Just a quick announcement that I will be at the annual Epping Twilight Markets again this year; details as follows –

Location: Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic School, Epping

Entrance: Cambridge or Oxford Streets, Epping

Date: Friday 9 November 2018

Time: 5 pm – 9 pm

You can find out more about it at http://eppingmarkets.com.au/.

I’ve been trading at Epping Twilight Markets since its inception some 10 years ago, back when it used to be a monthly Friday market.  There was a minor hiccup re: my participation this year when the “Noah” issue came up (as with my previous experiences with all my other markets, someone complained to the school committee after seeing him in his cot outside my stall last year), but this has now been resolved.

I look forward to seeing you that Friday; I’ll likely be cooking only Char Kway Teow because of staffing issues, though if you’ve ordered curry pastes from me you’ll be able to collect them at the stall that evening.

Finally, if you’re a Concord Hospital Market regular, you’ll know the market has been suspended for the last two and a half months due to construction work on the hospital grounds; I’ve just had a meeting with the Concord Hospital marketing department and things are looking promising for us to be back there sooner rather than later, so keep your eyes peeled for my announcement about its resumption on my social media accounts.

Thank you all for your continued support

Jackie M.

The post Epping Twilight Markets – Friday 9 November 2018 first appeared on Jackie M..

Harm Chim Peng (I’ve spelled the dish the way it’s pronounced in Cantonese; I don’t know of a standard spelling for it), is a type of savoury doughnut sold at street stalls back in Malaysia, and it comes in a number of different varieties – plain, spiralled, filled with sticky rice, etc. My favourite is the one with red bean paste, but I’ve never seen this particular iteration on this side of the pond.

Furthermore, the ones they do sell here in Australia (that I’ve come across) tend to be a lot stiffer, bulkier and chewier, whereas the ones I grew up eating are light and delicate.

Now, I could have sworn I’ve made harm chim peng way back in my early days with some degree of success, but this time around, it took me three tries using three different recipes before I was happy with the result.

My main takeaways from these experiments are as follows –

1. Put away the electric dough mixer or Thermomix – hand mixing works best, and over-working the dough can actually be counter-productive
2. Don’t add salt to the dough – it can impede the yeast’s ability to do its job
3. Replacing yeast with baking soda (for a quick-and-easy version of this snack that a friend found on YouTube) produces a bun with a texture reminiscent of crumpets, ie. rubbery
4. There’s really no shortcuts with this recipe; it’s actually very easy to make but you need to plan ahead and do the prep work 30 hours in advance

As I mentioned, third time’s a charm, and it was my friend and fellow ex-Serembanian Lily’s recipe that worked for me, with tweaks. Next time I make it, I’ll try to roll the dough more thinly because this latest batch was still a bit thicker and more chewy than what they sell at my favourite stall in Jalan Alor, Kuala Lumpur, but I’m definitely tracking right with Lily’s recipe.

This is my adaptation of it –

Harm Chim Peng with Red Bean Paste Filling

INGREDIENTS:

Starter (30 hours before) –

90g plain flour
90ml water
2 tsps vinegar

Dough –

360g bread flour
130g sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp lye water (optional)

250 ml water
1/2 tsp instant yeast

Seasoning –

1/2 tsp 5 spice powder
1/2 tsp lam yue (red bean curd)
1/2 tsp oil
1/4 tsp salt

————————

1 cup red bean paste, rolled into balls 2cm in diameter
1 TBSP sesame seeds (optional)
1 TBSP water + pastry brush
Flour for dusting
Oil for deep-frying

METHOD:

1. Using a wooden spoon, mix the starter ingredients in a bowl, then cover and set aside for 24-48 hours.
2. Add the dough ingredients to the starter and mix with a wooden spoon to combine. Cover and set aside for 20 minutes.
3. Scrape and mix the dough, then cover again for 20 minutes – do this 3-4 times until the dough is smooth.
4. Set aside for another 3-5 hours.
5. Combine seasoning ingredients and mix well.
6. Work seasoning into dough, transfer onto a floured surface and divide into 16 portions.
7. Place a piece of red bean paste in middle of each portion of dough, cover and flatten as thinly as possible.
8. Brush one side with a little water, then sprinkle sesame seeds and press into dough.
9. Heat oil to 160’C and deep-fry, turning the doughnuts regularly to cook until they’re evenly golden brown in colour.
10. Remove and serve, preferably while still warm.

