dried shrimps – 好心人

Hakka Yong Tau Foo

October 26, 2015 by Ho Lang

Hakka Yong Tau Foo

This is a recipe from my paternal grandparents, a humble yet delicious Hakka Yong Tau Foo deep fried in soya bean oil and then cooked in a rich broth of soya beans and kiam chye. I have never bothered to learn the recipe and thankfully my mum being the dutiful daughter-in-law took on the mantle of preparing the laborious dish for future Lunar New Year dinners.

Mum improved on the recipe and made it her own and it tasted even better than how grandpa did. I resolved to one day make it myself and to make it as easy as possible. That day is today and for the benefit of all, here’s my take on the family recipe.

Of course my rendition means I do it the way I like and so I basically only used bitter gourd and left out the tau kwa and tau pok altogether. Wanna know how? Read on.

Recipe

Ingredients

Fish Paste (you can get this from the wet market at the stall that sells yong tau foo pieces and fish balls. Ironic, I know. For this recipe, I got $3 worth of fish paste.)
Minced Pork (lean pork but tell the butcher to run it into a minced. $3 worth again of lean minced pork.)
1/4 cup of Dried Shrimps (the more you add, the tastier it will be, so you may wanna add more.)
4 pieces of Dried Oysters (this is entirely optional if you don’t like the taste but it was part of my grandparents original recipe. My wife don’t really like, so I left them out.)
1 Bitter Gourd (cut into 1cm thickness. It might be better to cut diagonally so that the fish/meat paste doesn’t fall out during cooking)
2 pieces of Tau Kwa (optional. Cut into diagonals.)
2 pieces of Tau Pok (optional. Cut into diagonals.)
1/2 packet of Dried Soya Beans (you can buy these at NTUC and you would need to soak them overnight at least.)
2 bulbs of Kiam Chye (these are salted vegetables for the unacquainted.)
2 pieces of Preserved Salted Plums (easily purchased from the supermarket.)
1 packet of Fish Balls
Light Soya Sauce
White Pepper
Sesame Seed Oil
Corn Flour
Soya Bean Oil

Method

1. Soak the soya beans and dried shrimps overnight in a pot of water. I soaked them together because I was lazy.

2. The next day, I picked the shrimps out of the pot and threw them into bowl along with the fish paste and minced pork. Most people I know would chop the shrimps but I dropped them whole. Tastier that way. In it I mixed a little light soya sauce, a small drizzle of sesame seed oil and give it a good mix. Use your hands, the flavour is stronger. I’m kidding.

3. Boil the soya beans at high heat with the kiam chye and drop the two salted plums into the broth. You want to extract all the goodness out of these ingredients because you are gonna discard them after you have wasted them in the pot.

4. Cut the bitter gourd into 1cm thick slices. I did them wrongly as in cut them straight. But you should cut them in a slight diagonal. This will help you keep the fillings from falling out.

5. Fill the fish/minced/shrimps paste into the bitter gourd slices and coat it with a light corn flour liquid so that it would hold the fillings in the bitter gourd slices. You can make a simple corn flour mixture by mixing a tablespoon of corn flour with some water.

6. Fill a small pot with lots of soya bean oil (olive oil would be a little costly). Heat it up with big fire. Then deep fry the bitter gourd pieces until the meat fillings turn brown. If you didn’t, then maybe it won’t taste so nice.

7. Once you have fried all your bitter gourd items you can drop them into your soup pot. Remember to remove at least half of the soya beans and all of the Kiam Chye. This is to make space for the bitter gourd pieces. Boil at high heat and once it is bubbling, you may serve. You may also add fish balls if you like.

Bon Appetit!

Soak soya beans and dried shrimps together

Fish paste, minced pork and dried shrimps

Cut bitter gourd into 1cm slides

Fill the bitter gourd pieces with the fish/meat/dried shrimps mixture

After deep frying the bitter gourd pieces, cook them in the soya bean and kiam chye broth

Stunned Like Vegetable

April 26, 2015 by Ho Lang

Stunned Like Vegetable

I went about my usual shopping today at the wet market for the week’s grocery and planning new and interesting meals for my family. I gotta say this, cooking helps bond the family together. If you don’t believe me, try cooking all your meals at home and have everyone eating together at the same time. Powerful man.

