Ringing in the new Year with Samsui Ginger Chicken

Samsui women refer to the hardworking women who emigrated from China (mostly from the Canton region) between 1920s to 1949, to Singapore to earn a living working backbreaking jobs in hard labor industries such as construction or as domestic workers. They usually never marry and often live in cliques, looking after each other. At one point there used to be about 200,000 them in Singapore, contributing to the development and prosperity we enjoy today. Now there remains about 100-200 of them in their 80s and 90s. 

From the Liu Kang Exhibition

I saw it fitting to finish out the last meal of 2011 with a dish dedicated to these hardworking women, who were easily identified by their red hats as they toiled under the blazing sun. This dish, samsui ginger chicken, is a very popular dish at Soup Restaurant which extols it as a " traditional Samsui dish consumed by the Samsui women in Chinatown. Due to their low income, the Samsui Ginger Chicken was only consumed once a year, during the Chinese New Year" on their website. 

Samsui Ginger chicken is eaten with minced ginger and lettuce.

My version is different from Soup Restaurant which serves the chicken steamed. Mine is boiled with garlic, ginger, onions and soya sauce, before I dunked it in cold water to stop the cooking process (and giving the chicken more bite). I serve this with cold lettuce (you must wash it in cold water then dump it inside the fridge). The ginger is more difficult to make, because it requires minced ginger and I don't have a electric dicer *faints*. I had to mince it by hand.

The pain I go through sometimes...

This is where I became a bit confused. I was supposed to make samsui chicken right? Because I was preoccupied with thoughts about work, I absent-mindedly poured in Shaoxing wine (which we use in another recipe for Three Cup Chicken, my other specialty). OOPS~!

Surprisingly it tasted still pretty yummy, and the wine gave the ginger a kick. I poured in some stock (especially the oil floating on top) that I had from boiling the chicken then dumped ginger, garlic, soya sauce, sugar and sesame seed oil (and the wine *zzz*).

I accompany this dish with tomatoes, lettuce, and a dish of finely julienned chilli in soya sauce for an additional kick. How you eat this is, take a lettuce leaf, put a slice of tomato, then dunk the chicken in the chilli (pick up a slice of chilli if you dare) and then the ginger mixture. Wrap and oh nom nom nom nom.

A simple dinner - oyako don

Had a simple mum mum at my favorite izakaya at Cuppage Plaza after Singapore Art Museum. Oyako don. A simple yet heart-warming dish which is easily digested after that horrendous tunch (tea-and-lunch) Bär and I had earlier in the afternoon.

Starchy Corn soup with Chicken 甜玉米羹

I made Thai mango salad. I think the uncle at the market conned me of my $$. How can two tiny raw mangoes cost more than a big ripe mango? *sulks* I ban the uncle.

I overdid the chilli though, and the heat of the mango salad struck our tongues badly. This will teach me a lesson putting three chillis into the salad. Ow.

I remembered fondly the stallholder at one of my ala maters who used to cook a mean corn soup. Love their hot starchy chicken with corn soup. It is a no-brainer and takes a really short time to cook. You just need to dump a can of starchy corn into a pot of chicken stock and chicken slices (I like having dark meat in the soup). When it boils, you just pour in some corn starch to thicken the soup before drizzling some beaten eggs into the soup. Pepper then drink drink drink.

Christmas Lunch

A hot bowl of clam chowder on a cold Dezember Christmas afternoon after opening presents. Elijah, my new toy penguin felt the cold too. =D

I think I may want to make German onion bread next week. Yes I know I can get the generic Gardenia bread at S$2.00 but what is the fun in that? I love pounding and kneading the hell of the dough while thinking "very fondly" of a few people.

白萝卜汤

Clockwise from left to right. Tomato with minced pork quick stir fry, radish and carrot soup, thai-style fish and turnip rice.

I think that 白萝卜 tastes best with the rich flavors of dried seafood (so I chucked in some baby dried scallops, which I bought a box of at S$12.60, and dried cuttlefish, but B1 complained that he missed the flavor of pork ribs. Some people just cannot be satisfied.

I think the sour mango added a nice contrast to the fish, because one would expect those green slices to be salted pickle, but it turned out to be the tangy green mangoes. I also swapped out yam for turnip in the "yam" rice. Usually the way Chinese do it would be to fry the ingredients then pour it onto cooked rice before mixing and eating. My style is more paella-like, which is to fry the rice together with the rest of the ingredients then pour in the stock and cover till cooked.

