Cup Julienne (Pie Tee)

Traditionally, this recipe is to make Pie Tee (top hats). The ingredients usually calls for Yam bean but I have altered the recipe with ingredients that are easily available in the supermarket here. So yam bean has been substituted with swede. Of course, you can use the original ingredient of Yam bean if you can get it at your nearest supermarket.

Photo via Hanamemories

The traditional case can be easily bought in Malaysia but there isn't any available here so instead of making the traditional cups from scratch which I deem tedious, I have created an alternative way of making a cup / top hat to stuff the fillings. Wonton skin was used and it only takes a couple of minutes to make it so nothing as complicated as making mixture and deep frying each and every case.

Cup Julienne / Pie Tee Recipe

serves 6

Ingredients:

• Vegetable oil
• 20 wonton skin / wrapper
• 3 cloves garlic (minced)
• 300g yam bean / jicamma (julienne) *I used swede
• 2 large carrots (julienne)
• 1/2 caup water
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce to taste
• ground white pepper to taste

• spring onion (thinly sliced)
• fried shallots

Methods:

1.  Preheat oven at 180^oC. Brush some oil on a mini cupcake tray. Place a square piece of wonton skin. wrapper in each cupcake mould. Brush with more oil over the wanton skin so it takes the shape of the cup. Place the tray in the preheated oven and bake for a few minutes until golden brown. Repeat. Be careful not to bake for too long as it turns golden really quickly. When the cups are ready, remove the wonton skin cups and place on a wire rack to cool.

2.  Heat some oil on the wok and sauté garlic, then add yam bean and carrots, and fry for 1 minute. Add water and cook until water is reduced and absorbed. Then add soy sauce to taste. Cook until moisture is reduced so it will not make the casing soggy when assembled.

3.  Scoop a spoonful of cooked yam bean and carrots into the baked wonton skin cup. Make sure to squeeze out any moisture if any. Serve with some sprinkling of spring onions and fried shallots.

Tips:

• Yam bean / jicama is a little difficult to get in London so if you are unable to get it near you, substitute with swede. It tastes as good.
• Wonton skin can also be substituted with filo pastry. 

    

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Ayam Tim (Pickled Mustard Greens & Chicken Soup)

Savoury, sweet, sour with a hint of spice and it’s snowballing flavour makes this soup one of the few tastiest simple soup to make. This dish is a derived version from the traditional nyonya ‘Itik Tim’ made using duck instead of chicken. If you are able to buy duck where you are, I suggest cooking with it as it gives a deeper flavour. Otherwise, the next best option will be chicken. 

This soup has converted someone who does not like soup to now, love it!

Ayam Tim (Pickled Mustard Greens & Chicken Soup)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 800g chicken legs
• 300g salted mustard green
• 4 carrots (peel & cut to wedges)
• 2 onions (cut to wedges)
• 2 dried chilli
• 3 cloves garlic (remove skin & bruise)
• 2 inch ginger (sliced)
• 4 dried salted plums
• 3 tomatoes (halved)
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• salt and ground white pepper to taste
• water to cover over the ingredients

Methods:

1.  Soak the salted mustard green in water for about 30 minutes to remove the salt. 

2.  While the salted mustard green is being soaked, prepare the other ingredients.
3.  Place chicken, salted mustard green, carrots, onions, dried chilli, garlic and ginger in a pot.
4.  Pour water into the pot until it covers over the ingredients.
5.  Bring to boil. Then add in the dried salted plums and simmer for about 20 minutes. 

6.  Add in the tomatoes at the last 10 minutes.
7.  Season with toy sauce, salt and pepper to taste.
8.  Serve with steamed rice. 

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Tau Eu Bak (Soy Sauce Braised Pork)

Growing up in Penang, I used to live with my extended family so there were two families and grandparents in one house. This makes it a little compact but we all had lots of fun where us kids will bond through playing remote control car, Super Mario, Barbie dolls, wrestling, transformers, making each other cry and all sorts.

When we were all living together, my aunt used to be the one who cooks most often cause she was an amazing cook. She made really good 'Tau Eu Bak' and always, with hard boiled eggs. One thing I regretted though, was that cooking was not my passion when young so I never actually spent the time asking her how to make such delicious food. Well, I guess I now have to make up for it.

So now that I am missing home cooked Aunt's food, I have to make it on my own. Luckily it is actually very easy to make and needs very few basic ingredients. So here is my version of Tau Eu Bak, pork belly slowly braised in soy sauce and slightly garlicky gravy. I'll make sure to get some special tips from her when I go home soon. For now, this is a good version and is best to eat with some 'sambal belacan' as it will give a different depth of flavour and spiciness to it.

Tau Eu Bak is also good when eaten with rice porridge / congee. Enjoy!

