Eat In No. 45: Otak-Otak / Otah

Mental note to self: When the damn recipe says soak 40g of dried chillis in hot water and then de-seed, wear some bloody gloves doing this freakin' dangerous task.

Second mental note to self: When you have capsaicin all over your hands, you're screwed.  Do not touch eyes.  Do not touch baby.  Do not pass go and collect $200.  Endure for two days.

I am now truly convinced that anyone who wants to be a navy seal or green beret needs to first prove himself by embarking on the making-otah-from-scratch selection test: To make a batch  big enough for 15 people in under 3 hours or less.  I obviously didn't make the cut.  I took 4 hours and another 2 to clean up.  It obviously didn't help that there is like a grand total of 2 credible otah recipes online...

So here's the test:

Ingredients

2-inch piece of galangal or blue ginger, deskined

4 stalks lemongrass, leaves trimmed

16 candlenuts aka buah keras

40g dried chillis, de-seeded (see mental notes to self above)

500g red onions or shallots, peeled and roughly chopped

30g belachan

2 tbsp ground turmeric

2 tbsp ground coriander

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp salt

900g fish (Horse mackeral preferred) or you can use 80:20 fish to prawns for this 900g. 

300ml coconut milk

4 large eggs beaten

8 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped

Lots of vegetable oil

Banana leaves, about 15 sheets

Toothpicks

A disposable BBQ set

Method

-In a food processor, blend the galangal, coriander, turmeric, lemongrass, candlenuts, shallots and belachan until a thick, smooth paste.  Add vegetable oil if the ingredients are not able to blend properly

-In a large wok or skillet, fry up the chilli paste and add salt and sugar.  Like all sambal-like pastes, make sure that the paste is well-fried and that the oil starts to seep out.  Smell should also be fragrant

-Once the paste is done, let cool for 15mins.   Then mix it together with the fish, coconut milk, lime leaves and eggs.

-Meanwhile, fire up the disposable BBQ.  I got mine at NTUC

-Unlike regular small otahs you get outside, I made mine up-size - like A5 paper size.  Make sure each banana leaf is well cleaned and well-oiled.  Put paste in center, fold up the sides and secure with toothpicks.  Remember: securely! As you will need to flip the damn thing over while BBQing.

-Prepare a large wooden spatula and tongs.  Once the coals are hot and the flames have died, place one otah on the grill.  One side will take about 5mins.  Flip carefully.

Ok, I'll admit it.  I actually forgot to put eggs in :( so it didn't turn out as custardly as I wanted it.  But I'd recommend using prawns (cut into big chunks) to give a little bite to your otah.  Using banana leaves and charcoal is the way to go, the charring and the aroma will do wonders for your otah.  But if you really can't, the paste can be shaped onto a plate and steamed.  Or, you can use aluminium foil to bake it. 

Enjoy! (Be wary of the dried chillis)

Eat In No. 44: Chicken Pot Pie

Did you know that the idea of condensed soup was first conceived in the mid 1890s and finally in 1897, some American smart-ass, named John Dorrance (a chemist by training) , invented it for the Campbell Soup Company.  It became so popular that 30 yrs later, the word "Soup" was added to the name of the company.  So to make condensed soup, the factory makes regular soup then starts to boil it down until a thick sludge (with the help of some thickeners) is formed.  Typically, you need to add about a a can's worth of water or milk to transform the sludge back to regular soup.  

But of course, some other smart-asses thought: "Aiyah, why waste time, just use the sludge like this lor".  So we have things like chicken pot pie.  A great American comfort food that technically you are supposed to fill into a pie shell and short-crust or puff pastry top.  But then of course, I thought: "Aiyah, why waste time, just use a big tray lor".   So here goes the recipe:

 Ingredients (feeds about 8)

-500g ready-made puff pastry

-1 bag baby carrots, 300g, steamed or boiled till tender

-300g sweet potato, cubed, steamed or boiled till tender

-1 head of broccoli, steamed r boiled till tender

-4 boneless chicken breasts

-500ml milk

-2 cans of condensed soup (cream of chicken or mushroom)

-200g shredded cheddar cheese

-Paprika

-salt and black pepper

Method

-Brine your chicken breasts by placing them in a tray or pan of water.  Submerge and add roughly a quarter to half cup of salt.  Let brine for 2 hours

-Then coat with pepper and paprika and pan fry with vegetable oil.  Use medium heat and do not move the meat once it is placed onto the pan.  Use tongs for this.  Pan-frying is essentially if you want a more robust flavour.  Skip this step is time is short.

