House of Annie

Stuck in a Rut

I considered making Pim’s fried chicken but Nate was a little sick and it wouldn’t be a good idea to do anything fried. Then I thought of making my simple go-to dishes—oyster chicken, soy sauce chicken, or even curry chicken. But none of these choices really appealed to me.

I felt like I was really stuck in a rut. I needed to do something different. After all, it was Sunday, I wasn’t rushing too much and I had not taken any work home. So, I was really free to explore new dishes.

Right around late morning, I thought, “I’ll do something steamed”. And suddenly I recalled a recipe I had bookmarked a long time ago in one of Amy Beh’s books. It was for steamed chicken with salted fish. Hmm…I have salted fish. So, I looked for the book and there it was, this very recipe.

Amy Beh had written a little footnote on the bottom of the page saying “This is a simple yet tasty dish to cook. When you find that you have run short of ideas as to what is good to serve your family, you can try this recipe.”

It was like she KNEW what was on my mind—I had run short of ideas. I was looking for something good to serve my family (Nate had just come home after a week away in KL), and I wanted something easy but tasty. BINGO! That settled it.

Chicken with an Accent

And really, she was right. It was so easy to do and sooo delicious. Don’t be put off by the idea of using salted fish—it was the accent to an otherwise normal chicken dish.

The little flecks of salted fish gave this dish so much yumminess that it was very hard to stop eating. When you go looking for salted fish, try to find the ones that are a bit more meaty (most Asian grocery stores should carry some salted fish). Of course, over here in Kuching, the choices for salted fish are amazing and the one I got was a freshly salted fish—it wasn’t dried out, it was still somewhat soft.

You do have to marinate the chicken for at least 4 hours before cooking so I do recommend you plan ahead. Other than that, the rest of the ingredients are really simple—some young ginger, and some salt fish and you’re good to go. The only change I made was to fry the salt fish first before cooking the ginger and chicken. I thought that would allow the chicken to pick up even more salted fish flavors.

Steamed Chicken with Salt Fish Recipe

adapted from “At Home with Amy Beh 2” by Amy Beh

Ingredients:
500g chicken (I used 10 chicken drummets)
scant 1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp Shao Hsing wine
1 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 large thumb young ginger, peeled and finely julienned
50g meaty type salt fish, sliced (actually, I just eyeballed it—I used about a 2”x1/2” piece of fish)

Sliced Salted Fish and Julienned Ginger

Garnish (optional): sliced red chillies and diced green onions (I didn’t use this)

Method:

1. Season chicken with salt, sugar, Shao Hsing wine and sesame oil. Mix and leave to marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight in the fridge.

2. Heat oil in a wok, and fry the salt fish slices till they are golden and slightly crispy. Take out of the oil.

3. In the same oil, fry the ginger slices till fragrant (about a minute) but make sure they don’t get crispy or too brown. Adjust your heat accordingly.
4. Add chicken pieces (along with any marinate) and toss around till they have lost their raw look, about 3 minutes.

5. Dish out the chicken (and all the sauces) and place on a steaming bowl (I used a small oval pyrex dish). Sprinkle the fried salted fish on top of the chicken pieces.

6. Steam over rapidly boiling water for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Make sure your steamer has a lot of water to begin with so it doesn’t dry out in the middle of steaming.

Make sure you have plenty of white rice to eat this dish with. It is PERFECT with the rice. Only setback? It’ll lead to overeating! Try it and let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

A bit of this and a bit of that

The only thing about Elizabeth’s recipe is that it doesn’t come with exact measurements. This is very common for recipes handed down from our parents’ or grandparents’ generation—I’ve found that so many of them just use the eyeball method so they never have precise measurements. “Oh, just throw in a bit of this and a bit of that and then taste and adjust” seems to be their mantra. So for this khau yoke recipe, I had to guess on amounts (and lucky you, readers, I noted them down—though again, use my measurements as a guide and go with your own tastebuds for best results).

Now, khau yoke is an ambitious dish and I recommend you do this only when you have the time as there are many steps. It isn’t totally difficult but there are many different cooking methods employed and then the steaming time is rather long so read the whole recipe through and map it out in your own head before attempting!

