Fried Rabbitfish Porridge – A Simple Treat

I am Cantonese; my great-grandfather left Guangzhou, a city in southern China, to seek a better life. And now here I am fourth generations down the line. My clan and I have assimilated well in language, lifestyle, and outlook on life, wherever we may live these days. But when it comes to taste buds, I still slant towards Chinese…and, in particular, Cantonese food.

Those who know Cantonese food, know that there are a few staples we Cantonese cannot live without. One of them is soup; any kind of soup – boiled, double-boiled, and even quick-boiled – with ingredients picked and selected according to the season.

The other staples that regular appear on the Cantonese dining table are rice and congee. I have loved congee since childhood. In fact, I was told that my first “solid” food after weaning was fish congee. When it comes to congee, my family seems to have 101 recipes; and this is one of my favorites – rabbitfish congee.

Rabbitfish is a common fish in the market and also very affordable; except during Lunar New Year. Because at that time of year, the fish becomes filled with roe and the Teochew (another Chinese dialect group from Guangzhou) prize it above all other fish, and would willingly pay obscene amounts for it.

The rabbitfish I have encountered in Hong King are about 10cm in length and may be easily caught by weekend anglers from the shore; their counterparts in Singapore tend to be bigger at around 25cm. Rabbitfish could become bitter if the gall is accidentally ruptured during cleaning. Other than that, the meat of this fish is tasty whether steamed or fried.

I have introduced a method of preparing congee in an earlier post (http://gastronautdiary. blogspot.com/2011_12_10_archive.html). However, the method that I’m posting now is more traditional and seldom practiced, even in restaurants; and it produces congee with a texture and taste that is so much better, even when eaten plain.

So what do we look for in a plain bowl of congee? First, it should smell of rice. The Chinese call it “饭气“ or literally “breath of rice”. This smell should be full bodied yet fresh. Next, the congee texture should be gluey without any lumpy grains. The rice and oil should be well emulsified, leaving no trace of oil visible in the congee. Finally, the color of the congee should be pale white and not cream.

 Fried Rabbitfish Congee

Rabbitfish                    1 kg or more
Rice                             100 g
Glutinous rice             12 g
Thai jasmine rice         12 g

Lard                             25 g

Salt                              2 tsp

Water                          2.75 litres

Ginger                         50 g, julienned

Salt                              1 tbsp

Soy sauce                    1 tbsp

Sesame oil                  ½  tbsp.

White pepper              a dash

Spring onion               garnish

Fried shallots               2 tbsp

Method:

1. Mix all rice with lard, salt and water, and let it rest for 30 minutes.
2. Add rice to boiling water, and let it boil vigorously for 1½ hours.
3. Add fish and ginger, continue to boil over medium flame for another 30 minutes.
4. Season it with salt.
5. Add a dash of soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper, spring onion and fried shallots.

Fried RabbitFish

1.   Get the fishmonger to remove the guts, but if you have to do it yourself, try not to tear the gall or the belly meat will turn bitter.

2.   Apply salt to the fish and let it marinate for 15 minutes.

3.   Rinse the fish well and drain.

4.   Fry fish until both sides turn slightly brown.

5.   Remove bones and set the meat aside.

Note:

It is necessary to boil the congee under both high and medium flame as this will ensure that the rice and water emulsify well. Never simmer the congee; and do not add any water to it while it is cooking. However, if there is a need to add water, make sure it is boiling water.

St Pierre Springs into the Limelight

Chef Leandros Stagogiannis may be a bear of a man with a balloon of frizzy hair to match (think Hagrid from Harry Potter!), but he has nimble fingers when it comes to food plating, and the sharpest of taste buds to match.

The Chef is not a newcomer to our shores, but he’s kept a pretty low profile during his three years at Restaurant 53. Now, with his debut as the new Chef de Cuisine at Saint Pierre, he seems ready for the spotlight.

I had the opportunity recently to sample the Spring Menu he developed. Its first entrée, Salmon Roll with Scallop Mousse, was a tad predictable but nevertheless a refreshing teaser for the taste buds. Happily, there was a lot more to come.

Foie gras had always been Saint Pierre’s calling card -- the must-try ingredient that showcases the restaurant’s technique and creativity. In the foie gras dish of the Spring Menu, Chef Stagogiannis used caramelized green apples and old port sauce to develop a tri-layered note for the nose as well as the tongue. The first bite delivered two sensations at once: the sweetness, mellowness, and richness of the old port sauce, and the tartness of the green apple. The rich and creamy taste of foie gras rounded off the symphony; three layers of flavor melding into a titillating orgy on the tongue. Sexy, mature, and exciting!

