Chee Cheong Fun sauce - rice rolls with spicy XO sauce

The best way to eat chee cheong fun is with homemade XO sauce and combining the various traditions to get the best of different worlds.

There are various types of sauces for Chee Cheong Fun. Using dark soy sauce, sesame oil, hoi sin sauce, oyster sauce, fried onion crisp, cut shallot, dried shrimp and scallop XO sauce, fresh shrimp, minced meat, mushroom, sesame seed, peanut.

Fry the onion, garlic, dried shrimp, soaked scallop, ground dried and fresh chilli to make the XO sauce.

To prepare sweet sauce, mix the soy sauce, hoi sin in a saucepan. Mix corn starch and water and pour over the sauces before it starts to boil. Lower heat till liquid is reduced.

Add pickled green chillies and garlic red chilli sauce for more flavour and garlic crisp, shallot crisp, sesame seeds, fresh spring onion, coriander leaves as garnishing and toppings.

Types of common chee cheong fun sauces :

- Hongkong sweet sauce

- Penang prawn paste chilli sauce

- Ipoh Style sweet, hot and sour meat sauce

- Vietnamese black fungus meat and shallot sauce

* Permission to publish on this blog.

Yam bean / bangkwang / turnip fry and stew with cuttlefish

The main ingredient of this festive dish is yam bean, also known as turnip in Southeast Asia or bangkwang in the local Malay lingo. The other main ingredient is dried cuttle fish that is sliced thinly.

Peranakans in northern Malaysia (Penang nonya) name this dish : "yu heu char" which means "fry with cuttlefish" though it is simmered like a stew after the initial frying.

My late aunt's special recipe has sliced shitake mushroom, prawns and carrots to add colour and sophistication to this home cooked dish for special occasions.

The difference between a successful and mediocre dish in the frying. First the garlic crisp, salty beans, mushroom and cuttlefish. Then the vegetable is added and stir fried to ensure it absorbs all the savoury flavours of the other ingredients. No sugar is needed as yam bean is a root vegetable that contains lots natural starch and sugar.

The flavoursome stew can be eaten with rice or use as filling for lettuce wraps (iceberg, cos or Chinese lettuce, whatever is available).

The more commonly known lettuce wraps "sang choy bao" :

http://homecooksecrets.blogspot.com/2009/09/chef-demonstration-of-sang-choy-bao.html

Seafoods for tasty soups, congee and porridge

There is a wealth of information and expert knowledge on cooking soups and stews in oriental cuisines, especially Chinese cooking. It is believed that liquid food enables easy digestion even for the physically weak, sick and convalescing.

Fresh Seafood

Rock oysters, scallop (fresh with roe or thawed from frozen), fish, abalone and prawns can be made into delicious dish in a short time. Do not overcook the seafood.




Dried seafood

If you prefer a meat or vegetable, dried seafood would greatly enhance the flavour of soups such as wanton noodles, porridge and congee.

The most common dried seafood for flavouring are dried oyster and dried scallop. Sometimes dried shell fish slices are used as they are cheaper options.

Dried scallops must be washed and soaked for a few hours before adding into the porride or congee. Dried abalone are expensive and require a longer time to prepare as they need to be soaked for hours and slow cooked for several more hours and therefore used in specialty soups rather than for daily cooking.

The difference between congee and porridge

From Fujian (Hokkian) and Caozhou (Chewchou or Teochew) are rice porridge. Cook rice with three to five times the amount of water in high heat, half covering the lid. Bring to the boil, uncover and continue boiling for another five minutes. Add ingredients and flavouring. Turn off the heat when all the raw ingredients are well cooked. Ready to serve.

Another way of cooking porridge is to boil the soup and add seasoned meat. If using ribs as the soup base, it must be cooked for at least 2 hours.

Guangdong (Cantonese) style congee requires boiling the rice soup for at least two hours. Lower the heat to medium level once the congee starts boiling. Add ingredients and cook till al dante. A friend's relative who owns a restaurant revealed that adding soy milk at this stage will produce a smooth texture. Then lower the heat further and simmer. Keep the lid covered all the time.

For a writeup on crispy oyster pancake, please refer to :

http://homecooksecrets.blogspot.com/2009/10/oyster-egg-pancake-chaozhou-style.html

Banana bread - simple and delicious

Having tried and gone away disappointed with many recipes of banana bread from magazines and online cookbooks, I was surprised that a simple banana loaf recipe provided by the manufacturer of a loaf pan worked marvellously.

1/2 block butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 medium sized eggs, beaten

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup mashed ripe bananas

2 TBS walnuts choppped.

Directions :
Preheat oven to 180 C.
Lightly grease loaf pan.
Combine butter & sugar until creamy.
Add mashed banana and eggs. Mix well.
Sift flour & baking soda into a bowl and combine with banana mixture.
Pour mixture into loaf pan. Top with chopped walnuts.
Bake in oven for 45 minutes or till skewer comes out clean.
Invert the loaf onto a wire rack and allow to cook before serving.

* Tip : from hindsight, I should have lowered the heat when it's almost done to reduce the tendency of split.




You may also like to try the Aussie country bread using beer as raising agent :
http://homecooksecrets.blogspot.com/2009/01/beer-damper-bread.html

Stir fried rice noodle intact

How to fry rice stick noodles (rice vermicelli) without breaking? Have there been occasions when your noodles became too soggy or broken that they look more like fried rice than noodles?

If you can't find a brand that promises tough noodles, then try this method.

Soak dried rice vermicelli in warm (not hot) water for 10 minutes. One piece is enough to feed two to four persons depending on their appetite. In winter, you may need to soak the noodle in lukewarm water but ensure that the noodle remains firm and retains its integrity. If they are already soften before you start frying, there is a good chance of it being broken into pieces as you fry.

The ingredients are entirely up to you. If you like, they could be purely vegetarian : sliced carrots, mushrooms, cabbage, onion, sliced firm tofu, sweet soy skin, mustard green (choy sum), bean sprouts, etc. You may need to add more seasoning such as soy sauce, salt, pepper to perk up the taste of vegetarian noodle.

If your diet preference or observation permit, add meat : sliced chicken, pork, duck, prawn or combination. Season with oyster sauce.
Braised meat is tastier.


Be Patient!


Fry in batches even if you have a large wok.

Start off with frying the garlic and onions in cooking oil till fragrant.
Then the harder to cook vegetables such as carrot, cabbage, mushrooms.
Dish up and set aside.

Add some cooking oil to fry the meat, seafood, egg omelette separately and remove from heat.

Drain the soaked rice noodle and fry in hot cooking oil under medium heat to reduce sticking. Stir the noodle using chopsticks instead of a spatula for greater flexibility and to prevent the noodles from breaking up. Toss all the previously fried meat and vegetables and mix into the noodles evenly. Fry for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add more seasoning sauces if necessary. Turn off the heat and ready to serve. Add fresh and fried shallot according to taste.


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