cooking rice

Watching the re-run of Daejungkum (Jewel of the Palace), and the scene of the cooking rice competition made me think of the way I cooked rice. Rice is very important to Asians and it is the main staple especially for those coming from Southern China. The habit of eating rice transmigrated to Korea and Japan (who highly value rice).

Rice is also highly valued in other parts of South East Asia - in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

I like hard and chewy rice, while my grandma (when she was around) liked rice that was softer and sticky. In the show - Daejungkum, a method of cooking both hard chewy rice and soft rice in the same pot was shown. I'll be trying it later, and I'll do a second post to tell all of you about it. Is this really possible? Can we do it in our electric rice cookers?

Stay Tuned.....

Spring Cleaning of my office

My office has been in shambles recently, as I've been trying to get my staff to input in notes, recipies and cooking ideas that has been accumulated by myself, my grandma and all my Peranakan relatives, who have contributed age old snippets, newspaper cuttings, hand-me-down scrawlies on yellow and spotted paper. Some of these are so old that I might even suggest getting the museum curator to take a look at them.

I managed to stack all the sheets and old books into a corner and managed to clear up some of my assistant's desk. Phew it is a tough job clearing up. My own table isn't so great either, with cook books, scribblings, invoices and payment vouchers, and notes for my new and latest food and drink portal, which I'm working on.

Tried making apple pie 2 days ago using a cider based champagne. It's called champagne because the producer says they had used the same type of yeast used for french champagnes. He can call it champagne because he's not selling it in Europe. He can call it whatever he wants, is not a problem. To me it's just a wine cooler, but a damn tasty wine cooler anyhow.

I had poured out half of the 330ml bottle for my apple pie, and downed the rest of this mildly alcoholic (7%) beverage - and used the rest to flavour my granny smith slices simmering in a mixture of cinnamon, brown sugar and orange peel. While my pie base - which I'm using a graham pie base (which is basically made up of cookie/shortbread), is baking nicely in the oven, while my apples are simmering, I'm preparing the final ingredient - corn syrup which is the thickening agent for the apple juices.

When cooled, the apple mixture became thick with large slices of apples still apparent. Pouring this into the cooled pie base, and covering the pie with a thick layer of vanilla flavoured cream. Now it's ready for serving....boy was it yummy.

Wine For Asia 2005

it was a really hectic week the whole of last week. We had a exhibition - Wine For Asia 2005 and the Singapore Food Manufacturers Association Exhibition...all in the same week.

To top that off, we had to organise food for 2 events, my cousin's wedding (which was an elaborate 180pax at his parent's house).

And we catered for 120 pax for a launch of a Bobby Brown event. These were the two large scaled functions we were involved in last week.

Phew thank goodness it was over. This week is slightly less hectic, we just need to catch up on all the things that got left behind not done last week. (Frown). I don't like this, I'm just in time to catch my food editorial for a foodie forum. I'll tell you all about it another time.

Anything interesting food ideas over the week? Actually I had wicked thoughts of combining grilled pumpkin with seafood. I've not tried it out as yet. I'm working on this idea of how to do it.
I think it should provide a very good combination of a sweet base with something salty - like either Tuna or Salmon (which are both oily fish). It could be an appetiser or as a main dish.

It would also present lots of interesting display methods, as Pumpkin is a very diverse and versatile melon. Excellent. I'll keep all of you posted.

Healthy burgers

Many people are concerned about health risks when consuming foods like burgers - be it beef or chicken, both meats have been fraught with problems over the years ( I don't think I need to spell out the problems).

But I find that eating burgers can be healthy if a smaller portion of meat protein is matched with a larger portion of veggies (like Onions, Lettuce, Tomato), that would make it healthier.

Those that are looking for really healthy stuff - we can all go vegan (just like my veggie burger, I just made yesterday).

Vegetarian Burgers (serves 5)
Ingrdients
1 large hard tou fu (tau kwah), mashed
5 fresh shitake mushrooms, chopped
1 large spanish red onion, chopped
1 carrot peeled, grated
1 stalk chinese parsley, chopped
1 egg beaten
2 heaped table spoons of potato starch

Method
mix all the above ingredients with a pinch of salt, pepper, sesame oil and light soya sauce.
pack it all together and form into 5 burger patties. If you wish to have some extra crunch you can add things like chestnut or water chestnut, or some nuts - like roasted groundnuts, pecans or almonds.

Place the burger patties on a baking tray and brush the patties with some olive oil before placing in the grill on high for 4 mins.

