Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (Singapore Style) without PORK!

On our most recent trip in February this year to Singapore during the Chinese New Year festivities, the best Fried Hokkien Mee I've enjoyed was, surprise surprise...homemade...by a non-local, actually none other than my sister-in-law's Indonesian domestic helper, and she'd followed a recipe out of a cookbook my sister-in-law swears by. 


I've always thrived better as the 'cook-at-home-who-relies-on-tried and tested taste', so after what seems like years of fine tuning I found my own recipe for this Singapore-style one dish wonder, one of my biggest cravings at both pregnancies!  My sister-in-law's recipe includes pork as one of its main and perhaps most pertinent ingredient, since the pork bones are painstakingly stewed to extract the sweet flavour for the stock then used to stir fry the noodles.  My version here, however, uses chicken to substitute pork as my hubby C and I don't much care for pork.  I also use what I'd call the 'busy-mummy shortcut' which is using store-bought chicken stock coupled with my own homemade chicken stock from the day before's Hainanese Chicken Rice dinner.  I also add about a tablespoon of sugar to 'sweeten' the stock, together with a handful of heads of tiger prawns to substitute for the stewed pork bones stock.  Trust me, it's easier and I'd say just as good as it gets. Instead of pork strips I've sliced the chicken thighs into strips and that's that!

My Fondant Figurines: Too Cruel To Eat?

OK, these weren't moulded like today or yesterday...they were my then-new-craze when I was carrying my 20+over week pregnant bump and having all the time in the world (where did those days go??) to make cupcakes for my baby shower to celebrate the coming of Baby B. But looking at my old stash of photos I couldn't resist sharing them with you. How did I get started? Oh, no, I didn't pay for a fondant making course...You Tube's a god-send, you know? And when there's a will, there're books you can grab hold of that show you how. The internet is great too, with talented fondant crafters only too eager to share and tell.  This year I managed to sculpt Cookie Monster, Big Bird and Elmo for Baby B's 1st birthday cake...and was crazy enough to carry the little darlings in a cold pack for 7 hours on board Singapore Airlines...they survived long enough to make it to the party..all till Elmo's red butt started to sweat and melt before they finished singing Happy Birthday.

ANG KU KUEH (TURTLE CAKE)--How can it become a 'Long Lost Tradition'?

When I proudly distributed Ang Ku Kuehs to my friends in  Brisbane to mark baby B's first month (or Man Yue/Moon Yut/)celebrations together with 2 chocolate eggs in a 'goody bag' inclusive of an announcement note complete with the significance of her Chinese name, many were astounded by this unexpected gesture to preserve an age-old tradition. So was I trying to make restitiution for another collateral damage of cultural modernisation? I baulked at hearing how bakery vouchers were now conveniently presented to friends and family in place of giving out Ang Ku Kuehs, so that people could select what they actually preferred and at their own time.  My ears rang from the mere frivolity of this suggestion--I mean, imagine others giving out deli vouchers at Christmas instead of the traditional Christmas turkey roast, ditto the Christmas puddings and Christmas cookies--yes why not get 'em all replaced with pattiserie vouchers! Granny'll just hang up her apron ths year! I pictured myself hovering picket stake signs that screamed 'BRING BACK ANG KU KUEH', with other like-minded sensible people in a march, and was all ready to become a 'voucher-burning-culturist' (borrowed from 'bra-burning feminist').


While migration had meant I'd forsaken my birthplace, I wasn't quite so ready to forsake my Chinese culture.  I stood as one Singapore-born Chinese adamant not to acknowledge that my favourite childhood kueh (cake) popularly served at milestone birthdays has become elbowed out by modernisation. 


Here's my favourite Nyonya Ang Ku Kueh recipe. Please keep it going. For all our sakes.


Ingredients for KUEH SKIN:
120g glutinous rice flour
150g sweet potatoes--steamed and mashed while hot, skins removed
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 T vegetable oil
1/4 C very hot water to seal


Other materials required:
1 Ang Ku Kueh mould
Banana leaves/dried lotus leaves soaked and cut into mould size/ if you can't find any of these,
use baking paper which I did in the picture above


FILLING FOR KUEH: - PEANUT FILLING
200g crushed peanuts
100g castor sugar, or less according to taste
1/2 tsp salt
water to mix into a thick dry paste


MUNG BEAN FILLING:
150g dried mung beans (boil till split and mash while hot)
100g castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
120ml pandan juice


METHOD:
1. Steam split green peas and blend immediately/ mix up peanut paste filling
2. Add glutinous flour, sweet potato puree, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl.  Whisk or beat (add water to stop it getting overly dry)well to make a soft pliable dough. Add cooking oil a little at each time. Ensure that the dough is not sticky to the touch.
3. Roll the dough into a long log and divide into 12 equal pieces. 
4. Roll each piece into a ball and flatten each piece. Insert filling of preference into centre and seal up ball.
5. Dust mould with excess flour and carefully shape and press ball of dough into the mould.
6. With a few light taps to the side of your hand, tap out the sough and place onto leaf/baking paper cut to size.
7. Arrange on a steamer and steam on low for about 5 minutes. Uncover the steamer and steam kueh, this time uncovered for another 3 minutes till cooked fully.