Vegetarian Curry Laksa - Guest Post @ Notabilia

Those who have been reading my blog may be aware that I have a sister who decided to become a vegetarian when she came back from her first trip to India some 10 years ago. The family was initially shocked by her sudden conversion and I admit at one point, I had wondered if she had been hypnotised and  brain washed by some religious cult group in India.... As time went by, she continued to stick to her conviction and we came to accept her choice and stopped questioning her. Although, at times, I have to admit she still gets on my nerves when she righteously suggests that I should do all my baking with molasses and wholewheat flour... Anyway... so when Pooja of Notabilia contacted me to ask if I could do a local vegetarian dish for her blog, I was not altogether at a loss because eating out with my vegetarian sister has exposed me to a myriad of local dishes from vegetarian indian 'mutton' dum briyani to vegetarian 'minced meat' noodles to vegetarian curry 'fish head'... yes, it is definitely much more interesting to be a vegetarian here in Singapore.

Laksa is easily my favourite local dish. Filled with rich, beautiful spices and spiked with coconut milk, this curry laksa (to differentiate it more the more tangy Penang Assam Laksa) , has remained the favourite noodle dish of many here. Hop over to Notabilia to find out how my vegetarian version turns out. 

Hei Bee Hiam - Sambal Udang Kering

I did it! For the longest time, I have been telling everyone that one of my culinary resolution for the year is to bake bread. I have finally succeeded baking a very soft sweet bun and the reason I am cooking this dish today is to use it as a filling for the sweet buns a little later.

This is another Nyonya/Peranakan dish that features dried shrimps fried with an assortment of spices. This recipe which is found in Shermay Lee's The New Mrs Lee's Cookbook Vol. 1, uses Tamarind juice to lend moistness and vibrancy to the traditional versatile dish.
As with most Nyonya dishes, the cooking part is easy but the prep work calls for alot of chopping, slicing and pounding. As such, to make all the effort worthwhile, this dish is normally prepared in a bigger batch and kept in the fridge to be enjoyed over a week.



This is delicious when served with steamed white rice. With the dumpling festival just round the corner, this can also be used as a filling for the rice dumpling. A more common snack food would be the Lemper Udang which is a sweet glutinious rice roll filled with this Hei Bee Hiam.

So, what is your favourite way of enjoying the Hei Bee Hiam?



Recipe 300g Dried shrimps
Garlic 6 cloves
Shallots 10
Lemon grass 2 stalks
Red chilli 2
Green chilli 2
Tamarind paste 1 round tbsp. (assam paste)
Water 6 tbsp

Oil 120ml (I used 100ml hence my hei bee hiam is a little dry)
Sugar 1 1/2 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp

Rempah
Tumeric 1/4 thumb size
Belachan 1/2 tsp

Method :

1. Wash dried shrimps and soak it in hot water for 10 mins. Drain and pound/process to get minced shrimp paste.

2. Prepare garlic, shallots and lemon grass by slicing them thinly.
3. Cut red and green chilli into fine slices.
4. Peel tumeric and pound with belachan to get a paste.
5. Prepare Tamarind juice by mixing paste with 6 tbsp of water. Rub the tamarind paste in water. Drain juice through a strainer.
6. Heat up a wok until smokingh hot.
7. Add oil. Reduce heat. Add in shallots and garlic. Fry quickly for 1 min. Add chilli and lemon grass and fry for another minute. Use a strainer, remove and drain oil into wok.
8. In the remaining oil in the wok, fry the rempah over high heat. Sprinkle some water and fry for about 2 mins. Reduce heat and add in dried shrimps. Fry for 2 minutes and add in the drained shallots from (7).
9. Add in Tamarind juice, sugar and salt.
10. Continue to fry over low heat until the shrimps become dry.
11. Cool down and store in air tight container.

Tauhu Goreng - Deep Fried Tofu With Peanut Sauce

If  I ever have to pick a favourite food, I would choose Tofu (bean curd) without even the slightest momentary hesitation. My colleagues have all come to know that whenever we choose to eat at an Asian restaurant during our travels, I have to have a Tofu dish. It is fortunate that Tofu is a common and popular ingredient in most Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean restaurants. It is even more fortunate that so far, none of my travel companions, are averse to Tofu dishes in Asia. Tofu has to be the most neutral and comforting ingredient one can work with. On its own, its taste is so neutral that it is impossible for it to offend any palate.

