Orange Glazed Ribs

Mandarin oranges are a symbol of good luck. Come Chinese New Year, many homes are decorated with mandarin orange plants decked out with lucky ornaments. And crawling from house to house collecting ang baos wouldn't be possible without a pair of orange mandarins.

Given mandarin oranges' importance to Chinese traditions, it's a shame these good luck fruits aren't used in any popular CNY recipe. You know, like pineapples are in pineapple tarts.

"旺来", meaning prosperity is arriving, sounds like 'pineapples' in Hokkien. Mandarin oranges' other Chinese name, 大吉, means lots of luck. We should, therefore, eat lots of lucky 大吉 whilst inhaling piles of pineapple tarts in the name of prosperity. With the double dosage, we ensure that the arriving prosperity is the best type that falls out of the sky. If we eat only pineapple tarts, we might be prosperous only by working our ass off. That's not as good as getting undeserved riches, is it?

There're lots of wonderful things to make with oranges, like orange cakes, orange cookies, orange soufflé, duck a l'orange and my favourite, Orange Glazed Pork Ribs. I love anything sweet and sour, so these ribs are right up my alley. All the dish needs is an auspicious name to make it perfect for CNY, so I've renamed it 大吉排骨, or Lucky Ribs. After eating 大吉排骨, I'm sure I'll have lots of good luck in the Year of the Rabbit.
Casino, here I come!

ORANGE GLAZED PORK RIBS (橙汁排骨) (Recipe for 4 persons) 500 g pork prime ribs, chopped 2½ cm (1 inch) long, washed, and dried with paper towels Marinade 2½ tsp salt ½ tsp sugar 2 tsp Shaoxing wine 2 tsp oyster sauce 3 tbsp orange juice 1 tbsp beaten egg 2 tbsp cornflour 2 tbsp potato flour vegetable oil for deep-frying 3 tbsp sugar 2 tbsp lemon juice 6 tbsp orange juice 1 tbsp finely minced orange zest, orange slices as garnish, arranged on serving plate pinch of julienned orange zest as garnish Mix marinade and ribs till marinade is absorbed. Marinade for 2 hours. Add egg to ribs and mix evenly. In a separate bowl, thoroughly mix cornflour and potato flour. Tip the whole lot of ribs, plus whatever liquid there is, into the flour mixture. Toss and mix so that ribs are coated with batter. Deep-fry ribs in moderately hot oil over medium heat till just cooked and lightly brown, 5 minutes or so. Drain. Reheat oil to just smoking. Fry ribs till golden brown. Drain. In a clean wok/pan, heat sugar till light brown. Add orange juice and lemon juice, which would solidify the sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring so that the sugar melts again. Cook over medium heat till slightly thickened. Sauce shouldn't be too thin or batter on ribs would be soggy. Sauce shouldn't be too thick either or it wouldn't be sweet because the sugar has caramelized too much, and it may solidify again. When sauce is almost ready, reduce heat to low. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Add ribs and minced orange zest. Toss till evenly coated. Turn off heat. Plate and garnish with julienned orange zest. Serve immediately. Here's the Chinese video that I more or less follow:

Salted Crispy Chicken (盐酥鸡)

It's chicken; it's deep fried; and it's got lots of seasoning. How can 盐酥鸡 – salted crispy chicken – not be a winner? It's practically the king of nighttime street food in Taiwan, loved by young and old alike.

Eat your heart out, KFC, in the land of 盐酥鸡. (Hey, it rhymes!)

Using a recipe from the Taiwanese cookery teacher here, the 盐酥鸡 I made yesterday bore the classic hallmark of street food – it made me quite thirsty! Hah, so it really had the feel of night market food! There was quite a lot of salt in the seasoning, as well as sugar and spices which masked the saltiness. 盐酥鸡 isn't something that should be eaten too often, I guess, but it makes a great occasional nibble.

Besides being heavily seasoned, good salted crispy chicken must be, as its name says, crispy.

The key to getting the maximum crunch is deep-frying the chicken twice, once to cook it and a second time to crisp it. The first round of deep-frying is quite easy. It's good so long as the chicken is slightly brown, and just cooked or almost cooked. The oil shouldn't be too hot, but hot enough to set the flour so that it doesn't fall off.

Whilst the chicken is waiting for the oil to heat up for round two, excess moisture in the meat rises to the surface. Which then evaporates when the chicken is refried, causing the oil to bubble rapidly. When the bubbling subsides, that means the coating of flour is dry. Ideally, at the same time, the chicken should be just turning a perfect shade of golden brown. If it isn't, that means the oil isn't hot enough, and the flour is full of oil and therefore soggy. Or the chicken may be brown before the bubbling stops because the oil is too hot. That means the flour is full of moisture and therefore soggy.

