Roast Pork (a.k.a. Siew Yoke, Shao Rou, Shio Bak)

This is my mum's specialty. This is a dish that everyone in my extended family rave about. I tried replicating this a couple of times but only my first and this recent try were fairly successful. Every other attempt in between did not work out well and I am not too sure why. The skin of the pork did not crackle, which is the all important attraction of this dish.

I used a xue di zi to make this. But you can try the oven. I have heard successful stories of some who used the oven.

(estimated measurements)

1kg pork belly

2-3 tsp chinese five-spice powder

2 tsp salt

Score the skin of the meat with a sharp knife. I found it rather difficult to make the diamond-shaped, criss-cross pattens so I just made parallel incisions across the width of the piece of meat.

Place the meat on a metal rack and into the sink (or a tray), skin side up. Pour hot boiling water onto the meat. You will see the skin shrinking a little and exposing the fat beneath the skin. That is what we want to achieve. Using a paper towel, pat dry the meat, paying special attention to the skin to ensure that it is dry.

Marinate the meat with spice and salt. Place the marinated meat covered in the fridge for at least 2 hours. I like to marinate it for at least 12 hours or overnight. You may marinate this 2-3 days in advance too.

Preheat the oven at 190C. Allow the meat to come up to room temperature (about 30 minutes) before placing it in the oven, skin side up on a metal rack. Cook it for about 45 minutes.

Using a fork, poke the skin of the pork several times. Increase the temperature to 225C and cook it for about 15 minutes or until you are happy with the crackle on the skin. You may test it by using the fork to gently tap on the skin and it should give you a slightly hollow sound.

Allow the meat to rest for about 20 minutes before cutting into bite size pieces to serve.

Note:

Try to buy a piece of pork belly that has both a good amount of fat and meat. Some that are sold in supermarkets tend to have more fat than meat. I reckon patronising an asian butcher would be a safe bet. For your info, I bought this for $9.99/kg from Hauff's Butchery.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

My grandparents were born in Hainan (pronounced 'hi naan') Island, a small island south of the main part of China. When people from the Hainan island (Hainanese) arrived in Singapore/Malaysia, they made "Hainanese chicken rice" - hence its name. Even though it has its origins from Hainan island, it is now a very popular Singaporean dish :)

I have attempted making this a few times in the past 2 years. I have tried making this from scratch and it took quite a bit of time, effort and ingredients. If you are interested, check out the full recipe - marinating the chicken, cooking the chicken, cooking the rice and making the chilli.

However, if you are short of time or getting lazy (like me :p), this is my shortcut method (this still takes about 1.5 hours for prep and cooking):

Chicken:
1 whole chicken (I usually buy corn-fed or free range chicken when they are on sale, ~A$5.99/kg)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tsp rice wine
2 pcs of 1-inch thick ginger, lightly bruised
1 garlic clove, peeled and lightly bruised
a small bunch of spring onion
1 tsp sesame oil

Prepare the chicken by removing extra fat (save this fat for the rice if you want to follow the original method of cooking the rice. Otherwise, you may discard the fat). Rub the chicken and its cavity with salt and then with rice wine and 1/2 tbsp soya sauce. Stuff the cavity with garlic, ginger and spring onion. Set aside for 1 hour (not in the fridge).

In a stockpot with sufficient water to cover the chicken, bring the water to boil. Lower the chicken into the pot and ensure that it is entirely immersed. Turn off heat immediately, cover the pot and allow to stand for 1 hour. At 15-min intervals, lift the chicken and drain water from the cavity so that the chicken will cook through. At the 30-min mark, reheat the water to almost boiling point then turn off the heat. Never allow the water to boil. At the end of the hour, remove the chicken and immediately put it into a large bowl with ice and water to arrest further cooking.

Once the chicken is cooled (about 15-20 mins), drain it thoroughly. Rub it down with 1/2 tbsp soya sauce and sesame oil. Set chicken aside, covered, until it is ready to serve. To serve, chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Place on a serving platter over sliced cucumbers/tomatoes. Garnish with sprigs of coriander.

Rice:
1 jar of Hainanese chicken rice mix (available at Asian grocery stores. Lee Kum Kee, Wor Hup, Chng Kee's)
4 cups of rice (or however much you want to cook)

Wash the rice. Cook the rice in the rice cooker according to the instructions on the chicken rice mix. If you are able to get hold of some pandan leaf, add one leaf (tied into a knot) for extra flavour.

Serve rice with chicken pieces and with special chicken rice dark soya sauce (or just the normal one will do), and Lee Kum Kee chicken rice chilli (in a jar, available at Asian grocery stores).

