Chwee Kueh (水粿; Steamed Rice Cakes)

There're several types of steamed cakes made with rice flour. If you want to learn how to make these traditional delicacies, chwee kueh would be a good start. It doesn't take long and the ingredients are cheap, so you don't waste much time or money if you fail.

The first step in making chwee kueh is mixing the batter. The main ingredient is rice flour but that alone would make a rather hard kueh. To soften it, you need to add some starch. Some people use tapioca flour; I prefer a mix of cornflour and wheat starch. Of course, the amount of water in the batter is crucial to the success of the steamed kueh. If the ratio of water to flour/starch is wrong, the steamed cake will be too hard or too soft.

If you have a good recipe, the only tricky part in making chwee kueh is the second step, when you thicken the batter. If the consistency is too thick, the steamed cake will be hard, and mushy if it's too thin.

You need to judge when to take the pot off the heat. How do you do that? By observing the batter. Once it's thick enough to coat the sides of the pot thinly, put the pot in a water-bath to stop the cooking.

Chwee kueh should have a slight depression in the middle after it's steamed. That's the classic hallmark of chwee kueh. In fact, it's the water collected in the depression that gives chwee kueh its name, which means "water cake".

Where does the water come from? The batter which, if it's thin, releases water when it's heated, creating a depression in the process. Thick batter doesn't do that because the water can't break away from the starch.

If the steamed cake doesn't have a depression and is level, that means it isn't as soft as it should be. Mind you, that's not always a bad thing. A cake that's a bit harder than it should be may be ready to eat straightaway after it's steamed. A soft cake, OTOH, needs to cool down and set before you can eat it. If you like your chwee kueh piping hot, you'd have to re-steam it.

To make a good topping, you must avoid overcooking the chai poh. It becomes chewy and tough if it's heated for too long, and it'll stick to your teeth. How do you tell when the chai poh is done? Just mix it with a wee bit of dark soya sauce for colour, then fry it with some minced garlic. It's done when the garlic is nicely golden brown.

What sort of chai poh should you use? Salted, not sweet. The latter isn't really sweet but is just kind of tasteless because it's been washed, excessively, to get rid of the salt. Of course, not all of the salted variety is good. The bad ones (like Pagoda brand) are mushy, have none of the fragrance of chai poh, and taste only of salt. Chwee kueh is nice only when the topping is crunchy and fragrant.

Between orh kueh, chai tow kway, lor bak gou and chwee kueh, orh kueh is the easiest because it's quite forgiving. Orh kueh is nice whether it's a bit harder or softer.  

Chwee kueh is OK too. If you get it right, you eat it as chwee kueh. If it's hard, you can make it into char kway, i.e. chai tow kway sans chai tow, fried.

Chai tow kway is the most difficult. If it's too soft, it'll turn to mush when you fry it, and it's not nice if it's too hard. You have to get it just right.

Lor bak gou isn't too bad. Like orh kueh, it's got a lot of tasty ingredients which help make the job easier. I'll be doing a post on lor bak gou soon . . . ish. Meanwhile, here's the video for chwee kueh:

CHWEE KUEH (水粿) Source: adapted from honeybeesweets88 (Recipe for 20 pieces) Kueh 150 g rice flour 12 g wheat starch 12 g cornflour ½ tsp salt 2 tsp oil 300 ml room temperature water 400 ml boiling water Topping 150 g chopped chai poh (菜脯; salted turnip), Twin Rabbit brand 30 g garlic, peel and chop roughly ¼ tsp dark soya sauce 120 ml vegetable oil 2 tbsp sugar To make kueh, thoroughly whisk rice flour, wheat starch, cornflour, salt, oil and 300 ml room temperature water. Add 400 ml boiling water. Whisk again. Cook over medium-low heat till just thick enough to coat sides of pot thinly, stirring constantly. Place pot in water-bath. Stir till half-cool. Bring steamer to a boil. Place perforated tray in steamer. Arrange moulds, measuring 6 x 2 cm, slightly apart on tray. Fill moulds with batter to 3 mm from edge. Cover and bring steamer back to a boil. Steam 20 minutes over rapidly boiling water. Uncover. Cakes should have some water on top. If there is, steam uncovered till water evaporates, 1-2 minutes. Remove cakes from steamer. Cakes should be mushy just after steaming. Leave to cool down and set. Resteam just before serving if you prefer hot/warm chwee kueh. If batter is overthickened before steaming, cakes may be set or half-set whilst piping hot. To make topping, rinse chai poh twice. Drain in sieve, pressing to remove excess water. Transfer to mixing bowl. Add garlic and dark soya sauce. Mix thoroughly. Heat wok till hot. Place chai poh mixture in wok. Add enough oil to almost cover mixture, about 120 ml. Fry over medium-high heat till garlic is golden brown. Reduce heat to low. Add sugar and stir till dissolved. Turn off heat. Taste and if necessary adjust seasoning. To serve, unmould chwee kueh and top with fried chai poh, along with some oil. Add sambal on the side if you like your chwee kueh spicy.

Teochew Fish Porridge (潮州鱼粥)

How do you tell if the fish you wanna buy is fresh? (a) It doesn't smell fishy. (b) The eyes are bright. (c) The gills are red. (d) It feels firm. (e) The skin is shiny. (f) All of the above. If you choose 'f', then sorry, you're wrong . . . mostly.

20 years ago, 'all of the above' would have been the correct answer. These days, the fish may feel and look fresh because it's preserved with formaldehyde, the stuff used by embalmers. Nice, eh?

So how do you tell if the fish is fresh or embalmed?