白萝卜汤 is considered a "cooling" soup because of the white radish which can also improve your appetite, digestion and prevent coughs. So technically this soup was better drunk during the hot summer months. Haha. OOpz.

Quick Snapshot of Boxing Day Brunch

I made my own coleslaw. It wasn't a very good idea to add vinegar (I only use apple vinegar) to the coleslaw. It made it taste kind of strange... different from how KFC would serve it.

You won't be able to see them but there is fried bacon and tomatoes under the eggs and my lovely toasted bread.

Created a new blog - The Yum Yum Enabler

I wanted to create a new blog to showcase all the funky food I am cooking at the new house. Besides it's time. Even though nibblezware was created with the intention to write about food and technology, I have been focusing too much on the food side, and it is becoming a very personal blog. 

The entries on recipes and food that I make will be moved to the new blog, but restaurant reviews will remain here. However I will post some of the interesting entries over here as well. 

Brot - In search of a crusty French loaf

I wanted to make a crusty french bread ala those books I read , so I used this recipe.

Here are the photos I took at the different stages. I skipped out on the first step, because I wasn't sure it would be successful, but it turned out not too bad, though it was more crumbly than crusty. For crusty I had to toast them in my frying pan (I had forgotten the microwave oven again)

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, oil, salt and 2 cups flour. Beat until blended. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a stiff dough.

 

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down; return to bowl. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. 

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Shape into a loaf 16 in. long x 2-1/2 in. wide with tapered ends. Sprinkle a greased baking sheet with cornmeal; place loaf on baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 25 minutes. 

 

Beat egg white and cold water; brush over dough. With a sharp knife, make diagonal slashes 2 in. apart across top of loaf. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool. 

Updated!!! I gave Mutter 3 slices, asking her to try. She told me later that she steamed it for lunch because she found the bread to be quite hard... winz. But that is the whole point.

Pipping Hot Remedy for a Cold Dezember Afternoon

I wanted to make chicken pot pie. I reminded B1 to remind me to take the readymade puff pastry from Phoon Huat's cold food section when it was time to leave. I remembered that the pastry thawed very quickly and it would be a nasty problem trying to separate the sheets. 

  

In the end both of us forgot, until we were at the Night Market and already too far from the supermarket (I did a lot of shopping yesterday for presents, including Kari's *winks*). So I went back today and got it myself together with cornmeal which I needed to bake my crusty french bread.

Hmm I did not know what was the temperature I should set for the oven. I almost forgot that this was my new microwave and not the temperamental bitch of an electric oven we have at home. So in the end I set the oven too high and too long. oopz. We do have a microwave at home but for some reason the electric one gives a better crust so I often have to suffer its idiosyncrasies.

Luckily for some reason I decided to check the baking process and thankfully I did, as you can see, it was slightly burnt on the top. Sigh. Reminder to self: 10 min is fine. 

西洋菜汤

Yet another "it's Sunday, we must finish whatever is in the fridge day". I realize a complication in my "no repeat receipe" motto. Now when will I ever get to drink lotus root soup again...zzz. Obviously didn't think this one through. 

Deep-fried the stinky Norwegian salmon in a cornflour-salt-pepper mixture, and tried to disguise the stench (well it was thawed and not exactly freshly dead) with the Peppercorn sauce I bought from Ikea. Interesting taste, but the bloody fish stank up my beloved, pristine white kitchen. I am also seriously rethinking my position on having a white house. I wanted it mostly white so that my art and food can be showcased more visibly, but damn the house is a bitch to maintain.

The two lazy creatures finally tore themselves from their BF3 and artwork to go downstairs to buy the dried Chinese herbs. So that's why there are some dates and wolfberries floating in the soup, unlike last week's 莲藕汤. I also bought some green beans and mung beans, so we can look forward to some Chinese desserts during the cold December. B1 also bought chrysanthemum which I detest because the bloody petals will be clinging to the teapot and be very hard to clean off. But he won me over with the reminder that he does the washing. =D

Itty Bitty Pancakes masquerading as Cupcakes

I bought this at the John Little sale next door while we were at Expo for the electronics sale. Like I said before, I had gotten the sushi maker set from the same Megahouse series two years ago.

I was incredulous that the box promises so many components. Will there be that many things inside the small box, as shown? A mixer, a cupcake stand, cupcake holders, pipping bags? Actually I have been looking for a cupcake stand, but they are very expensive. Psst, I bought this because I love the cupcake stand. Keke.

