I learnt this recipe from mom. Mom is the best cook in the world. I mean, she could make dying recipes. By that, i mean she has all these recipes in her head on all those bygone era's food, grandmother's cooking, dishes that is passed down from generations through word of mouth. Mom is a hakka but i must say, her cooking is very nyonya, very straits cooking. A fusion of Malay-Chinese. I can tell...or taste in this case by her hand-rolled ngo-hiang, her spicy curry, her rice dumpling or "chang", and all her sambal and lemak dishes tend to be very similar to peranakan dishes. Mom makes the best curry chicken. She fries her own curry paste, can you believe it? I always hand-carry this precious commodity back with me to Stockholm and it can be kept in the fridge for up to a year.
OK, here's the first recipe which is actually a dessert. I always like to do things differently don't i? Like to read my newspapers and magazines from the back to front, eat my desserts before my main meal, and now, write my desserts first.
This dish can be eaten either warm or chilled.
Beancurd
2 (chinese rice) bowls of dried soya beans (soaked overnight till soft and swollen)
2 tbsp cornflour
2 tsp gymsum powder (calcium sulphate) (hard to get, personally flown in by me. You can try plain gellatine i guess)
2 tbsp castor sugar / palm sugar
I muslin cloth or any thin and clean cotton cloth.
Syrup
About 600ml water
2 lumps Palm sugar
5 bunch of pandan leaves, knotted
Instructions
1. Drain the soya beans. With a juice blender, blend 1 bowl soya to 3 bowls water. (The beans would have swelled to twice its size by now).
2. Put a muslin over a big pot and strain the blended soya beans with the cloth. Squeeze all the soya milk out from the cloth and discard the husks. Repeat this until all the soya beans have been blended and strained.
(Please ensure that no husks drop into the pot otherwise you will have to strain it all over again).
3. Add the sugar and bring the soya milk to a boil over moderate low heat. Meanwhile, prepare the cornflour mix.
4. In a separate pot (another big pot), mix the cornflour and gymsum powder with a little water, perhaps 2 tbsp water. Stir to blend. Leave aside.
5. When the soya milk is boiling, pour this boiling milk into the cornflour-gymsum mix and cover with a lid and set aside to cool. DO NOT STIR ANYMORE!!!!!
(This is very important. A lot of people makes this mistake. They stir AFTER they pour the milk into the cornflour-gymsum mix and you will end up with a pot of cuddled beancurd. If you want to stir, stir the cornflour-gymsum mix right before you pour the milk in).
6. To prepare the syrup, put the syrup ingredients into a small gravy pot and boil till the sugar dissolves. I realise that palm sugar in the syrup taste better than castor sugar. Set aside to cool.
You have to wait at least a few hours or overnight for the beancurd to harden. If you want to have a warm beancurd, you could prepare the beancurd in the morning and have it probably in the mid-afternoon with warmed up syrup. If you want to have it chilled, wait till the pot has cool down to room temperature before putting both the pot of soya milk and the syrup in the fridge and leave it there overnight.
Good luck!
Ps: Gymsum powder can be bought from local chinese grocery stores in Singapore and Malaysia. That's what all the hawker centres selling their authentic soya beancurds are using and they have their sources. Ask around, try Bedok, Tiong Bahru, Bukit Merah, Kallang, Geylang, Bugis area, Ang Mo Kio since those areas tend to have more traditional shops still surviving (I hope). In Malaysia, it is easily attainable everywhere.
OK, here's the first recipe which is actually a dessert. I always like to do things differently don't i? Like to read my newspapers and magazines from the back to front, eat my desserts before my main meal, and now, write my desserts first.
This dish can be eaten either warm or chilled.
Beancurd
2 (chinese rice) bowls of dried soya beans (soaked overnight till soft and swollen)
2 tbsp cornflour
2 tsp gymsum powder (calcium sulphate) (hard to get, personally flown in by me. You can try plain gellatine i guess)
2 tbsp castor sugar / palm sugar
I muslin cloth or any thin and clean cotton cloth.
Syrup
About 600ml water
2 lumps Palm sugar
5 bunch of pandan leaves, knotted
Instructions
1. Drain the soya beans. With a juice blender, blend 1 bowl soya to 3 bowls water. (The beans would have swelled to twice its size by now).
2. Put a muslin over a big pot and strain the blended soya beans with the cloth. Squeeze all the soya milk out from the cloth and discard the husks. Repeat this until all the soya beans have been blended and strained.
(Please ensure that no husks drop into the pot otherwise you will have to strain it all over again).
3. Add the sugar and bring the soya milk to a boil over moderate low heat. Meanwhile, prepare the cornflour mix.
4. In a separate pot (another big pot), mix the cornflour and gymsum powder with a little water, perhaps 2 tbsp water. Stir to blend. Leave aside.
5. When the soya milk is boiling, pour this boiling milk into the cornflour-gymsum mix and cover with a lid and set aside to cool. DO NOT STIR ANYMORE!!!!!
(This is very important. A lot of people makes this mistake. They stir AFTER they pour the milk into the cornflour-gymsum mix and you will end up with a pot of cuddled beancurd. If you want to stir, stir the cornflour-gymsum mix right before you pour the milk in).
6. To prepare the syrup, put the syrup ingredients into a small gravy pot and boil till the sugar dissolves. I realise that palm sugar in the syrup taste better than castor sugar. Set aside to cool.
You have to wait at least a few hours or overnight for the beancurd to harden. If you want to have a warm beancurd, you could prepare the beancurd in the morning and have it probably in the mid-afternoon with warmed up syrup. If you want to have it chilled, wait till the pot has cool down to room temperature before putting both the pot of soya milk and the syrup in the fridge and leave it there overnight.
Good luck!
Ps: Gymsum powder can be bought from local chinese grocery stores in Singapore and Malaysia. That's what all the hawker centres selling their authentic soya beancurds are using and they have their sources. Ask around, try Bedok, Tiong Bahru, Bukit Merah, Kallang, Geylang, Bugis area, Ang Mo Kio since those areas tend to have more traditional shops still surviving (I hope). In Malaysia, it is easily attainable everywhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment