KAT'S KITCHEN KEYNOTES - Marking The End Of Twentyten

Baby B Building Sandcastles On Our Last 2010 Seaside Vacation

I apologise for my long hiatus from this blog, where Chicken Rice had reigned for more than three months as my kitchen adventures' finale marked September 14, 2010.  In case you were wondering, I was in my final trimester and needed to bow out momentarily to prepare for the arrival of our newborn.  I assure you that I've never once stopped cooking, baking, creating and tasting, although I've to say that everything I've had to create seemed to take longer, and every bite seemed to take on a subdued pleasure, like I was part of some silent movie. Every movement was slow and deliberate as I waddled up and down the kitchen galley in my barrel-of-a-tummy, one hand on my hip, removing trays from the hot oven, putting them in again, taking a testing sip from a steaming ladle and sprinkling seasoning where it was needed.

During this break I've not stopped documenting my kitchen chronicles and I know you won't be disappointed when I begin posting them again here in the new year. 

A wonderful surprise for our Christmas helped mark the close of twenty ten as Baby C arrived on November 16, two weeks earlier than he was due.  I couldn't prepare for his birth as much as I thought I'd prepared for it...it's much like when I tried making Ice Kachang for the first time--it can be a steep and valuable learning experience as you let yourself go and embrace what you cannot be expected to expect! 

Happy New Year, embrace 2011 with joy, peace, love and here's a toast to more culinary pleasures!

Hainanese Chicken Rice





Kat's Hainanese Chicken Rice - Singapore Style

 
You can't get more Singaporean than 'Chicken Rice'.  Australia only got acquainted with this dish when Malaysian-born TV chef Poh Ling Yeow (host of POH'S KITCHEN on ABC), back-then only a contender of the first Masterchef title, made it for wide-eyed judges George, Gary and Matt who were pretty impressed by the 'uniqueness' of its taste.


Needless to say, it's my favourite and I would've moved back to Singapore simply for missing it, had I not been blessed enough to learn how to create my own home-cooked Chicken Rice, which I reckon is authentic enough to give some restaurants here in Brisbane a run for their money. It's shameless how some would dare to pass it off as 'Hainanese Chicken Rice' when their versions are far from the real thing.


My only grouse is not being able to 'chop' it as neatly as the skilled old uncle you find at your regular hawker stall--I used to just love standing and watching the theatrical sport of how these masters carve the juicy pale-skinned birds with great aplomb, often with cigarettes dangling from the corner of their wrinkly lips, hammering purposefully with their large and dangerous-looking cleavers, segmenting different portions of the chickens into ultra-neat piles, while an assistant coordinates the rapid drizzle of sesame oil, soy sauce and stock onto the white, juicy chicken flesh. 

Hainanese Chicken rice (about family of 4)



Marinade for the Chicken:
1 whole chicken
drizzle of sesame oil
1/2 TB chicken seasoning powder, or crushed chicken stock cube
1 tsp salt
1 TB light soya sauce
1 tsp rice wine, any kind will do (Hua Tiao or Shao Xing are fine)
4-5 cm knob of ginger, grated finely
1 garlic clove, grated finely


Stock* to Steep Chicken:
3 C ready-made chicken stock liquid,
plus enough water to fill 3/4 of a pot large enough for chicken
*reserve some to be served as chicken broth with fried shallots, spring onions and coriander


The Chicken Rice
2 C jasmine rice
2 1/2 cups chicken stock (or as per your rice cooker; obtained from steeping the chicken)
Oil rendered from chicken fat (refer to recipe)
1 TB finely grated ginger
6 garlic cloves, finely grated
3 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt
3 pandan leaves, fresh or frozen (tied together in a knot)
--dark soy sauce; for serving


Garlic Chilli Dip
10-15 large fresh red chillies
1 large tomato, skin removed
10-15 garlic cloves
knob of 5cm ginger
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
(Process above into fine paste, add 1 TB of stock and 1 tsp cooking oil before serving)


Method for Steeping & Cooling Chicken:
Marinade the whole chicken with the marinade sauces but reserve the fat for rendering the oil to cook the rice. Either leave chicken to marinade overnight If not using immediately, or set aside for about 1and a half hours at room temperature. Bring chicken to room temperature if still cold from having been removed from the fridge.


