Mutton Chop (Beach Road, Singapore style)

It feels good to drop by my blog, which I have somewhat abandoned temporarily in the name of other pursuits such as raising and developing my toddler - attending her playgroups and devising developmental activities at home - spring cleaning the house which is never ending and trying to finish a course, to name just a few. Despite the silence on this blog, I am still cooking. I have attempted to eat out more than before but each time I finish my meal, I will leave the eatery as a dissatisfied diner. It's hardly tasty. Thus, I'm more and more convinced that home cooking rocks. Hehe.

Cooking these days is all about quick, nutritious and yummy food as I am spending more time on my little one. Make no mistake then that I would often go thru my gastronomy memory bank for recipes I grew up with and food I adored from Singapore. I have many. Too many. This Indian fare which is a common hawker centre food in Singapore is just one of them. I had my first plate of Mutton Chop probably at 7 yrs old. On hindsight, I must have stuffed myself with excessive red food colouring often used with the meat, not to mention the recycled oil used in the frying of the potatoes by the food seller. Yikes!

Not wanting to give up on one of my fav food, I decided I could change some of the ingredients to produce a healthier version of the dish. For instance, I used olive oil for everything and completely omitted the red food colouring. I also used pasta sauce for more flavour in place of canned tomato puree and ready to fry and pre-seasoned frozen potato wedges as opposed to actual potatoes that need to be de-skined, washed and cut up in order to save on preparation time. That's the beauty of home cooking, you control what goes into your system :)

Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
For marinate
500g mutton or beef steak (diced)
4 tbsp light soy sauce
6 tbsp sweet soy sauce (kicap manis)

For meat sauce
10 tbsp tomato puree or pasta sauce
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp sugar (+/- based on preference)
1 tbsp chilli paste (+/- based on  preference). I used the ready to use one as pictured. In Spore "chilli boh" is commonly used and available.
2 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp cumin powder
Light soy sauce
Sweet soy sauce (kicap manis)
Oil for frying

Other accompaniments
Frozen potato wedges
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Snow peas (blanched)
Eggs fried sunny side up

Method:
1. Marinate meat with the sauces for at least 30mins.
2. Fry the potato wedges, eggs. Set aside.
3. Heat 3 tbsp of oil in a pan and fry the marinated meat until lightly cooked. Take meat off pan and set aside.
4. Clear the pan of any left over liquid (don't discard, can add to sauce if it requires more liquid)
5. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in the pan. Add pasta sauce or tomato puree, chilli paste and tomato ketchup. Sautee the ingredients over medium heat, stirring them occasionally for abt 3-4 mins.
6. Add the light & sweet soy sauce to taste. Add the cumin and coriander powder. Stir the ingredients well.
7. Add the pre-fried meat cubes and stir the ingredients making sure each meat cube is sufficiently coated with the sauce. Let the ingredients cook for abt 3-5 mins and the sauce slightly thickened.  If too thick, add the leftover liquid from the meat. Add sugar and let it caramelise for a while before turning off the heat.
8. Adjust the taste to your liking. The sauce should be a little sweet and sourish and if you prefer, hot (spicy) as well. Add more/less sugar/chilli to taste. Serve with the rest of the accompaniments.

Nasi Goreng Tom Yum (Tom Yum Fried Rice)

It is a strange summer in Australia this year.  According to the met services, we're experiencing the coldest summer in Canberra in 47 years! I felt the weather reverted from Spring to Autumn instead of progressing into sunny days, with temperature hovering between 19*C and 23*C since the start of the season. Suffice to say that we still need thick woollen blankets to sleep at night.

With the cold weather comes the need for comfort food. One of my perennial favourites is fried rice.  It's one of the easiest yet tastiest complete meals to produce. The best fried rice is made with yesterday's rice.  Even better refrigerated.  I must say, fried rice is highly customisable too.  There's the Malay version, the Chinese version, the Indian version and more. I am passionate about fried rice so much so that I contributed a recipe to an international magazine some time this year and it got published - in full glossy glory (with my name on it!).  Yay!

Add any "side kick" as you wish.
I have here slices of Vegetarian Mock Duck (Char Siew) and cucumber

Fast forward to my kitchen.  I was hooked on making Chinese fried rice for several days in a row.  This followed a friend's Facebook posting of the glorious dish she had in food-loving Singapore, of course.  I must digress a little here with a small confession to make. When I run out of ideas to cook, I turn to Facebook. My countrymen have a peculiar obsession of posting pictures of their gastronomic indulgences with pride. After all, might I remind you that we're people of Makan Nation, of which eating is second only to shopping as a national past time ("makan" is Malay for "eat").  

