To Cook
Bring water to a boil in a large pot for approximately 1 hr, until the sea cucumber has softened. Cut into suitable pieces.
Bring a new pot of water to a boil in a large pot. Place the pork belly in the pot, blanching for 3-5 mins. Leave to the side.
Heat up a wok and add some oil. Saute the ginger and garlic until the aromas are released.
Add the pork, sea cucumber and mushrooms to the wok mixture. Add the light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Stir-fry for 2-3 mins.
Add the water, cinnamon and star anise.
Stir often to ensure everything is mixed well. Bring to a boil.
Transfer the wok mixture to a big pot. Cover with a lid and leave to simmer for approximately 1 hr until both the pork and sea cucumber are tender.
Garnish with spring onion and serve while hot.
Seafood
Thai Steamed Clams with Lemongrass (Hoi Tom Takrai)
To Prep
You can easily pound the birds eye chilli and kaffir lime leaves using a mortar and pestle.
To Cook
Heat up a wok with some oil. When the oil begins to smoke, quickly add the lemongrass, galangal, bird’s eye chilies and stir fry until fragrant.
Add the clams to the wok and combine with the previous ingredients. Follow up by adding the coconut water.
Add the kaffir lime leaves before covering the wok. Let the clams cook covered until they are done. You can tell the clams are done when they are all open and should only take a couple of minutes, try not to overcook the clams.
Add some lime juice and fish sauce to taste. Give it a good stir to mix.
Transfer to a serving bowl and serve immediately with some steamed rice.
Chinese Steamed Ginger Clams
To Prep
In a bowl, mix all the seasoning ingredients together and set aside. Make sure all the ingredients are well mixed.
Place the clams on a suitably sized stainless steel deep dish plate. Make sure the plate deep enough to hold any juices that may come out of the clams.
Add the seasoning and ginger to the clams and mix well.
Add the spring onions and garlic oil and prepare the steamer.
To Cook
Steam for about 15 mins or until cooked. Make sure the water is boiling before placing the plate of clams in the steamer.
When the clams are done, garnish with more coriander and spring onion. Serve hot with steamed rice.
Radish Cake
To Prep
Grate your radish using a handheld grater, then using your hands squeeze out any excess water. Place in a bowl and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine rice flour, tapioca flour and water to form a flour paste and set aside.
To Cook
Start boiling 500ml of water in a pot and separately heat up some cooking oil in wok, and stir fry the shallots for a few minutes. Add the Chinese sausage, mushrooms and dried shrimp to the wok and stir fry until aromatic.
Next add the ingredients for the seasoning and stir fry for a few more minutes. Then pour all the fried ingredients into the pot of boiling water.
If the water has stopped boiling, bring it back up to a boil. Then pour the contents of the pot into the flour paste we made in step (2). Using a large spoon, mix to combine the flour paste with the water and other ingredients.
Next, add the grated radish into the flour mixture in 4 separate batches. Make sure each batch of grated radish has been properly combined with the mixture before adding the next batch.
Then add in the radish in 4 portions and use wooden spoon to separate the radish evenly and stir well.
Pour the radish cake mixture into a 20cm by 10cm loaf pan. Then place the loaf pan into a steamer on high heat and steam for 35 minutes.
Once the radish cake is done, remove it from the steamer and allow it to cool.
Slice the radish cake into 2cm thick slices. Pan fry each slice until golden on each side and serve with dipping sauce of your choice. Usually dipping sauces used are a simply chilli sauce, but can be easily replaced with Sriracha sauce or similar. Enjoy! These steamed radish cakes also go well with a bowl of piping hot rice or porridge
Mixed Vegetable Stew (Nyonya Chap Chye)
To Cook
Heat up some oil in a wok over medium high heat. Add the garlic and onions and sauté until fragrant. Add the taucu and sauté for another minute.
Add the chopped cabbage and continue cooking until the cabbage becomes soft.
Add the other ingredients to the wok except the glass noodles. If the ingredients had to be soaked, toss them into the wok together with the soaking liquid, then top up with enough water to cover all the ingredients.
Bring to a boil then cover the wok with a lid. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
Check the vegetables to see if they are done. When they are, add the glass noodles and mix well. Let it stew simmer uncovered until the sauce reduces, but make sure not to let the sauce completely dry up.
Season with salt and pepper and serve with steamed white rice.
Spicy Cucumber Salad (Kerabu Timun)
To Prep
When the dried shrimp have soaked enough to be soft, coarsely chop them into smallish pieces.
Peel the cucumbers, and cut in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and proceed to cut the cucumbers into large matchsticks about ½ cm thick.
Mix in 2 tsp of salt with the cucumber in a bowl and let it sit for 20-30 minutes. Drain off any liquid that is extracted from the cucumber.
