High Fidelity

福建蝦麵 - Hokkien prawn noodle

福建蝦麵 - Hokkien prawn noodle, originally uploaded by yongtze.

Good hokkien prawn noodle is hard to come by in Melbourne. So I decided to try cooking it myself last weekend. I found a properly good recipe here but it is a bit too time-consuming so I simplified the recipe but the results were surprisingly good.

The secret to making a great prawn noodle soup is in the stock. Here, pork fat, pork belly (or ribs), prawn heads and shells are patiently browned and caramelised before being turned into a rich and well-coloured stock.

Serves 2 hungry adults:

- 14 tiger prawns, shelled and de-veined (keep all the heads and shells for stock)
- 250-300 gram pork belly (or ribs or soft bone or tail or ideally mixture of all)
- 5 shallots, thinly sliced
- 100 gram pork fat, cubed
- 4 dried chillies
- 3 tablespoons peanut oil
- half teaspoon salt
- half teaspoon black peppercorns
- half star anise
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce or to taste
- 500 gram Hokkien noodle (or a mixture of Hokkien noodle and dried rice vermicelli ideally for more interesting texture; dried rice vermicelli particularly soaks up the soup and thus the flavour really well)
- 2 fresh chillies
- more light soy sauce
- 1-2 spring onions, sliced with an angle, about 2-3 cm

1. Heat wok over high heat. Add oil and pork fat cubes. Gently fry the pork fat until it is crisp and brown. The pork fat will release more oil and flavour the oil nicely. Remove, drain well on paper towels, and set aside. Next, with the same oil, turn the heat to medium-low, gently fry the shallots until brown but not burned. Remove, drain well on paper towels, and set aside.

2. With the same wok and oil, turn it up to medium-high, brown the pork on one side. Add dried chillies while browing the pork on another side. Once done, remove and place them in a stock pot. Set aside.

3. With the same wok again, add prawn heads and shells to the wok, frying slowly until shells are caramelised and well-coloured. Remove and add to stock pot. Add 6 cups of water, salt, peppercorns, and star anise to stock pot. Bring to the boil then turn down to a leisurely simmer. Simmer for at least 2 hours or more until stock tastes richly flavoured (you can reduce it further if required). Add palm sugar and soy sauce to taste. Simmer another 30minutes. Strain stock. Keep the pork. Slice or shred the pork for toppings later.

4. Now, poach the prawns in the simmering stock till cooked, about 1-2 minutes. Drain them and set aside. Cut the fresh chillies, place them in a small bowl with some light soy sauce. Cook Hokkien noodles in large pot of boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Drain well. Divide both into two deep bowls.

5. Top the noodles with prawns, sliced/shredded pork, fried shallots, fried pork fat cubes and spring onions. Bring the prawn and pork stock back to the boil. Ladle the stock over each bowl of noodles and serve immediately with the fresh chillies in soy sauce for dipping (optional).

Steamed chicken-and-leek bun

steamed chicken-and-leek bun, originally uploaded by yongtze.

I have been wanting to eat cha siu baau (Cantonese barbecue pork buns) for a while.

Actually, no! The truth is that I have been dying to bake for a long time. But my new place that I moved into doesn't have an oven! That means no pie, quiches, tarts, gratins, fresh bread, roast chicken, the list can go on and on.

Well anyway, I had the sudden urge of eating a chicken-and-leek pie one day. Obviously I can't bake any pie without an oven. So I had this idea of using chicken-and-leek as a filling in Chinese steamed buns. After a few days of gathering ingredients and researching on the recipe for steamed buns, the end-product is what you see above.

The steamed bun looks yellow-brownish instead of white because I didn't use bleached flour. The dough for Chinese steamed-bun is actually not hard to make. It is double risen, first with yeast and then with baking powder, which makes the buns light and fluffy. Most recipes I found reccommend low-glutten flour to make the buns light and soft. I used a mixture of plain flour and corn flour which works fine too.

You can be creative with the fillings, which can be either savoury (e.g. the classic barbecue pork bun) or sweet. With sweet fillings like lotus seed paste or red bean paste these buns make great afternoon snack.

Makes 6 steamed buns:

- 3/4 teaspoon dried yeast
- 80ml lukewarm water
- 1 cup plain flour
- 2/5 cup corn flour
- 20g caster sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoon oil (vegetable oil or pork lard)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Fillings:

- 1 cup leek (white part only, chopped)
- 2 shallots (chopped)
- 1 cup chicken meat (diced or minced)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons pure cream
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons roasted sesame oil (optional)

1. Dissolve the sugar in the water, then add the yeast. Stir and set aside until foamy.

2. Sift the flour and corn flour in a bowl and add the yeast mixture and the oil. Using a wooden spoon, mix the ingredients to a rough dough. Knead for about 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. If it is very sticky, knead in a little more flour.

3. Lightly grease a bowl with some oil and place the dough in it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and set aside to rise in a warm place (which means anywhere in Melbourne right now) until double in volume.

4. For the filling, melt butter in a frying pan on medium heat. Add leek and shallot and cook for 5 minutes or until they are soft. Stir frequently not to let the leek and shallot brown. Add in chicken and cook until the meat is cooked. Pour in the cream, stir and mix well. Simmer for 1-2 minutes. Season to taste. Add the roasted sesame oil if using. Let the filling cool down.

5. Once the dough doubles in volume, punch it down and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Flatten it and make a well in the centre. Place the baking powder in the well and gather up the edges to enclose the baking powder. Pinch the edges to seal. Lightly knead the dough for several minutes to even incorporate the baking powder.

6. Divide the dough into 6 portions. Working with one portion at the time, press the dough into circles with the edges thinner than the centre. Place the filling on the dough. Draw the sides in to enclose the filling. Pinch the top together and put each bun on a square of greaseproof paper (which I don't have it so I just put the bun on a lightly greased plate as shown below).



7. Place the buns well apart because they will continue to rise during steaming. Steam over simmering water in a wok or anything that suits you for 15 minutes. Serve hot. Steamed buns freeze well too.

Fish porridge with local snapper

Fish porridge , originally uploaded by yongtze.

It's been a while since I put up a new recipe here. My guilt finally hits and here is a fish porridge recipe that is light and yet subtly tasty. Be sure the fish is fresh as it is the freshness that makes the porridge. Also, to cut down the cooking time, I used a stick blender to make the porridge smooth and creamy.

Serves 2-4:

- 1 cup of jasmine rice
- salt
- 1 whole snapper, about 1 kg
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil
- 10 cups of water
- 2 good knob of gingers, cut into thin shreds
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 spring onions
- 2 shallots
- 2 tomatoes, skiinned and cut into cubes

1. First we fillet the snapper. Keep the trimmings, tail, bones, and fish head for the fish stock. Cut the fillets into 2cm x 2cm smaller pieces.

2. Next, we start making the fish stock. Place the water, the trimmings, tails, fish bones, head, onion, half of the ginger, 1 spring onion (roughly sliced) into a stock pot and bring to boil on high heat. Once boiling, turn down to medium heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes, adding salt to taste.

3. Meanwhile, wash the rice thoroughly and drain the water. Add the oil to the rice and  mix them well in a heavy-bottomed stockpot. Set aside, let the grain to soak up the oil.

4. Once the fish stock is ready, pour it through a sieve into the rice and start cooking with high heat until the rice turns soft. Turn down the heat to low-medium to slowly cook for about 30 minutes, stirring often. Once the rice is really soft, use a stick blender to blend the rice for the creamy texture.

5. Add sliced fish, tomatoes and the other half of the gingers into the porridge and simmer for another 10 minutes, keep stirring as the porridge tends to burn at the bottom once blended. Salt to taste. Thinly slice the other spring onion.

6. For confit shallot: slowly cook the shallots with oil over very low heat for about 10 minutes until very crispy. Keep the oil together with the shallot.

7. To serve: Pour the fish porridge into serving bowls. Place some thinly sliced spring onion, confit shallot and its cooking oil on the porridge. For stronger flavour, sprinkle a few drops of sesame oil and some white pepper.

Chinese roasted pork

Chinese roasted pork, originally uploaded by yongtze.