If the fish is cheap, such as ikan kuning, ikan selar or some farmed fish, it's probably safe from chemicals added postmortem. The more expensive stuff, like large white pomfret and large sea prawns, are more likely to be preserved. Without a lab test, you can tell if it's fresh only by eating it. If it looks and smells fresh but it's tasteless even though it's wild, not farmed, then you've been had.

When you've NOT been had, fish porridge is an absolute delight. It's full of the sweetness of fresh fish and, the way my mother did it, dried prawns, dried squid and 冬菜. It is light, with no fat at all other than a few drops of garlic or shallot oil, but it's totally delicious.

The special ingredient in my mother's fish porridge is dried squid which must be: (1) cut lengthwise into very thin strips; (2) soaked till it's completely soft; and (3) very lightly blanched in the porridge, just enough to make the squid curl. The dried squid lifts the umaminess of the porridge to a higher level but if you don't follow the three steps, you'll think there're rubber bands in the porridge. You have been warned.

I wouldn't say I'd eat fish porridge every day because there isn't anything I could eat every day. But I'd eat Teochew fish porridge maybe once a week. That's the biggest compliment possible from me.

TEOCHEW FISH PORRIDGE (潮州鱼粥) (Recipe for 2 persons) 20 g dried prawns rinse and soak 10 minutes or longer in just enough water to cover 10 g dried squid body, quill discarded, at room temperature with scissors, cut crosswise about 3 cm long; cut 10 g lengthwise into thin strips about 1 mm thick; rinse and soak in just enough water to cover till soft, about 20 minutes 200 g white fish fillet rinse and slice bite size 3-4 mm thick; mix evenly with 1 tsp light soya sauce; sprinkle with ½ tsp cornflour or tapioca starch and mix again 120 g long-grain jasmine rice 800-900 ml boiling water 1 tsp light soya sauce 1 tsp 天津冬菜 (Tianjin/Tientsin pickled cabbage) 1 tbsp fried garlic or fried shallots 1 tbsp spring onions cut 3-4 mm thick ground white pepper to taste Fish porridge should be made with a mild tasting white fish that has a fine, smooth texture, such as ikan tenggiri papan (spotted Spanish mackerel), ikan tenggiri batang (barred Spanish mackerel), white pomfret, or ikan kurau (threadfin). Prepare dried prawns, dried squid and fish as detailed above. Put kettle on. Wash rice till water runs clear. Add dried prawns, along with soaking liquid, and 750 ml boiling water. Bring to a boil. Stir thoroughly to prevent rice from sticking. Keep rice boiling rapidly for 10 minutes, checking and stirring from time to time to make sure rice doesn't boil over. Top up with boiling water if necessary, depending on how thick or thin you like your porridge. Continue boiling rapidly till rice is just soft but surface is still smooth without any sign of turning mushy, another 5 minutes or so. Season porridge with 1 tsp light soya sauce and 天津冬菜. Add fish and stir through gently. Turn off heat once porridge returns to a gentle simmer. Add dried squid, along with soaking liquid, and stir through. Remove pot from stove. Quickly taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Immediately transfer porridge to serving bowls to prevent fish from overcooking. Sprinkle with spring onions, fried garlic and ground white pepper. Serve immediately with light soya sauce or light brown taucheo (fermented soya beans) as a dip, with lime juice and/or thinly sliced bird's eye chillies added if you like, to bring out the sweetness of the fish. Fish porridge is best eaten steaming hot. If your mother-in-law is Teochew and you want to impress her, add a pinch of very finely julienned young ginger next to the spring onions. If you want to knock her off her chair, add a piece of toasted Chinese seaweed (in addition to the young ginger), and make your porridge with white pomfret.

Bak Chang (肉粽; Meat Dumplings)

My mother made two types of 粽子 every year, kee chang and bak chang. The former is quite straightforward; it's just glutinous rice and lye water wrapped in bamboo leaves. Bak chang, however, is extremely varied in ingredients, seasoning, cooking method, and shape depending on which part of China your family is from. For us – we're Teochews – there're two types indigenous to our culture. The more elaborate type, called 双烹, has a small ball of sweet red bean paste wrapped in leaf lard. My mother always did the simpler type without the sweet red bean paste. The filling is 100% savory with fatty pork belly, chestnuts, mushrooms, dried prawns and fried shallots.

Our annual dumpling do always started a couple of weeks before the dumpling festival on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. In the evening after we all got our housework or homework out of the way, adults and kids alike would sit at the dining table and pick out the non-glutinous grains in the glutinous rice. Say what? Say my mother bought glutinous rice which had a little bit of non-glutinous rice mixed in it. For bak chang, that didn't matter. For kee chang, however, the non-glutinous grains wouldn't cook in the alkaline lye water. Hence, these had to be picked out one by one. Amazing, eh? The amount of rice we managed to sieve through would determine how many kee chang were made. You can still buy impure glutinous rice nowadays but I presume no one uses it for kee chang anymore.

The actual process of making the dumplings was spread over two days. On the first day, the bamboo leaves and dumpling strings were sorted, soaked and washed. The rice would be soaked too, as were the mushrooms, dried prawns and dried chestnuts. On the second day, the filling and rice for bak chang were stir-fried and wrapped, then boiled 3-4 hours. Whilst the savory meat dumplings were being cooked – over a wood fire so as to save on gas! – Mum did the kee chang. These were much easier than bak chang since there wasn't any filling, and the rice wasn't stir-fried.

Mum was quite proud of her bak chang. Every year, she gave some to a few relatives and they gave her theirs in return. She'd taste each and everyone's dumplings versus her own, and then she'd quietly declare herself the winner of the dumpling making contest. It was a weird contest that the contestants, other than my mother, didn't even know existed. And there was only one judge, who was the only contestant who knew about the contest.

