Does Pot Noodle count! (Week 28 - Singapore)

We loved it, and I loved the idea that you didn’t really have to stick to a recipe to create the dish, the dish was a concept and the ingredients were what were around and what worked. We had some amazing meals, and we all really enjoyed them. They were comfort food with chop sticks. I even managed to make the flat bread, although mine where not as thin as they should be, but they tasted good for breakfast one morning. My son and I did feel a little full afterwards though, as we ate a little too much! Why the reference to Pot Noodle, well our son only experienced that for the first time this year when we went caravanning for a week and we went caravanning this weekend with his great-aunt, so suggested pot noodle as it was something we could have in the caravan that was from Singapore!


It is Summer holidays soon, so our son picked out the next country and it is Argentina, which we have ate once before we had a lovely dish with beautiful bread. Just a question of where did I put those recipes!

 

Cooked with score (out of 100):

Char Kway Teow……………………………………………………………95

Hokkien mee…………………………………………………………………83

Hainanese Chicken Rice…………………………………………….….83

Roti Prata (flat bread)……………………………………………………90

 

Char kway teow

This is a popular dish of flat rice noodles with a vibrant history. In its early days, char kway teow was mostly sold by fishermen and farmers who doubled up as food peddlers at night to supplement their income; they used to use leftovers from meals to whip up this dish, hence its multiple ingredient mix. 

Char kway teow, loosely translated as “stir-fried rice cake noodles”, is made by stir-frying flat rice noodles (similar to the Italian tagliatelle) with light and dark soy sauce, a dash of belachan (shrimp paste), tamarind juice, bean sprouts, Chinese chives, lap cheong (Chinese sausages) and cockles. In its original recipe, the rice noodles are also stir-fried in using crisp bits of pork lard thereby giving the dish its distinctive, rich taste.

In recent years, the dish has evolved into a healthier version with hawkers adding more vegetables and using vegetable oil instead of lard. This not only makes the dish healthy but the greens and bean sprouts give it a freshness and crunchy texture, adding to the overall star quality of this old-time favourite. The clanging wok and sweet-smelling hot air wafting from it gives it a heady, sensuous dimension of sight, smell and sound; and that’s even before you’ve taken a bite! 

 

I found several recipes for this dish, but in the end I did my own based on the historic version of it:

I used:

flat noodles,

thin noodles

sausage ( I used a chilli flavours sausage)

beansprouts

dark and light soya sauce

mushrooms

sesame oil

 

I pre-cooked the sausage and then just cooked everything up together – we loved it!

 

Hokkien mee

I got confused with what was and what wasn’t hokkien mee based on this description (I did my own version):

 

“Simple Fried Hokkien mee recipe. To start with, there are two types of Hokkien mee, which are  Hokkien hae mee and Hokkien char mee. Hokkien hae mee (Hokkien prawn noodles) is commonly served in Singapore while Hokkien char mee (Hokkien fried noodles) is commonly served in K.L, Malaysia. The dish commonly referred to as "Hokkien mee", depending on the locality, can mean either Hokkien hae mee or Hokkien char mee. For example, Hokkien mee in Kuala Lumpur refers to Hokkien char mee.”

 

Ingredients:

1/2lb yellow Hokkien noodles

1/4lb rice-flour noodles or "laksa mee"

1/2lb boiled squid

1/4lb cooked prawns

1/2lb turkey bacon finely diced and deep fried until crisp

1/4lb bean sprouts

2 eggs beaten

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 Chinese chives (Kucai) - cut, chopped

1 1/2 tsps salt or to taste

1 tbsp light Soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster or Hoi sin sauce

2 tspns chicken oil

Oil for cooking

 

Directions:

1. In a medium wok, fry the Hoklkien noodles and the rice-flour noodles with 1 tbsp oil with 1 beaten egg over high heat until fragrant but do not overcooked. Put aside. Clean wok.
2. With a clean wok, add 1 tbsp oil, saute minced garlic and remaining 1 beaten egg till fragrant.
3. Put the mixed fried hokkien and laksa mee and stir a bit. Add 1 tbsp of water and stir the contents continuously for about 30 seconds.
4. Add chicken oil, salt, oyster or Hoi sin sauce and soya sauce.
5. Sitr over high heat for a few seconds and add another tbsp water.
6. Cook a further 5 seconds then add the prawns, chopped squid, Chinese chives and turkey bacon.
    
