Celery salt

  

Celery salt is a key ingredient in American Southern-Style fried chicken. It is easy to make and more fragrant than store bought ones.

1. Pick the leaves from each celery stalk.

2. Wash them and use kitchen towel to dab dry.

3. Place in a single layer on a baking dish and dehydrate them in the oven (fan mode) at 70 degree celcius. Turn the leaves a few times for even dehydration.

4. Once the leaves are crispy but not brown, remove from oven and set aside to cool. Weigh the dried leaves to determine the quantity of salt using this proportion: 1 part leaves, 2 parts salt.

5. For small amount of leaves, crush them with your fingers. For bigger batch, tansfer the dried leaves to a blender and grind the leaves until they are fine. Mix in the salt. 

6. Store celery salt in an air tight container.

How to cook brussel sprouts

Brussel sprouts are rich in vitamin C and K, antioxidants and fibre. It takes only 10 mins to cook them to reap these nutrients.

1. Rinse brussel sprouts and slice  them into halves.

2. Heat up wok or frying pan over medium heat and add some butter or cooking oil.

3. Add the brussel sprouts and some salt. Toss the brussel sprouts to coat them evenly with butter/oil.

4. Turn them with the core facing down onto the pan to brown. Leave the brussel sprouts undisturbed for a few minutes until they are cooked through (i.e. the tip of a sharp knife can be inserted easily).

Cantonese Congee / Porridge

粵式粥

Unlike Teochew or Hokkien congee/ porridge which are grainy, Cantonese congee is thick and smooth. Cooking a good pot of Cantonese congee takes time but most of it is passive i.e. waiting for the rice to fluff up using residual heat.

Ingredients (2 servings, each in a 7 inch diameter bowl - refer to above fish porridge picture)

100g Thai rice

1.4 litres water

1. Rinse rice and put in a deep pot with water. Bring to boil over medium fire, then lower fire and simmer for 15mins. Then turn off heat. Porridge texture at this stage is as per this picture:

2. Cover the pot with lid and let the porridge fluff up further residual heat for 30 mins. Cover the pot with a towel to trap heat within if you are not using a ceramic/clay pot.

3. After 30mins, porridge texture will look like this:

4. Use a ballon whisk and whisk the porridge rapidly to break down the grains. This is the porridge texture after whisking for 5mins - the longer you whisk, the smoother the porridge. 

If porridge is too thick for your liking, add a bit of water and whisk to incorporate. 

5. To make sliced fish porridge, cook the porridge with fish or chicken stock. After step 4, season the porridge with salt and bring the porridge to a gentle boil over medium fire. Add in fish slices, one by one (do not add the fish slices at one go as they will clump up), use a ladle to gently stir in the fish slices, then turn off the fire. 

6. To make pork meatball porridge, prepare the pork meatballs (click here for recipe) and boil them in a pot of water (about the same amount for cooking porridge). Then use this water (pork broth) to cook the porridge. Once step 4 is completed, season the porridge with salt and add the pork meatballs into the porridge. Here's a picture of pork meatball cum dried oyster porridge: 

Note: Dried oysters added for more unami flavour. Just rehydrate them and replace some of the stock with the soaking liquid. 

Pork Meatball

猪肉丸

These bouncy and juicy pork meatballs can be added to soups or congee.

Ingredients:

500g minced pork

1 teaspoon salt

Half tsp soy sauce

Half tsp sugar

Dashes white pepper

Half egg (about 26g)

Half tsp water

Shredded dried codfish (optional)

Method:

1. Put all ingredients in a stand mixer and use mixer with k paddle attachment to mix until the mixture is pasty.

2. Use hand to shape the balls, then poach them in water until the meatballs are just cooked.

3.  The water can be used to cook pork porridge.

Naan

Naan is a type of flat bread, traditionally baked in a blazing hot clay tandoor oven with charcoal or wood fire. Recipe below is adapted from recipetineats and woodstone corp. The naans turned out really nice and fluffy!