Next, the colorful heirloom vegetables of the dish, Heritage, delighted the eye and palate as each vegetable entered the mouth. The red and ‘limp’ watermelon was the biggest surprise: frozen, then pressed steamed, each stage of preparation had changed the taste and texture of the watermelon; the end result was a fruit with the texture of liver, yet with intense sweetness. While I reckon you can call it a dessert, to me the watermelon better served as complement to the rest of the vegetables, such as the yam and parsnip fries in hazelnut butter.

I ordered the dish, Le Jardin, on a whim. It was an interesting play of bamboo shoot, lotus root, sweet potato, burdock root, shishito, kabocha, momotaro tomato and banana flower, arranged with an ikebana Zen-ness that reflected its Japanese ingredients. I was surprised to learn that this dish was on the menu since way before Chef Stagogiannis came onboard-- maybe I was too busy looking at other dishes to notice!

I have never liked my salmon cooked, but when Chef added wakame as the “fifth taste” to the vanilla oil-poached meat of the fish, it worked for me. Eating the smooth-textured salmon felt almost like eating sashimi, and the chanteclaire apple reminded me of early spring in Tokyo.

It is really hard to find well-cooked sweet bread in Singapore, but Chef did justice to the dish. Resembling pig brain in texture, the sweet bread was delicious with the garlic dressing and white asparagus. The plating brought me back to Restaurant 53 with its signature hay nest.

The last time I remembered having vegetable as part of a dessert was at Pierre in Hong Kong. Chef Pierre Gagnaire had engineered the lettuce brilliantly and made it the main ingredient of the dessert. It was unforgettable. Here, Chef Stagogiannis used celery as the surprise choice. The tanginess of celery worked surprising well with the strawberries with chocolate crumble and sorbet. It took confidence to pull this one off, and Chef Stagogiannis, who was once the pastry chef at The Fat Duck, as well as pastry consultant with Gordon Ramsay’s Maze and Maze Grill, did it with aplomb.

We rounded up the night with chocolate ganache with a hint of soy sauce and parsnip -- a fitting finale I thought. Although my dinner companion wasn’t bowled over, I thought this dessert represented the Chef’s artistic approach nicely. To me, it seems that Chef Stagogiannis -- as a chef as well as a trendy artisan -- captures the “in” style of cooking as well as food presentation unfailingly, every time. Now, perhaps, the interior of the restaurant has some catching up to do, in order to live up to this revitalized menu.

Saint Pierre

#01-01 Central Mall

3 Magazine Road

Singapore

Steamed Crab Glutinous Rice---A Dish for all Seasons

In Singapore, we eat glutinous rice all year round regardless of season or weather. So when I moved to Hong Kong a couple of years back, and was told that glutinous rice was eaten mostly during the cool season, I was quite surprised. And, if the warming global climate is anything to go by, and the past two winters in HK any indication of things to come, glutinous rice might soon be an extinct dish!

Anyway, I love glutinous rice whichever way it is cooked---dumpling, fried, steamed, and especially in this featured recipe. I ate this version long ago when I was young, and had all but forgotten it, until I encountered it again at Chef Ang Sang Kang (better known as Chef Kang)’s tiny and rather stifling shop located in an HDB block in Serangoon. Later, in a seemingly roller-coaster career that saw a few ups and downs, Chef Kang moved to bigger premises in Joo Chiat, and finally to his present restaurant, Canton Recipes House, at a hotel in Albert Street. Having said that, a meal at Chef Kang’s, wherever he’s located, has always proven a treat.

This is a simple recipe that I learned from some chefs in Hong Kong, and which I’ve tweaked a little. In this recipe, it is important to use garlic in the form of a paste prepared beforehand, instead of as raw chopped garlic added just before steaming. The reason being that cooked garlic paste would be more robust and mellow in taste, and would come in handy for other recipes too!

Steamed Glutinous Rice with Crab

Glutinous rice             300 g

Water                            5 cups

Salt                                 1½ tsp

Chicken broth             3 tbsp

Light soy sauce           1 tbsp

Crab                               1 or 2, depending on size

Garlic paste                 2 tbsp

Spring onion

White pepper

Method:

1. Soak glutinous rice with 5 cups of water. Drain the rice thoroughly after 3 hours. Add salt in the rice and mix well.
2. Steam rice for 30 minutes. Sprinkle 2 tbsp of chicken broth and continue to steam for another 10 minutes.
3. In between, sprinkle light soy sauce onto the rice.
4. Add crab and garlic paste and steam for another 9 minutes.
5. Sprinkle spring onions and pepper before serving.

