I
received an email from a local blogger, Daniel Ang to participate in this
#CookForFamily. Without hesitation, I agreed. This event resonates strongly
with what I truly believe in – the importance of home cooking and the need to
preserve our food heritage.
As the
saying goes, the family that eats together stays together. And helping to make
this event more meaningful is, I hope, my little way to encourage families to
rediscover their handed-down recipes and bring them back to the dining table.
The history of the family table is inseparable from the larger culinary history
of a people – and therefore needs to be loved and preserved.
The
recipe I am featuring was one of the earliest I learnt; a neighbor of mine
taught it to me. A typical housewife in her 60s, she would go to the wet market
for the freshest ingredients, dispense with her household chores, prepare lunch
for her children, and then settle down to listen to Rediffusion for the
afternoon. I had learnt not to approach her until she finished her chores.
So this
is what I would do: I would follow her to the market in the morning; gather all
the ingredients I would need, and wait for her to finish all her chores. When
she sat down in front of the Rediffusion box, I would bring the ingredients I
had bought to her.
At each
commercial break, my neighbor would impart the necessary instructions to me. I
would dash to the kitchen after each set of instructions and cook. For the
finishing gravy, I would bring her an empty bowl and different types of sauce
bottles. Like a pharmacist, she would mix and stir the sauces under my
ever-watchful eye. Once done, I would rush back again to the stove for the
final assembly.
It was
a time of fun that I remember and cherish. Like most people of her generation
who were not very demonstrative of their feelings, these generous little
cooking ‘lessons’ were my old neighbor’s gifts of affection to me.
Braised
Mui Choy with Chicken Feet
Mui
choy 350 g
Ginger 4 thick slices
Sugar 2½ tbsp
Chinese
wine 1 tbsp
Light
soy sauce 1 tbsp
Dark
soy sauce ¾ tbsp
Lard/Oil 5 tbsp
Meat
stock/water 1½ cups
Braised
Chicken Feet
Chicken
feet 400 g
Dark
soy sauce 1 tbsp
Salt ½ tsp
Water 1½ litre
Oil 2 cups
Method:
1. Soak and rinse mui choy
thoroughly. Squeeze mui choy very dry and dice it about 1cm thick.
2. Marinate mui choy with sugar,
light soy sauce, and Chinese wine for 30 minutes.
3. Using a dry wok, fry the mui choy
until the vegetable becomes dry. Add oil and continue to fry at medium heat for
another 5 minutes. Pour stock and deep-fry chicken feet and simmer for 30
minutes.
Deep-fried
Chicken Feet
1. Marinate chicken feet with dark
soy sauce and salt for 30 minutes.
2. Blanch chicken feet in boiling
water for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from water and drain
thoroughly.
4. Deep-fry chicken feet until the
skin turns brown and crispy.
5. Drain the chicken feet
thoroughly.
Note: Mui choy is a preserved vegetable
originating from Mei Zhou, a province in Canton where Hokkiens and Teochews
meet. Nowadays, this preserved vegetable is exclusively produced in Hui Zhou. There
are two types of mui choy: sweet and salty, as the vegetables are dried and
heavily soaked in either salt or sugar. Each type of mui choy is used for a
specific cooking purpose. The colour of mui choy should be light golden, with a
slight scent to the vegetable.
