In the Pot

The thing about me and cookbooks is this:  I tend to have favourites - there are some recipes I will cook repeatedly, and others will remain uncooked forever.  I would really not be able to do a Julie/Julia thing and cook every recipe in a cookbook.  And so it is that the Pot Roast in "Robin's Eurasian Recipes" has indeed become one of my favourite recipes.  It's easy to cook, and the smell of the onion gravy filling the house in the process is absolutely heavenly.  I brought it for my extended family's annual Christmas eve dinner, and so thought it was timely to share it now.

Before I go on, a little about the book itself.  Robin is the father of Quentin Pereira, whose restaurant "Quentin's" is one of the few truly authentic Eurasian restaurants in Singapore.  Quentin's used to be on East Coast Road (see my earlier post) but has since moved to the Eurasian Association Clubhouse in Ceylon Road.  The menu is based on the recipes in this book (including this Pot Roast recipe - after eating it, had to make it!).

There's one thing about this dish though.  It is indeed heavy on onions - which means, that much time and tears are spent peeling the shallots.  Still, no pain, no gain. My mother makes it with fewer onions, but adds a mirepoix of celery, onions and carrots instead.  I prefer the oniony version (because of the wonderful aroma mentioned earlier).  But we both add cinnamon, cloves and star anise, which was not in the original recipe.  Anyway, here it is - my slightly modified version of Robin's Pot Roast recipe:

Pot Roast, covered with onions

Ingredients:

1.5-2kg beef (I use shin)

1 medium onino, sliced

5-6 carrots, chunked

4-5 medium potatoes, quartered

2packets fresh button mushrooms 

2 beef stock cubes (I've used 1 beef and 1 mushroom instead)

2 tbsp ground pepper corns

1 litre water

1 stick cinnamon

3-4 cloves

2 star anise

(Blend together)

20 shallots (or 5 medium-sized onions)

6 tbspdark soy sauce

2 tbsp pepper

2 tbsp sugar

Directions

1.  Marinate the chunk of beef in 10 tablespoons of the blended mixture, for about an hour.

2.  Fry the marinated beef in a pot, to brown.  Remove from heat and set aside.  

3.  Fry the onions till soft.  Add the rest of the blended mixture (including any remaining marinade) till fragrant.  Add the water (should not be too much, just enough to generate steam to cook the beef), beef stock and peppercorns.  Heat till it reaches a boil.

4.  Add the beef, and cook for 1.5 hours, till soft.  (Alternatively, pressure cook for half an hour).  Add the  carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms.  Cook till the carrots/potatoes are soft.  

5.  When the beef has cooled, remove and slice thinly.  Place in serving dish,and add the vegetables and gravy.  Can serve with some nice French baguettes, but my preference is to eat with sambal belacan and rice.

My Own Ellice Handy

Elsewhere in this blog, I have made reference to the excellent Mrs Handy's cookbook, "My Favourite Recipes". My grandmother has a copy of the first edition, my mother swears by her second edition. And me? I am glad to say that I got my copy of the fourth edition, as a Christmas gift. It's a beautiful hardback book, with the introduction from Mrs Handy and an additional background note about her life.

Where the original only contained the written recipes, this version includes photos, additional mouthwatering incentive to try out the recipes. The recipes include not just the imperial measurements (the complaint of an earlier post) but handy conversions to metric measurements (pun intended).

I am looking forward to trying out my first recipe from this new cookbook :-)

(Mrs Handy's "My Favourite Recipes" is available from major bookstores.  Or you can, as suggested in a comment on my blog, write to sallych@landmarkbooks.com.sg to place an order.)

Penang Roots

I had the pleasure recently of returning to Penang together with my extended family, to visit relativees there.  I had  earlier written about my previous visit to Penang.  This time around, our extended family trip made it easier for my cousin and I to get in touch with our Penang relatives.

My great-great grandparents
and my great-grandfather (on the right)

It was also a good opportunity for me to find out more about my paternal  grandmother and her family. According to family lore, it was my great-great-great grandfather who came to Penang.  His portrait hangs in the family home, dressed in the robes of a Mandarin.  His son, my great-great-grandfather, had a few children.  How many, I am not sure - but this photo (on the left) shows my great-great-grandparents with two of their sons - one of whom was my great-grandfather.  His  daughter would become my grandmother.  (Incidentally, the photo in the picture is actually a replica of the original - why it is relatively unfaded still.  The original, much  faded, is displayed opposite to this replica.) My great-great grandparents also had (at least) one daughter.  She would become my paternal grandfather's mother - as mentioned previously, my paternal grandparents were first cousins.

