The Pinakbet - A Vegetable Stew

Whenever you cook and eat at home you have two option. First just simply throw in whatever you cook in a plate or add a bit of artistic presentation to turn a simple dish into something you'll only have at an expensive restaurant. The only difference is that it only cost a fraction of what you'll pay for in a restaurant.

This time I wanted a simple vegetable dish and when I looked into our refrigerator the first thing that came into my mind was "Pinakbet". A popular Filipino dish from the northern part of Luzon. The ethnic group who popularized pinakbet were the ilocanos. The dish is a combination of vegetables commonly seen in their backyard such as egg plant, squash, lady finger, bittergourd, long beans, malungay (Moringa) pods and a bit of meat or fish then salted with a fermented monamon ( A local equivalent of anchovies).

This is the easiest dish that anyone can cook and it will be ready in less than 30 mins. Let's look at the ingredients:

1 small squash cut into cubes

a bunch of malungay/moringa pods. Remove the hard dark green peel

5-6 pcs small eggplants

5-6 pcs lady finger or Okra

1 can of anchovies (1/4 cup Fermented Monamon or Bagoong Isda)

200g pork (Soft bone) or fried/grilled milk fish.

2 pieces tomatoes cut into 4 pieces each and seeded

1 onion chopped

a slice of ginger

Optional 3-4 pcs small native bittergourd. If you don't like bitter taste in your soup do not cut them. I didn't have bittergourd in my refrigerator this time and my wife doesn't like it anyway.

To start with, boil the pork soft bone for 5 minutes and throw away the water then set aside the pork. In a claypot, boil about 2 cups of water then drop the tomatoes, onion and ginger. After 5 minutes drop the anchovies including the olive oil and stir to dissolve the anchovies into the soup. Then put in the boiled pork soft bone, squash and the malungay pods and cover to boil. After another 5-10 mins drop the rest of the vegetables such as eggplant, okra/lady finger and bitter gourd then continue boiling for another 5-10 mins till the vegetables are cooked to your liking.



This is where you can elevate a simple dish into a restaurant like presentation. Arranging the vegetable according to its type on a nice plate then pour over the soup. You can then sit and enjoy the fruit of your labor.

Crispy adobo QUAIL

I been long wanted to do this Quail meat adobo style and finally I got a chance to go to farmart (http://www.farmart.com.sg/) at sungei tengah road. I bought 1 kg of small size quail meat @ Uncle William Edu & Agri Enterprises (http://unclewilliam.biz/history.html) which has a farm in Singapore and Malaysia. Back home immediately clean the quail meat to start the process of my crispy quail adobo.


Here's the recipe:


1kg quail meat cut in half
1 cup palm or cider vinegar
1/2 cup light soya sauce
1/4 cup fish sauce (Patis)
5 bay leaves
1 bulb crushed garlic
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorn
1 cup olive oil

Put the quail meat on a claypot then pour the vinegar, soya sauce, bay leaves, black pepper and crushed garlic. Leave it marine for at least 30 minutes then simmer gently till the meat is tender and the sauce reduce to a thick consistency. At this time you can actually pour it on a steaming white rice YUMMY !!!!

I did put some of them in a sterilize bottle with an olive oil which I believe should be able to last for a month in a refrigerator although mine didn't last for a week.

The rest of the adobo quail meat was deep fried till crispy on a 1 cup of olive oil with fresh crushed garlic and serve with a garlic fried rice or a steaming white rice with a tomato salsa and chili vinegar as a dipping sauce. hmmmm I can eat this everyday.

Bored? Cook a Kampong Chicken Rice

There are times we got bored from eating outside and decided why don't we try Hainanese Chicken rice using Kampong Chicken. We actually seldom try Hainanese Chicken Rice outside because most of the hainanese chicken are medium rare where you can still see the blood from the meat. I have nothing against half cook chicken but it is just not for me and my wife as well as for my 2 yrs old son and 6 yrs old daughter.

One thing good about cooking from home is that you will be able to adjust according to your preference so the question is how you are going to cook it like the hawker hainanese chicken rice well done :).

Fortunately my dear wife have invested on a set of saladmaster pot in which you can actually cook a chicken without having to boiled them for 1 hr and the resulting stock will yield a concentrated chicken stock that will be good for making your chicken rice. I believe any good stainless steel pot or claypot will be able to do the same job.

Here's my recipe:

1 Kampong Chicken (Native Chicken)

Note: If you can get a free range kampong chicken that will be the best.

A bunch of spring onions

1 lemon grass

1 garlic clove

1 red onion

1 small size ginger

sea salt

sesame oil

1 tbsp thai fish sauce (patis)

dash if freshly ground black pepper

Chili sauce

4 pcs big red chili pepper

1-2 pcs chilli padi (Depends on how hot you want it you can add more)

2 tbsp cane or cider vinegar
sweet soy sauce or Indonesian ketchup manis (Sweet sauce)

2-3 tbsp chicken stock

freshly squeeze lime juice

Garnish

spring onions

coriander

1 pc tomato
cucumber

Wash the Kampong chicken thoroughly on running water remove any visible feather from the skin. Rub the whole chicken with sea salt including the inner side. Cut the onion and the ginger and stuff some of the onion, garlic, lemon grass and spring onions inside the cavities of the chicken.

