5 dishes-claypot rice, bakuteh, steamed 桂鱼,tau jeon eggplants, cabbage with taupok

3 OPS (Outram Primary School) classmates came to my place for lunch yesterday on 17.3.2016.

i did 5 dishes –

bakuteh
claypot rice
港蒸桂鱼
eggplant with tau jeon
cabbage with tau pok (fried beancurd puff)
lotus ginkyo nut cheng chow 莲子白果凉粉

quite excellent food & company! ^^

#1 bakuteh singapore style with tau pok

bakuteh is an easy dish to make, tasty dish which i did for my RI friends recently on 14.3.2016, reminiscence of our trip the week before to JB.

the only variation was i added tau pok, in place of tau kee (bean curd skin) they added in shoon huat 顺发JB.

i used back the hara fried beancurd puff, which made the tasty soup even tastier! 🙂

i used the same frozen prime ribs from sheng shiong, S$10.95/kg. it was meaty, fatty, and so much tastier than the less marbled pork ribs. i generally boil them for 45mins, so that pork ribs are tender but not falling apart, even after 1 or 2 reheats. just the texture, the way i like it. 🙂

#2 claypot rice (my first time)

this the first time i did a claypot rice!

this was inspired by the new lucky claypot rice my RI friend bought me at holland drive food centre recently.

of course i searched internet for a recipe. it did not look too difficult.

1. i fried some chicken fat (veg oil do just as well), added cut ginger pieces & salted fish & some chopped garlic, fried for short while to get the aroma.
2. then i removed the salted fish & set aside, added 2 cups of rice & fried.
3. i then added just less than 2 cups water (to provide for liquid in the marinated chicken so rice would not be wet & soggy), boiled & simmered.
4. i had some cut chicken (i used 1/2 chicken + 1 thigh deboned) marinated with 2 tsp fish sauce, 1 tsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp sesami sauce, 1 tsp dark sauce, 2 tsp corn flour for about 2hrs. also sliced 1 pork sausage & 1 liver sausage.
5. i set my timer to 10 minutes but water was boiling off by 5 mins, so i added the the chicken + sausage at 5 mins.
6. i reset for 10mins but stopped at 8 mins as i was preparing the claypot rice 2 hrs earlier & would be reheating another 5mins plus when my guests arrived.
7. lastly i added the shanghai greens + salted fish

#2 claypot rice (my first time)

it was my very first time, and unlike other dishes you cannot really taste & adjust as you go, so the arhgak-logy (estimation) had to be like first time right almost.

and i did adjust it/improvise as i went along.

anyway, the results were wonderful, and you could tell as the rice was cooking. i could smell the smoky, wonderful aroma. & my friends too, when i removed the claypot cover.

smelled wonderful, and tasted super la!

#2 claypot rice (my first time)

the rice could be just a tag drier, but it was pretty ok as it were.

chicken were very tender, not overcooked (maybe i could increase a bit the fish sauce & sesami sauce marinade), and i had good quality pork & liver sausages.

it was quite perfect actually!

#3 港蒸 HK steamed 桂鱼

the lunch also came about because one friend brought me 2 桂鱼 mandarin fish airflown from shanghai the last time he came to my place after CNY.

the 2 fish were in my freezer for 1month liao, i took out 1 of them. it was very fresh, totally fresh!

i did the usual 港蒸 HK steamed style with a slight variation, 2 tbsp light soy sauce (& i used 2 tbsp olive oil + 1 tbsp mirin).

when all the friends were here, i put it in the steam oven (any steamer will do) for 10mins, just right for a 500g fish. 🙂

#3 港蒸 HK steamed 桂鱼

fish was very fresh, tender, texture a bit finer than red garoupa but firmer than the yellow croaker. a very nice fish, personally speaking, i still prefer the red garoupa though. 🙂

#4 tau jeon egg plant

i tried out tau jeon 豆酱 for the egg plant this time. it was very nice, better than what i had previously for my 9pax teochew muay lunch. ^^

1 friend commented how the egg plant was not mushy, and this an important consideration, to make it soft but not mushy, stock much reduced almost dry so more tasty, intense, favourful.

i think it was a very good egg plant dish, quite excellent!

#5 cabbage with tau pok

my cabbage with tau pok was also a variation of my usual cabbage for teochew muay.

this time it was a lot tastier even, because i reduced the stock more & also the hara fried beancurd puff added a very pleasant, sweet taste.

a great improvement even compared with the cabbage everyone liked on 28.10.2015!

#5 fried ikan bilis

i had the idea of adding ikan bilis.

i got that from the nice ikan bilis bee hoon we had last time at ayer rajah food centre afte the indian rojak.

it went very well with the cabbage dish actually, but you can’t have too much of it so i just added 1/2 portion of what i made.

#6 dessert = lotus ginkyo nut cheng chow + durian pudding

i made my usual  lotus ginkyo nut cheng chow 莲子白果凉粉, modeled after hoe kee in hong kong.

& my friend brought durian pudding, made with XO durians.

#6 lotus ginkyo nut cheng chow 莲子白果凉粉

a very simple dessert, just boiled lotus seeds & ginkyo nuts in 5 tbsp brown sugar for about 2hrs. then added to ready made cheng chow from sheng shiong. very nice & refreshing.

#6 durian pudding

durian pudding/custard was very nice, very good durian flavours, not too sweet. i was eating it just now, left from yesterday, enjoying it.

after lunch we chatted for another hr plus, then decided to go out for coffee. i had to leave so 3 of us went to assembly coffee at evans road for a cuppa. 🙂

great lunch, company, chit chat & coffee afterwards. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy