Chee Pow Kai (paper wrapped chicken)

Hubby said that he was yearning for chee pow kai (paper wrapped chicken). We used to go the Union Farm at Clementi but they have since closed after more than 50 years in the business.

When we first started going there in the 70’s, we had only one daughter.  Over the years, our family expanded to 3 daughters, 2 sons-in-law and 2 grandkids.  Hopefully next year, we will round up to 10.

How about that Sandy and Simon?

During those years, the menu consisted of only the paper wrapped chicken, fried noodles and fried beehoon.  You order the chicken by the catties. One catty  would get you about 7 or 8 pcs. For those very young who've never heard of this form of measurement, we used to weigh foodstuff by the catties.  Its equivalent to 500 grams. The fried noodles and beehoon servings were very small.  I remember on one visit my family repeated orders so many times that the table next to ours offered us some of theirs.  Many years later, the restaurant (actually it was a farmhouse) expanded their menu to include many other dishes and the order for chicken was changed to number of pieces.  Prices went up and up but we still went anyway as the chicken was still good (although standard dropped)

AUNTIE DOLLY’S CHEE POW KAI (PAPER WRAPPED CHICKEN)

Ingredients

 

6 pcs each of fresh chicken thighs and wings  (can make 24 packets)

4 sheets wax or greaseproof paper

 

Marinade

4 pieces shallot – minced

pieces small red onions – minced  

4 slices ginger – minced for the juice (to be added only 1 hour before frying)

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

½ teaspoon black soya sauce ( for the colour)

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon sesame oil – (to be added ½ hour before frying)

Oil for oiling paper

Oil for deep frying

METHOD

Season chicken with marinade except ginger juice, sesame oil

Best to leave it in fridge overnight.

Make sure chicken is brought down to room temperature before wrapping and frying

Cut paper into 6 pieces per sheet

Oil the individual pieces and wrap chicken pieces one at a time

Wrap it like a purse, make sure it is properly folded in

Heat enough oil for deep frying

when oil is 80 per cent hot, fry chicken packets on medium fire.

Do not overcrowd the pan. Do not overfry otherwise chicken will be dry and hard

Drain the oil on kitchen paper, let it cool slightly before serving otherwise paper will stick to chicken

 

Auntie Dolly's Simple Fried Noodle (or Beehoon if you prefer)

 

Ingredients

 

2 packets of egg noodles (blanched in boiling water till firmly soft)

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1/2 kg choysum (blanched)

 

Ingredients for the sauce

 

3 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp black soya sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp pepper

1 ricebowl water

Combine all the above and boil till sugar dissolves

Do a taste test as as the above measurements is just a guide

 

Method for noodle

 

Heat oil, fry garlic and toss noodles in oil till cooked

Dish out and pour sauce over sparingly. If you want more gravy, add accordingly.

Top with blanched choysum

 

The noodle is served with the chee pow kai

 

 

Auntie Dolly's Curry Chicken with Fish Ball

This curry was taught to me by my peranakan mother and is a typical nonya dish. When my cantonese mother-in-law cooked curry her style, she added fish balls. I believe we are the only people who add fish balls to curry. Nowadays, when I don't add fish balls, I get asked "why no fishballs ah" You can eat with bread, roti prata or rice.

Ingredients

5 chicken drumsticks chopped into 4 pcs, 5 chicken wings

1 small piece ginger

5 buah keras (candlenut)

10 red small onions

6 potatoes (cut into 4 and soaked in salt water)

20 fish balls

Rempah paste (refer to earlier post)

How much paste to use depends on the quantity of chicken

1 packet of Zara coconut milk 500ml

Oil for frying

 

Method

 

Pound ginger, candlenuts and red onion till coarsely fine

Heat oil in kuali, fry the above till fragrant

Add rempah paste and fry on medium fire till oil oozes out

Add chicken and fry till evenly coated with rempah

Add 100 ml water to 400ml coconut milk and mix well

Add coconut milk and boil on medium heat till chicken is 3/4 cooked.

Add potatoes and boil till soft.

Add fishballs and boil till cooked

Add salt to taste

If gravy is too thick add water, too thin add coconut milk

 

Note: Chicken must be fully defrosted to room temperature

          otherwise gravy will be watery.

          This is enough to feed 4 to 5 persons. Adjust

           accordingly if you have more or less people

 

Lo Mai Kai (glutinous rice)

Again this was my mum's recipe.  I still have the small yellow enamel bowls passed down to me. You can buy the bowls from the chinese shops selling crockery but you can never get the yellow enamel ones anymore.

