The Food Canon

Reflection

What if I just focus on cooking and someone else just shoots away merrily ?

I find it hard to focus on cooking and the food at the same time, if you know what I mean. It is a constant challenge.

My niece Japhia was with us when I cooked a family dinner tonight. She was enjoying my 600D.

As you can see, she was snapping away as the plates were prepared before the diners got to them.

I like that. I just focus on the pan and she on the lens.

She did not have much time and I was surprised at what my young niece came up with.

Apart from admiring some of her work, perhaps you can be inspired as you think of your coming Christmas or New Year dinner.

We finally come down to the recipe.

I should pause to credit the recipe to my brother Clement and my sis-in-law, Mary from Ipoh. They love Assam Laksa and have taken the trouble to learn it from my Mum. Some of the beautiful pics here were taken by their daughter Japhia Wong. You can see through her lens that she is talented.  

The preparation of the fish broth is described in greater detail here. For info on some of Assam Laksa special ingredients and how they are prepared, go here.

Bunga Kantan: As beautiful as it can get

In the first post, I have detailed out how to prepare the kembung fish broth. I hope you are not put off by the work involved. Just get into it and it will be intuitive after a few tries. But you (and your family & friends) will be rewarded with a spectacular dish.

We continue with the rest of the recipe.

I will introduce some of the exotic ingredients in this recipe.

The ginger flower or torch bud is beautiful both in appearance and taste. Used in Nonya and Malay cooking, it also goes by Bunga Kantan. If you are a sophisticated biologist, you call it etlingera elatior. If you are a plain Joe - like myself - you can just call it the "Rojak flower." It is easily available here. It is a fantastic flavour enhancer. It is also used widely in Thai and other types of Asian salads. It's taste is exotic and rather hard to describe. In fact I am chewing on some now.

How do you even begin to describe the experience of eating Assam Laksa?

Imagine a fish kembung broth meticulously prepared. Then you add spices like chili, the complex and fruity ginger flower (torch bud), lots of sour tamarind (assam), assam keping (dried tamarind skins), blue ginger (lengkuas, galangal), shallots, laksa leaves and "funky" belachan (dried shrimp paste,and 'funky' was the word an Australian chef used to describe this paste).

As if that is not flavorful enough, you garnish the sweet and indescribable prawn paste (hae kou), mint leaves, and shredded large red onions, grated pineapple and more chillies and ginger flower.

Fishy, sour, sweet, fruity, spicy, salty, bitter, minty and umami. This rich, flavorful and complex broth has all the works.

Good morning.

It is Ipoh time again as my brother drove down south this week.

And he brought along some fresh "Kampung" eggs.

I suppose you can call them free range eggs as this "village" chicken roams about and eats off the ground.

Chinese New Year is coming.

I know the year has not ended yet and there is Christmas before we get there.

But let me alert you again,  CNY is round the corner.

Very soon after you put down the carolling sheets, clean up the mess which your children will make at their Christmas party or finish the NY countdown, it will be ang pow time soon.

For 2012 CNY is happening on the 23rd of January. The same day where Man U will play Arsenal (and beat them of course). That is barely three weeks after the year has started.

If you are responsible for the CNY reunion dinner, as I have largely been since my Mum passed away, you better plan early.

This is a simple cheap grain-fed sirloin steak bought from a nearby supermart

Should you try Sous Vide cooking at home?

If you, like me, cook regularly, my answer is most definitely yes.

For those who are new to this rather mysterious-sounding cooking technique, I will give an overview here.

Sous Vide is basically about placing food in a vacuumed pack and then cooking it in a water bath at a precisely controlled constant and gentle temperature. 

This way of cooking is not new. For centuries, Chinese cooks have wrapped glutinous dumplings (rice with mushroom and meat) in lotus leafs to retain moisture, add and mix flavours, and steam it. Malays have long known that one of the best ways to eat fish is to "pangang" it: wrap the fish in a banana leaf and cook it slowly on charcoal fire.

Some think that SV is boiling food. On the contrary, it is about controlling the temperature; this technique hardly needs heat near the boiling point. It is more akin to poaching and slow cooking at low temperatures. Cooks have have long known that slow-cooking produces great results.

