Sorry, this sea cumcumber recipe is relegated to the history book...

My wife and I were equally surprised when we saw a sea cucumber on sale sign at the local Chinese fishmonger’s shop window, while we were shopping for the Chinese New Year’s celebration. We entered the shop for a closer look and found a hand written price tag of $19.99 a kilo floating among the rehydrated and slimy looking slugs. I thought it was a bit pricy but many other shoppers thought otherwise and the price definitely did not deter a mob of eager customers trying to buy them. I had mixed feelings about preparing this traditional dish for my family to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year. My main concern was not the displayed price of the sea cucumber but rather the fact that it was derived from the overexploitation of sea cucumber stocks in many parts of the world. I can still remember how plentiful and easily available sea cucumber was when I was in Papua New Guinea. Fishing for sea cucumber in Papua New Guinea was mainly carried out by free diving from canoes or dugouts crewed by 2-3 fishermen or by hand collection along reefs at low tide. Once collected, the animal was gutted.They are dried for preservation purposes and had to be rehydrated by boiling and soaking in water for several days. They are mainly used as an ingredient in Chinese cuisine soups or stews and renowned for its slippery, glutinous texture.
Should I continue to serve this traditional dish or send it to the sin bin, together with the infamous shark fin and be relegated to the history books?
I wonder how long before the sea cucumbers come under the same attack from conservation groups as there are growing international efforts to ban the shark fin soup; a traditional but increasingly controversial Chinese dish from the table for good. It is reported in the papers that Hong Kong-based Peninsula and Shangri-La hotel groups have taken shark fin soup off their menus. In Singapore this month, its largest supermarket chain, NTUC FairPrice, will cease sales of shark fin products in March. Cold Storage, another chain with several outlets in Singapore, banned it from its stores there last year.
Did I buy the sea cucumber? Yes I did, but for the last time as I have relegated this recipe to the history book.

Steamed Sea Cucumber with Meatballs Recipe

Ingredients:

1 large sea cucumber
3 slices ginger
1 stalk spring onion
200 g oyster mushroom sliced
1 tbsp rice wine or dry sherry
2 cup water
Minced Pork 350g
1 tsp. Sesame oil
1 Tbsp soya sauce
1 egg
2 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp dried sole fish, toasted over low heat until fragrant and grind to powder. If unavailable, use bonito stock powder.
1 tsp Salt
¼ tsp Pepper



Heat wok and add 1 tbsp oil, stir fry ginger and spring onion until fragrant. Add water and wine and put in sea cucumber and cook for 5 minutes over medium heat. Drain sea cucumber and set aside to cool. In the meantime, mix minced pork with grounded sole fish or bonito stock powder, cornstarch, egg, sesame oil, salt and pepper to form a paste. Stuff the meat paste inside the sea cucumber and secure the filling with a piece of string. Make remaining meat paste into meat balls. Place the sea cucumber, meat balls and sliced oyster mushroom with a cup of water and soya sauce and sesame oil in a plate and steamed for 20 minute and until the meat balls are cooked. Carefully remove the steamed and meatballs onto a deep serving plate. Pour the liquid from the steamed sea cucumber into a sauce pan and bring to boil. Add 1 tbsp cornflour to thicken over a low heat to make a sauce. Pour sauce over the steamed sea cucumber and meatballs and serve.

Chinese New Year is not just another Public Holiday...

Today marks the beginning of the Chinese lunar New Year, my family and I would like to send our best wishes to all friends and relatives and especially to our grand nephew Matteo in Switzerland, who is the newest addition of our tribe.

Chinese New Year which is better known as Chun Jie (spring festival) in China remains steep in tradition and is the most important festival on the Chinese calendar. And with good reason. Chinese New Year like spring season which symbolises the beginning of the year, and offers another fresh start in one’s life. In the same way that spring ushers a new season of growth and vitality in Mother Nature’s world, it heralds fresh hopes for happiness and prosperity among us.

While many modern Singaporeans, Chinese New Year are just another public holiday but with the hassle of organising family reunion dinners, visits to friends and relatives, exchange of gifts and ang pows (lucky monies) to the elders, young and unmarried members of the family. Personally, I would like to think Chinese New Year celebration as a time for reaffirming family and kinship ties and serves to remind us of the important position the family as a unit, occupies in our modern society.
The Chinese New Year is so deep rooted that train tickets are a prized commodity in China at this time of the year with virtually the whole country rushing home to be with their family in time for the celebration which is celebrated over a period of 15 days which begin today. For millions of Chinese migrant workers, the Chinese New Year is the only chance they get all year to go home and see their family. Such was the importance of the celebration that the biggest of human migration in the world had happened in China in the past few days. In the context of modern day Singapore, where there is no great distance to travel it would not be a big ask to visit family elders to show their appreciation and demonstration of love and respect that binds family members together. Kong Hee Huat Chye!

Home Entertainment Is A thing of the Past in Singapore...

