Char Bee Hoon (Fried Rice Vermicelli)

If I were back in Singapore, this would be breakfast - at a hawker centre. My mother also makes fantastic char bee hoon - for breakfast, for parties, for picnics - it's a versatile dish for big groups (and leftovers). One of my fondest memories of growing up in Singapore was my mother frying up a big wok of bee hoon, a pot of curry chicken with a few loaves, and my whole family would take this simple Asian feast out for a warm tropical afternoon by the beach. Not quite the sandwich people, my family. =)

The key to this dish is good stock and colour. Carrots and chilis add red, scallions green, radish and the noodles themselves white/yellow. Since we also eat with our eyes, the toss of colour goes a long way to making this an enticing dish. It is a very versatile dish, however, so don't worry if you don't have one or two of the vegetables, or any meat for that matter. It's also a great way to use up leftovers.

RECIPE: CHAR BEE HOON (FRIED RICE VERMICELLI)
Cooking time: 20 mins
Serves: 6

Equipment: One big wok

A - Preparation
1 packet of white rice vermicelli
5-7 dried shiitake mushrooms

B - Vegetables
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2" ginger root, minced
1 handful of bean sprouts
2-3 stalks scallions, julienned
1-2 carrots, julienned
2" daikon/radish root, julienned
2-3 red chillis, de-seeded and julienned

C - Seasoning
1 jug of chicken stock (or water)
Kecap manis (sweet dark soya sauce, or use black soya sauce with 1-2 tsp of sugar)
White pepper

D - Protein
5-6 Eggs
Cooked meat (e.g. leftover chicken breast, shredded, prawns, luncheon meat, fried and cut, Chinese fish cake)

*****

A - Soak the white rice vermicelli in a bowl of cold water for 30 mins. Soak to the mushrooms in hot water for 30 mins to reconstitute them. Cut off the stems with a pair of kitchen shears and slice them in strips afterwards. Save the mushroom water as stock for later on.

B - Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a big wok. Fry the garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add the rest of the vegetables and stir-fry in the wok for 3 mins.

C - Add the vermicelli, stock, a few swirls of kecap manis and 1 tbsp of white pepper into the wok. Flip the ingredients a few times to mix them up. When the stock is boiling, lower the heat and let the vermicelli soak up the liquids, flipping occasionally and adding more liquid as needed. The goal is to get the vermicelli to soak up all the liquid until it is very dry and let it dry-fry for a few minutes. The whole process will take approx. 15-20 mins. Season according to taste.

D - When the vermicelli is done, push the whole lot to one side of the wok as far as possible. In the empty space, heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil. Crack the eggs in and scramble with the wok ladle. When the eggs are fried and done, flip them together with the vermicelli and serve with some sambal belacan (chili paste) or sriracha.

Voili! Fried bee hoon.

Edible Adventures: The Non-Artisan Post

I haven't been posting anything on 'Artisan Edibles' because all I've done these coupla days is experiment with chocolate, particularly, different chocolate frostings. Firstly, there was the experiment with chocolate ganache frosting:


Then there was the experiment with a chocolate glaze, which The Boy took to his fantasy football league draft:


The Boy, sweet man he is, took over the feeding. In the process, he did some experimenting himself. First there was that yummy rigatoni with what he wants to call The Boy's Falling On The Floor Easy Tomato Sauce. Then, get this, he made a pizza. This is it, with a margherita topping:














On a little excursion of his own whilst I was otherwise engaged, he also found these amazing concord grapes at Central Market, which you can squeeze out of their skins:


So, that's how it's been, folks. Back to regular scheduling soon.

Basic Tomato Sauce

The Boy is a big fan of tomato sauce. And he insists that the best tomato sauce is simply garlic, tomatoes and basil. Fresh. And the best tomatoes to use are Roma (meatier) or Campari (sweeter). We like serving it over rigatoni.

I love it when he cooks.

RECIPE: THE BOY'S FALLING ON THE FLOOR EASY TOMATO SAUCE

A - Meat
Fist-size of ground beef or turkey

B - Tomato sauce
4 cloves garlic, sliced or minced (we are still debating this)
12 Roma tomatoes OR 20 Campari tomatoes, tops sliced off

C - Garnishing
Bunch of fresh basil

*****

A - Fry the ground beef/turkey in a skillet until cooked.