However, I do realise that the nutritious protein component has acquired a somewhat irksome reputation in the west as a tasteless, uninteresting health freak food. Here in Asia, we use Tofu in more interesting and creative ways. There are countless recipes out there that feature the humble ingredient. Off the top of my head, I can already recall posting at least 4 or 5 Tofu dishes in this space.


The recipe I feature today is a popular tofu snack in SE Asia.  This can be served as an appetizer or a tofu salad dish. For myself, a larger Tofu square would be enough to be my meal. The slightly spicy peanut sauce is the integral element that lends an exotic appeal to this otherwise plain and simple dish.

Totally easy to prepare and great to be served at parties. I used the recipe featured in Shermay Lee's The New Mrs Lee's Cookbook Vol. 2. The instructions are simple and easy to follow but the peanut sauce turns out a tad too thick. I could possibly thin it down a little more with water and add a dash of lime juice to it the next time I prepare this again.



Recipe :

Bean Sprouts          100g
Cucumber               1
Firm Tofu                400g (2 pieces) (If you purchase this from an Asian grocery store, look for Taukua)
Oil for deep frying

Peanut Sauce
Garlic                     4 cloves
Red Chilli               2
Palm Sugar             2 tbsp (can be replaced with brown sugar)
Salt                        1/4 tsp
Rice Vinegar          1 tbsp (those used for sushi is fine)
Dark soya sauce     2 tbsp (try to use the darker version. This is different from the light soya sauce commonly
                              used for flavouring)
Water                     8 tbsp (I would suggest to add more water to adjust the flow of the sauce)
Roasted ground peanut 160g

Method:

1. Blanch bean sprouts in boiling water for 1 minute. Drain and keep aside.
2. Wash cucumber and slice it.
3. Place garlic and chilli in a food processer and grind it to a paste.
4. Place (3) in a saucepan with the rest of the peanut sauce ingredient. Heat up and cook until sugar dissolves completely. (if you like your sauce to be smoother and less chunky, you can process the cooled down sauce in the food processor again)
5. Heat up,in a wok, enough oil to at least half immerse the tofu. The oil needs to be very hot. Normally, we insert the tip of a wooden chopstick to check for small bubbles before we put in the tofu.
(before deep frying, sandwich the tofu between 4 pieces of kitchen towel and lay a heavy tray on the the tofu. This will dry out the excess moisture in the tofu and prevent too much splattering when you deep fry it)
6. Deep fry tofu until golden brown. Be patient and do not try to turn the tofu before it has formed a crust - otherwise the tofu will crumble.
7. Lay a plate with sliced cucumber. Lay fried tofu on top (pre-cut) , top with bean sprouts and peanut sauce.

Nyonya Egg Sambal With Steamed Nasi Lemak

Can you remember the first serious dishes you cooked in your new kitchen? I can... it was some 7-8 years ago when I excitedly cooked my first house warming dishes in my then shiny new kitchen. Among the dishes were 2 Nyonya dishes which I had learnt earlier from Shermay's Nyonya Cooking Class - Tempeh Goreng and Sambal Egg. The Tempeh Goreng, in particular was exotic and had a spritely appetising flavour which never failed to wow and I had repeated that for 3 separate house warming sessions... I didn't repeat this sambal egg dish as often because the vanity in me had felt that it was too easy and was not impressive enough.... Sigh.. I was much younger then and was more full of hot air! As age catches up,the character mellows and starts to appreciate the value of simplicity and functionality.

I have quite a few cookbooks on Nyonya Cuisine but the one that I refer to when I need reliability and authenticity is usually Shermay Lee's double volume 'The New Mrs Lee's Cook Book : Nyonya Cuisine'.  I have bookmarked the Traditional Nasi Lemak(Coconut Rice) recipe in the book for quite some time and have finally decided I would try this to go with the Egg Sambal which is also featured in the book. 