One year, the day after making dumplings, I found my mother looking like a panda with dark circles around her eyes. She hadn't slept well the night before, she said. What happened? Mum's bak chang wasn't as good as in previous years. Why not? Because she didn't stir-fry the glutinous rice. She was getting on in years and wasn't as sprightly as before. So she simplified things a bit, skipping what she'd thought wasn't a crucial step, and made the bak chang without stir-frying the rice. Hence, the sleepless night. And hence – despite everyone going 'NOOOOO! NO WAY!' – she made a second batch of bak chang, this time with the rice properly stir-fried. It was the only time she did two batches in one year. And that's why it's been burnt into my brain: fry the friggin' rice!

Here's how I enjoyed last weekend, frying rice and other stuff:

BAK CHANG (肉粽; MEAT DUMPLINGS) (Recipe for 25 dumplings) 25 large and 25 small bamboo leaves check that leaves aren't broken or have holes; soak overnight in enough water to cover, weighed down with something heavy; wipe clean and rinse thoroughly 25 dumpling strings or plastic raffia, each about 90 cm long if using dumpling strings, soak overnight with bamboo leaves; rinse till water runs clear and wring dry; tie to a pole with a slip knot; rest pole between back of two chairs or maybe kitchen cabinets and a table 120 ml vegetable oil 200 g shallots peel, rinse and slice thinly Filling 70 g dried prawns rinse and soak overnight in 4 tbsp water; squeeze dry, reserving liquid 70 g Chinese dried mushrooms rinse and soak overnight in 2/3 cup water; squeeze dry, reserving liquid; cut bite-sized into 50 pieces, reserving stems for other dishes 50 dried chestnuts (about 200 g) soak overnight in enough water to cover by 5 cm; remove peel with toothpick; trim black spots if any; rinse and drain 550 g pork belly rinse and cut bite-sized into 50 pieces 3 tbsp light soya sauce 1 tsp salt ¼ tsp sugar ½ tsp dark soya sauce Rice 1 kg long-grain glutinous rice rinse till water runs clear; soak overnight in enough water to cover by 5 cm; drain thoroughly 3 tbsp light soya sauce 1 tsp salt ½ tsp ground white pepper ¼ tsp sugar ½ tsp chicken powder Fry shallots in vegetable oil over medium till lightly golden. Turn off heat. Continue stirring till residual heat dissipates. Remove shallots to a colander. Remove half of the oil to a bowl. Turn on heat to maximum possible. Fry dried prawns till lightly golden. Add mushrooms and stir till heated through. Add chestnuts and stir till heated through. Add pork and stir-fry till slightly brown. Season with light soya sauce, salt and sugar. Stir till absorbed. Drizzle with water drained from dried prawns. Stir till dry. Drizzle with half of water drained dried mushrooms. Stir till dry. Drizzle with remaining mushroom water. Again, stir till dry. Add dark soya sauce and ground white pepper. Stir through. Taste a small piece of pork that should be cooked through. It should taste slightly more salty than how you'd like it. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Transfer to a bowl. Drizzle 2 tbsp water around wok. Stir to deglaze. Turn off heat. Add the water to the pork mixture. Sit till absorbed. Add half of fried shallots. Stir till evenly mixed. Wash wok and heat till dry. Place remaining shallot oil in the wok and heat till just smoking. Add glutinous rice, then remaining fried shallots. Stir till thoroughly heated. Season with light soya sauce, salt, sugar, chicken powder and ground white pepper. Stir till well mixed. Taste (but do not eat because rice is still raw) and adjust seasoning if necessary. Rice should be a bit saltier than usual because seasoning will be diluted by boiling water. Transfer to a bowl. Wrap and tie dumplings as shown in video (4:04 - 5:02). Boil 3 hours in enough water to cover. Unwrap one and see if the rice is soft. If it isn't, boil another 15-3o minutes. Remove dumplings from water. May be eaten immediately if you like. Or leave to drain and cool down, then serve warm or at room temperature. Refrigerate leftovers and steam to heat through before eating. The bak chang would be a bit smaller than the ones you buy. If you make them regular size, you may get only about 20 pieces instead of 25.

Pulut Inti

What do pulut inti, kueh kochee, pulut chawan, lopes, ondeh ondeh, kueh salat, pulut tataa, kueh doldol, kueh bengka pulut, and kueh wajek durian have in common, apart from all of them being Nyonya kueh-kueh?

The 10 kueh-kueh are all made with coconut, and glutinous rice or glutinous rice flour. Yet they're all different as can be in texture, taste and look.

There're bananas in pulut tataa; kueh wajek durian has durian, of course; kueh doldol is gloriously dark because it's made with dark gula melaka; kueh bengka pulut is the only one that's baked; pulut chawan is shaped with Chinese tea cups; triangular lopes is eaten with dark gula melaka syrup; kueh kochee looks like miniature pyramids; kueh salat has a green custard top; ondeh ondeh is filled with melted gula melaka and dredged with grated coconut; pulut inti is very pretty with its mix of blue and white.

Of the 10 kueh-kueh, pulut chawan is the easiest. It's just steamed glutinous rice which is shaped with Chinese tea cups, then dredged with grated coconut and drizzled with gula melaka syrup. Pulut inti, in comparison, is a wee bit more trouble but still a doddle. The glutinous rice is steamed with coconut milk and coloured with bunga telang, and there's a topping made with grated coconut and gula melaka. Pulut inti is good so long as the topping isn't too sweet, and the rice isn't mushy. This is a pretty simple Nyonya kueh that really can't go wrong.

