Tofu Burger (豆腐汉堡）

INTRODUCTION

I blog what I ate and I prepared some tofu burger for my family and that is why I take this opportunity to blog this recipe…

I am not the one who started this concept of tofu burger, there are many many websites in the Internet that have such recipes and notably in the Western website…It was designed for vegan or vegetarians who like meatless dish..

Is the tofu burger tasty? I have tried some vegetarian burger in a vegan bar and it is very nice and that is why I have decided to blog this recipe. A Google of vegetarian burger will give you a number of restaurants that served this and prices can be rather steep..

The challenge of vegetarian burger is more on the texture and not really on the flavour itself since one mouthful of the burger will have lots of mix aroma from mayonnaise, vegetables, chilli sauce, cheeses and you can hardly differentiate if it is a real meaty burger or vegetarian burger. Nobody in my family complain about such burger since it was eaten as whole.

This recipe is for octo and lacto vegetarians meaning those vegetarians that can consume diary and egg products. I will share the basic recipe of the burger patty and for the assembly, I will leave it to the readers to design your own . Even for the patty, only the cereal, tofu and eggs are compulsory , there are many alternatives for other ingredients and you can always flavoured your burger differently for each attempt.

As per Wikipedia:

“A veggie burger is a hamburger-style, or chicken-style, patty that does not contain meat, but may contain animal products such as egg or milk. The patty of a veggie burger may be made from vegetables (like corn), textured vegetable protein (like soy), legumes(beans), tofu, nuts, mushrooms, or grains or seeds, like wheat and flax. The patties that are the essence of a veggie burger have existed in various Eurasian cuisines for millennia, including in the form of disc-shaped grilled or fried meatballs or askoftas, a commonplace item in Indian cuisine. Some fast food companies have been offering vegetarian foods increasingly since the beginning of the 21st century. In the United States as of April 2005, veggie burgers were available in Burger King restaurants and those of its franchise Hungry Jack’s. As of that same time, they were also available in certain Subways and Harvey’s, as well as many chain restaurants, such as Red Robin, Chili’s, Denny’s, Friendly’s, Culvers, Johnny Rockets, and Hard Rock Cafe. Occasionally the veggie burger option will appear at the bottom of a menu as a possible substitution for beef or turkey burgers, rather than as an individual menu item.’ (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veggie_burger)

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: Prepare 6-8 tofu patties

• 200 grams of firm tofu or taukwa
• 100 grams of instant oatmeal
• 50 grams of green capsicum
• 50 grams of red capsicum
• 50 grams of shitake mushrooms
• 50 grams of cashew nuts (optional)
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1/4 teaspoons of black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoons of dried oregano
• 1 tablespoons of dark soya sauce  (optional if you want lighter patty)
• Pinches of salt
• 1 egg

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Pulse blend cashew nuts, capsicums, and shitake mushrooms until coarse form. Add the firm tofu, dark soya sauce, black better, sugar, oregano, salts, instant oatmeal and eggs. Blend until well mixed. Take a small teaspoon and taste the raw batter. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.

• In a non stick pan with some oil, put 1-2 tablespoons of tofu patties, pan fry the patties until both side are well cooked and reached your desired tone. The batter will harden when cook, it is considered as cook when a tooth pick insert into the centre of patties come out clean.

• To assemble, you can consider added cheese, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato and cucumber to the veggie burger.

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CONCLUSION

This is my own recipe and I like the taste very much. Having said that, variations are many, you can add whatever things you liked such as basil, celery or other types of ingredients and come out your unique version. It is advisable that you do not change the instant oatmeal, egg and tofu ratio so as to maintain a texture that is like the real meat patty.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 13 March 2015)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

 

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  and FOOD PARADISE 美食天堂 to see more recipes.  I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

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Century Egg Pork Congee (皮蛋瘦肉粥）

INTRODUCTION

I have to be frank that I do not really want to issue this type of simple home recipe..One reader PM me asking me if i have porridge recipe.. After pondering a while, i have decided to issue a porridge recipe which is commonly sold in the stores and I hope it will benefit those readers who are really in need of such recipes..

This recipe is rather famous with minced meat and century egg as 2 main ingredients. It is very commonly sold in Hong Kong Porridge stores and obviously is a famous Cantonese cuisines. As per Wikipedia:

“Century egg or pidan (Chinese: 皮蛋; pinyin: pídàn), also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg,thousand-year-old egg, and millennium egg, is a Chinese delicacy made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in a mixture ofclay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. Some Chinese households cut them up into small chunks and cook them with rice porridge to create “century egg and lean pork congee” (Chinese: 皮蛋瘦肉粥; pinyin: pídàn shòuròu zhōu). This is sometimes served in dim sum restaurants. Rice congee, lean pork, and century egg are the main ingredients. Peeled century eggs are cut into quarters or eighths and simmered with the seasoned marinated lean slivers of pork until both ingredients are cooked into the rice congee. Fried dough sticks known as youtiao are commonly eaten with century egg congee.” (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg)

Cooking porridge is nothing more than boiling  raw rice in water and water quantities used is usually more than the rice quantities. As a guideline, one cup of rice needs one cup of water, therefore, for porridge or congee, it is one cup of rice may requires 3-4 cups of water depending on how fluid you want your porridge to be.

Boiling porridge is simple and the challenge is to boil the porridge as fast as possible and as mushy as it can..There are many ways of boiling porridge and I believed most households will have their own ways of boiling the porridge.. Some said that freeze the washed raw rice in the freezer and it took 1o minutes to boil into very fine and mushy porridge. Some said put a porcelain spoon in the process of boiling. There is no right and wrong, how about blending your rice becoming the porridge like those prepared to nurse the baby? What about pressure cooking the rice and I can guarantee that within 15 minutes, the porridge is like those sold in the store..

What I am sharing is what I usually did for my family.. It is not my mother’s way of preparation as there is no such kitchen gadget available. This recipe shall be for your reference and you can always refer to the aforementioned paragraph for better porridge preparation.

My rice cooker has a quick cook function facilitating busy parents who have no time to prepare the rice. It took about 10-15 minutes to cook the rice. While cooking the rice, using this 10-15 minutes, I started to boil the meat broth for the porridge, by the time the rice is ready, dump in and boil for another 10-15 minutes, the thick mushy porridge is ready.. It is rather fast and easy too. .

