Southeast Asian night 3 with tropical fruits

We had a fruity dinner of pineapple rice and papaya sago dessert. Serving the food in the hollowed out fruits is sure a fancy way to impress guests (in my case, my other half).

As for the recipe for making pineapple rice, I found that there are as many versions of it as there are for fried rice. So as usual, I cooked it according to the prevailing ingredients I had on hand, except for the precious pork floss specially imported from Singapore, and the pineapple, that was specially bought for the occasion.

I had referred to Baking Mum's recipe to help me begin and adjusted the ingredients and taste accordingly.

A close-up look at the papaya sago dessert. It definitely looks better than it tastes.

The original plan was to make mango sago dessert with some leftover sago from the sago gula melaka, but a last minute trip to the supermarket yielded no mangoes. So we switched quickly to plan B with papaya.

Then my plan B was also quite fluid. Finding no suitable recipes online that used both papaya and sago, I concocted my own. Scooped the flesh out of the whole papaya, pureed them, added milk to make some kind of milkshake, but then I didn't have enough milk, so it's somewhere between a milkshake and papaya puree consistency. Thankfully, the papaya was rather sweet, though we ended up adding some more sugar to it.

Balinese style satay with Tumeric Rice

We went to Tonga recently for holiday. If you don't know where's Tonga, you're not alone. We had to google to find that it is somewhere in the South Pacific, somewhere close to  Fiji and Samoa, not too far from the equator...but give me an unlabeled map of the world now, I still won't be able to tell the extremely tweeny islands of Tonga from those of Fiji or Cook or the likes or maybe even locate it in the vast ocean.

The South Pacific is a different tropical paradise from the one I have come from. The sea is always greener on the other side, so my friends from back home in sunny Singapore are green with envy about my trip. But one striking similarity is the abundance of coconut trees. There's definitely more coconut trees in tiny Tonga than there are in little Singapore. And so, the number one souvenir I brought back is not any of the beautiful handicrafts woven by the local women out of grass, but a coconut grater done by a village man. And the number one skill acquired by Rémi from the locals was how to open a coconut without making a big mess.

Yes, I'm still sore by the absence of freshly grated coconut in Wellington. But the grater I bought would only be useful if I mount it on a wooden bench. Even then, I still don't have the Tongan convenience of plucking a coconut from the tree whenever I need one. So up till now, the grater remains unused, and for making the satay, I conveniently substituted freshly grated coconut with dessicated coconut. Not quite the same, but for a satay deprived person, the taste buds are less picky.

Balinese style satay is different from the meat satay I'm used to in Singapore, mainly because it uses ground meat. I don't recall having it when I went to Bali years ago. As I have bought ground lamb meat by mistake, I decided to try the recipe I found in "Authentic Recipes from Indonesia" even though it is a recipe for chicken/duck satay.

Balinese style Satay
Makes about 10 sticks

About 250g ground chicken or duck (or in my case, I used lamb)
1 cup (100g) freshly grated coconut (I used dessicated coconut and added some coconut milk to hydrate the coconut flakes)
2 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon shaved palm sugar
some salt
10 bamboo skewers. The stem of lemongrass can be used as skewer too.

Spice Paste
2 candlenuts
1 cm fresh galangal, peeled and sliced
1 cm kencur root (another kind of ginger which I can't find and so left out)
1 cm tumeric, peeled and sliced, or half teaspoon ground tumeric
1 red finger-length chili, deseeded
3 shallots, peeled
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 clove
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
half teaspoon black pepper
pinch of ground nutmeg
half teaspoon dried shrimp paste
1 tablespoon oil

Make the spice paste by grinding everything except the oil into a smooth paste. Even though I've bought myself a blender now, I still like to use the pestle and mortar for making spice paste, as it helps to release the fragrance of all the spices.

Heat oil over medium heat and stir fry the ground spice paste for 3-5 minutes until fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

When cooled, mix the spice paste with ground meat and all the other ingredients (logically not the skewers). Set aside to marinate for 2 hours in the refrigerator.

