singaporean

Singapore Chilli Crab

Singapore Chilli Crabs

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.

Ho Sim Lang

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!

Bon Appetit!

Tiramisu

Ho Sim Lang

Tiramisu

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.

Bon Appetit!

 

Red Bean Soup

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Red Bean Soup 

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.

Bon Appetit!