Singapore prawn noodles soup

Serves 4

20 fresh whole prawns (the shells and heads have to be saved)
1 big fish cake, cut into slices
4 cups bean sprouts
4 large handfuls fresh egg noodles

For the stock:
About 550g prawn heads and shells
(use the ones from the fresh 20 and ones you've collected in the freezer from previous meals)
Pig's tails or pork ribs (about 600g), chopped into chunks
1 handful ikan billis (dried anchovies), washed and strained
1 handful of dried prawns, washed and strained
1 large carrot, cut into chunks
2 red onion, cut into wedges
8-10 cloves garlic
5 slices ginger
1 pot of boiling water (water should be enough for 4 bowls, plus 2 extra bowls)
* Optional tsao tsing wine

To taste: 
4 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Salt & pepper

To garnish:
Spring onions, chopped
Fried garlic ( you can make yourself or buy from a jar)
Chili powder

1. Peel the 20 prawns and reserve the heads and shells. (Works out to about 5 prawns each)

2. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add in the pig's tails. Boil for about 2 minutes and discard the water and rinse the tails in cold water, removing any dirt.

3. Fry the dried shrimps, ikan billis in some oil till fragrant, then add the garlic, ginger and onions. Stir fry for a while and then dump in the fresh prawn heads and shells, plus the others that you've reserved in the freezer.

4. Take your time to fry the shells, they will take a while before they all turn slightly brown and fragrant. Once it turns slightly brown and the shells have reduced in size, add a splash of tsao tsing wine (optional). Be sure not to burn them because that will leave a really horrible taste in the soup.
Note: Open all your windows and turn on the fans while doing this process!

5. Add the boiling water and pig's tails and carrots, and bring to a boil. While boiling, keep removing the scum. Once that subsides, turn the heat down to low on the smallest flame possible and simmer for 1 hour, covered.

6. After 1 hour, drain the stock to another pot through a sieve. Pick out the pigs tails and put them back into that drained stock. Try to squish as much stock out of the prawns as possible through the sieve. Discard the shells.

7. Add in the  sugar, soy, salt and pepper to your own taste and simmer on low for another 1 hour, covered.

8. Boil the bean sprouts in water and a bit of salt till it's still crunchy but tender. Drain and set aside.

9. To serve, bring a separate large pot of water to a boil with some salt. Boil the fresh noodles for about 2-3 minutes. Drain and immediately immerse in cold water. Drain again.

10. With a strainer or a kitchen spider, cook the prawns and fish cake in the stock for about 2 minutes. Remove and set on a plate.

11. With a strainer or spider, quickly blanch the noodles in the stock to give it flavour.  Drain and divide into 4 bowls.

12.  Arrange the prawns, fish cake and bean sprouts on top of the noodles and pour over the hot stock.

13. Garnish with spring onions and fried garlic. Chili powder is optional.You can serve this with a fresh sliced red chilies in soy sauce for dipping the prawns and fish cake into.

14. Also, reserve the pigs tails or pork ribs and serve those up if you like. Some people love to eat the tails (I do!) If you can't stomach them, discard them!

* This is my own recipe. I've made this about 10 times in my life and almost all of them have tasted different, but this time is by far the best. You really do need the pig's tail. In Singapore they can be found in most wet markets, but I'm sure in the west your local butcher will be able to give them to you - maybe even for free!!

Crockpot Chinese hamburger/Kong bak pau

Serves 4

3-4 pieces pork belly,  1-1.5 cm thick
4 cloves garlic
2 slices ginger
3 tablespoons dark soy
3 tablespoons light soy
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Splash of tsao tsing wine
1/4 teaspoon Chinese black vinegar
3 cloves
1 star anise
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon Chinese five spice

1 tablespoon sugar or honey
Enough water to cover pork

To serve:
6-8 white buns
Coriander leaves to garnish

1. Combine all ingredients except the pork and water.

2. Add pork and enough water to cover the meat.

3. Transfer to slow cooker and set it to Auto for 2-3 hours.

4. Steam buns in a steamer or microwave just before serving.

5. Slice pork into square pieces to fit in between the buns.

6. Serve with fresh coriander leaves and extra sauce. 

Kung po frog legs

Serves 2

3 large frogs, cut into pieces
1 onion, sliced
2 - 3 large cloves of garlice, sliced
3-4 stalks spring onion, cut into 3cm length
5 pieces sliced ginger
10 dried chillies, cut into pieces
3 chili padi, chopped
Plain cooking oil to fry the frog legs (preferably one that is very neutral. Peanut oil is best) - enough to fill your frying pan or wok about 1cm of oil.

Marinade:
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cornflour
a dash of finely ground white pepper

Sauce:
1  tbsp Chinese black vinegar for cooking (amount may vary depending on the brand of vinegar)
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp Hoisin sauce
1 tsp tsao tsing wine
2 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
100ml water
4 tbsp oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
white pepper


1. Combine ingredients for the sauce. Add vinegar last bit by bit as it tends to get very sour depending on the type of vinegar. Keep tasting.

* You should not have a super sour sauce. If you put more vinegar than you should, you may have to add more sugar and salt and maybe more water to dilute it. If you can't save it, do it again! Having something that's too sour is difficult to fix.

2. Rinse and pat dry the frog meat as much as you can and marinade frog meat for 20 minutes in salt, cornflour and pepper.

3. Heat the oil in a wok and shallow fry for about 2 minutes. Dish out and drain. Retain some of the oil to fry the other ingredients and discard the rest of the oil.

4. Heat up the reserved oil and sauté onion, garlic, ginger, chili padi and dried chillies. Add frog and sauce, and cook for 2 -3 minutes.

5) Remove from heat and add spring onion and toss.

6) Serve with rice porridge or plain steamed rice.

* This recipe is adapted from a recipe I found in Soshiok.com. The sauce is so good, that this dish can be substituted for chicken, fish, pork or beef. 

Singapore fish ball minced pork noodles

Serves 2

A. Fish balls:
2 fillets of mackerel, skin removed
¼ tsp salt
1 chili padi, seeded and chopped
3 stalks spring onions, green part, chopped (save the white parts)
½ clove garlic, minced
pinch white pepper

B. Minced pork:
minced pork, palm sized
½ clove garlic, minced
spring onion, white part, chopped
1/2 teaspoon oyster sauce
Splash soy sauce
Few drops sesame oil
Few drops fried shallot oil (you can find them store bought in a jar)
Splash tsao tsing wine
Pinch white pepper

Mushroom sauce:
5 dried shitake mushrooms
5 large fresh oyster mushrooms (you can use fresh shitake too)
2 cloves garlic, minced,
1 slice ginger, minced
1 small red shallot, minced
1/2 teaspoon dark soy
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Splash Tsao tsing wine
peanut oil
cornstarch (1 teaspoon of cornflour mixed with 2 teaspoon of water)
Pinch white pepper

C. Noodle sauce:
1 tablespoon Oyster sauce
Splash Soy sauce
5-10 drops Sesame oil
1 tablespoon Singlong Super Chili sauce
Very small spalsh of black vinegar (be careful of using too much, put a little bit at a time till you get the taste that you want)
white pepper

Fresh noodles, Hong Kong style or any fresh egg noodles, e.g mee pok
Boiling water with a handful of ikan billis and dried shrimp
Spring onions and fried shallots with shallot oil for garnish

1 Marinade mince pork by mixing all of B together.

2. Add all of A together and blitz t in food processor till it clumps. This will take quite a while. You need to be patient - if you don't process it enough you won't get smooth fish balls.

3. Transfer to a mixing bowl and pick up the mixture and then whack the clump of fish against a bowl a few times. ( I don't know why they do this but my mother said it had to be done.)

4. Divide fish mixture into 8. Wet hands and form fish paste into a patty, add a small marble sized minced pork in the middle and cover and roll into ball. Repeat with the rest. Lightly oil your hands and coat each ball so they won't stick. Set aside.