This post continues my diary on my experiments with Sous Vide (SV) cooking at home.

A piece of chicken breast does seem easy to cook. It is easy to debone and it looks like it is made for the pan due to the neat shape of the fillet. It cooks faster than thigh meat.

However, many prefer thigh as breast meat can be 'dry'. It can be difficult to get it "just right": tender, moist, flavorful and not over-cooking it. If a piece of chicken can retain its juice, the flavour is better.

Vacuum-packed boneless chicken breast

This is where Sous Vide can help. Vacuum-pack it and put it in a water bath for 25 minutes at 63°C. And like some of my family members will say, it is the best chicken breast they have ever eaten.

Let me get down to the recipe. I will first describe the methods and then lay out a summarised verison of the recipe in table form.

Purchase a good quality chicken boneless breast meat, skin-on. Some at supermarkets or specialty stores like Hubers will vacuum pack for you. Some will even add a few sprigs of fresh thyme if you ask.

Now, you can also vacuum pack it at home with the meat you purchased from the wet market. One advantage of vacuum packing it yourself is that you can add stuffing and other flavours to the meat.   

With Cantonese style soy sauce based sauce

Sis, this is for you

My sister called me up from KL and asked me to post up something on steamed fish.

She was quite excited with my food blog, especially the way Mum's recipes are now easily accessible.

Steaming is probably the easiest way to cook fish and the best way to eat it, especially if it is eaten whole.

This way of doing fish is something normally associated with Chinese cooking. It is a great way of showcasing a good piece of fish in all its glory - head, body, colour and texture. It is a regular dinner feature in many Chinese homes.

In Chinese restaurants, live fish will go from the tank to the steamer and then, the table. Some of them can be very expensive. You may have heard of the rather controversially priced Sultan fish. I have eaten it once before. It is fantastic eaten steamed (and this is the best way to cook this boney and succulent fish) but I wouldn't pay a thousand dollars for it.    

Warning: This article is groaner's territory

This post has been on draft for many months. So, here it is finally.

Reliable sauces are so important. In this day and age, when there are so many competing claims, you need to make good choices. I trust this post is a reliable source for reliable sauces. (I warned you...)

Here is my list:

Loh Mai Kai. 

It has been a long time since I had a good one. It was my childhood favourite. The Siew Pau stall sold this. He will move the stacks of bamboo steamers around to get to the Loh Mai Kai bowls. Then, scooped out of shallow aluminum bowls, it was served on a plastic plate with chili sauce. Memories.

It is nothing like that sold in aluminum foiled dishes in many coffeeshops here, with a cardboard stuck on the top carrying the brand and name of the supplier. Outsourcing. Clearly, convenience has triumphed once again over effort and passion when it comes to cooking.

This is why I am intrigued by stories such as this on Muah Chee scooped by Ieat here. There are some who still believe that food should be done well even if most customers don't care.

I wish I could tell you that what you see above is bought from somewhere here in Singapore. And I am happy to know if you have some "lobang." (tips).

My Mum made fabulous glutinous rice ("Loh Mai Fun") and this was one of her regular contributions to church potluck breakfast gatherings.

She will labor on it in her wok, working on it constantly with her 'wok chan' and adding water occasionally till it iscooked to perfection. It was hard work. She did not like to use the regular steaming methods. Those who have experienced cooking glutinous rice will understand why. She wanted the rice to be fluffy and separated, not in gluey wet blobs or clumpy.

The latter can dislodge your dentures.

It is notoriously difficult to achieve some consistency using regular steaming methods. This is especially so when you are making a large batch. Some parts will end up too soggy/sticky or under-cooked. And what happens most times is that the rice will end up being overcooked as no one likes bits of it which are still hard.

Haruan: If they won't bite, buy them home

There was a time when I used to go on fishing trips with some fishing kakis on my staff- for males only, of course.

After all, have you seen any fishing boats equipped with toilets?

One of our favourite destinations was the Banting Lake located north of Ipoh. We went with my brother and some die-hard fishing kakis from Ipoh.

We looked like a bunch of Vietcongs.

"Waste not, want not."

