Sunday, February 15, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Big Prawn Mee
One of my favourite hawker food is big prawn mee at Zion Road Food Centre. Every time I visit the uncle will go, 美女，好久不见eh! Which is kind of embarrassing and funny at the same time. I've tried sending J to buy the prawn noodles when we're there, but then he doesn't seem to get as big a portion as I do for the same price. :| Anyhow, what I love about the Zion Road prawn mee is the aromatic broth, which is savory, peppery, and brimming with prawn-y flavor. Plus Uncle's cheerful and generous, sending me off with, 要汤可以来拿! I take up the offer and always go back for second servings of hot peppery broth. I have tried other prawn mees, including the famous one at Cambridge Road Hawker Centre, but I found the latter sweet, like there's a little too much sugar in it.
So there comes time when a girl starts getting nostalgic for some prawn soup, but is far from home and has to try making some of her own. This dish has been two months in the making, because of the sheer amount of prawn shells needed to cook up a good broth. For the past months I've been religiously accumulating prawn shells in the freezer. We've even switched to buying raw shell-on prawns even though they're inconvenient just so that I can collect shells. We managed to buy some nice biggish raw frozen prawns with heads on, and some exorbitant Californian Kang Kong from our local Asian grocery. Two lobsters were also sacrificed in this quest. First we stir-fried the prawn and lobster shells, then boiled up the broth with pork, shallots, garlic, white peppercorns and star anise. By the end of it, the broth had a concentrated prawn-ammonia-lobster bisque-like smell. The final product pretty much resembles the prawn mee I know and love. Yup, I went back to my pot for a second serving of piping hot broth.
Weekends
Penguin Shallots
I love the weekends. I don't have to rush out of the house in the morning, I can sip my mug of coffee slowly, think about what I'll like to get done that day (the plotting and scheming about what's on the menu is usually done by Friday evenings. Told you I can't stop thinking about food, right?) During weekends we cook leisurely, try out new recipes, then analyze & savour the fruits of our labour. The first try is usually not perfect, we typically discuss what what we've learnt and what to tweak on the next try. Today is no different. Something's brewing in my pot..
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Alio e Olio: Weeknight Staple
Being busy grad students with not much of a life outside research (I jest, but then again, not that much). Our days end pretty late, and by the time we get out of class/ lab, it's pretty dark out, even at 5pm (yah, that's Winter for you, people). So it's kinda depressing, hunger-cum-grouchiness-inducing (Did I mention that I can get reeeally grouchy when I'm hungry?) So here is a weekday night staple we have every week or so. Some people may claim that it's very simple to make but it took quite a few trials before we got our Alio Olio the way we like it. Sorry you purists out there, in Singapore it is referred to Alio Olio. At least it's still commonlty found, for here I'm only seeing cream-based or tomato-based sauces.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Dim Sum Brunch
Being stuck here while my friends jet off back to Asia during the Winter break to hang out with family and have delicious food is just a tad depressing. Don't even ask me what they ate. Unfortunately I know. Arrgh.
The other incident that sparked this off was the discovery that frozen Xiao Long Bao can be decent. I mean, how cool is that? J spotted a pack at our local rip-off Asian grocery store (they once charged me US$1 for 3 stalks of green onions, Kang Kong (Water Spinach) costs US$5.50 a small bundle, that's SG$8 for Kang Kong!), and we decided to give it a try. It turned out pretty good! Even in Singapore many places which sell Xiao Long Bao cannot make it, so this is an exciting discovery indeed. Then we thought about how good it'll be to have some dim sum. Heck, we can try to make some, right?
So the past week was spent experimenting with making our own dim sum. After a week of trial and error, we created some delicious dim sum for Sunday brunch with friends.
Siew Mai 
The Siew Mai has a whole shrimp in it, with pork, shrimp & mushroom mixture. They were kinda jumbo too, with a generous topping of fish roe.
Beef Balls with Water Chestnuts 
The beef balls were infused with fresh ground ginger and cilantro. The black moss might be an extra thing, but it was fun adding it. Oh, the beef balls are sitting on braised Fu Zhok.
Disclaimer: We didn't make the XLB. But no one asked for seconds of it. Hehe.