Bring a pot to the boil, ensuring it is wide and deep enough to cover the entire chicken. Carefully immerse the chicken into the boiling stock and water, ensuring every part of the chicken is below the liquid surface. Turn off the heat, cover, and leave to steep for 1 hour and 30 min. Every half an hour, gently ladle the hot stock from the pot into the middle of the chicken's cavity so that the stock flows out to the other end of the cavity This ensures even cooking. At the end of the 1st hour, re-boil the stock so that it remains hot enough to continue the steeping and cooking process.


After 1 hr and 30 min of steeping, remove the chicken and place it into a large bowl of iced water. Let it sit In the Iced water for 15 min, and transfer to a large colander or sieve with a bowl underneath to drain the liquid out.


Chopping the Chicken:


Prepare a chopping board large enough and a large chinese cleaver, chop the chicken from the middle (breast side down) bone into a clean half, then starting with the drumsticks and chicken wings, chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces, ending with the breast pieces. Arrange the chopped chicken neatly on a platter to as closely resemble the whole chicken (before it got chopped!) as possible.


Kat’s Tip: I like to drizzle the chopped pieces with sesame oil, soy sauce and some chicken stock mixed together for extra flavour. Garnish with chopped coriander.


How to cook the rice:


Wash and drain the rice on a sieve,ensuring it is rather dry.

Render the fat (oil) from the pieces of chicken fat in a non-stick pan by heating it on low heat (do not add extra oil). You will see the oil being slowly released as you stir the chicken fat gently.


Toss In the grated ginger and garlic, and fry till fragrant, add the washed and drained jasmine rice and some sesame oil. Cook rice in a rice cooker with the pandan leaf and salt. Add the chicken stock to the rice as indicated on the recipe or according to your rice cooker.


Chicken Broth:
Reserve some chicken broth to be served with the chicken rice as a nice accompaniment, garnish the broth with some fried shallots and chopped spring onions and coriander.
Serve Chicken Rice with dark soy sauce and chilli dip.

Ondeh Ondeh (sweet potato recipe)

There're those who say that Kueh Dadar is similar to Ondeh Ondeh in taste since they both have a strong pandan taste coupled with the unmistakable yumminess of juicy gula melaka (palm sugar) and grated coconut with every bite.  I beg to differ, though, for there is nothing as gratifying as popping one of these green balls into your mouth and having your eyes pop wide open as you're greeted by the 'burst' of sweet honeyed gula melaka filling your whole mouth! YUM! It's like Soda Pops, Asian-style, haha. 

I find the tricky bit is rolling the dough without having the gula melaka ooze out before it reaches your mouth!  It took me so many frustrating attempts and many 'wasted' balls of ondeh ondeh stained with brown spots that were far too ugly to be served and far too 'leaky' to be tasty. 

On watching a Nyonya kueh documentary, I discovered the fool-proof secret is to roll the gula melaka into pea-sized marbles before inserting them into the dough! That was my Aha! moment. 

I've included a pretty good recipe here, and be forewarned: once you start popping, you can't stop!

Ondeh Ondeh With Sweet Potatoes


Ingredients

450 g Sweet Potato, peeled, steamed and mashed up
150 g Glutinous Rice Flour
25 g All-Purpose Flour
4 tsp Pandan essence
150 g Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar), finely grated, rolled into mini balls
200 g dessicated coconut

Method
Steam sweet potatoes for 30 minutes or until the flesh is mushy. Mash the sweet potato flesh to a pulp.


Grate gula melaka (palm sugar) into shreds and using your fingers, roll into mini balls about the size of 2 peas. Mix flours well with sweet potato pulp, add the pandan essence and knead to form a soft pliable dough.

Pour the dessicated coconut onto a wide plate and mix in a pinch of salt, ready to coat the ondeh ondeh once it has been boiled. (Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to the boil, ready for boiling the uncooked dough).


Roll out a small piece of dough (about 20g each) into a small ball and flatten it slightly. Insert a pea-sized ball of palm sugar into the middle and roll the dough to form a ball again, taking care to seal it completely.

Lower the balls of ondeh ondeh gently into the pot of boiling water with a slotted spoon. They are done when they float up to the surface of the water. Remove each one carefully to prevent breaking each one and then quickly toss each ondeh ondeh with the dessicated coconut, rolling them around the plate till each one is completely covered with the coconut.

