Pickled Cucumber – With Osmanthus and Orange

It's the Mid-Autumn Festival this Saturday, so mooncakes are everywhere in the shops. No, this post isn't about mooncakes, as you can see from the photo, but it has something to do with the Mooncake Festival nonetheless. The recipe for pickled cucumbers – from Jacky Yu of Xi Yan Private Dining – uses osmanthus flowers. Osmanthus is derived from the Greek words, osme (fragrant) and anthos (flower). These little 'fragrant flowers' are usually in full bloom around this time of the year, and traditionally associated with the Mooncake Festival in China (but not in Singapore lah). According to legend, there is a giant osmanthus tree on the moon (which creates the shadows on the moon). This is the tree that a giant named Wu Gang has been ordered to chop down as a punishment. It's an eternal, never-ending task because the tree has magical powers. As soon as Wu Gang chops it, it heals itself and grows again! There are a few versions on why Wu Gang has such a terrible punishment. One says it was because he snoozed in a class for immortality, which pissed off the teacher, the Jade Emperor. Well, what can I say? It's a good thing Jade wasn't my teacher, or I would be chopping trees as well. Another version says the punishment was because Wu Gang killed the Sun God's nephew, who was having an affair with his wife. Hm, maybe he should have killed his wife instead? A third version – the one I like most – says Wu Gang was a security guard at the Gate to Heaven. He fell asleep whilst on duty and when he was caught by the Jade Emperor – head honcho of Chinese gods and deities – he was sentenced to the impossible task of chopping down the self-healing osmanthus tree. Gosh, if only all security guards found snoozing on the job are as severely dealt with, Wu Gang would then have plenty of helpers.

The people in China love picnicking under osmanthus trees in full bloom with osmanthus flavoured mooncakes. That's quite nice, don't you think? I've not seen osmanthus mooncakes in Singapore and I don't have time to make some by Saturday. In any case, I don't think we have osmanthus trees in Singapore. Well, at least I have pickled cucumbers resplendent with the sweet fragrance of osmanthus flowers, and it's a lot less fattening than mooncakes.

Check these out:

Creamy Black Pepper Chicken Chops	Spareribs with Dried Tangerine Peel	Crispy Spring Rolls (Popiah)	Braised Beancurd with Veggies

Prawns with Salted Egg Yolks – Easy Peasy

Some dishes are so easy, it doesn't make sense to order them when eating out. Might as well save the money for something that's really complicated or has some secret recipe which can't be replicated at home, right? Prawns with Salted Egg Yolks is one such easy peasy dish. It doesn't take a genius to guess what the ingredients are. Nor does it require a great chef or domestic god(dess) to pull the ingredients together into a great tasting dish. Any home cook with minimal kitchen skills can do the job adequately. The only thing to watch out for is the possibility of overcooking the prawns. Using biggish prawns helps as it's easy to overcook small ones. When pan-frying, the prawns should be only 70% cooked. Once they turn red and lightly golden, remove them to a plate. They then finish cooking in their residual heat and when they are tossed with egg yolks and butter. It's easy enough even for a weekday dinner, delicious with rice, or as a starter or topping for a green salad. For a vegetarian version, use soft bean curd instead of prawns, and braise everything for a few minutes with some vegetable stock or water.

Check these out:

Kung Pao Prawns	Prawns with Red Fermented Beancurd	Prawn Tom Yum Soup	Wonton Soup

Date and Walnut Soft Candy – A Chinese Delight

I used to cart loads of date and walnut soft candy back to Singapore whenever I went to Hong Kong. So did a lot of other people. Everyone loved the soft and chewy candy wrapped in colourful cellophane. Then, candy stores in Singapore started carrying these sweets, so everyone could have as much as they wanted, whenever they wanted. Being so easily obtainable made them less desirable, I think, and they sort of went out of fashion and were forgotten. So, when I came across a recipe for the candy in a cookbook, it was like bumping into a long lost friend. 'Hey, I know you!' There was no photo and it had a mysterious name – Chinese Delight – but the description and ingredients told me this was the old friend I loved so much. Of course, we had to catch up with each other!

