Hi, Let Start Cooking the Laksa …. An In Depth Analysis and Pictorial Procedural Description Of The Famous Sarawak Laksa (Part III)

PART III   COOKING THE SARAWAK LAKSA

Part I and Part II are rather “theoretical” and this post will show you the practical steps to prepare the Sarawak laksa.

To make a delicious bowl of Sarawak Laksa, besides having some good laksa paste that I mentioned in Part II, there are few important things that you should note in your course of preparation. The process of preparation is rather laborious and I will list out the steps and unlike other posts, you should consider follow the order of steps here to save your time of preparation..

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WHAT YOU NEED?

In this post, the units or quantities listed out here is for about 15 bowls of laksa and you should reduce it accordingly after taking into considerations the number of persons and personal preferences.

• Fresh Prawns or Shrimps (1kg)
• Chicken Breast (0.75kg)
• Coconut milk (500g)

For coconut milk, you can use fresh or packet coconut milk. If you like it more milky (lemak), you can add in more coconut milk. If you are health conscious, either substitute it with evaporated milk or don’t add any milk at all. Have you ever heard that this delicacy is a “cardiologists nightmare”?

• Thin Rice Vermicelli – 1 kg (about 2.5 packets commonly sold in the markets)
• Home-made laksa paste or ready-made laksa paste  – 1.5 kg (2-3 big packets commonly sold in the markets)

Do you know that to qualify a dish as laksa, the noodles must be either thick or thin rice vermicelli in it? Curry Mee is not a laksa as per definition of laksa here. At home, we do eat it with instant egg noodles ..

• Calamansi (about 20-30 pieces)
• Some Sambal Belachan
• Bean Sprouts
• Coriander leaves and Chinese celery chopped into small pieces

One of the most important condiments in this dish is Sambal Belachan, a type of condiments made from shrimp paste. You can know more about belachan here. That is why sometime Sarawak Laksa is called Sarawak Sambal Laksa. I have buy the over-the-counter sambal belachan in Singapore and the taste just blends especially well with the soup.

If you have kids at home and they do not take spicy food, actually, when making the Laksa Paste, you can ignored chilli as an ingredients. So the laksa broth or soup that you cooked will not be spicy and you can let your kids have this. When you are eating on your own, just have one big scope of Sambal Belachan in it, the taste will be similar with those paste that have chilli in it..

MAY BE I SHOULD CONSIDER MAKING  LAKSA PASTE FOR SALES TO CHILDREN OR SILVER AGE MARKET.   THEORITICALLY, SARAWAK LAKSA WITHOUT COCONUT MILK AND TOO MUCH OIL SHOULD BE CONSIDER AS A HEALTH FOOD SINCE IT IS FULL OF SPICES AND HERBS…

The coriander leaves that you see in my picture is the type sold in Singapore and West Malaysia. Traditionally, in Kuching, Sarawak, coriander “seedlings” were used. However, it is harder to get it nowadays. In my old days, as one of my brothers do not like the strong smells of coriander leaves, we use Chinese celery instead. Until today, I still have the habit of mixing these two leaves as a garnish for the laksa.

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THE COOKING BEGINS…

If you don’t want to add seasonings like “axinomoxo”, then try to follow these steps as it will save you time and seasonings! Joking.

Step 1 – Blanching the Chicken Breast

• Clean your chicken breast, boil your water and put in the chicken breast. The minimum amount of water required will be at least to cover the chicken breast. But you can use more water as it will be used later.

• Use medium heat and boil for about 20 minutes until cooked. Don’t cook too long because you breast will be juicy as all the juice will be in the soup.

• Traditionally, in Kuching, chicken breasts were used because it is easier to hand shred and with less bones. However, you can also use the whole chicken. If this is the case, you have to use high heat to bring the water to  boil, submerged your chicken and simmer for 30 minutes. Once cooked, dip in ice cold water. You can refer to my post on chicken rice here.

• Hand shred your chicken breast  and set aside for use.

• Remember to keep your “chicken stock” for future use.

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Step 2 – Blanching the prawns

• Clean the prawns. Blanch the prawns with the chicken stocks in Step 1.

• Personally, I prefer to blanch the prawns with shells at it will keep all the juices. If you shell the prawns, the blanch prawns will be less tasty.

• This process will take only about 5 minutes. Sieve the prawns and set aside the “prawns and chicken stock”.

• As long as the prawns are cool, shelled the prawns and devein it. If you found that the prawns are dirty after you devein it, use some cooked water to clean it.

• DON’T THROW AWAY THE SHELL, keep it for next use.

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Step 3 – Making of additional Prawn Stocks

• In another pot, put in some more water and boil the prawn shells until the color starts to turn whitish. If you don’t need that much of soup, continue using the stock from Step 2 to cook the prawn shells.

• The stock in the first picture is the prawn + chicken stock as mentioned in Step 2 (from blanching of chicken breast and the fresh prawns).

• The stock in the third picture is the prawn stocks from boiling the prawn shells;

• Look at the color of the stock, the milky color means that the soup is very concentrated and you can just take a spoon and taste it. It will be very delicious. A side note, if you are not cooking Sarawak Laksa, when you shelled the prawns, just keep it in the fridge until a sizeable amount, then use this step to cook the prawn stock, then you can use this stock to cook the Hokkien Prawn Mee or Penang Prawn Mee!

• If you are concerned about the chicken oil and if you have time. Put in the fridge and let the oil solidify, just throw the oil away.

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Steps 4 – Cooking the Laksa Soup

• Put the home made laksa paste into the stock from Step 2 and 3. Bring to boil, add in coconut milk and other condiments. Off the fire immediately when it start to boil again. Otherwise, the coconut milk will turn into coconut oil and your laksa broth will be spoilt.

• Remember that if you are afraid of having high cholesterol, use evaporated milk instead. How much coconut milk to add is very much depends on your personal preference. I remember when I was young, my parents sometime cook laksa without coconut milk….

• Besides adding salt as a condiments, I have the habit of putting fish sauce instead.

• Note that the color of my laksa broth is very bright because I use only fresh red chilli. If I used dry chilli, the color will be darker.

• Cooking laksa will definitely yields quite a lot of oils. Just scope it away before you use the broth.  Like chicken stock, you can put in the fridge for 2-3 hours, let the red oil solidify and throw that away. Heat up and serve. In that case your stock will look quite dull (brownish in color).

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Step 5 – Making the Egg Omelets

• Break the eggs, put a few drops of cooking oil, use fork or chop stick to slightly beat it until all the yolks and the whites are completely mixed.

• Have a hot pan, pour some egg mixture into the pan. Either use a spatula to spread them evenly. You can also do this by twisting your pan slight in a circular motion.

• As soon as the egg mixture is firm in the bottom and you can smell the fragrance of fried eggs, just scope up the omelets, let it cool and shred in fine long pieces.