The post How to Make Harm Chim Peng (Savoury Doughnuts) w/Red Bean Filling first appeared on Jackie M..

While I consider myself pretty familiar with Chinatown – one of my first weekend jobs after arriving in Australia back in the 80s was at Choy’s Inn restaurant as a yum cha trolley pusher – I’ve found over the years that I’ve tended to stick to “safe” dining options when I visit.

Thanks to this tour, I had the chance to eat at hole-in-the-wall places and experience food that I never would have thought to try otherwise. All the selections were based on our guide’s inside knowledge on the best of specific dishes found in Chinatown. Here are some of the highlights from the evening –

I joined the tour as a guest of Taste Cultural Food Tours, a social enterprise and charity that was established to create training programmes and employment opportunities for migrants, refugees and local youth. You can find out more about their events and book your tickets at https://www.tastetours.com.au.  

I plan to attend a few more, so you never know, you might bump into me at an upcoming one

The post Taste Of Chinatown Food Tour first appeared on Jackie M..

I’m not going to claim this stir-fried Xinjiang Cumin Lamb dish is the real deal (hence why it’s titled Xinjiang-STYLE) since I’ve yet to even visit China, plus I’ve adapted it to accommodate what I had on hand ingredients-wise along with my own flavour preferences.

I discovered that half a leg of lamb (my recent purchase – see previous post) yields a lot of meat, so I had to figure out ways to use it up, and stumbled upon a recipe for stir-fried Xinjiang Cumin Lamb at omnivorescookbook.com.

I’d always assumed that lamb required slow-cooking but this quick stir-fry dish (along with the cumin lamb skewers I wrote about a couple of weeks back) has put paid to that notion; it doesn’t even need the Chinese restaurant soda bicarbonate treatment you would expect for red meat.

Stir-fried Xinjiang-Style Cumin Lamb

INGREDIENTS:

400g lamb fillets, diced into 2cm cubes

Marinade –

1 TBSP Shaoxing rice wine (optional)

1 tsp soya sauce

2 tsps oyster sauce

————————

3 TBSP tapioca starch (or cornstarch)

Seasoning –

1½ TBSP cumin powder

2 tsps chilli flakes

⅔ tsp sugar

1 tsp chicken powder (or ½ tsp salt)

¼ tsp pounded Szechuan peppercorns (optional)

Stir-fry –

⅓ cup oil

6 large dried chillies, halved

½ onion, sliced

1 TBSP ginger, minced

1 TBSP garlic, minced

————————-

½ TBSP toasted sesame seeds (optional)

METHOD:

1. Combine lamb with marinade ingredients, set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Heat oil, drench lamb with tapioca starch, then fry for about one minute, until lightly browned.
3. Remove lamb.
4. Reheat oil, add garlic, ginger and sliced onion, and fry until aromatic.
5. Add dried chillies, lamb and seasoning ingredients.
6. Toss well, cook until lamb is done (shouldn’t take more than a minute).
7. Remove from heat, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and serve.

The post How to Cook Stir-Fried Xinjiang-Style Cumin Lamb first appeared on Jackie M..

A few weeks back, an interesting Facebook video on Szechuan mung bean jelly noodles caught my attention; since I had several packs of mung bean flour in my pantry, I decided to attempt making it during my Live Asian Kitchen broadcast on Twitch.

The mung bean flour packs I had are actually what’s called Tepung Hoen Kwe and they contain vanilla essence, since they’re used for making  Malaysian and Indonesian sweet kuihs (snacks).  I decided to wing it rather than try to hunt down some unadulterated mung bean flour, and it turned out just fine; no trace of vanilla came through in the final product.