Making the soft candy is surprisingly straight forward with only three main ingredients: walnuts, dates and maltose (malt sugar). If you want it less sweet, reduce the amount of dates, which are sweeter than maltose. The only tricky part is deciding when the candy's done, but the authors' guide of simmering for 15 minutes is quite good. There are also visual cues on when to stop cooking the mixture. When it's almost ready, the colour darkens as the water in the mixture evaporates. I drop a small dollop of it into a bowl of water, give it a few seconds to cool down, then check the consistency. If it's too soft, I cook the candy for another few seconds. When the mixture's getting overcooked and hitting the hard crack stage, the colour turns lighter. That's right, maltose is not like sugar which darkens all the way. Other than this, it's really quite easy. Homemade candy in 15 minutes.

Check these out:

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies	Carrot Cake	Almond Biscotti	Banana Peanut Butter Crumble

Potato Gratin – Creamy, Crusty, Yummy

I've made Potato Gratin a few times using Chocolate & Zucchini's recipe. A homely French dish from a Parisian lady – it doesn't get more authentic than this. Hence, when she says Potato Gratin is not supposed to have cheese, I keep cheese well away. The only seasonings are salt, and a hint of garlic and nutmeg lingering in the background. This is a dish that celebrates the flavour of potatoes without distractions. It takes about 15 minutes to prepare but there's nothing too complicated – just peeling, slicing and stirring. Then, it's baked for 45 minutes or so. The result is a mix of creamy spuds – like mashed potatoes without having to do any mashing – and a touch of French fries because of the slightly burnt crust. The best of both worlds, really. Next time, I might just add some ham and cheese, and make it the best of all worlds.

10 interesting things about potatoes:

China's the world's biggest potato producer, accounting for 22% of global production. Russia's second with about half of China's quantity. India is placed third with 8%. So, almost 1 in 3 potatoes is produced in China and India.

8 of the top 10 countries that consume the most potatoes per capita are in East Europe: Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Kazakhstan. The other two are Rwanda and the UK. East Europe also has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Hm, I think the connection between the two is economic conditions?

2008 was the International Year of Potato, according to the United Nations. Okay, I think even the potatoes didn't know this.

Holland exports more potatoes than any other country. Yup, we get Holland potatoes in Singapore.

European and Asian potato farmers get only 40% of the North Americans' yield in terms of tonnes per hectare. Hm, I wonder why?

Beginning in 1845 and lasting six years, the Irish potato famine killed over a million people in Ireland and caused another million to flee the country, decimating the population by some 25%. Some of them were sent on 'coffin ships' to Canada by landlords who simply wanted to get the peasants off their land.

Potatoes are a very good source of vitamin C. They are also a good source of vitamin B6, copper, potassium, manganese, and dietary fiber. Eat more potatoes, people!

Potatoes were first cultivated 7,000 years ago by the Incas in Peru. But it's 7,700 years for rice. Says so here. Rice wins. Yeah!

The world’s biggest potato was grown in Germany in 1997, weighing 3.2 kg, the size of a small dog. Mutant potato!

The Guinness couch potato record is 68 hours, 48 minutes held by New Yorker Suresh Joachim. That's almost three whole days and nights spent watching TV! He smashed the previous record of 19 hours, 41 minutes to smithereens.

Check these out:

Roasted Eggplant with Sweet Miso	Pickled Cucumber with Osmanthus	Crispy Spring Rolls (Popiah)	Stir Fried Tomatoes with Eggs

No-Steam Chinese Turnip/Radish Cake – Lor Bak Ko

I got hold of Jacky Yu's cookbooks a few days ago, and have been poring over his recipes as bedtime reading. Who's Jacky Yu (余健志)? He's chef extraordinaire from Hong Kong and founder of Xi Yan Private Dining Restaurant. Famed for his originality in contemporary Chinese cuisine, Jacky Yu combines ingredients and techniques across different regions in China, South-East Asia and Japan. His signature dish is Chicken in Hot and Spicy Sauce (口水鸡), a traditional Sichuan cold chicken dish which he has made famous by adding century eggs. You know where he gets his creativity from? His mother! That's right, his mother is also quite inventive, so it's all in the genes. According to the son, Mum's Turnip Pancake (妈妈萝卜餅) was invented by his mother. Of all the recipes in his three cookbooks, this is the only one he attributes to Mrs Yu. That's gotta mean it's good, right? I must say it sounds quite original. The recipe's like Lor Bak Ko (萝卜糕) but it doesn't involve steaming, and has glutinous rice flour added. Usually, Lor Bak Ko is made with only rice flour, without any glutinous rice flour. And it's steamed, then pan-fried when it's cold. I reread Mrs Yu's recipe in both Chinese and English (the cookbooks are bilingual) to make sure there wasn't a mistake. Nope, it says 'Scoop turnip batter onto pan. Fry until both sides are browned.' It goes on to explain that the amount of glutinous rice flour should be 1.5 times plain rice flour. Like mother, like son; both of them break rules.

