Pork Roast Singapore Hainanese Style

I believe that I have been able to make kiam chye (Chinese preserved vegetables) that are as good as the ones bought from the Asian stores in Chinatown and I have been able to duplicate most dishes I have had in many restaurants, but making Hainanese roast pork is always a challenge. I have always wanted to make this dish at home to rival the quality of those crispy crackling and succulent meat of the Hainanese roast pork, available only from those famous shophouses in Seah Street (commonly known as Hainam Quei or Hoinam Kai when I was a child) in Singapore. I know it is possible to make very good roast pork usually for more superior to the suburban Chinese BBQ shop but it wont be as good as the roast pork make by a Hainanese Ah Ko (cook) in Singapore.Last Sunday's roast dinner was a close second but nevertheless, I post the recipe and a photo for you to judge.

Roast Pork Hainanese Style Ingredients:

2.5kg boneless pork loin roast
1 cup sherry
1 cup soy sauce, light
1/2 tsp Chinese Five Spice ( See below for recipe)
5 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup oil
1tbsp 5-spice powder

Chinese Five Spice

star anise
Szechuan Peppercorns
cinnamon
fennel
cloves

Stir fry until fragrant and grind fine.



Score the pork skin with a sharp knife at regular interval and rub salt, pepper and five spice powder into the pork all over.Combine all ingredients, except pork roast.Put pork roast in large plastic bag (or plastic container). Pour marinade over pork. Marinate at least 6 hours in refrigerator, or overnight. Preheat the oven to very hot 250 C. Rub in oil and salt to ensure a crisp crackling. Place the pork with the rind side uppermost on a rack in a large baking dish lined with aluminium foil. Add a little water to the baking dish. Roast for 45 minutes, or until the skin begins to crackle and bubble. Reduce the heat to moderate 180C. Roast for 2 hours. The pork is done if the juices run clear when the flesh is pieced with a skewer Do not cover the pork or the crackling will soften. Rest the pork for at least 10 minute before cutting .

What is Chop Suey in Cantonese again?

I often wonder at the similarity between the famous Chop Suey, a popular dish in American Chinese restaurants with our traditional chap chai; and thinking they must have originated from the same place in China and handed down through the early Chinese migrants to both countries.. Before I pour oil into the fire and have a go at it's origin, I would like to walk down memory lane of my first encounter with this famous American dish in Los Angeles Chinatown, twenty five years ago. This classic American Chinese stir fry vegetable dish in which meat, poultry or fish is often added or it may be vegetarian is thereby very much similar to our chap chai. The name chop suey refers to pieces of different meat and vegetables as in an English translation of the Mandarin tsa-sui,(杂碎) and the Cantonese tsap seui,. There are many who think that stir fry dishes like chop suey were actually first created in Toisan a rural region south China. Many early Chinese immigrants to the United States did come from that area. Although, there are various colorful stories about its origin, I always like to remind my guests of this version of the lore, whenever I served this dish at home. This bit of the lore about the origin of chop suey suggests that a Chinese-American cook was annoyed at the way restaurant customers were treating him. As a way of retaliating at the patrons who'd earned his ere, he cooked up scraps of food that were destined for the swill garbage bin. The patrons ended up enjoying the dish and asked for it on future visits without realizing it had been meant as a pay back from the cook. Incidentally, the Cantonese translation for swill is "sow suey".
Making chop suey is a great way to use up leftovers of meat, fish and poultry as well as an excess of fresh vegetables. There seems to be a glut of Chinese Cabbages in the market at the moment, we bought this Chinese cabbages at a dollar each! There is no better way to use up these cabbages before it goes to the swill.


















