Good home cooking - Little Nonya Express

I've been awfully lazy about updating this blog, but worry not!  A few entries are in the offing.  What inspires me to write this post, however, is a rather tasty lunch last Sunday.  Little Nonya Express is a new eatery on Jalan Kembangan, at the end of a small little strip of shops in the midst of residential housing. 

Helmed by veteran chef Baba Jolly Wee, it is a new little restaurant specialising of course in nonya cuisine.  Baba Jolly used to lend his expertise to Spices Cafe in Concorde Hotel (the former Meridian Hotel on Orchard Road).  But he has now moved far closer to Katong.  Besides supervising the kitchen, we saw from the posters on the front wall that Chef Jolly also gives cooking lessons. 

The food is truly nonya comfort food.  The tender, juicy beef rendang came with a fragrant rendang gravy.  The chap chye too was cooked in a flavourful stock (with haebee lending a dash of umami to the dish).  The sambal sotong was less tasty than the other two but the sotong itself was cooked just right.

We finished off the meal with durian chendol.  Here, a slightly jarring note was struck.  The ice shavings were a little large.  One had to crunch the ice a little between ones teeth.  But all in all, a good meal and friendly service.

Where little green worms come from

One of the fun features of the opening of the Peranakan Museum was the BaBazaar and the performances put up by various groups. I'll probably go again just to catch a few more but this time around I was watching the chendol-making demonstration by Christopher Tan. Here's a short recap of how those little green worms are made.

Ingredients

40 Pandan Leaves

1.5l of water

150g Mung bean flour (apparently a Thai brand is best)

30g sago flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/8 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate

Obviously, this will give you a whole mountain of chendol so it may be good to moderate the quantity at least for the first attempt.

Vital piece of kitchen equipment - a tray with little holes in it - a chendol making tray! Can't be found in Singapore, only in Penang. But apparently any tray with little holes in it will do.

Directions

Chop up the pandan leaves, and put them in a blender, top up with water. Pulverise the leaves, strain the water through a sieve. Top up the water further and repeat until you have got 1.5l of the green liquid.

Whisk in the mung bean flour, sago flour, salt and sodium bicarbonate. Let this stand for about 20 minutes or so.

Pour mixture into a broad based pan (like a deep frying pan) and put on a low flame. Stir mixture constantly, till it gets thick and glossy. This step takes about 15 minutes. Enjoy the aroma of pandan rising from the pan.

Taste the mixture to check whether the starch is cooked.

Prepare a large mixing bowl filled with ice and water. Put the chendol tray on top. Pour the mixture into the tray and quickly scrape the mixture through the holes so that it falls into the icy water and sets quickly. The mixture will set when it cools, so this step must be done quickly.

Scoop out the chendol from the tray of icy water - it's ready to put in the suntan and gula melaka.

Looks pretty simple, but then that's just watching someone else do it!

Other activities over the next two weekends - comedy skits, nonya fashion show, some print workshops, singing, music etc. Fun!