Tau Eu Bak (Soy Sauce Braised Pork)

Adapted from Nyonya Flavours book 
Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 600g pork belly (cut into 3cm chunks)
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tbsp salt

Gravy:

• 500ml water
• 1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp ground five spice
• 10 white peppercorns (cracked)

• 12 cloves garlic with skin
• 4 boiled eggs
• 1 tsp sugar to taste (optional)
• sambal belacan (optional)

Method:

1.  Rub pork with cornflour and salt to clean it then wash under running water until rid of any flour traces.
2.  Blanch the pork in boiling water to remove odour from meat and rinse under running water. Set pork aside.
3.  Combine gravy ingredients in a pot then bring to boil. Add pork into pot and simmer for 10 minutes before adding in garlic.
4.  Add in boiled eggs and sugar then continue to simmer for another 30 minutes or until meat is tender.
5.  Serve with sambal belacan on the side. This will make the braised pork spicy and more fragrant.

Tips:

• This dish is best eaten with rice and some vegetables such as a simple steamed cabbage to be served together.

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Ayam Pongteh (Nyonya Chicken and Potato Stew)

Ayam pongteh is a very popular nyonya / peranakan dish from Malacca. It uses basic ingredients and is easy to cook compared to the normally labour intensive nyonya cooking.

AYAM PONGTEH RECIPE 

(CHICKEN AND POTATO STEW) 

adapted from Simple Dish Online
serves 4

Ingredients:

• 800g chicken, cut into bite-size
• 4 potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 2 medium carrots, cut into wedges
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 shallots
• 1 inch of ginger, sliced
• 1 tbsp bean paste (taucheo)
• 1 tbsp palm sugar
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 500ml water
• Oil
• White ground pepper to taste

Method:

1. Blend or pound the garlic and onions with a pestle and mortar.
2. Saute the garlic and onion paste until fragrant.
3. Add in bean paste, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and ginger. Stir until slightly thickened then add the chicken, potatoes, carrots and water.
4. Add palm sugar, soy sauce and dark soy sauce and let it boil.
5. Bring the heat down and simmer for about an hour.
6. Season with sugar, soy sauce and pepper to taste. Let it simmer for another minute.
7. Serve with with steamed rice.

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Sedap, authentic Malaysian food in London

Malaysian food which has a multicultural influence of Malay, Chinese, Indian, Thai and Indonesian food, is undoubtedly one of the most interesting. I might be biased here but so far, everyone I know who's been on holiday in Malaysia came back raving about the food so I think it's not just me. For those of you missing your tropical holiday and its exciting cuisine, you'll be glad to know there is a restaurant worth your visit when the craving kicks in.

Sedap (means delicious in English) is a family run restaurant that does very well prepared and delectable home cooking, mainly peranakan / nyonya food. This restaurant is run by the same people behind my once favourite restaurant named Nyonya which was based at Nottinghill Gate. It closed down many years back and then Sedap sprang up on Old Street.

The rather plain interior but has a few peranakan decoration, like the rattan weaved basket and tiffin carrier.

The tiny crispy spring rolls

Penang Char Koay Teow , a must have.

One of the most popular street food in Penang is its Char Koay Teow. People from ashore will track all the way to the island for this tummy loving plate of satisfaction. Also, majority of my friends from home who lived abroad will never miss out on their dose of char koay teow when in Penang. A plate of a simple looking fried flat rice noodles cooked with beansprouts, chives, prawns, lap cheong (chinese sausage) and blood cockles is actually possible to make one salivate just by hearing a whisper of its name. The main characteristics of this dish is its slightly charred aroma cooked over a very hot wok on charcoal fire. The ultimate secret to the best Char Koay Teow is fresh ingredients and the ability to control the perfect heat and cooking time.  The authentic CKT uses lard and fried crispy lardons.

So far, the best Char Koay Teow in London, comparable to the authentic version in Penang is from Sedap. Although two ingredients were missing; blood cockles (not my favourite so it's okay) and lap cheong (chinese sausage) which I personally think is a must have in Char Koay Teow, this is still where London-based Char Koay Teow lovers come for their craving fix. They used to make this with lap cheong but it seems they have stopped serving pork!! Even their very tasty Tau Eu Bak (soy sauce braised pork) served with sambal (chilli paste) has been removed from the menu.

Hainanese Chicken Rice (rice cooked in chicken stock)

Chicken rice is another popular hawker / street food in Malaysia and is easily found. Many are pretty tasty so its not difficult to find decent Chicken Rice. Some food stalls serve with roast chicken but the Hainanese version is made by poaching the chicken in chicken stock with ginger to infuse more intense flavour and also keep it moist and tender. The rice and chicken is usually served with chicken broth or kiam chai buoy (a spicy and sour soup where it is simmered with lots of the chicken and duck bones, dried chilli, mustard green) and garlic chilli sauce on the side.