Garlic paste:

Garlic                         8, finely chopped

Oil                              8 tbsp

Salt                            ¼ tsp

Method:

1.              Fry garlic and salt under low heat.

2.              Keep stirring until the garlic is cooked and could be mashed easier.

3.              Remove and keep in a cool corner.

Killer Dim Sum!

I first heard about it in November of 2011 -- how famed masterchef Chen Xun had been coaxed out of retirement for a month-long dim sum promotion in Guangzhou. I was not able to make that trip, and have regretted it since. It was a meal I would have gladly killed for.

The Guangzhou-based 87-year-old Chen is regarded as one of the greatest dim sum masters of his generation. He is advisor to the Guangzhou Culinary Association and author of many cookbooks.

赤绳欣系足

So imagine my surprise and glee when I learned that the masterchef had been invited to repeat his feat, this time in Hong Kong for two weeks. A few days back I finally found myself seated at Nanhai No.1 restaurant in Tsimshatsui, looking at dim sum that had been served by Chen since the 1940s.

We opened with Steamed Mountain Yam and Duck Web with Bean Curd Skin (right). The duck web had been braised and steamed along with the yam, allowing the yam, which was tied together with string made from an omelette, to thoroughly imbibe the flavour of the duck web. The taste was subtle with a light hint of superior soy sauce.

彩风隐龙怀

Next came Steamed Prawn stuffed with Quail Egg (left).  The prawn was minced and beaten into a paste that was smooth and slightly crunchy. The acid test for me was the taste of prawn, which came through with light seasoning. The quail egg also gave a heavier body to the bite.

This was followed by morsel-sized pastry birds, actually Baked Chicken Liver Pastry seasoned with Spring Onion Oil (below, left). The liver was light in taste, unlike the heftier flavour of most chicken liver. The pastry was typically Chinese in style, and a little on the heavy side with a hint of spring onion oil.

葱油凤肝酥 (left), 窝烧鸭脑饼 (right)

The fourth item was unusual---Baked Duck’s Brain Pancake with Cinnamon Flavour (above, right).  Each pancake used two duck brains blended with minced meat. The taste of duck brain was subtle but the texture was unforgettable. It reminded me of tofu but with a meatier smoked taste. My favorite!

茄汁鲜虾饺

When the ha kou was presented, it looked like any other ha kou except for a pronounced red blush shining through the skin. The first bite of the Steamed Shrimp Dumpling with Fresh Tomato (right) produced a light hint of tomato sourness accompanied by the crunch of prawn paste.  But the second bite clearly justified the presence of the tomato paste; the flavor of tomato and prawns is a marriage made in heaven. Yum!

I’ve never been fond of chicken siu mai (below, right), and the only occasion I would eat chicken siu mai would be in Muslim Malaysia, where the use of pork in hotel restaurants is forbidden. But Masterchef Chen Xun’s version was exquisite, the meat finely chopped and marinated with superior oyster and soy sauces. The meat on its own was already flavoursome but the marinate enhanced it even further.

网油牛肉卷 (left),  鸡茸干蒸卖 (right)

The Steamed Beef Ball (above, left) was lean beef hand-chopped, and wrapped in caul-oil which serves to moisten the meatball during steaming. The beef was further enhanced with dried mandarin peel, water chestnut, lemon leaves and coriander. From the first bite the parade of flavours from the ingredients came through, one after another!

柚皮火腩夹

The preparation of pomelo skin is always tedious and time-consuming, making pomelo skin as an ingredient a rare treat in restaurants. Masterchef Chen Xun mixed Pomelo Skin with Pork Belly (left) and cooked it until soft. The final mixture was then stuffed into a bun and steamed for about 20 minutes, giving it a refreshing taste quite unlike the usual char siu or chicken bun. Furthermore, the pomelo skin soaked in the oil from the pork belly, while sending hints of fruitiness seeping through the meat.

Two desserts were prepared and served for this promotion. The first was lotus paste coated with flour mixture and sesame seeds (below, right), and deep-fried until golden brown. The lotus paste was light and not too sweet like most Chinese desserts. And the sesame seeds gave a nice bite with a pungent seedy flavor.

波渣香麻条

The last dessert was my favourite -- deep-fried Banana stuffed with Red Bean Paste (below, left). The combination was refreshing and somehow tasted modern. But the restaurant staff assured me that such a combination had already existed more than 50 years ago.

NANHAI NO. 1

Level 30, iSquare

63 Nathan Road

Tsimshatsui, Kowloon

HONG KONG

Tel:   852 2487 3688

脱衣换锦袍

Forest – Sam Leong does it his way.

