The Food Canon

If you have spare ikan bilis in your larder or fridge, this is a good condiment to make. It is appetising and goes very well with rice or porridge. And it makes for a good snack. My Mum made this often.

With CNY around the corner, it is good to have some of this in your fridge.

I was told that Indonesian ikan bilis crisp up better than those from China. Should you remove the hearts and organs? After reading this, you may not want to do that.

And please, don't wash the ikan bilis unless you want to reduce it's saltiness and plan to dehydrate them first before frying. Do you know how hot deep frying oil is? Deep your finger in and feel it. But then again maybe not. The point is even humans will not survive hot oil.  Neither will any pathogens clinging to it. Hou should however sake of any dust by shaking the dust down by using both your hands or a suitable colannder.

Tau chu is salty and plum sauce is sweet. Make sense to combine them. Plum sauce will also add some glaze to the ikan bilis.

Ingredients
200 gm ikan bilis
10 shallots (peeled and sliced)
2 fresh green or red chillies (sliced)
1 Tbsp of plum sauce
1 Tbsp of brown soy beans (Tauchu, whole not meshed)
Oil

Method
1. Deep fry the ikan bilis in medium heat till it is golden brown and set aside.
2. Using a Tbsp of the oil, cook the slice chillies and caramelised the sliced shallots for about 2 minutes.
3. Add the tauchu and plum sauce, mix and switch off the fire.
4. When the sauce has cooled, add the fried ikan bilis in and mix.

Serve immediately or keep in an air-tight container.

Happy crunching.

Note: The full recipe for HYTF can be found here.

When I cook Hakka Yong Tau Foo, it is almost always for a party.

It has been while since I last made this and along with the food team in my church, we had to find our bearings again. But it wasn't as difficult as we had feared. It all went very smoothly and about 100 diners enjoyed the unique dining experience at our Alpha Course last night.

Why HYTF for tonight? I was asked by the team to cook whatever I want as this was one of the last few meals I am doing in the church. It isn't quite the "Last Supper" but it is true that I will be moving to another church to serve as their pastor w.e.f. 1st July this year.

I was thinking of Japanese beef rice, using Sous Vide to 48-cooked some short rib beef to perfection. Or maybe coffee pork ribs and butter prawns. But the dishes will not engage the whole food team the way HYTF will. And so the decision was made.

Updating this old post and added some pics. I have written another post with a simplified recipe here. 

I have grown accustomed to her taste

Tau Yew Bak! Tow You Bak! Toyu Bak! (Oh dear, how do you anglicize or 'engli-pinyin' this?)

This dish has been blogged and 'reciped' to death. It can be found in just about any Nonya (almost synonymous with Singaporean) cookbook out there.

So why another one?

Recently, during Chinese New Year, I met my cousin. She told me that her neighbour made some Char Siew and Tau Yew Bak and gave some to her. She learnt it off the Net from a lady by the name of "Auntie Ruby".

**Smiley**

My cousin also told me that she had recorded some of her recipes. I asked her to whatsapp them over and she did. Some recipes were new to me. These will certainly be added to my upcoming notebook.

I thought my Mum's Wok-char Siew method could be used to cook pork ribs. I blogged about it here. Apparently my Mum already knew that long ago. See the above recipe for "Hong Siew Pai Kuat."

Sigh. I miss my Mum...still. I dreamt of her again just yesterday and it was as if she was really present.

“Loh Mai Farn"is a breakfast staple which my Mum made regularly for gatherings or parties.

Apart from getting the flavours into the rice, the key is to keep the grains separated and retaining the springy bite (“al dente”). Gluey and soft glutinous rice is to be avoided.

To achieve this, my Mum would slave over the wok. After soaking the rice for a few hours, she would slowly fry the rice in the wok and add water along the way. It can go on for a good hour till the rice is cooked and properly flavored. She would not use the electric rice cooker or regular steamers to pre-cook the rice.

Ever since I came across Leela’s splatter guard method (She Shimmers, a popular Thai Cooking blog), I have found an easier way of achieving the same results.

Chicken Rendang (wet variety)

Rendang is a dry type of curry, which my Mum cooked often. I have many memories of eating her  Beef Rendang (check her recipe here) and Chicken Rendang.

According to tradition, it is an Indonesian dish. As the meat is cooked for a long time ("merandang") till the curry is dried out, it can keep for a long time. This explains why the recipe was popular during pre-refrigeration times. There are two types of Rendang, the dry and wet variety. The dry one can keep very well, even in room temperature. In fact, dry beef rendang is almost like dry beef jerky.

It has been a fascinating journey of trying to recreate my Mum's noodle recipes: Assam Laksa, Penang Prawn Mee, Ipoh Kai See Hor Fun and recently, her version of Mee Jawa. Her laksa still awaits.

Auntie Ruby was exceptionally good with noodle dishes. I think her recipes were gathered and improved out of her many years of cooking in canteens, restaurants and hosting parties. She must have known some "makciks", possibly learning from the Malay cooks in the Muslim section of her canteen, as her Malay recipes are "sungguh sedap."

