black bean porridge that I made yesterday.
Maybe he wasn’t accustomed to the taste as yet; maybe it was his first time trying it. I have come to realize that kids take a while to like something. It was the same experience with ice cream. At first he didn’t like it. Now he does.
So maybe one day he will develop a penchant for my black bean soup. I spent quite a bit of time cooking his porridge last night, and used quite a bit of the soup to cook it as well. *Grr* I think he kind of humored me a little and ate some at the beginning but I guess the taste was too foreign for his liking.
So today, I decided that I would make ABC soup again. Actually I wanted to make chicken soup, but since I already started defrosting the ribs last night by mistake – I decided to heck it. Chicken soup can be for tomorrow. Or maybe tomorrow can be lotus root, peanut and pork ribs soup. Hmmm..
I also realize by now that I may have overbought my ingredients for the week’s cooking rituals. There is no way that I can finish cooking all that I bought for the week, by the end of the week. I need to buy less. I also realize that it is near impossible to cook for baby without eventually cooking the same stuff for myself. Ok, I admit I have been lazy.
If you want my recipe for my ABC soup. You can check my post soup for three. Baby loves ABC soup.
Day two of the new dawn. Still no twilight vampires or werewolves. I got up early to make my soup of the day. The very Chinese Black Bean, Radish and Pork Ribs Soup. This should be good. I can already imagine how it would and should taste like by tonight. The tenderising effect of the thermal cooker is not to be discounted. I mean what goes on within the pot is just simply amazing. The pork ribs will be tender, the vegetables soft and everyone just so delicious.
I usually don’t salt my soup when cooking them, just so as not to complicate the natural flavours of the ingredients. There must always be clarity in whatever soup we do. So when the soup is ready to be consumed, I must be able to tell the ingredients apart upon tasting, most importantly I must be able to enjoy my soup. Salt tends to confuse our tastebuds. That said, I usually add a pinch of sea salt just before serving for that little bit of taste. Like her friend garlic, salt can only be servant to the dish, but never a master – that’s only if you aren’t making salt-baked chicken.
So I decided that I would try out my own rendition of this classic soup. I tried searching for a video on YouTube using the keywords “black beans and pork ribs” – but to no avail. It seems that Asian cooks aren’t so keen on taking videos of their cooking as compared to some really awful videos of cooking processes. Those are not cooking demonstrations IMHO – they are more like sanctifying rituals of epic proportions. One moment is do this, set apart that, next is remove this, reserve that. I mean, how is anyone going to learn how to cook anything if the ingredient list is so technical and most of them sound as if we have to climb a mountain to pluck it.
Practicality and simplicity should be what cooking is all about. Soups should be simple three to four ingredients – that’s it!
Anyway, before I get carried away, my version of the black bean soup is nothing short of simple. Try it!
Recipe
Ingredients
250 grams Black Beans
250 grams Pork Ribs
1 large White Radish
4 Dried Scallops
Method
1. Par boil the pork ribs to remove scum. Slice radish into quarts and dump them into the pot. Then dump all the black beans into the pot as well. Drop 3-4 dried scallops to flavour the soup.
2. Fill the pot with water until all ingredients are covered. Turn on high heat for about 15 minutes. Once the soup is boiling and bubbling, turn off the fire and place the pot in the thermal cooker.
Note:
If you are unsure of how the thermal cooker looks like, I have a photo appended.
Today my colleagues and I went to EAT to eat Bak Chor Mee. We really love eating it at EAT. However, it was not to be so at EAT today when we ate it at EAT. There seemed to be something quite wrong with the EAT BCM noodle master’s powers of estimation.
I asked for BCM but I also wanted to add fish cake, thinking that it was going to be the deep fried fish cake that they sell on the side. I love the EAT deep fried fish cakes by the way, they are excellent, even on their own. The stall lady asked me how much fish cakes I wanted to add and suggested a top up of a dollar. I thought it was fine to add a dollar’s worth of deep fried fish cake.
To my dismay and much disappointment, the fish cake that the noodle master gave me was a mere four slices of the delicacy. I had a shocked when he presented the completed product to me and I could only let out a futile yelp of despair.
I had to portray exactly what $1 of fish cake was worth at EAT or else you might think I was joking and trying to pull a fast one. What you see in the picture above is one dollar’s worth of fish cake. Wow.
Either inflation has swept through Singapore right under my nose or the noodle master had something against customers who liked adding fish cakes to their BCM. Maybe it was against internationally acceptable BCM standards to not have fish cakes added into BCM. Maybe his strict adherence to this rule might have had some manner of impact on his sense of duty in the guild of international noodle masters that caused his deft fingers to show great restraint when scooping the fish cakes into my bowl.
Our favourite soup. I guess it is favourite because it is the only soup that I can remember how to make at the snap of the finger. For the other recipes, I can’t seem to recall for some very strange reason. I could only conclude that this was the soup of the day and that I should therefore cook it. Not such a big decision anyway.
A simple soup or four ingredients of corn, carrot, potatoes and pork ribs. My wife calls it ABC soup but I struggled with that definition. As far as the soup is concerned, it should be abbreviated as PPCC or CCPP or PCCP (you get the idea), so maybe I will refer to my own abbreviation for convenience.
Maybe it is so easy to make that some folks might have said that it was as easy as ABC. Okay, that I agree. It is so easy you could train a monkey to do it.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 ear of Corn
1 large Carrot
3 medium Potatoes
250 grams of lean Pork Ribs
Salt
Method
1. Par boil the pork ribs just so to remove the scum. This is good practice so that you only get the good stuff. Don’t boil too long or you might lose all flavour.
2. Slice carrots, corn and potatoes and then dump it into pot. Fill with water until it covers ingredients. Turn on high heat. Boil for about ten to fifteen minutes with lid on.
3. Then place pot into thermal cooker (no electricity needed) and let it cook for the rest of the day. I use a thermal cooker because the meats are tenderized and the vegetables are sufficiently cooked without disintegrating into the soup. For all my morning soups, I use the thermal cooker. It’s great!
4. When you are about to serve, add salt to taste. Easy!
I have always loved Tiramisu, and I like making it even more. The problem is, I rarely get a chance to do it these days, other things have become more subtly more important and I also always tend to forget how to make it. Even for this recipe, I was struggling to recall the proportions right up to the minute before I actually remembered how to make this Italian “Pick Me Up” cake.
This beautiful no-bake recipe is da bomb. Once you know how I make it, you can also do likewise. If you don’t like it the way I do it, then please feel free to mutate the recipe to whatever configuration you like. Ultimately it must make sense to you and the taste must be absolutely fantastic.
I took up a class on how to make Tiramisu recently, and the trainer said that due to the presence of unsavoury hygiene habits of some bakers, they have decided to stop using eggs in this no-bake version of the Tiramisu. I thought it could be more like an industry-wide conspiracy to boycott the use of eggs. But then I discarded that thought as there were many other recipes that still called for the use of eggs.
Anyhoo, I think eggs are perfectly fine for Tiramisu and in fact they make the taste uber yummy. But suffice to say, if you’re a parent, you might want to stop your children, especially toddlers from eating this delicious Tiramisu as the eggs are uncooked. But again, your children, you decide. But if they suffer massive LS, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Don’t know what is LS? Ask your Singaporean friends.
Some bakers will opt to whisk the eggs over a boiling pot of water when combining with the Mascarpone. Well, you can do that if you like. I personally think it is kind of silly. But again, it’s a baking technique, and I am not here to change the status quo, if it makes you happy, then do it. I am not doing it that way. In fact if you know what I do for my recipe, you might exclaim in a loud voice “Wah SO EASY ah?”
Yes, it is that easy to make Tiramisu.
Okay, just in case you think I am bragging, take a look above at the rather nondescript photo of my Tiramisu. It’s perfect don’t you think so?
For those of us that cannot visualise my instructions, I found a video on how to make Tiramisu for you to follow. There are plenty of videos with all different concoction of ingredients, but trust me, mine is the best. No alcohol, and no added flavouring. And just in case you think I sound like that on video, well I don’t. I chose the video because the video quality looks quite good. Just imagine that it is me teaching you. Disregard his ingredients and follow mine.