• Note that if you are using a non stick frying pan, there is no need for you to use oil for frying as long as your pan is very clean and free from any food particles. You can also add a few drops of oil to the egg mixture before you pan fried them.

• THIS STEP CAN BE PERFORMED IN BETWEEN ANY STEPS BETWEEN STEP 1 AND STEP 4

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Step 6 – Blanching The Bean Sprouts and Rice Vermicelli

• In a frying pan, fill in some water and drip a few drops of cooking oil. Bring to boil, blanch the bean sprouts (approximately 5 minutes). Sieve the bean sprouts, set aside for later use.

• Use the same water to blanch the rice vermicelli. That will take about 10-15 minutes depending how soft you want it to be. The process can be shortened if you have soaked the uncooked rice vermicelli before hand.

• Once you  sieved the rice vermicelli, quickly put it under running tap water (or if you don’t like to drink from tap water, use some cold boiled water) for about 2 minutes.The purpose of this step is to ensure that you have some springy rice vermicelli instead of soggy rice vermicelli that stick together.

• The few drops of oil also have the role of ensuring that the rice vermicelli would not stick together. In addition, that small amount of oil will help you to “preserve” the color of your bean sprouts. It will look fresher instead of cook.

• If you cannot stand the tails of the bean sprouts, you can hand picked the tails before you blanched them. For me, I usually hand picked the tails but when I run of times, I will just eat with the tails!!

• This step is best carry out before you serve the guest.

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Step 7 – Assembling and Garnishing

• After a few hours of ordeal, you should start to “regret” making this dish!  Lets have a quick recap of all the ingredients before serving.

• You should have blanched rice vermicelli, blanched bean sprouts, chopped coriander leaves and Chinese celery, cooked Sarawak Laksa broth, blanched prawns, shredded chicken breasts, stripped egg omelets, calamansi and sambal belachan.

• Take a bowl and assemble the ingredients following the sequence as in the picture (from left to right then to second row…) This, I believe will be the best presentation of your Laksa Sarawak. While the rice vermicelli have submerge in the soup, your prawns and the color egg stripes are sitting happily on top of you reddish gravy, Do you think it is appetizing.

 

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CONCLUSIONS

• In Part 1, the definition of Sarawak Laksa, its uniqueness and the popularity have been discussed HERE.

• Part 2 dwelled into the details of making the Sarawak Laksa Paste with a list of all major raw ingredients, its procedures and a comparison analysis between recipes. Please refer HERE.

• Part 3 detailed how Sarawak Laksa should be prepared.

• Hopefully, this will benefit those who are keen to learn more about Sarawak Laksa and for those who are overseas, as all these spices are mostly imported from Middle Eastern countries, you can start making the paste using the powder form purchased from Indian stores. In that case, you will not worry about the kitchen equipment required, how to cook and grind the raw materials, it will at least cut short half of your time. I believed that this is also what our manufacturers in Sarawak is doing.

• This is a long post that dealt with lots of research, reading and testing. If you found that it is useful, please forward to your friends. I will be most happy to answer any queries they have. Any factual findings that are not accurate, please drop me a line to let me know.

• Appreciate your time reading this series and ENJOY YOUR HOME MADE SARAWAK LAKSA…  

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit this blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE .

 

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Hey, I have invented my own Sarawak Laksa Paste Recipe !!!……… An In Depth Analysis and Pictorial Procedural Description Of The Famous Sarawak Laksa (PART II)

PART II – THE SECRET OF SARAWAK LAKSA PASTE

INTRODUCTION

Most Sarawakian households cooked their laksa from ready-made laksa pastes made popular by the Tan’s Family in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Most people will not even bother to question how these pastes were made as the prices were reasonable and it can be easily purchased in major shops of Kuching, Besides, people were told that it is hard to home-made the laksa paste as it is laborious, time-consuming and a great number of ingredients were needed. In an article by Bernama New Agency dated 20 March 2006 (“LAKSA SARAWAK PASTE SET TO GO GLOBAL”), it was written

“…...Refusing to disclose his recipe, Tan (refer to Mr. Barrette Tan, the son of the Late Tan Yong Him) said the original paste to make Sarawak Laksa comprised of a mixture of 20 herbs and spices needed to blend well with the noodles”

WHY MAKING MY OWN PASTE…

Guai Shu Shu was invited to a gathering of about 15 old classmates residing in Singapore and Southern Peninsular Malaysia and Guai Shu Shu promised them that he will cook laksa for the gathering but did not check the stock of his laksa pastes. In his mind, he still remembers that he had two 600 g packs of laksa pastes in the kitchen shelf. The night before the gathering, Guai Shu Shu discovered that he only had a pack of 300g laksa paste. That obviously is inadequate to serve 15 people and they have put high expectations on the laksa since they have not eaten laksas for a long time. Not to disappoint these old “comrades”, Guai Shu Shu decided to make his own laksa paste and the search begins…

At around 6.00 a.m. the day of gathering, Guai Shu Shu was browsing the internet searching for a recipe of Sarawak Laksa paste. He is delighted to have found Recipe A and Recipe B (will explain in detail towards the end of the post). Based on these two recipes, Guai Shu Shu head towards Geylang Serai Market in Singapore to purchase the necessary ingredients.

FUNTIME AT GEYLANG SERAI

Guai Shu Shu stopped by a store owned by one rather friendly Indian Muslim woman and told her that he wanted various types of spice powders. He asked her for a piece of paper and jotted down a list of all the ingredients in the recipe’s original units and he asked the woman to give him the powder equivalent of these raw ingredients.

To my surprise, she was also not sure of such equivalents. (For example, the powder equivalent of 2 cm of fresh galangal). After she glanced through his list, she took out some small plastic bags and asked him to decide himself how much powder he wanted. She would ask, “SGD 50 cents of galangal powder, enough for you? You want more? SGD1 is like this much?”. Guai Shu Shu knew that he had no choice but to decide for himself. Therefore, since nobody knew the equivalent units, he made the decision not to follow the recipe exactly. Based on his understanding of spices, he bought about 10 spices ranging from SGD50 cents-SGD2 each. When he told her that he wanted SGD50cents of clove powder, she looked at him and said, “Encik, clover powder is very expensive, SGD50cents is around 1 teaspoon only!!!” She is kind enough to label for him all the powders he bought. When the list was completed, Guai Shu Shu started to go through with the woman the other type of powders in the containers that is not in his first lists, and he ended buying almost all the powders that she sold except turmeric powder (actually, this is the yellowish curry powder that differentiates Sarawak Laksa from curry laksa).