While her written recipes are helpful, taste memories played an important part in inching it closer to how she made it. The first batches are always for my family and when they give the thumbs up, I know one of Auntie Ruby's dishes has been recreated.

If you have been following my blog closely, you would have noticed that my recipes do change with time, often with improved techniques or changes in ingredients.

That is the advantage of a cooking blog compared to a static cookbook. I think in this day and age, the best is to use both. And yes, I am working on my cookbook, often at a pace slower than I like due to lack of inspiration, energy or just simply the busyness of life and work.

So, what was the first dish I cooked?

I was very young. I can hardly remember the details. It was at the canteen in the Guinness Stout factory along Federal Highway (it is still there).

My Mum ran the business at the three canteens there - Western, Chinese and Malay. Much of my primary school years were spent working and hanging around there. The Western one had an air conditioned room and caters mostly to expatriate management staff. The cook was a Hainanese man. My Mum called him Ah Chek and I called him uncle.

I have just returned from spending 5 months in Toronto, Canada as a part of my Sabbatical break. This is also one reason I was blogging less. I met many wonderful friends in Toronto and there are many good things about the city which I hope to write about soon.

Being a food blog, it is back to food. And I am back to my home and familiar kitchen environment. I was early at the wet market this morning and was glad to come across some pork jowl (or cheek). It is not displayed and you have to ask the butcher for it.

Using my Mum's Char Siew recipe (here and here - I have been blogging Char Siew recipes ad infinitum!), I patiently braised the cheeks till I got the right texture. The result is a tender succulent CS with a nice "bounce" to the bite. Do cook it on low fire and be patient.

Editorial: This recipe was first posted 3 years ago. I have revised it. It is a great dish and I hope to make it again soon. It works equally well with chicken. 

In fact if there are days when your dishes are not "happening"(a local way of saying that it is not turning out to expectations), a good sambal belachan could make up for it.

Mediocre fried veg + bland meat dish = Miserable meal
Mediocre fried veg + bland meat dish + Sambal Belachan = Happy Meal (toy is superfluous)

Ed notes: In this post, I have done a major update of the recipe and rewritten the cooking notes since I first published it two years ago. I have also written a series of posts with more photos, the "science" behind it and how to cook this for a large party. Check out the series of posts through this link. I have also worked out a smaller portion recipe. 

My mum's Hokkien Prawn Mee was one of her 'signature' dishes.

It brings back many fond memories.

Annually, on Teachers' Day, she would cook for all the children teachers and helpers in my church's Super Powerkids Ministry. That tradition has of course ceased the year my mum passed away.

When news got round that she is cooking this, family members and friends will gather in anticipation.

And this is the dish she cooked for a a group of friends before she fell seriously ill. It was her last celebration. I still remembered how I visited my friend's place to enjoy it. When we meet, we still reminisce about this.

Fish lovers must have read some news of late with some dismay.

Apparently there is a shortage of fish from Malaysia during the Hari Raya season, leading to a ban on imports. The fish involved are those which are popular to the Malay community including kembung, cencaru and selar.

I love any fish in the mackerel family. I have blogged about my love affair with Chilli Fish (or Ikan Sambal Chilli - fish stuffed with chilli) using the Cencaru fish and how it is always a finger-licking-good experience.  The only problem here is that it is hard to find this fish. With the latest shortage, I can imagine it will be even more scarce.

One of my favourite ways of eating prawns is the fried assam way.

The prawns are marinated in sugar, salt, dark sauce and assam paste (tamarind sauce). And then pan seared in a shallow layer of oil. The prawn is enjoyed with shells on. This way of cooking utilises the flavours in the shell to enhance the dish.

I have written a lengthy post 2 years ago on making Auntie Ruby's Tau Yew Bak.

Here I will give some quick tips and the low down on making this. I don't work with a fixed recipe and this version will vary slightly from the earlier one. This is a very easy dish to do.

I repeat it here again - the key to good Tau Yew Bak is a very low fire. Keep fire low, cook patiently till meat is tender.

If the heat is too high, the meats will shrink and the oils will ooze out of the fats. You will end up with tough chewy meat and watery TYB.

I am revisiting this wonderful recipe. My late Mum had made this many times, especially when there is Ipoh Hor Fun around in the house. 

The soup is basically a chicken-based stock with some prawns flavour added through the shells. The tasty light broth accompanies the silky smooth hor fun very well, along with strips of chicken meat, slices of prawn, chives and bean sprouts.

I am writing up another post on my Mum's Char Siew recipe. I made it again today and followed her recipe closely. I have written a few posts on Char Siew making from your home kitchen.

It is good, no doubt. Not just good, I think it is great. And it is simple to make as well.

I started with 1 kg of pork belly in 3 strips. With skin off, it weighed 900g. I did not have time to marinate, not that it mattered.

(At the time of writing, I had just seen with my girls - and loved again - the great movie, Forrest Gump. So, stupid as stupid does, you must excuse some Gump-speak here.)