PULUT INTI/PULOT INTEE (GLUTINOUS RICE WITH COCONUT TOPPING) (Recipe for 10 portions) Pulut (glutinous rice) 320 g glutinous rice (1½ cups) 120 ml water (½ cup) ¾ tsp salt 4 pandan leaves, bottom half only rinse thoroughly; crumple by wringing 150 ml fresh undiluted coconut milk 65 bunga telang (blue pea flowers), fresh or dried if fresh, pound finely, place in a small strainer, and press hard with back of tsp or thumbs to yield 4 tsp blue liquid; if dried, sprinkle with 1½ tbsp hot water, pound finely, strain as above to yield 4 tsp blue liquid Inti (topping) 4 pandan leaves, bottom half only rinse thoroughly; crumple by wringing 2 tbsp water 200 g peeled and grated fresh coconut 80 g medium brown palm sugar, roughly chopped 4 tsp sugar ⅛ tsp salt ¼ cup water ½ tbsp tapioca starch To make pulut, rinse glutinous rice till water runs clear. Drain thoroughly in a sieve. Transfer rice to a bowl that holds 3-4 cups. Sprinkle with salt and stir through. Tuck pandan leaves in rice. Smooth the top. Add 120 ml water. Steam 15 minutes over rapidly boiling water. Drizzle with half of coconut milk. Mix with chopsticks till absorbed. Drizzle with remaining coconut milk. Repeat mixing with chopsticks. Make a few holes in the rice, then resume steaming, this time for 5 minutes. Drizzle with blue flower liquid. Continue steaming till rice is cooked but not mushy, about 5 minutes. Taste and see if it is. If slightly undercooked, steam another 5 minutes. If very undercooked, sprinkle with 1-2 tbsp water, then steam 5 minutes. Have a taste when rice is done, with some grated coconut prepared as detailed below. Add more sugar, gula melaka or salt if necessary. Remove from heat and discard pandan leaves. Rake with chopsticks to mix blue and white rice. Leave on a wire rack till cool, then cover till ready to serve. To make inti, place 2 tbsp water and pandan leaves in an electric rice cooker on cook mode. When pandan leaves are fragrant or cooker changes to keep warm mode, add grated coconut, palm sugar, salt and ¼ cup water. Stir to mix thoroughly. Press cook button and cook 10 minutes. Sprinkle with tapioca starch. Stir to mix thoroughly. Continue cooking till cooker changes to keep warm mode. Check that gula melaka and sugar are melted. If not, continue cooking 5 minutes or so on keep warm mode. Have a taste as detailed above. Discard pandan leaves. Leave on a wire rack till cool, then cover till ready to serve. To serve, place ⅓ cup rice on a small plate and top with 2 tbsp grated coconut, or 3 tbsp for those with a sweet tooth. If you like, you could wrap each portion in a piece of banana leaf, like ICook4Fun. Leftovers should be refrigerated. Sprinkle with a bit of water, steam to reheat thoroughly, then cool to room temperature before eating.

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Orh Kueh/Steamed Yam Cake (I)

Making good orh kueh starts with choosing yam that's light for its size. Lighter ones have less water, and less watery ones are nicer because they're more fluffy, powdery and fragrant.

Next, be generous when trimming the yam. The outer parts are usually waxy and tasteless, especially when the yam is a dud. I usually cut 2-3 cm off the top and bottom, and 1-2 cm off the sides.

To enhance its fragrance, the yam should be fried and then seasoned lightly with salt and five-spice powder. Don't let the yam brown or it'd be leathery.

Orh kueh would be too monotonous if it tastes of only yam. Dried prawns, dried mushrooms and deep-fried shallots add a variety of flavours, textures and aromas. They are the indispensable supporting cast, without which yam would be a rather dull one-man show.

To make outstanding orh kueh, forget about water. That's what orh kueh that sells for $1 uses. The homemade type wouldn't taste homemade without pork or chicken stock. A good quality stock is the foundation of great orh kueh (. . . as well as, I kid you not, family ties and nationhood).

Readymade deep-fried shallots can't possibly compare to the one made at home. Likewise, a good stock doesn't come out of a can or bottle, or fall out of the sky. And there's a whole lot of mushrooms and dried prawns that have to be soaked, sliced and chopped. If making good orh kueh sounds like a lot of work and a lot of ingredients, that's because it is.

On the other hand, if you want some rice flour mixed with water and then steamed, that's real quick, easy and cheap. That's the type of orh kueh that sells for $1, which is actually quite expensive considering it's just rice flour and water. If you want to find yam in the $1 orh kueh, you'd have to send it for lab tests or at least use a microscope. Of course, the tasteless kueh comes with the obligatory chilli sauce because it wouldn't be edible otherwise.

Once, the chilli sauce on the orhless orh kueh I bought tasted of mould because it was made with mouldy dried prawns. I ate one mouthful and stopped. Since I wasn't the first and last person to buy the kueh, I guess there were lots of people who didn't mind the mouldy dried prawns. Amazing, isn't it?

Truth be told, I'm quite happy eating steamed yam seasoned with a bit of sea salt. But homemade orh kueh is nice once in a while when I feel up to it. "It" being the making, of course; the eating part is never a problem.