Front door

My great-grandfather married a KL girl.  She had three children, one boy and two girls.  But sadly, he died young, leaving his wife to bring up the children.  Two of them would stay in Penang, but my grandmother moved down to Singapore after her marriage to my grandfather.  But whilst she may have left physically, she would retain her Penang nonya upbringing all her life - always wearing her sarong kebaya.  And of course, according to her children, she was an excellent cook!

It was thus a nostalgic journey back to Penang, to revisit our family home, with its portraits on the wall of my ancestors.  It is not a magnificent mansion like the Pinang Peranakan mansion, just the home of a more humble Baba merchant and his family.  It is a traditional home, with the carved wooden doors opening into the reception room, containing the family altar, and ornate peranakan furniture, some of which are still there today.  (Supplemented by the desktop computer and printer in one corner of course).

Behind the reception room, the house opens up into the family areas, lit up by the airwell which lit up the interior of the home.  The plants and water feature bring the outdoors indoors, a quiet oasis in busy Georgetown.

My great-grandmother's pillow

My Penang uncle has spent quite a lot of time and effort restoring his home and also in supplementing his collection of antiques and curios - many displayed in his cabinets and on his shelves.  Some have sentimental value - in particular this little leather pillow, which was used by my great-grandmother for many years.  Hmmm... I must say give me my nice soft fluffy pillow anytime!  Note also the little pair of slippers on the right.

I venture to think, that if my great-grandfather were to come back today, he would still feel that he was in familiar surroundings.  A homecoming indeed.

More photos together with others of my Penang visit(s) here.

Chicken Curry Kapitan

Chicken Curry Kapitan, a photo by Taking5 on Flickr

After my visit to Penang, I felt inspired to post up this yummy recipe for Curry Kapitan. 

This chicken dish is a Nonya/Eurasian favourite. According to tradition, the dish got its name when the British/Baba towkay (whichever it was is lost in the mists of time) was asking what was for dinner and the cook replied, "Curry, Capitan".  "Capitan" of course is a sort of derivation from "Captain" and the title was not confined just to military captains, or ship captains, but to the representatives of the trading companies and wealthy Chinese merchants.

I particularly like the recipe in my Penang recipe book, "Nonya Flavours".  So does my extended family - my aunt was even so kind as to liken it to her mother's (ie my grandmother's) version, the highest praise I could hope for.


Ingredients:

1 kg chicken
salt
1 tbsp turmeric powder.

Spice paste:
10-15 shallots
2 cloves garlic
2cm ginger
2cm galangal
2 stalks lemongrass (use the white portion of the stem)
3 candle nuts
1 tbsp turmeric powder
2-3 fresh red chillis (as desired)
5-6 dried chillis (as desired)
1 tbsp belacan, toasted

1 200ml packet of coconut cream
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp shredded lime leaf
2 tbsp lime juice

Fried shallots or more shredded lime leaves to garnish

Directions
1. Marinate the chicken with turmeric powder and salt.  Leave overnight (or for a few hours, which is what I do).  Fry till nicely browned.  Set aside.
2.  Blend spice paste ingredients, fry till fragrant.  Add some of the coconut and fry till it cracks.  Add the chicken and fry together for 5-10 minutes.
3.  Add the remaining coconut milk, water, sugar, lime leaf and cook till chicken is tender.  Add lime leaf, check the seasoning.
4.  Serve garnished with fried shallots or shredded lime leaf or both!

Penang Food Trails - Five Years on

My extended family decided to make a group visit to Penang - to meet up with relatives there, and of course to fill up on gorgeous hawker food!  Since the last time I went down was some five years ago, thought it was high time for me to join in.  Indeed, there have been changes in Penang since my last visit.  New shopping malls (First Avenue), nice new pavements down Penang Road, that sort of thing.  But thankfully, the variety and quality of the street food is as memorable as ever.