To the chicken stock left behind from cooking the chicken, remove any impurities and bring it up to a boil and add carrots or other veggies. Cook the veggies and serve them with soup with the chicken rice. Add salt to taste. Most of the time, I will reserve the majority of the stock and store it for future consumption. I like to use the stock to make rice porridge or cook instant noodles as a soup base for extra flavour. Never NEVER throw this precious stock away! You may also freeze the excess by using clean yoghurt containers.

Using the chicken rice mix means that I need not wait for the chicken to be cooked and use the stock to cook the rice. I save on the time and effort needed to fry the uncooked rice with chicken fat, ginger and garlic. The mix has oil, ginger, garlic, etc, that will add fragrance to the rice. You usually require quite an amount of chicken fat to make the rice fragrant and tasty.

If you would like it easier, pop down to your nearest Asian grocery store and buy the Prima Taste Hainanese chicken rice mix that comes in a box with the full works - fragrant oil for the rice, mix for cooking chicken, sesame soya sauce for the cooked chicken, authentic dark soya sauce, chilli and ginger sauce. All you really need is chicken, rice and water!

Enjoy! :)

Chicken rice served with soup and omelette

Singapore Cooking

This is the latest cookbook in my collection. I got this book from book depository and it cost me less than A$26 with free delivery. (I did a search and saw that it retails for more than S$35 in Singapore)

This book was written for 3 kinds of people:

- Singaporeans who don't cook much but want to get to know their own food heritage better

- intrepid non-Singaporeans who want to broaden their culinary horizons

- everyone else

Singapore Cooking contains many recipes which don't seem to require too much sweat to cook up, IF you read the method and list of ingredients carefully. There is also an index (with photos) of what common ingredients, spices and seasonings are used for cooking Singapore dishes (Now I can tell the difference between turmeric and galangal!). The photos are well taken and they make you drool and feel hungry. I will attempt some recipes from it and I will post them here to share with you. In the meantime, you are able to view the insides of the book and the contents page here. Should you want any recipe (and I have not posted any on this blog yet), drop me an email and I will be happy to share it with you :)

More on Ondeh Ondeh

I made some ondeh ondeh some time back. Poh (Masterchef Australia 2009 finalist) showed us how to make them on her tv program.

But I am not sure I will try all the other flavours, even though the peanut one sounds appealing to me. I think, like Emmanuel Mollois, I still prefer the original pandan ball with palm sugar filling :)

Foo Yong Egg with Prawns

I love my eggs and I love them in most of the forms that they come in... except when it is raw :p

This dish is quite common in 'cze char' (literally meaning 'cook and fry') places in Singapore. Now you can make your own foo yong egg. Foo yong egg is basically an omelette but Chinese style.(What is a "foo yong" egg?)

I tried this recipe, except that I only used prawns and frozen green peas. I was lazy and did not use onions, chilli and spring onions.

This recipe is easy peasy. Try it!

Egg Tarts

I LOVE egg tarts - especially the ones with buttery pastry. I have been afraid to make them myself, thinking that it is difficult to make. I have had a recipe that I printed off from somewhere a long time ago but I had not gotten around to trying it. Recently I saw this recipe online and decided to seize a good opportunity to try making it for a family lunch gathering.

I am rather pleased with the result :) I made my first 4 tarts on Saturday and brought them to a dinner gathering as a sampler. I made extra pastry and left it in the fridge. I also stored the excess egg mixture in the fridge. 2 days later, I made another 16 tarts for a family lunch.

Recipe taken from here.

Notes:
- the pastry dough I made turned out too moist and sticky so that it was difficult for me to roll the dough out nicely. I added another 1/2 cup of flour but it did not improve a lot. I resorted to just pinching off bits of the dough and using my fingers to press it into the small tart tins (with loose bottom). The end result was not far from what I wanted. I received comments that the buttery, biscuit-like pastry was nice.

- if you like a less sweetened version, reduce the amount of sugar. Personally, I prefer the tart to be sweeter.

- if you do not have a tart tin with loose bottom, I think you can use muffin trays lined with baking cases. However, you might face a small amount of difficulty trying to press the pastry into the mould lined with paper baking cases.


During this past long weekend, I made double the portions of the recipe and served them at 3 different gatherings. Everyone loved them :)

Ngoh Hiang

This is what it looks like before it goes into the steamer. (I forgot to take a photo after I pan-fried them)

Ngoh Hiang (五香) is a unique Teochew/Hokkien dish served as an entree in Singapore and Malaysia. My mum is a Teochew (her ancestors were from Chao Zhou, a city in the Guandong province of China) and I got some tips off her. Some know this as prawn rolls, others know it as pork rolls.