If using the bamboo skewers, soak them in water for 4 hours before using. Press the meat mixture onto each skewer firmly to form a kebab. Repeat until all the meat mixture is used up.

Grill in preheated oven for about 3 minutes or more on each side, basting with the marinade, until cooked and the meat is browned but not burned.

Served with sambal kecap (sweet soy sauce sambal), made by combining sliced shallots, sliced red chillies and sweet Indonesian soy sauce (kecap manis). I used normal sambal chili sauce and they go well together too.

As a meal, serve with tumeric rice and another vegetables (like stir fried bean sprouts) and tempeh.

Tumeric rice
Serves two

1 cup long-grained rice, washed
1 level teaspoon tumeric powder (it's very overpowering, so always better to start with less than more and adjust to the taste you like the next time you cook)
1 onion, diced
1 cm piece ginger
1 star anise
2 cloves
3 cm piece cinnamon
1 pandan leaf

In a rice cooker, place all ingredients together. Add 1 and half cup water and switch on the rice cooker. Well, being a Chinese, who grow up on a daily diet of rice, an electric rice cooker is the most useful appliance in each household and I don't know any Singaporean family who doesn't own a rice cooker or cook rice over the stove.

Fragrant Glutinous Rice

Time for me to start understanding how to use glutinous rice, in case I decide to make rice dumplings to celebrate Duanwu Festival (端午节), known otherwise as Dragon Boat Festival (even though dragon boat is just one of the traditional activities to celebrate this festival marking the summer solstice).

My cousin's grandma is very good at making steam glutinous rice. While I do not have her recipe, I found one in Reviving Local Dialect Cuisines. Yes, this is a traditional Hokkien dish that my family always have during festivities like commemorating the death anniversaries of ancestors.

I've tweaked the recipe a bit to suit the ingredients I had at hand. And as usual, I'm lacking in spring onion, coriander and chillies to make the dish more attractive looking.

Fragrant Glutinous Rice (油香糯米饭)
Serves two

1 cup glutinous rice
2 pieces of deboned chicken thigh (can also use pork)
2 tablespoons dried shrimps
2-3 large dried Shitake mushrooms
3 garlic, minced
6-8 chestnuts

Seasonings
light soy sauce
oyster sauce
dark soy sauce
sugar
salt
pepper

Rinse glutinous rice and soak in water for at least 6 hours. I did it overnight. Drain.

On preparing chestnuts, slit a cross on the shell. Boil violently for about 10 minutes. Remove the shells and the second layer of skin, as well as any rotten parts.

Cut the meat into shreds. Soak dried shrimps and mushrooms separately until soft. Slice the mushrooms.

Heat about 1 big tablespoon of oil and fry the minced garlic until fragrant. Add the dried shrimps. After about 1 minute, add the meat, chestnuts and mushrooms. Stir for about 2 minutes and add in the glutinous rice.

Season according to taste. As a rough gauge, about 1 tablespoon or less each of the sauces and sugar and just a little bit of salt and pepper. Mix well.

Dish onto a steaming plate or bowl and steam for about 40 minutes.

Garnish with fried shallots, coriander, spring onion and chillies before serving.

Cheesy way of using up leftover rice

I've just found a cheesy way of using up my leftover fried rice, and pleasantly pleased with the result. Now I do not have to always cook Chinese fried rice to use up my leftover grains.

I found this recipe "Peppers with Rice, Feta and Pine Nut Stuffing" in my The World Encyclopedia of Cheese, which I'm going to add to my list of frequently used cookbook. Long neglected, it actually consists of a treasure trove of useful, easy to cook recipes.

I had quite liberally adjusted the recipe to my needs, which worked very well. Other than capsicums (bell peppers), it is possible to use tomatoes, portobello mushrooms or zucchini to stuff the rice in. And for those without an oven, you could possibly forgo the baking stage. The rice tasted good even before baking.

