Gastronaut

Saturday, 4 May 2013

Salted Eggs – Do It At Home!

One of the gifts of age is hindsight. And if there’s one thing life has taught me, it’s not to take anything for granted. Even something as simple as salted eggs.

Good quality salted eggs were a dime a dozen in the market before the 80s. I was taught to shake the egg before buying it. The feel you were looking for was a solid ball bouncing within the shell, because that showed that the yolk was well formed.

When cooked, a good salted egg should display a runny, oily red yolk and a close-to-pure-white egg white. The saltiness of the egg white should also be of the right intensity to allow it to be eaten on its own.

Some time back, there were reports that egg suppliers in China were injecting unhealthy red dye into the yolks. Everyone shunned the eggs with the oily red yolks, to the extent that such eggs have become almost impossible to find these days.

Which left me no choice but to make them at home… but then another challenge arose. Duck eggs are banned in Singapore, and the yolks of chicken eggs have lower fat content and will produce yolks that were yellow and dry. If like me, you were desperate for the best results, you could always turn to Malaysia, where duck eggs are available, to solve the problem!

Salted Egg Recipe

Eggs 20

Water 2 litres

Coarse salt 500 g

Sichuan pepper 10 g

Bay leaves 5 g

Star anise 5 g

Clove 5 g

Cinnamon 10 g

Chinese white wine 2 cups, alcohol content above 50%

Method:

1. Wash and wipe eggs until completely dry.1

2. Boil all ingredients (except eggs) for 5 minutes. Let the mixture cool completely.

3. Add Chinese white wine and stir thoroughly.

4. Submerge eggs in the mixture.

5. Seal container with cling-wrap.

6. Place the container in a cool and dark corner for 28 days. Drain the eggs and keep it in the refrigerator.

7. Boil egg for 7 minutes before eating.

Note: In order to have an oily and more reddish yolk, place the uncooked egg under the hot sun for an afternoon before cooking.

And unlike the usual salted egg found in the market, this recipe will give the egg a hint of 5-spice fragrance.

Saturday, 6 April 2013

Wing Beans – Adding Zing to Greens

I was introduced to wing beans late in life. I remember it pretty well – it was an office lunch, a potluck, and one of my Malay colleagues contributed an interesting Asian salad. Its sauce was fairly typical: prawn paste (hei go), crushed peanut, assam juice, and chili sambal; quite similar to rojak. But the combination of greens was intriguing. There was turnip, pineapple, ginger flower, guava, snake fruit, and of course, wing beans.

Just like aragula, wing beans contribute a surprising, refreshing “green” taste, and a hint of bitterness. Wing beans basically add depths of sweetness and a hint of "rawness" to any veggy cocktail, and because of that, I fell in love with it. Nowadays I like wing beans however it’s done -- in salads or simply fried with belachan.

When a Hong Kong newspaper asked me for a Singapore recipe for their Singapore supplement, I contributed the one below without hesitation.

Wing Bean Salad

Wing bean 1 cup

Long bean ½ cup, blanched in hot water

Cucumber ¼ cup, cubed

Red chili 2, sliced thickly

Onion ½, sliced thickly

Garnishing:

Fried shallots 2 tbsp

Dried shrimps 2 tbsp, soaked and deep fried

Coriander 1 sprig, sliced

Salad Sauce (mixed thoroughly):

Sriracha 3 tbsp

Tomato 1 tbsp

Peanut oil ¼ cup

Calamansi juice 1 tbsp

Sugar ½ tbsp

Salt ¼ tsp

White pepper ¼ tsp

Durian 3 seeds, deseeded

Calamansi 2, juiced

Sugar 1/3 tbsp

Salt a pinch

Method

1. Assemble all ingredients in a mixing bowl.

2. Pour salad sauce slowly and toss with the ingredients until it is sufficiently wet.

3. Spoon the salad in a serving bowl and top with the garnishings.

Saturday, 30 March 2013

The Jumping Table – The Quintessential Malay Feast

It was only after I had lived a few years away from Singapore, that I truly appreciated having grown up in its famously multi-racial milieu. For one, Singapore has bred in me an ethnic tolerance and appreciation that I’ve come to take for granted; for another, it’s given me an omnivorous palate, and taught me the pleasures of indulging in as wide a range of cuisines as possible.

Whenever I get invited to a traditional celebration by a Malay or Indian friend, I see it as a special treat – especially when it involves food.

For me, nothing evokes the Malay love for family, friends and food, and a good time, like the ‘kenduri’. The Malay wedding features the quintessential -- and one of the most common – forms of kenduri. Who hasn’t encountered one in an HDB void deck; seen the ‘ma-chiks’ huddled together and busy with the food preparation; or smelled the delicious aromas wafting up to the upper floors, and heard the music and merrymaking?

Kenduri (pronounced ken-doo-ree) is Malay for ‘feast’. A kenduri is joyous, age-old, and versatile. Kenduris are organized to celebrate everything from weddings, circumcisions and birthdays, to anniversaries, ‘graduations’ from religious or silat (martial art) studies, festivals like Hari Raya, and even first-time pregnancies and the first haircut of a 40-day-old infant. Seems anything is fair excuse for a kenduri. And why not?

Kenduris bring people together in a riot of communal good spirits. Everybody chips in: grandmas to five-year-olds help in cooking, decorating, serving, and running errands, all in the spirit of ‘gotong royong’ (or cooperation). And everyone – guests and all – always has a fun time.

Missing the flavors of the kenduri spread that I grew up eating and loving, I approached one of my favorite chefs recently.

Bubbly and big-spirited Chef Arni used to run a well-known eatery with her husband -- Arni & Yusof -- at Far East Plaza on Scotts Road. The Arni & Yusof kitchen was originally helmed by Arni’s mother, from whom she learned the ropes and succeeded several years ago. I’ve been a patron of the stall for more than 12 years until they closed for good a few months ago. The feast that Arni prepared for my friends and I was replete with the traditional dishes and desserts of the kenduri, including mutton, nasi brani, chicken, pacheri, and in particular, kek kukus, a rarely seen caramelized cake.