Singaporean Hot Noodles With Tofu

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Ingredients:
13 oz Tofu, dried -- sliced
9 oz Chinese dried wheat noodles
13 oz Firm tofu -- cubed 1/2"
3 tb Chinese semsaem oil
3 tb Fresh ginger -- minced
1/2 ts Yellow asafoetida powder*
1 bn Choy sum**, leaves and -stalk -- chopped in 1" -sections
3 tb Soy sauce
2 tb Plain sambal oelek***
3 tb Fresh lemon juice
2 c Mung bean shoots

Directions:
Soak dried tofu slices in hot water for 15 mintues. When softened, cut into 1" squares, drain, and pat dry. Cook the wheat noodles in boiling water until al dente, a little firm. Drain, rinse under cold water, and drain again. Heat oil in wok over high heat, and deep-fry the tofu cubes until goldenbrown. Remove from pan and drain. Next deep-fry the squares of dried tofu until golden brown andslightly blistered; remove and drain. Heat sesame oil in another wok on full heat; saute the minced ginger for 1 minute. Add the asafoeitda and choy sum and stir fry until soft. Add the soy sauce, sambal oelek, lemon juice, tofu noodles. Stir fry for another 2 minutes or until the noodles are hot. Serve immediately.
*asafoetida powder: available at Indian grocers **choy sum: also known as rape
***sambal oelek: a hot condiment made from ground fresh red, hot chilies, popular in Malay and Indonesian cuisine. Available at Asian grocery stores.

Bak KutTeh

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Ingredients:
1 1/2 kg pork spareribs
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp cooking oil or lard
˝ tsp pepper
2 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp preserved brown soya bean
1 tsp dark soya sauce
1 tsp peppercorn
1 inch long cinnamon bark
2 segments star anise
1 1/2 Litres water

Garnishing Ingredients:
fried crispy shallots
Chinese crispy crullers (Yu-Char-Koay)
Preparation of Ingredients:
Cut spareribs into bite-size pieces and marinate with pepper and 1 tsp salt for ˝ an hour.
Pound the preserved brown soya bean.
Smash the garlic.
Cut the Chinese crispy crullers into ˝ inch pieces.

Ingredients:
In a pot, bring water to a boil.
Heat 2 tbsp oil in wok. Then fry the spareribs until well-browned. Set aside for use later.

In a clean wok, heat remaining oil. Add sugar and carameilze until light brown. Then add the smashed garlic and preserved brown soya bean. Stir fry for 30 seconds. Add in the spareribs, dark soya sauce, peppercorn, cinnamon, star anise and remaining salt. Continue to stir fry for another 30 seconds.

Remove from heat and toss into the pot of hot boiling water.

Allow the consomme to boil on high heat for 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for 1 to 2 hours or until the meat is tender.

Dish consomme onto a serving bowl. Garnish with fried crispy shallots and Chinese crispy crullers

Opor Sotong

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Ingredients:
1 kg sotong (squid) - cleaned and cut
thumb size piece galangal (laos) - bruised
2 lemon grass - bruised
salt to taste
msg (optional)
several lime leaves
a few spoonful graded coconut - roasted
oil
grind the following:
4 cloves garlic
1 red onion
1/2 tea spoon tumeric (or powder)
some dried chillies - soaked
2 tablespoon ketumbar (coriander) powder
1 teaspoon jintan puteh (cumin) powder

Directions:
Heat oil in wok and fry ground ingredients till fragrant, add coconut milk and season with salt and msg. Cook till thick, add sotong and cook for several minutes till it's done.

Mee Siam

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Ingredients:
Mee Siam and Sambal
water for scalding vermicelli
1 packet coarse rice vermicelli (Hokkien: bee hoon)
250 9 beansprouts
100 g Chinese chives (Hokkien: koo chye)
500 9 small prawns
3 tablespoons oil
4 firm soybean cakes (Hokkien: taukwa)
5 tablespoons oil
1 large onion, sliced
250 millilitres water
2 tablespoons tamarind powder mi e
4 hardboiled eggs, sliced

Rempah:
5 tablespoons dried prawns (pounded separately)
5 large onions
4 cloves garlic
6 candlenuts
20 dried chillies
3 tablespoons belacan powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Gravy:
2 litres water
4 tablespoons tamarind powder
3 tablespoons fried rempah (see method)
2 tablespoons preserved soy beans (Hokkien: taucheo), mashed a little
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 coconut, grated
150 millilitres water

Directions:
Boil a large kettle of water and scald vermi- celli for 10 minutes, longer if necessary to soften until strands are pliable and soft to the touch. Wash and tail beansprouts. Cut chives into 4 cm lengths. Wash and drain. Wash and peel prawns. Heat 3 tablespoons oil and fry firm soybean cakes until brown. Cut into pieces 1 x2x 1/2 cm.