He really enjoyed the process of buying the spices, the woman is helpful and most of important of all, he never knew that there were such things as lemon grass powders, galangal powders, lemon grass powders… and not to mention belachan powder readily available in the market. All the recipes in the internet will only state units like cloves of garlic, pieces of dry chilli, number of candle nuts, cm of belachan and etc. He had cut short his preparation process by using the raw ingredients in its powder form. This had saved him a lot of time. The only thing that she don’t have was the shallot powder and Guai Shu Shu have had prepared his own shallot paste by pounding the fresh shallots.

After marketing all the necessary ingredients, Guai Shu Shu told his wife (who is also a Sarawakian) that he wanted to make his own laksa paste, she looked at him at disbelief and just said to him, “You better don’t “main-main”(Malay word of play)!” meaning she did not trust him and what would happen if he was not successful! Since Guai Shu Shu had bought all the ingredients,he was determined wanting to make the paste, otherwise the ingredients would be of no use to him.

WHAT HE BOUGHT EVENTUALLY…….

The following are the ingredients that Guai Shu Shu have bought. The picture on the right of each picture is the raw ingredients for the reader’s reference. As neither the sales lady nor Guai Shu Shu actually measured the ingredients, these quantities are estimated quantities based on his memories and will serve as references. A more meaningful comparison will be the ratios of each ingredient and an analysis will be done to reconfirm the ratios of the ingredients.

	~200 g of galangal powder~ 25 g of white pepper powder
	~100 g of candlenut powder~100 g of belachan powder
	~5 g of cumins powder~5 g of fennel powder
	~150g of lemon grass powder~5g of clove powder
	~10 g of nutmeg powder~100 g of coriander powder
	~300 g of garlic ginger paste~300 g of shallot paste
	~150 g of fresh chilli paste~ 100g of tamarind paste
	~ 150 g of peanut powder~ Salt to taste ~ 100 g of white sugar ~300-400 g of cooking oil

Overall, there are about 19 raw ingredients comprising about 1.0kg of dry powders and 850g of wet ingredients, Actually, this pretty closed to the 20 ingredients that Tan had mentioned above and there are a few items that were not included in my recipe above. These were star anise powder and cardamom powder. Therefore, this recipe should be pretty closed to Tan’s family recipe.

Overall, the gross uncooked paste weighs around 2 kg (inclusive of cooking oils)

THE GAMES BEGAN – MIXING THE DRY INGREDIENTS….

Pour the ginger and garlic paste into a big mixing bowl followed by the remaining wet ingredients, namely shallot paste, chilli paste and tamarind paste.

Put all the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients (2nd picture);

Start mixing the ingredients and make sure that all the ingredients were well mixed.

If you find that the mixture is too dry, add in some plain water until the final mixture resemble a paste as in the 4th picture.

Once the color of the ingredients is consistent, the paste is ready for the next step.

COOKING THE PASTE

Put the cooking oil in the wok and heat it using small to medium fire. You can begin by using half of the oil and add gradually when you realized that the ingredients are too dry and hard to fry (see below);

Initially, the raw ingredients are reddish in color before frying and the oils are very clear. Once you start frying, you will notice the ingredients start to absorb the oils. As long as you can still fry it smoothly, there is no need to add in more oil. Watch out for the heat used,  the heat used should be medium heat and not high heat. Your mixture will get burnt even before it is cooked;

The third picture was after 1o minutes of frying. Note the oil color had changed to orange  and the paste had started to change its color too. By this time, you should begin to smell the aroma from some cooked spices..

Cook for at least another 20 minutes or until the ingredients begin to separate from the oil. When the temperature is high, the moisture contents in the paste will boil and evaporated. Therefore, as you are using the same amount of oil to cook the dry ingredients, the excess oil will start seeping out of the mixture when there were less and less moisture.

When the color started to turn brownish, add in the sugar, salt to taste and peanut powder. Note that you may not be able to correctly add in the right quantity of salt at this point the time, but that is perfectly okay because you can adjust it when you cooked the laksa soup. However, for sugar, the role is not really to act as condiment but more to “color” the paste to the dark brownish colors. As Guai Shu Shu have used fresh chilli, the color of his pastes were rather bright. Most recipes use dry chili and if you used dry chilli, the color will be darker and you can see chili flakes in your pastes.

Fried for about 5-10 minutes until all you sugar start have melted and caramelized. Off the fire and if possible, let it stand for a night before cooking it. The fragrance will be stronger and more oils will be excreted.

It took at least 45 minutes to properly cook this paste.

MY FINAL PRODUCTS AND A BRIEF ANALYSIS..

On the left was final laksa paste that Guai Shu Shu have made and on the right was the laksa gravy cooked with his home-made paste . He had objectively compared his paste with the ready-made paste and have the following findings:

Texture – The ready-made paste was much softer with more liquid in it. All the ingredients were very fine. His version was slightly harder but once it was boiled in the soup it dissolved in the soup. The harder texture of his paste was attributed to higher heat used to cook the ingredients initially. Once they lost the moisture content too fast, they will start to form small chunks. Therefore, the heat should not be too high and it takes patience to do this. As this is the first time he cooked this manually, the consistency will definitely cannot be compared with those pastes made by the machines.

Fragrance – He concluded that the taste was quite close to the ready-made paste and he gave himself about 80/100. His classmates who have eaten the laksa have no major complaints about the taste. Of course, the taste can be further improved by trial and error like what Tan’s family have done initially.

THE SEARCH CONTINUES – LAKSA PASTE RECIPE IN THE INTERNET

On the day following his gathering, he continued to search for Sarawak Laksa paste in the internet and jotted down the ingredients of each recipe. In fact, there were not many recipes over the net and goggling “Sarawak Laksa paste recipe” shows only 1,250 results and most of them were not actually recipes but users asking for the recipe. However, he had managed to to get hold of about 6 recipes, and the most complete recipe should be the recipe published by 3hungrytummies in November 2011 with the title “Secret of Sarawak Laksa Paste Revealed” (Note: this is Recipe A that I have mentioned at the beginning of the post”). Surprisingly, this recipe was published by 3 guys residing in Melbourne and testing out the paste overseas. Is it possible that because they could not get the ready-made paste, they have to depend on their own to make their paste. They were diligently enough using all the raw ingredients but Guai Shu Shu have opted to use ingredients in its intermediary form mostly powder and paste.

Guai Shu Shu is determined to find out what constitute the unique flavors of Sarawak Laksa and he used excel spreadsheet to perform an analysis of all the recipes that he obtained from the internet. The summary were tabulated as follows:

	A	B	C	D	E	F	GSS
Shallots	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Garlics	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Onion						x	x
Galangal	x	x	x	x	x		X
Dried Chillies	x	x	x	x	x	x	X
Red chillies	x	x				x	X
Lemon Grass	x	x	x	x	x		X
Tamarind	X					x	X
Candlenuts	X	x	x	x	x		X
Cumin Seeds				x			X
Fennel seeds				X			X
Coriander seeds	x			X			X
Star Anise	X
Cloves	X						X
Nutmeg	X						X
Cardamoms	X						X
Cinnamon			x			x
Sesame seeds	X
Belachan		x	x	x	x		X
Dried Shrimps						X
Peanuts	x						X
Sugar	X						X
Salt	X						X
Source:	A:	http://3hungrytummies.blogspot.sg
	B:	http://allrecipes.asia/recipe/1987/laksa-sarawak.aspx
	C:	http://www.pickles-and-spices.com
	D:	http://almaraz97.blogspot.sg/2012/02/laksa-sarawak-sambal-udang-kering.html
	E:	http://koleksiresipi.blogspot.sg/2004/11/laksa-sarawak-dan-sambal-udang-kering.html
	F:	http://www.bukisa.com/articles/78517_laksa-sarawak
	GSS:	Guai Shu Shu recipe

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the above brief analysis,Guai Shu Su is of the opinion that:

• The must-have ingredients for the laksa paste are shallots, garlics, candlenuts, galangal, lemon grass and corainder seeds.
• The ratio of galangal to shallots should be about 1:1;
• Coriander powder, garlic, candlenuts and lemon grass are equally important and the ratio should be at least half of the galangal or shallots volume;
• All the spices should be used in moderation about 1/20 of the volume of galangal. These are not absolutely necessarysince many recipes do not use them;
• The statement that “Sarawak Laksa Paste required more than 20 herbs and spices to produce” is valid and acceptable.
• It can be rather time-consuming to make the paste specifically in the process of frying/cooking where only low to medium heat can be used to cook the paste. In addition, assembly of  all the ingredients can also be a tedious process.

Guai Shu Shu will continue to test his own laksa recipe. In the event that they are new findings, it will definitely be shared with readers. It is hoped that readers can also try the above recipe and feedback to me.

The final post of this short series will focus on the preparation of Sarawak Laksa.

Happy reading.

Hey, My Laksa Secret Recipe Was Stolen!!!……… An In Depth Analysis and Pictorial Procedural Description Of The Famous Sarawak Laksa (PART I)

INTRODUCTION

Like any other Sarawakians, I am proud of our own version of laksa, Sarawak Laksa. It will not do Sarawak Laksa any justice if I did not do  a detail post on Sarawak Laksa. In fact, Sarawak laksa have gained popularity over the years and its importance cannot be ignored. Goggling “Sarawak Laksa” will yield 243,000 results where goggling “Assam Laksa” and “Curry Laksa” will only yield 143,000 and 158,000 results respectively.

Sarawakians believed that Sarawak Laksa is unique and cannot be compared with any other laksas in the regions. Sarawakian living in Sarawak can have laksas for almost any meals (be it breakfasts, lunches, dinners or suppers) where Sarawkian residing overseas are thinking dearly of their laksas in hometown. Their luggage will never lack of one or two packets of ready-made laksa paste for bringing over to their country of residence overseas. It is a treasure to them and only cooked in special occasions to entertain guests as a showcase that Sarawak laksas are distinctively better than any other laksas in the world!

Traditionally, laksa paste ingredients have been considered as family secrets belonging to a few families in Kuching, Sarawak. During my parent’s time, it was the “Swallow” brand of paste that we recognized as laksa. However, due to the discontinuation of “Swallow” brand, I have bought countless brands of laksa paste with various types  of “birds” logos. But none was closed to what I have eaten when I was young. May be this is one of the reasons that foodies in Kuching are always arguing who have the best laksa in Kuching and in Sarawak. Of course, who had the best laksa will always a matter of personal preference and the differences always lies in the ratios of the species used.

This series is rather long will both be “theoretical” and “practical” and comprise 3 posts as follows:

• Part 1 – Sarawak Laksa and Its Origin
• Part 2 – The Secret of Sarawak Laksa Paste
• Part 3 – The Detail Preparation of Sarawak laksa

It is hoped that readers will bear with me for this long post. In my humble opinion, posting on how to cook the Sarawak Laksa using over-the-counter laksa paste purchased is of no value added to this blog and wasting readers’ time. Readers can find these preparation procedures all over the internet and in fact, at the back of the laksa paste label, there are clear instructions on how to cook the Sarawak laksa.

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LAKSA AND SARAWAK LAKSA DEFINED……

“ Laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup from the Peranakan culture, which is a merger of Chinese and Malay elements found in Malaysia and Singapore, and Indonesia.

Sarawak laksa (Malay: Laksa Sarawak) comes from the Malaysian state Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. It is actually very different from the curry laksa as the soup contains no curry at all. It has a base of Sambal belacan, sour tamarind, garlic, galangal, lemon grass and coconut milk, topped with omelets strips, chicken strips, prawns, fresh coriander and optionally lime. Ingredients such as bean sprouts, (sliced) fried tofu or other seafood are not traditional but are sometimes added. “

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laksa)

Many blogs and websites may have using the above quotes to define Sarawak Laksa as there were not many information pertaining to the definition of Sarawak Laksa. In Wikipedia.com, Sarawak Laksa belongs to one of the variants of two main laksa categories as follows:

• Curry Laksa (coconut milk based gravy comprises curry laksa, laksa lemak, laksam, Katong Laksa)
• Assam Laksa (tamarind based gravy comprises Penang Laksa, Perlis Laksa, Kedah Laksa, Ipoh Laksa, Kuala Kangsar Laksa,

Other variants of laksas (used both coconut milks and tamarind in its gravy), besides Sarawak Laksa, will include Johor Laksa, Kelatan Laksa, Bogor Laksa, Palembang Laksa, Banjar Laksa.

ORIGINS OF LAKSA AND SARAWAK LAKSA

Per Wikipedia, laksa origin is unclear. However, it is strongly believed to be closely related to the Hindi/Persian “Lakshah” referring to a type of vermicelli which in turns derived from the word Sanskrit lakshas meaning one hundred thousand. In Indonesian Malay, laksa refers to “sepuluh ribu” or 10,000 signifying many strands of fine white vermicelli noodles in the dish.

The origins of Sarawak laksa is equally unclear and there were no literature  that clearly confirmed its origin. However, it is widely agreed the popularity of Sarawak Sambal Laksa pastes were popularized by the Tan Family in Kuching in the 1960-1970’s.

In the article “Tasty State Secret” written by Paul Si of “thestar.com.my”, origins of Sarawak laksa paste can be traced back to the time when the late Mr. Tan Yong Him started experimenting his own concoctions of herbs and spices in the early 1960’s and packaged his laksa paste for sale under the “swallow brand”. The paste started to gain popularity in the 1970’s when economy picking up and people started to frequent eating outlets. Stall owners in the hawker centers and coffee shops were able to use the over-the-counter laksa paste and cook the laksa for sale and household can buy the paste and cooked the laksa at home. (Note:  the swallow brand had discontinued due to family differences in opinion and I understand the Barrett Brand belongs to one the late Tan’s sons and you  can now buy the Sarawak Sambal Laksa paste on-line via www.laksasarawak.com).

