Kerabu Beehoon (Kerabu Vermicelli Noodles)

This is a Nyonya style noodle - spicy, tangy, refreshing, and appetising!

Preparation does take a while, however when all ingredients are assembled the mixing is easy peasy job. Served cold it's perfect for a Summer picnic, or a big party. If you prefer a warm meal, you can heat it up in the microwave too.

This dish always reminds me of the lazy weekend picnics we had as kids along Batu Ferringhi stretch of beach in Penang. Nothing beats a refreshing light noodle to fill your tummy after a dip in the sea!

Recipe below has been adapted as living abroad presents a challenge in finding authentic ingredients. For those who love food, this shouldn't stop us from making good food. We make do with what we can get our hands on.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:
• 400g Vermicelli Noodles
• 400g Beansprouts
• 250-300g King Prawns
• 30-40g Dried Shrimps
• 30g Fresh Mint
• 30g Flat Leaf Parsley
• 15-20 Bulb Shallots
• 50g Desicated Coconut

Mixing Sauce:
• 3-4 Lime / 1.5 Lemon Juice
• 4 tbsp Tom Yum Paste
• 4 tbsp Bottled Sambal Belachen (Fresh Belachan if available)
• 2-3 tsp Fish Sauce (add more to suit personal taste)
• 1-2 tsp Sugar to taste

Method:
• Blanche noodles in boiling water, turn off heat and cover with lid for 4-5mins. Drain under tap water to prevent noodles from breaking. Set aside for later.
• Wash beansprouts, blanche and set aside for later.
• Cook king prawns in boiling water. Let cool, then halve or sliced thinly and set aside.
• Soak dried shrimps in hot water, drain and roughly pound into pulp.
• Thinly slice fresh mint, and flat leaf parsley.
• Peel shallots and finely slice.
• Lightly fry (without oil) desicated coconut in a shallow pan


• In a mixing bowl, add all mixing sauce ingredients, stir well and set aside.
• When all ingredients are gathered, in a large bowl or container mix thoroughly all the ingredients except desicated coconut and mint leaves for just before serving.

NOTE:Above recipe yields approximately 12-14 portions depending on how hungry the crowd you are feeding feels.

For a more authentic taste, source for below ingredients to replace the substitutes above:

• Asian Lime
• Asian Mint Leaves
• Fresh Shredded Coconut
• Freshly Pounded Sambal Belachan (alternatively use a blender)

Double-Cooked Pork in Dark Soya Sauce

Ingredients

• 350g Pork belly (cut into cubes)
• 2 pcs Star anise
• 1 Cinnamon stick
• 4 tbsp Dark-soya sauce (make sure it's the really thick type of dark soya sauce sold in Malaysian grocery stores, not the watery dark soya sauce found in Hong Kong)
• 2 tbsp Light soya sauce
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Pepper
• 1 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Five-spice powder
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 2 tsp Cooking oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 Eggs (hard-boiled, peeled) - optional

Method

1. Rub salt and five-spice powder onto the pork belly cubes. Then add dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, sugar and pepper and mix well. Leave to marinate for at least a few hours or overnight.
   


2. In a pot, brown garlic in cooking oil. Then add star anise and cinnamon stick. Fry until fragrant.
3. Add in the marinated pork belly and fry until the meat is partially cooked. Then add water.
4. Add dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, sugar and pepper as needed to suit taste.
   


5. Leave to simmer on low heat for about 20-30 minutes or until the meat is cooked.
6. Transfer the meat and sauce into slow cooker and leave to cook for approx. 6 hours.
7. Add the hard-boiled eggs into slow cooker just half an hour before serving. (Cooking for too long will make the eggs too hard to eat)
   

* Serves 4

Tips

1. The tenderness of the meat is very much dependant on the cooking time. Cooking the meat for too long/not long enough will make the meat tough.
2. Cheat trick: If you're too busy to marinate the meat overnight nor cook the meat for 6 hours, try rubbing the meat with 1.5 tbsp cornflour which acts as a natural tenderizer for meat. Then add all the other marinade ingredients and marinate for at least half an hour before cooking; the longer the better. Cook meat for about an hour or more and serve.

Ayam Sioh (Sioh Chicken)

This is a Nyonya style chicken that makes a very appetising main dish served with white rice. It has been adapted from the Nyonya Flavours cook book.