Sambal Heat 5 tablespoons oil and fry pounded dried prawns for 3 minutes. Add all other rempah ingredients except sugar and salt and fry until oil seeps out again. Add sugar and salt and stir once. Remove about half the amount of rempah and put aside. In remaining rempah, add sliced onion and fry for 2 minutes. Add prawns and tamarind liquid and simmer for five minutes. Remove and set aside.


How to Fry Vermicelli Putting all but 3 tablespoons of the reserved rempah in a kwali, fry vermicelli and bean- sprouts for 8-10 minutes, stirring all the time until cooked. Moisten occasionally with tamarind liquid from the gravy allow- ance if vermicelli gets dry during frying. Add about 3 tablespoons of fried soybean pieces and half the chives to this fried vermicelli. Dish up and arrange on a large plate with sliced hardboiled eggs, remaining chives and remaining soybean pieces for garnish.


Gravy Bring tamarind liquid to a boil. Put all ingre- dients in. Adjust seasoning to suit your taste. Serve Mee Siam with sambal prawns and as much gravy as each person wants from a gravy boat.

Singapore Noodles

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Singapore Noodles
Ingredients:
1/4 cup cooking oil
4-6 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp slivered ginger strips (optional)
2 qts water
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp salt
4-6 vermicelli nests (rice vermicelli worked great)
2 cups cooked pork, chicken, shrimp or beef, cut-up
1/3 cup slivered green onions
2 tsp crushed red pepper (may be halved)
1/4 cup oyster sauce
3 Tbsp curry powder
2 tsp soy sauce

Directions:
Heat first amount of cooking oil in wok or frying pan. Add garlic and ginger. Cook until tender.
Heat water, second amount of cooking oil and salt in a large uncovered saucepan until boiling. Add vermicelli. Make sure nests are covered with water. Turn off heat and let stand.

Add meat, green onion and red pepper to wok. Stir-fry until hot.

Add oyster sauce, curry powder and soy sauce. stir and toss well to mix thoroughly. Drain noodles. Add and toss. May be served now or cover and place in 250F oven to hold until ready. Makes 2 good sized plates if 4 nexts are used, 3 plates if 6 are used.

Smoked Spicy Chicken

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Ingredients:
1 chicken ( 1.5 kg )
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp wine
1 tsp sesame oil

Spicy sauce:
1 star aniseed
1/2 tsp brown peppercorn
1/2 tsp clove
1 piece cinnamon stick
1 cardamom
1/4 dried tangerine peel
5 cups water
2 tbsp sugar
Smoking ingredients for chicken
1/2 cup Jasmine tea leaf
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1/2 cup cooked rice

Directions:
Wash chicken and remove its legs. Rub chicken cavity and skin with salt and wine. Hang it for 40 minutes.
Bring spicy sauce to the boil until 4 cups of water is left. Strain. Add light soy sauce and sugar. Bring to the boil again. Put chicken in spicy sauce. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.
Cover wok with aluminum foil. Put in tea leaf, soft brown sugar and rice. Heat wok. Place an iron rack on wok. Put chicken on rack. Cover with lid. Remove from heat when smoke emits from wok. Bake for 5 minutes. Take out chicken. Brush seame oil on it and allow to cool. Chop up and serve.

Stewed Pork in Claypot

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Ingredients:
450 grams of pork frank
1 tbspn of tamarind paste
2 tbspn of peanut oil

Marinate:
2 tbspn of oyster sauce
2 tbspn of light soy sauce
1 tbspn of dark soy sauce
1 tbspn of black bean paste
1 tspn of sesame oil
1 tspn of Shao Shin wine
pepper to taste
1 tspn of minced garlic
1 tbspn of cornflour

Directions:
Cut pork into cubes and add in marinate mixture. Set aside to marinate for 30 minutes.
Heat wok up and add in 2 tbspn of peanut oil. Stir-fry marinated pork for 3 minutes.
Pour stir-fried pork into a claypot and add in tamarind paste and a cup of water. Cover claypot and simmer for 1 to 2 hours or until meat is tender and the soup is thicken.
Serve hot with rice.

Sayor Loday

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Ingredients:
300 grammes (10 oz) jicama
300 grammes (10 oz) long beans
240 grammes (8 oz) French beans
300 grammes (10 oz) cabbage
4 hard bean curd cakes
180 grammes (6 oz) small prawns, peeled
60 grammes (One-and-a-half oz) galangal, peeled and smashed
One lemon grass, cleaned and smashed
One cup dried prawns, washed, soaked and pounded or ground
20 shallots, peeled
2 tsp shrimp paste (belacan)
One-and-a-half to two coconuts, grated or one-and-a-half cups processed coconut milk
6 cups water
2 tsp salt
One tsp sugar
6-10 dried chillies
One cup vegetable oil

Directions:
Cut cabbage into bite-sized pieces. String French beans and cut into finger lengths diagonally. Cut long beans into finger lengths. Peel jicama and shred into finger lengths.
Soak dried chillies till soft for half hour in warm water. Pound till fine. Cut each bean curd diagonally. Place wok over high heat and when smoking, add oil. When hot, deep fry the bean curd cakes till golden. Drain. Remove all but 6 Tbs oil and stir fry the pounded chillies till fragrant. Keep aside.
Mix coconut with half cup water and squeeze for thick milk. Set aside. Mix with remaining water and squeeze fot thin milk. Or mix half cup processed coconut milk with water.
Pound or grind shallots and shrimp paste coarsely.
Place thin coconut milk in a suacepan and turn on high heat. Add shallot mixture, dried prawns, galangal and lemon grass. When boiling, add jicama, long beans, French beans, cabbage and prawns. When boiling again, add bean curd and seasoning. Add thick coconut milk and chillies and oil mixture. Boil 10 minutes and serve.

Chilli Crabs or Lobster

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This is a popular dish amongst Singaporeans. It is also a common feature in the menus of famous seafood restaurants (along East Coast and Punggol).
The abundance of fresh chillies and garlic makes this a very spicy and full-bodied dish. Chilli crabs/lobster bears testimony to the great love Chinese have for spicy Malay food.
The real way to eat this dish is with a serving of large square chuncks of bread to dip into the delicious sauce.

Ingredients:
Lobster or crabs weighing about 450 grammes (1 lb)
6 fresh red chillies
5 cloves garlic
2 stalks spring onions
One coriander (cilantro) plant
3 Tbs vegetable oil
Sauce
3 Tbs tomato ketchup
One-and-a-half Tbs sugar, according to taste
Quarter tsp salt
One tsp pounded salted brown soya bean paste
One cup water
One-and-a-half tsp cornflour
Half tsp rice or malt vinegar of freshly squeezed lime juice
Quarter tsp dark soya sauce

Directions:
Wash uncooked shellfish well, break off the claws and crack the shell by gently hitting it with a pestle. When preparing crabs, chop the bodies in half and then each half into 3 pieces. Wash and retain the shells. When using lobsters, chop off the tail and head, and chop the body, with shell still on, into thumb length pieces.
Plunge head and tail of lobster into boiling water and cook till the shell turns red. Remove from water and set aside for decoration.
Peel garlic and pound coarsely. Pound chillies coarsely too. Or grind in a food processor.
Wash spring onions, discard roots, cut into finger lengths. Cut coriander into one-inch lengths.
Mix sauce ingredients except for the vinegar or lime juice.
Heat wok, add oil and when hot, add the garlic, stir fry for one minute, add chillies, stir fry for another minute and add crab or lobster pieces.
Stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes till shells turn slightly red. Stir sauce, add to the crabs or lobster and stir well for 2 minutes. Cover with a lid and simmer over high heat for 5 to 7 minutes till shells turn a bright red.
Remove cover, squeeze the lime juice over or add the vinegar, stir well and add spring onions. Turn heat off, stir well and serve, garnish with coriander leaves.

Crisp Curried Shrimp

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Ingredients:
2 Tbs All-purpose flour
1/2 tsp Curry powder
1/8 tsp Cayenne pepper
Salt
3/4 lb Shrimp (about 12), shelled and deveined
2 Tbs peanut oil
1 bunch Green onions, cut into
2-inch lengths
Lemon wedges for garnishing

Directions:
In a bowl combine the flour, curry powder, cayenne, and salt to taste. Add shrimp to flour mixture, tossing to coat.
In a heavy wok heat oil over moderately high heat until hot; saute green onions until almost tender.

Add shrimp to scallions and sauté, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes, or until shrimp are opaque throughout.

Serve shrimp with lemon alongside rice or over crisp-fried rice noodles.