But what is more power is this Kacang Petai that I got from the vegetable seller. They all look so innocently polished and refined, and such a beautiful greenish hue, but oh my, the vegetable has an awful stench of fresh vomit on pavement. Stink beans as some people call it, and when I had a whiff of it, my stomach tied itself into a knot. As Chen Tian Wen would probably say Stunned Like Vegetable. Except perhaps in my case, I so stunned by vegetable.

Anyway, from what I read, the only way to cook this vegetable is to mix it with an equally convulsive ingredient, the Belacan. That old stinky fermented dried paste of the carcasses of rotting sea-creatures, dried in sun and congealed into blocks of smelly goodness. The two ingredients coming together officially makes it a double stunning to awaken the senses.

Add a little Assam, dried shrimps (hae bi) and a few tubes of chilli padi, this rather unique dish will take shape and become nothing short of delicious. I have had it at the Makchik’s Nasi Padang stall at the market, and it is just awesome. Of course, my version is more flavourful, I cooking for my family, not cook to sell.

Recipe

Ingredients

300 grams of Kacang Petai
100 grams of Dried Shrimps
5-6 tubes of Chilli Padi
2-3 cm of Belacan
4-5 Glass Prawns (fresh from the wet market)
A little Assam or Tamarind
Sea Salt
Olive Oil

Method

1. Soak the petai in hot water, so that it won’t be so stinky (I doubt it removes any stink). Process the dried shrimps, chilli padi and belacan in a food chopper to combine the ingredients into a paste.

2. Stir fry the paste in 2 tbsp of oil until fragrant (and pungent). Add some salt if you like, but the hae bi should be quite salty already. Once cooked reserved the paste one side.

3. Add the prawns (and more oil if needed) and fry until the prawns all turn into a “C” shape. Then reserved the prawns aside.

4. Now fry the petai beans in the wok with the Belacan paste. Then add the rest of the ingredients together for a good combine. Add a little water into the Tamarind, and then add the strained juice of Assam into the wok and continue frying until the beans are relatively cooked but still firmed.

5. Serve with steam rice.

Bon Appetit!

Stir Fry Belacan Wing Beans

April 5, 2015 by Ho Lang

Stir Fry Belacan Wing Beans

My wife bought this odd looking vegetable the other day and told me to work the magic. Of course everyone knows there is no such thing as magic, at least not in my kitchen that is.

Nevertheless, I took a long hard look at this vegetable otherwise known as “Wing Beans” or as they call it in Malay, “Kacang Botol“. It is a weird looking vegetable indeed with its “C-shaped” body if you were to slice it through. I remember having it once at some coffeeshop zi char stall and it was presented to us in an intense sambal belacan sauce. I thought that it was delicious.

So what better way to cook this dish than to do it in sambal belacan. My twist is to add a few glass prawns (my favourite prawns) and it would be perfect.

Recipe

Ingredients

6 medium sized Glass Prawns
300 grams of Wing Beans
Handful of Dried Shrimps (hae bi)
1 piece of Red Chilli (chopped finely)
3-4 grams of Belacan
Light Soya Sauce
Olive Oil

Method

1. Wash and slice the wing beans into 1 cm length pieces. Mix the belacan, dried shrimps and finely chopped chilli into a blender and blend the ingredients into a paste. At this point, it would be good to ventilate the kitchen.

2. Wash and prepare the glass prawns, heat oil in the wok and then fry the prawns until they curl into a “C-shaped” position. This means the are cooked. Reserve the prawns aside.

3. Now heat another batch of oil in the wok, throw the belacan paste into the wok and stir fry until fragrant. Then add a little more oil and throw the prepared wing beans into the wok and give it a good stir. Continue frying until the colour of the vegetable turns a dark green. Then add the prawns and continue stirring. Continue frying for another five minutes and it is ready to be served.

Bon Appetit!

Wing Bean aka Kacang Botol

Belacan, finely chopped chilli, dried shrimps

Glutinous Rice

February 5, 2015 by Ho Lang

Glutinous Rice

Glutinous Rice

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.

Bon Appetit!

Soak Glutinous Rice

Dried Shrimp

Dried Shitake Mushrooms

Compacted Glutinous Rice