In a large mixing bowl, add the cucumbers, shallots, sambal belacan, dried shrimp, salt and sugar. Toss and mix the salad well, making sure that all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
Transfer the completed salad to a serving bowl and serve immediately with steamed rice.
Prawn Fritters (Cucur Udang)
To Prep
Combine plain and rice flour together in a large bowl.
Add prawns, onions, bean sprouts, spring onions and carrots in the bowl.
Slowly add in the water and mix well. The mixture shouldn’t be too thick or runny. Ensure that all ingredients are coated well with flour.
Season with a pinch of salt, sugar and pepper.
To Cook
Heat up oil in wok. Slowly put in some of the fritter batter into the hot oil and deep fry for a few minutes until crunchy. The size of each fritter is up to you, smaller ones give more crunch, while larger ones have a soft, fluffy texture on the inside.
Drain and remove excess oil. Allow to cool for a bit and serve warm.
Spicy Seafood Japchae
To Prepare
Soak the noodles according to packet instructions or until soft, then drain.
Mix 1 tbsp sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar and garlic in a bowl to make the sauce.
Combine oil, 1 tbsp sesame oil and chilli powder in a pan over low-medium heat, ensuring that you are stirring often. When the oil starts to run red, turn off the heat and remove the pan.
In a new pan, combine the noodles and 1 tbsp of the sauce over medium heat. Fry for approximately 3-4 mins, till the noodles have softened.
Set the noodles on a plate. Stir-fry the onion briefly in the same pan and add the carrots and mushrooms till wilted. Add a little bit of water if the vegetables seem dry. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Add the seafood and sauce and cook until the seafood is fully cooked. Add the optional mushrooms and scallions.
Add the noodles back in the pan and combine. Add more seasoning to taste if required.
Serve while hot.
Soft Shell Crab Hand Roll
To Prep
Add the sushi vinegar to the cooked sushi rice and gentle fold in to the rice until well incorporated.
Combine 125 g of tempura flour and ice water together in a mixing bowl and lightly stir them together. Don’t over mix as pockets of flour will make the batter airy. Pour the remaining 50 g of flour in to a separate bowl.
To Cook
Heat the oil to about 180°C, then dredge the crab halves one by one in the tempura flour, then into the batter and fry till golden brown. Let cool on paper towels to drain the excess oil.
To Make the Roll
Halve the seaweed sheets. Place sushi rice and then the lettuce, cucumber and half a crab onto one side of nori.
Fold the nearest corner of the nori over the filling and start to shape.
The hand roll should be shaped cone shaped to stop any rice from falling out.
Cantonese Fried Flat Noodles in Egg Gravy (Wa Tan Hor)
To Cook the Noodles
Lightly blanch the noodles in some boiling water to avoid them sticking together.
Heat up the oil in a wok over medium high heat. Add the noodles, dark soy sauce and light soy sauce.
Stir fry and toss until the noodles are evenly coated with the soy sauce. Continue until the noodles are cooked. Set aside.
To Cook the Gravy
Heat up some oil in the wok and fry the garlic until golden brown.
Next add the chicken, fish cake and prawns. Fry until the prawns and chicken are cooked and pour in the chicken stock
Season the chicken stock with the light soy sauce, oyster sauce and salt to taste. Once seasoned, bring the stock up to a boil.
Prepare a cornstarch mixture by adding the cornflour to water and mixing well, making sure there are no lumps.
Pour the cornstarch mixture into the chicken stock and simmer until the gravy thickens.
Add the choy sum into the gravy and crack the eggs in as well.
Turn the heat off as soon as you crack the eggs in and stir vigorously to break up the eggs and mix them into the gravy.
Pour the gravy over the prepared noodles and serve immediately.
Claypot Glass Noodles with Prawns (Goong Ob Woonsen)
To Prep
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce and set aside.
Cut the roots of the coriander into 3cm pieces, and the stems and leaves into 9cm pieces. Set aside.
To Cook
In a claypot, heat the cooking oil over medium heat.
Lay the pork belly at the bottom of the claypot.
Add the garlic, ginger, peppercorns and coriander roots. Turn the heat up to medium-high and stir-fry until they become fragrant.
Add the glass noodles, chicken stock and sauce, and stir until evenly mixed. Cover and simmer for 1-2min.
Add the prawns and top with the coriander stems and leaves. Drizzle sesame oil over.
Cook on medium heat for 10 min or until the prawns and vermicelli are fully cooked. If the sauce dries up while the dish is cooking, add more chicken stock.
Prawn in Yellow Coconut Curry (Kari Udang)
To Cook
In the mortar pestle, pound chili, onion, garlic and turmeric. Then transfer ingredients to the pot.
Add some water and lemongrass and cook for 5 minutes.
Add in coconut milk, green beans, tomato and salt. Bring this to a boil and add prawns. Boil for about 4 mins and serve hot with rice.