-Once cooked, slice up your chicken breasts.  Mix the meat with the carrots, sweet potato, broccoli, milk, cheese, soup, salt and pepper in a large oven dish

-Roll out your puff pastry on a well-floured surface till it can cover the surface of the mixture in the dish. 500g of pastry will fit the standard large oven dish that fits most home built-in ovens

-Place the pastry on top. You can choose to brush the entire top with eggwash to give a nice sheen

-Into the oven at 200 degrees celcius for about 30mins

Make sure that your vegetables have been well-cooked before combining them.  They will not be cooking much in the oven.  I made the mistake of having my sweet potatoes too hard.  Also, you might want to add in a cup of white wine to liven things up.  And make sure to use black pepper liberally.  Feel free to use a pie crust, 2 X 9 inch crusts for this recipe as well.  If not the filling will go well down as a stand-alone stew accompanied by good country bread or rice.

Eat Out No. 49: Guan Hoe Soon Nonya / Peranakan Food

There is always something rustic, something charmingly unique about nonya cuisine.  It is the epitome of fusion food.  Born out of a mix of Chinese and Malay culture, nonya cuisine stands out in terms of patience, skill and dedication.  It is certainly no Jamie Oliver bullshit about 15-min dinners.   You need to pound, you need to boil, you need to chop and you need to stew then you need to taste and constantly refine.  It is definitely something suitable for the terrible rainy weather we have been having recently

 Actually, I discovered that the term 'nonya' actually refers to a Chinese lady who has adopted Malay dress and cuisine while preserving Chinese culture.  (Baba refers to the gentlemen).   The term 'Straits-Chinese' might also be slightly incorrect since they are BOTH, in somewhat equal respects, Malay and Chinese.  So to be technically correct, it would be better to term the cuisine Peranakan (meaning descendent) cuisine.  A term as unique and emblematic as the food.

It was by pure chance that PY and I stopped at Guan Hoe Soon for dinner.  We just decided to walk to Joo Chiat from our place to try out some Peranakan cuisine.  It was one of those I-need-some-curry-and-achar days.  Afterwards I discovered that GHS is or is one of the oldest Peranakan restaurants in Singapore.  But of course the ambience betrays little of it.  With a decently modern decor, we didn't expect to get blown away by any sort of flavourful home-cooked food. 

Thank goodness, that didn't turn out to be entirely the case.  Our first nibbling of the achar found it a refreshing change.  Not heavy on ginger, onions and chillis but a very subtle, mild and refreshing chilli paste that brought out the freshness of the cucumbers and pineapples.  To get a feel of the food, we ordered some standard fare - Ayam buah keluak, "her piao" (fish maw) soup, sayur lodeh and nogh hiang.  Honestly, I was impressed by the stews.  The buah keluak gravy was flavourful and had a nice consistency to it.  Many I have had in the past depended a lot on short-cut flavour enhances and thickeners.  I'm certain that the authentic types do not necessarily need to achieve a very thick consistency.  The key would be to bring out the essence of the buah keluak which is rich, black and oily.  Note that the seeds of the buah keluak are very poisonous and high chances are that the buah keluak you buy would have had their seeds processed (washed, boiled and buried with heat for 40 days).

The sayur lodeh was a nice yin-yang counterpart to the ayam buah keluak.  Yes, the only time a curry can be the milder component.  Coconut milk can indeed work wonders at times.  Pileeon a dollop of chilli, some turmeric, lemon grass and onions, then fresh veggies and you get some serious chow.  Accompany with rice any time of the day. 

What impressed me the most was the ngoh hiang., or what some people called loh bak  Most excellently executed.  This Teochew version was chock full of goodness inside - pork belly, water chestnuts, shrimp, onions, five-spice powder.  It was as if the restaurant had a old and wisen nonya ah mah i nthe kitchen who does nothing but cuts and mincedseverything by hand, rolls them into beancurd skins and fries them lovingly in oil.  The fish maw soup again is commendable but the ingredients were just not enough for hungry souls! The soup is everythig you will want fish maw soup to be.  Lots of pork, cabbage and fish flavours all blended into one.

 Ah, how could we then forget the sweet stuff - Gula Melaka.  Once again, little complaint less the quantity.  Gula Melaka refers to palm sugar, made from the sap of the date or coconut palm.  It has good aromas of butterscotch and caramel - el naturel.  And then match that with rich coconut cream and voila! Heaven-ness and awesome-ness.  GHS' gula melaka is top-notch.  Not surpising given the simplicity of the ingredients.  You just need to source for quality stuff.

Overall, don't expect to find value at GHS, just honest-to-goodness home-cooked style food.  You'll definitely need to order three dishes at least per person if you have a big appetite.  It is not located in the most convenient location either.  But nonetheless, you'll defintiely work up an appetite if you decided to stroll to Joo Chiat from Eunos or Paya Lebar.  Also, remember to get the bak zhang from the stall nearby after you finish your dinner!

Food 9, Service 7, Ambience 6, Value for money 5

Guan Hoe Soon

Eat In No. 43: National Cook Curry Day

NCC Day - I Just couldn't resist it.  I cooked a huge-ass pot of curry today not because I want to protest against foreigners.  But to protest against the public inadeptness of the Community Mediation Centre for leaking this story out without the proper context.  A valuable life lesson to learn by anyone who wishes to be someone.