I woke up this morning and decided to try Jacky Yu's Mum's Turnip Pancake. That's what happens when I spend a couple of hours reading cookbooks before going to bed. Also makes me hungry late at night, but that's another story. So, does the recipe work? Is it good? Yes, it works. Yes, it's very, very good, and different. It's like a cross: 80% Cantonese Lor Bak Ko and 20% Nian Gao (年糕). Inside, it's soft, smooth and just a wee bit sticky and chewy. Outside, it's way, way more crispy than normal steam-and-fry Lor Bak Ko. Eaten piping hot, it goes C-R-U-N-C-H when I bite into it. For me, that's the killer part. I've never had steam-and-fry Lor Bak Ko that's so crispy. From now on, it's bye-bye traditional Lor Bak Ko and hello Mum's Turnip Pancake. Next Chinese New Year, I'm having Mum's Turnip Pancake and renaming it Lor Bak Nian Gao. Saves me the trouble of having both Lor Bak Ko and Nian Gao, which are traditionally eaten during the Chinese Spring Festival.

18 February 2010 update – here's a photo of the nian gao I bought for the Chinese New Year:



Check these out:

Spareribs with Fermented Black Bans	Char Siu Pau (Roast Pork Buns)	Yam Kueh	Kong! Bak! Pau!

Cream of Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup – Very 'Corny'

I read about LiveSTRONG: With a Taste of Yellow on userealbutter's blog last week. It's an online cooking event which supports the Lance Armstrong Foundation by raising awareness of cancer issues. Participants have to make a dish or drink that contains a yellow food, and submit the post. I wanted very much to take part because, like userealbutter, I have lost loved ones to cancer. I like the idea of cooking something yellow – so vibrant and lively – as a way of thumbing one's nose at a terrible illness. I was, however, stumped over what yellow dish I should come up with. Lemon curd? Too common. Custard? Floating Islands, maybe? Didn't grab me. What definitely didn't help was userealbutter's entry, Candied Lemon Slices. I was overawed by her glorious photos of lemon slices turned into crystalline lace with a bit of common sugar, then dipped in chocolate dark as night. I couldn't think of anything that was even half as good.

The clock was ticking; the deadline was drawing close. I thought I had to pass on this event. Then, last night, I came across Hong Kong celebrity chef Jacky Yu's brilliantly yellow dessert: Tapioca Flakes and Corn in Sweet Soup. The soup was a shade of the brightest yellow because the corn was steamed, blended, then sieved to extract all the liquid, golden goodness in the kernels. And that gave me an idea. Mum's Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup was super good and super simple – just fresh corn, chicken, carrots and onions gently simmered for one and a half hours or so. But it could do with a bit of jazzing up in the looks department. So, Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup was reborn this afternoon with Jacky Yu's method for making sweetcorn milk – or was it sweetcorn coulis? The result was a telegenic soup that was bursting with the sweetness of fresh sweetcorn and chicken, and velvety smooth because I added a large dollop of cream. I managed to submit a post that I was happy with. Yay!

Check these out:

French Toast	Gingerbread Man	Kwiwfruit Trifle	Ginger Milk Custard (薑汁撞奶)

Coconut Macaroons – For Coconut Crazed Fans

Every time I cook with coconuts, I would remember the days when I was a student overseas. In a foreign land far, far away, coconuts were quite hard to come by. I made do with canned coconut milk which was a thin layer of cream sitting on a disgustingly gray liquid. These had to be stirred and mixed to get 'coconut milk'. Used with lots of spices for dishes such as curries and Laksa, it was passable. But for desserts or coconut rice, there were no spices to hide the milk's dubious quality. My Malaysian friend flatly refused to compromise and was hell bent on having her Nasi Lemak with fresh coconut milk. Yes, there were fresh coconuts at the weekly market. Or maybe they weren't very fresh but at least they were raw and in their original form. In fact, they were so original they still had their hard shells, the layer under the husk which protects the snow white kernel, where the milk was. If she were a pro, she would hold the coconut in one hand and with a big machete – parang – in the other hand, take a swing at the coconut and hack it into two halves. Without amputating her own hands, of course. It was a good thing my friend didn't have a parang or she would have used it. Her hand would then end up on the floor, twitching violently in a pool of blood. I would have to pack it in ice and rush it, and its previous owner, to a hospital. Meanwhile, the coconut, still whole and not even scratched, would be rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically at a pitch that's inaudible to human ears.

