Let me start by saying “This is another Simple Nyonya Dish!” Since I need to put food on the dining table by 9.30am every weekday, I will always cook something simple and most importantly, my children will eat them.
The Ingredients:
1/3 Chicken
3 Potatoes
1 Stick of Carrot
4 Garlic
4 Shallots
A few slices of Ginger
1/2 Tbsp Mince Bean Paste (Taucu)
Water
Oil
and Salt to taste
How to Cook Nyonya Style Chicken and Potato Soup:
1. Pound the Garlic and Shallots.
2. Fry the pounded Garlic and Shallots then add in the Taucu and sliced Ginger. Fry till the aroma.
3. Add in one big bowl of water for the soup.
4. Throw in the Chicken, Potato and Carrot then add a dash of Salt.
5. Cover your pot.
6. Cook till the Potatoes and Carrots turn soft.
You are done! Easy right?
If you have guess coming for dinner, be sure to place the Nyonya Style Chicken and Potato soup in one of your beautiful dinnerware sets. If you have the Pfaltzgraff drinkware; use it when serving your guess, no point keeping them to collect dust.
All this while this Ikan Chuan Chuan is known by me as Ikan Goreng Halia. Just recently my mom told me that the actual name for this dish is Ikan Chuan Chuan.
This is another simple Nyonya dish too.
The Ingredients:
Fish
Sliced Ginger
Chopped Garlic
Taucu (Salted Bean Paste)
Dark Soy Sauce
Water
Salt and Sugar to taste
Oil
How To Cook Ikan Chuan Chuan:
1. Deep fry the fish then set it aside.
2. Stir fry the chopped garlic and sliced ginger till aroma.
3. Add in a spoon of the Taucu. Fry it till the taucu smell pokes your nose.
4. Pour in some water then the dark soy sauce, salt and a lil bit of sugar (if u use MSG, then no need sugar ok).
5. Wait till the gravy boils then add in the fried fish.
6. Let the gravy soaks in the fish for a lil while then scoop it out onto your serving plate.
7. Enjoy with hot steaming rice.
For this Nyonya dish, all you need is Fish, Tamarind Sauce, Water and Salt. That’s the basic. We add Onions to make it taste sweeter. And I’ll put lots of it coz my children loves Onions!
How To Cook Ikan Goreng Assam:
1. Scoop 1 Tbsp if Assam and dilute it in a bowl of water.
2. Soak the fish in it for about 20mins.
3. Remove the fish and deep fry it. You got to be careful here. Got water mah. I throw the fish inside the wok then run far far away! Once cooked, place it on a plate.
4. Once all the slices of fish are fried, remove some oil from the wok; leave just enough to fry the onions.
5. Fry the sliced Onions.
6. Pour in the diluted Tamarind Paste was was used to soak the fish.
7. Add Salt to taste.
8. Put the fried fish back in the gravy and bring to boil.
If you like it spicy, throw in some bird eye chili or sliced chili.
Some Nyonyas (like my MIL) prepare their Ikan Goreng Assam without the gravy. The fish will be soaked in thicker Tamarind Paste.
I had this for lunch just now and this is one of my favorite dishes. It is easy to cook too. This dish is called Cili Muda Masak Taucu which can be translated to Unripe Chili cooked with Bean Paste. According to my mom this is one of the Nyonya Dishes too.
In those days, the chili was not sliced like the above; they are cut into 2 parts only and cooked until the chili becomes very soft. In my mom’s recipe, she uses Anchovies instead of Dried Shrimp. The original recipe comes with Dried Shrimp (Udang Kering). We don’t really like Udang Kering.
The ingredient:
15 Unripe Chili (Cili Hijau) - sliced
A Handful of Anchovies (Ikan Bilis)
1 Tbsp of Minced Bean Paste (Taucu)
6 Shallots
3 Garlics
1 tsp Tamarind Paste (Asam Jawa)
Water
Salt
How to cook Cili Muda Masak Taucu:
1. Pound the Shallots and Garlic
2. Fry them till aroma.
3. Add in the Mince Bean Paste. Continue frying till aroma.
4. Add in the Anchovies and the sliced Chili.
5. Add in the Tamarind Paste.
6. Add some water and salt to taste.
Cook till the Chili turns soft.
This dish is not that spicy. My 5yo girl likes eating this dish.
Here is another Simple Nyonya Dish that my children love. This dish is call Tempra. Besides fish, you can use chicken too but with a slight twist to the recipe.
The Ingredients for the Ikan Tempra:
Onion - Sliced
Lime Juice or Vinegar
Sliced Chili (optional)
Dark Soy Sauce
Oyster Sauce (Optional)
Salt
Water
Oil
and of course the Fish.
How to cook Ikan Tempra:
1. Deep fried the fish until cooked then remove it from the wok.
2. Fry the Sliced Onion till aroma.
3. Squeeze in some lime juice
4. Add in the Soy Sauce & Oyster Sauce
5. Add in the chili.
6. Pour in the water and bring it to boil.
7. Put the fish back in and let it soak in the gravy for a lil while.
8. Add salt then taste the gravy. If not sour enough, add in more lime juice.
In my recipe, there is no measurement coz I cook to eat, not to write recipe.
If you like more Onion, you can add in more. If you want more gravy, add more water. Just make sure you add enough the Soy Sauce, Salt and Lime Juice so that the gravy will have some sweet, sourish and saltish taste. That is the Tempra taste.
Below is the list of Nyonya dishes that I will post in this blog soon. I was not able to do this earlier because I was busy with housework and taking care of my babies all by myself. Now that my maid is back, I will have more time to blog. So, stay tune ya.
Chicken Dishes: Ayam Pong Teh
Ayam Masak Buah Keluak
Ayam Tempra
Ayam Goreng Chili Garam
Fish Dishes: Ikan Tempra
Ikan Goreng Chili Garam Ikan Goreng Assam
Ikan Masak Kuah Lada
Ikan Chuan-Chuan
Assam Fish (Ikan Gerang Assam)
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Since I need to put food on the dining table by 9.30am every weekday, I will always cook something simple and most importantly, my children will eat them.
