Chop 400g of boneless chicken into squarish chunks. Make some pandan juice by blending a bunch of pandan leaves with some water. Strain the mixture to get the pandan juice.
Then marinate the chicken with the pandan juice, 2 cloves of minced garlic, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1/2 tsp Sarawak white pepper, 1/2 tbsp fish sauce, 1/2 tbsp light soya, 1.5 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp sesame oil. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Start with blitzing 3 shallots, 2 cloves garlic and 6 or 8 slices ginger, basically equal portions of everything into a rempah paste.
This is the key to getting your rice fragrant. Then lightly fry in oil in a pan for a few minutes until they are golden and aromatic.
Trust me, your kitchen will smell like an old school Hainanese chicken rice stall.Next take 240g or 2 fillets of boneless chicken leg with skin on and marinate them with 1 tbsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp chinese wine, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp corn flour and a dash of white pepper. Mix them well and let it rest for half an hour.
Hainanese chicken rice may be very common, but chicken rice balls are definitely not.
We used to frequent the ones at Braddell and Jalan Besar, but the former has closed and the latter was supposed to return again. We haven’t been back since the pandemic so we can’t confirm. There’s another one at Jurong which was alright but somehow the ones we had at Malacca Jonker still reigned supreme.
The Malacca ones were smaller in size, golf ball sized as opposed to the tennis ball or larger ones found here. And they had a more sticky ketupat texture with a zesty calamansi hit as well. Hence, we made ours using a mixture of different rice grains to get that texture and making ours smaller too.
Marinate 300g chopped salmon (into square chunks) with 2 tsp udon/soba sauce and 1 tsp mirin. Mix well with your hands and set aside or refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes.
In a saucepan over low heat, make a sushi vinegar by adding 2 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir until all everything is dissolved and you get a sushi vinegar solution. Set aside.
Cook 1 rice cup of Japanese rice in a rice cooker. Slowly drizzle the sushi vinegar into the cooked rice and use a spatula to stir and fold the rice lightly to mix the sushi vinegar into the rice.
Marinate 200g of sliced toman or batang fish with 1 tbsp light soya, white pepper, 1 tbsp Chinese wine and 1 tbsp corn flour. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
In a wok with some oil, fry 2 persons worth of hor fun or kway teow. Season with 1 tsp light soya. Fry for a few minutes until the noodles are evenly coated and glossy.
Then set aside on the serving plate. This is the first toss, though you can also blanch the noodles, but frying this way is more delicious.
Marinate 8 chicken wings with 2 cloves of minced garlic, 1 tsp light soya sauce, 1 tsp oyster sauce, 2 tbsp plum sauce, Sarawak white pepper and 1 tbsp corn flour.
Mix well and refrigerate for 30 minutes. In the meantime, remove the strings of from 1/2 cup worth of sugar snap peas. Rinse and wash thoroughly.
After 30 minutes, add the sugar snap peas to 1 rice cup of rinsed rice. Followed by 1 chopped tomato. Pour in 220ml water that has been seasoned with 1 tsp light soya sauce.
Make the stock by frying 50 prawn heads in a wok with some oil and a handful of white peppercorns. Fry until you get a nice aroma and the prawn heads turn bright red.
Transfer the prawn heads and the accompanying oil into a slow cooker. You may wish to add chicken bones or chicken carcass for more chicken flavour as well. Fill the slow cooker with hot water and let it slow cook for 6 hours.
After 6 hours, strain the stock and add 8 ladles of the stock to a pot. Bring the stock to a boil. Add 150g chicken breast and poach for 20 minutes. Remove the chicken breast after 20 minutes and shred the chicken into thin strips.
In pot with 1 tsp of oil, add 2 cloves of minced garlic and white parts of 3 stalks of scallion. Sauté for a few minutes until fragrant.
Add 100g of minced pork and cook for a few minutes until the pork has turned a brown colour. Season with 1 tbsp fish sauce, Sarawak white pepper and 1/2 tbsp light soya sauce.
Add enough bee tai mak noodles enough for 2 persons. Mix well and add 400ml water. Next add 6 to 8 pieces of packet yong tau foo. We are using fish paste and stuffed tofu yong tau foo here.