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings : 3-4 adults

• 1 cup of cooked rice
• 4-5 cups of plain water
• 100 grams of minced meat
• 3-4 pork ribs (optional)
• 2-3 sprigs of spring onion
• 4 cm young ginger
• 1-2 century egg
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil or cooking oil
• Pinches of salt
• Dashes of white pepper
• 1 Chinese cullers (youtiao) (optional)

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Shred the ginger until fine , chopped the spring onion and cut the century egg until fine pieces. Set aside.

• Cook the rice using rice cooker using “QUICK COOK” function if available.  Once it done, add the sesame oil and pinches of salt, stir until well mixed.

• While the rice is cooking, have a pot of water, boil the pork ribs for as long as you can affordable. Pork rib is optional and serve the role of taste enhancing. For this illustration, I have boiled for about 15 minutes. Blanch the minced meat using the same pot of water and dish out the blanched minced meat.

• Add the cooked rice and use high heat, without lids on, boil for another 10 minutes. Occasionally give it a quick stir. After 10 minutes, add the blanched minced meat, ginger and century egg, let it simmer for another 5-10 minutes or until your desired texture. In this 5-10 minutes, constant stirring is required to avoid the porridge stick to the bottom of the pot. While doing the stirring, you may want to use the big spoon to “grind” the porridge also.

• Before off the heat, taste the porridge, add additional seasoning such as sesame oil, mushroom concentrate or salt. Stir until well combined. Let the porridge rest in the pot for another 10 minutes before serving. Add additional water if necessary.   Add you tiao and dust with additional chopped century eggs, white pepper, sesame oil and chopped onion before serving.

Notes:

• There should not be a fixed and fast recipe for cooking porridge or congee. Variations are many, you can always add or delete certain ingredients or increase or reduce the quantities stated.

• When preparing porridge, never ever put on the lid of the pot. Always open the lid to avoid over flow.

• For the first 10 minutes, no stirring is required, stirring is only required at the last 5-10 minutes.

• If porridge too dry, add more water. If too watery, boil longer. Even when you stop cooking, cooked rice will continue absorb the water and expand. Less water will expedite the process. But you have to gradually add water for the cooked rice to absorb.

• New rice and old rice will have different water absorbing properties. Jasmine and basmati rice will have different water absorbing properties too. Always refer to the rice packaging for a rough guideline. Chef discretion is needed in the preparation. If you are unsure, add water cautiously and gradually ..

• If by the end of cooking, the rice is still grainy, use the big spoon to grind it slightly, it will help to turn mushy.

• I always planned in advance. If I want to cook congee on the next day, I will cook extra rice for dinner tonight. I always used leftover rice to boil porridge.

• If you have kids, you may want to consider not adding century eggs to the porridge. You can only add the eggs during serving.

• The same method can be used to cook shredded chicken. As for fish porridge, add the fish slices 5 minutes before you off the heat and the fish have to be sliced a bit thicker and preferably coat with some corn flour.

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CONCLUSION

As what I said before, there are million ways of cooking porridge. Each dialect will have different expectations on their porridge. Like Teochew, they may prefer the watery grainy type of porridge. This recipe is a traditional Cantonese style that is commonly served in Hong Kong porridge stores.. Whatever method you used, as long as you can get what you desired, it is considered as the correct method. I seriously hope that this post will give inspiration to new house chefs who are struggling to cook porridges.

Hope you like the post to day. Cheers and have a nice day.

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 13 March 2015)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

 

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  and FOOD PARADISE 美食天堂 to see more recipes.  I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

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Braised Pork Knuckles Rice Vermicelli (罐头蹄膀炒米粉）

INTRODUCTION

When I was young, canned meat was for those less well to do and can’t afford to eat fresh meat as it was relatively cheaper. In addition, canned food was important during the war period. It is food reserved for period of emergency declared by the government.

However, in recent years, due to the improved of People’s Republic of China’s economy and the strengthening of RMB against USD, the price of canned meat imported canned meat had increased tremendously. It is definitely no more a cheap dish as compared to fresh meat.

This is a household noodle dish that brings fond memories. While most households are able to stew their pork knuckles, however, it is difficult to replicate the taste or flavour of the canned pork knuckle or stewed pork. I seldom cooked this dish as it is a rather sinful indulgence.

Since I have not had it for many years, I have tried to replicate what my late mom had served us many years ago. In fact, in Singapore, I am aware that there are a few hawker stores that sell this type of fried rice vermicelli. One of them is in Maxwell market.

In this illustration, I have used canned pork knuckles imported from China and you can also use canned stewed pork and it is equally delicious. Another thing to highlight is traditionally, the dish is cooked with shredded cabbage. However, since I did not have cabbage with me and I have lots of bean sprouts, I have substituted the cabbage with bean sprouts.

 

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: 4-5 adult servings

• 250 grams of rice vermicelli, soaked in cold water
• 100 grams of bean sprouts or shredded cabbage
• 1-2 canned of pork knuckles or stewed pork
• 2 big onions cut into big slices
• Some shimeji mushrooms (optional)
• Some spring onion cut into big pieces

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• In a big frying pan, add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil and sauté the onion until fragrant. Add in the pork knuckles, Shimeji mushrooms, one can of water (use the pork knuckles can). Bring to boil under high heat.

• When boiled, add in additional seasonings if desired (suggested: white pepper powder, salt, light soya sauce and some dark soya sauce).  – Add in rice vermicelli, let it simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add in bean sprouts and spring onions, let it simmer for another 2 minutes. Off the heat and let it rest in the frying pan for about 5 minutes before serving.

Note:

• For this dish, if you want it to be flavourful, you have to be generous with your canned trotters. 100 grams of bee hoon to 1 canned trotters or stewed pork should be enough. As too much canned trotters may not be good, to make it flavourful, you have to add water and some seasoning to your taste. Dark soya sauce is for colour and I personally like to add a teaspoon of black vinegar to enhance the taste. White pepper can also be added but all these are optional as the dish are supposed to be flavoured by the tasty canned gravy,

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CONCLUSION

This noodle dish recipe was shared about 1.5 years ago in my Facebook page. The recipe was formally migrated to the blog. It will be subsequently compiled into one pot  noodle dishes E-book due to be released soon.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 13 March 2015)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

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Belachan Bee Hoon (虾酱米粉）

INTRODUCTION

This is a very niche recipe confined to Kuching of Sarawak and East Malaysia. I was utterly shocked that Miri and Sibu residents of Sarawak do not even heard of this recipe. I also have a difficulty to trace the origin of this cuisine so uniquely confined to Kuching area. Even the use of century egg and cuttlefish also puzzling me until to date.

I have decided to blog this unique Kuching recipe as a record of my noodle dish compilation and out of the obligation as a Sarawak blogger. 

This is a recipe that either that you likes it or you hates it just like durians to some. It can be rather stinky if the belachan was not properly cooked.. The main ingredients that make this dish tasty are: dry shrimps, shrimp paste and shallots. You have to use lots of these to create the unique taste. All the others are minor ingredients.

I grows up with this and my late mum used to cook this during Sunday, It is a spicy, sweet and tangy noodle dish and commercially, it was usually served with soaked/cured cuttlefish and century eggs..At home, we served with cuttlefish and normal hard boiled eggs.

When I prepared this dish, I am equally eager to see my kid’s expression when they took their first bite.. Well, i am happy that they can still accept this though they do not really like it.. But both my wife and me loves it..

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: 3-4 Adults

• 200 grams of dried prawns – soaked
• 150 grams of shrimp paste (belachan)
• 10 shallots
• 2-3 big chilli or 8 chilli padi
• 2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar (Gula Apong or Gula Melaka) or white sugar
• 3-4 tablespoons of tamarind paste (Assam) – add about 1 cups of water and extract juice
• Pinches of salt (optional depending on the saltiness of your belachan)
• 2-3 litres of plain water

• 200 grams of rice vermicelli, blanched
• 1 cured cuttlefish, blanched and cut into small pieces
• 2 century eggs, cut into quarter sizes
• A handful of beansprouts
• 1 cucumber, julienned into small sizes
• Sauces for drizzling (optional) – please refer here: Cuttlefish Like Kangkong, Is It Not Weird? Sotong Kangkong (鱿鱼蕹菜）

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• In a frying pan, pan fry the belachan or shrimp paste until fragrant and aromatic. This step is very important as uncooked shrimp paste will make the dish very stinky. Properly grilled shrimp paste will give you a nice aroma. In this process, the shrimp paste may disintegrate but that is ok for the next step.

• Pound the chilli, soaked dry prawns and shallots until as fine as possible. Set aside. You can also use a blender if you wished.

• In a pot, put the water, add the pounded herbs and dried shrimps followed by toasted shrimp paste, tamarind juice and the brown sugar. Bring to boil. Once boil, lower the heat to medium and let it simmer for at least 15-20 minutes. Take a tablespoon and taste some. Add additional sugar and salt if desired.

• For assembly, have a bowl or plate, put some rice vermicelli, pour some gravy on top until it covers the rice vermicelli. Drizzle with special sauces (as explained in ingredients, if desired). Garnish with some century eggs, shredded cucumber, cuttlefish and beansprouts. Best served warm as a snack or a noodle meal.

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CONCLUSION

If readers have never tried this dish, I encouraged you to try half of the recipe and see if it suits your taste buds. It should be spicy, sweet and tangy and full of cooked belachan flavour. The shredded cucumber and beansprouts make the dish very refreshing.. However, if you like sambal belachan, I believed you will like this unique dish also.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 13 March 2015)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

Teochew Mee Pok And Fish Ball Noodles (潮州肉脞面 ，潮州鱼圆面）

INTRODUCTION

I was rather shocked that quite a lot of non Singaporean Facebook members do not know about mee pok, a type of flat noodle dish commonly found in the hawker centre selling  fish balls （鱼圆面） and minced meat noodles (bak chor mee (肉脞面）。 All this while even when i am in Kuching, Sarawak, I knew the existence of this flat noodles because in Kuching, we can even order kolo mee pok…However, I really can’t recall if I can order it in Kuala Lumpur.

As per Wikipedia:

“Mee pok is a noodle dish with Chinese noodle characterized by its flat and yellow appearance, varying in thickness and width. The dish is of Teochew origin and is commonly served in a number of countries such as Chaoshan (China), Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Mee Pok is commonly served tossed in a sauce (often referred to as “dry”, or tah in Hokkien (Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ta)), though sometimes served in a soup (where it is referred to as “soup”, or terng). Meat and vegetables are added on top. Mee pok can be categorised into two variants, fish ball mee pok (yu wan mee), and mushroom minced meat mee pok (bak chor mee). Bak chor mee is usually exclusively prepared using thin noodles (“mee kia”), while yu wan mee can be cooked with other noodle varieties. Mee pok is a staple commonly offered in hawker centres and coffee shops in Singapore, together with other Chinese noodle dishes.

The sauce in which the noodles are tossed in is a very important aspect of the dish, and is considered a representation of the cook’s skill and experience. The importance of the sauce in mee pok can be thought of similarly as the sauces that accompany pasta. The sauce consists of 4 components: chili, oil, vinegar and other condiments such as soy sauce and pepper. The chili is made from various ingredients and its preparation often includes frying and blending. Oil, traditionally lard, ensures a smooth texture in the noodles, although vegetable oil is sometimes used as a healthier though less tasty version. Vinegar is added for its sourness, and diners may specify how much vinegar is used.The chili sauce may be replaced with tomato ketchup for children, who are uncomfortable with the spiciness of the chili.” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mee_pok)

Well, this Teochew noodle dish is very common in Singapore, almost existing in any hawker centre’s and any food court’s stall. Both kids and adult love this fragrant dry noodle dish which is slightly tangy but aromatically flavoured by spring onion oil.

The recipe I am sharing today is rather traditional. As a respect to traditional cuisine, I have decided to prepare the dish using lard and lard cubes. Of course, all these can be substitute with other ingredients.. For this dish, there are many alternatives to the ingredients and when you ordered, you can always pick and choose.. As long as the sauce are the same, it will fall under this recipe. 