Chap Chai Recipe:

Ingredients:
50g Lily buds (Kim Chiam)
50g Dried Beancurd skin (tau kee)
20g Black Fungus
50g Mung Bean Vermicelli
50g Dried Chinese Mushroom (Shitake Mushroom)
500g Chinese Cabbage
100g Carrot (sliced)
60g Fermented Soya Bean Paste (Tau Cheo)
50g Garlic (chopped finely)
750ml Vegetable stock
3 Tbsp Oil
5g Salt and pepper
2 Tbsp Soya Sauce

Methods:

Soak lily buds, dried beancurd skin, black fungus and Chinese Mushroom in water until softened.
Heat wok with oil and fry garlic until slightly brown, then add fermented soya bean paste
When garlic and fermented soya bean paste is fragrant, Add all the ingredients (except for the mung bean vermicelli), stir well and until vegetables softened. When bubbling, stir in the mung bean vermicelli and simmer for another15 minutes. Add water, thick black soya sauce and salt and stir for a while

Let's Spring and Roll a Popiah...

It is a normal practice to order a plate or two of three different hors-d'oeuvre to make a happy but light start to a meal in a Chinese restaurant. But not in the case of my teen son, who would only request a double serve of his all time favourite deep-fried spring rolls and nothing else. Not surprising for someone who thinks that everything edible is deep fried, right?. We proved him wrong when we had non-fried spring rolls as our main course for dinner at home, last night. Unlike the deep-fried spring roll, which is a favourite hors-d'oeuvre in the restaurants, the non fried version called "popiah" is a very popular street snack available from hawker stalls and food courts in Singapore and Malaysia. Traditionally it a festive food to cater for large family gatherings and as an altar offering to the gods. Sadly, serving popiah at family gathering is such a rare thing nowadays because the prep work is so intensive and time consuming. My mother used to spend hours shredding vegetables, pounding hydrated dried chilli and garlic in a mortar separately into a fine paste, rendering pork lard and deep fried bawang merah into crunchy onions topping, making omelet strips, and most of all, hand-shredding the jicama (bangkuang, yam bean, sengkuang) and finally cooking it together with loads of belly pork and shrimps for the main filling. In order to compliment her popiah's filling, she would only patronise the handmade popiah wrapper from the neighbourhood "Popiah Phoey Uncle". As a child, I used to be amazed by Popiah Phoey Uncle's ability to hold a lump of dough in one hand and pressed it in a circular motion on to the pan just enough to form a very thin yellowish white popiah skin. It was indeed a sight to watch. The art of swinging the dough onto a pan and pulling quickly to form a thin popiah skin is something I likened to a magician!

Popiah (Non-fried Spring Rolls) Recipe:

Filling:

2 kg bangkuang (jicama) if unavailable use cabbage as an alternative.
250g french beans (sliced)
1 carrot (julliened)
8 pcs tau kwa (hard bean curd)
350g medium sized prawns (shelled and deveined)
150g garlic
2 tbsp osyter sauce / light soya sauce
5 tbsp sugar
1 cup water
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pepper

30 pcs Popiah wrapper
200 g lettuces
1 cup roasted and finely chopped peanuts

Sauces:

1 cup sweet soya sauce (Tee Cheow) if unavailable use Hoisin sauce.
1/2 cup chilli paste (sambal olek)
1/2 garlic (finely grounded)
1/2 cup prawn paste (hae koe) diluted with water (optional)

Peel jicama (bangkuang) and carrot and cut into matchstick strips and set aside. Cut tao kwa (hard bean curd) into thin strips and fry in oil until slightly browned. Drain on towel paper towel. Saute a teaspoon of garlic and add in the prawns and removed with a slotted spoon when cooked. Add in remaining garlic and saute until golden before adding jicama and carrot. Stir fry for a minute before adding salt, pepper, sugar, oyster sauce and pour in the water. Cook over medium heat until the jicama and carrot is soft and the liguid has been absorbed. Add the french bean together with the bean sprouts and stir fry for a minute before adding the prawns. Remove from heat and empty into a large bowl. Your guests are invited to DIY the popiah at the table after you have have shown how to assemble a popiah. To assemble a popiah, simply lay popiah wrapper on a large plate. Spread 1 tsp sweet soya sauce or hoisin sauce, 1/2 tsp chilli sauce, 1/4 tsp prawn paste(hae koe) and garlic paste. Adjust the amount of sauce to personal taste.Place a lettuce leaf over the the sauces and add 3-4 tbsp of filling and top with roasted peanut, tau kwa. Fold the two sides of the wrapper and roll up into a cylinder shape. Eat it like a kebab or cut it into 4 or 5 pieces with a sharp knife.