29 May 2012 Update
Here's how I make orh kueh:

STEAMED YAM CAKE (ORH KUEH; 芋粿/芋头糕) Source: Majorly adapted from Cooking for the President (Recipe for 24 pieces) 40 g dried prawns rinse and soak in 60 ml water till soft, about 15 minutes; squeeze dry, reserving the water; chop roughly 30 g Chinese dried mushrooms rinse and soak in 180 ml water till soft, about 30 minutes; squeeze dry, reserving the water; slice thinly, then cut 1 cm long 500-600 g yam (aka taro)* peel and trim to yield about 300 g; rinse; cut corn kernel-sized 100 g shallots peel, rinse and slice thinly 80 ml vegetable oil ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp five-spice powder 1½ tbsp light soya sauce ½ tsp ground white pepper 200 g rice flour 240 ml water top up water drained from dried prawns and mushrooms to make 240 ml 600 ml pork or chicken stock, boiling Garnish 2 tbsp spring onions, roughly chopped 2 tbsp coriander, roughly chopped ½ red chilli, julienned; or 1 tsp toasted white sesame seeds * How much you trim from the yam depends on how good it is. You should discard the white part, under the peel, that doesn't have much red veins. Click here for more tips on making orh kueh. Prepare dried prawns, dried mushrooms, yam and shallots as detailed above. In a wok, stir-fry shallots in hot vegetable oil over medium heat till lightly golden. Turn off heat. Continue stirring till nicely golden brown. Remove shallots with a skimmer and set aside. You should have about ⅓ cup. Reheat wok and oil till warm. Over medium heat, fry yam till just soft (but not brown), 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat. Remove yam to a big bowl. Immediately sprinkle with ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp five-spice powder. Toss till evenly mixed. Set aside. Remove all but 2 tbsp oil from the wok. Reheat till very hot. Over medium-high heat, stir-fry dried prawns till lightly golden. Add mushrooms and stir-fry till fragrant and lightly golden. Add light soya sauce and ground white pepper. Stir till evenly mixed. Turn off heat. Add mixture to yam along with all of fried shallots except 2 tbsp. Stir till evenly mixed. Line bottom of 20 x 20 x 5 cm cake pan with parchment paper, leaving some overhang. Top up water from soaking dried prawns and mushrooms to make 240 ml (1 cup). Pour liquid into wok and stir to deglaze. Add rice flour. Stir till smooth. Add boiling chicken or pork stock. Stir till evenly mixed. Turn on heat to low. Stir continuously, scraping sides and bottom of wok. Reduce heat to very low as batter gets hot. If lumps appear, turn off heat immediately, stir vigorously till smooth, then turn on heat again. When batter starts to thicken, add fried ingredients (except the 2 tbsp shallots set aside). Stir till batter is thick enough to coat a spoon/spatula thinly. Go for a thinner consistency if you like your orh kueh softer, and vice versa. Turn off heat. Transfer batter into pan. Smooth and level batter. Steam over rapidly boiling water till inserted skewer comes out clean or almost clean, depending on consistency of batter before steaming. This should take about 40 minutes. Remove kueh to a wire rack to cool down, an hour or so. Unmould by running skewer around edge of pan, then lifting kueh onto a plate. Discard parchment paper. Cut into 24 pieces. Serve garnished with spring onions, coriander, red chilli or sesame seeds, and remaining shallots.

Jamie Oliver Cooks Hainanese Chicken Rice!

This is how the Naked Chef makes Singapore's iconic dish, Hainanese Chicken Rice:

The recipe is from Jamie Oliver's column in the Daily Mail, 2 March 2012. The headline reads, 'Cook with Jamie: East is best! These Far Eastern broths are (blah blah blah) good for you'.

Hmm, broths? I have no idea why chicken rice is in an article about broths but I'm sure the recipe is, as Jamie Oliver says, good for you. It has to be with 305 g of ginger! If you're suffering from excessive wind, the humongous amount of spicy ginger will cure you in a jiffy. (Not that I'm speaking from personal experience, of course; I'm just telling you what my mother told me.) Or maybe you just gave birth and your mother, if she's Chinese, has told you to eat truckloads of ginger – every day, every single meal, for a whole month. What could be better than ginger rice with ginger chicken, ginger soup and ginger sauce?

You'll love the Naked Chef's Hainanese Chicken Rice because . . . . Oh hang on, it's not rice. You don't get rice when you cook 450 g with 2 litres of chicken stock, as specified in the ingredient list. Or is it 1.2 litres as per the instructions? Whichever it is, you'll have a pot of porridge, not rice. Maybe Mr Oliver thinks porridge is more in keeping with the broth theme?

There may not be any rice in JO's chicken rice but at least there's chicken. Here's how the celebrity chef poaches it: boil 4 chicken breasts for 5 minutes in 4 litres of water flavoured with ginger, garlic, shallots and lemongrass; turn off the heat; let the chicken steep 40 minutes; then place the chicken in ice water for 30 minutes. If you follow his method, I promise you'll have chicken that's way overcooked and dry as dust. But at least it IS chicken. It'd a disaster if there's neither chicken nor rice in chicken rice, wouldn't it?

Instead of a thick mound of grated ginger, Mr Oliver's ginger sauce is ginger JUICE, diluted with a lot of chicken stock. This watery thing, he says, has 'a flavour wallop'. Well, I guess folks in Singapore prefer a flavour nuclear bomb!

I can see that the Brits may prefer to be walloped rather than bombed but why is there GARLIC JUICE in the chickeny ginger juice? Perhaps because there isn't any garlic chilli sauce although there is chilli sauce, of unspecified nature. I suspect Mr Oliver has no idea how important the garlicky chilli sauce is. If you ask a Singaporean 'How's the chicken rice?', he'll probably say 'Walau, de chilli sauce damn shiok ah!' (which means the chilli sauce is pucker). A chicken rice recipe that doesn't say how the garlic chilli sauce is made would be useless in the motherland of chicken rice.