Though Wiki said that chilli is one of the important ingredients in the sauce, I will not share the recipe of chilli sauce. Among the reasons are not all diners can take hot and spicy mee pok and I do not think that original mee pok recipe in China have added chilli sauce. Secondly, almost every stall has different type of chilli sauce and there is none that is standardized.. Thirdly, it does not make much sense to prepare the chilli sauce just for a meal of 3-4 person. Usually, the chilli sauce in the store is prepared in bulk since the preparation is laborious. Therefore, I would advise readers to get the chilli  sauce from the supermarket or your own homemade chilli sauce.

For this illustration, i will share the traditional mee pok preparation whereas for picture taking, there are two sets of picture, one set for the traditional mee pok and another set for more “trendy” fish ball noodles with tomato sauce Tomato sauce is the recent trendy addition that is well liked by kids.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

• Some mee pok or mee kia
• Some meat balls
• Handful of pork lard cube (See below)
• Some chopped spring onion
• Some minced pork (seasons with sesame oil, white pepper, light soya sauce and sugar)
• Some meat sliced thinly
• Some pork liver (mixed with some corn starch and sesame oil)
• Some lettuces

Note that as this is a savoury dish with many ingredients alternatives, as such, no detail measurements were given except the seasonings below.

For each bowl of noodles serving one person:

• 2 tablespoons of spring onion oil （葱油）(see below);
• 1 tablespoon of black vinegar (黑醋）
• 1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce (鱼露）
• 1/2 tablespoon of sesame paste (芝麻酱）- optional
• 1 tablespoon of chilli sauce of your choice (辣椒酱）- optional
• 1 tablespoon of tomato ketchup (番茄酱） – optional
• Seasoning to taste (e.g. MSG, mushroom concentrate or sugar)
• Dashes of white pepper

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• This step is the preparation of pork lard cubes and spring onion oil which is optional. You can always substitute with normal cooking oil. For this step, you will need some pork lard and chopped spring onions.

• Cut the pork lard into almost the same size. Put the pork lard in a wok. Stir fry the cubes in every 2-3 minutes until all the oils are forced out and the lard cubes become brownish and crispy. It will take about 15-20 minutes depending on the quantity.  Drain and once cooled completely, the lard cubes have to be stored in an air tight container. The oil left is the lard.

• To prepare the spring onion oil, chopped spring onion into fine pieces, add to the hot oil, stir fry until the spring onion become light brownish and aroma starts to emit. Off the heat and set aside. Note that the hot oil will continue to cook the chopped spring onion and hence it will become rather dark when it is cooled.

• Get ready a bowl and put the fish sauce, sesame paste, black vinegar, spring onion oil, ketchup or chilli sauce and seasoning. Use a tablespoon and stir it until well combined.

• In a pot with hot boiling water, blanch the noodles as per noodle packaging instructions. In this illustration, it was stated as 8 minutes. Drain the noodles and transfer it to the bowl with all the seasonings.

• Use a pair of chopstick to quickly stir the noodles with the seasonings until well mixed. If it too dry, you can add in 1-2 tablespoon of meat broth of hot water.  Add some lettuce.

• In another pot of hot boiling water, start blanching the ingredients in the following suggested order : bean sprout, meat slices, minced meat, meat dumpling, meat balls, pork liver.  If you are an experienced cook, you can blanch all these items together. The blanching for each item will take the most 2-3 minutes. Transfer the blanched items and place on top of the noodles. Add some pork lard cube, dashes of white pepper and chopped spring onions before serving. Best served hot with a ball of meat soup which is optional.

• You can use the water for blanching the meat items, add some more vegetables or some more meat balls , seasonings and become a ball of hot soup to go with the noodles.

Note:

The same recipe shall apply to the fish ball noodles .. Noodles can be kway tiao or bee hoon or even bee tai bak. Garnishes can be fish balls, minced meat, fish balls slices, fish dumplings etc.

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CONCLUSION

For this recipe, I purposely left out the detail quantity as there are too many choices of your ingredients be it the noodles items or the side ingredients. As long as you remember the seasoning recipe, it will provide you a delicious bowl of mee pok commonly sold in the hawker centre.. It is this sauce recipe that differentiate this humble bowl of uniquely Singapore hawker noodles dish with other noodle dishes..Do add or minus the suggested ingredients to tailor to your family’s taste buds.  If possible, try using pork lard and pork lard cubes and these 2 special items really create a difference in the aroma.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 13 March 2015)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

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Siamese Laksa (Laksa Thai, Laksa Siam or 暹罗辣沙）

INTRODUCTION

About 10 years before my mum passed away in late 80’s, a family friend from Penang taught her to cook this dish in Sarawak.. It is a yellowish colour of Laksa that was made with fish broth and served with shredded pineapple and cucumber.. I loved this dish and since my mum passed away, I have not eaten this dish for more than 20 years as it was not sold in Singapore and Malaysia..

I do not know the exact name of the noodle dish but I can remember that she called it Siam Lo Laksa.. Well I hope that I do not remember wrongly but a search of Siam Laksa do not yield many recipes. After my issuance of my Assam Laksa recipe, I found that the main ingredients are very similar. Being in Sarawak, Bunga Kantan and daun Kesom is not popular at all, I believed that due to this reason, my Penang family friends who based in Kuching also did not use this.. However, for this recipe, I have decided to include this..

The main difference with Assam Laksa is the creaminess of Laksa. It is milky because of the coconut milk used. My first bite immediately told me that this is very close to my late mum’s version. 

I remembered there are friends that told me that there is a variant of Assam Laksa  with coconut milk which they called it Laksa lemak..Some say that it resembles Johor Laksa and another member of my Facebook Group says that she had eaten this type of Laksa cooked by Myanmar friends… Looking at Wiki’s definition, I am even more confused under the variants of curry Laksa and Assam Laksa. It seems that they are all intertwined. Well whatever name it is, I shall let the reader decide..For purpose of this post, I shall name it as Siamese Laksa.