Recipe
Ingredients
500 grams Mascarpone Cheese (can buy from NTUC finest or Cold Storage, any brand also can)
100 grams Castor Sugar
4 Eggs
1 and half packets of Ladies Fingers (not the vegetable, but they are also known as sponge fingers biscuits with sugar)
Very Strong Coffee (I use Nescafe Gold Blend)
Method:
1. Firstly separate the egg whites from the yolks of the 4 eggs. Make sure the egg yolks don’t drip into the whites otherwise the egg whites won’t be able to achieve the stiff peaks. But I had some egg yolks dripped into my egg whites. Of course, if you ask me what did I do next? I continued to whip it using my super-duper KitchenAid machine. It whacked the egg whites into submission and they all stood stiff at the end of it. So don’t believe what people tell you. Take it from me.
2. Oh, you have to add the 100 grams castor sugar into the egg whites before whipping them. I know some recipes say that you are supposed to add the sugar into the egg yolks and not the egg whites. I think it is the same, so if you want to follow other people’s way of doing it, you can. Whipped it until it it stiff peaks. Then you taste the mixture. It should taste something like candy floss.
3. Next up whip the egg yolks with the Mascarpone cheese until pale yellow and creamy in texture. You generally want to incorporate as much air into your mixture as possible. Once you have done these two steps, you can combine the two together and fold them until they are one.
4. Using a large dish, you are now ready to make your Tiramisu. Make a large cup of extra strong coffee. I use Nescafe Gold Blend and I make it extra strong by adding more coffee grinds and less water. I dip the sugar coated end of the ladies fingers into the strong coffee and quickly take them out and flip them on the reverse side and then place the biscuits into the tray. Basically by doing so the biscuits don’t become soggy too quickly and you still have the basic taste of the biscuits.
5. You want to line the dish with the coffee infused ladies fingers so that it forms a bedding for the whipped Tiramisu batter. Once you have arranged a layer of the ladies fingers, you can now dump the batter into the dish and form a layer. After you have done that, you can powder a thin layer of cocoa powder. Repeat the ladies fingers dipping action and form another layer of bedding. After that, dump the remainder of the batter into the dish.
6. Once you have done all that, seal it with cling wrap and throw it into the fridge to set. Some recipes call for overnight freezing for it to set. I think if you have a good fridge, it should set in 2 hours tops. After all, it should be eaten in a soft mushy manner.
7. Once it is set, and sufficiently chilled. Dust it with cocoa powder and you can serve.
It’s a new dawn. Not the twilight sexy good looking kind of new dawn with werewolves running around in their skin tight furs. My parents are moving house, and that presents a couple of issues for us that we have taken for granted till now. If there is someone that says “you are taking your parents for granted” – then let me be the first to admit it. You don’t have to say it. I have always knew from day one that the current arrangement while being perfect for us, was really not a solution in the long run.
Ultimately we have to manage on our own how we are going to do this.
So I have decided that I would do the cooking from now on. I know I have been doing most of the cooking anyway. But going forward, it is now a matter of survival. I won’t be cooking for leisure or pleasure, this is the gritty stuff. I have to be determined to cook my way through. So the next thing is to embark on a plan. Yes, we are going cold turkey from next week onwards and how we balance it will show.
I woke up this morning and I had a severe case of heart burn. Possibly it could be reflux from the ginormous amounts of rainier cherries (I should do a post on that) my wife and I had consume the night before. And in between then and now, I had massive LS and multi-fartilosis. It was bad. You won’t want to be within range.
Anyway, so the heart burn made me really uncomfortable, and I knew the reason why, so I wasn’t so disturbed by it. I went to the wet market as it is my usual practice and this time around, I knew I had to refresh my kitchen condiments and stock up for the week. I wanted to stay within budget so the strategy for the wet market on saturday morning was to really buy the basics and then buy the rest of the items throughout the week. That way I can pace myself with what I want to cook. At the moment, my mind draws a complete blank. It is hard to think when you have heart burn.
I purchased my four best friends – sea salt, olive oil, thai fish sauce and light soy sauce. They have been with me for so many years, and I knew that I could always depend and count on them for flavour. My wife’s a picky eater, so I have to be very careful when I prepare my dinners. But really, food is to be eaten.
So my total marketing for the following groups today is $57.60. I got chicken, pork, fish and vegetables. Not bad for starters.
Now the problem is thinking what to cook and to do it efficiently so that it fits into my time schedules.
There is something about this Mao Shan Wang, that literally drives Durian Lovers to the end of their wits. The colour, flavour, pungent smells of the durian simply overpowers the senses, and even if the box is tightly wounded up with cling wrap, it wasn’t too long before the cat is let out of the bag.
I too have fallen in love with this particular type of Durian, notably not only the king of all fruits, but I feel, it is the king of all durian types. It is worth every dollar that the durian seller tries to hack you for. That’s if they give you the best quality type of Mao Shan Wang or “Cat Mountain King” as so many who cannot speak a word of Chinese have come to use.
The name seems to be synonymous with quality, flavour and its ability to turn any heathen to become so totally devoted to its lovely hue of bright yellow. It is almost like how the baguette is like to the French. The romance between Durian lovers and their craving for bitter (bitter-sweet) Mao Shan Wang is unlikely to pass, not likely in any future. Demand is likely to increase, and this is a good sign for Durian sellers and lovers alike. More demand equals more supply, more supply equal lower prices without compromising quality.
My wife and I have become ardent fans of that elusive flavour; that bitterness. We usually get our Mao Shan Wang from this guy named “Ah Kok” and he ensures that we get what we pay for. There is no tomfoolery or smart conversations with this guy. He is no nonsense Durian seller – the type that we like to transact with. We don’t bargain, and he doesn’t take us for a ride. He delivers what he promises – which is good quality Mao Shan Wang albeit in a transparent tupperware container without the husks. We have been ordering from this guy for quite a while and for the quality, we are happy to pay the price and forgo the enjoyment of prying open the fruits with our bare hands.
Promptly he arrives at the said timing. We pay. He hands over the goods and leaves. And then for us, the ritual begins.
We would firstly gush as we open the lid (pretending that the lid was the husk of the durian) and savour the pungent flavour of that wonderful flesh. We would examine the durians to see if it was exactly what he said it would be; what we know it should be. True enough, the flesh peels over the oily-shiny surface of the seeds which is a good sign and characteristic of this type of durian. And each bite into its lovely flesh leaves us with an indescribable feeling of “Wah Lau Eh” (can’t find the right words). The bitterness is so overwhelming that you just want to yelp out an expression of satisfaction, dance around the room or do some ridiculous breakdance moves.
So far, and sadly, we have also come to love this process of buying durian. As much as I would have preferred the mystery of hacking open the thick thorny husks of the durians with my karate moves and hoping in my heart like a little child that it would be the perfect Mao Shan Wang. I have also come to accept that life is not perfect, and that the uncertainty of getting a lesser than what you expected durian has worn down my perseverance in wanting to be a puritan durian lover.
At the end of the day I concluded that Durian sellers have to sell durians. Good or bad, they have to make sure that they strike the balance between giving all the good stuff to their favourite customers and pushing off the not so good ones to the undiscerning newbie. Some durian sellers have become quite good at the art of selling/pushing durians. They seem to have a phrase to deconflict every objection that the prospective buyer may have.
Where to find good Mao Shan Wang in Singapore?
So the next question that most people would ask would be, where to find good quality Mao Shan Wang then? Good question, I honestly don’t know. But I have come across some durian sellers who have sold us durians that we thought was not too bad, and they have also assured us a sense of their trustworthiness and professionalism. Well, maybe not. Again, the term Durian sellers sell durians rings true. They don’t just sell one type of durian. They sell every type to every type of customer.
