Mama's Ko Tao

This recipe is from Mama's grandmother who lived in Taiping, Malaysia. She said that they will make this instead of rice because tapioca flour is cheaper than rice and very filling.

Ko Tao Recipe
Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1.5 cups small prawns, shelled
• 1.5 cups ground pork
• Light soy sauce to taste
• White pepper to taste
• 2.5 cups tapioca flour 
• ½ teaspoon white pepper 
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Few drops sesame oil
• 4 to 5 cups water
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• ½ bulb garlic, minced

Optional:
Chopped fresh green onions and coriander

Method:

Heat up oil in a medium pan and fry the prawns until cooked. Add a bit of soy sauce to the prawns. Remove from heat. Mix ½ teaspoon of soy sauce and some white pepper with the ground pork. In the same pan, stir fry the ground pork until cooked. Remove and set aside with the prawns.

In a medium bowl, stir together 2.5 cups of tapioca flour with 3 cups of water until flour is dissolved. Add salt, light soy sauce, pepper and sesame oil to the mixture.

In a large wok, add vegetable oil and fresh garlic. Stir fry over medium heat until the garlic is fragrant then add the tapioca flour and water mixture. It will start to congeal so add the prawns and pork immediately and then keep stirring. When it looks too dry, add 2 cups of water a little at a time until the consistency is sticky but not too dry. When it is ready, the consistency is soft and sticky. Separate into two plates.

Top with green onions and/or coriander and serve immediately.

 

Mama's Nyonya Otak Otak

Ingredients for Rempah (spice paste):

• 1 inch galangal, peeled and cut into small pieces
• 2 stalks lemongrass, slice bottom stalk finely
• 1 inch yellow ginger (turmeric), peeled and cut into small pieces
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 5 dried chilies or to taste
• 10-15 small purple shallots, peeled and cut into half
• 1 sq inch belachan (shrimp paste), toasted

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1.5 cups coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon Nyonya fish curry powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 leper lime leaves (limau purut or kaffir lime) sliced thinly
• 500 g threadfin fish fillet (or tenggiri/Spanish mackerel), sliced into bite sized chunks
• 20 daum kaduk (wild pepper leaf)
• 10 banana leaves (18x20 cm), soaked in hot water to soften, then dried and set aside
• Toothpicks
• 1 pandan leaf, knotted

Method:

Blend in a food processor or pound the rempah ingredients together until it forms into a fine paste.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and rempah together and add coconut milk. Mix in a teaspoon of fish curry powder and salt.  Add the leper lime leaves to the mix.

Place 2 daum kaduk leaves at the centre of each banana leaf and add 2-3 pieces of fish. Top it with 2 tablespoons of the rempah and egg mix. 

Wrap by folding opposites of the banana leaf to meet in the middle, then fold the other two sides to meet. Secure the pyramid with one or two toothpicks. You can also add another 2-inch strip at the bottom of the banana leaf (pictured) before folding it (optional).

Add a pandan leaf in the boiling water for more flavour. Steam over rapidly boiling water for 10-15 minutes.

Mama's Kueh Bengka

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds grated tapioca
• ¾ cup grated coconut
• 2 eggs
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 4 pandan leaves
• 1.5 cups coconut milk
• ½ cup water
• 2 large banana leaves

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170°C.

Add the tapioca, coconut, eggs, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir everything together until they are mixed well. Tie the pandan leaves into individual knots and add them into the mixture. Using a wooden spoon, crush the leaves for a few minutes until you can smell the pandan scent in the mixture. Add coconut milk and water and stir.

Line a 9 inch square or round baking pan with banana leaf pieces, shiny side up.

Remove the pandan leaves before pouring the mixture into the baking pan. Shake it around until the top becomes even.

Bake in the oven for 1¼ hours. The top should be golden brown and the edges lifted off the sides and crusty.

Take it out of the oven and leave the kueh in the baking pan for another 45 minutes for it to cool down and firm up. Turn it over onto a wire cooling rack and leave it to cool down for another hour.  Slice into small pieces to serve.

Mama's Steamed Egg & Minced Pork

Ingredients:

• 250 g minced pork 
• 2 eggs
• ½ to ¾ cup water or broth
• 3 teaspoons light soy sauce (if adding broth, add 2)
• 1 teaspoon of tang chye (salted vegetable)
• White pepper to taste

Method:

Add pork and eggs into a large bowl and beat them together. Add water or broth and continue whipping until everything is thoroughly mixed. Stir in the soy sauce, tang chye and pepper. 

Pour into shallow heat-proof bowl. Steam in a large wok or pot for 15 minutes on high heat. 

Guah Chye Pui (Guah Chye Rice)

Guah Chye

Ingredients:

• Sesame oil, as needed
• 6 shallots, finely diced
• 2 slices pork belly, cut into small pieces
• 1 lap cheong (Chinese sausage), sliced thinly
• 0.5 cup hae bee (dried shrimp)
• 2-3 bunches guah chai leaves (torn into 2 inch wide pieces)
• 3 cups raw jasmine rice, washed and drained in a sieve
• 1 Tablespoon light soy sauce or to taste
• 1 Tablespoon dark soy sauce or to taste
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 2.5 cups water

Method:

In a large wok over high heat, fry the shallots in 2 teaspoons of sesame oil, when it is fragrant and soft, remove the shallots.