Fried Carrot Cake (Chai Tow Kueh)

I promised I'll share with you my favourite 'carrot cake' recipe of all--the fried eggy version of radish cake using the same steamed one I made earlier...first, cut the radish cake into cubes and shallow fry them till slightly browned on all sides.  Next, break in about two eggs and let it sit in your wok surrounded by the cubes (low fire) till the eggs set a little. Stir fry a little more and mix well, sprinkle in confetti bits of preserved turnip (chai po) and add the following seasoning according to taste: sweet kecap manis (sweet soy), soy sauce, dash of white pepper and a few teaspoons of crushed chilli if you like. Garnish with sprigs of coriander and onion chives. Voila! You've just dished up one of Singapore's best loved hawker fare at your table, homemade with love. 

Radish Kueh/Cake (Steamed); Carrot Cake-Steamed

There're four kinds of 'carrot cake' as far as I'm concerned, and they are all terrific in their respective ways...let's first omit the western recipe in this case--By CARROT CAKE here (as featured) I meant the kinds that have nothing to do with the delicious cafe-style sweet nutty cake dessert baked from the grated flesh of orange carrots, which I love by the way and will feature here another time, I promise.

Well this photographed carrot cake I've just made is made from white daikon radish.  It's also a steamed cake or 'kueh' with a savoury taste rather than sweet.  It can be eaten on its own as pictured as  a steamed version of carrot cake.

This brings me to the third--which I prefer, and by a simple twist of texture it brings this kueh to a whole new level: simply by pan-frying after steaming. You can order this pan fried version of the same kueh at yum cha restaurants.  Apparently its origins are from Hong Kong.

The final (and my favourite) carrot cake is the fried version of the above steamed kueh, diced into cubes and stir-fried with preserved turnips, kecap manis and eggs. Mmn..just delectable. I'm including the fried carrot cake recipe soon after this. Meanwhile, you still have to get through making this basic carrot cake before it can be turned into the fried version. Have fun! I did!

Ingredients (flour mixture):
450g rice flour
50g tapioca flour
1200ml water

Ingredients (stir-fry):
500g daikon radish (or 1 big root)
50g dried shrimps (soaked in hot water till soft)
a few shitake mushrooms; dried or fresh
150g chicken or pork (chopped finely)
150g shallots
1 small clove of garlic, minced

Seasoning:
3 T vegetable or peanut oil
1 T sesame oil
2 T soy sauce
1 T oyster sauce
2 tsp salt
1 T sugar
1 tsp white pepper
1 stalk of spring onions, diced into small pieces
bunch of coriander leaves, diced into small pieces
2 small bird's eye chillies, diced

Method:
1. Pour the 2 kinds of flour into a deep bowl.  Adding the water gradually into a 'well' or 'hole' made by your fingers in the middle of the flour mixture, mix the batter well using a whisker till no lumps are visible.
2. Heat up a wok with the sesame and vegetable/peanut oil.
3. Stir-fry some shallots till browned and fragrant, add the dried shrimps and meat and fry for about 2-3 minutes. Add the radish and the seasoning sauces.
4. Pour the flour batter gradually and mix well, stirring until the mixture starts thickening and gets slightly dry, but not completely dry.
5. Transfer the thickened mixture into a steaming tray and steam on high for half an hour or till done. 
6. (CRUCIAL TIP): Pan fry in shallow oil and brown all sides before serving! It tastes so much better! Add the chillies, coriander and spring onions as garnish.

My Barang Barang Nasi Lemak - 'Barang style' (blend of Singapore & Malaysia)

I love Nasi Lemak and never thought that running a restaurant would grow me a loathing for nothing less than what was our bestselling dish at the time! Recovery arrived slowly but surely--and at some point after we had given up the restaurant did I find the courage to eat or cook Nasi Lemak again.  On hindsight, it might've been a case of 'Nasi Lemak Overdose' simply from endlessly handling the ingredients on a daily basis with factory precision at a feverish pace. Then eating it all the time. I mean, ALL the time!  Love cupcakes? Don't start a bakery selling cupcakes! You get the idea, yes.