Serve on burger buns with freshly sliced tomatoes.

Penang Loh Bak and Popiah

Preparing for a Penang Fest for a client who's having a house party this weekend. The usual stuff is being hauled up. Our specialty items - Penang Loh Bak and Popiah spreads. Spent most of this afternoon slicing the turnip (or Bang Kwang) and cutting the carrots into little slivers. We have to ensure that all the vegetables that's going into the Popiah veggie mix is thinly sliced, with probably close to surgical precission.

What's so special about Popiah, it's probably one of the healthier dishes around. It's a mixture of this cooked turnip and carrots, with some slivers of pork and shrimp, wrapped with more vegetables - the chinese lettuce, chinese parsley, blanched bean sprouts, blanched shrimp, hardboiled egg, chinese sausage and fried shallots wrapped up like a burrito. You can call it the Penang Burrito, or the Peranakan Burrito. Anyway you call it...however you eat it. It's delicious.

You can keep it nice and juicy by not squeezing out too much of the juice of the turnip mixture, and putting more sauce - like the sweet flour sauce, our famous balachan chilli etc. Just thinking about it, I better prepare a little more, so that I can have our famous burrito for dinner tomorrow.

Penang Loh Bak (aka Ngoh Hiang or five-spice roll)

Penang Loh Bak is different from some of the Ngoh Hiang that you get to eat in Peranakan resteraunts cross Malaysia and Singapore. The Ngoh Hiang that many of them make includes a mixture of meat, waterchestnut and spices, rolled up in a beancurd skin, then deep fried till the skin is crispy and served with sweet sauce.

Penang Loh Bak is different, as it's only thinly sliced pork seasoned with 5 spice powder (and Penang makes really good fragrant five spice powder, actually I would like to say the Best five spice powder in the whole of asia), and chopped onion. Fairly simple right? Wrong, preparing the Loh Bak is easy, it's problematic when it comes to frying the rolls. We do not deep fry it like we do for the other styles. This one, we have to shallow fry it for a longer period of time, this way, we get the onions in the beancurd roll caramalized in the roll itself. This gives the meatroll a natural sweetness, and coupled with the sweetness of the spices, it's a unaparalleled combination.

Spanish Tapas - I love it!

If you've ever visited Spain, you will never get tired of their tapas. Having Spanish Tapas, with a pint of their home brew or larger, relaxing, chilling out in the warm evening sun. Taking in the sights, sounds and yes the smells of Southern Spain. That's where I'd love to be, but damn, I'm here in Singapore. But not to fret, I've got an invitation to Esmiranda, next month. Where my favourite Spanish food - Tapas will be free flow with one of my favourite drinks - Hoegaarden beer.

Today, I'm going to introduce a Tapas dish - Clams in Garlic Sauce. But I'm going to transform that to include other seafood - other than clams (as here in Singapore, we don't get much fresh clams) We're going to add some Prawns and Mussels. You can add other things that you like - Crab or even Lobster (if you have the budget). But we're going for something simple.

INGREDIENTS:

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup minced onion

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 Leaves of Fresh Basil

2 pieces of dried Chilli, remove seeds and chop coarsely

1/2 pound clams, soaked and scrubbed

1/2 pound medium sized prawns shelled and deveined

1/2 pound mussels, soakd and scrubbed

6 tablespoons chopped fresh chinese parsley

1/2 cup dry Sherry (if don't have Sherry, use some Cognac)

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Method:

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-low heat. Add onion, garlic, basil leaves, and chopped dried chili; saute until onion is tender. Add clams, prawns and mussels and saute 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup parsley. Add sherry and lemon juice. Increse heat to medium-high, cover and simmer until clams open Note: discard any that do not openTransfer seafood to shallow bowl. Boil sauce until slightly thickend, about 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over the cooked seafood. Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons parsley and serve with freshly baked bread and of course a glass of Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay.

Steamed Soya Milk - nutritious and healthy

My mother is having some slight digestion problems, and doctors advised having more of steamed food rather than oily stir fry or fried dishes - which can cause stomach upsets and heartburn. I reminisced on some of the things I used to cook for my grandmother when she was sick...and decided on - Steamed Soya Milk

Steamed soya milk is suitable for everyone

Especially those who are recovering from an illness.