Things I learned

Here are some things I learned after making this dish:
1. Make sure your pork and taro are the same size in thickness and height. I had some pieces of taro that were taller than the pork and the bowl and those pieces did not soak up any of the sauce and so remained rather hard.
2. Steam it for the full 3 hours for maximum tenderness on the taro.
3. Don’t slice the pork and taro too thick but don’t make it too thin either as that will cause the taro to disintegrate. 1/4 inch thickness seems to be reasonable (I had 1/2 inch thickness and the taro did not soften well).
4. Make sure you get taro that is “powdery”. I have no idea what this meant really but thankfully, here in Malaysia, I just had to tell the seller at the market that I was making khau yoke and she chose the right taro for me. According to my mom, if you touch a cut piece of taro, the good ones will leave a trace of white powder on your finger or your knife. Try that out and see if that works for you.

5. When preparing taro, don’t get the taro wet as you’re peeling it. This will cause the taro to become slimy and slippery AND on top of that it could make your hands itch. Instead, use a paper towel to hold the taro as you’re cutting off the skin. Wipe off any residual dirt from the cut taro and do not wash. (If you absolutely have to wash your taro, slice them first, then put into a colander and run some water through and drain.)
6. Making khau yoke does involve boiling, deep frying, and steaming. Prepare ahead. It’s a complicated dish. And yes, I actually deep-fried AGAIN! Can you tell I love my husband?

Now, this recipe did end up giving me a LOT of khau yoke so I recommend that if you only want a small portion to halve it. OR, impress your friends and share some.

Khau Yoke recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 lb (300g) pork belly (buy it in a big slab)
1 medium taro (ask the vegetable seller to recommend a fluffy taro)
1/2 Tbsp thick soy sauce
2 tsp chinese 5 spice powder
Marinate:
1 1/2 cube nam yue (preserved red beancurd)
1 Tbsp taucu (brown bean sauce)
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp thick soy sauce (divided)
Oil for deep frying
Sauce:
3/4 cup - 1 cup water (add more water if you prefer more sauce)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
dash of pepper
pinch of Chinese 5 spice powder
1 tsp soya sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp Shao Hsing Wine
1/2 cube nam yue
1/2 tsp thick soy sauce

Method:
1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Blanch the pork belly for 2-3 mins to make for easier slicing. This process also helps to get rid of the porky smell and helps to achieve a slightly crispy skin when deep frying.
2. Remove from water and let cool. When cool enough to handle, use a fork to prick all over the pork belly skin several times.
3. Rub the belly pork with dark soy sauce & Chinese 5 spice powder. Leave to marinade for 30 mins.

Before serving, Elizabeth recommends that you arrange lettuce leaves on a round large serving plate. Remove khau yoke carefully from the steamer & let it cool a little. Turn the steamed khau yoke over onto the lettuce leaves carefully.

If you’re not so good at this, forget the lettuce leaves and just place a plate over bowl and turn over that way to ensure less mess (like me!). Then decorate sides of dish with cilantro or other greens to make it attractive. And yes, this is important since you have taken the time to make this immensely complicated dish. Present with pride and watch husband devour!

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

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Basically speaking, beggar's delights are different meats that have been wrapped and sealed in a clay vessel, then baked in an oven. Chinese legend has it that a beggar stole a chicken but before he could eat it, he hid it from some passing guards in some mud. Not having any cooking utensils, he tossed the whole thing in the fire he had built.

When he pulled the chicken out of the fire, he found that the mud had formed a hard clay crust. After breaking open the crust, he discovered that the feathers came off along with the clay, and what he was left with was a deliciously cooked chicken. Thus originated this classic Chinese cooking technique called Beggar's Chicken.

Get Out of Town

Ijok ("EE-joke") is a small town about 35 km northwest of PJ. It was quite refreshing to get out of the concrete jungle and crowded roads. As we drove out of the city, condominiums, malls and shoplots gave way to acres and acres of palm plantations, as far as the eye can see. Just before hitting Ijok town proper, we made a left turn at the sign at the intersection of Jalan Harmoni 2 and the main road.

