Dry Malaysian Mee Siam (Spicy Tangy Fried Vermicelli)

*If this post sounds familiar, it's because it's an update of one of my first blog entries last year entitled Tangy Nyonya Fried Meehoon, which was essentially a (less authentic) shortcut version using shrimpy chilli oil rather than the fresh blended spice paste below. Finally got to make the proper full-blown thing, and during daylight hours so good photos could be taken, so here you go! :)

Up until the point a friend who was moving back to KL decided to leave me all her leftover jars of sauces, I had never used fermented/salted/preserved soybeans (tau cheo) as an ingredient before. I think it will be a staple in my fridge from now on because I cannot BELIEVE what an amazing flavour it lends to this quintessential Nyonya-style noodle dish.

Stir-fried and therefore not to be confused with its wet Singaporean counterpart served with gravy, dry Malaysian Mee Siam is characterised by a deliciously robust combination of sweet, sour and spicy flavours, stemming from the many different bits that go into the spice paste. To make it easier for yourself, blend/slice/soak everything you need before starting to cook so it's all ready to be tossed in quickly.

Dry Malaysian Mee Siam (Spicy Tangy Fried Vermicelli)

Serves 2-3

• Pre-preparation

Pound or blitz together to a thick paste and set aside:

2 cloves garlic

2 small Asian red shallots

6 dried chillies, soaked in hot water and deseeded

1 stalk lemongrass (white part only)

1 tsp dried shrimp paste (belacan)

1 heaped tbsp dried shrimps (heh bee)

2 tbsp fermented/preserved/salted soybeans (tau cheo)

A few candlenuts (optional)

200g dried vermicelli- submerged in hot water for a few mins, then drain and set aside.

2 eggs- either boil for 15 mins until hard-boiled then slice thinly, or whisk with a touch of salt, fry as a large omelette then shred into thin strips. Set aside as garnish later.

2 tsp tamarind juice (assam jawa)- soak some tamarind pulp in hot water and set aside to be strained into the noodles later.

• To Cook

In a large wok, fry the prepared spice paste in a bit of oil over medium-high heat until fragrant.

Add the following in order and fry briskly:

200g peeled and deveined prawns

Some sliced fishcake/chicken/pork (if desired)

1 large cube fried beancurd (tau kwa), cut into small squares

Add the following and toss with a pair of chopsticks to combine well:

Prepared vermicelli (add a little bit of water if it sticks together)

A small handful of Chinese chives (ku chye), sliced into short lengths (I didn't have any this time so I replaced it with regular English chives)

Handful of beansprouts

1 tsp sugar

Dash of white pepper

Dash of fish sauce

Prepared assam jawa- push soaked tamarind pulp through a sieve into noodles, and discard the residual pulp

A few kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced (optional- this is my own little touch)

*I omit salt as belacan and taucheo are already salty- feel free to have a taste and season further if you think it's required.

Dish up and garnish with the prepared eggs, some thinly cut red chillies for colour, some sliced spring onions/Chinese chives/coriander (for a splash of green) and half a calamansi lime (or if it's unavailable like where I live, a wedge of normal lime makes a tolerable if inferior substitute).

Serve immediately, alongside some sambal if desired.

Version 2- With the shredded omelette garnish

Homemade Nutella (Hazelnut Chocolate Spread)

SAM TAN'S KITCHEN HAS MOVED! Please visit the new website/online store at www.samtanskitchen.com. You can also follow Sam on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Thank you!

YES, Nutella made in your home, presumably by you, to the delight and wonderment of everyone who lives with you and gets to sample it :)

This instantly shot straight to the top of my Recipes to Test list when I saw several versions of it popping up on sites like Foodgawker. My first attempt turned out a little grainy (in future more thorough blending is required), but taste-wise it was absolutely spot-on.

Blend then spread as desired, or be piggy like me and eat it with a spoon :)

Homemade Nutella (Hazelnut Chocolate Spread)

150g hazelnuts- Roast at 200º C for 10-15 mins until very fragrant, then rub vigorously with a cloth towel to remove as much of the skins as possible. Blitz in a small spice mill/blade grinder/blender until it forms a very smooth peanut butter-like paste.

