Ah Ma, my father’s mother, made the most delicious acar.  She learned from her nyonya mother-in-law, Ah Chor, the lady we thought looked like the little old lady in the 1960′s sitcom, Beverly Hillbillies, in a kebaya!  Ah Ma’s acar is so well pickled, it could have lasted for months if we didn’t devour it all in a week!  Her trick was to wring the blanched vegetables real dry.  I never really appreciated the nyonya heritage in my dad’s family until much later when I got interested in cooking and realized that my grandmother was probably one of the best nyonya cooks around.  Since then, it’s been an endless effort to recreate many of her recipes from the memory of taste.  This is one of them.

Chef’s tip: Use a salad spinner to remove as much water as possible from the blanched vegetables.  Pack acar tightly in a glass jar and keep refrigerated.  Like kimchi, it will keep for several weeks.

Spice Paste:
10 dried long Asian chilies, rehydrated in water or fresh Fresno chilies, seeded
2 stalks lemongrass, sliced thinly
2 slices galangal
1 piece fresh turmeric, about 1 Tablespoon, sliced
8 shallots
3 cloves garlic
1 Tablespoon roasted belachan
4 candlenuts

Vegetables:
2 carrots peeled
¼ head cauliflower
1 Japanese Eggplant
½ small savoy cabbage
12 Chinese long yard beans
1 English Cucumber, seeded

½ cup canola oil
1 cup white vinegar
½ cup of sugar
1 Tablespoon kosher salt

1 cup roasted peanuts, crushed
1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted

1. In a food processor or blender, grind chilies, lemongrass and galangal till fine. Add remaining spice paste ingredients and process till smooth. Add a little water if needed. Set aside.
2. Cut all vegetables into 1 inch juliennes. Cut cauliflower into small florets.
3. Blanch vegetables. Blanched carrots, cauliflower and eggplant till tender, about 3 minutes, and cabbage and long beans two minutes. Spin and squeeze vegetables very dry. Add in cucumber.
4. Heat oil on medium high. Fry spice paste till fragrant, red and oil has separated, about 7-10 minutes. Add vinegar, sugar and salt. Fry till fragrant about 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Remove from heat.
5. Mix in vegetables and toss to mix. Add peanuts and sesame seeds and mix to combine.  Let it sit for at last 30 mins for flavors to come together.  Can be prepared in advance.  Serve room temperature or chilled.

Serves: 6

Tags: Malaysian, Nyonya.

Hello Rich.  Here’s what Janet and I think is the recreation of our grandma’s recipe for dark soy sauce pork.  I am not exactly sure whether this is a Hokkien or a baba dish.  ”Ah Ma” is Hokkien, but her mother-in-law, our great grandmother “Ah Chor”, was Nyonya.  As I understand it, Ah Ma picked up a lot of her cooking skills from Ah Chor.  We used to go to my dad’s parents place for lunch every Sunday and every Sunday, there will be this dark soy sauce pork.  I vividly remember how she would stuff a special little clay pot, in which she only makes this dish with, with the pork and then braise it under a super low flame.  The pork literally melts in your mouth.  It tastes even better the next day.  We used to even eat this for breakfast, soaking up the sauce with some nice white and fluffy “wonder” bread.

Janet thinks there is some soy sauce added, I think otherwise.  If you’d like it saltier and saucier, just add a splash or two of soy sauce.  Enjoy!

Chef’s tip:
3 key things.  1.  It’s essential to use a fatty cut of pork.  The preferred cut is the “5 flower” cut, the creme de la creme of pork belly meat.   It’s the same cut of meat they make bacon with.  It literally has 5 alternating layers of fat and lean meat.  It would be great to leave the skin on, too.    2. Low heat.  You want to gently cook the fat, not sear it away.  High heat will melt the fat prematurely (i.e., in the pot, not in your mouth)    3. The Malaysian dark caramel sauce aka dark soy sauce (the really thick, black and sweet kind).  The best brand to get is the “Cheong Chan” brand.

2 lbs pork belly meat, skin-on, cut into 1 inch cubes, pat dry
6-8 cloves garlic, whole, skin-on, very lightly smashed
1/2 cup dark (caramel) soy sauce – enough to coat the pork liberally
1/2 teaspoon whole white peppercorns
Soy sauce, optional

1. Place all ingredients in a medium, heavy-bottomed pot, preferably a clay pot.  The meat should fit snugly together.   Liberally coat the pork with the dark soy sauce.
2.  Cover and braised on LOW heat for at least two hours, till desired doneness.  Stir occasionally.  The pork will cook in its own juices and fat.  May add a little water if it gets too dry too soon but try not to.

Serves: 6

Tags: Chinese, Malaysian, Nyonya.

Continuing the series on different types of Chinese rice dumplings, this Nyonya version features the intricate flavor depths of typical Nyonya cuisine with a hint of sweet, salty and spicy.

Chef’s tip: For the full detailed instructions on how to fold the dumpling and boiling the dumplings, please refer to the Cantonese Joong recipe for the leaf template and step by step instructions.

Nyonya “Chang”

Ingredients

3 cups glutinous sweet rice, soaked, drained
1 ¼ cup coconut milk, mix with 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Spice paste:
4 Tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black peppercorn
12 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoon galangal, minced
2 tablespoon canola oil

12 pieces fresh shiitake, stems removed, diced into small cubes
12 oz ground pork
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup of candied wintermelon (optional)
½ cup roasted peanuts, chopped

4 pandan leaves, cut into 1 inch length
72 pieces bamboo leaves
24 pieces yard-long kitchen twine

Preparing the ingredients the night before
1.    Wash rice.  Cover with 2 inches of water over the top of the rice, and soak overnight.
2.    Soak bamboo leaves in hot water overnight.  Next morning, scrub with brush and rinse several times to remove dirt.  Leave leaves in water till ready to use.
Preparing the rice
3.    Drain rice, place on a metal/glass plate and steam 20 minutes.
4.    Drizzle coconut milk over the rice, and steam another 10 minutes.
Preparing the filling
5.    Saute spice paste together till fragrant, 3 minutes.  Add mushroom and pork, salt and sugar and cook 3 minutes.
6.    Add winter melon, and cook another 30 seconds.  Remove from heat, stir in chopped peanuts.
Wrapping the dumpling (see detailed instructions section)
7.    Prepare bamboo cone.
8.    Place ½ tablespoon rice into the cone.  Make a slight well, then place 2 tablespoons of pork mix and top with 1 ½ tablespoons of rice.  Pack all ingredients tightly as you add them.  Flatten the top with a clean wet spoon.
9.    Cover the rice with 2 pieces of pandan squares
10.    Complete wrapping and secure leaves with kitchen twine.
Cooking
11.    Bring a pot of water to boil.  Add 1 tablespoon salt.  Gently place the dumplings in and boil for 30-60 minutes over medium slow fire. Add water constantly to ensure the dumplings are always submerged in water.
12.    When cooked, remove the dumplings and place in a colander to dry.
13.    Serve with sugar or chili sauce on the side, if you’d like.

Makes 24 pieces

Tags: Chinese, Malaysian, Nyonya.