There is a stall at National Library at Toa Payoh Central that is quite good. Their guys tend to shout “Yellow!” every time they open a durian. I mean of course it is yellow right? What other colour would they be expecting their durians to have? Apparently they like to say it that way and customers seem to like the novelty of seeing these guys shout “Yellow!”.
Besides that place, we also like going to Geylang and buying from Chin Yong Fruits. The guys over there are very savvy and for their regulars, they are pretty good at delivering what their customers want, of course, price is immaterial – getting the right durian is most important.
Lastly, my all time favourite place, 717 along Yio Chu Kang Road. They open and you choose, and if you don’t like, they will open another one. Which is a rare thing these days as most Durian Sellers sell durians. They don’t just sell one type.
If these guys aren’t available, and we want to get our durian fix, we will always call “Ah Kok”, and he always delivers.
My wife taught me this recipe one day and I thought it to be one of the best recipes ever. I love drinking lotus root soup but I never heard of a sweetened version of this delicious root. It’s really simple to prepare. The recipe is so simple that you would be shock to learn it.
In her words, “just dump the lotus root in water, boil and add sugar.”
For the sake of our puritan traditionalist readers, I will make the recipe a little more complicated so that it looks and sound legit. I understand how you guys think.
So to make it easy (or complicated) for you guys, I managed to find an awesome YouTube video on how to boil this delicious Lotus Root drink. The only problem is, there is no such recipe online for a sweetened version of the Lotus Root!
I fired up YouTube and searched the following keywords “sweet lotus root drink recipe” and it yielded a whole slew of salty versions of the Lotus Root Soup with other condiments. I thought, perfect right? Since I needed to make this recipe complicated. So here goes, just for you guys..
Cool right?!
I think the above video on how to prepare Lotus Root Soup totally rocks.
Now how does that video relate with what I am trying to teach my readers. Well it is simple, let me teach you how to use the video to achieve what I want to share with you. Firstly disregard everything that the video tells you to prepare and only remember the Lotus Root. Slice it like the way the person do it. That’s the most important part. Everything else that the person does in the video you can disregard since my wife’s recipe doesn’t require them.
Now imagine there are pandan leaves in the video. You can replace the carrots with images of pandan leaves. If you can’t imagine, just google “pandan leaves” – then take a long hard look at the leaves and quickly switch over to the video and imagine the carrots to look like the pandan leaves. I tried it, and it works.
So my little addition to the recipe is to add pandan leaves into the lotus root drink and basically that’s it!
Where I shop?
The best place for Lotus Root is really the wet market where you can find the freshest of groceries in the entire housing estate. The softer alternative is to go get it at the supermarket. I often choose NTUC because it is the nearest to my place. So you can choose whichever resource you like, as long as you get the right item. Then probably a few baskets away, you will also find the pandan leaves. Easy.
Recipe
Ingredients
A few tubes of Lotus Roots
1 bunch of Pandan Leaves
Rock Sugar
Method:
1. Wash the mud off the Lotus Root, scrub the root and then shave off the skin of the root. Then slice it into half a centimetre slices.
2. Put the sliced Lotus Roots into a pot of water and turn on to high heat. Add the pandan leaves in knotted bunches into the pot. Boil until you smell the fragrance of the pandan leaves. Taste test the broth, and see if you are able to taste the faint flavour of the Lotus Root. If so, it should taste like Lotus Root.
3. Add the rock sugar. This is when the magic happens. Sweetened it until it is almost just right sweetness. If just right sweetness is 100%, then you should sweeten it until it is about 80% sweetness.
4. Taste test the Lotus Root Broth now, and you will experience hints of Sugar Cane and Water Chestnuts as well. Interesting right? I knew you would love this recipe.
Is it really a soup? Or is it really a dessert? But why do people call it Red Bean Soup and not Red Bean Dessert? I guess people probably do, just that I have also heard some folks say Red Bean Soup. I never questioned the intention behind calling it, but I guess I will call it Red Bean Broth. Just for fun. I mean who cares right?
Anyway, I have been cooking quite a couple of desserts lately, and this is something that I thought would really rock as an inclusion into my pseudo recipe e-book that I intend to release at a future date. A blogger’s got to make some money somewhere down the road right?
Anyhoo, so I decided that I would cook Red Bean Broth *wide grin* and I would do it the traditional “kick-ass” way that would rock the socks off any old-school grandmother dessert expert. So here goes..
Oh before I start, incidentally I found a pretty good (and short) video recipe of Red Bean Soup that I thought was pretty decent – I think most of us have trouble reading recipes, so a video presentation is needed to help us who are more attuned to visual learning – learn. Good thing is, there are a gazillion videos on YouTube that helps us understand different things easily. This video on Red Bean Soup really helped me, and I am sure it will also help you as well.
When you watch the video, read my blog post and just pretend that it is me showing you how Red Bean Soup is cooked.
Where I shop?
I do all my shopping at NTUC Fairprice usually, but on this occasion I went to NTUC Finest, and I realised that they have some things that the regular ones don’t and at the same time, the regular ones have the things that they don’t carry as well. Say like never say right?
Recipe
Ingredients
250 grams Organic Red Adzuki Bean (I heard that these beans are better than the regular sized ones)
1 Bunch of Pandan Leaves
Rock Sugar
3 bulbs Fresh Lily Bulb
2 packets Fresh Gingko Nut
100 grams China Barley
Method:
1. I know the video tells you to soak the Red Beans overnight. You can follow the video if you like, or you can follow what I did. I just dump the 250 grams of organic red adzuki beans into a pot of water as well as dumped the bunch of pandan leaves into the pot. Turn the heat up and start boiling. Red Beans for some strange reason takes a longer than usual time to break down or become nuah (soften) so if you think that this is going to be a walk in the park – think again. Or maybe take a walk in the park while it boils. <– not a good idea by the way.
2. Boil until the red beans starts to look as if they are soften and the broth becomes a dark murky reddish colour. This is perfectly okay by Red Bean Broth standard. Red Bean is supposedly heaty(is there another way to say heaty?) so with the addition of the China Barley, which actually has a cooling effect on the body, helps to neutralise the heatiness (is there another way to say heatiness?) So in a sense after you add this and that, it kinds of helps maintain-the-balance.
3. So while the Red Beans and Barley are getting to know each other a little better in the now very hot pot. We should also be smelling the sweet fragrant aroma of the pandan leaves (screwpine) screwing with your nasal cavities and arousing a sense of bewilderment that only an Eskimo would understand. Like I said, boiling Red Beans takes a while, especially if you didn’t follow the video to soak the beans overnight, so you got to entertain yourself while the beans dance the cha-cha.
4. Once the beans are almost softened, take out the pandan leaves and discard. Add the fresh gingko nuts and fresh lily bulb to cook. As the latter ingredients are fresh, you don’t need to cook them for very long, especially the lily bulbs. They tend to melt under extreme heat, so you don’t want to have no lily bulbs when you do serve the broth.
5. Add rock sugar lastly until you feel that it is of the right sweetness, and then you can call all your hungry friends to chow down.
Here is an all time favourite local dessert eaten by virtually anyone, and most people will tell you how difficult it is to cook this delicacy and that you would need to spend a lot of time cooking it etc. Well, half of what people tell you is true, all the other stories are mostly not true.
Let me show you how easy it is to cook this and if I can do it, you can also.
Fortunately for those that need a little more visuals, I found a really good video on YouTube that we can all follow. See Toh from Makansutra does it really well. You can follow his instructions and ingredient list if you like, or you can follow my no frills method.
I shop and got all my ingredients from the dry goods section at NTUC Supermarket.
Recipe
Ingredients
250 grams Mung Beans or Green Split Beans (don’t ask me why they are called Green when they are actually Yellow)
1 bunch of Pandan Leaves
Rock Sugar
Sweet Potato Flour
Method:
1. You may rinse the mung beans if you like. Most people do this until the water is clear. If you ask me why do people do that, I will tell you that it is totally unnecessary. Why make your life so difficult? Just dump the entire 250 grams into the pot and fill it up with 1.5 litres of water.
