Chickpea and lentil curry

A really simple curry that you can get on the table in 20 minutes with the help of some pre-blended curry spices. You can get curry pastes in jars, or powders – I had Sharwood’s medium curry powder in my pantry which I used. Look for a spice mix with coriander, cumin, tumeric, paprika, cinnamon, fennel, cardamon – the usual Indian spices.

Ingredients makes 4-6 portions

1. 3 tbs neutral oil, I use macadamia
2. 1 onion, chopped
3. thumb sized piece of ginger, thinly sliced
4. 1-2 cloves garlic, sliced
5. 5 tbl curry powder
6. 400ml coconut cream
7. 1 tbs concentrated chicken stock (or 1 stock cube if you don’t have access to the concentrated stuff)
8. 6 kaffir lime leaves, sliced into thin strips
9. 1 tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
10. 200g cooked lentils (I used 100g brown lentils that I cooked to make 200g but you could also used tinned lentils – just drain and rinse them too)
11. For garnish, big dollop of plain yoghurt, chopped fresh coriander and sliced red chilli

Method

1. Fry the onions in the oil till translucent
2. Add ginger and garlic and fry for 3 minutes
3. Add the curry powder (or paste if you’re using this) and fry on high heat for 3 minutes
4. Add the coconut cream, chicken stock and kaffir lime leaves, bring to boil, lower heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes
5. This next step may seem odd but I actually think it’s necessary with this type of vegetarian curry where you want to eat everything in the bowl – strain the curry
6. Use the back of a spoon to push the ingredients through the sieve – you want to extract as much flavour from the cooked ingredients as possible
7. Pour the strained curry back into the pot, season with salt to taste
8. Add in the chickpeas and lentils and bring to a gentle simmer
9. Serve hot with the yoghurt, coriander and chilli and you can either eat it on it’s own or over some basmati rice

Bo.lan, Bangkok, Thailand

The refreshing ginger and lemongrass drink served as you are seated at Bo.lan

Living in Singapore, I am fortunate to be in close proximity to beautifully places like Thailand and Vietnam and Bali, and a few weekends ago,  D and decided on a Bangkok weekend away.

I won’t rave on about Bangkok (you can read me doing this from a previous visit/post) but this time, D and I set out to veer away from our favourite restaurants/eating places, and one evening we ended up at Bo.lan.

Puffed rice caramelised with brown sugar, lemongrass and chilli

Tucked away in the back streets of Sukhumvit Soi 26, this gorgeous restaurant is the creation of Duangporn Songvisava (bo) and Dylan Jones who have come together to serve Thai cuisine, with clear Western influences from their experiences studying and cooking in Australia and London. Don’t expect fusion – this is traditional food at its best, but elevated in refinement. Expect to see on their set menu amuse-bouches, palate cleansers and petit fours.

Thai whiskey, pandan shooter and sour plum pre-dinner drink and snack from the Bo.lan Balance tasting menu

We selected the Bo.Lan Balance tasting menu. As you are seated you are served a snack of puffed brown rice, caramelised in brown sugar, chilli and lemongrass. This was followed by a pre-dinner drink and snack – a martini glass with Thai whisky, a small glass of unsweetened pandan leaf drink and a sour plum, to be dipped in seal salt and chilli flakes garnishing the plate – recommended to be tasted in that order. Apart from getting you very quickly drunk, the combination of alcohol, sweet, sour, salt and heat brings your tastebuds alive.

Incredible amuse-bouche

The amuse-bouche arrived next. First was a dry-style chicken curry that came on a basket that was made of crisped curry – similar to a parmesan crisp, second was a noodle salad with prawns and flossed shrimp, a rice cracker with classic Thai-style salad on top, a slice of grilled pork neck on cucumber with a chilli salad and then a spoonful of another salad with pomelo, kaffir lime skin, toasted coconut and a fermented shrimp dressing. I was amazed at how the delicately and intricately constructed core flavours of Thai cuisine was represented through those five bite-sized morsels.