I will not claim that this Laksa recipe as authentic but it is what I am looking for. The recipe is exactly the same as Assam Laksa but the rempah or spice mix were first sauté until fragrance and the addition of coconut milk. Therefore, for those who are interested in Assam Laksa recipe, you can refer to this post: Penang Assam Laksa (亚参叻沙）.

For this illustration, since I did not have bunga kantan and cucumber, I have omitted bunga kantan and substitute cucumber with lettuces.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: 4-6 adult servings

Spice paste (rempah)

• 6 shallots
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 5 cm of fresh turmeric
• 3 cm of galangal
• 3 stalks of lemon grass
• 10 dried chillies , soaked
• 2 red chillies
• 1/2 bud of bunga kantan
• 2 tablespoons of shrimp paste (belachan)

• 5-6 mackerel (Ikan kembong)
• 4-5 stalks of Vietnamese mint (daun kesum)
• 2 tablespoons of tamarind paste
• 3 pieces of tamarind peel (Assam keping)
• 8-10 cups of plain water
• 400 ml or grams of thick coconut milk (not in picture) – About 2 packets
• Pinches of salt or 2 tablespoons of fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons of white sugar
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Assembly and garnishing

• 500 grams of Laksa noodles or thick rice vermicelli , blanched
• 1 small pineapple , cut into small pieces
• 1 red big onion – sliced thinly
• a handful of mint leaves
• 1 cucumber , julienned into small stripes
• 1 red chilli  or 2-3 bird eye chillies, cut into small pieces
• Some lettuces , sliced thinly

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Put all spice mix or rempah ingredients in a blender. Add adequate water to cover the herbs. Blend as fine as possible. Set aside.

• Put the tamarind paste in a bowl, add 1-2 cups of water, use the hand to squeeze the tamarind paste in the water until all the seeds comes out. Drain the Assam juices and sift them onto another bowl. Throw away the seeds and set aside.

• Put the water in a pot. Bring to boil. Once it boils, add the fishes. Boil the fish until cooked which took about 10 minutes.  Off the heat. Take out the fish and keep the fish stock. Debone and mash the fish.

• Heat up a wok and add cooking oil. Sauté the rempah or spice mix until fragrant and oil starts to separate from the spice mix.  Transfer the rempah to the fish stock earlier. Add the daun kesum,  tamarind juice and tamarind peel. .

• Add the fish meat and bring to boil. Once it boils, let it simmer at low heat for 15-20 minutes for the flavour to develop. Once it is done, add the coconut milk followed by seasoning (fish sauce or salt and sugar).  Bring to boil and off the heat.

• For assembly, have a bowl. Placed some Laksa noodles. Pour some soup until it covers the noodles. Garnish with mint leaves, pineapple slices, red chilli, shredded cucumber, sliced red onions and lettuces. Best served warm as a one dish noodle meal.

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CONCLUSION

As I have mentioned before, I am unsure whether  or not this is authentic but what I know is that it suits my family’s taste buds. Laksa is such a big category of South East Asian cuisine  well liked by many people in the region. It is therefore not surprising that there are many variants and crossovers between the 2 main category of Laksa: Assam Laksa and Curry Laksa..Such crossovers have resulted in many regional Laksa like Thai Laksa, Perlis Laksa, Kelantan Laksa, Johor Laksa, Kedah Laksa, Ipoh Laksa and many many more. Not to mention the nonya Laksa lemak, Sarawak Laksa and Katong Laksa. They all taste goods, looks a bit similar with a bit of differences…Who claims who is authentic, in my humble opinion, is unfounded..If you found that this Laksa do not fit the Siamese Laksa that you know, you can always changed it to the name that you like.. and I would be glad if one can tell me what is the Laksa that my late mum have cooked..

Hope you like the post today, cheers and have a nice day.

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 13 March 2015)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

Stir Fried Glutinous Rice Dish (生炒腊味糯米饭）.

INTRODUCTION

I think I will not do what I did as in this illustration if I do not intend the share this recipe.. I will dump everything in the rice cooker and have a bowl of nicely cooked savoury glutinous rice with very negligible difference in texture and taste of this dish.

However, as a respect to traditional recipes, I have decided to share with all how this dish was prepared traditionally. I am unsure when was rice cooker being introduced to the world, but since it is a traditional dish, it was definitely cooked over the stove by our fore fathers. It had a unique name of “Stir Fried Glutinous Rice Dish” (生炒糯米饭）basically means stir fry the raw glutinous rice grains in the wok until it was cooked.

It is definitely not easy to stir fry glutinous rice over a wok and stove as glutinous rice is sticky and it had a tendency to get burnt if not properly monitored. While some of the rice are burnt, some rice may be uncooked. As such, full attention is needed to prepare this dish.

Wait, I am not discouraging you to trying out this recipe.. With the availability of many modern kitchen equipment, it made life much easier. We have non stick pan and it saves us some effort in stir frying the dish.  If you want to have an easier life, you can use a rice cooker sticky rice function to cook a rather perfect glutinous rice dish and I have been using rice cooker all these years.. Well, other families or restaurant may resort to pre-steamed the glutinous rice until cooked and only start the stir frying at the last stage.. Whatever it is, find a method that you are most comfortable with and try out the recipe..

This is a Cantonese famous dish that was served in the dim sum restaurant. It was also a common household dish that families prepared during winter to sooth and warm the body. At times, Chinese sausages or other type of Chinese preserved meats (腊味）were added to the dish.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About 6-8 adult servings

• 400 grams of glutinous rice – soaked for at least 4 hours
• 50 grams of peanuts (optional)
• 3 shitake mushrooms – soaked and cut into small slices
• 3 sprigs of spring onion – minced
• 3 Chinese sausages, cut into small pieces
• 50 grams of Chinese preserved meat (腊肉）(steamed and cut into small pieces)
• 1 tablespoon of dried shrimps – rinsed
• 1 tablespoon of shredded dried squid – soaked (optional)
• 1 tablespoons of dried scallops – soaked
• 500-600 grams (ml) of plain water or water used for soaking scallops/dried shrimps/mushrooms
• 3-4 tablespoons of cooking oil

Seasonings

• 1.5 tablespoons of oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce
• Dashes of white pepper

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Pre-soak the glutinous rice for at least 4 hours.