5. Reserve the rest of the minced pork.

6. Boil dried shitake in small saucepan of water till soft. Drain and reserve the liquid.

7. Cut and discard the stems off the boiled shitake and slice. Slice the fresh mushrooms.

8. Add peanut oil to a sauce pan with garlic, shallot, ginger. Saute till soft and add the fresh and dried mushrooms. When slightly brown, add tsao tsing wine.

9.  Add enough mushroom liquid to cover. Add the rest of the ingredients, except cornstarch. Boil for 10-15 mins. When taste is right, slowly add the cornstarch to thicken. Set aside on very very very low heat to keep warm.

10. Mix all the ingredients for the noodle sauce C.

11. Boil water in one pot for noodles, and boil water in another pot with ikan billis and dried shrimp.

12. Add the fish balls into the pot with ikan billis & shrimp. Let boil for 5 mins.

13. Boil the noodles for 2-3 mins and drain. Divide into bowls and mix it with the sauce.

14. While fish balls are still boiling, boil the minced pork in the same pot with a strainer/kitchen spider until meat turns opaque. Remove from water and add on top of noodles.

15. Add the mushroom sauce on top of noodles.

16. Remove fish balls and transfer onto noodles.

17. Garnish with fresh spring onions and fried shallots with shallot oil.

18. Spoon some of the ikan billis/shrimp/fishball/pork stock into bowls as side dish.

* This is my own recipe so and I'm not very good at taking down measurements so these are just estimates. I don't even normally follow other people's recipes to the tee either - cooking is all about gut feel! 

Sweet and Sour Pork

Serves 4

For the meat:
500g Sweet & sour pork cut , diced into 2 inch pieces
(the Chinese butcher will know which cut it is. If he doesn't, just use pork belly with rind removed, or pork loin that has quite a bit of fat on)
1/2 teaspoon sodium bicarbonate
2 tablespoon water
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 egg yolks
1 or 2 pinches of ground white pepper
4 tablespoons cornflour
Peanut oil for frying

Vegetables:
2 red chilies, de-seeded and cut into chunks
2 large red onions, cut into wedges
3 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 large or 2 small green capsicum, deseeded and cut into chunks
1 cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
2 large tomatoes, cut into wedges
6 spring onions, cut into 2 inch pieces (for garnish)

Gravy:
10 tablespoons stock or water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
4 tablespoons tomato sauce/ketchup
4 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon A1 or HP sauce
1/2 tablespoon chili sauce
1 or 2 pinches of ground white pepper
11/2 tablespoons cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoons water

1. Mix all ingredients for the gravy, except the cornflour mixed with water, and set aside.

2. Prepare all vegetables and set aside.

3. Add all ingredients for the meat, except cornflour and oil, and marinade for 15 minutes.

4. Heat the oil in a wok.

5. Place cornflour on a large plate and coat all the pieces of pork.

6. When the oil is hot, fry the pork, and lower the flame to medium/high heat. Fry till crispy and brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel.

7. Remove the oil and leave 2 tablespoons. (If it's cloudy, use fresh oil).

8. Fry the onions and chilies till it's slightly softer, add the garlic. Fry till fragrant.

9. Add the gravy and then add the vegetables (except spring onions). Stir and lower the flame to medium, and cover for 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft but still have some crunch to them.

10. Stir the cornflour and water mixture. Increase the flame to high till it's boiling, and slowly stir in the mixture little by little, until the sauce slightly thickens.

11. Add the pork and let it simmer for a minute.

12. Remove from heat and add the spring onions. Serve.

*This recipe is from my mother, who took it from an extremely old recipe book written by a famous Cantonese chef, Tham Yew Kai. She photocopied the page and gave it to me so there's no link online to the original recipe! You can see I was following the recipe as the photocopy of it is in the picture in the background on the right.

I've kept the sauce exactly as the chef has written, but changed up some of the vegetables. You can adapt it and change those too. I also omitted the vetsin or MSG. The original recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon added to the marinaded pork. 

To be honest, Mum used a tiny tiny bit of MSG in her cooking growing up. A bit of it changes the flavour of a dish dramatically. I'm not totally opposed to it, as long as you don't use it every single day in every single dish, I'm sure it's probably OK!