Grilled river prawn salad

The next four courses arrived in typical Thai-style – one soup, curry, salad, stir-fry. We each had our own soup – I chose a clear broth to balance out the remaining heat in my mouth from the amuse-bouche, a grilled river prawn salad, a green curry with salted beef ribs and a fried mackerel dish. We struggled to find enough room on the table for all this food, and to be honest, in our stomachs – there was a lot of food, the heaviness of these dishes combined with the amount of food had the effect that none really stood out – although I do remember enjoying all of them.

Chilled black glutinous rice with coconut cream, fresh mangoes and coconut

By this stage we were slowly moving into food-coma territory. Fortunately the next dish was a refreshing palate cleanser – fried banana bites with a lychee, sea coconut and mango iced drink, followed by dessert of black glutinous rice with coconut cream and fresh coconut, and then the petit fours, a work of art combining a collection of dried fruits and Thai desserts and meringue. All gratefully light following the main courses.

Bo.lan is certainly an experience. It gave us such an appreciation of the classic flavours of Thai cuisine, from the old Siam period, outside of the standard Pad Thai noodles and Thai green curries. The only downside is the sheer amount of food, which I think distracts you from just how good it is. But definitely a place to try for unique Thai food.

Bo.lan
42 Soi Pichai Ronnarong, Sukhumvit Soi 26
Klong Toey
Bangkok 10110
Thailand
Tel: +66 02 260 2962

Tung Lok Classics @ Chinese Swimming Club

The insanely good suckling pig served on doughy pancakes with sweet sauce and cucumber

Going to Chinese restaurants is, to me, still a bit of a treat. Perhaps it’s because growing up I always ate in Chinese restaurants with my family, so going without my parents feels like a really “grown up” thing to do – even though I am now older than my parents when they migrated to Sydney !

Of course living in Singapore I have ready access to a multitude of great Chinese restaurants, and one of our regular restaurants is Tung Lok Classics at the Chinese Swimming Club on Amber Road.

It serves a lot of your standard Chinese dishes, and they also serve a delicious range of Chinese herbal soups. I love that the soup comes out in a huge earthenware pot where they ladle out individual soup bowls. The tradition of cooking soup in the claypot somehow makes it feel almost fortifying.

Paper-wrapped chicken baked in rock salt

We’ve tried some of their more unusual dishes like paper-wrapped chicken cooked in rock salt, and while it was tender and delicately flavoured from the rock salt, we couldn’t quite put our finger on why it wasn’t a firm favourite. I couldn’t work out the flavours that were with the chicken in the bag.

Peking duck – slices of crispy duck skin in thin pancakes with shallot and cucumber

Our favourites: Peking Duck – whole (or half but why eat in halves ??) duck that has been seasoned with five spices and then roasted and hung in special ovens so the fat renders, leaving the skin super thin and crispy. At the table, skilled staff then cut away the skin, and this is served in pancakes with a sweet hoisin sauce, cucumbers and spring onions for a fresh zing. The meat that is left on the duck is then removed and you can have it fried with thick noodles or rice.

The other favourite is suckling pig. Similar to the Peking duck, the skin on the pig is roasted till crisp, and this is served with a slightly sweet doughy slice of pancake and sweet sauce. The combination of the salt and sweet, crunchy and soft textures is just pure bliss.

Any recommendations for great Chinese food in Singapore? I’m definitely keen to expand my repertoire, and until I get to try those, Tung Lok Classics remains one of our go-to’s for our Chinese food-fix. I’m also keen to check out their dim sum menu during the day.

Tung Lok Classics 
Chinese Swimming Club
#03-00
21 Amber Road
Singapore 439870
Tel: +65 6345 0111

Opening Hours:
Mondays to Saturdays
Lunch: 11.30am – 3.00pm
Dinner: 6.00pm -10.30pm

Sundays & PH
Lunch: 10.00am – 3.00pm
Dinner: 6.00pm -10.30pm

My Mum’s Penang Loh Bak

My mum’s Penang loh-bak – Chinese five spice pork rolls

It’s actually my granddad’s recipe, which my grandmother used to cook with my mother, but this was the first time I had ever made these delicious strips of pork, marinated in Chinese five-spices, rolled in beancurd skin and then deep fried. Served with sliced fresh cucumber and chilli sauce these tasty, crispy morsels are totally more-ish.

Loh bak is a very traditional Penang Nonya dish and as with most of these types of dishes, the actual cooking is minimal – it’s all in the preparation.

As with a lot of traditional Nonya recipes, my mum cooks like my grandmother – everything is to taste, and I was so enjoying spending time with her in the kitchen that we both forgot to even try to guesstimate the quantity of the ingredients. Ah well, it just gives me more reason to do this again with her in the future and make sure this recipe is recorded for posterity.

Katong Laksa

Why has it taken me so long to finally eat at, and have my visiting parents introduce me to Katong laksa ??

Apparently there are several stalls who claim to be “the original Katong laksa”.  The one my parents found was tucked away in the basement of Roxy Square in a small coffee shop. There are other stalls selling food but I honestly could not tell you what they were after having my first bowl of laksa.

Katong laksa serves Peranakan-style laksa, so the noodles are cut short which means you only need to eat it with a spoon. Great for people like me who don’t have the best chopstick skills and usually end up wearing half my soup from the noodles slipping back into the broth with a splash. And doubly great because it guarantees that every mouthful is a true combination of all those amazing flavours.

The broth is what makes it so special. It’s a complex broth of coconut milk, stock, homemade chilli paste. The coconut milk is made from squeezing freshly grated coconut, which keeps the broth from being too rich and cloying. Each spoonful packs a creamy, spicy punch, yet the flavour still manages to be delicate at the same time and you’re not left with an overwhelming thirst from overseasoning.

In the broth is a combination of the noodles, fresh prawns, cockles, fish cake and the bowl is topped with fresh curry leaves and a smear of extra chilli paste for those who want a bit more spice.

This has got to be one of the best comfort foods Singapore has to offer.

Thanks mum and dad for the introduction !

Roxy Laksa
48 East Coast Lagoon Food Village
Tel: 9630 2321

Mon-Fri: 10.30am to 9pm
Weekends and PH: 8.30am to 9pm

Hoorah – I’ve found the best dim sum in Singapore!

Roasted belly pork

I have been on an ongoing quest to find the best dim sum in Singapore since I arrived here five years ago. And for sure, there are plenty that I haven’t visited, but I don’t think I need to look much farther than Lei Garden on Orchard Road.

Prawn rice rolls 

The quality of the food there is exceptional. With dim sum, there always has been a few things which showcase the true skill of the chef. One is the dumpling skin/rice rolls. These are made by hand – I’ve watched chefs do this and the speed in which they roll out individual dumpling skins (and if you think that they can serve up to 700 of just one type of dumpling in one seating) is a delight to watch. So to be fair, anything they can produce like that is amazing, but we are spoiled creatures of choice, so thick, doughy dumplings are indicative of a lack of true skill. The rice rolls at Lei Garden are thin and smooth and so slippery you could almost swallow each mouthful without chewing.

In fact, everything they do with flour – be it rice or wheat, is light and airy and just makes you want to order more (which is exactly what we did).

Their char siu buns were fluffy pillows of soft, steamed buns filled with sweet barbequed pork. And they really select the best pork – their roast pork is probably the best I’ve had in Singapore. The belly pork has the fat thinly and evenly layered and the skin is divinely crisp.

Pan-fried radish cake

Their radish cake – finely shredded radish and rice flour, cut into squares and pan-fried was not oily, but crispy on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth soft inside.

I’d suggest making a reservation because it was full by midday on a Saturday and it’s not a huge restaurant. The quest is never over, but for now, I’m absolutely thrilled that I can get the same quality of dim sum that I have missed so much from Sydney.

Lei Garden Orchard
#03-00 Orchard Shopping Centre
321 Orchard Road
Singapore
Tel: 6734 3988

Open for lunch: 11.30am – 3.00pm
Dinner: 6pm – 11.00pm

Crab-crazy

Dry-style salted egg crab 

Strange heading but we do like our crab in Asia, and especially so in my household. After the delicious salt-egg sauce crab at Mastercrab, I wanted to try to find a dry-style salt egg crab and we recently went to Seafood Paradise at the Singapore Flyer for this.