Add and continue blending until smooth:

100g milk chocolate, melted and cooled

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 cup icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

A few drops of vegetable oil

Store in a jar at room temperature. Slather on everything!

Smoked Fish Cakes with Spring Onion and Chive

Sometimes mushing together a bunch of leftover ingredients that urgently need using up yields the most delicious result :)

These hearty flavour-packed patties are formed from a combination of potatoes that had started to quite seriously sprout, some gradually withering spring onions left from a previous recipe experiment, the last few lonely capers swimming around in a jar of vinegar and a lemon that had been waiting so long for its turn it had started to look a bit sulky. Throw in some smoked fish bought off a supermarket reduced rack, a good dash of seasoning and an egg to bind it all and voila- a warm and satisfying meal perfect for spring.

Adapt as needed to make it a starter or main, and serve alongside tartare sauce or salsa.

Smoked Fish Cakes with Spring Onion and Chive

Makes about 12 fishcakes

500g potatoes (2 large)- Cut into chunks and boil in salted water for about 15 mins until tender. Drain thoroughly until as dry as possible, then mash and set aside.

400g boneless smoked fish fillets (I used smoked cobbler which happened to be on discount, but any smoked fish works fine)- place in a deep frying pan with about 1 cup milk (or use water if you don't want to waste milk) and poach over low heat about 5 mins until the fish flakes easily. Lift the fish pieces out and break into chunks with a fork.

Combine the flaked fish and potatoes well in a large bowl with:

1 egg, beaten

A handful of fresh chives, chopped finely

A few spring onions, chopped

1 heaped tbsp capers, chopped

Grated zest of 1 lemon

Good squeeze of lemon juice (I used about 1/4 of a lemon)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pour about 3 tbsp plain flour onto a plate (or use breadcrumbs if preferred, or some people dip in flour then in egg then in breadcrumbs to create a thicker crust). Drop a tablespoon of the fishcake batter into the flour and press it lightly to form a round pattie. Use two tablespoons to flip and dust it until lightly coated on both sides. Shake of excess flour and place fishcake onto a tray/plate. Repeat until all mix is used up.

At this point, the fishcakes can be frozen for future use if desired.

To cook, heat some olive oil in a large heavy frying pan and fry several fish cakes at a time over medium heat, about 5 mins on each side flipping midway until golden brown. If cooking from frozen, don't bother defrosting- just

fry straight from the freezer for 10 mins each side.

Serve straightaway with a lemon wedge and tartare sauce or salsa. Dig in heartily with a fork!

Sambal (Malaysian Chilli Paste)

SAM TAN'S KITCHEN HAS MOVED! Please visit the new website/online store at www.samtanskitchen.com. You can also follow Sam on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Thank you!

The quintessential Malaysian condiment, sambal is a deeply fragrant, spicy and sweet chilli paste with the added kick of dried shrimp paste that Malaysians chuck on just about everything.

Be it to stir fry vegetables like aubergines, okra or kangkung (water morning glory/water spinach), to intensify meat and fish dishes or as an accompaniment to our favourite hawker staples like nasi lemak, curry laksa, Hokkien mee and prawn mee, sambal is insanely versatile and characterises the Malaysian addiction to all things hot and tasty. A million different "authentic" versions abound depending on who you ask, but after much experimentation I've found that the recipe below is the closest thing to the stuff we find back home.

Whilst purists will insist you can only make a decent version with the traditional pestle and mortar, I see no point in wasting the convenience of my electric blender and have thus far had no complaints :) Feel free to adjust the heat, saltiness or sweetness as desired.

Sambal (Malaysian Chilli Paste)

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

Firstly, deseed about 50g-100g dried chillies (basically a big handful, depends on the heat you want) by tearing them in half and letting the seeds fall out. Don't worry if you leave a few in, but shake most of them out or you'll burn your tongue off!

Boil the chillies for 30-45 mins to further reduce the heat. Drain off the liquid and let cool.

