Lor Hon Zhai

Lor Hon Zhai 罗汉菜 (Braised Mixed Vegetables)

Tired of the meat laden food that the Holiday season, I cooked up a batch of  Lor Hon Zhai. This popular vegetarian dish that is often served during Chinese New Year (CNY). The name means Buddha's delight and some families eat only vegetarian dishes during the 1st day of CNY - I don't, (too greedy) but I remember my Cantonese grandma (from whom I kind of absorbed knowledge of this recipe) did.
Every family has its own version of this dish; there are as many variations as there are ingredients. Although the preparation is a bit tedious, it is very easy  to cook. Many versions contain fermented red bean curd (南乳) which gives the dish its characteristic red / rose coloured sauce and distinct, savoury, slightly pungent flavour akin to a good blue cheese.

Fermented bean curd (Nam Yue)

I've listed the ingredients below, in the quantities that I used, but if you are fond of say, mushrooms, go ahead and add more. Other common ingredients are snow peas, dried lily bulbs 金针 and gingko nuts). Note the absence of garlic - which is supposed to be verboten in vegetarian food - stimulates and arouses it seems. Oh well.


Ingredients:

• 1/2 head Chinese (Napa) 大白菜 cabbage , cut into large-ish pieces about 2-3cm wide
• 1 large carrot cut into 0.5cm slices

  

  Napa cabbage, carrots and red bell pepper

• 8 dried shitake mushrooms, rinsed and soaked in warm water
• 1 can straw mushrooms, drained, and mushrooms halved
• 1 cup dried black wood ear 木耳, rinsed and soaked in water
• a couple of dried bean sticks 腐竹, rinsed and soaked in cold water, then cut into 3-4cm sections

  

  Clockwise from top left: shitake mushrooms, straw mushrooms, wood ear, bean sticks
• 1.5 cup deep fried tofu squares 炸豆腐, soaked in boiling water, squeezed dry and cut in halves

  

  deep fried tofu puffs

• Cellophane noodles 粉絲 (mung bean noodles), soaked in cold water, cut into 5cm lengths (easier with scissors)

  

  Bean Thread (Mung bean vermicelli)

• 2-3 cubes fermented bean curd 南乳
• salt to taste
• 3 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 cups water

Method:
chuck everything into pot - cook - eat. Really, it's that simple, all the work is in the prep. Ok, for those who want it spelt out:

1. Heat the 2 oils in a large pot
2. Gently fry the fermented bean curd for a few minutes till fragrant - mash it up with a wooden spoon during this time. Be careful, it will spit and spatter
3. Add all the ingredients to the pot, add water
4. Bring to boil, the cover and simmer till vegetables are tender but not mushy. 
5. Season to taste with salt and sugar.
6. Serve with fragrant Thai Jasmine Rice

Waste not, want not ... a new dessert is born!
(or 2 for the price of 1)

Seeing as I was going to be serving in Church on Christmas Day, I thought it would be nice to give the rest of the crew some small treats as Christmas presents. I counted at least eight persons - and thought - some form of home made edible gift would go down well.

Jams? cookies? fudge? cake?.. After a bit of deliberation, I decided to fall back on good old Cabernet Wine Jelly. Inexpensive (it can turn a very mediocre / cheap wine into a scrumptious treat), quick and easy to make.

Cabernet Wine Jelly

Great! that settled the issue of what to give. Now, I had to find suitable containers. As it was such a last minute decision, it was too late to hunt around town for bottles (in any case,  I had no time, pre-holiday work being rather busy). Hmm. hmmm. hmmm .. What should I use... whizz up and down supermarket aisles thinking hard and doing the weekend grocery shopping at the same time.. Ah-ha! baby food bottles! Small and cute, with an estimated volume of 150 - 200ml, they would be ideal. As luck would have it, a range of Organic babyfood was on specials - 3 for $4. Grabbed a dozen - all fruit flavours - apple, pear, mango - and loaded them into my trolley.

Wine: found 2 bottles on specials as well, unbranded Cabernet Merlot, locally produced in Hawkes Bay. Can't be too bad.