One thing that makes Seafood Paradise unique is that they offer to deshell your crab for you. You can look at this two ways. I recall many years ago in Malaysia, driving for an hour to get to a steamed crab “hut” (because that’s all it was, just an outdoor space that served steamed crabs), where you sat down at a table with cheap plastic stools, were served whole steamed crabs on a wooden board, and were given a plastic bib and a hammer – and told to go nuts. And boy did we – with gusto. The whole experience of being able to make as much mess as possible brought out the child in us all, and it was one of the most messy and fun experiences I recall.

Eating that same crab in a fancy restaurant requires much more restraint and skill, often still ending up with bits of crab flying everywhere or slipping out of your hands onto your (or someone else’s) lap. So the offer of the restaurant deshelling the crab, and serving the meat served in the shell was too good an offer to refuse. How posh and spoiled we felt !

The impressively deshelled crab in white pepper sauce

Having said that, I have to say that once it was presented to us, flesh neatly contained in the shell of the crab, much to my own surprise, I found out that part of the enjoyment (for me, anyway) of eating crab is dealing with getting the fiddly bits of delicious crab meat out of the frustrating shell. Who’d have thought ? (We still ate it all – there is a surprising heat from the white pepper sauce that goes well with the fresh spring onions)

Luckily the main reason for our visit, the dry-style salted egg crab, came in the shell. The waiter actually recommended that we enjoyed the crab in the shell, as this style is about enjoying the combination of the lip-smackingly salted egg yolk baked on to the shell, with the sweet crab meat inside. It’s one of those dishes that’s rich to the point where you can’t eat too much but really wish you could.

Either way, I’d totally recommend this place if you’re looking to enjoy crab – in any of the many styles they offer. Afterwards, you can take a leisurely stroll around the Singapore Flyer to walk off your dinner, and as a bonus even ON TO the F1 track near the pit stop area.

Seafood Paradise @ the Singapore Flyer
30 Raffles Ave
#01-01 Singapore Flyer
Singapore 039803
Tel: 6336 5101

Opening Hours:
Mon – Fri: 11.30am – 3.00pm / 6.00pm – 11.00pm
Sat, Sun & PH: 11.30am – 11.00pm

Penang Feasting

Apom balik – Crispy Indian pancakes

My mother is from Penang, and although we migrated to Sydney when I was just four years old, my family still has strong roots there. Over the years though, my visits have tapered off and the Penang I know has become a memory – rapid urbanisation has fundamentally changed the city so much I don’t recognise it any more. The city has fortunately been declared UNESCO protected so the the city has been cleaned up, but the traffic is still congested, which makes getting around to the best places to eat that little bit more difficult.

Penang has long been lauded as having the best food in Malaysia – particular hawker food. It’s hard to explain why – the best I can give (based on a thoughtful discussion with a fellow Penang-ite in Singapore) is that each hawker is his/her own artist in the way they prepare and cook their dishes, achieving a distinct character, so much so that a certain dish does not taste the same if it’s been cooked by the owners son even when all other variables are constant.

Malaysians in general are quite obsessive about eating the best food and will often drive for an hour to get to “the best [insert food here]” – chicken rice, crab, fried noodles – you name it. Some have become so famous that there are often lengthy queues, which, in the blistering Penang heat, is something even I am not willing to do.

Penang curry noodles

When we were recently in Penang, we stayed close to a massive hawker centre called Supertanker. It’s a bewildering, bustling, noisy, crowded, mass of hungry people in for a quick bite – this I guess is the Malaysian equivalent of a fast food court. It’s quite difficult to explain the whole experience. There are maybe 200 tables and on the perimeter of the area are tiny little food stalls that usually sell just one or two types of dishes – fish soup, Penang char kuay teow, congee, drinks etc. You queue and order your food, pay the hawker, gesture in the direction of where you are sitting, and somehow your dish manages to find you just a few minutes later. They seem to have an amazing capacity to remember who ordered what.