Curry Tumis Fish is a nyonya sweet and sour fish dish. As a picky Penangite, I would prefer it to be more sour ad spicy for a more intense flavour. Saying that, I thoroughly enjoyed it as all the flavours were still there. The okra in this curry was surprisingly well cooked. No slime whatsoever.

Sambal Brinjal needs a little more punch from the chilli

Assortment of nyonya kuih

Kuih is a type of dessert or snack, which can be sweet or savoury. The baba and nyonyas / peranakan usually have them as a tea time snack in between meals. It is usually made with rice flour or glutinous rice flour.

The yellow coloured soft and slightly chewy kuih is kuih bingka, my mum's favourite kuih. It is made out of tapioca and coconut milk then baked in the oven to give it the dark top layer. The pink and orange diamond kuih is the kuih lapis, literally means layered kuih. As a child, I used to like this kuih as I get to peel it off layer by layer. It just makes eating kuih a lot more fun. The green coloured one is kuih talam. Talam means tray in Malay and is reflected to how the kuih is usually steamed on a large tray. Don't be put off by the green colour. It is a natural colouring made from the juice of pandan (screwpine) leaves. It has a very fragrant smell and is commonly used in South East Asian cooking.

Smile..

Very tasty home cooked Malaysian and Nyonya food. I especially like the Char Koay Teow and kuih.

Frown..

Tiny portions. Slightly bigger portions would have been more satisfactory.

Will I return?

Definitely. Been back many times.

Sedap

102 Old Street
EC1V 9AY London, UK.
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7490 0200

Closest station: Old Street (northern line)

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Limablas, a Nyonya addition at Changkat | Kuala Lumpur

Petronas Twin Towers so close to Limablas

A quaint little Nyonya restaurant hidden in the middle of KL city, quite close to the Petronas Twin Towers was quite a find. We managed to check out Limablas on their second month of business when I was in Malaysia. A dear friend who knows I like Nyonya food brought me here while I was in town. I can tell that lots of thought has gone in to set up this restaurant. Every item in the restaurant was meticulously placed. Each old glass jar, cabinet, chairs and calculator has been carefully chosen and added as part of the interior to create a nostalgic space of an old shop house.

 I have a thing for doors and windows. These ones, as simple as it looks, seems so beautiful to me especially the shabby looking turquoise door. 

Limablas, the name of this restaurant means fifteen in Malay, therefore the number 15.

Beautiful colour contrast

This antique calculator is apparently called the Jewish calculator but Simon, the co-owner has no idea why the name. I, as curious as he is, would like to find out why so please ping me if any of you know anything.

Pie Tee

For those of you who does not know what pie tee is, it is a crispy case filled with cooked julienne vegetables and prawns, similar filling to those in spring rolls.

Sambal Aubergine

I must say that the sambal aubergine and sambal petai (below) were my favourite non-dessert dishes of the night. The sambal on both the aubergine and petai dishes are totally different. The aubergine was cooked with sambal heh bee.

Telur cincaluk (Omelette with fermented small shrimps)

Chap Chye (Mixed vegetables) is one of my favourite nyonya vegetable dishes. A typical nyonya chap chye will have ingredients such as dried lily buds, dried bean curd sticks, shiitake mushroom, black fungus and Chinese cabbage cooked with fermented soy bean paste but the ones we had here (pictured above) was different. It must be a modern take of the restaurant. 

Goreng Chilli Fish

Ayam Pongteh (Stewed chicken with potatoes) is one of those homey food where you flood your rice with gravy. It is that good. Also, I suggest you have it with the pungent sambal belacan.

Empty plates means happy belly. What happy belly needs will be desserts.

This Cendol was yummy, as was the other two we had that did not make it in the pictures; ais kacang and sago gula melaka. They were obviously too yummy and no one wants a shaved ice dessert to end up being cold liquid dessert. Cendol and ais kacang are the must haves in such hot weather.

Tapai is fermented rice and was the first time I tried this. It is definitely an acquired taste and so far, not my kind of dessert but my friend seems to like it. Very subjective, it seems.

Smile..

Great decor & ambience, very friendly service and good Malaccan Nyonya food.

Frown..

Nothing to frown about.

Will I return?

This will probably become one of my usual hangout when I crave for Nyonya food in KL but too bad, I live 7,000 miles away.

LIMABLAS

No 15 Jalan Mesui,
Off Changkat Bukit Bintang,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
(beside No Black Tie)
Tel: +603 2110 1289

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Little Kitchen @Nyonya, set in the original Peranakan home of fourgenerations | Penang

Nyonya cuisine is one of the earliest example of fusion food evolved since the 1950's when the Chinese traders decided to call Malaysia their home. In a foreign country where they could get limited supplies of what they were used to in China, they made use of ingredients available locally. Since then, they have introduced what we now call the Nyonya Cuisine, similarly known as Peranakan Cuisine, which is an amalgamation of Chinese cooking with local Malay ingredients and style.