2. Wash and twist pandan leaves into two or three bunches. Dump the bundles into the pot of water with the mung beans. Boil until mung beans are jumpy and dancing in the pot. Sing twinkle twinkle little stars.
3. Walk twenty metres away from the pot and stay there. When you start to smell the pandan flavour from 20 metres away, chances are it is almost done. Walk back to the pot and remove the pandan leaves. By now the water should be a watery yellow in colour. You can take a few beads of mung beans and test them for softness. If the required texture is achieved which is basically softened mung beans, you can proceed to add the flour mixture.
4. This is when you mix your sweet potato flour in a bowl of cold water until it is a milky mixture. Slowly pour it into the boiling mung bean broth and stir until it thickens into a starchy mixture. If you have poured the entire bowl into the pot and it is still not starchy like the usual tau suan texture, then feel free to mix some more and continue to pour into the pot.
5. Once ready, add some You Tiao or fried dough fritters, and you can eat. If you’re looking for Halal dough fritters, Old Chang Kee sells them but only in the morning. And don’t forget to add the rock sugar! Add until it is just about starting to be sweet then stop.
Today was one of those “I need to eat Nasi Lemak” days.. We went to our usual Coffee and Toast place but the lady said their supply “not here yet”..
Frantically we went to Ya Kun and the lady over there shook her head as well. Then we finally came to Toast Box and they had one of the best Nasi Lemak money can buy at that point in time. Sometimes when we are wrought for choice we tend to accept whatever sub-standard derivative of the product that we can find to satisfy the cravings.
Thankfully not today. We were greeted with delicious hot steaming coconut infused rice and crispy ikan bilis, sunny side up and delicious chicken wings.
This compared to the usual cold dry Nasi Lemak that we usually get. It was a welcome change. A little pricey though but for the difference it is just right.
This is a French classic that I have always watched Anthony Bourdain time and again prepare in his usual haphazard manner on board a boat floating in the middle of nowhere. It was in one of his shows, I think either No Reservations or Parts Unknown. I can’t remember.
Anyway, so I decided that I would scour the web for the best Coq Au Vin recipe that I can find and finally decided to try this particular one on YouTube.
I think the recipe rocks.
Here’s the YouTube video link in case you want to try.
If you’re thinking of doing it, then here’s a localised recipe that you can try based on the YouTube video.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
100 grams Streaky Bacon
4 Chicken Drums with Thighs
1 Yellow Onion
2 Carrots
2 Punnets of White Button Mushrooms
6 cloves of Garlic
Half Bottle of Red Wine
1 packet of Fresh Thyme
1 Cup of Chicken Stock
1 Tbsp of Plain Flour
1 Tbsp of Butter
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Method:
1. Add olive oil into an oven safe pot or Dutch oven as the video suggests, but any pot that can be placed in an oven is good enough, no need to buy that expensive pot. Of course, if you have that pot, then it is good because cooking in it will make your meals taste fantastic. Well, I don’t know actually.
2. Slice the Streaky Bacon into small pieces and then fry the bacon in the pot over medium heat. Fry until bacon is crispy and the oil has been infused with the saltiness of the bacon.
3. Turn off the fire and remove the bacon with a slotted spoon or in my case, I used a wire mesh scoop. You can use anything actually as long as you can separate the bacon from the oil in the pot.
4. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper, and as soon as you have done that, quickly place the chicken pieces into the pot to fry. Do this until the chicken pieces are gold brown and crispy.
5. Once the chicken pieces are browned, take them out and place aside.
6. Dice the yellow onion and then fry it in the pot at medium heat. Then chop the carrots into one inch pieces and add to the pot to cook as well. Add the quartered mushrooms into the pot. Then smash 6 cloves of garlic and add into the pot to fry.
7. Pour in half a bottle of red wine. You can use any type of red wine. I use Cabernet Sauvignon.
8. Add back in the bacon bits. Stir thoroughly.
9. Now add the chicken pieces back into the stew. Add the whole packet of Thyme and drizzle in the cup of chicken stock.
10. Pre-heat your oven to fan mode at 180 degrees. Then place the entire pot into the oven with lid on and bake for 45 minutes.
11. After 45 minutes, take the pot out and continue to cook under medium heat and pour the beurre manie paste into the stew. This will thicken the stew a little into a sauce.
12. Preparing the Beurre Manie is simple. It is actually a combination of 1 Tbsp plain flour and 1 Tbsp butter. Simple. Stir the two ingredients into a paste and it is ready to be mixed.
I have always loved Prawn Noodles and for a long time now I have always wondered what it was that was included in that special broth that is synonymous with great tasting soup. I think it is largely monosodium glutamate is we were to consume the Prawn Noodles at the coffee shop or the hawker centre. But what if we were to try out that old local favourite at home? Would we do it the same way?
I chanced upon a packet of Prawn Noodle mix by Ah Hai (can find at NTUC) and at first glance, I thought that it was just another pre-mix recipe that will probably yield some salty end result. That may be true for some, but I decided to give it a try anyway, and it was one of the best decisions I made (alright you know I am exaggerating a little. This is Prawn Noodles that I am talking about.)
Most people would think that the pre-mix package is probably not good, and probably not great. But it was all good for me. The taste was just right. In fact I went on to make a fresh version of Prawn Noodles eventually, and it tasted just as good. But here is the recipe that I did for the Ah Hai’s Prawn Noodle paste. Enjoy.
Recipe – Serving for four
Ingredients
8 Prawns (Large)
Egg Noodles (500g)
Kang Kong (one bunch)
Bean Sprouts (one bunch)
Yakibuta (prepared separately) [optional]
Fish Cake (1 pc)
Red Chilli (1 pc)
Ah Hai’s Instant Prawn Noodle Paste (1 packet)
Method
1. Cut off the heads of the Prawns and fry the heads in a large pot with a little oil. Fry till fragrant.
2. Pour Ah Hai’s Instant Prawn Noodle Paste (NTUC sells it) into pot and pour in 2 litres of water. Bring to a boil and keep it at medium heat for 30 minutes.
3. Sieve the broth and pour into another soup pot. Blanch the egg noodles, Kang Kong, Bean Sprouts and Prawns in hot water.
4. Place all the cooked ingredients into a bowl and ladle the steaming hot broth into the bowl. Serve with Red Chilli in dark soy sauce. I use Yakibuta as opposed to the traditional Pork Ribs simply because it is tastier.
Bon Appetit!
Bonus Recipe:
Yakibuta – Japanese Char Siu
Ingredients
Pork Belly (300gm)
Shao Xing Cooking Wine
Mirin (Japanese Sweet Wine)
Light Soy Sauce
Dried Kelp
Method
1. Sear the Pork in the bottom of a pot and allow the sides of the meat to cook. Be careful not to cook the meat for too long.
2. Add in the Shao Xing Wine (1 cup), Mirin (3 Tbsp), Light Soy Sauce (3 Tbsp) and fill with water until liquid slightly covers pork. Add in the Dried Kelp. Bring to a boil and cook the meat over a slow fire for about an hour. Use a wooden skewer to test for doneness.
3. Slice the Pork Belly and decorate over Ramen noodles or in this case, Prawn Noodles.
It was what someone said was a very third world spring chicken. To be exact, there was very little spring left in the chicken and most of it was sinewy muscle and crispy skin.
I wasn’t sure if I was eating chicken or some oily puff with chicken flavour. By the time I was done with the meal, I had felt inundated with recycled oil. I have tasted better western foods but this was presented in a manner that left me desiring for something else.
Ok, perhaps you might think I am being picky but to put things into context, I did pay for the meal. And for good money too. The coleslaw was unremarkable and the fries were just a small helping as if it they were rationing their condiments.
It looked ok in the photo but it tasted just plain in reality. Well that was one meal that I didn’t really enjoy. It was just food as they say.
Bananas are great for a lot of ailments like constipation or if you just generally want to eat it as a snack. My baby loves the banana and it’s great as a snack and it helps him with his poo poo too.
We like getting the local variety which is the small type because it is handy for kids and it is not too much to munch on. Great for when we are out for our meals and we want to give him a healthy snack. These miniatures are fantastic.