The pace that these hawkers prepare the food is astounding. They are literally human machines – when you’re only charging the equivalent of US$1 for a bowl of noodles, turnover is critical, and these hawkers work hard and fast to feed the masses.

It’s open air but with plenty of fans and I was so happy to enjoy a few of my old favourite that I haven’t had for possibly over ten years. It’s amazing how smells and sounds and tastes can bring back fond memories.

Two dishes I am thrilled to have eaten: curry noodles and “apom balik”. The curry noodles are a Malaysian speciality. I guess the most easy way to describe it is as a laksa, but here, they somehow manage to extract the flavour of the coconut but with none of the thick creamy consistency of some laksas I’ve had outside of Malaysia. The broth is rich yet almost white in colour and the dish comes with a generous spoon of chilli sambal, tofu, squid, fresh cockles and most importantly, cubes of pig’s blood. Now I know that might sound horrifying to many of you, but I just love the squidgy, squeaky, springy texture of these and you can’t get this easily at all outside of Malaysia. It adds a richness to the entire dish that I just love.

The second dish is probably much more palatable – it’s called apom balik, and Indian speciality, essentially a pancake batter that’s cooked in a mini-wok, so that the edges are thin and crispy and crepe-like, with a small “bump” of lightly cooked spongy batter in the middle. Sometimes they are filled with a mixture of sugar and crushed peanuts which are also delicious but I think the simplicity of the plain ones appeal to me (perhaps because I can justify eating more?).

With my gran passing away I’m not sure I will have as many opportunities to sample the amazing food in Penang. But I can take the wonderful memories of the food with me and they come attached with the even more wonderful memories of enjoying it with her.

RIP Grandma Khoo 1918 – 2012

Grandma Khoo’s chilli paste in action in a beef rendang

It seems like ages since I posted anything. I was excited a few weeks ago to share some of the fab eats I managed to squeeze in while in New York for work, and then en route home to Singapore I found out the sad news that my grandmother had passed away on the first day of Chinese New Year.  Highs and lows like I’ve never experienced before.

I do understand that she was just part of a generation that I just think was made of tougher stuff than mine, but I am still in awe of who she was – growing up in the small island of Penang in Malaysia, uneducated and not that well-off, she managed to raise eight children, one of whom she “lost” in the war, and three who passed away before their time. She taught herself English enough to get by when she came to stay with us in Sydney, and looked after my sister and I with both my parents working at the time.

And of course, she cooked.

My grandmother was Nonya, so the food she cooked – Peranakan – had influences from Chinese and Malay cuisines. I have some of her recipes which she shared with me years ago, but trying to replicate when she gave measures like “a few eggshells of water” or “enough liquid to cover your first finger knuckle” (no matter how much rice was being cooked) truly tested my ability to taste but allows for true personalisation.

I’dlike to share a few recipes with you that remind me of her. Because she cooked them with love, for my family and I.

Chilli paste used to make chicken curry

Grandma Khoo’s famous sambal chilli paste blend

This is one of those chilli pastes that forms the basis of sooo many Peranakan dishes and can strangely take on different flavours if you add stock or coconut cream, additional spices, and even the type of protein you use. Make sure you have plenty of good ventilation before frying this paste up or you’re house will smell of curry for days after – it’s potent stuff. I’m going to try to give you some measurements as close as I could come by.

Ingredients

1. 2 large handfuls dried red chillies, soaked in warm water for at least an hour
2. 1 cup shallots, peeled
3. 2 thumb sized pieces of galangal
4. 6 stalks lemongrass
5. 1 head of garlic, peeled
6. good pinch of salt
7. good pinch of sugar
8. thumb-sized piece of belacan - dried shrimp paste *optional – this is pungent stuff and may put many people off but it actually adds a mellow savoury undertone similar to anchovies that makes all the difference

Method

Pull the stalks off the chillies and remove as many seeds as possible. Pop all the ingredients in a blender (grandma used to blend all of these painstakingly with a mortar and pestle before she blenders) and store in an airtight container. It should keep in the fridge for up to 10 days and in the freezer for 3 months. You can use this as a base for dishes like chicken curry with coconut cream, or assam fish curry, with tamarind stock. Experiment and let me know how you go !