The good thing about meeting up with Penang natives is that they always know where the best food is and can take you there. I had a really good time during my last visit to Penang but most of the eateries were near or off Penang Road, with one trip down to Guerney Drive (see my previous post).  This time round, we really were able to explore more parts of the island...  Read on for the yummy details:

1.  New Lane coffee shop, off MacAlister Street

Batu Maung Satay
- no peanut sauce required

Our first stop, after we got out of the hotel.  We had a real feast, with traditional favourites like Penang Kway Teow, Poh Piah, Dumpling soup etc. And more familiar dishes, but with a twist only seen in Penang - like Batu Maung Satay (the meat has been really steeped in a tangy marinade and beautifully grillled so that it retains the moisture  and flavour inside) and Char Kuay Kak (Chai Tow Kuay with prawns and squid).  I also had a nourishing bowlful  of itek mee sua - duck meat in a herbal soup and mee sua.  For the first time, I also had a ambola or kedongdong drink with a little sim boay floating in it.  The sharp sour flavour really complemented the savoury food well. 

2. Lorong Kucing coffee shop

Sinful goodness - Roti Babi

My cousin, after her last family trip to Penang, came back raving about the Roti Babi here.  For the uninitiated, Roti Babi is indeed a mouthful of sinful (cholesterol and fat-laden) goodness.  But heck, it's once every few years!  Take two thick pieces of bread, stuff the minced pork filling in between, cover in breadcrumbs and deep fry.  Since we had about 10 people, we ordered something like 5 plates of the roti babi and much more besides, including appom telor, curry mee, more char kway teow and poh piah, wan tan mee etc etc.  We probably over-ordered and over-ate.  But again, who is counting the calories! 

3. Batu Lancang Hawker Centre

Pasembur

We made another stop at Batu Lancang Hawker centre, near my aunties' home.  Here, the dish to try is the pasembur,  an Indian rojak prepared Chinese-style.  Confusing?  It's just Asian fusion food.  Crispy crackers, potatoes, fritters, tau kwa and cucumber, topped with a sauce made of sweet potato and strips of cuttle fish. This large hawker centre is also apparently where another cousin's favourite Penang Kway Teow is (he eats three plates at one sitting).  And yes, I did have a plateful of this tasty dish.  Whilst it's not durian season, we also bought a few trays' worth from the nearby market.

4. Malay Street Coffee Shop 

Mee Sua Kor

This coffee shop, at the corner of Malay Street and Carnavaron Road has a whole range of yummy goodies. For the first time, I tried mee sua kor, mee sua in a thick gravy with strips of crab meat and other meats.  I'd never heard of it before but I really hope to be able to find its like in Singapore.  It was here also that I had my first serving of prawn mee soup on this trip - somehow, a good prawn mee is harder to find than the ubiquitous Penang Kway Teow.  Lots of Oommph.  My Penang uncle said that there was a better prawn mee down the street.  But I really was not complaining.  We slurped it down in double-quick time. Another great dish to try here is the Ngor Hiang/Lor Bak - succulent, flavourful meats.

5.  Penang Road (again)

Keng Pin's Ngor Hiang 

Well, back to Penang Road.  Old favourites such as the Penang Laksa and chendol at Lebuh Keng Kwee, and the Ngor Hiang and prawn fritters (my personal fave) at Keng Pin coffee shop up the street were still there.  My family savoured a pig organ soup in Ho Ping coffee shop too.  It's not for nothing that our hotel was on this street!

What was my total food tally?  Bear in mind that this list covers only what I personally ate/sampled (over the course of about three days), and figures in brackets refer to the stalls I went to:

Penang Kway teow (4)

Roti Babi (1)

Pasembur(1)

Itek with mee sua (1)

Chendol (2)

Durian (1)

Pohpiah(2)

Lor bak/ngor hiang(3)

Appom(1)

Yam/split green bean fritters (1); 

Dumpling soup (1)

Kuen kosui (1)

Mee Sua Kor (1)

Satay - Normal (1)

Satay - Batu Maung (1)

Offal Soup (1)

Porridge (offal) (1)

Zi char veggies (1)

Assam laksa (1) 

Prawn Mee (1)

Char Kuay Kak (1)

Smoked Chicken Waffle (1)

Nasi lemak (1) - at airport!

Will put up more photos on Flickr page when ready.  In the meantime, drool away...

(Update: Photos up here!)