The conclusion is: a deep-fryer with temperature control would be very handy!



The night markets in Taiwan where 盐酥鸡 is commonly found sometimes have performances. In the same spirit, I'm also offering entertainment with my post, and it's a Hokkien/Taiwanese song, no less. Before you sniff at the idea, thinking Hokkien songs are terribly lowbrow, let me assure you this is a classy performance with a full size orchestra and humongous chorus. In fact, the Taiwanese songstress is so good that she shows Placido Domingo a thing or two. That's right, Placido Domingo singing a Hokkien song, upstaged by a woman from Taiwan (who admittedly had some home advantage):

SALTED CRISPY CHICKEN (盐酥鸡) Source: 周老師的美食教室 (Recipe for 4 persons) 500 g chicken, washed, dried with paper towels, and chopped into bite size pieces Marinade 2 tbsp light soya sauce 2 tsp sugar 2 tsp mashed or very finely minced garlic ½ tsp chicken powder ½ tsp five-spice powder ½ tsp ground white pepper 1 tbsp potato flour ½ cup sweet potato flour, coarse if possible vegetable oil for deep-frying ½ cup basil (九層塔), leaves only, rinsed, and dried with paper towels ½ tsp ground white pepper ½ tsp chilli powder Marinade chicken for 1 hour. Dredge with sweet potato flour. Wait 5 minutes to let moisture in chicken seep into flour. Press gently so that flour sticks well. Deep-fry chicken in moderately hot oil over medium heat till just cooked or nearly cooked and lightly golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes depending on size. Drain. Reheat oil to just smoking. Fry chicken over high heat till golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Reheat oil to just smoking. Deep-fry basil for a few seconds, till oil is no longer stonking hot. Remove leaves with a slotted spatula. Reheat oil till just smoking. Fry basil for another few seconds till crisp. Drain on kitchen towels. Put chicken and basil leaves in a big bowl whilst piping hot. Sprinkle with pepper and chilli powder. Toss to mix thoroughly. Plate. Serve with rice, or as a finger food with drinks. It's also good with Teochew porridge.

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Nyonya Achar

I learnt how to make achar from my landlady's maid who, when she came and cleaned my place every week, occasionally left me little gifts in the fridge. I'm usually too shy (yes, really!) to ask anyone for recipes but I liked her achar so much that I did. She not only wrote it down for me but also – bless her! – brought all the ingredients to my place and showed me how.

Years later, after I bought The Best of Singapore Cooking, I realized that the written recipe she had given me was from Mrs Leong Yee Soo's cookbook. What she actually made, however, was quite different – and better – than Bibik Leong's, with less oil and more sugar. I guess it's important to "season to taste", which was what I did when I recreated the achar recipe I had forgotten because it wasn't written down. That's why I'm writing it down now!

Achar is a great dish for Chinese New Year, which is just round the corner. When I feel stuffed after inhaling too many pineapple tarts, there's nothing like a sour pickle to reboot my appetite. With a few nibbles of tart and spicy achar, feasting and drinking in the Year of the Rabbit can go on and on . . . like the Energizer rabbit!

Good things must be shared, so Peranakans have the tradition of giving achar as gifts on festive occasions. Bringing wine or chocolates to a dinner party is so predictable, isn't it?. What could be more impressive than homemade pickle in an ornate kamcheng?

The "hostess with the mostess" must look like a swan swimming across the lake – calm and elegant. No one must see the feet underwater pedaling away furiously. And if the pedaling can be done ahead of time, why not? If there's a bowl of achar in the fridge (or under the bed, fermenting away), that's one dish already done.

So there you go, three great reasons to make achar. What are you waiting for?