B - Meanwhile, in a separate skillet, heat 2-3 tbsp of olive oil. Fry the tomatoes, flesh side down and covered, until the skins peel off (approx. 10 mins). Mash the tomato flesh and add in the garlic. By adding the garlic without frying, it infuses a more mellow flavour into the sauce.

Add in cooked ground beef/turkey. Season with salt and pepper.

C - To chop the basil leaves, roll a bunch of them together, lengthwise, and cut into thin strips (when unrolled). Mix pasta in with sauce and garnish with the chopped basil. It's that simple.

I was trying to find a really old picture of me in eating rigatoni amatriciana in Rome a coupla years ago - the rigatoni there is a longer thinner tube. It was a happy place.

Miso Experiment 2: Miso salad dressing

I think the salads at California Pizza Kitchen are simply one of the bests, but it's also $9 plus service for a salad!??

It's not very hard to chop up some vegetables, particularly with the nifty tool to julienne greens that my mother brought me in her last visit. So I've brazenly copied CPK's salad ingredients, and keep a bag of homemade salad leaves in the fridge all the time, for a quick meal. They may include:

Shredded Napa cabbage, fresh avocado, julienne cucumbers, daikon, edamame, carrots, red cabbage, scallions, cilantro, crispy rice noodles and crisp wontons. For the health conscious, I substitute crispy rice noodles and wontons with bean sprouts. Give it a spin in the salad spinner (I love my salad spinner) and plonk in a ziploc bag!

For the miso paste, I continue my experiments with miso (check out the recipes for Chilean Sea Bass and Aubergine 'Dengaku' Style!) - this time, with white miso.

RECIPE: MISO SALAD DRESSING

3 tbsp white miso
1/2 tsp powdered mustard
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
drop of sesame oil

Whisk ingredients together, whisking the oils last.

The quantities are only an estimate. You may adjust them to suit your tastes, but this is what I finally liked.

Miso Experiment 1: Aubergine 'Dengaku' Style

The Boy and I have been discussing having a few vegetarian meals each week. Aubergine (or 'eggplant', as people this side of The Pond call it) is a soft but robust vegetable when cooked, and a fair substitute for meat.

Aubergine 'Dengaku' Style is one of my all time favourite dishes to order at Japanese restaurants, but it is not commonly found on the menu in Houston. It is, however, an easy dish to make at home.

Ever since I discovered that my favourite Asian grocery store in Houston, H-Mart (Blalock/I-10), carries a variety of miso pastes, I've been experimenting with various miso dishes. In my next post, I shall put up the recipe for a deliciously simple miso salad dressing. For those in a hurry, Whole Foods carries a smaller but adequate variety of miso pastes too.

Tonight's recipe called for 'hatcho' miso, which can be substituted with red miso paste ('akamiso'). The recipe is from Harumi Kurihara's acclaimed 'Japanese Home Cooking'. Served with rice and Braised Cabbage.

RECIPE: AUBERGINE 'DENGAKU' STYLE

A - Vegetable
1 Aubergine

B - Miso paste
6 tbsp 'hatcho' miso
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp sake (I substituted this with extra dry Vermouth, which I always carry in my pantry)

C - Garnish
Toasted sesame seeds

A - Cut the aubergine in half lengthwise. Run a knife around the edge and score the flat surface in a lattice pattern.

In a skillet, heat 3 tbsp of vegetable oil. Fry both halves of the aubergine, flesh side down, until it browns. Then turn it over and cover loosely with foil. Continue cooking until almost cooked (approx. 10 mins).

B - While the aubergine is cooking, mix the ingredients for the miso paste and heat in a saucepan over medium heat until it thickens. Turn off heat.

When the aubergine has cooked, transfer to a baking dish. Spread 2-3 tbsp of the miso paste on each half of the aubergine. Cook under a broiler for approx. 5 mins.

C - Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

Dire lack of posts due to gluttonous experiments with chocolate, and one pavlova.