While the above paragraph provided a brief history accounting for the popularity of Sarawak Laksa and its unique flavors due to Tan’s hard work and own concoction of Laksa paste, but why Tan had had these ideas to start of his trial and error spice puzzles remained unclear. The same article mentioned that “old timers recalled that people did not eat out much in the leans years follow World War II so first memories of eating laksa at a coffee shop were set in the late 1950’s”.  So questions that still ponder in my mind would be were there any laksa being sold prior to 1950’s; if it was not popular eating out then, was there any home cooked laksa? Is the laksa paste ingredients consistent among households? Is it dominated by only one race? At the time of writing this, I could not locate any literatures to offer the answers. If answers to these questions were negative, then, the honor of popularizing  Sarawak Laksa would have to be accorded to the Tan Family.

CONCLUSION

From the above write up, the following preliminary conclusions can be drawn.

Laksa in short can be defined as a bowlful of rice vermicelli, under the influence of Malay, Chinese or Peranakan Cooking that have a unique soup based with either coconut milk or tamarind as the main ingredients. It should be noted laksa should only use thick of thin rice vermicelli and in accordance to this definition, “curry mees” or “curry noodles” do not fall under the category of laksa.

In the Malay Archipelagos stretching from Burma to Indonesia, most regions have their own versions of laksas of either curry based or tamarind based or a mixture of both. Therefore, it will not be a surprise at all if the region of Sarawak also have their own variants. As like laksas in general, Sarawak Laksa’s origin is unclear and it is possible that prior to World War II, the laksa in Sarawak could be the same as other regions in the Malay Archipelago.  However, the present unique flavors of Sarawak Laksa and its popularity among the Sarawak was very much due the entrepreneurial spirit and diligence of the late Tan Yong Him’s. The fact that Sarawak Laksa is widely accepted among the Sarawak Chinese Community could be another piece of evidence of Tan’s contribution.

In the next post, I will detail out an analysis of Sarawak Laksa Paste ingredients as compared to Guai Shu Shu’s version.

HAPPY READING and I am most happy to receive more information on the history and origins of Sarawak Laksa for this pride Sarawak “state” delicacies.

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Who Said Bread Puddings Must Be Prepared As Such…..Bread Puddings “Reinvented”

 

      

THE “GUAI” IDEAS…

Guai Shu Shu is a “Shu Shu” that is Guai (literally translated to an uncle that has a bewildered behavior or behaved in an odd or even abnormal manner). Yes, Guai Shu Shu never contented with the present state of his surroundings; he like to explore; he like to change and he likes to mix and match. In his mind, he is thinking: “what would happen if chocolates were added to breads; breads were added to eggs; eggs were added to cakes; cakes were mixed with milk; milk were mixed with banana; banana were mixed with sugars, sugars were mixed with scones, scones mixed with donuts…………..etc. etc.. etc.”

After dinner, he took out a mixing bowl and a baking tin, he wasted no time wanted to experiment and confirm his new mix and match ideas. He started to  bake this “modified version” of egg puddings or bread puddings or chocolate puddings???? He knows for sure that if no actions were taken to address these idle “chocolates, breads and bananas” in the kitchen, they would soon be “kicked” out of the house…

 

BREAD PUDDINGS “DEFINED”….

As is consistent with my Food Preparation Series and Creative Food Series,  I will have some quotes from “Wikipedia” with regards to the food items that I am going to post. I believed that readers should have a better knowledge on the topics instead of just “whole heartedly” follow what I mentioned in the post.

“Bread pudding is a bread-based dessert popular in many countries’ cuisine, including that of Cuba, Ireland, Great Britain, France, Belgium,Puerto Rico, Mexico, Malta, Argentina, Louisiana Creole, Germany, and the southern United States. In other languages, its name is a translation of “bread pudding” or even just “pudding”, for example “pudín” or “budín” in Spanish; also in Spanish another name is “migas” (crumbs). In Mexico, there is a similar dish, capirotada.

There is no fixed recipe, but it is usually made using stale (usually left-over) bread, and some combination of ingredients like milk, egg, suet, sugar or syrup, dried fruit, and spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, mace or vanilla. The bread is soaked in the liquids, mixed with the other ingredients, and baked.

It may be served with a sweet sauce of some sort, such as whiskey sauce, rum sauce, or caramel sauce, but is typically sprinkled with sugar and eaten warm in squares or slices. In Canada it is often made with maple syrup. In Malaysia, bread pudding is eaten with custard sauce. In Hong Kong, bread pudding is usually served with vanilla cream dressing. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, black bread is used to make “black bread pudding” (Schwarzbrot pudding). In Hungary it is called ‘Máglyarakás’ which is baked with whipped egg whites on top of it.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_pudding)

 

RECIPE FOR BREAD PUDDINGS……? SUBSTITUTABLE?…

Besides understanding what is the output, it would be nice to spend a bit of time to understand the ingredients used and the rationale of using such ingredients. Understanding the role of the ingredients will help you to find suitable substitutes and exploring your own new recipes.. Theory is still important…

In the above quote, it is stated clearly that “THERE IS NO FIXED RECIPE” and usually made from… The important word is no fixed recipe. You can easily made substitutions to almost everything but the bread and eggs. Even then I have substitute the bread with some Chinese New Year Cookies and you can read it here.

The theory behind the proposed usage of bread and eggs are the need to have some glutens and liquids to hold the “mixture” in shape.. Any things that contain gluten are possibilities to explore. Gluten  is a protein in the flour that when combines with water will  produce an elastic and web like structure and if it is too technical, just think of it as wheat flour. For example, bread, scones, muffins, biscuits, breakfast cereals, donuts…..These are called “strengtheners”…..

However, baking flour alone will yield you nothing, you need liquids… Eggs are used because it is a perfect binding agent (meaning hold the flour together) and give you a nice aroma. Eggs here serves both as a role of “strengtheners and tenderizers”. Other liquids can be explore such as milk, melted fats (butters), waters.. Use your sense to mix and match and you will soon find an optimum combination that you and your family like. But remember “Garbage in garbage out”, if you want a simple taste, white breads will do. If you want other flavors, you can have cinnamon rolls, chocolate donuts etc. and it would not do you any harm as long as the ingredients are still edible and you like the tastes.

 

WHY STALE BREADS ARE USED

Looking at the Wikipedia quote again. “……..and usually made from stale bread……” Stale breads are breads just a fraction of time away before fungi and mold finds its new home, meaning  breads that are not that fresh, textures have slightly change, in your house already a few days but before it turns moldy…The “inventors” of bread puddings have found this wonderful combinations to hide away all the negative perceptions of these stale breads. They used eggs and milk and butters to enhance to taste and texture and making foodie would not able to resist a bite without knowing how it is prepared.

