To Cook
Pour the water and stock into a large pot and boil over medium-high heat.
Add the tomatoes to the soup and cook until they are tender.
Carefully add the tofu to the soup so as not to break them.
Once the soup comes to a boil again, quickly turn off the heat and slowly pour in the eggs into the soup. Make sure you continually stir the soup when adding the eggs.
Season with salt and serve while hot.
Boil
Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls (Nem rán / Chả giò)
To Prep
Boil water and soak noodles for 30 mins.
Combine all the ingredients for the filling together to form a sticky mixture.
Chop the soaked mung bean noodles into shorter threads and combine with filling.
To roll the cha gio, place a piece of spring roll paper on a clean, wet kitchen towel. Place 1 heaped tablespoon of filling on the moist rice paper, fold the rice paper over the filling, tuck in the sides, then roll to form a cylinder about 3 inches long.
Seal the wrap by dabbing a finger in the corn starch and lining the end of the wrap.
To Cook
Heat oil over medium heat in a wok or a large frying pan. When the oil is smoking, gently place a few cha gio in the oil. Fry them slowly until they turn lightly brown. Drain the excess oil by lining them over some paper towels.
Serve immediately with dipping sauce.
Glutinous Rice Balls in Coconut Milk (Kuih Badak Berendam)
To Prep
Make some pandan leaf extract by blending the leaf in 1 ½ cups of water. Strain the liquid to remove the bits of leaves.
Add the salt to the pandan extract, and slowly add the flour until you get a soft dough.
Dissolve the palm sugar in a pot filled with water over medium heat.
Next, add the grated coconut and stir continuously for about 10-15 mins until the mixture has dried up and then, remove it from heat.
Let it cool down then shape into balls about the size of a marble and set aside.
Combine the coconut milk, rice flour, salt, and pandan leaves for the sauce in a pot and bring to a boil over medium heat.
Stir the mixture continuously for about 10 mins until it thickens. Add salt to taste.
Remove from the heat and set aside.
To Cook
Grab a portion of the dough and flatten it on your hand.
Place a ball of filling into the middle of the dough and bring the edges together.
Roll it in the palm of your hand to get a nice sphere. Repeat until all the dough has been used up.
Drop the stuffed balls into the boiling water.
Allow it to boil until the balls start to float to the surface.
Remove the balls from the boiling water and mix in with the sauce. Serve.
Nabeyaki Udon
To Prep
Soak kombu in the water for 30 mins in a pot and turn on the heat to medium. Remove from heat when water begins to boil.
Add bonito flakes then return to heat. Allow the water to simmer for another 1 min.
Strain the stock into a clean bowl.
To Cook
Boil the spinach in the water and drain when done. Divide into 4 portions and set aside.
Add the mirin, soy sauce, and salt to the dashi stock. Portion a quarter of the dashi stock into 4 individual sized clay pots.
Add the chicken to the soup and simmer until it has cooked through.
Add in the udon noodles, and let it cook for a few mins as per packet instructions.
Place the fishcake and a portion of boiled spinach on top and simmer in the soup for a few mins.
Drop in an egg into the broth. Then add a few slices of leek on top.
Remove the clay pot from the heat and serve hot.
Spicy Fish Stomach in Coconut Sauce (Lemak Perut Ikan)
To Prep
Grind the spice paste ingredients until fine.
Soak the tamarind in water. Squeeze the soaked tamarind in the water to release the flavour, until the water turns a creamy brown. Remove the pith and set the tamarind water aside.
To Cook
Add the spice paste and tamarind water to a pot, bring to a boil and stir well. Lower heat and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
Add in ingredients A to the pot and cook for 6 minutes.
Add in ingredients B, seasoning and herbs and simmer for another 15-20 minutes.
Garnish with sliced torch ginger flower and serve with rice.
Watercress Soup (Sai Yong Choi Tong)
To Cook
Prepare the watercress by separating the leaves from the stalks.
Blanch the chicken carcasses in vigorously boiling water for 2-3 mins. Discard water and remove any impurities on the bones.
Blanch the pork in vigorously boiling water for about 10 mins, then discard water. Remove any impurities on the pork.
In a large pot, add the chicken carcasses, pork ribs, Chinese almonds, blacked eye peas and watercress stalks to 2l of water.
Turn on the heat to medium high and allow to boil for an hour.
