Wok With Nana

To provide everyone with more diverse and interesting posts, Wok with Nana will now merge with my major blog, nanamoose musings. All recipes and video links from Wok with Nana will be posted there. Thanks everyone for your support and love! Keep woking!

(Makes one 19cm rice cake)

INGREDIENTS

400g Coconut milk

300-400g Water (depending on desired texture)

350g Cane Sugar

1 catty (600g) Glutinous Rice Flour

METHOD

1.     Warm coconut milk to almost boiling point in pan. Add sugar until melted. Add water and leave to cool COMPLETELY. This is very important so that the flour does not cook.

2.     Using an electric mixer, slowly blend in the cooled syrup with the flour, little by little until a creamy consistency is formed. At this point, the mixture should be able to trickle down your spatula freely in a thin line.

3.     Pour into oiled stainless steel tin.

4.     Steam in bamboo steamer for 4 hours, adding boiled water constantly to the wok around once every 30 minutes.

INGREDIENTS

(1 Catty = around 600g)

(makes around 100)

1  catty Minced Pork

1  catty Minced Shrimp

1  Finely chopped Chinese Leaves

Around 4  Diced mushrooms

Around 5-6  Water chestnuts

METHOD

1.     打水 (hitting water into the minced pork)－ Add water slowly while mixing pork in one direction until colour becomes light. Season with salt, pepper, soy sauce & a little bit of sesame oil.

2.     Take out the intestines of the shrimp. Add salt & mix well to rinse out the dirt. Wash then pat dry. Mince well.

3.     Add salt to Chinese leaves then squeeze out the water in a linen cloth.

4.     Mix all ingredients together. Season to taste.

SPECIAL DIPPING SAUCE

1. Mince 1 clove of garlic, small stub of ginger  and 1 stalk of green onions
2. Mix with soy sauce, sugar, black vinegar and sesame oil to taste

INGREDIENTS

100g Glutinous Rice Powder (to be mixed with hot water 40ml, cold water 40ml

50g Black Sesame

100g Castor Sugar 

 75g Lard (you can make your own by frying pork fat on high heat until oil diffuses and you are left with bits of crunchy residue)

METHOD

For the paste

1. Fry sesame on low heat until fragrant and you see smoke coming out from the wok (for about 2-3 minutes).
2. Crush in mortar and pestle or in a ziplock bag with a rolling pin.
3. Mix with sugar and lard. Set aside. 

For the filling

1. Separate rice powder into two bowls and mix with hot water and cold water respectively.
2. Roll out into long strip and cut into roughly 12 pieces.
3. Make a ball in your palm and press down to make a flat circle. Add the paste in the centre and wrap to form a ball. Be careful to make sure that the filling is fully covered so that it doesn’t leak when cooking.

To make a rice dumpling dessert

1. Cook the dumplings in boiling water until they float, for about 3 minutes.
2. Add sugar (can be castor sugar or rock sugar according to taste) and stir until melt.
3. Turn off heat and add sweet fermented rice to the pan, quantity should be about 2 tbsp per serving bowl. Serve.
4. For added flavour, add a dash of osmanthus syrup when serving.

Sweet Fermented Rice (OPTIONAL)

INGREDIENTS

500g Glutinous Rice

1 tbps “Wine Cake”, a fermenting agent

METHOD

1. Soak rice in water for 3 hours
2. Steam in bamboo steamer for 20 minutes
3. Remove from steamer and rinse under cold water to cool down. Leave for 30 minutes until the rice reaches body temperature, about 37°C. Mix well with fermenting agent.
4. Put into glass jar and make a hole in the middle with chopsticks. Sprinkle a little more fermenting agent into the hole. Close lid.
5. Leave in warm place for 2 days. You can preheat an oven and leave to cool until about 50°C. Turn off oven and leave jar in for 2 days. When you see a white murky liquid produced, the sweet fermented rice is about ready.  

Ingredients

4 cloves Shallots

4 cloves Garlic

2 slices Ginger

About 60g Pickled mustard greens

300g Pork belly

About 1 cup Rice Wine

About 1 cup Soy Sauce

Method

1.     Chop pork belly into small pieces, about thumb size.

2.     Soak mustard greens in warm water for a few minutes, rinse and wash out the dirt. Chop into smaller pieces.

3.     Stir-fry the chopped shallots, garlic and ginger. Add pork belly

4.     Add rice wine and soy sauce. Quantity should be adjusted to taste. Stew until slightly dark, for 15-20 min.

5.     Add mustard greens, cook for 5 minutes, then add hot water and cook on low heat for 1.5-2 hours.

Ingredients

6 Duck Eggs

100ml Water

375ml Chinese Marinade

For Smoking

2 tbsp Sugar

4 tbsp Flour

Tealeaves of your choice. We used Lapsang Suchong for added smokiness.

Method

1. Mix Chinese marinade together with 100ml water, set aside.

2. Fill pot with cold water and insert eggs. Cook on high heat until water is boiled. Turn down to medium heat and continue to cook for another 3.5 minutes, make sure to continuously stir so that the eggs receive heat evenly. Timing is key to attain the runny texture of the yolk so be careful not to overcook.

3. Take out the eggs and cool under running water. Peel off shell.

4. Marinate in marinade mixture for 15 minutes.

5. Layer wok with a piece of alumimium foil. Sprinkle with flour, sugar and tealeaves.

6. Steam eggs on steaming rack in the wok until you see smoke coming out from the sides of the wok. This should take about 5-8 minutes.

7. Slice eggs in half to serve.

Feeds 4

Ingredients:

• 400g Fresh Shanghai noodles
• Pickled mustard greens (optional)

FOR MEAT

• About 500g Beef shanks (you can substitute with any meat that’s good for stew), cut in chunks that are bigger than one bite

• 2-3  Tomatoes, boiled, peeled, and cut in chunks

• 2-3  Onions, peeled and cut in big chunks

• 4-6 cloves Garlic, halved

• 2-5  Small red chilies

• 1  Spring onion

• 8-10 pieces Rock sugar (small size)

• About 1 cup Rice wine

• About 1 cup Light soy sauce

FOR SOUP BASE (You can also use soup stock)

• About 300g Beef bones

• Few sprigs of spring onions

• Few slices of ginger

Instructions:

1. Blanch beef bones in boiling water for a few minutes. Throw out the water and wash the bones lightly. Cook in boiling water on low heat together with spring onions and ginger for 3 hours.
2. Blanch tomatoes in boiling water for roughly 30 seconds until the skin comes off easily. Let cool and peel.
3.  While we are waiting, use the same pot of water to blanch the beef. A few seconds will do.
4. Heat oil in pan and throw in garlic, spring onions, and chilies. Stir-fry until fragrant.
5. Add onions and tomatoes. Continue to stir-fry for 3 minutes. 
6. Add beef shank and continue to stir-fry until beef is half cooked. The redness of the meat should just about to disappear.
7. Pour in the rice wine, soy sauce and rock sugar. Cook to boil.
8. Add water to cover the meat (optional, if the sauce does not cover the whole pan of meat) and simmer on low heat for 1.5-2 hours.
9. Check on water level every 20 minutes or so to make sure you don’t burn the meat; add water when liquid level is low.
10. Cook noodles in boiling water for about 5 minutes.
    
11. When the noodles are cooked, drain and split in four bowls. Add beef and sauce, and soup to mix. Eat with picked mustard greens on the side.