I kinda missed this dish which my mum used to make in large quantities during Chinese New Year. Upon my request, my mum made these when she visited me last year. I froze some so that I could eat them some time later (see recipe below).

I have seen quite a number of recipes online and have also obtained my mum's. With my mum's blessings, I decided to adapt from those recipes and make my own. The difference lies in the ingredients and seasoning.

Dried beancurd skin

1kg minced pork (fatty ones)
300g water chestnuts (I bought frozen ones from Asian grocery store. I reckon you could use canned ones too)
12 medium size prawns, shelled and deveined
1 large sheet of beancurd skin*
1 egg
2 tsp Massel chicken stock powder
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
generous dash of white pepper
1 Tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp five-spice powder
2 Tbsp fried onions/shallots (I used store-bought ones)
2 french shallots, finely chopped (available from Woolies)

*I could not locate beancurd skin from Yuen's. The one I used was brought over from Singapore. But I reckon you could search for them at other Asian grocery stores. There would be different types of beancurd skins available. Enquire from the store if those can be used to wrap minced meat.

Place all ingredients (except for the beancurd skin) into a large bowl and stir to combine well. For best results, cover the bowl with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour (or overnight) to allow all the seasoning to infuse.

Remove the meat mixture from the fridge and allow it to come up to room temperature. Gently run a moist clean cloth on the beancurd skin to remove excess salt. Using food scissors, cut the skin to 15-20cm square pieces. Place enough meat mixture (around 2-3 Tbsp, so that you may obtain a roll of around 2.5cm thick) on the end of the square sheet of beancurd skin closer to you. Begin to roll, starting with the end of the sheet closer to you, like how you would wrap a sushi roll. Make sure that the pork roll is tight but also take care not to break the skin. Dab some water on the last bit of the skin so that the roll can be sealed. Do not worry about the ends as they will 'wilt' when steamed.

Steam the rolls for 10 mins and allow to cool. At this point, you may store the rolls in takeaway containers and freeze them for future consumption. When you are ready to eat, pan fry the rolls with cooking oil until they turn golden brown on both sides. You may deep fry them if you like but I chose to pan fry them for health reasons.

To serve, slice the rolls into 1.5-2cm thick pieces. You may slice them at an angle too. Serve with sweet chilli sauce or sweet dark soy sauce like kecap manis.

Prima Taste Delights

One of the ways to cook your own authentic Singaporean food in Australia is to use ready-to-cook premixes. The convenience of using premixes is really really good... especially when the result is very satisfying and gives you a taste of home as you eat.

Other than your usual curry, laksa and chicken rice, there are a lot more different food premixes available. Some are available in big party packs, suitable for hosting parties. Check out their prices here.

I have tried bak kut teh, beef rendang, satay, chicken rice, laksa, singapore curry, chilli crab and last night, I tried mee siam. Yum! The authentic taste of mee siam still lingers in my mouth...

You can purchase these mixes at their online store and you get free shipping to anywhere in Singapore for purchases above S$30. It does cost a little more to buy in Australia, given the current currency exchange rate. However if you were to bring it back from Singapore, certain foods might be rejected by Customs. So far Australian Customs has been quite kind to me. But do note that the variety available outside Singapore might be limited.

Party packs are available at Prima Taste Kitchen, The Centrepoint Shopping Centre and the online store only. They are great for hosting parties of at least 10 people. My suggestion is to make your purchases via the online store. The prices are reasonable and very similar to those you get from supermarkets in Singapore. Get them sent to a Singapore address for free (with S$30 purchase which you can easily clock up) and then pack them into your suitcase to bring to Australia. Please remember to declare all food items to Custom.

Places in Brisbane where you can find Prima Taste mixes:

• Amigas, Wynnum North
• Burlinton Supermarket, Fortitude Valley
• Flavour of Asia, Capabala
• High Fresh, Sunnybank
• Hung's Supermarket, Sunnybank Hills
• Vui's Market, Inala
• Welcome Fresh Foods, Sunnybank
• Welcome Mart @ Robertson
• Yuen's Market, Sunnybank
• Yummy Chow, Morayfield

(See the list of places in the world where you can find Prima Taste mixes)

Ondeh Ondeh (Pandan Glutinous Rice Balls)

Ondeh ondeh (or "onde onde" as some spell it) is a Malay kuih. I have eaten this many times in my hometown but I did not know of its name until a long time ago. A friend at university told me he loves Ondeh Ondeh and he usually bought them from the Bengawan Solo (cake shop) store from the university hospital near our faculty. He taught me how to appreciate this yummy juicy (melted sugar inside the 'ball') kuih. You have to put the entire ball into your mouth, so that when you bite into it, the melted sugar inside oozes out.