Ingredients (makes 6 pieces of nann, palm sized)

4g instant yeast

125ml water (warm)

15g sugar

30g milk (room temperature)

27g egg (about half egg, lightly whisked)

1.5g salt

180g bread flour

90g plain flour

1 teaspoon sour cream (optional, reduce milk or water by 20ml)

30g or 2 tbsp ghee (alternative: unsalted butter, melted)

1. Bloom the yeast. Mix the instant yeast with water and sugar in a small bowl, cover with cling wrap and set aside for 10min until foamy. This step is supposed to make the naan fluffier and softer.

2. Sieve flour into mixing bowl, mix in salt. Add yeast mixture, milk, egg and ghee. Use scrapper to mix. Once flour mostly incorporated, use your hands to bring together to form a ball. No kneading is required.

3. Cover mixing bowl and proof in warm place until double in size, around 1 hour.

4. Punch down dough, transfer to lightly floured surface and divide into 6 equal pieces. Shape into balls, cover and rest for 15mins until it increases in size by about 50%

5. Transfer the dough ball to a lightly floured bench top. Flatten each ball (using fingers or rolling pin) to 3-4mm. Too thick: no bubbles, too thin; crispy but not fluffy enough.

6. Heat up the cast iron skillet or tawa until it smokes. Place nann dough into the skillet (no cooking oil is required) and cook under medium-high heat until air pockets start to form and the underside is nicely browned, around 1-1.5mins. Do not lift the naan while it is cooking. Use spatula or a pair of tongs to flip and cook the other side for 1 min with a little charring on the air pockets. Note: The faster the naan cooks, the fluffier it will be. Brush naan with ghee/butter. Serve hot immediately or cover the naan with towel to prevent drying as well as to keep warm.

Notes: 

1. To make naan ahead, there are two methods:

a. Once dough has doubled in size in step 3, do not punch down, put the bowl in the fridge overnight. Remove the bowl from fridge and let it come to room temperature before cooking. Proceed to step 4 below.

b. At step 2, divide the dough into balls and transfer to a lightly oiled box/container. Cover the dough and rest for up to 24 hours.

2. For better flavour, change preparation steps by combining steps 3 and 4 using woodstone corp's method i.e. after step 2, divide dough into balls, lightly oil, cover and rest for 2-3 hours.

3. To simulate cooking nann in a clay tandoor oven (the traditional way), change the way of cooking: Heat up cast iron pan, dab some water on the shaped dough (to help the dough adhere to the pan), put the dough (the side with water) on the pan, cook until bubbles has formed, flip the pan over so that the dough burns directly on the surface. Roughly 2 minutes to cook - 1 minute on each side. Refer to pictures below:

Ciabatta

 

Ciabatta is a Italian bread with  rustic texture on the crust (crispy when it's just out of the oven or toasted) and soft, airy on the inside. It can be eaten on its own, dipped in olive oil or hummus, or made into sandwich.

Recipe credit to Brian Lagerstrom. Watch his video here.

Ingredients (makes 2 very big loaves) 

A: Biga (Italian starter for making bread)

175g water, 1/4 tsp instant yeast, 225g bread flour. 

B. Dough

180g warm water, total 395g

250g bread flour, total 475g

40g warm water

5g yeast

10g salt

all of the biga

Method:

1. Prepare biga by mixing all biga ingredients until there is no dry flour. 

2. Cover the container and let the biga rest at room temperature for 1 hour l, then transfer to the fridge and rest for 6 to 24 hours. I rested my biga at room temperature (around 27 degree celcius) until it has risen to triple its volume, around 5.5 hours.

after mixing

after 5.5hours

3. Mix 180g water and bread flour in stand mixer at low speed (Spar mixer  speed 1). Once combined and there are no dry flour, cover the mixing bowl with a towel for 30 minutes. This process is called autolyse which will give more elasticity and extensibility to dough.