Forgoing the convenience of the modern rice cooker, the Nasi Lemak is cooked by gently steaming rice in 2 stages.For those who have tasted steamed rice, you will be able to appreciate the soft fluffy texture of the rice grain. The rice grains also tend to stay separated and not stick together in clumps as is sometimes seen in rice cooked in boiling water. Steaming the rice takes a longer time and requires one to 'watch and control the fire' more carefully. In addition, fluffing the rice with a pair of chopsticks also needs to be done to ensure that the rice is cooked evenly.

In Shermay's cookbook, apart from the tedious method, she had also published a simplified method. This calls for cooking the rice briskly in boiling water for 5 minutes before draining it out and steaming it for another 5-10mins.


I truly enjoy the rice with the Sambal Egg - which is a little sweeter and a little more tangy than the versions cooked with sambal belachan chilli paste. Hence for those who are less accustomed to flavours with more heat, this would be a delicious alternative. It has just occurred to me that this could be an interesting recipe for those who are looking to cook something a little more exotic for Easter :) 


Recipe : (Adapted from Shermay Lee's 'The New Mrs Lee Cookbook' )

Nasi Lemak (Simplified method)
Pandan Leaf           2 pieces
Water                    2.3 liter
Jasimine Rice         600g
Coconut milk         220g
Salt                        1 tsp

Egg Sambal
Quails Eggs            30 (or 10 small hens eggs) (Hardboiled and peeled)
Coconut Milk         80g
Oil                         4 tbsp
Tomato Ketchup    5 tbsp
Lime Juice              1 tsp
Sugar                      to taste
Salt                        1 tsp

Rempah for Egg Sambal
Ginger                   1 thumb size piece
Shallots                  12 bulbs
Garlic                    2 cloves
Chilli powder        1 tsp (I added more)

Method :
Rice
1. Wash rice. Boil water in a heavy saucepan and add washed rice and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Drain the water from the rice and quickly add coconut milk and salt. Stir well to combine. Cover to infuse for 10mins.
3, Transfer rice to a steamer. ( I place the rice on a shallow bowl and place this in a steamer) Add pandan leave and steam for 10mins.

Egg Sambal
1. Pound / grind the rempah ingredients to form a paste.
2. Heat up a wok until smoking hot. Add oil and (1). Fry for about 1minute. Add tomato ketchup and fry for another 1 minute.
3. Add eggs and fry for 1 minute. Add coconut milk stir well and simmer over medium low heat for a few minutes. Add lime juice and salt & sugar seasoning. Simmer for another 3-5 minutes until gravy turns thicker.

Palm Sugar Rice Cakes (Kuih Kosui)

South East Asian cuisine, as one knows, is diverse in a rich and colourful way. Distinct sharp flavours often puctuated by the clever use of exotic spices and earthy fresh ingredients have come to depict the identity of SE Asian cuisine to many.

Needless to say, gastronomy nostalgia for me, with my Singaporean roots, will always have to involve food or ingredients that transport me back to the region. Dessert will always be a category that grips many and for many of us who reside in the South East Asia, Kuih, those bitesized snacks that come in a myriad of textures, colours and taste will always evoke fond memories and comfort.

Common ingredients for Kuih include coconut products, root vegetables such as tapioca or sweet potato, rice flour (SE Asia's staple carb component) and.... Gula Melaka (palm sugar) which transforms our sweets further with its exotic sweetness. Commonly used in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesian cuisine, the palm sugar resembles brown sugar but has a more distinct caramel or butterscotch like flavour. The palm sugar, being more accessible and cheaper than refined white cane sugar was very often the sweet note on the simplest desserts such as sago pudding, coconut milk based chendol and in this case, the no frills, straight forward rice cake, Kuih Kosui.



I have to admit that Kuih Kosui has never been my favourite kuih but it is possibly the one that best celebrates the flavours of palm sugar. Commonly steamed in a tray and cut into rectangular slices to be coated with grated coconut, there are others who also steam these in little cup molds. I have decided today to try to work with these little leaf cups which I had bought at a wet market in Chinatown, Bangkok. However, I must admit regret in dressing up the kuih in these cups for the the dried leafy cup carries with it a scent that I feel do not meld with the palm sugar.