I did not realise how easy it was to make this dish. I found quite a number of recipes online but I came up with this easy (maybe a cheat's) version. And it tastes great!

There were 2 shades of green because of the different amount of pandan paste I added

(makes about 40-50 balls)

500g glutinous rice flour

1 tsp pandan paste

1 cup water

desiccated coconut (I prefer this to shredded ones)

about 200g gula melaka or palm sugar

2 tbsp white sugar

Stir pandan paste and water together in a jug. In a large bowl of half the amount of glutinous rice flour, pour a bit of the pandan mixture. Mix and knead with your hand and slowly pour more mixture as you go along, until you achieve a dough that has a consistency like that of playdough.

Using a grater, grate gula melaka (I bought my cylindrical shaped dark brown version from Singapore) or palm sugar finely. Add sugar and mix well. Make small balls out of the dough. Flatten each ball and place half a teaspoon (the amount depends on how big your ball is) of sugar mixture in the centre. Wrap around the ball so that the sugar is inside the ball. Ensure that each ball is smooth and round.

When I try it the next time, I hope to make this flat dough thinner. That means the dough has to be smooth and not dry.

In a saucepan of boiling water, drop the balls in. Gently stir through so that the balls will not stick to the bottom of the saucepan. You only need to create enough movement to swirl the water. You will know that they are cooked when they float onto the surface of the water. Using a slotted spoon, remove the ball out of the water and place it in a bowl of dessicated coconut. Swirl the bowl to coat the ball. Serve warm.

This is a dish that should be eaten soon after it is made. Do not make a mistake (like me) of making the balls and leaving them overnight in a container to cook the next day. Some sugar inside the balls dissolved in the moisture and leaked into the container. I managed to salvaged most of the balls and cook them immediately in the morning.

Ideally, you should use pandan juice (pandan leaves blended with water). However pandan leaves are not easily available in Australia. Hence this particular brand of pandan paste is good enough and it is convenient too!

This pandan paste can be found at Asian grocery stores

Postscript: A better recipe and more info available here.

Bak Kwa

Bak kwa making session at FH's

Bak kwa or 肉干 (rou gan) is a very popular snack in Singapore, Malaysia, China and Taiwan. It is a Chinese salty-sweet dried meat product similar to jerky, made in the form of flat thin sheets. It is normally made from minced pork or sliced pork (the premium variety).

FH kindly organised a bak kwa making session for those who were interested. Using her mum's recipe, she made a batch for some students during Chinese New Year and they loved it. With her kind permission, I am sharing this recipe with you.

1kg of fairly fatty minced pork
2 Tbsp Soya sauce
1.5 Tbsp fish sauce
250g sugar
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
2 Tbsp water
1/1 tsp white pepper
Pinch of five spice powder
1/2 Tbsp cooking wine
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Baste
3 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp water

Marinate minced pork with all other ingredients, preferably overnight.

Take out a portion of marinated meat and using the back of a large spoon, flatten the meat evenly and thinly onto a baking tray (without baking paper). Be careful to ensure that it is thin and compact, leaving no gaps in between. Use cling wrap or plastic gloves to gently tap and press the meat to ensure it is compacted. Bake for 20 minutes at 150C.

Remove from oven and use a blunt knife or flat turner (be careful not to leave scratch marks on your metal baking tray) to cut the baked meat into 4-8 slices. Flip the meat slices and place them onto the tray and back into the oven for another 20 minutes. You can make 2 to 3 trays of meat and bake them in the oven altogether. After 20 minutes remove the tray(s) from the oven.

At this point you may cool the meat slices and freeze them for future use. You may also grill the slices on the BBQ or follow the steps below to grill them in the oven. Either way you need to baste the slices.

Transfer the meat slices onto another clean baking tray lined with baking paper. Baste the meat slices with the honey and water mixture. Turn the oven setting to "grill" mode and place the tray on the top shelf. Carefully watch the slices grill as you want to achieve some charred edges while the meat turns a dark brown, almost reddish-brown, colour. When you are happy with the colour, turn the slices over, baste and place the tray of meat slices back into the oven until this side is also reddish-brown. Remove the slices and allow cool it on a rack.

My maiden attempt at bak kwa. The underside was quite burnt :p

My first attempt failed a little as I was distracted by the TV and failed to watch the grilling process carefully. They turned out more charred than I wanted them to be.