The definition of stale bread above should be expanded to include “the heels and pesky ends of your bread toast”, stale muffins, scones, cookies, buns etc. etc. etc. You can “collect” all these ingredients and put it in the fridge and once it reach a sizeable quantity, just made a bread budding and declared to your families that “For better future, we will implement cost savings measures, we have to be more budget conscious now. Lets have some stale breads for breakfast today..….”

 

WHAT I USED

• I have some lindor chocolates, some meiji dark chocolates, and some chocolates from Lambertz in Germany. I have difficult to eat all these chocolates as some are either too bitter or extremely sweet …

• I have half a loaf of French loaf already with me for about a week, You can see the bread crumbs all falling out when I cut it signifying that the bread was too dry;

• Some stale breakfast loaf as a “foundation” for my puddings.  The sides have started to “shrink” meaning a lack of moisture and should be consumed as soon as possible.

• Some bananas. Why bananas? I bought a bunch of banana and after a few days of eating, I still left with 4 pieces and fruit flies kept visiting them, I thought I might as well threw it in.

• Some fresh full cream milk – don’t worry if you don’t have this or if you are health conscious, just substitute with 100% fat free milk or even just make some milk using your kids milk powder, or soya bean milk. The role of milk is to moisten the dry ingredients and to make it creamy. Of course, there is a thread off between health food and mouth watering sinful cuisines. Yes, plain water can also be used;

• Some sugar – depending on the “type” of “sweet tooth” you have, some sugars to sweeten it. Yes, I forgot to say, condensed milk or creamer is a perfect substitute.

• Some eggs – better use this as it help to bind the mixture. Any substitutes… can try corn starch..(I substitute corn starch for my vegetarian pineapple tarts and it work perfectly well.)

• Some melted fats – Margarine or butter or vegetable shortening?.. you choose yourselves. These are called “shorteners”. I want a buttery flavor and I have some margarines left in the fridge, so I melted some butters and margarines…

 

HOW MUCH, HOW MANY,……..

For some readers who are keen to try, I have used the following measurements for the liquid mixtures:

• 6 whole eggs;
• 4 cups of full cream milks;
• 1.5 cups of sugars;
• 1 cup of melted margarines and butters;

As for the dry ingredients:

• half a French Loaf (small sized);
• 4 pieces of stale breads (front and end)
• One left over lemon icing scone;
• One leftover chocolate donut;
• About 20 pieces of candy chocolates;
• 4 over ripe bananas.

Again and again, the above measurements are for your reference only. How much it actually required will depends on the ingredients that you used. Some of the bread are drier and you will need more liquids. Used your best estimates. Don’t worry, in the event that your liquid mixture is not adequate, poor in some more milk or water…

 

PREPARING YOUR LIQUID MIXTURES..

In a mixing bowl, break your eggs, add sugars, milk, melted fats and used an egg beater to whisk the mixture until  well mixed and if possible, all the sugars dissolved. Of course, you can use an electric mixer to do the job. Set aside for later use.

 

LAYERING YOUR INGREDIENTS

 

Here come the process that I like most and it all depends on your own creativities.

• First layer – four slices of breakfast loaf. Intentionally used them in this level because it will be easier for you to scope out the puddings and it wouldn’t break;

• Second layer – chocolates that I can’t appreciate in its “present form”. Actually, these are all branded chocolates but have been sleeping in my fridge for quite a while;

• Third Layer – French loaf cut into small chunks. I used a scissor to cut it and frankly, this is the first time to use a scissor to cut my breads and the satisfaction is extremely good seeing this small little white bread chunks;

• Fourth Layer – Banana slices. Is it not beautiful?

• Fifth Layer – slices of lemon icing scone and chocolate donuts bought from Starbucks three days ago. I sprinkled some dried cranberries (it possible, soaked in hot water or rum) on top to make it look more appetizing.

 

“BATHING” THE INGREDIENTS…..

• Pour your liquid mixtures into the layers of dry ingredients. Don’t rush, let it go and fill all the holes that they can find. Alternatively, you can soaked all the dry ingredients first and dump everything in the baking tin…Then, you would not have a nice layer in your final puddings.

• I like to “poke” the dry ingredients. Once you poked, suddenly, all the liquids will disappear (try to think of a sponge). You will  be surprise to see how much liquids these breads can absorb. Poke and pour and poke and pour and poke and pour until you are satisfied that all the breads are full and cannot take in any more “drinks”.

• I am cruel and I use a spoon to press them again and ensure that none of the breads are telling lies… You should feel that some of the ingredients started to “float” and pressing will not decrease the liquid quantities any more;

• Being “kiasu” or afraid to lose, I usually pour some more milk to sit on top of the mixtures and in another 10 minutes or so, it will disappear. Actually, the breads like human being, needs time to absorb the liquid…

• Heat your oven’s to about 180 degree Celsius and bake for about 30 to 45 minutes or until set. Until set means when you push your baking tin, you are pushing a tin full of solid or semi solid instead of a tin of water. Imagine you are eating an egg tart or  bean curd jelly “tau hua”.

• Temperature of the oven can also be adjusted. Only you know your oven well, if you find that your pudding is slightly burnt and yet to get set, lower the temperature. In this “experiment”, after 30 minutes, I have lowered my oven temperature to 150 degrees because the center of pudding is still not that firm and the top layer appeared to get burnt.

• If you looked carefully, you will see that I am using “steam bake” method for the baking of the pudding. Steam bake means you put some water in the oven and let the water vapors generated to moisten your puddings. However, this is not absolutely a must if your liquids are enough.

• After 40 minutes, my pudding is ready. Overall, it took about one and a half hour from preparing the ingredients until “full completion”.  Can you see the crispy top layer.

• In the unlikely event that you don’t have any oven, don’t worry, just steam it. It will turn out as delicious except that you do not have the golden brown top layer.

 

PUDDINGS DISSECTIONS AND ANALYSIS……

I only “cut” plus “scope” the puddings this morning. If you look carefully and go back to the layers that I have mentioned above, you will be able to identify the various in this “ugly” puddings.

Remember the second layer of chocolates? It was replaced by a light yellowish layer of egg puddings. When you bake, the chocolates will melt; if it is too hot, all the fats will be excreted leaving a layer of cocoa powder. When they are empty spaces, the eggs and milks will drip down to fill the cavities and become egg puddings. Actually, this is the layers that I like most. Soft and tasty and complement the hardier texture of all the other ingredients.

As I have used lemon icing scones, the top layers of the puddings have a rather strong lemon flavor, the middle layer have some chocolates that oozes out when you bite them and some sweet slice of ripe bananas. And that follows by a layer of hard to resist egg puddings…

 

SERVING

My wife have a bowl without anything added and this is my kid’s version:

Yes, serve with some cold chocolate fresh milk. 

If you serve this as a dessert, you can serve with maple syrups, ICE CREAMS…..

 

UGLINESS…..

Lastly, my wife complained that the shape looks terrible when I put one scope into the bowl. I protested that bread puddings should look something like what I baked. Shapeless means it is soft and moist.. To defend my ground, let’s look at some of the pictures in the internet.

	Austin Leslie’s Creole bread pudding with vanilla whiskey sauce, from the late Pampy’s Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_pudding
	This capirotada, or Mexican bread pudding, features layers of nuts, cheese, dried fruit, and bread drizzled with cinnamon-infused sugar syrup.   Source: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/capirotada-mexican-bread-pudding
	Amaretto Bread Puddings Source: http://foodmuses.com/2009/12/14/amaretto-bread-pudding/
	Budget conscious cost saving puddings Source: http://kwgls.tumblr.com https://instagram/kenwugls https://twitter.com/kengls

This is a rather long post and I hope you like the post. Feel free to try your own versions and share with me about your own adventures.

Cheers.

From Plain to Eye Catching…From Muffins to Elegant Celebration Cakes

 

Presumably if you need a cake to celebrate with someone close to you and an 8” cake is too big for you;

Presumably if you have no time and ingredients to bake at home and you don’t want a cake that will cost you a bomb;

Presumably again, if you are new to baking and not confident of making one your self;

but you know very clearly that you just want a small celebration cake that it easy to prepare, economical, elegant; and

most important of all, some piece of work that will explicitly express your thoughts and loves;

Why not consider the recipe below?

 

WHY THIS CAKE

My wife asked me to bake a cake for my nephew who is coming for dinner in the evening. I tried to think of a cake to bake but my mind was blank, I just lack inspiration and I do not have some of the ingredients at home. In view of such a short notice, I have decided not to bake a cake but to “source” outside. But the cakes that were sold were all rather big sizes, catering for may be about 10-12 persons and I just don’t think that it is the right cake.

In addition, as it is Mother’s Day in Singapore, most of the bakery shops, restaurants were selling cakes specially made for Mother’s Day… I am rather picky and never want to compromise my own ideas, I stopped by Starbucks, look at the “cake windows” and ponder for quite a while.. Lastly, I bought some muffins and decide to do my own decorations.

 

WHAT IS NEEDED?

I usually prepare something based on what I have on hand. The same applies to this recipe. What I used this time were:

1. One unit of  condense milk (creamer for my coffee);
2. Two units of  ice cream (unfinished chocolate ice cream the freezer);
3. Some chocolates (unfinished Ferrero Rocher chocolates);
4. One unit of cream cheese spread (type of spread for white toast during breakfast);
5. Any types of muffin (I just simply pick the plain muffin from Starbucks, actually, anything will do)

  

Depending on the number of cakes you want to make, use you best judgments to estimate the number of units required. A rough guideline of the ratios are indicated above.

 

HOW TO DO?

It is extremely simple, if you have a electric mix, beat the cream cheese and condense milk until well mixed. Add in the ice cream, beat again until well mixed and the creamy topping is ready.  If you are lazy to get ready the electric mixer and cleaning it after usage, just take a bowl, beat it using the manual egg beater. The entire process is very fast (especially if your cream cheese is at room temperature) and take may be less than 10 minutes to complete this.

Use something to grind/cut/break your Ferrero Rocher chocolates until small chunks and set aside. There are many alternatives like chopped nuts, shelved chocolates, cocoa powder ……

Pour the toppings on to the muffin, let it drip until your desired pattern. Sprinkle the ground Ferrero Roche on top. Add in dried fruits or nuts or chocolate toppings etc. and a lovely nice little celebration cake is ready.

 

CONCLUSION

The above recipe is just for reference and I encourage readers to think out of the box and prepare one based on what you have readily on hand, what you like and you perceived to be beautiful. Role of cheese here is to give you a cheesy taste; ice cream have the role of making it creamy and if keep in fridge will hold the shape and condense milk will help to sweeten your toppings.

 

Happy reading.

Creative Food Series–Minced Pork Belly with Taukwa

GENERAL

I have lots of topics on the pipeline, I am lagging behind “my house plant series” and “national flower series” but I cannot help but to write this post for fierce that it will slipped away from my mind. Am I right in saying that “blog is best written when you idea is fresh”?

Well, creative food series is a series that basically outlined the foods that I prepared out of no where. Based on the ingredients that  I have on my house, based on the ideas that I have my mind, I mixed and matched and I came out with some new dishes that I would think edible and accepted by my family members.

Since young, I  do not like rules, I always think out of the box, I do something that my peers are not doing and it ended up being termed as radical, self centered, anti-social and is explained here WHO IS GUAI SHU SHU? The same applies to cooking, I have never accede the do and don’t in cooking but I do appreciate such guidelines (not rules or laws  that you have to abide) and treasure very much about  traditional ways of cooking believing that there are reasons behind each recipe provided by our forefathers.

In the event that in this series, there are recipes on the internet that are similar to mine, swell to God, I am not copying and I can only be happy as someone out somewhere in the world have the same thinking as mine! May be “Wiseman think alike…”

MINCED PORK BELLY FRIED WITH TAUKWA

Usually, for Chinese, we usually cooked more than we would otherwise have consumed within a day for some important reasons.

Rationale of intentional braising for more

Braising requires a lot of condiments like various types of  soya sauces and spices such that the meat will be well covered.  It is impossible to consume all the sauces within one day and naturally more meat were being braised using the same amount of sauce (is it economies of scales? smile). 

As the braising condiments and spices by nature are good preservatives, that also contribute to the rationale behind braising for more because the braised meats will not turn bad easily. 

Lastly, braising process is actually quite laborious and braising (or other longer method of cooking like smoking) for one meal is something that I would never do (not “cost-beneficial” to do so – cost is not in monetary terms  but the amount of efforts you put in”).

Put aside the health conscious and food contamination issues, I would definitely braised for more and  if my ancestors can consume these foods until they died of old age why not me?

The above also explained why braised duck, meat and etc. were usually one of the items prepared for festivals and ancestors offering among the Chinese Community in Singapore and Malaysia.  Traditional offerings to ancestors or gods need to be grand and usually involved offerings of three ducks, four chickens etc. (Number of chickens and ducks  indicated here are what we usually offered to my ancestors  when I was young).

Why this dish?

If you have read my post earlier,  a few days ago, I have braised some eggs and pork belly as my kids want to eat braised eggs. The next day, I used the left over sauce to make the “lor mee” or noodles with braised sauce, a popular hawker items in West Malaysia and Singapore. As my wife and kids are not in favor of the meat, I have quite a lot of leftover braised meat. Throwing away these meats is a waste and a torture to me. To market my leftover braised me, I have to think of a way and the dish “BRAISED PORK BELLY FRIED WITH TAUKWA” is born.