So, back to my kitchen.  The thing about fried rice is that you must allow for the rice to cool down (if you are cooking/steaming fresh rice) to at least room temperature.  If you fry the rice while it's hot, you will get clumps, which will kill the joy of having a delicious meal. I decided to give this fried rice a little twist. I got the idea from a Malaysian friend who cooks Thai Fried Rice regularly for her Aussie husband. I put the culinary experiment on my own husband who turned out to love this version of fried rice with a passion - once again, his Western taste bud tickled towards the Asian direction!

I have tried many different kinds of Tom Yum pastes but found this one
to be the mother of all instant Tom Yum pastes! It's sufficiently spicy and sour
and it's Halal! Just add some kaffir lime leaves for more punch, if you wish.

Ingredients:
(serves 4)

2 cups rice (cooked & cooled to room temperature)
1 carrot (diced)
1/2 red or green capsicum (diced)
1 small bowl frozen corn kernels
2 cloves garlic (diced)
1/2 onion (diced)
4 seafood/crab sticks (cut into 1cm pieces)
100gm prawns
2 chicken stock cubes
2 eggs
1 tbsp Tom Yum paste
4 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste


Preparation:

1.  Heat oil in a wok or a large frying pan.  Stir in garlic and onions, fry them over medium heat until onion is tender and fragrant.

2.  Add carrots, stir fry for 2 minutes.  Add capsicums, stir fry for 2 minutes.

3.  Add seafood/crab stick pieces and prawns.  Stir fry until prawns turn pink.

4.  Separately crush chicken cubes until crumble and add to the ingredients in the wok.  Add corn kernels and stir fry all ingredients.

5.  Add Tom Yum paste and stir for 30 seconds.  Create a well in the middle of the wok (if too dry, add 1 tsp of olive oil).  Break the eggs in the well and leave them to cook slightly for 30 seconds before stirring the eggs to break the yolk.  Leave eggs to cook for a further 20 seconds.  Do not stir the other ingredients with the eggs at this point in time (they will become clumpy).  When eggs are almost cooked, fold the ingredients together.

6.  Add rice.  Stir all ingredients gently.  Increase heat to high and stir all ingredients until rice is thoroughly coated with the paste.  Add salt to taste.

7.  Serve hot.




Fearlessly Simple & Home Cooked

Pengat Pisang (Banana Savoury)

I must confess that I'm not a massive fan of sweet stuff.  For instance, I love my chocolate bitter, coffee thick (and bitter) and food chilli hot.  As rules are meant to be broken, I make exceptions when it comes to comfort food, though.  I grew up eating Pengat Pisang as it was our family's regular dessert.  We used to live in a kampong (village) in Singapore where bananas were in abundant supply.  I just knew when my mum was making this delectable dessert because I could smell the fragrance of palm sugar and pandan leaves even before she could announce what was brewing.  When palm sugar and pandan leaves hobnob in a recipe, it is Chanel No. 5 in the pan! 

As bananas are now in season, I decided to bring a little nostalgia
to my kitchen by way of this Pengat Pisang

As I was typing this post, I contemplated several times for the English term of this traditional Malay dessert.  "Pisang" is banana all right, but I just couldn't translate "pengat".  I didn't want to lose sleep over this matter and so, I decided simply on the abovementioned English term for it.  If you have any suggestion for the translation, I would love to hear from you.  Coconut milk is the central ingredient; sago seeds give excellent gooey texture; and sweet potato I love and have included in this concoction to break the monotony of bananas.  It is truly delicious, delicately sweet, unpretentious and best of all a very easy dessert to make.  Just my kind of food. 

Instead of palm sugar, I used brown sugar as I couldn't get hold of the former at the point of making this.    Ceteris paribus, this Pengat Pisang made me feel like my mum (who's in Singapore) was right there in my kitchen!

I love it lukewarm especially on a cold night

Ingredients:
Serves 4 (small dessert bowls)

3 bananas - sliced 1/2 inch diagonally
1 sweet potato - washed and diced
200ml coconut milk
650ml water
2 pandan leaves
5 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp sago seeds
A pinch of salt


Preparation:

1.  Put sweet potato dices and pandan leaves (tied into a knot) into a medium pan with 600ml water over medium heat.  Bring to a boil.  Cook for a further 5 minutes until sweet potatoes are softened.

2.  Add coconut milk, sugar and salt.  Stir gently and let mixture simmer for 2 minutes.

3.  Wash and strain sago seeds before adding to the mixture.  Cook for about 5 minutes or until sago seeds turn transparent.

4.  Add bananas, stir gently and cook for a further 5 minutes.  Mixture will thicken.  Turn heat off and serve dessert hot or cold.  Pandan leaves can be discarded.