You may have heard of this phrase and it is a good one to remember for home cooks.

I try to adhere to this motto but with time, I realise that it is easier to 'waste not' if one gathers more culinary experience and confidence. I am also learning to store my veggies and herbs, using the usual housewives tricks and tips.  

I have a batch of week-old basil and kaffir lime leaves which did not looked like they could go any further. And some leftover coriander roots which I was keeping for use in another dish.

"Waste not?" Yes, indeed. Lets do a dish with these. 

"Want not?"

You have eaten this dish before, haven't you? Maybe you have even cooked them.

It does belong to the CF&G category.

I am not sure I need to do a tabled recipe for this one. I will go with the more traditional format.

I have in possession some lovely young galangal carried in all the way from Banchang, Thailand.

They were gifts from some of our friends there.

There are many lovely dishes one can whip up with these beauties. One of them is Tom Kha Gai, the delicious soup dish which has often been overshadowed here by the more popular Tom Yum.

The word "Tom" means "to boil". "Kha" means galangal and "gai" means chicken. The main infusion herb used here is galangal. And just in case you think I can speak Thai, I got inspiration for this recipe from The Principles of Thai Cookery by Chef McDang

If you have the right ingredients, this soup is easy to make. If you do not have these young beauties, the older Malaysians ones will do.

This is my third crustacean recipe.

You may recall my lament on how crustacean-like the aliens are in Hollywood movies. Prawns can look downright scary. My second post - fried Assam fully dressed ones - did not fare very well in the looks department either. 

I have to say though, that this particular one looks ravishing. Stripped off from their head gears and gowns, naked for a brief moment and then coated in a spicy red glistening sauce, they are dressed and ready for the dinner ball.

And best of all, if you are like my wife, you will love the fact that you don't need to do any peeling at the dinner table. As all good spouses do, I sometimes have to do that for her. With this, I can focus on my own prawns.

In this post, I will summarise the recipe for Hakka YTF in one table. I will not list out every piece here but will do so for those that use different techniques for preparation. Please read my previous posts on HYTF here.




Download the recipe in printable PDF format here 

I have lost count on how many times I have cooked my Mum's Char Siew since I first posted the recipe. (Check the series of posts on Char Siew here. Go here for a pictorial post of this recipe)

I have experimented with different method and ingredients.

I have had it pressure-cooked, "su-vied" and oven-ed.

I have added other ingredients, hoping to improve on the recipe.

I could not believe that it did not need garlic or ginger.
I have wondered what oyster sauce is doing in there.
I had doubts on the amount of oil she started with.

This is the last of the trilogy (ahem) on my Mum's Hakka Yong Tau Foo.

As you can read from earlier posts (here and here), this dish is actually very "individualistic" as each piece - may it be brinjal, okra or foo chook - though stuffed with the same paste, is cooked differently and carries it's own special flavours and texture. It is certainly not a melting pot.

This is what makes HYTF special. Adding pork and salted fish may make it Hakka but good YTF should not be a generic pool of something. Each piece should have its own flavour and unique preparation.

My butcher sold me a kilo of pork collar recently.

He took it quietly from beneath his counter, as if it was some kind of illegal contraband.

He insisted that it should be made into Char Siew and not cooked in any other way. "Char Siew only. Promise?" I was more than happy to comply, of course. He had no idea that I am the son of the famous Auntie Ruby. It looked great. "Can I have one more kilo?" "No," he replied. "Just try this out and if you like it, come back and I can give you more."

Malaysian brand from Sheng Shiong

In the introductory post on my Mum's Hakka Yong Tofu, I gave the recipe on making the stuffing or filling. Once you get that done, the rest should be easy. I also gave details on making stuffed brinjal. I continue here with the rest of the HYTF pieces. Most of these should come to you naturally as you get down to this. Don't expect to get it all perfect the first time round. As I have advised, start with 2 or 3 types first. But once you have eaten this, there is no turning back and it will be etched forever in your gastronomical memories: this is Hakka YTF.   

It was Levi Strauss who said that "the process of cooking is the process by which nature is turned into culture."