Holding a luncheon or dinner at home for friends and relatives to celebrate a birthday or first moon celebration to announce the arrival of a new baby is becoming a thing of the past in modern Singapore. Without a doubt, the hassle of food preparation and the cleaning-up afterwards have contributed to the demise of home entertaining. Even for those people, who likes home entertaining, very often will have their food ordered and prepared from the numerous caterers or even takeaway form their favourite hawker stalls. In recent times, I have noticed that many Singaporean families have also started to follow the popular trend of holding their traditional Chinese New Year’s eve reunion dinner at hotels and restaurants.

Having a reception at home may appear to be a formidable task for most Singaporeans, but it has several advantages which make the idea well considering. The main advantage, of course, is that it saves a great deal of money and in addition, the food can be better or at least more original than that supplied by most catering companies and hotels for these functions. Looking back, it’s the home entertainment times around our house that stand out in my memory, the times when it was as if a magical spell had been cast where usually there was a frightfully austere daily life of my childhood when job was scare for my father to bring enough money to feed his large family. The makan time is coming! I could tell. The grown-ups were talking about food preparation. It might be an occasion for someone‘s birthday or a very important feast day for an ancestral anniversary or better still, a Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner.

Home entertainment, however, requires some planning. First the number of people coming (allow at least two or three extra uninvited guests that your guests may bring along) and enough room for the reception to be held – it is necessary to allow at least 1 sq. metre per person. Remember, too that some furniture e, such as tables for food and drinks and chair for the young and elderly guests is essential. We are lucky to have a veranda to place a buffet table and a lawn for the guest to move around. Tableware can be a problem and it is best borrowed from friends but we solve it by having inexpensive disposable plastic sets and eliminate washing up. Of course, asking our guests to bring a plate (potluck) help to add more varieties of food on the buffet table.
With a bit of planning, a makan session with friends and relatives held in familiar surroundings of our home, imaginatively transformed with auspicious Chinese characters and chun lian (spring couplets) bought from Chinatown in Sydney will make the coming Chinese New Year for my family and friends to enjoy and remember.

Incidentally, we have decided to extend our invitation to some Singaporeans students and new migrants who may have to spend their New Year’s Eve alone for the first time away from home to come and join our family and friends for the celebration of the Year of the Dragon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I wish I could hitch a ride on Santa's sledge and arrive at your doorstep, there to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and shake you by the hand.

Alas, still covered with paints from the house painting job I have been avoiding for the whole year until last week, I must content myself with writting to you. First of all, I want to say it has been a great pleasure writting this blog over the past year. I fully realise full well how your visits and comments have kept this blog going and want you to know how greatly I appreciate it.

I hope the Christmas holiday will find you happy and safe with your family and that the New Year brings you new success and greater prosperity.

Cheers!

Hot Buboh Cha Cha for a Cold Sydney Summer!

If you are visiting Sydney this summer, you are likely to need your brolly or poncho when the weathermen expect the unseasonably cold and wet weather to continue throughout this season. You think its bothersome, wait until you have to unpack your woollies that you have put away and thinking summer is done. Amid the coldest start to a Sydney summer in almost 50 years, my wife reluctantly unpacked the winter clothes she had just put away for storage. We need the winter clothes again as it was reported that Sydney had its lowest December minimum for 16 years with the morning temperature hovering around 10 degree and Katoomba in the Blue Mountain almost froze at 2.5 degree, experienced its lowest December on record. It is the coldest first week of summer since 1960.
We had hot buboh cha cha for dessert last night. No, that was not a typo mistake. I know, many Singaporeans are used to eat buboh cha cha with ice shavings, but with the temperature dropping outside, there is nothing more appropriate than to enjoy a steaming hot bowl of buboh cha cha. I just have to post this recipe as an appreciation for my missus, who had spent the whole afternoon to prepare this dessert. Firstly, she cut the sweet potatoes and taro before steaming them individually. Instead of adding sago, she also made my favourite tiny tapioca dumpling to go with it. Besides, she added black-eye beans to give another unfamiliar twist to the buhoh cha cha that we know.

Buboh Cha Cha Recipe:

Ingredients:

500g sweet potatoes
500g taro
150g black-eye beans
200g tapioca flour
1 cup sugar
5 Tsp water
¼ cup hot water.
2 can (380ml) coconut milk
2 pandan leaves, if unavailable use ½ tsp pandan essence
2 cup water.
½ green food colouring
Soak black eye beans in water overnight. Place beans in a pot and bring to boil for about 30 minutes or until soft. Peel sweet potatoes and taro, cut into 2 cm cubes. Steam sweet potatoes and yam separately for 15 mins or until cooked.
To make tapioca dumplings:
Mix tapioca flour with cold water and stir well. Pour in ¼ hot water or enough to make a soft dough. Add food colour and knead, add more tapioca if necessary. Roll the soft dough into ½ cm strips and cut into cubes or triangles. Sprinkle with more tapioca flour to keep it separate. Bring 4 cups of water to boil in a pot, put in the tapioca cubes. It floats to the surface once it is cooked. Drain and run under a cold water tap.
Bring 2 cup water with sugar to boil in a saucepan and add coconut milk. Put in the sweet potatoes and taro cubes black eye beans and add the tapioca dumplings. Add the pandan essence and serve hot or cold.