Not wanting to waste food, I enlisted the help of a good friend to help me eat up some of that fruit puree. But as you might have guessed, 12 bottles is a lot of fruit puree to eat. They were surprisingly tasty (we had expected bland, bland, bland). After 2 bottles each, we gave up and decided empty the remaining bottles in a clean ice-cream tub to freeze. (with the initial idea to use them in smoothies) As we were doing so, it struck us that the pure fruit would make a rather nice sorbet - a light summery dessert for a Kiwi Christmas dinner.

Fruit Puree

Converting baby food into (an alcoholic) dessert:
What we did - to the fruit puree, we added a whizzed up can of mango slices, added icing sugar (to taste), zest and juice of one lime and a few shot glasses of cointreau and vodka (not too much, as the alcohol will make it difficult to freeze). Gave it a stir and chucked it in the freezer. Removed every 3-4h, used a fork to break up the ice crystals and mix in some air. Did this a couple of times and we got a half decent home made sorbet. We plan to serve it up in salt crusted glasses - like a Margarita.

Apple-Mango Margarita Sorbet

Whilst the sorbet was freezing nicely, the bottles (nearly forgot those in the excitement of creating this alcoholic dessert) were then washed clean and placed in a 110C oven for 30min to sterilise them.


Cabernet Wine Jelly

• 4 cups of wine 
• 4 cups preserving sugar (with pectin and acidity regulator)
• juice of 1 lemon

1. Warm the sugar and add all of it to the wine in a large stockpot
2. Add lemon juice
3. Stir the wine-sugar mixture over low heat until sugar is completely dissolved
4. Turn heat up high and bring the mixture to a roiling boil
5. Boil for 4-5min or until mixture reaches 105C, skim off any scum
6. Test for set point by placing a teaspoon onto a cold dish - place it in the fridge till cold
7. Set point is reached when the test jelly creases or wrinkles when a finger is run across it
8. Remove jelly mixture from heat
9. Bottle in warm sterilised jars 

Easy as!

Once jelly is cool and set (takes a few hours), enjoy it on crackers with a strong blue vein cheese!

Cuban Roast Pork Christmas Dinner

It's sometimes hard to think of Christmas when the weather is hot and sunny. Our minds are so conditioned to dream of a Northern Hemisphere White Christmas, with chestnuts roasting o'er an open fire, warming ourselves with hearty meals to ward of the wintry blasts....

But I'm not complaining, we were blessed with a fantastic weekend of weather down in New Zealand this Christmas. To set the scene for a very tropical Christmas, I scoured the internet and decided to try a Cuban theme: Cuban Roast Pork Shoulder (Lechon Asado), accompanied by Beans and Rice (Moros y Cristianos).

Ground cumin, pepper, garlic and salt

Cuban Roast Pork
Ingredients:

• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tsp coarse salt
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• zest of 1 orange
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup dry sherry
• 3 Tsp lemon juice
• 3 Tsp fresh lime juice
• 2kg pork shoulder, trimmed and tied

Pork shoulder and marinade

Method:

1. Toast the cumin and black peppercorns in a dry pan, then grind them up with coarse sea salt, oregano and chopped garlic
2. Add this to the orange, lemon, lime juices and sherry.
3. Score the skin of the pork shoulder, then trim and tie.

   

   Pork shoulder, trimmed and tied

4. Place meat in a large zip-lock bag or non-reactive bowl, pour over marinade and leave for 24h -36h in the refridgerator (minimum 6-8h). Turn over 2-3 times to ensure marinade gets to all parts of the meat.
5. On the day that you are going to roast the pork, take it out of the 'fridge and let it come to room temperature - this will take about 2h at least. 
6. Preheat the oven, 165C
7. Transfer pork and marinade to roasting pan, cover tightly with foil and roast for 1h.
8. Remove foil cover and roast for another 1.5h, or until an instant read thermometer inserted into the centre reads 70C. Baste the meat (not skin) every 20-30min to keep it moist.
9. At the end of the cooking period, if the skin has not become nice and crackly, crank up the heat to 200C for about 5-10min. (Keep an eye to prevent the skin from charring).
10. Remove from oven and rest for 10-15min before carving.