Chinese roasted pork is my favourite pork dish - It is simple but unbelievably tasty, with its crisp skin and juicy tender meat. I seriously don't mind eating it everyday. I can eat this at home and even when I eat out in Chinese restaurants, often twice a day!

I especially love the crisp, crunchy skin. It is not hard to achieve as long as the rind is completely dry before it goes into the hot oven. For this you need patience and time, which is not hard because you are just leaving the pork to dry out in the fridge when you can do whatever you like in the mean time.

Serve three or four with rice:

• A whole piece of pork belly (about 1kg)
• 1.5 teaspoon sugar
• 1.5 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon five-spice powder
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• More salt
• Vegetable oil

1. Mix sugar, salt, five-spice powder and minced garlic. And rub this mixture into the meat side of the pork, the bottom and sides of the meat. Dry the rind with kitchen paper. Place the pork rind side up in a dish.

2. Now use a very sharp knife to score the rind in many small diamond shapes (two sets of parallel lines). Rub salt into the rind evenly, about 1 to 2 teaspoons. Place the dish of pork uncovered for at least 4-5 hours (or overnight) in the fridge to dry out the rind.

3. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Take out the pork from the fridge, bringing it to room temperature. With a pastry brush, brush the rind with some vegetable oil and place the pork on a rack and roast for 25 minutes.

4. After 25 minutes, turn the broiler of your oven on high and place the pork about 20cm below the heat element. Broil for about 20 minutes with the oven door slightly open. Check from time to time to make sure that the skin doesn't burn. Once the crackling has gone bubbly you need to watch carefully for burning.

5. Remove the pork from oven and leave it on its rack to rest for about 10 minutes. Cut the roasted pork into pieces shown in the picture above and serve with steamed rice.

Dong'an Chicken

Dong'an Chicken, originally uploaded by yongtze.

This is a dish originated from the province of Hunan. The city of Dong'an, the reputed birthplace of this dish, is on its southern border. It is like a milder braised version of the famous Sichuan's Chicken with Chillies. It is spicy, salty, sweet, and sour: a delicate concoction of chicken flavoured with chillies and rice vinegar. Serve with rice.

Serves 4:

For the sauce:

• 1/2 cup chicken stock or water
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon black vinegar
• 2 teaspoons chilli oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 450g boneless chicken thighs, cut into 2cm cubes
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• peanut oil for deep-frying
• 3/4 cup chopped spring onion
• 1 red chille, sliced (or more if you want if spicier)
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• salt
• Sichuan peppercorn, crushed

1. To prepare the sauce, stir together all the ingredients listed for the sauce in a small bowl and set aside.

2. Combine chicken pieces, dark soy sauce, and cornflour in a bowl and mix well. Marimate for about 15 minutes.

3. Pour the oil to a depth of 2.5 cm into a wok or frying pan and heat until very hot (about 180 degree C). Carefully slide the chicken into the oil, stir with wooden chopsticks to separate the pieces. Fry until golden brown, about 1 1/2 minutes. Transfer to a rack placed over a plate to drain.

4. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the oil, return the wok to high heat. Add spring onion, chillies, ginger and garlic and stir-fry until fragrance, about 30 seconds. Return the chicken to the work and stir-fry over high heat, mixing all the ingredients, about 30 seconds.

5. Pour in the pre-mixed sauce and stir over high heat until well mixed, about 10 seconds. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer gently for about 4 minutes. Season with salt and crushed Sichuan peppercorn.

6. Transfer to a serving plate and serve at once with rice.

Shanghai fried noodles

Shanghai fried noodles, originally uploaded by yongtze.

We love the thick Shanghai noodles very much so we decided to try making the classic Shanghai fried noodles at home. This is a simple recipe in terms of ingredients and preparations, nothing fancy but that's how we like it. Fried noodles is not hard to make but it is not easy to perfect. Here are just a few suggestions/tips for cooking fried noodles:

- Cook in small batch (ideally 1 serve a batch,  all the noodles should be touching the hot wok at all time; good fried noodle should have a faint seared-in-the-wok taste)

- Be generous with the oil (or your noodles ending up sticking together or sticking to the wok)

- This might be a personal taste: If possible, add small cubes of fried pork fat when you are heating the oil. The best-tasting fried noodles in Malaysia is always cooked with fried pork fat.

- Mix all the sauces before cooking (high heat, small batch way of cooking requires you to cook quickly so you won't have time to measure and add all the sauces individually when you are cooking)

serves 2:

• 250g Shanghai noodles
• 200g lean pork meat
• 150g Chinese cabbage
• 4 dried Chinese shitake mushrooms
• 5 cloves garlic
• sugar, corn flour, and soy sauce

for the sauce:

• 1/2 teaspoon Chinese Shaoxing wine
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

1. Soak mushroom in boiling water for 20 minutes. Cut them into thin slices. Add a bit of oil and sugar, steam for 10 minutes. Set aside.

2. Cut pork into thin strips, marinate with 2 teaspoons of soy sauce and half teaspoon of corn flour.

3. Cut Chinese cabbage into strips. Chop the garlic finely.

4. Cook the Shanghai noodles according to the instructions on the package. Drain and rinse with cold water until the noodles are completely cold. Drain the water. Set aside.

5. Add about 2-3 tablespoons of peanut oil into the hot wok. Add garlic and fry gently for 30 seconds. Add the pork strips, stir-fry quickly for 1-2 minutes or until cooked. Once the pork is cooked, dish it up, together with the garlic, set aside.

6. Add a bit more oil into the wok again, throw in the sliced Chinese cabbage. Stir-fry for 1 minute. Then add the cooked noodles and stir-fry over high heat for another 1 minute. Add cooked pork and steamed mushroom and continue to stir-fry for about 1 minute or so. Add the pre-mixed sauce and stir-fry about another 30 seconds and the noodles can be served immediately.

Easiest, simplest, and delicious steamed fish recipe

Pei Wei's steamed flounder, originally uploaded by yongtze.

Steamed fish has always been one of the favorites at home. Easy, simple, appetizing, it is also one of the healthiest ways to cook fish.

Fresh white pomfret is considered the best fish for steaming in Malaysia. However, it is probably not possible to find fresh white pomfret in Melbourne. Properly-frozen pomfret is acceptable but any fresh white-flesh fish is good with this method, like flounder with its delicate and sweet flesh. The liquid from the steamed fish is sweet with a tint of appetizing sourness from the tomatoes and there is never enough.

• One flounder or white pomfret, about 500-600g
• Ginger, 50g, 3 quarters cut into fine strips, 1 quarter finely chopped
• Garlic, 5 cloves, finely chopped
• Spring onions, cut crosswise, about 1 inch long, or lengthwise into fine strips
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 5 cherry tomatoes, cut in half, or just normal tomatoes
• Salt
• Peanut oil

1. Wash the fish and its cavity with salt. Rinse. Rub the fish with salt for seasoning.  Stuff 1 quarter of ginger strip into the cavity. Lay the fish on a suitable dish for steaming. Scatter the rest of ginger strips and half of the spring onion over the fish. Scatter tomatoes around the fish. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the fish.

2. Put enough water into your wok and heat until boiling. Steam the fish at high heat for 8 minutes. Using a fork or chopstick, gently poke into the thickest part of the fish (usually middle of the body) and lift up the flesh. If it comes clean off the bone easily, the fish is done. If not, leave it to steam for another minute or so. Check again. Do not overcook as the meat gets tough.

3. While the fish is being steamed, slowly fry the finely chopped ginger, garlic and shallots  with 1 tablespoon of peanut oil over low heat until golden brown. Be careful as they get burnt quite easily if not watched.

4. Once the fish is cooked,  sprinkle the rest of the spring onion over the fish. Pour the fried ginger, garlic, shallots, and the oil over. Serve immediately.

Braised pork belly with garlic and chinese shitake mushroom in dark soy sauce with eggs

Braised pork belly with garlic and chinese shitake mushroom in dark soy sauce with eggs, originally uploaded by yongtze.

This is my favourite Hokkien food, also called "Hong Bak" or "Loh Bak". Unlike delicate Cantonese food and refined Teochew food, it is just good old Hokkien peasant food to go with lots of rice. It will taste even better after 1 or 2 days.

Hokkien people in Malaysia are originally from the Fujian province on the southeastern shore of China. There are more information about Hokkien food in Malaysia, Malaysian Chinese and Malaysia Chinese food on the web.

Serves 6-8 with rice

• 1 kg pork (shoulder or belly), cut in 4cm x 4cm cubes
• 6-8 hard-boiled eggs
• 1 whole big garlic (about 12-14 cloves), cloves separated with skin on
• 4 dried Chinese shitake mushrooms
• dark soy sauce
• soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon of five-spice powder
• salt
• peanut oil

1. Soak the shitake mushrooms in boiling-hot water for about 30 minutes or until they become soft. Cut the mushrooms into quarters and set aside.

2. In a big frying-pan/wok, heat up about 3 tablespoons of oil over medium heat, add the garlic cloves cook for about 20 seconds. Turn up the heat to high, add the pork and half teaspoon of salt, quickly stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.

3. Add about 4-5 tablespoons of dark soy sauce and 3-4 tablespoons of soy sauce and keep stir-frying for another 1-2 minutes. Check seasoning. You should be able to taste the dark soy sauce and it should be slightly saltier than normal. You can adjust the amount of dark soy sauce and soy sauce according to your liking.

4. Add the shitake mushrooms and the hard-boiled eggs. Pour in enough water to cover everything. Add the five-spice powder as well. Check seasoning: it is okay if it doesn't taste salty enough but it shouldn't be bland. Bring it to boil and turn the heat down to low. Gently simmer for at least 1 hour to 1.5 hours. The liquid should reduce to about two-thirds or half of the original amount. Serves with rice.

If you can't finish it, keep it in the fridge and re-heat the next day or even a few days it should taste even better. Keep the leftover sauce in the freezer, you can use it when you cook this "loh bah" next time it will improve the taste.

Fried mackerel with ginger, garlic, leek, and black bean sauce

Fried mackerel with ginger, garlic, leek, and black bean sauce, originally uploaded by yongtze.

This is a common way to cook fish in Malaysia. Everybody does it slightly differently and I like my mum's the most. But it's roughly like this: First you fry the fish (a cutlet, or whole fish if it is small). And you make a sauce that has ginger, garlic, yellow bean, fresh chilli, and a touch of soy sauce and a little bit of sugar and this sauce is then poured over the fish. It's nothing special but that's what I used to eat when I was a kid and to this day I can still remember the flavour.

I've always missed the flavour of this home-cooked dish and decided that I would try cooking today. I didn't have yellow bean at home so I replaced it with black bean and I added some sliced leek. Black bean is much saltier and strong than the yellow bean so if you using black bean you probably only need half of the amount of the yellow bean.

Serves 1:

• 2 small Mackerel, head cut off (you can also use big cutlets of fish)
• oil for pan-frying or deep-frying
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil for the sauce
• 20g ginger, sliced or chopped
• 20g garlic, chopped
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon yellow bean paste
• 1 fresh red chilli, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon corn flour, dissolved in
• 2 tablespoons water
• Optional: 1 tablespoon sliced leek, white part only

1. Pan-fry or deep fry the fish over a medium heat to a light golden brown. Drain on paper towels then place on a serving plate. Set aside.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of peanut oil in a wok to fry the ginger, garlic, chilli, and, if using, leek for about 20-30 seconds. Add the bean paste and cook until fragrant.

3. Add the light soy sauce, sugar and water. Bring the sauce to boil before adding the corn flour mixture for thickening. Pour the sauce over the fried fish. Optional: garnish with more sliced chilli (We love chilli).

Wedding dinner at Futuna Restaurant in Batu Pahat, Malaysia

Date: 8th February 2008   
Venue: Futuna Restaurant, Batu Pahat, Malaysia
Event: Wade and Sin Mian's Wedding Dinner

Wedding dinner like this brought back these nostalgic memories: The good old mouth-watering braised pork belly served in a Chinese bun, rounds of deafening yelling of "yum-seng" that would last for well over 20 seconds, the guys draining bottles of Hennessy cognac, free flowing Carlsberg beer, the kids enjoying limitless supply of soft drinks, and always-surprising karaoke singing session. It was a great night of celebration.