Well, I had fun anyway.  This was a simple chicken curry, coconut cream and turmeric biased.  No real recipe involved so I'll just describe it simply.  This will serve 6 to 8.  

4 to 5 medium onions

2 thumbs of ginger

A handful of buah keras

About 6 dried chillies

About 4 fresh chillis

A thumb of turmeric root

3 tablespoons curry powder

5 garlic cloves

700ml coconut cream

1kg potatoes

1kg chicken parts

500ml chicken stock

To make the rempah, process everything except the coconut cream, potatoes, chicken and stock.   Buak keras (candlenut) gives a nice fragrant richness.  The yellowness of the curry comes from the turmeric, careful not to stain your clothes with it!

Set up a stockpot with a good lash of vegetable oil (half a cup) over medium heat.  When well-processed, dump the rempah in and start stir-frying.  This will take about 20mins.  Make sure the flame is not too big or the rempah will dry out.  Make sure the rempah is well-cooked.  When you leave it alone with a hole in the centre, you can see oil start to seep out.  And it will start to smell fragrant.

In goes the cocnut cream and maybe about half the stock.  Bring to a boil and add potatoes.  Cook the potatoes for about 10mins on a light boil.  Add in more stock and the chicken then bring to a boil.  Ensure the potatoes are cooked thoroughly by piercing with a toothpick.  The chicken should also be cooked throughly until juice run clear.  This should take at the minimum 20 mins more.  Longer if you want the potatoes and chicken more tender.  Adjust continually with salt.

Garnish with some coriander leaves.  Serve with rice, baguette (jiam tao roti) or slurp on its own.  

I like my potatoes with skin on and I used frozen chicken drumlets.  Extremely economical meal - everything for less than $18.  So that's cleverrness justapoxsed with CMC tardiness.

Eat Out No. 48: Clifford Restaurant Sunday Champagne Brunch

Clifford Restaurant at the Fullerton Bay Hotel is having a promotion till 29 July  to launch some new foie gras creations with a special $22 on the wine pairing.  The only trouble was that PY and I went there on Sunday afternoon when the promo was only for dinner :-/  So we had to settle for the buffet brunch instead.  And I'm glad we did.  For champagne brunch, Clifford serves a  semi-buffet where you get to choose one appetiser and one main course from an a la carte menu, and then feel free to gorge on the buffet selection.  It is $88++ for non-champagne and $128++ with the bubbly.  The baby wasn't agreeable with too much alcohol so PY skipped that while I went for a 2003 Crazione Brunello instead for the 7-Up looking thing.

I must say that the selection they had was very decent.  The appetisers were all egg-themed and my truffle omelette turned out quite well done with the insides cooked to just the right firmness.  PY's benedicts were similarly well-done.  The main courses were also well-executed especially the cod fish which had its skin well-seared.  My braised short ribs were tender and meaty as well.  Though it was not exactly professional that the description of the main courses on the menu turned out different what what was served!

But really, the proof of the buffet pudding is the selection of dishes you get to pile on your plate.  The variety was very decent but what I particularly enjoyed was the quality of the food.  The canapes were gorgeous, especially the pate 'ice-cream cones' and the creviche (raw fish marinated in oil and citrus).  Plus they threw in fresh raw oysters, a huge ocean trout and was it a rib loin? for the meat lovers.  But what took the cake was the cheese selection.  All sorts of high-quality products - mimolettes, camemberts, brie, blues.  Though having a pasta station wasn't too popular.  I mean, the golden Singaporean rule of buffet is? Answer: "How come you eating carbo at buffet har?

But there is only one exception to this rule.  It's called dessert and they were equally impressive.  They bravely ditched the easy way out which was to have cakes.  Instead, there tarts and desserts in little parfait cups and in mini-muffin form.  Outstanding were the sabayon (egg yolks) and the fruit tartlets.

At 88++ per person, I wouldn't say that this was of particularly good value, food-wise.  I think Fullerton Hotel's town restaurant serves their famous buffet at 98++.  But the view from Clifford is just exceptional - facing the barrage with the blackout-strickened MBS in the background.  Fullerton BAY Hotel itself is quite exquisite and well worth a visit, even just to admire the interior. 

Oh, yes, before I forget.  The service at Clifford? Top notch and a low waiter to customer ratio,  You wouldn't think the restaurant industry was facing a manpower shortage.  Hmm, maybe it is cos they're all being employed at Clifford.  The standard here is excellent.  I mean, they come and wipe the table even if a little water spills on the table, they change your cutlery after every food round and even before we sat, there was already someone holding a pillow for PY's back.  Any better and the staff would have been intrusive.  They did indeed managed to finesse this quite well.  Quite well indeed.

 Food 8, Service 10, Ambience 9, Value 7