Stir Fry Pork Belly Slices

葱炒三层肉薄片

Ingredients:

250g Iberico pork belly slices 

1 knob of ginger (sliced thinly)

Spring onions (cut into short strips)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 tsp salt

Method:

1. Heat the wok with 1 teaspoon of oil.

2. Fry the ginger slices over low heat until the edges have browned, about 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Push the ginger slices aside and add all the pork belly slices into the wok. Cook the belly slices undisturbed over medium heat until some of the pork fat oozes out. Flip the half cooked pork belly, add black pepper and salt, then mix in the fried ginger slices.

4. Stir fry until the pork belly slices are just cooked, turn off the heat, add the spring onions and mix in. Transfer to serving dish and enjoy hot with rice.

Bak Kut Teh

 肉骨茶

This dish, literally translated as "pork bone tea", is a soup with tender pork ribs cooked with Chinese herbs and spices. You can easily buy bak gut teh spice packets from supermarkets and wet markets in Singapore but most, if not all, contain MSG (monosodium glutamate) to enhance the flavour. We therefore prefer to prepare our own spice bag which is really very simple but just as delicious. Recipe below is adapted from guaishushu's Teochew Bak Kut Teh, where the soup is clear (instead of dark coloured) and contains less Chinese herbs/spices.

Ingredients (serves 3 pax)

700g prime pork ribs 大牌骨

4 garlic bulbs

1 - 2 licorice root

1/4 tsp black peppercorns

1/4 tsp szechuan peppercorns

1/2 tsp white peppercorns

1/8 tsp five spice powder

1 tsp salt (seasoning)

1.5 litre water

8 pieces of tofu puff (tau pok) - optional. Tofu puffs are actually deep fried in oil, use kitchen towels to press against each piece of tofu puff to soak up excess oil before using. 

Vegetables (Tang Orh / garland chrysanthemum, lettuce goes very well with bak kut teh) - optional

Method:

1. Blanch the pork ribs in hot water and set aside.

2. Heat up wok/pan and stir fry (without oil) peppercorns until fragrant. This takes about 5 mins. Transfer the peppercorns to a tea bag and crack the peppercorns to release flavour. Add five spice powder into the teabag.

3. Break the garlic bulbs into individual garlic cloves and roast them in a pan (use a wooden spatula to stir them around) until slightly brown.

4. Put pork, teabag, garlic cloves, licorice root and water into a big pot. Add in tofu puffs if using. Bring to a boil and simmer until pork is tender, about 1 to 1.5 hours. Add vegetables (if using) to the soup.

Before

After 

5. Season with salt to taste and serve hot with rice and a small dish of sliced fresh red/green chilli with dark soy sauce.

Stonepressed Chicken Drumsticks

Mortar (and pestle) is used to grind or crush ingredients into powder or paste. But do you know the mortar can be used as a cooking tool too? I use it to flatten the chicken drumsticks during cooking to get crispy pan fried chicken drumsticks. If you don't have mortar and pestle, any heavy, flat-bottomed object (e.g. a brick) would also work.

Ingredients:

3 chicken drumsticks (deboned)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp white pepper or freshly ground black pepper

Lemon sauce (optional):

15g unsalted butter

50ml lemon juice (around 1 lemon)

20g sugar

1/4 tsp salt

80ml water

1 tsp cornstarch

1 tbsp water

Method:

1. Clean and wash the drumsticks. Pluck chicken feather if any. Dab dry. Debone.

2. Heat up the cast iron pan/skillet until smoking.

3. Meanwhile, sprinkle salt and white/black pepper on the meat side of the chicken and rub the salt and pepper in. 

4. Put the chicken, skin side down, into the cast iron pan. Lay a piece of aluminum over the drumsticks, followed by the mortar. Pan fry the drumsticks undisturbed over low heat for 5 minutes. Note that the length of cooking depends on the size of drumstick and the stove heat.

5. After 5 minutes, remove the mortar and aluminium foil. Use the wok spatula to lift the drumstick to check whether it has crisped up. If not, cover with aluminium foil and mortar,and continue to pan fry for a few more minutes.

6. Once the chicken skin has crisped up, remove the mortar and aluminium foil and flip the drumstick, meat side down. Pan fry for 5 minutes.

7. Transfer the cooked drumstick to the chopping board and cut into thin slices.

Serve hot!

How to make ikan bilis stock

江鱼仔上汤

Some dishes taste better with ikan bilis (dried anchovies) stock e.g. rickshaw noodles and mee hoon kueh. The stock can be ready in less than 1 hour.

Ingredients (makes approximately 1 litre of stock)

30g ikan bilis/anchovies

2 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)

1.5 litre water

Method:

1. Soak ikan bilis in water for half hour, drain and set aside.

2. Heat the wok with 2 to 3 tablespoons of cooking oil. When oil is hot, add ikan bilis and stir fry for a few minutes until the ikan bilis turns light brown. Then, add the chopped garlic and stir fry for another few minutes. Add water and bring to a boil. Then lower the heat and simmer for half an hour.  

2. Sieve the soup and remove the anchovies and garlic. For a 'cleaner' soup, filter the soup through a tea bag. The creamy white colour of the stock comes from the ikan bilis and it is packed with unami. 

