Ayam buah keras or candle nut chicken is another popular dish among the Peranakan cuisine. The candle nuts are blended with chillies, onions, turmeric and dried shrimp paste to form a savoury paste for seasoning the chicken.
Turmeric and chillies add flavour and colour to the dish.
Candle nut have high oil content and it can be used as a candle, hence the name candle nut. The Peranakans use them often to flavour their dishes.
The nut has a bitter taste. When eaten raw, the nut is mildly toxic.
Ingredients (serve 5)
5 chicken thigh, bone in, skinless
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
candle nuts
2 tbs oil
Blend the following ingredients into a paste:
8 candle nuts
4 large onions, coarsely chopped
1 tsp dried shrimp paste
1 inch turmeric, chopped coarsely
4 large red chillies, cut into smaller pieces
1 stalk lemongrass, cut into tiny pieces
Method
In a wok or pan, heat the oil on medium till hot
Toss in the paste and saute for about 5 minutes or till fragrant
Stir well to prevent burning
Toss in the chicken and stir fry for about 5 minutes
Add half a cup of water, or enough to cover the chicken
Add sugar and salt
Bring the mixture to a boil and let it simmer on medium low for another 30 minutes.
Dish should be done.
A short 3.5 minute video on how to make Ayam Buah Keluak, another Nonya dish
This is one of the most well known among the spicy and hot dishes of Sichuan Cuisine. The soft tofu is stir fried with mince meat in savoury sauce to give a spicy, tender and hot taste. Tofu is rich in vegetable protein, calcium, phophorus, iron, vitamins and carbohydrates.
The original version used mince beef with tofu. The dish is so versatile that it has morphed into many variations.
I use mince pork and add tomato and fresh shitake mushrooms to the tofu. The tomato and mushrooms add texture and flavour. These two vegetables also provide a lot of vitamins to make this a much healthier dish.
Ingredients:
1 silken tofu, 300 grams, diced
100 grams mince pork
1 tomato, diced
5 shitake mushrooms, diced
1 tsp hot bean paste
(Or 1 tsp salted soya bean paste and 1 teaspoon chilli paste)
1 tsp sugar
1 egg, beaten ( for thickening the sauce and for flavour)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
silken tofu, 300 grams
1 tbs of oil
A dash of sichuan peppercorn
Spring onion for garnish
Method
In a wok or pan, heat the oil on medium till hot
Toss in the garlic and hot bean paste and fry till fragrant
Toss in the pork, saute till cook
Toss in the tomato and mushroom
Add sugar
Add half a cup of water and saute for about 2 minutes
Add the egg last and sprinkle a dash of peppercorn
Serve with spring onion
(Note: Chicken stock can replace the water for more flavour)
Historyof Ma Po Tofu Do you know how ma po tofu got its name? During the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1871-1908) of theQing Dynasty (1644 -1911), a woman named Wen Qiaoqiao pitted from pock-marks in Chengdu City was married to an owner of an oil refinery. Unluckily, after 10 years of marriage her husband died in an accident while carrying oil. After her husband's death, Qiaoqiao and her sister in-law were left poorly off. Her husband's former laborers and her neighbors often took rice and vegetables to assist them. There happened to be a tofu shop and a beef shop on either side of their residence. One day, Qiaoqiao put the ground beef and the tofu together to be stewed into a dish and found it tasted delicious. Then, she asked the neighbors to taste it and almost all of them felt it nice to eat. Thus, she and her sister in-law changed their house into a small restaurant, front part of which was the restaurant and the back part the living quarter. They mainly served the patrons with the stewed tofu with ground beef and built up a good business due to the tastiness of their signature dish and its affordable price. Later, Qiaoqiao hadn't remarried and lived on her small restaurant all the time. After she died, people named the stewed tofu with ground beef as ma po tofu (pock-marked grandmother) to remember her and the name has been used ever since.
A short 4 minute video on how to cook ma po tofu
Another 5 minute video on mapo tofu
This is a 5 minute video on hot and sour soup. Tofu, shitake mushroom, vermicelli, chicken stock, beaten eggs are seasoned with sugar, dark soy, pepper, rice vinegar and sesame oil for this soup.
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle,
when 24 hours in a day are not enough,
remember the mayonnaise jar........and
the beer.
A professor
stood before his philosophy class and
had some items in front of him.
When the class began, wordlessly, he
picked up a very large, empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf
balls.
He then asked the students if the jar
was full. They agreed that it was.
So the professor then picked up a box
of pebbles and poured them into the jar.
He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles
rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.
He then asked the students again if the
jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of
sand and poured it into the jar.
Of course, the sand filled up everything
else. He asked once more if the jar was full.
The students responded with an unanimous
"yes."
The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table
and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space
between the sand.
The students laughed.
"Now," said
the professor, as the laughter subsided,
"I want you to recognize that this jar
represents your life.
The golf balls are the important things-
-your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favorite
passions--things that,
if everything else was lost and only
they remained, your life would still be full.
"The pebbles are the other
things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything
else--the small stuff".
"If you put the sand into the jar first," he
continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life. If you spend all
your time and energy on the small stuff,
you will never have room for the things
that are important to you.
Pay attention to the things that are
critical to your happiness.
Play with your children. Take time to
get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18.
There will always be time to clean the house,
and fix the disposal.
Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really
matter.
Set your priorities. The rest is just
sand."
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer
represented.
The professor smiled. "I'm glad you
asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem,
there's always room for a couple of beers." A short video version