Blend to a fine paste:

The prepared chillies above

15 shallots (the tiny red Asian type) or 3 medium cooking onions

20 cloves of garlic

A small handful of whole dried anchovies

1 tsp belacan (dried shrimp paste)

Heat a generous amount of oil in a saucepan or wok, and fry the blended paste over medium-high heat for 10 mins or so until the oil separates (by this, I mean until the paste thickens and visible trace amounts of oil seep from the sides and "separates" from the bulk. This is a crucial step to make sure the spices are fried thoroughly enough and all the moisture is evaporated).

Add and cook a further 5 mins until a darker red:

1/4 cup asam jawa (tamarind juice- soak a large chunk of tamarind pulp in hot water, stir, then strain through a sieve and discard the seeds)

1/3 cup gula melaka (coconut palm sugar) or dark brown sugar

Salt to taste

Let cool completely before using. Stir in whole crispy fried anchovies to make it sambal ikan bilis, serve alongside nasi lemak or any other rice/noodle dish, or use to stir fry vegetables, seafood or meat.

Store in a container in the fridge, or freeze for later use.

Ben & Jerry's Annual Free Cone Day

Once every year, Ben & Jerry's outlets all around the globe do THIS:

That's right, free handouts of their delicious ice-cream to one and all just as a show of thanks to all their fans, no strings attached other than a time limit (usually 1pm-5pm) and a couple of charity collection boxes you can pop some change into if you want.

Once every year, the cheapskate foodie in me squeals in delight and joins the other hardcore I Screamers who queue up, get a free scoop, eat it, queue up, get a different flavour, eat it, queue up etc again and again until we can bear the luscious creamy goodness no more. This year our scoop shop of choice was Greenwich, where the crowd was so small (compared to my previous experiences of Leicester Square) that Arivind and I managed to polish off 4 scoops each in quick succession before people even started gathering, with barely time in between to decide on what flavour we wanted next before it was our turn again.

If you've never been to/weren't aware of Free Cone Day (or Free (Fair) Cone Day as it was this year with their commitment to going 100% Fairtrade), it's been happening since 1978 and will continue to happen every April for the foreseeable future so mark your diaries now :)

Thank you Mr Ben, thank you Mr Jerry, your annual show of generosity makes this food blogger one happy bunny.

The Mini Sam Tan Kitchen Turns One! :)

I can hardly believe it, but today marks one whole year since I jumped on the blogger bandwagon and wrote my first post, and then sharing the excitement of having mastered Char Kuay Teow.

60 posts and 45, 000 hits later (thank you to all the foodies out there who have visited this blog!), here it still stands for me to trade recipes, restaurant reviews and general gourmet passions with all the gluttons and gastronomes out there.

Thank you all for reading and supporting The Mini Sam Tan Kitchen, and here's to many more years to come! :)

Hugs and chocolate brownies,

Sam Tan

Dry Fried Spiced Minced Lamb

Made this up as a spur-of-the-moment dinner a couple of nights ago with a pack of discounted lamb mince bought for cheap from our supermarket's reduced-to-clear shelf- no snobbery in this household when it comes to meat, we survive on hoarding near-expired packs and freezing them:)

After a few minutes staring at my cupboard wondering what to chuck in with it, I settled on a few random spices, leftover raisins and a generous sprinkling of toasted coconut- the warmth and aroma of ground spices just elevates everything to a whole different level, and dried fruit is the perfect complement for lamb (particularly mince) both in flavour and texture.

As per usual, feel free to chop and change with sultanas, dried apricots, nuts or whatever floats your boat.

Dry Fried Spiced Minced Lamb

Serves 2-3 alongside rice

Brown over high heat without oil (lamb is quite fatty):

400g minced lamb

1 large onion, sliced into half rings

Few cloves garlic

Few dried chillies, crushed

1 kaffir lime leaf, cut into thin strips

Stir in:

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

Salt and pepper to taste

Generous handful of raisins

Generous handful of dessicated coconut, toasted

Stir fry until dry. Serve with rice.