Ingredients:
1 cup Plain Soya bean milk (buy from the local hawker stall - no sugar please)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon chopped spring onions and Chinese parsley
1 tablespoon soya sauce
100g minced prawns
100g minced pork
30g of sliced fresh shitake mushrooms

Method:
beat the eggs, add the soya sauce, minced prawns and minced pork then add into this mixture the soya bean milk. Add a pinch of salt and pepper - mix well. Place the mixture either in a bowl or even better a bamboo cup. Then add the final ingredients - the sliced shitake mushrooms and spring onions and parsley. Put into a steamer to steam for 15-20mins until cooked.

Serve with rice or eat as it is.
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Soya beans have a high content of Lecithin - and from what I know this helps to improve memory and it helps build nerves and supplies choline to the brain to be used in the manufacture of a neurotransmitter, a supplement is recommended for people who are suffering memory loss, particularly the elderly. As such, rather than consuming artificial health supplements, take the natural version of it.

In peranakan cooking, there aren't many steamed versions of dishes or in fact many low-fat, healthy dishes. But they are dishes that are full-flavoured, bursting with meat juices, opulent dishes. In fact, the healthiest dish that I can think off is only the Hee Peow Soup or the Popiah.

Well luckily for my mother, I don't cook Peranakan food everyday.

Photo Journal of meals in Austria

Our version of Babi Ponteh

For some people, their version of Babi Ponteh is stewed pork (stewed fatty meat generally) with bamboo shoots.

Babi Ponteh actually means stewed pork with bean paste and coriander. The addition of Bamboo shoots or other side ingredients is up to individual taste. Bamboo shoots actually takes the edge off the bean paste, helping to blend the flavours better, but I'm more partial to using chestnuts. With Coriander and chestnuts, the dish will overall have a slight natural sweetness without having the need to add sugar. Perhaps because I've got a sweet tooth, and I prefer this method. There are other things which you can choose to add to this dish - like a piece or two of chilli padi to raise the the spicyness up a couple of notches. If you like chilli, add them in when you're frying the rempah. It blends in and frying it at the start helps to bring out all the essential oils and mixes it with the flavours of the other spices.

Generally the older folks prefer to use trotters, but in today's age, we're more health conscious and the use of such fatty meats (although it doesn't taste oily, is still high in cholesterol). I normally opt for meats with a some fat on them - normally choose the "five flower cut" as it's just the right combination of meat and fat. It's got the right amount of fats to smoothen and amalagamate the flavours.

I've not had Babi Ponteh for a while, and since I'll be cooking for a client, I'll cook a little more, so that I can have it for my meals for the next few days. That's one of the best things of Peranakan cooking. The taste of food improves as we cook it.

Back to Singapore

After 6 days in Austria, I'm glad to be back. There's just so many things to do. We've got functions to organise, and new clients to look after. While I was away, we had a few new clients who required fruits to be delivered to them. The 3 am (Austria time), wake up calls from clients was quite worthwhile.

Here's a picture of me and Hwee Peng - taken on Day 4 of our trip.

Now that I'm back, we've got some private functions going on. It'll be mostly Peranakan menu. Plenty of work waiting for me this week. We've got to prepare for Babi Ponteh and Penang Ngoh Hiang earlier. It's worth the effort. Babi Ponteh is one of my all time favourites - again taught to me by my grandma.

Ahh..we've got a private food tasting session the following week. Will be preparing some special stuff - like Penang Ngoh Hiang, Kueh Pai Tee and Ayam Seoh.

My next posting, I'll talk more about why Babi Ponteh is so delicious.

my 2nd Day

We headed out of Vienna towards another hotspot of good Austrian wine - Burgenland, a special place which produces more red wines than whites (which is fairly unusual in Austria). Woke up early today and had breakfast at the hotel cafe, and was surprised to be greeted by a group of taiwanese tourists chomping down Austrian staples - like Pretzel bread, Proscuitto, Hams and Salami - early in the morning. This is the 2nd day I'm having the same type of breakfast. Hope there will be improvement tomorrow.

Here in Burgenland, one of our stops was at Weingut Nittnaus - which is an award winning winery, with very special elegant wines.

I was sincerely impressed by Hans Nittnaus, the wine maker. He had a flair of making quality wines that were elegant, and so good to drink, yet retaining the simplicity of wine making. He was also a very down to earth, and approachable person. And I must say this definitely impressed me. His ultimate showcased to us must be the 1999 Comodor - which had a light toast (due to the use of new French Oak), with strong red berries nose, which I found pleasant.

The other thing that impressed me was their lovely dog - Moritz ( I think it's spelt this way). Here's a lovely picture of him. He's such a lovely dog and we had lots of fun playing with him and his ball before we made our way to the next stop.