Oh yes it does...just that everything is itty bitty. It even comes with tiny teacups and saucers *love~!*

Ingredients + setup

Realized 3 5 (thanks MB for pointing out) things:

1) Turned out B1's Japanese is even worse than my German. He protested that he hadn't practised for a while (major sin in my eyes, maybe I should yank out the wire when he plays BF3). What he could tell me was that the toy expects you to use a cake mix. WTF.

2) I have no weighing machine. My Winnie the Pooh Japanese tea cup leapt to the rescue again. So far it helps me measure rice and  now flour. Hasn't held actual tea yet...

3) I got a recipe for basic cupcakes, because I didn't have my usual more advanced recipes with me. I realized later that I was pouring what essentially was a pancake batter into cupcake holders. 

4) This bloody toy is built for Japanese market (full stop). ZERO English instructions. It wasn't that bad for the sushi maker but became a huge problem when I wanted to bake the cakes. I had already preheated the oven at the lowest temperature available, 150 degree Celsius. But common sense and staring very hard at the Japanese instructions in pink (for fuck) told me that those itty bitty cups wouldn't last in that heat. They can only withhold 90 degrees Celsius, AND I am only supposed to use the Microwave function AND that the cups are only supposed to go in for 2min and 40 secs tops. 

5) I used a colander as a sift for the flour..

I was blasting 92.4FM (classical music station) as usual. I cook while listening to that channel because it doesn't report news (while I am cooking. The news make my blood boil) and it puts me in a lovely frame of mind while looking in the fridge. In between contemplating my evil stare (it read "I am going to yank out the PS3 if you don't tell me something more useful than my Japanese isn't very good"), B1 commented that I was "very cultured leh, baking while listening to classical music". Eigentlich I was a bit mad because 92.4FM played "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence" only after I finished baking. I almost shrieked like a banshee moments later in the kitchen, because I realize I was living out the fantasy of 我们这一家的橘子.

I had some leftover cream from my Sojabohnen Eis experiment. So with that, flour, butter, sugar and milk, I essentially made a simple pancake batter. The toy was cute, but spinning that bloody thing was ineffectual. I took out my trusty S$2 Daiso whisk, and beat that batter senseless.

I gingerly placed one cup in as a sacrificial tester, and was relieved to see the mixture bubble and rise in the microwave in 2 miraculous minutes. Cute. No other mishaps other than one of the blueberries I chucked in was blown up into the sky (i.e. oven ceiling). 

High tea mit Milch *haha*

I was too eager to take photos, so I dumped my whipped cream onto the cakes which promptly melted it. Haha. Thankfully I only made 8 because B1 refused to eat more than 3, even though I threatened him no dinner unless he ate the last one. 

So adore the bunny pokers. 絶対かわいい!!!!

I didn't think it was possible

But I am in love with my microwave oven. It was love at first sight when I saw him at Best Denki. He is like the electronic version of my dream guy. He can BAKE, grill and reheat food on command *haha*.

And he doesn't need to spin around like the other microwave ovens need to. I was oohing and aahing all over him when B1 and I lifted him out of the box yesterday, like a caveman who is gazing on the first wheel he ever carved out of rock.

Shiny Shiny, 煌々煌々. Touch Touch Feel Feel.

We are going to have so much fun together.

Actually I love National Microwave ovens, having grown up with Dimension 3 and 4 (we are a gourmand family). But I was not able to find National, but I think I am very happy with this substitute. One thing I don't like about him is that instead of being able to press buttons for the timing, I practically have to return to the first rock wheel of turning a lame-ass knob. At least this knob can be pressed in when not needed. So I guess I am ok with it.

Still he comes with an equally sexy Pyrex dish and some other stuff. Look at me, getting high over electronics. But with Mr Microwave Oven, my kitchen is finally complete. The refrigerator made it feel like home, but Mr Oven makes it feel like my kitchen.

We H8 Pumpkin.... as much as Beetroot

Two root vegetables that we hate very much are the pumpkin and beetroot. I hate beetroot on principle because like I mentioned before, meine Eltern use it in juices which I hate. But I had a more favorable impression after trying the butter poached version at Bistro Petit Salut.

I just hate pumpkin too. I guess I hate all vegetables that are too sweet, i.e. sweeter than a carrot. However these two bloody things are cheap, especially as they are in season now. So we must be punished for the sake of the wallet. 

I don't have a wok, let alone a steamer, so I sat Mr Pumpkin on an inverted bowl in my stockpot. I was pleased with myself, thinking Mr Pumpkin will go nice and rotty and we can just dig the meat inwards from the side. Obviously I had forgotten the same principle applies to his bottom. So I encountered difficulties when I tried to lift him out of the pot later, because he had become stuck to the bowl. And... all my delicious chicken stock was leaking from his bottom. I was suddenly reminded of my Neffe.