Add ½ tablespoon sesame oil and fry the pork belly and lap chiong until they are cooked. Remove and put them on a plate.

Using the same wok, fry the hae bee for a few minutes until fragrant, then remove.

Fry the guah chai for a minute and remove any extra liquid in the wok.

Add the rice kernels into the wok with the vegetables. Then add all the other ingredients and stir to combine. Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, salt & pepper and butter and stir to combine.

Add all the ingredients in a rice cooker with 2.5 cups of water. Cook it for 20 to 30 minutes until the rice is cooked. When done, stir the rice with all the ingredients with chopsticks to mix well.

Nasi Ulam

Ingredients:

• 4 cups rice
• 1.5 coconuts, desiccated
• 1 large basket daum kaduk (wild pepper or betel leaf)
• 2 large bunches peppermint, leaves separated
• 2 large bunches, laksa leaves, leaves separated
• 3 cups cekur manis (sweet leaf or star gooseberry)
• 3 whole fish (mackerel or any sweet white fish)
• ½ cup dried shrimp
• ½ cup dried salted fish
• 1 cup string beans, sliced thinly
• 1 cucumber, cut into small cubes
• 1 Laksa flower, top portion thinly sliced
• ¼ cup limau purut (kaffir or leper lime leaf), sliced thinly
• 2 cups shallots, sliced thinly
• ¼ cup lemongrass, thinly slice the ends
• ¼ cup lengkuas (galangal), sliced thinly into strips
• ¼ cup fresh turmeric (yellow ginger), thinly sliced into strips
• Freshly ground white pepper
• Salt to taste

Optional: sambal for individual serving

Daum Kaduk (wild pepper leaf)

Cekur Manis Leaf

Kaffir Lime Leaf

Lemongrass, Galangal and Turmeric

Method:

Cook the rice and once it is ready, spread it on large plates or serving trays to let it cool down.

Wash all the leaves and dry them in the sun.

Fry the desiccated coconut in a dry wok over medium heat until golden brown. Can be fried the previous day and stored in an airtight container.  

Deep fry the whole fish and when it has cooled, pick apart the meat from the bones. Set aside.

Toast the dried shrimp and the dried salted fish in the toaster oven until golden brown. Using a pestle and mortar, pound the dried shrimp into smaller pieces. Using a sharp knife or scissors, cut the dried salted fish into small shreds.

Once the leaves are ready, start by placing a few daum kaduk leaves on a cutting board, then add a few cekur manis leaves, peppermint leaves and laksa leaves on top of the daum kaduk leaves.

Roll everything together tightly into the shape of a cigar and use a sharp knife to thinly slice strips of it. Repeat for the rest of the leaves. Set the strips aside in a large bowl.

Place equal amounts of room temperature rice in two large shallow serving bowls or trays. Add about 5 tablespoons of desiccated coconut on top of the rice and toss everything together until properly mixed. You may want to add more depending on taste. Add the rest of the ingredients by eyeballing the amount. Keep tossing until everything is mixed well together and taste to make sure the flavour is to your liking.

Can be eaten as it is, or mixed with sambal for a spicier nasi ulam. 

Jiew He Char (Dried Squid Chop Suey)

Jiew He Char Recipe

Time taken: 3-4 hours (if you are cooking by yourself)

Ingredients

Broth:

2 pieces pork belly

1 medium pot of water

6 cloves garlic

Salt to taste

Stir fry:

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 bulb garlic, chopped finely

1/2 cup shallots, chopped finely

Cooked pork belly from broth, chopped into small pieces

1 teaspoon sugar

1.5 cups red onion, sliced finely

1.5 cups leek, sliced finely

1.5 cups Beijing cabbage, sliced

1 cup dry Chinese mushrooms, soaked in water and sliced

1 Tablespoon tao jio (fermented bean paste), chopped finely

1 cup dried squid, soaked in water with a tablespoon of rice wine vinegar and cut into very thin slices

2 bang kuan (jicama), peeled & cut into thin matchsticks

2.5 cups carrots, peeled and shredded

Soy sauce to taste

Salt to taste

Method:

Boil pork belly in a medium pot of water with garlic and salt to make broth. Take out the pork bellies and when they are cooled down, chop them into small pieces.

Heat up 1/2 cup oil over medium heat in large wok. Fry garlic and shallots until golden brown. Remove garlic and shallots and most of the oil. Put in a bowl.

Fry pork belly pieces with 1 teaspoon sugar in same wok.  Remove.

Fry leek and red onions for a few minutes until cooked. Remove.

Add more oil with garlic and shallots into wok.

Fry cabbage until cooked. Remove.

Fry mushrooms with 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Remove.

Fry tao jio with dried squid. Remove when squid is curly and browned.

Add more shallot/garlic oil to wok.

Fry bang kuan and carrots for a few minutes. Add salt to taste and broth until soft.

Mix cooked leeks and onions with bang kuan and carrots. Then add everything together into 2 big woks. Add salt and soy sauce to taste.