Chef Sam Leong is a friend whose first two cookbooks I’ve had the pleasure of publishing. I was an avid fan since he was Executive Chef of the Four Seasons Hotel, Singapore, and later when he helmed the Tung Lok Group of restaurants.

We lost contact when I moved to Hong Kong four years ago and he quit his post with the restaurant group. But we rekindled our friendship in his newly opened restaurant, Forest at Equarius Hotel, Sentosa, two nights ago.

This quiet restaurant with a seating capacity of more than 170 sat in the midst of green and tranquil surroundings. The interior was cleanly modern with a stylised eco theme complete with green wall and abstract palm tree pillars.

Tuna tartar with
fresh mango in cone

We were first greeted with plum sorbet with cherry tomato and pickled carrot. The chill taste of the plum sorbet left a lasting aftertaste of plum and an acidic sweet effect.

Like a kid enticed with an ice-cream cone, the chill tuna tartar marinated with fresh mango in crispy seaweed, which came after, was bliss. The tuna and mango were like a pair of long-lost twins at a pleasant and heartwarming reunion.

Steamed Chawanmushi egg with pan-seared foie gras was no surprise, but who could refuse foie gras in whatever form?!

Steamed Chawanmushi with
pan-fried foie gras

This was one of my favourites of the evening: I could have begged for more with the first spoonful of double-boiled sea whelk with Sakura chicken consommé. The taste of sea whelk and cordyceps flowers was distinctive and rich. The price of cordyceps has hit the sky and its flowers are nowadays a good alternative. Chef Sam explained that he used Sakura chicken for its low fat content. The tempura sea whelk? I loved its texture but the sea whelk didn’t come through, only the prawn paste.

Double-boiled sea whelk soup & Sakura chicken consomme
accompanied with Tempura sea whelk

Charcoal-grilled cod fish
with sauteed eggplant

Charcoal-grilled honey cod fish was close to my taste buds. I love my fish grilled with a crispy texture yet succulent to the bite. The hint of sweetness flawlessly complemented the slight spicy sautéed eggplant that came with the dish.

The influence of Chef Sam’s early stint as chef in Thailand, and perhaps that of his wife, Forest, who is Thai-Chinese, was clearly evident. The slightly acidic soup balanced with just the right amount of sweetness, brought out the subtle taste of the sea from the scallop dumpling. The big surprise was the dried scallop and prawn stuffed inside the dumpling, which I noticed upon biting into the dumpling, betraying the Chinese influence on top of the Thai.

Steamed scallop dumpling in
Thai-style hot and sour consomme

Charcoal-grilled Wagyu Beef & foie gras with sea urchin

Wagyu beef and foie gras are like the Simpson Twins of haute cuisine. But the touch of sea urchin gave another dimension to the pairing. The rich, cream-like taste and texture actually provided a nice break from the heavy-tasting beef and liver. I loved this surprise combination!

The traditional Szechuan-style mapo tofu with crabmeat was great. The generous serving of crabmeat added panache to this Chinese dish but I found the mapo tofu overly generous for the small portion of accompanying rice. The rice was drowned by the mapo tofu, which was, in turn, too salty to be eaten on its own.

Szechuan-style mapo tofu with crab and steamed pearl rice

The dessert finale didn’t disappoint. The Siam chocolate banana ganache was wonderful as Chef Sam used Thai banana whose taste was strong, yet sat comfortably with the chocolate. The Thai-teh ice-cream and Lemongrass jelly were overshadowed by the goreng durian and chempedak. Durian and chempedak each have strong pungent tastes of their own, yet bringing the two together created an explosion of multi-level taste, texture and satisfaction….. provided you liked durian and chempedak in the first place!

Siam chocolate banana ganache, Thai-teh ice-cream, lemongrass jelly and goreng durian & chempedak

Throughout dinner, Chef Sam and I had the rare opportunity to catch up with the past, present, and even the future. He told me that when he quit his position with Tung Lok, everyone thought he had gone mad for forgoing such a salary and a regional creative post on top of that. But he said that while quitting at the seeming pinnacle of one’s career was always difficult, if you didn’t do it you never will, because you always keep setting yourself a next higher goal. So Chef Sam decided to bite the bullet, and now cherishes the time he spends with his wife and family running his cooking school and his occasional consulting stints. Well, Chef, here’s wishing you best of luck!

Forest

Equarius Hotel

Resorts World Sentosa

Sam.leong@forest Cooking School

4A Craig Road

Singapore 089664

Tel: 65-6222 3305