The Food Canon

Black is back. Black garlic. Buah keluak. Squid ink. Charcoal.

Of course, Malaysians have always been using the thick dark soy sauce for many home dishes.

I will share a recipe here which is simple and underlines the principle that sometimes less is more. I did not made an effort to take some proper photos. And so I only have one taken which looks rather unappetising. I will get a new one up the next time I cook this.

However, I can tell you that this is very delicious.  

In this recipe, garlic is the key ingredient. The idea is to "slow and low" braised it until the flesh of the garlic meld into the thick sauce. Tough cuts of pork meat like trotters, pork ribs, shoulder or belly is suitable for this slow-braise recipe.

Check out on this link for more info on the slow and low cooking technique.

I won't fuss about the kind of garlic you should use but just make sure you are using the dark caramelised soy sauce with is common in Malaysia. You can choose to peel the garlic or leave the skin on.

This recipe focuses on the flavours of the garlic, pork and dark sauce. Herbs (i.e. aniseed, cinnamon bark, orange peel) are not necessary unless the pork has a strong off-putting taste.

You are probably familiar with pork trotters in black vinegar (chi kook chao), which I also love. This recipe is just another way of enjoying the trotters.

Ingredients

2 kg pork trotters
300-400 gm garlic, peeled
200 ml dark soy sauce
150 ml soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp oil

This is how it looks like when you begin to braise it. Note that I added some pork ribs.

Get the butcher to cut up the pork trotters.

Blanch the trotters in hot boiling water for about 10 minutes and remove.

In a wok or pot, add the sauces and when it is hot, add the trotters. Add the sugar. After 10 minutes, lower the fire and let it simmer for about one and a half hours or till it is cooked. When cooked, you should be able to pierce the fat with a fork easily. The pieces should not be falling apart as this means that it is overcooked.

This dish keeps well. Reheat before serving and eat with white rice. Garnish it with some coriander leaves. Pair it with a plate of green vegetables.

No matter how warm or strained family ties are, all across Singapore, families still try to gather. There is an unspoken forgiveness or a staying of grievances. As conversations flow, we remember that family is a given and gift. Whatever or whoever, we ought to receive it with gratitude. Going beyond a truce, some mending may actually happen.

For a few days, work is set aside as the home becomes centerstage. It has been a while since one stood at the balcony and stared at his neighbourhood. To have the whole family gathered in the living room is a rare moment indeed. Indeed, the living room is no longer the a gathering place as families often retreat to their own PC or smartphone devices in their rooms. Hopefully during CNY, that will be different.


The ambitious career persons readjust their perspective. After all, the home is a graveyard of ambition. As a proud father watches his children, the unquenchable desire for public honour recedes into the background. Problems at work are temporarily forgotten.

The second day will be about visiting relatives, and on the third day, close friends. For those who come from broken families, the reunion night can cruelly open some old wounds. I don’t think those wounds can be healed completely on this side of life. But CNY celebration stretches long enough to remind one that close and faithful friends are still some of the good gifts of life.

Indeed, "every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father …” so says the Bible in James 1:17.

We can be grateful for the many gifts that God has given us through our culture, family and friends.

Wishing all of you a wonderful and blessed Chinese New Year.

A family photo taken in 2005

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.

I have written a few post on this recipe and you can check them out through this link.

I have never cooked this for less than 30 bowls and the recipe reflect this. However, there have been various request for a smaller portion recipe. So, I hope this is helpful if you plan on making 10 bowls or less.

As for the stock, it is primarily a prawn or shrimp stock with some secondary flavours from meat stock, i.e. chicken or pork. Once you grasp this, you will know how to vary the ingredients as you will be using different type of prawns, depending on what you can get from the market in your area. If you have very small shrimps, they can be used whole without peeling. Remember to roast them first before pulverising.

Auntie Ruby's Hokkien Prawn Mee Recipe

To make 10 bowls (about 2-3 liter of stock)

Preparing the prawn and dried shrimp stock 

800 gm  prawns
100 g dried shrimps (hae bee)
150 g  fried anchovies (ikan bilis)
5 cm ginger

1. Peel and separate the heads and shells of all the prawns. Trim off the sharp pointers at the top of the heads. Set aside about 20 pieces of meat for garnishing later.
2. Heat up 1 Tbps of oil in a wok and roast the dried shrimps for 10 minutes. Add ginger. Then add the heads/shells and roast till they turn golden orange. 
3. Add 2 litres of water and pulverise it finely, using a stick or standing blender. You should see some orange or red coloured foam at the surface of the stock. 
4. Add the ikan bills. Cover and simmer the stock for half an hour. Then let it steep overnight for maximum flavour extraction. You can also do this earlier in the day and let the flavours develop by dinner time.

Preparing the lard and sambal chili

300 g of pork fat 
30 pieces dried chilli
1 inch in diameter block of belachan or 1 Tbps

1. Lard is of course optional but the flavour and mouth feel of pork fat is fantastic in the broth. Cut the pork fat into 1 cm (0.4 in) cubes. In a pan, slowly heat up the cubed fat. The oil will slowly flow out and fry the rest of the fat. Keep the fire low so as not to burn the lardon. It will take about an hour to do it right. When the cubs have shrunk to a quarter of its original size, increase the fire to get the lardon nicely browned. The lardon can be offered as a garnish but the oil is what you want. Lard can be prepared beforehand and stored in the fridge for weeks.    
2. Leave about half a bowl of the lard in the wok to make the sambal chilli. Blend the soaked dried chilli into a paste.  Then, over low fire, add paste and simmer for 15 minutes. You can also use ready-made or store bought chilli paste.

1. Strain the prawn and ikan bills stock. 
2. Keep the broth on a simmer. It is important to taste it as you develop the flavours to learn how each ingredients move the broth closer to the outcome you want. While I give the quantities of ingredients in the recipe, the sweetness and saltiness which you prefer may be different from mine. Learn to train your palate to balance the flavours. If you have tasted some good Hae Mee or tasted mine, those palate memories can guide you. 
3. Add the rock sugar, chicken stock (bouillon powder or concentrate) and sambal chilli. The chicken stock flavouring gives a mellow body to the broth. (Note: You can replace the chicken stock with chicken bones and meat or pork bones if you want to stir clear of MSG.) 
4. Add the belachan and a bowl of the sambal chili (with lard oil) into the broth. 
5. Add some water along the way.  

Don’t rush through this stage. This is where a cook can improve his skills, palate and learn the steps in improving a broth. Sometimes, I ladle out some broth into a bowl and flavour it to find a right estimate of what is needed in the pot. Of course, if you are using the same ingredients again and with experience, you will get more confident.

Preparing the prawn meat and pork loin meat(for garnishing)

1. Simmer the pork loin meat in the stock for 30 to 40 minutes depending on how large the chunks are. Don't overcook it or it will be too dry. 
2. Set aside 20 pieces of prawn meat for the topping. Keep the remainder for other uses. Devein the prawn meat for the topping using a toothpick or the sharp edge of a knife. It is easier to devein before you blanch them.  
3. Blanch the prawns in the boiling stock using a strainer. Do this in small batches as the prawns need to cook quickly or the meat will fall apart on the sides. If you are doing this the day before serving, refrigerate the prawns. They keep well after they are cooked.   

Preparing the bowls: garnishing and serving

20 pieces prawn meat (halved into 40 pieces, 4 per bowl)
500 gm  water convolvulous (kangkong)
500 gm beansprouts
300 gm pork loin
4 eggs
Fried shallots
400 gm (2.2 lb) yellow noodles
400 gm  (2.2 lb) rice vermicelli (bee hoon)
30 slices of fish cake (3 slices per bowl)

1. Slice the boiled prawn meat into halves. 
2. Slice the pork loin and fish cakes. 
3. Fried shallots are indispensable. Make your own if you can. If you use commercial ones, get those which are fresh and crispy. 
4. Soften the bee hoon in water for about 30 minutes.  
5. When it is time to serve, assemble a serving of the bean sprouts, mee, bee hoon and kangkong in a bowl. Blanch the contents of the bowl in rolling boiling water for about half a minute. This will also remove the “kee” (alkaline) smell of the yellow noodles. Put back into the bowl. Garnish with slices of prawns, pork and fish cake. Pour in the boiling broth and drain. Do it twice. Garnish with fried shallots and serve immediately with plates of sambal chilli and lardon on the side.  