• Heat up a non stick frying pan or wok, put the oil, sauté the spring onions and mushrooms until fragrant. Add the dried shrimps, squid and scallops, stir fry until aroma starts to emit (about 1-2 minutes). Add dashes of white pepper and followed by the Chinese sausage cubes and Chinese preserved meat, stir fry until well mixed. Add in the soaked glutinous rice and peanuts.

• Add the seasonings (oyster sauce, dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, additional white pepper). Stir fry for one minutes. Gradually add in the water just enough to facilitate the stir frying. Stir fry until the rice is cooked meaning soft and transparent. Best served hot with additional garnishes such as chopped spring onion and deep fried shallots. (See notes for more detail explanation)

Note:

• It took me about 25-30 minutes for this stir frying exercise. I have add about 20 % of the water to the rice, stir fry and let it cook for 5 minutes. Add water, stir fry and cook for 5 minutes and repeat the same until the water were all used up. However, towards the end at about 20 minutes juncture, I stir fried the sticky rice for almost every two to three minutes to ensure that the rice were not burnt.

• You may or may not need to use up all the water as suggested. The amount of water very much depends on the water absorbing power of your glutinous rice..

• You can pre-steamed the soaked glutinous rice until cooked and followed the stir frying process. In that case your stir frying process will be relatively short with the aim of flavouring the rice. Before steaming, you can add in all the seasonings too.

• If you are using a rice cooker, after stir frying the soaked glutinous rice for 1-2 minutes, transfer everything to the rice cooker. Add adequate water to cover the glutinous rice, select sticky rice function and cook as per rice cooker instructions. (You can also refer to this post for pictorial instructions using rice cooker: Rice Cake In A Peach Form？… Png Tao (饭桃， 米包米， 饭粿， 潮州红桃粿）

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CONCLUSION

I loved these cooked glutinous rice. It is flavourful and aromatic. Since for this illustration, I have cooked more than what the family can  consume, I have used some of these glutinous rice to prepare the Teochew rice peach cake as in the above picture.. Remember that you can always pre-steamed or use the rice cooker to cook this delicious dish and this will make your life much easier.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 26 November 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

 

 

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White Gourd Braised Rice (白莆焖饭）

INTRODUCTION

This is an old recipe relocated from the Guaishushu’s Facebook pages with new photo taking.

When you looked at the picture, you may think that it is fried rice, in fact it is not. It is a braised rice or vegetable rice. In Mandarin, there are a number of name to it, it can be called 油饭，菜饭，焖菜饭 or 焖饭。  

My late parents used to cook this type of rice. Unlike other dialect groups, Chawan (Zhaoan or 诏安）braised rice usually limited to two types of vegetable, white gourd （白莆） and bok Choy (大白菜）or napa cabbage。Green vegetables will not be used as these leafy vegetables cannot withstand long hours of cooking. In addition, the green colour will turn yellowish when cooked for long hours. Therefore, only white vegetables were used traditionally. Having said that,  other dialects do braised rice using long bean, cabbages or mustard green.

Traditional cooking are using lard to sauté the shallots. However, for health purpose, I have used normal vegetable cooking oil. Of course, that will sacrifice the taste of the dish. But is it not health is more important?  This dish shall be categorized as a one pot noodle and rice dish.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings :5-6 adult servings

• 500 grams of white gourd (or napa cabbage)
• 250 grams of pork belly meat (or minced meat)
• 2 medium sized mushrooms – soak and cut into thin stripes
• 5 small shallots – slice into thin pieces
• 1 small carrots – julienned into thin stripes
• 1 tablespoons of dried shrimps (not in picture)
• 3-4 cups of white rice  (washed)
• 2 tablespoon of cooking oil (not in picture)
• Dashes of white pepper
• Pinches of salt
• Seasoning (chicken stock, light soya sauce or vegetable stock) to taste

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• De-skin the white gourd, julienne into thin stripes and set aside. When slicing the white gourd, if you knife can easily cut through the seeds, these seeds are edible. If it is hard to cut, it considered as too mature and you have to throw away all the parts that have seeds.

• Blanch the pork belly in hot water for 15-20 minutes. Drain and cut into think stripes. Keep the meat broth. Alternatively, you can also use minced meat for this dish.

• In a big frying pan, put some oil and fried the shallots until almost golden brown. Add small shrimps, pepper, salt, mushrooms and sliced pork belly (or minced meat). Fried for a while until well mixed (about 2 minutes). Add in julienned white gourd and carrots and fried for another 2 minutes and until well mixed.

• Wash your rice, sieved and put the white rice. Stir fried 2-3 minutes until well mixed. Add seasonings of your choice (e.g.. Light soya sauce, sugar, more pepper, fish sauce, mushroom concentrates ). Transfer to a rice cooker or you can continue using this frying pan (Wok). Add the meat broth earlier to the rice cooker The quantity of liquid should be just enough to cover the rice. If you want your rice to be damp, more meat broth can be added. (see notes below)

• Use the rice cooker function for oiled rice (if any) or white rice. Occasional stirring is required to ensure all rice are evenly cooked.  Add additional meat broth or re-cook for another cycle if your rice is uncooked. Keep the rice in the rice cooker for at least 15 minutes before serving. Best served hot with additional garnishes such as : Seaweed meat floss, spring onions, Chinese gallery, fried eggs .

 

Note :

• Generally, 1 cup of rice will require 1 cup of meat broth. As this is a vegetable rice, your water should be slightly reduced since cooked vegetable will emit some more vegetable juices. For example, if 4 cups of water is required to cook 4 cups of rice,than for vegetable rice, 3 cups of water should be adequate. In the event you find that the rice is too dry or not cooked, just add some more meat broth.

• Another point to note is the vegetables and meat will add to the capacity of the rice. For example, if the capacity of your rice cooker is 5 cups, the more you can cook will be 3-3.5 cups of vegetable rice.

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CONCLUSION

Remember that is a rather basic recipe for vegetable braised rice.. Alternative vegetables that you can consider are: long bean, cabbage, napa cabbage, mustard green. This is a flexible recipe, a bit more or less is acceptable and feel free to adjust the seasoning to suit your family’s taste buds.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 26 November 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

 

Basic Golden Fried Rice (黄金炒饭）

INTRODUCTION

Every time when I posted my fried rice, members of Facebook Groups and friends will ask why my rice is grainy and evenly coated with eggs and that reminded them of the famous Chenfuji fried rice in Singapore. This Singapore restaurant is famous for its crab meat egg coated fried rice and that prompted me wanted to share my fried rice techniques with readers.

