Chee Cheong Fun

Even having lived overseas for 8 years, I still get hit by the occasional bout of homesickness. Anyone who has been to Singapore must know that food is central to our society, and as such, I've been seeking solace in SE-Asian cuisines whenever I can.

Anyone who has been to yumcha would recognize these cheong fun rice-noodle rolls. Back home, it is known as chee cheong fun and is quite a popular breakfast food. The HK-style cheong fun is more savoury whereas cheong fun is more commonly served with a sweet/savoury sauce in Singapore. Chee cheong fun is extremely easy and takes only 3 minutes to whip up as fresh cheong fun is available in most Asian grocery stores. All you need to do is cut them into bite sized chunks, mix a little hoisin sauce with water to form a thick but runny paste and lace the cheong fun generously with the sauce. Add a good sprinkling of sesame seeds and serve with a little bit of sambal chilli on the side if desired. Sit back and enjoy.

Singapore Chili Crab

Twas a weekend of fulfilled promises. I got to try out sailing, and he got to try Singapore chili crab. On his part of the promise, I had the time of my life on the water and it was 100% PURE fun! Seriously can't wait to do it again!!! The most stressful part was probably making sure that we kept our heads way out reach of the boom.We took a smaller boat thus it was heaps more dynamic and only served to add to the thrill. The post-sailing theory session soon transpired into a leisurely Saturday afternoon with friends over aperitifs, snacks and Dutch goodies (Bolletje, which is a sort of spicy, gingerbready cookie and Amandelstaaf, an almond-meal based pastry very much similar to the french epiphany tart). Spices apparently were expensive in the older days and had to be shipped all the way from Indonesia, thus it was a rare treat and they use it extensively in their holiday cookies. This time, it was Sint Nicolaas. (Erm, something to do with Saint Nick I think) Splendid.

Took an impromptu tour of the HMS Endeavour at the Maritime Museum today after DB training. It was on the way to Chinatown where I wanted to get the ingredients for the chilli crab. The ship's really quite impressive. I found nothing to complain about on a taser after seeing the number of ropes they had on this ship. You see, they have like a different name for everything on the boat. This was for practical reasons too - in cases of storms etc, you can't be yelling "Grab that rope" cos it'll probably just elicit the inevitable response of "WHICH rope?!"

Will you just check out how quaint and lovely the officer's mess was? It's even nicer than my kitchen!!!

OK now on to my promise. I've never cooked chilli crab in my life and it was a tad worrying attempting this dish cos everyone who's been to Singapore raves nonstop about it. I looked up various recipes online, and there was one ingredient that was ubiquitous in quite a few recipes which had me stumped - tomato ketchup. Erm, that sounds so non-Asian or authentic for that matter. But after chewing on that thought for a bit and thinking about the taste of Jumbo chili crab, it actually started to sound plausible. I used the original maggi chili sauce in place of ketchup since it was also sweet but had that little bit of spicy kick.

The next worrying issue was dealing with the crab. But that task was swiftly left to the Asian grocerer who took care of the mud crab away from all the guilty eyes. Whew. No chopsticks up the crab's a*s and other such violent acts in the kitchen.

I used a combination of recipes and kind of went with trial and error towards the end. The crab flesh was springy, sweet and soft, and the sauce, tangy and spicy and deliciously flavoured with the ample crab juice. The hot, steaming, brioche-y mantous mopped up the eggy broth and was oh-so-satisfying. Heh. I feel like a true blue Singapore-lang now! ;p

Singapore Chili Crab

1 mud crab, chopped and cracked (~500g)

1 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

5 tbsps of maggi chili sauce

tamarind juice (tamarind paste soaked in hot water)

2-3 tbsps crushed dried chilies

1 egg

1 cup water

1 tbsp brown sugar

1-2 tsp cornstarch

soy sauce to taste

Fry the ginger, garlic and chilli until fragrant. Add the chili crab and water and bring to boil for 2-3 mins. Add the tamarind juice (without pulp), sugar, soy sauce and chili sauce to taste. Add cornstach. Combine well with the crab and cook til the crab shell turns red. Beat one egg and add it in, stirring slowly. The sauce should take on a thick, almost custard-like consistency.

Serve with steamed or deep-fried plain mantous (available in the Asian supermarkets)

Gula Melaka Ak Bahling

I dont know if you've yet noticed, but yep, I'm kinda obsessed with cooking. In particular, I only want to attempt dishes that sound interesting or those that I haven't done before, which actually encompasses almost everything. Like the soft, chewy, tender, melt-in-your mouth figs braised in red wine vinegar and red wine I made last night. Served with chilled mascarpone cheese and walnuts, it was unbelievable. In fact, it was so good I went for a 2nd serving against my better judgement. I had to contend with a distended belly for the rest of the night. lol

Sometimes my culinary exploits are also borne out of necessity. Like this morning's brekkie of glutinous rice balls (ak bahling) soaked in warm coconut milk. Realising we were out of milk and the stores were not open yet, I had to make do with whatever was in the kitchen. Since there were 3-quarts of a can of coconut milk left in the fridge from the nasi lemak last night, I thought I'll make an improvised version of ak-bahling.



Now the plain ones are easy peasy to make, but stuffed ones? The first ball I made looked like a herd of elephants had just played Twister on it. Oh and did I mention that gula melaka melts VERY quickly? Put two and two together plus clumsy fingers and you end up with a stickey mess. Not very pretty. The second and third ones turned out much better though, and before long, I was churning out stuffed ak bahlings so deftly that anyone watching would have thought I worked in a rice ball factory all my life. The secret to this is simple - the less time the ball spends in your hand, the better. You gotta work FAST. The dough tends to deform easily and the heat from your hands melts the sugar in the dough. I'm so proud of my little babies -see how pretty they look in the picture above? ;p



For the recipe, if you like you can add one tsp of vanilla extract to the dough like I did. One bite into the ball releases a swirl of thick gooey gula melaka into the coconut milk and with the slightly softned but nonetheless crunchy peanuts, it creates a beautiful melange of textures and flavours.

Comfort food for a rainy Saturday morning. :)

Ikan bilis & peanuts

One of my fave "junk" foods ever, especially topped on nasi lemak, or coconut rice. The saltiness of the dried anchovies cuts right into the creaminess of roasted peanuts and is further accentuated with homemade chili paste. One bite and I'm reminded of home sweet home...

Ikan Bilis n Peanuts
Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan. Take equal portions of unsalted raw peanuts and dried anchovies (ikan bilis) and fry til til golden brown. Remove, cool and serve with rice, noodles or with aperos! (or like i did tonight, with a 2005 dry pinot noir from Capel Vale, Western Australia)