4. Add 40g warm water, 5g instant yeast, 10g salt, all of the biga, and mix at low speed for 3 minutes.  Once everything comes together, increase speed  (Spar mixer, speed 2) and mix for 6 to 7 minutes until the dough comes clean from sides of the mixing bowl and there is flapping sound. The dough is shiny and does not tear when you pull it (gluten has developed enough). Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, lightly oiled with olive oil, cover with a towel and rest for 30 minutes. 

5. Wet/oil hand and perform stretch and fold : pull dough, stretch as far as possible and fold it back over itself. Turn the bowl 90degrees and repeat the stretching and folding. Repeat this 2 more times. After 4 folds, grab corner of dough to roll the bottom of dough to the top. Then perform a coil fold. Cover the bowl and rest the dough for 30 minutes.

6. Spray water on bench top. Flip the dough to the benchtop and stretch the dough to a big and thin rectangular shape (12" x 18").  Gently transfer dough back into mixing bowl. Cover and proof for 60 minutes (dough will rise about 30%).

Fold the length side of the dough onto itself (1/3), then fold the other side to cover the dough. 

After that, gently fold the dough over itself like a swiss roll. 

Gently transfer dough back into mixing bowl. Cover and proof for 60 minutes (dough will rise about 30%).

The dough will be soft and jiggly as shown in this video.

7. Dust the benchtop with flour (to prevent dough from sticking to the benchtop). Dust the dough with flour too. Use the dough scrapper to make sure the dough is well released from the bowl. Flip the dough to the benchtop. Dust the dough with flour again and gently pat it and shape into a square. Be careful not to push air out of the dough. 

8. Dust a piece of baking paper with flour. Divide the dough into two (or smaller pieces to suit your preference) and gently transfer each piece to the baking paper. Cover the dough with a towel and proof (on wooden slab if possible) for 30 minutes. Use poke test to check for readiness. Transfer the dough to the baking tray once proofing is completed.

9. Preheat oven to 260 degree celcius. Put cast iron pan on the bottom of the oven. Use a baking stone if you have one.

10. Place the tray into the oven (2nd rack from bottom). Pour 1 cup of boiling water into the cast iron pan which will create a lot of steam. Trap the steam by covering the baking tray with a big roasting pan. Turn down the oven heat to 240 degree celcius and bake for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, remove the roasting pan and bake for an additional 13 to 20 minutes until the crust is dark brown. 

11. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

How to open live cockles

鸟蛤

Live cockles (also known as 'see-hum') are hard to find in wet markets nowadays. We get our cockle fix from Tanglin Halt wet market and Jurong West wet market.

Watch this video on how I remove live cockles from their shells and retain their precious red haemoglobin liquid (rich in iron). 

Method:

1. Soak the cockles in lightly salted water (just enough to cover the cockles) for half an hour.

2. Drain the cockles and discard the water.

3. Use a knife (with pointed tip) to pry open the shell.

4. Once opened, remove the cockle excrement from one end of the shell.

5. Use a small spoon or the same knife to scrape the cockle from its shell.

6. Keep the cockles chilled in the fridge and consume within 3 days. We cook omelette and kway teow with the cockles. 

Sweet Wheat Porridge (Mak Zhuk)

麦粥糖水

This dessert is called "mak chuk" (Cantonese for "麦粥"), wheat porridge (   in Chinese) or bubur terigu in Malay. We like to buy whole wheat kernel but these are rarely sold in Singapore or Malaysia now. In one of our trips to Taiwan Taichung, we found it in a shop selling all sorts of grains and bought some back. What you can get in Singapore/Malaysia now are milled wheat grains (wheat bran removed).

Ingredients:

250g wheat grain

1 litre water

Rock sugar

60 sago pearls (optional)

A few pandan leaves (optional)

Method:

1. Soak wheat grain overnight.

2. Drain and discard the soaking liquid. 

3. Put soaked wheat grain and water in a deep pot and bring water to a boil. Then lower heat and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until the grains expand soften. Add in sago pearls (if using) and stir to prevent them from sticking together and to the bottom of the pot. Once they turn translucent, they are ready. Add in pandan leaves (if using) at this stage (my late mother in law taught me) so that the pandan essence will not be boiled away during cooking.