Summer time is Party Time in OZ! Lets agar-agar...

Summer time in Australia is party time. It starts with the endless lunches and cocktail parties in the office for end of the year parties until the start of another and together with the traditional Yuletide festivities highlighted in its midst, there is no excuse not to join in the fun. There is no better way to celebrate its joys than to sit down at a table with family and friends and share all the complements of the season. Of course, for many Overseas Singaporeans, every festive season is also synonymous with fine food. And over the holidays, why not try to cook some of our traditional dishes? Besides bringing a dish of home cooked food makes a wonderful gift to bring along for any get-together or party with friends. What better motivation to spend these hazy lazy days of summer and to share some of our time honoured finger-food recipes– perfect with any party or makan session.

Agar -Agar with Coconut Milk Topping:

Ingredients:

30g agar-agar powder
1 ½ cup sugar
1 can (350ml) coconut milk
4 pandan leaves or 1 Tsp pandan essence
½ tsp green colouring
5 cup water

Stir and dissolve 20g agar-agar powder with 4 ½ cup of water in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and add sugar and pandan leaves or pandan essence. Keep stirring while boiling for 20 minutes. Add green colouring and pour into a mould to set for about twenty minutes or until it is about to set but still wobbly.
Coconut Topping:
Stir and dissolve 10g agar –agar powder with water in a sauce pan. Bring to boil. Add coconut milk and bring to boil. Remove from heat once it started to boil.
Gently ladle coconut topping over green agar-agar and leave to set. When it is cooled keep in refrigerator to serve agar –agar cold.

What Kimchi got to do with K-pop in Singapore?

During my recent visit to Singapore, I have noticed that Korean food have taken a firm foothold in the local eatery scene. Korean food is available even in the local food courts and moving towards a popularity status, similar to that enjoyed by Japanese food, up until the 1990s. I can’t help but suspect the Korean TV series or K-pop culture is driving a paradigm shift in the exposure and popularity of the Korean food in Singapore. But recent influx of enquires and requests to by blog for kimchi recipes from fellow Singaporeans can only add to my long held suspicion.
Just like sambal belachan which is an integral side dish for Nonya and Malay families, kimchi is typically served at every meal in Korean homes and restaurants. To many Koreans, a meal without kimchi is unthinkable! Kimchi has always being synonymous to Korea long before K-pop and Korean TV soap operas have grown into a popular pastime among young and many not so young followers in Singapore, resulting in widespread interest from food to the fashion and style of Korean idol groups and actors.
Ironically, I have learned kimchi making not from a Korean but a Japanese friend Naoko, who has been making kimchi according to a home recipe she inherited from her grandmother. It has been her family’s pride; there is nothing like homemade kimchi! Each family’s kimchi has its own unique flavour, but the basic process is still the same. According to Naoko, the basic step is to salt the vegetable, firming it up by extracting its liquid in order to give crunchiness to its final product. A mixture of spices is than added and the vegetable is left to ferment, creating its distinctive character of homemade kimchi.

Ingredients:
2 kg Chinese cabbage.
11/2 cup coarse sea salt
500g Chinese radish cut into matchsticks
3 fresh large chillies seeded and cut into strips.
3 large white onions sliced
150g Chinese chive (ku chai)
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp grated ginger
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup Korean Chilli powder (kochu karu) or coarse chilli powder
2 tsp salted Shrimp (saeu chot) or chinchaluk (Malaysian preserved shrimp)
2 tsp flour.

Wash cabbage and cut lengthwise into quarters. Place the cabbages into a large steel or plastic bowl with the cut sides up and sprinkle salt between the leaves. Dissolve ¼ cup of slat with 1 cup of warm water and pour over the cabbage. Let stand the cabbage for at least 3 hours, shifting the cabbages every hour to evenly salt the pieces. During the last hour, test the cabbage for crunchiness. If you happy with the crunch, rinse the cabbage several time and drain on a colander. Make the stuffing paste while the cabbage is salting. To make the stuffing paste, dissolve the flour in 1 cup of water in a small saucepan. Bring to boil and reduce the heat to medium low. Stirring gently until it becomes a paste. Let it cool before adding the chilli powder and preserved shrimp. Mix well into a deep red paste and add all remaining ingredients and mix well. Place the salted cabbages in a bowl and insert the stuffing paste between the leaves. Place the cabbage into a screw-top jar and press down firmly to pack well and remove trapped air bubbles. Add a little water to mix with the remaining bits and pieces of stuffing and pour over the cabbages. Add more water if needed to immersed kimchi completely in liquid but be sure to leave at least 50mm of space at the top of the jar.