Sign for Restoran New Beggar's Delicious, Ijok

Jalan Harmoni 2 is a lonely road, but after hanging a right, we came upon this restaurant compound:

Restoran New Beggar's Delicious, Ijok

Under the corrugated tin roof, the layout is like a typical Malaysian open air restaurant: many round tables surrounded by red plastic chairs, fluorescent shop lights, and ceiling fans turned up high to provide a breeze. Sparse and utilitarian, with not much attention to decor besides red Chinese lanterns and hanging weaver swallow nests. Your focus is on your food and friends at the table.

Restoran New Beggar's Delicious, Ijok

We had arrived at 12:30, a bit earlier than the normal 1 pm restaurant opening. The restaurant opens so late because the beggar's delights don't finish cooking until then.

Can we eat it all?

Our party was only 7 adults and 2 kids. A normal set meal is for 10 people. The waitress was concerned that we didn't have enough people to eat all the food that was coming. She suggested we just order less dishes ala carte, but that would have come out to roughly the same price. "Give us the set," we said, "and whatever we don't finish we'll ta pau (box up to take home)."

Being a nosy American, I asked if we could see the ovens where the food was cooking. At first, the waitress said there was nothing to see. But we prevailed upon her and so three young boys (presumably the owner's sons) led us past the kitchen and behind the restaurant.

The first things you see are stacks and stacks of rubber tree logs, which they use as fuel for their ovens.

Stacks of Rubber Tree Logs

In between these two great piles of wood are the brick ovens. They are loosely built structures. The logs are burned to coals in the spaces between the low walls. A thick metal plate rests atop the walls. The beggar's delights are laid on top of the metal plate, more bricks are stacked up like a dam, and old ashes and coal are poured over the beggar's delights to bury them. At Restoran New Beggar's Delicious, the delights cook in the hot ashes for six hours, starting from 7 in the morning all the way to 1 pm.

Brick Ovens at Restoran New Beggar's Delicious

One of the boys took a long-handled shovel and began pulling down the brick dams.

He then sunk his shovel into the pile of hot ash...

And lifted out one of the clay packages.

He repeated this two more times until we had three packages laying on the ground. Apparently, each packet is shaped slightly differently so they can tell what meat is in what packet. Can you see any differences?

The boy loaded the packages onto a wheelbarrow and brought them back around to the front of the restaurant...

Where he deftly lifted them onto a wooden table and began the indelicate work of breaking through the clay shell and tearing through the paper wrapping.

Inside each package is a foil pouch containing the braised delight. The delight goes onto a serving tray and then is brought to the table.

From the Beggar's Oven

The first packet we opened was a pork shoulder and chunks of chinese taro (yam), whole garlic cloves, and shiitake mushroom halves. The meat fell clean off the bones. This isn't like Southern-style pulled pork barbecue, though. Being sealed inside foil, paper and clay, no smoke flavoring is allowed to penetrate. But it is still good eats!

Beggar's Pork, Yam, Garlic and Mushrooms

The beggar's chicken was stuffed with Chinese herbs and swimming in a delicious broth. The chicken was lean and flavorful.

Beggar's Chicken

My favorite of the three was the beggar's duck. It was melt-in-your-mouth tender, with a rich taste. Besides the herbs, there were also some abalone mushrooms cooked with it that was silky smooth and complementary to the duck.

Beggar's Duck

They also dropped off a packet of Loh Mai Fan, glutinous rice that has been cooked with oyster sauce, salted duck egg yolks, shiitake mushrooms, and pork. Dr G warned, "don't fill up on the glutinous rice! You won't have room for all the other dishes."

Loh Mai Fan

From the Restaurant's Kitchen

We had just finished cleaning our plates of all the braised meats, when they started bringing out the other dishes that were part of the set meal. Here is a beautiful steamed fish, covered in fried garlic, shallot slices that had been marinated in lime juice, slivers of ginger and green onion. This was actually my favorite dish of the meal. The lime-marinated shallots had me craving for more. And the fish was very fresh--delicate and flaky with no hint of fishiness.