Preparing lunch for myself today on a lazy Saturday. I love lazy Saturdays. No need to think about too many things and only focus on what I love to do. Nothing beats cooking something new and adding it into my recipe listing.
My wife needs to rush some work, so I guess I will just have to chow down all that cod *grin*. I got a few bones leftover after feeding baby with the meat, and it’s gonna taste lovely baked with extra Virginia olive oil and sea salt. Simple and delicious. Finish off with a squeeze of lemon. I think it will be superb. A nice lunch.
What are you having for lunch today?
Recipe – serving for two
Ingredients
Cod steak
Extra Virginia olive oil
Sea salt
Lemon
Method
1. Preheat oven (fan mode with top heating) to 200 degrees.
2. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over cod steaks and sprinkle some sea salt. Cod tends to be quite yummy as is already so just a little salt will be sufficient.
3. Bake the cod for 15 minutes and finish off with a squeeze of lemon before serving.
We are always experimenting with different flavours to get baby to taste and get used to different types of foods. One way is via the soup method as a stock for the porridge that we cook.
So hopefully he will like his green vegetables next time when we cook it. We love vegetables so it would be tragic if baby doesn’t. So we really need to engineer his meals so that he will eventually join us in our meals.
This is a simple three ingredient soup stock. Again it is for infants, so there is no salt to be added. It is just pure flavour and all the goodness in the ingredients. I just went to the wet market early this morning to get the best produce before some aunty gets it.
I got a huge bunch of baby spinach and a chicken carcass (bones only). And just a little ikan bilis for flavour. This recipe should make about seven 120 ml cups of stock for baby’s porridge for the week.
I included a little before and after photo for comparison.
Recipe – serving for seven 120 ml cups
Ingredients
Baby spinach (a huge bunch)
Chicken carcass (bones only)
Ikan bilis (7-9 pieces)
Method
1. Wash the baby spinach first as these contain a lot of sand. Wash till the water in the pot is clear. Soak also the Ikan bilis in a small bowl of water.
2. Place the chicken in a pot. Then place the baby spinach together with the chicken. Sprinkle the Ikan bilis all over. Pour about 1 litre of water into the pot and boil on low heat.
3. The soup is done when the flavour escapes the covered pot and you can see the fat of the chicken on the surface of the broth. Allow the broth to cool before pouring into the containers for freezing. This should provide for seven servings of 120 ml of soup stock for porridge.
Here’s a really delicious cheesecake (non-baked) that I would like to recommend to all. It’s undoubtedly the best non-baked cheesecake recipe in the whole wide world (think fairytale).
Tastes great served chilled with a cup of unsweetened earl grey tea or simply on its own. Serves 8-10 slices and it’s excellent for small group socials or office parties.
Light and creamy like gelato, yet maintaining a fresh fruity zesty flavour on a mildly salted crumbly digestive biscuit base.
Ingredients:
Biscuit Base:
120 grams Plain Digestive Biscuits
70 grams Unsalted Butter (Room Temperature)
Method:
1. Pulse Digestive Biscuits in the food processor until coarse grains. Remember not to blend it till it is too fine. If you don’t own a food processor, get one. You won’t regret it. Otherwise, you may opt to crush the biscuits into crumbly bits in a ziplock bag and hammering it with a rolling pin.
2. Add the already softened butter into the biscuit and combine. Pulse the mixture again until butter combines into biscuit crumbs evenly. Try not to short-cut the process by melting the butter in the microwave as many are tempted to do. You won’t want to cook your butter. I always use Pure Creamery as the type of butter you use makes a big difference. Never substitute it with low-fat margarine! That’s sacrilegious.
3. Pour the biscuit mixture into a grease-paper lined 20 inch Spring-Form Pan and tamper down the crumbs to compact it. After which, you can put the pan into the freezer to let the biscuit base set for about 30 minutes.
Cream Cheese Filling:
227 grams Philadelphia Cream Cheese (Room Temperature)
1 can of Sliced Peaches
200 ml Heavy Cream
3 tbsp Castor Sugar
3 tsp Gelatin
2 tsp Lemon Juice
rind of half a Lemon
Method:
1. With a wooden spoon break the cream cheese and mix it with the castor sugar. I like to use Philadelphia Cream Cheese especially the ones from USA and that’s why it’s 227 grams, however, these days Philadelphia makes its product in Australia, and it comes in a 250 grams pack. I found the Australian product to not be as smooth.
2. Do not over mix the cheese and the sugars. You just want it to be slightly creamy in texture and not stiff peaks.
3. Pulse the sliced peaches into smaller pieces but at the same time you want to take care you don’t end up turning it into a puree. I like using Sliced Peaches from Hosen because the textures of the peaches are firmer and it has a nicer bite and taste when it is chilled. I have used other brands, but they all cannot make it. Some peaches from other brands tend to become mushy and watery after you pulse it a little. Not nice.
4. Pour the peaches into the creamed cheese mixture along with the lemon juice & rind and combine the peaches with the cream cheese, using a wooden spoon. Again take care not to break the peaches into smaller pieces.
5. Double boil the gelatin in a bowl with half a cup of water and let it dissolve. Once the gelatin is sufficiently dissolved, pour it into the cream cheese filling. Using a metal whisk, gently whisk the mixture while pouring the heavy cream into the mixing bowl.
6. Ensure that there is an even consistency as you combine the ingredients.
7. Pour your cream cheese filling into the chilled Spring-Form Pan and again tamper it down at the bottom of the pan so that the filling sits evenly on the biscuit base.
8. Chill the cheesecake in the fridge for at least 8 hours so that the gelatin will hold the cake together.
After a brief hiatus since my last post, I thought it is about time to share some new recipes that I have been working on.
Here’s my favourite laksa recipe of all time. Tedious to make, but guaranteed satisfaction for all of you Laksa lovers.
The ingredients are commonly found in NTUC or Cold Storage, so ingredient list building shouldn’t be a problem. Perhaps some of you experts out there might question “why no belachan?”, well I decided not to use belachan because good quality dried shrimp is good enough, but you may consider that if you like.
Ingredients:
Vermicelli aka Laksa Bee Hoon – 500 grams
Medium Grey Prawns – 250 grams
Fish Cake – 1 large piece
Bean Sprouts – 1 handful
Dried Tau Pok – 10 pieces
Blood Cockles – 200 grams
Laksa Leaves – 1 sprig
Dried Shrimps – 1 cup
Cooking Oil – 100 ml
Water – 750ml
Coconut Milk – 250 ml
Salt
Sugar
Pound into Paste:
Shallots (or Onions) – 2/3 Bulbs
Garlic – 4 pieces
Turmeric (Yellow Ginger) – 1 inch
Galangal (Blue Ginger) – 1 inch
Young Ginger – 1 inch
Candlenuts – 4 pieces
Dried Chillis – 10 pieces (soak in water first)
Ginger Mix
Fish Cake
Fresh Prawns
Pounded Dried Shrimp
Dried Shrimps
Laksa Thick Bee Hoon
Laksa Broth
Coconut Milk
Dried Bean Curd
Method:
1. Blanch prawns in 750 ml of water till 90% cooked. I gauge this cooking process by looking at the prawns and if they curl into a “C” shape. “C” means cooked, but if however, the prawns turn into an “O” shape, then that means the prawns is now over-cooked. Just a little tip for all of us servant-less cooks.
2. Once prawns are cooked, set them aside.
3. Add Laksa leaves into the broth, and bring to a boil. You can also shred the Laksa leaves to sprinkle over your noodles for that extra flavour.
4. Then turn the fire to a low simmer for about 15 minutes.
5. Heat 100 ml of oil in a wok.
6. Add in dried shrimp (pounded) into pounded condiments (paste) and fry for 5-7 minutes over a big fire until fragrant.
7. Pour the cooked ingredients into the pot of prawn stock. Again, bring to a boil.
8. Add in the coconut milk to thicken the broth. Add salt and sugar to taste.
9. Add in the Tau Pok (sliced diagonally) to cook until soft if you like, before serving.
Serving Suggestion:
1. Present cockles, bean sprouts, fish cakes (sliced) and tau pok (cooked) in a bowl of Bee Hoon Noodles before ladling the Laksa broth over the ingredients.