Singapore's iconic dish wouldn't be complete without thick, dark soya sauce. But the recipe doesn't specify what type of soya sauce it should be, so people who aren't familiar with Hainanese chicken rice may use light soya sauce instead. In fact, the sauce in the photo looks brown, not black, so it is light soya sauce. Fail!

Finally, we come to the soup. There's a lot of it, and it's tasteless because there's way too much water used to cook the chicken. 2 litres would have been ample, not 4 litres. You notice there's a lot of water/stock in everything, from the broth to the rice and ginger sauce? Fortunately, the soup doesn't make or break the chicken rice. It's as incidental as the slices of cucumber that sit beside the chicken, and that's why it's odd to put chicken rice in an article about broths. Hmm, I think Jamie Oliver seriously needs a better ghostwriter.

I have only two words for the soggy gingery porridge and dry gingery chicken served with watery ginger juice, light soya sauce and god-knows-what chilli sauce: NOT PUCKER! It's good for a laugh though. I think the watered and dumbed down ginger juice is especially funny!

How to Make GOOD Fried Rice

When I was nine years old, I went to primary school in the afternoon. I was the only person at home at lunchtime, so I cooked for myself and ate before heading off to school. Fried rice was what I rustled up most often, plus an egg flower soup to wash it down.

Hmm, now that I think about it, a nine-year-old doing a two-course lunch wasn't too shabby. *immodestly and belatedly pat self on the back*

As I got older, I made fried rice only as a last resort, when I didn't have ingredients for something else or when I had leftover rice to finish up. Why? Because, try as I might, my fried rice wasn't terribly impressive even though I'd been frying rice since I was nine. Eminently edible, yes, but nothing more.

One day, I had some extremely good fried rice at Imperial Treasure, a Chinese restaurant at Marina Square. It was so good that I was inspired to work on my version. I used overnight rice; got the wok as hot as possible; didn't stinge on the oil; minced lots of garlic; threw in salted fish, prawns and even crabmeat; tried various ways of adding eggs; compared light soya sauce vs oyster sauce vs fish sauce vs salt, singly and in various combinations; spiked the rice with bird's eye chilli, then dried chilli flakes . . . . It all came to nought. I made many attempts but my fried rice sadly remained as blah as ever. I concluded that a home cook, without the powerful stove, cast iron wok and years of training of a professional chef, simply couldn't make outstanding fried rice.

My interest in fried rice lay dead and buried until last year when I came across the Nyonya way of frying rice with belachan, prawns, cucumber, and finely pounded dried prawns, dried chillies, fresh chillies, shallots, garlic and candlenuts. The first time I made Nyonya fried rice with a recipe from Cooking for the President, I was like, 'WOW! I made that?!' I couldn't believe I'd made such a delicious fried rice. Every grain of rice was fragrant and chewy, absolutely nothing like my Chinese fried rice. It was PHENOMENAL!

I made the Nyonya fried rice several times and had it cold once, which made me go 'Omm . . . mmppfff . . . gaaahh!' (That's OMG with my mouth full.) It was even nicer cold than hot. How is it possible?!

Another time, I added two eggs to the fried rice. Everything was the same as before except for those two eggs. Result: the fried rice was ruined. It wasn't fragrant and the chewy texture was lost. It was like my blah Chinese fried rice! Why do the eggs make the fried rice go from extraordinary to ordinary? I started thinking about why the Nyonya fried rice was so delicious, why adding eggs totally ruined it, why it was more delicious when it was cold, and how I could improve my Chinese fried rice.

The most common tip for making fried rice is: use day-old rice because it's fluffy and no longer sticky. Unfortunately, fluffy rice alone doesn't make good fried rice. The chewiness of the rice is equally important, and that doesn't change much once the rice is cooked.

How do you cook rice that's chewy and 'Q'? By steaming instead of boiling/simmering.

When rice is cooked in boiling water, the cell walls break down, allowing the starch inside to leak out, absorb too much water and turn soft. The change in texture is irreversible, so the rice isn't chewy even if you let it rest overnight. Hence, rice cooked by boiling, in a rice cooker or on the stove, is destined to make fried rice that's at best mediocre even if it's day-old rice.

In contrast, rice that's steamed has no direct contact with boiling water. Cooked at a lower temperature, the cell walls don't break down much, so very little starch escapes. Hence, all the grains are chewy and they don't stick together. The overnight rest, a must for boiled rice, isn't necessary for steamed rice. This fried rice, made with 15-minute-old steamed rice, is as fluffy as can be:

Temperature isn't the only important factor. The amount of water absorbed by the rice is equally crucial. If there's too much water, the rice loses its chewiness even if it's steamed. How much is too much? It depends on the type of starch found in the rice.

There're two types of rice starch: amylopectin and amylose. The latter makes rice fluffy and not sticky because it's insoluble. Basmati rice, for instance, is very fluffy because it has a high percentage of amylose. Amylopectin, on the other hand, makes rice chewy by absorbing water to form a gel. Glutinous rice is extremely chewy because it contains mostly amylopectin.

You might have come across the tip that aged, old rice is necessary for making good fried rice because it has more amylose than newly harvested rice. The tip isn't entirely correct. Rice that's too old has too much amylose and not enough amylopectin to make it chewy. It's fluffy alright but it's not 'Q', and the texture gets worse when the rice cools down because amylose hardens when it's cold. New rice, on the other hand, runs a risk of turning mushy because it has a lot of amylopectin, which becomes soft if it absorbs too much water.