Fearlessly Simple & Home Cooked

A Singaporean's Singapore Chilli Crab

It's quite indisputable that Singapore is a Makan* Nation.  By this, I meant you could be craving for any cuisine at any time of the day (and night!) and you would get your hankering satisfied pronto.  That's because many food outlets in Singapore remain open until past midnight daily.  Many foreigners (my husband included) have been stunned by the fact that Singaporeans regularly go for supper in the wee hours.  Yes, when it comes to meals, we don't quite believe there should be only three a day.  For better or for worse, four sounds more believable; the fourth meal being supper. 

Typically in Makan Nation terms, when it's time to celebrate a birthday - WE EAT; when we get a career promotion - WE EAT; when we're resigning from a job - WE EAT; when we bunch up for a festive celebration - WE EAT; even when we're commemorating a family member's death - we will gather for prayer and then?  EAT, you said.  Well done.  You got the drift. 

I used blue swimmer crabs for my Singapore Chilli Crab dish as
the mud crabs have decided to hibernate during Spring, I think!

As a multi-cultural Makan Nation, we have a plethora of what we regard as national dishes.  I must clarify that even though we call them national dishes, we neither have monumentalized them in our national anthem (Majulah Singapura) nor habitually eat them four times a day.  They're national because of their Singaporean origin and how they are loved by most (if not all) citizens of Makan Nation.  I've cooked a mind-boggling selection of national dishes in my kitchen here in Australia but I will present them one at a time in my blog.  Today, it will be the exalted Singapore Chilli Crab.    This dish was first created in 1950 by a Singaporean restaurant chef - that's during pre-independent Singapore, mind you.  Over time, some international cooks and chefs have customised the dish, such as by adding wine to the ingredients.  Well, ok, whatever suits them for I have also added sugar to my spaghetti sauce - quite un-Italian, if that's fair.  That aside, here's how to cook Singapore Chilli Crab - the Makan Nation and Halal way!

This amazingly tasty dish goes very well with white rice or soft buns

Ingredients:

3 blue swimmer crabs (or mud crabs) - well washed, scrubbed and lightly smashed
1 large brown onion - peeled and chopped roughly
2 cloves garlic - chopped
8 dried chillies - washed and soaked in warm water for 5 minutes
1 tsp belacan (shrimp paste)
1 tsp lemon juice
6 tbsp oil
5 tbsp tomato ketchup
4 tbsp light soy sauce
4 tbsp sweet soy sauce (kicap manis Habhal)
4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
300ml water
1 tbsp cornflour
2 eggs - beaten in a bowl
Coriander leaves, to garnish


Preparation:

1.  For chilli paste.  In a food processor, grind onion, chillies and belacan for abt 30 - 40 sec until they form a smooth paste.

2.  For sauce.  In a bowl, combine water, tomato ketchup, light soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, sugar and corn flour. Stir well and set aside.

3.  Heat oil in a wok over high heat.  Add garlic and stir fry for 1 minute.  Add the chilli paste and fry until fragrant.

4.  Add crabs into the garlic chilli mixture.  Fry until the crab shells turn red.  Add the sauce mixture and salt.  Stir well and cover with lid until crabs thoroughly turn red.

5.  Add the beaten eggs to thicken sauce.  Lightly stir the sauce.  Add lemon juice, stir again and cook for a further 1 minute.

6.  Turn heat off.  Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with rice or soft buns.


Tips:
- Before adding the sauce mixture into the wok, give it a good stir in the bowl first as the cornstarch would have settled underneath while waiting.


*Makan is Malay for eat (Malay is the national language of Singapore while English is the first language of the country. Yeah, part of the Uniquely Singapore heritage, I suppose).


Fearlessly Simple & Home Cooked

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Chicken Rice is understandably a celebrated dish in Singapore because it is lip-smacking, aromatic and can be enjoyed by people of all ages.  The main excitement of this dish is in the, you've guessed it - chicken.  There are all kinds, from fried to roasted.  You can easily get lost in delirium as you sink your teeth into the tender and juicy chicken meat.  

I've always wanted to make my own Hainanese Chicken Rice but was dismayed at hearing how complicated the chicken cooking process could be.  Until I found a video on it.  It's like a windfall!  With my Netbook in tow, I wasted no time in getting the ingredients out of the fridge and following the video instructions fastidiously.  The result was an absolutely succulent chicken without a sweat. It's unbelieveably simple to poach the chicken to perfection that you won't want to fry your chicken for this dish ever again. Poaching the bird is healthier than frying it, anyway.  Love the aroma of garlic and ginger throughout the house while cooking was in progress. If Fried Rice was Paradise, then this Hainanese Chicken Rice is Ecstasy.