Cuban Roast Pork

Rice and beans are a common accompaniment. This dish has many variations and is sometimes called Moro's y Cristianos, with the black beans representing the Moors and White grains of rice, the Christians. Not very PC, but heck, it's delicious, just call it by the humble moniker, Beans n Rice.

Cuban Beans and Rice

Beans and Rice

• 1 cup long grain rice
• 2 cups water (approx)
• 1 can black beans, drained
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 2 finger pinch of salt

1. Fry the garlic in a bit of olive oil till golden, add the rice, fry in oil till all the grains are coated with oil, add the water. (I was taught to add enough water so that if I placed my middle finger on the surface of the rice, the water level will come up to the first finger crease - ie just enough to submerge the distal phalanx. This works with any quantity of rice in any sort of pot)
2. Add remaining ingredients, give it a good stir and bring it to boil. 
3. Simmer for 10min over low heat (lid off), then
4. Cover with lid, turn off the heat and let the rice steam for another 10min before eating.

A nice bit of salad to serve alongside this meal would be beetroot and citrus salad or just a simple green salad.

Enjoy!

BBQ Stingray (Skate)

Recently I had a rare craving for good old Singapore Hawker food and one of the things that came to mind was BBQ Stingray. And as luck would have it, a visit to the Chinese Fish Market in Newmarket, Auckland produced a good sized Skate wing. It was reasonably fresh, had just the slightest "fishy" odour.

Did I know how to prepare skate? nope, never mind, a quick whizz through the WWW would give me some answers.So here's a pictoral account of our attempt at BBQ Stingray:

Here's the Skate (Stingray) wing, just out of the bag

Skate Wing

 The first thing during preparation is to remove the skin (I've never seen cooks at Asian Hawker centres do this, but apparently it makes for better eating). After removing the skin, soak the pieces in acidulated water for an hour or 2. Cling-film the basin and keep in fridge to prevent the fish from going off. (Add the juice of 1 lemon to a basin of water). This is supposed to remove any traces of ammonia smell.

Removing skin from Skate Wing

Remove from water, pat dry with paper towels, and spread with a sambal mixture. I cheated (and saved my neighbours from the pungent smell of roasting belachan) and used a few tablespoonfuls of ready to eat Sambal Blachan bought from the local Asian grocery store. To the ready made mixture, I added a sachet of tomato paste and minced onions Spread them over the prepared fish, place on a foil lined baking tray, cover with foil and pop into a pre-heated oven @180C for 20min. Once the fish is nearly cooked, remove top foil and grill under a hot grill till nice and brown. This created quite a bit of really aromatic smoke! Quick! Open doors and window! Fan the smoke to prevent the smoke detector from going off !! We even turned on the standing fan and blew that at our ceiling smoke detector... phew!

vigorous fanning....

 But, hey the result was pretty close to the real thing... 

BBQ Stingray with sambal belachan

Renunciation of Malaysian Citizenship - An update

Last month, I received a letter from ICA requesting submission of the original copy of the Certificate of Renunciation (Form K). I was perplexed by that letter as a) I had not receive a letter from the Malaysian High Commission requesting for collection of the form and b) was told processing would take 2 years from submission. I decided to send an email to the high commission (mwspore@singnet.com.sg) and this is the reply:

Please be informed that your application for renunciation of Malaysian citizenship has been approved in June 2009 and a letter was sent to your Singapore address

That was less than 6 months from submission. Did I receive the letter? Of course not. So, I went to the high commission with the following documents and collected the Form K:

• 2 photocopies of the Singapore I.D;
• 2 photocopies of the Singapore passport;
• 2 photocopies of Singapore citizenship certificate (front and back of documents); and
• Deed poll (applicable only if you have changed your name)

You may also appoint a representative to collect the form for you as long as he/she has a letter of authorisation from you.

The reply also stated that:

For your information, the High Commission is sending back uncollected Form K / Birth Certificate for the year 2007- 2009 to the National Registration Department in Putrajaya.