Done!

Steamed Chicken

白斩鸡

We cook this steamed chicken dish every fortnight as it is so easy to prepare.

Ingredients

1 kampong chicken

1 tablespoon salt (to clean chicken)

1 tablespoon salt (to marinate chicken)

Thumb sized ginger

Method

1. Clean chicken, rub salt all over the skin and wash away the salt. Dab chicken dry with kitchen towel.

2. Apply salt all over chicken including cavity and air dry chicken for at least 3 hours.

3. Prepare steamer and fill it up with sufficient water for steaming to last 45minutes.

4. Grate ginger.

5. Place chicken on a big plate, and put the plate in the steamer. Steam at low heat for 45minutes. If chicken is small (1kg or less), steam 30minutes.

5. After steaming, let the chicken rest in the steamer 15 minutes. Take some chicken juice from the plate and add to the ginger.

6. Debone the chicken and serve with sliced cucumbers. Keep the chicken bones/carcass in freezer to make chicken stock.

How to make chicken stock

 鸡上汤

This is our sustainable way to make chicken stock - using leftover chicken bones/carcass after having steamed chicken. Don't let good chicken bones go to waste, stockpile them in the freezer and you will have a ready supply of bones/carcass to make clear chicken stock.

You can use roasted chicken bones to make the stock too but the stock colour will be dark/brown.

Here are the steps:

1. Put chicken bones/carcass in a big pot and cover with water. Use less water if you want a more concentrated stock. Cover the pot.

2. Bring the water to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for at least one hour. Simmer longer if you have the time. Skim off fats from the stock.

3. Remove the bones/carcass. Filter the stock using a tea bag or fine mesh sieve.

Done!

Double Boiled Cabbage Soup

炖泡菜汤

You will be surprised how easy it is to prepare this flavourful soup with only 3 ingredients - cabbage, dried scallops and chicken stock.

Ingredients (serves 4 pax)

3/4 cabbage (buy Cameron Highlands or Japanese cabbage which are sweeter. They are round in shape and slightly flattish.)

3 to 4 pieces of dried scallops (rehydrated)

Chicken stock (click here on how to make this stock)

Method

1. Quarter the cabbage and slice off the core. Wash each quarter of cabbage under running tap water. Do not separate or tear the cabbage leaves. Place the cleaned cabbage in a deep ceramic bowl (I use a 8.5" ramekin bowl).

2. Place the scallops including the water used for soaking the scallops into the ceramic bowl.

3. Fill the ceramic bowl with chicken stock until 80% full. No need for the stock to completely cover the cabbage. Cover the ceramic bowl.

4. Put the ceramic bowl in a big pot/wok filled with water. Cover the big pot/wok. Bring the water in the big pot/wok to a boil over high heat. Turn to low heat and double boil for 1 hour. Make sure to check the water level in the big pot/wok throughout the double boiling process. Add water when it runs low. 

5. Add a dash of salt to the soup and serve hot.

Kueh Bingka Ubi Kayu (Baked Tapioca Cake)

烤木薯糕

This is one of my favourite nonya kueh. Store bought ones can be overly sweet. My recipe yields a less sweet tapioca / cassava cake which is enhanced with the addition of gula melaka and butter. Baking it in the pan lined with banana leaves also resulted in a very fragrant kueh. 

The most time-consuming part of making this kueh is peeling, removing the core and grating the tapioca. The amount of grated tapioca will determine the quantity of the rest of the ingredients. I've provided the ratio of the ingredients to the grated tapioca in my recipe below. 

Ingredients:

grated tapioca (T)

thick coconut milk (70% of T)

tapioca starch (2.6% of T)

sugar (16% of T) - I used gula melaka and granulated sugar

salt (1/4 tsp per 500g of T)

egg (lightly beaten - 1 egg per 500g of T)

butter (cold - 15g per 500g of T)

Method:

1. Peel tapioca, remove core and grate them. Weigh the grated tapioca*.

2. Add tapioca starch to grated cassava, mix well with a spatula.

3. Add in salt nd sugar, mix till sugar has dissolved. If you use gula melaka, the kueh colour will be brown.

4. Add in lightly beaten egg, mix till combined. Instead of whole egg, you can use only the yolk.

5. Add in thick coconut milk gradually, mix till combined.

6. Pour into baking pan (lined with banana leaves) and use the spatula to spread the mixture evenly. Bake on the lowest shelf of the oven @180C (top and bottom heat, with fan) for 35 minutes or until the top is light golden brown. Remove from oven and drop bits of cold butter on the top and continue to bake the kueh in the upper shelf of the oven for 15 minutes or until the top are crispy golden brown. Insert a skewer into the kueh to check whether it is ready (skewer is clean with there is no raw batter on it) before removing from oven.

7. Let the kueh cool completely before removing it from the pan. Slice and serve with tea/coffee. Leftovers must be kept in the fridge - just steam or microwave to warm it before serving. 

* came across a recipe where the grated tapioca is squeezed to extract its liquid (starch and water). The liquid is set aside for at least an hour for the starch and water to separate. Then, discard the water and replace with clean tap water. This extra process is due to the belief that white tapioca is bitter. I may try this process when I bake this kueh next time.