Before I proceed, a bit about taukwa for those who is not residing in the Asian countries. It is a type of soft, jelly like bean curds called “tofu” but have a firmer texture because there are less water content and ideal for popiah, Yong Tau Fu, braising etc..

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Mincing of braised meat — meshing of taukwa – frying onion and garlics – add in minced meat – add in taukwa – add in some eggs – add in condiments – add in spring onions and chopped chili as garnishing item – Done!

Firstly, I minced my braised meat until very fine. As my family members don’t fancy meat that are slightly hard and “fibrous”, if I just heat up and serve on the table, they will give me back the same thing. Therefore, I decided to mince my braised meat very fine until they cannot tell what is this.

Again, realizing the meat texture may be slightly harder, I went to the fridge, found a piece of taukwa and meshed it coarsely. I believed that taukwa will be able to cover up the meat elements and since it is pork belly, meshed taukwa will help to absorb some levels of fats excreted when frying the minced meat.

   

I take a wok, put some oils, some chopped garlic and onion, some pepper and salt  until the fragrant spread in the house. Sorry, I can’t help but still doing this traditional Chinese cooking step to make your dish smell nicer  and in Chinese, it is called “Baoxiang”. It is  also the step  that made Westerners perceived Chinese cooking and the dishes are too oily! Actually, since it is pork belly, I should be more adventurous by using the fats excreted by the pork belly to fry the onions and garlics.

After the chopped garlic and onion turned slightly brownish, I add in my minced pork belly until I smell the aroma and followed by adding the meshed taukwa. I started to get excited about my new dish as it really smell nice especially the new type of fragrance variegated from a mixture of pepper and braised meat flavor.

Still concerning that my kids may not like it and I know they are egg fanatic, I decided to throw two eggs to add to the flavor and again assumed the role of fat absorption. Yes, that is, the eggs negated the meaty flavor and reduced the fibrous texture. The “mixture”, I decided that no further improvement is necessary except with a little bit of some traditional condiments such as light soya sauce, oyster sauce and again pepper. I then garnished with some chopped red pepper (chili as is commonly called here) and spring onions. I take a spoon and tasted it, I told myself, well done and no regret in cooking this dish.

 

 

Prior to cooking this dish, I have no idea what is the “output” going to be like.  After preparing, I will give credit to this “mixture” because of the new texture and new taste. Well, that is not the end, whether the dish is successful of not is still subject to the tasting of my two kids especially my girl who is very particular any things that cooked with pork.

Food Critic Tests

My boy is eating his lunch with a plate of white rice, this dish and a bowl of cabbage soup. He immediately thumbs up signaling me that the dish is nice and ended with two plates of white rice.

My girl coming back from school and as usual, she asked me what is today’s soup in the lift before reaching the house. I just told her that it is cabbage soup and  a dish that her brother likes it. She kept guessing the common dishes that we cooked but I refused to leak out a word. Immediately when I reached my apartment, I took a plate of white rice and mixed with the new dish and stuffed a spoon of rice into her mouth. She yelled and complained that it is too hot. I insisted and she took my spoon and scoped one for herself. She yelled again but this time is not complaining but complemented that this was “exceptionally nice”. I asked her to guess what were the ingredients, she managed to guess correctly the eggs and the taukwa.

I hinted to her that she have forgotten one important item that I usually braised together with the eggs. She started to guess from taukwa, taupo, eggs…. and I told her the item’s name have no “tau” (meaning bean) in it. Lastly, she said is  braised meat. I laughed and say yes. She screamed and said, goodness me, I have eaten meats that I hated most and reluctant to proceed with her lunch.

I brushed aside her comments and told her whatever it is , as long as it is nice, just finished it. Towards the end of her lunch, she told me, “Daddy, for tonight’s dinner, maybe you don’t need to cook anything. We can eat the same dish as lunch but plus one additional fried egg (another evidence of eggs fanatic) because the lunch is so delicious.”

I keep quiet and smile in my heart without properly replying her comments. Instead, I asked her to check my blog again in the late afternoon. (Note: my wife is in the office and do not have the chance to taste the new dish). I told myself: “yes, you have passed the most critical food test, quick, go and finish your blog and get it publish as fast as you can.”

SUGGESTED VARIATIONS

I have to be fair that the dish should not be constrained by the ingredients I used above. They can be a lot of variations that I can think off depending what you have in your kitchen. Why not adding some glass noodles for fat absorption instead of using taukwa or just wrap this filling in some types of spring roll skins and add in some julienned cucumbers  or …… 

Don’t be shy to try your own version. If you are foodie, you should use your own sense of smell and logic and create some versions that tailored to your family member’s taste. Is it not what our forefathers or restaurant chefs have done when creating their very own “signature dish”.

Happy reading and trying!

Cookie Puddings – 2

Cookie Pudding ….follow up

After resting for one night, I finally cut open my pudding and took a taste. It taste like bread pudding except it had a mixture of aromas depending on the types of cookies used. As I have chocolate cookies, butter cookies, cinnamon biscuits and some egg rolls, the overall aroma is consider as pleasant. More butters and eggs can be added to the liquid mixture to tone down the cookies flavor if necessary.

Realizing that it is slightly dry, I decided to serve the puddings with fresh milks and vanilla ice cream. The taste is satisfactory if not delicious, based on my present combinations. They can definitely be mixed with condensed milk, syrup or even hot coffee…I dare to try, do you?

Creative Food Series – Cookie Puddings 1

YOU DARE TO TRY series

Cookies Pudding

For Malaysian and Singapore Chinese, it is a tradition that during Chinese New Year, cookies and other delicacies were being prepared for purposes of entertaining visitors. Families either bought ready made cookies, or as gifts from friends and relatives or prepare themselves. Usually, after the festival, lots of cookies were left untouched. For most family, it is practically impossible to finish all these cookies within a reasonable period of time and before the qualities were compromised. Most families resort to throwing away the cookies.

Looking at the cookies that are sitting in my shelves and realizing it wouldn’t take long before it turns bad, I have decided to try baking the cookie pudding based on the principles of preparing the bread pudding.

I started by layering my cookies (actually, everything that I found from marshmallow to tidbits of my kids). I then prepare a liquid mixture of sugar, eggs, butter, and fresh milk . Pouring the liquid mixture over the biscuits or cookies layer by layer. I let it soaked for a while and used forks to press the mixtures until I am convinced that all the cookies were fully soaked. It should then be moist and soft. I then steamed baked the mixtures until set which took approximately 1 hour. Finally, I have my cookie puddings that resemble the bread puddings.

You dare to try?