The best rice – that's easy to work with, fluffy, chewy, and doesn't harden when it's cold – should have a good balance of the two types of starch. I'd call it middle-aged. (Click here to learn more about old vs new rice from Harold McGee.)

Are you still with me? And do you see why it's too simplistic to say that day-old rice is the key to good fried rice?

So, the rice is steamed to fluffy and chewy perfection, and half the battle is won. Ready to stir and fry?

To win the second half of the battle without wok hei – the smoky, charred aroma created with a professional-grade stove – ingredients are the home cook's only weaponry. Forget about mincing a few cloves of garlic. You need a heap of ingredients – an atomic bomb, in other words, not a few hand grenades – or the rice would be tasteless. But not too much either or the rice would be overwhelmed. (You want to bomb a city, not destroy the entire planet.)

The mix of ingredients must be chosen carefully so that the rice is infused with both fragrance and umaminess. Shallots, dried prawns and salted fish make a great combination. The Chinese would mince these ingredients finely but I think the Nyonya method is far superior. Pounding with a mortar and pestle achieves a very fine grind which a knife can't possibly create. Imagine each and every grain of rice coated with countless specks of shallots, dried prawns and salted fish which have been fried till brown and fragrant. The aroma and umaminess pop in your mouth even before you start chewing.

Adding chunks of meat or seafood to fried rice would be to miss the point completely. It's fried rice, not stir-fried chicken or whatever. A modest amount, cut pea-sized or flaked if it's crab, adds variety but doesn't overwhelm. Each little piece is eaten with some rice in one mouthful, which wouldn't be possible if it's cut too big.

Most people expect eggs in Chinese fried rice so into the wok they go, fried rather than raw so that the rice doesn't sit in liquid eggs and lose its chewiness. Don't forget that eggs would absorb some aroma and umaminess, so there must be sufficient dried prawns, salted fish and shallots – or whatever you fancy – to flavour not just the rice but also the eggs.

Lastly, salt and ground white pepper to taste, and lots of spring onion or maybe iceberg lettuce, and the job's done. This is a rollicking good fried rice which would score, I think, 7-8 out of 10. If there were good wok hei, it would be a perfect 10 – fried rice fit for the gods.

What you put in your fried rice is a personal choice but, please, no char siu no matter what. Cutting char siu into little bits and then stir-frying it is tantamount to abuse. The poor char siu becomes dry and tasteless, and all the work done roasting the pork is undone. Good char siu should be treated with respect and appreciated as it is. Bad char siu should be given to your dog after washing it (char siu, not dog) in lots of hot water.

But restaurants serve char siu fried rice, you might say. Yes, they do. But that's because they have dry, overnight char siu to get rid of. They can't sell stale char siu as char siu, so they chuck it in fried rice (and noodles). Some people eat char siu fried rice in restaurants, and then they think they should put char siu in their homemade fried rice. *sigh, shake head, roll eyes, all at the same time*

Let's see, have I forgotten anything? Oh yes, why is Nyonya fried rice nice even when it's cold? Because it has lots of dried prawns which become more umami after cooling down. Other seafood such as crab and fresh prawns would also have the same effect. More importantly, the fried rice doesn't harden when it's cold but that's due to the type of rice chosen rather than the Nyonya recipe.

I've made major improvements to my fried rice in the past few months. It's not too shabby now even though I can't toss rice like the fellow in the video (0:55-1:05). Fried rice isn't my culinary last resort anymore, and I enjoy eating it. About time too 'cause I've been frying rice since I was nine.

DRIED PRAWN, SALTED FISH & CHICKEN FRIED RICE (虾米咸鱼鸡丁炒饭) (Recipe for 4 persons) 360 g long grain Jasmine white rice (I use Songhe brand) wash and drain thoroughly; place in 18-cm round cake tin; add 320 ml water (weight of rice plus water is 720 g); let rice soak 10 minutes 50 g dried prawns 50 g salted ikan kurau (threadfin), bones and scales removed if any 100 g shallots, peel 5½ tbsp vegetable oil 2 eggs (use 1 tsp to marinate chicken) beat with 2 tbsp milk, big dash of ground white pepper, and 1 tsp each of light soya sauce, white sesame oil and Shaoxing wine 200 g deboned chicken thigh or drumstick wash, drain and dice 1½ cm; marinate with dash of ground white pepper, and 1 tsp each of light soya sauce, Shaoxing wine, egg and white sesame oil for 15 minutes or longer salt to taste, about ¼ tsp ground white pepper to taste, about ½ tsp 60 g spring onions trim and wash; dice to yield 1 cup (sounds like a lot!) Steam rice over rapidly boiling water for 15 minutes, then check whether rice needs more water. If surface layer is cooked but a bit hard, rice is ideal. Steam another 5 minutes – surface layer should now be soft but chewy – then remove rice from steamer. If surface layer is not cooked, sprinkle with 1-2 tbsp water and continue steaming for another 5 minutes. Repeat if necessary, till rice is just soft. Remove rice from steamer. If surface layer is cooked and soft, remove rice immediately (and use less water next time you steam rice). After rice is cooked, fluff and set aside to firm up, about 20 minutes. Cover if not frying immediately. If the rice is fried just after steaming, it's still fluffy and 'Q' but the soft grains would break into small pieces when stirred. You may skip the cooldown when hunger is more important than presentation, or if you can toss rice like a pro. Whilst rice is cooking, rinse dried prawns, salted fish and shallots. Cut into small pieces, then blitz in mini chopper or pound till very fine. If pounding, start with salted fish, then dried prawns and finally shallots. In a well-seasoned wok, make a thin omelette with eggs using ½ tbsp vegetable oil. When omelette is almost done, chop into small pieces with spatula. Transfer to a plate and set aside. In the same wok, heat remaining 5 tbsp vegetable oil till almost smoking. Add salted fish, dried prawns and shallots. Fry over medium heat till brown and fragrant. Increase heat to high. Add chicken and stir through. Add rice and eggs. Stir-fry till chicken is just cooked. Taste and add salt if necessary. Stir through. Turn off heat. Sprinkle with ground white pepper and spring onions. Stir through. Plate and serve.