Nothing can be more true when it comes to Hakka Yong Tau Foo. In the hands of a Hakka cook, some common and ordinary ingredients are mixed, chopped, stuffed, steamed, boiled and fried. The end result is a classic masterpiece. 

When it comes to Yong Tau Foo, it is Hakka and the rest. The rest are relegated to the generic pool of YTFs, much like how Hainanese Chicken Rice leads the pack.

When you think of steaks, you will normally think of sirloin or rib-eye. Or the more expensive tenderloin.

The rest are "the rest." You throw them into a stew or rendang, often cut into smaller pieces.

They are normally cheaper because they are "not tender."

There is a pre-occupation with whether a steak is "tender" and if your knife can easily cut through it, then it must be good.

My experiments with Home Sous Vide (pronounced suːˈviːd/) continues. I am simply intrigued by this cooking method. I have already blogged my first experience with Roast Ribeye Beef.

So, what do I think about the Sous Vide Magic (SVM) gadget? Bang for the bucks, it is one of the best kitchen gadgets I have had in recent times. For USD160, it opens up a new method of cooking, extending the multitasking capacity in my kitchen. I would never have imagined that the rice cooker area can be used for anything other than cooking rice. And not to mention, it has been put to egg service regularly for my household and for parties.

Countless recipes to make it with but a few techniques to get it right

Fried rice paradise, Nasi goreng very nice
That’s a speciality, 99 varieties...

You may have heard of this famous song by Dick Lee. Dare to hum the tune and it will be stuck in your head for the next 24 hours. (Ok. too late...there you go.)

Indeed we do live in a fried rice paradise in Southeast Asia. Thai, Malay, Indonesian, Indian or Chinese, this dish has been "wokked" out in every variety. There are probably more than 99: there are countless varieties actually when you think of what households will do with their dinner leftovers.

I am glad I am moving away from eggs and Sous Vide with this post. My mum would have found it amusing and rather beyond her, if she sees the gadget and wires in the kitchen.

She loved soft-boiled eggs. If she had tasted my home-made ones, I am sure she would have egged me on. She would have spared no effort at making a dish as delicious as possible. Some readers are confused as to the fuss: 45 mins is too long! For a millionth time, let me repeat this: I do have the plastic drip egg-maker and I do know how to perfect them the 5-7 minute way. I may still return to it from time to time, but the 45 min Onsen Tamago way is different.

This illustrates again what I have said here about an observation I have made since childhood: cheap produce, if cooked with some effort can produce spectacular result. What I like about eggs is that they are so cheap and common. You can have them soft-boiled, hard-boiled, scrambled, sunny side up, or on your salads and flavorful bowl of ramen. The humble egg can be put to great service at any meal throughout the day, home or restaurant. If you make it well, it turns into something special.

Cooking with your eyes closed...literally

This will be a quick post to log in my experiments with Sous Vide cooking.

While I was sleeping...

Monday evenings are normally reserved for dinner with the wider family. Having chanced upon a vacuum sealed marinated Rib-eye Roast at a nearby supermart which was going for half price, it was indeed time for SV. 

I put the 1.4kg meat into the SV (rice) cooker for 6 hours at 55°C (meduim-rare). I referred to this chart to work out the time and temp.

Into the pot late in the evening and I went to sleep. By morning, it was cooked. Nearing dinner time, a few drizzles of olive oil and into the oven at 220 °C for about 12 minutes. The exterior crusted very well. Let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing. I also made the sauce from the liquid in the pack and some demi-glaze in my freezer.

In a recent post, I have mentioned the use of the tap, pot and induction cooker method to maintain the constant temperature needed to make 'perfect' half-boiled eggs. This is a "Manual Sous Vide" method or sometimes called "Ghetto Sous Vide."

Having experimented further, there are other ways of doing the 62C-45M eggs. The length of time (45m) remains, but these methods need less attention. You can "close and forget" - sort of.

Before I proceed, let me show you pics of eggs from a shop in Kota Baru which my brother sent to me. He stays in Ipoh. It looks like those on my post. It has solved a mystery for him. He has always wondered: how did they do it? He may not need to go all the way to KB for these if he can make them at home. :)

It has taken some while but as promised, here is part 2 on some home cooking tips.