Eating this bak kwa 2 days later seemed to increase the taste :p On my next attempt I might try adding some liquorice powder (available at Asian grocery stores) to the marinade. Some recipes I have found online include this.

There are a few ways to eat this:
1. Eat it on its own (yum!!)
2. Cut into small thin slices and use it as a garnish on fried rice or fried noodles
3. Place a piece in between 2 slices of bread and eat it as a snack or for breakfast.

Are you salivating yet?

Singapore Chicken Satay

Singapore satay... something that I miss, quite fondly... On my recent trip back, I purchased Prima Taste Singapore satay mix to try out. Following the instructions on the pack was easy as!

I seriously think the satay from this pack is a tad healthier than what you get from hawker stalls in Singapore. You can use chicken with less fat (however you cannot completely omit it as you need some to cook) so that it will burn less since burnt food are known to be cancer-causing.

1) Dice up 500g of chicken thigh pieces and marinade with mix A provided in the Prima Taste box. I marinate it overnight, which ended up more than the 6 hours that is recommended on the packaging..

2) Soak the wooden skewers (so that they will not burn) for about 10 mins (this is not part of the instructions on the pack but a good tip to know). Thread the meat onto the skewers.

3) Cook the meat over a bbq grill or grill pan (which I use) or just simply use a fry pan (except you will not get the grill lines on the meat) if you do not have access to any of the above. Place cooked meat on a plate with sliced cucumber and red onions , cut into wedges (and photo above).

4) Place mix B in a saucepan to make the satay sauce. When bubbles start to appear on its side, add 5 tsp cooking oil. Bring it to the boil and add mix C (peanut paste) and bring to the boil again. Serve alongside chicken satay.

You may buy this from larger Asian grocery store like Yuen's or buy and bring back from Singapore/Malaysia. Make sure you declare it at through the customs! :)

PS: Aussies may not know what is 'satay'. It is commonly known as kebab.

Roti Jala - A Dish that Impresses

At the first Australia Masterchef last year, one of the contestant Poh made a chicken rendang and lacy pancakes/crepes (which is actually roti jala).

I found the recipe (before I was given the Masterchef cookbook in Dec) in a Peranakan cookbook in Nov and I tried making it for my BIL's birthday. It worked out quite well! My 3yo niece loves just eating the plain pancakes.

On Saturday, I had to bring a dish to a friend's place for lunch. I decided to make roti jala again and used the leftover Singapore chicken curry gravy that I freezed earlier. I cooked 2-3 pieces of chicken thigh fillets in boiling water. When the chicken is cooked, leave it aside to cool. I used my fingers to tear it into shreds of meat and place them into the frozen gravy into a saucepan. Let it boil and then simmer for a few minutes. Turn off the heat and the gravy is good to go. Alternatively, cook up some curry gravy (from instant packets) will do.

Roti jala recipe (makes about 10-12 pancakes)

2 eggs

1 cup plain flour

1 cup coconut milk (I used the lite version)

1 cup milk

Mix everything a mixing bowl until lumps disappear. Sieve the mixture so that it will be a smooth batter.

Now, you probably do not have the roti jala funnel. However you can always improvise. Poh used the paper carton from milk or cream. Simply cut off one corner of the carton. For me, I used a disposable piping bag which I have in my pantry. Hold the bag on top of the fry pan and turn it as in a pendulum movement and draw circles, z's, up and down, left and right.... random ones will do. When you are happy with the lacy design, stop the batter flow. Leave the pancake for another 40 seconds. Then, use your fingers to fold the round pancake into half and then a quarter. Place the pancake on a plate. Continue until all the batter is used up.

This is really simple and fun to make! I am sure your parents and friends will be impressed. This dish will be a conversation topic at gatherings if you bring this :)

Ngoh Hiang

This is cyberspot's recipe. My mum makes great teochew ones too but I have not attempted it myself. Hence I thought I'll share this anyway. Try it!

My mum would steam the wrapped ngoh hiang and you can actually eat it steamed or store it away (I have tried freezing it and it was ok). When you want to eat them, pan fry them in fry pan with some oil. I reckon this is healthier than deep fried? :)

Dim Sim... Siew Mai...

The Aussies call them dim sim but I call them siew mai. Call it whatever you want, so long as they taste good :)

Recipe can be found here.

Chee Cheong Fun

Miss your chee cheong fun? Not a problem! You may easily buy the 'cheong fun' (rolled noodles) at Asian Groceries (~A$2+ for 1 kg). And while you are at it, pick up some other ingredients to make the sauce too - sesame seeds, hoisin sauce, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce.

Really, it is that easy! Check it out!