So, if you submitted your application in 2007-2009 but haven't received a letter from the Malaysian high commission in Singapore, you better get in touch with them.

I am so glad to close this chapter.

Scrumptious Braised Pork Belly

Savoury porky stuff - Pork belly braised in Aromatic Soy Sauce

Recently I had braces put it (yeah, yeah, in adulthood) and everytime my orthodontist tightens them, I scratch my head and think of food that isnt a challenge to tender teeth. One can only eat so much whizzed up broccoli soup, pumpkin soup... Watties tinned Spaghetti (horror! - but hey, it isnt that bad, especially when I am at work and have to inhale my lunch in 5 minutes). A good Asian alternative is rice porridge accompanied by something nice and savoury... like Pork belly braised in Aromatic Soy Sauce


Ingredients:

0.5kg Pork Belly

8 dried shitake mushrooms
1/4 cup each dark & light soy sauce
1 cup water
2 cloves garlic (unpeeled)
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 whole star anise
4 cardamom pods
3 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp white peppercorns
pinch of sugar
2 pieces hard tofu (tau kwa) cut into half

Method:

• Cut pork belly into inch wide strips, after making sure that all gristlehas been removed
• Wash dried shitake mushrooms and trim stems off (you can keep them for making soup stock)
• Place all ingredients into a pot, bring to boil then transfer to a slow cooker and braise at very low heat till meat is tender (about 2h)
• Remove meat, mushrooms and tofu
• Strain sauce to remove spices, season to taste
• Slice meat into 5mm thick slices (or however thick you like them), tofu into 2cm thick slices, arrange on plate, with meat and mushrooms
• Serve Sauce alongside

Investment-linked policies

Life is a journey and we learn many lessons while traveling down this road. I will title today's lesson as "never buy Investment-Linked policies (ILPs)".

I contacted my insurance agent regarding one of my ILPs that I contribute monthly. It had appreciated by 4%. I gave a few scenarios, wanting to know the consequence of my action and here is what I was told:

1) Terminate it now and I will lose 40% of my initial investment. Why? That's the penalty for early termination of the policy.
2) Keep the policy and in 4 years' time (I call this the break even point), there won't be any penalty when I terminate the policy.
3) Change the monthly contribution amount, and/or the contribution interval i.e. three monthly or half-yearly, and prolong the 4 years to another 6 or 10 years.

If I had invested in stocks, ETFs or mutual funds via a brokerage firm, I would only have to consider:

a) whether I make a profit or loss. In this case, I have made a profit.
b) the commission I would have to pay the broker, which definitely would not cost me 40% of my initial investment.

If I had invested via a brokerage firm, I would have the freedom to sell whenever I want and not be tied down by terms and conditions that insurance companies use.

Therefore, if you want protection, buy a purely protection policy i.e. term. If you want to invest, invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and ETFs via a brokerage firm. Never again will I buy an ILP.

PS: I mentioned 'term' and not 'life' insurance for protection because there are many issues discussed about life/living policies on the net. It is not a topic I want to delve into in this post.

Here is one link regarding the 'not-so-good' side of life insurance:
http://www.daveramsey.com/article/the-truth-about-life-insurance/

There's plenty of info on the net. Take your time to research and have fun!

Chocolate zucchini muffin

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

What do you do with a glut of zuchinni? After salads, stir fries, pastas, one of the best and yummiest ways is to add them to muffins. Hey, chocolate makes anything taste good, the added bonus of veggies in a muffin is that it keeps the muffin moist, and adds great fiber - and.. almost totally hidden, if you have kids that do not like veggies, this is a great way to add it to their diet.

Dry ingredients:

2 cups self raising flour*
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon powder

Wet ingredients:

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 cups grated zucchini

*if you do not have self raising flour; 1 cup flour + 2 tsp baking powder = 1 cup self raising flour

Method:

Preheat the over to 175C

• Grease muffin tray, or line with paper muffin cases
• (this recipe can also be made into a pretty delish cake)
• Beat eggs and add oil
• Fold in dry and wet ingredients
• Bake 20min (muffins) or 30 minutes (cake) or till skewer comes out clean