RECIPE: RICE NOODLES IN CLEAR BROTH (KUEY TEOW TH’NG)

A popular hawker dish in South East Asia, good for a quick meal. This is the Malaysian/Singaporean version. You can basically make your stock from any meat or even seafood. The Chinese tend to use pork bones and the Malays would use beef or chicken bones. The choice is endless so is for the toppings.

I tend to think of this dish as a convalescing meal, like having chicken soup when you are ill. Since I have been ill, this has been one of the few meals that have enjoyed in the past few weeks. It is light yet nutritious.

Here is how I make my RICE NOODLES IN CLEAR BROTH.


Ingredients – serves 6 to 8

2 kg fresh flat rice noodles or kuey teow
1.5 kg pork ribs
2 chicken breasts
24 large green prawns – peeled but shells saved to make stock
3 litres water (for broth)
I packet fish balls
1 piece fish cake – sliced thinly
1 bunch Chinese greens such as choy sum or Chinese chives
250 gm bean sprouts - tailed
6-8 cloves garlic - smashed
4 spring onions – cut into 4 cm pieces
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
Salt to taste
Sesame oil
Fried shallots (available at Asian grocers and the Asian food aisle at supermarkets such as Woolies or Coles)


Method

In a pot, add water, pork ribs, prawn shells, salt, peppercorns, garlic and spring onions. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 to 45 mins, whilst removing any scum that may form. Strain and return the broth to the pot. Adjust seasoning and keep the broth on a low simmer.

Add the whole chicken breast fillets to the broth and poach till cooked. Remove with a slotted spoon and slice thinly. Set aside.

Now repeat the process with the prawns. Set aside.

Again, strain the hot stock carefully through a sieve, preferably lined with a muslin or cheese cloth to obtain a clear broth. You don’t have to do this if you don’t mind a ‘cloudy’ broth. Wash the pot of any scum before pouring the hot strained broth into the pot. Bring to a boil again and then leave the broth to simmer. Put your fish balls in now.

Bring another pot, with plenty of water (I use an asparagus pot) to a boil.

Now assemble your serving bowls.

Using a noodle sieve (available at most oriental grocers), first put in the amount of noodles required, followed by the Chinese greens, bean sprouts and fish cake. Blanch these in the pot for two mins or until the water comes to the boil again. Remove from the water, shake off excess water and put into a serving bowl. Top with the sliced chicken and prawns.

Ladle sufficient quantity of broth to cover the ingredients, ensuring you add some fish balls that have been simmering in the broth. Add ½ tsp of sesame oil and a sprinkling of fried shallots to the top. Serve immediately with a side dish of DICED CHILLIES IN SOY SAUCE AND VINEGAR.

Repeat the process for the next person.

RECIPE: CHICKEN SOUP (FOR HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE)

Ingredients
Hainanese Chicken cooking stock
Chicken stock powder or cube to taste
Salt
Spring onions – sliced, for garnishing

Method
Reduce the Hainanese Chicken cooking stock slightly by boiling it for 10 mins. Add in the stock powder/cube and salt. Dish into individual soup bowls. Garnish with spring onions.

RECIPE: BRAISED SHIZITOU/PORK BALLS

An easy and hearty dish for cold days. If you have a wok burner on your BBQ outside, I’d recommend you fry the cabbage there. I was not impressed with the splatter in my clean kitchen; although I would have froze if I did fry it outside! I served it with rice and FIVE COLOURED OMELETTE.

Ingredients (serves 4 to 6)
½ kg minced pork*
2 tbsp finely minced leek* (or substitute with 1 brown onion – I grated it)
½ tsp ginger juice* (grate thumb size ginger and squeeze for juice)
½ tsp salt*
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine*
1 tsp white pepper*
1 egg
1 scant tsp sesame oil
2 to 3 tbsp corn flour

Oil for frying

8 Chinese cabbage/wombok leaves – cut into 4 cm lengths
1/3 cup Chinese light soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine
1 tsp chicken stock powder

Method
Spread the mince pork on a chopping board and chop the meat until very fine.

Place the pork in a bowl and add * ingredients. Mix together well with hands.

Beat the egg, add to the mince, followed by the sesame oil and half of the corn flour. Mix well and keep on adding corn flour until the mixture is smooth and holds well together. Make sure the mixture is not too hard.

With some oil on your hands, form into rissoles/balls; the size depending on your taste. I prefer them slightly larger than a golf ball.

Heat oil in a wok and fry the rissoles over high heat until the outside of the rissoles is crisp and sealed. Lower the heat and cook until golden brown. Lift, drain on paper towels and set aside.

In the same oil, fry the wombok for 15 secs until sealed. Be careful here as the oil will splatter. Lift and line the bottom of a flame proof earthenware with the wombok. Place the rissoles on the leaves.

Using hot water from the tap, add 4 cups or sufficient amount of water to cover the food in the pot. Add in the soy sauce, Chinese rice wine and chicken stock powder.

Bring to the boil then simmer, covered for up to an hour. Cooking times depends on the size of the rissoles. My pork balls were ready in 40 mins.

RECIPE: THAI STYLE HOT AND SOUR PRAWN/CHICKEN SOUP (TOM YAM)

Because I go to work and don’t always have the time to cook things from scratch, I compromise and utilise lots of ready made sauces. One example is Tom Yam paste. There are plenty of pre made tom yam paste in the market that tastes really nice. All you need to make a pre mix into a ‘super’ dish from an ‘okay’ dish is to improvise. To make it tastier, just add extra ingredients to the paste, in addition to the ingredients stipulated on the jar to concoct the dish.

As I have been eating out for the past few days and haven’t received my weekly quota of rice, I was going through ‘rice’ withdrawal and by hook or by crook, I was going to get some today (rice, I mean). Also I have been wanting to make tom yam for the past week or so and I thought today is as good a day as any.

So, to make around 6 cups of Tom Yam, I used:
6 cups of water
2/3 jar of pre mix Tom Yam Paste (Mae Ploy, Valcom or any Thailand made tom yam paste)
8 bird’s eye chillies - mixture of red or green chillies – halved lengthways (you may use large red chillies if you don’t want this hot. Slice each chilli into 4)
1 tsp chicken stock powder (optional)
2 lemon grass – bruised
1 large onion – sliced thickly
2 to 3 coriander plants – cut into 2 cm lengths
1 tin of whole champignon or straw mushrooms.
4 kaffir lime leaves – torn into pieces
1 tbsp fish sauce
Lime juice to taste (around 1 to 2 tbsp) HINT: I always keep a bottle of Berri Fresh Lime Squeeze in the fridge. It comes in handy if you don’t have fresh limes or when they are too expensive in the market!
Prawns and Chicken (you can also add in squid, fish, fish balls etc).
Salt to taste (I did not add any)

Method
Bring water to the boil in a pot. Add in paste, chicken stock powder, fish sauce, chillies and lemon grass. Bring to a boil again and simmer for a minute or two to blend all the ingredients.

Add in chicken and simmer till chicken is nearly done. Then add in prawns and cook for around 2 to 3 mins (you don’t want to over cook the prawns – it will be tough if you do).

Now add in mushrooms, onions and coriander. Lift, add in lime juice, check taste and season with salt if required.

Serve in individual soup bowls, accompanied by rice and side dishes.

FYI: Soups in Asian meals are used to moisten the rice or as a rice ‘chaser’ (instead of drinking water or wine with a meal, you drink soup!), not as a starter to a meal. It is eaten in conjunction with rice and an array of side dishes. We had ours with THAI STYLE CHICKEN FRIED WITH CASHEW NUTS (KAI PHAD MET MA MUANG).