2. Sprinkle Shredded Laksa leaves for extra flavour.
If there is such a thing as comfort food, then mine would be fish sliced bee hoon soup with thick white bee hoon. Here’s a recipe for fish sliced bee hoon soup that I think will rock your socks off. This is why I think this recipe so totally rock. This is a recipe that’s been tweaked to my liking.
* please note that I have included amazon affiliate links to the products I use, so check them out if you wish to support me, and if I can get these items from NTUC Supermarket, I would just indicate.
Fish slices (fried):
Ingredients:
Fish *Use Angoli* 500g (Angoli is Hokkien for Sea Bream and not to be confused with Red Snapper which is known as Ang Kway in Hokkien which literally means Red Chicken, don’t ask me why)
Sea salt(alternatively, you could consider what I use instead, which is the TADKA brand Himalayan Pink Salt [NTUC])
Chicken Stock Powder(I use Knorr Chicken Stock[NTUC] most of the time for this as it’s really the best, mum uses it for her cooking, and I use it as well)
Egg(one)
Potato starch(any brand will do, even the house brand from NTUC)
Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu(there are many varieties and brands that you can find at NTUC, but the brand that I like best is the Pagoda Hua Tiao Chiew, it’s the most expensive bottle with similar looking bottle branding)
White pepper
Method:
1. Cut the Angoli into thin slices about 1cm thick and then salt lightly, leave it to marinate for about 30 minutes. If you don’t like your fish to be too salty, you can wash it after marination.
2. Then prepare 5 tablespoons of potato starch *use measuring spoons* and crack an egg into it. Put half a teaspoon of chicken stock and half a capful of hua tiao jiu, white pepper and then whisk with a fork into a smooth creamy mixture.
3. Then dip the fish slices into the mixture and deep fry it over low heat, this is to ensure that the fish is cooked while the batter doesn’t burn – you want the fish slices to taste cripsy, not rock solid. Also not having a big fire ensures even cooking.
4. Fry till light brown *not too long* as fish cook easily, the texture should be just right, and the fish is not cooked too long. The taste should be soft and juicy and the batter gives it a nice crunchy texture.
Fish Soup:
Ingredients:
Sea salt (you can omit this and use chicken stock only)
Salted vegetables (Kiam Chye)
Sour plum (preserved salted sour plums)
Carnation milk (if you like)
Tomatoes (quartered)
Spring onions (cut into 2cm lengths)
Ginger (thinly sliced)
Method:
1. Bring about 1.5 litres of water to the boil, and add either 1 teaspoon of salt or chicken stock. I use salt instead because I am using salted vegetables for flavouring already, you can use chicken stock if you’re not adding salted vegetables an alternative vegetable is szechuan vegetables as it adds a different taste to it.
2. Bring the water to boil, then add the salted vegetables, sliced ginger and sour plum to flavour the soup (if you like you may also wanna add 4-5 whole garlic). Only add the tomatoes, spring onions last as they cook very quickly.
3. For the bee hoon, I use laksa bee hoon from NTUC and one packet feeds about 4 people easily. Boil the noodles first and then add it to the soup. The trick is to prepare everything ready and then adding it together to make the dish.
Serving Suggestion:
You can either add the fish into the soup when you prepare the noodles or not. It’s up to you. I prefer not so that I can taste the crispiness of the fish slices.
As an alternative, you can add chye sim, although I prefer to add thinly sliced bitter gourd to give it that extra taste.
That’s it, perfect!
Bon Appetit!
Usually I would end here with “Bon Appetit!”, but there is a YouTube video with my look-alike Adrian Pang and the very lovely Michelle Chia, and incidentally they are both promoting Sliced Fish Bee Hoon, so what the heck:
I wrote this recipe out of boredom one fine day in I can’t remember when, and I decided that I would endeavour to make the best Pineapple Tarts in the world. At least the best according to my taste buds, and I am one to not easily like Pineapple Tarts. To be honest, I hate eating Pineapple Tarts that I buy from outside, they are just not to my liking for some reason.
There was always something wrong with it. Either there was some strange after taste of oil which makes my teeth “siap-siap” or the jam was just too sweet. I simply hated it.
As Chinese New Year was around the corner then, I thought it would be great if I can make my own Pineapple Tarts instead of buying them this year. This is an all time favourite for many, and for me it’s also one of those must do; must try recipes. And trust me, it’s true what they say about doing Pineapple Tarts the traditional way. It’s nothing short of tedious. But nothing ventured; nothing gained. So let’s try it!
If you want to learn how to do anything well the first time, you got to do everything from scratch, that means – no shortcuts!
So I bought a pineapple, one whole, from NTUC named “Sweet 16” – please don’t ask me why it’s called that – apparently it’s supposed to be a sweeter variety of pineapple. Alright, whatever.
I started scouring Google as well as asking around for the best Pineapple Tart recipe. There were many who ranted and raved about their recipes, and some even swore by their great-grandmother’s grave, but like they all say, the prove of the pudding is in the tasting, isn’t it? And after all that reading, I decided that if the pastry has enough butter, it will melt in your mouth; not in your hands. And if it has enough egg yolks, it will be soft and creamy as well. A little sugar for tasting and salted butter would give it that added savory flavour.
The difficulty in making Pineapple Tarts the traditional way is the grating of the pineapple – I did that by hand – and then afterwards cooking it in the saucepan till the sugars in the pineapple caramelised. This is a slow and tender process of stirring the mixture over a medium heat to allow the water content within to evaporate while preventing the sugars in the pineapple from caramelising too quickly. This whole painstaking process of cooking the pineapple filling took me about 45 minutes. And mind you, this is just for one pineapple. I don’t know how some people manage four pineapples at one go?!
As you can see in the picture, one whole pineapple weighs about 700 grams (minus the metal bowl), quite a lot of pineapple if you think about it. I grated the whole pineapple including the centre of the fruit and that’s how you get the stringy texture in the fillings.
I added 5 teaspoons of Castor Sugar into the pineapple mixture noting that this is not your garden variety of pineapple as it is already sweeter to begin with. Adjust the sweetness accordingly. I chose 5 teaspoons because 5 is the number of grace. You can also do likewise.
As the water content in the mixture dries, you can see (literally) the sugars starting to caramelise and the pineapple mixture starts to brown. This is the critical part because if you let up your concentration now, the mixture will burn and you will have to start all over again. Thank God mine turned out perfect.
For the pastry, I decided that I wanted a soft buttery and yet not too overwhelming feeling in the mouth – in other words – I can pop 5-6 Pineapple Tarts and still have an appetite for other yummy new year goodies. I decided to use 300g of Plain Flour combined with 45g of Castor Sugar and mixed in a whole slab of salted Butter – 250g (room temperature) and using the tip of a metal fork, I pressed in the Butter into the Flour and continued pressing until the Flour, Sugar and Butter was well-combined.
I decided that I wanted my Pineapple Tarts to be soft and creamy and that basically calls for more Egg Yolks. This is not your typical Lisa Leong Healthy Recipe. It’s sinful to say the least. I added 4 Egg Yolks (no whites!) and continued with the “Fork Technique” of pressing the dough instead of kneading immediately. The whole idea behind the “Fork Technique” is so as not to stress the dough with too much hard-hitting tension.
When it is fairly combined, dust the table with some flour, and massage the dough mixture a little more. And then leaving it to “breathe” for about half an hour. This is to allow the dough to “rest a little” (from all that tension from the kneading).
Then roll out whatever amount you want to bake, into whatever shape you want. I decided that I wanted to do them in the shape of rounded pillow cushions. You may prefer the Pyramids of Giza. Whatever. So I literally hand-moulded each one of these beauties, glazed the tops of each with egg yolk and water batter so that they will all glisten gloriously after baking.
I baked them in 160 Degress Celsius in the oven for about 20 minutes and then allowing them to brown a little in the oven for 5 more minutes with the power turned off. The oven that I am using is a Dual-Heating Element type (top and bottom) and with the tray placed in the middle, so that the temperature will be evenly distributed. Remember to pre-heat the oven for at least 10 minutes before putting in the tray. Then you get on your knees and pray that they turn out ok.
Once they are done, take out the tray to let the pineapple tarts cool. They turned out ok! Thank God. Technically speaking, they aren’t really tarts, more like Kisses. Well whatever, you should get the idea, right? And it’s ready to eat.
Melts in your mouth, not in your hands, filling is not too sweet, blends in perfectly with the pastry and the pastry is not too overwhelming, soft and crumbly. Perfect.
Here’s the ingredients list if you didn’t know what in the world I was saying just now.
Recipe
Ingredients:
Pineapple Filling:
1 Whole Pineapple (sweet type or honey pineapple) – if you choose the not-so-sweet type, you might have to tweak the sugars by taste. 5 teaspoons of Castor Sugar – remember 5 is the number of grace!
Method: 1. Hand-grate the whole pineapple including the core of the fruit. Do not short-cut the process and use a blender, although it would definitely make the whole process easier. Doing so would change the texture of your pineapple filling. 2. Cook the pineapple mixture over medium heat, and make sure it doesn’t burn. Note: Don’t be tempted to use high heat as it will make it harder for you to estimate when exactly the sugars will caramelised. 3. Keep stirring, and tossing, and turning the mixture with a wooden spoon till it is fully caramelised into a pulpy sticky mixture. Don’t let it dry up or brown too much. For one whole pineapple, this should take about 45 minutes.
Pastry:
300g Plain Flour 45g Castor Sugar 250g Salted Butter (room temperature) – Please don’t short-cut the process by melting it in the microwave or oven. You don’t want to end up inadvertently cooking the flour while mixing the dough.
Method: 1. Weigh the flour on a digital kitchen scale, make sure it is exact. Add in the Sugar and mix with a fork, so that the sugars are evenly distributed. Then add the Butter and continue to press the dough in using the tip of the fork. 2. Add 3 egg yolks (no whites) and continue to use the “Fork Technique” to press in the egg yolks until they are well-combined. Remember to knead the dough and then let it rest (or breathe) for 30 minutes before rolling them into shape.
All the best, and Happy Chinese New Year folks, even if it is not Chinese New Year, you also can make Pineapple Tarts.
If there is one thing that I love, it has to be seafood. Not because I love the cartoon “The Little Mermaid”, or their tiny sea creatures but because I love all kinds of seafood. Alright, maybe that was kind of like not saying very much.
My favorite seafood would be prawns, scallops, crabs and squids. All of them reputably not very good for you if you were to consume in large quantities day in day out. Good thing I only have it once or twice a week.
For the most times, we have fish and in all manifestations of it. Fried, steamed, or sliced into porridge, that’s basically how I like my fish. And the best place to get fresh fish is really at the wet market. They get it directly from the fishery port and anything fresher than that would be from the sea itself.
At this juncture it would be wise to also form good relations with your fishmonger as they are the ones who would be able to tell you which seafood item came from where and if they were fresh or otherwise (of course everyone proclaims to sell fresh seafood only). The problem comes when you get back home, when the realization happens. You then realize that the circle of trust might be broken.
I think it is also a matter of how popular the fishmonger thinks he is that day and on his willingness to strike you off his customers’ list.
Nobody sells only fresh seafood. It’s not possible.
Food wastage is a reality in the FNB industry and it affects anyone selling food products. There is always something fresh and something else that is going for a discount. The key is to let go that which is not so fresh and appear as if you are a great guy at the same time.
it also depends on his track record with you as well as the business performance of the only other competitor in the wet market. If the competitor consistently does badly, then this guy can take a chance and “offend” some customers or he could do the honorable thing by giving a discount.
That said, the catchphrase “I give you discount” or “I give you special price” is often a keyword phrase that might mean something else entirely. Most people would think that this is an attempt by the fishmonger to build social capital but really, you wouldn’t know until you get home to find out just how good a deal you really got.
Freshness is subjective and how fresh something is, is largely based on visual and smell and lots hours of wet market experience.
That all being said, I hope it does not deter your own discovery and experience. Jostle in and learn. You will never know what you will find.
My wife and I love ginseng flavored black chicken soup, especially the one bought by my dad from this stall at Jalan Bersih Hawker Centre. They also sell the best turtle soup I believe in Singapore.
Black chicken soup is also very nutritious and good for new mothers during confinement month. It is generally regarded as a delicacy. Very easy to cook and best if you double-boil it. Of course double boiling just means that it will take a while longer.
I usually buy the black chicken fresh from the chicken butcher at the wet market. He will help chop the chicken into pieces really fast and neatly. I usually get him to chop into four pieces but you get him to chop into six parts.
The herbal mix of ginseng and other berries and roots I usually get the pre-packed ones from NTUC supermarkets. The items there are sufficient for what I need to do and it is fairly fuss free. Alternatively you can also buy the herbs from shops like Hock Hua as they would carry the entire range or grades of herbs.
Preparation time for this soup took just 30 minutes to prepare but if you have more time it would be good to simmer the chicken till the meat falls off the bones. Try it.
Recipe – serving for two
Ingredients
Black chicken
Pre-packed ginseng herbal chicken mix
Sea salt
Method
1. Place the chopped chicken in a large pot. Add the herbs into the pot. Add a litre of water. Add quarter teaspoon of salt. Boil high heat until the flavor of the chicken and the herbs comes through.
2. Then turn down the heat and slow cook till the meat is just tender.
This is how I like my potatoes. Boiled, then pan fried without oil so that the skins will brown. I usually dry-fry with fresh rosemary leaves and a sprinkle of sea salt.
When the pan is reasonably hot and slightly smokey, I will drizzle extra virgin olive oil and allow the oil to coat the potatoes and adhere the salt to the potatoes. I like new potatoes because they are easy to cook and are great for accompaniment with mains or stews.
Recipe – serving for four
Ingredients
New potatoes
Fresh rosemary leaves (two sprigs)
Sea salt
Extra virgin olive oil
Method
1. Boil the new potatoes in a pot of boiling water till they are cooked. Then douse the potatoes into cool running water to stop the cooking.
2. In a heated pan, fry the new potatoes with rosemary leaves and sea salt until smoking. Then drizzle the potatoes with extra virgin olive oil.
I am also starting OTS aka “one take sessions” on anything that might be remotely useful for people that stumble upon this blog. Also, it is more for me because I really really want to know how to chop chickens properly.
I got to admit it, I am bad at chopping chickens. I don’t know where to pull or where to chop. Sometimes the simplest of cuts can become a massacre of epic proportions. I wish I have the wisdom of the chicken butcher when it comes to cuts and then a brilliant idea popped into my mind.
Ask the chicken butcher at the market to do a demonstration. It’s not the most exciting of videos, but it’s a great “how-to” video. A fantastic OTS. Enjoy.
I woke up one night and felt this insane craving to make my own Runny Egg Yolk hard-boiled egg. And almost as quickly, I immediately whipped out my trusty Nokia e71 (Yup, that was how long ago this recipe was inspired) and googled the recipe online. It was undoubtedly the most rewarding experience because now I have Runny Egg Yolk hard-boiled eggs for my maggi noodles.
I think the inspiration for this largely stemmed from eating out at one of those Japanese Ramen shops, most notably the one at the entrance of Cuppage Plaza in town. The Char Siew Ramen was simply delightful, and the runny egg yolk that accompanied it was simply awesome!
Recipe – serving for one
Ingredient
1 Large Egg (55g) <<That’s it! *wide grin*>>
Method
1. Fill a sauce-pan pot with water till midway or until you can cover the egg(s). Bring the water to a boil.
2. When the water is boiling, place the egg into the pot with a ladle making sure that the egg does not break in the pot. Ideally the egg should be at room temperature when it is placed in.