These Chinese settlers were often found in Penang, Malacca and Singapore as these were the main ports back then. So as a Penangite, Nyonya food is pretty common to us but it is not ordinary for us non-Peranakans to be able to savour Nyonya food in the comforts of the ornate Nyonya home that has been in the family for generations.

As soon as I found out about Little Kitchen @ Nyonya, I jumped on the next opportunity to visit this restaurant that is set in the original Nyonya home of four generations. I had my sister make reservation for when I get home. 

The sign to look out for, amongst the shophouses

Here I am, at the entrance of the Nyonya home restaurant. If you noticed, there are two businesses written on the sign. The original business of the family is selling Bird's Nest therefore, Birds Nest Heaven. Latter, Mr Loh opened this restaurant for his mum because her children has grown up, left home and was getting bored at home not being able to cook for a big family like she used to. So Mr Loh installed air-conditioning in the house, put up a sign and a homey Nyonya restaurant was set up.

Straits Eclectic Shophouses (built between the 1890's - 1940's)

This style of shop houses are referred to as Straits Eclectic Shophouses, built between the 1890's to 1940's. They are colourful and elaborately decorated and usually have three pairs of wooden shutter windows with decorative arches. The pillars and panels have ornate plaster decoration. These earlier shophouses were built by the more affluent Chinese settlers so they usually have very ornate decorations to show their status.

The unchanged exterior for four generations

Authentic Nyonya food in an authentic setting, like it was centuries ago

The wooden panel is to divide the space into two areas, the main room and the second room. The main room is where guests are held and during those times, the single girls are not allowed to be seen by guests and were usually in the second room or upstairs. The little holes on the wooden panel were where the girls will peek through to see the guests.

A variety of Nyonya kuih (big plate) and homemade pickles (small plate). Nyonya kuih is a type of sweet or savoury snacks usually eaten in between meals, like how the English have scones for afternoon tea.

We were served a variety of Nyonya kuih soon after we arrived to prevent hungry growls while we were busy listening to Mr Loh's stories. Mr Loh (the host) treats all his customers like his guests. He was so kind to show us around his home and explain all there is to know about this place he call home.

Flasks of free flow drinks you can help yourself with

Me and the head chef, Mr Loh's mum who made us those delicious home-cooked Nyonya food

The beautiful pillar in the house

Original nyonyaware

Original nyonyaware

Original Peranakan day bed

This day bed, as of majority of furnitures and items in this house are antiques that has lasted four generations. As Penang can get very hot and humid, the day bed was made out of wood and marbles to keep it nice and cool when sat or laid on. The flower decorations are made from carved mother of pearl.

Original Peranakan wooden carved door

Bottles of varied pickles

Some of the fresh herbs

Ulam sambal belacan

Ulam is a type of salad produced from the 'ulam' leaves. In the plate of salad above, it has a variety of fresh leaves served with raw baby aubergines, thickly sliced cucumber and mangoes which are to be eaten with the sambal (chilli paste) that came with it. The sambal belacan were divided into three levels of spiciness at; 10% chilli,40% chilli and 70% chilli. The 70% chilli sambal was too spicy and is one that blows your brains wide open so be careful. I suggest you start with the 10% chilli sambal.

Hong bak (pork cooked in fermented bean paste)

Ju Hu Char (Fried juliennes of yam bean with shredded cuttlefish)

Kari Kapitan Kay (Chicken Curry Kapitan)

Paku Heh Bee (Fern cooked with dried shrimp sambal)

Sambal Prawns

Lum Chut Hu (Deep fried fish)

Tu Kar Chor (Pork Trotters cooked in sweet vinegar and ginger)

Tu Tor Ting (Pig Intestine Soup)

Clean plates with no food left

Bird's Nest Egg Tart

"All the food are served in the original Nyonyaware passed down from generations. These chinaware are considered antique."

Smile..

Love the essence of this place, a home open up to guests. It is like hosting a dinner party everyday, in the comfort of their home that has been passed down for four generation.

Frown..

No frowns, only smiles. Well, maybe slightly expensive but I think it is worth the experience.

Will I return?

I will definitely return for a homey nyonya meal and to visit the old lady chef and family and thank them for being a wonderful host. It is a great place to bring foreign guests to give them a feel of the Nyonya culture.

LITTLE KITCHEN @ NYONYA

No. 179, Lebuh Noordin,

10300 Penang, Malaysia.

Tel: +604-261 6731 / +6012-508 9338

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