Steamed Fish with Sliced Shallots

Next came this dish of fried whole prawns, covered in a sweet, sticky sauce. I'm guessing that the sauce is Marmite-based, but I can't tell for sure. The weird thing about this dish is, I found bits of fried lard among the prawns. I love fried pork bits, but Dr G is allergic to pork, so she was concerned that she couldn't eat this dish.

Fried Marmite (?) Prawns

Next, they brought out a platter of mud crabs, fried with chillies, curry leaves, and lard bits again. What's up with the lard bits and seafood? I didn't quite care for this dish, as I much prefer eating Dungeness crab.

Fried Chilli Mud Crab

They also brought out a platter of stir-fried baby choy sum. One plate of veggies to go with all that preceding meat. I wish we had more veggies.

The final dish was this pork intestine soup. Normally, this soup is flavored with white pepper to mask the smell of the innards. But when I tasted the soup, I was struck by how overwhelming the white pepper taste was. I commented to Annie, "watch out. There's a lot of white pepper in this soup."

"This soup is supposed to have lots of white pepper in it."

"I know, but not this much."

She tasted it. "Whoa! You're right! I can't taste anything else."

The soup was undrinkable to me. Sorry to say, this dish was ruined by the heavy pepper taste.

White Pepper and Pork Intestine Soup

Our final dish was a plate of ice-cold jackfruit. These fruit were ripe, sweet, crunchy, and a fitting end to the feast.

Ice Cold Jackfruit

When it was all said and done, we had finished off everything except the undrinkable soup, half the loh mai fan and half the beggar's chicken.

If you do go to Restoran New Beggar's Delicious in Ijok, do go with a large group of people, and do call ahead to make a reservation. They only cook a certain number of beggar's delights each day, and once they're allocated, that's it.

Aloha, Nate

Restoran New Beggar's Delicious
Ijok, Selangor
Tel: 03-32791936

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(In Malaysia, we know them as prawns. Shrimp. Prawns. What's the difference, really?)

My mom used to put shrimp in almost everything--wontons, stirfry veggies, fried rice, noodles and of course straight up shrimp dishes like this steamed prawns dish. These days, my growing conscience on how shrimp is farmed and harvested stops me from enjoying them as often. I even tried giving them up altogether at one time but it was just too hard.

Eating Shrimp in Port Klang

Everytime I eat this particular steamed shrimp dish, I'm reminded of how much I LOVE this dish. We didn't used to cook this at home. Our family always had a huge seafood meal every so often at a seafood restaurant(mainly for special occasions or when we had guests or family visiting) .

We would drive down to Port Klang, a city about an hour's drive West from KL and indulge in all things seafood. I remember that we would order several dishes and always end with huge platters of crab. There would be some noodle dishes to start with, then oh chien (oyster omelette), steamed fish, some clams, lala or other shellfish, then steamed shrimp and finally two styles of crab (sweet sour chilli crab being one of them).

I remember one time that I insisted on ordering this steamed shrimp dish. We had ordered a lot of dishes and it was just the family for a change (with no extra guests) and my parents felt that we could forego this dish. But I really love this more than anything else (yes, even more than crab) and insisted! So they ordered it but they were not happy with me.

So as the meal progressed, everyone got more and more full until the only dishes left were the steamed shrimp and the crabs. My dad said to me that since I had insisted on this dish, I would have to finish this as no one else wanted to eat it since they were saving room for the crab. I said, "Fine!" and as soon as the plate of shrimp was served, I dug in.

Believe it or not, I polished off the entire plate of shrimp, sucking up all the yummy juices and flavors and enjoying every "bursty bouncy" (Jaden's English term for the texture of perfectly cooked shrimp) bite of sweet, fresh shrimp. I think my mom snuck a couple of pieces after watching me enjoying the dish. My dad and brothers were incredulous that I actually managed to finish it all. Of course, I didn't eat one bit of crab after that but I was smug that I had not wasted the dish like they were expecting me to.

Bringing it Home

Anyway, these days, I just make it at home and it's just as good. In our home, when this dish is cooked, we all fight for every single shrimp. There are never any leftovers.

For the shrimp, do choose those with the head on. It makes the dish tastier somehow. The rest of the ingredients are pretty simple--ginger, green onions, oyster sauce, Shao Xing wine (chinese rice wine), white pepper, and one egg.