When you buy lo mai kai, the ingredients are very little but if you make it yourself, you can have chock-a-block of ingredients and it can be a meal by itself.  My dear hubby can devour three bowls at one go.

Ingredients for rice

1 kg glutinous rice soaked overnight

2 or 3 chicken drumsticks deboned and cut into bite size

200 gms thinly sliced pork

chinese mushrooms soaked and sliced thinly

chinese sausages sliced thinly

4 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp black soya sauce

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp oil

water for sprinkling

Marinade for chicken and pork

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp black soya sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ginger salt (only add in before cooking)

1 tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp minced garlic (for frying only)

Use half portion of each of the above to season chicken and pork separately

Method for rice

Strain rice and discard water

Use non stick pan and heat oil, fry garlic

Add half portion of rice and fry till even coated with oil

Add half portion of soya sauce, oyster sauce, salt

Keep stirring and sprinkle a little  water. After about 5 mins,

remove from pan and steam till rice is 90% cooked

Do the same for the other half of rice

Method for chicken and pork

Heat oil and fry sausage till fragrant, dish out

Heat oil, fry garlic, add mushrooms and fry

Add the mushroom water from the soaking

Cook till soft. remove from pan

Heat oil, fry minced garlic and fry chicken and pork individually, add a little water for gravy

Remove and get ready to assemble

Place a little of everything in bowl and top up with rice

Gently press down rice, add a little of the gravy from chicken and pork

Steam for 10 mins and its ready

Always remember to do a taste test

 

fried fish with chilli filling

This is my childhood favourite.  Eaten with piping hot rice, it was not necessary to have any other dish. It is not easily found nowadays except if you learn how to make it yourself.

Ingredients

3 pcs ikan kembong, if not available selar fish
rempah chilli (refer to previous post)
dried shrimp soaked in water and pounded
Salt
oil for frying

Method

Rub salt inside and outside of fish
Slit a pocket along side of fish
Fry pounded shrimp then add rempah chilli and fry till  fragrant
fill the pocket with the rempah chilli mixture
Heat oil in frying pan
Fry fish on medium heat till all sides are well browned
Its ready to be served

My Maiden Post

Who am I?

I am a semi retired businesswoman who loves to cook, eat and travel. I am married and have 3 daughters and two grandchildren.

Why the blog?

I want to leave a legacy of my cooking to my family as well as to all the young people in the world who find cooking daunting. This is the reason why most of my recipes are so simple. This blog is dedicated to my lovely daughters, Tina, Jan, Sandy and my darling granddaughter Dawn.Hopefully my lovable grandson Daniel will aso learn to cook for his future wife  I hope that after I am long gone, they will remember me through my recipes.

I notice that nowadays many young working adults eat out and do not cook at all. I want you to know that cooking is not necessarily troublesome. You can prepare fuss free meals in a jiffy. Perhaps many of you do not get help from your mums as even your mums don't cook. So this is my mission. To encourage and help young people discover the joys of cooking delicious home cooked food.

Some of you have families, boyfriends, girlfriends, cooking for them show your love and that you make the effort for them. Trust me when I say that the rewards you get is priceless. I plan to share my secret recipes with you, so keep coming back.

I am going to share some of my simple recipes with you.

Happy cooking!

Auntie Dolly"s Chicken Rice

 Chicken rice is everyone's favourite.  My grandson, Daniel claims that the best is at his nana's place and that's me

AUNTIE DOLLY'S CHICKEN RICE

Ingredients - enough for 4 persons

1 medium sized fresh chicken or 5 pcs thighs

4 slices fresh ginger
Sprig of spring onion
1 tsp salt
1tsp sesame oil
1tsp cooking oil
1 can pineapple slices.

Method

Boiling the chicken

Boil a pot of water just enough to cover chicken.

Add salt, ginger and spring onion
When water boils, add in chicken (make sure chicken is at room temperature}
If using whole chicken, boil for 8 mins. If using chicken thighs boil for 6 mins.
When time is up, turn off fire and leave chicken covered in pot for 20 mins.
Remove chicken from pot and rub the two oils all over the chicken.
Leave it to cool and cut into pieces. If you prefer, debone it. decorate with pineapple slices.

Ingredients for making chicken rice

6 small red onions, finely chopped

6 small garlic, finely chopped.
2 cubes of knorswiss chicken cubes
rice for 4 persons.
salt to taste
2 tbsp cooking oil
the leftover soup from boiling of chicken

Method

Dissolve the chicken cubes with a little hot water

Wash rice and drain
Heat up oil in frying pan
Add in onions and garlic, fry till fragrant
Add in chicken cubes
Add in drained rice and fry till evenly coated
Transfer to rice cooker
Use the soup from boiling of chicken
Add in enough quantity as you see fit
Cook rice as per normal.