So poor Mr Pumpkin became a stew instead of a soup because I had to make a sauce out of the leaked soup, which had become very diluted with the boiling water. I also got to try out with my new microwave oven, which I so love very very much. I baked my frozen mackerel (from Norway again. Fuck why is everything from Norway suddenly, especially when I am very annoyed with some of the people there now).

We are grateful Mr Pumpkin had that salty gravy, because his meat was still too sweet. I was trying not to gag inwardly, while B1 steadfastly refused another bite. Seriously it is like having a child sometimes, when I had to implore him to take in more of the gooey yellowness. Ewww. At 50cents, Mr Pumpkin became a culinary punishment.

I had slightly better luck with Mr Beetroot, though he refused to become soft (this is starting to sound very wrong) when I fried him in butter. So I drowned him in chicken stock, which became a plus point because I could use the literally bloody (looking) liquid as my sauce, traumatizing B1 further. Mr Oven came to the rescue and helped me kill the cow again to a merciful medium well done at 5 minutes on grill function. Btw I didn't cook the Manhattan clam chowder soup, Mr Campbell did. I just reheated it. B1 did not comment on the soup, which means he didn't recognize his favorite meat lurking among the carrots. Tsk tsk, why do I bother sometimes...

Emptying the Fridge day

These meals were seriously "get rid of whatever is sitting inside the fridge".

B1 is a serious lala addict, so we bought two plates full at Cold Storage on Friday night.

Saturday Lunch

I despaired on how to get rid of the spinach, since it was bought last week. Amazingly 95% of the leaves were still edible. I got rid of some for Saturday lunch with century egg (not sure if I did this dish at the new apartment before. I think I have forgotten to mention that I am aiming for a "no repeat recipe", in a bid to increase my repertoire of dishes). I have finally bought a microwave oven (a different one from the one I previously eyeballed, because that one cannot do baking. This one is the more advanced brother =D. My wallet is hemorrhaging), so at least I can do grilling and baking now. Gott sei dank. There are only so many dishes one can cook with boiling, steaming and frying before cheating by deep-frying in desperation. I almost wanted to steam me a cake, which is actually possible. Anyway that S$20 toy cupcake set now sitting in my cupboard is calling out to me. To think I paid S$40 for the sushi maker when the series came out one year ago.

 

A long time ago, when we could still afford expensive meals (sigh), we ate at Nanjing Steamed Bun Restaurant (the name sounds cheap, but the menu is not, I assure you), and they served a dish that went straight to B1's heart. Steamed lala chawanmushi, where the delicate meat rose like *ahem* against the fluffy egg mixture. I tried to do the same, except I used lightly boiled lala (so they were still in their shells, I wanted to boil the shells to make sure we didn't poison ourselves later), so the bloody things exploded just before I was going to take the dish out of the pan. If I had reached for them earlier, I would definitely had been scalded. So my poor dish looked horrific. Of course it didn't help that I was lazy and just made a z pattern with the oyster sauce instead of topping the dish with a sauce. Psst, it tastes better than it looks. Shouldn't have put oyster sauce in the first place, defeats the purpose of chawanmushi.

Anyway we are nuts. We ate like 40+ clams and still fought over the remaining ones. Not bad, only 3 of them did not open at all.

B1 later had the cheek to complain he was hungry and I cooked too little rice. Wtf. The man has a bird-like appetite and it took me like almost 10 meals before I figured how to portion the rice exactly for two bowls *thumbs up*. Now he tells me the rice is not enough when I know he always has difficulty finishing. zzz. He retorted that usually I overcook the main dishes so the rice is not really needed as a filler.

I had to admit though I was hungry later, but we were totally stuffed later when we had our french dinner.

Sunday Dinner

Before I go on, I must congratulate myself for braving the odors at the wet market and buying vegetables and eggs there (I was not brave enough to buy raw meat there, I am not the kind to poke the meat without running to the washroom to disinfect). 

Let me see, I had a marrow, a giant lotus root ( I love this, I can eat it boiled, fried, deep-fried, stewed. I have only never baked the thing... Hmmm. Anyway I did not know that the bloody was so expensive. S$3.80. wtf), leftover chicken (which I was supposed to cook the previous Sunday but did not because I was tired from hauling my shit ass lousy new pc), and that annoying spinach.