Acar (pronounced a-char)

This is a nonya pickle that is great accompaniment to balance out the heaviness of a lot of nonya dishes.

Ingredients

1. 1 large carrot, 2 radishes, 1 medium cucumber (skinned and deseeded) – juliened to similar sized sticks
2. 1 red and 1 green chilli, sliced on the diagonal
3. 2 tbl white sesame seeds
4. 1 thumb sized piece of tumeric root – cut into think sticks (use ginger if you don’t have access to this and add 1/2-1 tbl tumeric powder)
5. sugar and salt to taste
6. enough white vinegar to cover the vegetables in whatever you decide to store them in
7. you can also add in cauliflower florets and pineapple to the dish

Method

1. Blanche the carrot, radish and cauliflower with boiling water. They need to stay crunchy, so I would almost cover them with boiling water, let them sit for 30 seconds then strain
2. Fry the tumeric root in some oil until fragrant. Remove and discard
3. Add the vinegar to the pan and bring to the boil
4. Add the vegetables, stirring regularly for 4-5 minutes
5. Store in a glass container (not plastic or metal) in the fridge for a few hours before serving to allow the flavours to develop

Hokkien soya sauce braised pork belly

I have no idea how I ended up cooking this for dinner tonight, but gosh I’m glad I did. This dish (in hokkien is called tau yew bak – literally translated, soya sauce pork) is one I haven’t had for maybe 20 years and the cool thing is eating it took me right back to when I was a little girl and my mum made it for me.

I think I just fancied some comfort food, and this dish, which is essentially pork belly that is stewed for 2 hours in a combination of soya sauce and spices like cinnamon and star anise, is warmingly melt-in-your mouth tender and is yummy served simply with rice.

Living in Singapore, I also tend not to cook Chinese food because access to top notch Chinese food is so easy here. And there is also the variety of different Chinese cuisines, from Hokkien or Peranakan (which is my heritage) to Cantonese (which is what I grew up with in Sydney), to Hakka, Peking, Hainanese…you name it.

The problem with eating out is that it’s tough to get brown rice unless it’s at some organic, vegetarian, peace-loving-type restaurant, and the most authentic food is just not served in places like this. My palate has been trained to like white rice with Chinese dishes, so my recipe below might be ridiculously simple, but it was a way for me to enjoy eating rice, with a 50% good component with the mix of brown rice. I just had to get over one of the basics of cooking rice – not to stir it around, ending up in mushy rice – and working out the logistics of different water and time ratios of cooking the two types together.

The recipe below is my rough guide on measurement – it’s a forgiving dish and doesn’t need to be precise so add more or less to taste

Ingredients makes enough to serve 4

1. 300-400g pork belly, cut into 2cm strips
2. 4-6 cloves garlic
3. 1 stick of cinnamon
4. 1 star anise
5. 1 tsp black peppercorns
6. 1 tbl Chinese five spice powder
7. 1/4 cup dark soya sauce
8. 2 tbl light soya sauce
9. 2 tbl sugar (or to taste)
10. 1-2 cups water
11.  1-2 hard boiled eggs

Method

1. Blanch pork in boiling water and cook for 5 minutes to remove any impurities. Drain well. Discard the water
2. In a claypot or a saucepan, heat up some oil and add the pork, garlic, cinnamon, star anise, peppercorns and five spice and fry until fragrant and the pork has browned
3. Add the soya sauces and sugar and bring to boil for about 5 minutes until the sauce thickens and the sugar begins to caramelise
4. Add the water, bring to boil, cover and reduce heat to a gentle simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Again the amount of sauce is personal. Some like it sticky and almost dry (me), some like it with quite a lot of sauce
5. About 30 minutes before serving, add the boiled eggs
6. Serve with rice and vegetables
7. For my mix of 50/50 white/brown rice, add 2 cups boiling water to 1/2 cup of brown rice and simmer for 25 minutes. Then add 1/2 cup of rinsed white rice, stir, cover and simmer for an additional 20 minutes