Szechuan Jelly Noodles

INGREDIENTS:

120g mung bean flour (1 pack Tepung Hoen Kwe)
4 1/2 cups water

4 TBSP minced garlic
1 TBSP vegetable oil
1/3 cup chilli oil
1/3 cup black vinegar
2 TBSP sesame oil
2/3 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP chicken powder (or 1 tsp salt, to make it gluten-free and vegetarian)
1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, crushed
1/3 cup light soy sauce
2 TBSP sliced spring onion
2 TBSP chopped coriander

METHOD:

1. Mix the mung bean flour with 1 cup of water.
2. Bring the rest of the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
3. Stir in the mung bean flour mixture and cook until it turns translucent and is of a starchy consistency.
4. Pour into a mould and allow to cool completely; it took mine about 60-90 minutes to set, with some help from the refrigerator.
5. Cut into thin strips with a knife; if not using immediately, soak in cold water to prevent them from sticking.
6. Heat oil in a pan, then saute the minced garlic. Add the remaining sauce ingredients, mix well and remove from heat.
7. Serve noodles with sauce, spring onion and fresh coriander.

The post How to Make Liangfen – Szechuan Jelly Noodles first appeared on Jackie M..

Pickled green chillies are a popular condiment back in Malaysia, and most commonly served as an accompaniment to hawker stall dishes like wantan mee (wonton noodles). I make this only very occasionally, since I don’t often eat wonton noodles myself, and in all honesty, I don’t really measure the ingredients that go into it. Nonetheless, for your sake, here are my guesstimates.

Pickled Green Chillies

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups green chillies, sliced at an angle

2 tsps salt

1 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 TBSP sugar

Jar for bottling, boiled for 10 minutes, then dried in oven

METHOD:

1. Toss chillies with salt, then transfer into jar.
2. Combine vinegar, water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer until sugar is dissolved.
3. Pour hot vinegar over chillies, making sure they’re completely immersed.
4. Secure jar with lid; allow to pickle for at least an hour before use. Once opened, keep jar in refrigerator and consume within 6 weeks.

The post How To Make Pickled Green Chillies first appeared on Jackie M..

I’d be lying if I said I’d always wanted to learn how to make crispy yam bean (aka sengkuang aka jicama) fritters; they look vaguely familiar but I’m not even sure if I’ve ever eaten them.

It so happened I had some yam bean dying a slow death in my pantry when I came across the recipe in the Nyonya Kuih Passions cookbook by Andrew Koh, so I decided to use them up in what seemed like a pretty easy snack to attempt for my Twitch Live Asian Kitchen broadcast.

After cooking and tasting the first batch out of the wok, I decided it needed an injection of protein, so I added some diced shrimp to the rest.  Minus the shrimp and substituting the chicken powder with half the amount in salt would render this vegetarian.

I really like how the fritters turned out – nice and crispy on the outside, and quite light and fluffy in the middle, which was why I thought it worth sharing here.

Here’s my heavily-tweaked version of the recipe.

Crispy Sengkuang (Yam Bean) Fritters

INGREDIENTS:

Batter –
300g plain flour
80g rice flour
80g tapioca flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 TBSP sugar
⅔ TBSP chicken powder
600ml water
2 TBSP oil

Filling –
300g sengkuang, peeled and diced
2 TBSP garlic chives, diced
150g beansprouts, diced
¼ cup carrot, diced
150g prawns, peeled & diced

Oil for deep-frying

Utensil – high heat-resistant ladle

METHOD:

1. Mix batter ingredients, then set aside for 30 minutes.
2. Heat oil to about 180C, then dip mould (eg. a heat-resistant soup ladle or similar) in it for several seconds.
3. Half-fill the mould with batter, followed by 2 tsps filling and enough batter to coat.
4. Fry until batter is set, then gently loosen the fritter from the mould. Continue frying until golden brown in colour; remove and drain on paper towels.
5. Repeat with rest of batter.
6. Serve warm or at room temperature with chilli sauce.

The post How to Make Crispy Sengkuang (Yam Bean) Fritters first appeared on Jackie M..

I remember Sang Har Yee Meen (literally, freshwater prawn crispy noodles) as a popular dish at open-air restaurants in Malaysia, but they’re actually pretty easy to make at home. If you’re not too fixated about using freshwater prawns, you’ll save a few bucks by using a cheaper and more commonly available variety like the banana prawns pictured here from my Live Asian Kitchen broadcast.