The First Day of Spring Celebration

Today is the first day of spring in Australia and New Zealand. It didn't jump straight out bed as if the alarm clock was set on 1st of September. But it has been stirring from its winter slumber since a fortnight ago, and creeping slowly out of bed, much to the annoyance of many spring flowering buds, who are waiting impatiently to burst into blossom. It is just like waking a teenager in the morning to get ready for school. I know the sun will do the trick for me, I simply pull the curtain and let the sunlight into the room. It works every time! No wonder, the sun is worshipped by so many cultures since the beginning of time.
Astronomically speaking, the vernal equinox falls on September 22nd in the Southern Hemisphere should be the middle of spring. The first flower of my orchid plant blossomed a fortnight ago, has confirmed the arrival of spring. It was also heralded by the blooming of deciduous magnolias, cherries, and quince in the gardens of the neighbourhood. Just like my son, it will give all sort of excuse just to stay in the cosy bed for another minute. Well, the only meaningful and acceptable excuse is the daytime temperatures still lag behind because the earth and sea have thermal latency and take time warm up.
Although the phenological definition of spring relates to indicators, the blossoming of a range of plant species, or the flowering of my orchid may be the indicator of spring. I have to wait until the soil to reach the temperature for my seedlings to survive and flourish before I start transplanting them in the herb garden bed under the Hill Hoist.It therefore varies according to the climate and according to the specific weather of a particular year.
Today, my wife and I celebrate the first day of spring, not only as a time of growth, renewal, of new life (both plant and animal) and the start of better times. It is our wedding anniversary. I will raise a toast with my homemade rice wine and say; To my wife.

Invite a rainbow or two in your backyard...

It is not unusual in Sydney to have a rainbow or two to brighten your day at this time of the year. A pair of rainbow lorikeets has been visiting in my backward every morning, since last week. It is a delight to watch them weaving,ducking and hanging upside down like acrobats through the bottlebrush trees and grevilleas srubs in my backyard. I am pleased that I did the right thing by planting native trees and scrubs, like banksias, bottlebrushes and grevilleas, in my garden to attract these bright multicoloured feathered parrots, as these native plants provide their favourite foods of nectar and pollen from their flowers.
















I have stopped the practice to provide food such as store-bought nectar, sunflower seeds, and fruits such as apples, grapes and pears in a bird feeder for the birds, ever since I have learned the wrong food - grinding seeds and grain can cause damage to their beak and tongue, so it's important to let them eat food from the wild. Furthermore, feeding lorikeets and other birds, particularly processed foods such as biscuits or bread, as their digestive system does not cope with too much artificially refined sugar. In many places, including campsites and suburban gardens, wild lorikeets are so used to humans that they can be hand-fed. But beware! Dont't provide freebies to the birds. Please do not give rainbow lorikeets other kinds of food, such as biscuits, bread or seeds. They may become dependent upon these sources of food and become less inclined to forage in the wild. Eating seeds can actually cause damage to their tongue and beak. Let them feed on native plants!

To Kill a Mockingbird in a Chinese Vegetarian Restaurant...