After an hour, add the watercress leaves, red dates, and goji berries to the soup. Allow the soup to boil for at least another hour on medium heat.
Season with salt to taste. Serve hot.
Malaysian Hand-Torn Noodles (Hand-Torn Pan Mee)
To Make the Dough
Combine the flour and salt together in a bowl and mix well, before making a well in the centre of the flour and adding in the egg. Mix the ingredients together till clumps form and then add in the water.
Continue mixing until a dough forms. Add more water if required or more flour if the dough becomes too sticky.
Continue to knead the doughy until it becomes elastic. At this point, cover with cling wrap and set aside for an hour to soften.
After the hour has passed, remove the dough and divide in to 2 or 3 smaller sections to be handled easier.
Take 1 section of the dough and press the top side of the dough to form a lip. Continue to press this section to stretch it until you get a bite sized piece that is evenly thick and relatively thin.
When you have your desired noodle size, tear it off and set it aside under a damp towel to stop it from drying out.
Repeat until all of the dough has been used.
To Make the Broth
Add the anchovies and water in to a large pot over a high heat. When the stock begins to boil, reduce the heat, add in the salt and let simmer for 15 mins.
When the stock has finished simmering, remove the anchovies form the pot and reduce heat to low or remove from the heat until ready to cook the noodles.
To Cook the Meat and Mushroom Topping
Heat oil in a pan over high heat and when hot, add in the garlic and pork and fry until the meat is mostly cooked through.
Add in the mushrooms and continue to cook for a couple mins.
Reduce the heat and add in the rest of the meat ingredients. Stir well to evenly coat all of the ingredients before adding some water to balance the seasoning.
If the seasoning is good, remove from the heat and set aside.
To Cook the Noodles
Over a high heat, bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. If the stock was removed from the heat, return it to the stove and warm it up over a low heat.
Add the noodles in to the pot one batch at a time, making sure they have enough room to cook and won’t clump together.
Once the noodles begin to float to the surface, let them cook for further min before removing from the pot and setting aside.
Once you’re done with the noodles, add in any vegetables you want and blanch them before setting them aside to serve.
To Serve
Add the cooked noodles in to the broth to heat them up and then transfer a serving in to a bowl and top with the vegetables. Garnish with the cooked meat and mushroom, as well as fried anchovies and fried shallots.
Salted Duck Eggs
To Cook
Wash eggs and drain well. Set aside to dry.
In a pot place salt, water, star anise and sichuan peppercorn. Bring it to a boil until salt dissolves. Let it cool completely and add shaoxing wine.
In a clean and dry glass jar, place all eggs carefully and pour in the cooled brine mixture.
Leave it brining at room temperature for approximately 5 weeks. Make sure the eggs are completely submerged into the brine and the jar is sealed tightly.
Take an egg to check for readiness after 5 weeks. If the weather is hot, the eggs will be ready sooner. Salted eggs can be kept for a few weeks in the fridge.
Laksa Johor
To Prep
Poach the fish until cooked. Then separate the cooked flesh from the bone. Keep the cooking liquid and bones.
Finely blend the bones, fins, and tails together with the cooking liquid using a blender.
Strain the fish stock through a fine-mesh sieve and set aside.
Clean and gut your prawns but reserve the head and shells. Blend the prawn flesh into a paste and reserve for later.
Boil the prawn heads and shells in 3-4 cups of water then transfer into a blender and finely blend.
Strain the prawn stock through a fine-mesh sieve. Set it aside.
Meanwhile, blend the dried shrimps and salted fish with some water until you get a paste. Reserve for later.
Finely blend the shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger, and dried chillies in a blender.
Dry toast the anise and coriander seeds in a frying pan until fragrant. Then, rind using a mortar and pestle.
Heat up some oil in a large pan or wok. Sauté the blended aromatics together with the stalk of lemongrass.
When fragrant, add in the ground herbs and curry powder. Sauté until the oil splits.
Next, add in the fish stock, followed by the prawn stock. Bring the soup up to a boil and add in the coconut milk.
Then add to the soup, the blended dried shrimp, blended salted fish, blended prawn flesh, and cooked fish flesh.
Allow the soup to simmer then add in the slices of asam keping, palm sugar, toasted coconut, torch giner, Thai basil, and Vietnamese coriander.
Season with salt and sugar to taste. Bring the soup up to a boil and allow to thicken slightly.