But first, some thoughts on the progress of this blog.

I am encouraged by the number of folks who have been trying out the recipes. Some have feedback that it has helped them improve on a dish or cook a new one. Such feedback makes this all worthwhile. Someone, somewhere is being inspired to cook more, better or try making a new dish. Or ideas to add to their own.

And I get my Mum's recipes onto someone else table. Cool.

Are you crazy over soft-boiled eggs?

If not, you may find this post puzzling and will be wondering what the fuss is all about.

But for the rest of us, wouldn't it be great if we could this at home to look and taste better then those at our fave coffee-shops? Consistently, everytime?

When my daughters were kids, I remember bringing them out for kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs breakfast. My daughter quipped, "Why come all the way here when you can make this at home?" Hmm, why indeed. I found it difficult then to try and explain that places like these get them right - everytime. "What do you mean, dad? Eggs are eggs."

Savour it hot.

(Note: I have updated the recipe - read this)

I have been hoping to write up a recipe on Tom Yum Soup, a thought which I had already mentioned in the first article of this blog.

Last Sunday, as usual, I was reading and enjoying Christopher Tan's "Ask a Foodie" column. I nodded in agreement when I read his article on making a good Tom Yum. You can find out more about Chris' work here. And this morning, I read in the papers that it is no 7 on CNN list of the world's 50 most delicious food.

I have always been fascinated by a good bowl of Tom Yum Soup. While on my honeymoon in Phuket 18 years ago, I enjoyed a bowl of Tom Yum Goong with steamed rice. That experience has never left me. The problem is that most of the variations of Tom Yum which I had since were less than satisfying. These variations always seem to have so much in them that they crowd out the real Tom Yum, leaving only faint echoes of the one I had.

I reckoned that I simply needed to demystify this dish myself if I want to have it on my table. When I was in Banchang last year (an hour's drive from Bangkok), I visited the local wet market. It was very clean and the herbs and spices were displayed neatly. I saw many packets of the "Tom Yum trio" and I bought a bagful. That began a series of experiments before I got it right. It would have helped if I had a copy of The Principles of Thai Cookery by Chef McDang then or read this article by Chris Tan.

Have you tried cooking without a recipe?

If you are fairly experienced as a cook, you may want to try doing this more regularly. You could be pleasantly surprised with what you could come out with.

My recent visit to Sydney did encourage me to cook this way. The kitchen at the serviced apartment was, as to be expected, not the most conducive for asian cooking. What was fun was to scout out the nearby markets and try to imagine what I could come up with.

We were in wintry Sydney for a conference. We enjoyed this working trip cum break immensely. There is a whole lot I would want to say from this trip (including about the influential Hillsong Church) but since this is a food blog, I will stick primarily to that here. This blog is not about the food that others cook but I will make this an exception since this is a rare Sydney visit.

This is my first time in this city. As we were busy with a conference, we did not get to explore a whole lot. We stayed downtown near Darling Harbour and we mostly explored with our feet. I managed to do some cooking but being in a service apartment, there was not much to work with. Walking to the conference venues took us daily through the Chinatown area. And when a group decision on food had to be made, we almost always default to Chinese. Or, sorta Chinese.   

We did have some 'wow' moments and I will blog some of these here.

I was told that Hakka folks (客家人)are a stubborn people.

"Hakka" literally means "guest people." They are migrants who travel in search of a better life or mostly, simply to survive. This migratory instinct also led many to migrate overseas.

This may explain their stubborn trait and resilience as a people.

Hakka deep fried pork ("Zhar Yoke") is one of my Mum's signature dishes which I eventually manage to replicate.  

I said eventually, as I could not get it right, even though I followed her written recipe to the tee. In fact, the last time I made it, it tasted so different. Out of sheer frustration, I almost called my Mum down from heaven.

And I suppose that bit of Hakka stubborn trait kept me from giving up.

(Photo by Andrea Kong)

(Ed note: I have added details on how to make the bun recipe)

I have to cook to shoot and write.

But if I cook too often, I will not have time or energy for the latter. This has been the case in recent times.

The month of June, being school vacation is also traditionally 'stand-down' month for my church. It is a period to clear my leave, which is something I do not do enough on an annual basis.