Rasa Sayang Revisited

Wed 21 April 2010

Following this very unflattering review, I am heartened to say that instead of just pacifying me with a gift voucher or something along those lines, I was contacted by the manager Fee Bee Chong with an apology and invited back to dine personally with her and the two proprietors of Rasa Sayang (Ellen Chew from Singapore and Teddy Chen from Malaysia) so they could gain honest feedback face-to-face.

In what turned out to be a very productive and insightful evening, it emerged that they have since introduced more training sessions to improve what they know is a serious recurring problem with their service staff. I did not ask nor did they mention what directly happened with Ms Fungal Infection, but seeing as they had CCTV footage to go on (news to me- many Chinatown restaurants apparently have them) I trust they identified and dealt accordingly with the correct person.

In terms of their menu it also seems to be a continued aim (and challenge) to meet both Malaysian and Singaporean expectations of what constitutes "authentic" versions of our cuisine, the startling differences of which to date I had been unaware of (being a Malaysian who has only ever stepped foot in Singapore once). For instance, Singaporean Hokkien Mee refers to a white, non-soupy version of what Malaysians call Penang Prawn Mee, whereas Malaysian Hokkien Mee will no doubt shock Singaporeans with its fat udon-like noodles stir-fried in a thick black sauce and crispy rendered pork fat. I also learnt that the sweet Mee Goreng which my partner and I were so appalled at (as Malaysians used to a spicy, robust mamak style) is what Singaporeans would call accurate, that Singaporean Char Kuay Teow is wetter with none of the smoky charred characteristics we deem essential and so on.

The sense I get is that labelling itself both a Malaysian AND Singaporean restaurant may be in itself contradictory, the inherent obstacle responsible for Rasa Sayang's hit-and-miss menu as far as a Malaysian is concerned. One thinks that perhaps they would benefit from choosing one style and sticking with it, rather than risking a compromise and pleasing neither.

It is only right however that I give credit where its due to the other dishes I got to sample on this return visit. As a hardcore Hainanese Chicken Rice fan I thoroughly approve of their new improved version (it is thankfully a dish that Singaporeans pride themselves on and isn't wildly different from what Malaysians like), and the chef's handmade taufu starter also impressed, deep-fried until crispy with a soft silky interior and a sweet sour mango sauce. Indian rojak was of an acceptable standard, though I found the other starter of otak-otak (spicy fish mousse in banana leaf) rather tiny and far too firm. To round off the mains, the admittedly Anglicised version of Nasi Goreng (to give Western tastebuds an easy introduction) was still tasty and enjoyed by my Malaysian friend, particularly the meaty sticks of satay that accompanied it.

To its advantage, Rasa Sayang's dessert menu is far larger and more varied compared to other Malaysian joints in the area. We enjoyed the warm bubur pulut hitam (black glutinous rice), though we found the handmade cendol and sago gula melaka (tapioca pearl pudding in coconut milk and coconut palm sugar) rather small in portion and slightly odd in flavour- perhaps Singaporean palm sugar is different? The rest of the menu offers intriguing one-of-a-kind items such as roti bakar with homemade kaya (toast sandwich with coconut jam- see my recipe/description here), Milo Dinosaur (Milo= a much-loved chocolate malt drink, Dinosaur= an ice-blended frozen smoothie topped with extra Milo powder) and kuih ketayap (pandan crepe filled with toasted caramelised coconut), which looked good in the pictures though I cannot yet personally attest to how good they are.

The juggling act between fulfilling Malaysian and Singaporean tastes is a challenge I don't envy, and whilst the food may not be firing on all cylinders (in my biased Malaysian opinion) I do applaud their open mind in accepting customer insight and the efforts they have put in thus far to improve. Upcoming plans include a 15-item taster menu for those unfamiliar with the cuisine, as well as offering the uniquely Malaysian/Singaporean yee sang during Chinese New Year (a salad of shredded vegetables, crisp crackers and fish that is tossed high to symbolise prosperity and health). It is a fairly new establishment after all, and given their constructive attitude I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.