Fried rice is not difficult at all but there are some simple pointers of stir  frying rice and I hoped that via these simple pointers, readers can come out with his or her favourable version of fried rice. The pictures below depicts the difference between golden fried rice and white rice.

 

Fried rice is very common among Asians since rice is a staple food. I  believed that it is so common that most will not expect Wiki has a write up on this . However, Wikipedia do have a write up on fried rice. As per Wikipedia:

“Fried rice is a dish of steamed rice stir-fried in a wok, often mixed with other ingredients, such as eggs, vegetables, and meat. It is sometimes served as the penultimate dish in Chinese banquets, just before dessert. As a homemade dish, fried rice is typically made with leftover ingredients (including vegetables, meat) from other dishes, leading to countless variations.Many popular varieties of fried rice have their own specific list of ingredients. In Asia, the more famous varieties include Yangzhou and Fujian fried rice. Elsewhere, most restaurants catering to vegetarian or Muslim clientele have invented their own varieties of fried rice including egg fried rice and the Indonesian spicy nasi goreng (fried rice).(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fried_rice)

For this illustration, in order to illustrate the effect of egg coated fried rice, I have selected simple ingredients using salted fish, bean sprouts and eggs as the main ingredients. Of course you can choose any ingredients that you liked..

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About 4-5 adults

 

• 3 cups of cooked rice
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons of cooking oil
• Some bean sprouts (optional)
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon of cooked salted fish (optional)
• 1 tablespoon of chopped spring onion
• Pinches of salt
• Dashes of white pepper
• Sugar or seasonings to taste

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Crack the eggs to the cooled rice. Add salt, dashes of pepper and other seasonings. Use hand to stir the rice until the rice are coated with raw eggs as evenly as possible.

• In a big frying pan, add the oil, sauté the garlic until fragrant and golden brown, add in the salted fish and stir fry for an additional one minute.

• Add in the rice, stir fry until the eggs dries up. If desired, add more seasonings. Add in the chopped spring onion and bean sprouts, stir fry for another 2-3 minutes and dish up. Best to serve warm .

Notes

• Usually for one cup of rice, one egg and one tablespoon of oil is used.

• If you want very yellowish colour egg coated fried rice, you have to use all egg yolks (about 50 grams of egg yolks for one cup of rice)

• Overnight rice is ideal but freshly cooked rice is acceptable. However, the rice have to be cooled completely.

• If your rice grains requires say 1 cup of water for 1 cup of rice, reduce the water by 10 per cent to 0.9 cup of water for one cup of rice. This is to avoid the rice from becoming too soggy for stir frying.

• Throughout the whole process of stir frying, high heat shall be used.

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CONCLUSION

Some members of Facebook Group have tried this method of frying rice and are very pleased with the results. I hope these pointers will help new house chefs.  Feel free to add in anything that you like such as sausages, barbecue pork, prawns and etc.. Of course, with crab meat, it will transform the common fried rice into a very presentable dish..

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

 

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 26 November 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

 

 

 

Let Pounding Our Tea …Hakka Tea Rice – Lei Cha aka Lui Cha (“Thunder” Tea 擂茶）

INTRODUCTION

This is a rather healthy dish…loaded with herbs and vegetables and with very minimum amount of meat (if dry prawns are not used).. It can be easily transform into a pure vegetarian dish if you do not use garlics and dry prawns. This dish can be even healthier if you do not stir fry the vegetables with oil, instead water blanch all the vegetables….Of course, this method will lack the fragrant of sautéed garlic and shallots.

Lei Cha is a bowl of hot steaming rice, topped with various vegetables, nuts and served with a bowl of slightly salty soup made of peanuts, herbs and green teas.  It was rather common nowadays in Singapore and Malaysia eating outlets especially in the Hakka restaurants. Traditionally, this dish was prepared in the  household of Taipu (大浦）Hakka dialects..

The taste of this dish is an acquired taste. Either you like it or hate it. It is slightly bitter and sweet (甘甜）. The bitterness stems from the herbs mix and the tea used.. The bitterness will “subside” after you take the second or third spoon of the soup..

 

The word Lei Cha (擂茶） means grounding of tea.. Lei is an action of grinding and pounding of tea.  Peanuts and sesame seeds are pounded and ground together with the herbs in a wooden mortar until very fine. However, in current year, most recipes have used food processor and blender for the job.

As usual, let’s have Wikipedia to explain to us this traditional cuisine:

“Lei cha (Chinese: 擂茶; pinyin: léi chá; literally “pounded tea“) or ground tea is a traditional Han-Chinese tea-based beverage or gruel. The custom of Lei cha began in the Three Kingdoms period or even Han Dynasty. It is very prevalent among Hakka people in Hakka regions of Mainland China (mainly Southeast China). It is brought by Hakka people to Taiwan, Malaysia, and any locales with a substantial Hakka diaspora population. Besides Hakka Lei cha, Lei cha is also very traditional among Hunanese people in Northern part of Hunan Province of Mainland China. So, the Lei cha custom in China has two different kinds: Hakka Lei cha; and Hunan Lei cha.Lei cha is not the same as Chinese tea because there are always other ingredients. Pounded tea consists of a mix of tea leaves and herbs that are ground or pounded together with various roasted nuts, seeds, grains, and flavorings. “(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lei_cha)