Ingredients for making cabbage soup

Leftover soup from boiling chicken if any

If not, 1 carton of swanson chicken stock
1 round cabbage
2 cubes of knorswiss chicken stock

Method

Pluck cabbage in small pieces

Boil in soup till soft
If not tasty, add chicken cubes (dissolved)
Salt to taste

Ingredients for chicken rice chilli

300gms chilli padi

4 slices fresh ginger
5 pcs garlic peeled
1tbsp sugar
1tsp salt
1tbsp cooking oil
soya sauce to taste
Blend all ingredients except cooking oil and soya sauce
After blending, add oil and soya sauce according to taste.

Voila! It’s done

Vietnamese Vermicelli Salad

When we went to London for my daughter, Sandy's wedding last June, we were invited to my son-in-law's uncle's home for barbeque.
This salad went very well with all the meat and it was very very refreshing.
I asked for the recipe and have tried it a couple of times already.  Very easy to do.

Ingredients

All kinds of salad ingredients that you like
Any kind of meat, could be char siew, roast chicken, beef, etc
Peanuts, fried till fragrant and pounded coarsely.
1 packet vermicelli soaked and blanced till soft. Drain dry.

Ingredients for the sour sauce

10 small limes or 5 lemons, squeezed for its juice
1 small carrot. sliced thinly
1 clove garlic finely minced
3 chillies finely minced
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
3 bowls water

Method

Put everything (except lime juice) in pot and gently boil
till sugar dissolves.
Let it cool before adding lime jiuce.
Taste and adjust to your taste.
It is suppossed to be sweet and sour.

Place a handful of vermicelli into bowl, top with salad and pour the sauce to mix them up. Top with meat and ground peanuts.

Real nice and healthy

Mengkabo

MENGKABO – AUNTIE DOLLY’S CHILLI PORK DISH

This is dish is an heirloom exclusive to my family as the recipe was left behind by my late mother.  Just like what I am trying to do for my family now.  It is not clear how this dish came about but it is similar to a nonya dish but with a slight difference.  I suppose my mum modified it and called it her own version. It is spicy, savoury and sharp.

Each time my mum cooked this dish, people raved about it and kept asking her for the name of the dish.

Most times people could not remember or pronounce mengkabo. My mum being a very jovial lady, told them to remember NINABO instead. That word is a crude term commonly used in the hokkien community, something derogatory relating to one’s mother.  Just like in the west, when you curse “bloody hell”

I have protected this recipe for the last 50 years and now it is time to share it with you, the younger generation and hope that you will enjoy this dish as much as my whole extended family and my friends.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE REMPAH PASTE FOR BLENDING

200 grams shallots, peeled
50 grams candlenuts
50gms dried chillies (remove seeds before soaking)
50grams big red chillies (remove seeds)
50 grams belachan toasted (shrimp paste)
50 grams sliced galangal (blue ginger)
50 grams sliced turmeric (yellow ginger)
50 grams sliced serai (lemongrass)

Total of 8 items (remember the no. 8 always then you won’t miss out anything)

Blend with a little water till fine

PS. The above paste can be used to cook prawns, fish and squid. So make extra, fry with oil till fragrant ,cool it and store in freezer in portions.

INGREDIENTS

2 Kilograms of pork belly (I always use chilled Indonesian pork)
3 tablespoons mashed salted bean paste (tau cheong)
200 grams assam (tamarind) soaked in 500ml lukewarm water
100 grams green chillies
3 tablespoons sugar and a little salt to taste
2 Tablespoons cooking oil

METHOD

Heat oil and fry the rempah paste till you see oil enveloping the paste

Add pork and stir fry

Squeeze the assam juice (leave out pulp) into pan

When mixture starts to boil, turn fire down to medium and slow cook till pork is soft

You may have to add more assam juice when the liquid dries up

Cooking time is about 1 ½ hours

Lastly, add in green chillies and boil for 2 mins

Hope you all try cooking this dish at least once.

Cooking is also all about practice. The more you cook, the better the improvements.  Do not give up even if you don’t get it right the first time.

In years to come, I hope to be remembered each time people enjoy this dish.

Tau Yew Bak (Soya Sauce Belly Pork)

This is one of the easiest dishes to make.  It is a complete meal by itself as it has meat, egg and beancurd.  Eaten with hot piping rice or porridge accompanied by spicy sambal belachan, its real satisfying.