Overall though, this is definitely one classic dessert which sets off the sweet exotic flavours of Gula Melaka in an honest, earthy manner and for many of us who hail from the region, I have no doubt that it will bring back sweet dessert memories we grew with.


RecipePalm Sugar         100g
Water                 100ml
Sugar                  60g
Rice Flour           5 tbsp
Tapioca Flour     2 tbsp
Alkaline water     1/2 tsp
Grated coconut    50g (salted and steamed)
Salt                      1/2 tsp

Method :
1. In a heavy saucepan, place palm sugar and water. Heat up to dissolve the palm sugar. Add castor sugar, and continue to heat until sugar dissolves.
2. Add Alkaline water and Rice flour and Tapioca flour and mix well.
3. Return the saucepan over the stove and over low heat and with stirring, cook the batter until the batter starts to become a thicker flowable batter.
4. In a spearate pot, heat up water to prepare for steaming.
5. Pour (3) into molds (either a rectangular tray or small cups)
6. Steam (5) over high heat for about 15mins.
7. Cool down and garnish with salted grated coconut.

Yau Char Kuai - Fried Bread Dough Served with Thai Coconut Custard

We have a saying in Chinese that goes like this... 吃饱饭没事做. Literal translation of that is 'Having nothing better to do after being fed'. The phrase is normally used to describe people who choose to engage in  frivolous, meaningless deeds. As I kneaded the dough with perspiration beads forming on my fore head, that phrase resonated incessantly in my head.

Youtiao/ Yau Char Kuai are humble street food that I can find in many parts of Asia. In China/ Taiwan, this deep fried bread dough is taken for breakfast with soya bean milk. We also dip this into savoury porridge for breakfast or lunch. In Singapore/ Malaysia, we mix this with sweet prawn paste and vegetables in a local salad dish known as Rojak. And yes, we  have also acquired the taste of dipping these in coffee.On the streets of Thailand, they have started serving this with pandan coconut custard. Quite simply, to me, the Yau Char Kuai/ Youtiao is the Baguette of the East.
However, nobody ever bothers to make this at home. When  I was younger, we used to buy this for 30cents. Now with inflation and affluence, it has gone up to between 50cents and a dollar. Like what L had sensibly put it, you can get everything for a couple of bucks without any hassle.



When I first saw this recipe at Ellie's Almost Bourdain, I had wanted to make it. I was originally only curious about the custard because I had eaten it on crusty toasted bread in Bangkok and it was delicious. 2 weeks ago, when L and I were in Bangkok,we spotted these finger sized Youtiao and I knew I had to try them. L's verdict was that the longer versions tasted better as they are softer and more fluffy in the inside. The shorter ones which are stretched less, were denser. Then last week I came across an article in the papers about David Thompson whose cookbook ' Thai Street Food' was the original source of this recipe.  David Thompson, an Australian chef who had won a Michelin star for his Thai restaurant, Nahm, in London, recently created some controversy when he opened a branch in Bangkok and caused general outrage after he was quoted as saying he was on a mission to revive Thai cuisine.
Words spoken out of ill-judgement, I felt. If anything, Thais are gentle but very nationalistic people. I can still recall  how my Thai classmate in primary school used to tell me proudly that Thailand is the only SE Asian country that has never been conquered by foreigners.

Anyway, when I saw David Thompson's article, I immediately thought of this street dish again. Maybe it is a calling or whatever you call it, so as '吃饱饭没事做' as it may be, I still decided to make this.

I do recall seeing how the street vendors would pull and stretch the dough, cut them into thin strips, stack them together and press a chopstick over them. However, doing this at home is quite a feat. Awkward with the wet dough, I sprinkled flour on my pastry board and tried to roll the dough out as consistently as I could. Boy, did my kitchen look like a flour speckled war zone after the exercise. It took a while for me to get a feel for the dough. About half of my fried Youtiao looked really ugly, short and stubby with some looking more like fried dough squares. I got the hang of it after a while but working by yourself is tricky. I now know why there was always 2 people working at the stall, one would monitor the oil temperature and tend to the frying dough while the other concentrated on pulling and cutting the dough.