“擂茶，又名三生湯或鹹茶，是一種漢族特色食品。擂茶主要流传于中国大陸東南部一帶。擂茶是把茶叶、芝麻、花生等原料混合乾擂研磨成粉后，再加入水泡勻享用的养生茶饮。擂者，研磨也。擂茶在中国大陸分佈甚廣，各地擂茶制作方法各有不同，尤其是配料的选择差别较大。擂茶按地域和族群可以分为客家擂茶和湖南（非客家）擂茶两大类。客家擂茶可能源于北宋的中原地区（现河南省固始一带），南宋诗中有“渐近中原语音好，见客擂蔴旋点茶”句。客家擂茶是客家文化的重要組成部分之一，客家人更把擂茶帶到了台灣。保留客家擂茶古朴习俗的地方有：江西省的赣县、石城、兴国、于都、瑞金等；福建省的将乐、泰宁、宁化等地；广东省的揭西、陆河、清远、英德、海丰、汕尾、惠来、五华等地；广西省的贺州黄姚、公会、八步等地。擂茶是客家族群招待貴賓所用的茶點。客家擂茶不單飽肚，還可解渴。廣東、廣西客家人的傳統做法，一般用小米、花生、芝麻、生薑、黃豆等食材經複雜手續加工而成，呈粉末狀。食用時沖入開水調勻成糊狀，或加入涼水在鐵鍋中煮開調勻。具獨特的香味，微咸，美味可口。客家擂茶文化在福建的客家人中亦有分布，主要有两处：一是宁化县，一是将乐县。其中将乐县的擂茶在民俗中尤其重要。民间的各类喜庆节日、红白事项、交友往来，平常待客，乃至日常生活，均离不开它。在交往方面，它比酒席更宽广、层次更丰富。邀请的客人可以是亲戚、朋友、同事，甚至可以是朋友的朋友、过往的路人。该地人情味极浓，与客家的擂茶文化有关。将乐擂茶以芝蔴、茶叶为主料，佐以少量桂皮、桔皮等香料，夏秋季节，有时还用少量青草药，用微量水擂烂原料成糊状后，冲入稍凉后的沸水，成悬浮液。平日间，三五朋友，隔壁邻居，小擂小饮；遇喜庆事，或春日擂茶，客人一拨接一拨，流水席，加配满桌花生、瓜子、炒笋、油粿等小菜，常要安排一天时间，大喜庆如结婚等，有连擂两三天的。” (Source: http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%93%82%E8%8C%B6)

From the above 2 definitions, I wished to highlight the following:

• Lei Cha shall be translated as “Pounded Tea” instead of “Thunder Tea” since the word Lei (擂）is an pounding action and different from the word Lei (雷）as for thunder.
• It is not only a Hakka dish, Hunanese people  also prepared Lei Cha as well,
• Another name for this tea is “咸茶“ or savoury tea suggested that the tea should be slightly salty;
• The name “三生汤” or “养生茶” suggested that this tea is a soup that are beneficial to our bodies because it was loaded with herbs beneficial to our bodies;
• There are many regional adaption of cooking ingredients and preparation methods and none shall claim that hers or his is the most authentic.

For this illustration, I have purposely prepare 9 dishes (including the herbal soup and white rice) as it is an auspicious number meaning eternality.. There are many herbs and vegetables stated but most are optional and substitutable except Thai basil, mint leaves, coriander, Chinese Tea, peanuts and sesame seeds. These are few ingredients that give the distinctive taste. Preparation is a bit laborious and I am rather happy that I have successfully prepared it. Feedback from Hakka relatives are that the soup is tasty but is not as fine as what she had prepared using the wooden mortar..

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings： 4-6 adult servings

Soup

• 200 grams of roasted or cooked peanuts (花生）
• 100 grams of Thai basil leaves (九层塔）
• 100 grams of mint leaves (薄荷）
• 60 grams of coriander leaves (芫茜）
• 60 grams of mugwort leaves (艾叶）
• 3 tablespoons of tea leaves (茶叶）
• 2 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds (芝麻）
• 2 cloves of garlic （蒜头）- optional
• 1 cm of ginger （姜）- optional
• Salt to taste （盐巴）
• Dashes of white pepper (胡椒粉）- optional

Dishes

• Some Chinese mustards (芥菜）
• Some French beans (四季豆）
• Some long beans (长豆）
• Some Chinese leeks (大蒜）
• Some winged beans (四菱豆）
• Some firm bean curd (豆干）
• Some preserved radish (菜脯碎）
• Some dried prawns (虾米）

Note: I have prepared 7 dishes but the quantities and type of ingredients are up to individual to decide. Feel free to change to your preferred vegetables that your family likes. As a reference, you can use 100 grams of all the vegetables). Some recipes uses red beans, anchovies, sayur mani as well.

 

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Pluck all the young vegetable leaves, clean and drain.

• Steep the tea leaves with some hot water. Set aside.

• In a food processor, blend all the herbs until as find as you can.

• In a blender, blend the peanut, sesame seeds and the tea leaves (with the tea) until fine. As it is hard to blend the peanut and sesame seeds, some water may be required. Transfer the blended herbs to the blender, add salt, dashes of white pepper and continue to blend until as fine as possible. Add more hot water if you can’t blend it properly. Blend until it resemble a paste. When serving, 1-2 teaspoon of the paste will be put in a bowl and steep with some boiling hot water and it will become the soup to serve with the rice.

• Wash the vegetables and julienne it into small pieces.

• For the vegetables, sauté chopped garlics with some oil, stir fry the vegetables individually. Add your preferred seasonings and salt to taste, Dish up.

• For the tofu dish, sauté chopped garlics with some oil, add the dry prawns, preserved radish and stir fry until fragrant. Add the firm bean curd stripes, stir fry until well mixed. Add seasonings (suggested: light soya sauce, white pepper, salt and sugar to taste). Dish up.

• For assembly, have a bowl of steaming white rice, put a tablespoon of all the vegetables on top the rice, sprinkle with additional peanuts. In another bowl, put 2-3 tablespoons of tea paste, steep with hot water to prepare the tea soup. Serve this bowl of rice with the tea soup.

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CONCLUSION

Like many traditional cuisines, every household will claim that theirs is the most authentic. In my humble opinion, none shall claim that theirs is authentic as it is a dish with a long history and with many regional adaptions of methods and cooking ingredients.. Let’s be open minded. Searching of recipes yield many totally different recipes and I will just choose one that will suit my taste buds. I hope that this post will serve as a starting recipe for readers who have never prepare the dish before.. Have a first trial and amend or adjust the ingredients in your second trial to suit your family’s taste buds. Remember only the few critical ingredients that was mentioned above and I would strongly advise not to omit it.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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