Place the remaining Onions, garlic, Ginger and spring onions into the saladmaster wok then lay down breast side the chicken. Pour half glass water, a tbsp of thai fish sauce, and a dash of black pepper. Put on the lid of the saladmaster wok and simmer at low heat for 45 mins.


After 45 mins turn off the fire and let the chicken stand covered in the pot for another 15 mins as it continue to cook. After 15 mins uncover then remove the chicken remove the stuffing then soak it on ice cold water to stop the cooking then brush with sesame oil then set aside. Meanwhile strain the chicken stock and then set aside the garlic, onion, ginger and discard the spring onion and lemon grass. Meanwhile prepare your rice if you want to cook from the scratch you can do so by washing the rice and saute with the chicken stock from the chicken then add water and pour into your rice cooker or if you are hungry by now just mix a cooked white rice then add a bit of salt/thai fish sauce.

For the chilli sauce pound the garlic, onion, and ginger from the chicken stock includes the red chilli and the chili padi add the cane/apple cider vinegar, 1 tbsp freshly squeeze lime juice, sea salt and about 2 - 3 tbsp of the chicken stock.

Cut the tomatoes, cucumber and chicken then arrange on plate garnish with fresh spring onions and coriander leaves drizzle with some light soy sauce. Serve with the chicken rice, chili sauce and sweet sauce and fresh garlic saute leafy vegetables. Enjoy your meal with your family.

Sembawang nature - Fiddlehead fern salad

A walk in an early morning hour around the greeneries of sembawang, about 5 mins walk from my place, with my 6 yrs old daughter is one of my bonding moment with her. The good thing about it is that it doesn't cost me anything except for a breakfast at a nearby coffee shop after our walk. At 7:00 am the morning mist is fairly visible and the smell of it is really refreshing probably better than the oxygen bar shot that travellers at changi airport pay for. Plus it gives you a sense of calmness and I'm sure it is healthy too !!!!

Another good thing about walking in the nature is that there is always something to discover everytime you take a closer look into it. On normal days I will just simply ignore all the ferns growing at the roadside treating it like an over grown grass but somehow the image of it always linger into my memory knowing there is something special about this plant.

Fiddlehead Fern which is known in Malay as Paku and Pako in the Philippines has always fascinate me. Without it the grass and other plants and trees will not look the same.

This time round I gave the ferns a closer look since it rains in the early morning hour and these is probably the best time to try that fiddlehead fern salad. I realize there are new shoots coming out then told myself, "Yeah why not try this for breakfast". Immediately I got into harvesting the fiddlehead ferns and only chose the leaves with nice curls.

In just a couple of minutes I gathered about 200gm of beautiful fiddlehead ferns in my hand that still has morning dew on it. Upon reaching home I immediately google it to make sure it is the edible type of fiddlehead fern. I wash it thoroughly then boil it for about 5 mins then quickly drop it on an ice water to stop the cooking and maintain the crispiness. Chopped 2 tomatoes toss it with olive oil and sea salt then mixed it with the fiddlehead fern.

I also prepared a garlic fried rice and pair it with a bottle of dried herring and a cup of oldtown white coffee. The fiddlehead fern taste better than asparagus.....Hmmm what a nice breakfast to start a day!!!!

Bakut Teh - A Farewell lunch

Our dear friend, colleague and fellow makan (Foodie) partner Eugene Lin is going back to Taiwan after 3 years in Singapore. So what is the best way to give this good guy a thing to remember from Singapore? What else ..... FOOD!!!

We have debated over lunch on what to eat to pay tribute on his years of contribution to the MSD business and of course to the Singapore hawker and coffee shop business. In the end all agree that a good local food Bakut Teh which he will not be able to find in Taiwan. Up north everybody vote for a Bakut Teh at Marsiling and we arrive at the place around 12:30pm where the place is running on full capacity luckily we quickly manage to secure a large table to sit 13 hungry people.

The place is what I would say a typical Singapore coffee shop with a nice acacia trees surrounding the place that makes it a bit cooler on the particular time of the day. I would say the weather is definitely on our side as we prepare to indulge on an overdose of Bakut Teh.
Our Food master Yong take the skillful ordering of three (3) big claypots of Bakut Teh plus all the veggies, condiments and another two (2) small pots of stew pork. Our order doesn't take that long and in a few minutes the auntie came with a steaming claypot of Bakut Teh ....Yummy!!!







Immediately all of us dig in to the hot pot of Bakut Teh on a bowl of white steam rice while the auntie continue to top up our Bakut Teh soup. The Bakut Teh consist of Pork Spare ribs, pork intestine, liver, mushroom top with a fresh local lettuce. Eugene is definitely enjoying his food and I would say what a good way to part with a friend and colleague who have given a thumbs up on Singapore local food !!!!



Literally this is not a farewell but a best wishes to Eugene and his family. We will definitely see each other again either in Singapore, Taiwan or in any other parts of the world as we continue our quest for the best food and place to eat...Goodluck and Take Care !!!