Ingredients

1 kg belly pork cut into bite sized pieces

2 pieces of tau kwa (firm beancurd)

4 hard boiled eggs

2 cloves of garlic

good quality black soya sauce - 4 tablespoons

sugar and salt to taste

1 teaspoon five spice powder

Dash of pepper

2 tablespoons cooking oil

water

Method

Bring a pot of water to boil

Blanch the pork to remove the dirt

Heat Oil in kwali

Add some minced garlic, fry till fragrant

Add pork and five spice powder

Stirfry for 2 minutes

Add black sauce, sugar, salt, two cloves of unpeeled garlic

Add enough water and simmer till pork is soft

When almost done, add beancurd and eggs

When bean curd is cooked, cut it into 4 squares

The dish is now ready to be served. Just sprinkle some pepper powder on top

Making Rempah (Basic Chilli Paste)

Peranakan cooking is all about the Rempah.  Once you have mastered the making of the basic Rempah, you can cook so many dishes.  The all time favourites, Curry Chicken, Sambal Prawns, Sambal Fish ,Lontong, Laksa and not forgetting my specialty, Mengkabo (Chilli Pork Ribs or Belly Pork). Some recipes vary a little here and there, but the Rempah is a basic. I always blend more and pack them into individual portions for future use.


Ingredients (For Blending)

200 grams shallots, peeled

50 grams candlenuts

100 grams dried chillies, soaked. (remove seeds)

100 grams big red chillies (remove seeds)

50 grams belachan toasted (shrimp paste)

50 grams sliced galangal (blue ginger)

50 grams sliced turmeric (yellow ginger)

50 grams sliced serai (lemongrass)

Total of 8 items (remember the no. 8 always then you won’t miss out anything)

Blend with a little water till fine. Heat a tablespoon cooking oil, fry rempah on slow fire till you see a layer of oil oozing out.  Cool and divide into portions and zip blog for freezing.

Mee Goreng

 As a wife, mum, mother-in-law and grandma, I have to remember each and every family member’s favourite food.  Of course they are like me and enjoy good food a lot.  Problem is they have many favourites.  Sometimes, I have to  tweak my menu so that everyone will be happy.  So for one week, I will cook my hubby’s favourite paper wrapped chicken,  another week I will make chicken rice which is my grandson’s favourite.  The list goes on.

Today, for my second daughter’s sake, I will make Mee Goreng

 AUNTIE DOLLY’S MEE GORENG

 INGREDIENTS

 

2 kilograms fresh yellow noodles – 6 servings

½ kilograms squid – cut into rings
½ kilograms medium sized prawns peeled
½ kilograms choysum –washed and cut
100 grams big onions
100 grams fresh green chillies – deseeded and cut into cubes
2 tomatoes – sliced thinly
3 eggs
2 tablespoons sambal paste –can be bought from Glory’s  in bottles
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
Salt and sugar
Chopped garlic
3 tablespoons cooking oil

 METHOD

Wash noodles and drain dry
Season prawns and squid with a little salt and sugar
Heat oil in kuali, fry garlic, fry prawns and squid separately and remove from kuali (dish up the gravy as well)
Heat more oil, fry some garlic. throw in noodles and fry till evenly coated with oil,
Add in choysum and toss evenly with noodles
Push to one side, add sambal and tomato ketchup.
Stir fry noodles till evenly coated with paste.
Add the prawns and squids together with the gravy collected
Add in green chillies and tomatoes and toss some more
Add salt, sugar and light soya sauce to your taste.
If noodle is too dry, sprinkle some water
Lastly push noodles aside and add in a little oil and break eggs into kuali.

Do not overcook the eggs. It is nicer to be a little runny. 

IMPORTANT, NO MATTER WHAT YOU COOK, ALWAYS DO A TASTE TEST BEFORE SERVING

Steamed Egg

I have been very fortunate when it comes to learning how to cook. I had my mother who taught me her peranakan recipes and my mother in law to thank for traditional Cantonese food.

Her steamed egg is so well loved by everyone and to this day people still ask us how we do it

 INGREDIENTS

 3 eggs (must be room temperature)

Cooled boiled water – use half egg shell and fill water equivalent to 3 portions per egg

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

 METHOD

 Mix all ingredients together and beat lightly.

 Use a spoon to skim off the bubbles

 Transfer to shallow plate. Add water to pot or kuali and 

  bring it to a boil. Place a stand in pot and place the plate of 

  egg on it.  Steam for 5 mins on low fire 

NOTE

The texture of the egg should be silky smooth. You can achieve that only if you use low fire