To Cook
Prepare the spaghetti according to packet instructions, and portion in a soup bowl.
Toss the snake beans with Thai basil and Vietnamese mint until uniformly mixed.
Garnish the noodles with cucumber, bean sprouts, and snake beans and herb mix.
Ladle the hot soup over the noodles. Serve.
Sarawak Laksa
To Make the Omelette
Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat.
Pour in egg mixture. Cook until set, popping any air bubbles with a knife. Flip over and cook other side.
Remove from pan and slice into thin strips. Set aside.
To Make the Sarawak Laksa Paste
Add chillies, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, candlenuts, ginger, galangal, coriander, cumin, tamarind puree, water and oil into a food processor or blender. Blitz to make a smooth paste.
Heat a pot or pan over medium heat. Pour in the paste and cook for 40 mins, stirring occasionally.
Add sugar, curry powder, paprika and salt, and cook for 5 mins, stirring constantly.
Set paste aside.
To Make the Soup
Add water to a pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce heat to medium and add the prawns. Cook for 2-3 mins or until pink and cooked through, then remove and set aside.
Add chicken breast and poach for 5-7 mins or until cooked. Remove chicken and cool before shredding with a fork.
Add laksa paste and reserved prawn shells and heads.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 30 mins.
Strain the stock to remove prawn heads, shells and other impurities, and bring the stock to a boil again.
Add coconut milk to the soup and season with salt and sugar to taste.
To Assemble Dish
Soak vermicelli according to the packet instructions. Then, blanch together with the Hokkien noodles for 1 min. Drain and place into bowls.
Blanch the bean sprouts for 30 secs. Drain and place onto top of noodles.
Top with chicken meat, cooked prawns, omelette strips.
Finally, ladle soup over until all the ingredients are covered. Garnish with coriander and serve with a lime wedge.
Tofu Pudding (Tau Foo Fa)
To Cook
Remove as much of the skin from the soybeans and rinse.
Using a blender, blend the soybeans with some water until soybeans are finely minced.
Transfer the blended soybeans into a stock pot with 2 liters of water.
Boil the mixture on medium heat. Make sure to stir every now and then so that the soybeans do not stick to the bottom of the pot.
Bring the heat down to medium-low once the mixture boils and allow simmering for about 40mins.
Remove the milk from the heat and filter the mixture through a tea sock or cheesecloth. Squeeze the residue in the tea sock to make as much soy milk as possible. Set it aside.
Add 250g of gula Melaka, 1 cup sugar, 1 knotted Pandan leaf and 1 cup of water into a pot and bring to boil.
Make sure the sugar has dissolved completely and removed from heat once it has achieved your desired consistency.
Next, mix the gypsum with the water in a bowl.
Boil the soymilk and skim off any bubbles or foam. Remove from heat.
Make sure the gypsum has completely dissolved, then add to a large pot.
Gently pour the soymilk into the pot to avoid the formation of bubbles.
Do not stir the mixture/ Cover the pot with a kitchen towel, followed by the lid and allow it to set for about an hour.
Scrape the top layer of the tofu with a shallow ladle and into a bowl. Add a few tablespoons of syrup and serve.
Vegetarian Char Siew
To Prep
Place all ingredients into a mixing bowl and knead for 15-20 mins until you get smooth dough by using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment.
Rest the dough at room temperature for an hour.
Transfer the dough to a basin and cover the dough with water.
“Wash” the dough as though hand washing clothes. Tip out the water when the water gets too cloudy and fill with fresh water.
“Wash” the dough until the water remains clear.
After tipping out the water, what remains is the wheat gluten.
To Cook
Cut the wheat gluten into 3 equal portions and stretch into equally long pieces.
Plait the gluten and seal the ends to help the meat gluten mimic the shape of lean meat.
Boil gluten in a pot for approximately 30mins or until it floats to the surface.
Let the cooked gluten cool to room temperature and undo the plait.
In a bowl, combine all the marinated ingredients and mix well. Next, add the wheat gluten to the bowl and coat thoroughly. Allow it to be marinated for at least 3-4 hours, preferably overnight.
Then, heat up the oil in a wok or port to deep fry.
Deep fry the gluten for about 10 mins. Remove the gluten from the oil and drain any excess oil.
Add a little oil to a frying pan, and then add the marinade. Sauté until the sauce thickens.
Slice the vegetarian char siew and drizzle the sauce over. Serve.