Austria!! I'm Finally here

I'm here in Austria, posting this on the web. We've just landed, and it's a bit chilly right now 6.45am in the morning here on the it's 12 hours behind our local Singapore time. Arrgh, I'm so tired from the flight, but I need to get ready - changed and we'll set out to our first destination in Kremstal, from what I hear is about over an hour's drive on the outskirts of Vienna. A fantastic and wonderful place. Hope to come back and keep all updated of my progress.

Marketing plans and promotions

Christmas is round the corner, things cannot sit still while I'm away, things have to go ahead. Working day and night, I managed to prepare a mailer, a fridge magnet, a field survey, a Christmas Catalog. These are things that will be used as part of our promotional and marketing campaigns for the up-coming festive season.

Here's how my fridge magnet looks like

It's going to be a flat piece of magnet. Placed an order for quite a bit, to give out as part of our promotions and marketing campaign. Hope it works, if not I'm going to be quite cross. It's going to take a while for them to get this out, so I'll better get it done before I leave. if not we're going to have to wait till next year to do this. I really want to kickk this off together with my christmas catalog.

Quite a bit of work I've come up with in such a short period of time - it's amazing, how I managed to pull it off. Even I'm impressed myself. I should give myself a raise soon.

Austrian Wine Trip

Yippee, we finalised the Austrian trip. I'm going to Austria to learn more about their wines. It's going to be a fantastic trip - I'll bet.

It's my first trip to Europe, and it's to the classical music capital of the world. A place where beautiful symphonies were created. And also a place that's has a strong German influence, in terms of its food and wine culture. I'm just so excited.

I started reading up on Austria and it's food and wine culture this morning, visited the library and borrowed books and a DVD by Jancis Robinson (of BBC), trying to soak up everything I can about Austria, got a book on German cuisine, which came up as a very easy read (but not so easy to carry).

Based on the Itinerary, we'll be going to 13 Wineries...like wow. How fantastic can it get?

Travelling from Vienna, down to the famous regions of the Wachau, Burgenland and even Südsteiermark (which is less well known).

It's a chance to have such serious tasting sessions with the people who actually made the wine. What a great opportunity this is.

Why 3 little pigs are better than Chicken Little

If you are a foodie, you would realise that I'm making Babi Buah Keluak, and not Ayam Buah Keluak. Those that realise that I've swapped the chicken and replaced it with pork - pork ribs to be exact.

Why I think the swine is mightier than the feeble chicken, and I think that in this case it's not size that matters, but a question of taste. I've been brought up on tasteless and yes even close to horribly tasting chicken - the plight of living in the modern world of supermarkets where speed in bringing up the chicken to be slaughtered is faster than chicken little can save the world.

Not only do I find chicken meat lacking in that ultra-umph factor, but it's not the sort to retain it's meat texture after hours of simmering on a charcoal stove. Pork ribs on the other hand retains it's structure days after being in the pot; and Buah Keluak is a dish that if you kept it over night, the taste only gets better and better. You just don't get the same thing if you cooked it with chicken.

This isn't the only dish which I've replaced with pork. There are many instances, where I think the use of pork enhances the flavour of the overall dish.

Babi Buah Keluak

We're preparing to cook Babi Buah Keluak for a house party this weekend for a client. Preparation for this dish starts tonight.

For those that are not familiar with what this is....this Buah Keluak??
I had recalled that I had once invited a Japanese friend to dine at my home, when I had cooked this special Peranakan dish. She thought I had placed little pieces of rock into the curry.

Buah Keluak (click here to get pic)
Buah Keluak is like blue cheese and durian - it's an acquired taste. Buah Keluah is actually the nut of the Kepayang" tree, which grows wild in Indonesia and parts of Malaysia. It's a dark brown - near black nut that's rough like a bark on the outside. The size of each nut is about a small breadroll.

What my grandma taught me.....
we'll break open the buah keluak, check if the nut is good or bad. Bad nuts taste --well bad (actually it's got this rotten taste). Good ones will have the taste that we've come to love. What we do is to check all the buah keluak and then scoop out the flesh from one nut and stuff it into the other nut - to make it 'full'.

Unlike the other Peranakans who do it a slightly different way.
They mince the flesh of the nut, with pork and shrimp, add seasoning then stuff it back into the shell. According to my grandma, that's the 'Hokkien Style' and ours is the 'Penang Style'. Hope to put in some photos in my later postings.