NYONYA ACHAR (MIXED VEGETABLE PICKLE) (Recipe for 24 portions) 180 g shallots (18 pieces), peeled and washed 1 piece turmeric, small thumb size, peeled and washed 1 piece ginger, thumb size, peeled and washed 3 red chillies, trimmed and washed 4 tbsp chilli powder, mix with 2 tbsp water to form chilli paste ½ cup unsaturated vegetable oil 1 cup white rice vinegar 1½ cups water 2 cups sugar (400 g) For blanching 2 cups white rice vinegar 2 cups water 1 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp salt 1 kg cauliflower, cut into florets 150 g carrots, peeled, trimmed, and cut into thin batons 300 g cabbage, cut into large bite size pieces 1 kg cucumber, trimmed and cut into batons 3 tbsp salt 300 g peanuts, roasted, skin removed and coarsely chopped 3 tbsp white sesame seeds, toasted (1) Use unsaturated oil, such as corn or rice bran oil, that doesn't solidify when it's cold. (2) You'd need a non-reactive bowl or pot that can hold at least 3 litres for storing the pickle. (3) Don't let the turmeric or chilli stain your clothes! Grind or pound shallots, turmeric, ginger and chillies till fine. Mix thoroughly with chilli paste. In a non-reactive pan/wok, stir-fry spices in hot oil over medium heat till fragrant and colour darkens, about 10 minutes. Add vinegar, water, sugar and salt. Bring to a gentle boil. Simmer gently for 1 minute, covered. Turn off heat. Uncover and leave till cool. Bring ingredients for blanching to a rapid boil. Briefly blanch cauliflower, carrots and cabbage in batches. After blanching each batch, liquid should come back to a boil. Spread out vegetables to cool on large trays. Sprinkle cucumber with salt. Mix well. Leave to sweat for 30 minutes. Rinse and pat dry with kitchen towels. In a non-reactive bowl, mix everything except one third of peanuts and sesame seeds. Marinade should cover maybe 70% of vegetables at this stage. As liquid is released from the veggies, the 'water level' will rise. Place achar in the fridge, covered. Stir now and then to mix everything thoroughly during the first 12 hours. After 12 hours, taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. It should taste a bit spicier and sourer than how you'd like it. Flavours will be rounder and less sharp in another 24 hours. Pickle may be served after marinating for 24 hours, though 36 would be better. It's best in the first few days, but may be stored in the fridge for up to 1 month. To serve, transfer pickle with a slotted spoon to a serving plate, draining most of the marinade. Top with more peanuts and sesame seeds.

Three-Cup Chicken (三杯鸡)

The most difficult part about cooking, for me, is finding good ingredients. The quality of a lot of products is really quite bad nowadays.

Some chicken is so tasteless that if you ate it blindfolded, you wouldn't know what it is. Likewise with fish that's farmed. Groundnuts, even if freshly roasted and freshly ground, may not have much aroma. Bitter gourd is barely bitter. Mangoes taste just sweet at best and smell of nothing.

When I was a kid, they had such a heady fragrance that holding one to my nose was (almost) better than eating it. So thank goodness there's basil that still smells and tastes like basil.

Taiwanese love basil. They add basil to chicken, pork, clams, prawns, omelette, soup, etc – just about everything. Three-Cup Chicken, or 三杯鸡, is one of Taiwan's 'national' dishes that uses lots of basil. Invented by the Hakkas in Taiwan, it's extremely popular in the home as well as restaurants.

Three-Cup Chicken is quite similar to Sesame Chicken (麻油鸡) since both use lots of sesame oil, wine and light soya sauce. But there're some differences too. Sesame Chicken doesn't have any 
basil; it isn't sweet or spicy; and it has a watery sauce that may be thickened with cornflour. Three-Cup Chicken, OTOH, is a bit sweet and spicy; it's quite dry when it's done because no water is added during cooking; and basil is the soul of the dish.

Let's see, anything else . . . ? Oh yes, presentation. Three-Cup Chicken is typically served in a claypot that's covered. When the cover is removed at the table, everyone gets a full whiff of the fragrance from the basil, sesame oil, rice wine . . . the whole lot. Mmm . . . .

'Three-Cup' supposedly means one cup each of rice wine, light soya sauce and sesame oil, which would make some really oily and salty chicken. Maybe people in the old days liked stronger seasoning so as to stretch the meat?

I prefer to use one cup of rice wine to 0.5 cup of light soya sauce and about 0.2 cup of sesame oil. Strictly speaking, what I make is 1.7-Cup Chicken!

But I guess 'Three-Cup' could be reinterpreted. How about one cup of chicken, one cup of basil, and . . . one cup of rice? Or if you prefer a cup of ice cold beer over rice, that would do too. In fact, why not have both and make it four cups? Three cheers for Four-Cup Chicken – 四杯鸡! Yay!