3. Boil the egg for about 6 minutes using a watch to keep time. Afterwhich, you ladle the egg out of the sauce-pan pot and let it cool in cold tap water. This process helps the egg to stop cooking even after you have taken it out of the boiling pot.
The whole process shouldn’t take you more than 15 minutes and you should be able to eat the eggs immediately! Look at the glorious golden yellow yolk! Serve with a little sea salt or black soya sauce.
Tāngyuán is a kind of Chinese dessert made from glutinous rice flour and is mixed with a small amount of water to form balls and is then cooked and served in boiling water spiced with old ginger and castor sugar. It typically comes in one plain white colour, but some families have chosen to add a little food colouring to make the dessert a little prettier.
Culturally for many families in China and also migrant families overseas, it is a meal eaten together. The round shape of the balls served in round bowls symbolises family togetherness. Tāngyuán translated means “Round Dumplings in Soup”.
I got this recipe from my mother-in-law, and this is how it works.
Recipe – serving for a family
Method
1) Add 400g glutinous flour with 350ml water. Add the water slowly so that the dough mixture will not be too moist. If you accidentally added too much water, just simply balance it out with more glutinous flour.
2) Knead the mixture into dough. Then pinch a little and roll it in between your fingers. If the dough were to crack, it just means that it is too dry. If the dough ball does not hold its shape, then there is too much moisture in the pastry.
3) Divide into the dough into two (02) portions and with one portion, add a few droplets of food colouring – Cherry Red is good – and then knead the food colouring into the dough. The whole dough should now be pink in colour.
4) Put each portion of dough into a plastic bag and place them in the freezer for 30 minutes.
5) Remove from the freezer and begin to roll. (if however, after freezing the dough is too dry, just simply dap it with a little water.
6) Put the balls in boiling water, until they all start to float. Then off the fire and allow the dough balls to sit in the broth for about 5 minutes.
7) Scoop out the dough balls with a ladle and put them inside a bowl of cool tap water.
8) Prepare 300g castor sugar and put into the broth to boil a little, after which place slices of old ginger and pandan leaves into the soup and bring the soup to a boil.
9) Ladle the dough balls into the broth and allow them to sit in the fragrant mixture until the flavour has infused into the dough balls.
10) Allow the dessert to sit in the broth overnight, and when ready to eat, just heat up the soup and serve.
I thought that it wouldn’t be fair to do a review of the Qiji interpretation of the humble nasi lemak (I think they glorified it) but not do the heartland version.
So here goes. This is well and truly a more humbled version. It is so no frills I had no trouble identifying everything within the packet in a nano-glance. All I did was blink and that was the end of my meal. I saw in my mind’s eye exactly how I would chow down this plate and it was unglamorous.
My wife saw my somewhat bewildered expression and immediately offered some Belinjo crackers that she had bought earlier, just to make up the color. It sort of looked slightly better after that. But there was just too much white (rice) and not much of anything else.
This is truly the cookie cutter version with just the ikan bilis and kacang goreng all sealed in individual packets. This nasi lemak reeks of industrial kitchen-ness. Everything seems to be commoditized, right down to the chilli. All sealed ready to be assembled in a production factory-like style.
I had to top up 50 cents for a piece of otah-otah which kind of made it a little better. The only other thing that was not from the industrial kitchen was probably the kuning fish. Interestingly this fella was even smaller than the previous one.
I was so tempted to make my own masterpiece that I assembled the kuning fish as if like jumping out of a sea of nasi. Kids, don’t do this at home.
I guess you could say I was reasonably bored with my unflattering breakfast. Alright, to be fair what would one be expecting for $1.60 (SGD), by far it was the cheapest nasi lemak I have eaten in a long while. And it was just as delicious as the glorified version.
It’s really a 奇迹 how they managed to open their doors one day and became an instant hit with everyone. With simple staples like nasi lemak, mee rebus and mee siam, Qiji as their name in mandarin suggests has indeed become a household name and an FNB miracle.
I just had a nasi lemak, a local favorite amongst many. Steamy coconut milk infused white rice with an array of ingredients strategically positioned to maximize your dining experience. Unfortunately, their ingredients have been looking a tad tiny lately though.
Take the kuning fish for example, I couldn’t believe that it could be so small! I mean by Australian standards, a fish of this size would never pass through the fishery authorities and onto our dinner plates. That said, perhaps it was a midget kuning fish and it had stunted growth. Hey, it’s quite possible you know.
I am just wondering if perhaps this little fellow could have had a much greater potential to co-create even more kuning for their mercenary masters. Instead here it is, on my green mock-banana leaf plate. All shriveled and parched.
The rest of the ingredients were suffering from a severe lack of color. Honestly they looked tired. It was as if they weren’t dressed up properly before they left the food counter. The paper-thin pale yellow egg was like two pieces of highly compressed cheesecakes sitting neatly on top of my nasi (rice).
The otah-otah was also a pale orangey hue of a puddle of *** amidst a setting sunset. Ok, nuff said, after all, I am still going to eat this. I am famished.
I was fairly disappointed at the quantity of ikan bilis (tiny anchovy) and kacang goreng (fried peanuts) though. Typically the macik (aunty) at the food counter would heap a full scoop. But the dude behind the counter today must have used a teaspoon to scoop the ingredients.
And to top it off, there was this nugget looking item that I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. It tasted like fish and chicken all at the same time with a pillow full of batter coating. Except that it was equally flat and off colored as its other buddies on the plate. Very mysterious nuggety item. It vaguely resembled an ingot of gold.
The chilli, perhaps the only item that steers everyone back on the same course was sweet and spicy and just right. Very nicely done.
It was a perfect nasi lemak meal to say the least. The taste was just superb. The brains behind the business have got their hearts in the right place. The looks of the ingredients could do with a little bit more color. That said I should qualify, that I don’t just go for looks but I like good quality food – I don’t eat for color’s sake. But it is liken to buying fish at the market, color denotes freshness.
Qiji is indeed doing the basic things well. They have morphed into a somewhat conveyor belt like production house of local common foods but yet maintaining a consistent level of quality and taste in all their outlets. This just means they have a tight control on quality. I like that.
Incidentally the nasi lemak above could have been neatly arranged by an artist of Bugis origins, it reminds me of a tiny sailboat awashed against the tides of changing times, fishing amidst the setting of a crimson sunset and perhaps scouring the seas for hidden treasure.
Nice.
You can have this same experience at Qiji. Just order set number two.
The Red Date Tea is more like a fruit tea that is good for mothers during their confinement months. This traditional recipe for mothers who are breastfeeding is a time-tested recipe that will help mothers “make” more milk and produce more breast-milk for their newborn babies. Red dates are easily available at the Chinese medicinal shops and can even be purchased online if you live in remote places.
Besides being a remedy for most ailments that new mothers would experience, the Red Date Tea – with its myriad of ingredients – is more than likely to cause the body to be heaty for the guys but for mummies, it actually helps to stabilize their confinement month and even help to lose weight.
I am using a crock pot to prepare this herbal brew for my wife who just recently delivered our newborn baby boy. I learnt this from the confinement nanny and I think this recipe rocks for those who are wondering what are the ingredients that go into this tea.
Recipe
Ingredients:
Wolfberries Seeds
Dried Longans
Black Dates
Red Dates
Tang Sheng (Dried Roots)
Method
The confinement nanny says to prepare a thicker Red Date Tea, the proportion of the ingredients will have to be increased. The crock pot can prepare enough tea for the whole day.
Wolfberries have a naturally sweet and herbal taste, so you can put more of these if you like. I usually put two handfuls. Dried Longans are sweet, so depending on what you like, you can put in about 30 pieces. The Red Dates 20 pieces and Black Dates 4 pieces, these are great for that special herbal taste that does some wonders to the body, and Tang Sheng – Dried Root – that looks like ginseng, I will put in about 5 pieces as these can make the Tea somewhat sour. Don’t ask me why.
Pour in about 5 litres of water, and turn on the slow cooker for maybe 4-5 hours or overnight. That’s it.