So would I do this again? Hmmm.... not in a heartbeat but I believe I would.



Recipe (As seen at Ellie's Almost Bourdain)
Please refer here for Pandan Coconut Custard

Bread Dough
Ingredients


About 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of ammonia (baking ammonia) or 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) (* See note)
2 cups sieve plain (all-purpose) flour - more as needed
about 2 tsp vegetable oil
plenty of vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Method
1.In a large bowl, mix the salt, sugar and bicarbonate with 1 cup of water, stirring until dissolved. Pour the flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre, then add a few tbsps of the prepared water. Work to make a loose, dry crumb then gradually incorporate the remainder of the water as well as the oil, kneading well after each addition. While kneading, occasionally gather the dough into a ball, pick it up and slap it several times, to stretch the gluten. When all is added, continue to knead and slap for at least 5 minutes - longer is better - to arrive at a silken, smooth, soft yet quite wet dough. The dough must be quite wet - if it's too dry, this will inhibit the puffing of the bread as it cooks.


2.Cover and leave to prove and ferment slightly in a warm, airy place for 6-8 hours or longer, until the dough has almost doubled in size and slowly springs back when pressed.

3.On the streets, the dough is patted and knocked back then slowly and gently stretched into long rectangular strips about 20 cm x 5 cm x 5 mm (8 in x 2 in x 3/4 in). Home cooks might prefer to roll the dough into the required shape. Make sure the surface and the rolling pin are dusted with plenty of flour to help prevent the dough from sticking. Leave to rest and prove for about 10 minutes, covered with a slightly damp cloth.

4.Now cut into smaller strips, each piece about 5 cm x 2 cm (2 in x 1 in). Brush the centre of a piece with a little water and top with another piece, pressing the middle sections lightly together. Repeat with the remaining strips. Some cooks use a skewer dusted with flour to do this, lifting one piece of the dough and pressing it against the other piece in the middle to secure the pair.

5.Pour the deep-frying oil into a large, stable wok or a wide heavy-based pan until it is about two-thirds full. Heat the oil over a medium-high flame until a cooking thermometer registers 180-190C (350-375F). Alternatively, test the temperature of the oil by dropping a cube of bread - it will brown in 10-15 seconds if the oil is hot enough.

6.Deep-fry the bread 4 or 5 pieces at a time until puffed, floating and golden. Turn each piece constantly during the deep-frying, to ensure that the dough puffs up then cooks and colours evenly. Experienced street cooks will deep-fry as many as 20 in a batch, but I have found that 4 or 5 at a time is enough to handle. Most cooks in Thailand will use a pair of large, long chopsticks to turn the pieces of bread - you can too, or a long-handled pair of tongs will do the trick. As each batch is cooked, lift out with chopsticks or tongs and drain on paper towel. Use a fine strainer to scoop out any scraps, which would taint the oil, and repeat until all of the shaped and cut dough is used.

7.Serve warm with a bowl of sugar or some dipping custard and a newspaper, and pepper with some gossip.

Sneak Preview : Mee Rebus

A sneak preview at the Mee Rebus which I will be bringing to a potluck gathering initiated by Pei Lin of Dodol & Mochi. This is my first attempt at making Mee Rebus and I've decided to make use of a new recipe which I had picked up at Chef Keong's class at Chef Cooking Studio last month. This potluck session presents the  perfect occasion for me to test the recipe.
Different from standard  Mee Rebus recipes which usually calls for mashed potatoes to make up the thick starchy gravy, this recipe cuts back on the quantity of pototoes and uses Honey Dew Melon and Pineapple instead. Hence, the overall meal feels less starchy and less heavy on the stomach.

This is the pre-test and I thought it was pretty successful. After the photo shoots, I heated up the gravy again and tried cutting it with more water to reduce the viscosity. That got even better!

I shan't publish the recipe as it shall be unfair to Chef Cooking Studio but all you resourceful bloggers out there - I am sure you will be able to find many basic mee rebus recipes on the blogosphere. This will give you a good starting point to tweak the recipe.

Sneak Preview Over! Cheers!