It never ceased to amaze me why a menu in most Chinese vegetarian restaurants has to be identical to it's non vegetarian counterparts. It always put me in a paradoxical situation to order mock fish, mock duck, mock char siew (Chinese BBQ pork), even mock shark fin soup. As if that is not a mockery in itself, I am expected to say " hmm, it does taste chicken" between the mouthful of morsels of imitation food in my mouth. Even as a omnivore, I do find it offensive to tell my vegetarian friends they are eating 'chicken or fish" especially if they are vegetarians because of their religious beliefs. Like the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird " by Harper Lee, which emphasize on tolerance and decry prejudice, I won't be calling my vegetarian dish "mock chicken in soya sauce " but simply Bean Curd Loaf in Soya Sauce.

Vegetarian Bean Curb Loaves Recipe (commonly known as Vegetarian Chicken)

1pc bean curb skin (Tau Pei)
8 pcs bean curb sheets (Tau Kee)
3 tbsp soya sauce
1 Tbsp sugar.
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup water.

Mix soya sauce, sugar sesame oil, salt and water in a bowl and stir until sugar has dissolved. Place the bean curb skin on a square tray and brush 1 tbsp of sauce mixture across the surface of the bean curb. Place the bean curb sheet on top of the bean curb skin and brush the sauce mixture across the surface of the sheet. Repeat until all the sheets are brushed with the sauce mixture and place neatly on top each other, Fold bean curb sheets into a oblong loaf and wrap in a cheesecloth. Pour any remaining sauce mixture over loaf so that it is completely saturated. Place loaf in a bamboo steamer and steam for at least 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the cheesecloth and allow the loaf to cool.
Heat oil in a pan and fry loaf for 30 seconds over very low heat until golden brown on all sides. Remove to a serving plate and garnish with coriander.

Learn to invest in good stock...

I am not talking about acquiring shares in the stock market at this volatile and uncertain period of our present economy situation. Unlike the tips from your stockbroker, who is only interested in making a quid( or sotong)from commissions with your transactions, I am giving away commission free Chicken stock and Bull stock. The stock I am referring to is the basic ingredients and secrets of the professional chefs, in which the liquid is created by boiling bones, water and seasonings. Like investing in a good stock, you have to investigate what is available in the market and put in the time and effort in order to acquire a good return.
Firstly, let me start with the basic in stock making, a good stock should be allow to cook slowly so that the fat can rise to the top (just like the market - what goes down must come up but it can also evaporate into the thin air!) and skim off (profit taking and taking stock): allow it to simmer for a long time, in order to extract all the taste and nutrients form the bones, it should strained through a fine sieve to remove any impurities. (get rid of all your bad investments). The stained stock should be reduced until it reaches the proper flavour and consistency. Flexibility and tenacity are keys in the current economy crisis, so please rely on your taste; sometime the stock will have to be reduced more, sometime less. If possible, the stock should be kept in the refrigerator overnight before using, so that remaining fat will harden on the top and can be removed. Meanwhile, as the market may have taken a battering and plummeted in the recent time, I would like to share some reliable Bull and Chicken stocks tips with you.

Bull and Chicken Stock Recipe

1.5 kg beef bones cut into 75mm pieces (ask your butcher to do it)
1.5 kg chicken bones (necks or backbones)
3 litres cold water
6 cloves
1 large onion
2 leeks, sliced
2 carrots, peeled
1 stalk celery cut into slices
3 sprigs fresh thyme (if unavailable, 1/2 tsp of dried thyme )
3 bay leaves

Method.
In a large stock pot add the bones and water and bring to a boil. Skimming off the the bloody elements and impurities with a slotted spoon. Continue boiling the stock gently, uncovered for 1 hour and removing and discarding any scrum from time to time. While the stock is boiling, stick the cloves into the onion and set it aside. When the stock has boiled for 1 hour, add the onion and remaining ingredient to the boiling stock. Boil gently for 5 hours and continue to skim off fat and scrum from the top occasionally. Strain the stock through a sieve lined with cheesecloth and cool overnight in the refrigerator. Reserve the bones. ( a second stock can still be made from them. Believe me, I am not being frugal) The first batch is a clear and flavourful broth and is used as a delicate soup or soup base.