The PPM broth is done.

In the midst of the busyness of December last year, I did not notice that Mum's Classics Revived was selected to represent Singapore in the Blogger Cookbook category award. Do note that this is just an award in a particular category.

The organiser said this:

There are 100 categories for Food, 30 for Drinks. This is necessary to reflect the wide diversity of world food culture. It gives a chance to many countries to win in a category. In the Olympic games, they have 303 competitions/categories for 202 countries. On our list our finalists, we have 130 categories for 134 countries and regions. In total, there are 1372 entries now finalist, 1144 for food, and 228 for drinks. This represents less than 3% of the total of similar books and other formats published and available every year. It is a major achievement to be on this list of Finalists. 

Looking at the list of cookbooks in list of finalist (from this link, see below), it is already an honour to be part of the list.

It is truly amazing to see the list of cookbooks in the various categories. There is a wealth of information and inspiration available from all types of cuisine, sharing their experience from their own home kitchens. There are many quality cookbooks out there.

We are privileged in this generation to have access to the information, whether digital or printed.

The Wanton Mee in Singapore is very good these days. After all, one has won a Michelin star. Many stalls sell noodles which lean more towards Hong Kong style, springy, thin and al dente. In the earlier days, you have to go to Cantonese chains like Crystal Jade or Imperial Treasure to enjoy them. These days, they are getting very common in HDB Food Courts.

The Malaysian version, which I grew up in, is not as thin but it has its own al dente bite when cooked just right. It also has little of the alkaline smell. It normally uses black caramelised sauce (thick sauce) and the leftover sauce from the Char Siew is also added, along with some lard. Some wanton in a soup is served alongside. Red chilli paste is not added so that it does not mask the subtle tastes of black sauce and lard. Instead, pickled green chilli is used.

A trip back to my hometown, Petaling Jaya means a chance to revisit some comfort street food. And Annie1 has become one of our regular haunts.

The thing I like about this restaurant is how everything is cooked and prepared well. Everything that is slurped, spooned and sipped there that bring back very familiar tastes, those that have stuck in your palate memories, tastes that you have come to associate with a certain type of food.

And Annie1's food is about as traditional as the church I am pastoring. It seem like hundreds of years of street food have been preserved here.

At the heart of their menu is the Wanton Mee. Apparently, this owner and cooks came from Ipoh and they serve the famous Menglembu Wanton Mee.  I have tasted this mee in Ipoh more than 20 years ago.

The Char Siew, sticky and black, taste very similar to the home-style Wok-cooked ones. I suppose those from KL like me have grown accustomed to this type of Char Siew. The Wanton is average but the bright pickled green chillies is so good that I made sure that one is added to every spoonful of mee.

Braised Chicken Feet

What was a pleasant surprise was how good the Braised Chicken Feet was. It was done just right and had great flavours. Deep fried and braised, I could the taste hints of peppercorn. Texture is everything when it comes to chewing feet and their version got it right. Not exactly the kind of thing you want to eat on your first date but well, we are now married for over 20 years!

Foo Chook Barley

As for desserts, the bowl of Foo Chook Barley taste like how my mum would have made it. I wish I know where they sauce the foo chook (dried bean curd) from. Ipoh, I suppose. Their kaya is the best I have come across in recent years and I always buy back a few tubs. The teh and white coffee here is perfect, the Yam Cake is also good.

I can't speak for the other dishes which I have not tried but I can imagine that it will be mostly good, given their attention to quality and detail.

We will definitely be visiting this place again - and again.

_____

Annie1 (Damansara Uptown)

20, Jalan SS21/58,, Damansara Utama
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Hours:  7:30AM–9:30PM
Phone: 016-660 8816