Peppers stuffed with Rice, Feta and Pine Nuts
Serves two

2-3 large bell peppers (mixture of colours would be good)
half to one cup leftover rice (or whatever you have)
1 carrot, grated
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tomato, chopped
2 large button mushrooms, chopped
sprinkle of pine nuts
sprinkle of raisins
feta cheese, crumbled (quantity depending on how cheesy you want your rice to be)
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Cut the peppers in half lengthways and remove the cores and seeds. Bring a large saucepan of water to boil. Add the peppers and boil for 5 minutes. Remove and leave to drain upside down. If you're unsure of how many peppers you need to hold your rice stuffing (like me), you could hang on and blanch whatever number of peppers you need only after frying the rice.

Heat olive oil and sauté the onions and garlic until onions are softened. Stir in the mushrooms, carrot and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes, then mix in the rice, feta, pine nuts, raisins and parsley.

Spoon the mixture into the blanched peppers, sprinkle over the Parmesan and bake for 20 minutes.

If using tomatoes to stuff the rice, spoon out the flesh of tomatoes. Keep the flesh for frying with the carrots and rice.

Experimenting with Chinese duck

I reckon my stir-fry bitter gourd (or bitter melon or 苦瓜), cooked with sliced pork and black bean sauce, looks nicer, but I'll talk about my experiments with cooking duck the Chinese style.

New Zealand may be too duck friendly. We see ducks everywhere, by the city waterfront, in botanical garden ponds, by the sea, in the lakes and wetlands. After all, it had been a country of birds with no land mammals for millions of years. Until the European settlers came and flooded the isolated island with sheep and cows.

The Kiwis love admiring their ducks, I supposed (well, I too can't stop taking pictures of them). But so much so that it doesn't seem to feature on their platter. I search high and low for duck meat in their supermarkets, but only found chicken and turkey. It's a big crisis, as how am I able to hone my Chinese and French culinary skills without knowing how to cook their famous duck stews or comfits.

Thankfully, the Asians came to the rescue, and I finally bought a big fat and oily Chinese duck home. Made 2 Chinese duck dishes out of it over 2 dinners with leftovers for next meal. Yum yum. Also learned in the process that duck meat is best stewed as long as possible.

First recipe, Duck Soup with Salted Vegetables, is a Teochew dish, from "Reviving Local Dialect Cuisines" by Pang Nyuk Yoon. I felt that I could have simmer longer than an hour for a tenderer meat. I didn't take any photo, was busy savouring the soup.

Duck Soup with Salted Vegetables
1/2 duck
salted vegetables (kiam chye, which is preserved mustard)
2-3 tomatoes
3 dried tamarind slices (assam)
Water
3 slices galangal
2 salted plums
salt and pepper

Rinse duck and chop into large chunks. Remove as much fats as you can -- trust me, the duck is verrrrry OILY. Cook in boiling water for about 10 minutes. Remove to drain (I omitted this step, hmmm...maybe it helps to remove oil).

If using dried assam slices, soak in water until soft. I used assam paste, so not necessary. Cut salted vegetables and tomatoes in large chunky pieces.

Pour water or stock into pot. Add duck and everything else except tomatoes and seasoning. Bring to boil and simmer over low heat for about an hour or more, until the duck meat is tender. Add tomatoes. Depending on the saltiness of the salted vegetables, season duck soup accordingly.



The above Duck Stew with Black Sauce was inspired by Enda's delicious duck stews. She used to cook this duck dish with very thick, dark, sweet and spicy sauce. So I got her to tell me how she did it before coming to New Zealand. But it didn't turn out as I had imagined, as I wasn't sure what kind of dark sauce she used. I ended up using a mixture of dark sweet sauce (kecap manis) and dark soy sauce.

The stew is done, first by stir-frying about 2 large onions and a few slices of galangal. Add the duck pieces, followed by whatever dark sauce. Followed by water to cover and simmer for hours until tender. I used my newly bought slow cooker and stewed the duck for some 6 hours. Very nice. Remove surface oil with a lader if it doesn't appeal to you.

And as we had some leftover egg noodles from lunch, we mixed them with the duck stew. Side dish was the bitter gourd stir fry.