4. Add in rock sugar to taste.

5. Serve by drizzling coconut milk (or even whipped cream) into the porridge. Enjoy!

Note: for thicker wheat porridge, you could add some rolled oats and cook together with the wheat grains in step 3.

Japanese Mixed Rice (Takikomi Gohan)

炊き込みご飯

Itadakimasu! This is my favourite Japanese comfort one pot meal. 

Ingredients (serves 6 - 7 pax)

2 cup Japanese short grain rice 

150g cabbage leaves

2 pieces kombu (dried kelp)

5 pieces square deep fried tofu puff (use aburaage, Japanese version if you like)

half carrot (about 60g)

seasoning: 1 tablespoon mirin, 2 tablespoon soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt

* other ingredients which can be used to make this dish are: gobo (burdock root), gingko nuts, yam and asari (clams), dried shiitake mushrooms and sweet potatoes. 

Method:

1. Make Kombu Dashi: Soak kombu in a pot with 400ml water for 1 hour. Then, place the pot on the stove and boil the kombu over low heat until just before it comes to a boil. Remove the kombu and set aside to cool before cutting it into thin strips for use later. 

2. Wash rice quickly for a few times until water runs clear. Drain in a colander and set aside.

3. Place the tofu puffs in a bowl and pour hot water over them. This is to remove excess oil from the deep fried tofu puffs. Drain the water immediately and use the back of a spoon to press against the tofu puffs to remove the water. Set aside the tofu puffs to cool down. Once cooled, cut them into thin slices or small cubes. 

4. Squeeze the liquid from mushrooms and retain the soaking liquid. Trim off the stems and cut the mushrooms into thin slices or small cubes.

5. Cut the carrot into thin slices or small cubes, and slice the cabbage leaves thinly.

6. Heat wok with some cooking oil. Stir fry the minced pork/chicken until almost cooked through. Add the carrots, cabbage leaves, tofu puffs and mix in. Add seasoning and kombu dashi (from step 1). Cook over medium-low until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.

7. Set a colander over a bowl and transfer the cooked meat and vegetables into the colander. Let the liquid from cooking drain into the bowl and set aside to cool down.

8. Measure the cooking liquid (in step 7) and add enough to make up 360ml (10% less water compared to cooking normal Japanese short grain rice).

9. Put the washed rice (from step 2) and measured liquid (from step 8) in the rice cooker/pot. Soak for 15mins, then cook the rice as per normal. Once the rice is cooked, add the cooked meat and vegetables on top of the rice but do not mix in yet. Put the lid back and fold the meat and vegetables into the rice after 10 minutes.

Serve hot!

Sweet Red Bean Soup

红豆沙

Ingredients

200g red beans

dried lotus seeds (around 10% of weight of red beans)

dried lily bulbs (around 10% of weight of red beans)

a few pieces of dried mandarin peels

1 litre water 

brown sugar (12% of weight of red beans)

rock sugar (10% of weight of red beans)

Method

1. Rinse the red beans and soak them for at least 6 hours, then drain and set aside. 

2. Rinse the lily bulbs, lotus seeds and mandarin peels. Then soak them for at least 1 hour. Drain and set aside. For lotus seeds, remove the bitter green stems inside the seeds as they are bitter.

3. Transfer the red beans and mandarin peels to a deep pot and add water. Bring to a boil and simmer over lower heat for 1 hour. Stir occasionally.

4. Once the red beans have softened, scoop up 2/3 of the beans and mashed them through a sieve (placed over the pot of red bean soup). Scoop red bean soup and pour into the sieve to 'wash' the mashed red bean flesh into the pot. Diacard the husks.

5. Add the lily bulbs and lotus seeds, and continue to simmer for 45minutes or until the lily bulbs and lotus seeds softened.

6. Add brown sugar and rock sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolve.

Enjoy this dessert, hot or cold.