So, how did this crazy woman crack the coconut? She put it in a plastic bag, went to the side of a road and, with a big swing of her arm, smashed the coconut against the hard tarmac! What could I say? She had a lot of time on her hands since she wasn't studying or working. She was just accompanying her husband who was a graduate student.

Back in Singapore, I simply stroll to the market and pay a dollar for coconut milk, freshly squeezed by a wonderful machine as I wait. Or get a bag of moist, freshly shredded coconut. Except I woke up late yesterday – hey, it was Sunday – and only coconut pieces were available because the machines had been washed and cleaned. I had to apply a bit of elbow grease and do the grating myself, which explained why the coconut shreds were a bit too coarse. I couldn't wait for another day because Crazy Coconut Woman was coming to visit. I always have a coconut treat for her when she drops by.

Check these out:

Magic Ginger Milk Custard (薑汁撞奶)	Gingerbread Men	Cream Scones	Sweet Glutinous Rice Balls

Japanese Cold Spinach – With Bonito Flakes

During the Second World War, the mighty British Empire lost Singapore to a few Japanese soldiers on rusty, old bicycles because of spinach . . . . Ok, that's exaggerating it a bit. But it was true the British intelligence thought Japanese soldiers couldn't see very well. I don't know why anyone had such a crazy idea. If they knew that cold spinach was a very common dish in Japanese households, they would have realized the Japanese had no problems fighting in the dark and operating sophisticated machinery. That's because spinach is one of the richest sources of lutein, an antioxidant which helps keep eyes healthy!

Fast forward to modern day Singapore and what do we have? 50% of all 12 year-old kids wear spectacles. 80% of male army recruits are short sighted. The enemy could just send a sound wave that shatters glasses, and our army boys would be sitting ducks. We should eat more spinach, people! Spinach is good for your eyes! Lutein helps improve eyesight! Tired of stir-fried spinach, blanched spinach with oyster sauce and spinach soup? Try Japanese Cold Spinach with Bonito Flakes. It's a nice change to have vegetables cold instead of hot. And the flavor's very different with dashi stock and bonito flakes, instead of the usual oyster sauce and Chinese soya sauce. Of course, don't overdo it. Do you know why Popeye was called Popeye? He ate so much spinach his eyes popped out . . . . Ha ha. Sure made him strong though.

Click here and here and here for more information on the health benefits of spinach.

Check these out:

Spicy Sichuan Beef	Wonton Soup	Crocodile Stir-Fry	Bombay Duck Soup

Sticky Toffee Pudding – Without a Date

Sticky Toffee Pudding, an English pudding, is traditionally made with dates. But because I don't have a date, I make prune pudding instead. HA . . . ha . . . and tell lame jokes, obviously. Aiyah, I just prefer prunes because they are less sweet.

I haven't made Sticky Toffee Pudding for a long time, so I pulled out my recipe this morning and did a test run. I'm going to make some – with dates – for my Muslim neighbours. They are fasting now, and will be celebrating Hari Raya Puasa on 20 September. Traditionally, Muslims eat dates when they break their fast. Besides energizing with their high sugar content, dates are also spiritually significant because they were one of the Prophet's most frequently consumed foods. (Click here for more information on dates and fasting for Muslims.) My Malay neighbours are extremely friendly, and they pop over every so often with some goodies. See the photo of the chicken curry? That's from them. It was reheated a day after it was cooked but still looked and tasted gorgeous. I reciprocate every now and then, especially when I can make extra portions with no effort at all. Like homemade cookies. Of course, I never ever give them curry since that would be like making Kimchi for a Korean or Tom Yum Soup for a Thai. I think they will be very pleased with a gift of Sticky Toffee Date Pudding. It's appropriate for the religious festival and is something familiar yet new. And it reheats very well, so they can eat it whenever they want. Knowing them, they will be cooking tonnes of food, and giving me some. Mmm mmm, I'm looking forward to that.

Check these out:

No-Knead Bread	Apricot Jam	Carrot Cake	Salted Caramel