Well, back to this amazing dish, I hope I've not discredited it in any way citing my gag reflex--afterall it was the past...I did come to love it again, as you can see.  There're virtually hundreds of versions of Nasi Lemak (translates to 'rice in fat'; the fat is derived from cooking the rice in coconut milk) everywhere in Asia but mine is my very own special blend that used to be the best seller at our cafe and restaurant, BARANG. The generic Singapore style version is comprised of coconut rice, fried kuning fish, fried egg, a side condiment of fried chilli-anchovies-peanuts and cucumber, and of course Nasi Lemak won't be what it is without a generous dollop of its signature spicy yet tangy sambal chilli dip that's so tantamount to its taste. I enjoy it even more with some otak-otak and piquant fried crispy chicken wings. Our BARANG version of Nasi Lemak included Beef Rendang and Nyonya Chicken Potato curry, and fried chicken wings.

BEEF RENDANG:

To be pounded in a mortar (till very fine 'rempah' is achieved):
5-6 shallots
8 big red chillies
4 small bird's eye chillies
1 clove garlic
knob of ginger; 2-3 cm, crushed finely
galangal; 4-5 knobs crushed finely
3 stalks lemon grass (only the white part)
6 candlenuts (optional)

120 gm grated or dessicated coconut

1.5 kg cubed chuck or rump beef (I use osso bucco which cost more but is very tender)
1 tsp belachan (shrimp paste); toasted

seasoning:
1tsp salt
1tsp sugar
1 T soy sauce
2 T thick dark soy sauce (not kecap manis!)
3 T curry powder (blend with some water into a dry thick paste)

1/2 C coconut milk extracted from 1/2 coconut, OR: 1 can of 450ml thick coconut cream
1 C water, or skim milk.

Method:

1. Heat about 10 T of vegetable oil and fry first the dessicated coconut, belachan, then the curry powder, and finally all the grounded ingredients or the rempah paste, until fragrant.

2. Add beef cubes and seal all the sides. Add the seasoning and stir-fry for about 6 minutes or until the beef is no longer pink.

3. Add the coconut milk, water, and simmer (pay attention to stir it often to prevent burning)for 3 hours until tender, or alternatively use a pressure cooker and cook for 20 minutes. The final gravy texture should be thick (not soupy like a curry is), and the oil should have risen to the surface.

Coconut Rice: (about 4 servings of rice)

2.5 C white jasmine rice (for about 4 people)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 whole garlic, with skin on
3 pandan leaves, tied into a knot
1 stalk of lemon grass
2 stalks of curry leaves
150 ml of coconut milk (slightly more than 1 cup)

[Cook the above together in a rice cooker. You can't go wrong!] AT our restaurant, we used to use pandan juice in place of water for the rice to give it an even nicer aroma and flavour...the greenish rice also made it a unique Nasi Lemak.

Caramel Kueh (with dessicated coconut)

There're just some kuehs that you can't go wrong with, such as those you can whip up in a jiffy without worrying about whether you'll attain the right texture of skin or whether the taste will turn out right. I love this easy, light and fluffy sweetish Malay-style kueh, great for tea, breakfast or best as an asian dessert to finish off an asian style meal, like Nasi Lemak which I made for dinner last night.  Trust me, it never fails to please and as a dessert it belongs to the hall of exotic, beating any western type cake or dessert to a pulp!

You'll need:
200g white sugar
100ml hot water
5 T powdered milk
200g flour
1/2 tsp bicarb
4 eggs
6 T sugar
pinch of salt (for serving only)
100g grated coconut or dessicated coconut (for serving only)

Method:
1. Melt sugar on its own in a saucepan on low to medium heat until it caramelises and turns golden brown.  Add the hot water at this stage and bring to a boil until the caramel dissolves completely to a syrup.

2. Sift powdered milk, flour and bicarbonate of soda in a medium bowl.  Meanwhile, heat the steamer with some moulds.

3. Beat eggs and sugar together until mixture is fluffy and light.

4. Fold in the sifted flour mixture into the caramel syrup and then fold in the egg mixture.

5. Sieve the whole batter if there are any lumps.

6. Fill the moulds (just 3/4 full) and steam for 8-10 minutes, or until done. Cool the kueh before removing them from the moulds. Sprinkle some coconut and salt on top of each kueh before serving.