    

Roti prata

Roti prata (flat bread) is found in practically every neighbourhood in Singapore. The Indians knead and flatten an oiled ball of dough, and flip it with practised flair until the dough is a tissue-thin sheet. This is then folded into multi-layered pancakes and griddle-fried til crisp. It’s usually served with curry or a sprinkle of sugar. Nowadays, prata makers get creative with all kinds of fillings and combinations -- cheese, mushroom, durian, ice cream, honey, banana, cashew nuts, and even sardines.

Enriched Prata Dough Recipe (Richer taste, more tender)

Plain Flour 600g

Water 270ml

Condensed Milk 80g (1/4 cup)

Oil or Melted Butter/Ghee 15ml (1 tablespoon)

Salt 1 teaspoon

1 egg

 

Here is another recipe without the condensed milk

Leaner Prata Dough Recipe (Crispier texture)

Plain Flour 600g

Water 300ml

Salt 1 teaspoon

Sugar 1 tablespoon

Oil 15 ml

1 egg

 

I found a website that seemed to have spent ages researching how the make this bread, I didn’t follow all of it to the letter, but what we did get was lovely. Here is how I made ours, based on the various information out there:

 

I used the Leaner dough recipe, and made half quantities (still with 1 egg). The dough needs to be right.

 

1. Put all the ingredients, except the oil in a basin and mix well. Leave to stand for 20 minutes. Apparently this stage is known technically as the autolysis stage. If you continue to force it to combine together, you are just wasting your time and energy. Give it 20 minutes and when you start to knead, you will get a smooth dough in no time.
2. Then you just need to knead, to develop the gluten a bit. This takes time and I usually do this listening to the radio or my son reading to me and telling me about his day. You want to end up with is a tacky dough which becomes smooth as a baby’s bottom with just a bit of dusting of flour.
3. Right after kneading, divide the dough into equal parts. The full recipe does 10 balls, half would do 6 nice size balls (I had 5, and they were a little big). Pop them in oiled muffin tins, making sure that there are no folds and this will make your bread break when you flatten it.
4. I let mine rest overnight, because during this time, the enzymes in the flour will start working on the sugars and some of the wild yeast in the air will start fermenting the dough. The resting makes the dough more pliable and easy to flip as well as give it a more complex flavour. Remember to cover the dough balls with clingwrap to keep the surface from drying out. If you are in a hurry, you can flip the dough in as little as 50 mins after balling, but you might find it breaks a little easier.
5. Take them out of the fridge, heat some oil/butter in a pan and then flatten the dough. Ideally it needs to be spun and whirled around to make it really thin, so you can fold it. I couldn’t manage it but I did manage to make it the size of our frying pan. I didn’t fold it, just cooked it like that and it crisped up and was very tasty!
    
    

Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe

Servings: 6

 

While your chicken is cooking, it helps to prepare the ingredients for your chili sauce and rice. Both of these are usually assembled after the chicken is done because they require the chicken broth, but you can get started washing and soaking the rice, chopping the garlic and ginger before then. In this recipe, all of the poaching broth is reserved -- some is used in the rice, a small amount is used in the chili sauce, and the remainder is saved to be heated and served as a simple soup to accompany the chicken.

 

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (3.5 lbs, 1.8kg), preferably organic

salt

4'' section of fresh ginger, in 1/4'' slices

2 stalks green onions, cut into 1" sections (both the green and white parts)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Rice

2 tablespoon chicken fat or 2 tbsp vegetable oil

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1'' section of ginger, finely minced

2 cups long-grain uncooked rice, washed and soaked in cool water for 10 min or longer

2 cups reserved chicken poaching broth

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon salt

Chilli Sauce

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 tablespoon reserved chicken poaching broth

2 teaspoon sugar

4 tablespoon sriracha chili sauce

4 cloves garlic

1'' ginger

a generous pinch of salt, to taste

 

Garnish

1/4 cup dark soy sauce

Few sprigs cilantro

1 cucumber, thinly sliced or cut into bite-sized chunks

 

Directions:

1. To clean the chicken, with a small handful of kosher salt, rub the chicken all over, getting rid of any loose skin and dirt. Rinse chicken well, inside and outside. Season generously with salt inside and outside. Stuff the chicken with the ginger slices and the green onion. Place the chicken in a large stockpot and fill with cold water to cover by 1 inch. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then immediately turn the heat to low to keep a simmer. Cook for about 30 minutes more (less if you're using a smaller chicken). Check for doneness by sticking a chopstick into the flesh under the leg and see if the juices run clear or insert a thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh not touching bone. It should read 170F.
2. When the chicken is cooked through, turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner. Immediately lift and transfer the chicken into a bath of ice water to cool and discard the ginger and green onion. [Don’t try to grab the chicken legs to pull the chicken out. You’ll end up tearing the skin and maybe even tearing the drumsticks out of the chicken which results in you standing there holding two drumsticks and the rest of the chicken plopping back into the boiling hot broth which then splashes back on your arms and face!] Don't forget to reserve the poaching broth for your rice, your sauce, and the accompanying soup. The quick cooling will stop the cooking process, keeping the meat soft and tender, and giving the skin a lovely firm texture.
3. To cook the rice: Drain the rice. In a wok or sauce pan (use a medium sauce pan if you plan on cooking the rice on the stove top), heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add the ginger and the garlic and fry until your kitchen smells like heaven. Be careful not to burn the aromatics! Add in your drained rice and stir to coat, cook for 2 minutes. Add the sesame oil, mix well.
4. In the same sauce pan, add 2 cups of your reserved poaching broth, add salt and bring to a boil. Immediately turn the heat down to low, cover the pot and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit (with lid still on) for 5-10 minutes more.
5. While your rice is cooking, remove the chicken from the ice bath and rub the outside of the chicken with the sesame oil. Carve the chicken for serving.
6. To make the chili sauce: Blend your chili sauce ingredients in a blender until smooth and bright red.
7. To make the soup: You should have six or seven cups of the reserved poaching broth left over to serve as soup. Just before serving, heat up the soup, taste and season with salt as necessary.
8. Serve the chicken rice with chili sauce, dark soy sauce, cucumber slices, and a bowl of hot broth garnished with cilantro or scallions
    

About Singapore....

The earliest recorded name for the present day Singapore is 'Temasek' (means 'Sea Town' in Old Javanese language) Sang Nila Utama, a Srivijayan prince from Palembang (of present day Indonesia) went to the island of Temasek for hunting and saw a strange animal with an orange body, black head. He was told that it probably was a lion. He believed it to be a good omen and founded a city in 1324. He named the city "Singapura" ("Singa" is a Sanskrit word for lion, and "Pura" means city in Sanskrit - The name thus means the "Lion City").

 Kallang River, the longest river in Singapore, is just 10 km long. The Singapore River, the most famous river in the country, is also extremely short and small. Some of the much smaller rivers are Geylang River and Rochor River. You can complete your morning jogging tracing any of these rivers' entire length! Bukit Timah (means 'tin hill' in Malay language) is the highest natural point in Singapore. The peak stands at 163 metres (537 ft.) and there are buildings in Singapore that are taller and higher than its natural peak. The 25-km long Bukit Timah Road is the longest road in Singapore. Singapore is the second most densely populated sovereign nation in the world.

 About 7,600 people live per square km in Singapore. (Monaco, at 18,500 persons per square km, is the most densely populated sovereign nation in the world. Mongolia, at 2 persons per square km, has the lowest population density among all sovereign nations. Canada has about 4 people living per square km and Australia has about 3 people living per square km).

 Singapore is a tiny nation and it has no natural resources, so it has to import almost everything it needs. It imports not only sand, but even the fresh water from Malaysia.

CUISINE

This extract sums up Singaporean food: (sourcehttp://www.seriouseats.com/2012/07/an-introduction-to-singaporean-food-cuisine.html) Singapore is a tiny country with a voracious appetite: "we'll eat five or six meals a day," is a local saying. Like in Malaysia, those meals will draw from Malay stir fries to Chinese noodles to Indian curries, all slurped down with coffee, hot gingery tea, or the sweet and herbal citrus vibe of calamansi limeade. And no matter where you are, or what you're eating, you'll hear someone tsk-ing about a better noodle, porridge, or bean curd at their favorite hawker. This is a country of five million dead-serious eaters, the kind of people who ask, "have you eaten?" as a form of greeting and whose arguments are about the best food in town. Food from Singapore hails from everywhere, but also, in a sense, from nowhere: the local cuisine is defined by what it's borrowed, and how those puzzle pieces are assembled into something totally unique.