Somehow, I ended up having to cook for three dinner parties within a short time: a BBQ party for my wife's home cell members, a thanksgiving cum fund-raising dinner where I met some interesting folks and the third one where I found  myself cooking for almost total strangers who were drawn together by an interest in good local food.

The "Essential" Nasi Lemak

Nasi Lemak is the national dish of my country of birth.

It was also my Mum's favourite party spread.

If you have 10 guests or more and you are thinking of a buffet approach, Nasi Lemak never fails to please. Except for the rice, everything else can be served at room temperature. Most of the dishes can be made well in advance. This will help you avoid the last minute rush to get the food ready. 

If cooked as it should be (not with luncheon meat!), it can compete with other popular international fare. It can be plated the fine dining way (looks gorgeous), lined as a buffet or served cheaply but deliciously as a banana leaf wrapped breakfast meal.

(I have added the recipe further down below and some idea of how the PC can be used to cook this dish)

When my Mum-in-law and I had to cook a few lamb dishes during Christmas last year, I thought up this idea of ordering some Dorper Lamb pieces. They were fabulous and we may do it again this Christmas. 

I had some pieces of lamb shanks and shoulder that have been sitting in my freezer since then. I have put off braising lamb shanks because it has to be slow cooked to perfection, and that may take two hours or more.

I finally cooked it. The cooking time was 30 minutes.

How is that possible. You might have guessed.

Dorper Lamb Shank

This is the second installment of a mini-series on Pork Ribs. View the first episode here.

Pork ribs with soft bones are best for this dish - the meat is tender and suited for steaming.

The easiest way to get it is to ask your butcher.
Steamed Pork Ribs in Plum Sauce

Ingredients

1 kilo of Pork Ribs (soft boned)

Marinate:
3 tsp of Plum Sauce
1 tsp of black soy bean (optional)
3 tsp of minced garlic
dashes of Chinese Wine
3 tsp of Soy Sauce
1 tsp of sugar
Pepper
2 tsp of corn flour
2 tsp of oil

Diced red chili

Method

1. Marinate the meat for half an hour.
2. Put the dish on the steamer. Make sure the ribs are spread out in one layer for even and effective  steaming.
3. Steam for 20 minutes. 
4. Serve immediately and garnish with coriander leaves.

Done. Fast and easy. Adding black beans ("Tau See") is a variation to this dish, as can be seen in the photo. If you find that there is too much water residue in your dish, just pour out the sauce, cook it further and thicken it with corn starch. Then add the residual sauce back into the ribs and serve.

Depending on the meat you use, sometimes adding some bicarbonate when marinating will help to tenderise the meat. As you can imagine, this dish is easy and convenient to make. Marinate the ribs and then just put the same dish on the steamer. Time it to finish cooking just before dinner starts. You can switch off the flame and leave it in the steamer to keep the dish warm if dinner has not started yet.

I normally use my wok, plate holder, some water of course and the wok cover to get the job done. I have been told that using a bamboo steamer absorbs water better, leaving less water in the dish. I may try using that next.   

Steamed in the steel plate.

Pork ribs can be challenging to cook because unless you are using soft bone cuts they need to be tenderised, either through marinating, using soda bicarbonate or the "slow and low” braising method.

Braising pork ribs is one of my Mum’s favourite method. This method is similar to braising Char Siew in the wok. You cook the meat till it is tender in a strongly flavoured braising sauce. Keep it “slow and low” to retain the juiciness of the meat.

Some Memories of Avocados, Adjectives and a Brown Bag

This blogsite has been mostly about meats. So, I think it is about time for some veggie tales.

Crunchy Asparagus. Juicy Tomatoes. Creamy Avocados.

These are the key ingredients of this salad recipe. If you get the right ones, you are almost there when it comes to this dish.

Avocados bring back many childhood memories.

You have heard me talk a lot about my Mum. Now, here is something about my Dad, Wong Pak Kee. Being the eldest in his family, he had to give up on education early and start working to support the family. He grew a vegetables and fruits business in a mini-market located in an expatriate district in KL (Kenny Hill). This type of mini-marts is a dying breed these days.