Fatlittleboy's Last Singaporean Lunar New Year

The eve of Chinese New Year typically involves a crazy amount of cooking and my last lunar new year in Singapore was no exception.

Chinese Three–Layered Roast Pork (aka Siew Yok)

1 kg Pork belly, skin-on
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 cube fermented red bean curd
1 tbsp Chinese 5-spice powder
1 tbsp white pepper
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp plum blossom rice wine

1. Combine bean curd, 5-spice powder, pepper, salt, sugar and wine and rub onto meat side of pork
2. Leave in refrigerator overnight
3. Dry meat as much as possible with kitchen towels and a hair dryer if you’ve one on hand, hanging it for a while helps too
4. Rub salt onto the skin to wick away the remaining moisture
5. Slice parallel furrows an inch apart through skin and into the subcutaneous fat; this will help prevent the skin fracturing and ease chopping later
6. Place on a rack over a dripping tray in a fan-forced oven at 200C for 20 minutes
7. Remove from oven and dry any rendered fat oozing through the furrows
8. Brush vinegar onto skin and return to the oven for a further 25 minutes till it just starts to char
9. Chop – do not slice – into bite-sized morsels

Just check out those gorgeously distinct layers.

Chestnut Tart

Tart Base

Refer to previous entry for basic shortcrust

Crème de Marron Filling

500g Chestnuts, shelled and with brown membranes removed
200g Sugar
150ml Water
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1. Place chestnuts into a pot of water and bring to boil
2. Transfer to a slow cooker and leave on high for 5 hours until soft
3. Drain and puree into a rough paste
4. Bring sugar, vanilla and water to boil for about two minutes, forming syrup
5. Add chestnut puree to the syrup and stir in, remove from heat
6. Whip – preferably with an electric whisk – to achieve a smooth paste





This tart can be dressed up in many ways as the chestnut puree cools hard and strong, providing the perfect base for icing sugar stenciling.





Alternatively, pipe whipped cream onto little tartlets, use an electric whisk to beat heavy cream in bowl nestled in a bed of crushed ice and salt for a chemical free alternative to the spray-can sort.





Drizzle in some chocolate sauce halfway through the whipping for something really decadent.

Candied Gingko Nuts and Yam

This recipe is sort of a family secret so I can’t really reveal it; my Lunar New Year is really incomplete without it though.

It’s backbreaking work to extract the bitter stems from the nuts but the end result is completely worth it.

Cooking Kosher

Cooking Kosher – Recipes

My cousin just returned from a 6-month exchange programme in Israel and I though it’d be fun to have a kosher cookout. The menu was as authentic as we could make it, including staples like Beef Brisket and utilised ingredients hand-carried back like the date honey we marinated the chicken in. Anyway, two of the more interesting dishes I whipped up were Challah – a 6-braided loaf of bread – and a traditional Honeycake; both turned out beautifully and I thought some people might want to try their hand at making them. The recipes are adapted from allrecipes.com and the smittenkitchen food-blog I frequent respectively; do check these sites out for more interesting recipes!

Challah

(Adapted from: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/challah-i/Detail.aspx)

2½ cups warm water

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

½ cup honey

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 tablespoon salt

8 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon poppy seeds or sesame seeds

1. In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast over barely warm water. Beat in honey, oil, 2 eggs, and salt. Add the flour one cup at a time, beating after each addition, graduating to kneading with hands as dough thickens. Knead until smooth and elastic and no longer sticky, adding flour as needed. Cover with a damp clean cloth and let rise for 1½ hours or until dough has doubled in bulk.

2. Punch down the risen dough and turn out onto floured board.

3. Divide in half and knead each half for five minutes or so, adding flour as needed to keep from getting sticky. Divide each half into sixths and roll into long, thin rope.

4. Pinch the ends of the 6 snakes together firmly and braid by taking the right-most strip, bringing it under the two adjacent and looping it back around the third; repeat this on the left side and alternate till you run out of dough. Fold messy ends back underneath the loaf.

5. Grease two baking trays and place a finished braid on each. Cover with towel and let rise about one hour.

6. Preheat oven to 190°C.

7. Beat the remaining egg and brush a generous amount over each braid. Sprinkle with seeds if desired.

8. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for about 40 minutes. Bread should have a nice hollow sound when thumped on the bottom. Cool on a rack for at least one hour before slicing.

Honeycake

(From: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/09/majestic-and-moist-honey-cake/)

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup honey
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup warm coffee or strong tea
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup rye or whiskey
1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds (optional)

1. Fits in three loaf pans, two 9-inch square or round cake pans, one 9 or 10 inch tube or bundt cake pan, or one 9 by 13 inch sheet cake. I made mine in two full-size loaf pans plus two miniature ones.

2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease pan(s) with non-stick cooking spray. For tube or angel food pans, line the bottom with lightly greased parchment paper, cut to fit.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Make a well in the center, and add oil, honey, white sugar, brown sugars, eggs, vanilla, coffee or tea, orange juice and rye or whiskey, if using. (If you measure your oil before the honey, it will be easier to get all of the honey out.)

4. Using a strong wire whisk or in an electric mixer on slow speed, stir together well to make a thick, well-blended batter, making sure that no ingredients are stuck to the bottom.

5. Spoon batter into prepared pan(s). Sprinkle top of cake(s) evenly with almonds, if using. Place cake pan(s) on two baking sheets, stacked together (this will ensure the cakes bake properly with the bottom baking faster than the cake interior and top).

6. Bake until cake tests done, that is, it springs back when you gently touch the cake center. For angel and tube cake pans, this will take 60 to 75 minutes, loaf cakes, about 45 to 55 minutes. For sheet style cakes, baking time is 40 to 45 minutes.

7. Let cake stand fifteen minutes before removing from pan.