A couple of notes re: the noodle variety:

I use what I call “wonton noodles”, which are the thin egg noodles usually served with wontons. They puff up when deep-fried (you fry them straight out of the bag; DON’T rinse or blanch them beforehand), and they’re soft and silky when boiled.

They’re NOT the same as the thin egg noodles used for stir-fries, which don’t puff up, but rather, turn hard and cakey when fried, and which have an al dente-like texture when boiled. You can tell the difference between the two by the fact that “wonton noodles” look like they’re lightly dusted with flour, whereas the other egg noodles do not. It’s not a dealbreaker if you use the latter variety, just keep in mind the texture will be different.

Also, you’ve seen me use “yee meen” for crab noodles; those are Hong Kong-style fried egg noodles, and they’re much thicker and you can buy them pre-fried in cake form at Asian grocery stores. Yee Meen in Malaysian noodle dishes more commonly refer to the thin variety per in this recipe.

Crispy Freshwater Prawn Noodles

INGREDIENTS:

200g fresh wonton noodles
1 cup Choy Sum, cut into 3-inch lengths
2 cups prawn stock, chicken stock, or water
½ Tbsp chicken powder
½ Tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
½ tsp white pepper
1 tsp potato starch or tapioca starch + 2 Tbsps water
1 tsp minced garlic
1 egg
Freshwater prawns or large prawns, halved
1 Tbsp cornstarch or tapioca starch
Oil for deep-frying

METHOD:

1. Heat oil to 180°C; drop batches of noodles into the oil to fry until they puff up and the bubbles begin to dissipate.
2. Remove and allow to cool, then arrange on serving plate.
3. Toss prawns with cornstarch, flash fry in oil for a few seconds, remove and drain.
4. Remove all except 1/2 Tbsp oil.
5. Heat oil, add garlic and saute until aromatic; add prawns followed by oyster sauce and Choy Sum.
6. Add stock/water, chicken powder, pepper and fish sauce.
7. Bring to a low simmer, then thicken with tapioca starch + water mix.
8. Turn off the heat, crack egg into sauce and stir in one direction.
9. Pour hot sauce over noodles to serve.

The post How to Cook Sang Har Yee Meen (Crispy Freshwater Prawn Noodles) first appeared on Jackie M..

HOWEVER, during this period, a small number of stalls (3-4) will be set up in the grounds of the hospital’s AGH Memorial Chapel, which is further along the same path if you were walking in via Gate 2 on Hospital Road. The food stalls will operate by rotation during these six weeks, and these are the dates that I have been allocated for mine –

THURSDAY 6 SEPTEMBER 2018
THURSDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2018

Details  –

Concord Hospital Market

What: I run a Char Kway Teow stall, plus if you pre-order curry pastes from my online store, you can arrange to pick them up here

Where: Entry via Gate 2 on Hospital Road, Concord
When: 11am – 2pm Thursdays

Also, here are some of my other upcoming events –

Cabramatta Moon Festival

What: I’m doing a cooking demonstration on the main stage again this year (No, I’m not selling food)

When: Sunday 23 September 2018 at 3.30pm (pending any late changes to my timeslot)
Where: John St, Cabramatta

Epping Christmas Market

What: I’m running my market stall for the 11th year running, and will be selling Char Kway Teow (and maybe Fried Radish Cake aka Chai Tow Kway aka Char Kway Kak aka Carrot Cake)

When: Friday, 9 November, 2018 from 5pm – 9pm
Where: Our Lady Help of Christians School, 6-8 Cambridge St, Epping

And finally, since I’ll have a bit of extra time over the next 6 weeks, hit me up if you have any grand plans for collaboration

Jackie M.

The post Concord Hospital Market & Other Events – Important Announcement first appeared on Jackie M..

I also reveal a good, cheap substitute that I’ve encountered in my recent trips to my local non-Asian fruit and vegetable shop, and how to “hack” the flavour to achieve the same result when used in Asian recipes.

For step-by-step instructions, here’s my video on making your own chilli paste –

The post Chillies (30 Days 30 Asian Ingredients Series) first appeared on Jackie M..