Turnip cake turned out beautifully at our second try. The first was lacking in flavor because the turnip we bought didn't have much taste to it. So we were careful about selecting our turnips the second time around. It's rather traditional and has Chinese sausage and dried shrimp in it. Those were bought from our Hong Kong eating/shopping trip.
Yes, this is not exactly a traditional dim sum dish at all. We used to either go to a dim sum place or Maratuma for ramen with soft-core egg on lazy Sunday brunches while we were in Singapore. Hence the braised egg found its way onto our menu because it's a Sunday brunch thing for us.
We had some amazing "Ma-Lai Gou" at a dim sum place when we were in Hong Kong last year. It had the fragrance of burnt sugar, and was springy in texture. We were pretty puzzled it's called Ma-Lai Gou cos it wasn't like any Malay kueh we've tried before. It's more like Ji Dan Gao (steamed egg cake), but better. (I guess this kind of "inspiration creation" happens all the time, just like the Singapore Spice, but I'll leave that for another time). So anyhow, we were so enamored of this cake that we want to make our own. The amazing thing is that it has a taste reminiscent of molasses and brown sugar but those aren't in the ingredients list. There's honey in it though. What you're seeing is attempt #4. I know it doesn't look very pretty, but yum.
Another non-traditional dim sum item. It's more of a Japanese dessert. Also reminds me of when Starbucks had coffee jelly drinks.
This is a lonely looking Har Kao which never made it onto the menu. We weren't satisfied with how the skins turned out, so it goes on the to-do list. Hopefully we'll master making thinner skins in due time.
The other incident that sparked this off was the discovery that frozen Xiao Long Bao can be decent. I mean, how cool is that? J spotted a pack at our local rip-off Asian grocery store (they once charged me US$1 for 3 stalks of green onions, Kang Kong (Water Spinach) costs US$5.50 a small bundle, that's SG$8 for Kang Kong!), and we decided to give it a try. It turned out pretty good! Even in Singapore many places which sell Xiao Long Bao cannot make it, so this is an exciting discovery indeed. Then we thought about how good it'll be to have some dim sum. Heck, we can try to make some, right?
So the past week was spent experimenting with making our own dim sum. After a week of trial and error, we created some delicious dim sum for Sunday brunch with friends.
The Siew Mai has a whole shrimp in it, with pork, shrimp & mushroom mixture. They were kinda jumbo too, with a generous topping of fish roe.
The beef balls were infused with fresh ground ginger and cilantro. The black moss might be an extra thing, but it was fun adding it. Oh, the beef balls are sitting on braised Fu Zhok.Xiao Long Bao
Disclaimer: We didn't make the XLB. But no one asked for seconds of it. Hehe.Pork Ribs with Black Bean Sauce
Turnip Cake
Turnip cake turned out beautifully at our second try. The first was lacking in flavor because the turnip we bought didn't have much taste to it. So we were careful about selecting our turnips the second time around. It's rather traditional and has Chinese sausage and dried shrimp in it. Those were bought from our Hong Kong eating/shopping trip.Braised Egg with Molten Core
Yes, this is not exactly a traditional dim sum dish at all. We used to either go to a dim sum place or Maratuma for ramen with soft-core egg on lazy Sunday brunches while we were in Singapore. Hence the braised egg found its way onto our menu because it's a Sunday brunch thing for us."Malay Cake"
We had some amazing "Ma-Lai Gou" at a dim sum place when we were in Hong Kong last year. It had the fragrance of burnt sugar, and was springy in texture. We were pretty puzzled it's called Ma-Lai Gou cos it wasn't like any Malay kueh we've tried before. It's more like Ji Dan Gao (steamed egg cake), but better. (I guess this kind of "inspiration creation" happens all the time, just like the Singapore Spice, but I'll leave that for another time). So anyhow, we were so enamored of this cake that we want to make our own. The amazing thing is that it has a taste reminiscent of molasses and brown sugar but those aren't in the ingredients list. There's honey in it though. What you're seeing is attempt #4. I know it doesn't look very pretty, but yum.Coffee Jelly with Vanilla Ice Cream
Another non-traditional dim sum item. It's more of a Japanese dessert. Also reminds me of when Starbucks had coffee jelly drinks.Har Kao
This is a lonely looking Har Kao which never made it onto the menu. We weren't satisfied with how the skins turned out, so it goes on the to-do list. Hopefully we'll master making thinner skins in due time.
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