Kuih Seri Muka/Kueh Salat (I)

The custard layer of my kueh salat (aka kuih seri muka) is a pale avocado green. That's because it's made with (a lot of) pandan leaves. Do you know how the bibiks of yesteryears get a brighter green, naturally? They used dark green leaves called daun pandan serani/suji, which look like pandan leaves but are smaller and darker.

Somewhere along the way, pandan serani got edited out of most recipes and was replaced with artificial green food colouring. It's so rarely mentioned nowadays that a lot of modern cooks don't even know about these leaves.

Some cooks then edit out artificial green food colouring in their recipes, but not in the kueh or cake they make for their photos. Yup, they cheat (shock! horror!). Prime example: Rasa Malaysia's kueh dadar, which you can see here. There's absolutely no way she can get that radioactive shade of green with five precious pandan leaves for 300 ml of coconut milk and 120 g of flour.

Indeed, one of Rasa Malaysia's readers asks why he can't get the green colour in her photos although he follows her instructions. You should have used fresh leaves, she says. *snort; roll eyes* Never mind five. If she can get the radioactive green with 50 FRESH pandan leaves, I'll go scrub her kitchen floor for free. In fact, if she can get even a tiny hint of green of whatever shade with just five pandan leaves, I'll kneel and scrub away.

Isn't it sad that a lot of people have never heard of pandan serani, much less use it? And they wonder why their pandan chiffon cake, ondeh-ondeh, kueh dadar or kueh salat isn't bright green even though they've squeezed – and squeezed, and squeezed some more – the four, five or even 10 pandan leaves as instructed.

Which brings me to the splotches of blue, made with blue pea flowers, in the rice layer of the kueh salat. It's another thing that's been edited out of most recipes because, you know, we are all 'time-poor'. But if we keep changing recipes, for no reason other than to save time, adopt the latest food fad, or dumb-down for the benefit of those living in foreign land, mistakes sometimes creep in and we don't even realize it. Isn't it nice to make something the way it used to be made? At least once in a while so that we don't become too 'food-culture-poor'?
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20 August 2012 Update

KUEH SALAT (COCONUT CUSTARD ON GLUTINOUS RICE CAKE) Source: Modified from Cooking for the President (Recipe for 16 pieces) Rice layer 5 young pandan leaves, rinsed 250 g glutinous rice wash and drain in a sieve 125 ml water 1/2 tsp salt 125 ml freshly squeezed coconut milk, undiluted 50 bunga telang (blue pea flowers) pound finely and strain; discard pulp Custard layer 5 eggs stir thoroughly and sieve 100 g young pandan leaves wash and cut ½ cm long; blend with coconut milk; strain to yield 150 ml; add flour, salt, sugar and water to coconut milk; discard pandan pulp 150 ml undiluted fresh coconut milk 2 tbsp plain flour 1/8 tsp salt 115 g sugar 90 ml water To make rice layer, line bottom of 18 x 18 x 5 cm cake pan with parchment paper, leaving some overhang. Spread half of rice in pan evenly. Top with pandan leaves, then remaining rice. Add water and sprinkle with salt. Steam 10 minutes over rapidly boiling water. Drizzle with coconut milk. Mix thoroughly. Steam 20 minutes. Discard pandan leaves. Drizzle with bunga telang juice, unevenly. Steam 5 more minutes. Check that rice is cooked. If it isn't, drizzle with 1 tbsp water and steam a few minutes. Toss to mix the colours slightly. Press into an even, compact layer with a wet spatula or spoon. Cover and steam another 5 minutes. Proceed to steam custard as detailed below. If custard isn't ready yet, reduce heat to lowest possible and continue steaming. Rice must be hot and moist when custard is added or the 2 layers won't stick together. To make custard layer, cook coconut milk mixture over medium heat till gently simmering, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat. Pour half slowly into eggs, stirring to mix eggs and coconut milk evenly. Next, add eggs to remaining coconut milk. Cook combined mixture over low heat, scraping bottom and sides of pot to prevent lumps, till slightly thickened. When rice is cooked, pour custard onto rice. Reduce heat to lowest possible. Keep steaming water just below boiling point, with the steamer's cover slightly ajar if necessary. Steam till custard is just set in the middle, 35-45 minutes depending on steaming temperature and thickness of custard before steaming. Test by inserting skewer in the middle and wriggling slightly (the skewer, not you). If skewer comes out clean, kueh is done. Final steps: Remove kueh to a wire rack. Allow to cool completely and set, 3 hours or so. Unmould by lifting parchment paper, onto a chopping board. Cut kueh with an oiled knife, scraping knife after each cut. Discard parchment paper. Serve as dessert, snack or for tea. Rice should be firm, not mushy; custard should be soft, smooth and rich. Refrigerate leftovers for up to 2-3 days, then bring to room temperature. Steam over rapidly bubbling water to reheat, about 4 minutes if cut serving size. Don't steam longer than necessary or colours would fade. Cool to room temperature before eating. 22 August 2012 update: Just thawed a piece of frozen kueh salat and steamed it. Guess what? It eats like it's freshly made.