Ingredients:

1. 6 medium chicken drumsticks
2. 5 shallots - thinly sliced & pounded into pulp
3. 1 tbsp yellow bean paste
4. 1/2 tbsp dark soya sauce
5. 1 tbsp toasted coriander seed - ground
6. 1 tbsp tamarind pulp - strained with 1 cup water
7. 1 tbsp cooking oil
8. salt & sugar for seasoning

Method:

1. Heat up cooking oil in a deep pot, then sauté shallot pulp until golden brown.
2. Add bean paste and chicken and stir to ensure they mix well.
3. Add in dark soya sauce and ground coriander, stir again to make them blend well with the chicken.
4. Add tamarind water (leaving the pulp), season with sugar and salt then bring to a boil.
5. Add a little water and let simmer for about 10-15mins until the gravy is thick and chicken tender.
6. Adjust the amount of water to obtain the desired amount of gravy.
7. Serve hot with white rice & vegetable side dishes.

For Oriental/Asian cooking ingredients, terms and explanations, check the below URLs:

Food Subs

Asia Food

Most ingredients listed above can be found at Oriental grocery shops like See Woo or New Loon Moon in London's China Town.

Jiu Hu Char Improvised

This is an improvised dish. A original Jiu Hu Char recipe can be found on a September 2005 posting.

Due to lack of original ingredient resource, we have decided to improvise. For turnip we substitute with cabbage, for dried cuttlefish we substitute with dried shrimps.

Ingredients:

1. half an onion - thin & finely sliced
2. 2-3 medium carrots - thin & finely sliced
3. half a cabbage - thin & finely sliced
4. 1 pork rib steak - thin & finely sliced
5. handful of dried shiitake mushrooms - reconstitute & finely sliced
6. handful of dried shrimps - reconstitute & pounded
7. 2-3 tbsp cooking oil

Method:
Apply same method as cooking the original Jiu Hu Char.


First fry onion and pork.


When the pork turns white, and onions start to soften, add the reconstituted shiitake mushrooms.


Fry till fragrant.


Then add all other ingredients - sliced carrots & cabbage.


Pour in 2-3 tbsp of the water used to reconstitute the shiitake mushrooms. The bits at the bottom of the water can be left out.


Start to stir well and let fry.


Lower the heat and let fry for 5-10mins with a lid.


Stir and fry adding the water from reconstituting mushrooms if needed. Let fry slowly for another 5mins or until cabbage starts to soften. Serve immediately while hot, or store for the following day.

Sambal Prawns

Ingredients

• Fresh medium-sized prawns [shelled]
• Red chillies
• Garlic
• Shallots
• Serai [Lemongrass] leaves
• Belacan powder
• Lime juice
• Dash of Salt
• Sugar to taste
• Tomato [finely chopped]

Method

1. Grind chillies, garlic, shallots and serai leaves in a food processor/blender.
2. Heat oil in wok.
3. Brown garlic, add chopped tomatoes and fry for 1 min.
4. Add the ground chilli ingredients and belacan powder and fry till mixture is fragrant and dry.
5. Set mixture aside.
6. In a separate clean wok, heat oil and add prawns.
7. Stir-fry for 1-2 mins.
8. Add sambal, lime juice, salt and sugar to taste.

This recipe was contributed by Mrs. Rosalind Cheong

Fried Turnip with Shredded Dried Cuttlefish [Ju Hu Char]

This is a popular Nyonya dish.
Ingredients

• 1 turnip [thinly sliced and cut into long, fine strips]
• 1 carrot [thinly sliced and cut into long, fins strips]
• 10 pcs Dried mushrooms [thinly sliced]
• Shredded dried cuttlefish strips
• 200g Pork belly
• 2 cloves garlic [finely chopped]
• Celery leaves [finely chopped for garnishing]
• 2-3 tbsp cooking oil
• Pinch of salt
• 1.5 tsp sugar
• Dash of white pepper
• Dash of chicken stock

Method

1. Heat cooking oil in wok.
2. Brown garlic in heated oil.
3. Add pork belly, mushrooms and cuttlefish strips and stir-fry for 1-2 mins.
4. Add turnip and carrot strips and fry over low heat till soft.
5. Add seasoning - salt, sugar, white pepper & chicken stock.
6. Continue fyring until cooked, sprinkling a few drops of water occasionally to keep wok moist. Remember not to add too much water while frying to prevent dish from being too watery.
7. Sprinkle finely chopped celery on dish, just before serving.

The secret to cooking this dish well lies in the frying process.
This recipe was contributed by Mrs. Rosalind Cheong