Mission when I go back to Singapore: get the right duck stew recipe from Enda.
Another mission: Improve my photography skills of Chinese dishes.

Fuss-free cooking for one with noodles

I often have to cook for myself alone. And you won't see me boiling instant noodles most of the time. Neither am I expert in making enough variations of salads. Plus I love hot lunches. So noodles and rice feature frequently in my lone meals.

It's definitely boring to cook and eat alone, and worst part is the washing after. So rule number 1: minimal utensils, just one pan/pot will do. So I tend to avoid pasta (which requires one pan for boiling pasta and one pan for cooking the sauce/ingredients).

Saving grace is that Asian noodles come in a variety of shapes, styles and tastes. And many noodles, like fresh egg yellow noodles, fresh white flat kuay teow, and dry ones like tang hoon, bee hoon just require soaking for a few minutes at most.

The ingredients that go into the noodle dish are just as versatile as the dish itself. I usually mix and match 3-4 items from my fridge and pantry. Meat wise, I go for frozen prawns (fast to defrost), minced pork (to make tasty pork balls for soup) or frozen fish balls. For vegetables, carrots and cabbage are favourites, as they are usually the longest lasting vegetable in my fridge, being able to keep for 2 weeks and never seem to be able to finish them. Bok choy, bean sprouts and other greens are used as well. Then, there's onions, garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms that I always have stock for. Just rotate the permutations and I have something different each day.

I also rotate the use of different gravies, sauces and soups -- oyster sauce, black bean sauce, dark soya sauce, chicken stock soup, black pepper style, sambal chilli, sweet sauce....

Picture above is my maiden attempt at Mee Goreng (fried noodles). May not look the best, but still quite tasty. Had bought a 500g pack of fresh yellow noodles, cooked over 3 times, from Chicken Stock Soup Noodles with vegetables and egg, to Black Hokkien Fried Noodles with Gravy, to Mee Goreng style with sambal chilli.

Here's my variation of Mee Goreng, with recipe adapted from Nancy Seng's "Indonesian Kitchen", tweaked also according to the ingredients I had at the time of cooking it.

Mee Goreng
Serves one

About 100g yellow noodles (as a rough guide, one and half handful serves one person)
1 cabbage leaves, thick shreds
2-3 prawns, halved lengthwise
3-4 pieces of surimi slices (seafood sticks)
1 small cup of chicken stock
sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
salt
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 teaspoon sambal chilli

Rinse and drain the noodles with hot water. Rinse again with cold water. This helps to prevent the noodles from becoming gluey when you cook them.

Heat cooking oil and sauté garlic, shallots and sambal chilli until fragrant. Add half the chicken stock, allowing to boil. Add the cabbage and cook until soften. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir fry until well-mixed.

Toss the noodles and fry evenly. Add the rest of the chicken stock, sweet soy sauce and salt, quantity according to taste. Mix well.

Dish out and garnish with fried shallots.

First attempt at porridge

No, we do not eat tarts everyday.

And yes, we cook Chinese food regularly, except that when it comes to Chinese cooking, instinct took over step-by-step recipes. Like simple stir frys based on memory of mom or maid's cooking. Or throwing whatever vegetables and meat we can find in our fridge into soup for noodles, or rice cooker for an all-in-one pot of flavoured rice (black bean sauce, I discovered, works pretty well, same for chicken stock with garlic and ginger for chicken rice. No more spending money on those ready claypot rice mix).

We love porridge, but never attempted them, believing that it takes hours to achieve that smooth, tasty consistency. But we have to start sometime, especially when faced with an almost empty fridge just before our weekly grocery shopping on a lazy Saturday late morning.

My cookbook "Porridge for Lazy People", bought in Xiamen, came in handy. The proportion of rice to water is about 100g rice to about 7 cups water. Add in some frozen prawns, canned and dried mushrooms, chicken stock, soya sauce, simmer for about 40 minutes (according to the recipe, we are supposed to boil violently in high fire the rice and water before starting the simmering process) and voilah! A tasty porridge, just enough for two for a Saturday brunch.