THREE-CUP CHICKEN (三杯鸡) (Recipe for 4 persons) 2 chicken legs (450 g), rinsed and chopped bite-size 1½ tbsp white sesame oil 2 pieces ginger, thumb size, washed, and thinly sliced 10 cloves garlic, topped, peeled, and rinsed 2 sprigs spring onion, washed, trimmed, and cut 5-cm (2-inches) long 3 large chillis, washed and cut 2-cm (1-inch) long 6 small chilli padis, or to taste, washed and roughly chopped ½ cup rice wine (8 tbsp) 4 tbsp light soya sauce 2 tbsp sugar 1 cup Thai sweet basil (九層塔), leaves only, washed and drained well ¼ tsp black sesame oil The chicken should be cut fairly small so that it can be coated with lots of sauce. Otherwise, it's quite tasteless because it's not marinated or braised. Preheat a small claypot, if you have one, over medium-high heat whilst stir-frying chicken. Don't forget the cover. In a stonking hot wok, stir-fry ginger in stonking hot sesame oil over high heat till slightly golden. Add garlic, chillis and spring onion. Stir-fry till garlic is lightly golden and wok is stonking hot again.  Add chicken and fry till lightly brown, stirring occasionally, and wok is stonking hot. Drizzle with 2 tbsp rice wine. Stir till wok is stonking hot (again!) and dry, a few seconds. Drizzle with another 2 tbsp rice wine. Repeat stirring till wok is stonking hot (!) and dry again, a few seconds. Add light soya sauce and sugar. A few quick stirs. Add remaining rice wine. Stir to mix thoroughly. When sauce is slightly thickened, turn off heat. Transfer to preheated claypot. Increase heat for claypot to high. Stir till chicken is coated with sauce, which should be gleaming, dark and sticky. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Add basil. Mix a bit, quickly so that basil is only a bit wilted. Drizzle with black sesame oil. Cover. Turn off heat. Bring covered claypot to the table. Uncover when everyone's seated. They should then go 'Oooooh!' and 'Aaaaah!' Otherwise, don't cook for them again, ever. If not using claypot, cook chicken in the wok till sauce is sticky. Stir through basil till fully wilted. Plate and drizzle with black sesame oil. Serve.

Sugared Yam (反沙芋)

What do I like that's sweet, made with yam and Teochew? If you think it's the most well-known Teochew dessert, sorry, you're wrong. Nope, it's not Or Nee, 芋泥. It's Sugared Yam, 反沙芋, which is deep fried yam (or taro to Americans) coated with recrystallized sugar. Compared to Or Nee which uses steamed yam, 反沙芋 is lighter but more fragrant.

I first had 反沙芋 at Putien, a Heng Hwa restaurant. As I was enjoying the soft, powdery yam sweetened with a crunchy coat of sugar, I thought there was something decidedly Teochew about the dish although I wasn't in a Teochew restaurant. A quick check on the Internet confirmed my suspicion. In fact, there was no mention at all that 反沙芋 might be a Heng Hwa dish as well.

The key to a good 反沙芋, or any yam dish for that matter, is yam that's really powdery and fragrant. Pick those that have lots of red veins inside, said my grandmother who was a genius at choosing yam. Besides veins, weight is also a good indicator. Light ones are good because they have less water and therefore more starch. Half the battle is won once a good yam is selected.

The other half of the battle is making the coat of recrystallized sugar, which requires a bit of skill. If the sugar is overheated, it would recrystallize without sticking to the yam. If it's underheated, the frosting would stick but it'd be soggy instead of flaky and crunchy. Getting it just right takes some practice.

If the battle is won, piping hot 反沙芋 is a darn good side dish, as it's served at Putien restaurant. Or a delectable dessert with some strong, Chinese black tea. 工夫茶 – gong fu tea – anyone?

SUGARED YAM (反沙芋) (Recipe for 4 persons) 300 g peeled yam (taro), rinsed and pat dry with paper towels 4 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp white sesame seeds, toasted and finely ground 1 tbsp spring onions thinly sliced pinch of salt, optional vegetable oil (or lard!) for deep-frying The quality of the yam makes or breaks the dish. Good yam is light for its size and has lots of red veins inside. Discard a good inch or so from the top and bottom, and be generous when peeling. There's less starch just below the skin and around the head and bottom. Thai yam is, I think, better than yam from China. If you like green bean paste that's salty and sweet, you'd like a pinch of salt in 反沙芋. Otherwise, leave it out. Traditionally, there's no salt in 反沙芋. Cut yam into finger size pieces. Deep-fry in hot oil over medium heat till just cooked and surface is just slightly blond, about 5 minutes. Don't brown too much or yam would be leathery. Don't overcook or yam might fall apart when it's tossed with sugar. Drain fried yam on paper towels. Once yam is cooked, heat sugar, and salt if using, with 1 tbsp water in a wok over low heat till sugar is melted. With a pair of chopsticks and the wok tilted to one side, stir vigorously till solution thickens slightly, 1-2 minutes. Do not heat till solution turns white/opaque or sugar would crystallize without sticking to the yam. When sugar is slightly thickened but still translucent, add deep fried yam, sesame powder and spring onions. Toss gently till evenly coated. Increase heat to high. Keep tossing gently till sugar recrystallizes fully and turns white. Ideally, icing should be flaky (unlike Kacang Putih's icing which is hard). Serve immediately.