I really don't know the purpose of the egg in this dish, but I know we fight over that one steamed egg in the middle. The yolk is barely cooked when you take the steamed shrimp dish out of the steamer. When the yolk is broken, it oozes out and melds with the juices of the shrimp and the oyster sauce to create a savory, velvety sauce (more on that later).

Alright, on to the recipe!

Steamed shrimp with ginger and green onions

Ingredients:
1/2 lb large (30-36 count) head-on shrimp, trim off excess antennae
1 inch ginger, peeled and finely julienned
2 green onions, diced
2 Tbsp premium oyster sauce (we like the Lee Kum Kee brand, and please pay attention that it is the premium quality one)
2 tsp Shao Xing cooking wine
a few dashes of white pepper
1 egg

Method:
1. Prepare steamer or wok and let water come to boil.
2. Arrange shrimp in a circle around pie plate.
3. Break egg into center of shrimp platter.
4. Scatter ginger all around the shrimp.
5. Sprinkle oyster sauce and shao xing wine all around shrimp. Cover with dashes of white pepper.

6. Place platter into steamer and steam for 6-8 minutes or until shrimp have turned a bright pink. Make sure not to overcook shrimp.

7. Remove from steamer and garnish with green onions.

Steamed Shrimp with Ginger and Green Onions

Here's how you eat this Steamed Shrimp dish:

Step 1: break the head off the body and suck all the yummy shrimp goodness out of the head. Cholesterol? What cholesterol?

Step 2: suck the rest of the sauce off the body's shell, then peel.

Step 3: recoat the peeled shrimp in the egg yolk, shrimp juice and oyster sauce before devouring said shrimp.

Step 4: repeat until there's nothing left.

Step 5: lick fingers clean and vow to double recipe next time!

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

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Steamed Egg Tofu with Ground Pork and Shrimp

It's so nice to have Annie's Mum visiting because she cooks a lot of stuff for us that we don't often get to try. She has so much experience cooking all sorts of dishes! She's really been an inspiration to Annie and me. The only downside is, our waistlines have been expanding since she came! You see, her dishes are so tasty, it's hard to stop eating!

Here is one dish that Annie's Mum made recently that is pretty simple, yet full of flavor. It uses the same Mandarin brand Egg Tofu that we used in our popular "Two Tofus, Two Ways" recipe. Only instead of frying it, we steam it.

Mandarin Egg Tofu

Steamed Egg Tofu with Ground Pork and Shrimp

Ingredients

2 tubes egg tofu*
4 ounces ground pork
5 large shrimp, shelled
1 Teaspoon sesame oil
1 Teaspoon light soy sauce
1/2 Teaspoon ground white pepper
1 Teaspoon cornstarch
2 stalks green onion, chopped

*Note: if you can't get the egg tofu, use a block of regular or silken tofu.

Sauce Ingredients

1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 Teaspoon cornstarch
1 Teaspoon oyster sauce
1 Teaspoon Chinese rice wine

Method

1. Finely mince 3 of the shrimp.
2. Mix the shrimp, ground pork, sesame oil, soy sauce, white pepper and cornstarch together
3. Cut the tofu crosswise into 16 round pieces, about 2 cm in thickness.
4. Lay the rounds in a shallow dish and scoop out the centers with a spoon to form a bowl.
5. Spoon some of the ground pork mixture into the tofu bowls.

Filling Egg Tofu with Ground Pork

6. Slice the remaining 2 shrimp in half lengthwise and cut into 16 pieces.
7. Top each of the tofu and ground pork rounds with a piece of shrimp.

Topping Ground Pork with Shrimp

8. Steam the dish for 15 minutes to make sure the ground pork is cooked through.
9. While the tofu is steaming, combine the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer over medium heat.
10. When the tofu is done steaming, remove dish from steamer, drizzle sauce over the tofu, and garnish with the chopped green onions. Serve hot with rice.

Steamed Egg Tofu with Ground Pork and Shrimp

That flavor and textural combination of sweet, crunchy shrimp, savory pork, plus the silky smooth egg tofu, is so irresistible! How to stop eating it, tell me!

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Aloha, Nate

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