Succulent and tender, the chicken skin will rip off the meat easily

Ingredients:

Chicken

1 whole fresh chicken
1 tbsp light soy sauce
6 slices fresh ginger
1 garlic, slightly bruised
2 shallots, chopped
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt

Chicken Rice

3 cups long grain rice
2 tbsp cooking oil
2-3cm ginger, grated
3-4 garlic, chopped very finely or grated
1-2 tsp salt (to taste)
3 1/2 cups chicken stock from the boiled chicken or amount according to rice cooker instructions
2 pandan leaves (optional)

Chilli Dipping Sauce

10 fresh red chillies, seeds removed
1-2 garlic
5cm fresh ginger
2 tsp chicken stock (from the poached chicken)
Kaffir lime juice to taste
Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Rub chicken's inside with soy sauce. Grind ginger, garlic and one shallot. Stuff mixture into chicken.

2.  When the water boils, turn heat off.  Add remaining ginger and shallot into water and gently sink in the chicken into the hot water. Leave chicken in the water for one hour. After the first 5 minutes, lift up the chicken, drain the water from the stomach cavity and put chicken back in the pot. Repeat this process 2 to 3 times during the poaching period to make sure the chicken is cooked inside and outside.

3.  After 30 minutes, turn on the heat to bring the water back to just before boiling point, then turn heat off. Do not allow chicken to boil so it will be very tender and juicy from the poaching (boiling the chicken will harden it). At the end of the hour, raise the chicken from the water and gently rub it with the remaining soy sauce, sesame oil and salt.  Cut into bite-sized pieces to serve.

4.  Wash the rice in the rice cooker pot and drain well.  In a wok, fry the ginger and garlic with oil.

5.  Add the fried ginger and garlic to rice.  Sprinkle salt to taste.  Add water and pandan leaves.  Cook rice according to the rice cooker instructions.

6.  For the chilli sauce, grind chillies, garlic and ginger. Add chicken stock, lime juice and salt to taste.

7.  For chicken soup, ladle a small amount of chicken stock into serving bowls. Add finely chopped shallot.

Tips:
- Ensure that your pot is large enough to fit the whole chicken.
- If the chilli sauce tastes too hot, add a small amount of sugar into the sauce and squeeze a small amount of dark or sweet soy sauce when serving.
- The chicken skin gets very tender and succulent if chicken is correctly poached.  Handle the delicate bird with care.


Fearlessly Simple & Home Cooked

Singapore Satay



As this is my debut entry for the blog, I thought I'd give the honour to a popular dish that's not only linked to my heritage but also one which is not difficult to love at first bite - Satay. 

I've been a satay aficionado since I was able to pronounce the word.  As a child, I remember telling my Dad it didn't really matter what presents I would get for my birthday as long as I would get to wolf down satay all day. And boy, did he honour my wish, year after year. I've never had better birthdays!

It's worth noting that satay is not merely umarinated skewered meat. There's a pretty interesting mix of spices that's responsible for its aroma and delectable taste.  And then there's the equally appetizing peanut sauce in which you dip the satay.  Other accompaniments are cucumber slices, diced red onions and ketupat or lontong (traditional Malay/Indonesian rice cake). 

Fasten your seat belt because the moment you take your first bite, you will be on your way to a blissful makan* journey.  Bon voyage!

*Makan is Malay for "eat".

Ingredients:

(Makes 20+ sticks)

500 grams beef or any meat of your choice - slice the meat very thinly and into small pieces.

Bamboo skewers

Meat Marinade

2 lemongrass

1/2 inch ginger

1/2 inch galangal

1/2 cup cumin seeds

1/2 cup coriander seeds

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp tumeric powder

4 tbsp sweet soy sauce

4 garlic

4 onions

5 tbsp vegetable oil

Chopped lemongrass

Peanut Sauce

500 grams peanuts (fry with 2 tbs of oil, skin-on)

15 dried chillies (soak in warm water before use)

2 shallots or red onions, chopped

2 garlic, chopped

2 lemongrass, chopped on the bulb end

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 cups water

Salt to taste

Barbecue or grill the skewered meat

Preparation:

1.  Grind all ingredients for marinade until smooth.  Smear evenly on meat and marinade for 2 hours.  Skewer about 5cm of meat on the bamboo skewer.  Barbecue/grill skewered meat until cooked, occassionally brushing oil on it using the ends of 2-3 sticks of lemongrass.
2.  Coarsely grind all ingredients for peanut sauce except salt.  Cook in a saucepan over low fire, stirring occassionally.  Sprinkle salt to taste.  Turn off fire when sauce thickens.
3.  Serve cooked satay with peanut sauce, sliced cucumbers, diced onions and ketupat/lontong (optional).

Tips:

- For greater aroma, sautee the coriander and cumin seeds without oil before blending.
- Soak the bamboo skewers in cold water for 20 mins before using. This will help to prevent the sticks from burning.
- Brush the cooked satay with honey just before removing it from fire. This gives the dish a delightful sweetness.


Fearlessly Simple & Home Cooked