I refuse to murder the rest of the spinach french-style, so I just lightly boiled them in water, and then topped some deep-fried chicken on them. Keke, the chicken wasn't fresh either, so I had to deep fry them. I see deep frying as cheating (though it is a painful cheat, considering how much cleaning I have to do to the kitchen afterwards). 

I started boiling down the lotus root in the morning all the way till night. B1 complained the soup wasn't full bodied enough. I give him full-bodied, bloody hell, who was the one who drove wrongly last Sunday and I ended up not being able to buy my dry goods?

I forgot about Mr Marrow. I cooked him with bacon. A delicious ending.

I think it may be the way I am brought up. After having the privilege of living in a well-stocked kitchen, it is sometimes a shocker to open the fridge in the new house. It is like freaking bare, except for a few bottles of alkohol and a whole shelf dedicated to three kinds of bier. We are like a fucking frat house. The usually unobservant B1 commented dourly that anyone who comes to our house will think we are alcoholics. He who loves buying beer, and me cheap plonk.

Homemade French Dinner

Cooking is all about working with what you got. I couldn't find a bouquet garni at Cold Storage on Friday night so I just used thyme. No pinot noir? Use cabernet sauvignon. No lemon jus? Use apple vinegar. Hahha.

 

Speaking about Friday, I was supposed to go to the Singapore Art Museum but we were trapped in a horrific traffic jam along Orchard road for almost one hour until we gave up and went to Cuppage Plaza for ramen and gyoza. B1 was enviably sandwiched between two hot girls, but he complained that one of them was a horrible ah lian. Some people can be such snobs. And to think all through dinner I was thinking that I was leading a very tame and lame life. Just play CoH, learn my violin, blog, read books and study German. And these girls of late teens or early twenties were talking about clubbing, dancing and Ladies nights. Interesting how we are thinking different things about the same person.

Homemade Hollandaise sauce

But I digress. I discovered some petrified asparagus in the freezer so I made some hollandaise sauce. I also realized that I had been conned by the name "buttercup" when I bought the 3 blocks of "butter" on a sharp discount. They were actually blocks of solidified palm oil. Gross. I knew it the minute I melted the "butter" because there was no way in hell real butter would give off that sickening sweet smell. I immediately seized the block and took a closer stare... shit. 

My version of beef bourguignon

Anyway I also referred to the book on French cooking that I borrowed to make my beef bourguignon. It called for a bouquet garni, damn, a pinot noir, oops, pearl onions, WTF? I stopped reading. =D I could not find frozen brisket in the supermarket so I stripped the striploin and boiled them in my crockpot with onions and carrots and mushrooms (which I added half and hour before dinner). I also had to make my own tomato puree after I forgot to buy a canned one... Nothing four overripe tomatoes and water couldn't do. *winks*

I also prepared a simple Provençal salad with boiled potatoes, japanese cucumber and tuna. Well I was supposed to use anchovy vinagrette, but I was starving so I just used mayo (well it is French) and a slap of wasabi for a kick. 

We had everything with a baguette I bought from Delifrance. After lunch at Bistro Petit Salut, I realized how delicious bread is when lightly toasted, so I cut the entire stick into slices and toasted them over my non-stick frying pan. The cheap plonk today is Golden Gate cabernet sauvignon which I used in the stew. It is too spicy for me. I think vina maipo might be more to my taste. hmm. I should go and buy more bottles of that cheap plonk now that it is on sale.

Sunday Munchies - Agio Olio mit poached egg

I stayed over at the new house by myself. Some sort of rehabilitation. Trying to get used to the house before moving. I ended up sleeping with my sloppy doggie for comfort.

B1 already had lunch so I made myself a late lunch during Japan Hour's commercial breaks. I used up the remaining fusilli in the cupboard in a simple agio olio and poached myself an egg using milk. I don't understand why restaurants use vinegar for poaching egg. I also read that in the french cooking book I borrowed from the library yesterday when I tried to check how to make beef bourguignon. I left the egg yolk runny so that it will cover the pasta with gooey goodness when burst. Hmm. 

I also made the droll realization that the three syllables in my coder nick can be read phonetically in Mandarin "你不饿" (You are not hungry). How apt.

汤圆

I know it's not the winter solstice yet. But on Wednesday I was mocked by a Chinese Mainlander on Wednesday when I ordered 汤圆 by mistake (I thought I had memorized the menu at the steamboat restaurant near my violin class) when I wanted 云吞.Then I thought, fuck that, I want to eat 汤圆. Especially when it is so cold nowadays =D.

So I cooked some yesterday after dinner. This is macha flavor and it is disgusting! So bitter in a mouthful. Dun likes!!!